by H. J. Lawson
Chapter Twenty-Three
Skylier
We can join them, Rian’s mind says, looking over to the fleeing crowd of people.
And run to where? We don’t have a plan, we don’t know where to go, my mind tells him.
Adohnes stops and knocks twice, then three more times on a white tile on the wall. Rian and I cautiously head down the street and stand beside Adohnes. The air around us is silent as we stare at the wall, waiting for something to happen.
“Skylier,” Gavyn calls out. He’s standing at the entrance of the street with the blue light on his gun glowing.
“Open it, open it,” I urge Adohnes. He replies by repeating the knocks on the door.
“Step away from her,” Gavyn says to Adohnes, pointing his gun at him as he steps closer.
“She’s just a girl,” Adohnes says, stepping in front of me, protecting me.
Gavyn pauses, like he’s assessing the situation. “Skylier, I’m a friend of Dax’s.”
Gavyn takes me by surprise. Just a few moments ago it looked like he wanted to rip the heart out of my body in the name of the Chancellor. And now he’s telling me he’s Dax’s friend.
The wall clicks, drawing all the attention to it. Gavyn’s gun is now fixed on the wall.
The glossy white tiles begin to delicately slide over the top of one another like a puzzle, revealing a female standing in the middle of the opening, with the glow from her guns lighting up her face.
Gavyn and the mysterious young woman stare at one another, waiting to see who will make the next move.
“How do you know Dax?” I ask Gavyn nervously, trying to break the silence and prevent any more bloodshed.
“I was his personal guard since he was a child; I’ve taught him everything he knows. I told him I would make sure no harm came to you,” Gavyn says, with his eyes and gun still fixed on the mysterious lady.
“Abaven, in or out?” the woman says to Adohnes.
“In, all of them, Gerel,” he orders. The delicate tone of Adohnes is gone, replaced with a powerful voice I’ve never heard before. Is that Abaven? He reaches out and takes one of Gerel’s guns.
Gerel nods and waves her gun, motioning towards the entrance. She leads us in through the puzzle wall.
Gerel looks me up and down then shakes her head, clearly disliking the Host dress just as much as I.
Her movements are graceful, like Adohnes’s—or is it Abaven? Her pure white hair trickles down her back, neatly resting on her tailbone, with black tips darkening the bottom of her hair.
She tilts her head sideways just enough to reveal that beneath her flowing hair, it’s shaved underneath, and her scalp is blackened with tiny tattooed dots. Her flowing movements cover the tattoos before I can make them out. The style is different to the Grounders; theirs are thick and heavy, whereas hers is delicate and looks lighter.
Adohnes stands with his gun pointed at Gavyn. “One wrong move…” he warns Gavyn as he follows us in.
“Abaven,” a boy says as he approaches him with his gun pointing at us. There are other kids in the room. They stop their flurry of words and bestow all their attention on us. Aside from their guns, they all look like Purenet kids with their pure-white look.
“Who are these?” the boy asks.
“These two are with me. I owe them,” Adohnes replies.
“And him?”
“Not sure yet. What do you want with them?” he asks Gavyn. “And you better have something good to say, or I will let Gerel have you. She loves nothing more that gutting Purenet solders,” Adohnes says. Gerel sounds like a lovely girl…not.
Gavyn smiles, clearly not scared by Adohnes’s words.
Before the smile can reach Gavyn’s eyes, there is a whistle as something flies past my ear, and then a thud as a knife sticks to the wall behind me. I flinch. If Gerel had been aiming for me, she would have hit me. She grins knowingly at the fact.
Gavyn’s smile doesn’t fade, nor does he reach for the ear that’s dripping blood onto his crisp, white uniform. “I swore my life to Dax’s service, and he asked me to prevent any harm to come to Skylier. I am a man of my word,” he says.
The shimmer of a metal blade is already in Gerel’s grasp. One flick of her hand and the knife will fly past me. Adohnes raises his hand to Gerel. She shakes her head and grits her teeth, looking annoyed that she can’t cut anyone.
“Why should we trust you?” Adohnes asks Gavyn.
“You don’t have to, only Skylier does,” he says, looking at me.
“Where are they holding my mother and sister?” I ask.
“In the Chancellor’s private labs,” he answers, same as Adohnes had.
“Can you get me into the labs?” I ask.
Gavyn nods. “Yes.”
“When?”
“When the time is right.”
“Our mother doesn’t have time to wait, not now,” I tell him as Rian nervously nods.
“I will get word to you when the time is right. The Sanction is in chaos now, and the guards will be out searching for Dax and the Grounders. I have spent my entire adult life working for the Chancellors, and I know how they work and think. I expect your mother is low on the list of priorities,” Gavyn informs me, making a good point.
“Adohnes, I trust Gavyn. He has no reason to deceive me,” I say.
Skylier, are you sure? Rian’s mind asks.
What other choice do we have? We can trust him as much as we need him, my mind replies.
“He could be laying a trap to lead the Purenet guards back to us,” Gerel, says cutting off our mental conversation.
“Abaven or Adohnes, which is it? Who are you really?” I ask.
“To you I am now Abaven, just as I am to the other lost children,” he replies. The group behind him nod. Lost children? I will ask him later about that.
“Why do the guards want you Gerel?” I ask.
Gerel goes to speak, but Abaven cuts her off. “If you believe him,” he tells me, nodding towards Gavyn, “then so will I. He need not know any more about us, however. Tell Luther’s servant, Sloft, when you have the plan, and where to meet,” Abaven informs Gavyn.
“Are you just going to let him go?” Gerel asks Abaven.
Abaven smiles. “After all these years you still question me,” he replies, walking towards Gerel. “It’s as if you don’t trust me,” he says, stopping in front of her.
Gerel shakes her head. “You know I do. It’s not you I don’t trust. It’s him,” she says bitterly.
“And you are right not to trust him. Let me deal with him. Never come back to this place. You and the others are to go home when darkness falls. Take Skylier and Rian with you. Make sure nothing happens to them. They are your new brother and sister. Make them part of our family as I have done with all of you,” Abaven says.
“Yes, Abaven,” everyone in the room chants in unison.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Skylier
There’s a hurried feeling in the room as everyone empties the walls lined with different types of weapons, old guns like the ones which the Grounders have. There is no glowing blue panel like on the guns of the Purenet guards. These are weapons from the old days, the days that shaped this world we live in today.
Within moments the walls are naked, revealing only the hooks or shelves the weapons were on. This room must have been an old store at some point, probably forgotten about and lost in time, left for the lost to find.
“I’m going to miss this place,” one of the boys says as he throws his bag over his shoulder.
“Enoch, Abaven will make sure we will be safe to come back soon,” Gerel says to the boy she called Enoch. He looks like the youngest out of the group, but older than me. Where do I know that name from?
“You’re from the Cueva, aren’t you? Rian, look. It’s Enoch,” I say.
Even with the white makeup I can see the color drain from Enoch’s skin. Fear floods his eyes as he quickly looks away from me.
“No… no, I�
��m not,” he mutters.
“Yes, you are,” I reply.
“No speaking,” Abaven yells firmly. Why is Enoch not admitting who he really is? Abaven frowns as he stands beside Gavyn, signaling towards the guard with his eyebrows discretely. Enoch wanted to hide his true self from Gavyn, and there I was just blurting his identity out, like a siren alerting the world of his location.
These kids are all Selections from the Cueva. How had I not noticed if before? Maybe because of their artificial appearance. They look different to how they would have looked in Cueva.
“We can’t go outside like this,” I say, looking down at my pure white dress with lace details that only Hosts wear. Rian is wearing his training uniform, which is crisp and white; he looks older and handsome in it. Rian looks at his clothing fondly.
“Skylier’s right. Get them something,” Abaven says from the corner of the room, not leaving Gavyn’s side.
I’m sorry, Rian. I know you wanted to be in the Games, my mind tells him.
Yeah, I did, but not now. It feels like we are in our own Games now, Rian’s mind speaks to the truth.
“Here,” Gerel throws me a white shirt and matching pants just like the ones she’s wearing. They are hub staff clothes; I can blend in with these.
I look around the room. There is no way I’m undressing in front of these people.
The light catches on Gerel’s blade as she points over towards the store’s changing rooms. I head in and quickly change as Rian goes into a second changing room.
“Gerel, watch the prisoner, and try not to kill him,” Abaven says to Gerel, then adds, “and don’t injure him. Skylier, Rian, a moment, please,” Abaven says as he points towards a wall.
Rian and I look at one another.
Another wall puzzle, our minds think in unison. We smile and head towards Abaven.
He taps the wall two times, then pauses and taps three more times.
There is a gentle click as the tiles part from one another, revealing a space. Abaven turns and begins to climb down a ladder. The wall was hiding something below ground. Rian and I follow.
A click echoes around the room followed by a buzz as Abaven releases a metal cord attached to a glowing naked bulb, the only source of light in the room.
The room is the same size of my mother’s quarters, with the walls lined with blank monitors. Dust coats the front of them, making them look like a relic of technology rather than new.
Rian drags his finger along one of the monitors, collecting the dust as he goes. The waste would be cursed in the Cueva. Everything we owned was Purenet’s garbage, but we cared for it as if it were new, never knowing when we would get a replacement if ours were to break. We all became tinkerers, finding ways to fix things. My really father was good at that.
“We no longer need them, you will see when we take you home,” Abaven says as Rian studies the dust on this fingers then goes to wipe it on his pants, stopping as he realizes it would leave a dusty trail down his pants.
“Abaven, what happened last night?” I blurt out the question I’ve been dying to ask since I saw him.
“Madam Uri spoke with the guards, stating that I was planning to help you two escape. I only found this out as I got to the door. At the strike of twelve, Xander was waiting for me, as I was for you. It was like Xander knew what time I was going to be there. I didn’t tell him. There was no way I could inform you,” Abaven says, the softness in his voice reminding me of him back in the compound, when he was just the flamboyant man that prided himself on preparing us to be the perfect Hosts, not the leader of a pack of kids.
“You didn’t need to tell him, because I did,” I admit, taking the guilt from Abaven.
“Why?” he asks in a harsh tone, dropping the soft, caring voice he used in the compound.
“Xander can read my mind. I had felt it open, and Rian and I were speaking to each other, trying to stay awake. He must have been listening between the two compounds. Anywhere else would have been too far away.” The thought sickens me. What else did he hear?
“Oh, yeah,” Rian says, pushing his hand through his pure white hair.
“How can he read your mind?” Abaven asks, confused.
Rian laughs. “Yeah, Xander is Skylier’s older, crazy brother.”
Abaven shot up straight, startled. “Your brother?”
I nod. “Only by blood,” I respond.
Abaven pauses as he takes it in. “And the Chancellor, is he—”
I nod once again before he can finish.
“Oh, dear child. We need to get you to safety,” Abaven says.
His makeup is coming off with his sweat, revealing the wounds he tried to hide.
The room falls awkwardly silent as Abaven stares at me. “I’m sorry, Skylier,” Abaven says.
“Abaven, I told you he must have read my mind. You have no reason to apologize.”
Abaven shakes his head. “Not for last night—for sixteen years ago. I was the doctor that brought you and your brother into this world. I couldn’t stop them from banishing you and your mother, believe me when I say that. I… I thought you both died in the wasteland. It wasn’t until Sloft showed me a picture of your mother that I really believed it was true... you both lived. The day they banished you, my life as Adohnes changed. I renounced my career as a doctor and became a makeup artist as a cover. Abaven was born, and my sole purpose in life became to protect the Hosts that came through the Sanction. I will never let one of my girls be left to die in the wasteland again.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Skylier
Abaven looks down at his wrist as his device glows, and Gavyn’s does the same.
“Gerel,” Abaven says urgently. Gerel and Abaven speak for a moment, throwing glances at the group as we all wait to find out what is going to happen next. Part of me is dying to get out of this windowless room, and the other part of me wants to stay, keeping me away from any possible danger. But if I stay here I know at some point I will have to leave.
Gerel walks towards us after speaking with Abaven. “He wants you to have these,” she says, pushing her fist into my chest. She’s holding a knife. Couldn’t she have passed it to me like a normal person?
“Thank you,” I say to Abaven, trying to pretend her punch didn’t hurt, but my lack of muscle over that section of my body made the contact rattle my bones.
Abaven smiles warmly at me. “Be safe, we will be reunited shortly.”
I stare at the knife for a moment, admiring the blade.
“Just as I thought,” Gerel says.
“What?”
“Using it as a mirror. You’re not going to last out here. You will give us up just as quickly as the other Hosts. Because your type are weak,” she whispers.
“My type?” I snip bitterly.
“Time to leave,” Gerel orders, not acknowledging my question.
She’s a frigging joy to be around, my mind blurts out.
She is, isn’t she? Rian’s mind almost sings.
“Really?”
“What?” Rian laughs as we move forward with the others, towards the door through which we first entered. Abaven and Gavyn stand behind, watching us.
Stay away from that girl. She’s bitter. Didn’t you see how she passed—no, punched—the knife into my chest? my mind tells him.
Skylier, you’re overreacting. You used to give people a chance before you judged them, his mind replies.
That was before, before I knew the screwed-up truth. Anyway, I trusted Gavyn, my mind defends me.
Only because if offered you something—his help—in return, Rian replies.
You’re only saying this because you like her, my mind snaps.
Ha ha, true, but just try not to forget who you really are.
That’s the problem: I don’t know who I really am. Mother said my ancestors aren’t even from this planet. Does this mean I’m not human? my mind spills out the question I’ve been trying to understand since speaking with my mother.
What does it matter which planet you come from? What’s important is being a good person, and Skylier, that is one thing you are, Rian’s mind says warmly.
“The Sanction has been placed on a curfew. Anyone seen outside past the curfew will be classified as a rebel and punished as one, so be safe, my children,” Abaven announces.
The group of kids mutter to one another at Abaven’s news.
“You, with Enoch,” Gerel says to me, then adds, “you’re with me” to Rian, much to his delight. He has a stupid grin on his face.
On the wall next to the puzzle door are monitors, all with different views. One displays the street we entered to get into the store, and then others show the streets that lead into the street, giving them a look out at all the key locations.
This way they can see who’s coming before anyone can enter. They must have seen us coming from afar, so why did it take them so long to open the door? Maybe because they’re just a group of kids with a crazy knife-throwing girl as their leader in the absence of Abaven. If they had opened it sooner, Gavyn would have never gotten in. Luckily, he was trying to help. If not, we would all have been killed.
“Go...go...go,” Abaven yells at us. One pair after another runs through the puzzle door into the empty street.
“Go,” Gerel says to me, gritting her teeth.
Adrenaline takes over my body. Part of me wants to knock her gritting teeth into the back of her mouth, and the other wants me to just run away from her.
I take the latter option and run like the others down the street. You wouldn’t know it was nighttime by the artificial light shining brightly from the streetlights. Only the twinkles of the stars in the crisp new night sky hovering over the glass dome give you a clue that’s its nighttime.
“This way,” Enoch says as he slows down to a walk and merges into the crowd of people hurrying down the road.
“The others went the other way,” I say as I watch Rian looking over his shoulder at me as he joins the crowd in the opposite direction.
“Don’t worry, we will meet up with them in the end. It’s best if we don’t travel in groups,” Enoch whispers. Makes sense to me.