Scorched (12 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY

War:

I see the world through stained-glass eyes, a hollow projection of the person I am, of the woman I could be. I see the pain and the suffering and the torment of all, the average the big and the small. I feel the breaths of those left still and dry, their whispers that trickle and tickle inside, they mute in the darkness, lying quietly as they wait to resurface and take their vengeance. And I am their leader.

They would all die. That is the only possible outcome. That is the only truth and the only reality. I knew their city would burn and therefore it was truth. As long as I imagined it, as long as I knew it, it would happen…it already happened.

They would suffer when they died because they would lay witness not just to their end, but to their future’s end, their past’s elimination. I would command that nobody speak the name Newbury, that nobody would mention their existence. And in time, they will have disappeared from this planet, from all existence. Not only would they die, they would cease to ever have been born. And I would be the one to undo them. I would be the one to scour their village and lay waste to that which should never have been.

After the blood melted beneath the ground, we made the Zone a map for the final battle. We created an outline of Newbury based on what my father had told us years ago. We constructed dirt buildings based on his notes, but our dimensions were not as accurate as we needed. There was only one person who could help us…

I found Spec staring up at the glowing mushrooms, alone in the cavern I had spent many cherished moments with my father.

“We need your help,” I said. “We’re going to war.”

He didn’t look over at me. Continued to gaze at the simulated stars until he finally spoke.

“What is war?”

“The solution,” I responded.

“To what problem?”

“Newbury.”

“Are there any other answers?”

“No. There is only war.”

He finally glanced over at me and we felt each other’s pain. “I don’t want anybody else to die. Nobody should be ended by another’s hands.”

“They attacked us. We’re just retaliating.”

“And they were just retaliating from your attack on them. Who was the first to attack? Does it even matter?”

“All that matters is the last.”

“I have a favor you owe me --”

“No, you cannot ask that. We are doing this, with or without you.”

He stood up and looked down on me, but I wasn’t intimidated by his size. I could take him to the ground if I chose. I could end him if I decided. All he could do was convince me otherwise. I was the one with the power.

“For my favor…I want you to promise you won’t harm Kaolin. She’s been taken and had nothing to do with any of this. I want to free her.”

“Fine. But you need to tell us everything you know about the city. You will help us construct a model of their village, and then you will bear witness to its destruction.”

He didn’t seem pleased by my words, but there was very little he could do. “Okay,” he said quietly, as if the volume of his response would make him less complicit in Newbury’s demise.

***

With Spec’s help, we were able to create a model of the city. It was much larger than we had all thought, and there were a few buildings my father either had not mentioned or had been built recently.

I stood amongst the Council of Warriors as we gazed upon the city. My father’s name had given me a great deal of respect, but I had also earned much on my own as one of the best scavengers in the tribe. Still, I was not the strongest or fiercest warrior. People listened when I spoke, but my words were not necessarily the wisest. The city was led by the Council which I was a part of. There were 15 of us, with each member being chosen by the others. But, with two dying in the Bung attack, we were now down to 13.

Ludvik was the only warrior larger and fiercer than Gunnar. Ten enemies were not enough to take him down. Harva was the wisest and greatest tactician in the Council. She studied the model and spoke softly, as she always did, as she only could:

“They’ll be securing their borders, waiting for an attack. If one of us is spotted, all of us are spotted. They will expect us to come from the East which means they will be expecting us to come from the West. There’s no way to breach from the North which only leaves the South. That is where the fewest safeguards will be and where we will infiltrate the city.”

She moved her foot over to the East side of the city where the water device was located.

“This contraption gives the city light. The water flows through, spinning the object, allowing their city to live. Deactivate the device and you deactivate their city.”

Gunnar circled the structure with his spike. “So we destroy the structure and breach from the South.”

Ludvik stepped forward. “We go in from the East. It doesn’t matter if they know we’re coming. They can do nothing.”

“We’re stronger, but there are too many of them,” warned Harva. “Even with the power disrupted, a trap would end us. We need to wound them before we attack. We need to take a substantial amount of them out before we set foot in their city.”

Harva circled the body of water that led toward the “water mill.” It was the body of water Cotta told me he had swum in some time ago, the same body of water that led them to Newbury.

“We attack this first. We attack their sustenance. Poison their drinking water. It will kill many of them, debilitate several others.”

Spec looked uneasy, but there was nothing he could do. I told him I would leave Kaolin unharmed, and I would in the battle…if she survived until then.

“We’ll take the uneaten bodies. Secure them in the water. The blood of our fallen will spoil their living. We’ll wait a few days and then disrupt the contraption and attack from the South.”

Ludvik seemed irritated by the strategy. He didn’t like the idea of sneaking up or planning. He wanted to smash ahead and destroy anything in his path. He was an unstoppable force and unstoppable forces don’t ever worry about barriers because barriers did not exist. He got what he wanted because nobody could stop him. You could disagree, you could explain why he was wrong and that he was wrong, but it did not matter. He would not listen because he did not have to. He would ignore your words and live in his ignorance. He would believe he was right and shut out those who disagreed, and thus he was right. As long as he focused on his own thoughts and purged all others, those were the only thoughts. In his world, whatever he believed was truth and since he was so strong, nobody could penetrate. He could take you down before you could make him believe he was wrong. Before you could shatter his world, he would shatter you.

“I’ll plant the bodies,” Gunnar declared.

I scanned the Council, trying to decipher their thoughts. Gunnar was a great warrior, but he could not be trusted alone with something so important. Harva could volunteer to go with him, but she was too important a strategist were something to happen.

“I’ll go with him.” The Council looked my way, considering if it was such a smart idea to send the tribe’s symbolic leader on a potentially dangerous journey. They could send several warriors with us, but the more people traversing stealthily through the tunnels, the more chatter and the more chance of getting caught, especially while dragging bodies.

Harva nodded. “Valasca will go with Gunnar along with Beadurinc and Eyvindur. Take a body each. We’ll wait until they have properly rotted and then you shall go on your journey.”

The Council ended and I was left alone in my hut with only my thoughts and memories of a time when I wasn’t alone. I looked over at the empty shell of my Cotta, lying next to me, hollowed. Even though he rested beside and inside of me, I knew he was gone. I knew I was truly alone.

As every day passed and more memories were formed in my mind, those of my Cotta were regrettably purged. I would soon forget his touch and his breath. I would soon forget his spirit and his laugh. And as more time passed, my wounds would slowly heal, not because I would miss him any less, but because I would forget how he was, how we were. Time does not remove the scars, it merely plasters new skin above the lesion. The wounds became less visible, but you know they’re there. They were always there. Lingering and festering until one’s own breath ceased, until one’s own world ended. And someday, my world would end. Some day, Harva and Gunnar and even Ludvik’s world would end.

That’s the thing about unstoppable forces. They keep moving and destroying until at some point, there’s nothing left to conquer. And when there’s nothing left to bombard, there’s no such thing as an unstoppable force. Because, if there are no objects to attempt to block the force, it can no longer be deemed unstoppable.

And then, all you’re left with is nothing.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Sabotage:

Sabotage was the smart choice. The Bungs had always underestimated us. They viewed us as brutes and brutes did not use their brains. They were Ludviks, smashing forward and plundering ahead. Newbury would never expect sabotage because they did not believe we were capable of it.

You should never underestimate your foe. Doing so says less about them and more about you. It speaks volumes about ones own prejudices.

Beadurinc, Eyvindur, Gunnar and I collected four uneaten bodies. We plucked the hair from their head and formed twine, tying their bodies together, and latching them to Gunnar’s waist and he would drag them through the tunnels.

Eyvindur took the lead since he was the greatest tunneler of the group. I was behind, followed by Gunnar and then Beadurinc, bringing up the rear and helping push the bodies. The corpses’ loose flesh would often snag against the rocks, leaving a residual trail of their entrails, a stain which he would quickly smother with dirt to prevent anyone from tracking us.

We methodically moved through the Earth, creating our own path. Eyvindur punched through rock and dirt, puncturing its skeleton and entering its soul and we happily followed.

There wasn’t much talking on our journey. Gunnar had been my father’s apprentice a long time ago and took it upon himself to look after me. We had never made an emotional connection, even though we had spent more time with each other than any other person. He watched over me as a silent guardian. I had always suspected he loved me more than he loved my father, but who could know for sure with a silent statue.

For all I knew, Eyvindur was a mute. In all the time I knew him, he had never spoken. During Council meetings, he would vote with his hand and facial expressions, but he never uttered any words. He had been alive during the first Bung raid so many years ago when my father was taken. He was just a boy when he witnessed our village get decimated. He survived, but maybe he lost his voice alongside the village. Maybe all of his words were burned with the fire and buried next to his loved ones.

Beadurinc was strong and young, only a few years older than I. He kept his hair long and tied behind. When he traversed through tunnels, he would wrap the hair around his neck. I always considered the hair problematic in battle, but thus far, he has survived. I once approached him about the subject, but he refused to cut it off, despite my asking. Since then, we seldom spoke. So on this journey, I was with a distant guardian, a mute, and a boy filled with resentment.

Eyvindur stopped his digging and looked back at Gunnar. I glanced at my guardian, wondering what Eyvindur was saying with his eyes.

“Whereto now?” Gunnar asked me in his stead.

“To the left. Over there. It won’t be much further until we breach through to the water. Do you need a break?”

“No,” he said with his eyes.

And so, Eyvindur began digging again and we followed behind. I imagined Cotta traversing the land with us. He would have enjoyed himself thoroughly. I wonder sometimes how somebody I knew so briefly had such a profound effect on me. But then, I think about my father and realize the two people I cared for most in my life were in it so shortly.

We breached through and the cool breeze whipped across our faces. Heading through undocumented territory was always dangerous since some places had less air to breathe. You had to fight through the dizziness and breach through to a new area filled with nourishment before your vision left you completely.

We laid out some of the mushrooms in front of us and the body of water glowed green. I turned to Gunnar, who was noticeably sweating from dragging the bodies. “Over there looks like a good place to tie them up.”

Eyvindur and Beadurinc helped Gunnar lift the corpses to the spot. I looked out across the vast body of water and imagined Cotta moving within. Dunking his head. Enjoying the newness. That’s what I liked most about him. He appreciated everything when with me. He enjoyed the smells and the tastes and the sights. Everything was fresh and his spirit revitalized me. He taught me how to breathe again without my ever knowing I had been consistently gasping for breath.

The others found a firm place to tie the bodies but my mind was elsewhere. I was floating in the water next to Cotta and imagining another time and another place and another reality. And in those moments while I pictured myself next to him, there was no other reality. I imagined it and it was no longer a fantasy, it was truth.

I lay on my stomach and ran my fingers through the water, watching the ripples pulsate from my fingers and spread outward until dying back into the bottomless, watery pit. I tried to make the trickles bigger and see how far I could make them travel. The bigger the trickle, the longer the indentation in the liquid.

I made a big splash and followed the mark until it bounced off the wall and hit another ripple. I watched curiously for a moment, wondering where the other ripple had come from. Had a previous splash of mine lingered out of sight? Had the force of my hand created a ripple I had not noticed until it smashed back into the one I had been watching? Was I watching the wrong ripple?

I jumped to my feet and heaved a mushroom as far as I could, across the water towards the other side and that’s when I saw their small army. There were a couple dozen Bungs moving across the other ledge, weapons in hand.

I quickly screeched our call to arms signal. Eyvindur, Beadurinc and Gunnar dropped the bodies and looked across the water as several flying objects hurled their way. Gunnar stepped in front and swiped the projectiles away with his spikes.

I leapt into the water toward the army, plunging beneath and cut my way through below. The water was disrupted as a foreign body crashed into the liquid beside me, blood obscuring my vision.

I slashed passed him through muffled screams, dodging falling bodies and navigating around seeping blood. I pushed through the water, stabbing ahead and slicing water behind, propelling myself forward like I had practiced in our Central Stream throughout my childhood.

I arose to thickened air filled with heavy screams. A woman held a man in her arms, four slices across his chest. She cried for help, pleading with an invisible force either incapable or unwilling to acquiesce. The light was scattered and most of the yells emanated from the darkness between blocks of green haze and shattering white rays.

I jumped onto land and was immediately hit by the white beams. I sliced down, cutting the mechanism in half and falling into darkness. I connected with flesh until screams turned to echoes. I heaved myself across the ground to a man holding his sword up high.

I jumped onto the wall and dug my spikes into the dirt and sped horizontally, away from his cumbersome swipe. I launched myself from the wall and sliced his throat, quickly moving to my next target. I obliterated all who appeared before me, swiping and screeching, ripping apart when a screeching came from across the cavern.

I turned and spotted Gunnar as he lifted a boy and heaved him against the rocks, shattering the spine, and bringing an avalanche of dirt down into the water. On the ground beside him, I saw Beadurinc smiling with vacant eyes, blood smattered across his lifeless face. I hurried over and looked down at the boy as he looked past me, his long flowing hair dampened with either his or another’s innards. I picked up the head and closed his eyes.

Gunnar hurried over to me. “We’ve gotta go --”

“No!” I screamed, standing my ground. “We take them all out!”

“It’s only us. Eyvindur’s gone too. We need to retreat.”

I ignored him and growled, ready to take on all of Newbury by myself. Gunnar hurried over and grabbed me, picking me up with one arm and retreating back into the tunnels. I screamed and swiped at the air. Beadurinc’s head fell from my hand. I grabbed at it, catching him by his long hair. His head dangled back and forth as Gunnar tore through our path, swiping above to collapse the tunnels behind us.

My guardian carried me the entire way, my body limp and drained. When we reached Nanash, I was finally released. I fell to my knees and screamed at the top of my lungs. Everybody hurried out of their huts as I held Beadurinc’s head up high.

Harva appeared, startled by the scene before her. “What happened?”

“It was a trap,” I uttered. “They knew we would come. They were waiting for us.” I turned to the Council. “No more waiting. Strike them down now.”

She helped me to my feet, and I looked out at my village. “Where’s Spec?” I asked, noticing his eyes were missing from the crowd.

Harva looked at me, confusion across her face.

“He’s gone,” she said, as if the information should have been known to me long ago. “He said he was going to help you navigate to the water.”

I fell back to my knees as the betrayal swept across my bones. I could see his face before me. I could sense his being in striking distance.

I felt my spikes penetrating his flesh and his life escaping his body. I could feel his end.

And all I could do, was smile.