I'm a helper

So as promised after they would all finish enjoying the party set for celebrating their victory against the outlaws, Nelson's army would join with Short-river's army and Jamal in their journey to Palet, the next city on the list, to lend them a hand in their fight.

" For all our brothers and sisters lost in the combat! Cheers! " a man shouted while holding high a bottle of cocktail juice, Jamal asked them to avoid alcohol as they had another battle the next day and they had to be fully operational, it had been very difficult to convince them but he managed to negotiate an agreement which was to diminish the bottles of alcohol and to mix with fruit juices so they risk of being drunk would be less. His comrades followed him and we could see many hands raising glasses of juice while all people were shouting " cheers! ".

Jamal was staring at them and he couldn't help comparing the fact that it was more noisy and agitated than Short-river since they were more numerous but he also noticed something else, it seemed their euphoria was equivalent to all the pain felt during those times of war. They had been through this war for about two years and even though they knew it was not their last battle they didn't care that much, at that moment, it was just a matter of fun, smiling and laughing. Jamal hoped it would be soon the same case in the two last remaining cities.

Volga came back all smiling and sat at his table after she finished talking with Don. Initially, it was him the first one who asked for the phone to call his home. After spending time talking with Lina about how the city and its people were doing, she told him about the new decisions she took to make the city grow well again, they shared a little bit about the war and they finally talked about the former members of Short-river's army.

At that moment, Volga suddenly intervened and whisper to him if he could lend her the phone to talk with Donald as she heard him saying that he arrived in Stainfall safely and of course he agreed. He said goodbye to his girlfriend and asked her to pass the line to Donald. The woman didn't understand and was upset that he wanted to end their conversation, she even told him that she didn't want to hang up but he managed to convince her, and then she transferred the call.

When it was her turn, Volga took more time than he expected, she stayed there for a long moment while laughing and sharing some promises of what they would do together once they would meet up again. In fact, he was rather happy, not only for her but also for the good achievement of the mission in general.

The day before when they left Short-river she did her best to hide her frustration caused by the separation, which made her sometimes losing her focus on the mission. She was indeed remarkable on the battlefield, however, Jamal had the feeling she would have been better if she wasn't so affected by their separation. Now he was confident that she would get better performance in upcoming battles and he hoped that it might affect the all group by giving them positive energy.

After hours of enjoyment, it was finally time to go. Jamal got up and walked toward Nelson's table, he explained to him that they must leave now if they wanted to reach Palet before the sunset. The man nodded to tell him that he understood then, he stood up while raising his hand to indicate to a guy on the other side of the gymnasium, the one who was in charge of the animation of the party, to stop the music. Nelson waited until he caught the attention of everyone before he started talking, " guys I have the regret to tell you that for today the party is over, it's time for us to move for the next city to go beat some outlaws' butts. So I give you ten minutes to go prepare yourself and after that I want everyone to meet me in the courtyard, got it? "

" Yes! " they all shouted before they ran toward the exit, even the Short-river's army followed the movement and hurried out.

" You don't go with them? " Volga teased Sania as she was one of the few people remaining in the gymnasium.

" Stop kidding. A respectable lady like me would never act in such an unrefined manner. Who do you think I am? " she responded condescendingly.

" It seems like your men have a little problem with the authority. If you want, one day will be large enough for me to make her a good and disciplined soldier, " Nelson gently proposed to Volga while staring at Sania with insistence. The latter put a step back as she was a little bit scared and gazed at Volga with eyes that seemed to beg her to not accept.

Volga chuckled while saying, " I don't think it's necessary. For me, as long as she keeps doing a good job and never disrespect me, she can continue acting like a princess however she wants. And until here she never disappointed me in those two matters ".

" If you say so. As long as they don't do any mistakes during the missions because of that attitude for me it's okay too, " Nelson replied.

[ But your eyes seemed like you really wanted to discipline her, though ] Jamal thought while sipping at his glass of juice. " Well, so let's then go prepare ourselves too, leaders must always be ready before the subordinates, " he declared while extending his arms what made everyone agree with a nod.

As usual, Jamal was the first one to arrive at the point of gathering what was comprehensible since he didn't have many things to carry while his comrades from Short-river already had the majority of their stuff in their cars and thus they quickly joined Jamal but for the others from MontClay. Knowing that Nelson himself warned them that wouldn't return living in there, they, thus, decided to take with them all what they possessed when they would leave their hometown, which would make many things to carry. So because of that, they were the last to arrive.

Even when they arrived in the courtyard they took some more minutes to charge their stuff in their cars. Once they were done, Nelson stepped forward to give the signal of departure, he was standing beside his vehicle while holding its door when he said, " well, I guess everybody is here and ready, so we shall leave by now. We will go two by two so it will be Volga's car and mine which will be leading the way and you will follow us according to this formation, alright? So here we go ". He got in his car while everyone was doing the same.

" You come with us? " Jamal asked Sania when he found her sitting on the backseat of Volga's convertible.

" Yes, as you can see ". She leaned on the door of the car and released a long sigh before she began explaining herself, " Carl has found some new friends with whom he's getting along pretty well. I felt like they wanted to take the road together so I leave them space ".

" I didn't know you could be such nice, " Volga teased her while she was starting the car.

" Yeah I know, I'm the first surprised, " she replied, " moreover, I would want to listen more about your stories but more particularly, I want to be there at the moment you will confess your love for each other ".

" Give up already, " Jamal chuckled, " we told you many times there are no such romantic feelings between us ".

" I don't believe you, " she declared, " a man and a woman cannot befriend so well in just one to two days without having any sexual attraction for each other, impossible ".

" So you will be disappointed because it is actually the case, and not to mention that each of us already loves someone else, " Volga said to close the subject.

The gate of the school opened but they waited for Nelson's car to pass as it was not wide enough to let two cars go through at the same time. They passed one car after another until they had all left.

It took almost one hour and a half to reach the highway but it didn't represent even a quarter of the path, they still had several hours of the road before they would reach Palet. They even had to go at full speed to be sure they would arrive in the city in time.

•••

" Finally! " Volga sighed in relief once they arrived, she gazed at her side and saw that it remained some hours before the sun fell completely.

" Do you know where we should go? I don't see anybody who came to welcome us, " Sania asked Jamal while she was gazing around her " or do plan to make us sleep in a store once again? "

" Don't worry about that, " Jamal chuckled, " I do know where we must go ".

Indeed, when they were still in MontClay, Jamal and Nelson called the Palet's HQ where they briefly explained the current situation and also informed them that they intended to come to their city on the same day. The interlocutor transferred the information to the mayor who replied by giving to them the address of their HQ.

Knowing that the war in that city was quite different from the previous ones, Jamal couldn't apply the same plans he had used there, so he thought that he didn't have other choices but to go meet with Palet's army and discuss how they should manage to finish with the outlaws.

They rolled around inside the city, taking one street after another while following Jamal's indications for quite a moment before they could reach the huge villa which was the actual HQ of the Palet's army.

On the way, Volga complained a little about the number of shortcuts they had to take to finally arrive there and Jamal explained to them that it was necessary since they didn't want to get noticed by the outlaws, " the roads I've told you to take were on the zones where we are sure there are zero enemies, so no chance to be seen. Otherwise, if we had headed carelessly directly to this hideout with such a big cortege of cars they would have quickly noticed us and without knowing, we would have led them here ".

" You're such a too careful man, " Sania commented.

" I heard that a lot, " he replied with a smile.

As the chain of cars was approaching the gate of the villa, Nelson lowered the window-pane of his car and passed his head through it while they were still rolling, to make some signs of the hand to the people who were watching the gate so they could open it for them. A few seconds later, the gate behind them was already closing behind them after all the cars of the reinforcements army entered in.

One by one, they started to come out from their vehicles and gathering at the same point while waiting for their chief to tell them what should they do next.

At the same moment, a tall man came out from the mansion to greet but at the sight of that crowd, his reflex was to start looking for the leaders and Jamal particularly, what he knew would be difficult since he didn't know how he looked like. After scanning the crowd for a moment, his eyes finally landed on a group of four people a little away from the others and he immediately felt like he was one of them.

" Hello everyone, I'm Glenn Spencer, the mayor of this city, " he started with a joyful tone after creating himself a way to approach the four people, " I'm very glad to receive you here and at the same very grateful that so many of you came to help us, " he said while he was shaking their hands, the people before him started to introduce themselves starting by Nelson and finishing by Sania.

While pointing them Glenn was making the recapitulation, " so you are the leader of Montclay's army. You, Short-river, this young lady here, one of your subordinates, " while pointing Sania, and with a change of tone he added, " and finally you. The famous Jamal Sabani, very honored to receive you ".

" Oh come on, no need for such many praises, I'm just a simple helper, nothing extraordinary, " he said while stroking his head, embarrassed while ignoring the fact that Volga was holding herself from bursting out laughing. " Our travel was quite exhausting for our men so can you invite us inside to discuss our business while they will get some rest ".

" Oh, of course, excuse me, " he turned to the crowd and shouted, " Everyone! Please follow me inside, you may excuse me, even though this mansion seems quite big, much of its space is already occupied by my townspeople so you will have to share the rooms by three or four depending on you, I will let the liberty to arrange yourself. While you will install yourself, a dinner will be set for you... or rather for us, in the living room so please come there whenever you finish, thank you ".

Glenn stopped at the door to take the time to welcome the people to enter while showing them which way they should take. Some other people with him were helping him by directly taking charge of an entire section of people to show them the way.

" Should we share a room together buddy? " Volga asked Jamal while glancing at Sania. And it seemed that she didn't get that it was actually a joke to tease her as she took it a bit too seriously. " Oh no, don't even try. If you intend to finally have some intercourse together this night, I warn that it will be, then, a threesome, because I will be sharing my room with you. I won't allow it unless we do it together " she replied.

Both Jamal and Volga gazed at each other before they started laughing loudly. And they became louder when Glenn informed them that, being the last group, both of them with Sania and Nelson would have to share the same room.

" I'm truly sorry about that. And I hope that the problem of intimacy will not bother you that much, " the mayor apologized.

Nelson put a hand on his shoulder to reassure him. " Don't worry it's not a problem, we weren't expecting to have the comfort of sleeping in rooms anyway " he said before they started going up the stairs.

The girl who was showing the way turned to them. " The has been raised in a rich family, " she started to say about the mayor, " and on contrary to many other bourgeois people like him, he has always been a very kind and dependable person, always ready to help, that's why we made him our mayor for these past 15 years. This city was nice and prosperous because of him, he loves both us, his citizens, and this city very much, that's why he is so concerned ".

" Because he is expecting many things from us, isn't he? " Jamal said and the girl nodded, " don't worry, you can tell him to rest in ease, by tomorrow, this nightmare will be over, " he promised before he entered the room.

The girl seemed to be very moved, she quickly closed the door behind them to not let them see her crying of emotion.