Fire

by Cheryl Twaddle

  I looked down at Emma Lee and begged her to come but she refused. She wanted to stay with Cornelius. She wasn't with Derek when the Blood Demons attacked her community and he had been fatally wounded, dying in her arms not long after. She was not going to do the same with Cornelius.

  "Leave her!" yelled Barney. "We have to go, now! It won't be long before they get here and none of us can be here when that happens. If we are, they'll kill us without hesitation."

  "If that's true, then I can't just leave her here to die," I said and went to sit beside Emma Lee.

  "Go," Emma Lee took my hand and squeezed it. She looked at me and smiled and I could see her eyes fill with tears. I forgot how she had just tried to make me feel guilty about leaving Madge. I could see how scared she was to lose another person she loved. "I can't leave him. I love him and somewhere inside I know he loves me too. She's bewitched him but it will wear off and he'll come for me. I have to be here when he does."

  "And what if he doesn't?" I pleaded with her. "What if he never comes back to you? You'll miss your chance to get out of here for nothing."

  "It's not nothing to me," she said and I cursed her for being so loyal to a man who was obviously more interested in another woman.

  "You'll die," I said.

  "Maybe I should," she smiled. "Maybe I'm already dead. I died when those Blood Demons killed Derek and everybody else in my community."

  "Please," I urged her, knowing she had made up her mind. "Come with us."

  "We have to go!!!" Barney yelled one more time. Then he turned to the others. "Come on! If they won't come, then leave them behind!"

  "Nicky!" Gregorius ran over to us and grabbed my arm. I reached out and took Emma Lee in my arms. I held her close and whispered in her ear.

  "I promise, I'll do everything I can to come back and get you," I said.

  "I know," she looked at me and smiled. "Thank you."

  I let Gregorius pull me up and I followed him and Barney blindly up the stairs and then through the door that I remembered seeing when we came to the end of the long hallway. Apparently, it led up another flight of stairs to the first floor where the wall had been blown away by the blast. I didn't see everyone else and assumed they were already out. Then I heard Amelia screaming at her soldiers.

  "Hurry up, you fools!" I heard her yell. "How is it that I can make it here faster than both of you when I had so much further to go? What kind of guards are you?"

  "We were in the courtyard," said one of the men. "We were doing a grounds' check and came as soon as we heard the explosion."

  "If you were in the courtyard," she yelled. "You should have seen whoever did this!"

  "No, ma'am," he said, obviously fearing a reprimand. "We saw nothing."

  "We'll discuss your incompetence later," she said. "Get down there and make sure they don't get away!"

  I tried to hang back, just a little, so I could hear what they would do when they discovered Emma Lee was the only one left in her cell. I didn't want us to get caught but I didn't want to just leave her there to face the guards alone. Gregorius was pulling me forward and I saw him turn and urge me to hurry up. Then I heard Emma Lee. She was begging to see Cornelius and I shook my head in anger that he had done this to her. His betrayal was almost as bad as what Howling Wolf had done.

  "Where's Cornelius?" I heard her cry. "What about Cornelius? I want to see Cornelius."

  "Where's everyone else?" It was Amelia; she must have gotten to the cells. "Where are they?!"

  "They've escaped," said one of the guards.

  "How did they escape?" Amelia was not happy. "How could you let them? How stupid can you be!?"

  "Ma'am, I'm sorry," the man started to spit out excuses. "We were checking..."

  "...the courtyard," she spat back. "You told me this. I'm wondering how you could be checking the courtyard and not see someone blowing a giant hole in the side of my house!! Now, get the rest of the Guard, get out there and find my prisoners and bring them back!! I want the entire army on this, do you hear me? Go!!!"

  "What about her?" asked one of the guards.

  "Poor thing," I could hear the syrupy voice and I could just imagine her, standing over Emma Lee and looking at her with fake pity. "So in love with the beautiful, yellow-haired man. What a shame."

  "Where's Cornelius?" Emma Lee insisted. "Please, let me see Cornelius."

  "Oh, sweetie, he can't come right now," I heard Amelia say. "I'm afraid he's fast asleep in my bed. I don't even think he heard the explosion, poor boy. I must have tired him out more than I thought." I wanted to go back and wrap my hands around her neck and squeeze until I felt the life leave her body. I felt no emotion, like when I killed Butcher. I tried to calm down, to pull myself together before I got us all caught. Who knew if she was even telling the truth? I knew Cornelius and he was not the type to have sex with someone he just met but it didn't matter what I thought. Emma Lee was the one who had to believe he wouldn't do such a thing and, by her silence, I could tell she was trying to make sense out of Amelia's words.

  "Please, can I just talk to Cornelius," it was barely a whisper.

  "What should we do with her?" I heard one of the guards ask.

  "Kill her," Amelia said and I felt my whole body tense up. I had to go back. I couldn't possibly run away now. I had to help Emma Lee.

  "We have to go!" It was Colonel Al. He had come back. He was grabbing me at my elbow and forcing me to go with him.

  "But..." I started.

  "She made her choice," he said. "You have to make yours."

  "I should go back," I said.

  "If you do that," Colonel Al said, "Max will die. We need you in order to rescue him. So, let's go!" I looked into his eyes and knew he was right. I couldn't help Emma Lee now, she made sure of that by staying behind. I wanted to get Max back; I needed to get Max back. Then, my decision was made for me when I heard Emma Lee whimper.

  "Please, let me talk to him before..." and then I heard a strange popping sound and Emma Lee spoke no more. I looked at Colonel Al and nodded my head, trying to keep myself from falling to the ground sobbing. He put his arms around me and half carried me through the broken wall, across some kind of cement front yard and into a waiting vehicle that I presumed was an old cargo van.

  Now, we were driving through the streets of the old city, dodging burnt out vehicles and crumbled buildings. We'd been driving for over twenty minutes and, still, I couldn't get Emma Lee's last words out of my head. I felt like someone had punched me in the gut and all I wanted to do was curl up into a ball and wait for the pain to stop. Why were people such assholes? Butcher, Pig, Howling Wolf, Amelia; they were all the same selfish, greedy assholes and I was so done with them and everyone like them. The van slowly came to a stop and I opened my eyes to see where we were.

  By the looks of it we had reached the edge of Algar, the older part of Algar. The driver, who was named Jesse, pulled over and ordered us all to get out. We would have to travel by foot now. Jesse had to hide the van and head back home.

  "Is he going to be okay?" asked Robert.

  "Jesse will be fine," said Niko. "He'll be back to his place and tucked into bed in about ten minutes."

  "They won't know he helped us?" Robert asked.

  "No," laughed Niko. "They don't even know he exists."

  "What do you mean, mean, mean?" asked Marshal who was trying his best not to pass out. His wound had started to bleed again when he bumped it on the crumbled wall of the Huxley House.

  "As far as the Huxleys are concerned," explained Niko. "Jesse and his family were all killed when their house caught on fire and burned to the ground."

  "Caught on fire?" Gregorius gave him a sideways glance. "That's a stretch don't you think?"

  "What does that mean?" asked Robert.

  "You see, Jesse's father, Conrad, was once the head of the First's personal guards," explained Niko. "As such he accompanied the First every time she left the city limits. During the past three years, the First has taken
several trips to the country lands and every single time she's brought Jeremiah and her uncle, Patrick Huxley. Conrad just assumed Amelia brought Jeremiah in case they came across anyone who was sick or injured. You know, people in the country lands don't always get help when they're hurt or feel sick. Patrick's good with numbers so, Amelia brought him to go through the farmer's ledgers. You see, the storage bins aren't as full as they used to be and Amelia figures it's because the farmers aren't working hard enough, which is all bullshit. If her friggin' family would stop stealing from the bins, there'd be plenty of goods for everyone. Anyway, Patrick went over the books, pretended to find discrepancies and Amelia would swoop in and assure them it would all be okay and there'd be no reprimands. You know, make them think she was this nice, understanding leader."

  "Sounds fair," Robert commented sarcastically.

  "It does, doesn't it?" smiled Niko. "Anyway, every visit went the same way; go through the books, make note of any shortcomings, offer help if the family needed it. Pretty boring stuff, right? So, who could blame Conrad and his men if they never caught on to what was really happening?"

  "What was happening?" asked Robert.

  "Jeremiah was poisoning them," said Niko.

  "What?" Robert asked thinking he hadn't heard him right.

  "Every visit ended with a gift from the First; a small box of sugar, beautifully wrapped with a small bow on top," said Niko and I could tell that he was getting angry as the story continued. "It was a very generous gift. Sugar's not readily available to everyone so, the farmers accepted their gift with smiles and lots of gratitude but it all came with a big price. The sugar, you see, was laced with poison that, funny enough, caused symptoms very similar to a certain kind of sickness from many years ago. The same sickness that just so happened to kill the Fire People during the Red Death."

  "And Jesse's father figured it out?" asked Robert.

  "Not at first," said Niko. "The First's personal guards had no idea this was happening, they were there to protect Amelia and that was all. The guards lived in the city and rarely talked to the farmers or their families. Years could go by without city folk and country folk ever even seeing each other."

  "That's unfortunate," said Colonel Al.

  "It is," continued Niko. "Then, one day, Conrad got news that someone he had been childhood friends with had died. The First and her entourage had visited the family about a month earlier and Conrad had been surprised to see that someone he had grown up with in the city had actually moved to the country to become a farmer. Not many people make that kind of a move. City folk are not used to the hard work necessary to be a farmer. So, when Conrad saw his friend, he was happy and excited to learn that, not only had he made the move to the country, but he now had a beautiful wife and three children and his farm was doing really good. They grew corn and potatoes and both crops were having a bumper year. Conrad promised to come back with his family when he wasn't working so they could all spend the day together."

  "So, when he heard that his friend had died," said Niko, "he went to pay his respects to the grieving family, except the family wasn't there. That's when he found out that they were all dead; the entire family was gone. They had all gotten sick after the First's visit and had never recovered. Conrad couldn't believe it. They all seemed perfectly fine when he had last seen them. He had no idea how someone so healthy could die so tragically just from being sick. Then, he began to think about everyone who was part of the entourage. He started to wonder if they were all going to catch this sickness, too. He needed to know so, he started asking about some of the other families the First had visited."

  "What did he find out?" asked Robert.

  "Something that completely destroyed him," Niko said. "Of the one hundred and forty-three families the First had visited over the three years, a hundred and thirty eight had been wiped out, all from the same sickness."

  "A hundred and thirty eight?" said Colonel Al. "How many...?"

  "Eight hundred and twelve men, women and children," Niko finished for him. "That's only the families that Amelia visited herself. There were far more that the elder Huxleys visited. There were other villages, other farms. Thousands died from the mysterious sickness. It reduced the population faster and easier than any fight on a battlefield could."

  "That's repulsive," said Robert. I had never seen him so angry.

  "My beautiful sister strikes again," laughed Gregorius sarcastically.

  "Amelia poisoned them," echoed Niko. "Jeremiah concocted the poison and laced the sugar. It was all done so quickly that no one could figure out how this sickness could kill so many, with no survivors. You know it's rare to have a sickness that kills people to actually kill everybody. So, when Conrad found out about the poison and confronted Amelia..."

  "Why would he do that?" asked Robert. "Surely, he knew that a woman who was capable of killing women and children wouldn't hesitate to kill him."

  "Conrad was naive," said Niko. "He was also loyal to the Huxleys and took pride in the fact that the First personally selected him to be in charge of her own personal guards. He thought they shared a certain level of respect and trust with each other. He was wrong. Amelia Huxley only cares about herself and when she feels threatened by someone, no matter who it is, she will eliminate them. So, she sent her uncle and three of her cousins to Conrad's house, they sealed the doors and windows shut and set it on fire. They waited outside the house to make sure nobody got out and, as far as they know, nobody did."

  "So, how did Jesse survive?" asked Robert.

  "He wasn't in the house," answered Niko. "Jesse's been a member of the Foes since he was fifteen. He's never liked the Huxleys and constantly argued with his father over the cruelty of their rule, behind closed doors, of course. He found out about the Foes from me and Gregorius when we were all in lessons together. He begged to join and we warned him that his father could never know and he promised he never would. When Gregorius overheard that Amelia was sending out her family to fix things, we jumped to stop it but we didn't know who the target was. We tried to trace their steps. We tried to get to them before they could carry out their orders but it was too late. When we got there, with Jesse at our side, the house was already on fire. It took every one of the Elder Brothers to hold him back. We had to keep watch over him for months so he wouldn't go on a suicide mission to kill Amelia. Now, he lives in the old city with others that look after him and the Huxleys all think he's dead. He's been able to help the Foes without anyone knowing. A dead man can move around very easily."

  "Niko, Poppy says everything's ready," said Barney who had disappeared while Niko had been talking. "We should hurry; it won't be long before they round up."

  "Round up, up, up?" asked Marshal.

  "Yeah," said Gregorius. "My sister will be sending the army out to scour the city until we're caught. Having a member of the Fire People with us scares Amelia more than anything else. She wants him dead before he can gather any more of his people and bring them here."

  "I don't have people," sighed Marshal and I could hear the exhaustion in his voice.

  "She doesn't know that," said Colonel Al, grasping the urgency of the situation.

  "Look," said Barney, "we can have a nice chit chat when we get to the Crawler. Right now, Poppy is waiting and you know how she gets when she has to wait."

  "Okay," said Niko as he directed us to fall in line and follow him.

  It was so dark out that it was almost impossible to see Niko. Luckily Barney was bringing up the rear and seemed to know exactly where we were going so, every time one of us started to stray out of line, he herded us back and corrected our direction. We moved like this for almost ten minutes before we came to a stop beside the strangest looking apparatus I had ever seen. It looked kind of like a tractor with huge tires on the back but skis on the front. It had a huge cab that sat over fifteen feet in the air and could hold over ten people. As we got closer I saw a girl, who couldn't be more than twelve, jump from the top of one of the tires and make
her way over to us. She was dressed in black pants that looked four sizes too big and held up with a rope tied around her waist. She had on a black jacket, also too big, that came down to her knees and her hands were buried deep inside its pockets. Her black hair was tied into pigtails that sat crooked on her head. Her face was dirty and I could see that her front tooth was chipped. Could this be Poppy? I wondered.

  "Hey, Niko," she smiled and punched him in the shoulder. "Looks like I gotta save your ass again!"

  "Hey, sis," laughed Niko as he pulled one of her pigtails. She swatted his hand away. I looked at them and noticed that they did sort of resemble each other. "What would I do without you?"

  "Probably die," Poppy said and put her nose in the air to show her superiority.

  "Is everything ready?" Niko asked.

  "Been ready for over an hour now," said Poppy. "Barney said there're five of you; is that right?"

  "Seven," said Niko.

  "Seven?" Poppy looked at us. "Are you and Barney going too?"

  "We are," Niko answered and looked at Poppy with a sombre look. Poppy stared at her brother for a few minutes and then back at the rest of us.

  "They're the ones?" she asked and I felt a little queasiness in my stomach.

  "According to Gregorius," Niko answered.

  "They are the ones that came out of the portal," said Gregorius. "Give or take."

  "What does that mean?" asked Poppy. I looked at Gregorius, wondering if he would say anything about Emma Lee or Cornelius.

  "Later," said Gregorius. "We should go."