Glory

by Maureen McGowan

  “You can see it from down here.”

  Cal steps toward the wall. “Come down. I’ll help you.”

  “I want to check out the construction—see how they built this place.” Drake walks toward the corner where two walls join. “Construction techniques from BTD are cool. It’s amazing how they fit all these pieces of stone together like a puzzle.”

  His step wavers. I gasp and jump forward. The armor on his upper body rises, covering his bare arms with metal. Like most Deviants, Drake can’t hide his fear.

  “Careful.” My heart’s beating way too fast, pushing every ounce of blood and every molecule of adrenaline straight to my head. My body trembles, but I manage to keep my Deviance under control. “Get down. Please!”

  He steps off the still-wobbling stone. “I’m fine.”

  Jayma’s mask is on top of her head again, and her hands cup her cheeks as she looks up at him. Excitement mixes with fear in her eyes. She leans close to me. “Drake’s so strong. Who would believe his legs were paralyzed for so long?”

  Guilt drapes over me like a heavy black cloth. Drake forgave me for accidentally causing his paralysis, but even now that he’s got the feeling and movement back in his legs, I can’t forgive myself.

  Cal moves alongside my brother, ready to catch him, but what if Drake falls on the other side? His armor will protect some of his body but not his head—or his legs.

  Balancing on an unstable rock, Drake shifts his body back and forth, like he’s dancing. The rock slips.

  Tiny bits of concrete, or whatever’s binding the rocks, crumble down. Cal shades his face to keep from being hit. Jayma rushes to Cal’s side, just under Drake’s perch. “Come down,” she says. “You’re going to hurt yourself.”

  “Okay.” Drake winks at Jayma. “Your wish is my command, fair lady.” He leaps off the wobbly rock. It loosens and tilts forward, right toward Cal and Jayma.

  I lunge. “Look out!”

  Time seems to slow as the heavy stone falls toward my friends.

  Jayma looks up and raises her hands.

  It’s going to crush her.

  Cal, too.

  Jayma swings her arm.

  She strikes the falling rock, and it flies to the side, landing with a crash nearly twenty feet away. Cal falls back onto the dirt and stares up at her. Drake sits on the top of the wall, twists, then lowers himself to the ground. My legs won’t move. I can’t believe what I saw. I’m sure my heart stopped, but now it’s racing.

  Drake gets to Jayma first, and she wraps her arms around him. After a moment of shock, he hugs her back with such ferocity I fear he’ll break her, especially since his armor’s still up.

  “I thought I was going to be crushed,” she says. “What happened?”

  Drake leans back. “You pushed the rock away.”

  Her eyes are wide, her face pale. “No . . . No. What? No.” She looks toward the rock. “It must be fake.” She rubs her arm where the rock struck.

  My body and mind reawaken, and I run to the rock and try to lift it. Straining with everything I have, I can’t budge it. It must weigh more than two hundred pounds. I slowly turn back to my friends, and they’re all staring at me.

  “It’s not fake,” I say.

  “Adrenaline?” Cal asks as he gets up off the ground.

  “Jayma, you’re a Deviant!” Drake’s beaming.

  She steps away from Drake, bumping into the wall behind her. “No I’m not.”

  “My dad didn’t know he was a Deviant until he was exposed to dust,” I say. “Maybe you’re the same.”

  “I am not a Deviant.” Red spots flare on her cheeks, and Drake flinches like he’s been slapped.

  “Because being a Deviant is so terrible,” I say, hurt more for my brother than myself.

  “I—” Jayma looks down. Her whole body trembles. Her knees buckle and Cal leaps up to support her.

  “Your Gift is pretty amazing,” he says. “You saved our lives.”

  “Gift.” Her tone is hard. “You mean Deviance.”

  “That’s Management’s word,” I say. “We don’t need to use that word outside of Haven.” I glance at Drake, who uses it all the time. “It’s a Gift. You’re Chosen.” I choke on the last word, remembering Mrs. Kalin’s twisted meaning for the term.

  “See if you can lift the rock again,” Cal says to Jayma.

  “I’m not a Deviant.” Her eyes fill with tears. “I want to go back to Haven. I want everything to go back to the way it was. I want to see my parents. I want Scout.” Her freckles stand out against her flushed skin.

  Cal glances away, and Drake slumps against the wall and puts his head in his hands.

  “You should be grateful you’re a Deviant,” I tell Jayma as I try to hold back my anger. “You’re safer now. You’re less likely to choke to death on the dust.”

  “That’s right,” Cal says. “We might be able to survive if we’re careful, but the dust can still be lethal for Normals. I heard that just a few weeks before we got to Concord, a dust storm blew in and a woman who couldn’t find her mask choked to death.”

  Jayma’s shoulders rise almost to her ears, and she looks like she might be sick. “I don’t want to turn into a Shredder.”

  “Am I a Shredder? Is Drake?” My fists are tight at my sides. My Deviance sparks to life behind my eyes. I point my lethal gaze down.

  “Why don’t we take a walk,” Cal says to Jayma. “We had a big scare. Exploring will help clear our heads.”

  Slowly, she nods.

  “Can you believe her?” I say to Drake after they leave. His armor has dropped and he doesn’t respond, so I nudge his leg. “You okay?”

  “Why wouldn’t I be?”

  “Drake.” I sit down beside him. “I know how you feel about Jayma. That must have hurt.”

  “Which part?”

  I put my arm around his shoulders. “Jayma doesn’t hate Deviants. Not anymore.”

  “She sure acts like she does.”

  “I know, but weren’t you shocked when you first found out about your Gift?”

  He nods and my stomach sinks. That question is laced with bad memories of the day, three-and-a-half years ago, when Drake discovered his Deviance. It was the worst day of both of our lives.

  My memories remain sketchy, but I do know that my Deviance first came out that day, too. If my brother’s armor hadn’t risen, I would have killed him simply by looking into his eyes. As it was, I damaged his spine, and he didn’t regain use of his legs until he was Outside in the dust.

  But what happened that day was an accident. I had no idea that I was a Deviant, and I certainly didn’t mean to kill our mother.

  Chapter Three

  COME SEE THIS,” Cal yells. “Out front!”

  Drake and I leap to our feet and race to the front of the building where Jayma’s crouched in front of a rectangular stone.

  “Look.” She rubs her hand over the granite.

  I crouch beside her. The words MUSKOKA INN are carved deep into the rock.

  “What do you think it means?” she asks.

  “Maybe INN means ‘big building by a lake.’” I grin.

  “Ha!” She puts her hands at either end of the stone and rises, lifting it as if it weighs nothing. “We should put this somewhere more prominent.”

  I stare at Jayma, not sure if she’s registered what she’s just done, and not wanting to set her off again if she hasn’t.

  She shifts the rock in her arms. “Turns out I’m really strong.” She looks over to Drake. “I’m sorry I reacted so badly. It’s all . . . It’s so strange. But you’re right, Glory. At least I don’t need to be as stressed about wearing my mask.”

  “Just don’t breathe too much dust,” I say. Take in too much and she could turn into a Shredder.

  Drake steps closer. “How strong are you? Do you think you could lift me?”

  “Let’s try.” She tosses the stone and puts her arms around him, but her hands barely meet behind his back. Drake’s about fo
ur inches taller than Jayma and definitely heavier.

  He blushes, and the armor rises on his torso, covering the exposed skin from his fingers to his chin.

  “Hey,” she says, backing off. “No fair. You’ve made yourself heavier.”

  “Sorry.”

  She bends as if she’s about to grab around his thighs, but when she realizes where her face is pointing, she blushes, too. Her eyes meet mine, and I can’t help but laugh inwardly at her discomfort. There’s no easy place for her to look as she tries to lift my brother.

  She moves behind him, and turning her face to the side, she bends her knees, grabs his thighs in a tight hold, and then straightens her legs, lifting Drake.

  “Look!” She spins toward Cal. “I did it.” She spins to me, and Drake waves his arms to keep his balance. “This is fun.” She sets him down, he turns to her, and the pair bashfully gaze into each other’s eyes.

  Feeling like I’ve witnessed something private, I head inside the ruins. I’m mostly okay with the idea of Jayma and Drake as a couple, but it’s weird.

  Walking across the open space behind the old fireplace, my footsteps suddenly sound hollow. I back up and bend down, brushing away dust to reveal metal. I explore further and find a heavy ring attached to what looks like a steel sheet. I continue to brush and scrape.

  “What are you doing?” Cal walks over from the fireplace.

  “There’s something here.”

  “What is it?” Drake asks, rushing over.

  “I’m not sure.” I sweep my arm across the surface, then feel for edges. “I think there are hinges at this end. Feel.”

  Drake bends down and runs his fingers along the ridge I found. He starts brushing along with me, and then Cal puts on his mask and joins us.

  “I think this is a handle.” Cal pulls up the rusted ring from under the dust. “Get out of the way. I’ll try to lift it.”

  Drake and I step aside and Cal tugs on the ring. Nothing happens.

  “We need to find all the edges.” I trace my hands along the sides. “It won’t open if we’re standing on it when we pull.”

  “Good point.” Cal kneels down to help me scrape.

  “I see the problem.” Drake kicks a huge rock. “This is on top of a corner.”

  I clean off the edge near the rock. “And that one is, too.” I point to another stone sitting at the adjacent corner of what I’m now sure is a metal cover for an opening of some kind.

  “Someone put them there on purpose,” Jayma says, and I turn to see her standing nearby.

  “We don’t know that,” Cal says.

  I step to the center of the metal sheet. “She’s right. Look how they’re placed.” I move to the direct center and judge the angles again. There’s no doubt: six rocks were carefully placed along the edges.

  “What do you think is down there?” Drake asks.

  “I’m more interested in who placed the rocks.” Cal tries to move one of them.

  “Here, let me.” Jayma plants one foot on the rock and pushes it away as if she’s flicking a pebble. It slides across the floor and hits a stone wall, which shakes and drops dust to the ground.

  I’m still staring at the rock when I hear a crash and spin around. Jayma picked up another rock and threw it, crashing it into a pile of rubble. Stones tumble down from the now unstable pile.

  “I could get used to this,” Jayma says. I don’t recognize the expression in her eyes. It’s dark and focused, and she seems like a different person.

  Cal grabs the ring again and pulls, straining as the hinges grind and squeal.

  “Out of the way.” Jayma puts her fingers under the lip of the metal door. The second that Cal moves, Jayma tosses the metal back with a flick of her fingers. The sheet swings over and slams against the ground on the other side. Dust rises around its edges, but my gaze shifts to the hole left behind.

  Metal stairs descend into blackness.

  I eagerly step onto the top stair, testing it. “They seem safe.”

  “Don’t be reckless, Glory.” Cal frowns.

  “Does anyone have a torch?” I ask. When I lived inside Haven, I rarely left my home without my crank torch.

  “I’ve got a flint,” Drake says. “Now we just need something to burn.”

  I take another step down the stairs, squinting, willing my eyes to adjust to the darkness below.

  “Wait, Glory.” Cal grabs my arm. “You don’t know what’s down there.”

  “Whatever it is, it’s been there a long, long time. Did you see how packed the dust was on the top and around the edges of those rocks? No one’s been down here for years. Maybe not since BTD.” I take another step and pull my arm from Cal’s grasp.

  “Do you really think this has been covered since Before the Dust?” Jayma’s eyes widen, and her fear fuels my courage. For the moment, she’s back to the Jayma I know.

  As I continue down the stairs, my shoe nudges something off the next step. It clatters to the bottom. Whatever it was, it didn’t take long to hit, so I know I’m not descending into nothingness.

  “Here!” Drake yells, and I back up a few steps so he can hand me a burning stick. “It might not stay lit for long.”

  I lower the flame into the hole ahead of me.

  Bones. My shoulders lurch back.

  “What?” From behind me, Cal wraps an arm across my collarbone. “What is it?”

  “A skeleton,” I say, keeping my voice steady.

  “Human?” Cal asks, and I nod.

  “Don’t go down there,” Jayma says. “Come up right now.”

  Drake returns with another makeshift torch, this one burning more brightly. “I wrapped a piece of my shirtsleeve around a bunch of pine needles and some sap.” He steps onto the top stair.

  “Let me go first.” Cal reaches for the fiery torch.

  His grip around me loosens, so I take another step down. He keeps one hand on my shoulder and follows. I step to the side to avoid planting my foot on what is clearly a human skeleton. Or a Shredder? I have no idea how to tell.

  Passing the skeleton on the stairs, we reach the bottom. Cal walks forward slowly, holding the torch ahead. Mine sputters, little more than an ember now. I swing it and it sparks back to life.

  The floor looks like dirt, although it might just be covered in years of grime. The walls are made of stones, much like those that formed the building above us, except that these are less carefully shaped and vary more in size. I put my hand against the wall, and it’s cold but dry. Between each stone, there’s a binding material that could be concrete.

  “What is this place?” Drake asks. He followed Cal and me down the stairs. Jayma’s feet are visible near the top.

  Wooden and metal shelves line two walls. At the front of one shelf lies a pile of bottles and small metal cylinders. The cylinders are all open at one end, some of them crushed and misshapen.

  “Food,” Cal says.

  “Where?” I ask.

  “These metal things are called cans. BTD, people used them to store food to keep it fresh.”

  “Really?” I kick one of the metal shapes, then pick up one of the cans to check inside. It’s rusted and there’s no evidence that it once held food. There’s a partially attached disk hanging by a tiny bridge of metal, and its edge is sharp. “Looks more like a weapon than a food container.”

  Cal doesn’t respond.

  He’s standing at the other corner in front of a small area divided from the rest of the room by metal bars—like a cage. The hairs on my arms rise, along with the memory of the cell where Burn and I were held at Fort Huron, a rival settlement of Normals a few days’ walk from here. My Deviance sparks, but I force down the fear. While it looks like a cage, it was more likely a storage room used to secure valuable goods. The shelving in there is different, a series of diagonal boxes about four inches square. Some of them hold empty glass bottles on their sides.

  The light from my stick fades. I swipe it through the air again, but this time the motion only serves
to blow it out. By the light from Cal’s torch, I can see the rigid line of his shoulders. Something’s wrong. I cross the room.

  “There are so many,” he says.

  A lump rises in my throat. Skeletons are stacked along the back wall and scattered in front. A skeleton that looks to be a child’s lies across the thigh bones of another.

  “Who were these people?” I ask.

  I hear a noise behind me.

  “Don’t look,” I say as I step toward Drake, but he pushes past me.

  “They were living down here to escape the dust,” Drake says.

  “Or the Shredders,” I add.

  Drake steps closer to the skeletons. “They were hiding down here and someone trapped them.”

  Cal looks toward the entrance. “I’ll bet whoever died on the stairs was trying, right to the end, to get out.”

  A bell rings in the distance. Two peals, then a pause, in a repeating pattern.

  “What’s that?” Jayma calls from the top of the stairs.

  I turn to my brother, who’s lived Outside longer than any of us.

  “We need to get back,” he says. “Concord is under attack.”

  “Who’s attacking?” Cal yells to Drake as the four of us run through the forest toward the settlement.

  “Shredders.” Drake’s armor covers his upper body. The bell continues to ring.

  Did Dad lie to me when he claimed there weren’t Shredders near Concord? With the FA gone, there’s barely anyone here to defend the settlement. “Have Shredders attacked before?”

  “Not since I’ve been here.” Drake jumps over a tree root.

  “Then how do you even know it’s Shredders?” Cal asks.

  “The alarm pattern,” Drake replies.

  Jayma’s lagging behind. “Come on,” I call back. “Hurry!”

  She stops.

  “What’s wrong?” I race back. Her face is pale, her eyes pools of terror.

  “We’ll catch up to you,” I tell Drake and Cal, then turn to my friend. “I know you’re scared. But you can’t stay out here alone.”

  “I’ve never even seen a Shredder.” Jayma’s voice trembles. “Only on the screens in Haven.”

  I take her hand. “You don’t have to fight. We’ll find you somewhere safe to hide.” With Jayma’s strength, she could help, but combat is less about strength and more about technique, bravery—and weapons.