Broken

Chapter 37

They loaded Seth, C.J., and I into the bed of a truck. The wind slapped me in the face as I kept my eyes on Seth, trying not to freak out. I was shaking, making my handcuffs knock against the side of the truck. One soldier slapped me, knocking me over from the force. I stayed on floor of the truck, having no desire to move. I felt my cheek starting to swell. Seth shifted, angry. I could feel his anger as the soldiers laughed.

"Stop shaking, kid."

I squeezed my eyes shut, willing tears not to fall. A soldier sitting next to me grabbed my arm, pulled me up off the ground, and made me sit up for the rest of the ride. They took us to the White House, which surprised me. I didn't realize we had created such turmoil.

The soldier that had pulled me up dragged me off the truck. I stumbled behind him, trying to keep up. I looked back and saw Seth right behind me. He looked into my eyes and basically read my mind. He knew I was terrified, but I could see that he was scared too.

He's only sixteen, like me. We all have breaking points. I felt mine creeping up on me, but I knew Seth's was in the distance, unreachable. Even with all the trials I had faced, this still scared me.

They forced us through the front doors of the White House and up a giant staircase. We took a sharp right at the top and went to the end of the hall, where a sign said "President's Office." I was about to meet the President. We entered and headed towards a desk with two metal chairs in front of it. They took off my handcuffs and cuffed one of my hands to the chair, forcing me to sit. They did the same thing to Seth. Our duct tape was ripped off our mouths, causing me to wince. The soldiers flanked us, keeping a strict eye on us. The silence killed me as we waited.

A few minutes later the door behind us opened, and a presence walked gracefully over to us. It was the President of the United States, President Dave Richards. My parents voted for him. He has dark hair dusted with white, and was not fat, but not skinny. He always wore brown suits with white shirts.

He sat down on the other side of the desk and pulled out a laptop. He began typing on it for a while, until he finally looked up at us.

"Hello, children, I'm President Richards. You probably know who I am."

He looked directly at Seth. "Your name is...?"

"You know it."

President Richards raised an eyebrow. "You're smart. Yes, I do know both of your names. You're Seth William Anderson. Mr. Anderson, your father, was a good man."

Seth's face darkened. President Richards sighed.

"Shame I had to kill him. You, your mother, and sister escaped though, didn't you? But, they died."

Seth's eyes filled with fire, but he said nothing. I felt terror eat away at my heart. If he mentioned Cassie...

"Your companion is Bethany Tiffany Cornelius. Miss Cornelius-"

"My name is Bethany."

"Yes, of course. Miss Bethany, all of your family members are deceased, yes? Weston, Darla, Andrew, and-"

I interrupted again. "Don't you DARE say her name."

He looked a little shocked, which pleased me a tiny bit. Feathers ruffled, he took a deep breath.

"My dear friend, Governor Dutch, told me about a little predicament. Would you care to explain?"

Neither of us made a move to answer.

"Well, he told me that a warehouse in the CDC blew up and that you two were responsible- wait, weren't there more of you?"

"Our friend is dead, and the others are innocent."

President Richards clasped his hands together and leaned forward.

"Do you realize what you've done? You two are murderers of maybe a thousand people."

I mimicked him. "How about you give us the statistics of how many people you've killed. Or! How long you've had to survive outside your precious walls. Oh, I know! How about all those innocent people whose eyes were taken out? You know, those little children who were ripped from their parents, had their eyes pulled out, and then chained on the floor of a dirty, crappy warehouse."

Mr. President's face darkened. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"I think I do. I happen to be one of those people who do have brown eyes. Yes, I know all about it. How could you?"

"We're getting off point. You two have murdered all those people. That's a serious offense."

Seth spoke. "They asked us to kill them."

"You helped them kill themselves, good job! You just killed a thousand more because now the soldiers that were protected by their eyes are going to most likely die."

"You're fine with torturing children, but concerned about the wellbeing of MILITARY men," I said angrily.

"Yes, I am, because those men are saving lives."

I couldn't even speak. This guy was insane! How could he think that? HOW?

"Now, to discuss your punishment..."

Seth and I looked at each other. Seth made a quick glance down at his chair then back up. I knew his plan, which was a good one. After all, we both knew we would either die or be forced to do things we didn't want anyone to ever do. So, we were going to fight until we escaped or they killed us.

We both looked back at President Richards. He was scrolling down a document on his laptop, reading it aloud. We weren't listening. I brought up my right leg and kicked out, hitting his laptop. It flew into his face. Seth jumped up, picked up his chair, and knocked his guard in the face. I felt my guard grab me, but his grip immediately slackened as Seth nailed him in the face with his chair. Mr. President was stunned as I stood and grabbed my chair too. I went over to the door and wedged it in the door handles, so no one could get in without a struggle. Seth found the keys to our handcuffs and unlocked himself.

I watched the president closely as he slid his hand slowly under his desk. He was going for a gun.

"Look out!" I yelled.

Seth whipped his head around and saw the president pointing a gun at his face. I yelled again and tried to yank my handcuff off. I reached desperately in my pocket for the small chance that there was a bobby pin in it. There wasn't. I looked around for something I could throw.

"Oh Seth, you're so naïve. You don't realize that I will always have control. Unfortunately, neither of you are going to see my full potiental."

I saw a vase. I stretched out and tried to grab it. President Richards saw me. He pointed the gun at me and shot.

It was like a slow motion scene in a movie. I could see the bullet shooting towards me. I heard Seth yell and I saw the horror on his face. I felt my hand brush the vase and knock over. I felt the bullet ripped through my side and stop in my flesh. I didn't even cry. My mouth opened slightly as my eyes widened. I froze for a split second before dropping to the ground. The pain was searing. My whole side felt like it was on fire. My uncuffed hand touched my side and felt the blood pumping out of the bullet hole.

Everything was ringing and my vision became blurry. I heard a scream, a gunshot, and people banging on something. I blinked, tears in my eyes. I felt myself being pushed to the side as the door burst open. I saw Seth kneeling next to me. He held my head in his arms. I looked deep into his eyes as I started to lose consciousness. I thought I had only blinked, but my eyes didn't open back up. They stayed shut, and I fell unconscious.