by AR Colbert
“I’m no one.”
“Liar!” He threw my bag across the room, and the other two men tensed. “Look, I don’t care who you are. But they’re gonna want you back, I think. The question is, how much will they pay for you?”
“Is this about money?” I was confused. Money would be worthless to these men. Currency was irrelevant outside of the cities.
“Of course not. I told you I’m not an idiot. I want weapons. I know they’re working on new technology, and I think they’ve got something good. I saw their test sites in the hills. Where are they keeping it?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
He spat on the floor and glared at me. “Don’t play dumb. I saw the tech in your bag. I know you’re up to something in there.” He put his hands in the air, raising his voice another octave. “I promise to play nice. I won’t bother you again if you just tell me where the weapons are kept.”
“I don’t know about any weapons.”
A high-pitched buzz drew my attention to the door. Milo heard it too.
“Oh really?” His grin was maniacal. He picked up a shovel and stepped outside, looking for the drone, but the buzzing disappeared.
That was okay. I just needed Felix to know where I was. Between the tracker on my back and Emilio’s drone footage, they had to be on their way now. I was going to be saved.
The other two Exiled men pulled knives out of their pockets. They were much better armed this time around than the last time my team infiltrated their camp. I swallowed and began fidgeting with the rope around my wrists. Maybe if they were distracted enough, I could set myself free.
One of the men followed Milo outside while the other crept over to the window. The skin on the inside of my wrist screamed as I dragged it back and forth across the nylon rope, trying to break free. I just about had it when the man near the window dropped to the floor with a loud BANG.
Trembling, I cowered backward, forgetting completely about the rope. That didn’t matter anymore. Now I had to deal with a dead body on the floor and the pool of blood that was quickly spreading around him through the shards of broken glass. But most concerning of all was trying to figure out who shot him.
The other two men came running back inside, and Milo looked completely uncontrolled. There was a fire in his eyes and blood pumped hot through his veins. He wasn’t happy about his man being shot, but he was thrilled at the opportunity to seek his revenge.
“They’re coming for you, aren’t they?”
I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t move. My terror had me seized in place. Milo shuffled through my bag again and pulled out my stun gun. He inspected it before pointing it at me and closed one eye as he aimed.
“Pew, pew.” He threw his head back and laughed again, then ran out the front door with my gun in his hand. The other man hesitated, looking first at his friend on the floor, then up at me with his face twisted in horror. I supposed it was my fault the first man had died.
“Get out here, Charlie!” Milo yelled from outside. “Let’s go hunting!”
I wondered if Milo knew my gun would only stun. It wouldn’t kill. And that was a good thing. Charlie scrambled out the door leaving me alone again. Hopefully Felix would get to me before they got to him.
I sat for what felt like an hour while the Exiled men were out, just watching the blood creep closer to my feet and waiting for something to happen. No other gunshots rang out. But I knew they had to be close. It was only a matter of time before Felix arrived. The drone spotted me in this shed, so this is where I had to stay.
At long last, I saw a head bob past the window toward the door. But it wasn’t Felix’s perfect swoosh of blond hair. It was dark, almost black. Raf?
My heart skipped a beat. Had Raf come to save me after all? My stomach flipped and my hope soared. My precious Raf. He was always there for me when I needed him.
Except he wasn’t. A gun pointed in the door, followed by an extremely intense Rider. Not Raf. He quickly scanned the large shed before silently gesturing for me to come to him.
“Rider!” I stumbled across the Exiled man on the floor, trying not to lose my balance without arms to keep me steady.
“Shh!” Dax backed into the shed with his own gun held high, but pointed outside. “Keep quiet,” he whispered.
Rider pulled a knife and cut my hands free while Dax kept an eye on the trees around us. They weren’t Raf, but I couldn’t deny how happy I was to see them. Even Dax.
“Follow me,” Rider whispered. I quickly stepped in line behind him, with Dax bringing up the rear. We crept along the edge of the shed and I realized we were on an abandoned farm property. There weren’t any other Exiled tents, but a dilapidated house stood on a hill across a clearing, and a huge barn sat to our right. Rider wisely led us into the forest behind the shed, avoiding the clearing and the other buildings entirely. I didn’t know how many Exiled men might have been around, and I didn’t want to find out.
We crunched through the leaves as quietly as possible, none of us uttering a word until we made it down to the riverside. Dax finally relaxed his arms, dropping the gun to his side, but Rider stayed at the ready.
“Where’s Felix?” I asked. “Is he coming?”
“I have no idea,” Dax grumbled and stopped on the rocks. “I went to his house this morning to guard you like always, but everyone was gone. Felix was in meetings, so I tracked down Emilio. I knew you’d come out here, and thankfully Emilio fessed up pretty quickly.”
“Come on,” Rider urged. “We need to keep moving.”
“Hang on.” Dax pulled his pack over his shoulder and shuffled through until he found a bottle of water. He took a long swig while Rider anxiously scanned the horizon. “Need a drink?” He held the bottle toward me when he finished.
“No. But thanks.”
Rider shifted on his feet. I was ready to keep moving, too. Finally, Dax loaded up again and signaled he was ready to keep walking.
“He and Aiden are back at the van.”
“Aiden’s here, too?”
“Someone had to drive us.” Dax shrugged. We were going to be in so much trouble when we got back.
So if Emilio was here, that meant Felix was probably still at work, watching the beacon from my tracker on his screen. He had no idea what was going on. Did the Embers know? We weren’t near any of their camps that I was aware of, but there was a lot I still didn’t know about them.
I marched on with Rider and Dax, my head pounding from where I was hit with the knife handle. My palms were scraped up and my legs were sore, but I was free from the horrible Exiled men, and that was enough to keep me walking for days if I needed to.
Eventually Rider pulled away from the river back into the woods. “The van should be right up this way.”
We were just a short distance from safety, and I couldn’t wait to get home. It was time to tell the Leadership the truth about the Exiled camps. Hopefully they would understand how horrible these men were and leave the Embers alone. I would personally volunteer to help them see the difference, because pretending everyone Outside was the same just wasn’t cutting it anymore. Dimitri was right. We needed to use force against these people.
Rider stopped abruptly. “Did you hear that?”
He put his arm out to stop me as well. Dax and I froze, straining our ears. There was shouting up ahead.
Rider turned to Dax, his fierce eyes somehow a shade darker. “Stay with Claren. Keep her safe.”
“No way!” I pushed past Rider, running ahead. “They found Emilio and Aiden. We’ve gotta get up there!”
Dax caught me by the wrist. “Stop, Claren. It’s dangerous.”
I yanked it free. “Do you both have loaded weapons?”
“Yeah.” Both men lifted their guns.
“Good. All they have is my stun gun and a shovel. I was there with them. I saw it. We can take them out.”
Rider shook his head. “No. It’s our job to keep you safe.”
“What about
the others? They’re not safe right now at all!”
“Come on, man. There’s no time to talk. We need to get up there.” Dax briskly moved ahead. “Besides, she’ll keep fighting until we let her go anyway. Let’s just get on with it. They need our help.”
Rider clenched his jaw, but he didn’t object. Together we jogged forward wordlessly to save our team. The shouting turned into grunts as we got closer, until we were finally able to make out Aiden’s silhouette through the trees, throwing punches left and right. I knew it. They were unarmed. That’s likely why they wanted to know so much about our weapons.
Once again, I wished Aiden would just shoot. I wanted to call out to him. To tell him our cover was up. They knew we were watching them. We didn’t need them alive anymore. While I would never wish another human dead, these men weren’t human. They were horrid, evil creatures who had to be stopped.
Dax didn’t waste any time bursting into the clearing by Aiden’s side.
“It’s about time.” Aiden grinned. Combat was his happy place.
Together they were able to take out the two men Aiden had been facing alone. Rider had his gun extended in front of him, moving around the van to clear it from any other dangers. And I immediately swung the side door open to check on Emilio.
His eyes were saucers, his heart beating an erratic combination of fear and exhilaration. “Claren! You’re okay!”
“Thanks to you.” I smiled. “I really might not have made it if you hadn’t led the team out here. I owe you my life, Emilio.”
His cheeks flushed. Emilio wasn’t used to saving lives. But it was true. His drone found me.
“I’m glad to see you guys are alright, too,” I added.
“It was the craziest thing.” He leaned forward, gesturing wildly with his hands. “These two men just came running out of the woods, pounding on the outside of the van and shouting at us. They were out of control! Aiden wanted to run them over—”
I cringed, remembering the fate of the rancher.
“—but I told him we had to keep them alive. So he jumped out and beat their faces in instead.”
Chill bumps ran up and down my arms. “Shh. Emilio, hang on.”
I wasn’t going to ignore the feeling again. Crazy or not, I had to trust my instincts. I peered out the window, and once again, saw nothing. Poking my face out of the door, I called out to Rider.
“Hey! Double-check the perimeter. I have a feeling we might not be alone.”
He nodded grimly, and I was glad he didn’t argue. He walked around the driver’s side of the vehicle, scouring the woods with his eyes. The others did the same, Aiden checking the back of the van and Dax checking around the front.
My heart was thumping against my eardrums again, drowning out the rest of the world. I can’t say that I was even surprised when the shot rang out. I was just horrified.
It was Dax who fired first. I saw two figures emerging quickly from the trees, running toward us without abandon. He’d missed.
Charlie from the shed was coming after him, and Aiden moved to intercept him, shouting a colorful stream of expletives along the way. With a surprising act of speed and agility, Charlie swerved to avoid Aiden’s incoming pounding and pulled out a gun. My stun gun. With an electric zap, I watched Aiden hit the road. He was out of commission for a bit. Dax and Rider would have to finish cleaning up.
Dax paused for a fraction of a second, just long enough to see that Aiden was stunned, not dead, and I felt something within him shift. Dax was unafraid. He was mad. Livid. He whipped back up and raised his gun toward Charlie, but he didn’t realize that Milo held a gun too.
Dangerous, wild, insane, terrorist Milo. With a gun. I called out to him. “Daaaax!” but it was too late.
Bang, bang, bang, bang. Four shots. Rapid-fire. Unfocused. Poorly aimed. But effective.
Emilio cried out in pain beside me. Blood was pouring from an open wound in his calf. A stray bullet came in through the open door and got him. I wished it had gotten me instead.
Rider wasted no time returning shots of his own, but his were precise. One to Milo’s right shoulder. One to his hip. It was enough to take him down and prevent any other shots from being fired, but not enough to kill him. Good. I wanted him to suffer.
Charlie had regained enough charge by then to fire off another shot. Rider ducked behind the van, rendering the stun ineffective. Then with one more quick shot, he brought Charlie to the ground as well. With both attackers down, I was able to breathe, the rush of oxygen clearing my brain and feeding my muscles enough to thrust me into adrenaline-filled action.
I yanked off my jacket and threw it to Emilio. “Wrap this around your leg! I’ll be right back.”
I hopped out of the vehicle, dropping to Dax’s body, surrounded by glass from the windows and sticky with his own blood. I took his hand and felt a weak pulse. His face was calm, at peace. And his eyes barely focused on me as I leaned in.
“Stay with us Dax. We got them. We’ll get you some help. Just hang on.”
He didn’t speak. A cough gurgled from the back of his throat, and dark blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
Oh, Dax. No. “Come on, Dax.” My voice was trembling, desperate as I pleaded with him. “You’re strong. You can do this. You need to hang on. I need you to hang on.”
Milo chuckled from his own crimson pool a few yards away. I turned to face him, heat rising in my chest.
“More boyfriends. Man, princess. Am I ever gonna get a shot?”
A gun rested on the cracked road a few inches from his shaky hand. The gun that shot my men. It was John Michael’s gun. Had he killed John Michael with it too?
My world blurred at the edges. All I saw was Milo. My insides felt like they were on fire. I hated him. I hated him with every cell of my body. Fueled by the flames of disgust burning inside, I marched over and picked up the gun. It was cold and heavy in my hand. Deadly. Trembling, I held it pointed out at Milo’s sick, twisted face, grinning at me from the road below.
“Claren, no!” Rider wrapped his arms around me, pulling me away from the devil himself. He pulled the gun from my hand and led me back to the van. “We need him alive. We need to bring him to the Leadership, so the Embers can stay alive. They need to see it. They need to get information from him.”
“But John Michael! And Dax!” My words were slurred, sobs wracking my body.
I dropped to the ground again, shaking as I reached out to Dax. “I’m so sorry. I’m so so sorry, Dax. I didn’t know they had a real gun. I didn’t know!”
The light was already gone from his eyes. I crumpled into a heap on the road, all the commotion surrounding me fading into nothing at all. Why couldn’t it have been me? Why?
Rider placed a hand on my shoulder. “Come on, Claren. It’s time to go.”
“No!” I shoved his hand away.
I couldn’t go. Not yet. More lives were lost because of me. My very existence threatened everyone around me. I was a horrible human being. I didn’t deserve to be alive while good men fell all around me. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair.
“Claren.” Rider spoke again, his voice soothing and calm through the chaos of my thoughts. I clenched my eyes tight, refusing to see the damage I’d done again. I couldn’t move. I could barely breathe. He picked me up and held me tight against his chest, allowing me to cry into him until my shaking stopped and my eyes went dry. It was only then that I noticed we weren’t alone.
Four Protector’s vehicles from Classen City had encircled us. Milo and Dax were picked up. Emilio was being tended to a few yards away. And Felix was by our side.
“Thank you, Rider. I can take her now.”
“Felix!” I gasped.
He pulled me close, rubbing my back. “I’ve got you now. I’ve got you.”
CHAPTER 27
“How long have you been here?”
“Just long enough to assess the damage,” Felix said with a frown.
“Is Dax really gone?” I knew the answ
er, but I needed to hear it from someone else. I needed the confirmation.
Felix swallowed, his eyes hazy with grief. “Yes. And John Michael. And two of the Exiled men as well.”
My shattered heart couldn’t break anymore. The tears were all cried out. It was just a statement of fact at that point.
“And the Worker who brought the cattle? Did you find him?”
“Yes. He’s in critical condition, but alive for now. They took him back to the medical center. I haven’t heard any updates.”
I nodded. That was good news at least. There was just one more person I needed to know about.
“There was a man named Milo. The one Rider shot. Is he still alive?”
Felix’s jaw tensed. “Yes. Dimitri took him and the other four men who worked with him back to Classen City for interrogation.” He looked at my neck and back to my eyes. “Is he the one who hurt you?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“Did he...” Felix hesitated, his nostrils slightly flared, “did he do anything else to you?”
“No.” I touched Felix’s arm. His muscles were tight and his breathing heavy.
“Good. Because I would have to kill him if he touched you inappropriately. I hate that he touched you at all.”
“After everything else he did, I wouldn’t mind if you killed him anyway.”
Felix studied me. He looked as though he was really considering it.
A familiar syrupy voice drew my attention back to the crowd that had gathered nearby. “Claren, darling. I’m so glad you are alright.”
“What is she doing here?” I whispered to Felix as Emmaline turned in our direction. Only she would wear high heels to the wilds Outside. She strutted toward us as though she didn’t even notice the debris littering the broken road.
Felix answered quietly. “I had to notify the Leadership that you were in danger. It was the only way to get the help you needed.”