SWAB (A Young Adult Dystopian Novel) (26 page)

Just then, there was a cry from the front of the room. The energy in the room changed. The soldier’s focus divided. They still came at us, but they were turned toward the entrance as well.

“What on Earth?” Gray asked, tossing the leg of a soldier into the swarm and flying up a bit higher to see what had caused the disturbance.

But I didn’t need to see; I could feel it. Gold scarb. More had joined us, and a good many more, at that. At least four hundred. At their head were two scarb I didn’t expect: Saki and Jack.

“We’re not trained soldiers,” Saki called out to me. “But we can still fight for you!”

She was right, the scarb they’d brought were scientists like her and Jack or bakers from the kitchen or cleaning and maintenance workers. They obviously weren’t trained in the art of battle, but they were a more than welcome addition. In fact, it didn’t seem to matter how poorly skilled they were, their effect on Emerald’s soldiers was deadly. They were thrown by the unexpected arrival of average citizens of the colony taking a stand. Emerald was surprised, as well. I sensed a ripple of fear emanate from her, though her thoughts were hidden from me. She thrust her finger this way and that as she directed her army. She wasn’t nearly so high and mighty now.

But the numbers were still in her favor. How long could Saki’s group create confusion?

I had to act now, but there was little chance of persuading any of Emerald’s scarb hiding in this way.

“Gray! Bram!” I called. “Pick me up.”

Gray looked a bit confused, but he and Bram complied, lifting me by the armpits. When I was about forty feet in the air, I asked them to stop and hold me there.

“Close in on them,” I called out in a clear voice. My scarb on both sides complied, taking vigor from the direction I gave them. They fought ferociously, pushing the soldiers into a tight cluster in the center.

Emerald let out a furious roar. The soldiers tried to obey, but most were in a state of bewildered confusion as bakers and scientists took down trained warriors. And not a single flier remained loyal to Emerald now. Despite her shouts, no danger presented itself to me. I
was safe in the skies. I congratulated myself on making such a risky move. I had control of the fliers now.

Upon seeing the tides turn, some of Emerald’s soldiers joined us. Encouraged by this, I sent a message out to my scarb. “Stay strong. Emerald’s weakening by the moment. Hold fast.” The sunlight coming through the open windows of the atrium started dimming.

Then my scarb did something I didn’t expect. Led by Saki, a group of them broke off from the others and came directly at Emerald. Before the old queen could realize what was happening, she was cut off from her main force. Only a small group of forty or so guard protected her on and below the ledge.

Emerald’s eyes were wide with obvious fear, something she probably hadn’t felt for a long time. She sent out a command I didn’t hear, and her soldiers in the middle of the atrium broke out in a unified force against my scarb to get to their queen.

Worried for Saki, I commanded the fliers to get to them.

“Let’s end this,” Iva growled with blood-thirsty determination. But before she or any of my scarb could get to Emerald, the queen disappeared into the throng of her soldiers.

“They’re retreating!” Iva shouted. “Stop them!” But they fled with her through the atrium entrance before we could cut them off. My scarb finished off the last soldiers within reach, and then they were all gone.

I blinked as Gray and Bram held me, hardly believing what I’d just witnessed. There were no more soldiers left in the room. The mighty Emerald had tucked tail and run.

I’d won. Despite everything against us, Emerald had retreated from me.

“Congratulations, Cat,” Gray said, beaming next to me. “You sure showed her. She won’t stand a chance against us when we come for Nate.”

He and Bram lowered me to the ground, and I stood amidst a large army of scarb who all looked to me as their queen.

“Seal off the entrance,” I said. “The next time we meet Emerald, it’ll be on our terms.”

The act was quickly done. The soldiers reported to me that Emerald had left a large guard on the other side of the atrium doors, probably to either warn her if we made a move or to barricade us in.

The latter proved to be the case. I came over to where Saki and her group were standing. “She doesn’t want you having access to the rest of the colony,” Saki said. “The only way you can get to her or the colony now is through the guards or out those windows”—she pointed to the open windows on the left wall of the atrium—“and through the exterior entrances. Those will be guarded, as well.”

Great
.
So now I’ve trapped us in here
.
Again, I second-guessed whether coming to the atrium had really been such a great idea.

“We’ll figure it out,” Saki spoke to my inner thoughts. I appreciated her faith in me.

“Thanks for coming,” I said and hoped she could feel how much I meant it.

“Absolutely,” she smiled. Jack was standing behind the group by the far wall, but I could see him watching me. I smiled and nodded to him. He gave a nod a back. I guess I’d made more friends there than I’d thought.

Iva landed gently beside me. She wiped at the clear blood running down her cheek. “What do we do now?” I asked her, still shocked we had survived at all.

Iva pointed to the darkness creeping in as the last light of the sun came weakly through the windows. “It’s getting late. Your scarb are tired.”She motioned across the hundreds of scarb that filled the atrium. Many were sitting in small groups or resting on rocks. Even the fliers had all come down to the ground. “I am sure Emerald won’t make a
move on us tonight. We severely weakened her force today. She’ll need time to regroup and re-strategize. We should do the same. Let your scarb rest.”

I felt the weight of my own exhaustion come over me and could only imagine how the others felt. They had been fleeing and fighting all day. My stomach growled.

“What about food?” I asked Iva. Looking about the atrium, I saw no sign of sustenance and only one small drinking fountain. “And water?”

Iva’s forehead creased. “The fountain will have to be enough, until Emerald decides to turn it off.”

“And food?”

Iva only gave a shrug.

Right. Okay. No food and limited water. I thought about making a run to the storage facility and getting some food for us, but Iva quickly reminded me how dangerous it would be. “You’d lose more scarb than would be able to bring enough food back with.”

“She’s right,” Saki agreed.

Fine. My stomach grumbled again. We’d just have to make do. I climbed onto a large boulder in the center of the atrium and addressed the people. “You all did really well today. Emerald wasn’t expecting such courage and resilience.”I gestured over to Saki and her group. “Thank you for your strength and fearlessness. Tonight we’ll rest here.”I saw the group look about them. I knew it wasn’t much: no beds or anything comfortable to sleep on, but there was a measure of safety here for now. “There’s water in the fountain,” I motioned to it. “I suggest you all line up and get a drink. We don’t know how long it’ll last before Emerald turns it off.”Some scarb had already started moving toward it. I could tell most weren’t happy about the situation, but they didn’t complain. I didn’t like to see their tired, drawn-out faces.

“We’ll have a plan for tomorrow,” I said, trying to keep the steadiness in my voice up. “So, sleep well tonight.”

A few grumbles, of “no food,” reached my ears, but most seemed to bear it with patience. I felt bad. I may have chased Emerald off today, but that didn’t make me any more fit to be a queen.

“Don’t worry, Cat,” Derrick whispered to me as I settled down on the cold hard ground for the night. The rest of my guards sat down around me. “You’re doing a good job. You did what we needed to today. Our numbers are over fifteen-hundred, and you scared the pants off Emerald.”

I set my head against the rock wall. The weight of the entire world seemed to be pushing down on me. I didn’t like to feel. I would rather fight. I didn’t require more thought than needed for the moment. But there was no one to fight now and that left me only with my thoughts. “Being queen is so much more than that, though.” I sighed and looked across the dark floor of the atrium at the forms of hundreds of resting scarb. “They need protection. They need provisions. Am I really so much better than Emerald?”

Derrick frowned at my question, but I seriously doubted if it was true. “Emerald uses her people to get what she wants,” I continued. “Am I doing just the same? This whole time I’ve just wanted to get Nate back. I needed more scarb to do that. Well, now I have my scarb, and I realize just how selfish I’m being. These people are willing to lay down their lives for me. I can’t even give them a meal or a decent place to sleep.”

A small smile crept onto Derrick’s lips. I didn’t see anything to smile about. “What is it?” I demanded, feeling a little angry.

“See,” he said gently, “I knew you would become the queen you needed to be. You’re thinking more of them than yourself.”

I wanted to protest, but couldn’t find the words.

“Don’t worry that we have to sleep on the ground or go a little hungry. We’ll gladly do that and much more for you,” he said. He would, I was sure of it, but I wasn’t so certain of all the scarb there in the atrium with me that night. Some had joined us just because they saw how badly Emerald was losing. Such loyalty was flighty. If I didn’t step it up as queen really quickly, I wouldn’t keep them long.

“You’re going to figure it out, Cat,” Derrick said, yawning. “You always do.”

I just hoped he was right.

      
Chapter Twenty-Four

Welcome Blackness

Gray early morning light came in through the tall atrium windows. I’d slept little that night, constantly tossing and turning on the hard stone floor and thinking of how I was going to manage getting my brother back from Emerald while keeping the scarb loyal to me. I wished Ray were there. He always seemed to know the perfect answer to my problems.
Where is
he?
I wondered as I watched a single golden beam of sunlight drift through the dusty air.
Will I ever see him again? Is he even still alive?

Iva fluttered behind me. Her wings rustled gently as she stretched her arms.

“I was wondering when you were going to ask me again about your old love,” she said sleepily, though it didn’t sound like my thoughts had surprised her.

I’d wanted to know the truth about what happened to Ray. This was my chance, but my throat was suddenly clenched up tight.
Did I really want to know
?
What if the truth was worse than wondering?

Iva let me work through my fear. Finally, I asked the question I’d been burning to know. “Is he still alive?”

Iva ran her fingers through her long red hair as she spoke. “I don’t know.” She came around and sat gracefully in a crossed-leg position in front of me. “He was the first human we brought to the colony,” she explained. “Emerald was eager to obtain new forces and try our experiment in the laboratory with the Origin beetles and humans. It was my mission to find suitable human specimens. Emerald was very
specific. She didn’t want just any weakling human; she wanted warriors. It was an experiment in creating a super-scarb. I was sent out to scour the nearest human population; I observed your little community on the island. That was when I found Ray. He was clearly the strongest fighter in your group. That’s why I took him on the mountainside.”

The memory of him being carried high into the air came back to me. That was the last time I’d seen him.

“We brought him to the laboratory. It held him for less than three days. In our haste to perform the experiment, we had overlooked a gap in the netting that surrounded the lab. We can only assume that Ray escaped through that gap and made his way out of the colony. We found two dead guards by the south entrance.”

My heart was racing. So Ray had been here and had escaped. That meant he could still—

“It was my duty to recover him, but then you and your band of humans attacked the colony. Emerald forgot about the lost human, eager to gain more recruits. She allowed the battle to continue for a while to weed out the weaker humans. When there were just a few left, she issued the command for us to take them to the laboratory. The webbing had been fixed, and you were all turned into scarb.”

But not Ray. He had only been in the laboratory for three days. Did that mean—?

“Yes, he could still be human,” she answered my thoughts.

Ray, still human. I did the math in my head. He had been in the colony for three days, and it was a two-day journey by vehicle back to the island, at least three on foot. That meant that Ray could have been coming back to Rimerock as we were leaving for the colony. We might have passed right by each other. He could still be there.

I stood, my heart beating faster than the flier’s wings.

Iva put a hand on my arm. “But if he’s there, that would mean he’s still human.”

“Of course, he’s still human!” I exclaimed, tears of happiness filling my eyes.

Her voice was flat. “And you’re scarb.”

That’s when it hit me. The impossibility of the situation. Ray was human. I was scarb. All my happiness crumbled like eroding sand.

She took her hand off my arm. “Don’t give up. We have yet to see what the future brings.”

More scarb started to stir. They lined up at the drinking fountain, but then there came a cry, “No water. The water’s run out.”

A thin female scarb had issued the cry. It was her turn at the fountain, but when she turned the knob, no water came.

The rest of the line started complaining. “No water.”