“And you thought I needed to learn that the hard way?” I hissed. “You figured it was best to just have me disappear and then never hear from me again? Let me take a guess. Now that the Sweeps team came through and I’m a wanted criminal, Mom’s coming home so you two can carry on having your separate relationships within your marriage.”
“Lily…”
“No, you know what, Mom was right,” I said, the tears starting to choke me. “You really did give up on me…both of you did…”
“I wish there was something I could say to you,” my father sighed, his voice tight with agony, “but the truth is, there is nothing I can say…I know what I did, and as much as it hurts me that my daughter is wanted by the Commission of the People for being involved in domestic terrorism…I know I did the right thing.”
I blinked.
“The right thing?” I whispered. “You did the right thing? Supporting a system that hunts people down and turns them into weapons, or tests on them until they die? That’s the right thing?”
“You’re part of the group that is causing panic across the country,” my father shook his head, as though the statement in itself validated his decision.
“So are you,” I growled. “You think the Commission doesn’t cause panic?”
“It’s not the same…”
“Yes, it is the same,” I snapped. I sighed, shaking my head. “You know, I shouldn’t be surprised, really. It runs in the family. Grandfather turned in your older brother for going against the Commission and now you are doing the same to your daughter.”
“What my brother was doing was far nobler than what you’re doing,” my father growled. “Yes, Liam disapproved of the Commission, but he discreetly moved people out of the country. He didn’t parade around the streets flaunting what he was doing and getting people killed!”
I stared at him, surprisingly hurt by the words. The man I looked up to for going against the Commission, for being impervious to all the tests the Commission put him through, was someone I now betrayed for trying to do the same thing he had done.
I could say nothing, the tears falling down my cheeks as I clenched my jaw tight. My father’s eyes were also welling with tears. He sniffed once and pointed a finger at me.
“I won’t report that you were here today…” he hissed. “But you are dead to me now, Lily Sandover.”
He might as well have taken a knife to my heart. The words struck me harder than anything I had ever known before. My father was denying my existence, denying everything that he had taught me about standing up for what I believed in. He was killing me.
I turned and left, closing the door on the life I had always known, leaving a part of my soul in the house with my father, crying at the physical and emotional pain that tore through me.
Part 3
Chapter Fifty- Eight
I confessed to Mykail where I had been and he held me as I cried, both of us disappearing into the privacy of the empty medical room. I would have been unable to handle the pain without Mykail holding me.
When I returned to the bunker, I found myself fascinated with the way life was run in the fort.
In the two months that everyone had been living in Fort Daniels, they had come up with an incredible system. Everyone had their chore and they rotated depending on the day. Several people had already gone through the tasks of cleaning the weapons to be sure they were ready if and when we needed them. Inventory was meticulously kept and the bunker was always exceptionally clean to keep everyone healthy in such close quarters. Cleanliness was a big priority.
Food rations were obsessively preserved, but I could see around lunch time the following day that we were already beginning to run dangerously low on the food that had been in the fort. I figured that it was the highest priority to discuss with Tori and Griffin how we were planning to keep everyone in the bunker fed.
But I was pulled away in the early afternoon, before I had a chance to speak to either of them.
Josh showed up at the bunker and was greeted with hugs and cheers as he made his way to me.
“Lily,” he smiled, relieved. “I’m very happy you got away from the Sweeps team.”
“Me, too,” I chuckled brokenly.
“I bet you’re happy to be here,” he grinned, nodding to Mykail at my side. I squeezed our laced together fingers.
“I am.”
“I hate to pull you away, but Clark wants to meet with you,” Josh said. “I’ll take you to him.”
“He’s not coming here?”
“Not yet,” Josh shook his head. “He’ll explain.”
“Are you taking her away?” Tori giggled, stepping up to Josh and putting her arm around his shoulders.
“Just for a few hours,” he said. “I will have her back before dark.”
“Sounds like you’re taking her on a date,” Mykail chuckled. Josh blinked and looked around, surprised.
“It does?”
I could not help but laugh at the startled expression on Josh’s face.
“I-I didn’t mean that,” he laughed nervously.
“It’s okay,” Tori laughed, hugging him and rubbing his shoulder. “Have her back before dark,” she teased.
Josh took me to the downtown area, where his car was parked. I got into the passenger’s seat as Josh started the car.
“Thank you, Josh.”
“For what?”
“For watching out for me,” I elaborated. “For…believing enough in what we’re doing to risk everything.” I stopped quickly, looking around the car, remembering that there could be bugs in the vehicle.
“Don’t worry,” Josh assured with a smile. “Hyunwoo and me took them out this morning.”
I relaxed.
“And I should thank you,” he continued, driving along the river-walk in the north end of downtown Central and stopping at the park next to the river, pulling to the curb. “Without you, we could not do this.”
My smile broadened and reached over, giving him an awkward hug over the center console.
“I also like that you give so many hugs,” I chuckled, backing away. “Mark doesn’t hug.”
“No, he doesn’t,” Josh laughed knowingly. “Hyunwoo and me will be at the camp where we usually talk. When you’re done, you can come meet us.”
“Okay,” I agreed, climbing out of the car and crossing the street to walk along the river. I came across Clark sitting on the dry riverbank.
“Hey,” I called, running up to him. Clark turned and smiled, standing up.
“Hey,” he repeated. “How are you?”
“Not bad,” I said truthfully. “How about you?”
“Not bad,” he said, stepping to my side and nodding down the path. “Walk with me?”
We strolled along the river in silence. I watched the water rush over the rocks, trying not to think of my narrow escape from the Sweeps team in the freezing water of the tributary near my former home.
Clark brought it up anyway.
“How did you manage to escape?” he whispered, his eyes on the path in front of him.
“I ran like hell,” I chuckled. “They didn’t come for you?” I tried to ask as casually as I could. He shook his head.
“I’m not as popular as you,” he tried to tease.
“I don’t think it has anything to do with popularity,” I grumbled, though I was smiling. “What are you going to do?”
“I think I’m going to have a fight with my parents,” Clark mused. “But…it’s hard to do that when they’re never around…”
“I’ve noticed that about your family,” I said. “Busy parents.”
“Parents who don’t care,” Clark corrected. “All I hear around the house is follow what Dana is doing, do what Dana says, don’t aggravate the situation. They don’t even see me.” He rolled his eyes. “I’d say the situation is pretty well aggravated…”
“Understatement,” I snorted. I shoved my hands deep in my pockets, trying to keep them warm in the chilly March air.
“So, you’re going to have a fight with them and run away? Why not just run away?”
“…I’m worried about Mark,” he admitted. “I’m trying to make it so that he doesn’t get in trouble for not catching me, or not going after me. He’s driving me around today, and if I just randomly disappear out of nowhere, then people are going to ask how Mark was unable to find me. I think it’s better to have a fight with my parents and sneak out,” he put air-quotes around the two words, “in the middle of the night.”
“Yeah, we definitely need to keep Mark on the inside for as long as we can,” I agreed with a strong nod. “If Mark gets found out, I think the entire Eight Group gets exposed and then we don’t have any inside information.”
“True,” Clark agreed. “How’s living at the fort?”
“Pretty cool, actually,” I smiled. “How’s school?”
“Boring,” Clark laughed. “You know, I was going to continue to try my best in school, but that’s gone all to hell in the last month. I just don’t care anymore.”
“I know how that feels.”
“Besides, this is much more important than school,” Clark said. “Speaking of which, your posse surrounded me yesterday wondering where you were.”
“What did you tell them?”
“I told them that I didn’t know.”
We sat on a bench near the eastern parking lot, finally reaching the end of the park. I asked why Mark was at the campground where we normally had our strategy meetings if he was driving Clark around.
“He left the car here, but he wanted to take a walk, or something,” Clark shrugged.
“You’re not worried?”
“About Mark? No, not really,” Clark laughed. “I’m pretty sure he’s able to take care of himself. He was beaten down by Dana and still is helping us. I think he’s smart enough to know how to cover his tracks by now.”
“When did you get him as a gift?”
“About three or four years ago,” Clark explained. “Right after his voice got…”
“But you were in the Commission before that,” I noted.
Clark nodded, letting out a long sigh.
“Yeah, we had another gift, but a neighbor found out,” he admitted. “She was a young experiment who exhaled a poisonous gas when her adrenaline spiked, so she always had a mask on.”
“Seems like a dangerous experiment to just give away…” I murmured, rolling my eyes.
“Dana is obsessed with keeping my family safe. He gave us gifts that were supposed to protect us against anyone who might try to capture my mother or kill her because of her close connections with Dana. After Leila was found out by our neighbor, Dana had to pay a lot of hush money and had doctors draw up fake notes about her medical condition in order to cover the Commission’s ass. In the end, he decided to save everyone the trouble and took her away, giving my mom Mark instead.”
I nodded slowly. “Hiroki told me about when Mark had his voice taken…” I breathed, looking distantly over the parking lot. “It was horrific.”
“Why did he do it? Was it because they were talking to one another in their own language and planning against Dana?” Clark asked. “Because that’s always what I was told.”
“Not entirely,” I said. I spelt out the horrific story in the same detail it was told to me. Clark blinked in surprise and rested his elbows on his knees, pressing his mouth to his hands.
“Fuck…” he breathed. “He’s almost killed Dana before…”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “It’s no wonder he had so much of this already planned.”
“No kidding,” Clark agreed. “That’s really ballsy, plotting all of this behind Dana’s back, gathering information and stealing things from the Commission, even after being caught once.”
“But he can’t stay hidden like this forever,” I whispered. “Just like us, he’s going to get found out. What are we going to do then?”
“Hopefully this revolution will be stronger and we won’t need to get inside information from him.”
“Hopefully,” I murmured. “Speaking of which, I didn’t think the start of a civil war would be so calm…” I tried to chuckle. Clark looked around us.
“No kidding,” he grinned. “There are little demonstrations taking place, mostly about the innocents who were killed, and it’s splitting the army against itself even more.”
“Then we’re going to have to start planning our next move.”
“Very soon,” Clark agreed with a nod. “I’m hoping I’ll find a good opportunity to pick a fight with my parents and join everyone else in the fort.” I could not help but giggle at the statement. Clark chuckled, too.
I sighed and shivered, looking around the park again.
“Should we head out?”
“Sure,” Clark nodded, standing. He glanced around, but stopped when his eyes settled on the parking lot. I followed his gaze and felt my blood run cold. There was a van sitting between the parked cars, idling, tinted windows hiding the people within.
“Shit, Commission van,” I hissed. Clark tensed and turned his head.
“Wait for them to get out of the van…” he whispered. “When they’re out, run like hell.”
“Can we outrun them?”
“We’re about to find out…”
The van door slid open and four men jumped out.
“This way!” I yelled, darting back along the path we had walked down, following the river. The men yelled at us to stop, proving to me that they were pursuing on foot. I crossed the street and starting running up the sidewalk, further from downtown, feeling my lungs burn from the labored inhalation of cold air. I did not bother to look back at Clark, knowing he was close behind, hearing his labored pants.
When we reached the last intersection before the open road leading out of town, I ran across the street just as the light turned green and traffic started moving. People honked at us angrily, but I hoped they would continue to drive after us, delaying the Commission employees.
I sprinted along another road, parallel to the river, darting across the street yet again, Clark close behind, the angry cursing of the men following loudly, but at a distance.
Cutting through the alley of the outlying buildings, Clark and I leapt into the tree line, moving in a diagonal direction to meet the dirt road that would tell us where we were in the park and where the campground was.
“Is it really…a good idea to run…to Josh and Mark?” Clark yelled behind me.
“Do you have another idea?!”
We pushed our tired muscles and burning lungs harder, particularly when I heard the roar of an engine gaining ground behind us.
“Is that them?!”
“I’m not turning to look!”
I darted into the trees and off the road again, knowing that the van could not follow in the crowded foliage, even though it slowed our escape, as well.
I continued forward, keeping my eye out for the campsite that had become so familiar.
“There!” Clark gasped, pointing as he saw a black car and two men in suits.
Clark and I were completely out of breath by the time we stumbled into the campground where Josh and Mark were. They both straightened when they saw us through their glasses.
“What happened?” Josh asked.
“Commission van…” Clark panted, leaning on his knees, trying to catch his breath as I crouched completely down, feeling light-headed and weak. “After us…”
Mark’s head turned each direction as he stepped forward, grabbing my arm and pulling me upright. As he was pulling me to wherever he was going, we heard the sound of tires rolling on the dirt and all of us saw the van skid to a stop in the campground. A few of the men jumped out of the car before the vehicle came to a complete stop.
“Grab them!”
I was surprised when I felt Mark turn me around and grab both of my arms, pulling them behind my back almost painfully, but as I began to catch my breath I remembered that no one knew of Mark’s treason and he had to keep up appea
rances.
I had no idea how we were going to get out of this.
“Great.” Two of the men who had been kneeling on the ground and pointing their guns at us nodded, standing up. “It’s a good thing that little fucker’s gift is one of us,” one of them chuckled darkly, putting his gun in its holster.
“Fucking moron, he ain’t one of us,” the other snapped.
“Who would have thought that the Markus kid would be part of that bitch’s group…” another shook his head, disappointed.
I counted seven people around the van. I glanced at Clark and saw Josh holding him as Mark was restraining me. My heart was beating angrily against my ribs, not just from running to escape, but in fear that we were going to be turned over to Dana and that would be the end of our plan. After evading the Sweeps team the previous day, this seemed like a really stupid way to be caught.
“Get some restraints,” the driver sighed, putting his gun back in the holster and moving to the other side of the car. “You two, clean out the back. We’re gonna have to throw the boy in the trunk.”
“Craig, I’m gonna smoke,” one of the men said, turning out of sight behind the car as the driver groaned.
“Fuck, Zac, are you serious? Now?”
“Hey, fuck you,” Zac snapped irritably. “I haven’t had one all day. I’m going crazy.”
“Just fucking quit,” another man groaned. There were three people on our side of the car and one of them was standing to the side of the open sliding van door, taking the ropes that the other two were handing him from the compartment under the floor.
One of them glanced at us and then turned to the driver.
“Hey, what the hell were the chinks doing out here anyway?”
“Who gives a shit? They got the little fuckers.”
Mark moved my arms for me, simulating struggle. I started fighting against him, though his strength kept me from moving much.
“Come on, I know the chinks are strong, but the kids are getting feisty,” the one holding the ropes snapped.
“We gotta get the tracers, chill the fuck out,” another growled. “They’re not going anywhere.”
Inside Page 109