natcat

This Means War

It was almost nine o'clock by the time I reached the door I was looking for. Taking a deep breath, I turned down the handle and stepped inside.
As expected, I was the last one to arrive. Nina, Em and Spencer were already seated around the table, with General Thomas standing tall before them.
"Great," said the General as I moved into the room, slipping into a seat next to Em. "Glad to see we're all here. The non appearance of Daisy and Joe, I assume means that they have decided to go ahead with their original decision."
I looked at Nina who was staring straight ahead. Em and Spencer said nothing either so General Thomas continued.
"So, I suppose we'll get right to it. Have you all come to your individual decisions?" She looked around at our faces, waiting patiently for someone to speak up.
"I'll be requesting to stay and find out more." Nina spoke confidently, her eyes levelled on General Thomas'.
Em looked sideways at her sister. Her shocked look told me they handn't discussed anything.
"Nina-" Em started but Nina stopped her.
"That's my decision. It has been the whole time." She looked hard at her sister telling her there was no changing her mind.
"Very well, thank you, Nina. Welcome to the team." The General nodded at Nina.
Spencer and Em looked quite uncomfortable. I was under the impression neither of them wanted to stay, but could see how they were finding it hard to face leaving their sister behind.
To break the silence, I sat up straight and cleared my throat.
"I'd like to move on, General Thomas. Thank you for giving me the option to join your work here, I hope it pays off." She smiled at me and I sat back again in my seat, relieved and pleased with my final decision.
Em and Spencer were now looking at me, clearly struggling with what to do.
"I don't want to leave you here, Nina." Em said, her voice catching. "But I don't think I can stay." She was struggling with her words but she'd said it, and as Nina looked at her sadly, Em sniffed, trying to hold herself together.
"I'll stay too..." Spencer said quietly. "I'll stay with Nina."

This Means War

Waking slowly, I turned over in bed lying flat on my back, staring at the ceiling with groggy eyes.
I'd almost forgotten where I was. For one second I thought I was lying in my bed at home, the silence was all too familiar. But once I'd seen the white everything and the small size of the room that held me, I realised quickly I was still in the Grey base.
Rolling over I spotted the clock on the bedside table and felt my heart skip a beat. 8:43 A.M., it read.
I was supposed to be in that meeting with General Thomas in just fifteen minutes.
Yanking off the covers, I pulled myself out of bed and hurriedly dressed myself in another uniform. There would be no time for breakfast, I'd have to go straight there and hope that I wouldn't get lost along the way.
My bedroom door swung shut behind me as I left the room and darted off down the hall, running my hands through my hair to avoid it's current slept in look.
I could only assume that the others were already there; with the exception of Daisy and possibly Joe. I quickly wondered if he would change his mind after what happened yesterday.
I hoped that the four of them had a chance to talk everything through at some point last night... Or this morning. They sure needed to. Especially after we saw Spencer punch Joe in the cheek.

This Means War

I rolled my eyes at what Daisy had said, and before she shut her door managed to get a quick goodnight in.
With a sigh, I continued down the hall and found my own bedroom door. It didn't take me long once I'd entered the room to sort mysel out. A quick shower, a tired glance in the mirror at a tired man, followed by a slow crawl into bed.
Today had been a whirlwind of activity and emotion. We all definitely had a lot to think about. I was definitely leaning in a direction of whether I would find out the information General Thomas had for us or not. It was just making that decision final and being able to stick with it. I had to stick with it. There was no going back no matter which way I chose.
For now though, I could hardly keep my eyes open. With one last glance around the small white room I now called my own, I reached over to the stainless steel lamp and shut it off. It was a weird relief, to not be able to see anything at all, the brightness of the base we'd been getting lost in all day had created a constant headache and given me tired eyes.
Laying back on the pillow was the sweetest feeling I'd had in a long time. I'd barely had time to think about what a luxury it was to have a bed to sleep in again when I fell asleep.

This Means War

Our rooms weren't really all that much further from where we'd been standing talking to Isy. Along the walk I'd been struggling with my thoughts, but this time it wasn't just because of the siblings issues, or the big decision I was supposed to make tomorrow morning potentially regarding the next few years of my life. No. It was because of the fiery red haired girl striding along in front of me.
I couldn't read her. That was the trickiest bit. Was she just teasing me, thinking I was ridiculous? Or was she actually sending some type of signal? If so, I wasn't receiving it... Or was I?
I suddenly realised that I thought she was very pretty. Not that I hadn't noticed it before, I had just never taken it in. I was always too busy focusing on the words she said rather than what colour her eyes were or how many freckles she had dusting her cheek bones.
Quite unexpectedly, a rush to learn more about this unusual hot-headed girl took over me.
But that Rush was quickly dashed. I was being stupid. It didn't matter whether I'd be here for a few weeks or a few days, there was too much else happening to even think about something as trivial as a relationship. No, I couldn't allow myself such luxuries at this point in time. Not with everything else happening.
"Well, here we are." She said not ten minutes since we'd left the hallway where Joe and Spencer's emotions reached their boiling point.
"Thanks for your help, Isy. Appreciate it." I nodded at her before pushing Daisy down the white hall we'd stopped at the end of.
"You alright from here?" I asked as we came to a stop outside of her doorway. Glancing over my shoulder, I chanced a peek and caught the end of Isy's bright plait whipping out of sight.

This Means War

She looked at Daisy as she spoke and then tilted her head.
"If you were staying you could know everything," she paused and winked at me, "even my fantasies." I swallowed and felt my face heat up again as she continued talking to Daisy. "Though you should know, I admire your strength. When I arrived I was quickly pulled in to it all. Too curious for my own good. I just had to know."
She folded her arms and shrugged. "Of course when I found it all out I was eager to get the hell out of here. Once I knew it everything though, you know the drill, you can't leave. So here I still am. Waiting for eternity to roll over and get me above ground. We work hard, yes, and one day it'll pay off and you and I won't have to worry anymore about the war. I'll probably receive some kind of commendation for my commitment to my country, yada yada... Or I'll be dead, blasted to pieces in the thick of it all." She paused as she stared at the two of us. I was standing there slightly dumbfounded at how much she was letting on. "Who knows when that will be... depends on my rota... Anyway, nice to chat. I'll see you around I suppose." She waved her hand quickly and brushed past us.
I turned quickly to call out to her. "Wait. Hold on."
She looked over her shoulder, waiting for whatever I had to say.
"Can you tell us how to get back to our rooms?" I asked and she smirked once more.
"Of course I can." She began walking back to us and then stopped in front of me. "Would you like me to take you inside yours as well? I can show you where the bed is." She tilted her head again, fluttered her eyelashes, then sauntered off ahead of us before laughing. Two fingers beckoned us and I shook myself out of my stupor to push Daisy along behind Isy.

This Means War

"Hmm? Oh yeah, fine." I glanced down at Daisy and smiled at her. "Just have no idea where the heck we are." I chuckled as I glanced around for some sort of sign that we were going in the right direction.
There was nothing, just like all the other hallways we'd wandered through. If only we had Isy back to lead us through.
Just as I'd thought that a flash of red turned a corner and began coming towards us.
"You're kidding me. I was just thinking about you!" I said, stunned but happy something was finally going our way.
Isy raised an eyebrow at me and smirked. "Okay, Chief... but maybe we should have a drink first. I like to loosen up a little before I attempt to make anyones fantasy's come true."
I felt my face burn up and I stuttered about for a moment trying to let her know that wasn't at all what had just happened. "Wh- uh, no. I just-" I cleared my throat and tightened my lips. "That wasn't what I was-".
Isy simply grinned at me and looked down at Daisy.
"It's funny I found you two actually. The other two guys who were with you earlier both strode past me down the hall. Neither looked particularly pleased about their lives."
I looked down at my feet, still trying to get over the embarrassment of what had just happened.
"Anyway, I'm guessing you guys are leaving. I didn't think you'd have the guts." She glanced back at me with a look in her eye I couldn't quite read. "Such a shame, if only you were staying a little longer..."

This Means War

I sighed and shrugged my shoulders. "Who knows. I want them to be okay, but... I've never seen anything like this. Although, I haven't got any siblings so it's hard to know what's normal and what's not." I glanced around at the rest of the people in the hallway who had stopped to watch the drama play out. Majority of them had already turned back to what they were doing, but there were still a few who walked a little slower, their eyes on Daisy and I, clearly wondering if we'd be the next ones to burst into anger.
"Let's go. I don't even know where we're supposed to go to get back to our rooms." I moved behind Daisy's chair and took control of it once again, pushing her slowly down the hallway.

This Means War

I watched Spencer for a moment, trying not to feel sorry for him. His family seemed to be falling apart at the seams, and I really didn't know what to say or do that might help.
"Maybe we should just head to bed. Everyone can cool down over night and you guys can have a proper talk in the morning and get past this." I said then hesitated for a second before stepping towards Spencer and placing my hand on his shoulder. "I'm sure you guys will be fine."
Spencer shook his head slowly before stepping away from me, causing my hand to fall. "I'll see you guys later." He said and turned away, rubbing his face as he disappeared down the hallway.
"What the heck is going on?" I asked as I turned to look at Daisy, the confusion was evident on my face as I ran a hand through my hair. "What a mess..."

This Means War

I nodded slowly, glancing between the two angry brothers.
"Look, Daisy and I, we don't know what you guys have gone through, what your sisters have gone through... and we don't have to know that. That's fine. But, we've both known each of you long enough to know that you guys are really good people. I wouldn't say that if I didn't mean it." I was just speaking, of course I meant it all, but I didn't even know what I was going to say until I said it.. diffusing tense situations was never my strongest trait. "Just, yeah, take a breather..."
Joe was the first to look at me, only for a short moment before he twisted away and stormed off down the hall. I didn't know what I'd just seen in his eyes, but I could sense that he was on the edge of a different kind of emotional over-spill.

This Means War

Daisy wasn't wrong. Taking what she'd just said into consideration definitely added to my internal debate - of course these guys weren't the only people out here fighting for Til.
I was on the edge of replying to her when the scuffle broke out ahead of us. Letting go of Daisy's chair, I jogged ahead, only reaching the two brothers when Joe had shoved Spencer away.
"What is going on!?" I said, frowning at the two of them, ready to hold one of them back if things turned violent again.
Spencer was breathing heavily, leaning against the wall to my right. "Somebody can't handle when other people are right." He spat out as he adjusted his shirt from where Joe had roughly grabbed him.
Joe did a sort of low growl, his hand on his reddening cheek as if he was trying to hold it together. "Spencer doesn't know when to keep his stupid mouth shut. The youngest and the favourite, yes, but he'll always be the dimmest."
Spencer narrowed his eyes at his older and larger brother. "I had to say it, Joe- you know she's right." He paused as he composed himself. "We're all that Nina has now, you know that right? Mom and Dad won't even talk to her- they don't want to know how she is, if she's even alive... You're a real ass, and now Sam and Daisy can see that too."