by Shade Owens
“What’s going on?” said Alice Number Two, practically jogging to keep up with Zsasz’s long strides. Her eyes shot my way, and for a moment, she looked afraid.
“Who are you looking for?” she repeated.
At once, I felt awful for having lashed out at her. It was clear she wasn’t on their side; she looked afraid of who Zsasz might harm.
“Zsasz, what’s going on?” she continued.
“Those four,” Zsasz said, pointing a scarred finger at me, Sammy, Scorch, and Dibs.
Oh God… Someone had ratted me out. Now, Zsasz wanted my followers and me. I swung around to find Fran and Pam, but when I did, they were standing next to each other with overly slouched postures and terrified looks on their faces.
It couldn’t have been them.
After what had happened to their friends, no way would they have wished that upon anyone. Unless they were upset about how we’d stopped them from going after Zsasz. Was that it?
I didn’t have time to figure out what was going on. With a grip stronger than I’d remembered, Zsasz grabbed me by the back of the neck with one hand, and Sammy with the other. Rebel did the same to Scorch and Dibs, who both winced and raised their hands on either side of their faces.
“What’d we do?” Scorch said.
“What’s going on?” Sammy asked.
Zsasz shook her hard. “Keep your mouths shut.”
As we walked past Alice Number Two, she bit her bottom lip and shook her head—a look that said, I’m so sorry… I have no idea what’s going on.
Zsasz’s grip tightened as we moved toward Rainer’s large wooden gates. As we drew nearer, two women on either side waved their arms and the massive doors slowly swung open.
Fuck.
Were we about to be used as reproductive cattle? So many thoughts rushed through my mind, including the idea of turning around, snatching Zsasz’s holstered knife, and stabbing her in the neck. I’d likely die trying, and I’d definitely die if I succeeded, but no way would I ever allow anyone to use me for reproductive purposes… I would have preferred death.
“What’s going on?” I asked, my morning voice husky.
Instead of responding, Zsasz dug her fingers so hard on either side of my neck that a searing pain shot up into my skull. It didn’t take a genius to know that meant, Shut the hell up.
The moment we entered the gates, it was like traversing into another realm. The grass, covered in morning dew, was so vividly green it looked edible. The wooden cabins that were once lined up in front of the mountain remained intact, looking even more sturdy than before. One by one, pregnant women emerged from the cabins at the far back, and from the others came the Originals. I knew it was the Originals by their tired and aching postures.
Out from the other side of the mountain came a few armed Northers carrying bows, spears, battle sticks, and axes. Rubbing their eyes, they made their way toward the same training grounds that were there when I’d last passed through here.
What did they do? Train all day? Most likely.
Zsasz grumbled something and pushed us when we slowed down to look at everyone. “Keep it moving.”
When I tried to look at Sammy, Zsasz’s boot caught me in the ankle, right under my shackle, and I let out an involuntary whimper.
What I would give to kill her… to rid this world of such a monster.
Instead of fantasizing about the gruesome, inhumane ways of killing her, I inhaled a long breath and focused on moving one step at a time. I hated this feeling so much. It was worse than having a knife held to my throat. At least during such a circumstance, only two options existed—life or death. Now, however, things were uncertain. It was the unknown that scared me most of all… more than pain, more than violence, more than anything.
We were led up small wooden steps and into a hole in the mountain. The tunnel itself was much smaller than Murk’s quarter under the waterfall, and it smelled of salt, dirt, and damp stone. Ahead of us, two Northers led the way with torches in the air. They were both so tall that they had to slouch to keep moving.
No one dared to speak a word as our feet crushed the cavern stone beneath us. Instead, we continued deeper and deeper, making me want to projectile vomit the remains of my previous night’s supper.
I knew precisely where we were headed—Rainer’s lair.
CHAPTER 12
She was as frighteningly beautiful as I remembered—long black hair tied up high and held atop her head by a metal clasp, piercing emerald eyes outlined with black ashy powder, and a fur scarf wrapped around her neck and shoulders. As we entered, she stood up, a sly smirk making her look even more stunning.
It was easy to imagine how women followed her mindlessly—she stood with shoulders drawn back, chest heaved pridefully, and chin elevated so high she exuded absolute dominance.
“This is them?” she said, her voice calm and calculated.
Zsasz fastened two hands behind her back and nodded like a soldier.
“Thank you, lovely,” she said, sweeping past Zsasz and rubbing a heavily ringed finger along her scarred jaw.
Zsasz cast her eyes to the ground like a timid dog being praised for good behavior.
A deep grumble resonated from behind her, and only then did I notice the two men sitting on either side of Rainer’s chair. Their dark eyes lingered on me as I watched them. Their chests, completely bare and smooth, resembled Rainer’s complexion—a silky, tan olive. For bottoms, they wore skirtlike wraps made of stringy fabric that hung on either side of their thick, muscular legs.
How old were they? Nineteen? Twenty? They appeared to be my age.
Their light eyes were traced with the same charcoal powder as their mother’s—that, combined with their attire and fearless gazes, made them look like ancient Egyptian gods. Short dark hair sat atop their heads and blended with the hair on their faces; their beards ran down their jawlines and hung from their chins, something I hadn’t seen in a long time.
Out of nowhere, Rainer appeared in front of me, her penetrating gaze inspecting every inch of my scar. She then moved along to Scorch, Dibs, and Sammy, eyeing them from head to toe. What did she want with us? With my gaze still fixated on the two young men at the back, I swallowed hard.
At that moment, I was more afraid of them than I was of Rainer.
“I see you watching my sons,” Rainer said, her metallic plates clinging together as she turned to face me again. “Are you interested?”
Interested? What the hell was that supposed to mean? Did she honestly think we were such animals? That we, as females, became weak and filled with desire in the presence of males? I glanced sideways at Sammy, who didn’t make eye contact. She appeared as uncomfortable as I was.
Dibs, on the other hand, smirked, revealing a silver tooth where her canine one had once been.
How was any of this okay? A psychopath was standing in front of us, wielding a sword forged from a plane’s remains and basically asking us if we wanted to mate with her sons. What the hell did Dibs have to smile about?
Had it been that long for her?
Rainer arched an eyebrow at Dibs, who was now licking her lips. “Sorry… Too short.”
Dibs’s smirk evaporated in the blink of an eye. She scowled at Rainer, seemingly offended by the comment.
“I require a certain… body type,” she said, gliding her fingers down Dibs’s neck. Then, with her index finger, she pushed Dibs’s lip up to reveal her rotting teeth. “Your teeth indicate you have weak dental genes…”
“You mean like everyone else on this island?” Dibs said, Rainer’s finger still in her mouth.
Rainer pulled her hand away and turned around. “I haven’t brought you here for reproductive purposes. I already have women carrying children.”
I wanted to say, Then why the hell are we here? but decided it best to keep my mouth shut. I also made a point to keep my head bowed as low as possible. If Rainer recognized me, she’d pull that sword out of its holster and slice my head right off. Our las
t encounter was less than desirable and even though she’d allowed me to live, she’d only done so to protect her image as a merciful leader to her people.
I was willing to bet she didn’t give a damn about being merciful anymore—not after what had happened. Not after I’d taken more than half her city away from her.
Rainer turned to Zsasz and the others who’d brought us here and nodded as a way of saying, You’re dismissed.
Obviously, Rainer didn’t need much protection—she could take care of herself.
“Isaac,” she said, turning to the man sitting on the right.
He sat up straight, his pectoral muscles large and round, and waited to receive an order.
Without saying anything, she flicked her finger toward the corner of the room. Whatever it meant, Isaac understood it. Clasping both hands around his wooden chair’s armrests, he pulled himself up.
All of a sudden, I felt small.
His torso was long and perfectly defined with over a dozen abdominal muscles bulging out. His skin was so smooth-looking it glistened underneath the fire’s glow. He took a step forward, and I felt the vibrations of his weight under the pads of my feet.
As he turned around, I was taken aback by all the muscles bulging through the skin of his back. Were those even muscles, or deformations? I’d never seen so much of it in my life. What was she doing to these men? Having them train every hour of every day?
Slouching forward, he plucked a torch from one of the sconces and disappeared through a narrow passageway in the wall, the orange glow diminishing as he moved.
Everyone stood silent, waiting.
Finally, the orange glow returned and out came Isaac with a small woman at his side. When he stepped out, I realized he had her by the arm—it was like watching a father drag his disobedient daughter out of a birthday party. She hung there, barely responsive, her matted blond hair masking half her bloody face.
It was only when they broke out into the light of the room that I recognized her disfigured face.
Hawkins.
“Hawk—” Sammy started, but I nudged her in the ribs.
I wasn’t sure what Rainer was up to, but I was willing to bet she was going to use Hawkins against us, which meant it was important we didn’t react.
Rainer walked across the room with one hand behind her back and the other holding a round stone. At the same time, Isaac tied Hawkins’s hands behind her back and pushed her to the ground.
“Does this woman look familiar to you?” Rainer asked, bending forward and pulling Hawkins’s head up by the hair.
Hawkins coughed a glob of blood through two missing front teeth. Her nose, which was once average in size and only slightly crooked at the bridge, was now twice its size. It sat so crookedly it was as if someone had taken vise grips and pulled it sideways.
Sammy parted her lips to speak but must have sensed my preparedness to launch another elbow in her ribs. So we stood there silently, staring at Hawkins.
“I’m going to ask you one more time,” Rainer said, her voice frighteningly calm. “Do you know this woman?”
When we didn’t answer, Rainer’s grip tightened around the stone and her knuckle cracked. Why was she so angry? Was it cooperation she was after? And why ask us if we knew her? She knew we knew—why else bring us in here?
Just as she raised the stone above her head, prepared to smash it into Hawkins’s face, I said, “Yes, we do.”
CHAPTER 13
A loud snap carried throughout Rainer’s lair, and Hawkins bellowed in pain. Her head then fell forward and hung there as she sobbed, her finger bent sideways. She tried to reach for it, but Isaac kicked her arm away.
Smiling, Rainer turned to us. “This doesn’t have to be complicated.”
She raised the C-42 Transponder and shook it gently in the air. “One of you knows what this is, and you’re going to tell me.”
Hawkins’s pleading eyes rolled toward me. Dozens of cuts ran across her forehead, her cheeks, and her chin. Beneath both her eyes were swollen black circles, no doubt the result of her broken nose. If Rainer had brought us in here to learn about the transponder, obviously, Hawkins wasn’t spilling.
Rainer arched both eyebrows and turned to Isaac. Without any facial expression, he took a step forward, prepared to break another one of Hawkins’s fingers.
“Wait!” Scorch said, and Hawkins’s hateful eyes rolled toward her.
Slowly, Rainer turned, observing Scorch from her peripheral as if waiting to determine whether her information would be enough to stop her from ordering another break.
“It—it’s a communication device.”
Isaac stared at Rainer, waiting for her command. Then, without warning, she nodded, and Isaac moved in on Hawkins.
“No!” Hawkins shouted.
“What are you doing?” Sammy yelled. “Scorch just told you what it is!”
Rainer swung around so fast her long ponytail swept through the air. “I know it’s a fucking communication device, you idiots. You don’t think I already pulled that out of her? I received that information after I pulled out the second tooth.” Her lips curved upward, a sadistic glimmer in her eyes. Under Hawkins’s upper lip, two dark holes sat where her teeth had once been. Along the gumline was a white, pasty texture, likely infection spreading. “I want to know how it works,” Rainer continued. “Every time I press this damn button, nothing happens.”
She went ahead and pressed the button she was referring to. “Who is this?” she asked, lips touching the transponder’s speaker. Holding the transponder in her palm, she stared at the cavern’s orange ceiling, waiting.
Nothing happened.
How come? Was the man at the other end ordered to take commands only from Hawkins? Why wasn’t he speaking back? Was he no longer there? Had the communication been altered? Or, was it because we were standing inside a mountain? At this point, did that matter? We were miles and miles away from the outside world. It was highly unlikely that a bit of stone would get in the way of such an advanced piece of equipment.
Rainer growled and held the communication device above her head as if prepared to smash Hawkins in the face with it. But, likely realizing she didn’t want to break it, she inhaled a long breath with eyes closed. Soon, as if turning on a different personality, she smiled and started pacing across the room.
“Your beloved leader used this piece of equipment to get close to me.” She shook it gently in the air. “She thought that if I were intrigued enough, I’d drop my guard. What was it you promised me, Hawkins? More women? Unlimited resources? Advanced weaponry?”
I stared at Hawkins in disbelief. She was nothing but a liar. She’d promised me freedom, and now, she was promising Rainer precisely what she wanted. All that woman did was play on people’s desires. Would it have been so bad to let Rainer beat her to death? Despite my hatred for Hawkins, I hated Rainer more. And even though I despised Hawkins, I would have never wished for her to be tortured.
No one deserved that… Not even Rainer, who I considered my worst enemy. Death, maybe… But torture was unnecessary. It was cruel and barbaric.
Rainer scoffed and continued pacing across the room. “What was it you said? That you had a way to communicate with a man on the outside? Someone capable of providing supply drops? And then what did you do, Hawkins?”
Hawkins didn’t say anything. Instead, her eyes rolled toward us, almost as if pleading with us to keep our mouths shut. Did her women know the truth? What was the truth, anyway? Did she actually have the ability to control the man at the other end? Were perhaps supply drops truly a possibility?
I clenched my teeth.
No way.
Hawkins was a manipulative con artist. Something was up.
“Cat got your tongue, Hawk? Tell your women what you tried to do.”
Again, Hawkins kept quiet.
Suddenly, Rainer swung an open hand across Hawkins’s face and then plucked a small, handheld stick from the side of her thick weapon belt and brought it
close to Hawkins’s right eye. The tip of the stone was covered in a black, gooey substance, and the stone was fastened to the crooked handle by frayed rope.
The Ogre stick… The same Ogre stick Collins had accidentally sliced into Stash, the poison killing her instantly.
Although tempted to glare at Hawkins, I didn’t react. How could she have missed her mark? The whole reason we’d come here—the whole reason she’d dragged me along—was to carry out her plan to kill Rainer.
But she’d failed.
And now… what? We were left to deal with her mess? What did she expect from us? To protect her? To get her out of this?
“One of you knows how to operate this thing…” Rainer said, her piercing eyes rolling our way. She stiffened her back and rested her hand on the handle of her long, metallic sword hanging at her side. “And you’re going to tell me exactly how it works.”
CHAPTER 14
Dibs stared at the transponder in her palms as if looking at a dying mouse. She shook the gadget from side to side and attempted to pass it along to someone else. “I—I don’t know,” she said. “I know there’s a guy Hawk talks to. That’s all I know.”
“That’s all you know?” Rainer said, leaning so close into Dibs that Dibs took a step back. Rainer wasn’t overly tall, but the way she stared was enough to make anyone feel half her size.
Dibs nodded quickly, and Rainer pinched the bridge of her nose. In one unpredictable move, Rainer tore her sword out, and with both hands, and stabbed it upward through Dibs’s torso, right between her rib cage.
Scorch shouted and bolted toward Rainer, but Sammy threw an arm out to block her.
Dibs fell to her knees, dark blood pouring out from her mouth. When Rainer pulled the sword out, a disturbing ripping sound bounced off the cavern walls.
Dibs fell flat on her face, the cartilage of her nose crunching against the stone ground.
Rainer pulled her boot away in time to avoid Dib’s pooling blood from touching her and nodded at Isaac, ordering him to break another one of Hawkins’s fingers. The snap made me grimace, but it was Hawkins’s high-pitched scream that made my stomach sink.