Born to Fight

by Brown, Tara

  He steels his eyes, "No. We'll wait, they'll be gone soon enough."

  I look around, "Do you think there are cameras that record, like in the old days?"

  He smirks, "No. Too much power usage." He kisses my cheek, "You're cute."

  I scowl. I don’t know why he says that, but the way he does bugs me.

  The man leaves and Will stands, but I grab his hand, "Wait."

  He scowls, "Stop being so paranoid."

  I shake my head, "I always wait. One more minute."

  He crouches down again as a truck comes up the ramp and drives past us with a flashlight shining all about. We are standing at the front of the parked truck, hidden well. He looks at me, "Does that always happen?"

  I shake my head, "No, but I learned that whenever you feel like it's safe, it's not."

  We wait and leave after a few minutes. We run as quietly as we can to the street. It's dark so we creep through the alleys and hope no one sees his shotgun.

  "Can you find the building?" I ask.

  He nods, surveying the area, "Yeah."

  He doesn’t sound certain, but he ditches the shotgun behind one of the many gardens we see in the alleys. He grabs my hand and pulls me through to the road. We walk casually, wooden. My shirt is baggy enough to hide one gun but I give him the other. He tucks it the way mine is.

  My skin is damp from nerves and fear.

  "I hate it here," I whisper.

  He smiles, "Me too."

  Our hands brush against each other and words shoot from my mouth, "Why haven't you touched me all week while we've been hiding here?"

  He looks down on me, "I felt gross. I didn’t want to gross you out too."

  I grin.

  He looks confused but I smile. He was being considerate.

  "You thought that I got what I wanted, so I didn’t want it anymore?" he asks.

  My smile fades and I feel like the horrid feeling in my stomach makes sense. I stop walking and look at him, suddenly I'm angry. I did think that. I was so worried, I never noticed what it was. I look at him, "Yeah."

  He shakes his head, "Emma, I am never going to get tired of you. No amount of time spent or love given, will be enough. I feel like a bottomless pit when I'm with you. I just want more and more."

  I frown, "What if it's cause I'm not enough?"

  He laughs, "No, it's because you're addicting, and weird, and I can't put my finger on anything you think or feel or do. I want to solve you and have you figured out, and I don’t think one life time will ever be enough."

  I nod, "okay." I start walking again.

  "You have to tell me what that look is," he sighs.

  I glance at him and shake my head, "I don’t know. I just can't help but wonder if normal girls are easy to figure out, and fun to be with, and the reason I'm so confusing is ‘cause I'm a mutant."

  He stifles a laugh, "Mutant?"

  I nod, "The doctor said I have mutant blood."

  He laughs again, "Oh my God." He grabs my hand and kisses it, "You're going to get us killed. Mellow out. He probably said mutated."

  I roll my eyes and jerk my hand free, "I don’t mellow."

  He nudges me, "I like that about you."

  "You do?"

  He smiles, "Of course I do. I never want you to change. I like the feisty, crazy girl you are. I don’t like it when you savagely attack people, or make bad choices and put your life in danger, and scare the shit out of me. But I like that it's never dull and I never know what's going on in that brain of yours."

  I shrug, "Probably a lot less than you think."

  We round a corner and he points, "That’s it."

  I feel sick again. People are few and far between.

  I pull out the card Bernie made from the one I had stolen and swipe it. It works. I glance up at Will. He shakes his head, "Feels like a trap."

  "That, or we are just the most jaded people on earth."

  He chuckles and holds the door. We walk inside and instantly the lights do the thing they were doing in the other building. I groan, "I hate these lights."

  "Me too. Makes it hard to focus."

  I look back at him, "Maybe that’s the plan."

  We walk into a reception area. A man walks out of a door and smiles at us, "Can I help you?"

  I hold up my ID badge, "We are looking for a friend of ours, Bernard."

  He nods and looks around, "Bernie. Of course."

  I see a look in his eyes and punch hard. His head snaps back. Will grabs him and puts the chokehold on him. He passes out. Will carries him to a room and opens the door, placing him inside of it.

  "Shit," I mutter.

  "Yup.

  We enter the door, peeking our heads in. It's a lab but none of the lights are on. No one is in there…if they are, they're not moving around. Will opens another door, "Stairs."

  We climb them to the next floor, checking for lights until we reach the fifth floor. Lights in the far back corner of the huge, open floor, stop us both in our tracks.

  "Can I help you?" a man asks.

  I turn, swinging my gun hard and backhand him. Will grabs him, snapping his neck. He winces.

  I shrug, "Wrong side."

  His eyes flare, but he drags the body inside and hides it under a desk. We duck and creep through the desks and shelves, not that it matters. The lights come on over us as we walk. The closer we get the less we see over top of the furniture. I sneak to a corner and peek. A man is reading and doing work at a desk. He's typing something but we can't see his face. He doesn't look up at the lights moving in the ceiling.

  I frown, "Is that a computer?"

  Will nods, Looks like one."

  I stand up and tuck my gun again. Will undoes a button on my shirt. I swat at him but he puts a finger to his lips, "Trust me. Act dumb and tired from working all day. They are not expecting us. He didn’t even bat at eyelash at us walking and making the lights come on."

  I swallow and shake my head. He grabs my face, kissing me hard. When he let's go I stumble back and out of the hiding spot. I smile at the man who glances up at me.

  "Hi," I say. My lips are still shiny from the kiss.

  He grins, "You all done for the night?"

  I nod, "I am. I'm beat."

  He sits back, folding his arms and grinning. "What section do you work in?"

  I point back at the other desks, "I work up a floor. I was coming down and saw the lights. I didn’t want to walk home alone. Thought I would see… if you were leaving soon?"

  He stands up from the chair and closes the computer. It's a folding one like Granny had.

  "I was about to leave," his eyes settle on my chest. I feel bile rising. I can't do it. I can't let him ogle me. I feel the panic and hear the tearing. I tell myself it's only one man. I wipe my hands on my pants and smile.

  He steps away from the desk, "I'm getting tired anyway. What's your name?."

  I nod, "Lainy."

  He grins, "What do you do?"

  "Nurse."

  He frowns, "In this building?"

  I nod, "I'm here to deliver things to the farms." I have no idea what I'm saying.

  He sighs, "I see." His face looks funny when I say the word farms.

  "How are things there?" His eyes search mine.

  I shake my head, "The vigilante killed a lot of people."

  A smile plays on the man's lips. Will sneaks up behind him and grabs him by the throat, but I put my hands out, "Stop!"

  Will holds him tight as he struggles. He is nothing compared to Will.

  I have a feeling about him and ask, "Are you a rebel?"

  His eyes flash.

  I decide to just go with it. We can kill him if we have to. I sigh and say, "I'm the vigilante."

  He claws at Will's arm. Will releases him and gives me a look.

  He looks at me intently, "I'm friends with Marshall."

  I roll my eyes, "Well, he's a bastard, so that’s not a good thing."

  The man puts a hand up, "I haven’t spok
en to him in months. Last I heard, a vigilante from his camps was taking down those disgusting farms."

  He turns and faces Will and they both laugh and hug. I don’t understand.

  "Al, what the hell? How did you end up here?"

  The man shakes his head, "It's the best way to sabotage, from inside."

  "You two know each other?" I ask.

  They nod together, "Allan here used to work the farm I was at."

  Al patted him on his back, "He was, by far, the worst inmate, ever."

  Will's face grows serious, "My sister is here somewhere with Bernie."

  Allan grimaces, "Bernie, that little shit? Oh God."

  My stomach sinks.

  Al walks away from us to the door, "Up two floors. You'll need weapons."

  I pull my gun. He looks at me, "You really are the vigilante?"

  I nod, "I guess. They call me that."

  "The Phoenix girl?"

  I scowl, "No. That flashy crow thing is not for me. I just want to stop them." I don’t say my dad but Will does.

  "Michael is her father."

  Al winces, "Oh. I'm sorry."

  I frown, "For what?"

  He shakes his head, "Your father is a very bad man. Was he always evil?"

  I shrug, "I think so. My mom ran with me when I was little." I lie and flash Will a look. I don’t know this man. I don’t want him to know I'm a Gen baby.

  Will shakes his head. We enter the stairwell again. The dim lights are a welcome sight, compared to the constantly changing ones in the labs.

  We climb the stairs as Al whispers, "Bernie has been allowed to come and go. We all figure he has something Michael wants. He is allowed a truck and a house on the outside. No one is allowed that. He's up Michael's ass all the time. If he has your sister, she might be…gone."

  I shudder and push harder up the stairs. "This level is guarded. It’s Michael's personal lab."

  I crack the door and peek. There are lights on in several areas. "At least four of them moving in there," I whisper.

  "Go to the right…me and Al will go left," Will whispers.

  I look back at him. His eyes tell me what I want to see; he's watching Allan just in case.

  I sneak into the lab, hating the stupid flashing lights above me. Whoever thought of it, was an idiot.

  I swerve to the right and watch. No one notices the lights coming on. I've noticed this about them all. They’ve gotten so accustomed to the lights that they don’t pay attention to them. They move around, making the lights move with them, like spotlights.

  I see the ceiling lighting up to the left where Al and Will are walking. I peek around a desk to see Bernie. He's bent over a book. I stand up and tuck the gun in my back pocket. I walk to him like I'm supposed to be here.

  He looks up; his face loses all its color.

  I know the look on my face is scary. I can feel the rage simmering under my skin. I have an urge to pull the gun and fire, but I don’t. I watch his face.

  He looks around, putting a hand up. I stop. He gets up, bringing the book with him. I stand next to a large shelf of books.

  He whispers when he gets close, "What are you doing?"

  I growl, "We want her now."

  I see something on his face that I want to smash off of it. He swallows, "She is in the back lab, with your dad."

  I grab his shirt, pulling his face down closer to mine, "I will kill you, without making a fucking sound. Do you understand me?"

  He winces, "She was really sick. He saved her but it took a lot. She isn’t ready to be moved."

  My fingers slide up to his throat. I grip tightly, "I am stronger than I look."

  He swallows, I feel the lump of fear in his throat, "I swear she is okay. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt her."

  My lip twitches, "We met Allan. He doesn't seem to think you're what you say you are."

  He shakes his sweaty face, "I swear, Em. I won't let them hurt her." I hear men talking. I step back into the shadows of the bookshelf. Bernie stands there shaking. The fear on his face worsens.

  A voice from my past fills the air around us, "Bern, what's the solution? None of us can get her to tell us anything."

  Fear fills his voice, "Not sure. I still think the fever cooked her brain; she has damage we can't see."

  The man I can't see makes a humming noise, "I guess. There is that possibility. Well, she's your friend. What's the decision?" he sounds exactly like my father did. I should jump out, I should attack, but I'm scared. I don’t move. I freeze like I used to before. I want to sneak away like a coward.

  Bernie winks at me with the eye the man can't see, "I think I'll end her. She's a veg."

  "Do it fast. I have someone bringing up a guy who is infected and hasn’t had a fever yet, at all. No fever and no sickness. He's been incubated for seven days and nothing. They found him on the road in, bite marks and all. You want in on this one?"

  Bernie twitches his head, "No. I'm going to take her and bury her. I know where her family was buried."

  "Okay. Goodnight."

  Bernie nods, "Night, Michael."

  My heartbeat picks up. His voice and way of speaking, is exactly the same as my dad's was. I'm frozen. I turn and watch the lights flash as the person walks to the door. Another set of lights do the same. They meet in the middle and leave together.

  Bernie sighs, "We have to be fast. I've drugged the shit out of her. She can't talk anyway, but this is stopping her from using any of her muscles." He grins and wipes his face, "It's an old-fashioned date-rape drug."

  I scowl.

  He shrugs, "I never made it for that purpose. People took it to get high. I sold it in high school. It's how the CIA found me. I was in ninth grade, doing twelfth-grade courses and building a science lab in my basement."

  He walks and I follow him. We meet up with Will and Al. Al gives Bernie a nod. They seem to dislike each other.

  Will looks savage, "Where is she?"

  Bernie shakes his head, "Calm down. You can spazz when we're out of the city." He scans a door and opens it. Anna is lying on the table in a white gown. Her legs and arms are tied to the table. She doesn’t move at all.

  I claw at the restraints. Will scoops her up, hugging her tightly to his body.

  We turn and run from the room. I take his gun and move slightly, except of course for the lights. I look back at Bernie, "Stupid lights!"

  He shakes his head and sighs. We get to the stairwell but Al points, "Let's take the ones on the other side. No one uses them."

  We run after him and start down the stairs.

  "I can't believe you've had her for a week. What the fuck, Bern?"

  His voice is high pitch, "I had no choice." I think he's lying. I'm going to gut him when we are out of the city.

  We enter a hall I never saw before. Al leads us. The lights flash above, making me agro. The warm summer air hits us like a wall, as we leave the building through a side door. Will breaks into a run through the alley. When he gets to a dark corner he stops. I'm surveying constantly.

  "Al, go with Bernie and get the truck. We'll wait here," Will growls. He bends and looks at his sister, "What's wrong with her?"

  Bernie shakes his head, "She's drugged. I secretly was drugging her. It comes across as brain damage but it’s the drugs."

  Will scowls, "They don’t check for drugs in her blood."

  He shakes his head, "Only the first day they have her. They ran it but her fever was still really high. I started drugging her as the fever broke."

  Will nods, "Hurry up."

  I brush her hair out of her face, "He said she can't talk at all."

  Will frowns, "At all?"

  I shake my head, "It probably destroyed her voice box, like it does to the infected."

  He kisses her forehead, "I hope that’s all that’s wrong with her."

  I look around, "Security is loose here."

  He nods, "I know. They're cocky and relaxed. They think the walls and the guards keep them safe."


  I tap my foot, "It would be easy to destroy it."

  "Yup."

  I squat next to him in the dark and wait.

  When I hear a truck, I go look. Bernie grins at me from the driver's seat. Al hops out and opens the door. We climb in fast and head for the guards with Anna on the floor of the truck, under mine and Will's feet.

  Chapter Fifteen

  On the tenth whistle, he comes running out of the woods. I put my hands on my hips and he drops the rabbit in his lips.

  He jumps into the back of the truck. I climb back there and sit with my back against the back window. The wind in my hair and his fur in my fingers makes me feel like things might be all right again.

  I'm scared that we'll get to Bernie's and Jake and Star will be dead or gone, taken. I'm scared a lot now. My ‘us’ is too big and I can't keep them all safe. I lean on Leo and remember how easy it was when he was my ‘us’.

  When we get there, my worst fears come true—Bernie's house is ransacked.

  He drops to his knees when he sees it. Anna is still sleeping in the backseat of the truck. I run throughout the house. Every drawer is pulled, every bit of furniture is sliced and pulled apart. It looks like the raids that used to happen in the beginning, when people's houses still had things. It happens less now; everything has either been blown up or picked apart.

  Bernie rocks back and forth. I see the millions of things floating by in his eyes. He looks at me and I see it. The blame.

  "Where is the shelter?" I ask.

  He wants to tell me to go screw myself—I see it in his eyes. Instead he points at the kitchen, "The cupboard beside the fridge has a latch inside of it. it opens a door."

  I run there. I open the cupboard and feel around. The latch is well hidden. I press it and release the cupboard. I run down the stairs. My throat pulsates like my heart is beating in there.

  I bang on the steel door at the bottom, "Jake! Star!"

  I bang and cry out again, "Guys! It's Emma!" Leo is next to me clawing at the door.

  It opens with a hard bang and a loud creak. Jake looks confused, "Are they gone?"

  I nod, "I guess. Who was it?"

  He swallows, "Marshall." He hands me my bow.

  "He's awake?"

  Jake nods, "Yeah. And apparently he followed Star here once or twice. He knew exactly how to get here. He called for us all. He had military men with him."