by D. S. Murphy
“At least the elite will finally take us seriously,” one of the men grumbled.
“You’re working with Jacob, right?” I said. “I just spoke to him before leaving Havoc. We’re on the same side. We have a plan, just give us a few more days to find what we’re looking for. Then you’ll have a real weapon. If there’s going to be a war, wouldn’t you rather be prepared with something that can put the elite on equal footing? All this will cause is more violence, worst of all for the human compounds.”
The man I recognized from Havoc spat on the ground. His eyes seemed too far apart, and his thin lips pursed together in a scowl.
“She’s lying,” he said. “She’s working for the elite. I saw her free the one we had taken captive. Now they’re traveling together. You should just finish her off, or she’ll tell everyone, now that she’s seen our faces.”
“I’ve got a better idea boys,” another said. “Don’t you recognize this one? Look at the marks on her hands. Prince Hartman’s own chosen, but she ran after the trials. She’s the one who destroyed the wedding. There’s a huge reward for her head.”
“What do you suggest?”
“Blow the engines and blame it on her. The reward didn’t specify alive or dead. We can make it look like she died in the accident. Clear our names at least. Just make it quiet. Shut her up, for good.”
The first man grinned, sending chills down my spine. He raised his gun to fire, but I was too fast. I slid beneath it and grabbed the weapon, smashing it into his jaw.
Someone grabbed me from behind, and I struggled against his grip as another came towards me with a knife. The elixir flared in my blood as he approached, mixing with the adrenaline in my veins. I snapped my head back, breaking someone’s nose, then spun out of reach. I planted a kick into one man’s stomach, sending him soaring back against the machine.
He hit hard and sank to the ground, blood streaming from his nose. A knife flashed to my left, skimming my neck. I punched my attacker’s wrist, knocking the knife out of his grip, then followed up with a jab to the chin that sent him reeling.
I caught the knife in midair, then tossed it into a tree, inches from the leader’s head.
“I don’t want to fight you,” I said. “But I will if I have to.”
But then a hand seized my wrist, far too strong to be human. One of the rebels had been drinking elixir. A punch hit me like a sledgehammer, and I felt my ribs crack. I doubled over in pain, gasping for breath.
Another seized me, binding me tightly in rope.
But then he was flung backwards, by a ghostly spectral who darted out of the trees. Penelope, with wild hair and bright eyes, wearing a semi-translucent nightgown that revealed her thin figure.
“Elite!” One of the man screamed. He raised his rifle and fired on her, twice. Penelope frowned at him, looking down at the bloody hole in her breast.
Then she backhanded him so hard his neck twisted unnaturally. Before I could say anything, she’d pounced, latching onto his neck with her jaws and dragging the carcass into the bushes like a cat with prey.
And then came the blinding lights.
Spotlights on all sides, and more coming every second. It was like the whole town had awakened. I blinked against the light, blocking it with one hand as the dark silhouettes moved closer through the tall grass. I was unarmed, and unprepared for a real fight. The mayor, along with dozens of others from the town, trained their weapons on me.
Tobias stood by his side, along with a small contingent of royal guards in black and gold uniforms, their swords drawn. I edged backwards, wondering if I could dodge enough bullets to make it over the fence of the compound.
“That’s enough, Emily,” Tobias said. “This is low, even for you. Sabotaging the engines.”
“I was trying to stop them,” I said, disentangling myself from the rope. “Does it look like we’re friendly?”
“Whatever, save your explanations for the king. I’ve already sent word of your capture.”
“Isn’t that a bit presumptuous?” I smirked, with more confidence than I felt. “We got away last time.”
“How’s this for an ultimatum?” He asked, waving his hand. One by one, the townsfolk turned their weapons on themselves, pushing the tips of their blades into each other’s throats. The mayor’s frightened eyes found mine, pleading with me in the darkness even as his limbs betrayed him.
Tobias had them all under his sway. I had no idea he was this powerful. His long blond hair glinted in the lamps against his dark coat. Unlike the guards, his hands were empty. He hadn’t even drawn his sword.
“Come with me peacefully,” Tobias said, curling his fingers in the air, “or they’ll all die.”
“Tobias, this isn’t you,” I said, stepping forward.
“It is now,” he said coldly.
“Tobias?” A timid voice called from the trees. Tobias spun like he’d been stung, as Penelope stepped out of the shadows into the light. Her hair was wild and blood dripped down her chin, soaking through her white nightgown, but her eyes were clear and focused.
Tobias’s jaw went slack and he stared at her in disbelief. Then he unclenched his fist, swiping through the air with his bare palm. All the villagers under his control, all the elite guards, toppled into the mud like they’d been blasted by an invisible shockwave.
Then he swept Penelope in a bone-crushing hug.
20
The two elite fell into each other’s arms, surrounded by a sea of bodies. I stood awkwardly to the side, my heart pounding.
“I didn’t want to believe it,” Tobias said, caressing her cheek. “I thought I’d lost you. I thought I’d lost myself.”
“I’m here,” Penelope said. “It’s me. Well, mostly.”
His eyes softened, and he stepped back to examine her. Blood covered her neck and torso, and she had a bullet hole below her collarbone, but it had missed her heart and was already healing. Her eyes were wild and manic, her hair tangled, her fangs sharp. And yet I’d never seen her look more composed. She’d always been poised and elegant, now she moved with a supernatural speed and grace.
Both elites stiffened suddenly, noticing the others arrive before I did, their shadows weaving through the mud and grain in the darkness, stepping over the unconscious bodies.
Luke let out a low whistle as he got closer, then froze when he saw Tobias holding Penelope. Trevor’s eyes went wide as well, but I shook my head. Tobias was no longer a threat.
He put away his weapons and crossed the distance between us, wrapping his arms around me.
“What happened?” Luke asked. “We heard the gunshots.”
“You can explain later,” Tobias said. “We don’t have much time. They’ll wake up foggy and confused, but word will spread of the rebels, the vandalism of state property. If it were just a few, I could try and wipe their memories. But this many… it’s too many to compulse. We can’t cover up an event like this.”
“What about the rebels?” I asked. “How do we know they won’t just try it again when they wake up?”
“Well, they’d have to get their hands on some more explosives first. Those can’t have been easy to come by.”
Tobias kicked one of the men, who was rousing to his feet shakily. He grabbed him by the throat and held him against the warm, rumbling engine.
“You have committed treason against King Richard,” Tobias said, locking the man in a fierce, unblinking gaze, “the penalty is death.”
The man, struggling, spit at Tobias, tearing his gaze away. Tobias grabbed his chin and forced his eyes open with one hand, until their eyes connected and the man went slack.
“I know your name, and your face. If any of you try something like this again, I will not hesitate to kill you.”
“In fact,” Tobias pulled out a tiny barbed device. He stuck it in the man’s neck and snapped it off. The man screamed in pain.
“From now on, your movements and conversations will be tracke
d. So I suggest you practice restraint, as I have today.” Then he tapped his finger against the man’s forehead, and he fell unconscious.
“We have to hurry,” Tobias said, dropping the man in a heap. “I knocked out the royal guards who were with me, but more are on their way. A lot more.”
“What about you?” Penelope asked.
“I’ll keep them off your tail as long as possible.”
“I’m not leaving you again,” she said.
Tobias grabbed Penelope’s hand and pulled her off the path towards the woods. The rest of us followed warily. The last time we’d run into Tobias, he nearly killed us with his pet slagpaw. Luke and Trevor held back, grabbing guns and weapons from the fallen rebels. I took a curved sword from one of the elite warriors, and a high quality mask with black mesh. I frowned at my bare feet, wanting to go back for my gear in the village, but I knew Tobias wouldn’t wait that long. I grabbed a pair of boots from a young woman and shoved them on before catching up to the others.
We approached the outer fence, tall, electrical and lined with barbed wire. But it was late and unguarded. Luke and Trevor unlocked the heavy gates and pulled them open.
The hum of the machines faded behind us as we got further away. I adjusted my mask as we headed into the deadly ash outside the compound, moving briskly until we reached the top of a small, rocky hill.
“How did you find us?” Camina asked.
“When the alarm went up in Crollust, we knew you were in the area. I didn’t dare hope, not really... but after Emily told me you were still alive.”
“Well, I’m not technically, am I?” Penelope smiled. Half of her face was still wet with blood, which made the expression chilling.
“You’re elite now,” Tobias said, wiping a thumb over her lips. “Strong, powerful. But unfortunately, that means it will be harder to hide you, and the beasts will be drawn to the elixir in your veins. I can’t bring you back to the capital with me, and I have to go back. I can distract the guards, point them in the wrong direction. It’ll buy you time.”
“Time for what though?” Jazmine said.
“You tell me,” Tobias said, crossing his arms. “What are you doing out here? What’s your plan? Please tell me you have nothing to do with those fool terrorists.”
“They were only trying to do what they thought best,” Luke grumbled. “Someone had to do something.”
“Are you so eager to fight that you’d put every compound at risk? Thousands of humans live under elite protection. You’d rather have them starve and die horribly in the wild?”
“At least they’d have a choice,” Trevor started.
“No, they wouldn’t,” I snapped. “You’d be deciding for them. If you actually bothered to ask, I’ll bet the vast majority of citizens are happy living in the compounds.”
“As happy as a toad in hot water.”
“When I found you before,” Tobias said, interrupting us, “you compulsed the slagpaw, didn’t you?”
I glanced at Trevor and nodded.
“So they all know, that you’re renitent?”
“They know, but so what? You said I only had one chance, at the trials, and I blew it.”
“King Richard didn’t know you could resist his compulsion. It did give you a slight advantage. Now that he knows, he’ll come after you with everything. However, he still doesn’t know who you really are or what you’re capable of.”
“We found the formula for the cure,” I said. “And John Patten’s notes. But... we tried it and it didn’t work.”
“You tested it, on an elite?”
“On me,” Penelope said.
Tobias narrowed his eyes and he spun around suddenly.
“You what?” he growled, his fingers drifting towards his sword. “Which one of you assholes used my wife as a guinea pig?”
“I had a vision,” I said quickly. “A blood memory, from Damien’s mother, which meant she was an elite, right – before everything. That means, maybe, Richard wasn’t working on a cure for cancer like he told everyone, after he’d failed to save his wife. What if he succeeded, and turned her elite, and was actually working on a cure? What if the notes and research are at his house still?”
“That’s why you’re out here? That’s a really big stretch, Emily.”
“But you said it yourself, there’s no other way to beat him. He’s too powerful. Right?”
Tobias sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, then nodded.
“This way,” he called, gesturing to the path in front of us, leading between a valley of ruined buildings. He lead us through two intersections, the old cement roads so overgrown they were hard to see in the darkness. The elixir kept me going until dawn but I knew the others were struggling. Trevor pulled me aside as the buildings thinned and we came to the edge of another forest.
“Why are we following them?” he said. “You saw what Penelope did to that guy back there.”
“He shot her, what was she supposed to do? Besides, without Tobias I’d probably be dead.”
“He serves King Richard. How do you know we can trust him?”
I glanced up ahead.
“He loves her,” I shrugged. “And there’s no place for her in King Richard’s system.”
The sky was lightening on the horizon. We climbed up over a hill, weaving through scattered vehicles as we turned down an ancient highway.
Tobias wore his sword loosely. Trevor and Luke had picked up rifles, but carried knives as well. Everyone else had managed to get dressed properly, with their gear and weapons. I was the only one in stolen boots and a nightgown, though at least I still had my hooded jacket, which fell practically to my bare knees.
The sky was nearly black with ash, but the orange glow on the horizon let us know daybreak was upon us. In the distance, above the treeline, leaning buildings and twisted metal grew larger as we approached the remains of an ancient settlement.
We cut though a tall field of weeds and rubble. I tripped over something shiny, and looked down to see a pile of bicycles, half buried under the earth.
Tobias nodded towards a wide rectangular building. Rusted, yellow buses dotted the perimeter. Several looked like they’d been torched from within, and one was lying on its side like a beached whale. Vines grew up through the empty spaces where windows used to be, and a handful of young pines sprouted from their dented roofs.
“What’s this?” Luke asked.
“Fanno Creek High,” Tobias said, considering the building with a tinge of sadness.
“This is where Damien went to school,” I breathed. “This is where it happened. With the girl.”
“He told you about that?” Tobias asked, his eyes widening. I nodded.
“We weren’t friends,” Tobias said. “Not before. I remember that day so clearly, even after all these years. It was the last normal day of my life. When the attack happened, for a few days we just talked about what a psycho Damien had become, after losing his mother. But then there were more deaths. People started disappearing. Videos posted online that everybody thought were fake; we didn’t know what was happening.”
Tattered scraps of red and white fabric fluttered from a weathered flagpole as we crossed in front of the building.
“I didn’t come back until years after I’d been turned. I wandered at first, resisting the urge to feed until I lost all sense, until the blood lust took over. I did… terrible things. Hated myself, and what I’d become. Then Damien found me. He told me there was another way.”
Large chains blocked the front doors, but Tobias smashed through them with a brick. The hallway was half filled with rubble, and the ceiling had collapsed in a few places, letting in hot sparks that had scorched the hallway. Lockers yawned towards us, spilling their contents; books and stationery molded in musty piles of yellowed paper. I nabbed a few ballpoint pens and stuffed them in my pockets. They were rare and always useful.
“I never knew his exact address,” Tobias s
aid, pushing his shoulder against a door until it groaned open. “But the office must have kept records.” He yanked on the desk drawer, but the handle snapped off in his hand.
“Let me,” I said. I bent down on my knees, pulling out the metal file cabinets carefully. The paper was old but in decent shape. I scrolled through the student roster until I found the right file.
Damien Hartman. I glanced through his academy history, noting the grades and performance reviews, even his extracurricular schedule. Orchestra, AV club and something called lacrosse. I held it up and showed Tobias.
He nodded, studying the address as he walked back outside, nodding to a grassy path through the trees.
“Take this street for four blocks. Turn right at the gas station, then left at the park. That should be the right road, then just look for this address; the houses should be numbered.”
“You’re not coming?” Penelope asked.
“I can’t,” he said, holding her hands. “Richard can compulse me to tell the truth. Or at the very least, he’ll know if I’m lying. I’ll stay away from him as long as I can, but eventually, if he asks the right questions, he’ll find out. You have to be gone by then.”
“Let me come with you?” Penelope begged. His face contorted with regret, but he shook his head and stepped away slowly.
“Find what you’re looking for, then get out. In three days, meet me at the abandoned amusement part outside of town. Ten miles north, you’ll recognize it.” He pointed towards the distant mountains, barely visible through the ash.
“What about Damien?” I asked. “Will he help us?”
“I don’t know,” Tobias said, tucking a golden strand of hair behind one ear. “It’s not that easy. What you’re planning, it’s treason, it’s worse. But if the antidote works, and we have a chance to defeat King Richard, then we won’t have to hide. I can get close enough to him to use it. Damien will take over. Things will get better, for everyone. He’ll forgive you, in time. I’m sure of it.”
“And if we can’t find the antidote?” Penelope asked.
“Then the kingdom is lost to us. The king will continue to hunt down the rebels. We won’t be safe here, but there are other kingdoms; more bloodthirsty, and not so great for humans, who are basically slaves. But we can be together, live together.”