~ The Freedom Gang: The Rising ~

by

Cassie Meno

Finally the school day ended and he was free to go home and do his best to get his homework done (he gave up after an hour of not getting a single correct answer for math). Immediately after dinner, Jeremy told his father that he was tired from the long week and he pretended to go to bed.

In reality, he just lay there, deep in thought, until eleven-thirty when his alarm went off. He quickly turned it off before it could wake his father and jumped out of bed, already dressed completely in black. But before leaving, he made his way through the dark room to his dresser. In the bottom drawer were a bunch of his old possessions that had so far proven useless to him here in Washington. At the bottom of the drawer, pushed back into the right hand corner, were six ski masks that he, Aaron and a few other friends had used a couple of years ago for Halloween. Each one of them had a small red dot on the forehead as a way of telling them apart from anyone else who may have had the same costume idea.

He shoved the ski masks into a bag and snuck out his window. It was sprinkling out, which would make the task of getting in and out of The Overhang much more tedious.

Natalie was already there, looking as nervous as Jeremy felt. And Robert arrived not long after Jeremy said hi to her. Jeremy only wanted to announce his bad news once, so he waited until everyone was there, sitting in a circle in the middle of The Overhang, a few drops of rain falling occasionally through the tracks above, to speak.

“I think we somehow made a mistake.” Nobody said anything. “My dad has been working on our case. He told me on Wednesday that they found something that may lead them straight to us. I wanted to warn you all sooner, but I couldn’t think of any way to do it. This was really the soonest we could safely talk. Whatever happens, I want to apologize in advance.

“But the good news is that, so far, nobody has been arrested. We all made it safely here tonight, right?” He looked around the circle, illuminated by Trey’s and Kelly’s flashlights. Everyone’s faces were completely blank, as if they couldn’t believe what they were hearing, but their eyes were full of fear. Natalie, who was sitting on Jeremy’s right, actually looked as if she was going to cry. Jeremy put his arm around her shoulder, trying to comfort her, before continuing. ”So, so far we’ve done well. But I need to know. Did anyone maybe…let slip about what we did last week?”

Everyone’s eyes slowly trailed over to Trey. Even Kelly looked at him for a second before quickly glancing away.

“What are you all looking at me for?” he asked, anger leaking into his tone.

Before anyone could answer, there were footsteps coming from above.

“Turn off your flashlights!” Jeremy said quietly, and Kelly and Trey switched them off, plunging them into darkness.

“The boy said to go down into this ditch and follow it until we reach a cave. They call it The Overhang.”

At this point, everyone, even Kelly was staring, open-mouthed at Trey. “I swear it wasn’t me!” he whispered urgently.

Jeremy no longer saw any point in keeping quiet; whoever was coming already knew where they were. He reached into the bag he had brought and pulled out the ski masks. “I was afraid this might happen,” he said as he quickly passed them out. “Quick! Put them on!” Everyone hurried to do as they were told. The footsteps were getting closer now. Jeremy put his own ski mask on last and stood up. “Whatever happens, don’t say anyone’s names!” he said as everyone hurried over the earthen mound. “And don’t do anything to him!” Jeremy called, pointing to Trey. “We don’t know for sure that it was him!”

“There they are!” someone called from behind them.

“Everyone freeze!” Merlis’ voice rang through the silent night like the crack of thunder then came a moment later, followed by fatter, more frequent drops of rain.

Jeremy was in the back, directly behind Natalie, urging the others to run faster. He looked back and saw that the group of M.O.s —twenty or so of them—were quickly closing the gap between them. The one in the front — Jeremy guessed by his size that it was Merlis — raised a gun. He comprehended what was about to happen just in time to dive to the ground. He tried to pull Natalie down with him, but he missed her arm by centimeters on his way down to the mud.

Something soared over his head and hit her in the back.

“No!” Jeremy said. She took a few more staggering steps and then fell to the ground. Someone in front of them—Jeremy couldn’t tell who because of the mask—looked back but Jeremy told them to keep running. He scrambled to his feet, which slid and stuck in the thickening mud.

He tried to pick her up and run with her, but it slowed him down too much, and Merlis and the other officers were only about fifty feet away. He had to move or they would both be caught.

“Natalie,” he said briskly. “Are you all right?”

“Hmmm?” she asked, slightly dazed.

“I need you to run!” But she didn’t seem to hear him. He quickly ran his hand over her back, feeling for blood. Instead, he found some sort of dart sticking out, just below her shoulder blade. “Tranquilizer,” he said, and then he swore and pulled it out. She didn’t even seem to feel it. “Natalie, I’ll come back for you. I’ll save you, I promise. Don’t tell them anything!” He spoke as quietly and as quickly as possible, praying that the M.O.s wouldn’t be able to hear over the roar of wind.

The M.O.s were closing in. He was out of time. He stood up and started running after the others, praying that he wouldn’t slip.

Natalie was still awake when Merlis came to a stop in front of her. He rolled her over and took off her mask. A bright light shined in her half-closed eyes and there were a few gasps and murmurs of surprise. Merlis said, “Impossible!” and then dragged her to her feet and handcuffed her.