Part 16: Burn It Down

The Promised Land:
(Part 16) Burn It Down

“Whoa, did you make this?” Caden said in awe when he saw the scarf. He pulled it out of the paper wrapping and admired the woven pattern in the soft material.

“Yep! Knitted it myself,” Hope chirped with a smile. “I hope you like it. Red is still your favorite color, right?”

“Yeah,” he answered hesitantly. “But I can’t take this.” He tried to give it back, but Hope made no move to take it. “Sure you can! I made it for your birthday, silly.” Her bubbly statement ended with an endearing giggle.

“Hope, that was three weeks ago,” an unconvinced Caden retorted.

“So it’s a little late.” She shrugged. “I wanted to give it to you in person.”

“What about Shy?”

“Don’t worry. He’ll get his present when he wakes up.” Hope swung her legs back and forth over the edge of the bed they were both sitting on. “Happy Birthday!”

“Thank you, Hope. For everything.”

She curiously tilted her head. “Whatever do you mean?”

“You, you’re mom, you’re dad…” Caden always felt like he was grasping at straws when it came to expressing gratitude. Somehow, a simple “thank you” seemed so trite in comparison to all the love and care Hope’s family showed the twins. “You’re family has always been there for us. Me and Shiloh, I mean. Shiloh and I. However that goes. Ever since Mom and Dad… ever since…” Caden gave up and sighed. It was still too difficult for him. Hope gently bumped him with her shoulder and he rocked at little. He looked at her over his shoulder. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” she whispered with a smile.

“Cute.” A familiar voiced matched an equally familiar silhouette leaning against the doorframe. Caden stood up quickly out of surprise, robbed of what little joy he had.

“Hello, Ezra,” he said calmly in spite of being caught off guard. It wasn’t exactly that he was unhappy to see the Gypsy seer. After all, he had been looking for her for a few days now. “She just has a way with unpleasant timing,” he thought.

“Blitz,” Ezra nodded in return, leaning against the frame with her arms crossed. “I need to speak with you.”

Caden ran a hand through his hair as he remembered the last time they “spoke.” The news she brought was rarely good. Just as rarely was the information wrong. Looking back at Hope, a half smile flashed across his face before he left the room.

Walking through the hall with Ezra, Caden waited a moment before speaking. “I have the package.” He shoved his hands into his pockets. “Technically, Shiloh has it.”

“Good,” Ezra responded without a hint of emotion. “Its recovery was executed none too quickly. You should hold on to it.”

“Will you come back to base with us?” Cay had a feeling he already knew the answer.

“That would be unwise,” she stated matter-of-factly. “Trouble brews in the resistance.”

“What else is new?”

“Trouble unlike that I have ever seen, Blitz. Lives are being toyed with, like puppets on strings.” Caden was never quite fond of his resistance tag. When Ezra used it, she seemed to triple the seriousness of the conversation.

“But you want us to go back?” he asked, questioning her consistency.

Ezra nodded and answered, “There is good yet, if you would look for it. All the same, I do not have to remind you to use great caution. There are infiltrators.”

“More than one. Great.” Caden’s dark brown eyes narrowed in thought. “How many and who?”

“That I do not know…” Ezra paused before continuing, “but one of them accompanied you not seven days ago.”

“What?” Caden stopped in his tracks and faced Ezra. He mentally went through the list of people who went with him and Shiloh on the mission. If one of them were a traitor, wouldn’t he have seen it?

Ezra clasped her hands together and looked him over with compressed lips, as if she were debating whether or not he would be able to handle the rest of what she had to say. Finally coming to a conclusion, she spoke. “Your squad is dead and the betrayer waits for you and your brother at the rendezvous point to kill you even now.”

“That can’t be.” Caden shook his head, thick eyebrows knit together in disbelief. He thought back on the mission. “I had a feeling they knew we were coming,” he thought to himself. “Sure, we were jumped and we lost a few, but I made sure the rest got out alive. That can only mean they were killed later. Who could have possibly…” Involuntarily changing his vision, he stared long and hard at the woman. Red. With traces of black. It wasn’t her.

Ezra’s shoulders sagged a little as she watched his eyes resume normalcy. “I’ll try not to be too insulted.”

“Sorry, Ezra. I need to leave.” Flung into action, Caden started walking at a faster pace with Ezra not far behind.

“Blitz!” she called. “As unhappy as I am to continually be the bearer of bad news, I have more.”

“It can wait.”

Ezra grabbed hold of his arm and turned him to face her, gravity shimmering through her eyes. “It concerns your brother.”

~*~

Eden and Jordan had found the cafeteria and the plate of food Hope left out. After making sure Jordan was all right on his own, Eden set out to find Shiloh’s room. Turning a corner, she was nearly run over by Caden. “Dude, warn somebody before you run into them!”

“Sorry, I need to go,” he said and kept going.

“Hey, wait! I need to talk to you!” Eden ran to catch up with him. “I want to help.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, but increased his pace.

“You’re looking for a cure for these people, right? I want to help.”

Caden scoffed as he entered the room Shiloh was in. Grace was gone, but his twin was still asleep. “Why so interested all of a sudden?” Caden asked quietly as he looked through his bag hanging on the chair. “I thought you didn’t care.”

“I didn’t,” Eden admitted. “But I do now.”

Caden turned to her with a quizzical look, though his eyes stayed dark. “What about home?”

“I still want to go home, but until I find a way to GET there, I’m stuck here.” Eden watched Cay pull out paper, a pen, and start writing. “I want to be useful in the meantime,” she finished.

Thinking about his situation, Caden gave in. “Listen, if you’re really interested in helping me out right now, I need you to stay with Shiloh.”

“Stay with him? Where are you going?” Eden tilted her head.

“That doesn’t matter right now.” Caden finished his note and folded the paper several times.

“So you’re just leaving? Mister Hurt-my-twin-and-die is willing to just abandon him now in his condition?” Eden placed a hand on her hip and glared. “What kind of brother are you?”

Standing up to his full height, though still being shorter than Eden, Caden said in a voice louder than intended, “I’m leaving him behind to protect him!” He closed his eyes and sighed before speaking again. “I need to go take care of something and I don’t want him to get hurt again, ok? I’ll be back soon, I promise. I just don’t have time to talk about it right now.”

Caden took the note, now folded into an origami crane, and placed it on the table beside Shiloh’s bed. Grabbing his black windbreaker and bag, Caden left the room. Eden followed him even until he was outside and getting into the driver’s side of Ezra’s blue minivan.

“What do I do if the Atari come back? ”

Caden paused before closing the door. “Hide.”