Day of Reckoning (Dawn of Rebellion Series Book 2)

by Michelle Lynn

“That doesn’t matter now,” Jonathan says excitedly. “This is why Allison was there for so many years. We now have almost everything we need to launch an attack.” I walk to the table and look down. The maps are incredibly detailed. There are maps of the government buildings, the labs, and even the church. The street map alone is invaluable. I quickly get over my irritation of being out of the loop.

  “Brilliant,” I say softly.

  “Yes,” Jonathan begins, “now we just have to wait for our shipment from London.”

  “The one scheduled for two weeks from tomorrow?” I ask.

  “The very one,” he responds. “It will contain everything we need to take care of the Republic of Texas. We need to start our planning sessions right away.”

  “Sir, with all due respect, we don't have the numbers to launch a full scale attack.” Sometimes I think he doesn't live in reality.

  “You are my second in command, Miranda. That doesn't mean you question my decisions. You are here to carry out my directives.”

  “Yes, sir.” If there was one thing I learned in London, it was to follow orders. “I’ll schedule the first meeting.” I say.

  “Miranda,” Jonathan calls as I am leaving the room.

  “Yes?” I ask.

  “It’s time.” I don’t need to ask him what he means because I already know. Before I can protest, he continues. “You will be leading the attacks with me. You will no longer be able to hide in your office watching them on screen. This is not a suggestion. It’s an order. If you want to be the one to do it, you must tell them soon.” I can’t even be upset with him for forcing this on me. I know he’s right. I need to get this in the past so I can focus on the battle to come.

  Chapter 38: Gabby

  This is where I belong. This is where I fit. I am a soldier. I have not been given my uniform yet because I have not officially been put in a unit but I know I will be. This is what I was meant to do.

  I pull the headphones down over my ears and square myself to the target. The simple round targets have been replaced by silhouettes of actual people. I’ve been told that this usually means that this isn’t just target practice anymore. We are training for a mission. I raise my arm and tilt it sideways. This is my favorite stance. I squint my eyes and pull the trigger once; the bullet pierces the heart. Twice, it hits the head. The third bullet hits the eye. I never miss my targets. I feel good with a gun in my hand; powerful. Both Floridaland and Texas made me feel weak, unable to protect myself. I will never feel that way again.

  I remove the head gear and set down the gun. I make my way to training room A. Jeremy has promised to teach me some combat moves so that I can pass the test in a few weeks to make it into the military. Every waking moment is spent training for it.

  Jeremy is waiting for me when I get there. “You’re late Gabs,” he says. “Were you at the shooting range again?”

  “What’s the big deal?” My exasperation gets the better of me.

  “The big deal is that you spend way more time there than you should. You are a perfect shot so why waste training time there?” he asks.

  “Let’s just get started, okay?” He lets it go and we start sparring. I master every move he teaches me in only a couple of tries. My favorite is when takes me to a punching bag and I can hit it as hard as I want. I punch and kick until I am too exhausted to do it anymore. Jeremy puts a towel around my shoulders when I’m finished.

  “Are you alright?” he asks. For a reason that I don’t quite understand, that question leaves me narked.

  “I’m fine,” I say before shoving him away from me and running from the room. I don’t get far before I collide with someone out in the hall. I fall to the ground, panting.

  “I’m so sorry Gabby.” I look up at the mention of my name and see a woman standing over me. She looks vaguely familiar but I don’t know from what. She grabs my arm to pull me to my feet.

  “How do you know my name?” I ask.

  “Everyone here does,” she responds. “I was looking for you anyway. Will you come with me?”

  “Who are you?” I demand.

  “I am Officer Edwards,” she says. “I’m the second in command here.” So she’s Jonathan’s lackey. I follow her out of curiosity more than anything else. We end up in a part of the compound that I have never seen before. I hear the waterfall before I see it. At the far end of the room there is a large pool and water splashes down the rocks in back. “Careful, the floor can be wet in here,” she warns.

  “What is this place?” I ask.

  “We have to get our water from some place right?” she asks. “This is an underground spring. The river isn’t far from here so we always have water.”

  “I never knew this was here,” I say.

  “You’d be amazed at the secrets this place holds.” She smiles but there is a sadness behind it. “That’s what we need to talk about.” Before she can explain a radio in her pocket sputters on.

  “Does anyone know the whereabouts of Officer Edwards? We need Miranda’s signature.” As soon as the voice cuts off and others respond to it, I look up and study her face more closely. Miranda.

  “Mom?” I whisper, narrowing my eyes. She gives me that same sad smile and nods. I have no words as the thoughts and emotions swirl around in my head. Should I be hurt? Angry? Happy that she’s alive? “Mom,” I test out the word again.

  “Gabby,” she says, “let me explain.” I nod, unable to speak. I don’t know if her explanation will make a difference but I want to know why. “I’ve been a rebel my whole life,” she begins. “I tried to get out when I had you girls but that wasn’t so easy when my father was the leader of the rebellion. When we got the phone call that your father was dead, I knew it wasn’t true. I knew that he was sent to a post in the colonies. I thought it meant they suspected me,” she pauses, “I thought it would be safer for you girls if I left.”

  “Wait a second,” I interrupt, finding my voice, “you thought it would be safer for us to live on the streets? We were kids and all of a sudden we were on our own, living in dodgy places.”

  “You were supposed to be taken in by the neighbor. I made arrangements. You are the ones who ran away,” she snaps. “I had to choose between giving up my life with you girls or giving up my life as a rebel.”

  “You chose being a rebel,” I say tiredly.

  “You don’t understand. I am part of a cause that I would give my own life for. I will do whatever it takes for the rebels to succeed,” she states.

  “You’re wrong,” I say.

  “Gabby…” she begins but I cut her off.

  “You’re wrong to say that I wouldn’t understand. I do. I am a rebel now too mom and I will do what needs to be done to defeat those bastards. So, yeah, I forgive you because I get it. I wouldn’t count on Dawn though. She won’t understand and she won’t forgive you, you can count on that,” I say.

  “I know,” she responds. The voice crackles again.

  “Officer Edwards to the Commandant's office.” One more look. A moment of sadness. One of hardness. And then she leaves.

  When I get back to the dorms Dawn is in there talking to Drew. They’ve taken steps towards normalcy but they still have a long way to go. I wouldn’t know much about it though because Dawn barely says two words to me. I train with Drew a lot of days and he has regained his chattiness but he won’t talk to me about Dawn. They look up as I walk in and we exchange hellos before I collapse onto the bed. I love training because I am so knackered at night that I fall right asleep. It doesn’t work like that tonight. My mind won’t let me sleep as it sifts through everything that just happened. I should probably tell Dawn but I don’t. Not right now. I've spent most of my life thinking my parents were dead and it was all a lie. A thousand questions become one. I’m not happy about the life our mother subjected us to but I understand it. I may be a prat for thinking like this but I might have done the same thing.

  Chapter 39: Dawn

  “No, no, please. No more. I’ll tell you
. Please.” I wake to Drew talking in his sleep. His head jerks from side to side and he is breathing heavily. I push back my blanket and climb out of bed. I walk around Gabby’s bed and start shaking Drew, trying to wake him.

  “Drew, wake up.” His eyes pop open wildly.

  “Dawn,” he sighs.

  “Were you having a nightmare?” I whisper.

  “I was back in Texas,” he says as he pushes himself up. I cringe as I realize what that means. In his dream, he was being tortured. I push the damp hair out of his face and he shrinks away from my touch but then catches himself. “Shite, sorry, I didn’t mean to do that.” He has really been trying to get better but dreaming about the past doesn’t help.

  “It’s okay Drew. Just try to go back to sleep,” I say.

  “Would you sit with me and talk?” he asks. As zonked as I am, there is no way I can say no to this boy. The room is pitch black so we walk into the hall. Here, there are fluorescent lights on all night long. We sit on the ground, leaning our backs on the wall.

  “Are you okay Drew? I mean, after everything that happened to you?” I ask.

  “I think I will be,” he answers softly. “I have to hope it gets better.” He smiles and it is reminiscent of the old Drew.

  “Did you talk to Lee yesterday?” He changes the subject.

  “No, I looked for him but couldn’t find him,” I respond.

  “Ma didn’t make it here.” He looks down at his shaking hands. I reach over to still them.

  “What do you mean?” I ask.

  “The rest of the group from the caves arrived yesterday but the trip was too much for Ma,” he says sadly. As the tears begin to spill from my eyes, Drew shocks me by wrapping his arm around my shoulders and pulling me to him. I bury my face in his chest. How can she be gone? The only person I’ve ever known who can be tough without an ounce of cruelty; compassionate without pity. I wipe the tears from my eyes because I know Ma would not want me crying over her.

  “How’s Lee?” I ask quietly.

  “I only saw him for a few minutes but he seemed okay. I think he knew there was a chance she couldn’t make the trip,” Drew says. I bring my knees to my chest and hug them with one arm as Drew rests his head on top of mine. I feel his hot breath as it blows through my hair. This feels good. This feels right. His breathing becomes softer as he dozes off.

  “Ahem.” I wake and realize we are still out in the hall as people walk by us. Jeremy is standing over us with a smirk on his face. I look up sheepishly and shake Drew awake.

  “Morning Jeremy,” I say before looking away.

  “Hey man,” Drew says, still half asleep.

  “Sleep well?” Jeremy asks. When I don’t respond, he says, “Can I borrow Dawn for a bit?” He directs the question to Drew as if I am his.

  “Have at it,” Drew says, getting to his feet. I stretch out my arm towards him and he pulls me up before heading back into the dorm.

  “Can I go grab a nosh first, or at least a shower?” I plead. He tosses me an apple.

  “I grabbed this for you and you can shower later. We need to talk and then I’ve got something to show you.” He leads me away.

  “What do we need to talk about?” I ask, confused. I barely know Jeremy. We haven’t ever really talked much.

  “Gabby,” he states. As soon as I hear her name I turn around. He grabs my arm to stop me.

  “Oh no. She is not my problem anymore,” I say stubbornly.

  “She’s still your sister,” he responds simply.

  “Try telling her that. She hasn’t acted like a sister in quite some time,” I snap.

  “I’m worried about her,” he says in a more serious tone. I turn back towards him and search his face. He really is worried. I sigh because I know that I am the person that cares no matter what. I will help Gabby even when she doesn’t help herself.

  “What did she do now?” I ask as we start walking again.

  “It’s not any one thing. She’s angry all the time. She spends most of her time at the shooting range and the intensity in her hand to hand practice scares me. I can’t seem to get through to her.”

  “Gabby has always had that anger inside of her. Being in Floridaland and then in Texas probably only made it stronger. I always thought she was her own worst enemy. I've never been able to suss out how to help her with the darker part of her personality,” I say calmly. Maybe I should be more emotional when I’m talking about all of this but I am just so tired of Gabby’s shite.

  “I’m afraid she’s going to get herself killed when we launch our attack on Texas,” he says.

  “Wait a second; we’re launching an attack on Texas?” I ask hurriedly.

  “Yeah. A buddy of mine who’s a technician here told me they’re having him build a bomb that can wipe out an entire block. They’re just waiting on one last part to get here from London,” he says.

  My mind starts racing. An entire block full of people? I know Texas needs to be stopped but most of the people have no idea what their government is up to. They're brainwashed; sheep. “Jeremy,” I grab his arm to make him look at me, “most Texans are completely innocent. How can we just kill them?”

  “How are they innocent?” he asks. “From what I’ve heard, they have people locked up and experimented on.”

  “The average person has no idea that’s going on. If we kill innocents, how are we any different from them?” I ask. He doesn’t respond. Instead, he starts walking again.

  “Come on,” he says. “You need to see our version of labs. They’re way cool.” He completely ignored what I said. Does anyone else care about anything other than this damn cause?

  We step through a door marked authorized personnel only, much like the one Gabby told me about in the Texas labs. Here, though, there are no people being experimented upon. There are rows and rows of computers. Men and women in light blue lab coats are sitting at evenly spaced desks, manipulating the screens in front of them. As they speak, the words show up and they use their fingertips to move from screen to screen. Others fiddle with gadgets that I have never seen before on metal tables in the back. Jeremy looks at me and says, “See, way cool, right?” I nod as we head further into the room.

  No one looks up as we pass by. They are all too engrossed in what they’re doing. “This is where they keep track of all the energy produced by the wind mills and solar panels. This is also where they built them. Pretty much everything we use was built here. They even figure out how to keep everyone fed. See, certain crops need to be modified to grow around here,” Jeremy explains.

  “How did you first come here?” I ask as we stop in front of a desk. A frazzled looking man sits behind it. He looks like he just got out of bed. His hair is mussed and his lab coat is wrinkled. Even his glasses aren’t sitting straight on the bridge of his nose.

  “I met Conner at meal time and we got to talking. He eventually brought me here.” Conner doesn’t look up as Jeremy says his name. He is squinting at something on the screen and talking to it furiously. Jeremy moves closer and claps him on the back in greeting. He startles and looks confused until he recognizes who it is.

  “Oh, Jeremy, hello,” he stammers.

  “Conner, this is Dawn,” Jeremy says. Conner looks at me like a scared boy, seeing a girl for the first time.

  “It’s nice to meet you,” I say, trying to ease his nerves. “This place is brilliant!”

  “Yes, it serves its purpose well,” he says, starting to navigate from screen to screen again. I look at Jeremy, unsure of what to do next.

  “Conner,” Jeremy says slowly as he places his hand on the boy's shoulder to stop him from working. “I was hoping we could see what you were working on. You said it was important.” Conner runs his hands through his hair.

  “Important. Very, very important. Yes,” he says but then he leans towards us and whispers, “I don’t think I’m supposed to show you.”

  “Why not?” I ask. I’m tired of secrets and don’t have the patience for them.


  “Well, I don’t know,” Conner responds, confusion once again clouding his face. I know why they told him to keep it to himself. They don’t want anyone to know how many people they’re planning on killing.

  “I’m sure it would be fine if you showed us,” Jeremy says.

  “Well, okay,” Conner responds. He stands and starts walking towards the back of the room. He doesn’t beckon for us to follow him but we do anyway. At the very last table there are parts scattered about and cylindrical objects with wires attached. It doesn’t look like much has been done here but I’ve never seen a bomb so I wouldn’t know.

  “This is the bomb?” Jeremy asks.

  “Almost. It’s missing something,” Conner answers. “They're sending me the detonators from London. This is old tech though. It isn't supposed to have these wires.” He genuinely looks worried about that.

  “So, this will take out an entire block full of people,” I say, almost to myself as I look over the explosives. I don’t touch them. It’s the same as a gun; I don’t want something that deadly in my hands.

  “No, of course not,” Conner says.

  “Oh, that’s good,” I say in relief.

  “This will effect three blocks at least,” he says regretfully. “We’re just lucky that there are only a few like this. Most of the explosives will level a building but that’s about it.” I cover my mouth with my hand and glance at Jeremy who has gone pale.

  “I need to go.” I back away from the thing that will be the death of hundreds of people. I don’t want to spend another second in its vicinity. Jeremy and I leave Conner to his work and leg it out of there. I let out the breath I had been holding as soon as we are alone on the other side of the door. “How can they do this?” I scream. Jeremy grabs me by the shoulders and looks me in the eye.

  “Dawn, get a grip. Someone will hear you.” He lets me go and turns away. “We can’t tell anybody about that,” he says before facing me once again.

  “Bugger that! Why the hell not?” I demand.

  “Because, there is a right time for everything.” He covers his eyes and sighs. “I’m not even sure there’s anything we can do about it.”