Status: Completed on October 4th, 2013

Breaking Their Hold

Chapter Twenty-Five: Compromises

After Sean dropped them off in the foothills just outside of Denver, Jimmy and the others immediately began trying to find the camp of Independents that they knew was around somewhere. They knew that they would have safe harbor there at least for a day or two, and then they figured they could continue on and make it towards Canada one day at a time. They knew they were still quite awhile off of that, but none of them cared. Each of them had their own reasons for taking it slow.

Mel was still terrified that Schlagger was going to find them before they could cross the United States-Canadian border and that everything she had fought so hard for in the last few weeks was going to be for nothing. She was also terrified that her family was all going to die one by one. She already knew that her parents were probably gone, since they’d been pretty reluctant to ever follow with Schlagger’s regime. But she knew that Zacky, at least, was alive for now.

Jimmy himself was scared that he was going to lose Mel. He wanted to take it slow so that he had every possible moment that he could with her. If he died at the end of all this, he wanted to die knowing that he’d spent as much time as he could with her. He wanted to know that he had done a good thing for her and that he’d made her feel loved. He knew that if in the end, she was the only one who made it out alive; he’d be able to rest at peace with that. He knew that if her life at least could be spared; that if she could end this hell that everyone was living in, she’d be fine.

“Mel, c’mon. You’re getting tired again,” Jimmy murmured when he saw the look of sheer exhaustion written across Mel’s face. He dropped the backpack that he’d been carrying and motioned for her to come over to him.

Mel didn’t want to be a burden to him. She already knew how exhausted he was, and to add her weight to that was only going to add more to his back that he already had to carry. But she also knew that she couldn’t continue walking on her own feet and make it to the camp by tonight like they were hoping to.

She nodded, not wanting to give him a hard time as she walked over to him. He helped her on to his back and then securely wrapped his arms around her legs, holding her.

“We’ll get there in no time, Mel. Just you wait, these people are gonna have some food for you to eat and a nice warm place to sleep, too,” he promised her.

Mel was too tired to answer him verbally. She was both mentally and physically exhausted. This journey was taking more out of her than she’d previously thought it would, and yet again, she found herself wondering what anyone had seen in her that made her special enough to be the one to end Schlagger’s regime.

To the best of Mel’s knowledge, there was nothing special about her. She was simply Melissa Baker, aged seventeen, younger sister of Zina and Zachary Baker. She was the youngest in the family, and she’d never done much with her life. Why did Schlagger have so much interest in her, and why was the INTERPOL and Canada putting so much hope on her shoulders? It was almost too much for her to bear, and she knew that if she didn’t have Jimmy, Matt, and Pierre there with her, she wouldn’t be able to do it.

“I love you,” she whispered into his ear, pressing her lips against his neck so that she could make sure she showed him just how much she cared.

She knew that she and Jimmy hadn’t spent a lot of time with one another lately, and she missed it. She loved him and she knew damn well that he loved her. He wouldn’t have put his life on the line and broken out of a Government-sanctioned Hospital to take her to Canada if he didn’t. She knew that they were each other’s soul mates and that they belonged together and she missed being able to show him that in a physical way.

“I know you do,” he murmured, squeezing her legs softly. “I love you too.”

Before either of them could say anything else, Pierre told them that he thought the camp was a little to the south of them. The four of them started making their way towards the place where Pierre was taking them, and all they could hope was that they’d be welcomed and trusted just as they had been by Mara and her group.

While they were walking, Mel noticed that the terrain here was different than it was in California. While there was the same rugged wilderness, the air was cleaner and crisper. She figured it was because they were further away from Los Angeles. The place was cleaner than it had been in California.

“This is it,” Pierre murmured as he stopped before he cleared his throat. “Identifying myself as Pierre Bouvier, agent for the Canadian Government. I’m escorting Melissa Baker and her bodyguards into Canadian territory,” he said clearly, though in a quiet voice as well.

Mel had no idea how Pierre could tell where they were, especially with the fact that they were standing in what seemed like the middle of a forest. All she could see around her was trees and the clear blue sky peeking out from the tops of them.

Within a few seconds, someone stepped out from behind a tree. Mel was surprised that she hadn’t noticed him standing there, and she put a small smile on her face, hoping that perhaps it would make the moment a little less tense.

“What are their names?” The person asked, looking at Matt and Jimmy suspiciously. “We were told by our intel that it was just you and Ms. Baker.”

“The two of them joined her as added security when the break out happened,” Pierre murmured softly. “They are part of her deal. Either they stay with her or she’ll not stay.”

The person stood there for several minutes, almost as though he was debating whether or not he wanted Matt and Jimmy to stay before he cleared his throat.

“If Ms. Baker wants them with her, they will be given a safe place to stay for as long as needed,” he told them with a small smile on his face before his smile disappeared and gave way to a far more serious look. “Who told you where to find us?”

Matt and Jimmy looked at Pierre, knowing that this was a question he should answer. Mel was wondering what they needed to know the answer for in the first place. They surely wouldn’t have told anyone where their camp could be located unless they were trustworthy, right? If they were half as self-defensive and as cautious as Mara’s group was, Mel was sure that they had to be almost one hundred percent off the grid and undetectable.

“He said his name was Sean,” Pierre frowned. “Just Sean. He gave us a general idea.”

The boy’s face paled and he shook his head before calling out something in a language that sounded Native American before he looked at Pierre again.

“The four of you must go with my sister,” he said immediately before grabbing Pierre’s hand. “She will take food and some other necessities with to keep you as comfortable as possible, but it’s necessary that you leave.”

“Why?” Jimmy asked before Matt cleared his throat.

“Because the rat bastard was a traitor,” he muttered under his breath before shaking his head. “This kid is right. We need to get out of here before they have a chance to follow us and hurt everyone.”

Mel gave Pierre a worried look, wondering just what in the hell was going on. She didn’t know anything about how Sean could have betrayed them in such a short amount of time, though she knew that he’d definitely been suspicious to her when he hadn’t given them their full name like Jacobs had.

All she could hope was that they’d all survive this. She didn’t want to lose Jimmy, Matt, or Pierre. They were all far too important to her, and she knew that if any of them got hurt trying to protect her, she couldn’t live with herself.