State of Alliance

by Summer Lane

  And in an instant, it all comes together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Still slightly fragmented, but the picture is clearer than it has ever been before.

  “So the EMP was an inside job,” I breathe. “We were attacked by our own people.”

  “Very good, Cassidy,” Harry applauds. “Omega’s had its sticky little fingers in every level of society for centuries. Our time has finally come. We’ve rallied our forces. This is the end of the world for you – and the beginning of the world for us.”

  I look at Chris. He has not moved, but I can tell by the look in his eyes that he is stricken. It makes sense to him, as well. And all this time we had hoped that Omega was purely a coalition of foreign enemies…we had lied to ourselves, told ourselves that Omega was not something that arose from among us.

  We were wrong. We knew it.

  And now Harry is confirming it.

  There is a noise behind me. I whirl around, instincts still sharp even in the midst of shock. Sophia! I breathe a sigh of relief.

  “Thank God,” I say. “What happened?”

  Sophia looks horrified. She has no weapon in her hand. It’s gone. A bit of wiring is sticking out of her pocket. She looks at Harry. He looks at her. She skirts around the edge of our group.

  “Sophia?” I whisper.

  “Sometimes your greatest friend can be your greatest enemy,” Harry purrs, looking directly at me. I stare at him. And then what he’s saying hits home, and for the first time in hours…I lower my rifle.

  “Sophia,” I say. This time it is not a question. It is a demand.

  She takes a few steps backward, tears shining in her eyes. She is trembling, standing a few yards away from Harry.

  “I’m sorry,” she says quietly. “Harry makes so much sense.”

  “You…you sold out?”

  She says nothing.

  It all dawns on me. In an instant, everything makes sense.

  “The laser designator in Sacramento,” I say. “That was you.”

  She looks at me with baleful, hollow eyes.

  “The assassinations,” I reply. “You helped coordinate those, too. The poison. And you gave my location to Omega when I was on the Golden Shark.”

  She denies nothing.

  A deep feeling of crushing hurt comes down on me. It is overwhelming. I kneel down, my head in my hands. Even Chris looks horrified. Vera is staring. Andrew is frozen.

  “A lot of good people died because of what you did,” Manny says. His voice is not remotely playful or sarcastic. It is feral, angry. “You’re a traitorous dog. You’ll hang for this.”

  “Hang is not the right word,” Andrew snaps. “I can think of a few other ways to get rid of spineless garbage like this.”

  “Spare me the theatrics,” Harry drawls. “That’s my talent, not yours.”

  And then Sophia pulls a handgun out of the inside pocket of her jacket and fires off a round. It hits Andrew. He stumbles backward, slamming into Vera. Vera screams and catches him as he falls. I instinctively fire, nailing Sophia in the shoulder. She stumbles. I tuck my head, ramming the entire blunt force of my body into Sophia.

  I collide with her and we both tumble to the ground.

  Pure, unbridled fury takes control of my mind. All of the frustration, the stress and the horror of the past weeks combine to create the perfect storm. I pin Sophia down with my legs, throwing my fist into her face. She blocks me, throws me off. Sophia is every bit of a fighter as I am.

  I kick her ankles and she tumbles to the ground just as she makes a move to run. She claws at my eyes. I jam the heel of my boot into the side of her face with all the power I can muster. Her head smacks against the pavement. She screams with pain. Blood runs from the side of her mouth.

  “How could you do this?” I demand. “What’s wrong with you?”

  She blocks my fist, twists my arm around. I yell, pained, and shove my knee into her groin. I hear something crack and she lets go, grimacing and groaning. I grab her neck and slam her down on her back, my knee on her chest. I punch her again, holding back nothing. Her face is a bloody, misshapen mess. I am shaking, tears are running down my face.

  Betrayed. Betrayed. Betrayed.

  I have been betrayed by my best friend.

  “How could you do this?” I yell again.

  And then Chris is grabbing me, hauling me away from Sophia. I fight him, pushing away, screaming at him.

  “CASSIDY, STOP!” Chris bellows. He takes me by the shoulders and shakes me. “You’ll never forgive yourself if you kill Sophia.”

  That last sentence is quiet. Low.

  I blink a few times, cold acceptance creeping into my chest. I nod weakly.

  I look at Sophia. She’s lying on the ground, rivers of blood dripping down her neck, pooling on the ground. She’s staring at the sky, crying. Uriah has an arm around Harry’s waist and a knife at his throat. Vera is screaming Andrew’s name, kneeling at his unmoving form on the roof. Manny’s face is sorrowful.

  “You can let go,” I whisper. “I’m okay now.”

  Such a lie. But Chris understands what I mean.

  He lets go. I turn and sink to my knees near Sophia’s head. She opens her mouth, coughing. She chokes for a moment, moving her eyes toward me. “You’ve…” she says, taking a deep, labored breath. “The roof is rigged…to blow. You’ve got to…leave.” Tears fall from her eyes, streaming down her cheeks, mingling with her blood. “I’m…sorry…Cassie.”

  I start sobbing.

  Nothing can fix this. Ever.

  “We’ve got to go,” Chris says, touching my shoulder. “She’s right. This whole place is wired with explosives.”

  I shake my head. So. Harry planned to lure us all here and kill us in a suicidal blaze of glory. How poetic. How…utterly Harry Lydell.

  I touch Sophia’s shoulder.

  My anger is gone. All that is left is empty, throbbing pain.

  “I forgive you,” I say.

  Sophia stares at me, but she is too beaten to speak. I stand up, looking at her still body. I remember a girl who took my hand in the back of a semi-truck stuffed with human cattle. I remember a girl who constantly reminded me that we were going to be okay, that we were going to survive, and that Omega would fall. Victory would be ours. We were friends forever, she said.

  Now, when I see Sophia, I see the broken shell of that same girl.

  “I loved you,” I whisper. “We were sisters.”

  I turn away. I know that I cannot help her. I cannot rescue her.

  This truth breaks my heart.

  I turn to Chris. “Keep Harry alive,” I say. “Death is too good for him.”

  I will not give him what he wants. Chris doesn’t argue. He takes Uriah’s place as Harry’s bodyguard. Uriah kneels next to Andrew. Vera is hysterical, crying great, heaving sobs.

  “He’s still alive,” Uriah says. “But it’s going to be hard to move him.”

  “I don’t care!” Vera cries. “Please! We have to try!”

  “I’ll help,” I volunteer.

  Vera doesn’t make a snide comment. She simply nods, grateful.

  “Take care of Harry,” I tell Chris.

  He does. He shoves the muzzle of his gun into Harry’s back. I notice how silent Harry is. How pale. How frustrated he seems. I don’t waste a second glance on him as Chris pushes Harry down the stairs, into the hallways of the building.

  I help Manny, Vera and Uriah haul Andrew’s body up and off the roof. He is heavy, full of dead weight. Uriah slings Andrew’s gun across his back. Vera and Uriah are the first ones out the door.

  I look back at the roof.

  Sophia is still looking at the stars. She weakly raises her hand and crosses herself, turning her head every so slightly. Her gaze meets mine.

  Goodbye, friend, she says with her eyes.

  Goodbye, Sophia, I think. You were there for me, once. When I needed you.

  We enter the hall.

  We leave Sophia behind.

  Haulin
g an unconscious, full-grown man is slow, hard work. Chris sticks with us. Harry follows morosely, sullen and silent. We reach the bottom floor and enter the parking lot. As we step foot on the asphalt, the roof of the building explodes. The shockwave nearly knocks me off my feet. Chris shoves me behind the cover of an Omega Humvee. The top half of the building shears off, hitting the grass in a cloud of plaster, nails and smoke.

  Sophia.

  The dust settles, but the flames begin to eat the magnificent structure that is Herrmann Hall. We slowly stand, the sound of gunfire and mortar explosions echoing over the Pacific Ocean. United States Air Force fighter jets scream across the night sky, headed toward the coastline.

  “All is never as it seems,” Harry remarks grimly. “One victory leads to defeat, and one defeat leads to victory. This is a deadly game that you cannot win. None of you can. We are all helpless against Omega.”

  He says this as if he, too, has lost against his own side.

  “We’re not helpless,” I say. “We’re fighters. And we’ll keep fighting, because that’s what we do best.”

  The Omega symbol – the white O with the gathered continents of the world in the center of the letter – glares menacingly at me from the Humvee door.

  Chris slips his hand into mine.

  “We’re going to be okay,” he says.

  I look toward the horizon.

  And for a moment, I believe him.

  Epilogue

  Betrayal. The word leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. I have seen more betrayal than most people. I have felt its sting. It has ravaged my heart at times, threatened to destroy me. But now it all makes sense. Omega. Hidden deep within society for years. But how? And who started it all? Whose idea was it to slowly infiltrate the countries of the globe? The patience it must have took to wait for centuries…unimaginable.

  Chris and I, at the beginning of this collapse, would often toss theories back and forth regarding the origin of the EMP. How did Omega invade so quickly? We once thought that it was because they had been hiding their troops and their weapons inside our country for some time.

  But what if they’d been here all along?

  What if this was part of the plan from the very beginning?

  I don’t know. I don’t think I want to know.

  Sophia’s betrayal hurts. To trust someone completely, and then to be betrayed by them is one of the worst pains in the world. There is no medicine or therapy that can take that away. It is an ugly, horrific fact. A fact that I must one day learn to accept, or I worry that it will destroy me.

  What is our next move? If Omega is everywhere…how can we stop them?

  Familiarity. To defeat an enemy, you must be familiar with them.

  I believe that we will be able to use Harry Lydell to help us on that point.

  Until then, I will keep fighting. I will keep believing. I will keep hoping. I will love, live, learn, try, fail and try again. Not because I have to. Not because I’ve been told that this is what I need to do. I will do these things because I care about the people I love and the place where I grew up. I care about freedom, and I care about the lives of the innocent men, women and children whose lives have been taken by Omega.

  The war is now.

  Fight or die.

  Choose your side.

  To Be Continued in

  Book Six of The Collapse Series

  More Titles by Summer Lane

  The Collapse Series

  State of Emergency

  State of Chaos

  State of Rebellion

  State of Pursuit

  State of Alliance

  Book 6 (Coming June 2015)

  The Zero Trilogy:

  Day Zero

  Day One (Coming March 2015)

  End of Day (Coming Fall 2015)

  Connect with Summer:

  Website: summerlaneauthor.com

  Online Magazine: writingbelle.com

  Email: summerlane101@gmail.com

  Twitter: @SummerEllenLane

  Acknowledgments

  Nothing truly good comes easily. At least, that’s what my experience has been. Building and creating several different book series and running a publishing business is one of those things that takes time. Lots of time, lots of effort, and lots of work. I am unequivocally thankful for the helpful words, kind advice and professionalism of many people in my life who have been on this journey with me – the journey of Cassidy Hart and her small-town creator, a girl named Summer Lane. Few people realize or understand the enormity of the task of writing, editing and publishing a bestselling novel. It is a project of epic proportions, especially when you’ve got several series going at once. I would like to thank the following people for helping me maintain my sanity during the long weeks of writing and editing and otherwise being locked away in my office with stacks of notes: Ellen Mansoor Collier, James P. White, Kathy Lane (Mommy!), Rocklin (The Rock), Lauryn, Jessica, Grandma (so many hugs!) and of course, Scott, for being so understanding.

  I would also like to thank the following two individuals for their professional help in molding the story structure of the book, aiding in the technical details and helping the editing process move considerably faster so I could reach my deadline:

  Don Lane, always the editor-in-chief, as I like to call him. He’s the top authority on tactical and military operations in this book, and his advice has helped Cassidy Hart best Omega many times.

  David Hudiburgh, a dear friend and so very knowledgeable. Always a huge help when Collapse books are in the editing stages, his keen eye and techie advice is supremely appreciated.

  I would like to thank the mammoth community of bloggers and reviewers for their ongoing support of my work, especially fellow authors. In particular I wish to thank Ruth Silver, Juliana Haygert, G. Michael Hopf, Liz Long, John W. Vance and again, Ellen Mansoor Collier, my dear friend!

  Lastly, to YOU. I share my work with thousands of new readers every month, and for that I am eternally grateful. You have made all of this a possibility, and Cassidy Hart is forever grateful.

  Most importantly, I thank God for what He has given me. I love my work. It is the happiest reality of my life.

  For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

  2 Timothy 1:7

  About the Author

  Summer Lane is the author of the international bestselling YA/NA Romantic Adventure novels of The Collapse Series and The Zero Trilogy. She is an experienced publicist, creative writing teacher and lover of all things feline.

  Summer owns WB Publishing, a digital publishing company devoted to releasing exciting survival and adventure stories. Summer is also the creator of the online magazine/blog, Writing Belle. She works as a journalist for Traffic Magazine, as well.

  Summer lives in the Central Valley of California, where she spends her time writing, teaching, and writing some more. When she is not writing, she enjoys leisurely visits with friends at coffee shops, watching movies, reading, and visiting the beach or the mountains.

  Summer loves to hear from readers! Email her here:

  summerlane101@gmail.com