The Feral Sentence- Complete Box Set

by Shade Owens

  The image of Sunny’s naked, beaten body and her swollen, balloon-like face instantly popped into my head.

  The next thing I knew, I was mounted on top of Franklin with both my hands tight around her throat, squeezing as hard as I could.

  CHAPTER 11

  “She attacked me,” Franklin said, pointing a stiff finger straight at me. She rubbed her throat, which was covered in red markings.

  “I don’t care who started it,” Fisher said, her tired eyes fixed on Franklin. “You’re both adults. If you expect us to survive, you can’t be turning on each other.” She winced as Ellie slowly lowered her onto a wooden stump by the fire. She was paler than I’d ever seen her—a pasty cream color—and her eyes were sunken into dark blue circles.

  I tried not to stare at the wounds on her legs, but it was nearly impossible. There was yellow crusting and clear liquid dripping from the deeper wounds—puss, I assumed. The skin of her thighs was bright red, a sign of infection, but if you looked closely, you could see that her legs had turned a grayish-blue due to severe bruising.

  I quickly glanced up at Franklin, who was staring at me with such ferocity, and I wondered whether she’d still be alive had Fisher not yelled at me to let her go. I remembered feeling hands all over me, and fingers gripping my biceps in a desperate attempt to help Franklin, but I wouldn’t let go of her throat—at least, not until I heard Fisher’s voice.

  “Almost ready,” Everest said, twirling one of the crocodile’s skinless legs over the little fire.

  Hammer, who was as happy as a pig in mud, was sitting near one of the back hammocks with piles of crocodile skin at her side, along with its entire head. She’d promised to make me boots, and she was delivering on it.

  “After I eat,” I said, “I’m going to look for Navi.”

  Fisher didn’t say anything. She looked away, and her jaw muscles popped. I knew she wasn’t mad at me—she hated Franklin. In fact, had she not been in so much pain, she’d probably have praised me for jumping her. She was simply scared, frightened that I wouldn’t find our Medic in time, or at all. There was a good chance that Navi had been killed during the attack on our Village, but I had to try. Without proper medical care, she would die, and she knew it.

  “I’m comin’ with you,” Coin said.

  Johnson moved in. “Me too.”

  I wanted to smile, but my lips didn’t move.

  “We need protection here, too,” I said.

  Proxy stood tall. “I’ll stay here.”

  Johnson burst out laughing, but the sound came to an abrupt stop when she caught my eyes. I knew Proxy had more to offer than muscle—mind you, after having choked out Franklin, it was obvious she was stronger than she looked.

  “I will build contraptions,” Proxy continued, “along Redwood’s perimeter to trap any intruders.”

  I gave a brief nod. “You guys should be safe from any Ogre around here, so long as you stay in Redwood.”

  Based on the Ogres I’d encountered before, I knew how they operated. They didn’t attack merely to attack. They were nothing like the Northers. If you roamed their territory, however, that’s when danger presented itself. So long as the women stayed inside the camp, they were safe—at least from the Ogres.

  “You should have enough food here to hold you off for a while,” I said. “Johnson, you stay here with the women. Coin and I can handle the jungle.” I shot a quick glance at her muscular biceps. “I’d rather those muscles stay here to defend Redwood in the event of an attack.”

  She unfolded her arms and parted her lips to dispute my decision, but I looked over at Franklin, who was sitting against one of the massive trees carving a hunting spear, and Johnson went quiet. She knew my decision had nothing to do with protecting Redwood against an exterior threat—the only threat I was worried about was Franklin. Without Fisher in power, she’d try to take charge. If anyone stood up to her, it would be Johnson.

  She stared at me intently for a moment and nodded as a way of acknowledgment. For the first time, I viewed Johnson as an asset, rather than a nuisance who consistently provoked Proxy.

  “Is ready.” Everest raised the cooked piece of crocodile meat and straightened her rounded back.

  Everyone gathered like a bunch of flies around a pile of dung.

  Everest tore off a handful of meat and offered it to me before anyone else. I was a bit taken aback by this gesture. Was this a sign of respect? Was this her way of announcing to our society that she viewed me as their leader? Fisher was our leader right now—not me.

  I peered back at Fisher, who’d lowered herself to the ground entirely, her chest bouncing up and down with every rapid shallow breath, and realized then that as an alpha wolf loses its position within its pack if injured, Fisher too, had lost her place.

  Was I replacing her? It wouldn’t have been the first time I was forced to lead.

  I took the piece of meat and thanked her, but instead of biting down into it, even though I was starving to the point of pain, I brought it to Fisher. There was a powerful silence throughout Redwood as I knelt by Fisher’s side, offering her the first meal.

  “Here,” I said.

  But she shook her head and grimaced.

  I pushed the meat into her hand. “You haven’t eaten properly in days.”

  She placed a hand on her belly and shook her head again. “I can’t.”

  “Nauseous?”

  She nodded, her sunken eyes gazing up at me.

  “Okay,” I said, “but you need to eat soon.” I stood and faced the crowd of women who were hovering around Everest like vultures. “Make sure she eats at some point, please.”

  I gently plucked the meat from her hands and nearly swallowed it whole, only briefly tasting its tender and juicy chicken-like flavor.

  “I’ll watch her,” Ellie said, appearing beside me. She chewed a mouthful of meat, and added, “You’d better come back, otherwise, I’ll have to go out there and find you. And truth be told, I probably wouldn’t survive the jungle on my own.”

  She was trying to be silly—playful, but I could tell by the quiver in her bottom lip and the gloss over her eyes that she was doing everything in her power to avoid becoming emotional.

  I nodded slowly and forced a smile. “Don’t worry. I won’t leave you behind.”

  My throat tightened at the sound of my own words. What if I did leave her? What if I died trying to find Navi or the Hunters? What if something happened to her while I was gone? I wanted to ask her to come with me, but I knew she wasn’t equipped or trained to be out in the jungle. She’d admitted it herself. She was safer staying in Redwood, where she’d be able to attend to Fisher’s wounds.

  “I’m gonna miss you.” I cleared my throat and looked away, but her arms came swinging around my neck and she pulled me tight against her. She combed her fingers into the back of my hair and held a firm hand behind my head, and we stood there, holding onto each other.

  “Just come back, okay?” she whispered.

  I nodded again, my face buried in her neck. I didn’t want to let go. I didn’t want to say goodbye. A profound guilt kicked in. Why had I pushed her away? Why had I been so distant? What if this was the last time I’d ever feel her skin against mine? Hear her soothing voice? Look into those beautiful, reassuring eyes of hers?

  I brushed my cheek against hers until we were face-to-face. I looked down at her bright red lips and back up at her eyes, then slowly moved in and pressed my lips against hers. She pulled me in tighter, her hot breath blowing out of her nose and onto my face. I finally pulled back, knowing that if I didn’t, I might decide not to leave.

  “I’ll come back,” I said, but I couldn’t shake the sinking feeling in my stomach—that something terrible was going to happen.

  CHAPTER 12

  They weren’t Hush Puppies, but they were sturdy and guaranteed to protect my feet.

  “Try to take them off as often as possible so they can dry,” Hammer had told me, handing me my new pair of crocodile s
kin boots. She’d somehow managed to put together ankle-high boots with slabs of wood underneath to form soles. “I tried to clean off as much blood as I could, but there might still be some on the inside. And for the record, despite what you might think, they’re not waterproof. If they’re too wet, too often, you’ll damage them.”

  Any anger I may have felt toward her in the past for having robbed me of my pearls when I first landed on the island was gone. She’d gone above and beyond to ensure that I was not only safe during my venture, but comfortable. She’d also carved new spears for Coin and me and crafted several new arrows to fill my quiver.

  But what blew my mind was the protective crocodile scale vest she’d managed to put together. She’d used the crocodile’s back—the toughest part of its body—and built something similar to a bulletproof vest, only it was dark green and completely scaled and lumpy due to its hard scutes, which offered a shield-like plate over my chest and back.

  “This should protect you from arrows and other weapons,” she’d told me.

  I knew it was unfair that Coin hadn’t received the same treatment as me, but at the same time, I was the one on the front line. If anyone were to get killed first, it would probably be me.

  I owed Hammer everything.

  “You honestly think Navi’s still alive?” Coin asked, sliding her way in between two closely grown banana trees.

  I didn’t want to answer her. I didn’t want to speak the words aloud, fearing they might come true.

  “I don’t know,” I said.

  “And the Hunters?” she pressed.

  “They’re out there,” I said, remembering one of Coin’s friends, Thompson, who’d assured us she’d seen Trim and several other women after the attack.

  “Which way we goin’, anyways?” Coin asked. “How do you know where to look?”

  “I don’t,” I said, my patience thinning. I wasn’t in the mood for chitchat. My friends were out there, possibly in need of help, and Fisher was back at Redwood, in need of immediate care.

  If only Kormace Island had a hospital, I thought.

  * * *

  “Sweetheart, I think it’s best you wait in the waiting room,” the nurse said.

  I scanned her name tag—Alice.

  “She’s my mom, Alice,” I said. “I need to know she’s okay.”

  I craned my neck to peer over her shoulder, but all I saw was my mom’s blanket-wrapped feet pointing upward as they rolled her away on a gurney.

  “She suffered a severe concussion and a dislocated jaw,” Alice said. “The doctor needs to set it and scan her neck and spine for any damage to her spinal cord. He’ll come see you as soon as she’s stable.”

  She was about to walk away, but she froze and turned around on the heels of her sneakers. “The police will want to talk to you,” she said, eyeing the two uniformed police offers standing in front of the reception desk. “Your mom told the doctor she fell down her apartment stairs. If there’s something else you know,” she paused, staring at me as if she could see right through me, “you should tell the police.”

  I nodded, even though I knew I’d stick by my mom’s story. This wasn’t the first time Gary had beaten her, and every time it happened, she threatened to stop talking to me if I ratted on him.

  “It’s not his fault,” she’d say, and every time, I imagined killing him.

  * * *

  Another memory flashed in my head—me, holding the cast iron frying pan and swinging it hard against the back of Gary’s head to stop him from strangling my mother to death.

  For the first time, I had no guilt about what I’d done.

  I was glad I’d killed that son of a bitch.

  I waited for the guilt to set in—for my moral compass to tell me that the thoughts I was having weren’t real; they were the result of misdirected anger. But nothing happened. I felt no guilt, no remorse, nothing.

  “Yo, Brone, check it out,” Coin said in a whisper.

  I followed her pointed finger to a woman’s body curled up in the mud. Her freckled skin was pale and her lips a gray blue with bits of dry skin peeling off. Her bloody hands formed a cup over her stomach, covering what appeared to be a spear wound.

  “She’s one of ours,” Coin said, pointing out her suede leather attire.

  “She’s not too far from Redwood,” I said. “I wonder how many other women came out this way.”

  “Don’t know,” Coin said. “They sure as hell didn’t go south. Ain’t nothin’ but the Dead Zone out there.”

  I sighed and scratched my eyebrow. I knew we were in way over our heads. Who was I kidding? How on Earth would I find the Hunters on Kormace Island? They could be anywhere. I’d probably never see them again.

  “Just keep marking,” I said. “Let’s keep moving.”

  Coin used her spear and carved a groove in a thin, moss-covered tree that reached several hundred feet into the air. I stared upward for a while, realizing how much I missed sunlight. With the forest’s dense vegetation and tightly closed canopies above, I was lucky to get a few inches of yellow warmth.

  A familiar anger surged through me. This was all because of the Northers. Our sunlit home, our people—everything was gone because of them.

  I had to find the Hunters. We needed to rebuild our strength.

  I hacked a Swiss cheese-looking leaf out of my face and tackled my way through an array of palm plants. Coin followed quietly, continuing to mark trees as we pressed through the jungle.

  We traveled for hours, aimlessly wandering in hopes of running into a few of our people. We did come across our people—three more of them, in fact—only they were dead.

  Two of them had had their throats slit, which meant the Northers had traversed this area of Kormace Island, and the other suffered from what appeared to be dehydration, or a disease.

  “Here,” Coin said, handing me one of the dead women’s knives.

  We took what we could off the bodies—clothes, weapons, and even a pair of leather boots, which fit Coin’s feet. I didn’t like the idea of taking from the dead, but they weren’t going to be using the items anymore. It would have been wasteful to leave them behind.

  “We should try to find fresh water,” I said, remembering that our best bet in finding our people would be to move toward water. Although Fisher had advised against drinking any water on the island without proper filtration, most women weren’t aware of the dangers of contamination, which meant they’d drink any water they could find, even if it killed them. And if by chance they were aware of this danger, they would still gravitate toward water for cleansing purposes.

  “If you hear any flowing water, let me know,” I said.

  Coin nodded.

  My feet had already begun to chafe inside the crocodile skin boots. Fortunately, my skin was completely callused, which helped with the pain, but it would take a while for me to adjust to these new kicks.

  “Goddamn it!” Coin hissed, dodging a full five feet to the side.

  I swung around, prepared to scold her for having spoken so loud when I saw the intricate web crafted in the air between intertwined branches. Right below it hung a hairy spider the size of a tennis ball, its lanky legs flicking below its belly as it spun its web.

  I smirked. Although it disgusted me, I’d seen so many of these little guys during our hunts. They were harmless, and for the most part, friendly.

  “Doesn’t bite,” I said.

  Her eyes went huge—bright white gumballs in comparison to her dark skin.

  “Doesn’t bite? Man, I wouldn’t care if it did bite! I don’t want that thing touchin’ me!”

  It was funny to see Coin—a short, tough-looking woman with arms the size of baseball bats—cower away at the sight of a bug. Granted, it was a big bug, but it was still funny.

  I thought back to when I’d first landed on the island. Even the thought of a spider web had been enough to throw me into a panic attack. Desensitization was key.

  She scurried underneath the web as fast as
possible and ran her hands roughly over her head as if it had somehow spat webs at her.

  I shook my head and smiled. “There’ll be way more. And until you’ve seen a Goliath, that’s nothing.”

  “Goliath?” she asked, her voice almost a croak.

  “Tarantula,” I said. “About the size of guinea pig.” I held an invisible ball with my hands at eye level. “Some are bigger, some smaller. The ones I’ve seen are orange. They have beady little black eyes and a bunch of little hairs—” I pointed at invisible hairs along my arms.

  “Yo! Okay!” Coin said. “I get it. Jesus.”

  “Wish you’d stayed behind?” I said, amused by her panic.

  She parted her lips, but a nearby sound caught her attention and her eyes narrowed.

  CHAPTER 13

  I sat in a crouched position, listening to the sound of someone, or something, rustling nearby.

  Coin’s eyes met mine, and her knuckles lightened in color as she gripped her hunting spear with both hands. I prepared my bow and slowly crept toward the sound, adrenaline pumping through me.

  With my arrow’s head, I pushed aside a handful of bush leaves and peered through the opening.

  Coin’s face appeared beside mine, our cheeks almost touching. “What is it?”

  But I couldn’t answer.

  Coin immediately pulled away and placed a hand over her mouth to prevent vomit from coming out. I’d have done the same, but car crash syndrome set in, and I couldn’t stop staring no matter how disturbing the sight was.

  A young woman—maybe in her early twenties—was lying flat on her side surrounded by a pool of blood. The first thing that caught my attention, aside from her dark eyes slowly meeting mine, was a pile of intestines and other small organs resting in front of her belly, which was torn open from her pelvic area all the way up to her chest.

  She tried to crawl, but all she did was rake rotten leaves and collect mud underneath her fingernails.