The Calling

by Rachelle Dekker

  The hallway paused—even Smith—as the realization of what had happened seeped into their minds. Something snapped in Remko’s brain and he felt a bloodcurdling scream spring from his chest. He was moving before he could register action, his body smashing into Smith. It happened before Smith could prepare himself and Remko took him to the ground.

  The hallway moved back into motion, but Remko hardly noticed. He only had one thought.

  Kill.

  He placed himself over Smith, a knee on either side to pin the man to the ground, and started attacking his face. Punch after punch extended from his arm and mashed against flesh and bone. Smith struggled against Remko’s hold, but Remko only held more tightly and focused on the rage pouring from his skin. Smith’s eyes rolled into the back of his head and his body stopped fighting, but that didn’t slow Remko’s anger.

  “Remko! Remko,” a voice called through the dull pulsing of blood in Remko’s ears. He felt dizzy with fury as he looked toward the sound of his name. The scene around him was grim. The hallway was filled with moving bodies. Wire, Kate, and Sam were outnumbered and tangled up in combat with CityWatch guards on all sides. The floor was darkening with blood that pooled around Dodson’s head and spread out like fingers along the cracks in the stone floor. Other bodies lay strewed around, whether dead or unconscious Remko didn’t know.

  He looked down at the motionless man clasped between his knees. Smith’s face was bloodied and already starting to swell, as struggling breaths expanded his chest. Remko stood up from the damage he’d caused and felt a shake start in his fingers. His knuckles were covered with his opponent’s blood and he brushed them against the sides of his shirt.

  “Remko!” Sam yelled again. Remko was jarred out of his zombie-like state and knew they had to move if any of them wanted to live. He saw that Kate had managed to overcome the guard she’d been fighting and was helping Wire, while Sam was struggling against three soldiers at once.

  Remko moved to join the fight when another shot rang out across the small space and Kate yelped in pain. She stumbled forward and hit the ground on her hands and knees. Remko could see blood draining from the back of her calf. She’d been hit.

  Ahead of them, another wave of guards was storming toward them. Sam cried out and Remko watched as the three guards got the better of him. He glanced up at Remko. “Get my sister out of here.”

  Understanding crashed against Remko’s skull as he realized what Sam was asking. He wanted them to leave him behind. That wasn’t an option, but Remko knew if those guards reached them they would all surely die. He had to get Kate and Wire somewhere safe.

  Remko’s training took over then, pushing away the pain still ripping at his heart so he could focus. He rushed to Kate as Wire managed to knock the single guard he’d been fighting to the ground. Remko swept Kate up into his arms and Wire moved to help.

  “We have to get out of here,” Remko said.

  “What about Sam?” Wire asked.

  Kate was moaning, but she was lucid enough to understand what Remko was suggesting. “We can’t leave him!”

  “We’ll come back for him,” Remko said as he took off with Kate in his arms toward the boiler room, Wire on his heels.

  Kate thrashed in his arms with what little strength she had left. “No! Remko, no. Stop. Put me down. Sam!” Her voice echoed off the stone walls as they traveled. Remko knew they were still a couple of hallways and turns away from their destination. From somewhere behind them, Remko heard a guard yell, “Follow them!” and he knew it wouldn’t be long before they had company. He surged forward, trying not to think about Dodson’s dead corpse bleeding in the hallway behind him, trying not to think about the near-dead man with Remko’s fist marks across his face, trying not to think about Sam.

  Kate was weakening in his arms and he knew he couldn’t let her pass out. They needed to patch her wound, but they couldn’t stop until they were safe. With a final dig into his reserves of survival energy, Remko turned into the dark hallway that led to the boiler room. His arms ached from Kate’s weight, his legs stung from the continuous sprint, but he felt a surge of power when he saw the boiler door.

  Wire, who had somehow managed to keep up, followed Remko inside the room and rushed over to open the escape hatch. Angry voices drifted into the room and Remko knew they were out of time. He searched the room, seeing a large contraption he didn’t recognize, and laid Kate on the floor. He moved to the contraption and gave a shove. It was incredibly heavy.

  “Wire,” he called. Wire slammed the boiler room door shut and moved to help. With several labored huffs, they managed to push the steel monster from its place against the wall to sit in front of the door. Remko knew that wouldn’t hold for long, but it would give them a head start. He also knew that sealing themselves in here meant leaving Sam behind indefinitely. Remko had no choice but to ignore the screaming in his mind. “Let’s go,” he said.

  “But—” Wire started.

  “What choice do we have?” Remko could see the understanding melt across Wire’s face, but he couldn’t wait for him to process this. “Now, Wire!”

  Remko dropped down into the underground tunnel system and extended his arms as Wire lowered Kate. Once she was fully through, Wire dropped inside and yanked the overhead grate shut. Then they were running again, through the dark tunnel. Remko’s mind was yelling that he couldn’t leave Sam, that they would kill Sam just as they had killed Larkin, just as they had killed Dodson, but he knew going back would be suicide. He’d never make it to Sam before he himself was killed. His legs shook with pain and his mind throbbed with cruel reality.

  This rescue mission he’d brought them on had been a complete failure. He’d only gotten Dodson killed, and now probably Sam. His hands shook, covered in Smith’s blood. His shoulders were tense with the effort of carrying Kate, and his whole body ached with grief. His mind tortured him with images of Dodson lying on the floor and Sam ending up the same way.

  The mission had failed. He had failed.

  17

  Carrington stared down into the valley below. The ground was dotted with groupings of trees and foliage, and small hills rolled on all sides, hiding the building from being spotted by anyone who might be casually passing by. Neil and Ramses stood close, both of them surveying the strange facility for the first time. The three of them had left camp at sunrise and made the trek quickly with little discussion of what they’d do once they got there. They had scant information about what they would find. That was their mission—discovery. They needed to know more about this new potential threat.

  The building below was large, longer than it was wide. Dozens of windows lined the sides of the structure, but only a handful of them appeared to be in use. Oddly, most of the windows had been covered—perhaps painted—from the inside.

  Guards were scattered around the base of the building. They didn’t seem to be arrayed in any pattern; most were clustered together to chat and pass the time. Carrington scanned the roof and found it empty. There was a sense of laziness in the stances and motions of the guards. They clearly weren’t expecting any intruders, and Carrington hoped she and her partners could use that to their advantage.

  Carrington, Ramses, and Neil were not looking for any trouble; in fact, they were hoping to avoid it at all costs. They only wanted information. In order to acquire that, they would need to get inside. But they were moving blind. Thanks to Neil and Wire, they had access to blueprints and other plans for most of the structures in the Authority City, but they had no schematics for this building. It was foreign to them. However, Neil had been a leading city architect and understood a building’s structure better than most.

  Carrington watched Neil assess what was before them. He nodded to their left and started to move. They followed quickly, wondering what he was thinking. They moved several yards before Neil stopped and nodded toward the back of the building.

  “That will be the best place to enter,” Neil said.

  “Are you sure?”
Carrington asked.

  “I haven’t seen the inner workings of the structure, but it’s a twenty-first-century model.”

  “It’s an Old America building?” Ramses asked.

  “Definitely. The outer layer that’s plastered over the walls isn’t something we would have chosen had this building been recently built. The materials used in this structure are too outdated for it to have been constructed within the last fifty or a hundred years.”

  “What does that mean for us?” Carrington asked.

  “It means that it may have a similar interior layout to buildings I’ve seen inside the Authority City. There is an old structure in the Cattle Lands that favors this one. I’ve been inside that building before. If this one is the same, then entering through the back exit should bring us into a small hallway designed for emergency exiting only.”

  “But there’s no way to know that the inside of this building is the same as the one in the Cattle Lands,” Ramses said.

  “Like I said, it’s going to be a risk either way,” Neil replied.

  Carrington watched as a single guard paced from corner to corner of the back wall. He would walk back and forth a couple times before rounding the corner to joke with another guard stationed along the north side of the building. Even if the interior was what Neil predicted, and even if they could get to the back entrance without being spotted, they would still have to get inside. From here it looked impossible.

  “Let’s say we get past the guards—will the back door be unlocked for us to use?” Ramses asked.

  “Doubtful,” someone said from behind.

  Neil spun, already yanking his weapon from his belt, Carrington and Ramses following suit. Jesse stepped out from the shade of a tall tree and yanked his hood down from his head.

  “What are you doing here?” Neil demanded. He aimed his gun at the archer.

  Jesse didn’t appear afraid of the weapon pointed at him. He kept his arms hanging loosely at his sides and didn’t bother to look in Neil’s direction. He focused his attention instead on Carrington. She noticed how warm his brown eyes were. The way his hair lifted with the wind, the youthfulness of his face. In this light he looked like a boy, even though she suspected he was probably not much younger than she. Her mothering instincts took over and she felt an unexpected ache in her chest at the thought of his past. Had he always been alone? Had he ever been cared for and loved, watched over so he could just be a child? Or had he always been struggling to survive on his own?

  Carrington saw something else in his eyes that she recognized in nearly all the faces of people who joined the Seer camp: a sense of searching. He was looking for his way, for truth. For something that he could grab hold of and call his own. If he was willing, Carrington knew he could find what he was looking for through the words of Aaron.

  “You followed us,” she said rather than asked.

  Jesse nodded. “I know I can help.”

  “We don’t need your help,” Neil said.

  “Neil,” Ramses said, placing his fingers on the side of the weapon in Neil’s hand. Neil threw Ramses an irritated glance and lowered the gun, but he didn’t put it away.

  “How?” Carrington asked.

  Jesse moved closer to the group and pointed toward the structure. “There is no way you’re going to be able to get to that back door without being seen. You need a diversion that pulls the two guards on the ground and the one on the roof away from the door.”

  The roof, Carrington realized. She’d thought it was empty. She strained her eyes and found that Jesse was right. There was slight movement, a guard’s head twisting back and forth. He would spot them from afar.

  “And you think you can create a diversion?” Ramses asked.

  “What if you get caught?” Carrington asked.

  “Then this would be our lucky day,” Neil said under his breath. He was watching Jesse like a hawk, his face filled with malice.

  Jesse ignored his comment. “I won’t,” he said, responding to Carrington’s concern.

  “Are you two seriously considering trusting this stranger?” Neil demanded.

  “I’m just trying to help,” Jesse said.

  “Why do I have such a hard time believing that?” Neil said, crossing his arms over his chest.

  Jesse shrugged, but Carrington noticed his jaw tighten. “Not sure, but it sounds like a personal problem.”

  The two were squared off, and Carrington feared one wrong move might send them at each other’s throats.

  “Jesse does make a good point, Neil. How do you suggest we get in there otherwise?” Carrington asked.

  Neil spoke to Carrington but never took his eyes off of Jesse. “Have you considered that maybe this is a trap? Don’t you think it’s convenient that this archer shows up now and insists on helping us into a building we know nothing about? For all we know, the second we open that door a dozen CityWatch guards could be waiting for us.”

  His words were filled with anger and Carrington wondered what had made the man’s heart so hateful. When Neil had first joined the Seers, he had been one of the kindest men Carrington had ever met. Eager to help, eager to be a part of what they were doing. Eager to hear Aaron, to sit at his feet and learn. Somewhere along the way Neil had lost the spark that kept him warm, and now even his glance was cold.

  She had noticed this happening with others in camp as well. They had been called from the Authority City to follow a different kind of truth. A truth that taught love above all else, that spoke of true worth and an identity in something bigger than this world. Aaron spoke about faith and trust, about forgiveness through surrender, not violence or grudges or desperate survival. But that’s what some of them had become—desperate. Struggle and suffering had made them mistrusting and full of anger. They had been called to live above the laws of the Authority, but when push came to shove, they had reverted back to hate. How had they fallen so far?

  “Isn’t that a possibility either way?” Ramses said. “We don’t know what waits inside, but we won’t find out unless we get in.”

  “He’s right,” Carrington said, then turned to Jesse. “What did you have in mind?”

  “I’ll stir up trouble at the northern front corner of the building. That should cause all of the guards to move forward, which will leave the back clear long enough for you to get in.”

  Carrington glanced at Ramses, who nodded, and then turned her attention to Neil. He held her gaze for a moment before exhaling and holstering his weapon. “Fine, but I want you to know that I still think this is a mistake.”

  Carrington nodded and looked to Jesse. “Be careful.”

  Jesse gave a small smile and headed toward his intended target. Carrington watched him move. Like a stealthy shadow he melded into the thicket of trees and out of sight. She shook off her worry and settled in to wait.

  The sun was high in the sky, transitioning into the afternoon. Its rays were warm and the air around her was glad for it. The breeze swirled lightly, as if playing a friendly game of chase. Neil and Ramses were both lost in their own thoughts, so silence engulfed the time.

  It felt as if they had waited for too long when activity below pulled the three from their stillness.

  The guards began shouting and moving together toward the north corner just as Jesse had foreseen. The guards near the back rushed forward to help and Neil was up over the peak of the hill that hid them, with Ramses and Carrington right behind. They hurried down the hill, moving between clusters of trees, trying to keep out of sight.

  They reached the last stand of foliage that stood between them and the facility. The building was only a few yards away now, and they paused to make sure the coast was still clear.

  “See the panel along the side of the door?” Neil said, pointing. “That’s going to be a problem.”

  “Hopefully not,” Ramses said. He yanked a small rectangular contraption from his pocket and punched it on. “Wire has been showing me a couple of tricks.”

  “Do you know how
to work that thing?” Neil asked.

  “Kind of.”

  “Perfect,” Neil said.

  His sarcasm wasn’t lost on Ramses and he glared at Neil. “Only one way to find out.”

  Ramses left their protective covering first, Carrington following and Neil bringing up the rear. Out from the cover of the trees, Carrington could feel her nerves rippling beneath her skin. They were so exposed and she couldn’t stop her mind from fearing the worst. Then they reached the back door and Ramses set to work. Carrington and Neil pressed themselves against the facility’s walls and waited.

  The seconds seemed to stretch as Ramses worked, and Carrington could see the sweat droplets sliding down the side of the man’s face.

  “Come on, Ramses,” Neil said.

  “One minute,” Ramses said.

  “We don’t have one minute.”

  The lock popped and a huge smile of relief spread across Ramses’s face. Neil stepped between Ramses and the door, pausing to take a single deep breath. Carrington prayed Neil was wrong, that when he opened the door nothing would be there but the hallway, that Jesse wasn’t what Neil suspected.

  Neil peered inside and gave an encouraging nod to the others as he disappeared through the crack. Carrington followed with Ramses right behind. He closed the door, sealing them inside, and they took a minute while their eyes adjusted to the dark.

  They were in an empty hallway, silent and unused. The floor was cement, the walls stone. Large lights hung from the ceiling but were turned off. The rest of the space was empty, no foreign machinery or furniture. Just open space and a single steel-framed staircase at the end of the hall.

  They moved forward and up the stairs. The door at the top was unlocked and Neil carefully opened it enough to peer through. Then he pushed the door farther and Carrington could see a wider hallway. The walls were large white panels, the ceiling filled with light that made the space almost painfully bright. The floor was white as well and shone enough for Carrington to catch a blurry reflection of herself. The contrast between the dingy hallway they were leaving and this one was drastic.