Blood Awakens

by Jessaca Willis

  “I know. Trust me, I’m conflicted about leaving them too,” Sean said, rubbing the base of his neck. Remorse rotted his eyes. “But we can’t just let the people of Surviving & Thriving die either. They need to know they’re not alone. Unity, remember?”

  Mara didn’t bother suppressing the urge to roll her eyes. Not at the sentiment of saving the people that lived there, for only a soulless rat wouldn’t find that virtuous and noble, but because of the logistics. And the consequences. “What about the Awakened Authority?”

  He glared at the implication.

  “You heard the message, they specifically denied them aid. What sort of message would it send if we went against their will?”

  Clearly Sean was unconvinced because he began ransacking the small room for items of use on a journey. With a low grumble he replied, “If they would’ve responded accordingly, Surviving & Thriving wouldn’t be in the position they’re in now.”

  The notion caused her to recoil. Sean was right. If the Awakened Authority would’ve helped them, they likely would’ve stood a chance against any threat. The Awakened Authority had more resources than any anti-Awakened group.

  But that was beside the point. “We don’t even know what position they’re in. We don’t know who’s attacking, or how many. We don’t know how many fight on our side. There’s too many unknowns; it’s a risk we just can’t take.”

  It was like he hadn’t even heard her, or more like it didn’t matter what she said. When Sean made a decision, he stood convicted.

  “Allora, I’ll say it again,” Mara stepped into his direct path, raising her voice to demand his attention. Sean stopped and Mara took advantage of the forced eye contact with enunciation of each vital word. “Jeopardizing our position with the Awakened Authority is also something we cannot afford.”

  Finally, she saw his shoulders relax, the tension in his face diminish, aside from the singular muscle that contorted his forehead in consternation.

  Sean took back to a chair and stared deeply into the ground as he leaned over his knees. He wasn’t there longer than a moment before springing back up and closing the gap between them. “What if it was your family?”

  Mara clutched her fists at the accusation. “Excuse me?” It didn’t sit well with her that he even had to ask, like it would even be a question. Her family meant everything to her.

  Sean held up his hands, yielding. “You wouldn’t waste the chance at saving them. I know this because for the past year—or however long you’ve been here now—all you’ve done is searched and hoped for the opportunity to do so. The people there, they’re families, they have loved ones, just like you.”

  Suddenly Mara was envisioning the scream from the message with less clarity. It started to blend into a voice that sounded too familiar, like it very well might’ve belonged to one of her sisters.

  “They need help,” he said softly.

  When Mara closed her eyes, she felt them fluttering, resisting her request to relax. Sean had awakened in her the same urgency he’d felt, and she could no longer fathom sitting by and doing nothing.

  They shared a brief exchange of eye contact before Mara signaled for him to follow her out of the tent.

  Marching beside him, Mara could feel the eyes of people on them. The two of them, despite their best efforts, were rather conspicuous whenever they were on a mission. She tried to readjust her readied posture, but it only made her feel ridiculous.

  “The issue you raised about AwA is legitimate though, and we need to take precautions to avoid them finding out.” Sean said, voice low to avoid being accidentally eavesdropped by any of the lingering people about outside. “We take a small group, people who are well-trained and can be trusted.”

  “A few come to mind.” As the person in charge of training everyone at Hope, she knew who their best fighters were without having to think.

  “I figured they might. See if you can find them at this hour, gather the group at the eastern gate and wait for me there. I’ll talk to Amal to appoint her temporary leadership, and we leave in fifteen.”

  With her orders, Mara turned to go to the recreation hall, where she knew at least three of the people she needed to find would be, but she stopped after just one step away from Sean, a sudden realization dawning on her. “We’ll never make it to Surviving & Thriving in time.” Mara spun to face Sean, head slightly lowered. “Texas, that’s at least a month’s journey from here.”

  Where Mara was clearly, visibly concerned, Sean only appeared calm, almost foxlike the way he smirked. It only made Mara more apprehensive.

  “We heard from Zamira today,” he said with obvious effort to contain his anticipation. “The utorian is ready for travel.”

  °°°

  While Sean went to search for Amal, who was frequently outside the compounds of Hope in the farming fields due to the requirements on the Vice Sentient to oversee food production and delivery, Mara assembled the team. As expected, she found Ryka and Meeka, their best shifters, along with Carson, Hope’s most honed empath, and his son, in the recreation hall playing pool. As far as strategy went, Mara figured they could count on Carson to notify them of any nearby hostiles, while Ryka and Meeka, with their clever and quick-thinking heads, were known for using their powers in the most unique and unexpected ways.

  The roider Mara wanted was a little more challenging to find. After some inquiring around the settlement though, she located Trey preparing to stargaze in the center of the training grounds. Considering prior to all of this, he had been in a Doctorate program for planetary physics and oftentimes talked about the subject in much too scientific terms for her understanding, she avoided asking him what he was doing and instead requested he follow her. Having a roider on the team was all about brute strength, and he was the strongest they had.

  There were others that came to mind for added security: some temperals to address the elements, a cubozoa to incapacitate any adversaries, a dragon for an aerial view of the zone. Ultimately, Mara couldn’t ask every adept fighter to join them though, without leaving Hope extremely vulnerable, so she kept the party small per Sean’s instruction.

  By the time Mara and the others were standing at the gate waiting for Sean, rumors had already spread through the community about what was happening. Talk of wendigos—Awakened who had gone cannibalistic—encroaching on the local areas, of an incoming attack from the Proselytes of Niha, or whispers of pandemic food scarcity were rampant amongst the small crowd of concerned citizens who had wrapped themselves around Mara and the others.

  “Enough,” Mara barked, swiping her arms outward. “If there was an immediate concern, we would initiate emergency protocol. You’d all be huddled in your bunkers or attempting to escape quietly through one of our exits.”

  A woman with muted, stringy hair, like an overly worn washed cloth, pushed her way to the frontlines. Mara recognized her face, the seemingly permanent scowl that gnarled her eyes, and the pointed nose that made her resemble a witch, but she could not place her name. “And we’re just supposed to take your word for it? Like you’d care what happens to us. You’re a foreigner.”

  Instinctively, Mara’s cackles raised. As if she’d wanted to stay in this forsaken country. As if she wouldn’t return to her beloved home and family if she had the chance. It took every ounce of restraint she could muster to let the attack roll off her.

  The woman continued. “If this isn’t an emergency, then why are our leaders and the strongest Awakened congregating in secrecy, in the middle of the night, hmm?”

  Mara exhaled deeply. It wasn’t the middle of the night, most people had hardly even eaten dinner yet, but now wasn’t the time, nor the place, to succumb to a pointless debate. She also couldn’t afford for the gathering people to sense her frustration. That might only give them cause to rally behind the woman.

  Without having spoken to Sean first though about what they were or weren’t divulging to the general public, the only course of action she had was to revert to her AwA tr
aining. “Your concerns, although valid, are being delivered in an unacceptable manner. When you elected Sean as your Head Sentient, you promised to follow his—”

  “Savina,” Sean said warmly, though there was no joy in his angled expression as he entered the gate. “My people, I assure you there is no immediate threat to us. A neighboring community has asked for our help and it is our duty to respond.”

  “Now?” Savina challenged, crossing her arms. She looked too knowing, too smug for Mara’s liking.

  Unprovoked, Sean simply countered, “Yes.”

  The woman’s jaw began to swivel, the color of infuriation blossoming in splotches on her face and chest.

  “Now, please excuse us while we tend to our brothers and sisters elsewhere. In the meantime,” perfectly-timed, a woman of middle age, draped in layers of thin, colorful, shining fabrics, stepped through the gate behind Sean and he signaled to her. “Amal has stepped forward as interim Head Sentient in my absence. Under her leadership, Hope will continue to flourish and be prosperous. Mara, myself, and the others will be back within a couple of days at most, but we assure you we are leaving behind an adequate defense, despite the absence of nearby threats.”

  Few people seemed to argue any further. When Savina removed herself from the crowd, most of the others followed.

  “Can you believe some people?” Carson jested, once it was just the six of them.

  Quietly, Sean leaned into Mara. “That was close.”

  “We were seconds away from an angry mob,” she agreed. When they returned, there would need to be a discussion of how to handle Savina. Although the Awakened Authority had rules in place on a lot of issues, whatever that was might not have a pre-determined course of action. “It’s a good thing you came when you did.”

  Addressing the whole group, Sean straightened the straps of a backpack he’d acquired since Mara had last seen him. “Mara’s told you the plan?” There was a pause for contest, but when no one did, he moved on. “Everyone ready then?”

  There were nods all around.

  “Good, if there’s nothing else,” Sean was already walking out the gate, the others in tow, as he peered over his shoulder. “Let’s head to the utorian.”

  Carson blew a kiss to his son, who sobbed hysterically, but still caught the imaginary fluttering token of affection. No one else was there to say goodbye to any of the others, except Amal who nodded to Sean and Mara a kind of good luck farewell before correcting the starry blue fabric wrapped around her head.

  The utorian was kept away from Hope, to avoid anyone from the community stumbling onto it by accident. Until tonight, the only people to know of the machine’s existence, let alone it’s whereabouts, had been Mara, Amal, and Sean, as well as the leaders of other AwA sanctuaries. Exposing this secret to the group though, seemed a necessary risk.

  “How long have we been walking?” Ryka asked before taking another gasping swig of water from her canteen.

  Her sister Meeka slouched beside her, plopping a hand on her shoulder. “It feels like it’s been days.”

  “We’re almost there,” Sean said with a comforting ease that made Mara believe him, even though she knew it was still another ten minutes out.

  While Sean did his best to distract them, Mara could only think of Surviving & Thriving. After what Sean had said, she couldn’t help seeing every habitant there as one of her sisters, as her father. The scream echoed through her core and her imagination needed nothing more to construct the most horrific circumstances that might’ve caused it. With fervor, Mara increased her pace, ignoring the groans of Ryka at the back. After all, the girl was only eighteen.

  It didn’t matter for much longer though, because Mara finally spotted the marking she had been waiting for.

  “There it is,” Mara extended a finger to prompt the group to see what she was seeing.

  Carson strained his eyes, before saying flatly, “Oh good, more desert!”

  Looking frustrated, Ryka let her bag plummet to the ground. “I don’t see anything but a rocky wall.”

  “That’s because you’re not supposed to see anything but a rocky wall. It’s hidden, sort of like a shield.” Mara shifted her focus to peek at Sean. “Would you like to do the honors, Head Sentient?”

  “Don’t mind if I do,” he said, eyes alit with excitement. But it fizzled when he turned back to her, “And stop calling me that.”

  “Alright,” Mara said with her hands in the air, but smirked when she added, “Lead the way, Head Sentient.”

  Sean was already moving forward and in five more steps, he vanished.

  “Mothers be cruel…” Meeka uttered, the color draining from her cheeks. “What just happened?”

  Carson rushed forward with intense excitement, stopping short of where Sean had disappeared. “Oh, I get it! This is the utorian. This is how we’ll make it to Texas.”

  Just then, Sean’s head—and only his head—reappeared.

  Carson screamed so loud, Mara thought her eardrums might burst.

  “Not quite,” Sean said, unflinching. “Follow me to the real surprise.”

  The others seemed tentative, but rather than coddle them and waste the precious time they didn’t have, Mara charged through the force field and met Sean on the other side. He lifted up a bamboo door bound together by rope that led into the cliffside.

  “Unbelievable,” Trey breathed, popping one hand in and out of the invisible field.

  Meeka said with equal aw, “How did you—”

  One-by-one they walked through the unseen barrier and ducked under the matter door. Once under its canopy, the edges of its protection glistened.

  “That, outside,” Sean said pointing back at the shining film as he and Trey, last to enter, walked through the door. “Is the work of a satyr. One is stationed here at all times.”

  Everyone either already knew of satyr’s powers, or they were still too shell-shocked to ask.

  “And before us,” Sean said, excitement hitching in his voice. “Is the utorian.”

  It had been awhile since Mara had been in there, maybe six months or so. Darkness encroached most of her vision, but her engrossed eyes searched the black ground for signs of their long-awaited teleportation device. But it was too dark to see anything. Her gaze trailed the vaulted ceiling in search of any light but found none.

  Sean greeted the guard stationed there and informed her of their plan so that she would expect their return within a day or so.

  After the two of them had finished, Sean held up a hand signaling the group to stay put. No one objected, although Mara had half a mind to. As everyone waited, Sean’s steps echoed in the domed abyss in hollow waves as he followed the underside of the crag to a small box on the wall.

  “Here we go,” he murmured.

  Whatever he touched, seemed to trigger an object in the center of the room. A circle began glowing at the center of the room, somehow reflecting nonexistent light as if it was its own shine. And maybe it was. Specks of silver, purple, and blue shimmered all around them like joyous, dancing fairies—which, to Mara’s knowledge, were still not real. A slight hum vibrated through the room with vivacity. Mara closed her eyes and let it consume her. It tickled the base of her neck: a gentle ballad, serenading her soul. Its sweetness filled her entire being, bursting with warmth and peace. The urge to dance had never come on stronger for her.

  “Everyone,” Sean called out, interrupting the moment and bringing her back to solid ground. His arms swept outward to the device. “Behold the utorian.”

  The group gaped at its massiveness, speechless, and like Mara, probably recovering from whatever affect it had had on them.

  The room now in gentle illumination, Mara bravely walked over to Sean, no longer unable to see.

  Sean twitched with unabashed excitement. “It will be interesting to see how this thing works finally,” he said, his mouth curling slightly.

  “I think you mean to say if it actually works,” she replied, allowing her eyes to leave the h
alo on the ground to inspect the panel Sean hovered over. Mostly, all there was to it was the numbers zero through nine and an enter button. “This is how we program the utorian to take us to a specific location?”

  Sean nodded. “All we have to do now is type in the code for the Texan utorian and the number of people traveling, and it should take us there.”

  “Heh, and why do we have to tell it how many of us there are?” The thick layers of cracking jest couldn’t hide Carson’s weary tone. “What would happen if you didn’t? It wouldn’t know how many people came with and someone would get stranded?”

  “Something like that,” Sean said flatly.

  Mara’s eyes grew wide. “What do you mean?”

  Sean seemed to shrink a little under her scrutiny. “Zamira said the machine targets the soul and uses it as a way of identifying travelers and which pieces belong to who. If you don’t tell it the correct number of passengers, then someone might not make it out on the other end. Or maybe they would, but they might be missing some limbs.”

  Carson spewed the drink of water he’d been taking.

  “You’re joking,” Mara said. She hadn’t been trained yet fully on the utorian since, up until that night, she hadn’t even known its construction had been completed. The only details she’d ever been given were that it would make travel easier.

  Sean shrugged, slowly, almost apologetically. “That’s just what I was told, and I don’t plan on testing it.”

  With that, Sean started counting the members of the group, and when he finished, he counted them again. Mara knew that he knew, as well as she, that they still only had six people with them, just as they had when they left. But with high stakes such as the possibility of losing limbs or potentially entire people to a miscalculation with the utorian, she understood why he would play it safely. Under her breath, she even ran her own tally to be safe.

  They confirmed with one another and then Sean began typing in the required code. With melancholy in his eyes, he peeked over at Mara. “I always thought our first trip would be to visit Zamira finally. I’ve never been to New York.”