The Forsaken (Forsaken - Trilogy)

by Lisa M. Stasse

  Liam still has hold of its other tentacle, and he’s hacking away with his spear. He doesn’t realize he’s now in sudden danger.

  “Liam, look out!” I scream at him. “Behind you!”

  Somehow he hears my voice over the racket and looks up.

  But it’s too late.

  The newly freed tentacle slices through the air. It curls itself around Liam’s waist like a belt. He gasps as the tentacle whips his body backward, slamming his head against a tree. The spear gets knocked from his hand.

  I race forward. “No!”

  His eyes lock on to mine. I don’t see fear in them. Only clarity and determination. But I also see the look of someone who knows his time is up.

  “Alenna,” he mouths.

  One simple word.

  My name.

  And then the tentacles pull him straight up through the branches and into the sky.

  It happens so fast, I can’t believe it. I continue moving forward. But Liam is gone. I look up. He’s not even a speck. He has just disappeared. This can’t be real, I tell myself frantically. Oh, please no— Not Liam!

  Everyone looks shocked.

  Liam is gone. Liam, the best hunter. The best tracker. My first kiss. Liam, who lost his life saving mine.

  Liam, I think over and over, just repeating his name in a daze. I can’t believe I’ve lost him.

  My body stops moving. My legs feel weak, and I collapse to the ground. I wish the feeler had taken me instead of him. I’m useless on this island. He should have just let it take me!

  Kids are shouting and yelling. No one can believe what just happened. The feelers have decimated our group. They’ve taken half our people. I shut my eyes, trying to wish the world away. What am I going to do now?

  THE BOUNDARY

  A FEW SECONDS LATER, a pair of hands yanks me to my feet. I open my eyes. It’s Gadya.

  I’m still in shock, the events replaying in my mind like a loop. But the battle is over now. The feelers are gone, and so is the Monk’s watcher and his drones. “Gadya,” I say.

  Then I notice that her face is red. Furious. “This is all your fault!” she yells at me as I stumble back in surprise. “If it weren’t for you, Liam wouldn’t have got taken!”

  “Wait, Gadya, stop.”

  “He was trying to save your pathetic ass!”

  “I know that!” But does she know how badly my heart is aching? “I didn’t ask him to.” I’m about to cry. “I’m sorry!”

  “Sorry?” she screams, turning around. “Hey everyone, did you hear that? Alenna is sorry she got Liam killed! Doesn’t that make you feel so much better?”

  “Leave it be,” Markus says glumly. “Liam wasn’t the only one who got taken today.”

  “No, I will not leave it be!” she screams back at him.

  “Gadya, don’t do this,” Veidman cautions. He’s at Rika’s side, rolling up her pant leg to inspect her wound.

  Gadya ignores him, turning back to me with blazing eyes. “How does it feel to be a murderer?”

  “C’mon. That’s crazy, Gad. She’s not a murderer,” Sinxen says, trying to get between us and failing.

  “Yes, she is!” Gadya stares me down. “You only came on this journey because of Liam! Admit it. You’re deadweight.”

  “That’s not true!” I feel myself getting angry. “This is not my fault. I came here to help. And earlier today you said you were cool with me and Liam! Were you lying?” I realize she must have been hiding her feelings from me. Now her true emotions are getting released in an angry torrent.

  “You’re a follower. Not like me or Liam. Not a real hunter. You caused his death.” Gadya shoves me in the chest, ready to fight. “Now you’re going to pay for it.”

  “The feeler killed him!” I tell Gadya. “Open your eyes!”

  Gadya knows what I’m saying is true. For a moment I think she’s going to back down. Then the moment passes, and all I see is steely determination and rage again. “I wish I hadn’t wasted my time on you. I wish I’d just spent it with Liam.”

  “Maybe he didn’t want to spend any more time with you,” I snap at her, knowing it’s the wrong thing to say. “Maybe you shouldn’t have dumped him if you were still in love with him!”

  Gadya rushes forward, like she’s going to punch me in the face. I flinch, but I stand my ground. She stops, a few inches away.

  “I know that you and Liam were hooking up,” she spits. “That you went behind my back, even when I asked you not to. It was more than just a kiss. Markus told everyone he saw you two down by the butterfly river.”

  “I never said they were doing anything,” Markus calls out, overhearing.

  “But we both know that they were.”

  I want to turn away from her, but I’m afraid she might leap on me and attack. All her sadness is coming out as blind fury.

  “Gadya, calm down,” Veidman says wearily. “Liam knew the risks. We all did. He died an honorable death.”

  She spins to face him. “Listen, Vei, we can’t trust her. Alenna’s the newest person here, right? I know she passed your truth test, but maybe she lied her way through it somehow! She and David have probably been playing all of us from the start. What if she’s the spy? The high-level drone?”

  I can’t believe what she’s saying. “That’s crap, and you know it!” I retort.

  “Is it? Who’s to say that you and David aren’t in league with each other? Can you prove that you’re not?”

  I’m speechless. Where I once saw an ally, now I see only someone who hates me.

  “Maybe it’s not a coincidence that Liam is gone,” Gadya continues, addressing Veidman. “After all, she’s been trying to seduce him this whole time—”

  “That’s not true!” I say. “I tried to stop my feelings for him!”

  “Yeah, sure. All I know is that if it weren’t for you, he’d still be alive.”

  Veidman has finally had enough. “Shut up!” he barks at Gadya, startling everyone, because he rarely yells. Silence falls, broken only by the cries of the wounded. He glares at her until she finally looks away. “Alenna stared down death. Just like you and me, and the rest of us. But we got lucky today. Liam and some of the others didn’t.” He sighs. “You girls are on the same side. All of us are. Start acting like it.”

  “Yeah, and who knows if the feelers are gonna come back?” Rika calls out. “Or the drones? Please be friends again. Gadya, we’re all hurting about Liam.”

  Even the mention of his name makes my heart ache. How am I going to find the strength to keep on hiking, when I just want to give up?

  “Okay, fine.” Gadya laughs bitterly. “I guess the rest of you don’t care.”

  I know I must be in shock because I still feel disconnected from my own emotions. The only boy I ever cared about is gone. Dead. I should be sobbing.

  I turn away from the group. Maybe there’s some truth to what Gadya’s saying. Liam probably would be alive if I hadn’t come along.

  I risk a glance behind me and see that Gadya has stalked over to the remnants of a tree. The one near where Liam got taken. I wonder what she’s doing, and then I see that her shoulders are shaking. She’s crying hard, her chest silently heaving. She’s hiding her face so no one will see. I look away.

  Rika walks up behind me, limping. “You okay?” I ask her, swallowing hard.

  “The arrow just grazed me. It hurts, but Veidman said I’ll be fine.” She pauses. “It’s you I’m worried about.”

  “Why?” I mutter. But I’m still wondering why I’m not crying as hard as Gadya. Shouldn’t I be just as upset as she is? Is it possible she had stronger feelings for Liam than I did?

  Like she’s reading my thoughts, Rika murmurs, “People show their emotions in different ways. Gadya’s been on the wheel much longer than you. She’s crying for all the friends she’s lost—not just Liam.”

  I nod, still feeling shattered.

  “Besides, she never meant to break up with him. That’s her big secret. The n
ight she dumped him, she just got mad and overreacted. She thought they’d be back together the next day. But it didn’t work out that way. And her stupid pride prevented her from begging him to forgive her.”

  We walk over to the underbrush together, joining the others, gathering our scattered packs and possessions. We sit down, and Rika rolls her pant leg up. Her leg is still bleeding a little, but it looks more like a deep scratch than a puncture wound.

  “So Liam is really—” I pause. I can’t bring myself to say the word “dead.” It seems so final. So I just say, “It’s hard to believe, that’s all.”

  Rika looks down at the underbrush. “We don’t know what happens when someone gets taken. Not for sure.”

  “You’re trying to make me feel better.”

  “Well, look at it this way—no one back home in the UNA ever sees us again, and we’re not dead.” Then she adds, “At least not yet.”

  I look around. Obviously everyone thinks Liam and the other kids who got taken are dead. I see it stamped on their faces.

  “If you really care about Liam, then you won’t give up,” Rika continues. “Not in your heart, where it counts.”

  I nod. I think about the time that Liam and I spent together. How he helped me train, and made me the guitar. How we joked around with each other. What kissing him felt like. I can’t think about it too much or the pain will make it impossible to keep going.

  Veidman calls out to everyone, “Gather round!”

  We stumble toward him, bloody and bruised. The surviving hunters have found most of our backpacks. We’ll have to abandon some supplies, because there aren’t enough of us left to carry all of them. Gadya pushes herself away from the tree and walks over. I avoid her gaze.

  “I wish today had never happened,” Veidman says, surveying our ragged crew. “Now there are only ten of us left. We’ll mourn our companions later, when we’re out of danger. I know some of you got hurt, but we can’t give up.”

  His strained pep talk isn’t having any effect on me or anyone else. I wonder how many of us will even be alive when we reach our destination.

  “What matters is that we get inside the gray zone and find the city where the aircrafts are.” Veidman glances around. “We’ve got a ways to go,” he continues. “But at least we’ll be out of the orange sector soon.”

  “And then things’ll be even worse, ’cause we’ll be in the gray zone,” Markus points out.

  “No, we’ll be at the barrier,” Veidman corrects him. “We have to get through that first, remember?” He looks up. “I don’t think the drones will come after us for a while. The feelers scared them off. But we need to move fast. So let’s get going.”

  SOON WE’RE ALL HIKING again. Gadya keeps her own company, staring out into the trees.

  Rika and I walk next to each other. She’s breathing hard, and I know her leg must be killing her. But she shakes off any offers of assistance, refusing to let me help with her pack.

  We keep hiking, and I keep thinking about Liam. The pain feels like a physical wound in my chest. Raw and throbbing.

  “What do you think the barrier’s like?” Rika asks me, trying to coax me out of my despair, despite her own injury. “Everyone’s got a theory.”

  “Who cares?” I know the barrier should interest me, but I just figured Veidman would think of some way around it. “Isn’t it just a big fence or something?”

  “‘Or something’ is right. Supposedly you can see through it, but you can’t cross over. If you try, it’s like getting stuck forever, in invisible syrup. Before the tunnel collapsed, none of us ever had to worry about it.”

  “Great.” I step sideways on a slippery tree trunk and almost fall. Rika grabs my arm to steady me. “Can’t you just dig a new tunnel?” I ask.

  “We didn’t build the tunnel,” she explains. “It was here when we arrived. We don’t have the equipment or manpower to build something like that. It was really deep. All brick and concrete.”

  I think about the tunnel, and the other buildings on the island that I saw on the museum screen. It’s definitely an indication that other people lived on the island once. And hopefully a sign that David told the truth about my parents and the prison colony.

  I glance up at the trees ahead and see we’re making steady progress. There’s no sign of the drones or the feelers, but I know it’s just a temporary reprieve. They’ll come for us again and again. Until no one’s left. Without Liam, I feel depressed and alone.

  The ground gets slippery again, and I slow my pace. I glance down and see that I’m stepping on one of those strange plastic bags. The ones with the chemical formulas printed on them.

  “These are everywhere now,” Rika says, noticing it. “Especially after a feeler attack.”

  I kick it aside with my foot. I don’t want more mysteries. Only answers.

  “Stop!” Veidman calls from up ahead. The line stops moving.

  “What?” someone else whispers. My body tenses up. I don’t think I can handle another attack this soon.

  “We’re close to the barrier!” Veidman calls out. “Come and look.”

  We walk forward and gather around him.

  “We’re near the southern perimeter of the gray zone,” Veidman explains. He stares off into the forest, like he’s scanning for secret landmarks. “The barrier should be about five miles ahead.” Veidman peers up at the sky. Clouds are moving in, and gray light filters down to us through the trees. “Rain’s coming. We better get moving.”

  We slowly shoulder our packs and continue the journey.

  I try not to think about Liam as we hike. I know I’ll crumple in a heap at the side of the trail if I let my emotions overwhelm me. I compartmentalize my feelings, packing them away in the back of my mind until I can deal with them later. It’s a skill I learned after my parents got taken. A skill that all orphans must learn.

  I just focus on the gray zone. Getting past the mysterious barrier—if we even can—will only mark the beginning of my real journey. Inside the gray zone, I plan to seek any trace of my parents. I’ll leave the safety of the group if I have to. I’m glad I didn’t tell Gadya my secret; it’s best that no one knows my real motives. That way I won’t endanger anyone except myself.

  I feel a droplet on my forehead, and then another. Soon it’s raining lightly. I just keep hiking, and so do my companions.

  “There it is!” Sinxen finally yells as the trees start to thin. “The barrier!” He rushes forward.

  We follow him, stepping out of the trees into a clearing.

  “Crap,” Rika mutters despondently. Some of the hunters, including Markus, curse and throw down their packs.

  I don’t blame them. Before us looms the surreal, impenetrable barrier to the gray zone. I’m surprised by how massive it is—about sixty feet high, and at least several feet thick. It’s nearly translucent, and slightly pearly, like an oil slick. To me it looks like solidified water standing upright to form a huge monolithic wall. I’ve never seen anything like it before.

  Veidman strides right up to the barrier. I watch as he reaches out a hand and presses it against the surface. The rain makes the barrier easier to see, spattering off its edges, defining its shape.

  “You sure it’s safe to touch?” Sinxen calls out, sounding worried.

  “Why don’t you go find out for yourself?” Gadya snaps.

  I’m still watching Veidman. His hand remains on the barrier, fingers splayed. He’s pushing inward, gouging at the material.

  Rika and I slowly walk closer. She squints at it through the rain. “It looks kind of like jelly or something.”

  She’s right. Like quasi-transparent jelly.

  I’m almost there now. My feet make sloshing sounds with every step, because the rain has already filled my boots with water. I’ve taken my jacket out and put it on. I’m miserable, exhausted, and in mourning for Liam.

  I glance over at Veidman, who’s ten feet to my left. Gadya walks over to the other side of him with Markus and the rem
aining hunters.

  I watch Veidman’s hand slowly sink into the barrier. It doesn’t seem to be causing him any pain, but it looks like it’s taking a lot of strength. He’s leaning against the surface, using the force of his body to ram his hand inside.

  “It’s warm!” Rika exclaims. She’s placed her palm on it too. “I thought it’d be cold.”

  I reach out and graze it with my fingertips. It’s the temperature of freshly baked bread. Oddly pliable and organic.

  I push against it, and the material pushes back. It’s spongy, gelatinous. I realize it’s going to be hard to fight our way through this, but I suppose that’s why it’s an effective barrier. I rake it with my chipped fingernails, but I barely make any impact. Each indentation I create just gets filled back in by the strange substance.

  I look at Veidman. His fingers have formed a fist, and he’s got his hand most of the way inside now. “Ouch,” he suddenly mutters through clenched teeth. “Too much pressure.” He starts sliding his hand back out, but he’s stuck, as though the barrier is made of vertical quicksand. “Someone help me.”

  Sinxen and another hunter rush over and help him pull his arm out. The whole thing happens incredibly slowly, and everyone pauses to watch. Eventually, Veidman reclaims his hand. It’s bone white, all the blood having been forced out of it.

  “My fingers are numb,” he says, swinging his arm back and forth to get the circulation to return. We’re all looking at him for guidance, but none is forthcoming.

  “Move aside!” I suddenly hear Gadya yell. I look back over at her. She has walked off a little bit and is standing twenty paces behind us in the tree line. She raises her bow and arrow, about to fire at the barrier.

  Veidman holds up a hand. “Gadya, stop! We don’t know what we’re dealing with yet.”

  Although Veidman is clearly the leader, and I’ve never seen anyone disobey him, Gadya’s now playing by her own set of rules. “I’m a warrior!” she calls back wildly. “This is what I do!”

  Before Veidman can stop her, she pulls back the arrow and lets it fly with a twang of the bow. It zooms through the air so fast, I barely see it. Then it slams into the surface of the barrier.