The Force (Fighting Freedom Book 1)

by Paige Clendenin

  “I think so,” I say. “But it’s still hard to talk.”

  He just sits there for a minute with his arms resting on his knees and his head lowered.

  “What happened?” he finally asks.

  I think he is thinking the same thing Eli was.

  “I guess Malachi saw me leave with you last night and got suspicious,” I whisper.

  “I see,” he says, while still looking down. “Is that all?”

  I can tell that his eyebrows are furrowed, and he keeps running his fingers just above them like he has a headache.

  “Yes,” I whisper.

  Finally, he looks up at me with a serious expression on his face, almost intense. Then, he starts to lean forward in his chair.

  I hold my breath for a moment, because I don’t know what he is going to do, but then he lifts his hand, letting it hover in the air just in front of me.

  I exhale, and he allows his hand to slowly inch towards me, and finally he touches my neck. He lets his fingers run across my throat, in all the places I am bruised, even my cheek where Malachi punched me.

  At first it feels awkward, like a dream, but I allow it to happen, even though this is the first time someone has touched me like this. He fits his whole hand across my jaw, slipping his fingers behind my ear. I let my head rest in the palm of his hand, thankful for the relief I feel. His hand feels warm, and the heat feels good where my pains are.

  We just sit, looking into each other’s eyes, and I let the dark green of his take me over, and for a second I forget about the events of the past hour.

  “You really should be more careful,” he finally says softly, as he pulls his hand away gently.

  “I know,” I say. “I thought I was being careful.”

  My body is still buzzing, even with the absence of his hand. I could have stayed in that moment for ever, and been ok with it, just staring into his eyes, resting my head in his hand.

  “I don’t want to see you get hurt,” he whispers.

  “I won‘t,” I say, but I‘m not sure I believe it.

  “Okay,” he says, softly, but I‘m not sure he believes me either.

  “We better get to boot camp before they think we ran away,” he says, with a laugh.

  We both get up and walk out of the room. I take note of where his office is, just in case I need to find him later on.

  We stand outside a set of double doors where I’m guessing boot camp is.

  “You’ll do just fine in here,” he says, as he touches my shoulder.

  Then we walk through the doors, as I remember, that I never got my shower. And I feel naked without my necklace.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Inside this huge room is an array of what looks like a way of torturing us.

  There is a wall of net to my left, about twenty feet tall, connected to the floor and ceiling. It has a rope ladder attached to it that goes above my head. It stretches to a brick wall of the same height with pegs sticking out of one side of it.

  There is a pit in the middle of the floor to the side of the brick wall, with a rope hanging over it.

  I don’t want to know what is in the pit.

  Across the room is a low net of what looks like thorns. It hovers over the floor about two or three feet.

  To my right is a cluster of large rubber rings in an alternating pattern. The wall to the side of the rubber rings is covered in various looking rocks that seem to be sticking out of the block at different heights and widths. Hanging on the ceiling above the rock wall are what look like bells that hang about six feet apart. There are five of them.

  There are also other things in the room that look just as hideous.

  All around the room, there is a walking track about ten feet wide… I guess it could also be for running. On the track in front of the rock wall is a white line with the word LAP written above it.

  Jake continues to lead me across the room to another door.

  “Is this place boot camp?” I ask as I look behind me at all the contraptions.

  “Yup,” is all that he says as he looks at me and smiles.

  We walk into the next room where the rest of my group sits in a large semi-circle on the floor around Samantha.

  Malachi is nowhere to be found, and a smile crosses my face.

  “Ah, Liz… nice of you to join us,” Samantha says, with an evil grin.

  Everyone looks at me, and my face suddenly feels hot.

  “Hey,” Jake says. “Don’t start, she’s had a rough morning.”

  “Whatever,” Samantha says, rolling her eyes. “Have a seat, Liz.”

  Jake walks over to the far end of the room, behind Samantha, and leans against the wall, crossing his arms.

  I find an empty spot next to Mar, and plop down beside her. As I hit the ground, pain shoots in the back of my head, and down my neck.

  I try not to allow the pain to show on my face, but I know I’m not doing a very good job at it.

  “You okay?” Mar whispers.

  I nod. I know I’m not doing great, but I don’t want her to worry about me.

  “Anyways,” Samantha begins, sounding annoyed. “I guess… I will give an update for those of you… who were late,” she glairs at me.

  “Sam.” Jake says, sternly, getting onto her again.

  I wonder how often this happened before I showed up. “Do you want to do the talking, Jake? Oh… and I thought I told you I hate it when you call me Sam.” Samantha spit’s the words at him.

  “I know, and no, you’re doing just fine on your own,” he says, as he smiles at her.

  She turns back to us with a huff, and continues talking, with no further interruption.

  “You will be going through boot camp for the next three weeks. For the first few days, you will be going it alone, but after that ,we will introduce first, a gun, then a backpack that weighs fifty pounds.”

  You can hear the moans resonating through the group.

  “If,” she continues. “at the end of three weeks we feel you are ready to move on, you will leave boot camp and go to basic training. There, you will learn how to unload, re-load, put together, take apart, and properly shoot a gun. Any questions?”

  “Yeah,” Levi says. “If someone doesn’t make it through boot camp… what happens to them?”

  “If someone doesn’t make it through boot camp,” Samantha hesitates, “that person will be stripped of whatever phases they have managed to make it through, and either be given the chance to start again with the younger kids, or… be out of The Force all together.”

  He looks at her for a second.

  “What happens if you leave The Force?” Levi asks.

  “I guess you will find that out when you fail boot camp,” Jake says, as he walks across the room to where Samantha is standing. You can tell that he really doesn’t like Levi.

  “Any more questions?”

  No one says another word, I think they are kind of intimidated by Jake.

  “Good.” Jake says. “We will be going through boot camp with you for a couple of days to show you how it’s done. Then, we will supervise you from then on out.” He starts to walk towards the door. “Follow me.”

  We all get up and follow Jake and Samantha through the door and back into the boot camp room. Someone shoves into me and I turn around to see who it is. Levi is smiling at me mischievously. I choose to ignore him. I am tired already by the lack of sleep I got last night, from me getting choked half to death this morning, and from the mental anguish I am feeling at the moment, just from looking around the room.

  They lead us over to the LAP line on the track between the rubber rings and the rock wall, then we stop.

  “Make sure your boots are laced and double knotted,” Jake says in a commanding way. “Four trips around is a mile. Today we will be doing sixteen laps… do the math… Keep up, or you won’t phase up,” he says, and then he turns and starts running the track that travels around the room.

  I am the first to take off after him, and I know
from last night that I can just about keep up with him, but after all that has happened today, I don’t think I can do it for four miles.

  The first seven laps I do just fine. The only ones who have passed me are Eli, Shawn, and Samantha, and it took them three trips around to do that.

  I don’t even know where Mar is, but I know if I look behind me, I might lose my balance, so, I keep looking ahead.

  Most of the time, I’m looking at Jake’s back like I did when we were running toward the truck, and that helps me keep focused.

  I feel bad when we start to lap some of the slower runners. The heavy-set boy I saw on the first day, I believe his name is Chris, is at the back of the pack.

  There are a couple others that we pass a little further up. Another boy and girl I don’t recognize, and Mar.

  “Come on Mar, you can do it,” I say to her as I pass her up.

  She looks at me with a weak smile and nods her head to say thank you.

  We only have two laps left when I feel someone coming up behind me quick. They don’t pass me. For the longest time, they just run behind me, staying on my heels for almost an entire lap.

  I try to scoot over so they can pass, but they don’t, they scoot over too, staying directly behind me.

  “What’s the matter? Can’t out-run me?” Levi says through hot breaths to the back of my neck.

  Shivers go down my spine, and I feel like I am running from the dogs all over again. I refuse to let him get the best of me. He and Malachi just want to shake me, and I am un-shakable.

  He seems to keep up with me, no matter what I do.

  I think that if I could catch up to Jake, Eli, or even Shawn that I could at least have their protection, but they are far ahead of me, and I can’t rely on their help the rest of my life.

  When we reach the rock wall, I know I will only have one lap left, maybe I can out run him for that long.

  Levi starts to pass me, and I think that for now, the antagonizing might be over, but I am wrong. He keeps pace with me until we start to pass the LAP line.

  When we reach about the middle of the wall, he shoves me, and at the speed I am running, I go crashing into it, hitting the side of my face and my ribcage to the rocks…hard.

  Levi laughs as he keeps running.

  A noise escapes me that is loud, it echoes all around me. I lose my breath and fall to the ground. Pain fills my body, from my jaw, to my tailbone. I know I am hurt, but I can’t let Levi get the satisfaction.

  I notice that from far ahead of me, Jake, Eli, and Shawn have turned around to see where the sound came from.

  Now they all three are running my direction.

  I know I can’t need their help, I have to do this on my own.

  Using the rocks on the wall, I pull myself up to a standing position. With every step I take, I groan through gritted teeth, the pain is almost more than I can bare.

  I start down the track, limping every time pain goes through my ribcage. Blood is dripping down the side of my face and down my neck. I reach up and wipe it away.

  The boys just stand there looking at me as I limp past them, and I hold up a bloody hand to them.

  “I have to finish,” I squeak.

  “No, you don’t,” Eli demands.

  “You made it this far,” Shawn says, trying to encourage me. “You’ve done well, you don’t have to finish.”

  I don’t answer him, I just keep limping down the track, and they start walking beside me.

  “Come on, Liz,” Eli says. “Stop.”

  “Don’t,” Jake says quietly. “She has to finish, I get it.”

  They don’t say anything else, just walk beside me as I try not to pass out from the pain.

  I can see from up ahead, that Levi is glaring at me from the finish line. His arms are crossed in front of him, and his face is turned into some kind of angry contortion.

  I don’t even know how he gets it to look that way, but I smile inside, knowing that I made him look like that.

  By now, Mar has caught up to us, and she just walks beside us, not saying a word, not touching me.

  My breaths are becoming shorter, and all I want to do is lay down.

  I wipe my blood-soaked face again, trying to get rid of the wet feeling. By now, it is covering my shoulder, making my green shirt look brown.

  “Come on, Liz.” Jake whispers from beside me. “You can do it.”

  His words cause me to even my breaths and give me the extra will needed to continue.

  It must take me twenty minutes to hobble the last lap, but I finish. The second I cross the line, I allow myself to give into the pain.

  The world is spinning around me, causing the people to lunge in various directions.

  “You did that on purpose.” Mar screams, as she approaches Levi. “I saw the whole thing.”

  “What are you talking about?” Levi says, casually.

  “I saw you too,” Chris says. “You shoved Liz against the rock wall when you ran past her.”

  “I did no such thing,” Levi says in the same cool voice.

  “I guess the cameras will tell us the truth then,” Samantha says angrily.

  This is the first time that Samantha has stood up for me. My head spins even faster, and I’m not sure how I am standing under my own power at this point. My vision goes fuzzy with black specks flying all around, and the voices sound muffled.

  “She looks bad guys,” Shawn says, sounding worried. I can feel Eli and Jake take either side of me and walk me out of the room, Shawn and Mar are fallowing us. I can still hear arguing going on in the room behind me, mostly Samantha and Levi, but it sounds like it is coming from so far away.

  I can no longer walk, and I feel myself slipping away. I know I am about to go out.

  My vision goes completely black, and voices are lost to me. Someone is carrying me now, and I rest my head against them, and then…nothing.

  Chapter Sixteen

  I wake up on a cot, in a little room. I know where I am, though, this looks just like the room Shae and Syl were in when they got attacked. I try to look around, but I can‘t really move my head. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see that the cot next to me is empty, and the table between them has nothing on it but a small lamp.

  Then I see Eli sitting on the end of my bed… he looks worried. I try to talk to him, but my voice is gone, so I move my foot, and that gets his attention.

  “Oh, thank God, you’re awake.” he says, looking relieved. “I thought you might have had a concussion.”

  I try to shake my head, but it hurts.

  “Don’t move if it hurts.” he whispers.

  He looks at me a moment, still looking like he has just received the best news ever.

  “Where’s Shae?” I get out, but it sounds like whispers of a different language entirely.

  “Everyone was here earlier, but they went to eat and get some rest,” he turns his watch around, and looks at it. “It’s nine, though… visiting hours are over, so I have to leave for the night, but I’ll be back as soon as I can tomorrow. Probably after boot camp.”

  I try to nod, but that doesn’t work well either. He stands up and kisses me on the top of the head, and then walks towards the door as Magi comes in.

  “Take care of her,” he says, as he passes her.

  “I will,” she says.

  And then he’s gone.

  Magi walks over to me and puts her hand to my head.

  “No fever… that’s good,” she smiles.

  I try to smile back, but even that is difficult. I think she knows that I tried, because her smile widens.

  “I have something for you.”

  She reaches into her pocket and takes out a vial and syringe.

  “Pain medicine,” she says. “It’ll help you sleep too, which is what you need.”

  She pulls some medications out of the vile using the needle of the syringe, then she takes an antiseptic wipe out of her other pocket and uses it on my upper arm.

  “This will on
ly sting for a minute,” she says, then she sticks the needle into the fatty part of my arm, and pushes the plunger, letting the liquid flow through my body. “I’ll check on you in a little while,” she says, as she grabs the trash off my bed, and walks out of the room.

  I am alone, and heat rushes through my body, making me feel funny. I feel warmth in the back of my neck, and it runs slowly down me until it hits my toes. I feel like giggling with happiness because of the relief from pain that I have at the moment. I find myself trying to think over the events of the day. I feel like I’m floating. I remember Malachi in the bathroom, and Levi in boot camp, and butterflies and flowers in the field, and dandy-lions, and polly-wogy frogies, and… I’m sleepy.

  I wake with a start. I don’t know how long I have been asleep, but the room is dark, and I am covered up the rest of the way.

  My pain is coming back, and I am so thirsty.

  I look to the table beside me, and a white cup is sitting there with a straw sticking out of it.

  I try to sit, but my ribs hurt as I try to pull myself up. I lose my breath with every move I make, and even though I am making some progress, the cup still seems miles away.

  I push my back against the wall trying to use it to help me sit up, but it’s no use, I am half leaning against it, and half sliding down it.

  I wish so badly my mother could be there with me. if only I would have the necklace on, that would make me feel better. It is still sitting at the bottom of my trunk from where I had put it before my shower. I blame this all on Malachi.

  I let out a frustrating growl.

  “Need some help?” a groggy voice calls out through the darkness.

  The lamp comes on and I see Jake getting up from the cot next to me. Before I can answer, he grabs the cup and puts the straw to my lips. The water is cool and refreshing.

  “Thank you,” I say, weakly. “How long have you been here?”

  “Since ten,” he says.

  “What time is it?”

  He looks at his watch.

  “It’s 2:36 in the morning.”

  He is wearing a pair of green shorts and a brown t-shirt. His hair is messed up, probably from sleep. He looks much different than I am used to seeing him.