The Markings

by Catherine Downen

  “I did this to these people,” I think to myself. I let my mind go blank as I let the sounds of repeated feet thumping against the riverbank fill my head. I don’t want to think about how I’ve ruined their lives. I didn’t mean to mess everything up. I thought I was doing the right thing.

  Mio finally calls for us to stop running when it’s nearly noon and the sweat is dripping off of my face. “Everyone, drink some water. We won’t be here for long. Sard is just another hour or so up ahead. Albert and Andy, prepare the last of the deer. We’ll eat and make the last part of the journey,” Mio instructs to a crowd of empty faces.

  “Let’s change and wash these clothes too,” Cinder offers. “Essie, you and your sisters can set up over here.” I watch Cinder lead the three sisters to a shaded part at the edge of the river. I hadn’t noticed the large wooden baskets they’d been carrying before. They’ve cleverly fastened them to the back of their bags. I watch them unclip them and fill them with the river water. I look up and over their heads and see we are just at the base of the mountains. I was right about not having to climb them. There’s a large dip straight ahead if we follow the river. We’ll still have to climb, but not nearly as high.

  Albert and Andy start building a fire to cook the meat and I go to the river to fill my water bottle with fresh cold water. I’m disappointed to find it already warm from the baking sun above us. Warm water is better than no water I remind myself. I turn around and sip on my water bottle looking at everyone’s blank stares. The news that we are close to Sard should have made everyone happier, but they look even more upset.

  “What’s the deal with everyone?” Zavy asks as she joins me. We retreat to the privacy of the woods to change into the spare outfits they had packed in our bags. The quality of their clothes isn’t nearly as nice as the ones from the bunker. I notice Zavy chooses to wear the extra pieces she had brought with her instead of the rags Cinder had given us. I pull on the large white tank top and soft black cloth shorts. I try and tie the tank top up on the side so it fits better, but it still hangs off my shoulders.

  “Cooper doesn’t think any of them will be allowed into Libertas now that we lost Alexander,” I say bluntly back to her.

  “That can’t be true! They promised them,” Zavy says shocked.

  “They promised them in exchange for me and Alexander. No offense Zavy, but you in exchange for Alexander isn’t exactly a fair trade,” I say with a flat tone in my voice.

  “We’ll just have to make a new deal with the people at Libertas when we get there,” she says simply.

  Zavy and I don’t say anything else. We come out of the woods and back to the bank of the river. I scan the clearing and see that everyone has gotten to work and changed into fresh clothes as well. Albert, Andy, Bren, and James are cooking. Essie, Cassandra, and Sarah are washing clothes. I don’t want to feel useless to the group that has already given so much to me. I know they may be angry with me for losing Alexander, but I need to try and make things right. I cross the clearing toward the sisters.

  “Would you like some help?” I ask as I stand over Essie while she works, scrubbing our dirty clothes.

  “Oh no,” she starts. “You don’t have to help. We can take care of it. It’s our job,” she says, gesturing to her sisters.

  “Please,” I cut her off, taking a seat across from her. “I need something to do.” Essie gives me a soft smile and says I can start with my shirt.

  “Dunk and scrub,” she instructs. I take a brown rough brush and soak the shirt in the water.

  “I used to help my mother clean clothes,” I say as I work away on my shirt. “Well, not really.” I laugh, remembering how little I actually did. “She’d fill one bucket for clothes and one for me to play with,” I start to explain. The three sisters have fallen silent eager to listen to a story of my past.

  “I used to have these little toy boats. I had been walking the streets with Alexander, no Cooper,” I correct myself quickly. “And we wandered into the toy shop on the edge of town. It was my favorite place to go.” I pause, remembering all the times we had gone there. Basically any day we didn’t have school Cooper would take me there. “Anyway,” I say, continuing, “We’d just wander around and look because we could never afford the toys. I had found these beautiful white boats in the back of the store. They were tiny, just the size of my hand, and there were little blue waves painted on the sides.”

  “How’d you get them?” Essie asks me in a soft voice.

  “Cooper haggled with the owner and got me the boats,” I explain.

  “What did he give in return?” Cassandra asks, listening in on my story.

  I smile, remembering. “A gold necklace our father had given him for his birthday. Even then he was making stupid decisions to make me happy.”

  “Your father must have been upset,” Sarah offers, but I shake my head.

  “He didn’t notice. Cooper just said he had lost it in our room,” I say.

  “Believable because our room was a disaster,” Cooper chimes in as he walks over to our group. He’s probably been listening the whole time.

  “Just your side,” I say back to him and he lets out a half laugh. Maybe he can forgive me for messing up their plan. Maybe I can still make this right.

  “So anyway,” I say, drawing my attention back to the clothes, “My mother would do laundry and I would play with those boats.”

  “That’s a lovely story,” Essie says smoothly.

  “What about you guys?” I ask. “Three sisters, your mother must have had her hands full.”

  The three of them laugh. “We were a lot to handle,” Essie admits, nodding her head.

  “We didn’t have an older brother to take us on cool adventures,” Sarah offers, glancing up to Cooper. His cheeks have blushed red.

  “We mostly played dress up in our mother’s clothes,” Cassandra continues.

  “Our mother worked in the bakery so she was lucky enough to afford such luxuries like dresses and jewelry,” Essie notes.

  “We’d each take turns dressing up and being whatever we wanted,” Sarah explains the game. “Most of the time I’d choose to be a princess.” She stands and twirls in her rags pretending they are a big ball gown. The three girls giggle and Sarah sits back at her bucket.

  “I actually preferred being a teacher,” Essie admits softly.

  Her sisters respond in unison, “Boring,” and the three of them burst out laughing. This must be something the three of them joked about a lot because Essie doesn’t seem to take offense at the insult.

  “No one dressed as a baker?” Cooper jokes and the three burst out laughing again. I assume he’s heard these stories before.

  “I miss that,” Sarah says and the moment settles as the three of them hold on to that feeling of playing dress up and being a kid.

  “Remember when you taught me to braid hair?” Cassandra asks Essie and her smile widens.

  “You can braid?” I ask and turn to Cassandra.

  Essie and Sarah shout, “No!” at the same time and then start laughing again.

  “Cassandra can’t figure it out to save her life,” Sarah jokes.

  “I’ve had to brush out many of her attempts,” Essie adds.

  “But you can braid?” I turn my question to Essie and she nods yes. “Will you do mine? My mother used to.”

  Essie cuts me off, “Of course I can.” She smiles and it feels genuine. All of them do, maybe I can still save this group of people. The mood in the air seems to shift a little and there’s a sign that things could still be okay.

  We spend the rest of the afternoon cleaning clothes while Essie braids all of our hair. She does mine straight back into one long tail. She even teaches me how to do it myself, but I don’t pick it up very quickly. Essie reassures me that I’m better than Cassandra and with practice, I could be as good as her.

  Albert calls us all to come and eat when the meat is ready. Everyone eats in silence and after we have all finished Mio has us up and runnin
g again.

  “I can’t believe we are actually running in this heat,” Zavy mumbles.

  “Do you realize how often you complain?” I ask her honestly. She doesn’t respond but shoots a cold gaze in my direction.

  Suddenly the ground starts to make a steep incline and we are all running uphill and turning in and out of trees. The river here is roaring louder than ever and my legs are starting to throb. We continue straight up this section of the mountain and the river breaks off to our right. I glance up and see the pouring waterfall spilling from the mountain’s peak. I only have a second to take in its beauty before I’m back to weaving in and out of trees and it’s hidden from my view.

  When I’m not sure how much more my legs can take I feel the ground flatten out beneath my feet and nearly run into Zavy before I realize everyone has suddenly stopped running. I push through the crowd to see what everyone is looking at and feel the air get sucked right out of me.

  “That’s Sard,” Cooper says as he takes a step next to me. We have run up a short nook in the line of mountains. To my right and left they tower above us, but we are high enough that we look down on Sard. The mountain range seems to encircle the city giving it a natural barrier of protection. I look out over the tops of the trees and can see the tall industrial buildings lining on the shore of the Island. I take in a sharp breath when my eyes land on the ocean. I made it to the blue. After all those years of dreaming and wondering if I’d ever get to see it, I am here. My eyes fill with tears remembering how I used to beg my mom and dad to bring me here.

  “I made it mom,” I say so softly it’s inaudible. She would have been so happy, and I wish more than anything that she could be with me now.

  “I’ve never seen buildings like that before,” I breathe heavy.

  “That’s how all of the buildings used to be before the asteroid shower. When the Hawaiian Islands couldn’t get the resources they needed to continue this style of buildings they had to refer back to the Roman style that we are more familiar with in Garth. Almost all of the industrial buildings have collapsed over the years because they didn’t have the right materials to repair them. No one knows exactly why Sard still stands,” my brother explains.

  “It’s amazing,” is all I can manage to say.

  “Come on everyone,” Cooper turns and addresses the whole group. “Just down this slab of mountain is one step closer to your future.”

  Chapter 19

  The beauty and magnificence of Sard seem to change the overall mood of the group. Many people point in awe of the city that seems to rise out of the island. Everyone is as mesmerized as I am by the blue ocean. It’s something I know we grow up hearing about, and are always told we’ll probably never see. Toby is so young he thinks the water is trying to swallow up the island, which he also thinks is really cool. Zavy and him walk off to the side and she reminds him of the asteroids and how these buildings are from a world before ours. It reminds me a lot of when I would teach Titus in the cell, and I’m so happy Zavy has her little brother. The thought that I could have been showing this to Titus sends an overwhelming wave of mixed emotions over me. I walk in step with Cooper as we make our way gradually down the side of the mountain and into Sard.

  “So we’ll leave for Libertas today?” I ask Cooper.

  He laughs and says, “You’re getting a bit ahead of yourself Adaline. We can’t just walk through Sard. The entire city is filled with people working for King Renon. On the outskirts of Sard is an abandoned factory that is starting to collapse. Inside that building is a tunnel that runs under the city and goes to a building that is on the shore of the island. We have connections there that get us a boat and the materials we’ll need for the trip to Libertas. The journey underground will take up the rest of today, and we can’t sail out in the morning without driving attention to ourselves.”

  “So we’ll leave tomorrow night?” I ask him.

  “If all goes to plan, hopefully,” he says.

  The ground beneath our feet starts to level out, as we are approaching the edge of the forest. When we get to the edge Mio has us stop to take a break. I look out past the last of the trees and see the glint of the sun shining off of the buildings that are directly in front of us. I gaze up the buildings and have to shield my eyes from the sun to see its entire structure. My stomach tightens as I look out at the city. I’ve been in the cover of the woods for at least a week now. The idea of Sard, a city made up of people serving King Renon frightens me enough, but just the general idea of being back in civilization and out from the trees’ protection makes me sick. The pale faces around me suggest they are all feeling the same thing. They haven’t left these woods in seven years. I can only imagine what they are thinking.

  “It’s incredible,” I hear Zavy say and look at the shock on her face. “I can hardly believe they’re real.”

  “I know, me either,” I unclip my water bottle and take a few sips of water. The nerves inside me are threatening to make me lose what food I’ve managed to eat today.

  Mio starts to explain our next steps, “We’re going to have to run out to that building.” He lifts his finger and points out to the closest of all the buildings. This one is a bit shorter. There is colorful paint sprayed on it and yellow caution tape wrapped around the base of the building. This must be the abandoned factory Cooper was mentioning.

  “We can’t risk getting seen by the guards that patrol this side of Sard,” Mio continues. I look out and catch the hint of a guard on top of a building a little to our right and another on a building to our left. They pace the roof of the buildings back and forth looking from the mountains to the ocean and then back again.

  “We will run in pairs right when the guards turn the other way. When you get to the building stop outside and look back. I will let you know if the guards saw you or not. If they did, well then we have a problem on our hands. Just whatever you do, if the guards see you do not go into the building because you’ll risk exposing the rest of the group,” Mio says coldly.

  “So what do we do?” I hear Toby ask.

  “You’ll have to fend for yourself. Remember the only person who has to get to Libertas is Adaline.” The group falls awkwardly silent as everyone drops their gaze from mine. Mio continues, “Cinder and I will go last. Cooper and,” Mio pauses, scanning his eyes around the group until they land on me. “Cooper and Adaline will go first. Why not get the only important one out of the way.”

  I try to bury the fear creeping inside of me. I shrug my shoulders and take another sip of my water. I close the bottle and clip it back to my bag. “Let’s go,” I say, and even I believe I’m not the least bit nervous.

  Cooper’s at my side and we turn to face the abandoned factory. We stand ready and watch the two guards pace along their buildings waiting for them to turn around.

  “You know I can just use my gift and put us there,” I say to him as we look out at the building. “I mean I could try to.”

  “That wouldn’t be a good idea,” Cooper says.

  “Why?” I ask, turning to look at him.

  “King Renon is on to the fact that people with gifts are fleeing to Libertas and traveling through Sard. He’s put a force field sort of device around Sard. It won’t stop you from using your gift, but it can detect when the gift is being used. Kind of like an alarm system.”

  “Seriously?” I ask, hardly believing what he’s saying.

  “Seriously,” Cooper says. “One of these buildings is where King Renon is having scientists constantly researching gifts and how to get rid of them. The alarm is still new, but they’re supposed to be putting one around Garth soon. Mio came down here a couple of times to see what advancements have been made.”

  “That’s crazy,” is all I can manage to say.

  “Ready?” Cooper asks and we look back out and see that the guards have turned their backs to us.

  “Let’s go,” I say and feel my legs push off the ground. My heart rate instantly doubles as we sprint across the clearing.
One foot in front of the other. My tattered old shoes from the bunker fly through the yellow-green grass. I can see Cooper out of the corner of my eye. With his hair blown back, the intricate cut swirls stick out. The muscles in his neck bulge with each breath. My legs shake, but I keep pushing. My brother and I, together again.

  When we reach the building we push our backs up on the side and hold our breaths waiting for Mio to give us the all clear that neither of the guards saw us. Mio’s face comes into view and he gives us an approving nod. Cooper and I both let out a sigh of relief.

  Cooper slides into the building first and I follow behind him. The sounds of the howling wind increase when we walk into the building, echoing through the deserted place. There is debris piled up throughout the room. Piles of dusty rock and metal grow from the floor, towering up to my shoulders. In the rubble of the building there are pieces of paper scattered over the floor, signaling whoever was here left in a hurry. I assume the collapse of the building wasn’t planned, and I wonder if anyone was injured in its destruction. It seems as though it’s been empty for years. I guess they have been using this as an entry point to Sard for many journeys dating back who knows how long. If there was anything of significance here I’m sure it was removed and cleaned out ages ago. Still, curiosity wins out and I start searching through what’s left of this place.

  Different metal desks are spread around the edges of the room. I walk around and look at each desk, not finding anything all that interesting. There are some papers scattered on the desks and the floor. I pick one up and notice how clean the print is. I don’t understand too much of what is written on the document. I scan down the page and the words “research” and “gift” seem to stick out to me the most.

  I put the page down and pick up another more crumpled one. I flatten it out and see it’s a diagram. It’s a chair with wires coming out of it. The words “The Test” are printed above the diagram. There’s a list of words I assume are chemicals needed to perform the test. I feel the wind creep up my back. What was this place? I look up and I can see the blue sky above me; I hadn’t realized there wasn’t a roof on this building and no other floors remain after the collapse. Bare rafters expose themselves, crisscrossing over my head. Chunks of cement from what used to be the roof balance above our heads.