The Markings

by Catherine Downen

  I spin around at the sounds of footsteps behind me, but it’s just Zavy and Toby. I put down the papers and join Zavy, Toby, and Cooper. We all huddle in the center of the building and wait for the rest of the group to get to the building, not daring to say a word in case someone could possibly hear us. Soon, Mio and Cinder bring up the rear of the group and we are all standing together, the sounds of our breathing are the only noises in the building.

  Mio starts handing out a plastic object that he explains to be a flashlight. He shows us how to turn them on and off and no one asks how he got them or why they work in fear of being overheard, but then Toby whispers to Zavy “Why’s everyone so quiet?” Except it’s not much of a whisper in this hollow concrete block. Zavy doesn’t answer him but just puts her hand over his mouth out of instinct.

  “Yes, why is everyone so quiet?” I hear the deep sound of his voice, driving a chill up my spine. I turn around and bring my eyes to meet his golden gaze.

  “Paylon,” I breathe. My first realization is that Alexander’s not with him, and then I realize neither is Chadian. He’s alone. Mio draws his sword and steps into Paylon’s path. He begins to charge Paylon, but I watch as the commander doesn’t even flinch at the attack.

  “Oh, now that won’t be necessary.” I see Paylon lift his hand and slide past Mio’s attack. As he sidesteps Mio he brushes his hand across his back and instantly Mio’s sword crashes to the ground.

  “He’s controlling him,” I think aloud. That one small touch was all Paylon needed to control Mio for that brief moment, and then I remember Codian’s necklace in my backpack.

  A rush of adrenalin courses through my body. I swing the bag off my shoulder and unzip it all in one movement. I whip out the green necklace and meet Cooper’s gaze. He draws his sword and I toss the necklace to him. He clips it around his neck and stands to face Paylon.

  “Now things are a little more interesting,” Paylon says as he draws his sword and there’s an instant sound of metal clashing as Cooper charges Paylon.

  Paylon holds Cooper’s impact and says, “Oh, come on. Even your sister’s little boyfriend could do better than that.” Paylon pushes back and Cooper falls to the ground.

  “What did you say?” I ask, getting Paylon’s attention.

  “I said your little boyfriend put up quite the fight,” Paylon says as he walks toward me. That’s when I notice the dried red blood on his silver blade and I can’t catch my breath. “Lost me my second best marksman, but you already knew about the first, right?” His golden eyes stare deep into me.

  “You were controlling them. Codian and Chadian. You ruined their lives,” I spit back at him.

  “Well, a life for a life I guess,” Paylon says smoothly as he twists his sword in his hand.

  “What does that mean?” I ask. I move my hand and squeeze the butt of my sword as Paylon creeps closer.

  “Chadian for Alexander. Codian for you,” Paylon says and he swings his sword at my neck. I quickly pull mine from my belt and the metal clashes together.

  “He’s dead?” I ask, and my voice is very weak. My arms shake at the pressure of our swords together.

  “Don’t be surprised. You felt it didn’t you? He’s been dead for days, Adaline,” Paylon says, sliding his sword along mine and coming in for another swing. Paylon becomes fuzzy in my vision. Alexander is really dead? I already knew that, but Paylon saying it makes me feel it all over again. I hear the crash of my sword on the ground. He’s gone. I look back up at Paylon and watch as he swings his sword to my neck. I can’t make my body move. I’m just stuck. Just as it’s about to strike Cooper pushes me out of the way and takes the blow to his back.

  I crash to the ground on my side and hear Cooper scream behind me. I turn over and watch as Cooper whips around and starts to charge Paylon again.

  “Everyone into the tunnel!” Cooper yells. I turn and see that Cinder is already clearing pieces of paper, revealing a round plate in the ground that resembles something of a sewer lid that we have lining the streets in Garth. Cinder pulls the lid off and throws it to the ground. I pull myself to my feet and balance on my shaky legs. I pick the sword up and it feels twice has heavy in my numb hands. We all start filing down a ladder into the dark tunnel below. I’m the last to go down besides Cinder and Mio. I look back at Cooper and Paylon, hesitant to leave him.

  “Go, Adaline! He’ll catch up,” Cinder says. I bite my lip, remembering what happened the last time someone told me they’d catch up with me, but eventually, I start descending into the dark tunnel and slide my sword back into my belt. When my feet finally hit the ground they splash in a shallow puddle of who knows what. The smell almost makes me lose my breakfast. A couple of lights dance across the side of the tunnel and I remember the flashlights Mio had passed out. I reach for it in the side pocket of my backpack and click it on, illuminating a couple of inches right in front of my face, but not much more. I can see that a shallow amount of dark brown liquid covers the entire floor of the tunnel.

  I look up and see that really, we are more in a large pipe. Different symbols are sprayed in paint along the walls. I immediately recognize them as the symbols for the gifts. It takes me by surprise to see them in person, this detailed in a hidden tunnel under Sard. Each gift has its own special symbol painted in a muted color.

  Enhanced sight is painted in yellow. It’s a single, wide eye with curling lines. Enhanced touch is a small orange hand with its finger pointed out. Hearing is a green ear, taste is a brown smile, and smell is a red nose. Each with such specific details, and I wonder who took the time to put them here. They are patterned together on the wall to make an abstract face.

  For me this journey has always been for my safety, my freedom. But details like this make me understand this is more than that. The gifted are fleeing as groups. They are working together, starting a movement to free our kind. It feels weird to lump myself into that group of people, the idea is still too new to me.

  Cinder and Mio splash to the ground and Cooper is immediately behind them. I can see blood smeared on his face and his clothes. His sword is still dripping red droplets into the liquid of the tunnel. He seems to be in a trance as if he isn’t completely sure of where he is as he slides the sword back into his belt

  “Let’s keep going!” Cinder yells, her hard voice replacing her normal soft tone. “It’s a straight shot from here.” We start at a steady jog and begin splashing through the tunnel, our lights bouncing along the walls.

  Chapter 20

  After a little bit of rearranging, I’m able to fall instep with Cooper. In the round tunnel, it’s hard to run side by side with anyone, but we manage to.

  “Are you okay?” I ask him over the splashing of our feet.

  It takes him a couple of seconds to respond. He blinks a few times and seems to come out of the trance, “Yeah, yeah I’m fine.”

  “What happened up there?” I ask, not sure if I should push him.

  “All I can say is that you shouldn’t have to worry about Paylon following us,” he says and lets out out a heavy breath of air. He removes the necklace I had given him and hands it back to me.

  “You killed him?” I ask, gasping and I shove the necklace back into my bag.

  “No,” Cooper says flatly. “He’s injured though. There’s no way he could last more than a day. I cut him pretty deep in the leg and I got his neck, I couldn’t even imagine him living another hour, to be honest.” Cooper’s eyes glass over and I know he’s remembering the fight. I imagine Cooper swinging his sword and driving it deep through Paylon’s leg. Paylon falls and Cooper swings back slicing across his neck. The irony of it is Paylon may get his life for a life I guess.

  “When we left he was crawling back into the forest, but we can’t be too safe,” Cooper’s voice fills the tunnel. “All we can do is move as fast as we can and hope we can get out of here before word spreads. But Adaline, he used his gift. The people of Sard already know something’s up.” Suddenly Mio stops running, causing the res
t of us to bump into each other.

  “What is it?” Cooper asks and he makes his way through the group to the front and I follow behind him. I shine my light directly in front of me and when I get in front of the group I see them. There’s just five of them sitting on the dirty floor of the tunnel, shivering. Children. They are all girls and can’t be more than ten years old.

  “What’s going on here?” Cinder asks, her sweet tone returning. She steps forward, but the girls sink away from her. A confused look settles on the girls’ faces.

  I lift my hand and wave to them and my shadow dances in the light on the tunnel. At the sudden movement, they all look at me and surprisingly wave back. “I don’t think they know how to talk,” I offer as I study their faces.

  “Adaline, that’s silly. They’re grown kids, they can speak,” Mio says.

  I step forward and kneel next to them. “Do you girls understand what I’m saying?” I say, shaking my head yes and no.

  Four of them shake their heads no back to me, but the fifth girl who had her face in her hands looks up and says, “I can.”

  “You can?” I ask and she nods her head. “Can you tell me who you all are?”

  “May and April are sisters,” she says, pointing to two blonde-haired twins sitting by each other. Then, she points at the other two girls, one blonde and one brunette and says, “Lilly and Sam are sisters. All of our mothers worked together at the food storage units. One day their mothers brought them to my house and then my mother brought all of us down here. She told us that we had to stay here no matter what. We’ve been here for about, wait what’s the date?”

  “5019. It’s mid-July. Now nearly August,” I say hesitantly back to her.

  “Three months,” she responds, not believing it.

  “You’ve survived down here for three months?” I question.

  “When my mother brought us we had lots and lots of baskets with food and water, but we just ran out of the food yesterday,” her voice draws distant as her mind surely reminds her how hungry she is.

  I look at the hollow cheeks on her face, turn back to my group, and ask, “Do we have any food?”

  “I have some berries,” Cinder says, reaching into her bag. She pulls out a skin full of berries.

  “Let’s stop and rest for a minute,” Mio says and everyone takes a seat, sipping on their water. This part of the tunnel is dry from the liquid we’d been previously running through. Mio and Cooper walk off from the group and I watch as they move a few paces deeper into the tunnel. Cooper takes off his dark shirt and turns around. I see the gash on his back from fighting with Paylon. I hear Mio ask him if he was hit anywhere else and Cooper says he wasn’t. Mio pours water down Cooper’s back and cleans the wound a bit before wrapping it in a white fabric. It immediately dyes red with his blood, but it seems to stop the bleeding from progressing.

  “What happened to him?” The one who speaks asks in a soft voice as she works on the berries we’ve given them.

  “We were being chased by a bad guy,” I say and her eyes widen, “but he saved us. He’s my brother.” She looks from me to Cooper before turning back to her berries. She doesn’t say anything else for the moment and just focuses on filling her empty stomach.

  I turn back to the other girls and see that Cinder is handing out more of the berries. I walk over to Zavy and ask, “You could talk to these girls, right? With your gift? You said you were a Communicator, right?”

  “Yeah, I could try,” Zavy says, her eyes not meeting mine.

  “What’s wrong, Zavy?” I ask. She doesn’t respond and I realize that she also doesn’t know how to use her gift. “You don’t know how to use it do you?” I ask her, not able to believe it. Zavy made me feel stupid for not being able to use mine and she can’t use hers either.

  “I said I could try,” Zavy says, brushing me off. The five girls devour the berries. I move to sit next to the girl who I was talking to and Zavy moves to the pairs of sisters. “So what’s your name?” I ask.

  “Molly,” She says between mouthfuls of the last of her berries. When she finishes eating she says, “Can you take me back to my mother?”

  “Well, I’m not actually from here, so I’m afraid I don’t know where your mother is, but I think we can take you to someone who might know,” I say and glance up to Mio and Cooper who have rejoined the group. I look to him for his approval, not that I’ve needed it before to bring new people with us. He gives me a nod of approval and I look back to Molly.

  “Okay, her name’s Eleanor Fisher,” Molly says in a small voice.

  “I’ll make sure to find out where she is,” I promise her.

  Then Mio’s voice echoes through the tunnel saying, “It’s time to start moving if we ever want to get out of here.” I stand up and help Molly to her feet. Her thin little legs can hardly hold her own body weight. She moves and walks with her friends huddled together at the front of the group.

  “We might want to take it slow Mio,” I say, worry on my face. They seem frail, even for being children. We start walking at a steady pace further into the tunnel.

  Cooper comes in step with me and asks, “How’d you know they couldn’t understand us?”

  “It was something in their faces,” I explain. Titus had a similar look a lot when mother and I would talk in the cell. He really only knew how to ask for more food.”

  “I’m sorry,” Cooper says and looks at me.

  “It’s okay,” I say, breaking his gaze.

  Zavy comes in step with us and I ask her if she was able to talk with the other girls. “A little bit. They can talk and understand some of what we say. Food and water. Family.”

  “Did you find anything else out about them?” I ask.

  “All of the sisters are only five. Molly is the oldest. She’s ten,” Zavy says.

  “How can they be five, but not be able to understand much?” Cooper asks.

  “They never went to school,” Zavy says. “Their parents all hid them in their homes. I couldn’t tell, but I think I was getting that Molly’s mom was a Future Holder. I could have been reading it wrong, but I think that’s what I was sensing.”

  “What do you mean by sensing? How does your gift work, Zavy?” I ask her for the first time.

  “Like this,” she says and takes my hand in hers. “Hey, Adaline.” I hear in my head, but Zavy didn’t say it out loud.

  “Whoa,” I say out loud and Zavy laughs, dropping my hand.

  “It’s freaky, right?” Zavy laughs, “I was trying to talk to them and they were responding, I think. I just don’t know how to use my gift so I don’t know how much of the information I got right.”

  “It’s like talking through your thoughts, right?” I ask, trying to understand it, and Zavy nods.

  We walk in silence for what feels like hours. The sounds of our footsteps clicking on the cement floor fill the tunnel. Every few minutes there will be the marking of a gifted painted on the side of the tunnel, confirming we are moving in the right direction. Some of the group members have started humming a new camp song they must have learned one of the many nights they spent out in the woods. It’s a simple but beautiful melody only made up of a couple of notes. The magnificent part is when they layer the melody and the notes overlap they create stunning harmonies. I realize how much I miss music. With my memories restored I’m reminded how much my father loved it.

  Mio doesn’t want to stop to eat again, so instead, we eat as we go. We pass Cinder’s bag of berries around the group and take handfuls. Mio promises us there is a real meal waiting for us when we get out of this tunnel. The time seems to drag on and on and I know we must have walked miles. I feel guilty knowing it is only taking this long because the girls can’t go any faster. I’m the one who said they could come with us. I look forward and see Molly stumble along with the group, her legs giving out. I run up to her and let her lean on my side.

  “Mio, how much longer?” I ask and I’m beginning to worry these girls won’t be able to make it much
farther.

  “It should be right,” Mio starts and takes a few more steps forward until finally the flat end of the tunnel is illuminated, “here.”

  A smile falls on my face, “See, you made it,” I say and look at Molly who seems to have found a second wave of energy and stands up on her own.

  Mio climbs up the ladder and pounds three times on the ceiling of the tunnel. We stand in silence for a second until the tunnel becomes illuminated in a blinding white light. I blink a couple of times to clear my vision and watch Mio climb the rest of the way up. We wait until Mio yells back down to us that it’s all clear to come up. I help Molly up onto the ladder and then follow behind her.

  When we surface outside of the tunnel it’s like we’ve climbed into a different world. The building Cooper mentioned is more like a home. We’ve climbed up into what seems to be the living room. The wood floor is a nice change from the cement tunnel we’ve been in all afternoon. Different white glowing lights hang from the ceiling and plush elegant couches are placed throughout the room. I turn around and see large glass doors that open to a deck that looks to the ocean with the stars reflecting into the water. It’s breathtaking.

  For a second I’m just taking in the amazing room that has manifested in front of me, but quickly my mind comes back to life and I’m back in survival mode. It’s night. We’ve been in the tunnel all afternoon. I look down at myself and then scan the rest of the group. I am shocked by how awful we all look in this very clean and polished home. Our faces are caked in dirt, our shoes are soaked in dirty water, we have mud dried to our nails, and knotted hair. We hardly look human.

  “I see we’ve had some additions to the group,” a questioning voice asks and I turn to see a man about Mio and Cinder’s age standing next to Mio. He has short brown hair and dark brown scruff down the sides of his face.