Revolution (44 page)
I grinned, but Miguel with his big mouth interrupted. Again.
"All well and good. Let's skip the details on that one, love." We both turned and glared at him at the same time. "Glower all you want," he taunted, "as long as you're walking while you're doing it."
"Oh, Miguel," I goaded and let Merrick's grip on my hand lead me. "You've lost your romantic touch."
His gaze swung to Rylee. "I highly doubt that, love."
She just looked at us and then back to the destination. And then she smiled. My eyes could have bugged right out of my head.
"Miguel's rig
ht, you know," Billings spouted.
"You two are sickening sweet."
"That's not an insult, Billings."
He shrugged and smiled. "I didn't say it was."
Merrick led the way to the
back door we'd went through last time. The knob opened easily, still broken. "I wonder if any
one
has been here at all," he mused and pulled me up the stairs.
Once inside, we went straight to the control room. Billings got to working on how to program a broadcast, and Merrick and I found where the old school tapes went. We plugged it all in and when the little wheels started turning, I sighed in relief. Billings said he'd found a way to program the timer. The tape would play at ten the next morning over every radio and TV station in the state.
We had to hope that Cain and Daniel had made it to the next station.
A noise at the door start
l
ed us all. Merrick pulled me behind him as Miguel jumped toward the noise. He backed up, hands raised, as Chesser
and a few others came in with guns in their hands.
But that wasn't the bad part. The worst part were
the real Enforcers and a Lighter
behind them with guns in their hands, too. This wasn't a stick up by Chesser.
This was an ambush by the enemy.
A Long and Dusty Road
Chapter 27
Cain
"I
just can't believe you've been on this planet for a year plus some and not heard of Johnny Cash before."
My point was valid. Daniel didn’t think so, as he groaned again and pretended not to hear me, but it was just weird.
"Your human ideals, such as music, are wasted on my kind. There's no-"
"Don't knock it 'til you try it." I got an ide
a.
I searched the glove-box and sure enough, there was an old cassette tape in there. I pulled it out and almost peed myself. "H
oly crap, there's a Beastie Boys
tape in here!"
I popped it into the
player and when I heard,
'Now here's a little story I got to tell about three bad brothers you know so well!'
I said, "Yeah! Paul Revere!"
"Paul Revere was an American Silversmith, am I right?"
Daniel pondered.
I laughed.
"
He was. He was also a Beastie Boys song."
He wrinkled his nose. "This is music?"
"Some of it. You don't like it?"
"It's painful to listen to."
I pointed out his window. "Stop the car and get out."
"I'm assuming you're using your usual wit and sarcasm, so I won't be pulling over."
"If we had radio signals we could listen to that, instead of just sitting here and pretending things are
n't
awkward because we hate each other."
"I don't hate you," he said and thought. "I just dislike immensely."
I felt the headrest hit the back of my head as I laughed. "Dude, you don't hold the punche
s
, do you? Well, the feeling is mutual, Lighter boy."
He shook his head a little, but kept driving. I wanted to ask him about Lillian. I wanted to know how she was doing. I hoped she wasn’t worried about me. But worse, I hoped she wasn't worried about
him
. No, I refused to br
ing Lillian up to him again. He was probably thinking about her alread
y anyway. That thought had me it
ching to punch him.
He said he'd kissed her, but she hadn't kissed him back. I know it. She wouldn't do that to me.
I pushed all that aside and thought about the task at hand. The mission of the day. The Gremlin was a horrible excuse
f
or a war vehicle, but it was all we had. I chuckled. We looked so pitiful driving down the road with no windshield. Two guys who obviously had no love for each other.
The last city sign pulled my attention to the road. The map we snagged from the other station showed we were close. I really hoped this worked and I wasn't wasting all this time with Daniel when I could be home instead.
He had been very tight-lipped about how he knew what we were doing or where we were going and all the details. He seemed confident though. I suspected that maybe Marissa h
ad had a vision. Maybe that wa
s why he was being so quiet about the details. Maybe we were going to die. It had to be done, but we weren't going to make it. Or
maybe I wasn't. Was that why
he was letting all my cracks on him
go? Because I was going to die and he was giving me a final kindness before taking my girl from me after death?
I groaned and covered my eyes with my palms.
My stomach growled, too.
"There's food in the backpack in the backseat, remember?" Daniel reminded me.
I yanked the bag forward and glared at him as I looked at what he brought. "Beans? Really?"
"It was the only thing to take and be undetected."
"Ah, so no one knew you left," I
guessed. "Well, it makes more sense now."
"We're here," he said and pointed in the sky to the radio tower. "Eat your beans fast."
I opened the can with my pocketknife and scooped my fingers inside. I chewed and spoke at the same time. "You're not having anything?"
"I won't need anything," he said cryptically. "You know," he started and took a while before he spoke again to finish, "we weren't always this way."
"What way?"
"The Lighters. We used to be a normal, functioning society. But some of us got greedy and wanted more. Earth has always been their target and we've come
here many times, but always faile
d u
ntil now. This is as close as they've ever gotten to
taking you over. They're cocky and
they're ill equipped to handle a planet of this magnitude and complexity. They won't survive, even if they did push humans to extinction." He looked over at me. "If we can pull this off, and you can fight the war that needs to be fought, you'll have your planet back. Just don't give up, or all of this," he points at us, "was for nothing. Your humans will need you to help lead and guide them."
I rubbed my thumb over my bottom lip. "I've got no plans to lay down and die. You know something I don’t?"
"No," he said too quickly.
"Uhuh. Fine. You don't have to worry about us, slick."
"What is with you and the nicknames?" he growled.
"
It's a military thing, I guess. No, scratch that, it's a human thing."
He chuckled humorlessly. "Which I'm not a part of. You know," he said and gave me a death glare, "if I didn't have something to do here and it wouldn't upset Lillian so much, I'll dump your human behind out here and go back to the bunker. I could live your life and be perfectly happy for the rest of m
ine
."
"Let's go, bucko," I goaded. "Anytime."
"I take back what I said. I
do
hate you," he said in a voice that resembled the Lighter I knew he was. "With everything in me."
"Whoa," I laughed. "What brought all this hostility on all of a sudden?"
"You don't deserve what you have. You
're
always joking and
so
smug. Lillian is a fool. A beautiful fool that kisses like an angel, but a fool."
"Shut your mouth about Lillian." Was
he trying to pick a fight with
me?
"You can crack on me all you want, but don't talk about her."
"Sadly, there isn't time to debate further. We're here," he said and pulled into the rickety stati
on parking lot. He stepped out and slammed the door. I just rolled my eyes at him. He was so strange.
The parking lot was empty in the middle of the night, so we didn't need to worry about running into anyone. The door lock was easily picked and we entered. The equipment was pretty ancient. It was
n't
like anyone
would want to steal it anyway, b
ut it suited our purpose. I found the control panel while Daniel watched and looked around like he was waiting for something.