Chapter 4 - Not My Kind Of Town
I was awoken in the middle of the night by the faint sound of gunfire. I stood up from my chair and walked towards the window to see what was happening. The town was pitch dark as the street lights were not lit. Something was not right: I could not recall a day when the lamplighter did not do his job, and the gunfire was getting clearer and louder. I started to worry and had to wake up Charlotte.
"Charlotte. Charlotte, wake up," I whispered to her incessantly as I shook her.
Charlotte started to slowly open her eyes. As she stood up, she stretched her whole body and looked at me with her eyes half-open. She was still sleepy, but at least she was all ears.
"Watfen," she said. "Why did you wake me up? It is three in the morning."
"Charlotte, do not panic," I told her. "But I think I am hearing gunshots in the distance."
Charlotte widened her eyes and gasped. She was clearly alarmed by what I just said.
"Gunshots? Oh God!" she said. "We need warn the others before they…"
Before she could finish her sentence, a blinding light followed by the deafening sounds of an explosion that came from outside rocked our senses and once the dust settled, the building right across the street was completely decimated by some kind of explosive. This time, I was sure of it: Meppel was under attack.
"Holy smokes!" I said. "We cannot stay here. We have to go. We have to go NOW!"
I quickly grabbed Charlotte's hand and we both made a mad dash for the corridor. Fire from outside was illuminating the hallway, and we knew that the school would suffer a fate similar to that of the neighboring building in a matter of minutes. We quickly went downstairs and entered the second room on our right. We ended up in the principal's office. It was full of paperwork and religious trinkets here and there, but we had no time to admire the scenery. We had to act fast and escape the carnage.
"What are we doing here?!" said Charlotte. "We need to get out of the building!"
"I know," I replied. "But we cannot afford to exit the building from the front door. Who knows if we are going to be cut in the crossfire out there?"
"Then what are you planning on doing?" said Charlotte.
"Give me a moment, will you?" I replied.
I looked under the principal's desk and clicked on a small button that revealed our ticket out of here: an escape hatch that was hidden under the desk.
"Alright, that ought to do the trick. Let's get a move on!" I said.
Charlotte nodded and we both climbed down the hatch ladder. As soon as we reached the bottom of the ladder, we started to hear loud footsteps coming from the school's hallway. Someone was coming. Could it be one of the members of the faculty?
"Search the building!" said a man coming from the hallway. "Look for any civilians and bring them in!"
Charlotte sensed danger and emitted a loud gasp.
"Confederates!" she said. "They are here!"
"In that case, we cannot afford to be followed. We must close the hatch!" I said.
"No, we do not have time for that. We have to make a run for it. Lead the way, I will cover your back!" she replied.
"Cover my back?" I said.
Charlotte quickly whipped a gun out of her coat. I could not believe she had a weapon on her the whole time!
"Wait, you have a gun!?" I said. "Why didn't you mention this before?"
"For fear of startling you folks," said Charlotte. "I could not afford to come to town unarmed and vulnerable, so I had to keep a weapon on me at all times. But right now, we need to make a run for it. It sounds like the soldiers are closing in."
"I agree. Follow me, and stay close!" I replied.
So we both made our way through the secret tunnel and ran as fast as we could to get away from the Confederates. I never used this tunnel before, but I did not have time to think about what we would do next. My mind was firmly set on running.
"Watfen, can you explain to me why a religious institution would ever dig out a tunnel like this?" Charlotte asked.
"Well, back during the Second Europan War, the faculty was extremely paranoid and feared Imperial attacks, so the principal decided to have the town municipality create some kind of secret passage that leads everyone in the parochial school out of the building. We never actually used the tunnel before, since no Imperials or rebels bothered attacking Meppel directly," I replied. "It really ate at our budget and the principal insisted that it was a necessary investment, but if past experience has ever taught me one thing, it is that our principal is certainly not frugal!"
"I can tell!" Charlotte said as she chuckled.
We were reaching the end of the tunnel and we suddenly started to pick up a really putrid smell. What in the world was lying at the end of the passage?
"Good gracious, that stench!" Charlotte said.
And when we finally reached the end of the tunnel, we realized that we ended up in the sewers.
"Not exactly what I was expecting," I said. "But at least there aren't any Confederates down here."
Charlotte and I covered our noses as the noxious smell was too much to bear.
"If my sense of orientation is correct, we must be right under one of the town's inns. I can smell booze and excrement down here," I said.
"What's our next move?" said Charlotte.
"We should probably go east from here. We will probably end up in the river that's right next to town. It's unlikely to be patrolled by Confederates, so we probably stand a good chance of not being spotted" I said.
"Sounds good," Charlotte replied. "Lead the way."
So we made our way east and as we ran, we noticed the cracks on the ceiling getting bigger and bigger, and the earth even started to shake. The town was getting increasingly battered by the second. I could not imagine seeing the entire town obliterated, so I tried to forget about what was happening up there. It certainly won't look like my kind of town by the time Charlotte and I get out of this mess.
As we were making our way towards the river, we started to hear voices at the end of the sewer tunnel.
"Explain to me why it was a good idea to send us down here in the sewers," said a man further down the tunnel.
"Civilians are likely making their way out of town through the sewers," said another man. "It happened before, believe me. Our job is to ensure that no one makes it out of town unscathed."
When Charlotte and I reached the sewer intersection, we saw half-a-dozen soldiers patrolling the catwalks. They knew we would use the sewers to get out of town, and the way to the river was blocked off by one of the Confederates. Charlotte and I hid behind a pile of rubble to avoid being detected. We did not know what to do.
"Shit! They knew we would be here," whispered Charlotte. "I can't take them all at once with my gun, and we're likely being followed by the Confederates back at the school!"
She was right: there were too many of them, and the gun wasn't silenced, so firing a single gunshot would be like signing our death warrants. We had to sneak past them.
"Charlotte, listen. If we are to escape the sewers safe and sound, we'll have to get past those soldiers without being noticed. We'll try to move under the catwalks without making any noise, got it?," I said.
"Sounds risky, but I'll try," Charlotte replied.
"Okay. When the soldiers are looking the other way, we'll both move together. Just follow me, and I'll guarantee that we'll make it out alive," I said.
Charlotte nodded. Now we had to wait for the soldiers to look the other way. They moved slowly enough to give us a wide window of opportunity, so we could not afford to waste it.
"Alright, I think we can move," I said. "Follow me."
Charlotte and I quickly and quietly ran towards the catwalks. Stealth was our only option. One false move, and we would all bite the dust.
"Okay, we're good," I said. "Now let's wait for one of the soldiers to be above us. Then we'll move at the same pace as he does so that he provides some kind of cover for our escape," I said.
"For a pastor, you seem to know a lot about tactical maneuvering," Charlotte remarked.
"It's nothing, really. I got that experience from my time playing hide-and-seek with my friends back when I was a kid. Only this time, the stakes are much higher," I replied.
By the time we were done talking, one of the soldiers were right above us. Now was our chance!
"It's now or never. Let's move," I whispered.
So we both moved quietly under the soldier without making a single noise. Thank the Valkyrur Charlotte was not wearing any high heels: that would have only made things more complicated.
"Hey Dillan, can I borrow a smoke from you?" said one of the soldiers.
"No smoking while on duty," replied the soldier standing in front of the tunnel leading to the river. "Besides, you'll only worsen the smell down here. And you know damn well that you're hooked to the stuff!"
"Come on, I haven't had a smoke in weeks! Tell you what, if you hand me a cigarette, then I'll buy you that fancy Bruhl drink you've been incessantly talking about before the attack," replied the soldier with a smoking addiction.
"Alright," replied the soldier who carried cigarettes. "But if you can't hold your end of the bargain, then I'll report you to our CO without hesitation."
"You have my word," replied the smoking addict.
"Hold on, I'm coming," said the soldier who was guarding the tunnel leading to the river.
That was our chance. Charlotte and I quickly climbed on the catwalk railing and proceeded to the river tunnel. Suddenly, I felt a tingle in my nose. I was about to sneeze.
Charlotte looked at me with shock. She knew I was going to give away our position.
"Watfen, don't you dare…" Charlotte said.
"Achoo!" I sneezed.
"...sneeze." Charlotte said.
"Hmmm?" said one of the soldiers.
"Crap, we gotta move now!" Charlotte said.
"Civvies!" shouted one of the soldiers.
We both ran like bats out of hell towards the river. We had no choice: it was do or die.
"Seriously, Watfen? Couldn't you hold it?" Charlotte said.
"It happened all of a sudden!" I replied. "How in the world was I supposed to predict it?"
"Let's follow them!" shouted one of the soldiers.
"No, I have a better idea. Dillan, man the valve. We're about to give them a reason to run faster," said one of the soldiers whose voice echoed through the tunnel.
"Valve?" Charlotte said. "Don't tell me they're…"
Suddenly I could hear and see a rush of water coming from behind us. The bastards: they were going to flush us out!
"Charlotte, whatever you do, just RUN!" I shouted.
"There, the end of the tunnel. We're nearly there!" Charlotte said.
The rush of water became louder and was closing in on us. I could feel my heart beat incessantly. Would we make it?
But I looked behind once more and realized that the water rush was only 15 feet away from us. We could not outrun it, but I had another idea.
"Charlotte, the water rush is too close for us to outrun it. We'll have to jump at the last minute!" I told Charlotte.
"Wait, what?" said Charlotte as she looked behind and was horrified by the sight of the water rush being so close to us.
"On the count of three. One, two, three. NOW!" I shouted.
We both jumped out of the tunnel and into the river as the water rush was so close to us that it was rubbing our backs. The water rush catapulted us further into the river. We both landed in the river and realized that we made it. We quickly and subsequently swam to the surface to catch our breath.
"Damn, for a second I thought we were gonners," Charlotte said.
"I've got to admit, that sneeze of mine was almost our undoing," I said.
"Well, at least we're still breathing," Charlotte replied.
"Okay, let's get out of here before…" I said.
Suddenly we could hear voices in the distance. The Confederates were looking for us.
"They likely made it out alive." shouted one of the soldiers. "Search the area and make sure that their corpses are floating in the river!"
"Son of a gun, they won't let up! Alright, plan B: let's hide under that pipe. Water is still pouring from it, so the waterfall should provide us cover," I said.
Charlotte and I both swam towards the pipe and hid under it. The soldiers were closing in, and we knew that this time, we wouldn't be able to outrun them if we were spotted once more.
"I don't see any bodies," said one of the soldiers. "Maybe the river whisked them away or something."
"I want to be extra sure that they met their maker. Besides, we're both going to receive disciplinary action from Harding if we come back empty handed," replied one of the soldiers.
The soldiers were now standing right next to us. I could hear them breathing heavily under the gasmask they were wearing. I started to quietly pray that we would be spared from death and given another chance at life.
"Seems clear to me," said one of the soldiers. "Let's just tell Harding that the river whisked their bodies away. I don't care if we're given disciplinary action."
"Fine," replied one of the soldiers. "Let's just get out of here and make sure that no other civilians make it out of town."
"But what about the two sewer rats, sir?" another soldier asked.
"Fuck 'em. I don't see the point in retrieving their corpses when we could just kill the other civvies," replied one of the soldiers.
The soldiers started to move out and walked back to town. Charlotte let out a deep sigh of relief, and we both made our way across the wide river.
When we reached the other end of the river, we got out of the water and looked behind to see that Meppel was reduced to ashes. My town, the one place I called home, was gone.
"Watfen, I'm sorry. I wish more could have been done to save Meppel," Charlotte said.
"Why did it have to come to this?" I said. "Is this the price we pay for trying to live in peace during a time of war?"
I couldn't help but look down, knowing that I did nothing to save my home. But we were taken by surprise, and my instincts told me to run and pray that Charlotte and I would make it out alive.
"Watfen, I know how you feel. I'm also saddened by what happened. But right now, we need to get to safety as soon as possible. We can't afford to suffer the same fate as those caught in the attack," Charlotte said.
"But where can I go?" I replied. "My only home has been decimated by the Confederates."
"That doesn't mean it's lost forever," Charlotte replied.
"What do you mean?" I said.
"Watfen, are you willing to fight for your beliefs?," Charlotte said.
"Fight? You mean enlist in the Army?" I said.
"Precisely," Charlotte replied.
At first, I thought Charlotte was joking. But her straight face and serious tone said otherwise.
"Charlotte, how can my services be of any use in the Army? I'm just a pastor," I said.
"People in this country didn't join the Army solely because of universal conscription, but also because they lost their homes and wish to return to their original ways of life. They need a voice that's willing to guide them to victory and empower their morale. You have something that no other individual in Gallia has, Watfen. You have the voice our country needs," Charlotte said.
I had a hard time believing what she just said, but I understood where she was going. To Charlotte, the lecture I conducted earlier today was a testament to my ability to persuade others to believe in hope and prosperity. If it worked with my pupils, then surely the same could apply to soldiers.
Suddenly half-a-dozen Gallian soldiers appeared in the distance and were closing in on us.
"Ms. Dujour!" one of the soldiers shouted.
"Ms. Dujour, are you alright?" the soldier asked.
"Yes, and I owe my life to this man. He managed to get me out of town safe and sound," replied Charlotte.
The soldier looked at me with a curious face. He was wondering how a pastor was able to save a Gallian agent from Confederates.
"What's your name, son?" the soldier asked.
"Watfen. Jacob Watfen," I replied.
"Watfen, we simply can't thank you enough for looking after Ms. Dujour. She is one of Lady Cordelia's finest agents, and I'm certain your actions will not go unrewarded," the soldier said.
"What do you say, Watfen? Still want to help others reclaim their livelihoods?" Charlotte asked.
After all I've done, and considering that Meppel was razed to the ground, I couldn't say no. Besides, what else was I supposed to do?
"Gladly," I replied.
Upon hearing my response, Charlotte and the soldier smiled. I was ready to help them push back the Confederates.
"Alright, in that case, we'll have to quickly head back to Randgriz and let the others know of what happened here," the soldier said. "By attacking Meppel, the Confederates are inviting us to war. We'll gladly accept their invitation."
And so we started to head for Randgriz, knowing that the only way to avert future Confederate disasters was to fight back and reclaim what was stolen from us.