Torch

by Tricia Copeland

  “What happened to three minutes ago when you were going to avenge our friends, make things right, by taking out Butler?”

  “I don’t know.” Tears filled her eyes. “I’m scared.”

  “I know.” Mace laid his hands on her shoulders. “People are dying, but there’s a cure. Butler has it, and we’re going to get it from him. Plus, he killed our friends. We trained for this. We’re ready.”

  I stepped in beside Mace. “We’re not going to let Owen get away with this. What Owen’s doing is wrong, and we’re going find people to help us make this right.”

  “If you don’t stop calling him Owen, I’m going to scream. Butler. That man is no longer related to you. But seriously, guys, training is one thing. Walking across the country is another.” Amelie jogged down the steps.

  “I guess we’re going.” Mace followed her.

  Troy, now Turner, and I brought up the rear. We were really doing it. Butler didn’t get to win. Not on my watch.

  We reviewed all that had happened over the previous five months: Turner and I drove to California to make sure my sister Nave got the bone marrow transplant she needed, I’d escaped from kidnappers who wanted to sell me on the black market, Butler used Turner as bait in his coup attempt, and we’d escaped into hiding.

  I watched as Amelie’s glare softened to a warmer gaze I remembered from childhood and then as her large, round empathetic eyes filled with tears. It brought back memories of our dance recitals, sleepovers, and cries over our latest embarrassments and crushes gone wrong. But this tale veered far from that sheltered life. We’d been thrown into an abyss of convoluted political subversion and life-endangering acts of powerful people. I shut out memories of shooting the security patrolmen, Bridge in the headlights of my truck, the kidnappers, and Dena pinned to the ground.

  Amelie and Mace caught us up on events in the UNS and at Port Orford. Turner grilled them for hours on each topic: my uncle Owen—now President Butler—Zhou, who took control of the Earth Council, distribution of the vaccine and cure, their training, and the encampments we would visit. I’d hoped to hear some news of my father or Turner’s, but they’d been trained by lower-ranking officers and only interacted with them a couple of times. Saddened by this lack of information, I realized I’d extended my family definition to include Turner and his parents. They were my people too.

  Leaving abandoned suburbia behind and entering the desert, we set a goal of fifty miles a day. With less than twelve hours of cover and time for hunting food, cooking, and eating, it made our pace a ten-minute mile. Much of the time we were silent. With the night-vision goggles, I concentrated on footing, my breath, and conserving energy. I tried not to think about Nave, Mom, or Dad. Every time images of them surfaced in my brain, my stomach turned, and I repeated what we knew in my head. There were groups near Salt Lake City and Denver. From there, we would head east to Missouri and a cave system called Mark Twain. After establishing our base, we’d head farther east to Kentucky and West Virginia. Reports from the eastern areas were less credible, but we needed every trained soldier we could find. Once we’d secured enough forces, we would take the capitol and country from Butler.

  Lucky to find adequate game animals for protein, we hit our target, arriving on the outskirts of Salt Lake City in fourteen days. That morning, we found an abandoned warehouse and rested, taking lookout shifts every two hours. With nightfall, we ate our meal and set out for the base. We walked in pairs, Amelie and Mace in front and Turner and me fifty feet back, weapons ready. Darting between buildings, we tried to stay in the shadows.

  “Hold up!” A voice sounded over a loud-speaker, and a spotlight appeared atop a building.

  Turner and I froze, and I saw Amelie and Mace crouch to the ground next to the building ahead of us. The light landed on them. Amelie turned her head to look back at me, and the spotlight followed her gaze to us. Turner cursed under his breath, and my breath caught in my lungs. She wasn’t trained well enough. She shouldn’t have glanced our way. Amelie gave us away. Had she meant to? Doubt pinged through my psyche. In the distance, engines roared to life, and my leg bounced as every cell of my body yelled at me to run.

  “Steady, we need them to trust us.” Turner clutched my arm.

  I watched as Amelie and Mace set down their packs, took out white handkerchiefs, and waved them in the air. Turner slid his bag off his back, and following suit, I lowered mine to the ground. Hands raised, we walked into the middle of the street. Another search light swerved our way, and I squinted in the bright light. My mind raced. Why had we done this? It was the stupidest thing ever. We should have stayed in the desert. They would recognize us for sure and turn us over to Butler to be tried for treason and murder.

  Two vehicles approached. One stopped beside Amelie and Mace, and the other drove past and skidded to a stop in front of us. Five people exited the truck. Not military issue, I noted. Four men and one woman held guns aimed at us. I lowered my head and trained my eyes on the ground. Cutting them to Turner, I noticed he kept his chin high. I wanted to yell at him. But with a full beard, little of his face resembled the Troy I knew. With black ink striped across my skin and cheeks caved from my drop in weight, I prayed they wouldn’t recognize me. This was the moment of truth. Would it be enough?

  Booted feet and legs with black pants appeared in my plane of view. “I’m going to search you.”

  She patted my boots, pant legs, and pocket. Then, she stripped my jacket, and a man took it from her. Two others retrieved our packs and weapons from beside the building.

  “Military-issue weapons. No ID,” one of the men called out.

  “No ID here.” The woman ran her hand up my neck, lifting my chin. “Who are you?”

  I wondered why they hadn’t asked Turner to talk. Maybe they thought I’d be scared, a weak female easy to intimidate the truth out of.

  Holding her gaze, I answered loud and clear exactly the words we’d decided on. “We’re rebels from Port Orford. We’ve come to gather forces to lead a coup.”

  A man approached, chuckling. “Lead a coup? That’s ambitious. How old are you?”

  “Old enough and well trained.”

  “By who?”

  “Port Orford.”

  “Yeah, you’ve said that. Pretty bold. What if we weren’t sympathizers? What if we turned you in? What if we’re just living off the grid, trying to keep our families safe from the virus, thinking the UNS is doing everything right?”

  I cut my eyes to him and swallowed, nervous that Amelie and Mace lied to us. Still we’d decided what to do, and I wouldn’t stray from that course. Only lie about your name. “That’s not the intelligence we have.”

  Another man approached. He ran a thermometer over my forehead and asked me to spit in a tube. We waited as they did the same to Turner and dropped a solution in with our saliva. He started a timer on his watch. After sixty seconds, it dinged. He held the vials up to the light and pronounced we were virus free.

  The guy’s eyes cut to Turner then me and back. “You guys hiked all the way here?”

  “Ran mostly.” Turner spoke for the first time.

  The four men and woman corralled us to the vehicle. Ahead, I saw Amelie and Mace being shuffled into the other truck. They must trust us, or at least decided we weren’t a threat, because they didn’t restrain us. We squished into the back seat with guards flanking us, two in the front seat and one in the truck bed behind us. The cushion felt amazing, and I extended my legs and rested my head back.

  Maybe the past two weeks of running through the dark had numbed my senses, my fight-or-flight reaction. Shouldn’t I be more nervous? Perhaps all that we had been through had numbed me to fear. Either that or I trusted Amelie and Mace. My stomach turned. Would that be our huge mistake, that we trusted our friends? No, you talked to your dad. He knew about Amelie and Mace. They were telling the truth. Right?

  Our vehicle caught up with and followed the one carrying Amelie and Mace. I wondered what Amelie was thinking. If s
he felt like I had my first mission? Adrenaline pumping, nerves twitching, excitement laced with a bit of fear. I noted the heat of Turner’s leg on mine. How I wished it could be just us on the beach, soaking up the sun, swimming in the ocean, harpooning fish and smoking them for dinner. But Butler had Nave, Mom, and the cure. That wasn’t acceptable.

  Approaching a guard tower, the truck slowed. Wood planks formed the structure, and cords for electricity ran up the side. I surmised it wasn’t part of the original facility. Men opened chain-link fence gates. We passed a small guard house, only big enough for two people to fit inside. Not military. It must have been a private facility, perhaps a lab or factory. When the trucks stopped, they directed us inside, separating us. A woman led me into a small room with a large mirror on one wall—a one-way mirror, I assumed. Perhaps we were in some sort of old government facility after all.

  They questioned me for what felt like hours. What was my name? Where did I come from? What was my goal? We had no proof, and I pictured them laughing at the four teens who believed they could build an army to take on the UNS. If they suspected who I was, it wasn’t evident. With my short hair and facial markings, I could be any Asian girl. Mace and Turner shaved their heads and grew beards inches long. The Native One and Bred One were dead. They had no reason to suspect us, right?

  I heard a knock on the door, and my interrogator, a woman I figured to be my mom’s age based on the white in her hair, exited and locked the door behind her. I stood and stretched. What did it matter what they did with us, whether they believed us or not? We’d find others. Someone would be willing to help us take on Butler and his militia.

  As I paced, the door opened, and the woman entered. “Two of your friends have chips. They’d been deactivated, but they’re Port Orford issue. They can prove where they’re from. Can you?”

  Chips? Why hadn’t they told us? Had they been instructed not to? Were Amelie and Mace really with us?

  I lifted my chin and stared into her eyes. “I don’t need you to believe me. Your group either wants to help or it doesn’t. We’re heading east to build a force to oust Commander Butler. If you’re wasting my time and yours, let us be on our way.”

  “That’s pretty bold to be talking about treason. We could turn you in.”

  Fixing my gaze on her, I planted my feet. “What are you doing out here? This doesn’t look like a peaceful hideout.”

  “So, who’s the lead? Why would people follow you? Who will be in command when you form this army?”

  “We’re a team. Everyone must be of one mind. There isn’t any room for personalities or egos. We’ll use all the skills, muscle, and tools we can find.”

  “You only have your own weapons, no vehicles, nothing to launch an attack.”

  I was done with her questions. “Like I said, you can help or let us go.”

  “Fine.” She strode to the door, exited and locked it again.

  What did she want me to say? Frustrated, I started to pace. Within a few minutes, the door opened, and she waved me out. Amelie, Mace, and Turner stood in the hall. Mad at Amelie and Mace for withholding information, I kept my eyes trained forward as we followed our captors to a large room. With high ceilings and padded walls, it looked like it could have been a gymnasium at one time. Targets lined the end wall.

  A man slid my pistol from its holster and held it out to me. I took it, and when he waved his hand at the target, I aimed the gun and shot. It hit the middle of the circle.

  He instructed me to give the gun to Turner. I shook my head. “I’m not wasting my bullets on this. Are you guys in or not?”

  “We’re just checking your skills. Making sure what you’ve said is true.”

  Mace stepped forward. “Admiral Masterson sent us here.”

  I wondered how much of a stretch of the truth the statement was. How much he and Amelie hadn’t told us. They’d had two weeks to talk, tell us about the chips. Why hadn’t they?

  Turner tapped my arm. “Give me the gun. They’ll replace the bullets.”

  I handed Turner the pistol. He fired three shots, all of them hitting dead center. Mace’s landed next to the bull’s eye and Amelie’s one ring out. Content with our skills, they showed us to their command room. They had surveillance systems and links to weather and news channels. The only thing they didn’t have was communication with other bases.

  “But we see you’ve got radios. Seems like they’ve been modified to use only one wavelength. What would happen if…” One soldier held his finger over the call button.

  Turner held out his palm. “We don’t use them. It’s too risky. If communication is intercepted, we’ll lose the element of surprise.”

  Praying they bought his reasoning, I held my breath. That radio was the last link I had to my father. If they found who he was they would discover who I was. The guy set my radio on the desk and they took seats around the table. We sat with them as they offered various scenarios for a takeover of the central UNS government facility, then reasons why each wouldn’t work.

  Turner took the lead. “It seems that some of you are military. My crew has tactical training and skills. If we pool our knowledge and resources, we’ll figure out a way. It’s either that or watch Zhou and the EC take over our country. Do you guys want that? To be just another Zhou occupied territory? He’s already got Russia. I don’t want to live in a dictatorship, do you? Butler and Zhou are looking pretty much the same to me right now. I’m guessing you think so too.”

  Our captors nodded their heads. Leading us to a table with maps, the leaders concurred our choice of staging location. They confirmed the information about the Denver group and those to the east. The barriers were how to get to them without being detected. Turner crossed to the bank of computers and asked to use one.

  Typing in some code, he programmed each one of their radar dishes, and the display lit up. Then, he punched away on the keyboard, trying to hack into the UNS tracking system as we’d done at Lovelock. Once in, he explained we’d have to monitor it for at least a week to see how often they were changing the pattern. If the Utah group had computer systems we could make mobile, we’d be able to get a caravan with people and supplies to Missouri.

  “Where did you learn this?” Their commander approached Turner. “I’ve had tech guys working on this for months.”

  “As I said, we’re very well trained at evading people.” Turner winked at me.

  I couldn’t help but smile. Yes, we were very good at hiding out thanks to one Cmdr. Butler. Thinking of him brought me back to thoughts of Nave and Mom. A week, Turner wanted to wait a week before we moved again? I’d rather walk to Denver than wait for the transports. Maybe we could train their people and they could follow us. It was five hundred miles to Denver. We could make it in ten days. I knew Turner would never go for that though. He wanted to start planning, and we needed time with these military minds to do that.

  We were given our belongings and clean clothes and shown to the barracks and showers. My anger at Amelie exploded again as we made our way to the washroom. Still, I wouldn’t ask her until we were alone. The camp, like us, slept during the day and worked at night, so the bathroom and living quarters teemed with people. Over a hundred in total, we’d learned. To me that number only meant one thing: more soldier power.

  As I kicked off my shoes, Amelie leaned towards me. “I’m sorry about the chips. Mace didn’t think we should tell you. That it would make things worse. We knew they would deactivate them if something happened to us, so there was no way to get a message out. Above all, we were supposed to keep you safe. We didn’t want to compromise you.”

  “In the future, leave nothing out. Let us decide what risks we take. We’ve been at this much longer than you. There’s no telling what Turner may have been able to do with those chips. Maybe your parents would know you’re alive now. Did you ever think of that?”

  “We believed we were protecting you.”

  I stood hovering over her. “No secrets. That’s the rule. If we�
��re a team, we’re a team. Are you in or out?”

  “I’m in.”

  “Because you want to be in, or because you’re just going along?”

  “Who do you think is going to be the first hit when Zhou starts bombing? The bases. Who’s going to be on the front lines if there’s a war? My father. I don’t want that. I’m in this for my family, for my future. I want a husband and kids. That’s all I ever wanted, you know that.”

  Her admission softened my rage. “Good.”

  “Are we okay?” She extended her hand.

  I locked my palm around her forearm. “Yes, friend, we’re good.”

  Shedding my clothes, I scrubbed my entire body—save for my face—dried off and dressed in the clothes they’d given us. Exiting the locker room, I found my interrogator waiting at my bed.

  “Didn’t want to clean your face?”

  “I like my war paint. It’s part of who I am.” I hung my towel over the end of the bunk frame and turned to face her.

  “Some would consider face painting taboo.”

  “Native Americans used it in battle.” I slid on the jacket they’d given me.

  “We’re not at war.”

  “You and I aren’t, for now.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Trust issues?”

  “What do you want?”

  “You remind me of someone.”

  My heart flipped, and I steeled my reaction. Had she recognized me? Did I have the worst cover ever? “How’s that?”

  “My husband is Asian, so my daughter was Asian, and she was tall with a lanky frame like yours.”

  “Was?”

  “She was one of the first to contract the virus. She was just a little older than you.”

  My thoughts jumped to Nave but then to the immediate question. I didn’t want to ask how old the lady guessed I was. I wanted to look twenty at least, but I had no clue how to do that. The sun had weathered and dried my skin, exhaustion had caused dark circles to form under my eyes, but there wasn’t much more I could control.