Creators(7)

Beanpole Guy nodded and walked back to the group. As he left my father’s side, a female soldier moved forward. I walked closer to where my father stood, afraid that I would miss something, some clue or signal as to why he was back. Why he was acting so cold.

“Pardon me, sir, but I was wondering if you knew what happened to Harvey? Was she successful in her mission?” asked the young woman. She couldn’t have been much older than me. Her muscles were tight, and her black hair was pulled back in a controlled ponytail. Her arms were crossed behind her back as her eyes stared straight ahead. Where the other man had seemed to cower before my father, this woman was holding her own.

“She was not successful. Unfortunately, she didn’t stop the target from the rendezvous,” my father replied with a sigh.

Unfortunately, she didn’t stop the target from the rendezvous. He was talking about the girl he had sent to stop me from meeting George.

“You mean the lunatic who took joy in sticking a knife in your daughter’s abdomen? You don’t mean you sent her, do you?” Henry charged.

“I never told her to hurt—” my father began.

“Don’t you dare say a word against her! You didn’t know her,” my father’s soldier yelled, her stance of control showing that it had cracks.

“She was a brave girl who died for the greater good. We’re all proud of her,” my father said as he placed a comforting hand on the girl’s shoulder.

The girl nodded, her chin trembling with emotion. My father tapped her under the chin. “Head up, Stephanie. Harvey wouldn’t have wanted you to waste your tears. She’d want you to fight on.”

Stephanie swallowed and nodded again. “Yes, sir. What’s next?”

“We will be escorting these people back to their camp. Once there, we’ll gather supplies and men. Then, phase two.”

“What’s phase two?” I asked.

“Nothing you need to concern yourself with,” my father replied, reaching forward and giving my shoulder a small squeeze.

“I can be useful,” I argued, not liking the idea of being brushed off. I had survived a great many things. I was a fighter.

“Of course you are, Tessie. But right now I need you to look after your sister.”

My father turned to face our group. Robert held tightly onto Louisa. Lockwood and Henry flanked my side. Eric, sullen and quiet the days after his fight with my father, stood in the back, glaring at the army assembled before us. Our army was smaller, less organized, but it felt like an army all the same. Despite sharing natural status with my father’s people, I suddenly felt like we weren’t fighting on the same side.

“Set up camp here. We move out in the morning. Our goal is to reach the community by nightfall tomorrow,” my father clipped. Loud. Clear. No room for argument.

I blew air out from between my clenched teeth, spun on my heels, and headed deeper into the woods. I needed a moment.

“Tess, wait up. Please. Slow down,” Robert called from behind me.

“Not now. I just need to walk. I need a moment to myself,” I snapped without hesitating. I sped up my movements, hoping to disappear in the sunset, melting into the crimson red.

“Come on, slow down,” he begged, jogging to catch up with me. I knew he was doing so out of courtesy only; it would take nothing for him to stop me. He was a chosen one.

“Why is he acting like this?” I asked, my voice hitching. “He hasn’t even attempted to explain where he’s been all these years. He hasn’t once asked Louisa if she was all right. How can he look at her and not care?”

“After your father rescued me from the center, I spent some time with a resistance sect much like the one that follows him now. These people, they become obsessed with their mission. It’s their life. It’s not born out of selfishness—or at least they don’t see it that way. It comes from a place that longs to make the world better. They’re desperate to fix it.”

“Better? At what cost?” I asked. “Leaving your family? Abandoning them to make it through this messed-up world on their own?” I fought back the tears that threatened to spill from my eyes.

“But you left, too, remember?”

I gulped. “I had to. They were going to kill me. I planned to go back for Louisa.”

“Maybe he had to make the same choice? And it’s not the reunion   you imagined, but he did come back for you.”

I shook my head, crossing my arms against my chest. “The way he talks to them, worries about them…”

“Of course. He’s their leader. They’re his family.”

“But…he already had a family,” I said.