Chapter 6 #2
Ella attached herself to my side and looked up at me with worried eyes.
I tried to give her a soothing smile as I kissed the top of her head.
It was rare for her to seek comfort in me any longer.
It was like I was replaced with the guys once they came into our lives.
Most of the time I didn’t care, but a small part of me missed the days when she relied on me for reassurances.
Jacob Perry’s head tilted to the side a myriad of emotions crossing his features. He finally asked softly. “How are you even here?”
Jaxson and Noah chuckled like the children they were while I attempted to explain to him the situation we were in.
“Um, about that,” I hummed. “Remember when we first met, and we were capable of doing stuff you couldn’t believe.
” He nodded as I pulled Kade closer to me.
“This is one of my younger brothers. He has the ability to mess with time, and he sort of brought us into the future.”
Jacob began to laugh before he realized that none of us shared his humor. “So those rumors were true. You’re the time changer?”
“Unfortunately, yes, this jump wasn’t a good one,” Kade said with a self-deprecating smile.
Jaxson and Drake patted him comfortingly before Lincoln prodded. “Is there any way you can tell us the situation we landed ourselves in.”
Jacob looked at us with a shell-shocked expression before he began to speak.
“About eighteen months ago when the new president took office, he brought in some of his own advisors.
One of his advisors was Horatio. They took over the media and exposed the gifted.
They vilified them and claimed they were dangerous.
“They set up these mandatory testing centers for all American citizens. Everyone that wasn’t gifted was branded with a star on their inner left wrist. All the gifted that weren’t deemed ‘dangerous’ were tattooed with a circle.
Some gifted disappeared from these centers, never to be heard from again.
Later, we discovered it was the strongly gifted that were being abducted.
“Luckily, my Sergeant caught wind of what really was going on and didn’t agree with the mandates.
He especially didn’t like it when he discovered people were disappearing and none of the brass seemed alarmed by it.
He took some steps to protect us. When we were required to go down to centers, he had already found someone willing to forge our papers and marked us with stars.
He didn’t care if we were gifted or not. ”
He held up his wrist to show us the star tattooed on his wrist before continuing.
“Rebel factions rose, and exposed Horatio’s lies.
They provided evidence of his own agenda and that he was gifted.
Then people began refusing to go to these centers.
Horatio decided it was pertinent to activate the national guard and law enforcement and squash the rebellion and force everyone to comply.
New laws were being passed nearly overnight.
The government claimed it was for our safety, but our rights were getting taken away.
The moment they required me to kick down doors and drag innocent people to internment camps I quit the force.
“Right after I quit Horatio installed these halos throughout the country. Only the gifted people he deemed worthy to use their gifts have the ability to use the technology they created to nullify the halos effects. Thus, the reason why you can’t use your gifts.”
My mind was blown. I had been skeptical about the technology once I discovered it, especially after I was forced to wear them for months.
It was after my captivity that I was thankful we had never used it on Harry.
It had traumatized me, and I was an adult.
I couldn’t imagine the suffering Harry would have endured if he had been fitted with one.
Now, it seemed all my misgivings had grown.
Drake muttered almost to himself. “I was always leery about the technology.”
“If it wasn’t us discovering it, it would have been Horatio. We already discovered he was working on something similar to our halos. It was only a matter of time before he accomplished the task,” Gavin blew out a loud breath. Then he turned to Perry. “Where are these halos? Can they be destroyed.”
Perry sighed. “That’s what landed me here.
It was all hush hush, and the rebels couldn’t discover how or where these ‘devices’ were located until last week.
One of us witnessed a few of the followers in one of the electrical towers.
We hypothesized that this was how they controlled the gifted population.
The night I was captured I was attempting to disarm a few of them.
I didn’t realize until the third one that once one goes down, they receive an alarm, and people are dispatched to that location. ”
“So, you’re part of the rebel faction.” Lincoln commented.
Perry nodded. “I had no other choice. I couldn’t stand by and do nothing while our country was going to shi—” he cut himself off as his eyes landed on Ella.
Ella gave him a smirk and a shrug. “Crap. It took me a while to find a real rebel faction. Horatio also has people pretending to be rebels and lulling unsuspecting victims until they turn them over to the camps or holding facilities like this one.”
“What happens to us next?” Neville asked at the same time Drake said. “You recognized us and said we had a price on our heads. Why wouldn’t Blake have one as well?”
We all froze, and I felt my heart skip a beat. I hadn’t even noticed Perry’s verbal acknowledgement of us. I had been so focused on seeing Perry after all this time that I hadn’t even realized I hadn’t been a part of that equation.
A pained look crossed Perry’s face. It was evident that he didn’t want to answer the question.
He opened and closed his mouth several times as if he was searching for the words.
Before he could finally respond the doors to the far left were flung open.
The sound of several booted footsteps reverberated in the cavernous space over the whimpers and pleas of release before we saw the fifteen or so SWAT looking figures.
As they drew nearer, I knew they were here for us, and our positions were even more precarious.
η
“Please don’t struggle,” my captor muttered under his breath.
I was seconds away from laughing at him or riling up my captors, but a thought stopped me as he brushed against my belly.
It reminded me of my condition. My poor babies were probably under a lot of stress today.
I know my blood pressure had to be through the roof.
I attempted to take deep breaths in and out.
I didn’t want to cause them anymore anxiety then I’m sure I had.
“Don’t you hurt her!” Jaxson wildly twisted in his jailor’s grips.
I tried to appear calm and unaffected as they began to lead me toward the opened cage door.
From Perry’s intel I’m sure our presence here was ran up the chain of information.
I would have to pray that Horatio or his head minions in charge wouldn’t bring any harm to us.
Wouldn’t we be more beneficial alive, then dead?
“Where are you taking us?” Micah squeaked out, his voice breaking with fear.
I closed my eyes and willed myself not to panic. I didn’t relish the idea of being led into the unknown, but it wasn’t like we had any other choice.
“If you don’t fight, they’ll go easier on you,” Perry called out to us, although I saw the panic in his eyes.
“Blake!” Ella keened attempting to reach for me. Her keening transformed into a yelp when someone hoisted her up into their arms.
Lincoln had been attempting to go calmly until he heard Ella’s distress. He whirled on his detainers and shoved at them. “She’s eight years old and shouldn’t be manhandled like a rag doll!”
A couple of the adversaries pulled out weapons that looked like cattle prods, and I heard the crackling of electricity as it arced from the tip.
I had to attempt to diffuse the situation.
Calm heads had to prevail. Yes, I wanted to rip the man’s head off for snatching up Ella, but I knew she was more scared than injured.
I had to raise my voice to be heard over the commotion. “Stop. Stop. Stop. We won’t fight you. We’ll come willingly. Just be more careful with my sister!”
The tension was nearly palpable, and I wished I had the ability to use my empath gift.
When everyone seemed to back down, the guy that I assumed was the leader stepped forward.
It was then that I noticed the black helmet atop his head wasn’t a normal helmet.
This had to be the technology they created to shield the halos effects on the gifted.
Two of our captors charged their weapons as the leader barked out. “Put your hands behind your back.”
I surreptitiously looked at the other people surrounding us and because of their gloves I couldn’t determine what markings they carried. Only half of them had bulkier looking helmets and I surmised that they were gifted.
“I can’t place my arms behind my back comfortably,” I drolly informed them pointing toward my belly.
“It’s not like you can do much in your condition. Put your wrist together and hold them out in front,” a feminine voice sneered.
I did as she instructed and couldn’t help but scoff. “How can you sleep at night? Why do some people deserve less rights than you do? You have us in conditions animals shouldn’t be subjected to. Let, alone human beings.”
“I sleep very well, thanks for asking,” she saucily chirped before tightening my restraints.