Summer Ruins (40 page)

Her confession stuns me, makes the room darken and wobble at the edges. That they had changed, that the Elements are different than I used to believe, has been clear for some time, but that they had a similar conversation to ours, and agreed they wouldn’t take part in any more destruction? It swells my heart and breaks it at the same time.

She wraps her fingers around mine, crushing my hand into the bars, and leans forward so that only I can hear her final words to me. “You are my daughter, and you are strong.
Live
.”

“Thank you,” I choke out before stumbling through the tent flaps so fast I knock into Leah.

She steadies me, her eyes frantic. “Are you okay? That took a long time.”

Lucas crashes out next, and then Pax and Deshi. The eight of us return to our post in the crumbled tan building, then decide who will stay up to watch and who will sleep first. Everyone but Pax and Leah lies down on the hard floor to try to get some sleep. I think it will be impossible, but my mind is anxious to escape the horrible loss of my mother for what’s probably the last time, and darkness swamps me the moment I close my eyes.

Chapter 37.

Lucas and I have the last shift—from four to six in the morning—so we’re awake when everyone else arrives. The Others will take their injections at six, and according to what happened at the Harvest Site that means they should start feeling the effects no later than eight or nine.

To try to avoid a complete panic when they start dropping—especially since it probably won’t happen all at once and the Wardens and Others affected later might cause trouble—we’ve decided that everyone besides Leah and us Dissidents should sneak into the Celebration this morning and mingle. We need eyes on the ground. Even with the funny glasses that let us see closer, there are thousands of people milling around down there, including the two hundred or so Others we’re trying to keep an eye on, and we need to know as soon as it starts to happen.

Katie’s in charge of the signal—we ripped up a white bed sheet from Perkins and she has it stuffed in her backpack—and once the first Other succumbs to the praseodymium she’s supposed to sneak to the back of the black tent, outside the grounds, and wave it. Then we’re going to get closer, to be ready once they’re all incapacitated.

We think with the power the four of us have we can unveil everyone there before mass confusion sets in. We hope with the four of us we can even do adults without ruining them the way the Others do.

Everyone is up and ready to go by six, pacing nervously out of sight until we give them the go ahead to take the stairs. After they’re gone, the five of us lie flat on our bellies, staring intently at the line of Others snaking in and out of the black tent, taking our poison.

Leah clears her throat. “Katie told me they killed four humans just after midnight. She couldn’t see their faces, and none of the Celebration attendees noticed.”

“How?” Lucas’s strangled voice hurts my stomach.

“Broke their necks out in the street, then dumped them in a rider that took their bodies away.”

“Guess we’re not getting a reprieve just because they’re here,” I say softly.

It had been silly of me to think we might, that the Prime would allow his focus to be distracted by this ritual while we’re still on the loose and, at the very least, irritating him by continuing to live.

“Why didn’t the Goblert come?” I wonder out loud.

“Maybe he went to the university,” Lucas suggests.

It doesn’t matter, I guess, except it means we don’t know who the four people were this morning. Who we’ve lost.

“They’re in,” Pax says, his voice tight as he peers through the black oblong glasses.

“All of them?” I ask.

“Looks like it, but they’re spreading out. We won’t be able to watch them all.”

It will be okay, I tell myself. Even if the Others know who our friends are because of their disappearance from the Sanctioned Cities, there’s a big crowd down there and the grounds are expansive. They’ll be able to blend in. No one will look twice at them.

We’ve got at least an hour to kill, and I realize suddenly that we haven’t kept our promise to Deshi. “Now’s our last chance to talk about how we’re going to get rid of the Others, if this works. It’s time to stop avoiding the discussion.”

No one answers me. Lucas tugs on an ear while Pax continues to survey the ground. Leah watches Deshi closely but without judgment. I’m not sure what to say; I’m no more decided than I was in the stairwell when Pax confronted me.

It’s Deshi who speaks up quietly, as though he’s afraid none of us are really listening. “I have an idea. You may not like it, and I’ll go along with whatever we all decide. I only ask that you consider what I’m saying.”

Lucas and I nod, and Pax puts down the glasses, turning toward us. Leah takes the glasses and watches our friends.

“We can make a synthetic, and we can show them how. If we make them leave, they don’t have to search for planets with sufficient amounts of the base element anymore. They could live on their transport until they find somewhere uninhabited they could settle.” Deshi searches our faces, a tinge of desperation coloring his golden skin.

Pax says nothing, but he doesn’t say no. Lucas tugs on his ear, and I let the suggestion sift through my mind until it traps the potential issues. I open my mouth to voice an objection, but Lucas beats me. “How do we know they’ll use the synthetic? They could still control and eliminate another population because they decide they want that specific planet.”

“Right. I was going to say the same thing. The Prime hasn’t shown much inclination to live and let live. He takes what he needs and does what he wants.” Despite my promise to hear Deshi out, my teeth clench at the thought of all the people who have been needlessly murdered the past couple of days.

The Prime and his family have no problem squashing any being they deem insignificant and enslaving the ones they think may be useful. Even if it began as a quest for survival, it has devolved into a rampant abuse of power.

“They’re not all like that,” Deshi argues. His eyes cut toward me as though he heard my thoughts. “I’m not talking about Zak or Kenda or their father. The power… it’s gone to their heads. But some of the Wardens, like Nat, and a few of the Refreshers, more here and there—they don’t like what their people have become. They’d do it. Start over somewhere, if we gave them the tools. I know it.”

“
If
we can subdue them without killing them,
if
some of the Wardens and Others surrender… I think we should consider it, you guys.” I make Pax look at me. “Deshi’s one of us. He’s our friend. If he’s sure, we need to trust him.”

Not to mention killing two-hundred-plus Others doesn’t exactly appeal to me.

Pax doesn’t hesitate and claps Deshi on the shoulder. “Agreed. But the Prime and his family can’t leave, and they can’t live. We can’t trust them.”

Deshi looks sick to his stomach but swallows hard and manages a tight nod.

“Lucas? We all need to agree.”

“I agree with you. If Deshi says they’re not all bad, I think we should try to figure out a way to save them. If nothing else, we should do it for Nat. We wouldn’t have killed him, right?”

None of us answer, and the truth is we’ll never know. Even if the Prime and Zakej are dead, how strong is the hive bond? Will someone else simply take over and control them all?

There’s no way to know for sure, but we’ve made a decision, at least. If possible we contain the bulk of the Others and don’t kill them, unless we have no other choice.

***

Pax’s watch, the only working timepiece we’ve been able to find, ticks past eight-thirty, and there hasn’t been any change in the Others policing the Summer Celebration. They’re handing out food, strolling through walkways, threading in and out of the crowd.

We’ve been able to locate most of our friends through the magnifying glasses, and they appear to be fine. But the Others should have started feeling the effects of the praseodymium shots more than an hour ago.

Since it worked at the Harvest Site, we figured it would work here. Now that it hasn’t, we need to regroup, but we didn’t discuss a contingency plan. None of us can go get our friends, obviously, because if the Others glimpse our far-too-familiar faces, the game is over. In the end we send Leah. Her earlier concerns about what could happen if Zakej sees her press fear into my lungs and speed my heart into a racing gallop, but we don’t have another choice.

Leah sneaks out of our hiding place and across the grass and rubble to the back of the Celebration, where the giant screen sits dark and unused. The sun glints off her black curls as she slips into the throng of people, and then I lose her. Pax keeps staring through the glasses, sweat dripping off him and the smell of apples and burning leaves strong enough to singe the back of my throat.

“Pax, tell us what’s going on. This is driving me nuts,” Lucas grunts.

“She’s found three of them—Katie, Jordan, and Phil. They’re headed back this way.” He pauses, watching in silence for several seconds. “Okay, she’s got Sophie… and Christian.”

The next instant, he drops the black contraption on the ground and shoots to his feet. His olive complexion blanches white and he runs for the stairs without a word. Deshi looks between Pax and the two of us, then sprints for the front door.

“I’ll go with him,” he shouts over his shoulder.

Lucas and I look at each other, then I grab the glasses and desperately scan the Celebration below. I see three of our friends making their way out of the area and back toward us. Pax streaks toward them as fast as I’ve ever seen him run, a bag of weapons slung across his back. Deshi struggles to keep up, lagging a few paces behind.

They pass the group headed our way and Pax drops the bag, shouts something, and keeps running. They don’t hesitate. Phil unzips the bag and yanks loose a sword, tossing one to Katie and one to Jordan before closing and shouldering the duffel.

They all turn and hurry after Pax without a backward glance.

“Where are they going?” Lucas asks, the words tight as though they can’t get out from between his clenched teeth.

I follow them, jumping ahead to find Pax again, but a group of Celebration attendees breaks into a circle toward the center of the site, near the rusted metal machines.

In the center stands Zakej. He’s sporting a sick grin and a wild expression, in one of his fancy all-black suits with red accents.

And he’s got an arm wrapped around Leah’s neck.

It’s impossible to tell from here if her bright red face results from a lack of oxygen or her frantic struggle to get loose. “He’s got Leah. Zakej has got Leah. He knows we’re here.”

“If he doesn’t, he will when Pax gets there and starts blowing tents toward the sky,” Lucas replies. “Let’s go. The shots didn’t work. We’re going to have to fight, and they need our help.”

He stands up, grabbing a second bag of weapons and hustling for the stairs. “Althea!”

I know we need to go, that our friends need more weapons and our help, but my eyes are glued to the scene playing out below. All of the moisture leaves my mouth and I can’t breathe, waiting to see if Pax will make it in time to save Leah. We don’t know what Zakej will do. Maybe he’ll see Leah as an asset too valuable to kill.

Pax bursts through the confused crowds of veiled humans surrounding the spectacle. Zakej spots Pax, and his grin grows even as Pax raises his hands. There’s no way Pax can blow Zakej away without losing Leah along with him.

My heart pounds against my ribs as the Prime’s horrible son presses a hand to either side of Leah’s head, smashing her curls against her tear-stained face as she twists back and forth, her lips moving in shouted words I’ll never be able to hear.

Then he twists her neck and drops her in a heap.

Chapter 38.

The magnifiers drop from my hand, crashing to the floor. I barely hear them smash or see Lucas kneel before me. After a second my eyes focus, but my heart doesn’t want to beat.