Atlantic Island (32 page)

"Sniper!" someone yelled.
 

Kylee snapped into action. "Spread between the buildings! Off the streets! Everybody, now!"

The rebels disbursed quickly, ducking for cover. Suddenly, a noise from the side of the supply wagon. A bullet had missed one of the women surrounding the vehicle and embedded itself in the rusty metal side. Kylee pointed toward the side of the street from which she now knew the bullet had been fired. Bill and Joseph, the only part of the inner circle still near her, both nodded and bolted in that direction. Kylee followed them, watching as she went to make sure the army was properly covered.
 

She hated leaving their supplies out in the open, but she knew that despite the attack from either a roof or maybe a second story window, there was no way for the enemy to get to them by the streets. The rebels still had all directions covered. Kylee was proud as she saw the women taking positions in the shadows. They were not panicking, despite the loss of one of their own, a friend now lying dead in the middle of the street.
 

She followed Bill and Joseph to a partially demolished store on the edge of the circle Tiberius was clearing. She had been prepared for the bright lights of the demolition zone, fully expecting some kind of reaction from the construction crews as the small army moved past. She had even anticipated that there might be an issue with a Security Force presence in the area.

Kylee realized she hadn't known they were approaching the construction zone because the spotlights were turned off. The crews were not working. Was it possible that Tiberius had anticipated their attack? It seemed unlikely. If he had, they would have faced the full Security Force and their problems would be infinitely more complicated. This was some kind of unfortunate coincidence.

The back door to the remaining half of the shop was wide open. She motioned silently to Bill and Joseph. They checked inside the door and Bill flashed her an "okay" gesture. She walked past them, her M16 at the ready.
 

Something was very wrong with this situation. A woman was dead because Kylee hadn't anticipated that the demolition zone would be shut down for the night. She was ashamed that she didn't even know which woman it had been. Why would Tiberius call all the crew and guards off the job site, unless… was it possible that he intended to do something tonight? Something involving Theo, and he didn't want anybody to miss it. As Kylee led the way up the stairs, she became convinced that she was right. All the more reason to take care of this problem and keep on moving.
 

On the second floor of the building, only one door was open. Kylee pointed, and Bill and Joseph moved carefully into position on either side of the opening. Bill leaned his head over to peer through the doorway. He pulled back quickly and nodded at Kylee. The sniper was in there. Waiting for the rebels to spread back out into the street.
 

Kylee pointed to Joseph and at the door. Joseph nodded. The three of them exchanged glances, assuring that all were ready. Joseph made his move. He stepped into the room with his gun pointed.
 

"Do not move," Joseph said in his thick accent. Kylee and Bill followed into the room. The sniper had set up his nest by one of the windows. He was frozen in a modified pushup position. He must have been startled and had started to get to his feet when he registered Joseph's command and stopped.
 

Kylee approached the sniper. He was wearing his helmet. Theo had been sure the helmets contained some kind of night vision capability, and she was now inclined to agree. "I'm going to ask you turn around. When I do, you will get up and turn to face me, as slowly as possible. I want your hands up behind your head. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, I understand," came the response, slightly muffled by the helmet.

"Okay. We're going to do this on three. One. Two."

The man spun to a seated position. Kylee was caught off-guard and had just enough time to register the pistol in the sniper's hand. She heard the bang of a gun firing. She looked down, expecting to see a hole in her chest. She saw nothing... felt nothing. She looked back up. The sniper was dead, folded over onto his back. A hole was smashed in the glass over one side of his mask. She looked over at Bill. He had a shocked look on his face, and he pointed toward Joseph.
 

Joseph's gun was still drawn. Kylee ran over to him. "Joseph, you saved me!"

Joseph's face was deadly serious. "He will kill no more of our people."

"Holy crap," said Bill in a shocked whisper. "Joey, you are the very definition of badass."

"We need to get back out to the street and keep moving," Kylee said. She was determined not to let the others see just how much this situation had upset her. The death of one of her soldiers, and her own near-death experience had thrown her mind into a spin. She had to maintain focus and control. Had to get back on the road, moving block by block toward Theo.
 

She led the way to the door. As she crossed the threshold, the sniper's radio crackled. "Nestor, come in. This is Supreme Leader Tiberius. Your superiors told me you reported rebel troop movements?"

Kylee looked at Bill and Joseph. "Bill, this has to be you."

Bill smiled. "Alright, you'll get exactly what you want. Brace yourselves, I'm about to show you my Nestor."

He walked over to Nestor's body with caution, as if he expected the dead man to rise up and grab him.
 

"Nestor," Tiberius called again amidst the static on the radio, "Nestor, do you read me?"

Bill leaned down over Nestor and took the radio. He took a deep breath. Pressing the button he said, "This is Nestor, oh Supreme Leader."

"Good. Nestor, you said there was troop movement?"

"I was mistaken, Supreme Leader. Only two of the rebels. I shot and killed one, the other ran away. I think I was fooled by shadows."

Silence. Bill looked up to Kylee for approval. She gave him a thumbs up.

"Very well," Tiberius said. He sounded disappointed. "Congratulations on your kill. You have done a great service for your country and I will instruct your commander to award you proper honors."

"Thank you, sir. Have a glorious night."

Bill dropped the radio and walked over to the door. "How did I do?"

Kylee smiled. "You did great, Bill. Let's get back to the others."

They walked back down to the ground level and made their way back out on Atlantic Avenue. Kylee looked at the sky. The sun of a universe to which they did not belong was low on the horizon. She guessed there was only maybe an hour before they would be plunged into total darkness. She knew there was not much time for them to connect with Carlos Menendez and assault the prison.
 

She signaled to the rebels hiding around the street. They emerged from every possible hiding place, and moved to the center of the road, where the fallen woman lay in a puddle of dark blood. A woman named Debra checked the body and looked up at Kylee. "It's Helen," Debra said, tears in her eyes.
 

Kylee flashed back to her few conversations with Helen. Her time training with her in the street outside the safe house. A friendly face, one of many that had provided her and her friends with food and shelter. Now a face that stared blankly at the darkening sky. How many more friendly faces would she lose? How many more would die for this cause?

Kylee walked over to Helen's body. She put her hand on Debra's shoulder. "I'll take care of it from here. She knelt down and scooped up Helen's body. Kylee carried the body to the side of the road and placed it gently on the ground. She closed the vacant eyes with her fingers.
 

"She will be hidden well enough here for now," she said to her army. "When we are victorious, we will return and bury our dead." As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she regretted the connotation. Her words held the implication that Helen would not be the only one buried at the conclusion of this conflict.
 

Kylee worked her way back to the front of the line. Ryan and Jamie approached as she neared the head of the group.
 

"Kylee," Ryan said, "we have an idea."

"Okay, Ry, what is it?"

"We're about to go through the demolition zone, right? Well, it's possible there are other traps arranged for us."

"I agree," Kylee said, "so how do you want to handle it?"

"What if we go down by the beach?"

She was confused. "The beach? Ry, it's going to be hard to maneuver the SUV onto the boardwalk, and there are supposedly guards around the camp of the people who got evicted from their...oh."

Ryan smiled. "Exactly. Who better to recruit for our army than the people who have been dumped into tents on the beach?"

"Okay," she said. Kylee's brain was on maximum throttle, cooking up strategy for an attack. She called Brian and Liz to her.

"What's up, Kylee?" asked Liz.
 

"I need to know an estimate of the typical security on the beach camp."

Liz turned to Brian. "What do you think? Five to ten?"

Brian scratched his chin. "Yeah. I'd say closer to ten, but we don't know what exactly is going on tonight."

"That's fine." She turned to address the rebels. "We're going to take a little detour, people, and it's probably going to be an ugly one. We're going to take over the beach camp, and recruit the people living there. We anticipate a little resistance from the Security Force. You know what I expect. Listen carefully to my orders. Be aware of your surroundings. I don't want losses if we can avoid them. And watch out for innocents.
 

"Those of you in charge of the SUV, you're going to have to bring up the rear along the boardwalk. Stay back and out of the conflict as long as you can until we give you the all-clear. The rest I'm going to divide as you walk past me. We are going to travel down four access points to the beach at once. Remember that these aren't full side streets any longer because of the demolition. Be careful to keep to the shadows until we are all at the boardwalk. Watch your backs. Let's go."

They fell into position in accordance with Kylee's orders. This, then, was what Theo had told her about. The funny feeling of disbelief he got every time people responded positively and with respect to his decisions. She was seeing that now. Somehow, a teenaged girl with some Security Force training was now the general of the rebel army, and they treated her as such.
 

She divided the army into different groups, assigning them various approaches to the beach. She sent some of her inner circle with each group, keeping Joseph with her. There was a power to him, a violence that she had not realized was there. She had a hunch that it would be harder for him to transform to Mr. Hyde if he was standing next to Andrew. Dividing them was the more prudent tactic.
 

She led Joseph and five of the women up the closest of the approaches. The beach was littered with tents. Campfires provided flickering views of the encampment. Kylee thought her army probably had the advantage of numbers over whatever brigade of the Security Force was present. With their high-tech helmets, the Force had the advantage of sight. They would be able to pick her troops out of the darkness as soon as they came around any kind of barrier. The attack would have to be swift.

The rebels knew that her group would take the first shot. At that point, she expected the other guards to reveal themselves. Then she would see what her army was made of. On her stomach, she crawled to the edge of the boardwalk and studied the beach.
 

She could make out six guards around the perimeter of the camp. There might be others mixed in among the tents or far enough away for her not to be able to identify their black attire. She would have to do what she could and hope for the best.
 

She signaled her group. They all lined up on their stomachs on the cool wood. Her mind flashed briefly to a time long ago when she had fallen to the boards not terribly far from here with Theo. That night had changed them all. It was easy to think that the Event had transformed the potential life she and Theo would have otherwise had together, but Kylee was not so naïve. In another lifetime, in literally another world, she and Theo would have gone their separate ways after a summer of fun. Now, she had seen what it was like to be an adult. To live with Theo, to fall in love with him in a deep, meaningful way. It was hard to be thankful for anything that came from the Event, but in a way she was.

"We are ready for your signal, Kylee," said Joseph.
 

She pulled her head up and made eye contact with her whole team. All eyes were on her. She pointed from each woman to a guard on the beach and made sure each understood who her particular target was going to be. She gave Joseph his assignment last. She was only targeting three of the guards. To aim for any more, any farther away, would be foolish. This way she could feel more confident at the odds of a kill, and leave her soldiers with the thought that maybe it wasn't his or her bullet that connected.
 

She lined up her aim. She took three deep breaths, steadying herself. "Now!" she cried, and fired.

Theo returned to his room after lunch and stood by the window. He looked out at the city. The city and the island on which it stood belonged to a maniac. Come nightfall, he would hope to change all that. It was a hard thing for him to imagine, given his current state of imprisonment.
 

The more Theo thought, the more his nerves began to get the better of him. He paced around the room, drawing concerned looks from his cellmates. What was he thinking, putting Kylee in this situation? Not just Kylee, but Bill and Ryan, his closest friends. Jamie, the rest of the inner circle, all those brave women who had provided him with a home. He had forced a play that could get everyone killed.
 

He couldn't be sure what was going to happen tonight, but he didn't see a pleasant evening under any circumstances. He saw a possibility where he was killed by a guard, a possibility where Tiberius discovered the rebel attack and expedited his execution, and a possibility where he was freed from this place only to enter a war.