The sun's light burned through my eyelids. Its heat was harsh on my parched lips. I opened my eyes but immediately closed them again as the glare sent a shooting pain in my head and spots in my vision.

I turned to the side so I wouldn't be staring directly at it once I opened my eyes again. Then the thoughts and memories came flooding back. The house, the fight, Claire, my friends.

I looked around in panic, unsure where I was or how I got there. Then the last piece of information fell into place. The whisper of sleep knocked me unconscious. Further clarity seeped into my awareness. Claire was gone, but the colonel's body was still there.

I stumbled to my feet so I could check on everyone else. I ran the short distance to where they were. Relief washed over me like a cold shower.

They were all there, lying on the ground and unconscious as I had been. I could see they were all breathing. I used my powers to check if anything else was wrong, but nothing else looked amiss. I woke Sarah up first; I figured I would get that lecture over quickly while no one else could hear it. It went just how I expected.

"I told you," was the first thing she said after I explained that it was the middle of the day because we had all been unconscious from Claire's attack. All I could do was apologize and tell her she was right.

"But, I had to try," I added.

"Well, I hope you learned your lesson, and you better not try again with her," she said after contemplating.

After that, I decided to wake up Melody and her brother so that if Claire chose to come back, we could have some type of protection against her. Melody freaked out for a second as I woke her, probably from all her memories rushing back at once. Her arms flailed wildly, and I was forced to take a step back, so I wasn't popped in the face. Once I got her calmed down, I explained what had happened.

"So that was your girlfriend?" she asked. I didn't know what I was expecting her to say, but not that line of questioning.

"She was," I said, not knowing what else to say.

"Not impressed. I think you could do better," she said with a slight grin.

"Oh, you do, do you?"

"Mhmm," she hummed, then moved to wake up Victor, letting me be alone as I blushed with embarrassment.

Just as we did earlier, we went around and woke everyone else up, but I wasn't too worried about getting away that time. For the moment, it appeared that we had taken care of the enemy and could breathe a little. Unfortunately, there was no place to rest since the house had been destroyed, so we would have to go back to the hotel in town or make a shelter in the forest.

It didn't take too long, perhaps an hour, for everyone to be ready to move. We would return to the hotel and regroup before deciding what to do next.

"What do you think we should do about the Welders?" Sarah asked.

I had completely forgotten about them in the confusion of everything. I turned on my ability and scanned the forest to count how many there were. The color and shape of the Welder's aura would allow me to spot them easily in the woods, just as I had before the battle. As I scanned the area where I knew that they should be, I didn't see any trace of them.

"They're gone," I said.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Sarah's head whipped toward me. "What do you mean they're gone?" she asked with a tinge of panic.

"I mean, they're not there." I gestured toward the trees. "They must have escaped or been set free. I don't know."

"Damn it," she yelled and stomped her foot.

"Why are you upset about that?" I asked. "Isn't it just fewer people we have to worry about?"

"No, Aidren, I'll still worry. They're just like us. Jace and Claire may have known what was going on, and others may know too, but I think most of them are just as in the dark about everything as we were. We could have helped them."

My only response to that was a grunt of acknowledgment. It was just like Sarah to want to help everyone, even those who had just been attacking us. But as I thought about it, I wasn't much different, probably slightly more selfish.

I had tried to do the same thing with Claire, and she hadn't been innocent. No, I was way worse. I didn't even care about the others in the camp. The ones that attacked us were only a small number of the Welders there, and I knew that there was also a handful more Sirens.

"Damn," I said. Sarah turned to me questioningly. "The other Sirens are gone too."

"There were other Sirens here too?" she asked, and I nodded. "You just said that it was Claire."

"I just mentioned her to get through the story. Do you remember running by some people lying on the ground as we left the house?"

"Yes, but I just figured they were Welders or soldiers. So there was a whole squad of Sirens? How did you beat them?"

"Victor," I said simply. "But we should talk more about this at the hotel and get out of the open."

Sarah nodded, then suddenly brightened with a smile, "I have an idea."

Her idea was to use the Humvees to transport us all back to town and the hotel. It would have saved us a lot of travel time. She had a smile on her face and a bounce to her step as she led us all around the destroyed house, but her smile and bounce immediately fell as she turned the corner.

Unfortunately, the Humvees were also gone from the area. So, we all ended up walking back to the hotel just as we had walked away from it. The walk back should have taken us a lot less time to get there since it was downhill most of the way. Although everyone was tired and injured, so it took longer than it took us to get to the house.

We all piled into the hotel. I waited until everyone was in before I scanned the area one last time with my ability. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary, so I went inside.

I felt we would have been safe for a while. After we went over what happened and decided what to do next, I would check again, but we would have to assign some lookouts eventually. I walked onto the hotel lobby and headed to the same room I claimed the day before to decompress a little, but Sarah's voice diverted my path.

"Hey, General Aidren," she called. I looked over. The majority of the group was sitting in the community area. Apparently, there was no time to relax. I walked to the group and noticed Melody had saved me a seat next to her on a couch.

"Was that a joke Madam President?" I quipped as I sat down next to Melody.

"Well, I am feeling very optimistic about our situation. We stopped the camp from taking us back and didn't lose anyone. Isn't that a good reason to relax a little?"

"Yes, it is," I replied hesitantly. "But there's still a lot to be worried about. Claire is gone, and so are the Welders and Sirens that fought at the house. The colonel may be gone, but there is still Camp Walker. All the cadres are still there, including Sergeant Michel. There are others, and many are probably being lied to and brainwashed."

While everyone was thinking, I listed some questions that I had. "So what do we do about all that? Do we go into hiding? Do we wait here to be attacked again? Will they even do that? Should we try to save the other kids?" I let the questions hang there for a moment. "It's just too much to think about all at once."

"There's my uncle and his liberation group," Melody said after a moment of silence from the group as they considered everything I said. "I need to know if they're okay after the attack. If they are, they could help us."

I nodded. "That might be a good place to start. Saving the kids like us was their mission. Do you think they would still be in the same place?"

"Maybe not after the attack," she said thoughtfully. "But we also had a couple other places for a camp. I could find them if I find out where we are."

"We'll find a map then," I said.

After that, we discussed everything that happened during the fight at the house. Towards the end of the conversation, everyone was visibly exhausted. Victor, sitting on the other side of Melody, was asleep, and his sister began to doze off on my shoulder.

We decided to make the decision after we rested, so everyone went to their room. The weight of the night and worry of the next day kept me from being tired. Instead of sleeping, I walked outside to check that the area was secure and to guard my friends.