The Arliss

by Ann Bakshis

  I slip back into the hallway, making sure to pull the door completely shut before I go over to the communicator on the wall and call Andra directly. She tells me to go into my apartment as she’ll send someone down shortly to arrest him. I hurry into my quarters and partially close the door, leaving it open far enough that I can see what happens. Moments later, Grimm rushes down the stairs with a few from his squad following right behind. He rams the door to the apartment, which causes Casey to shriek and Wavern to yell. Heated words are exchanged between Grimm and Wavern, followed by the sound of punches being thrown. I open my door the rest of the way and watch as Casey is escorted from the premises, half-naked and still fumbling to get her clothes on. Grimm has Wavern’s hands bound behind his back, a sheet wrapped around his waist. Wavern has a bloody nose and an eye on the verge of swelling. Grimm is favoring his right hand and I notice his knuckles are scraped.

  I glare at Wavern as he passes, our eyes locking. A vein in his neck bulges and he grinds his teeth. I want him to know I turned him in, to show him I’m not afraid, and that he’s going to pay dearly for what he’s done. Grimm has one of his soldiers take over Wavern’s escort as he stops by my door.

  “Are you all right?” he asks softly.

  “I’m fine,” I respond, my gaze continuing to track Wavern as he climbs the stairs.

  He continues to glare at me until he’s out of view.

  “Did you always suspect Wavern was the one responsible for the tattoo on your wrist?”

  “No,” I say as my eyes focus on Grimm. “I figured it out when Cody showed up with it after the incident in Virtus.”

  “Cody has it?”

  I nod. “I noticed it when he tried to break my wrist,” I say, showing Grimm the bruises.

  I can tell he’s about to ask more questions, so I abruptly turn and close the door on him. I enter the bathroom, crawl into the tub, and turn the shower on. I don’t care that my clothes are going to be soaked or that my bandages will get wet, I just need to feel clean. After about a half hour I pull myself out, dry off, and put on dry bandages and clean clothes. I have to let the sling hang on the towel rod to dry so I can wear it again. The covers of the bed feel rough as I get under them, but I know it’s simply my imagination. Sleep will evade me, so I lie in the dark and try not to dwell on what Nex disclosed to me, no matter how difficult that becomes.

  Keegan brings me breakfast when he returns in the morning, as I refuse to leave the apartment. Word has traveled rapidly about Wavern’s arrest, and the reason for it. Now everyone knows I’m marked with the Arliss symbol, but that was inevitable. Keegan tries to pump me for information on how it was determined that Wavern was the one responsible. Apparently Andra neglected to reveal to anyone that I was the person who turned him in, which she probably did as a way to protect me from any sympathizers he may have. I wonder why she’s now watching out for me, when she had no qualms about murdering me only days ago.

  Jules, who’s now been placed in command of the squad, comes to collect Keegan after several hours. He goes reluctantly since they’re working the control center for the afternoon, and being shorthanded will make the task a little difficult.

  “He’ll be in lookout number four in case you need him,” Jules says before closing the door.

  I curl up on the couch with the blanket tucked around me, watching the Daily Slate for a few minutes before changing channels only to turn the display off. There’s a soft knock on the front door, but I don’t bother getting up to answer it. Andra enters with a bleak look on her face. She sits on the edge of the coffee table and leans slightly forward.

  “I thought you’d want to know what’s been decided regarding Wavern and Casey,” she says. “The governing body is taking this situation very seriously, and it’s been determined that they’ll receive the harshest punishment allowed.” She swallows a lump in her throat before continuing. “At sundown tonight, they will be executed publicly in the plaza in Demos.”

  “Good,” I utter.

  “The traditional way is by firing squad, which will be made up of the squad leaders of Rinku,” she says. “Everyone who isn’t working will be required to attend. Myr wants to make sure their deaths are a lesson to all who try to bring the Arliss back.”

  “I want to see him first,” I say as I push the blanket off.

  “It’s not normally allowed, but I’ll have them make this one exception.”

  I turn the plasma back on to check the time: fourteen-hundred hours. Sundown is listed to occur just after eighteen-hundred hours, giving me four hours to pull myself together to face him.

  “I’ll call for you in an hour and we’ll go together,” she says as she stands. “I’ll have Grimm drive us since he’ll need to be there anyway.” She pats my arm before leaving, then stops just as she’s opening the door. “I don’t think I need to tell you the importance of you remaining silent about all of this. I know the real reason you blame Wavern is because of what’s been done to you and some of the others. Breathe a word of it to anyone and your fate will match his.”

  I feel violated all over again. I have no intention of bringing up my abuse to anyone, but being told that leaking such knowledge will get me executed sickens and saddens me. How can anyone live in a society where people treat each other this way? This is exactly why I ran in the first place. Was it always like this, or just after the war? Once Cody is dead, I’m leaving the compound and everything else behind me. I don’t care if I have to traverse the entire planet to find a place far away from this life, but I’m not staying here any longer than I have to.

  I’m still in my pajamas, so before Andra returns I change into a simple black tank top and pants, brush my hair, and pull it back into a ponytail. I no longer care if anyone sees the markings on my neck. I’ll simply blame Wavern for them. I return to the bedroom and remove the hunting knife from the pack at the bottom of my locker. I don’t plan on using it, but I no longer feel safe leaving unarmed. I slip it into my belt behind my back and hide it under the top. I then take a few cameras and stuff them in my pocket so I can place them on my way to the garage. This might be the only chance I get to pass through the control center for a long time. Who knows when I’ll ever be allowed back to normal duties?

  When Andra arrives, she informs me that Grimm will meet us in the garage, as he first needs to make sure his squad is taking care of things in the kitchen and mess hall. We take the tunnel from the barracks directly into the mess hall. I hadn’t placed any cameras in here yet, so I slip one from my pocket and discreetly adhere it to the doorway for the tunnel into the control center. I manage to place a couple more on the satellite controls workstation in the center. Neither of us speaks as we make the journey to the garage. Grimm has the ATV waiting for us, so I climb in the back and Andra takes the front passenger seat.

  They talk quietly as we go, while I contemplate exactly what I’m going to say to Wavern. Thankfully I’ve got several hours to figure it out. I catch Grimm glancing at me in the rearview mirror every so often, but I try to ignore him. Maybe this is another reason I hold leaving the abandonment home against him. He left me at the hands of Wavern, but he wouldn’t have known what was going on. Even if he had, he doesn’t remember—his squad leader would’ve made sure of that. There’s no point in dwelling on my feelings for Grimm, as they were burnt away with his brutal, callous words to me.

  The Demos parking pad is full of transports, making it almost impossible to fit all the vehicles into the spaces available. Grimm drops Andra and me at the entrance and decides to park the vehicle down a ways in the tunnel. Andra informs him before he leaves that he’s to meet the other leaders, along with Myr and the rest of the governing body, in front of the meeting hall in Zone B. There, he’ll be given instructions on how the execution is to progress and where he’ll need to stand in the plaza.

  Andra directs me through the dome entrance and then over to Zone B where we take one of the stone paths to the very back of the section, coming upon a small bric
k structure that’s only feet away from the force field produced by the Occlyn Ring. The guard at the door steps aside and allows us entry, then takes his position in a small waiting room with a lone couch and plasma screen displaying the Daily Slate.

  “Casey has already been moved to the plaza, so you’ll be meeting Wavern alone. Now, are you sure you want to do this?” Andra asks before opening the door that’ll take me to his cell.

  “Yes. I need to,” I reply, trying not to sound terrified.

  She pulls open the door and I step into a small vestibule in front of the containment cells. Andra closes the door behind me while I cling to the wall beside it. Wavern is pacing the cell like a nervous animal, wringing his hands.

  “Did you come alone?” he asks, without stopping his movements.

  “Yes,” I whisper.

  “Does Keegan know you’re here?”

  “No, only Andra and Grimm know. Also, Keegan doesn’t know anything about what you did to me other than the marking.”

  “I didn’t do anything you didn’t want me to,” Wavern says, finally stopping and staring at me.

  “I was a kid!” I scream.

  “Not according to our laws. You came of age when you turned sixteen.”

  “You began raping me at thirteen!” I holler as I take a step closer to the cell. “How could you do that to me?”

  “I wasn’t the only one,” he snaps. “There were several squad leaders taking advantage of a few of the kids, while the others beat the shit out of them.”

  “That didn’t make it right,” I say. “I looked up to you, Wavern. I trusted you and you do this to me?”

  “We didn’t know any better!” he yells. “Haron let us do whatever the hell we wanted. She didn’t give a shit. She hated being there and held it against all of you, which made it easier for us to get away with it. The governing body didn’t care either. They only wanted us to find the antitoxin that would allow us to return to the surface.”

  “Why me?” I ask, my eyes filling with tears.

  “You’re smart, tenacious, stubborn, and beautiful. Why wouldn’t I pick you?”

  “You’re sick.”

  “No, just driven to have the best,” he says, cocking his head. “Did Andra tell you all of this? Is that how it came up? You two conspiring against me?”

  “No, someone else divulged your secret.”

  “Nex,” he says, seething. “That bitch will pay for her wild mouth.”

  “I think she’s paid enough with the guilt that’s been eating at her all these years, especially when you had her get rid of my pregnancy.”

  “I had to!” he shouts. “Do you know what would’ve happened to me if people found out I knocked up a fifteen-year-old? I’d have been ostracized, made to live and work in the farms under the Factory like a criminal. Never able to see or be with you again. It wouldn’t have been a big deal if you were sixteen but, no, you had to get pregnant at fifteen.”

  “Fuck you, Wavern! This is all your fault, not mine! You’re no better than the Arliss! You do whatever you want and don’t give a damn about what it does to other people.”

  He starts to laugh. “Yet no one will ever find out what I did to you, or what any of the other squad leaders did, whether it’s the abuse or the testing, because you’ve been ordered to keep your trap shut, or your punishment will be the same as mine,” he says, then slides up to the metal bars and wraps his hands around them. “I’m hoping you open your fucking mouth so we can be together in the Fomorian Plateau. Oh, the things I could get away with down there—and you’d never escape me. Never.”

  “The joke’s on you, asshole,” I say, taking another step closer and folding my arms over my chest. “With the Arliss topside there isn’t a way into the plateau, so you’ll be heading straight to hell where you belong.”

  “Who fed you that lie?” he asks, gripping the bars so tight his knuckles turn white.

  “The Arliss mentioned it as a way to threaten me into obeying him, in case I had any ideas of self-destructing again.” I turn around and head for the door. “Cody will be dead by tonight, hours after you of course, so you’ll miss your chance to join the Arliss,” I say, with a giggle that’s mainly driven by my nerves. “You lose, Wavern.”

  He screams at me as I push the door open and rejoin Andra. We walk quietly towards the plaza where everyone has started to gather. She has me sit on a bench at the edge of Zone B near the square while she looks for Demmer and Myr. I smile to myself, knowing this nightmare might almost be over. I still have the Pheles inside me and Keegan to deal with, but one thing at a time. First the execution, then kill Cody and escape the compound to find the portal into the plateau, followed by destroying it and killing Keegan. Then I’ll be free from it all. I’m sure if Keegan were to die now, just like the Arliss, he’d be sent to the plateau because his symbol is on the Degrem Stone, and I can’t take them both on at once. The Arliss will be a lot easier to defeat on his home turf since Keegan changed me into one of his own, so one devil at a time it will have to be.

  Trumpets ring out from the speakers attached to the light posts and buildings. Hundreds exit from the residential zones and I force myself through the crowds as they fill the square, blocking me. I need to be at the front to see Wavern die close up, and I’m hoping he dies as slowly as possible. A temporary fence has been erected around the pool, which has now been drained, the fountain turned off, and is currently descending into a subterranean level. A few moments after it’s out of sight, a platform rises in its place, Wavern and Casey in the center, wearing white hospital garb. The two are bolted to a brick wall that rises at least two feet above their heads and which wraps partially around the platform. Casey is bawling as she tries to pull her hands free of the constraints. Wavern, however, is glaring right at me.

  Heavy footsteps echo from the back of the wall as all ten squad leaders from Rinku, including Jules, move around the platform and into position. The trumpets stop and are replaced by Myr’s voice, but I have no idea where she’s speaking from.

  “Citizens and soldiers, it’s a dark day when two very prominent members of our community have been convicted of treason,” she says, her voice not wavering. “Once again we’ve been placed in a position where our survival has been threatened by those who follow the Arliss. Let everyone here today bear witness that no one is above the law and that there are dire consequences for betraying the world that’s raised, clothed, fed, and sheltered you. Leaders of Rinku, ready your weapons.”

  The ten remove guns from the holsters around their thighs.

  “Aim…”

  Casey screams in terror, her face going pale as she realizes she’s about to die.

  “Fire!”

  Five bullets hit Casey in the head and chest, killing her instantly. The other five hit Wavern in the abdomen, leaving him alive.

  “Cowards,” Wavern tries to cry out as blood seeps from his wounds and pain paints his face. “If you really wanted me dead you would’ve aimed for my head. You’re all pathetic.”

  Jules steps forward from the group. “Our aim was on purpose, asshole. There’s someone here who deserves the right to take your life, and it’s not us.”

  The leaders for Squads One and Six open a gap in the fence and wave for me to come over. I slowly move through the crowd, many of them parting to give me an unobstructed path. When I’m through the gap Jules takes my hand, helps me step up into the pool, leads me a few feet in front of Wavern, and places the gun in my left hand.

  “He’s all yours,” Jules says.

  “Wait, why?” I ask. I break out in a sweat from being so exposed in front of both compounds, especially since this entire ordeal is being broadcast on the Daily Slate for those who couldn’t leave their posts, and the entire city, many of whom are here.

  Jules leans in to whisper. “You earned it,” he says before stepping back in line with the others.

  A cold chill radiates down my spine since those are the same words Wavern used when he had the
Arliss make me immortal. Is Jules another Nathair, or does he know what happened to me at the home? How’d he get the other leaders to go along with this?

  Wavern starts laughing, which causes his muscles to spasm. “She doesn’t have the guts,” he mutters, then narrows his eyes. “Sara would never hurt me; she needs me too much.”

  I get to where I’m only inches away from him, close my eyes, and pull the Pheles forward. When I reveal it to him, his mouth falls open and his face grows white.

  I place the gun against his forehead as I recall the red from my irises. “Goodbye, Wavern. I hope you enjoy Hell.”

  I pull the trigger and his blood spatter soaks me. Jules orders someone to bring me a towel. I clean myself up as best I can, hand the gun back to Jules, and step back into the crowd. No one says a word to me as I make my way to the parking pad. I want to hang my head in shame, but somehow I’m holding it higher than I’ve ever done before. However, when I enter the parking pad, I wander off to a corner as the weight of the day finally hits. I ball myself up against the stone of the mountain and cry.

  Fifteen

  It seems like I’ve been waiting for hours before Grimm finally emerges from the city to take us back to Rinku. Andra is staying behind since Myr has some questions that need answering, so it’ll just be the two of us riding back. I lean my head against the doorframe as Grimm drives. He has a concerned look on his face when he glances at me, but I don’t ask why—I’m too exhausted to care. After an hour, Jules’ words return and I shiver.

  “What’s the matter?” Grimm asks when he notices.

  “Why did you all decide to allow me to kill Wavern?” I ask, finally looking at him.

  “Jules asked us to.”

  “Why? What did he say to convince you?”

  “Does it matter now? Wavern’s dead, so it’s over.” Grimm reaches over and tugs at my left arm, taking it out of my lap and flipping it palm up. “If you must know, that’s why,” he says, pointing to the spider hidden beneath the bruise.