by Shade Owens
God, I didn’t miss that rage.
Ever since we’d defeated the Northers, all of my anger had dissipated. It was like a giant weight had been lifted off my shoulders, and at last, I could breathe again.
“Come on,” Rocket said, tugging on the bottom of Elektra’s bloody shirt. “Let’s get this cleaned up.” She threw her chin out at me. “See you at the Working Grounds?”
I smiled at the thought of sunbathing next to the Working Grounds’ waterfall. I parted my lips, prepared to tell her I’d see her soon, when a subtle rumbling shook the earth beneath my feet.
An earthquake?
It couldn’t be; it wasn’t powerful enough. What I was feeling were vibrations coming from somewhere else. What was that? And why did it sound so familiar? I wasn’t the only one hearing it. Everyone exchanged a look that translated to, What the hell is that?
Closing my eyes, I listened.
It was coming from above. But from where? Craning my neck, I searched the sky, unable to see anything.
It couldn’t be, could it? I searched the others for validation, but their faces mirrored what I was thinking: impossible.
“What the hell is that?” Elektra finally said, breaking the silence.
Rocket didn’t even bother telling her to watch her mouth. Her eyes, bright green balls, widened at me as if to say, It can’t be.
She had every reason to look so awestruck. That sound wasn’t an earthquake, and it most definitely wasn’t anything natural. Although I hadn’t heard that sound in as long as I could remember, I knew exactly what it was—a plane.
CHAPTER 2
For a moment, it was as if I’d traveled back in time to when every day, our lives were at risk.
Women circled me, yammering away as if trying to buy tickets to some sold-out show.
“What if it’s a rescue plane?” one woman shouted. “We have to go see!”
“Are you an idiot?” came another woman’s voice. “We have no idea who’s on that plane!”
“Well, we won’t know until we check, will we?” the other woman snapped.
They were freaking out, and with good reason. I’d come to learn that these women needed certainty above all else. It was the fear of the unknown that spread like an airborne illness, sending even the kindest women into a fit of anger. For the first time since the war, women looked at each other with hatred and animosity.
In the middle of the crowd, women divided themselves: one side demanded we go see the plane, while the other argued that it was too dangerous. I’d fought relentlessly to bring our people together. I wasn’t about to let some plane get in the way of that.
I breathed in, conscious of the air expanding my lungs, and breathed out. Suddenly, everyone stopped talking as if my breath alone had been an order for silence. The only sound to be heard across the Village were children giggling, some crying, and Eliot stomping around trying to keep the kids close by.
From within the crowd, I caught a glimpse of my closest friends—at least, those who remained: Biggie, Rocket, Coin, Hammer, Fisher, and Quinn. The look in their eyes expressed precisely what I was thinking—we had to find out more.
They didn’t vocalize those thoughts, though, no doubt out of respect for my position as their leader.
“Well the longer we stand here, the less chance we’ll have—”
“Oh shut your pie hole, Yasmin.”
“The fuck did you say?”
“Enough!” I shouted, and everyone went quiet again.
Finally, standing up on the old log under me, I straightened my back. “The Hunters will go investigate the situation.”
“Hunters? What if it isn’t a threat? I mean, this plane would be a rescue,” one woman said. “Why are we sending the Hunters?” Her bristly brows were so slanted they changed the shape of her face. “And, what? We’re supposed to stand around here while the Hunters go check it out? Shouldn’t we all be going? What if the Hunters leave us behind? I mean, maybe we’re finally getting off this goddamn—”
The moment I raised a hand, she sucked in a sharp breath and held it. “I’ll be joining the Hunters.”
The bickering blew up again.
“You’re the leader, you can’t go!”
“What if something happens to you?”
Everyone started talking over one another so loudly that they sounded like a flock of seagulls.
I realized it was unconventional for me, the leader, to venture out into the jungle. It was breaking the very foundation of our society—stability. Without their leader, who would make decisions? Who would maintain order?
But I couldn’t not go. These women were afraid of being betrayed by the Hunters, and the one person they truly trusted was me. If this were, in fact, part of a rescue mission, I needed to be present on behalf of my people.
Raising a solid fist in the air, I scanned the crowd until one by one, the women stopped talking. “Murk will be in charge until I return.”
Lips began to part in the crowd, but no one dared say anything. How could they? Murk had been the original leader. If anyone was fit to lead, it was her. At the back of the crowd, Murk nodded, the cool look on her face never fading. Although she no longer wanted to lead, I knew I could count on her to step up if the occasion required it.
“There’s absolutely nothing to worry about,” I said. “Stay close to each other, and as always, stay in the Village or within the Working Grounds until I get back.”
Although hesitant, the women of the Village nodded, their gazes shifting between me and Murk, who did her best to exude confidence.
Throwing my chin out at my friends, I said, “You guys ready?”
Aside from Fisher, who no longer ventured outside of the Village, and Quinn, who I only later discovered suffered from chronic bronchitis, everyone nodded like armed soldiers.
“Hammer,” I said, “you got any weapons?”
Grinning, she widened her stance and crossed her arms. “Have you not been inside my tent?”
Ever since I’d reimplemented the monetary system, Hammer had spent her days whistling to unfamiliar tunes and hopping around the Village like she owned the place. Every day, she’d spend hours building all sorts of tools, gadgets, and weapons. As Hammer had described it, collecting various metals from our enemies had been equivalent to spending the day at a hardware store with a limitless credit card.
She’d created axes, clubs, boomerangs, knives, crossbows, spears, and even nunchucks.
At first, I hadn’t wanted any weapon inside the Village given the violent past many of us had lived through, but after having spoken with Murk, I’d decided being prepared for potential enemies wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
The rule was simple—no one could actually buy a weapon; they were reserved for exterior threats. Hammer had agreed to use locking compartments pulled off the crashed plane. They weren’t fancy, but they served their purpose.
“Can I come?” Elektra asked, fighting to catch her breath.
Where had she come from? That kid never stopped running.
Before I could say anything, I caught a glimpse of Ellie coming up behind her. In her arms, she held little Robin and bounced her on her hip—something she did every time Robin started getting cranky. Although I wanted nothing more than to hug them both, the look in her eyes made my stomach sink. It was obvious she was angry, and Ellie rarely ever got angry. It was a gaze that translated to, Are you seriously going to leave us again?
Ever since Robin had come into the picture and I’d adopted my leadership role, I stopped leaving the Village altogether. In a strange and wonderful way, Robin and Ellie had become my family. It was understandable that Ellie would be upset that I was heading out into the wild and putting my life in danger.
Beside me, Elektra rolled back and forth on her heels, waiting. Without looking at her, I said, “You can come.”
She’d spent the last year hunting by Rocket’s side. I had to stop thinking of her as a helpless child and instead appreciate ho
w valuable she’d become to our society.
With a grin, she hopped in the air, extended her lanky legs, and kicked the heels of her feet together.
“Rocket, Biggie, and Coin,” I said, “you guys come too. Get your weapons ready.”
I deliberately decided to exclude Hammer because she controlled the Tools tent, which meant it was her responsibility to ensure all weapons remained locked. Admittedly, the other reason I no longer sent her out on hunting missions was that she wasn’t as limber as she had been before we rebuilt the Village and probably wouldn’t be able to keep up. I often caught her rubbing her knees and wincing in pain when she sat down to eat, and I didn’t want to make it any harder for her.
Still feeling Ellie’s intimidating stare aimed at me, I jerked my head sideways to say, Can we talk?
As she approached me, she sighed with Robin still bouncing in her arms. When we came face-to-face, Robin giggled and reached for my hair.
“Listen, I won’t be long,” I said.
“It doesn’t matter,” she cut me off. “Things have been great for a long time. Why are you going out there and putting your life at risk? You’re in charge now. Send someone else. We’re happy, Brone. Why the hell—” She brushed Robin’s thin blond hair back and kissed her forehead. “Why the heck are you doing this?”
“Because this is a big deal,” I said. “It’s a plane, Ellie.” I beamed, suddenly envisioning all the possibilities. “What if this is it? What if they’re searching for us?”
She bit her bottom lip and turned her head away. Deep down, she was likely thinking the exact same thing. Why else would a small plane land on Kormace Island? What if they were reporters? What if all of Mr. Milas’s corruption had been uncovered at last and a new government was sending a team to search for survivors?
“I promise, I’ll be careful,” I said.
She sucked in a long breath and raised her chin. “You better come back in one piece.”
I smiled at her. While no one else in the Village had any right to boss me around, Ellie was the one person who dared talk to me like that. Admittedly, I liked it, and it made me want to kiss her hard on the lips.
So, I did, and the pink spreading across her cheeks told me she wouldn’t be holding onto any anger. As I pulled away, Rocket, Elektra, Biggie, and Coin came marching my way with bows and quivers fastened to their backs. Around their waists, belts were loaded with knives, ropes, and water bladders.
“I’ll be back before you know it,” I said, planting a soft peck on Ellie’s cheek. Gently, I rested a hand on Robin’s soft fuzzy head and kissed the tip of her nose.
Walking away was harder than I had anticipated. I hadn’t left Robin or Ellie’s side since the war had ended, but, being the leader of the Village, I felt it was my responsibility to see to this myself.
If negotiations were going to take place, I wanted to be the one to discuss them.
“All right, let’s go,” I said, pointing toward the Village’s opening.
“Just like old times,” Rocket said.
A moment of silence followed Rocket’s words. Sure, it was like old times, only it wasn’t. Flander was no longer with us, and neither was Trim, Eagle, Arenas, Franklin, or Johnson. How were we supposed to simply forget about them?
Things would never be the same.
CHAPTER 3
We walked in silence for hours, listening to the sound of our breathing and our feet crushing vegetation, fungi, and insects on the jungle floor.
While there was no telling where the plane had landed—or if it had landed at all—I knew one thing for certain: any pilot intending to land a plane would land it onshore. The island’s jungle was far too dense.
“My feet hurt,” Elektra complained.
Rocket gave her the stink eye and Elektra sucked her lips until they formed a small dot on her face.
“We talked about this,” Rocket said.
Suddenly, Elektra was back to being a prepubescent teen. She scowled at Rocket the way a young girl would after being told to stop playing on her phone in class.
Biggie smacked her round belly and laughed. “Talked about what?”
Without smiling, Rocket said, “Complaining.”
“Man, if Trim were here,” Biggie said, snapping her fingers in the air, “you’d be gettin’ way more than a talk.”
No one said anything, so Biggie cleared her throat, no doubt realizing Trim’s name had dampened the mood.
It didn’t help that we were walking through the Dead Zone surrounded by leafless trees and dirt. Every few feet, we’d find a blooming flower sticking out like a parrot in a crowd of penguins. How long would it take for the forest to return to the way it had once been? Would it ever?
I stepped over a log that resembled a rotten limb when Coin let out a sharp whistle. Everyone froze, waiting for Coin to say something. But instead, she lit up, her dark cheeks forming little balloons under her eyes, and pointed up into one of the dead trees.
Following her finger, I stretched my neck and stared upward.
On a thick, curved branch sat a beautiful toucan, its orange and yellow beak reaching far from its face. It peered down at us with its small black and blue eyes that resembled doll eyes, then threw its head back. “Craw, craw!”
“Is that—” Rocket said, her head tilted so far back her mouth hung wide open.
“Molly,” I breathed.
“Who’s Molly?” Elektra asked.
The sight of Molly hit me a bit harder than I’d have expected. Swallowing hard, I turned my attention to Elektra and pointed up at the bird. “See its feet?”
“Yeah,” Elektra said, bouncing in one spot. “The blue ones? I see them! I see them! Hey, what’s wrong with that one? She’s missing part of her foot.”
“Not sure,” I said. “Trim’s the one who named her. She said she always recognized her in the jungle because of her foot.”
“That’s so sad,” Elektra said.
While Elektra felt sorry for the bird, all I could think of was Trim, and how she was no longer with us. And, I thought of everyone else and wondered what they might have said had they been standing here with us, looking up at Molly. Although I should have felt sadness at the thought of my dead friends, all I felt was a sense of calm. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but it was almost as if they were standing right next to us, telling us that they were okay.
I’d never known what to believe in regarding the whole afterlife thing, but I wanted to believe that death was only the end of life on Earth.
Rocket shivered and rubbed her arms. “You feel that?”
Biggie turned in circles as if searching for Trim and the others. “What? What is it? You feelin’ somethin’?”
“Oh, stop it,” Coin said. “You’re gonna freak the kid out. Ghosts ain’t real. When you die, you die. That’s it. You’re gone forever. That’s why you gotta appreciate every single day.” She pointed at all of us and twirled a finger around her ear. “Whatever you’re feelin’ is all in your head.”
“You take that back!” Elektra snapped.
Rocket rubbed Elektra’s back the way a mother does a sick child. “Whoa, kid, easy.”
But this did nothing to calm her. Instead, Elektra pulled way, clenched her fists, and with a cracking voice, shouted, “Now!”
Why was she so upset about this? It wasn’t like she’d known Trim or the others all that well. Did she care more deeply than we knew? Or, was she defending Rocket?
Coin scrunched her nose, one nostril rising higher than the other. “Take what back? The truth? Kid, I wasn’t trying to offend—”
Without warning, Elektra threw herself at Coin, sending them both flying into the dirt. With her lanky arms and sharp-knuckled fists, she started swinging for Coin’s face.
“Yo, what the hell!” Coin shouted. “Get her off me!”
Coin wasn’t weak by any means—she was stocky and carried the kind of muscle you’d find in a lightweight bodybuilder. So when she didn’t hit back, it w
as likely out of not wanting to hurt Elektra.
In a swooping motion, Biggie scooped Elektra up, forced her arms down at her sides, and held her tightly in that position. Elektra kicked her legs and rolled her head in every direction imaginable, almost as if possessed by some demonic force.
“Let go of me!”
“Calm,” Biggie said soothingly.
This wasn’t the first time someone held Elektra as hard as they could until she calmed down. But she was getting taller, and now, the only person able to do it without struggling was Biggie or Eliot.
“You don’t know anything!” Elektra shouted.
She was being so loud I wanted to tell her to zip it, but the pain in her eyes told me that this was about something much more than coming to Rocket’s defense.
“She’s always with me! She promised me she would be! And she told me I’d see her again!” Elektra cried out.
Her face was swollen and plum in color, making me wonder if Biggie was squeezing too tight. But, behind Elektra, Biggie stood calmly without showing any signs of exertion and kept whispering, “Calm down, kiddo. It’s okay.”
The fight lasted a few minutes longer until finally, Elektra went limp and burst into tears. At once, Rocket came running by Biggie’s side.
“Let her go, let her go,” she said.
Slowly, Biggie brought her back to the ground and unlocked her fingers from around Elektra’s waist. With tears glistening off her cheeks and a contorted mouth, Elektra threw her arms around Rocket’s neck.
“Hey, it’s okay,” Rocket said, brushing Elektra’s frizzy hair back. “You’re okay. I’m right here.”
I’d never seen Elektra cry so much. I’d witnessed countless fits of rage but never anything like this. Typically, her fits lasted a few minutes with intervention, and often, she’d come out of it and go about her normal business. She’d even apologize at times, seemingly ashamed. But not once had I ever seen her break down like this. These tears were the result of a deep pain none of us knew anything about.
