A Silence Heard (15 page)

My bro snapped his head back up and gave me such a look that I almost fell over. His hands formed into fists and his companions stepped forward.

“We cannot leave. We told you that. Implants. Implants that bind us here,” he said in so loud a voice that all turned their heads to see who had made such a racket.

I shielded my bro from their view with my bod and pressed my finger to my lips. Deogol sighed. I leant close. “I thought I would see Aefre. She is not here?”

“Not all that were took made it this far. All I know is that she may have have succumbed to Carnies.”

I shuddered and I felt a hand upon my shoulder. Kendra leant against me and I took her arm. Her face was pale and the cuts across it looked red and sore. She leant forward and spoke. “If we overthrow these Agros, my dears, then your implants will be void. They cannot hurt you if they are dead.”

Deogol shook his head and the other Meeks glanced downwards.

“The implants will self-destruct if those that control them no longer do so. They check on them at regular slots. If they forget or do not, we die.”

“Who, who keeps tabs on you?”

“’Dolt called Hacket, Sis.”

“Do you know who made these implants?” Kendra said.

“Some Tech or other.”

“His or her name?”

“Pratt.”

Kendra nudged my elbow and we walked a little distance away.

“Pratt must be saved, and Pratt must save the Meeks.”

“What if he will not? What if his injuries are too much and he does not survive? What if…”

“I was not going to mention this, but circumstances have forced my hand.”

“Mention away Kendra, for I see a look upon your bloodied face that fills me with anxiousness.”

“Do not be a-feared. You see I spent much time with some Techs.”

“What? This most important stuff you kept from us? Do you know how to fix the kiddles?”

“No. I gleaned certain bits of info that have been most useful, but nothing as grand as these implants. Do not fret, I will go to Eadgard and Brennus and ask them to bring the Pratt to us.”

Kendra left me to puzzle again about who she was. I looked to where The Meeks stood. They all wore the same garb: dark brown pantaloons and long, baggy shirts with big black buttons running from throat to thigh. All looked to my bro as he chitchatted about who knows what, all except for the girl who told me about his treachery. She lifted her gaze and stared at me hard. Behind Deogol’s back, she gestured for me to follow her.

I walked to where she now stood, which was a little away from the rest. She reached inside the pocket of her shirt and held out a small, round, grey device. The girly handed the thing to me. I gazed at it, shook it and even gave it a sniff. That made her smile and I saw for the first time of setting eyes on these little ‘uns, a loosening of her features.

“Here, I’ll show you,” she said, and pressed the top. A flap opened and a tiny screen lit up. She tapped it and all sorts of symbols and equations and numbers and stuff that made no sense to me, appeared. I shrugged, she sighed. Perhaps she thought that Meekness ran in the family. It most def does not. I am living proof.

“I cannot make head nor tail of these markings,” I said and the girly snatched the device from my open palm.

“These, ‘markings’, are the equations that put the firepower into the weapons the Agros used against you. To my humiliation, I programmed them.”

“Do not look so sad and downcast. If you made them, then you can destroy them.”

“Why, yes. I can.”

“What’s your tag, little ‘un?”

“Esme.”

“Benign defender. Time to live up to your name Esme, and defend those that are in peril.”

“This I know. This I can do. I will talk with Deogol and the others.”

“Nah, we must make haste, discussions can hamper our escape.”

Esme looked to the ceiling for the briefest of secs, and then said, “It is done and we are all agreed.”

“What? How?”

“The implants connect us. One thought, one purpose.”

I scratched my head and whistled. These Agros, or these Agro Techs that once were, knew how to subjugate all right. I looked around and saw the Meeks gather around Deogol. Esme joined them and they stood in a bigly circle. Even Elita. Nuncio and Lucus shook off their grief and joined their fellow Meeks. Kendra and the others scurried over and I told them what I had learned from Esme about disabling the Agro weaponry.

“This is good news, Adara. Kendra has explained all and I concur. I will bring Pratt.”

“I’ll gae with ye, Eadgard,” Brennus said and both males walked towards the opening where they had plonked said Agro before entering.

Wirt shuffled close to me and put his welcome arm around my waist. I took Kendra’s hand and we stepped away from the clump of Meeks. They moved in close and formed a tight circle, their heads touching and their arms held out behind them.

It was an oddly sight indeed and I would have peered closer had my attention not been diverted by the sound of fisticuffs and yells. Kendra, Wirt, and I turned away from the Meeks and looked to the doorway.

An unpleasant sight met my eye. Eadgard and Brennus staggered backwards and forwards’ fighting off a barrage of thwacks and blows from Agro guards. I was about to race to their aid when I heard a strange guttural sound that caused a stiffening in my legs and bod. I could move nowt but my head. Wirt and Kendra stood rigid too. I looked again to the Meeks.

Deogol broke away from his chums and stared at me. He scrunched up his eyes for a sec, and then opened them wide. Pointing a finger in my direction, he said, “Sing Sis.”

“Wha?”

“Sing the
Song of Forgetfulness
. Just the tune. Words will only confuse matters.”

I struggled to move, but could not.

“Sing it loud and true.”

“Deogol?”

“Quickly. You must.”

There was a look of frantic fear upon his face and all my sis instincts switched on. I opened my mouth and sang the sweet/sad melody. As I did so, Deogol returned to the Meeks and blended into their shapeless huddle.

Without words to give it meaning, I thought it would come out all wrong, but it did not. The tune sounded so pure and powerful that I could not help but let it soar and roam the place like an eagle searching for prey. As I neared the final chords, the notes seemed to blend and weave and take on another cadence that I had not intended.

I sang another note and another, until an unfamiliar tune came out. It was high and complex, and I swear sounded more like sickly comps attempting to voice their antsy, than any song I had heard. I began to tremble and sweat as the pitch rose to one final piercing note.

At the sound of it, the Meeks twitched and began to move sideways in rhythmic steps. I ceased, but they continued, making a low vibrating throaty sound. Their feet thumped against the ground echoing their measured humming noise. The strange chant grew louder and their weird dance faster, until they whirled around as one great swizzle of flesh.

Then they stopped.

They dropped their arms to their sides, lifted their heads and gulped in air as though deprived of it. My limbs relaxed and I felt Kendra and Wirt grab onto my hands as my bod sagged. I held onto them tightly so as not to fall. The last notes I sang seemed to rip out my innards and replace them with gloop.

Deogol turned to me, tapped his forehead and bowed. The others did the same and gave me a knowing look that I could not rightly return. A thought stirred in my noggin. A thought put there by Ryce. “Meeks are fashioned. Mother’s wombs used.” I blinked away his lie-filled words that slept inside my brain, only to be awoken at times of doubt about these Meeks and their oddly behaviour. “Nah,” I said out loud.

“What gives, sis?”

“Nowt. Do what you must do,” I said and showed my bro a most forced grin. He returned it and nodded to Esme.

She stepped towards the gap in the wall, took the device thingy from her pocket, the same one I’d seen only a few secs before, and held it in her hand. She tip-tapped the screen and paused. Esme turned, showed the display to the others and they scrutinised what she had punched in.

“All disarmed. All done in,” Deogol said.

We looked towards the opening and the guards were gone. So too were Eadgard and Brennus.

“Whatever occurs from now on, for better or worse, will be as nothing. For we, the Meeks, with Adara’s help, have hoisted the Agros well and truly with their own petard,” Esme said and I was reminded of that Aamlet blokey again.

Time for action, not reflection, I thought and cheered along as all the young ‘uns whooped for joy. Then I wondered, what the huff is a ‘petard?’ and, how did I help again?

Chapter Fourteen

More Revolting Meeks

Their shouts of joy were cut short when Brennus blundered into the room. There was a cut above his right eye and blood dribbled from his nose in lumpy blobs. He stumbled towards us and near collapsed into Wirt’s outstretched arms.

“Eadgard, they have taken him. Too many fer us tae fight.”

“Where did they take him?” Kendra said.

“I did nae see.”

“We must find him, Adara. Who knows what they will do to him.”

“Wait. We cannot lurch around without some knowledge as to his whereabouts. Brennus, what occurred?”

“Pratt, Edwena, gone when we arrived, only guards. Angry,” he said through gasps.

“But the Meeks disabled their weapons.”

“Ay, rightly so, Adara, but still they make for a goodly club. And they used them as such.”

Deogol put his head in his hands and squatted on the floor. The other Meeks did so to. I was tempted myself, so overcome with worry and fear for my friend. Then I flinched at the sounds coming from the corridor. Muffled shouting’s bangs and shrieks spilled into the room. The air became thick with a panic sour stench and I felt a quiver in my belly.

Brennus pulled away from Wirt and tried to stand upright but fell against my shoulder. Although feeble from my song, I managed to keep him vertical whilst Kendra grabbed her Synthbag and took a Steriwipe from it. She cleansed Brennus’s face and he thanked her with a smile. Taking a goodly breath, he straightened. “I am better for the gentle nursing. I’ll keep ye safe from whatever be outside,” he said and adopted a combat stance: legs apart and slightly bent, fists raised and waiting to clobber anything that came through the portal.

More scary noises poured in and the kiddles began to wail. Kendra turned to them and spoke in a firm voice, “No time for weeping and wailing, little ‘uns. You are strong, of that, I am sure and certain. Rise from your crouching and let us show these Agros who is in control.”

They slowly stopped crying, sniffed and thinned their lips. Elita was the first to stand. She wiped her eyes and took in a goodly lungful of tainted air, then let forth a piercing whistle. The Meeks jumped to their feet and Deogol clapped his hands. “Esme is right, whatever happens, happens. We are stronger than before, thanks to Adara.”

“Me? Not alone. Give thanks too to all who stand amongst you now.”

Deogol and the other Meeks exchanged a secretive look and smiled at me. I scratched my head and decided to let the matter rest. Other more pressing issues were of concern. “Anyhoo, we must go and look for Eadgard,” I said and made a move towards the exit. My bro stayed me with a raised hand.

“You are right. Sis, there is but one place that Eadgard will be took.”

“Then we must go. Tell us where and we will free him.”

“Nah, Sis, not alone. We will take you.”

“But, Deogol, do you not fear the Pratt and his viciousness?”

“Yep, a lot, but they will fear us more.”

“How so? Will you use their weapons against them like you did here?”

“No. That could only be used once.”

Esme put her head to one side and said, “Deogol, have you the stingbangbang?”

“The what?” I said.

“Something small we worked on behind the Agros backs and eyes.”

“It is weapon to hurt them and only them,” Elita said and grinned in such a way that the hairs about my bod raised themselves in fear. “Before you sang the thing was merely a prototype. Now, it is all charged. Now, we know.”

“Well, I wish you’d enlighten me.”

Deogol rummaged in his shirt pocket and took a small square object from it. The Meeks closed their eyes and did the hummy thing again and the device emitted a bright yellow light. My bro-bro touched the screen and all kinds of symbols careered across it, tumbling, swirling and jumbling up until the image froze on a particularly complex looking equation. He nodded, showed said maththingy to the others and said, “Goodly work. Let us to go to the high command place. That is where your friend and the other cowardly Agros will be.”

“What about the other guards? Will they not attempt to scupper us?”

Deogol held up the device. “Not whilst we have this, Sis.” He and Esme took the lead and we all followed behind.

They stopped at the entrance to the corridor and peered in. The noise of battle had diminished into a distant murmur and my bro waved for us to enter behind him and Esme. Wirt stayed close and Kendra walked with Marcellus’s kin, Brennus, with his own. We were as quiet as a sleeping bub as we marched as one down the corridor. The sounds of fisticuffs fading with each rhythmic step we took.

On we tramped, back through the room where we had been ruffed up. I looked to Elita and her bro’s as we neared Marcellus’s corpse. Kendra shielded his sister’s eyes with her hand and steered her and her kin away from his bod. I felt an urge stronger than anything I had felt before draw me to my lost one’s side, but I did not stop. Instead, I yelled, “Onwards to the battle,” in honour and respect of his memory, and raised my fist into the air.

There came a cheer and we left that grief-filled place and continued to walk through another brightly lit passageway that led to a wide corridor I had not seen before. Deogol stopped at a large black door. “What grisly place lies behind this portal?” Kendra said and huggled Elita close to her chest.

“Nowt but outsideness and the place I am sure Eadgard is.”

We stood behind Deogol and I listened for the hubbub of conflict, but heard nowt. My bro raised the small device thingy and plam, the door opened just like that. Deogol did not hesitate but walked straight out into the daylight. I flutter-footed after him and the rest followed.