Revolutionary Love (The Revolution Series Book 1) (24 page)

Adam knelt in front of me and made us eye level. "When you are ready you can talk to me." He leaned his forehead on mine and looked into my eyes. "I will always be here."

Adam left me to ponder his words and went back to attending to the people. The guilt stung even more. Why was he such a good person? Why was Seth such a horrible person? How can two people be brothers, yet be so different from each other. Adam was loving, caring, genuine, and nice. Seth was sneaky, a liar, deceptive, rough, and malicious.

I dropped my head in my hands and groaned. There was a war going on out there and I was comparing two brothers to each other. I needed to stop. I sat up fast when I heard screaming. Two rebels were dragging a tied up person in here. He was wearing a military uniform. I stopped breathing when I saw who it was. It was the soldier with the foul breath.

I knew Adam recognized him when he marched over.

"What is this?" Adam directed the question at the two rebels who brought him in here.

One of them puffed their chests out. "A prisoner."

"A prisoner?" Adam was annoyed now. "Well, this prisoner knows our location now. What happens if this prisoner escapes?"

The other rebel looked at Adam like he was too slow to comprehend what was going on. "He won't escaped because we will kill him."

Adam tensed. "We are not authorized to kill unless being shot at."

The rebel looked around. "I don't see David here, do you?" He asked his friend.

His friend looked around as well. "No, actually, I don't."

I moved closer to Adam's side sensing trouble was about to start.

"You brought him in here just to kill him?" I asked, looking down at the soldier. He had a gag in his mouth. His eyes were blazing with fury. They had tied a rope around his wrists and legs and were pulling him with it. It seemed inhumane. I felt bad for him.

"We are going to torture him and get answers."

Adam shook his head. "No. Absolutely not. We are the rebellion, not The Unit. We do not fight like that. We are searching for peace, not more violence."

The rebel slowly nodded his head. "I see. You don't want us to torture him. You don't want us to kill him. I guess we should let him go."

He reached down to untie the soldier.

"Stop." Adam growled. He was angry. I had never felt so much anger radiate off of him. Adam clenched his fists at his side.

"So we torture him...?" The rebel trailed off. He had a stupid smirk on his face that I wanted to slap off. He put Adam in a horrible predicament. Either way, the soldier had to die. He would be unable to defend himself.

"Yes."

I tensed at Seth's voice. I spun around and stared at him. He was leaning against the tunnel wall. I could tell from his eyes he had seen the entire thing. He looked at me when he spoke.

"We all know how the soldiers like to burn us and brand us. Why don't we try it on them?"

Adam made a noise in the back of his throat. "We are not doing that. This isn't what David wants." He looked at his brother like he didn't know who he was. I was glad I wasn't the only one who felt that way.

Seth moved forward. "David is not here and he left me in charge. Not you. Stand down." It was a command.

Adam's green eyes turned to fire. "This is how you want to win? By torturing people? Murdering people who cannot defend themselves."

Seth's lips turned up into a false smile. "Brother, they do it to us all the time. Why not give them a taste of their own medicine."

"Two wrongs don't make a right." I interrupted. "Just give him a quick death. There is no need to torture him."

One of the rebels laughed in mockery. "Oh, Evelyn just doesn't want one of her precious soldiers to get hurt. We all remember how much you used to love floozing around with them."

I clenched my teeth in anger. I looked at Seth and pleaded to him with my eyes. He ignored me.

Looking at the two rebels who brought him in here, he spoke directly to them. "Follow me and bring him."

The two rebels obeyed. Adam took a step forward, and I placed my hand on his shoulder to stop him. He didn't need to see that or to be a part of that. The tunnel hall was quiet now. There were no groans of pain, puking, and screaming. Everyone had stopped what they were doing to watch the exchange.

Adam faced me and looked down at me. I couldn't read his eyes anymore. They were blocked off of all emotion. "Why did Seth look at you like that?" He asked.

I bit the inside of my cheek and attempted to not look guilty. Adam nodded his head slowly. I didn't have to speak for him to know something had happened between his brother and I. I expected Adam to get angry with me, to be hurt, or something. He hid everything.

He simply looked at me for a few seconds. "Okay." He said and walked away.

He went back to attending to the wounded like nothing had just happened. Like his brother wasn't down the hall torturing someone. Like he was unaffected knowing something had happened between Seth and me. He carried on like everything was going to be okay.

I stood there and watched him. I couldn't get myself to move. The guilt from earlier hit me tenfold. He didn't appear to care about any of this. He laughed with the rebels and joked with them. He made them feel safe and secure. It was selfish of me to want him to make me feel that way.

I knew he cared for me deeply. I knew it was wrong of me to use him as my emotional anchor, then turn around and make out with his brother. How could I have done that? Seth was a monster. It was confirmed when I heard the soldier screaming. It echoed down the hall. They had taken the gag out.

It was wrong of me for wishing Adam would get mad at me. I wanted him to get mad at me so I could get mad at him in return. I felt anger bubbling inside of me. I wanted to fight with someone. To argue with someone. To somehow relieve all this anger and guilt eating me alive.

Adam walked passed me like I was invisible. I had lost the one person who truly cared for me. He was willing to put me before himself. He was someone I could trust with my life and my emotions. I dropped my head and stared at the floor. I needed to do something. Anything to relieve this anger.

I wanted to hit things. Break things. To scream at the top of my lungs. I was a ball of emotions and I was about to explode. Instead, I walked down the hall to where the soldier was being tortured. I wanted to see it. Experience it. This was the way the world was now and I needed to toughen up. I needed to stop hiding behind closed doors, pretending that this wasn't happening.

I needed to stop being weak.

A couple days had passed. Long days. More doctors showed up. Adam got the clear to go out to battle.

He left. With an arm he couldn't even lift up. He just left. I tried to ask him to stay, but he wasn't talking to me. He only gave me one-word answers.

Seth was pulling in soldier after soldier and torturing them. None of them had the answers that he needed. He kept asking where Stephan was. Nobody knew.

I wasn't needed anymore. We had plenty of doctors, so I couldn't help in that way. I was not trained, so I could not go out into battle. All I could do was sit and wait for all of this to be over.

It would never be over. At least, not at the rate we were going. The walls in the tunnel shook when bombs were dropped. I had peaked outside once only to see that the sky was covered with smoke. The smoke hasn't dwindled down. People were dying. People were crying. People were injured.

All this because of a stupid speech I gave. I shouldn't have gone up there and talked.

There was some good news. Something to cover all the blackness I was seeing and feeling. The rebellion took over a few towns. They had won a few of the battles. Some soldiers went over to the rebellion side. They weren't allowed to carry weapons or fight. They got to help make food and bring people in. For them, it was some sort of redemption.

Nobody heard anything about David. It was like he disappeared. Seth didn't need David though. He held everyone in line easily. Everyone listened to him like he was a God. Nobody questioned whose side he was really on. Just me.

When the tunnels shook from another bomb, I got tired of being in the dark. Pulling myself up from a cot bed, I navigated the tunnels like it was the back of my hand. I had had plenty of time to wonder and learn the way.

Climbing up the latter that led to the top, I held my breath. The last time I opened the top, smoke fluttered in and choked me. Lifting myself up and out of the tunnel, I closed the top. I put the shirt up and over my mouth making it easier to breathe. My eyes watered at the burn of the smoke.

I could hear a lot of gunshots out in the distance. Following the sound, I took my handgun out of the holster. Seth had given me a gun for my safety after I got attacked by an enforcer. He didn't know I was on the rebellion side.

Some of the rebels had warmed up to me. They said they liked my dry sense of humor and attitude.

Walking through the abandoned town, I took it in. Empty stores, broken cars, and garbage littered the streets. Weeds and grass were growing everywhere.

When I made it into the woods, fear crawled into me. It was dark and smoky. I could barely see in front of me. The leafs used to look a beautiful, luscious green. Now when they touched me I could feel their dryness. I didn't have to have good vision to know they were a yellow, brown color.

When I made it out if the forest, I stopped in surprise. The once little-rebuilt town was now in shambles. Houses had broken windows, broken down doors, and some looked as if they used to be on fire.

I walked into one house.

"Hello?" I called out.

No answer. The door was broken off of its hinge and the couch was turned over on its side. Other than that, there didn't look to be a struggle.

Where did the family go? Seth was supposed to be protecting them.

It was nice in here. Fine china in a glass cupboard, crystal on the coffee table, and the couch was leather without any cracks.

I walked around the house and observed it. Pictures of a happy family were hung up on the wall. I stopped when I saw whose face was in the picture. It was the soldier that had gotten tortured. He stood smiling with pride surrounded by four little kids and a happy looking wife.

He was dead now. Where did the family go? I walked up the spiral stairs. There were three bedroom doors. Picking the one that looked like a master bedroom, I opened it.

The moment I stepped inside, I regretted wondering. The wife and kids were all laying in bed. There was no movement. Walking closer, I looked at their peaceful faces. Hoping I was wrong, I pressed my fingers against the woman's throat. No pulse.

They were dead. Suppressing a gag, I ran out of the room and slammed the door. There was no blood and no bruises. I had a feeling it was suicide. Dropping to the floor, I lowered my head.

That soldier was a bad man, but he had a family. People who loved him and depended on him. They were gone now. He was gone now.

The kids were so young. They had not even lived their lives yet. Tears filled my eyes and I shoved them back.

This was the world I lived in now. I stood up and left the house. Walking down the empty road, I looked at every single vacant house. Were they filled with dead families too? People who had given up? I kept walking.

This neighborhood was quiet, but I could still hear all the gunshots. They echoed down the empty street. Everything felt ominous. There was no noise other than the war. No people. No children outside playing. No movement other than me.

I paused. There was movement. I was wrong. A woman was walking down the street singing without a care in the world. The melody was beautiful. She wore a long red dress.

What was she doing out here? It was dangerous. She was probably thinking the same thing about me. I walked a couple of more steps forward. Maybe she needed help. Maybe she was lost.

When I got closer, I realized her dress was torn, battered, and bloody.

"Are you alright?" I questioned, slowly moving forward.

I put my gun in my holster, not wanting her to feel threatened.

The woman dropped her head and faced the ground. "I have lost my baby." Her voice was depressed.

Her baby? I looked around. How could someone lose a baby? "Where at?"

"Somewhere. Everywhere."

I took a step back. Her once soft voice now had a scratch in it that I was all too familiar with. When she noticed me step back, she lifted her head up. Blood was leaking out of her nose and eyes. She was like all the other diseased, no iris and all pupil.

Her face was bruised and bloody. Her hand shook at her side.

"My baby." She whispered quickly.

I took one step back and she took one step forward.

"Please stay back. I don't want to hurt you." I warned her. Out of a new habit, I grabbed my handgun from the holster.

Her hair blew in the wind. She watched me with crazed eyes. Baring her teeth at me, she began to cough up blood. "Baby. My baby. Baby." Her voice sounded like she had smoked an entire carton of cigarettes in one sitting.

I kept my gun pointed at the ground. "I can help you find your baby." I offered. What if she really did have a baby and she only recently got infected? If she is infected, that means someone got her infected. Uneasily, I looked around. Were there more diseased?

The woman fell to her knees and began sobbing. "My baby is dead. Bye baby. No more baby."

She began to rip her hair out and scream. She was going to give our location away. Without batting an eyelash, I shot her. Her body thumped to the ground. I didn't look back as I walked away. Guilt did not consume me. My heart had changed along with this world I called home.

I walked down the middle of the road and looked at the houses. I imagined happy family's living there. I imagined homes full of love and joy. Hopes and dreams. Laughter. I mostly imagined laughter.

I walked through the roads until the sun began to set. Behind the gray filter over the sky, I could see streaks of red. That was probably the only thing that stayed the same. The sky. It would never change. It would always be what it always was. Beautiful.

I paused when I came across the big parking lot where the execution was held. It was full of unmoving bodies on the floor.

I turned on my heels and walked in the opposite direction. It would be a nightmare I did not want to experience. I already couldn't get the image of the dead family out of my head. I didn't need to emotionally scar myself some more.

I jumped when the ground shook with an explosion. More smoke and fire erupted into the sky. The bomb came from the direction of the house that The Unit had taken us to. Is that where the battle was at now?

I backed up a few steps. I should probably head back to the tunnels. I opened my mouth to scream when a hand wrapped around my arm, but a hand covered my mouth too.

Preparing to fight for my life, I paused at the smell. At the familiar feel of the calloused hand. It was Adam.

Adam tugged me backwards until we were hidden behind a car. He bent down to the ground and I followed suit.

Adam shook his head at me. "What are you doing out here?" His husky voice was laced with anger.

I didn't respond. I didn't have an answer to his question. There was no reason for me to be out here.

Adam looked around us. From the slight sunlight, I could see blood trickling down his face. He had an open wound on his eyebrow. He was hurt.

I lifted my hand to wipe the blood, but when he flinched away from my touch, my hand fell to my side. He hated me.

Adam breathed heavily through his nose. "We need to get you back to the tunnels."

"I just wanted fresh air." I said lamely as smoke danced around us.

Adam didn't say anything else to me while we walked back to the tunnels. He was constantly aiming his weapon at sounds. He was paranoid.

When we made it back into the safety of the tunnel, I finally spoke again. "What are you so afraid of?" Something was scaring him. I was sure of it. He didn't react this way to the soldiers. Something was off. I could feel it in my gut.

Adam ran his hands over his face. His shoulders were tense. It was like he was ready for a monster to pop out of the shadows at any moment. I'd never seen him so afraid.

He made an irritated noise in the back of his throat, then answered me. "They are using the sick against us."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "The diseased?" I was surprised he actually spoke to me.

Adam full on faced me and grabbed onto my shoulders. Green eyes blazed at me. His usual smiling face was grim. "Promise me not to leave the tunnels."

I bit my tongue and shook my head no. I couldn't be locked up in here anymore. I was going to go mad.

"You don't understand." He whispered. "The whole country wants you dead. The rebellions. The soldiers. The citizens. The diseased. Everywhere you go, someone is willing to kill you."

I took a step back, crossing my arms. I suddenly felt cold. "It's been that way since I woke up." Why was he acting like he cared? He hated me.

Adam dropped his arms to his side. "You started this war and everyone knows it. Before there was a balance of good and bad. That balance is gone and people are blaming you. People in the rebellion are blaming you. We had a plan to take over peacefully and you destroyed all hope of that."

I frowned. "All I did was speak. Use my voice."

Adam chuckled, but it wasn't a happy noise. "You influenced people to fight without meaning to. You planted a seed into everyone's brain. Some people took what you said one way and others took it differently." He pointed to the exit of the tunnels. "They are using the diseased against us. The soldiers are hiding. Why should they fight? They have the crazies doing it for them."

I thought for a second. "Why can't we lay low until the diseased go away? Wonder off?" The diseased woman from earlier floated across my mind. She was only a tool to win a war. A woman who once had a family and people who loved her.