“You are so easily spooked!” One of the younger looking lads barely in his adulthood chuckled as he nudged his senior. They had all been staring into the distance waiting to see if someone was about to appear from the shadows, but no one showed, and it had probably been an animal startling the bunch. 

“Forgive me for being a little paranoid, but the Capital aren’t exactly our friends now, are they?” The elder gentleman hissed back towards the young. “We can thank your pal Ethan for that can’t we? Royally fucked it for us all didn’t he Jack?” 

The young adult now named Jack cast his eyes downwards knowing very well that Ethans plans had not been the right way to go about things, it had become personal but the minute it had been agreed to send Regis’s daughter to assassinate the monarchy had been truly where the downfall started of their rebellion. Sighing to himself he leaned down tying what looked like some sort of wire spool linking the explosives together, “Regis didn’t really help though.”

“We all said he was a liability, but he went ahead with his own plans anyway and in the end, what happened to that family? Go on tell me Jack, what happened to them?” 

“We don’t know if she’s dead too, there wasn’t a body and [i]she[/i] said…”

“Shhh…” Hissing out for the Jack to hush as the elder glanced around definitely hearing some sort of hurried footsteps towards them, holding his breath as he lowered himself towards the ground as if he was hiding. 

“Quick, they’re coming. You need to set them off now and scatter! They’ve caught wind.” Another male figure came into view, warning them to flee as the guard had spotted something. They all needed to make haste back through the woods that they slipped through to get here, this was only a small part of the plan but even as they had planned a distraction the others weren’t in position and Sven was not about to send anyone to a needless death. They’d regroup and make a new plan if that’s what it took, he had seen first-hand what their military and guards were like. Healed burns covered his face and scars could be seen running down his neck. He had been lucky to survive the assault on the prison and he firmly believed that was down to him taking a risk that night and setting Iris free to escape. It didn’t however ease the guilt of her disappearance, everyone believed she was dead, and he had caused that by setting her free that night. 

“RUN!” Sven began to shout as he saw uniformed figures rounding the corner in the distance, “Jack!” Cursing as the youngest of the group faltered, he was scrambling to set off the explosion and it was about to get him caught. “LEAVE IT!”

“BOY!” 

“Shit!” Sven started to real off every curse he could think of as he and the elder man gained distance, both glancing back in horror as Jack finally lit the fuse and a loud bang could be heard. It was a split-second decision, but Sven knew that the explosion allowed both him and the other to slip away back into the woods with no harm leaving Jack behind to deal with the terrifying military. 

Panting Jack fumbled around trying to light the fuse, he could see the uniformed group approach and he began to tremble. He had to set this off, he had to prove himself to the group he could do it and be a part of the rebellion. The true cause and not the one he had been following with Ethan in charge. Crying out as he managed to set it off a chorus of loud bangs could be heard against the building. Mud and debris began flying out, part of the building began to crumble which was hosting the party and he could smell burning flesh as he had burnt his hands in the process. For a split second his hearing had gone, and he could hear this loud ringing and he glanced in the distance to see the other two escape, smiling he knew he had done it only to now be surrounded by the military. 

Harry one of the members of the security team had been on patrol that night, listening over his comms piece as he watched the party and all the guests partying away without a care. Frowning as intelligence was spoken about a plot of a terrorist attack, they hadn’t heard anything against the rebellion since Ethan and the incident over a month ago, so it felt strange to even be thinking about the Scourge again when they had thought it had died. Now he stood surrounding a male who was barely old enough to be an adult with singed hands frowning as he looked down, one of the guards had moved forward to restrain him and this was when the child began to thrash not going quietly. 

“You all deserve this! Everyone in that room deserves to be hurt!” Jack started to shout out defensively as he was roughly grabbed by the arms, kicking his feet out causing issues. 

“Send him to the penitentiary, scout the area for more. There were at least two others.” Harry spoke calmly as he gave the order. 

 “Where is she? What did you do with Iris!” Jack continued to shout including slurs and insults towards the higher ups and how they were living like Kings when the districts still suffered. 

Harry stopped for a moment looking over the boy, surely, he couldn’t be talking about the very same girl that he had pronounced dead. “Iris is dead.” His voice was calm as he spoke folding his arms across his chest. 

“There wasn’t a body.”

Not wanting to waste any more time on the matter he waved his hands signaling the guards to send him away, frowning at the thought because Jacob had buried the girl at the Kings request. Sighing he rubbed his temples before pressing on his comms device, “Jacob, we have a situation.”