Divided (11 page)

     ‘Wow,’ I hear Nina exhale, and I hear other people with us commenting on it.

     I look in the rear-view mirror at Zach. He’s smiling to himself too, and for just a few minutes, we’re all sharing the first beautiful moment we’ve had in a long time. Before the earthquake, this was a thing people saw every day, and it became unappreciated, but this is a moment I will remember every day for the rest of my life. Even if we all get thrown back into the Compound and the punishments far worse than what we’ve all ever had put together, this will always stay with me. We come up to a great sight of ruined buildings, stone and dust all over the place and I know we’re entering the city. I signal to Zach, and he makes eye contact with me through my mirror. It’s time to leave the convoy.

19

Arys

The sun is beginning to rise. I woke up ten minutes ago and softly shook Kai to wake him. We’ve been walking five minutes and he’s already complaining.

     ‘Arys, we don’t even know if she’ll come with us,’ he complains. ‘This is our third day travelling, how about we-’

     ‘No! We’re going to keep going Kai. I feel the connection growing stronger as we get closer and that’s what I intend to do.’

     He shuts up and continues to follow me, not making a sound.

     ‘
Arys! I can feel you! Where are you?
’ I hear suddenly.

     I stop and look around at Kai.

     ‘What did you see?’ asks Kai, unsheathing his knife and looking around through the trees.

     ‘Don’t you hear it?’ I ask him. ‘A girl! It was a voice similar to my own! I think it’s Kayra!’

     Kai catches up to me and looks seriously at me.

     ‘What did she say?’ he asks.

     ‘She said she could feel me, and asked where I was.’

     ‘She feels you?!’ exclaims Kai. ‘It’s Kayra! She feels you and she wants to know where you are! She’s talking to you!’

     He gets excited and asks loads of questions which I don’t hear.  Kayra? Could it really be her?

     ‘
Kayra?
’ I ask, trying to speak to her.

     ‘
Arys! Come on! Talk to me, I need to know where you are.
’

     She can’t hear me. I sit down on a tree stump and put my head in my hands. I feel Kai sitting next to me and I think of Kayra. A memory suddenly comes from nowhere.

     ‘
Kayra! Kayra, please!
’ I call in my mind.

A man I’ve never met is holding me, I’m in a house that isn’t mine and we’re watching from the window as my sister is being taken from me. My sister who has been by my side for as long as I’ve lived. I start crying.

     ‘
Kayra! Don’t leave me! Please don’t leave me!
’ I cry, putting all my energy into those words.

     She can’t hear me; my emotions are ruining the connection. I watch as she’s carried by a man in a black suit.

     ‘
Trust me Arys, we will be together again.
’

     ‘
I will find you, I promise!
’ I say.

     I don’t know if she hears me.

     The car door slams and the car drives away. I’m left alone, all I can hear is my crying, which I can’t stop no matter how hard I try.

The flashback vanishes as quickly as it came, and I hear my sister’s voice again.

     ‘
Arys, you have to remember me. I know you can hear me. You’re scared, but it’s okay. I am too, but you have to calm down so I know how to find you.
’

     I lean on Kai and he holds me. I listen to his heartbeat, remembering how it was when he held me the night of his vision... his dream.

     ‘
Arys please don’t think about love! It’s weakening our connection.’

     I stand up from the stump and use all my energy to contact my sister.

     ‘
Kayra, I remember the day we left each other and the abandonment that I felt. I’ve felt it fifteen years, but now it’s gone,’

     I relax again, this time positive that she heard. I hear nothing in reply. After a few moments, Kai comes back to me, looking expectant.

     ‘
I can hear you! Arys, I’ve missed you so much! I’m so happy to talk to you! We can talk about everything later, but please tell me where you are?
’

     I walk in circles, laughing to myself. To Kai, I must look really bizarre, but I don’t care right now. I’m talking to my sister again!

     ‘
I don’t know where I am exactly, but I see rubble in the distance. I think we’re approaching the city,
’ I say to her, my smile now fixed on my face.

     ‘
Is the sun behind you or facing you?
’ she asks.

     ‘
Behind us!
’ I reply.

     ‘
It’s in front of us, we’re going to have to go through the city,
’ she says. ‘
Be careful though, there are some Unity people travelling through in your direction. Mum says that they’re working with the people who hunt you and your people.
’

     My heart leaps at the thought of Kayra in contact with my mother, but I turn to look at Kai. He won’t like the idea of actually going through the city. That’s where most Hunters stay. We’ve never been in there ourselves, but some tribes used to go in to get supplies such as cooking equipment, canned food and sometimes musical instruments from damaged buildings, but it’s rare that anyone goes in anymore.

     ‘Kai, we have to go through the city itself,’ I tell him.

     He looks at me funnily.

     ‘You’re not being serious?’ he asks. ‘It’s suicide!’

     ‘She’s my sister, Kai! She’s left where she came from and is in the city now. We have to find her!’

     Kai closes his eyes and lets out a long breath.

     ‘Okay, but we’re going to have to be careful.’

20

Kai

We walk into what I think is an entrance to the city, now crumbled and rotting. Dark, looming shadows surround everything and the feeling of being watched is greatly increased as we slowly make our way over the chaotic debris. Plants have grown all over the buildings, and make the city look somewhat artistic. Last time I was here, I was running out with my adopted parents. They found me stood in the rubble of my house, screaming for my parents after the fire had died down. They took me in and looked after me. They have been dead for ten years.

     We walk past destroyed houses with nothing left inside. In one house we pass, three walls are still standing, and I see a broken piano collapsed on the floor, the keys scattered amongst other mess. Dust has fallen amongst the scene, but I can imagine a father sat playing the piano to young children... To his family. Maybe that did happen and maybe the family are still alive, still together. But that type of thing doesn’t happen in this world. Survival chances are low.

Arys is talking to her sister again. I can tell because she’s keeping her distance from me. Strong emotions easily disrupt their telepathic connection. She’s mad at me still for kissing Iris. She should be mad, but surely she knows that I love her.

     ‘There are no Hunters yet,’ she says to me, turning around to face me.

     ‘We should keep our eyes open, they could be planning something,’ I reply.

     I look around and see nothing but crumbled houses, ruins now. As we climb over more rubble, I see a car. I haven’t seen one for as long as I can remember! It’s long and black, with tinted windows. As we near it, its damage is much more noticeable. Scratches and dents are all over it, and like everything else here, it’s covered in dust and ash. Most cars still worked after the earthquake, but fuel soon ran out after a couple of years and all the tribes I know of abandoned any vehicles.

     ‘Arys, look at it!’ I say to her, not hiding my excitement. ‘If we had fuel, we could drive it!’

     When she doesn’t say anything, I look back at her.

     ‘My sister was taken in a black car just like this one. That was the last time I saw her,’ she says quietly.

     Instinct would be to hug her now, and everything inside me wants to, but I keep from doing so, as every aspect of our relationship has been broken in these past few days.

     ‘It’s okay! You’re going to see her very soon. I promise we’ll see her by tonight.’

     I offer her my hand, and thankfully, she takes it as I lead us through the streets, stepping over bricks and destroyed furniture as we walk along. Arys never tries to let go as we keep walking through the city. She eventually begins tugging me in the direction she feels right.

21

Arys

It’s all getting too much for me now. All the death, the fallen buildings, and the sight of ash everywhere. Flashbacks begin, and I remember hiding with Papa while watching the fire destroy everything. Kai releases my hand and sprints away from me. I follow him, and when I try calling his name, he ignores me. I watch him vanish around a corner, and when I catch up to him, he’s standing in front of what used to be a house.

     ‘I stood there,’ he says, pointing to a pile of rubble in the centre of the house. ‘I was two years old, abandoned and I had to watch as the fire burned out. I watched people burn alive, screaming, and dying in front of my eyes.’

     A few tears roll silently down his cheeks as he stares into the place I assume was his home. He suddenly starts walking closer to the house, his eyes fixed on the small mountain of rubble.

     ‘Kai, don’t! It’ll just make things worse,’ I protest.

     He ignores me and walks into the building. I follow him, walking through what I suspect was once the door. The sight inside looks worse that it was outside. Three of the four walls in the first room are still standing, but the ceiling has caved in. Everything is ruined, the furniture all burned and ripped over the floor. Kai climbs up the rubble and stands on a ledge of the ceiling. I follow him up carefully and together, we stand up there and watch the sunset. He places his hand in mine as we stand, the sun’s glow fading to a bright warm orange colour.

     ‘I have so many reasons not to tell you this,’ Kai says, turning towards me. ‘But I don’t care anymore.’

     ‘Tell me what?’ I ask calmly. As morbid as this is, standing atop the destruction that once was Kai’s home, it’s hard not to feel the beauty of the moment.

     ‘Arys, I love you. I don’t care about Iris in that way, and I never have. Papa told me to stop loving you, but the fact is, I never could. I love you.’

     My heart stops for a second. I take in everything he’s just said and the anger I’ve felt at him since his betrayal ebbs away.

     ‘I love you too,’ I say back.

     I feel my sister’s presence fade, but the usual feel of abandonment doesn’t come. Kai is here to fill the empty space that my sister leaves. He kisses me, like he did by the waterfall, his muscular arms wrapping around my waist. His familiar smell fills my nostrils as I breathe him in. I’m already happy with my decision.

22

Kayra

‘
Arys! Arys!
’ I call out in my mind. I’ve lost her again, and the abandoned feeling returns.

     I turn to Zach, who seems to already know that something’s going wrong.

     ‘I can’t hear her!’ I explain to Zach.

     He alone knows the whole thing with my sister, how the connection works. The others only know that I’m looking for my sister. They’re all scared of the destruction in the city. They’re lost, and far away from home, but not one of them wants to go back.

     ‘Maybe it’s something wrong with you?’ suggests Zach.

     ‘With
me?!
’ I scream, outraged. ‘How could it be me?! She’s with someone. It must be a boy, the one she loves. Before she was just slowly fading, but now I can’t feel her anymore!’

     ‘Well maybe it’s you,’ he says, grinning. ‘Perhaps you too are feeling strong emotions, and that’s messing with the connection.’

     Him?! Zach thinks I’m in love with him?! No, that’s definitely wrong; I don’t feel anything towards him.

     ‘Zach, I’m not in love with you. Or falling in love with anyone!’ I say exasperatedly.

     He looks at me questioningly, his eyebrows raised.

     ‘I never said you were, I just meant because of all this going on around us, it could be upsetting you. But now that you said that, I’m beginning to suspect that a certain someone has been on your mind?’ he says, smirking at me.

     ‘No, it’s nothing like that,’ I say, annoyed at myself for thinking he meant something else. ‘Maybe you’re right. It’s probably all of this getting to me.’

     Zach looks up at the sky and my eyes follow his. The sky is a dark blue colour, slowly turning black. My heart sinks a little. I’ve missed my first sunset due to this feeling messing around with me.

     ‘It’s getting late,’ he says. ‘We should get some sleep.’

     We gather everyone together and lead them into the empty basement of a destroyed building. The building has been taken over with greenery, but the basement is fine, though a little cold. The basement has a small open fire at the far end, so a few of the group proceed to build a fire out of burnable debris from upstairs. A small group is sent out with weapons to find wood, and they soon return with stacks of scorched wood that was ripped from various houses. The fire is roaring by the time we all settle down to sleep.

    
‘
Kayra!
’

     I wake up suddenly, unable to tell if I’d imagined the voice of my sister or not. I sit up, and try speaking to her.

     ‘
Arys, where are you? It’s been hours and you worried me!
’

     I wait to hear her reply, and I hear my sigh of relief when she does.

     ‘
Well firstly, Kai kissed me. But then we ran into a couple of Hunters, and I was scared but it’s okay now, Kai killed them.
’

     I already hate emotions for messing this up. We could have found them by now if it weren’t for this.

     ‘
Okay, just try to warn me first if something like that is going to happen again?
’ I tell her, relaxing again. ‘
I just thought something bad had happened to you.
’

     ‘
I will do my best,
’ she tells me. ‘
We’re in the basement of an old house. It’s cold, but we’re safe.
’

     ‘
We’re all doing the same and we’re also safe,
’ I reply.
‘I think we ought to get some sleep. Night, Arys. With luck, I’ll see you tomorrow.
’

     ‘
Night,
’ she says, and then goes silent.

     An unfamiliar sense of abandonment washes over me as I feel her leave me.

     ‘What did she say?’ I hear someone whisper.

     I jump, and look around to see who it was. I see Zach’s face in the low light, lit only by dying embers.

     ‘What? How did you-’

     ‘It’s obvious! Your eyes go blank, like you’re staring into space, and you have a sort of concentrating face on!’ he laughs quietly. ‘Like this.’

     He pulls his face into a mock serious look.

     ‘Oh so you’ve been watching me now? What other habits have you noticed?’ I say, half-jokingly, half actually wanting to know the answer.

     ‘You’ve just been acting weird lately. Well, weirder than usual,’ he says.

     ‘Weird?!’ I choke.

     ‘Well you do enjoy reading...’ he points out. ‘But jokes aside, you’ve been through a lot in the past twenty four hours. I’m just worried for you.’

     He turns back over and doesn’t say anything else. I stare at the low ceiling of the basement. I haven’t been acting weird; I’ve just been my normal self. But I’m no longer like a robot. I’m a leader now.

     ‘
Kayra, sun’s up. We have to carry on moving.
’

     I wake up. There is a small amount of light coming through the stairs. The fire went out during the night, but the twenty people crowded in the small basement have kept me warm.

     ‘
Arys, you know I love you and everything. But if you wake me up one more time, I’m going to kill you,’
I say back.

     It’s not as if she’s the only thing waking me up. The nightmare returned again last night. I feel her leave me and I realise that she’s taken what I said literally.

     ‘
I’m sorry! I didn’t actually mean I’m going to kill you, you can talk to me!
’ I say, laughing to myself.

     ‘
I’m sorry; I didn’t know you were sleeping. I wouldn’t have said anything if I’d have known.
’

     I hear movement behind me and I turn to see Zach packing up.

     ‘Kayra, we have to keep moving. I think we’ll reach the edge of the city by night time, so hopefully we’ll catch up to them by lunch time,’ he tells me. Some of the others stir as he speaks to me.

     I sit up from the cold, hard ground. I’m too used to my comfy bed and feather pillows, but that place isn’t home to me anymore, it’s just a memory.

     After packing and a small breakfast of the stolen food, we all walk up the steps, the light temporarily blinding me as I walk up into the sunlight. The ruins around me were once houses, filled with families and laughter, and now they’re just memories of the death that came to them suddenly. I’ve only read about it in my books, but no book could ever explain what it must have been like for the people living through it. Having your world, everything you’ve ever known, burned and ripped from you. And that’s only if you survive...

     Arys went through this, while I’ve been living a protected life, safe from any death or destruction. She should have been with me, safe in the Compound from the horrors that she went through. But instead, she lives the life that I feel I should have had. This world, filled with death.

     ‘Come on, Kayra. We’ll find her soon,’ Zach says, pushing me forward.

     ‘
Are you still moving away from the sun?
’ I ask Arys.

     ‘
Yeah, it’s still behind us,
’ she replies instantly. She usually talks more than this.

     ‘
Are you okay, Arys?
’ I ask her.

     ‘
Oh, yeah! Sorry. I was talking with Kai,
’ she says. I feel the embarrassment in her voice.

     That’s one of the downsides to our telepathy. We interrupt each other’s conversations and thoughts.

     ‘So what is it with your sister and you? How come you get the special treatment on your brains and we “
ordinary
” people only get little enhancements?’ Zach asks, walking besides me now.

     ‘My parents were high up in the government, I guess. They wanted the best for us?’ I reply, unsure of the answer.

      ‘Ah! The old story of protection!’ he jokes. ‘Send one of your beloved children to a strange city, and entrust the other to an old man. Obviously the best option out there!’

     ‘I think we’re more important than just the kids with “special treatment”, though,’ I tell him.

     ‘Wasn’t I saying just yesterday that you were different?’ he says, winking at me.

     ‘More than you know,’ I reply, winking at him too.