Looper

by Ann Bakshis

  “Dad, you’re talking crazy,” I mumble through sobs.

  “Your mother loved you. I love you. She didn’t die by my hand. You have to believe me. Her death cannot be in vain.”

  “Stop, please,” I begin to beg.

  He places his hand on the back of my head, pulling me in closer, but it only drives the bars into my skin. “This is your only warning, Sadie. I’ll be dead in a few minutes and then you’ll have no one.”

  I yank my head free from him. His eyes are full of terror. I step backwards, not quite understanding his ramblings. The floor beneath the cage opens and he begins to descend. His eyes don’t leave me, not even as he dies below my feet. His screams fill my ears and the floor closes up, cutting his agony mid-scream. The Aedox escort me back to the academy. I lock myself in my room, not ever wanting to come out.

  The sirens have been going off for hours. When I look outside, I only see clear skies. It’s been weeks since the last raid, but everyone is still on edge. I hide with my mate and two children in the basement of an old office building. A small window is our only link to the outside world. It’s us, along with five other families, trying to hide from the marauders that have infiltrated Pentras. They began insinuating themselves into our community a few years ago, but no one noticed. I didn’t do what my father had asked of me. I didn’t leave the academy like he wanted. I stayed. I eventually met my mate and had a family. That was so long ago, it feels like another lifetime has passed since then.

  My son curls up in my mate’s lap, our daughter in mine. We left our home almost a month ago, leaving everything we owned behind. We had to, or we’d be dead like the others. We’ve heard the marauders talking about realigning society, but that’s only when they get close enough to the building to be overheard. Talk of a “possible realignment” had been going on since before my mother died, but I really didn’t pay attention to it. Now I wish I had.

  “How much longer?” an older woman asks, her husband dead beside her.

  “Just a few more minutes,” my mate says. “They’ll be gone soon.”

  The sirens stop. I hold my breath, waiting for them to sing out again, but an hour passes and silence still reigns. We emerge from our cover, the older woman bidding her husband a farewell, and joining us on our climb to the surface. Nothing in the lobby or café has been disturbed, which means our building wasn’t targeted. The power has been off for a few days, so we have to take the stairs up instead of the lifts. Our family is staying on the twentieth floor. The kids have decided to make forts out of the old cubicles. Each trying to make theirs bigger than the others.

  “What do you think?” my mate asks me, sitting down on a broken couch in one of the former break rooms.

  “I don’t think we’ll have much longer.”

  “What about the kids?”

  I walk towards the window and stare at the overcast sky. Pentras Tower looms in the distance, calling me home. “What if we can get back to the academy? We’d be safe there. It’s a fortress.”

  “I’m sure it’s been locked down. Probably when the first wave hit, but if you want to try for it, let’s go.”

  We tell the kids we’re going on a journey. They’re so young, they won’t know what’s coming when it happens. When we’re down in the lobby, my mate is the first to step out, making sure everything is clear. He waves us out. We each pick up one of the children and begin running for the highway down the street. We have to slow down a few blocks later, too exhausted to keep up the hurried pace. Others join us along the way. Emerging from their hiding spaces, even though they don’t know where we’re headed. Many that have gathered talk about the realignment and what it could mean if it’s successful.

  “Why would you want it to be successful?” my son asks a man next to us.

  “So that my grandchildren can have a future.”

  “Wouldn’t they have one already since they’re alive?”

  The man smiles. “That’s a good point, young man. What part of Pentras did your family come from?”

  “Waverly,” my son responds, happy to provide the answer.

  “Ah, you lived in the same area as my daughter did. Were you happy there?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s good. You should always be happy where you live.”

  “But I’m not happy anymore.”

  “Why not?” I ask.

  He changes his focus from the man to me. “We had to leave because people didn’t like us anymore. And I miss my friends.”

  I squeeze his hand, which makes him smile.

  We’re a block from Pentras Tower when a bright flash behind us ignites the air. I turn to see a mushroom cloud rise to the heavens. People begin to scream and run. We grab the kids up into our arms and race towards the academy. The air is already getting hard to breathe, not from the heat, but from the radiation that I know is following us. Another bomb goes off, this one to the north.

  Pentras is in our sights, though its doors are closed, the purple glass obscuring our view from whatever or whomever may be inside. Our kids are screaming as another bomb detonates to the south. We climb up the stairs, but the doors are locked. Only a few of those who had joined us made it to the building. The glass barely rocks when we bang on it. I know there are people inside, there have to be, so why aren’t they letting us in?

  “Look,” my daughter says, pointing to someone approaching the door.

  The man stops a few feet away, hands crossed over his chest. He smiles as another bomb detonates, this one closer. The one that will kill us. We scream to be let in, to be saved. He just stands there, watching as the world outside dies. The blast cloud finally hits us, knocking us down. My children die instantly. My mate a few seconds later. As I take my last breaths, I stare at the man, memorizing his face so I can haunt him in the afterlife, but all I can see are the dragon tattoos up and down his arms. A marauder has captured Pentras Tower.

  Not a marauder, but something I haven’t seen in a long time. A brief memory falls into place. One day I caught my mother hiding a marking on her shoulder from my father. This was just before I left for the academy. It was that of a dragon. I asked her about it, and she swore me to promise never to tell my father that she was joining a force to bring down the Patrician.

  A group called the Dracken.

  Eighteen

  A scream catches in my throat. I bolt up so fast in bed that I almost hit my head on the springs of the bunk above me. My clothes and sheets are soaked in sweat, my heart racing. I strip my bed, toss the sheets into the laundry bin, add my clothes to it, and jump into the shower. I scrub my body until I’m raw, trying to erase the images of incinerated bodies from my mind. In the dream I felt like I was Sadie. That everything that was happening to her was happening to me. I could even feel the heat from the bombs when they fell.

  After drying off, I dress and go to the common room. Matron Kaniz is sitting on the couch with Frey. Their conversation stops when I enter the room. Frey rushes to my side, puts his arm around my waist, and has me sit on the couch he was on.

  “Max, are you all right?” Matron Kaniz asks, an alarmed expression on her face.

  “It was only a dream,” I say, more to myself than them.

  “What happened?” Frey asks, his arm still around me as we sit together.

  I give them an abridged version of the nightmare. Keeping much of the gory details out of it, especially how the children looked when they died.

  “Shit,” Matron Kaniz says, standing. She walks to the lift and descends, leaving us without any reasons as to why. She returns a few minutes later, Cil beside her.

  “What is she doing here?” I ask, jumping up from my seat, pointing at Cil.

  “She’s going to take a look at your wristband. It may have been compromised.”

  “How do you mean?” Frey asks.

  “The nightmare Max experienced was Patrician generated. They’ve managed to highjack her mind, probably through the wristband since they can’t get into Thrace Tow
er any other way.”

  “But why?” Frey asks.

  Matron Kaniz turns her attention towards me. Speaking to me more than Frey. “To make her one of theirs. To show her what can happen if a realignment was to happen.”

  “I’ll need the Progression Room in order to take a look at the device,” Cil says.

  We go to the room, but Cil and I are the only ones permitted inside. Matron Kaniz needs to alert the Keepers as to what’s occurred and Frey will only cause problems. I take my seat on the chair while Cil gathers supplies from the cabinets.

  “You’re not going to fix my wristband,” I say, sneering at her. “You’re with them. You want me to be on the Patrician side.”

  “So what if I do? Did you not learn anything from the message?”

  “Only that the Patrician are monsters who are happy to murder innocent people – even children – to stop only a few.”

  “They did what they had to do to protect society, Max. We’re just trying to prevent a repeat of the past.”

  “I should rat you out.”

  Cil sits on the stool, slides over to me, and yanks my left arm towards her. “What good would that do you? You think you’re valuable to the Patrician? They’ll kill you before you completely turn on them. Leader Fallon will make sure of that.”

  “I’m not afraid.”

  She stops working and looks up at me. “This isn’t about fear, Max. This is about living. No one wants to die, but some deaths are necessary. Don’t make your death one of the necessary ones.” She focuses her attention back onto the wristband.

  The tools she’s using are small and delicate. She manages to project the bracelet’s inventory onto the monitor behind her. She sweeps through several layers of data before finding the embedded program. It’s tied into the maps that Lok downloaded. Cil works for several minutes trying to sever the connection. She’s successful, but I also lose the maps, which upsets me.

  “Next time, don’t let someone make modifications to your wristband without you knowing exactly what they’re loading onto it. Stay still for a few more minutes while I run a diagnostic on the data to make sure there isn’t anything else creeping around in there.”

  Ten minutes pass before she lets me leave. Nothing else is located. Cil heads down the lift while I rejoin Frey in the common room. Breakfast was brought up while I was in the Progression Room, so I grab a plate of eggs, bacon, and fruit, then take a seat next to Frey. He hands me a water bottle just as the monitors flash an image of a green laurel with a silver infinity sign in the center followed by a high pitched siren. Hammond replaces the image just as the alarm stops. He looks to be almost giddy.

  “Hello citizens of Tarsus,” Hammond begins, placing his hands behind his back.

  I stop eating and hold my breath, waiting for the death of Head Master Edom to be announced, but I’m wrong.

  “Leader Fallon has declared a state of emergency due to increasing threats from Dracken leaders. Aedox will now begin patrolling areas of Tarsus randomly and arrest anyone with a Dracken symbol. Thrace Tower has also been placed on temporary lockdown until Leader Fallon can ensure the safety of those inside.” The monitors go black as people begin to discuss in subdued voices what this could all mean.

  “Do you think they’ll raid the building?” one girl asks.

  “If they do, what’ll happen to those of us with the tattoo?” someone else responds, his voice cracking with nervousness.

  Matron Kaniz enters the room and everyone falls silent. “I need everyone to remain calm,” she says, thrusting her hands outward. “The Keepers know full well about Leader Fallon’s plans and have taken every precaution to prevent anyone from entering Thrace Tower. The Litarian Battles is set to continue in two hours, beginning with Hammond’s announcement as to the format for the second round.” She leaves, but everyone is still on the verge of panicking.

  I take my empty plate, place it on the counter, and go to the bedroom. I slide under new covers, pulling them over my head, and try to take a nap since I’m still very tired. I get very little sleep, especially with everyone talking loudly about Hammond’s broadcast. I could just loop out of the room, but now with additional security, perhaps I’m limited in where I can go. Addie calls from the doorway that it’s almost time. Frey and Rem are arguing when Addie and I enter the common room, but they stop upon seeing us. Frey takes my hand and guides me to the back couch while Rem moves towards the front. Addie sits next to us as Matron Kaniz steps forward and stands next to the monitor closest to the far wall.

  “The Keepers want to keep The Litarian Battles moving, so those who will be moving to the second round will be removed immediately from the room and taken to the selection floor. There has been a slight change in how this is all going to go. There will be thirty-two participants in this round. I’ll show the names of those moving to the second round and Hammond will meet you all once you’re seated.”

  Matron Kaniz touches the monitor, turning it on. The names and units of the players are listed in four columns. Eight players from each unit. I don’t have to look to know my name is up there. Addie screams when she sees her name. I guess she thought she was pointed high enough to make it all the way to the third round.

  Four Aedox enter the room and Matron Kaniz motions us to join them. Frey squeezes my hand before letting me go. I take Addie’s arm, help her walk down the hallway and into the lift. Tears are streaming down her face as we descend. She’s the only one of the eight of us crying. She may talk a big game, but when it comes down to it, she’s as terrified as the rest of us. When we reach our floor, we bypass the carousel of clothes and go right for the chairs that’ll take us to the selection floor. Addie forgoes her usual seat for one next to mine. When we reach the top, Hammond isn’t anywhere in sight. Looking at the other players, I notice Garrett and Brink have both been selected. As the lights dim, Addie reaches for my arm, grasping it tightly. The displays in the center of the room come on, showing Hammond dressed in the same suit from the earlier broadcast, but this time he’s not giddy. His face is creased in lines, some deep.

  “Welcome children,” he begins, his voice not as strong as it was before. “For round two, you will be placed in teams of four, one person from each unit. Your teams have been designated a color, which has already been added to your uniforms. This will help the Keepers know where each unit is on the battle floor. Only an intact team will advance. If anyone from your team is killed or deemed irretrievable, the remaining members of the team will be immediately terminated. Good luck.”

  Our chairs begin their descent. Addie lets go of me, but her face is full of terror. Hammond failed to mention how many teams are allowed to win, or even how long the round is going to take. I wonder how the Keepers are going to dispose of incomplete teams. However they do it, it won’t be painless and I’m sure our units will be watching, like the last time.

  When we’ve reached the bottom, Addie practically drapes herself over me as we make our way to the common room. All the Matrons are there when we enter, calling us over to various parts of the room. Matron Kaniz has a worried expression on her face, which surprises me as she’s usually so confident.

  “Now, as you have no doubt realized, none of you will be on the same team,” Matron Kaniz says once we’ve assembled. “I’m not sure what type of landscape the Keepers have selected, but don’t trust anyone. Not even members of your unit. Once you hit that floor, you are each other’s enemy.”

  “How many teams are permitted to win?” a young man next to me asks.

  “I don’t know,” Matron Kaniz answers awkwardly. “Your uniforms are waiting for you in the designated changing rooms. Your unit will be watching, so do them proud.” She smiles and leaves.

  As we’re queuing up to get in to change, the other Matrons leave. Brink sidles up close to me, until we’re practically hip to hip. I roll my eyes and try to ignore him. Addie strikes up a conversation with Garrett, which bothers me. I’m not sure why it does, but something about her bo
dy language towards him makes me mad. The line moves quickly. When it’s my turn, I take longer than I should. I remove my uniform from its storage and notice two green stripes have been added around the torso. I change, avoiding the mirror as much as possible. I don’t want to be reminded of what my body has already been through.

  Once I’m dressed, I join the others in the common room paying particular attention to the colors everyone has been designated. My stomach drops when I see that Brink’s uniform also has green stripes. Garrett is busy talking to a young woman wearing a uniform with red stripes when he sees me. He excuses himself to come talk to me.

  “At least I have one friend on my team,” he says to me, showing off the green stripes around the edges of his short sleeves.

  “I don’t know if I’d go that far to say we’re friends.”

  “What’s the matter with you?”

  “Nothing,” I say. “I just want to get this over with.”

  I start to walk away from him when he grabs my arm and halts my progress.

  “Talk to me,” he says quietly.

  “I’m not who you think I am.”

  He pushes the hair off my shoulder, revealing a portion of the dragon tattoo. “Is it because of that?” he asks, pointing to it.

  “It’s more than that.”

  “Then tell me, Max.”

  I take a deep sigh. It’s not that I don’t trust Garrett, I do. In fact, I trust him more than Frey. I just don’t know how much to tell him.

  “How much do you know about what happened to the Dead Zone?”

  “That’s an odd question,” he responds, taken aback. He seems to then ponder the inquiry before responding after a few moments of silence. “Not much. Just that it’s been like that for a long time. Nothing can live there because it’s so toxic.”

  “What about Pentras Tower?”

  “You mean the purplish building that isn’t damaged?”

  I nod.

  “Only that it’s out of place in all that destruction. Why?”