We, The Lucky Few

by P. S. Lurie

  ‘I wish I had the answer for you. I still don’t.’

  I’d forgotten we had that same conversation. So much has happened since.

  ‘If anyone can figure it out you will Theia. And if you don’t, no one can say you didn’t try your damn hardest. I’m proud of you.’

  Any more from my grandfather and I’ll cry. I put Leda down although I feel bad about leaving her here. I take the gun from my dead father’s hand and a level of panic rushes over me when I realise if the fight didn’t wake Ronan the gunshot definitely will.

  I follow my grandfather to my parents’ bedroom. My grandmother lies peacefully on her back. It looks almost romantic, as if she is shrouded in moonlight, but I know it is only the glow from the streetlamp. My grandfather positions himself on the bed next to her. He takes her hand in his and clasps a different finger between each of hers. ‘Thank you Theia.’

  I raise the gun and my eyes swell. My arm shakes and I know I have to do this soon. I have never shot a gun before. I’m not sure I can aim so instead of attempting to look through the target I just point it where I think I should hit: my grandfather’s forehead.

  ‘I love you,’ I say, broken.

  ‘I love...’ my grandfather manages to say. He doesn’t finish because the bullet hits above his eyes, a little off centre, and instantly kills him. If I waited any longer I couldn’t have gone through with it. I accept what I have done and let the ringing in my ears fade out as I stand guard over my grandparents, knowing that they are now together and out of any more threat. Gunshots have been deafening all night but each time someone has been shot I have been that much closer and now I am the one to pull the trigger. My eardrums ring but it is nowhere near enough to chastise myself for what I have done.

  I have to save Leda and Ronan somehow. I cannot kill again. Only we are alive and I am their sole hope. I cannot let them die but I have no idea how that can be possible.

  I allow my ears to continue to throb as I scramble for an idea, aware that if one was going to come to me it probably would’ve happened already.

  Henry

  If my mother had helped we could have blocked my father’s path but she is paralysed with fear. Alone, the bed is too heavy on the carpet and friction prevents it from travelling far enough. A few forceful hits with the hammer and the latch shatters through the door. I abandon my task and watch as my father pushes the door open and steps into the room, with his sight set on me.

  He has beaten me. My mother whimpers and I instinctively stand and move to the side so that I am in front of her. In my heart I know there is no way to protect either of us. I can’t fight my father and come out on top, even without his advantage of holding the makeshift weapon.

  ‘Let’s talk about this rationally,’ I plead with him, but I sound anything but calm.

  ‘I think it’s a little late for that.’ He takes a step towards me. ‘I don’t have much time.’

  Selene

  I have already passed the market and taken a shortcut that skirts the school perimeter but I have slowed down. It has taken too long before I am even two-thirds of the way to Henry’s street. I jog, slightly faster than a brisk walk and, even at this pace, my body burns and my throat is parched. I try to distract myself with thoughts about escaping and having time to rest then. The quicker I make it back, the more time everyone will have on the return leg.

  I must be about ten minutes away or a little more if I slow down. I don’t figure an obstruction into my timing until I see a shadow in the street ahead of me.

  ‘Stop,’ the man says.

  I think about running past him but a warning bullet shoots past my head and forces me to skid to a halt. ‘I have to get to my friends,’ I say, in between breaths. The man doesn’t seem to notice.

  ‘You’re one of those patrollers. I didn’t know they recruited girls.’

  ‘No, it’s not what you think.’

  He steps out of the darkness to underneath a streetlamp, with his gun still aimed at me. It is obvious from his clothes and scraggly beard that he is not a policeman.

  ‘What do you want?’ I need to get away now or I might as well surrender for good.

  ‘Tell me the truth. What is going to happen at the Fence?’

  ‘I don’t know?’

  ‘I won’t ask you again. What happens at five? Rumours are spreading through the streets.’

  Every second the man holds me here is more time wasted but he won’t be fobbed off. I consider telling him who I am and that I have no idea about what he wants to know but I doubt he cares or would let me live long enough to explain my circumstances. I could offer him to come to the boat with us but he speaks first.

  ‘I won’t wait much longer. I have nothing to lose by killing you.’

  I figure he must’ve killed someone with a gun to acquire it. I remember the policeman from the market and his words. You think the first kill was easy? The second was a breeze. Giving the homeless man a satisfying answer is my best bet but since I don’t know what will happen I have to lie. I think fast. ‘They’re Rehousing one person from each home and then they’ll take care of the homeless after that.’

  ‘What does that mean?’

  ‘That’s all I know.’ I realise what I’ve said doesn’t actually answer anything but my imagination is lacking. I’m not Theia. She’d know what to say. The man mulls over whether he believes me and I’m not sure I will come out well. ‘Please, I really have to go. I won’t hurt you. You can have my gun.’

  I reach down for it but he shouts. ‘Wait.’

  ‘Ok,’ I say, and pause in my crouched position. It’s clear from his expression he’s as confused as me. Neither of us has a plan but it seems too late for us to walk away.

  ‘Slide it to me.’

  I can’t justify that my life is worth more than his but now that I have the chance to save others I am willing to sacrifice his life for theirs. It means killing a second person, and the policeman who haunts me will take glory from this, but it is something I will have to come to terms with when all of this is over. For now, I have to accept that if I have the chance to kill him I’ll take it. I gradually pull the gun out of its holder and grasp the handle in my fist. I look up towards him.

  The man has no experience with this and naively lowers his gun, thinking he is now safe. My reaction is faster and I pull the trigger before he realises his mistake. The slug hits him in the hip. A healthier person may have recovered but the man has no meat on him and the blood gushes out. I might have hit an artery.

  I have no time to check on him or grieve or console him, and anything I do would be insincere anyway since I am the one who has caused him to bleed to death. I’ve lost valuable time and, without fully regaining my breath, start to run past him. I look up to the night sky and already the lowest part of the horizon is not as dark as before. I estimate that we have approximately one hour remaining before time is up.

  I sprint against the rising sun. It might be enough.

  Theia

  I close the door behind my grandparents, allowing them to rest in peace.

  Panic rises inside of me. All night I have been trying to save my family but nothing I have done can change what has happened. We have gone from seven to three and I know that’s still two too many for the Upperlands. I think about what I have achieved. I gave Selene a way out, I reassured Jason he had saved his family, I have comforted Melissa, and I have protected Ronan and Leda. But Jason died, Melissa will face the unknown, I could have sent Selene to her death, and all I have done for my siblings is extended their misery.

  As for Henry, I have done nothing but lash out at him. It’s nearly four in the morning, which means I have one hour left to see him as well as come up with a plan.

  I check in on Leda. She is already fast asleep, breathing steadily. Ronan too, miraculously. I allow him to sleep longer.

  I don’t value Melissa’s input. I have neglected Henry’s opinion all night, the one person I know to count on. He will understand where
my loyalty lies and why I’m willing to die for my siblings even if he doesn’t want me to.

  I almost head down the stairs to see him, listening out for the nearby buzz of a helicopter, but return to my room when I consider that his parents are going to end their lives anytime now and it would be thoughtless of me to arrive unannounced during their goodbyes. I go to my window to check it’s a good time to climb over the fence.

  Henry and his parents are in his room. At first I think they are helping him pack but the scene looks all wrong. Henry’s bed is halfway across his room, his mother has recoiled into the far corner and his father holds a hammer.

  Out of nowhere, Henry tackles his father and fists are thrown. He manages to pin his arm so even though Mr Argent doesn’t drop the hammer he can’t swing it. There is no way I have misunderstood what is happening and I don’t need to understand how they got to that because my own family and thousands of other families beat them to it. I also don’t hesitate that I will kill Henry’s father if I have the chance because, if I don’t intervene, Henry will surely be killed.

  I aim the gun towards the bedroom. So much for saying I wouldn’t kill again.

  Even through two window panes, a bullet shouldn’t stray too far before it hits its target. But Henry and his father are wrestled together and I can’t get a clear shot, let alone reassured that I would be able to hit his father from this distance even if Henry was on the other side of the room.

  I swivel the gun a fraction to the side, but Henry manages to get some force behind him and is now in my sightline. Henry’s father pushes back and they separate to regain their breath but already they start to move in to fight some more. This may be my only opportunity.

  I pull the trigger as Henry’s father lurches forward. The bullet strikes him in the neck but only after he has swung the hammer and it connects with Henry’s chest. Mr Argent drops to the ground but Henry staggers for a moment before stumbling and falling to his knees. I figure that I have successfully killed again. Before collapsing, Henry turns in my direction me to work out who took down his father but he doesn’t look relieved or scared. He doesn’t reveal anything, other than that he is badly injured.

  Barely ten minutes ago I promised myself I wouldn’t kill again, and I am dismayed that I not only went against my word but I have acted too late.

  Ronan wakes from the sound of shattering glass and the gun blast and he screams at the sight of me holding a gun, which I only make worse when I turn in his direction and he must think I am a threat to him too.

  I can’t deal with Ronan in this moment. I look back to the window and watch as Mrs Argent springs back to life. She looks at me, working out that I have killed her husband. I don’t know if she hates me or thanks me for it but it is Henry she is more concerned about. She moves to her son and crouches to the floor, out of my sight and I can’t see if he is alive or what she is doing to save him.

  ‘Henry,’ I shout, as loud as any gunshot.

  My answer comes when Mrs Argent’s scream overpowers mine and deafens the neighbourhood, announcing that one more family has succumbed to the evil of this night.

  She stands up in full view, holding the bloody hammer and turns the sharp edge towards her. She keeps eye contact with me as she slits her throat open.

  ‘No,’ I yell and reach forwards, as if I could do anything from here.

  Blood spills from her and she too falls to the ground.

  I have to hope, because hope is all that’s left. I race down the stairs, into the garden and past my mother. I don’t waste time worrying about helicopters or heat-sensitive glasses. I leap over the fence, ignoring my sprained wrist, and hurry to Henry’s side, only stopping momentarily by his broken door at the sight of the bloodbath.

  Henry

  It all happened so fast. My father and I are both on the floor. My mother too.

  My body feels limp and I look down at my chest. My t-shirt is soaked in a deep red and I know that this is how it feels for life to slip away. I can’t move my head to see if my parents are alive. When my mother removed the hammer from me the blood gushed out faster. I must have looked dead to her. I know why she took it but there was nothing I could do to stop her. I couldn’t open my mouth or form words or even blink. My parents lie either side of me, not sandwiched waiting on the couch for the announcement but dead, submissive to the Upperlands’ decree.

  I know I’m dying. I wonder whether I would’ve stood a chance had she left the hammer in my wound but I doubt it as Theia’s mother is the only one who could’ve helped and she won’t be coming. I float as if gravity has let go of my body, finally allowing me to rise above the engulfed world. I slip in and out of consciousness and lose sense of time or even if I am alive or dead.

  Then I see a face in front of me, a mirage to comfort me, exactly like once years ago.

  I have no recollection of what happened after the boat smashed into my temple and knocked me out, apart from feeling my lungs were about to explode from the pressure of the water. Theia told me later what happened. I’m not sure how much she played it down but the boat hit a submerged house and we were thrown overboard. When I tried to resurface I hit the wooden hull and knocked myself out. She dived down to rescue me but I was too heavy.

  Theia explained that a man appeared underwater, having seen us from nearby, and helped pull me up, but somehow his trouser snagged on a submerged wall. Theia had to choose between getting me out of the water and helping him. She glossed over it and all I could do was apologise.

  She explained that she went back for him but he had drowned. Then she went to resuscitate me by the water’s edge. I’m not sure how long it took but I coughed up the water. A gash on my forehead was pretty nasty but I couldn’t feel much. Theia’s face was the first thing I saw when I came round, informing me I wasn’t dead yet.

  Theia tied the cloth from the hamper around my forehead to reduce the blood flow and dragged me towards the hospital. It was a long walk and we didn’t get far. She didn’t tell me about the man who had died saving me until much later. All she did was keep me conscious and tell me her mother would help. However, I fainted, not far into the ascent. Theia raced to the hospital and found Melissa.

  Back then, Melissa, with her blonde hair, was a training nurse. I don’t know how she dyed it, maybe some chemicals in the hospital? Apparently, there was a life-saving operation going on and Theia’s mother was held up. Melissa raced back with Theia to me and stitched me up then and there.

  Melissa did an impressive job and the cut healed without a scar. I told my parents it was from a stupid football accident but both Theia and I got colds from the sea and she was pretty angry with me for ruining her birthday more than she thought possible. When I tried to ask Theia about it, when she agreed to speak to me a few days later, she told me to never talk about it again and that she’d made Melissa promise the same. Only when I pushed her did she tell me about the man. I worked out she wasn’t mad at me, she was mad at herself; in our moment of madness she had agreed to leave her family behind and someone had died in the process. The guilt we have both felt has been so hard to bear. We never found out who he was and we never returned to the sea again.

  After that, Theia never strayed too far from Ronan, and then Leda when she was born. She took it upon herself to give them everything she lacked growing up but she also punishes herself by sacrificing any of her own freedom.

  I owe Theia my life. I imagine her face fades back into view and that she is here to save me again, just like when she resuscitated me. Her face felt like a mirage then but it wasn’t. Maybe this time too, it’s not just my imagination...

  A beautiful face, but tear-stained and that makes me more devastated than anything. Theia is here, but I am no longer sure where here is or if she is actually here at all. I want to reach out and hold her but I can’t remember how to lift my arm.

  I feel the corners of my mouth rise and guess I can muster a smile. She scoops me up, places herself under my armpit and drags me across
the hallway to my parents’ room. It doesn’t hurt but equally doesn’t help the blood flow. I figure she doesn’t want me to die there.

  I slump on the floor, too heavy for her to prop me on the bed. She holds her hands up to the opening in my chest but it is too late. I strain to open my mouth and short words come out. ‘It’s ok.’ I must imagine that I spoke those words because she continues attempting to save me.

  ‘Theia,’ I say, and she stops. She is on her knees in front of me, looking at my wound through all the grief in the world.

  ‘I can’t stop it Henry.’

  ‘Come here,’ I whisper. She leans in waiting for my hushed words but, with the remainder of my effort, I tilt my head forwards and find her mouth. I kiss her as hard as I can, as my eyes well up with every emotion imaginable. I taste her lips. Despite our saltwater world, they’re every bit as sweet as I expected.

  Theia doesn’t back away but I run out of energy and have to break the kiss to lean my head against the bed frame before I won’t be able to lift it back up.

  ‘That’ll be my biggest regret,’ I say.

  ‘Kissing me?’

  ‘Not kissing you sooner.’

  ‘I am so sorry Henry.’

  ‘Don’t be. You’ve been saving me my whole life. I love you Theia.’

  She pauses, absorbing my words. I don’t worry that she doesn’t say them back. I didn’t expect it. Then she speaks up. ‘I love you Henry.’

  She kisses me again. I can just make out her face but everything else in the periphery fades away. ‘I can’t do this without you,’ she says. Tears run freely down her cheeks.

  ‘You’re stronger than that,’ I say, but the power behind my voice withers. With a final push I open my mouth. ‘You can save them. I had a plan for us.’

  I see Theia say something but have lost the ability to hear. I wish I could spend a little more time with her, to hear her laugh once more, to see her roll her eyes at me and tell me I’m a fool, to run away once more but succeed this time, to not leave her like this, to kiss her just one more time so that I