♕✿~♕✿~Chapter 31//: The Scarlet Guard♕✿~♕✿~

Madison's POV

We're all silent as the car drives along the road, all of our bodies jostling at each bump in the road.

Lucas, Damon, and I sit on one side with Scarlet Guard members standing by us, keeping a close eye on us. Across from us, Evelyn sits with other members. Each of the members have a weapon on them, whether it be a small knife or a rifle.

"It's sad to see that you escaped from one rebel group only to join another." Damon breaks the silence, looking at Evelyn. "I guess you like being a pawn."

Evelyn's eyes narrow just the tiniest bit. "Shut it," she snaps at Damon, her jaw tightening.

"If mom and dad could see you now, they definitely wouldn't be pro-" Damon's voice gets stuck in his throat, and he grabs at his mouth. He glares at Evelyn, who serenely smiles at him.

The whole ordeal confuses me. Damon didn't seem like the type to suddenly back down from what he was saying, but his words had stopped completely, catching in his throat. I watch Evelyn carefully, wary of her now.

We drive for a couple more minutes. We have been driving for a while now, the trees all blurring and looking the same after the first fifteen minutes. The car comes to a stop. I take a look outside of the window, frowning. There was nothing around us, no indication of a rebel group base anywhere.

I turn back to look at the occupants of the car, and feel my heart stop as the Scarlet Guard members pull out blindfolds. "We don't want you seeing where our base is," Evelyn explains as the guards come behind us to tie the pieces of cloth around our eyes.

My mind was reeled back to the time back at the Rogue Dawn base. I had always been blindfolded before seeing Nathan and enduring absolute torture. My fear was taking over me, and I felt my body slightly shaking as one of the guards pulled the cloth over my eyes, tying it tightly in the back.

I won't get hurt again, I think, trying to reassure myself. The Scarlet Guard was a rebel group wanting equality amongst all people in Norta, the Lakelands, and the land beyond. They had done a lot of damage to public buildings, but I've never heard of a death caused by any of the Scarlet Guard attacks. They were peaceful. Hopefully.

I hear the car start again, and we're moving once more. As we drive to wherever they are planning on taking us, I shake my leg up and down, too anxious to keep still. My breathing was ragged, and it felt impossible to breathe enough air.

The car continues to drive, the unevenness of the ground shaking me even more. We soon come to a rolling stop, and I can hear the car doors being opened. A hand grasps my arm and pulls me out of the car, pulling me forward.

Sounds of people reach me. I can hear murmurs, people walking and being in a hurry, and the scuffle of feet on rough ground. I feel panic coursing through me with the loss of my sight. Now that I had lost my sight again, my hearing was picking up on things I might not have focused on had I not been blindfolded.

The clank of a door and the cool rush of air that meets me tells me when we enter a building. I'm pushed right and left, and this all feels too much like the Rogue Dawn prison that it makes me uncomfortable.

Finally, I'm pulled to a stop. For a second, I stand still, my eyes covered and a hand holding my arm. Then, the blindfold is removed, and I blink rapidly as the lights above me meet my eyes.

After doing so, I look around the room. The people who had accompanied us in the car are here, Evelyn leaning against one of the walls. Damon and Lucas are next to me, their blindfolds freshly removed. They blink rapidly as well, looking around and taking in their surrounding.

Lucas purses his lips as his eyes fall on something embedded into the wall. I take a closer look, noticing the difference between the dark patch and the lighter color on the rest of the walls. Silent stone, I realize. Stone that could dampen a Silver's ability, leeching them of their powers and leaving them feeling like ordinary Reds.

The door to the room opens up, and a woman walks in. She's tall, and her features are rugged. Her hair is tied back, and her brown eyes are steely. There's a scar running down from her left eyebrow to the corner of her mouth, marring the smooth brown skin of the woman's face.

Her eyes land on the three of us, and I feel nervous just with her stare on me for only a second. She looked like she could do some serious damage to people who got in her way.

The guards in the room salute her as she walks over to stand in front of us. Her gaze lands on me and stays there for a while. I do my best to ignore my urge to look away, and I stare at her unflinchingly.

"I go by Arenal around here," the woman says as a way to introduce herself to us. "I'm the one in charge of this base. I've talked to one of the guards who brought you guys here." Her eyes move to each of us. "You've all come from the place of the Silvers' and our enemy. You may have valuable information that is vital to defeating the Rogue Dawn."

We didn't have time for this. Whatever information they wanted from us would most certainly not be useful in helping them take down the Rogue Dawn. I was already forgetting small details of the Rogue Dawn base, the night of my escape blurring the rest of the details.

"Even if we tell you everything we know, it won't help you take them down. We don't have any vital information on how to overpower them," I tell Arenal, hoping she would believe me and let us go.

She shakes her head. "No, you must know at least one thing that would give us an advantage over them."

I grimace. "We really don't have the time. We have someplace we need to go to urgently."

Arenal smiles coolly. "Don't worry, Ms. Williams. We will treat you all nicely, and you will be released after interrogations.

Well, you'd better not take long with the interrogations then, I think in my head, but hold my tongue back.

"And that's not the only reason we need you," Arenal starts saying. I look at her quizzically. "We need you to pass on a message to the prince. You two are close, right?"

I purse my lips. "I'm not going to act as your messenger," I tell her. "If you want to tell the prince something, you should go talk to him yourself."

Arenal is silent for a moment, contemplating my words. She turns away from me without another acknowledgement.

"Take them to a spare bunk. They'll need their rest," she orders the guards, and walks out. Evelyn motions for us to follow her, and we all begrudgingly go after her.

While she leads us to the bunks, I look around to take note of our surroundings. The place looks like a normal place. There are even kids running around, looking happy. I'm a bit startled at the scene. I had been expecting something akin to the Rogue Dawn base, but the atmosphere here felt relaxing and easy. There were some parts of the place that I expected to see, like people practicing shooting and throwing knives. Some of them were practicing for physical fights.

We follow Evelyn into a building. She leads us down a hall and opens a door. "Welcome to your temporary home."

I walk inside with Lucas and Damon. The room is empty, and there are many bunk beds situated in the room. Those are the only things in the room.

Evelyn points down the hallway. "The bathroom's over there," she states. She points to the door leading outside. "The dining hall is in another building. I'll show you guys later when we eat lunch."

I look back at her, and then notice the lock on the outside of the door. I let out a huff of disbelief. "I can't believe we escaped one prison only to end up in another," I say, gesturing accusingly to the lock on the door.

"Hey, it's not that bad," Evelyn says defensively. "And if it bothers you so much, I won't lock you guys in here."

"Why are you defending the Scarlet Guard? I thought you learned your lesson with the Rogue Dawn," Damons says to her harshly.

She looks at him with her head held up high. "They're the only people in this world who treat me like family and care about me."

Some underlying message in her words reaches Damon, and he lets out a snarl. He charges towards Evelyn, launching himself at her. The impact knocks Evelyn down, and she cuts her cheek as she falls down. She angrily pushes Damon away, and Lucas grabs a hold of him, holding him back.

Damon is spitting angry words at both Evelyn and Lucas, but I don't focus on the words. I focus on the blood seeping from Evelyn's wounds. Her blood is red.

But she had done something to silence Damon back in the car.

This all confused me so much that I had to ask her about it. "How do you have red blood when you displayed some sort of ability back in the car?"

She turns to look at me, looking slightly surprised that I had asked the question.

She hesitates before speaking. "There's been a mutation of sorts. Among Reds."

I frown. What sort of mutation?

As if hearing the question in my head, she goes on. "Some Reds, like me, have been displaying abilities. Our blood is still Red, but a mutation gives us the ability a Silver might have."

My moth drops open at the information. The idea that there was yet another group of people that separated all of us was a bit alarming. The Reds were still at the bottom, just ordinary human beings, but now these new group of people and Silvers were fighting for the top spot of most superior beings.

"How many of these Reds exist?" Lucas asks in wonder. "Hundreds," Evelyn answers. She looks at me. "We call then Newbloods."

Evelyn leaves soon after sharing the information with us, leaving all of us dumbfounded. It was hard to believe that there was yet another group of people who had abilities, and were superior to Reds.

It left a bitter taste in my mouth. It bothered me that ordinary Reds like me were still at the bottom by the feet of gods. I tried to ignore the feeling, but it stayed in me even when Evelyn came to escort us to the dining hall so we could eat lunch. As we walked to the building, one thought persisted in my mind.

Would Norta always be a country full of people divided based on the color of their blood and whether they had supernatural abilities?

♕✿~♕✿~♕✿~♕✿~♕✿~

So now the Newbloods in the Red Queen series have been introduced in this book!

For those of you who are still confused about Newbloods, let me explain. Typically, there were only Silvers and Reds. Reds do not have abilities because of their blood color (regular humans) while Silvers have abilities (silver blood color due to mutation). However, Newbloods are Reds with red colored blood that HAVE abilities, even though they shouldn't.

And also, for Red Queen fans, the RQ4 title came out today! I will admit, I was a bit disappointed with the title. I think I was expecting something a bit better than War Storm, but I'm sure the cover for this book will be amazing.

Have a great rest of your week!

Glass_Sword