Once again, she lunged for my throat, but this time there was finality in her movements. The talk was over. She was going to kill me. I let her come. Just as her right hand made contact with my neck, I wrapped my left arm around her back. Her hand cinched around my throat, but she was close enough that the barbs on the fingers of my right arm cut deeply into the weak spot on her neck. I twisted my wrist so the last one made contact with her spinal cord, severing it cleanly.
Her head slumped to the right, her hands releasing me as her body crumpled to the ground.
I stood there a moment, Emerald’s blood dripping off my fingertips. She was dead.
Her soldiers went into a rage. Hundreds flooded the corridor, bloodlust in their eyes and revenge in their hands.
Derrick fought two scalvions between a row of observation tanks that lined the left wall. Gray cried out as another flier tore a gash in his thigh. Two black fliers zoomed down at me from the ceiling. “You killed the queen!” they screamed like creatures from Hell.
I killed them without thinking. We found ourselves being quickly outnumbered.
Use the connection, I told myself while I sliced off the arm of a middle-aged warrior. It was harder to concentrate on talking while I was in the middle of fighting, but there was no other option.
I tapped into the connection and reached out to all the scarb left in the colony. We’d lost many. There were fewer than nine hundred of my scarb but still several thousand loyal to Emerald. And more were coming. Fuchsia’s armies were approaching just over the crest of the closest mountain range, twenty thousand strong. We were never going to survive this. Still, I had to try.
“Emerald’s dead,” I told the scarb while throwing a sharp right hook into the nose of a soldier. “I gave her a chance for peace, but she wouldn’t let go of her pride. I offer you the same chance: If you won’t join us, let us leave in peace. We don’t want to fight you but we will if we must.” To emphasize the point, I ripped a soldier apart at the waist, his lower body walking a few more steps before it fell to the ground.
“Kill her!” the soldiers in the corridor echoed in unison.
So much for being diplomatic. I reached out and called the remaining scarb loyal to me. “Gather in Emerald’s chambers,” I told them. “Get there as fast as you can.” The only hope we had was to get into one body.
I spoke to the scarb closest to me. “We have to get Nathan. Please help me.”Like gathering morning dew, they quickly surrounded me.
Gray beat his wings by me. “Let’s go get him.”
We struggled to get down the rest of the corridor, but we made it to the mural and ran up the labyrinthine passageway. Iva made quick, decisive turns, having been up that way many times before, pausing only to take out soldiers.
My head spun from all the tight turns, but eventually we burst into a small dungeon room. It was full of scalvions. I can sense Nate! We’d broken through the block Emerald had put around him. I couldn’t see him yet, but it felt so good to know that he was there and alive.
“Cat!” he exclaimed.
“I’m here, Nate!” I called. “Hold on.”I pushed into the room. A red-bearded scalvion sent a sharp blow to the back of my head with the heel of his foot. I sucked in a breath and slashed at his leg with my hand, tearing open his femoral artery. Nothing was getting between me and my brother now.
The cells were like that of a common jail: floor to ceiling bars, concrete floors, a toilet, and a single bench to sit/sleep on. Nathan was in the last one, holding the bars, his green eyes wide. Derrick got a gash on his neck, but we managed to cut through the scalvions.
“Took you long enough,” he said as I reached through the bars to give him an awkward hug. My scarb formed a protective circle around me.
“Seriously, Nate,” I laughed, “you’ll really learn to appreciate me one day.”
“I do,” he said. “Thanks Cat.”
I pulled on the bars. “Now to get you out of here.”The latch on the prison didn’t budge. “I need some—”
“Keys?” Iva finished for me, tossing a pair of keys she had gotten off one of the dead scalvions. The lock on the latch turned, and the door swung open. My brother was in my arms.
Emotions flooded me. Relief, exhaustion, joy, and fear.
I’d done it; my brother was free.
I didn’t realize I was crying until Nate said, “Come on, Cat. You’re queen now. You can’t be all emotional like that.”
I wanted to punch him. “Don’t tease me right now.”
Iva’s voice interrupted me. “Fuchsia’s armies are within the colony’s borders.”
All the triumph of the moment came to a crashing halt. I may have freed my brother from his prison cell, but I’d basically trapped him and the rest of us at the top of Emerald’s colony.
“How do we get out of here?” I asked her.
“There’s only one way out, back down to the exits. The southern one is the closest.”The levels below us were now full of furious scarb.
“Any other ideas?” I asked as I shoved a large female scarb back out of the prison doorway.
“What about the vents?” Gray asked pointing to the single vent in the ceiling of the prison room.
Iva studied it a moment, pausing to wipe the sweat off her brow. “They connect to the colony’s main air duct system. They vent at the top of the mountain.”
“Let’s do it,” I said, seeing escape and eager to take it.
She shook her head. “You don’t understand. The opening is at the top of the mountain. It’s a sheer cliff face.”
I pictured the drop from the image she sent into my thoughts. It would be impossible to climb down.
“We could fly you,” Nate said, as he nudged Gray.
“Yeah,” Gray agreed.
Iva shook her head, “No offense, kids, but you’re not the strongest fliers, and there are a lot of scarb without wings to carry.”
Nate opened his mouth to protest, but Derrick did it for him. “I don’t think we have much choice. I say we do it.”
The relentless tide of soldiers was pushing Bram and his scarb back into the already crowded prison. Thousands more were coming for us.
I nodded to Derrick. I’m done with this place. “Let’s get out of here.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Beauty and Chaos
The air ducts were dusty, and my hands and knees were soon covered in gray grime as we crawled through them. Alternating currents of hot and cold air blasted us as we passed adjoining ducts to the main line. Saki and Jack led the last group of my scarb through the vents. We’ve lost so many.
I did a quick count. Only a hundred scarb left. Blast it.
“How much longer do you think?” I asked Iva.
“I really don’t know,” she answered. “It’s not like I’ve ever been up here before.”
“Oh, right.”She should be swab. She understands it so much better than me.
“Being a swab isn’t something you choose,” she told me as we took a sharp turn to the right. “It’s just in you. Very few have the ability.”
The climb was almost vertical now. We had to brace our hands and legs against the walls and make our way slowly up. The soldiers were in the vents now, too. How soon until they’d be on us?
Sweat drenched my back and underarms. Cool Rocky Mountain air poured in from the opening at the top of the vent, chilling the sweat on my skin. Sunlight fell on my face. We were almost there. Iva and Bram pushed the gate off from the vent and tossed it over the cliff-edge. That’s when I heard the buzz of dozens of wings coming up the vent from the ducts below.
“Fliers,” I cursed.
“Hurry,” Iva said, hovering over the exit as I pulled myself out of it. The drop below was dizzying, at least seven hundred feet. Derrick pulled himself up next beside me. “Take my hands.”
I looked back down into the dark vent. Emerald’s fliers were at the bottom of it.
“
No,” I said. “Take Derrick.”
Derrick and Iva looked like they wanted to protest. “Do it. Now!” I shouted. Iva bit her lip, and she and Bram lifted Derrick into the air by his arms. The fliers were strong, but the weight of an extra scarb meant two had to carry just one. With sixty fliers and forty regular scarb, that meant some would have to be left behind. I hated that. Saki and Jack were down there at the bottom of the air ducts.
“Come on!” I called to them.
But I could hear the sounds of struggle as they fought Fuchsia’s fliers. “Go, Cat!” Saki told me. “I won’t let them kill you.”
Just then, a flier took off her head.
“No!” I screamed. Seconds later, Jack was dead, too, a barb thrust through his abdomen. The sight reminded me of the bugs pinned to paper in his laboratory.
“I’m sorry!” I cried. “I’m so sorry!”
The fliers scrambled up the duct toward us.
“They’re gone, Cat,” Nate said, hovering in the air next to me. He and Gray put their hands out to lift me. “We’ve got to go. Now!”
“You sure you’re strong enough for this?” I asked, pure fear filling me.
“No,” Nathan said, picking up my shoulder with his arm. Gray quickly did the same. “Only one way to find out, though.”With that, they jumped off the cliff face, taking me with them.
The feeling of air under my feet was terrifying. I wanted to go back to the cliff face and cling to the rock. We dropped fifteen feet. I couldn’t even scream. But then the boys got their wings steady and were able to move us forward through the air after the other fliers.
The view of the outside world was almost blinding at first. I’d been inside the colony for so long that the colors and variety of the landscape came on too strong for my senses. The carpet of pine trees below us was impossibly green, the white of the snow on the mountains too bright, the yellow of the sunbeams falling through the clouds unbearably beautiful and vivid. We soared over the rich scenery like birds.
“Pretty awesome, isn’t it?” Nathan asked.
“It is,” I said, but I felt hollow inside. Saki and Jack are dead.
“I’m sorry,” Nate whispered. I had to do another head-count, but I cringed, not wanting to know how many more scarb had died for me. Thirty-two fliers. Seventeen regular scarb. That’s all. No one else made it out of the vents.
Hot, angry tears streamed from my eyes.
“I’m sorry, sis,” Nathan said again quietly.
My mind and senses were numb. I used my connection to feel for fliers or other threats. Fuchsia’s fliers followed us, but they were far behind. I was amazed at the speed we were able to make. My fliers had had little rest, no food or water, and had been fighting for two days. Still, they soared on. The sun began to lower in the sky, turning the wispy cirrus clouds over the mountain peaks orange and gold. We were going west. Toward the island.
“I guessed that was where you would want us to go,” Iva told me. There was fatigue in her voice, but her wings were steady.
Because of Ray. I was grateful for her intuition. She was right. If there was a chance Ray would be there, Rimerock was where we had to go.
I have to find him. I instantly felt guilty. I knew Derrick could feel my desire. He kept his thoughts and emotions closed to me, though. Derrick had held me and cried when I was dying. I remembered the feeling of his cool tears on my skin and the way they healed me. Derrick had saved me. He’s stood faithfully by me through this whole mess. But I couldn’t help still having feelings for Ray. Maybe I always will. He was the first person I’d loved. Ray had protected me and kept me safe for years. He’d been there for me when I thought there was no hope for any of us anymore. And then he was taken from me. Try as I might, I couldn’t let him go. I have to know what happened to him. I have to know that he’s safe before I can even hope to figure out what will happen next.
So, we went to the island. The peaks and horizons started to look familiar. What would be left of Rimerock now? Were there any people there? Any of the kids from Mr. Blackwell’s class? Almost all the men and those few women chosen to fight in our attack on the colony had been killed. That would leave only a few of the older men, some women, and the children.
“Let’s land on the opposite bank,” I told Iva. If there were humans on the island, I didn’t want to scare them. We would rest that night, and in the morning, I would go to Rimerock alone.
Nate and Gray set me down then flopped onto the ground, breathing hard. I took a deep breath. My armpits ached from being held for so long. Nathan and Gray lapped water out of a stream like dogs. I found myself joining them. The water felt cool as it ran down my throat and filled my stomach.
We ate wild strawberries and wheat grass that night. Then we bedded down under the pines. I lay down beside my brother, who was already snoring loudly. Derrick didn’t say anything. He’d offered to take the first watch, but he chose to sit down at my feet. I was glad he did. He’ll keep me safe. Somehow, that only made me feel guiltier.
Millions of stars pricked their way through the blackness of night. It’d been so long since I’d seen the stars. My eyes traced over the shapes of the Big Dipper, Orion’s Belt, and other constellations I didn’t know the names of. They were beautiful, like diamonds in water. But the stars also held a terrifying reality for me now. There were more scarb up there. Billions and billions of them. All scurrying about doing what scarb do, pledging their loyalty to queens who fought and conquered one another in a never-ending cycle of ambition, destroying life in their wake. And now I would forever be one of them. The stars spun above me, a universe of beauty and chaos.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Arizona
Early morning sunlight hit my eyes, waking me. I had been dreaming about Ray. Just after we’d come to the island, he’d taken me on a picnic. I could almost still taste the wild raspberries and fresh fish we had grilled over an open campfire.
I decided to leave right away, without waking the others. Jorge kept watch, poking at the remains of our fire from the night before with a stick. I told him I was going to Rimerock and to have the others wait for me on the mountainside.
As I jogged, my blood started to warm and my muscles—tight from all the fighting yesterday—started to loosen. I made my way down to the water’s edge and followed the lake shore around until I found two rowboats stowed in the bushes. Pushing one out onto the water felt like coming home. The island was green and welcoming before me. Free at last, I was coming home, and I would find Ray. He was there. I was sure of it.
I wrapped the tie of the rowboat around an aspen on the island’s shore. I made my way through the bushes and grass, humming a tune my mother had used to sing. My humming stopped when I got to the clearing where the tents and hovels should have been. Only a few hovels remained. One had a caved-in roof. There was no sign of any living person.
“No,” I whispered and ran toward the main street. It was just as empty. The Post had been torn down and stripped of all useful materials. Just a few unsteady beams remained. I put my forehead against one of them. Everyone was gone. The reality sunk into me like a stone dropped into the lake. I was too late.
Thick weeds grew everywhere. The people must have left weeks ago, maybe right after our attack had failed. What made them go?
I noticed fresh boot prints in the dirt along the far side of the Post. Someone was here.
“Ray!” I shouted as I walked down the main street, my eyes darting to the ruins of the community on either side.
I passed Mrs. Weatherstone’s little herb house, and a figure stepped out at the end of the street. Then another, and another. There were three people left.
I jogged to greet them, but I soon stopped. Something was wrong. They weren’t human. Two long, thin spears protruded from the skull of one of these strange scarb. Another had a tendril swooping from his back so long that it could’ve been considered a tail. The last was large and bullish. How did I not sense the
m before? We’d been constantly checking the connection for signs of other scarb, but I hadn’t noticed these three on the island.
“What are you doing here?” I asked them cautiously. I could take three scarb, but these three looked like rogue scarb, “rangers” Iva called them. She told me rangers could be more dangerous than colony scarb because they had nothing to protect, nothing to fight for other than life itself. She explained that once a scarb went rogue, they left the connection to Origin and joined a lesser one that connected only the rangers to each other. That must have been why I hadn’t sensed them.
“Shouldn’t we be asking you that same question, swab?” The scarb with the tail asked with a slurred accent. I wasn’t sure how they knew I was a swab, but that hardly seemed to matter at the moment. “We don’t like being bothered much, you see, and we don’t like self-centered swab like you.”
I put my hands up. “I don’t mean you any harm. Can’t the feeling be mutual?”
“Swab,” the tailed scarb spat. “They think they can order everyone around.”
“What can we do with a lone little swab?” the largest of the three turned and asked his companions with a lick of his purple lips. “I bet she has a pack of dummies close by. I bet they would pay nicely to get their queen back.”
I was tempted to call Derrick and Iva for help, but I immediately decided against it. What kind of queen am I if I can’t handle three rangers?
“I just came to see if there were any humans left on the island,” I quickly told them.
“Hungry for more little scarbies to join your cause?” the one with the tail assumed, but the third one with the spikes answered for me, his eyes narrowed, reading my thoughts.
“No, she’s looking for one of them. A male.”
SWAB (A Young Adult Dystopian Novel) Page 22
