Divided (27 page)

61

Arys

I run down hall after hall, desperately trying to find the exit. I need air; I’ve been inside for as long as I can remember. I miss the cold air on my skin, how the rain feels as it soaks me, dampening my hair. Most of all, I miss my Tribe... Kai... I miss when life was simpler. I give up looking for an exit and sit against the wall, lost in a hall I don’t recognise. I feel trapped in a cage with no escape...

    But there is an escape! I still have the enhancement and now I know it’s time to talk to my brother. I slowly stand up in the hall and pace backwards and forwards. What do I say to him? Does he know who I am? That I’m his sister?

     ‘
Phillip,
’ is all I say, testing it.

     ‘
Ah! Arys! I was wondering when I would get the opportunity to speak with you. I was beginning to think I never would.
’

     His voice sounds self-righteous and proud. I already don’t like him.

     ‘
Meet me somewhere, I would like to see you,
’ I tell him.

     ‘
I was just going to suggest that! Great minds, eh?
’

     He seems to be awaiting a reaction. I don’t give him one.

     ‘
Meet me in the control room. A war between the Chipped and your... family is about to start and I want you to witness it.
’

     I take a deep breath. I don’t know if I can bear to look. To stand around watching as my Tribe dies, just like Lee had to. I walk to the control room, feeling his connection pulling me there automatically. I won’t be able to convince him, not anymore. But I’m meeting him. I can stop this.

     I reach the heavily guarded doors and Phillip strides to meet me.

     ‘Arys! We finally meet!’ he says, extending his hand.

     I take it hesitantly, not breaking eye contact with him. He has brown hair, unnaturally smoothed back, and bright green eyes like Kayra’s. He releases my hand and leads me by my arm past the guards and through the large steel doors.

     As we enter the room, there are computer screens everywhere, showing maps of the country. Inside the maps, many tiny glowing dots move, each of them various colours. There are a large number of red dots gathered in squares. Far too many for me to count. It’s an army. There are men sat at all of the computers, Lee included, looking forlorn.

     ‘I’m Phillip,’ he says importantly to me. ‘Your big brother.’

     I can tell he’s trying to sound like he’s of great importance, but it’s not working.

     He turns around, facing the entire room of Unity agents. I spot a gun hanging from his belt. Just one swift movement is all I need.

     ‘So!’ he shouts. ‘Be ready on my mark!’

     The tension in the room is high. I’m not sure how many people want to go through with this, but due to the atmosphere, I get the feeling they’d all rather have any other job.

     ‘Ready to watch your Tribe burn?’ he adds to me in a sneer.

     I want to take the gun from his belt and shoot him, but I can’t do it. Something’s stopping me and I don’t understand what.

     ‘Start it!’ Phillip commands Lee.

     Lee looks at me, trying to tell me to do something... anything... but a loud drum-like sound starts, signalling the beginning of the war.

62

Kayra

I wake up to the sound of the war horn. I grab Kai’s curved knife, secure a gun to my belt and leave the tent. Everyone has been expecting a surprise attack, we’re prepared.

     Running away from the tent and securing the armour around myself, I find Kai holding his sword, both of us side by side awaiting the Hunters.

     ‘They’re coming from the north, spreading fast,’ he explains. ‘Tens of thousands of them at least.’

     My heartbeat is growing faster and faster as the minutes stretch on. I notice the tribes surrounding me, running everywhere, forming into their predefined regiments. Kai and I are at the forefront of the battle, amongst the others in the first line of defence. We aren’t counted amongst the strongest; our role is to meet the oncoming army head on, before falling back into the second defence. Around me, people begin swinging their weapons, nocking arrows, and loading their guns in restless preparation. Once prepared, no one moves. People barely breathe and the silence is terrifying, the only sounds coming from the fierce fire behind us. And then the shouting starts, getting louder. Like a menacing war cry coming from the Tribe. I hold my gun steady, prepared to fire. Suddenly, the Hunters flood into the valley from various angles. More people approaching me than I’ve ever seen together in my life. I shoot one in the head and he falls to the ground, dead. It’s just like the simulation games in the Compound. I shoot another Hunter in the arm, causing him to drop his knife, screaming in pain. The regiment already disbands straight away due to the sheer force and number of the rapidly approaching army.

     Kai takes cover behind a tree. He’s picked up a gun from a fallen Hunter and is shooting from behind the cover. We’re surrounded, already so many Hunters and Tribe members dead. Screams, gunfire and battle cries sound all around me, echoing through the night. The lyrics of Papa’s song come back to me instantly and I now know how true they are. Stay close to your Tribe for the war has begun.

63

Arys

Phillip stands in front of me, a look of triumphant joy mingled with hatred for the tribes on his face as he watches the screens that show where the Hunters are in the country. Right now, almost all of them are surrounding the Festival site, breaking ranks and moving into it like a flood, filling the land with the red lights on the map. Most of the people I’ve known all my life could be down there. Along with my sister, Kayra. I think of all the people who are dying and there’s nothing I can do to stop it anymore.

     ‘
Arys, you have to listen to me!
’

     I blink. The voice wasn’t Kayra’s, or even Phillip’s.

     ‘
I’m listening,
’ I reply to her, keeping my face of emotion, but no one is paying attention to me, all eyes are on the screens.

     ‘
I can’t explain everything right now,’
she continues.
‘But the enhancement that you got not only makes you communicate with others with that enhancement, it can allow you to enter a thought into their mind as if it’s their own!
’

     I know instantly what I’m supposed to do. Phillip is like me, he has a similar enhancement. I’ve never tried this before and don’t know how it will work. If it fails and he realises what I’m doing, I’m dead for certain. I take one final glance at the gun on his belt, abandoning that plan and instead stare at the screens again. This has to work. If it doesn’t, I’m dead, but if I don’t try, countless more innocent people will die.

     ‘
I need a drink,
’ I say to Phillip, using his authoritative voice.

     If this goes wrong, he’ll at least think it’s me asking him for a drink, and not me trying to control him. It takes at least five seconds before he tears his eyes away from the screen and walks to the water cooler in the corner of the room. It works. Without hesitating, I try to enter his mind again. It’s much harder than it is communicating with people, and so the effort almost exhausts me.

    
‘I have gone too far. Tell them to call it off.’

    
I watch as his internal struggle begins.

64

Kai

I’ve been shot in my leg and the pain is too much for me to be able to walk, let alone run. The bullet left my leg, but blood is spreading fast. I keep my hand over the wound, but I can’t quit now. I aim from behind the tree and shoot Kayra’s attacker who has his sword headed straight for her neck. He falls to the ground without even a cry of pain. I shot him in his head. Kayra carries on fighting, her training surpassing the skill of anyone I’ve known, as the knife I gave her cuts into Hunter after Hunter. All of them are innocent, but there’s no other way we’ll survive if we don’t fight back. A Hunter grabs me from behind, picking me up with ease and pushing me back into the tree. My head feels like it has split open at the back as tears blur my vision and my whole mind goes numb. I feel him pull me once again closer to him, ready to throw me back one final time. When suddenly, his grip slackens and we both fall to the ground. A knife is lodged in the back of his head. I look around, wiping my eyes and trying to stand up to see where the knife came from. It came from the tree next to mine, someone is up there. The battle rages on around me, but no one climbs the trees except the children during attacks. The children are supposed to be safe, several miles away by now. I look up, trying to see through the leaves of the tree. The light only comes from the fires that litter the campsite, but I can just make out the unmistakeable silhouette of a little girl.

     I run to the tree, trying to ignore the gunshot wound, the excruciating pain spreading further with every step. I shoot at the Hunters as I run until I reach the tree. After attaching the gun to my belt, I climb the tree, avoiding putting any weight on my wounded leg. As I get closer, I see the girl clearly. It’s Holly. She notices me and hides further in the tree, concealing herself in the leaves.

     ‘Holly, it’s okay!’ I tell her as softly as I can. ‘I’m here to help.’

     She peeks through the leaves, her wide eyes reflecting the firelight behind me.

     ‘You’re not going to send me away?’ she asks, her voice quiet and timid.

     ‘No, you’re safe up here,’ I tell her.

     Getting her out of here is a ridiculous plan now. There’s no way I can lead her across a battlefield and to safety with my leg like this. This is her best chance at survival and I try and hold in my anger and frustration at her for not leaving with the rest of the children. She climbs down with ease to join me and helps me higher into the tree. I don’t know anyone’s fate anymore. For all I know, Kayra could be dead now, or even Henry. I think of Zeke, Iris, Zach and Nina who all left. Maybe they knew something like this was going to happen?

     I look closely at her. Her dark wet hair is plastered to her head, and her face covered in dirt. Attached to every limb is an assortment of knives. She gasps at the sight of my leg.

     ‘I’ll be fine,’ I say, hoisting myself up securely onto a sturdy branch.

     She holds her horse pendant around her neck. No five year old girl should have seen death, let alone killed. The pendant once was her sister’s.

     ‘What would Cara do?’ she whispers to herself. ‘What would she say?’

     She takes her jacket off and climbs down a few branches easily. She looks up at me, her innocent eyes widened and somehow assuring, as if this entire battle is under her control and everything will be alright.

     ‘Whatever you do, don’t scream,’ she whispers.

     She looks carefully at my leg, examining the wound slowly. She then suddenly tightly wraps my leg in the jacket sleeve. I try not to scream as my leg throbs with pulsing pain. Despite her age and limitations to her strength, the jacket is wrapped tightly. Blood already soaks through it as she wraps the rest of the jacket around my leg, her tongue sticking out of her mouth slightly in concentration.

     Once she’s finished, the blood is no longer leaving my leg, and I can put a very small amount of weight onto it now.

     ‘There,’ she whispers, and climbs back up to her previous spot. Only the boys were trained, and even then it was when they were older than she is now, yet she sits in the tree, carefully taking aim.

     ‘I’ve run out!’ she calls to me. ‘Can I have your gun?’

     My gun? She can shoot, too? She’s so small; she should never have had to do this! This world is twisted now.

     ‘Kai! I have nothing left,’ she says again, climbing down the tree again.

     ‘Holly? Where did you learn to throw daggers and shoot?’

     She stares at me nervously. ‘Cara teach me.’

     Her hand returns to the horse around her neck, and holds it close to her heart.

     ‘We were a team,’ she confides. ‘I make the knives and she throws them. She teached herself and then she teach me.’

     How were they brave enough to kill Hunters, when Arys couldn’t bear to watch me do it? But they hid in trees! The bear that Arys hit with her knife could have easily been one of them any time. I still remember the look the bear gave me; its large black eyes almost asking me to stop its suffering. What if that was Holly? Or Cara?

     ‘One time, we found a camp of eight Hunters,’ she carries on, holding up eight fingers. ‘We killed two, but the rest got away. They ran to you. Cara was sad about that. She chased after them to stop them but you killed them. I was scared and she could have died-’

     She stops abruptly, both of us realising the same thing: she did die. Cara was the first one to greet us when we got back into camp that day. She never knew that was her last day.

     ‘What was her number?!’ I beg, terrified of the answer.

     ‘I said I would never tell anyone,’ she says, shaking her head. ‘She didn’t like killing. She teached me to aim for the head so they don’t hurt as badly.’

     ‘What’s your number, then?’ I ask her, trying to keep calm.

     She looks at me briefly, and then stares at the ground below us.

     ‘I don’t count,’ she says.

     She’s only five and probably can’t count. No one should know how to kill before they can count.

     ‘Is it more or less than Cara’s?’

     She shakes her head. ‘I don’t count people I kill. I count the people I save.’

     Suddenly, it’s as if she has opened up my eyes. Her outlook on life is unique, and she is just trying to protect the people she loves. She’s doing just as I’ve done all my life.

     ‘And how many is that?’ I ask her carefully.

     ‘More if I can have your gun,’ she replies.

     I hand her my gun and she smiles, taking it and examining it.

     ‘How many times have you shot a gun before?’

     ‘Never,’ she says.