Path of the Tiger

said. ‘We the ones who be choosin’ to d-, do this. Look, my granddaddy, he f-, f-, fought in Vietnam when he was eighteen. A couple d-, days after his eighteenth birthday he was d-, drafted, and a couple months after that he was in the j-, j-, jungle, fightin’ fo’ his life. I’m almost as old now as he was then. He c-, came out okay, a lil’ messed up I guess, b-, but mostly okay. We ain’t got d-, drafted though, we got s-, somethin’ way worse, because the whole d-, damn country wants us d-, d-, dead. Just like my granddaddy, we been forced into a war we d-, didn’t plan on fightin’. But now that I understand what we really fightin’ fo’ – beyond just c-, clearin’ our names an’ shit – I wanna fight. I wanna put my life on the line. Because what y’all be fightin’ for, it’s worth fightin’ for, like Chloe s-, said, mo’ than anythin’. It’s worth d-, dyin’ for, an’ since my life is basically over anyway, I’m ready to d-, d-, die fo’ this cause.’

‘I am too,’ Chloe added, steadfast and determined.

Jun nodded, his stony visage betraying not even the slightest trace of any emotion, positive or negative, while Paola simply stared at the floor and upped the freneticism of her fingernail gnawing.

‘We need all the fighters we can get, William,’ Zakaria said softly. ‘And I myself was but twelve years old when I first took the life of another man in combat. I will not say it was a pleasant experience … but it was a necessary one. Had I not killed that man, all those years ago in a dusty alley in Soba, he would have murdered me and raped my sister. And, bless her departed soul, if that had happened, and my centuries of existence were pre-emptively wiped out before they could even unfold, all of the good I have done in that time would never have been done.’

‘It hurts me to say this,’ Njinga said with a long, slow sigh, ‘but I agree with Zakaria. We need every soldier we can get for this fight. I hate violence as much as any of y’all, but we’ve been pushed so far into a corner that there’s only one option left: fight or die.’

‘Dark are the days when children must go to war,’ was all Lightning Bird murmured, clasping his hands together, his eyes staring at a spot on the floor, but focused on an agonisingly vivid memory of war and genocide, a nightmare reel of flickering red, the ragged strip of film spinning with a haunting clatter in his brain; loud and immediate were the percussive thuds of long rifles, the doom drumming peppered with the cracks of pistols and the anguished screams of the dying.

‘I guess you g-, got outvoted,’ Daekwon said to William. ‘I know you d-, don’t like it, man, an’ fo’ real, I ain’t too happy about havin’ to p-, pick up a g-, g-, gun neither, but I can’t just sit back an’ let the Huntsmen get away wid’ what they d-, done to us, an’ what they d-, d-, doin’ to, to err’thing. Somebody gotta s-, stop them.’

‘I cannot and will not sit back while those scumbags literally destroy everything that is good and green and beautiful on this planet,’ Chloe declared, her resolve shining like a lighthouse in the night. ‘I know you’re just looking out for us William, but we’re old enough to know what we’re doing. We’re old enough to make our own decisions, and my decision is to fight those assholes with everything I’ve got.’

Njinga’s face glowed, and she stared at Chloe with unabashed pride in her gaze.

‘You got spirit girl, you got heart,’ she said. ‘The rest a’ you too, all a’ you. I’m proud an’ honoured that y’all are willing to do this. I need y’all to understand, though, the risks that are involved. This ain’t no game, an’ if you die … that’s it, it’s over, forever. An’ death or serious, lifelong injury is a very, very real risk.’

Daekwon shrugged.

‘They tryin’ a’ k-, kill us all anyway. Don’t matter none if we fight or r-, run. They won’t never let us b-, b-, be, an’ I don’t wanna live the rest a’ my life lookin’ over my sh-, shoulder, wonderin’ when they g-, gon’ hit me. Might as well t-, take it to ‘em, hit ‘em as hard as I can while I got the ch-, chance t’ do that.’

‘It’s kill or be killed,’ Chloe added. ‘And I hate, I mean hate guns and violence … but what else can we do? These people are like literal fuckin’ terminators. They won’t stop until you’re dead, until we’re dead. We can’t plead or argue or bribe or debate our way out of this situation. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but we have to fight ‘em. We have to fight the bastards.’

‘We will strike at them when they least expect it, in the place they least expect,’ Zakaria growled. ‘We have no strength in numbers, but we are not fighting for money and riches, as they are. We are fighting for our very lives, and for the survival of everything we hold dear. We have that on our side at least, and the element of surprise.’

‘How is this g-, gon’ work?’ Daekwon asked.

‘We’ve been communicating with fellow Rebels in Cambodia and Thailand,’ Zakaria answered. ‘Everything is now in place for our precision strike: a surprise attack against the headquarters of the Alliance, located in Bangkok. I’ll explain more about this to each of you later, when my friends and I have discussed amongst ourselves how best to put each of your volunteering efforts to use. For the moment, what we need to do is flee this country, head over to Cambodia, train intensely in the jungle for a few weeks, and then hit the Huntsmen and the Alliance traitors with everything we’ve got.’

‘Word,’ Daekwon