Everett: Revised edition

Chapter 22

A group of young soldiers holding rifles in their hands met up on the outskirts of the SchoolYard in a clearing of trees. The sky was blue, and the sun was starting to descend from its highest point. They scanned the horizon and the trees with stoicism set upon their brows. Same as the day the Shadow Council invaded, the SchoolYard and the surrounding property were quiet.

Back in the SchoolYard, guards were stationed to prevent the younger students from interfering.

The soldiers on the small hill near the tree clearing had been searching the outskirts of the SchoolYard for a couple hours now. They had not found signs of The Head Admin, but the day was still young enough in Julien's eyes to continue the search. Most of the soldiers had stayed clustered together with a few small factions splitting off to search further. Some of the factions, like mine, had come back to check in with Julien and some had stayed out intent on finding the renegade immediately.

While gathered back together and discussing our next move, the soldiers flitted up their eyes as a soft sound rustled through the leaves. A soft breeze ruffled the edges of our hair. Over the horizon black silhouettes emerged. The silhouettes became clearer as they stormed on as steadily as if nothing was in their way. The metal pieces of the guns click-clack together as our soldiers shifted their guns in preparation.

Julian tapped the face of a watch strapped on his left wrist and spoke, "They are on the rise". A voice crackled from the wrist device, "How many are there?" Greg said.

Julian responded into his watch, "a large handful."

"Then do what you have to to keep the SchoolYard."

"Confirmed," Julian said and then turned to his right. "It's our turn," Julien said to the person beside him. He gave the signal, and the troops assumed their position.

I assumed my position by working my way to the back of the troops. I looked around to see if any more soldiers were coming from the SchoolYard. The land between us and the school was deserted, and not all of our search units were back. I looked forward to the approaching troop who had picked up speed as they saw us standing here. We were equally numbered.

The space between me and the Shadow Council soldiers lengthen to a great expanse as well. They had begun to charge towards the approaching troop to meet them on the advance. I pulled my weapon from its holder and jogged behind. The clash of guns slapped through the ranks as the two troops intertwined. A great force would be the only thing to separate each side as they interlocked.

It was still early in the evening, so the blue sky still floated over the battle providing its daily levity with a first drop of liquid orange. The sun and sky of a nice day provided its energy to everyone on the battlefield. It didn't to me though. I swung my head back and forth perpetually as I watched the fighting in front of me.

Almost as if the world were cast into slow motion, a Community soldier popped up on my right side. I swung my [gun-ladened] hand across the soldier's face. He stumbled a step back, and before he could get his footing, a tug of his back seemed to push him backwards again before falling to the ground. He had been shot. The Shadow soldier that shot him didn't stop and spend any time around us and the scene he had created. Instead, he flowed effortlessly into another action scene while leaving me with my mouth agape.

I saw another soldier running through the mass of people seemingly to approach me. With this, I ran. I ran with my feet slipping underneath me in the grass. As I ran, I came upon another mass of people where, at the last second, I put my shoulder down and rammed into a soldier. He went half spinning into the mass where the other soldiers caught and took care of him. It was like a maze getting through the barriers of soldiers where one wall was the Community and one was the Shadow Council and dead ends appeared with the connection of both sides.

I lost my footing with each dead-end pivot.

"Everett!" A voice yelled. I didn't know from whom or where the voice came, but in the noise and confusion, I looked up to see a Community soldier gearing up to take out one of our own. I was already on the ground, so I reached out to his ankles and yanked, sending the man falling. I stood up out of the way to allow some space between the man and myself, and in that split moment, the Shadow soldier shot the man.

The tug-of-war so far did not exhibit a clear winner. The battle had stayed centralized in the spot where the fighting began. No side gained ground, but with the bodies starting to pile on the ground, both had lost some.

When it started to seem like the battle would run all night, our people came from all corners of their search territories into view. Now instead of both sides being equally matched, we were fighting three to one. With each new unit to come out of the woods the Community army took a step back in retreat. We pushed and pushed until it became clear that one more push and their army would be steamrolled. This was when Julian came out in front, on the other side of their army, and landed a final blow to their troop general. The shock of the blow slowly seeped over the general's face like the slowly creeping blood on his shirt. He looked up over the heads of everyone in battle. "Pull back!" The general hollered loudly and clearly through the chaos. Then after seeing that his army was retreating, he looked back at Julian with a look that told me that he wasn't done with him yet.

Out of breath and panting, Julien raised his wrist, which was coated in specks of dirt and blood, to his mouth, "They've retreated."

"Good, pull back and we'll reconvene." Greg said from the other side.

......

The sun had shifted its weight and made its way down the sky. The drop of orange had spread out like dye in water. Just like the blue of the sky had pulled back to make room for the colors of evening, so too did the retreat of the soldiers. The soldiers' withdrawal exposed the carnage that was left behind. The blood-soaked ground did not form from wounded but from the dead. We did not have the luxury this time of casualties being cushioned by a non-bloodthirsty surprise attack. This time, the war wolves were ravenous, and we were prepared to run into more than just the Head Admin. We walked back to the SY, I looked back to see people laying on the ground motionless.

"We don't have the luxury of waiting. It's a necessity that we get our allies here and we march immediately. We can't withstand being hit tenfold by the combined strength of the Communities' armies." Greg had us gathered in a large meeting room. The atmosphere was stoic. "I'll send word to Annabeth to have the security systems down on the day of our attack. This will be our one last shot."

"I'll take a few people to gather the allies," Idressa said.

"And I'll need someone to make sure the Elders will be there to fill the power vacuum so that we have a seated leader to manage the populace," Greg added in. 

I listened quietly as the leaders threw plans back-and-forth. Once one caught hold of the plan, that leader added on until they threw the plan into the room and it was picked up by another. It was a rapid motion of players almost seamlessly moving the plan to its goal. It was heading, hopefully, to the final goal of victory.

I had tuned out most of the second half of the conversation. The uneasiness was starting to settle in my gut as I contemplated the finality of the expected outcome. After this day, nothing would be the same. 

The story is nearing an end. What do you think will happen? 

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