The Uprising (The Julianna Rae Chronicles) (2 page)

2nd May, 2018, 2320 hours.

The
Caves of Devil’s Canyon, 30 miles west of Camp 2.2.1

Caden smoothed water over her hot skin while she muttered in her sleep. The waterfall crashed against the rocks outside the cave, drowning her whispers, but Caden listened as she begged for her life.

Not surprising
, he looked around at the others sleeping soundly.
She should have died yesterday.

Julianna bolted in her delirium, upright
in the bed nested for her.

Caden
eased her down with a gentle hand to her shoulder, and a calm voice. He splashed more water on her skin where the blanket didn’t cover her: her neck, face, shoulders, and arms, and when he looked down into her eyes, they met his gaze with a heaviness that wouldn’t permit her to open them fully.

‘You still with me?’ he asked quietly, but his voice bounced along the rock walls. ‘Come on J Rae, talk to me, sweetheart.
You need to fight this fever. You have to do this one yourself; even I can’t heal a fever away.’

‘Daddy?’

He grimaced. More water, he needed more water. The bottle he was holding was empty.

The water cascading over the cave lip, which hid them away
from their enemy, was a short walk. The water fell, bouncing the moonlight, and stray beams of white light penetrated the darkness inside the damp cave.

Devo was the hero this time. Caden
watched the sleeping girl in his brother’s arms. She’d wandered behind a tree for privacy, and in the midst of squatting; accidently found the caves in the area he was unfamiliar with.

Julianna’s hand grabbed his pant leg and he looked down.

‘Cade?’

He returned to h
er side. ‘Yeah it’s me,’ he felt her forehead. ‘I’ll be gone all of five minutes, for some more water.’

‘Please don’t leave me.’

‘Not leaving, only five short minutes. Bas, Danny, and Devo are just over there sleeping. You’re not alone, sweetheart.’

He stood again; breaking her grip from his pants gently, with a step toward the rushing water, and gave her a five minute hand signal, before turning his back to her pleading eyes.
             

Caden’s tall stride took him over a thin, but deep fissure, dividing the rock into two. He stepped onto a ledge that he jump
ed from, before trailing to the edge of the cave where the water fell. He crouched at its lip. The water slammed down in crashes, bouncing from the worn out rock where it pooled, to create a second flow into the lake below.

He glanced down to
where the water struck. They were high above the lake, and under different circumstances, he fancied to visit the area again. It reminded him of his childhood so long ago, in the caves high above the French countryside. It was a lifetime ago. 

He smiled to himself.
It was a lifetime ago, or three, if you were a norm. But I’m not a norm. I’m a watcher, powerful at that
, and his smile disappeared with the tired look he received from Julianna, over his shoulder. Not powerful enough to keep the girl safe from herself.

How the hell do you keep someone safe from themselves?

His head shook with the thought. If he hadn’t doubled back for the last check at the camp, if they’d left with everyone else at the time, instead of searching for leftover supplies from the panicked bug out. He screwed up his face.

No point wrestling with it now.

The water continued its attack on the rock ledge, into the lake below.  It was a difficult climb with Julianna on his back, even with the four of them to help. They’d barely made it to the cave’s safety. Those memories wouldn’t leave in a hurry; he was stuck with his guilt, no matter how stunning the landscape in front of him was under the darkened sky.

He held the bottle under the flow, to catch the fresh water. The cool sprays of mist flickered over his skin, soothing the searing heat she had radiat
ed since their arrival, a few hours earlier. Her delusions were becoming worse, and her stomach, where the bullet had left fragments, and where the knife had stabbed her, was red and swollen from infection, despite his efforts to heal her again.

Julianna screamed.

It startled him.

W
ater spilled over the bottle as he leapt to his feet, feeling the change take over his body. His eyes grew dark, while his senses heightened for potential threats. A chill shivered him, but there wasn’t a danger in sight, just her wild imagination attacking her again in a fever.

Bas was awake and cradling Julianna. Caden
relaxed at the sight of his older brother rocking her gently in his arms, whispering fatherly reassurance to settle her down into lucidity again.

The bottle overflowed
under the water. He pulled it back, but didn’t leave the edge without splashing water over his own sweaty face. The day had been long; their argument was still fresh in his mind, before she had collapsed. Any hint of guilt that he felt, ebbed away when he scanned the prisoner she insisted on taking.

Damn noc.

He sensed more arguments to follow. The outcome of a prisoner in his camp – what was left of it – was an oversight on her part.  His hand would be forced sooner rather than later, and she’d see him for the creature he really is.

Pussy whipped!

The voice in his head circled him like a vulture to its prey. Indeed, he agreed, he didn’t want the proverbial genie unleashed just yet. He needed to keep calm or Julianna would bolt as quick as her legs would carry her, something he couldn’t risk happening, or he’d answer to a lot of people higher than him on the food chain.

T
he risk of the noc escaping was slim. The bounds he had fastened around his wrists, down to his ankles and back again had the noc doubled up. Only a Houdini of the preternatural world would get out of something so carefully constructed. Caden agonized over the unconscious body for a long time before he left it alone.

He crouched to study the restraints security
. The breeze stirred the smell of a rotting corpse into his face, forcing him to turn away gagging. He watched the water, holding down what little food he’d had before taking in another deep breath.

He leaned in again, to check the tautness of the rope a final time. The bullet wound in the noc’s shoulder fester
ed in yellow tendrils of pus, stretching thickly in strings across the gaping hole. It was where the bulk of the offending odor came; blocking further blood from leaching its way out.

H
is hand hovered over his sidearm. The dying state of the prisoner wasn’t lost on him. But not for a moment did he regret his action with the gun. Rather, he found his regret rested with his lack of control over Julianna’s insistence on taking the prisoner. She went against his command, and he let her. This gave the voices in his mind a platform. The Militia intelligence she had hidden was his oversight, too. He wondered what other secrets she held in the corner of her mind, where he was unable to reach. Master watcher that he was, reading a Seer was always difficult – Julianna was downright impossible.

The breeze swirled again, taking the thought, to replace it with the smell of putrefying flesh. Caden grimaced under his held breath. The bounds were secure, but a noc’s nature
was difficult to restrain. Clever and resourceful creature’s, much like himself, they were also vicious. A noc was not the right captive, injured or not, when they were already running from the Militia.

Pussy whipp
ed, face it. She has you under her spell.

Julianna’s whimper bounced along the cave walls and distracted him from the creature.

Caden watched her huddle into the embrace of a man she had feared days before, nodding to his gentle whispers lapping deep within her mind, reassuring her, settling her fists which pushed against his chest. Julianna’s fever was her saving grace. Caden’s anger rose again.

Damn reckless girl; wait ‘til you’ve got your health back again, then we’ll
see who commands this damn camp!

Caden
pushed up from his crouch, yet his conscience nagged him, what little he had. He jumped the small crevice running through the rock, stepping carefully over the uneven surface worn from age and water, to stand beside them.

Bas glanced up from cradling Julianna. ‘Her fever’s raging.’

Caden watched her curl further into Bastiaan’s arms, talking to ghosts not there, and crying quietly.

‘Without medical supplies…
we need to move into the next town and scavenge.’

Bas frowned. ‘The next town’s fifty miles away. She can’t ride out. We barely made it here.’

‘Danny and Devo, they’ve rested. They can do the trip.’ He knelt down. ‘Here, hold her for me.’

Caden raised the bottle above her head, gently tipping water over her thick, dark tangle of hair. S
he relaxed into its cool shower and Bas’s large hand wiping her face.

‘Better Jay?’ Caden asked.

Julianna nodded for more and Caden obliged.

‘Even if they moved out now,
if
they manage to find anything…if the Militia isn’t crawling over these parts by now…’

Bas wiped her face again. She chewed at her cracked lips, not stopping until a trickle of blood seeped from the cut. The sting shocked her eyes open. Bas laid her down in the blankets while Caden put his wetted fingers to her lips
to wipe the dribble of blood. 

‘If you’re not comfortable with Devo riding out, I’ll go with Danny myself.’

Caden found himself watching Julianna settle into a restless slumber beside him. He tipped more water over his fingers and wet her lips again.

‘With no sleep? You’ll kill each other before you hit the interstate,’ Bas said, eyes rolling in disagreement.

His brother was right. The thought of sleep made his eyes heavy. Caden felt the thick stubble growing on his face with a frustrated hand. The thought of riding out and leaving her bothered him. Bas knew a few things, but he wasn’t medically trained, not like him. 

Caden touched her cheek and she pressed into his palm.

‘You’re right,’ Caden said. ‘I need to stay.’

‘She feels s
afe with you. You owe it to her and Isis. He’ll want the details on this.’

Isis?
He forgot about his fearless leader. The thought stunned him.

‘Yeah, if we can ever contact him. Damn comms are useless now, and if w
e managed to get it working, every man in the new world order would monitor our conversations. They’d be taking notes and shutting us down.’

Bas nodded quietly.

‘I’m ranting I know, but fuck it. We’re in a hell of a position right now. Everyone’s after us.’ Caden rubbed his hand over his chin stubble again. His hand felt hot from her cheek. ‘I’m not used to this, Bastiaan. Remember when we did the hunting?’             

‘We’re no longer Militia, my brother. We made our choice. I think it was the right one, don’t you?’

Caden frowned at the girl sleeping gently in her makeshift bed of blankets.
Of course I do,
the Old Council is redundant. Old values abandoned for the need to rule under false pretense, factions divided
–
what I spent years attaining, but still
…the nagging in his mind – maybe some of the Militia ideals were right.

I could be mistaken
—

‘Caden?’ she called.

The louder voices in his mind abandoned him for her pleading whisper. ‘Right here, J Rae.’

‘I’m dying, aren’t I?’

You
were dying last night, Julianna. When Taris stabbed you, over, and, over again. Then I healed you, and I saved you, and we fought together again—

‘Am I?’

‘No.’ he lowered from his knees to spread his long legs on the damp, uneven rock. He tightened the thin blanket over her chest. ‘Talking stupid talk, girl. You have a bad fever, makes it feel like you are.’

Bas ambled for the corner, where the remaining two of their camp
were woken. The mission was given in a hushed whisper. They nodded in Julianna’s direction, with the whole
she’s done for
look. Caden glanced down at Julianna, following their stare. She’d settled against his leg, resting her hand around his thigh, with her cheek pressed close. Her eyes were open and staring into the space around her.

She’s listening.

He tipped more water into his hands and stroked her face, cooling her skin. Julianna looked up weakly to meet his eyes. He winked, nodding to her before breaking their connection, to watch the others prepare for their ride out.

Daniel pulled his boots on
while Devo checked and holstered her Glock and hunting knife. Bas counted extra ammunition for them to take.

‘What do you need?’ Daniel asked. He
checked his spare magazine clip and walked over to stare at Julianna.

‘Anything you can get your hands on,’ Caden said. ‘Anything that’ll fight this infection and fever.’