Remember

Chapter Thirty-Nine

"You mean to tell me you just let her walk into our camp? You're actually going to believe her?"

Colette had not seen Jordy since he had been flirting with the girl on the training field last week. She didn't know whether she was avoiding him or if he had been avoiding her. He had not shown up to any other of the training sessions -- of course his own arrogance led him to believe he needed to practice for his power -- and Colette was grateful. There would have been no way for her to stay focused on honing her own powers with him watching her, or rather him not watching her at all.

"Jordy, we don't have another choice. Would you rather sit here, do nothing, and wait for them to find us and kill us. Either way we die at least this way we have a chance of an upper hand." Kaden ran a hand through his hair as he paced across the room.

"If you keep pacing like that I'm going to kick you out of this room." Peyton groaned and for a moment everyone paused in confusion. Peyton rarely spoke. When he noticed all the eyes on him he shrugged. "It's making me nervous." He shrugged again and looked down at the floor.

"I agree, you're freaking me out. I don't need any more nerves right now." Maddie sat crisscrossed on the floor as usual, picking at her nails. "But Kaden is right. We have to take any advantage we can get. There are only so many of us, we can't win against Govies without any sort of upperhand."

"This is ridiculous." Jordy let out a sigh and hit his head against the wall he was leaning on. "We're all going to die. This is the end." He shook his head back and forth quickly.

"You're welcome to leave. No one is forcing you to be here." Everyone looked at Colette as she spoke as she had not said anything for the past hour they had been arguing over what they were going to do. "The door is right there. Leave. Hide. Be a coward." She stared at Jordy and he stared back. Confusion flashed across his features as if he couldn't possibly understand why Colette was being so hostile towards him.

He scoffed. "I don't abandon my friends and I am not a coward." He hissed the words out between his teeth and clenched his jaw in anger.

Friends. Jordy couldn't possibly understand what it meant to have friends. Friends don't complain when they might have to risk their lives for each other to save the world. Friends didn't act like assholes every time they opened their mouth. And friends definitely didn't comfort friends just to act like they didn't exist the next day.

"Hey." Kaden interrupted. "Save the fighting for the actual fight. It doesn't do any good to get angry at each other now. We need that anger for later."

Madie stood up. "So is it settled then? We take our chances with the Govie camp?" Everyone in the room gave a short nod. "Gather yourselves and meet at the gate in an hour. We don't have much time before the Govies come looking for us instead."

"If the government spy can even be trusted." Jordy grumbled and Madie shot him a look that immediately silenced him.

Kaden put an arm around Madie and kissed her on top of her head as they exited the office together. Colette pushed herself up off the ground and began to make her way to the door but found her way blocked by Jordy's arm.

"Move." Colette said bluntly, attempting -- and failing -- to push past him.

"I need to talk to you." He said softly.

Someone cleared their voice from behind the two. Peyton had his arms crossed as he looked between the door and Jordeen.

"Sorry." Jordy mumbled as he backed away from the door and let him out.

Colette tried to slip out with him but was pulled back by her arm and the door shut behind her.

"Please just let me explain."

"Explain what? How you made me feel something and then acted like I didn't exist after that?" Colette took a step away from Jordy and crossed her arms.

Jordy looked at the ground as he took his bottom look between his teeth, turning the skin white. "Colette..." He started. "You just don't understand."

"You're right Jordy. I don't. And it seems like you don't even have a viable answer. Don't worry. Your actions speak for you." She paused before continuing. "Would you like me to explain it for you?" When he said nothing she continued once again. "It meant nothing to you. You saw that I was vulnerable and you took advantage of my feelings. It meant nothing. You don't actually care." She started to turn towards the door to leave.

"Colette wait." Colette paused and looked back at him, waiting for an explanation. "I-" He still couldn't give her any answers.

"We have more important things to worry about than this." Colette turned the knob on the door and left him alone in the room.

Hopefully the anger welling up inside her would help her control her darkness when they find the Govie camp.

***

"I know you are nervous and I know what you're thinking 'we're doomed' and maybe we are. And maybe we are walking into a death trap. But you have to trust me on this one." The air was eerily still and the orange fog was unusually thick for this time of day as the sun was still shining bright above. "This our only chance."

Madie stood atop the gate, speaking to her people once again. It was like in the old fairytales where the Queen or King spoke words of confidence to their soldiers to spark bravery and courage in their souls before a big battle. This wasn't much different except for the royalty was now a bunch of misfit villagers with uncontrollable powers as weapons. At least the opposing kingdom was the same -- a bunch of tyrants who want nothing but blood and power. People who only want to prove their strength. Only their power is just to protect their secrets.

Colette stood at the foot of the gate along with Kaden and Commander Lorhan who held Mrs.Garner tightly by the arm.

"I do not blame you if you want to stay here and protect your family. I do not blame you if you are scared but we need you if we're going to win this. If we defeat these people, it's one more step towards the end. Little by little we can win this thing. We can finally live in peace and be ourselves without the fear of the government trying to kill us." Madie paused and looked around the crowd at all her people. "So follow us to the Govie camp and let's take this small step towards victory. I believe in us."

The villagers nodded a bit nervously and watched as the gates slowly swung open to reveal the clearing and then the vast forest beyond that.

Commander Lorhan shoved Mrs.Garner forward, nearly causing her to fall flat on her face since her arms were bound tightly behind her with a ripped piece of cloth.

"I'm not going anywhere you know." Mrs.Garner groaned as she tried to regain her composure. The woman had gained new bruises and cuts all over her arms and face most likely from Commander Lorhan's attempt to interrogate her for more information. Colette doubted she got anything useful out of her.

"Just shut up and lead us toward wherever your little Govie soldiers are camping." Commander Lorhan shoved Mrs.Garner forward once again.

"There's a river about two miles out, the camp is set up about a mile to the right. Just keep going stra-"

"I know where the damn river is." Mrs.Garner, luckily, stayed quiet. Now was not the time to anger the commander.

"Have you heard anything more about what kind of powers we're up against?" Prissy appeared by Colette's side, whispering the words cautiously.

Colette shook her head, slowing down so they were at the end of the convoy. "All I know is they are supposed to be weaker and opposite of the powers that Mrs.Garner saw back in the clearing..." Colette trailed of for a moment as the events from that night began to haunt her again. The darkness and the screams and blood. "I don't know what she saw. I try not to remember that night."

Prissy nodded. "We had the little boy with the electricity manipulation but I don't know what would be opposite of that. There was my nature power and the only thing I can think that would be opposite is something that would obliterate all the plants to where I can't use them but that's not weaker."

Colette took a deep breath and looked over at Prissy as she frowned. "I guess we'll find out when we get there."