The Fearless (29 page)

Outside, it’s chilly, mist brushing the tops of the tents. The ground is churned and muddy. I can hear the chug of machinery, a horse nickering and, far away, a voice shouting orders, but at this end of the camp, there doesn’t seem to be anyone around. The tents are laid out in rows. I peek inside one, but it’s empty save for more beds, laid out as neatly as the tents themselves, and a stove, dark and cold.

A hand lands on my shoulder.

I gasp, expecting it to be one of the men who brought me here, shoving his trank gun in my face. Instead, I see a girl in a Magpies’ uniform with her hair tied back in a thick plait, escaped strands hanging in corkscrews around her face. ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ she says.

My mouth drops open. ‘Marissa?’

For a moment, she looks at me blankly, and then recognition dawns in her eyes. ‘
Cass?
’

We hug, half-laughing, half-crying. ‘Oh my God,’ Marissa says when she lets go of me. ‘I thought you were dead. How did you get here?’

‘How did
you
get here?’

‘A group of Magpies came to Hope, recruiting. Being in the Patrol was OK, but after everything that happened with that boy, and you and Jori going missing, everyone was so scared. When the Magpies told us there was a way to actually stop the Fearless – really make a difference – I just had to sign up. Mayor Brightman wasn’t happy, but . . .’ She shrugs.

‘Do you know if Jori’s OK?’ I say. ‘He was brought here with me – I was looking for him—’

‘He was?’ Marissa frowns. ‘I’m not sure. We can ask someone, though. Hey, are you hungry? It’s almost lunchtime.’

No sooner have the words left her mouth than the smell of food drifts towards me through the fog, making my stomach rumble.

‘Yeah,’ I say.

‘Come to the mess tent and eat with us, then, and we’ll ask someone about Jori afterwards. I want to know where you’ve been and what you’ve been up to.’ Concern passes over her face like a cloud on a sunny day. ‘You look so
thin
, Cass.’

‘I’m OK,’ I say, although my legs are starting to feel shaky and I want to sit down.

As we walk, she tells me about her time with the Magpies so far. Apparently the guy in charge, Colonel Brett, has been taking back countries all over Europe, and now he’s come here to do the same. Marissa is among a large group of new recruits being trained to round up the Fearless, who the Magpies are going to put to work to rebuild everything. I listen in amazement. I can hardly believe it’s true.

Then, as we reach a clearing in the middle of the tents, she looks back over her shoulder at me. ‘Oh, and did you know Sol’s here?’

My heart skips a beat. ‘What?’

‘Yeah, and Andrej. Rob wanted to come as well, but he got in trouble for something with Captain Denning and he told the Magpies not to take him. He was
furious
, but I’m glad he’s not here.’

‘Me too,’ I say, and I mean it.

‘Oh, but Sol is going to be
so
glad to see you! He was really cut up when you disappeared – he wanted to go after you, but his dad forbade him. It was awful to think that that boy had kidnapped you and there was nothing any of us could do.’

‘What? Myo didn’t kidn—’ I shut my mouth again with a snap. I don’t want to talk about Myo. I don’t even want to think about him. If that’s what people assume happened, then fine. He deserves it. Luckily, Marissa’s already talking again and doesn’t seem to have heard me.

Although, if people do think he kidnapped me, what happened to my note?

Marissa takes me to a big, open-sided tent in the middle of the camp. It’s packed, people sitting at long wooden benches that remind me of the refectory back on Hope. They all wear the Magpies’ uniform, and conversations in many different languages and accents fills the air. I glance over at the long tables at the back of the tent where people are standing beside big metal pots of food, and my heart skips another beat. The people serving have silver eyes. They’re
Fearless
.

I look for restraints, and don’t see any. How can they be just standing there, calmly doling out the food? Then I notice their empty expressions, their slack faces, their slow, jerky movements, as if they’re operating on some sort of autopilot. One of them, a woman, has bruised, swollen eyes, her eyelids the colour of raw liver.

Marissa sees me staring at them. ‘Amazing, isn’t it?’ she says. ‘You’d never think an operation that quick could cure them.’

‘An operation?’ I say.

‘I won’t tell you now. It might put you off your lunch.’ She makes a face and leads me across to a table at the back of the tent.

I see Sol and Andrej at the same time as they turn round and see me.

‘
Cass?
’ Sol sounds as incredulous as Marissa did when she first saw me. He gets up and comes over.

‘Hey,’ I say.

‘I thought you were dead,’ he says.

I give him a small smile. ‘Not yet.’

‘For God’s sake, Sol, let her sit down,’ Marissa says. ‘She looks like she’s about to pass out.’

‘Of course. Sorry.’ Sol leads me to the table, and Andrej, who’s staring at me as if he’s just seen a ghost, scoots over so I can sit down.

‘I’ll get you some food,’ Marissa says. The others already have bowls of broth in front of them. As she hurries off, Sol pours me a cup of water. The other people sitting here are all about our age; I’m guessing they’re new recruits too. Most of them smile, but one boy, dark haired with freckles, just looks at me through narrowed eyes. His stare makes me uncomfortable, and I’m relieved when Marissa returns with a bowl and a spoon and I have something to do with my hands.

‘OK, tell,’ Marissa says as I eat my broth. ‘What
happened
to you?’

Realizing I don’t have any choice but to tell them, I give them a highly edited version of the truth, leaving many things out – comforting Myo after Danny and April and their baby were killed; that night in the farmhouse; escaping from the Fearless and our kiss in the roof space of the Torturehouse. I have to forget that. Forget
him
. It meant nothing.

Nothing
.

‘So he didn’t kidnap you?’ Andrej says when I’ve finished.

I shake my head, feeling my face grow warm. Across the table, the dark-haired boy continues to watch me through narrowed eyes.

‘I can’t believe you helped him escape.’ Andrej sounds disgusted.

I look him squarely in the eye. ‘He said he could help me. I had to get Jori back. And I did. I’m not going to apologize for anything.’

Marissa shoots Andrej a filthy look. ‘It’s OK. We understand. I would have done the same thing.’

‘Cass!’

I look round. Nadine’s striding towards us. ‘What are you doing here?’ she says. ‘You should be resting.’

I explain. She doesn’t look impressed, but I insist I’m OK. If I have to spend another minute lying in bed, I’m going to go crazy.

‘I guess if you’re feeling up to it, we should sort you out with a uniform, then.’ She turns to Marissa. ‘Will you take her? You can bring her back to me afterwards.’

Marissa nods, and when the meal’s finished, she takes me to a long row of Portakabins at the edge of the camp, right up against the fence, which she says is electrified. I remember the chugging sound I heard earlier; there must be a generator somewhere. One of the cabins, much larger than the others, is set apart, surrounded by another fence. The windows are boarded, and on our side of the compound stands a young Magpie with a gun – not a trank gun but a shotgun.

‘Is that where they’re keeping the—’ I begin.

‘Yup.’ Marissa points at metal box with a lever sticking out of it. ‘See that? If you hear a siren and it doesn’t stop after ten seconds or so, run to the training field and don’t look back.’

‘What is it?’ I ask, as something thuds hard against the Fearless Portakabin from inside.

‘Alarm. For if any get loose.’

‘Have they?’

She shakes her head.

‘But why are they even here? What do they do with them?’

Marissa makes a face. ‘It’s pretty gross. Apparently they do something to their brains.’

I stare at her. ‘Eh?’

‘I know, it sounds brutal, doesn’t it? But it obviously works. It could mean no more Fearless – can you imagine?’

I feel a stab of panic as I think of Jori, lying in one of those tents somewhere. What if he’s Altered enough to need the operation?
I have to find him
.

Marissa climbs the steps of one of the other Portakabins and knocks. A muscular woman with short blonde hair sticks her head out. ‘Yeah?’

Marissa gently shoves me forwards. ‘Cass needs a uniform.’

‘Righto. You’d better come in, then.’

The Portakabin has an electric light. Inside, stacks of clothes are neatly folded on metal shelves. Where did the Magpies get all this stuff? The woman measures me and fits me out with new boots, combats, a T-shirt, lightweight zip-up jacket and a heavier, waterproof jacket to wear over the top. I have a scarf and a cap too. She drops my old clothes – the bunker clothes – into a metal bin marked
recycling
. I’m glad to see them go.

‘Perfect!’ Marissa says when I’m dressed. ‘Now you look like one of us.’

And that’s when I realize, like it or not, I’ve just been recruited into the Magpies.

After Cass and Marissa leave the mess tent, I sit there, staring into my bowl. I’ve dreamed about seeing her again for so long, and now she’s here.

She’s
alive
.

I throw down my spoon with a clatter and run through the camp to the clothes store.

Marissa and Cass are coming down the steps. Cass is wearing a uniform now. With the weight she’s lost and the shadows under her eyes, the black makes her look pale, washed out.

But she’s still beautiful.

So
beautiful.

God, I’ve missed her.

‘Can I speak to Cass for a second?’ I ask Marissa.

Marissa shrugs. ‘I’ll wait here,’ she tells Cass. Cass nods, then follows me around the side of one of the tents, where it’s more private.

‘Are you really OK?’ I ask her.

She nods again.

I swallow. ‘I mean, that boy – he didn’t . . .
do
anything to you, did he?’

A strange look flickers across her face. ‘No. No way.’

‘Because if he did, I’ll find him. And I promise you I’ll make him pay.’

She smiles at me. ‘I’m all right. Don’t worry about me.’

Silence. This doesn’t feel like the big reunion I imagined. I thought she’d be happy to see me, but she seems sad about something.
Angry
, almost.

‘I found your note,’ I say.

Her eyes widen. ‘You did?’

‘Yes. I – I got rid of it. No one else who’s still on Hope knows you went with that boy voluntarily. I thought, if you made it back . . .’

‘Oh. Thank you. That was . . . good of you.’

I take a deep breath. ‘Why
did
you go with him?’

‘I told you. He said he could help me get Jori back. I had to trust him – no one on the island was even prepared to try.’

Not even you
, her accusing gaze says, and I remember, with a wave of shame, how all I did that night was tell her to go back to her apartment.

‘I’m sorry.’ I look down at the ground. ‘I was just—’

‘Following the rules, I know.’ Her tone is as hard as her eyes were a moment ago. Anger flares inside me, but when I glance up, she’s looking apologetic.

‘Sorry. That was uncalled for. Your dad’s Hope’s mayor. Of course you had to follow the rules.’

I close my eyes, open them again. ‘I want to tell you something,’ I say.

She frowns at me.

‘My dad,’ I rush on. ‘The Fearless are his fault. I mean, it was him – his company – that created them.’

Her eyes widen. ‘
What?
’

‘You know he worked for a medical research company?’

She shakes her head. ‘I know he did something scientific, but I never really knew what.’

‘His company, PharmaDexon, created the drug that turned people into Fearless. And then Dad sold the formula to the enemy, who made it stronger.’

‘I knew it.
I knew it
.’

Now it’s my turn to frown. ‘You – what do you mean?’

‘That’s why Hope was so well set up, isn’t it? He’d already decided who he wanted to save from the Fearless, because that was easier than stopping them. And that’s why he pretended that after the Invasion, everything just stopped, and the mainland was still overrun with Fearless. I found these articles while I was away, Sol. The government didn’t just disappear. People tried to fight the Fearless, and they almost succeeded. He must have known that.’

‘I’m so ashamed of him,’ I say, my voice hoarse. ‘But I’m not like him, Cass. You have to believe me. That’s why I’m here. I—’

‘Cass?’ Marissa calls.

Cass glances round. Is that relief on her face? ‘I’d, um, better get back. I should go and find Nadine,’ she says.

A siren sounds, marking the start of the afternoon’s training. By the time it stops, Cass is gone, and everything else I wanted to say to her still hangs, unspoken, in the air around me.

Standing with the others in the bottom of the hollow near the bunker, I watch Ben limp forward to light the last candle. ‘Goodbye, Cy,’ he says, his voice cracking as he straightens up again. ‘We won’t forget you, buddy.’

Tana gives a gasping wail. She’s clinging to Gina, her body heaving with sobs. ‘This is your fault,’ she hisses at me. Her eyes – one blue and one silver, because without Cass here, there’s no need for any of us to wear lenses, or for me to wear my eyepatch – are bright with tears. ‘If you hadn’t gone off on that crazy mission for that sister of yours, he’d still be here.’

She storms out of the circle of candles, making the flames flicker. Gina goes after her.

In ones and twos, the rest of us return to the bunker as well, no one speaking. This was meant to be a memorial service for Cy – for all we know, he’s still alive, even if he is Fearless – but it feels more like a funeral. The weather matches the sombre mood; it’s only one in the afternoon, but the sky’s full of cloud and it feels like it’s getting dark already. Patches of snow still cling to the hills, and the ground is as hard as iron. The cold bites through my clothes. I haven’t been able to get warm since we came back.