Wings of the Walker - CoraLee June Page 0,134

facade.

I wondered if we could pull this off, if she would be strong enough to tell the world of emperorLackley's evil past and inspire the world to take revenge. Tallis noticed her fear, too, and he eyed her before smiling mischievously. He waltzed over to her with determined strides, grabbed her face, and then kissed her. Hard. She rose up on her tiptoes to meet the force of his crushing kiss. After a brief moment, I realized I was staring at their passionate display, so I coughed and averted my eyes.

Tallis walked back over towards me while licking his lips. He looked ruffled and winked at me before ordering “And, NOW," while turning on the tablet.

"Masters and Mistresses of the Empire," Jules began. "I am Jules Black, sister of Maverick and Cyler Black, the humble and kind leaders of Dormas. I come to you from a hiding post within the Empire." She looked down at her arm before dramatically raising her chin and giving an icy glare to Tallis who was behind the camera. "I have recently learned some grave news that could impact the very fabric of our Empire's existence. In a drastic and inhumane attempt at controlling our population, emperorLackley commissioned the creation of Influenza X. He is responsible for the murder of our friends, our brothers, our sisters, our parents, and our neighbors. He destroyed entire cities. Enslaved the peoples of this empire with his vaccine. Divided our Empire. Broke our families. Killed our loved ones. emperorLackley is a murderer and a fraud," Jules proclaimed. Goosebumps erupted on my arms.

"People of the Empire, emperorLackley must be stopped. He recently learned that his precious vaccine is malfunctioning, so now he is holding my brilliant, helpless brother and the rest of the Dormas leaders hostage in a vicious attempt to further his powerful reign and control us. I implore you. Help me save my brothers. Help me save our Empire." As she ended her speech, a small, timid tear danced perfectly down her porcelain cheeks.

Tallis cut the feed then began furiously sending the video to as many contacts across the Empire as he could, praying that the announcement would go viral and we'd get reactions within twenty-four hours. Emperor Lackley had control over the airwaves, but Tallis ensured us that the video would find its way into the right hands, hands that could get Jules' speech heard.

"So, what now?" I asked.

"Now we send a message to Maverick and the others, warning them," Tallis said. Jules nodded in agreement.

"How do we do that?" I asked.

"I'll send another note through the Guard that got a note to you. He thinks I have his sister held captive; she's an old . . . uh . . . friend of mine," Tallis said while rubbing the back of his neck, causing Jules to groan.

"Disgusting," she sneered while looking at Tallis with a mixture of frustration and desire.

"I'll write the note," I replied automatically while jumping up from my seat. I was overly eager to grasp at whatever contact I could.

"Keep it ambiguous, so if intercepted we can’t be traced. I can get it to him by nightfall,” he added before going over to a table full of knives and sharpening them.

M,

The rest of your life starts tomorrow.

— A

Chapter Twenty-Six

Kemper

The fluorescent light in the right corner of our makeshift jail cell kept flickering in a systematic sequence. If my right eye wasn’t swollen shut, and my left not blurred from all the rogue punches I just endured, maybe I could make sense of them. We kept pushing the boundaries of the Guards. Spitting in their eyes. Kicking them during bathroom breaks. In turn, they kept pushing back. Just enough to keep us hurting and down.

Perhaps I was grasping for straws. Trying to find a pattern where there wasn’t one. But sitting here while Ash and Maverick were off in danger made me desperate to make sense of something. Anything.

Cyler groaned out. “How long do you think it’s been?”

“Ten days and six hours. Give or take,” I replied instantly. I counted the seconds between guard shift-changes and determined that we got a new guard every four hours.

“Do we have a plan yet?” Huxley asked.

We both eyed our snoozing guard. His overgrown belly made his weapon belt look like twine tightly wound on raw meat. He would be easy to take down.

Hux was probably the most beat up out of all of us. He needed medical attention soon. Kicking a guard in the groin would do