Revolution (Collide, #4)(62)

"Hi," I said softly from behind Merrick's brick house of a back. "Remember me? I thought I was at Chesser's house."

"This is Chesser's," he drawled. "What are you doing back here?"

"We need to talk to him. It's important."

The man was shoved aside and Chesser smiled at us. "My favorite rebels!" I laughed in relief and loosened my grip on Merrick's arm. "Come on in."

Merrick kept a firm hand on mine and said, "I can understand why you're a little trigger happy." Merrick gave the man with the gun a long look.

Chesser lowered the man's barrel with his hand. "Whoa, slick." He laughed. "Let's settle down a little. You remember Sherry?"

"Sure," the man said dead-pan. "Who's this guy?"

"Her husband, Merrick. It's ok." He lowered the gun slowly and gave us one final look before moving to the couch and plopping himself down. Chesser turned to me and with a raised eyebrow said, "What are you doing here?"

"We decided to follow up on your broadcast idea." He looked confused so I kept going. "We came to stake out the place and-"

"You went to the station?" he yelled.

"Yeah," I dragged out. "What's your deal?"

"I can't believe you just went there. Like it was something normal, like going to the store to get toothpaste. You broke into the radio station!"

I scoffed. "What? You gonna arrest us?"

"No," he said and shook his head. He looked at me strangely. "So what did you find?"

"The answer," I said with pride. "We found the way to broadcast through the whole state. The broadcast goes out tomorrow night."

His mouth opened and he looked between us.

"Dang." He grinned. "You've got cojones, girl."

I burst out laughing at that. I forgot about the others in the van so I went to the porch and waved them to us. They came up cautiously, looking around as if Lighters were going to jump out of the bushes. I introduced everyone and we got right down to business. We told him everything we'd learned and what we were planning to do. Then he said, "Ok, that all sounds great. And I think you need to be the one to record the video."

"Sure," I said. "I can hold a camera like nobody's business."

"No," he laughed, "I mean be on the video." I stilled. "Your face is sweet and you're just so non-threatening. We need someone like you on the video that people will pay attention to and believe."

I gulped. "But what will I say?"

He stood. "You'll say what you would tell someone if they were sitting in this room and asking you why they should stop following the Lighters and start being human beings again."

I nodded, but I had no idea what to say. He pulled a small handheld video camera from the top of the refrigerator. He pulled a chair out and pushed me into it. I gripped the undersides with my fingers.

This was stupid. It was just a camera; there was no reason for me to be so crazy about it. Then I felt his hands on my shoulders. I leaned my head back to look at my Merrick. He smiled. He was beautiful even upside down. I smiled, too, and steeled myself that this was what I needed to do.

The little red light came on and Chesser pointed his finger at me in a You're On motion. I cleared my throat delicately and started the best way that I knew how.

"I know you don't know me…and I don't know you, but we share something in common; this planet. Or at least we did. Now we all share it with beings that don't belong here, and have tricked you all into thinking that they want to help you. The moon disappearing was the first sign. The weather being all messed up, the cell and television service going haywire, the animals…it's because of them. Think real hard and remember what it was like when they first started showing up. Remember our friends and family dying. Remember the way everything in our world is worse, not better, because of them. I've met these beings and their leader, who is no longer alive. They want you to believe these lies so they can keep controlling you. Just think for yourselves. These things can't be killed the usual way, you have to stake them with something all the way through. They are not human. Things are going to get bad and then worse, but we're here. There are so many of us out there who are waiting for you to join us. We'll fight side by side and take them all out. They call us rebels? We call ourselves human. We are the revolution. Join us and take back what was yours in the first place."

I stopped talking and waited. Merrick's hands rubbed a small caress on my neck and shoulders. I finally looked up. Chesser was nodding. "That was…good."

"Really?" I said softly, fear rearing its ugly head.

"Really." He pulled the tape out of the recorder and handed it to me. "You keep it, just in case. But we'll meet you at the radio station tomorrow night and get that baby loaded up and ready to go." He took a deep breath. "I can't believe we're doing this. I've thought about it for so long." He looked me straight in the eye before looking around and doing the same to everyone else. "You know what this means right? This will be war. There will be panic, there will be riots and fights and …we'll have to be ready to fight at any opportunity."

"I'm ready," I said and gripped Merrick's hand on my shoulder. "We're all ready."