Page 122 of Chaos

The woman from the White House.

That’s what she said.

She’s here.

And she wanted Rey to say no to something.

Kelly’s lashes flutter, but stay closed. The cloth turns hot and sticky with blood in my hands, as the medic bites off a length of duct tape from a pack on his hip.

“Stay with me, Kelly,” he says.

She was left here for us.

Deliberately. In our path. The Butcher and his Grey Caps knew where we’d be. The direction we’d be coming from. They knew we were going after the factory. As Ebundi said, it takes a cold heart to leave his own people there to get killed.

But that’s what he did.

Tell me she said no.

That was about Rey.

No to what?

When I used my radio, Rey answered. There was shouting in the background.

What was she asked to do?

To open the gates, let the Butcher or Lavinia Hope or both of them with their armies inside.

My mouth goes dry.

Thornewood is prepared to withstand a siege against one army. We have tall walls, it’s a good defendable position, but we’re almost out of ammo, our food supply is dwindling.

And if I’m right, we won’t be up against one army.

We’ll be up against two.

One of which has access to government databases—and presumably defenses. Fuck knows what Lavinia Hope has dug out of the DC bowels in the last year.

A glance behind me shows soldiers mostly holding rank, but a few are leaning from windows in trucks down the line,apprehension and fear written in their posture, along with the familiar anger and suspicion they always direct my way.

The Butcher already outnumbers us five to one. And now, we have all of DC to contend with.

And what do we have to face them?

An angry civilian population.

An army that hates me, half of which is outside the gates, the other half trapped inside, and Rey doing unclear things.

A few soldiers leave their trucks, trying to get a better view, breaking formation, which is a testament to the degradation of trust.

“Stay there!” I shout. “Hold your location.”

A few of them bristle visibly at hearing me issuing orders. The rest blatantly ignore me.

“Stay in your positions,” Jacquetta calls back, and they return to their post, a few sending me begrudging glances.

Ebundi’s got a handful of soldiers clearing the woods on either side of the road, checking for any hostile activity, any sign of what the point was of leaving Kelly here like this.

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