The Forsaken (12 page)

But those days are gone
, I tell myself bluntly.
They were all just a pleasant dream—so get over it.
My mom and dad are never coming back home because they probably died long ago. And I’m never going back home either. Home has been obliterated. I’m probably fated to spend the rest of my days on this island, fighting to stay alive. So the sooner I get used to it, the better for everyone. At least I have girls like Gadya and Rika on my side.

I swing myself out of the hammock and pull back my hair, wishing I had a rubber band to keep it out of my face. I walk into the sunlight. It’s even hotter here. The odor of grilling bacon hangs in the air.

A figure steps into view. It’s Veidman.

“Sleep well?” he asks.

I immediately feel self-conscious. I don’t need a mirror to know how bad I look. But I try to play it off. “Better than I thought I would.”

“Listen, I’m sorry about the whole truth serum thing yesterday.” He almost sounds sheepish.

“It’s okay.”

“Good, ’cause I need to talk to you about last night.”

We start walking together along one edge of the clearing.

“Have they got you pulling chores yet?” he asks as we stroll past some other kids. Most of them are already awake, starting their workday repairing damage from the drone attack.

“Who do you mean by ‘they’? I thought you were in charge. You and Meira.”

He laughs softly. “In some ways. Not all.” He pauses for a second. I try to smooth down my tangled hair. “You drink coffee?”

I stop walking. “Wait— You have coffee here?”

“We roast our own. Come with me.” Veidman and I walk along a narrow path at the edge of the camp. “So, I didn’t see the incident last night,” he finally says. “I was fighting in the woods. But Rika says you watched someone get taken?”

“I’ve been trying not to think about it.”

“The first time I saw something like that, I was afraid it was going to happen to me next. I’d wake up in the night. Panicking. Sweating. Freaking out.”

“It’s hard to imagine you like that.” Veidman has an aura of authority, like an adult.

“You’d be surprised,” he replies.

He takes me over to one of the thatched huts, which is stocked with rudimentary provisions. He pours a pungent liquid from a decanter into two chipped ceramic mugs and hands one to me. I take a sip. It’s sludgy like molasses but tastes delicious. We sit down in homemade wooden chairs near the door.

“This better not have any truth serum in it,” I only half-joke as I hoist my mug.

“The only drug in there is caffeine.” He takes a swig from his cup. “See? Totally safe.” His eyes dance. “Like I said, I’m sorry I had to test you yesterday, but not everyone on the wheel is who they appear to be.”

“I know. Gadya told me.” I take another sip. “Why don’t you just give truth serum to everyone in this village and find out who the spy is? I mean, if there is a spy.”

Veidman looks off into space for a moment. “Meira won’t let me. I wanted to, but she made a case against it. Said if we forced people to take the truth serum, it would make us as bad as Minister Harka and the UNA. A lot of kids agreed with her.” He glances down at his coffee mug in contemplation. “We made a compromise. We agreed to test the new kids who arrive, and just watch everyone else really closely.” He shrugs. “Who knows? Maybe I’m wrong to use the serum at all.” Veidman’s eyes have a faraway look in them.

“So you’ve been on this island three and a half years?” I say, to keep the conversation going.

“Just about.”

“And somehow you’ve stayed sane.”

“The wheel gets easier with time. The rules are simple: Just fight the drones and avoid the feelers. You can survive and make a new life for yourself in our village. No ID cards. No earpieces. You can reinvent yourself. Become whoever you want to be.” His eyes grow even more distant. “Some days I’m not even sure we should be searching for a way off the wheel—but don’t tell anyone I said that.”

“You really think there’s a way off?”

He peers at me over his coffee mug. “Yes. The aircrafts in the gray zone hold the key.”

We suddenly hear footsteps crunching down the path toward us. A second later, Liam appears at the doorway. He doesn’t look like he did the night before. In fact, it takes me a second to even recognize him. He’s shirtless, hair back in a bandana, and his face and muscular torso are smeared with dried blood. His arm is still in its sling. He looks savage, like some kind of ancient gladiator, or mythological warrior. I can feel my heart start beating faster.

“What’s up?” Veidman asks, a trace of annoyance in his voice.

“You need to come right away,” Liam tells him. “We found someone during the morning hunt.” He glances at me and adds softly, “Hey, Alenna.”

I’m startled that he knows my name. It almost makes me blush. “Hey,” I tell him back.

I’m struck by the contrast between his fierce appearance and his gentle tone. And of course I’m struck by his physique. I can’t help it. My eyes drift over his olive skin.

“You’ve been out hunting?” I ask, trying to ignore the way he makes me feel.

“We took down two hoofers, and it’s not even nine o’clock.” He smiles crookedly. “Me and four other hunters. We tracked ’em for a mile, then hauled their carcasses back here. We’re gonna bury one in mud to keep it cool.”

“Great,” I say lamely, taking another sip of coffee to cover my awkwardness. I’m no good at talking to boys.

“I heard you volunteered to help with chores last night,” Liam says. “Even after the raid.”

I nod.

“Cool.” He sounds impressed, and I feel my face flush again.

“Liam, can you be more specific about
who
you found and why you’re bothering us right now?” Veidman interrupts. “Alenna and I were talking before you came along.”

“Oh, yeah. Sorry. A lost drone. We’ve got him tied up in the fire pit.”

Veidman puts down his mug. Looks at me. “Guess we better check it out.”

“I guess so.” I feel weird, but in a good way. For once, two attractive boys in close proximity are actually looking at me instead of completely ignoring me.

Veidman and I get up and begin heading back to the fire pit with Liam.

I want to pepper both of them with questions, but I glance over at Veidman and see that he’s looking straight ahead, preoccupied. There’s no chance to talk to Liam either, because he’s walking a few paces in front of us. I notice that even his back has muscles.

When we reach the fire pit, a small crowd is gathered around it. The fire is out, and the pit has been cleared of last night’s wood. A figure, wrists bound with rope, is sitting in the center on a bed of ashes, his back to us.

The crowd watches the figure in silence. I expected them to be taunting or insulting the drone, but they aren’t doing any of that. They’re just staring as he sways back and forth in the pit. I spot Assassin Elite in the crowd, but other than him, these are mostly unfamiliar villagers.

Veidman immediately strides away from me and Liam, directly toward the fire pit. He walks halfway around it, stopping in front of the drone.

“What’s your name?” he asks sternly, but he receives no answer.

I hang back a little with Liam.

“We dragged him here with the hoofers,” Liam whispers to me. “He’s one of the drones who attacked the village last night.”

As we start walking around one side of the pit, I look closer. It’s only then, as I see the red face paint, that I realize this is no typical drone. “Oh my God, that’s David!” I exclaim, rushing forward.

I reach the edge of the pit a few seconds later. Most of David’s paint has been scraped off. He looks exhausted, all the energy kicked out of him. He’s dirty and bruised, and his clothes are just rags. His left foot is badly swollen. He looks over at me, and his eyes brighten with recognition.

“Alenna!”

“This is David,” I say to the crowd, looking around at everyone. “David Aberley. The kid who I woke up next to yesterday when I got here. He’s not a drone. He’s one of us. Let him go!”

The crowd eyes me like they think I’m crazy. I look around for Gadya. She could help confirm my story right now, but there’s no sign of her.

“All I want to know is what you’re doing in our sector,” Veidman says to David, ignoring me. There’s no warmth in his voice. His face is twisted into a scowl, making him look almost ugly—something I would have thought impossible just minutes earlier.

“Stop,” I plead.

I feel a hand on my shoulder. It’s Liam. “Alenna, whether he’s new or not, the drones might have threatened or bribed him last night. He might be corrupted already. Just let Veidman talk to him.”

“I was a drone for less than a day!” David cries out hoarsely, like he’s overheard us. “I was actually trying to get away from them! I got lost.”

It’s obvious that most of the crowd doesn’t believe him.

Assassin Elite steps up on the stone rim of the fire pit and stares down at him. “Lost? I thought you drones were supposed to know this forest. What’s your Monk gonna think of you now, chump?”

“I couldn’t care less, because I’m not a drone,” David insists. “This is ridiculous.”

I look around at the crowd. “Why not just give him some truth serum?”

Veidman doesn’t reply.

“I want to be here with you guys, not with the drones,” David says. “I mean, am I acting like a drone right now? Think about it.”

Veidman crouches down at the edge of the pit, directly in front of David, at his level. “Okay, I hear you. But try to see it from our perspective. It’s difficult to trust someone who attacked us last night, wearing face paint and holding a spear. So just tell me what happened, and then I’ll decide what to do with you.”

“Last night, after that thing in the sky came down, I managed to ditch the other drones who brought me here,” David says. “But then I got turned around in the forest, and—”

“Couldn’t find your friends!” a girl in the crowd yells. “Couldn’t burn down our village and capture any of us!”

Voices rise up in support of her words. Whether David is a drone or not doesn’t matter to these villagers. The fact that he looks like one is enough for them to take their anger out on him.

“Quiet!” Veidman admonishes. He addresses David again: “Keep talking.”

“I lost my way in the dark,” David murmurs. “I couldn’t find anyone. So that’s why I hid in the forest all night and waited until daylight.” He shuts his eyes. “When I got found by your hunters, I thought I was being rescued. All I want is to come and be part of your tribe, or whatever it is. I never wanted to go with the drones to begin with. They forced me to. Alenna and her friend—the girl with the blue hair—can clear all this up for you.”

“Not if you’re secretly a spy!” an onlooker hisses.

The assembled crowd is growing larger, and they’re muttering ominously among themselves. Someone throws a clod of dirt. It barely misses David’s face.

“What are you gonna do with me, then?” David asks. “I’m not the enemy, and I’m definitely not a spy.”

Liam steps forward. “He’s probably telling the truth about that part, at least. We found him one mile east of here, hiding up in a tree. If he’s a spy, he’s a pretty bad one.”

Veidman sighs. Then stands up, still looking at David. “Until I can talk to Gadya and get some truth serum into you, I’m gonna have to lock you up for a little while, unfortunately. In one of our prison kennels. It’s our policy to do this to anyone who turns up looking like a drone.”

“Great,” David mutters. “Guilty until proven innocent. Just like in the UNA.”

“If our hunters hadn’t found you, would you really have joined our village of your own free will?” Veidman asks. “I can’t be sure of that yet.”

David’s shoulders slump. “Fine, then. Just hurry up with your truth serum.”

Behind Veidman, I see a couple hunters make slicing motions across their throats, like they want David dead. Veidman doesn’t notice, but Liam does.

Concerned, Liam moves closer to David, stepping down into the fire pit. “I can take him to the kennels if you want, Vei. Might be safest for him until we get this straightened out.”

“Fine,” Veidman murmurs. “Meira and I will meet you there.”

Liam grabs David and helps him out of the pit.

“It’s gonna be okay!” I call out to David, wanting to help him like he helped me.

Assassin Elite steps from the front of the crowd and takes David’s other arm. Slowly, he and Liam lead David away up one of the trails.

The group begins to disperse. Gadya walks up beside me, appearing from out of nowhere.

“Where were you?” I ask, startled.

“Watching from the back.”

“Why didn’t you say anything? You recognize him, right? Just talk to Veidman.”

Gadya holds up her hand. “I’m not saying anything to Veidman yet. David’s been out of our sight for most of a day. We don’t know what happened to him when we weren’t watching.”

“It just seems really paranoid to treat him like a full-fledged drone, when we know he isn’t.”

Gadya looks irritated. “Hey, if you don’t like how we do things, then go back into the forest and stumble around alone. See how long you last!”

The force of her words backs me off a step. “Look, I’m just trying to learn the ropes here. Don’t get mad at me.”

“I’m not.” She takes a deep breath and then exhales slowly. Finally she says, “All right. Maybe you touched a nerve.”

I nod, trying to understand.

“When I first got here, I didn’t find Veidman and the village right away.” She grimaces in disgust. “I got found by two drones instead. I didn’t know who, or what, they were. They said they’d just arrived on the wheel themselves, so I trusted them. I was green. I let myself get taken advantage of.” Her eyes go distant. “Every day I think about getting revenge for what those bastards did to me.”

I touch her arm gently.

She looks down at my hand. “The Monk’s people don’t live by any rules,” she continues. “Their society’s based on his crazy religious teachings and his desire for power. His drones are drunk on fermented berries half the time, and always planning trouble and destruction. The Monk tells them the first step to getting off the wheel is conquering all the other sectors—at any cost. So even though I don’t agree with some of Veidman and Meira’s decisions, their rules keep us safe. And they keep us human.”