Children's Draft

Chapter 21

(Holly's PoV)

The boys who had been shot were making some progress. It probably would have been helpful for them to be able to get some rest, but staying in one place for too long was dangerous.

"Where exactly are we headed?" Tristan asked.

"Currently, we're just trying to stay on the move," I responded. "At some point we might want to try to get back to our old base, since that's theoretically a safe spot. However we don't really know where we are right now, so-"

I was interrupted by a flash. I gripped my gun even tighter, although I was extremely puzzled.

"Is it supposed to storm?" Landon asked.

"I don't know anything about meteorology," I answered, glancing up at the sky, my guard rising at an alarming rate.

The leaves and bushes rustled and there seemed to be indistinct chatter.

I began to aim my weapon and I heard someone shout. "There they are!"

I was about to shoot when a group of what appeared to be rich Americans came running through the bushes.

They had cameras and large microphones and began cheering upon seeing us.

A perky blonde woman walked up to Landon to shake his hand. "Amanda Byrd," she introduced herself. "I'm with America's Morning Report. We've been looking for you for days. I'm so glad we found you before any of our competitors."

"You're with the news?" Landon asked, confused.

The woman just laughed. "Of course, sweetie." She ruffled his hair. "Nothing stops us from getting the story to the viewers first."

Growing impatient, I asked. "Why are you here?"

"Well honey..."

I rolled my eyes at the nickname, but I think she was too self-absorbed to notice.

"We wanted the first interview."

Our entire group shared looks of confusion.

Amanda Byrd gasped. "Oh my goodness, do you not know?" She motioned for a camera-man to come beside her. "Quick. I wanna get this on video." She paused for a moment while he set up a camera angle.

"You kids won us the war."

I nearly dropped my weapon. We had done it. It actually worked.

"Wait, what all happened?" I stammered.

"Come on, our plane is parked in a nearby field. We'll explain everything on the way," she said, then went back to beaming at the camera.

We made our way to the plane, most, if not all, of us still thoroughly confused about what was going on.

Amanda was more caught up with interviewing the boys than explaining anything though. After just one look at Connor, her eyes went wide. "Don't worry, we've got medical personnel back on the plane."

"But someone, get a picture first," she called out. "I can see the segment now," she announced. "The physical and mental scars of war. Oh that is so good!"

I asked one of the interns about the state of the war and she was at least able to give me a straight answer.

Apparently without Xang-hao Li, the rest of the Chinese government didn't know what to do about the war. He had been too paranoid to prepare any line of succession, so much of his government's continuity died with him. No longer holding the upper-hand, the surviving military officers felt vulnerable and decided it was better to sign a peace treaty before risking any sort of retaliation attack, given the trigger happy history of their enemy.