by D. S. Murphy
I’d never seen an elite so powerful, and yet so tragic.
“You’d leave me here?” she asked, as I stumbled towards the door.
“If I open the gate, you’ll just kill me.”
“Now why would I do that? You’re the only one who can save me, who’s ever broken through my spell. I can’t reach all of them, can’t convince them, but nobody has ever found their way down here before – and if they did, they’d never set me free. You though, you’re different. Special. I can tell. Who’s to say, you weren’t chosen for this? That this isn’t your destiny? Who’s to say Damien didn’t choose you for me, to save his long-lost mother. It does seem rather appropriate, don’t you think, like a fairytale.”
I could feel her pushing her way into my mind, saying the things she thought I needed to hear. She rose to her feet, a monstrous black figure of slime and filth, growing like a cancer out of the earth.
“I can sense the blood pumping through your body, faster and faster, as your terror grows. Free me, and I can remove all your pain. I am not a threatful creature, I do not mean to scare. I merely want the freedom I deserve, that I’m owed.”
I couldn’t trust her, I couldn’t trust myself. Not now, when I was still so weak. Not when my friends were still in danger.
“I swear, I’ll find Damien and tell him. I’ll tell someone. Someone will come for you – or I’ll come back for you myself.”
“You have walked into my residence, and I’ve told you the truth. We are bound together now. If you run, I will always find you, and I will drain the life out of your body. I will drink every last drop until you’re a dry husk. You can choose to build a new life with me, or flitter away into nothingness, into ash and dust and bone and blood.”
The sounds of her hideous shrieking was like a hot needle in my eardrums. The reeking odor was making me nauseous and dizzy, but I paused in the next room, grabbing folders full of research and notes from a metal cabinet before rushing back up the broken stairs. One of them snapped beneath my weight and I nearly fell through, clutching the rusted banister.
Now that the spell had been broken by elixir, the whole house had changed. Vines crawled in through the broken windows. The floor and walls were bent at unnatural angles, and scorch marks and charred wallpaper clung to the walls. The roof to the second floor was missing in parts. I was surprised it was even standing.
Luke was at the table, smearing some kind of black paste on moldy bread. I slapped it out of his hands.
“Hey, I was going to eat that,” he said, his pupils wide and dark.
“No, you weren’t,” I said. “Come on, we’ve got to get everyone out of here. Now,” I added, kicking his chair so hard the leg snapped and he tumbled to the ground.
I roused the others, they were still dazed from the glamour but they followed me outside.
“What about the cure?” April asked, once we were outside. “Did we find it?”
I ignored her question, staring first up at the ruined house, and nearly tripping over the pile of skulls and bodies surrounding the grate by the front entrance.
The missing children from Sezomp. I wished I had time to bury them. Some looked decades old, some more recent, growing into the soil and ash. A skull, a ribcage, their bodies hidden in the bushes.
“The cure...” I murmured, pulling on my mask against the falling ash, cursing the skies.
The cure didn’t matter anymore.
Maybe it never did.
23
I didn’t know where I was going, I just had to get the others away from that house. I’d led them here. All of this was my idea, and it had nearly gotten them killed. If I hadn’t drunk the elixir, we could have all ended up on the pile of bones. Beechum was right. The lurks were dangerous, we should never have come.
The town seemed to fold in on me as I stumbled through the streets, past the falling houses and buildings, the broken cars and wreckage. So much concrete and metal; twisted, dead tokens of life before the Culling. A life in the open, where humans could live free – and King Philip had destroyed it for everyone, starting with his own family. In trying to save his wife, he’d spread a cancerous plague through the whole world.
I didn’t know how long we’d been in the house, but from my stiff limbs and empty stomach, I was guessing longer than three days. We’d gone several miles before Trevor dragged me to a stop.
“You need to slow down,” he said, glancing behind him. The others were at least a hundred feet behind me, spreading a long, haphazard line across the wrecked landscape. Tall oak trees pushed up through the concrete, hurling defiance at the charred skies, but the area was mostly flat. Wide grassy plains stretched between the trees, nearly obscuring the crumbling remains at the edge of the town.
We were too exposed. I’d been in such a hurry to get away I hadn’t noticed anything of my surroundings for the past hour. I took a deep breath, relaxing my shoulders and pushing out my awareness, looking for any trace of Mrs. Hartman’s compulsion, but it was gone.
I checked my homemade bracelet. I’d only taken a few drops of elixir before, and it was already drained to nearly zero. The effort to break through the glamour must have been immense. I looked around at the featureless meadow, trying to get my bearings as the others caught up to Trevor and me. A tire swing hung from a gnarled branch nearby, spinning slowly in the wind.
I’d set off without consulting the map, and I realized suddenly I didn’t know where we were. In the distance over the trees, I could see the tops of a massive structure, tall pillars linked with thick cables of wire. We were near a small stream, barely a trickle of water, connected by wide, flat puddles. As I approached, bullfrogs with six legs and long purple tails scurried beneath the boulders.
I cleaned up in the stream, compulsively washing my face and arms, scrubbing my skin raw. I felt like I’d been tainted with an invisible disease. I could feel ash in my lungs and my stomach twisted painfully.
“Why do I feel like I’ve just crawled out of a coffin?” Jazmine said, stretching her limbs
“Or been sleeping for a week?” Trevor asked.
“I hope it hasn’t been that long,” I said.
“Seriously, Em. What happened in there? I mean, all I really remember is the good food, soft sheets and the music.”
“It wasn’t real,” I said. “You were glamoured, all of you. All of us.”
“You mean that wasn’t Mrs. Hartmann?”
“It was, but... what you saw of her, that was an illusion. I found the real her, what was left of her body. I found Luke outside, April too. They were cutting themselves.”
I rolled up April’s sleeve and showed them. Her eyes widened at the deep, red cut around her wrist. The wound had clotted, but it looked infected. Luke lifted his sleeve as well, and then the others. Everyone had similar wounds, except Penelope.
I felt a throbbing in my wrist, and my fingers trembled as I peeled back a layer of clothing.
“She got you too,” Trevor nodded.
“I barely remember it,” I said softly. “It must have been before I drank the elixir.”
“We made it out, and we’re still alive,” Jazmine said. “Honestly, that’s not bad for a few days’ work.”
“It’s been at least that long.”
“Shit, we were supposed to meet Tobias in three days, what if we missed him! He won’t be able to find us again.”
“It’s too late for that,” Luke said. “He’s long gone by now.”
“He’ll wait,” Penelope said. “I know he will.”
Her pupils were wide and dark. I recognized the thirst. She’d spent the last few days in a food coma, and now she was hungry. This was going to get out of hand, fast.
“Look, the plan was to check out the king’s former residence and search for clues,” Luke said. “Mission accomplished. It was always a long shot. Jacob knew that. Now it’s time for plan B.”
“We have a plan B?” Jazmine asked.
> I knew what plan B was. It was blowing up the generators and liberating the compounds; the same thing I’d just stopped the rebels from doing in Sezomp. But that was before I knew the truth. I hadn’t told anyone what Mrs. Hartman said yet. It was too big, and I wasn’t ready for any more yelling or arguing. I still felt sick – the others, who had never seen what they were really eating, were just mildly uncomfortable. But I couldn’t stop thinking about the rotten, larva-filled fruit and moldy bread.
“Jacob told me to look out for you, to keep an eye out for you. And told me to shoot her if I had to. But now that your wild goose chase is done, it’s time to regroup with the others.”
“What others?” Jazmine asked. “We don’t even know if Jacob’s alive, and Havoc is gone.”
“I know where they’re going. I’m the only one that does. Jacob gave me a rendezvous point before shit hit the fan. You need someplace safe you can keep working on the cure, and to plan the next steps.”
“Fine,” I nodded. “But we need to meet with Tobias first.”
“It’s in the other direction,” Luke frowned. We were at the edge of a deep valley. From the remains of a gazebo and pile of yellow paddle boats, it was probably some kind of lake before. Thick black smoke rose up from where ash had ignited small brush fires. A few large birds, with long beaks and legs, stood like sentinels among the dark, smoldering reeds.
A tall, crumbling bridge, loomed in the horizon, held up by giant blocks of stone. A section had collapsed in the middle, leaving a small mountain of crushed vehicles beneath it.
“Then we’ll split up,” I said, looking towards the mountains on the other side. “Just tell us where to meet you.”
“No way,” Luke said, glancing behind us at Penelope. “They’re not going to let you in with her; they don’t even know you. And even if you can control her, I don’t trust her elite boyfriend. You may think you’re some hot shit, but I’m not risking my life for you.”
“In case you hadn’t noticed,” Trevor growled, “she just saved yours.”
“If she hadn’t given away the location of Havoc to the elites, we’d all still be safe. I’m not risking another hideout to her carelessness.”
Trevor stalked towards him but I held a hand against his chest to hold him off.
“He’s right to be careful. How’s this, tell Trevor where the rendezvous point is. You trust him to keep a secret from the elites, right? You take April and the others. Tell Jacob we’re coming. We’ll check the meet point first and see if Tobias left word, then we’ll catch up with you.”
Luke frowned, running a hand through his hair.
“What’s the matter?” Jazmine said, rolling her eyes. “Does the big bad rebel need protection?”
“I haven’t got any elixir,” he said.
“Here,” I said, giving him a vial. It was all I had left, but there were still several glistening drops.
“Where did you get that?” he asked, his eyes widening.
“Got in Crollust,” I said.
“Alright, fine,” he said finally, taking the vial.
He took Trevor to the side and I watched their shoulders hunch together.
“Promise me,” I heard Trevor say, “no harm will come to them; they’re chosen, they grew up in the compounds. I know that won’t make them popular with the Havocs. Wait for Jacob, or someone who knows you. Keep them safe.”
Luke nodded, and they clasped hands.
I felt bad looking at them, their torn, soiled clothing. Faded denim and leather, with buckles and straps to hold gear. And yet, somehow it suited them more than the fancy suits they were wearing in Crollust.
“Here,” I said, turning towards April. “I grabbed these from the basement on my way out. They might be important.” I handed her the stack of files and folders I’d grabbed before leaving the house.
Finally I saw Trevor nod, and he headed back to me. We watched the others leave, then made our way down the hill, cutting through the valley and passing beneath the massive stone foundations of the ruined bridge.
We still had a few hours before sundown.
Tobias had picked a meeting point that was easy to find. It was just on the other side of the valley, a large park full of creepy statues and miniature buildings with chipped paint. A giant clown face gaped at me as we approached through the trees, and I saw the turrets of a mock-castle. The ground was sloped and bent like a labyrinth.
“What was this place?” I asked.
“A game I think,” Penelope said, digging a small ball out of a cup full of dirt and dead leaves. She blew it off, then tossed it through one of the hollow buildings. It rolled out the other side.
“Tobias?” she called, walking around the perimeter of the strange settlement. Nearby, I saw a handful of small electric cars, with flat rubber bumpers long out of air. A few had been ripped apart, dismantled for parts or gear.
“He’s not here,” Penelope said finally. In her long dark jacket, white nightgown and the fine sword at her side, she looked like some kind of forlorn warrior princess, returning from battle.
“Wait, look,” Trevor said, pointing to a line in a flat stretch of ash. It looked like someone had dragged their foot deliberately. Trevor followed the line to a life-sized plastic unicorn, then reached his hand inside the broken plastic horn and pulled out a scrap of paper.
“It’s a message,” he said.
He stood up to read it, before passing it to Penelope. I read the note over her shoulder.
My Love, I pray I have not lost you again so soon. A man can only lose one heart in a lifetime. I won’t survive losing mine twice. King Richard is more suspicious than ever, I swear sometimes he can read my mind. He keeps me always busy with tasks, and expects constant updates. I can’t wait here any longer, but I will check back as soon as I can. I yearn for the day we are together again. Soon, my love.
“We shouldn’t linger,” Trevor said. The afternoon light was fading, giving an ominous pallor to the plaster figures and statuettes around us.
“Wait, I’ve got to leave a note.”
“Telling him what?” I asked.
“Where we’re going. You know it right?”
“We can’t just leave a note out here telling whoever finds it the top secret location of the rebel camp.”
“Then I’ll stay here, and wait for him.”
Trevor closed his eyes, thinking for a few minutes.
“Let me see the map,” he said finally. I unscrolled it from my backpack, also taking a sip of water from my canteen. I knew the water should be boiled, but we couldn’t afford to make a fire. And if I was still alive after eating god-knows-what in Fanno’s creek, I was pretty sure I could survive some unsterilized water.
“Alright, here,” Trevor said finally, pointing out a place on the map. “This should be pretty close to the place Luke told me about. Tell your elite to wait for you there, you can check every day if you want, or just stay there.”
“Sound good?” I asked.
“Fine,” Penelope agreed.
Trevor took out a pen and paper drew a map and directions on the bottom.
Penelope scrawled a quick note.
We’re safe. Gone to shelter. Find me.
We tucked the note into the hiding place where we’d found the first one, only a little deeper. Hopefully, nobody would find it if they weren’t looking in the just the right place, which meant it would still be there whenever Tobias came back.
It was nearly dark, and the sky was a deep lavender behind the cloud cover and ashfall.
My stomach was still queasy and tense, with occasional spasms of pain that made me stop to catch my breath. I hadn’t eaten real food in several days. But I didn’t feel like eating. I couldn’t stop thinking about Mrs. Hartmann.
What would Damien think, that I’d found his mother and left her there, rotting in a cage. I hoped he’d understand, but how could he? Would I even get a chance to see him again, to explain? So
much had happened since he’d opened the gates, saving me from his father’s wrath. Did he mean to share that memory with me? Did he want me to find the cure? Our paths seemed to be growing farther apart with each step I took into the wilderness, away from the citadel.
Trevor walked silently behind me. At one point he gave my hand a squeeze, but that was it. I was grateful he wasn’t pressuring me to talk like he usually did. He was in a foul mood too. He already hated the elites, for what they stood for; but he’d never really experienced what they were capable of. To be used, manipulated, until you couldn’t even trust your own mind. How could you beat an enemy like that? Maybe he was realizing his revolution wouldn’t be as easy as he imagined.
“Hold up,” Penelope called after we’d been walking a few more hours. It was late now, and the elixir in my system was all used up. I could tell, even if I wasn’t wearing the monitor, because my feet and legs were aching, my muscles burning. I curled my fingers around my last vial of elixir, holding it up to the light and tapping the glass. It was nearly empty, but there was probably a drop or two left. I wanted to drink more, but it would be selfish not to share, and I was sure Trevor would tell me to save it for an emergency.
“What’s up?” Trevor said. “We don’t have that much further to go.”
“Shopping outlet,” Penelope said, pointing to a low row of wide, open buildings with large broken windows.
“Looks like a slagpaw den to me.”
“We can clean up when we get to the base,” I said.
“Easy for you to say,” Penelope said, crossing her arms. “You’re human. You can look like shit and they’ll still accept you. In fact, the worse you look, the better. But what about me? I’m an elite, and I look like this,” she gestured down at her figure. I could see her curves and slim form even through the bulky, soiled clothes she was wearing. She’d left Crollust looking like a princess, but now she was wearing the tattered remains of the bloody nightgown she’d picked up in Sezomp, barely hidden by Tobias’s dark coat.