Boneyards & Badlands: The Complete FTW Series
Page 23
The screen goes dark for a few seconds before the hunters and the dogs walk back on screen. One of the hunters is holding up the fox, now dead, by its tail.
What’s happening on screen has Jameson’s full attention and it occurs to me now would be a good time to get rid of the evidence. I pull up the crumpled up paper from my pocket and look around, but there’s nowhere useful I can see to throw it.
I make a rash decision and stuff it into my mouth. A few quick chews and I swallow it. The paper scrapes at my throat but it goes down.
“Greeting from your friends The Fox Hunters,” one of the animated hunters on screen says. This earns a scream of fury from Jameson. “Don’t bother trying to fix your screen, we have control of them.”
The animated characters on screen dissolve into black. Seconds tick by and they’re replaced by the face of a woman
I bite my tongue to stop myself from cheering. This should be interesting.
“Good evening,” she says. “My name is Aisha and I’m a Fox Hunter. You’re probably wondering what all this is about. Well, don’t worry. We’re not here to bring about the end of the world. Quite the opposite as it happens. We’re here to give it back to you. How? We’ve taken the control away from FTW. You think you rely on them for air and water when in reality it’s FTW who’s keeping it from you.”
Jameson turns and points his gun at me again.
“Move,” he growls at me. Behind him, Aisha continues to talk to the world but I tune her out. All I can focus on right now is Jameson and the gun.
He keeps the gun pointed at me as he marches me towards the elevators. He doesn’t say a word as we ride back down to the cells. When the doors open he jams the gun into the back of my head and orders me to walk forward.
Kara, Stilwell, and Nils jump to their feet as Jameson pushes me towards them.
“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?” Jameson screams at them.
Even with a gun to my head I can’t stop myself smiling when I look at Kara. Her eyes flicker back and forth between mine and Jameson.
“I’ve no idea what you’re talking about,” Kara says.
“THIS,” Jameson spits, holding up his wrist. The screen on his wrist comms is small, but the face of Aisha fills most of it.
Kara tilts her head sideways to get a better look and then grins. She looks into my eyes and I see she knows the truth. This time it’s Kara’s turn to laugh.
“Don’t you get it?” she says. “We beat you the only way we could. Killing you obviously doesn’t work, you keep popping back up as a clone. The Fox Hunters worked out the answer though. We had to break your stranglehold on the world. That’s the only way we could truly be free.
“You no longer control the air we breathe. We've given it back to the people. Soon, the rains will come again and we’ll have the water too. How long do you think people obey your authority once you have nothing they need? This is how we beat you, by stripping away everything you have, every ounce of power you hold over people and giving it back to them.”
Jameson shoves me sideways and I skid across the floor. He marches forward and points the gun at Kara through the bars of the cell.
“Kill me if you must,” Kara says staring him down. “We’ve still won.”
Jameson’s grip on the gun tightens, his knuckles turning white. I jump to my feet and launch myself at him. Kara ducks just before I impact. Jameson’s head slams into the bars and the gun fires.
Kara gets back up and grabs at Jameson’s arm, bending it backwards against the bar. He curses and screams and it’s followed by a crack as the bone in his upper arm breaks and pushes through the skin.
Kara wrestles the gun from his hand and he drops, whimpering to the floor.
Stilwell and Nils cheer and whoop and whistle in celebration. Kara points the gun at Jameson and looks at me. I shake my head.
“No,” I say. “He doesn’t get off this easy. He needs to answer for his crimes. We owe the people that much.”
Kara’s upper lip twitches, but she relents with a nod. Stilwell and Nils both cough loudly from the other cell.
“You can let us out whenever you want,” Stilwell says.
“Of course. First, Kara can I borrow the gun?” I ask, reaching my hand through the bars.
She passes it to me and asks what I’m going to do.
“I don’t want to kill him,” I answer then swing the butt of the gun into the back of Jameson’s head. “But that doesn’t mean I need him conscious.”
Jameson slumps to the floor and I remove the comms from his wrist. Maliah is no longer on screen and it’s back to its normal self, so I tap in a command and the cells unlock.
Kara steps through the door and over the unconscious body of Jameson, then dives at me, grabbing me in a hug.
“Damn, girl! I didn’t know what to believe there for a while,” she says then plants a kiss on my lips. I pull her closer and lose myself in the moment.
It’s not until I hear some not-so-subtle coughing coming from behind us that I reluctantly break contact. Stilwell and Nils have heaved the body of Jameson into the cell and locked him in and are now standing around looking at us.
“What?” I ask them, still holding onto Kara as tight as I can.
“Nothing, don’t mind us,” Nils says, a smirk easing its way across his face.
Kara ignores them and turns back to face me.
“Do you think it’s over, for good this time?” she asks.
“It has to be,” I reply.
The truth is I don’t think I’ve got much more fight left in me so I really hope this is the end. With FTW now unable to control either the air or the water supply I think we’re in with the best shot we’ve ever had. I pull Kara in close and rest my head against hers.
I couldn’t stop smiling even if I wanted to.
10 - Kara
It’s been two days now since we took down Jameson and broke FTW’s grip on the world. We contacted Maliah and Aisha and told them the good news. Aisha said there would be thousands of people wanting justice so she was glad we left him alive.
Aisha also told us to expect a visit from the police but not to worry. She had arranged for people sympathetic to the cause to come for us. They weren’t coming to arrest us, she was sending them for our protection.
Jameson’s grip stretched far and wide, and there were plenty of people still loyal to him. Maliah assured us that wouldn’t last though. Once his empire crumbled, they’d abandon him soon enough.
We had to answer a lot of questions but finally we had time to ourselves. We traveled to the top floor of the FTW building and looked out over the expanse of the city. This is where we are now, looking at an exquisite sunset.
Echo holds my hand in hers, our fingers entwined. The late evening sun peeks over the horizon, and as the last rays disappear a bright, white flash lights up the sky.
“What was that?” I ask looking around.
An enormous BOOM makes every window in the building rattle. Another flash, this time I see it. Light stabs down from the sky behind us.
We rush over to the far windows and look out. Every few seconds there’s another flash followed by a boom.
“Is that what I think it is?” I ask Echo, my heart threatening to beat through my chest.
She doesn’t answer me, just points towards the glass.
Outside the building, rain, the first in countless decades, pounds against the glass. Everything beyond the glass becomes invisible through the wall of cascading water.
I pull Echo in close and we watch the rain late into the night.
Thank You!
Thanks for reading the FTW Series, I hope you enjoyed it!
For other stories I’ve written check out my website at http://www.morganhobbes.com.
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Other Works by Morgan Hobbes
(Available as eBook and Paperback)
Science Fiction
Storm View
Nemesis Rising
Finsbury Park
Sanctuary
Death Is For Other People
Dark Humor / Suspense
Have Shovel - Will Bury
Also by Morgan Hobbes
(Available as eBook and Paperback)
Picture Books for Children
Biggy Piggy
Biggy Piggy: Balloon Rescue!