“Don’t you see it?” Zac asks as if everyone is on the same brainwave as he is.
“Uhm… Zac,” Eli says, “we don’t see what you see, so you are going to have to enlighten us.”
“Sure… Okay…” He sits cross legged on the ground, just behind the dots in the dirt.
We all follow along and sit with him on the ground, passing around water bottles and rations.
“What’s all of this about?” I ask.
“You see this?” he asks holding the paper map up, pointing to a circle around two words labeled Wonder Shield. He doesn’t wait for us to answer. “That isn’t just a circle around the city… It’s a wall.”
“Are you sure?” Magi asks.
“One-Hundred percent!”
“So, this Wonder Shield place is where the old Richmond ,Virginia use to be?” I ask.
“I think so.” He frowns. “Has anyone heard of this Wonder place?”
We all look around to a bunch of blank faces. No one seems to have even heard of it. Apart from the map Zac holds in his hand.
“I believe if The Elected know about this place, then they must be part of them,” Shawn says.
“Or they are a threat to them.” Zac smirks.
“What makes you think that?” I ask.
“Well,” he says, “if you look at it like this, all of the places that are written in red ink, like The Facility, The Force, and The Elected itself, must be at least in some part in alliance with The Elected…”
“And?” Samantha pleads.
“The Force Field and this Wonder Shield are written in faint black erasable lead, possibly meaning that they still don’t have control of those cities yet,” he finishes.
“I say we go around the wall and don’t take our chances,” Leah says.
“No way.” Jake stands to his feet. “Look at those dimensions.” He points to the numbers scratched in the dirt. “That would throw us off nearly two days, and if these guys are against The Elected, then they might be of some help to us.”
“What? You’re all crazy,” Samantha chimes in. “Let me get this correct, you expect us to nonchalantly walk up to the huge walled-in city that may or may not be a bad one, and just what? Knock and say, hello let us in, we hope you guys are on our side?”
“Yep.” Jake smiles.
“Okay.” She smiles back. “Just checking… I’m in.”
“Me too,” Mar says.
“Us too,” Magi points to her and Cara.
One at a time, each of the members of our group state their consent, except for Leah.
We all break apart to recharge before finishing our journey.
“I heard you two talking, you know,” Leah comes up to me.
“What two of us? About what?”
“Dia…you and Mar were talking about Dia and her safety last night, and I would like to volunteer to stay back with her. You know… just until one of you can return and let us know that the city is safe.”
“You want to keep my sister?” I ask, angry at first, but then understanding that as afraid as she is, she is using Dia as a reason to be helpful and out of harm’s way at the same time.
“I’ll talk to the others and see what they think,” I say. “Have you talked to Shawn about this?”
“Well,” she shyly says. “Not exactly, but I was thinking that since I was helping out that he might not be so against it.”
“We will see,” I say as I walk off laughing.
I call Mar, Eli, and Jake over to discuss with them what Leah’s plan is. At first, they are against it, but as the conversation goes on, we find that it may be the best choice.
I can see from the corner of my eye that Leah and Shawn are having a sort of heated discussion about the situation. Her hands fly all around in sweeping gestures as tears fall down her face.
Shawn turns from her and stomps over to where we are standing.
“I take it that Leah has told you her plan,” he states in anger.
“Yeah, but we don’t think it’s a bad idea.” I say, putting a hand on Shawn’s shoulder to steady him.
“Where would they stay? Could she protect them if someone rushed them? Would Dia even agree to this?” Shawn’s questions fly.
“Well… I don’t think Dia will like it much at all,” Eli says, rubbing the back of his neck, “but she loves Leah, and if we put it in a way as she thinks she is helping Leah out, then maybe she will agree.”
“I will talk to her,” I say.
“So, that just leaves the place and protection part,” Shawn points out.
“Yes, I suppose you’re right,” Jake says.
Zac pulls the map out of his pocket and examines it before speaking up.
“There is a small village about a mile from Wonder Shield,” he says. “Being this close to The Elected headquarters, I don’t think there would be many, if any people there. Perhaps we could find a place for them to stay.”
“That’s an idea,” I say. “I think we need to investigate the village before we make our decision to let them stay there.”
We all agree to walk the remaining distance to the village outside Wonder Shield. The closer we get to The Elected, the more alert and on edge we are. Our guns all started resting on our backs, to be pulled to our sides, but now, with the village in the near distance, our guns are all pulled high into the air. Those of us with automatics are looking through the scopes every few seconds as to see what we can see at a further distance.
“Dia, Leah, Zac, and Mar, stay back and cover us from behind,” Jake whispers. “Babe, cover me to my left, Eli, to my right.”
“What about the rest
