The Supremacy

by White, Megan

  I searched for John, as I walked where the Keeper guided me, and I soon found him standing on the outskirts of the gathering. The screeching sound of a microphone sounded over the roar of the herd gathered, affectively piercing the ominous air around us. The Keeper stopped walking, halting me with a firm hold on my back, and we all looked to the stage that stood at the front of the confinement. “Good afternoon!” The same brash voice that I heard over Declan’s radio addressed the crowd in front of him. “I am thrilled at the wonderful turn out that we have.” He smiled out towards us, his eyes scanning the gathering, “But before we sort all of you into your respective houses, we must first mark you.”

  Just then, I spotted Declan stepping up beside him, Tarant, I think is what he called him, and once again, Declan’s penetrating glare found me.

  “We will do this in the most orderly fashion available to us; you will come up one by one and be marked. And with that being said,” A wicked smile crossed the man’s otherwise passive face, “I urge you to comply.”

  My stomach felt like an empty pit, my heart lodged itself in my throat as the Keeper behind me pushed me forward. My foot caught on a rock, and I stumbled to the ground, my hands being the only thing that stopped my head from crashing into the gravel beneath our feet. Immediately, I felt a strong hand come up and around my arm, I knew that hand well. It was John. I lifted my head, and in his eyes, I could see every word that he could not say. He was just as terrified as I was. Maybe even more so because I knew the last thing he would do was comply with their demands. I knew that John would fight, and he knew that as well. And by fighting back, he would surely die.

  “Come on,” He smiled at me without the slightest hint of humor in his tormented brown eyes, “might as well get this over with.”

  Wobbly, I stood to my feet with the Keeper still at my back, pushing me through the crowd. It didn’t take much effort to reach the podium seeing as how the crowd parted like the Red Sea as we made our way closer to the massive stage.

  Why I had to be the first in a crowd so dense was beyond my knowledge. It could have been hours before I had to be marked, but something or someone wanted me to be first.

  I wished John would fall back, but even I knew uttering the words aloud would have been fruitless.

  Even with a Keeper at my side, John would not leave me. Whatever happened to him from that moment on would forever be my fault. And that was a knowledge I would always carry with me.

  I was guided smoothly to the steps, and Declan’s eyes remained fixated on me from the start. He reached out for my hand with a knowing smile playing across his lips; I hesitated for a split second. It was flight or fight time. I had one Keeper at my back and one to my front. Not to mention what could only be a High Supreme standing in the center of the lectern. There was nowhere to run, and far too many to fight. That probably made me a coward, but it was either comply or die.

  My father’s words rang in my ears, “Never bow your head, Rin. Never lose your sense of freedom. You may die, but you will die with your principles intact.” What would my father say to me if he could see me now? If he could see what a disappointment his daughter had become?

  I watched as Declan’s smile faded and his head began to slowly move side to side. I knew what he was doing, it was a warning, a very subtle warning that only I could make out. He knew what I was thinking, and he knew that I would die.

  With my hand in Declan’s iron grip, I climbed the stairs on shaky limbs. My breath hitched seeing the one named Tarant step closer to me. Tarant’s piercing eyes went from mine to Declan’s and back again. With a lazy swoosh of his hand through the air, he motioned for Declan to release, but not before he leaned against his side. I could hear what he whispered but his words did not make sense to me, “I can now see what you meant. This one is everything you promised. Out of an entire crowd, you would think we would have gotten more.” He shook his head in disappointment as he straightened his back and spoke louder so his words could not be mistaken, his gaze floated over my frame, and soon settled impassively on my face, “But we can always make more.” A sinister smile stole his lifeless expression. My back stiffened once he closed the small gap that separated us. Declan’s fist went into my spine, another warning I supposed, and when Tarant motioned for my hand, I stepped forward.

  “This won’t hurt for long.” He breathed in a sickly sweet voice that I knew held nothing but disdain. We were animals to The Supremacy, nothing more, and they treated us as such whenever the opportunity arose.

  He pulled a syringe from the inside of his long black cloak and nuzzled the piercing end into the crook of my arm. His grip tightened around my hand as he forced the point into my skin. Through the clear lining of the needle, I could see what was being inserted; a small black piece of plastic was being propelled into my body. It could have only been a tracking device. The ‘marker’ he spoke of before.

  Once the device found its place in my flesh, the cold hands of Tarant released me, and with a smile, he turned to Declan, “We found our Grade ‘A’ in this one.”

  I was steered off the stage by the same Keeper that held a fist to my back from the moment I stepped off the bus. I knew the next to be marked would be John. He had followed me to the lectern; so inevitably, he would be the next in line.

  I was stopped in a small clearing when I heard the scuffle break out. I did not want to turn around. I did not want to see them take John down. It would be an image that would be burned into my mind for the rest of my life.

  I heard John’s unmistakable scream. When I turned, my eyes met his flailing body. He was flying through the air with Declan’s hand at his throat. Declan had lifted John’s limp form as if he were a rag doll. A scream of my own left my lips, one that I tried to muffle with an outstretched hand.

  Declan’s eyes met mine the moment John’s back hit the unforgiving wood of the stage. Was John dead? It looked like it. His chest did not heave for breath. His body did not make a single movement. Declan’s eyes were blazing into mine as I looked from John back to him. He had just killed my best friend. He murdered him with a massive gathering watching. How could one person kill another with so many others watching. How could one person do something so sinister without one coming forward to try to stop them?

  I ran to John. I didn’t care what they were going to do to me. If he was dead, I was not about to leave him alone on the cold wood of the stage.

  I made it halfway to the stairs before an unyielding hand came around my neck. The Keeper had me pinned to the ground before I had even the slightest chance to struggle. My face was being ground into the rocky earth beneath me. I could taste the blood that trickled out of my broken flesh as he held me still.

  “John!” I managed the scream even as my head was forced deeper into the rocks beneath me. He was smothering me. The Keeper’s fist ground into the back of my skull, the pain was so immense that I thought he would soon crush it.

  I coughed through the blood that began to pool in my mouth, choking off my tortured screams of agony.

  My vision started to cloud, going darker and darker until I could see nothing. I could still hear, but the sound was only muffled bits of words.

  I could hear Declan’s voice yelling close by, but I could not make out what he was saying. Soon the pressure at the back of my skull ceased. It was a short reprieve for soon I was completely gone. No sight, no sound, I was in the dark, in the infinite obscurity with my only recollection being the sight of my best friend lifeless at the hand of a Keeper.

  We all knew our fate long ago. We all knew that one day all of our lives would be taken by the hands of The Supremacy, but that did not make any of it easier to cope with. We had all seen countless of our loved ones taken from us, but John was all that I had left, and now he was gone forever.

  My fault. My fault. My fault.

  ***

  I woke disoriented in a room that I did not recognize. My head throbbed an unrelenting the humming in my ears had yet to cease and the cou
ghs of yet to be dispelled blood shook my body. Pulling my head up, I scanned around the room. Dozens of frightened eyes met mine. Hushed whispers came from all around me as they noticed me coming to.

  A small voice came from beside me, “Are you okay?”

  I turned to look at her. She was young, much younger than I was. Her tiny hand trembled as she placed it on my shoulder, “We had thought they had killed you too.”

  Too. Too, as in, they had killed John. My John. A sob left my lips, my body quaking uncontrollably until I collapsed back to the hard, cold, cement floor.

  Her small hand caressed my cheek, catching a tear that I had not known had fallen.

  “You were brave.” She smiled, her tiny hand grasping mine in a fierce squeeze, “Much braver than any of us.”

  I let my eyes scan the room again, and this time I counted as I went. There were twenty, including me, “Where are we?” I managed to choke out. It was dark and cold. The bodies around me shivered in the darkness, whether from fear or from the chill, I did not know.

  “After they marked us,” She showed me her arm that was already beginning to show signs of bruising, “they lead us in here.”

  “But where is here.” I asked, pulling myself to a sitting position.

  Her small frame began to shiver as she looked around the room, “I’m not sure. Everything looks the same out there. Cement wall, floors, small rooms.” She shrugged into the corner and hugged her knees tight to her chest, “I don’t know.”

  I crawled after the young girl knowing that it was she that now needed my comforting. I laid her head on my shoulder and caressed her back. It reminded me of how I comforted Trent when his dreams had woken him. How easily my thoughts drifted back to him. I could not stop my mind from thinking of his chubby dimpled face and his infectious carefree laughter as he ran through the meadow that was our backyard. He was so full of life and love, much like the girl that rested on my shoulder. I could see it in her eyes. She was so small; if I had to guess, she was barely ten.

  Her arms soon wrapped themselves around my neck, “What are they going to do to us?” She sobbed into the hollow of my throat.

  I did not want to lie to her, to give her false hope, but I knew I couldn’t tell her the truth. We were all going to die.

  I caressed her wet cheek, “I don’t know.”

  I don’t know how long I sat there rubbing the young girl’s back. It could have only been minutes or it could have been hours. Time did not exist there, only torment. I wondered if that was half the fun for the Keepers. They could watch us waste away right before their eyes. They didn’t have to do much at all, no physical accretion necessary for one of them to kill an entire group of us. Denying even a small glass of water could have done us in.

  Soon, we heard the faint sound of echoing footsteps coming from down the hall. Every whisper in the cell ceased into a deafening silence. You could hear nothing but the ominous footfalls coming closure and the drip, drip of a leaky old pipe that hung overhead.

  I held the girl closer to me, her face burying itself even deeper into my neck. I wanted to take her mind off the noise; I had to say something, “What is your name?” I whispered to her as the footsteps grew louder.

  “F-faith.” She stammered, her shaking growing stronger.

  “Faith.” I echoed happily, “That is a beautiful name. My name is Erin, but you can call me Rin.”

  Soon, we no longer heard the steps coming. No sound emanated through our confines.

  The breathing of the twenty began to heighten as that ominous silence grew. The air thickened around us, we all knew something had been coming for us.

  The door flung opened, and our collective shrieks filled the air. It was a Keeper. He scanned the room, his eyes landing on all our faces until he found me. Faith cringed deeper into my side, her arms all but choking me.

  I did not look away from the Keeper that stared me down. I couldn’t look away if I tried for he had me frozen with the deepest fear I had ever known. It gripped my stomach until I thought I might become sick. Sweat began to pool on the outside of my temples, and every hair follicle on my body stood on end.

  His expression was singular. It was the look of death.

  He stepped closer to me, a shadow of a smile playing on his lips. As he neared, I could feel my pulse quickening the closer he edged toward me. When he was only a few steps away, Faith let out a small whimper, causing the Keeper’s attention to flash over to her.

  He narrowed his eyes at the small girl wrapped around me and smiled widely at her, “Are you frightened, young one?”

  All Faith could manage was a nod. I gripped her tighter to my side, any closer and she would have been in my lap.

  “And you should be.” He spat at her before he turned his attention back to the front of the room.

  Leisurely, as if he had no care in the world, he took the few short steps to the door, absent-mindedly swinging a small cane as he went. But it wasn’t just a cane, how I wished it were. The slender black rod was an electric prod, like the one that had been used on John… John.

  Yes, Erin, I spoke silently to myself. He is gone now. Dead.

  The Keeper crouched down once more, but this time in front of an older looking boy sitting just at the inside of the door, “Come with me.” The Keeper demanded, kicking at the boy’s shoe.

  “W-why,” The boy stammered, but did not hesitant to straighten, even on shaking limbs.

  Faster than any of us could comprehend, that prod found its mark on the inside of the boy’s shoulder. He let out an excruciating scream of agony as the Keeper grabbed a tuft of his hair, “You don’t get to ask questions.” He spat out. “Now walk.” He pulled the frightened boy out of the cell by his hair, slamming the steel door behind him in finality.

  Faith sobbed into my neck, her body racked with tremors, “What will they do to him?” She cried.

  I brushed a tear away from her cheek and pressed my back deeper into the wall behind us, hoping that it would support the weight that I could no longer bear, “I don’t know.” I lied.

  Chapter Six

  The silence was almost unbearable as we all sat there waiting for the boy to return, but he never did. We became restless, not knowing what to do or what to say. Soon, I found myself standing in the middle of the small cell, pacing an invisible line from the front to the back. My body could no longer just sit motionless waiting for another one of us to be taken away.

  “What are you doing?” The small fatigued voice of Faith cut through the silence of the room.

  “Thinking.” I knew if we didn’t come up with a plan then we would all be taken away, one by one, never to return. But what I was really thinking about was what they were doing to the ones they took, and why they were chosen. Was there a method to their madness? Was this the reason for them marking us?

  A part of me, albeit a very small part, still had hope. I hoped above all that the cell we were in might possibly be a holding area until they found places for us. That maybe that was the ‘test’. That the strongest would find a way to survive the mental torture they had in store for us. That everything we were enduring was some psychotic simulation.

  “About what?” An impetuous male voice piped up, breaking me from my reverie, “about how to get the hell out of here?” His voice seethed sarcasm, “Yeah, keep thinking. The only way any of us are getting out of here is in a body bag.”

  Gasps filled the room. He probably wasn’t wrong, but saying it aloud made it final. Saying it out loud made him one hell of an asshole. “That’s the spirit,” I yelled at him, quickly closing the gap between us with just a few short strides, “Say bullshit that scares everyone and not a single damn thing that could possibly help.”

  “Help with what?” He stood, meeting me head on, his eyes blazing with the anger that matched my own, “Help us get killed faster?” He laughed out, “keep dreaming, but as far as I can tell, the tighter you keep your mouth, the longer you stay alive.”

  Anger coursed thr
ough me, rage building as the weight of the day threatened to crush my frame. I wanted nothing more than to obliterate the guy standing in front of me. My fist clasped shut, knuckles cracking as the force of my grip tightened my fingers.

  “No, Rin! Don’t.” I felt Faith’s small hand grasp around my arm. Hugging it tightly, she pulled me back, “He isn’t worth it.” She pleaded, pulling us back against the wall, “No one’s worth your anger.” She repeated, holding me against the cold stone.

  I learned more from that little girl than I had anyone else in my entire life. She was the epitome of goodness and purity. She loved with a force that could knock you to your knees. Even faced with death, she never lost sight of the beauty of humanity.

  I would have given everything to have been gifted the ability to see the world through her eyes. To her, beauty and love were all around us, we just had to take the time to notice it.

  She was right; fighting with him would have solved nothing other than my superficial need to unleash the pent-up hostility that was boiling almost painfully inside of me. A fight would have certainly alerted a Keeper, and that alone would have ended many of our lives.

  With Faith at my side, I allowed her to guide me back to our place. I slumped down, rested my back against the cold concrete of our cell, but I never took my eyes off him, and he didn’t look away from me either.

  All too soon, Faith’s shivering began again. Wrapping my arms around her, I whispered to her the song I always sung to my brother, hoping that it would calm her the same way it did him, the same way it did me when my father sang it.

  “Hear the whispers in the wind.

  It’s when time begins again.

  See the colors of the ocean.

  Feel the warmth blanket your skin,

  Hear the songs played in moonlight

  as the night comes rolling in.

  It’s the ravens crying, ‘it’s midnight!’

  That’s when time begins again.”

  Her shivers began to ebb and her breathing deepened as she slumped into my shoulder.