Chapter 6: Blockade Break
Courtney's Resistance headed from the woods to the river, but ran into a blockade with a police officer on a horse. "I'm sorry, but we have to keep the area blocked," he said.
"Why?" Courtney asked.
"Oh, you know, danger… caution… condemnation…" he rambled.
"Do you even know what you're talking about?" Courtney asked.
"I don't have to explain my actions to you," he said. Several other mounted police officers appeared from around the blockade, "The point is, my troop here is guarding this."
"Guarding it from what?" Courtney asked.
"That's not the point!" the Mountie responded, indicating all too clearly he was incredibly confused.
Courtney ran back to talk to her team and said, "I hate to get into a fight with the RCMP. I'd like to think that they'd be on our side here. But we cannot allow them to block our way to the river. Let's just try to break through the blockades as quickly as possible."
Courtney, Gwen, and Noah all had the upper hand here, as they could attack the blockades from several feet away. Katie and Sadie made a vow not to attack any of the officers unless they attacked first. Due to this reasoning, several of them fell. Alejandro, meanwhile, was being battered silly by several of them.
Duncan decided to try to reason with the confused Mountie. "Hey what's going on?" he asked.
"We have to keep this area blocked or else," the confused Mountie began. "Hey, wait a minute! You're Duncan!"
"Uh-oh," Duncan said guiltily.
"Send in reinforcements!" the confused Mountie shouted.
"Oops," Duncan said warily. Three Mounties who appeared to be a higher rank than everyone there came from the northwest. Duncan was highly intimidated by them. Honestly, so was the rest of the team. Geoff and Cody both considered attacking them, and then thought they couldn't possibly win and backed away. Noah and Gwen were wary of attacking them, even though they could without being counterattacked, because they knew that just one hit from them would result in fatality, and exposing themselves to them was not smart.
The only people who stood a fighting chance against them were Alejandro, Katie, and Sadie. And even then, Alejandro's status as human shield was dwindling quickly. Katie would soon surpass him in defensive prowess. The three of them managed to distract and block the reinforcements, while Cody and Geoff did the relatively safe task of breaking down blockades.
The confused Mountie decided to attack Duncan. "Aha! I've fought your kind before," Duncan said.
The confused Mountie briefly forgot their earlier discussion, and asked, "Duncan, is that you?"
"You know it!" Duncan shouted.
"I won't hold back on you," the confused Mountie said, and he attacked Duncan, but missed. Duncan managed to attack him, although it didn't do as much damage as it could have. Courtney then decided to help Duncan out.
She asked the confused Mountie, "Excuse me sir, but would you mind moving?"
He responded, "Sorry but we have to keep this area blocked or else…" He paused. "Something bad will happen," he finished.
"Please, for the good of the world," Courtney begged.
"I'm just doing my job," the confused Mountie responded. Courtney sighed and pulled out her magic book, sending a ray of light at him. She didn't want to fight him, but he was fairly annoying. It seemed that she had no choice. Cody and Geoff, meanwhile had almost finished breaking down the blockades. There was only one left. They decided to head over there. Unfortunately, Cody was caught by the confused Mountie who said to him, "I know we have to keep this area blocked but I don't remember why." He then thrust his lance directly at Cody, who did a somersault to avoid being hit. In turn, Cody landed one last blow.
"But we… must… keep… the… area… blocked…" the confused Mountie said as he fell.
Geoff struck the final blockade down, after which a random officer shouted, "Oh, no! The blockades are broken! Our plan is ruined. Let's get out of here!" The remaining officers all fled. Courtney observed the scene.
She asked Duncan, "What was that about?"
"I don't know," Duncan said, "Don't ask me."
"I certainly hope we made the right choice," Gwen said.
"The fact that you said that means we didn't," Noah responded.
"Not necessarily!" Cody argued.
"Well, that's not important right now. What is important is that we trudge onward," Courtney responded. "To the river! Oh, that's strange…"
"What's strange?" Duncan asked, "What's strange?"
"Who are those people coming over the hill?" Courtney asked.
"It looks like… Chris's Army! Let's scram!" Duncan shouted, as Courtney's Resistance headed for the river, leaving Cody behind.
Cody looked around and asked, "Guys? Guys? Wait up, please!" He ran as fast as he possibly could to catch up but failed.
Noah and Gwen looked at each other. Noah said, "Oh for the love of…" They both turned around and went to get Cody, and fled to the riverside as soon as possible.
Author's Note: Goodies available for this chapter include alternate versions of the ending dialogue (Duncan died; Noah died; Gwen died; Cody or both Gwen and Noah died), Courtney and Alejandro's Support (Level C) and Courtney and Bridgette's Support (Level C).