by Holly Hook
“We wanted to make sure no Dwellers had taken you,” Weslie adds. “I looked all over town and couldn't find you.”
Ned glares right at us. Don't mention the secret chamber. If we do that, we're dead.
"We saw a cracked board in your house, and thought maybe they had dug under your floor and snatched you. Since, you know, you're the leader.”
Ned still has his arms crossed. He breathes out and paces in front of us.
"We're done," Weslie says. Antoine's eyes get huge as he studies her.
"Very interesting story," he says. "Our guards are not supposed to leave their posts unless it is an emergency. Not only did Weslie leave her post, but the two of you invaded my home. Why didn't you look a little harder for me before entering?”
"We did," Weslie says. "You weren't around. And it was an emergency. There's someone here who might be working with the Dwellers." I realize what she's doing. She's trying to build us some sympathy among these people. It's our only hope.
"I might have been in the storage cave," Ned says. I search his face for any trace of lies. Ned's not going to let us get away with this.
"I checked there," Weslie says.
Ned flinches a bit.
Maybe he is with the Dwellers after all.
Ned faces the two of us. "I am beginning to wonder about you, Elaine. And even you, Weslie. We've had...too many incidents with traitors getting in here over the past couple of years."
It's official. We're on trial. I tense.
"Wait a second," Antoine says. "That was one incident. And you found her tattoo pretty quickly. These girls don't have them.”
"But not quickly enough," Ned says. "That spy got into the walls. I will not have it happen again. I will not risk the lives of anyone in Wompitt. I care about all of you. All of you. I may not look like it, but I do."
I resist the temptation to laugh. He sure didn't care when Weslie and I had to go down into that tunnel.
I want to ask him where his secret tunnel goes right here in front of everyone, but my throat's dry and I'm lost for words. Everyone waits in silence. I sense all eyes on me. Are they angry? Fearful?
I am Garrett's stepdaughter, after all.
The one he wanted to bring into the Society before I stabbed him.
"I propose a simple test to check your innocence," Ned says. He steps away from us as if he's scared that we might try something. "You may very well be right in all of this and I may be wrong. But the two of you will be led out of town today. I will give you your supplies."
"What?" Weslie shouts. "Are we being banished?"
"In a way," Ned says. "It may not be permanent. It depends on how you perform out there."
"Perform?" I ask. "I already killed the Megapede. Isn't that helpful? Haven't we done a lot for Wompitt?"
"That means nothing. If you even did it, that is. The Megapede was the enemy of everyone, including the Dwellers. What the two of you are going to do is bring us back a Flamestone Society member. Dead. Complete with the tattoo. Until I see this happen, the two of you will remain outside the town walls. If you succeed, you will be let back in with honors. If not...you will never return alive."
I rise. "What? You expect us to go underground and murder someone and drag them back here?"
Ned doesn't flinch. He folds his arms. "You may cut off their arm and bring it back. The one with the tattoo, that is. That will be proof enough for me."
People mutter all around us. It's clear from the shock that no one here has witnessed, or done, anything like this before.
"If you're really a warrior like Jaden says you are, Elaine, you should be able to do this. A human is much easier to kill than a Megapede.”
I face Jaden. He's over on another log and he looks down at the dirt.
"But what about Weslie?" Antoine's walking up to Ned. "What about her? She has nothing to do with this at all. Why should she have to leave?" He faces me. "And Elaine only just got here. She's got to be only sixteen. You can't make her go out and kill someone. That's something the Flamestone Society would do."
“The Flamestone Society does worse than killing," Ned tells him. "They enslave. They break your spirit. They take your loved ones away from you. They rarely kill. People cost money and gems. Elaine and Weslie are going to perform their mission if they want to stay with us." Ned turns his gaze to us. "If they succeed, they will be rewarded very well."
"But it's been over a decade since we tried to do anything against the Flamestone Society!" Antoine's horrified. "Now you want to start sending people out? All they did was go into your house, looking for you! This is a death sentence, Ned." He stands in front of Weslie. “Send me out there with them.”
People stare at us. Even Baxter's watching. No one but Ned wants to see us go.
Why is he getting rid of us?
Is he throwing us out to Garrett? Meeting with him in secret? Maybe Garrett agreed to pay him tons of gems in exchange for me and this is his chance, the one he's been waiting for. My own screw up. My one mistake.
Or he's throwing us out because he knows we're onto him. He doesn't want us warning the people of Wompitt.
"Wait!" I shout. I have nothing to lose, do I? "What was that passage under your house, Ned?"
Ned clutches his fists and stares me down. Breathes in my face. His breath is terrible. "It is none of your business, Elaine. It is no one's business.” All around him, people mutter. The woman with the little boy shifts.
"Is it your passage out of town?"
People mutter again. I'm causing unrest. I'm disrupting years of tense peace here and shattering things.
"A man cannot have any privacy here," Ned says, more to himself than anyone. He waves to Baxter. "Get them some survival supplies. We will lead them to the wilderness after breakfast, and wish them well."
"This isn't fair," Jaden says, also getting in front of Ned.
"There is no such thing as fair out here," Ned tells him. His voice rises to a shout. "If things were fair, we wouldn't all be trapped here, with no way to get home. We wouldn't have been foster kids with cruel parents. We wouldn't have been sold."
An awful silence falls. The cooks bring out another slab of meat. The little girl passes out plates again. She's not smiling.
My stomach rumbles. I had better eat while I have the chance.
I'm going back out there. Back out to danger and hunger and fear. To the dark.
Weslie tenses next to me. She grabs my hand.
I did this to her.
Banished her. This doesn't make any sense. Ned shouldn't be doling out such a horrible punishment. And now we'll have to kill to get back into the gates. We'll have to hack off some Flamestone member's arm.
What if I finish the job with Garrett? And take his arm back to Ned? What will they think of me then?
Even though my phone still lies out in the field, along with its connection to the outside world and Melissa's cruel words, I don't want her to be right about me.
Antoine advances on Ned again. "Let me out there with them. Please."
"You are not going anywhere." Ned glowers at us. "Eat." He walks back towards his house. He must be getting our stuff from his secret chamber and he doesn't want everyone to see him doing so.
“You can't do this!” Antoine follows Ned, protesting the entire time. Jaden joins him. They're begging for us. Begging for our lives.
"I want my stuff!" I shout. I'm not leaving without the backpack that saved my life out there. The axe that hit the Megapede in the right place. “All of it!”
Weslie taps me on the shoulder. "We had better eat."
She's right. I'm not sure when we'll see food again.
After we finish eating, Ned returns with my pack and axe and motions for us to rise. "Come on. Both of you. Meet us at the gates and don't try anything strange.” Ned walks away.
Whether or not Ned hears me is a mystery. He disappears around a house, trying to escape as if Jaden and Antoine are flies buzzing around his head. Will they change
his mind? They're the best chance we have.
I look at Weslie as we walk to the front gates. She has no words for me.
What are we supposed to do out there?
How much help will I be to her? Or her, to me?
We stop at the front. Weslie's shaking. "Where are they?" she asks.
She means Jaden and Antoine. I haven't seen them since they followed Ned.
No one really leaves the main meeting area. People sit on logs, watching. Waiting. The little kid asks his mother something, but she picks him up and walks back to her cabin.
Jaden returns. "Wes, Elaine," he says. "I'm going out with you."
“So Ned's decision hasn't changed,” I say.
"No. You shouldn't have to," she says. "You need to stay here and keep an eye on Ned."
"Ned? Why?” His eyes get big. “You think he's behind that tunnel out there?”
“We know he is,” I say.
Weslie hugs him. "These people need you. You don't understand what's going on."
Ned returns from between the houses again He still carries my backpack. My axe. The Megapede jaw's back in the pocket. "Back away," he barks at Jaden. "These girls need to pass their test, and pass it alone. I do not want anyone interfering."
"But no one has ever managed to kill a Flamestone Society member!" Jaden says.
“Where's Antoine?” Weslie asks.
“I have a couple of guards watching him,” Ned tells her. “He's too valuable to let go.”
Weslie deflates. She'd been hoping he would come out with us. So had I. Antoine would know how to keep us alive out there.
“You idiot," Jaden says. "You know they're not going to make it."
Ned faces him. He tightens his grip on my axe. "So be it," he says. “You will join them out there.”
Jaden's mouth falls open. "So now you're kicking out everyone who doesn't agree with you? Is this a cult or something?"
But Ned turns away. "Lower the gate, please!”
My stomach turns. Two guards have scrambled up to the gate. Ropes and logs groan as it lowers, revealing the green field and the grazing cows. Beyond it, rocky hills rise up and beyond those I know is the dense forest where I faced the Megapede.
Weslie breathes out. Ned waves a few more people over.
"Have you gone insane?" Jaden yells at him. "Have you gone nuts? I understand you're still ticked off about your brother not coming back, but don't make these girls do what you've always dreamed of but are too afraid to!"
Ned growls.
Grabs Jaden by the front of his leather shirt.
"Out," he growls. "Out."
Ned tosses Jaden away. He staggers and regains his footing.
My legs feel weak. I'm leaving the bed behind. The cabin. The roof over my head and the safety.
Why did I have to get us into this mess?
Pit's there, right beside me. He licks my hand as I step out of town. He's going to share this with me. There will be four of us. That's better than one. We can work together, at least.
Can we bring Ned what he wants?
We walk across the field in silence. Ned walks right behind me, still holding the axe. He won't let me have it until we're far from the gates. Or does he plan to get us out of sight and then kill us? Four men walk behind him, silent. Baxter even shoots us looks of sympathy. I don't know what's going on with him, he seems to say. I don't get it.
Every muscle in my body tenses. I'm ready to run. I keep checking behind me but Ned's staying about ten feet back. Even Jaden has gone quiet. He rubs his neck where his shirt dug into him.
After several minutes. we reach the foot of the rocky hills. Now that it's daylight, I can see the narrow trail snaking up through the boulders. It's the same one I used the night before. The same one that Garrett chased me down. Where is Garrett now? If he's injured, he's back on Earth getting medical help. I wonder how he's going to explain the injury to my mother. If he tells her the truth, the Flamestone in his tattoo will consume him.
I might present Ned his arm.
Ned crosses his arms and looks up over the hill. "Nothing less than the arm of a Flamestone member will earn you entry back into Wompitt," he says, solemn. "If you fail, don't even try to come back.”
The men behind him shift.
No one likes Ned's idea, that's for sure. No one except for Ned himself.
It's a trap. He knows we can't do it.
And he knows he needs to get all the suspicion off of him.
Ned backs away with my axe, then throws it on the ground. It lands at my feet, blade dusty from sitting down in Ned's basement.
"Why were you going through my stuff?" I ask him.
Ned's silent for a bit. "I needed to see if you had any...connections.”
“I'm glad you found my homework entertaining.” I'm glad I never took Garrett's last name. Glad that my mother made me keep my original one.
Weslie looks at me with a look of horror. I don't know what it means, but I'll ask her later.
Pit remains by my side. He rubs against me. It'll be okay, he says. We'll make it out here. We already have. At least I know something about this world now and Pit can help us hunt. He will.
Ned tosses my backpack of Flamestone on the ground. It lands beside the axe. "I was going through your notebook. Privacy is not the way to live in Wompitt. I had to make sure you weren't one of them. But as I could not find enough evidence to prove your innocence--"
“I get it,” I say. What do I have to lose?
Ned glares. "The three of you are to remain at the base of this hill until we are inside the gates," he says. "Do not dare come any closer to Wompitt than this until you have met your goal. Goodbye, and good luck."
And he and the four other men walk away.
Jaden eyes the axe that lies on the ground. "What a dictator," he says. "What a monster. What a cult leader.” He makes quotes with his fingers. “If you're not completely loyal to me, you have to go."
"Tell me about it," I say. “You've made it out here before. You know, when you went looking for your mom?”
“I have,” he says. His voice is heavy and dark.
Weslie stands there, hatred burning in her eyes. I expect her to direct it at me, but instead, she directs it at Ned. He gets smaller as he and the men walk across the field. I wonder if she's going to grab the axe and rush them, but there's no way we could ever overtake the four of them. Ned brought out his strongest guys for a reason.
"I hate him," she says. "I can't believe I was ever even marginally happy living there. Maybe we are better off out here. We can start our own settlement. But first we need Antoine.”
"We'll get him," Jaden says. He walks over and pets Pit. “We can head back there once it's dark and get him out. Then, we figure out how to survive out here. I've been in Selwyn my whole life. I've never even seen Earth.”
"Wouldn't you like to?" I ask.
This might be the opportunity. Staying in Wompitt is out now. Our only option now is to find our way back home.
Jaden looks at me. "Of course I would. It's what I've been banking on my whole life. That, and getting my mother back."
I swallow. "Then we need to do what Ned wants us to. We find the Flamestone Society again. Only, we don't bring him an arm. That's disgusting. But we will bring out some of the workers."
"I agree," Weslie says. "I want to go back home. It's the only way I'm going to keep my sanity."
I look over the field at Wompitt. The purple of its walls is faded now. It needs a new coat. Smoke from the bonfire rises and merges with the clear air around it. People sit on the logs around the fire, waiting for Ned to return to assign duties. They're specks from here. Unsuspecting. Unaware of the potential monster in their midst.
"They don't know," I say.
"About what?" Jaden asks.
A horrible thought hits me. "What if Ned wanted us out of Wompitt because he knows we're onto him?"
Weslie looks at me with big eyes. "I think you're right."
"I think it's true," I say. "That's the real reason he threw us out. What if he's getting ready to sell everyone in Wompitt to the Flamestone Society? Maybe they have his brother or something and he's the trade.”
We don't know the whole story here, but it's getting clearer. Ned and his guards re-enter the town and the gates come back up. Stay out, it means. But I can't stop watching all the small people gathered around the fire, going on with their lives. I've been spoiled in there, getting two meals a day. I still don't know what we're going to eat for dinner.
Weslie pulls at my sleeve. “What if he's going to sell them soon? Like tonight?"
"But the fire," Jaden says. "It should keep the Dwellers from snatching them all. If the people of the town just stand around the fire, they should be okay from the Dwellers themselves."
"But the Flamestone Society might have guns," I say. "The fire won't do any good against that."
Weslie hugs herself. "I don't want to remember the Dwellers, please. I passed out last time. What if they have some way to put out the fire and take them?"
We're wasting time. The sun peeks over the trees. I look closer. There are five specks near the gate now. It's Ned and his guards. They climb onto the catwalk and gaze out at us. They're waiting for us to move. To go on our impossible mission and never return.
"I think we should move," I say. "Make them think that we're leaving. Let's walk out of sight."
Pit stands there like he's not sure what to do. He nudges Jaden away from the town. Up the hill. We need to leave, he's saying. Now.
The three of us turn and walk.
"Well, I hope we're making them happy," Weslie says. "But what about Antoine?"
There's so much worry in her voice that I have no choice but to conclude something.
"Oh." I walk up the hill and pebbles slip under my feet. I find the trail, the same one I ran down nights ago with Pit and the Dwellers on my heels. “You two are together.”
“We have been for four months now. What if Ned's going to sell Antoine to the Dwellers?”
"Is that blood?" Jaden asks. He's pointing.
My stomach lurches and I think of Garrett.
He's gone. But there's a stain on a boulder just feet off the trail. Flies dart around on it and take off again. It's reddish. It's blood, all right.