In the Night * B

ch. 14

14- In the Night * B

            Rion lay on his bed alone, he hadn’t really tried to socialize much with the children there, they shunned him anyway, he hadn’t made any friends like Ellis had, and he and Ben hadn’t really made up since Teddy died. Even here in a place full of people he found himself alone. He hadn’t stopped thinking about Teddy, he wondered what Teddy would have thought of this place, if he’d be able to make any friends, at the very least it seemed he might've gotten along well with Ellis and Lei-Lei, but all this fell into a realm of things he would never know. He also thought of Deric, who’d gotten him through so many times, what might he have thought of this place? Would he laugh at Rion for getting so worked up over Teddy, would he say he was being a sissy? He turned onto his side, but what was the point of such musings? He couldn’t change anything that had happened, and yet he didn’t know what it was he ought to be doing either.

            Outside he heard a sound approaching, as it got closer he could hear the many voices of a mob approaching. “What the?” Before he could get up to investigate rocks started coming through the windows. He knew immediately where this was headed, he rushed grabbing up his rifle and gear. As he did, torches started coming through the windows, the old wood caught faster than he’d expected and he’d still hadn’t managed to find his ammo belt, he didn’t want to think of the carnage if that caught fire. The smoke was heavy and Rion crawled along the ground still searching for it.

            He heard the loud clatter of glass and then footsteps, who was it? Through the smoke it crawled, the familiar form came into view, Oran. “What are you doing, forget about your stuff, just get out of here.” Oran choked a bit on the smoky air.

            “I can’t till I find my ammo belt, if that catches..." Rion kept feeling around for it.

            “D****t!” Oran searched as well, out of the corner of his eye he caught a glinting and reached for it. “Is this it?” He held the object up to Rion.

            “Yeah I think so.” He coughed, Oran pushed out towards the window he’d come through. Outside they took in as much air as they could. They stopped for a moment.

            “…I’m not doing this for you. It’s for Loa. I don’t know why he cares about you guys so much, but if anything happens to you he’ll…” Oran pushed Rion into brush, “I don’t think they’ve noticed us yet, we need to get to your friends. C’mon.” They ran through the bush, as quietly as they could, most of the child town was empty when they got there. Rion knocked lightly, as he did they heard someone coming up from behind. “Who’s there!” Oran whispered harshly, it was Lei-Lei.

            “What’s going on? What’s that light over there?”

            “Be quiet! Keep your voice down, they’re trying to kill them.” Oran answered.

            “What!”

            “Shhh! What did I just say?” Oran hushed the girl.

            “So then that light is?” She whispered.

            “Yeah, it’s my place.” Rion said softly. “Ben! Ben! Ugh…Ellis!” He knocked a bit harder.

            At last the door opened, the large boy came groggily, “What they hell Rion? What d’ya want?” He wiped his eyes, he studied the look on Rion’s face, “What’s happening?” He looked outside, he could see the light, “No way…they did this?”

            “Yeah and they’ll be heading here next, we gotta go.” Rion whispered.

            “Go where?” Lei-Lei piped up.

            “There’s no place you can go, you’ve gotta hide.” Oran followed.

            Rion turned around, “Hide where?”

            Oran was silent a moment, “Anywhere, we just need to keep them off you ‘til Loa gets back. You can try my place, they’d be hesitant to burn that down cause of my sister. You could also hide in Loa’s house, they’d be very hesitant about doing anything to that place. We don’t have much time, you better get the little one.”

            “Is that going to work though? Loa and James might not get back till tomorrow night!” Lei-Lei shifted uneasily.

            “True, we need  something to hold them off long enough.” Oran sighed, “God knows how much of this place they’ll burn down to find you.”

            “But it’s the only way, right?” Lei-Lei shuffled her feet.

            “Mmm, are we gonna be alright?” Ellis came out tucked under Ben’s arm.

            “How many empty houses are there, we’ll split up, and try and keep them guessing. If it gets too out of hand, they we’ll just have to take them on directly.” Rion spoke quietly.

            “You’ll fight them unarmed?” Oran was a bit taken back.

            “Well we can’t shoot them, can we?” Rion replied.

            “But you’ll get killed!” Lei-Lei piped up.

            “That’s just a part of our world.” Ben answered. “So…let’s get started, guess we’ll have kiss this house goodbye, I was really like this place too.”

            And in the night the came up with a plan hoping it would buy them just enough time.