#shoutouttomysecondfollower

[shia-coons-writing]

     As the teacher dismissed them, Adam stood up and began packing his books away. He and David had been attending classes to get their GED, and it had gone better than expected. The work was easy so far. David had already taught him much of the math while they were in Jubruw, and what David couldn’t teach, Thesuk taught him. The literature and history was mosty new, but even if Adam didn’t have the body he had grown to love, he still had his mind, and he knew how to study well. Even so, he wished David had been here today. However, his brother had had an interview and couldn't make it.

    A loud thump beside him startled him out of his thoughts. Owen Maddox stood beside the table, his backpack on the floor. “How ya’ doin’, Nguyen?”

    Eyeing him warily, Adam replied, “Fine. You?”

    Owen grinned. “I’m just fine. Look, you wanna come over to my place this weekend? My friends and I are heading to New York, and we thought we’d invite you along.”

    Adam blinked in surprise. He had known Owen since middle school, and neither of them had gotten along. Owen and his friends were well known for being the local troublemakers. Most of them had DUI's, and it was not uncommon for them to be seen hanging out with highschool girls. Owen had made his contempt for Adam very clear on many occasions.

    “Why me?”

    Owen grinned again. “Well, we thought you could tell us what you were up to the past few years. Your brother is too stuck up to even consider coming with us, but you and me, Adam, we’re pals, aren’t we? You could tell us where you went, and we could hook you up with some of the good stuff.”

    Inside the privacy of his own skull, Adam laughed. Tell him where he’d been? Owen clearly thought that he and David had run away, and was hoping to get in on the scoop. As if he’d tell this nineteen year old his memories of starvation, war, love, and hate. The good stuff? He’d tried alcohol once, and he knew how dangerous it could be for someone like him. David had taken to it quickly, and it had been years before his brother had managed to break the habit.

    Instead of all that, all he said was, “No, thanks. I told my parents I’d help out with my sister’s birthday party.”

    The grin on Owen’s face twisted into an ugly snarl. “You think you’re so cool, don’t you, Nguyen? Running away like that? Well, see if you can get anything from me after this. I gave you a chance. You could have had friends, besides just your brother.”

    Adam calmly smiled back, and began to walk away. “I don’t think I want your friends, Maddox. I like to stay away from trouble.”

    It had been eight months since David and Adam had arrived. It was now early spring, and things were getting tight. The first harvest wouldn’t come into the city until after the spring rains had fallen on the northern plains. There was little fresh food in the town, and shopkeepers were keeping a closer eye than ever on their food. The watch had even pitched in to make sure food wasn’t stolen from the larger markets. 

David and Adam sat with the rest of the kids in a circle. They were now considered full members of the group, and participated in all discussions and decisions. Viewet was talking. 

    “We need to get jobs! At least us older ones- we’re going to be caught otherwise.”

    Rathe, rational as always, interrupted, “How, moron? Only three of us are over sixteen, and besides, all the actual adults have taken the jobs.”

    “Well, I don’t know, Rathe, maybe outside the city? On farms or something? If some of us older ones left, it’d be easier for the younger ones.”

    Heyjuk interrupted here. “We can’t leave the younger ones. That’s practically just handing them over to the watch. We just have to find some other way.”

    Adam watched them argue, and worried. These people may not have been related to him by blood like David was, but he still felt that same tie of loyalty. They had taken him and David in when no one else would have, fed them when they could not help provide, taught them the language, and shown them how to survive. 

    Clearing his throat, he asked, “What we need most is money, right?”

    The room quieted as they all turned to look at him. 

    Viewet shrugged. “That’s the gist of it, yeah.”

    Hesitantly, Adam asked, “So why don’t we just take it from the nobles?”

    There was a heavy pause. Finally, Rathe said, “How? We’re just street kids, we don’t have the skill to steal from the nobility.”

    David, sitting beside Adam, shrugged. “If we planned things right, and sent just a few of the older ones in, we might be able to get something. It’s worth a shot. If we get caught, the worst we’ll get is a beating.”

    People glanced around the circle, coming to a consensus. Heyjuk was the first to speak. “Alright, so how do we do that?”

    It took some time to get organised, many test trials on smaller houses, a few failed attempts (and subsequent rescuing of team members from jail) before they began to succeed. They never took much, just enough to support everyone for two weeks or so, but not so much that the other gangs would become jealous and try to steal from them.

    It was a six man mission. Usually, Rathe and Adam caused a distraction, usually something like a fire, false break in or loose animals, while Heyjuk and David snuck in. Both were tall, slender, and strong, so the rough stone on walls of the towers and mansions were easy. When they had located the money, food, or other objects picked out over the week before, they dropped them down to the two others waiting on the ground. Once they were away, David and Heyjuk attracted the attention of the guards so that Adam and Rathe could sneak away. Then, they fled over the rooftops and hid in a safe house until morning. 

    It was after about two months of doing this that they began to hear rumors. The army had had enough. Whole squads, sometimes even a platoon, were breaking away and joining a rebellion. There wasn’t really a cause yet, just men tired of fighting and wanting to leave. It caused a lot of discussion among the younger children, but the older ones ignored the rumors and moved on. When asked why, Rathe gave a wry smile. “We’ve heard about stuff like this before- have for the past seven years. Nothing ever changes. Besides, even if it were true, they have no purpose. They’re just a bunch of men hiding away. I don’t have time to think about them, not with our next raid to plan and the watch always on our heels.”

    David agreed with her. Adam, on the other hand, did not. 

    “David, we should go join them!”

    David stared at his younger brother. They were in the central marketplace, coming back from buying food for the day for everyone. “What?”

    “You heard me! We should go join them, it’d be fun.”

    “Fun? Fun?! Adam, we don’t know where they are or even who they are. For all we know, it’s just a bunch of troublemakers who deserted before they got disciplined, then tried to come up with a better story.”

    Adam paused at this. “I guess that could be true.”

    David snorted. “Could be, that’s the most likely answer. Besides, if we leave we may never know how to get back home.”

    Sighing, Adam asked, “Do you think we will, ever? I mean, for real. Don’t give me some crappy answer about how the heroes always make it out in the end. I mean, for real. We have no idea where we were when we arrived, and no idea how to operate whatever took us here.”

    “I guess we’ll just have to find out. But I don’t want to leave until we know for certain that there’s no way back.”