“What are we going to do Zane? We know they can’t leave but we still don’t know why, we were supposed to question Mikal about it but well that didn’t turn out very well did it. We can’t attack them and win, it’s not possible. So what are we supposed to do but sit here and hide?”
“We find out why they can’t leave and we use it against them.”
“And how are we going to do that? We can’t just stroll up to…”
“Shhh. Listen.”
Charlie could hear it too. The faint sound of sirens blaring from the town. They lurched to their feet, running towards the edge of the woods and the source of the sound.
What they felt at the sight that greeted them when they arrived at the edge of the hill was nothing short of shock and panic. Smoke was filling the air around the town. Had they set the whole town on fire? It was impossible to see through the thick haze that was surrounded them now. Charlie’s eyes started to trickle salty tears as she heard the screams reach her eyes that could mean only one thing. They were burning the people of town alive. She had been right before when she thought that the Valguard would fall into discord without Mikal’s rule but she had no idea just how bad it would be. She thought maybe they would scatter and try to leave, never had she thought they would start burning people alive. One thing was for sure, they were no longer the orderly, contained group of super-human’s they had once been. They were now, just as El’ had said ‘mindless killing machine that needed humans to control in order to feel powerful’.
Had she waited too long to take her chance at stopping the war? Would this be how her life would end? Seeing the people that she loved ravaged and tormented into surrendering to the wants and needs of the Valguard? No, she couldn’t let that happen, there was still time to save this town. She had no idea how but there had to be a way because if there wasn’t she had failed and that was not an option.
Charlie’s voice was hoarse from sitting silent for so long but she pushed through the scratchy feeling at the back of her throat to speak to Zane, to let him know what she was intending to do.
“Zane. Whatever happens now, you have to know I never meant to hurt you.”
“I know.”
He looked as if he was in a dream, his eyes unseeing but his ears still hearing as he kissed her gently on the forehead.
“Good, because once again I’m saying… I’m sorry.”
“Huh? What for?”
“For this.”
She reached up to cup his face in her hands and kissed him on the lips one last time, letting him know that no matter what she had felt towards Ford it could never have cancelled out the feelings that she had towards him either. She pulled away to see a look of shock on Zane’s face, gave him one last short, sweet kiss and then turned to run.
Chapter Sixteen
“Charlie!”
She ignored him as she ran, heading for town without him was a hard decision to make but a necessary one. She couldn’t have him trying to protect her when she had no idea what she was about to walk into or what she was going to do. At least on his own he actually stood a chance of survival; he could focus on himself, might even be smart enough to pretend he had decided to turn on the humans as well and be welcomed back not as a traitor but as a friend among the Valguard. She swore to herself that she would never allow another person to be killed trying to protect her after Ford died and she intended to follow that promise through.
“Charlie stop!”
He almost had her, she felt the brush on his hand try to grasp for her shirt but she was just out of reach. She was never going to outrun him at this rate. She suddenly had an idea, it was risky but if it meant she could get away from him faster then she had nothing to lose. Throwing caution to the wind, she closed her eyes in concentration and thought about her Valguard abilities as hard as she could bear without allowing them to take her. She felt the pull of the DNA she had acquired from her father and when she could hear the distant cries of the people in town like they were standing right beside her she knew it had worked. She dug her heels deep into the earth and ran for it. She still wasn’t certain that she could outrun Zane, after all he was full Valguard and she had human blood running through her veins but for whatever reason, it worked and she was more thankful than ever for having that part of her that she despised so much.
She was at the foot of the hill before Zane had reached the halfway point; she slowed an infinitesimal amount now that there was a good distance between them, and headed for the one place she couldn’t get out of her mind.
In the distance she could see the smoke billowing from El’ and Matt’s house and within it she could hear their shrieks of panic and fear. She needed to push herself faster but would doing so allow too much Valguard DNA to take over? Would she become one of them? She couldn’t risk it. She would just have to dig deep for her human strength to help her along. She dug her heels in once more and took off like a racer at the blocks. She was on the back doorstep in no time screaming for El’ and Matt to get to her if they could but they couldn’t hear her over the roar of the fire or their own screams. The fact that they hadn’t left the building meant that they couldn’t get out, which also meant that she knew the moment she opened the back door she would find a wall of fire cutting her off from her lifelong friends. She ran to the garage desperately searching for something, anything to cover herself with before entering the house. She found an old packing blanket that she deemed in good enough order to do the job before heading back to the rear entrance of the house. Holding the blanket in front of her body, shielding her from the flames that she could see flickering through the glass on the back door. She tested the door knob, it was hotter than her flesh could stand and having no other choice, stripped her hoodie from her body and wrapped it around her hand to turn the knob and push the door forward. She heard the roar of the flames intensifying before she felt them lick her bare left arm, sending a rush of screams erupting from her mouth and a burst of air whooshing from her lungs. She tried not to breath deep, knowing that she would only be breathing in smoke but she took what she could held her breath and leapt forward, hoping that the wall of fire was only a thin line. The heat was extreme, and once again she screamed, this time more out of panic than pain as she emerged through the other side of the fire. From inside the flaming wall she could see that the middle of the house was virtually untouched, though blackened with smoke and ash it seemed that it was only the perimeter of the house that was on fire. They had made sure there was no escape for her friends but they hadn’t counted on Charlie coming back for them.
She could hear them struggling to breath and choking on the thick, smoke filled air but she couldn’t see them. She followed the sounds of choking and gasping and finally found them crouched behind the kitchen counter, huddled up and waiting to die.
“El’, Matt. We have to get you out of here.”
El’s voice was weak and strained when she spoke, her face full of tears.
“We sealed the shelter, just like you said and there was no other way out. I thought I was going to die.”
“Well you’re not dying today, come on, let’s get out of here.”
All three stood and repositioning the blanket shielded as much of their bodies as they could, Matt and Charlie taking the outside and forming a shield either side of El’. They stepped through the wall of fire, and for the second time, Charlie felt what it was like to be burned, this time on her right arm. The pain was excruciating but she knew she needed to get El’ and Matt to safety before she could tend to her own wounds.
Once outside, they fell to the ground gasping for the precious oxygen that filled their lungs, but there was no time to sit around. Charlie grabbed El’ by the arm and dragged her back on to her feet. Matt followed without help. She ran to the rear entrance of Zane’s house and not caring for anything but getting inside, she kicked the door in.
Her arms were shaking from the burns and there was a slow steady trickle of tears running down her face from the p
ain but she pushed forward determined to get her friends out of this mess she had created.
Once at the pantry door she looked inside remembering they had boarded the way shut. There was no way she was going to be able to pry the boards off with her hands, she doubted she would have been able to do that even if she hadn’t burned herself. Matt took her by shoulders and gently moved her aside while he went to work at the nailed boards. Charlie jumped when she felt a set of hands touch her shoulders yet again but realized that they were the small soft hands of her best friend.
“Charlie. Thank you.”
She couldn’t speak in fear of screaming and so nodded her head in acknowledgment; it was the best she could do for now.
“Let me get something for your arms while Matt clears out the shelter.”
She wasn’t so sure she wanted anything on her arms to be honest. She felt that if she even touched them with her own skin they were going to flame up again and set the rest of her body on fire. She remembered something then though; she had always been taught at school that if they were to ever get burned, if they felt pain it was a good sign because it meant that there was minimal damage to their nerves and a better chance of recovery. It was a useless piece of information because it did nothing to ease her pain but it did ease her worries. She wasn’t a vain person but if her nerves were still intact that meant less recuperation and recovery time at the end of all this.
Finally Matt was able to make his way into the shelter and start handing stuff up to El’ and Charlie to toss over the counter and out of the way. It took longer than expected to clear a path to the tunnel and they were tired and covered in perspiration by the time they were done but clearing the way was only half the job, they started the journey through the tunnels with nothing but Charlie’s glowing eyes to guide them in the dark.
They arrived at Kara’s without incident where Charlie showed them around and got them settled before saying her goodbyes.
“Can’t you just stay? Just forget about them and stay here where it’s safe?”
“You don’t think they will tear this forest apart looking for me if I don’t show my face soon? I’m all they want now. That and for everyone to surrender but I’m fairly certain I’m at the top of that list.”
“Charlie. I’m sorry about what I said earlier about you being one of them. I didn’t mean it.”
“I know you didn’t El’, it’s ok.”
Eloise drifted off to sleep before uttering another word, secured by Matt’s arms wrapped around her and knowing that at least for the time being she was safe.
She said goodbye to Matt, made him promise he would look after her and not let her leave the cottage until either she or Zane returned to get them and then moved out.
She had two weapons left, a bow and arrow she had salvaged from the basement of Zane’s house before heading into the tunnel and a sword that she had strapped to her right leg. It wasn’t much but it was going to have to do.
Wandering through the woods trying to decide on what to do first she thought about how odd it felt to not have the familiar tingling that meant Zane was close running through her body anymore. She remembered how strong the current had run when she had kissed him on the hill top and how it had felt trying to push it aside to run away from him, like they were tied together by an elastic band that had to stretch to its limits before snapping and releasing its occupants. She missed the company terribly and thought for a moment about searching for him before going any farther but then remembered the reason for leaving him behind in the first place. She couldn’t and wouldn’t put him in any more danger, of that she was certain. She was in this alone now; no one else she loved would get hurt because of her.
Now that El’ and Matt were safe, Charlie found herself thinking about how selfish she had been when returning to town. Sure she had saved her friends but she hadn’t given a second thought to the other people of the town that were burning alive at the time, she was only worried about saving those who were closest to her. Now though, she knew she couldn’t go back to town and get them out like she desperately wanted to. It would be a surefire way to get caught and then there would be no chance left for anyone. In fact she had no idea why people hadn’t run from town already; why like the Valguard they were still hanging around in this god forsaken town. They could have run when they all scattered last night and been free from this hellhole and long gone by now, so why did they all choose to stay? Or was it that they couldn’t leave? Were the Valguard guarding the borders?
There was so many unanswered questions roaming about in her mind that she felt the strong urge to sleep so that her mind would be shut off, at least from the questions if not the nightmares.
She hadn’t realized that she had ended up back at Kara’s place until she was walking through the front door and headed for the shelter and the tunnel that preceded it. Matt gave her an odd look as she walked past the lounge where he was still holding a sleeping Eloise in his arms and she whispered for him not to mind her she just needed to get to the tunnels. He nodded and let her pass silently and she had the weird sensation that she would never see her friends again. She paused and took one last look at them before heading into the basement.
Walking through the dark confines of the tunnel by herself was not so much frightening as lonely. When she had first started her journey to stop the Valguard she had so many people around her. People that she both wanted to protect and needed for comfort. Now though the only way to protect them was to leave them behind and the only comfort she would receive was knowing that at the end of this, she would be able to go back to at least some of them.
About five minutes into her journey to the shelter under Mikal’s coffee shop Charlie crippled over in pain. There was a vision coming, she was sure of it but somehow this felt different, she didn’t get the nausea usually associated with her visions only crippling pain that seemed to radiate from somewhere in the pits of her stomach and before everything faded to black she’d collapsed to the floor in the fetal position.
She knew immediately what was so different about this vision, she wasn’t seeing things from her point of view but rather she was seeing things like she was a completely different person. She could see her own back her long brown hair hanging down her back in a braid, the white regrowth showing through at the top of her head, her burnt arms wrapped tenderly in the wet cloth’s that El’ had so carefully placed there to sooth the pain, her bow and arrow still slung over her body and her sword at her side. She was in the square again, it was dark but she could still make out everything that surrounded her. The people of the town stood in a circle around Town Square and at first she thought they were holding hands but upon closer inspection she found that each person was bound the person next to them by shackles at the wrists and ankles. They were prisoners. She tried to scream to them, to help them but she was useless and she wondered why her other self didn’t do anything to help either until she saw him. Zane was tied to a post in the center of town square, his face bloodied and bruised, his shirt ripped off his body and the word ‘Traitor’ written in blood across his perfect chest. The other Charlie moved forward and reached for her bow at the same time when Zane started yelling.
“10pm! Charlie it’s 10pm.”
Everything faded to black and Charlie was once again lying on the cold concrete floor in the dark tunnel. 10pm, she needed come up with a plan before 10pm, if it was any later she knew that Zane was as good as dead. He had been captured and was probably right now being tortured by the Valguard for being a traitor to his own race. The thought made Charlie writhe in fury as she struggled to pull herself together enough to get up and run.
She was still shaking when she arrived at the tunnel she knew Ford would still lay in, where the guards body would be slumped against the wall next to his and where she would find Mikal’s lifeless body in the next room. She came to a sudden halt, trying to ready herself for what she was about to see but it seemed that preparing was unnecessary. Someone had removed the
bodies of Ford and the Valguard guard from the tunnel, there was no evidence to suggest anything had ever taken place here. It was probably a blessing that someone had removed the bodies from their underground tomb, Charlie doubted whether she would be able to complete her task at hand if she were to see Ford’s body again. The pain from being here was already too much, seeing him and remembering would have tipped her over the edge.
As she knew it would be, Mikal’s body had also been removed but his small desk still stood in the center of the room, seemingly untouched. She just hoped that there was something of use within its drawers. Something that would tell her why the Valguard needed this town and why they couldn’t leave. Something to use as leverage. She looked at her watch as she sat down behind the small, solid rosewood desk. 8pm, she still had time but she had better get a move on if she wanted to make it to town square before Zane was strung to the post for being traitorous.
Mikal’s desk drawers were filled to the brim with paperwork, some dating back the twenty years that he had been living here. She rifled through the most recent ones, even without dates you could tell they were new, the paper hadn’t yet begun to the fade, the ink was darker and quite obviously they sat on top of the pile. She pulled out a few pages that looked promising and started reading. The first had no date but she saw a familiar symbol on the letterhead, a blue circle with a large L printed in the middle and then a somewhat smaller C beside it. She’d seen this symbol on the letter that had been left on Zane’s side table from Lucas Corp. She decided this was possibly the most important letter she had found and began to read immediately.
Destinata (Valguard) Page 18
