Standing Read online

  “For your crimes against my empire, you will die by starvation,” she announced.

  Then as Ginvay stood there staring disdainfully, Gale walked up to the bars. “What did you do with my friends?”

  “Wouldn’t you like to know?” she replied with a cruel smile.

  “I’m not afraid of you,” said Gale.

  Ginvay reached through the bars and pushed Gale, causing her to stumble, “You should be. Your death is imminent. Which makes me quite happy you see, because it means I never have to see your annoying little face again.”

  Then she turned to a sentry that had accompanied her and said, “Give her no food or water, if I discover that you have, then you will suffer the same fate as she does.”

  The soldier nodded. Ginvay stood tall as she walked away from Gale with purpose and disdain. Gale clenched her teeth. It can’t end like this! There must be a way to win!

  The soldier left with his ruler. Gale was alone. Death by starvation, that sounds lovely, she thought with a sigh as she slumped down into a sitting position against the wall.

  The rest of that day passed slowly. She thought about who she was, and her family and friends. She thought about Force. He was still a comfort in this cold metal prison. Hopefully he was far, far away. The only thing worse than her being stuck here would be for Force to be stuck here. She noticed that her emotional empathy range was farther with him than anyone else. He was a great guy.

  She sat in a state of silence for awhile before her thoughts rejoined her again. What are we going to do now? We failed. But...we just can’t, we have to win, or humanity will become permanently extinct. I wasn’t fast enough, the pain takes me down. I might not be able to escape even if I was given the chance. This is terrible! She was so tired. She took off her coat and tried to make a pillow on the dirty, iron hard floor. She fell asleep, but it didn’t give her much relief, all of her dreams were nightmares.

  When she woke up the next morning Gale tried to find a way out— maybe a loose screw in the hinges of the door, or a cracked bar— but her efforts were to no avail. Every inch of the prison was secure from the solid metal floor to the strong bars. It was lonely, terribly lonely. There weren’t any sounds besides those which she made herself. The quietness rang in her ears like the loudest concert. She had figured out that the cell walls somehow filtered emotions, which meant that she didn’t feel the pain of everyone in the city so strongly. For that she was grateful.

  Time slowly ticked by. Gale came to the conclusion that there were no other prisoners being held in this area. By the end of the first day, she was slightly thirsty and hungry. By the end of the second day, she was starting to become very dehydrated and weak.

  On the third morning (she guessed it was morning), she woke up again on the cold metal floor. She was really sore. Gale just laid there looking at the ceiling for a few minutes. A few seconds later she heard the sound of bootfalls coming down the passageway. Am I starting to hallucinate? she wondered as she got up from the floor and walked over to the bars. A sentry dressed in black and gold was coming. What could he want? she pondered as he stopped in front of her cell and put a complicated code into the keypad that opened her door. He silently took her arm and pulled her down the hallway. She tried to resist and yank free, but the guard had a firm hold on her.

  “Where are you taking me?” she screamed.

  The soldier continued to look ahead as he dragged her up and through a labyrinth of steps and corridors.

  Suddenly, they emerged into the sunlight of central Keesen. Gale hadn’t known that it was so dark in the prison. It took a couple of minutes for her eyes to adjust. Where am I being taken? she wondered. Fear started to surge up in her, but she suppressed it. The misery of the people hit her again in a blast. In the prison it had only been an echo. Now it was hard to focus, but without the added chaos of two days ago, it didn’t overwhelm her.

  The guard hauled Gale through the streets towards the city gate. Her face showed how confused she was. When they neared it, Gale caught site of Ginvay. She was standing facing the outside of the city. Gale looked through the gate, her heart jumped when she saw Force. Fear for him and hope joined together in a strange mixture. He looked serious and was holding a white oval device.

  Ginvay glanced at Gale with scorn, then, addressing Force, said, “She is here now, so we can start negotiating.”

  “There is no negotiating about it. Either you let her go, or I destroy Keesen and you,” Force said, staring her down.

  “I haven’t seen a radius-nuke in years. Where did you get it?” she asked suspiciously.

  “That isn’t important, all you need to know is that your life is on the line,” Force replied intensely.

  “Anyway, I highly doubt that you would kill her,” answered Ginvay, shrugging it off with self-assurance.

  “When I hold a grudge I will take revenge,” answered Force fiercely.

  Gale could feel Ginvay’s worry. What does he mean “destroy Keesen”? When I left we didn’t have the resources to make any kind of weapon, thought Gale. She felt his bluff. She stood tall, being careful to keep her face blank. Whatever his plan was, she would play along.

  “How do I know that when she is out of the city, you won’t just destroy it anyway? Here is my offer, an exchange of you, for the girl,” Ginvay smirked, “I know that she is too weak to destroy her friend.”

  Gale gasped in surprise and her anger flared up at being called weak. The offer horrified her, she didn’t want Force to be locked up in that prison dying.

  Her face was pleading as she struggled against the soldier who was holding her, “No! Don’t do it Force!” She could feel his tenseness...and his resolution.

  “Agreed,” he answered Ginvay, not looking at Gale.

  Ginvay glanced at Gale haughtily, and said quietly enough that it wouldn’t carry to Force, “Once I have your leader, the rebellion that you are part of will fall apart. When I let you go, I never want to see your face again. If you come back, then you will never leave.”

  Now Gale understood why Ginvay wanted Force. Her heart raged. I will be back, I will not let Force rot in that prison cell, she promised herself.

  “On the count of three,” said Force calmly, “One, two, three.”

  At that moment Force dropped the device and went inside the gate, the sentry shoved Gale out.

  As they passed, Force whispered with a determined look on his face, “Run.”

  So she did. Gale scooped the white disc up off the ground and then ran, she ran hard. She didn’t know where she was going, and she didn’t care. She let her anger vent through her legs. Her feet pounded at the ground. There was no thought, just emotions and running. Emotions and running. Emotions and running. Force’s face flashed in her head over and over again. Hot tears stung her eyes and streamed down her cheeks. The only thing worse than rotting in that prison cell, was knowing that one of her friends was facing a terrible fate. Her mess of a braid trailed behind her. She heard someone calling her name. She kept running. There it was again. She kept going, she would not stop. Her legs burned as much as her anger. On and on, over fields and dirt and snow. Her pain and fear for her friend all consuming.

  Suddenly, she ran into something and felt a hand grab for her. She fell down. She sat on the hard dirt ground.

  Her shaky sobs combined with her panting as she looked up and saw Lynn. Junior was beside her. She had a concerned look on her face. Gale stared up at her kindly eyes and Junior’s crying ones with a teary face. Lynn sat down beside her and gathered her into a hug.

  “Force…” Gale began.

  “Shhh, we all know, he told us he might do it,” Lynn gently replied.

  Gale just sobbed and let the burning tears run down her cheeks. Lynn rocked her back and forth.

  “It’s going to be okay.”

  Gale just cried even harder. Lynn brought her hand into the air and white sparkles started swirling around it until they condensed into a tissue.

  “Here,”
she said.

  “Thank you,” Gale replied wiping her eyes.

  The emotions tore at her insides. He’s my friend I can’t just let him die, but how can we rescue him from that dungeon? she said, looking down at the fake white weapon in her hand. Junior sat down and hugged her as he was crying and she hugged him back.

  “It’s going to be okay, Junior, we’re going to rescue Force. Don’t worry,” she said as the tears poured down her own face.

  She closed her eyes. A plan formulated in her mind. Determination replaced her agony. She stood up. I will not give up! I will finish our mission, and I will rescue Force.

  “Where is camp?” Gale asked Lynn resolutely.

  “It’s in a cave that Force showed us, he told me that it had something to do with mermaids,” Lynn said, her eyes sparkling with known secrets.

  Gale smiled slightly then replied, “Lead the way. I have a plan.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  When they got back to camp Gale ate some food and drank some much needed water. Then she called a meeting of herself, Taynar, Tivia, and Liam.

  As soon as they were settled, Gale said, “I think I know how to end Ginvay’s reign once and for all and rescue Force. Taynar, does Ginvay keep a list of everyone who lives in Keesen? If so, is there any way that we could tell who is loyal to her and who’s not?”

  “Yes to both questions. Because I was the schedule maker, I worked closely with the departments that deal with the civilians, including the civilian trust agency, which is Ginvay’s surveillance service. Most people don’t know about the list, but I had to have access to it. On it, she lists her trust ratings with a measurable scale,” he answered.

  “Liam, do you think that you could get that list from the system, and then send a message to certain people on that list without being detected?” Gale asked.

  “Yeah, I can probably get the list, and I might be able to send a message to them on a special frequency without it being caught by Ginvay,” said Liam.

  Gale didn’t waste any time, “We are going to start an inside rebellion. If most of the people in that city storm the Center Of Operations together, then Ginvay and her guards with be no match for them.”

  “That’s a good plan. I think it will work,” said Liam.

  “Agreed,” Tivia exclaimed.

  “Yes, it could work,” replied Taynar.

  “Then let’s do it,” replied Gale with determination twinkling in her eye.

  That night Junior visited her tent. He was still staying in Force’s tent. He eagerly pulled her outside. Then he bent down and wrote in the dirt,

  watch me!

  “Okay I will,” replied Gale. Then the flamien jumped into the air. Suddenly, his wings burst out in flame and he soared into the sky.

  “Wow,” said Gale in wonder.

  The red light of his flaring, fiery wings stood against the pure darkness of the night. As he flew, Gale saw it as a beacon of hope.

  As soon as Junior landed he looked at Gale with his childish eyes and wrote, Force would be so proud of me! I can’t wait to show him when we rescue him! I can actually fly and control my fire!

  Gale smiled and hugged him as he towered over her, “Yes you can, Junior. Yes you can.”

  The next day at about noon, Liam brought her one of the few tablet-like devices they had in the camp. They operated very similarly to 2013 pads. As she took it and said, “Thanks, Liam. Have you gotten the list yet?”

  He hesitated, “Yes...but it’s in a format that our devices can’t open, and we don’t have the tools to convert it. We downloaded all of the data, but we don’t have a program that can open it in it’s original format. So we don’t have use of the sort function. That means that if you want to sort the information. you have to do it manually.”

  Uh. That’ll take a while. Finally she looked up, “Then we’d better get started.”

  When Liam left she started to look through it. This is perfect! she thought. Each entry began with a persons full name, then used stars to rank how much Ginvay trusted the loyalty of each of them. She searched through the alphabetically listed names for B. She came to Cinta Breel. She was rated one star. According to the key, that meant that Ginvay had no trust in her loyalty. Pretty accurate, she thought with a raise of her eyebrows. When Gale saw that the population was only three-hundred-thousand, she realized that the only reason there seemed to be so many people was because of the mind splitters. She sighed, This is going to take a lot longer to prepare for than when we took Draysok. Adrenaline coursed through her bones. We have to make it, for Force and everyone else.

  Gale assigned everyone in camp to sorting the list. Each person had a section that they had to complete. Their job was to make a new list of the names of the people who were rated one or two stars. The people on the new list would be the ones who would receive the message.

  Everyone worked hard on this task with undying perseverance for eleven days, including Gale. The monotony of sorting was equaled only by their sore fingers, but it was work that had to be done.They diligently kept tapping away all day.

  On the morning of the twelfth day, Liam came into Gale’s tent. She looked up.

  Liam grinned, “The new list is finished! The final result is that two-hundred-thousand people are not loyal to Ginvay. We are ready to send the message on your order!”

  Gale broke into a smile at his words and replied, “How about now?”

  Gale got up from the ground and followed Liam out to the center of the camp. There on a table sat a touch screen computer. Everyone had already gathered to watch the message be sent to the people whom they had painstakingly chosen. Gale felt their hope. She also felt that this was their last hope.

  “Go ahead and enter it,” said Liam as Gale stepped up to the monitor.

  “Alright,” she said as he smiled.

  She started writing with her finger on the screen, We are the people of the Force rebellion. You are getting this message because we believe that you will help us defeat Ginvay. Her oppressive reign is about to come to an end, but we need your help in order to make that happen. Two days from now at nine o’clock in the morning, go to the Center Of Operations, then storm it. Capture Ginvay and her guards. Tell no one of this message. We have sent it to many more people like yourself. This line is encrypted. Do not respond, or Ginvay may intercept your message. If that happens then we will be revealed. Good luck. Gale took a deep breath and thought, I hope this works. Then she touched the button that said ‘transmit’.

  All Gale could do was wait, which she did very impatiently. They had done their best. Now it was up to the people of Keesen. Liam and Taynar figured out that the guards who were scheduled to be on duty at the city gate the morning of the revolt were on the list of people to whom they’d sent the message. With any luck, those two sentries would go to the Center Of Operations. That would mean that Gale and the others would be able to walk right into the city through the front door.

  The day arrived. This time Gale wasn’t going to go in disguise or in grey clothes. This time she wasn’t going to try to hide or blend in. This time she was going to be herself, she was going to wear her blue cloak. All of the people in camp were going this time. Gale was in front, leading them all to Keesen. As they walked through the melting snow, their feet hitting the ground with a rhythm, she thought, I’m worried about Force, what if he hasn’t made it? No, don’t think that. He’s alive. This time the plan will work. Her feelings and those of others twisted inside of her into strange, uncomfortable ball as they neared the gate. Worry for Force, apprehension, determination, fear, defiance, anger, hope, and sadness were all in that ball. Gale looked up at the glaring black skyscrapers, as she was the first one to pass through the gate. There were no guards present, and there were noticeably fewer people here than there had been the last time that she entered Keesen. This is good. It means that people here are reacting to our message. She felt strength and hope coming from the sixteen people walking behind her. The level of fear was there, b
ut it was minimal. Her breath quickened. As they walked through the street, people joined them. They grew to fifty, then one-hundred, then one-thousand. Gale could feel that these people were ready for their freedom. They were ready for peace. I can’t believe how fast the group grew! she thought.

  Soon they reached the Center Of Operations. She felt fear start to creep into her mind like a cold tendril. She pushed it away by picturing Force locked in the prison. If he’s even still there. She shook herself, No! I can’t think like that! She looked up, her eyes searching anxiously for something...she didn’t know what.

  She found it as she saw the number of people who were in front of her, their sadness lifting to the skies like a haunting melody. Compassion poured out of her. They would do this. She could feel it. She also saw the people who were shrinking in fear in their doorways, their eyes filled with longing and hope that they were too afraid to do anything about. Gale found a rough wooden pedestal. She climbed up on it. It was time.

  The noise level curiously stayed very low. Gale could hear murmurs, but they were like echos, nothing more. On the pedestal, Gale stood just above everyone in the crowd.

  “People of Keesen!” she shouted so that her voice would carry, “You have been under the reign of a dictator who has abused her power. You have been oppressed and forced into war. Now is the time for that to end. Remember, the goal is not to hurt anyone who guards Ginvay. The goal is to get past them and capture Ginvay. It’s time to be free and for peace to reign once more! Your brothers and sisters have defeated Jaegear in Draysok, now you can do the same here! Are you ready?” A cheer rose up from the crowd. “We will be successful! Now go!” she cried with her arm upraised.