“Congratulations, Cat,” Gray said, beaming next to me. “You sure showed her. She won’t stand a chance against us when we come for Nate.”
He and Bram lowered me to the ground, and I stood amidst a large army of scarb who all looked to me as their queen.
“Seal off the entrance,” I said. “The next time we meet Emerald, it’ll be on our terms.”
The act was quickly done. The soldiers reported to me that Emerald had left a large guard on the other side of the atrium doors, probably to either warn her if we made a move or to barricade us in.
The latter proved to be the case. I came over to where Saki and her group were standing. “She doesn’t want you having access to the rest of the colony,” Saki said. “The only way you can get to her or the colony now is through the guards or out those windows”—she pointed to the open windows on the left wall of the atrium—“and through the exterior entrances. Those will be guarded, as well.”
Great. So now I’ve trapped us in here. Again, I second-guessed whether coming to the atrium had really been such a great idea.
“We’ll figure it out,” Saki spoke to my inner thoughts. I appreciated her faith in me.
“Thanks for coming,” I said and hoped she could feel how much I meant it.
“Absolutely,” she smiled. Jack was standing behind the group by the far wall, but I could see him watching me. I smiled and nodded to him. He gave a nod a back. I guess I’d made more friends there than I’d thought.
Iva landed gently beside me. She wiped at the clear blood running down her cheek. “What do we do now?” I asked her, still shocked we had survived at all.
Iva pointed to the darkness creeping in as the last light of the sun came weakly through the windows. “It’s getting late. Your scarb are tired.”She motioned across the hundreds of scarb that filled the atrium. Many were sitting in small groups or resting on rocks. Even the fliers had all come down to the ground. “I am sure Emerald won’t make a move on us tonight. We severely weakened her force today. She’ll need time to regroup and re-strategize. We should do the same. Let your scarb rest.”
I felt the weight of my own exhaustion come over me and could only imagine how the others felt. They had been fleeing and fighting all day. My stomach growled.
“What about food?” I asked Iva. Looking about the atrium, I saw no sign of sustenance and only one small drinking fountain. “And water?”
Iva’s forehead creased. “The fountain will have to be enough, until Emerald decides to turn it off.”
“And food?”
Iva only gave a shrug.
Right. Okay. No food and limited water. I thought about making a run to the storage facility and getting some food for us, but Iva quickly reminded me how dangerous it would be. “You’d lose more scarb than would be able to bring enough food back with.”
“She’s right,” Saki agreed.
Fine. My stomach grumbled again. We’d just have to make do. I climbed onto a large boulder in the center of the atrium and addressed the people. “You all did really well today. Emerald wasn’t expecting such courage and resilience.”I gestured over to Saki and her group. “Thank you for your strength and fearlessness. Tonight we’ll rest here.”I saw the group look about them. I knew it wasn’t much: no beds or anything comfortable to sleep on, but there was a measure of safety here for now. “There’s water in the fountain,” I motioned to it. “I suggest you all line up and get a drink. We don’t know how long it’ll last before Emerald turns it off.”Some scarb had already started moving toward it. I could tell most weren’t happy about the situation, but they didn’t complain. I didn’t like to see their tired, drawn-out faces.
“We’ll have a plan for tomorrow,” I said, trying to keep the steadiness in my voice up. “So, sleep well tonight.”
A few grumbles, of “no food,” reached my ears, but most seemed to bear it with patience. I felt bad. I may have chased Emerald off today, but that didn’t make me any more fit to be a queen.
“Don’t worry, Cat,” Derrick whispered to me as I settled down on the cold hard ground for the night. The rest of my guards sat down around me. “You’re doing a good job. You did what we needed to today. Our numbers are over fifteen-hundred, and you scared the pants off Emerald.”
I set my head against the rock wall. The weight of the entire world seemed to be pushing down on me. I didn’t like to feel. I would rather fight. I didn’t require more thought than needed for the moment. But there was no one to fight now and that left me only with my thoughts. “Being queen is so much more than that, though.” I sighed and looked across the dark floor of the atrium at the forms of hundreds of resting scarb. “They need protection. They need provisions. Am I really so much better than Emerald?”
Derrick frowned at my question, but I seriously doubted if it was true. “Emerald uses her people to get what she wants,” I continued. “Am I doing just the same? This whole time I’ve just wanted to get Nate back. I needed more scarb to do that. Well, now I have my scarb, and I realize just how selfish I’m being. These people are willing to lay down their lives for me. I can’t even give them a meal or a decent place to sleep.”
A small smile crept onto Derrick’s lips. I didn’t see anything to smile about. “What is it?” I demanded, feeling a little angry.
“See,” he said gently, “I knew you would become the queen you needed to be. You’re thinking more of them than yourself.”
I wanted to protest, but couldn’t find the words.
“Don’t worry that we have to sleep on the ground or go a little hungry. We’ll gladly do that and much more for you,” he said. He would, I was sure of it, but I wasn’t so certain of all the scarb there in the atrium with me that night. Some had joined us just because they saw how badly Emerald was losing. Such loyalty was flighty. If I didn’t step it up as queen really quickly, I wouldn’t keep them long.
“You’re going to figure it out, Cat,” Derrick said, yawning. “You always do.”
I just hoped he was right.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Welcome Blackness
Gray early morning light came in through the tall atrium windows. I’d slept little that night, constantly tossing and turning on the hard stone floor and thinking of how I was going to manage getting my brother back from Emerald while keeping the scarb loyal to me. I wished Ray were there. He always seemed to know the perfect answer to my problems. Where is he? I wondered as I watched a single golden beam of sunlight drift through the dusty air. Will I ever see him again? Is he even still alive?
Iva fluttered behind me. Her wings rustled gently as she stretched her arms.
“I was wondering when you were going to ask me again about your old love,” she said sleepily, though it didn’t sound like my thoughts had surprised her.
I’d wanted to know the truth about what happened to Ray. This was my chance, but my throat was suddenly clenched up tight. Did I really want to know? What if the truth was worse than wondering?
Iva let me work through my fear. Finally, I asked the question I’d been burning to know. “Is he still alive?”
Iva ran her fingers through her long red hair as she spoke. “I don’t know.” She came around and sat gracefully in a crossed-leg position in front of me. “He was the first human we brought to the colony,” she explained. “Emerald was eager to obtain new forces and try our experiment in the laboratory with the Origin beetles and humans. It was my mission to find suitable human specimens. Emerald was very specific. She didn’t want just any weakling human; she wanted warriors. It was an experiment in creating a super-scarb. I was sent out to scour the nearest human population; I observed your little community on the island. That was when I found Ray. He was clearly the strongest fighter in your group. That’s why I took him on the mountainside.”
The memory of him being carried high into the air came back to me. That was the last time I’d seen him.
“We brought him to the labora
tory. It held him for less than three days. In our haste to perform the experiment, we had overlooked a gap in the netting that surrounded the lab. We can only assume that Ray escaped through that gap and made his way out of the colony. We found two dead guards by the south entrance.”
My heart was racing. So Ray had been here and had escaped. That meant he could still—
“It was my duty to recover him, but then you and your band of humans attacked the colony. Emerald forgot about the lost human, eager to gain more recruits. She allowed the battle to continue for a while to weed out the weaker humans. When there were just a few left, she issued the command for us to take them to the laboratory. The webbing had been fixed, and you were all turned into scarb.”
But not Ray. He had only been in the laboratory for three days. Did that mean—?
“Yes, he could still be human,” she answered my thoughts.
Ray, still human. I did the math in my head. He had been in the colony for three days, and it was a two-day journey by vehicle back to the island, at least three on foot. That meant that Ray could have been coming back to Rimerock as we were leaving for the colony. We might have passed right by each other. He could still be there.
I stood, my heart beating faster than the flier’s wings.
Iva put a hand on my arm. “But if he’s there, that would mean he’s still human.”
“Of course, he’s still human!” I exclaimed, tears of happiness filling my eyes.
Her voice was flat. “And you’re scarb.”
That’s when it hit me. The impossibility of the situation. Ray was human. I was scarb. All my happiness crumbled like eroding sand.
She took her hand off my arm. “Don’t give up. We have yet to see what the future brings.”
More scarb started to stir. They lined up at the drinking fountain, but then there came a cry, “No water. The water’s run out.”
A thin female scarb had issued the cry. It was her turn at the fountain, but when she turned the knob, no water came.
The rest of the line started complaining. “No water.”
“I’m so thirsty.”
“Where will we get water now?”
More scarb woke to the alarm. They swarmed around the dry drinking fountain to see for themselves. Derrick and Gray woke and stood at my left.
“Emerald shut the water off!” the scarb exclaimed. Someone tried to switch on the lights that lined that atrium walls. They too were without power. We were cut off from all resources.
Things were quickly getting out of control. The air vibrated with fear and anger. I turned to Iva and Derrick with wide eyes. “What should I do?”
Iva answered first. “Emerald has control of all the food, water, and electricity. She’s trying to starve us out.”
We’d been in the atrium less than twenty-four hours. We weren’t going to die of hunger or thirst just yet. There had to be a solution.
“There are over eight hundred guards outside the entrance,” Derrick reported. We still outnumbered them, but I wasn’t sure what else would be waiting for us in the colony. I was trying to think it through, to find some sort of solution, when my thoughts were broken by Emerald’s voice. It was as if she were right there in the atrium with us, but I knew her voice was only in my mind.
“Scarb Who Is Called Cat,” her sharp voice rang, making me flinch, “I order you to surrender yourself with your band of traitors to me before noon. If you don’t, I will see that your brother is killed in a most displeasing manner. If that’s not enough to sway you, I’ll see to it that you and your pathetic little army starve to death in that hole you’ve penned yourselves in.”
Emerald’s voice went silent. The scarb turned to me.
I wished I could have just a single moment of privacy, the ability to shield my thoughts and fears from the others. I just wanted a minute to scream. Every fear and uncertainty I had could be sensed by them all. I took a deep breath and tried to pour some resilience into myself.
I had until noon tomorrow. She was going to kill Nate.
The scarb around us muttered and shifted uneasily. Emerald’s threat had not sat well with them. I could almost see the doubt in their eyes: Is Cat actually suited to be queen? Will she really let us starve?
Iva put a hand on my shoulder. “I suggest we do not hesitate. Your scarb are growing restless by the minute, and tomorrow Emerald receives the shipment of soldiers from her sister, Fuchsia. Fuchsia’s scarb are known to be incredibly strong and ruthless. They will only make our task more difficult. We need to act without delay.”
I couldn’t agree more. I seemed to be losing more credibility every hour we were stuck in the atrium, and I wouldn’t see my brother murdered. Surrender was not an option. There was only one thing to do, though it terrified me to do it. We had to go straight for Emerald herself.
*****
Closing my eyes, I felt a measure of privacy I hadn’t felt since I’d become a swab. I was almost alone in the darkness of my eyelids. I remembered my days on the island, walking the aspen groves by myself with only the leaves and birds for company. Or drifting out onto the lake in a row boat and hearing the gentle lap of the waves and the wind whistling through the valley. Those days were over. I was never alone. Keeping my lids closed, I tapped into the connection. I needed this resource now. My life depended on it. So did my brother’s and all my scarb’s.
The force outside the atrium entrance had grown to nearly nine hundred. They were going to be a challenge to get through, but after that the colony was relatively empty. Working scarb went about the colony, tending to their normal duties. They wouldn’t pose a threat to us. I moved my consciousness further out and quickly found more pockets of Emerald’s soldiers. They spiraled higher until a large group of them clustered at the topmost space of the colony. That must be where Emerald’s chambers were because they were filled with scalvions and fliers. This wasn’t going to be easy. All of Emerald’s soldiers were well-fed and well-rested. My scarb, on the other hand—
Taking a deep breath, I opened my eyes again. Iva and all my scarb were waiting for me. Many of the fliers had already taken to the air, and their wings beating a steady wind on my face. They were ready.
I addressed the fifteen hundred scarb in the atrium. “It’s time. We’ll break you into groups of hundred with a captain at the head of each. I wish I had more of a plan, but I’m afraid I don’t. We’re going to be a battering ram at Emerald’s door. We won’t stop until it crumbles.”
Iva, Bram, and Saki quickly helped organize the army into fifteen divisions, appointing strongly loyal captains for each. Iva volunteered to lead the first group out of the atrium. I was to stay in the third with Bram. Derrick, Gray, Jorge and Travis took their place at my side.
On my order, the atrium doors opened, and like a raging sea, the first division poured out of the room. The guards awaiting us on the other side weren’t prepared for such a movement, and the first through fourth division of my army cut their way into the soldiers’ training facility. Our four hundred ran up against Emerald’s nine hundred. Her warriors soon recovered from our unexpected burst, and the battle got intense. There were too many scarb in such a confined space. Most of my scarb were still stuck in the atrium, pushing to get out, but the space was too full of Emerald’s soldiers. It seemed as though we would be quickly swallowed by them.
I was pinned tightly into the center of my scarb so I couldn’t see much. They bumped and jostled against me. The smell of blood and sweat filled my nostrils. I used my connection to get a better sense of what was happening and to try and sway Emerald’s force, but it didn’t work. We were horribly outnumbered in the training facility and they were closing in on us. If we didn’t get more of our scarb into the room, we would be cut off and crushed. My mind scanned the room over and over for some type of break. There it was, a weak spot on the right side of Emerald’s guard. “Attack to the right,” I told Iva. Her fliers unleashed upon them.
Final
ly, the guard started to give way. As more of the guard fell, more of my scarb came pouring into the room. The momentum changed. Soon my scarb were chasing Emerald’s soldiers to the corners of the room. Some surrendered, others fled down the stairs. The air was muggy, and my hair clung to my forehead. Fluids and blood made the floor slick, and bits of scarb flesh stuck to my boots as we made our way through the training rooms and down the stairs.
We had to cross the entire width of the colony through the dormitory area to get to the stairways opposite the atrium that led to Emerald’s chambers.
A few pockets of soldiers attacked us as we made our dash through the dormitories, but they were like saplings in a tornado. Iva led us past where we had once slept and down a stark, unadorned hallway that took us south, into a part of the colony I’d never seen. The walls and rooms we passed were plain and cold with none of the plush carpets or extravagant paintings on the walls. This section was pragmatic and militaristic. The thud of our boots rang against the walls.
A pair of double doors met us at the end of the long hall. Using my connection, I knew Emerald’s soldiers were on the other side. Iva stopped her division. Panting from the run, I moved toward her.
Her face gleamed with sweat, but her green eyes were bright. “I suggest we combine the troops into three groups. The largest should follow us directly up to Emerald and your brother. The other two can take the other passageways and meet us there, so we aren’t ambushed from either side.”
I quickly scanned the space above with my connection and found that she was right. It contained three main passageways leading to Emerald’s chambers. All were full of soldiers.
“Right,” I agreed, and the work was swiftly done.
“Emerald knows you’re coming,” Iva told me. “She sent out a command to the incoming troops of soldiers from Fuchsia’s colony to speed their journey. They will be here before nightfall. She’s barricaded herself up there, hoping to wait you out until the troops arrive. We won’t stand a chance against them.”
SWAB (A Young Adult Dystopian Novel) Page 20
