Ronnie
The street lights fly
across my window one by one as we cruise down a dead end road. The night is
quiet, yet inviting. I’m both terrified and ecstatic about what is to come. Should
I trust these people who I have just met? Probably not. But what do I have to
lose?
Landon hasn’t said much. We drive for several
more minutes, a dozen more shadows popping up in the night. Those shadows, I
realize, are huge Evergreens. The air that surrounds us is silent as we turn
off the street and head for an unmarked building. The trees and brush that
surround us begin to grow denser as we make our way further into the forest of trunks
and limbs.
I wouldn’t have noticed the building if it
was a normal day and I was walking along. Anyone would assume the building is
abandoned anyway, considering it’s in the middle of nowhere. The place is rickety,
old, and it appears to be broken down.
I’m dying for answers
about who this boy sitting next to me really is, and what he’s a part of. I
mean, this is what I’ve been waiting for my whole existence- to become part of
something bigger. Something that may actually matter and make me less
insignificant. If I could do something that saves people- like Darrell- then
I’d feel like I have a purpose. I wouldn’t be a no-nothing ambling around
without a clue.
Dave hasn’t said a
word either. But the way Landon and him have been making eyes with each other-
it’s like they’re leaving me out of a silent conversation. I want my answers,
and I want them now.
Dave cuts the engine
when we arrive at our destination. Landon nods to the door, signaling for me to
jump out, finally! Before I can worm my way towards the building, he has second
thoughts and grabs my wrist.
“Ronnie,” he says
seriously.
I prod at him to go on
with my eyes, while Dave decides to leave, giving us some privacy.
“Whatever happens in
here- whatever you decide to do, I hope we can still…”
“I know. You hope we
can still do whatever this is,” I gesture to his hand wrapped around mine.
“Just keep in mind-
just because you set foot in here doesn’t mean it’s all a done deal-“
“I’d like to know what
it is-“
“Let me finish,” he
hurries, “You don’t have to agree to work for this…organization. If I can call
it that,” he scoffs.
“Okay,” I assure him,
“I’ll be sure to think about it.”
“It’s- it will change
your life. You won’t be able to come back from this, you understand? So, think
long and hard before you make a decision.”
“I will,” I grab the
door handle once again.
“You promise?” he
asks.
“Promise.”
I push the door open and begin to follow behind Dave. Landon swings around
the car in an instant and falls in step with each stride of my legs. He gives
me a small grin, but I can sense a grimace underneath the surface.
What am I in for? I wonder.
All three of us stand
before the grand doors of the building, heavy metal that creeks in the wind. I
can barely see out into the night now. There’s only a faint glow emitted from
the keypad that Dave is staring at. He begins to type in a series of numbers,
causing an orchestra of beeps. Once the night is quiet again, Dave presses his
thumb against the screen.
The doors hiss once
then slide open easily, beckoning me to come inside.
Everything is glass.
Glass cubicles, glass tables, glass
sectionals. The shimmer and sleekness seems to stretch on for miles. You
certainly can’t judge the damn thing from the outside- it’s like all the god
damn Kardashian mansions and trinkets rolled into one massive edifice of all
things rich! It’s not homey though. It’s…techy. Sophisticated. Elite.
Men and women and a handful of people my age
roam about. Most of them are dressed in suits and fancy designer brands, but a
few hang around in jeans and t-shirts, seemingly out of place in such a
breathtaking room. Some sit at computers, others are examining paperwork, while
a few clutch coffee mugs and hold up stressful conversations. At least, it
seems like tension poles are pushing between some people here.
“Am I
still awake?” I pinch myself for effect.
“Ms. Ronnie, welcome to ARFnumber twelve,” Dave
practically ravishes.
“Anti-Rebel Facility number twelve,” Landon
clarifies.
“I- what- how-“ I’m speechless.
“Don’t worry, there’ll
be plenty of time for questions after the tour, young lady,” Dave tell me.
“I’ll do the honors,”
Landon volunteers.
Physically, I can only
nod. I’ve gone into shock. How does a place like this even exist in our little
town?
Landon steers me over
to an empty corner where a glossy table and cushy chairs await us. There’s a
complex-looking coffee maker staring me in the face, along with stacks of
electronic tablets that could supply our whole school.
Landon hesitantly
grabs a tablet, fires it up and looks at me.
“Let’s sit down,” he
lets go of my arm and furiously types away at the tablet.
“This place is
amazing…” I’m still awestruck.
“Don’t get too cozy,”
he warns, “you’ll learn to hate this room just as much as you crave the French espresso.”
When Landon is content with whatever he’s
pulled up on the tablet, he eyes me again.
“There’s a backstory,” he mulls over
something in his head, “so I guess we’ll start at the beginning.”
I bob my head once.
“Remember the pipe explosion on Beveer Street
in 2025? The elementary school? I believe we both of us would have been in
middle school at the time.”
“Vaguely,” I recall, “that was an accident,
wasn’t it?”
“Far from it,” he shakes his head, “and it
wasn’t a pipe bursting. It was a small bomb set off in the depths of the
basement. Someone planted it there around Christmas- jolliest time of the year-
and set it to go off on New Years Day.”
“Oh, yeah! I do remember this now.”
“You remember the guy at fault being Dan
Shooin,” he pulls up a picture, “but it wasn’t just good old Dan who set off
the bomb.”
Landon swipes to the next screen. He shows me
a teenage girl and a very young boy, all teeth and dimples.
“It was a whole family. They were paid to do
it.”
“Why? And how did this go unreported?”
“They were paid by the Rebels,” Landon spits
out, “and they were paid well. Whoever instructed the father to plant the bomb-
he was never found, not even to this day. Were convinced he’s one of the
hardest Rebels to catch, which also means he’s the most dangerous. The biggest
threat not only to our town- but to the state, the country…the world.”
“It all began with this little blip back in
2025. Then it never ended. Each group of Rebels started to get stronger, more
complex, more difficult to pick apart and take down the source. Just recently
they figured out a way to wire their own facilities to be untraceable. Our
hackers have been trying to break into the system for days, while surveillance
hasn’t caught anything on camera.”
“So…are they like terrorists? Bombing up schools?”
“They’re almost worse,” Landon explains,
“because they suck innocent people into their web. And not just anyone. They
turn your family, your friends- anyone they can sink their claws into. We’ve
exhausted all of our resources trying to take down the heads of these groups.
We need more man-power, and we need more brains to lead us. Our whole facility
is falling apart.”
“Where does that leave me?”
A woman passing by smiles at me, then shakes
her head. She eyes Landon and he does the same.
“We need you. We need a fighter- someone
who’s willing to go all or nothing. This ARF- it needs reform. It needs to up
the ante before we fizzle out, because Dave and I-“ he lowers his voice to just
above a whisper, “are pulling all the weight around here. They’re all losing
motivation.”
“The thing is,” Landon goes on, “someone with
natural instincts and brains can save us. I know you’re more than capable,
Ronnie, but there are sacrifices you have to make. Dave may be open to willing
you into this, but I’m not.”
Landon takes my hands between his warm
fingertips and gives me a critical stare.
“I need you to understand that the situations
we deal with are life and death. There’s no one foot in the door with ARF’s.
You’re all in or you’re out. I know how dangerous it is, and I know all of the
risks. That’s why I was so frustrated with Dave when he even suggested-“
“You think I can’t handle myself?” I narrow
my eyes at Landon.
“That’s the problem,” he gives me a crooked
grin, “I know you can. I know you
would change this place, but it scares the living hell out of me. I’m scared
that I could lose you when I’ve barely started hanging on.”
“Hey,” I squeeze his hand, “you won’t lose
me, I swear. I’m going to be right here. Trust me, we’re just getting started.”
“I was afraid you were going to say that,”
Landon grins at me anyway.
“I sure as hell wasn’t, boy,” Dave chimes in
from out of nowhere.
He waltzes over to Landon and me, and
radiates a genuine ear-to-ear grin. Dave claps my shoulder, shaking me a little
in the process.
“Welcome to the team, Ms. Ronnie.”
***
“First things first,”
Dave begins, “we need to introduce you to everyone, then we need to train ya.
Now, you’re a smart girl, so I have a feeling you’ll catch on fast.”
“I’m planning on it.”
“That a girl, you’ve
got the right idea,” Dave winks at me.
We walk through the
crowded room, and stop before a string of computers and blinking lights. A girl
about my age and an older man are working on a program, Landon explains, and I
try to absorb everything.
“They have to tap into
this Rebel facility’s firewall, and break through about a dozen more technical
obstacles. These two are the best hackers and programmers known to man.”
“Oh, hush,” the girl
whisks Landon away as he continues to type and click and scan through numbers
like it’s natural. It looks anything but natural.
“You have any
questions about hacking your way through a Rebel facility’s files, these are the
two you ask.”
“I’m Dina,” the girl
finally pauses and moves away from her keyboard, “and that’s Eric over there.”
Eric barely gives a
grunt. Dina shakes my hand, and her smile is warm and genuine. She wastes no
time getting back to work, so I turn back to my tour guides.
We make our way
towards a mammoth display of monitors. They’re all mounted against the back
wall, and dozens of workers swarm around pointing and analyzing.
“These are the
surveillance cameras we were able to set up outside a handful of facilities in
the surrounding area. There’s even fewer cameras that are set up to monitor the
inside of buildings, but it’s better than nothing.”
I stare up at the blurring
screens- they all seem to blend together after a while. The same angles of the
camera, the same dull grey paint that’s focused on, the same Rebels in black
roaming about.
“So these must have
helped solve tons of cases?” I ask.
“It’s the only way we
know the ins and outs of their buildings. We try to pull a fine-tooth comb
through their scheming, and these cameras are definitely a blessing.”
“Hola, friends,”
A short, stubby man
stares up at me. He has huge bulging eyes and glasses that only emphasize this.
“Ronnie, meet Pete.
He’s our main surveillance guy,” Landon fist bumps with Pete.
“Nice to meet you,
Pete,” I smile.
“Likewise. I hope you
will be joining our facility, because we need someone who can swivel kick their
lobsided heads off!”
He motions to a screen
with a bald, gruff-looking Rebel picking at his ear. I laugh and everyone else
joins in.
Landon steers me away
from the surveillance team while no one’s paying attention, and whispers in my
ear, “Can we go somewhere and talk?”
“Okay.”
“Don’t take too long
kids! We have a lot to cover tonight!” Dave’s shout carries through the hallway
Landon leads me down.
“Don’t be fooled by
the dumbass look the Rebels put on for show,” Landon shuts the door and flips
on a light switch.
“They’re more menacing
than they appear in those cameras,” he warns.
We stand in a small
room with a bed and night side table. Landon’s face is grave once again, a flat
line etched just under his nose.
“Landon,” I sit down
next to him on the bed, “I’m not stupid. I know I’ll be taking risks by joining
this facility. You’re going to have to accept that I’m not built from porcelain.
I’ll learn how to use a gun right. I’ll learn how to defend myself. I’ll learn
how to be one of you.”
“I have no doubt in
mind that you’re the one for the job. I just wish it wasn’t the case. I can’t
stand to know I’m putting you in danger.”
“Stop that!”
“Stop what?”
“Guilt-tripping
yourself!” I shout, “This is my choice! It’s my life, and if I want to be part
of this. I want to save people like Darrell in the supermarket, before it’s too
late. I want the Rebel’s to learn their lesson.”
Landon has this look
on his face words can’t describe. He’s full of pride and hope and fierceness.
“If I hadn’t introduced
myself at that party, I wonder what I what have done without you.”
“You’d have one less
crazy bitch to deal with,” I joke.
“But I like a good
challenge,” Landon counters.
“I hope you’re in for
the long haul,” I inch closer to him.
He pulls me in until
our noses practically touch, and whispers “Oh, don’t worry, I’ll stay for the
whole ride.”
Our lips collide for
the second time, but it’s different. I know Landon, and he’s not one great
mystery itching at the back of my mind. He’s real, he’s here, he’s now. Our
mouths part and dance against each other for one song.
We finally part, and
Landon’s face is flushed. His hair sticks on end in the front, and I smooth it
down, grinning at his smitten face.
“Ready to shoot up some targets, Ron?”
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