Freedom Fight: Beginnings Series Book 9 (13 page)

The only window in the small room was boarded up. A small kerosene lantern was the only light. Had Ellen not looked at Frank’s watch, she wouldn’t had known whether it was day or night. She really didn’t care. She just wanted Frank to wake up.

His eye needed stitched, yet all they let Ellen have was a basin of water. She used that not only to clean him off but to try to break his fever as well.

Frank coughed and his eyes opened slightly. His right eye was somewhat swollen and already turning black and blue. As soon as his moment of focus was over, Frank sprang up from a lying to sitting position, grunted then swung his legs over the bed. “Fuck.” He stood up.

“Frank.” Ellen tried to get him to sit back down as she watched him sway some.

“We have to get out of here.” Immediately Frank began to check out the room.

“Frank, you’re sick and you’re hurt.”

“And I got us in a bad situation.”

“You got us in a bad situation? How do you figure?” Ellen followed him around.

“My God, El, they got us.” Frank’s hand felt for the door. He pulled the handle and then felt the creases. “Are you wearing a belt?”

“Yes. Why.”

“Give it to me.”

“My pants will fall down.”

“Hold them up. Give me your belt.” Frank held out his hand, his eyes focused on the hinges of the door. He felt the belt hit his hand and checked out the buckle. “This should work.”

“What should work? Frank, are you all right?”

“I will be once I get us out of here,” Frank grunted as he used the buckle to pop the hinge from the door.

Ellen let out a slight shriek of excitement. “You’re getting us out.”

Frank merely turned his head to her as he crouched down to the other hinge. After he popped that out he handed Ellen back her belt. “I don’t know how far we’ll get. Any idea how many there are out there.”

“A whole bunch.”

“Explain a lot.”

“More than we have people in Beginnings.”

“Shit.”

“It looks . . .” Ellen paused to think. “It looks like they settled here.”

Frank peered under the small crease at the bottom of the door. “I see one guard out there. Stay behind me.”

“Trust me, I have no intentions on leading the way.”

Frank stood up, looked back at Ellen and kissed her. “Ready?”

“Are you sure you’re O.K.?” Ellen’s hand reached up to his face. “Look what they did to you.”

“I will worry about me when I get us out of here. Get ready.” His large fingers gripped as tightly as he could to the side of the door where the hinges used to be. He counted to three, mouthing the numbers to Ellen, and then with a strong growl, he pulled on the door, causing a crack when it broke at the lock. Stunned, the guard spun around. Frank smiled “Hey.” Then he greeted the guard with a single punch. The guard swayed, fell to the floor, and Frank grabbed his weapon.

Checking out the hall first, Frank took Ellen’s hand and led her down the corridor.

“El, do you remember any of this?”

Ellen looked around. “Frank, I was worried about you. I didn’t think . . .”

“Shit.” Frank stopped cold, the door opened, and two guards stood there. They raised their weapons at him. Frank knew he couldn’t shoot because he would alert everyone of their escape. So doing the only thing he could, he spun the rifle, slammed the butt into the face of the one guard, sending him flying to the right. As Frank spun the rifle again, he used the force of the spin to nail the other guard to the floor.

“Frank,” Ellen said his name calmly.

Frank reached down for the soldiers’ weapons.

“Frank,” Ellen said his name again.

At first Frank wondered, why Ellen would call his name in the middle of all that was happening then he heard the click of a chamber. He turned to see a soldier smiling arrogantly at him as he held a gun directly to Ellen’s temple. Behind them were two more soldiers.

“We don’t need her. One of you will do for information.” The soldier was tall and blonde but not as tall as Frank. He wore lieutenant bars on his lapel. He pressed the gun tighter to Ellen’s forehead. “Put down the weapons or I shoot her. Your choice.”

Frank closed his eyes briefly then laid down the rifle and the two hand guns he had taken.

“Hands up,” The Lieutenant ordered.

Frank raised his hands and looked at Ellen. “I’m sorry.”

Ellen just shook her head in a ‘not your fault’ fashion.

The Lieutenant smiled. “Weakness.” He motioned his head to Ellen, “Or is she your strength, Either way , we found the way to keep you calm.” The Lieutenant’s head twitched back to the two soldiers behind him. “Take him to another room.”

The two soldiers walked in front of the Lieutenant, each of them took hold of Frank’s arms and led him calmly down the hall.

Frank showed not one bit of fear. That wouldn’t be Frank. He stood before the Lieutenant. Frank’s eyes never left his. The two soldiers stood before the door while Ellen sat in a chair.

“Sit,” the Lieutenant ordered to Frank.

Frank sniffed arrogantly and didn’t speak. He shifted his eyes once to Ellen then back to the Lieutenant.

“I said sit down.”

Frank didn’t budge not even when the Lieutenant pulled his revolver. Not once did Frank flinch.

“You seem to forget who has the upper hand here.”

Frank again shifted his eyes to Ellen.

“O.K., you want it to be this way, fine.” The Lieutenant still held his gun pointed at Frank. “We want to know about your people and their whereabouts.”

Frank couldn’t help it. He tried not to, but it slipped out. He laughed.

The Lieutenant saw red, but he didn’t see it coming. In a mistake, he revved back his gun in a striking mode. Frank snatched the revolver from his hand, smashed it into the side of his face, fired two single shots, hitting both guards, grabbed hold of Ellen, and took off from the room.

They tried the other way since their first route failed them. It led them to a door and to a set of stairs. Frank ran up, still holding Ellen’s hand. He stopped, listened, and continued on. He could hear footsteps behind them.

Frank ran up the two flights of steps, carefully opened the door at the top, saw a clear path, and pulled Ellen to continue on.

It was a bank. Dusty, dirty, the teller windows broken, papers and flyers sprawled out on the floor that flew upwards into the air as Frank and Ellen sped through the mess. Frank leaned to the glass door looking out into the street. “El, I asked if anything looked familiar. You wouldn’t remember if they brought you to a bank?”

“They brought us in the other way.” She held on tightly to his arm. “Good going down there, Frank. Predictable.”

Frank looked at her and smiled. “It’s clear. You ready to run?”

“Yep.”

Just as Frank opened the door, two shots fired out, shattering the glass on the double door. While Ellen screamed, Frank just pulled her along.

“Fuck!” Frank shouted out, looking up and down, seeing the oncoming troops moving slowly in a taunting manner. They knew Frank and Ellen were trapped. They stood center street with nowhere to go or at least that’s what he thought for a second.

The large round blackness caught Frank’s attention, and dragging Ellen to it, in a race against time. Frank knelt before the manhole cover, placed his fingers in the holes and lifted the heavy object with a painful grunt. “Go down.”

“Oh my God, I . . .”

“Now!” Frank shouted as he saw them moving faster.

Ellen climbed down the hole quickly and Frank followed.

“El, jump. Hurry.”

“Shit.” Ellen let go and landed six feet below with a splash and a scream.

Frank lowered himself with her. He didn’t care like she did about the rats. He gripped her arm and ran with the flow of the small trickle of water.

They ran for a while, their feet splashing in perfect rhythm down the dark damp tunnel. They heard echoing footsteps, but they were only their own.

Finally Ellen stopped to catch her breath.

“El, come on.” Frank halted in his run ten feet ahead of her.

“They aren’t following us.” She grabbed onto her knees.

“There has to be a reason, now let’s move. This leads out somewhere.”

“Can we just . . .” Ellen saw Frank look past her. “Frank?”

“Shit.”

“What?”

She heard a loud rush, growing louder and louder, almost thunderous. As soon as Ellen turned to see, she was blasted with the tidal wave force of the rushing water that filled the tunnel. She shrieked loudly as the water picked her up and carried her. Frank quickly grabbed hold of Ellen just as she passed him. In a current they could not battle, Frank held on to Ellen, keeping her head above the water, and they rode it out fast and furiously. Ellen’s screams entailed every single time she came up for air.

The tunnel grew lighter. Hope. An escape…The Society.

As soon as Frank and Ellen emerged from the sewer system tunnel and into the small creek that wasn’t deep enough to float them away, they were greeted by thirty soldiers, all armed, smiling and pointing their weapons at them.

“Fuck.” Holding onto Ellen, Frank stood to his feet as the water rushed by them. At that instant, as they rose, their aim moved to Ellen and so did the closeness of all thirty rifles. And for the second time only in his life, Frank raised his hands in surrender.

^^^^

Henry was the last to step from the helicopter, almost as if he lingered behind on purpose. He, like all the other men, held a look of disappointment and punishment, as if they were mad at themselves for having to come back empty handed. If the sun would have only given them more time, they would have completed what they had set out to do.

Joe stood on the edge of the field, watching as one by one the teams of men, heads down, trudged by him. Robbie only looked at Joe and kept on walking. No words needed to be spoken. There was no Frank and Ellen nor was there any sign on where they had gone.

“I’m sorry, Joe.” Henry laid his hand on Joe’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry too, Henry.” Staring forward, Joe felt Henry’s hand slip from him. Joe was filled with sadness and a feeling of loss that nothing but the return of his children could change.

^^^^

Handcuffs secured Frank’s ankles and wrists like a hardened criminal they could not control. He sat on the floor by the bed in the small room. Ellen sat next to him. The Lieutenant, face bloody paced in front of them.

“Under orders,” he spoke coldly, “if you try to escape again, the woman will be shot immediately. No bargains. Understood?”

Frank’s jaw twitched in anger.

“I thought we’d find an agreement. Now . . .” The Lieutenant stopped walking, he hunched down fearless to Frank’s level. “There’s nothing more I would like to do than to put a gun to your head and blow your brains out. But, again under orders, you are given till sunup to save your lives. You will tell me what you know about your people’s vulnerabilities. If you don’t, you will be shot by firing squad at sunup.” The Lieutenant ignored the cold stares he got from Frank. He stood up, indicated to the guard, and the two of them left the room, leaving Frank and Ellen alone.

^^^^

Dean held tightly to a sleeping Alexandra. She cuddled on his lap as he lay on the couch, her little head pressed tightly to his chest. His lips grazed through her hair over and over, taking in the softness. So many times while holding her, his hand would run over her fragile face. He touched her nose, making it crinkle while she slept, which brought forth the only smile that could come to Dean.

His heart ached. His stomach ached. Emptiness filled him and he tried to hide it away within the arms of his daughter but it didn’t help. Dean didn’t really think it would. How could it? From Alexandra’s small features, her sleeping expression, all the way to the texture of her hair, every bit of Alexandra reminded Dean of Ellen. Perhaps that was why he held his daughter so long and so tightly. Even if it was just in Dean’s heart and in his mind, a little part of him was holding on to Ellen.

^^^^

“El know how sorry I am that this is happening,” Frank spoke near whisper that evening.

“Don’t be,” Ellen told him as she sat next to him, leaning on his arm.

“I failed somewhere. All I’ve ever done is try to protect you and I failed. Look at us.”

“Yeah,” Ellen said with a shiver, “look at us.”

“I’m sorry.” Frank looked at her so sadly. “I don’t know what to do. If I try to get us away again, they’ll shoot you. If I don’t, they shoot me then what happens to you.”

“I don’t know.” Ellen shook her head. “What do you think? Are we pretty much screwed? Be honest, Frank.”

“O.K., well . . .” Frank huffed. “Things are tight right now. They aren’t looking as prosperous as I’d like them to be.”

“So we’re never getting out of this?”

“Never say never, who knows, but just remember I’m sorry it got to this point.”

“Will you please quit apologizing. You did all you could do and more. I know that and I want you to know something else. I’m not afraid. Of course . . .” She smiled a little at him. “I’m not the one who’s facing the firing squad tomorrow. Am I?”

“Thanks.” Frank shook his head. “This is supposed to be a solemn moment here. This could end up being our last night on this earth.”

“Yeah, and if it is, why would you and I spend it being mushy?”

“How else are we supposed to spend it?”

“Like Frank and Ellen.” Ellen lifted herself, pushed down Frank’s bent knees, and straddled over his lap. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck.

“You mean go out with a bang?”

“Yeah.” Ellen nodded, slowly bringing her lips to Frank’s. He smiled after the short kiss. “Let’s go out with a bang.”

The chuckle that came from Frank was so soft when Ellen’s lips slid down his neck, How badly he wanted to hold her but was unable to with his hands behind his back. “El.” His voice cracked some as he called her name.

“Yes.” Ellen lifted her head, holding her face close to him.

“I have to tell you something.”

“What’s that?” Ellen spoke with seduction and warmth brushing her lips over his.

“If we, um, make it out of this situation, this uh . . . handcuffing could be a really cool new thing for us.”

Ellen’s lips stopped moving over him. She looked seriously at him and silently Ellen laughed.

^^^^