The Uprising (The Julianna Rae Chronicles)

by Aral Bereux

  ‘Tell me everything you know about the safe house if you want any chance of the bloodline surviving this war.’

  ‘Tainted with yer own filthy blood. Shoulda’ drowned yer when I had the chance. The bloodline’s survived many a war, yer won’t change it. Yer can’t.’

  Taris straightened. His men hurried along the bar, grabbing bottles to smash against the floor, in every direction.

  ‘Shame to do this, I spent many a night drinking away my youth in here.’ Taris put a cigarette to his lips and lit up. ‘Fond memories.’

  He glanced around and flicked the match to a puddle behind the bar. Flames roared instantly, lapping at the spilt alcohol and licking at the sides of the counter.

  The unopened bottles burst. Black smoke slowly filled the room. It took away the distraction of her walk down the steps to peer into the bloodied mess. It was her voice. A voice Hal hadn’t heard in years, and his heart still ached for its closeness.

  ‘Darling, have you been playing with your food again?’ Beth took the last step down and leaned on the doorway frame, now torn from its place.

  Hal looked up and the barrel of the gun scratched at his forehead as repayment for moving. His eyes widened as she tucked under the arm Taris raised for her.

  She smiled. ‘Hello father.’

  ‘You see ol’ man,’ Taris kissed the side of Elizbeth’s head. ‘You bitch about your bloodlines. I have my own to worry about now. Your daughter is in the safe palm of my hand, and Julianna doesn’t matter anymore.’

  ‘We thought yer were dead.’ Hal said coolly. ‘No notion you were the enemy.’

  Elizbeth stepped from the commander’s arm. ‘Papa,’ she stroked his face gently. ‘I’ve missed you, but I do what I must. The Militia is justified in their cause—’

  ‘Camps exterminating the repented are rightful, are they missy?’ Hal ignored the barrel firmly pressed against his skin. ‘Displaced men, women and children, rightful? Yer off yer rocker missy. Yer off yer rocker, and wha’ ‘bout yer husband? A good man, he was, and yer daughter – yer own blood?’

  Taris flicked the cigarette into the fire and lifted his rifle again. Elizbeth returned to his side. The rifle swung around, collecting Hal’s chin on the end and sending him crashing into the floorboards.

  It stopped his lecture.

  ‘Talk too much, old man,’ Taris turned to Elizbeth and rested a hand dutifully on her belly. ‘Get yourself to safety now, you shouldn’t be in here,’ he stroked her gently. ‘Don’t make me angry.’

  Elizbeth took his hand, and they both looked down at it. She agreed, she needed to leave quickly. The fire was starting to take hold.

  Taris knelt to lift the old man across his shoulders. He wasn’t heavy – age had been cruel, and his once brutish stature had been robbed. His men waited at the gapping doorway, and Elizbeth disappeared up the stairs. He gave them a nod and parted ways along the narrow stairway.

  Flames licked around the side of the building. Taris ambled across the road to the car where Elizbeth sat patiently with her hands in her lap. The hover drones frantically buzzed above them. He slung Hal heavily into the backseat under guard, slammed the door and straightened. Onlookers watched with narrow eyes, distrusting their commander and the New World Order.

  Why would he destroy such a harmless gathering?

  He heard their thoughts.

  He turned on the balls of his feet and lit another cigarette, feeling the power surging through him. The fire engulfed the old multilevel building, and the precarious sign melted on its hinges. His thoughts provoked the fire’s anger, enraging it further, with the onlookers retreating from the intense heat expelled. Taris glanced again and it burst outward, showering the ground with what little remained.

  Long overdue, he thought. Hit them hard.

  The first of many explosions rattled the buildings on either side. He felt the tremor through his feet as it stretched along the road, and all the while he stood to admire his work. He would take Hal to the camp.

  He smiled, closing his lips around his cigarette, he drew the smoke in. Finally, a full-blood for the trials, he tossed the thought around, and an attack on the safe house.

  The day is beautiful after all.

  CHAPTER 8

  3rd May, 2018, 1900 hours.

  7 miles west of Camp 2.2.1

  The bikes were moving deeper into the woods when they heard the hover drones fly past. They were far enough between the trees that their heat signatures weren’t traceable, but close enough to the highway to hear the unmistakable humming.

  Caden stopped his bike to listen, holding his fist in the air to signal for everyone else to follow. Julianna propped beside him. The heavy prisoner lulled forward between her arms, and she struggled against his broad shoulders, to center him into the bike again.

  ‘Go on.’ He said with a grin. ‘Tell me I made the wrong move.’

  She cocked her head certain her expression was pissy enough that she needn’t say anything. Caden’s method of punishing the insubordinate was effective, and though she had been deathly sick the night before, he wasn’t considering that now.

  He helped lean the prisoner as the noc slumped again, before returning to the distant sounds.

  The Jeeps engines passed along the highway, more drones, and she could hear a faint trace of a dog barking; they were breaking out the canine unit for a second time. She counted three Jeeps and knew Taris drove the last one as a safety precaution, always having the minions go first.

  Caden nudged her foot with his. He was frowning, and he mouthed “what is it” for her to see. She knew he’d missed the occurrence which had led her to death’s door the evening before. The stabbing which stirred up the fever, the very moment she thought she had greeted death itself – he had no idea about their bond.

  The IDM, the movements into the woods, the doubling back from the caves. As long as she was with them, their situation was a murky one, and all the other precautions they took, were pointless. Could she tell him? She shook her head and thinned her lips. Stupid bond!

  ‘We should move.’

  Caden nodded. ‘It seems you have some secrets, Julianna Rae.’

  ‘As opposed to you, watcher boy.’

  She shook it off. Bas rode past, and Caden revved his bike to join him. Their longing stare parted when he needed to look forward, to follow his brother over the uneven ground.

  She screwed her face as the wind blew into it. The nocturno smelt in a funky way and she was eager to rid him of herself, and her bike, but she wouldn’t give the group the satisfaction of knowing.

  Hell no, I’ll ride with this preternatural all the way to the moon if I have to, but the thought weakened. She took another whiff as the air offered it to her, pulling away as her stomach tied itself in knots.

  Daniel stopped beside her. He cringed, covering his mouth and nose with a hand, waiting for some distance from the others.

  ‘Told you, didn’t I?’ he said. ‘Isis, me, even Taris warned you.’

  ‘I know what he is,’ she gave the bike a rev.

  ‘Still, you’re going there,’ he said quietly.

  ‘I’m not going there,’ she argued. The bikes in front were gone. ‘I’m not going anywhere with him. He’s my appointed watcher for fuck’s sake.’

  ‘You’re going there.’ Daniel replied. He looked for the bikes.

  Julianna shook her head. Her mouth was open and her eyes were wide. Was he really having this talk? Was it any of his business? She thought not, but he didn’t seem to notice. Was he jealous?

  ‘You’ve done what you need to do, get away from the man once we’re back in the city, before he gets his claws into you.’

  Yes, yes.

  She looked up at Daniel. His eyes were large and dark, even when he wasn’t showing himself to the world and their unusual green tinge was like hers. She wondered as she had on her visit to the Gatehouse, if there was something more about this man she didn’t understand. Their connection was strong. She fe
lt the compulsion to listen. He reminded her of her father.

  Point taken.

  She stared ahead. The night closed in. Soon they’d need their headlights. They weren’t thick enough into the trees to take such a risk. She revved her bike.

  ‘You have no idea do you?’

  Julianna gripped her brakes and rolled her eyes back over her shoulder to see he wasn’t smiling. He narrowed his eyes and rolled his bike forward to stay irritatingly close to her side.

  He didn’t elaborate, and she wasn’t surprised.

  Like Caden said, secrets.

  Julianna struggled to follow Daniel closely over the rough ground, with a passenger twice her size between her arms. She regretted her haste in taking a hostage in spite of everyone. She blundered through the bushes and a tree branch snagged at her jacket, pulling her into its reach. She cursed it, along with everything else as it pulled her back until she saw why the others had stopped. She closed her mouth from the profanities that began to roll out.

  Caden’s bike rested beside a set of rickety stairs that led into an abandoned farm house. The wood curled at the edges, damaged from weather and neglect where it rested; other parts led to a steep drop.

  The farm house door swung open at Caden’s approach, greeting him with openness as though it welcomed his return. He stood to one side with the blanket and rifles they had collected, thick in his arms and held it open for Devo. She obediently passed him, with a clumsy pile of equipment teetering on the edge of spilling.

  Julianna parked and slid away from the stench stuck to the ride, balancing him only with a hand as she studied the new camp’s rundown lodging. It was solid, with a closed roof, perched on a dubious veranda that ran the perimeter of the house, giving a clear view of the open property. They were well off the track, hidden in the trees, and secure.

  Caden returned to the veranda. He looked down at her, stepping as he went along the curling wood, taking each step with guarded caution. He didn’t release her from his gaze for a moment.

  Julianna tiptoed to glance over his shoulder. In its day she would have fancied it a quaint farm house, and on the land, probably a very productive one too. She could hear the sound of running water breaking through the trees from the other side of the trail, too.

  The prisoner slid from the bike and onto the ground with a thud, and groaned. Fresh blood seeped into the dust and he slipped back his world of darkness.

  ‘J Rae,’ Caden snapped her back. His abruptness caught the attention of the entire camp. ‘No way to treat an animal. Pick him up, tie him down over there, and give him some water.’ He nodded to a tree. ‘We need him alive.’

  For real, for really fucking real C Mads? This is bullshit. Total bullshit and horse shit and everything else in the mix.

  Caden angled his cool stare against her as everyone else watched for a reaction. His body leaned forward, forcing her into his shadow. Julianna conceded. She edged around her bike, grabbed the prisoner under his thick arms, and heaved. The heavy weight landed between her legs, and she scurried back in surprise.

  She sat. Her shoulders curved. Smoke curled through his parted lips where the freshly lit cigarette hung, and he waved out the match before flicking it against her boot.

  ‘He’s too heavy,’ she said. ‘I need some help.’

  He took a long drag and stared. ‘Your pet, you look after it, little one.’ He said coolly, and continued to look down at her with an authority she wasn’t all too comfortable with.

  ‘I said I need some help. You’re my watcher; you’re supposed to help me.’

  His lip twisted to the corner. ‘But you work so well alone.’ He removed the cigarette hanging to flick the lose ash onto the ground. ‘We’ll stay here, until we can think of a safe way back to the city. So, I need you to take him over there, and secure him so he can’t escape.’

  She followed his nod to a large oak tree behind her.

  ‘If that’s okay with you? And if it’s also okay with you, give him some water. Questioning is much more effective when the prisoner is conscious. He’s had nothing since his capture.’ He raised his glare. ‘But only if it’s okay with you, apprentice.’

  Caden waved a hand dismissively in Daniel’s direction; his cigarette emphasized his intent for him to stay away. Daniel turned on his feet and wheeled his bike down to Bas, instead. She wasn’t permitted anyone’s help.

  ‘You were helping me last night.’

  ‘You were sick, now you’re not. Now we’re back to having your pissy little power struggle with me.’

  She dusted her hands and pulled under the noc’s arms, dragging until she lost balance against a sharp rock. She reached around to her back. A slippery line formed along the graze on her skin, stinging under her touch. She cursed Caden’s amusement as he watched her stand for a third time. The sweat beaded on her forehead, though the sun rested below the horizon, and she stood over the prisoner with frustrated hands propped on her hips, as the fever threatened to return.

  ‘Standing like that leaves you open for an attack,’ Caden warned. ‘Use your abilities to move him.’

  ‘I don’t have any,’ she snapped. ‘I’m not a watcher.’

  ‘Well, apprentice,’ he took another long drag, perching the cigarette between his thumb and finger. ‘We both know that’s bullshit now, don’t we?’

  ‘To hell with you, Caden. Fuck you.’ she said and grabbed the heavy arms, again.

  ‘In time, sweetheart I have no doubt you will, but not on the first date, huh,’ he turned.

  His cigarette was back between parted lips and his hands deep inside his pockets. He ambled to the men concealing their bikes behind a thicket of trees and overgrown hedging, not looking back once to see her final struggle with the prisoner.

  The tree stood downhill; single and lonely in the overgrown grass. His body trailed along the dry pasture with more ease on the downward slope.

  Julianna reached the tree and leaned against it, pushing the old tire swing playfully beside her as she caught her breath. The prisoner was half staring between broken lids, in his semi-conscious state, and she knew come night he’d probably bite given a chance. She wiped the grimy sweat beading on her face. A trail of dirt replaced it. She needed a bath and she tuned into the running water again.

  After this, she thought. Even her mind sounded out of breath. After this I’m taking a swim, to hell with everyone else. They could have thanked me for taking out the party at the caves.

  From the low point where she stood, it was hard to see Caden rolling his bike to where the trees stood thick and tall. She made the gesture of his cigarette casually propped between his lips when he needed both hands, and the smoke trailed above his head for the wind to catch and trail it away. Devo carried more supplies into the old house, and Daniel spoke with Bas.

  She glanced down at the prisoner.

  Miserable bastard.

  The swing rocked in the dull breeze. She followed its rope to the branch above and removed her knife from its holster. The rope was still good, and the blade cut easily through it while she cursed under her breath.

  I’m leaving tomorrow, I swear, I’m leaving this forsaken group of prets if it’s the last thing—

  The frayed rope fell down like a coiled snake, wrapping her head and shoulders. She fought angrily to free herself, swinging the blade around as she went, and almost cutting herself.

  ‘Here,’ Bas held a hand out for the rope. ‘He’s just toying with you.’

  ‘Freaking yay,’ she handed it over.

  Bas strung the prisoner’s wrists before returning the rope over the branch again. He pulled on the rope, using his own weight to raise the prisoner above his toes. The prisoner groaned.

  ‘Is it really necessary? He’s half way to dead.’

  ‘You want him running the six or seven miles home to camp?’ Bas secured him. ‘You know he will. Camp 2.2.1’s just down the road.’

  ‘I would’ve mentioned Katherine’s information,’ she said.

>   ‘Yeah, not sure about that. When were you planning the news break?’

  ‘Oh I don’t know.’ She pushed past him. He was still fastening the rope and couldn’t follow. Julianna called back. ‘Somewhere between getting shot, stabbed, and being taken hostage. I told you in the end – doesn’t it count for something?’ Caden walked toward her. ‘Or maybe this was all a scam, to have me placed under his command.’

  Bas finished tying the prisoner. ‘It’s getting dark. Where are you going?’

  Julianna refused his question. Caden stopped in his tracks. She wanted to find the water, get clean, and relax. The water was ahead, she could hear its run, and altered course for the trees lining the property boundary. Caden yelled her name. Daniel asked for her return and she ignored them, as she pushed through the long grass.

  Was it stagnated like most water in the area? With the rivers nearby she held onto what little hope she had left. Bas called again and Caden yelled at the top of his voice.

  Just leave me the fuck alone!

  Her scream inside her mind worked.

  She swung a leg over the wire fence loosely stringing its perimeter, and entered the thick trees. They left her alone, they didn’t follow, and finally, finally, she had a moment to herself.

  * * *

  The pier poked from the ground, stretching across the water to allow a toe dip on a warm evening. It was down from there that she made a small fire, beneath a low hanging tree branch. With her pants hanging over them, drying from the quick stone scrub she’d done with the flat rock she still held, she stretched her steps carefully along the pier’s rotting frame. The soft breeze licked at her bare legs. The moon’s reflection wavered along the water’s ripples. She bent one knee and dipped her toes in the water. It was bearable, with its slight bite nipping at her skin.

  The fire blazed behind her. The bloodied singlet she wore needed a wash too. The pier was left to its company as she stole to the lake’s edge, where her pants hung. With the smooth rock, she undressed from her singlet, and scrubbed at the blood stains. She twisted the singlet out and repeated the process, over, and over, until the water ran clear, and she was happy her clothes were clean. Her wet bra and knickers slapped over the closest branch. She dropped the stone beside the water’s edge, standing naked and alone, to admire the silence and the starry night beneath the full moon.