Rise Against the Faultless (15 page)

            That night, I opened up the book that Frank had
given me. But it wasn’t a book at all. It was a collection of maps of the
provinces of our state. I noticed on a few of the maps, there were hand drawn
stars in seemingly unpopulated areas. I found the map of my province and found
my street address.  It was odd to see my home from this bird’s eye view. That’s
how home felt to me now. It felt as if I was now forced to look at it
completely differently. It had forever changed from the comfortable place that
I had grown up in. Now it was the formerly peaceful scene from which my brother
was ripped. Then I saw it. The forest behind my house had a small star on it,
and I realized, this was where I had seen Cyril’s sister murdered.

            Frank knew where the Defector’s camps were and
these maps marked with the locations of the camps were his gift to me. Now I
had something to go on. The thought that I would be searching blind had plagued
me these past few days. I had targets, and I would start with the little star
behind me house. More than likely, they had taken Dale there the night that he
was stolen. They couldn’t have risked going much further without getting
caught.

            I did go out to eat dinner that night, but I
went straight back to my room so that I could study the maps and form a plan. I
would meet with Adrian, Cyril, Lo and Jubal tomorrow night right at sunset to
let him know where we were going. I would find a way to make this up to them,
somehow.

            Sleep didn’t come to me as easily as the night
before. I was so anxious about leaving. I wished that it could be tonight, but
I drifted in and out. My dreams wavered between finding Dale alive with a
joyous reunion and arriving to the camp to find his grave. I woke up feeling
worse than I had when I went to sleep, but the thought of being able to do
something about it tonight gave me the energy I needed to get through the day.

            I made sure to eat everything that was served to
me at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I even gobbled up the grey, fibrous,
semi-meat that they served with a gravy that had a gel like consistency. I
almost threw it all back up, but I choked it down for the fuel. I even went by
the lounge on my way out to meet with my team and ate a few more pieces of
bread with dip.

            On my way out of the lounge, someone ran into my
shoulder, hard. I turned around to see who it was. Oren, of course, “Where are
you going in such a hurry, Leadership Girl?” He had his arm around a short
brunette. The girl eyed me with disdain.

            “Leave me alone, Oren.”

            “Just seems like you’re on a mission, you’re not
even watching where you’re going. What are you up to?” The last thing I needed
was for Ann’s pet to be on my case.

“I’m going to talk to my
friends. Something you wouldn’t know anything about.”

“Oh, now I’m hurt. I thought
that we were friends. Tell Lo to come by and see me sometime.” The girl on his
arm looked hurt. I imagined that was his aim. He seemed like the kind of jerk
who would play on a girl’s insecurities to get her to sleep with him. I felt
grateful to her though, because she seemed to be enough of a distraction that I
escaped his presence without incident, but I’d have to watch out. I couldn’t
raise suspicion with anyone, especially not Oren. If there was anyone at this
compound who would rat me out, it would be him.

Adrian looked like a ball of
nerves. I realized that he wasn’t cut out for this kind of work. There was
another reason that he wasn’t chosen for Combat. He was fidgeting and pulling
at his blond hair that had grown out a bit since being here and scratching at
the scruffy hair that was growing in on his face. It didn’t stop him from going
through with it. He reiterated to us how important it was to be in our beds
before and after our time ran out. I gave him the location for our first trip.
We could get there and back in four and a half hours, if we stayed there for
only fifteen minutes. He said he’d put the location in our PID’s so we wouldn’t
get lost. Even if one of us was separated, we’d still be able to find our way
back.

“Rai,” he looked at me and said
with a desperation, “you don’t have to do this. There has to be another way.”

“I’m sorry, Adrian. I’m going.
Thank you for everything. I wouldn’t be able to do it without you.”

“Cyril, you’ll stick with me.
Lo and Jubal, just like the simulations, you’ll be our lead. When we get close,
I’ll go in. Got it?” They didn’t ask questions. Even Jubal, who is normally so
upbeat took on a somber air. “At 12:01 head to the bike shed. We’ll ride out
immediately.”

I went back to my room to lay
awake. I tried to sleep, but my eyes refused to shut. Adrenaline was pumping
through my veins.  I made sure to be in my bed. I even remained motionless
because I wasn’t sure how Adrian’s plan worked. I practically bolted from my
bed at 12:01 am. The halls were empty and eerily quiet. I had to tender my
excitement to keep from running to our escape hatch. I was the first one to
arrive, but Cyril showed up not long after, then Lo and Jubal. I looked at each
of them, silently asking if they were sure they were ready to risk their lives
for me. It was a hard thing to ask of people I loved, but I had to. They each
nodded at me.

The bikes that we were taking
were left unattended. They didn’t have to worry about them being stolen,
because where would anyone go with them without being caught immediately? I
assumed Adrian had enacted the same autopilot mode on the bikes as he had on
our PIDs. They bikes would appear to anyone looking for them that they were
sitting where they are stored every night. We all mounted up and rode to the
exit point. I rode out at the place that Adrian had instructed for me. He’d
left an ‘X’ in the dirt for me, so I’d know where to go. When we were all
across the invisible boundary line we paused for a second. We were waiting for
alarms to sound or for someone to jump from the brush and arrest us, but
nothing happened. The best thing for us now was to go on our way, whether we
would be caught or not, we needed to get going.

We kept the lights off on the
bikes, and used only our night vision goggles. The moon was bright and we could
have seen without them pretty well, but it made it a lot easier. If the
situation hadn’t been so dire, this would have probably been the most exciting
moment of my life. The feeling of freedom and knowing I could go anywhere I
wanted and no one would stop me was overwhelming. The air was crisp and cool
and there was a tangible feel of exhilaration.

When we got out of sight of the
compound, we all stopped. We changed into our black suits from the simulations,
just in case we ran into any trouble. Jubal gentlemanly walked behind a tree
with his back turned to us. We all got back on our bikes, as Jubal and Lo took
the lead. I looked over at Cyril. She had no fear in her eyes, only
determination. I got worried at that moment that Cyril could do something rash.
I would need to make sure that Cyril didn’t do anything to compromise the
mission.

It took some getting used to
for Cyril to drive the bike, she hadn’t had the experience that we had, but she
warmed up to it a lot faster than I had. We bumped up the speed when she felt
comfortable. We avoided roads and houses. It was unlikely that anyone would be
outside right now, but it wasn’t worth taking a chance. We stuck to the forest
and fields. We even drove through a deserted town. I had no idea it was even
there. We stayed on the outskirts of it while going through. I saw a crooked,
old sign with words:

“Thanks for visiting Ash, come
again soon.”

It was so small, I doubted that
many people at all had visited it while it wasn’t deserted.

The ride did take all of two
hours to get to the old camp that I had unfortunately stumbled upon not so long
ago. I remembered how it had turned my world upside down. I thought it was the
worst thing I would ever see. It seemed so long ago now. I felt weathered by
everything, older. We stopped about five hundred yards before reaching the camp
site. I decided we would ride a little bit further before we should go on foot.
We tucked the bikes away behind some brush and grabbed our weapons.

The plan was to scope out the
camp and find the bunking quarters. Surely they would have Dale restrained
somewhere. Lo and Jubal took the lead once again. I stood close to Cyril, both
to protect her and to keep an eye on her. All of a sudden, just as we came to
that awful clearing Lo stopped and turned to look at me, with an expression I’d
never seen her wear before. She turned to Jubal. He shook his head at her. She
ran back to where we were.

“We should go, Rai,” the words
came trembling from her mouth.

“What do you mean? We have to
find him, Lo.”

“He’s not here. No one is…
but.”

I pushed past Lo to see what
she was talking about. I slowly peaked over the hill they had just climbed. I
saw the makeshift ring that Cyril’s sister had died so violently in. My stomach
turned. Just past the ring, I saw something, just before the smell hit me. It
was a large, crumpled pile. It was hard to see in the dark. I had removed my
night vision goggles after getting off the bike, so I pulled them down over my
eyes again. The burning odor was so strong, I could barely stomach it.

Then, when I focused on the
pile, I realized what the rotten stench was… the pile was bodies.

I looked around to the old shed
that was behind the ring. It seemed as if Lo was right. There was no sign of
life at all. Besides, no living person would be able to stand the smell wafting
from the bodies. We were still a good hundred yards away and it was too strong
to withstand. A deathly fear gripped me that Dale could be there in the pile of
bodies, discarded like garbage.

We slowly made our way to the
shed, covering our faces with cloth. There was no way to tell if they had left
a trap at the place, but it seemed like they had gotten out of there in a hurry
and didn’t care what state the place was left in, or they would have discarded
of their murdered victims before leaving. I turned around to look at Cyril, who
was white as a sheet. “You don’t have to come with us. You can stay behind.”

“No, I’m coming.”

Jubal was steady as a rock. He
didn’t waver going in to the situation at all. Asking him had been a good decision.
He was giving us all strength.

I was very suddenly aware of
how cold it was out here. I had chills running over my body. We got close
enough to the bodies to see that, no one had been here in quite some time. It
was possible that they could have left right after I saw Cyril’s sister killed.
I did not hide my disappointment. Dale wasn’t here. He never was. I started to
cry. Then, Cyril screamed out. There, lying on her side, under a skeleton, was
a corpse with matted, dirty red hair. “No, no no.” Cyril’s pain came leaking
from her mouth.  She fell to her knees. “I didn’t want to believe you. I didn’t
want to think she’d died in such a hateful way.”

“I’m sorry, Cyril. I’m sorry.
We’re going to find a way to pay them back for this.”

Most of the other bodies had
rotted away to not much more than a skeleton. “I need to bury her.”

“Cyril, we don’t have time,” Lo
pleaded with her.

“Then leave me!” her shout
sounded so bitter.

“No, we’re not leaving you.
Jubal, help me get her down. Lo, stand guard.” Jubal and I lifted the bones off
of Cyril’s sister and gently placed her on the ground. Cyril knelt down beside
her.

She touched her wrist, “I made
her this bracelet, when we were children.”

“We don’t have time to bury
her, but I promise you, when this is all over, we’ll come back so you can pay
your respects.” Cyril just nodded, sullen and resigned. We covered her body the
best we could. Everyone felt defeated on the way back to the compound. We
didn’t find Dale, Cyril was even more depressed, and we could still get caught.
We rode in silence. We stopped once again to change out of our black simulation
suits. We were running out of time. We would have just enough to get the bikes
back and run back to our rooms. Before we left, I embraced Cyril. She didn’t
move, but I knew she needed it. “We will fight for her, Cyril.”

Cyril wiped her tears away and
we all got back to the compound. We entered where we’d left and all headed
straight back to our rooms. Again, no alarms, no one jumping out to stop us. I
immediately collapsed on my bed. I was exhausted, mentally and physically. I’d
risked our lives for no rewards and almost no more information. I needed to
shower desperately but didn’t want to chance it. I just laid there and cried
myself to sleep. I hoped everyone else had accomplished the same thing.

The next morning when I awoke
my head was pounding. The combination of no sleep, stress, and too many tears
had wreaked havoc on my wellbeing. Luckily, I hadn’t been on my feet too much
the night before, so my leg did not feel any worse. I took a shower and stayed
in it until the water shut off on me. I stood there for another five minutes,
unwilling to move, soaking wet. I wouldn’t give up. We’d go out again tonight.

I got to breakfast early, only
to see that Adrian had beat me there. He openly embraced me. He softly and
discreetly kissed my neck. I could see the look of relief on his face. He could
tell by the look on mine that I had not accomplished my goal. He rubbed my
shoulder to console me. He tried to distract me with talk of technology that I
did not understand. I nodded and smiled my way through it. Cyril did not show
up for breakfast. I poked at my imitation eggs and then just swallowed them
without chewing. I did not need the disappointment of terrible food piled on
top of my current mental state, but I did need the energy to keep going,
especially if this was going down again tonight.

I caught Cyril just as she was
about to walk into the meeting room. I grabbed her by the shoulders and looked
into her eyes. She looked terrible. I knew she got no sleep the night before. I
couldn’t say anything to her, I only squeezed her hand. She squeezed back. We
walked into the room, and luckily for me, Ann was not looking at Cyril, because
the look she shot to Ann would have killed her dead. I couldn’t blame her. I
would gladly let Cyril loose on Ann.

Today, Ann was different. She
was still herself, but I felt like she was buying my ruse, so I laid it on a
little thicker.  I even complimented her once, and she didn’t so much as bat an
eye. I could see that anything that was said about her positively was not hard
for her to believe. She was used to people kissing up to her, but Shane
noticed.

 When we walked out to go to
training, Cyril was nearly in tears. “Cyril, I think I might need my crutches
today, could you go find them for me.” She left without looking at Shane.
Hopefully she’d take her time and recover enough to be around others. Before
Shane had time to ask me any questions, I had to divert him, “So, you said we’d
talk more about your brother, do you want to tell me about him?”

“Farris was great. Always
joking and laughing. He was a year older than me, but we were the same height.
He was so smart. He wasn’t the athletic type, more into books and math. He was
born with this heart condition. He got tired really easily, but he was in good
health, and he should have lived a long life. It wouldn’t have killed him, you
know? He didn’t have a mean bone in his body, he was just… good.”

He smiled a weak smile. I could
tell everything he was saying was genuine. I felt for him. “Anyway, we were
having our swim lessons one day. Just me, Farris, and my mother. He hated the
swimming lessons. I had already learned to swim three summers before and Farris
had kept putting my mother off about it. What I told you before, about almost
drowning was true, but that’s not why I hate the water so much. She finally
forced him to go one afternoon. Really, it was still too cold to be swimming,
but she insisted. I was swimming laps when she decided it was time for us to
play our game. The same one you and I played in the pool that day. I told her
we should just do laps instead, but she wanted to test us. I knew Farris
wouldn’t be able to do it, but he wanted to impress her so badly. I went first,
and when my turn was over, I tried to help Farris out by tying his knots
loosely. Too much time went by, though, and he was struggling. I begged her to
just call it off. She said he had to learn. After a little while he stopped
struggling. I dove in to get him and brought him back to the surface. He was
limp and his lips were blue. I tried to get him to breath. I pounded on his
chest, but he was gone.”

 “Afterwards, she told everyone
that it was an accident, that he was swimming and that she was distracted by me
and by the time we got to him he was dead. She swore me to secrecy. It’s my
fault he’s gone. He was the good brother, he should have lived. I should have
never listened to her. I should have just gone in after him. I knew she didn’t
love him, or me for that matter. All he wanted was for her to love him. But she
never did say it. She didn’t shed a single tear.”

“I’m sorry, Shane,” I felt a sudden
and overwhelming guilt for making light of his fear of water.

“It’s ok. That’s when I decided
I’d never let anyone else determine what was right and wrong for me. You’re
only the second person I’ve told this story to.”
            “Who was the first?”

“Ari.”