The Marked

Coming Home

I woke up in the cave just as the sun was rising over the water. The golden light of it fanned out across the brilliant blue water as the white foamed waves crashed upon the eagerly waiting sand.

Memories of yesterday lingered as I stroked my bag for the umpteenth time. It had become a habit of mine to stroke it almost subconsciously.

I didn't miss Derek's eyes on me every time that I did, and it put me on edge. I sat up and my eyes darted to Derek.

His normally silky black hair was matted on his forehead. He had prominent dark circles under his red bloodshot eyes that looked unfocused and tired. His arms all the way down to his fingers were canvased with tiny needle-like scratches like the ones I received in my fall from the cave a few days ago. His legs down to his toes were the same way although his clothes remained mostly unscathed. His breathing was heavy and although it was not cold in the cave, I could see the puffs of white smoke every time he exhaled. He looked absolutely beaten down.

I was conflicted about what to do. I felt bad for him and part of me longed to go and comfort him. The other part of me was still mad at how he had treated me and was confused and hurt about the way he acted to me two days ago and wanted to keep ignoring him.

I knew I couldn't ignore him forever and I needed to ask him how we planned to get out of here so I scooted over in front of where he was sitting.

"So how do we plan on getting out of here? Please I want to go home." He started when he heard me.

He grunted and kept his eyes low. "I never agreed to take you back." he said with a hint of malice in his tone.

I jerked back and my heart stung like it had been ripped out of my chest and then slapped. "You pompous jerk! Did you think I'd want to stay here forever? That I'd never want to go back?" I said, my voice getting shriller with every word.

I could tell he was trying to restrain himself from laughing as he pulled his lips into a thin smile. It was very agitating and I seethed beneath the surface. He had no clue how important it was for me to get back. Unlike him, I'd imagine, I had friends waiting for me anxiously. I felt an overwhelmingly sudden onset of guilt, most of them probably assumed I was dead. Then there was the rebel army that was in the clutches of two whack jobs with the real leader oblivious to the fact that she was no longer in charge. Even worse, the rebels were trapped in some form of mind control with no way to stop Annie. I thought of Emma and despite the sting of betrayal I felt, I knew she deserved to be freed. And the faces of the rebels and my friends in pain drove me to want to fight. But I had to get back first.

"Why is it so important that you go back? Here you are safe from Annie and," he hesitated and glanced briefly at me before he said Luke. "others that want you dead." He looked me in the eyes as he finished. "You owe the rebels nothing. After all no one did anything to save you." he said his voice pleading with me to stay.

I hesitated for a moment. The desperation in his voice made me doubt myself, but only for a second. "I have people who need me back home. And they may not have saved me, but that wasn't their fault. You know that as well as I do. Plus my friends that I left behind while I was in the rebel army, they think I'm dead," my voice choked up on dead. "And you know as well that we may be the only hope the rebel army has of getting out of there alive." I said the last part with a frown and a grim certainty that what I said was true. The same look was reflected on Derek's face and I knew in that moment that he would take me home.

After what seemed like forever he finally finished explaining what I had to do.

"But I still don't see how you fit into all of this." I said my head swam with all the things I had to remember.

"Don't worry about me, just keep those things I asked you to do fresh in your mind. If you don't, you'll never remember them. Its complicated, some memories stay but typically the ones you just got tend to disappear." Derek said with a small smile as his eyes whispered that I could do this. I heard his retreating footsteps from the cave.

I tensed up as I felt his cool fingers on my bare shoulder. He flashed an apologetic look as he counted to three.

"Three, two," he plunged the needle in.

"OW! What happened to one?" I screamed as my shoulder throbbed with pain. I could already feel the effects of the transport liquid so I flipped him the bird before it would be too late.

I heard his laughter fade away along with the rest of the world as I desperately tried to hold on to what Derek told me to do. He told me it would be easier to imagine my memories like wriggling puppies that I couldn't let down even for a second.

I giggled at the thought of little puppies and my heart bubbled with pure joy, Euphoria was a side-effect he said. It was a pleasant side effect at least unlike the other side effect, depression. Thankfully I woke up before I could experience that one.

The beige tile floor was cold against my cheek and hanging from the ceiling were single lightbulbs attached with a thin wire. I knew this building was old, we haven't used lightbulbs for twenty years.

In 2094 a scientist from Great Italy came to The Confederates with a revolutionary idea of a new solar powered light. It worked in a similar way to the old solar powered light but much more efficiently. It was installed on every building across the Confederate side, except this one I suppose. Hold on, let me backtrack a little for a second.

We used to be united in the United States of America but that was before The Great War. In 2020 Germany promised an escape from an old terrorist group terrorizing the U.S. known as I.S.I.S. The north wanted to stop the terrorists despite the trouble that Germany had caused in the past. The south knew that Germany had a history of lying to us before and rebelled against allying with Germany. The north wouldn't listen the south's protests and decided to split the U.S. into two parts. They became the Union states and the south became the Confederate states. The north did ally with Germany who, so they said, got rid of I.S.I.S. Although there have been rumors of I.S.I.S. being responsible for the destruction of several Union military stations, it was quickly blamed on Great Italy. I realized with dread that I had no clue if I was still in the Confederate portion or if the rebel station was somewhere in the Union side. I could get killed for my Confederate loyalty.

I shoved that problem to the back of my mind, it wasn't my biggest concern right now. I was back.

LUKE'S POV
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Annie was saying something to me but I was bored and I really didn't feel like listening so I just nodded at random times and said uh huh a lot. It seemed to be working.

Ow. My shoulder stung from where she slapped me. Apparently I was wrong about my method working.

Annie looked furious. Her light blue eyes glittered and looked as cold and harsh as ice. Her tan skin seemed to be tinted red and if steam could come out of ears, hers would be like a steam engine.

"Were you not listening to anything that I was saying for the past thirty minutes!" she said practically screaming as she finished.

Normally I would have rolled my eyes and shrugged, but when she's mad it's suicide to provoke her. My fingers touched my temple, reminded of the last time I provoked her. It took two days to recover from the mental assault.

I started to reply but Nathan, my guard, walked in. "Sir I need you to come check this out. It's uh, a Code Yellow." he said with a slight tug at his ear, our special code.

It meant that it was more serious but Annie didn't need to know. She hated when everything wasn't perfectly peachy all the time. I almost shouted out at the perfect timing of Nathan. Annie would have no time to chew me out.

I kissed Annie's cheek before falling behind Nathan. I bumped his fist as he shot me a knowing smile, but he didn't even know the half of the struggle of trying to keep Annie happy.

He led me through the maze of hallways all the way up to the surveillance room. I scanned all of the screens until my eyes landed on the east wing warehouse.

A look of pure shock was present on my face but it was soon replaced by a grin as I gave Nathan praise for his find.

She was here.