Redemption

by Ever N. Hayes

  It turned out Keena somehow convinced Captain Baker to help her. He, of course, claimed the scheme was all his idea—his plan B when the original plan disintegrated. He saved Hawaii by weaseling his way into Commander Boli’s good graces, got him into the bunker to gain his trust, only so he could find out what Qi Jia’s plan was—and blow them all away. I’m not sure any of us believed that—I absolutely didn’t—particularly since it had cost thirty people in that bunker their lives. Captain Baker was no hero. Flynn and I—at least—were convinced he’d have said and done anything to save his own life. It was only when Keena told him how he could survive and be free of Qi Jia’s control that he committed to her plan—the one they carried out.

  Captain Baker tortured Keena—severely. If any credit is due him at all, he was at least convincing in that role. He somehow got Boli to believe that she was holding on to a critical piece of information that would keep the destruction of Hawaii from being successful. They needed her alive to pull it off. He saved her life by almost killing her. Boli bought it—at least enough to leave the two of them alone at a computer for lengthy periods of time. It was during those times that Keena manipulated the launch codes and put the entire plan in place.

  She convinced Baker to drag out the torture for three days—to do enough to make it believable and delay Boli from launching until the third night—hoping that would give Danny enough time to get to safety and get a message to Hawaii in case their plan didn’t work.

  But it did work. When Keena entered in the final code to launch all the missiles, Baker convinced Boli’s men to go outside and watch the missiles pass overhead. He and his two SEALs got the door down on the bunker, took Commander Boli prisoner, and killed the few Qi Jia soldiers who had stayed inside. Six survivors remained inside the nuke-proof bunker: Keena, Boli, Baker, and his two SEALs … and Isabelle. Isabelle was still alive.

  There was no way Captain Baker came up with that plan. But Keena was too modest—and Baker too arrogant—for any other version to surface.

  She was still in Cheyenne Mountain with Commander Boli, Captain Baker, and his two surviving SEALs. There was far too much radiation in the Denver/Colorado Springs area to come out yet. But we hoped to retrieve them in a few more months. We couldn’t wait to see Keena. As for Captain Baker—the “hero” who had his own son killed and sacrificed his team to save himself—well…seeing him again ever would be far too soon.

  We stayed in the Disney bunker a month longer than we’d originally planned. I can’t say they were a great four months. In fact, for me they were pretty much the opposite. Flynn was terribly sick the entire month of October—some form of pneumonia the bunker doctor guessed. Mackenzie and I stayed with her and took care of her but it was scary to watch her wither up and almost die. Somehow she pulled through, but her illness and the cold darkness of the bunker ate at me.

  Mack and I quickly became good friends—turned out she was only a month and a half younger than me. She just seemed really young—compared to how old I felt. She was so cheery, so fun…so innocent and pretty.

  I didn’t like what I saw in my mirror—pale, sickly, and tired. I needed a tan, a couple straight months of sleep, and my bow and arrows for stress relief. I needed to get away and be alone, like I couldn’t be in here. I guess you could say I understood how Danny felt about wanting to escape from everything related to this mess. He didn’t feel like celebrating. I didn’t either.

  Of course I was relieved that Reagan, Sam, and the girls had survived…but I carried the burden of Danny’s words from that first night in Anaheim—and of the things I assumed he meant by what he didn’t say.

  On the one hand, I couldn’t wait to see how much my baby brother had grown. Ollie might even be walking. And Tara was pregnant—I was going to have another brother or sister in a few months, and I was certainly excited about that. I missed the girls—Emily and Abbey—and Kate, of course, who had pretty much always been my big sister.

  On the other hand I missed Dad more than anyone—probably because I knew he was gone forever. I thought about him the most and ached from the stunning reality that I was never going to see him or Grandpa again. Jenna and Kaci were also dead. Governor Barnes had killed himself the day he found out his wife was also dead. In that sense I didn’t want to go back—in that way I could understand why Danny didn’t either. It wasn’t ever going to be the same. That’s where the guilt ate at me. No matter how much Blake, Flynn, Mackenzie and Eddie tried to convince me otherwise—that this was all on Lazzo—I felt responsible for those lives…those deaths.

  I also missed Mom. I hadn’t felt that longing for her in years. I really missed her now. It was weird to think that at some point I’d moved on from her death—that it was even possible I could do the same with these…but I guessed that’s how life was. I guessed maybe I’d get over this too.

  The person I’d always loved the most in life was Danny. I had him right here with me in the bunker but we weren’t exactly on speaking terms. In fact, he’d kind of shut himself off from everyone else the past few months. He’d come out of their room—his and Ava’s—every now and then to talk strategy with a few of the Anaheim bunker leaders …and then head back in to her. Man, I hate her.

  It was hard listening to people talk about Danny like he was just another soldier—and even harder to listen to people criticize him. Even if they were right. Danny—perhaps second to only Keena—was responsible for the opportunity we all were seemingly going to have to rebuild America. Everyone here owed him something. Gratitude—if nothing else. But Danny wasn’t doing himself any favors, locking himself in his room with that skank. I was embarrassed that Eddie saw him this way. Blake didn’t like it, but he understood. Eddie didn’t like it or understand. Eddie had lost his wife, daughters, brother, brother’s family, friends, home—everything. Eddie didn’t have a choice in the matter. Danny was choosing to ignore me, his closest friend—Blake—and his wife—who had just miscarried and lost her lifelong best friend. Considering all of that, no matter how much Blake and I stood up for him Eddie wasn’t buying it.

  Eventually we stopped defending him. There were some things I couldn’t explain away. Danny had become cold, brooding…bitter. He didn’t seem to care what anyone else thought—except Ava. Frickin’ general’s daughter. He definitely didn’t want to hear about Kate. Twice I’d caught him at the dinner table and asked if he’d talked to Kate recently. Both times he got up and walked away before I could finish my sentence and I was left standing there—in a war of glares—with Ava. I really couldn’t fathom what Danny saw in her. Beyond her looks, if he honestly wasn’t getting any, I don’t know what her purpose was.

  Or maybe he was actually with her now. Maybe that blow-up doll had replaced Kate. What guy lying next to that every night wouldn’t give himself a pass and roll with the hormones? It made me sick thinking about it. My heart went out to Kate, waiting for him in Hawaii. She couldn’t wait to have him back, but she wasn’t getting the same Danny back. This one would have never come to save me. This Danny wouldn’t even try to save himself.

  We’d found out a little about the missile damage. Keena had effectively wiped out all the Qi Jia capital cities—their headquarters—in America. Best as anyone could tell, she leveled the playing field—perhaps taking out as much as ninety percent of their entire forces. Damien had sent word to Australia, England, France—anywhere he thought we might have survivors and let them know what had happened. His hope—our hope—was to get everyone together in Hawaii and come up with a plan to take our country back.

  I felt guilty about a lot of what we’d lost since the beginning of August—I’m not going to lie—but I also knew the other truth. If I hadn’t gone with Lazzo and Danny hadn’t come for me—if we hadn’t ended up in Cheyenne Mountain—Qi Jia would have had control of those missiles. Not Keena. One day Qi Jia would have figured out how to do essentially the same thing she did with them. But when they launched the missiles, they’d all have hit Hawaii—they’d hav
e wiped us completely out.

  We definitely wouldn’t be getting on this plane—talking, laughing and looking forward to landing in Hawaii—looking forward to the future.

  There wouldn’t be a future to talk about.

  As we boarded the plane for Hawaii and lifted off into a stormy sky, I looked around at the passengers. Everyone else seemed happy. Everyone else seemed worry-free. I glanced at my brother, sitting across from me with his arm around Ava. She smiled at me, and I resisted the urge to flip her off. I turned to Blake instead. “Do you think anyone would mind if I threw her off the plane.”

  Blake smiled, nodding slowly. “Unfortunately, Hayley…” He sighed. “Unfortunately I do.”

  He twisted the top off a bottle of beer, lifted it up and took a long drink. “Aaaahhh…” he sighed.

  “Good?” I asked.

  “Terrible.” He shuddered. “So awful.” He held another bottle out to me. “Want one?”

  I laughed and took it from him. “Why not?” I popped the top on mine and took a swig. I nearly gagged. “Whoa!”

  “Right?” Blake laughed. He held his bottle out toward mine. “Toast.”

  I clinked mine against his.

  “To the future,” he said.

  “To the past,” I added.

  Blake raised his bottle again. “And to pillows.” He smiled and began to take another drink.

  I punched him in the shoulder, as he laughed and feigned injury.

  “Forget that!” I shook my head and glared at Ava again.

  Forget that.

  ---------- The End ----------

  *****

  Thank You

  For

  Reading

  REDEMPTION

  *****

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Ever N. Hayes lives in the Upper Midwest with his beautiful wife and four incredible children. Two college degrees and 8 years of professional journalism experience prepared him for writing books but nothing has prepared him for the editing and publishing process! So he leaves that to the professionals. Ever N. Hayes can be reached via email at EverNHayes@yahoo.com

  ABOUT THE “2020” SERIES

  Book 1: Emergency Exit was written in 72 days, but took 29 draft revisions (and 8 more months) before publication in April 2014. It has since sold almost 27,000 copies and reached #7 on Amazon’s “Most Downloaded Fiction” bestseller list in June 2014.

  Book 2: Redemption was written in 80 days, but took 17 draft revisions (and 5 more months) before publication in November 2014. First returns (Professional feedback from bloggers and MAXIM Magazine) indicate that Redemption raised the bar on the original. I would love to know what you think. EverNHayes@yahoo.com

  Book 3: I am currently working on a Junior Fiction Sports book (Current Title: The Magician) expected to be released by Valentine’s Day 2015. At that point I will commence the concluding chapter of this series (Title TBA-Year 2025). Estimated publishing date: Summer 2015.

  Thank you for your support! Please leave a review!

  Ever N. Hayes

  DREAM CASTING

  As authors, we envision our characters a particular way. Readers often have an entirely different vision. In Emergency Exit I debuted a “casting list”—my story’s main characters cast by the Hollywood actors/actresses as I imagined them. I was encouraged to bring it back for this book… and coerced into making a few character changes.

  Ryan: Ryan Reynolds of The Proposal.

  Danny: Liam Hemsworth of The Hunger Games.

  Hayley: Willa Holland of the CW’s Arrow.

  Tara: Lauren Conrad of The CW’s The Hills.

  Kate: Katharine McPhee of ABC’s Smash and CBS’s Scorpion.

  Blake: Corbin Bleu of High School Musical.

  Lazzo: BJ Britt of ABC’s Marvel: Agents of Shield.

  Eddie: Adewale-Akinnuoye-Agbaje of Pompeii.

  Reagan: Diana Agron of Fox’s Glee and I Am Number Four.

  Sam: Eli Goree of The CW’s The 100.

  Flynn: Bella Thorne of Blended.

  Nicole: Kate Mara of House of Cards.

  Damien: Lonnie “Common” Lynn, Jr. of Just Married.

  Keena: Shay Mitchell of Pretty Little Liars.

  Governor Barnes: Josh Lucas of Sweet Home Alabama.

  Captain Baker: Max Martini of Captain Phillips.

  Commander Boli: Faran Tahir of Iron Man and Star Trek.

  Ava: Katrina Bowden of 30 Rock.

  Jenna: Emma Stone of Easy A and The Amazing Spiderman.

  Grandpa Dan: Kevin Costner of The Guardian and Robin Hood.

  Mackenzie: Chloe Bennet of Marvel: Agents of Shield.

  *** - Please visit EverNHayes.blogspot.com to vote on your cast selections and/or to leave feedback for the author. Thank you!