Our Time Bomb

Chapter 54 ~ LoyalTIES

Erika's pov

I favor one of my legs as I walk because my foot hurts quite a lot, god knows from what. The tent is musty in smell and I cough. I spot Christopher on a cot on the ground, seemingly asleep. I fall to my knees next to him, "Oh my baby, are you okay?"

The hard ground cuts into my knees, and the smells around me are not welcoming or pleasant. 

He opens an eye to look at me, the other eye is seemingly glued shut. "Hey mother."

I touch his sweaty cheek, he's pale but quite heated. His eyes steady behind me, they widen after a second. He splutters, holding up a hand and pointing to my husband who is standing in observation a couple of feet away. "W-what the hell?"

I threw a quick glance over my shoulder and brush a strand of hair behind my ear. "yeah... well its a little hard to explain. I'm guessing you went unconscious before you could know what happened."

"why's he here?" Chris croaks. 

I sigh as I feel Jefferson stand directly behind me, his hand in my hair, "Something happened Chris, there was a gas attack on the whole battlefield. It wasn't set off by either side. We're kind of allies for a bit now."

"for a bit?" 

My eyes fall downcast, "None of us can say what's going to happen in the future. For now, I'm happy not to be fighting against the side of my own husband."

Chris glances up at Jefferson again, "yeah no kidding..." his glance lasts only a moment.

Suddenly a commotion is audible from outside the tent. "Commander?! Where is she?"

In less than a second, I'm on my feet.

Jefferson sighs, "uh oh."

"rest Christopher, I'll come back to see you when I can." I say to my son.

I let my cape ripple behind me as I exit the tent, Jefferson at my heels.

My eyes adjust briefly to the light once again and I scan my surroundings. A trail of Shadow Nation are weaving in between tents, evidently looking for me.

One of them, Henry (A scout) sees me, "Commander!"

At his call, more of the dark figures turn in my direction.

Henry strides toward me, his facial expression pinched. I fold my arms and hold my straightened posture.
"Commander, this is bullshit, what are we doing camping with these... Gyardicans."

More warriors join him, a few of them with their fists in the air. "Yeah, don't you know what they're doing? Him! That man there," they gesture ​angrily at Jefferson, "He's leading you astray, you don't realize what you're doing, they're tricking you."

I open my mouth to speak in defense, but they aren't finished.

"They will turn on us, kill you and finish the battle! They're stronger now, and they could have more troops on the way."

I hold up my hand, "Enough!" I scan the whole group, beginning to walk amongst them slowly. They freeze and watch me, waiting for how I'll respond.  "First of all, how dare you question me in such a manner. secondly, you know the Captain is standing right behind me don't you?"

All eyes fall on him. He awkwardly folds his arms and turns on his heel, "I'm... Just gonna go."

"wait, Jefferson. I want you to stay here a moment." I say, sensing some ice in my tone.

My men voice their displeasure, but they don't dare question me again. I raise a finger to my lips as more Shadow Nation crowd around. Jefferson hesitantly approaches me from behind, "Not sure I should be here..."

I shake my head, "nonsense, I think you need to help me talk to them."

"what?" a warrior steps up to me, towering above my stature. "I'm sorry most highly esteemed commander, but you can't be serious."

I raise a brow without saying a word, just giving him that "watch yourself" warning look. He can't keep eye contact and backs down. 

"as i was saying..." I carefully eye the impertinent warrior, "This will be a test of your trust and loyalty to me, as your leader. I know that you and many others are restless with confusion, perhaps afraid, and most of all, untrusting of the loyalists. So am I... but we must absolutely think carefully through all of this."

"We are doing that m'lady, but we've got no reasons to trust them." Henry spits. 

Jefferson shakes his head, "I don't know if this is my place to speak to you, but we are afraid too, you think we know what that gas wave was? For all we know, it could happen again and be even more fatal."

Another man steps up to Jefferson, "perhaps, but give us a reason to trust you because I can't think of anything. If you would arrest your own wife and lock her up while pregnant, what kind of man are you?" 

I uncomfortably shift my weight to my left foot, "please, don't bring that into this."

"I say we can't trust either of you!" Henry says again, he waits for a heavy second to effectively allow his statement to sink in, "We may have a great leader but she's defending our enemies now, specifically because she's in love with their Captain... I say we hold a conference without her and figure this out."

Anger boils up in me, within seconds it is begging to spill over. I shove down my impulses to explode, sucking in a breath. I narrow my eyes at Henry, "alright darling, you want to really argue with me? I can make that happen, I'm trying to be sympathetic towards you, but if you're going to threaten my authority like that, I'll have to turn the heat up a little."

He swallows but manages not to drop eye contact just yet, "I'm not trying to threaten you personally m'lady..."

I keep closing the space between us, making him extremely uncomfortable. I can tell from the look in his flashing eyes that he's remembering just who he's confronting. "well it seemed an awful lot like you were doubting me. Have I ever led you astray before? Have the loyalists ever been victorious against us in the past? You're right, hell this hard for me but am I weak? I'd say not..."

"she's right..." Jefferson says, his hand on his hip, "If you must know, we had a fight last night, neither of us trusted each other and we'll just say that it ended with both of us in handcuffs and quite bruised, but we learned something. We learned that we kind of have no choice right now but to trust. Otherwise, if we fight, we'll end up with more harm done than good. I don't know much about you people but I do know you've got one heck of an amazing and loyal leader. And you should all hear this!" He raises his voice to everyone who has flocked around us, "She would sacrifice herself and everything she has in a flash if it was to her nation. She's headstrong and unstoppable, I'm lucky to be married to her, and you are lucky to be led by this woman."

Silence falls like a veil across all of us. Bashfully I lower my eyes to the ground. I feel so grateful to my husband in this moment.
I feel his fingertips at my waist. He draws me to his side, obviously he isn't afraid to do so.

I place one of my hands on his and glance up into Henry's eyes. The man is studying us, rather in shock at Jefferson's speel. I raise a brow at him. He looks down.

"He has a point." one the warriors speaks up, "we may not trust every decision she makes, but when has she ever let us down?"

The group begins to nodding and whispering among themselves. I think Jefferson may just have won them over for now.