To Where the Sun Rises (Part 2 of 'A Tale of People and Apples' Trilogy)

Chapter 4: Leaving Home

It was less than a day of Luka's command and he had already made a critical error.

He left the walls unguarded, unaware that Markus would attack so soon. How could he be so naive?

The council rushed to the armory and the front gate as Eeva yelled from the platform. "Soldiers! New Gen! To the front gate!" Her voice echoed throughout the city and beneath their Field above, panic spreading through the population, but also determination and comradery.

Julien had heard the call and arrived to the armory first. He opened the giant metal door and started passing out weapons and blue helmets laced with Orca teeth to New Gen members and soldiers, all dressed in dark blue uniforms laced with shining plates and dark combat boots.

He hesitated as he passed Luka his Sea Steel shield which resided in the armory, and Luka couldn't help but notice Julien's jealousy that a foreigner was given such a tool by his slain leader. While the other steel and shields of Orconia were capable of deflecting the Outlander's bullets, Luka's Sea Steel shield could probably last at least ten strikes from a Six's swing of their sword. Eventually he passed the piece of metal to the Wolf.

Luka reached into the armory and passed Tristan a pistol, along with the last of the ammo that they recovered on the bodies of the Outlanders the night before. Tristan shook his head.

"Luka, you were raised with this thing. Keep the ammo for yourself, we need to make every bullet count."

Luka looked to the gun and then to his friend, and calmly said, "That's what I'm doing."

Tristan nodded and took the black metal in his hand. He could see the New Gen members recoil at the sight of it, the device that caused them so much destruction the night before.

After Luka, Eeva, and the Hosts were fully armed, they met at the look out atop the front gate and looked down. To the right of the gate was a group of ten Outlanders, dressed in black and yellow and steel, surrounding Markus in a circle who was cutting at the wall with smooth strikes of his blade. Golden stone chipped away at each strike. The energy from Markus's power tightening whatever he held even more, in this case his sword, to inconceivably compact particles capable of cutting through the hardest of surfaces.

They had to pry him off.

"We need to chain him," Calysa said to the others. "We can end this right now."

"You're right. Laplan, that blade he has, can you make him stop swinging?" Luka asked the Tiger.

Laplan breathed in a moment and closed his eyes, as if he was in a state of meditation, feeling all the magnetism around and coursing through him, reaching out and touching what was tangible and that he could feel from afar. "He's strong. I could stop that blade from swinging for a minute, tops."

"Good, do it when we get out there. Tristan, as soon as you're out of the gate I need you to gun down his guards. Calysa, Goddard, you're with me. We'll tackle him and tie him up."

Eeva scowled at Luka because she had no role in his plan. He wondered a moment if it had anything to do with how she pushed him off earlier as well. Noticing her scorn, he said to her, "Your people cannot risk losing you. Stay here."

I can't risk losing you, he thought to himself.

Luka realized Eeva was scowling for other reasons, too. "Luka, we can't risk losing you, either," She said incredulously. "Your plan is to go and have a fist fight with a Six, and risk losing our Hosts and our leader?"

Luka looked down ashamed. Tactically, his plan was irrational. He had acted on emotion, which was so strange for him, usually so logical in times of conflict and stress. He realized it was his guilt putting himself in harm's way, which propelled him to fight for the people rather than making the people fight for him.