Rhivera (Complete Novel)

~Chapter Twenty-Five- The Battle in Norino Part 3~

~Chapter Twenty-Five- The Battle in Norino Part 3~

~Arturo~

~The following morning~

Sunlight starts to shine into the wood with the dawn. My troops are exhausted but have to keep up their pace to stay out of range of Victor's army. I feel dizzy from hunger, but I have to keep up my composure in front of everyone. I try at least. I find myself stumbling and gripping a tree to keep from falling, and my soldiers scramble to support me.

"Are you okay?" A soldier named Andres asks.

"I'm fine," I say, steadying myself until I stand upright again, "Keep moving."

As I try to stride forward, I find myself losing my balance slightly and putting a hand on another tree. I hear my soldiers murmur.

"Miro sir, when did you eat last?" One of them asks.

When did I eat last? Did I eat at all yesterday?

"I'm not sure."

Andres pulls out a solid block of protein from his pouch which serves as a ration, "Eat this."

"Save it for yourself. I'm fine."

"You're clearly not. We need you to keep leading us. Please eat!"

I stare at the ration and feel the emptiness in my stomach. I'm sure everyone else is in the same condition. But he has a point. I need to be able to lead them.

None of my soldiers have ever seen my face. Not even Miguel. I hesitate a moment before reaching undo the clasps on my helmet and lifting it off. My eyes adjust to the light outside of my helmet. For the first time, one of my soldiers is able to look me in the eyes. Andres hands me his ration.

Not wanting to slow us down anymore, I continue walking as I eat. Everyone takes glances at my face. I'm sure I'm not what they expected. Andres is less subtle about it and openly stares, "You're younger than I thought you'd be."

I take the last bite of the ration and quickly put the helmet back on, "Does that matter?"

He shrugs, "Not really."

In the distance, we see a hill with a sharp slope leading to the edge of the woods. We must be in Illesto by now. Once we leave the woods, our exit point will be a few miles northwest. Unfortunately, I'm sure the military is waiting for us outside of the woods. My soldiers are exhausted but continue with faith that Miro will find a way to save them.

We certainly don't have the strength to fight what will be waiting for us. I suppose we could stay at the edge of the woods and travel north, but I was sure that Victor's army will catch most, if not all of us. The same goes for heading south.

I hear gunfire behind us. It's close. I glance back and can see white and blue uniforms through the woods. They've caught up to us! There's no way we can defeat them in our current state... But might as well go out fighting.

"Everyone, hurry to the top! We'll take a position there!" I yell, and the soldiers follow my lead up the sloping hill. A few bullets strike around as we climb and some tumble down the hill. At the top of the hill, I see silhouettes coming into view, some of them wearing Survival suits.

We're surrounded.

My mind races as to what to do. A lot of us will die if we try to charge the hill and get past the Survival Suit soldiers, and who knows what will be waiting for us when we get up there. If we try to run, we're dead. If we try to fight, we're dead. There's no way out.