Hexed

Chapter Twelve

I'm on the hero's side. The ones that save the world and bring peace and happiness back to the people. You know the cliché. When I look at Naomi, Willow, all of them. I see how certain they are that everything will work out fine, that they'll be able to do what they've dreamed of doing for so long. Outlining their plan to the slightest details, solving problems. They've all lost something, I figured out that Jerome lost his wife in the war, he's an ex-soldier and when he came home his house had been set on fire. Benji and Naomi fled their home in Japan due to corruption before the war, first they came with their whole family, but after living here for about 16 years only they were left. The others? Vanished. At least that's what they said. Willow is still a mystery to me though, she lives with her grandma because both her parents never came back from the war. And that's all I know. She likes talking about the others, certainly doesn't hesitate to tell me about how strong and determent they all are. But leaves out the part about herself. She keeps cutting me off when I try to talk about her story. I mean I don't blame her, if it's anything like mine I wouldn't love talking about it either. All I've told her so far is that I live with my adoptive parents and that I just finished my last year of high school together with Kasper. I guess I'm just as hesitant as her to open up.

As we're waiting for the train, we go over the whole thing again. Mostly so that Kasper also knows what's going on. We're spending one night in the train, and then have to walk a day to the village, and supposedly the lab should be near there. There's a lot of 'hopefully' and 'maybe' in the plan. They seem confident though, I think it's more than they've had in ages.

"Got it?" Naomi asks after she's done explaining.

Jerome, Willow and Benji are all busy getting the stuff ready to hop on the train at the last second before it leaves, I wanted to help but they me to stay and listen to the whole thing again.

Kasper nods. "So how long do you think we'll be gone for?" He asks.

"Well, we don't really know what is waiting for us once we get there, of course we have some ideas but until we have some more information, we'll just stick to the plan we have now."

Kasper doesn't seem too pleased but the others know just as much as we do.

"You guys ready?" Benji asks, leaning into the van.

"As ready as can be." I say.

I can't help but feel excited, I've been in tough situations before, but this feels different somehow. This time I'm not running from anything. Kasper doesn't say anything. He still needs to be convinced, I feel like he's more doing this for me than for anything else.

We help carry the bags to the wagon while Jerome parks the car somewhere safe. We each have to carry one, filled with food, emergency kits, water, etc. It's about noon, the warmest time of the day. As soon as we've unloaded all the bags, Jerome drives the van away. We sneak around the wagons, keeping an eye out for anyone. If we get caught, our whole plan is ruined. The pain in my neck has come back ever so slightly. I don't worry about it too much anymore, as it keeps going away after some time. Besides, it's not like I'm losing it. I can still think straight and act normally.

"Just chuck them in here." Willow says to me when we reach one of the wagons.

It looks just like all the other ones and is used for transportation of supplies and other goods. I swing the bag up and let go so it flies in, not really thinking about what's inside the bag.

"Hey! Watch out with that." Willow says quickly. "You wouldn't want the bottles to break, would you?"

"Sorry." I reply.

She scoffs with a smile. I lean onto the wagon, the others should be getting here by now. I look around me, the actual station is on the other side of the train, it's pretty old, one of those where the whole station is practically outside. Nobody uses the train anymore. I have never been on one.