Revolutionary Love (The Revolution Series Book 1)

by Jessica Miller

  Adam chuckled next to me, obviously liking my sense of humor. Nobody else commented.

  "Now isn't the time for jokes." David scolded.

  His voice sounded just like my father’s years ago when he had to be stern with me. I couldn't get in the habit of viewing him as my dad. He was so different, yet the same. A stranger, but so familiar.

  My little joking mood passed and instead, sadness took over.

  "Where do you think they are taking us?" Chantel asked.

  "To Stephan. We have Seth and we have Evelyn. They wouldn't dare go anywhere else." Ares’s voice was rough. Cold. Factual.

  "What do you think Stephan will do to me?" My voice was small.

  I remembered Stephan too well. He was a dark man. No emotion and no heart. I couldn't let him figure out I wasn't actually his daughter. Maybe he would have mercy on me.

  "Torture you." Ares said it in a flat voice like it was inevitable.

  My heart skipped a beat.

  "He won't get that far." Seth's voice was ominous. Dark.

  Ares chuckled. A deep, unhappy chuckle. "I feel worse for you than I do for Evelyn. We all know you were his second man."

  Worry blossomed in my stomach. Seth had said Stephan knew Seth was working for the rebellion. What if he had been wrong? What would happen when Stephan saw David? David said at one point him and Stephan were close.

  Everything was spiraling down into a dark circle. Anxiety overtook me. When the semi came to a halt, I bit my tongue. A copper taste filled my mouth. This was it. It was over. The running. The hiding.

  I blinked against the sunlight when the door opened. I couldn't see for a good five seconds. When my eyes finale adjusted, I was surprised to see we were still on the dirt road.

  Only one soldier stood at the opening. He had a mean look in his eyes. He pointed at me. "You. Come here."

  I scooted more towards the back. I was not going over there.

  "Leave her be." Adam spat.

  The soldier looked at him and gave him a mocking look. "Have you not learned your lesson yet?"

  I looked at the blood that was still coming from Adams busted lip. He was going to get himself hurt even more. I stood on shaky legs.

  "Sit back down Evelyn." Adam demanded.

  "Come here or I'll blow everyone's brains out." I could tell by the cold look in the soldier’s eyes that he meant it.

  That settled it. I hopped out of the semi as fast as I could. I barely landed on my feet. With a loud bang, he closed the metal door.

  Roughly, he grabbed me by my arm and dragged me towards a little house. We were on a farm. It reminded me off the little barn house that Adam took me too.

  Mare's happy laugh popped into my head but got squashed by the memory of her fearful scream. What happened to that little girl? Was she safe? Was she fed? Was she somewhere warm and happy or was she lost in this cruel place we call our home?

  "Where are we going?" I asked, diverting myself from my painful thoughts.

  The solder didn't respond. We were much closer to the smoke now. It looked to only be a few miles away.

  I looked behind me when I heard the semi start-up. It slowly rolled down the little hill. I was alone now. Separated from the group. Dread filled me. Maybe they would be safer in there than wherever I was going.

  I expected the soldier to lead me inside the house, but instead he took me around back to a little shed.

  "Inside." He shoved me through the wooden doors.

  It smelt musty and foul in there. I took a step back and bumped into the soldier when I saw chains hanging from the roof. Dried up blood was splattered on the floor. One metal chair sat in the middle of the room. The soldier shoved me towards it, then handcuffed my wrists to the arms of the chair.

  "Have fun." The soldier remarked, then left.

  Stephan walked in right after him. I had not seen him in so long, I almost forgot what he looked like. Raven, black hair was pulled into a clean ponytail on the back of his neck. His eyes were black. He wore one of his fancy suits but kept the tie loosened at his neck.

  Stephan watched me with a sharp gaze. He took in the bruising on my cheek, the scars, and my appearance.

  "I never thought I would see you like this, Evelyn."

  Stephan's voice made me cringe. It was so calm, so even, but it scared me. He scared me way more than the diseased. He was an intelligent man. He had to be smart in order to take over America. It was a big country.

  Stephan crouched in front of me and made us at eye level. "What made you do it?" Hawk eyes watched every emotion flash across my face.

  "Do what?" I croaked.

  "Join the rebellion." Stephan tilted his head.

  His presence was overbearing. I wanted to get as far away from him as I could. I needed to get away. I scooted the chair back a little, and he roughly drug it forward.

  "You know I had your entire future set out for you. I had everything planned. You were going to sleep in a warm bed every night, have food in your stomach, and lead a country. This is how you thank me? By turning your back on me? Betraying me." Stephan stood and laughed a dark laugh. "No." He paced back and forth in front of me. "I know why you did all this." Stephan paused and watched my hands clench on the arm rest.

  "Why?" I knew he wanted me to ask, so I gave him what he wanted.

  "Your memory loss. Ever since that bombing it's like you are a completely different human being. You're not you anymore. I forgive you. I do not blame you, but you need to accept the consequences for your actions." Something gleamed in Stephan's eyes.

  "What are the consequences?" I stumbled over my words. My tongue felt heavy in my mouth. I could barely hear him over the loud beat of my heart.

  Stephan gave me a bone-chilling smile. "Tomorrow we will go to Louisville. We will have a town meeting. You get to watch everyone you have ever come into contact with since leaving The Unit get executed."

  I dropped my head. "No." He could not be serious. He was bluffing. There was no way he would be able to kill all those people. That was mass murder. That was terrorism.

  My father's beautiful hazel eyes flashed across my mind. Adam's hopeful smile. Seth's confidence. Chantel's stubbornness. The way Ares was willing to sacrifice his life for others. They were all good people who didn't deserve to die.

  "They are parasites. They are no good for the country. They give people false hope. They don't understand. They can defeat me, assassinate me, but there will always be another me. Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Ronald Trump. All men who took over an entire country and took away 'justice' and 'freedom'. Let the poor stay at the bottom and the rich at the top."

  I scrunched my face in disgust. I couldn't help it and I couldn't hide it. I had always believed in freedom. The right to do what made you happy. Now I was living in a world where most people didn't know what freedom was and it was all because of this man.

  His gaze was heavy and dark. Impossible to read.

  The door swung open again. Stephan didn't turn around to look, but my jaw dropped at the sight. Seth stood there. He wasn't doing anything, but just standing there.

  He had a gun on his hip.

  "Shoot him!" I shouted at Seth.

  Why wasn't he doing anything? Stephan's lips quirked at the sides. He watched me struggle with the restraints. He would hurt Seth. I had to save him. The cuffs bit into my skin.

  Seth had blank eyes. Empty eyes. Much like the first night that I had met him. He didn't look like that humane man that was willing to sacrifice his life for me.

  Stephan turned and looked at Seth. "You did a great job."

  I stopped my struggling. What was he talking about?

  "Thank you, sir."

  They shook hands, then looked at me again.

  My jaw was open and my eyes were wide.

  "I'm sure by now you can tell that Seth works for me, not the rebellion." Stephan said.

  Was Seth still playing his role of being Stephan's second man? I thought he had said Stephan knew he worked fo
r the rebellion? A terrible feeling corrupted my stomach. I felt like I was going to puke.

  Stephan tilted his head. "I'll leave you two to talk." And he with a nod of his head, he left.

  Seth didn't say anything. He just watched me panic and try and escape from the restraints. Blood trickled down my wrists and dripped onto the wooden floor boards.

  "Let me out!" I screamed at him. My throat sounded thick with tears. In my gut I knew, but I was still hoping I was wrong.

  Seth shook his head. "I can't do that."

  "Why not?" I cried. "We need to save everyone! Adam! Your brother. Is he still in the semi?"

  Seth knelt in front of me and looked into my eyes. "You're a great girl, Brianna. You're always wanting to save people, but how about right now you just save yourself."

  I bit my lip to keep it from trembling. "What do you mean?" I was lost. Completely lost.

  "Just don't fight it. Go with what Stephan says if you want to live."

  I looked at Seth with hopeful eyes. "And then we can save everyone?"

  A strand of Seth's copper hair hung in his black eyes. "No." His tone was flat.

  "What is going on?" I slumped in defeat. I needed answers and right now Seth was my only way to get them.

  "I've never worked for the rebellion."

  I stiffened. Yes, he did. He had to. I watched him. He was a good person. I was never wrong about my intuition with people.

  "I have always been on Stephan's side. It was easy to make everyone think I worked for the rebellion with my family being a part of the rebels."

  My face contorted into disgust. "How could you work for Stephan? He murdered your parents."

  "It was easy. I picked a side. The winning side."

  The winning side. Stephan and The Unit were the winning sides.

  I shook my head in disbelief. "You are lying."

  "Why would I lie to you about this? It's only you and me are in here. Nobody else. No reason for false pretenses."

  I hung my head. "Nothing makes sense."

  "Yes, it does. You're just denying it. How do you think you guys escaped after your trial with all the trained soldiers there? Did you really think it would be that easy to get away?"

  I haven't thought about how easy it was to get away. Now I just thought we were lucky.

  "I was sent there by Stephan. We knew life's had to be lost on both sides. We needed the group scattered up. Weaker in numbers."

  I furrowed my eyebrows. "Why have me shoot you? I thought you were dead." My mouth felt dry. I attempted to swallow a few times. What was going on?

  "If I stayed with The Unit and nothing happened to me after I got you how, people would get suspicious."

  Everything was slowly clicking in my brain. The light bulb was finally lighting up.

  "You knew Rugter would take me to the trial. You knew I would break him out. Every move we made, you knew we would make it." He had predicted everything.

  Seth nodded. He smiled when he saw I was finally understanding. "Not only did you guys lead us to a group of enforcers, a safe haven for people, and David. The leader of the rebellion. After word gets out that the man at the top was caught, there is no safe haven anymore, and a huge number of enforcers are caught, the rebellion will fall apart. There will be no rebellion."

  I suddenly felt cold. My heart felt cold. Seth betrayed not only his family but me. In the time that I had known him, I had grown fond of him. I mourned his death. I mourned his parent’s death. I had cared about him. He betrayed us all. He tricked everybody.

  He was a cold and condescending man. He seemed satisfied when he saw hate flash across my eyes. I wanted to punch him. To hurt him. To make him feel everything that I was feeling.

  People trusted him. Relied on him. This whole time he was truly a monster.

  "There we go," he murmured. "Now you see."

  Seth stood so that he was standing over me. "You can follow along side with Stephan and me, or you can go down with your friends."

  "They were your friends too." I said with disgust.

  Seth seemed unfazed. "They chose their side and I chose mine."

  "You betrayed them." You betrayed me.

  "The world is full of betrayal."

  I snapped at him. "Is that what you tell yourself to help you sleep at night?"

  Seth crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm getting tired of your attitude. I want you to listen to me and I want you to listen to me closely. You still have your innocence and I admire that. I understand somewhat that you were born in a different time frame. You are unused to the way things are here. I suggest that you keep that to yourself. If Stephan thinks you're crazy he will kill you on the spot. You will be of no use to him. If you want to keep your life, you will obey the laws and you will obey Stephan. Let go of your friends. Live your life. Being on Stephan’s side you will survive. You will fall asleep in a warm bed every night and you will never go hungry. Go against Stephan and you will die. There is no way for you to get out of this situation. He thinks your memories are gone. He thinks you’re reborn. Let him think that. Let him think you did all this for your brother. For family. He will think you will do anything for him as well because he is your blood. Swallow your pride and do what's best."

  I clamped my mouth shut and didn't speak. Seth seemed to want me to live. To follow him and Stephan. Why? Was there something else he wasn't telling me? I tried to read his eyes, even his face. He held a perfect mask in place. I wanted to crack that mask and truly see what was on the inside. Was it ugly? Would it be a monster inside of him that he was truly hiding?

  Why go through all this trouble to shut the rebellion down? Why was he doing this?

  I looked away. I wanted the mask on his face. I wanted to be able to hide my emotions with ease.

  I was in pain. My father was out there in the semi. He was going to die and I just got him back. We haven't even talked about it yet. About what happened. Why this happened. He was still a stranger to me and I wanted to re-get to know him.

  "I am going to take the handcuffs off. You are going to follow me into the house without a fight. Tomorrow we leave at dawn for the executions. You will obey Stephan. You will not put up a fight. It's over Brianna and there is nothing you can do about it."

  I held still as Seth unlocked the handcuffs from my wrists. I rubbed them getting blood on my hands in the process.

  Head hanging low, I followed Seth across the dry grass.

  He had said it was over. What he didn't understand about me was, as long as I was alive and breathing, it would never be over.

  Chapter Twenty

  They locked me in a bedroom. Much like the one I got put in before. A huge comfortable bed, a working shower, and a steaming meal on the bedside table.

  I scarfed the food down, then felt guilty after. Everyone else was suffering in a cold, metal semi. I got leisure.

  I took advantage of the hot shower and clean clothes. I didn't dare look at my reflection in the mirror. I didn't want to see my battered body and my battered face.

  If I attempted to escape, I'd get shot on sight. Seth made that clear enough. I didn't want to give up either. I curled into the fluffy comforter and squeezed my eyes shut.

  What was I supposed to do? Give up? Keep trying? I couldn't bare giving up. I had made it this far. All the times that I faced undeniable death, I had survived.

  Adam wouldn't give up. Even after he got beat by the soldiers, he was still willing to defend me. He was a true friend. One I didn't deserve.

  Climbing out of bed, I walked over to the window. There was a full moon outside. It cast a gentle glow on the grass. I could see soldiers walking around with flashlights.

  I was surprised when the window opened. I had assumed it would be locked just like my bedroom door. There was no screen and I was on the first story.

  An ice cold breeze drifted through the open window. I shivered and shut it. It was a trap. I knew it had to be. They wouldn't take the precaution of locking me in here to leave a
window open. They wouldn't put me on the first floor.

  They were testing me to see if I would run. I backed up until my knees hit the bed and sat down. I wouldn't run, not yet. I couldn't when they were expecting it. I would be setting myself up for failure.

  I didn't sleep. I couldn't sleep. All night I tossed and turned on that bed. It felt like an eternity before someone finally opened the door.

  I shut my eyes and kept my breathing even. Footsteps led to the bed.