He led her into the bedroom and turned off the lights, the kitchen light casting a dull glow in the bedroom. Camden shifted uncomfortably by the door.
“So, uhh, do you want to be, uhh, alone or…”he let his sentence trail off. Alessa wanted to laugh at his lack of confidence, it was so uncharacteristic. She also thought of spending the night alone in the strange house while being hunted by the Government.
“No, actually, I, uhh, was hoping you’d like to stay,”she responded, silently chastising herself for matching his eloquence. Camden sighed deeply.
“Good,”he stated as he climbed into bed beside her and pulled her into his arms,“because the thought of not having my eyes on you even for a second right now is a little more than I can stand. I can’t tell you how glad I am that you are here, Alessa. I can’t tell you how proud I am of you for being so brave. But, most of all, I can’t possibly explain to you how relieved and ecstatic I was to see you in that water swimming towards me. Waiting for you under that pier, it was almost more than I could stand.”
“Cam, of all the things I am unsure about, I am so very sure that I needed to be wherever you were. I’m glad I did it, too. I can’t imagine not being with you right now, no matter what.”
They both hugged each other closer and Alessa fell into a deep sleep, more peaceful than any in her recent memory.
Alessa awoke feeling disquiet and concerned. She wasn’t sure how long she had been asleep, but it was still dark out, and she knew they would not begin moving until sunlight. Alessa tried to roll over and lull herself back to sleep. Then, she heard what had woken her up again. A branch broke outside, it had clearly been stepped on. Alessa sat straight up in bed. Camden grabbed her immediately and pulled her to his chest.
“Do not make a sound,”he whispered, almost inaudibly,“do not move unless I tell you to and do not say a word. They found us.”Alessa gasped softly.“It’s just one right now, I think it’s a scout, but we need to take care of him before he passes the word.”
With that, Camden silently climbed out of bed and walked to his bag by the door. Alessa saw him pull out two gleaming guns. They shined ominously in the dim light. He walked back to the bed and handed one to her. She wanted to hand it back, she had never held a weapon in her life. It felt heavy and cold. Without making a sound, he showed her where a button on the side was. He demonstrated holding the button and pulling the trigger. Then, he gestured for her to sit on the floor beside the bed and wait.
The silence hung over the house like a suffocating blanket. Alessa shivered on the floor beside the bed and held the gun tightly in her hands. She wasn’t sure if she could actually use it. Suddenly, she heard a scuffle outside of the bedroom window. She resisted every urge to run to it and watch. She heard a shout, she couldn’t be sure if it was Camden or the scout, but someone was hurt. Then, the window that faced her broke, lifted, and a man in a black military uniform climbed into the room. Alessa stood and pointed the gun at him. Her hands shook. She noticed he didn’t have a weapon in his hand. Alessa hesitated, but he began to close the few feet between them. Alessa pointed the gun at his leg and pulled the trigger. The sounds rang throughout the house, her ears closed up and echoed within themselves. With an angry growl of pain the scout began to pull himself across the floor, still reaching for Alessa. She heard another shot, this one from the broken window. Alessa looked over, Camden stood in the window, his gun smoking softly. The scout laid on the ground, blood pouring from the center of his forehead. Alessa looked back at Camden.
“What the hell were you thinking?”Camden demanded, obviously angry. He pulled himself through the window with a pained expression on his face.
“You’re hurt,”Alessa observed, and she hurried to help him.
“Not as hurt as you were about to be,”Camden said, still clearly fuming.“I’ll ask again, what were you thinking?”
“What do you mean?”Camden sighed and ran a hand over his face. He sat down heavily on the bed and pulled her into his lap, wrapping his arms around her shaking body.
“Alessa, do not ever shoot someone in the leg. You don’t shoot to wound, they will still come for you. You shoot to kill. Every time. That’s your first lesson, always shoot to kill. Is that clear?”
“But, he didn’t have a weapon, and I didn’t want to kill him.”Alessa replied. Even to herself she sounded whiney.
“Alessa, these men have one of two jobs. We don’t know which one it is, but we know it’s one or the other. They are either coming to kill you, or they are coming to capture you and take you back so that the government can kill you. Either way, they are out to kill you. You shoot to kill. If you can’t get a clear shot that you are sure of in the head, you shoot in the center of the chest, right here,”he gestured towards his chest, just at the bottom of his sternum,“understand?”
“Yes, I understand,”Alessa said quietly, feeling chastised.
Camden let out a breath and pulled her close, burying his face in her neck. His voice had softened when he spoke next.
“Alessa, they always carry more than one gun and several knives. They are never, ever defenseless. And they are never, ever merciful. I almost lost you a few hours ago, don’t make me go through that again.”
Alessa shuddered involuntarily at the thought. She hadn’t considered a hidden weapon. She hadn’t considered much of anything except that she didn’t want to kill the man. She obviously was going to have to learn how to protect herself. She certainly couldn’t allow Camden to always save her. She held on tight to him as they sat in the dark, the body of the scout growing cold on the floor.
After a few moments, Camden released her.
“We have to get out of here. We don’t know how long ago he called in last, but we can figure that back up won’t take long once he doesn’t call back in soon.”
“We have to go now?”Alessa asked, looking out at the dark.
“I know, I know, but we have no other choice. Others will be here within the half hour. We have to get our things together and go. We need to make it to headquarters, not just for ourselves, but for the couple who owns this house. They can’t come back now. The Government will punish first and ask questions later.”
Alessa’s head swam. They had gotten, maybe, three hours of sleep. Now that her adrenaline had subsided, her entire body ached from the exertion of the previous day. They were to begin a three day hike in the middle of the night. Alessa decided to ignore her overwhelmed feelings. What needed to be done set before her, whether she liked it or not. It would do her no good to ruminate on the unpleasantness of it all.
They set out on their journey. Alessa carried a small bag on her back with minimal supplies and Camden carried the backpack he had at the pier. Alessa wasn’t sure how they were going to survive on the items in the two small bags. She didn’t know what Camden’s bag held, but knew that hers had little more than some water, a change of clothes, and the cold gun she had used to shoot the scout. Camden had insisted that she carry it in case they were separated.
They walked for a long time in companionable silence. Alessa knew that Camden needed to find the way in the dark and was sure that it wouldn’t be particularly easy. She was also determined not to complain about her aching muscles and fatigued mind. Alessa watched the woods go by. To her, everything looked the same. She wondered how much training and practice Camden had to have had in order to be able to know where they were going, particularly in the dark. She continuously looked behind them to see if she could discern anyone following them. The air was cool and still, she was sure that she could hear anyone that tried to come up behind them. She stayed close to Camden, but they did not touch. Things were serious now, he needed to focus and she needed to be as little trouble as possible if they were to get out of these woods alive.
After what seemed like an eternity, the sun began to rise over the horizon. Their path remained dim and cool due to the trees, but Alessa was relieved to see some light. Camden turned back to her as the light grew brighter.
“How are you doing?”He asked, his voice quiet and husky.
“I’m just fine,”Alessa answered, and she realized that she was not as bad off as she thought she might have been.
“It doesn’t seem that anyone has been following us, do you want to sit and rest for a while or keep going?”
“Actually, I really am okay right now, we could keep going for a while.”Alessa was surprised at her stamina. She must have reached her renewal point.
“Alright, we can at least take it a little easier for a bit,”Camden slowed to walk beside her and took her hand in his.
They walked together like that, hand in hand, like a young couple on a hike. Alessa thought of the irony and stifled a laugh.
“What’s so funny?”Camden shot her a look.
“I was just thinking that this is what we were supposed to have been doing when you took me to the Carnival. It seems like so long ago, almost a lifetime.”
“You’ve been through a lot since then. Time has a way of warping when our beliefs and habits are challenged. Sometimes it speeds by, other times it slows unconscionably.”Camden was looking off into the trees as if in another world.
“Cam, how did you get here?”Alessa asked softly.
“What do you mean?”His eyes flew back to hers.
“I mean, you know almost everything there is to know about me, not that there’s much, and I know next to nothing about you. Where you come from, how you grew up, and how you came into my life. I don’t know any of it.”
“First of all, there is plenty to know about you. Just because you’ve been manipulated and controlled by the Government doesn’t mean you aren’t your own person with your own dreams and values. You proved that by getting out of the Box.”Camden replied, squeezing her hand,“as for me, I guess it’s a sort of sad and long story.”
“It seems to me that we have a lot of time on our hands,”Alessa stated plainly.
“Yes, I guess you’re right,”Camden answered.“Well, to start with, I’ve always lived in the SDL. My parents were members and, as far as I know, they grew up in it as well. I was trained from a young age in combat, survival, history, and politics. We learned all of the important things to overthrow a government. You see, that was the plan all along, to stop the Sacrifices and overthrow the Government.
“You have to understand, Alessa, the corruption of the Government runs much deeper than just the Sacrifice. They have done many horrible things since the inception of the Empire somewhere around 500 years ago. The true age of the Empire is hard to nail down because the Government wants us to believe that it always has been, but we are actually a fairly young civilization here. The Government doesn’t allow children to learn about other ways because they don’t want them thinking that there’s another option, that things could be different.
“So I grew up with my training, close with my parents, and surrounded by hatred of the Government and love for each other. I grew up very different than you. You will soon find out that, outside of the Capitol, people don’t have many extravagancies. There are televisions that only turn on when the Government makes an announcement or airs a death, like the Sacrifice. There are telephones that only ring when the Government is looking for someone. In the SDL headquarters, we have managed to get running water and electricity, but we are one of the few places that have it. It’s all solar powered so that the Government cannot take it away. We are completely self-sufficient, we could not open our gates ever again and everyone inside would be fine. It took the SDL a very long time and a lot of hardship to get to that point.
“That was my life as a child. I trained, grew food, studied, and learned. I’m not special in the SDL. I know you think I have all of these skills, but back at the SDL Headquarters I’m just an average guy. I was picked for this mission because of my family and my charisma, not my skill.
“My parents and my father’s brother were leaders in the SDL. Not the public figures, but the real leaders, the ones that made decisions and stayed behind the scenes. When I was very young, younger than I can remember, the plan to save you was devised. They needed to get someone in and close to the Sacrifice and they needed to do it fast. Someone who could help to raise the Sacrifice and who could tell if the Sacrifice was going to have the character we needed for the rescue. You’ll remember that the last rescue mission was more than unsuccessful. We didn’t check out the Sacrifice first, we just assumed she wouldn’t want to be killed. We were terribly wrong.
“Well, there’s only one way to get on the Government’s good side. You have to give them someone to kill. From what I’ve been told, my father wouldn’t take‘no’for an answer. He basically walked my uncle straight into a plan that made it look like my uncle was turning him over to the government. My father was publically hanged and my uncle, after being vetted for a couple of years, was promoted to your lead guard.”
“Your uncle is Marston?”Alessa interrupted, shocked.
“Yes,”Camden answered with a laugh,“they all thought he would be the best man for the job. Plus, he earned the honor for losing his brother. That’s how the SDL does things. Every loss and sacrifice has a value. The community pays the price for everyone’s sorrow. It’s very interconnected. There is little sympathy, but there is a lot of acknowledgement. Nothing is ignored or swept under the rug, it’s all out in the open. I’ve missed that.”
He trailed off. Alessa let the silence stretch over them, allowing him to live in whatever moment his memory had transported him back to.
“Why don’t we stop for a while? We can catch some sleep and eat something,”Camden said.
“Alright, that would be nice,”Alessa replied, wanting for him to continue his story. Once they arranged themselves under a tree and shared some water, she was rewarded.
“So, my mother raised me, right up until she died. The SDL had an outbreak of something, I’m not sure what. That’s one disadvantage that we have, no medicine. My mother always believed in healing teas. I remember as a kid she would brew me a mug of tea for everything from cuts and scrapes to colds and fevers. I guess I sort of continued in that.”Alessa remembered his stash of teas back at his apartment. He certainly knew a use for every one of them.
“I was seven when she died. The sickness took out about twenty people. Most of them lived close together, I was one of the few quarantined who didn’t die, the only one who didn’t get sick. Then, I went to live with Mars and Sable, his wife.”
“Marston is married?”Alessa interrupted again.
“Yes, he is,”Camden answered with a bitter laugh,“the Government strips away family, Aunt Sab could have lived in the Capitol, but he still would have lived away from her at the Manor. She preferred to stay outside of the sector line. That cottage we visited, it was hers. She lived there up until I came to be on your guard detail. Then, Mars made her go back to the SDL headquarters in case anything went wrong. Another young couple from the SDL took over the safe house after that.”
“So Marston is your uncle, but he wasn’t around much because he was with me. How did you wind up in the Manor?”Alessa was getting bogged down in the webbed story.
“That’s where you’re going to get some clarification of your last few weeks in the Manor. You see, Evan was supposed to be the one to get you on board with the plan. Evan was planted a very long time ago by Mars and he was supposed to befriend you and introduce you to the plan slowly. However, Mars noticed that you and he never quite connected. You were never closer that trainer and trainee. Evan says he tried like crazy, but Evan has never been quite the people person.”
“Evan was supposed to persuade me? You were never supposed to be there? But that must mean you have known Evan for a long time,”Alessa observed.
“Yes, I’ve known Evan my whole life. He’s a little older than me, but we trained together. Evan has always been the jealous type, but what he lacks in people skills he makes up for in discipline. I suppose we are opposites in that. The SDL knew that whoever had this job would have to b
e on the inside for a very long time all alone, except for Mars. They thought Evan could handle it.
“But then, Mars called Evan off. It was probably about two or two and a half years ago. Mars thought that if Evan continued, he would blow it. I was always favored by the leaders of the SDL, but they never did trust me much. Mars insisted that this mission was right up my alley, and they began putting things into place for me to infiltrate.”
“So Evan told on us because he was jealous that he got pulled off the mission?”Alessa asked incredulously. She couldn’t believe how low he could sink.
“I think Evan saw that I was going to be successful where he had failed. Yes, that made him exceedingly jealous. I also think his discipline failed him. This might be my fault. You have to understand, Evan has been inside for years with no one to talk to. He had to pretend that he didn’t know Mars, he had no real connections. When I came in, he tried to talk to me a few times, but I was focused and worried he would blow it so I refused to acknowledge him. I think he was lonely and tired.”
“I don’t have much sympathy for him, he almost got you killed,”Alessa stated plainly.
“Oh, I don’t either. We are trained to deal with mental strain as well as physical. It was almost over, he just had to hold out for a few more weeks and he would have been removed. It was completely selfish and utterly unforgivable. The SDL won’t be happy, he better hope the Government either protects him or kills him.”Alessa was somewhat surprised by the hardness of his voice.
“Why don’t I go try to find us something to eat?”Camden asked, suddenly brightening.
“Oh, yeah I guess we do have to find food,”Alessa said.
“Okay, you stay here, don’t move. I’ll go hunt and be right back.”
“Hunt?”Alessa asked, confused.
“Yes hunt, for food. What else are we going to eat?”Camden said, clearly amused.
“I don’t know, nuts and berries?”Alessa answered.
“Alessa, we aren’t going to survive three days of hard hiking on nuts and berries. I mean, we may can if you want to try, but we’d be much better off with some meat.”The thought of killing and cooking an animal turned Alessa’s stomach, but she supposed he was right.
The Fourth Ceremony: The Sacrifice Trilogy Page 20
