Wings

Chapter 33: Planning

**There's an edit of Kari in the sidebar. I picture her as Victoria Justice but really she's just a slightly taller than average brunette with long hair so of course picture her as whomever you'd like :)**

Somehow, everyone had managed to come away fairly unscathed. Apart from bruises, cuts and a sprain to Liam's wrist, we were all in one piece. It showed the true testament of our hours of training I supposed.

It wasn't until I was moving towards the wagon to begin discovering what we had snagged that I got the sense that something was wrong. Despite the uplifted mood of the group at having survived the fight, there were two engaged in a heavy conversation to the side, hurriedly talking, their faces anxious.

"Liam, Josh, everything alright?" I called. They didn't seem to hear me so I made my way over, curious what had them looking so worried.

As I got closer, I could hear their voices, and what they were saying...

"But it was definitey a warning, Strazier is up to something," Josh was saying.

"Are we sure he wasn't just trying to scare us? I just don't want to take this home if it's nothing to worry about," Liam responded.

"I don't think it's something we can ignore."

"You think he was serious, that they're on to us?"

"He said 'We will find you.' We can't ignore the implication there," Josh said earnestly.

"Who said that?" I asked and they both turned quickly, noticing me for the first time.

"We need to gather everyone, something happened," Liam said, exchanging a serious look with Josh.

I was now hearing the story for the second time as it was retold to Simon, a night later in the hotel and the weight of a threat hanging over all our heads.

"I struck him down," Liam was saying, "And thought he was dead. When Josh and I went to walk away, he grabbed my ankle so we both turned. I was about to bash his skull in and then he began blubbering."

"'Strazier is on to you,'" Josh said, relaying the Straze's words. "'You can't get away with this shit, we will find you.'"

"And then...?" Simon asked, wondering if the soldier had said anymore.

"Then he died. He was bleeding out," Liam explained.

It was silent for a few minutes as we all watched Simon, wondering how the hell this could be fixed. Undoubtedly, things were going to change now.

"I need to think," Simon finally said. "No decisions can be made right now, I need to discuss this with Paul and Preston."

We nodded, knowing that this was something that must be taken very seriously. If something went wrong, it could mean all of our lives. We exited silently, everyone who had been on the raid heading upstairs to gather our things and then undoubtedly go for showers; we were all covered in blood and dirt, a delightful combination that smelled like roses.

There were only two showers in the building so we had to wait turns. We ended up gathered in Niall's room to wait our turns, sitting on the floor so as to not dirty the bedding, and discussing the scary circumstance we had been thrust into.

"We don't have the capacity to hold off an attack if Strazier does come," Ed worried.

"But he doesn't know where we are yet, the soldier made it sound like he's working on it though," I reminded.

"So we have to keep a super low profile, not that we don't already," Niall said.

When Harry and Liam got back from washing, Ed and I headed down, going into the neighboring rooms, the only one without damaged pipes. Even though the water was cold and came out a bit sporadically, it felt wonderful to rinse the grime of the trip from my skin.