The Hourglass

by Donaldson, Casey

  The boy wearing glasses slid behind her and grasped the back of her neck tightly before starting to slowly force her head down towards her plate.

  “Stop it,” demanded Sarah and Finn simultaneously. Finn went to stand up but the larger boy moved behind him and placed a heavy hand on Finn’s shoulder.

  “No, I don’t think so,” said the boy with the pointed chin. “I think she needs to learn her place.” His eyes went from one of them to the other, as if measuring them up. “Most newbies do.”

  “Ferrit!” yelled a voice from across the room. The boy with the pointed chin looked up sharply and April’s slow descent into her plate stopped as the boy with the glasses also paused. Two girls were marching towards them from across the room. They had just left the Queen’s table. Behind them, the Queen was sitting alone on her bench, watching the performance with her chin resting on both her hands. Ferrit’s eyes were on the advancing girls. One was stocky and the other had a scar covering half her face. “Ferrit,” repeated the girl with the scar as they got closer to the table so that now she didn’t have to yell, “what do you think you’re doing?”

  “I’m teaching the newbies a lesson,” said Ferrit, his eyes narrowed. “To remind them of their place.”

  “You don’t get to do that,” replied the girl with the scar.

  “Or really? And are you and your elephant going to stop me?” The stocky girl flushed a deep red but didn’t move.

  “We won’t need to. This was agreed between the Queen and King, remember? The girls deal with the girls, and the boys with the boys. We don’t need to stop you. The King will do that himself.”

  Ferrit paused for half-a-second, his eyes flickering over to the bench where the King sat. The King wasn’t looking at their table. Instead he was looking at the Queen, who was staring right back at him. The King turned back and spoke to two of the other boys at his table irritably. They got up immediately and headed over. Ferrit gulped audibly.

  “It was just a bit of fun, that’s all,” he whined.

  The boy with the glasses released April and backed away, putting as much distance between himself and Ferrit as possible. The boy holding Finn’s shoulder was a bit slower on the uptake. The two other boys had arrived.

  “Move your bloody hand,” snapped one of them. He had pale blue eyes that were cold as diamonds. The large boy moved his hand away from Finn’s shoulder, blinking in surprise. Sarah guessed that he didn’t cope well with sudden changes.

  “Oh c’mon,” whined Ferrit. He pointed desperately at Finn. “He’s not one of the girls.”

  “It’s up to the King to decide how the new people are dealt with, not you. Especially when it comes to the girls. When the King and Queen made that agreement, they expected everyone to follow it. By breaking that agreement, you’re making the King look bad. He doesn’t like to look bad. He wants to see you before cell closure tonight. Bring your idiot friends.”

  By this point the boy with the glasses who had been forcing April’s head down had all but disappeared. Ferrit’s expression was a mixture of misery, anger and fear. He sat moodily at the bench, not moving. “It was just a bit of fun,” he repeated sulkily.

  “Well piss off!” demanded one of the King’s boys. Ferrit pushed himself up from the bench and strode away, the large boy trailing behind him. The King’s boys nodded at the two Queen’s girls and walked away. The girls smirked at the retreating back of Ferrit and likewise left.

  Finn let out a big breath of air. Sarah knew how he felt. That was a narrowly avoided disaster.

  “April?” asked Finn. Sarah followed his gaze. April looked murderous. She pushed her plate of half-eaten potato and protein mush away from her.

  “I’m fine,” she muttered furiously. She stood up suddenly. “I’m going back to the factory floor. See you when lunch is over.” April deposited her dirty tray in the correct trolley and then left the room so fast that she was nearly running.

  “They really seem to just go for her, don’t they?” said Sarah, watching April’s retreating back.

  “She has the worst luck,” agreed Marland, who’s hands were still shaking.

  Finn was drumming his fingers speculatively on the table top. “Do you think they were implying that I was one of the girls?” he asked, distracted.

  “Maybe you should get some guy friends,” suggested Marland.

  “What? I have guy friends. There’s Justin, and Boulder and I are mates,” replied Finn. They all glanced over to where Boulder was eating lunch alone at the end of a table. As if he had heard them from across the crowded room he looked straight up in their direction, meeting their eyes. His glare was so unfriendly that Finn winced. “It’s a friendship in progress,” he said, “but we’re totally solid.”

  Justin returned from the bathroom and sat down at the table. He frowned at April’s empty seat and paused as he took in everyone’s faces. “Did I miss something?”

  Marland giggled. The bell rang, signalling lunch was over. They all stood and collected their plates, depositing them in the designated area before marching back to the floor, Finn filling Justin in on what had happened as they walked. The moment after they sat down at their usual place along the conveyer belt a hush descended over the room. Every single prisoner was looking expectantly at two guards that had just walked in. It was Mr Wall and Mr Painter.

  Chapter Eleven

  Wall and Painter

  “Well, Mr Wall,” said Mr Painter, loud enough for everyone to hear, but not shouting. “Who should we pick this week?”

  “The new prisoners, I think, Mr Painter,” replied Mr Wall.

  Mr Painter raised his eyebrows. “That’s very generous of you, Mr Wall.”

  “They should appreciate that this ship functions on teamwork,” replied Mr Wall equitably.

  Mr Painter gave a sardonic smile but didn’t comment. Instead he scanned the room, his eyes resting briefly on the new prisoners.

  “Newbies!” he yelled, using the word that Ferrit had used earlier, “line up here, now.”

  A disappointed groan swept throughout the factory floor. Finn raised an eyebrow at Sarah as they got up and jogged lightly over to where Mr Painter was waiting impatiently. She felt cautiously thrilled. Was it actually possible that they were getting chosen for something good? Sarah, Finn, Marland and April joined Heather, Toddy and Colt, who were already waiting in front of the two guards.

  “Follow-us,” ordered Mr Painter. The guards turned around and left the room. The “newbies” exchanged quizzical glances and followed. No one seemed willing to ask where they were going. They just weren’t brave enough to draw the attention and possible ire of Mr Painter. Toddy, who had only yesterday made the joke about Mr Painter’s name and had subsequently had his head bashed against the wall, was standing next to Sarah, his head bowed and his eyes on his shoes. Sarah didn’t blame him. He looked terrible. It was a very silent group that followed the two senior guards and no one lagged behind. After traversing a few corridors and climbing two sets of stairs, Sarah felt a breeze of fresh air waft across her face. She walked with the others out onto the open deck and inhaled deeply. It smelt wonderful. She had only been inside the ship for a day and yet she felt a new appreciation for the outdoors, despite having to adjust her eyes to the glare of the sun. They had arrived via a far more direct route than what they had traversed originally when they were being shown to their cells for the first time. Sarah figured that they had to make it simple and direct in order to efficiently transfer the boxes of parts continuously from the factory floor to the outside deck for retrieval. Except for one or two people wearing long overalls, the deck was empty. They all stayed close together. Mr Wall turned around.

  “Supplies are delivered to the ship weekly. Foodstuffs, medicines and factory supplies are delivered by air or boat. The schedule is kept varied in case of raids. Your job is to unload the carriers quickly and efficiently. All boxes are to be stacked neatly over there.” He pointed to an area in the shade of the upper deck. Tap
e had been laid on the ground, delineating the area from that around it. “It’s hard work, but you’ll find that others would happily give their grandmothers for a chance to work out here in the breeze instead of below in the factory, so I don’t expect to hear any complaints. Remain in yelling sight until the supplies come and then I expect you to return to this spot ASAP.” Mr Wall and Mr Painter walked away to a couple of seats positioned in the shade. Toddy and Colt also found shady spots in which to sit down. From the way they glanced continuously at Mr Painter, they had chosen their spots more for the fact that they were as far away from Mr Painter as they could construe without him taking offence, rather than because they were comfortable or getting the breeze. Justin laid down in a sunny spot with good breeze, his hands behind his head as he gazed at the blue sky. Heather leaned against the wall behind her, her arms crossed. Sarah headed towards the edge of the boat.

  “Hey, where are you going?” asked Finn, a step or two behind her.

  “Just to look over the edge.”

  Finn went pale. “Oh. Um, I’ll be back here.” He pointed to where Justin was basking in the sun.

  “You aren’t going to fall over the edge and drown,” replied Sarah.

  “Oh, you’re an expert on boats now, are you? How many times have you been on a boat? Once? When they brought us here? I thought so,” said Finn with a mock-serious expression. He turned jauntily around and headed towards Justin. Sarah shrugged and continued to the edge of the ship with Marland and April trailing her for lack of anything better to do. They all lent against the railings and looked down.

  Marland shivered. “I get why Finn doesn’t like it,” she said. “It’s so cold and unforgiving. It could just swallow you whole and there would be no evidence that you even existed.”

  “If your boots came off they’d probably float to the surface,” reflected April. “That would be some evidence.”

  Marland pushed her playfully and rolled her eyes. “Smart mouth.”

  “I can’t believe you lot are still hanging out together,” said a voice from behind them. They turned around. To Sarah’s surprise it was Heather. She must have followed them over. “It’s pathetic. And you,” she said, pointing at Sarah, “are an idiot for staying with that freak.” Heather hooked a thumb over her shoulder in the direction of where Finn was now lying on the deck next to Justin.

  “What’s it to you, anyway?” asked Sarah angrily. She was having her first relaxing moment on this ship and Heather had just ruined it.

  Heather looked at her as if she was an idiot. “Why would any of you matter to me? I’m just saying, on this ship, you need to be one of the strong people. The freaks and the weirdos should be dumped first chance you can get, because they’re just going to drag you down.”

  “He’s not a freak.”

  “Um, have you seen his hair?” Heather laughed as if she had said something hilarious. None of the others joined in.

  “Is that why you were talking to the Queen earlier?” asked April. “To be with the strong?” her voice was heavy with sarcasm that flew right over Heather’s head.

  “Exactly. They recognise that I’m one of them. I told you from day one to align yourself with the right people. Here I am, now besties with the Queen, while you lot are still on the bottom of the dung heap. I saw that you had to get saved earlier today from Ferrit. It’s pathetic. If you guys don’t align yourself with someone like the Queen soon, you’re going to get destroyed.”

  When they didn’t agree with her Heather rolled her eyes and strode away, throwing her hands up in the air. “Idiots,” they heard her mutter.

  “Besties my ass,” muttered April. “The Queen is just using her as a… as a minion,” said April, grasping for the right word.

  Sarah wasn’t paying attention. She was looking over at where Finn was lying, enjoying the sun. “Do you think that others think the same way?” she asked. “I mean, do you think that Finn’s going to get into trouble just because of his hair?”

  “It does make him stand out,” replied Marland, biting at her nails.

  “But he’s friendly and stuff,” added in April. “That’s got to help, right?”

  “Which might work if we were back in town, but we’re on a ship that consists pretty much of thugs,” said Sarah, answering her own question. Nobody said anything, they all just looked at Finn, lost in their individual thoughts. Sensing their stares Finn turned his head to look at them. He waved cheerfully. Sarah sighed. “He’s going to die.”

  April snorted and playfully smacked Sarah on the shoulder, and even Marland twittered at the joke. The two girls turned back to lean against the railing but Sarah found it difficult to turn away from Finn. She had been joking. Of course she had.

  Hadn’t she?

  Chapter Twelve

  Branded

  The sound of blades whipping through the air reached their ears and they turned around to see a helicopter descending towards them. It was a large, solid aircraft that despite being clearly designed for transport, still sported two large, conspicuous cannons on each side. There was shrill whistle and they turned to see Mr Painter standing and pointing at the floor in front of him. The others were hurrying over to stand near him and the girls followed suit. By the time they reached Mr Painter the helicopter had touched ground. One of the pilots disappeared into the back of the aircraft and a door opened up from inside, revealing tightly stacked boxes.

  “Keep your heads down,” roared Mr Painter over the noise of the helicopter blades, “and be quick!”

  They all ran out, crouched low despite the blades being high above them. Justin was the first to reach the helicopter. He jumped up into the storage space inside and started to pass boxes out to the rest of them. Sarah sagged under hers. It was heavy, but she jogged out as best she could and stacked it neatly with the others against the wall before returning for another box. Each and every box was marked with the hourglass symbol. By the time she had returned with her fourth box Mr Painter was near the helicopter, chatting with the pilot. This left Mr Wall alone near the growing pile of stacked boxes. She set down the box down and rolled her shoulders in an attempt to stretch the muscles and release some of the tension. None of the other prisoners were near them. He took a step towards her as she positioned her box so that it sat squarely on the one below it.

  “Ms Hutchen told me that you have the Hourglass Group symbol on your body,” said Mr Wall quietly.

  Sarah looked up in surprise. He was staring at her intently, gauging her response. She didn’t know what to say and after a moment she realised that her mouth was hanging open. She shut it with a snap.

  “Why do you have that?” he asked after it was clear that she wasn’t going to reply.

  “I don’t know,” said Sarah. She was saved from further comment by Justin nudging her aside so that he could place his box on hers.

  “C’mon lazy bones,” he said, clearly unaware of the conversation Sarah and Mr Wall were having, “we still have more boxes.” Sarah jogged back to the helicopter willingly. When she returned with the next box Mr Wall actually reached out a hand and held her by the arm.

  “Nobody else knows,” he said earnestly. “Ms Hutchen will keep it to herself. I won’t share your secret.”

  Sarah just stared back at him, nonplussed. What secret? What was he talking about?

  “I don’t…” began Sarah, but Mr Wall had pushed her away and was looking instead at Mr Painter in the distance, who had just finished chatting to the pilot and was now returning. Sarah didn’t need another cue. She took off once again and helped retrieve the last lot of boxes. Once the helicopter had been cleared they all grouped around the stacked boxes and watched as the helicopter took off and disappeared into the distance. Mr Painter turned to face them.

  “The boxes need to be sorted and grouped into foodstuff, medicines and factory parts. You will then load each group onto a trolley.” He glanced at his watch. “You have half an hour.” He left them to it, ambling off to a more comfortable p
osition in the shade.

  “How are we meant to know what’s in each box?” grumbled Toddy, who was happy to complain out of earshot of Mr Painter.

  “It’s stencilled on the corner of the box,” pointed out Justin. He picked up a box labelled ‘foodstuffs’ and moved it a couple of metres before putting it down again. “This is the foodstuffs pile,” he announced. The group started sorting through the boxes and piling them into their appropriate groups. Sarah went to pick up a particularly large box but had to stop after she found herself struggling to lift it.

  “Hey can someone come give me a hand with this one?” she called out to the group. Finn started to head over but was cut off by Colt. He took one end of the box and they lifted it together.

  “Thanks,” said Sarah. “This is factory parts.” They shuffled over to the factory parts pile.

  Colt grinned at her. “Just call me your knight in shining armour.”

  “What?” asked Sarah, completely confused.

  “You’re the damsel in distress.” He winked at her.

  Sarah blinked. “Right.” They put the box down in its pile.

  “If you need some muscle for anything else,” said Colt, “let me know.” He was stretching with his arms behind his head. Sarah was sure that he knew that this showed off his arm muscles perfectly. She didn’t know whether to laugh or blush. He was gorgeous, but ridiculous.

  “Um, thanks.” She walked away quickly. Marland and April were smirking at her. She tried to ignore them but ended up blushing an embarrassingly deep red. She moved another box and then risked a look back at Colt. The muscles in his back were showing through his shirt as he lifted a particularly large box. She sighed. He was so pretty. She shook her head to clear her thoughts. The next box she picked up was particularly small. It was labelled ‘medicine’. A thought occurred to her. “Hey April,” what do you know about the Hourglass Group?”

  “Weird question,” replied April.

  Sarah pulled a face. “We build secret weapon parts for them and they supply all of our food and medicines. I am currently lugging their boxes around. It would be weird not to ask.”