TELEPORTING WAS AN amazing and terrifying experience at the same time. It felt like we were flying at such a high speed that everything around was a blur. I didn’t know if it was the distance from Springhill to Screven, but it seemed like we were in this hazy, fast-motion for a long time. Then as quickly as it had begun, it stopped and I felt myself crashing into the floor of some overstocked room.
It felt like someone had just thrown me down and the wind was knocked out of me. I couldn’t help but cough as I tried to breathe. I wasn’t the only one either. Christopher pulled me up from the ground and when I looked around, all I could see were wooden boxes scattered throughout the dark room.
“Is everyone okay?” Evelyn asked.
No one answered, but everyone seemed fine. Danny reached over to one of the boxes and ripped open the top. Glass bottles. He opened a few more and all of them contained bottles.
“Hey look,” Danny said, holding up one of the bottles of the dark liquid. “Free booze.”
“Must be in the basement of some bar,” Aaron said.
“Screven has bars?” Heather asked. “What have I been living in Salem all these years for?”
“Yes,” Evelyn said, pulling herself up from the floor. “Screven has bars, though, not usually for citizens.” She gave Jeffrey a long look. “Bars are usually built for Screven soldiers.”
Jeffrey let out a tired huff.
“Not quite the Screven Resistance headquarters, is it?” Heather asked him.
“I did the best I could,” Jeffrey said.
“Do you know where we are?” I asked.
Jeffrey shook his head. “I have no idea. Could be anywhere.”
Aaron motioned to a set of stairs at the other end of the room. It seemed to be the only exit out. “Want me to have a look?”
Evelyn nodded and he took each step slowly. When he got to the door, he pushed it open just a crack so he could see what was beyond. He let it close quickly as he cursed. He looked back at the rest of us and shook his head. “Full of guards.”
“This early in the morning?” Danny asked, shaking his head. “Drunks.”
“Still don’t want us to use our abilities?” Heather asked Evelyn.
“No, I don’t want you to,” she said. “The last thing we need is to look like Starborns right now.”
“Couldn’t Jeffrey just try to teleport us to a different part of the city?” I asked.
He shook his head. “You don’t want that. Teleporting all of you here was a big enough strain already. Trying to be more accurate right now would be a bad idea. We could end up in Seymour for all I know.”
“Then we’re going to have to fight,” Danny said.
“We don’t have to jump to that first thing,” Evelyn said.
“We could just walk out there like we’re supposed to be there,” Christopher chimed in. “Maybe they won’t even stop us. They are at a bar, you know. Many of them might not even take notice.” He looked at Aaron. “Are all of them in uniform?”
Aaron turned toward the door and cracked it open again. He let it close softly before speaking. “Some of them aren’t. But they’re all soldiers. Same haircuts and everything.”
“I think we should go Christopher’s way,” I said. “Going out with guns blazing will certainly call attention to us. At least his way there is a possibility of getting out without having to fight.”
Evelyn nodded. “Okay then. Let’s do that.” She looked sharply at Danny and Heather. “Remember, do not use your abilities.”
“We got it, Your Highness” Heather said.
Evelyn ignored the sarcasm as she climbed the stairs. Aaron led the way while Christopher and I joined the middle of the group. When he opened the door, the smell of alcohol and smoke filled my nostrils. It wasn’t a very pleasant experience. The seven of us walked through the bar just as Christopher suggested – like we were supposed to be there.
For the first few seconds, we only got a couple of looks our way, but as we got closer to the exit, the talking and laughing started to quiet down until the only thing we could hear was our feet tapping against the wood floor. It only took about five seconds for one of the soldiers to take initiative and stand between us and the door.
The guard was obviously drunk, probably having come straight to the bar after a long night shift. Two of his friends stood next to him, squinting their eyes as if to get a better look of the group.
“What do we have here?” he asked with a devious grin.
Aaron stood his ground at the front of the group. “Let us pass through. We just want to get out of here.”
“You don’t look like you’re a soldier,” he said as his glazed eyes scanned each of us. “None of you do. Except maybe him.” He pointed at Danny. “What’s your name and rank?”
“I’m not looking for a fight,” Aaron said. “Just let us through.”
The man shook his head. “I’m not gonna do that,” he said. “This bar is reserved for Screven soldiers, not the common folk. You all aren’t those Resistance rats are you? I usually just shoot them.” He spat on the ground.
“We just came through here by accident,” Aaron answered.
“You give me a name and rank, and I’ll let you go by. If you don’t, I’ll shoot you.” The man pulled out his pistol and pointed it at Aaron’s head.
I had to play it smooth. I had to be delicate. I was able to concentrate on the bullet in his gun. There was no way it would be leaving and entering anyone’s head. But I also didn’t want to just slap the gun out of the man’s hand either. That would be a very Starborn thing to do. I wished there was a way that I could tell Aaron that the bullet was secure.
Danny moved to the front of the group and stood next to Aaron. “Let us pass,” he said, clenching his fist.
The man pulled back the hammer on his pistol and shook his head. “Nope.”
He was dropped to the floor before he could even think about pulling the trigger. Danny’s punch had landed so hard that everyone in the room could hear the man’s jaw break. He had used his Starborn gift, but Danny was so big it didn’t look any different to anyone else.
I thought that such a display of power and tenacity would have scared anyone off, but this was not the case at all. In fact, Danny’s punch inspired just about all of the people in the room to jump us.
Chairs flew and glasses shattered as soldiers charged at us. Christopher and I ducked low to the ground as Danny, Aaron, and Jeffrey landed punches. Heather pulled out two knives and cut the throat of a man who was coming after her.
The bartender pulled a rifle out from behind the counter and pointed it at Aaron, but Evelyn had seen it coming and snatched the gun from his hands. She turned it around on him and fired into his chest.
Within seconds the place was trashed. Sharp debris mixed with blood covered the entire floor and I knew it was time to get out of there. I grabbed Christopher’s arm and pulled him up to run for the door. Before I could get there, a man jumped in our way. He was holding a knife and was ready to stab someone with it. The grin on his face made him look as though he had been waiting to do this for a long time. Everything within me wanted to use his head to smash open the door, but instead I pulled the pistol from my belt and shot him in the stomach. He fell to his knees, spitting up blood as I ran passed him.
Christopher and I tore out of the bar and into the street. Thankfully, no one was there to meet us. Aaron was the next person to charge out of the bar. When we looked back at him, he waved for us to keep going as he ran to catch up with us.
“What about the others?” Christopher asked, going as fast as his legs could carry him.
“They’re coming!” Aaron yelled.
We cut through an ally between two large buildings. We then made a left, a right, and another left. Finally, when we felt there was no sign of our pursuers, we stopped. I leaned against a brick wall, trying my best to catch my breath. Aaron brought his wristband up to his mouth, trying to ask the others if they made it out. He didn’t get an answer at first.
Christopher leaned over to me. He was also breathing hard. “Are you all right?” he asked. I looked up at him and nodded, finally getting the air I needed.
“They aren’t answering,” Aaron said, still looking at his wristband.
I briefly closed my eyes, looking for Evelyn. She and Jeffrey were also hiding next to a pile of rubble and there didn’t seem to be anyone near them in pursuit. When I thought about Danny, I could see him sprinting as Screven soldiers came at him with everything they had. He had to duck low and run in a zigzag motion to avoid getting shot. Pieces of wall shattered next to his head as he rounded a corner. That’s when Heather came out of nowhere with her insane speed and cut down the soldiers. When Danny realized no one else was coming after him, he slowed to a stop.
I opened my eyes to find Aaron still trying to talk to the others over the wristband. “Are any of you out there?”
“Jeffrey and I made it out,” Evelyn said. “Not sure about Danny and Heather.”
“Yeah, we made it out too,” Heather said over the radio. “No idea where you guys are right now. We didn’t even see you leave, much less see what direction you took.”
Aaron was about to answer when an alarm across the entire city sounded out. It cut through the air in a shrill, high-pitched noise that made me want to cover my ears. This is exactly what Christopher was doing.
“Is this because of us?” I asked absently.
Aaron shook his head and shrugged. He started walking toward the main road away from the alley and motioned for Christopher and me to follow him. At the sound of the alarms, citizens in the streets clambered to get back into their homes. It made me think that the alarms weren’t about us at all because this seemed like a routine drill for most of them.
Across the street and to my right, I saw a little boy, maybe five years old, crying his eyes out. He seemed to be looking for his parents, but had somehow lost them and didn’t know what to do. I started to run out there to him, but Aaron gripped my arm firmly and shook his head.
“It’s too dangerous to go out there,” he said. “We can’t risk being discovered.”
I pulled my arm from his grip and started to ignore him, but that’s when I saw the trucks. These weren’t normal trucks. They were huge. They barreled down the street with armed Screven guards hanging off the sides. The first five trucks carried what looked like huge water tanks The next five trucks were covered with large cloth tarps.
I couldn’t help but watch the little boy as the trucks came nearer. There was a feeling inside of me that told me something really bad was about to happen. All ten of the trucks drove by, but in the distance I could see one more. This one was smaller and full of Screven soldiers. They scanned the areas as though they were looking for something. Then, one of them spotted the crying little boy. The truck came to a stop. Three of the guards jumped out of the back and started walking toward him.
“Where are you located?” Came the voice of Evelyn over the wristbands.
Each of us jumped to turn down the volume and Aaron answered by whispering for her to wait a second.
“Aaron, we can’t let them hurt that boy,” I said.
“I know,” he answered, not taking his eyes off the truck full of guards.
As the guards moved nearer to the boy, a man ran out of one of the buildings with his arms in the air, screaming.
“Leave him alone! He’s just lost. Please, don’t hurt him.”
The guards pointed their guns at the man and he slipped to the ground onto his knees.
“You know the law,” the lead guard said. “When the alarms sound, citizens must stay inside or they will be shot on sight.”
“Please,” the man said. “I’m just here for the boy. He’s just a child!”
A shot blasted and the sound echoed off the walls surrounding the street. The man was on the ground in a puddle of blood. The soldiers then turned toward the little boy.
“Well, this just isn’t going to happen,” Aaron said as he jumped from behind the corner and ran toward the truck. “Hey!”
I followed behind him as the guards turned their attention toward the yelling. They started to point their guns at him, but he drew electricity from the truck and fried whoever was left inside the vehicle. The guards on the outside were stunned for just a moment, but it was enough time for me to reach out my hand and make them smack to the ground with a thought. With the guards in the truck dead, Aaron used whatever energy there was left and sent the bolts into the three guards on the outside of the truck. The three of them writhed in pain until they stopped moving altogether.
It was about this time that the alarms stopped. I ran up to the little boy and held him in my arms. He wrapped his legs around my waist and held tight to my neck like I was his mother. I simply hugged him, trying to get him away from the sight of death all around him. But who was I kidding? If this was what Screven citizens have been going through for the past few days, this boy may have seen a lot worse than that.
It all seemed so strange to me that this was happening in the glorious city of Screven. When I had come here before, I remembered seeing people in the streets that looked happy. They all had looked so well fed, too. I knew that I had only seen a small part of Screven and even that was at night. But it still didn’t change how unexpected this was. This little boy didn’t seem particularly well-fed. The man who had been shot was skin and bones. It made me wonder where all the food from the colonies had gone. Who was using all of the products that had been sent in as tax?
People started filing out of the buildings and into the streets since the alarms shut off. I still held tight to the little boy and I could feel his tears drip down the back of my neck. It broke my heart.
“We can’t take him with us,” Aaron said to me. “We’ve got to get out of here fast.”
I nodded to him. I knew we couldn’t take the boy, but there was no way I was just going to leave him in the street. I didn’t know if that man that had been shot was his father or if it was just someone who wanted to help.
I was relieved when a woman walked up to me. “Starborn?” she asked. It almost seemed like she was afraid, but then the biggest smile spread across her face when I nodded. She walked up to me and grabbed my hand, shaking it vigorously. “We know you aren’t the murderers that Jeremiah has made you out to be.”
“How?” I asked, but she didn’t answer me.
“I’ll take him,” she said, reaching out her arms for the boy. “I know where his mother is.”
I told the boy that he was going to see his mom, and he easily switched over to this woman who at some point had gained faith in the Starborns. Was she part of the Screven Resistance? Or was she just an ordinary citizen that believed Jeremiah was evil and he needed to be taken down as quickly as possible? I noticed no one hurried to clean the Screven soldiers’ bodies from the street.
Aaron grabbed my arm and pulled me forward. “We’ve got to go,” he said. He motioned for Christopher to follow as he led us into another back alley. When we were away from the crowds, Aaron squatted to the ground and tried to contact Evelyn.
“You need to head north,” Evelyn said over the wristband. “You will see a large square with a statue of Jeremiah in the middle. We will meet there.”
“Are you already there?” Aaron asked.
“Not yet. We will see you there.”
“We’re on our way.” It was Heather’s voice that time.
Aaron moved forward and we followed close behind him. “You know where we’re headed?” I asked.
“North,” Aaron said. “I think I’m going north.”
He didn’t sound too sure, but we followed anyway. The side streets were dirty and there was rubble all throughout. It seemed that this part of the city had seen several skirmishes over the past few days.
As we ran through one of the deserted streets, my foot caught something and I fell hard on my side. The other two stopped abruptly to help pull me up, but I didn’t want them to. For some reason, my vision had a moment of blurriness. It was the strangest feeling. As they ran up beside me, I started feeling dizzy and my stomach felt like I might throw up.
Aaron pulled me up to a sitting position, but the dizziness didn’t leave for another few seconds.
“Are you all right?” Aaron asked.
I couldn’t help but look at Christopher. “I’m fine,” I said. “Just got dizzy is all.”
“Can you walk?” he asked.
Christopher held out a hand to me – an invitation to heal my current symptom, but I shook my head. I didn’t want Aaron to figure anything out. Besides, when I stood, the dizziness went away, though I was sure it wouldn’t be the last time I felt that. And I was sure I would feel much worse later.
The thought then occurred to me that I should probably be more careful about who I touch—the boy that I had picked up—taking Aaron’s hand when he offered to help me. I know the virus only passes through bodily fluids, but it would be easy to have open wounds and not know it in this environment. I made a mental note then and there that I needed to be more mindful of what I was doing.
“We need to walk,” I said to Aaron, starting to feel more and more tired as we ran. I had never felt this drained of energy from so little movement before. In this life, if a person couldn’t run, there was a good chance he or she wouldn’t make it very long. But I knew right now we weren’t being chased by greyskins or Screven soldiers, so I needed to conserve my strength for later.
Aaron nodded at me with understanding. I could tell he was concerned for me, but he felt a greater urgency to get to the square. He led us by about ten paces, but I wasn’t going to start jogging again. Christopher stood right by my side.
“Symptoms are getting severe quickly?” he asked with a whisper.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I was just dizzy. Lost my footing. I feel very tired, but that’s all. I don’t feel like I’m going to die yet.”
“It’s still morning,” he said. “You have a long time to go.”
I think he meant to be encouraging by what he said, but he wasn’t. All I heard was that there was a lot of pain and suffering to look forward to. But I wasn’t a fool. I knew that already. I decided to take it as the encouragement he intended.
“So, you’ve been here before?” Christopher asked.
“Yes, but just for a night. It wasn’t anything like this.”
“I see.”
“I don’t think when Jeremiah has visitors that he likes to show them around the city,” I said. “Not sure people would be too impressed.”
“Well, I’m sure not impressed,” Christopher said with a grin.
“Me neither.”
“I think we’re coming up on the square,” Aaron announced. He shuffled to the side of one of the buildings and we all hunkered low as he looked to see if Evelyn and the others were already there.
The square was very large, and at the center was a giant statue of Jeremiah. The statue was carved so that he appeared handsome without the sagging eyes, sunglasses or head-to-toe clothing. In fact, the statue resembled Professor Adams, as I had seen him in the first dream that Evelyn had given me. I couldn’t guess when the statue was made, but I imagined it was formed years after his good looks had faded.
But the statue wasn’t what held our attention the most. It was the countless number of Screven guards that were all packed into the square. Each of them had their guns in hand as if they were readying for battle.
Aaron brought his wristband up to his mouth. “Hey, can you all hear me?”
“Yeah, we see it,” Heather’s voice came through.
“We are on the east side,” Evelyn said.
“What are we supposed to do?” Aaron asked.
“I wasn’t quite expecting this,” Evelyn said. “Jeffrey says we are very near the Screven Resistance hideaway. I sure hope they haven’t been discovered.”
“Sure looks that way,” Christopher said, just over my shoulder.
“How many do you think there are?” I asked.
Aaron shook his head. “Maybe seventy-five. A hundred.”
“Think we could take them?”
“Not without blowing our cover. If you don’t want Jeremiah to know we’re here, we can’t fight.”
“Yeah, but we’re looking at two problems here,” Christopher said. “If we don’t fight, they might take out the very people we’re trying to get to. Thus, making this trip pointless. If we do fight, at least we will still be able to meet with this Allison.”
Aaron nodded, thinking to himself. He repeated to Evelyn what Christopher said and we all waited for a response.
“I think we could take them,” Heather said.
“It really comes down to four of you,” Evelyn said. “Christopher, Jeffrey, and I can shoot from a distance, but it would be the rest of you who would need to get in there and create a mess. Are you ready for Jeremiah to know we’re here?”
I looked at Aaron and shook my head. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
Aaron sighed at me and held the wristband up to his mouth. “Jeremiah’s going to learn about it soon enough either way. He might even already know. I say we take them out.”
I look away from him, not pleased to see him disregard me so offhandedly. Though my plan hadn’t been fleshed out, I had intended on Jeremiah being surprised to see me. I didn’t want him to be ready.
“Then we need to kill them quickly and efficiently,” Evelyn said.
“On my count,” Aaron said. He looked at me for a moment with his eyebrows forward. “What?”
“I have a bad feeling about this.”
Aaron held up his wristband and started the countdown. I don’t know what it was, but something within me just thought it was a terrible idea to go charging in there. I knew the number of soldiers would make it much harder than Aaron realized. When he was about to give the go ahead, I reached out and grabbed his arm.
“Aaron don’t!”
He stopped for a moment to stare at me with confused eyes. I wanted to explain. I wanted to say something, but no words would come. No explanation appeared. It was just a feeling. Then, as if they were there to answer my jumbled thoughts, gunshots fired out into the square.
None of us knew where the shots came from until we saw what looked to be ordinary citizens walking out of various alleys and peering over ledges in the buildings. From every direction, machine guns went off and Screven soldiers fell to the ground. Some tried firing back, but in the surprise, it was difficult to see their enemies that had seemingly come out of nowhere.
Part of me wanted to go out there and help, but the attack was so decisive it seemed to have been planned out. One-by-one, Screven soldiers fell to the ground until finally, they were all dead. The citizens came out into the streets, cheering at scoring a new victory against the Screven guards. This had to be the Screven Resistance.
We saw Evelyn go out into the square first. Some of the citizens pointed their guns at her, not knowing who she was. Then came Jeffrey, and most of the guns went down in recognition. Then it was our turn to walk out into the square. Again, some guns went up as they shouted out for us to identify ourselves.
“We’re on your side,” Aaron yelled out. “We’re with her.” He pointed across the way at Evelyn.
On the other side of the square, we saw Heather and Danny walking out too. All of us kept walking until we made it next to the statue. The people with the guns only stared at us for about a minute before a woman came out of the crowd. She was probably only a few years older than me. She had a rifle slung across her back. Her long, brown hair had been pulled into a ponytail, and even though she looked pretty, she didn’t seem to have slept in days.
“Jeffrey,” she said. “It’s good to see you. It’s a surprise, but it’s good.”
Jeffrey held out a hand. “Everyone, this is Allison. She’s the Screven Resistance leader.” He then went through and introduced everyone, but when he got to me, her eyes widened.
“You’re the one that started all this?” she asked.
“Not intentionally,” I said, but she hadn’t meant it as a bad thing.
“I had no idea I would ever get to meet you,” she said. “It is an honor.”
I didn’t know what to say to this. An honor? That seemed strange to me.
Allison looked around at the bodies on the ground. “Screven Soldiers have been closing in on us. They’ve been searching for our hiding spot since day one. We drew them in here, but they won’t fall for it next time, I fear.” She looked over her shoulder and called out to a man named Thomas. “Is everyone ready to get back?”
Thomas nodded. “Yes we are. And we need to make it quick too.”
“Walk with us,” Allison said to the group. “When the fight in Salem broke out, we knew it was our time to shine.” She said this as we walked and it seemed directed at me as if I was leading this little group from Salem. I looked at Evelyn, but she only smiled at me. “We started with a bomb at the Center. It did little more than make Jeremiah angry. We’ve lost a lot of Resistance soldiers. Most of the fights have just been shootouts in the streets. We’ve had to shoot down the occasional helicopter, but for the most part, we just hide away when they come. Too dangerous.” She looks me up and down. “Maybe not anymore, though.”
“What about Jeremiah?” I asked.
“What about him?” she answered. “He’s locked away in his little tower. We don’t have the manpower to take down the Center. That’s why we’ve been working on ways to get there creatively.”
“What have you come up with?” Evelyn asked.
Allison shook her head. “Nothing solid. We are losing and we’re losing badly. That’s why I’m happy to see all of you here. We could use a few Starborns in our ranks.”
“There are no Starborns here?” Danny asked.
“Nope,” said Allison. “Jeremiah has a couple though. Calls them his hunters.”
“Is one of them called Commander Green?” I asked.
“Never heard of him,” Allison answered. “We only know the names Trace and Anthony. Real nasty guys. But I haven’t been able to figure out what their powers are though. Not sure I want to know.”
Couldn’t be as bad as invisibility, I thought.
Allison told us she would catch us up on what needed to be done when we got back to the hideaway. But first, she wanted us to get some food if we needed it, and then some rest. When she told us this, I looked at Christopher and nodded. I needed a few moments of rest. And I needed him to take on some of the symptoms. The dizziness was starting to return.
She led us to what looked to be an old abandoned building. Windows were gone, some of the doors were ripped off the hinges. One could easily see into the building without having to go in. It looked like it just needed a good demolishing. But the entrance to the hideout was in a closet on the far end of the building. It was a metal door that had been drilled into the ground. It looked much like a manhole cover. One of the Resistance soldiers helped lift it up and all of us were instructed to take the ladder down to the basement level. Finally, after leading us through a maze of hallways and into the hideout, Allison made good on her promise of lunch and rest, though I didn’t eat.
The basement of the building was dark with soft orange glows throughout. It obviously stretched out much farther than simply the base of the building. This had to be the basement of the entire block. It was heavily fortified and Allison had told us there were several emergency escape exits. The Resistance had been working on this place for years, way before Allison had been named leader.
Christopher sat next to me in a chair as the others had lunch. He placed a hand on my shoulder and I started feel as though there was nothing wrong at all. But I still didn’t feel one hundred percent. To do that, he would have to use every ounce of his ability, and I could never ask him to do that.
Feeling much better, I closed my eyes for just a moment and let my thoughts drift to Connor. I hoped he was doing better than I was.