“What’s going on here?” Hector asks Rose while looking back and forth from Jake, to Eli, and then me.
“These people are thieves,” Rose demands. “Kill them, Hector! Kill them now!”
Before any of us can respond, Hector pulls Cara’s small pistol from his pants pocket, aiming it right at his mother.
“Wha…wha…what’s going on?” Rose demands through a shaky voice with her hands in the air.
“We have had enough of you, tyrant.”
“Hector,” she pleads.
“Don’t Hector me,” he shouts back at her. “Cloe is never coming back because she is happy where she is, and Tawnya, Bryan, and I could never be a true family with you sticking around.”
“Don’t you say that,” Rose yells at her son. “Cloe will return, and who cares about that witch and her good for nothing son? I should have killed them when I had the chance.”
“Well,” Hector says while aiming the gun towards his mother’s head. He breaths in and I close my eyes. A gun shot rings out into the little room causing a deafening effect to ring in our ear. “You will never have the chance. Sorry, Mom.” I gasp audibly. Hector turns towards me. “I’m sorry you had to see that. I see Cloe once a week, and she is more than happy to be rid of her,” Hector says, dropping the gun to the ground, running back into the store room.
The three of us stand in stunned silence. The remaining members of both groups run out to see where all the commotion is coming from. Mar throws a hand to her mouth while Magi hides Día’s face in her shirt.
“I guess he hated his mother,” I say.
Tawnya enters the room and screams while hiding Bryan’s face away from his dead grandmother. Cara reaches down and grabs her gun, putting the safety back on, placing it her waistband when she is done.
“I didn’t know anyone knew where this was.”
“I have known since the day you moved in with us,” Hector says while coming back into the room with tears in his eyes.
“Oh, Hector, it’s okay,” Cara whispers while awkwardly patting his back.
“You are free to go with them,” Hector smiles at Cara.
“What will happen to the three of you?” she asks.
“We will go to The Facility to be with Cloe.” Tawnya smiles.
Hector, Tawnya, and Bryan all hold each other, half sad for their loss, half elated they are free from the tyrant who ruled their lives for so long.
“You may all go,” Hector smiles. “Take Cara with you, and get as far away from here as you can. We will not speak of you at The Facility if you will not speak of this to anyone.”
“We would appreciate it,” Shawn says.
“Your secret is safe with us.” I send a half smile in his direction.
Within an hour, a blanket is placed over Rose, bags are packed, and we stand watching Hector, Tawnya, and Bryan walk down the road in the direction of The Facility. It was a bitter sweet goodbye, but even Cara knows they will all be better off this way.
Jake has fixed the IOUSC truck and maneuvers it down and over a few blocks to avoid the hole in the middle of the road. He was also able to get a few supplies from what Hector and his family left behind. With the addition of Cara, there are twelve of us now, and we need all the food and supplies we can get.
Now we are all loaded into yet another truck on our journey out of the city. Robert isn’t talking much, so for now, we aren’t for sure how exactly to reach old Washington D. C. We know Zac had kept watch on our way in, and he believes he has it narrowed down to about four hundred miles almost straight North. It is located dead in the middle of where the North, East, and Central Corridors intersect.
“There is no telling what we will find so close to corridor intersections,” Jake says.
“I know,” I whisper.
He is driving, with me in the middle, right next to him. Eli sits in the seat to my right with Mar on his lap. That leaves eight people in the back of the truck including Robert.
Morimoto, Johnathan, Robert, first truck, utility van, second truck, third truck, when will this all end?
“When will any of this be normal?” I ask.
“I’m not so sure it will ever be,” Jake laughs, “but for now, all we can do is our best.”
I smile at him, letting him know I agree. I picture in my mind what our life will one day be like. A life without war and crazy things happening all the time. My thoughts are cut short by a loud gasping noise being carried into the window from off the wind. Gurgles and popping sounds emanate from behind us.
“Help!” a voice rings out from the back of the truck.
All at once the horrifying noises grow softer and softer, until they disappear altogether.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
I turn and crawl out of the truck’s back window to find out what is going on. In the not so far away distance, what looks like another IOUSC vehicle is swiftly catching up to us. I climb the rest of the way out of the back window as a bullet flies past my head.
“Get down,” I shout, as I pull my AK-47 up to take aim, bracing myself against the back of the cab of the truck.
To my left, Dia crawls through the window to the cab of the truck for safety. Her sniffles float through the air as she moves into the cab.
Shawn and Zac are both positioned on one knee at the tailgate with their guns, bullets blazing. Between us, I can see Magi and Samantha huddled over something, but I can’t make out what they are doing. To my right, Leah and Cara huddle together as close to the floor of the bed as they can.
Eventually Shawn, Zac, and I become in sync with our shots, rotating every third of a second to maximize our power and cover more area. It amazes me how well we all work together even without words.
With every bullet that flies at their vehicle, you would think that at least one of our shots would make contact, but it appears they are bouncing off the exterior of their truck rather than puncturing it. Jake picks up speed in hopes to keep enough distance from the vehicle, but whoever is shooting back at us, is concealed enough we don’t have a chance of making it out of this if we don’t think of something soon.
“Any ideas?” I shout into the window, while crouching down out of range.
“What about a roundabout?” Jake asks.
“No.” I shout, “not a chance.”
We had learned about roundabouts at The Force. We had laughed that day thinking none of us would ever be in the position to have to execute one.
“I’ll do it,” Eli responds.
“I don’t remember, what’s a roundabout?” Mar asks worried.
“Do you think you can?” Jake grunts at Eli, ignoring Mar’s question altogether.
“Without a doubt,” my brother responds.
“What’s a roundabout?” Mar repeats herself.
“You don’t want to know,” I say with a cringe. “Just get in the floorboard with Dia and hold on.”
They both dive down into the floorboard, Mar covering Dia with her body.
I turn back around to face the scene before me.
“Update,” Shawn grunts in my direction while firing his colt defense assault rifle at the oncoming vehicle.
“Jake’s attempting a roundabout,” I sigh.
“Who’s at point?” Zac asks, never turning to look at me.
“Eli,” I gulp.
“Okay,” Shawn rallies all attention. “Down for roundabout.”
Samantha looks up at me like I have lost my mind.
“What’s a roundabout?” Cara whispers.
“Insanity,” Leah whispers back. “Just hold on.”
“Ready,” I holler in the window.
I crouch down, dropping my gun to my side, allowing myself to anchor to anything I can find.
At the exact moment that I grab ahold of Leah’s arm, and the window frame, Jake slams the breaks on in the truck, allowing it to spin more easily in the road. In front of me, Samantha and Magi brace themselves over what has been the center of their focus. The truck spins on it
s wheels to where our passenger side is nearly lined up with the side of the vehicle that pursues us. This vehicle does not belong to IOUSC.
Out of the corner of my eye, I can see the passenger door fly open, allowing Eli to stand straddling the small ledge on the door and the seat of the truck. He hesitates a millimeter of a second to center himself in this near to death experience.
“Pull,” he yells, and in one swift, yet accurate motion, Eli pops the pin of one of Cara’s grenades and aims for the other vehicle’s gas tank. The grenade immediately contacts the truck while we spin past the vehicle and come to a stop yards away from the explosion.
The heat radiates from the blast so that it is easily felt at the distance we are from it. The gas causes an explosion, but the flames quickly dissipate in the dry heat of the day.
All at once, everyone jumps from the truck, cheering and laughing, except for Magi and Samantha who stay put in the back of the truck, still hovered over something.
“What’s wrong?” Cara asks in the direction of the ladies in the truck.
Samantha stands up to reveal what she and Magi had been focusing their attention on.
I gasp when I see him lying there lifeless. Why had I not remembered Robert being in the truck. I can place everyone and what they were doing during the fight, but not him.
Why not?
“He was hit with one of the first shots,” Magi says, with a frown on her face.
“Is he dead?” I ask, with a tear in my eye.
“No, not yet.” Samantha frowns.
“It hit him in the chest,” Magi says. “He won’t be with us for long.”
“Liz… Eli…” Our father’s voice gurgles out from the back of the truck. “Come,” he breaths, “here.”
Magi and Samantha hop out of the truck, allowing room for Eli and me to come up. Dia was just a baby when he left so she does not remember him as our father.
“Come closer,” he wheezes.
“You don’t have to talk,” Eli says softly.
“Yes, I do,” he whispers. “My pocket… Reach in my pocket.”
Eli reaches into Robert’s pocket, pulling out four wrapped parcels. One with my name on it, one with Dia’s, one with Shae’s, and one with Eli’s. Eli pockets the bundles for later viewing, I’m sure.
“It was The Elected,” he barley gets out.
“They were following us?” I ask.
“Yes,” he breaths. “They wanted me dead. Search their truck for whatever you can find,” more gurgles follow.
Blood begins to trickle down his mouth, out of his nose, down his ears.
“I wish things were different,” I begin to cry.
“Me too,” Eli says, patting my back.
“I always loved you,” Robert says with his last living breath. “Please forgive me.”
In the matter of two days, both our mother and father have died, making Eli, Dia, Shae, and I all orphans. A flock of birds fly overhead both reminding me that we are in all of this to find the peace that I pray exists. They also tease me… those birds remind me of every person who has ever died in my life… and those numbers were only growing as I am brought back to reality as I say goodbye once again to Robert Towers.
And deep down, somewhere in the hollows of the darkest places within me… I do, I do forgive him.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Silently, we allow just enough time to remove Robert from the bed of the truck, placing his body in a hole in the Earth put there by years of war and fighting. Mar clings near to Eli while Jake stays close to me. Neither one of them know exactly what to say. Whoever knows what to say at a time like this?
Dia peers into the hole with a single tear rolling down her cheek. I think she knows she needs to be sad but isn’t sure why. For now, we won’t explain to her that Robert was her father, or that he was a bad man who had done many mean things to lots of people, but one day we will. One day, she will ask about her mother and father, and we will have to tell her about her mom and how she was amazing, and we will need to tell her about her father and this day.
“The guys and I are going to investigate the other vehicle to see if we find anything,” Jake whispers into my ear.
He knows I as much as anyone know it’s important to not lose focus and to keep going.
We started out this journey looking for two little girls to save them from what it is The Elected have in mind for them. Now, we are in this thing for so much more. For some reason, the war is calling to us more than anything.
I nod my head, allowing myself a few more seconds to peer into the dark pit that is now my father’s grave. We must keep going to save Baxley, Shae, and Syl. If they are even still alive. And to try to stop this fight at all costs. The way my life is going, I wouldn’t count on it.
“Come and look at this,” Zac calls over to us. He is carrying some weird looking box along with a clipboard.
The box is charred from the fire, but other than that, it looks to be intact. Zac struggles to carry the box it is so bulky. He comes to the center of our group, plopping the box on the ground, handing the clipboard to me.
“What is it?” Samantha asks.
“Not sure,” Zac says, “but one of the men who died in the truck was holding onto this thing for dear life.” He pats the charred box.
“Let’s see what was so important to risk their lives for.” Shawn smirks. He smashes the butt of his gun into the half-broken lock of the box. It doesn’t budge.
Samantha aims her gun at the lock, shooting it three times with no successful results.
“Seriously now?” Samantha groans exasperatedly.
“What’s this thing made of?” Shawn questions.
All of us take turns bashing at the lock of the box with our guns and shooting it while hoping that one of us can break it. With every second that passes, it becomes even more clear that the lock is going nowhere.
“I say we blow this sucker up!” Samantha laughs while looking at Cara.
“I only have five more,” Cara says.
“Can we spare one more?” Leah asks.
“I don’t know,” Cara laughs, “how often do you guys come across the need for a grenade?”
“Often,” Zac playfully scoffs.
Cara laughs at his response while getting a grenade out of her bag, handing it to Jake.
“What if it destroys what’s inside?” I ask, always the negative one. I am trying to focus on the task at hand rather than look at the contents of the clipboard.
“Have you seen this thing?” Mar asks. “It’s a tank! We will be lucky if the blast will even open it.”
We all chuckle, letting it feel good to laugh.
Jake takes the box several yards out, motioning us all to get down and out of the way of the debris.
“Pull,” Jake yells, as he pulls the pin and takes off running until he reaches where I am hunkered down.
If a grenade responds correctly, it will not go off when the pin is pulled. The reason it goes off is because the striker lever has been pushed. Since Jake placed the grenade on the ground by the trunk, the grenade will need to be activated. Persuaded to detonate if you will.
Jake puts his M-16 up to his shoulder and pulls the trigger, aiming directly at the explosive on the ground. A fraction of a second later, the grenade detonates, sending the box into the air a good thirty-five feet.
The blast echoes through the entire wasteland.
“Good one, Jakey.” Samantha grins.
“Thanks, Sammie,” Jake plays back.
Eli and Shawn run over to where the box landed, hoisting it up to carry it over to the group of us. As they walk, the lid slips free of its hinges, falling to the dusty ground. They leave it lay. After all, the lid isn’t the important part, what is inside is.
They place the box on the ground, and it is clear to see it is full of important things.
“I say we look quickly at what’s inside,” Jake says, “but then we get out of here as quickly as possible.
�
��Agreed,” Leah says while looking around with darting eyes. She must be looking for any sign of movement.
“Wait, before we get into this thing,” Mar says, “let Liz look at this clipboard, she is dying to look at it.” Mar smiles, while elbowing me in the ribs. I smile back, but she is right.
“She isn’t wrong.” I hold up the clipboard to show the group the first page.
“What’s that?” Samantha asks.
“It’s a map,” I say, “of the corridors, marking The Force and The Force Field, The Facility, a place they call Wonder Shield, and The Elected headquarters.
I take the map off the clipboard and hand it to Jake.
“What else is on there?” Zac asks.
I flip through the remaining pages that are on the clip. There is page after page of names and serial numbers. There is a letter on the header page of the list. I hold it up to the group, then smooth it out to begin reading it.
“Dear 53686 and 54856, that must be the serial numbers of the two men in the truck that we just killed,” I observe. I skim the pages to find those numbers. “Yes, here they are. Harold Otto and Marco Glib.”
“Why would they give them serial numbers?” Mar asks inquisitively.
“I think we are going to find out,” Magi says while pointing to a section of the letter. She had read ahead to.
“Dear 53686 and 54856,” I start over. “Below you will find the list of members of The Elected that have been processed for termination. You, being huntsmen, have been hired to do this. Thanks in advance for their inflicted permanent retirement. Their tracking device injections will help you better locate their whereabouts. Below is a small list of important terminates that are due for death soon due to being MIA with knowledge,” I pause.
“They have tracking devices put into their members?” Shawn asks.
“It looks like it,” I answer.
“How many names are on the list?” Mar hesitates to ask.
I look at the list.
“The list of the ones who are important to die first have seven on it,” I answer.
“And the other?” Zac asks.
“Thirty-seven.”
“That is a lot of peoples,” Dia says, trying to be a part.
THE ELECTED (Fighting Freedom Book 2) Page 13