Splinter (Whisper Walker Series) (6 page)

I saw a girl around my age rubbing her eyes sleepily in the doorway to the guard shack. She waved at me as Kelsie and I walked past. I smirked and nodded my head in the direction of the new guy and shook my head. She rolled her eyes and nodded but didn’t say anything. She didn’t have to, it was obvious from her earlier comments that we’d overheard what she thought of this guy.

There wasn’t a single person in the streets since it was late and past the average guildsman’s curfew. We got back to our house sometime late in the night.

Being ever the gentleman, I let Kelsie shower first. While she was showering, I plopped down on the couch and kicked my feet up on the coffee table.

“Get your feet off the table, sleepy head!” Kelsie exclaimed loudly in my ear, smacking my shoulder and jarring me awake.

With a yawn, I pressed my palms into my eyes before looking at her.

“Nice of you to
finally
finish your shower. Could you’ve taken any longer? Jeez.” I delivered my best glare. I think it lost part of its impact when it was punctuated with another large yawn. I wasn’t actually mad or anything, just felt like messing with her.

“Uh-huh. Right. You look like you were coping just fine out here sound asleep. If I’d known you were asleep, I would’ve taken a longer one! Now, get your butt in there and go to bed.”

She punctuated that by attempting to roll me off the couch with a shove. I had no other option than to get to my feet or risk landing roughly on the floor.

After my shower, I fell into bed, wishing I could catch up on the sleep I’d been missing from the last few days. I knew I couldn’t since I had to get up and meet the Council for lunch. While there, I knew I needed to say something to the Upper Council about the Briln being on our land.

Kelsie headed to her room to pass out. It seemed I had just fallen asleep when I felt someone climb into bed with me. I was about to crack an eye open, but then I recognized the scent of her.

“Kelsie? What are you doing?”

She answered in a soft voice close to my ear, “I couldn’t sleep. We had an interesting night, and I’m still wound up. Can I sleep in your bed?” She finished it with the cutest tone I think I’ve ever heard a girl use. How could I say no to that?

“No. You have your own bed.” I rolled onto my back but still didn’t open my eyes. I felt her smack my side.

“Jerk. I just thought I’d sleep better not being alone. Fine, I’ll go and leave you to be lonely in this big bed.” The bed shook like she was making movements to climb out.

I reached out my arm, grasping at anything with my hand. “Oh, all right. If you must.” I finally got a hold of her arm, after accidentally grabbing something that was definitely not her arm, and pulled her back.

“Okay,” she said, sounding far too chipper for how I felt.

I started to fall back to sleep. A couple minutes later I felt her scoot over against me. She draped an arm across me and rested her head on my chest. I put my arm around her waist and gave her a squeeze. It felt really good with her there, against me. Comfortable. Like two pieces to a puzzle, we fit together. Kelsie hadn’t slept in bed with me for years, not since she’d quit having nightmares about her father.

I was almost passed out again when Kelsie lifted her head and spoke quietly, “Drake, are you awake?”

“Nope,” I mumbled. “Not even almost.”

“What did you see earlier, when you were staring so intently at the invisible skulls? You seemed a little bit worried. I mean, aside from being able to see a pit full of bodies that weren’t there.”

I sighed then tilted my chin down and kissed the top of her head. “Nothing, don’t worry about it.”

“Drake. Come on. Tell me. I’m not going to shut up until you do.” She dug her chin hard into my chest, grinding muscles sharply beneath her chin. “So tell me, mister. Or I’ll tickle it out of you.” Her hand started creeping towards my side.

Ugh, I don’t have the energy for this right now. “All right, all right. When I looked really closely this morning at the skulls, I saw the faces that used to be on them. I knew the faces. Then this evening when we ended up back there, I didn’t even have to look hard before I could see who the owners of the skulls were. It’s like they became much clearer, if that makes sense.”

“Baby, none of this makes sense. I still kind of think you’re crazy,” she said, but didn’t lay her head back down. “You say you recognized them. Who were they? Friends of yours? Did I know them?”

I took a deep breath and held it for a second before answering. “Yeah, you knew them, at least a little bit. I’m not really friends with them.”

I told her that, but left out another part. A big part that I wasn’t ready to tell her, and I wasn’t sure she was ready to hear. Then I passed out like the dead.

I woke midmorning in a spooning position tight against Kelsie. She was still sleeping, and I had to be careful so as not to wake her when I untangled myself to get ready to meet the Council.

Standing next to the bed, I let out a yawn so big it made my face hurt and stretched. Looking out the window at the overcast day, my sleeping brain started waking up. I remembered that Ash season was almost upon us. It was only a month away.

When the War had nearly destroyed the world, gargantuan quantities of pollutants and ash and toxic gasses were blown into the atmosphere. It caused us to have an Ash season every year. Ash season came during the hottest part of the year when the heat pushed all of the ash and heavy gasses that normally stayed high in the polluted atmosphere down to ground level.

At least, that was the best theory we had. We didn’t know for sure why it happened. We just knew it did. It normally lasted one month or so, and during it, humans couldn’t be outside without a respirator, unless you were a seriously jacked up mutant. The buildings had to be sealed and special air units installed for you to be inside without a breather.

The dark was nearly absolute during Ash season, which meant that we had to have large batteries to power everything. Most of our power came from the sun, and when it’s covered by smog and ash, our solar panels are useless. By the end of the month we were normally out of power and all wearing respirators, whether indoors or out.

Tempers flared, too, being cooped up with each other for a month. That’s why Kelsie and I made such great roommates. We play fought with each other all the time, but never took it seriously. But still, it was a good way to vent stress. We’d seen many families and friendships torn apart by being stuck indoors for a month.

With the limited resources available nowadays, finding the materials and chemicals necessary to repair and build more respirators was becoming more and more of a challenge. It was easier to create larger ones for the buildings than lots of personal-sized ones for everyone. It was also one of the many reasons that there was a population control in effect. Luckily, unlike some Guilds that practiced very violent population control, including killing and banishing unplanned children, most of the Sven understood it was a life and death issue and followed the rules. Which meant there was a system called “the List.” The List was something that anyone wanting to have a child or even experience coitus had to get on. Well, the females that is. Males just had to pair up with someone on the list. It took some girls years to get on the List, and you had to fulfill all the requirements at the time you were called or you got the boot. And you never got another shot at having offspring.

Being an Acquisitions Specialist meant that during this time of year, right before Ash season, I had to kick up my efforts to find materials for the respirators. My specialty field involved obtaining the elements needed for the filters. My life was about to get busy – very busy.

The only good thing that came from Ash season was the ash it left on the ground afterward. It acted as a fertilizer and helped with the limited crops we were able to grow.

“This concludes the meeting. With the final words, we would like to thank
Hunter
Drake Adair for his diligent and substantial contributions, especially leading into the preparations for Ash season. Thank you, Drake, your father would be proud.” The Magistrate finished his speech, prompting applause from those in attendance.

The twenty or so people there started filing out in scattered lines. I scowled as I stood. I hated when people used the term “Hunter.” It was semi-derogatory, using a term left from the Neanderthal days of the world. But that summed up my relationship with the Magistrate.

I wandered around, shaking hands with various members of the Council on their way out, keeping an eye out for those that I really wanted to talk to. My back was to the center, where the Magistrate had finished up moments before.

“Drake, my boy. Good to see you. Though, I can hardly call you a boy anymore.” The Magistrate began, coming up behind me and clapping me on the back. He was a small but fat man with a starkly hairless head who overcompensated with a booming voice.

Despite all public appearances, he and my father had hated each other with a burning passion. That hate had been passed on to me. I’d never known why, but knew that I was expected to keep the dispute up. Even now, as he said such nice words in a far-too-loud voice, his hand with its fat-sausage fingers was squeezing my shoulder like a vice. It was like a bird’s talons sunk into my sinews. I don’t think he realized I could rip his hand clean off his flabby arm in a split second.

“Magistrate,” I started, an icy smile on my face, “just who I needed to talk to. I have some news about the Briln from the other night. I thought I should fill you and Jonathan in. Do you know where he is?”

He matched my icy smile with an audacious show of teeth. “Of course. Anything for you, the son of my favorite
Hunter
. Jonathan’s over there.” My face tightened as he emphasized “Hunter.”

We headed over and drew aside the man of topic. I filled them in on having been right on the edge of our Guild’s land when I was chased by Briln Water Guild. I told them how the Briln had been blatantly on our side and had shown absolutely no hesitation in chasing me down.

When I finished explaining things to them, I was met not with worry and concern as I had expected, but with apathy to the whole situation. Even when I had said that it wasn’t only their border patrol that had chased me, but a whole regiment. En masse. I reiterated as many ways as I could think of. All the previous instances of one Guild venturing onto another Guild’s territory had resulted in immediate action, no matter how small the situation.

“I’m sure you were exhausted from your hunt. You just saw our border patrol and panicked,” the Magistrate said, wiping his sweaty dome. “It’s perfectly understandable that you’re scared of being in the woods in the dark at night. It creates a problem for Hunters. But if you fail at this, you can always be a Sorter.”

A Sorter! That’s the lowest of the low. The lightly mutated, the diseased. Those were the ones who filtered through garbage and refuse. The ones that mentally and physically couldn’t hold another position. A word for them in another time would have been zombies. They were still alive, but only just. For the Magistrate to even put that on the table was enough for me to want to rip his pudgy head off.

In terms of hierarchy, Acquisitions Specialists were third down. First, Magistrates and their families. Then Councilors and their families. Then Acquisitions Specialists. Basically, Acquisitions Specialists are nearly top dog. Without us, the Guild couldn’t function as a whole.

“My father was one of the greatest Acquisitions Specialists this Guild, or any other, has ever seen. I’m well on the way to besting him. Everyone knows of me and my family.” I took a deep breath and let it out, trying to maintain control. My hot temper wasn’t going to do any good here.

“Don’t patronize me, Duncan.” My use of the Magistrate’s first name brought a startled look to his face. Very few people knew his given name. “I know the Briln when I see them. Frankly, I’m surprised at your indifference to this situation. I’m sure the rest of the Council would be interested in knowing that you don’t have the Guild’s safety foremost in your plans.”

The Magistrate got over the initial shock of hearing his first name, and his little eyes blazed with dark fury. I met him eye to eye, staring him down.

“How dare you! How dare you call me anything other than Magistrate! Know your place, Hunter! How dare you threaten me!”

I smirked at him. “Threaten? I haven’t threatened you. Yet.” With that, I nodded at Jonathan, turned, and walked away.

The whole walk home I let my mind wander. I wanted to calm down. On the other hand, when I got really mad, like I was now, things seemed to be clearer. Maybe I was putting too much thought into this. The Magistrate, and even Jonathan, had seemed indifferent about the Briln being on our land. A full regiment being on our land should have been cause for a counter-attack, or at the very least, diplomatic talks. Not simply a blind eye and the suggestion that one of their most valuable assets was scared of the dark.

I went back and forth in my head – one side saying let it go, the other saying something was up. Another part altogether was miffed at the treatment I had received from Jonathan. I had hunted down the mutant that killed his son and destroyed it. Jonathan had vowed his eternal gratitude. Yet, three years later, he was treating me like common-folk.

I made it home, barely realizing I’d gotten there. Needing to relax and having been in too much of a hurry for one earlier, I opted for a hot shower. I went into the bathroom and got ready. Then I pulled back the curtain and stepped in.

I WOKE UP LATE the morning after the long night in the woods. By the time I got up, Drake was already gone; his side of the bed had long since grown cold.

I rubbed my eyes against the daylight streaming through the window, brightening the room, giving it a natural, comfortable feel. It reminded me of home. What
had
been my home, anyway. I lost myself in the memories, half expecting my father to step through the door with a smile on his face and a breakfast tray in his hands.