A Story of Cinders: From the Ashes

Chapter 34: The Point of No Return

   Will had been silently staring at his desk for several minutes. Across from him, Louis, Red, and John were sitting. Waiting for him to do anything.

"Well..." Louis finally said in his low grumble. He couldn't take the silence anymore.

"For once, I don't know what to say," Will said, dejected.

"Then why bother meeting with us?" Louis said, annoyed.

"Because something needs to be said. About this... situation that we're in."

"About how we're a man down, and probably about to head into an open war woefully in over our heads

"In over our—we're not in over our heads here," Will continued. "Outmatched and outnumbered? Definitely. But we can handle this. We knew what we were getting into, here. You all did when you signed up for this."

"Really. Do explain. I'm quite anxious to hear your plan for this..." Will looked him in the eyes. Dead serious. Then burst into laughter. John rolled his eyes. "Great. He's manic now. Now we're never gonna get a coherent thought from him."

"What's so funny..." Louis growled.

"No more covert nonsense, no more pretending to be nice, no more bloody grimdark attitude. God, this is... Liberating!"

"Glad you're enjoying this... Meanwhile, we need a plan, or thousands of people are going to get killed," John said, trying without much hope of actually getting Will back on track.

"What we need is manpower. And that manpower needs motivation. You can give a farmer a shotgun, but that won't make him want to use it," Louis commented. Will stopped laughing, his eyes darted back to Louis.

"Yes! That's what we need! Some support from the neighbors!" He raised his hands up and forward excitedly. "We can turn this into a full-fledged revolution! Go the extra mile! You know, why just stop at killing Karlov," Will exclaimed, now standing up from his desk, pacing around the office. "Why not go all the way, take 'em out of here for good!"

"Wait, wait, wait, are you changing the mission? I didn't sign up to be a revolutionary!" John vocalized.

"Secondary objective, whatever. First and foremost is still killing Karlov."

"You're getting off track," Louis said, staring Will in the eyes.

"Oh but I'm not! Try to keep up, mate!"

"There's a fool's errand..." Louis muttered under his breath.

"So we start recruiting! Throw some messages around to the other nearby cities. If we stand together, we just might be able to pull this off."

"I'm sure this city will stand with you, but the others? I don't know we can get that to work..." Louis replied.

"The more I think about this, the more I'm actually starting to like it," John admitted, sounding almost ashamed. "As much as I don't like the thought of putting civilian lives on the line, the Army was all-volunteer. And the bigger we make this, the easier it'll be to finish this off. But, how do we go about making this happen? Louis here has a point. The other towns doubtless are terrified," John commented, his thoughts went to Homestead. It was the city John had met the others. Charlie stopped that from being taken over. Now that town is ashes and cinder. That's what happens when people resist the Zhar-Ptitsa. When they rebel. That's what happened to the world before.

"Well, we have to show them that they have it in em!" Will said, staring at the window. "Their whole situation is like a rock, teetering on the precipice of a cliff. All we have to do is push it a little, let nature take care of the rest."

"And if the others decide not to join? If we can't push hard enough?" John asked, worried about what Will's response might be.

"We leave them be. Not their fault they're afraid." He looked back over his shoulder at the others. "Everybody out! I need to think!" He screamed at the others. Without hesitation, they all scurried out of the room.

Louis sat in his room, staring at nothing. The room was empty, but he was not alone. The Baron was there, still. Not speaking, but not silent. "We have to speak, Baron. About what you know that I don't."

"You don't want to know, Louis," the Baron hissed. The two had kept each other company for the seven years of wasteland following the Day of Fire, as well as some time before. How much time exactly? Nobody knew. Except maybe the Baron.

"If I didn't want to know, I wouldn't be asking," Louis grumbled aloud.

"No, you really don't. That's why we're talking."

"We're talking because I want to know."

"You misunderstand me. If you really did, if you always did, there would be no you and I speaking. Because there would be no you and I."

"You're not making sense..."

"We are insane, after all, what did you expect? Now please stop asking. There isn't room for three of us in here."

"What the hell are you saying?" Louis was indignant now.

"If I tell you, you'll make another of us, and then you'll forget everything I said."

"Are you saying that whatever happened to us was too much for me to handle, so I made you to deal with it?"

"More or less... Or maybe vise versa. Who knows?"

"Then tell me this at least. What is it about Damion that sets you off?" Damion was a German man, and one of the hitmen Karlov sent after them. He was giant like the Brawler. But Damion was taller. Stronger. Faster. Better in almost every way.

"He was there when we were made. Some of those scars are from him." And with that, the Baron went silent, leaving Louis to sit and let those words stew. Alone.

A message flashed on Will's holographic screen. From Karlov. It simply read "Koyec. Three days. We'll meet in person."

Will stared at the message, in complete silence, taking in what he was reading. Letting it set in. A shadowy figure was reading it over his shoulder. The figure was known as Nox. He was dressed all in black robes, with no part of the man underneath exposed, save for the lower half of his face. Everything about him was a mystery. Even his voice was modulated to a computer-like tone. Nox also stood in silence. For several minutes, they read that message over and over, quietly understanding the implications. This could very well be it. Everything they had been working towards, now heading toward them in full force. Maybe now was time to start thinking about what would come next. A wide, toothy grin slowly started to crack across Will's face. Then he started giggling, bouncing up and down in his chair like a giddy child on their way to Disneyland. "Can ya believe this?" he asked Nox, still grinning widely. "We got him out! We don't even have to do the whole revolution thing anymore! We can finally end this damn thing!"

"Do you have a plan for that?" Nox asked in his monotone electronic voice, hiding a slight grin. "I doubt they will let us bring weapons in for negotiations..."

"Aye, true. That's what the A-Team's for! We've got an assassin, and a sniper, too!"

"I'm sure John will be pleased to finish his mission."

"Mission? What mission?" Will asked, finally swiveling around in his chair to face Nox.

Nox slightly shook his head. "You should research your team more. John was on a task force to stop Karlov from using his bombs. The mission was a complete failure, and he was the only survivor."

"How'd it go awry?"

"No record. Doubtless he's the only one who knows and even then only a fragment of the story."

"Then he'll be eager for a shot at redemption here."

"They'll all be eager for a shot. And I use the word shot here literally."

Will chuckled a little. "So I've got a plan. Feel free to give me any more advice."