Imperium: Volume 3
Chapter 4.

•~ Oaken, I'm heading up to Lingham again. You and Grayson keep an eye on things •~ Sarah ordered.

•~ Sure thing •~ I replied.

It was another week since we heard about the Military base, and since then it had gone radio silent. I havn't learned much more about the details, but what I do know is that they found out the location of the base. No more information was relayed to me, but I know for sure Raeve had to have gone out there and check things out.

I watched as a car pulled in and picked Sarah up just outside the stadium. I walked down the isle of tents and brought a memory of my training days that took place at home base, when I was training under June. I had to fill my head with something, so Sarah couldn't read me.

I made my way towards her tent, and glanced around to make sure no one saw me enter. Her tent was slightly bigger than the rest, so she was able to fit a desk that sat in the middle of the floor. I walked over to it and looked over the papers sprawled on top of it.

I was disappointed to find it was just lists of daily duties and provisions. What I wanted was info on June. However I wasn't quite sure if she had kept that info on hand. I searched through all the drawers, and still couldn't find anything. I took to the corner and I focused my eyes on the small details, hoping to find something out of place.

I scanned her dresser that had a stack of books and necessities sitting up top of it. Everything looked organized aside from what laid on her desk. I took back to it, and as I gazed upon the stack of books again, I could see something wedged in between the pages of one of the texts.

I made my way over and grabbed the third book in the pile and set it on the desk. I ran my fingers across the pages and opened it, to where a piece of paper sat inside. It was a list of locations and dates. Possible sightings perhaps?

I quickly grabbed a piece of paper and jotted down the information before slipping it back in the book and placing it back on the dresser. I waited till I couldn't hear anyone near the tent before I made my way out.

I peered over my shoulder as I started walking towards my tent, and when I turned my head forward I accidentally walked into someone.

"What ya doin?" He said.

It was Gunner, of all people.

"Nothing." I told him. "Just heading back to my tent."

I could see him glancing at Sarah's tent then back to me.

"Hu. I swear I just saw you coming out of our team leaders tent." He said in a smug tone.

"Ya. I was just looking for her, but she's not here...hence I'm heading back to my tent." I tried to play dumb. But I guess it takes one to know one.

"What's this?" He said as he grabbed the piece of paper from my pocket.

"Give it back Gunner!" I tried snatching it from him but he was toying with me. I was getting sick and tired of his games, so I grabbed his jacket and kicked his feet from under him sending him to the ground.

"Alright....alright you win." He said chuckling.

I took the piece of paper from him and headed towards my tent. Frig, he really ticks me off! I made it to my tent, and made my way in heading for the chest that sat at the end of my cot. I pulled out a map of the continent and got to work.

One by one I took each location and circled it on the map.

"Brighton, Aslow, Dornsview...."

I must have circled about 20 locations on the map, spanning all across the territory. I sat back to get a better view.

I was comparing the dates on each location. There was no way she could have been to all these. Not on foot, or even by car. Some of the locations were spread out by days of driving, yet one day she's in Clansdale then the next she's in Brighton. That alone was a 4 day drive.

I also noticed all the places on the map were major cities that fell under jurisdiction of The Dominion. If she was really here, she was playing in the lions den. She was in all these places, yet she never made a move until now.

I was standing up now pacing my room. Why would she not make a move? I glanced at the map again and read all the dates. The first sighting didn't take place till 3 months after she left, which means the sightings happened within the last 3 months alone.

What was she doing for the first three?

"Gah! The hell June! What are you doing!?"

She was infuriating to say the least. I slumped back on my cot and lay there.

"If I were June what would I do. Why would I go to all these places? Why........why...pfff maybe if I knew where the base she blew up was it might tell me something."

I quickly shot up as a sudden thought registered. I went back to the map and looked over all the locations that were circled. Each place was a location that held a military base. Aside from the one that she blew up. Which one it was I didn't know. But she's been quite up until now.

"You were studying them....were'nt you. Of course you were. How stupid of me. Getting to know ones enemy before making the assault. It was so obvious, yet we were expecting something else from you. And here I thought you would be going in guns a blazing."

I sighed. I reviewed the locations again, and there were a few that didn't have a base. Okay well that doesn't explain why you went there.

"Ugh. I thought I was onto something."

"On to what?" Bowdie said as she entered my tent.

I looked at her as she eyed the map on the floor. She kept quite as she sat next to me and started scanning it aswell.

"June?" She said

"Y....yes. How'd you guess?" I asked her.

I saw as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a piece of paper aswell and handed it to me. I looked at her suspiciously and opened it. It read one word.

"Jaxynville?" I read.

She grabbed my pen and circled the location on the map. "It's the Military base she hit." She said all the while keeping her eyes fixed on the other locations.

"And how did you come upon such information?" I asked her with a raised brow.

"Raeve might have let it slip out." She replied.

We sat there in silence. The only noise that filled the tent was the crackling of the wood in my stove.

"Atleast we know how she's getting there." Said Bowdie.

What is she seeing that I'm not? She could tell I didn't understand, so she ran her finger along the map.

"Here is interstate 421, and it's the longest highway, that takes you to all the major cities." She explained.

"Then how do you explain her going from one city to the next? There's no way she's travelling by vehicle. It takes days to drive that distant. Look here for example." I pointed to the dates between Brighton and Clansdale.

"Hmmm." She said. "Well we know she can't teleport. Not with out Raeve. Unless.....she met another teleporter? Or......"

"Or what?" I pressed.

"Perhaps by plane?" She asked unknowingly.

"That would be quite difficult. The only airplanes that are up in the sky are Military planes that are flown by Dom's. You would need to be a......."

"Jesus." She said. She turned to me as if pondering something.

"Y...You don't think she.....joined do you?"

"What!? Join the Dom Squad?" I practically yelled.

I grew silent. I looked back towards the map.

"Holy shit. Do you really think so?" I asked.

"I mean, how else do you explain it? Some places she can travel by vehicle, and the further distances, she goes by plane. What better way to achieve that then by getting full access as one of them." She finished off.

"Holy shit." I said.

"Ya. You can say that again." She grinned.

We continued to sit there and ponder the idea.

"Do you think she knows about the Red Stars?" I asked.

"If she joined properly and went through basic training, there's no doubt in my mind she would have been educated on it. However, if she's managed to procure a uniform and slapped a fake name on it. Studied how they work, she could also just be showing up where ever with the right documentation."

"Procure?" I asked with a grin.

"I have a thesaurus!" She grinned back.

Too think that this was even a possibility was insane. Was June really in that deep? The answer was yes.....it had to be.

"We should tell the others. Perhaps with this information, they can build a lead on it somehow." I looked to Bowdie. "Maybe they can find her."

"Oaken." She said. "There's hundreds of cities, villages, camps etc. She could be anywhere. It would be like finding a needle in a hay stack."

"Well we can't just sit aside! What if she doesn't know? Please, we atleast have to tell Sarah." I told her.

She stood up and picked up the map.

"Okay Oaken, let's go."

.............

"Not now Oaken, you guys shouldn't even be here." Sarah said.

"But we need to tell you something. We think we found something." I looked at her. If I could have those puppy eyes, I would totally be using them right now.

She sighed. "Okay, what is it?"

Bowdie and I made our way in. Raeve was standing next to Jay and gave his little sister a look. A look that told her he was going to rip her a new one. I grabbed the red marker sitting on the table and walked over to the map on the wall.

"Okay. So these are all the locations that she's been seen in. This here is the 421 interstate, that can take you to all the major cities under dominion jurisdiction."

"Yes, we're aware." Said Sarah.

"But that doesn't explain how she was able to jump from one distant city to the other, within a matter of a day." I explained.

"We just figure the sightings were false." Said Raeve. "I mean it's not like she can teleport..she would need me for that."

"Well, we don't think she's teleporting." I said looking to them. "We think she's flying."

Raeve looked confused, and Sarah was thinking it over.

"Are you saying she has the ability to fly?" Asked Raeve.

"N..no. By plane." I simply put it.

He bursted out laughing. "Theres no way. You'd have to be a Do-" It suddenly dawned on him. "Holy shit!"

"That's what I said!" I explained.

Sarah was still pondering the idea. She turned to face Raeve.

"Seems like the most plausible explanation." She said. "She would be able to get around easily through borders, aswell as keep a close eye on everything and get whatever info she needed on them."

"So she's literal in the sense that shes keeping her friends close, but her enemies closer." Said Raeve. "Jesus June, your father would be rolling in his grave if he ever found out."

Sarah looked to me and Bowdie. She had a smile on her face, which had us ease up a bit. I looked back to the map, and looked over all the pins. They were mostly red but there were two blue ones. One pinned to Jaxynville and another on Beckort.

I looked to Sarah pointing to Beckort.

"That was her next target." Sarah mentioned. "She hit it last night. It's a weapons and ammunitions depot. And what we learned from Jaxynville was that the base held a majority of their aircraft's and convoy vehicles."

"So she's taking out there supply chain." I mentioned.

"We think so yes." She answered.

She's playing smart. I looked over to Raeve who had a concerned look on his face. He was hiding something. I looked over to Sarah, and I knew she caught on to what I was thinking.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Since you two figured this out, I'll tell you." She turned to us. "When Raeve went to Jaxynville he found something."

"Sarah." Raeve said as if to stop her.

"There already in it Raeve." She looked back to us. "He checked out the base, and when he was investigating a convoy of Red Star's showed up. There are more of them, and....they showed up with these new weapons."

She had my full attention. "What do you mean?"

Raeve went over to a cabinet and pulled out a baton and dropped it on the table. I walked up to it and took a look.

"What is it?" I asked.

"It's a specialized weapon. To neutralize......Juniper." She said.

My head snapped up. "What do you mean by neutralize!?"

"I mean......we think they found a way to break through her force field." She replied.

"Oh my god." I muttered under my breath.

"What do we do? We need to warn her!"

"That's why we are here. To figure it out." She said.

"Figure what out!?" I pressed.

She looked at Raeve.

"Our next move."

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