2.3
Huh? I looked around, not noticing anything out of the ordinary. Who's here?
Blake stood up, and Corvus raised his head.
The army? I thought, feeling a bit exasperated. Looks like their four years of success are finally going to come to an end.
I was bracing myself to see soldiers emerge from the trees, surrounding us on all sides. Maybe the company I was in the day before had regrouped and were coming back for another try. If so, they were in luck as we were just chilling at camp, practically waiting for them to come shoot us down.
I've gone from one incompetent group to another, I thought sourly.
Corvus slowly stood up and walked into the tent. He stepped with a long, loping gait, and his lanky arms hung unbelievably low, fingertips not far from the ground. Even as he moved, he had the same prominent hunch that he'd had when he was sitting.
A few seconds after disappearing inside the brown canvas, he emerged with a gun in his hand. It was a black carbine rifle that was a similar size to the ones we used in the military, although its design was completely different.
Corvus stopped and stood silently, gun in his left hand as it hung limply by his side.
At least one of us is prepared.
Of course, if we were about to be surrounded, one person, no matter how powerful they were, wouldn't make any difference.
For the next minute or so, I craned my neck and strained my ears, trying to locate some sign of enemies.
Are they pranking me? I wondered. I looked at Nikki, who just kept her head down in silence.
Finally, a faint crunching sound reached my ears, and I turned towards it to see a single man stagger out of the woods and into the clearing. Nobody else came behind him.
The man was in terrible shape. His long hair hung in a tangled mess, and I was pretty sure I even saw twigs and leaves twisted into it. His face was splattered with congealed blood, there were dark circles around his eyes, and his clothing was covered in dirt and blood stains.
After such a big buildup, this guy was quite an anticlimactic conclusion. It looked like I was going to survive another day, though, so I couldn't complain.
He staggered forward a few steps until he reached a tree, which he set his arm on and leaned into with labored, painful movements. Even with the help of the sturdy trunk, it looked like he could barely maintain his balance as he raised his head to look forward.
There we go, I thought with satisfaction. That's a true rebel.
He was about as disheveled as someone could possibly be, and I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd been trudging through the woods for days on end without ever sleeping.
He'd noticed us, but didn't show any signs of moving from his place of rest against the tree. After a few moments of silent staring, Blake whispered something to Nikki and then approached the stranger.
Blake asked him if he was alright, and the man beckoned him to come closer. I couldn't hear the rest of their conversation, but the man talked with his head down, never once meeting Blake's eyes. Despite his condition, it seemed like this guy had a lot to say.
Without warning, the conversation ended, and the man continued walking, straight through the clearing. He stumbled slowly past us and into the woods on the other side, eyes locked on the ground all the while. Every swaying step he took looked excruciating.
I returned my gaze to Blake, only to see that he hadn't moved an inch. He stood still with his arms at his sides and his back facing us.
The man had long left the clearing, but still, no one spoke. Blake looked as if he'd been frozen in time.
Seconds ticked by, and I aimlessly looked around, trying to act like I was doing something. Nikki scratched her ear, but it didn't look like she was intending to break the silence. Corvus returned his gun to the tent before sitting back down, quietly assuming his usual hunched posture.
I wasn't about to speak up at a time like this, so I resigned myself to our fate and stared at the ground in front of me.
Another minute or two later, Eve emerged from the woods. She walked into the clearing, looked around at each one of us, and promptly stepped into the tent without making a noise.
Wondering how long this could possibly go on for, I opened my mouth, deciding to go ahead and say something, but at that moment, Blake turned around.
Phew.
I couldn't imagine what that guy had said to Blake, but it must have been significant. He returned with slow steps before stopping and looking off into the distance.
With a deep sigh, he addressed us in his usual business-like tone, although he did sound oddly tired. "I've been thinking carefully."
You could say that again.
"We should get on the move now. It's time to go to Portland."
Portland? I was clueless. At first, nobody responded. Nikki looked frightened. Did she know what was going on?
Eve stuck her head out of the tent. "Alright, what happened?"
Blake glanced in her direction and said, "We got some news."
"Yeah and what is it?" Eve spoke sharply, completely unperturbed by how tense the atmosphere had become.
"…I'm not certain about anything, so I don't want to concern you with it." Blake was very hesitant in his response.
Eve raised her eyebrows. "You just said we're getting on the move, so obviously it concerns us. Come on, just spit it out."
Blake thought for another moment or two, while Eve sighed loudly and continued to make her impatience known. She looked like she was on the verge of storming off into the woods again.
Finally, she cracked and said, "Dude, who do you think you are?"
Unaffected by her attacks, he continued to ponder things silently.
He cleared his throat.
"I guess I should tell you all. The man said his squad got torn apart by a certain rebel. Actually, he wasn't sure if anyone other than himself had survived. Apparently, the rebel had said they were looking for someone. One of his squad members overreacted and confronted them, and it turned into a messy fight."
Eve, fed up with waiting, replied immediately. "That's a great story, but how does it affect us? And who is this 'certain rebel' person? You said you'd tell us."
She looked even less patient than she'd been before hearing the story.
"It affects us because we aren't sure who she's hunting. As long as there's a chance she's after us, we should assume that she is. The price on our heads is too high for us to rule out that possibility. Besides, you know I want to go to Portland, and, now that we have Jelani, we might be able to make it happen. We'll take a drawn-out, unpredictable path, which will make it difficult for anyone to trace us and give Jelani some time to get stronger."
"Why the hell would we do that?" Eve wasn't satisfied. "There's only one person, right? Since when have we had to run from a single person?"
Blake swallowed. "This isn't the first time I've heard of her. I have the impression that she's a real danger."
When she heard this, Eve's annoyed expression melted away instantly. Her forehead relaxed and a smirk spread across her lips. "Hang on. She? You're scared of a girl?"
Blake smiled dryly and replied, "I'm just being logical."