Mines

Chapter Twenty-two

"Can we stop walking?" Peggy moaned. "My feet hurt."
"You agreed to come along, so we follow my rules. Right now, we have to keep moving. We don't have time to waste." I answer.
"Alexander... say we do find where the hostages are being kept but then, we're all to tried to do anything. What do you suggest then?" Angelica snaps.
"Listen, we don't know when George wants us to surrender, he didn't give us a specific time. He might start killing them off at any moment, and I bet you anything Washington will be the first to go." I contradict.
"Alex is right. If Lafayette hasn't gotten proper help yet for his wound, he could be dead already. We don't have time to waste." Eliza says to her sisters, who both sigh. I stop in my tracks so suddenly that Peggy walks into me.
"Ouch! Alex wha-" she squeals, but then I shush her, and tell her to remain quiet. I raise my torch higher to splash light so we can all see the blood smeared on the ground.
"Is this where- maybe- maybe Lafayette was shot here?" Eliza offers in a hushed voice.
"Yeah I think so," I answer. "Which means, we're close."

"Is going to be okay?" I ask for about the millionth time. But I can't help myself, I don't want any of my friends to die because it's my fault. Well, I suppose Lafayette being shot isn't completely my fault, but it sure does feel like it. Okay, maybe I just don't my friends to die, but I'm sure that feeling is universal.
"I already told you, I'm not sure. I did everything I can at the moment, I got the bullet out and we stopped most of the bleeding. There's nothing else we can do but wait for him to wake up." Madison replies, with an annoyed tone.
"But what if he doesn't wake up? What if he's already dead? What if his pulse is lying to us and-" I start saying, somewhat hyperventilating.
"John, it's okay. Pulses can't lie, they don't have mouths. And as for waking him up, I have a fool proof plan!" Hercules says, giving my arm a reassuring pat. He then clears his voice and on the top of his lungs shouts: "BAGUETTE!" There's a moment of silence, and then I fall over laughing, somewhat hysterical because all of pressure and anxiety is getting to me. "Don't laugh! I thought it'd work. It worked before!"
"That was a one time thing!" I giggle, still laugh uncontrollably. It's true, one time Laf got a cold, and colds in the mines are a lot more deadly then back in town. One day, the loud clanging of the bells didn't wake him up, and this was worrying because he always woke up first. Shaking him didn't work, and neither carrying him around the room (listen, we were running out of options, okay?) Herc started screaming some of Laf's favorite words, hoping one of them would wake him up. After he screamed, "baguette" Lafayette sat bolt upright and wanted to know why he was on the floor. Thinking about these happy memories with my friends, makes me wonder how my life would shift if one day, they happened to disappear.

     "Charles, welcome," The Captain says as soon as I enter his office, full of overstuffed armchairs and chocolate. "I have a problem."
     "What is it sir? I'm sure I'll be able to assist." I reply.
     "Well, you see, those rebels you sent me are quite troublesome. Right now, they actually think they're revolting against me! Can you believe the nerve?" I sallow the lump in my throat, and tuck my hands behind my back so he wouldn't see them shaking.
     "No sir. It seems absurd." I say, telling him what he wants to hear.
     "Right? After all I've done for them well," he rubs a spot on his temple where headaches are known to form. "What can you do but move on? Most of my workers have been killed by my own guard. So." he stands up from his desk, and walks around to face me, grinning an insane smile. "We keep moving on, don't we? We continue to build our- my utopia. And we can't do that without miners, can we?"
     "What do you want me to do sir?" I ask, my voice shaking.
     "Collect all males from nearby towns. Ages fifteen and up, we need to fix our population." 

     "Right... here. Right here," I whisper, and pause in the dead end of a long stone passage way. "I don't understand! The holding cells should be right here. Seabury!" I turn around to face Seabury, who recently regained consciousness and a large lump on the side of his head. We've tied his hands behind his back and gagged him so he can't fight back or scream for help. "Didn't you say it was here?" I growl. Seabury frantically nods and looks up, clearly trying to send me a message. We all look up, and a second later, we realized the mistake we made when the ropes Seabury had been working loose for the past hour without our knowledge come undone. He then rips off his gag and screams:
     "They're here! The rebels are!" and dashes away before we can silence him.