Excerpts from "Squad VI"

Excerpt Two

"One for you, and one for you, and you, and you, and you." He's tall, Aiden Poire, and he towers over the rest of the group. Anande takes a good look at the half sheet of paper, then back at Sergeant Poire. He's blank, waiting for him to explain. "Par la glóra de Doso e yel reino de Cuver." His pronunciation is clearly off, but Aiden manages well.

Meanwhile, Anande's eyes widen. He has no clue what's going on. "Well, what does it mean?"

Aiden fixes his eyes on thepaper. "God, I think. I think that's what "Doso" refers to. And this country,obviously." He points to the part of the paper where it says "Cuver."

"I got that part," Anande hisses as he narrows his eyebrows at him. Aiden covers his mouth as he chuckles, then he pats Anande on the head a couple times. Once he bows his head down towards him, he says, "That's no tone to use with your superior."

Anande folds his arms. "We're the same rank, you know."

Aiden puts a finger to his lipand looks up as if this is something he's trying to remember. "Oh, is that so?My bad, Sergeant Wrea." He's almost laughing as he talks down to AnandeWrea, but he holds it together for the most part. "It's just that, well, yousee I was ranked six in the class, and you were ranked seven. Not to mentionthey put you in Squad III, instead of my squad." The way he said "my" was insistent that hewas team leader, despite the fact that no official leaders of any kind weretechnically assigned. And it was also true that Anande was assigned to SquadIII, when logic would say that he be assigned to Squad II with Aiden. For a moment,Aiden is held hostage by Anande's hostile gaze. But instead of reciprocatingthe same, he simply offers him a little grin.

Histan approaches the two. "You know, he only pushes you like that because he knows he can." He grabs Anande's fist and pries his fingers open, subsequently releasing the tension.

After the situation is dispersed, Kat approaches Aiden. "Did you find anything else?" When his eyes break away, she follows their movement towards his bag, a brown canvas piece with thin straps, the one you would take to the market. As he withdraws a glistening loaf of bread, she clenches the stomach area of her shirt as she is reminded of how hungry she is.

Histan steps forward quickly. "How did you get that? We haven't got any money."

Aiden is quick to jab his head at him. "We don't. I stole it." Histan shoots him a puzzled and disapproving look as he folds his arms. "Our survival is priority, you know, and I'm helping you. Don't get soft because the citizens aren't armed."

And he was right about that.With the flyers being released to the public to look for internationalcriminals, they were only in more danger in the presence of the locals, withthe only people they can trust being each other. As Kat is already picking bitsoff the bread with Ivy and Luke, Aiden continues to look at the paper again,unrelenting in his fixation. Histan notices this and tries to read the paperwith him again. "What do you make of it?"

The number six in the classbreathes for a moment. "If there are 42 of us escaped, then someone'sunaccounted for, at least on our end. As far as I know, there were 43 at theprison." His growing frown frightens the group. "That last person is eitherstill in prison... or dead." Aiden gently points at the members of his currentgroup. Aiden Poire of Squad II. Anande Wrea, Histan Brea, and Kat Taiku ofSquad III. Luke Zerse and Ivy Atlan of Squad VI. He takes a deep breath. "As weknow, all of Squad IX died on the Porla V, except Ennisui."

Ivy stares at her feet, thinking,lost in thought, until she musters the courage to say something. "Who would'vethought those four would be the ones to fight back?" She almost laughs,nervously. Back on the ship, the instinct would have been to fight the enemy,but everyone was either too shocked in the moment or not quick enough to beable to respond to the situation. Everyone pretty much surrendered, at least,all that didn't have the opportunity to rebel against being taken hostage. "Owenand Jenni never made it to the prison." 

Luke closes his fist as she says that. "Kasnoj's still alive though, he has to be."

"So that's six," says Aiden.

"Kelse Ronic, from Ian's squad," says Histan as he raises a finger. "Those were all the seven that didn't make it to the prison."

 Aiden addresses the whole group. The question is this-who is the last person, and what are their whereabouts? They need to be equipped with the most current information at every second.

After a moment of silence, Kat says, "It could be Kyle."

Histan raises an eyebrow. "What makes you think that?"

"Last time I saw Thomas, he was without Kyle, and that was outside the prison, after we made our escape. That's strange, isn't it?"

Aiden rests his chin in his hand. "That's true, I mean, those two could never leave each other behind, unless something bad happened. Are you sure you saw him solo, without him?" Kat nods her head. When Aiden cannot think of anything to respond with, he folds him arms and says, "Gosh, Ike is a genius." If there is someone to look up to, it's Ike, and Aiden holds Ike's entire lifestyle above everyone else. "Only he could have orchestrated our break out..."

In the thick batch of trees is a small clearing where the group is about to spend their second night together. For now, it seems the perfect place for them to hide, as one would have to dig through a mess of greenery to get to their hiding spot. Sleeping on the ground can be rough, but there's enough comfort in the idea that they are safe from discovery; however, how long can they stay here, and how long can they survive?

Kat looks around the small clearing, analyzing the scene. As the last bit of daylight flees, so does visibility. "We have to leave this area, tomorrow I'd say. There isn't much time before we get discovered."

Aiden rolls his eyes as heplops himself on the ground. "Duh." He's sarcastic, but nobody's ever offendedby what he says. In reality, he just finds enjoyment in teasing his comrades, thepeople he's been classmates with for years now. "We haven't got much time tofigure out a lot of things, like one, how we're going to cross the ocean, or ifwe're even going to."

"Being honest, a search and rescue mission here is unlikely." Kat folds her arms. "We're on our own for this." Instead of saying sarcastic this time, Aiden simply nods his head. "I'm really not sure what we can do right now besides survive and regroup."

"The only issue with that is that we stand a better chance of hiding in small groups, or individually. If people see a school of internationals, well, that's like walking right back to the prison and saying, 'here we are.'" As he plays with the dirt, he continues to ramble on. "Brutal honesty, we're screwed."

Ivy steps forward to Aiden andKat. "It's not over yet. I'm not giving up." 

From the ground, Aiden smiles at her. "Me neither." Again, he plays with the dirt. "I'm not going to die in this damn country." As he takes a big breath, Ivy begins to look concerned-he's going to give a speech. "Someday, I'm going to die. But it will not be here. It will be in Delvan, or if I'm lucky, Savou, so I can be buried at home."

"In Shona, we strictly stick to cremation."

"Is that so, Kat?"

"Yeah. We bury the urns, in family groupings. It's the tradition there."

Aiden flashes her a thumbs up."I'll make sure you get buried in an urn, in Shona." Although it's an awkwardthing to say, it's a genuine demonstration of his desire to help. "I say thisto the five of you right now, we're all getting out of here, whether it takesdays or months or years. I didn't go through all of those years at the academywith you guys to die here, nor abandon you all." 

"But it's time for bed." Anande, who is already laying down on the ground, turns his body over. "I hope we can reconnect with the others soon though."

"Yeah, I'm worried about the others," Ivy adds.

As he yawns, Aiden stretches his body tall. He then digs his hands in his pockets and catches a last glimpse of the cool colors of the sky as they disappear like sparks off a fire. "I promise, we're not going to die here," he mutters.