SWAB (A Young Adult Dystopian Novel)

by Choate, Heather

  Being out of the house in the open, made me nervous in a different way. Though the street was oddly calm and quiet, I was afraid that my parents’ murderers would appear any moment. Where are the sirens? The police? The firefighters? It was eerily still. “Let’s go,” I told Nathan and we walked toward the van. He took his usual seat in the back. We usually argued over who got the front, but I let him be. I sat down in the driver’s seat, which still smelled lightly of my father’s cologne, and turned the key. The engine started, and I tried to remember what my parents always did to make the car go backwards.

  “You don’t know how to drive,” Nathan stated the obvious.

  I bit my lip. “Dad let me try a few times,” I said, to reassure myself more than him.

  “Yeah, in the parking lot, going super-slow,” Nathan pointed out.

  “I can do this,” I told him, and put the car into drive. It moved toward the garage. I slammed on the brakes, making us fly forward.

  “You want me to try?” Nathan offered.

  “No. Now sit down and put your seat belt on, you twit. If I crash this thing, you’d better be safe.”

  Arguing felt better. Like things were almost normal. I got the minivan into reverse and pulled out onto the road. I looked into the rearview mirror once to see our home disappear forever behind us.

  I woke up from the memory when the sky was still dark. The memory no longer made me cry, but it always exposed the raw, hallow part in me, like ripping off a scab. I wrapped my arms tightly around my chest and decided to get up anyway and get a start on the day. The scarb had taken everything from us. It was time to take it back.

  Chapter Seven

  A Funny Way of Speaking

  The early morning air outside my tent smelled like sage and fresh-fallen rain. I sucked in a deep breath of it. I closed my eyelids as I turned into the rising sun.

  “You miss him, don’t you?”

  The unexpected male voice startled me. I turned quickly, my legs reflexively in a fighting stance, to see Derrick casually walking toward me in a plaid shirt and blue jeans, his usual white cowboy hat on his head. His dark blue eyes fell on me, and I felt incredibly self-conscious in the short boxers and tank top I’d stepped out of my tent in.

  “Who?” I asked, wondering why he was over here at all. He usually hung out over by the Post with the other soldiers. Ray had told me Derrick tried too hard to fit in. He was always trying to prove himself with the guys and was a real show off for the ladies. Cassandra had an alternating crush between him and Ray. Ray had said that Derrick talked a lot with that smooth country accent but rarely had much to back it up. Ray didn’t care for him much, which was enough for me to not like him, either.

  “Your boyfriend,” Derrick said, taking off his hat and brushing back his sun-bleached blond hair. When I just stared back at him dumbly, he added, “You know, the one who got kidnapped by the scarb?” He had a funny way of saying scarb. It came out more like scahr-buh.

  He put his thumbs into the front pocket of jeans. He looked like he’d worked on a ranch his whole life. He reeked of sun and sweet straw.

  This was getting uncomfortable. Why won’t he just leave? I was anxious to get over to check on Travis’s progress with the trucks.

  “Well, for what it’s worth”—he stalled, like he was embarrassed or something—“I thought you should know, since we are in the same troop and all, that I believe you.” This got my attention, and I looked into his face for a sign he might be making fun of me. He spoke softly and seriously. “I believe the flying scarb may have taken Ray. I know a heck of a lot of the guys back at the Post don’t think your story is very… accurate, but I don’t see why you would just make it up.”

  My mouth hung open slightly, like the hinges of my jaw had come loose.

  Derrick played with the toe of his cowboy boot in the dust. “Well, I guess I better get back and help Rico and Jorge at the Post,” he finally said. “I’ll see you at our troop meeting later tonight.”

  With that, he put his hat back on, turned, and started back toward town. His figure from the back looked like a postcard. Wild and western. A gentleman? I wasn’t sure.

  “See you,” I said weakly to the back of his plaid shirt. Did that really just happen? I wondered as I headed toward the lake for a quick clean-up to start the day. An odd mixture of emotions mixed in my stomach: the lingering awkwardness of the whole situation, the uncertainty of Derrick’s real character, and a growing feeling of relief—relief that at least there was one person on this island who seemed to believe me. He was hardly Officer Reynolds or anyone of real importance, but at least there was someone. I was glad he was in my troop. I’d take as many allies as I could get once combat began.

  Travis wasn’t much for talking while he worked, which was all right with me. I was too anxious. It’d been two days already. Is he still alive? Where could he be? Those questions and a hundred others filled my mind until I thought I would burst. Travis seemed to sense my growing unease, so he tried to talk about school and stuff from back before the scarb. I didn’t really pay attention to it. Finally, he found something that got my mind off Ray.

  “You know, word is the scouts are coming back tonight?”

  I nearly dropped the socket wrench I was holding. “What?” I ducked down under the engine to see his face better. “For real? I thought they weren’t expected back until the end of the week!”

  He smiled. “For real. Your brother should be home before midnight tonight.”

  My heart nearly flew up into the tree tops. Nathan will be coming home tonight!

  It proved to be even better than that. Just as I was helping put the last of Travis’s tools back into his tool box, when I heard a call, “The scouts are back!”

  I looked at Travis. He smiled and took the tools out of my hand. “Go.” Sprinting out of the fuel yard, I came onto the main street and scanned the air for a sign of my brother. But it was so filled with dust from all the people walking, I couldn’t see much.

  “There they are!” another woman cried. I shielded my eyes with my hands. Eight dirt-crusted men and two women came up the road. I ran toward them. They were so covered in grime it was hard to distinguish one from the others. But at the back I saw two bright green eyes.

  “Nathan!”

  He looked like he’d gotten even taller and maybe added another pound to his scrawny frame since the last time I’d seen him. Is it possible for a fifteen-year-old to grow so much in six weeks? His face had a thick shadow of dirt on it, making his skin blend in with his light brown hair and the whites of his green eyes stand out more. His lips cracked into a crusty smile when he saw me.

  “Cat,” he called, and we ran into a tight embrace. He squeezed my shoulders so hard I could barely breathe. All my emotions came rushing to me: relief to see him, fear about what I had to tell him.

  Nathan’s face fell when he saw mine. “What’s wrong, Cat?”

  “Ray’s gone,” I said slowly. “The scarb got him, but I don’t think he’s dead. I think they captured him.”

  “What? How?”

  I explained what happened that morning and how the scarb may have taken Ray to the eastern colony. When I told Nathan of our plan to attack as soon as the trucks were running, a fierce look came across his face.

  “We’ve got to get him back,” he said.

  “I know.”

  We turned away from town toward our tent, but he stopped and frowned. “You said you thought that red-haired scarb spoke to you?”

  “Well, it seemed like she mouthed something, but she might have just been moving her lips. I might have just imagined hearing her voice in my mind.”

  Nathan’s lips twisted to the left. “I’m not so sure.”

  Great, now I’ve gotten him even more worried. “It’s nothing, really.” The last thing I needed was for him to think I was losing my mind.

  “It’s not just that, though,” he rubbed his finger against his top lip
. “Why did they take Ray instead of just killing him?”

  I took Nathan’s arm and started walking us through the tall grass again. “I don’t know. Maybe the queens have developed a taste for fresh human meat?” But that didn’t seem very probable, either. Scarb didn’t eat humans. Just killed them and left them to rot, threat eliminated.

  “It’s weird to me,” Nathan said.

  I helped Nathan unpack the few supplies he’d taken with him. The last thing he pulled from his pack was an obsidian arrowhead wrapped in a piece of leather. “I found it near a dormant volcano. Indians used to use them to hunt. I thought it might bring you good luck.” He wrapped a bit of twine around it in a crisscross pattern to make a necklace.

  “I love it.”

  We spent the rest of the day helping Travis with the trucks, and then that night we headed over to the Post for the meeting with our troop.

  I wanted to sit in the back, but Nathan led me to the front and sat right next to Cassandra. “She’s so hot,” he whispered to me. I just rolled my eyes and tried not to notice how low-cut her button-up blouse was. She mostly ignored his stares which was just fine to me. More of our troop filed in. I noticed that most were young, twenty-five and under. The older, more experienced soldiers would be with Officer Reynolds at the main entrance. Officer Davin came in behind Officer Reynolds and they took seats at the front of the group. Officer Davin adjusted the strap of his arm sling, but he actually caught my eye and smiled. Maybe it won’t be so bad being in his troop after all.

  Officer Reynolds started the meeting with instructions on material preparation for the attack.

  “We are leaving in two days, when the trucks are running,” he explained. “I expect you to ready your weapons, fill your individual pressurized water packs, sharpen your knives, and charge your solar-powered flashlight.” He was talking to Mrs. Weatherstone and some of the other women about food preparation, and I pretty much tuned him out. Suddenly, I heard my name.

  “Ms. McCabe,” he said sharply, “how do you propose we look for Ray during this operation? I would like to hear your plan, since it’s your idea that Ray may be held captive inside.”

  My plan. Panic fluttered through me. I hadn’t thought of a plan. All I’d been worried about was fixing the trucks and getting to the colony.

  “Yeah, Sis,” Nathan nudged me. “What’s your plan?”

  When I still didn’t say anything, Officer Davin spoke up. “I don’t see how any rescue attempt will be possible. We’re flooding the entrances. If Ray is really inside, anyone going after him will drown with the scarb.”

  Guess he’s not on my side after all. But he was right. How were we going to find Ray?

  All thirty eyes of our troop were on me. Cassandra twirled her auburn hair, looking at me smugly. My cheeks flushed.

  An unexpected, southern-accented voice came to my rescue.“We’re working on a plan for that right now.” Derrick gave me a reassuring nod. “I expect we should have a solid idea by tomorrow.”

  My breath seemed to stick in my throat.

  “Is that correct, Catherine?” Officer Reynolds asked.

  “Uh, yeah.”I blinked rapidly, trying to take it in. Why was Derrick being so helpful?

  Derrick spoke up again. “We’d like to know how many soldiers we can count on to carry out the rescue mission.”

  “How many?” Officer Davin repeated like we’d just asked if the pope could come with us.

  “Yeah,” Derrick leaned his forearms against his blue jeans. “We’ll need at least a few soldiers.”

  Officer Davin huffed. Officer Reynolds looked about the room. “You can have as many as want to volunteer. Anyone?” Nathan raised his hand beside me, but he was the only one.

  “Looks like you’ve got your soldiers,” Officer Reynolds declared. So, it’s just Derrick, Nathan, and me? How stupid is that?

  Officer Reynolds was preparing to move on when I cut in.

  “Don’t you think we should put more effort into finding Ray?”I glared at the faces around me. “He’s saved half your butts.”

  Officer Reynolds gave me a stern look. “This mission, as you may recall, is an attack on the eastern queen and her colony. Any rescue attempts will be secondary to this main objective. You have your volunteers, and you will remember that you obey your troop leader first. If Ray is in their mountain, his loss will be acceptable.”

  Ray’s loss acceptable? I nearly started yelling, but Nathan put a hand on my knee. “Don’t worry, Cat,” he whispered. “We’ll get him, with or without their help. Now’s not the time to cause a scene.”

  But that’s exactly what I wanted to do. Every second that ticked by felt like he was slipping further away from me. So, let me make a scene. Let me rage and shake those insolent soldiers by their hair until they feel the pain I feel. But, Nathan was right. Just a few more days, and I’d get Ray. And if I couldn’t get Ray, at least I could get vengeance.

  Chapter Eight

  A Plan

  A southern voice startled me the next morning as Nathan and I were scrubbing our combat clothes at the laundry lot. “We need to make a plan.” Derrick walked over to Nathan and me. “So, let’s plan.”

  “Um, okay,” I answered, rubbing my raw hands with a towel. “I never got to thank you for speaking up at the meeting either, so, um, thank you.”

  Derrick gave an easy smile. I noticed he had a dimple on his left cheek. “No problem.” He bobbed his head so his hat cast a shadow over his blue eyes. “So, Officer Reynolds made it pretty clear we need to follow orders first—and I think we should—but that doesn’t mean we can’t do a little side mission, as well.”

  “Okay,” I prompted him to continue. Nathan scrubbed his boots while he listened.

  Derrick drew in the dirt to explain his idea. First he drew a rough triangle for the mountain. “Well, we can’t get around the flooding. But I was thinking, there’s still that small entrance just north of the western one.” He made an “x” on the mountain. “No one’s too worried about it, since the scarb just seem to use it for dumping waste once in a while. I figure after we help flood the main entrances, we can use that high north one to get in and at least see if Ray is there.”

  I turned his plan over in my mind. “I’d really rather get in before they flood it—”

  Nathan put his boot down. “You know that’s suicide, Cat,” he said in his brotherly way. “No human’s been inside a scarb colony. Ever. There’s no way we could make it in and out, undetected and alive. Besides, we don’t want to give away the entire attack. I think Derrick’s plan is the best we can do.”

  Derrick seemed pleased that he’d won my brother’s approval, but he seemed to be waiting on mine.

  “I don’t know. I just think there’s something more we can do.”And so I tried to think of a better plan. I ran it over and over through my mind, until my temples throbbed. My heart ached. Ray could be in that colony, and now we were going to flood it without giving him a chance. But any idea I came up with ended only in likely death. I finally resigned myself to the fact that Derrick’s plan was all we had.

  Two days later, Nathan and I walked wordlessly to one of the three fire engines. We set our packs of supplies inside beside the others and double-checked our weapons: two steel blades in their sheaths around my waist, a smaller one under my sleeve, two more at my ankles, water pack filled and strapped onto my back. I watched sunlight reflect off a drop of dew on the hood of the truck. Everything was ready, and yet, nothing felt right.

  Nathan jogged over to me after speaking with some of the other young soldiers. “Let’s go get him,” he said, knowing who I was thinking of.

  “Yeah, let’s do this,” I said, fixing my eyes on the massive mountains. It took nearly half a day just to load the fire trucks onto the massive barges we’d made the first time we brought them across the lake, and get them to the other side. We followed an old winding country road that cut through the mountains. It was in such
poor condition after all the years of not being driven over; making the journey was long and bumpy. Sometimes I’d ride with Nathan on top of the fire truck; other times I was so sick of all the jostling, I’d walk alongside it. I wished I could zoom there as quickly as the fliers flew over the mountains. Every hour felt like an eternity.

  On the evening of the second day, we reached the last ridge before the colony.

  I sat next to Nathan in my sleeping bag under a willow tree.

  “Don’t you wish Dad were here?” he asked me.

  “Having second thoughts?” I asked back. We didn’t talk about our parents much, but I wasn’t surprised he’d brought it up now. The mission could prove to be pure suicide. Everyone knew it, though no one said it.

  “It’s not that,” Nathan answered. “I just think he would be good for Rimerock, you know? He was so calm and strong when he needed to be. You’re a lot like him.”

  I nudged him. “You are, too, Nate. You are, too.” An owl hooted somewhere in the branches above us. “You nervous?”

  “Nah. Let’s give ‘em hell.”

  I couldn’t agree more. After a night of little sleep and a lot of waking and wondering if dawn had come yet, I was eager to go and get it over with. I dressed in my battle gear: leather wraps over my clothes, boots, and a metal helmet. I slipped the obsidian arrowhead Nathan gave me under my collar so that the stone rested coolly against my skin. Nathan adorned my helmet with three blue jay feathers he’d found.

  The sun rose higher. I checked all my weapons and the water pack on my back and slid my two steel swords into my pack.

  We scarfed down a quick breakfast of homemade granola bars and almonds then got into position. Nathan, his best friend, Gray, and Derrick had been placed on the fire truck to protect the three guys manning the water hoses, and to take their place should the worst happen. It was like Officer Davin had put them there specifically so they couldn’t assist me with finding Ray. I was to be on the ground, front line combat to take out any scarb that might make it out of the west entrance.