Disclaimer: I own very little. As you know.
Chapter Sixteen: If It Looks Like a Career…
Marley was staring a hole through me as I held the water bottle tight in my hand. I found I had no option other than to hand the bottle out to him, as he continued to eye me cautiously. With a rather harsh edge, he grabbed the bottle from my hand, examining it closely as he did so.
"How long have you had this?" He demanded, refusing to drink from it as he continued staring at me.
I didn't answer for several minutes, but I did not fully trust Marley either. Seeing as I had little faith in him and what he would do, I found that I needed to tell him. For all I knew, he would kill me right there.
"Not long…I just received it, actually," I said tentatively, looking right at him as he pulled open the bottle and took a swig.
"Hmm, interesting," He commented, throwing the bottle back to me. "You must have done something…impressive to receive water."
"Not really," I answered simply, watching him as he stepped by me to take a seat on the opposite side of Lani and Capri.
"It's fine if you don't want to tell me something, Savera," He said simply, turning his back on me as he took a seat. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a shadow from behind Marley, creeping around the corner of the maze. He would have never seen anything coming, but I happened to be in the right angle to see what was going on.
From what I could tell, it was one of the girls from the outer districts, creeping up behind him. Marley was still speaking to me, about something, but I was paying him little attention. All around, the only weapon I could find was the one sitting atop of Lani's abdomen, underneath her iron tight grasp. Slowly, as Marley continued rattling on, I bent down to loosen the blade from her grip. After several moments of careful loosening, I pulled the blade from her grasp.
However, as soon as I had the blade, I realized how absolutely awful of an aim I was…sure, I could throw a knife, but one bad throw could mean Marley being killed. Slowly, I came closer to the intruder, while Marley was still rambling on. The small girl couldn't have been older than thirteen and was very frail-looking. For a moment, I wished to pity her, but just as I wished to, I saw her pull an arrow from her back pack and place it in the bow already in her hand. Any pity I had for her was forgotten, as I raised my own blade, wishing maybe not to kill her, but simply injure. Just as she was about to release, I reared back my own blade and tossed it as hard as I could toward her, trying to remember all of the techniques the trainers in the training center had told me. I watched, wide-eyed as the blade traveled through the air, almost in slow motion as it penetrated her upper-thigh, probably my worst throw ever.
Nevertheless, she let out a shriek as she fell to the ground, pulling the blade from her leg slowly, watching as the wound gushed. This was enough for Marley to stop speaking and jump up from his perch on the ground, he jumped up and looked over to see the struggling girl. His eyes shot over to me, wondering how this had happened. Before either of us could say anything, we watched as the girl wailed, trying to pull herself to her feet before collapsing. I started to walk toward her, finding I may had to finish what I started rather than watch her struggle.
Before I could do anything, Marley had already pulled himself up and started toward her. I bit down hard on my lip, hoping he would give her a little grace, but I was deeply disturbed by what happened next. He slowly grabbed the knife from her wound, flicking it to clean it off. She was still whimpering and by this time, both Capri and Lani were awake, but still disoriented to say the least.
"Marley…" I said warningly, seeing the girl's tears as she began to plead with us.
"Listen, I'm sorry…really…I'm sorry," She sobbed, clutching her deep gash, looking at him with very pained eyes.
She was so small, so frail that I couldn't help but pity her greatly. My heart bled for her and I wanted to believe that she had meant no harm…
"Marley!" I said again, more sternly this time as I approached the boy with the sharp knife.
He irritated barked at me," You want to finish her?"
My eyes widened," No, actually…I just wanted to-"
"Wanted to what?" He asked, looking right at me as I stood next to him. "What precisely were you aiming for when you threw this?"
"Well, I originally wanted to…" I trailed off, finding myself unable to finish my sentence.
He raised a brow," Kill her. But your aim is absolutely horrendous and though I appreciate your motion…."
He trailed off, but didn't speak anything else to me, but simply took the knife to do as he wished I had done. He killed her. The sight was very gruesome and I immediately looked away from the scene, as I felt bad for the girl. Several minutes later, Marley approached me, shoving the blade back into my hand and forcing me to look at him," You should have finished the job. I would expect a lot more out of a Career."
As he turned around, walking over to his perch, I spoke," I'm not a Career, Marley."
He didn't turn around, but simply kept walking before plopping himself down on the ground," You may as well be, you trained with them. You're from their district."
It bothered me how little he had hesitated in killing the poor, suffering girl, who was still whimpering as her life slipped from her and she writhed in pain from behind us. Several minutes passed before the canon was fired and a hovercraft could be heard breaking through the dark of the nice to buzz down and collect the remnants. There was something off kilter with this boy…
"I'm here with you guys," I said defensively, beginning to become angered. "Unless you forgot, I was nearly killed by the Careers. You all happened to be the one to save my life."
"Savera, I think you're just tired from a long day…" Lani tried, calling to me from where she still sat, waking herself up. "Why don't you-"
"No," I said to her, before looking back to Marley. "He's not going to accuse me of being a part of them."
"Savera, it's not worth it," Lani tried once more, but when I stepped closer to the boy, she simply waved me off and put her head back down.
I stood there for several moments in pure silence, waiting for some sort of a response from him.
"How do I know you're not just playing games with us?" He finally asked, very seriously.
I sighed, realizing that from the outside…no one really could be trusted. In my own opinion, I felt that he was being overly paranoid, but I guess I couldn't really trust any of them either. I was only assuming that I could, but I certainly wasn't shooting them all sorts of flack as he was.
"The same way I know you're not playing games with me…" I trailed off, intentionally leaving the interpretation wide open. "Putting faith in the unknown."
He literally laughed at this," Savera, other than the fact that they almost 'killed' you, which could have been completely staged as far as I'm concerned, you've got nothing to prove to me that you're not one. You know what they say…if it looks like a Career, if it smells like a Career, if it acts like a Career…chances are it's a Career."
I shook my head, seeing that time would be the only thing to solve the tension. How would I have been able to stage the level of hate that Flux has for me? To me, it made worlds of sense, but I suppose to an outsider…it would have been a little…unsettling. Realizing that Lani truly was right and I hadn't the patience to argue with him, I plopped myself down next to the two of them, who simply looked at me for a moment before smiling sympathetically.
"Another reason I think you are, is because water is something way to valuable for those guys to give to a nobody. You must have someone on your side," He added one last time, mentally, I swore since he just announced that little tidbit in front of both Lani and Capri, who looked at me with wide, surprised eyes.
It took several seconds before Lani actually spoke," You…you have water?"
I didn't look at her, but at my bag rather. I steadied my breathing as I grabbed my backpack, unzipping it as I answered her," Yes, I do, but I only just received it."
"You really must have done something impressive," Capri added as I uncovered the bottle of water and tossed it over to the both of them, seeing as I had no other option but to share.
It wasn't that I didn't want to share with them, it was just that I didn't know how far the water would last and seeing as this was going to eventually be a game of who could survive the longest…any advantage they would give me could have been beneficial toward the end. As soon as I thought this, however, I regretted it. This wasn't supposed to be me against my own "alliance"; it was supposed to be me against the Careers and more specifically Flux.
"Yeah, I wish I knew what," I said to them both aloud, and they simply looked at me as though I had a third eye as they cautiously took their respective drinks.
"You really don't know?" Capri asked, taking a final sip before passing it back to me.
"Not really," I said, not feeling as though I was completely lying.
"Well, I guess you should do more of whatever it is more often," Lani smirked as I grabbed the bottle and tucked it into my bag.
We bid each other goodnight before trying to ease our minds back into sleep once again. I found sleep to be restless for a long time, simply because my mind refused to shut off. Paranoia may have been seeping in, but a majority of it came from fret that Lani and Capri truly felt the way that Marley did. Suppose if I fell asleep, they would take advantage of me? Seeing as I couldn't afford to dwell on such thoughts, I shoved them out of my head, or at least to the back of my mind as I forced my eyes closed.
The last thought that ran through my mind was something that Marley had spoken to me, just moments before:
You must have someone on your side.
Author's Note: Shorter chapter! Sorry again for the delay, this has been another crazy week with end of the school year stuff and all. There's been little reviews on the story recently, but a lot of alerts and favorites so I'm assuming you guys are still liking? I mean, I actually have a detailed, written outline for this story (something I haven't officially had since my Narnia stories) and will continue with this story. :D Thanks for reading!
