by Shelly Crane
It was a process, it seemed, to get ready for what could possibly be the last day of the Apocalypse. Just now, as Jeff spoke to everyone, even the ones staying behind, he had said, "It's either them or us. No more hiding and coexisting. No more being the underdogs in a fight that should have ended long ago. Today, we take the first step towards ending this thing. Tonight, we're more than just family. Tonight, we're soldiers."
I couldn’t have agreed more. I felt like a soldier. Or at least like a kid sneaking through the window. I felt like I could get caught any moment and that provided a rush in my veins. A rush I needed.
"Hey, slowpoke," I heard and almost missed the last step. I turned to glare at whoever it was, but it was Jeff. So I glared up at his dark, handsome face causing him to laugh. "Whoa, nelly. I just wanted to make sure you were…all right with this tonight." He glanced at Marissa who stroked her belly anxiously. "Not everyone is taking the news of a war so easily."
"I can understand."
Merrick came and put an arm around me on my hip. "We don't have a choice," he said with conviction. "We have to be all right with it. It's now or never."
Jeff nodded. I put my arm through his and then my other arm through Merrick's. They both smiled down at me like I was something precious. It used to unnerve me, but now I got it. They were precious, too, to me.
"Ok," Jeff huffed and turned in the driver's seat. "What if they figured it out and this is an ambush?"
Billings laughed. "What if this Chesser fellow is just after the twenty thousand dollars and we're falling right into his plan?"
"Why would he wait 'til now and not have just taken me the first night?" I asked, bristling in defense of the man who sheltered and fed me for the night.
"This way he gets more people doesn't he?"
I waved him off and turned to Jeff. "If it's an ambush….it is. We talked about this. This is it; we can't just sit by and be outcasts and hunted anymore. Even if this doesn't work, we'll have to choose something else another day. We have to stop them. End of story."
Merrick's arms around me tightened. He kissed my temple in that I don't want to agree with you, but you're right way of his.
"Same as last time?" Jeff asked, but included a huff of exasperation. "We wait and lookout for you guys, you go and upload the tape?"
"Yep," Merrick said. "We get the easy job," he goaded and punched Jeff's arm. But then they locked arms and silently told the other what couldn't be said out loud.
Jeff hugged me to him. "You could stay. Let the big boys deal with this," he offered.
I looked at Merrick. The hopefulness in his eyes that I would do just that was almost heartbreaking. "No," I said and switched my gaze back to Jeff. "No, I need to be there. What if something happens and they need to know who to trust? I won't be there to see who's lying."
"Fair enough," he said, but it sounded like he no longer believed it. He leaned closer and spoke in my ear. "Please be careful."
"Of course," I told him. "Save me a bear hug for when I come back."
He laughed. "Oh, you'll get a bear hug."
Marissa's eyes were already watering as I hugged her. I didn't say anything. I would cry if I did. So, I stepped out with Merrick and waited for the others. Ryan and Ellie, Miguel and Rylee, and Billings piled out behind me; our usual band of misfits for this kind of thing lately.
Once again the club was raging, but we ignored it this time. I noticed some new graffiti on the side of the club near the alley. It said, 'THE END IS HERE'.
I felt my hands shaking with excitement and anxiousness. This was it, literal steps to take back our fate and put destiny back in our hands. Even the freaking wall agreed with me.
Merrick's grip on my hand startled me. I hadn't even felt him touch me. He gave me the look. The I have something to say that you might not like look. "Baby, please stay by me. If anything goes wrong…it's my job to play hero."
"Merrick-" I started to argue, but he stopped me.
"No, I mean it," he said, his voice harder. "By. Me. I don't want to worry about you the whole time. I know this is kind of your baby or whatever, and that's fine, but if trouble goes down, you stick to my back, you got me?"
I took a deep breath, ready to plead my case, the whole bit. But he pulled me to a stop, right there in the middle of the parking lot. Everyone behind us stopped, too, and waited for…something. Merrick began and from his tone, both anxiety ridden and agonizing, I knew I should listen carefully.
"You listen to me," he said low. "I won't even take you in there if you're going to make me regret it." His face crumpled and I knew the exact next words out of his mouth as he took my face in his hands. "I was certain something horrible had happened to you and Cain. I thought you weren't coming home. I know you know what that's like." I flinched at the memory of watching him die. He had me there. "Don't make me go through that twice. It's not a man versus woman thing. It's an I love you so much and I was built to protect you thing."
"You're not my Keeper," I said softly and smiled, knowing what was coming next, but begging him to say it.
"Yes, I am," he provided and smiled, his thumbs caressing my whole cheek. "I was your Keeper the moment I first saw those brown eyes, looking at my charge like he was a disease and a blessing all at once." I barked out a laugh. "You two have been my life, my whole life. I've never felt the way I feel for you two and no matter what my brothers or sisters say, I know without a shadow of doubt that I was meant for this. To come here, protect you, send the Lighters straight to Hell and then love you and Lily for the rest of our lives. I plan to do all of those things."
I wanted to wipe the tear that clung to my eyelid, but his hands were in the way. Instead I just stared up at my Keeper and watched him watch me. The world faded into darkness and it was just him. He let his smile make my breathing cease to exist. His lips were beautiful magnets and I reached up on my toes to reach them. He kissed me reverently. It had been forever it seemed since we'd been able to be together. But this kiss reflected none of the frustration from that. He sucked on my top lip gently and let out heads rest against each other. "Sherry, you're everything there is for me. I love your spirit, I do, but you have to let me take the lead on this one. Please let me protect you."
What could I say to that, but, "Ok."
He pressed closer into the place where my breath was his and his breath was mine. "Promise me," he whispered.
He spoke right to my bones when he said things like that.
"I promise," I told him and accepted my reward. He titled my head a bit and slammed his mouth to mine, and I accepted every bit of him. My fingers wrapped in his shirt front, his buttons in between my fingers. His hands didn't move from my face. He just held me there, captive in his loving grasp, a willing prisoner.
"Hey, mates," I heard and clung to one last kiss before breaking away. "That was a beauty, a real corker it was, but we've got things to do, eh?"
"You're right," Merrick agreed and grinned down at me. He growled, "This time when I say we'll finish it later, I mean it. Even if I have to embarrass myself to make it happen."
I blushed. I freaking blushed! I pressed my lips together to stop the smile. He ran his finger across the pink there making me blush harder. He groaned. "Oh, my… Wife, you're killing me. Do you have any idea how hot that is? After everything we've…done, I can still make you blush?"
I grinned, but Miguel with his big mouth interrupted. Again.
"All well and good. Let's skip the details on that one, love." We both turned and glared at him at the same time. "Glower all you want," he taunted, "as long as you're walking while you're doing it."
"Oh, Miguel," I goaded and let Merrick's grip on my hand lead me. "You've lost your romantic touch."
His gaze swung to Rylee. "I highly doubt that, love."
She just looked at us and then back to the destination. And then she smiled. My eyes could have bugged right out of my head.
"Miguel's right, you know," Billings spouted. "You two are sickeni
ng sweet."
"That's not an insult, Billings."
He shrugged and smiled. "I didn't say it was."
Merrick led the way to the back door we'd went through last time. The knob opened easily, still broken. "I wonder if anyone has been here at all," he mused and pulled me up the stairs.
Once inside, we went straight to the control room. Billings got to working on how to program a broadcast, and Merrick and I found where the old school tapes went. We plugged it all in and when the little wheels started turning, I sighed in relief. Billings said he'd found a way to program the timer. The tape would play at ten the next morning over every radio and TV station in the state.
We had to hope that Cain and Daniel had made it to the next station.
A noise at the door startled us all. Merrick pulled me behind him as Miguel jumped toward the noise. He backed up, hands raised, as Chesser and a few others came in with guns in their hands.
But that wasn't the bad part. The worst part were the real Enforcers and a Lighter behind them with guns in their hands, too. This wasn't a stick up by Chesser.
This was an ambush by the enemy.
A Long and Dusty Road
Chapter 27
Cain
"I just can't believe you've been on this planet for a year plus some and not heard of Johnny Cash before."
My point was valid. Daniel didn’t think so, as he groaned again and pretended not to hear me, but it was just weird.
"Your human ideals, such as music, are wasted on my kind. There's no-"
"Don't knock it 'til you try it." I got an idea. I searched the glove-box and sure enough, there was an old cassette tape in there. I pulled it out and almost peed myself. "Holy crap, there's a Beastie Boys tape in here!"
I popped it into the player and when I heard, 'Now here's a little story I got to tell about three bad brothers you know so well!' I said, "Yeah! Paul Revere!"
"Paul Revere was an American Silversmith, am I right?" Daniel pondered.
I laughed. "He was. He was also a Beastie Boys song."
He wrinkled his nose. "This is music?"
"Some of it. You don't like it?"
"It's painful to listen to."
I pointed out his window. "Stop the car and get out."
"I'm assuming you're using your usual wit and sarcasm, so I won't be pulling over."
"If we had radio signals we could listen to that, instead of just sitting here and pretending things aren't awkward because we hate each other."
"I don't hate you," he said and thought. "I just dislike immensely."
I felt the headrest hit the back of my head as I laughed. "Dude, you don't hold the punches, do you? Well, the feeling is mutual, Lighter boy."
He shook his head a little, but kept driving. I wanted to ask him about Lillian. I wanted to know how she was doing. I hoped she wasn’t worried about me. But worse, I hoped she wasn't worried about him. No, I refused to bring Lillian up to him again. He was probably thinking about her already anyway. That thought had me itching to punch him.
He said he'd kissed her, but she hadn't kissed him back. I know it. She wouldn't do that to me.
I pushed all that aside and thought about the task at hand. The mission of the day. The Gremlin was a horrible excuse for a war vehicle, but it was all we had. I chuckled. We looked so pitiful driving down the road with no windshield. Two guys who obviously had no love for each other.
The last city sign pulled my attention to the road. The map we snagged from the other station showed we were close. I really hoped this worked and I wasn't wasting all this time with Daniel when I could be home instead.
He had been very tight-lipped about how he knew what we were doing or where we were going and all the details. He seemed confident though. I suspected that maybe Marissa had had a vision. Maybe that was why he was being so quiet about the details. Maybe we were going to die. It had to be done, but we weren't going to make it. Or maybe I wasn't. Was that why he was letting all my cracks on him go? Because I was going to die and he was giving me a final kindness before taking my girl from me after death?
I groaned and covered my eyes with my palms.
My stomach growled, too.
"There's food in the backpack in the backseat, remember?" Daniel reminded me.
I yanked the bag forward and glared at him as I looked at what he brought. "Beans? Really?"
"It was the only thing to take and be undetected."
"Ah, so no one knew you left," I guessed. "Well, it makes more sense now."
"We're here," he said and pointed in the sky to the radio tower. "Eat your beans fast."
I opened the can with my pocketknife and scooped my fingers inside. I chewed and spoke at the same time. "You're not having anything?"
"I won't need anything," he said cryptically. "You know," he started and took a while before he spoke again to finish, "we weren't always this way."
"What way?"
"The Lighters. We used to be a normal, functioning society. But some of us got greedy and wanted more. Earth has always been their target and we've come here many times, but always failed until now. This is as close as they've ever gotten to taking you over. They're cocky and they're ill equipped to handle a planet of this magnitude and complexity. They won't survive, even if they did push humans to extinction." He looked over at me. "If we can pull this off, and you can fight the war that needs to be fought, you'll have your planet back. Just don't give up, or all of this," he points at us, "was for nothing. Your humans will need you to help lead and guide them."
I rubbed my thumb over my bottom lip. "I've got no plans to lay down and die. You know something I don’t?"
"No," he said too quickly.
"Uhuh. Fine. You don't have to worry about us, slick."
"What is with you and the nicknames?" he growled.
"It's a military thing, I guess. No, scratch that, it's a human thing."
He chuckled humorlessly. "Which I'm not a part of. You know," he said and gave me a death glare, "if I didn't have something to do here and it wouldn't upset Lillian so much, I'll dump your human behind out here and go back to the bunker. I could live your life and be perfectly happy for the rest of mine."
"Let's go, bucko," I goaded. "Anytime."
"I take back what I said. I do hate you," he said in a voice that resembled the Lighter I knew he was. "With everything in me."
"Whoa," I laughed. "What brought all this hostility on all of a sudden?"
"You don't deserve what you have. You're always joking and so smug. Lillian is a fool. A beautiful fool that kisses like an angel, but a fool."
"Shut your mouth about Lillian." Was he trying to pick a fight with me? "You can crack on me all you want, but don't talk about her."
"Sadly, there isn't time to debate further. We're here," he said and pulled into the rickety station parking lot. He stepped out and slammed the door. I just rolled my eyes at him. He was so strange.
The parking lot was empty in the middle of the night, so we didn't need to worry about running into anyone. The door lock was easily picked and we entered. The equipment was pretty ancient. It wasn't like anyone would want to steal it anyway, but it suited our purpose. I found the control panel while Daniel watched and looked around like he was waiting for something.
"Dude, what is with you?" I asked before groaning as my hand slipped and banged into the panel door.
"Nothing. I'm just wondering if I should rethink my part in this plan."
"What plan?"
"This one. It's close to over." The cryptic message hung in the air.
"Well, I'm not going to pretend to know what you mean, but-"
We both turned our heads towards the door as it banged open. Daniel slammed the control booth door shut, but it was made of half glass, so that wouldn't stop them for long.
"Hurry!" he hissed to me and kept going as he watched the Lighter come toward the door. "Fix this. Make sure you get this up and running and you'll have a good start to saving your
people."
"What are you-"
"Tonight, after you're done, you need to get in the car and drive back to Effingham as fast as you can. They'll need you there."
"For what?"
"For war," he said low and then rammed into the door the same time the Lighter did. They fought and threw each other around as I tried to find the right switch to flip. The labels were so old, it was hard to read.
"Hurry, Cain!" I heard behind me. I didn't say anything. It was moot. What did he think I was doing in here? Painting my nails? I saw one marked 'Online Con…..' That looked like the one to me, but before I could touch it, I was yanked back by my hair and thrown across the room. My back slammed into a hard edge, knocking the breath from me.
Daniel charged him again, but the Lighter threw him back. Then he picked up a chair, slung it back and over his head to smash into the control panel. Everything stopped for me. That was it, our one chance, and it was gone now. I was raging mad. I picked up the first thing I could grab and ran to the Lighter, slicing it into his back.
He went up in a blaze of lightning, not knowing what hit him. I wondered how he knew to come here. And how he knew to smash the equipment. Someone was on to us, which meant what we had been going to do would have worked. They wouldn't have been so scared otherwise.
But none of that mattered as I jumped and ran as the ceiling began to come down from the destroyed building. Lightning would do that. I pushed Daniel back and we bolted through the doors just in time to survive the avalanche of debris. I cursed and slammed my fist into the concrete. "Now, we'll never get it going and have no way to let them know that we failed!" I lay down on my back, banging my head once on the hard surface. "They're walking into an ambush and we can't even warn them."
"Come with me," Daniel groaned and stood. "There's one more thing we can do."
"What? What can we possibly do now?"
"There has to be something!" he yelled. "Maybe the equipment survived," he ventured. He obviously knew nothing about it.
