Chapter 29 - Clover

CHAPTER 29 - CLOVER

M y mind is racing as I ascend in the elevator, Hattie's words ringing in my ears. I'll see you up top, Clover Bradley!

I stay crouched in the corner of the elevator, staring at the floor. Listening to the pinging of bullets below me. Gradually, they become distant, then they stop altogether.

The elevator jolts to a stop and the doors open.

My heart is racing, my head is pounding, and for a moment, I can't move. Because I don't understand how the hell I got here or what the hell is actually happening. Did I really just spend the last week as a prisoner in my own house and then a guest of a secret underground military installation?

Laughing is the only response I have. It's all I've got. It's just a few chirps at first, but a few seconds later, I'm nearly hysterical.

The doors begin to close and I panic, snapping myself out of whatever psychological reaction I'm in the middle of having. I thrust my arm between the doors, stopping them just in time.

Then I get to my feet and step out into the brightly lit room, blinking for a few seconds as I try to come to grips with my reality.

This is really happening, Clover. And if you don't snap out of this paralysis, you're dead, girl. You're dead!

OK, think. Think. It's an office, that much is clear. But it's not very big. The size of an average bedroom. A desk lines three of the walls and above the desk are dozens of monitors depicting various scenes. Black and white streams of different rooms—even the one I'm standing in—and the dirt roads of a what appears to be a village. The front gates of the Revival grounds and a couple of driveways that look to be in Disciple. The parking lot of the diner down in Revenant. There's even a few shots of Bishop. But most of them show nothing but woods. All lit up green with night vision.

The doors begin to close behind me and I panic, hearing Hattie Miller's voice in my head. I'll see you up top, Clover Bradley !

Oh, no, you won't, bitch. I swing around, grab a chair, and roll into the closing doors of the elevator, taking it out of the equation.

Oh, shit! But what about Ike? He said he was right behind me.

I stare at the elevator, wondering if I should send it back down. It's a crazy idea. But what if he's waiting for it?

What if he's already dead?

What if the only person coming up behind me is Hattie?

I can't risk it. It makes me sick to turn my back on him, that's not the kind of person I am. But I'm practically free. If Hattie came up instead of Ike, I don't know that she'd kill me, but my life would be over even if she didn't.

No. I can't worry about Ike when Hattie Miller is on the hunt and she's got my scent. I leave the chair in the door and force myself to think clearly. I think that elevator is the only way up here. At least the only convenient way up here. Which might not buy me a lot of time, but it should be enough.

I look down at my hand, because this is when I realize that Ike pushed something into it at the last second. It's a phone, but there's a piece of white notebook paper wrapped around it and secured with a rubber band.

I take the rubber band off and open up the note.

It's a letter to Lowyn.

Dear Lowyn,

These are my dying words and I want them to be for your eyes only.

I suck in a breath and stop reading.

His dying words !

I fold the paper back up.

Ike's not coming. He knew he wasn't gonna make it. He knew we'd get caught and still, he helped me. Everything he just did was to get me out of here so I could give this note to Lowyn.

No, Clover! You're supposed to save Riggs!

Holy shit! Riggs! I forgot about him!

I am not at the top of my game here. I am faltering because I can't hold on to all the important information Ike gave me! I grab my hair, trying to pull myself together. I need to save Riggs! That's the whole reason Ike got me out.

Collin is gonna kill him.

My head snaps to the side when I notice movement on one of the monitors. It's a… an armored truck? Pulling in to a driveway. Is that… I walk up to the monitor, pushing my face up to the grainy green images as I squint my eyes, trying to decipher what's happening. Is that Lowyn's house?

Collin Creed gets out of the driver's side of the truck as Amon hops out of the passenger. They both go around the back and open up the doors.

A moment later, they are pulling something out of the truck.

It's a body.

I actually gasp and then start crying. Because it's Riggs. I'm too late. Collin has already killed him.

But then Collin kicks the body and it moves.

Riggs isn't dead yet! I still have a chance.

But then Riggs gets to his feet and they start pushing him towards the back of the house where the woods are.

They're taking him up there. That's where they'll do it. High up in the hills so no one can find his body.

No. No, no, no. I did not come all this way to just give up now.

I look down at the phone, shove the paper into my pocket, and bring the home screen up. I expect it to be locked, but it's not.

Of course it's not. Ike gave me this phone to use! I tap it away and pull up the contacts. Does he have Collins' number in here?

Oh, you bet he does, Clover. Because Ike thought this whole thing through very carefully. I watch Collin on the screen as I press his number, then wait. Smiling.

Just in time. I'm gonna save Riggs just in the nick of time.

But all I get is a beeping noise. I look down at the phone and realize there's no service.

Well, of course there's no service, Clover! You're still underground !

I glance back up at the monitors, but none of the men are in the one I was looking at. I scan the other and then there he is. Riggs. He looks up at the camera like he knows it's there. And my heart sinks. Because that look on his face has no hope in it.

"No. No, no, no." I say it out loud this time. "You hang on, Riggs. I'm coming."

I look around for the door out of here, find it, throw it open, and then pause at the bottom of a steep stairwell.

There's a door at the top.

Is there anyone on the other side of that door?

Ike must've been certain there wouldn't be, or he would not have sent me here. At the very least, if there is someone up there, he would've made sure they would be people who would help me.

It's foolish to trust this man. He kidnapped Lowyn. He threatened her, probably hit her, since she did have a mark on her face when Collin brought her to the Dixie Yonder after all that shit happened. But I didn't ask, so I don't know for sure.

Still, Ike meant for me to get away, if only so I could deliver his final words in the form of a letter to Lowyn. I didn't read it, but I don't have to. It's an apology. And the reason he helped me escape was to make sure that Lowyn accepted that apology, even if he was too dead to appreciate it.

I go up the stairs, acutely aware that Collin and Amon are minutes away from killing Riggs, and don't even hesitate at the top. I come out into a house. A very nice house, actually. But it's dark, and silent, and empty. I close the door behind me and press Collin's contact again.

Beeps. Nothing but beeps because there's no service.

Of course, Ike knew this. If he thought I could just call it all off with a phone call, he would've said that. But he didn't. He told me to find his horse and ride down the mountain.

I go outside, pause, but only briefly, to make sure no one is out and about, and then take off running down the road in the direction of the stable.

When I enter the barn, I trigger the lights and the horses start making noises. I figure it's close enough to dawn that they think I'm here to give them breakfast, and their excitement makes me nervous. Because clearly, this is Blackberry Hill and that means this village is filled with people just like Ike Monroe. People who do not know that he told me to take his horse and rescue my man.

So I hesitate, peering outside to see if anyone's coming. Because if they are, fuck the horse. I'm running.

I count to sixty, then turn back and walk the aisle, looking for the buckskin. He's massive. And snorty. And by the pawing he does, I'm like a hundred-percent sure he's a stallion. Because that's the kind of horse Ike would own.

I talk to him for a moment, acutely aware that I'm wasting time here and Riggs is gonna be dead before I even get tacked up. So I grab the bridle, skip the saddle, and go into the stall.

He's a massive horse, but Ike would not have told me to take him if he didn't think I could do it. So I say, "Head down," in a soothing voice and he does just that. He lowers his head, accepts the bit, and follows me out of the barn. There's a mounting platform just outside and when I swing my leg up and get on him bareback, he takes off running, heading straight down the hill.

I haven't ridden in years and I bounce along, grabbing hold of his mane for dear life. But he's got a nice smooth gallop and he's fast . So for the first time tonight, I have hope.

I hold the phone out in front of me, praying for a signal to appear as we race down the hill.