Chapter 6: Liberating Camp Lincoln
The drive over to the camp wasn't too chatty, Josh drove with Skylar sitting in the front seat next to him while Dale sat next to Ester and Anna sat with Brittany in the bed of the truck. Brittany looked up at the winter sky. She had seen holiday lights on the remaining houses that still had people living there. "I think it's around Christmas." She said, smiling as she saw some people still showing heart in their everyday lives. "Look at all the lights." She pointed them out to Anna, amazed by all of the different decorations. "I haven't seen these since before the war."
Anna nodded, smiling as well. "It's amazing how something as awful as the war still brings people together," she said, watching as the truck flew by the houses. Ester was directing them towards the camp, and eventually they got off the main road and started driving through the forest, both to avoid any Freedom Healer patrols and so that they could stealthily approach Camp Lincoln like they had planned to.
Once they made it to the spot Ester had talked about, they parked truck just inside the trees. Skylar made sure his uniform was on properly before grabbing a nightstick and a gun rifle. Dale walked up to him and helped him fix his hat. "Be careful," she said.
"I will be, I promise." Skylar said smiling at her.
Then suddenly Dale did something unexpected and kissed Skylar, taking everyone in the group, especially Skylar by surprise. Though it didn't take him very long to kiss her back, placing his hands on her waist while she cupped his cheeks.
When they broke the kiss, Dale blushed a little. "You better keep that promise."
Skylar was still was in a bit of a trance from the kiss but he nodded. "I will."
"Okay, now you better go before another patrol comes by this area," Dale said, smiling at Skylar. Skylar nodded, looking back at the group one more time before he crawled through the hole in the fence and was into the camp.
"And now we wait," Anna said, relaxing a little bit in her spot in the bed of the truck.
"And now we wait." Brittany repeated. The night was cold and as they waited for Skylars first group of prisoners a light snow began to fall. Brittany smiled, as it was the first time she'd ever seen snow in her life. "So this is what snow looks like." She said smiling.
"You've never seen snow before?" Anna asked.
"Anna, I'm from Florida. We get heavy rain." Brittany said with a chuckle.
"Isn't it funny how your last name is Snow and you've never seen it until now?" Anna said, smiling at the younger girl as she watch the snowfall in awe.
Brittany chuckled a little bit. "Wow, that was a real good one," the blonde said sarcastically.
Anna sensed the sarcasm in her voice, and she smiled. "Hey, I'm just trying to lighten the mood here." After a moment, Anna looked up at the sky. "It's definitely a cool sight to see."
"It's amazing how something so simple, is so beautiful." Brittany said, smiling up at the sky as the snow continued to fall.
Anna smiled at Brittany, gazing at her. She did this for a while before absentmindedly saying, "Yeah, it is pretty amazing." She said, not peeling her eyes away from Brittany.
"What is the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?" Brittany asked.
"If I told you, you'd call me a romantic cheeseball." Anna said, looking down for a moment.
"Maybe I like romantic cheese balls," Brittany replied, which made Anna blush. "Come on, just tell me what you were gonna say."
"Well, there's this girl, we met about a month and a half ago. She's my best friend. Maybe you know her. Gorgeous blonde hair and incredible blue eyes. And a smile that could cure cancer and her laugh could be cute for sadness." Anna said, looking down at the truck bed's floor with red cheeks, more from a blush. "It's you."
It was now Brittany's turn to blush. Anna's words were one of the greatest compliments she had ever received. "Th-thanks, Anna," the blonde stuttered, smiling shyly.
"I guessing yours is Hadley." Anna said, scratching her head and sniffling from the cold air.
"What?" Britt asked.
"The most beautiful thing you've ever seen." Anna answered. "You like to talk about how beautiful she was, so I figured that she was the most beautiful thing you've ever seen."
"Oh," Britt said quietly. She didn't really know how to answer that so she just said. "Yeah, she was and still is." She said, smiling sheepishly, feeling awkward whenever she talked about Hadley in front of Anna.
Anna nodded, looking away for a couple moments. She then looked up, hearing footsteps approaching them. She raised her gun, gesturing for everyone to be quiet. Once everyone was quiet, four people climbed out of the hole one by one.
"Melieke! Tyra!" Ester said, running her her little sister and her boyfriend's family. As they embraced each other, Brittany felt a little bit of pain in her stomach. She was happy that Ester was able to reunite with her loved ones, but it reminded her of the fact that she wouldn't see them again.
Anna noticed this and pulled Britt into a side hug, kissing the side of her head quickly. Skylar poked his head through the hole and Josh said, "Bring more at a time if you can. The more trips you take, the bigger chances we have of getting caught."
Skylar nodded and then headed back into the camp to get more people. Anna watched Skylar go back into the camp, and then she went back over to the truck. "Alright guys, you're going to have to squeeze in so we can fit as many people as possible," Anna said to Ester and her family. Brittany hopped out of the truck to make room for everyone in the bed of the truck.
It took about ten minutes before the next group of hostages came out of the hole. This time there were about fifteen of them. Josh gave them blankets and directions so they could head off to find shelter. "How many more are there Sky?"
"At least fifty man, this is going to take a while. Some of the people are just going to have to leave. We can fit as many people as we can in the bed of the truck but some of our group may need to walk back to the house once this is done." He stated.
"Alright, get back in there." Josh said, gesturing for Skylar to get going.
As time passed, more and more people started to escape the camp, but Anna grew more and more anxious. Surely the Freedom Healers would have figured out by now that almost half of their prisoners were missing. Something just didn't feel right, and the brunette was on edge because of it.
"Josh," She said, walking up to her brother. "We have to hurry. The Freedom Healers aren't this thick."
"Skylar is going as fast as we can Anna," Josh said, trying to reassure his sister. "It's going to be alright, we'll get everyone out and safe in time."
"How do you know that for sure? There's no way that almost half the prisoners have escaped without anyone noticing? We really need to wrap this up soon. We can't keep risking the safety of the group," Anna argued back, looking her brother in the eyes. "And you know I'm right. I want to help as many people as we can, but there has to be a line drawn somewhere."
Josh did know she was right, they had to speed up the process if this was going to be done safely. Then an idea popped into his head. "I'm going to go in and keep some of the Healers busy to buy Sky some more time. You, Britt and Dale are in charge here okay?"
At first Anna was reluctant to let her brother go, but she eventually nodded her head and gave him a hug. "Just, be careful in there."
Josh smiled at his younger sister. "When am I ever not careful?" He asked.
Anna raised an eyebrow at her brother. "Is that supposed to be a trick question?"
Josh chuckled. "I'll be careful, sis. I promise," he said before crouching to get through the hole in the fence.
"Is everything okay?" Brittany asked, walking up to Anna, waiting along side her for more hostages.
"Josh went in to buy time for Skylar." Anna stated, fidgeting with her fingers nervously. "I guess that it's a good idea since we need to get the people out quicker, but I'm just worried that something is going to happen to him. He's all I've had for the last seventeen years. I don't know what I'll do if something happens to him."
"He's going to be okay. Josh is one of smartest people in our group, he wouldn't do something if he didn't think it would work." Brittany said, taking Anna's hand in hers, squeezing it softly. "I'm right here if you need me, just like you're right here if I need you."
"Thanks," Anna said, smiling when Brittany took her hand. The brunette noticed that the clumps of people started escaping more frequently, which meant that Josh's distraction was working.
Soon, they were getting the last people out of the camp, but Josh still hadn't returned. "Skylar, do you know where Josh is?" Anna asked.
"Last I saw of him was when he came in to help distract the guards, I haven't seen him since." Skylar said.
As soon as he finished his sentence an alarm started sounding. "If he's not back soon Anna, we just need to go, we can't risk a large sum of people being hurt." Dale said.
Anna then looked at everyone else and then back at the wall. She waited another five minutes before she went to grab some hand grenades and extra bullets. "Where are you going?" Brittany asked.
"I have to go get Josh. I can't just leave him to die. If we leave without him, the Freedom Healers will definitely kill him. He's a good fighter, but there's no way he'll be able to take down all the guards in the camp," Anna replied, loading some more ammo into her pistol.
"Anna, you said you wouldn't leave my side." Brittany said nervously. "What if I have a panic attack? I'm going to need you here." She said, grabbing Anna's hand while her fear grew. A few tears glistened in her eyes. "Anna, Anna please don't go in there."
Anna bit her lip when she saw the tears welling up in Chloe's eyes. "I know I told you that I'd stay by your side, but I have to get my brother. Please, you know I have to do this. He's been protecting me for my entire life, the least I can do is to help him when he needs it. I promise I'll be okay. If you're worried that you'll have a panic attack, you can stay with Dale or Sky or Ester. I hate to do this to you, but I have to get Josh."
As much as she hated to admit it, Britt knew Anna was right and she needed to let Anna go find her brother. She leaned their foreheads together for a moment closed her eyes. "Just promise me that you'll come back." She whispered, her eyes still closed as she spoke.
"I pinky-promise that I'll come back to you," Anna replied, linking their pinky fingers together for a moment. "I have to go now or else I might miss my chance," Anna said, reluctantly walking away from Brittany and towards the hole in the fence.
Once she was inside, Anna instantly headed down the hallway in front of her. She saw bodies of Healers and followed them, knowing that this was Josh's doing. Anna kept her gun up and carefully walked through the halls, listening carefully for sounds.
The brunette continued to follow the trail of bodies, going down a couple flights of stairs before she reached a long, dark hallway. There was a single door at the end of the hallway, and the trail of bodies lead up to the door. Swallowing the lump in her throat, Anna held her gun up in front of her, slowly walking towards the door.
Once she opened the door, Anna saw Josh looking at a computer with a look of horror on his face. While she was relieved to see he was okay, she wondered what he was seeing. "Josh?" She said. "Josh come on we need to get out of here."
"Anna," he said turning to her and then looking back at the screen. "I think I found Mom and Dad." He said before moving out of the way so Anna could see.
The young girl walked up and looked at the screen in shock. Heinrick was in the video, interrogating James and Joan Kendrick. The date of the video was very recent, no more than a month ago.
Anna put her hand over her mouth. "What the hell am I looking at?" She said to herself, watching as Heinrick questioned her parents. "Why is he interrogating Mom and Dad? What could he possibly want from them?"
"Mom was an agent for the government, he could be using her as intel from people trying rebel. As for Dad, I don't know-" Josh looked on in terror.
"Where was this video taken?" Anna asked, fear striking her heart.
"Probably in the capital." Josh said. "That's where Heinrick keeps all his highly dangerous 'criminals.' He's probably kept mom and dad there for years."
Meanwhile outside, Brittany was pacing back and forth to keep calm. "Where are they? They should be here by now. Anna and Josh should be out here by now."
Sky came and put a hand on Brittany's shoulder to help calm the blonde down. "I'm sure they're fine, Britt. They're probably just kicking some Freedom Healer ass, and they'll be back here soon."
"We have to go get Mom and Dad, Josh. We know where they are. This is the most concrete lead we've ever had!" Anna exclaimed, continuing to watch the footage of the interrogation. "We've never been this close to finding them before."
Josh sat there for a moment, a sad smile on his face. "We could get our parents back." He said smiling.
"We have to get to the capital."
"What about the shipment? It still hasn't come in yet here, we need to stop it." Josh stated.
"Josh, the shipment shouldn't matter right now! We can get Mom and Dad back. Shouldn't that be our top priority?" Anna replied.
Before Josh could say anything in response, multiple pairs of loud footsteps began to echo from the hallway. "Oh shit," Josh said, pulling out his gun and frantically searching for more ammo. "Anna, I don't have any ammo, what the hell do I do?"
Anna only had her pistol with her, along with a few grenades. "I only have my pistol, but I also have grenades. I'm not sure how much they'll help, though. We don't want to blow ourselves up."
Josh saw one of the unconscious soldiers lying behind him and he grabbed the machine gun in his hands, as well as a couple knives. He then nodded at Anna and they got ready to fight.
Back outside in the cold, Brittany could feel her heart pick up speed gradually as more time went by without Anna or Josh showing up. "They should be here by now."
Dale and Skylar were starting to get nervous as well. "If they don't show up soon, we'll have to go. We can't risk keeping these people out in the cold any longer. We can always come back for them, we just have to make sure we get Ester and her family to safety before we do so."
Brittany thought about it for a moment, looking towards the wall and then back at Dale and Skylar. "Get them all to safety. I'll wait here for them."
"But what about you Brittany? You could get caught." Ester said.
"I'm not leaving An-" Brittany started. "I'm not leaving them behind." She then helped a couple people into the truck. "I'll stay here, you get everyone out of here!"
"Okay, but be careful. We'll come back for you as soon as we can," Dale said, hurrying to the driver's side of the truck. She got in, and Skylar got in the passenger's seat, and the truck started to drive away into the woods.
Down in the computer lab, Anna and Josh were fully engaged against the ten Freedom Healer soldiers that had somehow managed to find them. Josh had made quick work of a couple with the machine gun, but he soon ran out of ammunition, so he was fighting with the knives. Anna on the other hand was facing three men at once, doing her best to stay on her feet while they all threw punches at her.
Josh took down the rest of his guys and then took one of Anna's guys out by stabbing him in the back.
Anna shot one the men in the knee and then knocked him out with her knee. "Let's get out of here before more of these goons show up." She and Josh then made a run for it as the alarm continued to sound.
Skylar and Dale hopped into the truck and made sure they had a lot of people in the truck. Sky then put the car in drive and drove out into the night, away from the camp. "I really hope Anna and Josh are alright." He said as he drove onto a dirt road.
Anna and Josh had killed all ten of the Freedom Healers, or so they thought. The one that Josh had stabbed in the back was somehow still alive, and he managed to pull out a remote that he had been keeping in his pocket which had access to the camp's emergency self-destruct system. With his last few moments, he pressed down on the self-destruct button before taking his last breath.
While Anna and Josh were running, all of a sudden the siren stopped. It was replaced by a low-pitched beeping sound. "Camp Lincoln will self-destruct in 30 seconds," a monotonous voice announced.
Anna looked over to Josh, her eyes widening. "Run!" She screamed. The two of them sprinted as fast at they could, weaving their way through the dead bodies on the floor.
When Brittany heard the self destruction announcement was when her panic attack started to happen. She could feel her heartbeat shoot through the roof and she began to hyperventilate and scream, seeing images of Hadley laying there on the ground, bleeding out in front of her. "Help! Somebody help me! PLEASE!"
Anna could feel time slow down as they made their way to the break in the wall, Josh jumped through first but Anna was still making her way there since she wasn't as fast as Josh. "Five, four, three," the voice counted down.
By the time the voice reached "one" Anna had barely made it past the central building, which exploded first. There was a deafening sound as one by one, each of the buildings exploded. Anna covered her ears, continuing to run towards the hole in the fence. She could make out two figures which she assumed were Josh and Brittany. However, right as she leaped for the hole, the ground underneath her shot up in the air, carrying Anna with it. Where the ground used to be, a large sinkhole was forming, created by the mass explosions.
As Brittany saw this, she ran towards the collapsing building. "Anna! ANNA!" She yelled, hot tears falling down red winter cheeks. "NO! ANNA!" She screamed. Josh came up and grabbed Brittany from going towards the explosion even though he too desperately wanted to go get his sister.
Skylar and Dale as well as everyone else in the truck heard the explosion. "Shit," he said to himself, though he continued to drive to the safe spot.
"Let me go!" Brittany yelled, trying to get free of Josh's grip. "Anna! ANNA! I need to get Anna!"
Josh had to give the blonde some credit, she was a lot stronger than he had anticipated. He practically had to drag her away from the fence. "Brittany, stop! Stop!" He said, barely holding onto her. "I want to get Anna too, but we can't! We have to go!"
Brittany made it nearly impossible for Josh to drag her away, scraping her hands and knees against the rocks on the ground.
Once the sinkhole had settled from the explosion and Josh had gotten Brittany into the woods she started pushing Josh and screaming at him "She said she wouldn't leave me! The she went in to find you! And now she's gone! We should never have come here! If we hadn't she'd be okay!" She said. "I have to go find her, I can't lose her!"
Josh stopped struggling, allowing Brittany to get free from his grip. "You can go look for her, but I don't think you'll find her," he said with a solemn tone of voice. "You saw what I saw. We just have to accept that she's gone."
"How could you say something like that?" Brittany said, getting choked up. "She's your sister! She'd go and look for you if this was the other way around." Tears were filling her eyes. "No, I'm not letting this happen again."
"LET IT GO BRITT!" Josh yelled. He had tears in his eyes and he surprised Brittany with his tone of voice. "She fell with the fucking sinkhole! There's nothing we could've done to save her and there's nothing we can do, she's gone." He said, beginning to cry. "She's gone."
That's when Brittany fell to the cold ground, beginning to sob and cry hysterically. Tears fell down her cheeks in rivers from both of her eyes. "No," she cried. She hit the ground in sadness and frustration. "She can't be gone. Anna can't be gone."
"She is gone," Josh said, his voice cracking on the last word. "Let's go, Brittany. There's nothing else we can do," he said, offering a hand to the blonde. She didn't take it, so he grabbed her arm and pulled her up. "We're going to the safe spot to meet the rest of the group and tell them what happened."
Brittany cried into his chest, holding onto him tightly, knowing nothing would be able fill the void. That nothing and no one would ever be able to replace Anna.
Hey! Sorry for the drama in this chapter! But don't despair, we said Sendrick would be endgame right?
Until next time,
Elle and Gabi.