Vendetta Nation (Enigma Black Trilogy #2) (10 page)

She moved her arm away from her face, revealing reddened eyes. “You sure got used to the idea fast.”

“Is this what this is all about, the fact that I moved on? Because I’m not locking myself in my room, crying myself to sleep at night?”

“You didn’t even try, Chase,” she said, tears running down her cheeks. “You just let her go like she meant nothing to you.”

“You’re wrong, MaKayla, I did try. I scoured the internet; I called her aunt in Iowa; I did everything I knew how to do to find her.”

“Except actually get out there and look for her like Lucy did.”

“And look where Lucy is now,” he said, exasperated. “Do you want me to end up dead too?”

“Of course not,” she sat up on the bed, wiping a tear from her cheek. “Maybe I just want to know that true love actually does exist, even in the hellhole our world has become. It’s the only thing we still have left to look forward to, the only thing worth fighting for anymore.”

“It does exist,” he said, his voice softening.

“Then why not try to find her? Chase, I know she was the one for you. I felt it, and I know you did too.”

“MaKayla, I...”

“Paige reminds me of all the ones who came before Celaine, empty and shallow. Those aren’t traits you can build a life on.”

“Indeed you can’t.” He sat on the bed next to her. “When did you get so smart?”

“Just find her, Chase, please.”

He looked at her, contemplating whether or not to tell her the reason why he’d given up hope, knowing that he needed to if she was to understand his actions. “I never told you this, but I know Celaine doesn’t want to be found.”

“How?”

“I saw her one day when I went to the cemetery to visit Lucy.”

“Wait, you saw her?” MaKayla’s eyes widened. “What did she say? What did you do? Why haven’t you said anything before now?”

“Nothing. Nothing. And I’m getting to that. She was with someone else…a guy. They seemed close.”

“How close?”

“Like kissing, close. Like in a relationship, close.”

“No.” She shook her head. “I don’t believe it. Have you ever thought that maybe you didn’t see what you thought you saw?”

“Even if it wasn’t exactly what I think, it was still something. It was something I wasn’t supposed to see.”

“Or maybe it was,” she said. “But I also think there has to be something more to it than that.”

“Whether there is or whether there isn’t, she still knows where I am and how to reach me. The fact that she hasn’t speaks volumes.” He ran his hand through his hair, his face appearing more haggard than she remembered. “Just do me a favor,” he said.

“What?”

“Don’t tell Mom and Dad. I want them to remember the way things were and not have their opinion of her tainted.”

“You still love her, don’t you?”

He sat quietly staring at the floor, knowing the truth, but reluctant to admit it to himself. “Yes,” he finally said in a whisper, “I still love her.”

We struck the ground between the two mobs, and released our grappling hooks. Behind us, the gasps of the surprised protesters cut through the night air, their chants ceasing for the moment.

“Is that really them?” a woman’s excited voice broke the newfound stillness.

“Just stand back, don’t approach them,” a masculine voice ordered.

Unaffected by our appearance—or so it seemed—the soldiers continued their advance from the north down the deteriorating roadway. The closer they came, the clearer we could make out their personal body armor, which they wore from head to toe. Hard-plated and jet black, the color of their protective gear rivaled that of our suits, blending in perfectly with the darkness surrounding us.

“I don’t understand why
they
need the armor,” Ian observed. “They’re the ones with the weapons.” I peeked behind my shoulder, realizing that Ian was right. Carrying merely flashlights, the people behind us were otherwise unarmed.

“They’re trying to scare them,” I said.

“By bringing a war to a picnic? I don’t think so. Look around, Celaine, they outnumber them ten to one.” Ian was right. Appearing from various vantage points on the roofs of the surrounding buildings and down nearly every alleyway, the soldiers emerged ready for a fight. “If anything,” Ian said, “they’re here to make an example out of them.”

“Well, it’s a good thing we’re here to prevent that from happening, then.”

“I hate to break it to you,” Ian’s nervous laugh reverberated in my ear bud, “but they kind of outnumber us as well.”

“One of us equals like twenty-five of them,” I answered. “That alone makes it a somewhat fairer fight.”

“Even if your mathematical assessment is dead on, they’re still dominating us…by a crap load.”

“A crap load, eh? I like those odds.” I walked out into the street, hearing Ian’s footsteps on the pavement directly behind me. When I reached the center of the roadway, I stopped, facing the onslaught that was heading our way. Sandwiched between buildings and conflict, the once peaceful night was beginning to feel downright ominous, and I couldn’t help but wonder what the next several minutes would bring. Ian stood slightly in front of me, a tenseness overcoming him. “The consummate protector,” I said, trying in vain to calm him. He didn’t budge. Inching my way forward, I made myself level with him.

The soldiers advanced. Their footfalls fell in unison, bouncing off the buildings in a synchronized thunder. Vocally, they were silent, only adding to the tension from the crowd, who stood their ground behind us. Moments later, when they came within ten feet of where Ian and I stood in front of the protesters, they stopped, and a deafening silence prevailed. I inspected the men before me. From what I could see, they were all similar in build and stature. All of them appeared to be male, young and in the prime of their lives. Curiously, all of them even appeared to wear the same blank expression on their faces as though they’d been programmed to be devoid of emotion, awaiting orders from an unseen command. Their silence persisted only moments longer until one of them —their leader, perhaps— addressed the people on the street.

“You are all in direct violation of the President’s curfew regulations,” the soldier to the left of Ian announced to the crowd. He was more heavily armored than the rest, which I presumed signaled a sign of importance or rank among the others. “Return to your homes immediately, or face imprisonment.”

“We will not be returning to our homes,” the same male voice I’d heard just moments ago shouted from the crowd.

“Swell.” Ian’s voice was barely audible in my ear bud.

“Go ahead, use your weapons; fire upon a group of unarmed citizens,” the male voice called out again. “By doing so, you’ll only lift the wool over the eyes of the country.”

Shut up, shut up, shut up
, I repeated in my head.

“We’re here for your protection, sir,” the soldier answered back. “If you can’t comprehend that, then maybe incarceration will give you some time to clear your head.”

“What power do you have to remove us from a public street?” a different male voice yelled from the darkness.

“If you haven’t heard, President Brooks has declared martial law across the country. This is our jurisdiction. He’s given us control over what happens on these streets.”

“He’s given you no such control,” the man answered. “You’re the one who’s being controlled. By following his commands, he’s keeping you under his thumb, allowing him to run us all into the ground.”

“I’m only going to ask you all one more time,” the soldier sighed. “Return home, or we will be forced to apprehend you and take you into custody.”

Ian and I glanced at each other and then back over our shoulders. “Please, just leave,” I said quietly. But after several seconds of inactivity, it became apparent that the crowd wouldn’t be backing down any time soon.

“So be it,” the leader raised his gun, motioning for the others to follow suit.

“What are you doing!” I screamed, charging the armed man. But before I could reach him, I felt Ian’s arm grab me around the waist. His grip, however, wasn’t strong enough, and I threw him to the ground, resuming my offensive. Their leader was fast, but not fast enough for me. Before he could defend himself, I had one hand firmly gripped around his wrist, while the other one ripped the gun away from his grasp. He struggled, and I kneed him in the stomach, throwing him to the pavement. Instantly, I found myself surrounded by his men, guns drawn, all pointed at my head. I put my hands up in the air, knowing that I was hopelessly outgunned. That’s when I was knocked to the ground by their leader.

“Don’t touch her,” Ian shouted, rushing into the scuffle. His strength was incredible, more so than my own had been, and I watched in awe as he effortlessly tossed soldiers aside. When he reached me, he grabbed my arm and helped me back up to my feet. “Are you injured?” he asked.

“I’m fine,” I answered him. But that was short-lived. A sharp blow struck me on the side of my ribcage, knocking me sideways into Ian. I righted myself, rubbing my throbbing body.

Approaching us from all directions, the soldiers advanced, their hollow eyes reflecting nothing of their emotional state. “We don’t want to fight you,” I announced to them. “All we want to do is find a resolution to this conflict, one that isn’t so black and white. Surely, you can respect the public’s decision to hold a peaceful demonstration. We are still a democracy, are we not?”

“These individuals are breaking the law, and must be dealt with accordingly,” their leader’s voice broke through the commotion somewhere off to the side of us. “If we allow some of them to get away with acts of insubordination, then others will expect to be able to do the same.”

“Where’s your sense of humanity?” Ian asked. “Can you not see that you’re both being oppressed here? This is a lose-lose situation, with the only person coming out on top being Brooks. These people are not your enemies. If you would actually listen to them, you’d see that you have some common ground. Imprisoning them would solve nothing. It actually could quite possibly do the opposite and lead to even more inane regulations.”

“It’s a shame that you do not stand with us, and an even bigger shame that we must do what we need to in order to maintain a sense of peace and order.” The other soldiers came to life at that moment, advancing toward Ian and I.

“Remember our simulations,” I said to Ian. “Just think of this as nothing more than just another one of Cameron’s programs.”

“One with real deaths,” he muttered. Taking our defensive stances, we readied ourselves for the onslaught. They came at us from all angles, some with guns drawn, most relying on their own brute force.

“We need to take out the ones who have their weapons drawn before the others,” I said.

“Agreed.”

We ran, meeting their charge head-on; two against two hundred, each fighting for different principles. Right before they could slam their fists into our bodies, we jumped up into the air; I made contact with one of the soldiers with the heel of my boot, while Ian grabbed another by the arm, flinging him onto the pavement and popping his helmet away from his head. When our feet hit the ground again, we took off running in the direction of those training their weapons. One by one, shots rang out, causing Ian and I to duck, roll, and jump out of the way. But despite their efforts to deter us, we made it to the first line of armed men, easily disabling both them and their weapons.

“This is going smoother than I thought it would,” I said, feeling hands grasping my shoulders from behind. I quickly twisted my body and threw my assailant to the ground.

“Yeah,” Ian said. “Best of all, there are no glitches. Every punch lands where it should.”

Shots from off in the distance resounded, biting through the air. Ian and I abruptly stopped to see the soldiers from the rooftops firing on the civilian protesters who’d used our distraction as their opportunity to wage an attack of their own. Another shot was fired, and I saw one of the unarmed men fall to the ground, a bullet lodged in his skull.

“Get back,” I yelled to the crowd of protesters. “Don’t risk your lives because of their ignorance.” Before I had a chance to fight back, I was knocked off my feet by two soldiers, each taking shots at my body. I threw my arm out, making contact with the sternum of the one on top of me. He fell back, rolling into the street as two of the civilian men pulled the other soldier from me. I pulled myself up and struck the man with my knee, dropping him instantly. The two men who pulled him from me stared at me, mouths agape. Smiling, I nodded my head towards them in an unspoken thank you.

“We have no choice, you know,” a girl spoke next to me. She couldn’t have been more than eighteen, if she was even that. Petite, with cropped blonde hair, my tall frame dwarfed hers, almost making her look vulnerable in the middle of this virtual war. “Ignorance is like a disease. If you don’t fight it, it will spread until we all succumb to it.”

“Thank you for your bravery,” I told her.

“You and your partner are our only hope for change,” she said. “Please don’t forget that.” She ran over to where members of her group were huddled next to another wounded member, looking back at me as though she wanted to ensure her words were understood.