The Strays

A week passed by before I finally returned home with Ty.

“Did you manage to get everyone out alright?” I asked Leo as I wandered back into the safe house and started packing up my things, not wanting to waste a moment.

Leo nodded his head. “Jeremiah is helping them get settled. What’s all this really about, though? I know when you’re withholding things.” He was as astute as ever, but I didn’t have time to explain myself.

“I think it’s for the best if you see for yourself.”

Leo looked to Ty for some insight, but he didn’t say a word. He just silently loitered in the corner of the room, obviously waiting for something to happen. Then, as if right on queue Ace appeared with Colt and Drew following close behind.

I walked over to Ace and handed him a crumpled up, old photo of me, him and Sean that my dad had taken, along with a small, black teddy bear.

“I’d have thought you’d burn these after everything that happened. Where’d you find them?”

“I might have lied to you before. I knew where to go to look for my dad’s work, I never forgot I just didn’t think I could trust you. I found these on his desk. I don’t remember putting them there, last time I saw them they were in my room, but I must have taken them with me at some point, and it just felt like a sign.”

“Now that we’ve cleared that up, let’s get back on topic shall we? Where is the research Indie?” Drew sighed impatiently.

“Gone, I destroyed it. That work was dangerous and I couldn’t let Delilah get her hands on it, so I made sure to burn every last shred.”

Drew took a deep breath as he stepped toward me. “It didn’t have to be this way.” He whispered in my ear and I gave Ty our signal. I watched as he and Ace quickly rushed Leo out the back whilst Colt stubbornly stayed behind and raised his weapon.

“What’s this all about?” Drew chuckled as he looked Colt over.

“Cut the shit. I know that you and Delilah are working together.”

“How long have you known?” He sighed, clearly disappointed but not surprised.

“Had my doubts the day we met, but I put them aside when you saved my life, that is, until Ace and I got to talking. See, he genuinely didn’t know why the Enforcers were armed, or where they got their ammunition. That’s when it hit me. They never had live ammunition, but you briefly did. Stitch saw you with Tali and Delilah, didn’t she? Leo mentioned that Delilah had brought some guys to the clinic in the past, but they never stuck around long. He always thought she was suspicious, then one day it dawned on him who she was. You killed Stitch to make sure she wouldn’t blow your cover, and you used our escape as cover. This whole thing was a setup from the moment we met, orchestrated by you and Delilah. You never had a sister, but I do recall seeing your face. You just weren’t in my year. Everything you told me was a lie, and I fell for it, hook line sinker.”

Drew shook his head, then pulled out a gun and grabbed me by the wrist, holding my body close to his as his pistol rested under my chin. “This was never about you Indie and I’m sorry it had to go down that way with Stitch, but I wasn’t going to let anyone compromise my mission, and unfortunately that applies to you as well. Now tell Colt to drop his weapon before I drop you.”

“Delilah intentionally made sure things went South at the meet with Hatter, then you put the idea into Mac’s head that Stitch would be the only one who could save him, and you would need Leo as leverage to make sure she cooperated but that changed when Mac saw me, my history with her complicated things, so you had to improvise. Thing is, whilst you were busy thinking about making your move, I was already three steps ahead and now it’s checkmate.”

I felt the gun dig deeper. “What’s that supposed to mean?” Drew insisted as I heard Colt pulling back the firing pin.

“It means that I know you’ve signalled for reinforcements, but I have some of my own. Colt is pointing that gun at me, not you, so shoot, it won’t make a difference, however if your friends try to come in be warned, I have this whole place rigged, I also have a group of allies ready to bear arms against you, it will be a bloodbath. One that you will be directly responsible for, so do it, shoot me.”

“Why would anyone care what happens to you? Liberty no longer exists. Everyone else in this city wants you dead, including The E.A.D, so tell me, who actually has your back, besides a few strays that you abandoned?”

Colt’s finger stroked the trigger. “She has me you piece of shit and though I may not have liked her in the beginning, she’s come a long way since then, now I’d do whatever she asked of me, even if that meant blowing out her brains, but honestly I don’t want to do that and if she ever meant anything to you, then I know you don’t want that either, so let her go. Then we can all walk away.”

“A job is a job, plain and simple. That’s all any of you were to me, so drop the gun before I drop her, because I know you won’t kill her yourself.” Drew callously retorted.

“Appealing to your emotional or sensitive side clearly isn’t working, so let’s try logic. Indie has an eidetic memory. She may have destroyed the research, but it’s stored in her head. If Delilah learns you killed her, when you knew she was the key to your boss’s plans, you’ll be as good as dead yourself. Obviously, though, I can’t let Indie leave here with you alive, which puts us at an impasse. You can kill her, thus incurring Delilah’s wrath, or you can let Indie leave, alive and possibly live to see another day yourself.”

“You’re bluffing mate.” Drew argued.

“Obviously we are just going around in circles, Colt. Perhaps it’s time you left. Clearly we’ve been outsmarted, and it’s time to throw in the towel before anyone gets hurt.”

“No way, he won’t hurt you Indie, if he planned to he would’ve sold you out by now and we wouldn’t even be here, not to mention his little lapse after Stitch was shot.” Colt challenged.

Drew cocked his weapon and stabbed it into my shoulder. “You don’t think I’m serious? Watch me.”

“Trust the plan.” I mouthed to Colt as he shook his head, lowered his weapon, and kicked it across the room.

“Good boy, now why don’t you both take a seat whilst we wait for my friends to get here.” Drew mocked as he pushed me and Colt toward the centre of the room, then tied us both to chairs back to back.

“Your plan had better work or we’re both fucked.” Colt stated passive aggressively as Drew crossed over to the other side of the room to use my radio.

I smiled at his frustration as he struggled to get it to work.

“Why isn’t it working Indie!?” Drew shouted in anger.

“That might have something to do with my friends.” Ty confessed, as he appeared out of nowhere. “You see, whilst Indie has been keeping you distracted, I’ve been dealing with your allies, with a little of help, obviously. You’re on your own, mate. Now you can either do the smart thing and run, or you can try to fight us, which will no doubt lead to your downfall.”

“This isn’t over!” Drew warned as he sulked past me.

“I never thought it was. Tell Delilah I’m coming for her. She started this war and I’m going to finish it. Not as Indie or Liberty, but as Caelyn Lewis. I’m done hiding, no more fake names and no more blind faith or naivety. I’m done staying on the defensive. It’s time for me to throw the punch. That bitch can hide behind her army all she wants. It won’t stop me.”

I heard the door slam shut behind him and Ty quickly rushed to untie me, as well as Colt.

“Next time you are the distraction and I’ll be the hero who swoops in to save the day at the last second.” Colt haphazardly joked with Ty as he rubbed his red wrists.

“Issue is mate. You’re the only person who can convincingly threaten to kill Indie without immediately having his bluff called.” Ty explained as I shot him a look.

“I know it’s confusing, but can we not call me Indie anymore? I took that name to protect myself, but now everyone knows who I am. It seems rather pointless, same as Liberty. Those names don’t mean what they used to, so just call me Caelyn, or Cae if it’s easier. That’s what most people seem to be calling me these days.”

The boys gave me a nod of confirmation, and Colt spoke up. “I’m no longer working for the E.A.D, so the code name seems rather pointless now, so I guess you guys can call me Colt, after all, you’re the closest thing I have to family in all of this.”

I nodded my head, then looked at Ty. “Any changes in identification you wish to submit.”

He shook his head.

“Well, in that case, let’s leave before Drew comes back with more friends than the ones we’ve already dealt with.”

The three of us managed to make it to the address Jeremiah had given me the last time I’d checked in with him, with relative ease but as we stood outside the building and I looked up, I realised there was something I had to do before we continued.

“Why are you stopping Cae? Is there something wrong?” Ty asked anxiously.

I looked him in the eye, trying my hardest to hide my fear of what had to come next.

“We need to tell him who’s waiting for us on the other side of that door. He might not want anything to do with us after, but it should be his choice to make. I’m not going to make that choice for him.”

Ty nodded his head knowing that what I was saying made sense, we needed Colt, he’d become an asset to us and of course I didn’t want to lose that, or him, but we both had history with Jeremiah and he’d bared the worst of it, something like that can be hard to forgive or forget about, so the last thing I wanted to do was betray his trust by sending him into that building without knowing everything.

“Is everything okay with you guys?” Colt queried as he noticed the change in atmosphere.

“Everything’s fine, but there’s something you should know.”

Colt instinctively took a step back. “What’s going on?”

“Wraith, set this up for us. He helped get Willow and the others somewhere safe. He’s one of us. He was just playing a part in developing a character. I won’t stand here and justify his actions, but I’m pretty certain he’s one of the good guys. I understand if this is the point where you want to part ways, but I really hope you’ll stay. Decide for yourself if you trust him.”

He went quiet for a brief moment. “Do you both trust him?”

Ty nodded his head, but I couldn’t answer quite so quickly.

“I believe he has the best intentions, but you know what they say about good intentions and where they lead. As for my judgement, it’s a bit on the rocks at the moment. I trusted Drew and look where that got me, but to answer your question, no, I don’t trust him. Nowadays I don’t trust anybody. I barely trust myself.”

“Delilah is the real threat, especially if she reaches her goal. That’s what we need to focus on.” Colt informed us, and we all continued to stand there.

“Well then, what are we waiting for? We have a reunion to join.” Ty teased as he led the way inside.

I followed Ty and Colt into the building, the three of us climbing the staircase inside with a combination of caution and apprehension.

“You guys sure you want to do this?” I asked one final time as we reached the door to the flat Jeremiah had found for us. Both of the boys nodded their heads. “Then let’s go.”

Colt entered first, wearily scanning the hallway with every step, with Ty and I still following every caution as we entered behind him. We cleared each room individually as we made our way toward the kitchen at the back, where Jeremiah was patiently waiting with Leo, Ace, and Tali.

“What is she doing here?” Ty hissed, referring to the girl that had once betrayed us.

“Tali isn’t our enemy. Delilah was blackmailing her. She didn’t have a choice.” Jeremiah defensively stated.

“Delilah knew where to find Tali’s nephew and used that as leverage.”

“That still doesn’t explain why she’s here.” Ty growled.

“I used the radio to routinely check in with Jeremiah and Leo. That’s how I knew where to find this place. I asked the guys to track her down and help her nephew while we were away. Tali’s medical knowledge could really help us, and more importantly, it seemed right that we give her a second chance, Stitch was her friend, if she were still here it’s what she’d be telling me to do.”

“How the fuck did you have time to organise all of this?” Colt remarked, both surprised and impressed.

I grabbed a glass and poured myself a cup of water from a saucepan that had been boiling.

“When I last spoke to Leo, he told me about Tali’s situation, so I asked her to meet me whilst Ty was sleeping. Something didn’t feel right about Drew, the conversation I had with Ace and Jeremiah kept playing in my mind, but I had to be sure, so I asked Tali to confirm my hunch. I heard her side of the story and I could see her pain, her anger about what happened to Stitch, so I told her if she wanted to help, she could find Leo.”

“How did you have time to negotiate a truce with Hatter, though? How’d you know he’d help you when you confronted Drew?” Colt queried, and Ty took over.

“Cae had the crazy idea to turn ourselves over to Hatter before we got caught anyway, because we had to pass through Hellraiser territory and she had hopes of reasoning with him. Only Mac wasn’t all too happy to see us, but we explained the threat Delilah posed and her plan, as well as illustrating the point Cae had saved her partner’s life, which forced Mac to see reason. She persuaded Hatter to agree to a ceasefire, and she was the one who helped me while Cae distracted Drew.”

“You told the Hellraiser about your dad’s work, and that it was in their sector? What if they’d tried to take it for themselves?” Jeremiah snapped.

“Actually, we made it to my dad’s workspace first, but the place was empty. All his work was gone, and the building had been torched. I found the picture and teddy, sitting on my old desk, it had been put there afterwards. It was a message. I might have left that part of the story out when dealing with Mac, I just told her I had a source on the inside who’d gotten me the intelligence, and obviously she knew Delilah had Leo, so she had good reason to trust me.”

“If what you said about the message is true, who sent it?” Tali asked.

“My older brother Sean. He actually wrote something in the back of the photo for Ace. That’s who the message was for, he’d expected Ace to find the workshop, not me, he thinks I’m dead.”

Ty stared at me in shock. “Why’d you keep that from me? I thought we were a team.”

“No, we aren’t. We never were. I helped you and the others because I owed you that much, I owed Leo that much, I handled Drew because I should’ve handled that the first time I met him, that’s it. I didn’t tell you about my brother because I don’t know if it’s really him or if it’s a trick, but I have to find out. That isn’t your problem though, you just need to focus on protecting your faction.”

“You’re leaving, and that’s why you mentioned Tali’s medical skills being useful. She’s essentially your replacement while you go searching for Sean.” Colt sighed.

“That’s on me, actually.” Jeremiah interrupted. “There’s a place, a sanctuary that we like to call Haven, I helped create it to house kids temporarily until we could move them elsewhere, but recently we’ve struggled to find placements and these kids have started to call it home, thing is it was never supposed to be permanent so there’s no real infrastructure for long-term use. We keep having to expand as numbers increase, we’ve got people with some medical knowledge, some with experience teaching but nothing concrete. It’s where I relocated Willow and the others, it’s also where I’ve housed Tali’s nephew. I told her I could find them new identities and a new home in another city but she asked to stay, she wants to help train people in the camp.”

“How do you know she won’t stab you in the back?” Ty persisted.

“We’ve all done things we aren’t proud of. They don’t have to define us, though. Caelyn gave me a chance. She saved my life. The least I can do is offer Tali the same opportunity.”

Ty punched the wall in frustration. “We’re in the middle of a war and suddenly everyone wants to play happy families. You’re supposed to protect the kids in your charge, not gamble their lives on a whim. As for you, Cae, I thought you were finally ready to be a team player. I thought you understood what was at stake, so why are you going off like a lone wolf when we need you now more than ever?”

I didn’t dignify his question with a response, instead I just walked out of the room, down the hallway and back toward the street.

“Where are you going, Cae?” I heard Colt calling after me.

“Anywhere, but here sounds good to me.”

“For once, can we just talk things through? You don’t have to just up and leave every time something becomes too intense.”

“Ty and the others don’t get it, they never will. I am better off on my own, especially with Delilah and her people hunting me. If I go with you guys, then I’ll be putting all those kids at risk, I can’t do that. I have to stay, I have to find my brother, we stand a better chance at understanding what Delilah is planning with Sean on our side, I have to get to him before she does and I can’t have you guys chasing after me, because somebody needs to be around to save the day if I fuck this up.”

“When are you finally going to stop running? I know what happened to Miles was traumatising, that it hurt you, but at some point you have to move on and forgive yourself. It wasn’t your fault. This is going to sound mean, and you can take it the wrong way, but I think you’re scared of the commitment, you are so used to internalising everything that whenever something happens you blame yourself, and you are so scared of losing people you refuse to let anyone get close. You have friends who will fight for you, and alongside you, but you won’t let them. Delilah is always going to have a hold on you as long as you’re too scared to move on with your life.”

I turned around to face him, tears in my eyes. “You’re right, I am afraid. For years I carried myself like I was invincible, like nobody could touch me, and I came back here thinking I was strong enough to face my demons, but I’m not. You’re wrong about Miles, can’t forgive myself for what happened to him because it was my fault, my brother died because I was too much of a coward to tell the truth, every time somebody asked my name I should have said Caelyn Lewis, but instead I’d go by Indie, or some other alias. If I had stood up for myself, Miles would still be alive. I let her take him from me and you’re right, I’m terrified she’ll take everyone else from me as well. So tell me, what would you do in my position?”

Colt hugged me tightly, looking down at me with a smile. “Stay, that’s how you fight her. Don’t fight this alone because you’re scared to let people in, that’s what makes you vulnerable. Your weakness doesn’t come from caring about people, it comes from turning your back on them. If you want to protect people, then stay with them. Be there when it counts, otherwise you’ll defeat your demons and realise there’s no one left to fight, or to fight for. We can help you find Sean, you don’t have to do this alone.” I hugged him back, holding him even tighter, my eyes bawling. “You’re a good kid Cae, but when all is said and done, that’s exactly all you are, a kid, just like the rest of us, you don’t have to carry the weight of the world by yourself, we’re here for you.”