by Amy Cross
At least there's been no sound of gunfire.
No explosions.
No back-up arriving with more carriers.
Just a kind of eerie silence that seems to have descended across the entire island.
At some point, I'm going to have to make a decision. We can stay here for a while, but eventually I'll have to try to figure out what's going on at Steadfall. I can't take Nissa with me, so I'll have to leave her here, and I'll also have to make sure that she knows how to look after herself if the worst happens. If Steadfall is gone, and if I don't make it back, Nissa's going to be all alone. That's effectively a death sentence for anyone on this island, let alone a nine-year-old girl.
And then, just as I'm trying to figure out how I can explain things to her, I hear voices in the distance and – a moment later – the crackle of a radio.
Grabbing Nissa, I clamp a hand over her mouth and pull her further into the cave. As I do so, I realize the voices are getting closer, and I can hear footsteps too. Nissa tries to ask me what's happening, but I've got my hand clamped so tight over her mouth, she can't get a sound out.
“There's nothing out here,” a male voice says, sounding a little bored. “Are we really supposed to just wander around in case somebody slips out of that crappy shanty town?”
“Orders are orders,” a woman replies.
“Sure,” the man says, “but this place gives me the creeps. I mean, look around. There's nothing here except plants and trees. How can anyone ever live like this?”
“Relax,” the woman sighs, “we'll be out of here in an hour or two. There's no way those savages are gonna last long.”
I hear the tell-tale sound of a gun being set on a harvesting loop. There's a faint whining sound in the air, and I know that these two soldiers will have plenty of other weapons with them as well. Even if I could crawl over to the knives Asher left for us, I could never fight off two armed soldiers. Our only hope is to stay low and hope that we're not spotted.
Looking at Nissa, I see the fear in her eyes.
I nod, but she still looks scared.
“Did you hear something?” the man asks suddenly.
“Like what?” the woman replies.
“I don't know, like a few rocks falling.”
“You're imagining things.”
“I'm serious! I think there's someone nearby!”
Nissa and I wait in complete silence. I know for a fact that neither of us made a noise after the two soldiers arrived, but sure enough a moment later I hear the sound of a few rocks bumping to the ground. It's possible that the storm simply dislodged some sections of the cliff-face, but I'm still worried that any sound at all will be enough to make the two soldiers start searching around. And if they do that, there's no way Nissa and I will be able to escape.
I look at Nissa again.
She's terrified, but at least she knows to stay quiet and -
Suddenly there's a bumping sound nearby, and I realize that the soldiers were right. There's definitely someone else near the cave entrance, and a moment later I realize I can hear another sound, almost as if...
Bones are rattling together...
Before I have time to react, I see a familiar figure stumble into sight at the cave entrance. The guy with the rib-cage helmet has somehow not only survived our earlier encounter, but he's managed to find us. There's blood all over his chest and it's hard to believe that he's still alive, but he starts lumbering toward us while screaming and holding up a makeshift ax.
Nissa lets out a startled cry, but I pull her closer before hauling us both up. We run deeper into the cave, and then I turn just in time to see the bone guy stumbling after us.
He lets out an angry, primal scream, and at that moment I realize that I can't reach the knives.
Suddenly two laser blasts slam into him from behind, shattering the bone around around his chest and sending him thudding into the wall of the cave. Screaming, he turns and lumbers back the way he came, but two more shots hit him square in the chest and I watch with relief as he crumples and falls out of sight.
Pulling Nissa back behind a section of rock, I listen to the sound of footsteps getting closer to the cave.
“What the hell was that thing?” the male soldiers asks, clearly shocked. “Was it a guy with, like, human bones wrapped around his body for armor?”
“I knew there'd be some crazy stuff here,” the female soldier replies, “but that was, like, beyond anything I imagined. He must have completely lost his mind.”
“Do you think there's anyone else here?” her colleague replies. “I'm not sure, but I think maybe I heard something coming from in here.”
“It was probably just that asshole's voice echoing.”
“But he seemed like he was going after something that was in the cave.”
“He also seemed completely insane,” she replies. “You can go and check if you want, but there's no way I'm wandering into a dark cave. There could be anything back there.”
With my hand still clamped over Nissa's mouth, I stay completely silent, and finally I hear the two soldiers walking away. They're still talking, but I can't make out anything they're saying, and after a few minutes their footsteps fade into the distance. I don't want to get too confident, but I think maybe they're heading off to another part of the forest.
Finally, I move my hand away from Nissa's mouth, although I quickly put a finger to my lips. She has to stay quiet.
“Is he gone?” she whispers, her voice trembling with fear.
I wait, listening to the silence of the cave.
“Iris?” Nissa says after a moment. “Is he gone?”
I raise two fingers, indicating that we have to wait.
A few minutes later, I take a cautious step out from behind the outcrop, and I look toward the cave entrance. There's no sign of anyone, and I'm starting to feel more and more certain that we've been left alone. Still, I gesture for Nissa to stay back, and then I make my way over to where our knives were left piled on the ground. Even now, I'm not completely certain that we're safe, so I step carefully over to the entrance and look out.
There's nobody around.
Turning, I wave at Nissa, and she comes out of hiding.
“I don't want to stay here,” she says as she gathers up the rest of the knives. “Can we go back home now?”
I pause, before shaking my head.
“Why not?” she asks.
I look back out at the forest. I know the are soldiers teeming all over this part of the island, but I'm pretty sure they're mostly in the area around Steadfall. If that's the case, we need to head away from Steadfall for a few miles and then wait until we get some kind of signal that everything's okay. Maybe we'll see the carrier leaving, or maybe I can eventually go and check the place out. One thing's certain, however: I'm not going to dare going back to Steadfall for at least a week, and I might even stay away for longer. I can't risk letting anything happen to Nissa.
“Where are we going?” she asks, as we step out of the cave. “Iris -”
“Don't move!” a voice shouts suddenly.
Turning, I'm shocked to see the two soldiers standing just a few feet away, with their rifles aimed straight at our faces.
“If you try to run,” the male soldier continues, “you're both dead!”
Chapter Forty-Two
Asher
“Why are they just watching us like this?” Ripley mutters as we stand at the fence. “I feel like a caged animal.”
“They're waiting for something,” I reply, keeping my eyes fixed on the two soldiers who are making no attempt to hide their presence. They're about twenty feet away, with their rifles aimed at us. “Whoever sent them, they must have told them to surround us and then make sure we see them.”
“Why would they be told to do that?” Ripley asks. “They're giving us time to prepare for their attack.”
“I don't think they're planning to attack,” I tell him. “Not unless it's a last resort, anyway. I think they'r
e keeping us here so something else can happen.”
“We need water,” he points out. “They're not allowing anybody to go and fetch water.”
“Exactly.” I turn to him. “I think Phillips was right earlier. This is a siege.”
“There's no way I'm going to let them pen me in,” he mutters, before suddenly climbing over the fence. “I'm going to get water and -”
Before he can finish, a laser blast hits the ground just a few feet away. Stumbling, Ripley falls over the other side of the fence, and then he quickly scrambles to his feet.
“Get back over here!” I say firmly.
“They're not very good shots, are they?” he replies.
“That was a warning, Ripley! If you don't -”
Another blast rips through the air, hitting the ground just inches from where Ripley's standing. This time he doesn't need telling twice, and he quickly climbs back over the fence.
“They wouldn't have come all this way just to starve us out,” I continue, as I try to figure out precisely what's happening. “At some point they're going to give us an ultimatum. There's something they want here, and they think this siege is the way to get it. They could come in and take it by force, but clearly there's something holding them back.” I pause for a moment. “They're giving us a taste of what it's like to go hungry,” I add finally. “I give it a couple of hours at most before we get their list of demands.”
***
“Of course it's me,” Doctor Phillips replies as I stand in the doorway of the hut. “I already told you that. I ran away, and they want to drag me back so I can be given a show-trial. After that, I'll be executed.”
“So why the siege?” I ask, leaning against the jamb. “Why not just come in here and haul your scrawny ass out?”
“Maybe they're just being polite.”
“And why don't I just drag you out myself and toss you over the fence?” I add. “Wouldn't that solve all our problems?”
“In a neat world, maybe. But they don't just want me, Asher. They want everything I have with me. Everything I created.”
“I don't see you carrying a suitcase.”
“They want the thing that I came to fetch.”
“And that would be?”
“You, silly.”
I roll my eyes.
“I created you,” she continues, a little more earnestly this time. “I made you who and what you are today.”
“You pissed me off a lot,” I reply darkly. “That's not quite the same thing.”
“You weren't the only one,” she says with a sigh. “There were plenty of others, but through a combination of bad luck and bad judgment the rest of them all ended up dead. In the war, mostly, or through madness. We were trying to create the perfect soldier and -”
“I was never the perfect soldier,” I tell her, “and these days I'm no soldier at all.”
“But you could be.”
“I don't know if you've noticed,” I reply, “but I have a slight limp now. My body's not in the best shape.”
“You've been battered about a little more than I anticipated on the island, Asher, but we can patch you up again. The important part is that you can still be useful to the war effort. To our war effort. You'll be fighting on the other side this time, and -”
“I won't be fighting on any side!” I spit.
“You don't even know why we're at war.”
“I don't care. I'm done with fighting. I came to the island to get away from all of that. I didn't even want to remember, but apparently your mind-wiping techniques have an expiry date. I remember everything.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“I remember the war. I remember Mads. I remember the abyss.”
“Oh, the abyss.” She chuckles. “Well, yes, I had to let you get that out of your system, didn't I?”
“Out of my system?”
“You were idolizing the idea of outsiders, Asher. You were romanticizing those awful people. That's why I let you go out of the building all those years ago, and it's why I let you get a taste of what they're capable of. The people in the abyss aren't poor little victims of their mean, oppressive government. They're the filth that produced that government. This was all part of your training, Asher. You have to see that there's nothing worth saving in those cities. Not in the towers, and certainly not down in the abyss.”
“You knew I'd get attacked?” I ask, unable to believe that she let me wander into danger.
“And then I rescued you.”
“Not until I'd gone through hell!” I shout, stepping toward her. Grabbing her by the collar, I slam her against the wall with such force that the roof shakes. “Do you have any idea what those monsters did to me?”
“Of course I do,” she replies unflappably. “I saw you on the trolley as you went into surgery, remember? And I read the medical reports. Don't worry, though. I made sure you were rescued before anything too bad could happen to you, and then I had troops go through that part of the abyss and destroy everything they found. The people who hurt you, the people who chained you up and sold tickets to your torture, were killed. I gave specific instructions that they had to burn alive.”
“You're lying!” I sneer. “Nobody could leave another human being to be tortured like that!”
“I'm not saying I enjoyed it, dear,” she explains. “It was necessary, that's all. And it has become, I believe, one of the sources of your anger. As I said earlier, I created you.”
Still holding her by the collar, I lean closer.
“When this is over,” I say firmly, “and I've made those soldiers leave the island, I will personally make sure that you pay for everything you've done. And then I will get on with my life here, the life -”
“And what life is that, Asher? The life of a lonely outcast?”
“It's what I want.”
“And why's that?” she snaps, finally showing some of the anger that I remember from the old days. “Why does this unimpressive pile of rocks and dirt mean anything to you at all?”
“I'm building something here.”
“This town?” She laughs. “You're lucky this town hasn't been blown away by a storm by now. This is nothing to be proud of, Asher.”
“I'd still defend it with my life.”
“Would you?”
“I'd do anything to keep Steadfall alive.”
I wait for her next bitchy comment, but instead she simply stares at me for a moment.
“Interesting,” she whispers finally. “You'd do anything for this place, would you?”
Letting go of her collar, I take a step back, just as I hear footsteps approaching the hut. Turning, I see that Ripley has come to find me.
“Someone wants to talk to you,” he says as soon as he reaches the doorway. “Asher, the soldiers say someone's coming to tell us why they're here. And you're the only person they'll talk to.”
Chapter Forty-Three
Iris
“Iris Bloom,” the guard says as he looks at his hand-held scanner. “You've certainly got quite a history, Ms. Bloom. I can see why you ended up on the island. Seems you lived on the streets for a while after your parents died.”
I pull again on the cuffs that are holding my wrists tight behind my back, but I already know that I won't be able to break free. These things are too tough.
We're on the beach, which is where the soldiers have set up a kind of temporary base. Their carrier is parked nearby, and they've already unloaded hundreds of crates that no doubt contain ammunition and various weapons. So far, I think there are about thirty soldiers here at the moment, to add to the number that already went into the forest. Based on the size of the carrier, I imagine there could be close to a hundred of these bastards on the island right now.
“Mother deceased,” the guard continues, scrolling down the page, “father deceased, sister...”
His voice trails off, and he stares at the screen for a moment before glancing at me. There's a tag on his uniform, identifying him as Ser
geant A. Dylan.
“Sister deceased too,” he adds, with a faint smile. “That's what it says here, anyway. Della Catherine Bloom. How does that make you feel, Iris? Your little sister died all those years ago, and you couldn't do anything to help her. Why don't you articulate your feelings on that matter, huh? Come on, let me hear your thoughts.”
Staring at him, I realize he's making fun of me.
“Oh, that's right,” he continues, as several soldiers walk past on their way along the beach. “I'm told you lost your tongue somewhere along the way. You must have had some misadventures here on the island, but it's impressive that you're still alive.” He looks down at the screen again. “I must tell your case manager, Mr. Logan, that I bumped into you. I'm sure he'll be glad to know that you're still alive and kicking.”
I tug again on the cuffs, and now I can feel the skin chafing on my wrists.
“What about your friend Natasha Lincoln?” he asks. “It says here that you and she were dropped onto the island together. Do you happen to know what became of her?”
Staring at him, I try to work out how I can cause him the maximum amount of pain.
“Never mind,” he continues with a sigh, setting the scanner aside. “You'll be relieved to know, Ms. Bloom, that we have no intention of hurting you. You'll merely be held until such time as we're ready to depart, and then you'll be released back into the wild. I'm even willing to apologize to you for this terrible disturbance. I hope you understand that General Lennox would never have brought us here if there had been any other way of getting what we want. Hopefully the people at Steadfall will cooperate and we can be out of here by nightfall. Wouldn't you like that?”
I try to tell him to go to hell, but all that comes from my mouth is a set of vague, plaintive grunts.
He copies me in response, mimicking my failed attempt to speak, and then he starts chuckling to himself.
I step toward him, but another guard quickly grabs my wrists and holds me back.
