Uprising (11 page)

Cain calls out from the back, near the stairs. The people part a way so everyone can see him speak.

“We were in the kitchen late, getting a snack. Couldn’t sleep. We heard someone yelling for help outside. So we ran to see who it was thinking it was someone who saw the flyer maybe. When we got outside there were Markers everywhere and two Lighters. I shot them but we couldn’t turn back and make it and Sherry was screaming because of her arm, the Markers mark. Also her leg, the Lighter hit us with a stone or something. So I picked her up and ran with her to the cave out past the field.”

“Cain,” I said, stunned. “That cave is almost half a mile away. How did you carry her all that way with Markers and Lighters out there with you?”

“I don’t know. I just did. She was freezing and her leg was...” He rubbed his eyes and sighed. “I don’t even know how she survived the night.”

Cain sounds nothing like his normal cocky self. He’s just as beaten and somber as Sherry but all I can think about is that he saved her life. While I slept in my warm room, he carried her through Lighters and Markers, bandaged her leg and kept her alive during the freezing pitch black night in an old cave.

“Cain,” I start but feel a familiar choke come to my throat and have to pause to let it pass. The one I felt the night that Phillip tried to...hurt Sherry. “Thank you.”

“Don’t, Merrick. Don’t thank me. I should never have let her follow me out there,” his voice cracks when he says ‘never’.

“This is Sherry we’re talking about, Cain. She’s stubborn and doesn’t always follow orders very well,” I say lightly and try for a weak smile.

Sherry has stopped heaving and is quiet and still so I assume she’s fallen back asleep in my arms. I’d hate for her to hear us talking about her like she’s not here, but I continue.

“She does what she thinks she needs to do no matter the cost to herself, especially when it comes to these people. Someone was yelling for help and any one of us that had been in that kitchen would have ran to help them too. It’s not your fault and it’s not Sherry’s. I think ya’ll have been through enough to atone for it anyway.”

I can’t ever repay you enough. Thank you. You don’t know what she means to me. She’s...everything...

He nods solemnly and I get a few echoes of my out loud sentiment to Cain. He gets a few pats on the back and ‘well done’s. Simon beside him puts a hand on his shoulder.

Cain still has blood running down his neck and forehead. His arm is bleeding too. A quick look around shows me he’s not the only one who took a beating along with Sherry.

There isn’t anyone that is clean and spot free. For the most part it’s all minor cuts and scrapes, bruises and I can’t help but notice one thing. One major thing.

“We didn’t lose anyone. Everyone made it. We’re alive.”

Best Laid Plans

I feel Merrick laying me down in our pallet. I still refuse to open my eyes. Carefully, he shifts me and is so gentle with my leg. He thought I was asleep while they were talking out there. I might as well have been, I couldn’t open my eyes and face them. The shame is still too raw. My body just shut itself down and refused to let me participate.

This wonderful group of people who would never blame me or Cain even when we so deserved it. It’s my fault more than anyone. I’m weak and had no business going out in the dark to help anyone when I can’t even help myself.

Stupid.

And people paid the price for my ignorance.

Calvin. Just the name makes me choke. And Lily.

I know they all said we’d get them back but how? Where? When? How could I let them down like this?

Merrick leaves briefly then returns. I can feel him climb in beside me and he rubs my shoulder lightly.

“Sherry, I brought you some tea. You need to get something in you.”

I open my eyes and look up at him leaning over me. There’s a flashlight in the corner, pointed to the ceiling to illuminate the room. He’s holding a glass of sweet tea and a napkin with a few slices of cheese and rolled ham on it. There is no blame in his eyes. Nothing but concern and love.

“Merrick. This is all my fault. I know you’ll say that it’s not, but it is. I was so stupid. I was so-” a sob chokes my plea.

“Stop, Sherry.” He frames my face, forcing me to look at him. “Don’t do this to yourself, sweetheart. No one blames you because it’s not your fault. You tried to help someone. Who could blame you for that? If that were the case then I’d be to blame for what Phillip did to you, the first time.”

“What?! No! How?”

“Well, he told me how he felt and I gave him the benefit of the doubt. If I hadn’t done that and made sure to-”

“That’s not the same thing, Merrick.”

“Isn’t it?”

“Merrick.”

“Sherry,” he breathes, ordering and begging me to understand and let it drop.

“What do we do now?” I say, my voice cracking.

“You eat and tell me how the heck you survived the night. I stay here with you and keep you warm until you fall asleep. Then tonight, we kill some Lighters and get back our kids.”

I have never been more proud of him. My heart wants to burst from my chest and the annoying tears come again. He wraps his arms around me, lying us back on our backs. I nibble my cheese and drink my tea through the straw, as ordered.

I tell him the whole story. About the Lighter tricking us and then the next one with his filthy talk, about Phillip. Not even leaving out the part where Cain and I had to lay wrapped around each other to keep warm. I know he won’t be jealous of that and I want to be completely honest with him.

Always.

So I even spurt out about how Cain kissed me in the coffee shop that day, to save me from being discovered and questioned.

“Cain has apologized to me for it so many times,” I explain. “I just want to be completely honest with you. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before. It was wrong of me to keep it from you.”

“Sherry, the man saved your life. Twice, now it seems. I can’t be mad at him. Or you. I owe him everything.”

He tells me how lucky I am. How dumb I was for thinking I could handle things on my own, without him and he hopes I’ve learned my lesson this time, that we’re a team. Always. Then he whispers that everything will be fine, he’s happy I’m ok, he was so worried about me, he loves me. I drift off to sleep somehow at more peace than I ever would have thought imaginable.

We will get them back. We will.

After what I can guess is a couple hours I wake up and Merrick is looking at my leg, rewrapping it with care and looks up to see me watching him. He finishes quickly and comes to lay on his side beside me, leaning on his elbow.

“How do you feel?” he asks.

“I’ll feel better when we get on with the plan to get the kids back.”

At first I thought he’d argue with me about the word ‘we’, me implying I’m going too. He doesn’t, in fact, he reacts as though that’s the best news yet.

“Great. Let’s go warrior,” he says smiling and lifts me up in his arms.

He doesn’t carry me but sets me down to my good foot, letting me lean on him. What’s up with him? I thought for sure I’d have to fight him to let me keep my dignity and hobble myself in there to meet the others. I look at him questioningly.

I know you don’t want me to carry you out there in front of all of them, do you?

He smiles a knowing smile with a raised eyebrow as he speaks. A smug he knows me smile.

Cute.

I realize what he’s doing. He’s letting me get some of my dignity back from my breakdown earlier. He knew I wouldn’t want him to carry me like some broken rag doll. He’s already done that more than enough lately when I had no other choice.

Now I do.

Just when you think you can’t love someone more. When you think they can’t possibly know you more than they already do...

“Nope.” I smile back and we leave our room, hobbling.

Everyone is already there, either in the kitchen door way or stacked in the commons room. Everyone looks eager and anxious. Some have coffee in hand, others have biscuits or crackers. Some have all three.

No one seems to be particularly interested in me but Danny, Ryan, Cain, Miguel and even Josh who are watching me the whole time with anxious eyes. Well, I guess that is a lot.

Everyone else is glued to Jeff, who is giving what I can only describe as a battle decree.

“Thank you. I know how bad you want to pick me up and carry me,” I whisper to Merrick as he navigates through scattered people sitting cross legged on the floor.

Yes. I do. And it’s killing me watching you struggle needlessly, but I know you need this. Even if you are just being stubborn.
He cuts his eyes sideways to peek at me and smiles.
I’m gonna go get you some breakfast. Sit here.

He brings me beside Danny who takes my hand to settle me beside him on the couch. Ryan gets up to take the chair arm instead so I can have his seat. Danny pats my leg and gives me a look, like ‘how can you keep doing this to me’, then props my leg up on his knee and I’m shocked to see how blue and black my foot is sticking out through the end. Swollen too.

I hear Danny suck in his breath and Celeste gasp beside him. But I wave off their concern and try to focus on what Jeff is saying but I can’t. My eyes skim the sea of faces. Battered and bruised and stitched and bandaged. The wave of guilt comes rolling back to me, crashing over me.

Then I see Lana. Refusing to meet anyone’s eyes. Staring at the wall. I continue to look at her. Willing her to look at me. When she finally does I immediately regret it. The pain and confusion in her eyes is too much to look at without wincing.

I sign ‘I’m sorry’, placing my right hand over my heart in a fist in a circular motion while still mouthing ‘sorry’. She nods and wipes tears but turns back to the wall again. She’s lost the only person in the world she can talk to. Literally.

Merrick promptly returns with coffee and a cereal bar for me. The brown brew is the perfect balance of sweet and cream.

He crouches down in front of me and we all sit back and absorb Jeff. He is excited in a furious way. Ready to set out and inflict revenge and retaliation on their opposites. The Lighters may have ultimately won the battle, getting the prize, but Jeff is determined to win the war.

“So, the way I see it. With all the gifts that the Specials have acquired here, I don’t see any reason that we can’t go there and take them back. Josh can see through the walls, Trudy can hear things far off, Danny can plant thoughts, Celeste can find the children by focusing on them and Marissa can compel them to do anything. The Keepers can be the muscle. We can do this.”

He goes on to tell us the plan in it’s entirety. We wait until nightfall. We send someone out as bait for a Lighter. We know one will come since they seem to be running rampant. We capture it and bring it down for ‘questioning’. He didn’t further elaborate on ‘questioning’ and I didn’t want him to.

Everyone is in agreement. No one said, ‘hey, it’s just a couple kids, we can’t risk out lives for them.’ Everyone was upset and ready to get to the action. To the
doing and not sitting
part.

Once we capture it, we get what info we need, leading us to where Lily and Calvin are. He lets us know where and we go and meet them there. Sounds simple enough.

It’s decided that Miguel will be the bait. It can’t be a Keeper or they may not want to attack as easily and we don’t wanna chance it taking long because it’s wary. Miguel can fight better than any of us, so he volunteered. Oh boy. It begins.

Merrick, Jeff, Kay, Ryan, Josh and Danny, who insisted on helping and Merrick told him he could stand watch at the door, will wait to ambush the Lighter once Miguel lures it out. Then they interrogate.

“Now, Sherry. I’ll need you for some of the questioning. We’ll need to know if it’s lying or not about where Calvin and Lily are. Are you gonna be ok with that?” Jeff asks, looking me dead in the eye and raising sympathetic eyebrows.

“Of course.” It’s all I
can
say.

The meeting ends and some take off to get some rest as all of these plans will take place at night fall. A lot of them stop to talk to me before heading separate ways. Josh kneels down in front of me and ask me, I counted at least five, if I’m ok in between other adamant questions. I assure him I am before he pats my arm and takes off after Miguel, who also asked how my leg was feeling.

After rib crushing hugs from Ryan and Trudy, I ask Merrick to help me with a shower. He does and joins me, insisting it would be easier to hold me up that way. I agree.

After he helps me get undressed he hops in with me, adjusting the water to my liking and holding me gently from behind around my ribs with one arm. The water is so hot and good. I hang my head and let it roll down my back. Merrick kneads my back and shoulders.

After a freezing, miserable night on the rock hard ground with wounds to boot, I can’t remember the last time anything felt so good.

I lean back against him and he feathers some light kisses on my shoulders and neck, sweeping my hair aside. It feels like an eternity since we’ve been together like this, though it’s only been a couple nights .