Prisoner Thirty-One

Kimba: Fe, this is how to interrogate

Eventually we came to a wall of ivy. Still covered by the tree line we could make out soldiers standing at attention along the wall. "The entrance is this way." Whispering Alec guided us around to the entrance; a small gap in the fencing with a guard tower on either side.

"What should we do now?" Joe asked but Fe had already started Jogging towards the entrance hands raised.

"My name is Feather Morris and I am looking for Ashmore." My head fell into my hands as I watched the naive girl stand exposed in front of the four guards pointing arrows at her. Before we could stop him, Alec was stood next to her and the rest of us reluctantly followed.

"What is the point in trying to think of a plan when Miss Morris is just going to do what she wants anyway?" Joe mumbled as I tried to hold back a laugh, it was definitely not the time to start laughing.

Strings of incoherent sentences reached us from the guard's mouths. "Is that another language?" Joe, being the only one who recognised this asked Oak.

"I think they are going in search of Lay." All eyes turned to him as we all wondered what a Lay was. "Oh, Lay means leader and before you ask. I know a few words but besides that I am as clueless as you guys."

"What's the point in having you here then?" My murmur clearly wasn't lost on him by the way he tensed at my side but if anything, that was gratifying. I am not ashamed to admit that I was enjoying attacking him with my words.

After standing, arms up, for a few minutes, a guy walked up to us flanked by a man either side. He was about the same height as me and Joe but with much paler hair curling messily behind his ears. A gash marred his cheek while bruises flecked across his face.

From what I could see each person was wearing an identical black t-shirt decorated by a brown leather strap crossing their torso at all angles. "Feather." The central man's arms extended out to her before wrapping her in a quick hug. By her wide eyes I assumed she enjoyed the hug about as much as Alec enjoyed watching.

"Ashmore these are my friends and we were hoping that we could stay here for a few days and in return we think we could help you and your people." Smiling his eyes swept over us until they reached Oak. Before any of us knew what was going on, Ashmore had withdrawn a knife, leaping into the air so that he landed on Oaks chest.

"Jagwaray." His growl filled the silence as his knife leaned into Oaks neck.

I took a step forward fully prepared to set this new guy on fire, but Joe rested a cautious hand on my arm. "Ashmore he is on our side. He helped us escape and he is willing to give you all the information you need. Please don't hurt him."

He considered what Fe had said before slowly standing up, keeping a stern glare locked on Oak the whole time. "If this is so, then we will keep him safe, but he must stay in our lock-up."

"Well then you will have to put me there too." The words sprang out of me before they could ask my brain for permission. Oak looked at me shocked, but I just glared back, putting my outburst down to the fact that I still didn't trust him not to escape.

"I have no affiliation to you, girl, you can go where you wish." I turned my fiery gaze on Ashmore very willing to start a fight for being referred to as girl. Before I could, however, Joe had stood in front of me.

"Then we have a deal."

Part of me was offended by Joe's willingness to let this man lock me up but I guessed he had learnt a long time ago not to argue with me. And after all, I sadly, had agreed to this.

Ashmore led the other three further into his camp while two guards picked Oak from off of the floor dragging him forwards. Two guards approached me but after I stared them down, they decided that walking behind me was clearly a better idea.

We were led past small wooden huts, each with thatched rooves. In the distance there was a much bigger brick building with rows of guards positioned on the roof. We eventually walked round to the back of the building being shoved through metal doors that led to a room underneath. Bellow was a large square room with lengths of chain attached to the walls. The whole space seemed to be made of dried mud with the only light coming from slatted windows located on three out of four walls.

Seconds after the doors had slammed shut, I turned on Oak, using my anger to create a circle of fire at his feet. His shock forced him back a step but quickly realising that that would only end badly, he stilled. His eyes, still swimming in guilt fell onto mine. "Look K, I can't apologise."

"Shut it." I stopped him from speaking not wanting to hear a string of useless apologies. The damage had already been done, all that was left to do was gain more information. "No, you look, I want honest answers and I want them now. Let's start with why you hate us so much when you are so happy to use us as your own personal weapons?"

I sat down, crossing my legs in front of me and lounging back, as I did this the fire circle's circumference decreased so Oak was forced to stand. "Kimba, are you sure you want to know? It will only hurt you."

"Your right we should make this into a game." I forced fake happiness to seep into my voice. "Every time you give me a solid answer straight away, the circle of fire increases, but every time you delay or give me a rubbish answer, the circle becomes smaller." He let out a deep sigh, clearly realising I wasn't messing around.

"The people of Jagu see curst people in a similar way that they see animals. They are willing to use you as a weapon in the same way that you use a pig for meat, but we cage pigs, we don't let them live and eat with us." His head dropped in shame as my eyes closed, fighting against the desire to fill this room in flames.

"If I'm such an animal then why have you been spending so much time with me?" I could barely push the words past my clenched teeth. It wasn't like I was attached to Jagu; I was pretty sure they weren't stand up people from the start but Knowing this about Oak hurt on another level.

"Because I only needed to know you for a minute to see that you are so much more than that."

"Stop!" I yelled, pushing back angry tears that I could feel trying to break through. "I don't want to hear it." Oak attempted to argue but I glared at him forcing the fire circle smaller. Feeling hurt starting to replace the anger I just shook my head ploughing on with a new question. "Why now? Why leave with us now?"

This question was clearly much easier to answer as he didn't even hesitate. "Because you are right. My people. They are savages. They attack Malum ruthlessly and viciously but for no reason. I was sick of the killing a long time ago." Again, his head fell, he was practically radiating guilt and a part of me wanted more details on why he was so guilty. What had this man done?

"Oh, come on, if you were so sick of killing, then why didn't you just leave?" I couldn't let myself be drawn into this act, at least, not until I had all the answers.

"I told you. This world is even less forgiving then you think. There is no way you can survive out here alone."

"You're telling me it gets worse than acid rain, panthers and your psycho compound. I find that hard to believe." But the truth was, I very much believed that it could. All of the compounds we had seen so far had fencing for a reason and I had already worked out that that wasn't necessarily to keep people in.

"Kimba, I don't think I will ever have enough time to warn you about everything." His deep voice echoed through me. A small part of me wanted to believe that he was just trying to scare me, but I knew much better than that.

"If it's so dangerous then why risk it now."

"Partially, because now I have a group of curst to protect me but mainly because of you." I raised my hand up and simultaneously increased the size and heat coming from the flames at his ankles.

"You are a liar; I don't trust you when you say that."

This time he kept his eyes locked on me, a veracity flowing through them. "I know and you're right, I don't deserve for you to believe me but until you can, I'm going to do everything I can to prove it to you. Even if that means pretending to get along with Alec."

We both let out a breathy laugh at this, but I cut mine off as quickly as I could. I wanted so badly for him to be telling me the truth, but I didn't forget, so no matter how much I wanted to forgive him, I knew it probably wouldn't work.

"Next question: What's Alpha?"