I finally come up next to some debris from the boat and latch onto it, coughing up mouthfuls of saltwater. When I finally catch my breath I glance around at the disaster. Both boats have been completely destroyed, and now four or five eels are lashing in and out of the ocean. The water around us is dyed a dark crimson. Blood.
My eyes are scanning through the water, looking for Alexander. Suddenly someone surfaces next to me gasping for air, “Alexander!” I yell over the chaos, his green eyes lock with mine and he grabs onto the debris with me.
“We need to get out of here,” he yells to me. I look back out to the island I’d spotted moments before.
“I could use my gift,” I say and begin to work out a plan. “I can transport us to the island.”
“But?” Alexander says, seeing the hesitation on my face.
“I’m not sure what’ll happen when I do it. It knocked me out last time and paralyzed me. That was just the two of us, who knows what could happen now.”
“I’ve got you,” he says, grabbing my hand. I close my eyes tightly and start to picture everyone being put on the island. I run through the list of everyone in my head as I had seen them the night we were assigned our boats, careful not to forget any one: Cooper, Zavy, Toby, Mio, Cinder, Molly, April, May, Lilly, Sam, Essie, Cassandra, Sarah, James, Bren, Andy, Albert, Alexander, and finally myself.
Suddenly my world becomes deathly silent. A warm sensation is pressing against my cheek. I crack my eyes open and can see the stretch of white sand meeting the calm ocean water and then my world goes black.
Chapter 27
When I finally come to I flutter my eyelids open and a roof of green leaves hangs over me. My body is pushed into sandy dirt. I try to sit up, but find I can’t. My breathing quickens when I realize I am unable to move any part of my body. I try to yell for help, but no words leave my mouth. Then Molly’s young face comes into view above me.
“You’re awake,” she says and a soft smile falls across her face. Her cheeks look stained with tears and her eyes are red. “You guys, she’s awake!” Molly yells. Suddenly Alexander and Cooper appear on either side of me. I feel Alexander take my hand in his and give me a tight squeeze. I urge my hand to squeeze back, but I’m unable to.
“It’s okay,” he says, noticing my panic when I still can’t move. “Mio says you’ll get back full mobility with a lot of rest,” Alexander says.
“Just take it easy Adaline,” Cooper says. I notice he has a damp white wrap around his forehead and I remember him hitting his head during the attack. “We’ve already had to resuscitate you twice. We were so close to losing you,” he says with a tight voice.
Alexander finishes for him, “You were so weak you couldn’t even keep your own heart going.”
“But we saved you,” Molly pipes in. “I’m your doctor for this shift, and I request much more rest so you’ll have to visit later,” she says looking between Cooper and Alexander.
Dark spots form in my sight and I can feel myself getting pulled back to sleep. I try as hard as I can to stay awake. I keep blinking, trying to clear the black dots that clutter my vision, but they continue to grow until my whole world is dark again.
“Adaline, wake up,” I hear Alexander’s voice say softly. My eyelids crack open and the rosy pink sky bleeds into view. “Guess who’s your doctor now,” he says with a light laugh to himself. “You need to get some water in you.” He presses a water bottle against my cracked lips. Slowly I sip on the cool liquid, and then I hear Mio and Cooper yelling somewhere off in the distance.
“There’s nothing on this island to eat!” Cooper yells at Mio.
“Well, I’m sorry she didn’t think to bring some of our food when she zapped us here,” Mio yells back.
“Not even Toby can find something here to get his hands on,” Cooper mumbles.
“I can try to catch those birds again if you want,” I hear Toby’s childish voice say softly.
“No Toby, you tried your best. They need to stop pushing you so hard,” Zavy’s voice says sternly.
“It’s a little chaotic here,” Alexander’s warm voice says, bringing me back to him. “Don’t worry about it, you just need to rest,” he finishes and pulls the bottle away from my lips.
I try to ask him how long I’ve been out, but find I am still inaudible. I try to move my arms or legs, but they are still frozen in place. I find that I’m able to twitch my fingers on my right hand and am relieved with this little sign of movement.
“That’s a good start,” Alexander says, looking at my progress.
I use my fingers to spell out T.I.M.E in the sand. He looks at it questioningly and then says, “You’ve been out since around noon, so it’s been about 6 hours. Mio’s hoping by tomorrow morning you’ll be able to walk around.” He pauses and shuffles around in his backpack, and I realize I must have pictured us all with them on when we were getting assigned boats. I remember using that memory to go through everyone who is here with us so I didn’t forget anybody.
“This is all I really saved,” he says, pulling out a small handful of berries. “You need them the most.” Slowly, I’m able to chew the berries. “I’m not letting you go, okay?” his voice sounds small and weak.
I urge myself to tell him I’m going to be okay, but the more I push the more tired I get. I begin to get pulled back to sleep. The black specs start to fill my vision, and I yell at myself over and over again to stay awake.
“Stay,” I hear my voice croak out.
Somewhere in the dark distance, I hear Alexander’s voice say, “Always.” And that’s the last thing I recall before I’m pulled back under.
When I wake again my vision is filled with darkness. I feel my fingers grip the sandy dirt as my heart quickens at the thought of being permanently blind. Carefully I push myself up onto my elbows and am relieved when I see glints of a fire in front of me. I look down to my left and see Alexander sleeping. It must be late at night because I can’t make out anyone else moving around. Many people lay near the fire, but I assume Alexander refused to leave my side. I think Mio’s dark figure sits against a tree down by the coast.
I stretch out my arms and am happy I’m able to move them again. I try to bend my legs, but find that they still can’t move. I use my arms and pull my knees to my chest to stretch them out. I can’t help but feel worry rise inside me at my limp legs. I have to keep reminding myself that it will get better. I will be all right.
I see Alexander’s water bottle lying where he left it this afternoon. I sip on some of the water and debate about trying to force myself to try and stand or just go back to sleep. My mind tells me I really should try to sleep through the rest of the night, even though I’m not a bit tired. I lay back down next to Alexander and my mind plays out what little I know about the situation we are in now. Our boats were destroyed and I brought us to this deserted island that has no source of food. I’m not even sure they have found drinkable water yet. At the end of all these thoughts is one reoccurring regret. I never should have destroyed my mother’s journal. She would have been able to warn us about the creatures. She may have known what I need to do now to help get my group to Libertas. She could have at least told me she loved me. Tears weld my eyes, and eventually I fall back to sleep with a hurting chest.
My mother comes into view. Brown and warm yellow hues start to paint themselves into a familiar picture. She’s sitting in an old wooden chair. The rest of the room starts to fold into view, and I recognize it as my kitchen. My small little home on the edge of Garth. I spin around the room confused how I can be here seven years later. The door to my left creaks open and I watch nine-year-old me walk into the kitchen. I take a seat in the wooden chair across from my mother and see she is holding Titus in her arms. This is the night the guards came to get us.
“Is father home yet?” my little self asks her in a soft voice.
“Adaline, it’s been three months. Your father isn’t coming home,” my mother says with no emotion in her voice.
I watch my younger self trace the circles on the wooden dining table. I miss that table. “Sometimes I think that’s what you do in the middle of the night. You just sit up and wait for him.” Little me pauses and a wall of silence settles between us, and young Adaline adds, “I wait up for him too.”
“Well you shouldn’t,” I hear my mother say shortly. “And trust me, Adaline, I’m not waiting for him.” She’s about to get up from the table and take Titus to her room. I remember this night so clearly. I have to warn them, they need to run.
“Mother!” I say to her, but she doesn’t hear me. She stands and turns to go into her room. I run in front of her and yell, “Stop! The guards are coming. Mother, they’re coming! We have to leave, please. Please leave tonight, don’t let them take us.”
For a moment I think she sees me. Her blue eyes look at mine. She knows. I can see it on her face now. She knew they were coming. She wasn’t waiting up for my father to come home, she was waiting up to see if tonight was the night the guards would come for us.
She walks right through me, and into her bedroom to lay Titus back down. Then she comes back to the kitchen to get younger me and leads her back to my room.
“You can’t do this,” I say to her and follow her into my room. The floorboards squeak under my feet. The same little floorboard at the edge of my bed. It always squeaked. I used to hide trinkets under it.
“We can make it mother. We can go on our own to Libertas. Please mother,” I keep begging her, tears streaming down my cheeks, but she still doesn’t hear me. She tucks the blanket around young me and kisses my forehead before turning and leaving. I follow her back out into the kitchen and in a broken voice I say, “Mother, please.”
I watch my mother pause in front of me. She turns and looks at me. “I’m sorry, Adaline,” she says, and then she starts to walk into her room. I hear the thud on the door of the guards, and then the dream slips away.
“Morning,” I hear Cooper’s voice say when I open my eyes again. The morning light shines through the branches. “Sleep well?” he asks, taking a seat next to me.
The dream of the night I was taken to the prison leaves me feeling a bit nauseous. I push myself up into a sitting position and lie, “You could say that.” And am surprised to find myself able to talk again.
He hands me some cooked meat and berries and I take them graciously. “Have some breakfast,” Cooper says.
“What’s this?” I ask as I chew on the unfamiliar meat, remembering what Mio and Cooper had been arguing about yesterday.
“It’s some kind of groundhog that burrows deep in the sand. That’s why we couldn’t find anything yesterday, we were looking in the wrong places.” I nod my head in response and finish eating. Cooper hands me a water bottle and I carefully sip on it trying to saver the water.
“Have you found freshwater?” I ask, knowing we can only go so long without it, and I don’t remember bringing it here with us. Based on Cooper’s facial expression I know my worst fears are true.
“No, we haven’t yet. Some of us are going to walk through the island later to look,” Cooper says.
“Can I come?” I ask, excited to move around again.
“If you’re up to it. Alexander, Zavy, and I were about to go,” Cooper stands and pulls me to my feet. I stretch out my legs and walk around. “Good?” Cooper asks.
“Yep, good as new,” I say. It’s not entirely true, but I’ll say anything to do more than lay in the sand.
“Come on,” Cooper says and I follow him across the clearing we’re in. I look around, taking in the area for the first time. They’ve set up camp on a clearing that meets the sand and stretches out to the ocean, I think that camp is empty until I notice Bren sitting against a tree in one of the few shaded spots. His leg is wrapped in a dark red fabric that I realize used to be white.
“Bren, are you okay?” I ask and kneel at his side. He tosses his head in my direction and I see how pale he is.
“Fine,” he chokes out in a weak voice.
“I wanted to tell you later,” Cooper starts and leads me away from Bren.
“Tell me what?” I ask, glancing over my shoulder back to Bren. “Why are you pulling me away?” I stop and free myself from Cooper’s grasp.
“He lost his foot in the attack,” Cooper whispers harshly in my ear. “Essie says he’s losing a lot of blood and probably won’t make it much longer.”
“Well, we have to do something!” I scream and Cooper motions for me to quiet myself.
“Bren asked us to leave him alone. There’s nothing we can do for him here except try and get him to Libertas as quickly as possible,” Cooper explains to me. “We are working as quickly as we can to collect enough supplies to take with us to survive the last part of the journey. Until then, Bren asked to be alone.”
“He’s just going to sit there until we are ready to leave?” I ask bewildered.
“Adaline, you have no idea what we went through yesterday when we got to this island,” Cooper says, and we start walking along the coastline again. “Between Bren’s foot and your failing heart we’ve had our hands full trying to keep what’s left of this group together.”
“What do you mean ‘what’s left’?” I ask Cooper.
Cooper stops again and drops his head. “Not everyone made it,” Cooper says almost inaudibly as he looks back up to me.
“What do you mean?” I ask again, my voice cracking.
“We lost a lot of people when we were attacked at sea,” Cooper starts to say, but I cut him off.
“That’s impossible. I made sure I got everyone here.” My mind searches for the memory of the battle, confirming I had remembered everyone.
“You did Adaline. Everyone made it here, but some of them were already gone when you moved us,” Cooper says, choosing his words carefully.
“What?” I ask, not wanting him to sidestep anything with me. “Stop trying to talk around what happened,” I say harshly to him.
“They drowned, Adaline,” Cooper says flatly and meets my eyes. “Some of them drowned, those who were the most unlucky were torn to shreds by those creatures.” When Cooper says this I’m reminded of the dark crimson water before I had moved us. I feel the blood drain from my face and a cool sweat bleeds on my neck.
“Who?” I ask, my voice shaking.
“All of the younger girls Molly was with,” Cooper starts to say. My heart seems to have stopped beating in my chest. My hands shake and I struggle to breathe. I remember when I first came to and Molly had looked so sad. Cooper continues to list people, “Essie’s sisters Cassandra and Sarah, and Albert’s brother Andy.” Cooper pauses and then finishes, “We lost 7 Adaline.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I ask.
“Mio wanted you to rest, I’m sorry,” Cooper says, and then moves in to hug me. I fall into my older brother’s arms.
“I just feel like I’m missing a piece of me,” I say to him when we pull a part. “I didn’t know a lot of them, but they spent seven years of their life sitting in the woods waiting for me, to help me get to Libertas. It was all for nothing. They’ll never get to live in Libertas,” I say as more and more pain washes over me. “They died helping me,” I say more to myself than Cooper, and then I realize how many people have died because of me, because of this journey. I remember sitting on the boat yesterday morning wondering which members I would cut when we got to Libertas, and am sickened by the thought that the universe decided it for me.
“They chose this path Adaline. We won’t let them be forgotten, okay?” Cooper says and I nod. Cooper clears his throat before adding, “There’s something else.” I hear his voice tighten in his throat. I can’t get myself to speak so he continues. “Molly is starting to get sick.” My mind races and words fumble on the edge of my tongue. Inaudible words break in my throat and Cooper tries to calm me down. “She’s fine, Adaline. Essie has been keeping an eye on her. She just says her throat is sore and she’s more tired than usual.” Cooper’s explanation does lit
tle to calm me. I’ve seen enough people die in the prison from what started as a small cold. If it’s untreated it can get out of hand fast. Cooper knows this and says, “We’re keeping a close eye on her.” I give a forceful nod and we continue to walk down the coast.
I see Albert is walking along the shore pulling up wooden pieces of our boats that have floated to shore. “He’s hoping he can somehow put the boats back together, but he knows it’s going to take more than just labor. He’s going to need your help,” Cooper says and meets my eyes. “But not until you feel that you are strong enough to use your gift,” he quickly adds.
“I don’t feel weak actually,” I add. “I mean I’ve literally been resting for almost 24 hours, not doing anything. I’m definitely getting stronger with it.” I look out at where Albert is sitting on the beach waiting for the rest of the boat to wash in. I can see the pieces of wood bobbing around in the waters. I watch as I wash them into shore. Albert runs out and scoops them up and looks over to me. “It’s like it can recharge itself, if that makes any sense,” I say back to Cooper.
“Well I would save it up for when we need you to magically build us some boats,” Cooper says flatly. We continue down the coast between the sand and line of trees when I see Zavy and Alexander up ahead. At the sight of me, I see the muscles in Alexander relax. He’s been worrying himself sick over me and I can tell he’s gotten very minimal sleep.
“Glad to see you’re on your feet again,” Zavy says and embraces me in a tight hug. “Have I thanked you yet for saving my life once again?” she adds.
“You don’t have to thank me. Anyone would have done it. We’re all in this mess together,” I say tightly.
The Markings Page 26