The Force (Fighting Freedom Book 1)

by Paige Clendenin

  “Okay, on three we are going to throw the meat, then climb down fast. You have to keep up with me… Got it?” he asks sternly, looking me in the eye.

  “Yeah,” I try to say, but my throat has all of a sudden gone dry. Some form of the word comes out though and here we go.

  “One, Two, Three…” Jake whispers.

  Then he throws the meat and so do I. The dogs start to run in the direction of the meat, and Jake doesn’t even wait to see if they got to it.

  He starts to climb down as fast as he can, and I am right behind him.

  He jumps the last ten feet, then turns to help me… I don’t know that I need the help, but I take it anyway.

  I jump from about ten feet up, and he catches me before I hit the ground. He holds my arms with me facing him for a moment, as he looks at me.

  “You alright?” he asks, through short breaths.

  “Yeah,” I say.

  Then he takes off running in the opposite direction. He is tall and has been doing this for a long time. He is faster than me by far, but I try to keep pace right behind him.

  And then we hear the dogs, they have finished their meat and are running after us.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The dogs are coming up on us fast, but just ahead of me, I see Jake shoot off to the left.

  It’s almost two in the morning, and the only light that is present is the moon and the large beam light from the complex, but that is at least a mile behind us.

  It becomes harder and harder to see, the further from the complex that we get. I am staying as close to Jake that I can, so… I am able to see him when he turns, and I do the same.

  The sudden movement must throw the dogs off for just a second, because they slow their pace, but then they are right back to chasing us, barking with every step they take.

  Finally, I see what Jake is running for. Ahead of us is an old greenish looking vehicle that I have only seen in pictures. Its paint is peeling off and it looks ancient, maybe twenty or thirty years old.

  “Hurry,” he yells from ahead of me as he reaches the vehicle and slides across the hood of it before opening the driver side door and jumping in.

  I get to the vehicle and hop in the opposite door, slamming it behind me.

  All of a sudden, one of the dogs jumps up to the window, standing on its hind legs. It startles me, and I scream… Jake laughs.

  The dogs bark and scratch at the vehicle, peeling paint with every claw mark.

  Jake pulls out a key from his pants pocket and starts the engine. To my shock, the vehicle lurches forward, and after a moment, we start to move.

  We easily out run the dogs and are far away from them before we stop.

  “What is this thing?” I ask

  “It’s a pickup. Have you not ever seen a truck before?” He looks stunned. “It’s a Dodge Ram… one of the last ones made. I found it out back of the complex about three years ago, I worked on it, and got it running.”

  “No,” I say. “Remember, I lived in the R9 where there were no vehicles, except…” I stop talking and look down at my hands.

  “Except what?” He asks softly.

  “Except for the vehicles that came for us the day we were taken,” I say.

  “Oh… yeah, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” he looks up at me.

  “Yeah,” I say with a smile. “I was hoping that we could.

  “Sure, but we have a ways to drive before I can show you what I want to,” he says, looking ahead of the truck.

  We are in the middle of a field covered in overgrown grass as tall as the truck. In the middle of the field is a makeshift road. The path has been made by tires that have ran through the field on multiple occasions.

  I wonder how many times Jake has ran the path himself.

  The ruts make for rough riding, but I don’t mind. I know Jake is taking me somewhere important.

  I hold my breath at a part in the path that is full of rain water. I feel like we might get washed away if we go through it.

  We make it through, though. Mud flies every direction, splashing on the hood of the truck.

  “What, you scared?” he asks, laughing.

  “No,” I say, eyeing him out of the corner of my eye.

  I’m lying, of course.

  We drive at least two miles before Jake turns the truck’s headlights off. Then we drive yet another mile in the dark.

  He slows down to a crawl for the last part, and we come to a fence even higher than the first one.

  On the other side of the fence is what looks like a small community. Tiny houses clustered side by side in long rows.

  It’s dark, but I can see for a while, because there are lights on poles every twenty or thirty feet. They are dim and red, but bright enough to see the other side.

  The fence stretches all around the community with only one gate on the opposite end of it. This seems to be the only way in and out, but it’s closed… Locked.

  I can barely see it, but just on the outside of the gate is a small hut-like house with tiny figures walking around it.

  Guards, I‘m guessing.

  “What is this place?” I ask Jake.

  “It’s called The Force-Field,” he answers. “It’s a safe haven for those who can’t or don’t want to make it through the phases.”

  “Why keep them trapped in here like caged animals?” I ask, rather sternly.

  “It’s not intended to be a cage. The Force-Field was not developed until about twelve or thirteen years ago. We used to send those who didn’t make it through the phases back home, but somehow…” He pauses looking down, his voice lowers. “Somehow, The Elected found out who those people were, and they killed them and their families for having military training. They felt that even though they didn’t become fully phased members of The Force, they still posed a threat.”

  “Oh,” is all that I can say, because I am in shock.

  “Yeah, it’s pretty intense. I had a brother, about eight years older than me, when I was six, he was taken by The Force. My mother was devastated. We had just learned that my dad had died at work a year earlier, so all she had left was me, and…”

  “Wait a minute, I thought Cole was your dad?” I interrupt.

  “He is… just let me finish,” Jake says, holding up one hand.

  “Okay, sorry,” I say, looking down, embarrassed.

  “Anyway… my dad had been pronounced dead a year before, but we never got to see the body. Cole got taken… Cole was my brother’s name. And I guess he couldn’t make it through the phases, and he chose to come home. I remember it like it was yesterday. He just showed up at the front door one day, and my mother was ecstatic, it was great.”

  “What happened?”

  “Less than a week later…” Jake looks ahead of us at the fence. His voice breaks a little. “A group of armed members of The Elected rushed into our house and killed my mom and my brother… I hid, and they never found me.”

  “Oh, my Jake. That’s awful, I‘m so sorry,” I say as I lay my hand on his upper arm. He looks down at my hand.

  I don’t know why I did it, but I feel stupid so I take it away. He looks at his arm for a second before looking away.

  “I stayed in the house with their bodies for three days before these people from The Force showed up. A man walked in, and I knew from that moment, that he was my dad. I didn’t know how to feel about finding out he was alive… It was like seeing a ghost… He brought me to the complex, and I made it through the phases.” He pauses for a minute, looking around the small community.

  “I know this place seems like a cage, but it protects them from what happened to my family. It saves them from The Elected.”

  I hesitate for a moment before I say anything.

  “Well then… this place is a good place,” I say, letting him know that I understand.

  “I wanted to show you, because I know you are worried about the others with you. I wanted you to know…” He turns toward me and slides his arm acro
ss the back of the seat.

  “I wanted you to know that they would be safe, if they can’t make it through the phases. It’s hard to make it through, but I will make sure they are protected if they don’t… I promise.”

  The ride back to the complex is quiet. I spend most of the time thinking about Cole, he was only fourteen when he was killed, that was thirteen years ago.

  I think about Shae, Syl, and Zac, and how young they are, I would die if something happened to them.

  Jake did promise that he would make sure they are safe, and that means a lot to me.

  The dogs are gone by the time we park the truck and hike the mile back to the fence. I am reluctant to climb, because I am so tired physically and mentally from the weight of the things that I’ve learned tonight.

  After we heft ourselves over the fence and back down the other side, we walk to the door of the complex. The one that we came out of.

  We stop just short of going inside.

  “Is there anything else that you want to know from me tonight?” Jake whispers, as he leans against the brick wall of the complex.

  “Yeah… I guess you picked Cole as a last name because of your brother?” I ask hesitantly.

  “Yeah,” he says, scratching at the back of his neck. “Well,” he continues. “My dad picked the last name for us, but I don’t use it. I want to remember my brother through memories, not the use of his name.”

  “What is your real name, then?” I ask, but after the words leave my lips, I feel like I have invaded his privacy.

  He looks stunned at my question, but then he leans in close, his lips almost touching my ear.

  “Maybe… if I decide to keep you around, I’ll tell you one day. For right now, it‘s just Jake,” he says with a wicked little laugh.

  I feel him smile against my ear, then he pulls away.

  “Come on you, let’s get you back,” he says, as he opens the door and walks inside.

  Chapter Fourteen

  I crawl into bed at 5:45a.m. I know the alarm will be going off in forty-five minutes, and even though my head buzzes with information, sleep overwhelms me.

  The beeping of my watch wakes me what feels like the very second after I closed my eyes, but the sun is shining, and it is 6:30a.m.

  I crawl out of bed and try to get oriented.

  Everyone is getting dressed, but I so desperately need a shower, so I collect my things and head to the bathroom.

  I place my necklace in my trunk to make sure no one sees me take it off in the showers. Before I let it sink to the bottom of the trunk, I rub it with my thumb and smile, and then I let it fall. I continue to wonder how long it will be to achieve all the things that are thought of as possible.

  Although, deep down, I have the sinking suspicion that something bad is going to happen. I cant put my finger on it, but it is there nonetheless.

  I am the only one walking the halls. Normally everyone waits until evening to shower, but I am so sticky with sweat from last night’s events that I can’t go a second longer.

  I walk into the bathroom and head to the showers, but from the corner of my eye, I see movement.

  I turn around about the time someone grabs me and pulls me through the curtain that divides the room. I drop my stuff and start to scream, but a hand covers my mouth, as an arm slings across my throat.

  With a thud, I hit the block wall hard.

  I make a groaning noise and try to get loose, clawing at the arm that holds me there. My movement just makes the arm press tighter against my throat, making it even harder to breath.

  “Shut up. Where were you last night?” Malachi hisses.

  I kick him in the groin, and he flails backward, but it doesn’t stun him for long. I start to run, but he grabs my wrists, slamming me back against the wall.

  “Where were you, l said,” he hisses the words at me like the snake that he is.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say, still struggling to break free.

  “You left with Jake, I saw you, and what were you doing with him?” He spit’s the words with anger.

  “I… I,” I start to say something, but no words come out.

  “Is he training you?” Malachi yells at me. “Or is there something else going on between you two?” he says with a smile.

  “None of your business,” I yell, and he punches me in the side of the face.

  I scream through the pain.

  Just then, Shawn and Eli walk into the bathroom. They both stand there for a few seconds with stunned looks on their faces.

  “Hey,” Eli yells, running our way. “Let her go.”

  Eli slams into Malachi like a steam engine, causing all three of us to fall to the ground. Shawn runs to me, wrapping his arms around me, pulling me off the ground, and away from the fight.

  He lets me go when I am a good five feet away and runs back to the huddle.

  I am still sputtering to get my breath.

  Eli is sitting on top of Malachi, punching him in the face over and over. Shawn grabs Eli from under his arms and pulls him off of him.

  “Come on man, you’re gonna kill him,” Shawn yells, as he hauls my brother away.

  Malachi takes a few seconds to get to his feet, but he grabs Shawn from behind.

  “You fight your own fights… sissy,” then he punches Shawn in the nose.

  This time, Shawn tackles Malachi, throwing him against the wall. And he gets two or three punches in before my brother grabs him and pulls him back.

  “I would say that you are the sissy. You know with threatening girls and all,” Shawn says calmly, with a smile of pleasure on his face.

  Jake walks in, and stands there staring at the four of us, looking as surprised as Eli and Shawn did at first.

  “What’s going on here?” he demands.

  “I’ll tell you what’s going on here,” Eli says, through clamped teeth, glaring at Malachi. “We caught him with my sister pinned against the wall, that’s what’s going on here.”

  “Oh, really?” Jake says, looking at Malachi. “I think you better come with me.”

  “I don’t think so,” Malachi says, with a devious grin.

  “You really don’t have a choice,” Jake says.

  He’s beyond mad.

  “We do this one of two ways,” he continues. “One, you come with me under your own power, or two, I haul you out of here unconscious… I don’t have a preference.”

  He stands there looking stern, cracking his knuckles.

  “Okay, okay,” Malachi says. “You don’t have to get so dramatic.”

  Jake doesn’t say anything, he just grabs Malachi’s arm and pushes him towards the door.

  “You guys take a while to cool down, I’ll be back in a minute,” Jake says as he shoves Malachi through the door.

  “Are you ok?” Eli asks, as he hugs me.

  “Yeah… Are you guys?”

  “Yeah, we’ll be fine,” Shawn says, as he holds a paper towel to his bloody nose. “As long as you’re alright, we are.”

  “I’m fine,” I say.

  Then I turn to look in the mirror. My jaw is purple and so is my neck where Malachi had his arm across it. It looks like a bar slammed into my throat and stayed there for a long time, my head hurts to, where it hit the wall.

  I half expect there to be blood back there, but when I feel it, all I feel is a large knot.

  “What was he going to do?” Eli asks quietly.

  “I don’t know,” I say. “I was heading to the shower when he grabbed me from behind the curtain and started choking me.”

  “Do you think it was just a phase thing, Liz?” he looks away. “Or was he going to do something else?”

  “I think it was just a phase thing,” I say shyly.

  “Good,” he says, looking relieved. “I hate to think that he had other things in mind, but if Shawn and I hadn’t come when we did, something worse might have happened.”

  I know what the something else is that he is referring to, and I
don’t think that was the case. On the other hand, I don’t want to tell them about me going with Jake yet, so I leave that part out.

  A few minutes later, Jake walks back in.

  “You guys alright?” he asks.

  “I think so,” Shawn says, still pinching his nose.

  “You should tilt your head back, that will make the bleeding stop,” Jake says.

  “Thanks,” Shawn says, tilting his head up towards the ceiling.

  “You better get to the training hall… its 7:15, but I told Samantha what happened. She is expecting you two,” he points to Shawn and Eli. “I think Liz better stay with me for a little while.”

  Eli looks at him suspiciously for a few seconds.

  “I have to get a statement from her, if Malachi is to get reprimanded for his actions,” Jake says, trying to tame the brotherly suspicion Eli is having at the moment.

  Eli nods,

  “I’m sorry this happened,” Shawn says, with a hand on my back.

  He pats it a few times and then he and Eli walk out of the bathroom, leaving Jake and I standing there.

  A few seconds later, Jake guides me out of the bathroom and down the hall.

  “I don’t have to get a statement, I just said that to get rid of them,” Jake says with a small laugh.

  “I didn’t think so,” I say, but my voice sounds weak and scratchy.

  I try to smile too, but it hurts to bad, so I just look at him endearing.

  He walks me down the hall and into a room with a beat-up old couch and a desk with a chair at it.

  The couch is rust red, and the desk is covered in papers. In the corner of the room is a large American flag propped against the wall. It smells like sweat and must, but so does most of the complex.

  “This is my office,” Jake says.

  “I see,” I croak

  “Sit down,” he says as he walks me over to the couch.

  I sit down and he just stands there looking at me.

  “What?” I say.

  “Are you ok? I mean really ok?” he asks, as he crosses in front of me, pulling the chair away from the desk.

  He sits in it, just a foot in front of me, looking me in the eye.