The truck slowly passes, but from our vantage point, neither one of us can see who is driving, but as it drives under our branch, we know it must be the stranger. Magi and Samantha are the only other drivers, and they are both in the back of the truck. Magi is tending to a bleeding Mar and Leah while Samantha and Eli lay bloody and lifeless beside them.
Shortly after passing the tree we are well hidden in, the truck pulls to the edge of the road, stopping in its tracks.
“Did he see us?” I whisper.
“I don’t think so,” Jake answers.
The stranger slides out of the driver’s side dragging Zac with him.
“Where are they?” he yells at Zac.
“I…I don’t know,” Zac answers.
“Where’s Shawn?” I whisper to Jake.
Jake shakes his head confirming he doesn’t know either.
The man keeps yelling the same thing over and over at Zac.
“He doesn’t know,” Mar yells from the back of the truck through a tone of fear.
Jake raises his gun to his eye, looking for a good shot, but it would be near impossible from where we are to shoot him without getting Zac too. Also, with the man wearing a vest, about the only good shot Jake or I could take would be a head shot.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see a figure moving through the woods. At first, I think it is an animal, but as I get a better look, I can tell it is human. I get Jake’s attention and point to the person moving just inside the tree line.
“I AM TELLING YOU THAT I MEAN YOU NO HARM!” The man is having a fit on the side of the road. Jake and I peer into the back of the truck where our friends lay lifeless. “I mean no more than what has already been done,” he finishes after giving better thought to what has already happened.
The figure in the tree line moves further out of the woods and closer to the road. They are almost so close to the truck, it is surprising the stranger doesn’t see them yet.
“That’s not one person,” Jake whispers, “it’s two.”
I hold my breath as I see another stranger emerge from the woods with a knife to Shawn’s throat.
“See, I told you,” I whisper, “an accomplice.” I try to take aim at the newcomer, but he is using Shawn as a human shield. He is most likely wearing a vest as well.
“I got one of them,” the new stranger says with a smile full of missing teeth as he yanks around Shawn.
“Good,” the man with Zac says. “Where are the other two?”
“I don’t know,” the man with the knife says. “And this one isn’t talking.” He looks to Shawn.
“Okay, I have had enough of this!” The man with Zac says. “Get them in the truck.”
Zac runs, jumping into the bed of the truck. Mar wraps her arms around her brother. The man with the knife inches Shawn closer to the cab. He begins to put up a fight, and the new stranger brings the butt of his knife down on Shawn’s head.
He drops to the pavement.
Both strangers hoist Shawn into the bed as Magi helps lower him down. There are so many in the back that the only place to put him is half on Samantha and half on Eli.
The new man pockets his knife and stands by the truck while the other man takes a stand in the middle of the road, putting his hands cupped around his mouth. I aim my gun at the man in the road, ready to pull the trigger.
“Elizabeth, I know you can hear me,” he begins. “My name is Johnathan, you don’t know who I am, but I know your father.”
I lower my gun as Jake puts a hand over my mouth. I told him I would try not to risk my life anymore, but when I promised that, I didn’t expect this. I look at Jake as if pleading for him to let me find out more information, and to not kill these guys on contact. My father’s name was on the list of intelligence for The Elected.
“I know this must take you by surprise,” the man we now know as Johnathan begins, “and I know you thought your dad was dead, but he is alive.”
I want to shout I know that and ask him how he may know all our names, even Shawn’s before he became Shawn, but he doesn’t know we know Robert Towers is alive. Also, I find it suspicious because Robert would not know my new family at all…So how does this man know all of us?
Jake slowly releases his hand from around my mouth, and I remain quiet.
Johnathan opens a folded piece a paper he pulled from his sock. We had searched him everywhere but in his shoes. He holds the pages high into the air.
“This letter is addressed from Robert Towers to my children Elious and Elizabeth Towers,” the man says, still holding the pages into the air.
I lean forward to get a better look. This man must be lying, but how would he even know my father’s name if he weren’t telling the truth?
I lean forward a bit too much causing my backpack to shift weight towards my head. I try to gain enough strength in my shoulders to keep it up, but it is no use. The pack slips even more, and before Jake can grab me, I tumble off the branch and out of the safety of the tree.
Chapter Eight
Jake catches me at the last moment. He barely grabbed me, and now I am hanging by one hand, our fingers slipping every second. I can’t help but
