The sun rose and turned the landscape various shades of orange and red. Thea was lying on her back. She had been awake for a few hours now but she couldn’t make herself move. No matter how much the sunlight stabbed into her eyes through the flap of her tent or how much noise the others made as they moved about outside. A heavy feeling in her stomach was holding her down.
“Thea! Come on we don’t have time to loiter!” a male voice called. She knew it was Harvey. There was no point in waiting any longer or he would be in to get her himself.
Sitting up she surveyed the weapons in front of her. Early this morning she had laid out the rusty machete and pen knife to look at them. Maybe she was searching for some kind of sign that they were going to help her succeed today but she told herself she was maintaining them, making sure they were ready to go. The lantern that had been on all morning flickered next to the weapons and went out as the battery died. Great, she was going to be in the dark until she found some new ones.
The door of the tent was pushed open and a man with a long beard and bushy brows poked his head in. “Thea, get your ass up.”
“On my way Harvey,” she said, rubbing her eyes. Stupid headache was back again.
Harvey turned as if to leave before sighing and looking at her again. “You okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“It’s a big day. Get your head in the game.” With that said he ducked out.
It’s a big day, she knew that without having to be told twice. Feeling heavier than she really was, Thea crawled over and picked up the weapons before leaving the tent.
Outside the camp was buzzing with life. The old barbeque had been lit and Hilda was frying some kind of stringy meat on it. The fire pit in the middle of the grass was doused and a group of kids were taking it apart and scattering the stones into the surrounding fields and valleys. That way no one would know they had been here. Never leave any trace of yourself behind.
There were two other tents, most big enough to have four rooms. The one to her left had duct tape criss-crossing one side of the front room. To the other side of that one, was another that was held down by knives stabbed into the pin holes. The once blue fabric that they were made from was faded and white in places. Thea made a mental note to get new tents as soon as she could.
“Thea, I made you breakfast.” Hilda beckoned her over. As Thea approached she couldn’t help but cringe at the sores on the young girl’s face. Harvey told her it was only the heat, but she had a bad feeling about them. One was so large that it pushed into the side of one of her green eyes, forcing it shut a little.
Smiling Hilda put all her yellowing teeth on show. “Don’t ask what it is just eat it.”
Thea raised an eyebrow. “That doesn’t fill me with confidence.”
“If you are going to win today you need strength.” Hilda thrust some of the meat at her, wrapped in a broad leaf as a plate. Moisture leaked from the meat and soaked through the thin green layer of the plant. It smelt a bit like burnt popcorn and Thea was sure that her face had turned green.
“Hilda I don’t mean to be harsh but there must have been something better than this.” Lifting the meal up to get a better look she screwed up her face. “What even is this?”
“Its all we could catch. If you don’t want it then starve.”
There was no one else that the biting voice could belong to. Thea didn’t even have to turn, she knew it was Drew. His boots crunched over the dry grass as he came along side her and dropped a backpack that smelt awful at Hilda’s feet. His hair was shaved close to his head, his dark skin marred by scars down his neck and on his shoulders. Glaring at Thea he nodded to the bag and Hilda picked it up.
“Thanks,” she mumbled, doing her best to hide her smile at Thea’s discomfort. Thea had no idea what she had done to annoy Drew so much but whatever it was she only made it worse by continuing to exist.
Thea nibbled on the meat she had been given. It was so chewy that she was almost sure that eating her denim jacket would be easier.
Something in her face must have given this away because Drew threw her another scathing look. “Sorry, princess, that we don’t have caviar.”
Thea bristled. “For someone who spends all day killing things you would think you would be less stressed.”
Drew scanned her head to toe and made a disgusted noise in the back of his throat. “God help us if we need to rely on you.”
This comment stung. Not because of her pride, she didn’t care what he thought. It hurt because it reminded Thea of why she had to go on attacks now. So many people had been lost the last time they hit Silvia’s region. They hadn’t made it far past the perimeter wall. Thea suddenly couldn’t imagine stomaching another bite and handed the food back to Hilda.
“But you need strength…” Hilda narrowed her eyes.
Thea shook her head, stomach still doing summersaults. “I have enough strength thanks.”
Drew scoffed. “You have no idea what you are walking into.” Thea was going to argue but the moody ass had stormed away before she could utter a word. She watched his back as he got smaller the further he went into the nearby meadow. Somehow he fit in perfectly with the withering flowers and the frosty air of the winter.
Thea rolled her shoulders. “Someone needs a hug.”
Hilda pressed her lips together and started to drag all manner of small dead animals out of the bag Drew had left with her. The stench alone would put you off your food for weeks. God wasn’t there anything he could do about that?
“If you tried to hug him he would snap you in half. That’s not the way I want to go, no thank you.” Hilda smiled gently at Thea. The sudden change to such an expression of warmth was disarming and Thea suddenly thought what if this was the last time she saw Hilda. She might die today.
“What?” Hilda asked.
Thea couldn’t continue to look into her eyes when they were awash with worry like that.
“Please be careful. I don’t want to lose anyone else.”
A lump formed in Thea’s throat, but she refused to let it surface. Today she had a job to do.
Thankfully Harvey called her over at that moment, so she was given a good out.
Coming up alongside him she was offered a black cloak with a low hood.
“Wear this as we get closer to the region. If things go sideways we don’t want them to know our faces.” Harvey gave similar cloaks to the others gathered around. Thea had seen them about camp, but she didn’t know them well. The youngest looked around fourteen, his face pudgy and flushed. The weight of what she had to do hit her again. This attack could be make or break for a lot of them. If you got caught while attacking the region then you didn’t make it out alive. Meaning if she screwed up then she could get this kid killed. She was all of a sudden very cold.
“Alright, everyone armed?” Harvey asked.
There was a general murmur of agreement.
“Good, then let’s go.”
Trekking over the deserted lands was like being in purgatory. There were green fields and trees as far as the eye could see but there were no people. An oppressive silence surrounded them. They knew when they were getting closer to the region border when the ruins were visible. Buildings were half submerged in the ground, like worms breaking the surface, their eyes the shards of glass that reflected the sunlight. Plants grew through the middle of buildings, wearing them like clothes. Some ruins were so tall that Thea had to tip her head back to see the top of them. Rust and dirt coated everything other than the plants, rotting away at what used to be. Thea had no idea what the buildings once were. She knew it was a city at some point but there were few signs left of what it used to be for. Everything was bent out of shape and twisted into a hybrid of nature and the past. Faded letters from signs were visible on some walls and Thea had often tried to understand what they said but there wasn’t enough to go on.
“It’s eerie, isn’t it?” Harvey speaking made her jump. She hadn’t realised he was alongside her until then.
“It’s weird alright.”
Harvey sighed. “My father said this used to be full of people.”
Thea shivered. She could only imagine what had happened to those people.
Eventually, as they came over the top of a hill Thea caught sight of the region wall. Massive and made from shiny black stone, it encircled the entire settlement. Thea wasn’t sure how large it was, but the wall continued too far both ways for her to see the end. Sunlight bounced off the stone and Thea had to squint against it.
Harvey took out binoculars and scanned the area in front of them. “Just like clockwork, every two months.” Taking a long breath, he handed the binoculars to Thea. She knew what she would see as soon as she raised them to her eyes.
There was a gate in the wall. It was huge and the echo of it groaning open could be heard all the way back at their camp. Huge spikes protruded from the front of the gates, occasionally Thea had seen birds landing on them. Long grass was everywhere around the region but just in front of the gate it was flattened down. The reason why was shuffling closer and closer to the gate. A line of people, each one chained to the one in front and the whole group led by a man in a dark uniform with a gun strapped to his back. The prisoners were ragged and thin, staggering and almost falling every time they were yanked forward.
Thea’s grip tightened on the binoculars as the guard grabbed one of the men by the shoulder and shoved him hard enough to make him fall. The following people were being pushed along so fast that they trod over the top of him before they could stop themselves. Hot bile rose into the back of her throat as the trampled man screamed.
“She can’t have used the others already,” Thea thought out loud.
“Depends on her mood. If she had a bad month she might have had more of them killed.” Harvey spat on the ground and motioned with his chin for them to move out. They had to hit the gate before the guard got the prisoners inside. There was no breaching the wall once the gate was closed.
Harvey led them down the hill in single file. It was hard not to just start running the more Thea thought of the fate these people would have to endure. Reports claimed that Silvia divided her human slaves into two groups; those who would go into the fighting ring and those who she kept about to breed. Thea would prefer the fighting ring, at least there you could end it quickly. She had heard that the people in the breeding program were put into pens and forced to have children who were raised as slaves. The only way to avoid being a slave was to be like the guard, a coward who helped to round up his own people.
Nearly slipping on the long grass Thea stopped behind Harvey as he opened his bag and took a grenade in both hands. Shouldering the bag again he made eye contact with each person in turn.
“I will do my best to get close enough and toss a grenade through the gate to try and hit something inside the wall. You guys free the prisoners.”
Dampness spread under Thea’s arms and over her palms. This was it, these peoples’ lives were in her hands. Drawing her machete from her waist she vowed to slit the guard’s throat if she got the chance. An older woman to her right lifted out a bomb of her own, a smoke bomb. Thea thanked god they had taken in that marine with all this gear. Too bad he hadn’t lasted long after that. Pushing the memory of the sick man aside she focused on the task at hand.
The woman with the smoke bomb went first. She crouched low and crept through the thick grass. The blades whispered against each other as she went, and Thea cringed each time she made a sound. Even when she couldn’t hear her as she got further away she was scared stiff that the guards would notice her.
There was a moment of stillness while the woman readied the grenade. Harvey and the others shuffled forward and made ready to run for it. Here we go, Thea thought.
As soon as the cloud of smoke was swirling around the group of prisoners, screaming started and panicked calls from the guard to the men who were patrolling the gate. The guards on the gate stared down and started shouting and running in circles. Not giving herself time to feel afraid Thea followed Harvey and the others down the bank of grass.
Her legs burned and her heart was beating so hard she could have taken a heart attack. One by one, the party vanished into the smoke cloud. Thea was dazed when she entered it herself. The air was heavy and thick. Anyone could have been in front of her, and she wouldn’t have known it. Relying more on listening than sight she followed the panicked screaming of the prisoners and the sound of their shuffling steps. Very soon she crashed into a warm and bony body. A woman materialised out of the smoke. Her eyes were wide with fear and her thin skin was so taunt that Thea wouldn’t have been surprised if it had split over her bones. The shackles on her wrists were fairly basic and flimsy. They didn’t need to be strong to hold the people who had been living in the wild alone for years.
“We are here to help. Hold still.” Without offering any further explanation Thea pulled the shackles so that the thin chain was drawn tight then bashed at it with her machete. She was almost sure she could have picked the lock, but it was very smoky, and panic had taken over her mind. Finally, with a sharp sound the chain snapped in half. The woman had been frozen to the spot throughout all of this but once she was free she took off so fast that Thea didn’t even get a chance to tell her which way to go to the camp. She ran randomly into the smoke without a backwards glance. There was no time to dwell on what might happen to her as she had to move on to the next one.
Holding the chain and using it as a guide she followed it to the next prisoner. It was another woman although this one looked about twenty and she was plumper than the last. In fact, her cheeks were so round, and her body filled out, that Thea wondered how she was so well fed while being out here in the middle of nowhere. Not only that, but she wasn’t wearing torn or bloody rags like the rest of them, she was in jean shorts and a bikini. What the hell?
The booming of gunshots reminded Thea that she was on a time crunch, and she could wonder about the strangeness of it all later. She met the girl’s eyes and kept her voice level.
“We are going to get you out of here.”
“Oh thank god for that. I’m going to be late.”
Thea had started bashing at the chain and missed her next swing when the girl spoke. Late? For what? Maybe she was just mad. Keep your head in the game Thea.
Before she could strike the chain again she heard steps
behind her, rustling over the trampled grass.
Comments (0)
See all