(Holly's PoV)

I shook Landon awake. "It's time."

He grimaced, but nodded.

We proceeded to wake the other guys. There was an eerie sort of silence among them, which honestly felt worse than their non-stop talking.

"Eat the last of your MREs if you've got any," I told them. "Who knows when or if we'll eat again."

Despite my advice for them, I merely picked apart at my chicken pot pie, hardly any of it actually making in my mouth.

Landon looked at me and tried to give a small smile, but it seemed difficult for him to do that.

I couldn't be scared, I reminded myself. There was no room for fear, only focus.

"All right," I began. "We'll need to split up into groups so we stand a better chance. Two will have to do. More would of course be ideal," I muttered bitterly, "but since Justin is apparently the only one of you with knowledge of the area or like...maps in general."

"Holly," Landon reminded me to stay on track, and probably to be nicer too, but I didn't care about that part as much.

"I digress. I'm just saying it would be a bad idea to send off a group completely helpless, so we're gonna have two groups."

"Plus it can give us strength in numbers if needed," Landon added, trying to be helpful.

"I've tried to split us up based on our strengths," I continued. "Daniel, Trevor, Connor, Felix, Jean-Paul, Michael, Tristan, Matteo, Alan, Ned. You'll be with me. The others will go with Landon."

Earlier when forming the groups, Landon had asked me if I was sure I wanted Connor and Matteo to both be in my group.

"Do you think I want Ned in my group? Do you think I want Felix in my group," I had retorted. "I don't care who likes each other."

"It's just they might fight the entire time," he had told me.

"They'll deal," I insisted. "Plus the circumstances are different here. They ultimately have the same goal here, albeit very different motivations of revenge and reuniting with his girlfriend, respectively, but still, they can deal."

I had expected the guys to complain since I split up a lot of friends (intentionally, I might add), but no one said a word in protest.

"If that's what you think is best," Logan said firmly. The other guys nodded in agreement.

So far, they were dealing better than expected.

"The emperor's palace is only a couple of miles into the city," I went on. "My group will approach it from the South-West, while Landon's group will approach it from the North. I wish I knew how to get in, but none of us had any way of seeing the palace before now, so unfortunately, we'll just have to figure out something when we get there."

I hated the idea of improvising. Even the guys who had much more practice at "winging things" looked at each other anxiously. Although it was anxious in both senses of the word. They knew the danger, but were too filled with hope to turn back.

"Let's split up," I said.

We all began to stand up and walk our separate ways. I snuck one last glance at Landon, wondering if that would be the last time I ever got to do so.

(Clayton's PoV)

It was still rather dark when our groups split up. The city of Hong-Kong was quiet at this time of night–or I guess, morning. We tried to keep close to factories and empty work buildings out of fear of running into people who probably wouldn't be as nice or understanding as Jai-ying.

At our quiet pace, it only took us around forty-five minutes to reach the palace. Unfortunately what we couldn't see from our resting place last night was the seven or eight foot gate surrounding the place.

"Well, what's the plan now?" Marcus asked.

Landon eyed the fence for several moments and began brainstorming out loud. "We could try to use a rope to help us, but I don't know if we could get it attached to the top or stuck to the ground on the other side."

Sean attempted to scale the fence. He probably would have been successful if he'd been able to use his legs for support, but there was nothing for him to put his feet on. He tried to pull himself up, but he lost his grip and fell to the ground. Logan offered his hand to help him up.

Even Justin seemed to be stumped for a plan.

"Do you think we could pretend we're tourists?" I asked.

Before anyone could comment on my suggestion, we were interrupted by two men yelling in Chinese.

Logan gripped onto my shoulder and I could feel my heart sink and my mouth go dry.

The two men pointed their guns at us.

I tried to make eye contact with Landon to see if we should aim our guns too–after all, there were more of us, but Wong-ti stepped in front.

He started speaking fluent Chinese (at least I'm guessing that was the language) to the two men. After about thirty or so seconds of conversation, the men lowered their guns.

What was going on? Was he turning on us? Was he a secret spy for the Chinese government? Had he always been one? Ideas flooded my mind until one of the men unlocked the gate.

He grabbed Landon and pushed him through the gate opening. "Come on you lot," he barked. "Don't make me force you."

We followed him and the men into the palace. I walked at a faster pace to move myself closer to the front so that I could try to get a punch in.

"Traitor!" I snapped.

"Shut up," he hissed.

"You think you can just get away with this-"

"I'm not going to get away with anything if you keep shouting," he retorted. When I opened my mouth again, he sighed, then lowered his voice even more. "When I saw the men, I panicked. So I did the only thing that might work. I told them that I was with the Emperor's Junior Military League and that you were my prisoners."

After a moment, Landon broke out into a huge smile, which he quickly attempted to suppress. "That's genius," he whispered.

"Sorry for pushing you," he added.

Landon shrugged. "I probably deserved it."

Justin shook his head. "I don't believe it. You're literally wearing an American Army uniform."

"Whatever," Landon brushed the comment off. "Let's just find a way to use John's quick thinking to our advantage."

(Matteo's PoV)

We arrived at the fence. Holly remained still, but paced along it with her eyes, trying to devise a plan. She turned to Connor. "How much can you bench?

He bit his lip while he thought. "I haven't checked in a while, but at basic training, it was 260."

Of course he remembered the last number he benched even though basic training had been almost two years ago.

She smirked. "Perfect. I need you to lift me up–Felix, if you say a word about wanting to lift a girl's legs, I will use your legs to garotte your own neck–lift me up as high as you can. I think I can scale the fence if I get started high enough off the ground."

Connor shrugged. "Worth a shot."

The first attempt he lifted Holly up by the waist, but she still struggled to climb up the rest of the way.

They tried this a couple more times, but to no avail.

"Try getting on my shoulders," Connor suggested. "I think it'll give you a higher starting elevation, so you might be able to climb over the top of the fence, instead of up it."

They gave it a shot. Holly struggled to keep her balance on top of Connor, but she managed to get her leg over the top of the fence. While trying to climb over, she fell on the other side, but got back up right away.

"Do you think you could do that with everyone else?" she asked.

"I think so," Connor replied.

I think so. Stupid nonchalance worthy upper body strength.

Everyone took turns having Connor hoist them up. I went last due to avoidance, naively wishing that the gate would just magically open before it became my turn.

"Matteo, hurry up," Connor said impatiently.

"I'm coming."

After Connor had lifted me up all too easily, I struggled to keep my grip on the fence.

Holly sighed in exasperation. "Use your legs to climb over. You are making this harder than it needs to be. Stop pretending you have upper body strength."

I did as I was told, trying to ignore the fact that my face was growing red. I couldn't get my footing quite right on the way down, and I ended up cutting my leg on the top of the fence when I fell. I bit my tongue to keep quiet. Holly examined my leg and then the fence. "Well, on the bright side, if you hadn't been up to date on your tetanus shots, the military would have immunized you at basic training, so I think you're safe in that regard. But in the case of the blood, give me your shirt."

Luckily it was still rather hot in Hong-Kong in November, so it felt good to take a layer off. Well, good aside from the searing pain in my leg.

Holly ripped apart my shirt into thin strips and began tying them above and below my cut. "It doesn't seem to be bleeding too profusely, but nevertheless, this should help prevent more blood loss than we can afford. It'll probably need stitches, but that's too risky to perform right now. Can you walk?"

I struggled to get up and let out an involuntary wince of pain as soon as I put pressure on my bad leg.

Holly pursed her lips. "I suppose we could have someone carry you."

"No !" I exclaimed. The embarrassment would have been far worse than the pain. I was so through with being the weak link. I slammed my foot down and swallowed the pain. "I'm fine...see."

Holly seemed unconvinced, but did not have the motivation to argue. "All right then." She turned to Connor who was alone on the other side of the fence. "Do you think you can climb over on your own?"

Connor rubbed his hands together before wiping them on his jacket. "One way to find out." With one jump, he was able to grab hold of the top of the fence. He pulled himself up without using his legs at all until he got high enough to swing one over the top. He remained perched at the top for several seconds before jumping down and landing on both feet. Sure, it looked difficult for him while doing it, but I couldn't even enjoy that due to the fact that he could simply do it on his own.

"Now what?" Alan asked, but Holly ignored him, her eyes fixated on the trash chute.

"Come on," she said.

We followed her over to a dumpster with a large chute hanging above it.

"This is how we get in."

Daniel's eyes went wide. "Are you sure there's no other way?"

"Well we can't exactly use the front door," she snapped. "No, this will have to do. Even if there is another way, thinking about what it is will waste too much time."

She began climbing into the dumpster so she could get into the trash chute.

We all began following suit. Daniel shut his eyes momentarily. "For the end of the war," he muttered before holding his breath.

The trash chute was much easier to climb up than I expected. My only difficulty seemed to be my leg pain, but the ease probably came from all the practice I had running up tall slides with my little brothers. My heart welled up as I thought of them.

The trash chute led us to a small, empty room. "Barricade the door," Holly ordered once we began entering behind her. There wasn't much to block the door with, so Connor just used his body as a barricade.

Holly rubbed her temples in an attempt to figure out our next course of action. She went over to the air vent and attempted to take the cover off, but the screws kept it stuck in place.

"I guess you could say we're pretty screwed," Tristan joked, which caused Holly to glare at him.

"Wait, Holly, your nails are really long," Peter acknowledged.

Holly groaned. "Why is that relevant?"

Peter ignored her comment though and grabbed her hand, glancing back and forth between her fingers and the vent cover. "If we can just shape them in a way that mimics the screw shape, we might be able to use them as a makeshift screwdriver."

"But I don't know how to do that," she replied. "Nor do we have the materials to do so."

Peter opened up his jacket pocket and pulled out a nail file. He twirled it around his fingers once for dramatic effect. "Lucky for you, I do."

Holly didn't even chide him for bringing such an unnecessary object. He spent about 10 focused minutes filing Holly's right pointer finger into a flat head screwdriver shape.

He backed away from her hand and admired his masterpiece. "Give it a try."

Holly approached the vent. She dug her nail into the screw and began twisting. She struggled with it at first, but she eventually got it stuck enough that it could turn the screw, even if it was only something she could do slowly. It took several minutes of twisting, but she was finally able to get the first screw out. Holly actually smiled before beginning to unscrew the three others.

Once she got the vent cover off, she looked inside. "It's gonna be tight," she observed. "I don't think more than four of us should go for reconnaissance."

She looked at me for a moment. "I would have you come with, but you'll need to be off your leg for a while."

She surveyed the room. "I think it should be me, Daniel, Jean-Paul, and Ned since we're the smallest."

With no objections, she continued on. "Don't let anyone in and try to remain quiet. " Then she addressed her small group. "As for you three, come on. We've got no time to waste."

(Landon's PoV)

John kept secretly translating for us.

"They said they're leading us to the cellar," he whispered.

"That'll probably be the best place for us to attack," Justin chimed in. "Or at least, it should be less noticeable."

I tried to pay attention to their words, but my mind was still reeling. We had actually gotten in. I couldn't believe how lucky it all was.

We walked down the hallway and turned a corner until our path was blocked by the emperor himself. He was standing in front of four guards, all larger than him and wielding heavy looking guns.

"Just what do we have here?" His English caused me to freeze up more than the armed guards did.

Xang-hoa Li stepped closer to one of the guards who we followed inside. He spoke in Chinese, but in an unsettlingly calm tone.

The guard looked as if he was trying to explain himself and moments later, Xang-hao Li struck him across the face.

He grabbed John by the uniform and yelled something else I couldn't understand, but John visibly winced. Then, he switched back to English.

"Drop your weapons boys."

Just shoot, I chided myself. We could probably make it out. Maybe? Did it matter? There were more of us than there were of them. Of course, I had spent too much time thinking.

Xang-hao Li grabbed Sean, who gave an involuntary gasp and dropped his gun. "I thought I was speaking English just then, but I guess I'll have to be more clear." He picked up Sean's gun and aimed it at him. "Drop your weapons."

The other guys looked to me, waiting for my response. I was more than ready to die for the cause, but letting someone else get killed for it felt morally different.

I sighed and set my gun down and the other guys followed suit.

"Now, let's step into my office," Xang-hao Li led us down the hallway to a large room. One of his guards locked the door behind them.

"Would you look at this?" Xang-hao Li mocked. "It's like Boy Scouts gone rogue. Did you really think you could stop me?" He paced around the room, making eye contact with each of us.

"Where's your leader?" He demanded. "Who put you up to this? Surely the U.S. government didn't send you without someone more experienced." He paused. "Well, speak up or I'll kill all of you."

"The U.S. government didn't send us here," I blurted. "Well they sent us to China, but not to the palace."

He turned to me. "So you came here on your own accord?"

My heart was beating faster and faster thinking about what he would do to us, but I couldn't stop.

"I left with half my platoon. We snuck away almost two weeks ago. It's not an invasion, it's just us." I carefully balanced between the truth and keeping the other group safe.

"And you're the leader of this?" he questioned.

My heart began to sink.

"Otherwise, I'll just have to guess who's in charge," he continued as he scanned the room.

"It was my idea." I responded, not feeling fully in control of my brain.

There was a pause before Xang-hao Li took the gun he'd stolen from Sean and slammed it into my throat. I doubled over and began coughing and sputtering.

"Take the others to the cellar," he ordered. "I'll find some prison camp to send them to later. In the meantime, alert the media." He zeroed in on me. "I'm going to have this one executed tomorrow."

(Daniel's PoV)

Upon hearing the news of Landon's impending death, I reached over to cover Holly's mouth. Even the slightest involuntary sound could give us away. All it would take would be one look up for the emperor to see we were in the vents overlooking his office. One sound, one look, and everything would be ruined.

I felt rapid, hard breaths against my hands, but even I couldn't be worried about germs at a moment like this.

"How could they fuck up so badly that they got caught already," Ned scoffed as we headed back through the vents. "I mean they didn't have me so there was that deficit-"

"Shut up," I hissed at him. I put my free hand around Holly's shoulder. "It'll be okay," I tried to reassure her. We'll find a way to save him. All of them."

I motioned for the others to continue back the rest of the way through the vents. Holly kept looking backwards, as if guilty for leaving them behind instead of attempting to battle right then and there. She hadn't been able to take her eyes off Landon since the moment he was struck in the throat with a gun.

I led the way back to our temporary base in the trash chute room, periodically checking back to see if Holly was still following. She looked so empty. Her lip quivered, yet her face appeared almost expressionless.

After several minutes of crawling and mentally trying to retrace my steps, I wiggled my way out of the air duct.

A few of the guys jumped at the sight of me.

"I thought you guys wouldn't be back for a while." Trevor noted.

"Change of plans," I muttered.

He looked at me, puzzled.

"The other group's been captured," Holly sobbed. She couldn't even bring herself up to saying the part about Landon out loud.

The room went deadly silent. No one could say what we were all thinking. The fate of this mission rested solely on our shoulders now.

(Justin's PoV)

A group of guards led us, sans Landon, down to the cellar. I racked my brain for a solution. Normally answers came so easy to me. Now, it was even difficult just to think.

"What did we get ourselves into?" I said to myself.

Clayton wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Into the hot cellar," he replied.

I glared at him to let him know that humor was not appreciated, given our current situation.

I wanted to be mad at him, or Landon, or anybody, but the truth was no one else had gotten me into this situation. Sure, it wasn't like me to make impulsive decisions, but I wasn't forced. I wasn't coerced. I was just so full of hope and desperation to try something instead of wasting away until death or well into adulthood.

Logan was allowing Sean to hug on his arm. He sniffled. "Landon's gonna die."

I sat down on the cement floor next to the two of them and sighed. "It looks like it."

"He didn't have to say he was the leader. We could've backed him up if he said we didn't have one," Sean continued. "But he did anyway. Why'd he want the credit for it?"

I shrugged. "I'm guessing to keep us safe."

"I don't feel safe," he mumbled.

"Well, at least safer."

Will shook his head. "What were we thinking? We're kids. We've got no power."

"What's gonna happen to us?" Sean asked.

"I don't know," I answered. The honesty of my reply ate away at me.

"I thought you knew everything," he said. "Like the difference between people guerrillas and animal gorillas."

"I thought I did too," I muttered, my voice dripping with guilt and bitterness.

"Landon," Clayton was whispering in a corner of the cell. He repeated himself.

I furrowed my eyebrows and walked over to him. "What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to get Landon's attention," Clayton replied, still sticking his face against the wall.

"Wait, what?" I asked.

Clayton sighed in exasperation. "There's a crack in the wall," he explained. "I can see Landon on the other side."

Soon the rest of us took turns looking through the small crack. When it was my turn, I saw Landon curled up in the corner of the cell with both his hands and feet tied. He had also been gagged with some sort of cloth, but apparently allowed to keep his glasses. He was squinting and wincing.

Clayton pushed me aside. "No fair, he gets air conditioning," he exclaimed.

"He does not," I retorted.

"Yeah-huh," Clayton argued. "See he's got a vent in his cell."

I peered through the crack again and the appearance of the vent sent chills down my spine. There were thin pieces of paper stuck motionless to the vent, indicating it wasn't in use. Though air wasn't the only thing vents could carry.

"I don't think that's what that's for."

(Landon's PoV)

Through the small vent near the top of my cell, I could make out voices. Most of them blended together, but one stood out in particular: Xang-hao Li's.

"So men," he began. "How do we kill the boy?"

I couldn't understand why they were speaking English at a time like this, considering the fact that it wasn't any of their first language.

A man replied something I couldn't understand, but Xang-hao Li cut him off.

"Now is the time for English."

I glanced at the vent again and Holly's voice played in my mind: they'll only speak English if they're mocking or threatening you.

He wanted me to hear it.

"I assumed we would just shoot...execution style," one man spoke up.

"Where's the fun in that?" Xang-hao Li belittled the idea. "There's no show."

"Well it's just headshots are effective and efficient–"

"Do I look like I care about efficiency right now," he roared. "I want an example made out of him!"

I tried to control my breathing, but as each second passed, the reality of my impending death grew nearer.

"What about bringing back the guillotine?" One offered. "That always drew a crowd."

"We don't have time to build a guillotine," another one interjected.

"But a blunt ax can do the same job," a third one pointed out. "With at least triple the pain."

I could feel the back of my neck breaking out into a cold sweat at the thought of it being hacked upon.

"Why use western execution devices when we are supposed to be celebrating the superiority of China," one man asked. "I say we bring back Ling Chi."

"Ah yes, Ling Chi," Xang-hao Li said dramatically. "Death by a thousand cuts. An ancient Chinese method of execution where they slice off pieces of a person's skin one by one."

I seemed to close my eyes tighter with each word. My skin felt like it was burning, but I couldn't even touch it in an attempt to soothe it.

"Very tempting," he mused. "Still, it's been done before. I need something original. Something that really fits the crime...hmm..."

My heart was skipping beats like crazy.

I heard a snapping sound. "I've got it," Xang-hao Li announced. I could almost feel him smiling. "I'll cut open his throat and rip out his vocal cords as a way of showing what happens to those who speak out against me."

There was a long pause. My throat began to throb as if the act had already been committed.

"Well," he pressed.

An applause rang throughout the room.

"This better stop any more of those runts from getting any big ideas," he snarled. Then he switched back to Chinese. That was all he needed me to know.