The Scourge

by Jennifer A. Nielsen

  He rolled up the sleeve of his shirt, revealing a long, thin red line running up his forearm. "They call it the scar of health. Everyone who seems to have recovered from the Scourge has one of these. We think it's the sign the disease has left the body."

  "So hide your forearm and go home," I said.

  "A few months ago, there was a group of people who believed they had healed," he said. "They snuck aboard a supply boat returning to Keldan and went ashore. Within a month, every one of them was turned in, most of them by their own families. They were brought back here along with many of the people who had helped to hide them. Everyone who claimed to have been healed was tested again, and they still had the Scourge. Then each escapee was sent straight to the infirmary. None of them have been seen since that day."

  "What happened to them?" Weevil asked.

  "I don't know." Jonas's eyes darkened. "But I will never go to the infirmary. Sending them there was an obvious punishment for escaping. The wardens told the people here that even if we think we are healed, the Scourge can still be passed to others."

  "So it's true," I mumbled. "There is no cure." My heart sank at the thought of it.

  "Even if there is, you will never be healed enough for anyone in Keldan to accept it," Jonas said. "We don't dare go back now. Maybe you'll feel better for a while, but you can always start feeling sick again, especially if you push yourself too hard before you've fully recovered. And even when you're sure it's over for you, after seeing how awful this place is, would you return to your family if there were even the slightest risk of them being forced to come here next?"

  I shook my head and so did Weevil. At least we now had a place to stay that was a thousand times better than the old prison. And I felt reasonably healthy and had every hope of continuing to feel better. Yet all of that was not enough. We would never get any farther away from the Colony than in these caves. This time we were prisoners of our own choosing.

  Although the mattresses were far more comfortable than even my mattress at home and the cave felt warm and safe, I didn't sleep well that night.

  I hadn't told Weevil of the warden's plans for me the next day, nor would I tell him. There was no point in it. If he knew, he would likely try to convince me to remain in hiding, like Jonas. But if I failed to show up for work duty, the wardens would surely come looking for me. I could not be the reason they found the caves.

  We were awakened early and told to thread ourselves back into the Colony slowly, and from various directions so that we did not stand out to the wardens.

  Weevil was close beside me as we walked toward the Colony. "Are you feeling sick?" he asked.

  "No."

  "Then what's wrong? I can always tell, you know."

  "You can't always tell," I lied. "I'm only ... nervous. They're assigning me to a different job today, and I wonder what it might be."

  He smiled, always the optimist. "Maybe you'll get to gather herbs with me."

  That was hardly dangerous enough for the wardens. Not unless the requested herbs were only found on the thinnest outer limb of a brittle tree branch overlooking the deepest part of the sea, and could only be gathered during a violent storm. If that were the case, then yes, I might be assigned to gather herbs.

  Weevil shrugged. "You're strong, Ani. You can do any of the jobs here. Just remember to do exactly what they say and you'll be fine."

  No, the very opposite was true. Whatever they told me to do would be designed to end my life. I would only survive the day if I did my job without obeying their instructions. Which, ironically, would get me into even greater trouble with the wardens. There was no way to win.

  The morning after his father had been taken away last year, Weevil had described their situation with a similar conclusion. "What was he supposed to do?" Weevil had said. "If my father refused to go on the governor's exploration, she would have him imprisoned for denying service to his country. So we'd lose him. If he is successful on the governor's exploration, she will demand even more explorations from him. So we'll lose him. And if he is not successful, then he'll die. And we'll lose him. There is no choice for my father that ends with him back at home with my family. No way for him to win."

  Only weeks after his father's ship left for the northern seas, word came of the storm they'd encountered. That news had opened up a wound inside Weevil's heart that I doubted would ever fully heal. I would not deepen the wound by telling him about today, when the wardens would make things nearly as impossible for me. Except I intended to survive the day's challenge.

  We easily blended in with the other Colonists, and for the first time, I got to go through the food lines. I took as much food as I was allowed, hard-boiled eggs, and bread, and a small sugar apple. Weevil took a lot too. Of course he did. He had shared half of everything with me since coming here, and had missed his supper last night to follow me to the barracks. He was already looking thinner, which worried me. I was finally beginning to feel better. Maybe he was starting to feel sick, and hadn't told me yet. When that time came, I would do everything I could for him.

  If I was still around in another week or two. If I was still around at the end of this day.

  When I was nearly finished with the breakfast, Warden Gossel put his hand on my shoulder. "You'll come with me now for work duty."

  I faked a smile at Weevil, and then stood. "Yes, sir."

  Weevil's brow furrowed. He knew something serious was happening. For that reason, I didn't dare glance back at him. Every time he looked at me, he saw more than I wished he could.

  We didn't have far to go, and once we rounded the fence, it quickly became obvious what they had planned for me: the treadmill.

  Although I had intended not to make any argument today, I immediately stopped cold on the ground. "Only grown men work the treadmill," I said.

  "Grown men and one young girl who thinks the rules do not apply to her."

  "My legs are shorter. I can't climb fast enough to keep up with the others."

  He cocked his head, as if that admission was some sort of victory for him. "Get on your knees, then. Get on your knees and beg me for mercy. Tell me you will do whatever is asked of you. Then tell me how I can make all of you proud River People fall to their knees when they start coming here. Tell me all of that, Ani, and you will avoid the treadmill."

  Silence fell between us while he waited to see what I would do next. I wasn't sure what it'd be, but I knew for a fact that I wouldn't get on my knees and beg for mercy from him.

  So instead, I squared my shoulders and stuck out my chin. "You're in luck. When I woke up this morning, I felt like climbing a mountain today. I'll do that on your treadmill."

  His eyes narrowed. That wasn't the response he wanted. Then he waved me forward. Only two men were on the treadmill so far, though I figured more would come throughout the day. From what I had seen while in the cage, the men rotated through in fifteen-minute shifts. Climb for fifteen minutes, then rest for fifteen. I could do this. My only challenge was exactly as I had warned the warden. The steps of the treadmill were not made for legs as short as mine. They were built for a man's much longer legs. I didn't know if I could scale the distance in time for the treadmill to rotate down again, but since I had no other choice, it was a fine day to find out.

  I took a deep breath, and with the warden behind me, I climbed onto the treadmill. The men on either side of me looked curious about why a girl my age had joined them, but sweat was already pouring down their faces. It was going to be a warm day.

  "Happy morning!" I said good-naturedly.

  They grunted.

  I could do these steps. It required a full stretch of my legs, but it reminded me of the many trees I had climbed back home, of how far I'd sometimes had to reach to get to the next safe branch. Granted, I'd had time then to calculate the distance, but the work itself was the same. I could do this.

  A few minutes later, three more men came to the treadmill. The two on either side of me got off for the rotation, so I start
ed to get off too.

  "Not you, grub," Warden Gossel said. "You keep going."

  I pointed to the one man who had not rotated in. "He's done nothing yet!"

  "You told me you wanted to climb a mountain today. You've only just started. I hope you don't slip from exhaustion and fall under the wheel."

  "Not today." I returned to work at the treadmill, my strength powered by raw stubbornness and a desire to get revenge on the warden. But how? He sat there watching us, smugly resting in the shade, sipping a drink that probably contained special Scourge medicine that supposedly didn't exist and enjoying the cheerful chirps of the birds overhead.

  Ah, the music of the birds. Here was the revenge, wasn't it?

  I glanced back at him. "If it's all right with you, whenever I'm climbing a mountain, I like to sing."

  He shrugged. "Go ahead. I've heard the River People have songs that do magic."

  No, we didn't.

  With an apology to the men on either side of me, I opened my mouth and began screeching. It was a rousing tune my people often sang together as we worked our fields. I applied the best of my talents to it now. From my very first note, Gossel's head looked as if it might split apart.

  "Stop that at once!" he said.

  "I can't," I said. "This is the only way I know how to climb."

  The men on either side of me had seemed offended at first by my singing, as all people were. But seeing how much it irritated the warden, they began joining in.

  Obviously, these men were only faking their bad singing. None of them seemed to be as gifted as I naturally was in producing sounds that should only belong to the undead. But they should not blame themselves for lacking my talents. I knew they were trying the best they could.

  And it was working. Warden Gossel finally stood and yelled, "You know how much grain must be ground up today. None of you will stop until it's finished. I'll check on you at suppertime!"

  The instant he was out of sight, all of us left the treadmill and took a rest. One of the men resting beside me was Clement Rust, from the caves.

  "He could have claimed your singing was a sign of sickness and dragged you away to the infirmary," he warned.

  But I shook my head. "I overheard the wardens talking. They don't take anyone to the infirmary until they believe they've been broken. I don't know what happens to the people once they're inside, but they don't want anyone who fights back. The best chance we have to stay alive is to continually fight against them."

  "They won't tolerate rebellion," another man said, taking a sip from his medicine as he rested. "The best thing we can do is finish the grinding and stay out of their way."

  "Staying out of their way isn't the problem," I said. "We have to keep the wardens out of our way as we heal."

  "There is no healing here!" a third man said. "I go to bed each night in so much pain that I can barely climb the prison stairs. It's only worse the morning after. The wardens don't have to control us. The Scourge does it for them."

  I pointed to the river, an easy distance away. "If we widened that just a little, we could drag this treadmill into the water. We'd need a different way to collect the flour after it's been ground up, but we wouldn't have to climb anymore."

  The men looked at one another with eyes that lit up at my suggestion. Then Clement said, "I know a way to collect the flour."

  "I know where there's a good shovel," another man said. "We can do this. The wardens aren't here to stop us, thanks to the grub."

  "No, not 'the grub,' " Clement said. "Her name is Ani."

  The riverbank was softer than I'd expected, and while we worked to widen it, Clement built a collection tray from broken treadmill steps that had been tossed against the fence. The men sang as we worked and asked me to join in every time someone spotted a warden getting too close. As far as the wardens knew, we were still behind the fence, climbing.

  Within only an hour, we were ready to begin moving the heavy treadmill toward the river. Although I was much smaller than the men, I wanted to do my part, so I found a place at the back where I could help to push.

  The work was slow and hard--much harder than it had been to simply climb the treadmill that morning. But if we got it into the water, no one would ever have to climb again.

  I strained every muscle I had in the process. Though we moved forward by only finger widths at a time, the treadmill was sliding across the dry ground. We had emptied it of all grain and even carried the grinding stone separately, yet I was still amazed at the weight of this great wooden beast.

  By the time we slid it into the water, I felt the Scourge rise again inside me. Pain rippled throughout my body, and I felt dizzier than ever before. Jonas had warned me of working too hard before I'd fully recovered.

  However, the water immediately started rotating the wheel for us. The men cheered--softly, of course, as nobody wanted the wardens to hear--and began loading it with grain to see if it really would grind.

  I could only sit while they did, letting my feet cool in the river water. Although the wardens had intended for my life to end in the mill today, either from exhaustion or from me slipping beneath its heavy wheel, that would not happen. The mill would never harm anyone again, in fact, for nobody needed to climb it anymore. And yet the warden might still get his wish for me. I truly felt awful.

  The men let me rest while I told them the most entertaining stories of Weevil's and my adventures in the river country, which they enjoyed but probably didn't believe. When I tired of that, one man made a paste for me to eat from the fresh-ground flour and a little water. It had no taste and stuck unmercifully to the roof of my mouth, but it was something to eat and I was grateful for it.

  Since the water never slowed, the work of grinding went much faster than it had before. By the time Warden Gossel returned for us that evening, all of us were rested and the grain was entirely ground up.

  His face went into shades of purple before he pointed a shaking finger at me. "Was this your idea, grub?"

  I stood, though I still felt weak. "Yes, sir. As you can see, it's a much better--"

  "It's not better."

  "It is! The water is doing the work, and it goes faster than we ever could."

  "Pull it out of the water, now."

  "We can't," Clement said. "It was nearly impossible to carry the treadmill in, but with the weight of the water, it'll never come out of the river again. It's not a treadmill any longer, warden. It's a water mill, and that's the way it'll stay."

  "How dare you refuse my orders?"

  "Your orders were to see that the grain was ground," he replied. "We obeyed you perfectly."

  Another man stepped forward. "If you want to punish Clement for refusing to carry that back onto dry ground, then you'll have to punish all of us."

  Warden Gossel stomped over to me and grabbed my arm. "I only need to punish the grub. She gave you the idea. She is the one who refuses to cooperate."

  But the men surrounded the warden, closing in around him and me. If it was their intention to intimidate Gossel and make him believe his life was in danger, it worked. As one of the larger men not-so-accidentally bumped into Gossel, even I was nervous for him. Clement took my other arm and drew me away from the warden, then said, "She's one of us, sir, a climber. You can try punishing the lot of us, but you will not take this girl."

  As the men edged closer, Warden Gossel straightened his back and pushed his way out of the group. "I've just decided that the mill can remain where it is. You'll receive new job assignments soon. However, for your rebellion, none of you will eat at supper tonight. And tomorrow when you come, twice the amount of grain will be waiting for you."

  As soon as he left, I turned and hugged Clement. Last night he had been skeptical about whether to accept me at the caves, and now he had defended my life. Tears were in his eyes when he released me. "You make me think of my daughter," he said. "I've been here for almost a month and had just about given up. You remind me that I want to live, for her."

>   I wanted my life back too. Coming to the caves, to see all the people who claimed to be getting better, had given me hope.

  Yet at the same time, I had checked my forearm at least a hundred times that day for any sign of the thin red line. Nothing of the sort had appeared, and the way I felt now, I knew it wouldn't. I was as sick as before, though I hoped this flare-up of pain was due to my exhaustion from a day of such hard work rather than a worsening of the disease.

  Clement brought me back into the Colony square, where we were immediately met by Weevil. He put an arm around me, and before I could say anything, he mumbled, "I heard what you did. That was a good kind of trouble, Ani. I'm proud of you."

  "Everything hurts," I said.

  "I know. Come on."

  "Ani, wait!" Della ran up to us, then paused to catch her breath. She looked worse than I felt, but this wasn't only because of the Scourge. The light in her eyes had dimmed too.

  Weevil tilted his head. "What's wrong?"

  "We had newcomers to the Colony this afternoon," she said, nodding up toward the tent. "More Scourge victims."

  I hardly dared to ask. "Any River People?"

  "I don't think so. But one of the arrivals was someone I knew a little. He sold meat to Jonas each week. He had a message for us, Ani."

  My brow furrowed. "For us?"

  "Before you left Keldan, did you ask my father to contact your family and tell them where you were?"

  "Yes, though I'm sure your father wouldn't have--"

  "He did, immediately after you left. That very night, our fathers formed a plan to come and rescue us from this island. Your father had access to one of the River People's boats. My father had money for some weapons in case a fight broke out."

  My spirits lifted. "They're coming for us?"

  She only shook her head. "The governor discovered their plan and sent wardens after them. They've already been sentenced for violating Scourge laws. She says she has to make an example of them, or the Scourge will spread across Keldan."

  "They've been arrested?" I said, louder than I should have, and Weevil shushed me.

  "No," she said, drawing in a sharp breath to hold her emotions together. "But they're in hiding, and it's only a matter of time before they're found and their sentence carried out. They won't be able to come get us. I'm sorry, Ani. That hope is gone."