“What are you talking about? Who came over?”
“Do you take me for a fool?” he answers sharply, holding up the blond strand. “I know Valerie was here last night,”
“Are you getting all that from a piece of hair?” I chuckle. “That hair could have been there for months. I never clean the place.”
“You think you’re so smart, don’t you? I know you two colluded against me. I checked The Database this morning. At first I was happy to see that both of you slept in your own beds. I thought I had nothing to worry about.” He brushes the hair from his fingers. “But then I got the report about the incident last night. Weren’t you the first on the scene when the teenage boy fell to his death?”
“Huh? Uh yeah, I was the one.”
“But The Database said you were sleeping all night.”
“Yeah, so?”
“How could you be at the boy’s side, and be in your own bed at the same time?”
“I don’t know. All I know is that I was on L-Chip lockdown last night.”
“All the more proof that something’s not right. If you were on lockdown, your L-Chip shouldn’t have recorded anything at all. In fact…” He pulls out his Mobile Security Console from his shirt pocket and turns it on. He projects a hologram chart in the middle the room. “… The Database shows that you’re still sleeping in your bed as we speak. Doesn’t that seem odd, Mr. Sparks? Here you are standing right in front of me, but yet, The Database says you’re still in your bedroom.” He cocks his head and squints his eyes. “So tell me, Mr. Sparks, how did you change the official record?”
“I didn’t, sir. I would never do that.”
“That’s probably true, you probably wouldn’t, but Val would. She’d do it in a second. She must have hacked into The Database when I was sleeping.”
“Why would she? She never came over.”
“She really has you wrapped around her finger, doesn’t she? You’ll do anything for her, won’t you?” He starts circling me like a shark. “I had big plans for you, Evan, big. You could have done anything you wanted; you could have run for Senator, maybe President, but you fuckin’ blew it. You screwed it all up for a girl, one single girl. I started Youth Nation so we wouldn’t end up like the ‘old way’, pining over some slut, some pussy, hoping and praying she’d notice me. I wanted us to be free; I wanted us to enjoy life. But you insisted on disobeying me. Why Mr. Sparks? Why?”
“She wasn’t here, Senator!”
“I wish I could believe you, I really do, but I don’t trust you… or Val.” He motions for the YP’s to move. They spring into action. Two of them walk out onto the balcony, and the other two stand near the door. “You’re confined to your apartment until I can figure out what the hell I’m going to do with you.”
“Sir, this isn’t necessary,” I say persuasively as I take a step towards him. A YP runs over and blocks me from getting too close.
“We were friends once, you and me,” Willenger says. “But I don’t know where I went wrong.”
“We still are, sir.”
“If we are, then do me a favor. Stop thinking about her; I need you to stop whatever it is you think you have with her. I want you to move on. I’ll send up Taryn, or would you prefer Ashley? How about both? Would that keep your mind off of her?”
“Why can’t I see her?” I blurt out. “We weren’t hurting anyone.”
His look turns cold, his jaw clenched. “Things are different now, Evan,” he answers me with a formidable glare. “You’re not the boy who I thought you were.”
“Do you love her?” I suddenly ask.
He looks at me like he’s offended. “I don’t love any one single person. The notion of you thinking that is preposterous. My love is for Youth Nation and Youth Nation only.”
“Do you want me out of the way, so you can have her all to yourself?”
Willenger laughs under his breath. “Perry was right, I should have had you killed, but I liked you too much, Evan, I really did. I thought you’d forget all about her after you joined Youth Patrol. I thought you’d become like Jeremin, a psychopath. But I was wrong, you’re worse. You’re in love.”
He opens the door and leaves. The YP’s stay and stand guard. I won’t make it to the Town Square today.
CHAPTER 28
A minute passes, then two. I should call Val. I send her a mind-text again, but this time, an error message comes bouncing across my thoughts. It says that my L-Chip is now restricted. I’ve been blocked. I bet Val’s chip is blocked too. No wonder she didn’t answer my texts.
I head toward the balcony, but the two YP’s stationed there won’t let me get anywhere near it. What am I going to do? From where I stand I can still see the bread truck still parked at the bakery, but there’s no way I can get to it, not with all these YP’s around. Maybe… I can sneak out through the window above my bed. I walk into my bedroom, but the damn thing doesn’t open wide enough for me to climb through. Why don’t I just bust it open? One kick should do it. But I quickly come to my senses, it’s a terrible idea, it would sound the alarm and everyone would come running. I flop down on the bed; I’ve lost.
But… but now I know about the bread truck, I could sneak out when all this drama dies down. That’s what I’ll do; I’ll just wait it out. My escape won’t happen today, but it will happen. I begin to feel better about myself. Then, I think about Valerie’s baby, it’ll be too late for her.
Ten minutes pass. Then I hear the Senator’s voice. “Where o death is your sting. Where o death is your victory,”
His devotional has begun, but why am I not seeing him? I can only hear him.
“Religion dared to offer life after death. But we offer life here and now. The L-Chip brings life and that life more abundant.”
The speech isn’t coming through my L-Chip; it’s coming from somewhere else. I look out my bedroom window and see the Senator speaking on the giant hologram billboard floating above the city. That’s totally normal, but what’s not normal is that it’s not going on in my head. It’s usually on both the billboards and the L-Chip. I run out into the living room and see the YP’s in a trance; they seem to be gazing at nothing. They must be watching the devotional through their L-Chips. So that means there’s nothing wrong with the feed … there’s something wrong with me. Could the restriction on my L-Chip be preventing me from seeing the Senator’s speech? That must be it. That’s why I’m not seeing Willenger. Then it dawns on me; I could totally walk out of here, and they would never even know it. I can’t believe the YP’s on Guard Duty are not able to disable the daily devotion. When I was on Patrol we never had to disable it, we were never protecting anything of value. But here, they’re guarding the city. Maybe they’re relying on the drones outside the walls to protect them. I know the military has restrictions when soldiers are on active duty, but I would think the Youth Patrollers would have that same option too. This is quite an oversight by Willenger; this is my chance to get out of here.
I run to the balcony, the YP’s still don’t notice me; they’re completely engrossed in the speech. I leap from my apartment onto a small terrace on the next building. Thank God I still have the Youth Patrol Uniform on underneath my tracksuit. If I didn’t have it on, there’s no way I could have made the jump. I easily climb onto the rooftop and head over to Val’s place; it’s only a few blocks away. I glance down onto the Town Square; the bread truck is still there. I glance up at the hologram billboard and the Senator is still blabbing away. God, I hope it’s one of his long speeches.
“We are winning, the Resistance is losing. We will be victorious. We will be triumphant.”
Val’s penthouse is in site. I jump onto her balcony. The two YP’s standing guard don’t notice me. I manually pry open the sliding glass door and squeeze through. I run to her bedroom and there, curled up on her bed is Val.
“Baby, baby,” I whisper. “Let’s go.”
She looks up, “Evan? How’d you–”
“C’mon, before Willenger�
�s speech ends.”
“You can’t see it either?” she cries out. “Isn’t it wonderful?”
“Shh,” I say, covering her mouth. “You’ve got to be quiet.”
She nods.
“Now c’mon, Val. We have to go.”
“Go? Go where?”
“I have a way out. Just the three of us.”
“Just the three of us?” she says excitedly.
Then, a YP comes stumbling into the room, he must have heard us. He bumps into the table, knocking over a vase. I think he’s still distracted by the speech. He tries to point his rifle at me, but I easily disarm him by seizing his weapon. I rip his helmet off and smash his face in with the butt of the rifle. He falls down, but somehow he’s still conscious. I hit him again and then again just to make sure he doesn’t get up a second time. Blood is everywhere; some even gets on Val. She screams. The other YP enters, but I do the same thing to him as I did to the other guy. I’ve now killed two YP’s.
Val stands there in the corner, shocked; she’s shivering. I come over to her, but she recoils from my touch.
“What’d you do?” she shrieks.
“Val! Val!” I shout as I grab hold of her shoulders. “Val!”
She snaps out of the daze she’s in.
“Val, it’s time to go!”
She takes a deep breath. “You killed them.”
“I know. It had to be done.”
“There are two more outside my front door,” she says.
“Then let’s go before I have to kill them too.”
“Where are we going?” she asks.
“You got to trust me.”
We run to her balcony. I take her by the waist and lift her legs up. She puts her arms around my neck and buries her face into my chest.
“Hold on,” I say.
I put my foot on the railing and take a giant leap. She screams all the way down.
“Ahhhhhhh!”.
We land hard.
“You okay?” I ask.
She blinks a few times. “Yeah, I guess.”
“Then let’s go.”
We run under the huge billboard near the gardens. “Enjoy the security of your government. Enjoy the security of your L-Chip. You will never go thirsty you will never go hungry. You are loved. Remember that. We love you. Now go love each other.”
The Senator’s speech ends. It’s now just a matter of time before they find out we’re missing, and only a matter of time before they find the two dead YP’s in Val’s apartment. We get to the Town Square and run to the bakery. We burst in through the doors; everything is quiet. I don’t know what I was expecting but I wasn’t expecting it to be so calm. There’s no one in here except for a lone girl, standing behind the counter of fresh baked goods. The girl is around 20 years old, seemingly unaware of our presence. She goes about her business, wiping down the glass and setting up some pastries on a plate. She has on a purple and green form fitted jumpsuit that extenuates the curves of her body. Her hair is cut short, extenuating the shape of her head. Her skin is black. She’s beautiful. The L-Chip on her forehead is encased inside a bright and shiny designer plate. She sets down a tray of bagel thins and glances our way. “Can I help you?” she asks.
“Um, maybe,” I answer as I try to catch my breath. “I’m supposed to meet someone. Did you see anyone here, waiting?”
“Was your meeting before the speech, or after?” she says pointedly. I detect a slight attitude. I look at her, trying to figure out if she knows why I’m here. She in return looks at Val in a very suspicious way. “We’re you supposed to bring someone to this meeting, or were you supposed to come alone?” she adds.
“Why are you so interested in this meeting?”
“I’m sorry,” she smiles. “It’s just a bad habit of mine. I’m nosey.”
“Are you going to tell me if someone was here, or not?”
She again smiles. “Come back tomorrow. I think he’ll be here then.”
“We can’t. I have to meet him today.”
“Then you should have gotten here sooner.”
“Is he back there?” I ask as I head toward what appears to be a supply room behind the counter. She steps in front of the doorway, blocking me from entering. “What are you doing?” she cries out. “Can’t you read the sign? ‘Authorized Personnel Only!’”
I look past her and into the room. I see crates of food supplements and medical supplies stacked all along the floor.
“How’d you get all that stuff? Are you a smuggler too?” My voice gets louder as I get more excited.
“You mind keeping it down,” she snaps. “I don’t think Willenger heard you.”
Then the guy from last night steps out from the back supply room. He’s dressed in that black leather jacket, the one he wore at the gas station.
He pushes me away from the door. “What are you doing?” he says. “I told you to come before the speech! Do you know what ‘before’ means?”
“We got held up, but we’re ready to go now. I saw that the truck is still out front. It’s not too late, is it? We can leave.”
“We?” He looks at Val and is rather surprised by what he sees. “Holy crap! What’s she doing here? I didn’t tell you to bring any one, especially this one.”
“I know how this must look,” I say frantically. “But we need your help, like right now!”
“What’s the rush?”
Val and I look at each other.
“It’s a long story,” Val says.
“Uh Brodie,” the beautiful black girl interrupts, pointing out the window. “Looks like we have some unwanted customers coming our way.” We turn around and see five YP’s rushing toward the bakery.
“Oh no,” I cry out. “They’ve tracked us down.”
“What the hell did you guys do?” he asks.
“Bad stuff,” I say. “Really bad stuff. If they catch me they’ll find out why I came to the bakery. They’ll find out about the delivery truck.”
My statement makes the guy nervous. He grabs a huge cannon like rifle from under the counter and points it at the front door. As the YP’s enter, he fires a slew of rounds, knocking them down. I don’t know if he killed them, but they’re not getting up for awhile.
“You really screwed us over, you know that.” The guy says. He then turns to his companion. “Well Abby, what do you think?”
“We’ve got to blow it up,” she says matter-of-factly. “We have to blow the bakery up to kingdom come.”
“You really think so, Abby?”
“I do, Brodie. There can’t be any evidence. We’ve been compromised.”
He reaches under the counter again and this time he pulls out a small round device; I know what it is, I’ve seen them many times before. It’s a time-release grenade.
“Take us with you!” I beg. “Please, or we’ll die!”
“So will we,” he answers bluntly.
“Isn’t there any other way out besides the bread truck?” I desperately ask.
“There isn’t.” He drops the grenade on the ground, and as it rolls across the floor, he looks at me disappointedly. “I suggest you run,” he says. He then grabs the cannon like rifle from off the counter, and he and the girl step back into the supply room and run like hell.
I quickly grab Val’s hand and make a b-line for the front door. We jump over the YP’s still lying on the ground. We run across the Town Square, hoping to find cover. We make one last leap, but the bomb goes off.
We land somewhere over by the fountain. I try to get up but everything is spinning. Val’s hurt, she’s not moving. I reach for her, but everything goes black. I fall to the ground.
CHAPTER 29
Where am I? What the hell just happened? I try sitting up, but it’s no use. I can’t move. I’m lying on a hospital bed in a hospital room. I look up and see Perry messing with my L-Chip. Hologram images of my medical chart float above me. The medic’s fingers dance as he adjusts my vital signs. He flicks this and flips that and suddenly I
feel a rush of energy flowing through my body. I sit up.
“Where’s Val?” I call out.
“Shhh,” he replies, pushing me back down. “Just stay right there.”
“Is she okay?”
“Yeah, you were able to protect her pretty well from the blast. Just stay quiet, I’m trying to save your life.”
“What about the baby?”
“That’s the least of your problems right now. Lie back down and keep quiet.”
I submit and do what he says.
“They think you blew up the bakery,” he says quietly.
“They do?”
“Yeah, they were able to track your movements from your L-Chip. They have you and Val fleeing the bakery just before the blast. It doesn’t look good for you, Evan.”
“I’m sure it doesn’t,” I say under my breath.
“But I know you didn’t blow it up,” Perry says.
I look at him peculiarly.
“Tell me something, Evan, we’re you trying to escape Santa Verde using the bread trucks?”
I’m surprised by his question. Is he part of the Resistance? Is he really trying to save my life? I can’t be sure, so I shake my head, “I’m not saying anything.”
“It’s okay, I have you on L-Chip lockdown,” he explains. “You’re not being recorded, you can tell me.”
“I ain’t saying shit.”
“Who told you about the bakery?” he persists.
I shake my head again.
“What does Val know,” he continues. “Does she know anything?
“She knows nothing.”
“Are you sure, I need to know.”
“I’m serious, Perry, keep her out of it! She knows nothing and saw nothing!
“But you saw something, didn’t you? What’d you see, Evan? Did you see anything unusual in the bakery?
“Unusual?” I answer knowingly. “Like in the back room?”
“So you did see it?”
“Who are you, Perry? Are you part of the Resistance?”
“God, no,” he scoffs. “I’m just a fool.”
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