I looked up. Seth stood in a protective stance in front of me. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. Whose side was he really on?
"I can't let you kill her."
Pushing myself up onto shaky legs, I stumbled forward into Seth's back. What was he doing? He chose his side the moment he betrayed his friends and family.
Stephan looked at me with murderous eyes. "Do you realize what she has done?"
"Yes. She doesn't know any better." Seth defended me, reaching his hand out to keep me behind him.
"Everyone heard. The entire country heard what she had to say. It was being cast out onto a radio. Everyone." Stephan's voice shook with anger. He could not control it. He could not contain it. A man who was used to being in control of everything lost all his control at once. I felt satisfied knowing I was the one who stole the control from him.
I watched the facade on his face turn into blind anger. His nostrils were flaring. His hair that used to be in a neat ponytail on the back of his neck was now messy around his face. His once perfectly clean suit had dirt stains on it from falling to the floor.
He was no longer in control. I stole it from him. I had the power now. I did something. I made a difference. Everyone heard what I had to say. My part was done. I backed away to let them have their face off. When I went to turn and run, a hand gripped me by the back of my arm.
"You are not going anywhere." I recognized the voice. It was the soldier with the foul breath. I attempted to rip my arm from his grasp, but he was too strong. He forcefully spun me around and made me face him. "I don't think anyone will notice if you go missing for a few hours."
I glanced around us, looking for someone to help. Nobody would even hear me if I screamed at the top of my lungs. Everyone was fighting. Civilians were fighting with civilians. Soldiers were fighting with the rebels. Everywhere there was violence. The fire was rapidly spreading throughout the cars. Engines were blowing up. Heavy gray smoke filled the still, blue sky.
I had started a war when I was reaching for peace. What had I done? I made everything worse.
The soldier dragged me across the platform. I screamed and tried to tear my arm away from him. I couldn't let him take me away. I had to find Adam. My father. Someone that I knew. Someone familiar. As hard as I could, I kicked the soldier in the back of his leg. When he collapsed to the floor, I sprinted down the stairs as fast as I could.
I needed to find the semi. Running through the mass of people, I headed straight for the burning parking lot. There were too many cars. Too many people. I would never find them. When another hand wrapped around my arm, I turned to punch the offender in the face.
The person ducked and my fist smashed into a car. Groaning in pain, I jumped up and down and shook my hand.
"For someone with wise words, you are an idiot."
I never thought I would be excited to see Chantel, but happiness bloomed in my heart when I realized she was the one that grabbed my arm. She was standing there with her arms crossed and her hip cocked. Although she wasn't smiling, I could see amusement in her eyes.
"I thought you were a soldier." I mumbled, embarrassed about my terrible punch.
She nodded. "We need to go. Like right now." Chantel grabbed onto my arm and led me through the maze of fighting people. We were heading away from the smoke and the violence.
Once we reached the street, I gasped. In the neighborhood, people were fighting too. Snipers were on top of roofs shooting at anyone who left their house.
"What is happening?" I asked when she shoved me behind a car.
"Whenever a riot breaks out the city goes on lockdown. If anyone leaves their homes, they get shot on sight." She explained, pulling a map out from her jacket pocket and looking at it.
"Why?" I pressed my back further against the van. I did not want to get shot.
Chantel put the map away. "It helps contain the people."
Her curls bounced around her face when she went up on her tippy toes to look through the van window. "Watch my back." She placed her gun in my hand and smashed the car window with a rock.
I looked around to make sure nobody heard. Nobody did, though. The noise coming from the parking lot overpowered everything else. She unlocked the van door and bent down towards the gas pedals. I raised the gun and looked around. Nobody was coming or paying us any attention.
"Get in and stay down. When I start the van up, everyone will be shooting at us." Chantel instructed. She gave me a stern look when I did not move. I didn't need any more prompting. I hopped into the van and went into the back. I laid down on the floor and covered my head with my hands.
"Are you ready?" She looked back at me.
I gave a short nod. Chantel started the van and took off down the street. She was right. I could hear the bullets flying into the car. One broke through the metal and went out the other side. Chantel had no problem driving crazy and swerving through the cluster of people fighting in the roads.
I had to shout in order to be heard. "Where are we going?"
"To the safe house. It's an underground community. It's where we go when all hell breaks loose." Chantel took a sharp right turn.
I slid across the van floor. "What if we get followed?"
"We are being followed. I am going to lose them, then we will go by foot. We have to make it to the woods."
She drove like a mad woman. I clenched my eyes shut, not wanting to see how many times she would almost crash. I had never seen anyone ever drive like that. What would happen when we got there? What would I say? They probably didn't know Seth was on the other side of the war. He saved my life, but I would never forgive him. All of this happened because of him. He was going to sit there and watch as his friends, family, and innocent people died.
I peeked my eyes open and looked at Chantel's determined face through the review mirror. She would be even more heartbroken. First she thinks her boyfriend died, then he breaks up with her, and now she is going to know he actually was Stephan's second man. I felt bad for her. Although she hated me and made it known at every moment, I could tell she was actually a genuine and good person. She didn't deserve all of this.
The van came to a halt. "Run!" She shouted, jumping out of the van.
I hopped into the driver seat and ran out after her. She ran through the woods like she knew it from the back of her hand. She easily dodged every tree branch and tree stump. I tripped many times, trying my best to keep up with her.
I was breathing heavily and slowing down. I realized we were going in circles when I saw the indent in the mud where I had tripped not too long ago.
"What are you doing? We are going in circles?" I barely got the words out through my panting.
"I am losing them," Chantel said with ease.
I was just about to give up when Chantel came to a stop. We were at the edge of the woods. I looked out into the distance. The buildings over here were broken down and falling apart. Nobody was outside. I peered up onto the roofs looking for snipers. Nothing. It was like we were in a ghost town.
Chantel placed her hand on my arm. "I need you to listen to me and listen closely."
I looked into her intent brown eyes and nodded my head in agreement.
"This is what is going to happen. You are going to follow directly behind me. Now I need you to place your hands on the back of your head and no matter what do not move them."
I furrowed my eyes brows. "Why?"
"We are going into a sacred place. David will not be arriving for a while. It's full of high up people in the rebellion. Seekers, enforcers, and men David trusts."
Men like Seth? I clamped my mouth shut and nodded my head. Placing my hands on the back of my head, I followed Chantel out into the street. I expected bullets to fly out at us, but nothing happened. The broken gravel crunched under our feet.
Chantel led us into a rundown building. Part of the roof had crashed to the floor. Inside was covered with overturned shelves. My skin crawled when I heard rats scurrying around on the floor. We went
out the back door and into an alley.
Chantel looked all around us. When she was satisfied that nobody was watching, she shoved the dumpster over. I lifted my eyebrows when I saw wood covering the floor. It was a secret passageway. One much like the one that Stephan had at his estate.
Chantel moved the wooden boards and motioned for me to go down. I went down the latter. It felt like it would never end. I heard her move the wood back over the top and start climbing down after me. Finally when my feet touched the ground, I breathed a sigh of relief.
We made it and we were safe.
"Get down now! Get down!" Someone slammed into me making me fall to my knees.
I heard more shouting and Chantel snap something back. Lights lit up. My eyes had adjusted to the dark, so I squeezed my eyes shut when the lights turned on. I was on my hands and knees. I could feel the barrel of a gun pressed into my back.
"Get off of me so I can show you my ranking." Chantel snapped.
The gun stayed on me. "Show me your ranking." The man demanded.
I kept quiet.
"Let her up. She is my prisoner." Chantel ordered.
I blinked my eyes against the light. I was on a dirty cement floor. Feet covered in steel toe boots surrounded me. There were so many people. So many voices.
Someone pulled me to my feet with ease. I stumbled before finding my balance. I was looking into pale green eyes. The coloring reminded me of a lizard. Dark eyebrows stood over the odd colored eyes. This man's face looked as mean and tough as Ares. He had to be an enforcer. He looked at me for minutes before spinning me around and tying my hands together behind me.
"Why have you brought her here?" The man directed his question at Chantel.
Chantel seemed to be at ease and unworried. She fixed her hair and brushed her clothes off. She was pondering her next words.
"Did you guys hear the speech over the radio?" She asked, looking at the men surrounding us.
Many still had their weapons up and aimed.
"Oh, she named herself something different and talked about freedom, so you bring her here? You are obviously a brilliant one." A woman's steel voice said.
I glanced towards the voice. This woman had long raven black hair that sat at her waist. Her skin color was the color of sand. Freckles were scattered across her nose giving her an innocent feel, but her blazing blue eyes took that affect away.
She scared me. I scooted closer to the scary guy with the gun pointed at me. The woman watched my movements. Distaste was written across her perfectly sculpted face.
"I had direct orders from the man at the top to get her here safely. If you have any questions, bring it up with him when he gets here. Otherwise, let go of my prisoner. We have business to attend to." Chantel smacked one of the rebellion guy’s gun away from her face and grabbed onto my arm.
We looked to be in some kind of underground cave. Tunnels led into all sorts of directions. We were in the heart of it. A huge round circle. There were many different tunnels in here. How people didn't get lost, I did not know.
The woman lifted a perfectly plucked eyebrow when Chantel led me away. Hearing her mention 'the man at the top' the people backed down fast. They all watched me. Some with curiosity, some with hate, and others just looked blank.
Voices echoed around everywhere in here. People were arguing, whispering, and some were even laughing still.
"I didn't expect a welcome like that." I mumbled to Chantel, not wanting my voice to carry.
Chantel cast me a look. "I'm surprised we didn't get sniped on the way here. They knew you were coming."
We turned down many twists and turns. In no time, I was lost. If she left me down here, I would probably be lost forever. Every time we walked by someone, they gave me long hard looks. They all recognized my face. Nobody stopped us again or questioned us again. It must have been because of Chantel's confidence of where she was going and what she was doing.
"Here we are." Chantel pushed me through a hole in the tunnel.
I looked around when we got inside. There was a huge wooden table in the room full of maps. Maps also covered the stone walls. Camping lights covered the entire room casting a yellow glow on everything.
I moved closer into the room. "What is this?"
"We call it the war room." Chantel peered at a map on the wall with a bunch of red circles. "The red means hot spots. Hot spots are places that are covered with The Unit. The yellow are warm spots. Warm spots have some military officials, but not too many. Then the blue are cold spots." She walked over to a map full of blue. "Blue spots mean there are no military officials there."
I walked over and looked at the map. It was not the same map I grew up looking at. Although it was in the shape of America, all the towns, states, and cities had new names.
"If the cold spots mean there is no military why don't the people just migrate there?" It seemed simple. Get away from the military.
Chantel sighed. "How? With vehicles they do not have? No money for food, water, or shelter. They would have to travel by feet. Cold spots also mean they are full of the diseased. Now not only do they not have any transportation, they also have nothing to defend themselves with. Stephan made sure that the people would have to rely on him and The Unit in order to survive."
I compared all three maps to each other. There was mostly blue over any other color. "They could be like you and hot wire a car."
"You are being unrealistic." Chantel moved onto another map. "Stephan bombed all the cold spots. There are no crops there, no housing, and no nothing. There is nothing at all."
"Rebuild." I stated like it was simple and easy. I could sense I was annoying her. Mathematically speaking there were four times as many civilians then there were military officials. The people could easily win the war, they were just too afraid to try. They were like Chantel. Always coming up with excuses on why they couldn't.
"Not that simple." She basically growled.
"Yeah, it is. Find someone with a vehicle, drive away, and build a community. Isn't that how Stephan started all this? He built a community, provided protection, food, shelter, and soon enough all of America wanted to join in."
Chantel pushed her curls out of her eyes and gave me a look. She opened her mouth to respond but snapped it shut when she looked towards the entry way.
I followed her look and stopped breathing. Seth stood there with Adam slumped onto his side. Adam was holding his right shoulder with his left hand. Blood was seeping between his shoulders. He had been shot.
Chapter Twenty Two
"Seth! You are okay!" Chantel exclaimed, putting her hand to her heart.
Well, that answered my question. They didn't know he worked for Stephan. Seth caught my eye and shook his head. He didn't want me to say anything. I looked at the agony on Adam's face and the relief in Chantel's eyes. They both loved him dearly and all, this time, he was betraying them. He did not deserve that kind of love and devotion.
I heard loud voices shouting behind Seth and Adam. Seth helped Adam into the room and shoved all the maps off of the table. He lifted Adam and put him onto the table.
"What happened?" Chantel looked closer at the blood seeping from Adam's hands.
"Stephan shot me." Adam bit out through clenched teeth. His forehead was covered with sweat. Tremors shook his body. "I saw him and Seth fighting. He was going to shoot Seth and I knocked Seth out of the way."
Guilt filled Seth's dark eyes, but he quickly contained it. I looked at Seth with hate. I hoped that the guilt would eat him alive. Keep him awake at night. He was a terrible person. He should have been the one to get shot, not Adam. What was he even doing here? Giving The Unit our location? People in here looked at me like I was the bad guy, but Seth was the traitor. He just showed that you could never truly trust anybody.
"Out of my way. Move." I recognized the voice.
My jaw dropped when Dr. Lynn walked into the room. He held a medical bag in one hand. His eyes met mine for a second before he looked at Adam
. "That's a nasty bullet wound. Mind if I take a look?" At Adam's nod, Dr. Lynn looked at us. "Out. All of you. You can visit when he is recovering."
Chantel basically danced into Seth's arms. "I was so worried." I heard her say, as they slid through the hole in the cave wall. I stumbled out. My hands were still tied behind my back.
Seth murmured something to her. Chantel gave a fast nod of her head and took off down the tunnel leaving me with Seth and a group of men I did not know. They all looked bloody and battered. They must have been the rebellion out in the crowd.
They watched me like I was some kind of alien from a different planet. Nobody said anything. I stood there with my arms tied behind my back and didn't offer any words. I had nothing to say to any of them. I needed to get away from Seth and find David. I had to tell somebody. Chantel would not believe me and neither would Adam. Why would they? Seth was Adam's brother and Chantel was in love with Seth.
Revolutionary Love (The Revolution Series Book 1) Page 21
