Borderlines

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Fawn woke up in Travis's protective embrace, his arms wrapped in hers. When she looked over at the clock on the wall, she knew they had slept a little later than they should have. She nudged Travis awake as she sat up. Travis let out a deep sigh and she saw him trying to wake himself up. Fawn stretched her arms above her head, closing her eyes. Travis wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her into his lap. His lips met the side of her neck. Well, she knew how he was feeling this morning. Fawn managed to keep herself from gasping in surprise. Travis pulled her back down onto the mattress, leaning over her with a hand on her side.
"Good morning." He said to her softly, giving just a whisper of a kiss to her. Fawn smiled at him.
"You seem to be in a good mood this morning." She laughed. Travis's green eyes gleamed.
"I slept well." He smirked, leaning down and kissing her lips. Fawn could already foresee where this was going to happen.  She moved her head to the side.
"Travis?" He made some sort of questioning noise, since his lips were touching her neck again. Fawn's heartbeat picked up nervously. This was too early. She scrambled away from him, a bit faster than she had meant to, panicking for a moment. Travis blinked in confusion.
"Fawn?" He asked. She felt heat rising in her cheeks.
"I'm sorry." She apologized, fleeing from the room. Fawn could hear him scrambling after her. Half of her couldn't believe that she had bulked at his advance, but the other half was panicking. It just brought back bad memories for her. Fawn let herself stop running for a second, rubbing a hand on her face. She heard Travis right behind her.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Fawn blubbered. Travis grabbed her shoulders.
"Too soon." He said softly.
"I understand." He looked into her eyes, his gaze focused only on her.
"Don't apologize to me. I can wait. I want your trust." Travis smiled at her. Fawn closed her eyes, wrapping her arms around him.
"Thank you." Travis hugged her back.
"I hate to break up the love fest, but Claus needs everyone in the meeting room." Willow's mocking voice came from behind Fawn.
"Do you enjoy ruining happy moments?" Travis sighed, arching an eyebrow.
"It's my job." She smiled. Fawn gave a small laugh and began following her, Travis right behind her. The meeting room door was already open. Leslie, Nathan, and Sean were all in the room along with Claus.
"Close the door, please." Claus told Travis when they were both in the room. Fawn looked around the table. Claus looked very serious.
"I have a plan that I think will work, but we have to act within the next day or Garth will have figured us out." He said firmly. Fawn couldn't believe a nineteen year old was making a thirty year old man nervous. Claus brought out a map of the castle grounds.
"We move in late during the night so that we are hard to see. The Black Ivy will be more focused on the palace than the actual grounds. We can hide along the wall and tree line, where guards will be spread thin. We wait until just before dawn. From there we take out as many as we can without making a ruckus, once the Black Ivy is alerted to us, they will go on the offensive." Fawn watched him point around the map.
"When they do, we will have a helicopter to provide cover. The moment that helicopter appears you run toward that palace like satan himself is after you. The shock will distract Garth's troops momentarily and that's are window to get in." Fawn knew they had advantage with air strikes, but they didn't want to destroy the palace itself. The helicopter was only good for outside.
"Once we're in, we need to try and make our way to the throne room. I've had reports saying that Garth rarely ever leaves it so that's where the snake will be hiding." Travis narrowed his eyes.
"It's going to be heavily guarded then." He looked at Claus.
"The casualties...." Claus leaned back, his eyes darkening.
"I know. I hate it, but the fact is, we have no other choice. We have advantage in weapons and bodies. I just hope a few of them have sense enough to surrender." Willow shook her head.
"They won't. You corner a bear and it's going to fight." Claus sighed and looked at all of them.
"No one said this would easy. If they offer to surrender, take this and inject them immediately." Claus spread vials out on the table.
"It will knock them out for at least half an hour. This way if they're lying, they won't be a threat. Each of you will be equipped with ten of these." Fawn noticed how small they were, it was a strong enough drug that the vials were very small.
"Our main goal is to capture Garth. If he is taken out, the Black Ivy will fall apart." Sean leaned forward.
"And if he doesn't?" Claus looked at the boy.
"Then you do whatever is necessary." Fawn felt numbed. This was all so much to take in and they would be moving tonight. It made her stomach feel sick.
"We try to spare as many lives as possible, but like Willow said. I don't think any of them will go down without a fight. These people are a cult and they will fight with every ounce they've got. Don't underestimate them. They've made it this far, who knows what they are capable of." Everyone was silent, letting everything sink in. Claus sighed.
"The Country's fate is in our hands right now, we can't let everyone down. We fail and America is lost."

~

Fawn poked her fork at the food that she had been given. Her appetite just wasn't there. As much as Fawn wanted this war to finally end, dread weighed down her every movement. She was scared to enough from the invasion of the armoury. How would she be able to shoot more people? Maybe she would get lucky and get close enough to inject them. All of the people would be like that. She knew she was going to have to kill people. Fawn shoved her tray away, trying to compartmentalize her thoughts. Someone touched her shoulder and Fawn saw Travis sit beside her.
"How are you feeling?" He asked her. Fawn sighed.
"Terrible." She muttered. Travis pushed some of the hair out of her face.
"I know this is going to be hard for you. It's not easy for me either." Fawn looked at him.
"How do you deal with it? How can you just shoot people?" She asked. Travis had mentioned that he had blood on his hands before, how did he cope with himself?
"It's hard. Some days I don't even want to get out of bed. Every time I've ever pulled a trigger, I get second thoughts. Did that man have a family? Was he a father? What have I just done?" Travis looked down and sucked in a breath.
"Guild hangs over me like a cloud." He said sadly. Fawn touched his arm lightly.
"But I have to stop feeling sorry for myself. If I hadn't pulled the trigger, they certainly would have." He said firmly.
"Fawn, if you wouldn't have shot that man do you think he would have hesitated to blow us to high heaven?" Fawn shook her head slowly.
"But I took his life!" She said frantically. Travis touched her shoulder.
"And you saved hundreds." Travis insisted. Fawn looked down, he was right, but why didn't she feel any better?
"When we go in there tomorrow, Fawn. You can't hesitate. I've seen what these people are capable of doing, so have you. They've made their choice and they will have to live with that. We are doing what is right for this country." He said. Fawn glared at the table.
"Then why doesn't it feel like it?" She hissed. Travis kissed her cheek softly.
"Killing people was never met to feel right. People like Garth, they aren't human. They're monsters."  Fawn squeezed her eyes shut and let out a long breath.
"I'll do what I have to, but don't expect anything spectacular from me." She said quietly.
"I wouldn't dare." Travis swore. They both looked up at the screen in the room, when a loud siren came on. It was more troops. They were storming each section again. Fawn closed her eyes as she heard a woman scream. Travis went rigid.
"This ends tonight." He growled, standing up from the table and walking away. Fawn glanced at the screen, seeing Garth sitting back in his throne, a hungry look glistening in his eyes. He was smiling. Her heart turned to stone in her chest and Fawn's fist balled. Travis was going to kill Garth and God help anyone that tried to get in his way.