“I am only going to ask you once more, who are you?” I ask again, using even more authority.
“I will tell you in enough time who I am, but for now, Elizabeth, tell me where Samantha King and Magi Clarkson are!”
How does he know us? No one at The Force except for Jake and my family know I am Elizabeth instead of just Liz.
“Magi who?” I ask, half playing dumb. I know who Magi is, but I have never once known her last name. Part of me feels guilty for lying, but I would do just about anything to save the people I love.
“Oh, Elizabeth, I know you are not stupid so…unless you are alone, which is not possible,” he says, “you are out here with Magi Clarkson, Jacob Anthony, Samantha King, Leah Brown, Bradly Miller, Isaac and Maria Lopez, and your twin brother, Elious Towers. Oh yeah, and this guy Morimoto Chi, brother of the President of The Elected,” he says, as he points to Morimoto’s dead body with the end of his gun.
I am speechless. I mean, who is this guy?
“I’m alone, I assure you,” I finally say still trying to sound sure of myself. I can’t tell if he is buying or not…probably not, because I’m not.
“Yeah, right, I believe that. Now, unless your friends start showing themselves soon, I am going to begin opening fire on the woods and ravine. And something tells me that you don’t want that to happen. I can tell by your face they are with you,” he finishes with a grin.
Not the evil kind of grin, but the one that reassures you he knows I would never allow that to happen. “It’s only me,” I say again, as confidently as possible. “Our vehicle broke down…the rest of them took off looking for help while I stayed behind to guard him.” I point to Morimoto. “I saw you coming and headed into the woods with him because I was scared we would be spotted…I didn’t know if you were from The Elected or not.”
“Oh, I know your vehicle broke down,” the man smiles, ignoring everything else I said.
“You did it, didn’t you,” I spit the accusation at him.
“Now tell me Liz...how do you propose I made your transmission go out while you were driving down the road going sixty miles per hour?” He smiles again.
“How?” I ask, wanting to know the answer myself.
“Let’s just say I’m a good shot, and you never knew it was coming or heard it when it did. Now, I’m going to ask you once more. Where are the others?” He finishes his question through gritted teeth.
“I told you, I am alone… or I am now,” I say, looking at Chi to try to seal my lie.
“Not that I believe you, but you are coming with me,” he says as he walks closer to me. “You will have to do until we find the others, I can’t return without them.” He bends over and picks up my gun. With his gun in one hand and mine in the other, he empties my gun of its ammo. He then hands me the empty gun.
“Here, hold this for me, you won’t need any ammo where you are going,” he says as he picks my ammo up and pockets it.
“I’m not your servant, so don’t treat me like one,” I shout out as I get the smart idea to try to smash the barrel of my AK-47 into this strange knowledgeable man’s head. As I go down for the blunt force of it, he blocks the hit with the barrel of his own gun in seconds.
He doesn’t bother to have a comeback or take the gun from me, he simply smiles and takes me by the arm, dragging me away from my family and towards the road. I hold my breath and pray the others will stay hidden and let me be the only one taken. There would be no point in me giving myself up if they don’t let me do this.
“Stop!” I hear a voice call out from behind me after taking only a few steps towards the road.
“Oh, come on, Eli, you couldn’t have stayed quiet for two more minutes?” I yell at the top of my lungs in disbelief. My back is to him, but I knew it is my brother immediately. I really would have guessed Mar would have been the first to step out, but he beat her to it.
“You’re not taking my sister,” Eli demands, holding his gun pointed towards the stranger. The man spins us around, shoves me to the ground, and turns his own gun on my brother. I try to get up, but the stranger puts a boot to my upper thigh and takes his shot. This time, I don’t think I can open my eyes. The whole thing whirls by in seconds.
“That will teach you to lie to me,” the man says while looking down at me. He spits in the dirt beside my head and lets his foot off my thigh. A throbbing pain remains where he had put his weight into that size eleven boot on my leg.
I look up to see my brother standing up instead of lying dead on the ground. To my surprise, he is upright, and in shock, but most of all, he is unharmed. However, his gun is in pieces on the ground beside him. The man was accurate enough to shoot at Eli while holding me down and hit only his gun.
“I told you I was a good shot,” he boasts as he backs away from me a few feet. He knows now I won’t run from him since my brother
