Drew walked out from behind a large tree, his eyes grim. He sheathed one of his batons with a sigh. Harper watched, feeling disappointed with herself. In the end, she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t assassinate the scout. That’s what it would have been.

She’d wondered if the Connection was pushing her in that direction. Her Abilities got bonuses from sneak attacks, and with her Stealth and Shadowskip, it was easy to appear out of nowhere and backstab an opponent. They were the perfect Abilities for an assassin.

That was not what Harper wanted to be.

To kill the elf would have been going too far down that path. The first time, she’d taken a step down the path, but if she had killed the scout it would have been too many steps.

Instead she’d appeared and knocked him out quickly. They had debated about taking the scout prisoner but there weren’t enough Clansmembers in the group to keep some behind to guard the prisoner. Tying him up and leaving him there would have been a death sentence. Some monster would have found him and eaten him alive.

There was no choice. Drew had stepped up to do it.

“Let’s keep moving,” he said, nodding to Harper.

She nodded grimly. Turning she saw the rest of the group. Drew’s team, along with Davis and his team. They were joined by a couple of the guards. With Harper, it was a total of fifteen people. She was the youngest, no one blamed her for not being able to kill the scout. At least she hoped they didn’t.

Drew had been put in charge of the combined Clansmembers, but everyone knew how important Harper was to the mission. And that she was the second highest Level in the Clan. That gave her some authority. At that moment, she wanted to run back to the school and hide in their room.

But as her mom had said. They were Bradys. They didn’t hide from their responsibilities. She had a mission to perform.

Taking a deep breath, putting thoughts of the scout behind her, Harper took her place in front of the group, looking back to make sure they were all arranged. They didn’t travel in a straight line, but more of an I-formation. A couple people further to the sides, still able to keep her in relative line of sight, to watch the flanks, with two more at the rear off to the sides. Raising her hand, she gave the motion to start moving.

She kept her eyes and ears open for more scouts. It would have been safer to scout ahead in the Shadow Realm, but she wanted to limit her time there. Just quick Skips in and out, nothing extended. Not unless she needed to.

Her thoughts drifted back to the conversation with her parents and the elf scout she hadn’t killed, but allowed to be killed. What would her parents think? She knew they wouldn’t have wanted her to kill the scout, but was it her responsibility?

She sighed, not ready to make such decisions. No fifteen year old should, but she was being pushed into that position. Harper could feel the weight of the responsibility her parents had given her. It wasn’t heavy but there. A lot was riding on her doing her job. Not just the lives of the people with her, and her own life, but many more. People she didn’t even know.

People in the future.

If the plan failed, the Silver Bark would take over. Clan Brady would be no more. Elora had painted a picture of what a future with the Silver Bark in charge would be like. Humans would be little more than slaves, fodder for the elves' expansion. They would rule the area, fighting and expanding out over the world until the entire planet belonged to them.

Harper had read books, seen movies, showing a dystopian future. That is what would await humanity. Maybe one of the other higher Leveled and ranked humans would be able to stop the Silver Bark, or maybe even one of the other invading Connected races, but Clan Brady wouldn’t survive.

She didn’t want to think about the future, not even one where she was the Clan leader. The present was enough. Taking a deep breath she pushed all thoughts down for later. She was doing that a lot and knew it wasn’t healthy. But she had to focus on the present.

***

Harper lost track of the time. Maybe an hour or two and they didn’t come across any more scouts. She didn’t know what that meant. Were the Silver Bark lax with their security or had more than they’d expected gone with the leaders to confront her father?

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It seemed like good news for them, but Harper wasn’t sure. She had a bad feeling. Maybe she was being paranoid, but she didn’t trust the lack of patrols. It made her extra cautious.

Just ahead, through the trees, she could see the blue sky. It didn’t take long to break out of the cover of the trees and onto the broken and cracked road. She’d come out where she had wanted to. The homes on the forest side of the road were gone, replaced by more trees. The road itself was like all the roads around. Large cracks, pushed up sections of pavement. Across from the woods, the beach hadn’t really changed.

Northwood had three town beaches. One on Northwood Lake and two on Bow Lake. Those were pretty close together, one right on Bow Lake Road and the other on a side street that wrapped around part of the lake. The one on the road wasn’t big, only wide enough for about a handful of cars, a stone wall separating the parking from the beach itself. Steps led down to the sandy area and then out onto the water.

It looked just like the many times she’d come down there with family and friends. She had liked the other beach off Bennett’s Bridge better, but this one had been good. Nothing about it had changed. The boat launch to the side was there. Only the island that had been visible, seemingly not that far from shore, was now much further. Two of three times the original distance.

Seeing the beach reminded Harper of life before the Connection. Fall was approaching, they would have come to the lake for the last swims of the season a couple of weekends before. The cold water had never bothered her. She loved to swim. Especially in lakes. She’d always been more freshwater over seawater. Her mom was the opposite.

Looking both ways up the road, not seeing anything, Harper stepped out onto the broken pavement. She smiled, looking at the beach. She was tempted to go for a swim. Maybe after everything had settled down, and in the spring when it was warmer. The constant wind blew across the street, bringing with it a chill.

It didn’t seem like winter would be that far off. A short fall. Or maybe it had been Fall for a while now. She had lost track of the months since the Connection. Winter could be right around the corner for all she knew. What had her father said? Kristin and some others were trying to figure out a way to count the days and figure out what month they really were in.

She walked across the road, stopping at the stone wall. The others came out of the woods, Drew directing some to head up and down the road a ways to keep watch. She heard footsteps approaching.

“I spent so much time at this beach,” Davis said, leaning against the stone wall. “Crazy that it really hasn’t changed.”

“I wonder what Bennetts is like,” Harper said.

“Remember that time Ben got into a fight with Wyatt?,” Davis asked, turning to sit on the wall.

Harper did the same, watching Drew and others talking. She knew she should join them, help, but figured she’d just get in the way. Drew knew what to do.

“Oh yeah, that was crazy,” she answered Davis, shifting to look at him. “I didn’t think you knew I was here.”

He laughed, smiling at her.

“I knew you were there. I kind of always knew if you were around.”

Before she could say anything else, Drew called for her.

“Duty calls,” she said, sighing, hopping off the wall.

Davis did the same, following after her.

“I don’t like camping here,” Drew said, looking around. “Too open. Is there anything nearby that would be better.”

Harper looked at Davis, who shrugged.

“Not really,” she said. “Just more houses along the road.” She looked east, where the long hill of Bow Lake started. “If we head east a bit, there’s a side street that follows the lake but then ends up connecting to Sherburne.”

Drew didn’t recognize the names. Which made sense, he’d been in Strafford and even though he’d been down Bow Lake, most people thought Sherburne Hill was another road.

“You know that sharp corner on Ridge?”

He nodded.

“That’s where Bennetts Bridge Road ends up, and from that corner to the sharp corner on Bow Lake, that is actually Sherburne and not Ridge Road.”

“Oh yeah, I always just called that Ridge.”

“Everyone does,” Davis said, chuckling.

Some of the others around them laughed too, all understanding the joke. Those that hadn’t been Northwood residents ignored the three until they got back on track.

“If we set up there,” Harper continued. “And we need to retreat we can go down Bennetts or up Bow Lake.”

“Good thinking,” Drew said. “Let’s do that.”