(Landon's PoV)

Holly approached my bed, holding a flashlight. "You ready?" she asked.

"Not exactly," I responded. "But there's no use in waiting." I got out of bed rather quickly, but then again I hadn't slept at all, so there wasn't any actual waking up to do. My mind had been too preoccupied thinking about how the rest of the guys might react to the plan.

I shook both Gavin and Tristan awake and told them to get the attention of the others.

Gavin rubbed his eyes. "What's going on?"

"I'll explain in a minute," I assured him.

The other guys were just as groggy.

"What the hell?" Clayton complained. "It's 2:00 in the morning."

"Be quiet," Holly hissed.

"Wait, what's she doing here?"

And suddenly they were all more curious as to why I woke them up.

I sighed, my nerves growing larger. I needed to start before anxiety took over too much. "I have something to tell you. A proposition of sorts. We're going to end this war."

Way to be vague, Landon.

There was no response until Gavin spoke up after several seconds. "Well sure it's gonna end sometime, and we're all a part of–"

I had to interrupt him. "I mean us. We're going to do it. This war won't end unless we personally do something about it." Despite my nerves, my voice didn't falter one bit.

"What can we do?" Marcus asked. "We're just kids."

"We're going to kill Xang-hao Li," I stated.

Several of the guys went wide-eyed.

"What are you talking about?" Michael questioned.

Over the other interjections, I continued "I'm leaving for Hong-Kong with anyone who's willing to join."

"Like now?" Clayton exclaimed.

"Not now," Holly sushed him. "We leave in three days–after the MRE shipment comes in. We'll take as much food as we can carry. It's a week and a half walk to Hong-Kong."

"She's in on this?" Tristan inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes," Holly replied matter-of-factly.

"Look," I continued. "None of you have to come, but I'm for sure going. All I ask is that you don't tell Sgt. Blake anything."

Gavin took me somewhat aside, "Landon, what's going on? Why are you doing this?"

I attempted to address both him and the group at large. "Because I have to," I answered honestly.

There was a long pause, which my brain seemed to take as a cue to keep talking.

"We are going to be stuck here for years upon years if we don't do something. This war has been going on for two and a half years already and the only thing that's changed is the age of the soldiers. I can't stay here. I don't know about you, but I would rather die than keep fighting for who knows how many more years. This is a risk that needs to be taken."

The guys stood there silent. I looked over to Holly, expecting it to be just the two of us making the journey, but then Tristan spoke up.

"I'm in."

Gavin followed suit. "Me too. This sounds dangerous, but we gotta stick together."

Within the next few minutes everyone had agreed to come along. Even guys like Justin and Alan, who I had feared even telling about the plan. No one looked secure while announcing their joining, but like me, they all knew it had to be done.

"Thanks guys," I told them. "Either way this goes for us, when we come out of it, we won't have to be soldiers anymore."

(Matteo's PoV)

I fidgeted with my pencil as I stared at the blank piece of paper in front of me.

What was I supposed to tell her?

I had already hidden pieces of the truth from her, but I didn't want to keep lying to her. We would be heading out in two days time. This was my last chance to write a letter to her. I would either die in our infiltration of Hong-Kong or I would see her again–simple as that.

Well, not that simple. We still had almost two weeks before we'd even get to Hong-Kong and there was no way it would be easy to bypass security. We'd have to be on the lookout for both enemy and ally soldiers who might want to stop us.

I chewed on my lip. This was really dangerous. But at the same time, there was a sense of urgency. We needed to end the war or we'd stay here well into our adulthood.

If I died, I would want Emmy to know the whole story. How I risked everything for the chance to be with her again.

Dear Emmy,

But would it be good for her to know everything? I mean the letter probably wouldn't even reach her by the time we reached Hong-Kong.

I ran my fingers through my hair and sighed.

"What's up?" I heard a voice. I turned around to see Landon. I hadn't really talked with him much at all since basic training–and even then it was only because his name came right before mine in the last name alphabet so there was lots of waiting in line together. Nevertheless, I found his attempt friendly.

"Just debating about what to tell my girlfriend," I responded.

"About our plan?" he asked.

I nodded.

He gave something of a small smirk. "Well, I've never had a girlfriend, so I can't really help you in that respect. And if you really want to let her know what's going on, I'm not gonna stop you, but just a heads up that Holly would freak if she found out you did–only because the letters could get intercepted," he rambled.

I hadn't really thought of that aspect. "I'll keep that in mind," I said.

"I hope you get to see her again though," he told me.

"That's why we're doing this." I asserted.

"Exactly," he finished.

I went back to my paper knowing exactly what I needed to say. I couldn't tell her about the plan without risking everyone involved. Still, I had to be truthful and concise.

Dear Emmy,

I love you

Your devoted boyfriend,

Matteo

(Landon's PoV)

The room was dark except for a half dozen dull flashlights. I zipped up my bag and sighed. We were really doing this.

"It's time," Holly informed me. "We should be heading out soon." She gripped onto a gun, which she had stolen from our weapon storage.

I nodded. "Yeah, I just think we need to talk to the guys first."

"We'll have almost two weeks to go over the plan with them while we walk," she said.

"Not like that," I corrected. "Encouragement, you know, assurance."

The words appeared foreign to Holly. "Well I guess you can do that, but just do it outside," she advised. "We'll be less likely to wake Sgt. Blake."

"Good idea," I agreed. I picked up my M-16 and my bag of MREs and headed outside, followed by the rest of the guys. Once we were all out, I motioned for us to sit in a circle.

I let out a deep breath.

"Thanks for doing this guys," I told them. "I know you're probably not doing this for me. You're probably doing this for your loved ones back home, but still I'm appreciative."

Everyone was quiet. Everything was still except for Holly's fingers, which fidgeted with the strap of her backpack.

"The truth is, this war, this fight, is so much bigger than us individually. This is to show the adults in charge that if they're gonna force us to be soldiers, we're not gonna play by their rules. We're not gonna let them take away our childhood without a fight. At this point, we're just as much fighting with our own government as we are with the Chinese government. One wants us dead and the other wants us to waste away our years here, and frankly, at this point I don't know which one's worse. Our only allies are each other."

I tried to make eye contact with every single person–even the ones I didn't talk to often. Holly made this goal difficult for me by continuously looking down.

"This will be dangerous. We're all well aware of that. But we all have something worth fighting for–even if we have nothing to come home to. We have to fight for our own freedom. This is for Aaron and Isaac and Seth and every other kid who lost their childhood to this awful war. And we could end up just like them–another damn casualty statistic–but we did it in their name and in their honor. And this war has so many other non-human casualties. Our childhood. Our innocence. Our autonomy. If we don't do something, we'll just keep losing more and more of ourselves until there's nothing left.

So yeah, we could get killed, but it's worth it to try anything. We're just kids but we need to take a stand and–"

Suddenly I couldn't talk anymore because Holly's lips were pressed against mine. I heard several gasps. She had an iron grip on both sides of my head, Despite being in a somewhat uncomfortable position, it somehow felt nice. The whole thing probably only lasted five seconds, but it felt like time had stopped during that moment.

Holly was blushing bright red after the whole ordeal and most of the guys' mouths and eyes were wide open.

I cleared my throat and readjusted my classes. "So...um...yeah, let's do this."

(Connor's PoV)

We had been walking for over two days. Each day we would walk for roughly fifteen hours and take turns sleeping while the other half guarded. I wondered if there was a search going on for us currently or if Sgt. Blake and Lt. Jason were given a new shipment of young boys to defend the base with or if the government had given up on the base all together. Whatever they were doing with the base, we were never going back there again.

Sean tugged lightly on my arm. "Connor, I'm nervous."

"I think we all are," I answered truthfully. Someone should have made him stay back or something just to keep him out of danger, but he insisted on being part of the group.

"I'm not nervous about what will happen to me," he explained. "I'm nervous about what has happened. What we're doing."

"What do you mean?" I pressed.

"Are we setting out to do the right thing? Killing the emperor?"

I shrugged. A bit late now to be thinking hard enough to get cold feet. "Well I mean it's his fault this war got started, so he sort of got us into this mess. He's responsible for a lot of deaths."

"But that's just it," Sean went on. "If we kill him, then we're responsible for a death. I don't wanna stoop to the bad guys' level, but I don't know what else to do?"

"It's tough to think about," I replied. "The whole 'responsible for a death' thing can sort of be subjective depending on how you look at it. If we look at this like soldiers, we can reason that if he's gone, we're one huge step closer to ending the war, which in turn would actually prevent a lot of deaths."

He thought for a moment and sighed. "Are we ever gonna be able to look at things not like soldiers?"

I patted his shoulder. "I don't know, buddy."

(Holly's PoV)

Even after a week, I was still hung up on what I had done.

I kissed him. I had actually kissed him. I had no idea what came over me. I just got scared about his safety and then suddenly it was like I lost all control.

Landon had tried to bring it up several times with me, but I always diverted the conversation back to our battle plan.

I had to keep things down to business with him. I couldn't get attached. What if something happened to him?

The thought twisted my stomach into knots and made my heart pound.

I don't even know why I let him talk me into this. He just seemed so desperate. Nothing was going to stop him. The least I could do was prevent him from going alone.

Still, that kiss.

I wanted him to be safe. I gripped my newfound M-16 in one hand and my bag of medical supplies in the other. Would this be enough?

Before we told the guys, he had told me he was ready to die if that's what it came to. He may have been ready for his possibly impending death, but I sure wasn't.

(Will's PoV)

Holly examined the map, using her fingernails as measurement tools. "We should arrive in Hong-Kong in about a day," she told the group. It was hard to believe we'd be in a big city soon, seeing as we were currently in the middle of what looked like farming terrain. Come to think of it, it didn't look much unlike Nebraska.

"Should we stop somewhere for the night soon?" Landon asked.

Holly pursed her lips and furrowed her eyebrows. "I don't know about here-"

We heard rustling through the fields and a frantic woman's voice. We tried to run away before we could be seen, but with a group of our size, it was difficult.

The woman gazed upon us, and just as we thought we were done for, she let out something we could understand: a sigh of relief.

Upon seeing us she no longer seemed scared. She was a young Chinese woman, probably around Sgt. Blake's age.

"I thought you were my boss with the Emperor's Department of Resources." She seemed to know English quite well, and I could understand her pretty well through her accent. Then I felt bad because it probably isn't really considered an accent when you're in the area where it originated.

Holly kept her hands gripped on her weapon, but Landon pushed it downward.

"I mean no harm," the woman spoke softly.

"What do you mean you thought we were from the emperor's department or something like that."

"I work for the Emperor's Department of Resources and my boss comes twice a month to retrieve the food I harvest," she explained. "I was worried because the radishes are not ready yet, not to mention the bok choy field that was destroyed in warfare. I could see them coming early as a test for loyalty as if that's even scientifically possible to manage." She paused.

"You see, in return for working for the Emperor's Department of Resources, I am allowed to live in a small house among these fields." She began trailing off in her explanation. "Of course, I would love my own land, but living at your work is one of the only ways to guarantee shelter other than being born into wealth. I have children. I just want to keep them safe."

Landon stepped forward. "You don't like your government do you."

The young woman looked down. "I'm not naive. They say generosity is why they offer me shelter here, but I know it is merely for efficiency. How can they call it generous when I make just a few yuans a day? I harvest food all day and I can't even offer any of it to my children, without the fear of being thrown out onto the streets." She looked up at Landon hopefully. "Are you going to stop Xang-hao Li?"

After a short pause, Landon spoke firmly. "Yes"

She gave a small smile. "My name is Jai-ying and you are safe with me. Would you like a place to stay for the night?"

We all looked at each other and exchanged confused glances. Was this real?

"Are you sure we should trust this?" Holly whispered to Landon. "This could be a trap."

"I think it's genuine," Landon replied. "It makes sense to me that she would want to help. She's been dealing with Xang-hao Li's cruelty longer than we have."

In his normal speaking voice, Landon turned to address Jai-ying. "Thank you for your kindness, Jai-ying."

She motioned for us to come along. We walked nearly a half mile until we reached a small shack about the size of my group cell at the prison camp.

"You work on all this land by yourself?" Tristan said, looking around astonished.

Jai-ying nodded her head. "It's a lot, but I can't complain about the workload if I want to keep my house."

She bitterly muttered under her breath, "If they had more workers then they would have to pay more people and they can't have that." Her muttering was still in English, so I assume she intended for us to hear.

She opened the door to her shack and a young child who was probably about five years old came running to the door, followed by another child a couple years younger. Jai-ying picked up the youngest before entering her home. She looked wistfully out her kitchen window as we shuffled in, cramping the place. "We have so little, but our government has so much money and power and none of it is used to make China a better place. The wealth created by the Emperor's Department of Resources alone could help fund better roads, or healthcare, or schooling, but it never does. It always just stays with Xang-hao Li and his circle of wealthy elites."

"That's why you're helping us," Holly gathered.

"I don't want to live like this," Jai-ying nearly pleaded. "I mean it's no use wishing we could go back to the way things were, but I can't help but wish for a better future." She looked down at her two children. "They deserve better. And so do I."

Jai-ying went to put her children to bed and told us to make ourselves comfortable.

Within an hour, most of the guys were out like a light. I tried to sleep, but I couldn't do it. Out of curiosity, I began to wander around the living room, careful not to step on any of the guys. I did, of course, stub my toe on a small table.

On the small table in the corner of the room, there was a picture of Jai-ying in a white dress next to a young man. She was smiling so much brighter than we had seen her do here.

"Is everything okay," I heard a voice whisper. I turned around to see Jai-ying and I felt my cheeks redden.

"I heard a noise and I just wanted to make sure you were all right," she explained.

"I just...uh...couldn't sleep," I stammered.

She walked over to me and pointed at the picture. "That's my husband ," she told me.

"Where is he now?" I asked.

She sighed. "Fighting in the war. He did not want to go, but the recruitment generals came in here and demanded that he did. Dragged him out. I have not seen him since."

"I'm sorry," I told her.

"We used to work the fields together," she reminisced. "But once he was gone, I had to 'pick up the slack.'"

She looked up at me. "And then there's you boys. Just boys. So young to be soldiers."

"No one should have to do this," I stated.

She nodded and looked at me sincerely. "I want my husband back. I want to feed my children. You might think I'm some kind of rebel, but I'm just like every other poor mother in this country. You must stop Xang-hao Li."

And with that, this fight expanded bigger than it already was.

(Tristan's PoV)

We all woke up at about 5:00 in the morning, and to our surprise, Jai-ying was already getting ready for the day.

She opened some of her cupboards and looked at their scare contents in dismay. "I wish I could send you off with some food."

"We'll be fine," Landon assured her. "We took as much food as we could with us, and besides, we're almost there anyway." Then a thought occurred to him. "Actually..." he trailed off as he began rummaging through his bag. He pulled out an MRE. "If you want, you can have this," he offered. "They don't taste good–like at all," he warned her. "But they are very filling."

Gavin and I exchanged a glance before each of us set an MRE down on her table. "You should have some for your kids too," I explained. A few of the other guys set down MREs until she had nearly a dozen.

"You don't have to do this," Jai-ying began.

"Consider it a gift for your hospitality," Landon responded.

We followed Jai-ying outside and said our goodbyes and final thank yous.

After a while, Holly got annoyed with our time wasting.

"If we keep a consistent pace, we should arrive before nightfall," she informed us.

We took that as our cue to leave. Jai-ying waved at us one last time before heading off to the fields.

We followed Holly and Justin as we had been doing the entire time, since they were the only ones who knew how to read a map.

Just before the sunset, there was a large change of scenery. At some point, the bushes, fields, and trees just stopped and not too much further out were tall buildings. One large building looked somewhat like a castle that had been renovated several times.

"The emperor's palace," Justin pointed at it.

"We should probably stay in the outskirts for the night," Holly advised. "We'll attract too much attention if we try to go in the city now."

"When should we go in?" Gavin asked.

"Early in the morning," Holly replied. "Before sunrise."

"I guess we better get our sleep in now," Trevor half joked.

I couldn't stop looking at the palace, still in shock that tomorrow we would be infiltrating it.