THE ELECTED (Fighting Freedom Book 2)

by Paige Clendenin

  “Yes, it is,” Eli says, picking her up and hugging her.

  “Was your father on it?” Jake asks.

  I flip through the list of names of The Elected to see what my father’s serial number is to compare it to the numbers on the list. It is 32316. After figuring out what number I am searching for, I look on the list of thirty-seven serial numbers that belong to the kill list.

  “Not on the big list,” I say as I look over the remaining seven names. “But he is on the short one!” I say with a look of disgust on my face.

  These men were hired to kill Robert. They didn’t even need an explanation as to why. It only stands to reason any one of us could be next.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Numbness is about the only thing I can feel. I know that now that Robert is dead I should feel happy like Hector did, even though he was my parent, my enemy is gone, but I don’t. I feel as though I didn’t get the chance to get to know exactly why he did the things he did. If we ever get a moment to stop, I hope the parcels he gave to Eli for each one of us will help piece together who Robert Towers was.

  “They had a hit out for your dad.” Shawn frowns. “They found us with a tracker?”

  “He must have had one on him.” Eli rubs at the back of his neck. “Or in him.”

  “Most likely in him,” Cara adds with a shudder.

  “Okay, I am getting a bit creeped out,” Leah says, shivering too.

  “Yeah,” Mar says. “Let’s look in this thing and get out of here.”

  “Agreed,” Jake says.

  The top layer of the box is full of papers which are half burned from the explosion.

  “They look like war plans,” Samantha says, patting her pocket where the file from The Force she had downloaded from The Elected rests.

  “Can you decipher them?” Jake hands the bundle to Samantha.

  “I can try,” she says while looking at the packet. “Not here, though.” She straightens the pages neatly before shoving them into her bag not so neatly.

  “What else is there?” Zac asks enamored.

  Shawn reaches down to pull out a portable computer much like the ones in the labs at The Force compound. I have never seen a portable one, but I knew they existed.

  “Do you think you could do something with this?” Shawn asks Jake while handing the device to him.

  “Maybe,” Jake answers while holding it up to investigate it. “If it isn’t damaged. What else?”

  Shawn reaches down into the charred hole of the trunk to pull out a few knives, six small guns with ammo, and an emergency medical kit that is promptly handed to Magi. She and Cara look at it with excitement at what might be inside.

  “Is that all?” Magi asks while taking the kit.

  “Just this box,” Shawn answers, while holding up a smaller black box.

  “What is that?” Dia asks, amazed.

  “Not sure.” Shawn smiles at her, holding the box in one hand and muffing her hair with the other. She smiles up at him and then smooths her hair back down with her chubby fingers.

  Shawn, leaving Dia to her primping, carries the box over to the hood of the truck, where the rest of us surround around him. Jake and Shawn pry the box’s lid open with their knives to reveal what is inside. The item on top of the box is enough to shock all of us.

  It is a picture of my dad with Dia when she was a baby.

  “Do you think this was your father’s belongings?” Mar asks Eli.

  “I don’t know, babe.” He kisses her on the forehead. “We didn’t know him very much.”

  Eli removes the picture from the top. Dia studies the photo as if she knows the truth, but deep down, we pray she has no idea.

  Under the picture are even more photos. Pictures of each one of us, from Shawn, to Samantha…

  “All of us!” Mar holds a hand over her mouth.

  “That one was taken a few days ago.” Magi franticly points at a picture of us in the IOUSC truck headed into The Facility.

  “Who took these?” Eli asks.

  “I have no clue,” I answer my brother, knowing that his question was not aimed at anyone specific.

  “Do you think it was these guys?” Mar asks, sounding overwhelmed, gesturing to the truck. “Or, do you think there is someone else watching us?”

  Leah shivers outwardly again. Shawn throws an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close to him to steady her.

  “Whatever or whoever they are doesn’t matter,” Jake says stoically. “What matters is that we stay together and try not to get any more of us killed.”

  “I’m okay with that,” Samantha says, a bit more serious than usual.

  Jake holds the map up so that Zac can see it.

  “You were right, Zac,” Jake admires. “If we go nearly straight north, perhaps a bit west, we will run into The Elected headquarters by this time two days from now.”

  “If everything goes as planned, that is,” Samantha adds sarcastically.

  “It will,” Jake says as if he doesn’t believe it. “We just need to cover our tracks.”

  “I say we torch the truck the rest of the way,” Samantha smiles.

  “We should try to extract the tracker from Robert and look at it before we go as well.” Cara looks from Eli to me. “I mean if it is alright with the two of you?”

  “If you think it could help.” I give a weak smile.

  “It couldn’t hurt,” Eli grunts.

  “I might be able to tell more about the tracking device and how it works or is removed,” Cara answers. “Baxley and the girls will most likely have them implanted when we find them. If we know how they work and how to remove them, then we might have the upper hand in getting them to safety.”

  “Good thinking,” Eli agrees.

  Magi and Cara climb down into the pit that Robert’s body is laying in. I watch as they search his body for a pocketed tracker, a bump or entry point. Behind me, Shawn, Eli, and Jake are working diligently at loading the contents of the box into our vehicle, as well as setting fire to The Elected truck. Zac and Dia are in the bed of our truck trying to organize everyone’s bags and the contents of the box.

  “Found it,” Magi’s voice breaks me free from my own thoughts.

  “Where is it?” I ask.

  “Right between where his spine and neckbone intersect,” Cara answers.

  “Ouch,” Samantha says while walking over rubbing the back of her neck. “I wonder how they put it there?”

  “Probably some kind of shot or injection tube,” Cara surmises. “They do the same thing when you belong to a large voyaging family so that you don’t run off or get lost. The technology is hard to find, but it can sometimes be available to some large groups, and of course, The Elected.”

  She leans down to show us a scar that lays just behind her earlobe. The scar is jagged and rather large, but long healed over.

  “Did you take it out yourself?” Magi asks, while taking a closer look at her scar.

  “Yep,” Cara says, while nonchalantly slicing into the base of my father’s neck.

  After his skin and tissue is cut through, she applies a small amount of pressure, like popping a pimple. After a minute, out pops a tiny, almost microscopic, square box with a wire connected to a nerve ending. Cara pulls the thing away from Roberts neck, bringing the wire and nerve with it. She only pulls it just enough to bring it closer for inspection, while keeping it intact.

  “If he were alive,” Magi begins, “wouldn’t severing the wire or nerve kill him?”

  “Yep, sure would.” Cara grimaces while applying pressure to the nerve.

  “Then how would we get it out without killing the soul if it were still alive?” I ask.

  “How very The Facility of you,” Samantha laughs.

  “Well I couldn’t think of a better word,” I laugh back.

  It feels weird to be laughing about this standing over the pit that my dead father is in.

  “There are only two ways that I can think of,” Magi says.

&n
bsp; “And what are those?” Mar asks. Her and Leah had been standing, watching the flames dance on the truck, but they are close enough to hear our conversation.

  “Kill the host,” Magi says bluntly.

  “Or…” I plead for a more acceptable answer.

  “Or, it is possible to do surgery on the host,” Magi answers. “It would be experimental, of course.”

  “That would take hours, and we would need a prime location, tools, and did I mention hours?” Cara looks at the tracker. “Mine wasn’t connected to a vital nerve, it was just under some tissue, floating free in there.”

  I can tell she has noticed the tiny box has a small blinking green light on it that ignites every few seconds. I had noticed it also but hadn’t thought much of it.

  “Why is it doing that?” I finally ask.

  “The tracker doesn’t know he’s dead,” she says in shock.

  “What are you talking about?” Leah asks.

  “The tracker doesn’t stop when the body does, it keeps on working.” Cara raises her voice in a panic.

  “Oh no! Get everyone over here.” Magi announces.

  All the members of our group rally. Jake jumps down into the pit to take a closer look at the tracker that Cara has in her hands.

  “We are still being tracked,” Cara announces.

  “How do you know?” Jake asks.

  “See this green light?” She points at the blinking light.

  “Yes,” he answers.

  “It is showing the tracker is still active. It won’t turn off until it has been de-connected from its serial number.” Cara grabs her knife and severs the nerve, breaking the box free. The green light turns yellow, letting out a low beep. Cara then stands up and stomps the box. The light instantly changes to red, and then fades to nothing. A small amount of smoke wafts into the air off the tiny box.

  “Well that takes care of that,” Samantha says sarcastically.

  “No, you see Samantha,” Cara talks to her in the same tone. “That does not take care of that! Robert’s serial number was active still until ten seconds ago even though he’s been dead an hour, meaning that the two dead men over there,” she points to the truck a blaze. “Their serial numbers are or at least were active too, putting all three of them in the same place for a really long time…active.”

  “So,” Mar says, understanding the scenario. “If they have been paying attention, The Elected know where we are?”

  “If they didn’t before,” I say. “They do now!”

  Chapter Thirty

  We all scramble to gather what things that hadn’t been put into the truck, and then we load inside. I am sure we will be nervous and on watch for a while now. Shawn and Leah stay perched, ready for action at the tailgate.

  Magi is in the front, driving. Jake needs to try to get some rest, as do all of us. He put Zac in charge of the map, making him perhaps the happiest twelve-year old ever to live. He sits as happy as can be between Magi and Samantha, who is in the passenger’s seat.

  “Why don’t you try to get some sleep?” Jake whispers to me as we fly down the road.

  “I don’t think I can.”

  “I’m sorry for your loss, Liz. I really am.”

  “It isn’t a big deal,” I lie. “That’s not why I can’t rest,” I lie again.

  “How can it not be a big deal?” He whispers the question. “I know you have to be hurting. It’s all right to be sad.”

  “That’s the thing,” I say, “I’m not sad… I’m mad… at myself.”

  “Why are you mad at yourself?” Jake pulls me closer to him. My back is resting against his chest with his arms strongly wrapped around me, his chin resting ever so slightly on the top of my head, Dia asleep on my lap.

  “I am mad at myself because I shouldn’t have let myself get close to my mom again, and I think deep down, I was harboring some thoughts that maybe my dad did love us, and he wasn’t such a bad guy. I hate myself for allowing such a moment of weakness in at a time like this. That monster had no place in our lives, so why am I so upset?”

  “Liz, you are the least weak person I know,” Shawn interjects. After all, it is hard to talk in such a small place without others hearing. “Think of it this way. We needed him, and we were only going to use him until he was of no use to us anymore anyway.”

  “I don’t feel that way,” I say, ashamed.

  “We all feel weak and vulnerable from time to time.” Leah frowns. “Look at me, I am the weak link in this group, and you still keep me around.”

  Shawn squeezes her hand, and she smiles, but her smile doesn’t quite reach her eyes.

  “I, for one, am tired of getting shot at,” Mar laughs, “but, I couldn’t imagine doing it with anyone other than you guys.”

  “Even me?” Leah laughs.

  “Even you.”

  As the conversations fill the air, and with Jake’s strong arms wrapped around me, I can’t help but allow myself to feel comfortable enough to close my eyes. The blurry haze of sleep tugs at me, calling me to its actuality.

  “Sleep, love,” Jake whispers while kissing me on top of the head.

  The sun was up when I fell asleep, now the stars are twinkling in the night sky. I sit up, realizing that Jake has fallen asleep too. I don’t know how long I have been out, but I notice that Samantha is driving now, meaning that at some point, her and Magi have traded places.

  We are still traveling down some unfamiliar, broken road I hope leads to where we are going. Zac sits perched on the edge of his seat, looking out into the distance. He holds the map firmly in his hands as if it might disappear at any moment. It is a possibility with the way things have been going for us.

  “You awake?” Mar whispers.

  “Yeah,” I smile.

  “I can’t sleep any longer,” she sits up. Dia is asleep on her lap now. At which time she moved to her, I don’t know. Mar strokes the top of her head, while smiling down at her.

  “I’m awake too.” I push myself up a bit better. “Any idea where we are?”

  “Nope, not a clue,” she chuckles.

  “I hope we know what we are doing,” I laugh too.

  “Do we ever?”

  “No.”

  “What about Dia?” she asks.

  “What about Dia?” I ask back.

  “She can’t fight this war with us. We cannot just take a five-year-old into a gun fight and just hope she will be all right.”

  “You’re right,” I say.

  “What do we do?”

  “I don’t know, we will have to think of something.” I frown.

  I hadn’t thought about all of this. Even Zac is too young for a war, but he wouldn’t have any of us trying to keep him out of it. He loves and wants to protect Syl and Shae just as much as any of us do.

  Mar and I sit in silence for a while, both of us staring up at the stars, looking over the horizon and behind us every now and then.

  The rest of the night has been a bit hazy. Both Mar and I drift off and on, back and forth into sleep. We talk a bit more about what we think we should do about Dia, and neither one of us seems to think there is much we can do.

  I know there must be a solution and that she deserves so much more than this, but there isn’t a thing that can change what has happened to her, any of us for that matter.

  “We might be better off keeping her with us,” I whisper to Mar as the sun shows itself over the horizon. “After all, we don’t have a very good history with us being apart.”

  “I’m not going nowhere,” Dia says, stretching her arms, arching her back, and yawning.

  “I didn’t know you were awake,” I say, “and it’s anywhere!”

  “Well, I’m not going ANYWHERE,” Dia corrects herself, sure of what she says.

  “It might get rough,” Mar whispers.

  “I know dat,” Dia says charismatically, “and don’t you think I am a baby, cus I’m not!”

  “No,” Eli’s sleepy voice pipes up, “you are not a baby, but you ar
e still so little.”

  “I will prove to you that I can be bid dirl and help out,” Dia says bravely. “Have I not pulled my heaviness yet?”

  “You mean weight?” Eli laughs.

  “Whudever.” She smiles with a playful eyeroll.

  “Yes, you have pulled your heaviness.” I smile. “We just want you to be safe and taken care of.”

  “But you take care of me, Lizzie… All of you do.”

  “We try.” Mar hugs her from behind.

  By the end of our conversation with Dia, all the members of our family that are in the back of the truck are awake. We all try to stretch, or even stand to work out all the kinks that stress and what little sleep we have gotten has put there. At this point, our bodies have been through so much they don’t know how they are supposed to react.

  “Where are we?” Jake shouts into the window.

  “We are here,” Zac points to a location on the map.

  Before any of us see where he is pointing, the truck lurches forward and begins to make a horrible clanking sound.

  “Out of gas,” Samantha groans while punching the steering wheel.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  The truck comes to a complete stop in the middle of the broken road. We haven’t seen any other vehicles since The Elected truck, and that was hours ago. Any luck we would have getting gas for this truck would be little to nothing.

  Working gas stations are hard to find, as in, you never see one.

  “I guess we are walking from here,” Jake grunts, hopping out of the truck with his gun in one hand and backpack in the other.

  We all jump out of the truck, dispersing all the contents of it into bags and things that are more easily carried. Magi and Cara pull all the medical supplies together, trying to put as much into their bags and the medical kit from The Elected box. Shawn, Leah, and Zac work on checking food supplies as well as count and distribute bottles of water.

  Jake, Samantha, and I take inventory of our guns and ammo, passing weapons back out after they are loaded. Mar, Eli, and Dia gather clothing and blankets and place them into packs for taking with us.

  For good measure, Jake, Shawn, and Eli roll the truck down a hill and into a nearby ditch so that it is less visible to anyone that might be behind us or come through here looking for us.