Revolutionary Love (The Revolution Series Book 1) (9 page)

Chantel walked through the front door and slammed it. Her eyes sought me out instantly. "Oh, we let trash sit at the table now?" Her brown, curly hair was a mess around her face. She didn't look like she got any sleep at all last night.

I clamped my mouth shut and looked down. I did not want confrontation. I was too tired.

She took the spot right next to me. "First you try and steal my man and now that he is dead you go for his brother. You're just too cute, you know that?"

Anger bubbled in my stomach. I wanted to defend myself but knew it would be no good. She was angry. She was looking for a fight. I wasn't going to satisfy her.

"You're hurting my feelings." Mare's blue eyes watered and her lower lip trembled.

Guilt flashed across Chantel's face. "I'm sorry Mare. I didn't see you there."

Mare just shrugged her dainty shoulders. Breakfast was awkward. The only noise in the whole dining room was forks scraping across the plates. I ate like a barbarian, not caring that they were watching.

When we were all finished, I tried to do my own dishes but Susan quietly took them from me. Adam continued on ignoring me. The only person who talked to me was Mare.

"Do you want to play outside with me?" She asked bouncing on her feet.

"Of course." I couldn't say no to a cute face like that.

She slipped her hands into mine and tugged me towards the front doors. I stopped when I saw four SUVs coming up the driveway with their lights flashing. Those were The Unit's cars.

"They are coming!" I shouted as loud as I could.

Mitchel came bounding down the stairs and looked around frantically. "Evelyn." He tore me away from Mare and she started screaming. "Get down in the basement. If you do anything to make your presence known, I will not only kill you but your military personal too." Mitchel dragged me towards the hallway and opened something on the floor.

It looked like a never ending dark hole. He pushed me through and I fell, landing on my knees. Mitchel shut the thing over my head. I was trapped and in the dark. The ceiling in here wasn't tall enough to stand. I could only crawl. The sirens were getting close. Curling into a ball, I listened as hard as I could.

How did they know to come here? Were they coming here for me?

There was loud banging on the front door. It made Mare scream.

"Don't be afraid." Bret's voice comforted her.

"Hello. What brings you guys all the way out here?" Susan's voice sounded charming and friendly.

"We have reason to believe that you are associated with the rebels and you have taken Evelyn Cortez hostage. I need every person in this house to step outside while we do a raid. No questions asked." I knew that voice. It was Kyle, the guy who opened the door for me when I first arrived at the unit. He was alive.

It got quiet. I heard footsteps shuffle outside. Silent moments passed. I was too afraid to breathe. I jolted when I heard a crash. Glass broke. The noises were loud now. Things were breaking all over the place. I heard stomping upstairs. Another crash. They were ransacking the house.

"Clear." Kyle's voice called from upstairs.

"Clear." That voice was right over me.

More footsteps came. All three of them were right over me now. What if they found me? Would they execute me like they did to Adam's parents? Was what I did punishable by death? I squeezed my eyes shut and curled further into my body. Breathe in. Breathe out.

"She's not here, but I know she is here. I saw her cross the creek with Adam Foster the other night. Susan is Adam's aunt. This is his sanctuary."

"I say we go put a bullet through their heads, then wait for her to get back." Kyle suggested.

I tiny gasp escaped my lips. Anger filled me. I almost wished the grenade killed him. My thoughts did a whole 180 about Rugter throwing that grenade down the stairs. These people were monsters. Did they want to execute an entire family? All because they may or may not be hiding a person. That just didn’t make sense to me. That was morally wrong. That was horrible. It was one thing to hear about something, but it was another to witness it.

"Agreed. Let's get them lined up."

All three footsteps drifted towards the front door. Mare's innocent smiling face flashed through my mind. My body went into auto pilot. I stopped thinking. I stopped feeling. It was like it wasn't me in this body, but someone different. I felt like my mind left and went somewhere else. I was no longer hiding underneath the floorboards. I was by the front door grabbing Mr. Walkers shotgun that was perched on the wall.

Everything happened in slow motion. My legs drifted outside. Susan was crying holding Mare tightly in her arms. Sobs were tearing out of her throat. Bret and Mitchel were on their knees, two of the guards had guns pressed to the back of their heads. Mr. Walker was cussing, screaming. His entire body was shaking with anger. Chantel simply stood there. Her face looked defeated. Adam was nowhere in sight.

Kyle had his back to me. He was watching like it was some kind of movie. In that moment, I hated him. I wanted him to die. I pulled the trigger. Nobody forced me to do it. Nobody pressed my fingers down and made me do it. I did it myself. It was my decision. My choice.

Kyle dropped to the ground. The two soldiers now had their guns raised at me. They were shouting. I blinked and only one was shouting. The other one dropped to the floor. Except that time, I wasn't the one who pulled the trigger. Adam did. He was standing behind the last soldier standing. Adam had his gun pressed against the soldiers back, but the soldier had his gun aimed at my head.

I could see Susan and Mare screaming, but I could not hear them. All I could hear was the blood rushing in my head. It felt like I was floating. I wasn’t really here, but I was here. My legs gave out and I fell to the floor. A final shot rang out.

In that moment, I knew. I truly honestly knew that everything was never going to be okay. Maybe sometimes I would feel peace, but the world would rip it away from me at the next opportunity presented. Happiness was a privilege that I would never receive.

My dad died when I was seven. My mom died by childbirth. Both of my parents were orphans and only children. I never had a family. Nobody wanted to adopt a seven-year-old girl who lived through the tragedy of losing both parents. Why would they? They could just adopt a baby that has no emotional scars. No setbacks.

I remembered sitting at the police station. The buzz of the phones surrounded me. Everyone was lost in their own life. Their own problems. I was an invisible girl sitting on an uncomfortable chair. Nobody even glanced at me.

The police officer who had taken me there was awkward. He didn't know what to say to me. He offered me gummy worms from a vending machine. Those were the only words he spoke to me before he settled in doing paperwork.

The smell of stale coffee made me sick to my stomach. Eventually, a social worker did come. She told me she was going to find a safe place for me for a few nights. She was going to see if I had any blood family alive somewhere out there in the big, huge world.

I was not a stranger to tragedy. I was not a stranger to death. Death surrounded me everywhere I went. I was convinced I had terrible luck. I wasn't meant to be happy.

I made a friend once in fifth grade. We were best friends for a few months. Her parents wouldn't allow her to spend the night at my foster house, nor would they allow me to come over. They didn't approve of us being friends. They didn't like the clothes I wore. My jeans were always dirty and had rips in them. My baggy shirts made it look like I was a boy. They thought I was a trouble maker. A brat.

Every day we would play at recess together. She would always share her lunches with me. Her name was Lindsey. She had beautiful raven black hair and brown doe eyes. I always admired her proclaim white skin. I wished I looked like her. I wish I had a loving family like her. I was jealous of her. She was privileged.

One recess we got into an argument. We couldn't agree who got to swing on the swing first. In a fifth graders mind, that was very important. I never forgot the words she said to me.

Lindsey glared at me and shouted, “at least my parents aren't dead!"

Everyone around us thought it was the funniest thing she ever said. They all laughed and laughed. Soon she was the funny popular girl and I was the girl with dead parents. That's how people saw me after that. Oh, that's Brianna. The girl with the dead parents.

After the incident with Lindsey, I vowed to myself to never let my guard down. I never wanted a friend again. They would listen to you confide in them. You would tell them your deepest darkest fears. Then one day when it was convenient for them, they would use it against you. It would be their weapon.

I got numb to the pain. I didn't feel the emotions that the world threw at me. That's how I felt right now. Numb. Everything was a blur. One moment I was on my knees, staring at Kyle. The next thing I know I'm back in that van driving away from the country house. Everybody spoke. Everybody argued about what we were going to do. Where we were going to go. Adam carried me to the passenger seat in the van and he drove.

He wouldn't stop glancing at me. Nobody cares that three people died today. Adam didn't seem bothered about murdering two people. They were going to murder his family. Susan and Mare were terrified.

Their screams wouldn't stop. Bret and Mr. Walker calmed them down. Got them into a hidden vehicle in the woods. We were all to meet at a safe house outside of Louisville. Louisville was a few days away. The number of rebels was high there. They would be protected.

That's where Evelyn got hit by the bomb. We drove until the sunset. We were on country side roads. Adam avoided the freeway. Apparently not that many people could afford cars nowadays, so getting pulled over by The Unit would be inevitable. When we got close to Louisville, we would have to make it there by foot. Nobody batted an eyelash at a group of stragglers tracking the road by foot.

I didn't say one word, not even when Bret or Adam directly said something to me. Mares screaming kept echoing in my head. The face that greeted me with a smile in the morning transitioned into a face full of fear and pain. She was too young to witness death. Her soul would be tarnished now.

I hadn't even noticed when Adam stopped the car, nor did I realize that we were parked for so long everyone fell asleep.

I listened to everyone's heavy breathing. I began to feel claustrophobic. The van felt like it was getting smaller and smaller. Everyone was too close to me.

Silently, I slid out of the vehicle. The moon didn't provide much light. We were pulled over off of a shoulder of the road. I walked away from the van.

I'm not sure where I was going, but I kept walking. The smell of earth surrounded me. I breathed in heavily. Every few seconds, I heard night critters scurrying through the dry grass.

There was a small red house out in the distance. It looked shabby and abandoned. I felt compelled to go to it. I walked up the rocky driveway and stopped. It was dark inside and the door was hanging ajar.

A dog was perched at the opening of the door. It began to snarl. Before I would have been afraid, but now I felt careless. What would the dog do? Bite me? The fur on the back of its neck stood up. Saliva dropped from its mouth.

I reached my hand out hesitantly. The snarling got worse. The black fur on it was matted and bloody. I could easily see its ribs poking out from its body. It favored its left paw. The dog was injured. Blood dripped off of its side. I peered closer at the wound. It was recent.

Walking up the steps, I stopped when I heard rustling inside. The dog whined and ran down the steps past me. It didn't stop. It just kept going and going. I glanced back into the house when I heard more rustling. A shadow flew past the open door.

I still wasn't afraid. Before, fear would have seized my heart and I would have panicked. Now, I just felt a little curious. The shadow zoomed by again, but this time closer. Someone or something was in there. I took another step closer to the door. Rot drifted through my nose. My eyes watered and I began to gag. The stench was the worst thing I had ever smelt.

Something slammed into my body, sending us flying backwards. My back hit the ground with a hard thump. A bloody person was on top of me. It was a female. Probably in her late twenties. She was bony. The only thing protecting her body from the cold were rags. She smiled at me. A crazed, sick smile. Blood covered her teeth. Most of them were either chipped or missing. She had nail scratches all down here face.

My head began to pound where I hit it on the ground. "Are you okay?" I asked, breathless from the impact.

The girl dropped her head into her hands and started ripping her hair out and screaming. The loud shrill of it hurt my ears. She smelt like the disgusting rot in the house.

I attempted to shove her off of me. Her hands shot out and her nails dug down the side of my face. A scream escaped my lips. She tore my skin open where it was already swollen and bruised from the grenade. I thrashed back and forth trying to get her off of me, but she held onto me for dear life.

"Their coming." Her voice was scratchy like she inhaled too much smoke.

I panted and tried to shove her off of me again. "Who is coming?"

She whipped her head and looked at me. The part of her eyes that was supposed to be white was blood shot red. Her pupils were so dilated, I couldn't see her natural eye color. Again, she smiled. Blood dribbled down her chin.

"Evelyn." She croaked, leaning closer to my face and peering into my eyes.

I cringed further into the dirt. "My name is Brianna."

"Ah, no lying. No lying. That's not good Evelyn." She began to laugh again.

Her hands wrapped around my throat. I yanked at her scrawny hands trying to get them off of me. I couldn't breathe. I thrashed my body as much as I could, but nothing would work. Her matted, dirty hair fell into my face blocking my view of my surroundings.

Suddenly, I was breathing again. I rolled onto my side and started coughing. The girl let out a high shriek that got cut off. I rolled my head to the left and looked. Chantel was standing here with her back to me. The girl lay motionless on the ground. I searched Chantel's hands for a weapon, but didn't see one.

Chantel walked over to me and pulled me off of the ground. "You're an idiot. You’re the biggest idiot I have ever met." She basically dragged me back to the van. "What did you think you were going to do? Escape in the middle of the night and run back to The Unit? What? You think they would take you back that easily?" She scoffed. "You couldn't even make it one mile without running into trouble."

I clamped my mouth shut, refusing to talk. I would let her think whatever she wanted. Chantel opened the door on Adam's side. Adam quickly jumped up and reached for his side arm.

"Relax. It's just us." She pushed me closer to the door opening. "She tried running away and ran into one of the diseased. Better hope she got her vaccinations or she will be a goner." Chantel spun on her heels and walked back to the little house.

Adam stepped out of the van making me have to back up a few steps. He pulled a flashlight out from his pocket and shined it on my face. I squeezed my eyes shut against the startling light. "The diseased got you good."

He didn't question me about where I was going and why I left. He just took care of me. Adam handed me a bottle of water and had me sit on the hood of the van. He put rubbing alcohol on the cuts on my face. My eyes watered at the pain, but I didn't complain.

When Adam was finished cleaning the wound, he gave me a gentle smile. "Don’t worry. You're vaccinated."

I was not worried.

Adam sat on the hood of the van next to me and peered out into the darkness. The night sky was overcast, so we couldn't see the millions of twinkling stars. The road looked like it stretched on forever.

"Does death frighten you?"

His questioned surprised me. I looked at his face to see if he was kidding. Adam's facial expression was serious.

I broke my silence. "The thought of dying doesn't scare me. Watching someone else die is horrifying. Especially when I'm the reason." I pressed my lips together, not continuing. I wanted to tell him Seth was dead because of me. I wanted to tell him how I had hoped that Kyle didn't die that night at the military base. Now I wished he had died.

"It's just the way things are," Adam explained.

For some reason, that pissed me off. I jumped off the hood of the van and glared at him. "That's just the way things are, huh? All this death is just the way things are? Is that what you told yourself when your parents were executed?" I deepened my voice to mimic his. "Oh, it's alright. It's just the way things are." I leaned in so close to his face, I could smell his breath. It smelled like chocolate and something else. "I don't care if death is just the way things are. That's not the way things are meant to be! There shouldn't be so much death and sadness! Why have death be just the way things are when you can change it. Do something about it. Be the solution to the problem, not the problem itself. Make everything okay."

I was so mad I was shaking. I expected Adam to be angry about how ruthless I was when I brought up the way his parents died. He confided in me and when it became convenient, I used it as a weapon against him. Adam was smiling, though. Full on smiling. His teeth were so white I easily saw them in the dark. He laughed, a short happy laugh.

I was confused. I didn't know what was going on. Was he losing it? Was he going crazy? Did my blood contaminate him? Adam jumped off of the hood of the car, wrapped his arms around me, and twirled me around in the air.

I held on, afraid of falling. Once Adam stopped, and set me back on my feet, I went to slap him. His hand shot out and easily caught mine. He was still smiling- unbothered that I was going to hit him across his face.

I was extremely angry and confused. I was already missing the numb feeling from earlier. My emotions were overwhelming.

I heard a chuckle come from behind me. Bret was standing there with his arms crossed, smiling. They were both smiling.

I stomped my feet, furious. "Why are you two smiling? This is not a smiling moment! I was attacked by a woman with God knows what kind of disease, three people died today, and who knows how many died yesterday. Your guy's brother just died. You're not taking any of this seriously!"

Bret walked right up to me. "Yes, Evelyn, people are dying. People have always been dying. People will always be dying. It's something we have come to terms with, with our lifestyle. Our blood brother died, but we knew the risks when we joined the organization to bring down The Unit. We mourn his death in our private moments. We knew eventually one of us or all of us would die. We take lives.  We save lives. It's what we do. We do all this for freedom. We steal. Stealing is wrong, right? But we steal to give citizens food. We provide food on the table for families that cannot afford it, we provide protection for innocent people in danger, and we supply vaccinations for people who can't get ahold of it. Sometimes we have to kill in order to save. It's one side or the other. We tried to earn our human rights without violence, but our voice went unheard. So we had to step up and take action, not words. "Bret's tone was dull. He didn't appear to me happy with what he has done, but he had come to terms with it.

I looked between the brothers. One older and wise and one younger and ambitious.