Caleb remembered the story Aaron had told him about Patrick when he found a Resistance group. ‘This has to be them,’ he thought, ‘This is exactly what Aaron told me Patrick had gone through.’
Caleb walked over toward the chair sitting next to the table. "Take a seat here please," Martin said. He took a pair of tubes and wrapped them around Caleb's chest and stomach. Then a sleeve was wrapped around his arm and tightened. Finally, two clips were placed on his fingertips. Once Caleb was fully hooked up to the machine, Martin turned toward Alice and said, "Please follow this guard down the hallway. We'll come get you when Caleb's finished." He motioned toward a man who was standing near him.
Alice and the armed man disappeared across the room into a hallway, and Caleb's questioning began. Martin asked the same kinds of questions Aaron had when he had first met him in the cabin. It didn't take very long. When it was over, Caleb looked at Martin and asked, "Is that it?"
Martin began unstrapping Caleb from the machine and answered, "Yep, that's it.” When he had finished taking the last wire off of Caleb, he walked over to another man who was standing nearby and quietly spoke to him. He turned back toward Caleb and said, "Ok, Caleb. Follow this man here down the hallway. We're going to bring Alice out for questioning now."
Caleb walked over toward the armed man and waited. He began walking across the room toward the hallway. Caleb followed after him. He looked around the room at the people scattered throughout. They continued working, without stopping, even after Caleb and Alice were brought in. Some were staring at screens, others were sitting at tables, studying some kind of papers. There was a faint humming sound coming from above him, and he wondered what it was.
Just before the two entered the hallway taking them away from the room, Martin spoke one last time from across the room, "Caleb. To answer your question from before, we are Alpha Team, part of the Resistance. Welcome to the war."
3.4 (Resistance)
Caleb followed the armed man to a metal door on the opposite side of the room they had entered. The man opened it and motioned for Caleb to step through first. The hallway was much like the one on the bottom floor of this building. There were rows of doors running up and down either side, some open, some closed, others broken or missing. There was no artificial lighting that he could see in the hallway, or in the rooms attached. The sun was setting, and the little bit of light that was coming in from the windows was beginning to dwindle. As they walked down the hallway, Caleb managed to glance inside some of the open rooms. Some of them contained women and children. Inside one room in particular, he saw a middle-aged woman sitting on the floor playing with a little boy. He was laughing and writing on some scraps of paper that were spread out in front of him. When the woman saw him, a suspicious look replaced the smile that had been on her face, and after they had walked by she stepped into the hallway, watching Caleb as he continued on.
"Don't worry about them," the man in front of him said, "We don't get a lot of new people around here. They just need some time to figure out that you’re one of us, that’s all."
Caleb turned his gaze back from the woman in the doorway to the man standing just behind him. "How many of you are here?" he asked.
The man kept his head forward as he spoke, not looking directly at Caleb. “Well, I'd say we've got about a hundred or so spread out here in this building. We've got more than that outside, keeping watch. There are a few groups of rotating patrols watching the roads and giving us a heads up if anyone starts to get too close."
"Is that how you knew we were coming?" Caleb asked him.
"Yeah. We were watching you both for a while, right after you stumbled out onto the highway."
Caleb began to wonder how they could have missed anyone watching them. "We didn't see anybody out in the forest," he said.
The man laughed. "We've gotten pretty good at staying out of sight. That's something we've been forced to learn since we've been here."
"How long have you been here?" Caleb asked.
"Oh, me? It's been quite a while now," he said, and after a short pause, shamefully admitted, "I used to be a Guardian."
Caleb was stunned. "You ... you were a Guardian?"
The man remained quiet momentarily. They passed several doorways until finally he said, "Yeah, but that was in another life."
Caleb had never known a Guardian. His father had only told him about the one he had been friends with inside of the grid. He often wondered as he grew older how his father had managed to become friendly with one of them. Caleb had always seen the Guardians as the enforcers of the Inner Circle's system. "What made you turn against them?" he asked.
The man didn't answer Caleb's question, but said, "Ok, stop and wait here. I need to go in for a moment." He walked ahead of Caleb, opened a door and disappeared inside. After a short while, Alice emerged from the room.
"Caleb!" she yelled, as she ran over and embraced him. "You're ok! I wasn't sure what they were going to do to you with that machine."
Caleb held her tightly, and said, "Yeah, it was nothing. I think they are going to bring you there now. All you have to do is answer their questions truthfully and you'll be fine." He glanced over toward the door, the man hadn't come back out yet. Caleb whispered, "Did you see the women and children on your way down the hall?"
"Yeah. I saw one of the children coloring." She let out a chuckle and said, "I haven't done that since I was a little girl. It reminded me of when I used to live somewhere else, before the cabin."
Caleb didn't know what Alice meant when she said 'coloring'. Growing up inside of the grid left those sorts of activities out of his life. Before he had a chance to ask her what it was, another man appeared from the room behind them. "Alright Ma'am," he said to Alice, "Follow me."
Alice gave Caleb a nervous look. Caleb squeezed her hand, smiled, and nodded, letting her know that it would be alright. The other man who had escorted Caleb down the hallway appeared shortly after and said, "You can come in here now." He moved inside the doorway and waited for Caleb to follow him in. "We've got you guys some sleeping bags, blankets, and water here."
Caleb entered and looked around. It was a rather large room. Windows lined the wall opposite the door, allowing what little bit of daylight that was left to illuminate the room. The floor was covered with the same type of thin, rough carpeting that was laid throughout the whole building. Rolled up in the corner were two sleeping bags and a broken crate filled with water bottles. There was a small, circular table in the middle of the room with two metal chairs on opposite sides.
"Yep, this is the deluxe package," the man said with a smile, "It may not be pretty, but it's a place of your own. Home sweet home." He walked to the table in the middle of the room and sat down in one of the chairs. He kicked the other chair out gently toward Caleb and said, "Here, take a seat." He sat silently for a moment, before saying, "Name's Alex."
Caleb slowly walked over to the chair and sat down, facing the man across from him. "What made you want to leave the Guardians?" he asked, still remembering his unanswered question from moments ago.
Alex leaned back in his chair and looked over Caleb's head at the wall behind him. "Well, I guess I never really agreed with what was going on. I never liked enforcing the Inner Circle's rules. I did what I had to do to stay alive." The man looked back down at Caleb. "My duty was transporting 'prisoners' from sector to sector. My partner was one of the types who enjoyed the power he had over the people kept inside. After a while, I was able to figure out a way to free some of the people I was transporting. There are checkpoints that the Inner Circle sets up on some of the roads. They use the same travel routes over and over again because they’re the quickest routes to and from the sectors. One of the checkpoints was along a road not far from here, surrounded by thick forests on either side. My partner always drove, and I would ride in back, with the people we were transporting." He put his elbows on the table and leaned forward. "Now, at one of these checkpoints, my partner would have to leave th
e truck and go into the guard post to check in with our truck number and status. When he did this, I was able to sneak a couple of the people from the back, out into the woods. I always told them that I had nowhere for them to go, but if they wanted to be free, that was most likely their best chance. I was able to do this for quite a while. In fact, some of the people here are men that I helped. I ... and the Inner Circle … had no idea this place existed."
When Alex finished, Caleb leaned forward on the table and asked, "Why did you stop doing it? How did you find this place?"
Alex looked down at the table, almost as if he were ashamed. His eyes became sad. He looked back up at Caleb and said, "The last time I tried to let some of the people go, I messed up, I was careless."
Silence fell in the room again until Caleb broke in, "Well, you did what you could. You were still able to free a lot of people."
"That doesn't matter. You don't understand. The last group that I was transporting, before leaving my position, I ... I got nearly all of them killed."
3.5 (Resistance)
Alex sat still in the back of a prisoner transport truck. He donned the usual Guardian attire, along with an assault rifle held firmly in his hands. He sat against the rear door facing the thirty or so people they had crammed inside. The road was bumpy. There was little on the truck to dampen the blow of the endless sea of pot holes spanning the length of the road. He watched the people rock back and forth, into one another, against the metal poles holding up the canvas tarp covering them, bouncing up and down against the thick wooden boards under them. It was obvious to him how uncomfortable they were. The constant impact of bone against bone, metal, or wood. But worst of all, the uncertainty of what awaited them at the other end of the journey.
Alex had done this many times before. His job on the truck was to keep watch over the people being transported. His partner, Mike, drove the truck from a separate compartment in the front, separated by a wall of steel. Even though the two were partners, they shared a very different set of beliefs about what it was they did. Alex had always hated the way the people inside the Sectors were treated and had helped handfuls of people escape from them over the course of his being enlisted as a Guardian. Mike, on the other hand, liked the power his position gave him. He would frequently abuse his place of authority, beating prisoners when they didn't do what he wanted quickly enough, hurling insults at them for no particular reason other than to intimidate them.
The truck continued along the road for quite some time. During the entire trip up to this point, the people stared directly at him, unsure of what he was capable of doing, not wanting to get themselves hurt or killed. He noticed that there was one man in the group who wasn't watching him uneasily. Instead, he was sitting very still, and very calm. He was sitting with his back leaning against the thick canvas tarp on one side of the truck, his gaze directed straight ahead to the side opposite him. There was a thin streak of dried blood running down his chin. This was the same man that Mike had roughed up a bit when they were loading the truck from Sector 27.
****
"Move forward. Single file, no stopping, climb into the truck!" Mike yelled as he directed the people into the back of the truck.
He watched them closely as they marched forward and up into the truck one by one. Alex stood quietly beside him. In his mind he was hoping that the people would do as they were told so they wouldn't get hurt. One man, the last in line, stood without moving. He was now all alone in the middle of the road after everyone else had climbed inside. Oh, no, come on. Move, please move! Alex thought, as he helplessly watched Mike slowly approach him.
"I said, MOVE!" Mike shouted as he kicked the man behind his leg, dropping him to his knees. The man had been looking back into the Sector, almost as if he were waiting to see someone come out of one of the living quarters. "Get up!" Mike shouted.
The man slowly picked himself up off of the ground and began to walk toward the truck. "Faster, let's go!" Mike continued. "You're slowing us down!" he said as he slapped the man with the back of his hand, drawing a small trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth.
Alex was amazed at how this man kept himself emotionless. He kept moving, despite the continued verbal and physical onslaught, until finally he boarded the truck with the rest of the group.
****
When the truck had drawn close to one of the checkpoints along the route, Alex began to speak to the people. "Listen to me very carefully."
Their eyes widened at him, filled with both shock and fear.
"We don't have a lot of time now," he continued. "There is a checkpoint coming up ahead soon. The truck is going to stop and the driver is going to get out and head into the guard post off to the side of the road. I can untie and release a few of you. I wish I could let you all go, but I will be putting myself at greater risk by doing that. They won't notice if only a few of you are gone."
The people began to murmur, their murmuring growing steadily, intensifying.
"Shh. Keep your voices low, he might hear you," Alex said, pointing toward the cab of the truck where Mike was sitting. "Pay attention. The few of you that do get out need to know that I don't have anywhere for you to go. You will need to get into the woods and do your best to stay hidden until the truck disappears. Beyond that point, you're on your own."
Some of the people remained quiet. Others were loudly whispering to Alex to let them go, saying they should be the ones to be released. Alex began to point to a few of the people he thought looked strong enough to survive. He had picked one, then a second, then focused his attention to the man still sitting silently toward the front end of the truck. "You there. Come down by me, I'll untie you and get you out of here."
The man remained perfectly still. "Come on, you've had a rough time today, let's get you out of here," he said gently, but urgently, to him.
Another man, sitting directly in front of Alex, threw himself down at his feet and begged him, "Please, free me instead. They're going to kill me!"
Alex tried to ignore the man's sobbing and pleading, still trying to get the man in the front of the truck to accept his offer. The man slowly turned toward Alex. With a peaceful look on his face he said, "I appreciate it, but you should let him go. I'll be fine."
Alex was captivated by this man's compassion for this person he didn't know. "Are you sure? I've already picked you, but the decision is yours."
The man nodded, saying, "Yes. He knows what his fate will be when we get to wherever it is we're going, and I don't. If I can help save his life, then so be it."
The man who had been sobbing at Alex's feet picked himself off of the floor of the truck and stared back at the man in disbelief, saying, "Thank you, thank you so much!"
"You're very welcome, I wish you the best of luck." the man said with a tired smile.
"What's your name?" the spared man asked.
"My name is Joshua." the man in the front of the truck replied. "What's yours?"
The man sniffed and answered, "Brian."
"Well Brian," Joshua said, "I hope that you make the best of the opportunity you're getting here."
"Oh, I will!" Brian replied. "I'll never forget you for this! I promise, I will do everything in my power to someday make these people pay for what they're doing!"
Just at that moment the truck came screeching to a halt. The people in the back of the truck grew quiet. They heard the front door open, feet hit the ground, and the door slam shut once again. Footsteps slowly faded away into the distance, at which point Alex cut the ropes of the three people he was letting down. He usually cut the ropes before the truck had reached this point, but he had been so wrapped up in what was happening between the two men over the past several moments that he lost track of everything. He knew they weren't going to have as much time as usual, but he thought he could still get them safely off the truck. Brian's ropes were cut and off he went into the forest, the second person's ropes were cut and he shortly disappeared beyond the tree line. The third person's
ropes were cut, but just as their feet hit the pavement, Mike came back outside of the guard post. "Hey! Alex, what are you doing?!"
Alex froze. He knew he had been caught. Quietly he said to the third person, "Hurry, get into the forest and keep running, don't look back!"
Just as the person stepped out from behind the truck, a spray of bullets rattled against the canvas, just missing Alex, but connecting with the fleeing prisoner. The body hit the ground with a thud and remained motionless. Alex looked down at the man’s body, knowing it was his fault he had been shot. "Alex!" Mike shouted, "Come on out buddy. Throw your gun out here and step out."
Alex wasn’t sure if Mike had seen the two people that had entered the forest moments before. He crouched beside one of the truck's tires and peeked underneath. He could see Mike's boots creeping slowly along the side of the truck toward the back. "You know what I have to do now, don't you? You broke the rules my friend. That can't be tolerated."
Alex moved along the side of the truck opposite Mike, keeping it between them. When Mike reached the back, he stopped. "Alex, if you don't come out, I'm going to fire my weapon into the prisoners back here."
Alex heard the people begin to plead for their lives. Then without warning, Mike's gun began to unload into the back of the truck. Alex’s instinct took over. It was his fault that this was happening. He ran around the side of the truck and jumped around the corner, hitting Mike several times in the body armor shielding his chest, sending him tumbling backwards. Mike's gun was sent bouncing several yards from where he landed. As he began to crawl toward his weapon, Alex jumped on him and struck him with a single blow to the head with the butt end of his rifle, knocking him unconscious. He jumped back to his feet and looked inside the truck. There were bodies lying motionless along the floor. Only a few of them remained huddled together in the back corner, screaming. Alex began to motion for them to get out, but began taking fire from the guard stationed inside of the checkpoint just ahead of him. Alex sprinted toward the tree line just beside the road and tumbled down a small hill into the dense forest.
Sector 27- Assignment Page 12
