‘This is not the answer Samantha! Some of those inmates have committed really serious crimes!’ Cara said. ‘And we don’t even know if Mike is still alive…anything could’ve happened to him out there–’
‘–don’t say that!’ Sam interrupted. She drove away against the wall. Her breath was heavy, and her head throbbed in rage. She blinked vigorously. Her eyes were stained blank with terror, and she absolutely dreaded the thought of Mike being dead.
‘Samantha…’
‘How can you say that?’
‘Please, just think about this.’ Cara pleaded. ‘You’re throwing your life away.’
‘There’s nothing to think about! And besides, you’re not my mother!’ Sam said. Her bright blue eyes have faded. ‘I can take care of myself, now just leave me alone.’
Cara was struck speechless. Her heart bled for her niece. She walked in closer to embrace Sam, but was shoved away, and directed to the door. She lowered her head, for she knew there wasn’t much use in fighting with an Emitton. Even though Samantha had a different last name, her mother’s blood was dominant. The Emittons were all around known to be stubborn. They were known for constantly taking risks, no matter how stupid. Just look at Cara herself, breaking the law in coming here.
‘Once you’re sent to the wastelands, there’s no coming back.’
‘I know.’ Sam said. ‘And I don’t plan on coming back.’
Cara stood up off the bed, and strode to the door. Sam was truly unrecognizable. The little girl, that once smiled all the time, was gone. Instead, standing in front of her, was the figure of a lost young woman…a bitter woman…and one who’s determined to find herself in all the wrong places. The damage had been done, and there was no turning back.
‘I hope you find what you’re looking for.’ Cara uttered. She turned her back on Sam, and placed her palm on the inside scanner. The door slid open and Cara marched out. She wasn’t crying, but instead, her head was held high. Just before the door slid close, Sam saw Cara reach for her face, and wipe away nothing but a single drawn tear.
The room was once again empty.
Sam was left with no other company than her own desperate thoughts. She had worn the exact same clothes as the previous night, and her hair felt dry and dirty. She grazed her fingers across the small cut on her forehead. She couldn’t feel its pain anymore. The ECD had only given her dinner: An old plate of grub. The small glass of water that came with it was already gone, and right now, Sam wished she hadn’t drunk it all at once.
She lay back on the bed, and stared up at the ceiling. She saw the rounded eye of a camera sneakily staring back at her. Every now and then it would twitch, as if to zoom in on her every feature. She felt like a Guiney pig, a zoo animal, constantly without privacy.
Sam took a deep breath, and swallowed a dry lump of air.
Her entire being had grown tired, and she felt a wave of sleepiness overcome her. She yawned. She fought to keep her eyes open, and vowed she wouldn’t go to sleep before she was reunited with her brother.
After all, it wasn’t long until then. Sam was scheduled for exile first thing in the morning, and if she had to guess the current time, it would be just past midnight. Her eyelids drew heavy, like two concrete boulders, and her thoughts started to ramble. She felt it coming, and she couldn’t stop it.
She drifted off.
Chapter 3
The door to Sam’s cell slid open, and two guards came marching in.
‘Get up! It’s time.’ One of them rudely kicked at the foot of the bed, and the other flashed a bright light at Sam’s face. She groaned as she rose from her slumber, and wiped away a stray blonde lock that draped across her face. They took her by the shoulders, and shoved her into the corridor.
‘Walk.’
Sam found it hard to move. Her legs were stiff, and she felt like every limb crumbled when walking. She groaned, but the guards ignored her. Who would have thought that a trip down the side of a building would leave her feeling like she’d been run over by a train?
A third guard, female, came to accompany them. She carried with her a pair of self-tightening handcuffs. ‘The more you struggle, the tighter they’ll get.’ She said, and clasped them on. Sam took a deep breath as she felt the cold metal of the cuffs cutting into her flesh. It was less than an hour before she’d be reunited with Mike, and all of this would’ve been worth it.
Coming to the end of the corridor, they passed through security, and stepped onto an elevator. There, they stood in silence, only the four of them. One of the guards pressed the button to the top floor, and the elevator creaked. Sam felt sick as it rapidly sped upwards. She was shoved to the very back of the elevator, shielded shut by a human wall of guards.
‘Don’t try anything!’ They warned her, and flashed silvery, electrical guns attached to their belts. Sam wasn’t much threatened by them to be honest (feeling their bark was worse than their bite) but kept silent anyway.
The elevator stopped, and opened. Sam was taken by her hands and shoved into a quiet corridor. They marched up the carpet, and towards two steel doors at the end, heavily decorated with red sheets of plaster. On it, Sam saw the word hazardous written numerous times in different fonts. She remembered those doors to be the entrance to the hall of exile.
It was the same doors she’d seen her brother pass through, only five years ago. The doors were heavy, and slid open with a loud rumble.
Inside, Sam saw the ten members of the board sitting at the far end of the room; Cara Emitton in the very middle. Their puffy, leather seats were raised high above the ground, having Sam strain her neck to look up at them. There were thick, glass walls surrounding the entire room, and on the outside sat a nervous crowd of curious people, all watching intently as she was about to be exiled.
In fact, Sam herself had once been a part of them. She remembered crying her eyes out as she watched her brother step through the portal. He too disappeared into the wastelands, never to be seen again.
At the opposite end of the room, there was a blank wall. It was known to be the spot where the portal opened. Sam remembered it looking like a glowing ball of fire, a swirl of every possible colour known to man: Scarlet, Violet, Aqua and Emerald. The endless pit of light would meet close to the ground, and its flaming energy was like a magnet to all matter. There was no explicit certainty that it was safe for the human body to enter, but for decades on end, the board had forced all juveniles to pass through it anyway.
Mike Cyrus was a student at the top of his class. Kind hearted, and gifted with the logical whit of his great, great, great grandfather, Benjamin Emitton. He never did anything wrong, and had always been there when Sam needed him.
After both their parents tragically passed away during an explosion at their laboratory, he mysteriously took off and vanished. He was only fifteen at the time.
Cara took Sam into her care, and assigned only the best of ECD detectives to find the missing Mike. After a few weeks of scouring the entire city of Emitton, they had returned with him in their custody, and said he was found drunk underneath a bridge. At first Sam had thought nothing of it. She was just too happy to hear her missing brother was finally returning home. Unfortunately, that hadn’t been the case, for alongside him they had arrested an unknown girl.
It was said they that were both being charged for the attempt of murder: The murder of Richard Grey, one of the most esteemed board members.
Even though Mike was identified to be at the scene of the crime, no official fingerprints of his were found. He was set to be released, and the board declared the unknown girl to be guilty.
Only before she was exiled, she unexpectedly died.
As no clear cause of death could be found, her case was archived. Mike was forced to take the fall, as someone had to be punished. There had always been said that Richard Grey exiled Mike because of his undoubted hate towards Cara, but whenever asked, he denied even having been on the case.
Like Cara had said, she tried everything to sa
ve Mike, but alas his conviction was too strong to be overruled. He was ripped from Sam’s life, and there was nothing she could do to ever get him back. It was right here in this very room that it first became clear to her, and it seemed like only yesterday.
He was gone.
The guards stepped back, and left Sam facing the board. Both her hands were tightly cuffed along her spine, and digging into her flesh. Sam sighed. She avoided looking at the crowd.
Not because she was ashamed, but because she was in a hurry.
‘Samantha Cyrus, daughter of Amanda- and John Cyrus,’ Richard Grey announced. ‘You have been taken into custody on the grounds of breaking and entering, obstruction of the Emitton law, and treason.’ He read aloud from his computer pad, and gave a shallow grunt of judgement. ‘Is this correct, Miss Emitton?’ He raised his head at Cara.
‘Yes. Yes it is.’ Cara said. She was unaware of her clenching fists. She knew that as the head of the board, her personal matters weren’t to interfere with a fair ruling.
‘Do you deny what you’re accused of Samantha?’ Tamara Amador asked. She was the eldest member of the board, and carried her bleached hair in fluffy dreadlocks that hung to her waist. Her voice was calm, as if just asked someone about the weather.
‘No, I don’t.’ Sam said. ‘I AM GUILTY.’ She avoided the horrified faces of the board, and instead ran her eyes along the bright lights on the blank ceiling. The crowd murmured at her answer, each upon their turn, but Richard Grey rose from his chair to hush them.
‘Are you…sure?’ Tamara raised her eyebrows.
Sam nodded.
‘I am.’ She felt the shocked eyes of hundreds of strangers slicing into her backside. None of them had mattered to her, none except for one. Cara Emitton might not have been staring at her from the back, but instead, she drowned her within a deep and empty glance from up front. Never before has a single look had the complete power to suck all breath from Sam’s lungs.
‘Samantha Cyrus,’ Richard Grey said. ‘Because you’re still a minor at the age of seventeen, you are hereby sentenced to the juvenile holding facility in the wastelands.’
A loud gong had sounded, and Cara Emitton fled from her chair and left the room. The board members quietly muttered amongst themselves, and Richard Grey cleared his throat. He saw no reason for the disbelief of his colleagues, as Samantha Cyrus was just another juvenile delinquent deserving of her punishment.
Gregory Michal, one of the board members, commanded the guards to seize Sam. He made his way to a metal podium at the far end of the room, and placed his palm over the scanner. A series of alarms went off, and soon all air began to suck towards the empty wall behind him.
Sam stared in awe at the colourful swirl of energy that combined to form the portal. It was said to lead directly into the far off wastelands: The dire part of the earth that never fully recovered after the war.
Before her, there had only been a few hundred people to ever step through it, from which none of them was ever able to return. Sam knew of only three portals in the entire world, and the city of Emitton was the proud owner of one of them.
‘You’ll be received by only the best of the ECD as you arrive on the other side.’ Gregory informed her. His bald head reflected the shine from the ceiling lights, and obstructed Sam’s view of his face. She knew he had a moustache, even though she hadn’t been able to see it.
‘You’ll be fine, as long as you don’t resist.’ He said, and gestured the guards to proceed with Sam’s exile. They clenched her upper arms and forcefully shoved her forward. Slowly but surely they scuffled their way towards the glowing portal.
Sam swallowed deeply. She braked on her heels, and spun around.
‘Wait!’ She cried in angst.
The guards stopped, and loosened their grip. They looked over to Gregory, who allowed her to speak. ‘What now?’ He asked.
Sam swallowed. She couldn’t believe what she was about to say. ‘I just want you to tell my aunt…I’m sorry.’
Procrastination at its best.
Gregory Michal seemed vaguely disappointed in Sam’s request, but agreed. He asked her whether she was at last ready to go, and she approved with a nod. The guards were commanded to let go of her, and she marched onward by herself.
Sam’s heart was pounding faster with every passing second, and she felt her legs go numb with every following step. The air was cold and misty, but smelt of nothing. She had to protect her eyes from the bright shining light, and raised her elbow to shield her scorching face. Strong heat waves were gushing at her body as she stepped in closer. The humming of the crowd drew distant, bit by bit, until all Sam heard was the whirling wind of the portal.
She glanced back one last time, and saw Cara Emitton peering past the door from which she had fled. With all her heart Sam wanted to turn back, and accuse Cara of being a coward. She dared call herself the leader of the board, but yet lacked the guts to sit through her own niece’s exile.
Cara’s face was pulled stiff, never revealing anything that she thought. She was a hardened woman, and a much hardened leader. Never had she allowed her personal life to interfere with the safekeeping of Emitton. She truly was the best of the best…but Sam hadn’t known that.
Suddenly, a strong currant had yanked Sam inwards.
She squeezed her eyes shut while giving in to its pull. Almost instantly, Sam opened her eyes to see her black boots step onto a pale, blue floor. She looked up and allowed her eyes to adjust.
Two men in solid black uniforms rushed in towards her, and once again she was seized. She turned around in search of the portal, but behind her was nothing more than a plain grey wall.
Emitton was gone, and there was no going back.
‘Hello Samantha,’ a shadowed figure said. ‘To be honest, I wished I’d never have to see another Cyrus again.’
Chapter 4
Jack Crowe clenched his fists as he stepped into the light. ‘Welcome to the Keep.’ He said, roaring. His thick army boots had squeaked across the floor.
‘Who are you?’ Sam asked. She had stopped struggling, and was now merely resting within the tight grip of the guards. They tugged on the cuffs behind her back, and a rigid knot formed at the pit of her stomach. She flicked her head back in attempt to remove the hanging strands of hair from her face, but it was no help.
‘General Jack Crowe, head of this facility.’ Jack broadened his chest, and Sam saw small tousles of curly chest hair popping out of his vest. It matched those covering his arms, and the back of his hands.
He commanded the guards to follow him.
‘I hope you took a good last look at Emitton before you left, because you’re never going back there again!’ He bawled.
The guards shoved Sam in the gut, and she collapsed forward. They walked down a dark corridor, and all she could see was the black outline of Jack’s jaw. He had faint patches of grey in his beard, and Sam could easily tell that he’d been at the Keep for a very long time.
‘Can you still remember it?’ Sam paused. ‘You know, Emitton?’ It was risky for her to ask him this, but the curiosity would’ve killed her if she hadn’t.
Jack kept silent. He turned his back on Sam, and swiped a card in the keypad on the door. It flashed a bright, green light, beeped, and slid open.
Outside, the air smelt mouldy.
The sky was shining an off red colour, with not a single cloud to be seen. There was a great fence surrounding the Keep from all sides, and stretched out as far across the crumbling fields of dirt as Sam could see.
They walked into an empty courtyard, and climbed the concrete steps to the top. Two guards stood aside and revealed a heavy metal door. It was bolted shut.
Sam took a good look around her. She was pleasantly surprised to see green hedges towering over their heads. It wasn’t just the hedges that were astounding, for small, round lettuce heads had caught her eye. It was a flourishing vegetable garden: Tomatoes, carrots, beets and pumpkins.
Further along the
grounds, Sam saw deep holes and large heaps of amber dirt that spread for miles. There wasn’t a single person in sight, which seemed rather strange for a prison.
‘I’ve been in charge of the Keep for over two decades now, and nowhere else would you find a better oiled machine than here.’ Jack said, proudly. He had a pumping vein that reached across his forehead, and softly grazed his ashy blonde hairline. His face was struck with a bright shade of red as he thought about the past. Had it really been twenty years?
‘What are all the holes and heaps of sand for?’ Sam asked. She struggled to breathe amidst the mouldy wastelands air.
‘We’re expanding.’ Jack said. ‘With the population growing so fast, the juvenile crime rate is off the charts. Space is limited.’ He swiped his card, and with a heavy creak, the metal door slid open. ‘If you ask me, the board should lower the execution age.’ He grunted.
Sam pretended not to hear that last bit. She had already barely skinned through on exile by being seventeen. The guards shoved her inside, and the door closed with a bang behind them.
‘As you can see, it’s nearly impossible to escape.’ Jack tipped his head at fleet of passing guards. He curled his hands around the icy metal of a flimsy railing, and stared down. Sam was surprised to see them standing on a balcony. Below them, a dark and shady cafeteria revealed itself. She cringed at the sight of cold blue walls and rusty metal tables. She smelt the faint odour of something she couldn’t quite identify, and scrunched her nose at its sour pong.
Jack clasped his hands behind his back, and strode onward.
‘We currently hold a hundred and twelve prisoners, and you my dear, are lucky number hundred and thirteen.’ He stopped at what looked like a reception desk, and seized Sam’s arm. She had wanted to flinch, but the guards held her back. Jack picked up a circular hand-held machine, and pierced it onto the back of Sam’s neck. She couldn’t help but release a faint whimpering cry. It stained Jack’s fingers with pitch black ink.
‘Samantha Cyrus: Prisoner 777.’ Jack chanted, and a woman behind the reception scanned her in. The guards shoved Sam through a lit up metal detector, and forced her to surrender her jewellery. She lost her mother’s locket, and a brassy pair of earrings.
The Keep (A Renegades story Book 1) Page 2
