Grandfather (41 page)

The whispering grew
louder, forcing Cornelius to stop talking. He held up his hands,
trying to silence the audience. It took a while, but eventually,
everybody was silent. Cornelius put his hands back down and
continued. “I tell you now that while we have omitted the largest
masterminds of Grandfather, they still exist. And I shall do
everything to catch them and punish them. I’ll appoint new
councilmen and councilwomen to take these traitors’ place. I’ll
choose people I trust and people who can help me find these
Grandfather members.” Cornelius paused again, giving everyone time
to take everything in. Then, somebody in the audience shouted my
name. I froze, at first thinking I had been spotted. But I knew the
tinted glass made that impossible. All of us in the private box
leaned forward in our seats, as if getting closer to the tinted
window allowed us to hear better.

“I have learned that
Carsyn, Ashton, and Marley were somehow captured by Grandfather at
the fundraiser.” Cornelius pointed at the corpses lying on the
stage. “They’re trying to brainwash Carsyn and his friends, and
I’ll find them. I repeat, I
will
find them. Carsyn’s father requested this of me,
and I
will
take
care of Carsyn and his friends.”

About half of the audience
clapped for Cornelius while others stayed silent.

“With all of this said,
there will be new rules across our entire nation,” Cornelius said
once everybody was silent again. “Grandfather wants all of you to
be talking about them. They want attention, and they want disorder
in our society. And so, I must abolish any headlines, articles, and
protests speaking or even mentioning the existence of Grandfather.
Nobody will discuss it in public. I’m afraid that if the media or
citizens disobey this order, that person or persons will be
arrested and punished in court for making our society more
vulnerable.”

Everyone began whispering
again.

Olivia gasped. “Can he do
that?”

None of us answered. It
didn’t really matter if he could or not, because he just
did.

Cornelius continued
overtop the crowd’s murmuring. “Second,” Cornelius said. “I said
before that I will do everything in my power to find the other
Grandfather members and to find Carsyn. This means that we all have
to sacrifice some of our rights. Every home and every business will
be searched thoroughly for any sign of Grandfather or the
whereabouts of Carsyn. If anything is found, the owner will be
arrested and questioned.”

The murmuring became even
louder. “Thirdly, everyone will be required to be inside of their
homes at 10:00 every night. While questioning our previous vice
president, I learned that their meetings occurred during the late
hours. Therefore, this curfew helps us keep order and makes it more
difficult for Grandfather to communicate. Yes, these things are
unfortunate, but they must happen.
And in
order to uphold these new rules, soldiers will be placed throughout
the city. I must warn you. I repeat . . . if anybody protests,
mentioning Grandfather, these soldiers will arrest you. You have to
remember that this is what Grandfather wants. They love seeing
their name on all news headlines. They want people protesting. They
want you to believe that I’m involved Why? As I said before, they
want disorder in our society, and those things create disorder. We
must not give the terrorists what they want.”

Cornelius held out his
hand to quiet down the audience, but half of them seemed to not
care. They kept talking. I noticed several people trying to help
him out, but it was no use. Cornelius gave up. “I promise that
these new laws will help us find the rest of the Grandfather
members, Carsyn, Ashton, and Marley. I promise that once everything
is worked out, everyone will receive these freedoms again. We must
do this in order to keep Grandfather from planning another attack
on our nation. We must do this to protect our loved ones. And we
will uphold them to accomplish these things. Thank you, nation. And
let us use these next few days to mourn over the loved ones that
have been lost during today’s attack. We won’t forget.”

Cornelius left the stage,
not waving at the people. I heard many people in the audience
applauding him while the rest of them shouted out things that I
couldn’t make out. Belladonna and Edgar stood up.

“Takin’ even more rights,”
Edgar muttered.

“There goes my writing,”
Olivia said. “Can’t even express my opinion in my
writing.”

“More control for
Cornelius,” Edgar said. “He’s smart. Acting like he’s not a part of
Grandfather.”

“Soldiers throughout the
whole city, watching us,” Olivia said, frowning “Now I’m not too
happy about that. And searching my place?”

“Best get out of this damn
city quickly,” Edgar said. “The quicker we leave, the easier it’ll
be to get away.”

“Right,” Belladonna
agreed, a smile on her face for some reason.

We all took a moment to
look at the audience again. Things were getting pretty crazy out
there. Most of the people were rushing out of the arena. There were
several others arguing with one another. Some fights even broke
out, causing soldiers to have to intervene.

“I’ll lead you all out,”
Olivia said, opening the door. Edgar and I stood Ashton up and we
all followed Olivia down the stairs and outside where the large
crowd was trying to get as far away from the arena as possible.
Several square aircrafts hovered above us, probably filming
everything. In the distance, I noticed more aircrafts hovering over
where the explosions had happened.

“Oh dear,” Olivia said,
looking at Ashton’s leg. “You’ll never fight this crowd. You don’t
stand a chance.”

We all knew she was right.
Edgar cursed. “Could wait, I guess.”

Belladonna shook her head.
“We have to go now.” She pointed toward the nearest street. The
soldiers had already begun to take their stance on the corners.
They obviously worked for Cornelius, following his orders, but were
they actually a
part
of Grandfather? If so, there was a better chance they’d
recognize me.

“I’ll just give you a
lift,” Olivia taking out her phone. She dialed a number. “Bring my
car,” she said, giving our location. She hung up. “It won’t be
long. Give him about fifteen minutes."

Belladonna appeared very
concerned. “I don’t know,” she slowly replied.

“I’m not going to give
your location away,” Olivia said. “Do you honestly think I can be
on Cornelius’s side after his new rules? No. I know you guys plan
on doing something soon, and I’m not giving away our only
hope.”

The crowd became more and
more dense. People just kept filing out of the arena. They were
still arguing with one another. I couldn’t hear what they were
saying, but I had a pretty good idea that it was whether or not
they agreed with Cornelius’s new rules.

About fifteen minutes
later, Olivia’s phone rang. She answered it. “Coming now,” she
said, hanging up and then looking at us. “Come.”

We followed Olivia around
the arena and to a road that seemed to be a lot less traveled,
which made sense because it was only one lane. Soldiers hadn’t
taken a stance there yet, either, which was comforting.

I noticed a really nice
red car parked on the side of the road directly in front of a black
van. A man got out of the car and greeted Olivia. He handed her the
keys. “Thank you,” she told him. He got into the passenger seat of
the van and they drove off.

“
Hop in,” Olivia told us.
Once again, we allowed Ashton to sit in the front to give him more
legroom. I took the middle back seat again. “Where am I going?”
Olivia asked.

“Outside the wall,” Edgar
said.

“Outside?” she asked in
exasperation.

“If that’s a problem, we
can find another way,” Ashton said.

“Not a problem at all,”
she said. “I just assumed you guys were hiding inside the
city.”

“Yeah,” Belladonna said.
“I think that’s Cornelius’s point in searching every home and
business.”

Edgar agreed.

Olivia put the car into
gear and sped off, heading for the wall.

The closer we got, the
more soldiers I saw standing on different corners, keeping an eye
on everybody. They were armed with large guns, looking as if they
would shoot anybody at any given moment. The rich people kept their
distance from them. For once, they were scared. And once again, I
actually felt sorry for them, even though I didn’t like
them.

We soon exited the city,
but this time it was through a different entrance. Edgar seemed to
know exactly where we were so I didn’t worry. He directed Olivia
down several streets and past many run-down buildings until we
reached the road running in between the forest.

Olivia was very confused
when Edgar had her stop in the middle of nowhere. She looked around
the area, but didn’t ask us any questions. “Your secret is safe
with me,” she said, handing me some sort of pink card. “Here.
That’s my address if you’re ever in the city and in trouble
again.”

“Thank you,” I told her,
getting out quickly so that I could help Edgar get
Ashton.

“Thanks,” Edgar told
Olivia. “We appreciate it.”

“It’s not a problem,” she
said.

“Be safe,” Ashton told
her. “Things are going to be rough in the city.”

“Olivia nodded. “I’m
prepared for them. You better believe that I’ll be writing all
about this. As I said, it’ll keep me sane. Perhaps you’ll do the
same, Carsyn.”

I couldn’t help but smile.
Writing seemed to be the only thing Olivia could think of. I really
hoped she would be safe in the city because I actually liked
her.

“I don’t know what you
guys are planning, but I wish you luck.” With that said, Olivia
turned her car around and drove off.

We entered the forest.
Because Ashton was injured, we couldn’t go down the ladder.
Finally, I was going to get my first look at this other
entrance.

We passed the entrance I
knew and continued walking until we came across a small cave on a
hillside. At least it looked like a cave. It was just a manmade
entrance made to look like a cave. Nobody knew who built the
underground place, but they sure were smart.

The entrance led us into a
small closet, which had a door that led us into the dining area.
When we entered the dining room, we found ourselves in front of a
large group of people, all listening to the radio which talked
about Cornelius’s announcement. Mae, Marley, and Dr. Mac stood
around the radio.

What first caught my
attention was the number of people. There were a lot more than
normal. There weren’t even enough seats for everybody. And on most
of the tables were guns of all different shapes and sizes. Robert
stood in the doorway at the other end of the hall. The room fell
completely silent when they noticed us disheveled, exhausted, and
still covered in dust. Marley gasped at the site of Ashton’s
injury. She ran and embraced him, afterward hugging me as well. Mae
joined us and hugged Edgar. After all I’d been through and
witnessed that day, I was very happy to be back.

“You made it,” Belladonna
said as she rushed to give Robert a hug.

“What happened?” Mae
asked, patting some of the dust off Edgar.

We sat down at a table and
told them everything. Of course, everybody in the room wanted to
hear, so Edgar spoke loudly enough for everyone. Mae and Marley
cried as we told them about the explosion. Marley couldn’t stop
hugging me and Ashton. Mae kept patting us on the back, trying to
comfort us. A hug or back rub sure wasn’t going to make us feel
better about what we saw, but hey, at least they tried. Mae wiped
her eyes and told us how Robert had arrived just before the
announcement with nearly a hundred people and even more weapons,
which they had stored in an empty room.

“We’ve waited too long,”
Mae said. “It’s going to be more difficult to attack Grandfather
with these new rules.”

Edgar agreed. “More
difficult. But I say we do it this week.”

Ashton looked
disappointed. “Not this week,” he said. “I won’t be able to
help.”

Edgar looked around. “Dr.
Mac,” he called out. The doctor walked up to Edgar. He noticed
Ashton’s ankle. “You got medicine for him?”

Ashton told Dr. Mac about
the gel on the bandage and the tablet the nurse had given him. Dr.
Mac seemed to know exactly what he was talking about. “I got some
crutches too,” he said. “They’re old, but they’ll work.”

He and Edgar helped Ashton
up and led him away. Marley hugged me once again. “If it wasn’t for
Miss Fabray, it would’ve taken you guys forever to get
here.”

I agreed with her. We were
definitely lucky that we ran into Olivia. I wondered if they had
gone through her home yet. They probably hadn’t started
yet.

“Go clean up,” Mae told
me, patting me on the shoulder again. “Get that dirt off. I’ll do
my best to get the suit looking good again.”

I could care less about
the suit. Why? Because the only reason I’d need it was if I had to
go back into the city. And I’ll tell you what, I was never going
back after what happened. At least I wasn’t going back unless it
would be the last time Cornelius had power. I did care about
getting clean. It
would
be nice to get all that dirt off of
me.