7
Kaitlyn was pleased as the entire group made their way through the collection of trees a few blocks away from the school. Setting off the explosions had been easy, simply shooting Particle blasts at the building and watching it all come down. But what the police and Eastern Militia saw tonight was only a fraction of their true power.
"That went pretty smooth," she said to Brandon as the small forest broke into a huge field.
He glanced at her and frowned. "For you maybe. Engaging in a two on one isn't exactly easy."
"You managed it fine," she replied boredly. "Besides, fighting wasn't the point. We got what we really needed."
They both looked back at Aiden, who was trapped in a nucleon sphere that was rigged to immobilize him. The red, glowing headband around his head prevented him from Shifting any nearby objects, including himself, and a bandana was wrapped around his mouth. He caught Kaitlyn's eye and glared at her, trying to make a move toward her, but couldn't. She smiled slightly, then turned back as they all stopped a little ways into the field.
"I figured that they'd be coming at some point, but I didn't expect them to use those Invisible Suits." Brandon shook his head. "It doesn't matter. They still have Brydon."
"Whatever they're going to do with him, it's not going to work. He knows the plan."
Brandon nodded slowly. "It kills me to lose him, though. He was dedicated every moment of the day, always training as hard as he could. He was-"
"I know," Kaitlyn replied. "I feel the same way. But it has to play out like this; they can't know what we're doing next, at least not yet. It'll all be worth it in the end."
"Yeah," Brandon replied, looking off into the distance. "We'll be changing the world."
They heard footsteps behind them and turned around to see Tyler coming up to them.
"How're they doing?" Kaitlyn asked his, her eyes flickering toward Aiden again, but just for a second.
"Advancing, faster and better as usual," he replied. "It's going to be chaos when they all meet up." He looked at Brandon. So, how much farther is the base for our next phase? Are we just walking throughout the night?"
"No, we're making camp here. Why do you think we stopped?" He replied.
Tyler shrugged and walked back to his friends, who were setting up sleeping bags they'd Shifted from blades of grass.
Brandon shook his head and shuddered. Yeah, it better be worth it.
It had only been a few days since the raid on the school, but, to me, it felt like no time had passed. I was stuck to that night like a magnet, unable to move on. Most of the time was spent by training with Jam and Lin, eating, and working out in the sporting goods section. Even though I was pretty sure Lin had told Jam about what had happened, neither of them spoke about it. I didn't either, not that I said much during the day. The entire time, we had Brydon locked in a storage closet to prevent him from escaping, only letting him out so he could get some food or use the bathroom. Ryan was waiting to interrogate him over a length of time, trying to convince him he'd never be going back.
"If there's one thing I learned from watching cop shows, it's that we have to break him to get him to talk easily," he'd said to me. I thought that it was a little extreme, but I didn't have the heart to say it.
It was about 1 in the afternoon when a knock came at my door. I was sprawled out on my bed, recovering from the vigorous training session earlier. I ended up having to face half of our entire army, just to test my powers as Ryan had said. I'd thought the Shifting that I'd already been doing was enough, but I was intrigued by the challenge. But it didn't raise my opinion on Ryan, even now when he came into my room. I rolled over to face away from him.
"How're you doing?" He asked casually.
I offered him a simple shrug and nothing more.
"Look," he continued, and I heard a creak signifying that he'd sat down at the end of my bed. It reminded me of when my dad had still been home. My vision became blurry as I felt my eyes watering, and I brushed the memory away. "We're going to find Aiden and get him back. He's important to us as he is to you."
"What makes you think we will?" I asked. My voice came out a little hoarse. "We don't know where they're headed. They certainly can't be back at the school."
"Our spies are working on it. They're attempting to track their location," Ryan replied. "Trust me, we'll find him."
I wanted to point out that the spies haven't reported anything for the past few days, but I didn't. Instead I rolled over and whispered, "I hope so."
He smiled slightly, probably because he was happy I was fully acknowledging his presence. He cleared his throat and stood up, a pensive look on his face. Then he turned to me, a fire in his eyes.
"I came to let you know we're interrogating him today. You want to come?"
I snickered for the first time in what felt like months. "We have so many other strong willed men around us and out of all of them, you choose me?"
"I'm well aware of that, but I've seen your power. I have confidence in your abilities."
I got to my feet, and, shaking the slight dizziness out of my head, grinned. "I'm down."
"Good. Alex has him in the employer's room." With that, he turned and left the bedroom with me tailing behind.
The employer's room was on the complete other side of the mall, faw away from where we were set up. Ryan had him there on purpose so that Brydon would be isolated, which added to his strategy to make him vulnerable. I only hoped that doing all this would be beneficial to us. Trapping someone and keeping them alone for days on end seemed a little painful on a mental level. However, as we walked down several hallways, which felt eerily similar to the corridors of the underground facility, another thought surfaced. It was something that I'd never dwelled on since we'd gone to the high school, but now I decided to ask Ryan about it.
"Hey, I have a question," I said, my voice echoing through the empty clothing store we were passing.
He nodded to me.
I felt my anger start to burn. "Why haven't you told me that I could destroy objects?"
He sighed deeply, then looked down, probably wondering how to respond. "It took us a while to figure it out, though Aiden sensed it in the beginning. It's extremely dangerous to use. One mistake could end up with something or someone that you love gone forever."
I pondered this. It sounded like they were just trying to protect me. But, learning this new ability could've helped me back when Aiden and I were fighting Kaitlyn and Tyler in that gym, and it would've helped us take them out. And Aiden would still be here with us. My rage increased, and I didn't think I'd be able to forgive Ryan for not telling me sooner.
"You wouldn't have understood when you first joined. You could've ended up hurting one of us if you knew. However, you're more experienced now, so I have no doubt you can control it."
"I never even knew it was possible," I replied quietly.
"I don't fully understand how it works," Ryan admitted. "But it's so rare, that we never really got a chance to examine it."
"Who else has the ability?" I was curious to find out.
"Well, you, obviously; Alex, and Aiden." Then his expression darkened. "But also Brandon, Kaitlyn, and Tyler."
My brow furrowed as I processed this information. "So we are even with them."
"In a way, yes, but if we really want things to be even, we have to get one step ahead of them," he replied.
As if on cue, we finally arrived at the makeshift interrogation room. Ryan opened the door and we walked inside. I immediately noticed that the only light came from the bulb hanging above Brydon, casting shadows on the walls. I was impressed by how they were holding him. A headband, glowing a bright red, had been put around his head, which I assumed was supposed to prevent him from Shifting. His hands were stuck to the wall, held by metal bands around his wrists. I could tell they were the same kind that the military uses; if he tried to struggle, the bands would deliver electric shocks to him while simultaneously wrapping tighter around his wrists. They would effectively wear him down. It was plain to see that he'd been subjected to the pain at least once; his face showed defeat and hopelessness. However, once he heard us come in, he looked up and sneered at Ryan.
"So, the big boss himself decides to come down here to do the dirty work. Very noble."
Ryan said nothing as he sat down in one of the chairs at a wooden table. The large piece of furniture was the only thing separating him from the prisoner. He motioned for me to close the door, and, once I did, he began talking.
"Brydon Tucker," he said officially. "You're seen as one of the higher ranked men, in league with Brandon, Kaitlyn, and Tyler. Correct?"
"That's right." He now looked confused, as if wondering where this was going.
"And so you know what they're planning to do?"
"Of course," he replied.
"Well," Ryan said, spreading his arms out in a gesture. "Let's have it. Tell us what you know."
"Why would I do that?"
"Because your life depends on it," Ryan responded, his face set like stone.
Brydon laughed as if Ryan had made a joke. "You'll have to do better than that. I don't get rattled that easily."
"You want to make this tough?" Ryan asked, cracking a dangerous smile.
Brydon chuckled again. "Fine. If you really want the information. It's not going to help you much, though. Right now, we're all moving to a new, isolated location in Ohio, where we'll conduct the next stage of the plan. It's a large warehouse complex in one of the abandoned cities. It'll all happen within the week."
"And what will you guys be doing?" Ryan pried further.
"Unfortunately, that is something I'm not allowed to share with you. We can't have any opposition with what's to come."
Ryan's fist clenched under the table. "That's not good enough. Unless you don't need to use your hands anymore, it's in your best interest to tell us what we want."
He stared back at him definitely, resting his head against one of the metal bands. Ryan pushed the chair back with the sound of metal grinding against metal, and began to stand up.
"Wait," I said, speaking for the first time since entering the room. "How about we tell you something about our objective. Then will you comply?"
His eyes shifted over to me. Ryan shot me a dirty look and opened his mouth to respond, but Brydon beat him to it. "Sounds tempting, but I can't agree to that. Don't bother telling me, it won't do you any good."
Ryan shook his head at me, and went to stand by the wall, frustrated. "So, I'll only ask this once. Are you going to give us the information on your own, or will we have to make you?"
Brydon smiled at him in the way that he knew something that Ryan didn't. "You'll never find out." Then, quick as flash, the hand he'd been leaning against snagged the red headband off and dropped it on the ground.
The second it was off, Brydon Shifted the wrist bands into a pair of small grenades, which freed him, and threw them in Ryan's direction at lightning speed. Ryan was just as quick, and Shifted one into a Particle sword, and the other into a Stunning dart. Brydon moved to the side, Shifting the table into a Particle sword as well, and stood in a fighting stance. I kept by the wall, watching in surprise, in case I was needed, but Ryan went in to engage. Brydon, however, brought his sword up to counter him, and the two pressed into each other's blades for a moment. But, when Ryan least expected it, Brydon kicked him in the chest, and he fell to the ground, hard.
While he was recovering, I contemplated if I should try to destroy his sword. In this case, it would be worth it, no matter how much pain it would cause. We needed to know what they were doing to be able to stop it. However, Brydon's next move made my thoughts a waste of time. In one motion, he Shifted his weapon into an iron sword, the blade glinting in the light, and then plunged it into his own chest. His eyes widened, then closed as he fell to the ground, blood pouring out of the wound.
My mind went white with shock and horror at the suicide of our only chance of getting the information we needed. Ryan was on his feet in an instant, rushing over to Brydon's corpse, and put his hand by his neck. I knew he was gone, and I'm sure he did too, but he seemed to refuse to accept this inevitable fact. In a flash, he Shifted a nucleon packet into his hand, and placed it on Brydon's chest. One of the reasons that nucleon was so popular was because of its healing capabilities, which I was witnessing first hand right now. In a moment, the packet had closed up the wound and healed the remaining scars it left until the skin was good as new.
Ryan didn't stop there. He began pumping Brydon's chest in the form of CPR. I couldn't do anything but stand there and watch, numb with shock, as Ryan tried, but failed to bring him back. While my body felt paralyzed, my mind was racing. This was the first time I'd seen someone actually take their own life. Watching it in movies wasn't nearly as gut wrenching because they were just faking it, but this was different. This was real. Eventually, I couldn't take anymore of the scene I was witnessing, and I ran out of the room just as Alex was walking in.
We were all back in the employee's room, waiting for Ryan to begin talking. Lin sat across from me, while Alex and Jam were to my right. I was looking down at the floor, deliberately trying to avert my gaze from the empty chair to my left. It would only increase the pain and fear that was consuming me right now, threatening to destroy me. After what seemed like hours, Ryan finally stood up. Four pairs of eyes turned to look at him, but he kept his gaze on the table. The words he spoke were short, but powerful.
"They knew."
"What do you mean?" Lin asked.
"They knew we would go for Brydon. He's one of the few who was aware of their plan. Brandon planned to have him be taken out so it would stay safe." He took a deep breath. "They set us up."
"How could they do that?" My voice sounded detached.
"They must have a good cause to send one of their own like that," Ryan replied. Then he nodded to Jam. "How's it going with hacking into their system?"
"I'm trying," he said, fingers flying over the keys of his laptop. "But I'm still not very experienced with this. I'm attempting to find a backdoor into their grid so they won't know it's us, but it's really tricky."
"Should we capture someone else?" Lin wondered.
"No," Ryan shook his head. "They'll figure we're doing it again and the same thing will happen. Our next objective is getting Aiden back. We need all the manpower we can get."
I perked up a little. At least they're still concentrating on that.
"We have a week before they execute their plan, so that gives us some time. While our spies try to locate their current position, let's go back to our normal training schedule. We can't do anything until we know where they are."
It seemed as if his last statement was aimed at me, which I could understand. After hearing that we'd be rescuing Aiden, I wanted to put everything else aside and use all our resources to accomplish it. But I knew why we should wait, even if it made me want to bang my head against the wall.
"Ok," I said, causing the others to agree as well.
"Excellent." Ryan cracked a grin for the first time in a while. "Now let's break for something to eat."