by Liv Curtis
“Mom. Eliza would do this for me! Plus, it’s my fault she was even taken to begin with. If I wouldn’t have chosen differently from my aptitude results, we would be fine,” Sage said half to herself as she took a sip from her coffee.
“Sage Cora Blackwell, this is not your fault! Sage’s dad said, looking her dead in the eyes.
“It will be okay, I promise. I know what I have to do and this is the first step in making real change. What do we need to know Jefferson?” Sage reassured her parents and herself that she was fine with the decision.
“Well, first we need the blue prints, then from there we can work on the rest.” Jefferson nodded towards Sage’s dad.
“I have them on my tablet at home, but I am sure by now the council has invaded our home and ransacked the place.” Sage’s dad sounded distant and cold as he thought about the council and imagined them in his house.
“What if we sneak in? We could distract one of the guards and slip right in. Nobody knows that house’s hiding spots better than me, I can get in and get out in less than a minute. Dad, let me do this, please,” Sage said as she devised a plan in her head.
“So, how do you propose we distract the guards?” Jefferson rubbed his beard.
“Right behind our house is a small patch of Beech Trees, if you hide in there, they will never find you, the canopy is too dense. Fire a single bullet and that should get their attention. That will give me enough time to get in, get the tablet, and get out before they even notice.” Sage felt her throat tighten at the thought of her home and the trees that she and Eliza played in as kids.
“I see. We’ll go tonight then. We will need night vision masks. Follow me.” Jefferson stood and walked towards the basement door, Sage followed closely behind as they made their way down the now familiar steps.
Jefferson went into the gear closet and produced a large metal box, inside were several full-face masks with a respirator over the mouth and a blue-black tinted window over the eyes. As Sage looked it over she realized that it was a modified gas mask from The Sickening. She had seen one once before during a fieldtrip to The Sickening Memorial Museum.
“These are high-tech night vision masks made for the CA. I have…collected, a few over the years.” He handed one to Sage. She knew he meant that he had stolen them, but she didn’t care.
“Give it a try.” Jefferson turned off the lights and the room went black. Sage slipped the mask over her head and switched the mask into night mode. The room came into view slowly in monochromatic blue. She could see the weapons wall and the shine of metal guns and knives. Jefferson stood next to her with his mask on as well; she could see his face through his mask.
“These masks are made to see the faces of those around you. I suppose it makes it easier to determine your enemies over your fellow soldiers when used in the field. Above your left ear is a small switch that allows you to see heat signatures through walls.” Jefferson switched his on and looked up towards the kitchen above them. Sage followed suit and could see four orange and two yellow human shaped figures walking around above her.
“Why are two of them yellow?” Sage asked as she looked back at Jefferson, who was bright red through her mask.
“The orange means they are one floor away and the yellow means two or more, it helps you detect the immediate dangers. As you can see, I am bright red because I am the closest to you and on the same floor.” Jefferson switched off the mask and removed it. Sage did the same and Jefferson switched the lights back on.
“Now, let’s get you prepared, just in case you need to defend yourself. How do you feel about these?” Jefferson handed Sage two thin daggers that were shaped like tridents with a bronze handle wrapped in black leather.
“I have had these stored away for the right person, I think you might be good with them and they are much quieter than those falcon pistols. Let me show you how to use them.” Jefferson took the daggers and whirled on the hay filled mannequin. Hay spilled out of the slashes on its torso and throat. Sage felt herself instinctively step back and her mouth drop open.
“Your turn.” Jefferson handed the daggers to Sage.
“Just find your balance and allow your body to take over. Use your instincts, not your mind.” Jefferson stepped back and crossed his arms over his chest. Sage took a deep breath and released it slowly, calming her mind and allowing the weight of the daggers to move her hands in wide arcs and smooth slashes across the mannequin.
She felt her anger and sadness moving her arms and legs as she sprang forward and swiftly embedded the daggers deep into the chest.
The room was blurry as she relaxed and removed the daggers. There were bits of hay in her hair and all over the floor around the mannequin. She realized how hard she was breathing as she turned back to face Jefferson who had a confident grin on his face and was clapping slowly.
“I knew you would like those,” he said as he handed Sage a small black leather holster that strapped to her back like a backpack. The daggers slid into place, creating an X across her back, their hilts easily reachable behind her shoulders.
“Hopefully you won’t have to use these tonight but just in case, you should keep them nearby.” Jefferson grabbed a pistol off the table and walked over to the gear closet. He grabbed a black leather jacket, black pants, and matching boots.
“Here you’re going to need these tonight.” He handed her a smaller black leather jacket and matching boots that laced up to her knees.
“We will leave here at 1am so be prepared. Oh and do yourself a favor, get some sleep.” He laughed as he made his way back upstairs. Sage looked around the room and caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Her hair was a mess, and she had dark circles under her eyes from the lack of sleep. She heard footsteps coming down the stairs and Emery calling her name.
“Sage, you still down here?” she said in her small high-pitched voice.
“Yeah I was just getting a few things together for tonight.” Sage grabbed her boots and mask and made her way towards the stairs. Emery stood there staring at the mess of hay that covered the floor around the mannequin.
“What the hell happened to him? Did Jefferson finally flip a switch?” She laughed as she picked up a hand full of hay and put it on top of the dummy’s head like hair.
“Actually most of that is from me. Jefferson thought I would be good with these and I guess he was right.” Sage laughed nervously as she slid one of the daggers out from its holster. Emery dropped the hay she held and stared at Sage.
“You did this? With those? Where did you even learn how to use those?” Emery gawked at the gold blade in Sage’s hand.
“I don’t know, I just picked them up and it was like everything else faded away and all I could think about was Eliza and Andrea.” Sage felt her heart sink at the mention of her sister’s name and knew Emery felt it too.
“We’re going to get them back. We have to. Andrea is all I have left.” Emery sat down in the mess of hay and fiddled with a single blade mindlessly.
“We will. We have a plan and unlike the rest of the people in the Frame we’re Awake so we already have an advantage.” Sage sat down next to Emery and put her arm around her. Emery’s black curly hair spilled over Sage’s arm, her green-gold eyes were wet with tears that collected at the edge of her lower lashes and left steaks down her full cheeks. She grabbed the other dagger off Sage’s back and examined it.
“Sage, why is your last name engraved in this?” she said holding it in front of Sage. At the base of the blade written in a small cursive font was J. Blackwell.
“I don’t know. I didn’t notice that before. Jefferson said that he was waiting to give these to the right person; he must have meant a Blackwell. I’ll ask him about it tonight when we go to get the tablet,” Sage said as she yawned and stood up.
“Come on, let’s go, I need a nap.” Sage put out her hand for the other girl and slipped the daggers back into their holster as they headed back upstairs.
When they got into the kitchen
everyone had congregated in the living room. Sage’s parents sat on the smaller sofa. Harlow and Audrey sat in a large reclined chair, Audrey had fallen asleep and Harlow was mindlessly twirling her hair between her index and middle finger. Jefferson sat in the armchair next to Sage’s parents talking quietly to her dad about the plan for that night. River sat on the floor with his back against the couch and his arms propped up on his knees. He was messing with one of the arrows from his crossbow when Sage removed her gear, and she and Emery sat on the couch behind him. Sage suddenly remembered just how tired she was as she curled up and laid her head on the armrest, letting that morning fade away and quickly dozing off.
Chapter 6
Sage awoke to the sound of someone in the kitchen. When she opened her eyes she noticed that her mom and Jefferson were missing. She made her way into the kitchen to see her mom standing over a hot pot of boiling soup. The smell of garlic permeated the air, and Sage realized that it was nearly eight pm.
“Ah, here will this work?” Jefferson had retrieved a bag of potatoes from the pantry and sat them on the counter. Sage’s mom nodded and continued to look after what she was cooking.
“Are you making soup?” Sage said as she recognized her mom’s famous potato and onion soup.
Her mom jumped and dropped the spoon when Sage spoke, clearly unaware of her presence.
“Don’t you know better than to sneak up on the cook?” She laughed as she wiped up the spill and rinsed off the spoon. She reached out, and Sage hugged her tightly. It was clear to Sage that her mom was nervous for tonight, but she also knew it was what had to be done.
“Why don’t you go wake the others, dinner will be ready shortly,” she said as she kissed Sage on the forehead and turned back to her soup. When Sage went into the living room everyone had already woken up and they were listening to Sage’s dad explain the plan.
“After we get the tablet tonight, we will have a few days to prepare the rest. Once we get everyone back here safely, and we have Eliza and Andrea, we will have to leave as quickly as possible. Jefferson says we will only have two days to get out of the Frame before the CA begins searching homes. We have to be out of here before that happens so we must be ready.” He spoke as if he was giving a military briefing to a group of soldiers; his commander voice is what Eliza had called it.
“How are we going to get out of the Frame, isn’t the air in the Wilderness highly toxic?” River questioned as Sage joined them on the couch.
“The masks,” she said under her breathe as she remembered the night vision masks that Jefferson had in the basement.
“What? What masks?” Her dad said, looking confused but hopeful.
“The night vision masks that we are going to use tonight are just modified masks from the Sickening. They look like they might still work as respirators. We can use them when we leave the Frame until we know if the air is poisonous or not,” Sage explained.
“Well, that could work, but are there enough?” Harlow said, looking around the room, assessing how many masks they would need.
“I didn’t count but it looked like a good amount.” Sage walked towards the basement door to check how many masks were down there just as her mom had called out that dinner was ready. They all made their way into the kitchen and each grabbed a bowl of soup and a warm roll. Once everyone was seated and had started eating Harlow asked Jefferson about the masks.
“I have nine total, but I am not sure if the ventilation systems still work on them so it would be risky to use them,” Jefferson said through a mouthful of bread.
“But it would be more of a risk to not wear them. If that air is toxic than we should at least attempt to protect ourselves,” Harlow protested.
“Well then, I suppose we have no other options.” Jefferson stood to retrieve several bottles of water for everyone.
After they ate Sage made her way upstairs to get dressed. She had slipped on black cargo pants that were tight but stretchy so she could move easily. She had on a black tank top under her jacket Jefferson had given her. She pulled half her hair up into a small ponytail and sat on the edge of her bed to lace up her boots. There was a small nock on her door and when she looked up her dad stood there.
“I know you are against this, but I am the only one who can do this. You have to trust me dad,” she said, trying to make her dad feel sound in her decision.
“Actually, I was just coming to bring you this.” He held out his hand and gave Sage a black watch.
“You have roughly two minutes to get in and out of the house before all the CA’s get back to their posts. I figured you could use this.” He helped Sage fasten the watch around her wrist and showed her how to set the timer.
“I won’t even need that long,” Sage said with a laugh. She had finished lacing her shoes and slipped on her dagger harness. She was sliding the blades into place when she remembered the engraving on the blade.
“Dad, do you know what this means?” She showed her dad the blade and was surprised by his confused reaction.
“These are very old, maybe three hundred years. I don’t know much about our family lineage since that was mostly erased over the centuries but they clearly belonged to someone in our bloodline.” He turned the blade over and engraved on the other side was Ferrum ex Animo.
“What does that mean?” Sage asked, trying to determine what the small calligraphy said.
“It’s clearly not English. It looks similar to some of the older texts in the council Library but I’m not sure what it is,” her dad said as he slid the blade into her holster.
“Please, be careful tonight,” he said as he hugged her, and then turned to go back downstairs. Sage looked down at her watch and realized that it was nearly 1am. She fastened her key around her throat and slipped her other dagger into place. She grabbed her mask and made her way back down into the living room with the rest of them.
“Oh, good you’re ready! Let’s head out before the sun begins to rise,” Jefferson said as he checked his gun magazine and strapped it against his hip. Sage hugged everyone goodbye and prepared herself for what she was about to do. She kissed her mom and dad once more and with a deep breath she went out the back door towards the tree line behind her house. She slipped on her mask and turned on the infrared setting.
“You should take the lead since you know these woods better than I do,” Jefferson said as he lagged back a bit and pulled his mask into place.
“This should be far enough.” Sage could see her house from where they were, and she was surprised by how many CA agents were around it. There was one by each door and several placed around the perimeter. Inside there was one on each staircase and at the entrance of each room. She felt her throat tighten at the sight of her home infested by agents, and she swallowed hard.
“Climb that tree as high as you can and in thirty seconds fire your gun. I am going to wrap around to the right side and climb in through the window,” Sage explained to Jefferson where to sit in the nook of the tree limbs where he couldn’t be seen.
“Here, you will want to use this.” Jefferson handed Sage a small disk that had a blue ring of light in the center.
“What is it?” Sage asked as Jefferson strapped it to the side of her mask.
“This is a frequency disruptor that will disable the CA agents’ thermal masks from seeing you. It’s the same emitter I used when I built the basement. These ones are smaller and will only last for five minutes then it will disarm so move fast.” Jefferson climbed the Beech tree and once he was high enough and in position Sage took off to the right where the tree line wrapped around towards her house.
She could see the small window at the bottom of the house that dropped down into the basement. They never locked those windows since crime practically didn’t exist in the Frame so she knew she could get in through it.
Suddenly, she heard a single gunshot from up in the trees and her blood ran cold. She saw the guards surrounding the outside of the house gather and make their way towards the tree
s.
She pressed the disruptor on her mask, and then she was sprinting towards the window. It opened without any issues, and she dropped into the basement. She was bombarded by the familiar smell of her home and suddenly wanted to cry.
Sage brushed away the ache in her chest and made her way towards her dad’s office on the second floor. There was a guard at the top of the basement stairs with his back to Sage.
“Did you figure out where that gunshot came from?” he said over his headset. Sage couldn’t hear the answer but the guard moved away from his post and headed towards the window at the back of the house. She slipped up the stairs and turned to go towards her dad’s office. She stopped just before turning the corner and realized that there was a guard at the door blocking her from going in.
“Kline, do you see anything from over there?” A voice called from across the hall in her sister’s room.
“Hang on I’ll check.” The guard at the door moved towards the window on the back wall of the office, and Sage took the opportunity to sneak in and hide under the desk. She knew the tablet was in the drawer directly above her, but she couldn’t move to retrieve it or the guard would see her.
“Nothing from here,” he said as he moved back to stand in front of the door. He had his back to Sage now, and she could reach the tablet without being seen. She opened the drawer and slipped the tablet inside her jacket pocket. Suddenly, she realized she was trapped inside her dad’s office since the guard was blocking the only exit. She knew her frequency disruptor would disarm at any minute and had to think fast.
The only other way out of the room was through the window. She was on the second floor, which meant that she was at least sixteen feet off the ground. Underneath the window was the pool and from what she could see there were no guards nearby.
She slipped over to the window and slid it open. It made a small squeak, and Sage froze. She peered over her shoulder expecting to see the guard rushing towards her but he hadn’t moved. She pushed the window all the way open and with shaking hands she popped out the screen. It crashed to the ground below her right next to the pool. She felt the tablet in her pocket; I hope this thing is waterproof she thought as she lifted her foot onto the window frame.