‘I am too small and weak to fight,’ Jun said, the expression on his face as inscrutable as ever, ‘but I want to do what I can to help you. If you need someone good with computers, I’m your man. And, from what the Huntsmen have shown us, with their lies about us on social media and on news websites, that have made us four some of the most hated people in America, the pen can be far mightier than the sword. No weapons could have done what those keystrokes did. I know that your physical fight is important, but you need to fight them on that level as well. We need to open a new front of the War, a front in which words and data are our bullets and missiles. If we can turn the world against the Huntsmen like that, no more blood will need to be shed.’
‘You’re right, lad,’ William said, ‘you’re absolutely right. And I support what you’re saying one hundred percent. I’d rather be using words than bullets, that’s for sure.’
‘Damn straight,’ Njinga said. ‘An’ if you can do that, Jun, then you’re gon’ be fighting just as important a battle as we are – but it’ll be just as dangerous too.’
‘There is one of our kind,’ Zakaria said, ‘who would be perfect for you to work with, Jun … if we could only find him. But I thank you, nonetheless, for your offer of help. I suspect that we are going to need it.’
It was obvious that Paola, who was chewing on her fingernails with even more manic fervour than usual, didn’t want any of this, but with every one of her friends’ declarations of commitment to fight for the Rebels’ cause, a mounting sense of peer pressure was wrapping her in thick cephalopod tentacles and squeezing her ever tighter. It felt like every pair of eyes in the room was on her, focused like a squad of snipers who had lined her up for a kill, and she shifted her soda-bottle spectacles up her nose, as if they could somehow serve as a shield to protect her against the multitude of perceived accusatory glares. There was only one thing she did want – to go home to her family and her old life – but that was the one thing she couldn’t have. Every other option seemed like nothing less than an agonising death to her, but she felt completely powerless to say as much, especially when all of her friends seemed so eager to join this fight. They were all she had left now, and she couldn’t bear to be separated from them, even if what they were stepping into was terrifying. She drew in a deep breath, and then popped her rough-edged fingertips out of her mouth to speak.
‘I ain’t no fighter,’ she murmured, pressing her knees together, gripping the edges of her chair and praying that nobody could pick up on the fear and insincerity in her voice that felt so glaringly apparent to her, ‘but I can help Jun with the computer stuff, and uh, well, work with Jun to help y’all.’
‘I’m honoured that some of you want to fight alongside us, but I can’t allow it,’ William said, his countenance grim. ‘Not that I’m in charge or anything, but if it’s a vote, I cannot in good conscience allow children to take up arms and kill, no matter what the cause. You can do what Jun has suggested, but as for going into battle with guns, I say no.’
‘I d-, don’t mean no d-, disrespect, William,’ Daekwon retorted, ‘but we ain’t k-, kids. Yeah, we teenagers, but we ain’t schoolkids no mo’. We can’t never go b-, back to what we was or who we was; them Huntsmen made d-, d-, damn sure a’ that.’
‘I admire your spirit, lad, I truly do, and yours too, Chloe,’ William countered, ‘but I’ve been in your shoes. I was only a few years older than you when I first went to war, and the experience changed me forever, permanently altering who I was, who I am, and not in a good way. For young people in the prime of their youth like you guys, to have fight, to have to kill other human beings, and to experience the horrors of battle and warfare … it’ll destroy you. I don’t mean to suggest that you’re weak; quite the contrary, really. Everything I’ve seen of your characters so far has impressed me tremendously, and you’re far stronger and more resilient than anyone could ever have expected you to be, under such circumstances. But … you’re beautiful too. I don’t mean that about the way you look – although you’re all lovely specimens in the looks department, hahaha, don’t get me wrong, lads and lasses – but what I’m talking about is the beauty in your hearts and souls. The beauty of youth, untainted by the worst darkness the world is capable of unleashing, and unblemished by the ugliness of violence and killing. Once you’ve stepped through that one-way door, that innocence will be gone forever … and I don’t want us to be the ones who push you across that threshold.’
‘Y’all ain’t doin’ no p-, pushin’,’ Daekwon
