Only the Brave Survive

Chapter 6

Ok, so I am not going into detail about what was said in the healer’s hut that evening. Warren said some very inappropriate things that should not be heard by any ears. Basically, it ended with us being in the town jail with a scheduled hanging for the next morning. The jail cell had a bucket in the corner as the toilet and a pile of hay in the back for our bed. I was a little afraid to see what was in the hay so I sat with my back against the steel bars of the door. Since Warren was still healing, they brought in a little cot for him, which I didn’t understand since we were going to die tomorrow…

“See this is what happens when you try to save us,” I grumbled.

“Sorry, I just don’t like being saved,” Warren said.

“Yeah, but this is serious Warren. You can do the saving when there is a possibility that you can win.  But this time? We are going to die now because of you,” I snapped.

Warren looked really hurt, but he stayed quiet. I sighed. “But I forgive you,” I said.

He looked up quickly. “Well I didn’t expect that,” he said.

“Why?” I asked.

“Well, usually when you get mad at someone, you hold a grudge. Remember that time when James poured mud on your head? That wasn’t even this bad and you didn’t talk to him for weeks,” he answered.

I laughed. “I remember that! I smelled like that mud for a week,” I said with a smile. Warren laughs along with me for a few seconds and then we calm down into a comfortable silence.

“You know we can’t just let them kill us, right?” Warren said. He was staring at the ceiling with thoughtful eyes. He was probably trying to come up with a plan. I slowly nodded my consent.

“Could you turn into a rat or something and go and get the key to let us out?” He asked.

“I’ve barely mastered a crow let alone a rat,” I said with a sigh.

“You turned into a human with no trouble,” he pointed out.

“Yeah, but humans are not very different from us. All I had to do was change my coloring and my teeth. Rats are more complicated,” I explained.

“That’s true,” he grumbled. We sat there is silence for a while until I decided to break it.

“We are never going to be able to say goodbye,” I whisper.

“That’s what I have been thinking about too,” Warren said.

“Do you think we should fight our way out even if that means hurting people?” I asked.

“I want to, but I know that you would regret it. Also, that’s not why we kept going. We came here to try to warn them, not to fight them,” Warren replied.

“Wait, that reminds me. We have been here for almost a whole day and we haven’t said a thing about what we found,” I said.

“I don’t really want to tell them. I’d rather tell a group of people that actually trusts me and aren’t about to hang me,” Warren said.

“You are heartless, you know that?” I said.

“Says the girl getting hung tomorrow by the people she is about to try and help. Don’t do it Ricky. Let the others find a nicer group of people to join forces with,” Warren snapped back.

I sighed and slumped against the steel bars. “You’re right. I’m being too nice,” I said.

“Don’t worry. We will get out of here. And if we don’t, I’ll come back as a ghost and haunt these people to death,” Warren said matter-of-factly.