“Yes. I’m part Valguard. My father was Mikal also known as the head of the Valguard’s or Mike from the coffee shop to most of you. I killed him yesterday in my efforts to free this town. My human DNA allows me to choose which of my Valguard abilities and how much of them I want to use. I’m no different to you except in the fact that I was the first experiment. I am living proof that Lucas Corp. is trying to raise an army of super-Valguard’s to use as a weapon. A weapon that they will readily dispose of to satisfy their own sick and twisted minds. The time has come to make your choice, either we stand together and fight or we fight each other until there is not one person left in this town.”
A woman who looked to be in her early forties stepped forward, shaking and obviously nervous in the presence of Charlie and the Valguard forces behind her.
“Why are your eyes different? Why don’t they glow like theirs?”
Charlie was hoping no one would ask this question because although she was ready to omit her Valguard ancestry she couldn’t lie about it.
“They do glow. Actually a lot brighter than theirs at times. I’m wearing contacts.”
She reached up and removed the contacts from her eyes, revealing the shockingly bright purple iris’s beneath. The crowd gasped in unison at the sight and she knew right then that she had lost them as allies.
“You’re just like they are.”
“We need to kill them all!”
“We won’t be taken for fools!”
The town had become blood thirsty at the sight of one of their own being ‘turned’ and she knew at that point that either way, whoever won, she was not going to live out the night.
Over the shouting crowd Charlie could hear her own name being called but who would be calling out to her now? They had all turned against her. All but one that is.
“Charlie, it’s 10pm.”
“Zane.”
She whispered the name having completely forgotten that her friend would be bound to the pole behind her at 10pm she was grateful for his presence. He hadn’t been there previously when Charlie was having her standoff with James; they must have brought him in amongst the confusion that occurred after she had revealed what she truly was. She suddenly remembered the backup plan that she had in place with Matt and fiddling in her pocket she found what she was looking for. She reached her hands to her ears discreetly; making it look like she was pushing her hair behind her ears she made sure that she tilted her head slightly so that Zane – who was looking in her direction – could see the small yellow buds that she had just placed in them and letting her hair fall back down once again. She casually reached back into her pocket and very carefully pushed the numbers on her phone that she knew would connect her to Matt’s phone back at the cottage. She could feel the vibrations of the sound coming through the phone which meant it was ringing, a brief pause and then a deeper, shorter vibration meaning Matt had answered. She looked at Zane and scrunched her eyes together as hard as she could signaling that he should do the same and once he had, she shouted at her pocket as loud as she could.
“Matt! NOW!”
Within seconds the town was scattering, The Valguard brought to their knees by the horrible screeching that filled the air, their naked eyes blinded by the light that surrounded them. Charlie had pulled her glasses from her pocket the moment she had heard the amplified alarm bell ring and shielded her eyes from the intensified lights. Matt had done it. He had succeeded in hacking into the town’s power grid and had exaggerated the strength of the flood lights that were placed around town square and increased the pitch of the alarm that signaled an evacuation. Charlie felt like it had been days since she had come up with the plan. She remembered thinking at the time that there was no way they could compete with the Valguard’s strength if the truce didn’t pan out but they could mess with their senses, so much so that they would effectively be crippled and defenseless. Although it wasn’t exactly supposed to turn out like this. The town was supposed to be fighting with her, not fleeing from her but Charlie had learned something since the war with the Valguard had started. She had learned that it was a very rare occasion that things actually went according to plan and when they didn’t you better come up with a backup plan as quickly as possible.
Tonight’s backup plan was to free Zane from his bindings and run. There was nothing left for them here now, they would have to go into hiding until they could decide on yet another plan to get themselves out of the mess that Charlie had gotten them into.
Not wasting any time she moved to the pole that marked the center of the square and started to tear through the rope that bound Zane’s hands behind him. He was free within seconds and they had started to run but not before James leapt at them and knocked Zane to the ground.
“Run Charlie. Now!”
“I’m not leaving you behind again Zane, get up!”
Getting up wasn’t as easy as it sounded when Zane was pinned to the ground under the weight of James’s body who was still writhing with the pain from the alarms.
Charlie took another arrow from her quiver and aimed it directly over the section of body she knew his heart would be in and let the arrow fly. He moved just before the arrow hit him in the back, making it so that yet again she had missed his heart but this time it wasn’t intentional. Shooting him had worked well enough though, he was now slumped on Zane’s body, completely immobile but still breathing. She reached a hand to Zane who was desperately trying to cover his ears and get up at the same time.
“Oh! Here.”
She handed him a second set of small bright colored ear buds which he gratefully took and shoved into his own ears. Seconds later they were both headed in the direction of the forest and as far away from the town as they could get.
They arrived at Kara’s cottage in desperate need of water and a rest and were met at the door by a very fidgety Eloise and a slightly calmer but more shaken Matt behind her.
“What the hell is going on? We heard you screaming but we couldn’t make out what was going on.”
That’s when Matt held up his phone and Charlie realized that she had never disconnected the call. Matt and El’ had heard the frantic screams of the town people as they fled, they’d heard Charlie’s unwillingness to leave Zane and then they would have heard nothing until they had reached the door of the cottage. Charlie could only imagine how that must have felt for them and if she were in that position she was sure that she would not have handled it half as well as they had.
“I’m so sorry, I completely forgot to disconnect the call. You shouldn’t have had to listen to that.”
“Don’t worry Charlie, you’re both safe and back here now. It’s fine. I’m guessing the plan didn’t go so well though?”
“Understatement of the year. I let it slip that I was part Valguard and I lost them. Now I have the Valguard’s and the human’s after me and them against each other. I royally stuffed things up this time. I thought I was supposed to stop the war once it started. Not keep cocking things up and making it worse.”
She expected something from Eloise or Matt but it was Zane who spoke to her next, his voice soft and full of pain.
“Kara’s visions weren’t always accurate Charlie. You know yourself that even yours aren’t always right and with a slight shift or change of mind, everything can change in a heartbeat. Maybe in the beginning you were supposed to stop the war but now, who knows. Everything’s different now and all we can do is try to stay alive for as long as possible and keep trying to stop the fighting. We can’t get out of town and we can’t stay here so it’s our only choice really.”
“We’re safe here for tonight right? They won’t find us here?”
“No, I don’t think so. We are too far in and even as a Valguard if you don’t know where this place is it would be too hard to find.”
“Good. Then let’s get cleaned up and get some sleep under our belt because tomorrow we’re going to have to think of something to get us out of this mess.”
Zane fol
lowed Charlie into the bathroom to help her undress and shower; it was impossible to get her shirt over her head without causing excruciating pain to the burns on her arms so he rummaged for a pair of scissors in a nearby draw and cut the shirt from her body. He sacrificed a hot shower for a slightly warmer than freezing one after Charlie’s screams filled the air when he had set the temperature to warm. The tears of agony rolled down her face as Zane washed her body and by the time they were done she was shaking uncontrollably. She needed medical attention but she wasn’t going to get it from here and she couldn’t trust anyone in town anymore. Zane was the best option she had now. He cleaned the burns as best as he could before applying some burn cream and bandages from the first aid kit he had retrieved from the kitchen before heading the bathroom. He gave her a glass of water and some paracetamol for the pain and brought his arms around her and just held her close. She had never known such comfort, not even with Ford. When Zane was around he was like a security blanket for her, he made the dark thoughts that filled her mind almost completely disappear and shadowed her with love. She wondered how a Valguard had ended up with such a big heart but she knew the answer before she had asked the question. Because he chose to be loving instead of choosing a life of hatred. It was that simple.
“Charlie, who is James? He was just a barista, why is he all of a sudden leading the Valguard?”
“He’s not James. He’s Jaramm.”
“No, I’ve met Jaramm and he is not it.”
“Jaramm had a burned face right?”
“Yea, how’d you...”
“He told me. I ran into him in the hardware store before going to the square, he said one of the doctors in town had fixed him up and he changed his name to James.”
“I never would have known.”
“I think that was the point. He didn’t care that he had told me because he wasn’t expecting me to live. I wasn’t expecting me to live. I’m still not quite sure I’m going to actually.”
“You’re going to be fine! I’m not going to let anything happen to you now.”
I don’t think either of us have a choice in that really.
She had been so certain that when the town’s people had turned on her that she wouldn’t survive the night but then again, she had been certain of this many times now and it had never come to pass. She could feel it coming but she couldn’t understand why in an instant it changed and she was allowed to live. Maybe it was just to torment her some more; lull her into a false sense of security before doing away with her for good.
She didn’t voice her opinion to Zane, she just wanted to go to bed and sleep for a while. They assumed their usual position of Charlie’s head resting on Zane’s chest but sleep didn’t come easy. She was exhausted, both mentally and physically but there was too much to worry about and too much to think about that her thoughts kept her up well into the early morning when she finally drifted off to sleep listening to the sound of Zane singing an old lullaby.
The time for waking came far too soon for Charlie’s liking and although besides her burns she felt physically fine – after all, little rest is better than no rest – mentally she was still exhausted and after a short, broken sleep her mind was worse for wear. She didn’t know how long Zane had been awake but when she looked up, his tired eyes met her own with a small smile.
“Morning.”
“How’d you sleep?”
“Horribly. You?”
“About the same. You feeling up to some breakfast?”
Zane was ridiculously enthusiastic about breakfast all the time. Charlie hadn’t been much of a breakfast person before she met him, preferring a morning coffee instead but since the day she had decided it would be easier to stay at his house while they were training, he made sure she ate a substantial amount every single morning. She protested at first but after a few days gave in and just rolled her eyes at him every time he put a plate in front of her face and remembering her words from that first day at his Oak Street house she repeated them now with a sense of humor and teasing.
“Anyone would think you are trying to make me fat you know.”
And he responded accordingly.
“No one likes to hug a stick figure Charlie.”
She smiled at the memory but made no movement to get out of bed, she wanted to stay here like this for as long as possible. She knew she was only prolonging the inevitable but laying here with Zane in this cottage cut off from the rest of the world it was easy to forget all the troubles that surrounded her life and even easier to enjoy it.
She heard something drop in the kitchen and knew that Eloise and Matt must be up making their own breakfast.
“Must be time to face the world then.”
Charlie let out a small sigh of reluctance before moving from Zane’s chest.
“Come on, I’ll cook you some bacon.”
He jumped out of the bed and offered his hand to help Charlie and pulling her into a hug as she climbed out of the bed.
“I love you Charlie.”
“I know.”
She saw the disappointment in his eyes as they walked to the kitchen but she still couldn’t bring herself to say it. She wouldn’t hurt another person the way she had hurt Ford, she needed to be completely sure about her feelings before admitting them to anyone else this time and with everything going on she couldn’t possibly know how she felt towards anyone let alone Zane. For now it was better that he be disappointed than hurt.
They found Eloise sitting on the floor of the kitchen in tears surrounded by a shattered breakfast bowl. Matt was hovering over her not sure what to do; he had seen her angry and upset and could deal with those times easily but seeing the broken down mess that was sitting on the floor must have had him feeling completely useless. He was close to tears himself not knowing how to handle what was going on but not wanting to leave her alone at the same time. Charlie stepped over to El’ being careful not to stand on any of the smashed bowl and helped her to her feet. She very quietly directed Eloise towards the stool that sat by the counter and eased her down onto where she dropped her shoulders as the tears started to ease and Matt came to stand by her side again.
Her words came through thick and fast and it was plain to everyone in the kitchen she wanted to say what she needed to before the tears started again.
“Maybe we could just stay here. If they can’t find us, why can’t we just stay?”
Her voice broke on the last word and almost broke Charlie at the same time. Zane who had been cleaning up the broken bowl, dropped the dustpan and broom he had been working with and stood to face El’.
“Because eventually they would. They would have seen us running towards the trees when we left the square. They’re bound to come looking for us sooner or later. Even if this place is difficult for them to find, it’s not undiscoverable.”
The look of hope that El’ had briefly displayed fell from her face and was replaced by a look of defeat.
“So what’s left then? We go out and meet them head on and face our death with courage and dignity? I don’t think so! I’m not ready to die!”
“I am…”
Eloise, Zane and Matt all snapped their heads towards Charlie with varying degrees of incredulity plastered firmly on their faces.
“I just mean, from the moment this all started I never expected to live for this long. I’ve been preparing myself for death from the start. It’s not like I have a death wish or anything, I just know that it’s coming eventually and I’m ready for when it arrives.”
At her statement El’ seemed to get some of her old spark back.
“Well I’m not! If you want to give up so easily then that’s fine! But don’t go dragging me along with you!!”
She jumped down from the stool she had been seated upon and stormed out of the room, Matt rolling his eyes and clambering off after her. This was his job; this he knew how to handle.
“Well that was fun.”
It was Zane’s turn to roll his eyes at Charlie and mumb
le something that sounded suspiciously like ‘girls’ under his breath before smirking in her direction and continuing to clean up the broken ceramic from the slate floor in the kitchen.
Two hours later they were still no closer to having a plan than they were when they woke up that morning. They were completely alone in this war now; the humans were against Charlie and the Valguard and the Valguard were against Charlie and the humans. It was no use trying to come up with a plan really. There is no way that the four of them could take on either the towns people or the Valguard without forfeiting their lives. There was only one thing left to do.
“We have to get a call out of the town.”
Zane who had been zoned out - wrapped up in his own thoughts – looked at Charlie questioningly.
“Huh?”
“We need to get a call out of the town. Get in touch with the authorities in the closest city and get them to air lift us out or something. We can’t just sit here waiting for them to come. We need to get El’ and Matt out at least. The town’s gone crazy, the people will be kill anyone associated with me in a heartbeat and if they don’t the Valguard will. I can’t let that happen to them.”
“Can’t let what happen to us?”
It was Matt, obviously Eloise had finished her tantrum and now he felt enough at ease to leave her side.
“I won’t let you get killed because of me. I’m going to place a call to the authorities in Raine. It’s the closest city to us here. I’m going to tell them that the town is under threat – give them as little information as possible – and get them to bring in a helicopter or something. We already know that the force field around the town won’t allow us to walk or drive through the barrier but I doubt it would extend as far as to keep helicopters out so that’s our best bet.”
Matt raised his eyebrows at Charlie, obviously thinking that her plan wasn’t going to work but allowing her to go along thinking that it would.
Destinata (Valguard) Page 20
