I flinch as I sit on the couch at Jama’s house picking up my leg. The bruise covers my whole right knee. It wasn’t just from the guy I kneed in the chest but also a few more people I kneed and I was tackled by a man and landed on the knee. I put a pillow behind my back, leaning against it, letting out a sigh.
Nora, the maid, comes over with an ice pack and a hand towel. She lays the towel across my knee then gently lays the ice pack on it. “That should help with the swelling.” She says standing up straight. “Keep it on for about ten minutes then take it off for about two then put it back on. Continue that cycle, the swelling should go down and the pain will soon settle.”
“Thank you, Nora.” I say. She smiles kindly and walks away. I grab the remote and turn on the TV. I’m wearing black leggings and a Michigan, short sleeved top. I have my hair pulled back in a messy bun to keep it out of my face.
As I watch a movie my mind keeps wandering to Kimberley and Saige. Are they okay, are they alive? If only Saige and I didn’t go in the fight this may never have happened. I start to get clogged up but breathe deeply trying to hold back my tears of guilt. Then my cell phone rings.
I take it and check the ID. It’s Kimberley. I click accept and put the phone to my ear. “Kimberley!” I gasp frantically wanting to hear her voice. “Kimberley is that you?”
“No, it’s someone who has stolen Kimberley’s phone, and decides to call you, what do you think?” I laugh at her sarcasm. I am so glad to hear her voice. She’s alive.
“Oh thank God Kimberley, your alive.”
“What, think your sister can’t take care of herself?”
“No, I know you can take care of yourself but you were out for a long time.” I say. “So how are you, where are you.”
“She’s with us.” I hear another voice in the background. Blake’s. “She’ll be staying the night with us and she’ll then go to Jama’s in the morning, so don’t worry.”
“I’m not worrying. I was just wondering what happened to her. Am I on speaker?”
“Yeah.” This time I recognize Ivan’s voice in the speaker. “We need to talk to you about something.”
“Okay.” His voice isn’t as happy or sarcastic as the other two. He seems more down low, getting this over with.
There is a long pause before a sigh comes through. “You know Logan was captured right?” Kimberley’s voice says. I totally forgot about that but then a knot in my stomach grows. Logan is gone.
“Yeah, why?” I ask my voice cracking.
“Well, Carson isn’t going to do anything to get him back. She just wants to leave him.”
“What!” I scream almost jumping up but remembering the ice pack on my leg and steady myself. “What do you mean? She’s just going to leave him to die? But he’s her brother!”
“We know, we were all shaken up about it.” Kimberley says. Then there’s a pause. “Most of us any way.”
“Hey, we are so pissed that Carson isn’t going to do anything!” Blake’s voice snaps. “Don’t act like we aren’t.”
“Sorry,” Kimberley says angrily. “Anyway. I’ve decided on one thing but I need you to agree with me.”
I think for a moment of what she might be talking about but nothing comes to mind. “What?” I ask giving up.
“I’m going after Logan. And it would be a lot easier if you came with me.” My heart stops. My mind is whirling in all different directions. Trying to find Logan, by ourselves, not even wondering what lurks out in the world?
“Ronnie?” Someone calls into the phone. The voice belongs to Jason. He has a deeper voice than the rest. “You still there.”
“Sorry,” I say coming back to reality. “Yeah, what? Kimberley, that’s flat out idiotic. Not to mention down, right dangerous. What made you think of that?”
I don’t hear anything for a long moment. “Kimberley?” I say
“Logan saved our lives once, maybe it’s time to return the favor. We can’t just allow him to suffer like that.”
“But Kimberley, aren’t you afraid you will die. You could never come back.”
“Well,” she sighs, “then my duty on this Earth is over. If I die out there then I die. But if my heart is still beating then I’m still living. So I’m going, how about you?”
I sigh for a minute taking the phone away from my ear. I look around at the living room. If I leave I could never come back. Never see Jama again, or Danni, or this house, or the Lodge. I will soon fade away. But Logan is worth it. He is my family. I put the phone back up to my ear sigh once as I make my final decision. “I’m going with you. I will help you bring Logan back.”
I hear her sigh in relief and press the speaker button on again. “Told you she would come with me.” Kimberley says. I can tell she’s smiling, she has that I knew it voice.
“Are you sure Ronnie?” It is Jason who speaks. “You know you could never come back-”
“I ran it over in my head, Jason, don’t give me the rules over again. Logan is worth everything. What if you were taken by Unions? Wouldn’t you want someone coming after you? Wouldn’t you be scared and confused? That’s what Logan is thinking right now. He’s alone and frightened. We need to go after him.”
Jason sighs. I don’t hear anything for a minute again. Then I hear a sigh, coming from Jason. “Alright, we’re in. Ivan you need to stay here-”
“Are you crazy, if you’re going we’re all going? You’ve got to be and idiot if you’re leaving me here. Saige will agree, don’t try pulling a fast one on us Jason. We are going.” Ivan raises his voice at the end stating they’re coming with us. I grin at his determination in his voice. “Okay, when do we leave?” Blake says clapping his hands together.
“Kimberley?” I say through the phone. “Your call.”
“Monday morning, be at Jama’s house around two o’clock, a.m.”
“Wait, what!” Blake interrupts. “Two o’clock? In the morning?”
“That’s what A.M. means Blake.” Kimberley says.
“Why so early?” Ivan asks confused. Even I’m startled at the time and meeting place. But when I think about it, I come to a realization. “You’re not going to tell Jama are you?”
“He doesn’t need to know. Besides even if we do ask him he will say no and then I’ll have to sneak out anyways. This way I can skip a beat down of words and get on with my life. And of course, Jama wakes up at the crack of dawn so we need to be out before hand.”
“Okay, and here’s another thing. How about transportation? You don’t expect us to go by foot right?” Blake says to Kimberley. I thought that as well and I hope Kimberley has a better idea than having Jason drive us whole way.
“Well, we can’t really travel by foot and the best way to get to Canada is I believe through North Dakota. We could borrow one of the trucks in the garage, and Jason could driver us part of the way. But we would also have to travel sometimes by bus and let’s just say, hotwiring other vehicles.”
“So what you’re saying is the transportation is consisting of Jason, buses, and Jason hotwiring cars.” I say through the phone.
“I’m open for other suggestions here!” I hear her raise her voice. “That’s the best I got. Besides taking the horses.”
“That’s just as bad as going on foot.” Blake says. “I like the first idea better.”
“Oh sure, ‘hey stranger can we y’know borrow your car and have it never be returned to you?’” Ivan says sarcastically. “Yeah great call.”
“Please, we wouldn’t be asking the people for anything.” Kimberley says. “We’d be borrowing without asking.”
“Because that sounds so much better.” Ivan shoots back.
“Again, open for ideas!” Kimberley snaps back. I roll my eyes knowing they can’t see me.
“Let’s just take one of the trucks, and go from there.” Jason sighs. “I don’t mind driving, and Blake already has his permit. He can drive some ways if he wants.”
“So it’s a deal. We’ll meet Jama’s then we can rush to the garage and take one of the trucks.” There is another pause of silence. Then Jason takes a long sigh before saying, “Two o’clock at Jama’s right?”
“Monday morning. We need to pack this weekend. Make sure to pack an extra change of clothes, water, weapons, and maybe some food if you want. Haven’t figured that part out yet.”
Suddenly I hear Jama’s footsteps echo in the living room. “Got to go guys’ bye.” I don’t wait for a response hanging up my phone and putting back on the couch side table. Jama walks into the room. I look up at him. He stares back at me. He knows we’re up to something. I think to myself. I feel a clot in my throat wondering what to say when he asks me.
“Has it been ten minutes before you put that ice pack on? You should probably take it off.” Jama says before leaving the room again. My body melts with relief. “Kimberley,” I say to myself, “you are going to get us in so much trouble.”
Saturday and Sunday went by in a flash. Saige got better Blake texted me and she decided she will come with us. Kimberley came back to Jama’s on Saturday morning. We trained for the whole day the packed some stuff for the long journey. I layer my belt with two revolvers, a whip and every single knife you can think of. Kimberley has me take arm and leg belts. The arm belts goes around your top part of the arm holding more weapons, mostly knives. I lay out a sheathe of arrows and a bow. Then I take a sword and four tomahawks. Kimberley snags a few thousand dollars from Jama’s secret stash and gives me bullets for my gun. She bring all the same stuff but packs some more in her backpack.
I sigh zipping up my pack and slinging it over my back. I sit there kneeling taking in everything around me. I could never come back. I may never see this place again, but if I die out there at least I wouldn’t have to come back to a screaming Jama or angry Carson. I check my radio. 22:00 hours. I sigh.
Suddenly someone pokes their head in. I flinch, scared it will be Jama but it is only Kimberley. “Hey, ready?” She whispers.
“Yeah, two hours right?”
“Yep, hey I want to show you something.” She gestures for me to follow her. I don’t disobey pushing myself of the ground. My backpack is so heavy I pull it up a little more making it more comfortable on my back.
Then I see Kimberley’s backpack and her extra sack. “Geese, what are you taking?” I ask surprised at the size of the sack.
“Food.” She snaps back at me. “You want to starve? Now come on brat.”
I don’t ask her any more questions. Instead I follow her downstairs. Then around the corner to a door behind the stairs. She looks around making sure nobody is following us. She slowly opens the door to stairs. I’ve never been down here before.
The stairs keep twisting until finally we reach the bottom. It is pitch black. I can’t see anything until Kimberley feels the wall and switches on a light. The room is instantly lit with bright light on the ceiling. My eyes strain for a moment then get used to the bright room.
I gasp at what I see. Pictures of people litter the walls with armor, robes, and weapons. A red carpet is down the middle leading to a wall in the back. “Whoa,” I say shocked. “How’d you know about this?”
“Well one day I ventured down here not knowing what it was. Then, of course, Jama followed me down. He seems to always know where we are. Anyway he told me these are years past assassins who died. And here in the back . . .” She walks down the wide red carpet to the very back of the room. I stare at the pictures as I follow her.
Once we reach the back I see a long table out with notes, books, laptops, and pictures of Unions. Some have red X’s on them. “Who are they?” I ask confused.
“The Unions best forces. If we take all these people out Jama has concluded we will win the war, but that’s easier said than done.” She comments. “Anyway that isn’t what I wanted to show you.” She walks over to a steel chest. She presses a button and a keypad comes out. ‘Password please’ a monitor says. Kimberley types in the code. Assassin. The keypad disappears and the chest unlocks opening.
“Jama doesn’t know I know about this.” She says leaning into the chest taking something out. She turns around and I see it’s a whole outfit. Her size. It has a long sleeved under armor, black shirt. The pants were a light fabric. But knowing Jama, there were probably warm. The gloves that came with the uniform were long, warm, combat gloves. Each had a slot for two knives underneath. The fingers were cut off making it easier to use weapons. The coat over top of it is black and laced up a tiny bit at the neck. It goes down in the back and has a hood. The coat itself is heavier but light enough to fight in. Its edges are also outlined in a bright red then that was outlined with white.
The boots look so comfortable that go with it. They are brown and furry inside making sure she wouldn’t get cold. Slits are made on the sides for knives. Kimberley smiles running her hands down the entire outfit. “And here’s one for you.” She hands me hers while she reaches in and grabs another outfit. This one smaller than the black one. It has a black under armor shirt but with a brown coat lined with blue and white lines. The boots are black and the pants are red. It is pretty much the same outfit but with different colors.
“Yeah, found these one day when Jama left the code down here on the chest.” She smiles giving me mine and talking hers back. “I think he made mine black to make me thinner.” she says holding her stomach.”
I slap her hard in a playful manner. “You’re not fat, stop saying that!” She grins at me.
“So should we put them on?” She asks moving her eyebrows up and down. I stare at her. “Are they finished?”
“I don’t know, but they’ll keep us warm.” Like that she opens a door on the side of the room. She’s in there for a long time before she finally comes out in the black outfit. She holds out her hands spinning showing me the entire outfit. “Well, what do you think?”
My mouth drops in astonishment. “My turn!” I push her away and enter the room which was a bathroom. I strip off my clothes I had on and throw them in my backpack for extras. I throw on the uniform as fast as I can. Then step out doing the same gestures Kimberley does. She stands examining me. She grins and kisses the tips of her fingers and lets them spread apart like a fashion designer. “Magnificent!” She says laughing at her accent.
“It fits perfectly.” I exclaim.
“And that’s not all!” Kimberley walks back over to the chest pulling out two scarves to tie together the outfits. Hers is red and mine is blue. “Awesome!” I say. I wrap the scarf around my neck. Now the outfit is complete.
Kimberley puts knives in her boots and gloves. She wraps her belt around her waist and her thigh belts around her legs and her arm ones around her arms. She slings arrows around her back and the matching bow. On her belt she carries a pouch. “Why do you have that?” I ask.
“Important medicine. Danni slipped me some as I left on Saturday. She wanted to go too but I told her to stay here. She can stall Carson for a little while.” Kimberley checks her phone. 24:14 hundred hours. Her smile of excitement changes from concern. She looks up at me putting her phone back. “What’s wrong?” I ask her.
“What if I just lead everyone to their deaths? What if this whole journey backfires with us all dying?”
I smile putting a hand on her shoulder. “Then at least we’ll all be together.” She grins at that comment as she closes the chest and we both head upstairs.
A/N: Okay, finally a new part! I was deciding on wether to post this one or not becasue I have to practically rewrite a quarter of the story becasue it didn't make sense. Ugh! So here's the next part. I don't know when I'll be posting again, but I may update Criminal as well. I would love to hear you comments! Hope you enjoy the story so far! :)