Unaltered #2_A Diamond in my Heart (21 page)

I sat on my rock hard bed and pondered
my situation. I wondered if Justin was working alone and if this
whole production was a small step in the larger picture of the
shards reuniting within me.

I heard gentle tappings outside the
window after about a half hour and got up and walked over to check
it out. I couldn’t believe what I found; Brand was clinging to the
exterior of the building with a smile on his face.

“Brand?”

“Yeah.”

“What are you holding onto out
there?”

“Well, not much, to be honest. It’s
taken me a long time to find the weak bricks around my window that
would allow me to escape. But I can tell you there is no way into
your cell from out here.”

“Go back to your room and figure out
some other way to get Justin to open your door.”

“You talk as if I’m the cleverest guy
on earth. Yet I still can’t figure out how to get you to go out
with me.”

“Brand!”

“Alright. It’s not like I
have anything else to do…
go wait in your
cell, Brand. Go save the world, Brand.
” I
heard him muttering as he moved along the wall to his
window.

I sat back and waited for Brand to
come to my door.

I heard Justin walking down the hall
and stop by Brand’s door. Justin shouted at Brand but I couldn’t
tell what was being said. Then I heard footsteps near my door and
Justin’s voice on my intercom. He sounded irritated.

“Calli, I know I told you I’d keep
your friend alive but he’s hell-bent on jumping to his death from
his window. I really don’t care if he does or not, but—”

I could hear background yelling over
the intercom as Justin spoke. Brand was yelling very convincingly,
“Don’t come any closer or I’ll jump!”

A light bulb clicked on in my head;
Brand was putting his Performing Arts major to good use. I would as
well. “Don’t let him jump! If he dies you’ll never get the amulet
from me!”

All that I heard from Justin was a
grunt of disgust. “Fine.”

I heard some noise and what sounded
like pleading and then footsteps nearing my door. I could hear
Brand saying, “You said I could see Calli! Where’s
Calli?!”

Justin answered, “Shut up! Keep
walking.”

A couple minutes went by in silence
and then my door was unlocked and Brand entered my cell sans shirt.
“Miss me?”

“Like the plague. Where’s
Justin?”

“He’s a little tied up at the
moment.”

“What happened to your
shirt?”

“It’s a little tied up at the
moment.”

“What did you do?”

“Does it really matter? Let’s get out
of here while we can.”

“Not yet, we have to rescue the
others.”

“Who? What are you talking
about?”

“The other amulet wearers from the
other clans are here too. We have to find them.”

“They’re probably in the other locked
rooms. Come on! We need to hurry before the guards come.” Brand
pulled on my hand leading me down the hallway.

“I found one!” I opened the door and
found Charles Rhondell sitting on his bed looking surprised to see
me. I motioned with my hand for him to follow and he immediately
stood and walked forward. Brand had opened another door and Curtis
Shultz from the Seers Clan exited the room. He walked briskly
toward Charles and was about to embrace him in a hug when I yelled,
“No! Don’t! If your amulets touch the diamond pieces will be drawn
together like magnets and break out of the glass casings and you’ll
die.” I turned to Brand and said, “There’s got to be one more;
Clara Winter, the Runners’ leader.”

“Over there,” Brand pointed
to a door at the end of the hall and we hurried down to it. He
opened the door and I walked past him into the room. The room was
much smaller than the others and the bed looked more like a
hospital bed than the uncomfortable cots in the other rooms. I
couldn’t believe my eyes! Chris Harding,
not Clara Winter
, lay in the bed
with his wrists tied to the bed-railings and both of his legs
angled in unnatural directions and obviously broken. He looked
extremely weak as he opened his eyes and blinked to clear his
vision.

I stood still, frozen in awe of the
moment. I stepped into the light, walked to his bedside, placed my
hands on his legs and willed his bones to heal. I slid my hands up
and down his legs one at a time until the knitting completed. I
brought my attention up to his face and beheld his astonished
expression. I carefully leaned down, held my amulet to my chest
with my right hand and pressed my right cheek against his left as I
wrapped my left arm across his body.

“I knew you’d come, Calli,” Chris
whispered in my ear and my whole body shivered with
awareness.

Brand walked over to the other side of
the bed and untied the bond on Chris’s right wrist while I freed
his left hand. I brought his hand up to my mouth and kissed the
back of it lovingly.

“So, are we getting out of here or
what?” Brand interrupted the tender moment.

“Wait outside, Brand.” I ordered
him.

“But, we don’t have much
time—”

“Go.” I pointed to the door where the
others filled the doorway. Brand turned on his heel and stomped out
of the room and I turned my attention back to Chris. “You’re very
weak.”

“I feel much better now.” He smiled up
at me.

“How long have you been
here?”

“Not long. I knew you’d come, but I
still don’t believe you’re here or that you healed me. You’re
wearing an amulet, I see, that’s how you were able to fix my
legs.”

“Come on, I’ve got you.” I helped him
sit up.

Brand came back in the room to assist
me in helping him out of bed. Once out in the hall, I noticed the
others were also a little worse for wear. Charles and Curtis were
weakened from the lack of food, the continual drugging and the
inability to heal themselves. I was able to heal myself because of
the diamond in my heart but I’d used my excess energy to heal
Chris’s legs and didn’t feel it would be wise to weaken myself any
further by increasing their strength.

“We have to hurry,” Brand said rather
frazzled. “It’s not easy getting past the guards.”

I knew he must be repeating and knows
we are about to be discovered. We all hurried down the hall and
stopped just before the corner. Brand motioned for us to stand
against the wall. My back was to a closed door and I could hear a
muffled voice on the other side. At first I wondered if it was the
Hunter Justin said was going to be arriving and perhaps we needed
to rescue also, but the more I listened to the voice I realized it
was actually Justin’s voice. He sounded as if he was gagged. I
figured that must have been what Brand’s shirt was tying
up.

Brand put his hand up signaling an
approaching guard. We heard footsteps coming closer from around the
corner and I watched Brand bob his head in time with each step,
counting and plotting his attack. The moment the tip of the guard’s
boot came into view Brand leaped forward and punched his fist
directly into the unsuspecting guard’s temple taking him down with
one single and quite impressive hit.

Charles promptly commended Brand on
his hit and I wondered how many repeats he had done. We rounded the
corner and quietly proceeded down the next hall. Brand put his hand
up again to bring us to a halt and motioned us against the wall. As
we stood there in silence, I listened to the surrounding sounds;
the buzzing of the fluorescent light above our heads, the flush of
a toilet and the casual whistling of a man who’d just finished his
business.

The door near Brand opened and in a
swift and flawless attack, Brand delivered a groin kick followed by
an uppercut to the jaw which knocked the guard out cold. Brand
dragged the guard back into the bathroom and came back out toting
the guard’s gun and closed the door.

Chris whispered in my ear, “Where did
you find this guy?”

Curtis and Charles were in awe of
Brand’s skills. Brand pointed down the hall to the exit and said,
“There’s one more outside the door. Let’s go.”

The door was solid with no windows and
I knew the others must be wondering how he knew but no one spoke
up. We all came to a halt at the door and watched as Brand opened
the door quickly, without looking he rammed the butt of the gun out
around to doorframe dropping the last guard.

Curtis and Charles couldn’t contain
themselves any longer. “Alright, young man, what kind of power do
you possess?”

“No time right now, we have to get to
a safer place.” Brand bent down and removed the guard’s jacket and
put it on. Now he looked like a military man with his AK-47 and
all. “We only have about an hour before the Demons will be out and
we need to find a safe place to hide.”

If only I’d brought my
Demon devices we could have been safe,
I
thought.

Brand and I helped Chris walk while
Curtis and Charles followed closely behind. I glanced into the
future to see if I’d be able to determine where we should hide but
all I could see was the interior of the building and us huddled
around a dim glowing fire. The abandoned wharf must have been a
shipping/manufacturing company at one time but was now the perfect
hideout for Justin & Co.

The sun peeked from behind the
buildings as we walked and I listened to the others talk about
potential hiding locations. We all agreed that we should find a
building that was not connected to the main complex for added
protection. As we rounded a corner we found a possible building. I
left Chris’s side and followed Charles inside. I could tell right
away this would be our hideout; it was the room I’d already
seen.

Everyone else entered the building and
as a team we used old cardboard to cover the windows. Curtis had
found a bag of grilling charcoal that could be used as a heat
source and I decided I would need to leave and find some food and
water for everyone.

Chapter 12 -
Revelations

It wasn’t easy leaving the group; in
fact it was hell! I didn’t want to do it but knew I was the only
one who could.

As I ran toward the lights on the
horizon, toward civilization, I realized I’d have to shoplift
because I didn’t have any money on me and this bothered me. I
wasn’t a thief; yet, my companions needed nourishment and I had no
other way of providing for them.

The first store I came upon was a
small gas station/convenience store. I entered the busy store and
pulled a small shopping basket from the stack. I strolled through
the aisles looking for the best nutrition choices settling on
sports drinks, beef jerky, assorted nuts and chocolate bars. I also
grabbed a flashlight with batteries. When a customer entered the
store to pay for his gas, I ran out the door. It made me wonder
what it would look like on the surveillance cameras; to see a
streak or a flash of something.

I found a payphone and made a collect
call to Beth.

“Hello,” she answered.

“Beth, it’s Calli, I need your
help.”

“Calli, where are you? You’re in big
trouble! Why did you steal the Healers' amulet?”

“It’s not what you think, Beth. Come
on, you know me better than that. I don’t have time to explain
right now.”

“I’ve been assigned to bring you to
the council, along with Brand. Now, tell me where you
are.”

“No, I won’t be doing that. I thought
you were my friend, Beth.”

“Let me come get you and we can get
this all straightened out.”

“I’ll straighten it out on my own.
Bye, Beth.”

I ended the call and began my journey
back to the others with a heavy heart. I tried to convince myself
that Beth was only being a responsible leader and not currently
sitting in jail like I’d seen in the vision on the roof of the
motel. She was embracing life and justice, and right now the
evidence showed I was on the wrong side of right. I couldn’t blame
her anyway, because I’d already seen this day in her future where
she would be chasing me. Maetha was right when she said I needed to
learn how to read my visions better.

It wasn’t easy running with the
groceries. The basket was heavy due to the drinks and awkward to
carry while running and if I stopped too quickly the contents of
the basket would fly out just like the crash test dummies who
weren’t wearing their seat belts. It was a confirmation in the laws
of physics.

Before returning to the others, I
stopped by Justin’s compound and saw him through a window talking
to his injured guards. It dawned on me that his guards were
unaltered men. I wondered if Justin understood the advantage of
having Unaltereds in his employ or if it was just a fluke? More
importantly, did the guards even know or understand who they were
being ordered to search for? It didn’t seem plausible to me that
Justin would have learned about Unaltereds as only a limited number
of individuals on earth knew about them; Freedom being one of
them.