Outlier

by L. J. Hachmeister

  As the three warriors laid out the supplies and weapons, Sulo walked over to Sen. His lips twitched before a single sound came out, as if he had something to say, but didn’t know how.

  “You don’t recognize me, do you?”

  Sen didn’t understand what he meant. “You’re the hurt Shifter.”

  The bear man grunted, his vibrant green eyes not leaving her face. She sensed he meant something more, but she couldn’t place his grizzly face or hardened features, and meeting him before today wouldn’t have made sense. Not with how much her father hated bully bears and, as a result, forbade even the gentle relatives like the okala and senta bear Shifters from even setting foot inside the Guild.

  “You did well identifying the moonstar.”

  Stuffing her hands in her pants pockets, she shook her head. “But I didn’t know what to do next.”

  “The eyes can absorb some liquid medicines. It’s not great, but it’ll work in an emergency,” he said, jabbing a thumb at Nya. “And with that one, you’d better know your herbs, especially the antithesis’s.”

  By his stern tone, Sen couldn’t tell if he meant it as a joke, so she kept her head down and shrugged her shoulders.

  “So, about your beast,” Sulo said, turning his attention to Akoto. “What is he?”

  “He’s my friend.” Sen moved to Akoto’s side, putting herself between the two.

  “I can see that. I don’t remember much after the Nezra attacked the Guild post, but I do remember hearing his howl.”

  What’s he doing? Sen thought, watching as Sulo sniffed the air.

  “You know what species he is?”

  “No.”

  Sulo pointed at Akoto’s golden-blue eye. “By the looks of it, he may be a Torjin.”

  “Huh?”

  The name caught Nya’s attention, and she stopped her conversation with the two other warriors. “Torjins are just myths, Sulo.”

  Akoto growled, lowering his head to meet at eye level with the Shifter.

  “What’s a Torjin?” Sen asked, stroking Akoto’s fur to try and calm him.

  Sulo didn’t answer right away, watching Akoto with increasing interest. “Agents of heaven. Or hell.”

  “We’re moving out,” Nya announced, handing off extra electro traps to Kaden and Sahib. “Sulo, take us to Sanctum.”

  The Shifter crossed his arms across his chest, not budging. “I came for the girl, not to guide you in.”

  Sen didn’t understand. Why would he come for me?

  “Sen?!” Nya said as the shouts and cries up ahead surged. “I thought you didn’t want her.”

  “I don’t. But you can’t take her in there,” Sulo said, his hands turning into fists. “She’s untrained; she’ll get killed.”

  “Fine, stay here. I’ll find Sanctum without your help!”

  “No—wait, Nya!”

  Sen tried to run after the Chakoans, but Sulo shot his arm out and caught her. “It’s too dangerous. I’ll guide you back to the outlands.”

  “No,” Sen said, pushing his arm down. “I promised I’d help.”

  “There’s nothing for you there.”

  “That’s not true,” she said, watching as Nya and the others disappeared into the forest. “My uncle might be in Sanctum.”

  A fleeting look of recognition crossed Sulo’s face.

  Wait… what does he know?

  “Even if he is, you don’t know what you’re up against. That battle—can you hear it?” A high-pitched, inhuman shriek cut through the forest, agitating the trees. “The Nezra don’t just kill you,” he said, voice faltering. Eyes growing distant, he finished his thought with a clenched jaw. “They tear your insides apart.”

  Maybe I should go back, she thought, taking a handful of Akoto’s fur in her hand. What could I do anyway? I’ll just get in the way.

  Akoto’s low growl rumbled through her body as he turned to her. Tilting his giant head to the side, he looked at her through his pale and cloudy eye. Seeing her gawky body and messy hair reflected in the gauzy pupil made heat rush through her chest and into her limbs.

  I’m tired of being me.

  She thought of Nya, of all that she didn’t want to be anymore, and ran.

  Chapter 14

  Nya expected a gruesome battle, but nothing in her experience or imagination matched what they found.

  “Nya—” Kaden’s voice cut out before he could finish whatever admonition crossed his mind as they reached the braided trees that once served as a protective wall for the hidden Virid city. Now, decimated and crumbling, the woven branches and trunks fell apart before even reaching the ground, turning into giant plumes of dust and decomposing plant matter.

  Taking cover behind one of the few segments of branches still standing, Nya surveyed the area of destruction. Virid soldiers screamed for their life as bird-eaters gobbled them down, or vines wrapped around them and dragged them away through the courtyard.

  But where are the Nezra? Her gut kicked in as she spotted the pathway of dead foliage and gleaming white bones cutting straight through the multi-story bamboo huts. Cries bellowing out from the same direction indicated the new battle unfolding. The bird-eaters reacted to their summons, dropping what parts they hadn’t digested, and slithering off toward the continued fight. The death-dealers are headed into the heart of the city.

  “We’ll check there first,” she said, nodding her head toward the organic buildings inside another interlaced wall of branches. At three stories high and surrounded by a wall and ten-foot high thorn bushes, she suspected at least something or someone important enough inside to protect—or to keep from getting out.

  “What about them?” Sahib asked.

  Nya followed his line of sight to the remaining Virid soldiers in the courtyard. Glassy eyed and walking in circles, their hands moved up and down in a vain effort to conjure up the tiniest bud from the gooey black and brown soup of plant material. Even their personal weapons—snaking vines and thorn projectiles—had liquefied, dripping down their arms and legs in a useless mess.

  “What about them?” Nya replied.

  Kaden explained the situation from his point of view. “There’s nothing in range for them to attack us with.”

  Favored fools, Nya thought, stepping out from cover.

  As soon as the Virid soldiers caught sight of her, they shrieked, throwing their arms in her direction to somehow dredge up something living from the tarry heaps.

  Laughing, Nya ran toward them with her swords raised, and in less than five cuts, finished off the last remaining soldiers in the area.

  “You shouldn’t have forgotten the old ways,” she whispered, staring at one of the felled soldiers as she wiped off her swords on her pants and re-sheathed them.

  Nya let out the breath in the lungs, feeling charged and fantastic. Whatever Sulo had given her to counter the effects of the flower killed her hunger and hyped her senses while dulling the pain of her injured ankle. Like this she could take on all the Virids, the Nezra. The entire Realm.

  Ignoring the shouts and the rumbling ground as the Nezra’s attack continued up ahead, Nya made her way over to the three-story structure situated behind the wall and thorn bushes. Kaden and Sahib joined her, searching for a safe way through the thick brush.

  “This isn’t going to work,” Kaden said as he hacked away at the thorn bush with his axes, only to have it regrow and tighten into knots. “And we’d better make a decision fast.”

  Nya looked to where he pointed with his axe. Disoriented Virids stumbled out of the forest, trying to flee the horror unleashed by the Nezra. Civilians pulled at their hair and fell to their knees, babbling nonsensical words and reaching out to invoke plants already turned to mush. The soldiers, not differentiating friend from foe, used the combat vines snaking up their arms to attack one another, including the civilians. A few mobile plants—bird-eaters and tree walkers—charged behind, summoned by their specialized handlers to take down anything standing in their way.

  “
Shy’t,” she muttered, pulling the two other warriors with her as she circled around the building and took shelter behind the half-rotted stump of a massive whitewood tree.

  “We’ll wait them out; let them kill each other off,” Nya said, keeping her swords out and staying low to the ground.

  “Oh no…”

  “‘Oh no’ what?” Nya said, not turning to see what Kaden had spotted.

  “Sen!” Sahib shouted, breaking cover as the young girl ran right out into the courtyard, in full view of the infected Virids.

  Nya pulled Sahib by his shirt back behind cover. “Stay down.”

  “We have to help,” Sahib said, notching an arrow and taking aim at a Virid soldier advancing on the Outlier girl.

  Nya allowed him to shoot the arrow, hitting the soldier in the head and knocking him back, but didn’t let him notch another.

  “She’ll draw them away—we can try the thorn bush again,” Nya said, eyeing the wall.

  Kaden grabbed her by the wrist. “She came back, Nya.”

  “So what, she’s—”

  “She’s not as weak as you think.”

  The rush of heat to her cheeks surprised her. She shouldn’t feel anything for the girl—especially not guilt for making the right survival decision for an Outlier that wasn’t really part of their clan.

  “Fine. You two get back to the wall—find a way in,” she said as she took off to intercept Sen.

  Vines shot out at her from every direction, and no matter how many she struck down, more came snaking at her from the arms of ashen-faced soldiers.

  “Get down!” she shouted at Sen as the girl pulled at the vines wrapped around her legs.

  Leaping up into the air, she evaded an attack from the vines slithering across the ground and came slicing down, full force, with her twin blades on the vines tethering Sen to a pair of soldiers. The soldiers shrieked, retracting their weapons only to whip around for another strike.

  “Go,” she said, picking up Sen by the armpit and hacking at the subsequent jabbing attacks.

  She managed to drag the girl no more than ten feet before a specialized soldier joined the fray, aiming his tree walker at their position.

  Her stomach dropped at the sight of the eighty-foot tall tree tromping toward them with its gigantic, multiple wooden limbs dragging through the plant debris. The horizontal splits in its upper trunk gave it half a face—or at least one caught in a permanent grimace. Leaves shook from its wiggling twig fingers, and bark peeled back from around what could have been its eyes, revealing hollow black pits that tracked her movement.

  I really hate those things. Gritting her teeth, Nya sheathed one of her swords and unpinned the electro trap on her belt, readying it for the assault. It didn’t carry much of a residual charge, but she hoped it’d be enough to at least fry off a limb or two.

  “Nya!” Sen said, pulling on her leg as Nya counted the treewalker’s steps and prepared to jump.

  “Get to Kaden,” she said, kicking Sen off and pointing to the two other warriors searching the guarded structure for an entrance. “Help them find a way in.”

  “But—”

  “Go!”

  Without looking back, Nya sprinted toward the treewalker, dodging vines and its swinging limbs. The treewalker roared as she anchored onto its back foot with her sword and hauled herself up to its lowest branches.

  Skirting around the wayward vines shooting up from the soldiers below, she sheathed her sword and unbelted the electro trap. With a grunt she pried open the electric jaws, keeping her hands away from the buzzing sensor in the middle. As a vine shot up and grabbed at her boot, she slammed the trap into the tree, triggering the bite. The treewalker bucked and twisted as blue bolts shot down its trunk and out of its limbs. Nya held tight until the behemoth fell forward onto its upper limbs, allowing her a straight shot to its head.

  With smoke pouring out from around the teeth gouges of the electro trap, she scrambled her way toward the top of the tree. Branches batted at her face, but she dodged and ducked, keeping light on her toes. Unsheathing her swords, she cried out as she drove the twin blades down into its nape with all her strength, severing the vital electrical bundle that linked the tree to its handler.

  The treewalker pulled itself forward a few more feet on its upper limbs. A great sigh, like the last puff of air from a bellows, escaped from the horizontal splits in its bark before it collapsed against the exterior wall of the three-story structure.

  That works, she thought, climbing up the rest of the dead treewalker and peering over the wall. To her satisfaction, Kaden and Sahib were already inside, weapons drawn, backs to the wall.

  Scanning the area, she spotted what would have made her suspect a jail or government institution: prickly thorns on the inside of the walls, deterring any kind of escape, and tired footpaths in the low-cut grass, worn by repetitive circles. The rest of the interior, drab and uninteresting—especially considering the Virid flare for organic beauty—bespoke of the chilling nature of whatever lay behind the sod-covered walls of the structure.

  What the—?

  A shadowy figure, big enough to blot out the bioluminescent bulbs hanging from the tops of the wall, descended from the sky, landing just behind the warriors with only a whisper.

  Akoto.

  She couldn’t believe it. The dumb animal could fly. Or at least glide. And is strong enough to carry two people… she thought as Sen and Sulo slid off his back. At least he’s useful.

  As she dropped down from the felled treewalker, Sen gaped. “Nya! Ohmygod—did you see that? The treewalker—you took it down—and then—wow!”

  “Yeah, I was there.” Ignoring Sen’s continued exuberance, she jogged up to Sahib, Kaden, and Sulo. “Report.”

  “We saw a few guards, but they all ran toward the fight up ahead,” Kaden answered.

  “Good, then let’s get inside.”

  “You won’t find your people here,” Sulo said as Nya surveyed the best possible entry point.

  “Is this Sanctum or not?”

  Sulo crossed his arms and looked her dead in the eye.

  “We just saved your life, kapu’t,” Nya said, keeping one eye on the felled treewalker that served as a bridge over the wall. A few disoriented Virids scampered up, but slinking vines stole them back before they could make it over. “You owe us.”

  “Sen and Akoto saved me,” he growled.

  “So did Natsugra’s medicine,” Kaden argued.

  “We don’t have time for this,” Nya said as a bundle of vines spilled over the wall.

  “Please,” Sen said, touching Sulo’s elbow and looking up at him with her big hazel eyes. “She just wants to help people.”

  Sulo grunted, shooting Nya a heated look. “This is Sanctum, but it’s the East wing, where they keep all the old-timers. You want the interrogation holding cells, four buildings down.”

  “Let’s go,” Nya said, picking up her step toward the western buildings. The shouts and the sounds of splintering trees made her push even faster, despite the crunching and popping of her ankle. Not that any injury, not matter how grievous, would stop her now.

  Cutting off the heads of any curious flowers turning to their position, she led them to the leafy canopies hanging over the entrances to the East wing. As she ran to the moss-covered fountain separating the East building from domed structures in the next yard, she noticed some of her party lagging behind.

  “Keep up!” she shouted at Sen as the girl and her beast stayed by the entrances to the East building.

  Sen shook her head and fidgeted with her hands, not budging.

  “Of all the stupid—”

  “Her uncle’s in there,” Sulo said in his usual flat tone.

  “Her uncle?”

  “Go on,” Sulo said as a Virid soldier launched over the wall and crashed a few feet from them. Despite the greenthumb’s broken neck, his legs and arms continued to twitch as black sludge oozed from his mouth. “I’ll catch her up.”

  A
s Kaden and Sahib finished off the infected Virid soldier, Nya grabbed Sulo by the forearm. “Tell me why you care so much about that girl.”

  A low growl vibrated up from his chest and through her arm. She felt his muscles tense as thick hair fibers broke through his skin and tickled her hand. On the verge of shifting, he managed a few grunted words. “Tell me why you don’t.”

  Shaking Nya off, Sulo ran back to Sen and Akoto, giving her no time to respond. After shouting something at the girl, he kicked down the bamboo doors to the East wing entrance and ran inside. Sen looked to Nya, but the warrior woman only stared back at her, angry and frustrated for reasons she couldn’t explain. A second later, Sen and her beast ran inside the East wing entrance, disappearing into the dark building.

  “What now?” Sahib asked, wiping the green Virid blood from his knife onto his pants.

  By the nervous expressions on both Kaden and Sahib’s faces, she could guess their line of thought: No bully bear, no midnight beast.

  “We didn’t need them before, we don’t need them now. We are Chakoa.”

  “Aye,” Kaden shouted, slamming the butts of his axes into the ground.

  Sahib joined in, craning back his neck and shouting to the stars. “Aye!”

  As humans and trees shrieked, and fires lit up the night sky, Nya pointed her swords toward the chaos, into the heart of death and decay.

  “Let’s go free our people.”

  Chapter 15

  Sen took only a few steps inside the East wing of Sanctum before screeching to a halt.

  “Sulo!” she cried, unable to take her eyes off the dozens of white-haired men and woman sitting around tables, in wheelchairs, or on couches in the atrium. Blank-faced, they didn’t show any recognition of her presence, or make any noise. Not that any of them could. Plant roots threaded into their arms and legs, up their nose, and down their mouths.

  “You can’t help them,” Sulo said, trying to turn her chin toward him.

  But she looked back, unable to reconcile the horror.

  “This is how they’re fed, sedated, and kept alive,” Sulo explained. He pointed to glistening pink stalks in the middle of the atrium under the glass ceiling. In the center, a yellow, undulating mass expanded and retracted liked great lungs.