MEMORIAM

by Rachel Broom

  “And James? You didn’t...” Sam’s mouth went dry. He didn’t want to picture little James dead.

  “No,” Vince said quickly, shaking his head. Sam let out a sigh of relief. “No, I never saw the boy. We were on the border of the woods when we found her, but she was alone. Trent was in our combination then.”

  “Wait a second, Vi’s trainer?” Sam sat in disbelief.

  “Yes, he was a new hunter at the time. He was struggling like Vi...Sev was really hard on him. Not as hard as he is with Vi, but there’s a reason for that. Sev was the one who caught Violet, but she fought back.” Vince smiled. “Trent actually defended her. Sev wanted to kill her on the spot, but Trent wouldn’t have it. He insisted that she be brought in and given a chance. So I guess, in a way, you owe Trent your thanks.”

  “Is that why Sev hates Vi so much?”

  “Among other reasons. I knew Sev when he was a new hunter. On one of our visits to the Head’s mansion, I saw a man who I am positive was Sev’s brother. My belief is that the Head forced Sev to kill his own brother. Since then his mind has been twisted and warped to the point where he can’t remember if he killed his brother or not. I think he envies anyone who gets to live, and on top of that, remember. Sev was so furious when Trent let Violet live that he turned him in. Trent was demoted and now works as a trainer.”

  Sam shook his head. “I would have never guessed that in a million years. This place is screwed up.”

  “Indeed.”

  “So you never saw James?”

  “No. We cleared the area before going after Vi.”

  Sam smiled to himself. At least he knew there was a chance that James could be alive. “Thanks for telling me, Vince. It gives me peace of mind.”

  Vince held up a finger. Sam waited as Vince sat there in silence. “We have another mission,” he said.

  “What about Vi? She was going to meet us back here.”

  “She can’t now. She’s bound to go to the weaponry. Something’s off, though. It was said this was our final mission.”

  “What do you think that means?”

  “I do not know.” He groaned as he got to his feet. “Sam, I may be wrong, but I believe this would be the time to go to the secretary’s office. She will most likely oversee our departure or be involved with this mission to say the least.”

  “How much time do you think I will have?”

  “Five minutes, tops. Don’t stay a minute longer.”

  Sam opened the door and made sure the coast was clear. “Vince, are you sure about this?”

  “No,” Vince replied.

  “Right. I’ll see you later. And Vince,” Sam rested his hand on Vince’s shoulder, “I will make sure Vi knows about James.”

  “Thank you.”

  Sam left first. He took off down the spiral staircase. It was odd that the halls were so empty. Sam made his way to the other end of the dome where the secretary’s office was. Most people did not know who the secretary was or that she existed, but Sam knew. He had met her once when she came to survey the healing center when he was first brought in.

  He rounded to the corner to the entrance of the secretary’s office when he ran into Trent.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I could ask you the same question. Isn’t this a restricted area to healers?”

  “Last time I checked it wasn’t your job to enforce base rules. You train hunters.”

  “Including Violet Hansen.”

  Sam was surprised Trent was bringing up Violet. “What’s your point?”

  “I know she’s planning something, and I’m assuming you’re part of it,” Trent said.

  “That’s- ”

  “I caught Vi stealing weapons the other day.”

  Sam’s face fell. Vi never mentioned anything about getting caught to Sam. Was this true? If so, he had put her life in danger. Guilt swelled inside his chest. Sam stepped towards Trent.

  “Are you going to turn her in?”

  “I’m saying that whatever you’re making her do is wrong. She’s been through enough and making her steal- ”

  Sam cut him off. “I’m not making her do anything. Besides, what makes you think you have the right to threaten me? You’re nothing to her.”

  “If she gets caught it will be on your head,” Trent spat.

  Sam’s fists clenched. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “I meant what I said.” Trent stepped back and turned away from Sam, striding down the hall. Sam was fuming. As much as he didn’t want to let Trent get to him, waves of guilt were washing over him. He couldn’t think about this anymore. He needed to focus on the task at hand, which was getting into the secretary’s office.

  Sam went further down the hallway to the door leading to the office, scanning his tracker and walking through the entryway to the second door. He walked up the steps quietly, staying low. If she was here then there would be no turning back. Sam crouched down on the top steps, peering around the corner. The room was empty.

  Sam let out a sigh of relief and ran over to the secretary’s desk. Her memory disc was blank, reflecting Sam’s strained eyes. He tapped the disc and images appeared in mid-air above it. There was a map of the base covered in red dots. Each dot had a number next to it. Sam slowly typed in his name then tapped the corner of the floating screen.

  There was his dot, standing in the secretary’s office. Sam knew he needed to get out of here but his curiosity got the best of him. Did the secretary have footage of everyone in the base? If so, she might have seen Vi stealing weapons, which meant Vi was in trouble. Sam should have been working on the communication system, but instead he typed in Vi’s name.

  It will only take a minute, he told himself.

  The map moved to the lower level of the base where the weaponry was. Vi was over in the far right corner in the tunnel. Sam magnified the image. A little picture of Vi popped up next to her name. Sam tapped it. A roll of information began to show up next to her picture. Sam needed to hurry. He glanced around at the other part of the weaponry and spotted the secretary. Vince was right. The secretary must have been overseeing the hunters’ mission. This bought Sam some time.

  Sam scrolled through Vi’s information. First kill: Head’s mansion – female, age 43. He knew Vi had killed, but it was disturbing to see it written on a screen, making it all the more real. Sam kept scrolling until he stopped, his hand frozen.

  Violet Hansen: termination in process.

  Sam stared at the words in red. Termination? Was she being cut from the base? He zoomed back and tapped on other hunters’ profiles who were in the weaponry. All of their statuses read termination. Sam’s mouth went dry and his heart felt like it had dropped through his stomach. He licked his lips and stared at Stella’s moving dot, getting in the lift. Sam had to get out of here. Vi had to be stopped before it was too late. Vince’s words played in Sam’s mind as he ran down the stairs and hit the door, waiting for it to open before taking off down the hall. This was their final mission. All of the hunters were going to die.

  Sam reached the lift and slammed his finger against the button.

  “Come on. Come on!” he yelled, hitting the doors.

  They opened and Sam got in, hitting the down button. His mind was spinning. He couldn’t lose Vi. Sam hit the lift button again for good measure. Was this the end? Had the Head grown tired of trapping the Pax in prisons and was eliminating them all, one by one?

  Sam jumped out as the doors slid open. It was complete chaos down here. There were hunters everywhere. They were filing into magnuses and cops right and left, some running while others yelled orders. Sam looked around frantically. He couldn’t see Vi anywhere.

  He scrambled out of the way as three magnuses ripped past him and tore down the tunnel at top speed. He turned back to the crowd. They were all getting in magnuses. Sam saw a flash of brown hair and yelled, pushing past a group of hunters and snagging Vince’s arm. Vince turned around in surprise at Sam.

&n
bsp; “I thought you were in the secretary’s office. What are you doing here?”

  Sam panted, clutching Vince’s shoulder. “It’s a trap. This mission is your final one. I don’t know how, but the Head is going to kill all of you. We need to find Vi and get out of here.”

  Vince blinked several times. Had Vince not heard what Sam just said? Everyone was going to die. Vince needed to get out of here.

  “How do you-”

  “In the secretary’s office. I saw.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Termination,” Sam said. “All of the hunters.”

  Hunters around Sam were shoving packs into their magnuses.

  “I have to go,” Vince said.

  “You can’t! We need to find Vi before it’s too late!”

  Vince shook his head. “That’s just it, she’s already left.” He began backing away. “I’ll bring her back! I promise!”

  Sam’s shoulders fell as he watched Vince run over to a magnus and climb up the small ladder, disappearing inside. He was going to his death. All of these hunters were. Sam moved out of the way as the rest of the magnuses tore past him and into the tunnel. That was it. It was over.

  Vince was in his magnus, stacking rocket launchers in the back while others sat in discussion, murmuring to one another. He emptied the sack of rocket launchers, then climbed to his seat near the front and rested his head in his hands. The engine roared again and Vince’s head hit the seat as the magnus increased its speed, ripping through the tunnel. He was still trying to process what Sam had told him.

  Vince knew this was how it would end. It seemed only right, coming from the Head. The knowledge that he was going to die soon didn’t disturb him. He was at the point in his life where he knew he had lived to the extent that he could. There was nothing else he could do. As for Vi, his heart ached for her. He needed to find her before it was too late. He didn’t know where the magnuses were taking the hunters. It could be an abandoned field where they were all going to be shot and disposed of, or maybe a fight to the death. That seemed more in line with the Head’s character.

  The Head must have been biding his time. Still, it was odd that he was taking out his best pieces. The hunters were, after all, joked about as the Head’s puppets. Everyone else was a prop. If it came down to it and he had to die for Vi, he would. After all, he was slightly responsible for her capture. Trent did try and defend Vi but only for so long; Sev attacked him and in that moment no one was watching Vi. Vince could have let her run. He still saw it in his mind – her lying there, clutching her side where Sev had stabbed her, glancing around at the five hunters. It was then that Vince had shot her with his klave. He had ended her freedom. Not Sev.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Something was not right. I could feel it from the moment I stepped out of the magnus into a field; from a distance I could see the base. I knew it was our base because of the twenty-foot walls built around it, towering like a metal wave coming at us. Why were we this close to the base? Wasn’t it odd that the magnuses had been parked in a circle with the hunters trapped inside?

  A hunter yelled out, “Where are the guns?”

  “Yeah, pass around the rocket launchers!”

  It disgusted me to hear talk like that. I squinted through the sunlight. Something large was in the sky. Others noticed it too. It hovered above the base, circling once or twice before stopping again, then circling again. Rocket launchers were being passed around now. A large hunter with dark eyebrows shoved one into my stomach and kept walking, avoiding my glare. Another hunter loaded her gun and slipped an extra round of ammo into her belt.

  Silence.

  A hush fell over the crowd. Even though there was no one speaking in front of us, we all knew we could hear Stella’s voice in our ear.

  This is your final mission. You are to destroy the base. Leave no survivors. Anyone left will be killed by Trux military groups.

  This was our base...we couldn’t attack our own base. That would be killing our own people! Sam was there. Sam. My hands shook. He couldn’t die. Not now. I loved him, as twisted and confusing as it was. But how did I stop this? The operation was too large to take down by myself. I looked around frantically. I noticed troops on either side of the field, marching in. We were surrounded.

  “They plan to kill us all,” I whispered. “It’s our final mission.”

  “Vi?” a voice called out. I saw a hand move above the crowd and stood on the balls of my feet to see where it was.

  “Vi, over here!”

  The crowd parted slightly as Vince’s face popped up, the rest of his body squeezing past two disgruntled hunters. He grabbed my arm.

  “Vince!” I said. “Wha-”

  “The Head wants you dead. He’s going to kill you. All of us. No survivors.”

  “FIRE!” a sergeant to the left of us yelled from one of the ranks. I jumped and covered my ears as fifty rockets fired out of their cases, soaring through the dark sky and colliding with the wall of the base. There was a loud rumbling noise and Vince’s grip on my arm tightened. The hunters started running as the magnuses parted, allowing a path to the base.

  “We need to get out of here now!” Vince yelled.

  I felt a hard shove and my hand broke free of Vince’s. The crowd pushed me away, launching me in the direction of the base.

  “Vince!” I screamed. I tried to swallow but it was like a knife was caught in my throat. I was going to die. Not only me, but all of us. All of the hunters, and Sam, too. That must be why the Trux military was here. They were going to finish us off once we killed most of the Pax. I saw Vince up ahead to my right and started moving through the crowd in his direction, shoving hunters as I passed. Some yelled, but I ignored them. My rocket launcher was still strapped to my back.

  My head pounded and the ground rumbled as more rockets were launched. The wall cracked and the top came crumbling down. That’s when I saw people on the other side running; screams filled my ears. There was a gunshot. I swiveled to see who was down – it was one of our own hunters. Who had shot him? Up ahead was a large hunter who had been passing out the rocket launchers. His gun was still pointed at the dead hunter even though the hunter was already dead.

  It was every man for himself now. Even the hunters had turned on each other. I yanked out my gun and ran at the hunter by the rocket launchers, turning it so I held the butt, and threw my arm around, hitting him hard over the head. He fell to the ground with a large thud. I kicked the gun out of his hand and searched for Vince. The air was moist and sticky, and the smell of smoke filled the air.

  Vince was in the middle of a fight with another hunter. I ran over and hit the man over the head with my gun, watching as he staggered backwards.

  “Thanks,” Vince said over the noise. I came closer to Vince so we were side by side. Gunshots were going off all around us. Some hunters had made it closer to the base, but others were attacking each other, pulling out knives and guns. I felt like I was going to throw up. I yanked my klave out of my belt and opened it, firing at a woman who aimed her gun at me.

  “How did you find out the Head is going to kill us?”

  “Sam broke into the secretary’s office after you left-” Vince grunted, knocking a man in the stomach with his rocket launcher. “-and read your file. I need to get you out of here before it’s too late.”

  “I can’t just leave! What about you?”

  “I never wanted to escape with you, I only wanted to help.” Vince coughed.

  “Go back to the magnuses. I’ll meet you there.” I shot my klave at a woman who ran at me. She sank to her knees and fell over on her side.

  “Then what?”

  “I don’t know! We’ll think of something.”

  “I’ll cover for you while you go!”

  “No, you go!”

  “Don’t worry about me, I’ll be right behind you,” he said.

  The air was toxic now. I coughed incessantly, covering my mouth. It was hard to see because of all the smok
e. Through the dark cloud forming above us I noticed the large object in the air hovering closer above the base. It made sense why it was there now.

  It was a cop. There was a large round object hanging from the cop: a bomb. A rocket whizzed past me, rushing past my neck and flying overhead, landing on the base. Flames erupted from the dome, shattering the glass.

  What I was about to do was suicide, but I didn’t care. At this point I would do anything to save the people inside the base. I hoped Sam was smart and headed for cover. I ran past the hunters, going to the side. The military had almost surrounded us now on either side. There was a smaller scream. I stopped moving. At the entrance of the base was a skryer at the edge of the wall. It seemed as though there was an electric field built into the wall and he couldn’t get past it. His leg was caught under a large chunk of cement.

  “HELP ME!” he screamed. The white uniform he wore was melting off of his body. My first instinct was to run and help him. But he is a skryer. It didn’t matter anymore. Whether we were skryers, hunters, or innocent bystanders, we were all the same. We were Pax whose lives were being destroyed. We were being ripped apart by a man who cared nothing for humanity.

  Someone was pulling at my arm and pointing at the cop hovering above the base but I shook them off. I gripped my rocket launcher and tore across the field, keeping an eye on the huge cop. The skryer was writhing in agony from side to side.

  “VI, NO!” I could hear Vince’s voice. He must have seen me turn away from the magnuses. Most of the hunters were retreating. My legs were burning but I continued to run. I stopped by the wall and began to lift the piece of cement, trying to free the man.

  My face was hot as I heard the cop roar. It was going to drop the bomb, I just knew it. I turned and grabbed my rocket launcher, positioning it on my shoulder.

  “Vi, it’s suicide! Get back!” Vince was yelling.

  I winced as I pulled back and felt the kickback dig into my shoulder. The sky lit ablaze with the burning cop I had hit. It came crashing to the ground.

  My shoulder was screaming in agony. I clutched it with one arm and tried to lift the chunk of wall. It was useless. I couldn’t do it. My hand was raw, bleeding at the fingertips. The skryer met my eyes. I let out a strangled yelp when I saw its eyes. I knew them. They used to be hidden under the red hair of my friend.