Prisoner Thirty-One

Joe: three or four weeks

I was the last to walk into the chaotic meeting room. Each person was yelling a different idea of the correct punishment to issue. As quietly as I could, I walked to the spare seat in the circle.

"Quiet please. If you could all settle down, we could start to discuss the two major problems we are currently facing." Kyra moved to stand in the centre of the room, turning to look at us all individually. "A war with Malum is imminent."

As she said this, voices re-erupted around the circle, but I was too busy being confused to work out what each voice was talking about. "Quiet. We need to discuss what we should be doing about this."

Considering I'd never like being confused, I raised my hand to ask the question. "Who's Malum?" The circle looked between each other before Kyra faced me.

"Malum is another compound to the right of here that is very aggressive. They have, on multiple occasions attacked us and I fear that they might be about to again, so I propose we get in there first." The noises around me seemed positive but I just sat there, my mouth partially open.

I had excepted that there was another group besides Torrents but there being multiple and them fighting with each other sounded a lot more complicated then I was prepared for.

"Now before we discuss this any further, we should address our second issue." I sat up in my chair fully aware what we were about to discuss. "Mrs Morris' actions today were beyond our laws, so we are here to take a vote: do we kill her, or do we exile her?"

I took in a deep breath. I had been counting on the fact that this was going to be more of a debate then a vote and considering the noises around me, I wasn't totally sure this was going to go in my favour.

"All for exile?" Three people out of fifteen raised their hands. My heart started to pound. Sure if they voted to kill her maybe we could all manage to get out but I wasn't really feeling having another crazy group chasing after us.

"All for."

"Wait!" I yelled cutting Kyra off before she could finish her sentence. I hadn't fully worked out the kinks in my plan but at least this way I could delay the inevitable. "Maybe she could help you."

Mumbling filled the room and I even think I heard someone yell. "Kill him too."

"Joe, this isn't the best time to try and defend your friend." Kyra really sounded concerned for me as she calmed down the group. It made me wonder about her motive. She was either really good at acting or she chose which curses she felt were acceptable. Although this was currently working in my favour, it didn't look good for the future. If she really was this quick to turn on people, the idea of getting my friends out was looking better and better.

"She's not my friend. Really, we just got stuck with her a while back and honestly, I don't even like her." I prayed that Fe would forgive me for all this. "She's violent and uncontrollable but she is also pretty powerful if you find the best way to use her." This part caught Kyra's attention as she walked back to sit in her empty chair.

"What are you proposing then, Mr Carino?"

"These people from Malum, do you think they have anyone who would know their attack plan?" I had moved into the centre of the circle, turning to address everyone as Kyra once had.

"Yeah I could think of a few." Kyra leaned onto her knees, a sign she was taking me seriously, "but I'm not sure they would tell us anything." Her comment caused the group to laugh.

"Well Fe has this special talent of getting information out of people, information they might not necessarily want to tell you." This caused a wave of concern to cross the group as I realised sharing this detail might just make her seem even more dangerous than before. But as the conversations continued, they started to sound more positive, people realising where I was going with this.