The Other Morgan (Parallel Series, Book 5)

by Christine Kersey

  Three seconds later Enforcer vehicles began flying past us. We froze in place until the last one passed, then Scott stood. “Stay here.”

  Adrenaline poured through my veins, but I held completely still, glad we weren’t on our own. We were in an alley, behind a row of stores, and I listened intently for the hint of an approaching car. Cold air and the stink of rotten garbage surrounded us, but I tried to ignore it as I focused on our survival.

  “Okay,” Scott said as he squatted beside us several minutes later. “Here’s what we’re going to do. To make sure no one can track our location, I’ve had to go radio silent, but I know of a safe house a few miles from here. We just have to get there and then I’ll assess our next move.”

  It sounded simple enough, except that I knew it wasn’t. Even though I had zero experience running from Enforcers, I’d heard enough stories of people who had tried to evade them but had been found and captured.

  Our prospects weren’t good.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Should we wait until it gets dark or something?” Amy asked.

  “That would be ideal,” Scott said, “but it won’t be dark for another five hours and we’re too exposed here.”

  I couldn’t argue with that. It seemed like a group of Enforcers could come by at any moment. “How are we going to keep them from seeing us?” I asked, wondering how much experience Scott had in evading capture by Enforcers. Any amount was more than Amy and I had, but still, I fervently hoped he knew what he was doing.

  “I found a small shop around the corner that I think is run by friendlies.”

  “What’s a friendly?” Amy asked.

  “It means someone who believes in our cause, who’s against the government control. Someone who might help us.”

  “Why do you think they’re friendly?” I asked. I didn’t want to get pulled into a place where we thought we would be safe only to have the people turn on us.

  “I had a conversation with the man who’s running the place. After a while you get a feel for these things, and I think he’s okay.”

  “I’d feel better if we knew for sure,” I said. “I mean, what if he recognizes me? Won’t he be worried about helping us when the Enforcers are so eager to get me? Wouldn’t that put him on their bad list if they found out he was helping me?”

  I was hoping Scott would reassure me that people were willing to risk their own safety for others, but his hesitation only confirmed my concerns, and I again wondered if he knew what he was doing.

  “You’re going to have to trust me, Morgan,” he said with a frown. “I have to know you’re going to do what I tell you to without questioning me. Can you do that?”

  Could I? I had no idea if he could be trusted. I had to take care of me, and of course Amy. Did he care as much about us as we cared about ourselves? I had no way of knowing. All I knew was that I had no idea where Amy and I could hide. “Yes,” I finally said.

  “Amy?” he asked.

  She looked at me as if to see if I meant it, then she nodded. “Yeah.”

  “Good. Now wait here while I scope things out some more.”

  “Okay,” we both said, and then he left.

  “Do you really trust him?” Amy asked.

  I looked at her, glad I wasn’t completely alone. “I don’t know. What about you?”

  Her lips pressed together as she shrugged. “Maybe we should stay with him for now.”

  “That’s what I was thinking.”

  Amy smiled, like she was glad she’d gotten the answer right. What she didn’t know was that I was depending on her judgement.

  Five minutes later Scott returned. “Let’s go.”

  “Where?” I had to know I wasn’t walking into a trap.

  Annoyance clouded his face. “You just said you would follow my instructions without asking questions.” Looking away, he shook his head, then he met my gaze. “Do you want to stay here until dark, exposed? Or will you come with me?”

  Amy’s hand slid into mine and I knew she would do whatever I decided, which only made my decision more difficult. “Did you talk to the man in the shop?”

  Scott sighed. “Yes. He said he’d let us stay there until dark.”

  “And he knows it’s me who will be hiding there?”

  Scott hesitated. “I didn’t tell him you’re name. I thought it best to keep it vague.”

  When I imagined the shopkeeper’s reaction to seeing me—shock, then immediately calling the Enforcers—my heart began to pound.

  “Your hood, Morgan,” Amy said. “Put on your hood.”

  “Exactly what I was about to suggest,” Scott said as he glanced at Amy. “And you’ll stay close to me as we enter the store. The man showed me where to go so you won’t have to talk to him.”

  Maybe this would work. “Okay.” I pulled up my hood, glad this jacket had one, and stood. Amy stood as well, then we followed Scott out from behind the dumpster. Though glad to leave the awful smell behind, I missed our hiding spot and pulled my hood close around my face as we approached the corner that would expose us to any passers-by.

  Amy pulled her hood up, and we stayed close to Scott as he rounded the corner. A row of shops with people streaming in and out filled my view. It was the middle of a Saturday and it seemed everyone was out shopping. Staring at the ground as we walked, I avoided making eye contact with the people in my path.

  “Here we are,” Scott murmured as we reached a store with clothing displays in the windows. He opened the door and held it for Amy and me, then followed us inside. “This way.”

  We walked right behind him as he wound his way through the clothing racks. There were only a few customers, but when I glanced at them out of the corner of my eye, they ignored us, focused on shopping. With my hood up, I felt conspicuous, but there was no way I’d remove it as long as there were people who could see me. I wanted to look at the shopkeeper as I was certain he was watching us, but I didn’t want him to know who Scott had brought in, so I forced myself to stare at the back of Scott’s legs as he led us to somewhere that I hoped would be safe.

  A moment later he pushed a door open and held it for us as we filed in. Once we were all inside, he closed and locked the door. A large storage room with racks of clothes surrounded us, and as I looked around I saw that there was only the one exit. Glancing at Scott, I wondered if he had a plan in case the Enforcers showed up. How would we get out without them catching us? Panic sliced through me and it seemed as if the walls were coming closer to me, trapping me between them.

  “I don’t like it here,” I muttered.

  “Yeah,” Amy said. “Neither do I.”

  Scott sighed. “It’s not my first choice, but I wanted to get you off of the street.”

  Sudden exhaustion swept over me and I sank to the floor, leaning my back against the wall and squeezing my eyes closed. Movement beside me caught my attention and I opened my eyes to see Amy beside me.

  “We’re going to be okay, right?” she asked.

  I had no idea if we were, but I knew the truth wouldn’t help. “Yeah,” I said with a smile. “We are.”

  The worry on her face evaporated, replaced by calm assurance. Guilt at my ineptitude gnawed at my insides. Everyone believed I had skills that I didn’t, that I could survive anything. But it just wasn’t true. What would Amy think, how would she feel, if she knew the truth?

  We’d been sitting in the storage room for well over an hour when Amy announced her need to use the restroom. I said I needed to go too.

  “Let me scope it out,” Scott said, then he unlocked the storage room door and slipped out. A moment later he returned. “There’s one bathroom just around the corner and only a couple of customers in the store. Amy, you go first, then Morgan.”

  Worried about my sister being out of my sight, I watched her leave, but she returned without incident a few minutes later.

  “Your turn,” she said with a smile.

  I nodded as I pulled up my hood, then left the storage room and e
ntered the small bathroom. A few minutes later I pulled the bathroom door open and found myself face to face with a man who seemed to be waiting for me.

  Our eyes met, and his narrowed. Intense fear flared within me when I saw the spark of recognition in his face.

  “So you’re the one he’s hiding in my store,” the man said as if he’d just discovered a great secret.

  “Please don’t call the Enforcers,” I whispered as panic clawed its way up my throat.

  He stared at me a moment, then he smiled. “No, of course not.”

  “Thank you.” I hurried back to the storage closet. “The shopkeeper saw me,” I said the moment I closed the door behind me.

  “What?” Scott asked. “How?”

  “He was standing outside the bathroom when I came out.”

  “Great,” he muttered.

  “He said he wasn’t going to call the Enforcers,” I added.

  “Well, that’s reassuring,” Scott said with a frown. “We have to go. Now.”

  “You don’t think he meant it?” I asked.

  “There’s a reward for you, Morgan. He probably thought I was hiding someone who didn’t want to get taken to a F.A.T. center. Not the most wanted person on the Enforcers’ list.” Scott looked between Amy and me. “Let’s go.”

  I tugged my jacket closer to me, almost feeling like that prevented people from seeing me, although I knew that was dumb. Scott peered out the storage room door a moment, then motioned for us to follow him.

  The moment I stepped fully out of the closet, my gaze zoomed to the storekeeper, who looked at us in surprise.

  “Where are you going?” he asked.

  “Thanks for letting us in,” Scott replied.

  “Are you leaving?” the man pressed.

  Scott ignored him, obviously not interested in giving away our plans.

  “You should stay,” the man said. “You’ll be safer in here than out there.”

  I glanced at Scott to see his reaction, but he just stared straight ahead and kept walking toward the rear exit.

  Was the man right? Would we be safer in here? Or had he called the Enforcers and was just trying to get us to stay? “Scott,” I said through clenched teeth, panicked that no choice was the right one, but terrified to be out there. “Wait.”

  “Keep moving,” he said, then he pushed the door open. We walked through the door and into the alley.

  “What’s wrong, Morgan?” Amy asked from behind me.

  “I’m just not sure if we should leave,” I said loud enough for Scott to hear.

  “Because you know so much about how the world works?” Scott said, sarcasm thick in his voice.

  “She’s been through way more than you’ll ever know,” Amy said.

  I smiled at my sister, but a rush of guilt flooded my chest.

  “Yeah,” Scott said. “I saw the video.”

  “Good,” Amy said. “Then you know you should listen to her.”

  Oh, Amy. No, he shouldn’t. I don’t have a clue.

  Scott stopped and turned to face us. “Let’s get one thing straight right now. I’m the one calling the shots. I know where we’re going and what we need to do to get there.”

  Amy put her hands on her hips and glared at him, then looked at me, evidently waiting for me to argue.

  “He’s right,” I said. “We need to listen to him.”

  Amy’s angry stare faltered and her hands fell to her sides. “I’ll listen to you, Morgan. So if you say we should do what he says . . . I will.”

  I released a sigh. “Okay.”

  Scott walked us back towards the dumpster we’d been hiding behind before. The stink assaulted my nose and I wanted to hurry past the blue behemoth.

  “Wait behind the dumpster while I check things out,” Scott said.

  “Not again,” Amy muttered.

  I agreed with her, but I didn’t argue. Instead, I tugged her with me to squat behind the stinking container. The air had become even colder and I huddled into my jacket.

  Ten minutes later Scott hadn’t returned.

  “How long should we wait?” Amy asked.

  I was beginning to wonder the same thing. “Maybe I should go see where he is.” Though scared of being seen, I knew we couldn’t stay behind the dumpster indefinitely.

  “I’ll go with you,” Amy immediately said.

  I nodded, glad I wouldn’t be alone. “Okay.” We stood and went in the direction we’d seen Scott go, our hoods pulled tightly against our heads.

  Using extreme caution, we walked to the end of the row of shops, then I peered around the corner of the building, but quickly yanked my head back.

  “What’s wrong?” Amy whispered.

  Terror threaded through me. “They’re here. The Enforcers are here.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Let me see,” Amy said, and I traded places with her. She looked around the corner, then she gasped as she pulled back and stared at me, wide-eyed. “They have Scott.”

  “You saw him?”

  “Yes. He’s handcuffed. They were putting him into one of the cars.”

  “He was right,” I said. “That shopkeeper must have called them.” On the edge of full-blown panic, adrenaline pounded through my body. “We have to get out of here.”

  “Yes, but where should we go?”

  I had no idea, I just knew we needed to not be here. “Let’s go that way.” I pointed down the alley in the opposite direction of where we’d hidden. I didn’t want to be anywhere near where we’d been.

  I took off at a run with Amy right beside me. We ran until the alley ended, then we continued running, passing a neighborhood and finding another alley behind a different shopping center. Two miles from where the Enforcers had apprehended Scott, I stopped, my lungs on fire.

  “How did they know he was there?” I panted, trying to make sense of this turn of events.

  “Maybe he went back to see if the Enforcers were coming, and then they saw him.” Her words came out in short gasps.

  “But how did they know he was with us?”

  Amy frowned. “That shopkeeper probably told them what he looked like.”

  We stood there for another minute, but I was eager to get going as I was certain the Enforcers were searching for us. “Now what?”

  Amy looked at me with surprise, like she thought I should have all the answers. “I don’t know. You tell me.”

  Telling her I wasn’t Duplicate Morgan, that I had no clue what to do, wasn’t an option, so I looked around us and tried to come up with a plan. We stood behind a movie theater, which gave me an idea. “Do you have any money?”

  “A little.”

  “I’ll wait here while you buy two tickets to the movie that starts next, then come and get me. We’ll hide in the dark theater until the movie’s over. By then it will be closer to sundown, plus it will give us time to think of what to do.”

  Amy nodded, the worry evaporating from her face. “I knew you would know what to do.” She smiled. “I’ll be right back.” She took a step away, then turned back to me. “Are you sure you’ll be okay out here by yourself?”

  Forcing a confident smile onto my mouth, I nodded. “You’ll be back in a few minutes. I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

  “Okay.” She turned and walked away.

  I pressed myself against the wall, my hood tight against my face, terrified that the Enforcers would appear at any moment and drag me to Holly.

  “I’ve got ‘em,” Amy said beside me five minutes later, startling me. She held a pair of tickets in her hand.

  Relieved beyond measure that I could get off the street, I grinned. “You’re awesome.”

  She smiled back. “I know, right?”

  I put my arm around my sister and tugged her against me.

  “I was thinking,” she said. “I don’t want the ticket-taker to recognize you, so you stay kind of behind me while I hand him the tickets, okay?”

  “Yes, right.” I hadn’t thought that far ahead, but it m
ade sense. The chilly November air kept me from looking strange as I huddled into my jacket, and a moment later Amy and I walked through the doors and into the theater lobby. Though keeping my hood on my head would look strange inside the building, I didn’t remove it, deciding it was better to look odd than to take a chance on someone recognizing me.

  “There’s the guy who takes the tickets,” Amy whispered.

  I nodded, but she wasn’t looking at me. Instead, she was focused on her task.

  “Hello,” she said brightly as she handed the teenager our tickets.

  The boy barely glanced at her as he read the tickets. “You’re in theater two.” He tore the tickets, then handed them back to Amy. His gaze went to the people in line behind us and we walked past him without incident.

  Once inside the theater we headed to the last row and sat on the aisle—better to make a quick escape if the Enforcers showed up. The idea sent a shiver of dread down my spine, but I tried not to think about that and instead considered what we should do next.

  By the time the movie started ten minutes later, I still hadn’t come up with any ideas. Settling in to my padded seat, I half-watched the film while my mind wandered. Partway through the movie, when the characters on screen stopped to watch a news broadcast, I got an idea. Turning the possibilities over in my mind, I waited until the film ended before telling Amy my plan.

  “It could work,” she whispered.

  We stayed in the theater until the lights came up, then using extreme caution, we headed towards the lobby. No Enforcers were in sight.

  “It’s getting really cold,” Amy said as we stepped outside.

  I nodded, wondering where we would sleep that night. “I know.”

  We walked to a bus stop, and keeping ourselves hidden in our jackets, we took the bus to the neighboring city where the news channels had their studios.

  “Do you think they’ll let us in?” Amy asked as we approached the building where the news channel we’d chosen was headquartered. It was a large independent television station, so I’d felt certain the government wasn’t controlling it.

  “I hope so.”

  “Maybe we should call someone first. You know, to let them know you’re coming.”