Winter's Rising

by Mark Tufo

  Ashe’s faltering steps picked up as he got closer to the fence. He kept glancing over his shoulder, probably expecting one of the Brokers to be placing his rifle up by his shoulder in preparation to shoot.

  “Dammit…he’s going to go,” Moreland said.

  Ashe was within yards of the Pickets when he started running. Within a few strides he was at full speed and he was through! My heart leapt; for a split second I envied him as he’d escaped. Then his steps once again faltered, his right foot catching the back of his left leg. He went down face first, not even sticking his arms out to brace the fall. A cloud of dust rose from where he’d hit. The Brokers, even Moreland, who’d lost the bet, were laughing. I hated them for that. Ashe’s legs, no–his whole body was shaking violently. I couldn’t stand to look and I couldn’t turn away. His face was turned to us so even through the dirt I could see the heavy flow of blood gushing from his nose and mouth.

  “He made it farther than I figured he would,” Grouper said, then he turned toward us. “MOVE! You scabby lot!”

  It took a second for the shock of what had just transpired to reverberate through the crowd. There were some who cried out, others stood in silent disbelief, Most of us just turned and plodded on. There was nothing more that could be done for him.

  “They killed him, Winter. They knew what they were doing.” Cedar kept turning as we walked, keeping an eye on the Brokers. “What if we rushed them? They couldn’t stop us all.”

  “All is the key, Cedar. We’ll never get everyone to do it. Anyway, how would we let them know to act even if they would?”

  “I’ll just charge one of them and scream for help.”

  “They won’t help.”

  “They stand a better chance here and now than they do out there.”

  “You and I know that, but all that will happen is you’ll get yourself killed. Then I’ll be alone.”

  Cedar put her head down as we walked through a large gate, leaving any chance of a rebellion behind us. I didn’t realize what was happening in front of me until the group stopped moving; much like Cedar, my head had been down. I walked right into the boy in front of me. With a grunt I apologized.

  “Nice knowing you all!” Kinsley said. He held a bronzed metal box in his hand. He pressed a large black button in the center of it and a low, but constant beeping began. I took a moment to look around. We were enclosed in a large electronic pen. The Brokers leered at us from the other side–the Dystance side. We were out of our area, but still effectively trapped.

  “You all saw what happened to your friend, right?” Grouper asked. “So I strongly suggest you don’t stray too far.” And with that, they left.

  The kids closest to the Pickets began to push back so that any personal space we had claimed was reduced to the point where people were pressing in on us from all sides. Cedar shoved a few aside then pulled off her small backpack. She grabbed a book and began to read. Suddenly, she glanced at me.

  “Don’t look at me that way! What are they going to do, send me to war?”

  She had a point. There wasn’t much more they could do, even if they were here.

  The crowd was jostling around trying to find some comfort in the corral we found ourselves in.

  “I swear if one more person bumps into me I’m going to have a conniption!” Cedar bellowed.

  I smiled. I didn’t need to know what “conniption” meant; Cedar’s face was the only explanation I needed. The sun was arcing over the sky. Tallow had not once come to seek me out. I attributed that to the fact that moving through the throng would have been nearly impossible, though I knew if he’d really wanted to, he would have found a way. My disposition was souring rapidly. I was thirsty, getting hungry, and my feet were hurting from just standing here after hiking all day. Still, it was Tallow’s no-show that irked me the most. Even if he showed at this point, I don’t think I’d be able to stop myself from having one of Cedar’s conniptions.

  The sun was beginning to set. The majority of the kids had sat down or if they were daring enough, moved back towards the Pickets a little so they could actually lie down. I was beginning to think that this was how they would get rid of us. We’d starve, die of thirst, or if we were really desperate we’d see if we could get past the Pickets. It was so tempting; there was so much empty space between the towers. If it came down to it, I wondered how many would take that way out. It was far easier than dying of thirst. Ashe hadn’t suffered much but the memory of his twitching legs would haunt my dreams for as long as I lived, which right now didn’t seem like that big of a deal. I finally caught sight of Tallow. He had been staring at me from about twenty feet away, but when he saw me looking at him, he turned away.

  “There’s more bears in the woods,” Cedar said, looking up from her folded-leg seated position.

  “What does that even mean?” I asked, but she was already back reading her book. Some folks around her looked curiously at what she was holding until Cedar would growl or make an aggressive move toward them. I noted that of everyone here, she was the only one with a nice, empty cushion of space around her.

  I was getting close to sitting; the only thing keeping me from not doing so was Tallow. He hadn’t sat yet and somehow it felt like a defeat if I sat before him. I didn’t say it made any sense–I’m just saying that’s the way I felt. I was having that internal dialog when I heard a deep rumble that sounded like a hungry grizzly bear. Was this the bear in the woods Cedar was talking about?

  “What’s that?” Cedar asked, standing up.

  The rest followed suit quick enough, even those who had found a way to fall asleep. As one we were staring toward the approaching sound which was quickly drawing closer. I’d seen animals walk in and out of the Pickets; they were not a barrier to the animals. They seemed to only block humans. So if something big was coming this way, there wasn’t much we could do to stop it. I had a rising sense of dread. Had Brody been tricking us the entire time? Was there really no war? Were we just food for some prehistoric beast? I’d seen the books about dinosaurs, but I wasn’t sure if I believed in them or not, at least up until this point.

  “Get out of my way.” Cedar was pushing through a boy twice her size; he acquiesced without so much as a minor protest. “Come on, Winter.” She was struggling to get to the front. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what her rush was. “See the lights?”

  I could see something occasionally on the uneven terrain, and then it finally became steady. At first there were only two, then four, and soon I just stopped counting.

  “Trucks,” Cedar said triumphantly.

  “Trucks?” The word sounded funny in my mouth like I was saying it while I was chewing.

  “A mode of transportation.” Cedar handed me a pocket dictionary.

  “What are you doing with this?” I asked.

  “You have no idea how many words I come across in these books that I have no idea what they mean. I cried a little bit when I found a dictionary I could carry along with me.”

  “How many books do you have in that pack?” I asked.

  She looked at me sheepishly.

  “Let’s try this a different way, what else do you have in that pack?”

  She was again silent.

  “Cedar, we’re going to war. How much time do you think you’re going to have to read?”

  “However long it is, it won’t be enough.”

  Kids were “oohing and aahing,” some gasping, a lot of mumbling between groups. A decent number began backing up toward the Pickets and back towards home.

  I now knew why Grouper had killed Ashe. It wasn’t just a show of power or being a world-class jerk, it was a lesson. It was a demonstration of what would happen if we tried to leave. How many citizens of Dystance would be dead right now if not for that lesson? A dozen, two dozen? I know I wanted to make a run for it. If I had bolted for the Picket boundary, how many would have attempted it with me? There was a high-pitched squeal as the trucks came to a stop.

  “W
ow, I didn’t think they’d be that big.” Cedar was advancing while everyone else was either stationary or still trying to find room to back farther away.

  Armed men jumped out from the rear of the lead truck. They wore uniforms similar to the Brokers but they were green instead of blue. The men got into two lines about ten feet apart, starting at the enclosure gate and ending at the back of the lead truck. They had created a path for us to follow. Another man, this one absurdly tall, exited the front of the truck and came to the very edge of the fence.

  “Citizens of Dystance, The War is not going well in this sector. It is imperative that you get to the front lines as soon as possible, as Ferals have been spotted close by. We must do all that is necessary to preserve the lives of those still in your town.”

  The fear in the crowd went to the maximum level at just the mere mention of the word “Ferals.” I knew the Ferals were involved, and still, just to hear it confirmed made my knees knock together. I noticed that he did not mention the other areas we were at war with. Had Brody heard wrong? Or was this man purposefully hiding that information from us?

  “Do you think he really means ‘we’?” Cedar asked sarcastically.

  “I doubt it.”

  “If this war is so damned important why are we given swords and not those fancy rifles they’re holding?”

  “I think I know why books are no longer acceptable,” I said to Cedar. She looked at me to continue speaking. “People start to ask too many questions.”

  “We need to get all of you into these trucks! So come on,” he urged the citizens.

  Cedar and I were already up by the front. I walked close to the men on our left. They had helmets on with a dark glass that hid their features. I stared into more than one wondering what they were thinking behind that mask. Did they know what was going to happen to us? Did they care? Were any among them as sick of what was going on as I was? This was another problem with books–sure, they opened up your mind to ask a lot of questions, but the answers? They were left to you to divine on your own.

  Smoke issuing from the back of the truck was cloying, thick and foul. My eyes watered as I climbed into the back. Cedar followed, but she was entirely too busy looking around to be bothered by it. A heavy green cloth covered the back of the truck so there wasn’t a whole bunch to see. I was feeling slightly claustrophobic by the time they closed the tailgate. I’d counted; they’d put thirty of us in this truck. Tallow had almost made my heart stop when he didn’t crawl up and in until number twenty-nine. I would have thrown one of Cedar’s books at him if she didn’t have a death-grip on her bag.

  Before the truck pulled out, a helmeted man climbed in and told us there was to be no talking. Our truck started to move away and the truck behind us moved to where we had been parked so that it could be filled as well. We rocked side to side and back and forth as the truck went over the terrain. Again I began to weigh our chances. There was one armed man; his rifle was pointing up in the air and he was leaning back like he didn’t have a care in the world. How hard would it be to overpower him? We could jump out before anyone knew and we’d be free! Or better yet, kick him out, take the gun, take over the truck and we’d be able to go wherever we wanted!

  It was a fantasy, of course. I’d never be able to get through the other riders to get to him without him noticing. But why wasn’t Tallow doing anything? He was sitting directly across from the man. If he just reached out he could take the weapon. Ultimately I knew why; it was fear. Fear had us all rooted to our seats. Obviously there was the fear of being injured, or worse, killed, but maybe the biggest fear of them all was the fear of the unknown. What was even out there? It could be worse than Dystance ever was, and with the threat of Ferals running around, nobody wanted to be caught out in the open. Anyway, the men in green had yet to give us weapons; we’d be defenseless against a savage enemy.

  Another truck caught up to us after it filled up. Soon all of us going to war would be in these massive rolling machines heading to who knew where. Cedar was somehow reading, although I could barely see my fingers in front of my face. The ride took much longer than I’d expected and once I had resigned myself, I realized just how tired, hungry, and thirsty I was. I drifted off. In my dreams I was on a heavy, iron vessel crossing over an incredibly large body of water, the likes of which I’d never seen and could barely imagine even existed. I was standing on the deck looking out across the blue-green expanse, being gently rocked back and forth. It was somehow soothing, comforting, even.

  “Winter.” Cedar had nudged me. “We’re here.”

  And I think she was right. I could almost make out the top of a peak on some mysterious faraway land. A pinch on my arm woke me with a start.

  “What?” I was rubbing my arm.

  “We’re here.” Dystancians were jumping down off the back at the urging of the man that had been riding with us. There was yelling off to our side.

  “Hurry up!”

  “Get in line!”

  “Get your food and water!”

  “Here’s your sword–don’t poke yourself.” This was followed by laughter.

  The sun was coming up as I dropped down. People were scrambling about as the men in green yelled a variety of commands, taunts, and orders at them. Chaos was widespread as I watched those I’d lived around run back and forth trying to figure out where to go and how to get there. Some were crying as helmeted men shouted at them, some cowered, a few had even wet their pants. I stood there taking it all in. I was scared but I wasn’t panicked and that was the key. Brody had told us that to be scared was all right. Scared made you careful, but panicking made you blind to the dangers around you.

  “This is really a lot to take in, isn’t it?” I turned to see the tall man who had instructed us about our need to help in driving back the Ferals.

  I craned my neck to look up. “It is.”

  “This can be a very trying time for new initiates, but you seem strangely calm. How is that?” He was peering at me with eyes that were too small for his broad face.

  “I’m not the type that is easily upset,” I told him, hoping the banging of my heart in my chest didn’t reveal that lie for what it was.

  “Hmmm.” He just kept staring. I don’t even think he’d blinked once. “Interesting. You were taken from your home, placed into a machine you’ve never been in, told you were going to fight some of the fiercest opponents ever, and yet you seem rather casual about the whole thing. What’s your name?”

  I thought about not telling him, in fact, I wanted to defy him for every reason he’d just listed. Then I thought about lying, but those eyes–the way they were looking at me, trying to peer past and down deep into who I was, he’d know. He’d know I was lying and he’d kill me. I was certain of that. He’d drive me down into the ground without a second thought. “Winter,” I told him.

  “Winter? What a strange name. Follow me.” He turned and started walking, never bothering to look behind to see if I was following.

  I struggled to keep up with his stride. Cedar had caught up. “What are you doing?” she asked softly.

  “He told me to follow him. I am.”

  “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

  “Is it a better idea not to? How much of a choice do you think I have?”

  “I’ll stay with you.”

  We went a little farther until we came to another vehicle. This one was much smaller than what we’d ridden in. There was a metal shell over the passengers as opposed to canvas.

  He didn’t look overly surprised when he turned and Cedar was next to me. “My name is Major Alsenpater. There’s just something about you that reminds me of my daughter.”

  “Your daughter, sir?” I had to ask.

  Cedar gasped. Families were expressly forbidden, at least in Dystance.

  “Yes, the world is a complicated place these days. I’ve just told you a secret that could get me, and my entire family, killed.”

  “Why then? Why risk it? You don’t know us.”


  “Like I said, you remind me of my oldest and there are a lot of us that don’t agree with The War.”

  I couldn’t help but feel like I was either in a dream or being set-up. Was he waiting for me to say something bad about the Overseers?

  “You’re suspicious; I understand that. You don’t know me and have no reason to trust me. Hopefully what I am about to give you will go a long way to rectifying that.”

  I just wanted to leave, to be away from his piercing gaze.

  He reached into the back of the truck and pulled out what looked like two very small rifles. “Have you ever seen something like this?” he asked, keeping them low so only Cedar and I could see.

  “They’re revolvers,” she replied.

  The Major nodded in appreciation. “Good. I’m going to do the stripped down version of how to operate these. You press here to release the cylinder. When this is open, you put the bullets in, lead always facing outwards.” He smiled at his own joke. I was still debating on whether or not to trust him as there was no room for humor. “Close the cylinder back; you’ll hear it click into place. Then you’re ready to fire. This is the trigger,” he said, pointing to a small curved piece of metal. “This is a dual-action mechanism, meaning that pulling the trigger pulls the hammer back like this...and then it fires. Or you can manually pull the hammer back, but that makes the trigger much, much more easy to fire, so be careful that way. I don’t know if I’m helping you by giving you both these.”

  I grabbed mine tentatively. Cedar had snagged hers and was already packing it in her backpack. “Ammo?” she asked.

  The Major gave us each a box of ammunition. “There’re fifty rounds in each box. This is a .44 magnum; one round will be more than enough to kill a man. Use them wisely.”

  “I know that look, Winter. Don’t ask too many questions.”

  “You friend is wise.” The Major smiled, it was the first time I saw anything resembling warmth from his eyes. “I see the questions, Winter. I understand them, but I don’t have enough time to explain any of it. Suffice it to say, I want a better world for my family and I think you might play a role in that.”