Rise Against the Faultless (16 page)

But Ari idolized Ann. How could
he, once he’d heard Shane’s story? All Ari talked about was how great she was.
He had to have known what she did when he was saying these things. I did
believe what Shane was telling me about his brother. Had Ari’s ambition clouded
his judgment or was Shane lying to me about telling Ari? Why would he lie about
that? How badly I wanted to tell Ari everything that had happened, but he might
not believe me, so I couldn’t risk it. I wanted Ari and me to mend our relationship.
I would like for it to be soon because my time on Earth seemed to be dwindling.
More than likely I would be dead by the time we got another vacation. I wasn’t
stupid. I knew our missions were suicide missions, but it didn’t matter. I had
to take whatever little chance I had.

When Cyril caught back up with
us she looked more stable. I touched her arm and smiled at her, a silent thanks
for not going berserk. I thought about Cyril, Shane, and I. We had a common
bond. Whether I fully trusted him or not, we’d all lost a sibling, one way or
another. I was the only one with hope to retrieve mine back again. We were a
good team, though.

After dinner that night, Cyril
asked me to go on a walk. We got to the turbines and she didn’t look at me, “I
did something you’re not going to like.”

“What is it, Cyril?”

“I told Shane, he’s coming with
us tonight.”

“What! Cyril do you know what
you’ve done!”

“I’m sorry, Raily, but you know
we need him.”

“Cyril, if he tells Ann, this
is over, we’re all dead. Probably by tomorrow morning. And not just us, Dale
will die.”

“He won’t tell her, besides, I
left out her involvement when I told him.”

“So you think he doesn’t
already know this stuff, Cyril? Come on! He knows. The only thing he didn’t
know was that we knew! I know you want revenge, but we still have a chance to
get Dale back. We can’t ruin it like this! He can’t come!” I paced back and
forth, tugging at my hair. I felt like a little child throwing a tantrum.

“I know what you think, Raily.
But he didn’t know. He has no idea that his mother is in on it and he knows not
to tell her. It was a gamble, but it will be worth it. I know we can trust him.
Have you ever seen a loving moment pass between the two of them? They look like
uncomfortable strangers around one another, Raily! Besides, we need him, Raily,
please. There’s something else...”

“Oh Cyril, what else did you
do?”

“I’m pregnant.”

I stopped to look her in the
face. She didn’t waver. “What did you say?”

“I’m going to have a baby,
Raily.”

“You’re going to bring a child
into
this
world?”

“I’m keeping her. I’m assuming
it’s a her, I wouldn’t know what to do with a boy.” My head was spinning.
“That’s why I had to tell Shane. We need all the leverage we can get. I need to
give this baby a fighting chance, and no, not in
this
world, we have to
change it. Don’t you get it? We can’t wait on someone else to change it for us.
What are you going to do when you do get Dale back? Have you thought of that?
Where will you bring him? Will you hide him here, in your dorm? Will you sneak
food out to him in the woods?”

I just stared at her because I
didn’t have an answer. All I had been able to think of was rescuing Dale, but
releasing him from his captors would only be the beginning and I had failed to
see that until now. I fell to the ground and just stared. “I’m sorry, Cyril… I
just need to make sure he’s safe. I’m sorry.”

“I know. I won’t ever do
anything behind your back like that again, I swear it. I know it was risky, but
I have my own motivations.” She looked down and put her hand to her lower
stomach automatically the way a mother would instinctively protect her child,
“Your initial feeling about him wasn’t wrong. He will not betray us. There are
others who will follow you, others in Service. I know people. I haven’t said
anything yet, but I can get people behind us.” I hugged Cyril. She had become
one of my closest friends and I trusted everything she was saying.

“What are we going to do when
Shane finds out that his mother is behind all this?” I asked her.

“We’ll cross that bridge when
we come to it. I’ve already told Adrian, he’s got Shane set up to come out with
us tonight.”

I nodded my head at her. I
couldn’t change the fact that Shane knew, it was out now and if it were going
to have dire consequences, I would know them shortly. “Are you sure you should
even be riding?”

“I’ve been feeling fine, no
sickness or anything. Don’t worry about me, I’ll take care of the baby.”

“How did this even happen? That
pill they make us take is one hundred percent effective.”

“I know, I skipped it… for a
month. I never really trusted what they were giving us and I figured, hey, if I
get pregnant, no more Service for a few months.” We both looked at each other
and then laughed out loud. I could hear my laugh getting louder and louder, it
was madness.  I laughed until I cried. It took several minutes for me to be
able to speak again.

I wiped away the tears from my
hysterical laughing fit, “I don’t even want to know how you snuck that thing
out of there.” They force us to take the pill while they watch.

“No, you don’t.” We both busted
out laughing again. We then left, we needed to get back and get some sleep. I
was exhausted and we all needed to catch up on our sleep if we were going to
keep going at this rate.

I took a shower just long enough
to walk in and out of the stream of water. I successfully fell asleep the
moment my head hit my pillow. I awoke five minute before midnight, and like the
night before, I laid perfectly still. When there was only two minutes to go,
someone knocked at the door. I panicked but decided I had to go for it. I
quickly jumped to my feet. Adrian didn’t wait to be invited in. He quickly
grabbed my hand and dragged me to the bed while taking his shoes and shirt off.
“Wait a second…” I stammered out.

He stopped me, “Waiting until
breakfast to see you yesterday morning was like torture for me. I just laid in
my bed, fidgeting all night. I want to be right here, with you, in five hours.”

“But what about…”

He interrupted me again,
“Everything is set up. Besides you’re going to be looking pretty tired in the
morning, don’t you think you need an excuse?” He smiled slyly and then kissed
me and wrapped his arms around me. I always felt so safe with Adrian. I laid
there with him until it was midnight. He kissed my forehead once more before I
hopped out of the bed and headed on my way.

I was in such a rush that when
I rounded a corner down the hall right before reaching outside, I didn’t even
see the man standing there before I crashed into him.

“Hey! Watch where you’re going!”
and then he looked up and I saw that it was Oren.

“Where are you off to in such a
rush tonight, Leadership Girl? Isn’t it a little past your bedtime?” He had his
arm around a very drunk girl I recognized from Combat named Amy, a different
girl than the one he was with the other night. Oren shoved my left shoulder and
I realized he was also rather drunk. I figured that they were on their way
outside to avoid being busted for being over the alcoholic limit. I didn’t
answer him and just tried to circle around him. “Whoa whoa whoa whoa.” He was
speaking too loudly. He stepped in my path again.

“Just drop it tonight, Oren.”
Evading a drunkard shouldn’t be so challenging and the less memorable this
encounter was the better.

“I asked where you were going
and you’re going to give me an answer!” He said it angrily and stood up as
straight as he could.

I thought about hitting him and
running, but I could only see that ending badly. “I’m just going to,” I stopped
talking, I was coming up blank, what was I going to say to him? Oren stood
there with his eyebrows arched awaiting my answer, while his date looked as if
she didn’t know that she was on planet Earth.

Then Shane walked up and
interrupted us, “She was just coming to meet me.” He positioned himself between
Oren and I. “Isn’t that right?” he bent down and kissed me on the lips and
winked at me.

“Yeah, that’s right.” I smiled
back at Shane and tried to push past Oren.

“I see now, no wonder he’s
defended you so voraciously,” Oren slurred the last word, “that’s why you were
so willing to take that beating, huh, Shane?”

“What is he talking about?” I
asked Shane and he didn’t look at me.

“We’re leaving now.” Shane
grabbed my arm and pulled me towards the exit and left Oren and the girl
looking after us.

“What did he mean, beating?” I
asked him.

“Nothing. Come on.” We’d
already been held up too long and it didn’t look like Oren was following us.

“Thank you, for helping me out
there. Where were you? It’s like you came out of nowhere.”

“I was waiting for you, in your
hall.” He looked away. So he had seen Adrian come in to my room.  Shane looked
hurt.

“Look, I didn’t invite him.”

“I’m not worried about him.” We
kept on our path in awkward silence until we reached the bikes. The others had
already gotten theirs and we all met up outside in the woods where we’d stopped
before to change.

“Raily, where were you! We were
worried sick!” Lo yelled at me. She then shot Shane a glance. “What’s he doing
here?” She was no longer hiding her contempt for him.

Cyril piped in, “I invited
him,” she said with a little too much pleasure and a smug smile. I saw that she
and Lo were always going to disagree on this subject. Shane started stripping
down in front of us all to change into his suit.

“Oh great,” Lo turned her back
and rolled her eyes, but Cyril didn’t bother averting hers. 

“We got held up by Oren, but
Shane helped me out of it.” I cut my eyes at Lo, “We can’t waste any more time.
We’re hitting two campsites tonight. They’re both closer than last night’s but
we have to stay on the ball.” I tucked my scorpion into my suit. “But, Cyril, I
want you to stay behind tonight.”

“What? No!”

“Yes. You know why. But you
won’t just be sitting idly by. You said you knew people in Service? Well, I
need you to gather as many as you can, Cyril. Bring Glyn in, too. Besides,
after last night, you need the rest, ok?”

“Fine. I’ll go back. Are they
going to go with us tomorrow night?”

“No, they won’t be going out
with us. I have a different plan for them. Get as many as you think you can
trust.”

“Go. Be safe. I’ll do
everything I can.”

I trusted Cyril’s gut and I
knew she could find others that would help. She had been right earlier that
evening that I hadn’t thought far enough into the future. If I was going to
take on the Defectors, I would need an army.

I asked Shane to stay ahead of
me on the ride to the first camp, only to keep an eye on him. I still wasn’t as
convinced as Cyril was, even if he did help me out of my scrape with Oren. Like
the first camp from the night before, this one was also in the middle of a
forest. There wasn’t much in the way of shelter, on a few make shift lean tos
and tents. It had been deserted, just as the first had. Also, not unlike the
first, we found another imposter graveyard. This pile had been burned though.
It looked like they had taken more care in leaving this one than they had the
last.

I looked over at Shane when we
approached the pile of adolescent corpses. He looked disgusted, but he was
strong. He did not waver, but I could see how much this hurt him. We did not linger
at the first camp, but headed on to the next, which would be about a thirty
minute ride back. We would have been gone for nearly two hours by the time we
reached it.

The next camp was different
than the first two. It wasn’t tucked away somewhere in the middle of the woods,
it was an old abandoned city. We steered clear of the old paved roads so we
wouldn’t be seen on approach. Lo and Shane stayed in front, while Jubal and I
brought up the rear. Lo signaled for us to stop. We all parked the bikes and hid
behind an old shed.

“Well, it’s certainly not
deserted,” Lo whispered to us, “There are men keeping watch with guns. I
spotted them about 200 yards that way,” she pointed off towards an old
apartment building.

“I imagine they’re not the only
ones out here,” Shane said. Then we heard a shrill cry coming from the same
direction as the apartment building. We all looked, but it wasn’t the grisly
scene of two pre-teens fighting to the death. It was just a few teenagers, out
in the street. They were playing together and drinking what looked just like
the beers that we served in our lounge. They weren’t restrained, or under
gunpoint. It looked like they were actually having fun. One of them tossed a
blue bottle to one of the men who was standing guard.

We all came back into the
shelter behind our shed and looked at one another. This couldn’t be right. It
didn’t look like those kids were prisoners at all. But there was no way that
this was an ordinary town, because no one would have the liberty to be out at this
time without work permits, and there’s no way those kids are working. Something
was off. I had a rush of adrenaline at the thought that I could be so close to
Dale. I checked the time. We had two and half hours left. It would take us
about an hour and fifteen minutes just to get back to the Training Compound. I
wished that I had decided to come to this camp first, but I couldn’t change
that now. We would come back tomorrow night. “Ok. We have to get closer to that
apartment and see where everyone is sleeping. That will be our best chance of
getting to Dale. Tomorrow night we make our return…”

All of a sudden, Jubal drew his
knife and lunged towards me. Shane, who was standing by my side started towards
Jubal, but then stopped. Shane pushed me out of the way and Jubal landed his
knife right below the jaw of a guard and an up swinging motion. He’d
effectively made the guard mute. He pulled his knife from the guard’s throat
and a spew of blood landed on the ground beside him. The man fell unconscious.
He would be dead in minutes. 

“Jubal. Thank you.” I looked at
him. His eyes were wide and his hands were shaking. We weren’t killers. Jubal
had a kind heart and I regretted what he’d been forced to do.

“He was going to kill you. I
wouldn’t have killed him, but he would have killed you.”

“I know. Thank you. Do you
think he alerted anyone else?” I asked him.

“No, he was just as surprised
by us as I was by him. He didn’t have time.”

“We have to get him out of here
so no one sees him.” Jubal, Shane and I moved his body into the woods and
covered it with brush while Lo covered up the blood. It would take them a while
to find it, if they ever did. They might just assume he was a deserter but it
was bad news for us tomorrow night because there would probably be search
parties out looking for him. They’d be on high alert.

We then made our way towards
the apartments. We skirted along the woods on the outside edge of buildings
until we could no longer hide in their shadows. We came up to what looked like
an old court house and hid behind its pillars. When I peered around I realized
something that frightened me more than the fact that we had just killed
someone. I saw that there was not just one building of apartments lit up. There
were five. There had to be hundreds of people here, maybe thousands. Granted
some of the rooms were dark, but most were probably sleeping. This thing was
bigger than I’d ever imagined. And this was just one of the camps. 

Scarier still was that these
people weren’t being held behind bars. They were free. Free to walk around or
do as they pleased. The guards weren’t keeping them from leaving, they were
standing there to make sure no one else got in. What was happening? Why were
these people, these
kids
staying here with their captors? Had they been
threatened with violence? It just didn’t make any sense. I searched in the open
windows. I saw some people sleeping, some were up laughing and talking, but
none were Dale. I felt a nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach. I tried to
quieten the small voice inside of me saying, “What if he was one of those in
that burned pile from the last camp?”

“Come on, we need to strategize
before we come back tomorrow. We have to get back.” Lo grabbed Jubal’s still
visibly shaking hands and led him away back to the bikes. The entire ride back
I started to formulate a plan for getting Dale out of that camp.

We arrived back to our spot
right outside of the Training Compound. We all started changing out of our
black suits when Shane came up to me.

“You ok?” he asked me
sincerely.

“No. I’m not. Nothing about
this is ok.” I felt that pit in my stomach again and a tear escaped from my
eye.

He then came towards me and
laid both hands on my shoulders, “I will help you get him back, Raily. I
promise.”

“Thank you. I’m not delusional.
I know that we are pitifully outnumbered. I know the odds are against us, but I
won’t give this up. I will never give this up.”

He started to say something
else, but stopped and just said, “You need to get back to Adrian. Let’s go.”

I was so torn at the moment,
but I was so emotionally ravaged by the night’s events, I just hopped on the
bike and rode out. We made it back in the Compound and were parking the bikes
when I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. When I turned around I saw her
staring at all of us.