Revolution (40 page)

             
He laughed. "Man, that guy has some serious mack."

             
"Oh, my gosh. You're not even speaking English anymore!" I laughed back.

             
"Hey," Merrick said as he reached us. "Um…so
,
you slapped him."

             
"He deserved it," I argued. I grabbed Billing
'
s arm and the
n
laid my hand on my forehead. "How could he betray me with that bimbo?"

             
Billings laughed and rubbed his cheek. "She got me good, boss.
" He nodded his chin to Merrick.
"
You better be good to this one."

             
"I plan to," he muttered and took my hand. He smiled and shook his head like he didn't know what to do with me. "Let's hope Miguel's still through here. Ryan and Ellie went to find him."

             
We turned the hall near
the bathrooms and peeked down the massive line. A sign said
Exit
with an arrow pointing the way out and Merrick guided us that way.

Ryan was there. "I didn't see him."

             
"He's got to be here somewhere," Merrick said.

             
"Maybe they went out the door?" I supplied.
"
Let's just go see." I pulled my shirt
away
from my body. "I'm dying in here, anyway."

             
As soon as Ryan slung open the door, we all stopped.

             
I'd seen people suck face before, but these two were trying to embed themselves. And they were completely oblivious to us or anything. So the group of Lighters and Enforcers that had just turned the corner
hadn't been noticed.

             
Well, we'd gone this long without seeing any. We should be glad I guess. At least we learned something to help with the broadcast. Now whether we'd live to carry it out or not was another story. They kept coming and didn't stop. Not even a second glance as they walked between us, and Miguel and Rylee.

             
I let my breath go as soon as they turned the corner and heard Ellie do the same. I looked at her and she was green as Ryan held her to him. She hadn't expected her ability to work? Miguel noticed us then and growled at us, "Bugger off."
             

             
"Time to go, man," Billings told him and grabbed the back of his shirt. "Crap just got real."

             
"What?" Rylee said. "What happened?" she asked and wiped her bottom lip.

             
"Did you not see the Lighters who just wal
ked right past
you?
" Billings scolded them. "Within punching range!"

             
"I was…busy," Miguel said and smiled smugly. He put his arm on the small of Rylee's back to direct her through the cars and she let him. Once we reached the van, he helped her inside. "Up you go."

             
She snatched her
hand
back and gave him a look. "Just because we made out doesn’t mean that you can boss me around."

             
"I wouldn’t dream of it, love," he replied good naturedly and grinned as he got inside.

             
We all followed suit and once we were loaded, Jeff asked us how it went.

             
Ryan cleared his throat. "Well, I got to use my first public bathroom. That was interesting."

             
"I
made out with the Aussie," Rylee stated matter-of-factly.

             
"I made
up
with the ginger," Miguel said and grinned back at her.

             
Jeff stared
at us.

             
"I got slapped in the face," Billings offered.

             
"By me," I supplied.

             
"And we
got to talk
to Cain at the station on the big screen
," Merrick said happily.

             
Jeff still stared while Marissa giggled into her hand. "So it went good then," he stated. "Great."

             
He turned in his seat and pulled onto the highway. Our laught
er that we fought eventually came
out.

             
Once I gave Jeff directions for how to get to Chesser's house, we crept our way along the highway to the trailer park. I told him which one, but Merrick was
n't
letting me go alone. So, we both got out and told the others to wait for us to signal the 'ok'. I climbed his rickety stairs and knocked on the door. I heard movement inside and then a scuffle. At first I thought he might have a visitor of the female persuasion that we were interrupting, but then the door wa
s y
anked open and a gun shoved in Merrick's face. It wasn't Chesser, it was that other guy, whose names escaped me.

             
"Hi," I said softly from behind Merrick's brick house of a back. "Remember me? I thought I was at Chesser's house."

             
"This is Chesser's," he drawled. "What are you doing back here?"
             

             
"We need to talk to him. It's important."

             
The man was shoved aside and Chesser smiled at us. "My favorit
e rebels!" I laughed in relief and loosened my grip on Merrick's arm. "Come on in."

             
Merrick kept a firm hand on mine and said, "I can understand why you're a little trigger happy." Merrick gave the man with the gun a long look.

             
Chesser
lowered the man's barrel with his hand. "Whoa, slick." He laughed. "Let's settle down a little. You remember Sherry?"

             
"Sure," the man said dead-pan. "Who's this guy?"

             
"Her husband, Merrick. It's ok."
He lowered the gun slowly and gave us one final look before moving to the couch and plopping himself down.
Chesser turned to me and with a raised eyebrow said, "What are you doing here?"

             
"We decided to follow up on your broadcast idea." He looked confused so I kept going. "We
came to stake out the place and
-"

             
"You went to the station?" he yelled.

             
"Yeah," I dragged out. "What's your deal?"
             
"I can't believe you just
went
there. Like it was something normal, like going to the store to get toothpaste. You
broke into
the radio station!"
             
I scoffed. "What? You gonna arrest us?"

             
"No,"
he said and shook
his head
. He looked at me strangely. "So what did you find?
"
             
"The answer," I said with pride. "We found the way to broadcast through the whole state. The broadcast goes out tomorrow night."

             
His mouth opened and he looked between us.

             
"Dang." He grinned. "You
've
got coj
ones, girl."
             

             
I burst out laugh
ing at that. I forgot about the others
in the van so I went to the porch and waved them to us.
They came up cautiously, looking around as if Lighters were going to jump out of the bushes. I introduced everyone and we got right down to business. We told him everything we'd learned and what we were planning to do. Then he said, "Ok, that all sounds great. And I think you need to be the one to record the video."

             
"Sure," I said. "I can hold a camera like nobody's business."
             
"No," he laughed, "I mean be
on
the video." I stilled. "Your face is sweet and you
'
r
e
just
so
non-threatening. We need someone like you on the video that people will pay attention to and believe."
             
I gulped. "But what will I say?"

             
He stood. "You'll say what you would tell someone if they were sitting in this room and asking you why they should stop following the Lighters and start be
ing
human beings again."

             
I nodded, but I had no idea what to say. He pulled a small handheld video camera from the top of the refrigerator. He pulled a chair out and pushed me into it. I gripped the undersides with my fingers.

             
This w
as stupid. It was just a camera;
there was no reason for me to be so crazy about it. Then I felt
his
hands on my shoulders. I leaned my head back to look at my Merrick. He smiled. He was beautiful even upside down. I smiled, too, and steeled myself that this was what I needed to do.

             
The little red light came on and Chesser pointed his finger at me in a
You're On
motion. I cleared my throat delicately and started the best way
that
I knew how.

             
"
I know you don't know me…and I don't
know
you, but we share something in common; this planet. Or
at least
we did. Now we all share it with beings that don't belong here, and have tricked you all into thinking that they want to help you. The moon disappearing was the first sign. The weather being all messed up, the cell and television service going haywire, the animals…it's because of them. Think real hard and remember what it was like when they first started showing up. Remember our friends and family dying. Remember the way everything in our world is worse, not better, because of them. I've met these beings and their leader, who is no longer alive. They want you to believe these lies so they can keep controlling you. Just think for yourselves.
These things can't be killed the usual way, you have to stake them with something all the way through.
They are not human.
Things are going to get bad and then worse, but we're here.
There are so many of us out there who are waiting for you to join us.
We'll fight side by side and take them all out.
They call us rebels? We call ourselves human. We are the revolution. Join us and take back what was yours in the first place."