Sabotage (Powerless Nation Book 3) (17 page)

Dee stared straight ahead. She hated it when Olmos singled her out, but it was best to just shut up and take it. Answering back only made it worse.

“Do you know what you need, recruit?”

“No ma’am!” said Dee.

“You need something to offset your carbon dioxide emissions. You don’t want to be responsible for global warming, do you?”

“No ma’am!”

Olmos scanned the area. They were training near the fence and there was quite a bit of undergrowth nearby. “See those shrubs?”

“Yes ma’am!”

“Bring me one.”

Dee glanced at the bushes. Did Sergeant Olmos really intend for her uproot a plant? She was opening her mouth to agree when she was interrupted by a voice she hadn’t heard in weeks.

“Excuse me, ma’am. Did you say you needed a shrubbery?”

It was Hyrum Searle. Dee fought to keep the smile off her face. Hyrum had become her best friend in Lookout Falls after the EMP. He was the one that had picked out the movie for her and Mason to watch on their date so long ago. Hyrum loved quoting old movies. Dee bit her lip. She could already see where this was going.

Apparently, Drill Sergeant Olmos did not. “Yes, I did, Private. Now move along, this is none of your business.”

“Actually, ma’am, shrubberies
are
my business.”

The Sergeant wasn’t amused. “All right, smart mouth. Drop and give me twenty!”

“Yes ma’am!”

Hyrum was on the ground in an instant, counting off each push-up. When he got to twenty he stood up.

“What’s your name, recruit? Aren’t you that Searle kid?” asked Olmos.

Don’t do it
, thought Dee. But he did. With a perfectly straight face, Hyrum saluted the Drill Sergeant and said, “My name is Roger the Shrubber, ma’am. I arrange, design, and sell shrubberies.”

All of the children burst into giggles. Olmos stood extremely still, and her face turned very red. After a moment, she said in a voice that quavered slightly, “Great! Now
everyone
gets to drop and give me twenty. Be sure and thank ‘Roger’ for the exercise.”

Between push-ups, Hyrum said loudly, “Thank you for making sure I’m the most popular person in the platoon, Drill Sergeant!”

By the time Dee had finished, Hyrum was walking away. He turned and gave her an encouraging smile as he left. In just a few minutes, he’d brightened her whole day. She wanted to cheer for him, but settled for a wink.

That night, Dee settled the shrub she’d spent an hour digging up near her bedroll and prepared for sleep. All of the children were talking about what Hyrum had done, and some of the recruits nearby overheard them. They knew Hyrum too, and told about a time he’d been forced to re-enact scenes from
Back to the Future
for the whole camp. Everyone loved him.

Dee pressed her lips together to keep from asking if they knew Mason too. He was probably too busy with his new girlfriend to get to know anyone else. She snorted in annoyance, and McKenna teased her. “Save some air for the rest of us.”

“If I had a pillow I’d throw it at you,” threatened Dee.

“Clarke!” called a voice. “You’re on fire watch.”

Dee sat up. She’d almost forgotten it was her turn for guard duty that night. Although it was called fire watch, her main job was to make sure no one tried to hurt themself or escape in the night. It also meant she’d get even less sleep than usual. She resisted the urge to sigh, picked up her shrub, and carried it to the end of their section. There was a rusty metal folding chair for her to sit on. The chill of the metal seat bit through her clothing. It was going to be a long night.

A little while later, something woke Dee from a shallow doze. It was the sound of a child crying. McKenna. Dee switched on her flashlight and made her way to the girl’s bedroll.

“Do you want to talk about it?” asked Dee, squatting down.

“Not really,” said McKenna.

“Is it about Harvey?”

McKenna nodded and hiccupped.

“I have bad dreams about that night too,” Dee said.

McKenna rolled over to look at her. “You do?”

“Did I ever tell you I had a brother that died?” asked Dee.

McKenna shook her head.

“I used to get bad dreams about him all the time. It wasn’t until I moved here to Lookout Falls that they stopped.”

“I hate them,” said McKenna. “Every night I see him knock me down and get hit by the bullet. Over and over.” She shuddered. “How did you make the dreams stop?”

“Actually, Hyrum helped me,” said Dee, turning the flashlight over in her hands. She remembered when Hyrum had first told her he believed in an afterlife. At the time, she blamed God for letting her brother die, and she hadn’t wanted anything to do with religion. However, with Hyrum’s encouragement, over the next few months she’d found peace in the idea of heaven. “He said I’d see my brother again, and I believe him. I think we’ll see Harvey again someday too.”

McKenna rolled back to her side and said quietly, “I hope so.”

A touch on Dee’s arm almost made her drop her flashlight. She raised it and a beam of light flickered over Hyrum’s face.

He brought a finger to his lips. “Shh.”

“You’re here!” Dee felt a surge of joy, and hugged him tightly.

“Who’s your little friend?” he asked, then turned to McKenna. “It sounds like you’ve had a rough night.”

McKenna sat up in her bedroll, and Dee didn’t see a trace of tears on her face. “I’m not little. I’m almost nine.”

“My mistake,” said Hyrum, holding up both hands to ward off her fierce look. “What’s your name?”

“McKenna.”

Hyrum rubbed his chin, and Dee heard the rasp of whiskers beneath his fingers. He was disarmingly handsome, even as an unwilling conscript sneaking around in the middle of the night. His wavy blond hair was growing back from the buzz cut he’d gotten since she’d last seen him, but the blue eyes and dimple were the same. “McKenna? Hmm. I think I’ve heard about you.”

“You have?”

“Are you the same McKenna that helped lead the resistance against the army?”

McKenna shot a worried look at Dee, who nodded reassuringly. The little girl relaxed. “Yep, that’s me.”

“I’ve been hoping to meet you and your team,” said Hyrum. “You guys inspired a lot of people in here.”

“Really?” said McKenna.

Hyrum nodded. “There are some of us that might even want to join you.”

McKenna looked him over and then shook her head. “Not everyone is cut out for sabotage.” Her lips trembled, and she looked away, blinking rapidly.

Hyrum and Dee exchanged a glance, and Hyrum gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze before turning back to the little girl. “I can see how that might be the case, but I’ve been doing stealth missions since I was about your age.”

McKenna’s big eyes narrowed. “That was just kid stuff. It’s not the same thing at all.”

Hyrum raised his right hand. “I promise if you let me tell you about my qualifications this once, I’ll never bother you again.”

“All right, but just this one time.”

Dee listened with interest. She didn’t believe good-natured Hyrum had ever done anything malicious.

“I was really mad at my folks one night. I don’t even remember over what. Probably something stupid. I was only eight or nine and it was a Saturday night. I decided to teach them a lesson, so I went out to the garage and leaned a nail behind each of the tires of our mini-van.”

McKenna inhaled sharply.

“You didn’t!” said Dee, trying to imagine a tiny, angry version of Hyrum.

“I sure did. My plan was that the next time my parents backed the car out, it would roll over the nails and pop the tires.”

“What happened?” asked McKenna. “Did you get the nails away in time?”

Hyrum folded his arms and grinned, shaking his head. “I’m afraid not.” He made a show of glancing around, and then lowered his voice to a whisper. “I actually forgot they were there until the next morning. We got three flat tires on the way to church.”

“Oh man, I bet you were in so much trouble,” said McKenna, clearly impressed.

“Are you kidding? I never told them I did it. They thought someone had spilled nails on the road.”

McKenna’s eyes were round and bright. “You can definitely be in our Resistance.”

Hyrum’s expression was serious, but Dee could see a hint of fun. “Thank you. I hope you’ll let a few of my friends join too.”

“I guess so.” McKenna yawned. “Dee is kind of in charge anyway. She can help you figure things out.”

Dee blinked. “I’m not in charge.”

McKenna laid down and Hyrum pulled her blanket up to her chin. “Does she tell them what to do?”
 

McKenna nodded.

“That’s what I thought,” he said, then caressed her cheek. “Good night, little trooper.”

She smiled sleepily up at him, then closed her eyes.

Hyrum stood and held a hand out to Dee to help her to her feet. On the way back to the duty area he said, “She’s a good kid. She reminds me a lot of Jeremiah.” Jeremiah was Hyrum’s younger brother.
 

“How’s he doing?” asked Dee.

“He’s always been the serious one, so it’s tough on him. It’s getting harder to find ways to make him laugh. I’ve got to get him out of here. I don’t think my mom could stand to lose three of us. She’d only have Joseph and Katy left.”

“
Three
sons?” asked Dee.
 

“Yeah,” said Hyrum. “Me, Jeremiah, and my oldest brother, Shep. He left when my dad died.”

“I knew he was gone, but I thought you guys were okay with it.”

Hyrum shook his head. “Not at all. He dropped out of the church. Said he didn’t believe in God any more. He had his mission papers and everything.”

“What does that mean?” asked Dee.

“You know those Mormon guys you see riding around on bikes with the ties and name-tags?”

Dee nodded.

“They’re missionaries, and Shep was about to leave to be one. Then we found out about my dad’s cancer and he said he wasn’t going. He would have been in Argentina right now if he’d gone. Instead, he took off to California.”

“Why California?”

Hyrum shrugged. “He said if he was going to live it up, he wanted to do it somewhere warm. It pretty much broke Mom’s heart to lose Dad and Shep at the same time.”

“I can’t believe I didn’t know all this,” said Dee. “How does your mom stand it?” She thought about Angela. The woman had been like a mother to her when her parents were gone, and remained a close friend to both her and Grandpa.

“I don’t know, but I’m going to bring Jeremiah home to her, and then I’m going to find my big brother and bring him home too. Downey thinks he can mess with my family but I won’t let him. Not with my mom. The line must be drawn here. This far, and no farther.”

“Movie line?” asked Dee.

Hyrum nodded.
“Star Trek.”

They’d arrived back at the duty area and Dee said, “So you already know about our group, I guess. Welcome to the Resistance, whatever that means. We’re kind of a mess right now.”

“That’s not what I heard,” said Hyrum. “You guys were great. You took out a lot of Downey’s food supplies and almost all of his trucks. Most of them won’t drive at all now.”

“If your definition of ‘great’ includes little kids dying, then sure.” Dee couldn’t keep the bitterness out of her voice.

“I heard about Harvey,” said Hyrum. “His older brother is in here. He was really proud when he heard what Harvey had done. He says he wants to meet Harvey’s favorite teacher.”

Dee struggled to speak around the lump in her throat. “Some teacher.” Hyrum put an arm around her, but that only made her want to cry more. She shook him off. “What are you doing here, anyway?”

“I was serious about joining up with you. Sena, Mason, and I have been making plans to break out of here with the guns he stashed, but a lot of the kids are scared. They love the idea of the Resistance though. We’re still figuring things out, but we could really use your help.”

“Trust me, you don’t want
my
help. Even my drill sergeant thinks I’m a waste of oxygen.” Dee pointed at her plant. The leaves were wilted and droopy.

“Are you kidding? You probably have more intel than anyone else here. You know where this camp is and how it’s guarded. You’ve scouted the perimeter and know how to get back to Lookout Falls from here. You got medical training from your grandpa. You practically led a sabotage mission against Downey’s headquarters in town.”

“Hold on,” interrupted Dee. “That mission was a big, fat failure. Our leader was the real hero, and he died. And before that, Sena was in charge.”

“You never give yourself enough credit,” said Hyrum. “There are a lot of kids that look up to you. You’ve been their teacher, their friend, even their guerrilla commander. You inspire them.”

“They’re the ones that inspire me!”
 

“You taught them to believe in themselves. Now you need to learn the same lesson.”

Dee was quiet until Hyrum bumped her shoulder with his. “Think of it like a movie,” he said.

Dee rolled her eyes. “Which one?”

“All of them. This is the part where the hero finally realizes what he has to do, and then does it. Like when Inigo Montoya stands up after he gets stabbed. Or remember in
Karate Kid
when Daniel balances on one leg and then does that awesome kick?”

“Life isn’t a movie, Hyrum. And I’m not a hero.”

“You
are
a hero. I know it’s been rough, but you can do this. The kids need you. We’ve got to get them out of here before Downey crushes their spirits.”

“What about Sena?”

“I’ve already talked to her. Kade too, and a few others. They all want to help.”
 

Dee wondered why he hadn’t mentioned Mason. “I’ll think about it.”

“Aw, come on,” said Hyrum. “What happened to the old Dee that went on daring rescue missions and faced down grizzlies?”

“I have more to lose now.” Dee indicated the children sleeping in rows a few yards away.

“They need our help just as much. Think about McKenna. Do you want her to grow up like this?”

“If we try to break out, can you guarantee she won’t get hurt?” said Dee.

Hyrum was silent.

“That’s what I thought. So like I said—I’ll think about it.”