Across the border – Book I - 11 Chapter

Sussan looked around and shook her head. She now realized that she has been brought even further away from her kids.

The stream just disappeared, once they reached the shore. The place around them looked completely covered in red. Like it is spilled with blood everywhere.

“David, we are moving further away from our kids. I am afraid if we will ever see our kids again?”, Sussan said with tears spread across her eyes.

David hugged Sussan and tried to console her but words just would not come out of his mouth. How much ever he tried, he just could not bring himself to give Sussan a false hope. He knows it is nearly impossible to cross the border right now.

Even if they entered, all awaited them was death. They need to have a proper plan before they can proceed into that war zone.

“Robert is with Peter now, do not worry; I have taught him well. Robert’s dad is in the military and he would definitely not let anything happen to the kids. At least that much, I can have faith in him.” Brenda said without any emotions.

Brenda’s only pain was her husband’s betrayal, if only he was a little bit more considerate; all these would have not happened in the first place. He could have stood by their side and fought for them.

But he chose to be on the neutral side and even he didn’t care about his own wife and kid when they faced eviction. His betrayal brought disaster to his own family and he acted as if he never cared.

Sussan tried hard to swallow the sob which escaped her mouth and left David’s embrace. At least she has someone to lean on right now but Brenda is all alone and it’s partly her family’s fault.

“I am sorry, Brenda. It’s my fault, I did not teach Peter well. I promise you, I will definitely find a way to bring our kids back. I promise!” Sussan held Brenda’s hand and said with determination.

Brenda shook her head and removed her hands from Sussan, “It is not Peter’s fault. Robert is like his father, he would always keep his friends first rather than family, so I do not blame you. In fact, it is my fault for falling in love with that person. All the love and care he showed disappeared, once we faced an issue or else why would he leave us when we were facing issues.”

“Do not you feel there is definitely something is quite not right. When we were all together nobody would be able to fight us and win against us. I feel like someone is deliberately trying to drive a wedge between us. Why are they trying to separate Lambanies and Sabers? Only when we both are united, we are stronger. Even though we never got recognition for a decade and we never felt that as an issue that needed to be raised before. We all lived under one roof and always thought of each other as one” said Sussan, as she regretted when she went to Asher last time she should have raised the issue in front of the council and got recognition for their people.

But at that time everything was picture perfect and everyone was on friendly terms. There was never a need to make such arrangements and their life was always filled with joy and happiness all the time. Most people never even knew until the war started, that there is actually a difference between each other.

No one would have thought or imagined a planet full of people with millions in number would suddenly turn against one another and would abandon a clan and even banish them.

The actual funny thing is that it all started because of a decree from Asher. The council sitting on the Asher, who always remained neutral to all the planets in its solar system has now started to act against few communities. It is now sending decree’s to all the planets and trying to banish the people with abilities.

So many people are fleeing for their lives and hiding as if they have committed a huge sin. So many kids were taken away from their homes and every wrongdoing were now connected to us ‘Lambanies’

All of a sudden out of nowhere David asked, “What if the decree is not from the council and it is a forgery?”

Brenda looked at him in surprise, how could David know about the decree? It is a top military secret and other than the higher up no one knew about it. Even Brenda came to know about it just by coincidence when she was on her way to meet her husband after receiving the eviction notice.

Sussan and Brenda turned towards David and looked at him in surprise but both of them had different elements of surprise.

Brenda said “It is not impossible but the seal which I saw in the letter in my husband’s office is real. I saw the decree once and it is a hundred percent original. But..”

Sussan immediately interrupted and asked “Hold on for a second! What decree? What is happening? Why do I feel I am not following anything?”

David and Brenda looked at one another and they were not sure how Sussan would react.

Even though Brenda had her own uncertainty about the decree and could not point out exactly what was wrong but something definitely did not feel quite right about the decree.

Sussan lost her patience as both David and Brenda looked at each other and then blinked at her. They both understand Sussan’s character well enough and if Sussan knows that the decree might not be original then she would definitely find a way to go to Asher.

“Come on! Spill it out, both of you. We do not have all day here” Sussan glared at David and Brenda.

As Brenda saw David is not ready to start, left with no option she started saying what she knows about the decree.

“But you still have some uncertainty about the decree! That is enough then; Let us go to Asher and find the council and raise our issue” Sussan declared.

What David and Brenda feared happened as Sussan became the stubborn lady and just jumped into action without a plan.

“But how are you planning to go? Do you think we will get one more magical stream and it will take us directly to Asher? Are you brainless? Don’t you know all the portals have been damaged and even traveling internally has become a big mess” David shouted as he was having a headache looking at his wife who just jumps to solutions without much thought and it is always impossible to convince her otherwise, once she decides to do something!

Sussan stared at him angrily. David then understood that without food and water for almost a day his brain got fried and he shouted at his ferocious wife.

“Aaah… I am so thirsty! I’m hungry! I am fainting…I am falling down…” David acted as if he would really faint any second.

He coughed loudly and fell on Sussan’s shoulder with a thud and held her tightly. Sussan then took the infinite pouch and fed him water which she collected from the stream and patted his back.

She understood David’s questions were not wrong. Without the military’s help, there is no way they could reach Asher easily.

Unless they try the old traditional way but it is not good to mention it at this moment as David would never agree. Not only is it more dangerous than crossing the border but it is highly risky to do anything right now.

“Let us eat now. It’s quite a tiresome adventure we had, better fill yourself and rest to think clearly later about our issues in hand one by one”, Brenda tried to change the topic as she could not face this love-hate couple argument anymore.

She might just blow up and start fighting with these two if they once again start their mind-blowing performance.

Sussan just nodded her head and took out the wild fruits and berries. While Brenda took out a loaf and a few fresh homemade dishes from a pack which made Sussan raise her eyebrow.

“What? I am not going to starve in this wild goose chase. I have to maintain my strength to keep my spirits high for upcoming days”, Brenda started cutting the loaf with a knife and sharing it with the couple.

Seeing that Sussan is still staring at her, suddenly the thought hit her… Oops…

“Oh! Are you asking how I got all this food?” Brenda asked with naughtiness smiling in the corner of her lips…

Still not receiving a response, Brenda said,

“Oh! Come on! My grandfather left an inheritance to me and it included this cute little pack, using which I can take anything from anywhere on this planet. But all I did was take some tiny little food from my own kitchen. And I lived in that house for 15 years, so that is acceptable” said Brenda without any guilt of hiding such a thing from Sussan.

Sussan just shook her head and started eating but all of a sudden she felt something was definitely wrong.

“Are you sure, your husband let you go just like that? If not, why does it feel like he ordered the kitchen to make all your favorites?”, Sussan just kept staring at her without blinking.

David just smiled and nudge Sussan’s elbow to make her stop the staring contest and eat.

With all the hassle, Brenda did not notice it before but now even Brenda felt that it was a little weird. From day one she started taking food until today, she found that all the food was to her liking and Roberts.

But then Brenda realized, today when she took she noticed that only her favorites were there and not Robert’s. This definitely confused her a lot but still unsure if she should tell the couple before her that her husband James might have found out about their sons being traveled across the border.

Brenda then thought to wait for some more time to be sure and reveal it to her best friend, Sussan, and David.

By the time they finished their food, they saw a group coming from the east which is from the direction of the border. They were not sure if it was help or foe.

So thinking that it is better to be safe than sorry, they started clearing the area and hiding their prints. Slowly they moved away and searched for a place to hide. But before they could find a spot to hide, they heard a familiar song near them.