Numbers Raging

by Rebecca Rode

  “What are you doing there, boy?” a man asked. “Get away from that cave.” He stopped short with the rest of them when he saw my bulging pack. “What the—”

  “Thief,” a woman snapped, aiming her 9mm luger at me.

  I kept my massive weapon trained on the group. “Lyman was playing us. It’s all gone.”

  Biyu moaned and put her head in her hands.

  The first man who’d spoken ignored my gun and cocked his pistol. “I’d say that belongs to all of us, then. Take the pack off and put it on the ground, real slow.”

  “Come with me and you’ll get your fair share. We’re leaving.” My voice was cold and hard. The burst of rage had passed and left only a void behind.

  “You’re not going anywhere, not with that loot.” He motioned downward with his gun. “Keep the gun, but put the pack down right now.”

  “Rich, put it down,” Biyu said, a frantic edge to her voice. “Please.”

  Didn’t make you do nothing, Lyman had said. We just set events in motion and watched from afar as they finished it.

  Kill or be killed.

  “Rich,” Biyu nearly shrieked. “Put the backpack down now.”

  This isn’t who we are, Dad had said when we gathered for that raid. He was wrong. Maybe he was better than that, but I wasn’t.

  “Let me be clear, young man,” the woman said. “You’re not leaving with that food. Put it on the ground or we’ll shoot you.” She still trained her 9mm on me, but her hands shook so badly I doubted she could shoot straight.

  Kill or be killed.

  The heavy weapon in my hands seemed to take on a will of its own. My heart pounded in my ears as my finger curled around the trigger.

  And yanked.

  Snap-snap-snap.

  Snap-snap-snap-snap-snap.

  It’s been two days, and I still hear that sound whenever it’s quiet. I think it will echo in my mind forever.

  I won’t go into detail about how they screamed and fell and tried to scramble away, though I can tell you how long it took for each of them to fall. I can still see the dark blood smeared beneath their still bodies. Their dying expressions are chiseled into my memory, shock and horror and sorrow frozen forever.

  By the time the gun emptied, there were six bodies on the ground. The woman was one of them. She still clutched her 9mm tightly in one hand. The other five had escaped.

  I dropped the weapon onto the ground. It hit a rock with a sharp crack. My breathing was heavy and strained, and the world swam before my eyes. Then I heard movement at my side.

  I’d nearly forgotten Biyu was there. I turned to see her frozen in place, staring at me. She trembled, her face completely drained of color. She swayed as if her legs struggled to hold her upright.

  My body trembled so badly the words shook in my hands. I skipped forward, feeling my stomach lurch. This couldn’t be. Richard was a hero, a good man.

  I often dwell on that terrible day and the red-hot rage that took over me. I ask myself why I allowed it. Who was Lyman really? Was he the man who murdered millions, or the guy who knocked on Grandma’s door to warn us and offer help? Were Blackbeard and his group bad for threatening to kill us and trying to take our food, or were they simply desperate?

  Are we all either good or bad, with nothing in between?

  The thing that scares me is that it wasn’t fear that made me kill, nor was it the satisfaction of a greater purpose. It was glorious power, delicious rage, the glee of wielding a weapon that instantly made men bend to my will. The iron-wrought determination to win at any cost.

  And that cost was great, because I will never, ever sleep peacefully again.

  I dropped the book, rolled over, and emptied the contents of my stomach in the corner, all the while trying to shove away the images that flooded my mind.

  My great-great-grandfather, the heralded leader of NORA, was a cold-blooded murderer. No wonder they’d kept this terrible book behind glass.

  I gave one last heave and crawled across the cell to the other side, far from the puddle I’d just created. The smell nearly made me wretch again.

  When had everything turned on its head? Prince Augustus, a man I’d danced with just two nights before, was just as much an enemy as was my captor. Vance had abandoned me for his clan, however noble his reasons. And now the ancestor whose blood I bore was a killer. It was just too much.

  The painful part wasn’t Peak’s decision. It was what I saw in myself. Peak’s motives had been pure, trying to save those he could and start a new life in peace. But he’d become the enemy in the process. Hadn’t I done the same thing? I had fully intended to murder the Chinese president as he slept. Kill or be killed. A brutal, vile family trait.

  I’d resorted to becoming the very thing I hated. The realization stabbed at my aching heart.

  I had to get the citizens out of NORA now. But where would they go? And even if we knew of a safe place, we had no transportation suitable for five million people in such a short amount of time. Besides, these were people who swallowed food pills and drank their daily allotments of water from treated, prepackaged containers. Few knew how to grow food or build a shelter.

  A man in a brown uniform began to descend the ladder. There was yelling from above in Chinese, and the worker shouted back. He seemed to have silenced the other because he continued down the ladder and headed for one of the engine panels. Then he opened something and fiddled with it. He didn’t even glance my way.

  I sat back in disappointment.

  “There are cameras,” the guy said, still messing with the panel. “I’m an engine worker, and you don’t know me.”

  I stared at him, then jerked my gaze away as his words sunk in.

  Chan.

  The lights overhead flickered, then went dark.

  Chan raced over, and the cell’s door opened with a squeak. I shoved the diary into my shoulder bag and struggled to my feet. He grabbed my arm and pulled me through the darkness.

  “How did you do that?” I whispered as we headed for the ladder. Pain shot down my legs as they protested the sudden movement after two hours of awkward sitting. Shouting had begun above, and I heard several people arguing from the direction of the cockpit, Guard Lady’s voice among them.

  “Your lock was electric, so I killed the power,” Chan said in a low voice. “Your father told me how to do it. He wanted to come, but he would have been too conspicuous, so he’s waiting for you at the other end of the docks. Blue air transport, dock 14-B. Now pretend I caught you trying to escape and I’m relocating you until the power’s back on.”

  Sunlight fell upon the ladder rungs. I could see now, but that wouldn’t help us right much. The shouting intensified, and footsteps pounded toward us. We reached the top level, and I shoved my arms behind me as if they were locked, nearly unseating my shoulder bag just as another worker in brown showed up. A woman.

  She confronted Chan and gestured to me, and they began exchanging words. Chan shoved me forward, all the while spouting off in Chinese as if he were angry. I recognized the hallway. We were heading toward the hatch.

  The woman grabbed his shoulder and turned him all the way around, yelling in earnest now.

  “Run,” he muttered to me. “Now!”

  I bolted, struggling to run with the now-returning circulation in my legs. The shoulder bag tried to slide off again, and I grabbed it just in time. The hatch was indeed open. I reached it and shoved aside another brown-clad worker pushing a dolly full of boxes on the gangplank. He yelped and stumbled sideways, shouting at me.

  The sun hung low in a pink sky, and the docks were fairly clear. I turned to check on Chan, but he hadn’t followed me. Instead, the yelling from inside the aircraft grew in volume. The worker I’d shoved aside stood uncertainly looking inside, then back at me.

  Fates. Chan had never intended to escape. He was holding them off so I could get away.

  The worker left his cargo on the gangplank and scurried after me, yelling toward his comrades
on board.

  With a curse, I took off at a sprint. If anyone could help me free Chan, it was Jasper. Blue transport, dock 14-B. It circled through my head in a loop, and I mouthed the words as I ran.

  By the time I figured out how the dock’s numbering system worked, there were five people after me, their footsteps hitting the wooden decking like gunshots in the silence.

  Then I found it. The airship was so old its paint curled in thousands of little blue flakes. The thing barely looked able to run, but its engines were humming, ready to go. Jasper stood outside and gestured me on board. “Treena! Hurry!”

  I sprinted up the gangplank and leaped inside. I found a seat and collapsed, gasping for breath, my chest heaving. The hatch slid shut, and Jasper rushed to the control panel. Moments later, I felt movement beneath our feet and looked out the window to see the docks descending below us. Far to the other end was Chiu’s air transport, still docked.

  “Home?” Jasper asked.

  “Chan,” I managed, still breathing hard. “He’s still there. We have to help him.”

  My father shook his head, still fiddling with the controls. “Impossible. That airship is equipped with serious firepower, Treena, and they’re angry. We couldn’t break into it now with anything less than an army.”

  “But—but I promised Maizel. We have to go back for him.”

  “Chan is a great kid, and he’s done a remarkable service for NORA, but he’s on his own for now.” He

  turned to me, then crossed the cabin and pulled me into his arms. “That was too close.”

  “But they could kill him.” If it wasn’t too late already.

  “They want to kill all of us, Treena. Or have you forgotten? Let’s get home, regroup, and prepare for the invasion. We can figure out what to do about Chan later. ”

  I looked out the window at the city behind us, which was shrinking by the second, and thought of everything we were leaving behind. Liverpool was a beautiful city, and the ocean was breathtaking, but something else clutched at me as we gained altitude.

  Since Jasper was here alone, hopefully that meant he’d sent the remaining NORA guards to rescue the others. Hopefully they’d find a way to make it home. This wasn’t at all the peaceful departure I’d expected.

  I thought about the convention and the sideways looks, strained smiles, and forced alliances. I thought about Augustus and his lies and the days I spent in luxury across the sea from my home. As bad as NORA was, it was no better anywhere else.

  Chiu would be enraged to find out I was gone, but my escape wouldn’t change his plans. It just meant we’d be more prepared when he came—and I intended to be ready for him.

  “Then it’s time for plan B,” I said.

  NORA air transports arrived that night, as promised. They landed on the rim. Only about three hundred people had been unaffected, and we used every single one to help the sick up the trail and into their respective seats. Many were too weak to sit. Those were piled onto blankets on the floor. Selia and her children seemed to be recovering somewhat.

  Laura and Lucy were now on the mend. They’d awakened this afternoon and even walked around a little. Their years in NORA were good for that at least, if nothing else. Selia belted them in next to her own children, who also seemed to be doing better. I assigned two healthy young men I’d personally trained as night guards to help Selia on the air transport. They were among the first to leave.

  I stayed behind until everyone had been loaded and there was only one air transport and a few people left. Coltrane had also stayed behind, insisting on bringing his secret project. It was now boxed up in a crate, ready to be loaded. The kid had managed to get it up the trail by himself, a surprising feat considering it weighed as much as he did.

  “Is that another EMP?” I whispered to Coltrane as the NORA pilot and copilot struggled to lift the mysterious box. They motioned for a third man to help, and together they lifted it into the hatch.

  So far they hadn’t found any of our weapons. We’d left our rifles behind—too bulky and obvious—but those with pistols and smaller weapons had stuffed them into their luggage. I hoped NORA wouldn’t search our baggage when we arrived. If they did, Selia would be there to handle it.

  “No,” Coltrane said. “That’s in my suitcase, nice and secure. This is just something I’m playing around with.”

  I shot him an irritated look. “If it’s not important, we don’t have room for it.”

  “Who said it wasn’t important?”

  I sighed. The kid was practically a celebrity with the settlers, considering he’d almost singlehandedly won the battle with the ECA. And he’d done everything I asked in the past few months. If he wanted to bring a strange box to NORA with him, it wasn’t worth the argument.

  Coltrane knew he’d won. He looked down at the valley below. “It looks so empty, doesn’t it?”

  It did. Our huts still stood, but no smoke rose from the rooftop openings. No figures crossed the trails. It was completely silent down there.

  “Are we ready to go?” the pilot asked.

  I turned to one of my men, a longstanding resident who knew the settlement well. “Have you double-checked that everyone’s out?”

  “Yes. Checked all the shelters myself. The cafeteria, everything.”

  “And Coltrane, the lab?”

  “Everything’s out,” he said. “I mean, everything important.” He grinned at his poor joke.

  “I just want to check one last thing,” I said. “Go ahead and load up. I won’t be long.” I jogged down the trail.

  Minutes later, I arrived at the largest structure, the large building surrounding the cafeteria. It was eerie, the utter quiet down here. This valley had protected hundreds of people. It was their home. And now I was tearing them away to the very last place they wanted to go.

  Something told me we would never return.

  I strode to the flagpole and swung the banner down. Red with a hawk and circled with an iron belt, it served as a representation of my leadership. I studied it for a moment, then folded it up.

  “I want to attack the hospital with you,” Coltrane said at my side.

  Taken by surprise, my body slid into fighting stance before I could calm myself. “I told you to get in the transport.”

  “We can’t exactly talk about this with NORA pilots listening,” he said. “I want to be part of the attack. You only have a 110 healthy men. You need me.”

  “You’re too valuable. You need to guard that EMP of yours, just in case.”

  “Anyone can trigger the Trane 2.0. I’m sick of hiding in the lab. I want to do something useful, you know?” He grinned like a boy asking for dessert.

  “Not a chance.” I placed the flag under my jacket and headed back up the trail.

  “You can’t stop me,” he called out. “I’ll just follow you.”

  “You have no weapon.”

  “I have the best weapon.” He pulled up next to me and pointed to his head. “Right here.”

  I groaned. “If you’re trying to impress Treena, she won’t even be there. She’s still in Liverpool.” She hadn’t tried to contact me since I left, which may have just meant she was busy. Or maybe it meant she felt angry and betrayed.

  “Look,” Coltrane said. He jumped in front of me and spun to face me, eyes flashing. “I know you don’t like me. That’s fine. But you need to accept the fact that maybe I need this for me. My parents are dead, all right? I’ve spent the last few months in a cave doing everything you asked, all because I wanted to help. But this time I’m going to make a difference in a way that I choose. Got it?”

  I knew Coltrane was an orphan, but I’d never stopped to consider what that meant for him. At least I had my sisters. He had no family at all.

  “I can’t give you special treatment. You have no training, no weapons—”

  “Then train me. If there’s going to be another battle, I need to be ready. My parents are dead and my settlement doesn’t believe in weapons, so if you won’
t show me how to defend myself properly, I’ll never learn.”

  I groaned. “Fine. You can come, but stick close to me. We’ll accept whatever tents they give us quietly, pretend to go to sleep, and then break into the hospital tonight. They should have the antidote we need.”

  Coltrane accepted that with a nod, then turned to head back up the trail.

  I gave our settlement one last look, then followed.

  Jasper was stunned by what I told him. He sat rigidly in his seat, staring at the wall for a long moment. “So Dresden thinks his deal has solved everything. He honestly believes the ECA will swoop in and take control of the city without any deaths.”

  “And put him in charge,” I said. “He assumes we’ll share the city with them until their purposes are done, then leave and things will go back to normal.”

  “He’ll be surprised when Chiu heads straight for the Council Building and kills him. From what I’ve heard, the man tends to assassinate leaders first, in person, then deal with the people.”

  That bothered me. If Chiu was that ruthless, why had he allowed me to live? Why bring me back to China with him? It didn’t make sense, but I hoped he was willing to do the same for Chan.

  We fell into a long silence. My thoughts looped around the same options over and over. Our military was small, so our defenses would be breached fairly early. We had time to get the people out using Anton’s tunnels to smuggle them if necessary, but unless they’d had a breakthrough and discovered a way to make the machine dig faster, the tunnels wouldn’t be finished yet. Besides, that was a temporary solution. We still needed somewhere to go.

  We needed more time—time to travel, to test air and water, to find a safe place our enemies wouldn’t want to take from us. But time was the one thing we didn’t have.

  “Have you heard from Vance?” I asked. Jasper had told me about their last conversation. I ached inside to know his family and friends were in such a dire situation, and he’d spent so many precious days here with me. Were the settlers doing better now? Had they decided to stay put or relocate? If only I could speak with him now, just to tell him to steer clear of NORA. But my receiver wasn’t getting through for some reason.