Revolution (25 page)

             
Unless they were wiping everything out just to start over.

             
I made the slow and long ride, feeling the kink in my neck from leaning over the steering wheel for so long to start the car. I almost smiled. I did it. I got the food, hotwired a car and escaped unscathed, all by myself. I wasn't so helpless after all.

             
And right then, as if the universe wanted to show me how absolutely wrong I was, I saw green lights in my mirror. I could barely see over the boxes, but the lights were there. And I was alone, with a carload of stolen food, fleeing the crime scene where murder had just been committed…
.at the
Need W
arehouse.

             
I chuckled in desperation and disbelief. Could the odds be more stacked against me? "I get it!" I said in hysterics. "I get it
,
world! You want to put me in my place
?
I'm there, trust me. I'm being squished on the bottom of the totem pole as we speak!"

             
"Miss?" I heard muffled through the window. "Exit the vehicle please, with hands raised."

             
I took a deep breath and did what he asked. If he was going to take me to another
e
nforcement facility, I'd have to just chance it and run. I refused to go back there.

             
My mind ran with ideas of how to escape when I was looking down the si
ghts
of his pistol. He leaned his head to the side and spoke into the radio on his shoulder. "This is unit thirty seven
. I'm currently at my last radioed in coordinates. Send back-up, over."

             
Well…crap. This was it. A bullet in the back, knowing that I did everything I could do to
save my family? Or back to the e
nforcement facility to be tortured and have to wait for rescue, knowing they were risking too much to come and save me?

             
I turned and ran.

Get A Wriggle On

Merrick

             
"I don't know why you're doing that," I heard Jeff say from below me. "It's pointless, isn't it?"

             
I looked down at him from my perch on the ladder. I turned and went back to nailing the studs with my hammer into the stairs. "It gives me something to do. Though I guess it is kind of pointless." I sighed. "We did so much work at the store and look what happened? All that work for nothing. We just had to leave it there."

             
"It wasn't for nothing," he argued and crossed his arms. This meant it was 'lecture time'. "Everyone was a little more comfortable because of the hard work we did. We had plenty of room for when new people came. It was worth it in my book. I meant it was pointless to fix the stairs because the wood's rotten. Nails won't help that…" he waved his hand at it, "thing."

             
I looked at it. No, it wouldn't help. I threw my hammer across the floor, enjoying the solid thud it made against the concrete wall. A few chunks of concrete fell to the floor.

             
"I know she's gone, and it's not ideal," Jeff continued. "But we knew they might stay out tonight if they needed to. We have no idea what's going on out-"

             
"That's exactly right. No idea," I barked. "I know all the variables, Jeff, but I don't have to like them. She could be asleep in the Jeep with Cain right now, safe and sou
nd, or she could be in another e
nforcement facility and we'd never even know until they didn't show up tomorrow night. That's a big window. Do you know how much they could do to her in that amount of time?"

             
"I know," he
placated, but changed his tone when I glared at him. "Ok, I get it. I'm worried, too, if you want to know the truth. And Marissa is upset, too. She's freaking out about everything right now."

             
I looked at his face. He always had this soft spot for Sherry. I looked around at everyone else. Danny and Celeste were playing cards with Calvin and Frank. I hadn't really talked to him any all day because I didn't want to hear how much he was worried about Sherry. But the fact that his eyes were drifting toward the elevator every five seconds hadn't escaped my notice.

             
I knew I wasn't the only one that was worried, but she was mine. Mine to keep safe and fret about. The weird sense of déjà vu swept over me as I remembered the last time she was late coming home from a run. Flat tire, Phillip, Marissa…

             
I rubbed my head in frustration and looked at Jeff. "If she's not here by ten tomorrow morning, I'm going after her.
I'm not asking permission, I'm telling you."

             
"If she's not back by ten, I'll go with you!" he said vehemently. "I told you, I'm worried, too. I think we just need to give her a little bit more credit first."

             
"Aw, guilt? Really?" I complained.

             
"Not guilt. I'm just saying."
             

             
I looked past
him to see Marissa. She held
her belly like it was precious, t
hough she wasn't even showing yet. I nodded to he
r
when she slowed cautiously to make sure it was all right to interrupt. "Hey," she said softly.

             
"Hey," I managed to mutter.

             
"Pity party for one over here," Jeff said and punched my shoulder. I wanted to punch him for real, but refrained.

             
"Leave him alone
," Marissa scolded him. "What if
that was me out there? Wouldn't you be freaked out?"

             
"Don't even say that!" he argued and pulled her to his lap as he leaned on the stair rail. "It's not the same." He looked at me and frowned. "Sorry. It's just," he turned back to her, "you've got two of you to worry about. No missions for you," he commanded and tapped her on the end of her nose.

             
"Don't make me break your finger," she sang in a joke…I thought.

             
"So cute when you're angry," he
goaded. She twisted her face in a way that meant she was acting like she wasn't happy about what he said, but she was. He pulled her to him to kiss her chin, and then her cheek, and then her…

             
"I'm outta here," I groaned.

             
"Sorry!" he called over his shoulder. "I'll come find you in the morning. Right now," he whispered low into her neck, but I still heard, "I've got some
business
to take care of."

             
"I bet you do," I muttered, disgruntle
d
. "If you can even wake up in the morning."

             
"I heard that!" he yelled before picking Marissa up in
and taking her to their 'tent' in the corner.

             
I went in sear
ch of Lily, a
nd I found her with Lana. Lana was showing her how to say 'Doll' in sign language. I watched them from back a ways. We still didn't understand what it was Lily was meant to do. She was so normal, it just didn’t make sense. But then again, all the Specials were pretty normal.

             
Lana saw me watching and smiled before waving me over. I sat next to Lily and she showed me what she learned. It was amazing to sit and have conversations without any words spoken at all. Eventually, Lily yawned and I took her to her tent, but thought better of it. I took her to mine with me and chuckled when she'd already fallen asleep from the rocking of my carrying her.

             
I lay down beside her in our pallet and wrapped my arms around my little girl. She sighed and squirmed to get comfortable before settling against my chest. I was just closing my eyes when Danny opened the sheet.

             
"Dude, you awake?"

             
"I am now."

             
"I'm getting worried, man."

             
"No more than me. I already told Jeff I was going out to look for her in the morning if she's not back by then."

             
"But…" He shook his head and rubbed his neck. "But what if something happens to her tonight before we can find her?"

             
I felt th
e steel in my voice as I said, "
Then God help the
ones who hurt her if I find them."

             
Lily's mumbling woke me. I opened my eyes a bit to find Lily talking in her sleep. She was saying, "The end is swift, the justice equal, the way paved with gifts of the chosen."

             
It sounded like nothing, but out of a four year old's mouth, it was more than gibberish. I listened closer and she kept repeating the words, over and over. Her voice even took on this little twang that reminded me of…Mrs. Trudy. I gasped a little at the realization that she may not be alone in her head right then.

             
Then Marissa's scream cut through the silent dark. I ran, leaving Lily in our pallet to her mumbling. I swung the sheet back…and promptly turned as Jeff
's
backside was all I could see.

             
Miguel and Ryan followed me. I heard Miguel first, "Ah, mate! Cover up that full moon, why don't ya!"

             
Jeff seemed to realize that he was naked and covered himself with the blanket. He glared at us before settling his focus back on Marissa. She was
mumbling that same thing as Lily. "The end is swift, the justice equal, the way paved with gifts of the chosen."

             
"What does that mean?" Jeff asked and she sat up.

             
She looked at each in turn and then to Jeff. "We have to go there."

             
"Go where, sweetheart?"

             
"There! To the place where they are! It's the only way to stop them!" She looked at me before whispering, "Lily."

             
"Yeah, I heard her, too."

             
"Heard her what?" Jeff asked.