by RMGilmour
After washing every spec of dirt out of my hair, I changed into a pair of PJ’s that Grid had generated for me; I should at least attempt to locate him, even just to say hello, but I needed to go straight to bed. My legs and arms were beginning to feel like rubber from the running and digging, and my face stung from being exposed to the sun too long. But it was the sensation of Jordan’s hand on my skin that overrode every other feeling. I wanted only, to wrap myself around thoughts of him and fall asleep with the memory.
When I awoke, every muscle was stiff, and I ached as I moved. I figured it was because I’d foregone Castor’s serums the previous day. I dressed in my usual jeans, shirt and the boots Jordan had generated for me, and stumbled toward the front room.
“Good morning,” Grid smirked at me, when I entered. “What happened to you?”
“Morning,” I tried to smile back. “Over did it just a little yesterday.”
“I can see,” he said, standing from the table, and then walked toward the counter. “Coffee? Muscle relaxant? Sunburn cream?”
“Yes, please, in that order.”
When he came back to the table he placed before me one magical cup of coffee and a blue tube. I picked up the tube, wondering why he would give me this.
“I’m not hung over,” I said, holding the tube out to him.
“I told you before, it will bring your body back into balance. Trust me,” he smiled.
“In my time, we tend not to trust people who say trust me,” I laughed, but I uncapped the tube and drank it anyway.
“From all you’ve told me, I’m glad I missed your time.”
Almost right away the stinging sensation from the sunburn disappeared and the redness had begun to fade. The ache in my muscles had noticeably decreased, but I guessed it would take a while before they were a hundred percent again.
“Thank you,” I said, wishing I could tell him everything about Jordan and Mason, and the fields, and the traps we’d dug.
And then a twinge of guilt wrenched at my heart; I hadn’t even thought to ask Jordan about Gia. But I’m sure he would have said something if he had any news.
“Why are you staring at me?”
I glanced down at my coffee and back up at him, not realizing I had been staring and tried to come up with an excuse.
“I think you should stay indoors today,” he said. “Maybe you got a little too much sun.”
But his smile froze when the window beside us flickered back to life.
A knot twisted my stomach, and I watched his face fall in despair.
Immediately, I was hit by the girl’s thoughts and feelings. She was thinking about the difference between what she felt when he was with her, and when he was wasn’t. And she knew that when with him she was strong, ready to fight, and during the past couple of days she’d felt weaker without him, as though her warrior soul had been cut in two. And I felt that difference in me, as though her feelings were once again my own.
The boy was apologizing to her for coming back so soon, but she wasn’t yet able to speak, she could barely breathe.
I couldn’t sit through this again. I had to leave.
“Let’s get out of here,” I moaned. Grid stood with me and we made our slow way to the door, trying to escape the emotions that were crippling us.
The girl could feel his presence fill her now, along with the happy, whole feeling that spread through her, and she didn’t want to lose it. The tough warrior shell she’d spent years building around her heart, melted away as she accepted him as part of who she was.
My knees filled with water and then gave out under me, sinking me to the floor. Grid caught me as I went down, helping me avoid a collision with the wall. He sat beside me at the doorway and we watched the screen, helpless to look away.
‘Hera,’ the girl said, acceding to the demands of her heart.
‘Hera,’ the boy repeated softly, savoring her name. ‘I’m Connor.’
‘Connor,’ she said, also taking a moment to appreciate his name, and she liked it well.
‘Was that your picture on the wall?’
Hera turned to look up at the wall of pictures plastered flat upon the wall, as though they’d been painted on.
‘Yes,’ she responded. ‘That’s me with my aunt and the one next to it is my aunt with my father. He disappeared twenty-two years ago, I was just a baby. My mom died not long after. My aunt raised me. She said my mom died of a broken heart.’
“No,” I heard Grid moan. He squeezed my arm, but I could barely feel it. I was falling, not downward this time, but inward, as memories of my own family ran through me, and I fought to keep out the fresh hole that wanted to open up within me. I had to get up. I had to move. I couldn’t be there any longer.
‘I decided a long time ago to never fall in love. I never wanted to be at someone’s mercy in that way.’
Connor didn’t reply for some time.
‘But here we are,’ he eventually said.
It was then that a howling, screaming of a tortured soul reached my ears, but it wasn’t me. And it was quickly followed by a loud, unending crashing and smashing. It sounded as though the Colony was being torn apart.
The noise pulled us out of Hera’s spell, and me out of my grief. Grid grabbed my hand, yanked me up, and then pulled me down the stairs with him. I wasn’t sure if I was in any shape to be taking the stairs two at a time at such a speed, but his hand steadied me, keeping my footing in place. My muscles though, protested at the movement; Grid’s blue syrup not yet having had the complete effect I’d needed.
We ran across the courtyard to the source of the noise, but stopped just inside the entrance of the food hall, or what was left of it. The remnants of the tables and chairs littered the room. The smithereens of which were mostly piled beneath the one great window, and I realized they’d been flung at the screen. Which, as I turned to it, was still going, it hadn’t even been scratched. The voices from the screen, were interspersed with roars and bellows, all emanating from Castor.
He stood near the screen, now beating upon it, trying to stop it, to break it, and I recalled Hera’s words, remembered the pictures on the wall. I was so absorbed in my own pain that I hadn’t seen it. The man in the picture was Castor. He was Hera’s father.
Grid urged Aleric to come to us and he complied despite the rush of warriors, as they tried to stop the destruction.
“You need to get him out of here, before the wards break their way down here,” Grid whispered to him.
Aleric ran to the group of warriors, repeating Grid’s words, but Castor refused to leave.
“Let them come,” he roared. “They did this. They’re doing this.”
Several warriors attempted to hold him, but there weren’t enough of them and he fought them off too easily.
“I bet Connor doesn’t even exist,” he roared again. “Does he? Leave my daughter alone! Leave her alone!”
It took six of them to hold him while Haize grasped both of his temples. Within moments he was still, and they carried him outside.
Haize turned to me next. Her look confirmed the heartache that was within me, was also creased across my face, and Grid pushed me toward her.
“Go, take her out,” he insisted. “I’ll deal with this.”
She grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the hallway. I looked back at him, concerned. I didn’t want him to deal with the wards, should they break through the signals once more and find their way into the Colony. From the little I knew, they were to be avoided at all costs.
“Don’t worry about him,” she insisted. “He can take care of himself.”
But I did worry, and I would stay worried until I knew he was safe.
I didn’t see many of the warriors when we made it outside. A few Rathe were walking through the fields, although I doubted much would get done today.
“Where’s Castor?” I asked Haize, when I realized we were walking toward the hut.
“Th
ey’re taking him to the Arena,” she softly advised. “Aleric is on his way to meet Jordan and Mason, today may not be a good day for them to be out of the city.”
I sighed, wishing I could go into the city.
When we reached the hut, most of the Ratheans along with several warriors, packed the room. They blocked the entrance, and spilled down the stairs, converging on the grass.
Haize left me near the front and pushed through the crowd, disappearing. I wasn’t sure if she wanted me to follow, and I wasn’t in the mood for being squished, so I stayed near the entrance.
There wasn’t much discussion between anyone, barely a word here and there. The mood was somber which was hardly surprising, but I could sense an underlying feeling of anger in the occasional glare they gave the open fields.
Among those nearest the entrance was a Heart woman I was sure I hadn’t seen mingle with the Rathe before. Although this was hardly surprising, considering Jordan’s presence almost always overtook my mind.
I was however, captivated once more by how beautiful the Heart women were. Tall, perfectly tanned, olive skin, piercing eyes that missed nothing, the occasional but barely noticeable fine, white line upon her face and neck, which was all I could really see above the crowd. I tried to turn away, but she was studying me with as much interest. And then she began to move through the crowd toward me.
I forced myself to look away, hoping she wasn’t going to castigate me for staring. But instead, she linked her arm in mine and pulled me outside, walking me several dozen feet away from the hut, and away from anyone that may be close enough to hear. Or to help if she should choose to hurt me.
She turned me to face her, and at first only stared down at me. She was at least a foot taller.
“I’m Phaedra,” she said. I didn’t respond right away, I was sure she knew who I was. “You know Castor,” she continued. Not a question.
I exhaled the breath I wasn’t aware I’d been holding, and glanced down at my feet for just a moment, before answering. I was so tired of being afraid of everyone and everything, it was ridiculous.
“Yes,” I responded, meeting her eyes again. “I’m sorry about Hera.”
“Why?” she asked, looking puzzled. “Did you do this to her?”
“Um, no, but…” I stumbled, and spread my hands wide. Unable to explain my choice of words, I decided to let it go. Although, I should have known better than to offer an apology, Lena would have reacted the same way.
“Look, you tell your boy no matter what, he needs to find who this Connor is and make him stop,” her voice was smooth like velvet, as beautiful as her face. “Those fools in the city think they’re safe. They have no idea what they’re up against.”
I gulped back my shock. No one was to know about Jordan, although I shouldn’t have been so very surprised that others did, the way he continued to expose himself. Though I couldn’t risk saying his name, and I didn’t know how to respond other than to bring up Grid instead.
“How would… Grid…”
“Grid? I’m not talking about him,” she lowered her voice, and held my gaze. She knew. I only hoped that her knowing wasn’t a bad thing.
I nodded, assuring her I would talk to him. Maybe he could talk to Mason. Surely there was some way for Mason to find Connor.
“Castor doesn’t believe there really is a Connor,” I said, recalling his outburst.
“They’ve been bringing us here for years and we’ve never met the ones who brought us here, never heard anything from them. Except you.”
But Jordan at first, didn’t know I was here either. It was only with the help of Mason and Aleric that we met. Maybe I got lucky. But I wasn’t lucky. There was more she wasn’t saying.
“Why does he believe that?” I asked.
She stared down at me, weighing me, no doubt wondering what I would do with what she had to say.
“The Guardian has been bringing people here from other dimensions for centuries, taking our technology, our knowledge, our DNA, in an effort to improve the city and its people.”
I didn’t know how to respond. I couldn’t understand how their DNA would be of any use, but it was most likely, part of the insertion process. And I refused to let my stomach react to this thought. There was no way I was going to display my mind-bending weakness in front of her.
“Wanting someone else’s technology and knowledge I could understand, but what do they do with your DNA?”
The look she gave me caused me to regret my question. And I probably should have known the answer, but after the last few days, my brain just wasn’t fit for any kind of intelligent thinking, not that I could have even remotely guessed the answer, anyway.
“To replicate it,” came Lena’s voice. “Phaedra, trying to scare her off?”
“She needs to know what she’s fighting.”
“She doesn’t need to know every detail.”
“I disagree,” Phaedra contended.
I looked from one to the other, wondering if they even remembered that I was still standing there while they argued over how much information I should be given, or perhaps would even understand. I was glad no one else was listening to the conversation. They discussed my ability to comprehend the technology as though I were a child. Which was probably true, but still!
“Just tell me,” I insisted, a little too forcefully. They both looked down at me. Lena grinned. Phaedra’s mouth fell open in shock.
“The insertion takes more than just our DNA, it takes everything, including our thoughts and our memories. It analyzes not only our physical qualities, but also our responses, how we think” Lena explained. “The Guardian extracts and replicates whatever qualities will improve the wards. From us strength, power, leadership. From the Rathe bravery, skill, intelligence.”
“What about us?” I asked.
At first, she didn’t respond. I was sure it was because there were only a few of us that had been brought here; not enough material to evaluate.
“Resilience,” she finally responded.
“Just one quality?”
“Well, based upon our brief time together - resilience and a willingness to self-destruct.”
“You think I’m resilient?” I asked, choosing to ignore her gibe. However, resilience was one word I would never have used to describe myself.
“We know you are. When this happened,” Phaedra said, touching my face. “The images were nothing to us. But it was the depth of your fear, your terror that we’d never even come close to feeling. It’s not in us to fear. It would have driven us to our ends. And yet here you stand, almost happy once more.”
Almost happy. I wanted to refute that and say I was happy, but I couldn’t.
Surely though, the Guardian had extracted all it needed from the Rathe and the Heart over the centuries, and I glanced between Lena and Phaedra, wondering what they weren’t saying. Their DNA and behavioral responses couldn’t have changed that much in that brief time span, for as they said the insertion process took everything. Though I really didn’t want to think about what it did with the blood, the bone and the pieces that made us whole, but my masochistic brain forced me back to high school biology and the breaking down of physical structures into molecules and atoms. Storing a person would then be a much simpler process with their technology.
“Why doesn’t anyone stop the wards? The machine?”
“It’s not entirely the machine,” Lena told me. “It’s the Guardian. And we’ve tried. Most of the people in the city aren’t aware of what’s happening. They don’t even know we’re out here.”
“Ok,” came Haize’s voice, as she approached us.
I wished she hadn’t arrived. I wanted to talk more about the city, its people and the Guardian.
“We’re ready.”
“What are we doing?” I asked her.
“We are going hunting. You are going back to the Colony.”
“What? No, I want to go with you,” I complain
ed, damning the wards for showing everyone every weakness within me.
“It’s too dangerous. I’ll not risk you, so don’t argue. And you already look like you’re going to be sick,” she told me, then glared at Lena and Phaedra. “I don’t know what you two have been saying.”
“Haize, I can handle it,” I interrupted, forcing my breath to steady itself and my stomach to stay where it was. “I need to do this. Please. I want to go.”
She took a deep breath and sighed, then looked over at Lena and smiled.
“Good. We were hoping you’d beg. That way it’s not our fault,” Lena almost sang the words.
“What isn’t?” I asked, wondering what I’d gotten myself into.
“When Jordan gets angry at us for taking you,” Haize answered, saying his name softly, so no one would hear.
“Oh,” I exhaled. “Why would he have a problem with me going?”
“He doesn’t want you anywhere near what we’re hunting,” Lena teased.
“And what are we hunting?”
“Wards.”
“We’re what?” I asked, wishing I had the ability to ask simple questions before jumping to action.
“Well technically we are going to be doing the hunting,” Haize said. “You will be the bait.”
“What, I’m what?” Run, just run, every part of me screamed.
“No, why does she get to be the bait?” Lena complained.
“Remember when Grid volunteered?”
But Lena didn’t respond, she only nodded, smirking yet again. I wanted to wipe the smile off her face. I was sure they would have tricked him the same way they’d pulled me in to doing this. Or maybe I’d tricked myself.
I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t be their bait. If Lena wanted the job she could have it.
“Smile,” Haize said, placing two fingers under my chin and closing my mouth. “Your chance to show yourself how brave you really are.”
I couldn’t argue with that. Well, actually I could. I wasn’t this brave and I didn’t want to be this brave. I was hoping to ease into their whole hunting thing, but instead they were feeding me to the wards. And Jordan was going to kill her, or me, or both of us at the same time.