I take my tomahawk and slash it across the Union soldiers face. It leaves a scar as he yells painfully covering his face with his hands giving me time to kick up into his stomach then ribcage. His eyes pop open at the feeling, and for good measure I punch him across the head. He falls limply to the ground but is still breathing, only slightly.
I feel a huge arm wrap around my neck holding me in a head lock. I scratch at the arm panicking. I kick and struggle under the grip, but my vision becomes blurry and it feels like my lungs are collapsing. All the sudden the man releases me and I fall to the ground gasping for air. I turn around to the man lying on the ground, his head bleeding. Someone shot him.
“Kimberley,” I turn my head to James calling to me from behind the couch. “Get up! You’re not dead yet!” That’s James. Always there to reassure us. I see his gun pointed in my direction. He killed the union. Why, doesn’t he want me dead?
I hear a noise and it comes from the Unions mouth. I get on the ground and crawl over to him a knife in my hand. I’m about to strike when I hear him laughing. I stop and lean my head down towards him. Blood fills his mouth and a pool begins to form under his head.
“What’s so funny?!” I snarl. “You’re about to die.”
“You don’t know what’s coming.” The soldier says faintly but still getting the words out of his mouth, splattering some blood on the floor. “All you bastards have no idea of what is going on right now.”
“What I’m wondering is why you’re attacking us when we’re not the greatest threat.” I snap. It’s true the US military is always alert. Why are they after just the Outcast tribes?
“Because you’re just the test. If we can get what we want here then we will be able to get head commander for the US army . . . and then . . . it will be synch to assassinate the president. The Union will just be one step closer to victory.” And like that I stab him in the head. I couldn’t hear any more. I turn away as I do it. I hate watching the people who shutter and gurgle as I take their life.
So we are like their training dummies. We are their training opponents. It’s just they said they were after the Commander. Head in command. Then it hits me. The leader of the facility here, not Commander but Sargent, Captain. “Carson!” I scream. I head down to the hall and out of the mass of chaos and up a flight of stairs to Carson’s quarters. She isn’t here.
I growl and slam the door shut. Where is she? But I already know the question. She’s fighting. I shake my head in frustration. Maybe they don’t know who she is. But of course they do, Unions have spies all over the US. They wouldn’t have come here unless they were sure they knew who the leader was.
Where is Carson? I stop to think quickly. I run back into the room trying to dodge the fights going on between the soldiers and Outcasts. Then I run into one and feel the soldier pin my arms to my sides. “Where do you think you’re going sweet heart?”
I grin, “Don’t know yet, but I know after I’m done with you the only place you’ll be going is hell. If you let me go and at least both off us will live.”
“I’ll take my chances.” He says squeezing my tighter. I squirm a bit under his grip. But know I’m the only one getting out of this. “Suit yourself.” I gasp under the grip. Then pull my legs up and push as hard as I can against the man’s chest. He releases me and I get my balance as I meet the floor again. I snap my head up seeing the Union take out his gun.
“Are you sure you’ll be the one you will live?” He says pointing the gun at me.
I huff but do a shoulder roll over to a table and get behind it. Luckily Carson suggested to reinforce the furniture to be all bullet proof.
I get behind it but I wasn’t quick enough and the bullet hits my calf. I hiss in pain. “Damn it!”
The man keeps shooting. I hear each bullet as I reload my own gun. When there’s a pause I come out from behind my spot and shoot three times at the soldier. He falls back with three bullet holes in his chest. None hit his heart. I limp over to him, my leg screaming in pain. I cough out blood as I speak “Yes,” I say pointing the gun at his head. “I think I will be the one who lives.” I lick my lips tasting the salty substance in my mouth.
The man’s face turns from anger to fear in one split second as I pull the trigger entering the bullet in his forehead and the blood splattering on the floor. The man jars then lies still. I react when a bullet passes by my head. I fall to the ground pretending I’m dead and wait for another bullet to wiz by me. Instead I see a Union walk over to me kicking my head once. “Pathetic.” He laughs. That’s when I spin jabbing my foot up into his groin.
I pull back and do it again. The surprise is so much the Union covers it with his hands which gives me time to get up and punch the guys straight across the face. Then I take my gun, cock it and shoot both his shoulders, and his calves. He yells in severe pain but nobody hears him. I grab the gun from his hand and cock it. Then look down at him. “You little bitch!” He snaps at me his mouth filling with blood and sweat.
“Right,” I say, “Because I’m the one that lost to a fourteen year old girl.”
Suddenly someone’s voice rises up from the crowd. “Unions fall back!” The voice was mans and like that every Union soldier stops what they’re doing and head for the exit.
“Outcasts hold your fire.” I here James say over the yells of protest.
All the Unions are out when the last is standing in the door. “We’ve got your Leader here, onto the next training portion.” The man says. He is holding someone in a head lock but the person was limp. I almost faint at the person he’s holding. I barley recognized him, because I expected to see Carson in the man’s arms, but it’s not. It’s Logan.
Everyone holds up their guns to fire at the Commander. But he just grins. “Please, you bastards. If you kill me that means you shall also kill your beloved Sargent.”
It hits me. “They got the wrong person.” I whisper to myself. His eyes look around us then fall on me. I show no fear glaring back at him. “Once we’re done with all you filthy pieces of dirt then we shall drop our captures off at the Security lab of Interrogations then they will be transported to another facility where no one can escape. Then we shall make our way up to the US military, soon killing your leader!” If he’s talking about the president of the United States, good luck. I think to myself, but half was directed towards the US. Because the Unions can probably pull it off.
The Union General smiles takes a smoke gun and sprays it in the room. When people try to go after him, it is no use. The smoke is too thick and nobody can see. The Unions are long gone, and so is Logan. I try to maneuver through the substance when I feel sick and tired. I breathe in the smoke and fall to my knees, and blackness surrounds me.
My mind doesn’t seem to think or work for that matter. All I can see is black. I startle awake in a bright white room. I blink a couple times getting my eyes used to the light. I turn to see someone sitting next to my bed side. I squint my eyes then open them again. “Ivan?” I say.
“Hey Kimberley, you’re up. About time.” He mumbles the last part to himself. I narrow my eyes and sit up. Once I do I feel my head throb.
“Ow,” I complain taking my hand and rubbing my temple. “What happened?”
“That depends, how much do you remember.” He asks leaning towards me.
“Up until the part I breathed in the smoke and passed out?”
“Oh, so remember the whole fight.” He says like it’s reassuring he wouldn’t have to explain anything to me. “And then Logan getting captured.”
That snaps me back into reality. I throw the sheets off me and try to stand. But as soon as I put my left leg on the ground I crumble. It’s the one that got shot. “Damn.” I say. Ivan puts my arm around his shoulders and helps me back up.
“Sorry should have told you that.” He says. “Your leg is healing fine but it will hurt for a couple more days before the pain finally subdues.”
“That’s great.” I say sarcastically. “Can I walk?”
“That’s up to you. Danni and another woman treated you. Danni said you should be able to if you can handle it.”
“That’s all I need to hear.” I say limping to the door. I’m wearing a white T-shirt and white sweatpants. “Are you coming?” I say to Ivan turning around.
“Where are you going?” He asks. “We told Jama you should stay here for the night but you’ll be back in the morning. So don’t worry.”
I laugh at that comment. “Jama is not my biggest problem right now.” I confess. “I’m going to see where Carson is. She must be trying to start a plan to get Logan back.”
I don’t wait for a response as I open the door and walk out in the hall of the downstairs hospital.
“Kimberley,” I hear Ivan call me. “Kim wait.” I stop and turn my head watching him run up to catch me. His skinny legs make him so he can run faster than most of us. I wait till he’s next to me.
“I know where they are. Follow me.” I let him take the lead and follow him down the hall, around a corner, down another hall and to the elevator. Once it opens we step inside. Ivan pushes the first floor button and the elevator shoots up.
“How’s Ronnie and Saige?” I ask concerned if they made it out alive.
“You mean dumb and dumber.” Ivan says as the doors slide open. He walks out and I follow next to him. I smile a little at his comment. “Yeah, they’re both fine. Survived some injuries though. Saige has some bones broken in her wrist. She will be fine though in a couple days thankfully. Ronnie had a lot of burns and scratches. She is recovering from a bruise she got from jabbing her knee up into a man’s chest. She killed him, but turns out his ribs her harder than she expected. Her knee was bruised pretty badly, but not as bad she can’t walk on it. She went to Jama’s to ice it.”
“How long was I out for?” I ask curiously because when I was down there it seems nobody else seemed to be down there.
“You were one of the last ones to wake up. Some people are still sleeping, however.” He turns laughing an amusement laugh. “You must’ve been exhausted.”
I shrug not seeing the humor in his thought. “I am. Trying to juggle training from Jama and here is not an easy task.” We turn the hall and stop at a door. The meeting room.
“Who’s in there?” I ask.
“For all I know it’s just Carson and James.” He says. I feel my stomach turn. But I take a deep breath and get my nerves out. I knock on the door.
“What do you want?” I hear a voice ask. I can tell by the attitude in the voice that James and Carson have been debating about something. James’s voice was commanding and loud. I sigh once before opening the door seeing Carson, James, a man named Lieutenant Cain, another man named Rayford, and another men named Pacer. They are all wearing uniforms sitting around a large wooden table. Carson was on thee end since she is the leader of the Tribe here. She sighs, “I see your up.” Just like Logan she is one of the few adults I can trust or feel comfortable around.
“I was just really tired.” I say smiling softly at her. She nods in understanding, twiddling her thumbs together on the table. Ivan comes up next to me. I feel a surge of relief feeling his presence so I have someone I know next to me.
“What do you want?” James demands. Pushing his chair back in annoyance at me.
I flinch a little but swallow hard. “I just came in wondering what the plan is with Logan.”
They all stare at me like I’m speaking Greek. “What do you mean?” It was Lieutenant Chris who spoke up.
“What are we going to do to get him back?” I look around at the sullen faces on the table. “We are going to find a way to save him right?”
“Kimberley,” Carson’s voice is like the one she uses when a soldier needs to be told something bad. I’ve heard that tone many times before. I take a step forward not knowing what else to do, feeling my body become panicked. Carson sighs before she speaks again. “There are many more problems right now then getting Logan back. We can’t save every soldier that is captured or wounded. The real war must go on, do you understand?”
I am appalled. “What!” Suddenly without warning my anger and fear explodes as one. “Carson, he’s your head commander, more important he’s your brother! And you’re going to let him suffer under the hands of the enemy! He’s still alive, we should send out a rescue team or something!”
“Kimberley, we have lost a lot of men today. More than I expected.” Carson stands up. “We weren’t ready for this attack, and we needed to be for the next one. We now must train harder and better. We can’t worry about the captured or wounded at the moment. We must work on making our own soldiers stronger for a next attack.”
“Which may not happen for a long time!” I snap as I feel tears start to fill my eyes in fear. “We can save Logan and whoever else was captured.”
“Kimberley listen-”
“No you listen.” I snap at her feeling the tears start to form in my eyes and my anger showing in my words. “You are so worried about what might happen! Your brother, the head commander is out there fighting for his life. He saved your life! He saved you because he pretended to be you! The least you could do is save him!”
“Kimberley, please stop.” She holds up a hand lowering her head. I know she’s ashamed. I can see her eyes become shiny with water. I let my tears run down my face. It becomes hot with anger as she speaks again, “Logan wouldn’t want us to put everything on hold for him. If I know my brother he would want us to go on with the war.”
“And if I know you Carson, then you would ignore that and do what you know is right!”
“Well, maybe this time I will listen to him!” She snaps at me. I jump back trying to gather everything I’m hearing, but it all registers in my brain somehow. Logan is going to die. “Do you have any idea of where they might have taken him?” I say looking off to the side, not wanting to look at any of their faces.
Carson sighs and turns to Lieutenant Pacer. Pacer looks up at Carson and sighs standing. He folds his hands behind his back and I can tell he’s looking at me because then he says, “I can’t necessarily tell you where he is unless you look at me now can I?” Well, you can but it would be rude, I think to myself before sighing deeply and looking up at Pacer. “I was captured once when I was a young child. A rescue mission wasn’t sent out for me at the military base. But I remember the Unions took me to a place on the ocean. I remember tasting the salt water in the air and the crowded truck I drove in to get to the place.
“There Union soldiers filed us into cells. There foul smelling and had terrible conditions,” He pauses, closing his eyes at the memory. I don’t know if I should tell him to stop or continue. So I keep quiet. He eventually starts again. “They-they have facilities upstairs, with doctors, and scientists who do experiments and test things on you like store products or gases.” I feel my heart leap into my throat. Pacer hunches over the table putting both his hands down to support his weight. “I finally escaped with some men after they formed a plan to get us out. But I was so weak and tired I couldn’t tell you where it was. But the name has never left me.”
I pause for a moment before asking my question. “What’s the name of it?”
Pacer looks up at me and stands straight again, putting his hands behind his back. “The CM Experiments Facility.”
“So, there’s probably hundreds of prisoners locked up in there,” I say folding my arms across my chest, “and dozens of Unions killing them. And we can find where their located, but we’re not doing anything to help them!”
“The Government believes if we try then we shall be captured as well.” Pacer states. “That’s why the military never came to get us.”
“Was this before the war even started?” I ask curious. Pacer looks at me and sighs nodding his head. He says, “Yes, the Unions were doing this before they even started with their own criminals. Until the war started. Now they have prisoners.”
“And one of them in Logan.” I snap. “And you Morons won’t do anything for him, or those people who risked their lives to save you!” I point my finger around at the people across the room.
Then I shake my head in disagreement before I storm out of there room like a little kid trying to run away from everything. Maybe that’s what I’m trying to do. Runaway from here. I don’t want to be here any longer. Logan will die, he’s gone. I will never see him again.
I feel a hand touch my shoulder and turn my head wiping a tear away from my eyes seeing Ivan. He has the same look of sadness on his face. “They’re stupid Kimberley. They just don’t understand. We all need Logan here with us. He can’t die.”
I wipe a tear way then look up staring straight, my judgment getting the best of me as I cringe my eyebrows together. “He won’t.” I walk to the elevator pushing the second floor button. Ivan quickly follows me.
“What do you mean he won’t?” He asks confused.
I clutch my hand into a fist. “I’m going after him. I’m the only who will.”
“What?” Ivan says surprised. “You?” We step out of the elevator and I walk down to his room. I open the door without even knocking. I find Blake and Jason both watching TV icing their injuries. Both heads turn to look at us. Saige must be still down in the hospital room.
“Kimberley you can’t go off looking for Logan by yourself! It’s suicide!”
“Yeah, well I’m committing suicide by not going.” I say walking in the room past Blake and Jason and plop down on the couch.
“Whoa what happened?” It is Jason who spoke up. I turn my head seeing him slowly get off the bed and walking towards us slowly on his sore legs. Blake follows his motions.
“Carson is not going to do anything to help Logan. She’s going to let her brother die in the hands of the enemy!” I say tears falling from my eyes.
“Well, I can see her point, but still.” Jason says. I’m almost to strangle him when he finishes. “She’s not going to do anything?”
“No,” I cry flopping on the couch. “He’s going to die, unless I do something.”
“Whoa what!” Blake says making me move my feet so he could sit down. “What do you mean you?”
“I can get him back. He saved my life now it’s time for me to return the favor after all these years.”
“Kimberley, that’s suicide!” Blake comments.
“That’s what I just said!” Ivan objects. “You can’t go by yourself. It’s dangerous.”
“If I know Ronnie, then she will come with me.” I say reassuring them. “She and I will go looking for Logan.”
“So, you’re just going to put yourself and your sister in harm’s way.” Jason says turning his body to me as he sits in a chair.
“You don’t think Ronnie and I could do it? Have you seen us train together?” Of course not. They’ve only see a few times when Ronnie and I have trained at the Lodge together. Mostly we did teem training at Jama’s. My cousins have never really seen Ronnie and I work together. They’ve never seen us really in action.
“It’s not that,” Blake says leaning forward resting his elbows on his knees, “It’s just the fight today took a lot out of us. And they weren’t even the best soldiers. They were only training. There’ll be more soldiers, better, stronger, faster. Kim, you and Ronnie can’t take on all of them.”
“Well, we have to try. Besides,” I gulp down a sob before I speak again, “If Ronnie and I both die and so does Logan, at least we’ll see him again.”
“What about us?” Ivan asks. I look at him then to Blake, then Jason. I sigh sadly, “I know you guys can get along without us if we don’t make it. Heck you did it for the first none years.” I say. But things are different now. I don’t know how long I can go without seeing them. Unless, “Or . . . or do you want to come with me?” The thought just split from my mind. The room was filled with silence, aside from the TV still on.
“What?” Blake says in shock.