Just then the doors of the barn flung open and Marshall stormed in. “What the hell is going on?”
Doyle grinned. “Well, good morning to you too, Sunshine.” He was as big a smartass as me.
Marshall wasn’t in the mood for it. He stepped up close to Doyle until they were almost nose to nose. “Listen, this isn’t your colony. I run things around here and you can’t just show up on my property and address my Interceptors without my permission.”
I’d never seen Marshall be so territorial. “Marshall, dude, Doyle is cool—”
“Stay out of this Bram,” Marshall barked.
Doyle smirked. “No matter what you do or say, these kids are Grims by blood and they belong to Nowhere. There’s nothing you can do to change that including slapping some silly label on them. Interceptors. That’s rich Brother Grim.”
Marshall scowled. “I’m not your brother and I am not a Grim anymore.”
Doyle put his hands up. “Whatever you say. Anyway, I’m leaving and I’ll never be back. So much for hospitality.”
Marshall finally stepped aside and Doyle sauntered toward the door then paused. “Oh, by the way, there are colonies out there who don’t appreciate what you do—this ridiculous business of saving Humans—none of us Grims do really—but several colonies are especially outraged about you being a renegade and going against the Sacred Covenant.”
Marshall glared at Doyle. “What’s your point?”
“My point is you’d better watch your ass. Something unexpected might be coming down the pike. Normally I wouldn’t give a damn but with these young Grims here—just watch your back.” Then Doyle disappeared through the doors of the barn.
“What was that about?” I asked Marshall.
He shook his head. “Nothing. Empty threats as usual. We knew when we started this that other Grims would be against it, but that’s not going to stop us. There are to be no unwanted visitors on this farm. Anyone else from your colony pops up, you bring them to me immediately.”
I had no intentions of doing that, but I nodded.
“You should get to your chores,” Marshall snapped before heading out.
As soon as he was gone, Adaro entered. “What happened? What did Marshall want?”
“Nothing. Nothing to worry about. Everything is completely under control.”
I had never been so wrong about anything in my life.
4
The thirty of us filed into Marshall’s lab. When there were bigger jobs, it took several rounds through the transportation chamber to get us where we needed to go since the capsule could only fit six people at a time.
I anxiously waited for my turn with Kuro at my heels. He watched the chamber like he couldn’t wait to get in. “I hate to say this, but I’m actually getting the hang of this. Aren’t you?”
Kuro was probably the bravest of us all and the most impulsive. He did crazy things without thinking them through first (like decapitating a Human, but the dude had it coming). A lot of times it was a good thing. Sometimes second guessing makes a person change their mind about doing what needs to be done. One thing I did admire about him was that he made no apologies for his spontaneous behavior.
“Yeah,” I lied. “I can do anything they can.” The truth was that the Interceptors were a lot stronger than I was. They jumped right into their assignments without fear of injury or death. I wanted to be like that, but this was all new to us.
Normally Grims couldn’t die unless they had less than one hundred years of their lives left. I was standing strong at 528 years. I could fall from a thirty-story building, get my head chopped off, or sit in a burning fire for hours and I would still be alive. Sure, I would me a mangled, headless mess, but I would still be alive. Unfortunately, becoming an Interceptor changed all that. Taking Marshall’s serum into our veins, took away our precious immortality. It was a huge thing to give up, but it was the only way we could stay here. Now I had to worry about dying and that scared the shit out of me. I had no idea how the Interceptors could operate without that worry. It was like they thought they were invincible. Either that or they didn’t care about Death.
After a few minutes, it was time for Kuro and me to step into the chamber. I took a deep breath, praying that this time went smoother than the last. The other guys who had been on the suicide assignment with me had barely spoken a word to me since then. I had something to prove. I couldn’t have them looking at me like I was a punk. On this mission, I had to prove that I could keep up with the best of them. I couldn’t afford to mess up another assignment. Not even Marshall would be that forgiving.
Some assignments come with specifics and some don’t. All Marshall knew was that we needed to be on some bridge in Ohio, Marker 93. As for who was going to die and how, we had no idea. We were going to wait and see.
In my opinion those assignments were the worst. You could spend days sitting around waiting for something to happen and for someone like me with no attention span, the wait was almost unbearable--especially when I had to spend it with Mauricio.
I held my breath as the chamber traveled upward. The other Interceptors were silent, probably lost in thought or saying a silent prayer that everything went okay. I looked at Kuro who smirked and jutted his chin as if this were about to be a piece of cake.
My legs shook as the chamber rose. We went slow at first, picking up more speed each second. After about thirty seconds, the chamber came to a halt and we balanced ourselves to stay upright.
The doors slipped open and I stepped out first. It was still daylight, early evening. The guy was a hazy gray. I was transfixed on it when Kuro pulled me back. A huge back SUV roared passed almost knocking us off our feet. “Watch it man,” he said, patting my shoulder.
“No, no,” Mauricio said, leaning against the chamber. “Next time let him go. He should play in traffic every chance he gets.”
Kuro frowned and looked like he was going to say something but I pressed against the small of his back to lead him away. We stood against the cement barrier of the bridge where most of the others stood either taking in the scene or going through their back packs.
I watched Scarlett who oversaw this mission. She stood closest to the traffic with her hands on her hips. Her curly red hair fluttered with each car speeding by. Looking around, I tried to see what she saw. We were on a bridge about 200 feet above water. There were tall rails forming a decorative burgundy steeple in the center. The trucks and building materials told me that the bridge was under construction. The look of the cement led me to believe it was either a new bridge or it had been remodeled.
There were a few things that could go wrong that could cause death, but I assumed there was going to be an accident. I hadn’t dealt with one of those before but the other Interceptors had plenty. Since there were thirty of us, I concluded that it couldn’t be a simple accident. Maybe there was going to be a large pile up involving several cars. Was I going to have to step in front of a speeding vehicle? Maybe I would have a lift a car off someone. Pull a bloody body from the wreckage?
Scarlett turned around and whistled, getting everyone’s attention. “I still don’t have a sense of what’s going to happen but I don’t think it will be long from now. I’m going to take Mauricio and Clair with me to investigate that way,” she pointed to her left. “Lance, I want you to take a couple of guys and go that way. I want the rest of you to stay put until I give you further direction.”
After the two groups went off into their respective directions, Kuro and I took a seat on the ground, our backs leaning against the cement barrier.
He pulled a canteen from his back and took a long swig of water. “So, what’s up with you and Keira?”
I shrugged. I hadn’t talked about Keira to anyone. “What do you mean?”
“You know. Are you guys going to hook up or what? Cause I mean, if you’re not going to make a move maybe I will—”
“She’s spoken for.”
Kuro smiled and punched me in the shoulder. “I knew that would get it out
of you. Good for you, man.”
“How about you and Ebony? You guys have been spending a lot of time together.”
Kuro blushed. “Ebony’s cool. It’s a little awkward because I was going to end of being betrothed to Shila and she knows it so I think she kind of expected us to be a thing. But I like Ebony a lot.”
I noticed the traffic slowing down on the bridge as it filled with rush-hour traffic. “Then that’s who you should be with. That’s part of the reason we came here, so that we could make these decisions for ourselves.”
The ground underneath my ass jolted. Kuro must have felt it too because he shot me an alarmed look. The two of us leapt to our feet. Three massive freight trucks were coming our way at the same time Scarlett and her crew were coming back. Her eyes were wide and frantic. “It’s the bridge!” she shouted as she neared. “The bridge is going to collapse.”
The hell? The bridge was going to collapse with us on it and nothing but water below us? I couldn’t even swim. There had never been a situation when I’d needed to.
“Grab onto something,” Mauricio ordered.
Just as everyone scrambled for the cement barrier, the ground beneath our feet began to crack. The cars roared on completely oblivious to the fact they were less than minutes away from plummeting into the water below. How the hell were we supposed to stop this from happening?
The bridge jolted again, this time much harder. It felt like an earthquake. A few cars came to a screeching halt and the passengers exited the vehicles. Other cars honked but others were catching on to the idea that something was wrong.
My heart stopped with a noticed a large chunk of the bridge disappear. That’s where the collapse would begin but cars were still traveling in that direction. Suddenly more parts of the bridge fell and a car dipped into the opening. A few Interceptors raced in that direction but even I could see they wouldn’t make it in time. The bridge was breaking like a cracker.
After that, it was a deadly chain reaction. The center of the bridge had completed disintegrated. People were panicking, screaming, and running in the opposite direction.
Charlotte shouted her final orders as the Interceptors fanned out. “Careful everyone. Be careful where you step. Try to find someone in dire need.”
I reluctantly peeled myself away from the place where I stood. I hurried toward the center of the bridge where it was collapsing. Since the scene was total and utter chaos, it was hard for me to decide where to go. I spotted a red sports car. The driver’s door flung open and a man hopped up carrying a little girl. Before he could get any further, he, the car, and the little girl disappeared. I sprinted to the opening where the bridge was crumbling. The ground shuddered underneath my feet.
The red sports car was heading toward the waters below. The man was nowhere in sight but the little girl was clinging onto the bridge with her tiny fingers hanging on for dear life. I grabbed her by the wrist just as she let go, making sure I had a firm hold on the bridge.
The tiny girl had black hair and green eyes. She screamed as several Humans dropped into the waters below—the ones we couldn’t save.
I would have said something to calm her down, but she couldn’t see me. Suddenly she looked up and locked eyes with me. What the hell? Could she see me?
“Hi,” I said.
She only stared back, blinking.
“What’s your name?”
“Sam.”
Yes, she could see and hear me.
“Sam, it’s okay. You’re safe now. Don’t worry.”
Grunting, I lifted Sam safely to the bridge with one hand. Then I carried her as fast as I could far away from where the collapse was taking. The whole while she screamed for her father. I hated that I couldn’t save him, but at least she would be okay.
I delivered Sam to a cluster of police cars, officers, and paramedics who had just arrived on site. When I handed her over to a female officer with friendly eyes, I felt something foreign. My heart was fluttering and my chest felt warm. I had never experienced that exact temptation. I felt pride, accomplishment, and another feeling I couldn’t describe.
After taking one last look at Sam, I hurried off to find the transportation chamber.
Once Scarlett was satisfied that we had done all we could, she opened the chamber and we went home.
In the barn, Naomi was sitting up reading when we came in. Her bed sat in between mine and Keira’s. “How’d it go?” she asked.
I shrugged. “It was okay.” But it had been more than okay.
Naomi gave me a sly smile.
“What?”
“It feels good, doesn’t it?”
I shrugged. I didn’t know Sam or any of the other Humans on that bridge, but yeah, saving the ones we could felt good. There had been no reason to let those people die when it was possible to save them.
5
The next day I slept until noon. I was shaken awake by my brother Dorian. I forced my eyes open, using my hand to shield them from the bright light pouring through the open shutters. “This better be damn good, little bro.”
His dark hair was a mess and he bore a serious expression. “There’s a Grim here from Nowhere. He says he has a message for us.”
I shot up in my bed, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. It was probably Doyle sending a message. I panicked, hoping nothing horrible was going on back home. The Grims who weren’t on farm duty stood silently by their beds waiting for my reaction.
By the door stood a young Grim looking like he was about to pee himself. The black rags hanging from his body gave away the fact that he was from Litropolis.
I stepped forward. “Who are you?”
The boy looked to be no older than seventeen. Black smudges covered his skin and he gave off the aroma of trash and spoiled food. He removed the black knit cap he wore, covering shocks of black hair.
“I’m Than.” He held out a roll of yellowed parchment paper tied with a black string. His hand trembled as I took it from him.
“What is this, Than?”
He glanced sheepishly at the other Grims and then at the ground, avoiding eye contact with me. “It’s a message from Mr. Doyle. I didn’t read it. He told me not to.” Then he quickly added, “I don’t know if it’s bad or good,” as if he were afraid we would blame him for whatever the note said.
With a quick motion, I released the paper from its string and unrolled it. The message was written in some foreign language. Languages of the world was part of our Grim studies, but I had never been good at memorizing them. One language seemed to be all my brain had the capacity for. The language looked vaguely familiar to me so I attempted to read the foreign curves and symbols. The first few words came easy:
“Dear renegade Grims . . . you are . . . hearsay . . . but.” Me reading it was going to take forever and it made no sense. Sighing, I handed the paper over to Keira. If anyone could read it, she could.
She looked at it while Chase peered over her shoulder. “It’s written in Lenis,” he noted.
Keira nodded. “Yeah. It reads ‘Dear renegade Grims, you are hereby put on notice. If you do not return to your home colony of Nowhere within seventy-two hours, every member of your family . . . shall be put to death.”
A deafening silence filled the barn. Than, wide-eyed, took a step back as if he expected us to attack him for being the messenger.
“What?” someone asked.
“There’s more,” Keira said before she continued to read. “This is not an empty threat. Every family with a missing Grim shall be executed in their entirety at the end of the third day should their missing ones not return. Signed, your Lord of Death, Mr. Dunningham.”
“What’s that at the bottom?” Chase asked.
Keira squinted and held the parchment paper closer to her face. “There’s more at the bottom in tiny writing. It . . . it . . . doesn’t make sense. These aren’t even real words. What does that mean?”
No one had an answer. It was strange, but it didn’t matter anyway. We were stunned by the
first part of the letter—the part that threatened our families’ lives.
Than had inched his way to the door. “I’m sorry. I must get back to the transportation chamber. You should understand that Dunningham is very serious about this . . . at least from what I hear. We all know he is capable of it.”
He hurried through the door, letting it slam closed behind him.
“So, what are we going to do?” Nokomis asked as soon as we were alone.
“What do you mean ‘what are we going to do’?” Ebony demanded. “We’re going to go home. This shouldn’t even be a question. We need to go now.”
Adaro stood beside me. “Not so fast. What if he’s bluffing? Would Dunningham really put so many Grims to death?”
No one answered because we all knew he would. No matter what he did, he would always have the loyalty of the Grims of the Upper Estates as long as his tyrannical ways didn’t affect them.
The faces of my mother and father flashed before my eyes and I realized then how much I missed them. “Ebony is right,” I said. “There isn’t even a question. We’re not going to let out families die because of us.”
“Hold on,” Kuro said. “After all this—after all we’ve been through, we’re just going to give up like that?”
“Kuro, what do you suggest we do?” I asked. “I hate to say this, but we’re going to have to give Dunningham what he wants. I’m not willing to have my mother and father executed for my actions and I’m sure you feel the same.”
I looked over the room of solemn nods.
“Dammit,” Kuro said, stomping over to where our scythes leaned against a wall.
“What’s going to happen to us when we go back?” Naomi asked. “Sure, our families will be spared, but there’s no way Dunningham will let us go unpunished. I don’t care what that note says.”
Everyone started talking at once. A few Grims were in tears.
Nokomis sat on the edge of her bed and buried her face in her hands. “I knew I shouldn’t have come here. I knew it.” She glared at me. “Now I’m either going to die or my family is going to be executed. Either way it wasn’t worth it.”
Brametheus Grim Page 3