“I know that.” I frown. “I don’t like that part either.”
“We can do this together.” Jake smiles into my ear.
Just as he finishes the word together, a low beep comes from the alarm on his watch.
Twenty minutes until all chaos ensues.
Chapter Nineteen
Quietly, I slide out of bed and put on my white tennis shoes. Jake does the same, and yet again, I wish we had our black combat boots back. Jake allows me to walk out first as planned. I approach the opening to our Pod which exits into the commons. This time, I make a bit more noise on purpose to wake the guards.
Burt and Smith wake up, raising off their beds and approach me. It is not uncommon for them to have to get up to walk a soul to the restroom or assist with something medical, but I have not been one of those they have had to help.
“Miss Strong,” Smith says, “Can I help you with something?”
“Why, yes,” I begin, but before I say anything else, Eli and Shawn quietly emerge from their hiding places, placing a choke stance behind the two guards. Their airways are cut off so fast, they don’t have a chance to say another word. Their small guns fall to the floor with a thud. Less than twenty seconds later, Burt and Smith lay unconscious on the ground of the Pod.
We quickly slide their bodies under the bunks, motioning for the others in our group to follow. Shawn and I grab the two guards’ small Colt 45s equipped with silencers. There are four of them in total. I hand one to Jake, and I keep one. Shawn takes one as does Magi.
When we reach the commons, our large group is soon noticed by three guards patrolling the stark white room.
They soon notice our weapons, so they pull theirs out in a defensive stance. You can tell they aren’t used to having to do so. Jake, Magi, and Shawn take them out all at once. Red splatters across the floor of the crisp, white room. Dia looks away from the mess before us.
I am glad for the silencers.
Jake, Dia, my mom, and I run off towards where Nel swears our weapons are being held. Magi and Zac head up the stairs, Magi with a gun in her hand, and Zac with a stark white knife.
Down yet another hall, I can see the rest of our group go off following Eli to find Robert and Samantha.
“Right,” my mom breaths as we run the hall.
We follow.
She turns us down yet another hallway, we go left, right, then left again, until we see the walls turn from white to gun metal grey. We are running full speed towards the room our guns are supposed to be in.
Two guards once sitting, now stand up with weapons high in the air. I aim my small gun, not sure I could go from an AK-47 to a small pistol, but I shoot anyways. Both guards hit the ground.
I look down at both lifeless guards as we run past them. Two more lives I now add to the list of others, five dead people Dia has seen in less than ten minutes.
An alarm rings out from all around us, followed by an announcement.
“Newly integrated members from Pod 960 have escaped. They are considered armed and extremely dangerous. Proceed with caution. Take no prisoners, all must die, our location has been compromised. That is all.”
The voice belonged to Johnathan Timothy.
We proceed into the arms room, taking back our weapons and ammunition. Other than what belonged to us, the room is stark with not another weapon in it apart from some knives and a sword or two. They must keep all other guns with the guards.
We clean the room out of its contents, ready and willing to get out of this place. We come out into yet another hallway, but this time, it is familiar, we are just a few yards away from the silent, glass tunnel.
“Ahead of us are the offices,” I huff out of breath, holding my AK-47 at the ready.
We run over the glass walkway when the first shot rings out. The silencers made the shot hard to detect, but the whooshing of the wind created by its speed and the contact with the wall it made were a clear indication that we were being shot at. Glass breaks in all directions from the soundless all-glass and mirrored bridge walkway, including the floor.
The floor begins to crack as we run over it, pieces of it dropping to the ground of the great white common room below us. I allow Jake, my mom, and Dia to pass by me as I cover them from behind, sending random shots towards the oncoming guards. There are still five or more guards running our way with guns of their own trying to discourage our escape.
I am happy to have my gun back.
Dia lets out a scream as a bullet buzzes between her and my mom.
We have reached the door to the wall of offices. Bodies of guards lay all around, some shot, some with knife holes in them. The others must have made it before us. I take out the five guards coming our way, but there are even more running in the distance. They pause for a moment at the broken glass, where the floor has fallen out of the glass bridge, but it is sure to not hold them off for long. They attempt to shoot towards us, with little to no accuracy. To be on the safe side, I take out the rest of the glass walkway for good measure. That should buy us a little time.
The four of us run into the office of President of The Facility R. J. Timothy III. I am thrilled to see that all the members of our family have made it to our meeting place.
Magi and Zac have broken the glass from the window leading out to the stadium. Jake and I hand weapons out to the remaining members of our group. Afterwards, I bend down to Dia, handing her my stark white colt 45, still beyond happy to have my automatic back.
“This is a Colt 45 Dia,” I whisper. “This is how you load the ammo.” I show her as I go. “This is safety on, and this is how you take the safety off. Aim it at that picture, Dia.”
Our mom gives me a look but chooses to not say a word.
“I can’t do it,” Dia cries.
“Yes, you can, sweetie, now aim it at that picture.”
She picks the gun up with her chubby hands, aiming it at the photo of R. J. Timothy III.
“Breathe in,” I say, “aim, breathe out, pull the trigger,”
My little sister does as I say, putting a hole in the president’s forehead.
Too bad it was just a picture.
I stand up, handing Nel one of the small guns, hoping she took a lesson from Dia. At least now I can be happy that everyone has some sort of way of defending themselves. As I look at the others, I see Samantha is with them, she is unbound. I smile at her, but then I also see Robert is with them too, also unbound.
“Hello Elizabeth,” my father says in his husky voice.
I choose to ignore him.
My stomach drops, what in the world makes them think this man doesn’t need to be tied up.
“Later,” my brother huffs at me as he lowers Mar down on a rope they had gotten from somewhere I was un aware of.
We are on the second level of the building, but there is a row of stadium seats down below. It is a long drop, but with the rope, we might be able to make it. Jake and I are the last ones in the room. We push the large desk in front of the door, hoping to fend off guards, but they try their hardest to get in.
From below, I see guards rushing in on the others. Dia raises her gun, narrowly missing the first guard. She takes another shot, but this time it doesn’t miss. Our group easily takes them out, one guard at a time.
“It’s your turn,” Jake says, breathlessly.
I don’t waste another minute, I throw my AK-47 over my shoulder, lowering myself to the ground. When I hit the level below me, I look up to make sure Jake has made it onto the rope. Following my group, we run down onto the green of the stadium floor, Jake not far behind me.
Bullets fly all around us as we run towards the opening we came into. The guards on either side of the door have already been taken down, their guns being picked up as Shawn and Leah run by them.
Another shot rings out from somewhere above us. I spin around to see someone leaning out of the window we had just came out of. Dia, being the brave girl she is, stops, looks up, and aims her small gun at the figure.
“Run,” I yell towards her as I take her place. She does as I say, following Mar out of the stadium. I look up, catching sight of the shooter.
It’s Johnathan.
I take aim, hitting the man in the chest. He goes down where he stands. Turning around, I see a figure laying on the ground beside me.
“I love you,” the wounded person says, while clutching at the hole in her stomach.
Johnathan must have shot her.
“No, Mom!” I scream as I hit my knees beside her.
“Take care of Lydia,” she chokes as she reaches up and touches the feather pendant hanging down from my neck.
I hoist her head into my lap as I see Eli hit his knees beside me.
“Go,” she barely gets out as her fingers fall from the frills of the feather, resting on her chest.
For the next moment, we block out the gun shots, allow a moment of weakness, and say our goodbyes, as we watch our mother die, another casualty of this war.
Chapter Twenty
I don’t have a minute to cry or even feel sorry for myself, Eli, or Dia. Instead, we run as fast as we can, back through the tunnel of broken cars, back under the huge IOUSC sign carved into the broken, fallen, cement.
Eli and I bring up the rear, shooting anyone who attempts to follow us. A large metal grate begins its decent from the concrete block. I hadn’t noticed suspended overhead when we first came in. Eli and I, being the last ones in the group, escape under it with nothing to spare, but the skin of our teeth.
In the lead, Jake runs our group into a nearby roadway. We all freeze, not sure which way we should go or what we should do.
“That way,” Zac calls out. “It takes us further into the city. If I remember right, we need to go that way to get to The Elected.”
We all begin to run, but Robert, still unarmed, stays put where he stands.
“Come on,” Eli demands, as Robert stares his son in the eyes for a brief moment and then turns to begin to run the other direction.
“We need him,” I shout to Jake.
Jake spins around, grabbing the Colt 45 from Dia. He throws the safety off, aims the gun at Robert, and fires, grazing his hip, immobilizing him temporarily, but not all together.
“Get him,” Jake grunts towards Samantha as he hands my sister her gun back.
She puts the safety back on, before dropping it to her side.
“Out here you’re a sitting duck,” Eli says, walking up to the man who was once our father. “With us, you have a chance to live.”
“For now,” Samantha adds, she and Eli hoist him into a standing position, throwing his arms over their shoulders. Samantha makes sure to not be easy.
I think she likes causing people pain. Bad ones anyway.
He begins walking with us willingly, we have just taken his chances away from him of surviving on his own. For now, there is no need of him being bound, he knows we are his only hope.
Jake and Magi exchange a smile. Jake knows the shot missed all things important and it will be an easy heal, and Magi knows she can fix it at a moment’s notice. For now, he can be left thinking he is worse off than he is.
When we are a good mile away from The Facility, three trucks, matching the one we were taken in with IOUSC on them begin speeding in our direction.
“Run,” Jake yells.
We all begin to run further into the city, looking for a place to hide. The trucks are speeding our direction faster than I have ever seen a vehicle move.
“We won’t be able to outrun them for long,” Eli grunts, half dragging Robert behind he and Samantha.
“Look,” Zac yells, pointing at an opening in the road.
There is a hole in the road bigger than the ravine in the woods. The only way around it is to go back the way we came or traverse a two-foot path on the right side of it. The path is up against a very unstable looking building, making the path itself look unstable.
“If we could get across it,” I yell, “there would be no way to get to us.”
“Unless they know a way around,” Samantha says, pessimistically.
“Oh, shut up,” Mar snaps at her.
She scoffs in her direction.
“Let me go first,” Shawn offers.
He doesn’t wait for anyone to answer, he slings his gun over his shoulder, being ever so careful as to not throw his weight much in one direction or the other. The ground crumbles a bit as he walks, but he makes it to the other side.
“Now you, Leah,” he yells across, motioning her to come over to him.
Leah follows instructions.
Mar, Magi, Zac, Dia, and I go next, allowing as much space between us as possible, but now the trucks are less than two blocks away. They have slowed down, obviously noticing the hole in the road. Two guards jump out of the bed of the first truck, taking aim and shooting in our direction.
Shawn and Leah take out the first two guards as they cover the rest of us going over the walkway.
Jake makes his way over, taking aim at the front tire of the first truck. A loud noise echoes through the air as the rim of the truck hits the ground. The truck spins out of control, causing the one behind it to collide with its rear end.
Samantha, Robert, and Eli are the last to come over the ever-crumbling bridge.
Eli and Robert make it over first, leaving Samantha teetering on the edge. About half way across the path, the impact from the trucks hitting causes the first one to dive right into the very deep hole. The impact causes the remaining walkway to give way, falling into the pit itself.
“Samantha,” Magi screeches.
“Cover me,” I yell, to no one in particular. The whole of my group begins exchanging gunfire with the living guards. They appear to be coming from out of nowhere. There must have been six or seven per truck.
Trying to ignore the gunfire, I rush to the edge of the pit, trying to spot Samantha anywhere. There is so much dust thrown up from the wreckage that visibility is impossible.
“Liz,” a small voice calls out of the fog.
The dust clears just enough for me to see Samantha suspended by one hand from a very small ledge about three feet below the surface of the road.
“Hold on,” I yell down to her.
I get down on my stomach, inching closer to the edge, hoping it doesn’t give way. I can get close enough to the edge to safely reach down for her.
“A little closer,” she breaths, while trying to reach up with her free hand.
Finally, I achieve contact with her other hand.
“Swing your left leg up, and I will help you pull yourself up.”
“I think my shoulder is out of place,” she winces through the pain.
“Magi can help you when we get you up top, but for now, we have to get you out of here.”
She does as she is told and swings her foot up towards the ledge. Once it’s there, she can push up to a crouching position on one foot, although I can tell the pain is cutting through her body with every movement. Just as she pulls up to a standing position, a bullet buzzes past us, narrowly missing Samantha’s head. The guard who took the shot, dropped to the ground seconds later.
“I am going to have to thank whoever took him out later,” Samantha tries a laugh.
I pull her up the rest of the way, hoping we will be able to clear the gun shots, but before we can turn around, the gun war stops suddenly. Not another single shot rings through the air.
Looking around, it is easy to tell that each of the guards are either dead or have retreated in the third truck. At least five of them are in the truck retreating the fight.
Samantha and I hobble over to our group, hoping that everyone is still ok.
“What happened?” Dia asks, as she notices Magi on the ground.
“She got shot,” Eli says, with a frown on his face.
I look at Magi sitting on the ground. She is temporarily nursing a gunshot wound in her left bicep.
The rest of us look unharmed for the most part. Dia stands, hiding behind Mar’s le
g. Her once white dress is tattered and the color of the concrete that she stands on. We all gather our things. Two of us are shot, one with a shoulder out of place, and all of us mentally and physically exhausted. We don’t know where we are heading, all we know is that Robert Towers is going to have to be willing to take us there.
If he’s not willing, I’m sure he can be persuaded to change his mind.
Chapter Twenty-One
We spent the past five hours walking down the broken road of a city once beautiful, but now lost to all human contact. Other than that of The Facility, that is. We are becoming more needing of a place to stop for the night than I think we ever have.
It will be getting dark soon, and who knows what the city holds at night.
“We need to stop soon,” Magi says while slapping another bandage on her bleeding wound.
“I can’t feel my arm,” Samantha complains.
“Baby,” Jake smirks while bumping her on her good side.
Dia and Zac seem to have taken to each other. They have chosen to team up and help each other. Zac is a good seven years older than her, but I think he is glad to not be the youngest anymore. He knows how it feels, though, and I think that is why he is taking her under his wing. They knew each other before, when we lived in the R9, but never to the extent they are getting to know each other now.
I run up to Jake as he falls back a bit.
“My mom died today,” I whisper.
“I know, Liz, I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” I let a tear fall. “I didn’t get much time with her after we found them again.”
He lets his arm fall, letting his hand brush against mine. I take the hint and put my palm against his. He squeezes my hand slightly, lifting it up to his lips, softly kissing me.
“What about Dia?” I am trying hard not to become overwhelmed by the feelings of desire that comes with his touch.
“We will all take care of her,” Jake whispers.
“I knew you were going to say that. But really, we are a ready-made family at eighteen and nineteen, and that’s not normal.”
“It’s our normal.” He kisses my hand again.
THE ELECTED (Fighting Freedom Book 2) Page 10