The Force (Fighting Freedom Book 1)

by Paige Clendenin

  “Yes,” Gavin says. “They are going to kill out anyone who does not one hundred percent support them and their causes.”

  “How do you know that?” Eli asks, with an air of accusation.

  “Because, boy,” Gavin retorts, with an angry tone. “The Elected implanted members into The Force this year, what makes you think we can’t do the same?”

  Speechless, my brother nods.

  “We have five guys in there right now, feeding us information through ways of old. Ways that no one would think to use for getting information back and forth… telecommunication and Morse Code,” Gavin says.

  “All of your communications are non-traceable?” Samantha asks.

  “As of right now.” Gavin smiles.

  “So, how do we get to The Elected Headquarters?” Jake asks.

  Gavin gets up from the table and walks over to a shelf with parchment paper maps lining it. He selects the one he was looking for and carries it back to the table. He displays the map in front of Jake and I, pointing to one section and then another. “This is where we are right now,” he offers while fingering a circled section on the map. “We are in the north-eastern section of the South Corridor… Near what use to be called Florida.”

  “And where are we going?” Jake asks.

  “Here,” Gavin says as he points to a section in the East Corridor. “It’s about eight hundred miles from here.”

  “That’s close to where I came from,” I say.

  “That’s old Washington DC, isn’t it?” Samantha asks.

  Gavin nods as he rolls the map up and hands it to Jake.

  “Take it,” he says. “But be careful.”

  “Thanks Gavin,” Jake says.

  We all stand and start for the door.

  “You’re welcome… but before you go… tell me, why is this so important to you?”

  “Like I said, they have a few members of our family,” Mar says.

  “And I can’t sit back and watch them do what they are planning on doing,” Eli adds.

  “Okay.” Gavin nods.

  We all shake Gavin’s hand and head back towards the hatch. It’s been nearly forty-five minutes by my watch, and that doesn’t give us much time to get back to the truck.

  “Wait!” Gavin yells as he comes up behind us. “These kids The Elected have… did they leave in the Methrodine epidemic?”

  “Yeah,” I answer.

  “Were any of them non-responsive?” he asks.

  “My brother,” says Mar.

  “Come with me.”

  We follow Gavin back down the hall of sick kids. When we get to the center of the room, Gavin takes a book from the desk a nurse sits at.

  “Most of the non-responsive children were refused by The Elected and brought here,” he says. “Some of them have lived, and others have died. Feel free to look through this book to see if any of your family is here. If they are no longer living, there will be a red X by their name.”

  Gavin hands the book to Mar, and steps back. Mar looks at the book with gleaming tears in her eyes.

  “I can’t do it,” she says as she pushes the book into my arms. “You do it.”

  “Okay,” I say as I flip through the pages in the book.

  The whole group stands quietly in anticipation to see if any of our kids are documented. Mar is hugging Eli with a childish glint in her eye.

  Skimming my fingers over the endless names, some with an X by them, some without, I become worried that our family might be disappointed again.

  But, I’m wrong. There it is. The next to last name on the list… Zac Strong…

  No red X.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Moments pass by in utter disbelief. Is it possible? Could Zac be here, and alive?

  “Mar,” I say, with a smile. “He’s here.”

  “Where?”

  I look at the list again.

  “Bed M29.”

  I drop the book on the table as we help Mar begin her elated search for bed M29 and what we might find there.

  “Over here!” Samantha yells.

  Jake and Eli get to Samantha first, both of them looking into the hole where Zac is supposed to be. I get to the group next followed by Mar who also stand in disbelief.

  “Mar!” Zac squeals as he bounds from the bed, running to her.

  “He’s awake!” I shout with tears of joy.

  This time I allow myself to cry. Finding Zac is one more piece to putting our family back together and escaping The Elected.

  Mar cries too as she falls to her knees, dragging Zac with her.

  Seconds later, Gavin walks up to join us.

  “I’m taking him with me,” Mar demands.

  Gavin nods, while holding a backpack, and helping her to her feet. “We’re technically not allowed to do this, but he is better off with you guys. If The Elected raid again, they will take him because he is responsive.”

  “Thank you. What’s the backpack for?” Mar asks him, referring to the bag in Gavin‘s hand.

  “It’s what Zac will need to survive.” He opens the bag. “He’s only been responsive for a week or so. And gaining his strength every day.”

  Onto a nearby table, Gavin spills the contents of the bag. In it is a month’s supply of Methrodine, some antibiotics, a few jars of red-looking liquid, marked protein, and a bag with three pre-filled syringes with yellow liquid in them.

  “I trust you know how to use the Methrodine?” Gavin asks.

  “We have a nurse with us,” Jake says.

  “Good. You’re going to need one,” Gavin smiles. “These are antibiotics, tell the nurse he gets two a day… There are enough to last him five days.”

  “Okay,” Mar says.

  “Two more things,” Gavin adds. “This is liquid protein…” he says, as he holds up a jar. “It’s vile stuff, but will help anyone get their strength back… He only needs to drink a few tablespoons of the stuff every morning… Last,” he says as he puts down the jar, and picks up the bag of three syringes. “This is a new invention… DO NOT LET THE ELECTED GET AHOLD OF IT.” He looks Jake in the eye.

  “Okay,” Jake says, then he takes the bag from Gavin for closer inspection. “What is it?”

  “It’s called the defender. It’s a drug developed in our lab.”

  “What’s it do?” I ask.

  “If someone is unresponsive due to the Methrodine… this stuff may bring them out. It worked for Zac, and some of our others, but not all. If Zac has a relapse, give him one of these, and it may help.”

  “Do you have any more?” Eli asks.

  “No, sorry. That’s all we can spare.”

  We say goodbye to Gavin and thank him for taking care of Zac, then we head back up the spiral steps. We have been gone nearly an hour, so we need to run in order to get back to the others.

  Eli so graciously allows Zac to ride on his back. I take his backpack so things don’t get to heavy for him, and Mar hauls Zac’s bag as well as her own. The sun is bright in the morning’s sky now, so we know we could be seen at any moment.

  It would benefit us to take our time to sneak back through the dilapidated mess of a village, but time is not something we have on our hands.

  As excited as I am to have Zac back with us, I am that much more disappointed that Syl and Shae are still in the hands of The Elected.

  Back at the clearing where we left the truck, terror floods us all as we see that it no longer is parked there. “Maybe they moved it,” Jake says.

  “Or maybe they left us,” Samantha says, sarcastically.

  “I don’t think they would do that…” I say. “Come on, let’s go find them.”

  I take off, walking in the direction of the small dirt path. Mar and Samantha start walking as well. “Here,” Jake says. “Let me help.”

  Jake drops his backpack to the ground and takes Zac from Eli for a break. In one swift motion, Jake starts walking, and Eli picks up the backpack and joins him. What feels like a year ago, my brother and Jake were
fighting… now our group works as one, with no arguments and a true understand of what is important for each other.

  After an hour of walking down the dirt path, we still have not come across the old green truck, or any of our friends.

  “I think I can walk,” Zac offers.

  “You sure?” Jake asks.

  “Yeah,” he says as he slides off Jake’s back, and to the ground.

  “Okay,” Jake says, as he takes his backpack back from Eli and we continue our journey down the path.

  “Stop,” Samantha whispers.

  “What is it?” Eli asks.

  “There,” she says, as she points through the trees. “In the woods… Do you see that?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What do you see?” I ask.

  “I think its Magi walking in the woods, but I can’t be sure,” Samantha says.

  “I’ll go check it out,” Jake says.

  “I will go with you,” I say.

  He nods his head, and we both drop our bags to the dirt in front of our group who has stepped behind a cluster of trees for better concealment.

  “Be careful,” whispers Mar.

  I nod as I bring my gun a little closer to get into position, and Jake does the same.

  We inch into the woods, using the trees to conceal our location. Whoever it is, was heading back towards The Force Field.

  The closer we get, the more we can tell it’s a person, and they have stopped moving.

  I think they might have heard us.

  Jake and I get close enough to see that it is Magi, so we let our guard down a little, but not all the way. After all, Paul went bad, I would hope that Magi is who she says she is, but we can’t trust anyone.

  Jake steps out from behind the tree, standing five feet behind Magi.

  “What are you doing?” Jake says.

  Magi spins around, gun held high in the air.

  “Oh God… I almost shot you!” she yells.

  “Glad you didn’t,” Jake laughs.

  “What are you doing out here?” I ask, as I come out of hiding.

  “I had to move the truck… It’s parked in the woods about a mile that way,” she says, pointing in the opposite direction. “Derik pointed out two weird looking vehicles coming up to The Force Field, so, I moved the truck into the woods, so we wouldn’t be seen.”

  “Good idea,” I say. “I’ll go get the others.”

  I run back to the group and have them move further into the woods, after explaining to them what was going on. After a mile hike through the woods, we get back to the truck, where Leah is pleasantly responsive. She is still burnt, and a long way from recovery, but on the mend.

  We decide that we will camp out in the woods for the night and formulate a plan. We know our three-day deadline to get Morimoto back will be surpassed, but the war has already begun, and by now, Samuels and Cole must know we have made an escape.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Morimoto would have had to come to The Force by airplane. At least that’s what Jake and Samantha tell us. That is the only way he could have gotten back to The Elected headquarters within the three-day deadline. Although, it occurs to me that the deadline may have just been a lie to begin with. Something he thought he could say to scare us.

  We, on the other hand, are a good five days’ journey in this truck and that is only if we could stay on the main roads, not the dirt paths and field roads that we are forced to take. The problem that arises is that we are going to have to cross Corridors in order to get to old Washington DC, and that is something that does not happen unless you are an official from The Elected or The Force.

  Jake tells me that it takes some major clearance to get through the checkpoints. There is one large checkpoint at the border of the Corridors, not to mention the ten or so smaller ones that are spread out between here and there. Each of the smaller ones sometimes have guards and other times don’t.

  We know that it may take a long time to get to the girls, and it may even be a dead end. They may not have even taken the girls to headquarters, they may even have some other holding place somewhere that we don’t know about.

  That Gavin didn’t know about.

  At this point, we are on our way to The Elected Headquarters to get the girls back, but I feel it is going to become so much more than that. We are now several miles away from The Force complex, but by now they must be looking for us. We know that ten people dressed like we are crammed into a small pickup truck stands out like a neon light.

  “Oh man,” Jakes yells as he beats the steering wheel with his fist.

  “What is it?” I ask, franticly.

  It is then that I began to hear the clanking sound, followed by the truck coming to a halt.

  “Out of gas,” Jake groans.

  “And let me guess… you forgot to get more,” Samantha says, while jumping out of the bed of the truck.

  “I don’t think that gas was the first thing on my mind while running for our lives, Samantha,” Jake counters.

  “Well, we need a different form of transportation anyway,” Magi says. “Don’t get so upset, Sam.” Samantha growls, grabs her bag, out of the back of the truck, and props herself against a tree.

  “We’re on foot for now it looks like,” says Jake as he looks her sternly in the eye. “Let’s push the truck into the woods for tonight, and we will camp there. We need to formulate a plan anyway.”

  “Agree,” Derik says.

  “Yeah us too,” Eli offers up as both his and Mar’s votes.

  Derik, Eli, and Jake push the truck deep into the woods with Samantha at the wheel. She and Magi are the only others in our group that have ever driven a vehicle.

  Morimoto is being more or less dragged by Mar and myself with no gentleness at all. Shawn, Zac, and Leah were left in the bed of the truck, tended by Magi to help keep them as comfortable as possible.

  After settling in the woods, which seems to have become our home for the last couple days, Shawn, Zac, and Leah are placed on cots. Jake had a brilliant idea to make the cots out of wood and branches, and even suggested that we add handles to two of them so the sick can be easily hauled through the woods.

  “I think we need to tend to everyone before we take off in the morning,” Magi says, still being the nurse that she is.

  “I think you’re right,” Jake agrees. “Liz has been feeling the effects from a lack of Methrodine for a couple days now.”

  “I’m okay,” I say, even though I know that I’m not.

  “Yeah,” Magi says, ignoring my comment. “I have it mapped out that she, Eli, Derik, Leah, and Mar need their doses as soon as possible.”

  She looks at Jake.

  “I guess now is as good of a time as any to take care of that. Shawn and Zac need doses as well, but I have a question.”

  “What’s that?” replies Jake.

  “Can I try one of the defender shots on Shawn?”

  “Ummmmm,” I say, clearly interrupting the conversation, with great hesitation. “What if it doesn’t work?”

  “There is always that chance, Liz,” she says. “But I think he is going to die anyway. He is in bad shape, and we are only getting closer to danger… not further away from it.”

  “Yeah,” Jake somberly says. “I have been thinking about that too.”

  “It worked for me,” Zac offers us, sounding reassuring.

  “I know it did, bud, but Gavin told us that some of the kids didn’t do so well with it… some of them died Zacie’… you were one of the lucky ones,” Mar says, as she kisses her brother on the head.

  “Oh,” Zac says, as he looks at his feet. “I didn’t know.”

  “It’s ok, little man,” Eli says while mussing Zac’s hair. “I think it’s worth a try, though. I mean, I think we should take our chances.”

  Eli and Shawn have gotten close, like best friends. I know that he has confusion about all of this, just like I do, but if it will help him, so be it. If it doesn’t, he will most likely die anyways.r />
  “So, let me get this right,” Magi says. “Eli, Mar, Liz, Derik, and Leah are getting their monthly doses, correct?”

  “Sounds like it,” Jake confirms. “And Shawn and Zac need their weekly doses, which we probably need to try to wean them down to twice a month if we can.”

  “Okay, and we ARE giving Shawn the defender right?” I ask.

  “Does everyone agree?” my brother asks.

  We all say yes with great apprehension, but at this point, this is our only choice.

  “I think,” Magi says. “I am going to give some protein juice to Leah with her Methrodine, and doctor her burns again as well… maybe by tomorrow, she will feel strong enough to try to walk.”

  “That all sounds great,” Jake says, as the sun sets in the night sky.

  The next few ours go by in painful groans and periods of being awake and asleep. Just like the last time I took this nasty stuff, I feel pain and oddness course through my veins. I don’t know how anyone would want to do this just for fun, but what I have learned about the pre-mutated version of this drug, is that people use to take it to feel a rush… on purpose...

  My body and mind buzz with the activities of the past few days, and all I want to do is throw up.

  I don’t know whether it is the awful stuff that is playing tag with my veins or my overactive mind, but all I seem to be able to do in the moments between sleep and awake is think about what we are going to do with our friends bodies as they die off. One by one.

  I have it all dreamed out when it will happen, who is going to die first and even how.

  I, of course, will die last because I am sure to endure witnessing all of them die before me.

  I will watch Shawn die first. Sweet Shawn, who has held on to some kind of secret troubles he had at home. The Force became a kind of peace from the trial of home for him, but he will never be able to see the real peace.

  Then I will watch Magi, Leah, Derik, and Samantha pass in the most unpleasant way. Magi, who has given her life to help the children of The Force survive. Leah and Derik who were just another set of people from my Phase group that I didn’t get to know until I needed them, and then there is Samantha, who I wasn’t sure if I even liked at first. I’m still not sure at times, but for now, I have to remember, if it weren’t for her, Paul would have killed Jake.