"Sure you do," I muttered, faintly aware that I was wasting my breath. What did this guy want from us? What could we possibly give him?
"I do, actually. Rosa. Or are you Gabrielle?" My eyes widened a fraction. There was no way he could have known that.
Was there someone from the city looking for us?
Were we being hunted?
Were they going to kill us?
The thoughts flew right through my head, bashing into my emotions on the way out. My mind turned in its tracks to Rae and my helpless mother.
Were they okay?
Were they being tortured right now to get our location? Something they didn't even know.
The idea made me sick to my stomach, and I was grateful — for the first time on this journey — that there was nothing in it for me to throw up. I tried to ignore the churning and focused my attention on the killer in front of me.
"What's it to you?" I fought to keep my voice steady. I wasn't going anywhere without a fight. And nobody was taking Gabby from me.
"We've been out scouting for you for the past four days." We? Scouting? What the hell was he talking about? I could feel the hair on my arms rising.
"I'm part of a group of people that want to help you get out of all of this." I shuffled back a couple of steps, instantly cautious.
"Hey, stop moving!" The sharp edge that lashed back into his words stopped me mid step.
"We've been recruiting people from Palla for years. Come with me and you two will be safe." Yeah, right. Like I was going to just believe that. No matter how much I wanted this to be true, I'd have to be an idiot to take his words at face value.
"Why am I supposed to believe you? There is no one else. It's us, and the Xiets. We kill them, they kill more of us, we die. The next generation goes through hell never knowing why the fight even began. And then the cycle repeats. There is no one else."
"Yes there is. There is a whole world of someone elses." I frowned. I couldn't let myself believe his words. No matter how much I wanted to.
"If that's true why have none of them ever tried to help us before? Why have they let us become destroyed slowly, piece by piece by the Xiets. Wasting our lives trying to push them back. Trying to live."
"If you come with me I'll explain everything to you. I've already asked enough times and I'm beginning to lose my patience."
"That sounds like a bullshit excuse to me. And yeah, your gun might be a pretty convincing argument right now, but it's all that is."
He shook his head and looked for all the world like he was going to give up on us. Maybe even leave. But instead, right when I thought he was going to turn away, he began advancing on us again.
Before I could stumble back more than two steps he was right in front of me. Far too close to me. To Gabby. And he was still moving. Before I had a chance to think it through my hand flung out, of its own free will, and slapped him directly across the face.
Despite my rough upbringing in Palla, I'd never actually struck another human being before. Not like that. I'd saved all of my anger in the hopes I could expel it all at once on the Xiets. I'd had nothing to prepare me for the feel of the impact. The way a flicker of pain would pulse through my own hand, like my blood had caught on fire.
The tension reached an all-time high as he blinked slowly, processing what had just happened. He trained his threatening gaze on me before taking one final step forward. We were almost touching. I had to tilt my head up in order to meet his eyes. He was almost as tall as Rae. I didn't like that I could no longer see his hands. Especially the one with the gun.
"You should not have done that. But I'm going to be nice and leave my offer on the table. Come with me, to my people. Or stay out here and die. I won't ask again." It sure didn't seem much like he was asking in the first place. He was clearly the type of person who didn't give up until they had the answer they wanted. No matter what it took.
"Why? Why do you want us to come with you?" He rolled his eyes as he stepped back, clearly exasperated. This guy had an attitude. It was annoying.
"For the thousandth time, I want to help you. Why can't you get that through your thick skull?" He reached out and took Gabby's arm from my weak grip.
Panic and adrenaline streamed through my veins. I screamed and jumped at him. Or on him would be more accurate. My hands wrapped themselves around his neck, while my legs pathetically attempted to hold his arms to his sides. I was not going to let this bastard take my sister from me. He could piss off if he thought that was ever going to happen. I'd have to die before I let it.
I dully heard Gabby's hand hit the dirt below us and knew, that even if he killed me right now, at least I'd made him let go. For however long I could. I would not think about what he'd be able to do once he killed me. I instead focused on tightening my grip around his neck. My fatigue and hunger were not working to my advantage here, and I felt his arms pull free with almost no problem. My legs dropped down, and I landed ungracefully on the tips of my toes continuing to scream in my attempt to strangle him.
He grabbed hold of my forearms and pushed them down to my sides, holding them there with his hands. I glared at him.
"My god you're stubborn. Could you just stop for five minutes and actually listen to the words coming out of my mouth."
"Why would I do that when everything you tell me is a lie meant to lead my sister and I to our deaths?" I continued to struggle in his grip.
"If I wanted to kill you I would have shot you on sight. Look, if it were up to me, I'd let you go off and die out here. You sure seem to want it that way. But it's not up to me. There are people who are wanting to help you and your sister. You seem so hell bent on protecting her from me, yet you fail to see that the longer you keep her out here in the heat, with no water, the quicker she's going to die. And the longer she stays unconscious right now, the chances of her being okay when she wakes up will keep dropping." I felt my heart skip a beat as it thundered in my chest.
No amount of adrenaline in my system was going to help here. Water was what Gabby needed. And I couldn't give it to her. I stopped my efforts to free my arms. My body sagged slightly, the fight leaving me.
The guy stared into my eyes for a few seconds longer, judging whether or not I was actually done, before slowly moving his hands away. He stepped back and I immediately sank to the ground. Weakened even further after exerting most of my remaining energy for apparently no reason.
This situation just got a whole lot more hopeless.
Now I had to trust this random gunman with my life. And my unconscious sister. I just wanted to stay here and cry. But I couldn't even do that. I wanted water. And some food. And some sleep. And honestly, I really wanted a hug.
I looked over at Gabby, helplessly sprawled out on the dirt road. She needed me to take this risk. I knew if she were awake right now and I was the one with my life in such danger, she would be willing to do this. I was going to have to do the same.
I took a deep breath and looked over at the boy. I hoped this wasn't a mistake.
"Fine," I muttered, my throat punishing me for my earlier screaming attempts. I was almost incomprehensible. He knew what I said anyway.
He returned his gun to his belt and pulled something else from a clip on his other side. It took a second for my fatigued brain to figure out what it was.
A water bottle.
I had to fight against every instinct in my body to keep myself from tackling him and snatching it from his hands. He was crouching next to Gabby. She needed it more than I did. I would never have been able to live with myself had I stopped her from getting what she needed. If I'd stopped her from being saved.
I closed my eyes so I wouldn't have to see the liquid as he tipped some into Gabby's open mouth. After a couple of seconds I heard her coughing and opened my eyes just in time to see her take a couple of deep pulls from the bottle.
The guy pulled it away from her and watched as she settled back into unconsciousness. Obviously pleased with himself, he handed
the water over to me, not once looking away from my sister's fragile state.
Faster than I thought I could move, I had the lip of the bottle pressed against my teeth and drained the thing entirely of its remaining contents. Which sadly wasn't a lot. It couldn't have been filled more than a third of the way. I reluctantly handed it back to the stranger and watched as he stood and returned it to its place clipped onto his belt.
He reached a hand down towards me. I ignored him and hauled myself up to my feet, trying to steel my weak joints against the remaining weight left on my body. I looked up to see as he lifted Gabby gently into his arms. I supposed he planned on carrying her to wherever he was taking us. I wasn't sure how I felt about that, though there didn't seem to be any other options. I was quite literally putting her life in his hands. Great.
As I stepped closer to them I couldn't help but spot the gun from earlier nestled neatly in a holster on his side closest to where I stood.
"Don't even try. You won't be able to find the bullets." I looked away, not wasting the energy to retort. Of course he'd taken them out. Or he was just saying that to stop me from trying. It wasn't worth it anyway. I needed more water. And unless that gun was full of it, it wasn't worth my time.
I awkwardly shuffled my way to stand next to him, not looking up from the dust clinging to my very worn out shoes.
"Alright, let's try this again. My name is Nathaniel and we have a long way to walk still, so I hope you're up for it. I don't know how I'd go trying to carry both of you." I looked up at him and saw the tiniest hint of a smile cross his lips.
EIGHT
We'd been walking for what felt like years.
It couldn't have been more than two hours.
I was worried about Gabby. The constant buzzing in the forefront of my mind was alive with the fear of what would happen to her. For forty minutes I had stared unwaveringly at her face, and tripped constantly over unseen stones and clumps of dirt, until Nathaniel had to stop us. He told me that he was sure she was just sleeping. That she'd woken enough to take a drink and had fallen asleep. That she was just resting now. That she was fine.
That's what he said at least. I wasn't sure if I could believe him. I still wasn't confident I could trust him.
However I was beginning to think I had a more immediate issue to resolve before I could focus on my sleeping sister. I had been stumbling over my steps for the past twenty minutes or so. It was getting to the point where I was nervous that I'd fall flat on my arse and be unable to get up. Each time my legs trembled, my exhausted body tensed. Nathaniel had offered to stop. He said we could take a break, but I knew I'd just be wasting our time.
Water first. Then I could sleep.
It was not helping that Nathaniel kept trying to tell me just how amazing this group of people he was taking me to were. This group of people I still wasn't convinced actually existed. Apparently they were the reason one of my neighbours had gone missing not long after her brother's execution about two years ago. Jack had been the same age as Liam when he was killed due to suspected terrorist activity. We'd all been glad to see him go. Now I had to wonder if he'd ever actually done anything wrong.
Not long after his death Isabel, his sister, had disappeared. We'd all thought that she'd killed herself out of grief. Because that's what we had been told. Nathaniel claimed that she lived with his people now.
That she helped take care of the children.
That she was a teacher.
Apparently.
I found it hard to believe. We'd all heard the stories. About how they'd found her body decomposing in the bathroom of her house. Blood, long dried, had shown a clear path to her wrists, where they'd found deep gashes. She'd killed herself. That's what the police had told us. But that didn't explain how Nathaniel knew about the whole thing. Or how he knew Isabel's name.
Or mine and Gabby's for that matter. He must have spies.
Either way I was sick of hearing about this fabulous group of people who'd never done anything to actually help us. About this huge organisation with mass amounts of food, and water, and medical care for their people, that they never thought to share. Did he think this was going to make me like them? If anything it only raised my suspicions. This could have still been a Xiet trap.
The next time I started to fall he reached out with one hand to try and steady me, but my tired brain was having none of it.
"Why didn't you help us before?" I grumbled, pushing at him with dead arms. Shoving him away.
"People are dying. Every single day. And you have all of this? What is wrong with you? They bombed a school the day I left. A school. Children died. Their ashes left to the wind for the rest of us to inhale. We starve. They kill us. They kill our families. My dad is dead. My mum has practically lost her mind. My brother is locked up for something he would never be a part of. Or maybe by now he's been executed. And let's not forget that my sister is unconscious in your arms right now because we're both starving, dehydrated, and so goddamn tired that we can't function as human beings anymore. And this whole time you could have helped. So why didn't you?"
Again I could feel the fire in my eyes as they struggled to gather water where there was none.
"Hey now, we are helping you. We don't have the power to take every single person in your city. We do what we can while exposing our people to the most limited amounts of danger possible. The last thing we need is to get in the middle of things. Then we'd die too."
"You are literally in the middle of things. You should have thought about that before. Either help us or piss off!"
"I'm not in charge, okay. Stop acting like everything's my fault just because you don't know anything."
"Shut up." I was too tired to have another argument with this jerk. "How much longer until we reach this organisation of yours?"
"We're not going straight to the base."
"What? Where the hell are you taking us then?"
"I actually had to come a long way to find you. We're heading towards one of our camps. There we will give you food, water, and I'll have some of our medical personnel look over you and your sister. She probably needs a drip. From there we travel by car. I suppose I should warn you, we can't let you and your sister see the way to our base."
"It's not like we're much of a threat. I don't even know where we are now. Besides what are you going to do? Blindfold us?"
"If that's what it takes."
"Oh yeah. Because that's not creepy."
"Stop wasting your breath. I don't want to have to carry both of you." I glared at him.
"We're almost there anyway." Finally.
✽✽✽
Our arrival at this mysterious camp was interesting. To say the least.
There was a distinct lack of trust between these people and me. I couldn't accept that their help was free. That they wouldn't hold it above our heads. That they weren't planning to use us in some way. My imagination went to all options from blackmail, to torture, to turning us into secret spies against our own people. Maybe they'd just kill us.
They couldn't trust I wasn't some kind of savage beast. It was like they expected me to lash out and attack at any sudden movements. The sea of eyes that gazed over my skeletal figure was filled with a mix of pity, hesitation, and dislike.
Though they didn't seem to have anything against my sister. Albeit that could have been due to her state of unconsciousness the whole time. I'd never felt more relieved than I had when I saw them slide a thin needle into her arm and hook it up to an IV bag full of clear liquid. Water. And undoubtedly some mixture of vitamins and medicine. She was finally getting what she needed as she lay on top of a fold out camping bed. Water and rest. I was informed that when she woke up they were going to try to give her something to eat. I refused to leave her side.
I was given a bottle of water and a chair upon my arrival, along with strict instructions not to drink it too fast as my body was likely to reject anything I gave it if I didn't do it slowly. When I proceeded to gulp the w
hole thing down, faster than they wanted me to, I had to wait twenty minutes before I was allowed to eat anything. I wasn't sure if I should've been pissed off by this. They didn't want me to throw everything up straight away. I got that. But I was having difficulty ignoring the hollow pang where my stomach was now that my thirst had been somewhat quenched.
Eventually I was presented with a small bread roll, along with another water bottle. I finished the tiny thing in about four bites, struggling to stop myself from moaning in appreciation of something hitting the empty void of my stomach. They made me wait again before giving me another, while a medic was assessing my physical condition. They said they'd give me something more substantial tomorrow, after everything had a chance to settle in my system.
It almost felt wrong to be sleeping in a bed. Well it was a sleeping bag, but still. With food in my tummy and the promise of water in the bottle I clutched tight, I felt like it was another fantasy. That I'd wake and find that I was still travelling that dirt road. Gabby dead by my side.
But she was going to be okay.
They had promised it multiple times and still had to force me out of the medical tent hours after our arrival.
As I settled into the comfort of something actually designed to be slept in, I pushed such thoughts from my mind. For now I was safe. Or as safe as I had ever been. I was surrounded by strangers with guns. But they seemed to want to help. And that was the most I could say about pretty much anyone who'd ever been in charge of my life. I hoped I wasn't making a mistake.
✽✽✽
I woke up to something whacking me in the side of the face.
What the hell?
I sat up and tried to adjust to the dark. Wait, dark?
No stars.
No moon.
What the hell was happening?
I was jostled again and the same thing that hit me in the face crashed into my arm. I grabbed at it. A water bottle. Full from the feel of it.
Okay, so wherever I was, I had water. That was a good start.
Bright Cold Day Page 7