A/N… I'll let you get to it. I won't keep you. Some of you were in a panic.
~oOo~
Chapter 8
BELLA
"I need you all to stay calm, and we'll get you somewhere safe. I promise," Alistair addressed the back of the truck once the garage door rolled closed.
As he started to explain who we were and why we'd attacked the train, I started up the drone I'd set outside. Lifting it up, I turned it slowly around, watching for raiders. We were outside both Oz and the Sound. This was the abandoned part of what used to be Seattle. Our path had been clear, and it seemed to still be that way now. I landed the drone on the roof of the old Goodwill and turned it off for now. I wanted to save the battery and cease all movement.
Jasper walked to Rose and me, holding up his radio. "Em and Ed have gone silent," he told us softly. "Which means they've had to hole up somewhere. If I'm guessing, they were probably leading that last raiders team toward the old diner. There's a shit-ton of ammo stashed in there."
"Dammit, and it's the opposite direction of the newer safe house," I said, glancing between them.
"Don't panic yet, B. Okay?" Jasper soothed. "I fucking promise you… If we haven't seen them by the time we get back to Oz, I personally will go look for them. Okay?" He glanced between Rose and me until we finally nodded.
"Thanks, Jazz," Rose whispered, but when he walked away from us, she shook her head. "Heroic fucking fools. We would've been fine without them running all over hell and back."
Grinning, I let out a nervous laugh. "They'll watch out for each other. We'll follow the twenty-four-hour rule here."
"They didn't give us much choice."
"True." My brow furrowed, but I had to force myself to focus on where we were and what we were doing.
Alistair took the lead once we were inside. The old Goodwill was boarded up and sealed. From the outside it looked completely abandoned. Inside, it was set up with food, clothes, and pallets. The group we'd taken from the train all looked shaken, but they seemed to be relieved.
It was every age and race, more women than men, and they'd come from back east. Some said they'd been taken by the Atlanta raiders, and some were from New York. They were taken, traded, and transported all in the last week.
I found the old counter, pulling myself up to sit there. We were stuck until the sun went down, and if I knew Alistair, he'd wait a few more hours after that just to be safe when we finally went back to Oz. There was an opening in the back part of Sector C that would allow us to pull in, truck and all.
It looked like a dead-end alley, but it was actually a gate. It was how Flash's sector could get out and scout for stuff. It was the backside of Oz and as far away from the walls of the Sound as possible.
Everyone settled down and went quiet. Just outside on the street, the rumble of Hummer engines passed by occasionally. In the distance, I could hear an explosion.
I gasped, my eyes meeting Alistair's and then Rose's.
They both walked to me, and Rose took my hand.
"Easy, girls. Emmett and Edward are smart and strong," he said, tapping my chin. "Bells, I know you're worried because things have changed for you two, but you gotta trust those boys to do all they can to get home. Right?"
"Yeah," I said through a worried sigh.
"Here, eat something." He placed an apple in my hand. "In an hour, the sun will be down. Check the drone, and if it's clear, we'll start to head back."
"Jasper said he was going to look for them once we get these people safely in Oz," Rose told him.
Alistair nodded. "Fine, girls. I'll go with him."
"Thanks, Al," Rose told him.
"Now, I'm going to go talk to some of these people to get some information on other walled cities. Let me know when you activate the drone again."
I nodded, toying with the old cell phone in my hand. The screen had a crack, but it still worked; I could still see the drone's camera view. I set the control down, taking a bite of the apple, because I could practically hear in my head my Edward urging me to stay strong, keep going, take care of his girl and his baby, because he couldn't live without us.
As the sun slowly set, I listened to Al's conversations. It seemed that Boston's walls had fallen. New York wasn't far behind. People were fighting back just like we were. Atlanta, however, was still holding firm. And to hear them, that fucker, Caius, was a deviant bastard. He held public hangings on the walls of his city for people who fought or saved slaves or stole from him.
There was a rumor going around that there was still a US government, but no one had personally seen an army or anything. There was also a rumor that the walled city of Los Angeles was about to fall, as well. However, no one in the room had been there, so it couldn't be verified.
I lost myself to daydreaming about what the world would be like if all the walls fell in every city that was left. My dream about the beach came to mind, and I saw Edward with our little one. This time, I saw a little girl with his crooked, silly sweet smile and my eyes.
"C'mon, B. Let's see what we got goin' on outside," Jasper stated, wrapping an arm around my shoulders once he pulled himself up onto the counter next to me. "I want to get you guys back so I can take off."
"Al's going with you."
"Fine. Perfect." He nudged me teasingly. "Let's see what we got."
I turned on the drone's camera and lifted it up to slowly get a bird's eye view of things. The streets were empty, and everything was dark, except what looked to be a few fires in the distance. One might have still been the train, but the other was several blocks away, though it wasn't a big fire.
"Looks like Em and Ed set off a few grenades," Jasper pointed out. "Okay, now… Let's see that path to the gate."
I flew the drone slowly down the street, though not too far. Every path was quiet and dark.
"Either the raiders gave up, or they…" I started but trailed off. I couldn't bear to finish a sentence that ended with the possibility that Emmett and Edward had been caught…or worse.
"Okay, we're clear," Jasper stated, but it was to Alistair. "I want this whole bunch back in Oz. Now. I'm going out there for Em and Edward."
"Let's give it another hour," Alistair advised.
Jasper huffed a sigh, glancing down at me. "Can you hang tight until then?"
I smiled over at him. "Did Edward—"
"Edward wouldn't have to ask me to watch over you, Bella. I'd do it anyway. So just…hang in there."
I landed the drone on the roof again and shut it down once more. I'd check it again in an hour.
An hour had never taken so long in my life – not on any mission or any trip over the wall.
The last check of the drone showed that we were still clear. We loaded everyone back inside the truck. Jasper and Alistair hung back because they were going to leave from there to search for Edward and Emmett. Knowing them, they'd stay out until they knew something or found them.
When we pulled through the Sector C gate, Sue was on the other side waiting for us. But her worry over who wasn't with us was all over her face.
~oOo~
EDWARD
My head gave a dull throb, but it was my leg that snapped me awake. Or maybe it was the sound of Emmett's cursing.
"Stupid motherfuckers," he ground out through gritted teeth, dodging gunfire and reloading his weapon.
He dropped down in a booth by the now shattered window, unleashing a tidal wave of bullets. Beside him was a pile of grenades, and he reached for one, pulled the pin, and threw it as hard as he could.
With one last round of bullets, he seemed satisfied that he'd gotten them all. I pushed myself up into a sitting position, trying to assess my injuries. I touched my temple, hissing a bit and coming away with blood on my fingers. However, there was more blood on my jeans just below my knee.
I shrugged out of my pack, glancing up when Emmett finally saw me.
"Hang on, Edward. I'll help you. Just…let me make sure I got all these assholes," he told me while he was changing out his clip and grabbing another grenade. He slammed into the kitchen and probably out the back door.
Nodding, I let my eyes slip closed. I was jolted awake by Emmett's hand on my face.
"No, no… You gotta stay awake, bro. Your head shattered that fucking window. Grandma says with a head injury, you can't let them go to sleep."
"Okay, okay," I mumbled, trying to sit up, but his hand pressed on my chest.
"I'm gonna wrap this as tight as I can, and we're gonna work our way back to Oz."
Squeezing my eyes closed, I nodded as he ripped my jeans a little to see my leg.
"How bad?" I rasped out.
"Fuck, I was hoping it went through, but no."
Tilting my head a little, I glanced down to see. It looked like they caught me in the calf, which would've explained how I'd tripped into the glass front of the diner. Emmett took the first aid kit from me and pulled out some bandages and gauze. He also rummaged around in my pack and found a spare shirt, ripping it in several strips.
"Jesus!" I growled out when he wrapped my leg and then secured it with the strips of shirt, tying it as tight as he could.
"Sorry. Gotta slow the bleeding. Pressure on it, you know."
I couldn't help but grin because he looked like he was just a hair away from setting my ass on his shoulder and walking me back to Oz himself.
"It's not funny, dude," he huffed, patting my face. "And stay the fuck awake."
He shoved everything back into my pack, glanced around the diner before getting up and scrambling for more ammo. I sat up enough to slip my pack back on.
"We can't stay here, Em. We have to at least move to another fucking building," I told him, because even from where I was sitting, I could see all the raiders he'd taken out.
"I know," he agreed roughly, shouldering his own bag, an automatic rifle, and then reaching down for me. "C'mon, I'll help you."
"Emmett, you gotta calm down."
"Nope. Not happenin'. Bella's gonna kill me as it is."
Laughing weakly, I shook my head. "No, she won't."
"You say that now."
"Just use the radi—"
He held up the walkie-talkie from his belt, and the damn thing had a bullet hole in it.
"Well, fuck," I said through a grunt as he hoisted me up.
He wrapped my arm around his shoulder, and the big bastard practically lifted me off my feet – or foot as the case was at the moment. "We're going out the back. We're too far from the safe house. I still hear Hummers patrolling out there."
Before he could open the back door of that diner, the sound of a truck engine drove by out front and came to a stop.
"Move. They've spotted your handiwork, Emmett."
We left out the back, hobbling across the street to the next building. Another Hummer drove slowly across an intersection a few blocks down, but that was the direction we needed to go. We were in a dangerous fucking area. It wasn't the Sound, and it wasn't Oz. We were outside of both, and we'd pushed ourselves farther away from places to hide and closer to the walls surrounding the Sound.
Emmett got us to the next block, which was an old bus station. Once he could set me down on a bench inside, he checked windows, doors, and his weapon.
"Fuck, they're everywhere. I guess we got them to focus on us, but damn it," he grumbled.
"We should go inside the Sound," I whispered, my head falling back to the wall behind me. My head was fucking pounding, my leg felt like it was on fire, and I could barely see straight with the pain. "They're looking for us out here. Not in there."
"Dude, I gotta get you—"
I nodded, rolling my head to the side to look at him. "I know, but that's not gonna happen if they end up cornering us."
"Ed, you're bleeding like a stuck pig."
Squeezing my eyes closed, I rubbed my face in frustration and to keep myself awake. "Go… Go underground. Take me to my dad."
Emmett seemed to mull it over for a minute or two. "You sure?"
"I don't…" I trailed off, hissing in pain when I sat up. "I don't think I have much of a choice. Our way to Oz is blocked because those raiders have a hard-on for us. If they catch us, we're dead. But inside, they're not looking."
He sighed and nodded once. "Okay, then let's get you up."
I had to give Emmett all the credit because this was all on him. He not only safely navigated us through one of the openings in the wall, but he also bore most of my weight doing it. Once we were below ground, he took a breather. The underground was secret and safe, so he could relax at least until we got to my parents' building.
The car garage was empty, and the sun had gone down by the time we ascended. However, the hardest part would be the ten floors of stairs we had to climb. It was slow going until about the fifth floor, and I was starting to get weak.
I leaned on the handrail, gazing up at Emmett, who simply said, "Fuck it."
He bent down, wrapped his arms around my legs, and lifted me up onto his shoulder. He was a strong bastard. He'd always been that way, but he carried me the last five floors without so much as a second thought.
Just outside the tenth-floor entry, he put me down slowly, propping me up against the wall.
"You gotta do this quickly, and we're gonna fucking scare them, but…" I trailed off, reaching into my pocket for the key I always carried with me. Reaching back, I tugged my hood up, and Emmett did the same.
He cracked the door open of the tenth floor, nodding my way and wrapping my arm around his shoulders.
We slipped silently into the hallway, to the first door at the end. I was shaking so badly that Emmett had to take the key from me. I don't know what I was expecting inside, but both my parents standing there wasn't it. It was as if they'd been waiting for me, for something.
"Edward?" Dad gasped, quickly coming to take my other arm.
"I'm sorry… I just… We had to…"
Mom shut the door and locked it, running off to the bedroom and coming back with my dad's bag.
"What happened, sweetheart?" she asked, checking my forehead.
The immediate sense of comfort washed over me, but I was too weak to answer anything other than, "Raiders."
"He's shot. The bullet's still in his leg, and he hit his head pretty damn hard," Emmett explained.
"Let's get him to the table," Dad instructed.
They laid me down onto the table, and he loomed over me, checking my eyes, my pulse, the wound on my head.
"He's lost a lot of blood, Dr. Cullen," Emmett said respectfully. "I'm… I'm Emmett, by the way."
"Nice to meet you, Emmett. Help me with his clothes. Es, sweetheart. See to that head wound."
Through blurry vision, I saw my mom by my side. She waited until they removed my vest, shirt, and pants before she started to dab at my forehead.
"What happened, Edward?" she asked softly.
"We… We stopped a train full of slaves just outside the Sound," I answered, my eyes slipping closed. "There were like fifty…"
"Fifty slaves?" she verified.
"Yes." I hissed when someone removed Emmett's temporary bandage from my leg.
"Edward, I don't have anything to take away the pain other than something local," Dad stated as he cleaned the bullet wound.
"S'okay," I grunted out through gritted teeth. "I'm sorry we're… We were trapped… Nowhere else…"
Emmett took over telling the story about the train, the raiders, and leading everyone away from the truck, away from Bella and the slaves and Rose.
"I have to keep her safe…" I slurred, looking to my mother, who was now applying butterfly strips to my forehead. "We're… She's…"
Mom's eyes welled up. "We know, son. Charlie paid us a visit."
"Yeah?"
She let out a soft, sniffly laugh. "Yes, sweetheart. He told us all about you and Bella, that you were married, and now you're going to be a father."
"I… I can't wait…"
She grinned, cupping my face. "Your father was the same way when you were on the way." I flinched, squeezing my eyes closed when pain shot up my leg, and she picked up my hand. "Squeeze my hand, son."
I did as she asked, though I didn't have much choice, because Dad was working the bullet out of my leg. Everything in me seemed to relax when I finally heard it plunk to the tabletop. Not even the flushing of the wound or the stitches hurt at that point in comparison.
Once my leg was bandaged, Dad checked my eyes again. "You may have a slight concussion, son. And you've lost some blood. But I need you to stay alert enough that we can get you into your old bed." When I started to argue, he shook his head. "Just for now, son."
"Okay."
I was finally able to relax some once he and Emmett practically carried me into my old bedroom. Instead of letting me fall asleep, Mom brought me some pain meds. It was simple over-the-counter stuff, but I was grateful. Emmett left the room when my dad offered him something to drink.
"Em needs to go home. He needs to tell them…"
"He said you'd say that," Mom said with amusement. "He said to tell you 'Twenty-four-hours.'"
Nodding, I sighed and pushed myself up a little. "I'm sorry we crashed in on you. We were trapped."
"It's okay, Edward. We're actually really glad to see you," she said softly, picking up my hand. "After Charlie's visit, things have… We didn't know, son."
I nodded again, taking in her expression. "Found out some stuff, huh?"
She smirked. "Yes. We didn't know. I'm… I'm so very sorry we didn't listen to you back then."
Smiling sadly, I met her gaze. "I was a kid. Who're you gonna believe?"
"I should've believed my son." She sighed deeply, playing with my fingers and tapping my wedding band. "Tell me about her. Did you love her then?"
Chuckling, I shook my head. "No… Well, yeah, maybe. She became my best friend. We made the best team when it came to raiding the Sound. And one day, I just… I knew. She wasn't just my best friend. She was…everything."
She smiled my way, squeezing my hand.
"She grew up to be so beautiful, Mom. Just stunning. And she's smart and sweet." I paused for a moment, meeting her gaze again. "She's going to be an amazing mother."
"How old were you by the time you knew?"
Chuckling, I said, "Seventeen."
She grinned, and her eyes welled up again. "You look happy. Are you?"
"Yes. I missed you, but I couldn't let them catch me. And I couldn't leave her. They'd have killed us both. I'm sorry I didn't come back sooner… Or really, I'm sorry I didn't talk to you sooner. I've checked on you both, so has Charlie, but we did it in a way that wouldn't raise suspicion."
Her nose wrinkled a little, and she nodded, glancing up when my dad sighed from the doorway. I wondered if he'd been listening. My guess was that he had been, from the look on his face.
"You did the right thing, Edward," he stated firmly.
"I was…mad for a long time," I admitted softly.
"Understandable. I should've told you and Bella how dangerous it was to go against Aro. I… We really would've treated her like she was our own. That wasn't a lie, son."
I glanced down at my hand that was still entwined with my mother's. "I know that now. All I could see was a scared girl who was no different than me. And she'd been taken from her family. What made me special? Just because of where I lived?" I shook my head. "It seemed so unfair. After meeting Emmett and after Bella was given to you, I just… I started to see things weren't quite right."
"We know. Charlie told us some things, and I discovered some things on my own," Dad said softly. "Aro unleashed that virus…on purpose."
"Yeah, we know." I sighed, glancing between them. "Come with me. When Emmett and I leave, come with me. Please. Things are about to get really ugly. We're so close to exposing Aro for who and what he really is, and if we do, then things will get so bad here. Please."
"We're already packed." Mom's voice was firm and unwavering.
My eyebrows shot up. I thought for sure that I'd have to beg and plead, but it seemed they'd come to this decision on their own. Or maybe it was after Charlie's visit.
"I think you have them nervous," Dad stated out of the blue. "Demetri was here a day or so ago. I'd done some research on the virus, and it was flagged by the computer people. I used the excuse of a patient of mine, but when I went to work the next day, Mrs. Harris had passed." His nostrils flared, and he shook his head slowly. "She wasn't… It wasn't the virus, but they killed her anyway."
Gritting my teeth, I shook my head and glared at the wall. "Demetri… He'd have been the one to kill her. He's…evil."
"After fifteen years, he asked if I'd had any contact with you. We told him no, but I think he was testing me. Thirteen years ago, they told me to give up hope on ever bringing you home, but now after all these years, they ask me about you?" He shook his head. "I knew he was lying. And I knew I would've been the last person to ask about you, but he must be grasping at straws."
I huffed a laugh. "Bella and I… Actually, all of the resistance has caused Demetri so much trouble. Trains, water trucks, supply ships, and more raiders than I can count. We're at the top of his list."
"Which means you're at the top of Aro's list."
"Yes, sir. But he's at the top of our list, too. They both are. Demetri killed Bella's mother right in front of her before he snatched her up. He has no idea that Charlie has put himself into a position to remove him completely, but we've had to be careful. Demetri is damned dangerous."
Dad nodded, and he checked the bandage on my leg, walking to the other side of the bed to check my forehead. "Nauseated? Dizzy?" he asked, and I shook my head. "You could probably rest now. I've got a shift in the morning. I'll bring you some crutches."
"No. No work. Call in sick or something. I'll live without crutches. After tonight, they're going to be rabid. We'll stay here until tomorrow night," I said firmly, "and then we'll get you out." Before either could walk away, I added one more thing. "You know, they'll come for you. You'll have to stay hidden for some time."
"I'm aware, son," Dad stated, nodding a little. "We trust you to keep us safe."
~oOo~
A/N… A few of you called that he'd go to his dad. Some of you are still worried that he'll get caught. That's still a concern with his being over on that side of the wall.
I'd like to thank all of you for your love and hugs. Some of you checked on me over the last week, and I thank you for that. I am still treading a fine line of being in a dark place. I've been trying to let things go – or at the very least, relaxing about things I simply can't control. It's hard. It's funny, though, to see who's there when the dust settles.
Anyway, I'll see you guys later this week for the pic teases on FB and X, and then again on Sunday with the update. Until then… Mooches, Deb ;)