Ré's Sacrifice

Chapter 12 Mystery

I woke suddenly to the sound of a gunshot and leapt up. I rubbed my eyes to see Charlié holding a rifle. "Rise and shine!" He said. "Charlié that wasn't funny" I scowled at him. Charlié just laughed. "Where did you get it anyway?". "From a dead solider, apparently stepped on a land mine, blown to pieces, luckily this baby survived, it works too, obviously" He told me. I smiled. "We'll need 'er, where we're going anyway" he added. My voice faded "where are we going Charlié?". "To a friend of mine" he replied."could he find Ebony and Evan?" I asked. "Maybe" He said.

We walked across the isolated meadow for an hour until we approached an old dirty hut. It was covered in moss and vines and the bricks were cracked. Some were missing all together. It had no windows. The only sign that someone lived there was there was smoke rising from the chimney.
Charlié led me to the front door and knocked on it. A few moments later it opened and a boy Charlié's age answered. "We are on the run from British Army Troops, can we stay? Just for a while, we can work for you and help you around the house, I know good places to find food" He told the boy. The boy thought about this and nodded. He let us in and made us sit around an old table. He used tea cups to drink from and he had an old well which he had connected to a tank. The hut was smaller than it looked from outside. It had one room, the walls were wooden and peeling in some places, the floor was wooden too and in surprisingly good condition. He didn't have a sink, the only furniture he had was a table, 4 chairs, and a section separated by a long moth eaten curtain. Behind it was probably a bed. "How did you get here without being caught?" The boy asked as he cut up something for us. He put it on a plate and brought it over, they were oatmeal slices, but without the raisins and fruit, just plain oats held together by water. "Er- well we-" I said without trying to look too disgusted. "We hid in the woods" Charlié said "oh yeah, I got ya this" He held up the rifle. The boy stopped eating and jumped up with a cry of happiness. He stretched out his arms to hold the rifle and he felt it. "Thanks! I've been looking for one of these forever". "You can hunt with it now" Charlié said. The boy nodded happily. "Jaden? Could you return the favour?" Charlié asked. Jaden nodded. "Ré and I are looking for some friends of ours, could you please help us find them?". Jaden nodded. "Of course" He said, his mouth full of oatmeal and some water dribbled down his chin. I turned away. Jaden swallowed. "What did they look like? And are you gonna finish yours?" Jadan pointed at my plate. "Er, no you have it, I ate before we came here thanks" I said as politely as I could. I smiled and he took my plate. Charlié and I waited 'till he finished. I watched in astonishment. How can a boy eat so fast without getting indigestion?.

When he finished with the oatmeal he put his plate down and licked his fingers. "I saw two people crossing that river a few days ago" He said finally. "They couldn't be too far away" Charlié said. I ignored him. "What did they look like?" I asked eagerly. "The girl had brown hair and the boy had a hood on, and I forgot what the girl was wearing, I think they were escaped orphans, but I dunno, they were walking very quickly and-". "Which direction!?" I said cutting him off. For some reason I knew he was talking about Evan and Ebony and I didn't want to waste time. "I think they went west" Jaden said. "Oh thank lord we found you!" I stood up and made my way the the front door. "Ré wait!" Charlié said also standing and grabbing hold of my arm. "Charlié let go of me! We do not have time for questions!" I tried to twist my arm away but his grip was firm. "It's getting dark, we should wait until morning, we can search then". "They will be miles away by Morning! We have to leave now".
"But what if it isn't them? We wont have anywhere to stay"
I thought about this.
Charlié let go of my arm. "Can we just wait here until we are certain it is them?"
"Okay fine" I said, defeated. I felt sad and lonely because I may have missed the chance to finally see them. I was just about to walk out the door when I heard gunshots in the distance. "get down!" Jaden hissed and we all ducked underneath the window. I peaked over the windowsill and saw soldiers carrying the body of a man away. I felt sad and relieved. Sad because that could of been us and relieved that it wasn't Evan.

I needed to keep Charlié safe. I had already lost Amélie. If I'd lost Ebony, Charlié would be all I had left.