Reflected Echo

by Teresa Grabs

  There was that smug grin again. The more he talked about himself, the smugger he became, and the more he grinned as if it were some inside joke that only he understood.

  “I first learned about you after your preliminary testing.” He found a new interest in cleaning under his fingernails. “You showed a great deal of compassion and understanding for a first-year student.”

  “A lot of kids do – it’s normal.”

  He snorted. “Normal? No, it’s not that normal. And those few who do score high while young, normally outgrow it by the citizen fitness examination.” He grinned again and reached across the table. “But not you,” he said, tapping her nose with his finger.

  Oh, gross! I could kill you right now. I should do it. I wonder if I’d get an award. “Oh, maybe that’s why I got those questions wrong.” She chuckled lightly. She would play his game. There really was no other choice at the moment.

  “I must confess,” he whispered, “that was me.” He giggled at himself. “I put those questions in there because I knew you would get them – wrong.”

  What began as surprise and shock transformed into pure, unadulterated hate the more he spoke. The more he spoke of her mother and how well Johnny did in first-year, the more she tried to convince herself he deserved to die. She couldn’t do it though. Something about him was off. More off than his smirk and hideous laugh. Something about his story just didn’t add up. She had to know. She had to know about Hope.

  He rambled on and on as agents brought in food and drink refills. She only half listened as he regaled her with tales of his own childhood and experiences. The whole situation reminded her of being in society lectures and how Mr. Howard would droll on and on about nothing.

  “…and then we walked into the wasteland –”

  “Wasteland?” Echo’s curiosity was piqued.

  He chuckled. “That’s what we called it before I became Premier.” He dusted crumbs off the lapel of his uniform. “I thought Austero Plains sounded much better. We were sent to the wasteland when we were eighteen, you kids seem to grow up so much faster than we did, which is why I lowered the age for testing –”

  “We? How many were exiled that year?”

  “Exiled?” He looked horrified by the notion that he had been exiled, but then his face relaxed, and horror was replaced by his trademark grin. “Oh, right, well,” he hemmed and hawed for a moment. “Back then it wasn’t so much of an exile as it was an extra test to compete for a spot in the city’s ranks. Not many of us wanted to take the test, so when I became Premier, I just got rid of it and began job assignments instead.”

  Yeah, to make sure you were the last Premier. “Makes sense.” Echo nodded and smiled. She was on to his game now.

  “Well, that first night was horrible, as I am sure yours was as well. We started out with six of us, but one lost his nerve and went back home. The five us continued and followed the path to the cabin. It took me nearly a week to find this place. I was starving when Premier Port picked me up.”

  “That was nice of him.”

  Premier Steiner stood up and moseyed around the room and muttered to himself. “I am curious about one thing, though, Miss Monat. What took you so long to find your way here? You’ve been gone almost a year. Didn’t you see the map and food I left you in the cabin?”

  What? Food? Map? Think! Quick! “I liked it at the cabin,” she said.

  He nodded, grinned, and returned to his seat. He picked at the table. “Well, it certainly can feel more like home than this good-for-nothing place. Nothing here but rubble. It wouldn’t have taken me a week if I hadn’t of been injured.”

  “Oh, what happened?”

  He scratched his face and thought for a moment. “Hmm…oh, nothing really, I twisted my ankle on the cabin stairs. The road made it easy getting here, though, I can’t imagine walking through all that sand.” He shook and head and shuddered.

  Cabin? Road? Echo was sure they had taken different routes to Hope, but how much of it did he know? She had to know. “Uh, Premier Steiner, may I ask you a question?”

  His eyes lit up, and he leaned forward on his elbows. His trademark grin twisted on his face. “Ask away.”

  “You said that the people who used to live here sent their children to Bakerton to live—”

  “Yes, that’s right.”

  “What happened to the people who stayed behind? Did they leave anything here?”

  He leaned back in his chair and looked around. “They didn’t have anything to leave behind. They didn’t have much, to begin with. Look around you. This was the heart of their city, and the building is empty. Nothing left here but broken furniture and dust.”

  She looked at him and nodded. Liar! You walked into town on the road and was picked up immediately. You never looked around. You never saw my city. “I guess you’re right. I just thought—”

  “That maybe something was here?” He finished her sentence and took a deep breath. “No, Miss Monat, there is nothing here. I looked around a little when I got here, but then Premier Port arrived, and, well, you know the rest.”

  Liar!

  He took a deep breath, then clapped giddily. “You’re the first one to make it to the old city since I became Premier, but then again, so few have passed my little extra test. I am so proud of you! You truly are special and will make a great Premier.”

  “Excuse me?” Echo sat upright. “Premier?”

  “Of course! Come back home with me today, take an official position, and learn to be my replacement. They need people like us, Echo.”

  Hearing Premier Steiner use her first name made her want to vomit. Nothing made sense, but one thing clung to the back of her mind. “How did you know I was here?”

  Premier Steiner tapped her old bracelet. “I installed alert devices to be triggered when the bracelet crossed the threshold of the city hall. I didn’t want you out here too long all by yourself. That’s why I sent that other boy with you. The young one. Oh, now what was his name…”

  As he tried to think of the name, Echo sat in stunned silence. He wasn’t talking about Andrew or Matthew. He was talking about Edward. That poor little boy who only wanted to wake up from his nightmare. The nightmare that sat across from her. You monster! “Edward. His name was Edward.”

  He looked up and smiled. “That’s right! Edward.” It was then that he looked around for him. “Where is he?”

  “Dead.” Because of you!

  “Oh, that’s too bad.” He let out a huff and shrugged. “You ready?”

  He stood up, and his agents started the helicopter.

  “No.”

  Premier Steiner stopped in his tracks and turned. “No? I don’t think you understand—”

  “I said, no.” You lying murderer! “I, um, I want to spend a few more hours out here, please? I have gotten used to the quiet.”

  Premier Steiner stood there, quiet, breathing deep, then tilted his head and listened to the silence. His laughter echoed through the city hall. “It is quiet out here, isn’t it? Okay, I’ll give you a few hours to say goodbye. It must be a little harder for you since you spent so much time out here alone. Oh wait, that’s right, didn’t you have a dog? Ruff? Gruff? Something like that?” He looked around as if he had missed the dog sleeping or playing somewhere.

  “Charlie. His name was Charlie.” Don’t you dare speak about him!

  “Was? Oh well, for the best I guess. Now you can get a better pet when you get home. I am sure your family would love to see you again.”

  He and his agents walked toward the helicopter. “I’ll send an agent back for you in an hour, Miss Monat.”

  Eighteen

  Echo watched as the helicopter took off and headed for Bakerton when gunfire echoed through the city. One hour. She had one hour to get back to her library and collect what she could. She rushed to her bag, threw it on her back and started running toward her home. Three blocks down she discovered what the gunfire was about. A large caver lay dead in the street. Images of Ch
arlie lying against the wall rushed from her memory and crashed into her mind. As she walked closer to the caver, it moved…no, something near it moved. A young caver tried to crawl out from under its mother. Echo grabbed the mother by the back paws and lifted as hard as she could. She couldn’t save Charlie, but she could save this caver. It managed to escape and pawed at its mother, then looked at Echo. She stooped to pet it, and it rolled over just like Charlie had done as a puppy. Echo looked at the young caver and smiled. As she rubbed its belly, she looked at the tan line formed by the bracelet and laughed. She was now free.

  “Come on. We need to get home and leave before they come back.”

  As she ran down the street, the young caver found it difficult to keep up, so she picked it up and held it in her arms. As it licked her chin, she truly felt happy again. There was a lot ahead of her. She had to find the cabin, find out what happened to the others Premier Steiner left with, and find out what really happened to the people of Hope. Their outcome wasn’t what they wanted, but what of the other cities? The ones written about in the book? And what of all the other lies started by Premier Steiner?

  “Forward. The only way to go is forward,” Echo said, looking at the young caver. “We also need to find a name for you.”

  After running a few blocks, Echo stopped in an intersection and looked around. One hour. One hour was all she had left in Hope. Why was she running back to the library? If Premier Steiner returned with his agents, she didn’t want him to find the library and her journal. The last thing she wanted was to be found when they returned.

  “No. We need to leave. There’s nothing in the library for us, Scout.”

  The young caver looked up at his new friend and licked her chin.

  “Scout,” she said, chuckling. “That seems such a natural name for you. Do you like it?”

  Scout grunted and licked her face more. He wriggled out of her arms and headed toward the edge of the city. Echo laughed and followed. Perfect name, indeed.

  The pair had reached the northern wall of the city when they heard the helicopter overhead. A collapsed building made a perfect cubby hole to hide in. They did not crawl out until they heard the helicopter leave the city.

  Early spring meant the sun still set early, and some protection was better than no protection, so the pair spent one last evening in their former home, but this time, they were both free. One free through violence and the other free through personal choice, but both would never be alone again. Scout fell asleep near Echo’s feet. As she watched the budding night sky, she whispered stories of Charlie and their adventures. Old friends met new friends. The ever-growing circle of victims of Premier Steiner. Eventually, she drifted off to sleep.

  ◆◆◆

  The old man crept along the floor toward a boy sleeping in a cot. The boy’s eyes jolted open, and he started to scream. The old man’s hand quickly stifled any noise the young boy might have made. When their eyes met in the dark, the old man smiled and moved his hand away.

  “Hey, Grandpa,” the boy whispered.

  “Where’s Tobias?”

  “Left yesterday.”

  “Hurry. Quiet.”

  Kyle nodded. He quickly put his overalls on and crept across the floor. Together the pair slipped out the dormitory and out the open hallway window. Echo watched from the ground as they shimmied down the three-story building’s drainpipe. Kyle had been climbing trees since he was old enough to walk and had no difficulty with the trip. His grandfather, on the other hand, was a bit more cumbersome, but he made it safely to the ground.

  “Gra—”

  “Shh. The old man covered his lips with a finger, crouching and listening for signs they had been caught.

  Kyle covered his mouth and nodded. They quietly ran from the dormitory as fast as they could under the light of a full moon. Outside another dormitory, the old woman from the garden was waiting with five girls who were silently crying.

  Suddenly, Echo was outside Hope watching the old couple, Kyle, and the five girls as they met up with other groups of adults and children who ran from the city. The scenery shifted once more. Now they were inside the house with the stone well. Sleeping children filled every room except the kitchen. There, at a long wooden table, sat the old man and woman, and ten other adults she recognized from her last dream. Except for the old couple, they had all moved to Hope.

  “How many, Henry?” the old woman asked.

  “Not enough, Mary,” the old man said, shaking his head. “We didn’t get Tobias.”

  “We tried. We got as many as we could, an’ that’s good enough,” a man with graying hair said, trying to comfort the old couple.

  “Somethin’ ain’t right with that place. I just know it.” Henry clenched his fist and slammed it on the table.

  “Oh, Henry. I know, but we rescued our grandson and who else we could, and that’s all we could do,” Mary said, stroking his fist. “We’ll move them far away from here in the morning, and they can get on with their lives.”

  Henry looked at his wife with tears in his eyes and shook his head. “I need to find Tobias and bring him home.”

  Echo stood silently and watched them try to comfort each other and plan how they were going to survive. She wondered if her parents ever had a similar conversation. Did her mother want to leave Bakerton, but was too frightened?

  Without warning the scenery shifted again back to Hope as explosions erupted around her, blinding her momentarily. Everything was in chaos. People screamed and ran only to be shot by armed soldiers. She didn’t want to see this again. Premier Steiner showed her these images earlier, but this time she was living it.

  “Wake up, wake up!” She closed her eyes and clenched her fists. “I don’t want to see any more.”

  Silence filled the air, but when she opened her eyes, she was still dreaming. A haggard looking man sat behind a desk, He cried and begged a uniformed man to stop their attack.

  “What do you want from us?” the man asked.

  “Do you want us to stop?” the uniformed man asked, sneering.

  Echo hated this man already. She tried hitting him, but her fist passed right through. There was no use trying to stop what had already happened. All she could do was to serve as a witness to the fall of the City of Hope.

  “Yes, I do. We have never done anything to you.”

  The uniformed man laughed. “Your mere existence has done something to us.”

  “How? You wanted to leave, and we allowed that. You wanted to return, and we welcomed you back with open arms. Alan, you grew up here.”

  “It’s Grand Premier Baker, to you,” the uniformed man demanded, standing taller and more threatening.

  “Call yourself whatever you want, but we are not your enemy.”

  “Yes, you are.”

  Grand Premier Baker pulled out a pistol and shot the man in the head. Echo gasped and covered her mouth. So much death. Why did he hate the people of Hope so much that he would return to do this? A man knocked on the door and entered the office but did not react to the bloody scene that greeted him.

  “Sir, we have only found one hundred children. Do you want us to continue looking?”

  “No, that’s all we need. Take them back to Bakerton and burn this city down.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  Grand Premier Baker stood at the window and watched as his soldiers set fire to the city and slaughtered thousands of innocent lives. Tears streamed down her face from behind closed eyes as she tried to drown out the screams of the victims.

  “There there, Echo,” Henry said gently as he patted her shoulder.

  She opened her eyes and found herself at the old man’s camp near the river with Betsy hitched to her post. She sighed as she walked over and pet the horse. Henry put a few fish in a cast iron skillet and started cooking over the open fire.

  “I reckon you have plenty of questions,” he said, not looking at Echo.

  She swallowed hard and found she didn’t want to look at him. She was ashamed
. There was nothing she could do to stop her city from attacking them. Nothing made sense anymore. In one day her city had gone from being the only thing she still wanted to be a part of being to murderers and destroyers of another city.

  “It doesn’t make sense,” she said, looking at Betsy.

  “No, it don’t, ‘specially when ya still young.”

  Echo joined him by the fire and ate some fish. It tasted much better the second time.

  “Why did Grand Premier Baker want the children? Why did he kill the man in the office? Who were the other people who helped you rescue the kids? How –”

  “That’s a lot a questions ya have, and I don’t have the answers to most of them. Ya see I wasn’t in the city to know. I only went when I got a letter from Tobias sayin’ they had taken them away from their ma. Well, I couldn’t let that happen, so I went and got ‘em. Well, tried to get ‘em. The others with me were lookin’ for their kin as well.”

  “What happened after you left the house?”

  “I died.”

  Echo choked on a piece of fish and started coughing. “Died?”

  Henry laughed. “Ya didn’t think I was still alive, did ya?”

  She hadn’t thought of it at all. Now that he said it, it did make sense. She didn’t know how much time had elapsed between the fall of Hope and her exile. It could have been fifty years or five hundred. Not to mention he was only in her dreams.

  “We took the children through these woods, and that’s where I died one night. Went to bed and didn’t get up.”

  “We carried on without him,” Mary said, walking out of the woods between two trees. “We had to. They depended on us to keep them safe. We only stayed long enough to give a proper burial.”

  Mary walked up to the campfire smiling and sat down next to her husband. She seemed younger now than she had when she asked Echo to help in the garden. They looked at each other and giggled which made Echo smile. Her parents never acted happy to see each other, but Mary and Henry genuinely seemed to love each other, even after death.

  “We settled in a little valley between the forest and the mountains. Far enough from them that they wouldn’t come looking for what few of us there were. I lived long enough to see Kyle marry. My job was done, so I came back to the woods here to be with Henry.”