The Outerlands - Sedition

by Aleigh Schuster

  All was silent for a full minute, letting my theory sink in, then, “What the… She’s right… I wouldn’t have gotten that,” I heard from different voices over the com-link.

  With a quick glance at Graff, I found him looking at me with such pride, I blushed. He kissed the back of my hand before taking the com-link.

  “Rafe, what’s your take on the situation?” Graff asked.

  “If Henley is right—and I believe she is—we need to simultaneously take out the arms with the M50s while putting the petal to the metal. Hightail it out of this hell hole.”

  “Agreed,” Graff replied.

  Graff relayed his orders to the others through the com-link and we put the plan in motion.

  “On my mark,” Graff ordered.

  “Three.” Window shields dropped.

  “Two.” Two sets of M50 rifles emerged from both sides of every van.

  “One.” Jarvis’ van emptied their rifles as the van shot forward.

  We were right behind them. Jarvis’ team had managed to destroy the tips of the arms before taking off at maximum speed, leaving us in the dust.

  The ground started to vibrate, causing the van to shake and making it hard to take aim. We managed to blow off more than half of each arm, but they had begun extending at an accelerated rate. We kept shooting after we passed the mark, adding more firepower to the van behind us.

  “Hang on,” Graff yelled.

  Too late. We were air born as the van catapulted off a rocky ravine. We landed with a thud as Graff’s arm reached over to hold me in my seat.

  After we made sure no one was injured, we exited the van in time to see John’s team and the last van come flying over the ravine.

  They practically fell out of their vehicle screaming, “Yawp, Yawp, Yawp!” The rest of us joined in, creating a cacophony of hoots, whistles, and wails.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  A chill ran down my spine as we crossed over the border of the Flux into enemy territory. The land before us was different than any I’d ever seen. Violet broad-leafed trees, indigenous to the north, flourished on the banks of either side of a wide river that ran between the Flux and a modern-looking city in the distance. From the cluster of buildings situated behind a mile high electric fence, bright lights pierced through the otherwise dark skies. Cargo trains ran back and forth between what looked to be four sectioned off parts of a power plant along the perimeter of the fence, briefly stopping to load or unload whatever they were transporting, and I made note of how efficient the system seemed. I’d never been to or even seen pictures of the modern part of Drytanus, and considering we’d ditched our mangled vehicles back in the Flux to continue on foot, it was more than a little overwhelming.

  “Keep moving,” Graff whispered, circling back to me. “Our ride should be waiting about a hundred yards down. We can rest once we’re inside the transport.” I acknowledged his words with a nod and fell back into step behind Rafe.

  Once at the rendezvous point, we huddled together in an attempt to form some kind of barrier against the strong winds. I glanced around and noticed John’s team already loaded into a newer government transport vehicle, its partially camouflaged body fading in and out with the top-secret chameleon metal.

  “How did the last team in end up catching the first ride?” I asked Graff, jutting my chin toward the quickly disappearing transport. I was anxious to get to my brother.

  “We changed how we’re going in based on some new intel that just got passed along. John’s going to set up his team sporadically around the edge of the research facility while Marcus and his team scout out the place. It’s better if they find out any unknown issues before our extraction team ever sets foot near the site.” Graff leaned in until his lips were mere inches from my ear, his warm breath creating goose bumps along my neck. “Don’t start doubting me now, sweetheart. We’re almost to the finish line.”

  I raised an eyebrow, and he chuckled before walking off toward a second transport that had just pulled up. I followed him and loaded on with the rest of our unit, finding an empty seat near the back. Both exhausted from our time in the Flux and uncertain of what was to come, I propped myself against the armrest and closed my eyes. I let the steady sound of Graff’s voice as he gave detailed instructions to the driver slowly lull me to sleep.

  Sometime later, I woke to Graff’s arm around my waist and my head leaning heavily on his chest. Glancing up to find a tense expression on his face, I followed his line of sight to the window on the opposite side of the van.

  I spotted smoke and scattered debris in the near distance. “What happened over there?”

  Graff squeezed my side, not taking his eyes off the wreckage. “Most of the air support we were counting on to take control of the city has been taken down.” He sighed, hesitating before continuing in a whisper. “And our front line’s been all but decimated by the sheer number of government troops Devlyn sent to guard its borders.”

  “What?” I tried to stand in the small space between the seats but failed, falling unceremoniously back into Graff. “Exactly how long have I been asleep?”

  He pulled me closer until his nose brushed against my ear. “Keep it down, Brooks. There’s no need to alert the enemy of our presence.” He kept his words light but I could hear the stress in his voice. “And to answer your question, you’ve been out almost five hours.”

  I stood there, openmouthed. Five hours. I’d been so exhausted I not only slept through most of the trip, but through battles, bombings, and obviously the destruction of our front line.

  It took me a moment to find my voice. “So what are we going to do now? I mean, how can we even think of going into that facility without any air coverage? If they spotted us they’d pick us off one by one and there’d be nothing we could do about it! I won’t take Keegan out of one bad situation just to put him right in the middle of something worse—” I was cut off from my hysterics when a finger pressed firmly against my lips.

  “Henley,” Graff whispered, “I need you to calm down. Our mission hasn’t changed. We’re still going in to get Keegan and any other Gunari they’ve got imprisoned in that hellhole.” He paused, pulling me back down to the seat. “If anything,” he said slowly, rubbing his thumb gently over my cheek, “all this happening out here on the perimeter will only serve as more of a distraction from what we’re really here to do. Just remember, stick to the plan. Once we find them, you draw all the energy you can from me and light up any government soldiers you see between us and our exit.”

  Needing to get my emotions under control, I took a moment to compose myself. It was then I remembered we weren’t alone and looked up to find more than a few heads turning away. Great, the team had heard my little freak out. They didn’t need anything or anyone taking their focus away from our upcoming mission. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to focus on cutting off all the potentially bad scenarios running around in my head. My logical side knew that trusting Graff was the right thing to do. He was the best chance I had at getting Keegan out alive. It was my stubborn side that was having so much trouble giving up control of the situation when any little thing could throw a wrench in my brother’s rescue and get us all killed.

  The rest of the ride to the research facility was uneventful, as in I kept my head down, opinions to myself, and formulated a one-off plan that would get me away from the unit if things didn’t go as we hoped they would.

  * * *

  Graff led Cali, Rafe, me, and four others away from the rest of our unit, who were following Quinn to the back of the compound to check out the smaller modular buildings.

  After verifying current guard positions with the scout team already in place, we entered the main building through a corner window on the second floor. Quinn’s inside man who’d supplied us the intel for this rescue mission had left it cracked open for us, and tied off two black static ropes which enabled us to scale the outside wall and pop ourselves into an empty stock room.

  Once we were all in, Graff
stopped us with a finger while he scanned the hallway. He pulled out his gun, clicked off the safety, and signaled that we follow his lead. Then he motioned to the open stairwell a few feet away, where a small red beam blinked from the previously disabled video camera near the ceiling.

  One after another, we sprinted up the stairs, briefly stopping on the landing where Graff swiped an access card and placed the stolen electro-id card of some high level personnel’s fingerprint against the EIC scanner. A second passed before the lock disengaged and we slipped through the door labeled ‘fifth floor – verified access only’. The same floor where it was believed Keegan and the rest of the government’s lab rats were being held in individual cells. The lights were completely off on this level but there was a constant humming—an annoying vibration that rattled our eardrums—coming from the overhead speakers. I vaguely wondered if the speakers needed replacing or if the people in charge kept it this way for more nefarious reasons, like making their poor victims uncomfortable while they slept at night.

  “Rafe,” Graff whispered, “take Parker, Billy, and Cali. Check all the rooms in this hallway and the one it connects to. Uplink to Quinn when you reach the other stairwell and signal if you find anything. The rest of you, follow me.”

  Holstering my gun, I quietly made my way over to Graff. “What do you think? Is he here?” I asked, looking back to Cali and Rafe as they searched the nearby rooms.

  He waited until my eyes came back to him to shake his head. “Something doesn’t feel right about this place, but I don’t think it’s where they’re holding any Gunari. It’s too quiet for a floor full of prisoners, and where are all the guards?”

  Graff was right. We’d also gotten up here way too easily. “A setup, maybe?”

  “Possibly…but I’m more inclined to think that our new intel was bad. There wasn’t time to verify it.”

  “So what now?” I asked, taking position behind Graff as we silently made our way over to a set of steel double doors.

  “There are three more halls for us to check on this level. Maybe something will turn up.”

  I didn’t think so. My brother wasn’t on this floor. So when Graff pushed through the double doors, motioning us to follow, I held back. As the last of our group went through and the door swung shut behind him, I ran the other way.

  * * *

  Level six looked identical to level five except for all the guards stationed at the main exits and two doctors running about. They were in a frenzy, having recently spotted the government’s battle with the GW almost on their doorstep, and were trying to destroy various computers, documents, and research material. That was how I managed to enter a secured side door without a keycard on the heels of a flustered doctor who hadn’t bothered to re-engage the lock.

  In a moment of guilt, I’d tried to contact Graff on my com-link to let him know my location, but when only static came through, I figured it was just my luck to have been issued a damaged one, and turned the entire thing off.

  I found myself squished inside a utility closet close to where I’d first come in. Several guards had already left to join their comrades in the fight outside, however there were still three guards and the two doctors who just would not go away.

  Finally, after what seemed like forever, I caught a break. A doctor came out of the single room at the end of the hall and called the remaining guards. When they didn’t move fast enough for his liking, he rushed over to them, dropped several large stacks of papers in their outstretched hands, and ordered them to follow him somewhere around the corner.

  As soon as they did, I had my chance. The second doctor was nowhere in sight, so I ran straight across the corridor to the door of the only room I hadn’t been able to glimpse inside of: The one the first doctor had come out of.

  Turning the knob, I hesitated a split second before pushing the door open wide.

  What I found inside splintered my heart into a thousand pieces.

  “Keegan?” I gasped.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  The broken body of a man lay strapped to a vertical exam table in the back of the narrow rectangular room. Although his arms and legs were completely immobilized, his hands had further been secured with jagged wire to a hook above his unmoving head. Only his grossly swollen feet dangled freely toward the floor. From the looks of it, both ankles had recently been crushed inward. His bloodied chest, slowly rising and falling, leaned heavily to one side of his restraints. He was unconscious, but each shallow breath proved he was still alive.

  “Keegan?” I repeated, slowly edging myself inside the room before shutting the door behind me. With still no response, I took hesitant steps to the table, afraid of what I would find.

  I placed a hand on each cheek and gently raised his head from the awkward resting position of his shoulder and flinched. It was the first time I could clearly see his face; his bruising, his shattered eye socket.

  “Oh Keegan,” I cried, momentarily forgetting the enemy lurking just outside. “What have those monsters done to you?”

  At the sound of my voice, Keegan’s eyelids twitched, slowly opening to small slits. “Hen…?”

  “It’s me…I’m here,” I tried to console him, my arms automatically moving to unfasten his restraints. When the metal straps across his body didn’t budge, I stepped back to examine the device. That was when I heard a loud commotion in the hallway followed by heavy footsteps rushing toward the door.

  “Keegan, stay sti—” I stopped when I turned to find my brother unconscious again. Maybe it was for the best.

  At the sound of the doorknob turning, I dove behind the only other furniture in the room: a stainless steel instrument caddy. The door creaked opened just as I tucked my exposed feet underneath me.

  Through a long moment of pained silence, I willed my heart to leave my throat and my erratic breathing to not give away my location. A few more torturous moments and then…

  “Henley, where are you?” a deep voice whispered.

  “Ford?” I raised my head, slow and cautious. Spotting him near the far wall, I stood and hissed, “Ahhh…you scared the crap out of me.”

  Ford’s head whipped in my direction, lips turned up in a sheepish grin. “Sorry,” he said, before walking over to take in my brother’s still form. “That him?” he asked in a low voice after scanning him head to toe.

  “Yeah,” I sighed. “But he’s in pretty bad shape. He definitely won’t be walking out of here on his own.” I glanced at the restraints and mumbled, “I’m also having a little trouble with those metal straps.”

  “Here. Let me.” He moved around to my side of the table then he raised his hand to a flat silver panel behind the hook on the ceiling. “When I push this in, be ready to catch him.”

  “Okay.”

  Ford wrapped his free arm around Keegan’s chest while the other moved to put pressure on the panel above. “One,” he readjusted his grip, “two,” I tightened my hold, “three,” he ground out, simultaneously pushing the panel and moving over to help me catch Keegan when the straps released and his dead weight fell forward.

  We lowered him gently to the floor, and while Ford went to check on things back in the hall, I focused my attention on my brother’s injuries, trying desperately to pull from whatever ability I’d used before to help Gunner. Almost instantly upon calling it, I felt the familiar sensation course through me, flowing wildly from my core and up throughout my limbs. It heated to an almost unbearable temperature as the electrical current searched for some sort of connection, a link to take it to its final destination, but no matter how hard I tried, how much energy I put into it, there was never that familiar tug on the other end to latch onto. There was nothing in Keegan’s body that was even remotely trying to heal itself.

  Whether it was my power or Keegan’s healing ability malfunctioning, there was no time to contemplate. I’d have to wait to try again when we got him to safety. I found gauze in the drawer of the instrument caddy and hurriedly wrapped both of my brother’s
ankles as tightly as I could manage.

  “Hallway’s clear,” Ford said, coming back as I draped Keegan’s arm around my neck and tried to stand him up. “The doctor and few guards who survived my chem-bomb are still unconscious.” He grabbed my brother’s other side, shouldering most of his weight. “Even if they wake, they’re bound and gagged in the first room near the stairwell. They won’t be calling out for help any time soon.” A devious grin took over Ford’s face before he winked at me, obviously proud of himself for taking them on all alone.

  “All right, so what’s the plan?” I let out a laugh when his face fell from my lack of acknowledgment.

  “Tough crowd,” he muttered before becoming straight-faced again. “My com doesn’t work in this building. Yours?” he asked, looking down at me. I nodded that it didn’t, although earlier I had thought mine was just damaged. “Well, the GWs should have control of all levels of the building by now so I say we just walk on out of here. The medics will be waiting for any injured by the back perimeter where my unit came in. As long as we stay away from the main fighting along the front of the facility and keep an eye out for any surprises, I think we’ll be fine.”

  Famous last words, I thought, but agreed with his plan of going straight to the perimeter and not waiting for backup. Keegan needed to see the medics as soon as possible.

  So with my brother between us, we entered the crumbling hallway and carefully made our way to the stairwell opposite from where I’d originally come in. Most of the damage from whatever bomb Ford had used to incapacitate the guards had taken place over there and it would have been almost impossible to drag Keegan through all the chunks of plaster and drywall piled up on the floor. A few minutes later, when we took a short break on the stairs before entering level two, I turned to Ford, needing to voice my thoughts.

  “I appreciate what you did for me back there.”