by Jackie D
As if she had summoned her, Nora MacLeod came out on the stage. Arrow and Valor were in tow behind. They had been stripped of their uniform tops, and Kaelyn’s heart hurt at the sight. That clothing was more than a uniform for Valor and Arrow. It was part of their identities. Which, she assumed, was the affect Nora was trying to accomplish. She wasn’t satisfied with simply having captured them. She wanted to strip them down to nothing. She wouldn’t be happy until there was nothing left but a pale shadow of the people they used to be. What Nora didn’t understand was that it would take much more than that to break Arrow. Yes, the uniform was important to her, but it didn’t define her. Arrow embodied bravery, loyalty, and dedication in everything she did. A uniform signified who she was to the rest of the world, but Kaelyn knew Arrow’s heart and always would, even if she never donned that clothing ever again.
Nora scanned the crowd, and there wasn’t a single inclination of fear or worry on her face. She seemed almost amused. When her gaze fell onto Kaelyn, she smiled at her. The audacity of this woman was impressive. It would make watching her fall that much more enjoyable. Nora had been in the perfect position to really make a difference, but instead she fed into her father’s rhetoric and the toxic world he had helped to create. She deserved far worse than what Kaelyn had planned.
“People of Eden,” Nora began. “We’re here today to witness true justice. The two criminals you see in front of you are responsible for the death of our leader, Adon MacLeod.”
There were mixed reactions throughout the crowd. Some booed, but many more cheered. Nora’s look of confidence only faltered for a moment, and unless you were paying close attention, it would’ve been missed.
Kaelyn glanced over, and Sloan was furiously typing on a small transmitter. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of the two soldiers moving toward them.
“Although he will live on in our hearts forever,” Nora said, “he was taken from us far too soon. In the name of Eden and its faithful people, these traitors, these resisters, will now pay for their sins in blood.”
The soldiers grabbed for Sloan and Kaelyn, but not before Sloan managed to finish what she had started. On every screen in the square, Kaelyn’s face appeared. The short speech she had given earlier started to broadcast again. Kaelyn’s voice drowned out Nora’s next words, and the look on Nora’s face made it clear just how she felt about that. Kaelyn tried to push the one soldier away, only to be stopped by the one next to him.
She watched as Macy raised her weapon and pointed it at the soldier, then she felt his arm move to retrieve his gun. Time seemed to slow as he pulled it out and brought it to her temple. Kaelyn glanced up at the stage one last time, wanting to see Arrow’s face. Arrow’s eyes were filled with horror and disbelief. Kaelyn watched Arrow’s mouth form around the word “no,” even though she couldn’t hear her. Arrow struggled in her restraints to come to her rescue. Kaelyn hated that this would be the last thing Arrow would remember of her.
She heard the gun go off, a loud explosion next to her. She felt the soldier’s body rock slightly backward. She waited for the pain and the darkness. She waited for eternity to finally come to claim her and drag her down into the depths of worlds unknown, but it didn’t come. She touched her head, but there was no wetness, no entry wound. Everything was how it should be. She looked at the soldier, who continued to fire shots, but they weren’t at her, or Macy, or Sloan. He was firing at the other soldiers.
Her own voice still played in the background. Sloan must have put her on a loop. The whole thing was surreal. Maybe she had been shot and now she was trapped in some kind of limbo, stuck between worlds because everything had happened so fast. Maybe God hadn’t had time to collect her or damn her just yet. She looked down at her hands, and there was blood splatter on the back. Then she realized it wasn’t her blood. She took another look around. In her brief moments of confusion, chaos had overwhelmed the square. This wasn’t the end; it was the beginning. The Resistance was rising up against the tyranny that had plagued their country for so long. People were fighting back.
Kaelyn pulled the weapon from its holster and ran directly toward her destiny.
Chapter Forty
Arrow watched as Nora moved around the stage, looking for an escape route. Unfortunately for her, they were clogged with her own people and soldiers, but it was impossible to tell which were on her side. Soldiers were fighting soldiers, people from the old government fighting back to back with Resistance fighters. It was a beautiful sight.
Arrow sat on the ground and pulled the scanner from the back of her boot. She put it over the restraints, and the number key searched through hundreds of combinations before it fell on the correct sequence. The restraints popped opened, and she moved to Valor.
Arrow kept her eye on Nora, who had just found an escape route and disappeared behind the stage. “I’m going after Nora.”
“I’m coming with you,” Valor said.
Arrow was already two steps past him. “They need your help. I have this.” She’d seen Kaelyn with a gun, heading into chaos, and in her soul she knew she’d be okay.
Arrow hopped off the stage in the same place she had seen Nora disappear. She didn’t have much of a head start on her, and Arrow would be able to catch up quickly if she knew which direction she’d headed. Arrow looked around and headed toward what looked to be a large warehouse about six hundred feet away.
She approached the warehouse with caution. Nora was smart, and this could very well be a trap. Arrow decided to go in anyway. She knew Nora was smart, but she had also gravely underestimated the people of Eden. She probably never formulated a backup plan for today, and like an animal backed into a corner, she could be unpredictable.
She found a door in the side of the building and pulled it open. There were old shipping containers and pallets arranged throughout the room. The air was damp with old air that smelled of mildew and rotting wood. The space was poorly lit, perfect for an ambush, but it was eerily quiet. She heard a few footsteps and stopped to listen, wanting to gauge their location.
“I’m not just going to surrender. You’ll have to kill me.” Nora’s voice echoed throughout the building. It bounced off the walls, giving off the illusion that she was everywhere.
“I have no intention of killing you, Nora,” Arrow yelled back, their anonymity now abandoned. “This was your father and your grandfather. The only thing you’re guilty of is being born into the wrong family.”
“You have no idea what it’s like to be me.” Nora’s voice held a bit of sorrow.
“Why don’t you come out here and talk to me about it.” Arrow continued to turn in circles, looking for the source.
“I am smarter, more calculating, and better equipped than any of those stupid generals, but I was never given an official position. Those men, they mocked me my whole life. Ridiculed my ideas and openly berated me in front of anyone they could. And all for what? If they had just listened to me, we wouldn’t be here. I wanted to do things differently. I wanted a chance. I wanted to be heard.”
“I’m willing to listen. If you just come down here and talk to me, I can help. I know that if our leaders know your story, they’ll show mercy.” She placed her gun on the ground. “Look, I put the weapon away. Just come on out and talk to me.”
“You’re all so weak,” Nora said as she came up behind her, her tone acidic. “Did you ever think the world doesn’t need saving? The people of Eden didn’t ask for your heroic bullshit. Do you really believe that positive talk and a pat on the back is going to restore Eden to the garbage fire that was here before my family? They were the real heroes. The country was on the verge of civil war when my grandfather finally stepped in. The people were sick. Shooting children in their own schools, at concerts, and even shooting themselves. Everyone was addicted to something. Drugs, sex, money—they’re all the same. Your people demonize my family for shutting our borders, while the time you so long for was a world plagued with war and horror. How many innocen
t people died because we thought we had to step in and save everyone? But the truth is, we weren’t saving anyone but our own reputation and our own bottom line. So, what are you mad about? Our honesty or our patriotism?” She flipped her gun to rapid-fire.
Arrow held up her hands. “Everything you said was true.” Arrow waited for the shocked look on Nora’s face to return to the one of perpetual disgust she’d grown accustomed to. “But there was a lot of good too. There were people who dedicated their lives to helping others, to helping the planet, to helping the animals. There were people who protested, shouting in the streets for gun control to be taken seriously, to put more money into education, and to stop the wars. There were people so full of passion it spilled out onto canvases, creating beautiful art. Musicians wrote music about pain, anger, love, and wonder. The discourse ended because people stopped communicating and only cared about being right. They ignored how their actions and words affected others.”
Nora took a step closer. “And we fixed it. People here don’t argue, fight, or disagree. People are happy with their station in life. We protect them from the outside world.”
Arrow realized then that Nora truly believed they’d been doing the right thing, that she was a victim of the propaganda too. “If all that’s true, then why did you keep them drugged? Why were you trying to bring in a lower working class to appease the people here in Eden? The truth is, humans are messy and complex creatures. We’re designed to search, discover, and create. You took that from them. Even if the Resistance had never existed, this would’ve eventually happened. You can’t fix the human condition.”
“We’re also designed to destroy, consume, and kill. You can try to pretty it up all you want, but we’re evil beings. And killing you would simply keep me true to my nature.” Nora was within a foot of her, her hand trembling.
Arrow took a chance and put her hand on top of the gun. “There is good and bad in all of us. You decide which one you’ll become. Your hand is trembling because you don’t want to kill me. Because as hard as it is for you to hear, you know at least a part of it is true.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. I know killing you won’t stop what I’m going to have to go up against, but it will show the people of Eden that I’m here to protect them. My family was appointed by God to protect them, and killing you will prove that.” Nora pulled the trigger.
Nora’s face grew red as she pulled the trigger again and again. Nothing happened.
Arrow pointed to her bracelet. “It’s programmed to disarm guns in close proximity that aren’t being held with my palm.” She pulled the gun from Nora’s hand. “Looks like God has different plans for me.”
Nora dropped to her knees, tears rolling down her cheeks. “Please, just kill me. No one will ever know. You can tell them that I shot first.”
Arrow pulled the restraints she’d removed from her wrists earlier and put them around Nora. “I’d know, and that’s what matters to me.” She pulled her up to her feet. “You’ll stand trial; the outcome isn’t up to me. It’s up to those people out there you think were so happy living under your regime. Wonder how that will turn out?”
Chapter Forty-one
Kaelyn ran her hand through her hair as she paced back and forth. “Has sector one been secured?”
Sloan pulled up the video image on the screen. “Yes, we received the field report from the platoon leader ten minutes ago, and all looks well.”
The battle hadn’t lasted long. The Hand of God’s soldiers had fought at first and then either surrendered or retreated to a location they’d yet been able to determine. With Nora MacLeod in custody, for the first time in seventy years, there wasn’t a MacLeod to direct the military forces or the people. The drugs people had been ingesting had worn off, and now they were forced to make choices they’d never considered before today.
Even though the battle hadn’t lasted all that long, the road forward was going to be long and daunting. There were still Hand of God military officers and soldiers hiding in different locations, undoubtedly biding their time and trying to get organized. The Resistance might have been able to assume the role of leadership for the time being, but nothing was guaranteed. Some of the damage that had been done would be irreversible. Women’s rights had been shoved back into the early nineteen hundreds. People of color and the LGBTQ community had been systematically removed from Eden. Introducing the population of Eden to their long-lost countrymen who looked different and loved different types of people would be a process, to say the least.
There was also the discussion of the government and America’s place with the rest of the world. The country had been long shut off to the rest of the planet, and finding its footing again wouldn’t be easy. Bridges had been burned because of bigotry and arrogance. Convincing the rest of the world that they’d now be acting in good faith was going to be an uphill battle.
Kaelyn had started to make a list of all these issues and then had to stop. The enormity of it was overwhelming and seemed to make her less productive. No, they needed to take it one day at a time. And these first few months would be dedicated to finding and isolating the remaining regime of the Hand of God, and then putting in place an impartial, well-rounded board of directors who could help oversee the new changes. They would be made up of people from both Eden and the Resistance. There had to be room for everyone at the table.
Arrow walked into the room, and Kaelyn’s heart rate increased. They hadn’t been able to spend any significant amount of time together in the last three weeks, and the separation was making her anxious. For all her grand thoughts of spilling her heart out into her hands and handing it to Arrow, she hadn’t been able to find the words.
“Hey,” Arrow said, standing next to her and looking at the screens. “Looks like everything is going as planned.”
Kaelyn wanted so desperately to touch her face. She needed contact with Arrow to recharge. “Yes, the rest of the Phoenixes and I are meeting in a bit to go over the next steps.” She put her hands in her pockets.
Arrow shifted back and forth. She seemed nervous, which was out of character for her. “We just received our orders from Phoenix Two. Valor and I are being sent back to headquarters. There’s work to be done everywhere, and you don’t need my protection anymore. My father will be coming to Eden once we return, should you need anything.”
Kaelyn felt her heart freefall into her stomach. “Are you coming back?”
“I’ll be visiting. After all, my parents will be here.” She rubbed the back of her neck, which Kaelyn had learned was a nervous habit.
“Stay. Don’t go back. You can stay here with me and we can be together. There’s nothing stopping us now. You got me here. I’m alive and well and want you here with me.” Kaelyn held her breath, waiting for Arrow’s answer.
“But the people back at headquarters, they need me too, and they’re counting on me.” Arrow took a small step backward, putting distance between them.
“I need you, Arrow. Can you honestly say you don’t love me and don’t want to be with me?” Kaelyn’s blood pressure was rising. She couldn’t believe the chance was finally right here in front of them and Arrow was backing away.
“Headquarters, those people, it’s what I know.”
“Yes, but you know me too. Please don’t throw us away.” Kaelyn took a careful step toward her.
“I’m sorry. I have to go.”
Kaelyn covered her mouth, trying to hold in the tears she knew were coming.
“Kaelyn, I—”
Valor came into the room and tossed a large duffel bag in front of her. “I secured the transport. You ready?”
Arrow grabbed Kaelyn and pulled her into an embrace. Kaelyn buried her face into Arrow’s neck, wanting to memorize every curve, every smell, every muscle. The hug was too short by about forty years, and when Arrow pulled away, Kaelyn felt like a piece of her had been taken.
Arrow kissed her cheek and let her lips linger over her jawbone. “Take care of yourself, Kaelyn.
This is exactly where you’re supposed to be.”
Kaelyn didn’t know if that was true. She’d thought when the dust settled, she’d be with Arrow. She knew Arrow loved her by the way she touched her and looked at her. But she’d just given Arrow the chance, and she’d thrown it away. The realization weighed her down, forcing her to sit. She put her face in her hands and cried. She’d won a battle but lost her chance at love.
Chapter Forty-two
Arrow sat in the control center at her headquarters. Now that her father was in Eden, she was left in command. The officers and citizens still loyal to the Hand of God had managed to avoid their efforts of peace talks for the last seven months. They’d move their bases from one location to the next to avoid the Resistance scouts. They’d also managed to take with them dozens of drones, an expensive arsenal, and quite a few land cruisers. Arrow couldn’t say if they were planning on a war, but it seemed like it.
She listened as Phoenix Two, Hadlee Price, discussed current military operations. Hadlee was smart, efficient, and rational. Arrow liked her immediately.
Arrow informed Hadlee of the current happenings at her base. They were in the process of expanding the schools and farms and were building a new hospital. Now, with the resources of Eden, they had started building a refugee center that they hoped to have open within a year. There were still thousands of people all over the globe with no place to call home, and she hoped the new center could be just that when it was ready. They’d managed to take a few thousand in already, placing them in different villages and even some in Eden. The weather bubbles were being expanded so people could spread out a little more, and communities were already taking on their own distinctive personalities.
