Freddy nodded. Even when he was effectively being sentenced to war, his uncle still played a part in where he ended up. Because of his name he would not be one of the lowest ranks in the city, not because of anything he had ever achieved on his own. He hated that fact, while at the same time knew he had to be grateful for it. His uncle had likely saved his life, at least for the time being.
“Thank you. When will I be leaving?”
“Tomorrow at noon,” Roger replied simply, his voice devoid of any emotion or feeling. Even though Roger had practically raised Freddy, their relationship was far from loving. Roger had begrudgingly acknowledged custody of Freddy just before his sixteenth birthday, following the drawn-out death of his mother—Roger’s sister. Hattie had struggled with substance abuse from a young age, despite the best attempts of Roger and their parents to get her clean. Some people just didn’t want to change, and Hattie was one of them, an overdose leaving Freddy orphaned as a teenager. Roger had stepped up, even though the two of them had never really been a family. What they had was more like a business arrangement: Freddy learned from Roger, and in return Roger acquired a loyal follower. He was able to impart his views to the impressionable teenager and when the Authority started to increase their ranks, Freddy was naturally among the first to join them.
“I’ll be there to see you off,” Roger continued speaking, his monotonous voice not once breaking as he discussed saying goodbye to his nephew. “I don’t know when I’ll see you again after.”
“Understood,” Freddy nodded, wishing he could find a way to stay and impress his uncle. He hated leaving like this. He felt like a failure, like he had let the man down. “Thank you for everything you have done for me, Uncle. I hope I can make you proud.”
“Just remember your last name,” Roger replied, his main concern being the legacy that was left from his name. “Remember who you are fighting for.”
Freddy felt an added boulder of pressure land on his shoulders, desperate not to fail. “I will,” he replied. “I give you my word.”
With a firm nod, Roger Hartley exited Freddy’s room and left his nephew to prepare. There would be no hug goodbye or emotional farewell. Freddy knew that conversation was the best he was going to get, and he also knew it was all that he deserved. No matter how hard he tried, Freddy knew he just wasn’t good enough. It was okay—he would do his best—but he had always been taught that sometimes that just wouldn’t cut it. Just like how Roger had told him his mother had been a failure, Freddy believed he was doomed to be the same.
Gathering up his few possessions in preparation for his departure the next day, Freddy wondered what the city would hold for him. As a unit, the Authority was gathering up all the children in the area—those under twenty-one who were regarded as still receptive to change. In truth, they weren’t interested in everyone, just those who they deemed pure enough to carry on the bloodline, but to placate the adults and parents they rounded up everyone, showing no prejudice and leading the outsiders to believe that they were doing them all a favor.
It was genius. Freddy wished he had been the one to come up with it, the expertise and knowledge behind the plan far greater than anything he could come up with himself. No, that had been his uncle’s work, the great Roger Hartley devising the path that the group—and eventually the world—would follow.
That was the dream: that one day, the entire population would fall behind the Authority’s ranks and eventually, everyone would live by their mantra. One day. Freddy saw it in his dreams often, a world that he and everyone else could be truly proud of. Now his only reservation about it was whether he would live to see it happen. Whether he would truly be a part of it, one of the chosen ones, like he had always imagined.
Chapter 4
Marcus sat behind the wheel of the Jeep, his hands cupped over his mouth so he could breathe into them and attempt to keep warm. Outside was freezing and without the engine on, the car wasn’t much better. His breath hung in the air like smoke when he exhaled, leaving a hazy dew similar to the one the ash cloud had left behind. Several hours had passed since Mia, Jadon, and Jesse walked away from him, preparing to act out phase one of their plan. Since then, Marcus had seen no sign or signal beckoning him forward. He was completely blind as he waited, the time ticking by and leaving him isolated and alone with his thoughts.
More often than not, they were focused on Harper and his baby. He closed his eyes and pictured his girlfriend’s face, hearing her voice in his ears and breathing her scent in through his nose. If he focused hard enough, Marcus could almost make himself believe that he was in her arms rather than lost in the desert just outside Texas. His situation seemed incredibly bleak, but he refused to give up hope.
Marcus had known Harper was the girl for him pretty much from the moment he laid eyes on her. He remembered their first date: the red and white checked shirt she had worn as they went out for dinner, the cut of it not giving anything away, doing just enough to entice Marcus and make him want more. They had eaten nachos and watched the football game, slowly edging closer to one another in the booth as the evening wore on and they both yearned to touch. Their first kiss had been magical, making Marcus feel more alive than he ever had and further solidifying the conviction he had that Harper was the girl for him. After that, the rest had been history.
Thinking about her now, Marcus struggled to convince himself to stay still. Mia and the others were waiting for him and he felt the urge to get moving and help them, push things forward so they could get to Houston and then, eventually, to Philly as well. He hated being sidelined—it was just like not being picked for first string on the team. Sitting on the bench did not go down well with him.
While technically there hadn’t been a signal, more hours had passed than they’d all agreed would be necessary to sort themselves out at the barrier. Marcus didn’t want to jump to conclusions, but he worried that meant that something had gone wrong. As the final team member, it was his duty to make sure everyone else was okay. Perhaps he had been waiting around for too long; perhaps Marcus needed to take matters into his own hands.
Sliding the key into the ignition, Marcus held it there for a moment, considering what he was about to do. Was this the right thing? If he barreled ahead and ruined whatever Mia and the others were doing, then he could ruin their whole plan and their chances of getting into Texas. On the other hand, if something had gone wrong and they needed him, he would never be able to live with himself if he just sat by and waited.
“Screw it,” he muttered to himself, twisting the key and allowing the engine to roar to life before he could change his mind. The sound from the Jeep filled his ears and likely the surrounding area too, causing Marcus to wince and hope that no one could hear it. He wasn’t exactly sure what his plan of action was, but sitting around wasn’t cutting it anymore. Something had to be done.
***
“Come on,” Jadon demanded, facing the two members of the Authority who blocked the exit of the dormitory and refused to let them out. “This is our country too. This is our home. Tell us what’s happening here.”
“Okay,” one of the men replied, walking forward and cracking his knuckles with a cunning smile on his face. “You might want to sit down for this.”
Mia didn’t like what was happening one bit. The two armed guards looked aggressive and up for a fight, and now both Jesse and Jadon were happily squaring up against them. While her friends were larger and carried more muscle, brute strength was nothing against a real weapon like the guards wore at their waists. The last thing she wanted was a fight to ensue in the enclosed dormitory, no happy ending possible no matter which way Mia assessed the situation.
“Come on then,” Jadon enticed the two men. “What’s the big secret? Give us the truth about what’s happening here, or do you not even know?”
“We’re saving this country from runts like you,” one of the guards spat, angered by Jadon’s words. “The volcano erupting was a sign for us to act. This is our time. We’r
e going to take back the world and rid it of scum like you.”
“What did you call him?” Jesse shouted back, enraged by the hatred coming from the guard. All his life he had been subject to that sort of abuse because of his appearance and where he came from. It pressed a button unlike anything else, lighting a fire in his belly that made him angry and desperate for revenge. “I’d back off if I were you.”
“Really? And you’re going to stop us, are you?”
“You’re pathetic. The volcano should’ve swallowed you up when it had the chance.”
Jadon huffed, equally as riled up as Jesse as they both teetered on the edge of blowing up. They weren’t naturally aggressive young men, but their sports backgrounds benefitted from the fact they were pumped full of adrenaline almost all of the time. Since Yellowstone erupted, neither of them had had a physical outlet for it all, so all of a sudden, they both started to feel their fuses burning away.
“Back off, will you?” Jesse responded, using all his energy to not just lurch forward and punch one of the guys in the face. “We didn’t ask for this. We’re not the ones in the wrong here.”
Both guards laughed, turning to each other and acting like they had just heard the joke of the year. “Don’t you get it?” one of them sneered. “You people are never in the right. You don’t belong here. In fact, you shouldn’t even be staying here overnight. Hargreaves never should’ve let you in.”
“Well why don’t we make that right, eh?” the other guard suggested with a smile. “Maybe you all should chill out outside.”
“Yeah!”
With a sudden surge of energy, Mia jumped backwards as the guards lunged toward them. Things had very quickly spiraled out of control and the tension in the dormitory had heightened, abruptly reaching its breaking point. She didn’t know where to move or how to react as one of the guards grabbed for Jesse, only stopping because Jadon threw his body in the way, his fist connecting with the guard’s face. A crunching sound echoed through the room and everyone paused for a second. Blood coated Jadon’s knuckles and the guard’s face, both of them looking at the red splatters for a few brief seconds before all hell broke loose and Mia was forced to duck for cover. One thing was for certain: things weren’t going according to plan.
***
Marcus sprinted across the road, the binoculars he wore around his neck banging against his chest as he ran. His fingers had already turned numb after less than a minute outside, but he had to get closer so there was more light to see by. The Jeep was too loud to drive any closer, which left him with the only option of putting his boots on the ground and going after Mia and the others on foot—at least for the time being.
It wasn’t the visuals that gave away that something was wrong at the border crossing. One completely distinguishable and easily recognizable sound rang out and pierced Marcus’s ears, telling him that his friends needed help: gunshots. He’d been watching the border for several minutes from the comfort of the Jeep after driving it closer, so as the harrowing sound of a weapon being fired filled the air, he knew he had to stop waiting around and act.
Quivering behind a sign for the border, he held the binoculars to his eyes and peered through the glass. The light was dim at best, but Marcus could finally now make out shadows running into one specific building at the crossing. Everyone left their posts and headed in that direction, leaving the remainder of the crossing unprotected and potentially vulnerable. In a split second, Marcus realized that this could be the signal he had been waiting for. This could be his moment. He had to move fast.
Dashing back across the road, he leapt into the driver’s seat of the Jeep and turned the key, sparking the engine to life and readying the vehicle for the charge. He turned the headlights up to full beam, illuminating the road in front of him completely as he started to drive. No one was outside at the border anymore, the place deserted as everyone flocked toward whatever chaos was erupting inside the small building. Marcus didn’t even have time to guess, he just focused on the road and the barrier he was about to charge into. There was a temporary fence for him to smash through before the sort of no-man’s-land where the buildings were set up, then the actual border and the open road into Texas.
“Here we go!”
Without allowing himself time for second thoughts, Marcus put his foot on the gas pedal and plowed the Jeep forward into the metal fencing. At the speed he was going, the barrier didn’t stand a chance and he tore straight through it, causing the metal to buckle and break apart. It did so with a loud crash, echoing through the car and reverberating in Marcus’s eardrums. Deciding in a split second that he needed to keep the momentum going, Marcus focused on the second roadblock and picked a point that looked weaker than the rest, knowing he needed to take his chances.
This time when the Jeep smashed into the wall of abandoned cars, he felt the pain of the crash kicking back at him. The front of the Jeep crumpled slightly, damaging the body of the car but thankfully leaving the engine intact and creating just enough of a gap in the poorly made barrier for him to drive through. He was clear. Marcus was on the other side in Texas. The only issue now was where were Mia and the others?
***
As a loud crash echoed through the building, everyone inside froze. Things had very quickly taken a turn for the worse at the border barrier, with one guard unconscious and another two lying dead on the ground in a puddle of blood. Jesse was also bleeding heavily, suffering from a bullet wound in his upper left arm. He, Mia, and Jadon were boxed off at the far end of the dormitory, protected by a shield of beds they had fashioned around them hurriedly, otherwise completely trapped and surrounded by members of the Authority.
Glancing out of the window, Mia saw a sight she would’ve never dreamed of in a thousand years. Their Jeep had crashed into the wall of cars that the Authority had set up, someone—who she hoped was Marcus—frantically trying to reverse it out of the smashed metal so there was a clear path to drive through and make an escape. She had no idea whether it was their friend or not, but with the situation as bleak as it was inside the dormitory, she made a quick decision with no better options in sight.
Firing the gun she had picked up from one of the dead guards, Mia shattered the glass of the nearest window to her and ran toward it, hoping Jesse and Jadon would know to follow her. Covering her face with her arms as she tumbled through the broken glass and fell to the ground below, Mia also held her breath to protect her lungs from the toxic air. She didn’t look back, hearing at least one body clatter through the window behind her, hoping that both boys would make it through okay.
Gritting her teeth against the pain in her body from the impact of the fall and the scratches the glass had left on her body, Mia winced and stumbled to her feet, forcing herself to keep moving in the direction of the Jeep. It would be mere seconds before the Authority was at the window trying to shoot them down. Mia knew that if they didn’t make it to the vehicle in time, their journey would almost certainly be over.
Chapter 5
“Help Jesse!”
Mia shrugged Marcus off when he came to her aid, grateful it was him in the car and not anyone else, but aware that Jesse needed his assistance more than she did. Marcus did as he was told immediately, leaving Mia to sprint to the Jeep and tug open the doors, fumbling around in the back of the car for a breathing mask and one of the pistols they had with them.
Pulling the mask over her face, Mia quickly checked the 9mm Glock pistol for ammunition. She’d dropped the Authority’s weapon as she flew out of the window, knowing there was no time to stop and look for it as the enemy chased after them. Now she armed herself quickly and efficiently, the lessons her father had given her in shooting from a young age flooding back to her and her mind snapping out of a panicked frenzy and into a militant state.
Aiming the Glock in the direction of the broken window, Mia quickly noticed that all three of her friends were almost back at the car with her, before squeezing the trigger and firing a rapid three rounds at
the window. Whichever member of the Authority who stood there—Mia hoped it was Hargreaves—hadn’t been expecting the firearm at all, two bullets hitting him square in the chest and causing him to fall to the ground.
“Get in!” Mia shouted at the boys as they finally arrived, Jadon and Marcus on either side of Jesse as the boy grew weak from blood loss. “Marcus, I need you to drive! Put Jesse in the back!”
Without asking any questions, each of them did exactly as they were told, Mia’s instructions punctuated by a volley of bullets that showered the ground by the Jeep’s rear wheels, a few of them bouncing off of the bumper. They were fighting back now, although Mia knew the four of them were in the clear. So long as nothing happened to the car, they should make it out alive.
“Mia!” Marcus shouted from the driver’s seat, telling her that they were ready to leave. Without hesitation she jumped into the back alongside Jesse and Jadon, Marcus flooring it as soon as the door was closed and speeding away from the border crossing in an explosion of spinning wheels and dust. They were away from the Authority for now, but their fight was far from over.
“Find the first aid kit!” Mia instructed Jadon, the pair of them crammed into the back seats with Jesse laid out between them, groaning in pain. “Is the bullet still in his arm?”
“No,” Jadon replied, having already inspected the wound. “Clean shot. It went straight through.”
“Good,” Mia nodded, her face set in a firm line as she repositioned herself over Jesse. There wasn’t a lot of room in the car and with Marcus speeding as fast as he could away from the barrier, the car was throwing them around more than it usually would. “I’m going to need you to get in the front,” she prompted Jadon. “Then turn back and hold him steady.”
Escaping Darkness (Book 6): The Shadows Page 3
