by Sara V. Zook
“How is it that you’re so healthy after all this time out here alone?” he questioned in a mocking tone.
I closed my eyes momentarily, unsure how I was going to respond. My brain didn’t want to seem to cooperate with my lethargic body. I licked my lips, the taste of putrid vomit returning to my tongue. I smiled nervously at Karn.
He backed away for a moment, gasping.
I glanced back at Jo whose eyes were glued on us. When I looked back to Karn, his beady black eyes burned in fury. What was happening?
“I knew it!” he roared out. “Did you see that?”
A Scave woman quickly rushed up to me and stuck her repulsive fingers in my mouth, jerking up my lip. I backed away and attempted to spit out the filth.
“What are you doing?” I cried out.
The woman grinned revealing a mouth of rot, her gums sagging and covering up the majority of what teeth she did have. “Such a pretty mouth,” she said, her voice high-pitched and shaky.
Karn nodded. “Straight white teeth.”
My hand shot up to my mouth to cover it up. Why had I done that? I had mistakenly smiled. Jo had warned me not expose my teeth. Now I understood why.
“Another spy?” the woman asked.
Karn narrowed his eyes. “This one has to be in trouble. They sent her out here to die.”
“Please,” I said. I needed to plead for my life now. I had to think of something, anything to undo what I had just done.
“Get her!” Karn yelled.
I closed my eyes and cringed, waiting for the Scaves to capture me. Nothing was happening. Then the rustle of feet startled me into turning around. Jo had made a mad dash to get away, but Rooney was right behind her. He took a leap and tackled the poor girl to the ground. She kicked and thrashed, even bit Rooney to get him to release her, but he had his arms locked securely around her, his strength overpowering hers. She struggled for a few more moments and then gave up, succumbing to her sobs. Rooney began carrying her back to Karn.
“This really pains me,” Karn announced. “A traitor among us when I thought we were one.”
Rooney still held Jo in his arms. She hung her head in shame, her hair falling over most of her face.
“The contributors must’ve promised you things,” Karn continued. “What are you getting out of this?”
Jo remained silent, her body limp in Rooney’s arms, her head still cast downwards.
“Ashamed, are you? Do you think I’m a fool?” Karn’s voice was getting more intensely angry by the moment. “I took you in, raised you from a baby when they didn’t want you. They left you for dead. You’re alive because of me, and now you turn on me, on all of us?”
The group of Scaves behind us glared at Jo. Their faces held no sign of sympathy.
“What do you want me to do with her?” Rooney asked.
Karn scratched his hairy chin. “I never expected this to happen.”
“Let them fend for themselves,” the Scave woman with the shaky voice suggested. “See if they can survive on their own.” A smirk played on her lips.
Karn looked from Jo to me and then back to Jo. I wondered what he was contemplating. I was terrified, my palms now clammy and wet. He exhaled loudly. “Very well,” he finally said. The decision was made. “We’ll let them go.”
“Go?” I asked.
He nodded. “Yes, go.”
Jo’s head jerked up. I watched her look at Karn who exchanged a glance with Rooney behind her.
“No!” Jo screamed, wiggling her way away from Rooney and turning to face him.
They meant to kill us. We would have the same fate as the two contributors before us. I would never get a chance to gaze upon the wondrous face of Emry Logan ever again.
“You can’t do this,” Jo begged. “We’re friends.”
Rooney stared back at her, his usual cocky demeanor nowhere to be found. He didn’t want Jo killed and was even more pained to have to be the one commanded to do so.
Jo’s hands rose to her cheeks where tears now spilled uncontrollably from her eyes. She hurried to wipe them away, afraid to show any weakness in this time of despair. “Please, Rooney. This isn’t what it looks like. I’m not a traitor.”
Rooney swallowed hard.
“Don’t be foolish,” Karn warned him. “Leave,” he said sternly to us.
I grabbed Jo’s hand and headed down the same path we had come in, the same path where the contributors had been brutally murdered only moments ago, their bodies already taken away, but their spilled blood left to cool in the dust. Jo yanked her hand away from me.
“We have to go,” I paused to look at her terrified face.
“Go where? We’re going to die.”
“This is all my fault,” I mumbled. “I need to tell Karn that I …”
“Just let it be. He won’t be convinced.” Jo began to walk, her eyes still on Rooney who trailed a little ways behind us.
I didn’t know what to do, what to say. It felt hopeless to do either, but I had to try to do something. I didn’t want to die. Not here, like this, trapped in a world and being pursued by a Scave. My mind raced with panic. “What is he doing?” I whispered, not wanting to look back, afraid I’d see the spear headed for me.
“Still following us.” Jo’s eyes were glued on him.
“You have to talk to him once we’re away from Karn’s eyes.”
“Rooney isn’t a traitor. He’d never disobey Karn,” she said with little emotion.
I continued to walk by her side, the hope that I was still walking and not lying dead on the road becoming more encouraging by the moment. “He didn’t hesitate to kill the contributors. Don’t you think he’d have done it by now?”
“He’s letting it drag out as a punishment to me,” she replied, biting her lip a little. “This is a game to him.”
“Jo, listen to me, I saw him hesitate back there in front of Karn. You two are friends. That means something. He hasn’t grown up with those contributors he killed. They meant nothing to him. You’re different.” My heart was pounding as if I were running a marathon. I had to convince her to try.
“I can’t believe this is happening.” Emotion now poured from Jo as she gave into her fears and let the tears flow freely. “I just thought it’d be okay, you know?”
I stopped walking to turn to her. I put my hand on her thin shoulder. “Thank you for trying to help me. I know it means little now, but without you, I had no hope.
Jo took a few steps back so that my hand fell from her shoulder. She glared at me angrily. “I’m a Scave. I don’t know what I was thinking. I don’t know why I can’t be like the rest of them.”
“Cruel?” I whispered. “You want to be like that? You can’t be serious.”
“My own mother abandoned me,” she screamed out. “Why do I feel sad for her? I should want her dead. I shouldn’t have followed you back at the beach. I should have moved on. I’m weak. I’ve always been a weak Scave.”
I narrowed my eyes. “It’s not a bad thing to be kind to someone else.” I watched her intently as she watched Rooney. Then I saw her eyes grow large in terror, and I knew that I’d soon be dead. I watched her mouth drop open. I didn’t want to look, knew I shouldn’t, but I did. I turned to see Rooney in the distance, a sharp spear in his hand, raised above his head and aimed directly at us.
Chapter 5
“Get up.”
I was hunched over in the dust, my arms curled around my knees and my head bent down.
“Pathetic.”
I dared to look up. Rooney was standing in front of me, the spear put away behind his back. I looked over at Jo who was in a similar position as me.
“Cowards,” he said, his voice sharp with anger, but I knew it was more at himself than us. He had spared our lives.
“Why didn’t you go through with it?” Jo asked.
“I still can if you want me to,” he threatened.
I stood up and dusted off my legs. I swatted at my hair that was now hot and sticking to my neck.
<
br /> Jo eyed him curiously for a moment. “Rooney, I’m …”
“Shocked?” He glanced nervously behind him. “Me, too.”
“But you can’t go back now either,” she said, still composing herself.
Rooney massaged the back of his neck with his hand. “Obviously.”
Jo now looked my way. I raised my eyebrows, just as surprised but so grateful that Rooney had had a heart. When I had saw the spear raised, I went straight to the ground to await my fate but not wanting to see it coming.
“So what now?” I asked, uncertain if I should speak or not as the guilt swelled within me knowing this was all my fault.
Rooney glared at me. “Are you a contributor?” Then he held up his hand and shook his head. “Never mind. I expect answers, honest answers.”
I nodded.
“But not now. Karn is going to send his two buffoons in search of me soon if we don’t get going. They’ll kill us all.” He ran down the path, Jo at his side. The weakness of everything that had happened still lingered, weighing me down, but I forced my muscles to move so that I could run, too, albeit behind them. I knew this was going to be physically demanding in every way, but I had to keep up or I’d be left behind. I doubted that Jo was going to be as sensitive with me this time.
By the time I caught up to Rooney and Jo, my lungs felt as if they were going to catch on fire within my chest. I felt as if I would throw up again, but I knew it would be dry heaves as there was nothing left in my stomach. I collapsed on the ground and took deep, giant breaths.
“Get her up,” Jo said sternly to Rooney. “It’s no good to lay down after a run like that.”
Rooney put my arms around his neck and helped me into a sitting position. I lowered my head between my knees and hoped no dust would be sucked in my nose to add to my misery.
“Wow. Where is she from? She’s so out of shape.”
Jo knelt down beside me. She lifted my head to get a look at my eyes. “You all right, Anna?”
I made my best attempt to nod.
She stood back up. “She’s human.”
“What?” Rooney took a few steps back as if I were poison. “You’re joking, right?”
“No.”
“Where did you find a human?”
Jo crossed her arms as I felt my pulse begin to calm down a little and I was able to look at both of them without seeing white spots dart in my field of vision. “At the beach. She’s lost.”
“I’ve heard of them, but I’ve never seen one before.”
“First time for me too,” Jo admitted.
“You can stop talking about me like I’m some sort of alien.” I realized what I had just said and all three of us burst out laughing.
“How did you get here? Well, I mean, you had to transport, but humans can’t transport, can they?” Rooney asked.
I rubbed sweat from my forehead, smudging dirt as I did so. “No, someone else transported me.”
Rooney and Jo exchanged worried glances.
“What is it?” I asked.
“As far as we know,” Jo began to explain. “The only ones that can transport are royalty.”
“They have extreme powers,” Rooney added.
“Meaning?” I raised my eyebrows.
Rooney rolled his eyes. “They have all the contributors’ power plus their own. They can basically do anything. You don’t know much about our world, do you?”
I made a failed attempt to get to my feet and sat back down.
“Just rest for a minute,” Jo suggested.
“Why would I know anything about your world? In fact, how would I know anything about it?”
He looked at Jo again. “Then it’s true what they say about humans.”
She shrugged.
“How do you know about humans?” I snapped. “And what exactly do they say about humans?”
“That you’re a selfish creature,” Rooney replied.
Jo frowned. “That your world refuses to acknowledge the existence of others other than your own.”
I didn’t know what to say. I supposed that was a true statement. I had thought the same thing when I had first found out about Evadere. Why didn’t it seem like anyone else knew? Who had been hiding this world, keeping it a secret?
“Are there other worlds besides this one?” I asked.
Rooney and Jo met each others’ gazes again. It was beginning to irritate me.
“Are we safe here?” Rooney asked her.
Jo took a look around. “For now I’d say so. I doubt they’ll find us for awhile. We can rest. She really needs a break.”
“Don’t you exercise on Earth?” Rooney asked.
I gave him a mean glare. “Of course we do. It’s just … I don’t make it a habit of running for my life every day like it seems I’ve been doing here. I usually don’t exercise on an empty stomach or after being scared half to death either.”
“Welcome to Scave life.” Jo put her hands on her hips and continued to look around. “What are we going to do, Rooney?”
He sighed. “We have to find food and water, that’s for sure. I’m parched.”
“Anna’s going to be dehydrated soon if we don’t do something.” She turned to me, but spoke to Rooney. “Do you think we can make it out here on our own?”
“Haven’t we always basically been on our own?” Rooney stated. “I mean, I’ve felt like I’ve been Karn’s slave my whole life, really.”
“Yeah,” Jo agreed. “Anna, what is it you want to do?”
I leaned back on my arms and extended my legs straight out. A picture of Emry’s face immediately entered my mind. I had to get back to him. I had to find a way. “I need to get back home. I can’t stay here.”
“We don’t know how to transport back to Earth,” Rooney said.
“No,” Jo continued. “But we know who can, and we can take her there.”
“You really do want to get killed, don’t you?” he snapped. “If anyone hates us, royalty is at the very top of the list.”
“Do you have something better to do?” Jo asked him.
He looked hurt by the remark.
“I’m taking her to the castle.”
“You don’t know how to get there,” he reminded her.
“I’ll figure out a way.”
Rooney glanced at me but spoke to Jo. “But I saved your life.”
“And I’m paying you back by leaving you behind so you won’t get killed at the castle,” she told him.
A smirk played on my lips. Jo really was willing to help me after all I’d put her through. Maybe she was more like the old me, the one that needed a fresh start, to get away from her old life that did nothing but bring her down. She needed to get away from the Scaves and live how she wanted, no one to stop her. She stood up and starting walking away. I immediately got up and followed. At least she was going at a much slower pace this time.
Rooney stayed behind for a few moments. I glanced back at him and then turned around, facing forward.
“Wait up,” he called out. “I’m coming, too.”
By the time night rolled around, I was nestled in soft leaves that Jo had brought me. We were near a small brook that they assured me was safe to drink from. I had bent over and cupped water into my mouth for what seemed like an hour before my thirst was satisfied. Rooney had run off for awhile and brought back some sort of meat. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I was in no position to be picky. It was a small amount, but I felt myself consuming it as if I were starving. I was starving and had exerted myself to the point of mere exhaustion. I couldn’t even begin to comprehend all the frightening events I had experienced in the last two days. It was all like a bad nightmare that seemed all too real. Rooney and Jo sat there and watched my curiously.
“What?” I asked with a full mouth. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and waited until I had swallowed. “Aren’t you two going to eat? Aren’t you hungry?”
“We’ll be okay,” Jo informed me. “We’re used to going days witho
ut eating.”
“Yeah,” Rooney added. “Looks like you’re not though.”
I started to feel bad again. I was so hungry and yet these two had gone and stolen food just for me, brought me here just to be comfortable and have water and weren’t partaking in the food. Humans were selfish, I thought. We eat three times or more a day and sometimes complain about that. They go days without eating? The fact that their bodies were used to such a thing was utterly astonishing.
“So you mean you’re not even hungry?” I asked them, shoving another bite of meat into my mouth.
“Not too bad, really,” Jo replied.
Rooney snickered.
Everyone took a moment to relax. We were on the outskirts of some contributor ground. In the distance stood large, shiny buildings, almost like skyscrapers. They were beautifully made in perfect rectangles reaching toward the red sky, like skyscrapers, only without windows.
“Do you think we’re okay here?” Rooney asked, in a whisper now.
Jo laid down on the ground and put her hands behind her head. “They never come out of their city.”
“Where are we?” I asked them.
“Iron contributors,” Rooney answered. “Pretty neat, huh?”
I nodded, leaning over to get another drink of water, the coolness refreshing and easing the pain of my still scratchy throat. “So they make buildings?”
“Right,” Rooney said, sounding sarcastic as if it were such a simple thing to comprehend. “They’re mean when they do come out.” He looked over at Jo who lifted up her leg to expose a huge scar in the back of her calf.
“What’s that from?” he asked.
“A contributor came after me with a pitchfork.”
“It looks like it was a nasty wound,” he remarked.
She nodded and rested her leg back down on the ground.
“I’ve never been this far myself, but I’ve heard stories about the iron contributors. I have to say, it’s a pretty amazing place.”
“Every place is amazing when it’s not up in the mountains with the rest of the Scaves,” she remarked.
I glanced over at her. She really was using this as a scapegoat to get away and had gotten to take Rooney, one of the strongest Scaves, with her.