My Kingdom Come book 1: The Saints We See
Chapter 15: Closer

661 standard years after the signing of the Alliance treaty

Hathu reached under his pillow and turned off the vibrating alarm on his datapad. He sat up on the edge of his bed and rubbed his eyes. He found himself staring out his bedroom window. The horizon was just beginning to lighten. His eyes drifted down to the dark field outside. It’s time.

He was dressed and packed for the day in a few minutes. He looked around his room one last time to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything. His datapad was still on his desk. He shoved that into his pocket, quietly opened his door and made his way downstairs. Gemma was waiting for him. He smiled. Her meeting him at the bottom of the stairs in the morning with breakfast had become something of a ritual over the last week.

When he reached the bottom of the stairs she held out the usual small bundle for him. Hathu put down the extra bag he was carrying. He took the bundle of food with one hand and took her hand in his other. He leaned forward and laid a kiss in her palm. “Thank you Gemma.”

“I- you, you’re welcome.”

Hathu smiled at her and released her hand. “You have a good day Gemma.” He picked up his bag and made his way to the front door.

“You- you too, master Hathu.”

Hathu hiked up to his little cave eating the breakfast Gemma had prepared for him. He put the extra bag he’d packed inside then circled his way back around the town to enter where he usually did. Instead of going straight to school he made his way to Narish’s house. He sat on the front step and waited. He watched the sun slowly slip up into the sky wondering again: am I doing the right thing? When the door finally opened behind him, Hathu was starting to feel sleepy again.

“Hathu?”

Hathu stood up and stretched. “Morning.”

Narish stepped out and shut the door behind him. “What are you doing? Waiting to assassinate me?” He grinned.

Hathu grinned back. “No. I just wanted to see if you wanted to run one more practice together before the game, or if you’re feeling good about how things are. Where are your brothers?” He glanced at the closed door.

“Sick.”

They started walking towards the school.

“I think we’re good.” Narish said. “Everyone seems to work together well and understand the concept pretty clearly.”

Hathu nodded. “Yeah, I thought so too. I just wanted to check in with you. Game day is getting close. I’m going to go by my sister’s house. I’ll see you later at school.”

“Alright.” Narish nodded.

Hathu turned up the next street towards Deetha’s house. When he came to her street he walked up it and stopped half a block away. He stared at her house for a long moment, then he turned around and went to school.

He had a hard time concentrating on his classes. But that wasn’t anything new. He’d been distracted since he had been picked as a team leader for the game. Soon it was lunch time and the students were all gathering in the cafeteria.

Fifty years ago the school cook had quit and they had had trouble replaceing a new cook who would be willing to live out on the edge of nowhere in a penal colony. The problem had been solved by having the prison kitchen cook extra lunch and send it over to the school. The arrangement turned out to be so much more economical that they gave up the idea of having separate kitchens for the school and the prison.

Some students grabbed trays and lined up, waiting for the food delivery to arrive. The rest of the students sat down at tables, content to wait till the line was shorter. Hathu waited outside the doors and intercepted blue team members before they could enter. He handed each one a protein bar, he’d found in a box of army rations in his father’s weapons bunker, and sent blue team to the nearest unused classroom. Once he had corralled everyone, he followed them to the classroom. He stepped in and shut the door behind him.

Every eye turned to him.

“What are we doing, Hathu?” Tanahsa asked.

“These bars aren’t very good,” Bava commented holding his protein bar up.

Hathu chuckled. “Sorry, it was the best I could do on short notice. We are having a special practice during lunch. We’re going to play another hunter and prey game, the last team member to be found will get a special prize, so hide well and keep quiet. I want to see how well you can hide without anyone else noticing what’s going on. You can hide inside the school, or outside, but do your best to hide somewhere no one will replace you.

“We’ll all eat after this is over, I talked to Korish, and he’s going to take care of things for us. No matter what happens, don’t come out till another member of blue team replaces you or an end is called to the game by a blue team member, understand?”

There were nods around the room. “Novina, you and your team are going to wait here. Arvah you’re coming with me. Novina, you and your team are going to make that run while we’re practicing here, I’ll send Arvah to tell you when to go.”

Novina and her team members nodded.

“Tanahsa, you and your team are going to wait here too. I have something special I need you to take care of.”

Tanahsa and his team, which were made up of most of the older members of blue team nodded.

“Alright, everyone else, you have two minutes to hide. Go now.”

The members of blue team scattered with muted giggles and quiet shuffles of feet.

Hathu pulled Tanahsa aside. “If I’m not back in ten minutes, open this.” He handed Tanahsa a sealed envelope. “I’m counting on you to take care of this, okay?”

Tanahsa took the envelope with a frown. “What’s really going on, Hathu?”

“It’s all here.” Hathu tapped the envelope. “Promise me you’ll do what I asked.”

Tanahsa nodded. “Of course.”

“Come on Arvah.” He and Arvah started walking to the cafeteria.

“What’s going on, Hathu?”

“Hopefully nothing.” Hathu said. “If something does happen, I want you to run back to that classroom and tell Tanahsa to open the envelope I gave him right away. Then I want you to hide in the supply closet till someone from blue team comes to get you, understand?”

“What do you mean, ‘if something happens’? What kind of something?”

Hathu let out a quiet sigh. “You’ll know it when you see it, Arvah. Don’t ask any more questions right now.” They slipped into the cafeteria and Hathu heard the familiar bang of the delivery doors opening somewhere back behind the counter. He swallowed. Students standing in line perked up and turned their attention to where the food would soon be coming from the back, up to the counter.

Men came around from the back of the cafeteria but they weren’t the usual kitchen staff from the prison and they weren’t holding trays of food. They were wearing either prison jumpsuits or prison guard uniforms and they were holding guns.