FYI- I reposted chapter 4 so if you haven't read my evil cliffhanger make
sure you read that before reading this (won't make much sense if you don't
anyways)
A/N- Thanks for everyone who has reviewed. Parisindy I am sorry this took so long but thanks for all your reviews…. Half a million tests and more to go… should be studying right now but I felt so guilty about leaving Harper dying in the snow for a week
.
Please note-I may be a pre-nursing student but I only know basic first aid so far (that's why I am in college). So my medical knowledge is limited to what I have seen on ER.
Warning-another chapter that isn't graphic but defiantly not for kiddies
******** () **********
The snow had stopped falling as the Neizchiens marched Brendan back to the burning flames of their former command center. He fought the urge to look back more times then he could count wanting to see his cousin one last time. Hold on Shay, Hold on. He kept repeating in his head. His whole body was covered with Seamus blood. He could feel it starting to dry on his hands making them stick to his hair as he marched to his death or to what he knew would be his death.
**
1, 2, 3, 4, left right left, 1, 2, 3, 4, I'm a little teacup… keep marching… short and stout… one foot in front of the other…. Here is my handle… only a little further…. Here is my spout. Brendan felt the energy continue to drain from his body all he could think about was how he had let Shay down. The plan had been uncovered and the last of the Harpers was dying in the snow somewhere in the woods. The supplier had to have been the one. No one in the camps would tell the Neizchiens about their plans. Most spies in the camps were killed after they had told their information. Best way to protect themselves from a double agent or something like that. Brendan felt more energy leave as he dealt with the knowledge that he had led to the death of so many. Don't think just march… Have to keep marching…. Can't stop… Brendan knew he would join his fallen comrades soon enough. He continued to repeat the children song in his head trying to block out the rest of his thoughts and continue marching.
**************()****************
"Shay, come on now wake up… I can't carry you back to camp and I am not leaving you here wake up" The young teen continue to shake her wounded friend. "Shay you have to wake up" Tears started to form in her eyes as she begged with her friend "Please Seamus, Bren gone. They took him. I can't find Tiff and Max they must be dead. It's just you and me now so get up"
The tears flowed freely now from her face, red from the wind and snow. But they went unnoticed as she started peeling back the layers of clothing expanding the hole in his clothing were the blast had pasted through. "Well Harper it's not too deep" she said as she prodded the wound. "If we can get the bleeding stopped you'll be fine." New tears came to replace the ones that had started to dry on her face. "I need you to stay with me a little longer, k"
She continued on her narrative more for herself then anything else. She got up on her knees and rolled Harper over slightly to get to his backpack. Pulling out her knife she cut the straps and removed it. She laid Harper back down and continued on her work.
"Sorry about that but I need you pack, now, let's see what can we use" She sniffed the long trail of snot coming out of her nose and she picked through the pack. The tears were still coming but she never moved to wipe them away. They remained on her cheeks and clothes freezing in the cold weather.
She picked herself up off the ground walked over to the pack she carried everyday of her life. Everything she owned was in that pack. Supplies were few and far between but growing up in a death camp taught you do use what you have. Especaily when you didn't even have a hut to call you own.
What she needed now was bandages, she found herself looking at her friends clothes. There wasn't much left of the Shay's thread bare coat, there was a hole in the side from the blast and the whole front was covered in blood. "I'm sorry Shay I don't have anything else I can use" Isa said as she carefully placed her knife under the cuff of his coat and started cutting up his sleeve. She then cut around the shoulder removing his sleeve without moving him. She rolled the sleeve and placed it on his side. She tied the straps from his pack around his middle holding the make shift bandage in place. "We'll find you a new coat and pack later, this will have to do for now" She took off her own coat wrapped it around Shay. "I have to go for help now I need you to still be here when I get back. Understand I need you to STAY WITH ME."
Isa finished reloading her pack taking out the little clothing she had in life. Not having a home meant everything she owned was on her. She wrapped Shay in the few rages she had in her bag and transferred the remaining mines and guns from Shays pack to hers.
"Alright, I'm going now. So I need you to just keep breathing till I get back, got that" She started to walk away and stopped. She striped down to just her bottom shirt, and wrapping her other layers around Seamus. "Stay with me, ok" She sniffed one more time, got up from her friends side, wrapping her arms around her shivering body. As she headed deeper into the woods towards the human side of the camp she couldn't shake the feeling that she was leaving her friend out to die in the cold.
"I'll be back, Shay. I promise and you'll be waiting for me when I do" Tears flowed freely down her face soaking the thin shirt she was wearing. Isa turned back for one last look at Shay and then started running through the woods.
***
Tiff, Max and Isa sat around Harper in Brendan's hut. They had dragged him back to the hut yesterday and cleaned the pulse blast. Isa had met up with Tiff and Max half way back to the camp and together they had brought Harper back. He hadn't woken up yet and between the cold, wound, and blood loss none of thought he would make it. Although Seamus had surprised them in the past, always getting sick but somehow surviving. He was wrapped in every piece of material they could find in the camp, curtains, clothes and the few blankets they possessed, anything to help their friend live one more day. Death visited the camp daily and he was not taking Shay away from them today.
Isa was going to kept him alive. She had stayed with him ever since they brought him back, even staying up all night to be with him. Losing Shay would kill Brendan, if he was still alive. Brendan life or death was still a mystery. Isa had seen them lead him off after the raid. She had hid in the bushes and watched as the soldiers marched him back to their camp. Why didn't they shoot him and leave him die there everyone wanted to know? The answer had to be that they were torturing him, making an example for the other humans, and getting information. Brendan would give them nothing if he could help it. Isa knew Shay and him had been caught before and whipped when they were kids. They had been stealing food from the Neitzchien garbage. They had been pressed for more information and never gave any. She was going to get Shay healthy again and save Bern. That was the promise she made to herself as she started peeling some of the blankets off of Shay. Tiff and Max left her to her work and headed into the main room of the hut to talk.
"Sorry Shay but I have to clean you side. Less chance of infection." She came to the final layer and revealed Harper's body, clothed only in his pants and a bundle of rags serving as bandages. "Your' going to have to wake up soon you know" she continued talking as she brought over the pan of water. "We're going to need your help to get Brendan back"
She started to wash the tender flesh when she felt Shay jump from underneath her touch. "Shay, Shay can you hear me," Isa question were greeted by the slow opening of Seamus's eyes. "Oh Harper your alive."
"Well it's good to know death doesn't hurt this much" Harper said in a weak voice with a wince.
"Sorry Shay it was soap and bandages or pain pills"
"And you had to go with bandages"
"Wait a sec" Isa walked over to Brendan hiding spot. It wasn't much of a secrete but Isa liked to let Bren think he was hiding he stuff. She pulled out a bottle of some cheap liquor. "Here" Isa walked over, lifted up his head a little and tilted the bottle to lips. Harper took a small sip and tried to cough up the strong liquid.
"Think I'll stick with the pain it hurt too much trying not to cough that junk up"
"Well it has other uses" Isa reposed pouring some on a cloth.
"Like what, AHHHHhhhhhhhh," Harper screamed as Isa placed the rag on his side. "That is not a good use for it"
"Good to see your back with us" Tiff said coming in from the main room with Max.
"Where's Brendan?" Harper asked looking around with hope in his eyes.
*********** (Harper) ***********
"Where's Brendan" their looks told him the answer before they said a word. He was dead, words didn't need to be said. If you didn't come back from a raid you were dead. Neizchiens didn't take prisoners. Jails were too full to have upstarts filling them up. You went against the Neizchiens and were caught you died, plain and simple. Why couldn't Bren have left him and gotten away. Another dead body to add to his belt.
"He's not dead" Isa finally said. WHAT? Did she say not. Then why wasn't he here? Why were they giving him those looks? What we they not telling him? "Well not that we know of" Isa continued. "They took him away back to the camp. We haven't been able to find anything else out but as far as we know he's alive."
"So go get him" Harper winced yelling was still not a good idea. Well even talking hurt but yelling made him feel like he was having his insides ripped out. He was pushed back down before he even released that he was starting to sit up.
"We are working on it Shay." Isa said as she moved behind him so that his back was now resting on her lap and he was sitting half way up leaning on her front.
"We are going to but we have to regroup." Max replied. "We lost a lot of people and weapons. We are going to have to get more supplies before we can even try something."
"And there still is the issue of how they knew we were coming" Tiff added
"And if they did" Isa said
"They had too" Max responded. "We were ambushed.
"That maybe true but why did they let us bomb those five buildings" Isa pointed out.
"And kill those soldiers. There where people in those buildings." Harper replied. "I heard them trying to get out.
"I think you just solved that mystery in you words." Isa said in a low voice.
"What do you mean?" Harper looked at his friends with considered eyes. What question had he asked it was a statement he had just made? There had been Neizchiens in the brackets he had heard them screaming and running for the door before he blew it up.
"You said that there were people in the building when it blew. We don't know that they were Neizchiens. It could have been anyone, we never saw the people inside. How do we know if they were Neizchiens or Humans from the jail?" Isa paused for a moment as her voice got lower and huskier as the nature of what they had truly did sunk in. Harper felt water on the bare skin of his back and he didn't have to look behind him to know Isa was crying.
Tiff was the first to speak after several minutes. "We bombed all the sleeping quarters yet there were over a hundred Neizchiens last night. The camp only sleeps a 200 with all the children." Tiff sat down hard on the ground unable to stand anymore. The weight of the world looked like it had just been added to her shoulders.
"How many humans are in prison right now" Harper asked knowing the answer before he spoke.
"Too many. New ones added daily, people only leave when they die. No one makes it to the end of their sentence," Max said quietly as he paced back and forth in the small room. Harper only heard half of it but he knew every word to be true. And now that was where Brendan was, they had a sudden opening. Space made by the rebels who were suppose to be taking down the Neizchiens saving the repressed prisoners not killing them. It was no longer just the wound on Harpers side that caused his whole body to ache.
"Some revolutionist we are" Harper muttered.
"Just shut up, JUST SHUT UP" Max yelled at Harper. "We didn't know, we don't even know that is what happened." Max was up in Harpers faced.
"You shut up" Isa said from behind Harper. He felt his whole body being pushed forward as she got eye to eye with Max. "Yeah we don't know what happen but we know that people are dead. People we killed. We don't know who they were but we have to get the Neizchiens back for this. We have to get Brendan back, and all the rest of the people in that hellish prison and out of this death camp." Harper felt the shower of tears come down his back and he knew she was right. He was not going to let Brendan die here and he was not going let the Neizchiens get away with making him a murder.
Everyone was silent until Harper spoke three simple words "Let's do it" and three heads nodded in an agreement.
A/N- Thanks for everyone who has reviewed. Parisindy I am sorry this took so long but thanks for all your reviews…. Half a million tests and more to go… should be studying right now but I felt so guilty about leaving Harper dying in the snow for a week
.
Please note-I may be a pre-nursing student but I only know basic first aid so far (that's why I am in college). So my medical knowledge is limited to what I have seen on ER.
Warning-another chapter that isn't graphic but defiantly not for kiddies
******** () **********
The snow had stopped falling as the Neizchiens marched Brendan back to the burning flames of their former command center. He fought the urge to look back more times then he could count wanting to see his cousin one last time. Hold on Shay, Hold on. He kept repeating in his head. His whole body was covered with Seamus blood. He could feel it starting to dry on his hands making them stick to his hair as he marched to his death or to what he knew would be his death.
**
1, 2, 3, 4, left right left, 1, 2, 3, 4, I'm a little teacup… keep marching… short and stout… one foot in front of the other…. Here is my handle… only a little further…. Here is my spout. Brendan felt the energy continue to drain from his body all he could think about was how he had let Shay down. The plan had been uncovered and the last of the Harpers was dying in the snow somewhere in the woods. The supplier had to have been the one. No one in the camps would tell the Neizchiens about their plans. Most spies in the camps were killed after they had told their information. Best way to protect themselves from a double agent or something like that. Brendan felt more energy leave as he dealt with the knowledge that he had led to the death of so many. Don't think just march… Have to keep marching…. Can't stop… Brendan knew he would join his fallen comrades soon enough. He continued to repeat the children song in his head trying to block out the rest of his thoughts and continue marching.
**************()****************
"Shay, come on now wake up… I can't carry you back to camp and I am not leaving you here wake up" The young teen continue to shake her wounded friend. "Shay you have to wake up" Tears started to form in her eyes as she begged with her friend "Please Seamus, Bren gone. They took him. I can't find Tiff and Max they must be dead. It's just you and me now so get up"
The tears flowed freely now from her face, red from the wind and snow. But they went unnoticed as she started peeling back the layers of clothing expanding the hole in his clothing were the blast had pasted through. "Well Harper it's not too deep" she said as she prodded the wound. "If we can get the bleeding stopped you'll be fine." New tears came to replace the ones that had started to dry on her face. "I need you to stay with me a little longer, k"
She continued on her narrative more for herself then anything else. She got up on her knees and rolled Harper over slightly to get to his backpack. Pulling out her knife she cut the straps and removed it. She laid Harper back down and continued on her work.
"Sorry about that but I need you pack, now, let's see what can we use" She sniffed the long trail of snot coming out of her nose and she picked through the pack. The tears were still coming but she never moved to wipe them away. They remained on her cheeks and clothes freezing in the cold weather.
She picked herself up off the ground walked over to the pack she carried everyday of her life. Everything she owned was in that pack. Supplies were few and far between but growing up in a death camp taught you do use what you have. Especaily when you didn't even have a hut to call you own.
What she needed now was bandages, she found herself looking at her friends clothes. There wasn't much left of the Shay's thread bare coat, there was a hole in the side from the blast and the whole front was covered in blood. "I'm sorry Shay I don't have anything else I can use" Isa said as she carefully placed her knife under the cuff of his coat and started cutting up his sleeve. She then cut around the shoulder removing his sleeve without moving him. She rolled the sleeve and placed it on his side. She tied the straps from his pack around his middle holding the make shift bandage in place. "We'll find you a new coat and pack later, this will have to do for now" She took off her own coat wrapped it around Shay. "I have to go for help now I need you to still be here when I get back. Understand I need you to STAY WITH ME."
Isa finished reloading her pack taking out the little clothing she had in life. Not having a home meant everything she owned was on her. She wrapped Shay in the few rages she had in her bag and transferred the remaining mines and guns from Shays pack to hers.
"Alright, I'm going now. So I need you to just keep breathing till I get back, got that" She started to walk away and stopped. She striped down to just her bottom shirt, and wrapping her other layers around Seamus. "Stay with me, ok" She sniffed one more time, got up from her friends side, wrapping her arms around her shivering body. As she headed deeper into the woods towards the human side of the camp she couldn't shake the feeling that she was leaving her friend out to die in the cold.
"I'll be back, Shay. I promise and you'll be waiting for me when I do" Tears flowed freely down her face soaking the thin shirt she was wearing. Isa turned back for one last look at Shay and then started running through the woods.
***
Tiff, Max and Isa sat around Harper in Brendan's hut. They had dragged him back to the hut yesterday and cleaned the pulse blast. Isa had met up with Tiff and Max half way back to the camp and together they had brought Harper back. He hadn't woken up yet and between the cold, wound, and blood loss none of thought he would make it. Although Seamus had surprised them in the past, always getting sick but somehow surviving. He was wrapped in every piece of material they could find in the camp, curtains, clothes and the few blankets they possessed, anything to help their friend live one more day. Death visited the camp daily and he was not taking Shay away from them today.
Isa was going to kept him alive. She had stayed with him ever since they brought him back, even staying up all night to be with him. Losing Shay would kill Brendan, if he was still alive. Brendan life or death was still a mystery. Isa had seen them lead him off after the raid. She had hid in the bushes and watched as the soldiers marched him back to their camp. Why didn't they shoot him and leave him die there everyone wanted to know? The answer had to be that they were torturing him, making an example for the other humans, and getting information. Brendan would give them nothing if he could help it. Isa knew Shay and him had been caught before and whipped when they were kids. They had been stealing food from the Neitzchien garbage. They had been pressed for more information and never gave any. She was going to get Shay healthy again and save Bern. That was the promise she made to herself as she started peeling some of the blankets off of Shay. Tiff and Max left her to her work and headed into the main room of the hut to talk.
"Sorry Shay but I have to clean you side. Less chance of infection." She came to the final layer and revealed Harper's body, clothed only in his pants and a bundle of rags serving as bandages. "Your' going to have to wake up soon you know" she continued talking as she brought over the pan of water. "We're going to need your help to get Brendan back"
She started to wash the tender flesh when she felt Shay jump from underneath her touch. "Shay, Shay can you hear me," Isa question were greeted by the slow opening of Seamus's eyes. "Oh Harper your alive."
"Well it's good to know death doesn't hurt this much" Harper said in a weak voice with a wince.
"Sorry Shay it was soap and bandages or pain pills"
"And you had to go with bandages"
"Wait a sec" Isa walked over to Brendan hiding spot. It wasn't much of a secrete but Isa liked to let Bren think he was hiding he stuff. She pulled out a bottle of some cheap liquor. "Here" Isa walked over, lifted up his head a little and tilted the bottle to lips. Harper took a small sip and tried to cough up the strong liquid.
"Think I'll stick with the pain it hurt too much trying not to cough that junk up"
"Well it has other uses" Isa reposed pouring some on a cloth.
"Like what, AHHHHhhhhhhhh," Harper screamed as Isa placed the rag on his side. "That is not a good use for it"
"Good to see your back with us" Tiff said coming in from the main room with Max.
"Where's Brendan?" Harper asked looking around with hope in his eyes.
*********** (Harper) ***********
"Where's Brendan" their looks told him the answer before they said a word. He was dead, words didn't need to be said. If you didn't come back from a raid you were dead. Neizchiens didn't take prisoners. Jails were too full to have upstarts filling them up. You went against the Neizchiens and were caught you died, plain and simple. Why couldn't Bren have left him and gotten away. Another dead body to add to his belt.
"He's not dead" Isa finally said. WHAT? Did she say not. Then why wasn't he here? Why were they giving him those looks? What we they not telling him? "Well not that we know of" Isa continued. "They took him away back to the camp. We haven't been able to find anything else out but as far as we know he's alive."
"So go get him" Harper winced yelling was still not a good idea. Well even talking hurt but yelling made him feel like he was having his insides ripped out. He was pushed back down before he even released that he was starting to sit up.
"We are working on it Shay." Isa said as she moved behind him so that his back was now resting on her lap and he was sitting half way up leaning on her front.
"We are going to but we have to regroup." Max replied. "We lost a lot of people and weapons. We are going to have to get more supplies before we can even try something."
"And there still is the issue of how they knew we were coming" Tiff added
"And if they did" Isa said
"They had too" Max responded. "We were ambushed.
"That maybe true but why did they let us bomb those five buildings" Isa pointed out.
"And kill those soldiers. There where people in those buildings." Harper replied. "I heard them trying to get out.
"I think you just solved that mystery in you words." Isa said in a low voice.
"What do you mean?" Harper looked at his friends with considered eyes. What question had he asked it was a statement he had just made? There had been Neizchiens in the brackets he had heard them screaming and running for the door before he blew it up.
"You said that there were people in the building when it blew. We don't know that they were Neizchiens. It could have been anyone, we never saw the people inside. How do we know if they were Neizchiens or Humans from the jail?" Isa paused for a moment as her voice got lower and huskier as the nature of what they had truly did sunk in. Harper felt water on the bare skin of his back and he didn't have to look behind him to know Isa was crying.
Tiff was the first to speak after several minutes. "We bombed all the sleeping quarters yet there were over a hundred Neizchiens last night. The camp only sleeps a 200 with all the children." Tiff sat down hard on the ground unable to stand anymore. The weight of the world looked like it had just been added to her shoulders.
"How many humans are in prison right now" Harper asked knowing the answer before he spoke.
"Too many. New ones added daily, people only leave when they die. No one makes it to the end of their sentence," Max said quietly as he paced back and forth in the small room. Harper only heard half of it but he knew every word to be true. And now that was where Brendan was, they had a sudden opening. Space made by the rebels who were suppose to be taking down the Neizchiens saving the repressed prisoners not killing them. It was no longer just the wound on Harpers side that caused his whole body to ache.
"Some revolutionist we are" Harper muttered.
"Just shut up, JUST SHUT UP" Max yelled at Harper. "We didn't know, we don't even know that is what happened." Max was up in Harpers faced.
"You shut up" Isa said from behind Harper. He felt his whole body being pushed forward as she got eye to eye with Max. "Yeah we don't know what happen but we know that people are dead. People we killed. We don't know who they were but we have to get the Neizchiens back for this. We have to get Brendan back, and all the rest of the people in that hellish prison and out of this death camp." Harper felt the shower of tears come down his back and he knew she was right. He was not going to let Brendan die here and he was not going let the Neizchiens get away with making him a murder.
Everyone was silent until Harper spoke three simple words "Let's do it" and three heads nodded in an agreement.