You mustn’t pity her. The girl is a fugitive.
But she didn’t look like a fugitive. She wasn’t acting like a fugitive. She was grieving.
He noticed the torn parachute still attached to the girl, spread out behind her like it was the train of a wedding dress. Then, as if it was dew coming upon the morning grass, the truth of it settled on him.
She saved my life…She saved my life?
The last thing he remembered before waking up was the girl hurtling the empty rifle at him. His transport crew was dead, the girl’s mother was dead, but he was alive?
Why?
He thought about the sketch he’d found in her bag. He didn’t even know where to begin when it came to explaining that. He needed to know more and the only source of information was right there in front of him.
He slowly and painfully climbed to his feet. All of his joints ached like he was an arthritic old man. The girl heard him and turned around. He didn’t know what to expect.
Maybe she will kill me like she killed the rest of my crew.
He doubted it.
Why save me in the first place?
The girl’s eyes were red from crying. She wiped them with her sleeve and looked at him as if he wasn’t real. He felt a mixture of guilt and something else. A lump formed in his throat. He didn’t know if he should apologize or demand to know what was going on.
She didn’t say a word and she didn’t move. He felt like he was staring at a long lost friend…or enemy. He wasn’t sure.
Finally he said, “Adam. My name is Adam Phelt and I am a-”
She interrupted him. “I don’t care what your name is.”
“What do you want then?”
“I want to know where you are keeping my friends.”
“Is that why you saved me?”
She glanced down then back up. “Just tell me where they are.”
“There in a prison.”
“Where?”
“It doesn’t matter where it is,” Adam said. “You can’t break them out.”
The girl looked down. She was obviously hurting. “Just tell me where they are.” She begged. “Please.”
The ache of guilt in his stomach wrenched harder forcing him to relent. He sighed. “It’s called Forsythe Prison and it’s in Satrapy 17.”
“That’s near the Dead Zone.”
“Just west of the Rockies.”
The girl stepped forward and tried to put on a bold face. “You are going to take me there.”
“What if I refuse?”
“Then I will kill you.”
She didn’t even sound believable and Adam jumped right on it.
“You are not going to kill me.”
“Are you sure about that?” She asked. “I have plenty of motivation and you’ve seen what I can do.”
Now that he couldn’t argue with. She’d taken down two of his best men in seconds. He felt guilt and for the first time in his life, he felt real failure. Like a weight chained to his heart, it hauled his spirit to depths it had never been.
Then, like a whisper in the dark, he heard the words of his mentor in his mind.
Great leaders turn every failure into success.
There was still hope in the situation. The objective was still attainable but the strategy would have to be different.
He pressed his lips together. “Look, that prison you are trying to break into is maximum security. You can’t just walk up to the door and knock.”
“Just get me there,” the girl responded. “I can do the rest.”
“This is a suicide mission, do you understand that?”
There was a rumble of thunder. The girl looked in that direction, took a deep breath then looked back at him. “I…I don’t even know what’s really going on. I don’t even know the real reason you are hunting me.” Her lips began to quiver. “All I know is that my mother is dead, and everyone else I care about has been locked up in prison. What else can I do?”
Guilt returned. She didn’t look like a terrorist or a criminal or a security threat. She was just a heart-broken young woman.
He sighed, “Alright. I will take you.”
She walked toward him until they were almost face to face. She was trying to be brave but he saw fear in her eyes like that of a lost child.
“Agreed,” she said meekly. “You take me and I will let you live.” She started to turn away from him but stopped herself. “One more thing,” she quickly reached down and grabbed a small silver cylindrical object from his belt. “Give me your wrist.”
The object was called an invisible tether. It went around the wrist and effectively bound the wearer to whoever was wearing the control. If the wearer ventured more than twenty feet from the control, the device would emit a paralyzing electric shock.
His eyes narrowed, she was cleverer than she looked. “How do you know what that is?” he asked.
“Don’t worry about it. Just do what I said.”
He sighed, held out his wrist and she slapped the device on. The cool metal coiled around his arm and tightened like a snake. The girl put the control on her wrist, making him bound to her.
“Remember our agreement,” she said, “and nothing bad will happen to you.”
He nodded though he wasn’t really afraid of her empty threat. As she turned away from him, Adam felt the familiar brilliance of self-confidence he’d had since he was young. He had a mission and he would complete it. He was the girl’s prisoner and at the moment she had the upper hand. But the game was far from over and like always, he would win.
The rain had finally ceased but the sky was still a dark grey with the clouds moving fast as if they were puffs of smoke being carried by the wind. With one final tear, Evelyn laid the last stone over her mother’s freshly christened tomb. Evelyn had wrapped her mother’s body in the parachute, then made Adam carry it into a nearby woods until they found a safe place to put it. They had walked a short time when they found a large hollowed out oak tree. Evelyn placed her mother’s body inside and she and Adam covered the opening with rocks from a nearby creek bed. Evelyn stepped back and wiped the moisture from her face. The tomb wasn’t perfect, but at least it was by the water. Her mother had always loved the water and that tiny fact made her feel better.
Evelyn whispered goodbye and turned to her captive.
“Let’s go.”
He nodded and for a brief moment, Evelyn thought she saw sadness in his eyes.
Is he actually feeling remorse for what he’s done?
She doubted it and motioned for him to walk. “I’m following you.”
“Do you have a plan?” he asked over his shoulder.
“Yes.” She was lying, she had no idea what to do next.
“Well?”
“Just keep walking,”
He did as directed and she followed him. She glared at him from behind as if her eyes would burn a hole through his back. He didn’t look like the other Secret Service goons she’d come across. He was as tall as she was, strong looking, but a little on the thin side and he was young, probably Rillian’s age, if that.
His blonde hair was short and the combination of dampness and the shadows of the woods made it look almost dark. He was the man from her dream, just younger.
As she stalked through the mud behind him, she realized that she should be hating him for what he had done and she questioned herself for even allowing him to live. She didn’t save anyone else on the aircraft, why him? Was it pity or was it something else? Maybe her subconscious knew that she would need his help to save her father and her friends. She settled on that answer, only because it was the only one that made sense.
Eventually, they came to the edge of the woods and her captive stopped behind the safety of a row of trees. He squatted down and Evelyn squatted down next to him. There was the sound of traffic as a busy road lay just ahead of them.
“What now?” He asked, almost in a condescending way, like he expected her answer to be stupid or ill-advised.
“We…We cross the road.” Evelyn suggested.
“Why don’t we just go under it?” He pointed to a sewer tunnel that ran the width of the road.
“It’s full of water.”
Brown, muddy water was pouring out of it into the nearby ditch.
“Do you really want to cross the road? Because if I were you, I wouldn’t want anyone to see me right now.” He was definitely being condescending.
“Because I’m wanted?”
He shook his head. “Because of what you did to my men and the aircraft. My commanders saw everything I’m sure and there are already boots on the ground searching the area looking for you.”
She didn’t like the look of the tunnel, but he was right. She couldn’t afford to be seen by anyone. She sighed and motioned for him to go forward. “Go on then.”
He nodded and together they crept along the tree line until they were even with the sewer drain. Adam crouched behind a downed tree for a moment, waiting for a break in the line of traffic. When the break came, Adam darted out of the trees toward the sewer, followed by Evelyn who didn’t move as gracefully across the wet terrain.
They reached the tunnel unnoticed and the two of them ducked inside. The water was up to their knees and pressing against them as they entered. Adam moved like a man on a mission, bent low as to not hit his head on the ceiling of the tunnel.
Evelyn did her best to keep up, bracing herself against the slimy walls for balance. The light disappeared until there was only a small ring behind them. At that moment, she thought of RiIllian and wished it was him and not Adam she was following into the dark. As they moved deeper into the dark, the tunnel seemed to narrow and the water level seemed to rise. Suddenly, Adam stopped in front of her.
“I think we are going to have to swim now.”
She didn’t like the sound of that. She was already fighting off the urge to panic from the fact that the walls seemed to be closing in around her. But before she could even say no, she heard Adam take a breath then plunge himself forward. Evelyn took a breath and reluctantly followed. She closed her eyes and pretended that she was on vacation with her parents and not swimming through the muck. It was working until she ran head first into something that scraped across the top of her head and neck before getting tangled in her shirt.
She felt a jerk as if someone was trying to pull her back and immediately began to panic. The breath went out of her. She opened her eyes and saw only the darkness of the murky water. She reached back behind her but was unable to get loose. She tried to power herself forward with her arms, but the more she struggled the more tangled she became.
The thought occurred to her that Adam may have done this on purpose.
What does it matter to him if I die down here?
The anger only made it worse as the water entered her mouth. Then she couldn’t think of anything, only the body’s urge to survive by thrashing wildly in all directions. She felt her body weakening, the cadence of her heart becoming a dull thud and she felt herself sinking, felt the pull of the current dragging at her limp body.
That was all that was left, nerve receptors registering their last correspondence. She didn’t resign herself to her fate, she had no choice but to fade away into nothingness.
She saw herself, by the still pond with the young man, heard the chirp of the crickets, felt the warmth of the setting sun against her skin. They were sitting on a bench. She was happy. He leaned in and said something to her but she couldn’t make it out. His mouth was moving but she couldn’t hear what he was saying. His face grew urgent. He grabbed her by the shoulders and tried again.
She began to hear his words like they were coming from afar, like from the end of a long tunnel. “Evelyn…”
They grew louder. “Evelyn, wake up!”
She came to coughing and spit out a mouthful of murky water onto the grass beside her. She opened her eyes and saw him sitting on ground holding his knees as he caught his breath.
“I thought you were dead.” He said between breaths.
She slowly sat up. “You…you got me out of there?”
“I had to,” he pointed to the metal device adorning his wrist. “I’m bound to you, remember.”
She nodded and he continued. “It wasn’t much, just a piece of rebar tangled up in your clothes. I was able to get you loose once you stop thrashing around.”
She was dumbfounded by the whole situation. “You didn’t have to save me.”
“I know.”
She climbed to her feet. “This doesn’t change anything. You are still my prisoner.”
He shrugged. “I figured as much.” He climbed to his feet as well. “There’s a monorail stop nearby. Do you want to catch a ride?”
“Why are you being so helpful?” she asked sharply.
“I made a deal with you and I intend to keep it.” Evelyn flashed him a skeptical look but he seemingly ignored it. “We can get on the rail and ride it west.”
Evelyn nodded and then pointed for him to walk. The two of them sloshed in their wet clothes until they saw the small town emerge on the horizon like a silver ship in a sea of green. They were in the southern part of what used to be Missouri which had been turned into rolling farmland over the past several decades. The only civilization was the small town of Waken, which had sprouted up like a sunflower after the construction of the monorail. It wasn’t much, only a couple of hotels, a shopping center and a handful of restaurants but it was the only town for miles. Evelyn knew that if Adam was going to try to alert someone of his predicament it would be there and she was ready.
Using the tall stalks of corn as cover, the two of them soon found themselves in a small alley between two hotels. This monorail stop was not like the major hub in Cincinnati where Evelyn and Rillian had evaded the SS before, but more like a two way bus stop one would have found in previous generations. Still there was a decent number of people waiting for the next exchange.
“Looks like we have five minutes to wait,” said Adam as he nodded in the direction of a large digital clock hanging above the platform, “How do you plan to get on?”
“I’m not getting on.” Evelyn responded. “You are.” He shot her a perplexed look.
Obviously, that was not the response he was expecting. “Give me your arm,” she said.
He half smiled as he realized what she was planning. “Clever, but it’s not in my arm.”
“Where is it then?”
He backed into the shadow of the building and removed his shirt, revealing a shapely chest and tight stomach. Evelyn felt a warm sensation shoot across her body. She blinked and glanced away.
Adam lifted up his left arm and pointed to a spot on the side of his ribcage. “It’s here.”
Evelyn pulled out the knife she’d taken from him earlier and apprehensively lifted it toward his chest. She took a breath and was about to press the blade into his skin when he pulled away from her.
“Wait.” He opened a palm. “Let me do it.”
Evelyn pulled the knife out of his reach. “That would require me to give you a weapon. Do you think I’m stupid?”
“Quite the contrary but I don’t think you are a surgeon,” he replied quickly.
“And you are?”
“No, but I’ve been trained in battle field surgeries, which include removing shrapnel or bullets out of another person.”
Evelyn dropped her head in a moment of contemplation. Adam stepped closer, holding his hands up in a non-threatening manner.
“Just give me the knife and I will remove the chip for you. I will give you back the knife, I promise.”
“Your promise means nothing to me.” Evelyn said disdainfully.
“Fine, but if you mess this up, you will have a bleeding man on your hands and that will cause attention I don’t think you want.” He gestured for her to give him the knife. “I promise.”
Evelyn thought about it for a moment then sighed in frustration. “Here…”
Adam took the knife and without he
sitation or even a grimace of pain, deftly cut into the side of his ribcage. He retrieved the chip in seconds, only making a minimal wound in his flesh. Evelyn was surprised to say the least and even more surprised when he handed her both the knife and the chip. He stared at her for a moment then calmly slipped his shirt back on. Evelyn glanced down at the chip and then at him. He made it look so easy.
Evelyn pressed her back against the wall and peered around the corner. Evelyn needed to ditch Adam’s chip. She quickly deduced that the best opportunity would be when the exchange was taking place. She scanned the platform. The nearest person was a taller black woman dressed in business attire. She was sitting on a bench perusing through her holophone. Her luggage was nestled beside her on the bench.
“Stay here,” she commanded.
Then just as the digital clock ticked down to zero, she slipped out of the shadows of the alley. With her head bent down, she hustled until she was just behind the woman, and then with a quick wave of her hand, dropped the chip into the open pocket of the woman’s luggage.
As the last of the people boarded the train, Evelyn slipped back into the shadows, where Adam was waiting. For a brief second, she thought he looked impressed but his grave expression quickly returned.
“What now?” he asked.
Evelyn had no idea but she put on a bold face as if she had everything planned out already. “We walk.”
If Adam had reservations about her plan, he didn’t reveal them. He just nodded and the two of them slipped back into the corn fields and headed west out of Waken.
They trudged through fields of corn, soybeans and wheat, across country roads using the sun and Adam’s compass as a guide. They didn’t say a word to each other. Evelyn let Adam lead the way, but she watched him carefully. He was her only hope now of saving her father, of saving Rillian.
The day grew warmer as it grew older and by midafternoon the sun hung over them like a great fire. Adam was sweating profusely. Still, he didn’t say a word. He just kept walking, not even looking back. Finally, they came to an abandoned farm and though she wasn’t thirsty, she felt pity for Adam who looked badly in need of a drink.
“We can stop here and rest for a while and find some water.” Evelyn said.
Ill-Fated (Ill-Fated Series Book 1) Page 17