“Can you take your shirt off?” I ask Finn as I help him sit up.
“What did you have in mind?” he tries to joke through clenched teeth.
“You’re an idiot,” I say harshly.
“I think I agree,” he says reflectively. “I’ve made so many mistakes.”
“Shush,” I say and pull the shirt off as gently as I can. Despite his best efforts to hide his discomfort, Finn groans.
I check his collarbone and his ribs one by one before I set the white energy to work. It takes longer than the first time, but I manage to get through the process without any obvious consequences other than an upset stomach.
He turns his upper body left and right to make sure everything’s working.
“You’re magical,” he says tenderly.
“How are your legs and arms?” I say ignoring his dreamy eyes.
He gets up before I can help. “My left leg is a little stiff but I’ll manage.”
“I’ll fix it,” I say.
Finn eyes me intensely. “You’ve spent enough energy. You need to recover and be ready for what’s next.”
“I’m good,” I say clearing my throat. “Just take off your pants.”
“Okay, that’s it,” he says grabbing onto my rope. “We’re getting out.”
I try to protest but realize it’s pointless. Finn has gone through worse and he’s done just fine. I pick up his shirt from the ground and get his head through the neckline.
He stumbles and next thing I know, we’re both falling back to the ground. I’m not sure how it’s happened but Finn’s lips are on mine. After the initial shock, I kiss him back.
We roll all over the hard, pebbly ground oblivious to the discomfort it causes our bodies. Finn’s shirt hangs around his neck and soon afterwards my shirt comes off, too. We attack each other hungrily and the whole time it feels like I’m having an out-of-body experience. I watch myself loving Finn and it feels like the right thing to do but at the same time it feels like we are being swallowed up by the Earth.
Sanity returns when an aftershock shakes some sense into us. The ground below us trembles and our bleak reality comes rushing back.
“What the hell are we doing?” Finn says staring into my eyes.
“You started it,” I throw back at him but the truth is I have the urge to kiss him again.
“And why didn’t you stop me? We have to get out of here,” he says pushing his arms through the sleeves of his shirt.
I do the same and hold onto his back as he climbs up the rope. I’m shocked at myself, shocked at us. We never learn. I want to kiss his neck while he climbs. I’m broken. I’m needy. I don’t know who I am.
How on earth could I do this to Damian? What kind of a person am I? I need to free myself from my own insanity. The more I think of Zoe’s confession, of Ella’s secrets and hopes, the more mortified I get. How many people did I let down in a single moment? I deserve none of their love.
“I don’t know how much you confide in Zoe,” Finn says when we get back on our way to the village, “and I know you two are very close but I think this little lapse of judgment should stay between the two of us.”
“I won’t tell her if you don’t,” I say.
“Why on earth would I tell her?”
“I don’t know. Maybe because you’re as bad as I am.”
“That’s possible,” he says with a sexy grin. “But you’re pretty bad. It would be hard to match you.”
“I think you just did,” I say.
20
We wait for the night to descend upon the small breeding village with its rows of huts and tents. This village is different than the one I grew up in, with only one main street cutting across the structures from east to west and no common areas that we can see. It looks like a temporary camp rather than a permanent settlement.
A barn stands at the end of a short row of huts with a white sign on its door. The sign is shaped like a coiled snake with the initials “DSP” carved beneath it.
The Dark Legion scouts stand behind us looking through binoculars. My shield has been providing cover sustained by a very small amount of energy. Even that small amount has caused my right hand to lose some sensitivity. Using the white light to heal Finn has exhausted me.
“I can’t keep this up for much longer,” I say. “We have to go in now.”
One of the Dark Legion scouts points at a hut in the mid-section of the rows. “The Sliman guards are in there,” he says. “Only one of the guards is out walking the perimeter.”
“It should be quick work,” Finn says unlocking his pulse gun.
I shake my hands violently to regain some sensation. “Finn and I will head straight for the barn. You take care of the guards.”
The scouts nod and we all dart into the dark like phantoms of doom with our guns raised and ready to fight.
I try not to be too hopeful as Finn and I reach the barn door. Logic would suggest that if Rabbit and Scout were kept in there, there’d be more security. But why would my scouts be so certain if they didn’t have enough evidence? One explanation would be that they were intentionally misled.
When shots are exchanged in the distance between the guards and my scouts, all my points become moot. I use my energy field to pulverize the lock. Finn bursts through the door and we’re faced with two Sliman who jump at us before we can react.
Finn ducks instinctively and grabs one of the Sliman by the hips while the second one kicks my pulse gun off my hand and gets his fingers on my throat.
A strange grin forms on his lips as I blast a hole through his stomach with my blue energy. I cough to refresh my starving lungs when I realize Finn is unconscious on the floor and the second Sliman gone.
I shake Finn by the shoulders. His eyes open groggily but I see no sign of recognition in his eyes. I search his head with my hands and discover a bleeding wound. I scan the barn but see nothing but piles of hay.
“Here we go again,” I tell Finn as I use the white light on him blindly, too anxious to be able to control the flow. The effort proves to be more than I can handle as I’m emotionally and physically drained.
As Finn recovers, everything starts spinning and it’s impossible to maintain my balance. I collapse onto the floor trembling and unable to speak.
It takes Finn a minute to grasp reality. By the time he bends over me, my teeth are chattering and my breathing has become labored. “He’s gone,” he says. “The Sliman will alert his masters.”
I nod trying to stay focused on his face.
“How can I help you?” he says, devastated. A second later, he pulls his gun out to train it on an intruder that’s just come through the door. He lowers the gun quickly when the Dark Legion scouts walk in.
“The guards are taken care of,” the one in charge says.
“Including the one who got out of here?” Finn says.
“Yes. He ran right into us.”
Finn sighs with relief. “Nice work,” he says.
“Did you find your friends?”
“They’re not here,” Finn says. “Freya’s in trouble.”
The dark warrior glances at me narrowing his eyes. “They are here,” he says, picking me up in his arms. “Look for places where they could be hidden.”
Finn and the other two scouts look about the barn and go through the stacks of hay searching for hiding places. I start to feel a little stronger but my throat is parched and my skin feels slimy cold.
Finn drops to his knees. He brushes away hay and debris to reveal an old, wooden trapdoor. With my heart beating out of control, I watch as he pulls the door up and open. There is absolute silence in the barn as Finn reaches down and pulls Scout out. I run to her with an explosion of joy in my heart like I have never felt before.
I take my sweet Scout in my arms and kiss her face over and over. She is dirty and unkempt and in shock but I don’t think she’s hurt.
Rabbit comes out of the trapdoor soon afterwards. His gait is unstable but when Finn offers him a helping hand, Ra
bbit pushes him away softly. Scout escapes my arms and runs over to Rabbit. The two hug each other closely like two small animals who have lost their mother, averting their faces from Finn and me as if we were nothing but a bad dream.
The truth of our discovery becomes apparent. Rabbit and Scout have been subjected to alien procedures. They don’t recognize us.
My lungs feel heavy and as I take in Finn’s desperate expression, I know it’s not my imagination. Our friends have been tortured and altered. They feel no connection to us and have lost even a sense of self.
Rabbit and Scout do not resist when we lead them out the barn and into the night forest. They follow us obediently holding hands. They eat the food that we give them greedily and don’t ask where we’re taking them.
“I don’t know how to feel,” Finn whispers to me as we sit next to each other waiting for the space pod to arrive.
Rabbit and Scout sit a few feet away looking at the trees and birds with the innocent eyes of small children for whom everything is new.
“Let’s just get them out of here,” I say.
“Maybe the medical team on Exodus can do something,” Finn says.
“Maybe.”
Finn offers me an apple but I refuse. I couldn’t keep anything down right now. It occurs to me that nothing will ever be right again unless we kill the Empress of the Shadows.
“How many times have you saved my life?” Finn says in an effort to change the subject.
“Almost as many as you have saved mine.”
“That many?” he says, but we are not ready to be amused.
To be sitting with Rabbit and Scout but not being able to interact with their true selves is a new kind of heartbreak.
“Nothing feels real,” I say. “Something’s off.”
“Something besides the obvious?”
“Yes. It’s like she wanted us to find them. It’s a feeling I’ve been getting more and more lately. We’re pawns in a game the Empress is playing.”
“Like with Daphne’s resurrection?”
“Yeah. Don’t you think we are falling in every trap she sets?”
“Those Sliman almost killed us,” Finn says. “They were pretty clear in their intentions.”
“That was part of her scheme, too. They know we’re perfectly capable of escaping such threats.”
“They also know we’re smart enough to figure it all out,” Finn adds.
“It’s like we’re being run in circles. What if we have been wrong the whole time?”
“Wrong how, Freya?”
“It’s something that Eric said after he showed me how to control my energy. He said the Empress killed her own father to get in charge of the Empire and changed the original plans for the survival of their kind.”
“Which one invaded Earth?”
“According to Eric, it was the father,” I tell him.
“How would Eric know all this?”
I shrug. I know it’s a long shot but I believe there’s truth to what Eric has told me. I decide to show all my cards. “He’s a plantation fugitive, Finn. Long before any of us met in the woods and called ourselves Saviors. Eric is the original Savior, so to speak.”
Finn considers the new information. “Who could he have possibly met who knows the secrets of the Empire?”
“I don’t know, but what if he’s right? What if that evil bitch has been fooling everyone, including her own subjects and inner circle?”
“To keep us on the wrong track,” he says. I finally see a spark in his eyes. “What do you think she’s really doing while she has us chasing our tails?”
“I have absolutely no idea,” I confess.
“It would help to have an idea,” Finn says.
We stare at each other when suddenly his face lights up.
“What?” I ask.
“How about we just pretend to have an idea.”
I laugh. Rabbit and Scout stare vacantly at me. “You’re crazy, Finn! But I like it,” I announce. “How do we pretend, exactly?”
Finn doesn’t smile anymore. “There’s only one way,” he says, deeply concerned. “You have to go back to Plantation-15. You have to face her.”
I smile into Rabbit’s faraway eyes. The soul of that beautiful boy has been stolen from the world. Scout’s too. The whole world is being stolen away.
“I’m ready,” I tell my oldest friend. “It’s music to my ears.”
21
What has there been before time? Was there ever a pre-time? I know about prehistory but history takes over time and molds it down to a series of events in human consciousness. History thrives on corpses, not on the compassionate indifference of passing time.
Time is truth and history is lies.
It’s hard to write about what you don’t understand but I keep writing the sentences anyway as best as I can remember them to keep my mind from giving in to gloom. I didn’t understand the words when I read them and I don’t understand them now, yet they feel true somehow.
Rabbit and Scout are settled in with the small comforts that Spring Town can offer them. They have clean clothes, hot water and all the food they desire.
They’re learning to trust us as we envelope them with love and care. They stay close to each other and talk little. When someone asks a question, they just stare back with empty eyes.
Biscuit and Tilly sit with them near the fields teaching them how to use a touchpad. I watch closely as Rabbit starts to show some interest taking the touchpad in his hands and punching the various keys. After the initial eager response, he loses interest. He puts the touchpad on his lap and turns his attention to an empty water bottle.
“Here, Rabbit, this is the emergency key,” Tilly says. “If you ever get in trouble, you just push that and we’ll come find you.”
“When do we eat?” Rabbit says looking away.
“Careful, you’re beginning to sound like me,” Biscuit says but there’s no joy in his voice. Only disappointment.
“Nice,” Scout says rubbing her hands.
“What’s nice, Scout?” Tilly asks.
“Nice,” Scout repeats.
Biscuit walks over to me. I quickly put my scribblings in my pocket.
“How is this going to work?” he says.
“I have no idea. All my hopes lie with doctor Armand and Exodus.”
“It’s like they’re here and they’re not. Tilly has taken it very hard. She told me she didn’t sleep at all last night.”
“You’ll help her through this, Biscuit. We all have to help each other so we can help them.”
Biscuit shakes his head. “Have you told Pip?”
“I don’t know how to. But I better tell her before she finds out when an announcement is made on Exodus.”
Biscuit taps me on the shoulder as he returns to where Tilly sits with the two lost souls that used to brighten us all up.
The fact that I am allowing myself to slip into resignation doesn’t escape me. I observe the string of ominous events of the past few weeks with a calmness that doesn’t belong to my nature. Things cannot hurt me if I don’t let them. My feelings do not matter now, my powers and my connection to the Empress matter. That’s the only thing I’m willing to focus on.
My body and heart are attacked with so many pains and desires at once I feel as if I am shutting down to all sensation. I walk back to my room and take the pages out of my pocket. I quickly scan the words on them before tearing them apart. My mind is busy looking for details I might have overlooked. The bombers and the gas, Daphne coming back from the dead, Ava falling in some sort of trance, Rabbit and Scout being lobotomized, Eric crossing my path.
Where is the link that binds everything together?
Damian slips in the room without bothering to knock. I’m not surprised. I’ve done my best to avoid him but I knew he’d come to me.
“You and Finn on a mission again,” he says as he plops down on the bed beside me. “And you never told me. That’s a surprise.”
His tone is
sarcastic. I feel so guilty I can barely look him in the eye. So I let him talk, willing to allow him to get away with anything.
“That’s what I like about Daphne,” Damian says. “I can trust her. Daphne always puts me first.”
Forget that part about him getting away with anything. “Falling in love with your zombie girlfriend, huh?” I say unable to hide my bitterness. “Forgive me for being real. Real people make mistakes. Not your little damsel, though, she is, oh, so perfect. She’s obsessed or, maybe even, possessed.”
I get up and walk to the window so I don’t punch his face.
“To think I believed you were the only one who could ever understand me,” he says angrily. “Maybe you never got me at all.”
I have no words for this. I frankly don’t care about solving anything until the final destiny is played out. It’s better to keep looking outside the window at the heavy trees and the light clouds in the sky.
“Remember the night you brought me the box that Daphne had left in Finn’s care for me?” he continues. “That night I thought you had broken through my layers of disguise and had deciphered the hold that Daphne’s death had on my spirit. I thought you knew how I’d have jumped at a chance to make things right for her if only possible. But I was wrong cause now that I do have that chance, you just can’t stand it.”
I turn to face him. “You shut me out,” I say. “Maybe you didn’t realize it but that’s how it made me feel. But you’re right. I should be more considerate of your feelings. Can we deal with this later? I need you to do me a favor.”
The argument is hardly resolved, but he relents. “Of course,” he says. “I will do anything you want.”
“I need you to choose among the Dark Legion warriors the teams that will lead the attack on the breeding villages. Can you start working on it?”
“Don’t you trust Kroll to do that?”
“Yes, but I trust you more. You know the Dark Legion as well as he does, if not better. And you’re born to be a leader.”
He’s still not ready to believe me. “You would do that?”
“Already did.”
My words please him like I knew they would. I see a new determination in his eyes. He places a kiss on my lips and pulls my hair behind my ears. “When do you want me to start?”
[scifan] plantation 05 - rise of the saviors Page 15