by S. J. West
I felt Zoe’s small warm hand slip into mine. When I looked down at her, I felt a tinge of sorrow for the girl. She had just escaped one prison and was about to be plunged into a much darker form of hell. I owed her a fighting chance for a better life. The grown-ups of my childhood had doomed me to a harsh life with their decisions. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake with Zoe. She didn’t deserve to live a half-life in a breeding camp. I seriously doubted Simon had been protecting her for all these years just to end up back where she started.
“We should all run,” I said as I looked back at Jace. “We’ll be stronger together than apart.”
Jace was silent for a while, a dark, brooding expression on his face as he contemplated my words before reluctantly saying, “Fine.”
I looked back up the hill at the Harvesters. There were two men and one woman. One man was tall and skinny. The other man was of average height and weight. The woman was short, not even five feet tall—more like four—but she was stout.
“I think they’re waiting for us to make our move,” I said.
I got the distinct feeling they were taunting us, knowing they had the upper hand in the situation. They stood atop the hill like hawks patiently waiting for their prey to flinch before swooping down for the kill.
I had no intention of running with Jace and Zoe to safety. I had a plan of my own, but I couldn’t tell Jace without risking the Harvesters overhearing it with their enhanced hearing. I was sure they knew exactly what we were planning. If I voiced what I was about to do, my plan would lack the one element I needed for it to succeed: surprise. I knew Jace was Zoe’s best chance for survival. If my plan worked, he and Zoe might have time to escape, and I was willing to make whatever sacrifice was needed to ensure they had the best chance possible to survive the impossible situation we found ourselves in.
“You should carry Zoe,” I told Jace to ensure he stayed with our young charge and didn’t try to do anything foolhardy like I was about to do. “She’s too small to run as fast as us.”
Zoe let go of my hand and walked over to Jace, holding her arms up to him, complete trust on her pixie-like face. Jace lifted her off the ground and swung her onto his back easily, holding her legs securely on either side of his waist. Zoe wrapped her arms around his neck and looked up the hill at the Harvesters defiantly. I was glad to see her spunk. She would need it to survive.
It was now or never.
“Ready?” I asked.
Jace nodded.
I looked down at Blue beside me and wondered if it would be the last time I ever saw him. I pointed to the tree line and said, “Blue go.”
Without hesitation, Blue ran to the woods as instructed. I prayed he wouldn’t try to come back and help me in what would surely turn out to be the stupidest and possibly last thing I did in my life.
I took a deep breath.
“Run!” I yelled, setting Jace and Zoe off in the direction of the woods.
I ran in the opposite direction toward my backpack. I prayed by the time Jace figured out I wasn’t with them, I would have at least one of the Harvesters incapacitated.
It only took me a few seconds to reach my backpack, but by that time, the Harvesters were already halfway down the hill. I reached a hand inside the interior, praying I would be lucky enough to find the pistol quickly. Inside my blanket I felt the cold handle of the gun slip into the palm of my hand like a glove. I drew it out, extending my arm and aiming at the largest target, the male Harvester in the middle. I squeezed the trigger and held my breath as I waited to see where the bullet landed. I saw the man stumble as the bullet hit him squarely in the chest, a good shot but not enough to slow him down. I aimed again, knowing I wouldn’t get a third chance.
As I focused on the Harvester’s face, it was almost like my eyes were the lens of a camera zooming in on a target. His forehead came into focus so clearly it was like he was standing right in front of me. I squeezed the trigger but knew even before the bullet hit that it would land right between the Harvester’s eyes. He went down fast and tumbled to the bottom of the hill.
I didn’t have time to feel any joy over my small victory or wonder how I had made such a shot. There were still two Harvesters left. I aimed for the other man because he veered off toward the woods where Jace, Zoe, and Blue had run. I fired but missed my mark, just grazing the Harvester’s shoulder. He was rapidly getting out of my range, so I kept firing until there were no more bullets left in the gun and I heard the click of an empty clip. The skinny male Harvester disappeared into the woods, out of my reach.
Before I knew what was happening, the female Harvester barreled into me, knocking me to the ground onto my back. I still had the gun in my hand and began to hit the woman across her temple as hard as I could with the butt of it. Effortlessly, she tore the pistol from my grasp and threw it off to the side.
The female Harvester straddled my waist with her thighs, crushing my rib cage and grabbed me by the throat, forcing my head down onto the ground as I tried to struggle against her.
“Stop it,” she hissed, tightening her hold on my throat, effectively blocking off any chance of air making it into my lungs.
My vision began to blur and everything seemed a darker gray than usual. I knew I was about to pass out but felt helpless to prevent it. My world turned black just as I heard the sound of gunfire.
I woke up gasping for air. The body of the female Harvester lay heavy across my lap, half of her head was missing. I scrambled to get out from underneath her.
“You all right, darlin’?”
When I looked to my right, I saw a man dressed in a brown leather trench coat and matching cowboy hat walk up to me. He held a rifle across his arm, cocked open as he loaded it with more shells.
“She almost had ya,” he said with a nod to the incapacitated Harvester. “You’re lucky I took a detour and got here when I did.”
“We have to help my friends,” I said, regaining my senses as I scrambled to my feet.
“Friends?” The man’s eyes narrowed on me as he closed the barrel of his rifle with the distinct clink of metal meeting metal. “Must not be that gooda friends to leave you to a Harvester’s mercy.”
“I didn’t give them a choice,” I said, feeling as though I needed to defend them. “Will you help me or not?”
The man looked down at a watch on his wrist before answering.
“Yeah, I got a little time.” He looked back up at me. “Where are they?”
“This way,” I said, taking off at a run toward the spot in the woods where Jace had entered.
As we approached the edge of the tree line, Blue ran out. As soon as he saw me, he turned around heading back into the woods. I could only assume Jace and Zoe were either safe or dead. Blue wouldn’t leave a fight or leave Zoe undefended.
It didn’t take us long to find them. Zoe’s cries were like a beacon to their location.
It appeared they hadn’t made it but maybe twenty yards into the woods before the skinny male Harvester found them. Yet, the scene we stumbled upon didn’t make much sense to me.
Jace was kneeling on the ground, rocking a hysterical Zoe back and forth in his arms while saying, “Everything will be all right,” over and over again. The headless body of the male Harvester laid about five feet away from them. I wasn’t sure where the head was.
“Are the two of you ok?” I asked, approaching them.
Zoe stopped crying as she and Jace both looked up and saw me. The sight of me seemed to propel them both into a state of temporary shock.
“Skye!” Zoe jumped off of Jace’s lap and ran to me, clamping her arms tightly around my waist.
Jace stood up and walked over to us. Before I knew what was happening, he had me in his arms almost squeezing the life out of me, knocking the air from my lungs in one breath. I thought I was going to faint again.
“I think you better step away from the ladies,” I heard the stranger say to Jace.
Jace let me go. I looked at the man who had saved
my life. The barrel of his rifle was now pointed directly at Jace’s head.
“Put your gun down,” I told him. “Jace is with me. He’s no danger to us.”
The stranger grunted, keeping a wary eye on Jace.
“Darlin’ anyone who can rip the head of a Harvester clean off with his bare hands has to be a Harvester too.”
I looked over at the headless body of the Harvester and then back to Jace. The man was right. Jace didn’t have any weapon that I knew of. He had to have physically decapitated the Harvester.
“Jace?” I asked, my simple question seeking a sensible explanation without having to say more.
“I don’t know how I was able to do it,” he admitted, keeping his hands in the air for the sake of the rifle but looking at me for understanding. “I swear, Skye. I don’t know.”
“Well, I do,” the stranger said, lifting his rifle to eye level like he was about to shoot Jace right then and there.
Without thinking, I pushed at the stranger, knocking the barrel of his gun into the air just as he let off a shot.
Jace rushed the stranger and easily pulled the gun out of the man’s hands, pointing the barrel of the gun at the stranger’s chest.
“Well, go ahead and shoot,” the man yelled at Jace, standing straight, unafraid to die.
“I’m not going to shoot you,” Jace said to the man. “But I’m not going to just let you shoot me either.”
“What’s one more human life to you Harvesters?” The man looked at me. “I guess I shoulda just let that gal take you.”
I was hurt by his words. He didn’t know me. He didn’t know any of us.
“Listen, Jace doesn’t know who he is,” I said. “He can’t remember anything about his life.”
The man’s eyes narrowed on me. “Then, you don’t really know if he’s a Harvester or not, do you?”
I looked over at Jace and realized I didn’t. The thought just hadn’t occurred to me. But I couldn’t dispute the fact that Jace had indeed ripped the head of a Harvester off. What other logical explanation could there be but that he was a Harvester too? He just didn’t know it.
“I’m not a Harvester, Skye,” Jace said, almost begging me to believe him.
“How do you know that?” I asked him.
“I just do,” he said defensively. “You told me they were heartless creatures. I’m not like that. You know at least that much about me, don’t you?”
“Well, if yer not,” the stranger said. “You shouldn’t mind me testing to see if it’s true.”
“Test?” I asked, looking back at the stranger. “What kind of test?”
“I have a light in my jacket. When you shine it on a Harvester, they glow red.”
The concept seemed a little ridiculous, so I asked, “Why do they glow red?”
“Those nanites the Queen put into them have some kinda fluorescent dye in them. The dye glows red when you shine a particular light at ‘em. It won’t hurt yer friend over there,” the man said with a nod of his head in Jace’s direction. “And it’ll sure as hell clear things up pretty damn quick.”
“Do it,” Jace said, keeping the rifle aimed at the man. “I don’t have anything to hide.”
The man cautiously lowered one of his arms and slowly slipped a hand inside his coat. He pulled out what looked like a small flashlight. He clicked a button on its side and pointed it toward Jace. The beam of the flashlight lit up Jace’s face like any ordinary light. No red glow appeared like the stranger had promised.
Jace wasn’t a Harvester.
“I’ll be damned,” the stranger said. “I’da sworn on my mother’s grave you were one of them. I’m sorry, son. I jumped to the wrong conclusion.”
“It’s all right,” Jace said. I could hear the relief in his voice as he lowered the barrel of the shotgun toward the ground. “I needed to know for sure too.”
The stranger lowered the light from Jace’s face. “Jesus, I never would have thought…” His hand stopped suddenly, and he shined the light straight at Zoe.
Zoe’s face glowed red, like the embers of a waning fire.
“What the hell?” the stranger yelled, taking a step back from us.
Before I knew it, the stranger swung the light in my direction. Instinctively, I flung my hands in front of my face to protect my eyes from the light. My hands lit up like they were on fire.
I heard a harsh intake of breath, faintly realizing the sound was coming from me. I stumbled backwards, staring at my hands, finding it impossible to breathe. The world around me turned pitch black as I passed out for the second time that day.
CHAPTER SEVEN
I heard my mother humming. It was a lullaby she would sing to me when I couldn’t fall to sleep or when I would awake from a bad dream in the middle of the night. I felt her fingers lovingly comb through my hair, gently stroking away my worries with each caress. I felt safe for the first time in a long time. It was the kind of safety you only feel in childhood, knowing the evils of the world can’t touch you as long as you’re within the loving embrace of your mother. I could see her clearly in my mind. Her long brown hair fluttered around her face like the gossamer wings of a butterfly. Her skin was as pale as the moon, and her eyes were the color of warm chocolate, so darkly brown and sweet you knew you were in the presence of someone special.
My thoughts felt like pieces of a puzzle floating on the warm wave of my mother’s voice, never quite reaching one another to interlock and form a complete picture. Through the jumbled maze of random thoughts, the surreal feeling of being in a world where my mother still protected me suddenly shattered, as part of my consciousness came to the realization that it was Zoe who was humming, not my mother. I felt the sting of warm tears flood my eyes. I selfishly tried to hold the fragments of the fantasy world my injured mind had conjured for as long as I could, not wanting to reenter the bleak reality I was forced to live in.
But I knew I had to wake up.
Zoe needed me. Jace needed me.
I slowly opened my eyes, revealing the soft glow of Zoe’s sweet face directly above mine. My head was lovingly cradled in her lap. She was the one gently smoothing my hair away from my forehead, not my mother. Her humming stopped.
“She’s awake,” she said excitedly, looking up from my face to someone in front of her.
It didn’t take long before I heard the crackle of grass give way as Jace knelt down beside me.
“Are you ok?” His face was lined with worry. “Are you hurt anywhere?”
I closed my watery eyes, desperately wanting to return to my dream world, not wanting to face the real world just yet.
“No, I’m fine,” I whispered, as tears slowly slid from the corners of my eyes. “Just give me a minute.”
I willed myself to let go of the image of my mother. I had to be strong. Just as I had depended on her at one time, people now depended on me. I wasn’t about to disgrace her memory by being weak.
I kept my eyes closed as the last of my tears fell. My body felt drained of energy. I tried to remember why I had fainted in the first place. A picture of red glowing hands flashed through my mind, filling my body with a burst of adrenaline. I sat straight up. My red-and-black-checkered blanket fell from my shoulders to my waist.
I looked around for the stranger but didn’t see him.
“Where did he go?” I asked Jace, panicked that the person who might hold the answers to my questions had already vanished.
“He went to take care of the other two Harvesters before they had a chance to heal,” Jace answered.
“Is he coming back?”
“After he brought our backpacks to us, he said he’d be back as soon as he was finished.”
I felt an uneasy relief. I hoped the stranger would be able to help us understand why Zoe and I had glowed red under his light. But what if I didn’t like the answer he had?
I looked down at my hands as they began to shake. The pale skin covering them seemed almost foreign to me now, like they belonged to someone
else.
“You’re not a Harvester,” Jace said to me, so certain of his words.
I looked over at him, seeing the same certainty mirrored in his eyes.
“Then, what am I?”
“I don’t know. But I know you’re not one of them. And neither is Zoe. Look…” Jace reached behind him to his back pants pocket and pulled out the flashlight the stranger had used. He turned it on and flashed the light down to my hands. As before, they gave off an ominous red glow.
“Pull one of your sleeves up,” Jace instructed me.
I did as he said while he moved the beam of light up past my wrist to the flesh of my arm. It didn’t glow red. It remained as pale as ever.
“What does it mean?” I asked, confused by the difference.
“He didn’t seem to know,” Jace told me as he moved the light from me to Zoe’s face.
I turned to look at her and noticed that only her face glowed red, not the exposed skin on her neck or hands.
I reached out and touched Zoe’s face.
“There’s no way you could be one of them,” I told her.
“I know,” she said in a tone far more mature than her high-pitched child’s voice should have allowed for.
I gathered my blanket up to my chin to ward off the cold air while we waited for the stranger to come back. Blue walked up to us and sat down between Zoe and me, giving us what warmth he could from his own body. Jace shrugged off Ash’s coat and handed it to me.
“You’ll freeze,” I said to him, refusing to take the coat. “Keep it on.”
“I’ll use the other blanket,” he said, coming around me and draping Ash’s coat over my shoulders, effectively negating any more argument.
Jace opened Ash’s backpack and deftly pulled out the green wool blanket Ash had once used. He draped it across his shoulders and came to sit down beside me.
We didn’t have to wait long before the stranger came back through the brush to our location. All of our eyes steadily focused on him in the waning light of day, silently seeking answers to our questions.