Our Time Bomb

Chapter Forty-nine ~ A Day Closer

Jefferson's pov (after leaving the estate.)

The train ride home is peaceful. It comes to my attention that all these people around me will be exposed to the first war in their lives. It may uproot quite a few lives if things don't go as planned. I see a mother with a little boy beside her and a baby girl in her arms. I smile at them. The boy looks about four years old. He frowns and hugs his mother's skirt.

"It's okay," the young lady says, "it's just a nice Gyardican."

The boy searches me for any sign of hostility. I smile again and wave slightly.

He peeks at me and waves back from behind a steel pole, smiling only slightly.

In about twenty minutes, I reach my stop and I get off the train. The afternoon gusts hit me like a cool wall when I walk out into the open. The Guild is a couple of minutes walk down a brick paved road from the village. My mind drifts immediately to the one person who I can't get off of my mind, Erika. Her radical green eyes that I almost expect to see staring at me from behind every corner I pass. The simple grace of her presence that I seem to drink up when I'm around her. I want to find her and run away with her far into the middle of nowhere and raise our three kids in peace. Imagine it, no politics, no Shadow Nation, nothing complicated.

But I have to fight a war, my dreams will have to be shoved into the gutter for now. I have to be strong. Strong for my people, my comrades, the example I'm setting as the role of Captain of the Guard. It's not over yet.

Suddenly I feel as though I'm being watched. As if my instinct, I step aside and a knife skims my leg and clatters with great force to the ground. I don't stand still long enough to focus on the hair standing up on my back. I immediately yell, "Hey!" and scan the area. My fingers close around a throwing knife that is on my belt. I see the offender. The one who threw the knife, he is standing in the trees perhaps a hundred feet away from me. Just as my eyes lock on him, he throws another knife. I step aside and quickly send a knife of my own at him. I throw right where he will most likely step into as he attempts to dodge it. Sure enough, he reacts and I know that the knife hit him.

I run over to him, my sword drawn. He runs in the opposite direction into the trees. He is Shadow Nation I can see that much. I think I hit him in the leg because he isn't running fast.

"Stop!" I yell after him. In a moment, I catch him. There is only a tree separating us. My blood pulses twice as hard in my veins. I recognize this guy! "Wait... You're the father of Christopher and Luna!"

He is indeed wounded in the thigh. "He nods, "the name is Red."

I slip another knife out of my belt  and  flourish it threateningly in my fingers. "right, and may I ask why you threw that at me?"

He tries to scramble away but I throw the knife at his other leg. He yelps and sinks to his knees, "Please don't kill me."

"That was a sad show you put on for a scout like you. I'm supposing you're a scout." I say mockingly.

He grinds his teeth together and glares at me, "I know it was, and I'm not a scout, I'm an adviser to the commander."

I shrug, "Oh well I don't care to be honest, but I think I really ought to kill you don't you think?"

He reaches for his sword and I kick it away from him as it dropped out of it's sheath when he fell. 

"Just kidding." I say, "I won't kill you, you might be a key to something I need. You see, I already have got some captives from Shadow Nation in my custody as you may very well know. They were to be the way I would find the compound and take it, but since I have you, I may not need them. Like you said, you're an adviser, you'll know things about the compound and about the defenses and even my wife that I'll need to know to start this war."