{"id":432,"date":"2013-10-29T00:00:11","date_gmt":"2013-10-29T04:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/?p=432"},"modified":"2013-10-28T19:10:47","modified_gmt":"2013-10-28T23:10:47","slug":"thirty-one-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/?p=432","title":{"rendered":"Thirty-one (part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Trust no one, even those you think are your friends.<\/h3>\n

— attributed to Ryland LeSarte, date unknown<\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

19 Decem, 5249 PD<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIs it far?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, not far.\u201d\u00a0 There was pain etched on Frederick\u2019s face as they moved away from the shore.\u00a0 His leg was on fire, painful in ways that he hadn\u2019t experienced since the early days after his injury.\u00a0 Winston was concerned.<\/p>\n

Of course he\u2019s concerned.\u00a0 There\u2019s air raid sirens going off and he\u2019s letting an invalid direct him to safety!\u00a0 Of course he\u2019s concerned.\u00a0 I\u2019d be concerned if I were him.<\/i><\/p>\n

If there was a way to easily direct the boy toward Gabe Forrester\u2019s place, he would have, but Frederick suspected that Winston would have gotten himself lost somewhere in the tangle of vines in the vineyard between the beach and the caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand why this would be happening,\u201d Winston said, his words half a mumble and half a growl.\u00a0 \u201cWhy the hell would people hate all of you so damned much?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the fear, not the hate,\u201d Frederick said through clenched teeth.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m surprised that you didn\u2019t start piecing it together before now.\u00a0 We symbolize something that\u2019s terrifying\u2014and we represent the possibility that man isn\u2019t infallible and might have to make some kind of damned effort<\/i> and sacrifice<\/i> something in order to keep on living.\u201d\u00a0 He shot the young Inspector a quick, wry smile.\u00a0 \u201cOf course, there\u2019s also the fact that we\u2019ve got more psychics here per capita than anywhere else in the Commonwealth.\u00a0 People don\u2019t like the idea of folks in their heads, hearing their thoughts\u2014never mind that it doesn\u2019t quite<\/i> work that way for most of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winston grunted, looking down the pathway ahead.\u00a0 \u201cThrough those hedges?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the vineyard,\u201d Frederick said.\u00a0 \u201cThrough there and down the hill.\u201d<\/p>\n

The whine was rising, too loud and wrong for the sound to be just<\/i> the air raid sirens.\u00a0 Frederick risked a glance back in time to see two of the Colony\u2019s fighters scream overhead high above, heading back toward base at a quick clip.\u00a0 He swallowed bile and shook his head quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about to escalate badly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you know?\u201d\u00a0 Winston asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause that pair of wingmen isn\u2019t running toward a fight, they\u2019re running home for refuel and reinforcements.\u201d\u00a0 Frederick swallowed again.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve seen it before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winston looked like he was about to ask where, then shut his mouth.\u00a0 \u201cRight,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cWe need to move faster, don\u2019t we?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely,\u201d Frederick said, feeling sick.\u00a0 He straightened slightly and started to move faster, ignoring how much his leg hurt and trying not to consider what he was doing to already permanently damaged muscles and tendons, knowing that the only thing that mattered right now was making sure that the young man with him survived whatever attack was coming.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not too much farther now.<\/i>\u00a0 He swallowed again, mouth sour with fear and nausea.\u00a0 He hadn\u2019t faced something like this in decades.<\/p>\n

I got used to the lack of fear.\u00a0 Now that it\u2019s back again, now that the danger\u2019s back, I\u2019m about to freeze like I did the first time I set foot in a war zone.<\/i><\/p>\n

A glance sidelong at the young man with him was enough to know that Winston\u2019s thoughts were paralleling his own.<\/p>\n

This was the crucible, and either they\u2019d come out of it alive, or they were going to burn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trust no one, even those you think are your friends. — attributed to Ryland LeSarte, date unknown 19 Decem, 5249 PD \u201cIs it far?\u201d \u201cNo, not far.\u201d\u00a0 There was pain etched on Frederick\u2019s face as they moved away from the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-two-ashes-to-ashes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p25yjF-6Y","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=432"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":433,"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions\/433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}