“I have ours,” Maya said. “We’ll climb over and then head east and then climb back over.”
Bruce grunted loud enough to hear through the device, making me laugh.
“Contact me when you’re back over here,” I said.
We only waited five minutes, huddled together in silence between the trees, before we heard Maya’s voice again. “Butterfly, we’re over.” She gave me her coordinates and I used my compass to locate them.
“I want a cool code name.” It was the first thing out of Bruce’s mouth when we found them. “Like Mighty Warrior or something.”
“We have more important things to talk about,” Luke said.
Bruce groaned in frustration as we came close together, using some trees as cover.
Tina sighed. “So how are the six of us going to do anything?”
“None of us are even from Kingsland,” Joshua said. He had his arms folded and he pressed up close to me which I was grateful for. It was getting colder by the minute and I could use any warmth I could get.
I looked at my watch. “Well, it’s a little after nine. We need to do something tonight. Once the sun is up, our window of opportunity is over.”
“Can’t we wait until tomorrow night?” Bruce asked. “That way we can get some good rest and think it over. We can contact President Mendes and Vice President Jennings and work something up.”
I shook my head. “We don’t have that kind of time. The others will be dead by morning.”
Tina's eyes went wide. “You think so?”
“They have no reason to keep them alive,” Joshua said.
“What do you suggest we do?” Maya asked me.
I thought over all our options. Rescuing everyone that came with us was out of the question. We needed to focus on Marcus and his supporters. We obviously couldn’t rescue them, either. There were too many of them and we had no idea what Marcus or anyone else looked like. We couldn’t trust anyone we met here.
So that left rallying everyone and getting them to agree with us, not President Coleman. But how could we get thousands of people to support or even listen to six outsiders? Six people they’d never seen before and had probably been fed lies about.
“We need to get supporters of New Haven out of hiding,” I said. “We need to convince everyone that we’re the good guys and are here to help.”
Bruce swore, so Maya smacked him on the head. Rubbing the spot where she’d hit him, Bruce looked at her and frowned. “How come everyone else can swear but me?”
“First of all,” Maya said, “I don’t swear. In fact, a lot of our residents don’t. You’ve just spent too much time around Dante and Santiago, and now Emmie.”
“Hey!” I scrunched my eyebrows together. “I’m not as bad as they are.”
Tina smiled. “Yeah, but they’ve definitely rubbed off on you.”
I hated to admit she was right. I guess we would have to work on that, especially if young kids like Bruce were going to look up to us. “Fine, no swearing.”
“We’re losing focus,” Luke said. “How are we going to convince them we’re here to help?”
I thought back to when Dante first found out that a lot of Kingsland residents were coming down with the disease that Whitney, Eric’s mom, and Lou had died from. The same one Dee had recovered from. Because we had found the solution.
I looked at the five of them staring at me, waiting for my response, and I grinned. “Because we have the cure.”
Somehow, we needed to find a way to address the whole city without interruptions. It was going to be tricky but had to be done.
I rubbed my hands together for warmth as we stood out in the cold. “Going into Headquarters is out of the question.”
“We need somewhere else to go,” Maya said.
Nodding, I pulled out a piece of paper from my pocket. As I opened it, a small object floated down to the ground.
Joshua bent down and picked it up, handing it over to me. “You dropped this.”
When I took it from him, I smiled. It was the purple butterfly I had picked up when Eric proposed to me. I had transferred it to the pants I was currently in so I could take it with me.
I ran my thumb over it and then put it back in my pocket, and then opened the other paper. “This is a rough map Dante drew for me. We need to go somewhere else with less security than Headquarters but would still have some of the equipment we might need.”
“What are you thinking we need?” Luke asked. He had his arms around Tina, holding her close.
“We need to be able to do a live feed to the entire city,” I said. “We need to let them know what’s going on.”
Maya shook her head as she bounced up and down where she stood. “We need proof. They’ll never believe us if we don’t have proof.”
“How do we prove we have the cure?” Tina asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I brought a sample of it with me, but even if we injected it into one of the sick patients, it takes days before you see results.”
Joshua looked at me. “We also have a very limited supply of the cure. Even if we convinced them, we couldn’t cure a lot of people.”
“They have medical supplies here, right?” Luke asked. “We have the formula, you just need the supplies. We can’t get back into River Springs, but there’s a good chance we can find what we need here.”
I sighed and stared up at the sky. “I don’t think they’ll have everything we need.”
“Why not?” Bruce asked.
“Dante said they were more into herbal medicine here,” I said. “They don’t have a lot of the drugs we had at Infinity Corp.” I rubbed my temples. “We need to focus on talking to everyone here. Once that’s done, we’ll figure out a way to convince them that we’re the good guys, and then hopefully convince them in joining us and raiding Infinity Corp to get the supplies.”
“So that takes us back to where do we go right now,” Tina said.
On the map, I pointed my finger at our destination. “The President’s home.” They all looked at me, most with their eyebrows raised in surprise. “If President Coleman is anything like President Randall, he’ll have a lot of equipment in his home. Whit wanted to make sure he could still run things and keep an eye on what happened in the city from his own home in the event something happened to Infinity Corp's Headquarters or he got stuck at home.”
Joshua nodded. “That’s right. He had his own version of Headquarters in a room connected to his bedroom.”
“We’re just going off of the hope that President Coleman will have the same in his home?” Tina asked.
“It’s all we have right now.” I looked down at the map. “According to this, President Coleman’s home is only a half-mile east of here. Let’s head that way. Everyone stay close together. Maya and I will lead, Bruce and Tina stay in the middle, and Joshua and Luke can take the back. Keep your eyes peeled for any movement. If you see a guard, kill him. We can’t have anyone know we’re here.”
When they all nodded at me, I put the map back in my pocket, took my bow from around my shoulder, and nocked an arrow so I would be ready.
We proceeded slowly, all on high alert. If someone caught us, we were all dead. I kept my bow up with my arrow nocked, ready to be released at any moment. It was eerily quiet as we approached the president’s home. Dante told me once that they had to be home every night by ten in their city. I glanced at my watch and it was only twenty past nine. Maybe they had changed their curfew to an earlier time with everything that had been happening in their city. Either that or they knew we were here and were waiting to ambush us. I really hoped it wasn’t the latter.
I didn’t realize I was holding my breath until it was almost gone. I slowly let it out as we crept closer. The home sat before us, but no one was outside. Motioning for everyone to stop, Maya and I split up, checking the perimeters to see if we could spot anyone. When we met back up, she shook her head and I did the same.
I huddled everyone together. “We’re
going in through the front door. Put your bows away and pull out your knives. Once we’re inside, we’ll be in close range of others, so knives will work better. If you come across a guard, kill them. Anyone else, we take them prisoner. Retrieve any belongings from the guards or prisoners and put them in your bag. Keep as quiet as you can.”
Bruce bounced a little, his eyes eager. “I need to … relieve myself.”
Maya rolled her eyes. “Be quick.”
“You want me to go out here?” Bruce asked. He looked over at me and Tina, blushing.
“We’re surrounded by a forest,” Luke said. “Just go a couple of trees away and do your thing.”
Bruce shook his head. “I’m not going alone.”
“I’ll go with you,” Joshua said. He put his hand on Bruce’s shoulder and steered him away from us. We waited in silence until they were back a minute later.
Bruce was all smiles. “I feel so much better.”
“Good.” As I spoke, I removed some of the foliage I had stuck in my clothes and hair. The face paint would unfortunately have to stay on for now. “Keep in a circle as we approach, with our backs facing each other. That way we can keep an eye all around us. Let’s move.”
We formed a circle and made our way to the door. I glanced around the area for any security device, but I couldn’t see anything. When I got to the door, I turned the knob slowly. I was surprised when it just opened. Either these were very trusting people, or we were walking into a trap.
I inched the door open and stepped inside. Darkness engulfed the room, so I pulled out my flashlight and held it with my left hand, as my right hand gripped my knife. Above us was a chandelier made from antlers. Something caught my eye and I turned my flashlight to my left and nearly screamed out in fear. Hanging on the wall was an elk’s head. Closing my eyes briefly, I took some deep breaths as I moved farther into the house. The door closed behind me.
When I looked to my right, I spotted a bear’s head on that wall. The president must have been a big fan of hunting. The ground felt soft, so I looked down, only to confirm his love of hunting. A bearskin rug.
Bruce let out a yelp. He must have noticed one of the two guests on the wall.
Maya stood to my left. “Should we split up?”
“Not yet,” I said. “Let’s keep together as long as we can.”
“What should we be looking for?” Tina asked from the right of me.
“A security room,” I said. “Let’s start on the first floor, right side. Everyone follow me.”
The right side of the house proved to be empty. So did the left. Everyone followed me up the stairs. When we got to the top, I noticed a light on down the right hall. I motioned for everyone to keep silent and follow me.
Light came from one of the rooms. I crept up to it and peered inside since the door was open just a crack. I saw two teenagers sitting on a bed, very deep in conversation. The boy looked to be around seventeen or eighteen, the girl around fifteen or sixteen. From the girl’s puffy eyes, she’d been crying.
They had a lot of the same features. Both had large, round brown eyes that fit their face perfectly. His black hair was cut close to his head, and her same shade of black hair hung to her shoulders, both gorgeous.
A picture of the two of them with their mom and dad sat in a wood frame on the nightstand. That must have been President Coleman and his wife, and the two teenagers sitting on the bed were his children.
The girl blew her nose into a tissue. “What do you think they’ll do to them?”
“I don’t know,” the boy said. His voice was soft and soothing. “We’ll just have to hope for the best.”
A new set of tears fell from the girl’s eyes. “Michael, I don’t think I’m strong enough.”
Michael took her hand in his. “You have to be. There’s nothing we can do.”
“Why can’t we stop them?” Her voice was sad and angry at the same time. “They’re going to hurt him. I just know it. Dad’s going to kill him.”
“We don’t know that,” Michael said. He didn’t look convinced of that. His gaze settled on the floor. “He may keep him alive.”
The girl pulled her hand away and stood. “No, he won’t. He hates Dante.” My body tensed at Dante’s name. “I’ve heard him say over and over again that he wanted Dante caught and killed.”
Michael ran his hand over his head. “I don’t know what to tell you, Zoe. Dad’s going to do whatever he wants and you or I can’t change his mind.”
“We need to go stop him!” Her voice went up an octave or two.
“We can’t!” Michael stood and went to Zoe. “There’s nothing you can do to save Dante.”
Zoe frowned. “But you just said …”
“I was trying to be nice,” Michael said.
“So, you do think he’ll kill him,” Zoe said, her voice a whisper.
Michael looked at Zoe for a moment before he spoke. “Dante’s not stepping out of Kingsland alive.”
She broke down in tears again and fell to the floor. Michael sulked back to the bed and sat down. “Why do you care so much, Zoe? Dante left us. He and his family abandoned the city. They’re traitors.”
Zoe looked up at Michael, her face appalled. “They’re not traitors! I know Dante and his family, and you should know them well enough, too! We grew up with them. They’re good people. And now he and Vivica are going to die for no reason.”
“People need to be punished for their crimes,” Michael said. It sounded like he was trying to convince himself of the fact.
“Not by death,” Zoe said. “They don’t deserve that. They deserve people to stand up for them and support them. How do you know that Dad hasn’t been feeding us lies?”
Michael sighed. “There’s no point in arguing. We’re two people. Dad has hundreds of security guards.” He moved toward the door, but she stopped him.
“Michael, I love him,” Zoe said.
Michael turned back to her. “Of course, you do. I love them, too. They’re like family to us.”
Zoe shook her head. “No, Michael, not like that. I love him.”
“Zoe, you’re only sixteen. You don’t know what love is. You just think you love him.”
“I know what I feel,” Zoe said. “I’ve known it for years. I’ve just never told anyone.”
They continued to talk, but I couldn’t concentrate. My head was trying to piece everything together. I turned and looked at everyone with me. Tina had been standing right next to me, so she heard everything I had.
She must have been able to read my expression because she shook her head. “No.”
“Yes.” I stared at her, keeping my gaze firm. “I’m taking the chance.”
Tina swore and Bruce turned to her. She smiled apologetically and then looked back at me. “It’s too risky, Emmie.”
In the room, Michael and Zoe were both sitting on the bed talking. They seemed to be on Dante’s side, not their dad’s. I could use that to my advantage. I removed my bow and quiver, handing them to Joshua. He took them reluctantly, his gaze going back and forth between me and Tina. She was still shaking her head.
“Can you please tell us what you’re thinking?” Luke asked. “We can’t read your mind as Tina can. Nor did we hear everything you did.”
“It’s the president’s daughter and son," I said. "I’m going in there."
Maya put her hand on my arm. “Are you crazy?”
“You’re just going to have to trust me.” I tucked my knife behind my back. “Keep watch out here. If this goes bad, make a run for it and hide somewhere.” Giving them a hopeful smile, I stepped into the room.
When I was six years old, Joshua and I played hide and seek in his father’s home. Over the years we found new rooms we’d never known existed and secret passageways that took us all over the home and Headquarters.
By ten, we knew the area inside and out. We used to listen in on meetings and would spy on the security detail. We even found out about Whit and Janice’s affair. At the ti
me, I felt so bad for Joshua. I could tell it genuinely upset him. I tried to cheer him up, but nothing worked. He finally came to accept it and moved on.
Listening in on all the meetings helped me gain a lot of knowledge. I hated how Whit ran the place and I could tell Joshua did, too. Whit was arrogant and self-centered. The only person Whit ever truly cared about was Janice, which crushed Joshua.
I also learned how much I disagreed with my dad. He was too loving and trusting. His nature and Whit’s nature should've balance each other out, but it didn’t. I wanted to find that balance. That was how you ran a city. Rules and guidelines were needed, but the people needed to be heard as well.
Over time, I noticed Joshua turn to my father more for advice. My dad treated him as if he were his son, too. At first, I didn’t care. Joshua needed a father figure in his life and his dad certainly wasn’t fulfilling that role. But after a while, I got jealous. Sometimes my dad would spend more time with Joshua and forget about me. He kept telling me that Joshua needed just as much attention as I did, but I was his son! I was the one he needed to focus on. Me. Not him.
I had never meant for it to go this far. But everything unraveled so quickly right before my eyes. I had to put a stop to it before it was out of my control. I took drastic measures, but they were necessary. Amber sometimes told me I was turning out to be like President Randall, but that was far from the truth. I didn’t want to be like him, and I never would.
Looking down at the city, I sighed. I’d never meant to hurt anyone. But I had these moments of rage I couldn’t manage. My dad tried to help me over the years. It hurt me to see him upset that I wasn’t improving, so I pretended my rage was under control, learning to hide it well. It lingered under my skin, waiting to boil over. One day it would eventually explode. I just couldn’t afford for that day to be soon. I needed more time.
With River Springs split and my plans to end New Haven put on the back burner, I turned to Kingsland. I didn’t want to seek help, but if I intended to win, I had to. It was easy enough to find someone there who would want to help. Dean did a little research into their city and found someone with a grudge against Dante and a sway on President Coleman.
Rise (New Haven Book 3) Page 7