Firebrand

by Antony John

  “Alice,” I whispered loudly, but there was no response.

  “You don’t get it, do you,” said Chief, voice calmer again. “Twenty rats won’t just prove that Griffin is resistant. Such a large dose of Plague will boost his antibody titers. It’ll help him in the long run.” He opened his arms wide. It was a gesture I’d seen more than once, and which I’d trusted to be genuine. He pointed to the machine as if coaxing Dare to join him over there. “The plasmapheresis unit still works. My technician has been testing it on himself. In a matter of days, we’ll be able to extract antibodies. Because Griffin’s titers will be so high, we’ll need less of his blood to treat everyone. Think about it, Dare: For the first time in a generation, we can passively immunize people.”

  “Your people.”

  “No, Dare. Our people.” Chief wore the expression of a disappointed parent. “I know those colonists are related to you. Same birthplace. Same ability to survive against all odds. I saw them all for elementals the moment they arrived. That’s why the adults are imprisoned in Sumter, where we can keep an eye on them. Someone saw Marin catching a fish, you see. Lured it toward her and caught it barehanded. There’s no way I’m taking any chances against an element as strong as that.”

  A strange transformation overtook Dare then. “Tell me, Chief. Exactly whom did you send to lock up the children? Was it Kell?”

  “The fate of the children on Moultrie rests in our hands now,” replied Chief, ignoring him. “Griffin’s blood will save them.”

  “Kell hasn’t returned. Has he?”

  “Enough!” Chief rapped his knuckles against the machine impatiently. “You don’t have your cronies around you anymore, Dare, and I’ve tolerated your questions long enough.” He raised a hand and gave a signal to the man across the room. “Raise the divider.”

  Dare strode toward Chief until a guard stepped in his way. “You thought it was adults you needed to worry about, didn’t you? But elements peak in late adolescence. Kell wouldn’t have stood a chance.”

  Chief spat on the ground. For a moment, I saw his fear. Even in a heavily guarded fort, he was scared of the one thing he couldn’t control. “I said, raise the divider!” he yelled.

  I scanned the room, searching for weakness. The guns against the wall were well out of reach, and Chief had the advantage of numbers. I tried to get Alice’s attention again, but there was no response.

  One of the men beside the cube flicked a lever. The machine’s whine grew louder. There was another sound too: the grinding of a pulley coming to life, a wheel turning slowly, and the divider inching upward, pulled by a series of thin, strong cords.

  I could barely breathe in the confines of the ductwork. I needed to stop this, but three guards carried guns and I didn’t doubt they’d be willing to use them. Griffin was so near to me, but he may as well have been on another island.

  The men in full-body outfits slunk away from the cube, terror written in their jerky movements and rapidly exchanged glances. They exited the area and sealed the door behind them.

  Rats snuffled at the gap appearing beneath the divider, and pawed at it furiously. Maybe they’d been starved to make them more desperate. Or maybe this is what they’d been driven to become.

  Then they were through.

  It happened so quickly. They scattered across the floor, sliding toward Griffin. He tried to move away, but it was futile. His hands and feet were bound, and there was nowhere for him to hide. In a heartbeat, they smothered him, biting and clawing, and now there was a new sound: Griffin screaming so loudly, the noise of the machine seemed to fade away completely.

  Blind fury overtook me. I pressed my back against the rounded side of the duct and my legs against the vent cover. Then I kicked off.

  The cover flew out, hitting one of the armed guards. As another looked up, I launched myself from the duct and stretched my arms out to make sure I took him down with me. We collapsed onto the ground together. With the wind knocked out of me, I couldn’t move at first, but I caught a glimpse of Dare disarming the third guard. He sent the man to the floor with a single swing of the gun. Chief responded by kicking the gun from Dare’s hands. It landed right next to me.

  I grabbed it and stood.

  The scene grew still. I pointed the barrel at Dare, then at Chief. When a guard approached the gun rack against the wall, I swung around to face him. My hands were shaking. Griffin’s cries still filled the air.

  “Good boy, Thomas,” said Chief, edging toward me. “I can take that from you now.”

  I jabbed the barrel at him, making him flinch. “Stay back.”

  “What do you think you’re going to do?” he chided. “Kill us all? Escape?” He wiped his sleeve across his mouth and smiled triumphantly. “Tell him, Dare. Tell him how close we are. How we’ve waited years for this. There’s a new world coming, Thomas.”

  I just wanted to stop Griffin’s screams, but lowering the divider wouldn’t achieve anything now that the rats were all over him. “Let my brother go.”

  Chief shook his head. “I can’t do that. This isn’t about Griffin anymore. It’s humankind’s last chance at survival.”

  He moved closer. So did Dare. As I retreated to the railing, the guard edged toward the gun rack again. My legs bumped against the railing. I spun around and fired at the cube’s glass panels. Griffin’s cries were drowned out by the sound of shattering glass. Dare and Chief sprinted toward me as the rats scattered.

  I braced for the attack. Instead, the duct rattled above us and Alice jumped out. She landed on Dare and both went sprawling onto the ground. The suddenness of it made Chief hesitate.

  Behind him, another guard was arming himself. He ran toward me too, but Jerren launched himself from the duct just in time. He landed on the guard, crushing him.

  Chief turned to face me again, fists balled at his sides and jaw twitching. “Shouldn’t have done that, Thomas,” he said. “This has nothing to do with you.”

  “It has everything to do with me. He’s not a solution. He’s my brother.”

  I swung the gun at him, but Chief leaned back. Before I could bring the weapon around again, he lunged at me. He wrapped me up from behind, one arm squeezed against my neck.

  On the far side of the room, something banged against the door. I flashed a quick look. Someone was attempting to force it open. More than one person, most likely.

  “My reinforcements,” Chief muttered.

  He had me in a chokehold. I couldn’t breathe. I flailed my arms behind me, trying to land an elbow, but it was pointless.

  Below us, Griffin shuffled away from the broken remains of the cube. The rats scurried around the perimeter of the room, searching for a way out. It gave me an idea.

  With my last breath, I placed one hand on the rail and the other behind me, pulling Chief tight against me. He was so hell bent on strangling me, he didn’t resist.

  I swung my right leg over the rail. With our combined momentum, it wasn’t difficult to swing the other leg over too. Before Chief could react, we were over the edge and falling toward the glass.

  CHAPTER 37

  Chief hit the ground first and cushioned my fall. I landed flat against him. The air was knocked out of me so completely that I couldn’t produce a sound when I opened my mouth to scream.

  I stared directly upward, but I couldn’t see Alice and Jerren at all. Griffin slithered toward me, a mess of ripped clothes and bloody bite marks. The rats still circled the room, snuffling at every gap.

  Griffin got close to me. I knew from his expression that he wanted me to do something, but I was dazed. When he didn’t sign, I remembered that he was bound.

  I couldn’t reach the rope around his wrist, so I rolled off Chief, who moaned in response. The knots were secure, but simple. I removed them and Griffin reached down to untie his ankles.

  Chief was quiet now, motionless except for
his left hand, which he pressed tightly against his neck to staunch the flow of blood. Blood seeped out anyway.

  With his right hand, he pulled a key from his pocket. He held it out to me. “Open the door, Thomas. W-we can still get out.”

  I stared at the key. “What about the rats? What about your colony?”

  Chief knew that he was beaten. He dropped the key onto the ground and eased his hand away from his neck. Blood ran across his tunic in a torrent. A moment later, his head drooped to the side and though his eyes were still open, I knew that he was dead.

  One of the rats had found a space in the far corner of the wall. The others were sliding through it too. They disappeared like water into a drain. From there, they could reach the rest of the fort, I was certain. Sumter, Plague-free for eighteen years, was about to become infested.

  Griffin was free now, but he was surrounded by broken glass and didn’t know which way to turn. When he pulled to a stand, he smeared blood on everything he touched.

  There were sounds of fighting from above. Where were Alice and Jerren?

  I stepped over Chief’s body and reached for a metal ladder built into one of the walls. My back and neck were throbbing, but I began to climb anyway. After a couple rungs, Alice and Jerren appeared above me.

  “Get back,” she screamed.

  I dropped to the floor and grabbed the key beside Chief. I didn’t understand how they’d escaped from Dare, but there wasn’t time to ask. Especially not when a loud bang came from above.

  Chief’s reinforcements had broken through at last. They were too late to save him, but that wouldn’t stop them from coming after us.

  I tossed Chief’s key to Alice. She jammed the key into the lock and forced the door open. The men in the full-body outfits had left. Alice and Jerren passed through. Griffin and I held on to each other and lurched after them.

  I looked over my shoulder as we left the room. Dare had climbed down too, and was rifling through Chief’s pockets. When he pulled out a folded piece of paper, he froze. Something about the suddenness of it made me pause too. Griffin was trying to pull me out of the room after him, but I couldn’t look away as Dare unfolded the paper. On it was a picture, drawn in Griffin’s unmistakable style. It was of Chief, his eyes wide open but somehow glassy, as though the old man were looking straight through us.

  As the guards appeared above him, Dare’s mouth twisted into a smile. And then he laughed.

  I was as desperate as Griffin to leave now. We followed a narrow corridor that led outside to the parade grounds. Alice and Jerren sprinted ahead, taking everything in, while I struggled to keep Griffin moving at all. I had my arm tight around him, but the blood made everything feel slick. Every breath he took sounded agonizing.

  It was raining again and visibility was poor, but people hurried by, alerted to the new danger. They pounded across the hard ground and splashed through puddles, heading everywhere and nowhere. A siren started slowly and built to a deafening whine.

  Guards appeared only ten yards away, but they either didn’t see us or weren’t looking. They ran among the crowd yelling, “Assemble! Assemble!” Everyone responded by hurrying up the nearest steps to the esplanade. Some tripped and fell, but the stream of people kept flowing from the living quarters below. A couple struggled to light extra torches in the rain.

  Panic hung in the air. Everyone seemed to have prepared for this moment without ever believing it could really happen. They clearly had an assembly protocol, but in all their rehearsals, they’d surely never had to deal with darkness and rain and screaming children.

  Griffin slumped to the ground beside me, so I helped him back up again. His clothes were sticky with blood. The feel of it on my fingers made me flinch.

  He looked right into my eyes. Me. Solution, he signed. It almost choked me up that he could be so certain. But as he continued to watch me, I realized it wasn’t a statement at all. It was a question.

  I wanted so much to be strong for him, but I wouldn’t lie to him again. He’d see through it at once. So I just pulled him closer and kept moving.

  As people streamed upward, the grounds began to clear. Others emerged from various parts of the fort, torches in hand. They walked a few yards apart and kept their lights close to the ground, eyes scanning for rats. It helped us that they were distracted.

  We kept to the perimeter as we approached the casemate where my father and Ananias and Tarn were being held captive. It was far away enough from everyone that we couldn’t see the Sumter families congregating. We could hear them, though. The sound of children’s crying grew louder.

  Jerren led the way now, jogging toward the casemate, gun raised. Neither guard heard him until he was beside them, with the barrel pointed at one guard’s head. The man obediently dropped his gun, and as the other guard recognized Jerren, he did too.

  Alice joined Jerren and retrieved the men’s guns. Once I’d helped Griffin to sit against a wall, I searched the guards’ pockets. I found a ring of keys and began trying them one by one in the lock, which clicked on the fourth try.

  I’d just got the heavy door open when the guards dropped their torches. The light was extinguished, and in the confusion, the second guard bolted into the darkness. Jerren turned momentarily, giving the first just enough time to retrieve his weapon. Unable to see his target clearly, Jerren threw himself at the man, pinning him against the bars just beside me. Tarn reached through the bars and wrapped her hands around the guard’s neck.

  He struggled for a moment, but he was being suffocated. With no other choice, he dropped his weapon.

  Jerren shoved him away from us. He fell to the ground. Once he’d caught his breath, he jumped up and ran into the darkness.

  With the door open, everyone staggered out. Ananias and my father leaned against each other for support. When they saw Griffin they hugged him. It was lucky they couldn’t see the extent of his wounds, or they’d have panicked for sure.

  “We have to hurry,” said Jerren. “There’ll be reinforcements soon.”

  While he led everyone toward the main gate, I looked around for Dennis and his mother. I’d hoped they were at the back of the casemate, hidden from view, but they weren’t.

  I caught up to my father and brothers. “Where’s Dennis?”

  “No one knows,” Ananias muttered. “They weren’t with us when the guards rounded us up, and they haven’t come since.” He grimaced. “What happened to Griffin?”

  “They set rats on him.”

  Father inhaled sharply, but he and Ananias kept moving.

  We continued through the main gate and along the jetty. Nobody had taken the cutter yet, so I helped everyone climb in. They pressed against the sides to make room for me, but I untethered the rope and kicked the boat away from the jetty.

  “Thom?” cried Alice. “What are you doing?”

  “We can’t leave without Marin and Dennis.”

  “We have to.”

  “No. If I leave them here, I’ll never be able to face Rose again.”

  Alice stood suddenly, ready to join me, but Jerren pushed her back down. He leaped onto the jetty beside me. “I’m the one who knows this place,” he said. “Alice, get one of the catamarans and come back for us.”

  Alice seemed caught between anger and concern. “All right,” she said, grabbing one of the oars. “Be quick.”

  Tarn took the other oar, and what remained of our colony began the short but arduous journey to the ship. Behind us, the noise grew louder as reinforcements arrived. Fighting back was no longer an option.

  We should’ve run away right then. Neither of us moved, though, because we were too busy staring at the ship. When we’d left it, it had been anchored a hundred yards to the northwest. Now it was almost due north of us. And it looked as if it was drifting away.

  CHAPTER 38

  There wasn’t time to go back through t
he main gate. The guards were approaching, and the glow from their torches rose above the fort walls in a hazy arc. Even if we made it back inside, they’d see us.

  “This way,” said Jerren, breathless.

  He ran toward the enclosures. I was fairly sure I knew what he had in mind, but I hoped I was wrong. He’d said it was impossible to climb the perimeter wall unless you knew where to put your hands and feet. What would make him think any differently now?

  Sure enough, he stopped at the low point of the wall. “Climb on my shoulders,” he said.

  “Again?”

  “It’s how Alice and I got up earlier.”

  “I’m heavier than Alice.”

  “Just do it!”

  I placed my feet on his shoulders and rested my hands against the wall. With an enormous effort he pushed upward. “Above you and to the right, there’s a gap in the brick. Reach for it,” he instructed me.

  I ran my hand across the bricks, floundering for the hole. “Got it,” I said, jamming my right hand into the space.

  “Good. I’ll get your right foot to the next hole.” He shifted slightly to the right and pushed my foot up a little, finding the space. I was sure he was going to drop me, or I’d fall, so I tightened my grip and attempted to take more of my weight. A moment later, I felt my foot slide into another gap. “Now push up and feel around. Above the bricks are rows of planks, with studs sticking out. They’re there, trust me.”

  I did trust him, but I was distracted. The guards’ footsteps drummed on the jetty, which meant they’d be launching a second cutter to go after the first. Those who couldn’t fit inside would be circling around the perimeter walls, searching for anyone left behind.

  Jerren had already caught up to me. “Right hand up a little,” he whispered. “Left foot too.”

  When I pulled up now, I could just get the fingertips of my left hand over the edge. One more foot adjustment and I heaved myself over the wall. Jerren followed right behind me, but not before a series of shouts from below made it clear that he’d been spotted.