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Short Story!
We're finally picking back up with Accolade!
It feels like it's been forever, so you might want to go to my website to check out the last chapter or two to get your head back in the game--I know I needed to! :)
As a bit of an apology for the wait, this chapter is longer than usual too!
Accolade
Chapter Seventeen - Part One
West of Paradise, Galatia
“I’m serious, I think we lost the hybrids,” Gideon declares as he digs his heels into the soft earth underfoot.
Sylvia had led Gideon through the forest at a full sprint for what must have been fifteen minutes and they had only just slowed down about five minutes ago. Since they had slowed down, Gideon had done his best to slow down his heartrate and be as quiet as possible in order to listen for any signs—or more accurately sounds—of danger.
“Shush,” Sylvia repeats the same order that she had given Gideon easily a dozen times now.
“I’m not moving until you say what’s really going on,” Gideon shakes his head as he crosses his arms. He is not about to follow Sylvia any further because he can tell that Sylvia is hiding something again.
“Come on, just a little bit further,” Sylvia begs.
Frowning, Gideon shakes his head again, “No, just tell me where we’re going!”
“Just trust me on this,” Sylvia pleads, “We have to do this!”
Worried, Gideon quietly asks, “Are you taking me to the place on your map?”
“Yes! Now please, let’s go!”
“Aren’t we supposed to stick with the rest of our team?”
“Maverick wasn’t about to let us go there any time soon, so I had to take matters into my own hands.”
“And you just had to drag me along?”
“You’re in this just as deep as I am,”
“Yeah, because you tricked me into coming with you.”
“I didn’t trick you, I just said you should follow me.”
“And then you led me all the way out here. I’m heading back to camp and I think you should come with me. The others might need us!”
“They’ll be fine without us. What they do need is for us to find out what was so important that my mom slipped us a secret map.”
“I don’t know if it’s wise for us to go out on our own like this, you saw the hybrids.”
“We have to do this,” Sylvia maintains as she approaches Gideon.
Turning slightly, Gideon warns, “I’m serious, I’m heading back.”
“We’re basically halfway there, let’s go!” Sylvia implores Gideon as she takes his hand and tries pulling him along.
“There’s no way we’re halfway,” Gideon points out as he gives Sylvia a skeptical look. It was one thing to lead him astray, it was entirely another to lie outright.
“Half of the battle was getting away from Maverick,” Sylvia shrugs without actually admitting how much further they had to walk.
“I don’t care how hard you think that was, what matters is that we get back with the team. I won’t tell Maverick your plan and we can try it again later when we know that everyone is safe.”
“Or we could just go now and be back before anyone misses us. Just in and out really quick, no one has to know that we weren’t being chased the whole time!”
“How about this: We go just a little bit further and find a high point to see just how easy this trip of yours will be. Once we do that, we double back and meet up with the others.”
“Well if we do that then we might as well go the whole way!”
“I’m not about to abandon our team just because of some secret message! I know it sounds promising and all, but did you think that it might take a long time for whatever your mom marked it to happen? What if she’s planning on meeting us there or dropping supplies? There’s no knowing how long we’ll have to wait!”
“It could be a secret abandoned base that we could take over too.”
“Well if we found a good vantage point then we might be able to better judge that.”
“Is there any way I could convince you to come with me if it was something really cool?”
“No! We really need to find the rest of the team. Besides, I am sure that it isn’t safe to just have the two of us out here, not with the hybrids out and about.”
“Whatever,” Sylvia scowls as she spits out the word. Spinning around and marching off the way she had been going before, Sylvia’s shoulders slouch slightly and she gives in to Gideon’s compromise, “Let’s go find a lookout point.”
Not wanting to let Sylvia down too much, Gideon tries to reason with her, “Hey, I’m sorry we can’t do this, but you know it’s the right thing to do.”
Sighing, Sylvia shakes her head and says, “I’m done talking about it.”
“Sorry,” Gideon squeaks, worried that he already lost one of the few friends that he had out here.
Sylvia grumbles something that Gideon doesn’t catch, and he decides to follow her in complete silence now. As he saw it, the only thing worse than the awkward silence that is so thick that he could cut it with a knife was breaking the silence. Trying to break the silence before Sylvia did was destined to end badly.
•••••••••••••••
“Did you hear that?” Sylvia asks after several minutes of hiking. By now, she and Gideon are nearly halfway up a steep hill that they hoped would give them the vantage point that they needed.
“No,” Gideon answers, happy that Sylvia finally spoke up. He always hated when things were left on a bad note.
“There’s something following us,” Sylvia whispers as she drops to a crouch.
“What is it?” Gideon whispers back. Looking around, he hopes to catch a glimpse of whatever was tracking them. Before he has a chance to look around as much as he wanted, Sylvia gives his arm a sharp tug and he falls on top of her. Clumsily trying to pull himself off of Sylvia, Gideon sheepishly says, “Sorry, you caught me by—”
“Quiet!” Sylvia urges as her head snaps back to the direction that she had been looking at when she asked if Gideon heard anything. When Gideon continues trying to get away, Sylvia takes a hold of his hand and stops him. When he gives her a quizzical and concerned face, she simply says, “Hold still.”
Gideon rolls his eyes and he pulls away from Sylvia’s grasp long enough to begin pulling himself off her when someone shouts from behind, “I knew it!”
“Really Meghan?” Sylvia demands as she shoots up to her feet, “I was about ready to shoot you!”
Looking like she is ready to start screaming, Meghan fires back, “Well I couldn’t just let you take Gideon out to who knows where without following you, now could I?”
“You could just mind your own business for a change!”
“Mind my business? I had dibs!”
“I don’t care who you have dibs on, Gideon and I are checking something out!”
“Not without me you aren’t.”
“Hey, hey, let’s quiet down a bit,” Gideon butts in, “We don’t want the hybrids on our trail.”
Without turning to Gideon, Meghan snaps, “You can’t shut up, this is between us.”
Surprised by Meghan’s bluntness, Gideon can’t help but counter, “No, you can shut up. Sylvia and I are getting to the top of this hill and then we’re heading back. Nothing you say will change that and I don’t care what you think about it either!”
Meghan’s eyes grow wide for a moment before a smirk tugs at her lips. Raising an eyebrow, she starts, “Woah, I think—"
“Zip it,” Gideon cuts Meghan off. Turning to Sylvia, he instructs, “Let’s go.”
“With pleasure,” Sylvia nods as she gives Meghan a mocking grin and then starts back up the hill.
Knowing that he couldn’t just leave her and knowing that there was power in numbers, Gideon invites Meghan, “You can follow us if you’d like. If not, you can wait for us down here.”
“Oh, I’m coming with,” Meghan responds quickly, and she closes the distance between her and Gideon.
Meghan tries to grab Gideon’s hand, but he quickly pulls it away from her. Shaking his head, he tells her, “I don’t think so. I’m not your boyfriend and, if you keep acting like this, I never will be.”
“Keep acting like that and no one will want you,” Sylvia chimes in.
“Not helpful,” Gideon grunts as he follows Sylvia. For one reason or another, the two ladies seemed to have some bad blood between them, and Gideon didn’t want to dig any further into that open sore.
This was a long one and, as per the usual,
Cliffhanger!
I'm not even sorry, I have to make sure y'all read the next email, after all! :)
If you've missed any previous chapters, or if you want to reread them, then you can check them out on my website! Here's the link:
https://calebfast.com/2020/04/08/accolade/
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