“Our people have long since suffered from a genetic mutation,” he pauses. “Our women cannot have children. It is our curse.” His voice grows sad.
“So, let me get this straight, you kidnap young girls to make them have your kids? That's sick.” I stand suddenly, wanting to run but not sure where I could go or if I even have the strength to go anywhere.
“We don't make them do anything,” he explains quickly, trying to get me to sit back down. “We bring them here when they're young, yes, but they usually get here and never want to leave. Most of them are orphans and life here is pretty good to them. When they get older, they marry and have children. They keep our society going.”
“Emily is not an orphan, her father is Chief Smith of Cincinnati,” I say without emotion. I don't know how to feel about all of this.
“We received word that the Chief is dead,” Riley states. “His wife too. So, yes, Emily is an orphan. Her brother would take her to the Rebels and she could die fighting their senseless battles. Ask her. She wants to stay.”
With all of this swirling around my brain, I can only think of one more question.
“You knew my full name. Do you know who my father is?”
“General Nolan has been here a few times. The unoccupied side of town was built at his request.”
Chapter 7: Gabby
CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.
The sign stretches across the steps leading into the church and a crowd of people mill about, confused.
“Back up!” I yell. I've been sent to dispel any mob that might appear because of the church closing. I was expecting people to tear down the sign and throw it in the dustbin. I was expecting chaos. What I find instead is just sad. It is the time of day that most of these people were required to spend in worship and, without it, they don't know what to do. They are lost without their reverend and their prophet telling them how to live their lives.
“Shite people, go back to your jobs. You should have better things to do. It's pathetic!” I yell. They finally begin to leave and when I am no longer needed, I head for Adrian's office.
“What the hell is going on?” I ask as I burst through the double doors.
“What do you mean?” Adrian asks, distracted. It is only then that I notice the filing boxes cluttering up the floor and the piles of papers on his desk. I plop myself down into the chair across from him.
“Why is the church closed?” I ask. “I had to deal with those people.”
He finally looks up and meets my eyes as he answers, “the reverend is missing.”
“He was taken? By who?”
“He wasn't taken, he ran,” Adrian says as he leans back and sighs. “The group that returned from Mexico brought quite a bit of intel with them.”
I wait expectantly. I don't know why, but Adrian usually trusts me enough to be straight with me.
“There is a man named Juan Moreno in Mexico. He was working with my uncle and the reverend on a weapon. The Mexicans know this and are terrified of what he can do. That is why they've continued this war with Texas. We need to find Moreno to end the war and destroy the weapon and we need to do it before the weapon is used,” he explains.
“Where do we start?” I ask.
“That's what I'm trying to figure out.” He gestures to the files around the room. “These were my aunt and uncle’s. I'm looking for any reference to Juan Moreno or a weapons project.”
“Alright then, put me to work,” I state. He seems relieved that I am going to stay and help. He really could have ordered me to and I would have had to obey but Adrian doesn't like to give orders.
Chapter 8: Gabby
“So, he told you about Moreno and the weapon?” Lee asks as he sits across from me at dinner.
“Why wouldn't he?” I snap.
“I didn't think you two got along,” he says carefully. “General Nolan wanted you to keep an eye on each other because of that.”
“You don’t think I can be trusted with this information?” I demand, rising from my seat. “Or do you think that I can’t handle it?” I shove my chair out of the way but Lee grabs my arm before I can leave.
“I didn't mean that, okay?” His eyes search mine. “Sit back down.”
I sit, but mostly because I'm starving. I don't even know why Lee is still here. The rest of his envoy left for the Rebel base already. They'll all be given new exciting and dangerous tasks. An assignment to the capitol is anything but exciting. Even Dawn is off on some adventure probably saving the world, as usual.
I don't say much for the rest of dinner, I just glare at Lee. He doesn't seem to mind because he is most comfortable with silence. I catch him laughing at me a few times and shut him up with a kick underneath the table.
After dinner, I spend most of the night holed up in Adrian's office with Adrian and now Lee. Most of the files have absolutely nothing to do with weapons. There are all sorts of reports from each factory and tons documenting the yield of every farm. It would be much quicker if we put all of those aside since they seem irrelevant. Adrian won't let us, though. He says his aunt would have only put important information in unimportant documents. That way, no one would ever find it. My eyes start to blur around midnight until I'm too tired to keep them open one second longer.
“Party too hard last night?” I recognize her voice before I open my eyes.
“Hi Allison,” I say as I sit up sleepily. Someone must have moved me to the couch last night. Adrian is zonked with his head on his desk and Lee is in a reclining chair.
“I'd ask you how you are Gabby, but you slept with two hot men last night so I'm guessing you're good,” she says with a laugh. I can't help but laugh along with her as she takes a seat beside me. There is a comfort to being around Allison. She has an open, easy way about her.
“I thought you were at base,” I say. “What are you doing here?”
“It took your father some convincing,” she answers.
“Don't call him that,” I interrupt.
“Okay, well anyways, I've been trying to be assigned here for a while,” she continues.
“You mean you chose this?” I ask as I gesture to the room around us. “After everything…”
“I was hoping to see this place dismantled by the Rebels, not destroyed,” she explains. “By the time I realized that there would be no fighting, I had no choice. My orders were to join the occupying force in Vicksburg.”
“Oh,” A rush of emotions tightens my jaw, keeping me from saying more. I feel the same as Allison. If it was my choice, we would be tearing this place to the ground. Even the lab is still standing. That should have been the first to go.
“Have you seen Jack?” I ask, trying to steer my mind in a less traitorous direction.
“Yeah, I got in last night and went straight to see him,” She smiles warmly. Jack and Allison love each other deeply. Along with Clay, they all helped Dawn and I escape Texas all those months ago. Allison had to leave Jack behind in order to get to Rebel base. I am glad they’ve reunited. Allison ignores my sudden silence and keeps talking. “I figured that I should report here this morning.”
“You were right.” Adrian must have woken while we were talking. He flattens his hair and straightens his shirt before continuing. “Welcome back Allison,” he says.
“Whatever,” she responds.
It’s going to take her some time to get over taking orders from a Cole. Adrian’s family did some terrible things. I have only recently seen him for what he is not. He is not the Prophet, Tia, or the Torturer, Darren Cole. He is more like his mother, Elle, who died at his hand for helping the Rebels.
“What are my orders?” Allison snaps, ready to leave this office behind.
Adrian moves a bunch of files around until he finds what he's looking for. He hands a piece of paper to Allison and she promptly leaves.
“Who was that?” Lee asks groggily.
“Just another person under my command who hates me,” Adrian sighs before continuing. “You guys should ge
t out of the office for a bit. Why don't you do the morning perimeter security check?” he asks.
We don't argue with the chance to get outside and get our bodies moving. I'm a runner. I'm not meant for all of this sitting and waiting.
We walk in silence for a while before Lee asks, “why does Allison hate Adrian?”
“I don’t really want to get into it,” I sigh. “It’s hard for me to think about.
“What did he do? I'm just trying to understand him,” Lee responds.
I look at Lee. The wrinkle on his forehead and the way his lips are pursed make his concentration plain. He really is trying to figure it all out. He can't decide whether or not to trust Adrian. I answer him reluctantly.
“Adrian shot his own mother,” I say as my voice cracks. “He thinks he did it to give her mercy, though. He says she would have been worse off if he hadn't done it.”
“Then she probably would have,” Lee says, looking away as we finish our final check. “Sometimes people have to do horrible things to help the ones they love.”
“What's wrong?” I ask. He doesn't respond so I stop walking and grab his arm. “You can tell me,” I say turning my thoughts from Adrian’s deed to Lee’s obvious pain. He stays silent for a while before deciding to confide in me.
“When we came to break you out of the Floridaland camp, that wasn't the first time I had been there,” he pauses. “I once told Dawn that I had been in love with a girl who was sent there. That was true. I wanted to save her,” he chokes on the last word.
I take his hand in mine and squeeze as he continues. “By the time I got there, she had been in the hot box for almost a week. I tried, I tried really hard but there was no way to get her out. There was a tiny door near the floor that we could talk through but she wasn't as strong as you Gabby. She asked me to...”
He wipes a single tear from his cheek, the first tear I’ve ever seen this man shed. I don't speak. I give him time.
“She wanted to be free. She couldn't take it any longer. I slid a knife through the door and she...” his voice trails off.
“Shh.” I whisper, “You don't have to say it.”
For the second time ever, I wrap my arms around him in a hug. This time he holds on tight. Killing someone out of mercy might end their pain but then the person holding the knife or the gun has a new torture of their own.
Memories from my time in Floridaland are sharp in that moment. I would have welcomed death. It would have been a better fate than living life as a slave. I wanted to die in that hot box but there was no one there to end my pain. I picture General Nolan sliding food and water through that door, not a knife. That door was my salvation. It was her death.
Chapter 9: Jeremy
Drew and I are no closer to finding anything useful. Every avenue brings us to another dead end. We've been warned about entering the Mexican side of town so we have steered clear. We can't avoid it forever. For now though, we go about our assignments.
Both Drew and I have been tasked with dealing with the refugees. Baton Rouge was completely destroyed and now the survivors trickle in to St. Louis. We also have people coming in from the farms that were destroyed.
Our food stores are running low and everyone blames Jonathan. He set fire to most of the farms and equipment and now Texans must live off rations. This is a society that has always had enough. They used to be safe behind their walls, with full stomachs and a ton of other luxuries. Sometimes, I can't help but despise them and their complaining. I was raised on nothing in a Floridaland slave camp. After my mom died, all I had was my little sister, Claire. Now I don't even have her.
I shake my head to clear it of those thoughts and focus more on what is happening right now. Drew and I are walking across town to the tents that have been set up for refugee intake.
“Tell me if I'm crossing the line,” Drew is saying, “but you and Gabby didn't look so chummy the last time we saw her.”
“She's not an easy person to get along with sometimes,” I say looking away.
“Don't I know it?” he responds. “So are you two...”
“No,” I snap, cutting him off. “We were only together because of the circumstances. We both needed someone and we were there for each other.”
“Because of your sister?” he asks.
“That and just because of where we were. We went through a lot together and that made us close,” he answers.
“Why aren't you together now?” he asks.
I almost tell him that he's crossed that line he mentioned but it feels good to talk about it. “I'm not what Gabby needs anymore. She's lost her sense of what is right. She is angry and broken and she needs someone who will put her back together. Someone to pull her back from the ledge. That isn't me,” I respond.
“Gabby was broken long before she came to the colonies,” he says. “She was held together by the fact that her sister needed her. Dawn doesn't need her protection anymore.”
When he says Dawn's name, the corners of his mouth twitch up but his eyes give away his fear.
“Are you scared that Dawn doesn't need you anymore either?” I ask.
He hesitates before speaking, “Let's keep moving.”
After a few moments of silence I say, “she still needs you. It may not be in the way that you want but the need is there.”
We've reached the tents and the crowd milling around takes immediate notice. If looks could kill, we'd be dead a hundred times over. It must be the uniform. These people's lives have been destroyed; their loved ones killed by soldiers that looked just like us. We relieve the soldiers on duty inside the main tent and they can't get away fast enough. We are in for a long day.
The incessant noise and searing heat is making me miserable. People scream about their homes being destroyed and everything they have lost. They think we owe them and maybe we do, but that isn't how war works. You don't make up for winning a fight and you sure as hell don't apologize. Yes, the Rebels made a mess of things, a grueling, blood soaked mess, but if we give these people an inch, they'll take the whole damn city.
Along with a few other soldiers, Drew handles the intake. Every newcomer must answer a routine set of questions about their skills and the like. Eventually they'll be given jobs and integrated into St. Louis society. Not yet, though. I am in charge of relocation. That pretty much means distributing goods such as clothing and assigning tents. The battle here was short but there are still some badly damaged parts of the city and we don't have much room for all of these people.
“Name?” Drew asks repeatedly.
The man who stands at the front of the line is older and he wears just a white robe.
“Joseph Kearn,” he responds. I watch him as he talks to Drew. He shrinks into himself and hunches his shoulders forward. Occasionally he stands straighter and I realize that he is trying to look weak. Why? He walks over towards me and his voice is hushed. For some unknown reason, this old man unsettles me. He is one to keep an eye on.
Chapter 10: The General
“Dammit Miranda, we are not going to discuss this again!” I yell. “It isn't time.”
“Will it ever be time?” she retorts. “We are British Rebels. We are not American. We need to deal with the real threat. Floridaland is vulnerable right now as things in England spin out of control. This is our chance to rid ourselves of that problem.”
“They are not the real threat here,” I say as I lower my voice. All of the officers left the strategy meeting as soon as Miranda started baiting me.
“Do you want our people to be able to leave England and settle in the colonies?” She too has lowered her voice but I know that tone all too well. Our discussion is heading into dangerous territory.
“Commander Crawford’s troops in Floridaland can't stop that from happening. When I left, they were already splintering. We need to focus on creating a peace between the other groups before settlement here is a possibility. We need to rebuild Texas and stabilize Mexico. Our people shouldn’t have to escape the war i
n England only to find that we are also at war. Don't you want the fighting to end?” I ask.
“I will keep fighting as long as I have to,” she says as she walks towards the door.
“That's the point!” I yell after her. “You shouldn't have to.”
I sit down at the table just as there is a knock on the door. A scrawny kid in uniform walks in tentatively. When I get angry, my face gets red. Everyone knows to stay away from me when that happens and this boy looks like he wishes he had that choice. His eyes widen as he looks at me.
“What is it?” I ask, trying to sound calm.
“Sir,” he stutters, “I was sent to tell you that the prisoner is awake.”
“Thank you,” I reply as I stand and run my hands down my uniform to get rid of the creases. “You may go.” The kid practically sprints from the room.
Normally, I would send for Miranda before meeting with the prisoner but she needs time to cool down. I decide to go alone. I'll use the guards as backup if need be. I doubt I'll need them though. We've been using enhanced interrogation methods on Tia Cole, the supposed Texan prophet. She has information and we need it. The problem is that she has a tendency to pass out and then she's no good to us for a few days. In between our discussions she is subjected to sleep deprivation techniques. So far, she hasn't caved.
I open the door to her cell and find her slumped in the corner. She looks at me and there is still defiance in her eyes. We need to rid her of that. I walk towards her and yank her to her feet before dropping her in the center of the room.
“Hello General,” she croaks through parched lips.
“Prophet,” I spit. The venom in my voice makes her cringe away from me. She then starts on the very same questions she asks every day. The very same questions I refuse to answer.
“How is Adrian, my nephew?” she asks. “He killed his own mother you know, can't be trusted. How did it feel to kill all those people in the attacks?”
Eve of Tomorrow (Dawn of Rebellion Series Book 3) Page 3
