He froze. His jaw locked and a sickening burn became apparent inside his stomach, as if the acid within had now turned upon him and was trying to escape. He had reached the top of the hill. He could now see what had become of his village. The acid from his stomach then felt to be lifting up into his throat, burning all it touched, and his hand reached out instinctively to the tree beside him, meeting with its bark as he fell to one knee.
It wasn’t there.
The buildings … his home … the many gardens throughout the village … none of it was there. His entire village had been destroyed. He had not thought of what he had expected to see. It was as if he had refused to believe that anything had happened at all, and that by the time he reached this hill, he would simply see his village the way it had been the day before. Now the reality struck him deeply, making him feel weak, unsure and frightened. What had they done to his home? Even though it was before him now, he could barely believe that it was real.
With the little strength he could find, he looked up and searched among the piles of rubble left in place of the buildings. It was a smoking graveyard, barren of any structured form. The only thing standing was a military fort, occupying the heart of the Tennagen field.
They had used the sacred land. As the final insult to his people, they had built upon that which was to remain untouched. Anger began to boil at this realisation, his fear and uncertainty losing strength. He could not put into words how he felt. There had been grief to the point of breaking him inside at the deaths of his people. The loss of his mother and siblings had torn his heart, making him feel helpless. The destruction of his village had made him want to collapse in shock. But none of that was enough, and now they had ruined the only land he had ever known as sacred.
With the anger taking control of his body, he stood and continued on his path, his mind empty of all but a destination. A goal. A purpose. He would find his way into the heart of the village, over the cracks in the ground from the earthquake, to his beloved Tennagen field, and then he would enter the fort and retrieve the weaponry he needed. Then he would do whatever he could to bring down the Alliance.
As he entered the village, he took the route past the smoking craters. He would risk coughing in hope that the soldiers would be elsewhere. The stench of burning dead made him feel ill as he passed the many broken houses, but he did not stop or turn away. He kept on—his determination growing with the lives he knew had been lost in each. He slowed his pace as he closed in on the fort. Much of the vegetation was still intact here, as well as a couple of buildings that had been close to the Tennagen field. He was able to slip through a band of trees into a small dip in the ground, where he found shelter under an area of large ferns until the next thin band of trees. Beyond them was his destination, the military fort of the Alliance.
He did his best to keep below the fern leaves as he made his approach. If he touched them, the moving tops would be visible to the lookout towers set up around the area. He could see bright beams of light scanning over the land from them, and occasionally a soldier or two moving around up on the walls. The walls were dark metal, a demonic presence compared to the light sandstone houses of the Callibrai, and stood at just over two storeys high. As he knelt down at the final band of trees before the fort, Jaden was able to see through the small gaps in the shrubs ahead of him. In each direction, he could make out forty yards of the wall if he leaned forward enough. It was a towering, unassailable fortress, with slick polished metal in the lower sections and lines of barbwire near the top. Even with his determination, he could not have climbed them.
He had to find an alternative. There was only one entrance in sight, north from where he knelt, but even from here he was able to see that two heavily armed soldiers guarded it. He could walk around the fort until he was able to find a weakness, but even then he did not like his chances of getting inside. The Alliance was a trained force, remaining protected in war was what they specialised in. It was why they controlled three of the five inhabited continents.
Jaden sat back, thinking over all of the stories he had heard. They had all told of amazing escapes, where people fled from the Alliance and lived to tell the tale. None had ever mentioned someone attempting to attack them, to seek revenge and enter one of the forts. It seemed he would be the first, if he could find a way.
With the same care as he had moved with earlier, he decided to make his way toward the opening he could see in the north. It took him close to twenty minutes to make it there, needing to stop continually to suppress the nervousness. He had never been so close to his own death. He knew what a potential slip could mean for him. When he arrived, he sat almost directly in front of the two soldiers, who were now only fifteen yards away at the wall. They almost didn’t seem real. They stood so completely still even their breathing was invisible. The roar of the machinery had drowned out the few sounds Jaden made as he moved through the ferns. The guards were oblivious to his presence. From here, he could wait and watch. He was not sure what he would see, but knew he would need to study his enemy before he was able to defeat them.