The Perfect Outcast

by Melissa O. Hansen

  “Stan disappeared in the night,” Alina blurted out.

  He snapped up his head. “What?”

  She explained what happened. He stared at her with wide eyes. “Show me where you last saw him.”

  They walked to the tree, examining the area around it. “Hmm,” Rex said. “Nothing looks out of the ordinary.”

  “I know. It’s so odd,” she said.

  A rustle shook the bushes not far from them. They heard a soft growling noise. Alina met Rex’s eyes.

  “Up a tree. Quickly.”

  Rex dashed to Jade and yanked her up, shaking her from her restless sleep. “Which tree?” he hissed.

  “Right here—I’ll push you both up.” Alina heard the low growl again. “Hurry!”

  “What’s going on—” Jade started.

  Alina boosted Rex to the nearest branch then pushed Jade up. “Reach out, Jade!” Alina shrieked. “Grab his hand!”

  Something tore through the dirt behind them, snarling. Alina forgot about her invincibility and screamed as she scaled the trunk, grabbing branches and hauling herself up. The creature snapped at her heels.

  Rex froze in place. “What in Sampson’s name is that thing?” he whispered.

  Alina didn’t look down but grabbed Jade and pulled her higher into the tree. “Keep moving, Rex! Is it climbing?”

  “No, but it’s trying to. It’s jumping and clawing the trunk.”

  Alina looked down at the creature and gasped. A barbed snout and sharp fangs gnashed at her below its bloodshot eyeballs.

  “What is it?” Jade hissed, her eyes closed.

  “Be glad you can’t see it!” Rex replied.

  “It’s huge,” Alina said. “And look, its tail is spikier than its nose!”

  “At least it can’t seem to climb.”

  The creature lifted its head and let out a long, chilling howl. “What’s it doing?” asked Alina in a hushed voice.

  They heard a matching howl in the distance, and minutes later, an identical creature ripped across the ground and jumped on the other’s back. It sprung on its sinewy legs and clawed at the trunk, growling.

  “They’re working together!” Rex exclaimed in horror.

  “How fast can you run?” Alina asked him.

  “What—do you think we can outrun them?”

  “No, I’m sure we can’t. But I have these.” She pulled out the quills from her pocket. “Maybe these will hurt them. Once they’re out of our path, we’ll have to jump and run along the river as fast as we can. I’ll carry Jade.”

  He nodded. “Something tells me our safe travels are over. We need to get to Stormport as soon as we can.”

  “I’ll drop the quills, and if they work, then we jump from this tree and run. Let’s hope nothing else meets us. Got it?”

  Rex darted his eyes around the base of the tree, then nodded again. “Whenever you’re ready.”

  She took one of the quills between her thumb and forefinger, aimed, and shot it toward the creatures. It whizzed through the air and hit the first one on the nose. They heard a guttural groan as it tumbled backward onto the ground and went still.

  “Hurry—the other one!” Rex ordered. She leaned forward and pitched the quill. The creature hissed as it pierced its eyeball.

  “Go!” Alina shrieked. Rex slid down the tree and jumped over the creatures, and Alina leaped into the air with Jade on her back. After landing on her feet, she took off running.

  Rex kept up with Alina at first, but after a minute, started to lag behind. “Times…like this…miss being…immortal,” he panted. After a few minutes he stopped and bent over, clutching his side. “Can we rest for a moment?” he asked.

  “Okay,” Alina agreed, glancing around them. “I wish I could carry both of you. It’s not that I get tired—I don’t know if there’s enough room on my back.”

  Rex waved a dismissive hand. “I’ll be fine in a minute.” But he held his stomach and winced. “If I could just get some decent food to eat!” he mumbled.

  “We can’t be too far,” Alina reassured him. “If only we knew which way—hey, do you feel something?”

  A breeze picked up, rustling the branches and blowing dirt from the forest floor. Alina looked into the wind. A dark shadow crept through the woods, clouding the trees from view.

  “What is that?” Rex croaked.

  “Jump on my back,” Alina ordered, and he obeyed. “Jade, open your eyes and jump on Rex’s back. Hurry!”

  They both leaped on and clutched her, and Alina broke into a sprint. She moved ahead of the shadow until Jade shouted, “I’m slipping!”

  Alina slowed to help Jade regain her grip. The mist moved closer, billowing like a massive storm cloud.

  She couldn’t run fast enough and keep them on. As the vapor surrounded them, Alina felt Rex and Jade stiffen on her back.

  “I’m burning!” Rex screamed. “Help! Oh, Alina help!”

  She gritted her teeth and ran faster, tears streaming down her cheeks. Rex’s scream halted in his throat as they writhed and groaned on her back. Alina ran harder until unexpectedly, the forest cleared. Through the vapor around her, she could see buildings and homes on the horizon.

  “We’re here! We made it to Stormport!” Alina cried.

  Rex and Jade didn’t answer but slid down her spine, no longer trying to hold on.

  A moment before she reached the city, Alina felt something vibrate through her veins like an electric charge. The vapor disappeared and a shrill siren rang out just as Rex and Jade fell to the ground. Rex gasped for breath, but Jade lay stiff and motionless.

  “Help!” Alina screamed as two men raced toward her from the street.

  “Don’t move!” one of them yelled.

  Alina obeyed but spoke as they approached. “We need help. Please!”

  They eyed her suspiciously, then glared at Rex and Jade. “Two refugees with a spy. An interesting combination,” one of them muttered.

  The other man spoke to Alina. “You’ll come with us and do exactly what we say, or we’ll stun you as well.” He gestured to Jade. Alina stared at the men, puzzled.

  They lifted Jade and carried her to the street. Alina picked up Rex and put him on her back. “Rex,” she whispered. “Are you okay?”

  He gave a low moan. “My leg.”

  Alina looked at his leg and gasped. The wound from the dagger was green and frothy, and his leg was beginning to swell. She ran to catch up with the men.

  “Please, my friend here is hurt. He needs help.”

  “Of course he’s hurt! You ran through the black mist!” one of them exclaimed. “How did you come out okay?”

  “What’s the black mist?”

  The man studied her. “You must be fresh from Pria.”

  She nodded. “We are.”

  They reached the street and he opened the door to a small car. “Get in,” he commanded. Alina helped Rex inside, and they pulled Jade across their laps.

  “Is she going to be okay?” Alina asked.

  “Depends on why she’s here,” he said, slamming the door. The men slid into the two front seats.

  Alina jumped when the vehicle moved, jerking them almost out of their seats. A low rattling noise grew louder as the car gained speed. It didn’t glide above ground like the sleek aircars of Pria. The men’s heavy silence didn’t welcome conversation, so Alina said nothing but looked at Rex. He rested his head against the window and breathed heavy with his eyes closed. Every few seconds he held his breath and tightened his muscles. “It hurts so bad,” he groaned. His leg had doubled in size, stretching the fabric of his uniform.

  Alina took his hand. “Hang on, Rex. We’re in Stormport.”

  He gave a soft but eager grunt.

  Alina gaped out the window as they drove through the streets. Carthem wasn’t what she expected. Her school teachers claimed everyone had brown teeth and wild hair and lived in run-down shacks. But the homes were well kept and pleasing, though much smaller than those in Pria.


  People were outside working in the yard and playing with animals, and groups of children climbed trees and threw balls to each other. A man and woman sat on a bench near the street, tickling a baby on the woman’s lap.

  Alina elbowed Rex. “Look,” she whispered. “It’s a family.”

  Rex opened his eyes. “Where?”

  She pointed, and he stared until they passed. Then he let out a small sigh. “Are we really here?”

  “Yes.”

  He closed his eyes and licked his cracked lips. “Carthem is the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen.”

  Alina smiled. “But the sky isn’t bright blue. There are no perfect, six-petaled flowers. The homes are small, and the people—well, they’re nothing to look at.”

  Rex gave a weak snort. “Don’t remind me of that accursed place. Mortality is a rough adjustment, no doubt,” he stiffened in pain, “but it’s paradise compared to my life in Pria.”

  “Don’t talk, Rex, save your energy,” Alina said, but she reflected on his words. Pria, with all its pleasure and beauty, seemed the perfect paradise. But for Rex and many others, freedom made a paradise. Freedom to choose love, pain—even death.

  Yet that same freedom brought chaos, suffering, illness, and heartache.

  On the edge of the street, a child stumbled and fell on the gravel. As he started to cry, a woman helped him up and held him close, smoothing his hair with her hand. Alina remembered Jade, ten years earlier, doing the same for her. Tears came to her eyes. She’d choose the chaos any day if it created more of those memories.

  The men parked the car next to a large building, then stepped out and opened the back doors. Jade was still unconscious.

  “Please, let me carry her,” Alina begged. “She’s not well.”

  “We will carry her,” one of them snapped. They picked her up and motioned for Alina to follow. She ran around the car and helped Rex out, then lifted him onto her back.

  They walked through double glass doors into the building, where a woman stood up from behind a desk.

  “Is everything okay?” she asked.

  “Call Baylor and Dr. Scott and send them to the debriefing room immediately,” one of the men said. The woman nodded and sat down.

  Alina followed them down a hallway and into a small room, where three metal chairs surrounded a small table. “Stand against the wall,” they ordered.

  Alina complied, still carrying Rex, who felt heavy and limp on her back. One of the men pulled a small square device from his pocket and scanned it an inch above Rex’s body. After a satisfied grunt, he turned to Alina and did the same. The device gave a loud, long beep. He scratched his head as he read something on the screen. “Interesting,” he murmured. He nodded to the man holding Jade and they started from the room, taking her with them.

  “Wait—” Alina called out. They responded by slamming the door behind them.

  Trembling, she placed Rex on a chair and propped his leg up, then knelt down next to him.

  “How are you feeling?”

  He made a face. “Not my best. My leg—”

  A man interrupted them by barging into the room. Dressed in white with a circular tool dangling around his neck, he observed Rex for a moment, then set a leather bag on the table and rummaged through it.

  He knelt on the floor next to Alina and cut Rex’s pants with scissors, then dripped a purple liquid onto his leg. Rex gave a soft moan, and the man began wrapping the leg with a bandage.

  “I’m Dr. Scott,” he said. “Don’t worry, you’re going to be fine.”

  Alina relaxed a little. “What did that black mist do?”

  “It’s a lethal gas that infects any opening in the body. Usually it goes straight into the lungs. Most don’t survive. He was lucky it wasn’t worse.”

  Alina went pale. “Our other friend—where have they taken her?”

  “To the hospital wing.”

  “Is she okay?”

  “I don’t know. I’m going now to examine her.” He stood up and handed Alina a vial of purple liquid. “This medicine treats the infection. Have him put it on his leg every day for a week. Here are some clean bandages.”

  “Thank you,” Alina said. He nodded, grabbed his bag and left the room.

  Alina took Rex’s hand. “How do you feel?”

  He blinked his eyes. “Much better.”

  “They took Jade to the hospital wing. I’m worried about her.”

  Rex licked his lips. “It’s okay, I’m sure they’re helping her. We’re lucky to be here. Their security seems strong—” he broke off as the door opened again and a tall, black-skinned man entered. Alina gave a small gasp. She’d never seen someone without hair before. Smooth, shiny skin stretched over his bony skull.

  He nodded at Alina. “Have a seat,” he said, motioning to the chair next to Rex. She sat down.

  He stood with his arms folded. “I think you both have some explaining to do.”

  Alina glanced at Rex. She didn’t know what was safe to disclose.

  Rex cleared his throat. “As you probably know, we’ve come from Pria.”

  The man gave a curt nod.

  “We are enemies of Sampson and had a difficult time leaving.”

  “He didn’t send you?” the man asked with raised eyebrows.

  “No. This girl is of interest to him, you see, and I was in danger of being imprisoned, so we fled. We almost didn’t make it.”

  “She seems very unscathed for one fleeing Pria.” He studied Alina.

  “Well, she—” Rex broke off.

  The man raised one eyebrow. “Yes?”

  “The wilderness wasn’t too dangerous. We didn’t meet anything threatening until this morning, and we arrived mid-day yesterday.”

  “Nothing during the night?”

  “No, but someone in our party did mysteriously disappear.”

  The man looked back and forth between them with eyebrows furrowed. “The wilderness between the portal and our city is the deadliest in all of Carthem. It’s the only area Sampson can unleash the mist, which he did today. Most from Pria don’t make it here at all. If they do, they’re always injured, unless they’re Sampson’s spies, who all seem to arrive unharmed. But his cast-offs are at his mercy. If he wants someone to die in Carthem, he usually makes it happen. Did you meet any opposition on your way?”

  “I saw a rock that shot deadly quills,” Alina said.

  He nodded. “We call them killing stones, but they’re animals. It didn’t hit you, I presume, since you’re still alive?”

  “Uh—right.”

  “Anything else?”

  “Some horrid-looking beasts with spiky tails chased us,” Rex mentioned.

  “And?”

  Alina paused and glanced at Rex. “We were able to get away,” she answered.

  The man’s face hardened. “They sound like monyxes to me, and those are impossible to outrun. If you’re truly enemies of Sampson, you better have a good reason why he didn’t finish you off.”

  Alina looked at Rex, waiting for him to explain.

  The man continued. “And how do you explain the woman in your company with the hidden spying device?”

  “You can detect those?” Rex asked.

  “Of course! Our lives depend on it! An alarm signals when something Prian-made crosses our borders. A sensor also stuns those carrying a spy chip.”

  Alina felt a wave of relief. “She’s only stunned?”

  “Yes. She’ll be fine. Who is she?”

  “Her name is Jade,” Rex said deliberately, watching the man’s face.

  He started. “Did you say Jade?”

  “Yes. Have you heard of her?”

  The man looked back and forth between them. He pointed his finger at Alina. “Are you Alina?”

  Rex broke into a broad smile. “Yes.”

  The man beamed and put out his hand. “I’m Baylor Simms. And you are?”

  Rex shook his hand vigorously. “I’m Rex. I’m so glad you know who we are.”
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  “Well, it’s no accident our town is set up close to the portal,” Baylor said. “We’re the border control, so to speak. We want to examine all who come from Pria. There’s not another town for miles, so the wilderness drives them here.”

  “How—?” Alina began. She had so many questions, she didn’t know where to start.

  Baylor grinned as he turned to her. “Alina! I’m so happy to meet you. You’ll find your name is well known here. And such a beautiful young lady, for a mortal.”

  “Uh, actually, she’s not mortal anymore,” Rex piped up.

  Baylor’s mouth dropped. “What do you mean?”

  “Somehow the entry into Carthem reversed her.”

  “Does Sampson know?”

  Rex looked at Alina. “I’m not sure. If he doesn’t, then he might be trying to protect her. That could explain why we met so few dangers in our travels. But I don’t know how much he can control.”

  “What does this mean for us?” Baylor asked.

  “I don’t know yet. I was hoping to find answers here. Any chance Camden is alive?” He winced, as if afraid what the answer might be.

  “Yes, he is. And J’koby too.”

  Alina’s eyes widened. J’koby?

  Rex grabbed Baylor’s arm. “You mean it? Camden’s alive?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is he here in Stormport?”

  “No, both of them live in Jaden, a city about three hundred miles from here. Jaden and Stormport are the two headquarters of Carthem.”

  “Jaden? Is the city named after—”

  “Her? Yes.”

  This information seemed to bother Rex. He frowned. “What do you plan to do with Jade, anyway?” he asked.

  “She’s being prepared for the operating table,” Baylor said. “Her chip must be removed. Don’t worry,” he added, noticing their expressions. “We’ve done this operation many times before. It isn’t without risks, but it must be done. There’s no other option. Leaving it in is too dangerous. Sampson is constantly trying to infiltrate Stormport. He would destroy the whole city if he could.”

  “Why?” asked Alina.

  “Because one of his top enemies lives here: Lance. He entered Carthem as a spy for Sampson soon after Camden left Pria. Once he arrived here in Stormport, he joined the resistance.”