The Soldier

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

 Commander Blue unlocks the gate to my cell and grabs me.

"Get your hands off me!" I scream.

He doesn't, and when I try to kick him, I see there' no use. He's much stronger than me. Star follows behind and I glare at her as we go.

"Why'd you do it?" I ask her.

"I'm nothing but a spy doing my job." she explains, no expression on her face at all.

I laugh insanely. "So I guess your name's not 'Star' then, huh?" I say.

"Cedar Aura." she answers.

Ha. No wonder Jacob kept his distance from her. "What, so you do you have a twin too?" I spit.

Commander Blue holds his grip tighter. "No, she doesn't, June." he says. I can since warning in his voice, and I smile in triumph. I'm getting to him.

"The Aura family... complete dictators who love to mess with minds. Your brother, Jacob, too. He sure is-" Before I go on, Blue thrusts me to the ground.

I wince as the ground slams into my cheek hard, spitting out blood as he grabs me back up. "You watch the way you talk about my family!" he shouts.

I get back and slam my fist on his chest, even though it does no good. I've gone insane. "Listen, Blue, I'm not a soldier anymore. Remember? You can't make me respect you or any of your family, you got that?" I say through clenched teeth. Commander Blue curls his lips in disgust and moves forward.

"Just go, Castor." he growls.

As he carries me down the hallway, it seems to last forever. Each cell passed is empty. It reminds me of what Jacob said his parents said. I wonder if the prison cells are empty because they killed all the inmates. I stare ahead, hands clenched to my sides. Cedar walks in front of her brother. I notice that she limps. There's a bruised scar on the back of her left leg. "What happened to it?" I ask her.

She turns in a way so I can see it. "It's a symptom from the vaccine we take in the North." She answers.

I shake my head. "Cedar, I've had plenty of vaccinations, and I've never gotten something like that." I say.

Cedar pauses and looks at me in the corner of her eye, "Yeah, and that's why you got sick after eating that man's soup, right?"

I'm silent, glowering at her.

Commander Blue takes a pair of keys out of his pocket as he unlocks a gate in front of us. When we walk through it, lights automatically flicker on. Cedar taps a button beside the gate and guards come through a door I didn't notice before.

Instead of wearing red and blue, they wear gray.-Primors.

Memories flash back inside my head.-At my school. At that time they'd brought in an animal that's now rare and killed it. Before they did, they tortured it. "This is an example to all Southerners of what will happen if they rebel." they'd said. At the time I thought it was right for them to do that, but now I say different. It was wrong for them to do what they did to that animal. The memory angers me but I keep my temper.

They take me from Commander Blue and I watch as him and his sister leave.

The Primor's grip on my arm hurts, still, I refuse to let them know they're hurting me. These small acts of rebellion. "Let's go." they say.

The one on my right loosens his grip on my shoulder, but the one on the left doesn't.

The one in front of me presses in a code at the door they came out of and we enter. What I thought was a cell, is actually a large room filled with nothing but a chair and a table.

"Sit." the one on the left demands.

I do as I'm told.

One of them locks the door behind them and then they surround me.

"Where's my brother?" I ask.

The left guy nudges my cheek with the butt of his gun. "Your brother doesn't want to see you yet." he says.

"Why not?" I say.

"Look, girl, it's none of your business." he says.

I stare into his eyes, sizing him up and down, seeing if he's actually one I could bother. Lefty is pretty tall with lean muscles. Broad shouldered. His brown skin shows the brightness of his clothes, but I can tell that there is something about him that I'm underestimating.

"What?" he says, his voice cold and hard.

I look away from him. "Nothing." I mumble.

He leans in. "What'd you says, girl?"

I still don't answer. I want to make him mad. Just so I can play around with him. "Just saying you're a sorry mistake for a Primor." I spit. That just does it.

Apparently, he has a short temper. Lefty brings his fist against my jaw.

I fall back into the chair and then I'm on the floor.

Righty and the guy in the center hold me as I struggle to hit the Primor back. "Hit me again" I smirk, my dark hair placed in my face wildly. "I. Dare. You. To."

The Primor hits me again. "Don't you ever talk to me like that again." he yells.

I spit in his face and mange to kick him, this time harder. I spit blood on the floor. "Hey, Primor," I say. "I can talk to you however I want." I break out of the grasp of the other two and punch him hard around his rib cage. That's when I hear a crack. With a shock I draw back. I broke the Primor's ribs. The Primor stares in the state and starts coughing up blood.

The other Primors start with panic and quickly talking into their walkie-talkie.

"I-" I stutter.

"You," The Primor scowls.

Immediately another door opens, and a stretcher, and two nurses help him onto it. They try to calm him, but it doesn't work.

That's when I see him. My brother. I should be excited and overwhelmed, but I'm filled with shock.

"Septimus." I say.

"June." he says.