by Sara V. Zook
Long before I actually saw where Scaves lived, the smell of the place reached me first. It reeked of body odor and feces, the combination strong and sour in my nostrils. I swallowed the impending vomit that made its way up my throat from the foul stench and paused for a moment to calm myself. My palms fell to my knees as I hunched over and stared at the ground, a sudden lightheadedness coming on.
“Anna?” Jo turned around and headed back for me. Rooney was so far ahead, he was barely visible anymore.
“I’m okay,” I mumbled. “Just a little sick.”
“It’s the smell, isn’t it?”
I looked up at her. “It’s awful.”
“It’s a terrible way to live, I know,” she whispered. “But it’s the way it is. We have nothing. We barely make it on our own, and we have no running water or anything.”
“I’ll suck it up. Just give me a minute,” I promised, unsure if I believed myself.
“This isn’t going to be pretty,” Jo whispered.
“What do you mean?”
She sighed. “The Scaves are a gruesome people. Most aren’t able to survive out here, but the ones that do, well, you’ll see what I mean. I need you to remember something though.”
“What is it?” I asked, trying to continue to breathe through my mouth.
Jo turned around anxiously to keep an eye out for Rooney. He hadn’t even noticed we had stopped following him yet. “Don’t show too much of your mouth.”
“Huh?”
“You know, your teeth.”
“Jo!” Rooney called out in a musical tone, still far away.
I was making an attempt to process what she meant. All I could think about was that the Scaves were some sort of dog people who if shown another person’s teeth, would think of it as a threat and immediately attack that person for having done so.
“We’re coming!” she hollered back at him. “Just remember what I said,” she added in a whisper.
The small huts where the Scaves lived came into view first when entering their camp. They were made up of mismatched items, some wood, some bricks finished off with rocks or leaves. It seemed whatever they had found, or took, was thrown together in order to make a shelter. The huts were very poorly made, and I wasn’t going to dare go near the ones that had rocks as a roof looking as though any wrong bump or movement inside or out could cause the whole thing to tumble down on your head.
“She’s right here,” Rooney shouted from up ahead.
He had obviously announced my arrival to the rest of them as I could hear the shuffling of feet dragging in the dust up ahead. My pulse sped up instantly. I took a deep breath and kept my head down as I trekked slowly on into the depths of the Scaves’ realm. When I finally did look up, I gasped.
Jo had used the word gruesome. That didn’t even begin to describe the appearance of these underfed, filthy people who now gathered around to see my coming. Rooney held out his arms and pointed directly at me.
“There she is,” he announced. “Jo says she’s a Scave.”
My eyes met with a woman on my left who only had one eye. The other side of her face was deformed and mostly skin now covered up the spot where her eye used to be. She didn’t even bother to try to hide it. Her hair was gray, frizzy and long. The skin on her cheeks sagged. She reached out a very skinny arm toward me as if to touch me. I uncomfortably moved out of her way so that she couldn’t get close. I huddled toward Jo’s side as I was eyed by even more Scaves. All of them turned to stare at me, their faces beholding curiosity filled with both concern and hatred at the same time. Scave men had long hair and beards, some of them reaching their waists. Their collar bones protruded out from their shirtless bodies, and their skin was covered in the dust from the ground as if permanently stuck there. A younger woman, probably in her 30s, drummed a long black fingernail along the side of her cheek as she examined me. I looked down at the ground. The smell of their unsanitary premises no longer bothered me. The fear of seeing the disgust in their beady, little eyes brought on a whole new more overwhelming sensation that outweighed the previous one.
From the back of the crowd, an old man pushed his way through until he came to the front. He stood directly in front of me, his scraggly whitish-gray beard wrapped around his wrist. He held a crooked branch in the other hand as a cane to help prop himself up. The stench from his open mouth, which he breathed through, immediately made my nausea return as if something rotten was growing from inside his throat. He made a wheezing sound as he breathed, almost like a continuous growl. He had scars covering the skin on his face, and his teeth were sharp, the top ones overlapping his bottom lip in spots. He looked more like a beast than a man, far more horrific than any of the others. I clenched my fists at my side and swallowed hard.
“What are you?” he said, almost in a deep hiss.
It took every ounce of willpower I had not to run away right then and there. This was the kind of creature I pictured lurking on the banks of the Evadere beach at night when everything was black. This was a monster unlike anything my imagination could even have come up with, and yet here I was, standing in front of him, knowing this interrogation wasn’t going to end well. I barely knew anything about contributors or Scaves. I could put some of the pieces together here and there and from what Jo had told me, but really, how was I going to pull this off?
I opened my mouth but nothing came out. I clenched my hands together in front of me and looked at them. Licking my dry lips, I tried again. “A Scave,” I whispered.
He made a disapproving groaning noise as he circled me now, looking me over. I felt as if I he were my predator. He had to be some sort of leader of the Scaves, I guessed. “How is this so?” he questioned.
“I …” Jo stuttered.
“Be quiet,” he commanded her, holding up the stick to point in her direction.
Jo’s head shot downward.
“Where did you find them?” he asked.
“At the bottom of the mountain,” Rooney replied.
“Where were they coming from?”
“If I had to guess, it’d be near farming,” Rooney continued.
“You’re running from the farming contributors?” This ugly, frightening creature stood before me once again. One of his pointy teeth scraped against the bottom of his lip and a little drop of blood ran down to his chin. I watched in disgust as he brought up his arm with his beard wrapped around it and wiped it off with his hair.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Jo,” he said in another growl turning around. “Where’s the sack?”
“She left it on the beach,” Rooney answered for her. “It’s gone.”
A loud hissing noise came from the Scave’s throat. Jo backed away from him. She was just as terrified of this thing as I was and she lived in a group with him. “What is your opinion on this matter?” he questioned Rooney who didn’t seem quite as juvenile while in the presence of his leader.
“I’m not sure I believe she’s a Scave,” Rooney told him.
The other Scaves from the crowd all grumbled in concern over my presence.
“Were you sent by someone?” the man asked me.
“No,” I said quickly.
“Perhaps by royalty?” He winced a little as he emphasized the word royalty as if it pained him to say it and had to do so slowly in order to get it out. “Surely they wouldn’t sacrifice their own to spy on us, unless they wanted you dead.” He pressed his face closer to mine, and I felt my eyes water up from the rank smell protruding from his mouth.
“I …”
“I don’t believe you!” he shouted before I could even finish.
A burning radiated down through the center of my chest and into my stomach. I took a few steps backwards.
“You couldn’t survive on your own all this time.” He sniffed me, then gave me a look of pure disgust. “You’re clean, healthy.”
“Karn!” someone shouted out.
Everyone slowly turned around to look at two Scaves who had just entere
d the campsite, both of them appearing very similar to their leader, yet a little younger and stronger as they had more muscle built up. They looked just as hideous with their jagged teeth and long hair pulled back into a messy ponytail. They had two others with them, males, whose feet and hands were bound together with wire that had been placed on so tightly, their skin was bleeding. Their mouths were gagged.
“You,” the Scave leader snapped, pointing his staff at me. “Wait here. I’m not done with you yet.” He slowly limped over to where they stood. “What is this?”
“We found them hanging around the bottom of the hill,” one said.
“They were alone,” the other added, his voice huskier.
The contributors’ eyes widened as they took in the sights around them. They appeared physically very normal, like a human. I wondered how long the Scaves had been on their own out here trying to survive. They were frail-looking from lack of nutrition, yet still had such a fierceness and determination about them.
How was I going to get out of this? I couldn’t stay here and pretend to be a Scave. I was lost in this strange world and mingling with creatures I didn’t know the first thing about. I had nowhere to turn as the certain doom awaiting me began its overwhelming descent upon my mind, impressing its hideous ideas into my imagination of the terrible things that I was going to have to endure here with the Scaves. Perhaps the contributors would see that I looked more like them, and I could talk some sense into them. Surely someone somewhere could tell me how I could get back to Earth or point me in the right direction of someone that knew.
Karn let out a hissing sound mixed with a growl as he looked the contributors over, sniffing them as he got his face very close to their bodies. “What do you have to say for yourselves, contributors?”
One of the captives’ head shot backwards at the odor coming from Karn’s mouth as a Scave removed his gag.
Karn let out a satisfied chuckle at his intimidation over these poor men before him.
“Who sent you?”
“We were just looking the land over.”
“Why?”
The contributor and his friend exchanged nervous glances, which infuriated Karn as he poked the contributor with his staff. “Don’t make me repeat myself,” he warned him.
The contributor looked as if he were going to cry. “For the possibility of a new beginning there,” the man stammered.
“Which group?” Karn pressed on.
“Water,” the contributor answered quickly.
Karn looked up at the other Scaves who had brought the captives to him. He squinted his eyes making his entire face wrinkle. “You’re lying.”
“No,” the man cried. “I’m not.”
“She sent you, didn’t she?”
The contributor raised his eyebrows, not understanding.
“Don’t play stupid with me,” he roared. “The queen. She sent you to spy on us, to see what we’re up to.”
“No …”
“You expect me to believe that water contributors would live so close to us? That’s absurd,” Karn went on. “No, you’re a liar. She’s getting scared, which means …” He looked up, satisfied by some idea that had just entered his mind. “He’s nearby.” He got lost in his thoughts momentarily before looking back at the contributors. “Get rid of them,” he ordered.
The Scave men grabbed hold of the contributors who cried out. What were they going to do, kill them? Surely the Scaves would have pity knowing that royalty used to kill them and hadn’t turned into killers themselves.
“Please!” one of them begged. “Don’t hurt us. We’re telling you the truth. We wouldn’t spy on you. We don’t even know the queen.”
“Have mercy on us,” the other squealed.
“Mercy.” The word rolled harshly off Karn’s tongue. He grinned, exposing his jagged teeth further, most of them blackened with decay. He placed a finger up to his chin, amused by whatever it was that was going on inside his twisted head, the beard still attached to his wrist as it was raised. “Perhaps we will have mercy on these two contributors. We’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.”
Jo glanced my way and gave me an uneasy stare. I lowered my eyebrows at her and then returned my attention to Karn.
A Scave woman joined the crowd now carrying an elderly woman in her arms. She dumped her ruthlessly onto the ground. The woman groaned in pain as she made an attempt to sit up. I instinctively rushed over to the poor, old woman, and got down on my knees to help her up.
“Are you okay?” I whispered.
The sickly creature extended out thin arms and pushed me away from her. She moaned some more but then was able to get herself into a sitting position. I assumed she was paralyzed by the way her legs were wasted away and limp at her side.
“Who is she?” the woman shouted. “Get her away from me.”
I quickly backed away, realizing that everyone’s eyes were on me.
“What are you doing?” Jo asked angrily.
“I thought she was hurt,” I replied, feeling color rush to my cheeks.
Jo glanced toward the old woman. “Of course she is. She’s dying. Leave her be.”
The paralyzed woman seemed like she was in such agony, yet still had that ferocious beast of being a Scave within her. This was a glimpse of poverty in another world. These people couldn’t contribute and so they were considered useless, meaningless and left for dead. The ones that did escape had to forage for what little food and water they could. They had to steal in order to survive. And medicine, I assumed, was nonexistent to these cave-like creatures. It was really no wonder that they were as fierce as they were. They were true survivors, even living off a land that flourished with absolutely nothing where they stayed. I couldn’t even begin to fathom how lonely Evadere must be for them.
“Are you going to tell the others what you saw?” Karn asked the two captive contributors who were still terrified standing before the revolting Scave.
“No,” they both quickly answered, their voices quivering.
Karn exhaled loudly. “Very well, contributors,” he finally said. “You may go. Release them so they can go home.” He turned around and met glances with Rooney who pressed his lips together tightly.
The other Scaves cut the wires away that had been binding the contributor’s arms behind their backs. They made grunting noises as if dissatisfied with Karn’s decision to set them free.
“Thank you,” one of the contributors stammered.
“What are you waiting for?” Karn asked him. “Go.”
The two men scrambled almost directly into each other before turning to leave. They started off walking nervously at first, then went into full sprint after a couple of yards. I wished that was me, able to get away from this intimidating group, able to have somewhere to go back to. Part of me sympathized with the Scaves as I could understand why they were the way they were, but the other part of me feared their ferociousness. Then again, Karn had just let those contributors walk away. Maybe he wasn’t as bad as he seemed.
A sudden squeal like one made by an injured animal sent a burning sensation through the middle of my stomach. I looked out toward the two contributors as one had collapsed to the ground, a spear piercing his torso. The other contributor’s speed was now halted by the shock of seeing the now dying man by his side, blood pouring out all around him as, within seconds, he went from his knees to lying on the ground, dead.
A shrill scream escaped from my throat as Jo hurried to silence me by throwing her hand over my mouth. Rooney stood perched atop a large rock positioned on the side of the path, another spear in his hand. The contributor looked at the dead man and then looked up at Rooney in horror. He held his hands up in surrender, his feet stumbling backwards a little.
“Please!” he cried out. “Please, no …” Before he could finish, Rooney had thrown another spear. It zoomed through the air in perfect alignment with the contributor pleading for his life before making contact with his forehead. A stunned look appeared o
n his bloody face before falling forward in the dust.
The thud of his body against the hard ground sent me spiraling around in a circle as I now hunched over on all fours puking up what little fruit I had eaten, the once sweet juice soured by my stomach acids as I hurled it all back up, tears streaming down my face. How could I have possibly just felt sorry for the Scaves only moments ago? I had just witnessed the cruelest thing I had ever seen. Karn had told them they were free to go. He made them think they were able to return to their homes. Now I understood what that glance had meant that had been shared between Karn and Rooney. He wanted Rooney to kill them. The Scaves’ hatred toward the contributors was limitless.
“Get their bodies,” Karn instructed the two Scave men who had brought the contributors in. “Make sure nothing is wasted.”
Were they now going to use the contributors’ corpses as a meal? I wondered, my guts instantly repulsed once again as I bent over to throw up, merely dry heaving this time, saliva pouring from the edges of my lips. I listened to Karn’s heavy steps as he made his way back over to where I knelt, the end of his staff sinking in the dust in front of me.
“Get up,” he commanded.
I slowly made my way back into a standing position. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. Weakness made its way through me as I felt as though I would collapse. I longed for a real meal and a real bed. I longed for Earth and the green grass of Seneca. A twinge of worry zipped through me at where Emry was now. He must be going insane without knowing where I was. I forced my head to move upwards so I could look the ghastly beast in the eyes, praying I wouldn’t become ill and go to the ground again, afraid I’d never be able to get back up.