Eaters (Book 2): The Resistance (30 page)

"…says they can scramble the code to the black boxes."

A man in the group shot up a hand. "Take out the pyramid builders first. That'll really get their panties in a wad."

Paige shook her head. "This all has to be precisely coordinated. It all goes down on May 1st when the apex of the pyramid is scheduled to be completed."

Another man in the group gasped. "The day Cyclops—"

"Yes. That's the only time all of this city's O.N.E. leaders will be gathered in one place. We have to take them all down at the ceremony.
Before
Cyclops is activated."

"Wouldn't it be easier to catch them off guard, afterwards when they're celebrating?"

"It will be too late then."

There were puzzled looks all around.

"Ha…here's the thing…" Paige bit down on her knuckle for a second. "Cyclops isn't a project to make us all more secure as everyone in the town has been told. Once it's installed, there won't be any chance for rebellion."

They leaned in, hanging on Paige's every word.

"Cyclops is the culmination of XCGEN's telepathic communication experiments. Via retinal scans or some other type of techno mumbo jumbo, it will allow O.N.E. to read the thoughts of every citizen."

Paige paused to let that sink in for a moment.

The revelation got Cheryl's gears grinding. It made her think of Mark…made her wonder if that explained how he'd been invading her mind over the last few months with his spooky messages and warnings. Now, she had to talk to him again. She had to find out if there had been some drug, some event that had—

"I know it sounds like science fiction, but they've done it. After working on hundreds of subjects, both alive and dead, they've mapped the human brain, figured out how the neural thought pathways function. With a simple scan, they can tell if your thoughts are subversive to their cause. We won't stand a chance after that… " Paige continued. "If we don't take them down before Cyclops is activated, there will be no more RT."

Cheryl and Aidan gasped along with the others. The gravity of what they had signed up for showed on the grim faces in the group. There was also a palpable sense of futility. How could just the few members of the resistance take down such an organized group, armed with guns, programmed zombies, and the ability to read minds?

After answering a few questions, Paige began to describe the tasks for which they needed volunteers. Some were needed to work as hackers in O.N.E.'s programming center, others to work in the factory—altering the circuitry in the black boxes. Others were needed more for their brawn than their technical skills to immobilize guards and disarm them, raid the armory, and create blockades with trucks. Then, she mentioned the need for a few people to help out with the RT's Special Forces, a unit that would perform some unnamed covert task that was the most dangerous of all.

Aidan spoke up when she was done. "Vinnie said he could get me into the factory."

"It's possible…" Paige said, "…but…
your eye
…he told me you're not a donor…that you lost your eye in a fight. In the factory, I think you'd get too many questions from the techies about it, so it would be better if you did something a little less public."

After the others took turns voicing their interest in signing up for one duty or another, Cheryl boldly stepped up and said, "I'll do whatever you need."

"Me too," Aidan added.

Paige told them both to wait until the rest of the group left the meeting. Then, she'd speak with them.

They tried to mingle with some of the others and found them to be pleasant, but tightlipped. None of the men or women wanted to give their real names or details about themselves, revealing a profound mistrust between them.

Cheryl told Aidan, "They're probably worried that we could be moles."

"It's probably better that we don't know them," he said. "That way we can't be tortured into giving them away."

They discussed the possibility of that happening and other things while they waited for the group to disperse. When they were finally alone with Paige, she probed them for information about how they'd gotten to Sedona, where they'd been before that, and who they'd been with. She laughed when she saw the crudely made triangle symbols on their hands and the story of how they'd snuck into town with a group coming back from an execution excursion.

Then, she turned serious. "You say you're both willing to do
anything
for the cause?"

After a quick glance at each other, they nodded.

"You're my kind of people!" she said with a wide grin. "So, here's the deal…there are crews of workers that train the Beasts and run them through a series of tasks before they're put to work on the pyramid. It's a dangerous job, because a lot more of them go rogue than we've been led to believe. Because of that, they're trained in the rooms below the pyramid, away from the eyes of the crowds. It's not just for safety, by the way. It's just because they don't want the masses to witness all of their hocus pocus with the beasts."

Cheryl felt her heart thumping inside her chest. The RT wanted them to go inside the pyramid?
That was literally right into the heart of it all.
It didn't seem there could be anything they could do that would be more dangerous and exciting than that. But, she was wrong…

"You'll be part of our covert Special Forces team…smuggling in explosives."

"Whoa…"  Aidan said, holding up a hand. "I'm not sure we—"

"Let's hear her out," Cheryl said.

"The
ka-pow
part comes later. For now, we just need you to become trainers on the inside, so you have clearance and know your way around in there."

"And after that?"

"I can't give you the details now. It's safer for all of us if you don't know too much."

Cheryl told Paige they needed a minute to discuss it. Then, they walked a few feet away. Their discussion turned out to be very short. Before Cheryl could launch into her first concern, Aidan pointed out the ankle holster peeking out of the cuff of Paige's jeans as she sat cross-legged on the floor. He also said that with the loud music in the club, it would be unlikely that anyone would hear two gunshots. It was a given that they were either in the RT now, or they were a feast for the rats in the storage room.

After another minute, they went back to Paige and nodded as if they'd just discussed the pros and cons of the assignment and voted for enlisting.

"Far out," she said. "I knew you two were made of good metal. Now…of course there will be a lot of violence…and…probably a lot of deaths. But, if all goes as planned, by the end of the big day, we'll take the leaders of O.N.E. down and be in full control."

Paige sounded so sure of it, like it was just an equation to execute. Cheryl knew nothing could be that certain. "What's Plan B? What if something goes wrong?"

Paige stared at them, gears obviously grinding in her head as she tried to formulate a response. "All right, look…given what you've told me about your history, I think you can handle the truth." She leaned towards them and lowered her voice while still keeping it audible. "There's something I haven't told all of the recruits yet. Most of them think this is going to be a systematic shutdown, taking out small groups of Beasts and guards. We've let them believe that, because it's less frightening than what's really going to happen."

Cheryl and Aidan held their breath.

"Our hackers have told us that all the black boxes will go offline
at once
. So, there's no sequential
take a pocket of the authorities down here
…and
another one there
. We're talking simultaneous combustion of every Beast that's been fitted with a black box, so every O.N.E. authority and guard will immediately know the jig is up."

Aidan's voice cracked. "All…
all of them
?"

"Every one."

The visual of hundreds, thousands of zombie heads exploding like putrefied watermelons sounded like some epic horror movie scene. The gore would be nasty enough, but Cheryl had another worry. "So what if….what….if something goes wrong…then what…"

Paige exhaled with a whistle. Well…then it's time to get out of Dodge. Get as far away from here and any of the cities run by O.N.E. that you can get, 'cause they'll definitely be mad as hornets."

"How are we going to do that?" Aidan asked.

"Once the armory is taken, we'll have guns. We're hoping there will be enough confusion and chaos after the Beasts are down that we'll be able to scatter and disarm anyone who's against us. Now, just in case things get hairy, we'll also have fully gassed vehicles placed at strategic places around the city. Everyone in the RT will have the chance to escape. And the others…well…God help them."

"So…there's no partial win with this thing. It's pass-fail," Cheryl said, feeling her body frozen as her brain tried to process everything.

"Something like that."

Aidan rubbed his neck like it had just cramped up on him. "So if things go wrong, where do we go?"

"It would be better if we scattered. Some of us would head towards Prescott. Some towards Payson. Some would go north. Where you go is up to you. "

"I don't have a good feeling about this," Cheryl said. "The O.N.E. security team could just start firing on the crowd. We could all be killed before we even have a chance to take control."

"Maybe," Paige said, calmly. "
Maybe not
. It's a chance we're willing to take, because we're all dead if things keep heading in the same direction. O.N.E. has to be stopped! What you'll be doing on the Special Forces team is setting up explosives. Right after the Beasts go down, the small ones will go off first in seemingly random order. That should startle the crowd and cause it to start dispersing, so they won't be sitting ducks for gunfire or the larger explosion."

It sounded like chaos…madness. Cheryl couldn't believe it was all going to work. "Even if we scatter, how do you know O.N.E. won't be able to regain control and just put it all back together?"

"There are RT members all over Sedona and units in every O.N.E.-controlled city across the country. They're all going to strike on May 1st. We have to do it that day before Cyclops goes online in all the cities. It's the only chance we have to swing the pendulum in our direction." Paige clenched both fists in the air. "We've got a chance to make this work!"

Her confidence was inspiring. Cheryl could see the same emotion in Aidan's eye, but there was also a bit of guarded pessimism.

Paige ended it with another rallying speech then told them both to report to Vinnie at Milkman's Auto in the morning so they could start their Special Forces training. As she instructed, they staggered their departure from the hidden room, sneaking back into the main venue of the Blue Scorpion like ghosts emerging from the shadows.

When they left the nightclub, they couldn't refrain from talking about what they'd just gotten themselves into and the chances for the RT's success. They whispered to each other as they walked, trying to be as quiet as possible in case there were cameras or microphones nearby.

"I don't know about this…" Cheryl said.

Aidan agreed. "If everything doesn't go as they plan, it's going to be pretty damn hairy trying to get out of Sedona."

She had a bad feeling about all of it. Even so, she couldn't back out. Participating in taking O.N.E. down was doing her part to fight against the shadow of darkness that had overtaken the planet. "Well…I guess we didn't risk our lives to come here to just sit around on our butts and become pleasure-seeking automatons like the rest of the townspeople—we came here to do something!"

That they agreed upon. Then, they decided to hold their tongues until they were indoors where they figured they could talk more freely.

When they got back to the apartment, Cheryl put her hand out to stop Aidan from opening the door.

"What?" he said, looking at her with alarm.

"Someone's been here." She pointed to the welcome mat which used to lie evenly against the door frame but was now askew.

Chapter 22

Aidan looked down…then up at her…and backed away from the door.

Simultaneously, they glanced around the corridor for something to use as a weapon. Finding nothing suitable, Cheryl darted down the staircase to the flower bed in front of the building and picked up two rocks then came back up and handed one to him. Then, she stood back as he kicked the door open.

After a couple of seconds, he dared to go in. She followed behind him for the first few steps then ventured towards the kitchen as he diverted towards the bedroom. They turned on lights as they went then met back in the front hall a few seconds later. Cheryl closed the coat closet door that must have been bumped open from the force of the front door hitting it. Then, she went to the open front door and closed it. When she turned back around she said, "It doesn't look like anyone's—" A hand clamped over her mouth and she felt a circle of cool metal shoved against her right temple.

Aidan took a step towards her and her attacker then stopped and put his hands up. Jake…man…don't…don't do anything stupid."

"Wow!" Jake said, shoving the gun barrel deeper into her skin. "I am really impressed how you two managed to worm your way into town and find somewhere to shack up so quickly. Makes me question the security around this joint."

"How'd you find us?" Cheryl asked.

"Saw you in the crowd at the pit yesterday and followed you back here. I'd have paid you a visit then if I'd been ready."

Cheryl wondered where else he had followed them. This was bad—
really bad
.

"Are you feeling lucky today? How about we play a little game? Seven and higher, you win. Six and under, you die." He threw out his hand and a pair of bronze dice rolled onto the living room carpet. They were covered in sticky, dark blood.

"Snake eyes…how about that? I guess you lose."

All the oxygen left Cheryl's lungs. She couldn't speak, couldn't cry out, couldn’t move…

"Ohhh…you don't like that roll? How about I throw in a consolation prize?" He tossed the silver and turquoise cross that Hannah had given her on the floor beside the dice. If Zach had given it to Mark as she asked, Mark had been holding it too
.
It was also covered with blood and bent like Jake had crumpled it with the strength of his bare hand.

She screamed in her head.
Mark! Mark!
You're not dead. You can't be! Mark! Tell me you're not…

But, there was nothing but silence in response, and somehow, she knew it was true. She hadn't heard any telepathic messages from him lately, and there was no way Jake had gotten those trinkets out of Mark's pockets if he was still alive.

"I did your little boyfriend a favor. He was marked with scars from the virus. If he'd have been captured, he'd have been thrown into the pit with the Beasts or tortured and executed in some other miserable fashion."

The fear in her belly from having a gun at her head began to morph into a fiery ball of anger…but she still found herself unable to react.

Aidan broke their silence. "How about a deal, man? See that sack over there on the kitchen counter?" When Jake veered to look, Aidan glanced at the rock that he'd set down on the table then back to Cheryl. She understood his intention.

He continued, speaking in an imploring, but calm voice. "The people who lived in this apartment had a pretty good stash of bills in a safe in the bedroom. We were going to count it tonight. I reckon it's a few thousand…"

When Jake turned to look at the sack again, Aidan threw the rock towards his head. It missed, but he flinched, momentarily relaxing his hold on Cheryl's wrist. Muscle memory from her Combatives training at the fort kicked in. She spun out from his grip, simultaneously grabbing the hand that held the gun and kneeing him in the groin. He hunched over in pain, his hand covering his crotch as she wrenched the gun away. Aidan followed up with a punch that sent him sprawling onto the floor and rendered him unconscious.

Her breath came in a staccato of pants and gasps as Cheryl pointed the gun at Jake's head, ready to pull the trigger.

"Don't!" Aidan shouted. "We can't kill him."

"Why not? He killed Mark…and Edmond…and who knows who else."

"Come on..." he said, motioning for her to lower the gun. "What would we do with the body? Don't we have enough to worry about right now?"

She kept the gun trained on Jake, wishing she could fire it and blow him into oblivion. Aidan saw how tightly she was squeezing the grip of the gun and the way her hand was shaking and warned her. "It's not worth it, Cheryl. I know he's a scumbag, but we've got a greater role to play here than to just knock off one idiot."

"How much do you think he knows?" she asked, still hoping for a reason to blow Jake's head off.

Jake's eyes fluttered as he moaned and started to rise up on his elbows. She turned the gun around and coldcocked him on the back of the head, knocking him out again. Then, she gave his leg a hard kick to make sure he was really out.

"Is it loaded?" Aidan asked.

She popped the cylinder open on the revolver and saw that all the chambers were empty. "No. He was bluffing."

Aidan stared down at Jake's limp form. "I don't think he knows anything about our meeting, and this town's packed with enough people that we're not likely to run into him again if we lay low."

"You're saying we just leave him here?"

"Yep. I'd say we don't have any other choices at this point."

Not knowing how long Jake would be out, they didn't waste time. They ran to the bedroom, grabbed a couple of backpacks out of the closet, and started throwing clothes and other things into it.

"Sure wish we did have a big bag of money," Cheryl told him as they worked.

"Wouldn't do us much good," he said while stuffing a pair of Philip's jeans in the largest pocket. "I'd rather have a loaded gun than a million bucks right now."

She huffed in agreement as they rushed to finish packing some basic necessities. Back in the living room, she glanced at Jake's crumpled form. He was still inhaling and exhaling shallow breaths. She fought the urge to kick him in the balls.

Aidan was already in the hall outside the apartment when she hopped over Jake's body, grabbed the bloody dice from the floor and stuffed them into her pocket.

She was still seething when she joined Aidan outside the apartment door. The black grief she felt combined with her hatred for Mark's murderer was so unbearable, she could hardly think straight.  "
I want to fucking kill him,
" she said, glancing back inside before shutting the door.

"I know you do, sweetheart. But, when we take this place down, he'll get his due. Come on…we need to get out of here."

"Where are we going?" she asked as they made their way down the steps.

"We'll go back to Vinnie and Ruth. Hopefully, the RT will take us in."

They kept to the shadows as they meandered down the streets, trying to work their way towards the area where they remembered visiting Milkman's Auto. Cheryl fought hard to quell her urge for revenge as they walked, knowing it would be foolhardy now to risk any disruption in the RT's plans. She was needed as part of a team now, and knowing that the members of O.N.E. were evil bastards like Jake was going to make it easier to mow them down.

Twice, they had to scamper away from the street and hide when a patrol car drove by. The second time, they stayed hidden for almost a half hour as the car kept circling back as if it was looking for someone.

When they finally reached the auto shop, the place was quiet and looked dark except for a light in the office. They peeked through the windows and saw a woman with a puff of white hair and lizard-like, sun damaged skin pushing a cleaning cart in the shop's office.

"We don't want to scare her," Cheryl whispered.

"That might not be avoidable," Aidan said. "But, maybe you should make the first contact rather than a one-eyed monster in the dark."

"Right," she said, looking at his covered eye with a grimace.

She tiptoed up to the glass door and gave it a light rap. The woman didn't respond, seeming to be engrossed with her sweeping. Cheryl knocked again, louder. This time, the woman stood upright, pulled an earbud out of her ear then looked towards the door with a look of fright. Cheryl smiled and gave her a friendly wave.

"What do you want?" the woman shouted, not sounding too friendly.

"Ruth said to come here if we got in trouble."

"Who?"

Cheryl cupped her hands over her mouth and leaned against the glass. "Ruth…the RT."

The woman glanced around the room as if searching for anyone who might have heard such provocative words. Then, she rushed to the door and held a finger to her lips before fumbling with the lock.

"All right," the woman said, still eyeing them with suspicion. "I'll let you in, but if you cause any trouble, I'll make sure they know you lied to me."

"I've got a friend with me," Cheryl said after she opened the door.

The woman looked startled when she saw Aidan. She hesitated, then went ahead and let them in.

"We're very grateful," Cheryl told her, as the woman locked the door behind them and lowered the blinds. After the woman turned to face them with wide brown eyes, Cheryl introduced herself and Aidan.

Without giving them her name, the woman said, "You can stay down here." She led them down a hall and showed them an office where they could crash for the night. As she walked away, she pulled a phone out of her pocket and began to dial.

"Not very friendly," Cheryl said after she left.

"Just a little freaked out," Aidan said. "I think we're okay."

True to his intuition, the woman came back a few minutes later. "I talked to Ruth. She said she didn't send you, but she knows who you are, so you can stay the night. She and Vinnie will be in around eight." Without another word, she left and began vacuuming in another office. After she was done, they heard her lock the door and drive away.

They looked around for some way to get comfortable on the hard floor with just a thin layer of industrial gray carpet. After failing to find anything acceptable to use as a pillow, Cheryl leaned her head against the wall. Aidan sat down next to her, his leg touching hers. She instantly stiffened and pulled away.

"I'm sorry," she said, after seeing a wounded look in his eye.

He held his arm out, and she allowed herself to fall into him, leaning her head against his chest. She felt like she'd held herself together for the last couple of hours by pieces of gossamer thread and the sheer grit of her determination. The fabric of that will was breaking down now. Feeling her whole body tremble with weakness, she began to sob.

"I'm sorry," he said, brushing his fingers through the blonde strands on top of her head. "I know you loved him."

She was quiet for a few seconds, trying to regain some measure of control of her emotions. "He didn't love me anymore, though," she said in between heaves of her chest. "He was so worked up about the apocalypse and who started it…he just didn't want to care about anyone, not even me."

Aidan was quiet, not seeming to know what to say to comfort her. He held her for a while and continued to stroke her hair. Then, he put his lips to her forehead and said in a low whisper that she almost couldn't hear, "I care about you…"