The Illegals

Chapter 9 - A Plan in the Making

🌻 Serenity 🌻

Hands gripped my shoulders, but I tried to break free. I desperately tried to break free—I really did. Pain stung my heart. I just couldn't seem to get a break. Ricky's house had exploded before my eyes and was engulfed in flames. They were gone. Ricky and Quinn and Alonso and Jayden and Olivia and Elbert and Roman. They were all gone. Only Charlie was here to hold me back from running inside.

It couldn't have been by accident. Only this morning had Elbert told me he was close to finding the base. I'd seen it a thousand times before: as soon as someone gets close to finding the information, someone stops them. Those flames meant that we were being watched, and it was going to be a lot harder than we thought.

I fell to my knees, tears spilling from my eyes. "It's all my fault," I sobbed. "They wouldn't have been involved if I hadn't roped them into it. They're all dead, and we'll never find Micah!" I buried my face in my hands. My heart felt heavy, my conscience covered in tar. It was all my fault.

Charlie gave me a comforting hug. "Don't say that. There's no way you could've seen that coming."

Nothing he said could console me—whatever he said, it was my fault. It was my fault our friends were dead. It was my fault we'd lost our only way to find Micah. I had single-handedly killed nearly every friend I'd ever had.

Suddenly, Charlie was pulling me up to my feet. "We've gotta go. Whoever did this might still be around here."

One step, and I fell, sharp pain shooting up from my foot. "It's broken," I gasped, reminding Charlie and myself.

He said nothing for a moment. "Hop on my back." I took a shaky breath and did what he said.

I was silent for a long time. Charlie did all the talking—there wasn't a lot, though. Charlie was out of breath from running and carrying me at the same time, so he could barely utter a word.

*****

I suddenly bolted up from my laying position, breathing heavy. It was just a dream, I kept telling myself. Just a horrible, terrible, no-good dream. I shook the tears out of my eyes and looked up to find someone standing over me. "Olivia?"

She smiled sadly. "You feeling alright, Ren?"

My breathing was still heavy, but I let out a sigh. "You're alright."

Olivia looked perplexed. "Of course I am. You don't sound too well, though."

I took in a deep breath, calming down slowly. I had just been so high-strung for so long that it was harder to relax. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a nightmare." I paused for a moment. "You let me sleep? What about Micah?"

"You've just been through so much," Olivia shrugged. "You fell asleep, and we all figured you needed it."

I pulled at my hair and let out a sob. "But we're never gonna find Micah if I spend the whole time sleeping," I cried.

Olivia sat down beside me, putting one arm around my shoulder. "I know, and I get it. I know you won't want to sleep until we want Micah, so I wanted to give you possibly the only chance you had."

I nodded and smiled weakly, and stood up, putting the pressure on only one leg. I limped into the other room, where everyone else was still brainstorming the logistics of the mission. I sat quietly with them, listening to them talk back and forth, but I couldn't think of anything to say. I was out of ideas. I was stuck, and I couldn't do anything about it. It was the most terrible feeling in the world: wanting so badly to help someone, but not being able to, tearing yourself up inside because you couldn't help them. Micah was gone. Maybe he was dead; heck, he probably was. And no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't think of how to get him back home safely.

"Serenity, you've been awfully quiet. Do you have any ideas regarding how we're finding government help?" Roman asked, cutting into my thoughts. I was glad, though: those thoughts were drowning me.

I laughed weakly and leaned back into my seat, wanting to disappear. "I've got nothing. Nothing at all."

He nodded understandingly. "Well, that's why we're all here."

The door suddenly opened and slammed shut, and Charlie walked in. I hadn't even noticed he was gone. I could've kicked myself over it—something like that could cost us the mission. Charlie must've left while I was asleep. Charlie had a plastic sack in each hand and a roguish smile on his face.

Elbert raised one eyebrow and put a hand on his hip. "And what did you buy while you were gone?"

Charlie removed a third bag from one hand that had been hidden behind the other. "Ramen. The microwave kind." He set the other two sacks on the ground. "And explosives."

Everyone looked at him in disbelief. "What?"

"Explosives. For the... exploding we talked about, right?"

Half of the crew shook their heads in disappointment, and the other half laughed.

"Charlie," I started, trying to keep a straight face, "We haven't finalized anything like that yet."

Charlie laughed. "Well, there's a 'no refund' policy, and I just blew most of my money on this, so... it looks like we gotta go through with it."

Alonso stood up from where he was sitting with Quinn, Ricky, and Jayden. "This is great," he said sarcastically. "The only real plan we've got is blowing stuff up."

Hello, my friends! It's southerngentlemen, and I am back! Life is slowing down a bit, but it was crazy for a while there, so I apologize for the wait. Hopefully, we can get back on track, and as always, we really appreciate your comments! Have a FANTABULOUS day (or night), folks