Resist

32

Somehow, everyone had managed to come away fairly unscathed. Apart from bruises, cuts and a sprain to Tucker'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.

"Tucker, Brenton, 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 definitely a warning, Xavier is up to something," Brenton 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," Tucker 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," Brenton 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," Tucker said, exchanging a serious look with Brenton.

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

"I struck him down," Tucker was saying, "And thought he was dead. When Brenton 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."

“'Xavier is on to you,'" Brenton said, relaying the Xave’s words. "'You can't get away with this, we will find you.'"

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

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

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

"I need to think," Gavin finally said. "No decisions can be made right now, I need to discuss this with the others.” By that, he meant the other men of The Recovery, the other people who had become the brains behind the organization along with Gavin.

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 working in the building right now so we had to wait turns. We ended up gathered in Brody's room to wait, 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 Xavier does come," Bower 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," Brody said.

When Jack and Tucker got back from washing, Bower 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.