Glory

by Maureen McGowan

  “What’s wrong with this place?” I say near Burn’s ear. “The FA goes off and leaves the kids unprotected?” Tobin’s dad, Gage, is with the FA soldiers fighting in Haven.

  “First time we’ve been attacked.” Burn’s breath is heavy as he races.

  I turn back to see that Drake has stopped to talk to the kids, and I hope he’ll stay with them or go find Jayma.

  When we reach the bottom of the hill, I strain my neck to focus through the bounce-bounce-bounce of Burn’s running. As we head down the beach, I can barely make out the five-foot wall of boulders that runs from the cliff to the water and marks the settlement’s boundary.

  Cal was right. Concord’s not secure from this direction. The people here are naive to assume there’s no way to reach the settlement except through the pass.

  A large rock sails over the top of the barrier from our side to the other. At first, I can’t see where it came from or where it landed, but as we draw closer, I spot Jayma and Cal, crouching, facing us, and partially hidden behind a pile of rocks.

  Without standing, or looking, Jayma lobs a rock behind her. Cal rises to see over the wall and shoots his gun before dropping down.

  “Jayma!” I yell. “What are you doing?” They’re too far away to hear.

  I don’t know whether to be angry with her or with Cal for not making her stay at the settlement. She lobs another rock, and Cal rises to shoot.

  Jayma waves at us, then picks up another boulder and tosses it. Barely taller than the barrier even if she stood, she has no way to aim, but at least she’s staying hidden. She hits something this time—based on the roar that rises from the other side of the wall. Cal shoots, and when he drops down, he motions for us to duck.

  Shots fire across the barrier. Shots from an Aut.

  Burn drops and flattens himself on the stones, me on top of him. I roll to the side. “Were you hit?” I ask.

  He shakes his head, rises to a crouch, and moves forward alone. I check behind us to make sure Drake didn’t follow. With Burn bending over to run, I’ve got the speed advantage, and I reach Cal and Jayma alongside him.

  “What are we dealing with?” Burn asks.

  “You’re covered in blood,” Cal says to me. “Are you hurt?”

  “No.”

  Jayma tosses another boulder over the wall. We hear a thud and a groan. “Strike!” she says. She and Cal slap their palms together, smiling.

  “How many?” Burn asks.

  “Assuming Jayma took that one out,” Cal says, “there are six, maybe seven, more.”

  Burn pulls a handmade knife from a sheath and starts to rise.

  Cal drags him back down. “They’ve got Auts.” He turns to me. “They must have stolen them from Comps.” His voice lowers. “One of the Shredders is actually wearing a Comp uniform. Well, part of one.”

  It seems pointless to bring up my theory now. I’d only raise questions we don’t have time to discuss and can’t answer.

  “You distract them,” Cal says to Burn. “I’ll shoot.”

  Without argument, Burn nods and stands up, running down the edge of the wall toward the lake. The Shredders shout. Cal rises and fires.

  A scream fills the air. It sounds like he hit one.

  Jayma stands, picks up another boulder, and climbs partway up the rocks before she throws it overhand. A gunshot rings out, and my friend twists as she falls back to the ground.

  “Jayma!” I crawl to her side.

  “I’m okay.” Her shoulder’s bleeding.

  I feel under her and find a matching wound on her back. “The bullet passed straight through. That’s good.”

  Her face drains of color and she tries to smile.

  A loud noise draws my attention. Burn pulls his spear out of the chest of a Shredder that climbed to the top of the wall. It’s dead.

  “Keep pressure on that if you can,” I tell Jayma.

  “Look out!” Cal yells as a second Shredder swings a log and strikes Burn in the side. Cal shoots and the Shredder falls behind the barrier.

  Cal reaches down for Burn. “You okay?”

  Burn nods, takes Cal’s hand, and lets Cal pull him to his feet.

  I raise my head above the level of the rocks, hoping I’ll be able to catch the gaze of one of the Shredders.

  “Jayma!” Drake reaches us and drops to his knees.

  “You’re here,” she says. Her eyes widen. “But you’re bleeding.”

  He shakes his head. “Barely. I found some dust. Let me take you to the hospital.”

  “No.” She grabs his arm. “I’m okay. Help them fight.”

  “Where’s everyone else?” I ask Drake.

  “Still up on the ridge.”

  I guess no one here comes at the sound of a Comp whistle. Out of the corner of my eye, I see movement farther along the boulders, close to the cliff.

  “Stay with Jayma,” I tell him. Keeping low, I run to investigate. When I reach the cliff, I climb up the barrier to peer over the top of the rocks.

  Squeezed into a space between the cliff and a large boulder is a Shredder—a female Shredder.

  I knew they existed—they must for Shredders still to be here so many years after the dust—but this is the first one I’ve seen. I wonder why she’s hiding. Her skin is dried out and dark red, but it’s not as scabbed as most Shredders I’ve seen. Her matted hair is so filthy it’s impossible to tell its color.

  She looks terrified. But I can’t be fooled by what looks like an emotion, or let it humanize her. Female or not, scared or not, it’s a Shredder, a major threat to Concord—and to me.

  It needs to die.

  I easily lock onto her mind, but I don’t kill her right away. Instead, I concentrate.

  Her thoughts run together, skipping around rapidly, and I see flashes of the Hospital and other scenes inside Haven. My stomach seizes. She wasn’t always a Shredder. She was once a Haven employee, just like me.

  Please, no more dust, she thinks. I’ll die. No, I need dust. Need to kill. Can’t stop. What’s happened to me?

  She’s confused, but her thoughts have made my suspicions stronger. Mrs. Kalin and her staff turned innocent Haven employees into Shredders. I need to find out more, but the battle’s still raging.

  I focus on slowing her thoughts, slowing her heartbeat, her entire nervous system, until she slumps back on the rocks, her eyes closed, her body partially hidden in the crevice.

  She’s unconscious but still alive. Someone screams. I turn toward the sound.

  Cal’s gun is pointed at a Shredder that’s at the top of the barrier. The Shredder’s right arm dangles awkwardly. Cal shot its shoulder. He pulls the trigger again, but nothing happens. He’s either out of ammo or the gun jammed.

  Burn is at the far end of the wall, battling another Shredder.

  As Cal reloads, the Shredder lumbers over the rocks, dragging something heavy with its functional arm.

  I spot Drake carrying Jayma away from the action. I’m glad for that, but Cal’s alone.

  I scramble across the top of the wall. The Shredder’s about to swing a huge log, covered in iron spikes, directly at Cal, who’s still loading his gun.

  “Look out!” I yell. Then I leap, bringing down both fists on the Shredder’s damaged arm.

  The arm tears off. I fall and my back hits the rocks. The wind’s knocked out of me, and now the Shredder’s spiked log is aimed straight for my head.

  Cal fires. The Shredder’s head explodes.

  The log drops beside me, and I back up to increase the distance between me and the carcass.

  Another Shredder grabs my hair from across the barrier and pulls me, dragging me higher up the rock pile. I try to twist so that I can use my Deviance, but its grip on my hair is low, near my scalp. I can’t make eye contact. My scalp screams with pain.

  Cal aims but doesn’t fire. I must be blocking his shot. “Shoot!” I yell. Being shot is better than being captured by Shredders.

  Burn appears near Cal. His face is red a
nd veins pulse at his temple.

  Another Shredder reaches the top of the pile and throws a rock. It hits Cal and he’s knocked to the ground. The Shredder holding me laughs. It rakes its hand up my body, pulling my shirt up with it.

  Its skin is rough and hot against mine, and I want to vomit. I swing my arms back and strike it, but its body’s hard, like hitting concrete. Pain radiates along my arms. The Shredder yanks me again, and my hip slams into a sharp rock.

  Burn expands before my eyes. His already-large arms double in size, his considerable height grows more than a foot, his chest widens. Anger distorts his face.

  Backing away, Cal raises his gun, pointing it back and forth between Burn and the Shredder.

  “Shoot the Shredder,” I yell at Cal. “Not Burn!”

  Burn leaps onto the barrier, landing not far from my head. The Shredder releases my hair and I drop against the rocks. Burn grabs the Shredder and smashes its head on the rock beside me. I roll to the side to avoid looking, but I can’t avoid the sound of crunching bones.

  When I look up, Burn’s looming above me—a mountain of rage.

  Cal shot the other Shredder and is once again pointing his gun at Burn. Cal looks confused but determined. He thinks I’m in danger. I’m not sure that he’s wrong, but I can’t let him kill Burn.

  I stand. My head spins. I grab Burn’s arm. He raises his fists to strike me but stops. I look into his eyes.

  “Get out of my way!” Cal yells. “He’ll kill you.”

  I hold my hand up to silence Cal while maintaining eye contact with Burn.

  I calmed him once when he was changed—at least I think I did. Maybe I can do it again. I latch onto Burn’s mind. His thoughts are dark and thick, like billowing factory smoke around a broken vent, but the smoke’s shot through with fiery red sparks. Anger. Rage.

  I force down my fear and think calming thoughts. I think of the lake where Burn taught me to float. I think of the night sky, wind in my hair, ripples on the water. You don’t want to hurt me, I think.

  I have no idea whether he hears my thoughts, but the red sparks in Burn’s mind diminish, the black fog dissipates, and the fury in his eyes decreases.

  A Shredder shrieks. My concentration breaks, and the image of the Shredder’s skull smashing on the rocks replaces my calming thoughts. Immediately, Burn’s thoughts darken, sparking with red.

  I’m dizzy. Can’t focus. I’m making this worse.

  I break eye contact. Burn flexes his legs and bounds over the wall.

  Pain stabs my head and I raise my hands to my temples. Shouts carry back on the wind, and I duck behind the rocks and peer over, but my vision’s blurring. I have to ignore my pain until everyone’s safe.

  Burn lifts a Shredder and throws its body straight into another. The two fall in a pile and Burn leaps, pulling a metal shard from the sheath on his back and driving it through both of their bodies at the same time.

  Burn roars as he pulls the bloodstained shard from their bodies and spears it through them again. Then he heads after another Shredder racing along the pebbled shore.

  Holding his gun, Cal scans for more Shredders. I should help him. I should tell someone about the female Shredder hidden at the cliff. But pain and dizziness are winning.

  My vision fades.

  Chapter Six

  I WAKE AND Cal’s face is the first thing I see.

  I bolt up and grab my head. It’s like someone’s slamming rocks on my skull.

  “Easy!” Cal holds my shoulders. “Not so fast.”

  Realizing I’m in my underwear, I pull up the blanket. I’m in the hospital in Concord. “Where’s Jayma? Where’s Drake?”

  “Right here.”

  I turn to see Jayma sitting on a bed across from me. Drake’s on its far side. His neck is bandaged, and there are red lines on his forehead and some bruising. “You look better,” I say.

  “I heal quickly.” He looks down at Jayma and smiles. She’s wearing a sling and sitting on top of the bedcovers, leaning against the wall.

  “What happened to you out there?” Cal asks me. “You passed out.”

  “No kidding.” My mind’s still foggy, but details from the battle break through.

  “I thought you didn’t black out anymore.” Drake leans on Jayma’s bed, concern in his eyes.

  “So did I.” In the early days, I’d pass out every time I used my Deviance, even to kill a rat, and I barely remember anything from the day my Deviance killed our mother. The blackouts stopped months ago—I thought—but this blinding headache is something new.

  “Do you want some dust?” Drake asks.

  “What? No!” My head pounds again and I close my eyes.

  “Whatever happened out there,” Cal says, “you’re clearly not over it.”

  I rub my temples. “Thanks for bringing me here.”

  “Not me.” Cal’s cheeks flush and he nods toward the corner of the room. “Him.”

  I lean forward and see Burn standing against the wall, one foot crossed over the other. When we make eye contact, he nods. More of the afternoon’s events flood in. Bits of both battles flash in my mind.

  “How many people were killed?” I ask.

  “Three,” Drake says. “It was bad, but I guess it could have been worse.”

  “I thought you guys told me Shredders never come to Concord,” Jayma says.

  Burn pushes off the wall. “They haven’t. Not for over a decade.”

  Jayma swings her legs over the side of the bed. “Why aren’t there more Shredders around here?”

  “Not enough dust for them to live on.” Burn pulls his hands from his coat pockets. “Something’s off.” He looks at Cal. “And you were right. They attacked from two flanks.”

  Cal gives a quick nod to Burn. “I swear those Shredders had a plan. They were using formations and tactics we learned in Comp training.” He shifts. “And what about the ones in Comp uniforms? And the weapons?”

  “Stolen?” Burn suggests, and I realize it’s pretty much the first time I’ve seen these two talk to each other voluntarily.

  “I have a theory about that,” I say. Drake crawls over Jayma’s bed to sit beside her, and Burn strides to the foot of my bed.

  “I heard thoughts,” I tell them, “in the mind of the Shredder that had Drake.” I don’t mention the female Shredder. I’m not sure why, but I want to keep her a secret.

  “You can hear thoughts?” Cal rubs his hand over his hair.

  “Sometimes.” I lean back on my elbows. “I wasn’t positive before today, but I am now. If I focus my Gift on a Shredder’s mind and listen, if I concentrate without squeezing or blocking, I can see and hear what they’re thinking.”

  “Cool,” Drake says. “What did you hear?”

  I lick my dry lips, and Cal pours me a glass of water. After taking a drink, I say, “I think Mrs. Kalin made those Shredders. They might even be under her mind control.”

  Cal puts his hand down on my bed, close to my leg. “What? How?”

  Burn frowns, but I don’t know whether it’s because of what I said or because of Cal’s hand so close to my thigh.

  “She’s feeding dust to Haven employees in the Hospital,” I say. “Both Deviants and Normals. Cal and I saw her techs doing that. They give different quantities to each subject, and then they study the effects—even hurting them to test their tolerance for pain and healing abilities.” I glance at my brother, but he looks away. His paralysis disappeared not long after he first breathed in dust.

  “My theory is,” I continue, “that when her test subjects turn into Shredders—and some must, given what she’s doing—she dumps them outside the dome. It’s like she’s manufacturing Shredders.”

  Cal whistles. “No wonder there are so many of them between the dome and that wall.”

  “The FA calls it the hot zone,” I tell him. “Some probably got out when our FA tanks broke through the wall.”

  “But why would they come here?” Burn asks. “There’s barely any dust t
o live on. And how did they find the way?”

  “Maybe they followed the tank we were in?” I suggest.

  “We didn’t bring the tank anywhere near here.”

  “Our tracks then?”

  Burn frowns. “Hard to track over bare rock even if you know what you’re doing.”

  “Then they found us by luck?” Drake suggests.

  I bite my lower lip. We need to figure this out so that we’ll know if more are coming. I hope I can learn something from that female Shredder down by the shore, assuming she’s still there.

  I lower myself to my pillow. “I need more sleep.”

  “You’ve got it.” Cal leans down and presses a soft kiss on my forehead. He flicks his gaze to Burn, then moves away from my bed.

  “I’m starved.” Burn approaches Cal. “Let’s talk more over some food. You coming, Drake?”

  “I’ll stay with Jayma.” He puts his hand on hers. Both Drake and Jayma seem nearly healed. I’ll bet they both breathed some dust, but now’s not the time to question him.

  “I’m starving.” Jayma slides off the bed. “Let’s go with them, Drake. If that’s okay with you, Glory?”

  “Sure,” I say. “I just want to sleep and get rid of this headache.”

  And then I’ll go back to find that Shredder.

  I wait until the hospital is quiet. I’m not certain how many other patients are in here and if there are staffers who stay overnight. Concord just lost its only doctor, but someone must be here.

  Moonlight comes through the window that’s high on the wall, revealing the two beds, a small cabinet, and a wooden bench with my clothes on top and my shoes underneath. As soon as my feet hit the stone floor, I creep over to the door and peek into the hall. It’s deserted. At least as far as I can tell in the very dim light.

  My head’s clear and focused, but I’m glad I decided to stay here overnight. It would be hard to sneak out of our cabin without waking Drake.

  I toss on the worn T-shirt and pants, then cover up with my light jacket. I dig my hands into my pockets. My knife’s gone. I search the cabinet, but all I find are a crank torch, a few lengths of cloth, and a half-filled water bladder. I stash them in my pockets and then make my escape from the building without notice.