Michaels POV
-------------------
"So, Mr Clifford. Are you ready?" General Hilton grins at me. He is perched on his chair behind a big desk. I am sat on a chair in front and Im nearly shitting my self, Im that scared.
Ok. I got captured by the General and now I have to fight.
"Yes sir," I salute.
"Good. You'll do nicely,"
"Yes sir. Thanks sir,"
"Ok then, so, who do we want rid of?"
"Trespassers, and the Rufford lot, sir,"
"Yes. But Im glad you boys are here. Welcome to my army. As for the girls, they wont be much use. We'd have to take matters into our own hands. They must die,"
"But sir-"
"Michael," Hilton stands up and walks around the desk, "why? What is it? Who are they?"
"My best friends. One of them is more than that. She's my other half. I cant kill them," I protest.
"Im sorry Michael. You must. But, why here? Why Jettiserth Town?" He narrows his black eyes at me.
"Its in Chloe's book. We came here to hide from the Speckle," I look him dead in the eye.
"Well, her bag is here. Care to look?"
I nod and rummage around for the book. Finding it, I pull it out and flick through the pages.
"It says here, Find number 72 and knock. You'll find a man. This man, Chloe, is, is your real dad?" I say the last part as a question.
Oh my god.
"Oh, well then. Wait, number 72. They're in the cells. So you from Rufford," Hilton spits the name.
"Well, not me. Im pure Aussie. Is my accent not obvious? But Chloe is. Well I'm not sure. Shes a foster kid," I say, the thoughts spinning.
"Go and check on them. Those stupid girls could be up to anything. You know how to use a gun?"
"Oh my god no! I am not killing them!" I snap.
"You don't as long as they stay there," Hilton hands me a rifle.
"Yes sir," I nod.
"Wait. You need your uniform,"
"Uniform? Is my band tee not appropriate?" I look down at my Metallica top.
"No. No it is not. Here," he chucks some kind of blazer at me, with boots and some horrible pants. I look awkwardly at him.
"Go on, get changed boy," he orders.
I keep the band tee on and get into my uniform. The boots look similar to my punk ones but they are so damn uncomfortable.
"You look ever so manly," Hilton smirks.
"Not bad am I?" I grin.
The uniform looks quite hot on me actually.
"You need a hat and put this belt on, you use it to hold your gun to you," he gives me a weird cap type thing and a belt.
"Since Im Australian, you don't possibly have one of those slouch hats do you? You know, ones like we had in World War One?"
"No, we do not. Your in Britain and you're wearing the British uniform,"
"Oh ok," I say a little disappointedly. I put on the hat and some white gloves which looked ridiculous but may I say, I looked fuckable.
"C?" I hissed. She was asleep.
"Mike? M- oh my god," she looked at me with wide eyes. She looks terrified.
"Its ok. I wont hurt you,"
"Stay away from me. Please," she begs.
"Chloe, Im still Michael. You know, Mike-Ro-Wave? Babe its me,"
"No. Stay back. Its coming true,"
"What is?"
"The dream. You know, the one where I hit you,"
"Oh with the rock. Oh I see. Look, I may be in uniform but I still love you no matter what. Im going to set you free. Oh one other thing, your dads here,"
"Daryl?"
"No, Chloe. Its your real dad," I smile.
"Oh my god no! No. I cant see him,"
"Why? Why not?"
"He's the reason I got put in that bloody hell hole. Him and his bloody drinking,"
"Chloe. Look. Im going to save you I swear," I pull her to me through the bars of the cell and kiss her. She kissed back. That sweet taste of her lips just gave me sparks.
"Ok Mike. Oh may I say, you look so sexy in that. I love you," she smiles and ruffles my hair.
"I love you too," I give her a hug through the bars and walk off with one of the biggest smiles ever.
"Oi. Private Clifford. Get here now," I hear a familiar voice.
"Ash?"
"Thats right baby!" Ashton opens his arms to hug me and Calum and Luke run up. We have a big group hug.
"We need a plan to get out of here, and fast," I say.
"Oh, look at you. Got the uniform to match the attitude. I like it," Calum grins.
"Yep. The General Hilton guy, he loves me," I fiddle with my shoes.
"They look so bad," Luke winces.
"They are," I roll my eyes.
"We need to save the girls, never mind bloody shoes," Calum strops.
"Sorray Hood," I glare at him.
I show them to the cells and once again, Chloe is asleep. Heather and Sally are on the bunk beds and Chloe is curled up in the corner by my feet.
"Babe. Babe its me," I stroke Chloe's hair.
"Oh, hey guys," Chloe sits up and crawls over to the bunk beds, "Sal! Heather! Its the guys!"
"Luke Robert Hemmings you sexy little shit," Sally wanders over to the bars and pulls him by the collar of his blazer. Luke smiles and kisses her.
"Ashton!" Heather squeals, scampering over and Ashton pulls her close.
"You look comfy C," I say sarcastically, sitting down so Im at her level.
"Well, I let Heather have the bed," She shrugs.
"Here. I brought you something," I smile, giving her my God Save The Sex Pistols jumper.
"Mikey, its yours,"
"Yeah I know. But I want you to have it," I lean forward and she does the same. I hold the bars as I kiss her.
"I love you so much Chloe. I need you your perfect," My mouth burbles.
"Awwww stop giving me feels, Clifford. I love you too,"
"To the moon?"
"To the moon," Chloe gives me a look and it made me want to jump at her.
I pull her to me and I kiss her again. We kiss for about three minutes but then I hear,
"BOYS! WADDYA THINK YOUR DOING WITH THE PRISONERS? MICHAEL CLIFFORD I AM ASHAMED OF YOU!" Hilton comes charging.
"WELL IM NOT ASHAMED AT ALL. I LOVE HER!" I scream back at him.
"Sargent Clifford you beTRAYED ME!" He spits at first but then he starts to yell.
"HOW COULD I BETRAY YOU WHEN IM NOT YOURS? I LOVE HER HILTON AND THERES NOTHING YOU CAN SAY TO CHANGE THAT PART!"
"YOU ARE MINE. ALL OF YOU. ARE MINE. I was wrong about you Clifford. You need whipping into shape lad," Hilton growls and pulls me up by my hair.
"Don't do that to him!" Chloe gasps, looking horrified.
"You, little missy, should probably shut up,"
"Dont tell my sister to shut up," Sally joins in, sassily.
"All of you shut it,"
I pull out the rifle.
"I don't wanna do this sir," I snarl, pointing the rifle at him.
"You jolly well don't. I have plenty of back up,"
"You remind me of Scar from the lion king. Hes one messed up kitty," Ashton grins.
"Ash, not the time," Luke whines, giving Ash a 'what the hell' look.
I drop the gun and sit on the floor.
"Michael, you ok?" Chloe asks me.
"No," I sigh.
Luke and Calum sit next to me.
"Buddy? Whats up?" Ashton sits in front of me.
"He can shoot me now. I don't give,"
"NO!" Chloe screams, "Michael. I lost my best friend this month. Not you too Mikey. I cant lose you poo."
"Babe come here," I bring her towards me and hold on to her like shes the last cheeseburger in the world. Tight, but gentle.
"Please don't,"
"Sh shhh," I rub her back, "its ok. I wont its ok."
"Your everything to me,"
"And your everything to me," I smile, stroking her cheek with my finger.
"CLIFFORD COME ON LAD. YOU NEED YOUR BLOODY TRAINING. NO SERGEANT HAS GOT THE TRAINING BY STICKING HIS TONGUE DOWN SOME GIRLS NECK YOU KNOW!" Hilton glares at me. I glare back.
"WELL MAYBE I DONT WANT NO TRAINING!"
"YOU HAVE NO CHOICE!
"STOP SCREAMING ITS GIVING ME A FUCKING HEAD ACHE!" Chloe shouts and Hilton pulls out his pistol.
"SHUT UP YOU STUPID GIRL!" He grabs my collar, throws me aside. He thrust the gun against her head.
"NO!" I shriek and shove him over.
"Michael," Chloe sobs, pushing herself so she glides back and is far away from the gates.
"Chloe are you ok?" Heather lets go of Ashton and sort of creeps over to Chloe.
"Get the General away from me. Just keep him away and we should be ok," she starts breathing really heavily.
"What?" I ask, kneeling down.
"Hes, hes my dad,"
"Thats right. Little shit bag too," Hilton scowls at me.
"DAD SHUT UP. YOUR THE ONE WITH THE BLOODY DRINKING PROBLEM!"
"Hes, hes- what?"
"Sally. Meet our Dad," Chloe raises her eyebrow.
"Dad? What happened?" Sally looked torn.
"Uncle Gus?" Heather says, and we all give each other confused looks.
"Thats right. You 'orrible little lot," He raises his hand and it clamps on my shoulder, "come on Clifford. Its training time."
"I love you. Everything's going to be ok," I whisper, giving Chloe one last kiss on her forehead.
"I trust you, Mikey. I love you too," She smiles and lets go of my hand as Im pulled away.
"Ok gentlemen. Its time to get you into shape. But first, punishment. You disobeyed me and you will pay for it,"
"Well, what kind of 'Dad' are you if you keep locking your own daughters up? Chloe was put in a care home for five years and was with a foster family for ten and her foster dad kept trying to kill her. You are a messed up Dad and Uncle," Calum spits, cracking his knuckles.
"And I suppose you, my litte Asian boy-"
"Woah! Hold it right there. I am not Asian!"
"Whatever. And I suppose you could do any better?"
"Phhhhtt, anyone can do better than that. Honestly," Ashton gets off his chair and stands so he is inches away from the General.
"You don't know the whole story," he snapped.
"Well now would be a decent time to tell us," I narrow my eyes at him.
"Well. When we had Chloe, her mother, Cath, was diagnosed with Cancer. I tried to blame it on Chloe but Cath had none of it. So Cath wanted another girl so we had twins, Sally and Ben. But Ben died within an hour of birth. So it was me Cath, Chloe and Sally. My brother had two kids, Heather and Cameron, who barely got on. The girls got on so well it was as if they were sisters. This is all when they were about three. When Chloe was young, she had various heart failures. And so, she had so many operations. And then when she turned five, Sally was four, Cath died. I was depressed. I lost my son and the love of my life. So, I started drinking and smoking. Parents evening came. I probably had a bottle of Jack D because the girls got taken off me. Chloe was as happy as anything. I don't blame her. I used to beat her up. But Sally, Sally was sobbing her little heart out. Chloe got fostered but split from Sally. Sally continued to live at the kids home until my brother said he'd take her. The three girls were still the little trio they are today. I became a General and changed my name. Thats how I came to be," General sits, and puts his head in his hands.
"Wow. Poor Chloe," Calum says into the silence.
"Thats why I want to get rid of them. Because of all of the pain,"
"What? Oh the pain that you caused," I snap.
"Michael!" Luke hits my arm.
"No Luke. He is correct. My fault,"
"Im going to see them," Ashton gets up and I follow.
"I cant believe him Mike!" Ash shouts.
"Shush. I know. He's insane," I shake my head.
I sit against the gate and wait for the ever familiar feeling of Chloe leaning against me.
We all tell her what General Hilton had said and it didn't surprise her or Sally, but it hurt.
What a lovely bloke Hilton is.
