Waterproof (8 page)

A loud roar broke through the silence and headlights soon appeared in the distance. I hoped it was Trevor and sighed in relief when I saw the off-road vehicle
pull up beside us. Sasha and I lifted the girl onto the back platform and hopped in the jeep-like machine. Pushing Trevor out of the way, Sasha slid behind the wheel.

No one spoke as we hurt
led through the night away from our friends and the memories that camp would always hold for me. Sitting in the back seat, I let the tears fall down my cheeks knowing this would be the last time I would allow myself to mourn.

Tomorrow would be time for revenge.

EIGHT

Vivienne

I watched Carrie break away from the man holding her, and knew this would be our only opportunity. Driving my elbow back into the gut of the mercenary behind me, I quickly tu
rned and landed a hard right jab on his face. He dropped like a stone.

A pair of hands grabbed my shoulders and threw me to the ground.
My knee landed on a rock, sending a wave of pain into my leg. Hunter yelled and jumped onto the back of my attacker, looking more like a crazed animal than the adolescent boy waltzing with me moments ago.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the mercenaries drag Zach away from the fire and into the woods. Feeling helpless and sick, I froze. But the gunshot quickly sent me back into action.

Carrie was dead.

The giant man who first entered our camp shot her in the back as she
tried to run away. I looked over at her silent body and even through the darkness, I knew she was gone. Suddenly, Hunter fell on top of me, knocking both of us down.

“Are you okay?” I asked him once I untangled myself from his limbs. As I started to stand, the large mercenary spoke to us.

“Get up.”

“Kiss my ass,” Hunter said as he positioned himself in front of me.

The man cocked his head to the side and smiled. Dark hair fell over his right eye and the fire lit up the dimple on the side of his cheek. I stood up behind Hunter, and tried to pull him out of the way. But I was too late. In a move Hunter never saw coming, the man swung his fist out and hit the boy hard in the nose. Hunter fell to his knees.

“I said get up,” the man yelled.
He raised his gun in preparation for another hit.

“Stop it!” I screamed, jumping forward to
intercept his swing. I reached the gun in time to knock him off balance, then landed a punch in his stomach. The hard abdomen seemed impenetrable, but I heard him groan in pain before he rose to his full height and glared at me. I readied myself for a fight, but instead he grinned.

Moving too
quickly yet again, he bent down and yanked Hunter up by the hair. When I stepped forward to grab my friend, the man lifted his gun to the side of Hunter’s temple.

“Don’t.”

The look in his eyes told me he’d kill an innocent boy without a second thought. “Please don’t hurt him,” I whispered.

“Vee…” Hunter’s strangled cry was cut short when the barrel of the man’s gun dug deeper into his skin.

I stared at the evil mercenary. “Try not to fight him, Hunter. It’ll all be okay.”

“You should listen to her, Hunter. She understands the situation you’re in,” the man said with a glint in his eyes
.

I heard more commotion on the far side of our camp followed by several gun shots. Fear streaked through my body, but I couldn’t bear to think th
at Zach was hurt or dead. I simply couldn’t handle that right now.

“What do you want with us?” I asked, but never got an answer. Instead, pain ripped through my shoulders as my arms were yanked behind me. I felt the plastic cuffs tighten against my wrists and watched the mercenary
in front of me toss Hunter to the side.

“Take him,” he commanded to one of his minions, then turned to face me. “She’s mine.”

Hunter kicked and screamed and tried to pull away with no success. The man and I stared at each other for several moments, sizing up our opponent and strategizing a plan of attack. At least that’s what I was doing.

“You’re a good fighter, aren’t you?” he finally asked.

“Take these cuffs off and I’ll give you a demonstration,” I spat back.

He laughed. “I bet you would.”

“Why are you working for them?” I asked. Maybe a conversation would buy me some time before the rest of the group came to rescue me.

“The government?”

I nodded.

“It’s a long story,” he said. Taking a few steps closer to me, he continued to peruse my body with his eyes. At a foot taller than me, his broad shoulders and chest should have been intimidating. “Too bad you’re on the wrong side.”

“What?” I asked, not liking his insinuation.

“We need more fighters. Not spoiled brats like them.” He jerked his head toward the two mercenaries dragging Hunter onto the back of a four wheeler.

I didn’t understand what that comment meant. “What are you talking about?”

As though suddenly remembering the situation, he shook his head and grabbed my elbow. “Nothing,” he grumbled. “Let’s go.”

His large hands dragged me forward
through the dirt like a piece of trash. Scrambling to get my feet I attempted to kick at him, but he was very skilled when it came to avoiding my attacks. Finally he stopped walking and turned my shoulders so I faced him. His dark eyes bore down at me, but something in them had changed. The killer had returned.

“Stop fighting me or
I’ll kill him.”

I glanced at
Hunter, who now had a gag in his mouth and sat between two mercenaries on the back of the vehicle. If it had been just my life threatened, I wouldn’t have cared. But I couldn’t be responsible for killing Hunter. I felt my eyes fill with tears.

“Understand?” the man continued.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and set aside my pride. “Yes,” I whispered.

Letting him drag me into the woods, I ran a thousand scenarios through my mind. Could I break free, rip off the cuffs, grab his gun, and shoot before he gave the command to kill Hunter? Where was Zach? Maybe he could distract the man, giving me a chance to escape.

The loud rumbling of multiple engines drowned out all other sounds in the camp. My captor pushed me into the seat of an off-road vehicle and proceeded to add another set of cuffs to my ankles. With his head so close to my feet, I could barely deal with the temptation to kick.

As though sensing my thoughts, he turned his head up and looked at me. He didn’t
say anything, but I knew what his look meant: fight and Hunter’s dead. A quick burst of shots echoed in the distance and I knew they came from Sasha’s revolver. At least she was still alive at the moment. And if she was alive…

“Zach!” I screamed. Our vehicle lurched forward and sped off into the night, and I worried he never heard me call for help.

With just a small beam of light in front of us, the mercenary dodged trees and rocks when we bounced along a trail I couldn’t see. Other headlights darted through the night, as the mercenaries retreated from their attack with bounty in hand. Suddenly, my captor made a sharp turn to the left and I nearly fell out, were it not for his hand grabbing my jacket and yanking me back inside. After that, he continued to reach out for me each time we rounded a bend or barreled over a large rock.

I didn’t know how long we’d been riding before we reached the top of a clearing. Looking down over the ridge, I saw a road in the distance. The first remnants of daylight began to break free, highlighting the dirt
path and giving me a picture of our surroundings. Flanked by mountains, I knew we must be close to the government’s territory. The barren trees gave way to a variety of greens, meaning water was nearby.

My heart dropped. We’d camped too close.

Three vehicles burst from the edge of the forest and raced down the hill. I saw Hunter in the back of one, but then noticed who they held in the other. Max. He appeared to be unconscious if his bouncing body was any indication. How did they get Max?

I caught my mercenary staring at me before quickly shifting my eyes forward and down toward the road. We followed behind the group and in no time at all, had reached the valley and raced along the abandoned highway. I’d guessed we were moving west, and the rising sun confirmed my suspicions.

West meant this road led to the factory. One of the two facilities sat just over the western side of the Mississippi, the other had been built in northern California. Fear ripped through me. I couldn’t let Hunter work in the factory. He’d never survive.

A series of honking horns
blared behind us, and I jumped with the sound. The group of mercenaries pulled their small vehicles off to the side so that a caravan of military cargo trucks could drive by. Dust flew from the road, encompassing us all in a cloud. The diesel fumes brought back memories of days with my old car, and the nostalgia nearly made me cry. Nothing would be the same now. I was as good as dead.

The last truck in the caravan came to a stop beside us. Brakes squeaked and the truck rocked back
with a final movement. My mercenary jumped off his vehicle and walked around to greet the driver. A dark green tarp covered the bed of the truck, but I swear I heard voices inside.

“Good hunting trip, Riley?” The driver patted my captor on the back. He didn’t get anything in return. “I’m almost full, so how many do you have?”

“Three.” Riley replied. I wondered if that was a first or last name for him.

“Huh. I thought there were supposed
to be more at that camp?”

“We got three. That’s enough for now.”

The younger mercenary looked up at Riley in confusion. However, he must have decided to leave it alone and kept his comment to himself. “Okay, we can shove them in here.”

Riley turned and looked at me.
“Come.” He spoke as though I lived on his every word. I didn’t move. “Get over here now,” he said with an angry tone. I didn’t want him to hurt Hunter, so I complied even though it killed every part of me.

As I swung my legs down toward the ground, I realized how much everything hurt. My knee would definitely be bruised, my shoulder muscles burned, and my heart ached for Zach. I tried to remember our time in the cabin just a few hours ago as I walked to the truck that would take me to my death.

Stumbling over my own feet, I finally got to the back of the cargo bed. The driver had flipped the tarp back revealing a truck full of humans. All deserters like us.

“What?” My voice drifted off as I tried to ask a question I already knew the answer to.

“Your new ride,” the driver answered.

“Get in,” my mercenary demanded. Then he did something unexpected…he cut off my cuffs.
“And don’t be a hero.”

He pushed my back so
that I moved forward. I turned and glared at the man. In the limited daylight, I saw that he couldn’t have been much older than me, and his dark hair with even darker eyes would have made him handsome had he not been psychotic.

I climbed into the truck only to see limited space to sit. At least thirty others had been crammed
inside and most were sleeping or unconscious. The heavy smell of old blood filled the air, and the rank odor of deserters on the run assaulted my senses.

A second after I found
a small spot on the floor, they tossed Max in after me. His face looked nearly unrecognizable as both eyes had swelled more than I knew possible and blood covered his mouth and chin. Bending my head down, I listened to Max’s breath. In spite of his injuries, he seemed to be breathing slow and steady and relief washed over me. If Max couldn’t survive, surely none of us would.

Hunter climbed in next and immediately hurried to my side.
The boy that tried to protect me now cowered behind my own trembling frame, accepting our fate and dealing with the emotion of our impending death.

I
reached behind me and across Hunter’s waist. “Don’t be scared,” I whispered.

The driver snorted at my words as he began to pull down the dark green tarp. The rising sunlight gave way to a
murky and musty environment, reminding me how trapped we all really were. Rats in a cage on the way to the sewer.

“You going back out?” the driver asked,
and I assumed he spoke to Riley.

“No, I’m following you in.”

“Did you get your quota?” Silence filled the air. “Your funeral,” the driver said before I heard the distinct sound of footsteps crunching in the gravel.

Suddenly
, light pierced through the back of the truck, forcing me to shield my eyes. As the stars sparkling through my vision began to clear, I noticed Riley staring directly at me. Our gazes met and just when I expected him to threaten me, he dropped his head and closed the tarp.

Engines rumbled to life again, fumes filling the back of the truck. Several of the captured deserters coughed and groaned with the movement, but most stayed silent. I wondered how long they’d been traveling along this road. It wasn’t often that we came across other camps. But maybe they were forced to take a risk like us. The need for food and water trumped safety and common people risked being captured for a chance to live one more day.

“What happened to Zach?” Hunter asked.

I looked behind me and pulled him in a tight hug. Rubbing my hands over his back, I let the tears fall freely. “I’m sure he got away,” I said.

“And the others?”

“Yes, them too.”

Except for Carrie, but neither of us had to say that out loud. Max stirred beside me, or maybe it had just been the movement of the truck. Either way I worried for the safety of all the mercenaries when Max woke up and realized Sasha was gone. He would think the worst and he would make them pay.