THE ELECTED (Fighting Freedom Book 2)

by Paige Clendenin

  “Hide,” is all I can get out.

  We all scramble into various directions, some of us dodging behind trees while others attempt to scale down the ravine. Leah, Mar, and I have ended up in a small cluster of bushes surrounded by boulders. As Mar and Leah huddle together to make themselves less visible, I can’t help but peek out for confirmation that everyone has made it to safety. I can see well enough from between two rocks, the person pursuing us is a man, but I can’t see him well enough to know if we should know who he is or where he has come from, but what I do know is he is not wearing anything like the people from The Force or The Force Field. He has on a light brown pair of pants and a multi colored shirt with buttons and a collar.

  At first glance, this man does not look like a threat, but for some reason, he is following us. I look from side to side to make for certain each of the members of our group has made it to safety, but then I see him, sitting on the ground and only twenty yards away from our intruder.

  I hold my breath as I see the stranger coming closer and closer to him. He is sliding backwards to get further away from the man coming into view. I know now I have no clue who this new man is, but he is becoming increasingly aware of the member of our group on the ground, trying to get away with every second.

  The stranger reaches behind his back, bringing forth a large gun that must have been holstered back there. It is like no gun that I have ever seen. He raises it up to his eye, centering it straight on the man on the ground. Pleas ring out from the man at the end of the gun to not shoot, but to no avail.

  I close my eyes with sick satisfaction, hold my breath, and hear the shot ring out. I open my eyes just in time to see Morimoto’s lifeless body hit the ground. I guess his brother, the President of The Elected, will never see him again. I wonder if Samantha left him there on purpose or didn’t think she had enough time to hide him and her too? Before the thought can process in my mind, a deep voice calls out into the woods.

  “Alright, I know you are out here, come out with your hands up!”

  Chapter Three

  I look from Mar and Leah to Morimoto Chi’s body. Besides a small sketch on parchment paper of a map to The Elected Headquarters that I keep in my backpack that Gavin gave me, Morimoto was the only one who truly knew how to get us there as well as our only leverage we had against his brother.

  A sick feeling hits me, and all I want to do is throw up. Morimoto is dead, and my backpack is back in the utility vehicle, I didn’t grab it! A hopelessness creeps in, knowing I may have cost us our only way of ever finding Syl and Shae, or ending The Division. Knowing yet again I have stood between my family’s success and our loss, I slowly reach into the air and become the first one from our group to step out and surrender myself to the stranger.

  I have a plan…I think.

  Mar tries to grab at my ankle as I stand up taller, passing her and Leah to expose myself. It takes the man a moment to see me. I toss my gun down at his feet, letting him know that I don’t have any intentions of shooting him, but I do keep it in mind that Jake or Samantha could take him out if they had a good vantage point. That would comfort me more if I actually knew where they are hiding.

  “Who are you?” I ask, mustering up every ounce of bravery I have. It doesn’t work though; my voice still cracks a bit.

  “Don’t mind who I am just yet,” the man says. “Jake Anthony,” he yells out in the direction of the ravine. “I know you are out here too. Come out with your hands behind your head.”

  I look at him, puzzled. How can a man I have no idea who he is know who Jake is? There is only a handful of people I am aware of who know what his real last name is. Most people call him Jake Cole. He had once told me that only his true family knew his last name as Anthony.

  “I am only going to ask you once more, who are you?” I ask again, using even more authority.

  “I will tell you in enough time who I am, but for now, Elizabeth, tell me where Samantha King and Magi Clarkson are!”

  How does he know us? No one at The Force except for Jake and my family know I am Elizabeth instead of just Liz.

  “Magi who?” I ask, half playing dumb. I know who Magi is, but I have never once known her last name. Part of me feels guilty for lying, but I would do just about anything to save the people I love.

  “Oh, Elizabeth, I know you are not stupid so…unless you are alone, which is not possible,” he says, “you are out here with Magi Clarkson, Jacob Anthony, Samantha King, Leah Brown, Bradly Miller, Isaac and Maria Lopez, and your twin brother, Elious Towers. Oh yeah, and this guy Morimoto Chi, brother of the President of The Elected,” he says, as he points to Morimoto’s dead body with the end of his gun.

  I am speechless. I mean, who is this guy?

  “I’m alone, I assure you,” I finally say still trying to sound sure of myself. I can’t tell if he is buying or not…probably not, because I’m not.

  “Yeah, right, I believe that. Now, unless your friends start showing themselves soon, I am going to begin opening fire on the woods and ravine. And something tells me that you don’t want that to happen. I can tell by your face they are with you,” he finishes with a grin.

  Not the evil kind of grin, but the one that reassures you he knows I would never allow that to happen. “It’s only me,” I say again, as confidently as possible. “Our vehicle broke down…the rest of them took off looking for help while I stayed behind to guard him.” I point to Morimoto. “I saw you coming and headed into the woods with him because I was scared we would be spotted…I didn’t know if you were from The Elected or not.”

  “Oh, I know your vehicle broke down,” the man smiles, ignoring everything else I said.

  “You did it, didn’t you,” I spit the accusation at him.

  “Now tell me Liz...how do you propose I made your transmission go out while you were driving down the road going sixty miles per hour?” He smiles again.

  “How?” I ask, wanting to know the answer myself.

  “Let’s just say I’m a good shot, and you never knew it was coming or heard it when it did. Now, I’m going to ask you once more. Where are the others?” He finishes his question through gritted teeth.

  “I told you, I am alone… or I am now,” I say, looking at Chi to try to seal my lie.

  “Not that I believe you, but you are coming with me,” he says as he walks closer to me. “You will have to do until we find the others, I can’t return without them.” He bends over and picks up my gun. With his gun in one hand and mine in the other, he empties my gun of its ammo. He then hands me the empty gun.

  “Here, hold this for me, you won’t need any ammo where you are going,” he says as he picks my ammo up and pockets it.

  “I’m not your servant, so don’t treat me like one,” I shout out as I get the smart idea to try to smash the barrel of my AK-47 into this strange knowledgeable man’s head. As I go down for the blunt force of it, he blocks the hit with the barrel of his own gun in seconds.

  He doesn’t bother to have a comeback or take the gun from me, he simply smiles and takes me by the arm, dragging me away from my family and towards the road. I hold my breath and pray the others will stay hidden and let me be the only one taken. There would be no point in me giving myself up if they don’t let me do this.

  “Stop!” I hear a voice call out from behind me after taking only a few steps towards the road.

  “Oh, come on, Eli, you couldn’t have stayed quiet for two more minutes?” I yell at the top of my lungs in disbelief. My back is to him, but I knew it is my brother immediately. I really would have guessed Mar would have been the first to step out, but he beat her to it.

  “You’re not taking my sister,” Eli demands, holding his gun pointed towards the stranger. The man spins us around, shoves me to the ground, and turns his own gun on my brother. I try to get up, but the stranger puts a boot to my upper thigh and takes his shot. This time, I don’t think I can open my eyes. The whole thing whirls by in seconds.

  “That will tea
ch you to lie to me,” the man says while looking down at me. He spits in the dirt beside my head and lets his foot off my thigh. A throbbing pain remains where he had put his weight into that size eleven boot on my leg.

  I look up to see my brother standing up instead of lying dead on the ground. To my surprise, he is upright, and in shock, but most of all, he is unharmed. However, his gun is in pieces on the ground beside him. The man was accurate enough to shoot at Eli while holding me down and hit only his gun.

  “I told you I was a good shot,” he boasts as he backs away from me a few feet. He knows now I won’t run from him since my brother has revealed himself. The man allows me to run to Eli. Between this super shooter and the ravine, we are literately stuck between a rock and a hard place. Also, not knowing where the others are puts us at an even larger disadvantage. Do we allow this stranger to take the both of us so they get the chance to escape, or let them reveal themselves and hope for the best? I don’t see a silver lining anywhere unless someone other than me has a plan.

  “Ok, this cuts down on my work,” he says. “The two of you will do, although I would sure like to get my hands on all of you!”

  “What work?” Eli asks.

  “The work of tracking you all down,” he answered. “I was given a list of who I needed and who I didn’t, so here I am, making good on my errand. I have a very anxious boss awaiting your arrival.”

  “What do you want with us? What does your boss want with us?” Eli demands again.

  “Who is your boss?” I ask even though I know deep down he does not have any intentions on telling either one of us anything. At least not yet.

  “You will find out as soon as we get the rest of your group,” he smiles. “Let’s just say you are needed. Plus, my guess is they are out here somewhere since little miss lied.”

  He looks around, aiming his gun high into the air and lets out a shot. Leah squeals in fear, giving up her and Mar’s location. Another shot rings into the air as a confirmation he had heard her squeals.

  “Come on out here girly, with your hands up,” he demands.

  Slowly, Leah comes out from behind the rocks and brush, Mar following behind her. They both throw their small guns at the man’s feet. He promptly discharges their ammunition and hands their weapons back to them.

  Neither one of them tries the stunt I did, probably because they watched it unfold.

  Mar hangs from Eli’s arm while Leah looks around frantically. My guess is she is wondering if Shawn will show himself or not. I don’t know if she is hoping he does or doesn’t.

  “So now we are missing Isaac, Magi, Samantha, Brad, and Jake, right?” He asks the question to no one in general. It is almost as if he is checking a list off in his head.

  “It’s Shawn,” Leah blurts out, “not Brad. Don’t you dare call him that.”

  “Yeah, okay, so who will we work on showing themselves now?” he asks, while grabbing me from behind by my hair, ignoring Leah altogether. “Can you tell who we are going for now?” he whispers to me. “It’s kind of a fun little game…now isn’t it?”

  “Fun! Ha! Jake, don’t come out,” I yell into the void. “Don’t let this sadistic sicko get his way.”

  “Oh yes Jake, don’t come and be the hero,” the man mocks me. “Don’t save the damsel in distress from the sadistic sicko,” he grins in mock enthusiasm.

  Anger rises in me.

  It is almost like he knows it would take something extreme for Jake to give up his position. He puts his gun to my temple as I freeze in fear. I don’t feel he will shoot me, but looking at Morimoto’s body I am not so sure if he is stable enough to make a wise decision. He says that we are needed, so that may mean he wouldn’t kill any of us. Although, we don’t know for sure if more than Morimoto is on his kill list.

  Seconds seem like minutes as I hold my breath, hoping he will never give himself up. As I am standing here in this man’s arms with a gun pushed against my head, I begin to wonder why I even gave myself up.

  Loudly, a shot rings out from nowhere, but I know it didn’t come from the man’s gun because I am still standing here unharmed. I look around, seeing no one anywhere. As I am looking around, though, I can feel a sickly wet feeling oozing down my arm. I look up to see where the bullet made contact.

  The man reaches up, pulling the bullet from his shoulder as if it doesn’t hurt one bit. The only guess that it does is a small grunt that escapes his lips as the bullet comes free from where it made contact. I notice from the hole, he is wearing a kind of thick vest under his t-shirt. The bullet grazed the side of the vest, half missing the fabric, half contacting his skin, but only barely. The blood is already slowing down.

  “You’re going to have to do better than that,” he yells out, angrier than before, as he presses the gun harder to the side of my head. My breath hitches with the intense pain that the pressure causes me. I didn’t know the gun could get any closer to my skin, but by now, it feels like it is imbedded there. I let out a painful groan as I feel a trickle of blood run down my face. I don’t think I can take much more of the pain this is causing me. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see an M-16 slide from over the top of the ravine.

  A sick feeling sinks into the pit of my already nauseas stomach. The man walks me over to where the gun is resting. He leans over and discharges all its ammo, but this time into the air, one shot at a time, rather than onto the ground.

  “It has been a long time since I have got to shoot one of these,” he smiles against my ear. “Just enjoying myself; this one may be mine.” He tosses the gun back to the ground and backs us up to our previous location, but nothing more happens. “You have until the count of three to show yourself,” he demands. “Or she dies,” he begins to count. “One…Two…” Just as the number three begins to escape his mouth, Jake climbs over the top of the ravine, hands high in the air.

  Chapter Four

  I know deep down Jake would never show himself if it wasn’t a last resort, I wonder if he has a plan of some kind. Shawn, Samantha, Magi, and Zac are the only ones still out there that could help us, unless he and one of them have an idea of how to get us out of this mess, I don’t know what we will do.

  “Stand by them,” the stranger says as he points at the group of our friends that have already been found. “Don’t get any bright ideas like reloading your weapons. I have a keen eye and am an expert marksman… You wouldn’t get that far.” He snickers in the joy of thinking he is gaining the upper hand. “After all, you saw what I did with Eli’s gun didn’t you?”

  Jake walks over towards Eli, Mar, and Leah, picking up his gun as he goes. Slowly, the pressure from the gun to my head and my hair being pulled releases, and I begin to walk toward Jake, the stranger matching me step for step. As soon as I reach the group, he grabs Mar by the hair and begins to pull her away from Eli.

  Eli starts to reach for her but with little usefulness.

  “I wouldn’t,” the man says, pointing his gun at Eli yet again.

  It has also become increasingly obvious that this man and his gun are running things around here.

  Standing back where he and I were just moments ago, Mar has taken my place. I can tell by the look on her face she is trying to be brave. Most likely for her little brother’s sake, but it could also be to show this man that he doesn’t own us.

  “Come on, little brother,” he says.

  I look around, trying to see if Zac will give up his location or not. He would always choose saving his sister over his own safety, but he is nowhere to be seen.

  “Zac, you don’t have to come out if you don’t want to,” Mar yells into the void. “You be brave, ok?”

  A rustling sound comes from a tree in the near distance causing us all to look that direction. It isn’t Zac, though; it is Magi, and she is climbing down out of an old Elm tree. We all gasp in surprise, thinking she would be one of the last ones to came out.

  “What’s this?” the man asks in mock surprise. “Alright, I was trying to weed Isaac o
ut, but Magi, you will work nicely. I know all about you.”

  Magi makes her way to where Mar and the man are standing. She has both hands in the air with no gun in sight. I know she carries one, but it might be in her backpack.

  “Where do you want me?” Magi asks, “and I hardly believe you know all about me.”

  “Where is your weapon?” He asks the question I was thinking. He grabs her arm with his free hand and spins her around to face him.

  “I don’t have one,” Magi responds while mustering up the most disgusted look I have ever seen cross her face.

  “I do not believe that for a second,” he counters. “My intelligence tells me you are also good with guns. You wouldn’t be out here without one.”

  I take a good look at Magi and notice she does not have a backpack on either. That bag is the only bag which has our needed Methrodine and The Defender in it, along with some protein liquid and antibiotics, she would not risk it being taken or The Defender being discovered. She would leave it in the woods before she turned it over to the likes of him.

  “Search me,” she says, with a surprisingly cocky tone to her voice. “I have no place to hide a gun or even a knife.”

  The man forgets about Mar all together, letting her briskly walk back to our group and proceeds with checking Magi for any kind of weapon. The search is a bit more thorough than I would like to witness. To my surprise, she was telling the truth and did not even have a small blade on her.

  She must have a plan, she has to.

  As Magi distracts the man with searching for guns, a knife, or anything deadly, I notice Jake nod his head in the direction of the woods that we had come from. The nod was so slight I couldn’t tell if it was a sign or a coincidence.

  I give a small smile as I see Zac climbing out of a tree behind the man. He is followed by Shawn, and they both have their guns at the ready. Shawn has Magi’s bag on as well as his own, which makes sense as to why she doesn’t have it with her. Moments pass by, and the man has no clue they are behind him.