Reckoning (New Haven Book 2)

by Sara Jo Cluff

  “Why me?” Gideon asked.

  “You’re the best one to lead everyone to safety. You’re great with navigation and you’re a natural leader. They’ll trust you.” He didn’t look too convinced, so I continued. “You have a lot of potential, Gideon. If none of us that stay behind make it, I have the most faith in you to take over in my spot.”

  Gideon looked as shocked as I felt when I said it. “Do you mean that?”

  I nodded. “Yes.” I really did. He was willing to do whatever it took to protect our city and had the drive and passion to back it up.

  He still seemed sad to be leaving, but he nodded and took off. I tried to shift my focus back on the fight behind me.

  I turned to see someone from River Springs. Someone who helped in holding me and everyone I loved as prisoners. A man who helped in the murder of Vice President Oliver. SO Pierce Martin.

  His eyes were hungry as he came toward me. He'd wanted me dead and would love to be the one that killed me. He already had his gun pointed at me, his finger on the trigger.

  “Well, well, my favorite Recruit,” Pierce said, his voice arrogant.

  I rolled my eyes. I couldn’t stand the guy. “My least favorite, egotistical, murdering tool.”

  Pierce growled. “I haven’t missed that snappy attitude of yours.”

  I smiled. “I haven’t missed that ugly face of yours.”

  Pierce tightened his grip around his gun and took a step closer to me. “You’re pathetic, you know that?”

  “Me, pathetic?” I gestured toward his hand. “You’re the one pointing a gun at a teenager. How does that make you feel? You’re weak and enjoy killing kids. So, no, Pierce, I’m not the pathetic one. You are.”

  I raised my gun as fast as I could, but the shots went off before I’d even raised it halfway. I closed my eyes, waiting for the pain, but nothing came.

  Confused, I opened my eyes and examined my body. No holes or blood. I looked up at Pierce. His eyes were wide open, his hand clutching his stomach where blood poured out. He fell forward, his gun falling from his hand.

  My heart felt like it was going a thousand beats per minute. A noise sounded to my left, so I turned and pointed my gun at the source.

  “Don’t shoot!” It was Joshua. He was the one who had shot Pierce.

  Dizziness overcame me, so I leaned against a tree. “Where did you get the gun?”

  “Santiago,” Joshua said. He'd taken off his blazer, but he still had on his tie and had a bag slung around his shoulders. It looked a little bulky and heavy.

  “You should’ve handed your bag to someone else,” I said. “It will be hard to fight with that.”

  “I didn’t want to part with it,” Joshua said, his eyes telling me to close the topic.

  “Thank you,” I said, looking him in the eye. “You saved my life.”

  “I told you I’m on your side, Emmie.”

  I was about to say something when Joshua pushed me to the side and fired off a few more shots. Someone else had come toward us and Joshua had once again saved my life.

  He turned to me. “I’m going to prove it to you, Emmie, just you wait and see.” He turned away, continuing to fire at oncoming enemies, until he was out of sight.

  I wanted to trust him. He had just killed two people to save my life. But if he was as evil as his dad, wouldn’t he be willing to kill some of his own if it meant infiltrating our new city? Whit would do anything to benefit himself, including sacrificing the life of his child.

  “I was hoping I would find you.” The voice came from behind me. It was loud, high pitched, and extremely annoying. I would know that voice anywhere. Amber.

  I turned around to see her standing there, leaning against a tree. Her black hair was still cropped short and her gray eyes held boredom. She twirled a knife in her hand.

  “Please tell me you didn’t bring a knife to a gun fight, Amber,” I said, pointing my gun at her.

  Amber patted her side where a handgun rested in a holster on her hip. “I have a gun, but I thought it would be more fun to actually fight you to your death instead of just shooting you. There would be no fun in that.” For someone that had been certified as a psychopath, it made sense she'd want to kill me with her bare hands.

  She looked down at Pierce’s body on the ground. “I would be sad since he was such an asset to our city,” she said, giving him a kick, “but it just means that I’m the one who’s going to kill you.” She giggled. “It must be my lucky day.”

  She didn’t have one ounce of human decency in her. I wanted to just shoot her right then. This was a war after all. But I still had a hard time wrapping my head around the thought of taking someone’s life, even if it was someone as evil and crazy as Amber.

  Of course, I had wanted her dead for years, but that didn’t mean I wanted to be the one to do it. It was much easier if someone was shooting at you and you had to shoot back to save your own life. But she was just standing there with a knife. If she would lunge at me or something, it would make the decision easier.

  Amber tsked. “Oh, come on, be a good girl and put the gun down. Let’s fight this out, see who the real winner is.”

  “If I put my gun down, that leaves me with nothing. You still have a knife. That’s hardly fair.” I lowered my gun to my side. “Unless you’re too chicken to fight me bare handed.”

  “Please!” Amber laughed. “I could fight you blind folded and I’d still win.”

  “Lower your knife.”

  “Lower your gun.”

  “Same time,” I said. She nodded at me and we both lowered our weapons to the ground, keeping our eyes trained on each other. “The gun, too, Amber.”

  Amber huffed as she took her gun from its holster and put it on the ground. “You don’t know how long I’ve dreamed about this.” She took a step toward me. I did know. She'd wanted to kill me for years.

  I raised my eyebrows. “That’s kind of creepy that you dream about me so much. I didn’t know you were so obsessed.”

  Amber growled and pounced on me, sending the two of us to the ground. I could already tell she had beefed up since I last saw her, but so had I. Grabbing the sides of her shirt, I twisted her so I was on top, pinning her down. I took two swings at her face, one landing on her jaw, the other on her nose. She took her hands and pushed my face back, then jammed her foot into my stomach, sending me off her.

  She was on top of me instantly, pounding away. I tried to get out of her grasp, but she was much stronger than me, which I hated to admit. After at least ten punches from her, she got tired for just a second, but it was long enough to push her off me.

  I slowly stood, blood dripping from my nose and mouth. From the pain, my nose had to be broken.

  Amber laughed at me. “You’re weak, Emelia.” She slowly circled around me. “Are you sure you don’t want to surrender now? I would love to kill you, but President Randall had specific orders to bring you to him alive.”

  “Then why did you say you were going to kill me?” I asked, my voice weaker than I wanted it to be.

  “You’re arrogant, Emelia. Completely full of yourself. I knew it would work you up. Get you to fight me.” Amber stopped just inches from my face. “You’re too predictable.”

  I looked her in the eye. “Am I?” I swung my leg around, slamming it into hers, sending her to the ground. Grabbing her knife that was on the ground, I jumped on top of her and held it to her throat. “Am I predictable, Amber?”

  She tried to be tough, but fear settled in her eyes. “You wouldn’t do it, Emelia. You don’t have it in you.”

  I pressed the tip of the knife deeper into her skin, barely piercing the surface so a little bit of blood came out. She was right, but I wasn’t about to divulge that fact. “You have no idea what I’m capable of.” In one swift motion, I turned the knife around and jammed the butt of it into her head, knocking her unconscious.

  “Emmie!” I recognized Mack’s voice and got up to go to him. I was almost to him when something hit
me from behind, knocking me to the ground. I tried to keep my eyes focused, but everything went blurry right before my world became black.

  When I awoke, I was laying on the ground. I pressed a shaky hand to my nose, wincing from the pain. Someone had cleaned the blood from my face. Though my head felt heavy, I tried to sit up.

  “Whoa, there, not so fast.” I turned and focused on the person sitting next to me. Mack.

  “What happened?” I asked him.

  “Someone knocked you out and tried to take you,” Mack said, sharpening his knife on a piece of wood. “But I got there in time to make sure they didn’t capture you.”

  “Thanks.” I put my hand on my head, wishing I could control the pounding inside.

  Mack sighed and kept his eyes on the ground.

  “What’s wrong, Mack?” I asked. He wouldn’t look at me. “What’s wrong?”

  When he didn’t respond, I sat up and looked around. I counted, making sure everyone was there, but one was missing.

  I turned to Mack. “Where’s Eric?”

  Mack just sat there, sharpening his knife.

  “Where’s Eric?” I yelled as loud as I could.

  “They have him.” Santiago came up next to me. “Emmie, they took Eric.”

  I stood, which was a bad idea. My world spun so fast, I quickly lost my balance and fell back down.

  Tina rushed up next to me, sat down, and put her arm around me. “Are you okay?”

  I looked at her until she came into focus. “No, Tina, I’m not okay. I got beat up by Amber, of all people, and my boyfriend has been captured by the owners of Infinity Corp. Who knows what they’re doing to him right now? That’s if he’s even alive.”

  My stomach twisted at the thought of Eric being dead. I wanted to think positive, but Whit was capable of horrendous things, including murder.

  “He’s alive,” Mack said, now cleaning one of his guns.

  I balled my hands into fists, resisting the urge to punch him. “How would you know?”

  “He’s leverage. They won’t kill him yet.” Mack kept his focus on his gun.

  “Yet!” I yelled at Mack. “YET! That means they will. And we’re just sitting here. We should be there, rescuing him!”

  “No, we should be right here, on our way back to New Haven,” Mack said, his voice calm. “We can work out a game plan then.”

  “It will be too late!” I tried to stand again, but Tina pulled me down.

  Tina stroked my hair, keeping her voice quiet. “Just take some deep breaths, Emmie.”

  I shook her off me and stood, ignoring the dizziness. “Well, you can all sit here doing nothing, but I’m going back there.”

  Santiago came right in front of me, not letting me past. Keeping his mouth shut, he folded his arms and stared at me.

  “You’re not going back there,” Mack said.

  “Screw you, Mack. You can’t stop me.” I pushed Santiago out of my way and moved toward River Springs.

  Mack suddenly stood right in front of me. He had his face only inches from mine. “That’s enough, Emmie. You aren’t going back there and that’s final.”

  “You can’t tell me what to do,” I said to him, my jaw tight. My fists were ready to swing at any moment.

  “You put me in charge of our military unit, which makes me the commanding officer, so I can tell you what to do.” Red covered Mack’s face, the veins on his neck popping out. “You’re going to take a deep breath and calm down. You’re injured. You need to recover, and you need time to think everything through.”

  My breathing sped, my face probably redder than Mack’s. “What’s there to think through? They have Eric, Mack! They’re going to kill him if we don’t go save him! I can’t believe you just left in the first place. You should’ve stayed!”

  “I hate Infinity Corp as much as you, Emmie, but they did get one rule in Recruitment right,” Mack said. “Not having teenagers date.”

  I pulled my face away from his, taken aback by his comment. “Excuse me?”

  “You’re acting like a little schoolgirl and not thinking rationally. If we would’ve stayed there, we would all be dead right now.” Mack took a step closer to me, his toes touching mine. “My duty as the commanding officer is to protect my unit and bring back as many as I can alive, not dead. Staying there would have been suicide. We were outnumbered. With the abduction of Eric, it distracted the enemies for enough time for us to escape. If anything, your boyfriend saved us.”

  I stared at him, my whole body shaking. I couldn’t calm myself.

  “Now, we’re going back to New Haven and we’re going to sit down like adults and think out a plan,” Mack said. “We have a leak inside our city. They knew we were coming. We need to focus on trying to figure out who that leak is, and we’ll have no more outbursts from you. We need to catch up with Gideon and the others.”

  I shook my head. “I can’t believe you would just leave someone behind like that.”

  “Enough, Emmie!” Mack roared. “This is war and last time I checked, there are causalities in war. You’re going to lose people close to you, people you love, but there’s nothing you can do about it. Don’t forget, Emmie, you started this all yourself. You started this revolution back in Recruitment. If you thought we would just walk away from River Springs without any consequences or causalities, you were sadly mistaken and extremely naïve. You’re the revolutionary leader, Emmie, whether you like it or not. So, suck it up.”

  Mack stepped back and stormed away from me. I turned to look at him. “What if I’m not?”

  He stopped and glanced over his shoulder at me. “What?”

  Looking down at the ground, I tucked my hair behind my ear. “What if I’m not the leader? What if Whit was wrong? It could be Austin. Or Joshua.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Joshua move. I had completely forgotten about him until I said that. He leaned against a tree, shifting uncomfortably.

  “It’s you, Emmie,” Mack said.

  “How do you know?” I asked.

  “I just do.” Mack calmed, his shoulders starting to relax. “Look, I know this is hard, but it’s reality. The Emmie I first met back in Recruitment was a leader. She was strong, confident, and didn’t back down.”

  “I’m trying to not back down right now, but you’re not letting me!” I screamed at him.

  Mack shut his eyes for a second, trying to compose himself. “She also thought rationally. She was levelheaded. I don’t know what has happened to you, but this new you is not working out. We need the old Emmie back. That girl, no, that woman, is our leader. She’s who New Haven needs. She’s the one I respect. She’s the one I followed.” Mack came up next to me, but his eyes were softer this time. “You have it in you, Emmie.”

  I put my hands over my eyes and cried. Mack’s hand rested gently on my arm.

  “Emmie, we’ll figure this out. But standing around here arguing isn’t going to save Eric. We need to get back to New Haven and talk with President Brown and Dante. I promise we’ll do everything we can to save Eric, but I need your promise that you won’t let your emotions overtake you. It won’t do anyone any good if they do.”

  I just nodded as I continued to cry. Mack walked away, shouting at everyone to grab their things and start walking. I couldn’t move. I was in pain and heartbroken.

  “Come on,” Tina said, wrapping her arms around me. I took my hands off my eyes and threw my arms around her. She stroked my hair. “It’s going to be okay, Emmie. We’ll get him back.”

  Tina let me cry for another minute before she told me we had to get going. When I stopped crying and looked up, Mack, Javier, and Fernando were already yards ahead. Santiago and Joshua stood nearby, waiting for us. They both gave me sympathetic smiles, which for some reason made me feel worse.

  As much as it pained me, Mack was right. I couldn’t lose Eric. I might lose Dee and adding Eric on top of that was something I couldn’t stomach.

  But this was war.

  I intended to
fight for everything Whit had stolen from me.

  I tried to walk as fast as I could back to New Haven, but the heaviness of my heart was like a strong force, stopping me from going forward.

  There were so many moments where I wanted to turn around and run back to River Springs to get Eric, but Mack was right. If I went back, they would kill me and then kill Eric if they hadn’t already.

  We met back up with Gideon and the others the next day. They had run for long as they could, but eventually, the adrenaline wore off and they got tired. We should’ve caught up with them sooner, but I slowed everyone down.

  “Emmie!” I stopped walking to see who called my name.

  Will came toward me, a smile on his face. We went through a challenge together in Recruitment. The worst challenge ever.

  I hugged him when he got to me. “How are you doing, Will?” I was glad he wasn’t much taller than me because I didn’t have the strength to lift my arms that high.

  “Much better than you, it looks like,” Will said, eying my face. He straightened his square-framed glasses.

  “I think everyone’s doing much better than me.” I continued moving, gently touching my tender nose.

  “What do you mean?” Will asked, keeping pace with me.

  I shook my head. “Nothing.” Apparently, the word about Eric being captured hadn’t gotten around. “Are you here by yourself, or did your family come?”

  “Both my parents and my little sister are right over there.” Will pointed at them. They were walking a little way behind us. He looked exactly like his mom. She had the same round face, dark hair, and glasses. “My mom’s brother and his family are here, too.”

  Seeing all the River Springs residents in their fifties style clothing, including suits and dresses, reminded me how much I didn't miss wearing a dress or skirts.

  “That’s great,” I said. “It’s nice to have family out here.”

  Will looked like he wanted to say something, but he stopped himself.

  “What?” I asked him.

  Will straightened his glasses again, even though they didn’t need to be fixed. “What?”