by Susan Kim
In one swift movement, Lewt raised the weapon to his eye and fired. The explosion stunned everyone, who reeled backward in terror. Esther could hear Kai start to wail from the wagon where he lay; and as an unfamiliar acrid smell filled the air, someone else screamed. The boy who had tried to take Quell’s weapon lay on his side, his legs jerking. The gaping wound in his chest pulsated black as his life bled out of him.
“Now do as you’re told!” Lewt yelled. “I ain’t playing!”
After that, everyone handed over their weapons: slingshots, knives, clubs. Skar was the last to relinquish her bow and arrow. Yet even as Quell yanked them from her hands, she spat on the ground at his feet.
“Now hand over whatever food and water you got, too,” Lewt said. Silas was already slipping a bottle out of the water wagon and attempting to conceal it in his robes. But without turning around, Lewt seemed to understand what was happening.
“If you don’t put that back,” he said, “you ain’t gonna have a mouth to drink it with.”
Silas froze. Then he returned what he had lifted. Around him, the townspeople were already unloading their supplies, passing along the remaining water hand over hand, as well as bags of beans, salt, coffee, and sugar. As they placed everything into a single wagon, Quell moved along the line, supervising. Tahlik and Lewt stayed a few feet away, keeping an eye on the others with their weapons cocked.
“Please . . . don’t leave us with nothing!” Rhea’s voice rose shrill above the silence. But no one answered her plea.
After a final check of the remaining wagons, Lewt seemed satisfied that there was nothing left to take. Turning to Quell, he handed him his rifle.
“Keep an eye on them,” Lewt said. Then he nodded to Caleb, Rafe, and Eli. “You three. Drive this and two extra bicycles to the main road and wait for us. And if you try anything, you’ll regret it.”
None of them moved until Quell pointed his weapon at them. Rafe was trembling, his eyes filled with tears. With an unreadable expression, Caleb walked to the bicycle attached to the wagon, the heaviest and most difficult to power. After a single glance at Esther, he maneuvered the vehicle until it had turned around. Then he took off down the dark road. Eli and Rafe chose two other bicycles, and they, too, were soon gone.
Lewt flashed his wolfish grin. He then addressed his partners. “I’ll meet you up at the road in five minutes. I got some business to take care of.”
Lewt lit a torch and lifted it high. In the flickering light, the people of Prin looked like a sea of drawn faces, gaping and pop-eyed with fear. He searched through them until he found the one he wanted.
Esther.
When he saw her, his smile widened.
“You,” he said. “Come with me.”
Six
ESTHER RECOILED.
Next to her, Skar drew a sharp breath and touched her arm. Esther understood her silent question as if she had spoken it aloud: Should we fight back? But she saw Quell pivot the weapon their way and had a terrible presentiment of what would happen if they did. She only had time to shake her head, once. Then Lewt grabbed her wrist and pulled her forward.
He was surprisingly strong and his grip was like a vise. He dragged her into the forest, not waiting for her as she stumbled over tree roots and through piles of dead leaves. They walked this way for several minutes, his lit torch throwing shadows deep into the woods. Soon they were alone, totally surrounded by lifeless trees. There, Lewt released her so quickly that she tripped and fell to one knee.
“You’ll leave with us,” he said.
At first, Esther thought she had misheard. “What?”
“Don’t make me force you. There ain’t nothing for you here and you know it. You ain’t weak and stupid like them other girls. I can tell just by looking at you.”
“I don’t care what you think of me. I’m not coming with you.” Dazed, she got to her feet, rubbing her wrist where he had hurt her. “Now I got a baby that needs looking after.”
But before she could take one step, he grabbed her by the wrist again and yanked her around, hard. “We can take it with us. There’s gonna be plenty for us all in Mundreel. But you can only get there with me. Your boy Caleb’s all talk. I ain’t.”
There was something to his voice that Esther couldn’t understand, something she hadn’t detected before. Lewt spoke with a peculiar earnestness; he was, she realized, being as sincere as he knew how. And as this confusing thought dawned on her, he pushed his face forward to kiss her.
“There’s something about you,” he said.
She jerked away in time, his stubbled chin scraping her cheek; with a wave of disgust, she caught a whiff of a body that stank of sweat and breath that reeked of decay. Now, a strange wounded expression crossed his face. Angered, he yanked her back, this time grabbing her by the hair. He stabbed the end of his torch into the ground to hold it and pulled her close.
“I don’t mind fight in a girl,” he whispered, “as long as she don’t mean it.”
Esther reached down and grabbed his thumb. She pulled it backward as hard as she could, digging her nails into his palm. Lewt screamed and let go with a curse. He stood there for a second, wincing and rubbing his hand. Then he started toward her again, furious this time.
Esther turned to run, but caught her foot on a tree root. And as she fell, before she had even hit the ground, she could feel Lewt on top of her, clawing at her clothing.
After Caleb brought the wagon to the highway, he had to wait for the others. When Rafe showed up, he refused to make eye contact; Caleb knew the boy was still stunned and abashed by the betrayal. But Eli jumped off his bicycle, stumbling in his haste.
“As I was leaving—” he began. He was wheezing with exertion. “He’s got Esther. I think he was taking her to the woods.”
In a flash, Caleb understood why Lewt had sent him away. He remembered how the boy had looked at all females, Esther in particular, and he cursed himself for not suspecting this. Without a word, he seized the discarded bicycle, even as Eli tried to grab his arm.
“They got weapons. Are you sure you—”
“Yes.”
“Let me help.”
“I don’t need it.” Caleb broke away and took off.
Caleb was one against three, and unarmed. If he had stopped to think, he would have admitted he needed all the backup he could get. But he was beyond reason.
Caleb rode fast back to the road. Well before he approached Quell, Tahlik, and the others, he leaped off his bicycle and headed into the woods on foot. He ran blind, his arms held up to prevent branches from whipping him in the face. Yet he didn’t have far to go before he saw the flickering of a torch in the distance.
In a circle of light, Caleb saw Esther on the ground, struggling beneath Lewt. He was torn by a surge of emotions more powerful than any storm.
Caleb had seen what terrible things violence could do not only to its victims, but the perpetrator as well. Yet he had not felt this kind of murderous hatred since his first partner, Miri, had been killed and his son kidnapped. If he had had his weapon, he would have reached for it now.
“Let her go,” he said.
Lewt started at the sound of Caleb’s voice. He struggled to his feet, yanking Esther up with him, and turned to face Caleb with a smile.
“Why? She wants to come with me. She just playing.”
“I said, let her go.”
Lewt reached under his robes and into a back pocket. His hand emerged holding a small knife with a jagged blade. With a single move, he sliced off the red partnering tie from Esther’s wrist. She gasped as it fluttered to the ground.
“She ain’t yours no more,” said Lewt. “She free for the taking.” When it became clear that Caleb wasn’t going to do anything, his smile widened. “Okay then,” he drawled. “Guess I might as well help myself.”
He brought the knife to the bottom of Esther’s sweatshirt. He made to slice it up the middle. At the first glimpse of Esther’s pale stomach, Lewt stopped cutting.
The knife had vanished from his hand, knocked out of his grip by Caleb’s foot.
Lewt looked up, surprised, just as Caleb jammed a knee into his groin. The boy doubled over, grunting in agony. When he raised his head, Caleb drove his elbow into Lewt’s mouth, and the woods echoed with the crack of breaking teeth.
Lewt fell forward, his hands to his bloody mouth. Caleb let him lie there only an instant before pulling him up by the tattered collar of his shirt. He was acting blindly, obeying the instinct he had tried in vain to bury. Now it was bursting up from someplace deep, unearthed by rage.
He couldn’t deny it: the feeling was exhilarating. He couldn’t have stopped if he had wanted to.
Lewt was nearly unconscious, his mouth oozing blood. With seemingly superhuman strength, Caleb hoisted him with one hand. With the other, he bent to retrieve the knife. He brought the blade to Lewt’s throat and pressed it hard against the lump that bobbed there as the boy swallowed.
“Please,” Lewt said, spitting a few drops of blood onto Caleb’s face. Instead of begging, he tried to bargain. “You can come with us, too.”
At this, Caleb felt contempt mix with his fury. Lewt had not only learned nothing, he was offering one more bribe—the kind of deal he himself would welcome. That meant he still believed Caleb was like him—and the thought of it made Caleb want to destroy him.
“Wait,” Esther shouted, but her voice sounded faint, as if underwater.
Then Caleb noticed someone else was in the clearing with them.
A figure was standing just past Lewt. Although it was thrown into deep shadows by the flickering torch, Caleb would have recognized him anywhere.
It was his dead brother.
It was Levi, whose rage, cruelty, and greed had come so close to destroying Caleb and everyone he loved. Levi now stared at Caleb, his familiar cold smile playing at the corners of his mouth.
“Finish him,” Levi said simply.
Then his brother’s ghost vanished into the night.
Caleb tightened his grasp on the knife. It would be so simple to press it into the pale, soft flesh and slash sideways. And it would feel so right.
Yet he stopped. And as he did, he felt his anger subside.
He had done what needed to be done: He had saved Esther. He would not become like Levi; he would not drown in his own hatred ever again. He released Lewt, who dropped to his knees. Then he tossed aside the blade as if it burned his flesh.
“Get away from here,” Caleb whispered. “All three of you. And leave what you stole.”
Still at a crouch, Lewt nodded.
Caleb turned away. He was so tired, his limbs felt like lead, and there was a strange roaring sound in the distance, something approaching that he couldn’t quite place. Yet he felt free. And he had won. He turned to Esther with a smile, but for some reason, she was staring at something behind him.
Her face was white with shock. She was trying to say something, but the roaring sound had grown so loud, he couldn’t make out the words.
“Watch out!” she screamed.
It was too late.
Caleb felt time expand to infinity as the object struck him, as the white-hot blade entered his back and separated muscle from bone. His legs turned to liquid, to quicksilver. He took another step, then fell face forward, onto the dirt.
By now, the roaring sound was overwhelming. Beyond it, he was distantly aware of someone kneeling above him, someone who seemed to be saying his name.
It was Esther. Esther, whom he loved. Esther with her dark, spiky hair. Esther of the sudden giggle, the stubborn nature, the generous heart. She was gripping the knife now, pulling it out, but it all seemed so far away, miles and miles. The sound was so loud now, it was like a tornado.
And that’s when Caleb realized what it was.
It was the sound of blood. It was the sound of his heart. It was the sound of his life slipping away, forever.
“Caleb,” Esther whispered.
Then she was screaming it.
Eli saw someone emerge from the woods.
Lewt was pushing the discarded bicycle. He moved slowly, as if every movement hurt him. By the loaded wagon, Tahlik and Quell stood on guard, the strange weapon pointed in Eli’s face.
Eli noticed that Lewt was injured, his face bloody. He also noticed that he was alone.
“Where’s Caleb?” Eli shouted.
Lewt looked at him, dazed, his eyes hooded and filled with hatred. “Where he belongs,” he said. Then he turned to his boys. “Let’s get out of here.”
Eli stepped forward, but Lewt slapped him hard across the face, nearly knocking him down. His tone was a warning, almost compassionate. “You’ll get worse if you don’t watch it.” Quell raised his rifle and a moment later, the boy felt the butt of it slam into his back, sending him to the ground in a spasm of pain.
Rafe was already stepping over him to reach Lewt, his voice eager.
“Take me with you,” he begged.
Lewt laughed, although the sound had no mirth in it. “Why? You ain’t got no idea where you going. You never did.”
“Because—” Rafe flailed for an answer. “Because you ain’t in no shape to ride. You stay in the wagon and I’ll drive you. The others got to pedal on their own.”
Lewt considered it and was surprised to find it made sense.
“I can do other things, too,” Rafe went on in a rush. He didn’t intend to die with the others. “I can cook, I can clean. Whatever you want me to do.”
“All right,” Lewt growled. “On one condition.”
“Anything.”
“You don’t talk unless I talk to you first.”
“Okay,” Rafe said. “Yes. Of course.”
“Now let’s go.”
“Ain’t you bringing the girl?” Tahlik asked.
Lewt paused. “She ain’t worth the trouble,” he spat.
The four boys—Lewt, Quell, Tahlik, and Rafe—climbed onto their vehicles. Quell kept the weapon pointed at Eli even as they left, taking everything with them.
After a while, there were no sounds except for their wheels bumping on stone and gravel.
Eli thought that, in the distance, he could hear a girl scream.
PART TWO
Seven
BY MOONLIGHT, SKAR STOOD BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD, TESTING THE low-hanging branches of an oak tree. She did her best to focus on what she was doing and not pay attention to the chaos that was raging around her.
At first, the townspeople had trouble understanding what had happened. Then the shock of the news spread among them like fire through a dry field, leaving panic and confusion in its wake. Yet it was only after Lewt and his boys disappeared with Rafe that the full extent of their predicament sank in.
The outlaws had taken nearly everything of worth: not only their best wagon and bicycles, but also their food, water, weapons, and tools. Now torches flickered and cast deep shadows into the night as people ransacked the remaining vehicles in a blind and desperate panic, clawing for anything of value. Fistfights erupted as enraged accusations filled the air. Someone set fire to one of the wagons, and the night was suffused with heat, acrid smoke, and pulsating orange light. Pieces of soot as big as leaves wafted across the sky as a child wailed, unattended, over the sound of popping embers and smashing glass.
Like everyone, Skar was badly shaken by the murder. She had liked and admired Caleb, who was a good and brave person, someone who had always treated her fairly and with respect. She would miss him. She also had a premonition of how devastating his death would be for Esther, who had insisted on burying him herself. At the moment, Skar didn’t even know where her friend was. Yet that was a relief: Esther was out of harm’s way, far from the madness that had gripped the people of Prin.
In the meantime, the variant girl had something else on her mind that was even more pressing.
For the first time since she could walk, Skar found herself without a weapon or tool of any sort. Quell had taken her bow and arrow, a
nd she had nothing to replace it with, no throwing stick or club, not even a paltry kitchen knife. While senseless battles raged around her and people fought over broken firebowls and morsels of food, she alone realized that staying alive meant finding or making something with which she could hunt and protect herself.
At the moment, it was more important than even food or water.
Skar broke off a branch that seemed the sturdiest and examined it. Then she tested its jagged end, pressing it into her palm to see if it might be sharp enough to be used as a spear. But even as she wondered how she might be able to hone it further, the point bent and then snapped. Skar, who was accustomed to carbon-core arrows sheathed in metal and hunting knives with steel blades, tossed it aside in disgust.
Wood was clearly useless. Until she could find a real weapon, she would have to rig a standby out of something man-made and sturdy: perhaps a piece of aluminum, fiberglass, even plastic.
But at the moment, she did not dare approach the wagons.
By now, the townspeople had torn apart some of the vehicles in their search for goods. Splintered boards were tossed onto the fire, twisted bicycle gears and broken shafts lay scattered in the road, and still the boys and girls of Prin fought over what wasn’t there. When a half-empty bottle of water was discovered beneath a tarp, the boy who found it was pummeled almost to death by three others. In the commotion, no one noticed when someone trampled on the plastic container, cracking it open and spilling its contents. There was a raw desperation in the air that could only be spent through violence and anarchy.
Skar couldn’t help but feel both sickened and uneasy. Her own people had often faced hardship and deprivation; but they had never resorted to lawlessness and pointless fighting among themselves. It was like watching wild dogs tear themselves apart, she thought, so crazed by the smell of their own blood that they thought the other was the enemy. For the first time, she wondered if she had been wise in fleeing the variant camp.
