by AR Colbert
The first man threw a stone. I ducked, barely dodging it. Rider raised his stun gun.
“Stop!” Jeremy shouted. To my surprise, they listened. “Don’t hurt her, Chad. She’s telling the truth.”
“Leaders don’t know how to tell the truth. She’s got you duped.”
“Do I look like the kind of guy who is easily duped?” Jeremy strode toward the man with his chin up and arms slightly spread, drawing attention to his broad shoulders and intimidating frame. The man, Chad, seemed to shrink a little in place, which was impressive because Chad was not a small man, either. I wondered if they had maybe worked together in the city before Jeremy moved to the Center.
“If she says she wants to help you, she means it.” Jeremy was right in his face now. The rest of us watched silently. The mob inside the foyer probably outnumbered us three to one, but all eyes were on Chad, waiting to see how he responded.
“Prove it.”
“Come on,” I said. I lifted both hands in the air to show I was unarmed and gestured down the hall behind me. Rider’s eyes widened as understanding dawned on him. Jeremy shook his head. I appreciated him standing up for me, but this was something I had to do myself. “If he wants proof, I’ll give it to him.”
I wasn’t afraid. Turning my back toward the armed mob, I made my way down the hall, explaining as I went. “Director Walsh was cruel. A murderer. I know he hurt the city. He hurt lots of people, including some who were very close to me. But he’s just one part of the problem. If we’re going to change things... really destroy the system... we need to unite and work smarter. Violence alone won’t get us there. You can release some of your anger here, but then we need to work together. I’m afraid something big is coming, sooner rather than later.”
I paused outside of Everett’s office and turned to see if anyone had actually followed me. The hallway was full of attentive faces. Normally I would have been twisted in knots over what I was about to do. But thanks to Emmaline’s journal, I felt nothing. Logic over emotion. Everett needed to go.
“There,” I said, pointing to the door on the opposite wall. “There’s a stairwell leading down to a hidden room. You’ll find Director Walsh there. Do with him as you please. And once you’re satisfied that I’m true to my word, come back up here so we can talk.”
“Claren—” Rider reached out for my arm, but I turned away. His sad eyes were dragging me down. I didn’t want to feel down. I didn’t want to feel anything at all. I inhaled deeply and found my peace point. This was how it needed to be done.
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” he said, following me out of the room. But he was too late. The protesters were already making their way down the stairs. Jeremy stood by the door with a half-grin on his face, ushering the angry mob in.
“Claren, are you listening to me?” Rider asked, stepping in front of me. The phone rang and I turned on my heels to answer it.
“Excuse me, Rider. The phone is ringing.”
“Now is not the time—”
“Director Walsh’s residence, how can I help you?” My voice was childlike. It sounded as though I were reciting a nursery rhyme instead of ignoring the impending death of Everett at the hands of his outraged citizens.
“Claren?” Emmaline’s voice was not as casual. She was uncharacteristically distraught.
My heart immediately began pounding in my chest, despite my best attempts to file her emotion away. Whatever the impetus for her call was, it was serious.
“You need to leave. NOW.” She whispered frantically. “They’re attacking the Louisburg camp.”
CHAPTER 33
The receiver fell from my hand. There were thousands of people in that camp. One of them was Raf, who’d gone out that morning to train them.
“What is it?” Rider’s face paled. He didn’t have to be an Empath to realize something was seriously wrong. My block—extreme or otherwise—was gone without a trace. And like a boulder dropping on my chest, all of the emotion I thought I’d eliminated from the last hour hit me with a crushing force.
“They’re attacking.” My voice was barely a whisper.
“The Supreme Leadership? When?” Rider stepped toward me.
“Now.”
Rider immediately moved behind Everett’s desk, pulling open drawers and shuffling through the files. “Jeremy, we’ve got to go Outside. Now. Can you drive us?”
Jeremy was talking with Chad beside the door to the basement. “Yeah, of course.”
“Ah-ha!” Rider triumphantly pulled out an additional gun that had been stashed away inside one of Everett’s drawers and tossed it to me. Then he turned back to Jeremy and Chad. “Good. Can any of the others drive?”
“I’m not sure,” Chad said. “But I’ll find out.”
“We need as many people as we can find to follow us to the Outside. The Leadership is attacking innocent people. We need to help them defend, and if possible, capture the man responsible for the attacks. He’s kidnapped one of our men. Can we trust you to help us with that?”
“Absolutely.”
The sound of shouting and cries of pain emanated from the basement door. They were beating Everett. They would probably kill him. And it was all my fault. I sent them down there.
Rider placed a hand on my shoulder, drawing my attention back to him. “It’s too late for him. But it’s not too late to save the Outsiders and get Frank back. Are you with us? Are you good to fight?”
I nodded, afraid that if I spoke I’d unleash the floodgates. I tried to find my peace point, but the frame was shattered. My fear was raw and vivid, forcing itself upon me so that I felt every ounce of it.
Inhale. Exhale. Afraid or not, we had to move. I ran upstairs and grabbed Emmaline’s journal, and shoved it into my bag next to the letter from Cato and an extra stun gun. Then I met the others outside.
We piled into three different vehicles. Rider, Joy, Chad, Jeremy, and I took one of Everett’s cars. Two of the guards drove an additional ten people in two of their vehicles behind us. We carried an array of random yard tools and other miscellaneous objects—anything that could be used as a weapon. Though deep down, I knew all of it would be useless against the Supreme Leadership. We were no match for their technology. I feared the entire camp would be eliminated before we even arrived. But we had to try.
Why did Raf have to choose today to go help them train? Why couldn’t he have just stayed home?
The others talked through the entire drive out—probably reviewing plans and fighting tactics, but I heard nothing but a lazy stream of consonants and vowels. I couldn’t focus on anything. My panic was blinding.
The worst part was, my panic wasn’t even well-placed. I could have been concerned about the camp and the thousands of men, women, and children who lived there. I could have been concerned about Frank, and how rescuing him from Conrad might be the only way to keep the movement alive. I could have even been concerned about Everett. But all I could think about was Raf and the total annihilation that took place during the last attack.
Please be alive, Raf. I need you alive.
I had to get it together.
Remembering Emmaline’s words, which had now been inscribed in my brain, I worked on finding my peace point again. After all, if we put an end to these attacks and rescued Frank, we might just have a shot at returning to that peaceful world of my past once again. And it could be even better than before.
I pictured the water rippling across the water’s surface. I pictured the birds chirping in the trees. I pictured Raf sitting beside me, our fingers entangling together. We shared our memories by that pond. Our fears and our hopes. It’s where I first realized what I felt for him. I didn’t know it yet, but deep down, I already loved him then.
I loved him.
“You okay?” Rider asked quietly beside me.
I wiped at the moisture in my eyes and nodded. “I will be. I’m just so afraid of what we might find when we arrive.”
Rider looked down. “Me too. But we�
��ve got to at least try to put a stop to it.” He twisted his lips to one side and took a deep breath. “Hey, back at the house, with Justice Hines and the protesters, you seemed... different. Distant, almost. And after you got the call...” He shook his head, trying to find the right words. “If this is too much for you—”
“No. It’s not too much.” I appreciated Rider. He took charge when I lost control back at the house. And even now, I knew he was only looking out for me. But his insinuation that I wasn’t strong enough to handle this stress was exactly what I needed to find my resolve again. It was time for me to step up and regain control of myself.
There was a reason Emmaline didn’t allow herself to wallow in her feelings. And there was a reason I’d resisted exploring a relationship with Raf. Emotion gets in the way. I wouldn’t allow anyone to look at me the way Rider was ever again. I wasn’t weak. I wasn’t mopey. I was the girl who was about to change the world.
I sat up tall in my seat as we finally neared the camp. The gates were wide open, and no guards greeted us today. Through the opening, we could already see the mad chaos inside. But they were alive. That was a good start.
“Keep going,” I said to Jeremy. “Drive right in. And get your weapons ready, everyone.”
Rider pressed his lips together and appraised me. After a long look, he must’ve decided I was capable of doing this, after all. “Here we go.”
Jeremy rolled the car through the gates at a moderate pace. The vehicles behind us didn’t slow down, either. I gripped my stun gun and leaned toward the windows, prepared to fire at the first sight of Conrad or anyone else from the Supreme Leadership. But of course, there weren’t any.
As far as I could tell, these were all Outsiders fighting with one another. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know,” Rider said. “But stay inside and alert. Jeremy, keep driving that way until we know who we’re fighting here.” He directed Jeremy toward the office where we’d met with Seth.
There were no children laughing and playing across the central square like there had been last time I was there. Half the market was destroyed, broken signs and tables cluttering the grass. A couple of booths burned with flames licking up toward the clouds. A small group of women stood on a roof, firing carefully aimed shots from their stun guns down into the crowd. But what I mostly saw was a bunch of men fighting violently with primitive weapons and fists—in the street, on the grass, through doorways—they were everywhere, stepping over stunned bodies on the ground.
“Did they turn on each other?” Jeremy asked.
“Surely not.” Unless Raf really riled them up during their training session that morning. The thought almost made me laugh, but there was no humor in the reality. The Outsiders’ camp was falling apart.
“Stop the car!” Rider pulled the handle and jumped out before Jeremy came to a complete stop.
“What are you doing?” He was already too far gone to hear my yell. He ran up on a couple of men throwing fists and raised his gun. One man dropped and rolled off to the side while the other tried to knock the weapon from Rider’s hand. Too late. Rider stunned him. It was only then that I recognized the first man.
“Dusty!” I hopped out of the car and joined them. “Are you okay? What is happening here? I heard there was an attack, but this doesn’t look like the Supreme Leadership’s work.”
Dusty’s bottom lip was busted open. Blood mixed with sweat and dirt in the corner of his mouth.
“Exiled.” He bent over to rest his hands on his knees, panting. “They sent someone in to talk to Seth this morning. I don’t know what happened in there, but they didn’t like it. An hour later hundreds of them stormed in here looking to take out anyone and everyone they could find. We locked up the kids, equipped every able-bodied adult who was willing to shoot the weapons you provided, and we’ve just been trying to stay alive ever since. Look out!”
I followed Dusty’s gaze over my shoulder in time to witness a man swinging a baseball bat down on Jeremy’s windshield. The rest of our people spilled out of the car with a fire in their eyes that intimidated even me. The sun’s light glinted off the shiny metal blade of a knife in Joy’s hand. Jeremy held an ax, and Chad pulled a shovel out of the trunk. The Exiled man with the bat took one look at my motley crew and began backing up slowly, until he felt safe enough to turn around and run.
The protesters and guards from Louisburg stepped out of their vehicles as well. Each one looked ready to fight, but we still couldn’t tell apart the enemies from the Outsiders we were here to help.
“Where’s Seth?” I asked.
“Last I knew he was still in his office. That was quite a while ago, though.”
“Come on.” I frowned at Rider. “Emmaline said the Supreme Leadership is coming. They’ve either teamed up with some Exiled, which is unlikely, or there’s another, bigger attack coming this way any minute now. We need to get everyone out of this settlement, fast.”
We jogged over to the main cabin where we’d talked to Seth before. I stepped up on the porch, and Rider called out to me. “Wait. Let’s see what we’re walking into before you barge in there.”
Ducking down, I followed him over to the dirty windows. The curtains were pulled closed in the main room, so we continued around to the back. Rider beat me to the second window, and I felt his emotion before I got a chance to see inside for myself. It was a punch to my lungs—the breath was knocked completely out of me.
Panic threatened to bubble over again, and I paused, remembering my peace point. Whatever Rider saw wasn’t good. I needed to remove the facts from the emotion. Stay steady. Block it out.
Filling my lungs with fresh oxygen, I managed to stifle the fear inside and continue to the window. Two men sat on the couch. One with familiar espresso-colored hair that fell into his eyes, and the other a mixture of salt and pepper. Raf’s hands were bound behind his back, and a dirty rag was tied around his head, parting his lips and keeping him gagged. His eyes met mine in the window—a mixture of terror and fury burning from within.
Frank sat beside him with his back turned to me. But as far as I could tell—he looked to be alive. Which meant Conrad was probably in the main room. He’d captured Frank once, but there was no way I was going to allow him to get away with it again. And he definitely wasn’t going to take Raf from me.
I was going to get my men back if it was the last thing I ever did.
CHAPTER 34
I scuttled back over to the door, keeping low in case anyone happened to glance toward the windows. With my back to the wall, I turned to Rider, who propped himself up on the opposite side of the doorframe. We each raised our guns, and with a nod, he turned the knob and kicked the door open wide.
We leapt to our feet and entered the main room, guns held at the ready as we turned back and forth to assess the situation. My attention settled on Seth, who was hogtied in the corner of the room, lying motionless with two blackened eyes. But that wasn’t even the most shocking thing in the room.
Sitting at the table was a pale faced, slow-moving Conrad Reynolds. His white hair was dingy with dirt and dried blood, which likely came from the crimson soaked dish cloths wrapped around his neck. He was alive, but barely. Next to him, Milo stood with an amused smirk, clapping for me.
“Well done, Princess. You found me.”
My eyes darted back and forth between the men, trying to make sense of the scene. Why was Milo in Louisburg? He could have overheard plans of the attacks from Conrad back in Classen, but he didn’t seem like the kind of guy who would travel all this way just to prevent the Supreme Leadership from destroying another camp. He would raid it when it was all finished, maybe, but he definitely wouldn’t come to help them.
I took a deep breath, fumbling inside for my peace point.
“Hello, Milo. I have to admit, I’m surprised to see you here.” I wanted to shoot him on the spot—pay him back for killing Dax. This man had no concept of right or wrong, crazy or sane. The things he had done made E
verett look like an angel in comparison.
He shot a sideways glance over to Rider, whose weapon was trained perfectly still at Milo’s forehead. “You can call your dog down,” he chuckled. “I’m not here to hurt no one.”
“I think Mr. Reynolds might beg to differ.”
“Maybe if he could talk!” Milo guffawed, slapping his knee as if this were a comedy show. That certainly wasn’t going to encourage Rider to back down at all.
I looked back at the blood-soaked wrap around Conrad’s neck. “What did you do to him?”
“I destroyed his mark. We can’t have his people listening in to our every move now, can we? Had to cut out the trackers, too. Unfortunately, it looks like Connie here became a mute in the process.”
He slit his throat and injured his voice box while destroying the mark tattooed upon Conrad’s skin. It was a wonder the man was still able to breathe instead of bleeding out on the floor. Though sitting and breathing looked like all he would be able to do for a while. Conrad needed medical attention if he was going to survive. He barely had the strength to hold up his own head. But why would Milo keep him alive at all? Unless he thought Conrad might be able to lead him to what he was really after...
With Conrad so weak and defenseless, I almost felt guilty for what I said next. “Why not just finish him off?”
Milo raised his brows, a look of respect flashing across his grimy face. Rider had the opposite reaction. I filed it away, blocking out every distracting emotion and focusing entirely on how to strategize with the madman in front of me. This was one instance where my feelings would definitely fail me. I had to think clearly. Be smart. Win with logic.
“Go ahead.” I shrugged. “It won’t bother me any. I won’t even tell anyone you’re responsible. All you have to do is release the other two men you’re holding. Let me take them back with me.” I glanced down at Seth in the corner. “And this one, too. For good measure.”
“Three men in exchange for one? That hardly seems fair now, does it?” He spat on the floor.
