by L. A. MARIE
“I have to get back,” I said. “Naira is waiting.”
Honovi nodded. “Tell her I said hi. And don’t go around the west side, they’re looking for trouble around those parts.”
“I live around the west side, where am I supposed to go?”
Honovi shrugged. “I’m just saying.”
I shook my head and walked away. Honovi was a good friend, but he didn’t always understand. We all lived in our own little worlds now, connected to the Malakus in most ways, but strangely isolated from each other. We couldn’t share in our pain now, we couldn’t stand together and fight. There was nothing left to fight for.
I kept my eyes open as I moved through the town. Holbrook only had about six thousand inhabitants, but it could get rough when a lot of them were your enemy. It was a case of survival of the fittest. Food was scarce, money even more so. Work was tough to find with the Malakus taking the jobs that paid well and had tech that could take care of the mundane and trivial tasks.
The house was in sight and all had gone well when they jumped me. It was a group of them, all boys or men, all Navajo. Where were the days when we stuck together, stood up for each other?
“Come on, sweetheart, give it up,” on of them said, grabbing the bag, trying to get it out of my hands. But I had held onto that bag with a grip of steel. Naira and I hadn’t eaten in two days – I wasn’t giving up our food.
“Not a chance,” I said, and punched the guy who had grabbed for the bag in the face.
They were all shocked. I was a girl, I was only 5’4 and I looked sweet and innocent. But I could fight. And I would fight, too.
“We’re all hungry, half-breed,” one of them spat. “Why don’t we share?”
“Call me half-breed again,” I warned, my hand balled into a fist, ready to dish it out to the next one that tried.
Honovi appeared behind me.
“Leave her alone,” he said.
“Aww, sticking up for you girlfriend?” one of them snickered.
“I don’t need anyone to stick up for me!” I shouted and charged the closest one. He bounced back. I glared at them all. They glanced at each other and attacked all at the same time. I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but it wouldn’t be my first rodeo. I started swinging. I didn’t let go of the bag – instead, I used it as a weapon. It had glass bottles in it, and containers. I risked losing some of the food if the bottles broke, but a glass against the head hurt like a bitch.
Honovi was right next to me, but I did most of the fighting, going bat shit crazy. Eventually, the guys muttered something about letting a girl win, and took off. Honovi and I stood together, breathing hard.
“You didn’t need to save me,” I said to him.
“I know,” he said. “I see that now. I’m glad you’re okay.”
I nodded and headed to the house. After a few steps, I turned and looked back to Honovi, who had started walking back to his shop.
“Honovi,” I called, and he turned. “Thanks.”
He smiled and nodded before we both headed in our respective directions.
Our house wasn’t a great one, but it was home. Nothing more than a squat rectangle, painted gray to look more modern. Two bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen, a living room. Nothing fancy. But it was more than enough for the two of us. It had been enough for the four of us, back in the day.
“I’m home,” I called out when I walked through the door. The house was warm, cozy. Sunlight fell through the living room window on the worn couches. Naira sat curled up in the sun, reading a book. When I walked in, she looked up and grinned, jumping off the couch to greet me.
“What did you bring?” she asked.
“Food,” I said. “A few cans that will last us a while, and those bottles of sauce you love so much.”
“You shouldn’t have!” Naira said, excited. “They’re expensive!”
I pulled up my shoulders. “Jorge gave me a good deal. We deserve something nice once in a while.”
Naira fished through the rest of the groceries, checking what I’d brought.
“I’ll cook tonight,” she said. “You’ve done enough.”
I dropped myself on the couch, happy to be off my feet. I had gone out early, before the sun had been up, to get to Phoenix and find food before it was all sold out. Naira stood in the open plan kitchen, starting to cook for us, while I filled her in on the gossip I’d picked up on the way.
“What did they say about the disease?” Naira asked.
I stilled. “What did you hear about that?”
Naira rolled her eyes at me. “You can’t hide everything from me, that doesn’t keep me safer. I’m not a kid anymore.”
“I know,” I said. Naira hadn’t been a kid since our parents had died. She was only seventeen now, eight years younger than I was, but she was an old soul by now. It was what happened when you grew up too fast, and we had both experienced far too much pain and heartache to remember what it meant to be young anymore.
I filled her in on what I had heard.
“I don’t think we should worry too much,” I said. “It’s a bad one, but as long as we keep to our own neighborhoods, we should be fine.”
“I heard its airborne,” Naira said.
My blood ran cold. If it was airborne, none of us would be safe. The Malakus had medicine that could heal us, but they wouldn’t just give it up. I would have to do something in return, and often that meant going to labor camps. I would never see Naira again.
“We’ll be fine,” I said. I just wished I sounded a little more convincing.
Naira finished cooking and we sat together, eating, laughing. Our cable had been shut off ages ago, we hadn’t watched TV in years. But it didn’t matter. We had each other. Family was everything. Peace and Harmony were big, but family was everything. As long as Naira and I were together, we could do anything.
We sat talking until late. Finally, Naira yawned and stood.
“I think I need to get some sleep. I was thinking of spring cleaning tomorrow.”
I nodded. “I’ll help.”
We walked to our rooms. When we were younger, we had shared a room. But with my parents gone, and Naira getting older, I had finally decided to move into the main bedroom. Our parents weren’t coming back and not using the room because it was a sort of shrine wasn’t practical. I was the one taking care of Naira now, anyway. After Naira went to bed, I crawled into my parents’ double bed and pulled the sheets up to my chin. The room got cold at night, but if I slept curled in a ball, I could stay warm. I reached across the big bed and touched the pillow my mom used to sleep on.
I missed my parents so much. I missed the family we used to be. I missed the simpler times, when we didn’t have so much to worry about, and surviving wasn’t so hard.
No matter how hard I tried, sleep didn’t come. I kept missing my parents. And I worried about what tomorrow would bring. Every new day was another day we somehow pulled through. And every night, I prayed that we would see yet another sunrise.
Because I was terrified that one day, we wouldn’t.
Chapter Three
Thane
There was no fucking way I was staying in this hell hole a moment longer. I had been in a lot of cages, but this one was a whole new ballgame. I had heard of Blackford, it was in the news every now and then. My father had done some grand opening for it back when it had been first built.
Well, now I knew why everyone loved the idea so much. Because it turned you into a damn animal. Maybe some of the guys in here deserved it. I knew for a fact that Scar Face – who had become Bloody Puss after I’d finished with him – deserved to stay here.
Hell, everyone else could rot in here, whatever. I didn’t give a shit. It just wasn’t for me. I wasn’t going to extend my stay, fuck you very much.
But that meant escape. Because it just so happened that with a criminal record as long as my arm and the added bonus of me being labelled a mass murderer now, I had been sentenced to life.
Fucking life.
Yeah… not interested.
So upside was that I knew this place. I knew that it wasn’t completely unbreakable. I had seen the blueprints for the damn thing way back when my father had decided to build it in the first place. And far be it from me to see information and not take it in. I’d heard a lot of things that day, seen the files. The blueprints for the prison had only been one part of it. He had talked about some healing tech that would keep the humans alive long enough to make real slaves of them, too. And he’d said something about devices for soldiers. But that was still far off. The prison had been built, and the tech was in a beta test. But the devices hadn’t been set in motion. Not yet.
And they wouldn’t for quite some time, if I had anything to do with it.
Gods, my father hated me. That was why it was so much more satisfying when I fucked up his plans. Yeah, I was the Disappointment, the son he wished he never had. Because I’d failed everything, he’d wanted me to do.
Soldier training? Sure, I’d learned everything there was to know. But I’d fucked up the tests on purpose. Who the hell wanted to work for a man as cold as my father? I wasn’t going to be his pawn. He’d put me on the Council, after that. Because knowing what he was planning would help me in the long run. Better to know what my father had up his sleeve, so that I would know when he was going to make me take the fall for it again.
That happened a hell of a lot and I was sick of it. Whenever something went wrong, I got blamed.
Sure, whatever.
When he kicked me off the Council for being useless, I’d been glad. It had been boring as fuck.
But I knew what my father was playing at, now. And that gave me an edge.
An edge I could only use when I got out of here. I had already set everything up, I’d already made my plans. It wasn’t my fault that fucking riot had popped up right in front of me. I didn’t understand humans protesting. They made a big fuss over something and it didn’t change much that I could see. Anyway, I’d been pissed off, my father had been an ass, and they’d gotten in my way.
They weren’t in anyone’s way anymore.
But now I was here. Dammit. I had to get out.
When the door to the low confinement cell opened, I squeezed my eyes shut and grunted against the sudden flood of light.
“How long was I in here?” I asked.
“Only two days,” the guard said. “They were lenient, this time. Because you’re new at Blackford.”
I grunted as a response.
“And they moved Agai to a different cell. Your new cellmate is also fresh off the street, so try not to do something stupid that will get your ass back in here for a month.”
I didn’t say anything. I let the guard cuff me without fighting it, and marched back to my cell no questions asked. The door slid open and I was put back in.
The Malaki that sat on the bunk next to mine jumped up. He was short and scrawny and looked terrified of his own shadow. When the guard left, my hands uncuffed, he held out his hand to me.
“I’m Sten,” he said. “We can be friends, right?”
“You’re scared of me,” I said. I sat down on my bunk before lying down, stretching out. Man, it was good to be able to do something other than sit or lay curled in a ball.
“Everyone’s scared of you. After what you did to Agai…”
“What did I do to him?”
“Didn’t you hear?”
I gave Sten a dirty look.
“Right,” he said. “You were in the shoe. Well, Agai is still in the infirmary.”
“Pussy,” I sniffed.
Sten chuckled. “Okay, okay. As long as you don’t have a problem with me, we’re all good. I don’t have any problem sharing a cell with you or anything.”
I nodded. I liked Sten. He was just a kid. I didn’t know what he did to get in here, but he was nothing like Scar Face. He was scared of me, and I liked it that way. Talkative, but while I’d been in the Shoe I hadn’t had any company so it was okay for now. I could always just tell him to shut up, later. I was sure he’d listen.
“So, we’re going to have a blast together,” Sten said. “If we play this right, we won’t have to switch cells again. Like, ever. I hate being rotated all the time.”
“How many times have you been rotated?”
“Well, before I came here, when I was at Milharbor, a few times… but here only once.”
“Get used to the idea it’s going to happen again, boy,” I said. “I don’t think I’ll be staying.”
Sten laughed. “You’re funny.”
I scowled at him. “Did it sound like I was joking?”
The smile slowly faded from his face, replaced with a frown. “No one comes to Blackford unless it’s a life sentence or something equally long. Where are you going?”
I pulled up my shoulders. Might as well tell this kid – he wasn’t going to tell on me. And he wasn’t going to stop me, either.
“I’m escaping, kid. I wasn’t made for places like this.”
Sten’s eyes widened. “You can’t do that. You won’t be able to get out of here.”
“Who are you to tell me what I can and can’t do?” I demanded. Maybe crushing this kid’s skull wasn’t a bad idea after all.
“I’m not saying you shouldn’t, I’m saying you couldn’t,” Sten said.
Arrogant little shit if I ever saw one. But I wasn’t going to listen to him. Because he didn’t know what I knew. And it was better that way.
“What are you in for?” I asked, changing the topic.
Sten pulled up his shoulders. “Murder.”
“Who’d you kill?”
“Who didn’t I kill?” he asked.
I rolled my eyes. “Cocky remarks will get you killed in here. These guys don’t take to arrogance lightly, not unless you can back it up.” I looked him up and down. I didn’t have to add to my sentence. Sten shrunk away from me a little and looked dejected. Yeah, if he got into a fight with any of the other inmates – especially someone like Agai, he was going to eat shit hard and fast.
“Learn your place,” I said. “You don’t want someone else to teach you.”
He nodded and swallowed. In way, I envied the guy. He thought something of himself. He had something to be arrogant about. Even if it wasn’t something he could fall back on. I had lost all of that. I was bitter and crude. I knew that – I didn’t need to know what other people thought of me to know what and who I was.
Sten was a murderer, too. A big one, apparently, if he was in here with me. But there was something about him that was almost wholesome.
Some people just had all the luck. Killing, life sentences, bad ass shit like that. And they still kept that part of themselves that was such a damn shame to lose.
If I hadn’t lost mine, I might have been more upset about it than I was. Now, I was just irritated with everyone who had gotten off easier than I had, when I didn’t deserve this bullshit fate any more than the rest of those people who could hold onto what ever the fuck their mommies said was golden inside them.
“Seriously, man,” Sten said after a moment of silence. “You can’t try to get out of here.”
“Will you fucking drop it?” I snapped. “I don’t need advice from some snot-nosed child who likes to think he’s some big as villain after killing off a few guys.”
“That’s not fair,” Sten said.
“Get over it,” I grumbled.
Sten lay down on his bunk and stared at the ceiling. After a while, he turned his back to me. On the back of his faded jumpsuit, I made out the words Blackford Penitentiary.
I hated it here.
Before dinner time, we had a recreational hour. It sounded glorious. It wasn’t. We were allowed out in small groups, and “outside” was nothing more than a square box with no ceiling where we had to walk in circles. While I walked, I looked around, taking note of everything. The guards, where they were positioned, the guns I could see, the cameras. If I wanted to get out, this would b
e my best bet. The opening at the top was three stories above us. And it was all solid concrete. But I could figure something out if I thought about it for a bit.
One of the inmates walked close to me, tripped, and bumped against me. He glared at me as he did. It had been on purpose. I launched myself at him and shouldered him as hard as I could, slamming him into the concrete wall. Our hands were all bound, but that wouldn’t stop me. I clasped my hands together and I was ready to swing a double-fist, pulverizing his face a little, when one of the guards snapped a taser at me. I snapped my teeth right back at him.
“I can make your life hell, inmate,” he sneered.
“I can end yours,” I replied.
The guard snapped his taser again.
“If you kill a guard, you’re signing your own death sentence,” one of the inmates close to me said in a low voice.
“He’ll still be dead,” I said over my shoulder.
There were no more comments.
Dinner was in the cafeteria and consisted of what looked – and tasted – like shit on a plate. And then we were frog marched back to our cells, where only then the cuffs came off. I wasn’t allowed anywhere without cuffs on. And it grated me. I hated being treated like I was a danger to society.
I ignored the fact that I was.
Lights out was at eight-thirty. Just after the actual sunset. And the inmates all catcalled and hooted at each other, until the guards ran their batons against the bars of the cells to shut us the hell up.
Then, it was quiet. And pitch dark. I hated it. It reminded of the Shoe I had just spent two days in. I didn’t like being alone with my thoughts. I didn’t like having a chance to think
I forced myself to fall asleep. Amazing what the Malaki mind could do when forced. Sleep would be an escape from my thoughts.
“father , where are you?” I asked, walking through the house. I peeked into every room, looking for him, but he was nowhere to be found. The large windows were all open. One of Nolmilea’s two moons was low, big, and bright red. The stars twinkled in the sky, reflecting the twinkling city lights below that stretched beyond the large house my dad had bought my mom a few years ago.
