The Ten Thousand

by Doug Felton

  “He’s playing both sides to get what he wants,” Alexander said.

  Raisa nodded. “Yeah, so based on what we’ve seen so far, what does he want?”

  “Everything Zeke has done as Tom Cruise has led to two outcomes; the Ten Thousand are all together in one place, and the public doesn’t trust them. At worst, they hate them. I’ll bet he’s also behind the online kooks who are spreading the hysteria.”

  “And everything Zeke has done as Zeke has put him in the position to be the savior of the Ten Thousand,” Raisa said. “If they’re feeling threatened, they’ll be more likely to look for a savior. And all of this for what, to make a race of superhumans?”

  “That’s the one thing he’s been honest about. He wants them to control the New World and, eventually, the continent.”

  “Okay, so why kidnap us?” Raisa asked.

  Alexander paced the room, running through the options. “It creates a constitutional crisis that weakens the government. That gives him an advantage.”

  “What kind of advantage?” Raisa asked.

  “For one, there’s no one on the throne and, with his popularity, if he has Barrymore on his side…”

  “But that only works if we’re dead,” Raisa said. Alexander didn’t respond. “So, you think he’ll kill us?” She hadn’t considered that he might go through with it. “Are there any alternatives to that scenario?”

  Alexander thought for another moment before speaking. “He clearly wants to use us to strengthen his public image. That’s what the interview was all about. He looks like a hero taking on Tom Cruise. Imagine the kind of hero he’d be if he were the one who rescued us.”

  “But then we’d be free to talk about everything he’s done.”

  “I know,” Alexander said. “There’s something missing, and I don’t know what. But we know enough to know we need to get out of here.”

  Raisa looked out the window at the guards. “That’s not going to happen without some help.”

  “I’ve got an idea,” Alexander said. “Let me have the comm, I think Lieutenant Lee might be able to help us out.”

  Chapter Twenty

  It took Alexander forty-five minutes talking to Josh to turn his idea into a plan. If it went as they had drawn it up, in the next eight hours, they’d have a shot at escaping. Raisa knew it was a long shot, but it was the best plan they had, and they’d have to live with it. It had the disadvantage of being hastily conceived. But, if it worked, it would get them out before morning. Alexander assured her, the longer they stayed, the worse their chances would become.

  That night brought fitful sleep for Raisa. Snippets of her nightmare about the Ten Thousand wove their way in and out of her subconscious, jerking her out of what little rest she was getting. Alexander didn’t appear to sleep at all. Every time Raisa stirred, she found him peering out a window, waiting. Josh would contact them when everything was set, but still, he kept watch.

  Raisa wondered if they would die that night. There was only one other time that Raisa thought she might die. She and Alexander had been together then too. It was the day their airship crashed while returning from the CRA. Being immortal wasn’t exactly like it sounded. Even with the potential to live forever, Raisa never lost sight of the fact that she could die at the hands of another human being. Alexander’s plan was brilliant, given the circumstances, but watching him stare out the window, Raisa knew the odds were not in their favor.

  A tear made its way down her face to the pillow. It wasn’t fear as much as fatigue and sadness. It was moments like this that stripped away everything trivial in life until only what mattered remained. In Raisa’s life, the things that mattered most were her family, and except for Alexander, she had no family left. She tried to make up for it, but nothing could fill the hole left by the death of her mother, father, and brother. Without Alexander, she would be alone. Raisa would wipe the tears away and put on her game face before they left, but for the moment, she allowed them. She closed her eyes again.

  Alexander’s touch woke her. “Josh contacted me,” he said. “We need to be ready to go.”

  Her senses quickly acclimated to the urgency of the moment. She was still wearing the jeans and top she’d put on the day before. Alexander had dressed in his uniform, which made him stand out. He took the tunic off, leaving a dark t-shirt, but there was nothing he could do about the pants. With any luck, the cover of darkness would be their best cloak.

  They waited in tense silence, both peering out the window facing north. A couple of minutes felt like a couple of hours. Time stood still until an explosion rocked the night and lit it with an orange glow as a fireball jumped above the trees. Both Alexander and Raisa jumped back from the window feeling exposed by the light.

  “My word,” Alexander said, “I didn’t know he’d blow up the place.”

  The plan had called for Josh to set fire to two structures, Laurel Lodge, on the north, and Aspen Lodge to the south. They chose Laurel Lodge because it was close to the Linden cabin, where they were. They needed chaos in their proximity for the plan to work. Aspen was chosen because it was the presidential lodge, and Alexander guessed that’s where Zeke and his closest people would hold up during the night.

  Looking out the windows on the south side of the cabin, Raisa saw a column of dark smoke rising against the moonlit sky. “Looks like Aspen’s burning too.”

  Raisa and Alexander positioned themselves in the living room of the cabin, closing the doors to the bedroom and the bathroom. The sound of glass shattering in those rooms told them Josh had thrown smoke grenades through the windows. Soon smoke bled from beneath the closed doors. It was only a matter of seconds before the front door of the cabin flew open, and two of the men guarding them burst in.

  “We need to get you out of here,” one of them said. “Come with us.”

  Turning to go, Raisa saw Josh through the open door, standing in front of the cabin. Alexander must have seen him too, because he stopped short of the door, pushed the guards out, and then shut it. Through the door, Raisa could hear the soft pop of a weapon fired with a suppressor. When they opened the door again, the two men lay dead, each with a shot in the head. Stepping out of the cabin and around the building, they saw the other guards lying dead with similar wounds.

  “Josh, thank you so much for coming,” Raisa said.

  “I’m glad to see that you are okay, ma’am,” he said as they rounded the back of the cabin and headed for Evergreen Chapel.

  The genius of Alexander’s plan was that Josh could hide in plain sight while setting it up. Zeke had locked the blast door after coming through from Raven Rock, so he wasn’t expecting anyone else to use it. Raisa, despite her protests to the contrary, knew the code and had passed it along to Josh. Once he got to Camp David, blending in only required him to walk around with a rifle.

  “Did you cut the fence?” Alexander asked, referring to the maximum-security fencing that surrounded the perimeter and provided the first line of protection.

  “No, couldn’t find a way to cut it, but I drove a truck through part of it.”

  “That’ll work,” Alexander said.

  They had no intention of escaping through the downed fence. It was a distraction, like the fires, to keep Zeke guessing and looking in all the wrong places. Raisa followed Josh as they ran through the woods to the chapel. It wasn’t far since the chapel was only a little more than a hundred feet behind the cabin. Josh had already secured the way in and guided them to it.

  Once inside, they stepped into a large meeting room. Pews that could seat close to two hundred people filled the space, and a high vaulted ceiling made the room feel large and airy. An abundance of wood finishing added to its warmth. Pipes for an organ ran vertically behind the dais at the front, and large walls of stained glass, which remained colorless in the darkness, flanked the pews on either side. From what Raisa could see, the two walls of stained glass appeared to picture trees. Her attention was drawn away from the artwork when three men and two w
omen stepped out of the shadows, all of them armed.

  “Whoa,” Alexander said, nervously, “what’s this?”

  “They’re okay,” Josh assured him. “They’re with me.”

  “We never said anything about bringing others along.”

  “You didn’t think I could do all of this by myself, did you? Besides, if Zeke’s got an army, we need to build one of our own, and I can vouch for them. Each of us would give our lives to protect the queen. And there are more like us at Raven Rock.”

  Alexander let his shoulders relax.

  Josh introduced them, pointing from one to the next, “This is Kaufman, Hilltop, Kirkland, Sanders, and Pinkerton.”

  “Thank you all,” Raisa said to them, and then to Josh, “Where’s Penly?”

  All five of the soldiers she’d just met looked up. Above them, perched on a ceiling beam, sat Penly. According to Josh, it hadn’t been hard to find her at the camp. Based on Zeke’s comment about needing a secure space for her, the most logical place was the Camp David bomb shelter. Even though a tunnel connected Raven Rock to the retreat, the government built a bomb shelter for it in the early 1960s. It was a steel-reinforced concrete room buried in the ground with one way in and out, through a reinforced security door. When Josh saw two guards posted outside the shelter, he knew he’d found her.

  “You really ought to try this,” Penly said from her perch. “It’s a trip.”

  “Why don’t you come down?” Raisa said. She wasn’t comfortable yet with members of her staff having superhuman powers. Being around the augments was like being around a loaded gun that might go off any minute, or a wild animal that looked tame, but you weren’t sure.

  Penly leaped to the floor with ease. “So what’s the plan now,” she asked.

  “We wait,” Raisa said.

  “We wait?”

  “Exactly. They expect us to make a run for it, but we’re going to stay right here.”

  “For how long?”

  “Until they’re convinced we’re gone, and they leave. If we’re not here, there’s no reason for them to be here either.”

  “Why the chapel?” Penly asked.

  Alexander answered. “It’s close, easy to get to. Plus, I don’t think they’ll look here. They’ll assume we rammed the truck through the fence to get away. It may take a day or two, but they’ll eventually leave, and then we walk out.”

  “Sounds like a lot of assumptions,” Penly said.

  Alexander shot her a stern look and said, “We did the best we could, Lieutenant, and I need you to get behind it.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Were you able to get the drugs?” Alexander asked Josh.

  He held up a small brown cardboard box. Opening it revealed twenty vials of the amber liquid packed in foam. Raisa wasn’t on board with this part of the plan. Alexander had argued that every time they came up against one of the augments, they were at a disadvantage. Using the drug would level the playing field a little. Raisa hadn’t signed off on it yet, but she allowed Josh to bring the vials.

  “Were they hard to find?” Raisa asked.

  “No, he has them stockpiled in a large storage room. If you didn’t know what they were, you probably wouldn’t pay any attention to them. Each box has twenty vials.” He paused before adding, “Your Majesty, Zeke has enough to give a dose to every one of the Ten Thousand.”

  “Not if I can help it,” she said. “Can you imagine how much more the public will fear them if every one of them has superhuman abilities?”

  Raisa eye the group looking for an argument. If anyone disagreed, they didn’t voice it, including Alexander.

  The next three hours passed quietly. The chapel provided cover while giving them a decent view of their surroundings. After their escape from Linden cabin, Zeke’s people flooded the area, but they soon left, presumably heading to the breach in the fence. It didn’t appear that Zeke cared about saving Laurel Lodge, leaving it to burn. Raisa regretted burning a building that had been the sight of historical gatherings, but they were desperate. She imagined that they had lost Aspen Lodge as well. Had Elliot been in the lodge? Raisa didn’t cherish the thought of people being burned alive, but Zeke had declared war, and Raisa would fight to win.

  Her fantasy that Zeke died in the fire ended when someone spotted him inspecting Linden Cabin as the sun rose. He was yelling at his people and gesturing wildly. He turned in a full circle, taking in his surroundings, and began pointing at the surrounding buildings while giving orders.

  “That’s not good,” Penly said.

  Josh agreed. “They’re going to search the buildings, but I don’t think they have enough comms for everyone, so it might take a while for them to organize. We can use that to our advantage.”

  The men and women taking instructions from Zeke all nodded as he spoke. When he finished, they dispersed.

  “They’re leaving,” Josh said, “probably to get their search teams together. That’s the good news.”

  “What’s the bad news?” Raisa asked.

  “They run a heck of a lot faster than anyone I’ve ever seen. It won’t take long for them to get back.”

  “Options?” Alexander asked.

  “We hide,” said Hilltop.

  “One or two of us maybe, but not all of us, not in here at least. What else?”

  “We can’t run for it now that the sun’s up, we’d be way too visible,” Penly said.

  Alexander let his frustration show. “I need to know what we can do, not what we can’t do.”

  “I got it,” Josh said. “We inspect the building.” He pointed to himself and the other five soldiers with him. “No one knows we don’t belong here.”

  “Sounds like our best chance.” Alexander looked at Raisa, who nodded her agreement. “Let’s do it.”

  Josh turned his attention back to events outside and waited. Ten minutes later, he said, “I think this is it.” He motioned to the five other soldiers. “Stick with me and let me do the talking.” He waited near the door, watching for a couple more minutes. “Okay, let’s go.”

  He opened the door and walked out, the others following him. A group of augments was approaching the chapel. “This building is clear,” Josh called to them as they neared. The leader from the other group said something Raisa couldn’t understand. Josh was busy talking, gesturing at the chapel, but the woman shook her head, pointing to herself. He continued talking but eventually shrugged and stepped aside, motioning for her to continue. She stepped past Josh as her group followed her to the chapel. Fear spiked in Raisa’s chest.

  “You need to hide,” Alexander said. “Now.” When she didn’t move, he pointed at her and said to Penly, “Get her to a hiding place.”

  As Penly took hold of her arm, Raisa craned her neck in time to see Josh raise his weapon at the group that had passed him. Four suppressed shots that sounded more like faint pops dropped three out of four of them. Penly must have seen it too because she loosened her grip and stepped closer to the window.

  Outside, the one Josh had missed turned midair as he leaped, taking him down in one fluid motion. Josh’s team attacked the lone assailant, trying to pull him off. He deflected their attack, flinging them hundreds of feet away, as he stood with one foot on Josh’s chest. Hilltop, hit a tree hard, after being thrown, and fell like dead weight to the ground.

  The man turned his attention back to Josh and was about to put his foot through Josh’s chest when Penly tackled him, moving at incredible speed. Raisa hadn’t seen her leave the chapel. The two attacked each other with savage brutality. The bodies flew apart with each punch or kick, only to collide again with spectacularly violent force. Penly gained the advantage when she caught a punch aimed at her head and used his momentum to spin the man. She put him in a chokehold, twisting his head far enough to break his neck. Her face strained as she clawed at his head, pulling with all her might. The man swung his elbow into her ribs, pushing air from her lungs but, still, she didn’t relent.

  “We
need to help her,” Raisa said.

  As if on cue, three from Josh’s team were up on their feet again and converged on the battle. They lent their strength, bending the man’s neck until it snapped. Penly released him, letting his limp body fall to the ground. She doubled over, putting her hands on her knees, panting. When she righted herself, they surveyed the damage; one of their own dead and one injured.

  “I can’t believe this place isn’t crawling with Zeke’s men by now,” Raisa said.

  “Yeah,” Alexander agreed, “they’re gonna find this eventually. We need to get moving,”

  The team outside returned to the chapel.

  “Did anyone see you out there?” Alexander asked.

  “I don’t know. I didn’t see anyone, but that doesn’t mean someone didn’t see us. That wasn’t exactly discreet.”

  Penly said, “Waiting them out is no longer an option, so what’s Plan B?”

  As the rest discussed ideas, Raisa stepped away to think. She considered why the fight hadn’t caught the attention of Zeke’s people. She called up the layout of Camp David in her mind, closing her eyes to get a better mental picture. When she did, she discovered why they had gone undetected. Opening her eyes, she asked Josh, “Is the fence still electrified?”

  “Not since we drove a truck through it.”

  “I think I know how to get out of here. We are on the northeast end of the property. The only building that stands between us and the fence is Laurel Lodge, and since Josh blew it up, they know we’re not hiding there, right? There is only one building north of us. And the team that searched that building should be heading southwest to clear the barracks. Except for the group you killed outside, everyone else should be south of us and heading away.”

  Alexander was smiling at her. “Now all we need is to cut through the fence. Any ideas?”

  “That won’t be a problem,” Penly said, flexing like a body-builder.

  “Right,” he said. “Then we should probably get going. Let’s move slowly and carefully. Josh, you take the lead. Penly, you’re with Raisa. I’ll bring up the rear.”