Grandfather (48 page)

I watched as Edgar’s body
slowly stopped trembling until soon, he didn’t budge at all. His
blank eyes stayed open, darting at Mae. After a few seconds, her
body completely relaxed. That was the third time I remember
crying.

Belladonna didn’t even pay
any attention to them. She didn’t even seem fazed by all the
killing. She turned to Robert who walked to her and bowed. Cain and
the other soldiers did the same.

I forced myself to get my
act together. I wiped my eyes and slowly let go of Marley.
Immediately, she ran to Mae’s body, moving her face around, hoping
she was still alive.

I did the first thing that
came to mind. I lunged at Belladonna.

Robert was
quicker.

He pushed me away with
just one hand, sending me straight to the floor. I stood up and
took my stun gun out. Just before I could shoot it, somebody from
behind me smacked it out of my hands. I turned around to see the
soldier that had killed Cornelius. I was going to throw a punch at
him, but he grabbed my arms and spun me around, forcing me to face
Belladonna and Robert. I tried getting away but he was too strong.
I’m not even sure what I would’ve done if I
did
escape.

Another soldier pulled
Marley up and held her. She too was kicking and pushing but was no
match for the soldier. She eventually gave up, her crying echoing
off the walls. She reached for her mother, but the soldier wouldn’t
let her get near Mae.

Belladonna walked up to me
with her gorgeous facial expression.

I wanted to smack
her.

No. I wanted to kill her.
I wanted to take her dagger and stab her. That’s one feeling I
never want to have again.

“
How could you,” I said
through my teeth. “They were your friends! They were –”

“
They
were nothing to me!” Belladonna yelled, slapping me in the face.
“
So
foolish
and
ignorant,
just
like Grandfather.”

“
Who are you?” I asked.
“Who the hell are you?”

“
Too long have we waited
for this,” she said, glancing at each of the soldiers who didn’t
try to help us. “I’ve had to stay with a bunch of rebels and deal
with Edgar’s hideous face for far too long.”

“
I can’t believe you,” I
cried.

“
Cry all you want,”
Belladonna said. “There was nothing you could ever do. I’ve been
planning this ever since Cornelius killed my husband.”

“
You’re no better than
them,” I growled.

“
I’m better,” Belladonna
said, pointing toward Cornelius’s body. “I’m stronger and smarter
than them. I have more followers than Cornelius could have ever
dreamt of. Being smarter than Cornelius, I had my men secretly join
Grandfather for this very day.”

The soldiers that had
killed Cornelius and the other leaders . . . I now knew why they
did it.

“
You see,” Belladonna
continued. “Cornelius thought he had a lot of followers. Half of
them weren’t even following his orders. They were following mine.”
Belladonna looked around, satisfied with her work.

“
All for revenge?” I
asked.

Belladonna looked at the
ground. “I do have to say that it was nice to watch my husband’s
murderer squirm before dying. But no, this isn’t all for revenge.
It’s to carry out Olyver’s dream. My dream. The dream we both
shared.”

She motioned for
Cain.

He held a small box with
both hands. He rushed it to her and opened it, revealing a red
button.

“
I had to be patient,”
Belladonna said. “Get the rings.”

A soldier ran to Cornelius
and the dead leaders, moving as quick as possible. Seconds later,
he returned, carrying seven rings.

“
Why didn’t you do this a
long time ago?” I asked. “Why didn’t you just kill all of
us!”

“
Now, don’t forget about
the safe,” Belladonna teased. “Only Cornelius knew the location of
the safe. I had to wait until he brought it here.”

“
There’s been a delay, but
it will be here in a few days,” Robert said cheerfully.

“
You knew all along?” I
asked. “The safe.”

“
Of course I did,”
Belladonna said. “No, Cornelius didn’t know what was inside, but he
knew it was something powerful.”

“
What is it?” I asked.
“Bitcoin? Is that what you want?”

“
Child,” Belladonna said,
chuckling. “Bitcoin is nothing to me. But the location to all the
nuclear bombs Doyle planted . . . oh yes, that’s a lot more
valuable.”

I said nothing. My heart
sank. I don’t know how she knew what was inside, but it didn’t
matter. The soldier had finally let go of Marley, and she cried
over Mae’s body. Mae’s red, wet hands still clutched
Edgar’s.

“
You’re going to kill half
the world?” I asked.

Belladonna shook her hand
as she took out the similar phone Cain showed us days before. It
was the very phone that was linked to the Grandfather rings. “I’m
not killing the whole world,” she simply said “Population is
getting out of control. Resources are running low. It’ll be a rough
transition, but I’m here to eliminate the problems.”

I just knew I was going to
throw up. I even bent down to try. All I did was dry
heave.

“
There’s only one way to
destroy an idea,” she said, looking at each of the red dots on the
phone. There were so many . . . so many Grandfather followers. She
clicked on the seven near our location. She tapped a few buttons
until the red dots faded. “You must destroy anything related to
that idea. Doing that leaves no hope. Well, in order to completely
destroy the idea of Grandfather, I must destroy anything related to
them. My husband got in Grandfather’s way. Well, now they’re in my
way. Olyver’s way.”

Robert took the box from
Cain and held it by Belladonna’s hands. He laughed quietly at the
button.

“
And as long as any member
of Grandfather lives, their idea lives.”

She pushed the button, and
one by one, the red dots began fading away. “Listen,” Belladonna
said. “Silence . . . everybody.”

Everyone
obeyed.

I listened carefully, not
hearing anything at first. I watched as another red dot faded away.
This red dot was probably only a block away. I heard what sounded
like an explosion.

“
What did you do?” I asked,
already knowing.

“
Once again, I was a step
ahead of Cornelius,” Belladonna said. “These rings had more than a
GPS in them.”

“
No,” I said.

“
Yes,” Belladonna
said.

“
We put bombs in the
rings,” Robert said, chuckling.

“
Funny how today’s
technology allows such a thing,” Belladonna gloated.

I thought about
Cornelius’s ring. It didn’t explode. I remembered Belladonna
removing the red dots off of the screen. She must have deactivated
them.

“
You’ll kill people around
them,” I screamed.

“
Yes, innocent people near
them will be caught up in the explosion. It’s all a part of the
rough transition. Unfortunate, but after everything is put right,
I’ll be a hero. For the greater good.”

I said nothing. All I did
was keep crying as I thought of more innocent people dying. More
bodies lying everywhere. I looked at the phone as the last of the
red dots on the map faded. Hundreds of explosions just rippled
throughout the city. We had lost.

“
You betrayed us all,” I
said. “We all looked up to you under the mountain.”

“
They
don’t matter to me,” Belladonna growled. “Actually, as we speak,
everybody under the mountain should be dead.
Your
life was to be
spared.”

Oh no. I thought of how
happy everybody was earlier. Dr. Mac dancing. And Ashton.
Everybody.

Dead?

“
You’re just like
Grandfather!” Marley screamed.

Belladonna just chuckled.
“My husband and I agreed with Grandfather’s idea to a certain
point. So you would be right . . . I am similar to Grandfather. I’m
only better.”

“
They were innocent,”
Marley screamed back. “They were innocent!”

“
Innocent?” Belladonna
said. “As long as those rebels continued to live under the
mountain, they could intervene in my new order. Again, it’s part of
the unfortunate transition.”

“
Without them,” Robert
said. “There’s nobody to rebel against us.”

Belladonna and I made eye
contact. For the first time, I could see the evil swarming in those
beautiful green eyes. Everything about her was beautiful.
Everything about her was worse than Cornelius, and it gave me
chills. The woman I knew was gone.

“
Who are you!” I screamed,
kicking and squirming to get out of the soldier’s
grasps.

“
Who am I?” Belladonna
asked. Another soldier walked up behind Belladonna, holding a
golden crown, much like something a king or queen would wear. ”The
only difference between my ideas and Grandfather’s is that we had
different endings. We had the same steps to reach our goal, but I
couldn’t just call myself Grandfather. They spoiled that beautiful
name. Olyver loved his grandfather, and it was he who invented the
prestigious name. Cornelius paid for destroying that.” Belladonna
motioned toward Cornelius’s corpse.

“
Who are you?” I asked
again slowly.

Belladonna approached me
until she was just a foot away.

“
I’m a revived version of
the original plan. My order and I will take this world off the path
of destruction. I’m the world’s new savior. I’m Grandmother, and
the Grandmother Society will reign.”

As I stared into her green
eyes, there was only one thing I could do. It wasn’t a lot, but I
had to do something. I was angry. I took a deep breath . .
.

. . . and spit all over
her face.

I don’t remember much
after that because Robert jumped in between Belladonna and I,
punching me out of conscious.

Chapter
Nineteen

I
don’t know how long I was out. I wasn’t even sure I was
waking up at first. My eyes felt open, but all I saw was pitch
black. If I were alone, I would’ve thought everything was a dream.
Marley’s heavy crying told me it was real.

I sat up and followed the
crying until I found her. After remembering everything, I wanted to
cry too. But somebody had to keep it together.

I held her, and she let
me.

“
I can’t do this, Carsyn.”
She said, crying even louder. “We’ve lost. Momma’s dead, Edgar’s
dead, Ashton’s dead. Everybody.” Her crying turned into
screams.

I held her tighter. “I’ll
help you,” I said. “We’re going to get out of here, and I’ll help
you get through this.”

I didn’t know how we were
going to get out because I didn’t even know where we
were.

“
I want to die,” she said.
“Just kill me!” she screamed to nobody. “Come back and kill
me!”

I said nothing. There was
nothing to say. There was nothing I could do. Honestly, for a
moment there, I wanted to die too. What was there to live
for?

I soon figured out where
we were, and I wasn’t too happy about it. We were locked in the
same cells Cornelius had thrown us in. There was going to be no way
to escape.

I don’t know how long we
were in there. I didn’t sleep much, at least I don’t think I did. I
know that I would grow incredibly hungry before two soldiers would
bring us a sandwich to share. I tried letting Marley have my half,
but she just wouldn’t allow it.

We never saw Belladonna.
We never even heard of what was going on in the city, which wasn’t
surprising since we were literally left in the dark, not having a
TV or anything. All I could do was replay everything. Marley had
said that she didn’t know if she would be able to make it. I said
I’d help her get through this, but I wasn’t even sure if I could
get through myself. I had grown to like Edgar. And who couldn’t
like Mae. Ashton and I got along great. And now . . . now they were
gone.

And the one I trusted the
most
. . .
the
one who understood me . . . betrayed me.

I kept expecting
Belladonna to come in to tell me the safe had arrived. That was
when she would need my eyes. I wouldn’t even be able to fight
back.

And why hadn’t she killed
Marley? I didn’t know, but I was glad. Marley was the only thing
getting me through things.

It was over. She and I
couldn’t build up a rebellion against Belladonna, especially if she
was more powerful than Grandfather. No hope.

Finally, something
interesting happened. At first, I thought the arrival meant I was
needed to open the safe.