by Shade Owens
“Our food supply is already being cut,” Trim said. “We’re already going to destroy ourselves from the inside out if we keep being intercepted during our hunts.”
“Is this the first attack during a hunt?” Murk asked.
Trim nodded.
“Then we can’t assume they’ll attack at every hunt. Stay away from the western shoreline until further notice. There’s fish in some of the fresh water around here.”
No one countered her argument, and all that could be heard was the waterfall’s heavy drop at the entrance of the cavern.
Murk slowly stood and met Trim’s side. “How many Battlewomen do we have?”
Trim stiffened up with both hands on either side of her body. “Twenty, at most.”
Murk scratched her chin. “And how many Archers?”
“Two. Three, if you include Brone,” Trim said.
“I want six Archers at all times on our territory,” Murk ordered.
“And where do you propose we find these Archers?” Trim asked.
“I’ll let you handle that,” Murk said. “No need for another Assessment. It’ll only worry the women.” Trim responded with a quick nod.
“From now on,” Murk announced, her voice loudening, “no hunt is to be executed without proper caution, and no hunt is to be mentioned to anyone other than myself.” She crossed both arms over her chest and parted her legs at shoulder’s width. “If we’re strategic about this, we’ll never have to attack the Northers on their turf. Let them come to us… We’ll be ready for them.”
“And when they attack?” Trim asked.
Murk formed a slow-crushing fist below her chin. “Destroy them.”
* * *
“How many Northers you think they got?” Biggie asked, rushing to Trim’s side.
Trim walked briskly away from the waterfall with dozens of eyes following her. It was apparent trouble was lurking by the way Trim moved, and the women of the Village could sense it.
“I don’t know...” she said. “Rainer took half our village when she left, and who knows how many drops she’s taken from us.”
“So equal or greater than our population,” Fisher said matter-of-factly.
Trim didn’t respond.
“Yeah,” Flander added, “but what you’re all forgettin’ is that Rainer don’t do civilization. She never believed in it. Which means all of ’er people are trained in battle. That’s what she recruits ’em for.”
Rocket hopped sideways, keeping up with Trim’s pace. “This would be so much easier if we could burn their fucking homes to the ground.”
“Agreed,” Biggie said.
“Enough,” Trim said. “You’re all dismissed.” Everyone stopped following her.
“Give ’er time,” Flander said. “She needs ’er space.”
Fisher’s eyebrows came together as she watched her leader exit the Working Grounds. “The last thing any of us needs right now is fucking space. We need to stick together.”
“Yeah, well, that ship’s sailed,” Biggie said. She used her forearm to wipe sweat away from her chin then turned around and made her way toward the water.
“I’m with Biggie,” Rocket said. “Need me some water time.”
Fisher released a sigh—a growl, almost—and walked in the opposite direction. I stood awkwardly by Flander’s side, pondering whether or not to also walk away.
“Looks like ya got the day off, kid.” Flander stretched her back, cracked her fingers, then said, “I’m goin’ to take a nap.”
I caught Savia’s eyes—the woman who’d been supposed to train me as Needlewoman. She was sitting underneath the shadow of a tree with a dry piece of leather in one hand and carved wood in the other. A pile of arrows lay beside her, and I could tell by the solemn look in her eyes that she knew exactly what was coming. I tried to smile, but my lips didn’t move. So instead, I left the Working Grounds and made my way toward the Village.
I’d been about to enter my tent, when I heard Ellie’s voice, “Hey, right on time.”
I glanced back.
“I’m doing my rounds,” she said. “Here.” She offered a closed fist, so I placed an open palm underneath it and caught five pearls.
“Payday,” she said.
“Oh, um… thanks,” I said.
She stared at me for a moment, her almond eyes narrowing. “You okay? Looks like you’ve had a long day.”
A long day was an understatement. I’d nearly been killed out on the western shoreline, and although grateful that I’d survived the attack, there was a part of me that wished the Norther who’d fired the arrow hadn’t missed. I couldn’t get Sunny’s swollen, lifeless face out of my mind or the way she’d just dangled above us, poisoning the air with the rancid smell of decay. How was anyone supposed to live with such a memory? The image of Sunny being dragged away by a masked Ogre still haunted me, and now, I’d have a new memory to accompany it.
I felt queasy.
“Brone?”
I shook my head and forced a smile. “I’m okay.”
“Come here,” she said, pulling me in close.
I stiffened, feeling entirely ill-prepared for affection.
“Relax,” she said. “You looked like you needed a hug.”
Although uncomfortable, I enjoyed the sensation of her warm body against mine. It soothed me. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been touched, with the exclusion of Rocket, Biggie, or Flander slapping me across the shoulder or on the back.
She slowly pulled away and smiled, her plush pink lips curving on either side. “Better?” I nodded.
“Now use those pearls wisely,” she said.
I opened my hand and stared down at the silky, multicolored pearls, suddenly remembering that only two of these actually belonged to me. I remembered the yellow serpentine mask hovering inches away from my face, and the last thing I wanted was to see that mask again. I’d do as instructed and drop three pearls near the Cliff.
Ellie reached up and stroked my cheek. “You’ll be all right.”
I didn’t understand how she saw right through me, being that I’d always been the type to hide my emotions from the outside world, but she did. And I wished this were true—that everything would be all right. I wished that I could rewind my sentence and steer clear of Trim and her crew. I didn’t want to be an Archer. I wasn’t prepared to go to war. I wasn’t prepared for any of this.
Maybe—just maybe—this inevitable war could be delayed just long enough for me to finish out my sentence. Attacks were unavoidable, but it wasn’t unrealistic of me to hope for long gaps in between each attack. I didn’t want to be a part of the merciless bloodshed. I just wanted to go home.
“Ellie?” I asked.
Her eyes lit up, and she waited in silence.
“How long do you have left to serve?”
I felt as though I’d offended her. The happy-go-lucky way about her faded, and what remained was unease and masked depression.
“Why’re you asking me that?” she asked.
I shrugged. “I just… I’m just wondering… How do you know when your time is up? I mean, do you count the days? Does the government keep track of it? Where do you get picked up? When will I know when my sentence is up?”
And she just stared at me as would a child being explained the actual meaning of death for the first time. She parted her lips to speak, but nothing came out. I’d been about to ask her to answer me, but something told me I already knew the answer.
I felt a sickening nausea overwhelm me. No one was coming back for me—not in three years, not ever.
EPISODE 3
PROLOGUE
The gritty black-inked headlines kept flashing in my mind like an old black-and-white movie clip on a repeat cycle.
“New Sentencing System to Reduce Tax Dollars.”
“The People Have Spoken, and They Don’t Want Murderers Living in Their Country.”
“New Approach to Criminal Law—What Do You Think?”
How was eve
ryone so blind? How had I been so ignorant? How had I truly believed that a new system had been put in place—one where criminals convicted of murder were dropped off on a remote island, forced to serve time in the most wearing of ways, only to be picked up by helicopter at the end of their sentence and returned to civilization?
The government didn’t keep track of their abandoned convicts—they didn’t care. We were nothing but waste left to rot in an oversized garbage dump chosen by Mr. Milas, the Attorney General of the Department of Justice.
I’d been living on Kormace Island for about a month, having already become a Hunter—one of the most sought-after positions among Murk’s people—and having also made several enemies, but none of that mattered now.
I cracked my eyes open. I was lying in my tent, flat on my stomach, the side of my face pressed into the dirt floor.
I wanted to die.
The government wasn’t coming back for me. I’d never see my family or friends again. What was the point? Why try to survive when I had nothing left to live for? I was about to close my eyes again, wanting nothing more than to melt into the dirt and selfishly disappear from the face of the Earth, when I heard it.
I snatched my bow from the top leaf of my bed and slipped out of my tent. Women rushed north of the Village toward the entryway, forming a disorderly herd. I couldn’t see what was happening, but I heard it: the sound of pure agony—that of a woman being slowly tortured to the point she no doubt wished for death’s release.
I noticed something else… someone else. A young woman with a long auburn-brown braid dangling over her shoulder and a beige, cotton-like dress came blasting out of one of the wooden cabins at the back of the Village. I knew precisely what this cabin was and who this woman was, even though I’d never actually laid eyes on her before. The cabin was our Hospital, or infirmary if you will, and the woman—Navi, our Medic.
As the crowd made its way toward the Hospital, I caught only glimpses of the woman whose hoarse voice echoed across every nearby tent. Her hands danced in all directions, and she screamed as women covered in splattered blood attempted to hold her down. Navi entered the crowd, but within moments, she ran back toward her Hospital and the crowd hurried to follow her.
I caught one last glimpse of the horrific scene before the woman was rushed to Navi’s care: a face contorted with bared teeth, skin full of open gashes and puncture wounds, and black blood-stained material wrapped around the woman’s leg, or at least the bit that was left of it.
CHAPTER 1
“Fresh out of the turkey’s ass,” Sumi said, slamming a spoonful of yellow mush into my bowl.
“I don’t think it comes out of—” I tried, but she dumped another spoonful of colorful bits and pieces over my eggs, and I realized these were fruit. It wasn’t every day that fruit was served with breakfast, so I kept my mouth shut.
“Extra sugar this morning,” she said.
I forced a smile, but all she did was give me a dirty look. What was her problem, anyway? Ever since I’d landed on Kormace, Sumi had given me a hard time. She wasn’t much to look at—a short, Asian woman with flat eyebrows and lips the color of her face. Her narrow black eyes often found their way to my feet before scanning me from top to bottom in the most conspicuous of ways. These eyes remained glued to me as I walked to my usual spot—a tree log positioned farthest away from the center fire, which was basically Sumi’s oven.
I stared at the back cabin, wondering what had happened. I’d heard gossip floating around, but the story changed depending on who was delivering it. There was a trail of blood in the yellow grass leading all the way to the Hospital. I wondered if we’d ever get rain again. If we did, would it clean the blood from the grass blades?
“Funny finding you here,” I heard.
The sound of her voice immediately comforted me. It was Ellie.
I glanced up at her with a smirk. “What a coincidence.”
She smiled big and whipped her long dark brown hair behind her back. I couldn’t help but return the smile. Nearly every morning, Ellie found her way to me at the log. It had become routine, our morning chats. She often vented about how frustrating it was to serve as the Village’s bank—the woman responsible for currency, which was nothing more than shiny pearls—and how every woman believed she was entitled to more than the standard five-pearls-per-week salary.
Then she’d go off asking me about hunting and about being the Village’s primary Archer. I was still unable to think of myself as the primary Archer. I’d only obtained this title because Eagle, our previous Archer, was maimed during an attack by the Northers, and due to my perfect vision, I was handed the position. It wasn’t fair, really. There were other women far more capable of shooting an arrow. My only advantage was that I could actually see my target.
I questioned why Pin and Hamu hadn’t been selected as Hunters. The Asian twins were skilled with their bows, but their tasks were limited to protecting the Village and its people. Maybe Murk had seen something in me—something of value.
“Oh, speaking of money,” Ellie said, “here.” She dropped my hard-earned pearls into the palm of my hand.
“We’re friends, aren’t we?” I asked, smiling sideways at her.
She laughed. “Don’t even. You get five, just like everybody else.”
I slipped the pearls into the pouch on my waist. Ellie didn’t know it, but receiving my weekly pay was a negative experience for me. Not because I didn’t enjoy being able to purchase useful items from the Merchant tents, but because I’d been bullied into an involuntary contract that forced me to hand over three pearls to two women whose identities I had yet to uncover. I’d considered telling Ellie, but I didn’t want to involve her by putting her life at risk. There was no telling how dangerous these women were.
I even contemplated telling Trim, the leader of the Hunters, but I feared that being a rat may get me killed. I’d already been threatened to keep my mouth shut about the whole thing.
“So what happened?” I asked, gazing out toward the Hospital.
There were still a few women lingering around it, most likely the woman’s friends who hoped to receive an update on her condition.
“Which version do you wanna hear?” Ellie leaned in so close I noticed the color of her butterfly tattoo—blue and yellow.
“The real one,” I said.
“Leopard,” she said simply.
I swallowed hard. “Were you there?”
“I helped bandage her leg. It wasn’t pretty. She lost her calf, her knee, and part of her thigh.” She shook her head. “You could see everything… the bone… Thankfully one of the entrance Guards ran toward the Cliff to help her when they heard her screaming.”
I felt queasy. The Cliff. She’d been attacked all for having to use the “bathroom,” so to speak. I’d never imagined the Cliff as a dangerous spot. It was so close to the Village walls. I stared at the grass, suddenly feeling nothing but despair again.
I would be exposed to the risk of excruciating pain every day for the rest of my life.
What a shitty life.
“Hey, you okay?” Ellie asked.
I tried to smile to hide what I was thinking, but I couldn’t. I wanted to, especially for Ellie, because she’d been the one to tell me the truth about Kormace Island—about the sentencing duration being nothing more than a lie—and I knew she felt guilty.
She wrapped a hand around the back of my neck and squeezed gently. It felt so warm. “I’m truly sorry,” she said. “Just hang in there, okay? We need you.”
Just hang in there, I thought. That’s exactly what I was doing—hanging by a thread. How much longer was I supposed to cope with this? How could I accept the fact that I was never going home? That my life was over?
* * *
“Good morning.” Murk grinned knowingly down at me, and I felt like a child who’d been caught sleeping on a school day.
I quickly wiped the drool from the side of my chin and sat upright. I didn’t understand why the
leader of our people—our Chief—was just standing there, in my tent. Murk didn’t go to people. People went to Murk.
“It’s okay. Stay where you are.” She moved in closer and sat on the ground.
I fidgeted, feeling exposed and vulnerable. Murk was the equivalent of a big boss, and I was the employee who never spoke and consistently came to work on time. So why was my boss here? I assumed her visit was to discuss my emotional absenteeism—to explain to me that if I didn’t pick myself up, I’d be fired and thrown into the jungle to fend for myself.
“I’m sorry to hear you’ve learned the truth so early in your sentence,” she said, her bright eyes glued to mine.
I hated to hear her say it—to hear that my sentence was, in fact, a death sentence. I remembered the look on Ellie’s face when I confronted her about the duration of my term. She’d just stood, her lip twitching on one side as if debating the formulation of another lie.
I quickly looked away. Murk wasn’t the type of person you were able to maintain eye contact with for any length of time. There was an indescribable intensity to her—an intimidation factor that was useful given her rank in our society. My wandering eyes caught the sharp-toothed necklace she’d worn since the day I met her.
She followed my eyes and pinched one of the canine teeth between her thumb and index fingers. “You like?”
I nodded.
“First predator kill,” she said and leaned backward against the palms of her hands. “Believe it or not, I used to be a Hunter back in the day.”
This caught my attention. Murk, our Chief, had once been one of us? It was hard to envision, but it only made sense that the leader of our people had made her way to the top, as would the CEO of a multimillion-dollar industry—unless, of course, it was handed down by blood. This, I believe, is why I respected Murk as our leader. She’d earned her place.
“How long ago was that?” I asked.
She cocked a brow. “Long ago.”