I'll Bring A War

Once I am back in Marge’s house, Ashley leaves me to get ready and says that he’ll be over shortly after he’s talked to the others about any new information or advances in our strategy. I crawl into bed and await sleep. It doesn’t come. Agonising screams ache inside my head and the gory images behind my eyelids are inescapable. Slipping on my clothes, I decide to go for a walk to clear my mind. Hours have passed since Ashley left and I can’t help but worry that he’s gone to bed and upon further thought changed his mind about us. Seeing the darkness the building is in, I feel my heart sink further as I pick up the pace my frustration at the unknown showing through.

I’ve been walking for a while when someone calls my name. I turn around to see Jake jogging to catch up with me. “Hey.” I greet him, plastering a smile on my face.
“Can’t sleep?” He asks me.
“Not a wink.”
“That must be annoying.” I nod in agreement as he continues, “Ashley was so frustrated earlier when they realised they’d have to be working so late, they’re still at it now.” My mood shifts noticeably. “You know, he really cares about you Kiera. We’ve never seen him like that over anyone. Kept on and on at how you wouldn’t be able to sleep and how much he wanted to go and be with you.”
“Really?” I wonder.
“Absolutely,” Jake laughs, “You can go see them now if you like, the other girls went to sleep, they don’t get the night terrors like you do. I’m sure Ash would feel much better about you being there. We’re so pleased for him and love you so much that they’d really enjoy you being there. It’s meant to be secret but we know our top fighter now, you’re basically one of us. And you deserve to know what’s going on really, especially because of Ali.” I nod, my smile faltering for a second but swiftly picking back up again. I turn in the direction I’d just come from ready to go and see Ashley when I realised Jake wasn’t with me, “Are you coming?”
“Can’t, I’m on watch tonight.” I nod and give him a slight empathetic grimace, earning a laugh from Jake before waving him goodbye and continuing towards the main building.

When I reach the building, I make my way through all of the other rooms until I find the only lit one at the back of the house; the meeting room. Not knowing how to enter I knock quietly on the half open door. “Who is it?” I hear Andy’s voice from inside. I peak my head around, “Me.” The four serious looking faces melt into smiles once again and I slink into the room, hugging Ashley. “Jake said it was okay for me to come here? I couldn’t sleep.” I explain and Andy replies with, “Honestly Kiera we love having you here, congratulations by the way; Ash told us.” Jinxx, and CC nod in agreement as Ashley beams down happily at me and I blush at the attention. “So, what’s going on?” I ask after smiles have been exchanged over mine and Ashley’s relationship. “Well…” Jinxx says, his voice suggests that whatever it is, it’s not good. “We have connected to multiple cameras in the city and we monitor them regularly to make sure any rebels we send into the city are safe.” CC explains.
Andy continues, “We’ve been trying for a while now to connect to the cameras inside the Temple so that we can see how they are treating the people inside and what we may need to bring when we attack and to get an idea of how many people we’ll have to support between us and how many people will be able to fight.”
“Jinxx managed to get us connected to one of the cameras for a few hours earlier.” Ashley joins in, followed by CC, “We knew what the Temple looked like before, having raided it years ago, but we didn’t expect it to be any worse, it was already in such a state.”

Ashley holds my hand tightly as he finishes explaining the horror to me, “They’re being treated so much worse than before. I hate to tell you this Kiera but you deserve to know…” His eyes fill with concern as I turn to face him, “Before they were mostly in cells, about twenty people in each cell, starved but alive and conscious. But there were a few people in the corridors hung over wooden frames and posts. This time it’s worse.” He continues to hold me close as he nods at Jinxx to go ahead and explain it to me. “They’ve doubled the number of people to a cell, they look more malnourished and a few of the people in each cell are unconscious, or worse.” He speaks slowly and carefully and I can tell how much they don’t want to have to tell me any of this. “The number of people hanging from the frames and posts has tripled and all of those people have been clearly beaten and whipped, they are all very badly wounded.”

“Ali?” I ask seriously and straight to the point, surprisingly in control of my emotions. I feel Ashley’s grip on my hand loosen as I turn to face him, I only have to look at his face to know that it’s bad news. “We’re so sorry Kiera,” he whispers, “One of the posts.”
“What have they done to him? Did you see?” I quickly ask.
“His ribs are clearly visible and he has multiple gashes all over his body including three very deep and nasty cuts going all down his back. However, he is conscious; we could see that.” Andy breaks the news to me.

Notes

Seeee told ya it'd get more exciting