SWAB (A Young Adult Dystopian Novel) (5 page)

The room erupted before I could say more.

“Wait! Just listen to me!” I said, trying to finish my story. But they drowned me out. I stepped up on a wooden crate next to one of the saws. Ray’s not dead!” I shouted.

The crowd stilled, watching me.

“At least, not yet,” I added, softer. “But we have to hurry or he might be.”

A gruff soldier, named Dan, with a red beard stepped forward. “What do you mean, not dead?”

“Yeah,” several others echoed.

“How can he not be dead?”

“Did you meet scarb or not?”

Looking across them, I continued, “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. We did run into scarb, but they weren’t like any others I’d ever seen. For one, they were fliers—”

“Fliers!” A middle-aged woman, named Pam, with a tight black bun laughed. “Sounds like Cat just brought us here to tell us stories. My daughter says she has a knack for getting attention.”

“They
were
fliers,” I shouted. “There was a female with greenish skin, the fastest scarb I’ve ever seen.” Their faces showed only disbelief. “She had these two bodyguards with her. They wouldn’t let me get to Ray. They flew him over the mountain.”

Only open mouths and unkind eyes met me.

Officer Reynolds took charge again. “What I want to know is what you and Ray were doing up on the mountains alone?”

Officer May gave a cough. “They’re teenagers, Tom. I don’t think that’s too hard to guess.”

My cheeks flushed hotly. Before any more accusations could be made, I hefted one of the heavy packs. “We went back for this,” I said flatly. “Do you recognize these?”I practically shoved the pack in their faces.

“You got the parts?” Sergeant Sims, asked, looking at me with his one eye. He’d gone with us on that mission to Durango. I unzipped the bag. “Wow.”

I could’ve kissed him. “We got the packs last night, but then that huge storm came in. We wanted to get back, but we had to stay the rest of the night in the forest. This morning, the scarb found us and
took Ray with them. I think they were headed to the colony in the eastern hills. We have to save him.”

No one spoke for several long moments. Many of them just stared at the parts.

Office May’s gentle voice sounded first. “If there’s a chance Ray is alive, I think we have to help him.”

Hope started to warm the cold in my chest. I motioned to the packs and said, “We have the parts we need to fix the fire trucks.”

Officer Reynolds scratched his goatee. “Yes, we have the parts. We’ll have our mechanics start on the truck first thing in the morning. We’ll continue with the plan. The eastern colony will be underwater in less than a week.” His hazel eyes darted to me.

A week?
He might as well as said forever.
Ray needs us now!

As if guessing the direction of my thoughts, Officer Reynolds added, “And if any member of the island decides to get brave and try to rescue him on their own before then, they will find themselves without the support of the community.”

The rescue plans already forming in my head shattered as if hit with a hammer.
Without the support of the community,
his words reverberated in my mind.
I can’t do this alone. I need their help.
This was bigger than me. I would just have to bite my tongue and do it their way.

For good measure, I looked him back in the eye and said, “Yes, sir. Thank you.”

The sky was darkening. People filed out of the Post and back to the security of their homes. I didn’t want to answer any more questions, so I slipped out the back. A thick covering of clouds veiled the stars and moon, leaving the world below in nearly perfect blackness. It was broken here and there by the occasional campfire. I followed the path back to my tent by memory rather than sight, a zombie in the night. After zipping the door shut tight behind me, I
flopped down onto my cot, and the tears finally came out.
I wish Nathan was back
.
I needed my brother then.
He’d understand more than anyone how I felt
.
Ray was everything to that kid. He was more than just a friend, or an older brother. But Nathan wasn’t expected back until the end of this week.

How will I tell Nathan about Ray?

“Ray,” I whispered, remembering the touch of his lips on mine. “Please be alive.”At last, we were going to launch our attack upon the scarb colony. If that is where the scarb took him, we were going to rescue him. I just hoped it wouldn’t be too late.

Chapter Five

Troop Three

“But you can fix it, right?” I asked Travis, the red-headed mechanic, the next morning. After splashing water on my puffy eyes to try and hide my cry the night before, I practically dragged Travis out of his hovel so we could get a good start on the fire trucks. The sooner the trucks were done, the sooner we could get to the eastern mountains, attack the colony, and search for Ray.

Travis rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand, smudging it with a line of black grease. “I would really like to replace the alternators on this one if I could—they’re on the verge of going—but we’ll just have to make do with what you brought. These things are so ancient,” he motioned to the three diesels, “I’m amazed they run at all.”

“They run because you make them,” I said with a smile of encouragement.

“I’m just glad Grim had enough sense not to run them with old fuel,” Travis said. Grim Rodgers was the old backwoods country man who’d found the fire trucks on his land.

“I can’t wait to blast that colony with several hundred thousand gallons of water,” I muttered.

Travis grunted his agreement then slid under one of the diesels. “They kill each other, too, you know.”He said from under the engine. “My whole family was wiped out when one queen got all bothered by a younger one encroaching on her territory. You should’ve seen it. It was like all hell had broken loose.”

“Either way, it sucks for humans.”

Travis grunted his agreement as he turned a bolt.

I picked up one of the loose hoses on the side of the fire truck. “How much water is it going to take to flood the colony and kill them all?

“Those handheld hoses can pump out two hundred gallons a minute. Times that by three working trucks, and that’s a good start. Hand me that wrench.”I did. “The problem is, the trucks can only hold five hundred gallons each. Without a hydrant to connect to, they’ll run out of water in less than four minutes. But if we can get the hoses hooked up to the lake just east of the colony, we should be able to flood the colony.

“I sure wish your boyfriend was here. He sure has a way with a rusted trany.” He slid back to get another part. Seeing my face, he said, “Oh, sorry. I probably shouldn’t mention him, with him being gone and all. I sure hope you’re right that the scarb haven’t killed him.”

Wow, Travis, you really have a knack for being blunt,
I wanted to tell him, but opted for a small “Thanks.” instead. Travis was good with cars, but not so good with people. I heard that he’d gotten most of his scarb kills with his tools. I eyed the cart beside me.

“Can you hand me that spring compressor?” he asked, pointing to some metal contraption on his cart.

“This one?” I held it up, hoping it wasn’t one that had been jammed into a scarb’s arm socket. He nodded.

After spending the entire day roasting in the hot May sun helping Travis, I headed over to the Post a little early to get a front row seat for the meeting. Mrs. Weatherstone and some of the other women had prepared a large deer roast for the attendees, but I was hardly hungry. While the others gobbled up the food, I picked at my potatoes and the twisted carrots they’d grown that winter.

“Not feeling well?” Mrs. Weatherstone asked, sitting on the crude handmade bench with me.

“Not really,” I admitted. “I just want to get on with this. Are you coming this time?”

She nodded. I felt relieved, not just because we would have a good medic but because I felt like I needed her. There were few people in the town that stood by me, let alone liked me.
But they need me, whether they like me or not
.
I’m a good fighter.
Officer Reynolds knew that, and so did the others.

Then, someone I didn’t expect to see plopped down beside me. “Cassandra? What are you doing here?” I asked, trying to keep my voice nice.

“My dad says I’m old enough now, so I can come,” she said with a haughty toss of her auburn hair.

I didn’t know we needed someone to polish our nails for us.
I purposely turned my back on her to talk with Mrs. Weatherstone about medical supplies.

Officer May quieted everyone down after a bit, and Officer Reynolds started the meeting. Travis gave a report on the progress of the trucks. “The first is almost ready,” he stated. “But the second one is being a bugger.”

Sergeant Sims, got up next to explain our plan of attack. He pulled up the white board Mr. Blackwell used for our class. It had a rough layout of the colony on it. Pointing with a whittled stick, he said, “Officer May and his thirty soldiers will take the east entrance. Officer Reynolds and a troop of forty-five will take the main entrance at the south,” he pointed to the mark on the board that represented the largest opening into the colony. “And Mr. Davin, who has been recently appointed as an officer, will lead the last troop to the west entrance.” He tapped on the third opening. “We will pass out your
troop assignments, and meet with each troop individually tomorrow night to discuss specific plans and strategy.”

Several soldiers passed out handwritten notes. I took mine from a young blond soldier who was Ray’s age but almost twice Ray’s size—pure quarterback material.

“You’re in my troop,” he told me in a slow southern-drawl, dipping his cowboy hat.
Was that a smile on his face? Does he think it’s a joke, or is he actually happy about it?

He went on to hand Mrs. Weatherstone her assignment before I could figure it out. I scanned the paper.

Catherine McCabe. Troop Three. Officer Davin.

Assignment: Front-line on-foot combat.

Combat was good, but I groaned.
I’m in Mr. Davin’s troop.

“Look at the bright side,” Cassandra suddenly said over my shoulder. “If you’re in Mr. Davin’s troop, maybe you can redeem yourself.”

I could’ve smacked her. I folded the paper and tucked it neatly into my pocket instead.
Keep your cool, Cat. Keep your cool.

“I heard Derrick talking to you,” Cassandra continued. “Sounds like we’re all in the same troop.”

“You’re in Troop Three, too?” I asked.

“Yup,” she said with a cutesy shrug of her shoulders.
Could this get any worse?
“I can’t wait to give those slimy worms a piece of my fist.” And for the first time Cassandra and I had something in common.

Chapter Six

Pantry

I flopped down on my cot, so exhausted that sleep quickly overcame me.

I was twelve years old riding my purple ten speed bike. I was coming back home with Nathan and my best friend Jenny after a day of swimming at the river. As soon as we hit Main Street, we could tell something was wrong. My mind instantly went to the monsters I’d heard my parents talking about when they thought Nate and I weren’t listening. But it was all over the news and I’d seen enough to know that the bigger cities were in chaos. The government was responding to some kind of disease.

But that was the big cities. That wasn’t Shawnee, Kansas. Things like that weren’t supposed to happen here. But windows were broken on the shops that lined the street. An elderly woman was sobbing on a park bench, a line of blood running down her hand. Sirens were going off. A car alarm honked repeatedly, and no one stopped it.

“Hurry!” Jenny yelled, and we peddled as fast as we could down the side street that led to our houses.

I was the fastest rider and took the lead, but I made sure that Nathan was keeping close to me. He had just turned ten that Sunday. His legs barely reached the pedals of the bike Dad had given him.

“Stay close,” I told him. “If I stop, you keep going home.”Something horrible had happened in our town, and the danger could still be there.

Nothing felt safe. Even the candy shop we usually stopped at to buy Swedish Fish and lollipops could hold any number of horrors
now. We biked past the shop’s dark windows without pausing. Home was the only place we could go.

A corpse lay on the sidewalk right ahead of us. There was some kind of green liquid smeared across the brick wall. I saw spots and felt bile rise in my throat. But I knew we had to keep moving.

“Turn right!” I yelled back at Jenny and Nathan. I tried to warn them not to look, but they still saw it. Jenny screamed, her face turning ashen. Nathan made a sound somewhere between a gag and a whimper.

I looked back over my shoulder. “Don’t stop!” I yelled and looked down both sidewalks. Jenny had stopped her bike in front of the body and was sobbing, her thin body shaking. Nathan had skidded to a stop to keep from crashing into her.

Pedaling back to them, I stopped and cried, “Come on! We have to keep going!”Jenny just stood there. Nathan looked from me back to the body. I grabbed his hand. “Come on, Nathan. We have to get back to Mom and Dad.”

A silent tear ran down his cheek. His lower lip trembled.

“It’s going to be okay,” I told him, even though I knew it wasn’t true. The body lying next to us made me dizzy and weak, but I knew in my core that I had to be strong. I had to get Nathan home, had to get us to Mom and Dad where we could be safe. “Now, follow me back home. Can you do that?”

Nathan nodded, his light brown hair rustling in a breeze that reeked of some strange metallic smell. I turned to Jenny, who had gone comatose. “Jenny, please come. We’ve got to go.”