The guard from the checkpoint ran to the back of the truck and watched as Alex pushed deeper into the woods, disappearing from sight. He stood, facing the opening of the truck. Then he looked down at Mike, who still lay motionless in the middle of the street, and said into a radio device, "Reassignment Checkpoint Station requesting medical unit and two friendlies to complete prisoner transport."
3.6 (Resistance)
Caleb and Alex talked for a little while longer before Alice had made her way back to the room. Caleb wasn't sure how long she had been gone. As she entered, both men looked up at her. Caleb stood up and walked over to meet her. "How'd it go?" he asked.
Alice had been nervous ever since she had arrived at this building, but she seemed to have calmed down now. "It was fine. I did like you said. I told them the truth." She walked over to the table and sat down in the chair Caleb had just left. "Caleb, they really are a resistance group," she said with a smile.
Caleb returned the smile. "I know, Martin told me just after he finished questioning me."
Alex stood up from his place at the table and said, "Well, I’ll get going, let you guys rest." He walked over toward the door. Before leaving the room he smiled and said, "If you guys need anything, my room is just down the hall on the right side, my name's on the door. All you have to do is ask. We'll be dropping off some food for you both in a little while."
Caleb and Alice thanked him as he left the room, closing the door behind him. Caleb sat down in the chair across from Alice at the table. He took off his lab coat and hung it over the back of the chair. He reached into the front pocket and removed the EMP device that he had been keeping ever since he escaped from the grid. He set it down on the table, staring at it momentarily. "What's that thing?" Alice asked.
"It's something that helped me escape from the grid."
Alice watched curiously as Caleb slowly turned it up, down, back and forth in his hands. "What does it do?"
"People who live inside of the grids have chips put into their necks. Their movements are tracked inside and out. This thing removes the chips. A Guardian ... my father's friend … left it hidden for me to take and use when I was old enough."
"Some of those animals are good people?" Alice asked, somewhat surprised.
“Yeah, I guess so,” he replied with a smile. “The guy who just left the room, his name is Alex, used to be a Guardian. He helped rescue people from the grids.” Caleb thought for a moment, looking at the device in his hands. “Maybe it would be helpful for the people here to have this. They might find some use for it.”
"That's a good idea," Alice said, "What are we supposed to do now? Did he say anything to you about that?"
Caleb shook his head. "I don't know. For now we can have some food and get some rest."
Alice remained silent. "I know you're still worried about your father," Caleb said, "I am too. Maybe we can ask Martin if he’d let us go out and search for him tomorrow. I still believe that he's on his way here."
"Yeah, we should do that," Alice replied, "I'm sure he's ok, it's just taking him a little longer than us to get here."
There was a knock at their door as they both turned and stared. Another knock, then Caleb stood up from the table and walked over to open it. He slowly cracked the door open and saw a middle-aged woman holding a plastic tray. She had long black hair, bright blue eyes and a big smile on her face. "Welcome you two!" she said happily, "I’ve got some food for you, I'm sure you're both very hungry."
Caleb opened the door all the way and took the tray from the woman. Alice had walked over and was now standing beside Caleb. "Thanks," Caleb said with a smile.
"You're very welcome!" she beamed, "My name's Mary. What's yours?"
"I'm Caleb."
"Alice."
"It's very nice to meet you, Caleb and Alice. Now keep in mind, the food here is nothing extravagant, but at least it's edible and we have plenty of it."
Caleb looked down at the tray. There were two cans of refried beans and two water bottles. "Where did you guys get this stuff from?" he asked.
"Well, we have some groups of people that go out looking for old supermarkets, gas stations, and convenience stores. Those were places where people could buy food before everything fell apart. They check houses too. Sometimes they come across cans, like the ones you have here," she said, pointing toward the cans of refried beans. "I believe you just met my husband, Alex. I'm sure he told you this already, but if you ever need anything, come see us any time."
"Thank you so much," Alice said, "We appreciate how kind all of you have been to us."
Mary smiled, "It's no problem dear. We're always happy to help people in any way we can. Now, more than ever, we need to stick together. I'll let you two get to eating. Remember if you need anything, just ask."
Mary said goodbye, turned, and walked down the hallway. Caleb took the tray of food and water over to the table while Alice closed the door behind them. "So far, everyone I've met seems so nice,” Alice said, "The man who was here in the room with me while they questioned you before kept assuring me everything would be ok. He said that he was in a similar situation not too long ago. He was lost, wandering through the woods for days. He stumbled upon this place and passed out. When he woke up, he was inside one of these rooms, in a bed with plastic tubes pumping fluids into his body."
"Wow, really?" Caleb said, "Alex seemed very kind too. He told me about his life as a Guardian before he found this place. Something he told me, how he blames himself for getting some of the people being transported from one grid to another killed, still eats at him. It makes him more determined to fight against the Inner Circle." Caleb took a bite from the can of beans. "What was the man's name who was with you before?"
In between bites, Alice replied, "Brian. He told me that a Guardian had helped him escape from a transport truck. He told me that if it hadn't been for another prisoner in the same transport, letting him take his place to leave, he would have been killed." She stopped eating and looked up at Caleb. "Do you think Alex was the Guardian who got Brian off the truck?"
Just as soon as Alice said that, the sound of several rushing footsteps passed by their room from out in the hallway. Then there was a pounding on the door, Caleb jumped up from his chair and ran to open it. It was Alex. Behind him, Caleb could see people moving quickly down the hallway toward the main room, with the screens and papers. "What's going on?" he asked.
"Martin wanted us to start gathering the people to Central Command. That's the room where you were questioned. Something happened out on one of the patrols. He asked to get everyone down there as quickly as possible. Both you and Alice are included."
Alice appeared by Caleb's side. "Why are we included?" she asked.
"You're one of us now. Come on, hurry! There must be something big going on," Alex said as he took off down the hallway, stopping at another door a few feet away.
"We’d better hurry," Alice said, "I wonder what's going on."
"Me too, let’s go."
The two of them made their way quickly down the hallway toward the Central Command room. When they arrived, there was already a large group of people inside, much more than they had seen earlier. Martin stood in the middle of the room, on top of a table with another man. "Alright, everybody quiet down!" he shouted, "Do we have everybody here?"
"Everyone's accounted for," another voice said from across the room.
"Ok, everybody listen up." The room fell silent. "Take it from here captain," he said, speaking to the man standing on the table next to him.
The man next to him was very tall and muscular. He looked to be in his mid-thirties. He wore dark khaki pants and a black leather jacket. A rifle hung over his shoulder and rested against his back. His eyes looked intense as they scanned the people standing below him. "Thank you Martin," he said, "As you all know, we keep an eye on the roads that are near our location for any enemy activity. Earlier today, my squad saw one of their fire-tanks being escorted by a dozen or so Guardian
s. They weren’t moving very fast, and we think now would be the perfect opportunity to strike. As you know, we jump at any opportunity we get to take one of those things out. Given the size of the group transporting it, we are going to need volunteers to add to our assault team. We need people who are pretty good with a gun. We'll have the advantage, by surprising them from within the forest. They don't know we'll be coming for them."
Excited murmuring began to build up in the crowd as several men began to step forward closer to the man who was speaking. Caleb saw Alex standing below the table where the captain spoke.
"Hey look, that's Brian," Alice said, pointing at another man who had stepped up to the table where the captain was standing.
Caleb began to walk forward before Alice grabbed his arm. "What are you doing? You don't really know how to use a weapon!" she said.
Caleb looked back at her. "I know, but I want to help them. If it means weakening the Inner Circle, I want to be a part of it."
"But you don't want to get yourself killed!"
Caleb thought for a moment. "You're a pretty good shot though, right? Come with me."
"No Caleb. We'll have our chance to help, not this time. You need to learn how to use a gun before doing something like this."
Caleb thought about what Alice was saying. "You're right." he said, stepping back next to Alice and taking her hand.
Suddenly, there was a commotion on the other side of the room. The two metal doors swung open and three men walked inside. A voice yelled out, "Sir, this man needs help! We found him lying in the woods outside, he's very weak!"
Some of the people had begun to make their way back down the hallway toward their rooms before the man was brought in. Caleb and Alice quickly moved to the front of the room to see if they could be of any help to the man, who had just been laid on a table. As they drew closer, Caleb said under his breath, "Aaron?"
From beside him he could hear Alice scream with excitement, "Dad!"
3.7 (Resistance)
The smell of smoke filled the air as Aaron hurried as fast as he could in the direction he had seen Caleb and Alice running from the Guardians. Ahead of him, in the distance, he could hear an occasional burst of gunfire. The only thing on his mind was the survival of Caleb and Alice. He didn't care if he had to die for either of them, the only thing he knew for sure was that they had to live.
Aaron had become very skilled at tracking. He was able to follow the trail that they had left while fleeing. He looked along the ground for broken twigs and bent branches on low bushes. Scattered along the trail he found numerous bullet casings, so he knew he was headed in the right direction. Finally, after what seemed like a long span of silence, he heard two loud bangs snap off in rapid succession. It wasn't one of the Guardians’ rifles, he knew it was his shotgun that had just been fired. He moved quickly toward the echoing sound, eventually coming to a ledge overlooking a small area of flat ground rolling into another hill. He approached the ledge carefully. Looking down onto the ground below, he saw a dead Guardian and his assault rifle which lay several yards away from his body. Carefully lowering himself down onto the area of flat ground below, he crouched and found two empty shotgun shells in the grass. Then he walked over to the Guardian’s assault rifle, picked it up and hung it by its strap over his shoulder. He made his way back to the ledge to climb back up. Just as he began to push his body upwards, he heard the sound of footsteps moving hurriedly through the forest.
Two Guardians emerged, rifles raised, side by side. Aaron ducked down below the ledge and pressed his back up against it. He listened to the footsteps shuffle back and forth above him, hoping they wouldn't look down over the edge. "You see anything?" a voice asked.
"Negative," another voice replied. "Wait. Over here!"
"What is it?" the first voice asked again.
"Look, down here. He's dead," the second voice said, emotionless.
Aaron knew that they had spotted the dead Guardian laying only yards ahead of him.
"Great. How are we going to explain this to them?" said the first voice.
"We'll think of something. We can say that we were ambushed, killed all of them, but they took him out," said the second voice. "The road's not far from here, head back and get the Humvee. I'm going to get his armor and see if I can find his weapon."
"Roger that," the first voice said as footsteps slowly faded away into the forest.
Aaron heard a metallic clicking sound coming from where the Guardian stood above him. Then he smelled something he hadn't smelled in quite a while, cigarette smoke. The Guardian was smoking. He heard the man above him walk closer to the ledge, then saw two legs covered by baggy black pants fall inches from his face. Thick, black leather boots hung motionless in front of him as the Guardian slowly dragged on his cigarette. Aaron remained as still and silent as possible, gripping the assault rifle tightly in his hands. He saw the cigarette, which had been smoked down to the butt end, fall a few feet in front of him. Then the pair of legs dropped down onto the ground, exposing the rest of the Guardian’s body. Aaron waited as long as possible. The Guardian slowly walked over to the corpse and began removing the body armor. The whole time, the Guardian never looked back under the ledge toward Aaron, who remained motionless, pointing the rifle at the Guardian’s back. Finally, the man stood up and turned around, his weapon strapped around his back, holding the body armor in his hands. The man froze. Silence fell over the area. A flock of birds emerged from out of the forest sloping down the hill behind the man, and flew off into the distance. The Guardian dropped the body armor and slowly gripped his hand over the nylon strap that was holding his gun in place against his back. "Don't do it," Aaron said as he motioned with his gun for the man to bring his hand back down.
The Guardian didn't say anything, but his lips were twisted in a snarl spreading across his face. He left his hand over the strap and began to slowly pull on it. Aaron could see the barrel of the rifle begin to crawl up the man's back, closer to his shoulder. "You don't have to die," Aaron said, "We can both just walk away. But first you need to throw your gun down the hill behind you."
Just as Aaron finished his sentence, the Guardian tugged hard on the strap, the rifle flung up over his shoulder and was heading for his hands. Aaron fired a single shot, which hit the man directly above his snarling lips. In an instant he was flung backward, and then disappeared over the steep slope of the hill behind him. Aaron slowly stood up, checked back over the top of the ledge into the forest behind him, and listened for footsteps. It had been a little while since the other Guardian had headed back for the road, but he didn't want to take any chances. After he was satisfied, he walked over to the top of the steep hill that the Guardian had just gone over and looked down. He couldn't see the man's body anywhere from within the thick forest below. "Sorry," he said, "You didn't give me any other choice."
Aaron hung his head. He hated the fact that the Guardian had forced him to resort to shooting. Even though the Guardians were violent, mean people, he didn't like having to hurt anybody.
He slowly climbed up the ledge and made his way back into the forest. After a while, he finally found himself out on the abandoned highway. He found a car that he felt was safe enough to sleep in and silently laid down inside, thinking about Alice, Caleb, and the Guardian he was just forced to take the life of earlier that day. He was very tired, but had trouble getting to sleep with his mind racing. A long while had passed before he was finally able to drift off to sleep.
Aaron awoke the next day, and he stepped out of the car onto the highway. The sun was directly overhead, indicating it was sometime in the afternoon. He hadn't planned on pushing forward this late, but there was nothing he could do about that now. Quickly, he slipped into the forest on the other side of the highway. After several miles of walking, it was beginning to get dark. Aaron was becoming very weak and tired. The adrenaline from the day before had fully worn off and now he was dizzy, thirsty, hungry, and physically and mentally drained. His eyes began
to blur in and out of focus as he staggered through the forest. He dropped the assault rifle on the ground and was able to move along at a much slower pace for another mile or so. Finally, he came upon the large brick building his son had described. Pushing himself forward, he arrived at a pair of glass doors on the front side of the building. Weakly, he banged his fists on the doors as he lay on the ground. Two men unlocked them and stepped outside just as Aaron lost consciousness.
3.8 (Resistance)
A small crowd of men rushed to Aaron's side as he lay motionless on a long metal table. Martin watched in amazement from a short distance away, among the group of onlookers. He could see Aaron's eyes slowly opening halfway and closing shut again. "It can't be," he said under his breath. "Aaron, is that you?" he asked from behind the wall of people surrounding him.
Aaron slowly turned his head toward Martin and squinted his eyes, as if he were trying to connect Martin's face to someone he had known long ago. "We need to get him to the med center," one of the men who had been examining him said.
Caleb and Alice had been making their way to the front of the room where Aaron had been laid down. Alice grabbed a hold of one of the men standing beside Aaron, and tried to move him out of her way. "Hey!" he shouted out at her, "What are you doing?! We need to take him down the hallway!"
Alice stared directly into the man's eyes and exclaimed, "That’s my dad!"
At this, the man's demeanor softened and he said, "I'm sorry. Look, he's very dehydrated. We need to move him into our medical area to give him some fluids and let him rest a while." He looked over at Aaron, then back to Alice. "I promise you, after he's stabilized, you'll be the first to know. Okay?"
Sector 27- Assignment Page 13
