The Feral Sentence- Complete Box Set

by Shade Owens

  This was precisely what it felt like and it was worse than being hunted by the Northers because the Ogres were absolute savages.

  They truly were demons.

  We moved past what appeared to be an altar, atop which sat a decomposing severed head, its brown eyes wide open and its colorless lips parted only enough to reveal bloody gums. In front of it, several teeth lay in a perfectly straight row. I couldn’t tell whether they’d fallen out or if they’d been torn out.

  I regripped my arrow and held the elastic back tight enough to release a quick shot if necessary.

  What kind of sick piece of shit would ever do something like this?

  What was the purpose of this? Was it religion? Fanatics? Pure barbarism? How on Earth had I ever convinced myself that Ogres deserved the same treatment as any other human being? They deserved to be killed—all of them.

  You’re a killer, Brone.

  I shook these thoughts away. I wasn’t a killer. I was a survivor. And I was also a protector. I clenched my teeth at the thought of women screaming while being tortured. I couldn’t even imagine the pain they’d endured—the fear they’d experienced—before being brutally murdered.

  Had they even been murdered, or had they been cut up and strung to die a slow, painful death, their minds still intact?

  My jaw clicked and I released my clench.

  The more I thought about these victims, the more I hoped an Ogre would come out.

  Come out and face me.

  I’ll shoot an arrow right through your fucking eye.

  Goddamn piece of fucking shit.

  I inhaled a deep breath and rushed passed the altar. On the ground, several dozen seashells formed a hollow circle, which most probably meant something to the Ogres. It was positioned right underneath the severed head, allowing the victim’s blood to spill off the altar and directly at the center of it.

  Without thinking, I kicked my foot right through the shells and they flew straight into the air. Two of them made a clanking noise against the wooden altar, and the others landed softly on the jungle floor.

  I felt Coin’s stare, but I didn’t look at her.

  Then, I did something stupid.

  I angrily forced the weight of my body against the altar, knocking it down to the ground. The severed head rolled, causing some of the women to scream and hop away from it.

  “The fuck are you doin’?” Coin asked.

  “What’s it look like?” I said, my voice pure gravel.

  “Sick pieces of shit,” Arenas said, obviously taking my side.

  “Yeah!” a woman rasped from behind us.

  I continued through a narrow opening, beneath a thick sheet of hanging leaves, and led the women away from the site as quickly as possible. It felt darker here than it had only minutes ago, probably because of the density of the trees overhead.

  Carvings were dug into every other trunk, almost as if forming a welcoming path to the Ogre’s territory. Was this their exit, or their entrance?

  I ground my teeth and stared straight ahead, praying for one to lunge out in front of me.

  Was I being reckless? Maybe. But I didn’t care. I was so angry, all I wanted was blood. And I knew this feeling—I knew that if I wasn’t careful, I’d lose control, but I couldn’t even bring myself to care about that either.

  I wanted to lose control.

  I wanted to slaughter the person responsible for this.

  I tore a giant spider web from my path and stomped over a protruding, green moss tree root.

  “Brone!” someone hissed so sharply that I couldn’t tell who it had come from.

  I turned around to find Coin’s menacing scowl aimed right at me.

  “What?” I said through gritted teeth.

  Though the others wouldn’t admit it—Johnson, Arenas, and Hammer—I could tell by the look of horror on their faces that they also thought I needed to calm down.

  Seeing the look on Hammer’s face had the most impact of all. Over the last few months, I’d come to learn that Hammer was probably the most levelheaded of us all. It was almost as if a switch had been flipped ever since the day I’d beaten her face in.

  I had nearly killed her, after all. Had she had a near-death experience?

  This new Hammer wasn’t the Hammer I’d met in the Village.

  She wasn’t scowling at me like the others were. Her face was much softer, and if I’d had to guess what she was thinking, it would have been, Are you okay in there, Brone?

  No, I wasn’t okay, but it also wasn’t okay for me to risk the lives of these women by attracting danger. I had no idea how many Ogres there truly were.

  I inhaled a long breath through my nostrils and let it out through my mouth, an unfamiliar calm immediately washing over me.

  “Yo, man,” Arenas said, “she looked like the Hulk there for a second, no?” She wiggled a finger in my direction with a cheesy grin stretching the bottom half of her face. Her wiggling finger made its way in the direction of the leaves overhead, and her smile grew even bigger. “’Specially with all them leaves up there. Givin’ off a green tint and shit.”

  It almost looked like she was about to burst out laughing when Coin jabbed an elbow in her ribs.

  “Aye! Chica! The fuck was that—”

  Johnson, suddenly looking like a tired mother of two disobedient twins, smacked her hands on her waist, and gave them both the stink eye—the look that said, Shut up, or else—and Arenas went quiet.

  I rolled my eyes and kept moving until we reached a tree with what appeared to be human hair attached to its decaying trunk. It sat so still, almost as if it had been placed there over a hundred years ago.

  Beyond it, the narrow path continued as far as I could see, its trail disappearing at a bend up ahead. The last thing I wanted to do, despite my wanting to encounter an Ogre only minutes ago, was lead these women directly toward danger.

  I couldn’t be selfish about this.

  Where did this path go? Was there some sort of Ogre nest up ahead? Had we passed through their sacrificial land, only to be venturing toward their home? This was the longest stretch of Ogre territory I’d ever seen.

  Though I much preferred to walk through a predefined path, I knew it was a stupid idea to keep using it. It had obviously been made by someone, just as our path from the Village to the Working Grounds had been created through years and years of usage.

  So instead of moving past the tree with the hair, I turned right and ducked beneath a fallen tree branch. Its cracked tip was black, making me wonder if it had been struck by lightning.

  “Great,” I heard Arenas in the background, ducking. “We got a clear path, but we’re goin’ where it’s dark.”

  “Shut up,” Johnson hissed.

  “You both shut up,” Coin joined in, and she moved beneath the branch behind me.

  “Oh, ow, aye,” I heard.

  I turned around to spot Jack attempting to crawl underneath the branch to follow me. It was too high up to climb over, but not high enough to walk under—only crawl. Around it were large boulders and tree trunks so close together that there was no other option but to get on one’s hands and knees.

  She bent over low to the ground and took a step, then yelped out again and restraightened her posture.

  “Go!” someone behind her snarled.

  “What’s going on?” Coin said, moving toward the condensed crowd forming on the other side of the branch.

  “It’s mah back,” Jack said, wincing. “Isn’t what it used to be, ya know?”

  Jack didn’t look all that old. If I’d had to guess, I would have placed her in her midforties. It wasn’t like she was a senior. What had she done? Injured herself? If so, why the hell had she asked to come along? I’d specifically told them all that I didn’t need anyone slowing us down.

  I must have been glaring at her because the grimace on her face disappeared. She quickly dropped to her knees, careful not to curve her back, then let herself fall flat on her face like a sausage wiener.
It was the strangest thing I’d ever seen, and if I hadn’t been so preoccupied with wanting to reach the Cove, I’d have probably laughed.

  Then, she rolled.

  Arenas snorted behind me and slapped a hand over her mouth.

  The moment Jack reached my side of the branch, Coin grabbed her by the arms and helped her up. Several gooey leaves stuck to her knees, but she flicked them away.

  She gave me a rotten smile, threw both arms in the air, and said, “I’m okay!” but tucked her chin into her neck when she realized she was yelling again.

  I turned away from her and stepped through a wall of leaves, fearfully hoping that I was leading these women in the right direction.

  CHAPTER 9

  “So it’s true?” Arenas finally asked.

  It was like she’d been holding the question in ever since we’d found the dead bodies. She’d probably kept her mouth shut to keep the vomit from coming out. That hadn’t worked for everyone, though.

  I was glad we were out from underneath that bloody scene. I’d learned to cope with dead bodies, but mutilated ones, that was a different story. And by the amount of bile that had come out of the women, they weren’t all that used to it either.

  “The whole ‘Ogre’ thing,” Arenas pressed, forming air quotes beside her dark-skinned face.

  “Ogre?” came Jack’s voice. With her fingers, she formed a hollow zero and placed it over her eyes, obviously trying to portray a one-eyed creature. She then let out a stupid laugh and stomped the weight of her body from one leg to the other.

  What was she doing? She looked like a complete idiot.

  “That’s actually a misconception,” Hammer said, matter-of-factly. The playful smile on Jack’s face vanished, and she dropped the whole one-eyed look and stared at Hammer. “It’s folklore,” Hammer continued, “and all it means is a man-eating giant.”

  Jack, who seemed unimpressed with Hammer’s amount of knowledge, made her eyelids go flat.

  “Gotta admit,” Coin chimed in, “Hammer’s right. Plenty of two-eyed ogres out there. Sounds to me like you’re generalizin’, girl.”

  Jack rolled her eyes like a kid who’d been told to stop making funny faces because they weren’t funny.

  I glared at all of them, but Johnson must have been the first to notice. In a sharp whisper, she said, “We aren’t safe yet, so shut up, all of you.”

  The markings on the trees became inconsistent until finally, I couldn’t see any more. I slid my arrow back into my quiver and fastened my bow around my back.

  “We may be off Ogre territory,” I said, turning to the women behind me, “but we’re still on Kormace Island. Stay focused.”

  The jungle’s wildlife seemed to amplify as the women became quiet. Leaves rustled overhead, and I glanced up in time to see a capuchin monkey hopping from one branch to another. The air was hot and sticky as it usually was toward early afternoon. Fortunately, the greenery around us was far too dense for the sun to sink its rays into our skin.

  Why hadn’t we seen an Ogre, anyway?

  Were they hiding?

  Did they only massacre women who were defenseless?

  Cowards.

  And who were those women we’d seen hanging from above? Our own? I couldn’t imagine they were, being that we were still pretty far from the Village. Murk wasn’t the type to let women venture far away from the Village.

  Murk, I thought, remembering how her defeated body leaned forward, her arms strapped by the wrists. If only I’d had the courage to fight Zsasz—to kill her where she stood—I could have rescued Murk. But then, rationality kicked in, and I realized that even if I’d miraculously won a fight against Zsasz, there had been countless Northers outside, in front of the mountain.

  How was Murk doing, anyway? Had she been punished for our escape? I hadn’t been able to save her, but I’d get her out, one way or another.

  “Hold up,” someone suddenly said, pulling me out of my daze.

  She didn’t look very old—late thirties, if that. But the way she walked made me believe she was in her late sixties. Her clothes fit loosely over her undefined body, and it looked like at any minute, she would collapse. She clutched a sun-damaged hand over her heart and winced.

  “What’s up?” asked one of the women beside her, looking both concerned and agitated at the fact that we’d stopped walking.

  But the woman didn’t answer. Instead, she inhaled a deep breath through reddening nostrils and let it out through her mouth.

  “I—” she tried. “I need a break.”

  I wanted to sympathize, I honestly did. But I didn’t have an ounce of empathy in me—not when my friends’ lives were at risk, and we were on a time-sensitive mission to reach them.

  Several eyes turned my way; the women were waiting for me to say something. And judging by everyone’s sweaty skin and heavy breathing, they weren’t opposed to the idea of a break.

  “I’m not stopping anyone from taking a break,” I said, “but I’m not stopping.”

  The air around us went even quieter, and for a moment, it sounded like even the insects had stopped humming.

  Without another word, I turned around and continued forcing my way through giant leaves and intertwined vines. Women muttered behind me, and I was certain they thought I was a bitch, but I didn’t care—I couldn’t care.

  This wasn’t about them, nor was it about me. What if sitting for ten minutes prevented me from saving my friends? What if Zsasz reached the Cove ten minutes before us, only to massacre not only my friends, by countless innocent women?

  We would rest when we finally reached safety.

  “Girl, it wouldn’t change anything to let the women rest for five minutes,” came Coin’s voice. “They’re exhausted.”

  “So am I,” I said sharply. I let out another long breath before turning to Coin, a little calmer this time. “I was supposed to be doing this on my own, Coin. I appreciate that everyone wants to help—I do. And I couldn’t be more thankful to have you and the gang here with me. But I already told everyone that if they’re coming, they can’t slow me down.”

  She gave me a gentle nod, her way of saying, Yeah, you’re right, but you’re also wrong.

  Maybe I was.

  Had I been alone right then, an Ogre or a predator might have killed me. Or, I could have reached the Cove, only to then be attacked by Zsasz and her crew. The truth was, I didn’t stand a chance alone, just as Trim wouldn’t have survived the jungle had she gone hunting without us, her Hunters. Kormace Island was about working together, and I’d been so caught up with wanting to save my friends that I’d begun to view everyone else as either an obstacle or a means to getting what I wanted.

  These women weren’t objects, and the last thing I wanted was to end up becoming a bitter leader like Rainer—someone who abused her people for her own gain.

  I stopped walking so abruptly that Arenas’s face hit me flat in the shoulder blades.

  “Watch it!” she shouted, but her eyes went big when I swung around. She let out a nervous laugh and raised two hands on either side of her face. “My fault, chica, my fault.”

  Was she scared of me? My gaze shifted toward the women. Some of them were quite a way back, no doubt trying to decide whether taking a break was worth having to run to catch up. Some of them looked back at me wrinkling their brows, others biting their lips while most avoided eye contact altogether.

  Were they all scared of me? I felt like a complete asshole. This wasn’t what I’d wanted.

  “Sorry, guys,” I said, and this seemed to catch their interest. “I’m stressed out about getting to my friends before anyone gets hurt. Let’s rest for a bit, okay? I know some of you are really hurting, and it’s completely understandable.”

  At first, no one responded. It was almost as if they thought that any second, I would let out a maniacal laugh and say, “Just kidding! Keep moving, bitches.”

  So instead of waiting for the women to rest, I pulled my bow off my back and rested the weigh
t of my body against a slanted tree trunk. Something tickled the top of my head, and I swatted hard at it, only to feel a bunch of leaves dance through my fingers.

  The women slowly followed suit, finding something to either lean on or sit on.

  How far were we, anyway? A few hours away? All I knew, based on the sun’s location, was that I was headed in the right direction. Whether we’d find the Cove or not was an entirely different story.

  But I had to hope.

  I had to hold on to the possibility of seeing Ellie again—of holding her in my arms and feeling her soft face against mine. Then, I thought of Fisher, Biggie, Rocket, and Flander.

  God, I missed them so much. It felt like I’d been torn away from my family.

  I couldn’t sit here anymore. We’d rested enough.

  With a swing of my upper body, I threw myself up onto my feet.

  “All right, time to keep moving.”

  “What?” someone blurted. “But we only just—”

  “You heard the boss,” came Jack’s voice. She marched ahead of me with her chin held high, arms swinging on either side of her body. “Let’s keep moving, ladies.”

  A few sighs and groans spread through the jungle around us, but it was something else that caught my attention—another sound. It was subtle, almost undetectable, but it was a sound so distinct that I couldn’t ignore it.

  Jack, now at the front of the line, had stopped moving. She held her open palms up in the air, almost as if to say, I didn’t do it.

  What was it, anyways?

  Suddenly, everything felt like it was moving in slow motion.

  I turned toward Coin, who I knew had the best ears out of all of us, and caught the look of horror on her face before it happened.

  Leaves instantly bunched together, and the sound of fast-moving rope filled the air. It sounded like a zip line coming loose, or like someone descending quickly with a rappel—high pitched and rapidly approaching.