Our Time Bomb

Chapter 55 - Shaky Ground

At the district Palace Estate, the King and Queen are plotting all manners of evil witless plans.

The King fiddles shakily with the tassels on his silky clothing. On his flakey white sniveling face is a phsychotic twisted grin. With his bony finger he points to a row of numbers and stats on a tablet sitting before him on a marble table. The Queen is sitting across from him, the usual spaced out expression glued on her equally pale face.

She occasionally nods mindlessly at her husband's mutters.

It is unknown why these two psychopaths want to kill most of the population of their district. It would seem that they lacked all senses of morality and logic.

The King's mutters could be heard echoing across the bare marbled room. They bounced up white pillars and off the cold walls. "It's successful at last my darling... We will soon be two of the last living souls left in this damned district. When that day comes, we shall celebrate as the stench of dead corpses rises to our nostrils. We will be victorious!"

The Queen stares at the white patterns on the wall behind him, she nods and cocks her head at a strange angle.

"Let the next wave of our glorious gases be released!" his cackling voice could send a pack of the most fearful rats scurrying into the pitt of hell just to escape the sound of it...

Back to Erika's pov...
Jefferson is by my side on horseback. Behind us are a mix of our troops. They are separated into clusters. No Gyardican interacts with any Shadow Nation Warrior. There is a rift of estrangement between our sides but at least they are not trying to murder one another.

There is only one quarter of our numbers with us now, we are riding to the nearest village to find out any information we can on the gas attack. We need to find out if there was a leak or something. As if it will give us the liberty to continue our battle or something. As of now, I think we all just want to know what's going on.

We reach the outskirts of the village. The streets are humming with some sort of a strange energy, perhaps you could justly identify it as fear...

Jefferson catches my attention, "Erika look there." He points to a train of witches and spirit callers  parading up ahead. I gulp, that can only mean one thing... People have died.

We slow our pace as we enter the village. A lull in the constant noise wavers to silence.

I'm realizing how terrified they might be. They've never seen me before... They've seen Shadow Nation and are deathly afraid of them, but they've never seen me. Now I'm at the side of their beloved Captain. They must be hella confused.

Common folk stop at the sides of the streets and stare at us. I search their faces, I'm not sure what for. I suppose I want to know what they think of me.

The train of spiritual workers stop at the sight of us. They stop their wailing dead in their tracks.

All eyes are on us. People come out of their shops to stand by and join everyone else in staring silently.

I glance behind me at my men. Their faces are stained with gray and black makeup, their clothing tattered and rugged. They are a little frightening I'll admit.

Holding up his hand, Jefferson motions for us to halt. He dismounts and walks to one of the witches, "How many dead from the gas?"

The wrinkled old man he speaks to holds up a knarly finger, "More than fifty."

Jefferson looks back at me, seeing if I heard. I nod. Fifty dead... How did this happen?

I watch as he continues to talk to them. "Does anyone know how this happened? Where is the gas from?"

Slowly, all eyes drift to me. Several blaming fingers point at me.

I dismount also. At my movement, the crowd seems threatened. Everyone I walk by backs away from me.

Jefferson shakes his head, "The gas attack is not from Shadow Nation."

With both my hands on my hips, I make general eye contact with all of the people. "If the attack was my doing, we wouldn't be here, good people. Also, you misjudge us, why would we ever release such a dangerous thing? No, I'm here because there are perhaps a hundred fatalities among my army. I want to know where in the hell it came from."

Suddenly my eye catches onto a face I know. It is one of my law students. His jaw is dropped partly. He certainly recognizes me. I glance away.

"Don't we wish we knew where it came from." one of the villagers says, looking more at Jefferson than me.

"So you've got no idea?" Jefferson asks.
Everyone shakes their heads.

"very well then. We're sorry for disturbing you all." He continues solemnly, "And do not be frightened. The Shadow Nation you see here, they aren't going to hurt anyone. They're afraid just as you are."

I watch my husband as he explains the situation to the villagers. I want to rush into his arms and I want him to hold me against his chest. I don't know why, but I just want it. I shake that thought out of my head. I need to focus on other things. I think of Luna. I need to go find her, I wonder if she has gone back home. I wonder if she is alright. I need to find her.

A few minutes later...
Jefferson mounts his horse again. I'm back in my saddle as well. He leans towards me, "I am going to go back to the Guild to deal with some things with some of my men. You can do as you wish, perhaps don't spend much time in the village, the people are a little overwhelmed, and the news will travel quickly."

"Jefferson, I need to see our children, Luna as well." I think of my poor babies, practically motherless since birth.

"They are alright, I called the caretaker some time ago, I'm sorry I didn't tell you. You must have been worried sick. Why don't you go find Luna."

I shrug a little worriedly, "I just need to see them with my own eyes. It has been too long."

He grabs the reigns of my horse leading him to shuffle sideways till our horses are hip to hip. "Babygirl," he whispers in my ear with a small smile, "tonight, after we've done all that we can do, you come over and we'll kick the babysitter out. What do you say? Just the five of us together."

My heart warms immensely, "god I wanna kiss you."

"Tonight." He repeats while letting go of my reigns. He then tips an imaginary hat and kicks his horse into motion. Most of the Gyardicans follow. I smile after him.

"Commander." I catch sight of Henry out of the corner of my vision, "What are the rest of us to do?"

I turn to him thoughtfully. "The villagers hate us... Don't they?"

He is a little surprised by my question, "uh... Probably. They've heard a lot of shit about us."

I nod and turn around to face the rest of my men, "You all heard that, didn't you? People are afraid of us, we've done a good job of establishing that. Honestly though, there are probably plenty of people who are sick and dying in that village. Whether we are of a different blood line or not, we may as well help them. We're all the same species after all. What do you say we see if there's anything we can do to help them just for a day?"

I'm greeted by blank stares from my troops.

"Come on." I roll my eyes, "What sort of animals are you?"

I look at Henry who I can usually trust to say something. He shrugs, "I know we've been wronged by these people, but she's right, we're not all that different. If you think about it, we could be doing ourselves a favor. Getting a little bit of reputation could be good for us later. Why don't we do it?"

The rest of them begin to nod.

I smile a little, "It's up to you, you can search for clues on how the gas reached us, or you may see if you can help the villagers."

They salute me and begin to ride off into the forest and the village. As for me, I will go and visit Luna.