Destinata (Valguard)

by Nicole Daffurn

  “Ok it’s worth a shot I suppose.”

  Charlie took her cell phone out amazed that the battery was still going - it had been days since it was charged – and dialed information and made the call that would hopefully save the lives of her friends. She didn’t however let her friends know that she had absolutely no intention of leaving Tole with them, that she couldn’t leave their home town. No, where they were going she couldn’t follow, she had to stay, she had to do as Kara had said. She had to stop the war and defeat the Valguard.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Charlie had no idea how she pulled it off but the authorities from Raine would be meeting Charlie and her friends at a nearby clearing in the woods in two hours’ time. She had found the coordinates on an old map stashed in the study drawer that would let Raine police department know exactly where to pick them up from.

  Surprisingly they hadn’t asked as many questions as she had expected. She had assumed that they would ask her for every little detail but instead, as soon as she told them that there was an emergency and she needed immediate assistance in the way of a chopper to get her and her friends out of town they were onto it and rang back within half an hour to tell her to sit tight and be assured they would be there soon.

  Charlie bounced back into the house positively wound up with excitement over the prospect of saving her friends and ran straight into a solemn looking Zane.

  “What’s up? The choppers going to be here in a couple of hours so we’ll have to get some stuff together and get going soon.”

  “Charlie…”

  “What? What is it?”

  “Eloise has gone.”

  “Gone? Where the hell has she gone?”

  “Matt went to tell her that you were about to make the call, he found this on the recliner and the basement door open.”

  Zane handed Charlie a crumpled piece of paper that was splattered with tear stains. It read:

  I can’t stand this anymore, if they won’t listen to you, they have to listen to me right? I am a human after all, 100% human, they can’t hold that against me. I’ve grown up with these people, I can make them see reason. I’ll get them to understand that you aren’t a bad person, that you are trying to help, that we can overpower the Valguard and take our town back. I have to do this. I have to try. I’m sorry.

  “Shit! Where’s Matt?”

  Zane closed his eyes and pointed towards the basement.

  “He went after her? Of course he went after her. Why can’t things ever just be easy?”

  “We better try to get them before they get too far.”

  Charlie was moving before Zane had finished. It wouldn’t be too hard with their speed to catch up to their friends in the tunnels but if they had already made it out, who knows how long it would take to find them.

  She ran without regard for her safety, not caring if the Valguard’s were traveling these tunnels. All she cared about was getting her friends – the only people she had a chance at saving – back and out of this town before the day was ended.

  She realized when they reached the shelter at Zane’s house that she was too late. When she had escorted El’ and Matt to Kara’s cottage through the tunnels she had made sure the shelter doors were firmly shut; they now stood wide open. Evidence that someone had been through here recently. Of course the Valguard could have returned but she just knew in her heart that wasn’t the case.

  Seeing the wreckage of the house once again brought back memories that Charlie wished would remain lost forever and so pushing them to the back of her mind along with the pain that flared in her arms with the memories, she moved silently through the destroyed building.

  “They’re not here.”

  Zane’s voice was defeated.

  “Where the hell would they have gone?”

  “El said she was going to talk to the people right?”

  His voice had taken on a more knowing tone at his thoughts.

  “Yea. So what? She could be anywhere by now.”

  “No. Matt’s smart. Really smart. I’m willing to bet he would have suggested calling all of the people in town to one spot again when he couldn’t convince Eloise to turn back. He’d never leave her on her own, he wouldn’t have had any other choice.”

  “So you think he’s what? Sending another mass email? From where?”

  “No I don’t think he’s sending another email. The people wouldn’t fall for that again. Charlie, you’ve lived in this town and known Matt and El’ practically your whole life. Where was the one place you all went to feel safe?”

  Charlie paused thinking about all the time she had been in trouble when she was younger and about all the times that El’ had stumbled to her house when her dad had decided on having another violent outburst and the answer came to her suddenly.

  “The attic!”

  They knew that the fire had devastated the house next door and although this one was a total mess and had holes in every single wall and door, it was still standing.

  Charlie was running before she had finished speaking and was bounding up the stairs that led to the third floor of the house two at a time.

  Bursting through the door at the top of the stairs El’ and Matt – clearly hearing her approach – stood side by side and ready to attack. At least one of them – she didn’t know which – had the sense to bring weapons.

  In amidst Charlie’s sighs of relief at having found them she heard Eloise speak for the first time since entering the attic.

  “You’re too late.”

  She was smiling with pride at the thought of finally having done something to help in the war but Charlie was suddenly furious at her for running off and couldn’t offer her the congratulations that she thought she deserved just yet.

  “Why’d you run off?!”

  She placed her hands on her hips to emphasize her anger when her voice came out sounding concerned rather than irritated.

  “I told you already. I’m not ready to die! Not yet!”

  “You don’t have to die Eloise!”

  “No? then what am I supposed to do? Sit around to wait and wonder whether you’re going to be coming back alive or in a wooden box? No thanks. You aren’t the only one that can play the hero Charlie.”

  Charlie threw her hands up in the air in exasperation not wanting to show how much El’s words had wounded her.

  “I am not playing the hero! I’m… Wait. You didn’t tell her?”

  Charlie turned on Matt, his face shining pink at being addressed so abruptly.

  “No I…”

  “Tell me what?!”

  “He didn’t tell you that I called the Raine police. They’re picking us up in the clearing in a little over an hour, so if you want out of here I suggest we move. And quickly.”

  Charlie had just stepped back onto the second floor landing when she heard something downstairs and gesturing for the others to stop and stay quiet she crept along the landing to the top of the stairs and peered down. She couldn’t see anything but she could still hear muffled voices and the unmistakable sound of clutter being pushed around. She listened harder and hearing a faint echo she realized why the voices sounded so muffled. They were in the tunnels and from the sound of it they were almost at the shelter.

  She turned to El’, Matt and Zane who hadn’t stayed where she had told them to but had crept up to peer over the banister with her… Of course. Rolling her eyes at them, she whispered a warning for them to run as fast and as quiet as possible and then started running herself.

  Of course the safest and quickest way back to Kara’s and then to the clearing was through the tunnels or out the back door but that was made impossible when two Valguard appeared at the pantry entrance just as the four of them were making a run for the rear entrance of the house.

  “Don’t stop!”

  Still heading for the back door they were surprised again by two more Valguard standing guard in the dining room effectively ruining their plan to flee the house without a fight.

&n
bsp; Charlie turned hoping they could get past the Valguard back at the kitchen but realizing when she turned on her heels that they were cut off, it was fight or die and the latter definitely wasn’t an option.

  “You’re not going anywhere now girl. Just hand over the weapons and we’ll let you live.”

  “But you won’t let us go.”

  It wasn’t a question. Charlie knew if they surrendered their weapons they would be defenseless and most likely the Valguard weren’t lying, they would be allowed to live but they would also be taken to James and be made the first lab rats of Tole. She didn’t plan on dying or becoming a lab rat today and in one fluid movement had her sword free from its restraints on the leg of her pants and had killed the first Valguard before the second had even realized what was going on. Zane tackled the second to the floor before he could produce a weapon as she turned to focus her attentions on the two Valguard’s at the back door. They weren’t moving, not a muscle. They didn’t even blink, they just stood and watched as two of their friends were taken down and killed.

  Not liking the thought of wasting time Charlie yelled for everyone to move out the front door and turned herself not taking her eyes of the guards at the back door until the last second and ran for it. She noticed about thirty seconds down the road and heading towards the forest that they were being followed but not by the guards they had left at the house, by the human population of Tole. There were five men and two women after the four friends and more were emerging from their houses alerted by the shouts of those who were doing the chasing.

  By the time they reached the tree line there were at least twenty people pursuing them. Hunting them down like animals and moving in for the kill. The threat of the Valguard had driven the town crazy and now Charlie wondered whether it was the Valguard or the humans that she should be worried about. It was clear now that the Valguard would not kill her; they would lock her away with other ‘experiments’ for further testing. The humans were just out for blood, whether they killed her quickly or slowly she would surely die at their hands. That had to be better than a life – a very long life - under the microscope right?

  But right now, they still had another option. Get to the clearing, meet the choppers and get the hell out of here. She hadn’t planned on leaving with the others but now… Now she knew she wasn’t going to be able to help this town, no matter what she said or did she was an outcast from both sides and neither was going to adhere to her pleas. She would go with the Raine police department and sort something out once she was out of the town. There had to be someone – the secret service or the FBI maybe – that could help with situations like this and if there wasn’t she would make sure there was by the time she was done telling them what was going on here.

  They burst through the trees but there was no outrunning the people behind them. Of course Zane and Charlie could have easily ‘turned up’ the Valguard and taken off, leaving them behind but with Matt and El’ they couldn’t go any faster than they currently were and it wasn’t fast enough.

  Charlie was taken down from behind; the hands that had clutched her burned arms pulled her to the ground and started to punch into her face before she could defend herself. She felt fingernails digging into the flesh on her cheeks and knew they had been dug in far enough to draw blood; she could feel the warm liquid running the wrong way up her face, pulled by gravity over her eyes and turning her vision red. Through the crimson haze, she finally saw her attackers face.

  “Jill! Jill! Stop! Please.”

  She realized she had tears mixing with her plasma and her voice cracked as she pleaded for the once kind librarian to stop and let her go. She desperately thrashed her head around trying to pry the woman’s cold fingers from her face and to catch a glimpse of her friends at the same time. She found Matt and Eloise nearby fighting off Bob from the car place and his son but she couldn’t see any sign of Zane anywhere. Hopefully he was still headed for the clearing, if at least one could get there, they could still get out of here.

  While Jill fussed over getting Charlie’s flailing arms from behind her to bind them she saw that half of the people that had come after them had stopped along the tree line and were just watching and waiting. Waiting for what though?

  “Jill. What’s going on?”

  The fear and panic were rising within Charlie and it showed on her face and in her voice. There was no concealing the worry that had nothing to do with being restrained and everything to do with almost two dozen faces staring in her direction waiting for something that was unknown to her.

  Jill stopped trying to struggle with her arms and looked down upon Charlie’s face, a cruel smirk playing on her lips.

  “Well, while you’ve been out here playing hide and seek in the woods the people of Tole have been talking with our enemy. And they say that if we hand you over, since you’re really all they have ever wanted, they will let us go free. You’re a hot commodity Charlie and too get what we want we need to trade you in.”

  “You’re crazy! The whole lot of you have gone completely and utterly crazy! Do you really think they’re going to let you go just because they get me? I’m worth nothing to them. I’m an experiment and nothing more. I’m the first and when they get me out of the way, you’re going to be next. Only they know that our DNA’s mix perfectly now and there will be no freedom of choice for you. No free will. You’ll be just as disposable as I am.”

  Some of the people looked like they actually believed her, others looked at her in disgust, and some even looked at her with fear but none of it mattered because they had made up their minds. They were taking Charlie to the Valguard in a bid for their freedom, whether they believed her or not she knew they felt it was their only chance.

  “You’re not fooling any of us Charlie! You’re one of them, why would we believe anything you say?”

  “If you won’t believe anything I say then why are you believing what they say?”

  “Because, they are the ones with the power not you. What are you in this war? One half-human, one Valguard traitor and two human traitors. You are nothing and you’re deluding yourself if you think you will ever be able to win.”

  Jill was right, they were nothing and there was no way they could win but that wasn’t going to stop Charlie from trying.

  “Fine! You want to become the first lot of lab rats for Lucas Corp. and their army of Valguard’s that’s just fine by me but I won’t be joining you.”

  “You will do…”

  Charlie mustered up every ounce of Valguard strength she could spare, twisted her arms out from behind her back and thrust Jill’s body into the air where she came crashing down upon a nearby tree. She was on her feet in a split second and running to where El’ and Matt’s captors had them sitting at their feet having stopped to watch the verbal altercation between herself and Jill. After seeing Charlie throw Jill five meters into the air, no one was even remotely thinking about trying to harm her now. She took her friends under the arm, helped them off the ground unbound their wrists and set off further into the forest in search of the small tingle that would alert her to Zane’s presence nearby.

  She found Zane back at Kara’s gathering supplies of weaponry. It was obvious that he was going to make his way back and try to fight off every human that stood in his path to Charlie and his good intentions made her smile in a way that she hadn’t in what felt like years but had really only been a few weeks. After all, it only been about four weeks since the day Zane had told her that she was the destinata, it seemed such a short time but felt like a lifetime.

  “What you got there?”

  Zane spun around so fast that she wondered how he didn’t get dizzy and fall face first onto the floor, the look of shock on his face comical.

  “Charlie, what are you doing? I was coming back for you.”

  “I can see that. But as it turns out, the damsel in distress didn’t need saving today.”

  Rushing to her side he scooped her up in his arms and spun around on the spot bef
ore gently placing her back on her feet.

  “How? Did they let you go?”

  “In a manner of speaking. I pushed Jill off me to get away and they let us leave. I think they were too scared to do anything else.”

  “Why were they scared if you only pushed a woman off you?”

  “Because she threw that woman at least sixteen foot in the air! It actually was pretty terrifying to watch Charlie, your eyes glowed red for a second and then you threw her. For a moment there I thought you had gone full Valguard on us.”

  “Red? That’s new.”

  Everyone’s eyes were on Charlie now, looking for an explanation.

  “Hey, don’t look at me, it’s not like I can see my own eyes you know.”

  They let it drop after that and started back out the door to the clearing and their savior.

  In the distance they could hear the faint, distinct sound of helicopter blades cutting through the air. The sound gave them the motivation and the energy to pick up the pace a little to get to where their rescuers would land and pick them up before taking them on the short trip back to Raine, back to civility.

  They reached the clearing before the helicopters and Charlie took the opportunity to slip in a new set of contact lenses, not wanting the first thing the Raine police saw to be her bright purple glowing eyes. Zane took a set of his own and did the same and then came to wrap his arm around her and wait for the choppers to come in.

  It took another ten minutes for the air crafts to find the spot they had been given precise coordinates for and to hover above them shining their spotlights directly over the clearing. Charlie, Zane, El’ and Matt all moved underneath the spotlight and waved their hands frantically in the air to signal that they were in the right spot and could land now but instead of lowering the helicopter to the ground Charlie saw something fall from the mid-section and land at her feet. Knotted rope. They wanted them to climb? Charlie was exhausted and she knew that if she was El’ and Matt had no chance but they would try anyway. Maybe whoever was in the helicopter’s middle would pull them up to safety without having to climb so far. She could always hope anyway.