Mines

Chapter Twenty-six

     "Alright, we better clear out now," Washington says, as we all duck a sword, whizzing through the air. The way he says it makes me thinks we're doing nothing more exciting than going to the grocery store. "Alexander can you-" Washington starts, but Alex is already nodding.
     "Of course sir!" he says with confidence.
     "John, you might want to cover your ears." Washington says to me, as Alex puffs out his chest.
     "What? Why?" I ask, thoroughly confused. But I find out why a moment later when Alex yells on the top of his lunges, piercing the battlefield, and booming over the sound of guns firing and screams.
     "RETREAT!" he shouts, and the turns to me, rubbing his throat. "Never thought I'd say that word." he admits, a little hoarsely.
     "Let's go!" Washington says, tugging on our arms to spur us forward. We, and everyone else fighting on our side makes a mad dash to follow Alexander, who's in the lead. He turns a corner and rushes forward, as if determined to reach a goal he's been aiming for forever. He suddenly skids to a stop and flings open a trap door that I didn't even notice was in the ground. He pressed himself against the wall to avoid getting crushed by the desperate slaves who haven't seen daylight in ages.
     "Everyone go through! John, Hercules, can you stay behind and help me ward off the British?" Alex asks, grabbing Herc's arm and mine.
     "Of course!" We say together. Alex pauses someone in in the crowd and take his two guns that he managed to acquire from our fight with the British. He tosses one to Herc and keeps the other one for himself. We push against the crowd and stand at the end of the corridor, firing bullets into the mass of the British. A flash of black hair darts across my vision, and I turn from the fight to see Eliza and Peggy, half dragging, half carrying, the body of their sister.

     "Angelica." Alex whispers, turning as well and following my gaze. He sounds as if someone just punched him in the gut, and rid his body of all it's air.
     "S-she g-g-got sh-shot." Eliza stammers between sobs and hiccups.
     "We're going to get shot too unless we do something!" Hercules reminds us, still firing into the British, the only one who didn't turn around to see Angelica's predicament. "Look, I'm sorry Eliza but you- you have to continue to fight. You can't break into pieces just because something unfortunate happened. And it's not like she's really gone." he says half of this, while looking directly at me, and I feel as if I just got shot as well.
     "He's... he's right." I mutter to a still sobbing Eliza. Alex rams a solider who just dashed out of the crowd of his fellows, with the butt of his gun in the stomach. He coughs up some blood and then falls to the floor. Now there's only three of them left, seventeen of the others either dead or unconscious, strewn all across the two hallways where we were fighting. They look at each other, they're faces pale, and then dash away, dropping their guns in defeat.
     "Should we follow them?" Herc demands of Alex, who shakes his head.
     "No, let's just leave," he answers, and then grabbing Angelica's legs and helping carrying her across to the trapdoor. Peggy and Eliza hop down, then grab Angelica's torso and lift her down. Herc hops in next, and it's just me and Alex. He smiles grimly. "After you." And so, without another word, I follow Hercules.

     "What happened?" Lafayette screeches as soon as he sees us enter the cave, looking worse for wear. With much pausing and correction, Herc and I manage to explain everything that happened. Starting from the beginning of when Lafayette was shot, to us running to the trapdoor. The only thing I leave out on my account, is the voice I heard in the middle of fighting. I don't exactly know why I don't want to discuss it, but something about hearing her voice again, right when all of this is happening makes me feel uneasy. After we're done, there's a long pause and then Lafayette says: "I'm so glad you to are alive."
     "You're glad we're alive? How do you think I felt when you got shot? You didn't even wake up until after the fighting and I thought you had died." I answer him, incredulously. He scoffs and waves his arm that inside in the sling we managed to make with dirty rags we found.
     "Oh please. It will take more than that to kill-" he starts, but then Herc cuts him off.
     "Please don't start." he implores Laf, But Lafayette ignores him.
     "Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette, Marquis de La Fayette," Lafayette finishes stubbornly. "So... do you know where Seabury ran off to?"
     "You, I've been wondering that myself," Alex says, suddenly appearing behind me. I jump and turn around so fast I knock into Laf and nearly topple the both of us onto the ground. Hercules manages to grab us both and pulls us back onto our feet. "Did anyone else notice that Captain George just suddenly... disappear? Right after he commanded his troops to shoot us?" Alex continues, as though nothing has happened. We all shake our heads.
     "I didn't really pay much attention to that dirt-bag when I solider ran up to me, holding a sword." Herc says bitterly.
     "Does it matter?" I ask tiredly. "I mean, it's just... we can't do anything and... we have to keep going."
     "Where are we going?" Lafayette questions no one in particular. But then Alex answers him.
     "Oh right. Of course you wouldn't know. Where going to find help. Real help, and then we're going to get revenge."