Mines

Chapter Seventeen

     I wake, but keep my eyelids closed. I don't want to wake up to reality, to see whatever bitter defeat we suffered. And anyways, the outer world looks so dark with only a few flickering flames. Is it worth waking up for? I feel myself lying down, but my head is propped on something, or should I say someone, because I believe my head is resting on someone's lap. I also feel a hand resting on my chest that doesn't belong to me. I flutter my eyes open to see Lafayette staring down at me.
     "Laf," I manage to croak out before he pulls me into a hug. He doesn't say anything, which immediately gets me worried. I imagined in my head, that when I came back from the dead Lafayette would react along the lines of how he did when I came back from my prison cell. Screaming in French and crying. I've never seen a silent Laf before and it's scary. "What's wrong?"
     "Well, my best friend who I thought was dead didn't actually die and he didn't tell me. So there's that." he answers, still hugging me. Crap. I was right, he is bitter.
     "I didn't have time. I needed my plan to work, you weren't around. I would have told you but-" I start but then he whispers:
     "You told Alex. I've known you for two years and you choose someone you've known for three months."
     "No, Laf, it isn't like that, I swear. I did want to tell you but- I thought your reaction to my revealing myself on the platform would help charge up the slaves. What happened anyways?" I say, letting go and sitting next to him.
     "I was happy. I was so happy." Laf says, stirring the stone ground with his finger and ignoring my question.
     "What happened and where are we?" I question. Laf looks up at me and starts to explain.

     There was a riot after I fainted, a bigger one then the one Alex had caused. The slaves immediately took over the guns the British troops had and unmask George Washington along with the Schuyler sisters. About a hundred slaves charged the Captain's base and the others stayed behind to fight the British and raid the nurses' office for medical supplies.
     "We knew it was only the beginning of fighting, and that we needed stuff to heal each other with. That's how we got you bandaged up, your old ones where bleed through. You're bleeding less now." Laf explains. We were winning for about thirty minutes until reinforcements arrived. Luckily Alex had spies watching around the quarry, so they had a ten minutes heads up to corral about fifty people into the tunnels. That's where we are now. The rest were either captured or killed.
     "Captured?" I ask.
     "Taken hostage," Lafayette corrects himself and then gulps. "They took Hercules, John."
"No," I whisper, and then clutch my head in my hands. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry Laf. It's my fault. It's my damn fault again. I'm so sorry I-"
     "Arrêtez," Laf says, and grabs my shoulders and squeezes tightly. "I don't think you understand what you've given us here. This- this can be considered a minor setback. But we'll pull through, we'll get him back John. You've given everyone a reason to fight, a reason to believe in fighting back! That's all that we needed, and you gave it to us."
     "You make me sound a lot better than I actually am. God Laf, I- there were two hundred of us and now we only have about seventy five people," I glance around the large tunnel where several outlines of people are huddled up together or sitting apart, shivering. "I messed up."
     "Tu es un idiot! Je veux autant que toi Herc, et je regrette les vies que nous avons perdues, mais nous ne pouvons rien faire d'autre que de continuer à nous battre!" he suddenly looks even more stern and a little scary. "Et si vous osez être en désaccord, je vais vous frapper avec une baguette."
      "That's harsh." Alex says, suddenly appearing beside Laf.
"Alex! Where did you come from?" I ask, standing up to quickly. I can feel a trickle of blood run down my back. Laf grabs my arm and pulls it over his shoulder, supporting me. I don't resist, because honestly I can use the help.
"Mapping out the tunnels. Planning escape routes. I think that if I finish with this by tomorrow night, we can leave on Sunday." Alex responds.
"What? What about the hostages?" I question. Alex gestures around the cave.
"Listen, I understand you want to save Hercules, he's your friend and I get that. But none of us are up for the challenge. We're all making sacrifices."
"Okay, I agree, losing most of our allies isn't great for moral but-" I start to say but then a static noise erupts over the quarry, several inches of stone away from us. And the muffled voice of George starts to talk.
"Hello everyone. This is Captain George speaking. That silly stunt you pulled earlier landed you all in some big trouble. My beautiful excavation is covered in blood and bodies," I feel my face grow pale. "Any who, the point is, I have some of your little friends that I won't hesitate to kill. Oh! I know what would be fun! I'll read you their names!" I can hear someone clear their voice over the speakers that are placed all around the quarry. "James Madison, Hercules Mulligan, David Smith, Ann Williams, and oh! How fun! George Washington. If those names mean anything to you, you'll stop is idiocy at once." Another burst of static and everything goes silent.
"We're all making sacrifices." Alex repeats in a choked voice, and then walks away from us.