Crimson Rising (20 page)

The figure turns immediately. He steps to the edge of the ship, crouches low, and stares down at me. He’s got that same vacant look in his eyes. He’s reacting, not recognizing.

I don’t know what’s beyond those eyes, if anything. “Remember? You … we … ”

The Drifter takes a high leap into the air and jumps from the edge of the cruiser. For a moment it looks like he’s going to fly again, but his feet touch the ground. It all happens in silence, like the pounce of a cat.

He brings himself to full height, arms at his sides. His thick brown hair, obscured by the red glow, blows gently in the breeze. He wears clothing like Ryel’s loose-fitting, lightcolored garments that suggest Fringe living. Except there’s no way this guy’s from the Fringes.

The humming of my bracelet intensifies under my glove. It thrashes around, irritating my skin. It doesn’t have much space to move, but the way it’s shaking I’m afraid it’s going to burn right through my suit. I glance over my shoulder at the swarm. The wall of insects stays intact, pushed safely away from us.

I approach the Drifter. Small, careful footsteps. “Who are you? Do you know my parents? Do you know who I am?” He cocks his head to the side like a dog might. Only it’s not cute. Instead, there’s a mild threat to it, like he’s sizing me up.

“Do you speak?” I remember the girl in Seattle last spring, and hope if I say the right thing his language processing will kick in. “English?”

His lips stay closed, body still.

I take another step forward. “I thought maybe you knew who I was, the way you looked at me. You’ve been following me. I … something called to me when your Pearl landed. I couldn’t touch it, but I knew it was there.” Still no answer. His brows furrow. His head remains still. The swarm drones on.

With a sigh I grab hold of my fingers and pull the glove from my right hand. My bracelet shifts uncontrollably now, spinning around my wrist so fast that it practically burns. I adjust the sleeve on my suit and hold my arm in front of my chest. “My parents gave me this. Ryel said it’s made from Ridium. Does that mean anything to you? I don’t know what it’s for, but it goes crazy every time you’re near. That must mean something.”

The Drifter’s head clicks back into place. He blinks and lowers his chin. The bracelet forces my arm back to my side. I shake my head. This is going nowhere.

Carefully, I remove the helmet. Maybe if he can hear me without the speakers, he’ll understand. I try not to look at the cruiser. I imagine they’re panicking right now, watching me slowly dismantle my suit. Cassius is probably about ready to jump out the door.

The moment the helmet’s off, the buzzing of the swarm becomes all-consuming. No wonder the Drifter couldn’t hear me before.

The heat’s more dense and humid than I’ve ever experienced. It’s worse in the southern Fringes. No wonder bugs are the only ones who thrive in it. I hardly want to open my mouth for fear of letting the thick air in. 

But if I get answers, it’ll be worth it. 

“Do you understand?” I shout. “Are you understanding any of this?”

The Drifter’s eyes widen slightly. His body shows no reaction.

“Please,” I continue. Sweat drips down the back of my neck. “Just tell me who you are.”

My bracelet stops. The Drifter raises his right hand and points at me.

I’m thrown off my feet onto my back. My hands fly over my head. The helmet rolls into the distance until it’s swallowed by the swarm.

Intense warmth pushes on my chest. I cry out in pain as something burrows under my suit and cuts across my skin. It’s like boiling water or the edge of a knife heated by flames. I grab the zipper and try to pull the thing away from me, but I know it won’t help. Whatever this is, it’s inside. Coming out. There’s no stopping it.

The pain continues, blistering and ceaseless. I fear I might pass out. I expect to feel the slick stickiness of blood under my shirt. But liquid would boil. There’s nothing. I writhe in the dirt, kicking up clouds around my feet, unable to stand. I manage to turn on my side and stare at the Drifter from the knee down.

The burning stops.

I grab my chest, heart pounding out of time. It’s reassurance that I’m still alive. I yell, but the Fringe air burns my throat, too. 

I watch the Drifter’s legs pull out of sight as he rockets into the sky. Red energy blankets my vision for a moment before it disappears altogether. He’s gone.

The buzzing intensifies around me. I roll on my back in time to see walls close in. The swarm descends.

They’re everywhere.

I can’t even move before they’re all over me. Legs. Wings. Prickly bodies collide with my suit. Thousands of them. More.

I pull my head inward and close my eyes. My mouth’s shut, but I can feel them crawling around my ears, getting stuck in my hair. Too long and I won’t be able to breathe properly. It’s only a matter of time before a fly tries to work its way into my nostril.

The beat of the wings is deafening, like the thrusters of a Skyship right over my head. It’s not a buzz anymore. It’s a solid force, an apocalyptic scream.

All the while, my chest stings like someone’s tried to cut my heart open. I’ve never felt pain like this. It nearly drowns out the horror of the swarm. I panic, convinced that the bugs will find a way past my suit, into the wound. Then they’ll be inside of me, crawling and biting and multiplying.

I raise my right hand and swat through the air, only to feel a flurry of tics and scratches against my fingers. I kick out, which dislodges a cloud of insects. But they come back. I’m outnumbered, billions to one.

At first I think the pull on my ankles is the swarm somehow organizing itself against me. I’m dragged backward across the ground, too rattled to scream. I fight the grip around my ankle, but nothing comes of it.

My feet slam into the ground and I see a shadow push through the swarm overhead. A figure bends low and grips me by the shoulders. I squirm away, convinced that the Drifter has come back to finish me off. As I push, Cassius’s face cuts through the wall of insects.

His eyes are closed. His left hand moves up my shoulder until his fingers hit my neck. With the energy I have left, I grab just below his elbow and help him to pull me to my feet.

He guides me through the pulsing swarm. I stumble behind him, waves of insects pelting me. I’ve got no idea which direction we’re headed. Maybe Cassius doesn’t, either. We struggle through a churning sea of black and brown. Pretty soon, it’ll be suffocation. Buried alive.

I grip his hand, terrified of slipping away. My nails dig into his skin. It’s the least of his worries.

We stop.

I hear a loud thump as his fist pounds against metal. He backs into my foot. I struggle to keep my mouth closed, but all I want to do is scream. My chest burns. I imagine skin melting away, eating into bone.

A rectangle of light cuts through the swarm in front of us. Cassius yanks me forward. I lose my footing and crash onto metal. Sideways waterfalls of insects spill into the cabin of the cruiser before Eva seals the door shut behind us. They stream to the ceiling and buzz around the light panels in whirling riptides.

Someone rushes to my side. I don’t know who. I lie on my stomach and feel the cold metal press against my chest.

“Is he okay?” I hear someone say.

“Jesse?”

“Jesse!”

Then, silence.

––––

I wake with a shocked yelp, convulsing from head to toe until my body gets itself under control. I’m on my back now, still in the Unified Party suit. I rip the collar open and yank on the zipper. I pull the rest of the outfit from my body and toss it away. The others stare at me in silence, too concerned and confused to say anything.

Avery kneels at my side. “Jesse, thank god! What happened?”

My chest feels like someone’s scraped a hot iron against it.

Without answering, I grab the back of my shirt and pull it over my head.

I hear them gasp.

I look down at my chest, trembling with fear of what I might find.

Even upside down, I can tell it’s bad.

Scrawled across my skin are symbols. It’s as if someone took a razor and wrote across my body, except there’s no blood. Five brown-red burn marks of varying shapes and sizes.

Eva backs away, cupping her hand over her mouth. “Oh, Jesse.”

“What did he do to you?” Avery grabs my arm.

Cassius reclines in a seat across from Theo, scuffed up and coughing, but alive.

A diluted stream of bugs circle around the lights overhead. The floor’s spotted with dead locust carcasses. I keep an eye on the living as I finally speak.

“It feels like someone lit me on fire.” My voice is barely above a whisper. “What’s on me? What is that stuff?”

Ryel emerges from somewhere behind my shoulder.

I stare up at him. “You’re okay.”

He nods before kneeling at my feet. His eyes narrow as he analyzes the symbols on my chest. After a moment of consideration, his eyes meet mine. His expression gives away nothing. “May I?”

I’m not sure what he means, but I nod anyway. Something about his voice calms me.

Ryel scoots forward and extends his arm. Leaning in, his fingers make contact with the largest of the symbols. His face tenses in pain. His eyes close. Suddenly, the burning in my chest starts to numb. It dulls from raw stinging into something more distant. Then, when it’s nearly gone, Ryel pulls back.

He lets out a noisy breath, like someone’s kicked him in the gut, and rests his clasped hands in his waist. “Can you sit up?”

I push on my elbows and pull my body from its halflaying, half-sitting position.

Ryel rubs his temple. “The last sliver of Pearl energy, from deep inside of me. You’ll be more comfortable now.” He watches my fingers, as if he expects me to pick at the symbols. “Don’t touch them, not until they begin to fade. You’ll be thankful that you didn’t.”

Eva moves in closer. “What are those things?”

“A message.”

I shake my head, panicking more as I think about it. “I don’t understand. What did he do to me?”

I hear Theo’s voice in the distance. “Looks like knife work.”

Nobody responds.

Ryel shakes his head. “That wasn’t a friend out there. The energy alone was too much for me to bear. I felt it … the pain. It’s like poison.”

Eva kneels beside him. “What do those symbols say?’

“A warning,” Ryel replies, and I can tell by his tone that he doesn’t want to say anymore.

I wince as the burning flares up again.

Eva stares at Ryel, eyes wide. “Well?”

He swallows.

Cassius coughs. “Tell us.”

Ryel nods before taking a deep breath. “I am already here.” He pauses. “That’s what it says. I am already here.”

Cassius stands and shakes his head. “I’m getting us out of the swarm, as far away from that thing as possible.”

Ryel stays frozen as Cassius darts to the cockpit. Nobody says a word.

The words filter through my ears without sticking. I close my eyes and try to float away, but I can still hear the buzzing outside. There’s no escaping this. When I open my eyes, Ryel’s staring at me, so pointed and direct that I can barely look back.

“I don’t know how he’s tracing you,” Ryel says. “But it seems clear to me who this message is from.”

My lip trembles. I don’t want to say it.

“I am already here,” he repeats. Lines begin to show on his forehead. “It can’t be. There were rumors of Matigo’s exile, but no evidence that he’s made it to Earth.”

I grab my shirt from the floor and pull it over my head. The cloth scratches the symbols, triggering a short shock of pain. I try to ignore it. I pull my knees close to my chest and rest my head, shaking. I breathe deep and try to think rationally. The discomfort fades, replaced by a cold fear. “It could mean something else.”

Ryel frowns. “We must prepare for the worst.”

“If Matigo’s really on this planet … ”

“Then the invasion has begun,” he whispers.

Sunlight peeks through the upper windows on either side of the cabin as we ascend from the cloud of insects. Cassius brings us into the air without hesitation. I’m not sure where he thinks we’re going.

Ryel stands, keeping his eyes on me. “Do you feel strong enough to walk?”

I raise my head to answer, but don’t get anything out before the overhead speakers click on. Cassius’s voice streams through the cabin. “We’ve got trouble,” he says. “Three ships on the radar. I don’t recognize any of them.”

Eva straightens at attention. “I’ll head to the cockpit and see if I can help him.”

Before she can get there, the entire cabin shudders. The gray siding of a ship barrels past our starboard, perilously close. We tilt in its wake before Cassius stabilizes the cruiser. A second ship jostles us again, shooting past the opposite side.

Eva falls to the ground.

Avery grabs hold of her seat. “These are Academy ships.” She glances out the window. “I’d recognize them anywhere.”

Ryel staggers to the far side of the cabin, hand on his head. Cassius’s voice sounds from the speakers again. “They’ve got us surrounded. Damn, these things are quick.”

I swallow. The pain is nothing now compared with what’s outside. “Alkine.” I grit my teeth. “He’s found us.”

We rush into the cockpit. Cassius sits at the steering, banging his fist on the wall. Beyond the windshield I see a pair of Academy ships—the two that passed us moments ago. They’re flying close enough that I can read the identification numbers on their tail fins.

“There’s one behind us too,” Cassius says.

Eva rushes to the co-pilot’s seat. Cassius shakes his head. “Should we open fire?”

Avery steadies herself against the rocking cockpit. “We do that, and we might as well declare war on the Academy.”

“They know I’m inside,” I say. “That must be it. They’ve probably been tracking us ever since we left Siberia.”

Eva drums her fingers on the console. “I did the best I could. The radar—”

“It’s too late now.” I press my hands against my head, cursing. “Is there any way of hitting them without killing anybody?”

“At this range?” Cassius laughs. “I wouldn’t bet on it.”