The Circadia Chronicles: Omnibus: The Complete Colonization Sci-Fi Series by Heather Heckadon (portable ebook reader .txt) 📕

Inspecting the woods once more to be sure we didn’t have any unexpected visitors, I climbed down out of the tree. Using my arms and abs to lower my feet down onto the soft ground, I casually walked up behind the man. Quietly and calmly to his back, I said, “Who are you looking for?”

He jumped and turned around briskly. His eyes were wide and scared. “I don’t. I don’t know who. I don’t know who I’m looking for,” he said, stumbling over his words.

“Then why are you here?” I asked. I burned my eyes into his, and his returned with a telling light. He finally understood.

“I’m here because I was warned. I was warned that Leslie had something coming to him that he deserved, and I didn’t wanna be a part of that. Are you the person I’m looking for?” he asked, his chin held high.

“Yes, I am. Well, kind of. Spencer up there,” I said, pointing into the trees as Spencer waved his hat, “Is going to take you to a secure area. You’re going to stay there until more come. Understand?”

“Yes. Is there anything I can do to help?” he asked.

“Just stay out of the way.”

Spencer jumped down from out of his tree to escort the man to the holding area as I shimmied back up the tree to wait for the next arrival.

Walking into the woods next was a young woman. She made no effort to stay quiet. “Hello? I was told to come here?” she beckoned. She stomped around the woods, and never made an effort to look behind her or around her. Just desperately trying to see through the trees, but she didn’t appear scared.

I sent a sideways glance over to Sierra as she shook her head. She gave the signal to the others to wait it out. After biding our time for a half hour, through her pleas and yells, she threw her hands in the air. She turned behind her and yelled, “I guess they’re not here!” as three large men stepped out from behind trees and shook their heads. They greeted her openly, guns in their hands. “I don’t know what the hell they’re talking about,” one of them said. “There’s nobody in these woods.”

We hadn’t seen the men walking into the woods when we saw her, but something had been off. We'd trusted our guts and it paid off. We had avoided a confrontation and a possible capture. After that, we were even more cautious. We found it was worthwhile to make them wait. If it was a sham, or they were looking to capture someone to gain favor with Leslie, they would eventually grow tired of waiting. We would not. That was how we would win: patience.

The next ones in the woods gave us a shake. A group of three men with guns. They didn’t hide, just walked in under the trees under the canopy into the clearing. We waited, and they were cautious, but not overly so. Sierra and I looked back and forth to each other many times, neither of us clear on what to think about the situation. Finally, one of the men spoke up, addressing the woods. “I know you’re here! Somewhere...I don’t know how many of you there are, or what kind of shape you’re in, but we’re here. We aren’t who you warned. We were part of the crew from the group of three-hundred soldiers. They’re building up forces against you back at camp, and we don’t wanna be a part of it. You couldn’t pay us enough money in the world to do what they’re asking us to do, so we’re here. You can kill us if you want, but we’d much rather help,” he said.

Sending one last glance to Sierra, she gave me an indecisive shrug. I jumped down out of the tree with a thud. All of them turned around at once, guns drawn to their shoulders. We stood quiet for a moment without blinking until I broke the silence. “Is that true what you said?” I asked.

“Yeah, it is,” one man said. It was the crewmember I had worked with before all of this had happened. I recognized him instantly and felt at ease. “Aella, long time no see,” he said. “I’m deeply sorry for everything that’s happened. Everything you’ve lost. I can’t even imagine. We just wanna help you take a little bit of that back. Being crew members for Leslie, we had a few perks, and we wanted to offer them to you.” He held out his gun to the side and laid it on the ground. Slowly backing away, he gave a bow as if sacrificing something. The others followed their leader, laying down their guns and slowly backing away.

“What’s in it for you? I asked.

“Let’s just say, Leslie and I don’t see eye to eye,” he replied.

Chapter Nine

We escorted each refugee back to the holding area after ensuring they were safe. Out of all the people that were warned, very few came. My guess was fear, but it may have been loyalty, I didn’t know. All I was sure of, was that this was a dangerous game we were playing, and we had to move fast.

My nerves were shot. I looked down to see my hands trembling. The odds of someone we had brought back turning on us was high. It would be easy to make yourself seem to fit in, only to head back to Leslie’s camp to tell him our whereabouts and plans. We did our best to keep plans quiet, and to take them to a separate location from ours, but there were still dead giveaways. Like which way you walked to the base, people catching parts of conversations, and it was impossible to not notice who was leading the group. I was at the forefront of every conversation and