Ashken followed Jeremiah and his family into the house. Joseph remained by the outside of the door until they all passed into the inside of the house. Joseph followed and closed the door behind them, remaining outside. Ashken heard Joseph’s fingers start drumming against the doorframe again, this time faster and harsher.

Ashken searched the room for Jessica. He found her standing next to Samantha. Both looked scared and confused. Ashken imagined that he did not look any better. Jessica gave Ashken a reassuring smile, and he returned her smile.

“It’s not safe here,” Jeremiah said. “Jessica, Samantha, grab some things. We need to get out of here.”

“What is going on out there?” Ashken asked. “What was Deidre doing here? How did she get those militiamen, and what just happened?” Ashken tried to find a window to look out of, but he noticed for the first time that the house did not have any windows looking out the front. There was only the front door and the overcrowded furniture at the front of the room. While he would have loved to know what was going on outside, he appreciated the advantage of having a closed front. There could be no stray shooters’ balls or militiamen breaking through the windows.

“Things have been strange in the governing council ever since your father started his travelling around the enclave and talking to the people,” Jeremiah said. “He tried to convince the people of his ridiculous ideas about the Moderns’ machines. He trusted in them too much. There’s been a lot of unrest and derision in the meetings. I think some of it might have caught up with him.”

“What do you mean ridiculous beliefs?” Ashken asked. “I thought you supported his beliefs. You were his friend and his confidant. You were supposed to be supporting him position while he was away. That is what you told him.”

“We don’t have time for this discussion,” Samantha said. “In case you forgot, there are militiamen outside this door, and we don’t know their agenda. Let’s gather our stuff and leave the back way. When we’re away from here, we can discuss this. Ashken, we’re trying to help you. You should know that. We’ve known you since you were a baby before even your mother died. We’ll help you get through this, and we’ll help you find who murdered your father.” Ashken felt assured by Samantha’s words. Samantha and the other wives of the council members had been around to help raise him. His father did not think a woman’s touch was important to Ashken, and while he did not mind their help in babysitting Ashken, he did not think they were strictly necessary for his education. Samantha had been Ashken’s biggest advocate, and he had spent much time with her and Jessica. He was thankful for Samantha’s help just for a chance to be close to Jessica.

There was yelling coming from outside the front door. The drumming stopped and Joseph exploded through the door. Moses was a step behind him and slammed the door shut. His blade was still unsheathed and there was blood at its end. He did not sheath his sword. He looked around the room.

“Another way out of here?” he asked. Jeremiah and Samantha both pointed toward the back of the house. He began running toward it, grabbing Ashken as he passed.

“What about the Friar’s?” Ashken asked as he ran past.

“We’re leaving,” Moses said still pulling Ashken along.

Ashken grabbed the wall in the doorway he was passing to stop himself. “They’re coming with us,” Ashken declared.

“We don’t have time for a discussion,” Moses said. “Joseph, check the back to see if they left any surprises for us.”

Joseph ran past Ashken and Moses, holding his pole arm, which he must have grabbed from the front of the house. Screams still came from the outside in front of the house. Ashken listened but did not hear the sound of the shooters. Chaos reigned in the house, as he watched the Friar’s run around grabbing their things and readying themselves to leave.

Moses leaned toward Ashken. “I don’t trust Jeremiah,” he whispered loud enough so only Ashken could hear him.

“What are you talking about?” Ashken asked. “He’s been my father’s friend for years. Why would he try to hurt father or us? That’s ridiculous, Moses.”

Moses nodded in what appeared to be agreement. “That’s what I thought as well. But you did not see the militiamen out there, Ashken. They were not following Deidre’s orders. They overran her when Joseph and I came back into the house. They were trying to kill her. There is nobody here from the council except Deidre, Jeremiah, and now you. The militiamen do not take orders from afar. You should know that. Their commanders do not have their loyalty or the ability to bring the troops this far into the enclave, especially with shooters. Unless things have changed since I’ve worked with them, there are very clear-cut rules about where they may travel and with whom. I can’t believe that they would come here without someone to lead them. Since you are obviously not leading them, and Deidre did not have their loyalty, that doesn’t leave anyone except Jeremiah.”

“Then that rules out Jeremiah,” Ashken said. “He’s been here before the militiamen arrived. He was here yesterday when we came to report on what happened to father. He can’t be the one giving orders. And you said they were attacking Deidre? Why didn’t you help her?”

“I had other things to worry about. The militiamen were not being friendly to me either. I recognized some of them from training, but they didn’t seem to care. The best I could do was fight my way in here and keep you safe. We need to get away now, Ashken. We cannot wait any longer for the Friar’s. What are they even collecting? Joseph should have cleared the back entrance by now. Let us go and clear out before the militiamen finish outside.”

“You still haven’t explained why you trust that man,” Ashken said, changing the subject to try and give the Friar’s more time. “He tried to kill Tenos. You were there!” Ashken was confused. His father had spent many years training him to take control of situations like this, situations where his judgment and investigation skills would be used to investigate the happenings within the enclave and judge the guilt of the people. That was what he had been brought up for his entire life. To feel the pressure of the decisions to keep everyone safe resting on his head was almost too much. Ashken had thought he would be ready for this responsibility. He realized that he was not ready. He wished not for the first time that day that his father was there to take responsibility for the decision making. He would have seen through whatever ploy the council members had begun. He would have identified the person and moved to counteract their move. His father was not there, and Ashken resolved that he would not rely on his fantasies and wishes to get the job done. There was much afoot in the workings of the governing council, and it was time for him to figure out what was going on. Besides, there was something strange about what was going on. He knew his father and he knew his father always stayed abreast of what was going on in the council. To think that he missed some angle seemed as unlikely as the militiamen storming through the enclave. There was something he was missing, something his had father missed that had led to his death.

“We wait for the Friar’s,” Ashken told Moses. He tried to raise his voice to sound like a command instead of a question, and he almost accomplished it except toward the end where his voice cracked a bit. He did not need to worry, however, as Moses was used to taking orders, and Ashken knew that he would not want to question one of Ashken’s first orders. Moses was the Liebowitz’s protector, but he had also been Ashken’s teacher since he was very young. Lessons in command were part of Moses’s teachings, and Moses must have recognized Ashken’s attempt at asserting his command. Ashken saw the complicated psychology involved: Moses would know that Ashken was using this as a test of his authority and, more particularly, a test of his ability as a leader in a stressful time. While Moses may be in a better position to make a decision, he must pretend to trust Ashken or risk Ashken losing his confidence. Ashken knew all of this, as did Moses. But Moses still could not react as he wanted. He had to support Ashken, even if his support ruined them. Ashken saw all of this and fought down a smile. Sometimes you did what you had spent years learning, regardless of how ridiculous or unimportant the learning had seemed at the time.

“Very well,” Moses said. “Tell them to hurry. I have no idea what the militiamen are going to do with us when they finish tearing apart Deidre Diamond.”

Ashken nodded and raced to Jessica’s room. He found her contemplating a large sack on the bed. She was grabbing the Moderns’ machines, picking them up on the floor, only to return them to the floor. The sack was already half filled, but the room was still packed tightly with the Moderns’ machines.

“We’re losing,” Jessica said. “The people who hate the Moderns, hate their ways and their machines, they’re winning. I’m afraid to leave this stuff behind. I don’t think it will be here when I return. What is happening, Ashken? Why is it happening now? First your father, and then Deidre—they were on the extreme sides of this issue. Who would want to kill both of them?”

“How do you know about Deidre?” Ashken asked.

“Do you think I’m stupid?” Jessica answered angrily. “Do not judge me like that, Ashken. I cannot take that now. Not now. That shooters’ ball was aimed at her, not at Moses. I do not know what is going on, but I know it’s not safe here for any of us. But I can’t bear leaving this stuff behind. There was so much I still had to learn from these Moderns’ machines. To leave it to the militiamen—at worse they’ll destroy it. At best they’ll trade it the next time the traders visit. I’ll never learn their purpose or how they work or how they were made. So much lost knowledge.”

Ashken noticed the sheet that they had been examining the previous night on her nightstand. He walked over and picked it up and carried it to Jessica. “Don’t forget this one. It’s small enough not to make much of a difference in your bag. We need to go now.” Ashken grabbed a few more Moderns’ machines and stuffed them in Jessica’s bag. He grabbed the bag, and threw it over his back. He grabbed Jessica’s hand and led her out of the room and to the back of the house. Samantha and Jeremiah were waiting. The door was already open, and Ashken could see Joseph’s large back standing at the back entrance.

“Where’s Moses?” Ashken asked.

“I’m here,” Moses said, returning from the front of the house. “Whatever happened out front is winding down. I barred the door, but that shouldn’t hold them for long. We need to go now.” Moses eyed Jeremiah warily. “Leave some of that stuff behind. We will have to travel light to get away from the militiamen, and you’ll fall behind with that much stuff on your back. And you, Ashken, should know better. You won’t be able to carry that sack for long.”

Jessica started to protest but Ashken squeezed her hand. “It comes with me, Moses. I’ll worry about it. If it slows us down, we’ll do something about it then.”

Moses shook his head but did not say another word. Ashken knew that Moses was letting him learn his own lessons. It was the burden of a leader. Moses was not as kind to Jeremiah and Samantha, however. He grabbed their bags and threw to the ground the non-essential stuff. The bags lost half their weight in less than a minute. Jeremiah and Samantha watched but did not protest.

Ashken led Jessica by the hand past her parents and Moses and out the back door. Joseph stepped aside as the crossed the door. Joseph stepped forward with them. The remains of two militiamen were outside the door. Next to one of the militiamen was a shooter. Jessica bent down to examine the shooter, but Ashken pulled her up. “We don’t have time,” Ashken said. He was always nervous around shooters. There was so much potential death that came from that weapon, much more than from a sword. A sword in the hands of a trained weapon was as deadly. But the sword training honed a person’s attitude along with their skills. They learned what it meant to kill and to differentiate and understand when to use that skill. A shooter required very little skill, and even a weaker opponent could use it to cut down a stronger opponent with a mere gesture of the weapon. The shooter required almost no training and its deadliness was not equal to the skill of its user. That worried Ashken the most. Without learning about the consequences of killing, and without being near a person when they died, how would the user of a shooter understand the consequences of the simple gesture needed to use the shooter?

Moses and Jessica’s parents followed Ashken through the door. Moses ran to the front and Joseph followed. The six of them ran south down the road away from the house. The roads were muddy from the morning drizzle but the streets were clear. Ashken figured most of the neighbors would be hiding indoors after hearing the sounds of the shooters. And, he remembered, if what Deidre had said before was true, the neighbors would also be hiding from the outsiders who had made it past the walls into the enclave. He knew it was not his father who had showed the outsiders the way past the enclave’s defenses. But if not his father, he did not know who else. There were very few people in the enclave who had that knowledge. Not even Deidre knew how to bypass the walls or where they were most weak. If the outsiders were wandering the streets, Ashken realized that it would not safe for them either. Not for the first time, he was glad Moses was at the front, leading them through the roads leading away from the Friar’s house.

Word count: 2,475

Words remaining: 22,745 (words so far: 27,255)

Thoughts: Not a strong day. But things kind of happened, I guess. And there were words of some sort, so I guess that’s good. I need to move forward and get away from this constant fake action. Maybe get back to more thinking and doing nothing. That seemed to make the words move faster or something.