The Outerlands - Sedition

by Aleigh Schuster

  “Ah, and now we know why the first meeting was pushed back,” Gregory said, irritation lacing his voice as he eyed me critically. I tensed, skin heating when I remembered that I was only wearing Graff’s flannel shirt.

  “Watch yourself,” Graff returned, throwing an arm over my shoulder and making my cheeks flame even more.

  The two men stared each other down and I started to fidget when neither seemed to want to concede, but finally Gregory sighed and looked away. Although, that didn’t really make me any more comfortable because his eyes swung directly back over to me. “I guess there is something to those stories after all,” he sneered. “Otherwise, the almighty Graff here wouldn’t be giving you the time of day.”

  As I opened my mouth to yell at him—I hadn’t exactly worked out what—Graff squeezed my shoulder and spoke.

  “What’s your purpose here, Gregory?”

  Gregory’s eyes darted back to Graff. “You wanted Quinn to gather all the Gunari leaders into the weapons room before the briefing. I came to let you know it’s done…and also that while you were over here gallivanting around, the other leaders inventoried and doled out the weaponry between the units.”

  “As was ordered by me before I left. Now wait here. I’ll be out in a few minutes and we’ll walk over together. There are obviously a few things you need to be set straight on and I’d like to get that out of the way before we head into a mission together.” Graff pulled me back inside the tent, lowering the flap back down.

  “What a complete jerk!” I whispered, moving to the couch so I could put on my boots. “I mean, who does he think he is?”

  Graff grabbed a few file folders, throwing them in his bag before walking over to stand in front of me. “One of the eldest of all our leaders as well as a good friend of my uncle’s. They are both of the same mind when it comes to relationships between Gunari partners, but I wouldn’t worry too much about it.” His voice sounded calm, lighter than his words, and I almost said something about it but then I noticed his hands fisted. Maybe he was a little angrier than he was letting on. “He stepped out of line and he’s about to find out exactly what’ll happen if he ever pulls that shit again. He’ll be lucky if I let him so much as glance your way again,” he added, scowling now.

  I rose to my feet and smiled as I stretched up to kiss his cheek. “So I guess you should point me in the direction of the supply tent before you take off. I think I’ll feel a lot better when I get back into my own sized clothes again.”

  He nodded and threaded his fingers through mine, leading us out of the tent. Then, pointing to the far left, he said, “See the large canopy over that lot of cargo vans at the end of this row? That’s where the supplies are temporarily being held. I’d take you there myself, but Gregory’s right. I’m needed elsewhere right now.” He kissed my forehead and, letting go of my hand, took off the other way with a fuming Gregory in tow.

  * * *

  After the woman working the supply vans issued me two new uniforms and a winter coat that all fit perfectly, I felt like I scored big and left with my new belongings in search of Dera.

  I spotted Jarvis standing with a group of people and Dera on the ground a few feet away. As I approached, I heard a familiar voice. Gunner sat in a wheelchair underneath a tree, describing his miraculous recovery from death.

  Making an abrupt turn to avoid unwanted questions, I was suddenly surrounded by too many people to count; all of them wanting to know how I single handedly brought Gunner back to life. Luckily they were all speaking at once, so I had a minute to compose my answer.

  Just as everyone quieted down to hear my response, a loud horn sounded, signaling the gathering for the final meeting. Dera and Jarvis were at my side in an instant.

  “Move along, everyone. We have more important things to worry about,” Jarvis announced.

  When the crowd grudgingly took off for the meeting, Cali wheeled Gunner over to join us.

  “Sorry about that, love,” Gunner said. “They kind of cornered me back there. I wouldn’t have said anything…but you need to know how grateful I am.”

  I blushed at the sincerity in his voice. “Don’t worry about it, Gunner. I don’t even know how to explain it to myself. Besides, Jarvis is right. We need to concentrate on the days ahead instead of trying to figure out what happened back there.”

  His mouth lifted into a half smile before he nodded and said, “Well whatever it was, thank you.” He briefly pressed his hand over mine and then let Cali wheel him away.

  * * *

  Never had I seen so many Gunari gathered in one place. Graff stood on a huge bolder facing the crowd. All the team leaders were in front with Gunari soldiers and scouts behind and on either side of them. There must have been over a thousand people. It was so crowded we stopped on a small hill a short distance away, still able to see and hear Graff.

  “Listen up,” Graff began, projecting his voice for all to hear. All noise ceased. “The team leaders have their orders as to each unit’s strategy and will go over them with you later. I just want everyone here to know that all your hard training will be justified. We will succeed in our mission.

  “We are the Gunari. We have lived peacefully on this planet for centuries, never harming anyone, never taking from the land. The government and their leader, Devlyn Cross, want to put us under a microscope, study us, imprison our people, maiming them in the name of science.” He raised his fist in the air and shouted, “I say NO MORE!”

  Everyone stood, pumping their fists in the air, shouting over and over with exuberance, “NO MORE! NO MORE! NO MORE!”

  Graff jumped off the boulder and the crowd parted as he made his way toward me. When he reached me, I stood there wearing a huge grin, still pumping my fist and shouting the mantra. His thick hands wrapped around my waist, lifting me high in the air, spinning me in circles. I looked down to find Graff smiling up at me, and I didn’t think I’d ever seen him this happy.

  Slowly, he lowered me, holding me close to his body. Too caught up in the moment, I forgot to be embarrassed. That was until my feet reached the ground. I blushed when his lips met mine for a tender kiss.

  The crowd roared, “YAWP, YAWP, YAWP!”

  “Let’s get out of here,” Graff whispered in my ear, pulling me through the crowd.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  A putrid odor permeated the air long before we reached The Flux and we didn’t even have the windows open. The sky turned to a pink haze, growing thicker and darker the closer we approached.

  Graff drove while I rode shotgun in one of the Chameleon vans. We followed Jarvis’ team, with John’s team bringing up the rear. Rafe, Cali, and Ben sat in the back facing outward, weapons at the ready.

  Last night before we left our base camp Graff divided the Gunari Warriors into two groups; the majority were assigned the longer, safer route to Devlyn’s compound, while we were taking the more direct approach through The Flux.

  Everyone was silent and on alert. Graff slowed to a crawl as Jarvis whispered over the com-link, “Heads up, everyone.”

  “Protective head gear on, people,” Graff ordered.

  After much groaning, we all complied. The head gear the GW had ‘acquired’, along with the Reflective Camo Suits we wore were designed to protect the wearer from pollutants, toxic gases, and extreme temperatures. From all the gruesome things I’d heard about The Flux, I silently prayed they’d suffice.

  Jarvis’ van tipped down and disappeared from sight. I sat up straighter and braced both hands on the dash as we followed down a deep, rugged incline.

  The road—if you could call it that—was so steep and slick I thought we might topple over as we neared the end. It widened the closer we got to the bottom and when Graff turned the wheel slightly, the van slid at an angle until we hit the ground.

  We landed so hard my head hit the ceiling, and from the grunts and groans coming from the back, I wasn’t the only one.

  “You okay?” Graff asked as he briefly placed a hand on my kn
ee.

  “Mhmm,” I responded, rubbing the top of my head.

  “You guys all right back there?” Graff asked, turning to check on the rest of our team.

  I started to turn back as well when something outside caught my attention. “Uh…guys,” I whispered, a little horrified at what I saw.

  Less than ten feet away flowed what looked to be a river of muddy blood. It boiled and bubbled, spurting liquid up in random places like it was dancing to a beat. Large boulders lined the edges, covered in an orange gunk that emitted golden vapors.

  That wasn’t the worst part.

  Leafless trees stood tall amidst the river, covered in the thick orange and red gunk. Their branches arched from bulbous, gnarled trunks where bright red liquid dripped. They looked like monsters returning from battle.

  “Man, I sure hope Devlyn’s new technology holds up to the hype,” Rafe said, eyes bulging at the mess ahead.

  “We’ll be fine,” Graff voiced with more confidence than his expression showed. He slowly moved us forward.

  When my wing mirror provided a view of the last van careening down the steep slope, I breathed a sigh of relief, which was followed by trepidation. I was relieved that our unit reached The Flux unscathed, yet anxious of what was to come.

  We didn’t have long to wait.

  It had been eerily quiet, including the com-link. The only sound was the burbling gases being released from the bloody river. The entire scene set me all the more on edge.

  Mesmerized by the golden vapors erupting from the river of red, I barely noticed something shift in my peripheral vision. I gasped and heard “What” and “Did you see that,” coming from the back seats. Before I could turn around, one of the trees moved forward, bloody limbs bending toward Jarvis’s van.

  Graff hit the button that opened the sun roof while coming to a stop. Two long limbs reached down, clutching either side of the van ahead like an excavator’s claw. Gun in hand, he shot up through the opening and emptied his ammo into the tree…uh, monster. Fragments of wood and bloody mud exploded, covering our windshield.

  As soon as Graff ducked his head back inside, I hit the button to close the sunroof. His camo hood and part of his mask were covered in red goo.

  Cali leaned forward and grabbed my wrist before my hand could reach Graff. “Don’t touch him, Henley.” She reached in a bag, pulled out protective gloves, and handed them to Rafe. After he put on the gloves, she handed him a cloth and a bottle of some liquid substance. Graff sat motionless and quiet.

  Rafe soaked the cloth with the liquid and began cleaning off the goo while Cali held up a steel container for him to put the gunk in. When Rafe had ensured Graff was spotless, he dropped the rag in the container and attached a lid.

  While he turned on the windshield wipers, Graff grunted. He grabbed the com-link and ordered, “On my command, drop the side shields and fire at anything that moves.”

  He turned his head to me. “Brooks, I’m going to stand up through the sunroof again. Put the bag of ammo on the console and be ready to hand me extra when I need it. Okay?”

  “Ready when you are,” I replied.

  “Cali, open the back sunroof and shoot arrows from the roof.”

  “You got it, boss,” Cali replied with an evil grin.

  After we prepared our weapons, Ben and Graff simultaneously hit the buttons that dropped the shields on the driver’s side of the van. A narrow, metal cover on the outside rose out and up, revealing rectangular windows that concurrently recessed.

  Hitting the switch that opened the sunroof, Graff shot up and I slid over to the driver’s seat, placing my weapon out the narrow window.

  Everything seemed to happen at once. The bloody monster trees were practically upon us as our unit fired at anything and everything. We were afraid to launch any explosives due to the gases in the river, but we compensated with poison-tipped arrows. Every time an arrow made its mark, we heard an awful screeching sound as a reddish black liquid oozed out of the wound.

  Once every monster tree fell upon the bloody river, we all eased out a sigh of relief. Temporarily.

  After checking in with the rest of the team and finding no critical injuries, Graff ordered everyone to move forward.

  We’d only driven about five minutes—just enough time to start to relax—when a greenish black blob hit the windshield. Three neon orange eyes stared directly at me. Claw like talons dug in, scratching the glass as I screamed.

  “Don’t worry. It’s not made of real glass. Whatever that thing is, it shouldn’t be able to penetrate it,” Rafe said, leaning on the front console.

  Suddenly, Graff slammed on the brakes, causing the creature to fly off the hood. He then hit the gas pedal and we felt a bump, following by a squishing noise.

  They started coming at us out of nowhere, fast and furious.

  “Side window, Graff,” Cali shouted. “Two o’clock. They’re coming from that big tree on the other side of the river.”

  “I’ve got this, Graff. You drive,” I said, grabbing my bow and arrows.

  Cali and I shot up through both the sunroofs at the creatures on the big tree. There had to be at least a hundred of the suckers.

  Dera and Jarvis popped out of the roof ahead of us. Dera aimed and hit a creature in midair as I raised my bow. She shot me a grin before nocking another arrow.

  As we got closer, Rafe and Ben fired gunshots from below. The rest of the vans followed suit, and we annihilated them in seconds, sending neon sparks and coloring the sky.

  Back in the van, we crept forward. A few minutes later, Jarvis’ voice came over the com-link. “Looks like we’re getting close to the end, but you’ve gotta see this.”

  “Stop your vehicle,” Graff ordered. “I’m a minute behind you.”

  Awed by the sight before us, Graff halted our van just short of Jarvis’ bumper. Prehistoric red stones stood sentinel on either side of the road as if guarding our exit from The Flux.

  As the rest of the vans caught up to us and parked, we all agreed to sit tight and examine the situation—especially after what happened with the trees.

  A dozen stones stood about twenty feet tall, six on each side of the path we needed to travel to get out of here.

  While the lead GW of each van discussed our situation over the com-link, I picked out the largest stone close to me and watched for any movement of any kind, never taking my eyes away, even when Cali handed me a bottle of water.

  At first my assigned stone looked nothing more than that: a stone, albeit a very tall one. But as my eyes began to dry out, I blinked and noticed that it looked like it had formed two gnarls on each side about three quarters up from the ground.

  Leaning forward, I kept my eyes on that one area. I thought I’d been mistaken, but I blinked again and something protruded from each of the gnarls.

  Graff was talking on the com-link so I called out to Cali. When she leaned over my shoulder, I pointed to my stone. “This is going to sound weird but do you see those two things on the sides?”

  After a few seconds, she said, “Yeah, what about them?”

  “Well, when I first started watching it they weren’t there at all, then I blinked and they were there, but flat up against the stone. I blinked again and those things sticking out appeared.”

  Cali listened carefully before she responded with, “So you think something is growing out of the stone?”

  “Yes. But—and this is the weird part—I think the stone knows when I blink and that’s when it happens, whatever is happening,” I whispered, afraid that it might hear me.

  Cali was quiet for so long, I chanced a look at her, taking my eyes off the stone.

  “Shit! Look back at the stone, Henley. Now,” Cali whispered, using her fingers to turn my head back toward it. “I’m going to duck back in my seat and watch from where it can’t see me. Blink on purpose and I’ll kick your seat if I see it grow, or whatever it’s doing, Okay?” Relieved that I wasn’t losing my mind, I complied. A few seconds later
, Cali kicked my seat and I stifled a scream. The protrusions were now about four inches long.

  Grabbing Graff’s arm, I stopped him midsentence on the com-link. He saw my expression and said, “Hang on a sec, John.”

  We both leaned over the console, with Cali inching forward from the back.

  “What is it?” Graff asked.

  “Um, I’m pretty sure the stones are watching us and I think they’re growing arms or something,” I said in a rushed breath.

  By the look on his face he must have thought I was crazy. Cali spoke up. “I saw it with my own eyes, boss. Henley, quick, get back and face your stone. And don’t blink; those things have grown a foot.”

  Sitting back in my seat, I looked at my stone. It had, indeed, grown two stone arms about a foot long, sticking out towards the stones on either side.

  Stealing a quick glance at the four other stones down the row, from my position, I saw no protrusions at all.

  “Graff?”

  “The same thing is happening on the second stone on this side as well, if that’s what you were going to ask,” Graff said, looking out his window.

  A horrible idea hit me but the more I thought about it the more it seemed plausible.

  “This is going to sound way out there, but hear me out,” I said loud enough for everyone to hear me.

  “Hang on a sec,” Graff said. He then spoke into the com-link, “Everybody quiet down and listen up.” When everyone complied he handed me the link so I could talk while staring at my stone. “All right, Brooks. What are you thinking?”

  “Okay, here goes. I think the stones are strategically placed. The fact that the second stone on either side is the largest in the row has meaning. They’re the only stones growing arms. So I’m thinking that once those arms grow out long enough to reach the ones beside them, they’ll knock the other stones over and down, crushing us if we try to drive through, or at the very least blocking our path out of here,” I finished with a sigh.