I cut her off. “I’m not staying. I’m going with you.”
She looks shocked. “With me?”
“Yeah. Into the gray zone. I changed my mind about Operation Tiger Strike.”
Her shock rapidly turns into bewilderment. “You sure that’s a good idea? I don’t think you’re really cut out for this kind of thing.”
I want to challenge her. I want to ask, And why not? But I know she’s right. If it hadn’t been for what David told me, I’d be happy to be a coward. So I just say, “I have my reasons.”
“You mind sharing them?”
“I just don’t want to stay and be a burden. And I want off the wheel.”
“You sure there isn’t something else?” For a second I’m scared she knows my secret. But then she adds, “Is this about Liam?”
“It’s got nothing to do with him,” I tell her honestly, wanting to clear the air. “Obviously, he’s cute. I won’t deny that. But I listened to what you said.”
“Good, because if you fall for him, not only will I kick your ass, but he’ll end up breaking your heart. Girls come second to hunting for him. I can promise you that.”
“Look, I’ve got bigger things to worry about, like getting killed. I’ve got your back if you’ve got mine.”
“Have you told Veidman you’re going?”
“Not yet.”
“It’ll make his day. Then he can say, ‘See, even the new girl is ready to fight and die for our village, eh?’” Her impression of his Canadian accent is pretty impressive, and I smile.
A thought suddenly occurs to me. “Can you teach me what you know? I mean, about defending yourself and stuff, and how to aim a bow?”
“In nine days?” Gadya scoffs, openly laughing. Then she realizes I’m serious. “I can’t promise miracles, but I guess I can try.” She stands and stretches her lower back. “You really think you’re up for this?”
“No. That’s why I need you to teach me.”
She bites her lip, lost in thought. “Okay, then. We’ll start training tomorrow morning. But don’t expect me to go easy on you just ’cause we’re friends.”
“Deal.”
My eyes drift over the crowd. I notice Liam, still entrenched with the hunters. I wish I could get more information from him about the wheel and Operation Tiger Strike. Maybe I could put it together with what David and the dying prisoner said, and figure the whole thing out.
“So tell me more about the gray zone,” I say to Gadya as we head over to grab some stew.
“Better yet, I’ll draw you a map.”
“Really?”
“Well, not a map of the zone. No one’s mapped the whole thing yet. It’s huge. But a map of where our journey’s gonna take us.”
We reach some wooden tables and sit down. Torches provide us with flickering light. I look for Rika, but I don’t see her. There’s a long line of kids snaking around the edge of the clearing, lining up with bowls.
Gadya takes a chewed-up pencil and a piece of tattered paper from her pocket. She draws a rough circle to indicate the island.
“Here we are now, see?” she asks, starting to fill in parts of the circle. “This is our village by the river, and this is our whole sector.” I watch as she sketches out the rough dimensions of the thin sliver of the blue sector. “And here are all the sectors the Monk controls.” She starts sketching other sectors of the wheel and labeling them.
“Our sector’s that small?” I ask.
“Pretty much.” Then she draws an oddly shaped area about ten times larger, bordering the north shore of the island. “And this is the gray zone.”
As I scrutinize her primitive map, I realize something terrible. “Wait, the gray zone’s there?” I place my finger on it. “Way up top?”
She nods.
“But that means we have to cross part of the Monk’s territory!” Indeed, due to the size, location, and fluctuating boundaries of each sector, a portion of the orange sector sits between us and the southern boundary of the gray zone. I hadn’t realized the spokes of the wheel were so inexact.
“It’s impossible to get to the gray zone without sneaking through the Monk’s territory. I thought you knew that. I thought everyone did.”
“I’ve only been on the wheel a few days. I had no clue!” I want to put my head in my hands and sob. This mission is going to become a death march. “I didn’t know we’d have to cross enemy territory—and to get to what? More enemy territory?”
“That’s life on the wheel for you.” She looks me square in the face. “Having second thoughts?”
“Definitely! But I’m still going.”
“Then, back to the map.” Gadya continues drawing. “The gray zone is where we think the aircrafts, landing strips, and docks are. Right on the shore in some kind of industrialized city.”
“How do you know all this stuff?”
“From interrogating prisoners. Veidman’s serum. And from Liam and the other hunters, before the tunnel collapsed.” She scratches her nose with the tip of her pencil. “Hey, look. Chow line’s finally moving.” She gets up. I do the same.
Soon we have our stew, and we’re sitting back down at one of the tables. I’m still trying to recover from the revelation that if I go on the expedition, I’ll be heading straight into the Monk’s territory.
I finally see Rika nearby, sweaty from cooking, and Gadya and I both call out to her. She comes over and sits down next to me with a bowl, across from Gadya.
“So did Alenna tell you about her decision?” Gadya asks. “She’s becoming one of us. A hunter, I mean. She’s joining Operation Tiger Strike.”
Rika looks at me, strangely unsurprised. “I thought you might.”
“Really? I didn’t even know myself until today.”
“Something in your eyes gave it away. There’s a fire in them. Not as plain to see as Gadya’s. But it’s there.”
I feel embarrassed. “I’m not so sure about that.”
“Oh, I am,” Rika says confidently. “I know these things.” She takes a bite of the stew. Furrows her brow. “Too much salt. Tastes like seawater.” She looks at me again. “Just be sure to send me a postcard when you get there, okay?”
I laugh. I’d almost forgotten that postcards existed. The wheel has a way of wiping out time and memory. I feel like I could be living two hundred years in the past—or two hundred years in the future.
A shadow falls over our table, blocking the light from the nearby torches. I look up and see Markus.
“We’re eating here,” Gadya says impatiently. “What?”
“Veidman sent me to get Alenna.”
I suddenly feel nervous. “Is this about earlier today?”
“He didn’t say. He’s waiting for you in his cabin.”
I stand up, extracting my legs from the bench.
“Follow me.” Markus starts heading away from the table. Faking a nonchalant shrug at Gadya and Rika, I follow. Could Veidman have found out about me and David somehow? If David really was a spy, does Veidman think that I’m involved?
Markus is ominously silent as he guides me to the cabin. All around, I hear the noises of the forest at night: the thrum of insects, the crackling of twigs, and the whisper of the wind through tree branches.
We quickly reach our destination. The metal roof of Veidman’s cabin is corroded, and one side is now propped up with a broken tree branch. A few hunters whose names I don’t know are sitting on fallen trees outside. They’re scarfing hoofer meat, gnawing it right off the bone and washing it down with juice from hollowed-out melons. Liam is not among them.
“Vei?” Markus calls out, pausing in front of the cabin’s flimsy wooden door.
“Come in,” Veidman’s voice answers.
Markus swings the door open, and I step inside. Veidman sits at a makeshift desk—a wooden board propped up on piles of rock. A clutch of tallow candles burns on a window ledge. The cabin is warm and smells like hoofer fat.
“Hey, Alenna,” Veidman says, smil
ing. Even in the dim light, he still seems to possess his peculiar glow. He looks calmer and more relaxed now than he did at the fire pit. I feel relieved. Markus shuts the door behind me, and I hear his footsteps heading away.
I take a seat across from Veidman on a strange chair that feels as soft and comfortable as a beanbag. I look down and realize it’s made from dried hoofer skins wrapped around a bunch of ferns.
“I need to ask you a favor,” Veidman says.
“Sure. Anything.”
He presses his hands together. “I want you to consider joining the expedition and coming with us.”
I startle him by smiling. “Actually, I already decided that I’m going.” He looks a little surprised, so I feel like I have to give him a reason. Obviously I don’t mention anything about David or my parents. “It’s because of Gadya,” I explain. “She’s my friend. And she’s the one who rescued me and brought me to the village. I want to become a warrior like her.”
He nods. “That’s great news.” I’m thinking, So that’s it? That’s the favor? But Veidman isn’t done yet. “There’s something else.”
“What?”
“With Meira staying behind, I need someone to keep a lookout for me on the journey. Who lets me know if anyone says or does anything suspicious. That kind of thing. Understand?”
“You want me to be your snitch, basically.”
He leans forward. Cups his hands under his chin. “Basically.”
I don’t know if I should feel flattered or offended. “Why me? I’m one of the newest kids here. And after what happened with David, why do you trust me? I mean, he passed the truth serum test, but you still didn’t trust him.”
“Unlike David, you passed the truth test with flying colors. There were questions he answered too smoothly and quickly. He didn’t act like other kids do when they’re given the serum. You’re a known quantity. Not everyone else is. But beyond that, I can tell that you’re smart. Honest. You have a good heart. You volunteered to get to work after the first feeler attack, and you brought food to the prisoners. That’s not a job many kids volunteer for. I see how you interact with people. So far, everyone likes you and—”
He stops talking, because I’ve started laughing. I can’t help it.
“What’s so funny?” he asks.
“It’s just that back home, it was the exact opposite. I never really felt like I fit in with a group, even when it seemed like I did.”
“That’s one thing we all have in common on the wheel.” He leans back in his chair. “So will you do it for me?” He grins. “Be my spy?”
“I guess so.”
He pauses and looks at me sideways in the candlelight. “You remind me of Meira sometimes, you know that?”
“Really?” I glance away, embarrassed. He must mean my personality or something, because I know I look nothing like her. I don’t have perfect blond hair and perfect skin. And I’m not supersmart. I’m just me.
His words have made me blush. What does it mean that he thinks that? And why should I even care? He’s probably just saying it so he can manipulate me. I know he lied about how much the prisoners know, and I’m guessing he’s keeping a whole lot of information from me and most of the other villagers as well.
“I’m looking forward to our journey,” he finally says.
He stands up, and I do the same. He walks around me and swings open the door, letting in the night breeze.
“If anyone asks why I summoned you here, just tell them I wanted to ask you about the raid today. If you saw anything.”
I nod. “Sure.”
I exit the cabin. The hunters are still gorging on food as I walk past them. I’m struck by the irony that even though Veidman is trusting me to be his spy, I’m actually keeping a huge secret from him.
I see the light of the fire pit ahead of me. I vow to keep my promise. I will be a good spy for Veidman, at least on the surface. But I’ll be a much better spy for myself. I will trust no one, and focus on learning the truth about what happened to my parents.
“Alenna!” I hear a voice blurt out, right before I reach the fire pit. “Hey.” It’s Liam.
“Hey, yourself,” I reply.
“So, I heard you’re going with us?”
“Yeah, I figured I only have my life to lose.”
We stand there for a moment, kind of awkwardly. Gadya’s warning keeps echoing in my head. Stay away from this boy.
“You wanna see something cool?” Liam finally asks.
“That depends.”
Unexpectedly, he takes my hand in his. “Just come with me. It’s right this way.” Before I can even resist, he starts leading me along a narrow dirt trail I haven’t been down yet.
“Where are we going?” I ask, intrigued, despite myself. I pull my hand gently out of his.
“Don’t you like surprises?”
“Only the good kind, but I haven’t seen too many of those on the wheel.”
Liam keeps walking. The path finally ends at a small ravine with water at the bottom. I realize it’s another shallow tributary of the main river.
But the water isn’t what catches my attention. In fact, I barely notice it, because hovering above the surface are thousands of tiny glowing butterflies—all different sizes and colors, from pink and white to silver and blue.
“They’re beautiful,” I breathe. I’ve never seen butterflies like these before. They respond to my voice, darting upward in delicate multicolored clouds as they whirl around in the night breeze.
One flutters down toward me, so I hold out my hand. It alights on my knuckles, shimmering there, opening and closing its purple and gold wings.
I turn to Liam. “You probably take all the new girls here, don’t you?”
“Only the cute ones,” he replies. Then, turning serious, he adds, “I usually only come here by myself. To get away from everyone. To plan battle strategies without getting distracted by the other guys.”
I turn back to watch the butterflies, conscious of Liam’s gaze on me. The butterfly on my hand departs, rising upward on a draft of warm air. I hold out my hand again, hoping another will land on me.
“So, do you have a boyfriend back home?” Liam asks from behind me, completely out of the blue.
The moment is ruined.
I turn and face him. “Are you for real?”
He looks surprised by my reaction. “What do you mean?”
“First of all, why would that even matter at this point? It’s not like I’m ever going back home. And second, don’t you and Gadya have some kind of thing for each other? I’m not gonna get in the way of that.”
It’s clear he didn’t expect this response. “I just thought I’d ask. I like you. And for the record, Gadya and I are done. She dumped me, actually.”
I can feel my heart beating faster. Even though it’s girly and stupid, I admit I feel a thrill that Liam said he likes me. But at the same time absolutely nothing is going to happen between us. “Look, I like you, too. But I don’t have time for a relationship, or any drama. I’m too busy trying to stay alive.”
We’re standing only a few inches away from each other. My words are one thing, but I keep feeling like I can’t breathe, like all my nerve endings are tingling. I sense Liam’s gaze intensifying. I look up into his warm eyes and see myself and the world of butterflies reflected back at me.
Just as I’m thinking, Am I deluded, or is this boy actually going to try to kiss me? he leans in and presses his lips against mine.
I’m in shock.
This is my first kiss, and I still can’t believe it’s actually happening. His touch is almost too much for me. I press my chest against his, as his hands hold me tight, moving against my body—
Then, coming to my senses, I shove him away from me.
“Ow!” he says. “What’s wrong?”
“You’re what’s wrong,” I snap at him. “This can’t happen. It doesn’t matter how I feel about you. I promised Gadya I wouldn’t get involved.”
“Gadya,” he says. “First she dumped me and now she’s trying to stop me from liking another girl?”
“Exactly.” I cross my arms.
He sighs. “You girls always stick together.”
“She said the same thing about you and the other hunters.” I try to compose myself. “Don’t kiss me again.”
Liam looks disappointed, embarrassed, and bemused all at once. “Well, I guess it’s good you’re loyal to your friends,” he finally says, brushing back his hair. “So, I feel kind of stupid right now. . . .” His words trail off. He smiles sheepishly. “Make that really stupid.”
“It’s no big deal.”
“It’s just that since I first saw you, I felt kind of comfortable around you. Like maybe we had some kind of connection? I know that sounds pretty weird, huh?”
He turns away.
“Wait,” I suddenly say, speaking before I can stop myself. “There’s something you should know. The day before I got sent here, when I toured the Harka Museum in New Providence, I saw you on the screen.”
He turns back to me. “What?”
“You were talking to the camera. You were trying to send a message, and then you got attacked.”
“I can’t believe you saw that! I didn’t think anyone was watching.” He pauses. “It’s something I usually do every time I head into the gray zone, or on a mission. I swing by the camera and try to signal to my family. Just in case they’re out there watching somehow. It’s a long shot, I know. I was using sign language ’cause my little brother Gabriel is deaf.” He pauses. “The drones often hang out there, so it’s a dangerous place. Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
“Because I didn’t want you to think I was crazy. And I don’t know if it means anything or not, or if it’s just coincidence.”
A loud crashing noise makes both of us startle. I turn to see a figure lumbering between the trees, down the trail toward us. It’s Markus again. I wonder if he just constantly prowls the forest.
“Hey, man,” Liam calls out.
Markus stops walking. I realize he didn’t see us. “Sorry,” he says. “Just checking for drones.” He stumbles away, averting his eyes, like he caught us hooking up or something.
The Forsaken (Forsaken - Trilogy) Page 13