The Guardians - The Collapsing of the Wall (Book 3)

“Where’s Gloria?” asks Lily when she steps out of the Base.

“I haven’t seen her since last night”, says Brook.

“Do you want me to ask the guards to look for her?” asks Tamara looking suspiciously at Brook.

“No. Maybe she’s resting somewhere and she doesn’t want to come anymore. I will talk to her when we get back.”

Lily walks ahead between the Guardians that Tamara had chosen to accompany them until she catches up with Alice and Addison.

“Let’s go”, she tells them.

Isaac smiles at Alice when she stares at him. Addison hits her with her elbow, and Isaac notices their childish behavior and barely keeps himself from laughing. He approaches Lily.

“Do you think it will be okay?”

“I hope. You know that you’re not forced to come.”

“Are you kidding me? I’m not leaving you alone again! We’re in this together.”

She touches his shoulder, trying to scatter through his thoughts. But her brother’s thoughts are too agitated for her to understand anything.

“Stop it”, he says.

“What?”

“Stop using your abilities on me. You’re stepping the line of privacy!”

Lily starts laughing and walks away mumbling something.

“What the hell?” asks Tamara when she remains behind with Brook.

“What?”

“Gloria. I told you that I could find her!”

“I forgot…” says Brook embarrassed.

“Oh, yes! I noticed that! And now I know why.”

“Stay away from my thoughts!”

Tamara walks away when Leo comes near them, throwing him a mad look.

“What’s up with her?” he asks.

“Oh, I forgot to find Gloria.”

“And she blames me for that?”

“No… Just… well, I will find her when we get back. It’s too late now to look for her anyway. God knows where she is.”

“Don’t you want to let Lily know about her disappearance?”

“She’s not missing. She’s somewhere. She probably got scared and she doesn’t want to come. You know Gloria.”

“I don’t think it’s anything to be scared of in a peaceful meeting.”

“I hope so”, says Brook insecure.

Lily and Tamara look on the map for the place they’re supposed to meet up with the free Base’s leaders, they gather in the energetic cars and hit the road. It’s not a long way until they arrive there, only half an hour, time when Tamara and Lily can’t stop throwing each other concerned looks. It was like they were communicating through their thoughts. Tamara still looks mad at Brook, who ignores her without worrying about that.

Sam, Mark, Addison, Alice, and Gloria share a car, the other Guardians other two, and Lily, Tamara, Brook, Isaac, and Leo another one. Tamara had insisted that Artemis remained at the Base to keep things in order. She had done that for Lily, deed down in her soul, for she knew how much she tried to avoid her lately. Lily had done the same with Earl, who had looked for her a couple of times, but then he gave up on the idea of talking peacefully with his daughter.

A could of dust, which is rising up not very far from the Wall’s Portal, makes Lily wince a little, and Tamara to gulp.

“They’re here”, Tamara speaks.

Lily nods, and when they arrive at the area where were a couple of energetic cars, she realizes that there were a lot more Guardians than she had expected. The leaders had come accompanied, of course. The Guardians from the Base R stop in front of them, and Lily steps out from the car in her elegant and cold way. She takes a deep breath, and her heartbeats accentuate under the tight and black suit that she’s wearing. She’s wearing a sword at her waist, which she keeps hidden under her leather vest. Her hair is tied up at the back, and she wears black shoes.

Lily shakes hands with the leaders of the Bases B, E, F, H, I and O when they step forward to introduce themselves.

“So, why are we here, exactly?” the leader of Base F starts the discussion.

“I want us to establish a close bond, but before that I want us to talk about freedom. As you may know, I am Lily Hunt.”

Lily continues to introduce her people to them, and the leaders do the same after that.

“I want the freedom to protect the Wall the way we know best. As you may know or not, the other Bases have decided to join Leonor and Ray, the ones who were behind the destruction of the Unity.”

“The Unity is gone?” asks the Base H’s leader.

“Yes”, replies the leader of Base F. We heard about that too.”

“We heard something about some demons and dragons, but I couldn’t believe. That’s not possible”, continues Base B’s leader.

“We heard that you, Lily, killed a bunch of dragons and demons. I believe that’s a trace of truth in all those stories”, says the leader of Base H.

“It’s true that the stories you have heard are exactly like that. I’ve been wondering for some time how those things could get to you, but I realize that we’re not the only ones who have access to the energetic satellites. And if you saw some things, Leonor may have seen as well. I want to offer the Guardians the freedom to live and to protect the Wall’s Portal, not like those who wanted to control everything through the chips. As I can see, you are here because you have given up on those bad habits. You stopped controlling your people, and I see this a step further to our future collaboration”, says Lily.

“What do you propose?” asks the leader of Base I.

“I want us to join and establish together the New Unity, one that should base on the free choices of the Guardians, one without the chips, and one which doesn’t forbid the feelings. We are Guardians, but we are also humans. We have our roots in humans. The feelings and the freedom are a part of who we are. We can’t become robots.”

The Base O’s leader, who hasn’t said anything until now, approaches Lily at a threatening distance and makes Isaac step ahead. He’s now standing between her and the leader, who smiles at him in a certain way, one that looks malefic to Isaac.

“Is she taken?” he asks amusedly.

“I’m just cautious”, says Isaac seriously.

“It’s fine”, says Lily. “Tell me, what questions do you have?”

“You are the one who wants to lead us to the freedom?”

Lily looks weird at him. She can’t understand entirely what he means when he says “you”.

“Me… meaning what?”

“You. A child who barely knows the rules of the Guardian’s World.”

“This child, like you call her, is the Great Guardian. She killed dragons and demons using physical force, made the Guardians turn their faces to her and choose her as their leader. I think you should show a little more respect for her”, says Brook angrily.

“Oh, really?”

“If you don’t agree with what I’m saying, you can join Leonor, or you can stay on your own until things solve.”

“What do you understand when you say ‘solve’?”

“Leonor wants total control. She wants to control the Guardians with the chips, and I’m sure that she won’t sit there and do nothing. She will do something. This is why I’m proposing you to join our forces, to be prepared if she decides to kill the Guardians who want freedom.”

“And she won’t hesitate”, continues Isaac.

“And do you think you can stop her?”

“We can stop her”, Lily corrects him. “Only if we join our forces.”

“She’s right”, says the leader of Base B.

“Agreed”, completes Base I’s leader.

A cloud of dust interrupts their conversation, making them worry.

“Is there someone else who needs to come?” asks Tamara touching Lily.

“No”, she replies.

“They are Guardians from my Base”, says the leader of Base O.

“Why are they so many?” asks Tamara.

“Because we are moving out.”

The Guardians surrounding Lily take out their weapons when the energetic cars stop in front of them. From the cloud of dust created behind them appear others and, soon, dozens of cars stop in front of the few Guardians present at the meeting.

“Where are you moving?” asks Lily.

“What’s this?” asks the leader of Base B.

“This wasn’t the deal”, says the leader of Base I.

“How did you know what Lily was going to propose you? How and why did you call your entire Base here?” asks the leader of Base F.

The leader of Base O reacts fast, taking out an energetic gun and shooting in the head the leader of Base F.

“For there’s no field without brushwood”, he answers laughing.

From now on, the chaos starts, and the Guardians from Base O attack the others. Sam, Brook, Mark, and Leo form a circle and start going ahead through them, trying to kill as many of them, while Lily tries to put down the leader of Base O.

The Guardians seem to attack her the most from all of them, and that’s a sign that everything is a part of a more elaborate plan. When Lily is hit by one, another prepares to shot her instantly. She is strong, but something is wrong with her and her powers, for she’s feeling powerless, not invincible like she had felt when she had killed the monsters. She feels like a usual Guardian, but more like one betrayed and without powers.

The shock takes control when Addison cuts in half the Guardians who had attacked her, hits the other one and pulls her up.

“There’s no need for you to die today”, she says and sticks her back from hers.

The two of them form now a great pair, and they manage to put down a lot of Guardians. But Lily notices something strange at the Guardians lying dead, and that’s the fact that they have chips at the back of their heads.

“No…,” says Lily.

“What is it?” asks Addison.

“They have chips! The ones from Base O have chips!” she shouts so everyone can hear her.

That’s the moment when they all realize they have been betrayed somehow, but they couldn’t understand by whom, why and how. The leader of Base O gets away from the fighting crowd, trying to get at a certain energetic car. Lily and Addison are heading after him, leaving behind Alice and Isaac’s shouting, who were fighting together.

Going forward with dust, through swords and bullets full of blood and dirt, the two see some familiar faces at the car where was the leader of Base O.

“What the hell?” asks Addison when she can’t keep her surprise inside anymore.

Lily feels the ground shaking under her feet, her arms lose their strength, the sword slowly falls from her hands and touches the sand. Addison doesn’t let brought down by what she sees, but Lily stopping from fighting makes them split apart and taken far from each other in the battle. Lily’s trying now not to be killed by someone, but she keeps staring with teary eyes at the energetic car. She sees there Ray, Leonor, and Dean, who were accompanied by other three Guardians.

She is hit and thrown on the ground, but when she realizes that the one standing next to the enemy was Dean, who stares at her without being interested that she might be killed by the Guardians attacking her brutally, she feels extremely angry. She gathers her forces and tries to make room between the Guardians, cutting them with her long sword.

The second she catches Dean’s cold look on her makes her shiver. She can’t believe that what she sees is actually true but, still, Dean is standing right in front of her, watching the created battle without even moving a finger. She runs at them again, with a look full of hate, without thinking clearly in front of the image she sees.

“I will kill you!” she shouts to Dean roughly, and from the bottom of her lungs.

Her shouts alert the others, and Brook realizes that Lily’s about to go on a suicidal mission. But she sees Dean too and understands why Lily’s feeling so weird and messed up.

“That’s…” says Isaac to Tamara.

“Dean… No…”

“Lily!” shouts Isaac running to his sister, but the ballet won’t let him go through because he has to fight for his life before he can get to Lily.

Even if everyone tries to reach her, but Lily is already much closer to their enemies. Something makes her wonder why they are not moving from there, and why they’re just sitting and waiting for her to get there. She falls again on the sand, wounded and with a bleeding shoulder when she sees Dean grabbing the knife from one of the Guardians next to him.

Dean rushes to reach her, and she finally gets up slowly. He’s wearing a weapon at his waist, and she wonders why he hasn’t used that on her yet or what he could have possibly waited. Her questions don’t stay without an answer long, for Dean takes that weapon out when she’s standing on her feet, and he shots at her without thinking twice. She remains still, and the bullet hits the Guardian behind her.

She doesn’t understand anything anymore, and she sees Ray going to face Dean, but Leonor stops him.

“She’s mine”, Dean tells them and throws at Lily with the knife, leaving the energetic gun to fall to the ground.

Leonor starts laughing in a malefic way, while Ray has no idea what to expect next. Lily wakes up to reality when Dean attacks her with the knife, and she scatters desperately through the sand for her sword. When their bodies touch, Lily makes a hateful and painful sound, and hits Dean powerful, throwing him behind some ruins. He gets up quickly, without leaving the knife, and Lily attacks him with tears in her eyes.

“How could you? You are a wretch! I will kill you!”

“Really?” he asks her hitting her with his foot in the belly.

Lily gets up and hits him again, and he fights back even harder, leaving her without breath for a couple of seconds. She tries to get up desperately, a moment when he seems to boggle.

“Get up and fight”, he says grinding his teeth.

She coughs and stands up, dizzy and powerless. She can barely stand up, but she doesn’t want to give up.

“I will kill you, even if this is the last thing I do!” she shouts and attacks him one more time, hitting him with her last strengths.

The whole scene is watched with interest by Leonor and Ray, but also by Tamara and Isaac, Brook and Addison, who are trying to get to them somehow, but without success. The time seems to pass extremely slow, maybe it’s really stopped, and the battle doesn’t seem to end soon, even if the Guardians without chips seem to be outnumbered. There are dead bodies on the sand flooded with blood, and there’s a burned smell in the air because of the energetic guns. There are shouting all over the place, and one of them is Addison’s, who falls hit by a sword.

Isaac is the closest one who manages to kill the one who wanted to end her, and then he pulls her up and takes her with him, looking over his shoulder at Lily, who is still fighting Dean. Isaac takes Addison in a safe place, behind a car, but she starts coughing blood and falls aside. He feels forced to lift her up, and he starts searching desperately for a healer in the car.

“Just go”, she says.

Isaac doesn’t mind her, and he finds soon enough what he’s looking for, and then he applies it to her chest. Addison grabs his arm with hers full of blood, pulls the healer from him and whispers:

“Go. I got this. You saved a life. Just be careful not to pay it with yours.”

Their eyes meet, and there’s a kind of a weird tension, in the middle of the battle, and Isaac puts his other hand over Addison’s.

“You will be fine”, he tells her and runs again on the battlefield.

Lily and Dean continue fighting, and Dean doesn’t seem to be able to hit her with that knife. He pushes her forceful, making her lose her balance, and she falls on her back and hits her head on some ruins. She remains there, between fainting and waking up, and Dean seems to be crossed by a shiver. He sees Ray and Leonor’s eyes on him and, from behind, a couple of their guards are looking closely at what he’s doing. He knows that he has no other option now and the time to kill Lily has come, so he rushes to get her when she gets up dizzily, and he stabs her with the knife, leaving the blood to flow on his hand. It’s red now, but Lily can’t see that anymore because her eyesight gets foggy soon. He had grabbed her by her throat with his other hand, and that was the only thing keeping Lily on her feet.

Leonor looks satisfied enough, and the same look Ray and the Guardians behind Dean, who were waving at the two of them that he had accomplished his mission.

There’s a scream in the middle of the crowd. It’s Brook, who feels what’s happening to her friend. Isaac witnesses the whole scene, and he tries once again to get to her, but he finds himself hit from all over the places. Alice and Tamara save him in time, killing his attackers and pulling him from the middle of the battle.

Lily starts feeling the pain, and she looks at Dean with her teary eyes. Even if she had fought him with hate, she couldn’t possibly ever kill him. Is she was in his place, she wouldn’t have had the strength to stab him. But he looks her in the eyes, and he barely holds his tears. He puts her on the sand and feels her body becoming heavier in his arms.

The seconds seem hours now, and this moment is an eternity for Dean, who stares powerless at Lily.

“You did it”, she finally whispers. “I wouldn’t have had the strength or the courage.”

But her voice fades away and she feels everything spinning around her.

“You are dead, do you hear me? You’re dead!” he says gulping.

She hears him, but her head falls down and she closes her eyes.

“It’s over! Lily is dead!” he shouts at Leonor, and then he joins the group.

His words make the other Guardians wince, Isaac, to scream of pain and rage, and when the looks of the Guardians with chips turn at him, Isaac makes space between the bodies and hitching from Sam’s straight, who was holding him pretty well.

“I’m going to kill you, bastard! “ he yells at Dean, who gets into the car.

“This is only the beginning”, says Leonor smiling victoriously.

“This is what happens if you don’t surrender and obey”, says Ray.

Tamara and Sam run after Isaac, who had already killed three Guardians on his way to kill Dean. The battle starts again, even if it seemed to have calmed down for the past few minutes, but Tamara manages to grab Isaac by the arm.

“Go to Lily!” she says seriously.

Isaac thinks about it for a second, but when he sees the car with Dean driving away, he runs to Lily and lifts up her body. Tamara gets out of the battle, and she sends one Guardian to each Base they represent, to let the others know that the war has started. She instructs them to call the others to Base R, where they were going to regroup and prepare for the attack or defense, according to their time left. The Guardians leave to announce their Bases, and the left ones continue the battle.

Addison, who had now the wounds healed, invents a plan with Alice’s help, and they steal the cars from the Guardians with chips, and Tamara follows their example. She stops the car next to Isaac, who pulls Lily’s body in the car, and then he starts shooting over the left Guardians.

They get away from the slaughter, leaving behind bloody and scattered bodies on the sand.

“Lily! Lily!” shouts Isaac shaking her body.

But she doesn’t move, and when Tamara checks out her pulse, she states that her heart is not beating anymore. She sees Isaac trying to wake her up, but without any use, starting around him tears and painful reactions, a disaster.

Some of the Guardians left from the other Bases were following them closely, for they wanted to wait for their people at Base R and to fight for justice. In the next car, Brook was crying out loud in Leo’s arms, and Addison was staring shocked at Isaac, who was holding Lily’s dead body.

“There’s no need for you to die today.” She hears these words out loud inside her head, and something doesn’t seem right when she sees the invincible Lily lying without life in Isaac’s arms, but more, killed by the one who she had thought he loved her the most. But now she couldn’t believe that anymore, but she strongly believed that Lily was the one who loved Dean too much, and that was the reason that brought her end.

Tamara’s tears had dried on her cheeks, and she was trying to focus on the road. They had lost nine Guardians with Lily. They had fought bravely, but they had lost a large number of allies from the other Bases as well. The war had started suddenly, and she was trying to understand where she had mistaken. She was blaming herself for Lily’s death, for she was the one who had sent the messages to the Bases, but she couldn’t understand what had gone wrong.

It seemed impossible to them that the Great Guardian to be killed in a simple fight, but what Tamara found extremely weird and out of balance was that Dean was the one who had killed her. She had underestimated him, she thought that she had known him well, but all her opinions and thoughts were twisted now, and she couldn’t get out of her mind the image with him stabbing Lily. Where was her mistake? She could read minds, but she couldn’t read his mind during those times.

A hillock of sand brings Tamara back to reality, and she sees the Base R in front of them. She feels something in her throat and she bursts into tears without any chance of coming back from that. What’s too much is a lot even for her.