35. The Side Effects of Having a Smart Aleck Best Friend
611 4 31
X
Reading Options
Font Size
A- 15px A+
Width
Reset
X
Table of Contents
Loading... please wait.

"What's the plan?" I repeated.

The government official guy didn't answer. He just gave me a long, weighted look.

I blinked a few times, tilted my head, and waited for him to say something.

He seemed to be waiting for me, trying to tell me something with... his eyes? I wasn't too sure. I searched his eyes for any clues. After a while, though, something clicked. Understanding dawned on me. I asked, incredulously, "Ambush? That's the plan?"

He lifted one eyebrow up.

I sputtered. "That's it? Ambush? That's all there is to your plan?"

He nodded once, then went back to observing the ongoings outside.

"What kind of plan is that? I don't know where I'm going, I don't know where you're going, and I have nothing to rely on! One word isn't a plan! Who plans like that anyway?!"

He glanced at me once and didn't reply.

"Hah," I huffed, sitting back on my heels, completely flabbergasted. I could have totally gone myself, then, if all he had in mind was go in and fight. What was the point of teaming up together if you didn't have a plan?

"Soon," he said abruptly.

"Soon?" I echoed. Soon what? Let's go soon? They'll be out soon? I'll think up a plan soon?! What did he mean?

He nodded at me without tearing his eyes from the scene beyond the wall. I threw up my hands. What did that mean now? Did he want me to get ready? Go ahead? Or was he acknowledging how I repeated "soon" back to him? I was on the verge of ripping my hair out. Who nods like that and doesn't say what they mean??

A loud cry snapped me out of my torrent of questions and brought my attention back to the little ones.

A man had come out of the house. He was roughly pushing the kids away, and the look on his face seemed jeering. I lurched forward, but my newfound partner hissed. 

Well, that I understood. He was telling me to stay put. I faced him angrily. "Stop stopping me!" I hissed back. "I have to--"

"We go," he interrupted, eyes still trained on the scene before us, "together."

"When?"

He seemed to wait for something, entirely focused on the man. My eyes shifted to the thieves as well, watching with growing dismay when two more strolled out, spitting on the ground and making threatening gestures to the kids. They laughed. I seethed at them silently, my fist clenching and unclenching as I imagined how great it would be to just sock them right out of this world. 

Wait. I counted the little ones in my mind. Where was Ryan?

The door opened again, and my silent question was answered at once. Ryan stumbled out, one hand twisted around his back by a fourth man coming out the door. I inhaled sharply, searching him for any bad injuries, but from this distance I really couldn't tell. The men all turned towards each other and began talking and laughing, their backs towards us.

Government official guy (still don't know his name) pressed on his cap a little more. He said something in a growl so deep I didn't recognize the word for a second, then bolted into action, unsheathing two little daggers from who-knows-where and moving so fast he was gone in a blur. I scrambled up after him in a hurry, bewildered. A second later, I belatedly realized that what he'd said. 

"Now."

I ran towards the house behind him and reached for my knife in my boot and feeling only my ankle. Confusion abruptly coursed through me before I remembered that I'd taken it out last night for sharpening. I cursed under my breath even as I sprinted, blindly following the back of a partner I didn't even know if I could trust. Now what?

Mr. Partner was super fast, though, and he crept up to the thieves before they could even see him. In a burst of energy, he whammed the back of his daggers across the neck of two of the men. They dropped like flies.

The third and fourth men jumped back and brandished their own weapons: a kitchen knife for one, and a sharp fireplace poker for the other. A stunned Ryan was jerked back as well by the one with the poker, which I recognized as the poker that hung in Mother Lily's kitchen "for decoration's sake." I cursed again.

The one with the kitchen knife began swinging the knife into long, wide arcs, swiping at the government official. Unfazed, he ducked a few times then slammed the blunt edge of the dagger onto the wrist of the man during an incoming swing. The knife tumbled harmlessly to the ground. Then he knocked the thief down with a hard blow to his stomach.

This all happened in a matter of seconds, and I still hadn't even reached the crowd yet. Good one, official, I thought. Sorry for doubting your apparently superior skills. I changed courses and ran to the little ones instead. Without a weapon on me, I'd probably be more of a bother anyway. He seemed to be holding up pretty well by himself.

The little ones were backing away from the fight, their side profiles reflecting part awe and part fear. Becca gathered her younger sisters close to her, and they all crowded around her. Which reminded me-- what about Mother Lily?

"Girls!" I shout-whispered, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible even as I ran at full speed. They were too caught up in the action right in front of them to hear me. Suddenly, they all gasped, and I followed their gaze and gasped myself. A fifth man had crept out of the house and was holding a long, metal pole in his hands, heading to the back of my dagger-wielding partner. 

I yelled a warning, but he was not in a position to respond me. He was too deeply engaged in fighting the man with the poker, who had an advantage with his long-range choice of weapon. He wouldn't be able to defend himself from both.

I patted my belongings in panicked hurry, slowing down a bit. I opened my bag and closed my fist around the first thing I made contact with, then whipped it out and threw it as hard as I could at the back of the man with the metal pole. The momentum of the throw almost threw me to the ground, but I watched as my round, hard apple drew a graceful arc in the air before plunking on the head of my target.

I pumped a fist to myself, reaching for more apples. Thanks, Ro, I thought gleefully. I'd developed such good aim when Rosa had insisted I keep throwing whatever object we could get our hands on so that she could "revel in the glory of perfect arcs." I had quickly become bored with just throwing things, though, and had started aiming. Who knew this would come in handy like this now?

The man was holding his head, looking up at the sky (since it was yet another graceful arc, my throws curved in the air and the apple came from almost directly above him). My apple-throwing skill was not hard enough to knock him out but weird enough for him to pause. I threw all the apples I had in quick succession and resumed sprinting to the little ones. They all found its mark, pelting the thief, and I watched with satisfaction.

"Ow!" grumbled the man, who finally turned around and discovered me. He swore me out loudly, the little ones gasped, and he pointed his metal pole at me. 

My partner official finished off the poker guy just as I reached the little ones. He turned to the one with the pole, and I left them to their own devices. The children rushed towards me. I briefly hugged them and checked for any big injuries, but it looked like they were all fine.

I looked up. "Ryan! You're too close! Come here!"

He finally noticed me. "Filian!" He started towards me, but by then the thief who'd had the kitchen knife recovered enough to stand up. He lunged towards Ryan and caught him, again, and I cursed under my breath.

"Stay back," I told the little ones, still out of breath from my sprint here. I eyed the man; he eyed me back, even as he held his middle where the government guy had elbowed him. My heart raced, partially from the exercise and partially from anxiety. What now?

Out of the corner of my eye (I didn't dare take my eyes off Ryan and the thief holding him), I saw my partner thrust his opponent back and turn to me. "Filian!" he yelled.

I briefly let my eyes fly to him, and he threw me the poker so that it landed by my feet. We exchanged a grim glance, then he whirled around and resumed fighting with the metal pole thief. I swept up the poker and gripped it with one hand, standing tall against the thief.

"Let him go," I said in a low voice.

The thief's eyes had taken on a level of uncertainty once I'd gotten the poker, but he only backed away with Ryan still in his grasp.

"I said," I growled, "let him go."

He cursed at me, sneering, and I could practically read the look on his face-- just a girl, he was trying to convince himself, she can't do much with that poker.

I smiled, though it felt more like I was baring my teeth at him. I tensed the muscles in my leg. Time to prove him wrong.

I exploded into action.


A/N: The side effects of having Rosa for a best friend are many, but one is getting used to elaborate planning and another is useless throwing skills. You go, Filly!

Also, I expect that a whopping total of zero (0) people saw my note on my profile page that I uploaded last night, haha. Well, to repeat, my laptop has suddenly gone blank (okay, not so sudden-- I've dropped it too many times that I should've known this was coming) and I'm dying. I'll be trying to get that fixed as soon as possible.

Guh.

Anyhow, updates may not be happening until this is resolved!

By the way, this chapter has been written and uploaded via my work computer (ahaha sorry not sorry for working on this while everyone else is in a meeting), but I probably won't be able to keep doing that. Whee!

31