by Shelly Crane
“I’m not so much worried about me,” I told him, but he pulled back to look into my face without a word before nodding to the vendor.
“It’s cold in the box,” the vendor said and lifted the lid. “It’s made for beverages not people, but she should be all right in there.”
“Should?” Maxton questioned quickly.
“It’s a cooler, not a freezer. It’s still cold inside, but the cooling fans are off because of the EMP. She’ll be fine. In you go,” he urged me.
Maxton’s eyes latched onto mine as he leaned down and kissed me quickly but solidly. Then he lifted my bag from around my shoulder. “Here. Let me keep this for you,” he told me quietly before taking my hand and helping me step into the big cart on wheels. I threw my leg over the side and climbed in as quickly as I could. The twins had turned to look and keep watch, but the bridge was to our backs and there were people everywhere, all aggravated and doing their own thing because they wanted to leave, and now had to wait to be checked individually. All because of me. I really was public enemy number one.
With them standing around the cart and the big lid doing most of the hiding anyway, I doubted anyone saw me as I climbed in and settled along the bottom, on my back. I hissed at the cold I could feel even through my jacket.
I let my eyes find Maxton’s. “You’d better be right there when this box is opened.” I’d done it. I’d opened myself up to him and now, I couldn’t lose him. I knew what it was like to have someone again. To go back to being alone would hurt too badly.
My teeth were already starting to chatter.
I saw Maxton’s jaw clench. “Close your eyes, sweet. When they open again, it’ll be on the other side of the security check, safe and sound.”
They all looked down at me as he closed the door and I was plunged into darkness. I felt the cart begin to move and tried to breath slowly. The chilled metal all around me was doing nothing to make me feel better. Keeping my breaths slow would also help me to not waste my oxygen.
They were fine. He was fine.
It was so loud outside the cart, and with the thick cart walls, it was impossible to hear anything going on. I felt us stop. I waited. We started moving again and then stopped, then moved and then stopped once more. I was going crazy with all the stops and starts as it kept going like that for long, long minutes. I had to know what was going on out there.
I was trusting the twins to look out for Maxton and vice versa. It was a hard thing to do, especially since I knew they’d be thinking about me. But I was the safest one in that metal box.
We lurched what felt like to the right, causing me to bang my head against the side. “Ow,” I hissed quietly.
Suddenly, the lid was yanked open to reveal a sentry grinning down at me, his eyebrows raised, his teeth showing. “What have we here?”
Oh, no…
He took my arm and pulled me up roughly, making me stumble out of the container. “What have we here?” he repeated louder.
I looked around and Maxton and the twins were nowhere to be seen. I glanced at the vendor, giving him a questioning look. He shrugged in apology. “The guy with you, miss,” he whispered. “He gave you up.”
“The wondering star?” I wondered aloud because I didn’t know his name.
“Shut up, the both of you,” the sentry yelled. “Time to go.”
He punched something into the screen on his arm before a SkyLark came down in a clear spot on the pavement next to us. Keeping a tight grip on my upper arm, he pulled me over to the machine. I didn’t see a reason to fight him…it was over…until I saw them. Maxton, Roddy, and Fletch were standing at the end of the street where the road ends right before the beach begins. They were around the side of a building. Maxton’s hands were in his hair.
I started to struggle against the sentry, but he wasted no time in leaning back and smacking my cheek with his palm. I’d been hit lots of time in my life, but with the sentries and the little kick they had that we didn’t, the vitamins they took, it hurt a lot worse than any of the times Rivers had ever hit me.
I tried to see through my swimming vision as he continued to take me to the SkyLark. Around us were sentries, everywhere, in every direction. My eyes found Maxton again and his hands were fisted by his side. He shook his head. He pointed at his chest and then and me a couple times before letting his hand drop back to his side, sagging in defeat. I understood. He was coming for me with the twins. I wished they wouldn’t. I wasn’t worth all this.
The SkyLark door opened, only able to fit two people, but really fit for one comfortably. Standing upright, it hovered a little bit above the ground. With no seats, you stand in it for the quick trip back to Congress Hill, because that’s what they’re for. Super-fast, even faster than the hover rail system, the only people who had access to them were the Militia. And the only people who took rides in them were convicts.
So I didn’t exactly feel privileged.
He put me inside and then climbed in beside me. As we lifted into the sky, I looked down at Maxton and I wondered if that was the last time I would ever see him, if the last thing we ever said to each other was a broken promise as he told me to close my eyes and he’d be there the next time I opened them.
Why had the man let us go through with that whole thing if he was going to turn us in anyway? Why not just do it on the beach? Unless he had made a deal of some kind. Unless he was trying to keep the money for himself.
“You’ve caused a lot of problems, little one.”
I jolted as the man next to me finally spoke, breaking me out of my thoughts. I didn’t look at him, just continued to look out the window, pretending that Maxton was still there and his pleading, soul-chasing, dark brown eyes were still on me, keeping me strong.
The world flew by so quickly, but I was still shocked when Congress Hill came into view under us. The SkyLark landed on the hill on a big gray granite slab that had been marked with a large circle with an “X” inside it.
“Home sweet home, convict,” he joked as the little tall door opened and he yanked me out by my arm. As soon as I was outside the SkyLark, he touched the side of my neck. I reached up and felt a magnetic pulse pad and looked over to see he was holding the holographic tether, which made it impossible for me to run. I would be shocked more and more the further away I got. “There’re a couple people with grievances who’ve been notified that you’ve been found. They’re here to see you, I believe.”
“Goody,” I muttered.
He took me in through the heavily-guarded underside of the hill, where the building faced the city, me following behind with the tether. I could see a tattoo of flames on the side of his neck. They reached up into his hairline and looked at if they were catching his hair on fire. I would have thought it was cool if he wasn’t such a—
“The whole planet was looking for you. I’m going to get a nice big bonus for bringing you in. The boys will be toasting to my honor tonight at the bar.”
“That’s great. You all go have a drink on the fact that you subdued a girl with no weapon whose only crime was that she couldn’t pay her taxes.”
His eyes cooled, his head tilting, his lips thinning. He took a step too far, going a little faster than me so the tether would send me a jolt. I hissed. “What was that now?” he asked as I yelped.
“What, did they run out of puppies to kick? You had to move on to females? Are kids up next?” I cleared my throat a little and rubbed my neck.
“Keep talking,” he warned as I followed him down a few steps and into a long stone hallway under the hill. “There are a few who come in here and think their sense of humor will hold out.” He looked back at me over his shoulder and grinned. “But it doesn’t. It never does.” He chuckled. “Just ask them.” He nodded his head to the right.
I looked over and saw several women and men lying in their cells. There was no privacy whatsoever with the holographic barrier doors that you could see through. Some of them stared at the wall, some of them had their eyes closed
, some of them cried, but it was obvious that they’d been pushed beyond their limits, physical and mental.
We reached the end of the hall. I basically had to sprint to keep up with him. The woman in the cell on the end turned just as I passed her. The right side of her face was so badly wounded—it looked like they had burned her.
“Wow, you bunch of bastards,” I hissed between my teeth, making the profanity sensors go off. As soon as the red laser finished scanning my face, he surprised me and pushed me against the wall, face-first.
“Shut. Up.” He ripped the thing off my neck so hard it felt like it took flesh with it. The tethers were thumbprint coded, so only the person who put them on could take them off. He pressed my hand to the screen by the door to a cell. It began to burn and I tried to yank my hand away, but he held it tight. Then I felt a prick on my palm and the screen beeped to life, stating everything there was to know about me.
He tossed me inside. It was completely empty except a small hole in the floor. No cot, no nothing.
“You should feel special,” he quipped from behind me. “There’s never been a manhunt that went on as long as yours did on this planet. See? That’s something to shout about.”
I was lying on the floor, facing away from him, exactly where I’d fallen. I closed my eyes and tuned him out. He was just trying to goad me so I’d say something and he could hit me. Maybe he would hit me anyway, I didn’t know. But either way, I was done with this day.
Or so I thought.
“The people with grievances against you are here to see you.” He chuckled. “I’m sure you can imagine who they are.”
I stiffened. Rivers.
Chapter Eighteen
rev·o·lu·tion - a forcible overthrow of a government or social order by uprising, rebellion, or insurgence in favor of a new system or way of doing things.
Maxton
It all happened in slow motion. Sophelia was fine, everything was going according to plan, and then that patriot betrayed us right at the checkpoint. There were too many sentries. The twins pulled me away as a sentry barked for the vendor to take the cart further up the street.
“We can’t help her if we’re dead, man,” Roddy hissed in my ear.
I still fought against them. I couldn’t just let them take her. I couldn’t just let her think that we did nothing to save her. “Get off me.”
“Max, my man, listen. We’ll go get her. We promise. Trust us, our butts are on the line, too. We want her back even more than you do.”
I sighed raggedly and closed my eyes. “I highly doubt that.”
“Just wait. You can’t lose your cool. If you get taken, too, then there’s no way you can save her later. And there’s no way you can save her now. There’re too many.”
I lifted my hands to tell them I was fine and settled my shoulder against the hard bricks just as they opened the lid and tugged her out. Bastards. I gripped my hair painfully to keep myself from running over to her.
When her eyes lifted to mine, I thought I’d lost the battle, but my feet stayed. When he hit her, Fletch grabbed the back of my shirt while Roddy gripped my arm to keep me there. As soon as I saw them take off in the SkyLark, I ran toward the hover rail. The twins followed close behind. When we reached it, I began to scan my arm, but it was yanked down. I looked over at Roddy to see him scowling at me.
I muttered, “They’ve got Sophelia. They don’t care about me anymore. They were only after me to get to her.”
“You’re that sure?”
“If we go by foot, it’ll take too long,” I growled. “I’m not going to let her stay in that place for days on end while we walk there. Just…no,” I growled harder, thinking of the conversation Soph and I had about confinement and the things that went on there.
“Okay,” he conceded. “You first. We’ll follow you.”
There was a small line of annoyed people waiting to scan their arm so they could go through the holographic door and not get the piss shocked out of them, or get left on the platform. I lifted my sleeve and raised my arm to show the scanner without waiting any longer. If they still wanted me, then so be it.
But it scanned me and let me proceed with no warning. The twins scanned themselves as well and we boarded the hover rail. In a matter of a couple minutes, we were on our way. I turned my head to see Congress Hill out the window and let my head rest on the back of the seat. We stopped several times, and lucky for me, Roddy and Fletch knew that I wasn’t in the mood for their antics right then because they stayed blissfully silent.
When we finally arrived at Congress Hill, the last stop on the tram before it went back down the track, we stood and exited the tram. But as soon as we came down the stairs from the platform, there were several sentries waiting for us.
“It’s so confusing, really. You already got your silver for turning her in,” one of them said snidely. “What can be keeping you sticking around this one slave girl? Yeah, she’s got an amazing little body on her.” I lunged for him, my fingers grazing his neck just barely before I was subdued by two others. He kept going. “And that hair. Whoo, boy! I bet it’s really pretty to have your hands all tangled up in.” He moved closer, taunting me. "You ever had your hands all tangled up in that fiery hair, Maxton?”
“You shut your mouth about her,” I heard my growl back at him, but hadn’t even thought the words. I knew he was bating me, but I couldn’t let him say those words about her. I felt like I was spinning, dreaming maybe. None of this felt real.
They laughed.
“Well something is definitely keeping you around besides the money. But don’t worry. I’ll find out.” His grin was all teeth. “I’ll find it, all right. I bet it’s something under that tight little jacket she wears. Whatdayathink?”
“Shut up.”
They all laughed again, all around me. They dragged us inside, under the hill and down a long hallway to a room, and threw us inside without another word. I could barely breathe knowing Soph was in there with those “men”. They were animals, monsters, beasts.
We’d only been in our cell for half an hour when Fletch got my attention.
“Hey,” Fletch said and kicked my boot, “hey, someone’s coming.”
We all looked down the long hallway to see one man making his way to us, his gaze straight ahead, a determined look on his face. I stood and told the twins to stand, too, as he opened the door and came inside. I’d never seen him before, but he was tall and seemed unassuming as he accessed us.
“So you’re the one who found her on the ship.” It was not a question so I didn’t answer it. He seemed to know already. “And then you turned her in?” He squinted in confusion and even looked a little…angry?
“I did, but then I—look, what do you want?” I barked at him.
“I want to know what you want from Sophelia!” he barked back.
“What do you mean what I want from her? I just want to get her out of here.”
“How do I know I can trust you.”
I leaned back. “Excuse me, but if anybody in this scenario is not doing the trusting, it’s going to be me.”
“I second that,” Roddy said, and it was clear he was as confused as I was.
I just went for it. “What the hell is going on here?”
I was surprised when no sensors went off. I guess they didn’t put them in the cells.
The man sighed and ran a hand through his hair as if he was working up his courage. “I’m the one who put up the big reward silver for Sophelia.”
I felt my eyes bug. “But why? Who are you?”
“I’m…nobody. I thought with a big reward like that, nobody would be able to resist and she’d be brought in in no time. But,” he lifted his gaze to mine, “I didn’t account for you. You’re a lot craftier than you look.”
I felt my eyebrow rise. “There’s a compliment in there somewhere.” He conceded with a small nod of the head. “What do you want with Soph?”
“Soph,” he said softly with a small smile. “I
want to take her where she belongs. Where she’s needed.”
Fletch leaned around my shoulder. “You’re a Patriot,” he said in awe.
“I am,” the man answered.
“Prove it,” I said, now that I knew the drill.
The man stared me down and lifted his shirt sleeve. There it was, in a light color so it wasn’t as noticeable on his skin, but it was there, the words “I AM NOT A WONDERING STAR” waving on his skin.
“Yeah,” I pressed, “but that guy on the beach had one, too. And he turned her in just now.” I gritted my teeth.
“Did he have any markings or scars over his tattoo?” he asked.
Roddy nodded. “It looked like he had slices through it.”
The guy shook his head. “He’s no longer a Patriot. He did something to be excommunicated. Something bad. That’s the only way they would take your tattoo like that.”
I scrubbed my face. “So what are we going to do about Sophelia?”
“I’m going to run interference and you three are going to get her and get out of here.” He pulled something from his pants leg pocket, revealing four face scramblers. “Take these. Put them on and get out that hall, up the hill, up the stairs, and on that hover rail before anyone knows you’re missing. If that fails, this all fails.”
I put mine around my neck and the other in my back pocket for Soph. We were going to get her. Nothing and nobody was going to stop me.
Chapter Nineteen
au·thor·i·ty - the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience, typically political or administrative.
Sophelia
I could only think of one thing in that cell.
Maxton’s tattoo. That black bird that flew all on its own against his skin, with no help from anyone. It flapped so hard to be free and yet it was trapped there on Maxton’s tan skin. No matter how hard it beat its wings, it would never be free. That’s exactly how I felt right then.