Gritu cringes at this. “I’m not slimy,” he says.
Nya offers him one of her coldest smiles. “Of course not,” she says and rolls her eyes.
Scout, Tilly and Pip can’t help but laugh but they stop when Wudak and Damian come in last. The seriousness on their faces cools the celebration.
“The Sliman have given signs of trustworthiness,” Damian says when we are all gathered in front of the cave. “They can stay tonight. Unarmed, but guarded.” He turns to Wudak, “You understand that I cannot let you walk freely about the camp. From now on, you will have to let us know about your visits.”
“It’s not a problem,” Wudak says. “We do not plan to visit again.”
“We need details of the fight,” Tilly interrupts.
“How did it happen?” Scout says.
“We’ll give you all the details, Till,” Damian smiles, “while we have our victory feast.”
“Finally, something worth living for,” Biscuit says.
“I’ll get the dishes out,” Rabbit says.
“We’re not done,” Damian says to Wudak when most of the Saviors have gone to prepare for the celebration. Only Theo and me still linger outside.
“No, we are not,” Wudak agrees.
“What do you mean you’re not visiting again? I thought your great plan was to train Freya, to protect her.”
Wudak closes in on Damian, their faces inches apart. They look like giant bulls about to ram each other. “We’re taking her with us.”
Damian laughs in his face. “So you do have a sense of humor,” he says. He turns to me. “Did you hear that, Freya? Pack your bags.”
“I just might and there’s nothing you can do about it,” I say just to provoke him. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.
He stares at me a long while and I can see murder on his face. He decides to drop it. “I’ll go get cleaned up,” he says.
Theo shakes his head before he goes too. He’s sad. He doesn’t understand. He’s disappointed in me. I can feel it. There’s no room for the old, reactionary Freya anymore.
Wudak grabs my arm and I pull it back as fast as I can.
“What are you doing?”
“If you never trust me but once, let this be the time,” he whispers to me. “Stay far away from him.”
5
In a single moment everything you ever wished for might be taken away from you. In a dark corner of the universe, a genetic mix might be boiled in a laboratory to destroy the world as you know it. Things that you thought held the most importance for you, family, love, possessions, education would become irrelevant then and you’d find yourself running away from the flames just to stay alive for a few more days, hours, minutes.
That’s what happened to the citizens of this world when the first alien invading ships arrived and began to bomb every major city in the world. That’s how dreams turned into ruins and that’s how intelligence turned itself inside out and concentrated its entire purpose on finding a way to survive.
It’s a sad story and an even sadder lesson. But it is also the motivation a broken soul needs in order to invent a new world. To be reborn like the bird Phoenix out of ashes and tears.
The night has been full of wonders. The Sliman have been ecstatic over Biscuit’s culinary talents and he has accepted their compliments with a solemnity that borders on the absurd.
Pip has revealed a new side to her, a side that’s wise and thoughtful and consistent with the wonderful sweetness and politeness we saw in her from the beginning. She has asked me not to grieve over the loss of our sister but try and remember her instead. Try and keep her alive in our memories. We have decided to ask all the girls to join us in a reunion and get to talk about those we’ve lost, about us, about the future and our hopes for it.
I wish I could take Pip to the library but it’s not safe anymore. All I can do is relate my favorite stories to her, explain the world as I have understood it through my readings and conversations with the rest of the Saviors, especially Finn.
I remember the day I took my little sisters out in the woods surrounding the breeding village to show them how to pick mushrooms that were safe to eat. It was only a few days before my harvesting and I knew we didn’t have much time. I was seven and Pip was barely two. Our sister was four. We called her four. We all called each other by our age in the village, changing names every year. We didn’t know anything else.
My brother had done the same thing for me days before he was harvested. He showed me how to pick mushrooms, how to pull dandelions out of the ground without breaking them, how to find bird eggs.
I wanted to do the same for my sisters but they were too young and all they wanted to do was play. I threw my rope around a branch to make a swing and we pushed each other for a long time. We played hide and seek and we rolled down a slope. When we returned to the hut, my mother gave us soup and apples. We all slept together on the floor that night and I can still feel their soft breathing in my ears.
It’s getting late. There are a few yawns in the company but nobody really feels like going to bed. The excitement of the day has not died down yet. We sit around a bonfire and the Sliman sit a bit further away. I have to turn my head to see them. They look out of place but do their best not to draw attention to themselves.
Our faces take on a strange orange hue as the fire reflects on them. The stories we tell make our skin crawl. We talk about werewolves and vampires, about zombies and ogres that are after human flesh. Scary stories all, but our real lives are more frightening than anything we could conjure. Yet, I get a creepy feeling I can’t shake and so do most of the other girls. Not Nya though, she’s enjoying the stories, she wants to hear more.
“Who would win in a hand-to-hand combat?” she asks. “A vampire or a werewolf?”
“A vampire,” Rabbit says. “There’s no question about it.”
“Werewolves have their own tricks up their sleeves and they’re super-strong. They could win,” Scout says.
“Nine out of ten times a vampire would win,” Biscuit says.
“Ten out of ten times a Sliman would win,” Malzod says. It’s the first time we’ve heard him say anything at all. So far he’s just listened and nodded. I can tell he likes our stories though.
“Does today count?” Nya says to prod him.
Malzod crosses his arms and retreats into silence again. It’s possible that he is not pleased with what happened today. Maybe if it were up to him, no Sliman would have been sacrificed. Maybe he thinks there should have been a better way to prove their loyalty to us. I know that’s what I’d think in his shoes.
Finn and Theo play a game of chess with a set that I have helped make. I carved the pawns out of pieces of wood. As always, the game can go either way. They are both equally skilled at chess.
“So, Tick,” Damian whispers as he moves closer to me, “do you think your boyfriend will win this time?”
I look left and right to make sure nobody has heard him.
“What is the matter with you?” I say under my breath.
He shrugs his shoulders. “What did I do this time, Tick?”
“Don’t ever call me that again.”
“Is that one more of your orders?”
“Yes. Now leave me alone.”
He obeys for now and moves back to his spot between Doc and Zoe. I see Pip laughing with Tilly and Scout. Rabbit’s right, these three have formed a circle of friendship all their own. A triangle of friendship, in Rabbit’s words.
I pull my fingers one by one until they snap. Then, as my frustration overpowers me, I call Pip over.
“Pip,” I whisper, “you don’t have to tell people everything you know.”
Pip is confused. “What do you mean, Freya?”
“I mean like the other day when you told Damian why Finn called me Tick. That was something between Finn and me and you shouldn’t have said anything about it.”
Now Pip is even more confused. “Why?” she says. “Aren’t we all a family
here?”
“Yes, we are. But even families have secrets. Especially families.”
“I’m sorry,” she says, “I have so much to learn.”
“Oh, Pip, no, you don’t. I’m sorry, you didn’t do anything wrong,” I say and I feel my cheeks go red. How could I have accused Pip of anything? She’s the kindest, brightest person I have known and she has helped me become a better person, too.
I get up to go to my tent. I need to try and put my head in order.
Zoe stops me. “I have a question for you,” she says.
“What is it?”
“That Sliman, Wudak,” she starts, “has had his eyes on you all night. Are you sure he can be trusted?”
“You mean he’s been watching me?”
“Like a hawk. Every time your face is turned away, he watches you. Every time you close your eyes, he watches you. Every time you talk, his eyes are on you. I think that’s why he chose to sit behind you. So that he could watch you without you knowing.”
“I caught him looking at me a couple times,” I say. “I just didn’t realize it was constant.”
“He’s making me nervous,” Zoe says. “Keep an eye on him.”
“I will. But, honestly, can I tell you something? Something that you may not repeat?”
Zoe nods.
“I think he somehow cares for me. I don’t know why, but I think all he wants to do is watch over me.”
Zoe is not convinced. “If Daphne were here, she’d see right through him.”
“I know. For now, all I have to go by is my instinct.”
So, one more thing to worry about, I think as I walk to my tent. I step in and almost let a scream out. There’s a shadow inside the tent and when my initial shock fades, I realize it’s Damian.
“What on earth, Damian? When did you get here?” I say as I light a candle.
“A couple minutes before you.”
“While I was talking to Zoe.”
“Yes.”
“What do you want now?” My tone is irritated and abrupt but it doesn’t seem to bother him. He’s getting used to it. He might even welcome the challenge. I have created a nightmare.
“I don’t like the way we’ve been acting,” he says. “I came to apologize. Let’s start all over.”
“Again.”
“Yes, again. Why not?”
“Okay, sure. But you have to promise, no more kissing and no more Tick for you.”
He doesn’t like where this is going. It remains to be seen whether what he has just said about turning a new leaf is true or not. I have to push him a bit if I am to know if I can trust his words.
“Are you sure that’s what you want?” is all he says in the end.
I nod. What can I say to him? That I don’t know what I want? That I am confused beyond belief? To him that would sound encouraging and I don’t want to do that.
“Don’t you want to see if this could work?” he asks.
“I don’t need to see, I know it wouldn’t work. And if you were being honest with yourself, you’d know it too. We are not compatible in any sense of the word. We don’t belong together, Damian. Besides, there’s so much at stake. This is hardly the time.”
He sits down and I think I’ve gotten through to him to some extent. I don’t see any red on his face, his veins are calm and he hasn’t attempted to grab me.
“You don’t owe Finn any loyalty,” he says.
“It’s not about that, Damian.”
“As a matter of fact, you shouldn’t trust him blindly. He’s not as spotless as you think.”
I spoke too soon. He hasn’t given up, he doesn’t know how to lose, he needs to be in control all the time and I cannot afford to forget that.
“Just go, Damian. Get out.”
“He will lie to you. Again and again. He’s really good at it.”
“Get out already!”
“How can you trust a guy who risks the lives of his companions on a whim?”
“And how can I trust a guy who badmouths his friends behind their backs? Even Wudak told me to be careful with you.”
“Oh, so you’re going to take the word of a Sliman over mine?”
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but this isn’t going according to your plan. I’m getting madder at you by the second.”
He does his best to compose himself. “I’m sorry,” he says. “I will do my best not to upset you again.”
He steps out and I should feel relieved but I don’t. Instead, I just feel an ocean of emptiness. I lay back in my small tent tired and alone.
6
There’s the distant sound of running water, the smell of lilies in bloom, but the dark is absolute. I can’t see anything. Then the ground shakes and I have to hold on to something. A hand. A hand that I can trust. I hold on tight but the hand starts quivering and I lose my balance. I start to fall and I hear my name repeated several times. I open my eyes. The light hurts so I rub them a few times. Finn is bending over me. His face is concerned.
“What’s going on?” I say.
“It’s late, you’ve slept in.”
I look around the tent. It’s neatly organized, Pip’s bed is made, the table is clean and my water bottle full.
“Where’s Pip?” I say.
“She’s up already. She didn’t have the heart to wake you.”
“I didn’t sleep well. I’m sorry, I had no idea it was that late.”
“The Sliman have to go. They need to talk to you first.”
“You mean they’re waiting for me?”
Finn nods.
“Okay, give me a second and I’ll be ready.”
I make a move to get out of bed but then I remember I don’t have any clothes on. It felt so hot last night, I couldn’t tolerate anything on me.
“Turn the other way,” I order him.
“What?” he says but then he gets it. “I’ll wait outside,” he says.
You can do this, I tell myself as I jump out of bed and put my pants and shirt on. It’s been months since the last time I found new clothes. It’s been months since I’ve been to Lost Town.
I brush my hair with long strokes. I’ll have to ask Nya to shorten it a bit, she’s really good at giving haircuts. I gulp down some water and pour the rest in the bottle all over my face. I pat myself dry with a towel and put some cream on my face, the one that Zoe says is supposed to make your skin glow. I don’t know why I care so much about my appearance today.
Finn puts his touchpad in his pocket when he sees me. We walk to Damian’s tent which is the largest in the camp. I notice that besides Damian and the Sliman, only Zoe, Doc and Theo are present. This is a meeting for the oldest six as we call ourselves. Nya is only months younger than Theo, but she prefers not to participate. She’d rather practice than talk, is what she says.
The Sliman sit on the floor but rise when they see me as if I’m a general.
“Are you sick?” Wudak says looking into my eyes.
“No, what gave you that idea?”
“You’re late. We’ve waited for you for over an hour.”
“I’m sorry, I just slept in.”
We all sit down on the floor. The three chairs in the tent wouldn’t be enough. Six Saviors versus three Sliman. That’s a first.
“We have to go,” Wudak begins. “We have to be back at our posts by tonight. Our allies in the Regiment will not be able to cover for us longer than that. We’re supposed to have been on a scouting mission this whole time.”
It dawns on me that they are risking their lives to be here. And I have made them wait unnecessarily.
“You said yesterday that you will not come back,” I try to speed things up.
“We will come back. To get you,” Wudak says. “We’ll take you to a safe place, a place where the drones will not be able to locate you.”
“I don’t know if that’s possible, I can’t leave my friends behind. And I don’t know if I trust you to that degree,” I say.
“Maybe if I explain
to you what you are, you will see things more clearly,” Wudak says.
I nod. Zoe pats me on the shoulder. We both know this is not going to be pleasant.
“The aliens have altered parts of your DNA, that goes for all of you,” Wudak starts. “Before you were even born. That’s why you all have special strengths that distinctly separate you from each other. You’re all results of different experiments.”
“As are we,” Gritu adds.
“We have suspected this much,” Doc says.
“Not all experiments are successful,” Wudak goes on. “Most children show no special abilities and some children get sick and die. A few, like the twelve of you, thrive and grow to be superhumans.”
“Yes, but I don’t understand. Why would the aliens do that?” Doc says.
“Because they’re after one particular mutation,” Wudak says and glances at me.
“Freya’s,” Finn says.
“Yes, Freya’s. As far as we know, you are the only one.”
“They want me to use the receptors for them?” Ι ask, still trying to take all this information in. “Will they experiment on me to see what I can do with them now that they cannot use them adequately themselves?”
“No, that’s not it.”
“What then”?
Wudak is having trouble saying the next words. He shakes his head and looks at his companions for reassurance.
“Freya, you are an alien bride.”
“What does that even mean?” Finn says.
“It means her genetic makeup is compatible with that of the aliens,” Doc says out of breath.
“None of this makes sense,” I say. “Are you telling me that I’m not human?”
“You are human, but you also have mutated genes and that means that the genotype of your cells includes certain attributes that are needed for…”
“For what?” Zoe says.
I start feeling nauseous.
“The aliens have been getting weak for many decades now. You have seen this. They are decaying fast. There are only a few thousand of them left as far as we know. Their superior technology and medical advancements are the only things that keep them afloat. All of them are male. The females have died. Whatever it is that happened to them, it hit the females first. The aliens cannot procreate anymore. Not unless they find a suitable host that can carry their embryos to term and save their species.”
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