The Next Day

I woke up the next day feeling motivated, thanks to the pep talk from Mona, she's always there when I need her and I'm grateful. I get out of bed and begin my morning routine starting with 100 push ups and sit ups after I knock those out I finish getting dressed and start my morning two mile run before breakfast. I pass Sister Emilia in the hallway "Good morning Sister Emilia"

"Morning Adam, you're up early."

"Yeah, I wanted to get an early start today, anyways im off to start my morning run."

Sister Emilia begins to smile "Alrighty Adam I'll see you around."

I start heading to the exit of the church and I see Arthur standing at the door. He notices me and waves me over, "Good morning Adam, are you about to start your morning run?"

"Good morning Arthur, and yeah I wanted to get a 2 mile run in before breakfast"

"Great mind if I join you?" Arthur asks

"Not at all just feel like I should warn you I don't plan on slowing down."

Arthur laughs and says "Not a problem, I'll try and make sure I keep up then."

We begin a slow jog at first to get warmed up there's a route I like to take through the woods nearby the church as we're jogging Arthur looks over at me and asks "Hey Adam I just wanted to ask you're doing better now right? I noticed you seemed upset last night I even heard a bit of a commotion from the training room."

I look over a little embarrassed and say "Yeah I'm doing good now, I just don't like the way James and some of the other adults look at me sometimes, Mona came by and talked to me though and was able to get me to calm down some and gave me new inspiration."

"Oh and what's that?"

"She reminded me why I train so hard everyday and it's not to impress those dumb adults"

He starts laughing and says "Well I'm glad you got your inspiration." He begins to trail off for a second then says in a serious tone "Adam, anytime you need someone to talk to you can come to me, me you and the rest of the kids are practically family so no matter what happens I have your back."

"Thanks Arthur I appreciate it." I begin to speed up and start running a bit more seriously we end up running the rest of the two miles without saying much else.

We get back to the church and head to the dining hall and sit down to eat our breakfast with everyone else. Everyone is almost done with our breakfast when we hear a lot of commotion nearby. We all go check and see what's going on, several hunters are carrying multiple wounded towards the church's infirmary. We all headed that way to see how we can help me and Arthur help carry some wounded while the rest goes to the infirmary and help find bandages. As I help carry a wounded hunter I see James, as much as I dislike the man, I still ask "What the hell happened?"

He looks towards me with the same hateful glare as always and says "They were out on patrol last night and was ambushed by those damn beasts." We're almost to the infirmary when James begins to speak again "We lost five men and at least fifteen to twenty are wounded, once we get these men in there you and the other kids help bandage the less severe injuries, and see what else you can do for the doctors."

"Yes sir." I lay the man I'm carrying down on a bed and begin to wrap bandages around his leg, there's several more gashes and cuts throughout his body after bandaging the minor wounds I try and stop the bleeding on the deeper cuts, one of the doctors come by and begin working on him. I look around and continue to help where I can as are the rest of the kids.

I hear one of the doctors yell "This man is losing too much blood!" I rush over to try and help stop the bleeding as another doctor comes by and tries to help him.

After what seems like hours, we were able to bandage and save most of them but unfortunately five died from their wounds. We all gather in the main hall and begin preparations for the funerals of the men we lost.

Once the funerals were complete, we all gathered in the main hall of the church. The leader of the church, George, stands and begins talking to everyone. "Today is a sad day, we lost many men and women to the beasts. We must remain strong, after much discussion we as a church have decided to retaliate against those monsters. We will rally tomorrow at dawn and take the fight to them we will do God's work and exterminate the wolves that have plagued us for over a hundred years."

One of the injured hunters stand, bandages wrapped around his arms and head and yells, "Retaliate!? Have you gone mad!? Our numbers have been cut in half in the past three months, we need to at least wait a month or two to regain our strength, if we go now then we might as well let the animals kill us all!"

George raises his hand and the hunter slowly goes back down to his seat. "I understand your concern, but we must strike now! They must have wounded too, if we wait they will recover. They may be beasts but they are intelligent they will regroup and attack us with everything they have, so we have to strike now. I won't ask anyone here to fight if they are not able but, we must strike with every available man and woman who are willing. We must put a stop to this endless suffering. Now I ask who will stand with us to end this once and for all!?"

The entire hall stood up and yelled and clapped, the sound was deafening especially to me. After everything settles down Arthur stands from his seat and yells "I will fight as well!" I look at him with fear and worry in my eyes and he looks down at me and smiles. I begin to stand up, if Arthur is going I'm going but before I can Arthur places his hand on my shoulder and shakes his head. He leans towards me and whispers continue you're training you're not ready yet plus they need you." He gestures towards the other kids.

I try and argue by saying "But we need you too you're our leader."

He smiles and says "Then you look after them til I come back." He looks at the other kids with same worried expression as me and smiles "Don't worry this is what we trained for, I'll come back I promise."

Arthur's promise didn't make any of us feel at ease about the situation, but we knew once he sets his mind on something he won't back down, so all of us with our tear filled eyes nod in agreement.