THE ELECTED (Fighting Freedom Book 2)

by Paige Clendenin

  “Go!” Jake shouts.

  The abrupt and loud sound of Jake’s voice distracts the man, causing him to turn towards our group. Shawn runs at full speed taking Magi down and out of gunshot range. As soon as they hit the ground, Zac takes aim, shooting the man square between the shoulder blades.

  The stranger goes down to his knees at first and then hits the dirt right at my feet.

  Magi gets to her feet, helping Shawn up as she stands in an upright position. She then walks slowly towards the man on the ground, reaching down and feeling for a pulse as soon as she reaches him.

  “He’s still alive,” she says.

  “Well, let’s finish him off then,” Shawn says with his gun already pointing towards the man’s head.

  “No,” Jake says, pushing the barrel of Shawn’s gun away. “We need to find out who this guy is so we know if anyone else is looking for us. I say we take him with us.”

  “I second that,” Magi says.

  “We need to find out how he knows who we are,” I add, “and what he wants from us.”

  “It’s creepy,” Zac says, with a slight shiver.

  Magi and I walk over to Morimoto and begin untying him so we can bind the stranger.

  “Where is Samantha?” I whisper to Magi.

  Deep down I feel like she most likely took off, not caring what happened to any of us, taking the file with the war plans with her. After all, she had left us before

  I really do need to give her the benefit of the doubt, though.

  “She went to the man’s truck to get it running and find out what or who this guy is,” Shawn answers.

  “So, this guy is the new Morimoto now!” I try a laugh.

  “Guess so,” Mar smiles.

  We all take note of our surroundings and carefully and slowly make our way back towards the road. Eli, Shawn, and Jake haul the unconscious man behind us while Magi and I take point looking for anything and anyone that might stand in our way.

  Sure enough, as soon as we hit the road, Samantha has made it to the truck. It has been started and is running well.

  “He was almost out of gas, so I siphoned gas from the utility vehicle to fill this one,” Samantha says with a smile as we walk up. “Oh yeah, and I got this for you.”

  She hands me my bag, and I return her smile.

  “Thanks,” I say.

  “It’s nothing,” Samantha remarks.

  We throw our nameless friend into the bed of the truck and decide to have a meeting before we leave the safety of the trees.

  “Did you find anything, Sam?” Jake asks.

  “Really?” Samantha remarks frustratedly; she hates being called Sam. He knows that though, that’s why he does it. “The only thing I saw was the sign on the side of the truck.”

  “What does it say?” Leah asks.

  Samantha pulls out a piece of scrap paper from her pocket and a pencil about an inch long.

  “IOUSC,” she starts to read.

  “What does that mean?” Jake asks.

  “Give me time to talk,” Samantha remarks in her usual sarcastic tone.

  “Proceed,” Jake replies with the same tone while swirling his hand in the air.

  “IOUSC stands for Inspectors of United States Conspiracies, and don’t ask me what that means, because I have no idea. He had a paper in the truck that stated the acronym and had all of our names on it in list form.”

  “That’s it?” Zac asks.

  “Yep!” Samantha says, sure of herself.

  “Thanks, Samantha,” Jake says.

  “Now all we must do is wait for the stranger to wake up and ask him what this all means and what he is doing looking for us, or how he knows our names,” I say, puzzled.

  “Nothing that I have ever seen coming to or from The Force,” Magi begins, “other than textbooks that is, has ever said The United States on it.”

  “What can this all mean?” Eli asks, sounding exhausted.

  “I don’t know,” I say,

  “But I plan to find out,” Jake finishes.

  We climb into the truck, noticing the sun going down in the sky. Again, we are in a strange vehicle with a strange man, trying to make our way to a place that none of us have ever seen, hoping everything and everyone will remain safe and alive.

  Chapter Five

  With the sun making its way down and stars appearing in the night sky, we know it is important to find a place to stop for the night. We could have slept in the wooded area we had just left, but the transmission fluid, abandoned vehicle, and loud gun shots were sure to have given us away.

  We creep at a slower pace down the road. Jake decides it is best to travel with our headlights off to avoid being spotted, but that means not being able to see two feet ahead of us in this lightless terrain. After about two hours of creeping along this lifeless road, we agree it is time to stop for the night. “I will try to drive into the tree line a bit,” Jake announces. “But we will have to hike in further in case the truck is spotted.”

  “What about this guy?” Samantha asks, thumbing towards the stranger in the back of the truck.

  “We have to take him with us,” Jake responds. Samantha groans in protest.

  “There is no telling what he will do when he wakes up,” Mar says.

  “If he wakes up,” Magi responds with a frown on her face.

  “He’ll wake up,” I say.

  “How are you so sure?” Samantha asks.

  “He has a bullet proof vest under his shirt,” I respond. “He pulled the bullet Jake put into his shoulder out without even flinching. The vest caught enough of the bullet it didn’t fully penetrate his skin.”

  “Magi, do you think you can remove the one in his back?” Jake asks.

  “Sure,” she responds. “I will do it as soon as we make camp.”

  “That’s settled then,” Jake agrees. “Magi will take the bullet out, I will reload our weapons, and we are going to have to rotate watch… Who’s first?”

  “Me!” Zac offers.

  “You are a bit too young,” Mar answers automatically.

  Zac protests greatly without persuading her or Eli. I think he would do an excellent job if he were paired with one of us, after all, he was the one that put the bullet into the strangers back. I didn’t think he had it in him to harm another person, but I am glad he did. He is turning out to be a great young man.

  A few minutes later we have the truck hidden in a cluster of trees. That posed to be a bit more difficult than we hoped. Once we get under the canopy of leaves, the moonlight is shielded, causing Jake to drive blind for several yards.

  Once the truck is parked, Magi and I use the laser lights on the ends of our guns to navigate our way which provides little to no light, but what choice do we have? Jake, Eli, and Shawn carry our hostage, half dragging him behind them.

  Several minutes later, we enter a small clearing about one-hundred-twenty square feet wide. We agree it might be our best chance at a place to stay for the night. We must be at least one-thousand yards from the truck, but I’m not sure that is far enough if someone were to find it in the morning.

  Magi hands her gun to Mar.

  “Shine the light right here,” she says, pointing to a spot on the ground.

  Mar does as she is asked, pulling the scope up to her eye so she can aim the light better. Magi then pulls a small, thin, foil blanket from her pack, laying it on the ground where the small light is shining.

  “Where do you want him?” Eli huffs.

  “Lay him here,” she says, patting the hard ground. “On his stomach.”

  The boys hoist the lifeless man onto the thin blanket, laying him face down.

  “What’s next?” I inquire.

  “I am going to need your help, Liz,” Magi tells me, and I hand my gun to Samantha to light the way.

  “Can you spare a light?” Jake questions.

  “I think so, why?” Magi responds with her own question.

  “Shawn, Eli, and I are going to put ammo back i
nto our guns,” Jake answers. “Come with us, Samantha, you can light our way.”

  Samantha follows Jake, choosing not to debate. Shawn, Eli, and Zac follow behind them, laying all our guns except mine and Magi’s on the ground, further in the clearing. Eli’s gun was blown to pieces, so for now, he will use a handheld we found at The Force right before we left.

  Mar holds the laser as steady as possible as Magi begins surgery in the middle of nowhere, using only the red glow of a gun. Magi then lays all her things out on a thin cloth to make them more accessible.

  “Hand me those,” Magi orders, pointing to a set of pronged pinchers she has laying out along with some other things.

  “Now, I need you to spread the fabric away from the bullet hole as I try to pull the bullet free.”

  “I can do that,” I say optimistically.

  Magi pours a small amount of brown liquid onto the stranger’s back where the wound is, along with her hands, my hands, and the tool. My guess is it is an antiseptic or sanitizing liquid. The man lets out a small grunt in his sleep, indicating that he is both alive, and in pain.

  “Alcohol,” Magi says, taking a swig of it and then putting it back into her bag. “It’s a good cleanser.”

  “And pain killer,” I add.

  “Yes,” she remarks. “It’s also good to steady the nerves.” She finishes with a smile. “You want some?”

  “Nah.” I wince at the smell of the stuff.

  I reach down and rip the man’s shirt a bit where the hole is. Magi begins to pull the bullet out, and I reach in further, trying to pull away the vest, but the material is too hard to move very much.

  “What is that?” Mar asks.

  “I think it is a bullet proof vest, just like Liz guessed,” Magi answers, “but I have never seen one in person. They used them back in the early two-thousands and before, but we thought they had been destroyed by The Elected.”

  “I remember in class our first week at The Force we learned about them,” Mar says. “I’m sure The Elected horded them instead of destroying them.

  “You’re right,” I say. “General R. J. Timothy tried to remake them but could never find the material they used in them or anything similar.”

  We all three go quiet, most likely pondering the situation at hand.

  Magi gets the bullet to come free without any more trouble. The vest has been punctured where the bullet hit, and broke skin, but barely, so Magi isn’t sure to what extent any damage was done. She says that there is a small possibility that it hit his spinal cord, but not likely with the thickness of the vest. There is a small amount of blood pouring from the wound, but Magi easily stymies the flow.

  She finishes the procedure by pouring some antibiotics into the wound and then packs her gear up.

  “How did it go?” Jake asks as he and his group walk back over to us.

  “I guess we will see in the morning,” she answers. “We did the best we could with what we had; there is a slight possibility of him being paralyzed, if he even survives.”

  “Good enough, then,” Jake responds. “Eli, Mar, and Zac, you have the first watch. Wake me and Liz up in two hours.”

  They agree with apprehension, but my heart beams like the smile on Zac’s face. I guess Jake made the decision for them.

  Let’s hope tonight goes more smoothly than the day did.

  Chapter Six

  Two hours pass by in what seems like half a second. Mar and Eli eagerly wake us up with their own sleepy eyes looking down on us. Zac looks like he could stay up for hours, but deep down, he knows time to sleep may be few and far between.

  Through my own sleepy eyes, I stand upright, stretching my back and legs. Jake is a little slower getting to his feet, and I don’t blame him. I can’t say any of us have slept much in the recent past.

  They take our places on the ground as Jake and I walk to where Mar, Zac, and Eli had been standing guard.

  We both stare into the darkness for the longest time, but it is Jake that breaks the silence.

  “How could you have given yourself up like that?’ Jake asks, looking me in the eye.

  “I thought I could save all of you,” I answer.

  “Who asked you to do that?” he spits back at me. His tone is angry and short but quiet to not wake the others. “Who told you, you needed to be the one to save us?”

  Speechless, I sit here, looking at him, trying not to cry. I had no idea this entire day he had been fuming with anger towards me.

  “Don’t do that Liz! Don’t you dare sit here and not say anything. Don’t get lost in your head just so you have an excuse not to talk to me. Out of anyone, I am who you need to express your thoughts to.”

  “What do you want me to say? What am I supposed to tell you that makes this any better? It was stupid!”

  “Tell me why you did it,” he demands. “I mean why you really did it, and not some garbage about how you wanted to save us…” He trails off waiting for me to respond.

  I look at him even longer this time, trying to decide if I want to confess something to him I haven’t even said to myself out loud.

  “It’s all my fault,” I finally blurt out, maybe a bit too loud.

  Samantha shushes me from the darkness.

  “Sorry,” I say and steady my voice to quiet myself. “It’s all my fault,” I say again, quieter this time.

  “What are you talking about?” he asks, still angry and maybe a bit confused.

  “If I could have fought better, maybe we wouldn’t have been taken by The Force,” I begin my rant. “And maybe if we hadn’t been taken, then nothing would have happened, fighting the Methrodine, losing the girls, getting lost in the middle of nowhere to find those girls, all of it,” I finish, but by now I am crying.

  “There has to be a reason for it all, Liz,” Jake responds, softer this time. “You would have never met me, Syl…”

  “Samantha,” I interrupt with an eye roll.

  “Samantha,” he agrees, with a laugh under his breath. “Me,” he finishes a bit more serious.

  He grabs me pulling me closer to him.

  “I’m sorry,” I whisper.

  “I don’t ever want you to do that again,” he says, sternly. “Do not ever put yourself in danger for me or anyone. Do you understand me?”

  “Yes, I understand you, but…”

  “But nothing Liz, either you keep from putting yourself in harm’s way or…”

  “Or what?” I ask, now a little angry myself. “Or you will leave me? Pack up your gun and take off?”

  “No,” Jake’s voice trails off again as if he doesn’t want to say what or else means to him.

  Our conversation goes as quiet as the night, and again, Jake and I sit staring into nothingness.

  Two hours go by in dragging silence. I go to wake Leah up while Jake gets Shawn. They both go to take our place, but as I lay down in their spot, I see Jake walk into the darkness.

  I am not going to push it, if he wants to go sulk in the dark I will let him, but I can’t stop being who I am just because some boy I have known for only a few months asks me to.

  I begin to wonder if I am being stubborn for no reason. Was this who I was before The Force, or is it the new me since abduction? If this is the new me, then it should be easy for me to change back, but personalities change with every emotional scar laying on our hearts. There are so many of those on mine. I couldn’t imagine going back to the old me and the old way of living. Sure, I miss my mom and Lydia, but I don’t miss feeling like everything I did was for The Elected instead of against it.

  As I drift off to sleep, all I can think about is how maybe I am who I am and there is no changing that, and if Jake can’t accept me for me, then maybe…

  A rustling sound wakes me up. I’m not sure how long I have been asleep, but the sun is peeking over the horizon causing an odd orange-green glow to fall over the woods. I am still laying alone, and that worries me. I raise up, looking in the direction of the sound. From my left I can see Jake wal
king up to me with his finger to his lip.

  I glance over to see Magi and Samantha guarding in the spot Leah and Shawn had once been. On my other side, I can see our group, including the strange man, is still asleep.

  Reluctantly, I get up and follow Jake into the woods, looking at Magi and Samantha to make sure they realize what is happening. Several minutes in, Jake steps behind me cupping his hands over my eyes. Instinct tells me this is a sign of danger, but my heart tells me this is Jake, the man I love.

  I walk, blinded even deeper into the trees, for another ten minutes it feels…Maybe more.

  “Quiet,” he whispers into my ear.

  Several minutes later, we stop, and I can no longer hear the breathing and sleeping noises coming from the rest of our group.

  “Open your eyes,” he whispers.

  I open my eyes to the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. The sight before my eyes is a small reminder that there is still beauty and peace in the world. A small brook and cliff are displayed before me. There are fish in the brook which catch my attention. Jake points up onto the cliff, and it is only after he has pointed it out that I see the doe and her baby fawn standing above the small waterfall.

  “This is amazing.” I smile.

  “I thought you would like it,” Jake remarks.

  I spin around, looking at Jake instead of the wonders in front of us.

  “I’m really sorry,” I say. “Sometimes I don’t know which version of me is the me I should be.”

  “I’m going to pretend that makes sense.” Jake pushes a strand of my hair back. “I’m sorry too. Seeing you walk out in front of that psychopath did something to me. It made me go crazy.”

  “I can’t promise I won’t do something like that again, but what I can promise you is I will try.”

  “That’s all I ask for.” He smiles.

  We both turn to enjoy nature at its purest. The sun is coming up even more, turning the mucky color into a bright rainbow of yellows and pinks. The joy on my face at this moment must say it all.

  “Someday,” Jake whispers. “When all of this is over, we will live in a place just like this, and we will be happy.”