The threat of the incoming storm didn’t ease her worry. Looking at the horizon, she scanned the ominous clouds. The storm seemed to be moving slowly, and didn’t seem too powerful at the moment, but who knew if that might change?
Looking over her shoulder, she searched up the craggy rocks, finding the entrance of the Right Cave, where she’d left Samel. A few others had promised to bring him back to their new chamber. If all went well, Neena would return with his sibling. Her family had experienced enough heartache.
It was time to put an end to it.
The path curved, winding behind a passage of tall, jutting rock on either side, as if the cliffs were trying to swallow them up. No one spoke, or made a sound. Fear consumed their thoughts.
A momentary flash of recollection reminded Neena of Raj walking this same path, heading off toward a precarious battle, like she was.
She had no idea what would happen when she reached the Comm Building.
Facing Sherry and her women was one thing.
Confronting Bryan was another.
She looked behind her at the sixty people who accompanied her. Most had only suffered minor injuries, but they might not be so lucky a second time. Neena wasn’t deluded. She knew her people weren’t as numerous or as experienced as Bryan’s or Gideon’s. And she had little faith that Tanya could reason with Bryan, when she’d already tried and failed.
A battle with The Watchers might prove disastrous.
But she was intent on her mission.
Noticing Neena glancing around, Samara met her eyes, giving her a determined nod. Roberto and Salvador matched her steps.
Regardless of what happened, she was glad to have them by her side. They weren’t her family by blood, but they’d grown almost as close, in the short time they’d lived together.
After traveling a long while, Kai pointed at a familiar curve in the distance. “We’re almost there.”
Her shoulders brushed his. His touch reminded her of the moments they shared in their bedroll in the night, holding each other for warmth, caressing each other gently.
Without thinking about it, she reached over and squeezed his shoulder.
And then they reached the sandy desert below the cliffs.
They moved without pause, making quicker progress than their previous trip to the colony, passing the tithing and storage buildings.
When they reached the middle of the colony’s northern border, they forged down the main path.
Chapter 65: Raj
Activity rippled through the Comm Building’s main room. Watchers lined up on the edges of the circular table, hovering over the quills and spears, working carefully and diligently, constructing the new weapons that Bryan had ordered, while the wind keened against the building outside.
Those who weren’t engaged in the work spoke in quiet, excited tones, hope lighting up their faces.
Not Raj.
Horror and guilt filled his stomach. No one had asked him to go on Ed’s early trip. In fact, they hadn’t even looked in his direction. If Raj hadn’t realized his role before, he’d figured it out now: he was only as good as his last discovery. He’d never been good enough, at all.
The nightmarish bubble of reality had burst inside him.
He couldn’t stop envisioning Darius’s face, or dwelling on the way he had betrayed his old friend.
What should he do?
Looking at the doors, a part of him wanted to make a break for them, running back to the cliffs and his family. But fear held him back. For days, he’d lived among Bryan’s men, fighting with them, eating with them, and sleeping among them. For all he knew, a move like that would be considered the ultimate betrayal.
If he were trapped here, he’d make it count.
Staring across the room, he located Bryan.
Instead of seeing the man he’d once called a friend, he now saw a beast, as ugly as the Abomination. Raj gritted his teeth, watching Bryan give his men orders. His eyes roamed to the quills and spears on which The Watchers worked. Every so often, one of the men put a finished one into a pile. He wanted to grab one of those new weapons, thrust it in Bryan’s face, and demand answers.
Raj thought about that.
No matter what he did, he couldn’t change what’d happened to Darius. But perhaps he could make it right in another way. Maybe he could atone for his decisions.
The more he sat on his bedroll, watching Bryan and thinking, the more his seething guilt turned to a different kind of thought.
When the time was right, he’d get revenge for what Bryan had done to Darius.
Chapter 66: Neena
A gust of building wind snaked from behind, kicking up a billow of dust and startling Neena. For a moment, she questioned her decision to forge onward, but she already saw the back of the annex, and the enormous dome building. This was their time.
“Let’s go!” she mouthed to the people behind her.
She kept a wary eye around her. Since walking the main path, she hadn’t seen any sign of Bryan’s people, nor had they glimpsed any activity from the cliffs. Their separating distance had cloaked their fight.
They passed by several dozen alleys of hovels—some ruined, some intact—and most of the tradesmen’s buildings before reaching the cusp of the wide, circular path. Thirty feet of open path gave them plenty of room to spread out, but they stuck together, as more wind and sand swirled around them.
Passing by the annex, Neena had a moment to feel blistering anger for how Bryan had kept her and Kai there.
And then they were at their destination.
The Comm Building rose high above them, casting an ominous shadow. She saw no boot prints on the path. Assumedly, the blowing sand had covered them over.
That thought led to another.
Maybe Bryan’s people were gone.
The thought scared and relieved her, but she knew it was the wrong hope.
She needed Raj back.
They circled the building and approached the main entrance.
A spike of fear coursed through Neena, as her people stopped at a twenty-foot buffer from the thick, wooden doors, staring at them.
She and Kai traded a look with Tanya, who nodded.
Slowly, Tanya crept toward the doors, reaching the threshold and putting an ear to one of the doors. She heard nothing. The gale had grown strong enough that it would mask any noise from inside. Neena and her people glanced from Tanya up to the sky, watching the approaching clouds.
Tanya raised a fist and knocked.
Neena, Kai, and the others maintained their position, holding their spears, riveted on the door. The next few moments took more courage than the thousands they’d already spent getting here.
And then those moments yielded something.
Something scraped against the other side of the doors.
Chapter 67: Neena
A thud followed the scrape.
Neena held her position with Kai at the front of their group, twenty feet away, watching Tanya, while sand continued swirling up around the path. All around Neena, sixty Right Cavers steadied their spears, prepared for whatever came next.
It was a stand, as well as a statement.
Neena swallowed. She’d guessed this scene so many times in her head that she knew all the outcomes. All that was left was to live one of them.
The door cracked open, revealing a sliver of torchlight, and a face.
Louie.
The large man stood in the cracked doorway, scanning over them. Surprise lit his face when he saw Tanya.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, furrowing his brow.
Lifting her chin, Tanya motioned to Neena and her people, “They’re here to talk to Bryan. They want to get Neena’s brother back.”
Louie motioned with his uninjured hand. “What are you doing with them?”
“We had some conflict on the cliffs. I was hoping to avoid more,” Tanya said over the wind. “I was hoping for peace.”
Louie watched them for a wh
ile longer through the crack, contemplating an answer, before leaving without another word. The thud of the shutting door rattled Neena’s heart and her mind. She blinked hard, looking over at Kai. None of her troop had moved. They knew their plan. If Bryan wouldn’t open the door, they’d camp here until they got what they wanted. Sooner or later, Bryan and his comrades would come out for water or supplies, and when they did, Neena and her crew would say their peace, regardless of Tanya.
They stood until their legs were cramped and their spears wavered, until a sound snapped them back to attention.
The door opened again, wide enough this time that Neena could immediately recognize the man coming through.
Bryan.
Taking a few steps outside, he peered through the thickening haze of blowing sand and dust.
Intimidated, Tanya took a few steps back.
Holding up her hands, she raised her voice over the persistent gale. “Bryan, we need to talk. We had some troubles on the cliff, but we have come to an agreement. I am here to facilitate a conversation.”
Bryan looked past her as if she were an insect, flitting about his head, before stepping around her, holding his spear.
Neena surveyed the man who had caused so much turmoil, and had presumably killed Darius. His hair was disheveled. His eyes were ringed from lack of sleep. His clothes were tattered and worn, probably from battle, and too many days without washing.
“You shouldn’t have come here,” Bryan told Tanya dryly, over the wind.
Tanya stepped further away, lowering her hands.
Louie and a dozen other Watchers filtered out behind Bryan, holding spears or knives. They scrutinized Neena and her crew as if they were starved beasts wandering into a hunter’s territory. One of them, a young man with blond hair, cut through and darted over to Tanya.
“What are you doing here?”
Tanya shook her head, trying to explain, but he brought her away from Bryan.
Fighting his grasp, Tanya yelled, “Bryan! We need to talk! We can resolve this!”
Her words caused a stir among some of the other Watchers, until Bryan cut them off.
“Enough!” he commanded. Focused on Neena and her people, raising his voice to be heard over the intensifying wind, he said, “You are even more foolish than I thought before.”
Neena was through mincing words. “We’re here for my brother,” she yelled.
Bryan sneered. He studied Neena’s face for a long moment, before turning to Louie.
Forcing an innocuous expression, Louie called out, “What makes you think he’s with us?”
“I saw him coming down here with you,” Neena returned, looking between them. “And Tanya saw him from the cliffs yesterday. Let me speak with him.”
Staring between Bryan and Louie, her anger boiled. It was the same anger she’d felt when she realized her brother was gone, or when she’d felt Sherry’s and her women’s abuse. It was the same rage she felt at discovering what had happened to Darius. It was a rage she would let out soon, if their attempts at peace failed.
“If you have any intelligence, you’ll turn back to the cliffs,” Bryan warned.
“We’re not going anywhere without Raj,” Neena kept on. “If you get in our way, you’ll feel the ends of our spears.”
Bryan smiled confidently. “You aren’t coming in here.”
As if on cue, a dozen more armed Watchers stepped out from the building, reinforcing Bryan’s first group. Neena scanned past them, trying to spot Raj, but all she saw were more unrecognizable faces. The building was so full that they’d never get inside without being invited. And the circling sand and wind was making it hard to see them clearly. But she wasn’t giving up.
Her anger driving her words, she said, “You’ve done enough damage to our people. This ends now.”
“More than you’ve done?” Bryan’s eyes burned with renewed anger, as he continued speaking over the gale.
“You’ve turned neighbors into enemies, for your own aims,” Neena said, through gritted teeth. “You’ve kept us in our cave for too long, but now we’re out, and we aren’t going back.”
The shuffle of feet made Bryan look behind him. In the time they’d been talking, more people had gathered at the doorway, watching with curiosity, and more than a little unease. No one had ever spoken to a Watcher the way Neena had. And certainly not to Bryan.
Feeling the pressure of the growing audience, Bryan stepped forward, jabbing his spear at Neena. “Gideon was right about you. He should’ve let you rot in that cell.” He aimed his weapon menacingly at Kai. “And he should’ve let the stranger die, too.”
“Or he could’ve killed us both, like he planned to kill Kai,” Neena spat loudly.
A few of The Watchers bristled at a lie few had discussed openly.
“That’s right,” Neena said, motioning toward some of the people gathered in the doorway of the Comm Building. “Gideon ordered The Watchers to drag Kai from his cell and kill him in the caves, where none of you would hear. He lied on that podium. Kai never escaped.”
Kai nodded, planting himself alongside Neena. “It’s true,” he said. “A few of the veteran Watchers dragged me to the desert to kill me. I would’ve died, if Neena hadn’t helped me.”
The Watchers looked at each other, guilt on their faces. None disputed the truth.
“Gideon had his reasons,” Bryan said. “And now I understand them.”
“Of course you would say that, because you are consorting with him,” Neena said, venom in her voice. “Tanya told us what you were up to. She heard Sherry conspiring with him.”
A few in the Comm Building conversed loudly, turning to one another. Tanya lowered her head, feeling the weight of too many stares.
“That’s right,” Neena pressed on. “Gideon is the reason you’re down here, isn’t it? You’ve been whispering with him in the shadows. You’ve been planning all of this so that he can take power back. Have you not told your people?”
Bryan’s lips quivered with anger. Looking from Neena to the people behind him, he said, “Gideon has given us ideas about battling the monster, that is true.”
“Ideas about how he’ll return to the Comm Building, when you’re done,” Neena said. “Ideas about how he’ll rule once again. Maybe he can tell these people more lies, or kill them, the way he tried to kill Kai, or the way you killed Darius.”
Bryan took another step, thrusting his spear in front of him. Neena held her weapon up defensively. As one, the Right Cavers moved forward to protect her.
Bryan’s Watchers shored up behind him.
“Will you kill us the way you killed our friend?” Neena asked, over the wind. “Will you stab us with a dozen tools, after we’re dead? Or maybe you’ll do it while we’re alive.”
More conversations started in the Comm Building. The people behind The Watchers looked confusedly from Bryan to Neena.
“He killed Darius!” Neena yelled, drilling the words in for effect. “He killed him for no reason, before marching down here with all of you. He left him dead in a cove for us to find. Perhaps that is something else you didn’t know.”
Realizing the trust of his people was faltering, Bryan said, “We did what we had to do to restore Red Rock.”
Gasps came from the crowd.
“You killed an old man for your own selfish revenge,” Neena seethed. “And now more people are dead, because your plan to attack the monster failed.”
The people in the Comm Building looked from Bryan in the direction of the desert. Pain overtook their faces.
Before their pain could turn into blame, Bryan roared, “Enough!” He turned to his men, raising a signaling hand into the wind. “These pieces of trash have caused enough death. It is time to put an end to it. We will finish what we started on the cliffs!”
Samara stepped up, her face a mask of anger. “If you do that, you’ll die, like Sherry.”
Bryan looked from Samara to the cliffs, through the building wind and the whipping sand. Of
course, he couldn’t see up there clearly. He looked back at Samara. Disbelief and rage crossed his face.
“You lie!” he spat.
“I’m not lying,” Samara said. “She tried to fight us and fell from the cliffs. She caused her own death.”
Bryan’s eyes widened. He looked from Samara, to Neena, and then back at Tanya, waiting for confirmation.
“It’s true,” Tanya said, lowering her head. “It happened just a while ago.”
He looked from Tanya to the cliffs, struggling with a truth he couldn’t believe.
“No…” His eyes widened.
He looked around at Neena and her people, as if someone might dispute the fact, but of course, they didn’t. Slowly, his denial turned to fury.
Rearing back his spear, he aimed at Samara, ready to release that fury into a throw.
Crying out, Samara raised her spear to protect herself.
A new voice interrupted them.
Everyone turned.
Cutting through the crowd of people at the doorway, holding the strange weapon and aiming at Bryan, Raj yelled, “Drop the spear, or you’ll die!”
Chapter 68: Neena
Gasps rippled through the crowd. People stepped back, or shielded their loved ones. No one moved to stop Raj. Fear froze their feet. Even The Watchers moved aside, not wanting to get in the way of a blast that would put a hole in their bodies.
Neena watched in disbelief as her brother moved through the crowd of frightened people, stopping within feet of Bryan, keeping the weapon trained, while the swirling sand kicked up around them. The wind had grown strong enough that they had to shout to be heard.
In a voice older than his years, Raj repeated, “Drop the spear!”
Bryan opened and closed his mouth, but he didn’t let go of his weapon.
“Do it, or I’ll send a spear through your body, just like we did to the stone!” Raj screamed.
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