Everwinter: The Forerunner Archives (22 page)

It's Blaine.

The dark haired man comes toward us, hand outstretched. The tumor above his eye looks like a mountain. Jude looks at Blaine, then at me, then at the weapon in his hand. I can see the conflict within, even as his face morphs into a scowl. He points the iron at me.
 

"Get on your knees," he says.

I'm stunned.

Blaine laughs again, finally reaching us. "That's right! Let's end this quickly!"

I feel like crying, like pleading, my heart ready to burst from my chest. But I don't give in to it. I remain steady, on the surface at least. I get on my knees in front of Jude.

He lowers the iron to my forehead.

"I don't know what they've done to you, Jude," I say, keeping my tone civil, "but we were friends once.
Good
friends. You loved me. And I..."

"You
never
loved me," Jude finishes, nearly whispering. I shake my head, forcing it up to look at him. He actually smiles. "It's okay, Juno," he says. "I knew it the moment I told you I loved you. Your face said it all."

I'm speechless, but I don't deny it.

Jude is right.

I hadn't admitted it to myself yet, because I hadn't had to.
 

But it's true.

I never loved Jude. 

We were together, but we were never as one.

Jude continues, iron still pressed to my head. "You never said it back. You never said it
ever
. I thought you were dead after the Final Judgment. But then I started hearing stories about a red haired girl who was still human. It seemed farfetched, until I started hearing it more and more. That's when I came to realize: the last human is real, and she's the girl I'm in love with." Jude pauses, smiling to himself. "Funny how that girl never came looking for me."

I gasp, flabbergasted at Jude's accusation. "I thought you were dead
too!" I explain, trying to keep my cool. "My Father..."

"Your
Father knew I was alive, Juno," Jude continues. "When I went into hiding that morning after the beach, I was captured by the Deacons. I never got out of Krakelyn. Your Father detained me. He told me you were dead. But then the Final Judgment happened, and I was no longer the only mutant in town. Your Father kept me locked up, but when the Children raided your Manse, Blaine set me free."

I shake my head in disbelief.
 

Jude was in the Manse the day I fled Krakelyn?
 

It hardly seems possible but, of course, it
is
. There's ancient rooms in the Manse's cellar–
cells
–and Father used them now and again to interrogate a prisoner.

Me and Traylor were
never
allowed down there.

These new revelations spark anger
in me toward my Father, but I give myself an irrational second and realize he'd just been trying to protect me. At any cost.

"Blaine explaine
d to me how the Quinn family had been in charge long enough," Jude continues, "holding the old religion over our heads like a knife. The world is a new place, and new leadership is needed. The Children of Mutanity took me in that day."

Jude pauses, lost in remembrance.
 I'm just trying to process all I'm learning.

"You managed to escape
from Krakelyn," Jude sneers, "but you never once stopped to look for me."

"I was kind of fleeing for my life!" I snarl back, anger swelling. The nerve!

"I would have looked for you," Jude counters. "I wouldn’t have stopped. You didn't know for certain that I was dead. Your Father told you that even he didn't know for certain."

"And how would you know that?" I snipe, disbelieving.

"One of the servants at the Manse told me," he replies. "After some...
persuasion
."

"You bloody bastard!" I scream, flailing from my position on the ground. I feel t
he shooting iron press harder to my skin.

"You didn't love me, Juno," Jude says again.

I have nothing more to say. This isn't the man I used to know. That man is dead.

When did Jude get so insecure?

I turn my gaze and it falls on Blaine, who's smiling greedily. This is the man responsible for Jude's betrayal. The brainwasher. I snarl and spit at him. 

Blaine laughs. "Enough, Jude. Finish the last human, and the Children of Mutanity can claim their rightful place as the heirs of this world."

Jude cocks the weapon.

He hesitates.

"Do it, Jude!" Blaine orders. "The last human must die!"

I feel the iron pressing harder, but nothing happens. My eyes are squeezed shut, awaiting the inevitable, but now I let them open.
 

Blaine is in a frenzy.
 

"Do it!" he screams. Jude doesn't. Blaine pulls out his own iron, pushing Jude roughly out of the way. "Say goodbye to the last human," he admonishes.

He levels the pistol at my heart.

"NO!" I suddenly hear a scream from
out of nowhere. A white blur bursts up from the tall grass, completely hidden until now.
Tien!
The young mutant has the shooting iron that Jude had dropped in the mess hall.

He pulls the trigger.

In an expansive spatter of blood and brains, Blaine's head explodes, his body falling limply to the grass.

"NO!" yet another voice calls out. This time it's Jude.

He still has that other shooting iron in his hand, the one he'd had pressed to the front of my head, leveling it at Tien. 

He pulls the trigger.
 

"Tien!" I scream, ignoring all else.

I fall to the mutant's side, but it's too late.

Tien isn't moving.

I hear a commotion behind me and I whirl, expecting to see Jude finally finish me off. Instead, I'm flabbergasted to find the Children of Mutanity are completely overthrown! The rest of the boys in the Manse have snuck out the back of the building, stalking around through the tall grass. Though the mutants are just boys, being of Everwinter, they are naturally bigger and stronger, overpowering the men with ease. Dura has Jude by both arms, holding them forcefully behind his back. 

I look Jude dead in the eyes. "I hate you," I say, turning away. "You are
truly
dead to me." For the first time since our reunion, Jude finally shows a hint of emotion on his face. 

Sadness.

It's too little, too late, however.

"What should we do with them, Juno?" Jurid asks, but I'm too stunned to speak.
 Just moments earlier, I'd been preparing to die. 

I watch the boys, and a few of them are fiddling with their newly acquired shooting irons, pointing them at the Children. A shot goes off and one of the Children collapses.

"No!" I scream, rushing over. I take the iron from the offending boy. "If you kill them, you are no better than they are!"

"Then what are we supposed to do?" another boy asks. "Let them go?"

I shake my head, my eyes falling on the domed laboratory on the horizon ahead.

"I've got a better idea," I say.

33.

"Are you sure about this, Juno?" Altair asks. "It'd be much safer
–and easier–just to–"

"No," I counter, arms crossed. "I've made my mind clear on this, Altair. Dura has agreed to
let the Children out of the dome a week after we leave here. There's nothing around for hundreds of miles, correct?"

Altair nods.

"Then they're as good as dead anyway. The boys will send them off with nothing but the clothes on their backs. If they can work together and survive, good for them. But there's no food or water out here. The Children are broken, Altair. Blaine was the only thing holding them together. They were brainwashed by him. You didn't see how easily they gave up after he was killed."

Altair nods. "I was kind of unconscious at the time." He rubs his head. There's just a small bandage there now, covering the stitches Tien used to seal the wound.

Altair crouches, hunkering next to the little mound we’ve made in the grasslands.

Tien's grave.

"I never got to thank him," Altair says. "He saved my life."

"Me too," I agree, sighing audibly. It's been two weeks since his death, but Tien will always have a place in my heart. Always. There's lots of room in there
, now that I've excised everything I've ever felt about Jude.

Except the loathing.

I hate that man more than I ever could have ever loved him. I haven't seen him since he murdered Tien, and I don't plan to. Before all this happened, Jude was dead to me.
Literally
. Now, he's still dead to me, so nothing's changed. 

We're still heading to Everwinter.

CHOOOOOO
!

A shrill whistle breaks the moment of silence between
me and Altair, and we turn to see Traylor and Jurid, waving and running toward the Engie that’s just pulled to a stop in the field.

"I guess it's time," I say, turning back to Altair.
 

He's still staring again at Tien's final resting place.

"What happened between you two?" he asks, nodding at the low mound. I shoot an unimpressed look at him, but he just shrugs. "I can tell by the way you talk about him," Altair explains. "You liked him, didn't you?"

"What business is it of yours if I did?" I ask, pretty much a snide admission to the accusation.

Altair stoops down and shoulders his backpack. "It's not," he says. "I just like to know what's going on with my crew, that's all."

"You and me both," I agree. It's all I have to say on the matter.

I stoop down now too, grabbing my own meager travel pack.

We head for the Engie.

"Dura really came through for us," Altair admits, eyeing the vehicle suspiciously. Not that I blame him, particularly after what happened the last time we rode on one of these. 

Is this the same one?

I gaze at the long machine, but I can't tell. I'm not that observant.

"Yeah," I agree. "I imagine he can be quite persuasive when he wants to be."

Dura is waiting for us at the back of the Engie, along with Ursa, Traylor, and Jurid. Dura had traveled to Venecici for us, 'persuading' the conductors to stop and pick up a few lost passengers on their next route. Altair had given Dura one of his throwing stars to use as part of the threat.

Altair's reputation definitely precedes him.

We reach the last of the Engie's cars. "Tertiary Class again?" I scoff. "If you could get the Engie to stop out here in the middle of nowhere," I chide Altair, "then why couldn't you get us Prime Class seats?"

Altair rolls his eyes, climbing up the ladder at the back of the car. "Don't worry," he soothes, "we won't be riding in steerage this time. They call this car the caboose." He opens a door. "'And we have it all to ourselves." His disappears inside.

The Engie suddenly wails from the head of its fifty or so cars.

Dura turns to me, leaning low to compensate for the height difference. "It's time to go, Miss Quinn," the mutant informs me. "I hope you find what you are looking for in Everwinter."

"Thank you, Dura," I say, standing tiptoed to peck his icy cheek.

I order Traylor to climb aboard, but he's hesitant. He's made a good friend in Jurid. "I hope we see each other again," he says to Jurid, hugging him then finally waving and climbing up the ladder.

"Me too, Traylor Quinn," Jurid replies.

I feel myself getting a bit weepy eyed, and sneer at my own soft-heartedness.

I follow Traylor up the ladder.

Ursa is conversing with Dura now–the only mutant that knows the woman had once conducted experiments here. They exchange terse looks and I worry, but then Dura finally pats the deformed woman on the back. She jumps up beside me just as the Engie starts to move. 

"All good?" I ask her as we wave to the mutant boys, getting further and further away by the second.

"Yes," Ursa nods, smiling. "Everything is just fine."

PART III: T
HE FRINGES

34.

"So, this ride only goes as far as the Fringes, is that right?"

"Yes, Juno," Altair nods, mocking exasperation. I'd already asked him this more than once.

I don't care.
 I'm bored.

After a couple of hours on the Engie, the grasslands have finally given way to more interesting terrain: rocks, mountains, trees. In fact, the Engie track has been hugging a low cliffside for the past hour, a spectacular wooded valley falling away from the other side. But I've seen views like this all my life. It's terrain much like Krakelyn, not nearly as exciting
as the tropical southern cities in my opinion.