by Sara Kincaid
“It’s time you took up arms, Vea. Leo would have wanted it. You are here with us. So join us,” he gestured around the room. He mentioned Leo to goad me and I let him. “Show us what you are capable of.” He wasn’t going to let me get away with the scene I had caused in the war council last night and then bringing Adem back into their ranks.
“And who would you have me train with? Curare should be teaching each other how to wield their abilities. And you are not Curare.” I crossed my arms in front of me.
The only thing that kept him from scoffing at me was the fact that the room was filled with Curare. Their eyes bore into both of us and I could feel each of their essences pulsing in the void that Adem had revealed to me. “I most certainly am not Curare. Curare are noted pacifists. You will find me to be anything but.” His hatred was like a wall of fire and if there had been power behind his gaze, I imagine that I would have burst into flames. I stood my ground and tightened my hands into fists at my side. “There is no indication of their abilities being used to cause harm. Well,” he paused, his eyes running up my form, “until you.”
I left the safety of the wall and strode forward until I stood facing Madriss, my chin tilted up so that I could look him in the eye. I had tried to stay outside of their politics, but no longer. I did not think; I simply acted and gave in to the fury. It lurked like a dark pool in my heart, waiting.
“So are you going to show us what you really are? For I have long suspected that you are not truly Curare. Curare don’t kill.”
Without answering, I turned and walked away from him. I exhaled my sorrows and my doubts, taking five paces before turning again. I gripped the ground with my toes, seeking the pulse of the earth, calling on it to serve my purpose once more, relying on its steady ways to ground me and pushing my thoughts of betrayal into the dark places I refused to go until this moment was at an end. Madriss’s face cracked into a thin smile.
When he came for me, he descended like a maelstrom, intent on pummeling me into the ground to make his point and assert his superiority. He did not wait for a signal to begin the dance, instead choosing his own moment to charge. In his step, he wore his ego. In his hands, he carried a club. In his eyes, I witnessed hatred so fierce that it pierced me in a way no weapon ever could.
For a moment, I was frozen, unsure of how to fend off a physical attack, particularly one as ferocious as this. Adem and I had only practiced against each other standing at a respectful distance. In that pause, Madriss took his advantage. He grabbed me by the arm and yanked me to the floor, tossing his club aside with a sneer. My head hit the bricks with a sickening thud and my vision swam. Instinctively, I swatted and kicked with my feet, but my flailing was no match for this trained warrior. Madriss then bent my arms painfully behind me, anticipating that the battle would be swift. Anxiety filled me as I recognized in his tactics the cool and calculated motions of a CPA soldier. I had witnessed the ways they disarmed and disengaged others many times and I knew what would happen next. The club he wielded was not merely a solid piece of wood or metal. It was a tranquilizer filled with Pop.
With my arms pinned painfully behind me and my breath coming in gasps, I closed my eyes and broke through the wall that kept my anger at bay. Though my feet no longer touched the floor, my bare arm made contact, giving me the advantage I needed. I called forth the energy of the earth, drawing from it in a great pull, knowing that every Curare in the room would feel the sudden shift of power. The energy raced through my veins, raging wildly through me. As I succumbed to the power, the pain in my limbs dissipated and all I knew was the heady sensation of the earth.
I descended into the rage that festered within me and used the heat of the sun as inspiration. White hot, it ricocheted painfully through my body as I willed it to fill me entirely. My body temperature rose until I glowed with heat.
Madriss’ grip on me faltered and he jumped away, his skin smoldering. I scrambled to my feet and advanced, allowing the heat to dissipate with a hiss. The loss of energy left me dizzy as when blood rushes from the brain. Madriss reached for his club, raising it high overhead before slamming it down at me. I shook off my dizziness and ducked beneath the weapon and laid my hands upon him, knowing that my point would not be made if I did not overpower him. Instantly, I was connected to his life force and I felt it thrumming doggedly beneath my palms. The tendrils twisted around my fingers, tempting me. With the upper hand, I had control that I’d lacked when I killed Leo. Plus, I was not nearly as depleted as I had been in the prison. I didn’t claw desperately at the energy. Bliss brought my eyelids down as I drank in his energy; and in spite of who he was, I had no wish to kill him.
Frozen with fear, Madriss dropped his weapon with a clatter and a hush came about the room. Our battle was silent, and invisible to all who looked on. His skin whitened but I did not take so much that his body began to wither like the animals I had accidentally killed as a child. I kept those horrors in mind—the wrinkled, leathery skin, the sunken cheeks—with every invisible gulp. I would not kill again until I had Kade in my grasp.
Madriss’ understanding of the dark work I did was apparent in the flash of fear on his hard face. His cheeks sagged and his eyes grew glassy. He tried weakly to break our contact. But I held on, keeping him prone a bit longer, driving my point home.
I broke my contact with him suddenly, like a tree branch breaking away from the trunk, and stepped away, glaring down as he dropped to his knees. “I look around the room here and I see no pacifists—only people who have had an identity thrust upon them. You want to win this war? Then allow the Curare to own what is theirs. I have learned to use my abilities to fight, to protect myself from soldiers like you—I recognize what you are, CPA trained—and yes, the harm I have caused is great.” I bowed my head briefly. “But we are nature’s greatest weapons. Don’t forget that.” I raised my chin in defiance before sweeping from the room, my bare feet slapping the rough bricks in an otherwise silent chamber.
Shadowed in a dark corner, I sobbed with shame and howled my frustrations into my hands. I had behaved like a villain while my fellow Curare looked on. What would they think of me now? Why couldn’t the Undergrounds be the heroes I needed them to be? I cried until my throat was raw and my eyes burned.
After releasing the torrent of emotion that writhed like a mad thing within me, I returned to that sacred space in the upper reaches of the stronghold to calm the fierce beating of my heart. The sprightly green plants billowed gently. They greeted and soothed me. Adem found me wandering the halls and followed closely at my heels into the green space, but stayed silent. How could I ever forgive myself for what I’d done?
As I stepped into the room, I connected with the ground fully. I felt as if I could drink the entire sanctuary dry, leaving behind a lifeless husk. Even then, I wouldn’t be satisfied. It seemed that my hunger only grew.
“Vea?” a tentative voice called from behind me. Adem and I both turned and beheld Kerria, Leo’s sister. Her face was flushed and her eyes large. “Are you okay?”
From her question, I knew that she must have been present for my display, though in my anger I had not bothered to notice her. The grass beneath my feet browned, fading away until the rich dirt beneath was exposed. Even then I did not stop my assault. “A member of the war council is from the CPA.” My voice was like stone and my stare was blank as I looked past her.
She nodded apprehensively and took a step forward. “Yes, I know.” I waited for her to continue, trusting that her good nature was the same as Leo’s, hoping that the Undergrounds were not the farce I now feared. A CPA soldier, one who had imprisoned countless Curare and separated them from their families, within the ranks of the Undergrounds. “I know what you’re thinking,” she held her hands up as if to keep me still. “But he is reformed. He was an orphan when the CPA brought him into the fold. Eventually he realized the error of his ways and he left.”
“How did he become
affiliated with Leo?”
She smiled sadly, remembering her brother. “Leo could convince anyone to do whatever he wanted. Madriss and Leo became friends.”
I tried to process this, tried to imagine that the war council worked in a way that Leo would have approved. But I couldn’t. Adem interjected. “Are you sure Madriss is an ally?”
“I know it seems like he may not be. I’m sorry for how he has acted. I expect that the loss of his friend might have something to do with his behavior. Not that this excuses him.” She paused for a moment before taking hold of my shoulder. “Vea, what you did in there…it was the most spectacular thing I’ve ever seen. Can all Curare really do that? Could my grandfather have done that?”
“Miss Vea is unique,” Adem replied. “I for one could not do what she just did. My abilities do not bend that way. But we can fight if we must.”
With Kerria’s touch, I could hear the strange song singing in her blood, pulsing with her heart. She, the grandchild of a Curare; proof that the Curare could reproduce. Somehow it helped to ground me and brought me a small sense of peace. I felt no desire to steal her life energy, which tangled benevolently with my own. I thought of my fight with Madriss, how I had violently drawn from him, without a second thought, without a care, despite how I’d just killed Leo with that same ability, and I once again saw in myself the weapon I could be—how human I remained with my destructive nature—and perhaps the weapon that I was intended to be when nature made me. I should have been embarrassed about the way I had lost control, how I had caused harm to another. But I wasn’t. “No. I don’t think all Curare can do that. There’s no way to know what Bram was capable of. He was just coming into his power.”
“What will you do now?” The question was addressed to both of us and though Adem and I had not voiced it aloud, we both knew exactly what our next steps would be. The presence of a CPA soldier in the midst of the War Council was enough to incite us on our own path. Our cause would be our own once again.
“We will leave,” he answered simply.
Kerria choked back her tears, brushing them away with the back of her hand. “And where will you go?”
“To the CPA facility and end this,” I replied firmly. I felt both of their eyes upon me, but my mind was made up.
“But the Undergrounds…?”
I looked into her gray eyes and saw Bram’s face hidden within their depths. I could see his gentle nature, his desire to help, his wish for peace, all of the things history recorded. But also buried within there was Aster’s will and her perseverance, many of the things that Bram had lacked; and I knew that Kerria would be the one to save us. “Convince them to come. It’s what Leo would have done.”
“The council?” she asked with disbelief clouding her voice.
“Yes.”
Salty streams drenched her cheeks. I covered her hand with my own. “You can do this.”
I turned, letting her hand slip through my fingers and nodded in Adem’s direction. Together, we turned our backs on the disappointments of the Undergrounds and took a path we hoped would lead to salvation. Before disappearing around the corner, Kerria called out. “Vea!” I stopped. “He loved you too.”
I covered my heart with my hand and nodded before continuing away. I remained tethered to the earth, listening to the echo of Kerria’s song until I was too far away and the connection faded.
Bram,
I found your letters. After the chaos caused by the City officials and egged on by the angry crowds, I discovered the words you wrote during your confinement and after the best and most terrible night of my life. In my heart, I knew you were saying goodbye.
You are gone now, your body left beaten and broken in the street despite everything Zane, the Pop dealer, and I tried to do. But even your remains are gone now, too, whisked off by Kade and the Government Farm League to study and determine what it is you are and what happened.
You see, I don’t know if you realize it, but you made it rain. It rained for a solid three days, starting the day you died. It started sometime after they dragged you out into the streets. The hot roads sizzled and steam rose in damp clouds as you cleaned the streets, the sidewalks, everything within the City limits; your storm washed away your own blood from the concrete until you vanished completely.
Zane and I have run away, too. Even without you here, I had to escape. My name is tied with yours. They know I tried to help you and they want answers, which of course I cannot give, for I know nothing of your abilities or what you were doing in your pod those many weeks you hid yourself from the world.
But more than that, I have a secret, one so precious that the GFL can never know. I only realized it a few days ago and have not dared to put down the words since. You will never truly be gone from me. Your life continues onward for, in my belly, I carry your child.
I hope you would be happy about this. Despite the perils, I am overjoyed. In our last moments together, we created something beautiful. I will not let the GFL find this child. Rest easy. He or she will always be safe. But I wonder...will this child be like you? Will your strange abilities manifest in his or her tiny body? Will he or she have power over the water? Or did these abilities live and die all at once with you? There are still many months to go, but my body is already beginning to round. I look forward to discovering you in the layers and folds of this tiny breath of life.
Aster
Chapter 11
The City was a jungle of dissent. In the faces around us, I saw reflected back at me the angst of the people and the need for change that drove both Bram and his grandson, Leo. I felt no sorrow at leaving the Undergrounds behind and knew that the path Adem and I had chosen was the right one, in spite of my belief that I walked to my death.
Though I contemplated my own death, I felt a sense of peace. In my short battle with Madriss, I had come to envision myself as a weapon, a weapon designed by nature herself to defend the world she had created and the invaluable offspring she had seen fit to breathe into being, the Curare. My one wish was to see the stars winking overhead and perhaps even feel the cool caress of raindrops on my cheeks. The farms felt a lifetime away.
To preserve our cover, I had rewrapped my feet. The bindings seemed tight and superfluous now, but I knew that I had to blend in. I no longer feared who I was, for every step took me closer to the CPA stronghold and once inside, I would draw the life out of Kade with my own two hands. Destroying Kade in the same manner I was forced to kill Leo felt like the only way that justice could possibly be served. My fingers itched to tighten around him and deliver his punishment.
Adem was a quiet presence beside me. Even the song that radiated from within him pulsed with calm. He was my companion, but I would not allow him to return to the CPA stronghold and though we never discussed it, I think he knew this, for he steered us toward West Farm.
We prepared to exit the City using falsified papers Adem had swiped from the Undergrounds before we left. “Here, Vea. These will probably be useful to you.” He pulled the cards from his pack.
I held my thick form, no bigger than my hand and covered in a clear plastic for protection, failing to hide my look of surprise. Here was the one thing that stood between me and anonymity, the item that was denied to me because of who I was. This simple form with stylized red ink indicated that I was not Curare. It meant the difference between the life of hiding I had endured and the normal path of living. Though the name attached to this particular piece of paper was not my own, I still held what, as far as a CPA soldier was concerned, was certain proof that I was just a regular citizen. With these papers, I could melt into the City and live whatever life I chose. I could forget everything about who I had been and, for once, be normal.
“We could stay in West Farm, you know, and melt away if that’s what you want?” he whispered. Though he offered it, Adem and I both knew that this was not the path that either of us would choose. The
lives of our comrades, so many souls I had never met or avoided after they failed the Pop test to save my own hide, they deserved to be free. I had so much to answer for and refused to walk away now.
The transport hub cycled like clockwork. Doors on sleek transports slid open noiselessly. People streamed in and out until a gentle ping echoed up and down the station and the doors slid closed once more. Commuters traveled from one destination to the next, their eyes glazed as they listened to their tiny PIDs. Reaching out into the void, I sensed Adem, but no other Curare. No one else would be reckless enough to come here.
Barring each entrance to the transports were podiums upon which menacing CPA soldiers stood straight at attention and examined each identification card. Swallowing my nerves, I walked up to the podium and held out my precious scrap of paper, the flimsy object that stood between me and capture, and handed it to the CPA soldier in front of me. He glanced down at it briefly. Behind us, a clamor erupted. I jumped involuntarily and turned to look behind me, where a man with oily brown hair and matted clothes struggled with a woman over a large swatch of dyed fabric she clutched to her chest. His cheeks were like caves, deep, dark indentions on his face. Silent like fog, the soldiers descended, clearing up the fight and carrying off the offending person.
I looked back at the CPA soldier, my eyes wide. Just as he was about to hand back my slip of paper, he retracted his hand and inserted the identification card into a whirring machine that sat on the podium in front of him. I clasped my hands in front of me and looked at the floor. The moments ticked by and the soldier looked down at the clear screen in front of him. His eyelashes were so long that they brushed against his skin, dark strands against a pale cheek. When he looked up again, his clear blue eyes caught my own and I knew that I was in trouble.