Enmity

by E. J. Andrews

  Law walks out of the room with a brisk stride, as though he owns the place. I guess he meant it when he said he is Law.

  The four keepers come towards us, but all I can see is Chase coming towards me. He takes my arm with excessive force and leads me from the room. I barely notice that the others are being dragged away as well. It’s not until we get to the elevator that I realise Nate is being dragged along by another young guard, the one who usually guards me. I now know his name is Rence. We stand in the elevator with a tremendous silence bearing down upon us all.

  ‘I need to go to the training room after this,’ Chase says to my guard, who holds Nate by the top of his arm. I stare at him in bewilderment.

  ‘Why?’ my keeper replies.

  ‘If Dad asks, just tell him that’s where I am.’

  The elevator lets out a small ding to let us know we are at our floor. Rence gives a small nod, though he seems distressed by the conversation. He drags Nate from the elevator, and as the hard metal doors swing closed I am once again alone with Chase.

  He sighs deeply and I turn my gaze on him again.

  ‘What was that?’

  Chase looks at me as though he’s only just remembering that I’m standing beside him, though his hand is still tightly grasping my forearm. I look at his grasp and as I do he lets go, leaving red pressure marks where his fingers dug into me.

  ‘My brother . . .’ he sighs.

  I turn around to face Chase directly as I say—‘The steroid junkie?’

  Chase furrows his brows and lowers his head slightly with what I’m hoping is mock dissatisfaction.

  ‘Where are you taking me?’ I ask, trying to dispel his displeased look. It works, Chase seems relax. The right corner of his mouth turns upwards into a half-smile.

  ‘I have to take you back to your room, it’s protocol. But we’re still on for later, right?’

  He doesn’t have that hopeful, wanting sound that I wished he would, though I didn’t know I wished it until I didn’t hear it.

  ‘Sure, I’ll just mosey on down to meet you in the meadow room again, hey?’ Why do I always have to be so sarcastic?

  A wicked smile spreads across Chase’s face, and I feel a small tingle in the pit of my stomach as he leans in, his hair slightly falling into his eyes as he whispers, ‘Leave it to me.’

  Nate

  I lie flat on my back, feeling the light directly above me illuminate the insides of my eyelids.

  ‘Can I open my eyes yet?’ I ask, reaching out with my hands into the free air I can’t see, even with my eyes open.

  Marina shushes me as she pats my hands back down to my chest, resting her hand on mine for the slightest of moments. My heart starts to race at her touch.

  I wait a few more minutes and then peek out through one eye to see Marina folding a piece of paper.

  ‘Cheater,’ she barks quickly without turning to look at me.

  My eyes jam shut at her accusation.

  ‘I don’t do well with surprises,’ I say. That’s the reason my heart has barely slowed from a pounding race since Marina appeared in my room—her second appearance in my room within two days.

  ‘Fine, you can look then.’

  I open my eyes and then sit up to see Marina holding a small paper plane. She holds it out to me with a kind smile filling every line of her face.

  ‘Wow, thanks.’ I take the plane from her and feel a little guilty that I’m not more excited about her tiny gift. The plane feels heavier than it should and I notice that there is a button on the right wing. I look underneath and see that there is something under each wing as well.

  Marina raises her hand to the plane I now hold in my palm and flicks the tiny switch on its pure white wing. I watch as the plane slowly rises, feeling a slight breeze of air released onto my palm.

  I watch carefully as Marina pinches the back of the plane between thumb and forefinger and then lets it fly off, as any normal person would let a paper plane fly, except this plane just keeps flying around like it doesn’t even have a plan to land.

  I turn my attention back to Marina, who has been watching me closely the whole time. The ghost of a smile still lingers on her lips, and I can’t help but want to kiss her.

  ‘How’d you do that?’ I tilt my head towards the plane still buzzing lazily around the room.

  ‘Just the simple use of extracted air and a motion sensor,’ she says, as though anyone could do such a thing. She honestly has no idea.

  ‘I stole them out of that video game Isaac is so fond of.’

  Marina seems genuinely pleased with herself. I am amazed by her, so I feel guilty when I say—‘He’s going to freak out.’

  She shrugs.

  ‘I’ll put them back.’

  I can’t argue with this girl who is already ten times smarter than I could ever hope to be.

  I lie back down and watch the plane buzz around above me. I feel Marina lie down next to me a moment later, also looking up at the tiny plane.

  ‘Your parents aren’t really boring and middle class, are they?’ I ask softly, turning my head to watch her.

  ‘Well, they are boring,’ she says and then smiles, her eyes almost sparkling. ‘But they’re worth about ten billion each. They’re the second richest in the city.’ She doesn’t look at me as she says it.

  I let out a low whistle. ‘I’m guessing your dad owns quite a few boats in that marina you’re named after.’ She smiles again and shuffles herself a little closer to me.

  ‘Around six,’ she answers. I wonder why she didn’t feel she needed to tell the others this. ‘I take it you’ve now worked out that I lied the day we all met?’

  Her eyes connect with mine.

  ‘Yeah, and I take it you actually do know why you’re here.’ She looks down and lets out a hard breath.

  ‘I got accepted into the air force, the army and the navy two years ago.’

  Before the army had been destroyed and the air force lost all its force, I think.

  ‘I was all set to sail out the day I was brought here. If I’d gone one day earlier, I’d be a million miles away from this place now. They were hoping to make it over to Asia. No one has been able to get through the nuclear waste that’s covering the majority of the coast line.’

  I feel a pang of guilt. She has been taken away from something she truly loves, and forced to be here where it is nothing but violence and hate.

  I move my hand down and take hers; feeling her skin against mine is like feeling a current run through my veins.

  Marina shifts her eyes to me and it is as though I am falling, quite literally, into that deep blue abyss that she contains within hers. She is like no one I have ever met, far too much for me ever to deserve.

  I turn my head and look at her, feeling my heart bulge and my stomach twist.

  My hands are shaking, they have never shaken like this, as I raise one to her face.

  I pull Marina’s face towards mine and, all of a sudden, I kiss her.

  All I can feel is the pressure of Marina’s lips on mine. The soft, full, electric feeling they give through mine.

  It is all I can do to stay in this moment, to feel so close to her, and feel nothing negative anymore.

  Marina pulls away and then stares at me for a few long seconds, her eyes serious.

  I am about to ask her what is wrong when she rises up on her forearms and then we are kissing again.

  There is a loud knock on the door and we both break apart and look up.

  After a second I realise it is just the call for dinner and I look back down to Marina.

  Her chin is resting on my chest, her eyes alight.

  I can’t move, I just want to stay here and feel this.

  I just want to stay here and feel happy.

  Marina clears her throat. ‘We’d better go,’ she says as she pulls away from me and stands.

  She stops at the door and looks down at me, still in shock on the floor.

  Marina reaches up just in time to grab the ti
ny plane out of the air.

  ‘There’s no place I’d rather be than right here, now, and that scares the hell out of me,’ she says, breathless. Then she closes the door behind her.

  We all sit around the hardwood table, just like the first night.

  There is a rough silence as we all look at the two spare seats: the one at the end that is usually reserved for Darria and the other that used to hold John.

  Food is the last thing on my mind, but I force down the steaming hot potatoes without tasting a thing. I would much rather have stayed on our level and eaten whatever one of us decided to cook tonight. This whole formal dinner thing is wearing thin.

  My eyes wander down the two rows of people who have become my peers. Georgie is still crying silently; I am surprised she still has enough body fluid to produce tears. Isaac looks as though he hasn’t slept in days, with dark purple, almost black, circles under his eyes, and I start to wonder if he has been in a fight. Marina looks back at me for the smallest moment and then looks away; it is as though we have an unspoken agreement to keep what we are a secret, whatever it is that we are. Though it still feels as if Marina’s lips are inches from mine.

  I turn and see Hermia looking back at me with that hostile gaze she seems so fond of. I get that sinking feeling again that she is waiting for me to say something, or waiting to say something to me. I turn away, unsure of what exactly she wants from me.

  Once we are all finished we sit in silence while the keepers watch us. I feel eyes bore into me from every direction, and all at once it becomes too much.

  ‘I think we need to say something.’ Words fly through the open air, hitting everyone around me like knives. Hermia’s gaze turns even colder, if that is possible.

  ‘Like what?’ she spits.

  I turn away from her and towards the group.

  ‘We can’t keep pretending we didn’t lose someone. We’ve all been avoiding it these past two days, but we need to stop, we need to show that someone’s lost their life—’

  ‘What the hell good is that going to do?’ Kane mutters down into his plate.

  Hermia looks as though she is going to explode in a matter of milliseconds.

  I stand, slowly, so that I tower over the entire table. I lean down and place my palms flat on the smooth wood as I look around the others.

  ‘John lost his life, and for what?’ I watch as Kane shifts uncomfortably in his seat, sweeping his blood-brown hair out of his eyes. ‘I’ll tell you what for, to show us that none of us are safe.’

  ‘Easy for you to say,’ Winter says. Her voice has a harsh edge I am now accustomed to hearing around here, especially from her.

  I stand stronger, feeling as though these people could quickly become my enemies, just as quickly as they became my allies.

  Everyone is looking at me as though I am a stranger, everyone except Marina. She just looks at me with concern.

  I move away from the table, throwing my weight back and walking straight up to a keeper standing against the wall, his gun pointing directly at my chest. I feel the hard barrel of his gun pressing against my shirt, through to my skin.

  ‘I’d like to go back to my room now, please.’

  The guard eyes me as though I am below scum, as though I shouldn’t even be allowed to breathe around him, let alone speak. He pulls his gun back away from me, then slams the butt into my face, and I feel myself drop.

  A searing pain radiates from my right temple, just above my eye. The keeper looks down at me with the same disgusted look upon his face. I raise myself up, attempting to stand, but I am kicked in the stomach before I can get my weight under my feet. The wind is knocked out of me and I slump to the floor, pain spreading to my ribs now.

  I cough and then feel a hand ripping at my shirt, pulling me up to my feet and dragging me from the room.

  I am thrust against the door to my room and my head smacks against the hard wood. The keeper smashes his fist into my jaw and I can feel blood slowly ooze from my mouth. His dark grey eyes are on me; he raises his hand to push a finger directly in my face.

  ‘You,’ he says. ‘I’m going to do you a favour.’ He pulls his hand back and smacks me again with his tightly closed fist.

  He hits the same place on my jaw and I can’t help but let out a groan of pain.

  ‘They’ll all think you’re like them now.’

  Who?

  The keeper gives me a smile, like one you would give an acquaintance, maybe even a friend.

  He releases his grasp on my collar and walks away with a hollow stride. I watch him leave as I wipe away the blood from my chin with the back of my hand. I don’t know why he did it, but something tells me it’s not a good sign.

  Hermia

  After Nate is dragged away by the back of his neck, the rest of us sit in shock. Why the hell is he so stupid all the time? He doesn’t act anything like the leader these idiots think he’s supposedly meant to be.

  A keeper comes for each of us and we all start our treks back to our rooms. For once I have a different keeper, not Rence, not Chase, but a young man with blond hair that is almost white.

  He keeps a tight grasp on my forearm, his hand shaking as he leads me down the hallway. I am the last to leave, since Nate has already had the privilege of making his graceful exit.

  We get around the first corner and I feel my eyes go wide. Chase stands against the wall of the hallway, right next to the elevator. The keeper stops me mid-step and we both watch Chase as he turns his head slowly towards us. His face holds a kind smile. I wouldn’t have thought Chase possessed one of those.

  ‘Kiel,’ Chase says as he approaches the keeper and I.

  I look back and forth at the two of them, wondering where this conversation is going, and where it will land me.

  ‘Chase,’ Kiel replies in a guarded voice. He’s obviously curious about Chase’s motives, as am I.

  ‘My father wants to speak with you.’

  Kiel looks panicked for a single second before he composes himself again.

  ‘Me? Why?’ He sounds terrified by the mere thought.

  ‘It’s been said that you were in the free room unattended for almost an hour the other night—he’s just curious to know why.’ It sounds as though there should be some dots to end Chase’s words, as if the silence that follows is saying as much as the words have. ‘Now, I don’t have to say anything—’

  ‘Why? Why wouldn’t you?’ Kiel talks as though he knows Chase well. ‘What do you want?’

  He seems to know there is something.

  Chase moves his attention towards me and I almost cower away from it, worried that he shouldn’t be looking at me like that, not in front of this Kiel guy.

  ‘Her.’ Chase nods towards me and I just stand there, slightly bewildered. Chase twists his mouth into a quick sweet smile.

  ‘You know what he said.’ The warning in Kiel’s voice is tangible.

  My thoughts race—the he that Kiel is referring to has said something about me?

  ‘I do know,’ Chase says matter-of-factly as he steps closer to me, and also to Kiel. ‘Now, if you want me to tell my father of your whereabouts . . .?’

  Again with the tense silence at the end of Chase’s words. I watch Chase carefully, wondering when it is all going to blow up.

  ‘Just be careful,’ Kiel says, his gaze flicking between Chase and me. ‘You know what he’ll do.’

  I am concerned again by the reference to him. I think I know who he is, but I hope I’m wrong.

  Kiel lets go of me and then walks back the way we just came, probably to get as far away from Chase and me as possible—smart guy. I watch him as he goes and then turn to Chase. He still wears the same kind smile, though now it seems so much more at home on his face.

  ‘I’ve got something to show you.’ Chase speaks slowly, his eyes becoming deeper and deeper the more danger they see before them.

  We ride the elevator to a level I have never been to. Chase explains that it is part of his level.

>   ‘No one ever comes up this high,’ he tells me as we walk out of the elevator and into a hallway that looks exactly the same as all the others I’ve seen here.

  ‘Why don’t they come up here?’ I ask.

  Chase shrugs.

  ‘My guess would be that they probably don’t want to run into my father.’

  I stop dead and stare at Chase in horror; this makes a smile spring to his face.

  ‘Who the hell is your father?’

  Chase laughs as though he forgot that I have not lived here my whole life.

  ‘Law.’

  ‘Law?’

  ‘Yeah?’ Chase laughs again.

  ‘Yeah, cause that was totally obvious.’

  Chase just smiles and shakes his head at me.

  ‘He only ever comes up here to sleep; he’s in the training room basically fourteen hours a day, training the younglings.’ He says it as though his father’s commitment to training is a joke. I guess I would find it strange if he were my parent too.

  Chase leads me along the hallway further, then stops sharply and turns at a door. I watch as his face becomes serious.

  ‘Have you ever had a place that just made you feel . . . safe?’ Chase seemed to get stuck before finishing his sentence. I ponder his question for a few moments.

  ‘No.’ I shake my head, still searching its contents for a single place I ever truly thought of as a sanctuary. Finding nothing, I return Chase’s gaze just before he turns to a small clear screen next to the door.

  I watch as the hard metal door opens with a creak to a room that looks nothing like a room at all.

  The sound hits me first, then the smell of salt. I am taken aback by the vastness of the sea before me. I cannot even see where it ends.

  ‘How is this even possible?’ I can’t help but ask. I know it’s not real, but the question slips out none the less.

  ‘Simulation—the room runs the whole length of the compound, so only about four blocks, but we can walk if you want to?’

  Instead of answering his question, I just step inside the room, feeling the sand create a stiff traction under my feet.

  ‘Here, take your shoes off, it’s better this way.’