The Storm: Chapter Seven
Younger. I knew I was younger from the way I saw things. Everything was a tad out of line. The table was a little higher than usual, the room a little larger for my liking. My feet barely scrapping the floor when a stretched out, suspending in mid-air. I found my younger self sat on a chair, wearing dark trousers, shoes that resembled trainers, and a shirt with a very detailed fringe. From a guess, I was ten. The age of wonder.
The room was small, even from my new height I could tell. The table, squished into a corner, was littered with pages. Words scribbled on them, yet I was too far to see what they entailed. Another chair occupied the room, and sat on there was a young boy with olive skin, a splash of freckles and a mop of black curls. The boy, who probably was no older than six, huddled a small toy rabbit whose fur was matted from the amount of love that it was given. Small streams of tears slid down his puffy red face accompanied with the snot from his nose to the rabbit who soaked the moisture up.
I slipped down from my chair, the feet a little further than expected, and padded over to the crying child. The boy's dark eyes connected with mine. So much fear filled them for such a young thing. He shifted to the side and allowed for me to join him on the seat. I pulled myself up, balancing my body weight on the seat to make sure I didn't fall off.
"Voglio mia mamma," the boy snivelled. The words he spoke were foreign to me, even so I knew what he was asking. There was at least one word that we shared in common.
He buried his head into the pit of my arm, his tear stroked eyes wetting the fabric of my shirt. I placed an arm round him, enfolding the boy into a hug as he sobbed. His body heaved with every cry.
The sound of voices tore me away from the crying child. The door to our room was left ajar that I could see the outline of a man with a puff of hair protruding from his head. He was facing away from us, but the movement in his back showed that he was in a heated conversation with someone. One hand was stuffed in the coat of his pocket, the other gesturing madly as he spoke to a woman.
I pinched the boy's on the arm and pressed my fingers to my lips. He hushed as he obeyed the command.
"I haffe to take Luca vith us, Rozetta vould haffe vanted it," the man said in an agitated voice.
"You cano-not rrrisk it," the woman shot back. "Dey wil-l find out what e is-a and wil-l take im as a candidate."
"Zere is nein ozer choice. Luca cannot sday here. Zis country is koing to fall und ve need to keep him zafe. In America I can do zat."
The woman made a noise that must have been a laugh but it sounded strained and humourless. "And you tink tat wil-l ap-pen-a. What of de girrrl-a? Is she going to?"
The man shuffled, his back arching. "Diana koes vere I ko. Sche is all zat I haffe left."
There's a long pause. Then the woman says, "You arrre mad tinking you cano keep dem safe."
"Zat is ein chance I am villing to take."
The woman scoffed. "When dey find out what she is-a to you, she wil-l nevoi know peace."
The man wrenched his hand out of his pocket and pointed it to the woman. "Zat is vy zey vill neffer find out Serafina."
A loud sharp pop shattered the air, followed by a thud.
I awakened suddenly, not because of any noise or interruption, yet because my dream had come to its conclusion. My brain signalled that it was time to engage in the real world once more. It had been days since the dreams had plagued me. It only needed a jumpstart for them to come flooding back, and the events of yesterday was all that it needed.
The moon still shone in the darkness, but I could tell from the grey haze of the sky that daylight was not far behind. Near the entrance of the alley, Poe and Lottie had taken the place of Maggie and Maya in guard duty. Poe was slumped against the side of the wall, a head resting back. His arm resting over the top of Lottie who was curled up beside him with her head in his leap. They were both asleep, the steady rise and fall of their chests giving this away. So much for guarding.
Opposite me, Maggie and Maya were asleep as well. One head resting on a shoulder, the other laying on top of the head. Their arms were interlinked, hands interconnected. In the night, Jamie had crawled to where I had slept and snaked his way underneath my arm. He had rested his head on my lap, the soft curls of his hair tumbling over his freckled face.
Peaceful. They all seemed at peace.
"Bad dream?" Maya said. She lifted her head up and slowly blinked her eyes. She shifted her curls out from her face.
I settled myself and closed my eyes. "Yeah. I can't quit worrying about everything."
"I feel that." Maya shifted to make herself more comfortable. Maggie briefly moaned in her sleep, then settled again after the shift in movement. After a short silence she spoke again. "Maggie found out why they call this place the Scorch. Wanna hear it?"
"Sure," I replied. My curiosity for the outside world had not sparked until then. What little memories I had before the Glade seemed to only be snapshots of certain points. None of Eden, which was strange.
"Apparently, the Cranks think they're in Mexico. Or what used to be Mexico. See the labels we picked up. I can't understand them but in some way I know what it means. It's weird." Maya tossed a can to me. I caught it in my hand (making sure that Jamie was not disturbed) and inspected the label. I saw what she meant. I recognised the letters, not the words that they spelt. A few had little accents above them. That went far beyond me.
"You can understand this?" I muttered. My fingers traced over the words.
"Uh-huh ... sorta. I recognise it all, I just have no idea what it means. Maybe WICKED is blocking me. Like every word is on the tip of my tongue but I can't quite access them."
"No surprise there then." I gently placed the can on the ground beside me and rolled it back to Maya. She picked it up and stuffed it back into her pack. "Was there anything else Maggie got from them?"
"Remember Eli?" I nodded. "Well he told them that the Flare started to spread like crazy round the world. The only way to stop it was to unify all the countries together and form WICKED. They set up this crazy big testing system and tried to quarantine those infected. Apparently, they found a way of slowing down the Flare, but they can't stop it."
"So you think the cure they promised is real?" I contemplated.
"They wouldn't put us all through this for nothing, could they?" she concluded after a brief moment of thought.
An hour passed before the rest of the group was awake. I wasn't able to fall back asleep after my conversation with Maya. The idea of the end goal of the trial weighing heavily in my mind. I chose to push back the thought instead. There was no point dwelling on theories when there was no proof. The only way we would find out our answer was to survive to the end. And that meant getting to the checkpoint pronto.
"We have food to last us the remaining days," Lottie declared at the entrance of the alleyway. "If we ration ourselves, we can make it all the way to the end point on what we have."
We all knew we were coming to end point of our journey, and the old man's words started to heed us. We were a group of six, enough to get the cure. Enough for us all to survive to the end. All we had to do was travel over the mountain, find out where we had to be, arrive there and WICKED would help us.
There was, however, a flaw in the plan. In spite of never actually having to be in her presence, Georgie and her crew existence was enough the scupper are them. Their absence from us didn't lessen the threat. In fact it made her all the more dangerous. She could be anywhere right now, and we didn't know it. In fact, we had been lucky to not even have seen a peep from her. Maybe the Cranks had gotten to her. That's a wish I would make.
Like us though, she and the rest were all vying for the spot for the cure. We couldn't dismiss her without having seen her for days. Only a fool would do that. For us to succeed, we would have to arrive and make sure that WICKED saw us first not them.
"It's very clear that the mountain is where we have to go. Hope you lot like climbing." A smile planted itself on Lottie's face, her eyes beamed with joy. She had a very weird way of expressing joy. "Let's go."
We checked the surrounding area to make sure that our exit was as smooth as we entered. We didn't want any more trouble in this city. We were ready to gain distance between it and leave this wretched place behind. The sooner the better.
Poe rested a shoulder on Lottie's arm, holding back as he inspected the road. He whispered to us that there was no sign of life, and that we were okay to go.
One by one, we filed out from behind the machine. Lottie taking up the helm and Maya following the rear. The edge of the city was only a few hundred metres for us to walk. I blinked and again we were wondering in the desert, the nightmare finally behind us.
The decay of the outer city was enough for the average traveller to be made aware of the situation that be folded deep within. Unlike the way we had entered, this side of the city was fallen to its knees. Literally. Buildings here were in decay, half of the skeletal beast left standing. It was a sight to behold, and a sight I was glad to leave behind. Very swiftly behind. The city limit ended as abruptly as it started. If you were to stand and faced the mountains ahead, you would forget that a fragmentated society lived behind you. There was no evidence beyond the last building that life lived on further than these walls.
There was a reason why WICKED dumped the Cranks here. It was a prison with no escape. Maggie confirmed my suspicion when I asked her. WICKED had no other option but to dispense them here. Far away from civilisation, but not too far that they couldn't monitor them.
"Aren't they nice," I snickered. Maggie laughed in response.
We walked until the sun held strong in the sky and a distance had been put between us and the city. The heat typically returned and bore down on us. The rays penetrating every fibre of my body. My long, now very dirty, shirt held against waves of light, yet the heat was one thing it struggled against. That and the buckets of sweat that immediately dripped from me the moment the sun's strength could be felt. All I wished was the swift end of this journey and a shower. A cold long shower. Not rain, as I knew what that brought with it, just a shower.
We were several miles from the edge of the city when the ground started to rise at an incline. A hint that we had started our ascent upwards into the mountains. It was soft, the raise not affecting us at first. Still, we were at the base and the mountain was far ahead.
This was going to be tough.
The further we walked, the more drastic the landscape changed. At first glance, the mountainside was flat, smooth as it could be. An ease to walk up with only the heat as our enemy.
On closer inspection (meaning walking up the damn thing), we discovered how wrong we were. The hike up the mountain was strenuous. A far greater climb than what we had first expected. It was an ever-ending struggle against an ever-steeper slope. To top it all off, there path we chose was far from smooth sailing. We jumped over large cracks in the earth formed from the heat off the sun. Somehow, we managed to edge through two large wind-worn boulders that had sandwiched themselves together with just enough of a gap that Poe's shoulders squeezed amid them. Navigating the landscape was one task, the other was on the consistent look out for any danger from all directions. This part was exhausting always being on high alert.
Since the boulders, a thick meadow of vibrant bushes had directed our walk, channelling us into their pathway. The thick bushes with silvery hairs protruding from the steam and orangey-yellowy ray flowers dotting the edges brushed up against the tip of my knees. The steams catching on my clothing every so often. They weren't sharp or firm, a little sticky if you'd ask me. The yellow brittle bushes were not the only thing that grew here. In various places, trees with bluish-green leaves grew from the ground. Casting a very enticing shadow underneath them.
I had believed that in the Scorch, nature's laws had been overthrown. A revel of malevolent violence between its denizens, all of whom were disfigured and crippled by living here. The gene pool of life corrupted beyond repair. Yet, life sustained itself under the oncogenic sun that was resentful of life and soaking the land with its spite. Life existed midst the death.
The bottom of a cliff drop face greeted us. The cliffs a tower of grey rock rising in salute to every sun of every season, come what may. At first, we had thought that this was the end of this path. Yet, Maya spotted a small gap in the edge that rose to the top of the rock. A trivial remembrance of a time before. It was a steep and flat climb, and that was to get to the gap. An inspection from where we stood noted that it was big enough for Poe to get through (his shoulders the broadest out of Maya's and his). It was a dangerous way to climb the mountain, especially with the now depleted aid that Maggie carried.
Maggie and I trekked a few metres in on direction. Poe and Lottie went the other. We had hoped to find an alternative way to getting past the obstacle. We both came back disappointed.
"It goes on for miles," I informed the others. "We would be wasting a day if we were to look for another way."
"I'm happy to carry on if everyone else is," Lottie imparted. She glanced round the group and was greeted with affirmation from everyone. With this, she led the way up to the gap. Lottie scrambled up the cliff face, the rock falling away beneath her feet. She grabbed a hold of the ledge and hoisted herself up to the next part of the climb. I went after her, taking the same careful steps she had to make sure that I didn't slip back down. Lottie had made it look easy. I found it difficult balancing myself with the weight of my pack dragging my back down and my body heaving myself forward. My sweaty palms didn't help either. Each touch of the hot rock face burnt my fingertips, along with collecting as much grit as was humanely possible.
The gap revealed one more climb, this time indentations in the rock face to support us. I laid hold of the rock, secured my grip then pulled myself up over the ledge. The pack's weight strained at my muscles as I did this. The second I was up, I sucked in a few breaths of hot air and carried on. This time I did find it easier. With a squeeze I followed Lottie upwards until she helped my through the last part. I sidestepped out of the way to allow for Jamie to climb up. He had crawled up behind me, his small body and lack of provisions allowing him to climb with ease. If I hadn't had been there blocking the way, Jamie would have raced up the side of the cliff.
I walked to the edge of the cliff, whilst the others still made their way up under the watchful eye of Lottie, and took in the landscape. The city is as it was before, just devoid of the warmth that made it worthy of that term. The buildings stood in defiance of the people who fled. They were no vulnerable flesh but concrete and steel, not as timeless as the mountains that bore over the city but able to outlast the civilisation that created them.
A touch of the wrist from Jamie drew me away from the city. That would be the last time I would ever see it. Thank goodness. That place was not somewhere I wanted to end up if I failed in gaining the cure. I had only sampled the surface and even that was enough for me.
Jamie led me back to the group who had momentarily stopped under a tree. We collected ourselves, all of us hotter and more bothered at this moment then when we were a few minutes ago. The shade only provided a momentary rest from the sun, not the heat. There was no cool breeze that floated over my sweaty body. There were many hours I would still have to suffer till the cold night air.
We had covered only a quarter of the distance we needed to travel. We were running short of time and still had the mountain to conquer. Despite the heat, we had to speed up if we were going to make it in time.
We continued walking, Lottie and Poe ahead and Jamie by my side. Jamie and chatted amongst ourself, discussing the various ways different ways that one could steal food from the kitchen without being caught. Exciting I tell you.
"So," Lottie began as she drew up beside me. "Them boys on the other side of the trench yesterday. Were they the Gladers?"
"Yeah," I considered for a moment on how many had actually been there. Out of the fifty or so that lived in the Glade, there seemed to be less than ten of them present. "What's left of them."
"And the blond-haired boy. He's Newt isn't he."
"I-uh," I rolled my eyes and turned my head away to avoid her seeing the blood rushing to my cheeks.
"He's cute," she whispered in my ear, gaining a laugh from myself. She hooked the end of my arm in hers and carried on. "I've never seen you act like this before. All flustered. Now it's my payback for all the times you teased me about Poe."
Her face was beaming. She surely was taking great delight in my rattled state. They didn't even know him, and yet they knew how to make me squirm.
"Woah, you've seen Clarkie's boyfriend?" Jamie cut in. His face popping out from beside Lottie's. He had an alert on for when Newt's name was ever mentioned.
"Jamie," I groaned loudly with another roll of the eyes. He was way more invested than anyone else. Clearly there was another backstory to myself that I was not aware of. From the sounds of it, this was the first boy that I had given any interest in.
Jamie knew he was winding me up. The plastered smile's on Lottie and his face was the evidence that I needed. He waved his hand in my direction, ignoring my protests, and carried on pestering Lottie.
"What he look like? Clarkie won't tell us."
"I've told you bef-"
"Shush!" Jamie snapped. He held a finger to his lips. "Lots is explaining."
I glared at him. This in turn only made him laugh, his head knocking back in laughter and his arms wrapping around his chest as he attempted to control himself. Lottie joined in as well. Her hand covered her lips as she struggled to contain a smile. The movement in her shoulders was the giveaway that she too was laughing.
"This isn't funny," I grumbled. I crossed my arms over my chest and huffed. "Stop laughing."
"Stop laughing," Jamie mimicked. I reached out to grab him, but he jumped away and ran off. He shouldered barged past Poe and scampered further up the path away from my clutches. He knew what I was going to do, so he ran away before I could even grab him.
He bolted past a wall of rock and paused at the tip of the incline. He spun on his heel, a huge smile on his face as he had succeeded in his mission to annoy me. "You can't catch me here," he exclaimed, his laughter echoing across the distance.
It was the shock that first caught me off guard. The unexpected often happened in my presence.
There was a dark stain. Red. So much red blossoming into a crimson pulp. The boy swayed slightly, the light reflecting in his wide, shining eyes. The smile faded as Jamie looked down at the silver tip of a rod protruding from his heaving chest.
"Jamie – no," my words were barely audible.
"Clarke," the boy stuttered. He stretched out his arms toward me. Then, his body fell to the ground to reveal his killer. An icy blonde girl with a cruel grin who went by the name of Georgie.
"He was always such an annoying brat," she sneered, her face twisting into its unpleasantness. She had stolen the warmth of life away from him and steered him into death's cold embrace.
Synced with the impact to the dust covered ground was the lament of Lottie, who promptly sprinted to Georgie whose eyes were a blazed at the sight. Poe endeavoured to block her charge in anguish, but was tackled from the side by a crooked nose boy. Poe grunted from the impact. He threw wild punches into the air to try and topple the boy off him. He was only met with the same reaction back.
"Not so strong now, are we?" the crooked nose boy mocked.
"Get screwed, Nest," Poe snarled through gritted teeth. They continued to brawl on the ground, using anything and everything to beat the other.
A screech from Maya exposed two others that had creeped up behind us. A tall thin boy with red hair that poked underneath his cap and a girl with steel-grey eyes peering out through a wild tangle of hair, like those of a cornered animal, circled Maya and Maggie. They both held their own weapon ready to attack with them.
"Trixie why?" Maya pleaded as she backed closer to Maggie.
Trixie titled her head, her hair falling with it. "I want to live, cow."
She darted ahead, bringing a deathly blow down on Maya. Maggie intercepted her and shoved the girl to the floor. In her rage, Maggie attacked Trixie with a scream. Throwing punches in all directions, each one colliding with the girl's body.
I snapped out of the shock, the realisation of our situation slapping me in the face. My friend was gone, stolen from me, and I was desperate for revenge. I sprinted in the direction of Lottie, who was now engaged with a deadly fight with Georgie. The silver rod had been thrown to one side and fists were now the weapon of choice. I dodged a swing from Nest, who was forcefully dragged down by Poe, and tear me way up wards.
I was so focused on tearing Georgie apart that I hadn't noticed the figure lunged to me. With their shoulder, the figure slammed me into the side of the rock with such force that the wind was knocked out of me. I collapsed downward and slumped over my body. My shoulder ignited in pain as the muscles ached horribly. Black spots danced in front of my eyes
I hauled myself up and dragged myself to my feet. The figure – a frightfully, awful creature – was a mere foot from me. His brown hair was cropped, showing off the striking symmetry of his face. With the sun at his back, shadows marked the depressions beneath his cheekbones. The guy had straight sculptured shoulders that made me think that he was accustomed to the hard labour of Eden. Worst of, he was headed straight for me.
There was nowhere to escape either side of me. So I chose up. The rocks (that had hidden Georgie) were not as high. I hoisted myself up, scrambled over the top and slid down the other side. The force of my pack dragging me down quicker. I made a snap decision and loosened the pack from my arms and ran. The guy, whose name was Leo, vaulted over the rock and pursued me.
I ran through the bushes, not caring that the sharp needle points dug into my shins and scrapped at my trouser legs. Vanity had no home for in a place like this. I would risk the tears over risking my live.
"That's right. Run like the coward you are," Leo's voice boomed.
He was at the tip of my heels but I willed myself to run faster. A whiff of burnt smoke and I was transported back into the Maze running for my life against the Griever. The whirring and clicking sounds vibrating in my head. My chest strained as I pumped my arms and legs faster. The adrenaline fuelling my movements. It wasn't enough. I was fast and nimble, and he was power and strength. I never stood a chance of outrunning him.
From behind me, Leo kicked out a leg and caught mine mid-air. I tripped and slammed to the ground with a heavy thud. Pain exploded again, the grit in my hands stinging the now open wounds. Before I could right myself, Leo's hand reached down and yanked me to my feet. The cuff of my shirt firmly in his grip. There was no way I could escape without ripping it.
I saw, as through another body, his hand swing out. The moment slowing down. I reacted instantly and without thought. I wrenched my head back with a such force that my shirt ripped and part of the fabric was left in Leo's hand. Simultaneously, Leo's eyes shifted from glee to shock when his arm swung inches from my nose and round his body. I took the opening and connect my fist with the side of his stomach, and for good measure, kicked him as hard as I could in the side of the leg. Leo collapsed to the ground with a snarl and hiss of air. He cradled the side of his body with both arms. As an added extra, a landed direct punch to his nose. I felt the top bone of his nose crack and witnessed an explosion of red flow from his nose.
I had expected him to scream in pain as I broke his nose. He only growled and heaved heavy breaths. He then chuckled. Maybe that had been the wrong thing to do.
"Thought your memory was wiped," he said in a low voice. His bloodshot eyes were fixed on me. Leo wiped the blood, smearing it across his face.
Steady.
"It is," I cautiously replied. I took a step backwards and readied myself to flee again. An itch told me otherwise.
Leo grunted as he rose slowly from the floor. "They should have disposed of you instead."
We were locked in a stand-off, neither one wanting to make the first move. We started to circle one another. Fleeing was no longer an option. Leo was capable of catching me, and now he was far angrier. My only option was to take him head on. Physically, I knew he was far stronger than me. That had been made very evident. However, a little voice whispered that I was capable of overcoming him. I was small and nimble. That played to my advantage. All I had to do was to tire him out then the perfect opportunity would arise.
Give it time.
I rolled my shoulders back and threw up my arms, my hands balled into fists. I sensed that Leo was going to attack at any second, and I readied myself to dodge the first blow. This was the Clarke that must have lived in Eden.
A piercing horrifying scream cut the tension. It tore me away from the moment, the fear that the scream belonged to Lottie. That moment was the perfect chance opportunity for Leo. That was where my fault caught me out. I cared too much about the safety of another that I had forgotten the situation I was in.
I heard a cackle and then, with a flash of pain, I was on my back, bewildered. He stood above me, panting, his hand still curled in a fist. Black spots danced in front of my eyes. I tried to lift my head, but the heavy sensation of spinning forced it back down. The dizziness offset the feeling of sickness. I closed my eyes to try and settle the sensation. It only intensified the pain.
A dark shadow cast over me and I painfully cracked open my eyes. Leo's face loomed just above mine, a face the colour of pale death with fathomless black holes for eyes and a bloodstained mouth. I screamed, the reaction the only thing I could think of to help save me. He forced one of his sweaty palms over my mouth to muffle me.
"Leo, leave her to me."
I looked up and saw the petite figure of Georgie standing behind them. Bloody rad hands placed on her hips in displeasure. She crossed the threshold and bent down to me, the tip of her single slick braid tickling the end of my nose.
"My greatest joy is getting to see you powerless," she purred into my ear. Her voice was like rods of searing pain that shot directly into my brain. Nanoseconds of memories poured back in with the sound of it. The flash of her piercing cunning eyes narrowing, and a grin that twisted into malevolence.
I willed my hand to push her away. She gave no effect in sweeping it aside and forcing it back to the ground with little ease. I moaned, the dizziness intensifying.
"Oh no, Clarke. Your fight is done." She slithered her fingers underneath my head and drew me upward. "This is my revenge. Only parts came back to me, but I know enough to piece together what happened in the Maze. Actions have consequences."
"Stop … they'll stop you," I mumbled through ragged breaths. Georgie dropped my head to the ground and roared with laughter. Leo elbowed her in the shoulder and pointed southward. Georgie nodded, a smirk curling at her lips.
"Maybe," she sighed her eyes rolling. "I hope they do, will make it easier to kill them then. For you though, you will die alone. No one will come for you Clarke. That is what you deserve."
Leo grabbed a fistful of my hair and dragged my body across the desert floor. My arms flew to his as I struggled to release myself from his grip. It soon dawned on me where he was taking me. In a fit of panic, I hauled my legs underneath me and attempted to yank myself free. Georgie responded by connecting a sharp punch to my stomach. I crumbled back to floor from the pain.
In just a few metres, Leo had my feet dangling over the edge of the cliff. His arms were securely round my waist prolonging the inevitable moment. There was a fifty foot drop between me and the ground below. The fear exploded in me as I lived my last moments trapped by two vicious people.
I gripped a hold of Leo's arms as hard as I could. They were the only salvation that I had when he freed his arms. The chances of surviving slimmed with every passing second. I stopped struggling the second he lay me there. Any movement I made bought the sicking feeling of vertigo.
Remember relax, tuck and roll.
"P-P-Please," I begged. Tears streamed down my face as the seconds drew on. This was the end of me and there was no escape from it. I heard thunder explode right inside my head, in the same instant, my ears rung. In a fraction of a second, my whole head bloomed with a giant throb of pain, as if it had become inflated. I lost all sense of balance. I felt like I was floating, drifting. My legs numb under me. I became detached from the environment, like suddenly finding myself ten feet under water.
"I take great pleasure in this," Georgie's voice echoed in the unknown. Then I felt myself floating for real. And I allowed it to take over.
