The Dragon Awakens

Chapter Sixteen

It took them two more days of hiking with the temperature dropping every day along with the oxygen levels, but eventually, they made it up to the top of the mountain where their camp was supposed to be. Shang had hinted to her that they'd have actual cabins to stay in instead of tents and she was grateful. It was below freezing and snow-dusted the ground around them. Tents would help protect against the wind but wouldn't do too much about the cold. Hopefully, in the cabins they could build a fire.

But as the got closer to the camp, Lanie noted how Shang's eyes kept darting around like he was looking for something. Or someone.

"Is something wrong?" Lanie asked softly and Shang shook his head.

"The camp is just around the bend but its too... Quiet. They usually have guards stationed up the road..." Lanie frowned and glanced back at Mushu who looked more concerned than either of them. Something was definitely wrong. She trotted ahead and stopped at the top of the slope, her face going pale. Shang stopped beside her seconds later and she heard a small gasp escape his lips. Below them, the entire camp lay in charred ruins. Metal lay twisted on the ground, wood blown to splinters littered the snow like confetti. Shang leaped off his horse and turned towards the men who had gathered behind them on the hill, all gapping at the carnage. "Search for survivors!"

He slid down the snowy embankment and Lanie followed close behind. Instead of going for the nearest building she ran for the largest mound in the middle: the general's office building and quarters. If he had been anywhere it most likely would have been there. Lanie started frantically shifting around the wooden beams and metal poles that weren't even warm. This attack had happened days ago. There wasn't even any smoke left from the burned wood. They'd had no chance of stopping whatever had happened here.

Lanie picked up a heavy beam and shoved it aside. Her knees grew weak and she fell to the snow, her whole body shaking. 

"No... No, no, no," she whispered and a figured came up behind her.

"Oh this is not good," Mushu whispered over her shoulder.

Lanie glanced up and her eyes locked with Shang's across the camp where he'd been helping Po search the mess hall. He walked slowly towards her before bursting into a jog and then a full-on sprint when she cried out. He climbed up beside Lanie who had stood slowly, covered in ash, and watched a grown man fall to his knees at the side of his dead father. Mercifully, he had not been burned and from what she could see was still in one piece. His torso looked pretty bloody and the more debris she moved, she eventually found a gun by his side and a bloody dagger clutched in his hand. She was sure many of the other men in the camp had not held the same merciful fate and she was grateful for this if only for Shang's sake.

Lanie stepped away, back into the snow and away from everyone else who was still searching. Her head was spinning. This had never happened before. She had never been trained for this. There was no protocol for someone else killing your mission. The General was dead, and it hadn't been Lanie who'd done it. "Mushu... What are we going to do?" she whispered, eyes wide and fearful. The General, her target, was dead. 

"Bury him," Mushu whispered. His hands were tucked under his armpits and he was shaking almost as hard as Lanie. "There is nothing we can do now but bury him."

"General!" Lanie and Shang's head snapped to Linc who was standing on top of a hill, pointing down. Lanie got up first and made her way to the hill and what she saw below would be imprinted in her memory for the rest of her life. The entire field below them was scattered with bodies. Bloody, disfigured, dead bodies. Some of them wore the tan and black uniform of the HUNS but most of them were clothed in the Imperial uniform. 

"They were massacred..." She whispered, making her way down the hill towards the field. "How could this have happened?"

"Ambush?" Linc suggested but Lanie shook her head. 

"These were some of the most highly trained men in the military. How could they have been ambushed?" She stopped at the bottom of the hill, next to the face-down body of a man still holding his gun. As she looked at him the answer came into her head: the General. He was working for them, he must have revealed their location. He must have never thought they'd all be killed because of him. 

Lanie heard the crunch of snow behind her and looked to see Shang walking down the slope towards them, his face grave. His long winter jacket waved around him and she couldn't help but think how much he looked like a real Captain; powerful and serious and strong. Or now she guessed, a General. As he got closer she looked at his face and saw a mix of anger, irritation, and complete helplessness. His shoulders were held tight but his back was slumped over and she had to look away. He was too young to have to be dealing with this. But then again, so was she. 

"We need to bury them." He whispered, surveying the scene. 

"Sir..." Lanie looked out at the field two times larger than a football field. "There's too many. We could," Lanie hesitated, taking a deep breath, "burn them. A Chinese burial." 

Shang didn't react at first. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, rubbing them before opening them slowly and giving a slow nod. "Gather the wood. Move the bodies. We'll give them a ceremony and then figure out what to do from there." He walked away, back up over the hill. Lanie looked around at all the men staring at her, waiting for instruction. She felt like them, lost and stranded, and without direction. She might not be able to get any direction; not for a while anyway in terms of the DA. For them, however, she could help relieve their uncertain anxiety and give them a purpose, even if it was only for the rest of the day.

"You," she pointed to a group of men. "Start gathering wood and anything flammable to build a pyre. You, grab the carts and you all help them move the bodies. These are your fallen brothers, treat them as they would have treated you."

The men nodded and scattered off to their respective tasks but Lanie didn't move. She just continued to stare at the field of the fallen, the fallen who had sworn to protect their country and each other. But never could they have guessed it would have been one of their own who betrayed them. She glanced up at Shang's disappearing figure and let out a breath, her shoulders falling. If the only small, good thing to come of this was her not having been the one to kill his father, then she was glad of it. But she wasn't glad to have been in this position in the first place.