Summer Lane - State of Chaos

“Look!” Jeff exclaims, pointing.

Mountain Rangers are coming from behind the Omega troopers, pushing their way across the field, closing them in on two sides. What’s left of our forces is joining with them, initiating Chris’s backup plan. Rangers and Freedom Fighters form a ring around Omega’s men, dropping to the ground, firing from hidden vantage points. Omega is completely surrounded, and what’s more, they’re being fired on from every direction. As they move forward, our forces move backwards, and the rest of the Freedom Fighters just follow. Omega troops are trapped inside of a giant circle of fire — and they panic.

The Omega soldiers are scattering, confused. Running for their lives. There’s no mistaking the terror in their voices as they scream frantic orders to their men, trying to stay alive as the fire rains down on them from all directions. And here I am on the sidelines, contributing to the firefight, taking out one trooper at a time with my commandeered pistol despite my gunshot wound. Alexander Ramos staggers through the madness, making his way towards us. He stumbles and falls. Chris moves to help him, but he’s beaten to it by a Mountain Ranger. This one has an eagle feather in his hat — the only deviation from the standard broad rim hat I’ve been seeing on the Rangers all night. He puts his arm under Alexander’s shoulders and drags him through the firefight to the sidelines, not far away from my position.

The Omega troopers are scattered and on the run. Our forces are left with an opening to retreat, so we move out. Our men move back into the side of the hill, firing on the enemy as we pull away.

Our forces retreat to the other side of the mountain as the Rangers take care of business down below in the field, drawing what’s left of Omega’s forces away from our depleted ranks. Our trucks are close. If we can just reach them, we can get the wounded back to camp before it’s too late. We’ve already lost so many soldiers, though…

“Cassie, stay with me,” Chris says, shaking my shoulders. “Come on.”

I’m zoning out. I feel the cool metal of the pickup truck under my fingers and make a monumental effort to focus my vision. Our troops are piling onto the pickup beds as fast as they can, hauling the wounded along with them. I guess I’m one of them. Chris lifts me into his arms and lays me across the seat in the cab, gunning the engine. I close my eyes, licking the blood off my lips.

That’s attractive.

A few seconds pass. Orders are exchanged. Chris floors it. We take off into the night, leaving the battlefield. But it’s not over yet. Omega patrols are out in full force, sweeping the highways and combing through the underbrush. And where do we go? If Harry betrayed us to Omega, doesn’t that mean he told them where our camp was? Are the Youngs and the rest of the camp being raided by Omega troopers right now? How can we go back?

I have so many questions.

“Alright, up we go…” Chris pulls me into a sitting position, pressing his hand against my side. Something breaks in his voice. “Don’t let go, Cassie.”

Jeff is standing on the running board outside the door. He helps pull me out of the cab.

“What are we doing?” I ask, dizzy.

“We have to hoof it,” Chris replies. “The roads are blocked. Too many patrols.”

“It’s too far,” I say.

“We can do it.”

Well, they can. I’ll just curl up in a ball and die right here, thank you very much. Yet something in the back of my mind says: Don’t let go. Don’t give up. I force myself to keep my eyes open as Chris supports me with his body. I feel like I’m inside out. I’m hot, lightheaded. Everything is too loud and too fast.

What I would give to pick up the phone and call 9-1-1.

“Alpha One?” somebody calls for Chris.

A patrol is moving towards us from across the road. The gunfire from the battlefield is still audible from the other side of the hill. Our troops fall into formation to stop the patrol. My heart sinks. There’s no escape, is there?

“Hey, are you Alpha One?”

Chris turns. A platoon of Rangers are moving towards us from across the road. The Mountain Ranger with the feather in his cap is approaching Chris at the front of the group, his rifle in his hands. His face is obscured behind a scarf, and the only thing distinguishable about his appearance is his eyes.

“Eagle One?” Chris asks.

“At your service.”

Eagle One. The codename for the leader of the Mountain Rangers? It has to be. Looks like Chris is going to get his pow-wow after all. I sag against him, the energy draining out of me like helium out of a balloon. I can’t go any farther. I just can’t .

“Cassidy?” Eagle One takes a step towards us. Chris tenses, ready to defend me. An explosion of automatic gunfire deafens the world around us. The moon is shining brightly against the dark sky, illuminating the foothills, making everything look like a different planet. Or maybe I’m just getting delusional.

“ Cassidy Hart ,” Eagle One says, the voice familiar through the haze of pain. He’s pulling off his scarf, moving towards me. Chris moves me behind him, taking a defensive stance. Eagle One drops his rifle to the ground and opens his arms up, the scarf rolled up in his hands.

A wave of shock ripples through me. My eyes focus long enough to recognize his face. It’s him . Familiar brown eyes, laugh lines around the mouth, a military haircut under the broad rim hat. It can’t be. I have to be hallucinating.

I stare, openmouthed, only able to form a single word:

“Dad?”

I reach out to him just as the world around me starts to spin.

Everything goes black.

War sucks. Sure, it’s kind of necessary right now, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. Last year, the only thing I would have known about warfare is what I’d seen in the movies or watched on the news. It was something imaginary. Something that didn’t really exist because I’d never personally experienced it.

The EMP changed everything.

How did I jump from being a struggling high school graduate to a guerilla warfighter in a turf war against an invading army? How did I end up falling in love with Chris? How did I end up surviving the EMP? How did I survive the first wave of Omega’s invasion forces when millions of other people died? How? Why? What? Where? When?

I feel like my life is nothing but a bunch of question marks. There’s so much we don’t know about Omega, but does it matter? They’re bad, and we’re good. The Freedom Fighters are doing the job that nobody else can or will do. We’re fighting back against tyranny. We’re taking a stand. This is our home. Nobody can take it away from us without a fight.

When I first met Chris last year, I told him that if he tried to hurt me, I’d shoot him right between the eyes. But I didn’t mean it. I didn’t know what I was doing. I was a scared teenager trying to survive a terrifying attack on Los Angeles. I’d never been in a fight in my life. I never would have been able to defend myself.

Now I can.

So I guess the question is, what’s next? We can’t fight Omega forever…can we? I mean, how long can guerilla forces hide out in the foothills and attack Omega? Would we be better off just giving up and assimilating into Omega’s new society? Or should we keep fighting…even if the odds are against us?

I know what Chris’s answer would be. The same as mine.

We can’t give up. We have something worth fighting for . Our families, our homes, our freedom. Normalcy. Those things are precious. Priceless. I never realized how great my life was until everything got taken away. I guess that’ll teach me to take things for granted. Living as a nomad in the wilderness puts things in perspective real fast.