by David Webb
After a pause, Nicholas spoke up. “She’s right. There’s no way he could have made it onto the train by the Hub. That has to be one of the most guarded places in the Web. Surely someone would have noticed a nearly dead guy bleeding from a few gunshot wounds.”
Another pause.
“I can’t explain that, Nicholas. I watched the tunnels cave in myself. I suppose it’s possible that there’s another way into the caves, but I don’t know it, and I’m not sure anyone else could give you a better answer, except for Salvador himself if he were still alive. But it doesn’t matter. Even if the tunnel were open, it’s too close to the train station to get inside unseen, thanks to the Silvers. I believe that no matter which route you take, you still need to deal with them.”
“Are you suggesting we fight?” Roland asked, his pitch escalating. “There’s no way we can take them on.”
“He’s right,” Aniya said. “We wouldn’t stand a chance.”
Gareth smiled. “Your parents were not much older than you when they fought in the Uprising, you know. But no, I’m suggesting no such thing. I say we present them with bait far enough away, and I’m sure you’ll have a much easier time leaving the Hole. They can’t be everywhere at once.”
“A diversion,” Aniya said.
“Exactly, young lady. However, I’m not quite sure how to go about this. We have no way of knowing how they will react to a diversion unless you are close enough to see their light, and if you are that close, any diversion you create will be much less effective.”
Aniya thought for a moment.
“I think I might know a way.”
11
Aniya knelt on the floor in the back room, fidgeting as she watched the candlelight flicker.
Eight hours.
Gareth had deemed it unwise to make their move in the middle of the day. Even though the blackout provided constant cover, the Silvers would be far less active during the night, and they needed all the help they could get.
Nicholas had told Gareth about the transmission he had recorded, and Aniya relayed her conversation with William, that the lights weren’t coming back on thanks to him. Gareth simply frowned and excused himself to mull over this information.
Now, Aniya sat and stared into the candlelight, ignoring the snores from the boys beside her. A plate of bread lay beside her, untouched. The buzz of customers and music had died away some time ago, leaving her in silence with nothing but her thoughts for company.
She had tried to rest for the busy night ahead, but every time she closed her eyes, she saw her parents lying in a pool of blood, their eyes open but empty. It was all she could do to keep from imagining her body lying next to theirs if she had been at home as well.
Aniya’s heart sank as she realized that even though she was safe for now, there was no more future for her, at least not in the way she had imagined. Whatever reason the Lightbringers had for killing her parents, she was sure it could be used against her as well. She would be running from them for the rest of her life, however long that would be.
After dreaming of a life free of the oppressive Lightbringers, no longer subject to their rules and system, she finally got her wish, but at a terrible cost.
And then there was William. If the power was indeed gone for good, surely the Lightbringers had a fate far worse than death planned for him. Who could hope to bring him back alive?
“Wake up.”
Gareth stepped into the back room and nudged Roland with his boot. “I hope you got some rest. I’m not sure when it’ll be safe enough to close your eyes again.”
Aniya couldn’t tell which she doubted more, the thought of safety or that it would be enough to make her feel comfortable sleeping.
“It’s a good thing I thought to cook our food over fire today, the old-fashioned way. I wouldn’t have any for you otherwise.”
As Roland rubbed his eyes and shook Nicholas, Gareth laid three open rucksacks on the bar and began stuffing food and drink inside.
“It’s late enough that you should be able to carry out your plan with little trouble. I would come with you, but if they notice I’m not inside my shack even a minute after curfew, they’ll come looking for me. And given my association with your parents and participation in the Uprising, they would turn their manhunt for a seventeen-year-old girl into a sector-wide lockdown if they aren’t planning to already.
“It’s imperative that you leave Holendast. I’m not sure when it will be safe for you to return, but I’d imagine it wouldn’t be for at least a week. But, Aniya, tantamount to your safety is the recovery of your brother. His act of treason will no doubt mean his death, but I doubt the Lightbringers went to this much trouble to punish a municipal worker. He must have some knowledge, know some secret that threatens their image or status.”
Nicholas nodded. “That’s what I thought. And if he knows something, we can use it against them.”
“Exactly,” Gareth said. “And we’ve waited a long time for an opportunity like this. It should not be ignored.”
Aniya scoffed. “What do you want from us? It’s not like we can walk into the Hub and take him back.”
“Roland and Nicholas, you’ll find, are more than capable in many situations, and I’ve known you long enough to feel confident that you can rise to any occasion. But no, I don’t recommend you march into the Hub by yourself. You’ll find help if you look hard enough.” Gareth turned to Roland. “Look for the Mark of Salvador.”
“The Scourge?” Aniya asked.
Gareth nodded. “The grip of the Lightbringers has weakened over the years as unrest and discontent grow stronger. Many Sympathetics are no longer neutral parties. There has been talk of revolution. Your brother may have unwittingly served as the catalyst for a second uprising.”
Aniya shook her head. “I just want my brother back. I couldn’t care less about your revolution and your wars. You lost your family in the Uprising. Why would you want to fight another battle you can’t win?”
“You no longer have a family either, and it wasn’t because of any war,” Gareth said coolly. “We have a chance and the responsibility to stop that from happening again. As much as I miss my family, they died for a cause I still believe in.”
“That might mean something if you had won.” Aniya folded her arms.
“Aniya, whether or not you believe in this, you want your brother back,” Nicholas said. “We want the same thing, and Gareth has friends who can help us. You don’t have to agree with him. Just take the help that he’s trying to offer.”
After a pause, Aniya nodded. “If it means getting my brother back, I guess I don’t have a choice.” She looked down at the floor. “I’m sorry.”
Gareth placed a hand on her shoulder. “I understand, Aniya. You still have some family left, and I intend to make sure he gets back alive. Now, get going. You won’t be safe until you make it to another sector. Nicholas, don’t take too long getting your equipment. They can’t afford to wait for you.”
Nicholas nodded.
“And Aniya, be careful,” Gareth said, turning and placing a hand on her shoulder. “It’s a good plan, but dangerous. Don’t stay there any longer than you need to.”
Roland turned to Aniya. “Are you sure you want to do this? I can do it for you, and you can wait for me.”
“No, I have to do this.” She sighed and clenched her fists. “It’s time for me to go home.”
12
A house full of occupants, yet devastatingly empty.
A place of love and joy, now darkened by death forevermore.
A home where Aniya had come to love the smell of mole as her mother cooked, now soiled by the stench of blood.
Aniya stood in the doorway, not caring for a moment that anyone walking by would see her. She couldn’t bring herself to step back inside, and yet she couldn’t take her eyes off her parents.
She wasn’t a child anymore. She knew what they had been doing before she came in the night before. They had to have been so happy.
In a world where the government snatched up their firstborn the second he turned eighteen, they had found a way to live on, move forward, and even experience bliss.
She resented them and admired them for it at the same time.
Aniya stepped inside, the fear of the Silvers discovering her finally outweighing her broken heart.
She knelt beside her parents, placing a hand on each of their chests. “I’m sorry,” she said through her tears, as if her presence could have prevented this horror.
“I can’t give you a proper burial, but you’ll get the next-best thing.”
She grabbed the kerosene lantern from the counter. After twisting the top off, she turned the lantern over slowly and began spilling the liquid across the small shack, gingerly avoiding her parents.
Once the container was empty, she let both pieces of the lantern fall to the floor, the glass shattering on the ground.
Aniya picked up the matchbook but paused. She knelt next to her parents one last time and kissed their blood-soaked cheeks.
“I’m going to find William, you know. I’m going to find him and bring him back.” She stroked her father’s hair, which somehow had gone mostly untouched by the blood. “Your Annelise will bring him home, I promise.”
With that, she stood up, wiped her eyes, and struck a match.
Then, she let it fall.
Flames sprang up around her instantly and encompassed the room in a large ring. As a solemn afterthought, Aniya walked around the room and lit every candle she could find, stepping over the spreading fire.
After she finished, Aniya stood in the middle of the room between her parents, watching the flames spread, feeling the heat rise, letting the dried blood on their skin moisten again with the touch of her falling tears.
Aniya raised a hand to her face to rub her eyes but stopped and stared at her skin. Her hand caught the light of the surrounding flame and reflected the warm orange glow, blinking and pulsing as the flames around her flickered erratically.
The orange hue of the flame suddenly took on a white glow, and Aniya turned around and looked out the window to see dozens of bright lights in the distance, peeking through the cracks in the walls and spilling into the blazing room.
Aniya took a deep breath.
“Goodbye,” she said, banishing the tears from her eyes as she forced herself to stand tall. Then, she turned her back on her home and her parents for the last time and fled.
Part II
Escape
13
Aniya took an alternate route through Holendast to avoid the approaching Silvers, hoping she was far enough away to stay unseen. This indirect path meant an extra five minutes, and she knew Roland and Nicholas must be getting worried.
Sure enough, the boys looked relieved when Aniya finally arrived at the train station and approached their agreed-upon spot, behind a storage container near the front of the trainyard.
“Any problems?” Nicholas asked.
“No. The station?”
“Empty,” Roland said. “You should have heard their radios light up when your house, uh . . . lit up. I don’t think they knew what to do with themselves.”
“Well, let’s get out of here before they find out.”
They stepped out from behind the storage container and made their way through the trainyard.
However, Roland was almost instantly proved wrong, and they skidded to a stop in the gravel upon seeing a white light flash across the path ahead.
After remaining motionless for several seconds, Aniya decided they had not yet been spotted. “Come on,” she said, waving behind her and taking the lead. She pulled her body close to the storage containers and slowly approached the area where they had last seen the light.
Aniya halted and let Roland bump into her. She ignored him and poked her head around the corner. “There’s only one of them.”
“Let me see.” Nicholas stepped around her and stuck his head out. “It looks like he’s guarding something.”
After a brief pause, he spun around as Aniya came to the same conclusion.
They spoke in unison. “William.”
In her excitement, Aniya spoke louder than intended and was responded by a hail of gunfire.
“Run!”
Aniya obeyed Nicholas’s command and took off hard, but she quickly realized that he had run in the opposite direction, leaving Roland with her.
“Where is he going?”
Roland shook his head. “Don’t have time for that. Let’s go!”
Aniya turned and ran again, bobbing and weaving between storage units, hoping to find an open one. However, they were all securely closed, and each time she stopped to check, the footsteps grew louder. After turning again, she froze. Roland was no longer following her. Her heart began to race, and she took off again, knowing that she couldn’t stop for long.
But it had been long enough. She turned a corner and ran directly into a large man in silver armor, bouncing off and landing on her back.
The man opened his mouth to speak, but he disappeared as the light on his helmet blinked out. A second later, he shouted in pain.
In the pitch black, Aniya heard a rough impact and grunts of exertion. As the light flashed on again, she saw the officer staggering around under the weight of Nicholas.
The light blinked out again, and she heard a heavy punch and a moan of pain.
“Nicholas!” she cried out instinctively, stretching her arms forward in the darkness. The blinding light from the officer’s helmet had been enough to keep her eyes from adjusting.
The light came on again to illuminate Nicholas and the officer wrestling on the ground.
Off again.
A sickening crunch.
Silence.
Aniya’s heart stopped.
“Are you okay?” Nicholas’s voice met her in the darkness, and she fell forward into his arms.
“What do you mean, am I okay? Are you?”
“I’m fine. Gareth’s been training me for years.”
Aniya’s vision finally adjusted again, and she saw the armored man lying in a heap, his head twisted at an awkward and sickening angle.
“To do that?” She swallowed back the hurt of her best friend hiding such an important part of his life.
Nicholas gave a shrug and picked up the officer’s gun and radio. “If I need to.”
“Nice job.” Roland’s voice came from behind. Aniya turned to see him running to catch up. His mood changed, however, as he got a closer look at the body. His skin turned ashen, and he bit his lip.
Aniya placed a hand on his shoulder. “What happened to you?”
He looked down. “I tripped,” he mumbled.
But Aniya barely heard this, suddenly remembering the more pressing issue.
“William,” she said again, running back toward the center of the trainyard.
Sure enough, when she got to the train car the officer had been guarding, she opened the door to find a bloodied mass on the floor staring back at her.
“Aniya,” William said weakly, his eyes wide. “What are you doing here?”
She grinned. “Saving you. We need to get you out of here.”
“You’re not saving me, Aniya,” William said, shaking his head. “It’s a trap. I hoped you were too smart to fall for it.”
Aniya frowned. “We were trying to leave the sector. I didn’t even know you were here.”
“Besides, their trap didn’t work,” Roland said in Aniya’s defense. “We distracted them. It’ll take them plenty of time to get back here.”
“What, the fire? Yeah, I heard them talking. But do you really think they’d leave just one man behind to guard their prisoner?” William’s frustration faded, replaced by genuine concern. “There’s no time to talk, trust me. You have to get out now. They’re too smart to risk letting me go like this. They’re coming.”
As if to confirm William’s warning, a voice came from the radio in Nicholas’s hand.
“Targets spotted.”
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William’s dark eyes suddenly lit up, reflecting bright lights in the distance.
Aniya spun around to see several bobbing lights approaching from far across the trainyard.
“Get in!” Nicholas shouted.
The trio climbed inside, and Nicholas slammed the sliding door shut as gunfire pelted the metal door.
14
Aniya examined her brother’s wounds as he spoke.
“I assume you’re taking the railroad out of here. If that’s closed, which I’m guessing it will be, take the tunnels. I doubt the Silvers would follow you inside.”
“The tunnels are caved in,” Roland said.
William shook his head. “I’ve been inside. It was the tunnel by the Hub, but they’re all connected.”
“But the entrance is closed,” Aniya said. “Even if the tunnels are clear, we can’t get inside.”
The shouts and footsteps grew closer.
“We need to go.” With that, Roland opened the opposite door.
“I’m not leaving without William.” Aniya grabbed Roland’s shoulders and spun him back around.
“You have to,” William said. He pointed at his foot, which was securely chained to the wall of the train car.
“I can take care of that,” Nicholas took off his pack and placed the radio inside, then knelt and pointed his stolen gun at William’s chains. He fired, but the chain link remained firm.
“That’s not going to work,” William said. “Their weapons are made to use both bullets and tranquilizer pellets. They want us alive, so it probably doesn’t even have bullets. As you can see, their ammo can’t even make it through the metal in the door of the train car. Good thing, too.”
Nicholas checked the gun and grimaced. “He’s right.” He dropped the gun and rummaged through his pack, pulling out a black box and setting it on the floor of the train car.
“What’s that?” Aniya asked.