The Forsaken (6 page)

Then I hear another sound, faint but distinct. A harsh, guttural shriek. I realize that somewhere out there is a second one of these animals. David signals at me to start moving backward.

I risk a terrified peek again, thinking that the creature will probably be looking for its companion now.

But I’m wrong.

The animal is staring directly at me, its yellow eyes locked on mine.

It sees me. Knows exactly where I am. I start inching back slowly, my belly still on the ground.

The animal raises a hoof and takes a step in my direction. A silvery rope of saliva hangs down from its black gums. I start wriggling away from it faster, arms and legs moving frantically. The creature bares its teeth, taking another step. Then another. It swings its head in David’s direction. Now it has seen both of us.

I finally scrabble to my feet. David does the same. In the second before we turn to flee, I catch a flicker of movement from the corner of my eye, headed our way.

At first I think it’s the second animal. But then I see that it’s a dark figure with a painted face—
exactly like the figure who attacked the blue-eyed boy.
The figure blazes a trail directly toward the creature in a rapid, swirling frenzy.

The animal hears the person coming and arches its neck, emitting that horrible screech again. At least it has lost interest in me and David. It pivots and bares its fangs, still screeching. But it’s no match for the whirlwind heading toward it at maximum velocity. I see the flash of metal blades in the figure’s hands as it descends on the animal.

Everything happens in a blur as knives plunge into the animal’s flank. I can’t see the figure’s face now because its black robes are flying and fluttering all around it.

The figure rides the animal downward as it plummets headfirst into the earth. A long metal blade churns its way through the animal’s throat, blood arcing outward and spattering onto the leaves.

“Run! C’mon!” David screams at me.

I finally turn and race blindly through the forest, branches whipping at my face and hands, lashing the skin. I trip over gnarled roots and fallen vines, but keep scrabbling forward. I hear David hobbling behind me.

The life expectancy here might be eighteen years, but I won’t even have lasted one hour!
I always thought I was smarter than a lot of the kids back home. Yet my classmates and fellow orphans are probably safe right now in the UNA, and here I am on the island, about to die.

It takes another fifteen minutes of running before I realize that I don’t hear anything behind me. The animal’s screeches have ceased. I assume the figure killed it. I wonder if it’s possible that he didn’t see me or David, but that seems unlikely. It’s more like he just waited until one of us distracted the creature before going in for the kill. Like he was using us as bait.

I finally stop running when I reach another clearing. I’m gasping for air like I’m surfacing from a deep sea dive. I stagger around, trembling, looking behind me. Above the canopy I can still see the upper portion of the broken stone staircase, which means I’m not lost. At least not yet. But I don’t see David anywhere.

“David?” I call out softly, afraid to get too loud in case someone—or something—hears me. “Where are you?”

It takes a moment, but I finally hear a faint reply. “Over here.”

I see him emerge from the forest. I move toward him. He’s limping severely now, like he can barely put any weight on his injured foot. Unanchored Soul or not, he’s got to be safer for me to be with than those creatures or the robed figure.

“So, it’s not safe on the ground.” He takes a deep, shuddering breath and then exhales. “When it gets dark, we’re gonna have to climb a tree and sleep in the branches. We can take turns keeping watch.”

I feel sick. “Who do you think that guy with the knives was?”

“No one we want to meet. Hopefully he’s preoccupied with his kill. We need to start a fire and make some torches.”

“That’ll give our position away,” I point out.

“I’m pretty sure he saw us already, and we need some kind of weapons. Besides, torches will keep any animals at bay.”

“We don’t have a way to start a fire,” I tell David, looking around. I’m afraid the robed figure will reappear. But David is already scavenging in the underbrush. He brings up a pair of thick, dry branches.

“Perfect,” he says.

“We have to keep moving,” I remind him, but he limps over to a tree and begins peeling strips of dead bark from its trunk. “What are you doing?”

“Making our torches.”

David wraps the bark in loops around the end of each branch. Then he tucks one branch under his arm and fiddles with the other one. To my surprise, moments later I see a flash of light appear. I realize that somehow, impossibly, he has started a fire. He holds the lit torch in front of him and inspects it.

“How did you do that?” I ask, startled by his acumen out here in the forest.

He looks over at me and arches an eyebrow. “Magic.” It’s only then that I see he’s clutching a handful of matches. “I sewed these into my back pocket, just in case. Figured they might not find ’em.” He passes me the unlit torch and lights the end of it. “It won’t burn for long.”

“Thanks.” I hold my torch out in front of me like a sword.

“So, why do you think you got sent here?” David asks as we start hiking again. “You honestly believe it’s all just a big mistake?”

“Of course,” I tell him. “Why, did you do something?”

He shakes his head. “No, I told you.” He peers around. “We’re exiles now. It doesn’t matter if we’re innocent or not. The UNA doesn’t care about us.”

“I hope you’re wrong.” We keep walking.

I’m still amazed at how desolate this place seems. It feels like David and I are the only two people alive right now.
Other than the robed figure and the creatures trying to kill us.

David gestures up ahead. “Look.” For a moment, I think he has seen someone else, and I feel a surge of fear. But then I realize he’s pointing at a huge oak tree, at least sixty feet tall, with a stout trunk. “That’s the kind of place we could sleep in.”

I don’t really like the idea of climbing a tree and sleeping in it, because I’m afraid I’ll fall out. I also don’t like the idea of falling asleep around David, although so far he has only done things to help me.

He hobbles over to the tree. “You any good at climbing?” he asks.

I shake my head.

“Yeah, me neither.”

I walk over and join him at the tree.

“Hand me your torch,” he says. I give it to him, gazing up at the branches. “My foot’s busted. Can you test it for us?”

“You mean try climbing it? Now? Are you serious?”

“If we test it now, we can find out if it’s safe. If it is, then we’ll come back later today. Make this our base camp until we figure out what to do next, and where to go. We also need to find some fresh water. Maybe we can spot a river or lake from the tree.”

“Fine, but I’m wearing a skirt, so don’t look.” I gingerly put my foot on a low branch and hoist myself up. The branch holds my weight easily. “This might actually work.” I grab hold of another branch above me and pull myself up faster.

“Can you see anything from up there?”

I gaze out into the endless green landscape. “Just more trees.” I pull myself up higher. Luckily, the branches remain sturdy.

David is walking around the tree. “Looks good. I guess we know where we’ll be spending the night.” He sticks one torch into the earth, and then the other, so that they stand upright. “I better get up there too. See if it can hold both our weights. Can you help me?”

I’m about to climb down and help him up, but right as David finishes speaking, what I’ve been dreading all along finally happens.

A robed figure steps out from the trees, just twenty paces from us.

It’s not the one who attacked the animal earlier today. This one is even larger, and he’s wearing a scowling metal mask daubed with orange war paint.

There’s nowhere to go.

David and I are trapped.

“Keep the hell away!” David immediately calls out, grabbing both of our torches. I clamber down from the tree, and he stands protectively in front of me. With shaking hands, I take my torch back from him. “Don’t come near us! I mean it.”

The figure doesn’t answer. He just keeps watching us from behind his implacable mask.

I risk a glance behind me and flinch. Two boys with painted faces lean against other trees.
Where did they come from?
I hear more noises in the distance. Footsteps approaching. We’re being surrounded.

I turn back to the masked figure, panicked. “Who are you?” I call out. “What do you want with us?” My voice is close to breaking. “I don’t even belong here!”

I can hear the boys behind us moving closer. They could kill us right now. Everything starts becoming dreamlike and floaty as the blood rushes from my head.

A muffled voice suddenly speaks from behind the metal mask. It’s deep. Ominous. But it definitely belongs to a teenage boy. “We own you.”

“Wh-what?” I stutter.

“You’re in our sector. We found you. That means we own you.”

The boy’s companions continue moving toward us. More figures emerge from the trees. Twelve in total. All with painted faces and black robes.

“I’ve got a knife!” David lies, sounding pretty convincing. He swings his torch wildly. “If you touch me or the girl, I’ll stab you. Don’t mess with us.”

“We’re taking both of you to see the Monk,” the masked boy continues, ignoring David completely.

I sputter, “I’m not going anywhere with—”

Right then, one of the other boys lunges forward and grabs my arm. He knocks the torch right out of it. I try to swat his hand away, but his jagged fingernails bite angry crescents into my flesh through my blouse. I cry out in pain, but he doesn’t loosen his grasp, even when David tries to push him away with his torch.

“Quit struggling!” the robed figure hisses at me as another boy reaches us. I start screaming and fighting. But they keep grabbing at me, their robes flapping. I feel like I’m being battered by ocean waves, and I fight against the tide.

“Get off me!” I scream.

Figures surround David too, as he curses and tries to punch at them. I see one of them rip the torch from his hands and extinguish it.

“The Monk will tell us what to do with you,” the boy in the metal mask intones loudly. And then, clapping his hands together, he addresses the others: “Quick! Take our new slaves to the Monk!”

“No, wait! Stop!” I shriek, continuing to fight and claw at their faces. I hear David scream as one of the boys stomps on his damaged foot. The boys surround and overwhelm us, chattering and raving. Their rough hands grasp me tight as they begin to propel me through the trees.

Then a voice cuts through the hubbub like a sharp blade, and everyone stops what they’re doing. This new voice is loud, female, and angry:

“Let go of them right now, you ugly bastards!”

A girl is standing on top of a nearby hill in the forest, staring down at us through the trees. She looks fierce, with streaks of blue dye in her hair, and metal piercings in her nose, ears, and lip. A sleeve of homemade tattoos runs down her left arm. She’s wearing jeans and a tank top made out of tanned animal hide.

In her hand is a weapon. It looks like an old-fashioned shotgun, but I’m not certain. All guns are banned in the UNA, except for the AK-47 assault rifles carried by the police.

“If you let ’em go right now, there won’t be any consequences,” the girl calls down to the masked boy.

He looks up at her hungrily. “Maybe we can make a trade.”

“No trades.” The girl carefully steps a few paces down the hillside. She’s tall and athletic, with a feral look in her brown eyes. She’s maybe a year or more older than me. She keeps her gun pointed straight at the boy’s chest. “You know the rules. New arrivals belong to us. You can’t take them if they turn up in the blue sector.”

“They weren’t in the blue sector. They were over by the stairs—”

“Well, they’re in the blue sector now. And this sector is
ours
.”

The boy just sneers at her through his mask. To my horror, I see that his teeth have been chiseled into sharp points. “The rules are changing, Gadya. Every day the Monk grows stronger—”

“You wish,” she interrupts. “But these two are mine.”

I realize they’re bartering over us like we’re pieces of property. “Hey!” I yell. “I’m right here! I don’t belong to either of you.”

“Neither do I,” David adds, shoving one of the robed figures away from him.

“Shut up!” Gadya snaps at us. She turns back to the masked boy. “I’m taking them to our village, whether you like it or not.”

The boy looks around at his companions. All of them are silent, but I sense their bristling hostility.

“Soon your village will be meaningless,” he growls. “The Monk will control this entire island. North and south. East and west. Then where will you go? Into the ocean?” He raises his right hand, showing off a short, curved blade.

Gadya ignores his jibes. “Get your asses up here,” she hisses at me and David.

We exchange glances. It’s not much of a choice. Neither of us knows what’s going on, but we’re not about to question our good fortune.

We head up the hill toward Gadya. None of the boys stop us, although I can feel their eyes heating my back.

“I’m gonna tell the Monk about this!” the masked boy threatens Gadya. “You’ve got no idea how powerful he is now!”

I glance back and see that the boy’s hands are shaking with anger and frustration. Or maybe just from crazed devotion to the Monk—
whoever that is.
The boy’s cohorts draw closer, like they’re preparing to gang up and fight us.

Gadya looks down at us from the hill. “Hurry!” she snaps.

I scramble up the rest of the hillside, with David limping behind me. We finally reach Gadya and look back at the boys. They stand there clutching knives, hatchets, and other primitive weapons.

The masked boy turns and mutters something inaudible to his companions. I hear angry murmurs of agreement as they brandish their knives. I don’t think these boys are going to back down. Apparently neither does Gadya.