Atlantic Island (30 page)

"We need someone to turn him in," said Liz. "Doesn't that make sense?"

"It does," said Theo.
 

"I'll do it," said Michelle.
 

All eyes turned to look at her. "Tiberius's forces trust me. They don't know that I'm here with all of you. Let me do this. I'll go back to the city and get in to see Tiberius. I'll say that I was spying on you."

"How do we know you aren't?" asked Ryan.

"Ry, please," she said. "I'm sorry for everything I've said and done. I've been so scared every day since the Event. I'm just not as capable as the rest of you at dealing with all of this insanity. But I'm trying. If I was a spy, I wouldn't be planning with you and giving you a chance to develop a strategy. I would have turned you all in without any notice. That's not what this is."

"Okay," said Theo. "Michelle will leak the information about the hideout."

"Doesn't that endanger all of us?" asked Jamie.

"I don't think so," said Theo. "Tiberius wants me."

"Will we have to move everybody to a new safe house?" asked Brian.

"It won't be necessary," said Theo. "Whenever this goes down… when I get arrested, that's the start of a countdown. The following evening is when the war has to begin."

Kylee looked at him. Her eyes were sad and worried. "But…what if we fail? Tiberius will have you. He'll kill you."

Theo returned her gaze, serious as he could be. "If we fail he'd have me anyway to do whatever he wanted. I'm the symbol of this rebellion. But you, Kylee, all of you, you are the spirit. And that's something he can't crush. You'll do what you have to do. I know you will."

The next afternoon, Kylee stood outside the safe house. Her army surrounded her. Some of the women had made the decision to stay back with the children. She couldn't blame them, and they needed someone to be with the kids if… she didn't want to think of the worst-case scenario.
 

That left her with twenty-four of the women whose husbands were locked up with Theo. Plus eight more for the inner circle, including her. Brian's surveillance and Liz's gossiping among the city residents had reported that at least fifty men were locked up in the makeshift island prison.
 

She smiled, thinking how Tiberius had thought only to lock up the men. He didn't consider the women a threat to his power. He was going to find out just how wrong he was.
 

She cleared her throat and looked at her army. She had to speak now. As the general it was her responsibility to inspire and motivate the troops. If only she could come up with the right words. Her mind raced, filled with fear and excitement for the night ahead.
 

She took two deep breaths, letting the oxygen permeate the blood in her brain. The salt fragrance in the air soothed her. "This… this is the day we have been waiting for. When the Event happened, we all found ourselves in a spiral of confusion and loss of control. We lost our homes, our friends, our families, only to be granted new lives here on the island. Then what happened? Those new lives were stripped from us. Taken away by a madman. A murderer, who thinks that we shouldn't have the power to decide for ourselves what is best for our lives. A man who thinks that the founding fathers of the United States were wrong. Well, I don't have to tell you what I think. Tiberius is wrong. Tiberius is the evil that ruins this island.
 

"Well, no more! At dusk, we begin a march to the city, and we take back our lives for ourselves. Officer Carlos Menendez, a friend, is waiting for our arrival. He believes that many of his fellow officers will abandon the Security Force and join us in our cause. That doesn't mean that there won't be opposition. I expect there to be plenty. I've trained you to the best of my ability, teaching you the same lessons that were taught to the recruits of the Security Force. Use those lessons. Use your brains. Listen to commands. We don't know for sure what we will face, but I know for sure that we can and will overcome any obstacle placed in our path. Our goal is simple. We take the prison. Those of you who are assigned to distribute arms to the prisoners know who you are. And then, with our army at its peak, we take the Palace, and we put Paul Tiberius out to pasture."

She walked away from the cheering crowd, desperate for a chance to clear her thoughts. She couldn't help but sigh as she heard footsteps rapidly approaching. Jane was jogging up behind her.
 

"Kylee, can I talk to you for a second?"

"Sure," Kylee said. "Everything okay?"

Jane croaked out a laugh. "Everything's okay in the sense that we're all gonna go fight a war as if we were a bunch of soldiers."

"You are soldiers, Jane. As much as anybody else here. You think the Security Force is full of US military veterans? Some police, maybe, but for the most part they were just average people who got some training and now find themselves on the wrong side of history. You are ready for this."

"Hmm. Maybe you've got a point. That's kinda what I wanted to talk to you about."

"Go on."

"When all this is finished, if we win—"

"When we win."

Jane laughed. "Right. When we win, well, the girls and I were talking. There's more than a few people who would like to see you and Theo officially in charge. Supreme Leaders or something like that."

Kylee smiled and shook her head. "No. That's what we are trying to do away with here. That kind of power shouldn't belong to any one or two people. It belongs to all the people. Sam Lucas wanted there to be elections, even if it meant he might lose. I think that's how we have to handle things. Between you and me, Theo can probably be convinced to run."

"That might be a good idea," Jane said. "Alright. I'll leave you to your thoughts. We're gonna be partying all night long, after all."

She got up and walked away. Just before she turned toward the house, Jane looked back over her shoulder. "Hey, Kylee?" she called.

Kylee looked up. "Yes?"

"I'm proud to be fighting for you. With you. I want you to know that."

Kylee felt tears in the corners of her eyes. She nodded.

Sundown arrived faster than Kylee had anticipated. She had expected to feel a sense of foreboding. Perhaps she would become paralyzed by fear and responsibility. Instead, she felt nothing but a sense of purpose. This was the single most important day of her life. She was sure of it.
 

She stepped outside of the safe house. When her feet hit the sandy, broken asphalt, she turned and looked back. This place had been home, one of several homes she had known and lost since the Event. She couldn't say whether she would be back here again. What was certain was she would never live here again. When the war was over, she would either be dead, imprisoned, or free to pursue life with Theo somewhere else on the island. In her mind, she thanked the safe house for the shelter it had provided from storms both natural and manmade. She turned back around and marched onward to an uncertain future.
 

The rebel army was spread down the length of the small side street. Everyone was armed. Several of the women surrounded the rusty shell of a large SUV. One of the few blessings the army had been granted, the vehicle had been trapped in a garage under tons of debris in a house two blocks down. The leadership had missed it. It wouldn't have run, even if there had been fuel available on the island. Instead, Ryan and Bill had stripped it down, removing as much weight as possible. Now, it was a giant push cart for transporting supplies. Kylee thought a tank might have been more useful, but she knew they were lucky to have anything.

The inner circle waited near the front of the line. She smiled at them as she approached. She wished Theo could be here with her, but then this was all part of the plan. She just hoped he was safe and would be in good health by the time she was able to meet up with him.
 

"General Kylee, looks like a beautiful night for fighting. What do you think?" Bill greeted her with a big smile of his own.
 

"I think you're right," she said. "Don't forget, our goal here is to avoid conflict wherever possible. Many of the Tiberius loyalists are only that way because of fear. I think when we show them that we are willing to take the fight to the leadership, many of them will throw down their guns."

"I hope you're right," said Joseph. "I don't want to have to kill too many people."

Bill laughed and slapped Joseph on the back. "Man, am I glad to be on your side, Joey!"

Joseph gave him a look of exasperation.

"Does anybody have any idea where Michelle is?" asked Ryan.

"Brian? Liz? Any idea?" Kylee asked.

"No, sorry," said Liz. "We know she's somewhere in the city. She knows she's supposed to fall in with us once the fighting gets close, if only for her own safety."

"You hear that, Ry?" asked Kylee. "She knows what she's supposed to be doing. Don't worry, we'll get to her soon enough."

She addressed the gathered rebels. "Okay, everybody, this is it. We are going to progress down Atlantic Avenue one block at a time. We stop each block until I give the signal that everything is clear. Remember your assignments. We are relying on those of you assigned to guard our sides and rear as we go. I don't suspect the Security Force will attempt to flank us, especially in the early going, but we don't have enough soldiers to cover Ventnor Avenue too. We have to keep to Atlantic and prevent incursions from the side streets. Everyone clear on that?"

Plenty of nodding and "Yes Ma'am," and "We got it!"
 

Good, Kylee thought. Time to make an impact. "Move out!" she called. She heard the sounds of feet falling into step behind her. Light grunting followed by the rusty creak of the SUV's wheels told her the wagon was in motion, beginning its slow trip to arm the prisoners and resupply ammo, should that be necessary.
 

Kylee had debated whether she and the inner circle should be on the front line. There was a risk to the morale of the troops, should any or all of them be injured or killed. Still, she and Theo's other chosen few felt it necessary to lead by example. Kylee compromised. Should one of them get hit, the others would fall back to provide continued support until that particular skirmish was over. Of course, she secretly planned to stay up front no matter what. She wasn't about to back away from the fight.
 

The procession turned onto Atlantic Avenue. Slowly, carefully, they walked to the end of the first block. Kylee raised her hand and heard the footsteps behind her cease followed by a squeal as the SUV came to a stop.
 

"All clear on the bayside?" They had decided to use the term, even though the bay no longer existed.

"Yes, Ma'am," came the reply.

"All clear on the oceanside?"
 

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Are we clear from the rear?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Okay. All clear. Let's keep moving."

Theo awoke as the sun came pouring through the curtainless window. He rubbed his eyes and looked around, momentarily confused by his surroundings and his vantage point looking up from the mattress on the floor. He saw the other men sleeping around the room and realization set in. He was imprisoned in an old hotel, a high-profile grab for the leadership to brag about.
 

He rolled up to a sitting position and pulled his knees in to his chest. The three men he was trapped with were all older than him. He judged them to be in their later twenties or early thirties, though he had never been good at guessing ages.

 
These were likely husbands or maybe boyfriends of some of the women he had come to know during the course of his hiding at the safe house. If he was going to unite the prisoners and instigate an uprising, he had to start his effort with these men.

He sat silently for a while, thinking about Kylee and his friends. They would undoubtedly be putting plans in motion to start the assault that very evening. That didn't give him a tremendous amount of time to act, but he wasn't about to begin by waking up the other prisoners. There were few ways more guaranteed to get you on a man's bad side than by waking him up earlier than he planned.