Nokomis sat on the edge of her bed and buried her face in her hands. “I knew I shouldn’t have come here. I knew it.” She glared at me. “Now I’m either going to die or my family is going to be executed. Either way it wasn’t worth it.”
After a minute Keira broke through the loud chatter. “I think that solves it. We’re going home.”
There were no arguments there. I definitely didn’t disagree. Me leaving Nowhere had nothing to do with Mom and Dad and I wasn’t about to let them take the fall for it. “I’ll go tell Marshall we’re going home. Everyone pack your things.”
I slipped into my hoodie and headed over to the lab where Marshall spent ninety-percent of his time. There was even a cot there for him to sleep. I knocked on the door and waited for an answer. When there was no response, I let myself in.
Marshall was hunched over a laptop, wearing a pair of earbuds and jotting things down onto a note pad. I took a seat beside him to get his attention. He raised his eyebrows and removed his buds. “Bram, what’s up?”
Might as well cut to the chase. “We’re leaving.”
His jaw dropped for a moment, then he frowned. “Come again.”
“My Grims and I, we’re leaving. Dunningham just sent a message that if we don’t return to Nowhere within three days, he’s going to put our families to death. Obviously, there’s no way we’re going to let that happen, so we have to go home.”
Marshall sighed and leaned back in his seat. “Wow, that’s tough. I’m sure he’s bluffing. It’s an empty threat and nothing to worry about.”
A lump formed in my throat. “You don’t know Dunningham like I do. You haven’t seen the things we’ve seen. He’s more than capable of doing what he’s said and I’m not willing to gamble with the lives of our families.”
Marshall was silent, pressing his lips together. “I completely understand your predicament, but I’m sorry. Leaving is just not possible.”
My body tensed. “What do you mean that’s not possible? I didn’t come here to ask your permission. I’m telling you we’re leaving.”
Marshall’s sat up straight in his chair. “And I’m telling you that you’re not.”
I leapt to my feet, knocking my chair over. “I don’t know what you think is going on here, but we’re not prisoners. You don’t own us.”
Marshall remained in his seat, watching me through narrowed eyes. “No, you’re not prisoners, but you have an obligation. You signed a contract, remember? Once I started giving you my serum and we disclosed the location of this farm and what we do here, that was when your freedom to leave came to an end. You agreed to that.”
I remembered the day we all signed his contract. It was out of desperation because we were running for our lives and had nowhere else to go. The others had been skeptical but I’d talked them into doing it. I hadn’t been thinking about long-term consequences.
“I don’t give a damn about your contract. Our families are in danger and you want us to just sit here and let them be killed? That’s not happening.”
Marshall ran his hand over his face. “I’m sorry. It’s horrible that your colony would do something like that, but we’ve all made sacrifices to do this. Some have even given their own lives. Going back to Nowhere is not an option.”
I was done arguing with him. No matter what he said we were gone. I stormed toward the door. “Screw you. We’re packing right now.”
Marshall slammed his fists on the desk and stood. “How exactly do you hope to get back there? You’re not going through my transportation chamber.”
“We’ll figure it out.”
I flung the door open and stalked across the field to the barn. Marshall followed me, screaming my name the whole way. I ignored him because if our conversation continued I was going to end up pounding his face. If he thought I was going to choose the Interceptors over our families he was out of his mind.
In the barn, I expected to see a flurry of Grims packing their things for the trip back home, but instead they sat on their beds in silence. Dorian’s hood was pulled over his head and I could tell by the way his shoulders heaved up and down, that he was sobbing.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
Chase and Keira sat on Keira’s bed with the note from Nowhere between them. Keira opened her mouth to say something but Marshall cut her off.
“I wasn’t done talking to you, Bram.”
“I’m done talking to you. You can’t keep us here.”
Sensing the tension, within seconds Adaro and Kuro were standing beside me. “What’s going on here?” Adaro asked.
“I told Marshall we were leaving and he seems to believe that he has the power to make us stay.”
Adaro stepped toward Marshall. “What? If Bram says we’re leaving, we’re leaving. You can’t make us do anything.”
Marshall reddened and balled his fists at his sides. “You’d better back up, boy and don’t forget where you are. This is my farm and it runs on my rules. Nobody leaves. Letting you go would jeopardize everything we’ve been working for and we’re not giving that up for a lot of children who can’t make up their minds about what they want to do. You aren’t going anywhere.”
Kuro scoffed. “We don’t need you, your farm, or your stupid operation. We only lived here because we had no other choice. Intercepting Death is fool’s work, anyway.”
I wished he hadn’t said that but the words were out and couldn’t be taken back. Marshall lunged forward, tackling Kuro to the bed. Not expecting the attack, Kuro’s eyes went wide. Marshall was in great shape, but Kuro was strong and crazy. Marshall slugged him square in the jaw so hard that Kuro’s head snapped back. Adaro pounced Marshall, pulling him off Kuro. Both fell to the floor.
Adaro brought his arm underneath Marshall’s chin and squeezed.
Marshall’s face turned a sickening shade of purple as he gasped for air. The barn had grown so loud it sounded like a football game. Grims were either cheering Adaro on or pleading for him to stop.
I shouted as loud as I could. “Everyone calm down! Adaro let him go!” But no one listened. The screaming grew louder and Adaro seemed to tighten his grip on Marshall’s throat.
The doors of the barn burst open and Mauricio and Cowen rushed in.
Mauricio pulled Kuro’s arms behind his back and yanked him away from Marshall easily like Kuro was made of paper. Cowen pried Adaro’s arm from around Marshall’s throat and pinned him to the ground, pressing his face into the hard wood floor.
Marshall lay on his back taking deep breaths and regaining his original color. I offered him my hand. He took it and I pulled him to his feet. Adaro, Kuro, Cowen, and Mauricio still tousled on the ground.
“Hey!” Marshall bellowed louder than I’d ever heard him. The fighting stopped immediately. “That’s enough. Mauricio and Cowen, let’s go.”
The look on his face was one of regret. He after all had thrown the first punch and I wouldn’t blame Kuro or Adaro for what happened after that. Marshall had shown us what happened when he lost control. He led his men from the barn while they protested wildly. The probably had no idea that their leader had started the whole fiasco.
Keira shoved Kuro against a wall, much harder than I thought she was capable of. “You idiots. Chase and I were trying to tell you something.”
Kuro threw his hands up. “You saw what happened. He hit me first.”
Keira rolled her eyes. “Yeah, because the two of you threatened him. Marshall was totally wrong but that wasn’t the way for any of you to handle the situation.”
I plopped down on my bed, exhausted. “What is it Keira?”
“That last sentence that didn’t make any sense. It wasn’t in Lensi.”
I pulled my hoodie off. “What is it?”
Chase handed me the note. “We figured out the words were in Hindi but written backwards.”
Keira sat beside me. “I think the messenger added it himself. Either he or Doyle did. It’s in a different handwriting.”
There wa
s a solemnness in the room I had forgotten about before the fight. I remembered my brother crying.
She took the note from me and cradled the message to her chest. “It says don’t bother coming back. Your families are already dead.”
6
A cutting silence fell over the barn. “I don’t believe it,” Naomi said finally. “They’re lying. They must be. Dunningham wouldn’t do . . .”
But we all knew he would.
Josh sat beside his sister. “I don’t believe it either. My parents aren’t dead. They can’t be. Bram, we have to go back and be sure.”
Dorian removed his hood. His eyes were red and puffy. “We’re dead, you know. The second we set foot back in Nowhere we will be dead. I think deep down you all know our parents are dead too.”
I didn’t know what to think. Dunningham would kill our parents without blinking twice, but I had to believe he hadn’t. I needed to. If he had killed them, all those lives were on me.
“So, what are we going to do if Marshall doesn’t let us go back?” Dorian asked. “We can’t just stay here without knowing.”
I turned to my brother. “That’s not his decision to make. We’re going back right now.” Whatever had happened to our families . . . I couldn’t spend another minute not knowing. There was no time to sit around wondering about it.
Zipping up my hoodie, I grabbed my scythe. That was the only thing I cared about taking back with me. My clothes and few personal items could stay. “Let’s go.”
A few Grims scrambled to grab their scythes and the duffel bags they’d already packed then followed me from the barn.
We found Marshall in his lab filling syringes with an orange liquid—another batch of his serum. “Back so soon?” he asked not even bothering to look up.
I clenched my jaw and looked him dead in the eye. “We’re going home now. Even if we must jack your transportation chamber, we’ll do just that.”
Marshall sighed, setting the syringe down and looking back at his chamber. “Your head must be made of cement.”
Before I could reply, the earth shook beneath my feet, almost sending me into the Grim standing behind me. A few of them gasped. “The hell was that?” someone asked.
Marshall wore on expression I had never seen him wear before—one of fear. His eyebrows went up and his eyes went wide. “Get to the cellar.”
The cellar was underneath the kitchen and where we were supposed to go in case of a tornado. That was no tornado. A loud blaring sound came from outside and the ground shook several more times beneath our feet.
“What is that?” I demanded.
“Is it an earthquake?” Dorian asked.
Marshall hurried to the corner of his lab which housed a metal locker. He swung the door open and pulled out his scythe. Just then a crowd of Interceptors stormed in. He handed them swords, long knives, an assortment of weapons I had no idea they even possessed.
“To the cellar everyone,” he ordered. “We fight only if we have to.”
My lower belly clenched. “Fight? Fight who or what?”
Marshall pointed a sword a me. “You are not fighting anyone and we don’t have time to explain. Just follow us to the cellar.”
I turned to the others who stood silently with blank expressions, waiting for me to tell them what to do. “Listen to Marshall. Let’s go.”
Outside, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, but then the ground trembled again.
Dozens of Interceptors raced across the field either carrying a scythe or another weapon. Whatever was about to happen was no natural disaster if weapons were required. I was thankful that I had trained my Grims on how to fight with their scythes before we came to the farm.
Joshua, who stood in front of me was suddenly thrown off his feet. The occasional shake of the ground had turned into a non-stop trembled. It felt as if a massive train was speeding underneath the ground. The other Interceptors had frozen in place.
“Look! The corn!” Scarlett yelled from across the field. I focused on the corn. The tall stalks were bending and swaying, but not because of the wind, because something was moving among it.
I hurried to Marshall who stood in the middle of the field holding his sword in front of him. “What is that?” I demanded.
He swallowed hard. “Grims.”
“Grims. Where are they coming from?”
His eyes were wild. “With this colony, there’s never any telling. Usually from under the ground.”
“Why are they here?”
Before Marshall could answer me, a Grim emerged from the corn. He was massive and probably a Watcher. He was shirtless and bald, his tan skin glistening in the sun. He wore black pants and clutched his scythe. Seconds later, nine other hulking figures emerged. They looked almost identical to the first guy. The only difference was in their skin tones which ranged from a pale white to deep brown.
The first Grim to emerge from the corn reached behind him and withdrew a long blade. He flung it with a quick whipping motion. It spun through the air like a windmill, landing in the chest of an Interceptor named Abnus.
He grunted and fell backward. I glanced at Marshall. Clearly, we were going to have to fight. The other Interceptors made a made charge toward the corn. I held my hand up, signaling for my Grims to hold off. The Interceptors had the attacking Grims outnumbered by at least thirty bodies. Since we still had no clue about what was happening, it was best that we stand back.
“Bram!” my sister shouted from behind me and I knew why. Just as the Interceptors had reached the other Grims, a least a hundred more emerged from the corn and immediately swung their scythes at the Interceptors.
Holding off was not an option. “Go!” I shouted as my feet pounded against the dry grass. Just as I reached the scene, a Grim swung his scythe at me, narrowly missing my throat. I returned the favor, aiming at his knees because that was unexpected. My scythe sliced into his knee cap. There was no blood because Grim didn’t bleed, but he swore and dropped on his good knee. Taking advantage of the situation, I sliced into his massive arm. He yelped in pain, grabbing my lower legs and yanking me off my feet. My scythe dropped to the side.
He knelt over me grimacing. I felt for my scythe as he held his over my head. Around me, bodies were falling left and right. There was no time for me to look and see which side the fallen belonged to.
The Grim brought down the blade of his scythe, aiming for my throat, but I blocked his scythe with mine. Metal clanged against metal.
The Grim grunted, scowling fiercely at me. Why was he so angry? Why were they here attacking us? We’d never encountered other Grim colonies before, but I knew it was unheard of for Grims to attack each other.
I also knew that I refused to die right then and there. I took a deep breath and gathered all the strength I had even though the Grim was twice my size. The serum had been helping increase my strength even though I was as strong as the other Interceptors yet. With everything, I threw the other Grim off me. Since Grims were immortal, I couldn’t kill him, but I was going to do my best to wound him beyond repair.
As the Grim struggled to get off his back, I swung my scythe gracefully, slicing him right through his neck. I gulped as his head separated from his body. His body writhed on the ground as his head coughed a couple of feet away.
I turned searching for Naomi, Dorian, Keira, and Josh but I couldn’t spot them amidst the chaos. I was happy to see that despite being out numbered, we seemed to have the upper hand.
Scarlett shoved her scythe into a Grim’s belly. Just beside her Edhem sliced a Grim clear in half with his scythe. A yell came from behind me. I turned to see Gannon getting the worst part of a sword fight. I hurried over, decapitating the Grim before he could deliver the fatal blow.
On edge, I spun around with my scythe ready to attack the next Grim, but there was no one left standing but my Grims and the Interceptors. I relaxed, but only for a moment. The field was littered with Grims that were torn apart and immobile, yet still alive. I was curious
to how Marshall was going to deal with this one.
“Everyone, to the barn,” I shouted to my Grims. I wanted to take a definite head count and make sure everyone was okay.
Back in the barn, everyone collapsed on their beds complaining of various injuries. My brother had a slash across his face that was going to require stitches and probably leave a nasty scar. Naomi had a sore wrist and ankle that was probably sprained.
Josh was missing his glasses and nursing a wound on his leg. Keira swayed back and forth on the edge of her bed seemingly unharmed—physically at least. She seemed to be almost in a trance.
“Keir? Are you okay?”
She shook her head and made eye contact with me. “What was that? Why did those Grims come here and attack us like that and why were Marshalls and the others prepared for it?”
Good questions. “I don’t know, but I’m, sure as hell going to find out right now.” I looked around the room at the others. “Hang tight, guys. I’m going to get you some medical attention but right now I need to find out what the hell is going on and I don’t want anyone to leave this barn until I get back. Got it?”
Most of them nodded, but everyone was still trying to gain their composure.
I grabbed my scythe and hurried to find Marshall. He had a lot of explaining to do.
7
Marshall wasn’t in his lab. I tried to suppress my anger as I searched every house to find him. I was pissed, but I needed to keep my temper in check so we wouldn’t have a repeat of what happened before.
I found Marshall at Scarlett’s house wrapping Bacia’s ankle. There didn’t appear to be a mark on him which made me even angrier. Bacia winced as he pulled the wrap tighter.
“What the hell was that?” I demanded from the doorway. “Who was that?”
Marshall watched me with tired eyes for a second and then sighed. He finished with Bacia, and tapped her on the knee. “Stay off this for a while. Scarlett will check on you in a little bit.”
Bacia nodded and closed her eyes, sinking into the leather sofa.
Brametheus Grim: The Final Breath Chronicles Book Three Page 4