When Jerry rejoined the crowd, the feast was already pretty much over. In fact, after all the fighting and all the leisure, the day was already getting dark.

Everyone should be ready for some logical talk on a full stomach, right?

Jerry realized his mistake when he saw the teens were leaving...in pairs.

Seriously?

Jerry’s eyebrows tightened. His eyelids were growing heavier and heavier. He hasn’t slept for nearly two days. The running and fighting didn't help him to stay awake either. But Jerry knew he had no time to rest. Enemy forces could be here any minute. He rested his hand on the handle of his sword and felt his mind slightly clearing up at the feeling of cold metal.

“Jerry. Where have you been?”

Jerry turned around and find Nicole. The girl had her bow wrapped around her body. The piece of string went through between her breasts. It made her look even hotter than she originally was.

“Busy.” He replied, not feeling the need to give details about his whereabouts to Nicole. “Apparently I’m not the only one.” He glanced at the other teens with disappointment.

Nicole rose her eyebrows in interest.

“You don’t like seeing others have sex?”

“I don’t like seeing people waste time when they’re about to die.”

“As blunt as always, aren’t you?” Nicole replied with a small smile. “You know, the others are right in one thing. We need some rest. All of us, including you.” She grabbed onto her bow and turned it around in her hand. “You’re like this bow. Keep it stretched, and eventually, it will snap. Only when you let it go when you don’t need to shoot it can you keep it working for a long time.”

Jerry felt his eyelids continuing to stick together. “I won’t snap. Even if I do, it’s better than about to die and not knowing it.”

He tapped his forehead and sat down on a piece of rock. Nicole sat down right next to him. Jerry glanced at her. He didn't like to be too close to someone else. It made him feel like his personal space was invaded. He slid slightly to the side.

Nicole glanced at him and did the same thing.

“Don’t you have something better to do?” Jerry could no longer contain an outburst. “I don’t know...find a boy or a girl or something. What do you want with me?”

“Finding a boy.”

Jerry turned around just in time to feel Nicole leaning toward him. Her lips met his.

Instead of feeling sexual desires, Jerry immediately reacted in the most dramatic way possible. His hands pressed down on the rock and pushed him back, keeping a distance between Nicole and him.

“What was that?” The girl demanded in confusion.

Jerry’s mouth opened immediately, but it took him a couple seconds to come up with a response he saw as suitable.

“We have a lot of work to do tomorrow. Go get some rest.”

The entire time, Jerry did his best to be as logical as possible. Logically speaking, having sex now would be all harm and no good. Nicole’s bow analogy had a point, but there was another side to it. If the bow was relaxed, it couldn’t be stretched again when it was needed. Likewise, Jerry felt like if he allowed himself to take a break and enjoy himself now, he would never gather the strength to do what has to be done.

His personal pleasure could be sacrificed for the greater good.

He turned around and left Nicole without a sense of regret.

Behind him, Nicole tilted her head. Being denied didn't seem to stop her curiosity.

Jerry got back to his bunker. He found a way to queue the units he needed to summon so that after one militia was summoned, another would follow automatically. He positioned all of his militias around his house. This way, he could take some rest in safety.

Or that was what he thought.

Jerry fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit the ground.

Meanwhile, the rest of the teens were having fun. Chris found himself in a threesome with Kirsten and Isabella. Patel found a companion in Sophie. The teens who weren’t having sex were enjoying bottles of wine looted from Liam’s chamber.

Perhaps the only one sober was Raymond. Similar to Jerry, Raymond retreated to a large tent that formerly belonged to a Sullivan captain and went to sleep under the layers of protection of his militias.

Everyone had his own way of dealing with stress. Some used distractions. Others tried to solve the sources of the stress. Which method is better?

The answer is debatable.

Jerry woke up several hours later in cold sweat.

When he was asleep, his mind still refused to go completely dormant. Instead, it jumped between multiple different things. One second Jerry’s mind was filled with images of his friends being slaughtered. The next second he was about to be hung in front of a crowd of hundreds. And yet the next a sea of red riders descended on top of him and crushed him to a piece of well-made meat pie.

He was finally woken up by the nightmares.

Jerry wasn’t stranger with these type of occurrences. Ever since he was a child, he was a sensitive person. He worried about everything, from getting a bad grade in school to potentially walking into the wrong classroom in the first day of school. From time to time he would even have nightmares about them.

The only problem was worrying about test scores wasn’t quite the same as worrying about being killed.

Jerry closed his eyes and tried to grab on to his logical front.

Relax. You’re safe. The closest Sullivan garrison is two days away. I talked to multiple sources and confirmed that. Even if a messenger got out on a horse, it would take him at least one day to get to Maynard City. It will be at least three days until the attack parties return. You’re safe.

But that led Jerry to a problem. What happens three days later? What happens when hundreds of Sullivan soldiers arrive to crush the rebellion? Jerry was sure the others were aware of this problem, but they chose to ignore it. All the drinks and sex were just to distract them from the inevitable truth.

But Jerry couldn’t. He would rather die than knowingly blind himself and rely on others to hopefully solve the problem.

People are untrustworthy. Depending solely on people will only lead to unfavorable results.

Jerry’s eyes snapped open, and he sat up from the bed. He rubbed his eyes before walking out of the tent. It was still dark outside, but Jerry could see a shade of light on the horizon. All the teens were asleep. Jerry saw several boys lying across the field. Empty bottles laid around them.

“Assemble!” Jerry shouted, and his 52 militias assembled.

“Leave twenty men here. The rest of you follow me!”

The militias obeyed without question. Twenty men stayed behind and patrolled around the tent. The rest followed Jerry and approached the exit of the camp.

As Jerry walked by Patel’s sentries, he paused.

“Tell your general I’m out for reconnaissance objectives. I’ll be back soon.”

“Yes sir.”

Patel was woken up by the chaos outside. He was about to get up when he noticed the warm, soft body beside him.

Sophie.

His head hurt. He remembered talking to Sophie during the meal. Patel was talking about his stress and fear when he set up the rebellion. At those days, even the slightest sound made his head hurt and his heart pound because it might mean a group of militias were discovered, and the Sullivans were here to arrest and torture him. He could swear he lost twenty pounds during those few days.

Sophie was venting about her days of torment at the hand of Jonah. The sadistic Sullivan advisor put a collar on her and whipped and burned her. The physical pain was matched by the humiliation. Sophie did her best to stay strong during those days, and she was indeed strong enough to live through the torture, but during this period of relaxation, no matter how small, she allowed herself to take off her armor and let her vulnerable side out. She knew Patel for years, and the two were quite close. Sophie felt comfortable crying in front of him.

Before they knew it, they started drinking to forget the pain. With alcohol in the stomach and their heads getting dizzy, they gained a false sense of security.

And then the talks started to turn to action...on bed.

Patel groaned again as the chaos grew louder and louder. He tapped on Sophie’s shoulder gently, and couldn’t help but enjoy the soft feeling.

“Sophie.”

“What? What’s going on?”

“I don’t know.” Patel said as he got off the bed and started getting dressed. “I’ll go check it out. You can stay in if you want.”

The man got out of the camp two minutes later. His head continued to hurt, and it only hurt more when he saw what was going on outside.

Chris was standing in the field. Several other teens stood behind him. Three lines of militias held tightly to their spears. In front of them were two lines of Sullivan prisoners.

“What is this?” Patel demanded.

During the uprising, when all hope of victory was lost, a number of Sullivan soldiers surrendered. There was nearly a hundred of them, in fact. Patel had them imprisoned in a warehouse. He didn't give any thought about what to do with them.

Chris glanced at Patel. “Ah. Here comes the king.”

“What is going on?” Patel ignored Chris’s mocking tone.

“Oh...nothing. We're just talking about how we’re going to slaughter a few pigs. It’s no big deal. In fact, it’s certainly not important enough to wake up the king. I sincerely apologize for that.”

“Slaughter a few pigs...Ahh.” Patel turned and saw the Sullivan prisoners. He realized what Chris was planning. “Wait a second, they are prisoners!”

“They are monsters who tortured us and humiliated us. They even branded us, remember?” Chris suddenly grew extremely impatient as he pulled his shirt up, revealing the large burn mark left on him as a result of his attempt to escape. “They deserve a slow, painful death. Every single one of them.”

“That’s murder.” Patel stood his ground. “Kill an enemy in the field, and you’re a soldier. Kill an enemy here, and you’re a murderer. If we kill these Sullivan soldiers, we will be no different from them.”

He remembered hearing this theory from some tv show or movie. It always worked.

But this time Chris smirked again.

“I assure you, we will be different from them…”

“...because we will be much, much crueler than they are.”

As Patel stood in shock, Chris scanned the entire crowd.

“Last night, I was made aware,” He glanced at Isabella and Kirsten. The latter licked her lips. “that while some of us fought bravely, others cowered behind. Some of us have killed, yet others preferred to keep their hands clean.”

“That’s not right. That must be changed. If you are too afraid to take the risk. Fine.” The man scanned all the teens. “I have terminated the risk, but at the end of the day here, every single one of you must have taken a life.”

“You’re not our boss.” One of the teens shouted. After all that happened, and with an army in their command, most teens here weren’t exactly obedient.

Chris smirked. “Perhaps, but if you refuse to kill an enemy, even if it’s completely safe for you, it means you are a liability, and I will not lay down my life for a piece of liability. I will have to ask you to leave.”

Half the militia in the camp suddenly thumped their spears on the ground. They either belonged to Chris or his followers and supporters. Most of the teens subconsciously shook, taken by surprise.

Chris smirked.

“Now, let’s get started.”

He looked through the crowd again.

“Where is Jerry?”