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Chapter Eleven
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2024-10-29 19:42:56The school day came to an end for Alex as it always did; with dozens of students filling the hallways in crowded clusters just as they had been in the morning. Alex walked out of his last class of the day and pulled his cellphone from his pocket as soon as he entered the hall. With school hours over, Alex planned to meet up with his friend Seth in front of the school building, where ordinarily he and Nickole would be picked up by their mother. He flipped open his phone and typed a text message to Seth, “Hey Seth, I’ll meet you out front.”
He made his way quickly to the nearest staircase where he would descend to the lower floor. The doors to the stairwell were being held open by the groups of students all heading down. Alex pushed his way through the hordes and down the stairs. Once at the bottom, he felt his phone vibrate. He opened it up to see a response text from Seth which read, “Alright. Already there.”
As he finally passed through the front doors of the school, the sunlight was bright and the grounds were once again packed with students boarding school buses. Alex looked around for his friend. What caught his eye was what sat on the side of the road near the end of the school ground; a large, black Ford F-250. He recognized it as the truck belonging to his friend Danny’s brother. Hetrick had been working on it for the past several months, fixing what needed to be repaired and adding a few new features to it. Standing by the truck, Alex saw Seth there talking to Danny. Seth looked out and waved for Alex to come over. He quickly headed over to join them. The low roar of the truck’s engine filled his ears as he approached it.
“Hey, there you are,” Seth called out as Alex walked over to stand beside him.
Alex looked over at Danny, who was leaning against the passenger side door of the F-250. He was wearing a Mossy Oak camo hat and a black tank top. Perhaps a bit too light for April, but he never cared. In fact, it was the sort of outfit he seemed to wear all year round.
“Where’ve you been today?” Alex asked Danny.
Danny just rested himself against the truck door casually with his hands hanging in his pockets. There was no way he had been sick earlier. “Oh you know,” he began with a grin. “Couldn’t afford to come to school today.”
Alex just glanced over at Seth, who was not sure what to say. “Couldn’t afford to come to school?” Alex laughed as he repeated his words. “Never heard that one before. What were you doing this time?”
“I had to help Hetrick.” Danny replied. “He had a tow job to take care of out near Wilmington and his friend had to cancel on him. So I went along with him this morning. Had to help my brother so we could make time to take the truck back out on the paths today. That’s important, isn’t it?”
Just then, the driver’s side door opened and Danny’s brother, Hetrick, got out and walked around the front of the truck. He looked like a bigger, older version of Danny. He wore a similar camo hat and a red “America” shirt with the sleeves cut off. He leaned against the hood of the truck and took a can of Copenhagen chewing tobacco from his pocket. He twisted the cap off and placed a pinch of it into his mouth. “What do you kids think?” he said with a deeper voice than his brother’s, gesturing to his F-250. “Got the last of the leaks fixed up this week so we can take her back out right now.”
Seth nodded in approval. “You said you wanted to go out near Roger Brook, right?”
“Yeah. Danny told you, I guess?” Hetrick responded. “I wanna see if I can find where that rocky road goes. The one that we found last year.”
Alex was about to say something, but suddenly another voice spoke up behind him. “Alex, Mom’s waiting for us.” He turned around to see Nickole stop in front of him. He was sort of hoping to slip away without her seeing him.
“Just tell her I’m going over to Danny’s for a while,” he instructed her. “I’ll be back later.”
Nickole just stared back at him with a serious look. “Well that would be fine with her, Alex,” she said back, “but then that means I have to go home with her, and I know where you guys are really planning on going. So do I tell her the truth, or do I tell her your truth?”
Alex raised his eyebrows. Was it him or did Nickole just give him an ultimatum? It was certainly a tactic he had never seen her use before. Regardless, Alex knew what it was she wanted. He sighed and rolled his eyes. “Do you wanna come with, Nickole?” he asked reluctantly.
“I’d love to! Thanks for asking,” she smiled.
Alex ignored her sarcasm. “Just tell Mom-”
“I got it,” Nickole interrupted him. She turned and quickly headed back over to their mother’s car.
He turned toward his friends and shook his head. Danny looked a little confused. “What is it?” he asked curiously. “Your mom doesn’t let you drive around with us?”
“She’s too strict,” Alex answered. “I’d never be able to go out with you guys again if she knew what we do or how far we’ve gone. So you don’t mind if she tags along with us, do you?” he asked, looking at Danny’s brother.
Hetrick shook his head. “Not at all,” he replied. “I don’t recommend it, though. It gets pretty rough out there and I can’t keep my eye on her.”
“I’ll keep an eye on her,” Alex said. “She’ll be fine. I don’t need her telling her mom where we’re going.”
Just then, Nickole came back to Alex’s side. Alex noticed she no longer had her backpack with her. She didn’t say a word, rather she looked eager to leave with them.
Alex waited for her to speak. “Well?” he asked. “What’s the word? What did you tell her?”
“She’s fine with me going with you,” Nickole replied.
“Wait, she’s letting you come mudding with us?” Seth asked, surprised.
“No,” Nickole said back. “I told her you were gonna drop me off at a friend’s house and then you guys were going back to Danny and Hetrick’s place. I also told her you guys would pick me up later and drop Alex and I off at home.”
There was an awkward silence among the small group as they seemed to be impressed with how fluently Nickole lied to her mother, Alex most of all because she was never one to lie about anything. He did not think she had it in her.
Hetrick just shrugged it off. “Ok,” he began, breaking the silence. “Let’s go then, everybody in.” He turned and headed back to the driver’s seat. Danny jumped into the passenger side and the other three all piled into the back row of the truck. Watching out for the dozens of other students crossing the street, Hetrick put the truck in gear and slowly pulled out onto the main road.
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The treelines began to lighten up before soon breaking apart completely as the Domineers closed in on the Citadel. The snow was still falling lightly and they were all shivering in the cold, but more than that, most of them found themselves to be itching for their scrape against the savage Ravennites. Robert Morenno had them all convinced that this would be the day they crushed them once and for all. He told them that they would avenge all those they lost at the Iron Furnace, and he told them, most importantly, that they would be taking no prisoners this time. They were going to have to rely on their advantage of numbers to win.The light of the torches all around the Citadel gave it away as the Domineers finished their approach and stopped several yards before the natural land bridge that Alex had described. Robert perched himself on top of a small rise of land at the edge of the treeline, joined by Caine
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Alex walked over to the lookout point. He looked down at the many bridge-like appendages spanning from the tower to the outer wall. Beyond the walls, he stared out at the natural land bridge connecting the plateau to the mountains surrounding it. Alex nodded his head as he continued to formulate his idea.“What is it?” Matheus asked impatiently, trying to follow where Alex was looking. “What are you thinking about?”“Matheus,” Alex began. “Do you remember what I told you on my first day here, when you were introducing me to the Citadel?”He tried to think about what Alex was referring to, but his question was far too vague. “Not really, no.”“Look out there,” Alex directed their attention to the brid
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Alex’s mind was flashing back to his meeting with Robert only hours before. He recalled the sadistic and perverse manner that Robert intended to get the information he wanted from Alex. He could still hear that chilling threat replaying in his head.“Tick tock, Alex,” the voice of Robert Morenno echoed in his head. He could see him holding Rowan’s pendant in front of him. “Tell me where the Ravennites are hiding, or you can watch her die.”Alex was trembling as Robert’s ultimatum gnawed at his mind. He felt as though he was all alone now, with Malachai and Zak having been taken to a cell only moments before. Now, more than ever, he did not know what to do. He was torn between his loyalty to Rowan’s people and her own life. He despised this man for holding him by the throat with such brazen cruelty.
