The Lady Darkness

Chapter 12

The next morning I wake with a sore back and a cloudy mind. I'm laying on my back with a tree root sticking in the middle of my back. We only moved another 100 feet into the woods after last night, too tired to go any further. It is hard to believe that the previous night I was asleep in a bed in a place that is no longer staying. This time yesterday morning I was crawling out of the bed to the knocking at my door. Now I lay staring up between the branches of the trees to the blue cloudless sky. If it wasn't for the root, I could have slept for ages, it is so peaceful.

"We should head out soon, see if we can't catch up with the group," I turned my head and Damien was sitting against a tree with his leg propped up and his arm across that leg.

Nodding my head I sit up as well, glancing around at the area. We really should have taken shifts keeping watch, but we were both so tired that we found a dense area of bush and hunkered down.

"There hasn't been any movement close by," Damien is standing up now. I follow suit and stand up.

"Do we know if there are any survivors? Are they still occupying that yard?" I glance at the direction we came from. If they are still there then they may come after us if we were spotted.

"You want to go back and have a look don't you?" Damien is walking towards me now.

"If we don't and they are still there then they may come after us." Damien nodded after I finished my sentence. He is a man of few words, but I guess he agrees with me because he makes his way towards the courtyard.

It doesn't take long for us to make our way to the edge of the field. There was no one here. None that we could see anyway. There was smoke still rising from the rubble, bodies strewn all over the yard. Mostly guards now, but some from when we were attacked, some of our people. The plane that we had seen the previous day was gone. Assuming that it had taken the survivors from the explosion back to wherever they came from.

" I don't want to take a step out of the woods, just in case there are remaining soldiers around." Damien takes a step back further into the woods, but still in view of the field. He is right there could easily be people hiding within the trees nearby.

"There is nothing here anyway, lets head back and see if we can't catch up with the group." Damien nods and turns and starts walking.

It doesn't take us long to make our way to the trail. The trail is a little harder to see now, the tramples in the grass from where we had previously passed have become difficult to notice. Thankfully Damien must have the way memorized because he doesn't stop to second guess the trail as he makes his way through the knee high grass. If we weren't on a run for our lives this would be a nice place to walk on a regular basis. I could imagine the children running through the trees, dashing in and out as they played whatever game they had imagined that day. But no children will be playing in these woods anytime soon. Their young lives are terrorized by adults who don't know how to get along with things they don't know how to understand, things they don't know how to control.

Two Miles Away at the Commanders Base

"What do you mean that you didn't recognize her? How could you idiots have missed her face!" The Commander was raging as he walked back and forth in front of the two soldiers who let Lady Darkness pass right through their fingers, into an office alone. Who knows what she had found in there. Obviously, she had entered the camp for a reason and she was able to sneak right past everyone.

"We are sorry sir, but she was wearing an officer's uniform, with the helmet on. We couldn't see her face," one of the soldiers winced as the Commander got in his face with a sneer on his features.

"You fools should have known that I would never send just one person to retrieve an important document. What document was she looking for?" The Commander was spitting in the soldiers face.

"We do not know sir, she said that she received intel about crucial documents that could change the fate of this war," The Commander took a step back, horror played on his features.

"The documents that went missing from New Thisas, those must be the documents that were hidden down there. They were right under our noses yet again and those blasted gifted people," The Commander all but snarled. The soldiers seem to shrink back under The Commanders hardened gaze.

"Sir, how certain are you that those are the documents which they had attained," a timid, but deep voice came from behind The Commander, who flipped around to stare that person with a glare.

The person who spoke is an old gentleman, who despite his age, walked with no hindrance and wore no spectacles. His eyes held a skeptical look in them.

"Very certain! What other papers could be so important that he would send the Lady Darkness herself to retrieve them!" The Commander was red in the face.

"Lady Darkness probably doesn't even know what she was sent to get. There wasn't enough time between her escape and the attack for them to go over much with her. I am guessing she only knows the basics." The older man was smirking now. He seemed content to point out the flaws in The Commanders theories.

The Commander sneered, but didn't say anything, for the older man was his father, his own flesh in blood and is also The General. He was behind the scenes, making all the plans, while The Commander was the face of it all. The Commander had to respect his superiors, even if in everyone else eyes, it was him who ran the show.

The Commander turned back to his soldiers whose faces were filled with worry. "We are all heading back to New Thisas. It is time we put Plan M into motion." The Commander stood straight and walked off towards the exit. The two soldiers glanced at each other before glancing at the older man who still stood in the corner of the room, not saying a word. With a nod towards his direction the two soldiers made their way out of the room.

Back with Ivy and Damien

The trek back is silent as it was on the way. Not much talking, the only sound being the grass crunching beneath our feet, the odd bird call in the wind. We move at a fast pace, not bothering being quiet. It's hard to believe that just a few days ago I was locked in a prison, I didn't know my name and I had no idea what lay dormant inside me. Now I have people who I assume I can call family and gifts that I could never imagine, but these gifts were what had originally put me in prison.