Outcast: A Corporation Novel (The Corporation)

by RaeLynn Fry

  I nod. “Split up?”

  “Probably best.”

  “No way!” Raj snaps. “There’s no way I’m going through those dilapidated buildings by myself. I’m staying with one of you.”

  Dhevan shrugs. “Fine with me.” And he starts to walk off.

  “Hey! I shout. “Why do you assume I’m going to take him?”

  “He’s your parasite; you get to tote him around.”

  I growl a little in the back of my throat. “Fine. Come on.” I stalk straight ahead as much as I can, given my weakened state. “But you’d better not slow me down or get in my way.”

  “In your current state, that shouldn’t be a problem.”

  “Shut up and get moving.” I follow Dhevan across the patch of barren land that acts as a clear barrier between the Further and the town.

  Small houses are the first line of defense. They’re modest and run down; barely standing, actually. Shambles of what were once fences guarding their plots lean at different angles.

  The town isn’t big to begin with. Yeah, it stretches about a mile down the road, but depth wise, I can already see where it starts to thin out again. The town gets denser with buildings a few hundred yards in with stores and buildings that tower up about four or five stories, covered in windows. Dhevan turns right and explores down that way while Raj and I continue forward.

  “Try to stay within shouting range,” Dhevan says as he walks away.

  There are stations of some sort with tanks standing on end with hoses attached to them. “Let’s go in here and check it out,” I say. The entire structure is built on a square of asphalt. The tanks are giant steel drums. I rap my knuckles on their faded red and white painted surface and the sound rings back hollow. “Empty,” I say.

  “What was in these things?” Raj asks.

  “I dunno.” I look around and see the sign. “Petrol?”

  “What’s that?”

  I shrug. “Let’s go inside.”

  The front of the small store is nothing but metal frames and what used to be glass windows and doors. Except for the few rare shards still clinging to the frames, there’s nothing to attest to that. I lead the way, Raj close behind. There are counters and metal shelves that span the length of the small store, five or six rows wide. The only thing left on the shelves is garbage — empty containers, bags. I see a carcass of some small animal in the corner of the store. Cases with glass doors line the perimeter wall.

  “There’s nothing here,” Raj says, picking up a box and turning it over.

  “Let’s go.” We turn and leave.

  Houses are at the other edge, and beyond that, more of the Further with spots of sagebrush and low hills. All the way through the town the windows are busted out, doors absent from their hinges, roofs fallen in. The houses on the far end are more put together than the others. I’m not foolish enough to think that there are stores of food and water here, undiscovered by other scavengers, but I’m a little more hopeful that some small scrap may be left.

  I catch Dhevan moving a ways to my left, heading into a house of his own. “Let’s make this quick,” I say to Raj. “It’s getting dark and I’d rather be out on the road.” I pick the house right in front of us.

  The front door is missing. Raj and I stand outside and peer into the empty space. The inside is completely barren. There are holes in the walls and piles of debris and rubble throughout. I walk through and into the front room, Raj following reluctantly behind me. I kick at some of the trash, halfheartedly looking for something edible or drinkable, but see nothing.

  Raj walks past me into the kitchen, putting forth the same amount of effort as I am. “Come look at this,” he says to me.

  I turn around and see him standing in front of an open door, pitch blackness beyond its mouth. “What is it?”

  He remains rigid. “Dunno. A cellar, probably.”

  “So, are you going to go down and explore it?” I walk towards him.

  “You first.”

  I knew he would say that so I stride past and head down the stairs, swallowing my nerves. I can’t show Raj I’m just as afraid of what lies at the bottom of these steps as he is. The railing is rough and splinters catch in the skin of my palm. I count the number of stairs. Twelve.

  The ground of the cellar is dirt and the air around me is blessedly cool against my burning and sweating skin. I hear Raj coming down after me, slow and scared. “Are you going to come and help me look?”

  “I think I’ll stay here, thanks.” He clears his throat. “Besides, there’s still enough light coming in through those small windows that you can see your way around.”

  “Not really, but stay there anyway. You’ll just get in my way.” This guy is a coward beyond belief.

  I walk carefully. There is a little bit of light, but it’s thin and weak and I can’t see that well. I can make out some shelves to my left and I head for those. Dusty jars are lined in rows three deep. I pick one up and look at it. It’s covered in thick grime. I wipe it with my sleeve, trying to clean it off well enough so I can see what’s inside. It doesn’t do any good. I shake the jar gently and something liquid sloshes back and forth. My mouth immediately starts to water. I hurry and shove as many jars into my bag as I can.

  “What is it? What’d you find?” Raj says.

  “You’d know if you had helped me find it.”

  “Wait a minute! I came with you to this house, we found that together. Half of that’s mine.”

  “You followed me to this house, refused to go down here on your own, and then hid on the last step while I did all the hard work. This is my find.” My pack’s almost full.

  “Half of that is mine!” Raj comes barreling in my direction, and when he reaches my side, starts wedging his fat arms into the shelves and grabbing jars. He pushes me aside while he fills his bag.

  “Wait a minute!” It’s not that I want all the jars for myself, my pack is full. It’s that the dirt yank pushed me for his selfish gluttony. I push him back. “Have some manners. Or has the Inner City taught you they’re no longer needed?” He stumbles against another row of shelves, rattling its contents and sending the structure swaying.

  “I’ll show you manners!” Raj lowers his shoulders and starts to come at me.

  “Stop!” I say. I grab his shoulders when he gets to me and turn him around, holding him still with a hand over his mouth. “Do you hear that?” I say in a low voice. We’re both still, not even breathing, listening for it again.

  A growl.

  “Raj, run!” I let him go and he pushes me to the ground to get past me, heading for the stairs. I fall to the floor, my feet tangled in something I can’t see. My pack flies from my shoulder and crashes into the wall. I can hear all the jars break. But I don’t care. What I care about is the steady, deep growl coming from the far corner of the basement and the tapping of sharp claws on broken glass.

  In the last of the light, a large dog-like creature steps out to size me up. Its fur is dark gray and matted, its eyes darker and bloodshot. Pink and black lips curl up to show off sharp, yellow fangs, saliva dripping from its jaw and tongue. It looks at me with a hunger I know, because I have it too. The only difference is, the animal is going to get his meal.

  I grab whatever items are at my level and throw them at the creature while I scramble to my feet. I hear a sharp whine as something hits it. I lunge for the stairs and sharp pain laced in fire pierces my ankle. I twisted it badly when Raj pushed me over. But I have to ignore it, now. I push past the tearing and haul myself up the stairs. I shut the door to the cellar stairs as I hear the animal race up the steps. The door no longer latches, but it’s better than nothing.

  Raj is nowhere in sight and I can’t worry about where he is. I need to get out of here. I sprint through the kitchen and front room and out the door, jumping off the porch and into the street. Searing pain shoots up my leg and I stumble. “Damn it!” I grit out, but can’t dwell on the pain.

  I launch into the street and race in t
he direction of where I last saw Dhevan. I look over my shoulder to see how close the beast is to me, but it isn’t out of the house, yet.

  “Dhevan!” I shout. “Dhevan, where are you?”

  My feet pound over the broken asphalt. “Dhevan—!”

  The farmer shoots out of a nearby house. “What is it?” he says through heavy breaths.

  “Run!” I shoot past him and he looks towards the direction I came from.

  “What the—?” Then I hear his heavy footfalls catching up to mine. “What the hell did you do?”

  “It was Raj. Just run!”

  We are nothing but pounding feet and heavy breaths as we run down the street and turn around corners. The growling and snarling is getting closer. I venture a look over my shoulder and see the wolf is almost on top of us. Dhevan has fallen behind, his face is red and his breathing labored. I can’t let anything happen to him.

  I slow my steps and take the knife from my waistband that D’mitri gave me. When I’m right next to Dhevan, I shove him aside, hard, and into a dirt patch. I run towards the wolf and jerk right, catching the animal by surprise. He has to all but stop to turn in my direction. I use that moment of disorientation to lunge at him.

  He’s a big wolf, and as I launch onto his back, my arms are barely able to encircle his neck. The fur is thick and smells awful. He’s angry that I’m here.

  His head whips back and forth, jaws gnashing and chomping, trying to get to me. Spit and hair get in my eyes but I hang on with everything I have. The hilt of the knife is in my right hand, is pressed against its throat.

  He bucks and jumps, trying to get me off of him, but I hold tight. I turn the knife around and plunge the blade into its throat. There’s a gurgling howl and hot liquid spills over my hands, making my grip slippery. It doesn’t take long for the beast to go down.

  I lay on top of it for a few breaths after it’s died, trying to digest the adrenaline in my bloodstream. I sit up and stand, my legs and arms shaking. I wipe the blade off on my pants and have to try three times to put it back in its sheath before my hands are steady enough to listen.

  I look up. Dhevan stands there, eyes wide. He looks at me and then to the wolf. “Thank you.”

  I nod, a little too enthusiastically. “Yeah, sure. No—no problem.”

  “You saved my life.”

  “I guess I did.” I look up at him and try to blow it off. “Maybe now you’ll be a little nicer to me.”

  He waits a minute. “Not likely.”

  “Glad to see our relationship is stable and predictable.”

  He nods. “Where’s Raj?”

  “Hell if I know,” I say, anger flooding my body. “The coward ran as soon as this guy showed up.”

  “Let’s head to the main road, see if he went that way.”

  The sun is all but gone when we walk up to the broken pavement. Raj’s figure is sitting at the edge of the broken road, his pack at his feet. I storm up the best my limp will allow, and jerk the bag from his loose grasp.

  “These are mine,” I say through clenched teeth and keep moving.

  ७

  I'm pretty sure we've been walking aimlessly for the better part of a year, but every time I bring it up, Dhevan assures me that it's really only been a few days—a week at most. Right now is one of those times where I'm pretty confident he's wrong. Or intentionally lying to me.

  We opened up the jars I found in the cellar. They were canned peaches. Raj managed to put away four before he ran off. Raj wanted to go back and get the rest, but Dhevan and I didn’t want to risk running into any more of those wolves, especially at night.

  When we camped for the night, the three of us split a jar. I really did a number on my ankle and I didn’t last long walking on my own. And with my pack back in that cellar, I didn’t have any of Eta’s herbs to help with the pain and swelling. Dhevan’s been carrying half my weight as I lean on him for support.

  “If there were anything more out here, we would have reached it by now. Or at least seen some signs of something,” Raj says.

  My tongue is heavy and swollen in my sticky mouth. “Maybe the map is wrong, or the scale is different than we though.” We aren’t able to ration out our water enough to do wash away the nausea, headaches, and hallucinations I'm getting.

  “I thought you believed in everything the Corporation said?” Dhevan's getting tired of Raj. “A torch-carrying fanatic.”

  “I'm not a torch-carrying fanatic,” he says. “I have to believe what they say is true.”

  “Why?” I say. Dhevan’s dragged my foot over another rock. “Can you please try to avoid those, if at all possible?” He growls at me.

  Raj doesn’t answer my question. “If we keep walking this way, we’ll get to where we need to be.”

  “If we keep walking this way, we’ll run out of supplies and die,” I say.

  “We’re already out of supplies and dead, we just haven’t accepted it yet,” Dhevan says. “And it’s because of you.”

  I push myself away from him and do a hop-slash-hobble dance on my good foot. “Me? You’re blaming this whole situation on me?”

  “Yeah, the way I see it, you’re the root of this whole problem.”

  “I think he’s on to something,” Raj says with a grumble.

  “Shu—”

  “I know, shut it, Raj.”

  “How in the world is this my fault?”

  “If you’d have just stayed in Dahn with your father, none of this would be happening. I wouldn’t be out here, everyone I love would be out of danger, and Karis wouldn’t be heartbroken. You’ve been lying to us from the beginning, Ethan. You can’t be trusted. I should never have thought you could be.”

  “I saved your life, in case you’ve forgotten.” We’re all thirsty, and hungry, and tired, and hot, I tell myself. He doesn’t mean any of this. We’re all extra short with each other right now. I should just ride it out and pretend it never happened, but because he made the comment about Karis, I can’t.

  “I never lied about Karis. I love her and I’m doing this for her.”

  “But you’re not who you say you are, are you?”

  “What are you even talking about, Dhevan?” I hold my hands up. “I think we all need to just step back and take a break. We’re thirsty and tired; we’re not thinking rationally.” Or seeing clearly, for that matter. Everything is going blurry, and no matter how many times I blink, the focus won’t come back.

  “You're avoiding the real issue here, Ethan. I came out here, risking my life, for a lie!” Apparently, saving another’s life doesn’t go far out here.

  “No, you didn't, Dhevan. You're seeming to forget that the Untouchable came from somewhere. And that my father is sending Guards out here to somewhere. That somewhere is what we came out here to find.”

  “Your father raised you well; you spin the truth and lies together so expertly, they look like they belong together.”

  My temper flares into my already red face. “My father may have taught me how to play the game of politics—and win—but unlike my father, I did it for the betterment of Neech. If we want any hope of freedom, we had to come out here and do this.”

  “If I never get to see Journey again because of you…”

  His unfinished threat is an empty one, but I let him say it because it makes him feel better. It would me, anyway.

  “Keep in mind if you never get to see Journey again, I never get to see Karis again. I have just as much at stake as you do. I want to find something out here just as badly.” I hop a few times to maintain my balance. “I'm just getting a little impatient, is all.”

  The mood shifts unexpectedly. Dhevan sighs. “We've only been out here about a week, anyway. Anything worth finding has to be out at least that far, right?”

  “Sure.”

  Dhevan starts to walk again. “Hey!” I call out after him, taking a few spastic jumps in his direction. “Aren't you going to help me?”

  Dhevan looks over his shoulder. “You shouldn
't have sprained your ankle.”

  My mouth drops open. “How quickly you forget what happened, sir.” I gingerly set my foot down on the ground and wince, picking it back up again. My muscles are getting tired. “I sprained it because I was saving your sorry ass from that wild animal.”

  “It was a dog no bigger than a house cat.”

  “Uh, that's not what you were saying when it was chasing us. You were singing an entirely different tune. And if it weren't for me, your remains would probably be spread out across the Further right now, food for scavengers.” Our relationship is an odd one, and extremely complicated. I find it best to just go where it takes us.

  Dhevan stalks back to me, putting my waiting arm around his neck, a little too roughly. “Are you ever going to just let that die?”

  “Nope. And I'll be honest,” we start our arduous journey again, “It's only going to get bigger and more impressive by the time we get back home.”

  “Figured.”

  For the next hour, I try to ignore the dull ache in my ankle, and the fact that I can feel it swelling against the neck of my boot.

  “How do our supplies look?” I ask.

  “We have three jars of the peaches from Raj’s bag and there's only enough water left for tonight. After that, we'd better hope something comes along.”

  “Those peaches should be mine,” Raj mutters.

  “You’re lucky I’m deciding to let you eat any, after what you pulled.” I see a small copse of dead trees in the near distance. “Let's break up there.” I nod in that direction.

  Dhevan grunts his approval.

  I ease myself down against the trunk of one of the large trees and sit on the hard ground. A small plume of dust puffs up from around me. I try not to cough. Raj sits a ways off and Dhevan slides down next to me and for the next few minutes, all I hear is the heat cooking the already burnt earth and our raspy, dry breathing.

  I close my eyes, seeing red against my eyelids. The sun is so hot I no longer feel its pulsing rays. That, or my body is so far into shutting itself down, I just don't register it anymore.

  My eyes feel shriveled inside my head and my eyelids are like sandpaper every time I blink. I can feel my burnt skin tighten against my cheekbones. Every once in a while, I'll squint or smile, pulling at the tight skin. Then I feel the sweet release of tension as the tissue splits, and a brief instant of cool relief as a liquid seeps down and into my shrunken pores.