TYLER

Tyler followed the masked men to the hut at the edge of the town. At the moment, he was too tired to feel fear or anything close to it. He was simply annoyed and tired.

And, they didn't seem too eager to kill him outright. He wondered whether they would take him to the queen if she had ordered them to find him. Perhaps their restraints meant they weren't working for her. In which case, he was more than interested in finding out who they really were.

The hut was regular, with a couple of beds too close to each other, a table with some fruit and a shelf full of hanging coats and dirty shoes and a few shovels in the corner. The only difference was the huge closed closet that spread across the entire wall.

At the table, an unmasked man sat, someone Tyler hadn't seen before. He found that strange; at this point he knew almost everyone in the city. The man was older, but pretty buffed. His wrinkled face was the only proof of his age. His dark, watchful eyes observed Tyler carefully as the others pushed him down in the chair.

"What am I doing here?" Tyler asked, not sure whether he should be afraid or annoyed. Somehow, all this grave-digging, secrets-finding and friends-betraying left him empty.

All he wanted was to know what the hell was going on in this absurd town, on this absurd island.

"Proving your loyalty." The man offered a hand, but not a smile.

"To whom?" Tyler asked and shook the man's hand out of politeness.

"To the people." The man answered, his hand still spread out. The masked men walked over to the table and took off the masks. Tyler's heart jumped.

It was Dmitri and Mika.

Tyler's gaze darted from one to the other and his confusion made them laugh. The satisfied glints in their eyes proved they planned this for a while.

"Wh-what?" Tyler's voice cracked as both excitement and fear filled him. This had to be a mistake. No, Dmitri and Mika were just farmers. There was no way they had planned-

"We debated whether we should tell you." Dmitri spoke. "When you first arrived, you showed quite the interest in changing things around here, but we weren't sure. Then, you betrayed your friend to get us a small edge and told me about it."

"I told you I wanted to change things way earlier." Tyler was still confused.

"Yes, but this was the first time you talked solely to me." Dmitri said. "Every time before that, there were others present and I feared your words were nothing but that, words."

"So, you sent me to a madman's house?" Tyler remembered Stray, the weird pigeon guy.

"Stray is also a test of a kind." Dmitri shrugged. "Please, let me introduce you to my brother, Victor." He pointed at the man sitting at the table and Tyler nodded.

"I'm Tyler." He murmured and his gaze darted to the gun strapped on Dmitri's side. "Where did you get that?"

"We stole 'em, of course!" Mika finally spoke, louder than he should have, and Dmitri shushed him.

"We stole a lot more than that." Victor, Dmitri's brother said. "And we decided it was time to use it."

"You said you sent a message to the soldiers, have you heard back?" Dmitri asked and sat next to his brother.

"No." Tyler shook his head. "But my friend, Greg, is a soldier. And I'm assuming he'll tell me about it if he hears anything. You said you'd spread the rumour." Tyler looked at Dmitri.

"And I did." Dmitri nodded. "I also think we need to use the momentum of the disease breaching through the walls."

"How?" Tyler asked.

"People are scared." Victor, the brother, spoke. He sounded like an even calmer version of Dmitri. "Their fear is magnified by the fact they can't hide in the palace with the wealthy. This made them angry. And an angry mob is a powerful weapon."

Tyler thought so too, but a worm of doubt still crawled through his brain. He wasn't sure people were that angry, he thought they turned too passive.

"What if they're still more scared than angry?" He asked, looking at the three men.

"Your note will anger them." Dmitri shrugged. "You said the palace wasn't safe. Which means the queen is lying to the people, even the rich ones."

"I don't know, Dmitri." Tyler frowned. "Maybe I rushed into the entire thing. Maybe I thought I could change something, but-"

"Don't you dare give up on this now, boy." Dmitri grunted and a spark of anger glinted in his eyes.

"I'm not giving up." Tyler defended himself. "I'm just not sure whether people are strong enough to actually fight."

"We cannot pass on this opportunity," Dmitri said, "once the sickness passes, people will simply forget it ever happened."

"I wanted soldiers on our side because they have weapons." Tyler said. "That was the sole reason. I knew that soldiers were the ones protecting the palace, if they stop, we win. All we need to do it get them to stop protecting the royals."

"And that is exactly what we will do." Dmitri said. "We will convince soldiers that the queen can't protect them and that she's outright lying to them."

"And how are we going to do that?" Tyler asked. "I already left the note. Perhaps we should let the rumour do its thing."

"We believe that's too slow." Victor said.

"Yeah, man," Mika whined, "I wanna kill something finally! Gee, I've been stuck in this limbo of deciding on our next step way too long. It's time for a fucking revolution, man!"

"Calm down, kid." Dmitri growled. "But this is the right time to start. Amidst the chaos."

"You're serious about this." Up until this moment, Tyler was certain he was alone in his ideas. He was sure no one was really paying attention.

Now, he was plotting in a dark room with three men that actually agreed with him. It filled him with a sense of purpose. So strong he even thought Corinne letting in the sickness was a blessing in disguise.

"Of course we're serious about this." Dmitri looked slightly insulted. "I have been working in the fields for years and never had enough money to relax. Things have to change. And it starts here and now."

"What happens after we convince soldiers to come to our side?" Tyler asked, excitement growing in his stomach.

Finally, he thought, something was finally happening. And his doubts vaporized in the air, because the thrill of the plan was much stronger. He needed this. Perhaps he needed this all his life. To feel like he was finally doing something right, something that would help people around him.

In the dark hut at the edge of the town, Tyler finally felt like stepping on that cruise was a good idea. Maybe he was always supposed to end up here.

"When we have enough men on our side, we will strategize our next move." Dmitri said.

"No, no." Tyler cut him off. "We need to know now. If we're planning on doing this, we have to do it right. Don't forget that revolution eats its children. We do not want to end up like Robespierre."

"Who's that guy?" Mika asked, his eyes wide. "Was he here with us on this island?"

Tyler ignored that.

"When we have soldiers on our side, the sky is the limit." Dmitri shrugged.

"What will you do with the queen?" Tyler asked. "Kill her?"

"Well-"

"Is she the one responsible?" Tyler pushed. "Do you even know?"

"No, it's not the queen Ophelia." Victor voiced himself. "It is her father, he's the one in charge. For all intents and purposes, we are ruled by a king."

"One we shouldn't underestimate." Tyler said. "That's why we need a plan. I agree that getting soldiers on our side is the first step; they are the ones with weapons, after all. But we have to know more than that. What are we going to do with the royal family? Are we going to kill them? Make an example out of them? Are we better than them, then? And more importantly, who is going to rule after them?"

"We will figure this out, relax." Dmitri's eyes turned angry.

"I can't!" Tyler raised his voice. "I've fantasized about this revolution ever since I stepped foot into this town, but even I know we are not prepared. The only thing we know is that we want things to change. But change doesn't happen over night, change is gradual and it's slow. So, we need to plan ahead."

"And what do you suggest?" Victor asked and suddenly, everyone waited for his response.

Tyler didn't plan ahead either.

"We get soldiers on our side." He began, thinking of everything he's learned by now. "But not to take the queen down, but to shake things up. Make their rule unstable. If they fear us, they will be more inclined to listen to us."

No one said anything, so Tyler continued.

"This place needs a new system. And none of us actually know how to install it. We know things are awful, but we have no means or resources to change that. Once soldiers are on our side, we can bargain." Tyler's heart raced and his palms began to sweat.

He was not sure he was capable of doing this. All of his doubts turned solid again and he remembered his father's words. You think you're a leader, but you're too big of a coward to be one. You'll never escape from my shadow.

"There's nothing we can do with starved people, people whose spirit has been knocked down since the beginning. So, we bargain for bigger pay checks, we bargain for redistribution of resources. And we bide our time." Tyler said.

"So, you're suggesting we do nothing." Dmitri leaned onto the chair.

"No, we begin recruiting people that want something to change." Tyler repeated, feeling alone in his ideas once again.

"What you're saying is that we basically keep the plan the same." Mika chuckled.

Maybe Tyler wasn't the right person to do this. He didn't know how these things worked and he got entangled because he wanted to feel important. It made him feel ashamed and alone. Still, he nodded.

"Tomorrow." Victor said suddenly. "We go out and we start talking to people. Simply to see who's on our side."

"Wait, I don't think-" Tyler tried.

"Tomorrow, then." Dmitri agreed, shooting a strange look in Tyler's direction. "We gather followers and attack."

"I don't think we should attack." Tyler said, his heartbeat quickening. Dread washed over him as he watched the men exchange smiles between each other.

"Boy, you've proven you don't know anything more than we do." Dmitri warned him. "Maybe it's time you let the grownups speak."

"So, what? You're just going to attack? Out of thin air?"

"That's the revolution, dude!" Mika laughed out loud.

Dmitri looked at Tyler with stern resolution.

"Tomorrow, we gather soldiers. And we storm the palace."