You understand this world, You understand me. ~Troy Otto~ [Book 1]

Chapter 9

I woke up just after dawn, and decided to go to the lake Jake took me to the day before.

It was a ten minute walk, but I decided to walk a bit slower so I could take in the beautiful surroundings. I reached the point where I could see the lake, so I began to climb up one of the ridges that surrounded it.

When I got to the top, I could overlook the indigo lake and I could see the ranch in the distance. Then I did something my mom definitely wouldn't approve of. I ran up to the edge of the ridge, and jumped off. I plunged into the crystal clear water, which surprisingly wasn't that cold. As I reappeared to the surface, I realised I still had all of my clothes on, and began having a laughing fit in the middle of the water. I really was going insane.

I sat around by the lake for about an hour, and my clothes pretty much dried off completely because of the burning sun, so I began walking slowly back to the ranch.

I walked over to Nick, who was practicing shooting with Jeramiah.

"They still aren't back?" I asked, concerned.

"Don't worry, they will be." Jeramiah reassured.

"Look!" Nick shouted, and we saw the group walking back along the dirt path.

Nick and I ran through the ranch to the front gate, and so did everyone else. Everyone who went on the mission had someone to run up to them, except Troy. Not even Jake asked if he was okay, he went to all of the other soldiers except his own brother. I ran up to Troy, and I put his arm around my shoulder so I could support him. I looked over at Nick who was helping mom, and he has never given me a more annoyed look in my whole life. Then I noticed, none of them were wearing shoes, just their socks.

"Are you ok?" I asked, Troy urgently.

"Yeah, I'm fine." he said, even though he clearly wasn't.

"What happened?" I questioned, sounding very concerned.

"I will tell you later." he replied.

"Ok." I said, handing him a bottle of water, which he gulped down desperately.

"What happened?" Jeramiah yelled, walking over to Troy and I.

"We should talk in private." he whispered.

"Talk in private? Did I hear you right?" he said, aggressively to his youngest son, which angered me.

"Mike come on, get inside so we can debrief." he said.

"We have all got the right to hear what went down." Vernon, Gretchen's dad, spoke up.

"You've hit a line Vernon." Jeramiah told him.

"We have the right to know, we need to know how to defend ourselves, we-" Vernon argued, before being interrupted by his son, Mike.

"They were Indians. They slaughtered them." Mike said, as he was helped up off the ground.

"Alright Mike-" Troy began.

"They slaughtered all of them." Mike repeated.

"Yeah, well we made it home, it's nothing we can't handle." Troy said to the whole crowd.

"They are dead, they are all dead." Mike continued.

"Shut up Mike. Shut up now." Troy said under his breath, so just Mike could hear.

"They are all dead. And we are going to die to if we don't leave." Mike started.

"Mike shut up now." Troy said sternly.

"If we stay, we die." Mike finished, winning the last word.

"Come on." I said to Troy softly, and we walked to his house.