Summer Wishes (Desire #1.5) (8 page)

Jocelyn glanced up at Jacob. His eyes were wide and alert and his lips were parted in a grin that resembled that of the young man she’d once known.

They were getting away, she thought as she allowed herself to smile with him. They were succeeding, the Enforcers falling far behind.

The asphalt of the dark and vacant road belonged to them.

“We did it,” Jocelyn dared announce.

No sooner were the words out that a line of fierce and murderous Enforcers appeared on the horizon.  Their arms interlocked they blocked the path.

Jacob spun around and turned into a narrow alleyway. Proud of his initiative, Jocelyn quickly realized too late the error he had made. Within seconds a line of Enforcers appeared before them.

He spun back around.  The line of Enforcers they’d first encountered now blocked the entrance of the alley. They were boxed in.

“We can’t just stay here like sitting ducks,” Matthew said.

Wasting no time he jumped off Jacob’s platform and charged the closest Enforcer. His surprise attack threw the Enforcer off and Matthew even managed to rage on and demolished two more, but as they closed in, their sheer numbers overwhelming Matthew.

At that very moment she lost sight of him drowning in a sea of arms and legs as the Enforcers overcame and beat him. Jocelyn, herself, was gripped in a tight, unrelenting vice. Two Enforcers held her, their grips strong, but her determination won her temporary reprieve. She kicked as hard as she could and aimed her kick in areas that would do the most damage, but it was not enough. One Enforcer toppled back with an angry grunt while the other fell to his knees.

More Enforcers stepped in, intent on getting a firm hold of her, but seemingly reluctant to do her any harm. Perhaps it was because she was a girl? Perhaps they needed her to remain unharmed or her body to remain unharmed? She did not know and did not care, but took full advantage of that fact and fought with every cell in her body.

“There’s no use fighting it,” one Enforcer warned. He stood close to Jocelyn, his eyes boring through hers, his acrid breath blowing in her face.  “Why don’t you just calm down and let us take you back to the lab? All we want is to ask you a few questions.”

“You can ask your questions here,” Jocelyn said.

Pinned to the wall by four Enforcers, Matthew ceased his struggles, his loud pants expressing the difficulty of the battle he’d attempted to win.

“Vivian is the one who’ll want to talk to you.  Why don’t you just make it easier on both of you and walk back with us? It’ll be a whole lot more comfortable than having us push and shove you there.”

“We’ve seen enough of how you
question
prisoners,” Matthew spat.

“You’re not prisoners,” the Enforcer corrected.  “It’s obvious you guys are just confused kids who don’t know what they’re doing. We just want to set everything right before you head back out into Arcadia.

“Don’t believe them, Jocelyn.”

Stunned by the first words uttered by her brother, Jocelyn turned to him.  “Jacob.”

“They don’t know the meaning of talking.  Prisoner or not, you’ll meet the same fate as all the others in there, whether that be walking out onto that field or being transported like I have.”

“I’ll give you one last chance to come with us peacefully, Miss.”

“I’d rather die out here than go back in there,” Jocelyn said defiantly, trying to act brave.

“Fine,” he said. He gestured to the goons surrounding her. “Bring her in. Use whatever force you need to subdue her, short of killing her, but make sure she ends up at Vivian’s feet.”

“Jacob,” Jocelyn called out as the Enforcers dragged her away.

The lights on Jacobs’ panels began flashing, and he wheeled with a speed of a vehicle over to Jocelyn’s side. His movements were fluid and agile, lacking the awkwardness he’d initially shown. His robotic arms of steel lifted and became sharp like swords. Without hesitating, his arm stabbed through the chest of one of the Enforcers. He had the strength of ten, the speed beyond any human being and the instinct for combat that surely came from only within his brain, his memories, and his time spent on the outside. Jacob had lost his body, only to be replaced by a fighting machine. But why?

As Enforcers came after him one by one, Jacob used his massive steel arms to cut them down. At one point, when an Enforcers fired a shot at him, a brilliant blue light like a laser beam surrounded Jacob, creating a shield right before the bullet would hit, and disintegrated the bullet. Before long several Enforcers lay in a bloody pile, some dead, most left unable to fight any longer.

“Get away,” Jacob called to Jocelyn as he forged on, fighting the Enforcers who held Matthew captive. “Run.”

“Jacob, what about you? I came here to get you, to bring you back to Melanie.”

“Run while I fight them off, Jocelyn. I’ll be right behind you. I’ll catch up to you.”

Matthew came to Jocelyn’s side as Jacob continued the fight. “Come on, he’s right.”

“No,” Jocelyn said. “I won’t leave him.  I can’t.  Not after all we’ve been through.”

“You saw the speed he’s capable of.  If we start running now, he’ll be at our heels in no time.”

Jocelyn hesitated. Jacob appeared to have regained all his senses. He no longer needed her to order him, to tell him what to do every step of the way.  He fought valiantly, admirably. Surely Matthew and Jacob were both right. She needed to run, to save herself, to make it back home, yet her feet seemed cemented to the very spot she stood.

She’d lost him once to banishment. She thought she’d lost him again when she witnessed the horrors of the Old Coliseum. She couldn’t bear the thought of losing him again, of not knowing what had become of him.

Matthew grabbed her elbow and forced her away, dragging her out of the alley and onto the main boulevard. “Come on, Jocelyn.”

She glanced back and was horrified by the sight she saw. An Enforcer reached out, punched the flashing light in the middle of Jacob’s chest and essentially shut him down. Jacob stood motionless, helpless.

Jocelyn pried her arm free of Matthew’s hold and ran back into the alley.

“Don’t, Jocelyn,” Jacob shouted. “You can’t do anything to save me.”

“I can’t leave you.” She stopped when an Enforcer inched closer.

“I’ve lived my life, Jocelyn, more than you’ll ever know. I’ve known the joys of love, the hardships of banishment and the triumphant satisfaction of knowing just how much I’m capable of.”

“Jacob,” she whimpered.

“Don’t throw your life away,” he warned.  “Leave Arcadia.”

The Enforcers began to drag him away.

“Don’t wait for your Life’s Plan, Jocelyn.  Don’t wait another day.  Leave.”

An Enforcer tried to stifle him, but Jacob twisted his head away and continued his warnings.

“It’s your turn to discover who you are, Jocelyn.  Your turn to be strong  Please be strong.  Tell Melanie I love her.”

Tears welled in Jocelyn’s eyes as the realization of Jacob’s truth sunk in. There was nothing she could do to save him. She had to save herself. Falling to her knees, she watched them drag her brother away, no doubt to a fate she’d rather not know of.

“Come on,” Matthew said gently, kissing the top of her forehead in comfort. He pulled her up. “They might send reinforcements to capture us any moment now. You heard Jacob. Don’t let him die in vain, Jocelyn. You have to live. We have to leave Arcadia. Now we have no choice.”

Epilogue

I
t was too surreal. The nightmare that had begun earlier had taken a turn for the worse. In a daze, she followed Matthew, trusting him blindly.  They ran until they reached the well-lit portion of the boulevard.

“You okay?” Matthew stopped and grabbed Jocelyn’s shoulders.

“No.”

“I can’t imagine how difficult this is for you, but you do realize we had little choice. We did the best we could to get Jacob out of there.  We’ve tried. Now we have to do all we can to get ourselves out of here, out of Arcadia.”

“Out of Arcadia and into where, Matthew?  You heard what Melanie said, how difficult life was on the outside.  What chance do we have of surviving out there?”

Matthew inched closer. “I love you. Whatever chance we have of surviving out there, we have to take it.” He kissed her, transmitting to her the power of his love.

With a great sense of loss, Jocelyn followed Matthew as they walked down the boulevard. The road was barren with not a soul in sight.

“There has to be more to it than just that,” Jocelyn said quietly as they strolled hand in hand.  “Something awful is happening to Arcadia. Something had unleashed this barbaric side of the Committee. The Committee are made up of normal decent people…people who are parents to friends we know like Sarah, even Liam. How can this be happening? Can’t you feel it?”

“After what we saw tonight, I don’t know what I feel. I think I feel I’ve been fooled. We’ve all been fooled into thinking our lives here were one thing, when all along it’s been something else.”

“But for so long life here was good, Matthew.  Look at my parents; they’re happy.” She stopped suddenly and looked up at him.  “Everything changed when Kama got that Life’s Plan.”

“I think the changes in Arcadia are due to something more significant than one citizen’s undesired Life’s Plan.”

“Matthew, Kama’s Life’s Plan wasn’t just unpleasant, it was blank, totally blank. That has never happen in Arcadia history. The Committee does not make mistakes. If so, everyone would be protesting their Life’s Plans. Hers was clearly the signal for something. I don’t know what, but something we don’t even have a clue what it can be.”

He stopped to consider her words.

“Whatever happened to her Life’s Plan, it had serious consequences, or at least the Committee anticipates serious consequences.” She turned away from Matthew, the gears in her head turning a mile a minute.  So much had happened in so short a span of time.

“You're getting worked up about nothing, Jocelyn. Kama was dating the governor’s son, that’s why the Committee got upset.”

“No, Matthew it’s more than that.  I don’t know what it is exactly, I can’t quite put my finger on what’s going on, but something is going on. Stop denying it. Those Enforcers…the way they were acting, it was like they weren’t human. They even spoke of us as though we were animals.”

“Then that’s all the more reason to hurry up and get out of here.”

“And leave everyone behind to deal with what’s coming.  This isn’t just about leaving Jacob behind.  What about Melanie… and the baby. What about our families? Do you think you can live with yourself if we leave knowing that death and destruction may come to your family?  Knowing you had wimped out and saved only yourself.”

Matthew sighed out his exasperation.

“So let’s head home and convince everyone to come along.  We can save everyone who is closest to us.”

Jocelyn brought a finger to her pursed lips as she continued to consider the upheaval of Arcadia.

Kama had always been a special little girl, even young Jocelyn had realized that. It wasn’t just because she was pretty and likable, there was something different about her… it was as though she had a knack of knowing what people thought sometimes, little things like that. And she was exceptionally smart, and brave, a natural leader in everything she did. She once overheard Liam tell Kama that she should be Governor of Arcadia rather than him, when he first received his Life’s Plan, which stated he would be the future Governor.

“Kama has something that is scaring the Committee,” she said. “With her blank Life’s Plan, they realized she was a danger to them, a threat.  Maybe to their dogmatism, to their way of life, to their reason for being; I don’t know what, but she’s scared them of something.”

Matthew resumed his stride, his shoulders rounded by defeat.

“The battle we have to wage is right here in Arcadia, Matthew,” Jocelyn said as she came up beside him. “It’s not on the outside. Whatever is to become of the people here, we have to stick around.”

“And what if you're wrong?”

She shook her head. “Kama needs us.  Jacob was the leader of the Resistance from the outside. We have to work from within. Whatever is coming, Kama needs us to support and help her. We’ve seen the horror of what people will face if we don’t. After what we went through tonight, I think that is the only choice we can make. We make an awesome team, Matthew. We might be exactly what she needs to help save Arcadians.”

“We have to take care of Melanie and the baby first,” Matthew said. “Remember, the Enforcers are probably already on their way over to your house. We need to get to her before they do.”

Jocelyn nodded her agreement and they hurried as fast as they could, taking shortcuts all the way to the Ruby District.

By the time they had reached Jocelyn’s neighborhood and then her street, they were exhausted. Despite their exhaustion, both Matthew and Jocelyn could not believe what they saw next.

A large white van was parked in front of the house, and a group of Enforcers were lined outside with batons. Two Enforcers each held in their hands the leather leashes to two hungry-looking feral dogs…the same ones that Jocelyn and Matthew had seen inside the Old Coliseum, and they were headed inside Jocelyn’s house.