“Don’t panic,” Jake says, while trying to make eye contact.
“Ah ha,” Johnathan yells, “I knew it was only a matter of time before you gave yourself up, Elizabeth, after all you were the first one to step out yesterday.”
“Don’t listen to him,” Jake grunts, trying his hardest to not lose his grip. “Look me in the eye, and don’t look at anyone else…trust me.”
I swing my gun up towards a fork in the branch, hoping I can prop it up there. It takes me a few times of swinging it, but eventually it rests on the branch beside Jake. I do as he says and look him deep in the eyes to try to steady my nerves.
“Now what?” I ask breathlessly.
Jake lowers his gun, resting next to mine, teetering on the branch. He reaches down and unclips my chest strap off my backpack.
“Ged rid of your bag, that will make you lighter.”
I do as I am told and let the bag fall from my free shoulder, but now I am realizing I can’t get it off the arm Jake has a hold of. I reach down and pull a knife from the outer pocket of my sack and cut the strap off my bag. We watch it tumble to the ground, hitting the road hard, the knife slips out of my hand, crashing to the ground beside it.
To my surprise, it didn’t bust apart. The stranger with no name scurries over and picks it up, throwing my bag into Mar’s lap in the back of the truck, pocketing my knife after.
Jake was right, with the fifty-pound pack off my back, I feel as light as a feather. This is not so different from any of the obstacles we tackled on the course in boot camp. I can easily lift my leg, sliding it onto the limb beside Jake. Unfortunately, my foot kicks the barrel of my gun, sending it spinning into Jake’s and they both tumble from the tree.
They hit the ground, and Johnathon’s minion retrieves them as well, only this time he does not hand them over to Mar. That would be a mistake.
With Jake’s help, the rest is easy, and I am upright and on semisolid ground once again. Once I am in a somewhat safe position, we analyze our situation. The guns are gone, my bag is gone, and our location is compromised.
“What do we do,” I ask Jake, “do we try to run for it?”
“I don’t think we can, but we might be able to compromise.”
“What do we have to compromise with?” I ask, clueless with an exasperated laugh.
“If he wants us so bad,” Jake begins in hushed tones.
“Which he obviously does,” I agree.
“Then, he will listen to us,” Jake finishes.
“He’s not going to shoot us,” I say, “or he would have already.”
“But he doesn’t mind knocking some of us around,” Jake says, pointing at our group in the truck.
Shawn, Eli, and Samantha are still unconscious, but Magi has stopped Mar and Leah’s bleeding, it would appear.
“What’s taking so long?” Johnathon yells while looking up into the tree. “I don’t have all day.”
“We are preparing our negotiation,” Jake counters with a deep voice of authority.
“What negotiation?” Johnathan laughs. “You are in a tree, with no weapons, and no way to escape, you have nothing to negotiate with.” His laugh echoes through the air.
“Don’t be so sure of that,” Jake says.
I am not sure if he is bluffing or has a plan. If he has a plan, he hasn’t revealed it to me yet, and I am sure our only knife is now in the hands of Johnathan’s minion.
“We will come down,” Jake begins.
“What?” I squeal but stop myself when I remember we have an audience, and Jake is most likely counting on me to play along.
Jake looks at me as if a small reminder that he is in control of the situation.
“We will come down,” Jake begins again, “and we will go with you, but you must agree we get our weapons and ammo back, and after we hear you out, you take us to The Elected headquarters personally.”
Jake tries to convey confidence, but I can feel his heart pounding in his hand, I am still holding.
“How bout I have a counter offer for you,” the man says, “seeing how you have no real leverage that is.”
“Make your counter offer,” I say, “but that doesn’t mean we will accept.”
“You are going to have to accept at some point, after all, you can’t stay in that tree forever.”
“You might be surprised,” I say.
“What’s your counter offer?” Jake asks, growing tired of the man’s games.
“Let’s say you come down and let Smith and I take you with us,” he points at the other man we now know as Smith. “Let us tell you what we have to tell you, and then you can decide if you want to go to The Elected or not. If you do, then you can go yourselves, because I won’t be going.”
“Is that all?” Jake asks.
“Pretty much,” Smith pipes up.
I look at Jake, and he squeezes my hand, letting me know this may very well be our only option.
“Can I add a contingency?” I whisper to Jake.
“Sure,” he nods.
“We will take your deal,” I yell down, “but we have a contingency.”
“Which is?”
“You let Magi get everyone out of the truck and doctor them. We won’t come down until everyone is awake and we see they are ok.” I finish as firm and confident as possible.
“Deal,” Johnathan says.
At the acceptance of our deal, Magi hops out of the truck with her backpack and mine. With the help of Zac, Leah, and Mar, they get all the members
