Social Experiment

The Second Attack (Xavier)

I gaze at the beautiful landscape around our village, smiling to myself. To my knowledge, no one was killed from either side. There's a rumor that Dameeka may have suffered a harsh wound on her leg, but she'll recover. I know I shouldn't care about the Foxes, but I do. Before all this, many of them were my friends.

We're all awaiting the return of our leaders. Ozzie's in charge until they return, but he's not supposed to lead us into battle.

Everyone here has memorized the plan. The first attack went well. We captured the intended targets, and everyone is home safe. I just hope the second goes as smoothly.

"Ready ter fight?"

I look up at Scott, who's words slur slightly. "Clearly you are."

He throws a few half-hearted punches in the air. "Ready to take on some Foxes!"

"Have you been drinking?"

"Wha? Nah."

I roll my eyes. Before Mikayla left, she had supplied Scott with alcohol. She found it in Chamber 11. Apparently, all the chambers opened a few days after 13 did, but no one's really explored them. We have more space down here, and with the war going on, no one's really cared what's inside.

"Scott, you really should get that habit of yours under control."

He shrugs. "They put an alcoholic down here with nothing to drink for weeks and then opened a room full of beer cans. Not my fault. They're the ones who wanted to see what'd happen. Maybe They're not so... soo.. smart after all."

"I'm serious," I say, grinning, "you can't fight like that."

"Nobody stopped meh lass time."

I sigh. "Well, I'm stopping you this time."

"Ha. Yeah right!"

I get to my feet, giving him a meaningful look, and walk off into the woods.

"Wait! Xavier, where ya going?"

"I'm going to hide those beer cans."

He stops, but I keep walking. "How? We've got to go soon, we'll be attacking soon!"

"I'll join the fight when I come back! Don't wait up for me!" I call over my shoulder.

I half expect Scott to follow me, but I think part of him knows that this is for the best. I trudge up the spiral staircase, into the Matrix, and into Chamber 11. I'm in the process of grabbing as many cans as I can hold when something sharp touches my back.

"What're you doing here?"

I drop the cans, hands raised. "Chill, dude, it's me."

The knife comes off my back. "Xavier. Sorry , I didn't recognize you."

I turn around to face Terrance. "I thought so."

Hailey comes in, followed by West. "Xavier? What are you doing here?"

"Trying to hide these. We all know Scott's got a problem, I'm just trying to fix it."

"Good idea," West agrees, "he's going to get hurt if he goes into battle like that again."

"Need any help?" Hailey offers.

"Yeah, actually, that'd be great."

The trio's help speeds things up, though by the time we emerge back into The Wilderness, we've only got a few hours until the attack.

"Ozzie won't be happy," I tell them, "he's not very confident in his leading abilities, and I think he was hoping you'd be back sooner."

"He'll be fine. I don't think anyone's going to cause him any trouble." Terrance points out.