"I know. I'm..." I fight hard the urge to get choked up. "I didn't remember you, but I can still agree." We sit in silence for awhile. Ritchie stops laughing and turns to face me and Brody.
"Come on, guys, loosen up, it's okay. None of us are going to die today. We are all incredible warriors, we will be fine!" He laughs.
"I sure hope you're right, Ritch," Brody says.
Ritchie rolls his eyes and says, "Of course I am, you idiot! I'm always right!" Brody fakes a smile as he nails Ritchie in the shin with his steel-toe boot. Brody and I laugh hard as Ritch yelps and drops to his knees. "Jerk."
I allow a sneaky smirk cross my lips. Larson comes up behind me, Wheeler off to the side of him.
"Can we talk, kiddo?" He asks me. I nod and follow him to an area that is mostly empty, while Wheeler distracts himself with a pocketknife. Lars takes a deep breath and let's it out slowly. "Be careful out there, Damien. I don't need anything holding me back through the rest of this fight." He smiles a bit.
I laugh and say, "Okay, I'll try not to get killed." I look him dead in the eye and continue, "Children weren't built for war. We can't bring the younger kids into this."
Lars shakes his head. "I tried to talk them out of it, but they wouldn't hear of it. It's inevitable."
My mouth works for a second. "Okay, I guess." Larson nods. I catch a glimpse of Piper, who's saying goodbye to her siblings. There are lots of overly-emotional escapees between us, so, to get to her, I walk through the crowds of people hugging and crying and laughing.
When I reach her, she throws herself at me and wraps her arms around me. I wrap my arms around her and she says, "You come back to me, Damien Harris. You'd better come back to me." Tears are pouring down her cheeks.
I start crying again. I don't even try to stop, I just allow myself to. "I will, Piper. I'll be back soon." I pull away and look at her. "I'll be back soon, sweetie."
She nods. "Okay. Promise?"
"I promise. I will be back, Miss Piper Dunn. I will." I lean in and kiss her. "I promise." I see Larson as walks to the front door. "Everyone, listen up!" I leave Piper and pay attention. Soon, everyone is gathered around him, and Wheeler is right by his side. "We go out there in ten minutes. Everyone has a group- two partners- and loaded guns etc., right?" The room is filled with nodding people. "All right! Everyone needs to find camp as soon as they can get away from a fight, any time after seven thirty, if you can. Got it?!"
Wheeler steps forward "Stay with your groups! You are in three times as much danger alone as with your group. If someone is injured, take them back here and we'll give you your instructions. Gather your weapons, and wait up here with your group." The crowd separates and I see Naomi. She joins me and Wes, as we head for the door, standing directly behind Larson. I can see Larson clenching and unclenching his jaw, nervously.
I lean forward so my head is by Larson's shoulder, grab his other shoulder, then whisper to him, "Good luck out there, Lars."
He turns his head to try to look at me, and says, "You too, kid." He faces forward again and regains his composure. Two of the escapees open the thick doors and sunlight enters the safe house. A nervous rush flows through my body, and adrenaline pumps through my veins. We are in a triple-file line, group by group. Wanting to be by Larson, I chose to be second from the front, right behind him.
"Forward, everyone!" Wheeler shouts. Everyone walks forward. We aren't in unison, I'm sure we look nothing like an actual army, but we are determined. We all follow Larson, and walk toward the HQ.
"Lars!" Someone shouts from further back.
"What?!" He shouts back at them, as he turns around and walks backward.
"How far is the Headquarters?"
"It's a bit of a walk, but not too far." He turns back around. I start getting bored after about ten minutes of walking. I open my mouth to ask Larson how much further, when a huge black building comes into my view. There are multiple chimneys coming out of the top, with smoke rising from them. There are no doors. I expect us to stop, and Lars and Wheeler to instruct us, but we keep walking, and Larson tenses a bit. We keep walking until we are no more than twenty yards away from the building, which I've now discovered is the back of the building.
When we stop, I can see the Fed symbol on the back of the building and on the sides of all of the off-road vehicles. Larson and Wheeler take the head and face us. Larson begins instructing us, "If there is a compound escapee in your group, you stay out of the Headquarters." Larson put the younger kids with escapees, that's why they have to stay out. "If you don't, stick with at least one other group, because you're heading inside the building with me and Wheeler, as soon as we can make our way in there. Compound escapees, take your groups to the head of the building, and stay there the whole time.
"This has been a long hard journey, everyone. I wish you all the best of luck today. Compound escapees, take the head." I begin to ready my gun, and Larson says to me, "Stay with me. All right? Stay with me and Wheeler."
I nod and finish getting ready. "Naomi, Wes," I begin. "Larson wants us to stay with him and Wheeler." They nod and we all get into position.
Larson turns around and looks me dead in the eye. "You're sure about this?" I nod. "It's not too late to back down, Damien. Okay?"
"Yeah. We've come too far. I'm not backing out."
"All right. Just making sure." He faces forward again. "Fall out!" The escapees and their groups start for the building. Brody and Ritchie look back at me as they walk by. I salute them, and they salute back at me. When all the escapees are ahead of us, we follow. The building begins to look scarier as we near the front. As we're walking, I see Wes catch a glimpse of Naomi, who's on the other side of me. I switch places with Wes so he can be next to her.
"Naomi?" He says, to get her attention.
"Yes?" She looks at him and I fight back tears, thinking of when Piper and I said our goodbyes.
I can tell it takes everything Wes has to keep from choking on his words, but he manages, and squeezes out the words, "I love you."
She smiles, and opens her mouth, hopefully, to say, "I love you, too," but there's an explosion up ahead. Larson and Wheeler start running, so Naomi, Wes, and I start running, as well. We look, and there are at least fifty warriors from the compound. An area no more than ten feet ahead of us is blown out, a hole in the ground, with a compound escapee lying next to it. He's dead. I swallow hard. Our first casualty. I don't know him, but I'm sure somebody does. Tucker and a 14-year-old girl named Heather are knelt next to him. Tucker has his gun cocked and aimed for the compound warrior who undoubtedly threw the grenade. Heather caresses the side of his face before lifting her gun to the same warrior. I think if they hadn't been so young, the warriors would have open fire at them. The first shot is released, and I see it barrel through Heather's shoulder, by her collarbone. I glance at the warrior who shot him. His gun is aimed for Tucker, so I shove Wheeler out of the way and shoot the warrior.
This is it. I've started a war. And there's no going back now.
Tucker breathes heavily with relief and scoops Heather up in his arms. He runs for the safe house, as fast as a ten-year-old boy carrying a 14-year-old girl can run. A couple warriors chase after, but some of the other escapees take them out. Larson leads my group and Wheeler to a spot right behind a huge block of concrete from the interstate. The warriors are opening fire at all of us. We all begin fighting back. "Lars!" Wes shouts over the sounds of hundreds of guns firing at once.
"What?!"
"How are we planning on getting in?!"
"Very carefully!" Larson laughs. "Wheeler has a plan!"
"That's comforting!" Naomi winks at Wheeler. Wheeler rolls his eyes and puts his gun down. I watch him for a second or two but hear a gun cock behind me. Panicked, I swivel around and fire, then watch the grown man crumple to the ground.
Horrified, I begin hyperventilating. "I just killed him. I just killed him." I repeat the sentence over again at least three more times while Larson makes his way over to me and soothes me, "Damien, he's not the last one we're gonna have to kill, I'm afraid."
"I-I know...That was just my first. I'll get used to it." I force myself to calm down and refocus.
"All right, everyone ready?" Wheeler asks us. We all nod and he continues, "You guys are gonna pretend to be my prisoners. We're gonna pretend that you three have the knowledge that the Fed wants about the rebellion. All right?"
"Is that it?" Larson asks.
"Just keep your guns hidden while we walk to the door of the HQ. I'm a Fed so if anyone fires at us, another Fed member can shoot them. Or I can. And I probably will." He smiles and then becomes serious again. "Act your part. If something happens out there that you don't like and you don't act your part, you could die. And we don't want that. So be careful."
"Okay, got it, you three?" Larson asks Wes, Naomi, and I. We all nod and Wheeler starts putting Fed handcuffs on us. They're impossible to escape from. After they close on your wrist, they only open in the cells inside the prison in the HQ. After we're all handcuffed, Wheeler stands up and we follow him out into the middle chaos.
"What's this, Wheeler?!" Mr. Stokes screams from by the entrance. "We were told specifically to kill them, not arrest them!"
"These four are in charge of the rebellion, Stokes! They know everything we want to know!"
"Fine then." Stokes looks out into the chaos and shouts, "If anyone shoots any of these five, they will die immediately!"
Wheeler flashes us a sly smile and continues a little faster. We make it the the entrance without any more problems. While Wheeler digs his Fed ID out of his pocket and tries to get the door open, I hear Naomi scream behind me. I turn around and see her lying on the ground. It went through her head. Stokes shoots a compound member and Wes is on his knees begging her to stay.
"Get up!" Wheeler yells at Wes. I can tell it pains Wheeler to do that. He liked Naomi as much as Larson and I did, but no one loved her the way Wes did. Wheeler grabs the back of Wes' collar and lifts him to his feet, then leads us all inside. The second the heavy door shuts behind us, Wheeler puts his arm around Wes. "I am so sorry, Wes. I'm really sorry." He takes his arm away and the five of us walk up two flights of stairs. The inside of the fed HQ is so different from the outside. It's bright white, with lights everywhere. It reminds me of hospitals from before the wars.
We walk down a long hallway and I see a black door at the end of it. When we get closer, I see that it says "PRISON" across it, in big, red, sloppily painted letters. We walk straight to it and, right as Wheeler uses his card to get us in, we hear multiple guns cock behind us. Wheeler raises his hands in surrender and turns around. Larson, Wes, and I turn around as well.
"Wheeler Hawkins," One of the men with their guns cocked and aimed at us says. "I should've known you'd betray us."
Wheeler slides between Larson, Wes, and I, and says, "Collier, you're kidding right? C'mon, we've been partners since I joined. Except when I leveled up and you didn't. But we're buddies, right? Look, these guys are prisoners. I arrested them and I'm putting them in their cells."
"O'Conner says you haven't been to work in a couple months."
"He checks up on that?"
"Yeah. Which means, you're under arrest too. I'll even do you a favor and put the four of you in a cell together. We're almost full." Collier turns Wheeler around, holds a gun to his back, and grasps the back of his collar. The other guys lead us in. Collier throws Wheeler into a cell and we are forced to repeat the action.
After they leave, Larson turns to Wheeler. "Wheeler, please tell me this is part of the plan."
Wheeler smiles innocently and says, "It isn't but it'll still be fine. We were supposed to make it to the main office without a hitch but no worries. I still have my ID. I can get us out of here."
"You'd better."
"Can...can we wait awhile?" Wes asks. He's sitting in the corner of the cell, hugging his knees.
I forgot all about Naomi. I let out a heavy sigh and scoot over to him, then put an arm around him. He fights the emotions for a few seconds, then lets it all out. He and I wrap our arms around each other and he just cries into my shoulder. I can't help but shed a few tears, myself. Naomi was a brat, but she definitely was one of my best friends. "Wes, I'm so sorry."
He pulls away from me. "She wasn't supposed to die!" He screams at the top of his lungs. "She was supposed to live! Like us! She wasn't—" He stops screaming starts crying again, then returns to his former position, hugging his knees. He rests his head on his knees and says, "She wasn't supposed to die."
"Wes," Wheeler kneels down in front of him. "That's was all my fault. I should've been paying better attention. I'm sorry."
Wes shakes his head. "It's the Fed's fault. It always it and it always will be." He's really not wrong. It always is.
Larson kneels down, too, and says, "We're gonna stop them. We'll make them pay for what they've done. To Naomi, to everyone."
"I know so much about them, Wes." Wheeler smiles and laughs. "I know all their weaknesses. I know everything we need to know to get out. And we will. Then...we can kill them."
"How are we gonna do that, Wheeler?" Larson asks. "You haven't been very clear on that."
"Would you relax?! Look at who you're talking to! I've got it all under control!"
"Wheeler..." Larson warns. "I'd better be able to trust you."
"Come on, you can trust me! Tell him, Damien!"
I just nod.
"Thanks, I can tell you guys trust me." Wheeler rolls his eyes.
"No offense," I begin. "But you worked with the Fed for four years. It's a little difficult to trust Fed members."
"Excuse you, I'm an ex-Fed. Fed members can't lock other Fed members up in prison." He puts his arms out and shrugs slightly. "Do you not see where I am?! I'm in prison! Did you not see who locked me up? A Fed member! Hence, I am an ex-Fed!!"
"Wheeler, calm down," Larson says.
"Okay, I'm all right. Look, guys, these are your options: trust me, and, if it turns out I was lying to you, possibly die; or don't trust me, and die no matter what. I'd choose the first one if I were you."
"Okay, Wheeler, we trust you," I say.
He smiles. "Good. Then you actually have a chance at surviving this, don't ya?"
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