The rising tide, p.17
The Rising Tide, page 17
“Who the fuck are you?!” the man gasped, his voice filled with fear as he spotted us. “Stay back!”
His hand reached for his gun, but K spun around, grabbing the man’s vest and pulling him through the hole in the fence, trying to hold on as he tossed the man to the side and into the concertina wire. The guard had a vice grip on K, pulling him as he fell, bringing K on top of him on the wire.
He let out a cry of pain as he tried to extract himself from the guard’s grip, but his cries were mixed with the older man’s as the wire sliced into them both.
We finally reached them, and just as we were about to yank them out, K punched the screaming guard across the face, extracted his switchblade from his sleeve, and brought it across the guard’s throat in one sharp motion. The gash on the underside of the man’s jaw erupted with blood and all three of us that had come to K’s aid let out a horrified shout.
My eyes became transfixed by the gasping stranger’s face, his mouth opening and closing repeatedly. His eyes were wide, filled with confusion and fear, his skin paling as his hand tried to hold onto the gash in his neck. His sleeve caught in the sharp prongs of the wire would not let him raise his arm high enough.
K used the guard’s dying body to push himself out of the wire, rolling to the ground with another cry of pain, fabric ripping as he fell heavily.
R1 went to K’s side and helped him to his feet as I stared at the guard’s dying face, frozen.
“Come on…” M hissed, touching my arm. “Come on, there’s nothing we can do for him…”
“We gotta go,” R1 snapped. “Help me with him.”
M took K’s other arm, pulling it over her shoulder as they hobbled as fast as they could across the expanse of land. I met eyes with the dying guard, barely moving my shaking legs backward as I retreated, watching the life leave him, his blood soaking the hard dirt.
“H!” R1 barked.
My brain filled with static, I turned away and hastily retreated to the safety of the shadows.
Chapter Thirteen
I had no reason to worry about the safety of my family, as the earpieces were still active and everyone reported when they reached the agreed rendezvous point. However, I was worried that, with K’s slow pace, we were leading the Commission employees of the compound right to our hiding spot. There was no doubt that they had returned to their posts, found the empty cells and the dead guard, and realized what had happened. Thankfully, the jammers we had left behind would keep their inner communications down until one of the jammers was deactivated, buying us more time to get away.
But K was bleeding badly.
R1 had taken off his jacket and had balled it up against the substantial gash across K’s lower back, trying to keep the blood from leaving a trail on the ground as he hobbled onward.
What should have been a two-hour hike ended up being a three-and-a-half hour struggle to get K to the large barn where we would lay low until it was possible for the Coalition vans to drive to the ranch and pick us up.
M had told the others to inform the owner of the ranch that K was severely injured and would need attention so that they were ready for him when we stumbled into the barn.
The barn was filled with an array of strong odors that had me halting at the door. There were some cows in the pens on either side of the large structure, but the center was packed with people. Some were in the hayloft above, changing into clothes we provided. Others were eagerly drinking water or eating the offered food, too hungry to be put off by the potent aromas in the barn.
When we stepped through the small door next to the locked larger door, eyes turned to us quickly.
“There you are!” N4 gasped, rushing forward. “Okay, over here. How’re you holding up, K?”
“I’ll be alright,” he assured, wincing as he half-hopped toward a middle-aged woman I figured was the owner of the farm.
“Over here,” she said, leading him into a nearby stall with a folding table. Slightly numb from adrenaline and exhaustion, I followed without thinking and helped guide K onto the table as he hissed in pain.
With the dim lights of the barn I was able to get my first good look at the wound in K’s lower back. The back of his shirt and pants had been ripped and the black fabric was slicked with glistening blood, fully saturated.
“Shit…” the woman gasped. “Okay, everyone else out. Take your pants off. Let’s get a better look.”
Slightly embarrassed and eager to be away from the sight of the gaping wound, I slipped out of the stall and turned to the enormous crowd of people we had rescued. Despite the number of people present, it was surprisingly quiet. Exhausted from the escape and worried about drawing attention to themselves, everyone was resting or eating, reveling in the successful mission.
My eyes scanned the crowd as I removed the earpiece and slipped it into my pocket. I stood to the side, waiting to spot the faces I desperately needed to see.
Without calling my name—likely because Lydia explained the situation—my mother came bursting through the crowd.
“There you are!”
The tears came fast and were already spilling down my cheeks in the few strides she took to reach me.
“Mom…”
I hugged her tighter than I had ever hugged her before in my life. Inhaling deeply, I was transported back to a time when her hug could chase away all the nightmares and monsters that plagued my childhood, when I would run to her with my worries and problems, knowing she could always make me feel better. It did not matter that she was wearing clothes that were far too big and smelled like they had been in a plastic bag for months. Her scent still lingered and I felt as though I had come home again.
Another set of arms wrapped around me and I lifted my head, blinking the tears from my eyes as I turned to my father, who was also smiling. I collided with his chest enough to knock him back a few steps, hugging him tightly as he kissed the top of my head, his own tears falling into my hair.
When I found the strength to let him go, I turned into my younger sister’s tight hug.
“I knew you would come,” she whispered.
The tears began spilling out of me at an alarming rate, my fists bunching in her baggy sweatshirt.
“I’m so sorry…” I choked.
“Why are you sorry?” Lydia asked with a gentle laugh. She pulled away from the hug. “You rescued us.”
“I-I had to. It was because of me…”
I turned quickly, trying to focus my vision on my parents.
“It’s because of me that you were put in danger and captured. I’m so sorry. I should have known. I should have warned you.”
“How could you have known, sweetheart?” my mother cooed, stepping forward to thumb the tears from my cheeks. “You have nothing to feel guilty about. You did nothing wrong.”
“I thought you were dead…or in the Commission. I was so scared…”
She hugged me once more.
“We’re safe now,” she whispered. “Thanks to you.”
It was an embarrassingly long time before I could stop crying long enough to converse with my family. I continued to hug and sob, so filled with relief I was sure I would pass out in their arms.
“So…” my father started, raising a teasing eyebrow, “what happened to the plan of skipping out of the country?”
I let out a bark of laughter, sniffling and roughly pushing the remaining tears from my eyes.
“That plan changed a little,” I teased back.
“You’re a member of this group? The Coalition?” my mother asked, looking between Lydia and me. “Both of you?”
We became small children in front of her once more, expecting a scolding.
“It was me,” Lydia started sheepishly. “I-I searched them out and joined. Ame…um, H, followed me one day and she joined after that.”
“That’s why you were targeted,” I started, the guilt still threatening to break my ribs even though the tears had abated. “The Commission is starting to go after us, trying to rile us up and get us to make a mistake so they can capture us. They targeted families of new members who had recent reports of runaways.”
“Figures that the Commission wouldn’t be satisfied with only targeting those who don’t adhere to their ridiculous list,” my father grumbled. “And if the new Leader decides to expand the power of the Commission…” He trailed off, his eyes filled with the same conflict everyone in the Coalition had been feeling for months since learning of the new Leader appointment.
“Well, hopefully we can find a way to get the Commission removed from power,” I said. “Everyone has been strategizing our next move.”
“Strategizing?” my mother said with a broad smile. “What are the possibilities?”
“Can’t tell you,” I laughed. “Confidential.”
“You can tell me,” Lydia said.
“Nope.”
“Well, I don’t think this is what we originally thought would happen when we read all those books about being supportive parents,” my father said, turning to my mother, “but I don’t see any reason we shouldn’t join our daughters in the ranks.”
“What?” my sister and I said in unison.
“I agree.”
“Mom!”
“Well, I don’t really see any other option,” she chuckled. “After I was logged into that camp, I became a criminal of the nation. I either have to leave the country or I stay with my family and I help change the country.”
Dumbfounded, I could only stare at my parents’ confident smiles.
“No, no, that’s…it’s too dangerous. You shouldn’t—”
“You think we’re too old for dangerous?” my father quipped. “That’s ageist.”
“Dad, she’s right,” Lydia insisted. “The kind of stuff that we do…it’s…it’s dangerous.”
“And so I should just allow my two little girls to put themselves in danger while I sit at home agonizing?” my mother asked, her tone stronger as she adapted her parenting voice. “Not in a million years. I admire your choice to fight for change in this country, but I’ll be damned if I have to stay hidden while you two put yourselves in danger. Surely there are things I can do to help. Like in these situations, I can have food and clothes ready. There were members of your group doing that when we arrived.”
I let out a long sigh, knowing there was no changing my mother’s mind when she decided something. I looked at Lydia, hoping she could think of something to say to our parents to keep them out of danger, but she was also at a loss.
“It’s not up to us,” Lydia finally said, her expression lighting up. “It’s up to K.”
“Okay, which one is K?” my father said, looking around the room.
I jerked my thumb over my shoulder to the stall where N4 and R1 were standing guard, keeping others away to offer K as much privacy as they could behind the stall door where the owner of the farm was tending his wound.
“What happened to him?”
“Uh…” I stumbled. “A little run in with the concertina wire.”
“Is he alright?”
“I’m sure he’ll be fine,” I said quickly.
I was desperate to change the subject. Even though I was quite worried about K’s wound, I could not get the image out of my head of K’s arm slicing through the air and the blood that sprayed from the guard’s jugular as he lay on the wire barricade. The glassy eyes had haunted me through the exhausting trek to the barn, and I was eager to put the thought out of my head to focus on the elation of having my family out of the camp.
“What’s the next move from here, then?” my father prompted, as if sensing my discomfort.
“Um, from here we wait until daybreak, until we can get some of the vans out here to pick people up and go to the safe houses,” I explained. “We’ve got everyone divided among the safe houses in the city, where you’ll stay until we can get you out of the country.”
“What, just like that?” he pressed.
“Well, it’s a little more complicated, but more or less.”
“What about me?” Lydia protested. “Doesn’t this mean that I can come to the base now and live there?”
“You have a secret base?” my mother said, somehow managing to sound both teasing and impressed.
I let out a nervous laugh. “Um, kinda. And I don’t know,” I told Lydia. “It’s up to K. You’ll have to talk to him and see what he says. But…” I was unsure if it was the appropriate time to tell her about K leaving the Western Chapter to go to Central. While I understood Lydia, and even my parents, wanting to stay and help with the Coalition’s endeavors, I knew Lydia would immediately demand to follow us to Central.
With my brain no longer turning over all the horrible fates that could befall my family from the deportation camp, I began to see how emotional I had been about the mission. I had been so terrified for their safety that I would not listen to reason when it came to basic things like eating and getting enough rest. I could not handle the fear of my family being targeted by the Commission of the People. If Lydia were to join us in Central, I was sure I would be too worried about her well-being to be effective in our moves against the Central.
If I was going to Central, she could not come.
“But what?” Lydia prompted when I lapsed into silence.
“But maybe it would be better if you stayed out of the country for a while,” I insisted. “Just for a couple months or so,” I said quickly when she opened her mouth to protest. “We broke a lot of people out of that camp, and all across the country. The other Coalition chapters are breaking out their own captured families tonight. That’s going to piss a lot of people off in Central. For your own safety, as well as the safety of everyone in the Coalition, you should probably get out of the country and lay low.”
“Bullshit,” Lydia growled.
“Lydia!”
“She’s treating me like I can’t handle myself,” she half-whined, turning to our parents. “I was in the Coalition before her, and she’s still treating me like a baby!”
“I’m your big sister, I’m supposed to,” I insisted, grinning. I was too excited to see her fiery spirit again to be upset with her reaction.
From over her shoulder, I saw M lingering a few paces away, watching our interaction awkwardly, as if she wanted to approach but felt that she would be intruding. I motioned her over, effectively distracting both Lydia and my parents from the argument.
Her steps were slow as she approached, looking among the faces of my family, offering a small smile to Lydia.
“Hey, you doing okay?” she asked awkwardly, looking at my parents.
“Yes, thanks to you and your group,” my father said. “What do we call you?”
“M.”
“She’s the second in command of the chapter,” Lydia explained.
She shook hands with both my parents, her nervous expression making me smile. Had it been any other situation, it would have felt like I was introducing my parents to my girlfriend for the first time as she came over for dinner. Even though the setting and situation was a far cry from anything considered “normal,” the goofy smile on my face was something I could not wipe away.
“You’ve been taking good care of my daughter, I assume,” my mother said.
“As much as she’ll let me,” M teased. “She’s stubborn as a damn mule.”
“That’s my girl,” she beamed proudly.
“Are you two…” Lydia said slowly, motioning between us. “What’s with that smile?”
“Hey!” I snapped, smacking her hand down and fixing her with a purposeful glare.
“Are…are we not telling them?” M asked, also confused.
I rolled my eyes so hard my head moved on my neck.
“I don’t know,” I groaned.
My mother extended her arms to M.
“Of course I want to meet the woman keeping my eldest baby safe,” she said with a glowing, warm grin. She stepped forward and placed her hands on M’s shoulders. “Pleased to meet you, M.” She hugged her briefly. “I’m Jackie, her mother, and this is Taylor.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” M started awkwardly. “Sorry the situation is what it is, but I’m happy to meet you.”
My father also offered her a short hug. “The situation may not be normal, but what is these days? And besides, it’s because of your bravery that we’re even able to meet you and see our daughter again.”
“It was a team effort,” she said. “She’s very lucky to have you, you know.”
“We know,” they both said with a laugh.
I rolled my eyes again.
“Okay, okay, enough with the embarrassing parent act.”
“Oh, no, we’re far from done,” my mother insisted. “Tell us about yourself, M. You know, we’re thinking we should join the Coalition as well. Help out as much as we can.”
M’s eyebrows rose quickly.
“Oh…um, well, that’s K’s decision in the end, so I can’t really accept or decline, but…”
“It’s fine,” I said. “Don’t worry about answering that question.”
“But tell us about yourself all the same,” my father insisted. “You need to be properly vetted to become a part of the family.”
“A part—”
“Whoa, it’s a little early for that kind of talk,” I interjected quickly, giving them both a pleading and expectant look, hoping they would stop the embarrassing conversation.
“Not in the slightest,” he said, shaking his head. “Life’s short, right? Gotta hold on to your happiness wherever you can find it. And we’re always ready to welcome anyone important to either of you into our family.”
I turned to M, mouthing an apology. She smiled, a sad edge to the expression as she turned back to my parents.
“I would be honored to become a part of your family,” she said, her voice shaking slightly.
Reacting on instinct to her tone, I took her hand and gave it a loving squeeze. I then looked at my parents, ignoring my sister’s wiggling eyebrows. Their expressions had turned tender, in the way that had always made me feel safe.
