Today, Tomorrow and Yesterday

Chapter 14: Belief

We hid on the edge of the sort-of-little town until night-fall. We'd anticipated the security to be similar to that of the conference. We were horribly wrong.

"Four."

"Stop counting Megan, you're making me nervous." I whisper from my hiding spot next to her. My body is beginning to ache from crouching behind the low wall. I'd have been admiring what must be a gorgeous set of fields around us, but its seriously pitch-black.

"Four groups of about twenty to twenty five." She continues anyway. "In an hour."

"We underestimated the security. Got that." I know I'm in a bad mood but I'm too worried to do anything about it. Megan will understand. The helicopter incident still has me shaken up.

"Justin said Shock is here?" Megan shifts slightly to ask me.

"Near as he can tell. She seems mostly off the radar right now." I exhale quietly. "Thankfully, it seems like Element is still at their Headquarters. Not sure why she isn't attending, or at least here before-hand, but it works for us."

Megan nods. Her streak of dyed red hair stands out in the low light along with her pale skin and the whites of her eyes. Darkness is only so much. Come to think of it we've been at the mercy of darkness way too much in the past five years, emphasis on the last year.

"We'll have a much better time getting to Shock if she's not tailing Miss Princess." Megan continues.

"Or, we have to fight a Shulkerbahn in close and unfamiliar quarters because Shock's not on our side after-all."

"This is your plan." Megan whispers back harshly. "Do you want to do this or not?"

I sigh.

"I do. I'm just nervous. Very little has gone right so far."

"Then let's focus on making things go right." She nods determinedly.

"Yeah." I nod back, thankful for the low light that hides the aching feeling I'm getting.

Then we both instinctively duck as the very edge of a flashlight beam sweeps over the top of the wall from the next patrol group. Megan turns to peek through a crack in the brick-work. Any movement she's made in the last hours have been nearly silent.

"It's the men from the first group. There are only four patrols." She relays, barely audible. Nothing else is said until the light dies down and Megan turns back. My radio vibrates will a dull pulse. That'll be Justin with an update, I hope.

"Talk to me." I whisper into it. "Just keep your voice down."

"Yeah, so, funny thing." Justin's laugh is low and deep through the radio waves. "Remember that mysterious 'M' that hacked into the R.I.O.T fan sight and warned us?"

Megan and I exchange a glance that is basically a flash of the whites of our eyes. Justin continues without any prompting.

"They were back. Message up and down, just like last time. I got a screenshot, though, so I can read it to you verbatim."

It's a small wonder all four of the patrols can't hear my heart racing through my chest as I listen to small clicking noises from Justin's computer. I hear the first audible sound other than talking from Megan tonight –an inhale and exhale. M's identity, motives, and validity of information is still unknown to us. I want to believe we could have an ally, but I'm hesitant.

"K." Justin starts, before switching tone in a way that I know he's reading. ""I know you're coming. I'll be waiting. I don't want to fight anymore, at least not the way I have. There are things you should know. Please believe me. I talked to L.""