Divided (19 page)

     As if I’m not in my own body, I feel Lee catch me as I try to stand up and I feel him very faintly, like it’s a million miles away, as he lifts my legs into his arms, carrying me out of my room.

     ‘I’ve got you, don’t worry,’ I hear him say faintly.

     Everything feels like a dream as I see colours flash past my eyes. But then a pain in my head, worse than anything I’ve imagined starts, it spreads from the front of my head to the back; feeling like every part of it is being set on fire. I scream.

41

Kai

I lead the Tribe through old fields that are overgrown with wild plants. This must have been some sort of farm, but now the plants have taken over everything. I know my way, as I remember this place clearly, I memorised it. Five years ago, I walked to the Festival on my own, stumbling across it from memory of going with my adopted parents.

     ‘Kai!’ I hear from behind me.

     Kayra runs up to me, her eyes wide with fear.

     ‘It’s Arys,’ she says urgently

     Fear spreads through me, like a sudden fire has been lit inside of me that I can’t put out. My body instinctively starts to shake, and I already fear the worst.

     ‘She’s... she’s gone,’ Kayra says in a whisper.

     She falls to her knees, her head buried in her hands as she cries. All I can do there is stand. I can’t move. The Tribe stops, some craning their necks to see what the holdup is. My whole body stops shaking, and the fire that seemed to be inside me seems to have been put out, leaving my insides feeling like ice. She can’t be dead. I won’t believe it.

     ‘No, she isn’t,’ I say stiffly, my voice unrecognisable to me. ‘She’ll be at the Festival. Her father will be there... your father. He will know what to do.’

     Kayra stands up and wipes her eyes, her face blotchy. Instinctively, I want to reach out and hold her, promising her that everything is okay and that I’m here to protect her, like I promised Papa. But she isn’t Arys, as much as she looks like her, so all I do is stand there watching her as she tries to control herself.

     ‘I’ve never been without her,’ she says. ‘Not completely. Not like now! I’ve always felt her emotions, even if it’s so slight. Now I feel empty... abandoned.’

     ‘We’ll find her,’ I say. ‘I promise.’

     Kayra said that you feel when someone has died. I don’t feel that and until I do, I refuse to believe she has died.

We stop for the night while Zeke gathers wood with Kayra. A small hunting party was sent out, and now that there’s a fire going and I’m resting, I finally see a small ray of hope, and believe the words I told Kayra. She’s said she’s stopped feeling her emotions before, and she’s probably never been this far from her before in her life. It must be the distance that’s causing it. And while it’s unlikely that we’ll find Arys at the Festival, by the time it’s over, I
know
that we’ll find her.

     I’m sat with Alaoden lying next to me. Someone, I don’t know who, has crafted a large log into a makeshift cot for Alaoden to lie in, and Alaoden is lying, seemingly comfortable, on a small pile of blankets. His lion pendant sits on his chest, slowly rising with his breaths. In the glow of the fire, it looks like the lion is running in time with his breathing. I stare at it and instinctively hold my bear pendant in my hand, close to my heart, feeling the steady beats drum against my fist. If Arys really were dead, I’d be the one to feel it too. That’s what Old World love really is. To be so close to someone that our hearts are connected by a force stronger than the distance between us. Old World love is stronger than Kayra and Arys’s connection. Arys is alive, and like mine, her heart is beating. Love is supposed to mess with the connection. Papa said that love would take the connection away almost entirely, but Arys could still talk to Kayra when she loved me. Their connection remained strong. I sit pondering this, trying to figure out Papa’s wisdom.

     Alaoden starts to stir, so I pick him up and hold him, his warm body-heat comforting me. He begins to cry, so I gently rock him in my arms, holding him close to me and humming the lullaby that Arys always used. He doesn’t stop crying, and by the time I’m finished with the lullaby, Kayra and Zeke run over, dropping the wood next to the fire into a messy pile and taking Alaoden from me. As soon as he recognises Kayra’s touch, his wailing ceases. Zeke looks over her shoulder and adjusts her arm again, making her hold Alaoden correctly.

     ‘Are you two... together?’ I ask them both awkwardly.

     ‘Us two?!’ Kayra laughs.

     It’s nice to see her laugh. Her voice is different to Arys’s, but they share the same laughter, and her smile is the same. I think whatever Zeke has said to her concerning Arys, she’s believed it and no longer thinks her sister to be dead.

     ‘I can’t,’ Kayra continues. ‘I’m far too good for him! Besides, he’s too busy with Iris!’

     She looks down at Alaoden in her arms, both of them no longer laughing.

     ‘Speaking of which,’ Zeke says. ‘Is she back yet?’

     ‘The party came back about ten minutes ago,’ I say, motioning towards the other end of the fire.

     Zeke says goodbye and walks to Iris, embracing her tightly when he reaches her.

     Suddenly, Kayra looks up, staring at me. Her eyes seem to glaze over for a second, and tears roll down her face. I can’t tell if she’s happy or scared, and it lasts for several moments before I begin to get scared for her myself.

     ‘Kayra?’ I ask slowly.

     Kayra’s eyes focus on mine, and her face breaks into a large smile.

     ‘It’s Arys,’ she says. ‘She’s alive!’

42

Arys

I wake up screaming. My body is strapped to a bed and I can’t move an inch. I hear my scream echo in the large room I’m in, slowly dying out after several seconds. I turn my head on its side to look around the room, taking in the bottles of brightly coloured liquid on the metal tables around me. I’m in a bed, raised up off the ground and a strong white light hangs above me. The light above me seems to be the only light source in the room, and beyond that, the shadows take over.

     Suddenly, the light above me turns off, and smaller, blue lights switch on along the floor. I’m surrounded by men and women in thin white coats. Their entire appearance is the definition of clean, their faces so clean that they could be glowing, making them seem what Papa described angels to be. But surely angels don’t make you this scared?

     The people separate, forming a path for one woman to walk to me. She has blonde hair like mine, but shorter, slightly like Kayra’s. Her eyes stand out vividly on her pale face. She smiles at me, her smile like an angel’s, and with her, it seems she could actually be one.

     ‘Arys?’ she asks, tears flooding her eyes and rolling gently down her cheeks.

     ‘Yeah?’ I ask her.

     I have no idea who she is, but she recognises me.

     ‘My name is Lana,’ she says. ‘But most people here call me Red. I’ve waited so long to meet you!’

     My head is still on fire from the injection, so I’m dazed and can’t think of anything meaningful to say to her.

     ‘Where am I?’ is the only thing I can think of saying.

     Lana wipes the tears from her eyes, and continues to smile at me. Her smile is genuine, like it really is a pleasure for her to be with me.

     ‘You’re at the Compound now, honey,’ a woman says. I can’t see the source of the voice, but she’s stood behind Lana. ‘You have a mission to do. You can choose to do it or not, you don’t have to accept. For the first time in your life, you can say no to us.’

     For all my life, I’ve always thought that doing as others say is a trait to be proud of, but now it feels like the world is mine. I can be my own person.

     The woman walks in front of Lana. She has long black hair that she has tied back in a tight ponytail.

     ‘The Chipped are on the move now,’ a man says behind a screen.

     ‘The Chipped?’ I ask, my curiosity getting the better of me again.

     ‘Hunters, I believe you call them,’ the woman replies. ‘Follow them,’ she adds to the man.

     Lana unstraps me from the bed and she offers her hand for me to have support. I take it gratefully and jump off the bed. As soon as my feet hit the floor and I stand straight, my head clears and the pain ebbs away. I didn’t notice it earlier, but I’m wearing the Compound clothes that Lee gave me, including tight black boots on my feet. Everything is so clean in this room, and odd smells fill my nostrils. The smells are clean, but they’re nice smells, surprisingly. Nothing is burnt, or old, or smells used. It smells fresh.

     ‘We’re taking you directly into the Compound this afternoon. We’re inside the wall, but technically at the border now,’ Lana explains. ‘When you’re there, we will tell you exactly what to do. You shouldn’t feel the need to do everything the HQ tells you to do, as you no longer have that enhancement.’

     ‘HQ?’ I ask.

     I don’t like asking so many questions, but this whole thing is all new to me and I can’t help myself.

    ‘The Unity Headquarters,’ one of the women say. ‘I’m Olivia Williams, or to be formal, Agent Williams. I was a spy for Unity before Plan B. I got fired, and nearly lost my life when it was discovered I was giving information to North Bridge. That’s when your adopted mother took my place.’

     None of what she said makes much sense to me, so I just nod. She seems like the kind of person who won’t like answering unnecessary questions.

     ‘Lana, if you would show Arys to her room?’

     I follow Lana out of the room, our footsteps echoing loudly through it. I notice that Lana has a tattoo on the back of her neck. It looks like a small flourish, like the letter ‘S’ on its side, with four tiny dots on each side of it. I don’t ask her what personal meaning it has to her. We walk through a long room with doors lining the walls with names attached to them. The walls are white, the whitest I’ve ever seen! Lana stops at a door and opens it, standing aside to let me enter first.

     ‘This will be your room until you move again,’ she says once we’re both inside. ‘You should have everything you need.’

     The room is so big! It has a bed with lightly coloured thick blankets, the colour of a brightly coloured tree. The pillows are huge, unlike the thin sacks we usually stuff with wild turkey feathers and leaves. There’s a thick, red carpet on the floor, making me want to instantly take my boots off and feel it under my bare feet. I haven’t seen carpet in so many years, and this one is the richest I’ve ever seen. I walk to the window at the other side of my room. I’m in a building right next the wall of the Compound. The wall goes even higher than this window, and by the looks of it, even the building itself. I stare up, before looking down instead. In the light of the very early morning, I can see people walk around several storeys down and I stare, amazed at the sight of the Compound. It’s like a city, but before the earthquake! A giant wall takes up the majority of the horizon, taller than anything I’ve ever seen in my life, it hides the sun, so the sky is light, but a vast shadow hangs over the Compound. Besides that, the view is amazing; it’s hard to think that twenty people would willingly leave the comfort of this place!

     Someone knocks sharply on the door, and I sit on the bed. It takes my weight and I sink into it, the warmth and comfort surrounding me instantly, encasing me, like I’m in a soft bubble.

     ‘Come in,’ I say to the person knocking.

     The door opens and Lee walks in, the smile on his face as wide as ever. I run to him and embrace him as tightly as I can. He’s the only person I know here, and right now, the only person I can trust.

     ‘Missed me?’ he grins as we pull apart.

     ‘Yes!’ I burst out, giggling. ‘Everyone here is so... formal!’

     ‘You get used to it,’ he says, the smile still on his face. ‘I assume you prefer this place to your cell?’

     ‘Of course! But what are you doing here?!’ I ask him.

     ‘I work here,’ he says, closing the door. ‘It was my job to bring you here. I’m on my break, so I thought I’d pay you a visit.’

     ‘It’s nice to see a familiar face, despite only knowing you very briefly,’ I laugh.

     ‘Want to play chess?’ he asks.

     I remember learning to play at the Festival one year and losing so badly that I couldn’t stop laughing.

     ‘I’d love to!’ I say, falling back onto the bed and sinking comfortably as he takes out the board, filling me with nostalgic thoughts of the last time I played.

43

Kayra

Kai keeps telling us that we’re almost there, but I know that we’re not. He’s been muttering to himself quite happily as he walks through fields of overgrown plants. Since I felt Arys last night, Kai has been cheery and it’s surged him on to keep travelling to the Festival. The majority of the Tribe, who are suffering with their own losses still, are forlorn, and Kai’s joyful mood doesn’t seem to give them much hope.

     ‘Almost there, now!’ Kai exclaims happily to the group.

     ‘I have a game,’ Zach mutters to me. ‘Every time he says “almost there”, we get to try and teach Alaoden a bad word!’

     I try and scold Zach with my eyes, but I just end up laughing with him. The atmosphere has changed, and in the beautiful light of the sunrise, which I still haven’t gotten used to and find beautiful every time I see it, the mood at the front of the group is light and cheerful. It doesn’t spread too far back, as people still mourn, but it’s nice to feel cheerful at least once. We lost six people who came with us from the Compound in the Hunter attack. I only really knew two of them, Simon and Rachel, but not too well. The remaining Compound people all walk in small groups, some of them already forming good relationships with the Tribe members.

     ‘Almost there!’ Kai says again.

     Zach, Nina and I break into laughs behind him. He doesn’t seem to notice and is too preoccupied with getting to the Festival.

     ‘I’m counting one thousand and twenty seven,’ I say, laughing at him.

     ‘Ooh close!’ Zach laughs. ‘One thousand and thirty five for me!’

     Nina suddenly pretends to get all excited.

     ‘Guys! We’re almost there!’ she says in a perfect imitation of Kai.

     We all start laughing loudly, causing Zeke and Kai to come towards us.

     ‘What’re you laughing at?’ Zeke asks.

     ‘Nothing,’ Zach says, smiling. ‘Just a Compound game. You won’t get it.’

     The three of us continue to laugh even harder, while Zeke and Kai exchange confused and slightly worried expressions. It then hits me that I have friends, actual friends. I have people who I can trust and who care about me. I belong here now.

     Nina sits down against a fence post, stretching dramatically and exaggerating a yawn.

     ‘I’m tired!’ she exclaims dramatically. ‘Can’t we stop?’

     ‘We have to keep moving,’ Kai says, quite cheerfully. ‘It’s not too far, we’re-’

     ‘Almost there!’ we all finish for him, in perfect unison.

     We all laugh, including Zeke, while Kai turns around, clearly not getting the joke. We watch as the rest of the Tribe catch up to us.

     ‘Oh fine,’ Nina says, extending her arms to Zach. ‘Zach, my great and gallant stallion. Carry me!’

     ‘He’s not going to,’ I begin, but stop as Zach walks over and effortlessly picks her up over his shoulder.

     Suddenly I realise that I’ve underestimated his strength all this time. Nina giggles as he starts to stride alongside Kai, while she bounces slightly on his shoulder. She kisses him on his cheek.

     ‘So,’ Zach says importantly and quite secretively to Kai. ‘I hear we’re almost there?’

     Everyone laughs again, this time even Kai joins in, finally catching on to the joke.

     ‘I haven’t been in five years, I don’t remember it being so far away,’ Kai explains.

Finally, after spending the majority of the day constantly walking, Kai exclaims excitedly that we really are almost there. It’s late afternoon as we all walk through the final patch of trees to look down on an amazing sight. We’re stood elevated over the scene, on a large hill, sloping down into an expansive valley. Spreading out as far as I can see, tiny lights, like fireflies litter the scene, smoke rising thickly from them. From this distance, I can just make out tents and people. So many people! More than I’ve ever seen in one place. The smaller fires are all spread out orderly, all of them winding towards a much bigger fire in the centre.

     ‘It’s beautiful,’ Iris says, carrying Alaoden in her arms and standing next to me to see my reaction.

     All of the Tribe catch up to us, the miserable atmosphere dissipating as we look down at the Festival, the faint sound of music reaching our ears. I turn to look at Nina, her face already grinning. She nods at me, as if reading my mind. We run down the hill as fast as we can, both of us laughing. I’ve always been faster than her when it comes to running, but both of us are running uncontrollably, picking up speed dangerously as we dart down the slope, unable to stop. The light of the Festival grows, and the music’s volume increases as we get even closer.

     ‘You run like an old woman!’ Nina shouts over her shoulder.

     She’s running faster than me, and I have to stop myself from falling as I shout an insult back at her.

     She laughs and then she trips, rolling down the remaining twenty or so feet, screaming and laughing the whole way, her black hair tangling around her face. I remain on my feet as we reach the bottom at the same time. I offer my hand to help Nina up.

     ‘I beat you!’ she declares, taking my hand in one of hers, and brushing the hair out of her face with the other.

     ‘You didn’t!’ I retort. ‘And at least I managed to keep my balance!’

     I look behind at the others. A few have followed mine and Nina’s example, and are running. Most of the runners are Compound people, whereas the majority of the Tribe are slowly winding their way down a makeshift footpath. We wait at the bottom, watching the sun setting and listening to the joyful music as we slowly get joined by the rest of the group. As the sun sets, the lights from the Festival increase, as more fires are lit, and torches are set alight in winding paths. Everything is bright and alive; it’s one of the most beautiful sights I’ve seen.

     ‘Ready?’ Kai asks, calling to the group.

     Zeke and Iris hold hands, as does Zach and Nina. There’s a gleeful murmur from the group, and Kai leads the way.

     We wind our way through the valley, into the Festival, the buzz of excitement in the atmosphere. All the camps are laid out in such a way that they look like they form one tribe, not a load of little ones.

     ‘Where are we headed?’ I ask Kai.

     ‘We’re visiting the main campfire first, that way we can find out where our allocated camping space is.’

     We pass hundreds of tents, dotted everywhere, and follow torches that are leading us to the main campfire in the centre. The tents range in size, from tiny ones that look like they could only hold one child, to giant ones that could hold an entire tribe. We reach the campfire to see a giant circular space, almost as big as the clearing that the Tribe camped in before leaving for the Festival. In the centre stands a massive roaring fire, large bits of furniture and wood burning together. The heat reaches me almost instantly, its pleasant warmth flowing through me. People pass me, dancing wildly to the music. It’s music like I’ve never heard it before. At the Compound, we get music through electronic devices, but this is so much better! The songs have no lyrics, it’s just music that’s cheerful and uplifting. As if these people aren’t being hunted, like they haven’t been through a horrible life these past fifteen years. They’re celebrating their survival, celebrating life!

     ‘May I have this dance, milady?’ Zach says jokingly, offering his hand and bowing low.

     I can see his goofy smile, even with his face to the ground.

     ‘Of course!’ I say, taking his hand as his face resurfaces

     We both dance around in the group of other dancers, spinning almost out of control happily. We lose each other in the crowd and within minutes, I find myself with another partner, as Zach went to dance with Nina. I can’t see his face, but he dances well as he leads me in elegant spins and ends with a final dip, holding me steady as the blood rushes to my head.

     The next song is much slower than the first, and it’s like it doesn’t come from anywhere specific, as if it’s in the atmosphere of the Festival itself. I can see my partner clearly now that the chaos of the exciting dance is over. He has dark hair, possibly brown, but it’s too hard to see as his back is to the fire. His hair frames his eyes, covering his eyebrows and like everyone here, it’s all over the place and messy.

     ‘I’m Kayra,’ I say to him loudly over the music.

     ‘Phillip,’ he replies, equally as loud. ‘Do we know each other? I recognised you when you were dancing with your friend over there!’

     ‘You must be mistaking me for my sister,’ I shout. ‘She’s my twin, Arys.’

     ‘Phil!’ a boy shouts, reaching us and clapping Phillip on the shoulder.

     ‘Sorry,’ Phillip says to me, over the sound of music blaring. ‘I need to go. Although... you could come with us if you’d like? We’re going to the lake.’

     ‘I can’t,’ I say apologetically. ‘I’d better get back to my-’

     I spot Nina and Zach, engaged in a slow dance. Zach is stepping on Nina’s feet regularly, and they’re both laughing at each other. My eyes travel to Zeke and Iris, holding each other close and swaying in time with the music. Kai is lost in the crowd of people.

     ‘I’m sure they won’t mind,’ I say. ‘I’ll come!’