Torch

by Tricia Copeland

The sounds of engines grew in the distance, and navy-colored fighter jets whooshed over our heads.

  Mace ducked. “What was that?”

  “Probably just a show of force for the protestors. Ten seconds, guys. On my mark.” River made eye contact with each of us.

  The vehicle stopped in front of the entrance. “Three, two—”

  Bam, bam bam. bam bam bam bam bam bam bam. Shots rang out overhead, and the pavement between us and the capitol exploded.

  “Shit. I don’t think those were warning shots.” Mace extended his arm over my back, pushing me down.

  “Gun it. Get out of here,” River yelled.

  The vehicle lurched forward. No, this couldn’t be happening. All this planning for nothing. Throwing Mace’s arm from my back, I stood up and spun around. Scanning for the window where Nave was, I saw that it’d been closed. Two forms stood inside. Nave and Mom?

  Lifting my arm up high, I signed again. Nave, It’s Jema. Don’t be scared. I’m going to get you out. I’ll be back to get you.

  Another set of jets whooshed over our heads as the vehicle swerved to miss oncoming soldiers. I squinted to see the writing on the blue aircraft. I’d never seen navy-colored jets before. A hand gripped my arm, pulling me down, and forced my head onto the floorboard. Port Orford. They had to be Port Orford jets. The Port Orford crew made it after all. We’re saved. It’s going to work. The Port Orford jets could hold off Butler’s air strike team to give us time to get into the capitol. Cmdr. Butler’s forces wouldn’t stand a chance against our combined force. Nave and Mom would be safe. Dad would be free. I would be free. We would get the cure for everyone.

  I slapped at the hand on my shoulders. “Let me up. The blue jets are from Port Orford. They have to be.”

  As a boom echoed overhead, I saw another streak of blue. Bam, bam bam. bam bam bam bam bam bam bam. Another round of fire sent us swerving onto the grass.

  Mace lifted his leg and set his foot on my back, applying a gentle pressure. “Not Port Orford jets. Stay down. We’ve got to get out of here, fast. What do you think you were doing? Signaling to them? You’re going to get us all killed.”

  Gun up and ready, Sadie yelled at me. “You were signing. What were you signing?”

  “Looked something like, ‘Nave, It’s Jema. Don’t be scared. I’m going to get you out. I’ll be back to get you.’ But I could be paraphrasing,” Ben called from the back.

  “Jema?” Sadie slapped me on the helmet. “Jema, as in Jema Walker? Are you the Bred One?” “Damnit, Jewel. No wonder you looked familiar. How could you do this to us?”

  Hearing the planes approach again, I flattened my palms to the floor and pushed up with every ounce of my strength. As we bounced onto the street, blue jets passed over us, drawing another line of fire on the front lawn of the capitol compound. My eyes cut to Nave, whose hands were plastered to the window.

  BAM. An explosion erupted in front of us. The vehicle stopped short, flinging me over the front seat.

  Hands grabbed my belt and dragged me back to the rear seat. Someone pinned me to the floor. Screaming punctuated the gun fire. I felt the truck race backwards, stop, spin, and accelerate forwards. We bounced over a curb and then another. My belly burned from the heat of the vehicle floor. Knowing they needed to focus, I stopped struggling against the limbs restraining me. I rolled from one side to the other as the vehicle swerved back and forth.

  “We have to get out of this truck. There are cameras everywhere. If they saw her face, they’ll track us,” Carl yelled.

  “Damn it, Jema.” River’s voice boomed from the front. “Turner is Troy, right? The Native One and Bred One, right under our noses. You were supposed to be dead.”

  I laid my head on the hot metal. It didn’t matter anymore. We weren’t getting to Nave. Butler won. The vehicle slowed to a stop, and the weight lifted off my body. I lay there.

  “Come on.” Sadie slapped my arm. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

  I pushed up with my hands to see throngs of people swarming in every direction. Shots rang out, and engines sounds alerted us to approaching aircraft. I grabbed my pack and jumped from the vehicle. Sadie snatched my bag, and fiddling in the pocket, she produced my black makeup and smudged it down my cheeks.

  “We have to get out of the city. We’ll meet the others at the rendezvous point. You.” River pushed his finger into my shoulder. “Keep your head down. Everyone else form a circle around her. We move as a team.”

  Removing a pistol from my jacket, I held it ready. Beside me, Amelie did the same.

  “It’s going to be okay. We’ll figure out another way.” Her eyes held mine for a second and then panned away.

  I tried not to look at those left trampled in the streets as we darted between buildings. How was Owen tipped off? Did someone move too soon? Did we have a spy in the group? My next thought was of Troy. Tapping our secret radio comm on in my pocket, I listened for a response in my earpiece. My eyes scanned the sky as I waited. Thirty, sixty, ninety seconds passed.

  “Come in.”

  I spoke into my sleeve cuff microphone. “Troy. Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, we saw what happened. We’re retreating to the south rendezvous point. It’s too risky to be on any comm, so I’ll see you there tonight.”

  My heart skipped a beat. What if they didn’t make it? What if UNS troops found them? “Troy, I love you.”

  “I love you too. I’ll see you tonight. Out.” The link went dead.

  Taking a deep breath to stave off a second of nausea, I refocused on our surroundings. Huddled together, moving in quick coordinated steps, we stood out, and I urged my teammates to loosen our formation. After assessments of others on the streets staring wide-eyed at our group, they acquiesced, hiding their weapons in pockets. Carl and Ben scouted ahead. Sadie and River flanked me. Amelie, Mace, and Shooter fanned out behind us. As the urban buildings morphed to neighborhoods, we walked in groups of two, using trees for cover as helicopters passed over.

  I dug my nails into my hands as we maneuvered through the streets, praying everyone on our team would make it back, that innocent people hadn’t been mowed down by the planes. Troy was safe, and Mom and Nave knew I’d tried to rescue them. The image of Nave’s wide-eyed expression hung in my mind. Had she seen me? Did she know I was doing my best to free them from Owen?

  Finding an abandoned warehouse on the south side of town, we slipped inside to wait for a satellite to pass. Shedding our military uniforms, we changed into the street clothes we’d worn earlier. I coated my face with the black cream.

  River paced, shouting at me as I dropped to the concrete floor. “They probably have every satellite aimed at this city right now. If they beef up security and we’re caught, you’ll be identified, and all of this will be for nothing.”

  I scanned their faces. “He has my sister and mother. I needed to get them out.”

  River stopped in front of Amelie and Mace. “Who are you? You with her?”

  I motioned to my friends. “They were with us when Butler blew up the ships off San Francisco. The four of us survived.”

  Shooter dug in a front pocket of his pack and produced a bag of saline. Tubing connected it to a needle. Untying the bandana around his head, he held it up. “We can transfuse her. Who has B negative blood?”

  Amelie stood up. “I do. Hook me up.”

  I shook my head. “We can’t have a team member down. Losing a pint of blood will sap her energy.”

  “Then we’ll give her a pint of yours.”

  “What about retina scanning? They’ve been known to do those checks,” Sadie pointed out.

  “Guys.” I ripped the IV kit from Shooter’s hands. “If they’re at the border, they’re not letting anyone in or out. I say we head south and cross in the forest after dark. We have contingency plans for this.”

  River charged me. “Maybe you had contingency plans for this because you had all the information. The rest of us only saw two outcomes, victory or death.”
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  Mace inserted himself between River and me. “She’s right. Both of you are. It wasn’t fair, but her safety is paramount. No one is dying. We have the best people right here. That wasn’t an accident. Jema’s right, going south is the best option.”

  “What is your real name, boy?”

  “I’m not at liberty to share that information. And you’re not head of this team. Get on the short wave. Tell the others to hide where they can. We have to get Jema past the border.”

  River stepped one pace back. “Who died and made you in charge?”

  “Many, many people died today. I don’t know how Butler will spin it, but we have to be ahead of this, strike again before he expects it. But first, we get Jema out.”

  The others acquiesced to our plan, and we fired up the satellite scans and waited for a window. My lungs tensed as I watched Sadie stomp around and rip into her jerky like she wanted to kill something, someone. I guessed that someone might be me. Give her space. She’ll come around. She’ll understand. She would, wouldn’t she?

  A radio bulletin from Christmas Day played through my head: JEMA WALKER, 16, 5’10”, 130 LBS, OLIVE SKIN, DARK HAIR, DARK EYES, ASIAN DESCENT. WANTED FOR THREE COUNTS OF MURDER, CONSIDERED ARMED AND DANGEROUS. IF YOU SUSPECT YOU’VE SEEN HER, CONTACT 911 IMMEDIATELY.

  “I’m not the monster they made me out to be. We withheld our identities to protect you.” I said aloud, to myself, to no one, to everyone.

  “We don’t know who the hell you are.” Ben glared at me.

  River stood. “Pipe down. That’s enough for now. You’re either with us or you’re not. We know one thing for sure: she and that boy, Troy, are the key to the cure. That makes them important no matter what they’ve done.”

  His eyes scanned the group. Everyone grumbled but agreed to stay the course. Feeling the weight of my actions and responsibility for these people, my shoulders slumped. I couldn’t be liable for their lives too. It was too much to bear. Still, if they were willing to stay with us, I had to stay strong.

  Identifying another hideout, we waited for the next opening in satellite surveillance. Amelie laced her fingers in mine as I gazed across a field, tilled and ready for planting. I squeezed her hand, and we stood like that. My mind traced through our movements, trying to figure out where we’d gone wrong. Without info on the other groups, there was no way to know. Maybe Butler had the planes ready from the beginning. Maybe they detected or captured one of our teams. What if they tortured them for information? It had been the right thing to keep our identities secret. If the others had known, all of us would be in far more danger.

  When the satellite window opened, we started out as before with Ben and Carl out front, River and Sadie with me, and Amelie, Mace, and Shooter bringing up the rear. To strangers, we could be two friends out for a walk, parents and a child going to the grocery store, family off to the town market. Except that, there were no others around. No cars passed. No people seemed to be about at all. I wondered whether a mandatory curfew had been called and being out at all would be suspicious. My walkie had a radio function, and I switched it on.

  … CALLED A NATIONAL STATE OF EMERGENCY. THE GOVERNMENT BELIEVES THAT CELLS WITHIN THE PEACEFUL PROTEST RALLY PLOTTED TO OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT, THUS THE SHOW OF NON-VIOLENT FORCE ORDERED BY CMDR. BUTER, WHEREIN AIR ASSISTS FIRED ON THE LAWN OF THE CAPITOL COMPOUND TODAY. ONLY MINOR INJURIES ARE REPORTED AFTER THE STRIKE. ALL PEOPLE WITHIN A FIFTY-MILE RADIUS OF THE CAPITAL ARE ASKED TO STAY WITHIN THEIR HOMES. REPORT ANY SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY TO THE 911 EMERGENCY SERVICE. BUSINESSES SHOULD RESUME NORMAL ACTIVITY TOMORROW.

  THE UNS HEADED BY CMDR. BUTLER HAS CALLED A NATIONAL STATE OF EMERGENCY. THE GOVERNMENT BELIEVES…

  The message seemed to be on loop.

  “Non-violent force my ass,” Mace commented. “Being out will raise suspicion.”

  “Not if we’re traveling back to our homes.” Amelie pulled out her GPS device and located several abandoned farms that could serve as hideouts. They were grouped close enough together for short-wave communication. She pinged us with the addresses. The buildings lay over a mile outside the satellite safe range time wise. Traveling faster might alert suspicion but getting spotted by satellite surveillance could be riskier. We picked up our pace, fanning out half a block apart, hoping that the excuse of the state of emergency would be enough for any who questioned.

  “Get that darn makeup off your face.” Sadie started rubbing my cheek.

  I doused my bandana with water from my canteen and had her inspect the result. She decided I looked like a dirty teen and stripped my hat off, saying I needed to look cleaner cut.

  “Just keep your head down,” River barked.

  It helped that I didn’t care what he thought. The old me would have been cowering at the idea of a superior thinking ill of me, but I knew his history. He’d done way worse to Troy. Lying about who we were had been best for everyone. I prayed my image hadn’t been picked up in the square. If it had, we were in way worse of a predicament than I could picture. But I wouldn’t let myself think like that. We’d gotten out of sticky situations before. We could do it again.

  My watch sounded an alarm, indicating five minutes till the limit of satellite holes. I saw the structures Amelia found in the distance about half a mile out. Scanning the area, we decided to keep to the current plan. Even if we were picked up on satellite, it’d be better to appear as civilians than risk running and being detected. We increased the pace and were only a hundred yards out when my timer dinged.

  Looking to Amelie and Mace, I held my breath, half-expecting us to be blown to smithereens. Then I remembered San Francisco and how we’d meandered through the city and then waited for nightfall to escape to the forest. That seemed like the best option for the current situation. Once we were inside, we used the walkie talkies to confirm the plan. Inspecting the small farmhouse, we found nothing of worth and took turns napping till nightfall. We changed to dark fatigues and ventured out to meet the others. It felt good to be reunited with Amelie, like I could get a full breath again after hours of waiting. My mind jumped back to months ago when I questioned, even resented, her presence. After the past two months with her as my constant companion, I couldn’t imagine being without her and Mace, even Sadie.

  My mind bounced to Troy as we set out, skirting a soft dirt field. He would make it to the rendezvous point. They would make sure of it, right? Unless someone sold him out. But they didn’t know who Troy was yet. We’d decided not to communicate that story via radio. Part of me felt relieved. If there were a UNS sympathizer, he’d be safe from that attack. On the other hand, not knowing who he was also might make them count his life of less importance. They wouldn’t know to defend him at all costs.

  I stopped that thought. Troy would tell them if he decided it would be to his advantage. Sliding my jerky ration of out my pack, I ate as we hiked alongside the open fields. Sadie and River held the weapons out, ready to fire at a moment’s notice. Finishing my meal, I released the safety on my pistol. I carried my bow in my left hand. As farmland gave way to fields of grass and brush, we picked up the pace.

  Soon, we saw tree cover in the distance. Reaching the forest, we closed ranks, put on our night-vision goggles, and started running. Without a vehicle, this wouldn’t be an easy trip. If we ran five miles an hour, the border was ten hours away, twice the distance we trained for. I worried for Sadie.

  As we jumped streams and hopped downed trees, the pace of our trek lulled me into a sense of security. My hour alarm became the only thing keeping me tied to passing time. Eat, hydrate, run. Eat, hydrate, run. The hours ticked by as we neared the border. First light of dawn crept into the sky, and we chose a border crossing location a few miles away from where we’d entered before thinking the original route could be compromised. Finding an area heavy in tree cover, we slowed to a stop.

  How far apart would foot soldiers be posted? How many would be guarding the border? Would they use dogs? We had no idea how the previous day’s events
would change their security protocol. But there was no time for surveillance. Getting out fast was the best strategy. We fitted helmets on our heads and bulletproof vests over our jackets and marched towards the border.

  In the dense forest, only a four-foot area had been cleared on each side of the fence. The barbed wire hung loose, perhaps from a falling branch or tree. Sadie touched the wire with a twig testing for electric current. Finding none, we scanned for laser and heat surveillance systems. The line appeared clear, and one by one we climbed a nearby tree and launched ourselves over the fence. Even then, my skin danced with tiny pin pricks, as I waited for an alarm to blare or a land mine to explode.

  Nothing happened, and we backed fifty and then a hundred feet from the fence, weapons held ready. Deciding we were clear, and with a seventy-five-mile run ahead of us, we shed our vests and returned to our running pace. Taking advantage of the low light, we ran an hour until the sun rose above the horizon. Daylight offered detection challenges, and we found a dense section of forest to use for a rest. Opening the satellite program, we noticed the software had been updated.

  “They must have changed the scheduling. Turner updated the positions.” Mace pointed at the screen.

  “Don’t you mean Troy? Do the others even know? I think they have a right to all the information. They’re sort of sitting ducks out there.” River pointed his jerky strip at me.

  “We don’t even know that the UNS knows about me. How could they possibly think Troy is alive?”

  Sadie paced. “All the reports and bulletins tie you two together. It’s not even a stretch. If they know you’re alive, they’ll assume he is.” She stopped in front of Amelie and Mace. “So, what’s your story? You’re supposed to be dead too, right? Any warrants out for your arrest?”

  Anger, even contempt, tainted her tone, and my stomach churned. “Sadie, I didn’t kill those people in cold blood. I never intended for people to die. It was self-defense. I was kidnapped. They were going to sell me on the black market. I already told you. Amelie and Mace were with me in San Francisco when Butler blew up the boat carrying our friends.”