"Please don't?"
"There's only one way I can get out of here," she told me, sliding her thumb along my cheek. "And I need you to promise you'll get me out, okay?"
"I swear it," I whispered, leaning into her touch.
"Then I will be a wonderfully obedient wife," she assured me. "Meek, quiet, and even submissive - until you return."
And I bent, pressing my brow to hers. "Thank you, Callah. That's all I need. You..." I paused, leaning back enough to see her pale green eyes. "You're the only thing I have to live for."
Seventy-Eight
Tobias
We headed out two days later. Gideon was with us, but this was his second trip out. My squad was down to the five of us. Abiel hadn't been replaced, which made me think we didn't have enough young men to fill the ranks anymore.
The sky was a vivid pink when the compound doors closed behind us, and this group was small. There were only three squads, which was less than a full team. One of those was Gideon's. One was mine. The last was led by a man named Harald. He'd been on my squad back when Sylis had led it.
I didn't know the man well, but that didn't matter. What did was the milling about the men did as we got our bearings. We'd been given no orders or directions, only a time to be ready.
Gideon stepped forward. "Listen up!" he barked, looking at a circular device in his hands. "Yesterday, we checked the wild men's farm. It is now empty! Today, we're moving left. Our goal is to find the boundary these demons are guarding. If we meet resistance, your job is to get an idea of the numbers and pull back. Once we regroup, we will either continue moving left, or return to rearm. Any questions?"
No one spoke up, so Gideon led us out, checking that device frequently. I couldn't see what it was, but it seemed to be giving him some means of direction the rest of us didn't have.
That made me touch my chest, making sure the whistle still hung there. The thing was light enough I couldn't feel it, but I would need it. Not yet, though. I didn't want to start blowing it too early and call attention to it.
For the first hour, everyone walked, trudging along in silence. Somewhere in the second hour, a few men began to mumble, holding a soft conversation among themselves. Gideon hissed or snapped, trying to silence them, but why?
By the time three hours had passed, our units had lost any semblance of structure and were now little more than men clustering up to talk as they trudged through the frigid air. I saw them, and tried to keep track of which men acted friendly to each other.
Then Elijah moved to my side. "How do you like winter, squad leader?"
"I don't think this is winter."
He hummed. "Close."
"Winter is white," I told him. "I was a gatherer long enough to experience it before."
"Ah, yes." And he chuckled. "Timon doesn't understand how Hell could be cold."
I was not going to offer anything. "What did you tell him?"
Elijah shrugged. "I asked him why he thoughtthiswas Hell. It's Earth. We're taught that in sermon."
"The fires of Hell only peek through during the day," I said, not caring how he took that.
But from up ahead, another man called out, "That's a deer!"
"A what?" someone else asked.
"The ones with the trees on their..." The first guy sighed. "And it ran away. I bet we could follow it."
"We," Gideon snapped, "are not here for deer!"
"Then why are we here?" yet another man asked. I was pretty sure that was Jeshiah. "Deer have meat. We're hunters."
"Right now," Gideon said, "we're protecting the compound."
Elijah huffed under his breath. "Yeah. Sure we are. We're protecting his aspirations. Did you see that man at the meeting?"
