by Shelly Crane
Wait… There had to be a back-up somewhere. They always had back-ups or main control panels for places like this. We just had to find it. I could see under the wooden steps as we lay out there. There was no basement, it was a crawl space. "Where's the radio line map?"
Daniel pulled it from his pocket. "I don't know what you'll get from it now."
I snatched it from him and laid it out flat. It showed where all the hard lines went directly into the building. Aha! There was a control box under the building. A failsafe in case of fire or building repairs. This way the lines were safe no matter what happened. And we had to get to them.
I got up and ran to the edge of and looked under the building. There was a ton of water under there. From all the melted snow that hadn't evaporated away yet, I guessed. I could see the electrical box where all the lines ran to and knew there were switches inside it that controlled everything, the online connection being the main thing we needed.
I started to go in, but Daniel jerked me back and pointed at the ground. There was a spark as the wires from the above floor hung and touched the water. Great. "I'll just go around them," I told him and tried to go again, but he grabbed my shoulder.
"No," he said slowly and gulped as he looked at everything. "You'd never make it. Once you flip that switch, all the wires will be live, not just that one."
I winced. Crap he was right. "Well, it has to be done," I told him and nodded. It had to be done. The fact that I might not make it didn't matter. We had to give them a fighting chance to send that broadcast. It was the only way we'd have a real chance at winning the war. "I'll go." I looked over at him and nodded. "I know I probably won't make it, but I have to go." I looked back at the mine field I was about to enter.
"No, you can't. Lillian will be upset."
I smiled. "Lillian will be alive and have a chance to live a normal life. If I didn't do this and selfishly just went home without even trying, I'd never forgive myself. Tell her…" I tried to think of something poetic, something beautiful that would convey everything I wanted her to know, but nothing of the sort came, just, "Tell her that I loved her with my last breath."
He sighed and I took that as all the agreement as I was going to get from him. I nodded to him and tried not to think about the possibilities he must have had running through his head right then. "Take care of her, all right." I said it as a command, not a request.
I didn't wait for an answer. I lowered myself to crawl through, but he stopped me once more. I jerked up, irritated. "What?" I barked.
"I know you love her and that's the only reason I'm doing this. This doesn't change my hate for you, this is for Lillian."
"What is?"
And before I could react, he cold-cocked me right in the jaw. I went down and blinked just in time to see him crawling through. That bastard! I sat up and yelled something at him, but was so anxious about him making it to the box, I couldn't even remember what I said.
He barely skated past the live wire and the support beam without being fried. He reached the box and lay on his back as he looked it over. He yelled, "There's so many lines connecting to the box. They aren't marked."
I cursed again. "What color are they?"
"Most are white, but one's red."
I thought hard. "Red would be my guess."
He looked over at me. He was lying in a large puddle that couldn't be avoided to reach the box. I had a bad feeling, but it got worse when he smiled. "In another life, we might've been friends."
"Maybe," I mused. "If you weren't trying to steal my girl, you wouldn't be so bad."
"I'm not sorry I kissed her."
"I didn't expect you to be."
"But I am sorry that my time is over." I frowned. "I would have loved to have gotten to be a real human."
"Come on, man. Stop talking like you're not crawling outta there."
"I'm not. This is the vision I saw." He took a deep breath, laying his head back for a few seconds before lifting it back up. "Tell Lillian she doesn’t have to be sorry that she couldn't love me. I know she'll be in good hands."
"What… I don't know what-"
"Goodbye, Cain." And then he flipped the red wire switch.
Everything sparked and lit up. I gasped as I fell back and watched as the water sizzled for long minutes. Then it quieted and I could see through the haze. Daniel was lying there, motionless. How had he known that was going to happen? He…saved me by punching my jaw.
I wanted to go and see if he was alive, but saw the smoke coming off his boot. I knew he was gone, but I still called out his name anyway. When he didn't answer, I got up and ran to the Gremlin.
I sat in my seat in a slump, letting my head rest against the steering wheel. That just happened. Daniel, the Lighter who hated my guts, saved me. He could have let me go and I'd have died instead. He knew he was going to die and…he still did it.
And he told me that I had to make it back as quickly as possible to help…with the war. Then something was going down soon.
I sat up, jerked the car into gear and pressed the gas as hard as it would go.
His sacrifice wouldn't go unnoticed. I'd tell everyone about the Lighter who risked his life to save the humans. The Lighter who won us this war.
This Is Our Town
Chapter 28
Merrick
"I didn't bring them here," Chesser said pleadingly and then winced when one of the Enforcers bumped him in the head with the butt of his gun.
"Shut it."
"Well, what have we here?" the Lighter in front spouted and smiled halfway.
Sherry's hands on my back tensed. She peeked around my shoulder and before I could say anything she told him, "We were trying to see if you have anything to steal. You're kinda starving us, you know."
I felt my eyes bulge. What was she doing?
"Oh, it's obvious you're a bunch of thieves. Hungry thieves at that," he said and chuckled. "All skin and bones covering that pretty body of yours."
I tightened in anticipation of slamming my fist into his face. Sherry's arm squeezed mine. She was trying to tell me something, but I wasn't getting the message.
"Well, I guess we can leave now. Nothing was stolen, so no harm no foul, right?" she ventured and smiled.
"Not exactly, pretty one." He grinned evilly. "You broke our door, public property." I was so glad that Ellie was with us. This whole conversation would be going differently if he knew two Keepers and a…whatever Ellie was, was right there.
"We don’t have any money," Sherry told him.
"Let's go," he ordered and ticked his head to the door. "Breaking and entering gets you a night in our nice county jail, run by Enforcers of course."
I kept Sherry right behind me the whole time as they herded us out. It was then that I realized what Sherry had been trying to do. They were taking us outside and completely oblivious to the video tape we had planted. Even if…we didn't make it, at least the tape would play tomorrow morning.
We followed them outside to a van they had waiting for us. I wasn't going to any enforcement facility and neither was Sherry. I'd die first. They opened the door and I saw Miguel getting ready to start swinging. But then one of the Lighters to the front of the van jerked and turned to his co-workers. Marissa slipped back from the front of the van just as the man jammed the butt of his rifle into the other man's face. Blood gushed as the man went down. Then the Marissa-compelled gunman went for another one, but he didn't get him before the Lighter took his head in his hands and broke his neck. He fell to the ground along with his comrade.
He turned and Miguel was ready. I pushed Sherry back a little and met Miguel just as he tried to stake him. The Lighter was ready for Miguel though, but he wasn't ready for me. He backhanded Miguel, but I got my stake deep in his gut. I flinched back from the lightning and knew we needed to get out of there soon. Ryan quickly put the other Enforcer in the sleeper hold and threw him to the ground indignantly.
All right, we really needed to get out of there. The
others would have seen the Lightning and known what it meant. Marissa and Jeff came around the van and he barked basically the same thing. I turned to grab Sherry, but she was gone. I did a quick circle to find her and saw her little head bouncing as she walked between the cars. I blurred to her and started to ask what she was doing, but she picked up a can of black spray paint under the graffiti at the side of the club.
She smiled softly at me and then walked down the wall to the street. I followed closely behind and watched as she gazed up at the town sign, 'Welcome To Effingham, Illinois'.
I felt the others at my back and turned to Miguel. He had a curious look on his face. Sherry turned to me. "Lift me, babe."
I didn't ask why, I just did it. I hoisted her up easily to sit on my right shoulder and watched as she shook the can and sprayed it, her arm moving and swinging with the motion. I couldn't see what she wrote, but when she stopped, I lowered her back to my side and we all looked at it with a reverence I felt pulsing through us all. She had written over some of the words.
The sign now read, "Welcome To Our Town".
"Looks good," Chesser said and crossed his arms. "Sounds like a country song."
Everyone laughed behind us. I looked down at her and she looked up at me. We both smiled at the same time. "Let's go home," she said. "Let's go wait and see if all this was worth it."
So I picked her hand up in mine and we all walked back to the van.
"You'll need to come home with us. You know that right?" I looked at each of Chesser's men. "You're all welcome."
"Well," he said and sucked air through his teeth. "I'm not sure we could go home again, so I guess we've got no choice but to take you up on your offer."
The others agreed vigorously.
As soon as we were pulling out of one side of the parking lot, another van was pulling in on the other. I had no doubts it was the Lighters and Enforcers and we had dodged a major bullet. But the ride home was uneventful and as soon as we pulled in, it was apparent our night of anxiety had been for a good cause. We did it and now, just needed to wait to see if the tape played or not.
"I just don't get it, I guess," one of Chesser's men said.
"Get what?" Chesser asked him and looked around at the dilapidated warehouse.
"I just don't get this compulsion thing." We parked the van under the tree and made our way to the ladder.
"What don't you get?" Marissa asked and went up the ladder ahead of Jeff. We all lumbered up to the roof before he spoke again.
"How can the Lighters compel us? And how come this tape thing is going to work?"
"One compulsion overrides the other," she explained and punched the elevator button. "They compelled those people. Sherry's tape, in a sense, will override the compulsion and they can think for themselves again. Sherry can't do compulsion, but…." She shook her head. "For some reason, when someone is told the truth about the Lighters, the compulsion wears off."
"I see." He rubbed his chin and looked around the elevator. "Then how come I was never under the compulsion to begin with?"
The elevator dinged and the doors opened. Marissa shrugged and sighed as she went through. "Don't know, but it's so good to be home!" she exclaimed. That was when I saw Lily bolting through the crowd toward us. I pushed the jabber mouth out of the way and lifted her sweet smelling self into my arms. Sherry was at my side and hugged her, too.
"What have you been eating?" I asked and laughed at the fruit pulp stuck on her lip.
"Peaches," she spouted.
"That's why you smell so sweet," I told her. "Did you and Lana have fun?"
"Not reawwy," she admitted and whispered the rest. "She wouldn't let me eat anything but peaches while you were gone."
Sherry chuckled and covered her mouth with her fingers. "What did you expect her to do, bug? Feed you everything there was just because we were gone?"
"Um, yeah! Isn't dat what babysitters do!" she crossed her little arms and pouted in the cutest way. I hugged her to me before seeing Chesser over Sherry's shoulder. I hoisted Lily to my chest and turned to him. "As you can see it's not much. We sleep on pallets. It's concrete. It sucks," I admitted, but he laughed.
"No worries. I just feel bad that we couldn't bring anything with us," he said and looked around. "Things just went from bad to worse tonight. They caught us as we were going in. Sorry."
We'd all been so quiet, reflective, on the way home that we hadn't talked much. We had no idea what had happened.
"No worries, mate," Miguel grinned his wolfish grin and slapped Chesser on the back. "We got lots of chores for you to do to earn your keep."
Chesser grinned back good naturedly. "I bet you do."
Miguel laughed and came to me and Lily. "Come on, little love." He winked at me. "Daddy and mommy have lots of…talking to do tonight."
Sherry laughed into my arm to hide her blush, but I just couldn't do anything but be grateful to that Aussie. "Thanks, man."
"You got it." He held out his free hand to Rylee. "You coming, sheila?
She looked at us all in turn and then straightened her back. She took Lily from Miguel and hoisted her to her hip. "Come on, little girl. Let me teach you the importance of pepper spray."
Miguel just laughed, turned and gave me a very suggestive thumbs up, and then trotted after the girls. I switched my gaze to Chesser, who seemed pretty amused by things. I pointed at the crate near us. "Sleeping bags are there. Bathroom, and I use that term loosely, is back there." I smiled. "Goodnight."
I took Sherry straight to Danny. I knew he'd have some horrible timing later when he realized we were home and I didn't want any interruptions. He, Calvin, Frank and Celeste were playing some gambling game against the wall with dice.
"Hey, we're home," I wasted no time. He wrapped Sherry in a hug before doing me the same. "Ok, goodnight."
"Whoa, wait," he argued. "What happened? No details?"
"No details tonight. We're…tired."
"Ah," he said, but then grimaced. "Ew, gross!"
"Danny, leave them alone!" Celeste chastised.
He shooed me. "Just go violate my sister and don't ever talk or hint at it again."
"What does violate mean?" Calvin asked as Sherry and I sprinted away laughing. Nothing mattered tonight except her and her skin and her breaths. Nothing.
I grabbed Sherry's hand and towed her to our 'tent'. Having no walls sucked, especially on nights like this when I wanted to spend hours devouring her, but we just had to make do.
I pushed the curtain to the side and pulled my wife to me. She was smiling in the dark and I couldn't help but smile, too. I pressed my mouth to her cheek so she could feel it and know that I was happy.
I hoisted her up and her short, but luscious legs wrapped around my waist. The one back wall held us both up and I let her feel everything. All my tremors of excitement and all my rough skin on her softness. I cupped her face. "I'm so proud of you."
"For what? Not jumping you in the hallway?" she joked and giggled. That giggle sent tingles everywhere.
"No…well, yes, but no. I'm proud of you for what you did. You saved the day back there."
She shrugged. "I just figured it might make them not think about what we were really doing there. And it worked."
"Yeah, it worked." I nuzzled her neck. "Like I said, you saved the day."
She sighed in a breathless way. "Merrick." I groaned at that. "Will you stop trying to make my ego swell and kiss me instead?"
"If this works," I continued, pretending I hadn't heard her plea, "things are probably going to get bad in town…well, everywhere. This is just the first step, but we haven't even seen the worst of it yet I don't think."
"I know," she sighed in defeat and sagged.
"All I'm saying is that things have to get worse before they get better. We did the right thing, though it may not seem like it soon. One day, everything will settle down. One day, Lily will play with Calvin in a real yard. One day, I'll ravage you in a real bed."
She
laughed softly. "Right now, I'd do with a ravaging in a pallet."
"For now, this'll do," I heard myself growl before kissing under her chin. Her fingers knotted themselves into my hair and tugged.
"Ah, Merrick," she groaned, hitching up the heat in the room a notch. "Your lips are my favorite thing about you."
"Really?" I teased and leaned back. "Your favorite?"
She grinned before putting her hand behind my neck and pulling my mouth to hers. The taste of her was my favorite thing. She was like sweetness that stayed with you long after the cookie was gone. She was every tart and sweet thing I've ever loved rolled into one dessert that lasted forever. So I took my fill of her mouth for long minutes before moving on.
Her fingers let me know she was done with this part of the game and moved on to removing my shirt. I leaned back, keeping her pressed against me and up against the wall. We'd grown so good at this dance. One finishing the acts the other one started. Becoming bored wasn't a problem. Every time I unwrapped her, it was like the first time. Her smiles were always a little different, a little sweeter one day, then a little more sassy the next.
She the most delicious little puzzle and I couldn't wait to piece her together and then make her come apart.
She kissed the tattoo behind my ear, the one that defined me as a Keeper and damned me to the outside world as a traitor. Her hand whisked down the tattoo on my chest. The bull. I think it had grown on her as much as it had me.
I disposed of her shirt and let my palm drift down her torso, from neck to belly. Then I was done. No more games, no more playing. We took care of the rest of the binding clothes. Skin to skin was the best feeling in the world, and for once she was the one who had to tell me to be quiet.
Once the world stopped spinning we lay there, breathing a crazy rhythm that brought back memories of flushed skin and lips and arms.
She rolled over and threw herself over my chest, her hair on my neck. I rubbed circles in her back, loving the way she sighed, so content. The smug feeling was welcome inside knowing that I was the one who could make her that way.
"What are you smiling about?" she asked, though she was facing away from me.