Page 36 of Rising

“I hope he proves me wrong,” I whispered.

“He will,” Riley offered as he entered my study and closed the world out behind him.

* * *

The ants movedup his arm and circled his wrist in fashion of a bracelet. I grimaced at the sight; I would never get used to it. “So? Anything?”

Shaking his head and he leaned against the door, wincing at the pain in his shoulders. “I gotta be honest with you. I don’t even know what I should be looking for.”

Fair enough, I didn’t know the answer to that either. I just knew I needed something to go on. Something that would help me piece this all together and figure out where things went wrong. How our vulnerabilities were being exposed when there was nothing concrete to tie it all back to.

“Thank you, by the way,” I said, “for holding the fort down all these months. And when it literally fell too. I’m glad to see you standing on your own. Didn’t think I’d see you up and moving so soon.” His eyes danced at the recognition, but there was something else lingering there, too.

“Well, you summoned,” he teased me.

“I didn’t.”

“No, but you were going to.” He offered me a small smile, knowing there was no denying that.

He quickly debriefed me on his version of the events yesterday. Similar to Seth’s version, the attack was over in a matter of moments. He’d learned that the watchtower had seen some of them come from over the cliff side and the rest from the trees, and had rung the alarm bell.They were just too damn fast, he’d relayed.

The soldiers remaining in the barracks had stumbled into action as they’d been trained to do, racing their way towards the gate. Most soldiers had been in The Kitchens enjoying their dinner or were out in different parts of The Compound. Although the barracks were close to North Gate, they weren’t closeenough.

Seth had ordered the ones standing around focusing on getting people to safety first, fight second. Only a small portion of them had been ordered to stay and fight. And they had, without hesitation. It may not have been the wayIwould have chosen to direct my soldiers, but Seth wasn’t me.Who was to say there wouldn’t have been more deaths under my command?

The fight had pretty much been over by the time the soldiers from the barracks had arrived. That much I’d seen myself; Reina and I having been making our way back from dinner. The rest of the events had occurred once Riley and Moe were in my presence.

“How are you?” I asked, wanting to move closer to comfort him, but wanting to give him his space all the same.

Medicine and magic worked funny in this new world. I knew his wounds were likely healed by now. They were deep, but they were still flesh wounds, meaning they could be tended to by herbs and medicinal blends. Add a healer with water magic and you’d likely just feel a bit of muscle fatigue the next day. But he had lost another friend yesterday. My heart broke for my brother, not wanting him to see any more pain when the universe had already given him enough.

He shrugged. “I’m better when I’m working.”

I nodded, understanding everyone had their coping methods, and that once had been one of my own. I wouldn’t push, but I sure as hell would keep an eye on him. He wasn’t in this alone. Not anymore.

“Can you tell me about the breaches from the last few months, then? I need all the information I can get.”

He obliged. Our borders had been attacked primarily on the border of the land between us and the San Jose Compound borders, about fifteen miles from East Gate. An emissary had come down from San Jose a few weeks ago. Making a case on joint efforts to continue to secure the area without having to pull more men from other areas and conserve our resources.

Our troops were a mighty force here alone. I’d restructured them during my time and done the math over and over, opting to stack them duplicating the US in WW2. One US soldier for every forty Germans during their period of occupation. If my math was correct, which often kept me up at night, with our current population we’d only need seven-hundred and fifty men and women. I’d ensured we’d had over a thousand. One thousand and fifty-one by head count on my last shift before everything happened.

If everything went to shit and we were faced with the worst-case scenario, I’d have an unheard of ratio in these times. One soldier to every twenty-eight citizens. That on top of the fact that all adult citizens now received training twice a week and kids once, we were a force to be reckoned with. Which was the only thing keeping this place from going under or we’d had been crippled by the assaults months ago.

Though our forces were stacked, San Jose had a decent army too, and they were well trained. Our relationship with their city was as close as two allies could be. We traded, shared inventions and discoveries, and from time to time combined our troops’ efforts to ensure weallwere safe. A threat to their borders was a threat to ours, and vice versa.

The Salem Territory consisted of nineteen cities, seven of which were in California. Though we referred to them as compounds or settlements because of the walls that bordered our well-populated areas, there were still people who chose to live outside them, that weren’t exactly citizens but were allowed in for a visitor trade. Each city had borders far past their walls, ending at the territory lines of the closet city.

Of course, those who lived outside the city walls weren’t allowed to just cruise in and out unannounced the way those who lived within did, but it was an amicable relationship.

They didn’t act as a threat. We embraced them to an extent. They vowed to fight for our side if things went south. Either way, it was a win-win situation, depending on how you viewed it. They were able to keep an eye on the miles in-between our walls and borders, be our eyes and ears when we could not. Fill in the gaps.

Land was still land, always worth something, and as San Diego and other larger settlements re-established themselves, they started to buildoutsideof the walls, too. Expanding.

There had been a few skirmishes near South Gate as well, but it appeared unconnected to the others in Seth’s eyes. Riley requested to send some of his people out, people akin to him that did well in the shadows, people he trusted.

People like Mohammed.

But Seth had overruled him, opting to keep more people closer to base in case the threats closed in. Not deeming the effort a wise move when the people Riley recommended for the job could be better used keeping an eye on things around here. Making sure there wasn’t tangible evidence pointing towards an inside threat. I guess in the end both had been correct.

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