WAR STORM (Red Queen 4// Alternate Version)

Chapter 34

Mare

Bart lets out an annoying grunt every time the transport hits a bump. 

"Where have you been all morning, Mare?" Iris asks from the back seat of the transport, in between her shivers. We have the heat turned on high, flushing my cheeks a rosy red and hers a silver. The shivers aren't from cold. 

"Oh, you know. Here and there. Up until an hour ago I was in the thick of it and hiding in plain sight."

"Ah, of course. Your lightning's been making quite the disruption throughout the morning. Of course you can't begin outwardly slaughtering people. They'd swarm you."

"I've built up quite the name for myself, haven't I?" I can't be another one of the soldiers anymore. My lightning and fluency in battle will get me so far, but not through an army of ten thousand. Maven can order his soldiers around as much he pleases, though at some point one of those men is bound to deviate from his king's order. And he'll inspire more to follow. 

Iris chuckles, a silent display of understanding. She's had to do the same this morning, tucking her black locks under her hood and tying a generic bandana around her mouth and nose. Her laugh is abruptly cut off when Bart yelps once again, and being his dutiful nurse, Iris turns her focus back to him, pressing on the blood-steeped cloth.

Davidson, our present driver, looks at the pairing from his mirror. "What exactly happened to him?"

"He got shot by an old friend," Iris explains, shaking her head in anger. There's more to the story, I can tell, but I don't push.  "And what were you two doing out here in the first place?"

"I was chauffeuring Miss Barrow, like a glorified driver. We didn't intend to see Bart, blood gushing out've his chest. We thought it a good idea to pull her out for a while, let her gather some energy. No man should have to go all day, which is what it's looking like it's going to take. Corvium's already accumulated a good army of the injured, and nobody's better than the little lightning girl to raise their spirits."

I swallow the guilt that wobbles in my throat. None of the other soldiers get the opportunity to be carted out of the Choke unless they've lost a leg and a Swift happens upon them. I was doing fine. A little tired and cold, but that's to be expected. But then Davidson came along, running over Maven's soldiers as if they were flies to be swatted. 

"A true beacon of hope, I suppose she is to you Reds," Iris explains as the transport breaks at the gates of Corvium. "To all of us, really," she amends. 

I'm here, you know.

"Yes, she is. Now, Mare, should I open the door for you as well?" Davidson questions behind a smirk, hopping out of the transport with the agility of a teenager. 

Iris and Bart take more time to get out, Iris's hand steadfastly pressed up against Bart's wound. "Thank you," she says before a Healer guides them away. 

Unfamiliar faces pass me by as I wander further into our campsite, too far away and too close to the center of the battle for my liking. Caravans with Healers practically dangling out of them leave Corvium every quarter hour, meant to drag back those who are salvageable. On the other hand, bomber planes have flown dangerously close to Corvium, only to be shot down by the tower guards.

Legions of soldiers run past me, their uniformed marching gone. 

The snow falls heavier than it did to start, and fat pieces of the confetti rain down onto my hair, hatless because of that man who stole it on the battlefield. At least I still had my hood. The charred buildings of the fortress have been hollowed out into hospitals, littered with dirty cots and basins of water that are foggy with silver blood. The Healers are stretched thin, despite the mass number of them that are here today, carted in from every quadrant of this continent. Many Reds who claim to have medical knowledge have volunteered,too.