Chapter 14

Maxon and I walk into the dining hall, hands still entwined, to where the King, and Queen are waiting for us. The Queen came rushing up to me, squealing like a schoolgirl, all of her noble demeanor vanishing for the moment. She embraced me in a hug, being careful of my arm, as the king Pat Maxon on the shoulder. "Oh I'm so excited for you two!" She said as she included Maxon in the embrace. Maxon kissed her on the cheek "I'm excited too mom. Soon you'll have a daughter." "Maxon, now I know you two are engaged now, however the law is still the law. I heard that you were seen coming out of America's room this morning, care to explain?" The King said, his tone light. Maxon turned his head to the food that had just been placed on the tables, "Over dinner old man!"

I took America's arm and led her over to the seat next to mine. "This is different." She says as I take my seat. "What is?" "Sitting next to you at dinner, but I like it," she says as her hand links with mine. I start eating the mashed potatoes that are on my plate. "Well dad, last night I had a horrible dream about America being tortured, so naturally I went to check on her. Then I found her having a bad dream, so naturally I comforted her, and then we fell asleep. Don't worry sir no laws were broken!" We all laughed at this, "Good son, let's keep it that way alright?" The King responds. We all laugh at this, America and I's face turning slightly red.

After dinner Maxon walks me to my bedroom. "Soon you'll be on the third floor with me." "Ah yes, and I will be able to see your elusive bedroom. What does it look like?" "The walls are covered in photographs, but other than that it's pretty plain," he says, "Actually I want to show you my room." He grabs my hand and drags me up the stairs to his room. "So, here we are." He says as we reach his door. I laugh, "Are you going to let me in?" He blushed "umm, ya." He opened the door. I walked through the threshold, staring at the walls. They really were covered in photographs. It was hard to even tell that the walls were white. "Wow, you're really good at photography." I walk further into the room, looking at the pictures on the walls, they were pictures of everything, from landscapes to everyday objects. They all looked extraordinary, "You have pictures of everything. Seriously if this whole prince thing falls through you could be a professional photographer." "Really? You like them?" I turned towards Maxon to answer, just as a flash goes off. "There," He says, "Now I have a picture of everything." "Let me see!" I say as I rush towards the camera. I look at it, Maxon captured the picture just at the perfect time. My hair is just beginning to fall of my shoulders, and my face is smiling, not yet caught off guard by the flash. "Let me take another!" He asks. "No! You know how I don't like cameras!" I state. He quickly takes another picture before I can stop him. "Hey!" I say "You know, you're going to have to get used to the camera's sooner or later. I mean they are going to be following you around now." "Ugh, Fine! But if you're going to take pictures of me, I get to take pictures of you!" I grab another camera off his dresser and begin to take pictures of him. I have no doubt that they'll end up terrible but it's a lot of fun. He laughs, and I manage to get a good picture of that. Then he starts taking pictures of me back, until we are running around the room taking pictures of each other in a full on picture battle. With all the flashes and noise we were making we didn't notice the person climbing up onto the balcony until it was to late.

"So we meet again," We turn as the blood drains from our face. Standing on Maxon's balcony is a rebel, one from the grove. In seconds, four more join him. I look at the door to the safe room, and the door leading out to the hallway. They block the safe room door, but we might manage to make it to the other. I nudge Maxon, and hint towards the door, trying to hide it from the rebels. He nudges me in response, I look up and he gives a slight tilt of his head; yes. We race towards the door, a hand grabs my injured shoulder and yanks me back, which sends me crashing to the floor. I hit my head hard, and the room starts to spin.

America is lying on the floor, the rebels are surrounding us, I could scream for help, but I doubt they'd here me; the guard had just done his round a minute ago, and they were in the middle of changing rounds. This was planned. The rebels must have known our schedule. "Go ahead. Scream. They won't hear you, they're changing guards right now." The rebel spoke. "You planned this," I say in response, "But what I want to know, is how you knew when to attack. How you knew our schedules." He laughed, "maybe once were in a safer place I'll tell you." America is still knocked out at this point. They begin to tie our hands and feet, I struggle at first then give up. It's no use there's too many of them. Even if I break free I'd have to face the four other rebels all ready to pounce. I give up, until I see that they are planning on throwing us over the balcony; the three story tall balcony. I struggle now, trying to wake America up, so she can fight back too. "Don't worry little princey, we wouldn't go to all this trouble just to kill you here and now. If we kill you now someone else could always just replace you, a young cousin that will take over once your dear old dad dies. No, we have bigger plans for you. "If you think we'd survive that fall you must be stupid, even for a rebel." The rebel knelt down in front of my face, so that they were eye level to each other. "Now you see that is something I don't understand, why do you just assume we are just a bunch of stupid idiots running around with guns? We were smart enough to orchestrate this plan." Someone calls from down below, something about being in place. "Well it seems like it's time to go now. Who should go first. Eeny, Meeny Miney Moe." He lands on me and before I can even respond who lifts me up and throws me over the balcony edge. I'm falling on my back, so I can't even see the ground or how close it's getting. Let alone the safety net they had placed to break my fall. "Hey- What are you doing? No! Stop!" I hear Amercia scream as she rouses from her daze, and gets flung over the edge. I scramble to get off the net, and out of the way. I roll of the net, landing on my stomach, just in time.

We walk along some pathway in the woods. It must have been one the rebels took often because the grass and shrubs were all trampled, the tree branches broken off to make it easier to walk. Maxon is standing next to me, lost in thought. We've been walking all night, without break. From what I could tell, through the tops of the trees, the sun was in the middle of the sky; it must be midday. I was out of it for most of the conversations last night, seeing as they went on before I was thrown from a balcony, but Maxon helped fill me in that the rebels had a plan, and that somehow they knew our schedules. "Are you going to tell us how you knew our schedules now?" Maxon asks, coming out of his head, his tone filled with spite. The rebel grinned "Well all we needed to do was convince one of your little Ladies to help us out, fill us in on what you do day to day. Then we picked a day to strike. Although I have to admit, we weren't expecting America to be there. But we can improvise if need be." My eyebrows shot up and my eyes grew wide when he said one of the selected helped them. I wondered what they had promised them, what they had bribed them with. Or even worse what they had blackmailed them with. I thought about each of the girls. It must have been one of the elite if they had chosen such a late date to strike. The rebel, who I now guessed to be the leader of the group since no one has told him to shut up about the plan yet, must have seen the wheels turning in my head. "Don't worry beautiful you'll see her soon enough, once we get back to base camp." He grabbed my face bringing my eyes level to his. "Don't touch her," Maxon said as he charged at the rebel knocking him off the balance. Maxon winces, his wounds still haven't fully healed and the fall last night didn't help them at all. The rebel draws a gun, "I may not be able to kill you prince, but I can sure as hell hurt you." I jump in front of Maxon before the rebel he can fire. Everyone has stopped walking at this point. "Stop it, Rebel. I'm sure your bosses wouldn't be to happy if you gave him a fatal injury, or if he died on your watch so I suggest you put that gun down." I say my voice steady, and confident, even though on the inside I was petrified.

The rebel thought about what America said, then put the gun down. Everyone started walking again, and I started walking faster. I was angry and, I wanted to get to wherever base camp was; I wanted to know who had handed us over to the rebels.