Decipher | Watty's 2017

LVI. Exculpate

Exculpate

/ˈekskəlˌpāt/

verb

to show or declare (someone) is not guilty of wrongdoing

The days following mine and Luke's argument passed quickly. Most of them consisted of our bare bodies pressed against each others and we struggled to grasp the concept of being able to hold the other. Our bodies longed for each other and any time we were alone, it alwasys turned into some sort of unholy interaction, but he and I didn't mind this in the least.

However, after the first few weeks of my presence in the colony, it became apparent to both of us that I was needed to decipher the Code. Inside I held the debate of telling them to find another person to decipher their precious code, but I ultimately held all of my feelings back and suffered through the hours of being separated from Luke.

At first, it was like detoxing. My entire body shut down and refused to think, resulting in a lack of decoding and Luke's father sending hateful glares as I passed him down the hall. I assumed that I deserved it for my lack of focus and amount of work; however, as the days went on I began getting more of the work completed and making monumental leaps and strides towards the finish line.

At the rate I was deciphering, we could begin the war as early as the end of the year, but with the impending weather, I figured it wouldn't begin until a few months had passed in the next year. Even though this assumption would provide me more time with Luke than originally expected, my body felt numb as I thought of the blonde haired boy going into the front lines of the battle.

I fully knew he would demand for me to stay back at the colony, which only added to my fears as I contemplated what would happen to him while he was putting his life in danger. Despite understanding his need to keep me safe, and complying to it as best I could, I couldn't allow myself to imagine the possible tragedies that I would be unable to prevent during the bloody war that was anticipated by the whole colony.

When I passed some of the residents of the colony, I saw eagerness in their eyes as if they were waiting anxiously for the deciphering of the code so they could enter the battles to come. It was quite obvious as to who was applying to join the military and who was to be staying in the colony waiting for them to return as I took in the fearsome faces that almost always accompanied an ecstatic one.

The amount that I could relate to those people was intimidating as I imagined how I would feel if I were not involved in the planning of the battles. In all honesty, Luke had made sure I wasn't fully involved in the logistics of the battles, knowing that I feared his safety too much to take any risks in the planning, but I was still allowed to make simple suggestions and have access to the plans.

One day as I sat in the office that was custom designed to my liking, I was simply skimming the battle plans as a software ran on my computer, deciphering a portion of the code using the adverse matrix that I had entered only a few minutes beforehand. Having done this for the past few weeks, I knew that this would take at least an hour, which gave me enough time to quench my curiosity by reading the manila files concerning future plans.

As I skimmed the page before my eyes, words such as defensive orb and offensive tortoise seemed to pop off of the page at me. I knew what the terms meant in a simplistic way as Luke had taken it upon himself to spend time describing certain tactics to me, but what scared me the most was the fact that these were Roman battle strategies which had not been used directly in a military plan for hundreds of years.

A knock sounded from the door, causing me to jump and close the file rather quickly before responding and allowing the person into the room. As the figure emerged, my heart seemed to fall a bit in my chest as I observed a shy and slightly awkward brunette walk into the room.