Survivors

Chapter 42: Jada

Chapter 42: Jada

          Xain has been missing for two days. Worst of all, we have no leads on where he may be. We decide that it’s best if we continue our efforts, but put it on the back burner and pray that we find him and not a corpse. I aspecially hope we find him. He’s practically the only male I trust completely.

          “We need to recruit more rebels,” Alestra says one day as were sitting in the woods. It’s just me, Alestra, Prosper, Jason, and Sugar. The rest are guarding the cabin. “We won’t be able to attack the Capitol if we’re small in numbers.”

          “We could put up silent promos to say that we’re here,” Sugar says as she twirls a knife. “I mean, we could block it from the Capitol if we have good technicians.”

          “They will still know about what we are doing,” Prosper puts in. “There are Capitol troops and supporters all through out the country, so someone may report it.”

          “Or worse,” Jason adds as he throws a rock at a tree and birds fly out, “many may join, only to be traitors.”

          I fire an arrow at a bird, skewering it through the neck, and it flops on the ground. I don’t immediately run to retrieve it, but find myself glued to the ground. I can only sit and twirl my necklace in my fingers as I can think of only one thing: Xain.

          I know I should be focusing on other things besides him, but I can’t help it. Would he have gone after me if I were the one held by Kain? I think he would. No. I know he would.

          “We’ll find him soon, Jada,” Jason lays his hands on my shoulder. “I’m certain that Kain hasn’t killed him yet.”

          “What if he’s being tortured?” I ask. “Maybe Kain is just waiting for us to show before killing him and us.”

          “I don’t know,” Prosper says, “Have you guys noticed that Kain seems very interested in Xain?”

          “What do you mean?” Alestra asks.

          “I mean that his attacks seem aimed towards Xain as an individual rather than all of us as a whole,” Prosper explains to us.

          “Now that you mention it, I do see it,” Jason concurs with him. “It’s as if he’s studied him and wants to best him in some way.”

          “Or he already knew him,” I say softly. I jump up and begin to run, but turn around briefly to address the others. “We need to go to C-5, it might have answers as to Kain’s identity.”

          “We need more people first!” Alestra yells for me. I hear her foot steps approaching and turn to face her.

          “Think of this as a win-win, Al,” I say, “We’ll get answers about Kain, and there’s half a city of people below C-5 who you could recruit for your army of rebels.”

          I think she agrees. Either that or she sees I’m determined. Either way, she calls for Mason to meet us in the prep room. We gather everyone in the prep room—the fighters and Melissa the only ones we deem trustworthy—and tell them the plan. We’re going to the edge of C-5 and entering through the underground passage. From there, we will download all of the files we can from the data-base. We’ll also recruit the underdwellers into our army. We only have one other objective: no one outside of the room is to know where we are.

          “Wait,” Katya sounds unconvenced about something, “it won’t be that simple. We can’t just walk in and walk out unnoticed. What if the place is still surrounded or the passage is blocked or the only way in is somewhere visible to anyone?”