by Shade Owens
“You think they won’t see us?”
“Not saying they won’t, but I don’t think they’ll realize what’s going on until it’s too late. Besides, if we leave after nightfall, we’ll be heard before we even make it out of the city. Right before sunset, women are still roaming the city, buying items from the market, and having loud conversations.”
Quinn rubbed her chin, tapped her cheek, then made her way to her septum piercing.
She pointed a finger at me. “You’re smart, Brone.”
I didn’t feel smart, but I’d take the compliment. “Has everyone been t—”
But then someone caught my attention. She walked behind Quinn, her gaze aimed in my direction and her two-tone hair hanging over half her face. She playfully pulled at the rope string around her wrist, and although it looked like she was waiting to talk to us, she didn’t say anything.
“Holland,” I said.
I knew I’d sounded cold, but I didn’t care. Even though she’d begged for my forgiveness, she’d never have it. And out of all the women on this island, she was the last person I’d trust. So why had Quinn given her a bracelet? I glanced at Quinn, who didn’t say anything, then back at Holland.
“H-hey,” she said. “I heard about the… you know.”
I stared at her.
I could tell she hated herself for what she’d done—for being responsible for the loss of hundreds of lives—but at the same time, I wasn’t certain it was genuine. When we’d first found her near the Village, she’d looked like a new arrival clad in blue jeans and with bleached-blond hair. But the entire time, she’d been working for the Northers.
So why were we trusting her now?
“Is there anything I can do to help?” she asked, looking at her feet. She pulled at the bracelet again and bit her bottom lip. With light eyes, a strong jawline, and a petite frame, Holland wasn’t an ugly girl by any means. In fact, she’d probably have landed a modeling contract in the real world. But after everything she’d done, she was one of the ugliest women I could stand to look at.
I ground my teeth, carefully weighing my next words. I wanted to tell her to go fuck herself, but there was no point. I opened my mouth, prepared to tell her there was nothing she could do, when I realized there was something she could do.
“Yeah, actually,” I said, and her eyes rolled up at me. “Go see Hammer at the Food Station.”
“Food station?” Quinn asked. “Our shifts are up.”
I smirked. “Yeah, well, she’s still working”—I formed two air quotes with my fingers—“hard over there. I asked her to carve out a few weapons.”
Quinn’s face stretched, revealing a big yellow smile, and she smacked me on the shoulder. “Good thinking, Brone.”
“What if she gets caught?” Holland asked. She stepped closer when a few women started spreading away from the market and out into the city. “You do know what they do to women if they catch them with a weapon, right? Smith’s the only one allowed to—”
“Why would they catch her, Holland?” I said, though it came out as an accusation.
She quickly shook her head. “I-I don’t know. They just know things. They see things. Especially the ones on the elephants.”
I stared toward the market, spotting only one elephant rider out and about today. The other one must have been resting behind the wooden gates. The elephant walked slowly, looking like a giant piece of crisp clay in the heat of the sun.
Poor thing.
The woman on top didn’t look any better either. Her face and shoulders looked like burned leather, and although she was far away, I could see sweat shining on her forehead. She wiped it every few minutes, prodded at the elephant, and made her way around the market.
“Hammer’s not stupid,” I said. “She knows how to hide what she’s doing.”
Why was I even telling her this? What if she ran off to the Northers to tell them everything we were planning? But there was something in her eyes that told me she felt so guilty, she’d do about anything to gain my trust.
“I know you don’t trust me, Brone,” she said as if reading my mind. “But I want out of here as bad as you do… You have no idea the things… the things they’ve—” But she turned her head and bit hard on her lip. “They had my sister, Brone. They had her and they said unless I—”
“Where’s your sister now?” I asked.
But she didn’t answer. Instead, she shook her head and wiped tears from her eyes.
“Look,” Quinn interrupted. “I think we can all agree that they’re complete savages and that we all want out of here.”
Quinn was right. Holland would have had to be downright psychotic to help the Northers after everything they’d done—especially if what she was saying was true; if the Northers had threatened her with her sister’s life, only to then kill her.
“There’s nothing here for me anymore,” Holland said.
I gave her a brief nod. “Okay, then. Go see Hammer and get yourself a shiv. If you’re on our side like you say you are, you’ll be prepared to kill anyone who gets in our way when we start running.”
CHAPTER 13
An eerie tension filled the air inside the city; the kind that follows a catastrophic event on a rainy day.
Women gathered closer and closer to the eastern edge, prepared to follow my instructions. But what bothered me most was that numerous women without bracelets stood prepared, their gazes scanning the city in search of me.
There was nothing I could do about that. These bracelets didn’t divide us from our slaved society. They were intended to create a sense of union—not separate us. If these women had learned of the plan and wanted to run, I couldn’t stop them.
In fact, our odds of surviving increased with every woman who joined the escape, so long as they didn’t get in my way.
“What are these women doing?” I heard.
I turned sideways to find Storm, or Snow Face, standing beside me with her white-freckled arms crossed over her chest. I still didn’t understand what kind of a person tattooed white speckles all over themselves, but it wasn’t my place to judge.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Throwing a party.”
The next thing I knew, her hand was wrapped around my throat and one of her followers stood behind me with something sharp jabbing me in the back.
“You think you are funny?” Snow Face said, her putrid breath slipping into my nostrils and mouth.
I didn’t say anything.
Her dark, hateful eyes turned into little slits. “If you are planning anything—”
“Back the fuck off, Dandruff.”
Snow Face’s grimace turned into a malevolent smile—the kind of cliché smile that says, You may have won this battle, but you didn’t win the war.
Behind every one of Snow Face’s followers stood two of Quinn’s women—young adults with tattoos, piercings, and rope around their wrists and ankles. They stood close to Snow Face’s women with their chests pressed up against the other women’s backs.
Snow Face gave a quick jerk of her head, and her women backed down. Their eyes, however, didn’t leave mine. It was as if they were trying to threaten me to sleep with my eyes open.
But I wouldn’t be sleeping here tonight.
“Thanks,” I said, and Quinn gave me a sturdy slap on the back.
“Don’t mention it.”
“You guys ready for this?” I asked.
The women nodded. I felt bad for them. They didn’t seem much older than me, and their fearless attitude made them look exactly like a group of girls who’d spent several years growing up in juvenile prison, which, according to Quinn, they had.
I looked over my shoulder, toward Rainer’s wooden gates. It wouldn’t be long now, and together, we would all run.
The sound of wood clanking against wood drew nearer and nearer until I realized it was Hammer making her way to me with a bag in her hands. She grinned from ear to ear, her puffy cheeks forming little balls under her eyes when they’d h
ave formed big balloons only a few months ago. Beside her stood Holland, looking angry, almost, but I could tell she was nervous.
“Get armed, ladies,” Hammer said.
I grabbed her arm and pulled her around a hanging sheet of cotton.
“Did anyone see you?” I said.
She cocked an eyebrow as if to say, What am I? An amateur?
“Where’s everyone else?” I asked. “And Tegan? What about Sumi?”
“Relax, Brone,” she said. “They’re coming.”
Quinn was the first to reach into the bag. She plucked from it an unevenly carved piece of wood that reminded me more of a miniature stake one would use to kill a vampire.
“We still on?” came Coin’s voice. She crouched beside me with Johnson to her left, her face hovering over the bag of weapons.
“Yeah,” Quinn said.
At the sound of her voice, I stretched my neck back and looked up at her. For the first time, she didn’t look like someone who ran the place—her confidence was gone, and her forehead was shiny, beads of sweat dripping along her long-haired brow.
“You okay?” I asked.
She nodded, cleared her throat, and said, “Whatever happens, guys, keep running.”
“Why?” Johnson said. “Is something going to happen?”
“We don’t know,” I cut in. I rubbed my finger along the tips of each piece of wood, feeling for the sharpest one, then plucked it out. “Anything could happen. We have to be prepared.”
“Yeah, but there should only be one or two guards waiting in the woods, right?” asked one of Quinn’s women. She shot a glance at another young woman beside her, presumably her best friend, and turned back to me. “That’s what everyone’s been saying.”
“There should be,” I said. “If all goes well, we’ll take them down and be miles away before the others realize what’s going on. You guys have to get out of here, though,” I said, waving a hand in the air. “You’re drawing attention to us. Just stick to the plan, and like Quinn said, don’t stop running.”
The crowd around me had tripled in size, surrounding me with people I’d never seen before. As the women scattered, I turned to Quinn and my women—Coin, Hammer, Arenas, and Johnson. “If anything happens to me, I need you guys to promise me that you’ll do whatever it takes to get to the Cove.”
“Man, don’t talk like that,” Coin said. “Ain’t nothin’ gonna happen to you—”
“Coin, think about it for a second. You really think the Northers are gonna let us run free? Sure, we’ll make it far before they come after us… But they will come after us.”
“We outnumber them,” Johnson said. “Even if they do—”
“We might outnumber them,” Hammer cut in, “but we’re not in a position to fight. They’ll be shooting arrows at our backs in no time.”
“Hammer’s right,” Quinn said.
“Maybe,” Coin added, “but ain’t like they’re gonna send their entire army after us.”
I looked up at Coin and parted my lips.
“What?” she said. “What am I missing? There ain’t that many of them, Brone. At least not compared to us.”
I’d never sat down and told any of them about what I’d seen behind the wooden gates. I’d never told them about the women being trained for battle—women who assumedly had been taken from the city or captured from other tribes to be used as weapons.
And what about the women I saw sitting in cages beside the mountain? The cages—thick bamboo structures—had formed a half-moon around Murk, who’d been strung up by her wrists and left to hang on her knees in the grass.
I hadn’t told them any of this because I hadn’t wanted to frighten them.
“They have more women,” I said, “a lot of them.”
Coin’s eyes nearly popped out of her skull. She got up and took a step back, slapped two hands on her waist, and looked at me like she wanted to either punch me in the face or like I’d punched her in the face.
“More wom—” she said. “How? What’re you talkin’ about?”
“You saw Franklin, right?” I said.
“Yeah, but what—”
“They have an army,” I said. “There were at least forty women back there training to fight. You know the battle sounds you hear over the fence every day? Well—”
Coin stuck out a hand to stop me. “Yeah, I get it, Brone. I assumed those were the Northers.”
Quinn took a step forward, glanced around, then cleared her throat. “When they took us from our camp,” she said solemnly, “half my women disappeared. I never imagined—” Her gaze fell on me, but she looked down at the dirt. “It makes sense. Why would they need so many of us to sustain them if there were only a few dozen Beasts back there? Sometimes, Zsasz asks for an entire boar or a basket of fish for supper. They are feeding an army.”
Johnson threw her freckled hands in the air and let out a loud sigh. “So we are outnumbered!” She shuffled closer to me, crouched down, and stared me square in the face. “We can’t do this. Not now. Not tonight. If what you’re saying is true… They’ll catch up to us within a few hours and slaughter all of us.”
“Not if we all split ways,” Hammer said.
Johnson laughed, though it came out as more of a scoff. She narrowed her eyes on Hammer and flared her nostrils. “So, what? We’re all gonna run out there like a bunch of bingo balls? Take our chances and see who gets taken out?”
Quinn cocked an eyebrow and tightened the grip around her crossed arms. She wasn’t a big fan of Johnson, and the lack of respect seemed to have started when Johnson asked her if her name had any relation to Batman. “You got a better idea, Batman?”
Johnson stood up, pulled her shoulders back, and met her face-to-face. She wasn’t much smaller than Quinn, but she certainly wasn’t bigger. “Any idea’s better than asking women to run for their lives and hope they don’t get shot in the back.”
Quinn, who didn’t appear threatened whatsoever, looked up and down at Johnson and said, “These women want to run.”
“These women don’t know there’s a goddamn army of trained Fighters back there!”
“If they took Brone back there,” Hammer said, “I’m sure she wasn’t the only one to know about—”
Johnson, never breaking eye contact with Quinn, flung her hand out as if to say Stop. “Shut up, Hammer!”
I’d never seen this side of Johnson before. Sure, she’d always been on the grumpier side, but she’d never been outright vocal toward anyone other than Brainiac Proxy, who seemed to get under her skin. Maybe she was scared and with good reason. We were about to run straight into the unknown, which could ultimately lead to death for some.
“Johnson,” I said calmly, and my tone alone seemed to soothe her. She turned slowly, finally breaking eye contact with Quinn, and stared at me.
“You don’t have to come with us,” I said. “We’re planning on coming back once we’re strong enough.” She mulled over the idea, her eyes shifting from side to side. “We can come back for you.”
Then, in one quick movement, she shook her head hard and let out a loud, “No, I’m coming with you guys… I just don’t like… I don’t like all of this uncertainty.”
“Well, think of it this way,” Hammer said. “If we stay here, our people are going to be killed. It’s only a matter of time before Franklin leads them in the right direction.”
Coin glared at everyone through the sun’s bright rays. They were getting lower and lower, almost reaching the gate’s highest point. “She don’t even know where the Cove is,” she said.
“She knows it exists, though,” Hammer cut in. “That’s enough to keep Zsasz hunting for days until she finds them.”
I couldn’t bear the thought of my friends, the Hunters, being attacked. I especially couldn’t bear the thought of anyone laying a hand on Ellie. I agreed with Johnson that there was way too much uncertainty about this plan, but that was exactly it—we didn’t have the time to plan. Zsasz, along with a small army
of women and the brainwashed version of Franklin, were on their way to find the Cove. We didn’t have any time to waste.
“Shit,” Quinn said, averting her eyes toward the city.
And all at once, it was as if a blanket had been laid over the city, muffling the noise until it was too calm—too quiet. Countless women stopped moving, their eyes aimed in my direction. I looked behind them, toward the Northers’ massive wooden gate, and that’s when I saw it.
The highest point.
The setting sun’s dark orange glow illuminated a sharp pike on the left-hand side of the gates, and the entire city lit up with a blinding light.
And these women, their eyes… It was as if they were waiting for my command.
It was now or never.
CHAPTER 14
I felt like a dance orchestrator.
I took a step forward, and everyone else followed suit. The frightening part of it all was how silent everyone was. There was no dramatic fleeing or flailing of the arms—instead, women walked as if on their way to the sleeping station, only, in the opposite direction.
Other women stood clueless, pointing fingers and asking questions.
It was when we drew closer to the city’s perimeter that the vocals began.
At first, I’d thought it to be our women crying out as if in battle—a cry of freedom. But it wasn’t us. The other women, obviously confused by what was going on, began questioning our movements aloud.
“What’re you doing?” one shouted.
“Where… where are they going?”
“What’s going on?”
A few of them followed like sheep glued to their shepherd, but others stared at us, eyes wide open, brows furrowed close together, and mouths hanging loose.
“Hey!” came someone else’s voice, and it was as if she’d shot a gun in the air—the kind that’s shot to get a race started.
All at once, everyone started running.
Crates were kicked out of the way, sheets of cotton swept through the wind as women rushed by, and dirt spat up in every direction as feet stomped through the city grounds. It was the loudest, yet most silent sound I’d ever heard coming from so many women at once.
