If Douglas MacArthur had stayed on the island as he had wanted, instead of evacuating when it became clear that they would lose the Bataan peninsula, the US would have lost its most experienced general. The following years of the war proved that he was one of the few people capable of leading the Allied offensive against the Japanese. But what did that mean to the 70,000 troops left on the Bataan Peninsula, the men who eventually faced the Bataan Death March, men, who if they survived, then spent the next three years in the most hellish prisoner of war camps the Japanese could devise? Only a handful in every hundred survived to see the end of the war!
Was he supposed to be MacArthur or a King Leonidas? Although if he remembered correctly, the Battle of Thermopylae had ended with all of Leonidas’ Spartans dying. His musing was cut short when he saw Katie heading back towards him with a cart full of charcoal and lighter fluid in front of her. He shook his head, trying to banish the dark thoughts of the past few minutes.
“You okay there, Drew?” she asked, a slight frown on her face.
“No, not really.” Drew looked down, frowning, “I was thinking about Ares, about how he said I needed to survive or quadrillions of people would die.”
Drew wasn’t sure what the look that passed across Katie’s face meant; it was inscrutable in its complexity. “Drew, we both know that this is a tough spot. We’re severely outnumbered and a bit outgunned. If you need to make a tactical retreat so that you can come back and rescue all of us, then you should do it. It’s not going to help anyone if we all die here, and no one knows there are all those people trapped down there. If anyone is going to be able to escape and go get help from the stadium, it’s you. In fact, here.” A message saying that she wanted to trade him metallurgy appeared, and he shook his head.
“No, Drew. I’m serious. If something happens to me, this goes away. That means that everyone else is worse off. If you die, then, either way, we’re probably all screwed. So, this way it’s as safe as it can possibly be.” Katie fixed her eyes on Drew, staring him down until he accepted the trade. “Now, you’ll just have to keep me alive so that you can give that back to me.” She grabbed his collar with both hands, keeping him looking at her. “Promise me you’ll come back for me or burn these fuckers to the ground if they kill me.”
“I haven’t even decided if I’m going to leave yet. Who knows? Maybe they’ll all come out close together and I can just firestorm them to death before anyone is the wiser,” Drew said, trying to force a smile. Katie’s elbows against his chest and the closeness of her body was causing him to respond in a way that he hadn’t been expecting, and that certainly didn’t fit in his ten-minute timeline.
“Promise,” Katie said glaring him down.
“Alright, alright, I promise I’ll come back for you,” Drew said.
“Or burn the fuckers to the ground,” Katie said, with a manic gleam in her eyes.
“Or burn the fuckers to the ground,” Drew repeated dutifully.
Katie smiled finally and then pulled him close to her, kissing his lips. After what seemed like an eternity to Drew, she let go of his lapel and took a half step back. “There, now you have more motivation to keep me alive.” She stepped back again, opening the distance between them more completely and turning towards her shopping cart of inflammables.
Leaving him alone for a few minutes, Drew considered Katie’s words. There was a logic to either him or Daryl being about the only ones that could effectively escape. While he liked Daryl, he understood her reluctance to trust him. But there was also the fact that he wasn’t sure he should believe Ares. He thought back to his time in the tutorial. Aevis said that the Protectorate had claimed the solar system, that they had then seeded Earth with humans and waited. Had Earth been an intergalactic Australia? Had they sent all their prisoners here to tame the planet while they waited for the full citizens to be born? Why not just settle here after the mana levels were acceptable?
What did Ares want with him? What was the point of telling him his own importance…of giving him that mysterious xatherite with its obfuscated effect? What was the point of killing off so many people by not preparing us for the Advent? Was the system something the Protectorate made or was it something that they just utilized? The fact that they were at war with other ‘awakened’ species led him to believe that they didn’t create the system. But if the Protectorate didn’t, who did? And why?
Every interaction he had, they had refused to give him the information he needed. First Aevis telling him he was only allowed to say so much, then with Themis in the elevator, and finally when Ares started to tell him about the central nexus. Drew knew he should have asked a dozen more questions that he simply hadn’t even thought to ask when he was there. That wasn’t like him.
He had been calm on the ship. Had that been Themis’ job, to keep him calm, to control his emotions and prevent certain questions from being asked? He didn’t have the shield on until he left, so Themis could easily have been manipulating his mind that entire time. Was thinking about these things now just evidence that they had been pacifying him and that the effects had finally worn off? Themis had said that the system wouldn’t let them talk about some things, why? What was the point of the system? What did it want and was the Protectorate at its helm, or just another pawn it commanded? Why did Ares give him that xatherite? Everything about it seemed off. If he was the embodiment of the Protectorate, then it would be against his interests to give him that kind of protection. Or was he a slave to the system and that as his way of giving Drew a warning?
Drew could feel the anger inside of him. Anger at being lied to, at being controlled and manipulated, at the complete lack of caring about billions of deaths. He refused to play their game. He was an American, and he had a right to freedom, and he wasn’t about to give it up simply because some alien told him that they owned his planet.
He pushed down his doubts about survival. He only felt the cold anger in his stomach that he had learned to control a long, long time ago. He wasn’t going to run away. He wasn’t going to let anyone tell him what was or was not possible. These were his people. He had saved them from the system’s monsters, and he would do it again. It didn’t matter what the Protectorate wanted from him-he would do what he wanted.
Looking around, he realized that all the groups had gathered. They were just waiting on Daryl, who appeared a moment later, laden with several thick troll skins and what looked like half a leg. Raising an eyebrow, he turned it around to display the glowing blue xatherite about half again as big as the one from the mosquito coming out of the heel of the foot. He looked over the group of people around him, seeing their auras. Katie and JP both had the strongest blue auras of anyone in the group. But he didn’t trust JP; he didn’t trust his mysterious senator’s motives.
“Katie, collect that xatherite, you just have to touch it.” She raised an eyebrow at him, curious. “I have a suspicion that who you are affects what kind of xatherite you acquire. I think you have the best chance of getting a good blue.”
“Okay.” She walked towards Daryl who held the leg out to her; his clothing was spotted with green blood, his hands stained with it. He managed to keep most of it away from Katie, holding the leg without touching the crystal.