Page 132 of Darling Wildfire
Nyx jolted like he wanted to help me but I held out my hand to stop him. He gritted his teeth but didn’t say anything.
“I need some air,” I said, looking pointedly at Nyx. I wanted to talk to them about our escape plan but didn’t want to do it inside where Vetticus could eavesdrop.
“Alright,” he grumbled. “Atlas help me bring some of the breakfast out.”
It took me an embarrassing amount of time to make it to the middle of the lawn but I unabashedly sank onto a pillow the guys had brought out and carefully ate the cold breakfast they’d saved for me.
“It needs to be the next game,” Preacher said flatly. “I don’t care if it’s a wasteland and we have to take out an entire swarm of drones.”
“I agree,” Nyx said immediately.
They all looked at me.
I knew they were right. Vetticus was only getting more and more unpredictable and violent. He’d stop at nothing to make sure I was his and I was tired of it. I was done with the constant threat on our lives.
I was tired of the games.
I was just fucking tired.
We were losing ourselves. After Atlas’ breakdown and this last torture session with Vetticus—reaching my own breaking point; I knew if we didn’t go soon, there’d be nothing left to save.
I looked around at these three men I’d become soclose with. We’d bled together, suffered together and I would never forgive myself if I dragged our agony out long enough to get one of them killed.
It was time to put an end to this.
“Next game then.”
65
THERON
This was it.
We stood at the door about to start what would hopefully be our last game. It was two months after the incident that tipped us over the edge. Over the past weeks, we solidified the plan, discussed different strategies and refined our previous operation to only include the four of us. We’d decided as a team that we’d send the three new teammates away because they were too much of a variable to risk including them.
The doors swung open and the most beautiful sight I’d ever seen greeted me.
A city.
There were no wide open spaces in sight on the map, just a grid of war-torn buildings, similar to the first map we’d played on. Dense forest surrounded the entire thing and as we walked out into the gloomy overcast day, we exchanged looks of relief and resolve.
This just might work.
I went about my normal routine of shoving a comms unit in my ear and studying the map. Then I turned to the three newcomers. I hadn’t even bothered to remember their names. The buzzer announcing the start of the game sounded, and I gestured off to one part of the grid.
“You three—sweep these sectors. Find as much ammo and firepower as you can. We’ll meet up in this courtyard.”
They nodded and trotted off.
“Give ‘em hell, boys!” Nyx shouted after them.
“Hoo-rah,” Atlas said at my shoulder, acknowledging the code for our escape plan, even though we’d already decided this was the game regardless of the map, it still felt right to say it.
For Kane.
We went the opposite direction of the kids and methodically swept the first few buildings like we usually did. As soon as I found a .45 and ammo, Istarted taking out cameras. After about fifteen minutes of clearing buildings, we’d amassed an arsenal of two guns each and a comfortable amount of ammo. The only thing we hadn’t come across was ironically a knife, which was pivotal to our plan.
It wasn’t until we’d made it to the far side of the map, that during a building sweep, I found one embedded in a scrap of wood wall. I took out the cameras and we went to the next building. I could see the forest on my left, the shadows heavy under the treeline with mountains stretching as far as I could see. I didn’t even care. We’d figure it out.
