Eight
Ken cries out as he hits the ground with a loud thump. He clutches his leg in pain and gasps for air as another figure drops down from the tree in all black, holding a knife out toward me defensively.
I throw another arrow into my bow, and aim it at him, my feet planted solidly on the ground, and my breathing steady.
He doesn’t move.
I can feel the tension rising between us as we stand. My arm starts to shake and my muscle starts to hurt, but I won’t give in. Can’t give in. When someone follows someone else, it’s never for a good reason.
“Ken, get over here, you idiot!”
I drop my arms, confused as the second boy runs over to help the boy I know as Ken. The boy props him up on his shoulder, and I point my arrow at them again.
“You couldn’t shoot someone, Eenie,” Ken number one says to me, spitting dirt out of his mouth.
He hobbles forward with Ken number two under his arm, holding him up.
“Just did,” I hiss.
“Put it down,” He says as they stop a few feet away from me. “It’s just us here.”
Ken number two looks exhausted. I could out run both of them if I need. I know I could if I tried. I mean, I’ve never been much of a runner, but I could try… Neither of them look like they’d be cut out to run after me right now, what with Ken number two overcome by tiredness and Ken number one wounded.
“I don’t believe you,” I say, keeping my arrow aimed at the second Ken, still debating on running or not.
“Really?” He laughs. “You shot an arrow through my leg. You owe me.”
“I don’t owe you anything,” I spit. “Who are you really?”
“I’m a part of the—”
“Your name, idiot!”
He smirks, then pulls out the arrow with a cry.
“Ouch,” He breathes. “Does more damage coming out than going in. Ken, give her the shoes we brought.”
The boy lets go of the idiot, making him stand on his good leg, and reaches around to unclasp a pair of running shoes from his black shorts. He tosses them to me, and they land with a light thud on the crisp leaves on the ground. I can barely see them, but they look like standard Dome shoes—bright colors and no white nor black on them anywhere.
“You’ve lost your touch at sneaking around in the woods,” The idiot laughs, pressing his hand against his bleeding wound. “Just put the bow down and we can talk.”
“Why should I trust you?”
“Because I’m the one that got you here in the first place without killing you.”
“That doesn’t mean anything,” I snarl.
“Eenie, you shot me in the leg! There is no way I’m able to attack you!”
“That’s not true.”
He groans.
“Please?! If we were going to kill you or rat you out, you’d be at camp or dead by now.”
I look at the two boys. The question of why they’re out here in the first place crosses my mind for a moment. Were they following me? And if they were, why? Something inside of me tells me I really can trust them, but I don’t know what it is. It’s a strange feeling, and I don’t know whether to go along with it or not.
I stand there for a few more moments, still debating, and then I make up my mind, the boys watching my every move.
“Fine,” I sigh, and lower the arrow. Slinging the bow over my shoulder, I bend down to pick up the shoes.
“They’re your foot size,” The other boy stutters.
I look from the shoes to his face.
“How do you know that?” I ask suspiciously.
The boy’s eyes go wide, and he looks at the idiot for help, whose face has twisted into irritation.
He sighs and shakes his head at Ken-two.
“Who are you two?” I croak, my body ready to run if I need to. I’ve made up my mind. “What is so important about me that you followed me all the way into the woods?”
The idiot painfully hobbles toward me in the dark, and places his hand on my bad shoulder, sending fire throughout my body. I wince and take a step back. He tips forward, barely catching himself.
“Look,” He breathes heavily, adjusting his leg and stifling a groan. “I don’t know why you’re so freaking important. No one but Doug knows. They’re the ones that say you are and they’re the ones that are supposed to bring you to the Leader of the Rebellion. Because of those two reasons, we can’t just let you walk away. If you do, it’d be on our heads. As for who we are…” He looks back at the boy standing in the dark. “He’s Ken. He’s the one you were supposed to be matched with. Not me.”
“Then who are you?” I ask, looking curiously from Ken to him.
“A spy,” He says matter-of-factly.
“Your name, stupid.”
“You see, I was appointed by the head of the rebellion to take this guy’s place. Ken was rescued recently and wasn’t trained enough. But I’ve been here for three years. Was kicked out of the dome at fifteen for…” He feels his way to the ground and sits on a tree root, investigating his wound.
“I didn’t ask for your story,” I say.
No matter how curious I am… I think.
“Oh, but doesn’t a name carry a story?” He smiles at me.
“I didn’t ask for riddles either.”
“In short, I took his place, and he’s your actual match.”
I glare at him for several seconds. Then, when I feel like he won’t tell me anymore, I turn and walk away.
“His name is Hemmings,” I hear Ken call after me.
I spin around and peer at Ken through the darkness.
“Hemmings?” I ask aloud.
That name. I’ve heard it before…
I think.
I shake my head and turn on my heel to keep walking.
“Where are you going?” Hemmings calls after me.
“Home!”
BOOM!
The trees light up with fire and the sound of airships.
“Go!” Hemmings yells.
I spin around and start running away from the fire.
BOOM!
Another explosion, a little farther away.
Screams.
“The camp!” Ken yells to Hemmings.
We all stop and turn around to look back at the way we came.
I feel something snap inside of me.
Fear?
Panic?
Anger?
“There’s nothing we can do,” Hemmings says, and hopping once, making Ken take a step forward to compensate for the shift in weight.
I look at both of them, dumbfounded.
“Maybe you can’t,” I say through gritted teeth. “Maybe I can.”
I run to the light.
o0o0o
The tents are on fire and charred bodies are everywhere, they litter the ground. Some of them are ripped apart, ripped to shreds. People scatter into the woods, and grab what they can of their belongings. Some dodge falling trees and others sit crying over their children’s corpses, waiting to be taken too.
I run out into the open, searching for the large tent that sits in the center of the camp. Doug’s tent.
BOOM!
Another explosion to my left throws me down, making my ears ring. My body cries out in pain as I try to stand up.
Even more dead people litter the ground.
I find my way into the tent, and see Doug leaning unsteadily over the long table in the middle of the room. The maps are scattered all over it and the floor, ripped and crumpled.
“Doug!” I cry out to him as another bomb shakes the ground. “Doug, you have to leave.”
He looks at me with empty, sad eyes.
“I can’t,” He speaks hypnotically. “I hired a rogue.”
I rush in and pull at his arm, trying to make him go. If I can’t save everyone, I’ve got to try to save the leader, the one that’s the most important. He needs to live. I can’t just stand by and watch him die. Watch any of
them die. Something inside of me tells me the world needs him for some reason. I just don’t know what yet. All I know is that he’s important too.
“No,” He says, his voice wavering uncontrollably. “I can’t… Leave, Eenralla. Save yourself.”
“I’m not going to let you stay here and die,” I shout over another explosion.
He fumbles around on the table. He picks up a paper and folds it quickly as the ground quakes with another explosion.
“Here,” He says, shoving a paper in my hand and closing my fingers around it. “Ken and Hemmings will take you there. Just show them the map.”
“How—”
“I know both of them like the back of my hands. Ken and Hemmings will know how to get there. Go, Eenralla Land.”
Another explosion rattles the tent.
“Doug—”
“Go!” He says, pushing me toward the opening.
I stumble and almost fall as the ground shakes again. I try to twist around to persuade him to leave, but the look on his face tells me he’s made up his mind and he isn’t changing it.
“Wait! Why am I so important?” I shout suddenly, wanting an answer. If he isn’t coming with me to help me get where I need to go, if he isn’t coming to help me get answers to all of my questions, I at least need to know this answer. I need to know why this is happening and why everything isn’t right. Why everything is so confusing and mysterious. I need to know why the Leader of the Rebellion needs me. “Why am I so important, Doug? Why does the Leader of the Rebellion need me?”
“Go! Please go!” He says, shoving me out of the tent, telling me to run. “And don’t stop fighting, Eenralla, no matter what happens! Don’t stop fighting!”
I stumble over my own feet and try to get my balance back, asking what he means. I turn to look back at him. He disappears into the tent without a single glance back at me, without a single word more. He’s not coming…
If I stay, his effort to keep me alive will be lost. I’ll die too.
I take a shaky breath, feeling tears pooling up on the bottom of my eyes as I realize this fate of his.
Fight. That’s what he told me to do. But fight what?
I turn and run. The edge of the forest is before me. Only a few more strides and I’ll—
I’m thrown to the ground as another explosion hits. I turn to look back, flipping onto my back to see what’s happening, to understand what’s going on—I need to understand… and find that the bomb had landed by Doug’s tent.
It’s burning and falling to pieces. I watch Doug burn. His flesh chars away, and as he cries out in agony. I watch him as he falls into the flames. I hear his final scream as another explosion lights up the night.
Hands grab my arms and start to drag me away.
He shouldn’t have died…
The hands drag me along the dirt, past the bodies, past the fire…
I could have saved him.
A hand slaps me, tries to shake me awake.
This is all my fault.
More dragging.
BOOM!
The world goes dark.
o0o0o
I wake to the crackling of fire in the distance. Voices swarm over me, talking quickly and urgently.
“…no one knows who this rogue is, but now you know what happens when someone rats you out!” Lease stands in front of a large crowd of people from the wreckage, her back to the old camp, barking out commands and ‘words of wisdom’, taking the leader position—Doug’s position.
As I stand up, my body protests.
I can see the campsite completely burned down, the light from the fires illuminating everything around them, including the bodies…
How long was I out?
Lease looks at me and smirks.
Long enough for Lease to take over.
“Here is the possible traitor now,” She smiles guilefully at me, her head shaking from side to side a bit like it’s one of the tether balls located in the Home Dome playgrounds.
My stomach turns, and my harsh laugh bubbles out of my throat like fire. I don’t know what it is that rubs me wrong about her, exactly, but it does. I guess I woke up on the wrong side of the bed, considering I wasn’t even in one. First, I was trapped outside of my home, then I was taken hostage for a rebellion, then I ran through a showering of bombs… I might be just a little aggravated at the world around me.
“Oh, I’m the traitor? I tried to save your precious leader, Doug,” I spit to her and the crowd. “I tried to save him while everyone else was worried about saving themselves!” Mutters and whispers are shared in the crowd as I continue, rage forming my words. “I watched him burn. I watched his flesh fall off of his body. I was there for the one person YOU believed in, and I saw not one of you there to help save him! Not even you, Lease, oh, wonderful new leader, who had been friends with him. And the funny thing is, is that I’m not even a part of the rebellion.”
The crowd falls silent with the last words I speak. I stand fuming and glaring at Lease. Where is all of this coming from? What is happening to me? Who am I anymore? I’ve never talked to anybody like this… What did the wall do to me?
She sighs and shifts her weight, probably trying to figure out what to say next. She turns to the crowd and barks out commands.
“We’ll set up camp for the night at the river. Start walking that way—” Lease points forward, “—and when you reach the river, start setting up with what we have left. No fires.”
They all obey, still trembling and shaking in fear, and she turns back to me.
“What are you trying to prove?” She snaps.
“Nothing. I’m just sick and tired of being pushed around.”
She laughs harshly. “And you want to go back to your pleasant little Dome?”
“At least I had—”
“What?” She mocks. “Your freedom? A job? A home?”
“A friend,” I say, almost threatening.
My mind flashes to Nad. She was—is my best friend. I don’t care how childish I sound. I’ve never had a friend.
I hope everything is okay there… I think.
And of course everything is okay in the Dame’s Dome. I shouldn’t be worrying. Everything is always okay there. Nothing could go wrong.
Except the bombing by one of the tunnels…
“Lease,” I turn around. “Who is it that needs me? Why am I so important?”
She smiles cruelly.
“Oh, wouldn’t you like to know. Do you want me to take you?” She hisses.
Something inside of me gets a sick feeling about her.
It’s like that feeling the moment I knew I was caught when I touched the wall, the day my life became one gust of wind away from falling off a cliff. Something just isn’t right about Lease. There’s just this certain darkness in her that I can’t place my finger on. I feel like she isn’t who she says she really is… Is that strange? Who would lie about that…?
Hemmings, I find myself thinking.
I crinkle the paper in my hand, remembering it’s there.
‘Here,’ I hear Doug telling me, watching in my mind as he hands me a paper. ‘Ken and Hemmings will know how to get there…’
“No,” I tell her, a bit too harshly. “I’d rather the idiot that brought me to that camp take me.”
“Hemmings?” She snorts. “Oh really? He’s the one that lied to you to get you here.”
“Yeah, but you’re the one that ratted me out.”
“What happened?” Hemmings huffs over Ken’s shoulder as they walk up to the two of us. I’m almost glad for the interruption.
“Bombing. Someone went rogue,” Lease eyes me.
Anger flashes on his face, and he asks her, “Who was it?”
Lease shrugs, her eyes wide and innocent.
“No one knows. But we have our suspicions,” She says, glaring at me and crossing her arms over her chest.
Cocky little—
“Wo
w, Lease,” He sighs, chuckling to himself a little. “It wasn’t her, dumb—”
“You wouldn’t know,” Lease interrupts.
He hits his palm on his face.
“She was with me and Ken the entire time. Even when she wasn’t, we were keeping a close eye on her,” He shakes his head and stands on his bad leg. “What were y’all talking about?”
I uncrumple the paper and turn it so Lease can’t see its contents. Hemmings limps to me and looks over my shoulder. My heart flutters a little at his closeness, and I make a face at the strange feeling. I quickly suppress the feelings and the face I made as I look back at him. He’s so…
Stop it.
His eyes go wide.
I clear my throat. “Doug gave it to me, and he said you could—”
“I can,” Hemmings says quickly, and snatches the paper from my hands, despite the start of my protest. He shoves it in his pocket and looks at Lease suspiciously. “You haven’t shown this to anyone, have you?”
I shake my head, and he looks back to me.
“Okay. Don’t worry. I’ll keep it safe.”
o0o0o
The three of us walk on for a while, Hemmings limping and stopping every few steps to catch his breath. Ken stays behind with him, as I dart ahead to look at an animal or a plant. I’m overcome with curiosity, and I have to stop myself from acting like a child every now and then. Once in a while I try to climb a tree to look out over their tops, but I’m not strong enough to pull myself up the branches. Hemmings offers to help me up, but I don’t want to make him think I’m weak or something…
It begins to get dark and we settle down.
“Go shoot something, Eenie. I’m staving,” Hemmings says as he sits down at the base of a tree.
“You go do it,” I snap back at Hemmings.
He motions to his hurt leg and shrugs.
I cross my arms in protest, fighting back a small smile playing on my lips, and he groans loudly.
“Wow, you’re stubborn.”
“I don’t have shoes.”
“We brought you some,” Hemmings complains exasperatedly.
“I’m sorry,” I say sarcastically. “I dropped them in the showering of bombs!”
Why am I so upset suddenly?
He glares at me for a moment, and then tells Ken to carry me.
My mouth drops open slightly.
“I’m not helpless, you idiot!”
He groans hysterically, and throws his hands up in the air.
“Then you go get few squirrels or turkeys or something,” He tells Ken.
“I don’t know how,” Ken says.
“You wait, run, and then stab. Here, take my knife because you lost yours,” He says to Ken, shaking his head disapprovingly, and I try to hide another amused smile. “I know you know how to use it. Besides, I have another one.”
“I have to go alone?” Ken asks quietly, his face turning red.
Hemmings throws his hands up dramatically once more, and looks at me. I groan and roll my eyes and Ken follows me deeper into the trees.
“My name is Ken,” He says after a long silence. “Ken Barkly.”
“I know,” I nod, and try to listen for game over Ken’s loud footsteps. I’m not very good, but I think I could catch something if I tried. I mean, I was a cooker before I was saved from the Dome.”
I snort, and strain my ears again to listen.
“That doesn’t mean you’d be able to hunt, Ken.”
“Well, you don’t know that… Besides, Hemmings started teaching me… But, I don’t know. I guess it was good that that was my job or whatever, because Hemmings was one too when he was in the Dome. He just kind of switched places with me without any trouble, really. We just had to swap out his picture, really. No one really knew who I was anyway…”
I hear rustling.
“I don’t know why everyone calls him Hemmings though,” He keeps talking. “I think maybe it’s his last—”
“Shh!” I hiss rather rudely.
I think of apologizing, but change my mind and don’t.
Three large brown birds strut out into a clearing before us. I load my bow and raise it, aligning it perfectly. It flies, but I’ve lost my touch. Instead, I shoot the base of a tree, and they start to run.
I groan and let another arrow soar. I hit one of the large birds and it falls over onto its side, clucking as I run over to it.
Ken had roasted the bird over a fire, and, when it had been cooked long enough, he smothered the pit.
We sit in the dark eating, Ken and Hemmings both talking softly and laughing on the opposite side of the fire pit, almost out of my hearing range.
I’d like to say I don’t want to know what they were talking about, but I do…
How did I get stuck with these two? And, and even bigger question, why do I trust them so much already? Is there something wrong with me? Like, with everything? Gosh, I feel so stupid…
I don’t trust them, I think to myself, trying to make it true and trying to make myself feel better. But the problem is, is that I really do feel like I can trust them.
‘…For now, I can just tell you that you have to be careful. Especially with who you are. There are people out there that are just waiting for you to slip up again, and are just waiting to kill you. Then there are people like me who want to help you…’
I shake Doug’s voice and the thoughts away, and take the last bite of my food. It’s weird how my hunger is catching up with me, now that all of the adrenaline is gone from my system.
Ken sits down next to me.
“Uh, here,” He says, handing me the other half of his piece. When I refuse, he tells me he’s not that hungry.
I take it slowly and watch his face. If we were back in the Dome, would we…
But we’re not. So no.
“Why are you being so nice to me?”
He looks almost shocked as he looks down at his outstretched feet and shrugs.
“I… uh… I dunno… I guess I’m just… curious?”
“About what?” I ask, and the smell of the meat is wafted to me.
He shifts uncomfortably and leans against the tree behind us for support.
“I dunno… you?”
“Me?”
“Yeah,” He clears his throat. “Since, you know, we were, um… supposed to be…”
I smile a little at his awkwardness, then I stop myself. I can’t get attached to either one of them in any way. I have to get home, and these two aren’t going to help me with that. At least not until they get me where they need me to go.
I bite into the food and finish it before either of us speaks again. It’s my turn to talk first as I swallow my last bite.
“Why are you two doing this for me?”
He shrugs shyly. “I was kinda dragged into it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well…” He says quietly. “Okay. So, Hemmings and I were supposed to be on watch for uh, for you.”
“Why?”
“Because Lease calculated that you would try to escape. So we were kind of assigned to watch over you,” He takes a deep breath and then continues on with his story. “So when we saw you sneaking out, I started to go and tell Lease, but Hemmings stopped me. That’s when you went back to get your bow. We climbed into the trees and you came popping out again. I told him that it wasn’t a good idea, but he was curious and wanted to see what you would do, and how you would approach being in the woods at night, so we pretty much followed you.”
Curious? Hemmings was curious about me?
I look over at him, chewing on the bird-meat on the other side of the fire pit. Suddenly, he’s that boy that was at the ceremony with me. Tall… hand—
I blink and push the thoughts away.
“I’m gonna go to sleep,” I say to Ken, implying that I want him to leave.
He stares at me for a moment, and then, embarrassed, he realizes I want him to
go away, and stands up, nodding and wishing me a goodnight.
I roll onto my side, away from the smothered fire, away from the boys whose hands I’ve placed my life in for the time being, away from the faces that make this dream reality, away from the terrors and horrors of the outside world.
My body is tired, but my brain is buzzing with thoughts and questions.
What if I never get to go home? What if the person that wants me just wants to kill me? What if—what if…
I try to shut my brain off, to quiet my thoughts…
And that’s when the boys start talking to each other.
“Could you tell me about her?” I hear Ken talking to Hemmings.
“Why?” Hemmings says a little louder, sounding almost defensive and as if he doesn’t want to answer the question.
“Cuz…” Ken trails off. He clears his throat. “She’s kind of my match.”
“Well you weren’t there,” Hemmings snaps, and I hear something hit the leaves near him. Probably a bird bone. “You don’t even live in the Domes anymore. And it wasn’t even you, dude. You weren’t there. You didn’t see her.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Ken says, with a little acid in his tone. “It was my name, my data—”
“My face.”
“Whoa, you’re not saying that you like—”
“Don’t be retarded, Ken,” Hemmings says quieter, and I hear the rustling of leaves. “This is strictly business.”
I shift a little and they fall silent.
Business?
Is that all I am? A business transaction?
Why does that hurt a little?
I grit my teeth and close my eyes, trying to get some sleep before the sun comes up again, hoping this is all a dream.