Deathmarked, p.17
DeathMarked, page 17
One of the kids gave a shaky nod. Things inside the DEZ had turned hostile in the last few weeks. A few had already been sent through graduation well before their time. There had been a strict curfew set, and each kid was locked in their quads at night. We monitored things as best we could, knowing we couldn’t leave them there, but we also couldn’t move too soon. Now though, we had run out of time, and I had to get these kids out.
I sprinted down the hallway, passing more kids and screamed my orders as I went. They obeyed.
At the next corner, I was finally met with resistance. Guards sprinted towards me. I took two down with Azrael and embedded my knife into the head of a third before I kept running.
When I was at the center of the DEZ, I stopped. Kneeling down, I took the pack off my back and pulled out the four stalks of explosives Em had placed inside. I positioned them around the four walks of the central hallway before I paused and waited for my next marker.
A few breaths later, an explosion sounded on the west side of the building, and I knew that meant all the kids of the DEZ were out and accounted for. Their numbers had dwindled over the last few weeks, but Em had counted nearly one hundred and twenty last time she accessed their system, before getting booted out. I set the timer—two minutes—and ran.
The hallways were empty, which should have been my first hint things weren’t as they seemed. This place was usually crawling with guards, yet I’d only run into three so far.
I slowed my pace as I reached the main foyer of the DEZ, circling around and looking for something I was missing, something out of place. But everything was still… silent.
My watched beeped a warning—thirty seconds.
Outside the DEZ was the rogue shuttle, piloted by none other than Logan Wallace, a wide smirk on his face.
“What are you waiting for?” Em called from the side door.
I looked back to the DEZ, my brows furrowed, before sprinting towards them. I reached the shuttle just as the explosion sounded, deafening and sending a shock wave vibrating through us.
Logan quickly took us up before the ground splintered and cracked beneath us.
“Something’s not right,” I mumbled to Em.
We both looked out the open shuttle door to where the DEZ was imploding in on itself. As if the entire building was made of quicksand, it sunk lower and lower into the ground until it revealed something that made my heart stop. An underground tunnel, leading west towards the wall.
I pushed past Simon who was seated beside Logan and pressed the secure Linked channel we’d planned to use. “Reyes, what’s your status?”
Silence.
“Reyes?”
“Sorry dear,” a cruel voice sounded on the other end of the channel. “Reyes is a bit… tied up at the moment. May I ask whose calling?”
Simon froze beside me. We both knew that voice. Governor Grayson. She had Reyes, which meant...
“The kids,” Em breathed behind me.
I think I nodded; my mind was numb.
Simon quickly severed the Linked channel, and the crackle of silence melted with the sound of the engines.
“We have to go back,” I said once my voice returned.
Simon shook his head, and the pained look on his face told me it wasn’t the answer he wanted to give either. “We can’t.”
In the pilot seat, Logan waited for an order on where to take us.
“We’re no use to any of them dead,” Simon continued.
I nodded. My limbs went numb as I sat down, and the shuttle sped off as Logan took us towards Eres.
I had failed them… those kids. I’d promised they’d be safe, but now…
“We’ll find a way.” Em squeezed my leg. Leanna’s eyes watched me from across the shuttle and even her usual scowl was muted and pale with shock.
We were silent as we flew towards Eres, away from the city I had sworn to protect, away from the people who needed me.
SIENNA
I had to make a choice, and every step towards the one I chose was a step away from a promise I’d made. I couldn’t save Theo if I was looking for Vic. And I couldn’t find Vic knowing Theo needed me. So I made my decision… and I chose him. Every bone in my body screamed liar, deserter, disloyal, as I walked farther away from where Vic was, but I knew Theo needed me now more than her. And if I were trying to justify choosing my “boy toy” over the only family I’d ever had, at least I knew the man hunting her down was with Theo, and that made Vic just a little bit safer.
Gunner had been willing to tell Tynan and his Guardians what was happening, but when I told him we were heading north, too, he was less than pleased.
“Do you not trust the born warriors of this forest to protect Theo or something?” he had asked.
“I don’t trust anyone but myself… or is that not the point you’ve been trying to get through to me since we got here?” I replied.
“You chose a good time to start listening,” Gunner groaned. But despite his constant complaining, he stayed with me. Whether it was because I still hung his secret over his head or because he was slowly starting to care about our wellbeing, I couldn’t tell.
We had found a path along the edge of the mountains taking us north. The trail was steep and non-existent at some points, causing us to scale sleek cliffs just to remain unseen by those below us, and out of sight of the Reeks.
For two days now, we had trailed Blane and his men to a camp at the northern part of the forest only a few miles from the crash site. Gunner and I made sure to check in at one of the lesser-used camps, and he’d been kind enough to provide me with an artifact. We’d overheard Blane mentioning he had a stash of his own artifacts, likely Poached, and seeing as he needed Theo alive to get under the mountain, he’d provided one for him as well. The Reeks were more prevalent here, coming in waves no matter the time of day, but Blane’s men were alert and skilled, much to my relief and chagrin.
“So, what’s their play?” I asked as Gunner climbed up to the spot I’d been perched watching and waiting for him. He’d gone out an hour ago to see if he could catch wind of any plans. I hated to admit it, but Gunner was a lot better at hiding and staying out of sight than I was.
“Theo’s taking them into the tunnels tomorrow. Blane has clearly grown restless of his excuses, so he can’t stall any longer.” Gunner leaned against the smooth stone at his back.
“And what will we do?” I asked.
“Are you incapable of making a plan yourself? He’s your boyfriend, not mine,” Gunner said.
I swatted him with the back of my hand. “You’re the one with all the tricks and secrets. I’m just giving you the chance to show off.”
Gunner rubbed his arm. “Yeah, sure you are.” He rolled his eyes but eventually sighed and gave in. “Let’s just say I wouldn’t want to be any of them if it were me heading under that mountain.”
I sighed, vague as usual, but I’d grown to trust Gunner. If there was one thing I could count on, it was that Gunner would save his butt at all costs, which meant he would help Theo and me until it no longer benefited him.
“Sun’s setting, let’s head down.” Gunner nudged me before climbing halfway down the steep cliff below us and tucking into the small crevice he’d pointed out two hours ago when we’d arrived.
The small opening was just big enough for one person to slide through. I squeezed between the two boulders and into the tunnel at the end.
My eyes took a moment to adjust to the dim light before I began following Gunner down the steep, damp path.
Sounds echoed loudly in this part of the tunnels. We were only a few miles from the city of Venzier and the hoard of Reeks still trapped there.
The first night we’d spent in the tunnels this far north had been one of the worst since entering the Void. Even when we had to spend the night outside of the camps, the sounds had not haunted me as they did in here.
Tormented sounds. Wailing and screeching. Living nightmares.
After a few turns and a steep decline farther into the mountain, we met up with Tynan and his men.
“They’re coming tomorrow at first light,” Gunner said by way of greeting.
“We’ll be ready,” Tynan said, nodding to the men on his right who pressed their hands to their chests in salute before they took off down separate paths to relay the message to the others within the elaborate tunnel system. “Here, change into these.” Tynan tossed us both white clothing lined with fur. They felt heavy and reinforced with something hard and strong.
“What is this?” I asked, turning the clothes in my hands.
“It’s so we can identify you from the others and a precaution should the enemy get closer than intended,” Tynan answered. “The material is from the Dred Wulfs’ fur, thick and reinforced with steel along the edges.”
“What happens if they get past your men?” I asked, unzipping my jacket.
“I am not worried about them getting past us, that won’t happen. It’s if they get too close to them.” The Reeks guttered screams echoed, and that seemed to answer whom Tynan was talking about.
He turned his back to us and began speaking with his sister, Petra, standing beside a flickering candle and a makeshift table of stone.
I glanced around, looking for a place to change without being seen before I noticed Gunner removing his shirt. My eyes widened as I stared at his naked chest, blinking a few times in the darkness to make sure I was seeing him right.
Gunner caught my stare. “What? Never seen a bare chest before? You didn’t strike me as a prude, princess,” he teased before pulling the white shirt over his head.
I gripped the bottom of his shirt and lifted it up a few inches. “What are those?” I whispered.
Gunner swatted my hand away, and the fabric fell back into place, covering the hundreds of crisp black marks covering his entire upper half, the same black marks that marred my forearm. These ones weren’t as uniform as the others on his forearm. Some were thinner or longer than others, like they had been added by different people and at different times.
“Marks.” Gunner shrugged. “You have them, too.”
“Not that many.”
He shoved on the white, fur-lined jacket so his marked forearms were hidden as well. “They’re reminders,” he said.
“Of?”
“People.” Gunner shrugged again, but the shadowed expression on his face betrayed his nonchalant attitude. “The ones who’ve died… by my hand or others.”
“People you knew?” I gasped. There had to be hundreds of black marks on him.
“Most, yes. A few nameless ones I didn’t ask or get a chance to.”
“Why?” My voice felt small in the vast space between us.
“Because no one else was going to remember them. No one mourned for their deaths or thought of them in the quiet moments… but I did. I remember every one of them,” Gunner’s voice trailed before his glazed eyes fixed on me, blinked, and then scowled. “Hurry up and get changed already,” he said before stalking to where Tynan and Petra were still speaking quietly.
I watched him for another moment before I kicked off my boots and removed my jacket, changing it out for the warm, white clothes. Short boots covered my feet with a thick sole at the bottom that looked to be made from some part of an animal; it was slightly sticky and perfect for gripping smooth surfaces like stone, I realized. A hood on the back of the jacket covered my face and subtly wrapped around the sides, a strong rim along the edges, leaving only a small space for my nose and eyes when it was up.
Once I’d wrapped up my clothes and stuffed them into my pack, feeling suddenly bare without any weapons, I joined the group looking over the map and securing a plan for the morning. But my mind couldn’t stop seeing those black marks. They covered his entire body from his collarbone to his waist. Up his arms and across his back. Hundreds of names, hundreds of kids. All gone.
And I wondered if one day he’d sketch two more lines there for Theo and me.
I’m certain I didn’t sleep. I tossed and turned, restless and uncomfortable on the cold stone floor, despite the blankets and furs wrapped around me. I missed Theo. I missed his warmth and his presence, but mostly I missed how he made me feel confident and strong. Right now, I felt weak and unsure of our plan.
The moans and screams of the Reeks echoed through the night, crawling up my spine like little spiders, weighing down my thoughts and leaving my chest heavy.
By the time the others woke up, some internal clock telling them it was morning despite the pitch-black tunnel we slept in, I was finding it hard to breathe. In the dim sunrise over the forest, I heard the distant howl of a Dred Wulf as we exited the tunnel.
“Those are the least of our worries today,” Tynan said to my left, following my gaze to where the sound came from. “Though they are not our friends, the Wulfs have stopped being our enemy long ago. They, too, just want their forest back to what it was… a home.”
“They’re stronger than the Reeks, aren’t they?” I asked.
“They are,” Tynan said. “But there are more Reeks than Wulfs. Their numbers have dropped just as ours have, and the Reeks continue to come and stay—more are breaking out of Venzier every day. One on one, it’d be no competition, but with so many Reeks, it’s become a struggle to survive for them as well.”
“If we get out of here, if we can ever escape this place… where will your people go?” I asked, knowing the forest was no longer their home, but it was the only one they’d ever known.
“If that day ever comes, we will go anywhere we are welcome. I will gladly leave this forest without looking back if it means my people are safe.” His voice was soft, strained, as he glanced down at me, his eyes weary. “But I don’t think that day will ever come.”
I wanted to say something reassuring, to promise I would find a way to get us all out of here, but I knew better than to lie to him. I had too many promises already I couldn’t keep.
My mouth opened, but Tynan lifted a hand and crouched down a bit lower behind the large rock hiding us, just outside of the tunnel entrance. In the distance, I saw what he’d seen. More than a dozen men walked in a uniform line towards the mountain, and at the front, Theo.
Tynan gave me a sharp nod, and I sprinted to the tree Gunner hid behind. My eyes told him what he already knew. They were coming.
In my left hand, I held a short dagger. I wasn’t meant to be close enough to fight, but if I was needed, I would fight, and my hands alone wouldn’t be enough.
A subtle twang then a hiss as the arrow from Tynan’s bow sliced through the air and hit the man behind Theo. It took a second for the others to realize what happened as the man clutched his throat where the arrow had imbedded and was now poking out the other side. The man sputtered, his mouth moving, but only blood came dripping down his chin before he fell to his knees, then face first to the ground.
Another arrow hit its mark. This time in the leg of a kid in the middle of the pack, from another Guardian hidden somewhere even I couldn’t find. Blane’s group shouted orders as they circled together and searched for where the arrows had come from.
Another arrow, another scream.
The men pushed against each other, none wanting to be at the edge of the tight circle they’d formed. They yelled, words mixing together with orders and shrieks of pain. The air shifted and a chill went down my spine as I realized the things within this forest had heard their screams and could smell their blood.
“Move,” Gunner ordered me, and I sprinted to the next spot, a large rock, now only a few feet away from Theo, who was covering his head with his hands, but his eyes roamed the forest. He knew he was not the mark, and he was searching for me.
Blane’s crew was too close for me to reach Theo without being noticed, and his arms were still shackled and connected to one of the men in the circle. They had left Theo to be slaughtered should an arrow turn on him, but they hadn’t let go of his chain.
As if sensing our presence nearby, the man holding the end of Theo’s chain yanked on it, pulling Theo to his knees and nearly dragging him to where Blane and the others hid within the trees. More arrows zoomed toward them, but they were now sheltered by shrubs and trees.
“Who’s out there?” asked one of the men to Theo.
“How should I know?”
“Friends of yours?” Blane asked from the middle of the pack.
“I don’t have any friends,” Theo hissed, keeping his head down as arrows flew overhead. I prayed the Guardians remembered my description of Theo, “the one in chains,” shouldn’t be hard to miss, but who knew if their aims were as good as Gunner claimed.
“Liar,” Blane spat as he jerked Theo to his feet by the collar of his jacket. I flinched towards him, and Gunner caught my arm before I moved. “Get us in that tunnel. Now.” Blane shoved Theo down the path. He shoved one of the men in the way of an arrow aimed for him, using him like a shield.
The initial shock of the attack gave us a slim advantage, but now they aimed bullets back where the arrows had come from. Then the Reeks arrived, and some of those arrows were forced to aim at them instead. The Guardians were pushed back into the cover of the mountain, as they outran the black wave rippling through the forest.
Gunner pulled me along with them, leaving Theo to lead Blane and his men down the path we’d pushed them on.
“We’ve got to slow down that hoard of Reeks before they reach the tunnel,” Tynan said to his men. Blane and his crew were moving closer to the tunnel. “If they get inside before we have a chance to reach Theo…”
I didn’t want to think of what that would mean.
“We’ve got that covered, stay here,” Gunner said. “Let’s go.” He nodded to me, and I followed him back into the tunnel and under the mountain.
“They’re too far ahead of us,” I said, my voice shaking as I ran through the dark, blindly holding on to the back of Gunner’s jacket.
“I know,” he said.
“We won’t make it in time,” I said and felt Gunner move faster.
