Glory

by Maureen McGowan

  Dad still hasn’t moved.

  Jayma reaches up and snaps the chain holding one of Dad’s arms, and he slumps.

  “We should help them,” I say, and before my brother can object, I race forward and grab my dad under his arms to support him.

  “Hey!” A Shredder’s screech rakes my eardrums.

  The other guard is awake.

  “Stay with Dad,” I tell Drake. “I’ve got this.”

  Drake replaces me as Dad’s support while Jayma works on the second chain.

  This guard is tall and thin, his skin a mass of scabs. Dark-brown blood oozes from his neck and ribs. I focus on his bulging eyes.

  Almost immediately, I connect. He freezes, staring at me. I should kill him, explode his head or his heart like I’ve done to other Shredders, but I can’t.

  Shredders—at least some—were once human and could be again. They do monstrous things, but do their actions make them monsters? If so, Burn and I are monsters, too.

  I don’t accept that. I won’t accept that.

  The Shredder’s mind is engorged with hate but shadowed by fear. This Shredder didn’t ask for guard duty; he was forced. Memories flash in his mind. The images of the Shredder who seems to run the camp are so horrific I nearly gag.

  I barely need to think the word “unconscious” and the guard collapses to the ground.

  A scream fills the quarry, and I raise my hands to my ears.

  Olivia walks out from behind the slab of rock, a wicked grin on her face. Globs of thick shredder blood drip from her razor hands. I don’t want to know what she’s done.

  Dad is freed now, and Burn slings Hector’s limp and bleeding body over his shoulder. I hurry toward them.

  “We’d better get out of here,” Burn says. Drake takes Jayma’s hand. Cal and Morag are standing watch back by the pit’s edge.

  “What?” Olivia asks, striding toward us. “No thank-you? No tearful good-bye for your auntie?”

  “Thank you,” I tell her. “Come with us. Dad was here to get you.”

  She tips her head to the side, and I believe for a moment that she’s considering it.

  “You.” She puts her hand on Jayma’s forearm. “You’re strong for your size.”

  Drake puts his hand over our aunt’s. “Olivia. Let her go.”

  “What’s your name, little one?” Olivia asks.

  “Jayma.”

  “You’ll do well here, Jayma. You’ve got what it takes. A small feminine body to draw the males in, but the strength to keep them from killing you.”

  “Thanks?” Jayma says tentatively.

  “Don’t thank her.” I step forward. “Do you realize what she wants? What she’s suggesting?” I take another step, but Jayma shakes her head to stop me.

  She has the strength to pull away from Olivia, but she’s not doing it—and I realize why.

  “Let her go,” Drake says firmly.

  Blood drips from Jayma’s arm, and I watch in horror as Olivia drags her palm along Jayma’s skin; it’s shredded and bleeding. I reach out, but Drake’s already bundled Jayma into his arms.

  “Why did you do that?” I stare at Olivia, trying to meet her gaze.

  “It was an accident.” Olivia grins. “Better give her some dust. Those cuts look deep.”

  Fury rises inside me. My aunt won’t look at me, but I can hear her heart beating. Even without eye contact, I can sense the flow of her thick blood as it pushes through her veins.

  Olivia implied that dust hampers my dad’s Deviance, but it’s helping mine. I focus on her heart, but while I can sense it pulsing, the organ’s too hard to squeeze, as if it has a shield around it. But that could be the limitations of my power. And she won’t make eye contact with me.

  My father stirs. “What’s going on?”

  Burn sets him down. “Are you strong enough to teleport out of here?” he asks.

  Dad staggers as he nods. He turns to me and he looks so weak, so fragile. Nothing like my dad. His hair is dull and matted, his cheeks sunken, his eyes bloodshot and wild.

  “Go,” I say. “Teleport up top. Or back to Simcoe.” He should get as far away from here as his Gift will take him.

  “That’s enough!” Drake shouts. His armor up, he shoves Olivia’s hand away from Jayma. “Leave her alone.”

  Jayma’s eyes are glazed over, but the bleeding on her arm has stopped. Drake and Olivia must have given her dust while I was distracted by Dad.

  “Drake”—Olivia raises her hands—“you two should join the camp. I know you enjoy the dust.”

  I’m about to lunge at Olivia—I’ll kill her before I let her draw them in—but Morag shouts, “Run!”

  A male Shredder has woken and is lumbering toward us.

  Dad takes a shaky step, then disappears. I don’t know where he teleported to, but at least that’s one less person I love who’s down here in danger.

  Olivia reaches for Jayma, but Drake takes my friend’s hand and pulls her out of reach. Morag, with Cal at her side, motions for us to join her.

  We’re closer to the main road than the ladders, and that route doesn’t have a deep pit beside it. But going toward the main road means crossing the open area littered with sleeping Shredders. Some are stirring.

  Drake leads Jayma toward Morag and Cal, but Burn runs toward the Shredders, pulling a sword from his coat. I follow him.

  Burn swings the sword at the first Shredder he reaches. The Shredder ducks too late, and the sword slices into the top of his head. Burn tugs at his sword lodged in the Shredder’s skull. The Shredder’s elbows, wrists, and knees sprout sharp horns. He swings them at Burn. How is this Shredder not dead?

  I yell, “Hey! Over here!”

  The Shredder glances at me, and that’s all it takes to capture him.

  I grab on to his heart and squeeze. The Shredder pounds his fists into his chest, stabbing himself with the horns. He opens his mouth to scream, but all that comes out is a high-pitched whine.

  His heart stops. I sense the last, heavy thud as his body goes slack and crumples to the ground, propped up by Burn’s sword in his head.

  Burn plants his foot on the dead Shredder’s back and yanks out his weapon.

  Something slams into me from the side, and I’m lifted off the ground. Another Shredder has me in his grip. The smell of death chokes me.

  I kick and slam my head back into his, but this Shredder is too strong. His skin looks similar to that of the others, but it feels as hard as the special metal they use for the Comp uniforms. If my Deviance was enhanced by the dust, it’s not anymore, and I can’t even sense the Shredder’s heart.

  Burn’s body expands in height and girth as he thumps toward me. The transformation happens in seconds. Rage overtakes his face.

  He swings his huge arm, aiming for the Shredder’s head above mine. The Shredder lunges to the side, pulling me with him. Burn misses.

  Burn roars as he raises his fists above his head. If he’s not careful, he’ll kill me along with the Shredder. He slams his hands down on the Shredder’s head, and I feel the body behind me compress on impact. But he doesn’t let go. There’s another slam, and the Shredder loosens his hold.

  I twist and slip down through his arms, then scramble out of his reach.

  Burn punches the Shredder, but his skin is too hard. The strikes seem to be hurting Burn more than the Shredder, who rises, screeching. Burn lunges for his legs and knocks him to the ground.

  Burn lifts the Shredder by the ankles and swings.

  Gathering speed, Burn rotates and the Shredder’s body rises from the ground.

  Burn lets go. The Shredder flies fifty feet and over the edge of the pit. Morag and Cal duck as the body passes over their heads.

  Morag points frantically behind Burn. More Shredders are headed toward us.

  “Come on!” I shout at Burn, hoping he can understand me, and I race past the women’s camp toward the pit.

  Drake and Jayma reach Morag and Cal first and keep running.

&nbs
p; “Go!” I say when I near Cal. I don’t wait for an answer, and I’m glad when he turns and runs along the pit beside me. This sharp drop should keep the Shredders from charging in our direction.

  “Look out!” Morag shouts, and I see my assumption was wrong.

  Five Shredders are lumbering straight at us. Behind me, Burn flings another Shredder into the pit, then heads toward us, covering the distance in bounding steps that make the earth shake. Olivia follows.

  Jayma stops abruptly. “We can’t outrun the Shredders. We have to fight.” Her body’s trembling. Her arm is still raw.

  “You run,” I tell her. “Morag and Cal, you, too. Drake and I will help Burn.”

  “I’m not leaving Drake,” Jayma says, “and I’m not leaving you.”

  She tugs at a slab of rock that’s imbedded in the ground. She easily lifts the rock and hurls it at the Shredders, striking one.

  Burn swings his sword. A Shredder goes down.

  There’s a thud and another Shredder is on his back, crushed under a rock. Drake positions himself like a human shield as Jayma looks for something else to throw.

  Burn leaps and lands by two Shredders. He lifts one in each hand and slams their bodies together. Then he tosses both over the side of the pit.

  “He’s a monster!” Cal shouts. “Jayma, throw that rock at Burn before he kills us.”

  Morag steps toward Cal. “Leave him alone.”

  A Shredder runs up behind Morag, a club in his hand.

  “Duck!” I yell. My shout draws the Shredder’s attention. Captured by my gaze, he swings the club down, missing Morag, and just narrowly missing himself. The weapon flies behind him.

  Focused on his eyes, I grab his heart.

  Screams rise behind me, but I can’t look. Not until this Shredder’s dead.

  He’s fighting me. His blood’s heavy and thick. Morag brushes past me toward Burn.

  Finally, the Shredder drops to the ground, and I turn. Burn is fighting a Shredder who’s covered in long spikes, and I try to remember the animal from BTD that he resembles. A porcupine?

  Drake punches his armored fist into the gut of another Shredder, and then Jayma smashes that Shredder’s skull with a rock.

  “Burn, watch out!” Morag cries.

  I spin around.

  A Shredder winds up to throw a spear into Burn’s back.

  The spear flies, but in midair it changes direction, heading for Morag instead.

  She tries to catch it, but the spear drives through her chest. Her blood darkens the ground where she lands.

  Burn yells, and the sound is so loud my bones shake. It’s the most anguished cry I’ve ever heard. In two strides, Burn leaps over Morag’s body and crushes the head of the Shredder who killed his mother.

  Lifting the Shredder by the head, Burn swings.

  The Shredder’s spine severs, and the body sails through the air, landing near Jayma and Drake. Burn tosses the head in the pit.

  Someone shrieks. Drake’s fist is inside a Shredder’s chest cavity. He pulls his hand back, dark blood dripping from his armored fist. The Shredder stops screaming.

  I run to Drake and Jayma. They both look stunned. “Get out of here!” I tell them.

  Drake points behind me and I see Cal heading for Burn.

  A Shredder slams into me from behind, pushing me to the ground. I can’t turn over to lock eyes.

  The smell is disgusting and I choke for air, but instead I get a mouthful of dust.

  My brain fires, like someone lit a lantern inside my skull. The heartbeat of the Shredder thuds in my head. It’s louder than the screams and shouts around me.

  I can feel the Shredder’s blood flowing. I can sense every part of his body. I don’t know whether it will work without eye contact, but I use my Gift to take hold of his heart and squeeze. The organ tightens, and I feel the blood slowly empty out of the ventricles. The heart stops beating.

  It worked!

  The body above me loses all its tension but not its weight.

  I’m trapped. I try to draw air, but it’s so hard. I can’t move. Can’t breathe.

  Where is Burn?

  My mind fades and fog fills my vision. If I lose consciousness, I’m going to be smothered. Even the dust I just breathed won’t get me out of this one.

  Suddenly, the weight lifts, and the difference is so extreme I feel like I’m floating. I suck in a breath and cough. Drawing in another, I roll over, shielding my eyes from the bright sunlight.

  “Are you okay?” Jayma asks. She throws the dead Shredder into the pit.

  “Thanks.” I try to sit but fall onto my back.

  “Easy.” She kneels down and offers me her hand to help me up.

  “Burn and Cal.” I look to where I last saw them.

  Burn’s holding a Shredder over his head.

  I rub my eyes and shake my head, trying to clear the fog. It’s not a Shredder.

  “What’s going on?” My mind refuses to process the scene. Is this some strange aftereffect of inhaling dust?

  Stumbling forward, I blink, trying to change the image.

  But I can’t.

  It won’t change.

  I want to stop what I’m seeing, but I don’t have time to yell or move.

  Burn throws the body over the side of the pit.

  “No!” I scream. “No!”

  The body Burn threw into the pit was Cal’s.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  DRAKE GRABS ME around the waist and spins me away from the pit. “There’s nothing you can do. It’s too late.”

  “No!” I struggle against my brother. “Cal’s not dead. Burn wouldn’t. He’d never—”

  “Burn’s not himself, right now.”

  Barely hearing his words, I twist in Drake’s hold and see Burn slam his fist into a Shredder, who drops like he was hit by a steel girder. Rage twists Burn’s features as he pulls the spear from Morag’s chest.

  He lifts his mother over his shoulder with one hand. Then, holding the bloody spear in his other hand, he runs through the camp toward the main road. More Shredders wake as he thumps past them. He’ll never make it out.

  I tug against Drake’s arms.

  “We’ve got to go,” Drake says. “Now.”

  He lets me loose, and after one last glance toward the pit, I race with Jayma and Drake toward the ladders. Olivia’s still following. Is she going to try to stop us?

  Drake reaches the first ladder and motions for Jayma and me to go ahead.

  “I’ll bring up the rear,” Olivia says.

  No time to question her motives, I scramble up behind Jayma, and then the four of us run along the narrow path to the next ladder, then the next.

  Since our trail’s directly below us, we can’t really tell, but we haven’t seen any Shredders following us—yet. Burn’s rampage through camp has focused their attention. After climbing the second-to-last ladder, we spot someone coming down the final one, fifty yards ahead.

  My muscles tense. We’re surrounded. Then I recognize who it is.

  “Dad, go back up!” I shout.

  He does. We race up the final steep path, and then Jayma pushes me to go up the ladder first. Dad takes my hand near the top, pulling me over the edge.

  “Thank Haven you made it out.” He clings to me. “I was about to teleport back down to help.” He lets me go to give Jayma a hand and then Drake.

  I look across the quarry and squint. A figure—which looks like Burn carrying Morag—is on the second to last switchback of the main road leading out. A long line of Shredders chases behind. Burn’s decision to run that way gave the rest of us a chance.

  But if I give him credit for leading the Shredders away, if I believe he knows what he’s doing right now, that means—

  The full impact of what happened slams into my gut, and I double over, gasping for breath.

  Burn killed Cal. Dropping to the ground, I put my head in my hands.

  Jayma drapes her arms over me. “We’re safe, and Burn will be fine.
”

  “I don’t care. Not after what he did.”

  “We don’t know what happened,” she says. “Not exactly.”

  I look up at her. “I know what I saw.” But this isn’t the place for shock or self-pity. I leap up. “Come on.”

  Olivia steps back from the lip of the quarry. “We were followed.”

  Jayma heads for a pile of rocks. They all look like they weigh twice what she does. Maybe three times.

  She lifts one, carries it to the edge, and I watch in awe as she aims and then drops the rock down. The scream and crunch that follow send shivers up my spine, followed by a sick sense of satisfaction.

  “Another one,” Drake says. “Over here.”

  She grabs another rock, staggers to where Drake’s pointing, and then releases her bomb.

  Wanting to help, I tug at one of the smallest rocks, but it’s no use. I can’t budge it. Jayma grabs another big rock, lifts it overhead, and slams it down on the path below. Olivia and Dad are standing close together, watching.

  “Jayma’s a Deviant,” I tell him.

  “I see that,” Dad says, his eyes wide.

  “That should buy us some time,” Jayma says. “I got all the ones at that level.”

  “She’s a strong one,” Olivia replies.

  Ignoring her, I look back across the quarry. Dad puts his hands on my shoulders. “That was a huge risk you kids took. Thank you.”

  “Anything for family,” I tell him.

  Dad looks over at Olivia, who’s fidgeting like it’s impossible for her to stand still.

  “How do we get to Simcoe?” I ask him. “Morag led us here, and Burn might lead the Shredders the same way we came.”

  “Don’t worry.” Dad squeezes my shoulder. “I know a safe way back.”

  Dad and Olivia walk together in constant conversation. He’s got some of his strength back and is walking without her help. Watching them like this, laughing at times, arguing at others, they truly seem like twins, and I can almost forget she’s a Shredder. Dad seems happy, but I wish I’d never met her. I want to forget everything that happened today.

  I can’t believe both Cal and Burn are gone.

  Burn’s alive—but he’s gone all the same. I can never forgive him.