Live in Infamy

by Caroline Tung Richmond

  “Ren, this way!” Mr. Cabot said, running toward a cage in the far corner. The door was already unlocked and flung open, but the prisoner inside had curled up next to her dirty mattress, clearly terrified. Her eyes flew between Ren and his father, looming large like twin moons.

  Ren knew those eyes. He barreled past his dad.

  “Not yet!” his father warned. “Give her some space.”

  But Ren couldn’t wait, not after all of these years that had cruelly separated them.

  Ren entered the cage and raised his hands slowly — he didn’t want to scare her — and inched forward. His heart felt open and raw and hopeful.

  “Mom?” he whispered.

  As Ren focused on his mother, the world around them went quiet, leaving only the sound of his rapid heartbeat.

  “Mom,” Ren said again, a little louder this time. But his mother shrank farther away from him, murmuring a long string of numbers that made no sense. Her entire cage was covered in numbers as well, elaborate equations that Ren couldn’t decipher. Some of them were written in marker, while others looked like they had been penned in blood.

  “Jenny,” Mr. Cabot said, joining Ren inside the cage. His voice cracked as he beckoned for his wife, but she pressed her hands against her ears.

  “Three, five, six, nine, nine, zero, zero,” she mumbled. “Four, one, two, two, eight.”

  Something broke inside Ren. What had the scientists done to her?

  “We have to get her out,” Ren said to his dad. They had years ahead of them to help his mother heal. Right now, however, they were losing time. “We’ll have to carry her.”

  Mr. Cabot made the first move, opening his arms to grab his wife, but she darted to the other side of the cage, surprisingly fast. “Grab her, Ren!”

  Ren wrapped his arms around his mother’s waist and pulled her against him. She was rail-thin, all angles and bones, and Ren almost let her go because he thought he might crush her. But soon his father was there, taking his wife’s right arm while Ren grasped her left, holding on tightly as Jenny twisted and thrashed and let out an animal-like scream.

  “Five, five, zero!” she gasped. Ren had no idea what the V2 had done to her aside from make her lose her mind. Her equations may have unlocked riddles or propelled mathematics forward by a century, but all Ren knew was that she had suffered.

  They forced her out of the cage, and Ren hated the look that she gave them. He wasn’t sure what was worse — the fear in his mother’s eyes or the lack of recognition. He had told himself that she might not remember him, but the reality of it had carved a hole in his heart. His mother had no idea who he was.

  Just then, a bomb went off outside the prison. The walls shook, and the floors rumbled, almost knocking Ren off balance. Pieces of concrete were sloughed off from the ceiling, missing Mr. Cabot’s head by mere inches.

  “We have to get to the boats!” Mr. Cabot said to Ren. “Do you still have your pistol?”

  Ren retrieved his gun from his jumpsuit pocket while another bomb went off. “Let’s go.”

  With his mother balanced between them, Ren and his dad stepped over the fresh rubble and returned to the main hallway of the prison. The cells had been cleared out, their doors swinging wide open, and a handful of rebels escorted the last prisoners toward the exit.

  “Is Marty here?” Ren asked his dad.

  “She’s searching for the V2. We’ll meet up with her later. Right now, though, we have to —”

  Another bomb silenced the remainder of his sentence. The walls groaned louder, and Ren tried to up their pace, but he tripped over a crack that had opened along the floor. Ren lost his hold on his mom as he fell forward, right on top of a female rebel’s warm corpse. Shuddering, Ren was about to push himself up when he heard someone moaning. His gaze zeroed in on the sound.

  It was one of the prisoners, dressed in a much too large orange jumpsuit that swallowed her slim frame. Her head had been shaved and she weighed next to nothing as Ren lifted her into his arms. She must have been trying to escape when one of the bombs struck her down, but she had managed to hold on to a small locked box. Her fingers were firmly gripped around it, even though she was only half conscious.

  “Ren!” Mr. Cabot cried out after he had helped his wife to her feet. “Are you hurt?”

  “I’m fine. Keep going!” Ren coughed out. He shifted the prisoner in his arms and hurried behind his parents toward the main door. As they neared, the prisoner’s bald head lolled toward him, revealing her face. Ren almost dropped her.

  It was Zara St. James. He was absolutely sure of it.

  “Dad —” Ren started to say, but then Zara stirred in his arms and her eyes shot open when she realized a stranger was carrying her. She quickly began to squirm.

  “I’m with the Resistance,” Ren rushed to reassure her. “I don’t know how much you remember, but you were captured and taken to Alcatraz. We’ve infiltrated the island and now we’re heading to the escape boats.”

  It was a whole lot to take in, but Zara had stopped struggling, at least. Despite the gash slicing her temple and the bruises on her cheeks, she croaked, “Let me down. I can walk.”

  Ren doubted that, but he set her onto her feet. She wobbled for a second and had to lean on Ren for support, but she managed to stand upright.

  “The doctors …,” she said woozily, still holding on to the locked box. “They gave me something that makes me dizzy.”

  “Use me as a crutch if you have to, but we have to leave now,” offered Ren.

  Suddenly, Mr. Cabot recognized the prisoner next to his son. He had been so busy trying to calm his wife down that he hadn’t given Zara a closer look. But now wasn’t the time for handshakes or introductions. He simply nodded at her, and she returned the favor.

  “Ren, come take your mom,” said Mr. Cabot, tenderly shifting his wife’s weight toward his son. “It isn’t far to the boats and there will be rebels stationed along the path to give us cover, but we’ll be easy targets.” To Zara he said, “Stick close to us.”

  She nodded but her lips pursed in frustration. She held her right palm up, trying to ignite a lightning bolt, but only a few sparks went off. “Whatever chemicals they gave me muted my powers.”

  “We’ll cover you,” Mr. Cabot assured her. Then he rested his bandaged hand on Ren’s shoulder. “I’ll lead us out, but if I go down, you have to keep going. Head to the nearest ship. The fleet has to move out soon, so get on board as soon as possible. Okay?”

  Ren didn’t want to talk about this, even though it needed to be said. He didn’t want to confront what waited for them on the other side of the door, either.

  “Okay, Ren?” his father repeated. “Don’t lose sight of the boats.”

  Ren forced a nod. “Okay, Dad.”

  Mr. Cabot kissed his son’s forehead before he gripped the door handle. “On the count of three, then. One … two …”

  Throwing the door open, Mr. Cabot ducked into the night. Ren and his mom went next, with Zara a step behind.

  They entered a war zone. Imperial helicopters circled above the island while they dropped soldiers onto Alcatraz to replace the lost troops. Out on the water, it looked like over half of the Resistance fleet had departed, packed full of prisoners and fanning across the water toward different safe houses. But the other half of the fleet still bobbed by the island, awaiting the remaining rebels and prisoners to come aboard. Ren saw the mission in motion, how some of the rebels shepherded the feeble prisoners toward the ships while other rebels fought off the new wave of soldiers. The tide was turning in the Empire’s favor as more reinforcements poured in, including a troop of Ronin Elite.

  The Anomalies had arrived. One Ronin flew in circles over the island, mowing down rebels and prisoners with a sniper’s precision. Another swam out toward a Resistance tugboat, evading the rebels’ bullets with her impenetrable skin. And yet another Ronin used his superspeed to snatch pistols from the rebels’ hands.

  But the Resistance fought back
. A handful of the freed Anomaly prisoners had joined in on the fight, still dressed in their jumpsuits but ready to release years of pent-up rage. One woman thrust her hands toward the sky, creating a sheath of fog to wrap itself around a helicopter and blind the pilots in the cockpit. Another stood ankle-deep in the water and used his power of manipulating liquid to help push the fleeing Resistance ships farther out to sea. Ren saw another man, too, just skin and bones and barely able to stand, yet somehow he lifted soldiers into the air with his mind and flung them out into the ocean.

  “This way!” shouted Mr. Cabot, hurrying over the gravel path that led toward the dock.

  Bullets whizzed by them, but Ren pushed down his fear and followed his father. Like his dad had promised, the rebels had been stationed all along the path, allowing the prisoners the safest escape route. But the casualities had already been racked up. Ren lost count of how many bodies he stumbled over, some of them still moaning.

  “Seven point three. Zero point two,” Ren’s mother wailed. Her hands smashed over her ears, and Ren struggled to keep ahold of her.

  About halfway down the way, a grenade exploded right behind Zara and she fell forward into Ren and his mom. With his face crushed against the gravel, Ren coughed and felt his neck, wet with blood. The wound, however, didn’t feel deep.

  “Are you okay?” Zara’s voice sounded far away as Ren lay dazed, but he jolted awake when she yanked him up with the strength of someone triple her size.

  “Where’s my mom?” Ren yelled back. He spotted his dad trying to crawl toward them, but his mother was nowhere in sight. Ren twisted around, searching desperately for his mom’s orange jumpsuit.

  Then he found her. She was sprinting back up the road, back toward the prison that had been her home these last five years.

  But someone was blocking the path.

  Major Endo.

  Ren didn’t know where Endo had come from. He thought she had escaped with the crown prince, but apparently she had remained behind to pick off the rebels. Armed with a pistol in each hand, she popped off shots and reloaded.

  Everything unraveled very quickly from there.

  Ren’s mother charged up the path, frantic, and Endo whirled around, firing twice.

  Jenny Tsai staggered and fell.

  But Ren was already running.

  Fear ripped through him. Let her be okay, he thought desperately. Then that fear twisted into shock when he saw Endo firing again — this time into his mother’s abdomen — and suddenly the shock grew into a hot and burning rage.

  With his anger driving him, Ren grabbed his pistol and fired three rounds, his whole body humming with fury. Each one of his shots had flown wide, but they certainly got Major Endo’s attention. She aimed and fired back, and Ren dove down to avoid the bullets. Once her magazine emptied, however, he was back on his feet and surging forward to his mom. Her jumpsuit was blooming with fresh blood, already soaking through the fabric.

  Suddenly, someone tackled Ren from behind. “Get down!” Zara said, rolling him to the side of the path to avoid Major Endo’s reloaded pistols. Wrath filled her eyes and she thrust her right hand toward Endo, shooting a small but terrifying bolt of lightning out of her palm. The bolt sizzled through the air, and Endo tried to leap out of its way, but it hit her in the back of the head, fanning down her body in a spidery blue wave.

  Ren scrambled to his mom’s side and cradled her head as she struggled to breathe.

  Dark blood pumped freely from the bullet hole in her stomach, pouring down the sides of her jumpsuit and seeping into the earth. Ren didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t lose her again. He looked around helplessly, but obviously there were no nurses or doctors to help them. Was it already too late for that?

  “Ren! Oh God,” said Mr. Cabot, hurtling up the path. He took his wife into his arms, nestling her against his chest while she moaned from the pain. “We have to get her to a ship.”

  Ren could only stare at his hands, now covered with his mother’s blood. He had come this far; he had endured so much; only to watch his mother get shot again and again.

  “Ren!” his father yelled. “Move out.”

  But there was one last thing Ren had to do.

  “There’s no time!” his father said.

  Ren jerked away. He would make time for this. Rage consumed him, was unleashed inside him like a living thing. For so long he had ignored it and locked it away. For once, though, he would let it take over.

  Ren hobbled to where Major Endo had fallen. Her face twitched. Severe burns covered her neck, and Ren almost vomited at the smell of the cooked flesh. Zara was kneeling next to Endo and trying to call up another bolt of lighting, but every attempt sputtered out. Frustrated, she glanced at Ren.

  “I’ll do it,” he said firmly. Ren curled his finger around the trigger.

  Endo looked up at him. Her eyes had grown wide, panicked, and she tried to mumble something. Ren had never seen her so vulnerable, so afraid.

  But his fury demanded justice, just this once.

  He fired. And Endo went still.

  It was finished within a split second, and Ren’s arm fell heavily against his side. Exhaustion spread over his body like a sedative. He had killed someone. He had fired and taken a life. Strangely, though, he felt nothing but numbness, as if someone had depleted him of all feeling.

  And the night was far from over.

  “Come on!” Zara said, grabbing Ren by the hand. Ren was ready to let her guide him down the road, but she had other ideas. All of a sudden, Ren’s feet left the earth. The two of them zoomed upward, their legs dangling in thin air as they soared over the path and the shore. She was flying them toward the Resistance ships.

  But Zara’s full power had yet to return, and she struggled to keep them upright. “I see your parents down there.”

  “Can you bring them with us?”

  “Maybe.” Squinting at the ground, she swooped an arm through the air, trying to call up a great gust of wind. Thankfully, it worked, and the wind picked up Ren’s parents and sent them soaring over the waves. The four of them careened through the winter chill, leaving behind the beach and the dock and the prison on Alcatraz.

  Glancing behind him, the island unfurled beneath Ren’s feet. Smoke billowed from most of the buildings, some of them burning while others had been smashed to rubble. Bodies lay sprawled everywhere as the last of the rebels and prisoners fled to the boats. It looked like most of the prisoners had made it out, although no one could know the final tally until later. Ren wondered if the crown prince and Aiko had survived, and he especially worried about Marty, but right now he had to help his mom.

  As Zara’s breathing grew heavy, she guided them all toward the remaining fleet. She headed straight for the nearest ship, a sleek black yacht. Ren saw people on board raising their weapons, and he had to say something.

  “We’re on your side!” Ren shouted as loudly as he could.

  The four of them crashed onto the back of the ship. Ren went first, crumpling onto the deck, and Zara landed on top of him. Ren’s parents tumbled nearby and almost went overboard, but some of the rebels grabbed them before they fell into the bay.

  Groaning, Ren tried to check on Zara, but she waved him off. “I’ll be okay. I’m just c-cold.” She tilted her head toward his parents. “Go.”

  Ren nodded gratefully and limped toward where his mother lay. The rebels had already brought out towels to sop up the blood, and Mr. Cabot used them to apply pressure to Jenny’s wounds.

  “Is there a nurse on board?” Ren pleaded. “Anyone with medical experience?”

  Nobody came forward.

  The next question tore out of Ren’s throat. “Can anyone help us?”

  Finally, one of the rebels spoke out. “There should be a nurse at the safe house.”

  “How long until we get there?” demanded Ren.

  “An hour at least.”

  Ren’s stomach exploded with nerves. Could his mother hang on for that long? He thought about
asking Zara to fly them into the city, but she had curled up on the deck, utterly spent. She didn’t look like she could walk, much less fly.

  Ren knelt at his mother’s side, helping his dad apply pressure while touching her cheek with the other hand. Her skin was freezing; her body trembled. Yet her eyes stayed wide open, blinking up at Ren but not quite seeing him.

  Ren leaned in, hoping to find a flicker of his mother on her face. “You’re going to be okay.” His voice broke in half. “It’s me. It’s Ren.”

  “Zero, zero, zero,” she whispered. “Zero, zero, zero.”

  Ren looked helplessly at his dad. “Is she going to make it?”

  “We’ll do everything we can,” said his father, his throat raw. “She has survived this far. Don’t forget that.” But Ren heard the doubt in his father’s voice.

  Ren clutched his mother’s hand. He pressed his cheek against hers, quietly begging her not to go. “Hang on, Mom. Just hang on.”

  His mother coughed up blood, and Ren had to release her hand to turn her onto her side, letting the liquid pour out of her mouth. His gaze snagged his father’s.

  “Is she dying?” Ren asked, his voice so small.

  His dad stubbornly shook his head. “She’s strong. She’s going to make it.”

  Ren wished that he had his father’s hope. Pain ripped through him from the deepest of wounds that even Major Endo had never reached. He wanted to believe that his mother would be okay, that with the right care and treatment she would become the woman she once was, the woman who stirred chicken congee on the stove and worked on her articles at night.

  But Ren’s dream was shrinking by the second.

  Noises came out of Ren’s mother’s mouth. No longer numbers but nonsense. Soon, she stopped speaking at all. Every breath thickened as her lungs filled with blood. She was drowning.

  “Mom!” Ren cried out. She was dying in front of him again and there was nothing he could do. He wanted to shake her. Scream at her. Plead with her not to go. It didn’t matter if she never got her mind back, but Ren needed her here with him. He needed his heart and his family to be whole again.