by Scott McCord
A breeze touches my face, and a haze from the smoldering bridges dips down to snake through the crowd.
38
Will
Ven emerges from a thin veil of smoke lit to silver by the rays of the moon. It’s like he’s been conjured or summoned up by some ill-fated dupe looking to make a deal with the devil. As Ven approaches his men make way, the militia stands ready, and Group 14 remains corralled in tight. The coming spectacle is for many eyes.
“Lower your bow, Will,” Ven orders. “Your allegiance to this man is misplaced. He is not your commander, I am.”
“What are you doing?” Starter growls, but Ven ignores the question.
Ven turns, making the crowd his audience.
“Citizens, Scorpions, and militia, let me be abundantly clear—anyone attempting to aid this man will be shot down with extreme prejudice.”
“What is the meaning of this?” Starter growls. He tries to step around, but the arresting Scorpion blocks his way.
“Don’t,” I threaten, drawing my bowstring tighter, prompting sixty others to do the same. Their weapons creak with the strain. Ven continues his announcement.
“This man is under investigation for treason and his involvement with the tragic murders in this very group. He has already been demoted, and our Supreme has been conducting a secret inquiry into Captain Starter’s activities. I stood up for this man, not wanting to believe the charges, but I’m afraid my faith was...ill conceived. Just as truth was surfacing, as damning evidence against Captain Starter was coming to light, tragedy befalls. Tonight, while our bridges burn, Ayden and four other members of The Body have been brutally assassinated in their tents.”
The crowd gasps, Starter drops his head, and I can’t believe what I’m hearing.
“Who could have done this?” Ven shrugs his shoulders like he doesn’t know. “What am I to surmise? It will be left for trial to determine. One thing is certain, anyone standing in opposition to the arrest of the accused, will meet his end tonight.” Ven turns to me. “Do you really want to die for a traitor, Will, or do you want to go after the Slitter scum that did this to us?”
“Lower your weapon,” Starter mutters. I hesitate. “Will, lower your weapon, right now.”
I relax my bow, and the arresting Scorpion with two others take Starter by his arms. Sixty arrows remain trained on my head until Ven raises two fingers, and the bowstrings all ease to neutral.
Ven leans in and lowers his voice. “From the day I pulled you out of that hole, I knew we’d be friends. Great things are coming our way. I’m glad you’re with me.”
He smiles and pulls back so everyone can hear.
“In accordance with the articles written by our ancestors, the devastating tragedies suffered this evening, and with the full support of the remaining members of The Body, I hereby declare martial law throughout Community. I am assuming total sovereignty until the Slitter threat is checked and eliminated. We have a long road ahead, but be assured as High Military Command, I will do all that is possible to protect you and your families. I will root out subversives, spies, and sleeper assassins, bringing everyone and anyone who threatens our destiny as People of the Ark, to a swift and appropriate justice. We’ve lost much, but I swear, as long as I breathe, we will never again suffer another night like this one.”
The Scorpions and militia roar with approval, and the people of Group 14 are swept along as well. “Ven! Ven! Ven!” they chant, raising their voices into the night, burying fear and misery in the refrain.
With his name rising in the dark air, Ven turns to the Scorpions holding Starter. “Throw him in the hole,” he snarls. Six men take Starter through the crowd without a struggle, and when they are safely out of earshot, Ven turns to another soldier. “Round up the rest—he has twelve—and take them to the shepherds’ fields. Do it tonight.”
“Yes sir,” the Scorpion grunts and moves off to do his errand.
“What are you going to do with Starter’s men?” I ask.
“Arrest them, of course. Wherever he was tonight, they were with him. Now, do you have more questions, or do you want to get to the task at hand?”
“What I want is to take thirty Scorpions and track down the assholes who killed my friend.”
“You seem emotional.”
“Hell yeah, I’m emotional.”
“Figg told me you ran into your girlfriend today. What’s her name?”
“Mim.”
A Scorpion trooper interrupts. “Sir, we have the subversives in custody.”
“All twelve?” Ven asks.
“Yes sir.”
“Okay, tell the militia to let these people return home. They have a dead son to mourn.”
“Yes sir.” The Scorpion receives his orders and tramps off to carry them out.
“Yes, Mim,” Ven says turning back to me. “Do you think she had anything to do with tonight?”
“I know she did.”
“Why?”
“Retribution for what happened today.”
“And there’s nothing she could say and nothing she could do to convince you otherwise?”
“Gas had her knife in his back. I won’t give her a chance to convince me of anything.” A thought occurs to me. “What is this? Are you questioning my loyalty?”
“She was your girl.”
“She was never my girl.”
Ven smiles in the moonlight as the crowd thins behind him. A militia officer snaps at someone to hurry along.
“Figg said there weren’t more than four or five Slitters today.”
“It’s hard to tell how many there were. Figg isn’t the most reliable.” I’m growing impatient. “We’re wasting time. Let me have thirty men, and I’ll end this tonight.”
“Do you think so, Will, or are you just going to cause a giant shit storm we can’t possibly survive. I have men cleaning up the mess at the bridges, and the early reports say the Slitters carried off every single one of their dead. Do you know how much manpower it takes to cart off that many bodies? I’m not sending thirty men out to be massacred tonight.”
“So, what are we going to do, sit on our hands and wait for the rest of our bridges to go up in flames, or for a few more priests to be murdered under our noses?”
“Watch your tone, Scorpion, the plan is still the same. We find their nest, assess their strength, marshal our forces, and eradicate the enemy. Do you think you can find them?”
“I know I can,” I say.
“Good, I’ll have six men meet you at the construction path.”
“Only six?”
“This is not an assault mission. It’s reconnaissance only. You have six of my best. Now move.”
I hesitate, squeezing down on the grip of my bow—any harder and I’d crush it to splinters. This is not what I want.
“I know this isn’t what you want, but you can either get in line or go in a hole.” Ven sighs. “I don’t need you arrested, Will, I need you in the woods. I need you out there to see what we’re up against. Your revenge will come, but it has to wait, right now you have a duty. So, what’s it going to be? Tell me you’re my guy.”
Emotions have been beating me with rocks all day, leaving me physically and mentally exhausted. I’m not sure what’s going on, but I don’t want to do anything stupid. It occurs to me Tommy may have been telling the truth about Figg attacking him in the woods, and I’m immediately uneasy going anywhere with Ven’s men.
“If I can’t have thirty, I’ll go alone,” I say.
“It’s too dangerous. You’re taking the six I give you. I’m not losing anybody else tonight.”
He’s not going to yield, so I don’t press it. I’ll get out front and keep my distance from whoever he sends.
“Can they keep up?”
“They’ll keep up.”
“Okay then.” I nod.
“Good. Happy to have you with me, hero…and don’t worry, any bad blood you think might be between us…well…just isn’t there. You and I are on t
he same side. We want the same thing—the preservation and well-being of Community.” He looks for my agreement and mistakes a shudder for a nod. “Time’s wasting. My men will meet you on the path in five, and then I want you to track down the assholes that did this.”
I wait where I’m told, but I never let Ven’s Scorpions fully arrive before barking my orders and going for the woods. I don’t want them too close.
“Oh shit,” one of them exclaims, as they hustle after me.
The pace I set through the dark is intentionally brutal, keeping my distance, and making the men behind me shadows I can only describe by their voices. The Scorpions cuss and swear, occasionally calling for me to rest or slow down. I could lose them easily, but I don’t, fearful of Ven. Only two others could ever keep up with me, and one of them is in a hole back in Community where I put him. It’s the other one I worry about.
My lungs heave and my ears pound until it’s hard to hear anything else as I trot through the black. The moon is big, but the canopy above lets only a smattering of light fall to the forest floor. I can’t see, and paranoia won’t give me time to stop and let my other senses take over.
There’s no tracking anything like this. All I can do is go straight for the bluff where I saw Mim. If I can get there and climb up, the steep face will provide a good barrier between me and Ven’s Scorpions. They’ll catch a breather at the base, and I’ll rest up top until I get my bearings. I’ll figure out the deal with these guys and worry about Mim after. She may have been thoughtful enough to cover her tracks, but the Slitters with her probably weren’t. If there’s a trail, I’ll find it.
39
Mim
Rosie and I run for hours. I have to slow down a little for her, but not much. She’s good and she’s fast. We haven’t been careful, so when the sun comes up in a few hours, there will be a trail a blind man can follow leading straight to the Utugi. It won’t matter, I’ll tell Cassandra what’s happening, and we’ll leave. We’ll be long gone before the Scorpions figure out where we are. It’s almost impossible to track in the dark, no one would even try…unless…they knew where to start. The bluff…if they send Will after us, he’ll go straight to the bluff, wait until morning and get a huge jump on finding the camp. Worse yet, Tommy might know exactly where we are. If that’s true, they won’t wait, they’ll come tonight.
I hear nothing outside my head, and that’s a dangerous place to be. We have to rest…I need a moment to get my bearings. Dry leaves on the ground sound like water as I slow to a running stop. Rosie pads up beside me, puts her hands on her knees and drops her head to breathe.
It takes a moment before I’m able to speak. “Did you hear what the Scorpions were saying at the bridge?”
“You mean right before those crazy idiots lit them up and started killing each other? Yeah I heard it all.”
“That guy, the one Gas threw off the bridge, it sounded like he killed Will’s parents.”
“He definitely killed somebody.”
“Will thinks we did it.”
“He’ll think we burned the bridges too.”
“Gas will say we didn’t.”
“Mim,” Rosie looks up. “I don’t think your friend is alive anymore.”
“He’s strong. I’ve seen him come out of some pretty bad spots before,” I say.
Rosie regards me in the shadows and doesn’t tell me I’m wrong. “There were a lot of men chasing him, so it will be his word against theirs. He may give us up.”
“He won’t.”
“What if he does?”
“He won’t,” I snap. “But if he doesn’t make it, or he’s too hurt to tell them it wasn’t us, I know who’ll be coming, and I doubt he’ll wait for morning.”
“You think it’s Will. Good, let him come. I’ll have his head on a stick for what he did to Jack and the boys.”
The hatred in her words catches me by surprise, and the expression on my face gives her the answer she’s already guessed.
“So it was him,” she says.
I nod.
“And what are you going to do about it?”
I shake my head.
“Nothing? Sorry, Mim, that’s not good enough. That asshole murdered my friends, so he doesn’t get to keep walking around like they were nothing. Mary will fix me up a special dart that will make that bastard wish he was dead long before he is.”
I shake my head again. “No.”
“Yes,” Rosie counters and tries to walk past. I catch her arm, turning her back.
“No,” I growl. “Will is dangerous, Jonathan’s very best student. I know you know what that means. He’s no longer the boy I grew up with. He’s broken inside. A vendetta has him all turned around, and I won’t pretend there’s any turning back. There are too many sins…too many sins for him to stop…too many sins for him not to be right…it’s in his eyes and all over his face. It makes me afraid. I don’t want Will dead, but that’s not the reason I’m not going after him. The Utugi are more important and getting them out before a squad of Scorpions arrives is all that matters.”
Rosie glares as I speak.
I try another angle.
“You have a good life ahead, just like Jack planned, but his dream is only piss on the ground if you try to kill someone who’s only going to kill you first.”
Rosie softens. “It hurts too much to let slide.”
“Nothing slides in Community. Everyone winds up on a culling post…or worse. We’re going to leave these assholes to their miserable lives in this god-forsaken Ark, and before it’s over, they’ll all get what they deserve. Nothing ever slides.”
“Do you believe that?”
“For now.” I smirk. “But none of that matters. Jack wanted you at New Hope, to have the life…the salvation he, Cassandra, and the rest of the Utugi have worked so bravely to make possible. If you go after Will, their sacrifice means nothing, and Jack’s life will have no more value than the dirt under your nails. I loved Jack too much for that. If it helps, your future, great or small, is the only true revenge you can have without sacrificing the people you care about.”
Rosie’s face is bathed in shadows of moonlit trees. She’s quiet. I can’t see her expression, and I’m not sure she’s hearing me until she reaches up to wipe her eyes.
“I don’t know,” she chokes.
“I don’t know either,” I say.
In our scramble to get home, I’ve lost track of time. I look for stars, but the thick canopy obscures the night sky, making it impossible to read.
“Do you think we’ll be back before dawn?” Rosie asks.
“It’ll take us another hour, maybe two,” I say.
“That doesn’t give us much time if we’re leaving at first light.”
“I know.”
“Taking everyone across is scary. Cassandra will want to wait on Jonathan—someone she trusts.”
“Trust is a luxury she can’t afford. I’ll convince her…we’ll convince her.”
An awkwardness momentarily swirls like forest mist. Rosie leans in ever so slightly, perhaps hoping I’ll put my arms around her, but I am my father’s daughter, and now is not the time for such things.
“Let’s go,” I say.
We start at a jog and break into a sprint, trying to beat sunrise home.
§
If there are sentries in the woods, they haven’t set up very well. No one calls out or tries to stop us as we trot through our abandoned camp, heading for the staging area where Cassandra has the Utugi turtled in. I move out from the tree-line toward the grass plain for a clear view of the night sky. The black still hangs heavy, but the moon and stars are only embers of their younger selves. Two more hours, and the atmosphere will be smeared in pink and blue, and all the twinkling white will be buried under sunlight. Two hours…we have two hours.
“How long?” Rosie asks.
“We have time,” I say, “but we need to find Cassandra.”
“Hold it right there,” a man orders. “Turn aroun
d slowly,” he says. Shadows of two guards with drawn bows are there when we do.
“Gah-lee, can’t a girl get up to take a pee in the middle of the night?” Rosie says.
“Rosie?” the first guard scoffs, lowering his weapon. “Don’t even try that, young lady. Mary has been looking for you…and Cassandra has been looking for you.” He nods to me.
“Good, I need to talk to her,” I say, starting to walk past. The second guard blocks my way.
“No,” he says, “she wants to see you in private. Stay here. I’ll get her.” He hurries off, leaving us alone with his partner.
I turn back to the night sky, crossing my fingers, and willing it not to lighten. Rosie leans in to me. I drape my arm over her shoulder. We wait, but not long.
“You’re back.” Cassandra sounds tired and old.
“Yes,” I say.
“From where?”
“Scouting.”
“And you, young lady?”
“I went with Mim,” Rosie answers.
Cassandra takes a deep, impatient breath. It’s too dark for expressions, but it’s not difficult to tell she’s irritated. “And what did you find?”
“We’re in trouble,” I say, and I tell Cassandra about the burning bridges and all Gas said about the war-effort and the Barbarian Resolution. “We don’t have much time. I think they’ll be coming soon,” I say when I’m done.
“You think, but you don’t know, do you?” Her tone is almost accusatory.
“I’m pretty sure—”
“You’re pretty sure, and you think that’s good enough for me to take my people Outside in the dark?”
“No, we’ll go at first light and hope a squad of Scorpions doesn’t show up before then. They know where we are.”
