THE DARK LEGION
Book 2 of The Plantation
by
Stella Samiotou Fitzsimons
©2013 by Stella Samiotou Fitzsimons
Facebook: Stella Samiotou Fitzsimons
Twitter: @plantationworld
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by electronic, mechanical or other means, without permission in writing from the author.
1
I can feel Pip’s heartbeat pounding in her small ribcage. I hold her close. We must keep still. The cranberry bushes have only just blossomed. A stroke of luck. Their thick branches will conceal us.
Pip pinches my hand and points toward the fir trees a few feet away.
“Not yet,” I whisper. “We’ll be safe here if we keep quiet.” When I kiss the top of her head, she pinches me harder than before.
I follow her gaze to see what she sees. A long shadow crawling slowly across the top of the honeysuckle near the fir trees. We must not move or speak. I hold my hand over Pip’s mouth. We get lower in the bushes. I search for tiny openings to see through, trying to locate the beast that hunts us.
We hear a loud thud behind us. Pip’s eyes panic. Something has landed close by and is moving towards us. We hear the crackling of dry twigs getting closer and closer. Pip breaks free and stands.
Ice explodes in my veins. “Run,” I yell. “Run!”
We dart out of the bushes, blindly heaving ourselves forward trying not to run into the trees as we flee. Pip is small but fast. She holds her own in our race to safety. We pick up cuts and scratches as we dash madly hoping to make it to the training ring. There’s a hut there where the Saviors keep weapons. A dozen more strides and we’ll make it.
The long shadow catches us covering up the small part of sky that is visible through the branches. The world gets darker. The beast must be reaching for us now. My fragile body braces for its sharp fingers when, suddenly, the thing the shadow belongs to lands hard on the ground ahead of us, cutting off our path to the hut.
The huge black figure looms over us for a split second, then charges. Pip lets out a cry. I move forward to put my body between her and the assailant.
“That’s enough,” I shout but it’s too late. The massive body collides into us. We fall to the ground in a heap of twisted arms and legs.
“Shy Boy,” I yell, “you’ll squeeze us to death!”
Shy Boy retreats and taps the top of his head to show that he’s sorry but a moment later he falls to the ground rubbing his tummy and laughing.
Pip follows suit soon afterwards and I laugh at them both. The tiny twelve-year-old girl and the gigantic, ferocious-looking black chimpanzee.
Pip and I met Shy Boy during one of our walks in the woods weeks ago. We spotted him from a distance while he was trying to relieve the itch on his back by rubbing it against a trunk. Pip didn’t know what to make of this until I explained to her that there were chimpanzees roaming free in the forests.
Pip moved closer to take a good look at Shy Boy. When he saw her, he ran and hid behind the tree. Pip got even closer and extended her arm to him.
“Hey you,” I said. “It’s okay, you don’t have to be scared. We’re nice. We come in peace and friendship.”
Shy Boy stuck his neck out and stared at us. Then he quickly pulled his head back behind the tree.
“I see, you’re just a shy boy,” I said.
I reached inside my pocket and took out a handful of walnuts. That made Shy Boy increasingly restless until in the end he had no option but to come out of his hiding. He took the walnuts off the palm of my hand slowly and with great respect. Pip and I walked away to give him some privacy.
The next time we came upon him, Shy Boy only took a few seconds to accept an apple from Pip. By the third time, he practically jumped on us. He has been our shadow ever since. He seems to like his name. He responds right away when we call him. His friendship makes Pip happy and I’m all for that.
Pip has barely uttered a word since we found her two months ago. Doc says she is not impaired mentally or physically. She will say simple things happily, mostly terms of politeness like please and thank you, but never a full sentence. She will not answer questions or ask them. She’s cheerful, sweet and polite, but little else. All other things are too much for her.
The horrors of the world are lost to her. She wants no part of them. Who can blame her? We have to be patient, Doc says. She is blocked somehow. We can only hope for the best.
Shy Boy sniffs around our pockets smelling the pumpkin seeds that are hidden there. We empty the contents and he gulps them down.
“Wow, you’re fast,” I say. “You’re so hungry, aren’t you?” I talk to him as if he were a baby, as if he needed to be protected. He rubs his nose against my arm and kisses it.
Finn comes to us with a grin on his face. “I knew I’d find you here,” he says and hands a piece of bread to Shy Boy. “You can’t feed this guy fast enough,” he says as Shy Boy licks his fingers.
“He’s huge, he needs a lot of food,” I come to Shy Boy’s defense.
“Yeah. Just don’t let Damian know how much. He’ll go—”
“Red!” I finish the sentence for Finn. “He won’t know and if he does, so be it. How can anyone look into Shy Boy’s eyes and not fall in love with him?”
“In love with a chimpanzee. Yep, it sounds like you,” Finn teases.
“Careful, you sound jealous.”
He pays no attention to me. He turns to Pip. “Hey, Pip, do you think you might try and talk a little today?”
She shakes her head.
“Whenever you are ready,” Finn concludes. “We’re not going anywhere.”
Despite her small size, Pip is very strong and can endure any kind of hardship. She is twelve and incredibly smart, even Zoe has a hard time competing with her when it comes to math equations and problems.
Shy Boy sits heavily on the ground and Pip climbs on his lap. I lie down next to them and let my head rest on a bed of pine needles. Finn lies beside me. He points at a small patch of blue within the branches above.
“Someday, Tick,” he says, “we will be able to fly.”
“You mean like birds?”
“No! I mean on planes and air ships.”
“Ah. You think Theo will find a way to make it happen.”
“It’s his life’s passion right now. Find plane, repair plane, fly plane.”
If we had a plane, it would make all the difference in the world. The aliens do not use flying vehicles on Earth. Only the occasional alien craft appears on rare occasions and they seem to be transports. A few working planes with weapons would definitely shift the balance of forces.
“Dreams are good,” I say.
Finn takes my hand. “It’s good to be able to dream,” he says and then suddenly tickles me.
“Finn, stop it! You know I can’t take tickling. My reflexes will take charge and I’ll hurt you,” I say laughing miserably. Shy Boy starts tickling Pip. She jumps out of his lap and gets between Finn and me. Finn attacks her immediately knocking all three of us back onto the ground.
“Alright, that’s enough,” Rabbit’s voice cuts in but Pip quickly grabs his leg and, before he knows it, Rabbit finds himself on the ground with us.
“Guys, seriously, you have to get back. Doc is looking for you, Freya. You said to get you right away if he asked for you.”
Shy Boy leaps away at this and Pip laughs. Shy Boy is afraid of Doc’s name ever since Doc tried to take a blood sample from him.
We walk back to our camp nestled within a green oasis on the side of the mountain we are currently calling home. This won’t be forever but we will enjoy it while it lasts. The temperatures are cooler and the crystal clear spring wa
ter is delicious.
The camp is small compared to our previous dwelling. There are seven tents and all of them are shared except that of Damian and that of Doc who needs a lot of room for his medical experiments and also to see his patients. I share mine with Pip. Finn stays with Rabbit. Tilly and Scout share the third one. Zoe stays with Tilly, which leaves Biscuit with Theo.
We’ve placed our tents in a semi-circle in front of the big cave that we use for almost everything. Meetings, cooking, eating and hanging out. There’s also an area to store Theo’s devices, what he has left of them anyway. The only power source he has available is the one I can produce with my sensory receptor device and I’m not doing a very consistent job with it.
Nya hangs outside the cave with Tilly. They both nod at us.
“Doc’s inside,” Tilly says trying to hide her excitement.
Nya stares at Pip for a moment before she pats me on the shoulder.
We step inside the cave. All twelve are here. With Pip we are still twelve, but Daphne’s absence is always felt.
Damian comes to me deeply concerned. “The energy levels are very low today, we can barely get the cooling system to run,” he says. “Will you be able to use the receptor later?”
I nod but I realize that’s not what concerns him. I walk over to where Doc sits. “You wanted to see me?”
“I do, yes,” Doc says as his eyes get bigger and brighter. “I was able to perform a partial DNA profiling with the kits that Rabbit found in Lost Town which I think provides sufficient information, albeit incomplete.”
My heart soars and my knees feel weak at Doc’s words. “And?”
“You were right,” Doc says. “Pip is your biological sister. There’s no question about it, you share a number of markers that are unique.”
I have known that since the very first time I set my eyes on Pip. She looks so much like our mother but there’s also something else about her, something that I can’t quite put my finger on, that is extremely familiar.
Damian insisted that we needed concrete proof and he has been suspicious since day one. His suspicions became all the more worrisome when Pip punched the words they let me go on my touchpad after he asked her how she had managed to escape.
We have been through this a million times. He keeps telling me not to get invested in Pip until we know what’s going on, but now that there’s proof she’s my sister, maybe he will lighten up a bit.
Pip hugs me and I feel her love expanding inside her little body. Nothing could tear us apart now. I look at Finn and he gives me a smile. There are three of us here from our village now. Finn will protect Pip with his life. The way he has always done for me.
“We should celebrate this,” Tilly suggests.
“Yes, maybe we can bake cookies and a pie,” Biscuit says.
Tilly slaps him gently on the back. “Didn’t we do that yesterday?” she asks him. “There’s plenty left.”
“You can never have enough cookies or pie,” he says.
“Oh, come on, Biscuit,” Rabbit says. “You don’t have to use the same joke all the time.”
Biscuit becomes perplexed. “I never joke about food.”
Zoe comes to me. “Are you happy?” she says and I can see she is touched by what has been revealed today.
“I am, Zoe. For the first time in my life I can honestly say that.”
Zoe understands how I feel because of Theo whom she loves like a younger brother. Besides Finn and me, they are the only ones that share the same background having both been harvested for Plantation-1.
“I wish Daphne was here,” Zoe says. “She would have liked that. She’d told me many times she wished she’d have a little sister.”
Zoe’s voice breaks. She misses Daphne a lot. We all do, but with Zoe the loss is more urgent and present. We have become closer the past few weeks, Zoe and me, and she has proven to be a very wise and honest friend.
“We will carry her with us and make sure she didn’t die in vain,” I say even though I know it’s not much of a consolation.
* * *
“Pip was sent to us for a reason,” Damian says when we sit down for supper in the evening. “Whatever that reason was, it’s up to us to turn it into something positive, something that will bring stability to our group.” He turns to Pip. “You are an official member of the Saviors, Pip. You may never be safe, but you will never be alone.”
2
Any notion of an interrogation would have normally been enough to set me off running for shelter and covering up my tracks. As it is, I’ve had to agree with Damian that it is of crucial importance to have Pip try to remember as much as she can from Plantation-15. Damian doesn’t leave anything to chance. I have come to appreciate this quality about him.
We are gathered in Damian’s tent, Pip, Finn, Doc and myself. Pip doesn’t remember much, she has big holes in her memory and I don’t like to watch her struggle to remember to no avail. They did something to her. Any mention of the Sliman or her plantation causes distress in her eyes. Our only hope to discover what happened is to help Pip remember.
Pip’s brown hair has grown a lot since we found her and the two colors in her eyes (black and azure) have blended into a beautiful dark blue. She is graceful in her movements and although she hasn’t demonstrated any special abilities, she has shown considerable skill at many things. She is quick, agile and intuitive. She can learn new skills with a fair amount of ease. She doesn’t like pulse guns but she is very accurate with a shock bow.
“Let’s go over it one more time,” Damian says. “How exactly did you leave the plantation?”
Pip types out what we already know. A guard took her away from the group of children while they were practicing. He escorted her to the back of the library building. There, two more Sliman were waiting. All three got Pip out of the plantation through a back gate. They had a vehicle waiting. They dropped Pip in the field were we found her. When Pip hesitated and tried to get back on the vehicle, they pushed her out and drove away. It wasn’t until after we located her that she realized it caused a horrible feeling inside when she tried to speak. Something worse than fear. Simple words she can manage. Anything else at all terrifies her and she starts to shake.
“Is it because of the shock, Pip?” Damian asks her. “Did something happen to you? Did you say something you shouldn’t have maybe?”
Pip shrugs her shoulders and types that she can’t be sure. She can’t remember what happened with the Sliman on the way to the field. And she can only remember glimpses of what the inside of the buildings in the plantation look like. Parts of her memory are blocked or erased.
“It’s as if they didn’t want her to give away anything about Plantation-15,” Damian says. “But they did want us to find her. They have a plan.”
Finn nods. “Do you think we should keep moving?” he says.
“I honestly don’t know,” Damian says. “Doc, is it possible that there’s a tracking chip in her?”
“There’s no way for me to tell,” Doc says. “Not without a body scan.”
Tracking chips can be so small they are almost invisible. They can be implanted through the mouth and ears, or with an injection straight inside the bone marrow. We don’t have the equipment that could locate a thing like that.
“Don’t talk about Pip as if she’s not here,” I say.
“Tick, Pip understands the importance of the situation,” Finn says. “She wants answers, too. Give her some credit.”
Damian puts his hand on Finn’s shoulder.
“What is it?” Finn says staring at Damian’s hand.
“What did you just call her?”
“Who?”
“What do you mean who? Freya, or should I say Tick? What the hell is Tick?”
“Don’t tell him, Finn,” I say exasperated.
Tick. Short for ticklish, Pip types. Freya told me. On the plantation. It was Finn’s name for her.
Damian removes his hand from Finn’s shoulder. “Thank you, Pip,” h
e says while looking at me. “Finally, someone in the family who can give a straight answer.”
It’s nice to see some things never change. He can still drive me crazy with his arrogance.
* * *
My hand feels tight and tense around the sensory receptor. I always get a bit nervous before I have to use it. I can feel how the energy enters my body like a mild electroshock before it takes me over completely. I wonder if this is similar to what happens to Pip when she tries to speak. The device gets attached to my nerve endings and then multiple signals start traveling up and down the channel that has been established. My mind sends orders to the receptor and the receptor sends reports to my brain.
I have not been able to completely control the relationship yet. In fact, the more I use the receptor, the more it seems like it’s the one in control, not me.
Theo has been working with me to learn how to channel the energy the way I want. I’m hoping that the day will come soon when I will learn to be in absolute command of its capabilities.
Maybe Pip can learn to control what’s happening inside of her, too.
I embrace myself for what is about to come once I order the receptor to switch on and produce the blue energy that Theo will be able to convert into electricity. I stand next to the generator in the small clearing to the west of the camp. I close my eyes and concentrate.
The energy enters my bloodstream and a series of white flashing lights blur my vision. The generator starts humming and I know the connection has been established. I need to keep doing this for a few minutes before the camp is powered up again.
“It’s good to see you haven’t lost your super-hero powers yet,” I hear Damian’s voice behind me. It startles me. My heartbeat gets faster and I get an instant headache as the receptor suddenly turns off.
“Damn it, Damian, what are you doing? Are you trying to kill me?”
“Believe me, if I wanted you dead—”
“Yeah, yeah, I’d be dead by now. You have all the charm of a Sliman.” I rub my arms vigorously to get my blood going again. Everything feels numb.
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