by Ella Storm
“So! He would have killed me,” she spat.
“He wouldn’t have… He wouldn’t have gone through with it.”
I put myself between Geraldine and Jason just in case she decided to shoot him anyway.
Maverick leaned on the counter. I could see the effort it was costing him to stand. “We need to decide what to do. The police could be here any moment.”
If anyone could get us out of this mess, it was Jason. When he didn’t respond to my touch, I hugged him and sang a lullaby in his ear just like I did when we were kids. Slowly, his body relaxed, and I felt him hugging me back.
“I thought you loved me,” he murmured so the others wouldn’t hear.
“I do! But I’m not in love with you. You’re my family.”
He cried silently while I held his shaking body. I heard Geraldine and Maverick move away, giving us our privacy.
“I messed this up, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, you kinda did.”
“I did all this to make enough money to give you a comfortable life. The kind that Geraldine has.”
“Let’s not speak of it now. I need you to fix this—I suppose there is no crew of hackers helping us steal data from Mother’s servers.”
He pulled away and gave me his mischievous grin. “You know I am a one-man crew.”
Jason went to Geraldine’s office and slid the doors behind him. We could see him through the glass panel typing some kind of code on Geraldine’s laptop.
“Can we trust him?” Maverick asked.
“Yeah, I think we can. It was all a mistake.”
I took Maverick’s hand and led him to the living room, trying not to look at Bull lying in a pool of blood. Meanwhile, Geraldine pushed her front door closed to hide us from prying eyes even though no one ventured outdoors.
I sat Maverick down in a chair and cut his shirt off, pouring vodka that I found in the drinks’ cabinet over the bullet hole. “Jesus Christ!” he let out the expletive and dug his nails into the armrests.
“You’ll need to cauterize that so it doesn’t get infected.” I affected a cool attitude though the sight of his wound made my stomach churn.
Jason joined us in the living room, keeping his eyes averted. “I’ve erased your identities. Neither of you have records that the government can track down.”
“Wait, what?” Maverick was about to rise, but I squeezed his hand, making him look at me.
“It’s the only way to stay alive. If we don’t exist, they can’t come after us.”
Indecision marred his features. He was reluctant to give up his past. And I couldn’t blame him. There was no going back to the life he knew.
“Think of this as a fresh beginning,” I whispered.
He understood his fate was sealed from the moment he discovered the truth. He nodded. “Will you come with me?”
I nodded back, my heart soaring with joy.
He gave me his lopsided smile, then turned to Jason. “What about the data?”
“I must return it to Mother. As long as they think no one else has any knowledge of it, you will be safe.”
“What about the two of you?” I looked at Geraldine and Jason.
“Don’t worry about me, honey, I’ll go underground and join Lionel. The info is bound to get out sooner or later. There is nothing left for me here.”
I looked at Jason.
“I can’t go underground. The rebels would skin me alive.”
“Take your chances with them,” Maverick said. “The government - or whoever is controlling them - will kill you for knowing too much.”
Jason fidgeted; it hadn’t occurred to him he could be dispensable. He hesitated a moment, then shook his head. “I’ll be all right. Now all of you get going.”
I didn’t believe him. His eyes darted to the floor on his right. He did that unconsciously when he was lying.
Geraldine rushed to pack a bag and told us to take anything we needed. I scrambled and loaded a bag with non-perishable foods, antibiotics I found in the medicine cabinet, bandages, some kitchen essentials, and a change of clothes for us. It turned out Geraldine hadn’t gotten rid of all of Lionel’s stuff. Jason gave me his tablet and Geraldine offered a solar battery that would come in handy.
We all said our goodbyes in a rush, leaving Jason behind. Maverick and I went back to the storm drain to get out of the city, and Geraldine went to the meeting point Lionel gave her.
Just as we were going into the tunnel, an explosion rocked the neighborhood. A billow of smoke erupted from the direction of Geraldine’s house.
“Jason…” I cried.
Maverick pulled me to him. “It’s too late, sweetheart. You can’t help him.”
I buried my face in his chest and cried for the loss of my friend.
Three days after our return to the cabin, I mustered enough courage to turn Jason’s tablet on.
The words “For you, Helios,” blinked across the screen. Jason had left a video message for me in which he spoke directly to the camera from Geraldine’s office.
“Hello, my name is Maverick, and by the time you see this broadcast, both myself and my partner, Helios, will have been murdered by the military because they are protecting a travesty committed by Mother and her affiliate companies.
Dr. Stephen Fleming has already paid the price to bring this information to you. The military killed him.
The government and Mother have been lying to the people…”
Jason had sent a delayed feed of his recording to all satellites worldwide through an encrypted channel before taking his own life, giving Maverick and I the chance to live ours.
The broadcast had the desired effect. People walked outdoors without their protective gear and defied the curfew. The military responded with violence, and many lost their lives. The fear of death quickly forced the population back indoors. Most went back to being complacent. But the spark of an all-out rebellion was ignited.
Maverick and I would leave our haven in the woods and join the nucleus of rebels in the underground movement.
Epilogue
Five years later.
He didn’t believe in taking his own life. That was the coward’s way out.
The military had laid down their weapons and General Alan Fanning had conveniently disappeared. The government and the military had been quick to lay full responsibility at his door. Their official position was that they didn’t have any knowledge that Mother had been manipulating the environment inside the artificial atmospheric spheres to maintain its power on society. Even the elite had turned their back on him. Hadn’t he done all of this for them? So they could keep their power?
The rebels were at his door demanding justice for the thirty years of enslavement he had made the people endure.
Nobody would make a fool of him and drag him in front of the commoners to be judged. Who were they to judge him when he had fed them and saved them from the burning rays of the sun. How he despised them all for their short memory.
But no matter. He would take his legacy with him, and leave nothing of what he had created behind. He had wired his headquarters and all his companies to go off at the same time. He sat sipping his whiskey and waited for the door to bust open, his thumb languidly caressing the trigger button. It wasn’t suicide. It was the last stand before the new era began.
Helios collapsed unto the sweat-drenched bed. That last push had drained her of her strength. She had been in labor for the last eighteen hours. The fresh breeze coming in through the open door and windows of the cabin was a welcome relief. It seemed her baby had been reluctant to make her appearance into the world before Mother had been destroyed.
Maverick wrapped the wailing infant in a blanket and placed his daughter in her mother’s arms. Looking at mother and daughter, his heart soared with love.
“What should we call her?” he asked.
“Hope. Her name will be Hope.”
Helios kissed the top of her baby’s head. She was perfect with her father’s dar
k blond curls and her mother’s emerald eyes.
Life was finally perfect.
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About the Author
Ella Storm is a globetrotter. She spends her time discovering different cultures and living in multiple countries. Books have been her best traveling companions during her adventures, and escaping in the imagination of other authors has inspired her to create her own fantasy world with unforgettable characters. She hopes you’ll enjoy reading her stories as much as she enjoys writing them.
Find more enthralling stories from Ella Storm on her Amazon profile page amazon.com/author/ellaromance.
