“Sorry,” he apologized. “I’m supposed to take you to Clark’s house, right?” I nodded. “Then I’ll talk to both of you there.”
After hearing him say that, I wanted to grab Clark, run to the car and then tell Hiroki to drive as fast as possible. I nervously waited with the other experiment, watching the direction Clark would appear from, feeling anxiety eat away at my belly.
When we finally did make it to Clark’s house, Hiroki pulled us away from the house and one of the trees on the far end of the property. Reaching into his pocket, he turned on his scrambler.
“I only have a few moments, so listen carefully,” he hissed. “Mark says that there is a lot of movement of the local Sweeps teams. He is unable to find the plans for these teams and it’s making him nervous. Right now, he’s trying to discreetly gather information, and he’ll let you both know as soon as he finds out what’s going on.”
“Does he think the fort is in danger?” I whispered.
“He doesn’t know, yet,” Hiroki shook his head. “Just be alert. He will let you know what he finds out.”
Hiroki had to leave quickly in case Dana was tracking how long his car was out front of Clark’s house. He drove away as Clark and I looked nervously at one another.
Later that night, I found a note on the refrigerator from my father, telling me he had a late dinner meeting and asked me to make myself dinner. I tried not to think about my father having an affair. It was bad enough when my mother cheated on my father with Dana, but now I felt betrayed by both parents because of their infidelity to one another. It broke my heart to see my family tear apart in so short a time.
I ate little, my appetite non-existent, before I went to my room and tried to get some sleep.
I was awakened suddenly when I couldn’t breathe. I shifted uncomfortably in my sleep before jerking awake, panicked when I realized there was a hand over my mouth. I saw a suit-clad figure standing over me, his finger lifted to his lips.
“Don’t scream,” he whispered. “It’s just me.”
“Josh?” I hissed when he removed his hand.
“Lily, you need to get ready to leave.”
“What? When?”
“Soon,” Josh said. “Hyunwoo thinks that you are the target of the Sweeps.”
I blinked, struck dumb. My mind raced as I thought about what Dana had said about not wanting me to give up, about wanting to continue our game.
“Are you sure?” I asked, sitting up.
“Hyunwoo really thinks so.”
“Why?”
“Dana was talking to your mother,” Josh said quietly. “And then he saw a map of your neighborhood.”
“My mother’s in the hospital…”
“I know. But you don’t have time to think about that now. Tomorrow, pack, get into a fight with your father, and run away…”
I stared at him.
“Tomorrow?”
He nodded and leaned down, hugging me.
“Get out of here as soon as possible,” he whispered.
I did not bother to figure out how Josh had gotten into my house to pass on the frantic message. I had no hope of going back to sleep. My mind was jumbled and terrified with the idea of the Sweeps coming for me. I thought about running after Josh and telling him to take me to the fort that night, but as I thought about the haste with which he passed the message on, I realized that he was not alone and that he was worried about being caught. I had to pretend I knew nothing to keep the Eight Group members safe.
I was also confused. I thought that Dana wanted to continue our game, that he did not want me to be caught until he had had his fun. Did he change his mind? Or was it true that my mother called me in and asked him to capture me?
The thought of actually leaving home finally crossed my mind.
Of course, I had been thinking about it for a long time, talking to Clark about running away, but hearing that the following day was my last with my father, in our house…that hurt more than I prepared for. I swallowed hard as the tears gathered in my eyes.
I looked at Dexter, sleeping in the bed by the window.
I got out of bed and walked to him, gathering him in my arms though he went limp, indignant about being moved. I brought him to my bed and held him tight, listening to his purring as I curled myself around him. He shifted to a comfortable position before closing his eyes again. I let a few tears run down my face as I thought about leaving my family, including Dexter. I wondered if he would wonder where I went…if he would miss me…
And I thought of my father, who was so willing to look past the parade footage and tell me that everything was going to be alright, that the family would figure things out…the father I had always felt so close to, even during the strange distance that had come between us since the Commission of the People became a part of our lives.
I thought I had made peace with the idea of leaving, but it was obvious I had not.
The following day, I was an emotional wreck, looking at everything with a nostalgic eye, noticing little details that I was sure I would miss. I tried to interact with my friends as I realized those were the last memories I would have of them, though I was so emotionally unstable that I almost cried every time someone said something funny or made me smile.
Becca noticed my emotional state and continued to give me hugs, but she did not attempt to ask what was wrong.
There was a large hiccup in the plan Josh proposed, however.
My father was not home that night.
I found another message, saying that he was busy again and he apologized by note once more.
That made me extremely nervous.
I went upstairs and quickly threw some things into a bag, looking around my room, trying to decide if there was anything else I needed to bring. As I was glancing at everything, I had a strange sense of peace come over me. I didn’t need any of the other things in my room. They were trinkets of the life I no longer believed in.
I went to Dex and hugged him tightly, wishing I could take him with me.
Then, it was the long wait for my father to come home so I could start a fight with him. I grabbed the backpack with some clothes, my phone and wallet, and the cash I had been slowly pulling out of my allowance and saving, just in case. I sat in the living room, waiting.
I fell asleep before I could help it and woke up two hours later, looking at the clock in the living room that read one-thirty in the morning.
A ball of disgust rose in my throat as I thought about my father with his mistress, whoever she was. Angrily, I snatched my backpack and stormed through the house, turning off the lights on my way to the front door, ready to leave regardless of what my father thought the reason for my disappearance was.
I stopped, though, when my hand was on the doorknob and looked back into the large house, glancing at the family pictures on the walls and the large dining table where we would have dinner…it was incredibly painful to leave this part of my life behind.
Taking a deep breath and preparing myself, I turned back to the door.
I moved the lock one millimeter before I froze.
I heard mumbling on the other side of the door, hushed whispers of three or four men. My blood ran cold.
The Sweeps team was there.
I carefully and quickly moved away from the door, slipping my backpack over my shoulders and crouching low as I moved through the kitchen, stopping to glance at the glass doors leading into the backyard to be sure that no one was there. When I saw no one, I darted toward the garage before thinking better of it and running upstairs, turning toward Mykail’s old room and listening. I was sure that the Sweeps team had surrounded the house. I decided that as soon as I heard them come into the house, I would wait for them to converge on my bedroom and then run through the open upstairs layout, down the main stairs, and out the front door, praying I was fast enough.
I moved backward through Mykail’s bathroom, keeping my steps and breathing light as I strained to listen for the doors opening. I made
my way into the other guest room and finally into the hallway at the top of the main staircase.
That was when I heard the click of the deadbolt moving out of place.
I slipped into my parent’s bedroom, dropping to the floor and crawling under the bed, pulling the bed skirt down just in time for me to see boots coming up the stairs in front of me. I saw four sets of black boots go into the bathroom and another four sets come toward me. I was worried my frightened heartbeat would give my hiding spot away.
It was obvious that the men already knew the layout of the house with the way they split to go on both ends of the open layout, making sure I had no chance of slipping past them.
I watched the boots move, quiet “clears” being muttered as they moved further into the massive room. When I saw only the heels of their boots go to the hexagonal room between the bathroom and bedroom that my parents had turned into an office, I crawled out from under the bed, remaining in a crawl until I was out of the room, where I scrambled to my feet and swiftly moved down the stairs, seeing a clear shot to the open front door.
I reached the bottom of the stairs and darted toward the door, but a set of arms wrapped around my stomach and pulled me to a screeching halt.
“There you are…” a familiar voice chuckled quietly. I whirled around and, to my horror, recognized the face of the one holding me. Dana grinned broadly as I tried to struggle, my arms flailing enough for him to be forced to catch them, though he took advantage of the opportunity and put me on the ground, settling over my hips and pinning my hands above my head.
“Do you really think fighting me is going to accomplish anything?”
“Get the fuck off me!” I hissed, trying to move my hips in an attempt to knock him off-balance. However, his larger size gave him the distinct advantage.
“Now, now, I’m here to take you where you belong…” he assured with a malicious grin.
Barely managing to wiggle my wrist out of his grasp, I used the heel of my hand to push upward into his nose, just as I had been taught in my self-defense class as a freshman, but the motion did not have as much strength as I needed. It stunned Dana, but it did not break his nose.
I managed to squirm enough in his distraction to nearly be free of him, but Dana moved off of me, his legs circling my waist and pulling me so I was resting on top of him, his legs keeping me confined.
“I can do it this way, too,” he grinned. “I’m versatile…”
“You said that you wanted to keep this game going,” I hissed.
“The game ends when I say,” Dana said. “You really don’t get it, do you? Every little aspect of your life was planned so you would come to me. So you would get to this point. You think you’re in control of this, Little Lily, but you have been moving exactly as I want you to move. I appointed your father, I brought you to this house…all to get you to this point. I did it all for you. Now it’s time to really see what you can do…”
Finally ripping my hands free, I linked my fingers together and straightened as much as I could, turning my elbow and jamming it as hard as I could against Dana’s inner thigh with enough pressure for his legs to loosen.
When I had a just enough room to move, I backed away and lifted my knee into his groin.
There was no pain on his features, but there was surprise, and his legs did release me. I scrambled to my feet and flew out the door faster than I had ever moved in my life. There were people from the Sweeps team patrolling outside and, when they saw me running, they pursued, a few of them getting into the cars and peeling out of my driveway.
I darted the short distance to the park and did the only thing I could think of. Quickly removing my backpack, I held it above my head and jumped into the icy waters of the tributary ditch that had been decorated to look like a creek. Feeling my breath leave as if had been kicked, I tried to force my lungs to work as I moved with the current, waiting for the first tunnel, trying to swim past the sound of the tires screeching as my muscles locked in the cold water.
I was sure I was going to freeze to death, or be caught by the Sweeps team, before I finally found the first tunnel that dipped under the road. Sticking my hand out, my nails scraped along the cement wall, searching for what I hoped was there. I was not sure if all the tributary tunnels had an excess flow chamber, like the one I knew from downtown that led to a passageway for Fort Daniels, but I prayed luck was on my side.
Amazingly, my hand latched onto a lever and abruptly stopped my drifting body. My frozen fingers were barely able to catch the metal and I had to force my legs to stand in the waist-deep waters. I tried to remain strong against the current of the melted snow, looping my backpack around my neck, using both hands to grab the upper lever of the two-tiered flow chamber. I put all my strength into opening the grate enough for me to throw my backpack inside and slide in after, only able to pull the grate partially shut behind me.
I remained in the slightly damp, musky cement area for only ten seconds before I forced myself to clutch around in the dark for my backpack, reaching inside with frozen fingers and scraping the bottom for my phone, I used it as a flashlight to look for a means of getting out of the tunnel. I crawled through the pipe and tried to gracefully drop into the main drainage pipe that would lead to the larger tunnels under the city, but my frozen body tumbled down and my shivering muscles gave out.
Holding my phone with my teeth, I pulled my drenched clothes off my body, trying to keep myself moving, jumping up and down to get my blood pumping. When the wet fabric was away from my skin, I pulled out one of the sweaters and a pair of jeans from my bag, also pulling off my wet socks and placing dry ones over my numb toes.
When I was dressed in dry clothes, I grabbed my backpack, moving my arms around to get blood flowing to my fingers. I gathered the wet clothes and began walking, without shoes, in the cold pipe, using the compass on my phone to head in the direction of downtown.
By the time I reached the familiar tunnel system, my body was not nearly as cold, though I still lacked feeling in my fingers and toes.
I always kept an ear out for the Sweeps team, but was sure I had lost them.
When I came to the door that I knew would lead to the rest of the revolutionaries, I felt myself pick up speed, eager.
Once inside the last hallway with the door closed behind me, I half-ran to the end of the corridor and pulled the heavy door aside, finding myself in the lit hall of the ammunition rooms, leading into the main bunker. There was a dull murmur from the main room, and I quickly clamored toward it.
Griffin caught sight of me first and a big smile took over his features.
“Lily!”
Tori turned and ran over as well.
“We’ve been waiting for you!” she grinned. I smiled at the happy faces around me, including one that I had not seen in what felt like years. Mykail wrapped his arms around me in a tight embrace.
“I’m so glad you’re here safely…” he breathed. He pecked a kiss on my lips before looking me over, running a hand through my still damp hair. “What the hell happened?” he chuckled.
I laughed, but was unable to answer, feeling too many complex emotions wash over me as I looked around the bunker.
This was my family, now.
“You are shivering!” Tori laughed.
“Come on, we’ll get you some blankets and warm you up,” Griffin declared.
* *** *
While I had escaped the Sweeps team, that was not the end of the horrible ordeal. I was unable to sleep, despite feeling comfortable as I lay with Mykail for the first time in so long. I needed to go back, needed to confront my father, needed to close the door on that section of my life properly before I could dedicate myself entirely to the revolution.
Naturally, I could not tell anyone where I was going, so I told them that I was going to go to Clark’s house just to make sure he was still there.
I traveled on the bus back to my house, surprised at how out of place I felt in the almost-empty vehicle. The previous night,
I had barely managed to evade the Sweeps team of the Commission of the People, and it seemed unreal that I was able to get on the bus without being hounded once again. I was constantly looking over my shoulder, making sure I was not being followed, paranoid.
There was no guarantee that my father would be at the house, but I wanted to check. I walked to the house, suddenly overwhelmed by its enormity. I made my way around the back and into the garage. Using my key, I unlocked the back door and peeked inside. Both cars were present. My father was home.
Taking a deep breath, I stepped to the door into the house. Before I could think better of my actions, I entered, listening for sounds of my father.
Someone was unloading the dishwasher, so I walked toward the kitchen, keeping quiet as I moved through the house that felt foreign, despite having been there only twelve hours previous as a resident.
I ascended the three stairs into the kitchen and saw my father bent over the dishwasher, placing the clean plates on the counter.
I took a step forward and made sure to make noise on the hardwood floor. He hesitated, stopped in his stoop before slowly turning. He looked as though he had not slept at all, his eyes dark and bloodshot, sunken into a pale face.
“Hey,” I said stupidly.
“Lily…”
“So, I’m sure you have a good reason for vanishing last night,” I started coldly. I fixed him with a hard stare. “Why didn’t you just turn me in? Why did you back out like a coward and let the Sweeps team come to take me?”
“Lily, you shouldn’t be here…”
“Obviously,” I snarled. “But you at least owe me an answer…”
“…I don’t have one,” he admitted. I nodded, looking at my feet, trying to think of what I wanted to say.
“Mom called me in?” I asked, my eyes on him again.
“She did…” he confirmed. “She thought you were out of control…that you couldn’t be brought to reason…”
“She did? Or you both did?” I snapped. “Because it’s obvious you didn’t step in on my behalf last night.”
“Lily, what you’re doing is wrong, and it’s dangerous to everyone, including yourself,” he said, stepping to me, as though he was trying to calm me down. I was calm, albeit disappointed.
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