Chapter 25 #2
"I have no idea," Vera gripes back. She tosses the man at the woman with anything but gentleness and stomps over to Tane.
"This is not what we were told this was going to be, Tane.
" She's the furious one now. Tane's eyes are darting between the family members.
Even I'm confused. They look a little old to be his parents.
Berkley lets go of the kid who runs straight into the woman's arms.
"What is the meaning of this? What do you want? We have nothing to offer you," the man says, chest heaving.
Had they tried to run? While the woman distracted us? Makes sense, she was hobbling when she opened the door, she wouldn't have made it far.
Tane reaches into his upper thigh pocket, pulling out a paper and handing it to the man.
The man’s face goes white.
"No, no you can't just come in here and take us. We've done nothing wrong." His words come out as a shout at first, but end in a plea, "Take me, but leave them."
Tane's face pinches into something I can't discern.
"We have orders," he responds there's almost an apology in his voice, which has me hesitating until he says, "Cuff them while we search the property."
Berkley and Tarius come around to cuff the man and his wife to their dining room chairs.
Vera storms out the back of the house.
"Go in pairs," Tane mutters, without making eye contact.
Farra and I head out the front to do a quick assessment, and my eyes snag behind the town.
We're closer to the barrier. I can almost see faint movement in the endless white light.
What is that? I blink a few times, convinced my eyes are playing tricks on me.
The white seems to morph from pearlescent to an ominous grey.
It's quick, but I see it ––the movement of dark swimming in the light.
I've never heard it described this way. The more I stare, the more I wonder what those flecks of darkness are that seem to lurk beneath the light.
Faintly, I can hear the man inside pleading. My heart constricts, making my feet move faster and further away. They don't look like defectors, although neither did the girl from the church.
Farra and I are silent as we reach the abandoned town. The buildings are half stripped of material, sitting forgotten.
The forest is also closer, albeit further than the barrier, and I feel pulled in both directions.
Eager to explore the eerie black shadow that I know is the dead forest. I wonder if that's the forest I was named after; I think back to the map I saw, and I'm pretty sure it is.
The Lindens are past the mountain ranges, and the Willows only grew on the islands.
Mom used to love telling us the stories of "our" forests. She would say that each held their own special magic––that was connected deeply to the earth, and yet they were all as different as the three of us were.
As I continue to walk, I notice how the air changes the further I go. It feels lighter, my lungs feeling free.
I get the faintest waft of sulphur, and turn to look, when I spot something along a fence. Is that… grass? I jog over to the fence and, sure enough, there's grass growing here.
"Farra!" I holler, snapping her attention to me from where she wandered.
She hurries over, crouching down beside me, and softly brushing the spindly green blades that pop out of the earth defiantly.
It's a small patch, but I look around at all the nooks and crannies surrounding the abandoned town, and I see several more glints of green peeking out from the shadows. Farra follows my gaze.
"What in the underworld is going on…" she whispers.
There's enough growth here to be significant, and yet I don't see any attempt to cultivate this land.
I move idly through the town, searching farther than I know we were supposed to, but I need to know what else is out here.
As I move deeper through the streets, I notice the tiny patches of grass or weeds grow taller the further we explore.
Farra catches up with me. She seems out of breath, but it's not from exertion.
Her hands ball into angry fists as she comes to terms with what we're seeing.
The Council can't be struggling that hard to grow things, so why are they starving us?
Drugging us is one thing, but people are dying every day from malnutrition. How can that possibly benefit them?
Farra and I say nothing as we promptly walk back to the house on the outskirts of the village. We pass Vera and Berkley, who are sitting at the back door, idly guarding it, like those inside aren't helplessly strapped to their own furniture.
"What took you so long?" Tane is there at the front as we round the building, standing with Tarius and Leo.
Leo has that look about him, the same look he had the day at the church when he saw the young girl hanging. He doesn't have the stomach for this kind of stuff, and it only makes me love him a little more.
"We walked through the town. I thought we were supposed to scout?" Farra responds with that cool confidence I rarely see from her anymore. I feel a stab of pride. They couldn't take that away from her, despite the marks on her skin.
Tane’s eyes flick to me, and he glares like he's expecting me to tell a different story. Feeding off Farra's confidence, I give him a look that seems to convey fat fucking chance, sir. He scowls.
"You didn't need to go that far. You two can stay here with your crew. I'll be right back." He stalks off angrily.
I turn my attention immediately to Tarius and Leo.
"What did you see? Any information on these three?" I ask, as quietly as possible, as we huddle together in the shade of the house.
"Both of them keep screaming about how they don't know anything. They've lived here their whole lives, most of their family either left or died out, and they swear they don't have any information for The Centre or the Council," Tarius replies in a whisper, sharp brown eyes darting around.
"Did you guys see anything out there?" Leo asks.
Farra begins to fill them in quietly when I hear something from within the house. I wander closer to the door, pressing my ear against it.
"Why would they want you?" Tane's strained voice comes through.
"We told you, we don't know. We don't know anything.
There haven't been other people living here for a few years now, everyone's moved out.
We've been barely surviving." Tane's quiet as he listens to the man try to convince him to let them go.
I peer in through the crack beside the boarded-up window, ear pressed against the wood.
"I'm sorry. If I don't bring you back..." he trails off, his hand scratching the shadow growing along his jaw.
The woman lets out a sob, and the flimsy armour I keep trying to place around my heart, slips. I know exactly why the Council wants them. Why, when they realized their existence, they called for an extraction. This town has growth. Growth that hasn't been reported.
"You can pack a bag for each of you. We need to get going. I'll do what I can for you when we get to The Centre, but I have to bring you in."
I hear stomping and move swiftly away from the door, right before it's yanked open.
"You and Rigby go in and see that the man packs sufficient supplies for the three of them, then tie him back up," he grumbles, stalking off around the house.
My heart pounds against my ribs as I walk into the house. I watch the man, rushing from room to room gathering what little supplies they have.
My attention flits back to the woman, and the boy, tears streaking down their faces. The boy can't even be eight. He's small, and he looks too brittle for his age, but he's well cared for. Loved.
"What are your names?" I ask softly.
The woman gapes at me, an angry look pulling at her features, but she relents.
"I'm Hazel. This is my grandson, Parker." She looks at him longingly, and I can't stand that she's tied up, unable to comfort him. I walk over and untie their hands.
"I'm Maple," I offer.
"What are you doing?" Tarius whispers.
I shrug.
"Can you be honest with me?" I ask.
The woman frowns, rubbing her wrists and scooping her grandson onto her lap greedily, despite him being far too big for such a gesture.
"I've been honest about everything," she replies bitterly, exhausted.
"Why does the Council want you three?" I say as quietly as I can, hoping Vera isn't listening at the back.
She sighs, utterly defeated. "I already told you lot, I have no idea. We have nothing of value. Look around."
I nod. She's right, of course. If they'd been a part of any real resistance, they'd at least have some supplies.
Weapons. The search of the house had come up empty, and it's clear no one has been using the town for years.
That is the beauty of the dust ––easy to tell what things have lain untouched, and what has not.
I sit in the chair her husband had just been in, and lean forward on my hands.
"How long has there been new growth here?" I press, my voice just above a whisper.
She hesitates, glancing down at Parker, her eyes glassy and lips pursed.
"It's hard to know. Things never truly died out here completely... there were always bits and pieces. And in the last few months, we've seen new growth popping up. The closer to the barrier, the more there is," she responds in a hushed tone.
I look at Tarius. His brow furrows like he's trying to catch up. I move to get up, when a soft hand snakes around my wrist.
"Please. They will kill us if we go. No one like us ever goes to The Centre and comes back. We can't help where we live. We don't know anything. At least let Parker go. Or let my husband go with him, and take me." Tears fall from her big tawny eyes, desperation gripping her words.