Road to Clover (The Breanna Raven Series) (10 page)

Being pulled out of a deep sleep can be aggravating, and it doesn’t make it any better when my best friend
is responsible for it. I barely know where I am as my eyes open to widened scared eyes.

“Breanna, get up,” A
gni whispers.

“What is it?” I ask him as I’m trying to come to my senses fully.

“We have to go now.” He says. “If we wait until morning, it’ll be too late.”

“
Why?”

“
Aunt Tillie contacted her husband. I overheard her. She told him about the key, and she believes we’re hiding the card.”

“Why would she
tell on us like that?”

“He’s some big wig in
the Enlightened. Anyway, he’ll be here in the morning to get the key and the card, and they’re going to make us register.”

I’m out of bed fast. Thank goodness I already have my clothes on, but I can’t find my backpack.

“What are you doing?” Agni asks as he’s watching me clumsily move around the room. I’m so weary and tired to the point where I can barely focus. I feel like an idiot as I stumble over my backpack. Agni comes over and helps me back to my feet.

“
You have to keep it down, Breanna. We can’t afford to wake her up.”

“Sorry,” I remark as
he helps me put the bag on my back. “I’m surprised your aunt told on us like that. I was thinking that Mark would sell us out. I guess I was wrong.”

“Yeah, I thought Mark was
going to be a problem, too.”

He goes over to the window and moves the curtain out of the way. It’s still very dark outside, and we can’t see a thing except for the driveway. Agni moves toward the
door, and he peeks out looking across the open area to a closed door. I follow Agni out, and I see King wagging his tail and sitting at the top of the steps. Miss Kiki is right under my feet, and I almost tumble over her. I pick her up, and we rush down the steps to the front door. Agni opens it, and he let us go out first as he watches out for anyone that might be up.

We start walking at
a quick pace. I’m so glad Agni doesn’t want to run. I’m too tired to even try. He takes my hand, and he leads us back down the driveway. The woods look really scary ahead, and I hesitate about going. As a matter of fact, I stop short of going into the woods. Agni sets his backpack on the ground, and he digs out a flashlight. He looks back one more time at the darkened landscape of where his aunt’s house is, shoulders the backpack, and he turns on the light. I take his hand, and we keep going. This time we’re walking at a quicker pace. At least, the flashlight makes it more bearable to get through the woods.

We get to the gate, and as Agni is about to touch
it, I suddenly remember that it’s electrified.

“Wait!”
I yell at him.

“I
turned off the generator before I got you up, Breanna.” He says.

I’m still unsure about the gate. Agni touches
it, and I just want to take off running like the big chicken that I am at that moment. But nothing happens. Agni is pulling open the gate, and I go up to help him. We don’t need much room to get through. We close it back once on the outside. The escape is too easy, but I’m okay with that. At least, we don’t have to deal with the Enlightened for now.

“Where are we going, Agni?” I hate just walking with no real plan. The uncertainty is absolutely frightening.

“We’re headed for Mark’s boathouse. Remember, I told you he has a speedboat that he rents out to tourists that wants to waterski in Nereus Pass.”

“
Oh yeah, I forgot.”

“Let’s hope he has enough gas
in that thing.” He states with concern.

We make it to the end of the road
and make a right to another street that leads up to other homes on the eastern shore of the island. I hope our walk will be over soon. I have never felt so worn out before, and this isn’t doing me any good.

Finally after what feels like forever, we
make it to a small parking lot, and at the end are different boathouses. Agni goes directly to the one that Mark owns, and he pulls a key from his pocket. He unlocks the door and we carefully go inside.

Agni
moves the flashlight around, and the first thing I spot is a green cot. Finally, I can finish my rest. I set my backpack right on the floor beside it, and I stretch out. I don’t want to do anything else. My body is done, and before I know it. I’m gone again.

This time when I wake up, I feel like I got some good rest, but my back is soar. I stand up and stretch. I’m inside the boathouse alone. I wonder where Agni and the dogs are. Were they discovered when I was sleeping? I panic and run outside only to find Agni sitting on a plastic bucket. King is sitting beside him, and Miss Kiki is on
the opposite side. They’re all looking out to a devastating mainland beyond the pass, and I can see why they haven’t moved to speak to me.

Most
of the buildings of Titan City are burning rubble, and the ones that aren’t are gutted out shells. Cement corners are sticking up out of their bases. The dust and smoke are rising in the air. Titan City was a breathtaking metropolis. It had beautiful odd shaped buildings that I loved to stare at in the morning when I used to ride the school bus across Olympus Bridge, but now, none of that is real any more. It’s so sad to think two days ago the land across the water was a bustling landscape of life, and now, it’s not like that at all.

I stand beside
Agni, and I notice he looks really pissed off. I sit down beside King and don’t say anything for the moment. Honestly, I’m not sure how to approach my best friend.

The
short range radio chirps unexpectedly, and Agni picks it up. He’s waiting for someone to speak, but after a few minutes, nothing is said and sets it back down.

“Have you heard anything?” I ask him cautiously.

Agni is in a real bad mood. I don’t know if it’s because of what’s in front of us, or he didn’t sleep last night, or it’s a combination of both. Either way, he isn’t acting like himself.

He
says in a shaky voice, “They’re looking for us, and they want the card and the key.”

“
Why would your aunt do that? She had to of known that they would come after us.”

Agni shakes his head
only a little bit.

I say with regret
, “Maybe, it was a mistake that we took that stuff, Agni.”

“
Maybe, but you know what, Breanna, they’re not getting it back now.” Agni looks at me. “We’re going to hide them instead.”

“
Where?”

“We’ll leave one here on the island, and we’ll find a place on the mainland
for the other. Just in case we run into the Enlightened, we’ll have the upper hand if we have to make some kind of deal.”

“I’ll do whatever you think is best, Agni, but I don’t think those people will deal with
us. I mean, look at what’s in front of us. An entire city is gone. Probably hundreds of thousands of people are dead. We’re just two kids, and we don’t have any kind of weapon to protect ourselves. I don’t think we have the upper hand, at all.”

Agni
realizes what I’ve said is very true. The confidence he once had is now gone. I didn’t mean to bust his bubble, but I just don’t want either one of us to be delusional about the truth. We’ve seen firsthand what the Enlightened is capable of. We were almost killed ourselves. They have no problem taking anyone’s life, and it doesn’t matter if that life is a child, a teenager, or an adult. They don’t know mercy and don’t care. The fact that we have those items only gives the Enlightened more of a reason to kill us. I truly do regret taking that key and card now.

He
takes off the key from around his neck and looks at it. We walk over to the very last boathouse. Agni discovers a loose board behind the structure, and it’s wide enough for Agni to stick his hand behind it. He digs carefully in the dirt. When the hole is deep enough, he drops the key in. He fills it in, covering the key fully, and packs the dirt back in. He pushes the board back into place, and it goes flush with the rest of the wall. Agni stands and goes over to the edge of the water and rinses the dirt off of his hands.

“As soon as we get to Titan City, we’ll find someplace to hide the card.” Agni walks away before I can speak. He’s clearly
upset, more so than I’ve ever seen him before. Honestly, I can’t place when I’ve really seen him like this. He’s usually squared away, stoic, and not easily shaken. He’s clearly out of his element.

I begin to feel like this is my entire
fault. Agni chose to come with me because I wanted to find my sister. I had no real plan. I had no idea what was in store. I couldn’t promise our safe return home, but Agni took a chance. He went with me anyway.

By the time I go
t back inside Mark’s boathouse, Agni is preparing to leave. There are cans on the shelves, and he’s adding them into his backpack.

“Breanna, you need to replenish your food. There’s no telling when we’re going to eat again.”

“Agni, are you mad at me?”

He
exhales. He opens his mouth to speak but then stops. He squeezes the bridge of his nose. He’s trying not to cry, and I don’t think it’s because he’s trying to be macho. He’s just trying to be strong.

“Agni, I’m sorry.”
I say knowing those words aren’t enough to truly fix our problem.

“It’s not you
, Breanna. I’m just disappointed. Aunt Tillie could be the last of my family left, and she stabs me in the back.”

What can I say to
show a good side to what she’s done? I’m coming up blank. So, I don’t even make an attempt to candy coat her choices.

He sat down on a wooden bench and continues, “Last night, I went downstairs to get a drink of water. I usually get up in the middle of the night and get something to drink
, anyway. Well, when I went downstairs, I heard her talking in her room. I thought she might have been talking to Mark, but she wasn’t. Her door was open, and she was on the radio talking to her husband. She told him I had the key that they were looking for. I mean she just spilled her guts, without any consideration of what they might do to us. I would never do that to her. Why would she do that to me?”

There is no right or wrong answer, and I don’t think that Agni is expecting one. He’s so mad that he stands and kicks the bench across the room. His backpack goes flying across and hits a locker. All of the contents spread out over the floor.

Family means everything to Agni, and it’s just crushing him that his aunt chooses to help the enemy. I let him have this moment without an opinion or comment. There isn’t anything I can say to fix what he’s feeling, anyway. He walks out slamming the door. I pick up his backpack and start repacking everything back inside.

When I’m done, I
turn my attention to my backpack. In my mind I’m thinking about Chloe. I’m so scared that she might be dead. Honestly, I’ve been petrified of saying the word
dead
, when it comes to my sister. I feel like if I say it out loud, then it’s real. I have to think positive.

Agni
startles me when he swings open the door. I look at him wondering if he’s anger has reached some pinnacle, and he’s about to wreck the rest of the boathouse. He holds up the short range radio, and he’s looking at me with fear in his eyes.

The static pops and then a voice clearly comes through the speaker. “Agni Green, this is Red Soldier 14. Do you copy?” The man’s voice isn’t Agni’s father. The man sounds sinister and calm. He repeats himself. “Agni Green, this is Red Soldier 14. Do you copy?”

“Do you know him?” I ask Agni.

“I have no idea who he is.” He says as he shrugs his shoulders.

“How does he know you?” It’s hard to catch my breath. My stomach is doing crazy flips, and my forehead is sweating.

“I still have no idea.” Agni looks down at the radio. “
I bet he’s with the Red Team.”

“Didn’t your aunt say they were snipers?”

Agni nods as an answer.

Oh my God! I shake my head and say, “
Don’t answer it. Please, do not answer that guy.”

The voice
sounds off again, “Agni Green, this is Red Soldier 14, come in. I know you can hear me. It is 9 a.m. on the dot, and this is the channel you’re hoping your dad will contact you on.”

His aunt must have told that guy everything we said to her.
That’s just great!

Agni is
seriously considering answering him. I can see it in his expression. He is staring at the radio, holding his breath.

I beg him, “Please,
just turn it off.”

There is a silence so eerie that it makes my skin crawl. Just knowing
this Red Soldier 14 is calling for Agni and waiting for him to answer makes me scared out of my mind. Then on top of all that, he’s a trained killer.

“Breanna Raven or shall I call you Raven
Three?”

What did he say? Why is he calling me Raven
Three, but then I remember. The first time I called for Agni’s dad I used that name. How did he make the connection? I back away from that radio like it’s a disease.

“
Agni Green, I’ll make a deal with you. I will spare Raven Three’s life if you just leave the key and the card where I can find it, and in 3 hours after you’re far away from those items, you can contact me and tell me where you left them. I won’t even come after you once I get them. I’ll have what I want, and you and Raven Three can go about your lives…as normal.”

“He’s lying, Agni. He won’t let us live. I can hear the lies in his voice.”

“What do you say, Agni Green? What about you, Raven Three? It’s a good sound deal.” That man’s voice puts dread to the very core of my bones.

Agni looks at me, lifts the radio to his mouth and asks, “What are
they for?”

Now,
why did he have to say something? Didn’t Agni tell me once that they can track us through the radio signals? We are going to die for sure!

“Agni Green?” Red Soldier
14 asks for him again.

“What are they for? Tell me, and I’ll tell you where they are.”

The radio is silent for what seems like a really long time. What is that guy doing now?

“I say again, what are they for?” Agni is agitated.

“You are quite an inquisitive boy, aren’t you? You shouldn’t concern yourself with the purpose of those items. They have nothing to do with you.”

Agni turns off the radio
, and I’m so glad he did. Now, the guy is cutoff and can’t push his voice into our world anymore. Agni is gripping that radio like he’s going to kill it.

“What is it, Agni?”

“I believe they may be trying to find out our location. The more I talk, the closer they will get to pinpointing us. We have to go, Breanna.”

About time he came to his own realization!

Agni rushes over to the bay door and unlatches the left side. He yells over to me, “Unhook that side!”

I
quickly do as he says. Agni rolls up the bay door and locks it in place. He throws his backpack on the speedboat, and I do the same thing. I can barely think straight or breathe normal.

Agni goes back to the door and whistles for the dogs. Miss Kiki is the first to run in, and she jumps right into his arms. King comes in after a few moments,
and he has a bone in his mouth.

“
Where in the world did he find that thing?” I ask as I watch him jump onto the boat.

“It doesn’t matter. Just get on.” Agni remarks.

I unwind the rope and throw it on the boat. Agni and I get on, and he cranks the engine. He’s checking the gauges, and he makes the dogs lay down behind the front seats. The speedboat roars out of there, and Agni is driving it like an expert. I hang on. I can’t wait to get to the mainland.