Valerie Russell took four long strides towards her new captor and punched him square in the jaw. Needle like pain erupted in her hand and shot through to her elbow. The impact, no doubt, broke more than one bone. Tears blurred her vision. Rage boiled in her chest releasing a battle cry of pain, frustration, and targeted hate. She pulled back again and took another swing. This time Tony blocked her arm and maneuvered to hug her into him. Valerie screamed and thrashed against his arms, fighting with e...

I’ll never journal again, much less write another thing for anyone. All my personal thoughts were used against me. Evidence. Proof of my deep involvement. Brainwashed by a terrorist movement. The interrogators were probably right.

With every passing second between the jail and the questionings, I was reminded of my new reality. The Queen reluctantly agreed to let me go to trial. I heard she wanted to execute me herself. The feeling was mutual.

Reality. I hardly remembered the warmth of ...

With a baby girl crooked under his arm and brief case in the other, Sam willed there to be no other obstacles between him and boarding the plane back to where they came from. He took long strides, his lazy form of speed walking from his earlier years. He was unsure if one could run with a baby or if the jostling could harm her in some way. Because he cared about such a thing, not harming the girl in his arms.

Sam wasn’t sure he did the right thing. Why did he have to make such a spectacle of ...

Loneliness was Valerie’s armor now. She’d only need to mend her own wounds from here on out. The team that had carried her dead weight over a hundred miles before, were nearly all dead themselves.

“Do you all live in the same building? How does this work when we get into the city?” Valerie asked in order to distract herself from the deep seeded guilt threatening to swallow her into a black hole of paralysis.

“We all park around the same block then walk home fro...

“Here you go.”

The woman had returned with the promised items. My desperation to be clean far outweighed my guilt of dirtying such a stark white wash cloth.

One for One, I thought, keeping tabs on her word. In my week living with Mike in the shed, I did learn a lot, even if he didn’t think I was listening or cared. He told me everyone can be initially trusted, but to watch for the decline. There is always a pattern before their true intentions come to light. Ms. E...

Sticky drool puddled on my right arm, which had fallen asleep. I wiped my cheek of my saliva, careful as to not pull too hard and crack my chapped lips. My mouth was dry and I anticipated my neck being sore, but to my surprise, I felt great. I open and closed my hand to ease the needles bringing it back to life. The seat was far more comfortable than the hard cot I’d used in the shed, and I found myself quite refreshed by the nap.

When I sat up, I heard a plastic crunch of a disposable bag. T...

Valerie flopped into a chair in the front sitting room where her former pilot, Mitch, warmed himself by the fire.

“Did you know?” she asked Mitch who very obviously wanted no part of the awkward situation.

“I assumed, based on Dr. Wilkes’s previous trip. I don’t have the same senses you and the King…”

“You, too,” she interrupted. “Stope with all this royalty mess. We’re just people. Shitty people who never earned anyone&rsqu...

Walking off the plane felt like freedom. I didn’t ask who would be meeting me, but when I entered the terminal, there was no one there.

“We have some time before the convoy arrives to take us to the Reactance Headquarters,” Liz chirped at me. “Follow me!”

There was little else I could do really. Run away, maybe? Liz led me to a clothing store. The brand I’d seen in the old Denver Mall before it became the city market. Super bougie but anything was better th...