by S. J. West
He stood there looking at us, not saying a word. He had a worn leather backpack slung over one shoulder. He sat it down in front of him and crouched to open it.
He pulled out what looked like a rolled-up vacuum-sealed plastic bag with something in it. Standing, he tossed the bag to Jace. Jace caught it in midair without even thinking about it, all reflex.
“Good catch,” the man noted. “If ya unroll it and tear the seal on the edge of that thing, you’ll find a coat that should fit you.”
Jace unrolled the plastic bag revealing what looked like a shrink-wrapped black jacket. He tore the perforated edge at the end off. I could audibly hear the sound of air being sucked into the bag as the plastic released its hold on the cloth within.
Jace pulled the coat out and put it on. It was a perfect fit.
The stranger looked down at Jace’s feet and rummaged in his bag once more, pulling out a pair of sneakers. He walked over to Jace and handed him the shoes.
“These should do better than those Harvester shoes yer wearing. They don’t look like they fit all that well on ya, son. Plus, I doubt I’ll ever wear these things, a little too modern for my taste. My daughter forced me to bring them though, just in case.”
I looked down to see what the stranger wore on his feet after the comment. They were well-worn brown leather cowboy boots, which certainly matched his attire.
“What’s your name?” I finally asked the stranger.
“John Makena, darlin’,” he answered with a slight bow in my direction. “Most people just call me Makena.”
“I’m Skye and this is Jace, Zoe, and Blue,” I said, laying a hand on Blue’s back. “Thank you for helping us.”
“Not a problem. Anytime I can kill a few Harvesters makes for a good day.”
“Where are you from?” I asked.
“I think you guys call it the Southern Kingdom,” Makena answered.
I sat up straighter.
“Do you know people named Rose or Simon there?”
“Can’t say I do,” Makena said with a thoughtful look. “But there are a lot of people down south. Are they friends of yours?”
“No,” I answered, “not exactly.”
I had hoped he might be able to tell me how Rose and Simon fit into the scheme of things in the Southern Kingdom. They were able to do things no normal human could, so I had to assume they would stand out in a crowd. The fact Makena didn’t seem to know them at all worried me.
“How long have you been in the Eastern Kingdom?” I asked.
Makena shrugged. “Near about a month I expect, haven’t really been keepin’ track of the days since I got here.”
“Why are you here?” I asked. “Why would you leave the south?”
“Duty,” he answered without hesitation. “I’m a scout for the south. I find breeding camps and leave tracers.”
“Why would you want to find breeding camps?”
“So we can destroy them with nukes.”
I sat in silence for a moment as what Makena said sunk in. Jace recovered before I could.
“But you’re killing innocent people,” Jace accused.
Makena crossed his arms over his chest. “Well, we figure they’d rather have a quick death than stay slaves to the Harvesters. It’s the least we can do. Plus, it keeps some of the Harvesters from livin’ quite so long.”
“Why not find a way to free them instead of murdering them?” Jace asked.
“It’s not possible just yet,” Makena said, dropping his arms and looking slightly ashamed for the first time. “Listen, I know it’s not the best alternative, but it’s all we have right now. Don’t you think I would rather take people back south with me if I could? I can’t do anything else for them, not yet at least.”
Makena knelt back down to his pack to search its contents.
I didn’t agree with Makena’s mission, but I couldn’t exactly argue against it either. If I were in a breeding camp, I would probably choose the swift death Makena offered to birthing children taken from me as soon as they met the world and doomed to become spare parts for the Harvesters.
“We’re trying to get to the Southern Kingdom,” I told him. “What’s it like there?”
Ash and I had dreamt of making it there for so long. I had to know if it was the nirvana we had always imagined.
“A hell of a lot nicer than this place.” Makena pulled out a few items from his pack and laid them on the ground beside him.
“But what’s it like?” I almost shouted, desperate to know what sort of place Ash had been taken to.
Makena stopped rummaging through his bag and looked up at me, finally sitting on the ground Indian style. He took his hat off and ran his fingers through his short gray-peppered brown hair before sitting it back on his head.
“Well, first off, we all live underground,” he said. He smiled at me when he saw my look of confusion. “It’s not as bad as you think,” he told me. “Since way back when the U.S. and Russia had their cold war and everyone thought we would have to live through a nuclear holocaust, the government started building a Shangri-la of sorts down south underneath the Smoky Mountains. It’s like a small city. There’s even artificial lighting that makes you think you’re out in the sun—the way it used to be before the war.”
“Can they grow food there?” I asked.
“Sure. But not a whole lot. There’s just too many people and not enough open land. We have to ration out what food was stored there and supplement it with what we can grow. We make do though. Nobody goes hungry.”
“How can you have a sun underground?” Zoe asked.
“Like I said, it’s artificial,” Makena replied to her. “Everything down there is run on nuclear energy. Hell, I bet those folks could live down there for the next century and not have to worry about wantin’ for anything.”
I felt anger, formed from a seed of jealousy, grow in the shadows of my heart.
“So, they’re happy to just leave us here in the Eastern Kingdom to starve to death, or worse? Don’t they even care about the ones they left behind?”
“They’re not all happy, darlin’,” Makena said in an understanding voice. “There are people who want to take down the barrier and fight the Harvesters again. We’re just not sure if it would end up makin’ matters worse.”
“How can fighting make things worse than they already are?” I demanded.
Makena shook his head. “There just aren’t enough people down south who want to do it. Most of the leaders of the government down there are firmly against it until we can find a way to take away the Queen’s hold over the Harvesters. They would rather protect the human lives they were able to save than risk losing to her again.”
“Then take her out. Send one of your nukes to blow her away.”
“We’ve tried that, but she’s always on the move. By the time we’ve located where she is, she’s already gone, like she knows we found her. Taking her down isn’t as simple as you might think. But we’ll catch her eventually. I don’t know if it’ll be in my lifetime or yours, but one day she’ll be made to pay for what she’s done to the world.”
A moment of silence hung in the air around us. It seemed like none of us wanted to ask the question we were all thinking about.
“Do you know what Zoe and I are?” I finally asked, bracing myself for the answer.
“I’m sorry, darlin’. I couldn’t even hazard a guess,” Makena said. “All I can tell you is what you’ve probably already figured out. The two of you have nanites in your bodies. I just can’t tell you why they’re just in your hands,” his eyes shifted to Zoe, “and in her head. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Maybe Doc Riley can tell you more when you get down south. She’s the smartest person I know.”
Makena’s words made my blood rush, causing my heart to thunder inside my chest.
“Doc Riley? You know this person? He really does live in the south?”
“She,” Makena corrected with a wry grin. “Yeah, she’s the best doc we hav
e down there. How did you hear about her?”
I briefly told Makena about Ash’s abduction by Rose and her mentioning a Doc Riley. I pulled out the red rose bud and handed it to him.
“Rose gave that to me before she vanished. Do they grow roses in the Southern Kingdom?”
Makena took the rose and studied it for a moment before saying, “Doc Riley grows them in her greenhouse.” Makena shook his head. “Damn girl, for a minute there I thought you had just hallucinated that story but here’s proof.”
Makena handed the rose back to me, and I stowed it back into my shirt pocket.
“Does the south have teleportation technology?” I asked, wondering if that was how Rose and Simon seemed to have the ability to appear and disappear at will.
Makena shook his head. “No, darlin’. I ain’t never heard of such a thing. And I know pretty much everything there is to know what’s important down there.”
My heart sank. I had hoped Makena could clear up a small part of the mystery for me. I didn’t sense that he was lying. What would be the point?
Makena stood and reached down for the item he had pulled out of his pack. He walked over to us and handed it to me.
“Take this and keep it with you. It’s a Geiger counter,” he told us. “It’ll let you know when the radiation levels in an area are too high. I expect the first of the scouts who came with me have placed their tracers by now, like the one I just put over in the Fairmont breeding camp.”
My head snapped up to look at Makena.
If Jace and I had continued on our way to Fairmont that night, we might have walked right into a breeding camp without realizing it until it was too late.
“What exactly is a tracer?” Jace asked.
Makena pulled a round, black plastic disk from one of his coat pockets and handed it to Jace. As Jace turned it over in his hands, I saw that it was black with five small unlit red lightbulbs embedded around the edge.
“I put a tracer on any breeding camp I come across,” Makena said. “It’s like a homing device for the nukes. Once I set one, I have five hours to get as far away from the blast site as I can. Each of those five red lights represents an hour. So if I come across another scout’s tracer, I know how much time I have to hightail it out of the area.”
“How long ago did you set the one in Fairmont?” Jace asked.
Makena looked down at the watch on his wrist and let out a whistle. “A little over two hours ago now. We best get a move on before the missile makes it there.”
“How big of a bomb is it?” I asked, standing up and sliding my arms through Ash’s jacket.
“Not that big,” Makena turned to retrieve his backpack, slinging it across one shoulder. “About a quarter the size of the one they used over in Japan during World War II. Blast radius shouldn’t go much more than a half a mile. It’s the fallout I’m worried about. We need to start heading west to stay away from it.”
“But we need to go south,” I argued.
“Well, darlin’, if you want to have a chance at making it that far you’re gonna have to trust me. The wind is blowing to the east, so we gotta head west. After that, you can start heading south again, but right now, I just want to make sure we all survive.”
I couldn’t argue with that logic.
Jace and I picked up our respective backpacks and followed Makena’s lead. Zoe grabbed my hand and squeezed it as we started walking westward. I wasn’t sure if she was trying to reassure me or herself that everything would be all right.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Makena kept the pace brisk, almost a light jog, but it was manageable. Thankfully, we had dirt roads to lead us westward from Meadowdale. Jace ended up carrying Zoe. Her small strides just weren’t long enough to keep up. Zoe’s added weight didn’t seem to slow Jace down at all.
The headache and fatigue Jace had experienced earlier, which caused us to stop in Meadowdale, seemed to have vanished. I suppose shock will do that to a person. I was amazed I was still able to move as fast as I was considering everything I had been through that day. Once we were safe and able to rest for the night, I felt sure the day’s stress would fall down on me like a wall of bricks, burying me in a deep, deep sleep.
After what felt like a little over an hour, Makena’s pace slowed to a measured walk.
“We oughta be safe now,” he said, a little out of breath. “Accordin’ to my map, there’s a small town called Rivesville up ahead. Should be able to find a building there to make camp in for the night.”
“Jace, can we eat when we stop?” I heard Zoe whisper behind me.
“Sure, monkey,” Jace replied, receiving a giggle in return.
I glanced back at the two of them. Zoe’s arms tightened affectionately around Jace’s neck as she laid her head against his chest. When Jace’s eyes lifted from Zoe, he caught me staring at him and smiled. Even in the dark shadows of nightfall, I could tell the gesture was laced with feelings he shouldn’t have for me.
I turned away, belatedly realizing the motion told of my embarrassment at being caught looking at him. I felt my heart give a slight lurch, an involuntary response, which forced me to reconsider how I truly felt about the man behind me, who had professed his love just that afternoon. There was no rational explanation for the feelings he said he had for me or for the memories of us together he seemed so sure were real. I still felt confident the memories were just figments of his imagination that he was mistaking for real memories, since he had none of his own. And his love for me was merely a byproduct of those fake memories. Like the feelings you might have for an imaginary person in a dream when you wake up the next morning. How else would you explain it?
I suppose what was bothering me the most about the whole situation were my own feelings. For some inexplicable reason, I was starting to feel an emotional connection with Jace. I wasn’t even sure what it was exactly I felt for him or what had triggered it. I did feel attracted to him. And it wasn’t just physical attraction, though what sane woman my age would belittle me if that was the only reason? It was the kindness I saw behind his eyes, which seemed to be drawing me to him. I was pretty sure he was having the same effect on Zoe. The way she held onto him seemed to indicate an amount of trust you shouldn’t have for someone you had just met, but her actions were a mirror of my own feelings.
An image of Ash flashed in my mind, and I suddenly felt the sharp jab of betrayal inside my chest. Here I was thinking about Jace when Ash was probably still fighting for his life in the Southern Kingdom. My only solace was the fact Makena seemed to think so highly of Doc Riley. Plus, Simon had said Ash was all right, and I had no reason to doubt him. But, then again, I had no real reason to trust him either. I had to hold on to my hope that he would be healthy by the time I reached the Southern Kingdom.
As we crossed over a river via a bridge and entered what was left of the small town of Rivesville, I felt relief from the fact we would be stopping soon. Now that we were so close to finding a place to rest for the night, my body felt on the verge of collapse.
We found an old 7-Eleven and decided to make our camp in it. The interior of the store had been looted years ago. There wasn’t anything left inside except for a few barren metal shelves and a smashed open cash register on the front counter. Most of the windows were broken, but that was actually a good thing. It would mean we could make a fire and have a way for the smoke to drift out. Jace and Makena went to the nearby woods and gathered enough kindling and limbs to last the night. Makena made a fire with his lighter. A far quicker way to start a fire than using the flint stone I had in my backpack. Though, through years of practice, I could have a roaring fire made in just a few minutes.
Supper was simple. I pulled out a couple of cans of baked beans from Ash’s backpack, and Makena had a bag of dried, seasoned beef he was more than willing to share. I only had two tin plates and two forks, just enough for Ash and I over the years. Makena said he didn’t want any beans and sat on the other side of the fire chewing on a piece of dried beef
as the rest of us divided up the beans and meat. Zoe and I shared a plate and fork while Jace used the other set.
To be honest, I didn’t feel much like eating. I wanted to ask Makena for something but wasn’t sure if he would help. I had only eaten half my meal when I handed the plate to Zoe and told her she could have the rest. She didn’t seem to mind in the slightest and delved into my share of the beans with vigor.
I looked over at Makena who stood staring out the broken windows. He seemed lost in his own thoughts.
“Makena.” He turned his head toward me at my call. “Can you tell us how to get across the barrier? I’ve tried a dozen times over to find a way through but never found a break in it.”
“Well, if it were easy to cross darlin’, it wouldn’t exactly be useful, now would it?” he teased good-naturedly.
“How did you get across? Is there a way to bring it down?”
Makena sighed heavily. “I figured you would end up asking me that question. I’m just not sure how much I can tell you and not put you into any danger.”
“Can’t you just tell us how to get across the barrier?”
“It’s not that simple, darlin’.”
“Why not?”
“Well, for one thing, if any of you were ever caught by a Harvester and they suspected you knew how to cross the barrier, they would more than likely torture you until you gave them the information.”
“I wouldn’t tell,” I said, feeling as though I had to defend my own sense of right and wrong.
“You don’t know that, darlin’,” Makena said with a sad shake of his head.
“Yes. I do.”
Makena gave me a lopsided grin.
“I don’t doubt you would be brave enough to die to keep the information secret,” his gaze wandered to Zoe, “but what would you do if they tortured Zoe? What if they had her pinned down and started cutting her organs out right in front of your eyes while she was awake? Would you be as brave then?”
I looked at Zoe. Her startled blue eyes looked back at me. I put my arm around her shoulders, wanting to assure her such a monstrous thing wouldn’t happen but that would be a lie. My face fell in defeat as I looked back at Makena.