Violet

by Rae Thomas

  He still looks skeptical until I add, “We may not come upon a shelter or formation within the next few hours and it won’t do us any good to sleep in the direct sunlight.”

  David relents. “Okay, maybe you’re right. We’ll set off again when the sun begins to set.”

  I nod, satisfied. “I’ll take the first shift. I’m not that tired.”

  David seems relieved. I am sure that he would have volunteered to take the shift if I hadn’t, but I know that he needs to rest. He’s looking rather wan. We settle against the waist-high remains of what used to be the outer wall of a house. Another wall has collapsed against this one, providing extra sun coverage. Hopefully we will not have to move as it passes overhead. I sit with my back against the wall while David lies parallel to it, his head near my thigh. I pass the time watching the desert, again wondering what I will do when we return to Cerno. There is no place for us.

  When I see from the sun’s position that it must be late afternoon, I decide to wake David. This time, rousing him is even more difficult than yesterday. I fear that he is getting sick; we have no medicine or first aid supplies, and we cannot afford to allow him extra time to rest. I decide to let him sleep a while longer. He seems to need the rest more than I do.

  After another hour or so, I wake David again. The extra sleep seems to have been for naught; his condition is no better than it was before. Guiltily, I continue to wake him. I wish that I could let him sleep until he is fully rested, but I cannot walk all night without having gotten some rest myself.

  David sits up and splashes some water on his face to wake himself. He assumes my lookout position with his back against the sun-dried wall, and I lie down to sleep with my head near his thigh. I’m not sure how long I’ve slept, but I notice that the daylight has just begun to fade when, for the second time since coming to Earth, I am dragged from sleep by my ankles.

  By the time I realize what is happening, Foster has me on my feet and he’s holding his blade to my throat. My sudden movement jerks David awake. He is shocked to realize that he fell asleep. Immediately, his expression changes from shock to devastation. He fell asleep when he was supposed to be watching. David scrambles to his feet, squinting, and finally realizes that it is Foster, our friend, who holds his knife to my throat.

  “Foster?” David asks, uncertain. “Foster, what are you doing?”

  “I’ll kill her, David. I swear I will. I’m not like Saul.” Foster’s eyes don’t focus on David, but dart around, crazed.

  David nods. “Okay, Foster. What do you want? You can take our food and water if that’s what you need.”

  Foster smiles, which only contributes to his wild expression. “No, no, no, not your food and water. I don’t want your food and water. I want it. The thing. Whatever it is, I don’t know, but I want you to give it to me now.”

  It feels like my heart stops for a moment when I realize that Foster must be talking about the Cube shard. How can he know about it? I assumed, like David, that Foster simply wanted our food and water rations.

  “Foster, I don’t know what you’re talking about. We don’t have anything.”

  Foster’s face purples with rage. “Do you think I’m joking, David?” He begins to scream. “Do I have to show you how serious I am?” As he says this, he presses the blade to my throat, causing me a sharp pain and, I imagine, drawing a thin line of blood.

  David takes a frantic step forward. “No! No, Foster, okay, I’m sorry.” With outstretched hands, David holds his knife out and then drops it into the sand.

  I can see that Foster’s face is pained. “I just can’t stay here, David. I—I just can’t do it. I followed you to the tree and I heard… I know that you have something The Vox wants and it’s my ticket out of here. It’s the only way I can trade my way back to Cerno. I’ll kill whoever I need to get it. Now hand it to me.”

  I can see David thinking, wondering what to do. Foster grows impatient with David and again he is screaming. “I saw her give it to you, David! I watched you put it in your pack, now give it to me!”

  David turns and picks up his survival pack. With increasing horror, I run through all of the possible outcomes of this scenario. None of them are good. I know that the parcel does not truly contain the Cube shard, but David does not. He would sacrifice the shard to save me. We have seen firsthand that Foster has received some kind of training. He was skilled at navigation, and seemed to have some talent wielding the knife. I find it hard to believe that he will allow either of us to live whether David hands him the parcel or not. He will want to be sure that we do not pursue him. If I can just get David to run, perhaps he can hide somewhere until the Traveler returns. Foster does not know that we plan to return to Cerno, so he does not know that David is heading back to the drop-off point. Though it’s still a long shot, I can think of nothing but David’s survival.

  “David, run!” I yell. “David, he’s going to kill us both, please, just go! You know how important it is… The Vox must never find it. It’s more important than me! Go!”

  Foster shakes me by the hair. “Shut up! Give it to me, David. It’s the only way to save her. Do you really want to live with her death on your conscience?”

  David looks back and forth from my face to the parcel that he’s drawn from his pack. His face is contorted in misery. Either choice is devastating. I only hope that he will choose the lives of millions over mine. Finally, David locks eyes with me and, tears streaming down his dirty face, says, “Violet, I’m sorry.” Relief floods my body. David is telling me goodbye. But then he says, “I can’t.”

  My heart sinks when David tosses the parcel to Foster’s feet. I close my eyes, defeated, waiting for Foster to draw the cold blade across my throat. Waiting to feel the hot, sticky blood flow from my veins. But this does not happen. I open my eyes just in time to see Foster lean down and grab the parcel. Then, he is gone.

  David drops to his knees, sobbing openly, knowing that he has just condemned thousands to death. Knowing that The Vox can never be beaten if they possess The Cube. I watch David crying in the dirt and I move to comfort him. I must tell him that all is not lost. I must tell him that we still have our piece of The Cube. Before I move, I realize something that we did not notice in the excitement. Behind David, beyond the village, the sky has become dark though night has not yet fallen. The horizon is obscured by a huge cloud of sand and dust that seems to reach to the top of the sky, and it is approaching swiftly. Perhaps this is why Foster allowed us to live; he knew we would not be able to pursue him.

  Nearing panic, I lunge toward David. “David, look—come on, it’s all right.” Now does not seem the time to explain to him what I have done. We must take cover.

  Still on his knees, David hugs my body to him, pressing his head to my stomach. I cannot understand his words, but I’m sure he’s apologizing. Begging me to reassure him, or at least forgive him. I drop to my knees and hold David’s face in my hands, forcing him to meet my gaze. I must tell him the truth or he will not care about saving himself from the storm.

  Before I can get a word out, David says, “Violet, I’m so sorry. I just couldn’t… I just wanted it all to be over. I knew that Foster might kill us both, but… I don’t want to be here if you’re not.”

  I’m taken aback by his devotion. How can I tell him that I deceived him when he’s just admitted that he planned to die with me?

  Suddenly, a strong gust of wind whips around us and my face is stung by flying grains of sand. The storm is here. There is no more time. David and I put our survival packs on to keep them from being swept away. Then, we pull our long cloaks over our heads and huddle against the wall where we slept. We both lie parallel to the wall, head-to-head. I snake my hand against the wall and he clutches mine in his.

  The storm is too loud for us to talk, and though my body is beaten by the sand and small rocks, my pack offers me some protection. I don’t remember falling asleep, but when I wake, the storm has passed. David’s hand still clutches mine, so my m
ovement wakes him. Some sand has been pushed up against us, but I push it aside and stand to shake the rest of the dirt from my clothes. We’re alive, and it seems that we have not sustained any injuries.

  David is still despondent. I am reluctant to tell him that I still have the Cube piece. Though it will relieve his depression in some way, he will believe that once again I had not trusted him. I’m not sure how to tell him, so I decide to show him.

  Pulling my sleeve down over my hand again, I dig in the bottom of my pack for the shard. Drawing it from the depths, I drop it in the sand in front of David. He looks at it and his eyes widen. Then he looks up at me. “What—How?”

  I sit down across from him in the sand. “I hid it in my pack… I put a rock in the parcel.” I don’t attempt to defend myself. I’ve betrayed him again; it’s indefensible.

  To my surprise, David does not react in the way that I expected. He is crushed, there is no question, but he is not angry. He is not accusatory.

  He looks at the Cube shard on the sand in front of him. He does not make eye contact with me when he speaks. “You distrusted me again. I should be angry with you, but I’m not. How can I be? You were right to distrust me. The first time the decision was mine, I put the Cube piece in their hands.”

  I replace the shard in my pack so I can sit directly in front of David. I force him to meet my gaze. “David, I can’t be angry with you. I would have made the same choice.”

  He looks up at me. This is the first time that I have truly affirmed my love for him. I know that what I am saying is true, and it makes me afraid. I would have chosen him. I would have given The Cube to Foster. How can I be the only one, as Ramla said, if I would sacrifice everyone for David?

  Suddenly, David looks alarmed. He jumps to his feet saying, “Violet! What time is it?”

  In my concern for David I had not thought about the time. It was nightfall when the storm hit. How much time has passed? It is well past midday.

  David and I estimate that we are roughly an hour from the drop point. We run for as long as we can, but we can’t run the entire way. David is quick to tire. He is frustrated that his body is failing him. We are at a jog when we get a renewed burst of energy: the first rock formation! This means that we are at most twenty minutes from the Traveler.

  As we approach, I see the ship waiting. I turn to David and smile with relief. I turn back to the ship just in time to see a burst of light as it surges into the atmosphere.

  * * *

  No. No, this cannot be. I keep running. I can’t help it. I couldn’t stop if I tried. David keeps speed with me. Our frantic adrenaline burst keeps us going, but we know that it is too late. They’re gone. We have failed. We will not return to Cerno.

  It takes a moment for the despair to set in, but when it does it steals the air from my chest. Left on Earth. We have nothing. Our water rations are almost entirely depleted and we are not within three days of a water source. The heat will kill us before we find it. I look at David, and neither of us has to say it. We’re dead.

  David pulls me to him and we stand, wrapped around each other, unsure of what to do next. My face is pressed into his chest, but my ear is exposed so I hear him when he says, “Violet, look.”

  I turn, intrigued by something odd in his voice. Looking toward the horizon, the brightness of the sun makes the object in the distance difficult to see. At first, it’s just a glimmer. Maybe a shadow. But renewed hope draws us closer. First we walk, but then we begin to run. Something stands in the place where the Traveler deployed. As we get closer, we cannot believe our eyes. Surely this is a mirage. Some cruel trick of the desert that will certainly take our sanity. We say nothing until we are close enough to touch it.

  I nearly faint with happiness when I am sure that it is real. A small ship—probably one of the escape pods—has been left. I have no doubt that Dorian has somehow arranged this for us, and since this ship belongs to The Vox, it will not be questioned entering the air space on Cerno. Of course we’ll need to abandon it quickly, but we’ve done that before.

  My elation is short-lived, however, when David says, “Violet, we don’t have the code. We can’t get in.”

  Certainly this is not true… Why would Dorian leave a method of escape to tease us? “Do you think he hid it somewhere on the ship?”

  David shakes his head. “No. Too dangerous. If he did that, anyone who happened upon it could use it.”

  He’s right. But there must be something that we’re missing. Dorian would not have left an expensive piece of Vox equipment here just to tease us; he expected us to know. “How would he expect us to know a pilot’s code?”

  David and I stand just out of reach of our salvation, stumped. Then the answer hits me and I look up sharply at David, only to see that he has just had the same revelation. He says what I am thinking. “Because you’ve already used one.”

  I nod emphatically. “The pilot’s code that we used to escape Vox headquarters!”

  David can hardly contain his excitement. “Do you remember it?”

  I think for a moment, and then smile triumphantly. I enter the code on the keypad. 2-9-1-1-5-0.

  The door slides open. This ship, like the in-atmosphere transport that we stole, is user-friendly. David simply directs it to return to Cerno; we will navigate more specifically when we enter our atmosphere.

  As we leave Earth, my feelings are mixed. My euphoria at the prospect of returning to Cerno is corrupted by my guilt. I watch through the window as the desolate planet grows smaller, and silently I hope that what we have done will do more good than harm.

  Seventeen

  Our return to Cerno was eerily uneventful. Again, I had the sense that this was perhaps a little too easy, but then I thought about what David and I had been through in the past week, and easy is certainly not a word that came to mind.

  We abandoned the ship in an undeveloped area of Summus; Cecil was there within minutes of our landing. Apparently, Dorian had given him some type of device that enabled him to track the transport. The ride through Summus was somewhat tense; posters with our faces had been plastered throughout the city.

  At Tara Labs, we received a hero’s welcome; I got the distinct feeling that Cecil and Arielle did not have high hopes for our safe return.

  Now, as we sit surrounded by our new friends, devouring warm food as if we’ve never eaten, I allow myself to reflect on what my life has become. In the few weeks since my father’s death, everything has changed dramatically. Though I have not regained the memory of my life prior to the explosion, I have learned so much information about my parents and my past that I don’t feel so lost anymore. I only wish that I had understood my father’s motives. I didn’t understand his secrecy, but now I understand his sacrifice.

  Also, I’m a fugitive. So is David. That’s certainly not to be overlooked as far as life changes go. We’ve also been inducted as honorary revolutionaries; we’re now members of The Third Stone. I suppose that this is where I belong now.

  I don’t mean to be distant, but something is getting in the way of my celebratory mood. I just can’t stop thinking about everyone on Earth. We live underground, and still we revel in countless luxuries compared to those on Earth. And soon, the one luxury that they have—Amara—will be gone. It’s difficult for me to celebrate my escape when I left so many behind. Perhaps this is what my mother felt.

  I excuse myself and, still carrying my survival pack, I head down the hallway to my room. I cannot bring myself to let it out of my sight, knowing what it contains. I stand in the center of my chamber, thinking about what to do with it, when I hear someone clear his throat to get my attention. I turn around. The Scientist.

  “I couldn’t help but notice that you’re not participating in the revelry.”

  I nod. “It’s just difficult for me to celebrate, now that I know…”

  “Yes… I understand.”

  There is a pause as I wait for him to bring it up.

  “We’ve been so busy celebra
ting the fact that you and David survived, I haven’t had a chance to ask if you were successful. Did you find anything?”

  I nod, raising my pack. The Scientist looks a little surprised. “You did? You found…”

  I’m still nodding. “Yes… We found a shard.”

  The Scientist looks into the hallway to be sure that we are not being overheard.

  “Violet, you must hide it. Immediately. I’m sure you know that something that powerful can corrupt even those with the best intentions.”

  “Yes, I know. I just don’t know where to hide it. I’m afraid I don’t know anywhere that I trust to be secure enough. I don’t want anyone to stumble upon it.” I pause for a moment, then continue. “Please, will you take it?”

  The Scientist is taken aback. “Me? Violet, I—”

  “My father trusted you. I don’t really have anything else to go on, so that’s good enough for me.”

  He nods, and I hand him the entire pack. As I said, The Scientist is my best choice. After all, if this man is like my father, he is experienced at hiding things.

  Smiling, The Scientist turns to leave. I hesitate for a moment then quickly add, “That piece could not have been my father’s.”

  The Scientist freezes but does not turn to face me. “How can you be certain?”

  “I remember its shape from my dream. That one is different.”

  He secures the pack beneath his arm and begins to walk away, saying, “One piece is better than none at all. For now, I think you should rest.”

  I’m too tired for conjecture, so I go to the washroom to clean myself up. Everyone was so excited for us to arrive that we didn’t even get a chance to change from our desert clothes. I undress, fingering the collar of my shirt that’s caked with dried blood from the cut that Foster gave me. I look in the mirror, and I allow my fingers to brush the angry red gash where he held his blade. I wash quickly. I’d like to have a nice lengthy soak, but I’m too tired. Truly, I just want to go to sleep. In a bed.