Sleep came reluctantly for Adam. He began to drift off but an image of Sam's face or one of Sam's phrases would jolt him awake. The fire kept him company as he calmed down, only to then crackle and remind Adam of the terror from the humans. He smoothed his way back to his tent and finally fell asleep with an image of Luke's angry gaze.

Sheer exhaustion kept the dreams away. In the morning, Adam woke to a quiet camp. Normally, there would be activity outside his tent as the orcs repaired the camp, preserved food, or readied themselves to hunt or gather for the camp.

Now everyone was gone and the ones left behind were in no mood to do anything beyond the bare necessities. They were gathered around the extinguished fire, not even bothering to coax it back to life. They sat eating cold food that didn’t need to be cooked.

Adam could see two distinct groups around the campfire. On the left was Greenbough and his remaining orc. They were making plans for travel and between the incomplete whispers, Adam could hear them analyzing the battle that they had just fought. The chief, Max, Dax, Luke, and the two other warrior orcs sat in another group. Only the chief talked, and Adam could tell from his posture and hand motions that he was teaching them something - probably talking to them about how best to march or something similar.

Adam considered the implications of sitting with one group or another, before noting that the seating near the chief’s group would leave him next to Luke. He wasn’t sure if it was out of shame, anger, or some other emotion he hadn’t uncovered, but he ended by Greenbough and his orc. The chief grunted when he saw this and said nothing.

After Adam sat, an odd tension fell over the camp. For a few minutes, everyone was silent and focused either on their meals, maintaining their weapons, or the ground. The chief was the first to break the silence.

“I thought about things more last night. About our retreat, and abandoning this camp,” the chief's voice was softer than usual. He had no reason to project his voice anymore. He paused for a moment, weighing his next words, “And I will stay behind when the rest of you leave.”

Greenbough grunted in acknowledgment but didn’t seem shocked by the news. The same was not true for Adam.

“Chief, you can’t stay here alone. The humans will be back.”

“I know, Adam.”

“It’s suicide! You won’t be able to…”

“SILENCE!”

The chief held nothing back in the roar. Orcs were creatures who respected power. It was something instinctual at the core of everything they did. All the frustration and anger the chief usually kept to himself had leaked out in the command, and Adam was powerless to resist it. He slumped back down into his seat, silenced.

“Greenbough, I want you to lead these orcs away from the camp. Go where you will. You will be in command of them. The rest of you. Rest or do what you will. But by the end of the day, you will leave.”

The orcs from the camp were silent. Nobody budged, or left. Minutes passed in a way that felt like hours before Adam stood. He was the first one out of the group. As he walked away, he felt the eyes of his friends boring holes in him. Blaming him for making the wrong decisions. Blaming him for killing Sam.

He wandered out of the camp in a daze. His head was a mess. It was only slowly and over a long walk that he began to put himself back together, mentally. He had made the right decision, pulling the orcs into formation, for one.

If I hadn’t, we all would have died there. I think even Luke must know that.

The chief was staying, and that was very likely a death sentence. But he wasn’t responsible for that. The chief's motivation to take revenge or protect the camp wasn’t something that he could control. Something had changed in the chief over the past weeks since the younger orcs' blood test. It was hard to say exactly what. But whatever was happening inside him wasn’t entirely related to Adam, if it was at all.

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Adam eventually made his way to his squad’s old training ground. He sat down on a rock, and looked around one last time at the area where he and his friends had spent so much time practicing their formations.

They had become strong. In some ways, the formation had worked. Adam thought back to when they dueled against the chief. He remembered when Sam sheepishly admitted defeat to keep himself from being brained. At that time, Adam had thought about teaching the others to lead the formation without him. The arrival of Greenbough had thrown those ideas out the window. And now, he probably would never have the chance to try the formation again.

Maybe that was a good thing. Visions of Sam kept flashing in his head, complaining about training or making jokes at a meal. Sam had never been as strong as the others. It was a miracle the chief had allowed him to take the blood test at all. But he had followed everyone anyway. And now he was gone, and the vitality he brought to the group was gone with him.

How could everything change in just a day?

Adam was broken out of his thoughts by the sounds of footsteps close behind him - too close for comfort. He grabbed his shield and wheeled around to find Max and Dax standing there. Max had his palms facing out in mock surrender.

“It's us,” Max broke into a small smile, and he and Dax approached where Adam had been sitting. It made Adam feel a little better that they had known where to find him, that there was still something to show from what they had.

“I’m not you, and I’m certainly not Sam,” Dax spoke up first. His voice wavered a bit when he said Sam’s name. “I’m not good at talking. But Max and I think that you made the right decision yesterday. The formation was our only hope to get out of the human’s trap.”

“And saving the chiefs was the only way we could have all survived after that. We were all spent,” Max interjected.

“There wasn’t much time to think. And it was a miracle any of us survived at all.”

Adam’s throat suddenly felt thick. He wanted to reply, but he didn’t trust his voice.

“We don’t blame you.” Max nodded in agreement with Dax.

“Maybe you should,” Adam’s voice shook as he replied. “Sam was weaker than all of us. I should have protected him. I should have…”

“No,” Dax cut him off with a forcefulness that surprised Adam into silence. “We all feel that way. We all should have protected him better. But it was a battle. Orcs sometimes fall in battle. You did what you could.”

Adam slumped. In his heart, he knew that his two friends weren't wrong. But something inside of him rejected the easy answer. It was like a lump of tree root in his stomach, blocking everything out while his body tried desperately to digest it. The guilt in him was just as strong as before.

He took a deep breath and stood. He looked over to Max and asked him the question that had been weighing him down since he first found out that Sam was gone.

“You say that. But knowing how much it would cost, would you make the same choice I did? If we could do everything over again?”

Adam could almost hear his brain working as he mulled over the possibilities.

“I don’t know. It happened quickly,” Max said, “I know I wouldn’t have thought of it, at least. I might have. To save any of us, I might have.”

“I probably wouldn’t. That’s just not me. But that doesn’t mean that you were wrong,” Dax said. Adam started to speak, but Dax cut him off with a handwave. “The only choice anyone made, besides you, was to stand still and keep fighting. And nobody thinks we would have survived that. Not me, not Max, not anyone.”

“No.”

A voice came from behind Adam. He turned to see Luke, standing behind him. His posture was stiff, and he was almost shaking with what seemed like rage.

“You brought Max and Dax out here to tell you what a good job you did? That you shouldn’t feel bad? That nothing was your fault?”

“He didn’t bring us, Luke, we…”

“QUIET!” Luke roared, cutting off Dax mid-sentence. He walked close to Adam, so close Adam could smell his breath, “They told you it was okay because it was a battle? Because things happened so quickly? Lies.”

Adam tried to take a step back, but Luke caught him by the shoulder and kept him close. He snarled, “Let me tell you the truth. We lost Sam because you wanted to be a hero. You wanted to save the day, and hear everyone cheering your name.”

Luke suddenly shoved Adam, hard. Adam kept his balance and pushed down the instinct to charge Luke. Whatever else might be true, this wasn’t a problem that could be fixed with fighting.

“You were our leader. We fell in behind you. Into the formation you made. That you controlled. It only worked because of you. You knew that,” Luke voice was just a furious whisper now, “And you still left. You left the weakest of us to go save the strongest.”

Luke backed away but continued, “And why? Because you wanted to be the strongest? Because you wanted the chief’s attention? Why?”

That’s not how it happened, Luke.

A dozen defenses flashed through Adam’s mind, but he couldn’t say any of them. He doubted they would help convince Luke, especially since he hardly believed them himself. He and Luke stood staring at each other for a few seconds.

“You chose to abandon us. You might think that Sam would have been safe or that it was the right choice. Maybe that's true. But I don’t think you thought about anything but yourself in that moment.”

Luke grunted and left a final message, “Do what you want. Go where you want. But know this: I’m done with you.”