The Girl from the Ground - Season 1

Episode Six, Part 4:

Episode Six, Part 4: 
Smoke Signals 

All these people think love's for show, 
but I would die for you in secret. 

The rotating blackboard was pulled up behind Eden, almost completely covered in the Sovereigns' plan of action for the war. After hours of combining their heads, the precise locations of their people, the assigned weapons, the specifications of their combat was all noted down. All that was left to do was finalise a few small details, then break the news to Basilisk that the war would be unfolding sooner than they were expecting.

"I still think it's worth moving most of the people into the Bunkers tonight," Harlow said. "New Riders will be too busy trying to recuperate that they won't have the time to be spying on us. And any of their guards that are out in the woods will easily be handled by ours. They won't even have a chance to make it back to their camp and tell Zach and Maya."

"All of them? Even our families?" Izzy asked. She wasn't quite sure if she was ready to tuck her little siblings away inside the shelter; it felt like a confirmation that the world was too dangerous for them and there was very little she could ever do to keep them safe but to hide them out of sight.

Harlow nodded. "Our families will go in our Bunker," he said. "They've been and camped out there so many times that it won't even feel nerve-racking. All the others - those injured, or children, or too old to fight can go in Atlantis' Bunker."

Izzy glanced at Eden and Veer, seeing they were just as nervous as Izzy was to hide their younger siblings away.

"You guys, they'll be fine down there," Harlow promised. "No other clans know about the locations of the Bunkers-"

"Some of them know about Aunt Atlantis' bunker," Eden said. "Everyone was in there when the flood came years ago, and some of the guards probably still remember how to get there. The ones that have defected could have told New Riders."

"This is why I keep saying that they're not our people anymore. We can't trust them," Harlow said.

Izzy didn't want to admit that Harlow had a point; as much as she was on the same page of forgiveness as Veer, she knew deep down that Atlantis' bunker would never be completely safe.

"Look, I don't think there's anything we can do about that. We can spare a couple of guards to hide near the bunker and handle anyone if they come near it, but the rest of our resources need to go to the front line. And as far as it goes for our families, no one will find them down there. The only people that know about the location of the Bunker are those of us that have come from it, and our family we've made on the ground. None of the guards have been to it, let alone any of the defectors. We could leave them down there for a week and they'd be fine."

"...Alright," Izzy sighed, knowing that her confidence in him would influence the other two. "So we-"

The door to the map room suddenly burst open and Reign stood in the doorway somewhat breathless.

Eden frowned as she looked at her brother, wondering why he had arrived so abruptly. Everyone knew the importance of not interrupting a Sovereign meeting, even the youngsters who were prone to forgetting the occasional rule, but this wasn't one that had slipped Reign's mind.

"Reign, what's going on? We're in a meeting," Eden asked. Whatever it was, couldn't their parents deal with it? Unless it was one of their parents that was in trouble... Or their younger brother... Eden could feel the panic rise up in her chest. "Is it Mom and Dad? Is it Archer?"