I nodded. “I can do that.”
“Can ye disarm them from here?”
“Yes,” I said.
The truck moved towards us, but someone from the van shot the driver and it veered off course into a nearby house. It took me a few moments to notice that we were in the heart of the ghettos with normal Blemished people running for cover. I put a hand over my mouth in horror. The second truck approached, the Enforcers firing towards the van.
“Ye need to do it now,” Ali said. “Come on.”
I focussed, trying to block out the noise and the chaos and the blood. I thought of Daniel with his injury. I thought of him trussed up by the Enforcers in cuffs. My palms itched. Heat spread all over my body. I thought of Mrs Murgatroyd taunting me about the boy in the river. More heat. Then it ripped through my mind. The pain was searing but I embraced it.
“Holy Moly,” Ali said with a laugh. “That’s incredible.”
With one single thought I’d disarmed all of the Enforcers in the second truck. The guns floated above their heads while the Enforcers jumped up to reach them. With another push I scattered the guns as far as I could. Then Ali ran forward to help free Daniel and the others. I collapsed to the floor, blood running from my nose. Finally, everything was going to be okay – we’d got to Matthew’s people, I’d saved my friends and we were getting to the Clans. I began to cry, realising that it was going to happen, we were going to get away from the Operation like I’d always wanted and the people I loved most in the world were coming with me. But then, just as I began to relax, cold fingers wrapped around my shoulders. Someone dragged me away.
*
It was her.
She dragged me into an alley way. Cold metal pressed against my head. A gun.
“You ruin everything,” she said. “You ruin everything and somehow nothing ever happens to you. You break into my house. You behave like a slut with those boys. You escape. You kill. You’re a murderer, a thief, a liar and a whore.”
“If I’m a whore what does that make you?” I said quietly. My voice trembled. “I know about Joseph.”
The fingers on my shoulder faltered. The gun at my head quivered.
“What did you say?” she hissed.
“Joseph. Your son,” I said. “The baby you were pregnant with. What happened to him? Was he taken away? Did you give birth to him?”
I felt her breath on my neck. She sounded choked, as though crying. “How dare you speak his name?” She was crying. “My beautiful boy.”
“It’s all about him, isn’t it?” I said. “The reason why you hate me? You’re bitter because you made a mistake and had to pay for it. They took your unborn child away and now you punish girls because you’re jealous of our youth, you can never get it back and you can never carry a child.” I paused, trying to control my breathing. “Well, I’m going to have a better life, a life that you want, with proper choices and you can’t bear it.”
“No!” she said. She sniffed away her tears and adjusted her stance. The gun remained firm against my temple. “This isn’t personal. You’re wanted by the Ministry. You’re an… abomination. You’re a freak who shouldn’t exist. Just like Daniel––”
“Don’t you touch him!” I shouted. My palms began to heat. I tried to muster enough power to rid her of the gun. Anger helped. “Don’t you touch a hair on his head.”
She laughed. “It would seem that we both know each other’s weaknesses. Now start walking. I’m taking you in. Try anything and I pull the trigger. Do you really think your little trick is as quick as my finger? I guess we’d find out, but do you really want to––”
There was a thud and the gun dropped from her hand. I spun around. Murgatroyd was laid on the floor, blood seeping from her head, black in the moonlight. I gaped. A beautiful girl stood in the teacher’s place clutching an iron bar.
“Thought you needed some help, Blem,” Elena said with a grin.
I hugged her awkwardly with my bound hands, never so relieved and happy to see another human being as in that moment. She laughed.
“What are you doing here?”
“I heard all hell breaking loose from our house. I just followed the noise, and hey, guess what? Led me to you.” She laughed again. She turned and gestured to the wall at the back of the alley. “I had to climb over that thing so I hope you’re grateful – it ruined these babies.”
She pointed down to her shoes and I laughed. Trust Elena to chase danger in heels.
I kissed her on the cheek. “You just saved my life.”
“Yeah well.” She shrugged. “No biggie.”
“I don’t know how I can…” I trailed off. Tears burned behind my eyes. “You’re a good person, Elena.”
She sniffed and looked away. I caught just a glimpse of moisture in her eyes. “You’re not bad for a Blem.” She poked Mrs Murgatroyd with her toe. “I didn’t want old Murder-Troll here having the last laugh.” She wiped her eyes. “You leaving town then?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Shouldn’t you get going before the witch wakes up?”
I heard the screeching of sirens in the distance. “Yes.”
She sniffed again. “It won’t be the same around here. Quieter.” She laughed. “I’m going to miss you.”
I looked behind me. The sirens were closer now. “Do you want to come with me?” I held out my cuffed hands for her to take.
She thought for a moment. But then she shook her head. “No. I don’t.”
“Okay.” I stepped back. “You should go before you get into trouble with the Enforcers.”
She saluted and winked. “Will do.”
“Thank you,” I said.
I ran, leaving her in the darkness. Ali, his face in a panic, appeared around the corner of the alleyway.
“Where the hell have ye been?” He snapped. “No, don’t tell me. Just get the hell in the van. We need to leave. Now.”
“Daniel––”
“They are all okay and in the van. Now move!”
I jumped into the van as the sirens approached, travelling fast. All around us people peeked through their curtains. This was the last I would ever see of the ghettos. This glimpse of cold, vague, slack faces, all gaping in my direction, would be the last I saw of the Blemished. I blinked and they were gone.
Daniel wrapped his good arm around me. He pulled me tight into his chest, so tight that I could barely breathe. “You’re all right,” he whispered into my ear. “I can’t believe you’re all right.
I pulled back and looked at him. “You look terrible.”
“He’s lost a lot of blood,” Mary said. She reached into a pack and took out medical supplies.
I turned to Angela and Sebastian. “Are you both okay?”
Angela wrapped her arms around me. I pushed my head into her shoulder. “I’m glad you made it, Mina.”
“I’m glad too.” I said. “I don’t think I could start a new life without my best friend.”
Sebastian smiled at me shyly as I pulled back from Angela. “I’m glad you’re safe, Mina.”
I sighed. “We all made it.”
“We’re not there yet,” Reg shouted back as he swerved into a tight corner, trying to throw the Enforcers off course.
Mary slapped me on the back. “Let the girl enjoy her moment. We’re past the worst now, lass. In a few days’ time we’ll be in bonnie Scotland. Yer friend here’ll have proper medical treatment and all will be well.”
“You think?”
She smiled. “Ah know so.”
“The Professor will be looking forward to seeing you,” Ali said.
“What?”
“The Professor. That’s yer dad, right?”
“Yes,” I breathed. “He’s in the Clans?”
Ali nodded. “Waiting for ye.”
I felt about to explode with emotion. Tears streamed down my cheeks.
Ali laughed at my stunned expression. “No need to cry, kid. Yer going home to family.”
About the Autho
r:
Sarah grew up in the middle of nowhere in the countryside of Derbyshire and as a result has an over-active imagination. She has been an avid reader for most of her life, taking inspiration from the stories she read as a child, and the novels she devoured as an adult.
Sarah mainly writes speculative fiction for a Young Adult audience and has had pieces of short fiction published in the Medulla Literary Review, Apex Magazine, PANK magazine and the British Fantasy Society publication Dark Horizons. Her short story ‘Vampires Wear Chanel’ is featured in the Wyvern Publication Fangtales available from Amazon.
The Blemished is Sarah’s debut novel and part of the Blemished series.
www.sarahdaltonbooks.com
http://theblemished.com/
@sarahdalton
A Note from the Author
A huge thank you for supporting independent authors by buying this book. As an author who has self-published her book, I rely on readers to spread the word. Why not take a moment to do just that, and leave a review?
Also by the Author
The Vanished (Blemished #2)
The Fractured: Elena (Fractured #1) (Blemished #2.5)
The Fractured: Maggie (Fractured #2) (Blemished #2.5)
Coming Soon:
The Unleashed (Blemished #3)
Don’t miss out on the exciting second instalment of the Blemished series – THE VANISHED.
Read the first chapter here!
The Vanished Extract
1
It was time to open my eyes. It was time to look forward. It was time to stop squinting through the tiny peep holes in the Scavenger van, watching the faces of the Blemished become little specks in a dot of a town. Elena and murder-Troll were part of those specks somewhere. I hoped Elena was okay. I didn’t care about Murder-Troll. The further out of Area 14 the more the tiredness hit me and somewhere along the road I’d closed my eyes and rested my head on my knees. An occasional gun sounded out to let me know that The Enforcers were still following, but according to Ali they wouldn’t risk crossing the border into The Clans.
I’d been pretending to sleep for hours. I listened to The Scavengers chat – their Scottish voices sounded harsh but warm at the same time. Even with closed eyes I knew where Daniel was; I felt him. I felt his presence like the awareness of my own arm. He hadn’t moved from the right side of the van, Angela next to him, a protective border between us. His breathing was still raspy and tired. I didn’t want to see the sheen of sweat, his pasty face, his blond hair – always messy and stuck up at all angles – plastered to his forehead, damp and lifeless. The boy who never sat still and vibrated with nervous energy and life now lay with a bullet wound and I didn’t want to see that life draining away.
But it was time; time to face my future and stop wallowing in the past. It was time to support to my friends, the people who had risked everything for me.
I opened my eyes.
Sebastian smiled at me. Despite the battle, and his fight with the Enforcer in the river, he still looked pretty perfect. There were some minor scrapes along his cheekbone, but his dark hair had dried into a mussed up style that most boys would need hair gel and a mirror to achieve. “Good to see you awake. I was starting to think you had concussion.”
I returned the smile, but when my eyes drifted over to Daniel, it faded. They reached Angela first, whose dark skin had changed to the murky grey of a muddy puddle. Her lips barely formed a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. She’d been through a lot, and it was all because of me. I knew how much she loved Daniel, and I couldn’t resent her for that, no matter how jealous she became. She was just a kid, a year younger than me, and unable to understand her own feelings. I got that.
I caught Ali watching me and our eyes met. He’d saved us all from The Enforcers, him and the Scavengers, and now they were taking us to safety in The Clans. There was the smallest of playful smiles on his lips. He watched me watching Daniel with his steady brown eyes. Ali led the Scavengers despite being one of the youngest in the group. He had thick black hair cut short at the sides, brown skin and a large but noble nose. My eyes moved from Ali back to Daniel, curled up and asleep in feverish dreams. His body twitched, and it was like a dagger to my side. This was why I’d spent hours with my eyes closed. This was what I had avoided. I sucked air inwards, trying to control the feelings threatening to bubble to the surface. My fingers twitched, and Mary’s gun almost slipped from her grasp.
“Easy, kid,” Ali said, raising his eyebrows at me.
Mary turned around and tutted. “These aren’t toys fer ye te play with.”
I blushed and looked away. Daniel stirred in his sleep. Ginge popped her chewing gum. Ali shifted on his haunches and attempted to straighten a leg. He was perched on the edge of the crate which doubled up as the step to the machine gun on the roof. Reg and Stevie sat in the front seats, their bald heads side by side like two boiled eggs in egg-cups. Ali flicked an empty bullet shell at the roof of the van and it ricocheted with ping into his hands. I jumped out of my skin at the noise.
“Ye just a bag of nerves, kid,” he said with a laugh. “Stevie, swap places with the kid will ye.”
“Ach,” Stevie protested, “I’m comfy up ‘ere, eh.”
Ali waggled his finger and Stevie swore. But despite his grumbling he obeyed his boss and hopped over the seat into the back. “Fer effs sake, Ali. It’s tighter than a gnats bum back ‘ere.”
The van erupted into laughter, even Ginge joined in; her voice had a surprising sing-song quality to it. Sebastian turned to her in surprise, noticing her for the first time. I felt the blood rise to my cheeks. I’d never heard language like that before.
Mary looked at me and laughed again. It came right up from her belly. “Ye cannae use that language, we’ve company. The poor Blemished lass is turning pink!”
My hands rose to my cheeks. Ali turned to me and grinned, revelling in my embarrassment.
“Carry on,” I said, annoyed by his obvious joy at my discomfort. “It doesn’t bother me. It’s not like I haven’t heard it before.”
“Then why did ye turn the shade of beetroot?” he replied with a small, smug chuckle.
“It’s hot in here,” I said. “You lot are stinking the place out.”
Ali laughed. “Looks like we’ve got one more stubborn that ye, Mary. Get in the front, kid. Chill out fer a bit.”
I clambered over the seat, aware of my ripped tunic which was not designed for climbing around in. I hoped that Reg didn’t get an eye-full of my underwear. I sighed at myself, I needed to get used to this – it was the freedom I had always wanted after all. Would I ever get used to it? Was I anything more than a Blemished prude?
As soon as my backside slid down into the front seat my worries and fears drifted away. It was beautiful. In the orange glow of sunset, green valleys dipped away into forests or rose up to hills of yellow moor-grass. Fields were sectioned by the criss-cross of stone walls, and the road snaked through this scene, never-ending.
The background hum of the van comforted me. Nervous anticipation tickled at my stomach. For the first time in what felt like months – but was a few weeks – I had hope again. In a few hours I would see my dad, and even though we’d only been apart for a short while I missed him more than I could even express. I would be able to touch him again, to wrap my arms around his paunch and let him call me Minnie. He’d pat my shoulders, never sure how to comfort me, and hold back his own tears. I’d get to hear him chastise me, and we could practice meditating and sparring. It would be just like old times.
Except that it wouldn’t be like old times. He’d left me. He’d kept things from me; members of my own family. An image popped into my head, the memory of Uncle Matthew being dragged away by the Enforcers, and I exhaled sharply. Reg raised an eyebrow, and I realised how angry I was letting myself become. I decided to concentrate on the rhythm of the van chugging along the road.
The road dipped and rose over rolling hills and churning rivers chasing each other t
hrough poppy fields and forests. When we reached an abandoned town the sky turned grey, and the sights disappeared into the forthcoming night. My eyes had to strain through the darkness to see the crumbling buildings: an empty shopping centre, a child’s toy in the gutter, houses with broken windows, and a door hanging loose on its hinges. I wondered how quickly people left after the Fracture, whether they had time to fetch their belongings – photograph albums and teddy-bears rotting away inside the buildings.
I liked the thought of nature taking over in the cities abandoned after the Fracture; ivy growing over rubble, the stalks as thick as my wrist; weeds poking through the cracks in the pavement pushing the tarmac aside with their roots; trees sprouting in the middle of old shopping centres. Long after humans leave the Earth those weeds would still be going strong, winding their way around our houses and machines, growing until all tenements and office blocks were covered with green. I closed my eyes, comforted by the thought and then I drifted into my first dreamless sleep.
*
I woke up to chaos. Ali’s body disappeared into the roof, and the machine gun choked and spluttered above my head. Mary shouted out words like “chase” and “gaining”. The van veered to the right, and more headlights streamed through the blacked out windows.
“What’s going on?” whimpered Angela.
“Reg, keep the van on the road will ye?” yelled Mary. “Mina, get back here fer cover.”
I clambered back over the seat, my breath coming out in panicked rasps. This wasn’t happening, it couldn’t. We’d been safe. We should be safe now. The van careered from side to side.
“They’ve shot a tyre,” Reg shouted. “I cannae keep the van in control.”
“How far te the border?” Mary called back, never taking her eye away from the viewfinder of her rifle.
“Few hundred feet, if that,” Reg replied. The tone of his voice chilled the atmosphere in the van. “It’d as well be a hundred miles. We cannae make it.”
The Blemished (Blemished Series) Page 26
