THE ELECTED (Fighting Freedom Book 2)

by Paige Clendenin

  We all walk in silence until we come upon what looks like an old food supply store building. I remember we had small versions of these in the R9. We took our money given to us by the government and traded it for lesser amounts of food.

  “It’s abandoned,” Leah comments.

  “I wonder if they left any food?” Shawn asks with childlike curiosity as his stomach audibly grumbles.

  “Doubtful,” I laugh. “It’s probably been long pillaged of its contents.

  “It would make a good place to stay, though,” Magi says while holding her arm.

  Shawn and Eli are in the back of the group, helping encourage Robert to walk with us.

  “Liz and I will check it out,” Jake says. “Zac and Dia, you will stay in the middle of the group, got me? The rest of you, stand guard.”

  Dia and Zac shake their approving heads at us while the others take a cautious stand.

  Jake pushes the half open door back with the barrel of his gun. There is just enough sun left to see the entire front lobby of the building. Glass smashes under my careful foot as I tread lightly.

  Jake puts a finger up to his lips as he pushes the door to the back room open. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a dark figure pass the open door. Jake continues to crack the door a few inches every second.

  “Drop your weapons,” a scared voice calls from out of the dark.

  “Drop yours first,” Jake counters.

  “We’re unarmed,” the voice says, still afraid.

  Jake pushes the door the rest of the way open. As the sunlight floods into the back room, five faces shine in the light. They all have their hands high in the air.

  “Who are you?” I ask.

  “We are voyagers,” the first man says with a slight stutter. “Who are you?”

  “Voyagers?” I ask. Robert and R. J. had used the term, but I wasn’t sure what it meant.

  “A small group of non-registered humans who travel, living undetected by The Elected, or any other group,” Jake answers while lowering his gun. “They’re harmless.”

  I follow his example while keeping my finger on the trigger. I hope they are who they say they are.

  “Who are you?” the first man asks again.

  “Let us bring the others in, and we will explain,” I say.

  “Others?” a thin woman asks, while hiding a little boy behind her.

  “Yes, we are a group of soldiers that escaped The Force,” Jake replies.

  “How many are you?” the first man asks.

  “Nine others,” I answer, “eleven all together.”

  They all look at a woman who appears to be the eldest in the group.

  “Very well,” the woman answers.

  I rush out into the front room, waving our group to follow me.

  “Voyagers,” I say to Magi.

  “Ha,” Robert scoffed, “nasty pillagers.”

  “You have no right to speak unless you are asked to,” I say, turning on the man that was once my father.

  He looks at me with a shocked expression.

  “Do I not have a right to an opinion?” Robert asks.

  “Only if that opinion is right,” Eli says, passing him up, tossing a sideways stare in his direction.

  Magi wobbles into the back room, clutching her bloody arm. Without missing a beat, a girl not much younger than me helps her to the ground.

  “You have lost a lot of blood,” the girl says. “My name is Cara.”

  “Thank you, Cara,” Magi grunts as she hits the floor.

  Magi begins to doctor her own arm with little usefulness. “Here, let me,” Cara offers, as she takes a pair of pinchers from her pocket, sanitizing it with a clear liquid. “This may hurt a bit.”

  Magi bites down on a clean bandage as she allows the strange girl to remove the bullet from her bicep. We all look in silence. Other than Paul, who is dead now, no one other than Magi has been able to do anything medical for any of us. It’s nice to have the help. Magi has tried to train Samantha, but she hasn’t been able to teach her very much on the move.

  “You can stay with us this night,” the woman in charge says. “but not a night more.”

  We all grunt our agreements. Jake takes the time to tell her who we are and what we are trying to do.

  “My name is Rosa Maria, but I much prefer to go by Rose to non-personal acquaintances. Also, these are my people,” she responded by gesturing to the four-remaining people in the room.

  We learn that Rose is the oldest by far; her gray hair shines in the remaining sun light. The man with the stutter is Hector, he is Rose’s son and only living family member she has besides a daughter she doesn’t seem to want to talk about. The war killed her husband and eldest son years ago.

  We learn the hauntingly thin woman is Tawnya and her son is nine-year-old Bryan who hasn’t spoken one word since we arrived. He still hides behind his mother. The fifth person in the room is Cara, but she isn’t related to any of the others.

  We all make ourselves as comfortable as possible with sixteen people in a small store room. Lucky enough, the voyagers have enough food to offer us a bit of sustenance for the night.

  “That man is bleeding,” Bryan tells his mom, while pointing at Robert, choosing this moment to speak for the first time.

  Cara bends down to examine the bullet graze on his upper thigh.

  “It is only a flesh wound,” she says confidently. “Do you wish I treat it?” she asks Jake and me.

  “Do what you must to stop the bleeding, but nothing more,” Jake answers.

  Cara busies herself with clotting the blood pouring from my father’s leg as the rest of us try to settle in for the night. Now I feel I might finally get comfortable, but it is short lived when a loud cracking noise breaks through the room, followed by a scream.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  We all jump at the awful sound coming from Samantha as Magi and Cara pop her shoulder back into place. She whines a moment, cursing under her breath, while rotating her shoulder around and around to take away some of the stiffness.

  “That hurt,” Samantha curses under her breath while pumping her hand, trying to get all feeling into it.

  “I’m sure,” I say, while rubbing the invisible pain from my own shoulder.

  Samantha finally lays down next to Magi on a pile of old rags, trying to get more comfortable while healing from their injuries. Robert sleeps propped up against the wall, with his injured leg resting on a stack of broken window coverings. He sleeps, oblivious to the screams that came from only feet away from him.

  “How could that man have ever been my father?” I ask no one specific while shaking my head in disappointment.

  “You look nothing like him,” Cara says while plopping down next to me cross legged on the floor.

  “I never thought so,” I tease, trying on a smile.

  She looks around the room with a new shine in her eyes.

  “How old are you?” Jake asks.

  “I’m not for sure,” she answers sadly.

  “How can you not be sure?” I ask reluctantly.

  She looks down at her pretzel twisted legs, and then to Rose, who is busy taking inventory of their supplies. I wonder if she does this every night, or if she is making sure she knows how much of everything she has in case we decide to steal something.

  “We will have the first watch, Rosa Maria,” Cara says while gesturing towards herself, Jake, and I.

  “Very well,” Rose answers. “Take to the ladder.”

  Cara nods.

  “Come with me.” She gets to her feet, motioning for us to follow her.

  I look around, making sure our family is safe and looked out for. Dia is asleep on Mar’s lap, while Zac and Eli play some silly hand slapping game. Eli nods towards me, letting me know that the kids are safe with them. Magi and Samantha are asleep restlessly, and Robert is still… well, Robert. Shawn and Leah huddle together in the corner, whispering back and forth.

  I need to make it a point to get to know L
eah better, I begin to think to myself.

  “Let’s go,” I grunt while raising up off the floor. I hadn’t noticed how much I really was in pain from the activities of the past several days until now.

  Cara leads us into a small closet just off the store room. She then pulls down a ladder from the ceiling that nearly reaches the ground. I wouldn’t have known it was there had she not shown us.

  “Follow me,” she says again.

  I climb up after Cara with my gun slung over my shoulder, as Jake follows close behind me. About half way up, I slip, narrowly missing falling off the side of the ladder. Jake slides a hand up my hip to my waste to support me the rest of the way back on the ladder.

  When we reach the top, Cara reaches down to help me up the rest of the way. When we are all three safely at the top, she leads us over a board we must balance on, to a small plank that looks out over the street below through the building’s perhaps only unbroken window.

  She sits cross legged on the plank, leaving just enough room for Jake and me to sit, not leaving very much space between us. Cara then slides a small board away from the floor behind us, allowing us to look down on the sleeping members of our groups. Lastly, she opens a panel on the wall, revealing a small knife, a tiny pistol, and a few old looking hand grenades.

  She grabs the pistol, checking the ammo, afterward, throwing the safety back on and placing the small gun in the waistband of her pants, near the small of her back. She then places the panel back over the small arsenal.

  “Unarmed,” I scoff, half teasing.

  “Well, they are,” Cara smiles, “these are a few things I had with me when this group of voyagers found me five years ago.” Jake and I sit in silence. “I told you I didn’t know how old I am… well, I don’t. All I know is I am between fifteen and seventeen somewhere. I was raised as a voyager in a large group of about thirty people, most of them unrelated. My parents along with most of the others from my group died at the hands of The Elected. They raided the place we were staying and opened fire. My little brother, Baxley was taken by them alive.” Cara looks down at her hands frowning. “They took him, but not me.”

  “Why not you?” I ask, enamored with her story.

  “When they shot my father, the bullet went through his heart, came out his back, and entered me.” Cara pulls her shirt down just enough for us to see a scar on her chest. “I played dead, so they thought I wasn’t worth taking. Baxley was only six or seven.”

  “How did you end up here?” Jake asks.

  “Rosa Maria… Well Rose, and her people, found me and took me to The Facility for healing.”

  “How did they let you leave The Facility once you were healed?” Jake asks.

  “They believe, as our people do, that if you have something or someone to trade them that is of interest or use to them, then they will do what you ask, then allow you to leave.” She looks out of the window. “You have to promise to leave this town after you leave The Facility, but Rose won’t allow us to leave. We have been stuck here for five years.”

  “Why?” I ask.

  “Because… the thing she traded was her daughter, Cloe.”

  “Why would she do that?” Jake asks.

  “Because Cloe wanted to be trained to do The Cleansing and live with the people of The Facility to have the securities of each day.”

  “I met Cloe,” I say excitedly. “She was a nurse in the bathhouse.”

  “That still doesn’t explain why Rose won’t let you leave,” Jake brings up a good point.

  “She still thinks Cloe will find a way to come back to her.”

  “She won’t,” I say. “She is happy where she is, I can tell her that.”

  “No!” Cara almost shouts. “No, don’t tell Rose anything, she mustn’t ever know you have seen her, or that she is happy,” she whispers this time.

  “Why?” I ask.

  “She plans to rush The Facility to rescue her if she doesn’t return soon. She thinks she is being held against her will. If you trade any person to The Facility, their bondage or servitude is only for five years. after that, they are free to stay or leave. If Rose doesn’t think Cloe will return to her, then she might raid The Facility sooner than planned.”

  “She can’t do that,” I say softly. “You would all get killed.”

  “I know,” Cara says solemnly. “The only weapons we have are mine, we would get slaughtered.” We shake our heads in agreement. “That’s why you have to take me with you.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Jake and I sit, looking at her, dumbfounded. Neither of us are quite sure what to say to her. This girl that we have never met before is wanting to come with us. She is wanting to be a part of us, live with us, fight with us.

  “Rose would never allow it,” I finally break the silence.

  “She would if…” She trails off.

  “If what?” Jake asks.

  “If you had something or someone to trade her for me.”

  “We don’t,” I say defensively.

  She looks down ashamed for asking.

  “Whoa, wait,” Jake says. “What kind of things is she looking for?”

  “Yes, I say,” still defensively, “because there are no people we care to trade off.”

  “I didn’t mean to offend you, Liz,” she says, still ashamed. “This is just the way my people get things they need, they trade things, and sometimes people. It is just a fact of our lives.”

  “But not ours.” I frown.

  “Liz,” Jake whispers warmly in my ear. “We need another medic in case something ever happened to Magi, or our group gets separated. You saw everyone panic when Magi took a bullet to the arm, what do you think it would be like if it made contact elsewhere?”

  “What do you suggest?” I ask him. “Because other than Robert, there is not one person in that room I would give up, and we need him to get to The Elected.”

  “You’re going to The Elected?” Cara interrupts with a tone of excitement. “Why?”

  “Because they have our sisters, just like they have Baxley,” I answer.

  “We are going to rescue Syl and Shae,” Jake adds.

  Cara stands to her feet.

  “Well then I have to go with you,” she says.

  “What does Rose want?” Jake asks, as if we have anything worth much.

  “Food, weapons, anything that would help her get to Cloe, or get away once she is done.” Cara looks down on us.

  “I have an idea,” I say. “We will talk to her at first light.”

  Cara sits down, smiling, proud that perhaps she may have a way to leave this group. Jake and Cara explain to me about how once a voyager saves you or takes you in, you are tied to their group until you get bought, sold, or die. It sometimes is just as binding as The Force, The Elected, or The Facility.

  We sit for the remainder of our shift, looking down to the street. There isn’t so much as a moving shadow out there, nor are the guards from The Facility patrolling the streets. If they are still looking for us, then they aren’t looking here.

  “What’s your plan?” Jake whispers softly into my ear.

  “We offer up two of the Colt 45s,” I say.

  “That won’t be enough,” he says.

  “I know,” I say frowning. “What else do we have to offer?”

  “We don’t have much, but I can think of something that might work,” Jake smiles.

  “What’s that?”

  “A vehicle,” he replies.

  “We don’t have a vehicle,” I say, laughing. “Remember, transmission problems.”

  “I can get the IOUSC truck running that is stalled in the road from earlier today. The second one. It should only have a smashed bumper.”

  “You think so?” I ask.

  “I know so.”

  “So, that’s it?” I whisper. “We trade a human being for two guns and a beat-up old truck?”

  “Messed up isn’t it?” Jake says.

  Cara, who had been looking out the window
, gives us a sideways glance.

  “Sorry for the whispers,” I say.

  “It’s okay.” Cara smiles. “I just hope you have a plan.”

  “We do.”

  “Good,” she says dryly while turning to look back out of the window.

  “Cara,” Jake says, causing her to look back our direction. “Do you know your way out of the city towards the Corridor intersection?”

  “I know every inch of the city. We have been here for five years, and we change locations every few days. I know the city,” she smiles.

  We finish our time as guards in silence. Finally, after about four hours of sitting and looking out of a window, the ladder drops down, allowing the next guards to come up. Cara quickly pulls the panel from the wall, placing her gun back in and placing the wall back together before the next guard can climb over the top.

  Shawn, Leah, and Tawnya come over the top of the ladder.

  “We’re up,” Shawn says while taking our place.

  We all exchange a smile as Cara, Jake, and I head towards the ladder.

  “Meeting in the morning,” Jake says to Shawn and Leah. “Please, let everyone else know.”

  Shawn inclines his head, letting us know he is most likely thinking it is time for a plan.

  Jake and I take the corner Shawn and Leah had once been in. I know that rest won’t be easy with everything that is on our minds, but it is important we try. We lay together, Jake’s arms wrapped around my midsection, our breaths in sync. These moments are the most important to me. We don’t get many of them, and we need to cherish the moments we spend together, even the silent ones.

  The blur of sleep finally fades across my eyes about the moment the birds start chirping outside. Morning is coming on a bit faster than I would like it to.

  “Time to get up,” a voice calls out into the open space.

  Jake and I sit up at the same time, the sun fully into the sky. I rub whatever sleep we had gotten from my eyes, standing up to try my muscles.

  Playfully, I pull Jake off the ground, wrapping my arms around him.

  “Sleep well?” I ask.

  “No, you?” Jake teases.

  “Why yes,” I say, “I was so comfortable in this plush, feather bed.”