The Red Nights

So as promised after they would all finish enjoying the party set for celebrating their victory against the outlaws , Nelson's army would join with Short-river's army and Jamal in their journey to Palet , the next city in the list , to lend them a hand in their fight .

" For all our brothers and sisters lost in the combat! Cheers ! " a man shouted while holding high a bottle apple juice, Jamal asked them to avoid alcohol as they had another battle the day after and they had to be fully operational, it had been very difficult to convinced them but he managed to negotiate an agreement which was one glass of alcohol per person. His comrades followed him and we could see many hands raising glasses of juice while all people were shouting "cheers !".

Jamal was staring while thinking that it was more noisy and there was more agitation than Short-river because they were more numerous the mood was the same as the pain felt during those times of war were the same. They had been through this war for about two years and even though they it was not their last battle they didn't care that much, at that moment it was just a matter of fun, smiling and laughing. And he hoped it would be soon the same case in the both remaining cities.

Volga came back all smiling sitting at his table after she finished talking with Don . Initially it was him the first one who asked for the phone to call his home. After spending time talking with Lina about how the city and its people were doing, she told about the new decisions she took to make it growing well again, they shared a little bit about the war and they finally talked about the former members of Short-river's army . At that moment Volga remembered and came to whisper to him whether he could lend her the phone to talk with Donald as she heard him saying he arrived in Stainfall safely and of course he agreed. He said goodbye to his girlfriend and asked her to pass the line to Donald. The woman didn't understand and was upset that he wanted to end their conversation, she even told him that she didn't want to hang up but he managed to convince her and then she transferred the call.

When it was her turn she took more time than he expected, she stayed there for a long moment while laughing and sharing some promises of what they would do together once they would meet up again. In fact he was rather happy not only for her but also for the good achievement of the mission in general. The day before when they left Short-river she did her best to hide her frustration caused by the separation what made that she was not very focused on the mission. It's true that she was remarkable in the battlefield however Jamal had the feeling she would have been better if she was in a better mood. Now he was confident that she would get better performance in upcoming battles and he hoped that it might affect the all group by giving them a positive energy.

After hours of enjoyment it was finally time to go, Jamal got up and walked toward Nelson's table, he explained to him that they must leave now if they wanted to reach Palet before the sunset. He nodded to tell him that he understood then stood up too while raising his hand to indicate to a guy in the other side of the gymnasium, the one who was in charge of the party , to stop the music. Nelson waited until he caught the attention of everyone before he started talking, " guys I have the regret to tell you that for today the party is over , it's time for us to move for the next city to go beat the outlaws' butts. So I give you ten minutes to go prepare yourself and after that I want everyone to meet me in the courtyard, got it ? "

" Yes ! " they all shouted before they ran toward the exit, even the Short-river's army followed the movement and hurried out .

" You don't go with them? " Volga asked Sania as she was one of the few people remained in the gymnasium. " Stop joking, a lady like me would never act in such a shameful manner, who do you think I am " she responded condescendingly.

" It seems like your men have a little problem with the authority, if you want one day will be largely enough for me to make her a good soldier who will obey to every order you will give " Nelson gently proposed to Volga while he was staring at Sania with insistance, the latter put a step aback as she was a little bit scared, she gazed at Volga and her eyes seemed to beg her to not accept.

Volga chuckled while saying " I it's not necessary, for me as long as she does a good job and never disrespect me she can act like a princess whenever she wants , and until here she never disappointed me in those two matters ".

" If you say so , as long as they don't do any mistakes during the mission because of that attitude for it's okay too " he replied , [ but your eyes seemed like you really wanted to correct her though ] Jamal thought . " Well, so let's then go prepare ourselves too , leaders must always be ready before the subordinates " he declared while extending his arms, everyone nodded and they all left then.

As usual Jamal was the first one to arrive at the point of gathering what was comprehensive as he didn't have so many things to carry, for his comrades of Short-river they already had the majority of their stuffs in the cars what made that they quickly join Jamal but for the others of MontClay it was another story. Knowing that they were warned by Nelson himself that they wouldn't return living in there, they decided then to do like the others and take along all what they had when they would leave their hometowns what would make many things and so heavy weights to carry . So because of that they were the last to arrive.

They took some few moments to charge their stuffs in the cars . After that done Nelson stepped forward to give the signal of departure, standing beside his vehicle while holding its door he said " well I guess everybody is here and ready so we shall leave by now, we will go two by two so it will Volga's car and mine which will lead the way and you will follow us following this formation, alright? So here we go " he got in his car while everyone was doing the same.

" You come with us? " Jamal asked Sania when he found her sitting on the backseat of Volga's convertible.

" Yes as you see , Carl has found some new friends with whom he's getting along well , I feel like they wanted to take the road together so I let them space " she explained.

" I didn't know you could be such nice " Volga said while she was starting the car . " yeah I know, I'm the first surprised moreover I would want to listen more about your stories and be there at the moment you will confess your love for each other ".

" Give up already " Jamal chuckled " I told you many times there's no such romantic feelings between us " .

" I don't believe in it " she declared " a man and a woman cannot befriend so well in just one to two days without having any s.e.x.u.a.l attraction between them, impossible " .

" So you will be disappointed because it is actually the case and not to mention that each of us already loves someone else " Volga said to close the subject. The gate of the school was open but they waited for Nelson's car to pass as it was not wide enough to let two cars go through at the same time. They passed one car after another until they had all left.

They took almost one hour and half to reach the motorway but it didn't represent even the quarter of the path , they still had several hours of road before they reached Palet . They even had to go at full speed to be sure they would arrive in the city before the sunset.

" Finally " Volga sighed in relief once they arrived, she gazed at her side and saw that it remained some hours before the sun fell completely. " Did you know where we should go ? I don't see anybody who came to welcome us " Sania asked to Jamal while she was gazing around her " or do plan to make us sleep in a market once again? "

" Don't worry about that " he chuckled " I do know where we must go " . Indeed when they were still in MontClay Jamal and Nelson called the Palet's HQ, they briefly explained the current situation and also informed them that they intended to come to their city in the same day. The one with whom they were talking transferred the information to his boss and replied by giving to them the address of their HQ.

Knowing that the war in there was quite different from the previous city, Jamal couldn't apply the same plan he had used in there , so he thought that he didn't have other choice but to go meet with Palet's army and discuss about how they would manage to finish with the outlaws.

They rolled around inside city , taking a street after another while following Jamal's indications for quite a moment before they could reach the huge villa which was the actual HQ of the Palet's army. On the way Volga complained a little about how many ways they took to finally arrive there and Jamal explained to them that it was necessary if they didn't want to get noticed by the outlaws, " the roads I've told you to take were on the zones where we are sure there is zero enemy so chance to be seen. Otherwise if on the contrary we have headed carelessly directly to this hideout with such a cortege of cars they would have quickly noticed us and without knowing we would have led them here. "

" You're such a very careful man " Sania commented. " People tell me that quite often " he replied .

The chain of cars was approaching to the gate of the villa. Nelson lowered the window-pane of his car and passed his head through it while they were still rolling, he started to make some signs with his arms to the people who were watching the gate to open it and few seconds later it was done. The cars of the reinforcements army entered in while they were already closing the gate behind them.

One by one they started to come out from the vehicles and gathering in a same point while waiting for their chief to tell them what should they do in next. A tall man came to greet them while looking for the leaders and Jamal particularly and once he finally found them the people around surrounded them and stayed there quietly observing the scene.

" Hello everyone, I'm Glenn Spencer the mayor of this city " he started with a joyful tone " I'm very glad to receive you here and at the same very grateful that you came to help us " he said while he was shaking their hands, the people before him started to introduce themselves starting by Nelson and finishing by Sania.

While pointing them Glenn was making the recapitulation " so you are the leader of Montclay's army, you Short-river , this young lady here, one of your subordinates " while pointing Sania, and with a change of tone he add " and finally you , the famous Jamal Sabani , very honored to receive you "

" Oh come on, no need for such many praises, I'm just a simple helper, nothing extraordinary " he said while stroking his head a embarrassed . He overlooked the fact that Volga was holding herself to not burst out laughing and said " our travel was quite exhausting for our men so can you invite us inside to discuss about our business while they will get some rest ".

" Oh of course, excuse me " he turned to the crowd and shouted " please follow me inside, you may excuse me, even though this mansion seems quite big many of its space are already occupied by the members of our army so you will have to share the rooms by three or four depending on you. While you will install yourself a dinner will be set for you... our rather for us in the living room so please come there whenever you finish, thank you ". He stopped on the door and was inviting the people to enter while showing them which way they should take, there were some other people with him who were helping him by directly taking in charge an entire section of people to show them the way .

" Should we share a room together buddy? " Volga asked Jamal while glancing at Sania. It seemed like she didn't get that it was actually a joke to tease her as she took too seriously " Oh no , don't even try. If you intend to have finally have some i.n.t.e.r.c.o.u.r.s.e together this night, we better turn it into a threesome , because I will share my room with you. I don't allow it whether we do it together or you don't do nothing " she replied. Both Jamal and Volga gazed at each other before they started laughing loudly. And they became louder when Glenn informed them that being the last group both of them with Sania and Nelson would have to share the same room .

" I'm truly sorry about that. And I hope that the problem of intimacy will not bother you that much " he apologized. Nelson landed a hand on his shoulder to reassure him " don't worry it's not a problem, really " he before they started going up the stairs . The girl who was showing the way turned to them " he has been raised in a rich family " she said about the mayor " and on contrary to many other bourgeois people like him, he has always been a very kind and dependable person , always ready to help, that's why we made him our mayor for 15years. This city was nice and prosperous because of him, he loves both us and this city very much, that's why he is so concerned "

" Because he is expecting many things from us , isn't he? " Jamal said and the girl nodded " don't worry, you can tell him to rest in ease by tomorrow, this nightmare will be over " he promised before he entered in the room . The girl was very moved, she quickly closed the door behind them to not let them seeing her crying of emotion.