The Chosen

by Taran Matharu

  “Cade,” he said. “My name is Cade.”

  She looked at him expectantly.

  “Is that it?” she said.

  “I could ask you the same question,” Cade said. “Who are you?”

  The girl rolled her eyes.

  “I’m Amber,” she said, “and that’s—”

  “Grace,” the girl behind her said quickly.

  Grace had dark skin, with high cheekbones and braided cornrows. He could tell she was tall, even when she was sitting down. Now that Cade looked, her blouse was spattered red. None of them appeared injured though. He wondered absently whose blood it was.

  “I’m Bea,” said another girl.

  “And Trix,” the other chimed in.

  The pair were identical twins, and Cade found it hard to imagine parents intentionally saddling them with those names. Both were short girls with elfin faces and blond tresses, though their hair was streaked with dirt.

  “Now we’re all acquainted,” Amber said, exasperated, “maybe you can tell us what you know.”

  But Cade wasn’t listening. He’d suddenly realized the Codex wasn’t there.

  “Codex?” Cade called out.

  “What are you blathering on about?” Amber said, throwing her hands up in the air.

  Beyond him, Cade saw the Codex flicker into existence. Then, as Amber spun to see what he was staring at, it disappeared.

  Camouflage. That’s new. Maybe it doesn’t want them to see it. But … these have to be other contenders … surely?

  “Are you contenders?” Cade blurted out.

  “Are we what?” Amber demanded.

  Cade sighed.

  “Never mind,” he said. “Look, why don’t you tell me how you got here, and I’ll fill in the rest.”

  Silence.

  “He knows something,” Grace growled. “He knows exactly what’s going on.”

  “You think I’d be in this cage with you if I did?” Cade snapped back.

  “Maybe you’re a spy,” Grace said. “Maybe they sent you in here to find out what we know.”

  “What would be the point of that?” Cade replied. “Sounds like you don’t know anything.”

  Trix raised her hands, trying to calm them.

  “This isn’t helping. How about we go first. Bea?”

  The other twin, Bea, gave Cade a shy smile, then cleared her throat as if at a poetry recital.

  “We were on our way in the school minivan to a hockey game, driving through the woods,” she said, and Cade had to lean closer, her voice was so low, “then suddenly the minivan was tearing through some bushes in the middle of a jungle.”

  “Where?” Cade asked.

  “You tell us!” Amber snapped.

  “I mean, where were you before,” Cade said. Now it was his turn to roll his eyes.

  “Duh. England. Shropshire?” Bea said, looking at Cade as if he were an idiot.

  “Then what?” Cade said.

  “Well, there were eleven of us, plus our coach. And the van gets stuck in the middle of the trees, right?”

  She looked at Cade expectantly.

  “Right…,” said Cade.

  “So we get out, try to find the road. Only we can’t. And then … we were attacked.”

  She faltered, her voice cracking. Trix put her arms around her sister, comforting the girl.

  Could it have been vipers?

  “Did they look kind of like … hairless chimps with a piranha’s head?” Cade asked, realizing just how foolish he must sound.

  They stared at him.

  “No. We didn’t get a good look at them, but it wasn’t that.” Amber spoke slowly, as if talking to a madman. “Have you seen … piranha-chimps?”

  Cade ignored her.

  “Then what?”

  This time, it was Trix who answered, having gathered her courage.

  “We ran. But we were the only ones who made it back to the minivan. We hid in there till they got bored and left. Big feathery things, like giant chickens or something.”

  She paused, her lip trembling.

  “After a few days we ran out of water and food, so we decided to go look for help,” Grace said, her voice laced with impatience. “That’s when these guys found us. They threatened us with their weapons, tied us together, and forced us to walk here, where they had this cage and camp.”

  “Did they speak to you?” Cade asked.

  “We only heard them speak in another language,” Amber said, shaking her head. “We have no idea what it is.”

  “But I think they understand English,” Grace said quickly. “The young one was listening to us when we were talking earlier, I swear.”

  Cade glanced over at the men and noticed there were five of them now. The camp was far too large for just five men and a cage, perhaps as wide and long as the keep’s atrium had been. Now that he looked, he saw a long wooden table with benches beyond the fire that could have fit more than forty people.

  “They must be part of a larger group,” Cade said, crawling closer to the wooden bars.

  Amber nodded.

  “There were more of them here before, but they were gone almost as soon as they arrived.”

  She bit her lower lip.

  “We think these guys stayed to keep … hunting for more people,” she said, pointing at the campfire. “They left the youngest one on watch. Do you see him?”

  He followed the line of her finger to see a fellow who looked a little older than Cade. As if he could sense their eyes on him, the boy turned to stare at them, until a barked order from one of the men made him turn away.

  “And that’s it?” Cade asked. “You don’t know what they want us for?”

  “Well, when we first got here we thought they wanted us girls for, wives or something,” Grace said, grimacing. “So it was kind of a relief when they threw you in here.”

  “Not for me,” Trix said glumly. “My money’s on cannibalism. I almost didn’t touch the stew they gave us earlier.”

  Cade’s stomach twisted at the thought.

  They needed to escape. And soon—he suspected that they’d be moved somewhere more secure by daybreak. After all, they had five prisoners now. One for each of them.

  “Look, I have a … friend … sort of,” Cade said. “He may have followed us here, might even be watching us from behind the palisade. Maybe we can send him a signal when the guards have gone to sleep, get him to break us out.”

  “How?” Grace asked.

  “Maybe if we flash a light at him,” Cade said, peering at the palisade, hoping he might see Quintus’s face peering between the wooden poles. “Do any of you have your phones?”

  For what felt like the tenth time that day, the girls looked at him like he was insane.

  “We all have phones…,” Amber said.

  “Great, well, do they have any battery left?” Cade asked.

  “Mine doesn’t have a battery,” Grace said, confusion stamped across her face.

  “I don’t see how my phone is going to help us,” Trix said. “It’s not like I can use it from here; it’s at home. And who would we call?”

  “I thought you wanted to make light … why are you asking if we own phones?” Bea asked.

  Cade went very still, realization slowly dawning on him. He phrased his next question as casually as he dared.

  “This may seem like a weird question but … what year do you think it is?”

  Again, they stared at him.

  “1985,” Amber said. “Why?”

  CHAPTER

  28

  Cade took some time to gather his thoughts, ignoring their groans of impatience. 1985. Before mobile phones were a thing. Before even the internet! When music was on cassettes or vinyl, and video games weren’t even in 3-D. And here they were. Completely oblivious.

  “I don’t know how to tell you this,” Cade said. “But I come from the future.”

  Amber burst out laughing.

  “Like The Terminator?” she said.

 
The others chuckled.

  “Well…,” Cade muttered.

  “I just watched it.” Amber laughed. “Wasn’t it great!”

  She wiped her eyes.

  “Oh, it feels good to laugh in all this mess.”

  Grace wasn’t amused though.

  “Now’s not the time for jokes,” she said. “Tell us what’s really going on.”

  Cade scratched his head.

  “Did you notice we’re on another planet?” he asked. “And that you were attacked by a dinosaur?”

  He looked up at the stars, and though the sky was tinged with the thin light of what must have been a crescent moon, the red satellite and its small white companion were out of sight. The girls must not have seen it yet, what with their minivan being stuck beneath the canopy.

  “Dinosaurs don’t have feathers,” Trix muttered.

  Cade groaned and rubbed his eyes.

  “Listen, you’ve been taken out of time and placed on another planet. I come from several decades ahead of you, and I’m in the same spot. I don’t know what year it is or where we are.”

  “Seriously, you’re not funny,” Grace said.

  Only Bea seemed to be taking him at his word, the blood draining from her already pale face.

  “That’s impossible,” she whispered.

  “You think we’re in the English countryside right now?” Cade snapped. “You think those men there are a bunch of tourists playing a prank?”

  There was no laughter now. Only fallen faces and narrowed eyes.

  He opened his mouth to speak again and heard an angry bark from the armored men. The words made no sense, but the meaning was clear. Silence.

  Cade leaned in and whispered.

  “Tell me, after seeing the creature that attacked you, seeing this jungle, that you don’t think something impossible is going on.”

  More silence. It was Amber who spoke first.

  “Let’s say you’re telling the truth. Do you have a plan to get us out of here?”

  Cade shook his head.

  “Well, then, it’s back to plan A,” she muttered.

  Cade furrowed his brow, then winced as he felt the skin tighten on his head wound. That was going to be sore for a long time.

  “Plan A?” Cade asked.

  “Not so loud,” Grace hushed him.

  She leaned closer to speak, but Amber gripped her shoulder.

  “We can’t trust him yet,” she said. “He could still have been sent in here to see if we’re planning an escape.”

  “Seriously?” Cade asked.

  Amber ignored him.

  “Just wait,” she said. “And keep quiet.”

  Cade shrugged. In their shoes, he’d likely think no differently. Pressing his face up to the cage bars, he turned his attention to the next mystery.

  Who were these men? They might have been medieval knights, but that time period wasn’t Cade’s area of expertise.

  But even if it was … the armor could have been scavenged from corpses. There were a lot of maybes. And none of it helped him work out what intentions the men had with him and the girls.

  He might have asked the Codex about the men, but he knew it would scan them in a flash of light—and who knew how they would react then?

  Even if he asked it more subtle questions, given its silence the day before and its camouflaged state, he doubted it would respond. If he started asking questions into empty space with no reply, the girls would question his sanity.

  He did know one thing though. Cannibalism was unlikely; after all, these men had given the girls food—a pointless exercise if they were about to eat them. He was leaning more toward slavery. After all, it had been almost universally present in human societies right up until the past few centuries, with pockets of it still in existence. It wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine the practice rearing its ugly head in this strange world.

  Clearly this was only a staging camp, a safe place to sleep before moving them to a new location.

  “Who are these guys?” Cade whispered to himself.

  And who were the girls? If they were not contenders, and neither were these men, then what purpose did they serve in this world? People abandoned in the jungle as fodder for the dinosaurs? Perhaps these so-called gods enjoyed watching them fend for themselves.

  Or perhaps both the girls and the men were all part of a larger game. People for contenders to recruit … or to compete with for the scarce weapons and resources left scattered throughout the caldera.

  Maybe both. It was impossible to say.

  If contenders were the players then these girls were … game pieces? The thought of it made him feel ill.

  His mind was too fuzzy to think further. All he knew was that he was running out of time, and he had lost an entire day. Already his eyelids were drooping, and he was glad of the hood Quintus had given him as he nestled deeper beneath it for warmth.

  Does unconsciousness count as sleep?

  He stared into the camp a while longer, but no new clues presented themselves. A search of their cage also bore little fruit—only a rusted length of chain, one that must have been used on more unruly captives.

  The men were settling down beside the fire, having thrown up a makeshift canopy above them in case it rained. No such protection for Cade and the girls.

  All remained in full armor, though one of them hadn’t curled up beneath the canopy. It was the young boy, sitting moodily on a stool beside the fire. Guard duty. Cade suspected he was new, and low in the pecking order. The group’s underling.

  The boy was pale, paler than one might expect in this climate. And his eyes were a watery blue, with blond hair that was long and braided. Cade might have thought him a girl were it not for the small, fluffy mustache growing on his upper lip.

  The boy looked scared, his eyes constantly roving along the tops of the walls. Perhaps this was his first people-hunting mission. His first time out in the jungle. There was a safe place somewhere here. It was just a shame that in order to get there, Cade would be in chains.

  Soon, the sound of snores permeated the camp and the coals of the campfire had burned low. The girls were huddled across the cage from him, on the side facing the campfire. Their backs were to him, and he couldn’t tell whether they were sleeping, whispering, or praying. Whichever it was, they wanted nothing to do with him.

  But it was warm and dry at least, the ground beneath them covered with a thin layer of straw. So he slept, waiting for whatever plan it was that the girls had concocted to come to fruition.

  CHAPTER

  29

  Cade woke to the sound of voices. He half opened his eyes, only to see Amber pressed up against the bars nearby, her hand outstretched toward the young guard.

  “Please,” she was whispering. “Water.”

  Cade didn’t move. It was still night, and the girls were laid out beside her, curled together in a heap. The pail of water they had been given was on its side, the straw still damp from the spillage. One of them must have kicked it over in their sleep.

  The guard shook his head, glancing over his shoulder at the sleeping men.

  “I’m so thirsty. Please!”

  She used her other hand to grasp at her throat, the other still outstretched in supplication. This went on for almost ten seconds. It was only then that the guard stood and came closer, a fur-covered flask held in his hand. He stopped a few feet from the cage, eyeing her like she was a wild animal.

  “Please,” Amber said hoarsely.

  Cade could see she had wiped the dirt from her face, and her hair had been let down to fall about her shoulders. Despite it all, he couldn’t help but notice that she was beautiful.

  A tear ran slowly down her right cheek, and the guard shuffled closer still. Finally, he held the flask outstretched, and she snatched it from him. Tearing the cork from the top, Amber gulped it down, emptying it, then holding it above her head and tapping it for more.

  Cade watched through half-closed eyes as the guard held a hand ou
t expectantly. But Amber was oblivious. Spent, she collapsed back to the floor of the cage, letting the flask fall to the ground outside the bars.

  “Girl,” he said.

  Even from that one word, Cade could detect a strange accent.

  “Girl,” he tried again.

  Amber lay still, the hair across her face fluttering with her soft breaths. The guard took a tentative step closer, his hand hovering over the axe hanging from his belt. But still, Amber remained motionless. The flask lay on the ground, fallen from her palm, her arm outstretched through the bars of the cage.

  Another step. Now he was but two feet away, grasping for the flask with his fingertips. Cade tensed. Could he reach him?

  Amber lunged. Her hand struck like a snake, pulling the guard off balance. He sprawled against the cage, and suddenly more hands were reaching for him, Grace grasping him by his long blond hair, tugging his head through the bars. Her other hand clamped over his mouth, cutting short a scream. Amber’s arm went around his neck. She held him in place as he tried to wriggle free.

  For a second there was silence, the only sound the scuffling of the guard’s feet against the earth, and a muffled humming as he tried to yell through his nose. By now Cade was up, but all eyes, including the guard’s, were turned to the sleeping men beside the campfire. There was no sign that they had been disturbed.

  Then Trix was moving, threading her hands through the bars and pulling the axe from his belt. She stared at it, unsure what to do, until Amber took it with her spare hand and pressed it against the soft underside of the guard’s chin.

  “I want you to know that I will slit your throat if it means getting out of here,” Amber whispered.

  The young guard stared up at her, his pale blue eyes full of fear.

  “Nod so I know you understand me,” she whispered.

  He nodded frantically, even as the axe grazed his skin and sent a rivulet of blood down his neck.

  “Told you he understands English,” Grace said, smirking.

  Amber rolled her eyes, then handed the axe to Bea.

  “Get to work,” she said.

  It was masterfully done. Cade was impressed.

  “That was amazing, Amber,” Cade whispered.