by Benham, Tara
“Of course.”
“I’m serious, stay safe, don’t take risks, don’t be the hero. I need you. When I see you, everything about my body changes. My heart begins to race, my stomach twists, it’s like my whole world turns completely upside down. I’m just getting used to that feeling. If something were to happen to you I don’t know how I could go back to not feeling this way. I love you. I’m in love with you. When you get back, I want to get married. I want to be with you for the rest of our lives.
I was stunned into silence. Marriage. I hadn’t even thought about marriage. I wasn’t even thinking about college these past few months. I was having trouble breathing. I knew I loved Henry, and it wasn’t that I never wanted to marry him, but I don’t know if I was ready for marriage yet. There was thoughts racing through my head, while his eyes burned into mine, waiting.
“Henry. I love you too. I want to get married too, I just don’t know if I’m ready for that yet. Can I say yes to the marriage and not now for the wedding?”
“Yes. Yes of course. So? You’ll marry me?”
“Yes.”
“Oh McCaid, you’ve made me the happiest man in the world!” He picked me up, while he was laughing. The scene around me was spinning, and I was starting to get nauseous.
“Stop spinning” I giggled. “I’m getting sick”
“Sorry.” He had a huge grin that caused his eyes to crinkle. He was so handsome, I couldn’t stand it. I had to kiss him right then. I went up onto my toes, put my hands on either side of his face and pulled him into a kiss. It was soft and sweet. He wrapped his arms around me again, but didn’t try to deepen the kiss.
“Henry.” I hoped he would understand what I was going to say next, and not get offended. “Would you be too terribly upset if we didn’t tell anyone just yet? Not that I’m ashamed, but I want them to know when they’ll be happy for us, and not assume we were doing this on a whim.” I looked up at him cautiously.
“Sounds good to me. As long as you and I know we’re getting married. I’m happy, but I can’t promise that Sasha won’t be upset when she finds out we didn’t tell her immediately.”
“Ditto with Darcy. We better get back to the rests of the group. We have a crazy day planned for tomorrow. Shall we go, fiancé?”
He grabbed my hand and led me back to the main room. Everyone was still hanging around, even West and Atlas. None of us wanted the day to end, because we all knew of the uncertainties that we would have to face come dawn. We stayed in the living room, enjoying the company of each of us, until one by one people started excusing themselves to go to their rooms. Ever, Henry, Micah and I were the last ones left. Ever and Micah were snuggling, I guess they gave up their waiting. Good for them. I was leaned up against Henry. None of us were speaking, but it was nice. I wanted to feel this way forever. Finally Micah and Ever decided the night was over them, so I decided I should go to bed too. I needed to be able to be on the top of my game tomorrow. I gave Henry a quick kiss, said good night and headed to the bed.
CHAPTER 31
"Wake up McCaid. It’s time to get going. We don’t have much time until we leave. I’m going to have to eat first, and we need to recheck everyone’s packs as well.”
“I’m up. I’m up.” Groaning, I rolled on my back, stretched and go up to get dressed. All of us preparing to leave were all required to wear dark clothes today. Ever looked funny wearing her black pants, top, boots and jacket. It was so unlike her, but she still looked hot. I was going to look like a vampire with my dark hair, light eyes, and dark clothes. I showered quickly, put on my dark clothes, grabbed my pack and headed down to grab possibly the last meal I would eat this day. Everyone again had gathered into the living room to eat. There were eggs, muffins, pancakes, bacon, gravy and biscuits. Denver and Sasha had gone all out to make a fulfilling breakfast for everyone. The group staying home was going to be patrolling the perimeter, hacking into the water plants security system, and making sure that they have whatever entrance we needed when returning back from the mission.
“Caidee, be careful.” Darcy sounded strong and confident. She’s had to grow up quickly these last months, and she wasn’t the same scared little girl as when this whole thing started. She was a leader, a planner, someone I counted on, so I knew no matter how much I loved Henry, I would do everything in my power to safe for her. She didn’t need to lose anyone else.
“Always, always Darce. I wouldn’t miss coming home to you ever. You are my most favorite person in the whole world. It’s just us, I will come back. You stay careful here.” I gave her a shoulder bump. “Have I told you how proud I am of you lately? You are really a big help around here, and I couldn’t have done everything I needed these past few months if I didn’t have you; I don’t know what I would have done. You have been a huge help. You’ve been doing most of the running of the household. Thank you so much. “
“I love you Caidee.”
“I love you too Darce.” I gave her a huge hug. I knew I had been keeping so much from her lately, I was beginning to think she might feel like I didn’t need her anymore. “Listen. Can I tell you a big secret and you cannot tell anyone?” Her eyes sprung open wide with excitement and she nodded quickly. “Henry asked me to marry him.”
“WHAT?!” She was practically yelling. Everyone stopped and turned to look at us. She was grinning like a mad woman. “Sorry guys, my sister is goofy. She was trying to give me instructions on something I already know how to do.” She giggled knowing most of them didn’t believe her due to their incredulous stares, and she turned back to me and gave me another big hug. “I’m sorry I got too excited.”
“No one knows yet, not even Ever, so please don’t say anything. I just wanted to tell someone.”
“So you told me instead of Ever?” The tears started to gather on her lashes.
“Of course baby sis, I told you. You’re the most important.” We hugged yet again.
“Last checks before we move out. Say your goodbyes, get with Ever for a pack check, and then meet at the stairway to the basement.” Johnnie’s voice rang out with authority.
I went around to Sasha, Henry, Remi, Denver and then Darcy saying my “goodbyes’ and “I’ll see you soons.” I didn’t want to lead on to them that I was nervous, so I gave each big hugs and a happy smile, like this was just going to be another day. Everyone else said their goodbyes as well. Henry went over to Baxlie and gave him a speech about taking care of me, and reminding how important I was, to which Baxlie rolled his eyes, but promised he’d keep me safe. For the first couple of miles we would be travel as a whole group, but as we get closer we will be breaking up into our two person teams. We decided that would be the best course so that if one team got held up or found out, there would be three more teams that would have the chance to get to the main filtration pump. We were going to go through the back fifteen acres but this time there were too many without bracelets, so we were going to turn off the fence for approximately fifteens which gave us about threes per twelve inches. Thankfully Baxlie, with the help of Milo had configured a way to take away the fence for a small section so as to decrease a chance of breech while the fence was off. Darcy and Denver would be accompanying us to the fence in order to turn it off and then back on using their bracelets.
At the fence, we lined up side by side to decrease the chances of someone getting stuck in the fence, or worse, if it was someone without a bracelet. We counted to three together, and then as soon as Darcy turned off our section we ran the five feet to the other side. The last of us had crossed the fence line when the fence came back on. Micah and Milo got slight shock sensations from being in the back when the fence came back on.
“Ok, I know we said we’re going to stay together until we get closer, and that’s still the plan, but I think we need to go ahead and break into our teams and stay within sight of each other, but be a little spread out. We don’t want to be sitting ducks in case of an ambush or a meeting of others that may be opposed to who we are or what we’
re planning on doing. Remember word has been spreading, and I’m sure some of those claimers we were told about won’t be happy at the thought of order being returned.” Johnnie had taken the lead, reverting back to his military roots. No one was going to argue with him, seeing as he survived three tours overseas, without a scratch on any member of his squads. I grabbed Baxlie and told Johnnie we would take the outside left, Ever and Micah would be the right of us, then Adam and Atlas, and finally Johnnie and Ruthie would take the far right outside. He agreed, and each of the teams went to our positions.
There was no talking for about the first three miles of the trip. The sun wasn’t really making its way down through the heavy tree tops, making it a little chilly. It was still winter, but at least the snow was gone. At the five mile mark, Johnnie whistled indicating it was time for a break, and to eat whatever food we had packed in our lunches. Baxlie and I found a tree that had fallen to sit down on. I could barely make out Ever and Micah sitting on the ground. Baxlie and I, along with Micah and Ever had decided that if we split what we carried we could get away with more food. I had both sandwiches in my back, allowing Baxlie to have two full bottles of water. I handed him a sandwich and took my water. I hadn’t realized how hungry and tired I was from walking, but the break was greatly appreciated. We made small talk about the trip so far, and about being nervous. We had finished our waters when we heard Johnnie’s second whistle indicating it was time to get back to walking. We still had about 5 more miles to go before we would split up. After the split up we would have three more miles to get the plant. We were making good time, and had yet to cross paths with any groups.
“If we do this, what do you think will happen next?” Baxlie was never very good with silence.
“I don’t know, I guess the country would have to find a new president, and new government officials. Start rebuilding, possibly make some changes to legislature or medications and control of mass distribution and mandating of cures. I’m sure it’ll be a long road before we will be able to get back to any semblance of normality. If ever.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Who knows, I own the house, the properties, and most of the patents for Dad’s inventions as well as the medications. I can do whatever I want I suppose. Eventually I would like to go back to college, get Darcy through high school, get married, and have a family. You?”
“Before all this, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do or be, but now I’m thinking I would like to be in government, or the military. I want to be able to protect people from something like this from happening again. Maybe, and don’t laugh ok? Maybe one day I’ll run for office.”
“Why would I laugh? I’ve lived with you for a while now to know I would totally vote for you if you ran. You’re smart Baxlie, and loyal and helpful. You have great qualities. Qualities that our current office holders don’t share. Maybe the country should completely change the way in runs things. Maybe you can be a part of team that makes that decision.”
“I want marriage too, and a family. It might take a while to get over you though.” He looked at me sheepishly. I knew he wasn’t trying to bring it up to make me feel guilty, but as a fact, but it still made me feel bad. Baxlie was too good of a friend for me to not have any feelings for him. It was just that the feelings that I had and the ones he wanted me to have were not the same.
“I’m sorry Baxlie. I’m sure you’ll find someone way better for you than I am, and you’ll fall in love with her, and be happy. I promise.” I did a quick snort, and shook my head. He gave me a questioningly look.
“Sorry, I’ve just making a lot of promises lately that I actually can’t swear I’ll be able to keep. I’m scared. I know I’ve been training most of my life for this situation, but still I know what I can do, but we don’t know what they” I was using “they” in the colloquial term “can do to us, you know?”
“Yeah, I get that, but like you said you’ve been trained. Plus we have Micah and Johnnie both who have military tactical training, and Ruthie who knows her way around the plant. I’m sure we’ll be fine at nights end.” Baxlie sound very sure of this, which helped relax me some.
Johnnie’s whistle to separate came as a surprise to both of us, as we hadn’t really been paying attention to how far we had been walking. We gave quick waves to Micah and Ever, and went to the left to make our way around the far side of the woods where we would be coming upon the water plant from the back side. Micah and Ever would be going to the left side, Adam and Atlas to the right, with Ruthie and Johnnie circling around to the front. Ruthie had explained the layouts of the plant to each team according to the entrances we would be going through. The plan was to get in during team shifts switching, with the help of some of the workers in the know, we would slip into the main filtration area and dump the mixture into the water. The main data house would read the chemical changes in the water, and send the data to the other main houses, which would essentially correct their formulas, which was how we could get the mixture out to everyone in the nation without dumping the mixture into every single water plant system. Baxlie had made this discovery when researching how Dad was using the same system to distribute the steroids throughout the country. Once the changes had occurred, it would take less than 15 hours for every citizen to get the medication into their systems. In another 9 hours the government would receive the alert that the changes had occurred. It was good news for us, since the time frame would be more than adequate for us to make our way back to the house and into the fences.
There were a number of things that could go wrong, one being that one of Ruthie’s group member shared the news with the wrong people, or we could get caught going in or leaving which would decrease our time to get back to the house. We all had separate escape plans, and Ruthie had showed us signs that would indicate safe houses for us if necessary. I was hoping that we wouldn’t end up having to use any of these back up plans.
CHAPTER 32
The last three miles seemed to drag on. The talking between us had ended about two miles back but the tension seemed to thicken. My nerves were on edge. I felt like a tight rope walker, barely breathing, but taking each step as steady as possible. Finally we reached the edge of the woods and could see the back of the water plant. I was able to quickly locate the door Ruthie had told us about, and pointed it out to Baxlie who nodded. At the far left, I noticed movement that I took to be Micah and Ever. Now all we could do was wait until the shift change happened. If we had planned it right, and made the time we wanted the shift should be switching soon. We had built in what we had hoped was enough time for even the slowest walkers to get to the plant with 20 minutes to spare. I was thinking we would have about a thirty minute wait, but after about ten minutes or so, the lights flashed on the outside of the building, then a whistle blew which meant shift changes were starting. I took a one long deep breath, glanced at Baxlie who was staring at me with fear in his eyes. I grabbed his hand in mine which seemed to bring him back a little and we made our way swiftly to the door at the back of the plant. A worker who was a part of Ruthie’s group or so we were told, was waiting at the door to let us in. We got in without any issues. He told us we needed to stand here for about a forty second count before making our way towards the filtration room.
We counted to forty. Just as we were about to head down the hallway he had pointed to we heard a commotion going on in the room in front of us. I could hear yelling and things knocking around. I assumed that one of the teams had been found by someone who opposed to us completing our mission. I grabbed Baxlie, and pulled him down the hallway with me. If they knew we were in the building we had less time that originally planned. We had to get to the room quickly so we could the mixture into the main system. The hallway was poorly light and barely wide enough for the two of us side by side. Our feet were smacking the concrete, which echoed so if anyone were to follow us they would be able to very easily. I couldn’t hear the commotion anymore, but I could hear steps coming from somewhere. I sa
w the door at the end of the hallway which lead to the back of the main plant room that we needed to go into. What I hadn’t seen was that another hallway connected to ours from the side and just as we were rushing past it, someone came barreling through knocking me to the side. I jumped up quickly, but they were already on top of me, trying to attack. I couldn’t see if it was a man or a woman, but I could tell they were strong. I gave a quick kick to the attacker’s abdomen, causing them to grunt and back off.
“Girl, you can’t do what you’re trying to do. It won’t work.” It sounded like a man’s gruff voice, but with the pain I had inflicted it could have been a woman too.
“I can if you stop trying to get in my way.”
“It won’t work. They know you’re coming.”
“Let me go. Once it’s in the system it’ll work.”
“You’ll never get to the room. I’m trying to keep you from getting killed, now listen to me.” He sounded like he’d regained some strength and his breathing was more normal than it had been after I had kicked him. I noticed I hadn’t heard anything from Baxlie for a while, but if I listened I could tell he was behind me, hiding for whatever reason. I decided not to mention him just yet. “Let me create a distraction. I’ll go in first with your pack. They’ll be too busy with me to notice your or that boy back their trying to stay hidden.” Baxlie stepped out from the shadows since there was no point in still hiding. Once they’re distracted you two can enter and run very quickly with the mixture ready to dumb. It had to get to the center for the change to be read.”
“Why should we believe you?” Baxlie asked.
“You ain’t got much of choice. Ruthie…”
“You know Ruthie?” I asked a little less on edge.
“Yes girl, I was in her group. It’s great seeing her doing so much better, and I heard her little girl is too, which is why you have to listen to me. Let me help. I’m too far gone with the sickness to get any help so if they kill me it’s no big loss.”
