The truck screeched to a halt. Noah and I were thrown back, the crowns of our heads slamming against the cold metal. I rubbed my head as I rolled up into a seat.

Noah and I didn’t say a word, just turned to face each other. He nodded. There was a mutual understanding. We must’ve come to a checkpoint. We only had a minute.

The driver was speaking to someone, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying. The voices were muffled from under the burlap sack where we had been hiding. I bent low, lifted it slightly, and poked my ear out.

“—hiding anyone?” I caught the end of the guard’s sentence.

“Sir, I say you again, I am day trader. I come to mountain to sell a Askope market. Only animal in zee back - zey will ‘scape.” The driver said in a thick accent.

“Askope.” I turned and mouthed to Noah. He raised his eyebrows in surprise. We were closer to the compound than we thought.

“Zee animals eez awful quiet.” Mocked the guard. I heard him clearly this time. The voice was unmistakable, full of its signature contempt. Jamie was here.

I whipped my head around to Noah. He had noticed too. His jaw clenched as he tightened his hand around his long knife. I pulled my two throwing knives out of my boots. It was all we had.

I heard Jamie’s loud, steel-toed boots clomping towards the back door. The driver quickly open his door.

“Please sir, I tell you—“

I heard the crack of bone and a helpless cry. The man went silent.

I felt a rage I hadn’t felt since Jamie betrayed Noah, Marcus, and I 5 months ago. Marcus had been killed in that fight. I tried to kill Jamie after that, but Noah had pulled me away. We’d been on the run ever since. Jamie had the power of the rulers behind him, but we were the last rebels left who believed we could win back peace for our people. We couldn’t be caught. We knew they would make an example out of us. The people needed hope.

“Three.” Whispered Noah.

I emerged from my murderous reverie and took in what he was saying. There were three distinct voices. Jamie wasn’t alone.

I sighed in frustration. Noah and I were good fighters, but so was Jamie. We had all trained together. It would be better if Jamie and his goons didn’t know we were there.

I put a finger to my lips, signaling to Noah that we should try to hide first. We slowly inched towards the dark corner, where there were burlap sacks of rice that would blend in with the blanket we were under. I quietly pulled a tarp and some rope in front of us.

There actually had been animals in the back of the truck, but most had escaped when we jumped in back at Langstro village. There was only one pig and one goat left, and both seemed to have fallen ill, lying on their sides, eyes open and breathing, but not moving.

The back door was wrenched open.

“These animals are dead, mate.” Said a voice in a cockney accent I didn’t recognize.

Jamie’s heavy boots hopped into the back of the truck, inches from us. I held my breath.

“I don’t care about the animals.” Jamie barked. I heard a pained squeal from the pig. My body tensed up, my hands vibrating with fury. Noah’s cool hand grabbed my wrist, steadying me.

Jamie continued kicking every item in the truck. He grunted in frustration as he violently struck his steel-toed boot against the metal of the truck frame. The sound was deafening. He had a flashlight, and I could slightly make out his towering silhouette through the thick blanket. He hung his head and slammed his fist over and over into the metal, right where I had hit my head earlier. I sucked in a breath.

“They’re not here, mate,” said the man with the cockney accent.

One last kick and Jamie hopped down out of the cab.

“Let’s take his tarp. We could use it at camp.” I heard the cockney man say.

“Then get it.” Jamie said shortly as he walked away. Noah and I looked at each other, our eyes widening with panic. The cockney man hopped back in the truck and roughly grabbed the tarp and rope. Now only the blanket concealed us. We sat as still as possible.

He paused and stood for a second. Then leaned down and started grabbing bags of rice from around us.

This was it. I was ready, knives steady and primed in my hands. The cockney man reached down for the burlap blanket and pulled.

I immediately stabbed both my knives into his feet. He screamed as blood pooled around them. Heavy boots started running back towards the truck. Noah threw the blanket off of us and we sprung up and got moving fast, hopping down from the truck bed.

“It’s them! It’s them!” The man cried through whimpers of pain. There was nowhere to run, we’d have to get the unconscious driver’s keys to get out of there.

I slashed a knife through the arm of the first man who rounded the corner. Noah grabbed the other man by the arm, twisted it around his back, and dislocated it within 2 seconds. I raced around the passenger side of the truck, the opposite to where I’d heard the men running from. As I rounded the front of the truck towards the driver’s side, I was met with a fist to the face. The knives flew out of my hands. I felt my nose break. My vision went blurry..

No. I couldn’t let myself pass out.

I blindly swung back at Jamie, hitting him in the jaw. He growled, and I felt the hard steel of his boot connect with my stomach. I felt my ribs break. I gasped for air and fell to the ground. The pain was indescribable. There was a fury behind that kick that was intensely personal. I’d never experienced such unbridled rage before. I saw Jamie’s foot rear back to kick me again, lining up with my temple. Suddenly, my two knives flew by, one landing deep in Jamie’s lifted thigh, and one through his hand. He screamed in pain, but Noah had tackled him before he could touch the knives. Noah pulled the knife out of his hand and threw it in my direction, then pushed the knife deeper into his thigh. Jamie roared.

He tried to grab Noah by the throat with his uninjured hand, but Noah caught it mid-air, twisting his wrist painfully. Noah was quick, but I had never seen him like this. His instincts were primal, animalistic, fueled by a deep hatred instead of his usual stoic concentration.

From the corner of my eye, I saw one of Jamie’s goons picking himself up off the ground.

An ugly red wound slashed across his face, traveling from his forehead, through his eye, and down to a now sheared off earlobe. Blood poured from the wound, flowing down his cheek and saturating the formerly white shirt under his suit. His dislocated right arm hung limp, and there was a bloody hole in his left thigh, but he was slowly dragging himself towards Noah and Jamie. The other man stirred as well. I tried to pull myself up, but my head felt like it weighed a hundred pounds. I stayed lying down and used my arms to pull myself towards the knife Noah had thrown towards me. The limping man was focused on his target - he didn’t even bother to glance at me. With every heave, my vision darkened and got smaller and smaller, but I knew where I was going.

My hand closed around the hilt of the knife. My vision went black, but I never doubted my accuracy. I threw the knife with all the strength I had left, and it landed deep into the man’s ankle. I heard the man collapse right before I fell into complete darkness.

——————

I felt two sets of hands tight around each of my arms. My wrists and ankles were tied together, like I was about to be roasted on a spit.

I still felt the cool mountain air against my cheeks. I heard a sharp crack and a groan of pain. I dared to squint open my eyes, staying limp in every other way.

Noah was knelt on the ground, his face bloody, his wrists tied together, and with a knife to his throat. Jamie towered over him but Noah never broke eye contact.

“I saved your life.” Noah spat out. “Multiple times actually.”

“I could’ve saved myself just fine.” Jamie said coolly. “Although I suppose you’re right. Maybe I should let you go and just take her.” Noah wrestled violently in the arms of the men holding him. I recognized those two as the men who had been there before. So then who was holding me?

Jamie chuckled, but there was an annoyance in his tone.

“You just wanted to get her out of there so she wouldn’t be killed. So you could have her to yourself.”

“She’s always been the best of all of us. She would’ve killed you. I was showing you mercy, because I hoped there was still some good in you. But she was right. You’re repulsive. You deserve nothing.”

“I’m not repulsive.” Jamie snapped back. “She’ll see that.”

Noah thrashed again, not caring if it was futile.

“You’re threatened by me.” Jamie chuckled.

“No, I’m threatening you. You’re not going to touch her.” Jamie knelt down so he was eye to eye with Noah.

“I always win, Noah. I always win.” Jamie stood up, turned his back to Noah, and walked towards me.

“You’ll never beat her. She’ll kill you.” Noah yelled after him. Jamie waved him off lazily. He walked past me into whatever vehicle I was standing against.

“Take her.” He paused, “…and leave him. I want him to see this.” They pulled me roughly into the car, and before they closed the door, Jamie faced my seemingly unconscious body towards Noah and wrapped himself tightly around me from behind, running his hands all over my body, like he was claiming me as his property. It was nauseating.

But I didn’t struggle. Noah and I knew being captured was a possibility and we had planned for it - although we assumed we’d be together. I’d have to improvise. One of us had to get inside that compound if we had any chance of starting the uprising. He had to remember that.

I thought about what Jamie had said. Is it possible it was true that Noah had only stopped me from killing Jamie to protect me? Because he didn’t want to lose me? I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I felt a slight annoyance - did he not believe I was capable of winning?

But there was also a new energy in me. It was…fulfilling. Did I feel something else for Noah as well? I knew there was a strong bond there, but, there was something different about this energy. It made me feel…light. There was less heaviness in my world when I thought of Noah.

This was all coming from Jamie though. I knew better than to believe anything that came out of his mouth. I put it out of my head for the time being. I had to refocus on the mission.

I had to save my people.