Freelancer

by Jake Lingwall

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Kari blinked. She was trying to figure out how to untangle herself from the mess of human limbs that currently pinned her against the front of the truck.

  “David?” Kari asked.

  “Yeah, I’m still here,” he said.

  “We have to get out of here. They’re going to follow us.”

  “Trying.”

  “Is everyone OK?” David’s father asked. He sounded panicked, which was better than how the rest of them were doing.

  “Help us out of here, Dad,” David said.

  A few minutes later, David, his father, and Kari had successfully pulled everyone from the back of the broken military truck. David’s father hadn’t seen the ditch coming, and the truck had been too old to handle it. It smoked and leaked fluid, but it hadn’t caught on fire.

  “We’ve got to keep going,” Kari said between instances of biting her lip in pain. She’d broken something in her right leg. She wasn’t sure what, but it was extremely painful to put a little weight on it. She was doing better than David’s brother, who had broken his arm and had a nasty head injury. The smallest Pratt was unconscious but still breathing. Their group was in bad shape.

  “How?” David’s father yelled. “Look at us!”

  “Dad,” David said. “Shut up.” Everyone looked at David, who had his oldest sister leaning against him, supporting her with one arm while clutching the gun with the other.

  “We’re going to do what Kari says. We’re going to keep going,” David said. “We’re broken, and we’re hurt. But we’re together, and if we’re together, we can make it.”

  “They’re coming,” Kari said softly. She was still connected to her last drone, and it was watching the ruined gate as soldiers rushed through it. They were less than a mile away.

  Kari and the others limped forward as fast as they could. She tried not to cry, but she couldn’t help it. They had come all this way, and now they weren’t going to make it. Her hacking drone blipped offline as some coastal drones caught it and stung it to death. It was the final blow.

  “I’m sorry, David,” Kari said.

  “For what?” David answered as he continued to pull his sister forward.

  “For all this. It’s all my fault.”

  “You’re right,” David said without looking back. “It’s your fault that I’m reunited with my family. And it’s your fault that we still have a chance to make it to freedom.”

  Kari smiled as a drop of blood ran down her face.

  “Besides, at least we won’t have to go back to school,” David said, turning around a little to smile at her. Kari laughed, and it wasn’t just a chuckle. Here they were about to be captured again by some soldiers who were bound to be pretty upset, and David had made a joke.

  “Yes,” Kari said.

  “What?”

  “Yes, I’ll go to homecoming with you,” Kari said as she rested against a tree to give her leg a respite. “I’m not sure they do homecoming for teenage war criminals, but I accept, anyway.”

  “I knew you would,” David shouted back to her as he kept moving.

  “Oh, come on!” Kari shouted back. She was falling behind the group, but she couldn’t keep up. Her right leg was in bad shape. It was for the best; if the soldiers found her, they might leave the rest of David’s family alone. The cheetahs wouldn’t be far behind them now. David looked back at Kari.

  “Wait!” he yelled ahead to his family.

  “No, keep going!” Kari yelled. Stupid boy! “I’ll be fine. Trust me.”

  “David, we’ve got to keep going,” his father yelled to him. David looked torn. His sister needed his help to keep going, but he didn’t want to leave Kari behind.

  “We can’t leave her, Dad,” David said.

  “Yes, you can,” Kari said to both of them.

  David stopped and called his mother over to him. She was in bad shape as well, but she was clearly doing better than Kari. David passed his sister to his mother. Together, they barely managed to stay on their feet. What are you doing, David? They’re going to be too slow like that, you fool.

  Kari turned around to hobble away. She didn’t take more than a few steps before she collapsed onto the soggy forest ground, smearing mud all over her bloodied body. She tried to fight the scream but couldn’t; the pain was too intense. At least my parents will get away safely.

  Kari felt David’s hand grab her shoulder and start to pull her off the ground.

  “Leave me alone!” she said as she pushed his hands away. David was too strong, though. He pulled her back to her feet.

  “I’m not going to leave anyone behind, especially you,” he said. “And yeah, I mean it like that.” He had her lean her weight onto him, and they hobbled forward together. Given her current bloody and muddy status, she doubted David would be able to tell she was blushing. His family members continued ahead, nearly out of sight. His mother and a sister were clearly the other slow group. David’s father was carrying David’s youngest sister, and his brother was in no shape to help anyone.

  “You know,” David said, “we don’t always agree on everything, but you’ve always been nice to me, so I thought I better do the right thing.”

  “Are you trying to quote my apology or something?” Kari asked between heavy breaths.

  “It was very poetic,” David said. Kari wanted to be upset that he was trying to flirt with her right now, but she couldn’t muster the energy.

  Not too far ahead of them, Kari heard screams. David’s family had stopped moving. What now? Henderson crawled all the way out here and is going to finish us off himself? She wouldn’t be surprised. Thinking of Henderson made her remember her improved stretcher that he had rejected. If she had known they were going to end up like this, she would have printed several of them. And he thought they were useless, I’d kill for a few of those right now.

  David mostly pulled her forward as they struggled to make it up to where his family had stopped. When they had nearly caught up, soldiers surrounded them and ordered them to halt.

  “Put your hands in the air!” the soldiers yelled as they pointed their guns at them. Crawlers and drones watched them closely. David slowly did as he was ordered. Kari collapsed to the ground, now that he wasn’t able to support her.

  “Get up!” the soldiers yelled.

  “She can’t,” David answered, sounding as calm as possible.

  “You on the ground, too, then!” the soldiers ordered. David lowered himself to the ground slowly, putting his face next to Kari’s. He smiled at her.

  “You’re smiling?” Kari asked quietly. We suffered through all that just to be caught now, and you’re smiling?

  “Yes,” David whispered. “Those aren’t coastal uniforms.”

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  “Two and a half days? Really?” Kari said.

  “Yes,” General Emil said. I guess that breaks my previous personal record for continuous sleep.

  “I tried to ask the nurses, but they said they weren’t allowed to answer any of my questions,” Kari said.

  “Good,” the general responded. His voice was monotone and boring. It matched his face perfectly, which was old and wrinkled but gave the impression that plenty of fight was left in him, if someone crossed him. He’s sort of refreshing after having to deal with Henderson’s snakery. “Any other questions?”

  Kari had spent the past several hours recounting her story as to how the soldiers had come to find her half-dead outside the US border in the middle of what had appeared to be a battle scene. Not once had the general looked surprised or interested. Kari carefully skirted around the finer details of how exactly she’d managed to pull off the escape. She was sure other interviews would follow, where they pried deeper into the holes of her story, but she was resolute in her decision not to give them her hacking drones. She had explained away her control of US military equipment as a result of hacking the prison’s security system and some inside help from Udarh.

  The
general seemed mostly interested in hearing her version of the story rather than any intricate details. He’d already heard from David’s family. She imagined that he’d thought they were lying, but she was confident her story would match theirs close enough to convince him of its veracity.

  “Yes, you told me the Pratt family was safe, but have they been released yet?” Kari said.

  “No, they have not,” he replied.

  “Will they be released soon?”

  “Yes.” Not a very talkative general. I wonder what conversations with his spouse sound like.

  “Did you win the battle the night you found me?”

  “Classified.”

  “Can you tell me the reason you attacked that night? It’s been bothering me ever since I woke up. It seemed very . . . fortuitous.” Kari congratulated herself on the use of the word.

  “Classified,” the general said. “But I am allowed to say that we are constantly monitoring for weaknesses to determine if it is something we can exploit.” Kari smiled at that and nodded her thanks. It was the longest sentence she had heard from him yet. So they had attacked when they saw the damage my gunship had done, and they saw an opportunity to score a victory.

  “So what’s going to happen to me?” Kari asked. She had been too scared to ask the most important question first.

  “If your accounts are true, as I believe them mostly to be, then you may have significant value for our war efforts,” the general said. Kari winced; it was exactly what she didn’t want to hear.

  “I have no desire to be part of your war, General,” Kari said, trying her hardest to sound respectful.

  “How can we allow such a valuable resource to simply walk away?” the general asked.

  “Because I’m not a resource,” Kari said. “I’m a seventeen-year-old girl.”

  “That you are,” the general said. After a long pause, he continued. “But why spend all that time fighting the United States not to help us now?”

  “Like I tried to explain, I wasn’t trying to fight anyone.”

  “You did a good job of it, though.”

  “Regretfully,” Kari said. He smiled ever so slightly at her brief response.

  “There’s no way that I could persuade you to join our efforts?” he asked.

  “No.”

  “You know, I could try to force you.”

  “Respectfully, general, you could try.”

  “Good point.” Kari could have sworn that the general nearly laughed.

  “How can I be sure you won’t ‘regretfully’ cause us problems here?” he asked.

  “Don’t do anything evil, especially to my friends or family and we shouldn’t have a problem,” Kari said.

  The general considered that for a moment and nodded.

  “Well, then, if I were to let you go, what would you do? I assume you wouldn’t be welcomed back to the coastal states.” His voice was still monotone but somehow softer now. Kari hadn’t considered the question, so she thought about it for a few moments.

  “I have a few loose ends to tie up. I have a few ideas I’d like to work on. Maybe I’ll find some clients again and do some freelancing,” Kari said. “But really, I’m going to do whatever I feel like I need to.”

  “I’ll have your release papers drawn up. I sincerely hope you never feel the need to make me regret this decision.”

  “Me, too.”

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  “So, where are you guys going to go now?” Kari asked. She and David were walking along the edge of the Middle States’ forward military base. It was the first time she’d been allowed to wander throughout the camp without an official military escort. David had met her outside his family’s tent. Kari’s leg had received the best medical attention possible and was now locked in a protective cast that allowed her to limp around unaided.

  The fence was made of barbwire, which made it easy to look out to the west, where they would soon be free. David’s family was leaving soon. Kari had been told her paperwork would take another day to complete.

  “I don’t know, really,” David said. “I think my dad said something about having family in Kansas, so we might head there first.”

  “Good. Good.” How about you say “good” one more time, Kari? “They told me your family is fine. I mean, I asked about them, and they said everyone would live.”

  “Yeah. Everyone will live,” David said. “Although my mom seems to have a hard time believing it. Susie, the youngest, hasn’t really been the same since. I think she’s going to need counseling or something to help her get over the whole thing. Marie has a broken foot, so she might go crazy from not being able to run around for a while, but she’s going to be fine.”

  “I think I might have to join Susie in counseling; it wasn’t an easy trip.” Kari’s heart hurt again as she thought about the lives she had likely taken, albeit accidentally, while she, David, and his family had made their escape.

  “I was so worried about them,” she said. “I didn’t know if Susie was going to make it.” Her voice grew more solemn as she reflected on the last time she had seen David’s youngest sister, limp in her father’s lap in the back of the transport. It all seemed so long ago, as if it had never really happened.

  “We were lucky the Middle States found us so quickly. It might not have ended as well for us,” David said. “For any of us.” He looked down at Kari’s leg with a frown.

  “Oh, I would’ve been fine. My plan was to get arrested again,” Kari said. “They would’ve fixed me up before sentencing me for life.”

  “But are you fine now? I mean, you were never the most elegant walker before, but you’re a little less so now.”

  “Wow! Well, I’m not at liberty to give personal medical information to my critics, but yeah, I’ll be fine. I should be back to normal soon.” Kari chuckled. She wasn’t sure she would ever fully recover, but the doctors had insisted she would be fine. David laughed a little as well.

  “So your parents are fine?” Kari asked.

  “Yeah. They’re back to their grumpy, old selves,” David said, his voice losing its mirth. “They still aren’t really happy about being here.”

  “Oh.”

  “My dad still says we were better off just waiting out the war back in North Carolina, but I’m pretty sure that’s just because he doesn’t want to admit he was wrong. I think it’s hard for him to admit that he wasn’t able to protect the family himself and had to have a teenage girl do what he couldn’t. The truth is we’d be rotting in that interment camp without you and he knows it.”

  “I guess that’s understandable,” Kari said.

  “He’ll come around though.” David said. Kari wasn’t sure she believed him so she shrugged it off.

  “What about your mom?”

  “Mom doesn’t like how close we were to . . . everything ending poorly. She says we should never risk family.” I did force them to take risks they might not have been willing to take. What would I think if David had wanted to risk my family’s lives?

  “I guess that’s fair too,” Kari said. “Well, I won’t plan on coming over for dinner in Kansas anytime soon.”

  “I think they’re happy they’re here now, though,” David said. “In a little while, they’ll focus more on their gratitude for you.” Kari knew he was trying to make her feel better.

  “Well, I didn’t do it for their gratitude,” Kari said, feeling oddly vulnerable that David’s parents might not like her.

  “You know, I’ve been meaning to ask why you did all this, now that you bring it up,” David said. Kari turned to find him staring at her. Their eyes met for a brief moment, and then they both tore away and looked ahead at where they were walking.

  “I did it because I felt like I needed to,” Kari said. “I didn’t think I’d be able to feel good about myself if I let bad things happen to you just because your beliefs are different from most people.” David gave a small grunt to let her know he was still listening.

  She continued. �
�Marshal Henderson was behind most of this. He was always trying to force people into teams, as if all there is in the world are two ways to look at things: if you like part of one side, you have to like all of it. He wanted everyone to hate everyone else who sympathizes with a different way of thinking, and that felt wrong to me.” Kari felt like she was listening to herself just as intently as David was. She had never before exerted such effort to put her thoughts into words.

  “I think that’s what’s really wrong with the world sometimes. People start thinking they’re part of a team more than thinking like a human. When people start being like Henderson, they stop being decent. I wanted to be decent, I suppose.” Kari finished with some emotion in her voice. When I put it like that, I guess I should be proud of myself.

  “For what it’s worth, I think it was very decent of you,” David said. Kari turned to look at him again, and this time she held his gaze for a few moments as they walked down the side of the camp.

  “Thank you,” Kari said. “And it’s worth a lot to me.” He’s still the same. The whole world has changed, I’m an outlaw, my parents should be across the globe, his parents resent me, but David is the same.

  “I’m the one who will always be thankful for you, Kari. I know enough about history to know that wars can go on for a long time, and it’s not a great thing to be in internment camps. I know you’re the only reason that my family is free and together,” David said. They still hadn’t broken eye contact when David’s foot caught and he stumbled forward. Kari couldn’t help but laugh. David’s face went a little red, which caused Kari to laugh harder. And he thought I was the inelegant walker.

  “What are you going to do when you get to Kansas?” Kari asked, eager to change the subject. She had never been comfortable accepting praise or thanks.