A Dangerous Game

by Madeline Dyer

  “Are the windows shut?” I yell, twisting around, trying not to see the spirits. But there are so many. It has to be the next Turning already—there are too many spirits about for it not to be. But the sky! It’s dark, yet there are no patches of color. What the hell?

  The engine revs—it’s the spirits—and then we’re going faster, bouncing over bumpy, uneven ground.

  “No, not that way!” Elf yells as we crash over ground.

  I wrestle with the wheel, try to fight the spirits, but it’s no use. They want us to go that way. We’re going that way. Hurtling that way.

  “No!” Elf cries again, his voice breaking and—

  The truck slams to a halt, and I narrowly avoid whacking my head on the windscreen. The wipers are still smearing the spirit across it. I flick them off.

  “Well,” I say, “that was—”

  “What’s that?” Nico points at something on the ground. There are spirits around it, but they’re not that close. Just in a loose circle.

  I lean forward. My heart pounds, my whole body vibrates with energy and fatigue, and I stare ahead. “It’s a body…a person.”

  Elf grabs the gun, then jumps out.

  “There are spirits out there!” I yell, rushing sounds filling my ears, but then I get out too, along with Nico, and we’re racing forward, toward the person, toward the spirits. But the spirits brought us here? Because someone’s in trouble? An Untamed. Out here. Another one…like that woman and baby. My head spins.

  “Keep back,” Elf yells, and he flashes the gun toward us as he indicates for Nico and me to stay near the pickup. He walks up to the body slowly, then turns it over with his foot. The spirits hiss at him.

  I stare at the body.

  The squeak escapes my lips before I can stop it.

  I go cold. My hands are ice.

  No.

  No.

  No.

  Next to me, Nico starts shouting, and I’m vaguely away that he’s yelling at me to get back in the truck.

  But I don’t move.

  I just stare. I stare at the body…at my…at my brother.

  My eyes glaze over.

  He’s there… The body is him.

  It’s Elf.

  “Keelie—get inside! Don’t look!”

  Yet Elf’s here. He’s standing in front of me. Standing in front of me at the same time as looking down at the body. He’s in two places at once. There and—

  Nausea washes over me, sudden and abrupt. I look around, but the spirits are vanishing.

  “Who the hell are you?” I point at my brother—at the one who’s standing. Then I look at the one lying down. But my words don’t sound like me, but maybe that’s because my ears are fuzzy.

  “Crap,” Elf says, then he walks back toward me, a lazy smile on his face. “I was hoping this wouldn’t happen.”

  He lifts the gun up and points it at me, and my eyes widen. I look between him and my brother—my real brother—and feel sick. My brother’s body. And him.

  “He’s Enhanced!” Nico yells. “Has to be.”

  And the man with my brother’s face snarls a low, animalistic snarl that reveals his teeth. “Take me to those other Untamed that your sister’s gone to find. Or I’ll kill you both.”

  “He’s Enhanced!” Nico yells again, and then he’s trying to pull me back. “He’s—”

  “One more move, and I’ll kill you,” the man holding the gun says, and he looks like my brother. He looks just like him.

  I take a deep breath. And then another, and another. Then Nico’s arms are around me, and he’s shaking and clinging to me, and I can hear his heart pounding, and there’s so much going on.

  I stare at the man who looks like my brother. “Your eyes,” I say. But they’re Untamed. They’re not mirrors.

  He grins. Then he brings a hand up to his right eye and pinches his eyeball.

  I feel sick as he pulls a thin layer off… a layer that’s so big, bigger than normal contact lenses and—

  I go cold.

  “Still doubtful?” the man asks, one eye Enhanced, one Untamed. “Gods, you’re thick.” He steps closer with the gun. “Take me to those other Untamed,” he snarls, and he doesn’t sound like Elf anymore.

  An imposter. We’ve had an imposter in our group. My breathing gets faster. How didn’t I notice?

  Behind the Enhanced man, Elf—the real one—stirs. He moves his hand.

  Alive? He’s still alive?

  “Take me to the other Untamed now, or I will kill him.” The Enhanced moves back and holds the gun over my brother. Over my brother’s unconscious head. Inches from him.

  “But you’re not violent people,” Nico says, and I feel his fingers clenching tighter onto my shirt. “You’re not…you don’t use guns.”

  Sweat forms on the Enhanced man’s forehead, and I watch it—watch it and watch him watching me and the gun—as I try to disentangle Nico from me. It seems to take hours, but it can’t have been more than a few seconds.

  Then I take a small step forward, toward them. The Enhanced Elf and the unconscious Elf.

  Is that one really Elf? How do you know?

  “Don’t go to him!” the Enhanced snarls. The gun flashes in the darkening light as the man lifts it higher, and I know it’s lined up directly with my forehead. But I don’t feel anything. Not fear of death. “Take me to the other Untamed.”

  “Oh—okay,” Nico says. “Keelie… Where do we go? Which way?”

  I shake my head. “There aren’t any here. I don’t know where they are.” I look across at Elf, crumpled on the floor. Is it him, really? And he’s alive? His hand moved earlier, but I can’t see any rise or fall of his chest.

  “You do know!”

  As subtly as I can, I move my gaze from left to right, searching for anything that might help. I need a weapon. Need to get rid of the Enhanced—or get his gun—then I can check Elf.

  My knife—I feel for it in my pocket, can’t find it. Hell. It must be in the pickup.

  “Take me to them!”

  The man’s eyes flash, just like the gun, and I suddenly realize how dark it is. The light has fallen so quickly. A gust of wind sends more sand over me. And it’s sharp. It stings.

  Nico glances at me, his face ashen. He’s going to shoot us, he mouths.

  I shake my head. He won’t shoot any of us. He won’t. He can’t. He’s an Enhanced One. They don’t believe in violence. They say it’s wrong. He won’t shoot. He’s bluffing. An empty threat.

  The Enhanced man turns to me slowly.

  “Well then,” he says, his voice nasal. “You’ll tell me after I’ve saved you. We’ve got you, Untamed Ones. You can’t get away. I’ve got you. And my colleague’s got Nbutai.”

  “Colleague?” Nico says.

  The Enhanced man laughs, but this time he sounds like Elf, and I shudder. “There is no village—I loosened Red’s ropes, told him to get out of there when there was a chance, and pass the co-ordinates on as soon as possible. My radio communications haven’t been getting through, but his phone works.”

  “Your radio communications?”

  Nico steps toward me, clings to me again. I try to push him away, but he’s persistent.

  The man nods. “Must be too far for a signal. But I can save you three now.” He fumbles with something in the pocket of his hoody, and I can’t see what he’s doing, but then he’s holding several small vials. My mouth dries.

  But my brain kicks in.

  I think fast. The man’s only got one gun. Can only shoot one of us at a time. If Nico goes for the truck, and I go for the man, try and disarm him, only one of us could get shot. Or have first taste.

  “Get in the truck!” I yell at Nico, and I know he’s seen the augmenters too. And it’s how we’re supposed to react when we see augmenters—we’re supposed to get as far away as possible if we can’t destroy them.

  Nico runs.

  I turn, legs braced, assess the Enhanced.

  “No!” he yells, and he’
s lifting the gun, lining it up with Nico.

  I run at him, pounce, knock him to the ground, feel adrenaline slam through me. My teeth clank together hard, and I grimace, my arms stretching around him, try to get hold of the gun.

  Then the man twists around and shoves me away.

  The back of my head hits the hard, dry earth. Dust billows up, clogs my eyes, and I wince, scrabbling against him as he leaps on me. Something cold like metal presses against my head, and I shove at his arm and—

  A gunshot rips my ears.

  I scream, turn my head, and—

  Everything seems to freeze.

  Not shot? Not me.

  Nico?

  But Nico’s not been hit. I can see him, he’s stopped a little way off, not quite by the truck. Run! I want to tell him. And Elf—the real Elf—has moved, he’s crawling along the dusty floor toward me, pulling himself with his arms.

  No! Don’t come toward me!

  But of course he’s coming toward me—me and the Enhanced, and the Enhanced man is staring down at me. He’s frozen.

  I shove him as hard as I can, my hands against his chest. He yells something at me, and I get a punch to his shoulder—not an effective one—and the gun weaves about like it has a life of its own.

  I kick up, getting momentum, lifting the man with me and—

  Hands grab the man’s shoulders, pull him back, lifting him off me.

  Nico and Elf, working together.

  I scrabble upward, see some broken glass by my foot. Just a little. From an augmenter? But, there’s not much, and he had several and—

  Elf grunts and falls back as the man punches him.

  “Elf!” I rush to him and—

  “No!” Nico yells.

  I turn, see the Enhanced man slam into Nico. A bright blue color. An augmenter.

  I scream, pull myself up, leaving Elf, and try and reach Nico and—

  It happens.

  I see it happen.

  First taste.

  Nico looks at me.

  He mouths something.

  I can’t make it out.

  Nico’s eyes turn silver first, then they’re mirrors.

  The Enhanced man laughs. And it was—it was so quick…so….

  Run!

  My body locks up. I start to shake.

  “Let me save you too,” the Enhanced man says, lunging at me.

  I punch him. I put as much force into my arm, punch right from the elbow, throw my whole weight into it, and I punch him again.

  He falls back, and his other arm—the hand that holds the gun—flies up.

  I jump. My fingers wrap around the gun at last.

  No! Keep punching him! Don’t use the gun!

  Hair whips in my face.

  I go for the trigger.

  The shot resounds through me.

  That’s cheating!

  There’s hardly any blood. Not like with Mila.

  For a moment, I can’t move.

  All I can do is stare at him. At the body. Because it looks like my brother. I’ve killed my sister, and now I’ve killed my brother.

  No. He’s not your brother.

  My breathing speeds up, and I know I need to slow it down, remain calm. But how long? How long has this man been here? Pretending to be my brother? Infiltrating our group….

  I turn back quickly, see Nico standing there, smiling with his mirror eyes. My brother, need to find my brother. My real brother.

  Elf’s not moving. And there’s blood on him too, so much blood. I rush to him, and I’m shaking—shaking so much.

  “Elf? Elf…can you hear me?” I mutter the words over and over again, my hands patting him, and then I’m trying to find the wound because there’s so much blood, and I need to stop the bleeding.

  And Nico’s walking around now, behind me, and every time I glance up, he’s just there, smiling. My heart pounds. He’s Enhanced. My boyfriend.

  No, not my boyfriend. But he’s still Enhanced and—

  We’re in danger. He’s Enhanced. An Enhanced One is here.

  No! He’s only had first taste. And my thoughts are wild, too fast, and I’m trying to help Elf, but I’m sure Nico won’t be in the convert-all-the-Untamed mindset. Just had first taste.

  We’re safe, aren’t we?

  “Come on, Elf.” My hands are slick with his blood. Is he breathing? But my eyes are blurring, and I can’t tell.

  I turn my head. The truck. Need to get him back there.

  Nico smiles like a lunatic, following me as I half-carry and half-drag my brother into the truck’s cab.

  Elf’s eyes creak open, then he blinks at me, groggy. A sigh of relief bursts from me.

  “Elf… Elf, you’re okay… You’re all right… We’re together now, and—”

  Nico’s face appears at the opposite window, makes me jump.

  “No, don’t get in Nico!” I yell, heart pounding as I jump back out. “Elf, stay there.”

  The wind runs icy fingers through my hair as I sprint around. I grab Nico, feeling sicker and sicker as I look at his mirror eyes. He grins at me. Why’s he grinning? What augmenter was it? Happiness? And we all know augmenters are strong…but don’t some Untamed resist them the first one?

  My chest tightens. Everyone’s different—but the outcome’s always the same. And what do I do with Nico? Take him with us—because we’ve got to go back to Nbutai, still got to warn Rahn.

  No! Nico’s one of them! the voice in my head screams. And it’s right: we don’t take Enhanced Ones to the village…not unless they were us and we’ve just rescued them and—

  Nico’s no worse than others we’ve rescued, I reason. He’s had first taste. We can save him. And he won’t have the desire to convert everyone he sees because he wasn’t mind-converted…so that won’t happen, will it? It’ll be safer. Safer than a rescue mission.

  “Get in the back,” I say.

  Red’s ropes are still there, and Nico smiles as I fumble with them. My fingers tremble, but at last I manage to tie him up, and the whole time, he’s smiling and murmuring, “Safe at last… So happy… I’m so happy, Keelie… So happy….”

  I ignore him as best as I can and climb into the cab once I’ve secured him. I look at Elf. But what if he’s another imposter?

  No. He’s my brother.

  I squish my lips together, then look at him carefully. He’s got scratches down the side of his face, and his eyes look duller than usual. Ill.

  “Need water,” he says, leaning forward, searching in the footwell. He picks up the water-skin there, then he glugs the liquid.

  That satisfies me. If he was an imposter, he wouldn’t know where the water was…unless he’d seen the skin there as he got in.

  “Elf. What were our father’s last words to us?”

  He blinks at me. “What?”

  “Our father’s last words?” I hold my breath, praying that no Enhanced One would know the answer. “It’s important, tell me.”

  “Look after Mila for us,” Elf says quietly.

  Relief washes over me, then I’m close to tears. It is him. Why didn’t I check when I thought he’d arrived at the village before? Why? When it was that imposter….

  I run a hand through my hair. It’s all knotty. My eyes smart.

  Why did I trust that it was him? Hell. An Enhanced One has been at Nbutai. The Enhanced know where we are. They’ve known for days, for….

  I go cold, completely cold. That’s two Enhanced Ones who’ve known where our village is… Red and—and this imposter. At least two—but they had communications, and Red’s still alive.

  Nausea washes over me. I have to get back to Nbutai. If there’s any chance that neither Red nor the imposter have got the message back to their people, then I have to go. I have to warn them. I have to get them to move. But Elf speaks before I can start the engine.

  “Did you get there in time?” he asks. “Did you get Mila back?”

  My breath catches in my throat. I shake my head.

  El
f makes a startled sound, and my gaze jerks toward him. His jaw trembles. “Enhanced or dead?”

  “Dead.”

  He grunts, clenches his fists. A vein across his forehead pulses.

  “We need to get back,” I say.

  Elf nods. “Tell me what’s happened.”

  “A load more shit is what’s happened,” I mutter.

  “Explain everything as we drive. Including Nico.” He jerks his head back, and we both hear Nico’s murmurings. Elf swears, then looks out of the window. “What’s that?”

  “What?” My voice is weary, and exhaustion pulls at me.

  “Paper. By the Enhanced man’s body, out there. Is that our map?”

  My vision blurs a little, but then, somehow in the darkness, I see the paper. And—and it does look like our map. But Red took that, didn’t he?

  “I’ll go and look.” I get out of the truck quickly.

  Nervous energy thrums through me as I reach the man’s body, as I make out the folded wodge of paper under him. It’s fallen out from under his hoody and is badly blood-soaked.

  Steeling myself, I use my foot to lift his body up, then I pull the paper out.

  It is the map.

  I let out a shaky breath, feeling sick. So the imposter had it all along. Red didn’t take it…and he doesn’t know where the village is? But the Enhanced man said he told Red the co-ordinates. I feel sick. Is Red going to send people to Nbutai? Would he remember the co-ordinates? Did the imposter really tell him?

  My head pounds. There’s too much stuff in it.

  I head back to the truck, clutching the map. I get into the driver’s seat, and Elf takes the map. The engine sounds throaty as the truck kicks to life. I spray the windscreen, try to get the smeary marks the spirit left on it off. Then I drive.

  Behind us, Nico moans, and I see him in the rear-view mirror, writhing about. In pain? Is that normal for after first taste? I don’t know. I haven’t got a clue.

  “Time to talk, Keelie,” Elf says.

  I nod, and I tell him everything. The whole truth. I tell him it all, everything about Mila, and then Bea, and Red, and my words start to get jumbled up, and I keep having to repeat myself.

  Elf looks like he doesn’t believe me as I tell him it all. When I’ve finished, he shakes his head. Disbelief? Or maybe I haven’t made sense. I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore….