Chapter 8:
Finally! I said something that shut her up! My last comment left everyone speechless. Jade glanced at Lincoln then Finn, with a satisfied look on her face. And then just as fast as she pulled out her knife and lunged at me, Lincoln, Finn, and even Kane had to help hold her back. After a few seconds of her still trying to get to me, they dragged her out of the cave, kicking and screaming. Good riddance. Abigail and Octavia were more stunned than speechless. "Wow." Octavia continued to stare at the dark opening to the cave.
"She's crazy." I agreed.
"No," she looked at me, "your dad is-"
"I thought you said you had no family." Abigail interrupted her.
"That's what I thought too. But the man told me that a few minutes before he shot me." Some father. How could he not know about me? I thought my aunt would've told him. Seems like every day I'm reminded about how lovely my… whatever I have, is. "But then again, I did stab him first." Abigail smiled. I must remind her of the daughter she told me about on the way to the hundred camp. She seems to be the only one, besides Lincoln, willing to trust me. And she hugged me! Why would she hug a stranger? She doesn't even know my name! Do I even look like her daughter? Maybe I do. Maybe that's why. Octavia limped over to me and sat down. Her eyes were blinding me. "So why did Lincoln try to kill you?" She has to ask the only question that catches me off guard and that I don't have an answer for.
"Well… like I said, the Grounders want me dead. And when he was with them, they sent him and a few others after me." My tone is as if I was talking to a child. For me this, him, is awkward. I don't know how to explain it. "And…?" she pokes.
"And what?"
"Well, you're still alive. Tell me how" Okay, saying no to her is like punishing a child for doing something good: it's just wrong on so many levels. But not impossible. I was about to speak but was cut off by yelling coming from outside of the cave. Jade's lovely voice. Kane and Finn came back inside a moment later. "What is going on out there?"
"'It's complicated'" Finn replied as he held two fingers in the air, on each hand, and slowly moved them up and down. Since everyone seems to know what it means, I decide to forget about it and move on. But that's always the spot where something else creeps in. My whole life, every time I've tried to move on from something everything but moving on happens. Like how Lincoln and I met, for example; I was trying to move on from the Grounders and start a new life when Anya had to go and send Lincoln after me. He and three other guys tried to kill me. A moment later, Lincoln entered the cave. Alone. He looked right at me and then approached. Octavia got up and left, leaving me to fend for myself. He crouched down in front of me and then looked over my wounds. "Are you fine to travel?" Not the question I was expecting.
"I've had much worse." He didn't seem satisfied. "Yes, why?"
"You once told me you'd been gathering weapons. Do you have a stash hidden somewhere?"
"Yeah, about five miles from here."
"Good," I could tell I wasn't going to like this next part, "You and Jade leave in an hour." What? Me and her, together, alone. No, no, no, no, no. But before I could protest, he started talking again, "I've already spoken to her about this," That explains the yelling. "Now I want you to make peace with her, while you're gone. If we're going to Mt. Weather I want you two on the same side. It's not going to do us any good if you kill each other first." His point was too big to be argued with, so I kept my mouth shut.
An hour later, we headed out just as planned. Lincoln turned down anyone that offered to go with us because "they need to do this on their own." How am I supposed to get her to not want to kill me? The entire walk there was quiet. No one dared to say anything. Besides the fact that Jade was still smoldering from her fight with Lincoln, I'd say it was a pretty good walk. So I walked up to my tree, the one that holds my home, and stopped.
"So, where is it?" Jade was still mad. Great. I pointed up. She looked up and didn't see what I saw. As she began to open her big mouth, I reached up and pulled on a rope causing a ladder to unroll and gently touch the ground. Whatever she was going to say, she didn't say it. I didn't even look at her before I began climbing. I painfully reached the top and stood up straight, on the limb. Jade came up a minute later, eyes big as she saw my tree house. I walked inside and then sat down with my back against a wall. The lack of sleep and blood loss was finally starting to get to me. "Where are the weapons?" Jade walked in without me noticing.
"Wouldn't you like to know," I love making her mad. But her icy glare reminds me why I'm here. "We need to work things out first." She crossed her arms and squared her shoulders. "Okay, so work it out." Lincoln has no idea what he's asking of me. "Okay, fine," I start, "let's start with your jealous side."
"What are you talking about?" She seriously has no idea.
"You being jealous of whatever it is you think Lincoln and I have," I replied as seriously as I could. She sits down two feet away from me, crossing her legs. She sighs, "Because I'm used to having Lincoln all to myself. I've never had to 'share' him with anyone." That was easier than I thought. "Now, let's start with your emotional constipation."
"My what?" I have no idea what she's talking about.
"Lack of emotion." she explains. Why didn't she just say that?
"Well I've been living alone for the past eight years."
"Why?"
"Because I don't have any one I can trust to not kill me in my sleep."
"Don't you have family?"
"No."
"Well, that makes two of us." She replied. I looked around the room and thought about what my father looked like. I guess I can see the resemblance but I'm still not willing to trust he's telling the truth. "My parents are Reapers."
"And mine came from the sky." I replied.
"Maybe I don't hate you." I could tell she was trying to convince herself of that as she said it.
"Well, what's not to hate?" I spoke in a very sarcastic tone. Jade resisted the urge to chuckle. "I mean come on, I live in a ship, in a tree." She does chuckle after that.
"Okay, well we should probably be heading back," Jade suggested. She stood up first and then reached a hand down. I grabbed it and she pulled me to my feet. I walked over to a metal ladder in the middle of the room and climbed it, passing through the second floor and up to the third. But before that, I had to turn the wheel on the door. After a few tries with one arm, I finally got it. And then we were on the third floor. Jade climbed up behind me, shock covered her face. The room was only five feet by five feet with a triangle roof and tilted walls. But that wasn't the best part. Guns of all shapes and sizes covered every inch of the walls, along with trunks overflowing with different weapons on the floor. The smell of metal and gun powder filled the room.
"I thought you had just a few…" Jade gasped at the amount of weapons.
"So did Lincoln," I replied, "I've got enough for an army."
"How?"
"I'm a thief. One of my better qualities." We spent just under an hour getting ready to go; first we picked out the weapons we wanted, then Jade stood on the first floor catching weapons as I dropped them from the third, then we repeated step two outside, then once everything was on the ground we put them on tarps. But before I climbed down the latter to leave, I walked over to the side of Tree House and popped a metal panel off the side. I crossed a few wires and then the door, or my porch, started standing up until it was flesh with the rest of the structure. I put the panel back on and then climbed down. Jade slung a sack full of those metal balls over her shoulder and then we each grabbed a corner of the tarp. Thankfully the road back isn't all that bumpy. We were quite, but at least this time it was a content quiet. But I couldn't stop my mind from wondering. It wondered so far away, it ended up in the past.
(Flashback: Narrator's POV)
She ran through the woods tripping and stumbling. After each time she had to catch her balance, she reminded herself why she was running: her aunt, Anya, was trying to kill her. At least four armed soldiers chased her. One of which was the best worrier they'd had in a long time. And she knew with him leading, it wouldn't be long before they found her. But Yachara was smarter than that; she had to be. She ran toward Mt. Weather as she listened to the men follow her. She almost didn't stop in time at the edge of a river separating her from her destination. Knowing what lies in it she jumped in away. As she pulled herself up on to the rocks, she glanced over her shoulder and saw the men stop at the edge. She locked eyes with the leader, Lincoln, as she wondered why he's doing this. But the look in his eyes told her why. Yachara got to her feet and kept running. Last week she'd heard a rumor about a secret entrance to Mt. Weather. After a few frantic moments of searching, she found it. The entrance was a crack in the mountain, just barely big enough for her twelve year old body to squeeze through. When she got inside, she discovered that she was in the dungeon. And after checking all of them, only one cell had someone in it: a young girl about her age. She looked like she'd been knocked around but, lying in a cell unconscious, made Yachara feel sorry for her. She pulled some wire out of her pocket and used it to open the cell, just like Lincoln taught her. The closer Yachara got the more she realized that the girl was Lincoln's. But Yachara picked her up and carried her out of the mountain, just as she heard voices approaching.
The next day, the girl still asleep, Yachara carried her to a waterfall and laid her next to it. This is the only place she knew of that the girl would be found. She also knew she's being watched. Yachara ran as fast she could. She was passing through a field when she heard Lincoln call for her. Stopping in her tracks, she turned around and pulled out a knife. "Don't do it, Lincoln."
"I have orders to bring you back dead or alive," he replied, "just come with me."
"No, thank you. I'll take my chances out here." Yachara's grip on the knife tightened. Lincoln held up a bow with any arrow read to fly. A tear fell down her cheek. "Go ahead; I'd rather be dead than with them. But before you do, you should know that Jade is waiting for you at the water fall."
"Why would you help her, even after I've tried to kill you?"
"Because I'm not like you, Lincoln. Family, blood or not, is more important to me. Even if it's yours." She continued to stare at him, but something caught her attention: a Reaper hid in the bushes a few feet away from Lincoln, spear in hand. Yachara through her knife at the Reaper, as Lincoln, thinking she was aiming for him, let go of the string. His arrow flew through her shoulder. Then Lincoln heard the bushes move as her knife killed the Reaper. Yachara rose to her feet again and saw Lincoln coming toward her. "No, stay back," she slipped off her jacket and then laid it on the floor, "take this to Anya tell her you tried and she will spare you, help me and she won't."
"I…"
"Don't. Go back, Lincoln. Save yourself and raise Jade, because without you she'd be lost." Yachara backed away and then turned and ran.
