by Ann Aguirre
The pain of having the slash tended put her out, or maybe it was the sight of her own blood. I’d seen people react that way before. Whatever the reason, she went limp in Fade’s arms.
“Let’s get out of here,” Stalker said.
I paused and glanced at Fade. “Can you carry her?”
A sense of having been here before came over me. I remembered asking him that about the blind brat — and look at how that turned out. His face went tight. “I can. We need to find a place to rest and see if we can do something for her.”
No arguments there. Since I had the best night vision, I set the pace and scouted ahead for more Freak patrols. The farther we got from their ruins, the more I hoped their numbers would be sparse. I couldn’t count on us finding a safe spot to rest soon, though. I had to assume they were all around us. My one comfort — that I’d smell them before I saw them, even with my good sight.
We walked through the night with Fade and Stalker taking turns carrying Tegan. She woke up eventually and asked us to let her walk. I just shook my head and kept moving. I hadn’t been this exhausted in a long time. Living aboveground had made me soft in some ways. As if from a distant dream, I remembered our run to Nassau and how only willpower kept me going. I called on it now to keep moving — and I wasn’t even helping with Tegan.
I felt like I had to offer. “If you want me to take a turn with her—”
“We need your eyes,” Fade said. “At least until it gets light.”
“Do you think we’re far enough to stop?” I sniffed the air experimentally and it smelled clean, only the crisp scent I associated with trees and plants, mingled with a hint of musk from some animal that had marked the bark, and a trace of rotting leaves. I also got the tang of blood from Tegan’s wound, so anything hungry in the area would scent her too. Bad situation. The Huntress in me suggested we should leave her behind, too much dead weight. I silenced that voice with an angry clench of my teeth. It wasn’t a choice I could make; maybe I did have part of a Breeder’s heart, and that possibility didn’t shame me anymore.
Stalker answered, “Best to keep going until daybreak, at least.”
Tegan just whimpered and Fade shouldered her again, taking her from Stalker. I didn’t have the watch or any sense of where we were going now, so I simply followed the road and watched ahead for trouble.
Just before dawn, I smelled it.
More Freaks — their rot carried on the wind. I spun in all directions, scanning for them. They came from behind this time, which meant they were tracking us. Worse and worse. Dark words boiled up, full of fear and dread, but I swallowed them and kept my report practical.
“Put her someplace safe. We have another fight coming.”
Fade carried her off toward the trees and laid her down gently. “Stay here. Don’t move. I’ll make sure they don’t go for you, and if they do, I’ll stop them. Understand?”
She nodded, flattened herself against the ground, and went still. Playing dead? It might work as long as we occupied their attention. This time, we had twelve incoming and we were down one fighter. Not that Tegan was great on her best day, but she’d been deft enough at swatting them back. It kept them busy long enough for the rest of us to slice the monsters up.
“Four each,” Stalker said.
I nodded and planted my feet, despite the aching exhaustion that coursed through me. It would have to be daggers this time. Though I could use my club — Tegan didn’t need it — I no longer had the strength or stamina. The odds of winning were steeper this time, and the potential consequences of loss more grave.
As the Freaks charged us, I braced for the first wave. I didn’t expect to survive the fight, but the steel Silk had instilled in me wouldn’t let me roll over. I wheeled and cut one open. Its guts spilled out, slicking the ground. I danced backward, dodging an attack and leaping away from a snarling bite. These Freaks were angry — I saw it in their bloody eyes; they knew we’d killed their kin.
I caught a claw in the side. The pain astonished me, but before the Freak could fully rip into me, I stabbed it through the hand, and it wrenched back, worsening my wound. But not as bad it could’ve been. I still had my guts in place. I ignored the pain and sank my other knife deep into its chest. Punch and pull, as Silk had taught me. The monster fell, but two more took its place.
Tiring, I fell back, slipping in the blood and guts. They came at me from both sides, and I took them with twin downward slashes, just as Stalker had taught me. I had no doubt the extra training saved my life. I turned to see how they were faring, only to watch Stalker and Fade drop the last Freak, cutting into it in unison. They were fierce, beautiful, and oddly complementary, like the moon in the night sky. For a moment, I studied Fade’s darkness and the fair gleam of Stalker’s hair, and I ached.
I covered my injury with one hand as we stumbled toward Tegan’s hiding place. She sat up, her face tight with pain. “Did we make it?”
“Yes,” Fade said. “I don’t think another tracking party can catch up to us.”
I wasn’t so sure, especially now that we were all covered in blood, and two of us wounded. To make matters worse, we all desperately needed a rest, and if we stopped here, now, they’d pounce on us while we slept. But I recognized that Tegan needed reassurance. I let the lie stand, but when Fade’s eyes met mine, I called him on it silently. He lifted his shoulders in a quiet shrug of acknowledgment.
As the sky lightened, I dug in my bag for my sunglasses. I still couldn’t see as well as the others during the daytime; maybe I never would. I’d do my best to compensate with hearing and smell. My bloody fingers left smears on the sidepieces, and my hands trembled as they fell. I pressed the right one to my side again, hoping it wasn’t as bad as it felt. I remembered how the Wolf had died on the steps of the library. I didn’t want a quick and merciful death — what was more, I didn’t want to see how easy it would be for Stalker to do it.
Keep moving, I told myself. Just like the tunnels.
Stalker took the lead this time, and Fade swung Tegan into his arms. I stumbled after him, knowing both of us needed our wounds tended, but there was nothing but this dusty, silent road, leading endlessly into the distance. The fields around it stood empty and quiet, only the lone tree occasionally breaking the rise and fall of the land. It was green and lush and lovely, damp with what Stalker called morning dew, and I wondered if it would be the last dawn we ever saw.
Still, I walked on.
Despair
Stalker found us shelter in the overhang of a ravine. Despite the bandage, Tegan passed out, her skin taking on a pale and sickly sheen. When I checked the wound, I saw she had been bleeding; the fabric was soaked. If we didn’t get it stopped, she would die, no question. Bonesaw would’ve taken a needle and thread to it, but we had none. So I knew of only one thing we could do.
“Get some wood,” I told Stalker. “And build a fire.”
Though he must’ve been exhausted too, he rose and went to do as I asked, gathering the scrubby grasses, leaves, and fallen twigs he could find first, and then he ran off toward a distant tree. Breaking limbs would create a smoky blaze, but it couldn’t be helped.
Fade sat with her quietly, her head in his lap. I recognized in his nature the Hunter instinct; it drove him to be fierce and protective of those weaker than him. Maybe that was why she drew him. She needed that part of him because she had no matching instincts. In that sense Stalker was right; she was a Breeder, but I no longer thought that was a bad thing. If not for them, our world would not go on, even in its limping way.
I scraped one dagger clean as best I could. The flames would do the rest.
“You think this will work?” Fade asked. He knew what I was planning, of course.
“Don’t know. But if we don’t seal that wound—”
“I know.”
Before long, Stalker returned with his arms full of wood. I arranged it and then we started the fire, using the twigs and leaves first, and encouraged the green wood to burn
. It caught slowly, but with continual attention it stoked up. The smoke would signal any Freaks in the area to our location, but sometimes you had to make the hard choice.
I cut away the fabric from Tegan’s thigh. “Water.”
Since we’d been traveling along the river until this point, we didn’t have a lot to spare. I used it lightly, wiping away the worst of the blood, so I could see how deep it went, and where the ragged flesh opened up. It was bad, maybe crippling. If she walked again — if she lived—she’d limp far worse than Thimble. I rinsed off my hands as best as I could, and then I coated them with Banner’s salve. I applied that liberally to the injury, then put my dagger blade in the fire. I held it there until it glowed. Stalker watched me in silence. I glanced at Fade.
“Want me to cover her mouth?” he asked.
I nodded. Even if she was out, she still might scream. With one hand, I sealed the edges of the torn skin; with the other, I branded her. It was all we could do. We didn’t even have Bonesaw’s limited supplies.
She did cry out, a terrible wail of pain that ended in Fade’s hand. Tegan bit him hard, fighting to get away, but I didn’t stop until I could see it had worked. I pulled the knife away then, and put it back in the fire to burn it clean. The wound could still get infected; her leg might swell. If she took a fever, well, I’d never seen anyone recover from that down in the tunnels.
My hands shook. I closed my eyes for a long moment and dropped my head back against the rock-and-dirt wall behind me.
“You did your best for her,” Fade said softly. “That’s all we can do.”
Stalker’s expression said he’d just leave her. He wouldn’t have cared much about the brat, either. He embodied the Hunter tenet about strength and survival. Sometimes I admired that about him. Not right now. Tegan was my friend, even if she’d come between Fade and me. It wasn’t her fault he found her softness more appealing.
“I need someone to do me now,” I said, lifting my shirt.
Fade’s breath came in a hiss when he saw what I’d been hiding. I couldn’t actually see where the claws raked me, but by their expressions, it looked ugly. I glanced between the two, waiting to see who would reach for my dagger. It had to be sealed. I ran the same risks as Tegan: infection and fever. Freak claws weren’t clean.
Stalker said, “I will,” and plunged the knife in the fire.
He copied what I had done with our precious water and then applied the ointment. On my raw torn flesh, it burned like nothing ever had before, like fire before the white-hot knife. In a way it prepared me for what came after. I closed my eyes, clenched my teeth, and said, “Do it. Don’t give me any warning.”
He didn’t. The dagger seared me, felt like it cut nearly to the bone, so far past my pain threshold that I bit my lip until it bled. I choked my screams, clinging fiercely to my Huntress mettle. Don’t let them see you weak, Silk ordered me. I taught you better than that. You were my best, Deuce. Don’t you ever forget that.
Now I knew I was dreaming. Silk never said anything like that to me. She didn’t praise; she gave cuffs upside the head, orders and backhanded compliments, like, You might be decent, if you weren’t so stupid.
When I finally opened my eyes, I found myself somewhere else. The fire was gone. Fade was gone. No Stalker, no Tegan. Everything was black and white, like one of the pictures I’d seen in the ancient, yellow papers at the library.
And Silk stood there, waiting.
“You’re not dead,” she said.
She’d always been good at reading my expressions. I half smiled because it was good to see her, even if it meant my mind had finally snapped. She looked the same: small, imperious, and confident.
“But I am,” she went on.
The loss hit me hard. Could it be true? Was the entire enclave gone? If so, I was alone as I never had been. I thought of Thimble, Stone, and Girl26. I remembered Twist and ached to know his ending. I wanted to remember them all — each lost face, every crooked smile and funny gesture.
“Are the Burrowers gone too?” I whispered.
“I don’t know. But you’re the last of us, Deuce. Only you can tell our story.”
“There’s Fade.”
She shook her head. “He was never one of us. He’s a hybrid thing, and still doesn’t like the fit of his own skin, despite my training.”
“He just needs to find his place.”
Silk ignored that, her face quiet and grave. “I came to say good-bye, and to tell you to keep the fire burning.”
“What does that mean?”
I heard Silk again, whispering, Keep the fire burning. I opened my eyes, reaching for her. So much to ask. I grabbed ahold of Fade instead. For a minute, the two realities blurred, the black and white and the too-bright day. Then the dream went away, leaving me with that aching echo.
I’m the last Huntress.
“The enclave is gone,” I said shakily.
“You passed out for a bit,” Stalker said, kneeling beside me. “But I think you’ll be all right. You’re a tough one, dove.”
“Get away from her,” Fade snarled. “And stop calling her that.”
I could feel the tension in his body. He held me in his arms, as if he’d been rocking me. I must’ve scared him when I passed out; such weakness was humiliating.
Stalker didn’t back off. His scars pulled to the side as his mouth curled. “Deuce can make up her own mind.”
Were they going to fight now? I felt far too sick at my stomach to deal with this. I shoved away from Fade; the shift sent a lance of fierce fiery heat through my belly. Concern got the better of both of them; they put aside the quarrel at least.
I decided not to tell either of them I had seen Silk. They probably wouldn’t believe me anyway.
“How’s Tegan?” I demanded.
“You weren’t out long. No change,” Fade reassured me.
A relieved sigh slipped out. Gradually, I eased back against the packed dirt. My stomach burned with a steady heat, but I could bear it. I had to.
“Get more wood for the fire?” I asked Stalker. “We’re going to need it.”
I didn’t explain that request either. Fade pushed to his feet. “I’ll go see about getting a couple of birds for dinner.”
He was wicked quick with a rock. Often he could stun one with a throw and then snap its neck while it lay helpless. After the long day, I had no taste for food — I only wanted to sleep, but I couldn’t leave Tegan unguarded. Maybe I wouldn’t be much protection in my condition, but she was still unconscious.
Before they left, I made sure my knives sat within easy reach. I wasn’t sure I could get up if my life depended on it, but cutting the muscle behind the knee would do a lot of damage and bring the attacker down to my level. I watched the approach through the smoky filter over my eyes; it gave the world a peculiar green haze.
By the time Stalker returned, I felt light-headed. He bent to stoke the fire, and I grabbed his forearms in both hands. “Don’t let that go out. Promise me.”
“I’ll watch it.”
“No, promise me you’ll keep it burning.”
From his expression, he thought the wound had driven me a little crazy. But he said, “I swear. I’ll go back for more wood as often as I have to.”
That was all I needed. Darkness swept me away, deep as a night-kissed river.
When I woke, night had fallen. Tegan thrashed in a feverish sleep, and I felt none too healthy myself. The smell of roasting meat filled the air. That was welcome.
“Feeling better?” Fade asked. “Here.”
He passed me the water bottle, and I could see how little we had left. With the rise of the moon and stars, the air cooled as well. The fire banished some of the chill. I drank a little, taking care with it. There was no telling how far we’d come, or where we would find the next clean water.
“Hungry?” Stalker sliced some meat for me and held it on the tip of his blade until it cooled.
I ate it in two bites and wished for more, but
I could see there wasn’t much. “Has Tegan woken?”
Fade shook his head. “Not once. She keeps asking for her mom.”
“We should get moving,” Stalker said, starting to kick dust in the fire to damp it.
“No!” I half pushed to my feet and staggered, astounded at how much I still hurt. I clutched my side, nausea rising. I hoped I wouldn’t lose my food. I needed it.
“You want to stay here through the night?” Fade asked.
Not just through the night. I couldn’t explain my irrational certainty, but Silk had been telling me something, something important, with the fire. We had to stay here and tend it. I just knew if we went roaming off, we were going to die, and nobody would ever hear our story, none of it.
But I couldn’t put my conviction in any terms that made sense, so I just said, “Yes. Maybe she’ll be stronger by morning.”
But she wasn’t.
At dawn, Tegan burned hot as the fire I insisted on tending. I bathed her with the last of the water and tried to get her to drink some. She thrashed and moaned and cried. Tears ran down her cheeks until she didn’t have any left.
Glancing up, I saw the suggestion in Stalker’s eyes. We can spare her this. End it now and move on, before we’re too weak. If I had been going solely on my Huntress instincts, I would’ve agreed with him. But I had more, now.
“Give her until nightfall,” I said softly. “The two of you go see if you can find any water. Get more wood.”
Stalker raised his brows. “You’re obsessed with that fire.”
Yes, I was. Keep the fire burning, Silk had said. It was a promise we would survive, as long as we did. I wouldn’t fail her.
“I’ll go hunting again,” Fade said. “I’ll do better today.”
“Thanks.” Food wasn’t my primary concern today, though. Water and wood, those we couldn’t live without.
Once they had gone, I whispered to her. Little things the Breeders had said to me over the years, and then I read to her from the ABC book. “A is for Apple…”