I swung the branch with all the force I could summon. The man ducked the swing and instantly lunged forward to tackle me around the middle. As his arms locked around me, I recovered from the shock of not hitting him and swung downwards. The thorn-covered branch plunged into his back and he fell to the ground, wounded but not out completely. I hit him over and over again until a spray of blood splattered onto my face and he didn't move anymore.
“Quinn, let's go!” Alice's voice called.
She was grasping the rocks at the corner of the cave's entrance. They were headed inside. James, Brynna Elijah and Violet were already gone. Nick, Alice and I were going after them. The other natives were retreating, watching us fall back into the darkness of the cave. They had little need to wonder if we would meet our deaths inside because one of their own had pulled Penny into its depths and would definitely finish us off. That's what I thought, anyway.
But no, as I turned back to watch the five remaining outside, I saw that their eyes were wide in terror as they watched us disappear.
“Guys,” I muttered back to Nick and Alice, “Maybe we shouldn't...”
“Come on.” Alice grasped my hand and pulled me deeper into the cave.
“I don't know what we ever did to them. They're accusing us of wanting to do something that no one wants to do. Not one of us wants to destroy this planet the way Earth was destroyed! But that's what they're accusing us of! It's not right!” Nick was exclaiming angrily as he stalked ahead of us.
“Look!” Nick and I watched as she picked up a large stick and Brynn's lighter. “She must have left this for us. Yeah, this is what she was burning the other day to make a fire. See this sap?” She held the branch right under my eyes that were already confused by such vast darkness and their ability to see in it. Alice struggled to light the lighter and I reached out to take it from her.
I held the flame to the branch and watched it catch onto the wood. The sap fizzled and cracked, sending sparks dancing towards the stone ceiling of the cave. Alice swung the torch around to see the cave walls.
“Alright. It should burn for awhile. Come on!”
I looked over my shoulder one last time before hurrying along in their wake. Both were on their mission to go after James, Brynna, Elijah and Penny but I wanted nothing more than to turn back.
Something was waiting for us deep in the cave. Perhaps it was more than one thing; I had no way of knowing. But that familiar tugging had resumed in my chest, reminding me that all the decisions made up until that point had led to disaster. Our group was impulsive at best and suicidal at worst. I was the only level-headed one of the bunch. My head always overrode my heart and I wasn't ashamed to admit it.
Now I was allowing my heart to guide me. I would not let Alice face anything alone now that I understood her ability to kill. I had experienced the same drive while facing the prospect of my own death. I had almost seen her get eaten by that river monster. I had seen her fight expertly when we were overrun by those Shadows. She was the one always protecting me and making the hard decisions, though I would never tell her that. I silently vowed to start splitting the heavy weight fifty-fifty.
I knew that no speculation or temptation would convince her to turn back. Nick was already five feet ahead of us, walking blindly into the dark with just a faint glow from Alice's torch.
“We've got to start thinking this stuff through.” I muttered to Alice, “We need to start planning, learning to defend ourselves. We need to make weapons.”
“Those are all good ideas, babe, but none of that helps us now. We need to focus on what we're doing. We'll talk more about that later.”
“I'm just saying. We're only going to get lucky so many times. Every time we've survived these random things this place throws at us, it's been because of luck.”
“That's not true.,” Alice replied with a quick shake of her head, “It's been a miracle, actually. But only partly. The other part is that we're stronger now. We're faster and we're better fighters. We're adapting. It's an even split.”
“I guess so.”
I didn't actually agree.
Violet
James and Brynna were ahead of Elijah and me. James held the torch up and its flame lit the cave with an ominous orange glow. We were unstoppable, walking quickly after Penny. We couldn’t pinpoint exactly what had grabbed her, though we assumed that natives had been hiding out in the cave, waiting for us to be foolish enough to enter it. When we had been hesitant, they had taken Penny, knowing that we would follow.
“I just want to offer a fair warning to each of you, though my justification is more than likely unnecessary.” Brynna told Elijah, James and me quickly without looking back at us. “I am going to kill a lot of people.”
She was right; her justification really wasn’t necessary. We would all kill anyone that threatened Penny.
“She’s just a little girl.” I whispered tremulously, “Why would they take her?”
“Their business should have been with us!” Elijah spat furiously, “She’s five. She has nothing to do with this.”
“We’re keeping at least one alive.” James told us and in his voice, I heard no room for negotiation. I didn’t want to spare a single one. I wanted them all dead for taking Penny. I could feel her fear in the back of my mind. It was distant, like a sickness held off by a vaccine but still present in the blood. Brynna could feel the full force of it. I knew by the way her body held tension in every muscle and her eyes bugged like she was expecting a physical blow. Once or twice, she looked over her shoulder at me. I knew that she was remembering scooping me up after I had been attacked. I knew thinking that I was going to die had petrified her. I wanted to apologize, but it wasn’t the right time yet. Soon, the opportunity would present itself and I would tell her that though it wasn’t entirely my fault that I was attacked, I was still deeply sorry for what my almost-death had made her feel. I understood her anger at me.
“I’ll stay close, Brynn.” I muttered to her quietly after walking up behind her. She gave me an almost imperceptible nod in response. I watched as her hands balled into fists and then released over and over again. “We’re going to find her, I promise.”
“I should be reassuring you. I know you are as afraid as I am. I should be telling you everything is going to be alright.” There was a soft pain in her voice that I had never heard before. Her genuine regret had surfaced because she thought she was falling short of her self-appointed duties. I walked up beside her quickly and squeezed her hand, feeling that her palm was wet with a cold, nervous sweat. Losing Penny was her worst fear. I had always known that.
“It’s okay,” I told her gently, “Just let me be there for you right now. It’s alright.”
This time, she didn’t nod or even look at me. Giving herself over to be cared for by another was not something she was comfortable with. But she squeezed my hand when I went to let go of hers; I had been ready to retreat from her when her anger and self-righteousness made themselves known. Instead, she was keeping me beside her and allowing me to silently soothe her fears by just holding onto her hand.
“Stop.” James held his hand up and we halted but continued to stare ahead with our white eyes. Brynna tilted her head back to take one long inhalation.
“Natives.” She whispered to James.
“A lot of them,” James agreed, “Too many to count. We’ll never be able to handle them all.”
“Not in this tight space, no.” Brynna crept around the wall of rock that was in front of us. When she came back around, her skin had paled even more. “There are at least one hundred of them. I do not know what they’re doing.”
Elijah, James and I walked around to see. To our immediate left, there was a staircase chiseled from the rock. We were on the makeshift landing, hidden by a rock wall about five feet high. I put my hands on the cold stone and looked over cautiously to see the natives engaged in what looked like a group interpretive dance performance. They were swaying their hands in the air, humming all
together to create an eerie, echoing drone that bounced around the large open space of the cave.
Lion’s den. The term popped into my mind before I had time to suppress it. It was accurate; we were in their territory now. Our chances of escaping were slim. Our chances of fighting them all off were nonexistent.
“I had the very same thought when I entered Adam's home.” Brynna told me as she watched the natives. “Though I must say, this is a far stranger experience. It is even stranger than him.”
They twirled their wrists and reached their hands out far simultaneously. If we weren’t facing our swift yet painful deaths, I would have loved to observe them as they were. I had always said that it would be cool to observe primitive tribes going about their daily activities. For a minute, I watched, dumbfounded and fascinated, wishing I had a guide who could explain exactly what they were doing.
“Look!” Brynna whispered. I looked at her to find that she was standing behind James and holding onto him around the middle with one shaking arm. She was pointing up.
In the flickering fire light, we saw a mural that spanned the entire mass of the ceiling. It was a red painting of a four-armed man. In each hand, he was holding something different. In one, there was an eye similar to what would be found drawn on the wall of an ancient Egyptian temple. In another, there was a small stick-figure man pointing a bow and arrow at the sky. On the other side, the drawing’s hand was holding a flame encircled by black ash. I was so busy trying to decipher exactly what the symbols meant that I didn’t realize the picture was caked onto the rock with dried blood. Over the many years, the blood had hardened; the image was etched onto the rock forever.
“We have to get Penny. We have to get her, James.” I heard Brynna whispering to him. When I looked at her again, I saw that she was standing on her tiptoes and pressing her forehead to the back of his neck. Both of her arms were around his middle now and he was rubbing them gently.
“I know, baby. I’m working on it.” He whispered back as his eyes scanned down below for a way through that wouldn’t alert them to our presence.
“I have an idea.” I whispered. Out of reflex, Brynna scowled at me but immediately, relaxed her face. Her anger at me had dissipated. There was just no time for it.
“What is it?” She asked.
“We need to create a diversion.”
“Alright. Let me through.” Elijah whispered but then, there was silence in the room below us. We all instantly dropped down to our knees to hide below the wall.
“On this night, we offer a sacrifice to the One God,” A man’s gravelly voice was saying, “The All-Knowing, All-Seeing gift-bearer will receive our message of gratitude. He will receive the body and soul of this child who will not reveal her name.”
“Good girl, Penny…” Brynna whispered as she moved back and forth on her feet slightly, ready to spring forward at any minute.
“Until we know of the child’s name, we cannot continue.”
“But He will strike us down!” A woman’s voice exclaimed frantically.
“The others will overtake us!”
Someone, perhaps the cave-idiot, stood up and spoke in a humble voice.
“Why are we speaking in the tongues of the Earth man?”
“Because we are not alone, Even. Three orphans of Earth have followed us. They are there.”
All of us looked at each other in horror.
“Can you not smell the poisonous air from their destroyed Orb that clings to them?”
In response to his rude comment, there was an outpouring of laughter.
Brynna jumped up, her eyes ablaze. James followed her as she began to descend the stairs. Elijah clearly wanted to follow but his steely resolve from a moment earlier had vanished only to be replaced by useless fear. I stood because I was unafraid of those barbarians and all their ridiculous babble.
“So, your speech was rousing, as I am sure you know.” Brynna's voice carried around the opening, reflecting the authoritative tone back to me. Where she found the courage to be so forceful in such a terrifying situation, I didn’t know. If we survived, I would ask her in hopes of being able to emulate it someday.
“But you are lying to your sheep, sir. Yes,” She looked at the many natives who were glaring at her, “I called you sheep. I want my sister.”
I took a step closer to James when I saw that some had allowed their eyes to turn over white and their fangs to shoot out. It was going to get real very quickly.
“Sister?” Their leader asked.
“Yes. It is an English word meaning ‘female born to other children of the same parents, in relation to the other children.’ Sound familiar?” Her words were dripping with their usual sarcasm and condescension, but her body was trembling with a fury that threatened to boil over at any moment.
“James...” I whispered, but he shushed me. After a moment, he reached back and put his arm around my shoulders and I immediately felt a little safer.
“Whatever Higher Power you are currently gesticulating for will have to wait.” Brynna continued. “I want her back now.”
Their leader took a step back upon meeting her eyes.
“But she is of Earth…” He was trying to retain his composure but it was escaping him. “I was told you are of Earth. It is true that you are changing but how?!”
Her patience evaporated. Whatever fragile hold she had on her self-control slipped from her grasp. In a blink, she had lunged forward and tackled him backwards. His body was twisted backwards over a rock that rose from the ground. In her rage, James, Elijah and I found ours. It was beginning to become apparent that when one of us snapped over into animal-mode, the rest would quickly follow suit. It was like an infection that spread through the air between targets swiftly and with no mercy.
I grabbed the first person nearest to me and threw him to the ground. I hissed in the man's face as I grasped his throat tightly.
“You are not of Earth! It is a lie! This is a lie told by the others!” The man who had led the ceremony exclaimed not in fear, but in fury of his own. “I cannot believe this. I cannot believe the One God would...”
“Bring her to me.” Brynna ordered furiously. “James!”
“What?!” James barked at her as his hands clamped even more tightly around a young man’s upper arms. The boy, barely older than me, grimaced in pain.
“Whichever one you are holding, bring him.”
“No! James, no!” A woman erupted into a fit of tears that should have softened us. But I felt no sympathy for any of them. I allowed myself not to worry for even a second about preserving or ending their lives. There was one option: Kill or be killed. I knew it. We all knew it.
“You shut up!” I screamed at the woman as another of her kind held her tightly.
“Please, he is my only son! Mister James...” The woman was attempting to fall onto her knees but her fellow cave-mates held her up. Her pleas for mercy would soon turn to Brynna, I was sure. My sister was the person ordering her only son to be taken from her, after all.
Brynna was unconcerned with the woman. Her eyes were fixated on the man she was holding to the rock. Her focus was only on keeping him alive long enough to learn Penny's location.
“Bring her to me or I will rip you and every last one of your people apart.” Brynna told the leader slowly and fiercely, as though he didn’t comprehend her words or was purposely disregarding how serious she was.
“Just kill him, Brynna!” Elijah shouted in beastly rage, “Stop playing with him and kill him! He took Penny!”
“I can see everything you see except the reason.” Brynna whispered and I looked over at her to see that she wore a quizzical expression on her face. “I have seen faint pictures of all things. But this…”
“You do see all things?” The man raised his head up, looking at her intently. She snapped out of her reverie and pushed his head back down forcefully. He gave one weak exclamation of pain.
“Bring the girl!” He shouted into the dark corridor just
off of the open space we were standing in. “Is she yours?”
“She is my sister. Weren’t you listening?!” Brynna shot at him angrily before turning her eyes back to the corridor.
“How strange, the light in your heart for her .” He reached up and placed his hand on her chest. Instantly, James pulled the boy away from the wall by the back of his shirt and stormed over. But Brynna had already snapped the man's wrist clean in half. She looked intoxicated as he screamed in pain; there was a small smile on her lips and her eyes had closed. James grabbed his broken wrist and squeezed it hard. The bone shifted and a disgusting squishing sound could be heard. The man screamed again and they both laughed softly in response. I would have cringed at what they were doing but my blood-lust was shrieking in feverish desire to see the man tortured. I found myself laughing along with them.
“I should snap your neck next.” All of his lighthearted amusement disappeared abruptly and his voice raised to a frighteningly loud shout, “You will not touch her!”
After his pain had subsided, the leader managed to say through gritted teeth:
“And you are a Protector now…”
“Let us help you, please!” A woman whose fangs were glinting in the firelight pleaded with the leader breathlessly. Her eyes were fixed on James and Brynna; I saw in her the same strong, undeniable urge to fight that we were all experiencing currently.
“No!” The man shouted indignantly, “I do not need your help! Stay back!”
“Brynna!” Penny’s voice screamed as two men dragged her into the open space by her tiny arms.
A soft cry of relief escaped both Brynna and myself as we ran forward to throw our arms around Penny. Our little sister's entire body was shaking with fear and cold and delicate cries were pouring from her.
Elijah charged one of the guards but stepped back upon seeing our sister. Physically, she was perfectly fine, thank God. But there was a terror in her eyes that replaced the glow of youth we were so used to seeing in her.
“Hold on, baby girl.” Brynna instructed softly. Penny wrapped her arms and legs around Brynna's middle. Brynna shed her jacket and maneuvered Penny into it. “Shh... Shh... you're alright, baby. I've got you.”
The Shattered Genesis (Eternity) Page 44