Host

by H. J. Lawson

  We sprint down the steps. “Stop, in the name of the Chancellor,” Gavyn yells behind us.

  I look over my shoulder. He’s pushing people out of the way to get to us. Madison raises her hand and waves goodbye.

  “Rian, the guard is gaining on us,” I call out to my brother.

  “This way,” Rian says, tugging me into the swell of the crowd.

  We move with the crowd through the center of the stadium, where they were just about to murder Lowell. Instead, Xander lies there with guards scurrying around him. Please don’t live.

  If both of them die, we are free. We should have made sure they were dead, my mind tells Rian.

  His mind goes blank. You’re right, he adds with sorrow in his mind.

  A soft hand lands on mine. “Adohnes?” I gasp.

  “This way,” Adohnes says.

  “No,” I reply, trying to snatch my hand away, but his grip is too strong. Rian pulls me in the opposite direction like I’m a piece of rope in a competition.

  “Trust me. This way,” Adohnes says. The stadium lights shine down on Adohnes's face, revealing heavy makeup. Even though Adohnes is the best in his trade, I can see what he’s hiding: bruises and cuts.

  “Rian, this way,” I say, pulling him in Adohnes’s direction.

  “But he sold us out! What did Xander give you for ratting us out? How many bitcoins are we worth?” Rian shouts, prodding Adohnes in the chest.

  “Rian, you can blame me later. I have to get you to safety,” Adohnes says, gently pushing Rian’s hand away from his chest.

  “Later, Rian,” I add as I push forward and follow Adohnes.

  Adohnes weaves in and out of the crowds with grace, as if all the terrified people aren’t here. He glides between them, creating a rhythmic motion that’s almost like music, flowing through without notice.

  “Out of the way,” Rian yells. Rian and I, on the other hand, are more like a speeding shuttle, no airs or graces.

  If it weren’t for Adohnes’s smooth hand in mine I would have lost him in the crowd.

  “Down here,” Adohnes says, pulling us down one of the main streets that lead off the stadium. The street is lined with garage doors on the back of stores and leads nowhere. It’s a dead end.

  “You did it again?” I say with disbelief.

  Adohnes glides forward with purpose, ignoring what I said.

  The sea of people continues running by, passing the street as if it isn’t here.

  We can join them, Rian’s mind says.

  And run to where? We don’t have a plan, we don’t know where to go, my mind tells him.

  Adohnes stops and knocks twice, then three more times, on a white tile on the wall. Rian and I cautiously head down the street and stand beside Adohnes. The air around us is silent as we stare at the wall, waiting for something to happen.

  “Skylier,” Gavyn calls out. He’s standing at the entrance of the street with the blue light on his gun glowing.

  “Open it, open it,” I urge Adohnes. He replies by repeating the knocks on the door.

  “Step away from her,” Gavyn says to Adohnes, pointing his gun at him as he steps closer.

  “She’s just a girl,” Adohnes says, stepping in front of me, protecting me.

  Gavyn pauses, like he’s assessing the situation. “Skylier, I’m a friend of Dax’s.”

  Gavyn takes me by surprise. Just a few moments ago it looked like he wanted to rip the heart out of my body in the name of the Chancellor. And now he’s telling me he’s Dax’s friend.

  The wall clicks, drawing all our attention. Gavyn’s gun is now fixed on the wall.

  The glossy white tiles begin to delicately slide over the top of one another like a puzzle, revealing a female standing in the middle of the opening, with the glow from her guns lighting up her face.

  Gavyn and the mysterious young woman stare at one another, waiting to see who will make the next move.

  “How do you know Dax?” I ask Gavyn nervously, trying to break the silence and prevent any more bloodshed.

  “I was his personal guard since he was a child; I’ve taught him everything he knows. I told him I would make sure no harm came to you,” Gavyn says, with his eyes and gun still fixed on the mysterious lady.

  “Abaven, in or out?” the woman says to Adohnes.

  “In, all of them, Gerel,” he orders. The delicate tone of Adohnes is gone, replaced with a powerful voice I’ve never heard before. Is that Abaven? He reaches out and takes one of Gerel’s guns.

  Gerel nods and waves her gun, motioning toward the entrance. She leads us in through the puzzle wall.

  Gerel looks me up and down, then shakes her head, clearly disliking the Host dress just as much as I.

  Her movements are graceful, like Adohnes’s—or is it Abaven? Her pure white hair trickles down her back, neatly resting on her tailbone, with black tips darkening the bottom of her hair.

  She tilts her head sideways just enough to reveal that beneath her flowing hair, her head is shaved underneath, and her scalp is blackened with tiny tattooed dots. Her flowing movements cover the tattoos before I can make them out. The style is different from the Grounders; theirs are thick and heavy, whereas hers is delicate and looks lighter.

  Adohnes stands with his gun pointed at Gavyn. “One wrong move…” he warns Gavyn as he follows us in.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “Abaven,” a boy says as he approaches him with his gun pointing at us. There are other kids in the room. They stop their flurry of words and bestow all their attention on us. Aside from their guns, they all look like Purenet kids with their pure-white look.

  “Who are these?” the boy asks.

  “These two are with me. I owe them,” Adohnes replies.

  “And him?”

  “Not sure yet. What do you want with them?” he asks Gavyn. “And you'd better have something good to say, or I will let Gerel have you. She loves nothing more than gutting Purenet solders,” Adohnes says. Gerel sounds like a lovely girl… not.

  Gavyn smiles, clearly not scared by Adohnes’s words.

  Before the smile can reach Gavyn’s eyes, there is a whistle as something flies past my ear, and then a thud as a knife sticks to the wall behind me. I flinch. If Gerel had been aiming for me, she would have hit me. She grins knowingly at the fact.

  Gavyn’s smile doesn’t fade, nor does he reach for the ear that’s dripping blood onto his crisp, white uniform. “I swore my life to Dax’s service, and he asked me to prevent any harm to come to Skylier. I am a man of my word,” he says.

  The shimmer of a metal blade is already in Gerel’s grasp. One flick of her hand and the knife will fly past me. Adohnes raises his hand to Gerel. She shakes her head and grits her teeth, looking annoyed that she can’t cut anyone.

  “Why should we trust you?” Adohnes asks Gavyn.

  “You don’t have to; only Skylier does,” he says, looking at me.

  “Where are they holding my mother and sister?” I ask.

  “In the Chancellor’s private labs,” he answers, same as Adohnes had.

  “Can you get me into the labs?” I ask.

  Gavyn nods. “Yes.”

  “When?”

  “When the time is right.”

  “Our mother doesn’t have time to wait, not now,” I tell him as Rian nervously nods.

  “I will get word to you when the time is right. The Sanction is in chaos now, and the guards will be out searching for Dax and the Grounders. I have spent my entire adult life working for the Chancellors, and I know how they work and think. I suspect your mother is low on the list of priorities,” Gavyn informs me, making a good point.

  “Adohnes, I trust Gavyn. He has no reason to deceive me,” I say.

  Skylier, are you sure? Rian’s mind asks.

  What other choice do we have? We can trust him as much as we need him, my mind replies.

  “He could be laying a trap to lead the Purenet guards back to us,” Gerel, says cutting off our mental conversation.
r />   “Abaven or Adohnes, which is it? Who are you really?” I ask.

  “To you I am now Abaven, just as I am to the other lost children,” he replies. The group behind him nod. Lost children? I will ask him later about that.

  “Why do the guards want you, Gerel?” I ask.

  Gerel starts to speak, but Abaven cuts her off. “If you believe him,” he tells me, nodding toward Gavyn, “then so will I. He need not know any more about us, however. Tell Luther’s servant, Sloft, when you have the plan, and where to meet,” Abaven informs Gavyn.

  “Are you just going to let him go?” Gerel asks Abaven.

  Abaven smiles. “After all these years you still question me,” he replies, walking toward Gerel. “It’s as if you don’t trust me,” he says, stopping in front of her.

  Gerel shakes her head. “You know I do. It’s not you I don’t trust. It’s him,” she says bitterly.

  “And you are right not to trust him. Let me deal with him. Never come back to this place. You and the others are to go home when darkness falls. Take Skylier and Rian with you. Make sure nothing happens to them. They are your new brother and sister. Make them part of our family as I have done with all of you,” Abaven says.

  “Yes, Abaven,” everyone in the room chants in unison.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  There’s a hurried feeling in the room as everyone empties the walls lined with different types of weapons, old guns like the ones which the Grounders have. There is no glowing blue panel like on the guns of the Purenet guards. These are weapons from the old days, the days that shaped this world we live in today.

  Within moments the walls are naked, revealing only the hooks or shelves the weapons were on. This room must have been an old store at some point, probably forgotten about and lost in time, left for the lost to find.

  “I’m going to miss this place,” one of the boys says as he throws his bag over his shoulder.

  “Enoch, Abaven will make sure we will be safe to come back soon,” Gerel says to one boy. He looks like the youngest out of the group, but older than me. Where do I know that name from?

  “You’re from Cueva, aren’t you? Rian, look. It’s Enoch,” I say.

  Even with the white makeup I can see the color drain from Enoch’s skin. Fear floods his eyes as he quickly looks away from me.

  “No… no, I’m not,” he mutters.

  “Yes, you are,” I reply.

  “No speaking,” Abaven yells firmly. Why is Enoch not admitting who he really is? Abaven frowns as he stands beside Gavyn, signaling toward the guard with his eyebrows discretely. Enoch wanted to hide his true self from Gavyn, and there I was just blurting his identity out, like a siren alerting the world of his location.

  These kids are all Selections from Cueva. How had I not noticed it before? Maybe because of their artificial appearance. They look different from how they looked in Cueva.

  “We can’t go outside like this,” I say, looking down at my pure white dress with lace details that only Hosts wear. Rian is wearing his training uniform, which is crisp and white; he looks older and handsome in it. Rian looks at his clothing fondly.

  “Skylier’s right. Get them something,” Abaven says from the corner of the room, not leaving Gavyn’s side.

  I’m sorry, Rian. I know you wanted to be in the Games, my mind tells him.

  Yeah, I did, but not now. It feels like we are in our own Games now, Rian’s mind speaks the truth.

  “Here,” Gerel throws me a white shirt and matching pants just like the ones she’s wearing. They are hub staff clothes; I can blend in with these.

  I look around the room. There is no way I’m undressing in front of these people.

  The light catches on Gerel’s blade as she points over toward the store’s changing rooms. I head in and quickly change as Rian goes into a second changing room.

  “Gerel, watch the prisoner, and try not to kill him,” Abaven says to Gerel, then adds, “and don’t injure him. Skylier, Rian, a moment, please,” Abaven says as he points toward a wall.

  Rian and I look at one another.

  Another wall puzzle, our minds think in unison. We smile and head toward Abaven.

  He taps the wall two times, then pauses and taps three more times.

  There is a gentle click as the tiles part from one another, revealing a space. Abaven turns and begins to climb down a ladder. The wall is hiding something below ground. Rian and I follow.

  A click echoes around the room followed by a buzz as Abaven releases a metal cord attached to a glowing naked bulb, the only source of light in the room.

  The room is the same size as my mother’s quarters, with the walls lined with blank monitors. Dust coats the front of them, making them look like a relic of technology.

  Rian drags his finger along one of the monitors, collecting the dust as he goes. The waste would be cursed in Cueva. Everything we owned was Purenet’s garbage, but we cared for it as if it were new, never knowing when we would get a replacement if ours were to break. We all became tinkerers, finding ways to fix things. My father was really good at that.

  “We no longer need them, you will see when we take you home,” Abaven says as Rian studies the dust on his fingers then goes to wipe it on his pants, stopping as he realizes it would leave a dusty trail down his pants.

  “Abaven, what happened last night?” I blurt out the question I’ve been dying to ask since I saw him.

  “Madam Uri spoke with the guards, stating that I was planning to help you two escape. I only found this out as I got to the door. At the strike of twelve, Xander was waiting for me, as I was for you. It was like Xander knew what time I was going to be there. I didn’t tell him. There was no way I could inform you,” Abaven says, the softness in his voice reminding me of him back in the compound, when he was just the flamboyant man that prided himself on preparing us to be the perfect Hosts, not the leader of a pack of kids.

  “You didn’t need to tell him, because I did,” I admit, taking the guilt from Abaven.

  “Why?” he asks in a harsh tone, dropping the soft, caring voice he used in the compound.

  “Xander can read my mind. I had felt it open, and Rian and I were speaking to each other, trying to stay awake. He must have been listening between the two compounds. Anywhere else would have been too far away.” The thought sickens me. What else did he hear?

  “Oh, yeah,” Rian says, pushing his hand through his pure white hair.

  “How can he read your mind?” Abaven asks, confused.

  Rian laughs. “Yeah, Xander is Skylier’s older, crazy brother.”

  Abaven shot up straight, startled. “Your brother?”

  I nod. “Only by blood,” I respond.

  Abaven pauses as he takes it in. “And the Chancellor, is he—”

  I nod once again before he can finish.

  “Oh, dear child. We need to get you to safety,” Abaven says.

  His makeup is coming off with his sweat, revealing the wounds he tried to hide.

  The room falls awkwardly silent as Abaven stares at me. “I’m sorry, Skylier,” Abaven says.

  “Abaven, I told you he must have read my mind. You have no reason to apologize.”

  Abaven shakes his head. “Not for last night—for sixteen years ago. I was the doctor that brought you and your brother into this world. I couldn’t stop them from banishing you and your mother, believe me when I say that. I… I thought you both died in the wasteland. It wasn’t until Sloft showed me a picture of your mother that I really believed it was true... you both lived. The day they banished you, my life as Adohnes changed. I renounced my career as a doctor and became a makeup artist as a cover. Abaven was born, and my sole purpose in life became to protect the Hosts that came through the Sanction. I will never let one of my girls be left to die in the wasteland again.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  Abaven looks down at his wrist as his device glows, and Gavyn’s does the same.

  “Gerel,” Abaven says urgently. Gerel and Abaven
speak for a moment, throwing glances at the group as we all wait to find out what is going to happen next. Part of me is dying to get out of this windowless room, and the other part of me wants to stay, keeping me away from any possible danger. But if I stay here I know at some point I will have to leave.

  Gerel walks toward us after speaking with Abaven. “He wants you to have these,” she says, pushing her fist into my chest. She’s holding a knife. Couldn’t she have passed it to me like a normal person?

  “Thank you,” I say to Abaven, trying to pretend her punch didn’t hurt, but my lack of muscle over that section of my body made the contact rattle my bones.

  Abaven smiles warmly at me. “Be safe, we will be reunited shortly.”

  I stare at the knife for a moment, admiring the blade.

  “Just as I thought,” Gerel says.

  “What?”

  “Using it as a mirror. You’re not going to last out here. You will give us up just as quickly as the other Hosts. Because your type are weak,” she whispers.

  “My type?” I snip bitterly.

  “Time to leave,” Gerel orders, not acknowledging my question.

  She’s a frigging joy to be around, my mind blurts out.

  She is, isn’t she? Rian’s mind almost sings.

  “Really?”

  “What?” Rian laughs as we move forward with the others, toward the door through which we first entered. Abaven and Gavyn stand behind, watching us.

  Stay away from that girl. She’s bitter. Didn’t you see how she passed—no, punched—the knife into my chest? my mind tells him.

  Skylier, you’re overreacting. You used to give people a chance before you judged them, his mind replies.

  That was before, before I knew the screwed-up truth. Anyway, I trusted Gavyn, my mind defends me.

  Only because if offered you something—his help—in return, Rian replies.

  You’re only saying this because you like her, my mind snaps.

  Ha ha, true, but just try not to forget who you really are.

  That’s the problem: I don’t know who I really am. Mother said my ancestors aren’t even from this planet. Does this mean I’m not human? my mind spills out the question I’ve been trying to understand since speaking with my mother.