84

84
Jackson's POV

Everything was closing in on us, and I could feel frustration and despair slowly creeping in and strangling me. It was all my fault - that was one sentence that kept repeating in my head over and over again. Guilt was consuming me, and what's more, it was true. There was nothing I could do or say to refute it, to refute or deny the fact that because of me and my stupid mistakes, my friends were going to die and calamity was coming upon the entire park.

It was funny how such a small mistake on my part, a general mistake, the kind of thing that could be expected from every boy my age, would have such serious consequences. I hadn't thought that the decision mattered a lot then, but right now, I knew that it mattered. Mistakes are only as serious as the results they cause, and therefore, this mistake was a costly one. Even though it hadn't seemed so then, if I had only been wise enough to think about that, I would have taken the most conservative approach, especially considering the odds that were against us and the ever-growing, glaring fact that we were already losing.

"I was totally blind," I thought to myself, remembering how I had been so adamant about leaving, attacking just in case we could win, when it was obviously not going to happen by a long shot, even if a miracle happened. I took a deep breath, still feeling thoughts of judgment consuming me when suddenly I felt a tap on my wrist. I turned slowly, not wanting to really know what was happening, but suddenly I recognized Damien. He had a small smile on his lips, something that indicated that he was open-minded. I was about to say something, maybe just tell him a couple of words in a whisper, but he shook his head in one slight movement to tell me that we couldn't speak.

I decided against it then, and just as I was still thinking, he touched my hand, and suddenly the ropes tying me cut, and I felt myself free as a bird once again. My feet were cut loose the next moment, and I could feel power raging through my body, like it always had been. It made me wonder if the ropes had somehow suppressed my energy because the freedom that I felt when they were loose was something different from anything else I had felt over the last couple of minutes.

Now that the blood wasn't being restricted by the ropes around my wrists and ankles, I took in a deep breath of the air that smelled a little fresher just because of the new incident, but also used that breath to calm myself down. We couldn't act impulsively just like Damien wanted. We needed to follow a completely organized plan, all six of us that were still alive, if we were going to win this.

Damien nodded a slight gesture to tell me that he was done with me. He was gone the next moment, moving on to another man, and I started to actually wonder whether Damien was the person who first freed himself. If Damien was actually the one to initiate this, then it would really be a big surprise to me because I considered the both of us as equals, and I didn't think that he was the kind of person that could easily outsmart a lot of people.

I noticed just in the nick of time that Robert was among the people freeing our men, and now it made so much sense to me. If Robert was the one freeing the men, then Robert must be the one who started this revolution and not Damien because, well, it just couldn't be Damien. Robert was the veteran, the trained soldier here, so maybe he had a professional way of getting out of the very same sticky situation that had left me helpless.

We were all free now, and I could almost see a plan coming up. I would have made a plan and found a way to communicate it to all of them, but I honestly didn't think I was worthy of that. The rest of them shouldn't know that I had failed them, but they already knew, so I just wanted to leave it in the hands of somebody else that was much more experienced, somebody that wouldn't make any stupid mistakes at the cost of it.

I was still concentrating at this point when suddenly, Robert gave a hand signal. I used my own senses to know that he probably wanted us to be as still as possible right now. He then slowly picked up a weapon, a nice gun from the ground, from where someone had dropped it. We all did the same, slowly copying his moves while keeping our eyes on the enemies. I knew fully well that one wrong move and we were over.

We were basically only two people against a lot of them because I was pretty sure that the rest four of us weren't that strong apart from Robert and me. I didn't think that anyone was going to affect this battle as much, or their involvement would increase our chances of winning at all. It was a little frustrating to think that even after our wonderful maneuver to get a favorable position, we were still going to have to put in a lot of work, and even then we might not succeed.

The large man glared at all of us like a predator would look at prey. He didn't seem to be very disturbed or threatened by our little escape. If anything, he only seemed to be irritated and a little annoyed by it, like we were simply some kind of pest that didn't really have anything we could do, even if we were given the chance to do something about it. I felt furious just at the look he gave us.

He thought that we were weak and helpless, and while that could be true, I was totally going to teach him a lesson for even thinking that way. He needed a time-out. This was far too much humiliation for me. The fiery words stuck in my throat when I saw all of them marching towards us slowly. They weren't stressing themselves. No, they knew that GPT-3 was already in their hands and all they had to do was to reach out to grab it.

I glanced at Robert and then Damien, knowing that we needed a plan. Without a plan, this wasn't going to work at all. Because if we went about this the conventional way, then we were all going to lose once again. "What now?" I questioned, hoping to goodness that it wouldn't end up with us getting captured, because then all my fears that I had been thinking about before would actually be true once again.

"We do what we didn't do before," Robert said, taking a step forward and having a determined look on his face. I looked at him in question, wishing he would stop speaking in riddles because I didn't understand a word of what he just said.

"What were we supposed to do the last time that we didn't do, and if so, was it actually going to help us in this situation? Please," I said, because my mind was completely blank, "be clear about what you are saying. What are we going to do?" I asked, glancing around me to see the enemies closing in slowly.

All of them had their weapons out now, guns pointed at us and spears raised. Some of them had their swords and shields also, and looking at the number of them and the few of us, I knew that it was basically going to be a slaughter, and we weren't going to be the ones slaughtering them - no, it would be the other way round if we let it happen.

"We run," Damien said, looking at me with a determined expression that told me that there was no negotiating this. Immediately after he spoke, he had already turned around, moving at an incredible pace, a pace that couldn't even be considered human. I felt frustrated, especially when I saw Robert doing the same, turning tail and running like a coward or something.

I honestly didn't know what to make of it and how to react to all of them running away without any form of shame. I glanced at our opponents and noticed that they had similar expressions to mine on their faces. They were completely shocked that we would pull off such a move. It was so shocking to them also that they didn't even move or attempt to catch us. I just stood there staring at the fleeing men that didn't seem to be stopping anytime soon. I took in a deep breath, not knowing what to do. None of them were here to stand with me against them anymore, but when I thought about it, even if they were here, there was a huge chance that it wouldn't even matter in the long run. Sure, we might be able to hold our ground for a couple of seconds, but that would basically be it. Maybe this was the only way after all.

I realized with a start that I was the only one still here, and all the rest of them had gone. Retreating was definitely not my style, but I didn't seem to have a choice here. I turned around also and ran.