33. I’m not going!
1112 Words
They were devising their plan to break into the palace. They made a tight circle among themselves so that they could properly hear one another. The closeness was also with the intention of feeling intimate with one another and safe. Also, it was to keep their voices as low as possible just in case the ‘bandits protecting the palace’ were around.
Men and women with ideas stood to share their solutions and add knowledge from time to time. Anyone who was in the circle was welcome to contribute. “Magaya has the powder ready and Riva has the tools,” said the rebel woman. Whenever she spoke, the people listened. She started the movement and she was passionate about it at the same time—it made sense that they respected her. “Division C, I deploy to Magaya and Riva. They will have you armed and loaded. Division B, you will guard the base and Division A, you will go where I go. Understand?”
YES, MA’AM!
“I said, do you all understand?”
YES, MA’AM!!
Mrs. Peterson stayed there and listened attentively. It was a good idea after all to know their plans so that she can prepare or make necessary adjustments to her own plans. She heard them plan, “We get some sleep on the break of the sun and we attack tomorrow night! Yeah?”
YEAHHH!
……….
The musicians started playing some beats. One by one, the people started leaving their seats to join the circle of dance.
“Hey, come on.” The rebel woman pulled Mrs. Peterson to the dance circle. “Let’s dance!” There was singing and there was also cheering. They coloured the night sky with crickets. It was beautiful scenery above all. It was enough to get everyone distracted.
Mrs. Peterson had been uncomfortable with the rebel woman keeping an eye on her all night. Now the woman was too consumed in the music and the dance. Of which only meant that now Mrs. Peter had the chance to get away. She wiggled her way out of the circle. She did bump in into the man on her way of the dance floor, “Get the kids. We’re leaving.”
“Of course,” the man moved right away. He found Kali and Francina isolated and holding a conversation. He went closer and shot out his message, “Boy, girl! We have to get going. Your mother is waiting.”
They did not waste any time, they tromped behind the man leading them to were Mrs. Peterson was standing. “Are you sure no-one’s following us?” Francina asked her mother as they were tramping along to the palace. Francina had also been looking around scouting the area in that dark.
“We’re not being followed. You can trust me on that.”
They went all the way around the palace. At the back of the palace was a forest and bushes. The same bush they exited from earlier in the morning was the same bush that they crawled through that night. They squeezed in to the mini tunnel and came out the other side of the big fence. They hurried into the palace.
“Why did we come back here, though?” asked Kali. “Shouldn’t we be running away from here?”
“Francina dear, did you not tell your friend our plan?”
“Tell me what?”
Francina spoke, “I’m sending you away, Kali.”
They made it back to the passage where they appeared the night came. “You will finish the game… without me.”
A short silence….
I was processing. She wasn’t serious, was she? I was silent also because, deep down, I was hoping she might just say that she was joking. Or at least, understand my silence and actually change her mind.
“I’m not going.”
“Kali—”
“No! No, Francina. You said you would never betray me like that, no!”
He was withdrawing. Francina kept approaching him and extending her arms to him. But he was devasted, he kept pulling back.
“I’m not going out there alone. Why don’t you come with me? What?”
Francina took out the potion and showed it to him, “I’ll have to use this and look see, it’s not enough for the both of us. Only one person can make it out here.”
“Then you go and I’ll stay.”
I was mostly terrified that I’d fail everybody. This was too big a responsibility for me. Apparently, thousands of lives depend on me. If many men and women had gone down this road and failed, what makes them think I can make it? If I fail, I would be trapped in here forever. All of these people will be stuck here forever.
“Shouldn’t you pick someone more capable?”
“Kali, my father thought he was capable, but then he also got stuck here. Because of that he sold me off to this darned company and he sent me off in a basket through the streams. Your father was here and he somehow managed to get out. You are not like your father in a lot of ways, but you do have the survival instincts like him. You know, I wouldn’t send you out there if I thought you were incapable.”
The mother had excused the youngsters and went on to deal with her newly captured man. They sat down for drinks as he started sharing the information he knew about the WIC.
“Well, Francina, I’m terrified. I might disappoint!”
“That’s fine.”
“What?” Kali corrected that, “No, it’s not fine. I mean, Mrs. Peterson already saw my face and if I fail, she’ll… uh…”
“Why do you care what my mother would think?”
“Your mother has treated me like her own. Believe it or not, but I feel like her son. And I would hate to disappoint.”
Francina could tell how nervous he was to started rambling like that. “Look, if it happens that you fail, it’s no big deal. We’ll wait for the next gamers to come save us all. But of course, you should give it your best, so that you and I can meet again in the future.”
“You would want to meet me.”
Francina smiled, “Believe it or not but I feel I made a friend in you. I would hate it if we never get to explore what we have thoroughly.”
In that instance, Kali agreed to go.
- Writer
