Storm and Fire Chapter Fourteen

Chapter 14
The Value of Life

Silvia and Nathan got up early the next morning. They were at the top of a mesa, with a cliff below them, and Wenatchee beyond that. The cliff was very steep, sometimes nearly vertical, and a whole kilometer tall in places. The bandit hideout was in the side of the cliff. It was built into a cave structure already existing. They made it very secretive, but it could still be easily caught by Silvia.
The bandits would likely send out several groups of people to raid the nearby farms. They weren’t guards yet and didn’t know about nearby threats, but if guards could be located in Wenatchee and the goal for the exam was to kill a bandit, the bandits must raid frequently. If the camp had as many people as Silvia suspected, the amount of food they needed would be rather large. Finding a small group of bandits wouldn’t be very hard. Killing them without letting them alert the rest or without the other bandits in their group finding out would be the hard part.
It was hard, and they spent several hours the previous night working it out. The plan was simple, but anything going wrong could lead to disaster. Nathan expressed great concern in that, but Silvia told him that the entire reason for the exam was to find out if they could complete missions, and if he couldn’t do it he should go back to Wenatchee. He relented.
The plan they had so far was to wait until a small group of bandits headed their way. They would be hiding near the top of the cliff in some of the dried shrubs that covered the hill, as to not be seen by the bandits. Nathan would shoot a poison blow-dart at one of them. He had good enough aim so that he could hit a spot where they would feel little pain by the impact, and the speed caused by the falling downward would allow the poison to get to the bloodstream faster. Finding their companion collapsing, they would be distracted enough for Silvia to get close enough to hit both of them with throwing-knives.
Nathan felt he wouldn’t be able to aim well enough, though. He worried the other two might not even care enough about their companion to try and see what the problem was. Silvia reassured him that they would.
“I sure hope so,” Nathan said, “But what do we do if we miss?”
“Shoot them and then get away as fast as we can.”
“What about the badges?”
“Just don’t miss, okay?”
“Fine, fine,” Nathan sighed, “I’m sure there will be harder tasks as a guard.”
“So how do you know how to use poison darts anyway?”
“My parents used to take me hunting…”
“Can’t you think of a better excuse than that?”
“You really knew? I thought it wasn’t obvious.”
“I just can tell.”
“And how’d you learn to do that?”
“My parents taught me,” Silvia snickered.
Nathan laughed. Silvia’s plan went as she hoped. With just a bit of talking, he seemed much more relaxed. Hopefully that would make him be able to aim better. She hoped so, but if “his parents used to take him hunting,” he must have had good enough training to aim well. Hopefully.
They soon found a good spot to hide. They brought lunch, and that passed the time. Few bandits left the hideaway, and those that did were in large groups. Silvia decided to try calming Nathan again. He seemed nervous still. Maybe he was just always that way.
“So, have you lived in Wenatchee long?”
“I’ve only lived here a few years. I live with my older cousins.”
Silvia decided talking about his parents’ death or whatever happened to them would not help calm Nathan, so she decided to talk about something else. “So do you like living in Wenatchee?”
“Well, it’s nice some of the time. I’m used to living on a farm, so it can be a bit loud at times. The summer heat really bothers me too. I wish it was cooler here. It may not seem like a large nuisance, but even in this suit it still can get irritating, dealing with it for months.”
“Really? I actually sort of like it, the summers in the west are too cool for me, even though it’s summer.”
“Maybe a balance would be good. I heard back before the war, people went to distant places just to experience a different climate. I don’t know how they did it. It takes so long to get from place to place; I don’t think it would be worth it. There are these vehicles called airships that can travel a long way in a short time, but I still think it wouldn’t be worth it. It could crash! I sure wouldn’t want to risk my life to go to somewhere just because it had different weather!”
“People’s customs before the war sure were weird,” Silvia laughed. “Maybe you could ask Paul about that, I think he was born before the war.”
“Really, he’s that old? He sure looked younger to me.”
“I think he’s over forty.”
“Oh, wow! I thought he was only in his late twenties!”
Silvia laughed. “That’s exaggerating.”
“No, really, I did!”
This made Silvia laugh even louder. Nathan quieted her, “Come on, it’s not that funny!” he said, though he was nearly laughing too, “You’re going to give away our location to the bandits!”
“Oh, fine. When are they going to get here, anyway?”
“You think I would know? Actually, I see a small group coming here now.”
Silvia looked down the slope. At the bottom was a group of four bandits. It would be easy to take just that many out. Nathan got his blow-darts ready. Silvia was both surprised he brought those and that he knew how to use them so well. Only five minutes later and the plan was set into action. Nathan took out the blowgun, a long, narrow tube made of wood; put the poison on the dart; and put the dart in the blowgun.
“Nathan, fire.” Nathan blew on the blowgun and the dart shot out of it. It hit the bandit right in the shoulder. In less than a second, the bandit was down. The others stared at their fallen companion intently, trying to see what was wrong. Nathan and Silvia started to run down the slope in the least steep part, partially hid by brush. They soon got to the level of the bandits. Though the bandits were looking for the location of their attacker, they did not try to get help from others. The plan was going as expected.
That’s when something happened that was not expected. Silvia getting her knives ready, looked over at the bandits. They were members of the North Columbia bandits. One of them was kind to her while she was in the NC, nearly a friend to her. Why was he here? How could she kill him?
“Hurry!” whispered Nathan in a panic. What was she supposed to do? How could she kill the other two while letting him live? He would tell the other bandits! He would kill them!
That made Silvia think. Though he had always been kind, he was very loyal to the NC. She doubted he would even let her live if he saw her. He certainly wouldn’t if she killed the other two. It would be best to just kill him without letting him see her.
She threw the knives. They went right through the chests of the three bandits. But she was seen. The person she knew turned and saw her. His eyes grew wide in shock and recognition. “Silvia!” he shouted, though the knife had already pierced his heart. She nearly tried to help him or apologize, but doing that would let Nathan know she was a bandit. She just lowered her head in sorrow.
All three bandits dropped to the ground. “Silvia, it worked! But why did he shout your name? Did you run into him before? Anyway, let’s get these badges and leave!”
Silvia did pick a badge, though she left her old acquaintance alone. She started walking back to Wenatchee, her head drooped. She couldn’t believe what she just did. She didn’t care whether Nathan followed or not, or what he thought about her lack of celebration. She didn’t care if Nathan knew she was once part of the NC; she began to cry anyway.