After climbing the stairs, they reached her room. Sidney opened the door for her, and she walked in. It wasn’t much, but it was warm, and there wasn’t any snow, or ice to deal with. She asked her if there was anything else, and let’s Jess know she would be right outside the door if she should think of anything she needed.
The door closed, there was just silence. She was alone, herself, her bag, and her rush of emotions that were flooding her body. She took her bag, and carried it to her bed, and placed it down on it. The weight of the bag caused the bed to creak as it bounced gently. She sat down next to it, and she started to think about what her father had said. What if she did have the gene and she was responsible for either saving the world?
She had to consider both options, but she did know one thing, either option she chose, would be hard, and required a great amount of commitment. How could she get these people here to believe in her, when she didn’t believe in herself? She did know that she needed to take a quick nap, just rest her eyes for five minutes, and clear her head. She tossed her black bag to the floor, climbed into bed, and curled up in a fetal position; this was her favorite way to sleep. She closed her yes, and she was asleep within minutes.
She began to dream; thoughts of her father came to mind. Then an image of two little girls wearing all white, sitting under a Willow tree, and they appeared to be playing. As she got closer, she could see that one was Gracie, and the other was her sister. Jessica knelt down next to them, and saw that they were playing jacks. She asked if she could play, and they allowed it. As they played, she felt at ease. It was nice to be with both Gracie, and her sister again.
Her sister turned to me, stopped playing for a moment, and then she whispered hauntingly, “You’re going to kill us all.”
She snapped awake with sweat pooling on her face. That’s multiple times she had these visions, and they always warn her of killing them all. What did that mean? If she didn’t stand-up, and fight, then they’ll all die, or if she did nothing, would they all die? Either way it, was unclear, and each decision carried its own risks.
Jessica climbed off her bed, and looked out the window. Below she could see Andrew, and Ethan talking to some of the rebels. They appeared to be getting along with them, so she felt a little better that they were okay. She suddenly remembered that Sidney was outside the door. She couldn’t leave her standing there. She rushed over to the door, and opened it. Sure enough Sidney was still there.
She turned to Jessica, and asked, “Are you okay?”
“About earlier—“
“Forget about it. It’s water under the bridge.”
“Thanks, I don’t know what happened. I never lose my cool like that.”
“It’s fine, you do have one heck of a punch though.”
“If you’re not busy, do you mind showing me around this place,” she asked politely.
“Well I am assigned to you, so if you want to walk around, I’d have to follow, so I think it will be okay. Just don’t go around hitting anyone else.”
They headed down the stairs, and to the main lobby of the lodge, Sidney explained that this was the main house; it was where the higher-ups do business. Then they moved to the outside, it was cold, but not bitter cold. Jessica’s nose was turning bright pink, and her ears red. Sidney reached into her pocket of her snow pants, and removed a knitted hat. She handed it to Jess. Jessica placed the gray hat on her head, and pulled it down so it covered her cold ears. She threw Sidney thanks, and a smile.
They covered the grounds of the camp, Jessica got to meet a lot of people, not only did this facility house rebels, but it housed individuals that were homeless, sick, and elderly. It was something unlike she had never seen before. These were the types of things their government, The United Front should be doing for its citizens. Instead they’re more concerned with tracking down a teen-aged girl, with a so-called Reversal Gene.
She looked towards what appeared to be a green barn of some type. Her curiosity was starting to get the better of her, so she asked Sidney what it was, and she explained to her that it was the training facility, and weapons range. With that, Jessica had made up her mind; she had to go see it. She started to crunch through the snow making her way to the ugly green barn.
“Jessica! Wait up,” she yelled as she tried to keep up.
“Come on, I think that Andrew, and Ethan are in there!”
“Ugh,” Sidney grunted as she ran harder to catch up with her.
Just at the bottom of the gentle hill they stopped. There in front of them was the barn, and she could hear the sound of gunshots echoing throughout the building, and ringing in the air. “Can we go in,” Jessica asked.
“Three rules. Rule number one, don’t touch any weapons, rule number two, stay by my side, and rule number three, don’t touch any weapons. Got it?”
“Yeah, I’ve got it.”
“Alright, let’s go in then.”
Jessica opened the small door, and they headed inside. From the outside it didn’t appear to be too large, but once inside, it really opened up. There were fighters training with hand-to-hand combat, archery, small weapons like knives, and katana swords. She heard the gunshots coming from down the hallway. She didn’t waste any time to get a chance to see her favorite part of training. Again Sidney must have hated her for breaking one of the rules already. She hurried to keep up with her as Jess ran ahead.
Jessica stopped at the ¾-inch thick plexi-glass wall that was encasing the range. As she looked to her right, she saw a door, and she headed to it, gripped the handle, and opened it up. The shots were loud; she had to cover her ears with her hands so she didn’t go deaf. She watched as the rebels shot away, and to her they looked good, but not great. There was a rebel who was tearing up the targets, so she made her way over to watch, but Sidney stopped her. She handed her a pair of shooting glasses, and earplugs for protection. Jessica placed the earplugs in her ears, and slid the glasses over her eyes. It was much better, as the plugs freed up her hands.
“Stay with me,” Sidney shouted.
She led Jess over to the expert shooter, and once they were close enough to see his face, she could tell it was Andrew. Jess waited for him to finish emptying his clip before she approached him, she wouldn’t want to startle him, and have him shoot her face off. A couple more rounds popped off, and he was finished. Andrew lowered his weapon, and turned around. He saw them, and smiled as he walked over to greet Jessica.
“Jess,” he shouted, as he had to talk loud to hear each other over the gunshots.
“Nice shooting!”
“You want to try,” he asked.
“Absolutely!”
Andrew handed her the rifle, and she took it carefully, making sure not to burn herself on the hot barrel.
“Absolutely not,” Sidney hollered.
“Listen, this is my thing. I can do this!”
“One round, you screw this up, and it’s back to your room with you!”
Jessica nodded, agreeing to the terms. Then she headed over to the empty spot where Andrew was just shooting. She picked up a fully loaded clip, attached it to the gun; it made a clicking sound she could feel in her hand as it locked in. Next she pulled back on the slide, and loaded a round into the chamber. The gun was now hot, and ready to go. She left the safety on until she was ready to fire. To her right was a target of a human outline. She attached it to the overhead clip, and hit the button sending it down range about twenty-five yards.
She spread her feet into a V-shape stance, and aimed down range towards the target. Then she relaxed her body, and steadied her breathing. Nothing in the world mattered to Jess right now, as everything started to slow down around her. She used her thumb to click off the safety. She was ready now. She inhaled, and then as she exhaled, Jess squeezed the trigger.
One round, two rounds, three… They started to come so quickly she couldn’t count. She kept the trigger squeezed as the automatic rifle did the work. Spent cartridges spat out of the side of the weapon as t
he smell of gunpowder sifted through her nose. Within seconds, it was over, the clip emptied, the cartridges spent, and the target tattered. She hit the button calling back her target, to see her grouping.
The target reached her. She unclipped it, and took it down. Sidney and Andrew looked on as Jess examined the paper. She was pretty happy with herself, not bad for someone who hadn’t shot in a while. She rolled it up like a tube, and handed Andrew his weapon back. Then she gave Sidney the rolled up target, earplugs, and eyewear. Jessica then headed back to the lodge.
Sidney unrolled the tube of paper, and looked it over. A look of amazement was shown on both of their faces. The target revealed Jess knew how to handle a gun. A grouping of headshots, a grouping of chest-shots, and a grouping of gut shots… No outliers. They turned, and watched as Jess left the training facility, closing the door behind her.
Jessica didn’t know what the future would bring, or what choices she would have to make, but for now she could rest easily knowing that she was here with her two friends, and her father. The U.F. may want her genes, to turn them into a savior for some magical place called The Lush, but right now, she was not willing to give them up just yet. While outside, she looked to the lodge, and saw her father in the upstairs window. He looked up, and made eye contact with her, Jessica smiled, waived, and she was assured things would be just fine.
A Regressive World:
Book II
Winter Has Passed
It had been six months since Andrew, Jessica, and Ethan had relocated up north to the lodge in order to elude The United Front. The bitter cold of winter, along with the deep white snow, have receded, and melted away. Winter was coming to an end, and spring was just around the corner. Jessica enjoyed the warmer air, and sunnier days, much more so, than the doldrums of the winter.
Life at the camp had been great. Jessica’s relationship with her father had rekindled. Her and Andrew were the same as always, and Sidney, and Jess had become friends, which was a pretty big deal since their first run in months earlier. Ethan on the other hand, had become a bit distant with the group. It might be because he had been so focused on the cause more so now, than before. He had been working closely with Jessica’s father on plans to counter attacks that The United Front had been waging on The Clusters in search of whom else but… Jessica.
It was humorous, here at the lodge; Jessica felt more like a family than she had since she was with her mother, and sister. Although, she still did miss Gracie, and she would never forget what The United Front did to her, or her home. She knew that if Gracie were here, she would have liked the snow to play in, and the warm weather that was on its way. Now, don’t get her wrong; she also shed tears nightly for Gracie, but also for Barry, and Jupiter too. They gave their lives for her, and the cause, so she would always have a special place in her heart for them.
Jessica was working at her desk, writing away in her journal. Her hand cramped, so she dropped the pen, and shook out her writing hand. Finished with journaling for now, she got up from the desk, walked over, and made her bed. Having been in the room for a few hours, curious, she headed off to see what was going on outside the tiny room. Her room was next to her father’s, so she checked in to see if he was around. His door was opened, but there was not anyone in there. She decided to make her way downstairs to see what was going on down there. Jessica heard people talking, but they were not the people she had been looking for. Yet she waived to them, so not to be rude.
Then she heard her father’s voice coming from his office, and made her way in that direction. The office door was partially opened, or closed, depending on how you looked at it. She personally saw it as partially opened, so she just gave it a nudge, and it slowly opened the rest of the way. There he was sitting in his chair, with Ethan across from him.
“I’m sorry… Am I interrupting something,” she asked.
“No Jess, come on in. This concerns you too,” her father replied.
She came into the room, settled into her own chair, and said, hello to Ethan, he said, hello back. Then she looked to her father, and asked, “What’s up?”
“Jess. Ethan has had some Intel from a rebel base west of here. They have good reason to believe that The U.F. is planning an attack on two more Clusters to make a mockery of you. They’re hoping to get you out of hiding, and to get the people to turn against you.”
“Do the people know?”
“About the attacks?”
“Yes.”
“No, they’ll be blind in this.”
“Do they know about what I carry inside?”
“No.”
“Will they?”
“I’m sure it will come out at some point, but with a U.F. spin.”
“What does this have to do with me? I can’t stop the attacks,” she explained politely.
Ethan took over, “Hellcat. We need your decision.”
“My decision on what?”
“Are you ready to lead?”
It was such a heavy question, she couldn’t take it all in at once. Her chest began to feel heavy, and it was getting difficult to breath. Then she cleared her mind, and tried to separate her emotions from what she was feeling. Without trying to speak, the words just came out, “Will we save those people if she say yes?”
“We’ll sure give it a shot,” her father assured her.
“Hellcat. The people need you. You’re a fighter, a leader, people listen to you, and you have the cure in you. They will fight to protect that, you just have to convince them of it,” Ethan explained.
“So what if we stop The U.F. again, they will just regroup and strike harder,” she said.
“Not this time. We’re not going after just The U.F.; we’re cutting off the snake’s head. We’re going to bring down government itself,” her father told her.
She had a perplexed look on her face, “But no one’s seen any government officials since the air raids.”
“They pull the strings, and The U.F. is just their muscle, like before the apocalypse, we had ours. The U.F. just carries out their orders. They don’t live in desolate wastelands like we all do. They live in the Lush, a city that was not hit by the bombing campaigns. They have green grass, trees, and no flesh-eaters, while the rest of the country lives in poverty, as they live in the Lush without anyone of us the wiser.”
“How can you be sure this Lush exists,” she asked.
“Stories passed down from other rebels around the country. No ones ever breached the actual gates, but it has been seen… So the stories go.”
She knew what it was they wanted for an answer, and she was just not ready to give it to them yet. There was something weighing her down, it could be lack of confidence, doubt in the cause, or maybe she was just not ready to be a leader. There would be too much responsibility on her shoulders for her to take.
Ethan asked one more time, “Are you ready Jess?”
She shook her head, and whispered, “No.” Then she left to go sulk in her dark room by herself, but on her way to the stairs, Andrew grabbed her hand gently. She looked up to see his welcoming face. Suddenly things didn’t seem so confusion anymore.
“You want to go outside for a walk,” he asked.
She smiled, “Sure.” I need to get away from this place for a while. Clear my head, you know, think a bit.”
As they walked outside, they were met by the nice warm air of spring. The sun was a welcoming change from her dark room. She didn’t feel so depressed all of a sudden. Andrew never let her hand go as we just strolled across the countryside of the camp. All her thoughts that she had swirling in her head, that she was forced to keep to myself, but she now had someone to communicate her thoughts to that wouldn’t judge her.
“So, what’s going on with you? You seem down still,” Andrew said.
Jessica felt safe opening up to him, so she did, “It’s this whole mess, it’s just gotten too complicated. I didn’t want any of this. I just wanted to stay in The Cluster. Now we’re here entangled with the
rebellion, and their fight against The U.F. Then they’re telling me I’m the answer to civilization’s rebirth. Well I’m not! I’m just a seventeen-year-old girl from a Cluster that had her entire world ripped apart. Now they want a decision if I’m ready to lead. Lead what? Lead whom, and for what?”
“Are you finished,” Andrew asked.
“Not you too?”
“No, not me too. It’s us, all of us. You know what The United Front wants to do, and you know how many of us are out there living below poverty line while they sit up there in the Lush—“
She cut him off, “You know? About the Lush?”
“I found out this morning. I was coming to tell you about it, but I overheard your father already informing you. Look I’m sorry about that, but we need to face the truth. The U.F. won’t stop attacking Clusters until they get what they want, and that’s unfortunately you.”
“I’ll hide. I’ll go so far away that not even you would find me.”
“You’re not running. You never run from anything. I also know you can’t turn your back on those people in The Clusters. Men, women, and children are going to be murdered innocently at the hands of The U.F. if we don’t step up and fight back. Like it or not, you are the future of the civilization, and with responsibility comes great power. I’m not trying to sway your decision one way or another, all I’m trying to tell you is to think seriously think about it. When you’re ready, you’ll know, and you can be at peace with your decision.”
Night had fallen like a blanket, and with it came colder temperatures. Most of the rebels were in the mess hall eating their food, but not Jessica. She was consumed with the dilemma that her father, and Ethan had posed earlier on in the day. Her stomach was growling, but her apatite was lost due to the guilt, and stress. She sat on the floor, with her knees pulled inward and her arms wrapped around them.
A Regressive World: Book One Page 16