by Aral Bereux
‘We’ve dealt with worse,’ he said. The guitar slipped where he leaned it against the chair beside him. It matched the sofa, the same pea-green material that clashed with the sea-blue kitchen. ‘We’ll have men to battle with this time, not kids. Weapons – we always manage to regroup.’
‘I feel responsible,’ and she did. It had eaten away at her since her escape from Central. The thought of Katherine helping her, then dying – the weight of it suffocated her body. She slumped at the table much the same way Daniel had, when Isis had mentioned Hal’s situation.
‘Too much responsibility for one person’s shoulders,’ he grunted.
She shrugged. Taris was closing in; she could feel him standing next to her. Their pact was catching up again. At least they were safe, Bas and her – she wasn’t so sure.
She opened her mouth to disagree, but her twitching fingers stole her attention. She held them in front of her. They danced in a maddening twitch that worsened with her exhaustion. Isis had said medical supplies were on the way with the men and the weapons. He’d looked through her when he’d mentioned it, and had asked how she was coping with the headaches. He was the only one who knew, until he blabbed about the painkillers he was sending.
With love, thanks very much dumb fuck.
Caden had mumbled about the fever making sense, how hard it had hit, and how quick.
After the comms, Caden’s attention was unwavering, until the bike had taken him down the highway toward the city. Even when she’d yelled, pushing him in the chest after he’d snatched her bike keys from her grasp, he’d held her tightly in a bear hug until she calmed down. He’d promised to return quickly. He’d asked her obedience for Bastiaan.
‘You okay, kiddo?’
She nodded and slipped her hands underneath her thighs. Sitting on them helped.
If only I could sit on my head.
Her head thumped. Isis had been angry when Caden mentioned the knife attack from Taris. Protective angry, she thought. Mentioning the fever upset him more, and he’d paced behind the black borders of the comms screen that concealed his true identity.
Why did he have to say something about the headaches? She enjoyed the denial. Ignore something long enough it went away.
The night started to sparkle, displaying stars through the window that bordered it nicely. Caden, Devo, and Daniel would wait at the rendezvous, the tunnels near the city limits. She shrugged when they talked about them. She’d lived in the city her entire life, never knowing about the tunnels they had mentioned. Caden knew exactly where they were. He’d agreed quickly. Need a good sniper rifle. Isis had agreed just as quickly. Shouldn’t be a problem, I’ll have two waiting—
‘Julianna?’
Bas stood in the middle of the room, with the walls swaying behind him as she struggled to focus. Taris was reading her; he was close and on the move, searching in his relentless hunt to capture them. She fought to block his invasion into her head space. Something had changed within him, something big and all she could sense was the need to hide, but she was still weak.
She pushed up from her chair, scratching it along the tiles and sending a chill down her back with its screech. The walls danced, and her legs wobble under her weight.
‘We need to leave.’
Bas sat her down at the table. ‘No, we don’t.’
‘We really need to leave, right now. Taris is coming.’
Julianna’s wide eyes met with his eyes as the panic rose and she wondered what she looked like to him right now. When his eyes narrowed, she knew he knew.
‘How long have we got?’ his lips thinned.
She shook her head. ‘I can’t block him this time, something’s changed with him. He has more power. He knows we’re here.’
Bas cocked his head, peering through the window. ‘They sure do,’ he pointed his finger. ‘Listen...’ and she did, to the engines pushing through the rough terrain in the distance.
Bas crouched under the window and held out his hand, taking hers. The squeeze he gave, reassured her. Soon this will end – one way or another, she thought. The guilt ebbed for fear, when she saw the drones bobbing through the window.
Bastiaan’s broad body hunched further under the window. They peered together at the four drones waiting for their orders and biding their time. Their low hum dropped them to the ground beside the sofa and Bas took her close to his side with his strong hand, holding her protectively.
‘I am so, so, sorry,’ she whispered.
His hand squeezed her shoulder as he looked down his nose to her shrinking image. ‘Can you sense anything else? How many patrols are coming?’
She needed to think. There were plenty of situations in the Sectors, where she eluded the drones and patrols. But the pain – her head was going to explode, and she knew Taris was taunting her with his new tricks. She needed to stop thinking, and when she closed her mind to everything, the pain went away.
Bas tugged her arm, raised his finger to his lips and nodded to the hallway behind them, their silence was imperative to escape undetected to the rear of the house. The bathroom was away from the drones. Julianna was surprised to see it moderately decorated in a finer interior than the mismatched kitchen. Minus the bathtub, and the gaping hole in the floorboards, it passed as respectable with its white interior and rotting brown drapes. Bas lowered her through the broken floorboards, letting her go when she reached the ground, peering over the snapped shards of wood on tip-toe.
Bas peeked through the gap at the door. He fumbled in his pocket to find the bike keys Caden had thrown to him in a game of keepings off, when she’d exploded in her rage earlier that evening.
They landed between her feet and when she looked up again he was gone. The old door that hung from its single hinge was closed tight.
She grabbed the rotting wood jutting out at her eye level, leveraging herself up. Not like this, she muttered, as she pulled. She wasn’t putting another notch on her blade with Bastiaan’s name in her mind. She wasn’t lurking under a rotting floor, while he took the fall for her. Sure as hell not explaining this one to Caden.
Go! Bas screamed inside her mind.
The floorboards groaned under her weight. ‘Not without you,’ she said quietly. She sensed Bas listening. ‘Please don’t do this,’ she whispered as the boards snapped away.
Julianna fell into the dampness of muck below the house. The smell of dirt and damp with the mix of the rotting corpses of small rodents overwhelmed her, and when she felt the sting of the wood in her arm, she was shocked.
She pulled it out with gritted teeth, studying the chunk of wood with her blood dripping from its point and her arm where it stung, watching it close up neatly before her eyes.
The wire door slammed.
She flinched, her healed arm was forgotten.
Julianna crawled to the front end of the house where the uneven woodwork bordering the gaps between the ground and the veranda met.
The drones circled their prey, buzzing angrily around Bas stepping down the stairs. She crawled along the dirt, pressing her hand into a soft chunk of fur and recoiling, to stop at a hidden corner where she watched his arrest.
Bas ambled towards the Jeeps. The drones closely followed, dancing above his head with their red eyes aimed at his chest and shoulders. He held his hands above his head, and Julianna watched in horror as he stopped just short of the Sig Taris pointed at his chest.
‘Julianna, where is she?’
‘Tell me about Hal and I’ll tell you about Julianna. He’s no doubt at the camp singing a tune, I suppose?’ Bas responded.
‘No,’ the response from Taris was uneventful, very calm.
She crawled along, watching and listening, keeping her distance, and ducking when Taris looked in her direction.
‘No, no. He’s been a very quiet man. Far cry from the ol’ days where he used to beat us senseless with a stick.’ Taris moved his sights from the stairs. ‘He’s responding much more at Central, though. Maybe late tonight, who kno
ws? What about Julianna?’ The patrols left the vehicles to stand guard behind him.
‘Thorn in my ass. Has the Rae spunk, for sure. Next question?’ Bas smirked. ‘Make them good, you only have two left.’
Will you go already?
Bastiaan’s voice exploded inside her head. His anger shook her, throwing her onto her back. The echo finished, he spoke again.
Can’t hold him off much longer. Go find Cade, tell him about Hal.
‘Who you whispering to, Bas?’ Taris stepped in. The Sig swung quickly against his face, dropping Bas to his knees.
Bas checked the blood on the palm of his open hand, and wiped his face. ‘No one man,’ he wiped it across his knee. ‘Been to the Senate lately, me thinks you’re about to open a whole lot of whooping on my ass?’
‘Where is she?’
‘Leave the girl alone – what is it with you? Some jealous streak, or just the bloodlines?’
Thwack! Click.
She braced herself for the next sound to blast through her senses, hoping to the Devil himself that Taris wouldn’t pull the trigger.
‘Go ahead, Taz. I’ve had a long life and I’m not talking. If you really want Cade hunting you down to revenge my murder, pull the trigger.’ he said. ‘Just a thought, you know how my brother is.’
‘Arrest him. He can be a lab rat for the Order.’
Bas smiled. ‘I’ve heard Sector One is lovely this time of year,’ the patrols slapped cuffs over his wrists and pulled him to his feet. ‘Lucky-fucking-me.’
Julianna lowered her head under a beam of wood. The exit was a small hole. Bas would never have squeezed through it. On the other hand, she could without much trouble. She went feet first. She cursed as she pushed herself through, ignoring the metal screws scraping along her sides. It was the least of her worries, and now she knew how to heal herself.
CHAPTER 11
4th May, 2018, 1900 hours.
The Farm House, 7 miles west of Camp 2.2.1
Julianna ran through the woods in the only direction she could go. It didn’t matter she was continuing west, it was away from Taris and his band of Militia. She weaved in and out of the trees, jumping obstacles she couldn’t side-step quickly enough. She needed to put some distance between them first. She needed some thinking time.
Her lungs and legs gave out, collapsing her against a fallen tree trunk. She huddled in the long grass, clutching at the dirt while the cool breeze washed over her sweaty body, waiting for the reassurance that didn’t come. There were situations where one could reassess and make new plans, adjust them accordingly depending on the outcome, and continue the forward march. This wasn’t one of them. The only direction to take was deeper in-country. Retreat, lick the wounds, and wait.
Taris could sense she was close and she sensed their hunt for her. It was impossible to move towards the sectors. Tonight, she’d lay low and focus on blocking him – to stop them from finding her. The dogs howled from the darkness of the trees behind her, and the drones hummed in their search. She was well ahead of them, but her scent pumped through the air, they were closing in from all sides. She didn’t doubt the troop’s dedication to search the entire area. They’d have the man power and transportation. She was on foot. She was exhausted.
She spotted the old pier still jutting from its shores, the lake lapping against its rotting wood, and cringed. The spent fire from the night before, still sat under the branches. She’d run in circles since the chase started. She was no farther from the farm house, than when Taris saw her at the corner, escaping from the small hole.
Triple Shit!
Julianna thought of the bike at the house. She pulled the keys from her jacket that Bas had thrown to her, feeling their weight between her fingers as the dog unit barked and the hover drones lasers broke through the trees, almost on her location. The path through the trees, led to the farm house. They were searching from the other direction; she could double back, if she was quick.
She stumbled, picked herself up and ran fast, ignoring the branches whipping at her arms and scratching her face. The prickle bushes caught her clothes, pulling her in and slowing her down.
Julianna stopped at the edge of the trees. Her chest pounded, rising high on each in-breath while she stared at the clearing in front of the farm house. The motorbike – her old faithful, beckoned under the night sky for one last sprint through one last clearing.
The keys fumbled between her shaking fingers. Her leg swung over the bike and kicked up the stand. The engine purred like a new-born kitten.
Taris thrust through the trees. He was alone in his cold stare, standing still and confident. The others were chasing her ghost in the woods, cutting circles, searching for her, in fear of their Commander.
He outstretched his hand and uncurled his fingers from their fist, clenching her throat in his suffocating and invisible grasp while he dragged her from her bike. His abilities were stronger than she remembered, but thinking was hard, while she clawed her own skin for release as the bike crashed down over her legs.
Taris bent over her. His black eyes glistened, his lips parted to show his intentions, and he choked her with his bare hands.
‘Commander!’
The weight behind his grip burst stars into her vision. She heard his name called again.
‘Commander! It’s the General on the comms for you again.’
‘Yeah, tell him I’m busy,’ he yelled back.
He pushed Julianna’s head against a sharp rock, lifted it again and pushed. The jagged rock gashed into her skin, his intent blinding him to her raised knee, aimed at his ribs. It moved him enough that she could breathe but he stood his ground, watching as she stumbled to her feet. A warm trickle of blood seeped down her neck in a thin line, and everything turned black. The soldier on the comms watched, as she passed out in front of them.
* * *
Julianna’s eyes flicked open at his intrusion into her mind. Blocking him started a dull headache, and her quick breathing stopped her from focusing on anything else. She wasn’t strong enough with Taris this close. She pushed all her thoughts away and concentrated on his sounds.
His voice bounced along the thin walls of the abandoned farm house when she closed her eyes again, echoing in the dull headache that was fast gaining momentum. He continued to sift through her mind, eagerly hunting for answers, and only then did she understand the comfort beneath her was from the bed she had slept in the night before.
‘Come out now, show me what you’re hiding in that pretty little mind of yours, and I won’t lay a finger on you,’ he leaned over her. ‘The way I see it, you’re fucked either way, it’s just how fucked up you wanna’ be when you hit the camp.’
‘You know me, Taz,’ her voice waived. ‘I’ll take my chances and I really need to get back to the city right now.’
She couldn’t move.
‘Is that where your watcher is? In the city?’
She closed her eyes again. Her mind spun under his invasion, the room swum under her eyelids. In the darkness, his taunts stretched into the back of her mind. She switched on the music, it didn’t help. He swiped it away as though a pest buzzed around his face feeling the sting of his forceful slap.
Her nose trickled blood, then poured, forcing her to roll onto her side to drain the gush from her nose backfilling into her mouth. Taris moved from the mess and abandoned her mind.
‘You’re a tough one to read, even with these extra gifts the Senate has given me.’
She coughed, spilling more blood onto the mattress. The headache gripped her with its teeth, shredding away the chunks as she tried to raise her head from the mess. Her eyes blurred his image. The bleeding slowed, but the metallic taste inside her mouth reached deep inside her stomach.
‘Caden’s your watcher?’ Taris left the chair he straddled, to pace beside the bed. ‘Not something foreign to me though, I’ve known for a few days. Obvious really, why else would he constantly stand in your shadow? I found it ironic.’
S
he took the blanket still crumpled on the bed to wipe her nose and lips; spitting what blood was left into the fabric.
Taris crouched beside the bed and helped wipe her face. ‘He’s in Sector Three, in the safe house I presume?’
‘There is no safe house in Sector Three.’
He released the blanket to clap his hands. ‘Well rehearsed. Hal said the same thing before he gave up the location. Wonder if Bastiaan will too.’
‘What about Bastiaan?’
‘We’re not talking anymore, Julianna. Unless you have information for me, I’m not interested.’
She clutched the blanket with her trembling fingers.
‘Brings back memories, doesn’t it?’ he waved his hand and left her again. ‘You and me in a bedroom together.’
She couldn’t move under the curse he’d cast. All she could do was follow him with her eyes as she remained pinned to the bed.
‘I’m a lot stronger, don’t you think?’ he unbuckled his belt and dropped his gun and holster onto the floor behind him. ‘The Senate and Council are done humoring you and my cousins – to the point they awarded me more ability than both those men put together,’ Taris kneeled onto the bed. ‘I still can’t decide if I should kill you now, or make you suffer.’
‘The Senate wants me alive,’ she whispered.
He nodded. ‘Yes they do, but how can I help it if one of my overzealous soldiers discharges their firearm in your direction when you try to escape?’
He lowered the zip on her uniform pants, and unlaced her boots. Both slipped away easily, with her ability to fight lost against him. He flicked the elastic of her knickers, admiring the tear straying down her cheek.
‘Please, I’m begging you, Taz. Don’t do this.’
‘For all the grief you’ve caused me, if this is all I do to you, this will be your blessed day. All I ever tried to do was help.’ His hand slipped under the band, lifting the material away.