6.2
Skye fell to her knees in the dirt.
Hoodsdale hated her. They'd shut the gate in her face.
She wiped her teary cheeks and stood up slowly, sniffling down the last of her sobs.
"What the hell's going on?"
It was a voice Skye hadn't heard since that fateful Halloween night, and she turned to find Echo's pink eyes staring her down.
Ever since Jelani's broadcast warning about Bone Creek and their leader, Skye, had reached them, the rebels had been cautious. On the journey to Hoodsdale, Yumi, Sasha, Corvus, Eve, and Echo had stuck tightly together, eyeing up the surrounding warriors as if they were mortal enemies.
"Why're you crying?" Echo demanded.
Skye took a deep breath.
"You should be crying too, Echo," she said grimly, "because Blake beat us."
Echo raised her eyebrows.
"What d'you mean? We haven't lost anything."
Skye dropped her eyes and quietly murmured, "We lost Hoodsdale."
"Tch," Echo scoffed. "Who gives a shit? You're on our side after all, right? We've got a whole army, so we can just beat up whoever we need to."
Skye smiled grimly. "So you trust us now?" she asked.
"Pretty much," Echo replied. "I guess Hoodsdale hates you for some reason, and that's probably why Jelani–"
Echo's sentence was cut off short by the crunch of wood getting snapped, and everyone in the area turned to see a pair of people tumbling through a hole in the pine trunk wall.
There was a sudden hiss, and a mass of warriors raised their weapons as the pair stood up and silently approached.
Echo's mouth opened slowly.
"Jelani."
She'd spoken so softly that the only person who could hear her was Skye, and in response, Bone Creek's leader raised her voice, commanding her army to let the strangers through.
Jelani didn't look to either side as he trudged forward through the crowd, eyes set determinedly on Echo.
And she looked back at him, the faintest traces of a smile appearing on her lips as she watched the boy who'd struggled into Portland with her, never wavering and never leaving her side.
Without hesitation, Jelani stepped forward and threw his arms around her.
Echo stood frozen in his embrace, responding with nothing but a blink of her eyes.
But then her soft smile reappeared, and she lifted her hands to his back, pulling him in even closer.
Jelani let her go and stepped away, meeting her gaze with a smile of his own.
They exchanged no words, and Jelani finally turned to observe the crowd of warriors he'd just walked into.
"Are you Jelani?"
He looked at the woman standing next to Echo and nodded once. "Who are you?"
Skye knew what the reaction to her name was going to incite, but she confidently said it anyway.
"Skye."
Jelani's eyes instantly narrowed.
"Skye?" he repeated accusingly. "Why is it that you have a death wish for Hoodsdale?"
Skye placed the palms of her hands together and pleaded, "I promise I don't have any bad intentions towards Hoodsdale, so please, believe me."
"Really?" Jelani retorted. "Then why'd that pumpkin-head machine gunner insist that you sent him?"
"P-pumpkin head?" Skye stammered.
Jelani stepped forward, teeth gritted at Skye's innocent expression, but a hand on his shoulder made him stop short.
"Stop, Jelani!" Nikki gasped, still panting after their frantic escape from Hoodsdale. "I believe her! She isn't lying!"
Jelani side-eyed Nikki begrudgingly, but he finally admitted defeat and stepped backwards, now noticing the hundreds of glaring eyes pointed in his direction.
Nikki raised her hand to Skye and greeted, "I'm Nikki! It's nice to meet you."
Skye nodded silently, desperately trying to wrap her head around what was happening.
"Who's the pumpkin head, Jelani?" Echo asked.
Jelani's tense expression relaxed, and he quickly turned to Echo and said, "He showed up and basically took over the city, saying that he was working for Bone Creek. Apparently he got taken out, though, so he isn't around anymore."
"Taken out?" Echo repeated questioningly.
"He got killed," Jelani clarified. "By Blake's guys."
"Skye." This time, it was Odin's deep, curt voice that spoke. "We shouldn't stay here."
Skye looked at him and nodded shakily.
"yeah… Yeah, let's move out a bit."
– – – – –
The day had turned dark, and Bone Creek's army settled down a few miles west of Hoodsdale to spend the night. They were gathered in groups around a collection of little fires, and the rebels again found themselves in the presence of Skye, Faye, and Odin, discussing their next steps and any possible way forward.
But this time there were two additions: Nikki and the unusually energetic Jelani, who had spent the last five minutes describing the massive machine gun 'Pumpkin' had been carrying around in great detail.
"So anyway," he continued. "You could barely see his clothes 'cause they were so dark and–"
"Yo." Echo interrupted. "We don't care."
"Sorry!" Jelani exclaimed, bowing his head as if addressing a captain. "Basically, Pumpkin took over by force, and he put a bunch of restrictions on what could come in and out, like crops. Everyone was starving, and it wasn't long before they all heard that Bone Creek was behind it."
"Yesterday, there were rumors of an incoming attack, and people started freaking out. That night, it actually happened! Rogues broke into the city and started attacking people. It's a mess in there right now."
"But then Blake's guy with the long hair showed up, and he actually went around saving people! I followed him as he took out all the rogues, and then…"
Jelani froze with his mouth open, and all the energy on his face melted away.
The memories of the events leading up to his blackout had been temporarily erased from his memory, but now they came flooding back.
"What?" Echo demanded.
"Did you fight?" Eve, who was leaning against her mother's side, quietly ventured.
Jelani's mouth snapped shut, and Echo's mouth split into a wide grin.
"Loooooser," she drawled.
Jelani's eyes were directed straight into the orange flames, wishing he could step inside them and burn to ash.
"You should be pissed off," Echo continued. "You lost, didn't you?"
Jelani gritted his teeth.
I am pissed off. I am pissed off!
Shame welled up inside him until he couldn't bear to remain in Echo's sight any longer, and he stood up and turned around, disappearing into the mass of silhouetted warriors.
Jelani wound his way through the crowds and away from the flickering campfires, searching for a place that was dark and quiet.
When the noise of voices finally faded away behind him, he set his fist against the bark of a thick trunk and leaned against it with a sigh.
I am pissed off, Echo. I am.
"Jelani?"
"AH!"
Jelani leapt around and raised his fists instinctively, peering between his forearms at the mysterious silhouette of a person.
She giggled and said, "It's Eve."
"oh," Jelani gasped, lowering his arms.
For a moment, they stood there and faced each other in the dark, realizing how long it had been since they'd last spoken properly.
"Um," Eve started shyly, "I just wanted to talk to you."
For some reason, Jelani's thoughts disappeared.
For some reason, he felt nervous.
It wasn't the sickening anxiety that came with going to battle–instead, a sticky lump of heat clogged his throat.
"Can we?" Eve whispered. "I want to hear about everything that happened after Mt. Hood, too."
Too? Jelani thought, his scrambled brain hardly able to distinguish between thoughts and the beating of his heart.
Shakily, he nodded. Then realizing that they were standing in a pitch-black forest, he spoke.
"Y-yeah."
He didn't recognize his own voice. It sounded more like a grunt.
"Come on," Eve gently said, stepping past Jelani and heading deeper into the forest.