The Girl and The War

Chapter Twenty Five- Kayla

I quietly snuck back into my suite. The General was still passed out on the couch. I put sleeping medicine I use to have to take in his beer earlier in the evening. It was the only way I could be gone so long without him noticing. Watching him lay there, I thought about taking a knife from the kitchen and stabbing him. I had felt betrayal before, like when Sam and Margo kissed or when Lieutenant Streeter and Jackson helped my dad ensure I couldn't leave my room, but this? Knowing that the General had imprisoned and tortured my parents for the past eleven years of my life, and lied telling me they had died in the war, had been a whole different betrayal than I had ever felt in my life. I wanted him to suffer for it.

I watched him sleep for another five minutes before deciding that murdering him wouldn't help my parents get free. At least not yet. I walked back to my room and tossed and turned for the rest of the night. How could I sleep knowing that my parents were being tormented floors below my own bed? My whole life I had lived in luxury, getting anything and everything I wanted. They on the other hand, were paying the price. Finally the morning came. I knew that I had to act normal, as Margo so blatantly threatened me. I decided to stick to my usual routine of showering and eating breakfast with the General.

When I left my room he was already cooking breakfast.

"Morning darling. How did you sleep?" He asked hearing me shut my bedroom door.

"Fine." I responded, trying my absolute best to maintain a calm demeanor.

"Just fine?" He asked, turning around.

"Yeah." I responded taking a seat at the table.

"You alright dear?" He said putting my breakfast in front of me. "Are you still upset about Sam?" I wanted to say that I was upset because he lied to me my entire life and tortured my real parents.

"Yeah I am." I told him. Which wasn't a complete lie, I mean I was upset with Sam and Margo, but the feeling of anger I felt towards them was nothing compared to the rage I felt towards him now.

"I understand how you must be feeling, but there will always be other boys, I think Lieutenant Jackson has taken a liking to you, maybe you could go out with him?" He said. I almost threw up at the actual idea of that. I was most positive that Lieutenant Jackson and Andrew were fully aware of the predicament regarding my parents.

"I don't really know about that, he's a little old." I told him.

"Only about nine years." I raised my eyebrows at him. He shook his head "yeah you're right, too old." The two of us ate the rest of breakfast in silence. When we were done, he kissed me on the cheek and left for work. I wiped my cheek immediately after he shut the door. I waited for about twenty minutes until I decided to go find Margo and Sam. We only had one week to build the bomb, and I needed all the time I could get. I found the two of them training at the training facility. They were practicing shooting a gun at the target. I had shot a gun a few times, mostly because the General wanted me to know how to use one in case of an emergency. I snuck across the training facility in order to not be seen by Sargent Redwall, who was screaming at the new recruits. I crawled into the empty spot next to Sam. I picked up the gun and fired a few shots. I surprisingly was a pretty good shot. I turned to see if Margo and Sam had noticed me, but the two of them were deeply enthralled with their shooting.

"Hey." I finally said, tapping on Sam's shoulder. Sam jumped a little, surprised to see me.

"You are really good at sneaking up on people, you know that?" He said, then he elbowed Margo to alert her that I was here. She seemed annoyed to see me, as usual.

"Did something happen?" She asked. "Did you say something to your dad?"

"No bitch, I came here to ask you where the room is, so I can build the you know what." I snapped. I even surprised myself with how I was acting, but ever since I caught her with Sam, everything she said and did made me angry.

"What did you just call me?" Margo said, getting ready to hit me.

"Alright you two, calm down." Sam said.

"Shut up." We both said to him in unison. Margo and I had a staring contest until she finally closed her eyes and sighed.

"I'll show you at lunchtime, meet us outside the cafeteria. In the meantime, try to find some of the supplies you will need." She told me. I nodded and left, not wanting to waste anymore precious time talking to either one of them.

I knew exactly what I would need to make the bomb. I had to find a pipe, gun powder, matches and some sort of timer. All four of the ingredients were easy enough to find. The General had spare gun powder that he kept in his closet, I bought the matches and timer at the local store at the base, and the pipe I found in the recycling room, where useless pieces of scrap metal were often thrown in. I shoved all of the ingredients into a spare backpack along with a toolkit that was also stored in my suite. Eventually lunch time came around and I found Margo and Sam, not so casually, waiting by the cafeteria.

"Took you long enough." Margo mumbled as I walked towards. I ignored her remark completely, although it took strength to do so.

"Let's go." I told them. Margo moved forwards with her arms crossed like a child who didn't get what they want. Sam and I followed her carefully through the base, ducking behind walls anytime we saw someone who would recognize me. Eventually Margo led us to some sort of storage closet by the west wing. It had been completely emptied out, and basically smelled like the sewer.

"Tada." Margo said when opening it.

"Charming." I replied scrunching my nose.

"What princess? Were you expecting a five star hotel?" Margo mocked.

"No, but I wasn't expecting for it to smell so much like you." I growled back. Sam had to hold her back. Once she calmed down they shut the door and put a old mop through the handle that would prevent anyone from coming in. Margo walked to the back corner of the closet and reached into a dirty hole in the wall. She pulled out Lieutenant Jackson's I.D.

"I found this place by accident after the night I got this from Lieutenant Jackson." Margo explained, more to Sam than me. "Thought it was a bathroom at first, but I figured people rarely went in here so I hid the I.D here." Sam nodded and turned towards me.

"You think this place will work?" He asked. I didn't look up to meet his eyes but instead, plopped down
on the floor and began taking the contents of my backpack out.

"This should work." I finally said. The three of them sat there in silence as I carefully began to construct the pipe bomb. "You two should probably leave, these things can be a little dangerous if done wrong, I don't want you guys to become collateral damage."

"Don't have to ask me twice." Margo said opening the door than leaving. Sam was about to follow her out, but then shut the door and sat by me.

"Kayla." He said "I'm sorry about what happened..I don't feel that way towards Margo, what happened that night.. it was a terrible mistake. I'm so sorry." He reached out to touch arm.

"Sam it doesn't really matter anymore, can you please leave? I can't be distracted during this." I said completely ignoring his apology and his eyes. He didn't respond, but slowly got up and walked out. I took a deep breathe in. If I messed this bomb up, I would most likely die, and my parents would be stuck here. I couldn't afford to mess up.