Everwinter: The Forerunner Archives (17 page)

"You know
who
," Jude retorts, pulling his foot back to administer a kick.

Fabrial recoils. "An old woman with massive tumors on her face... A young man with red sores on his... A boy and a young woman, both with
grayscale." Fabrial's response is quick, avoiding the blow from Jude.

"The young woman," Jude continues, "what color was her hair?"

Who caused the mutations?

The quest
ion keeps haunting his mind...and he doesn't know why. He's just a soldier in this war. A nobody. Why should he care who caused the mutations?

Because I know who did it.

"What is the meaning of this, Jude?" Blaine cuts in, unhappy at the delay. Jude shakes his head, giving Blaine a serious stare. Blaine sighs and nods, allowing it.

Jude nudges Fabrial with his boot. "Well?" he urges.

Fabrial smirks. "Red and short, shaved at the sides." Jude's eyes widen. Fabrial sees it. "You know her, don't you? You–"

BLAAAM!

Fabrial's corpse drops on top of his wife's, together in death.

"Thank you, Child Jude," Blaine says, taking his prodigy by the shoulder again, pulling him away from the others for a moment. "But what was that about?"

Jude shakes his head; his mind has been so fuzzy since joining the Children.

Since
...
the Box...on the beach...

"Nothing," he replies, trying to sound honest. "Just wanted to get a better description of her, that's all."

"The last human, you mean?" Jude nods. "We already knew her hair color," Blaine says, eyeing Jude warily.

"Yeah," Jude agrees, "I just... I wanted to make sure."

Blaine finally smiles, slapping Jude on the back. "Good enough then! Come! We have work to do! The last human is only a day or two ahead of us!" The two men rejoin the others, walking casually.

Who caused the mutations?
 
Jude thinks as they move. 

The answer is there–
he knows that it is–but for some reason he can't grasp it. It's been blocked out. Blocked by guilt. He sees a silver Box on a beach in his mind...but that's all he sees. 

Who opened the box?

"The last human," a voice responds inside.

The voice that is always there now.

W
ho is the last human?
Jude counters, as if the voice is an old friend he likes to argue with.

"You know who, Jude."

Jude hesitates, denying the answer he dreads to say aloud. 

Juno?
he finally asks with massive trepidation.

Blaine's answer hisses in his brain. "
Yesssss
..."

22.

T
he grassy plain ripples with a soft warm breeze blowing in from the ocean. The young man lets the air hit him, breathing it in with a hearty smile.

Freedom
!

He never thought he'd be free
again.

They'd
have to stay here, of course–probably for the rest of their lives–but as far as he was concerned, that’d be just fine. The sun stays just above the horizon on the Fringes of Eversummer, its rays not as harsh as they are further west. That’s good, because his eyes are sensitive. They all have sensitive eyes. He'd been taken from Everwinter at a young age–they all had–and so his eyes hadn't time to adapt to living in total darkness. Some might consider that a blessing.

Ha!

If only they knew what he and the others had been through…

"Hey! You! Can you help
me?"

Startled, the young man whirls, ready
for anything, mind reeling. He’s never seen anybody else out here yet. Dead ahead, the straight, unwavering line of the Engie tracks crosses from horizon to horizon.

And somebody is coming from that direction.

An Engie passed here not more than an hour ago. 

"Hey!" the voice calls again, high pitched, adolescent. "Can you hear me?
” The voice belongs to a young boy, dashing toward him through the grass. The boy's forehead is covered in bloody streaks, but he seems none the worse for wear. There's also a strange, clumpy grey substance on his skin, a growth of some sort. But there are clear patches as well.

A new mutation?

Anything is possible now that mutations are the norm. 

"Yes, I can hear you!" the young man calls back. He breaks into a trot, covering the distance to the boy i
n minutes. The boy looks winded but happy to see him, eyeing the young man warily. 

He's probably never seen a mutant like me before
, the young man thinks. "What's wrong?" he asks.

"This way," the boy says, leading him back toward the Engie tracks. "My sister is hurt."

Sister?
The young man thinks, suddenly suspicious that this might be a trap of some sort.

But who would set up a trap out here?
 

Nobody lives out here anymore.

The boy comes to a trampled section of grass. The first thing the young man sees is blood. It's everywhere, splashed all over the grass. The second thing he sees is the body; a large, man-sized hulk, motionless on the ground. And finally, he sees the sister this little boy is worried about. She's on her back on the grass, unconscious, dripping blood from a wound on her side. He kneels down beside the girl, dumbstruck by her rose red hair and remarkable beauty.

He does a double take.

This girl is not a mutant!

"Yeah, I know," the boy nods, pointing to his sister. He reache
s up and peels some of the grayscale from his own cheek. "See? It's just a disguise. We're human. The last ones left, we think. Please, mister, can you help her?"

The young man hesitates, pulling himself together. He puts his arms under the girl, lifting her onto his shoulder.

"Come on," he says, "we have to get her someplace safe."

And that’
s how Traylor met Tien. 

23.

She opens her eyes.

Every muscle in her body aches, as if she's been thrown through a rock tumbler. She sits up, finding her surroundings to be completely unfamiliar. Grass? Plains? Blood! The grass around her is splashed with red. She immediately starts feeling her own body, searching for a mortal wound.

There is none. The blood isn't hers.

Then whose is it?

Ursa turns where she's sitting, looking for some clue as to what'
s going on...and finds it. Not more than ten feet behind her, a pair of dual rails is set into the ground, stretching from horizon to horizon.

Engie rails.

We fell off the Engie!

It all comes flooding back to her.

They were on the Engie when it passed through a Bleakpatch, their air nearly running out. When it was over, they were weakened, ripe for the plucking by the bandits that had stolen aboard the Engie with them. The bandits had had full breath tanks. They weren't weakened. They'd advanced on her friends, one pulling a knife on Juno.

And that's when all hells had broke
n loose.

Juno had screamed, tackling the man with the knife, knocking them both right out the Engie door. Traylor, heroically, had called out for his sister and leapt immediately after her, without a moment's hesitation. The remaining bandits, anger
ed, had then advanced on Ursa and Altair, all seeming lost...

Somehow, Altair had struck back, managing to knock out the woman bandit. But then
the two remaining men had overpowered him. They were about to throw him off the moving Engie when Ursa had intervened. She still doesn't know where she'd drummed up the courage.

She'd leapt, striking both men in a tackle as they'd struggled with Altair at the car's edge. All four of them had tumbled outward.

It was all black after that.

Ursa shakes her head, coming back to reality. Her heart is pumping a mile a minute.

Where are the others?

She gets to her feet, stumbling. Immediately, she sp
ots a body; one of the bandits, his head twisted at an awkward angle.

Good
.

"Juno! Traylor! Altair!" she calls out, not caring whether someone unfriendly hears it. She has
to find her friends! She has to–

"
Unnnnhhhh
...."

Ursa f
reezes, the moan coming from her left.

She steps
gingerly, wary that the noise might belong to one of her attackers.

But it's not one of the attackers.

"Altair!" Ursa exclaims, seeing the young man lying on his back, eyes half open to the sky.
He's alive! 

"Altair!" Ursa calls again, falling to the Assassin's side. She grabs him by the shoulders. "Altair! Wake up! You're alive! You're
–" Ursa cuts off with a gasp. In her excitement, she'd shaken Altair a bit, causing his head to loll sideways.

It’s
soaked in blood, pooling under the man's cheek.

Ursa cries out in horror.

24.

I open my eyes.

My first thought is that I'm comfortable.

Really
comfortable.

The mattress beneath me is soft, feathery, the light sheet covering my body smooth and cool against my skin.

Against my skin?

I sit bolt upright, the blanket flying off my body at the same time. I look down, and my fear is confirmed:
 

I AM BLOODY NAKED!

I scream, and I'm answered by another, almost like an echo. This scream is deeper though, masculine.

I look up.

The creature that sits in an easy chair at the end of an unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar room is unlike anything I've ever seen. Its skin is pale, a pure white, matching the shaggy locks of snowy hair hanging in its face. The hair partially masks a pair of eyes that are brown with a reddish gleam to them. The creature wears a loincloth and a brown, rough spun robe, hanging open, revealing an exceedingly emaciated body. My eyes fall to its feet–human-like–but much larger, each one sporting six long, curled digits.

It has six toes!

I gasp, recalling the six-toed footprints on the beach in Krakelyn and outside of Ursa's now destroyed lab in Venecici.

Is this the creature that belongs to them?

The thing looks at me with its head cocked sideways, reminding me of an eagle eyeing its prey. Panicking, I pull the sheet back up over my body, looking around.

"Where are my clothes?" I ask, thinking of nothing better to say. Though its appearanc
e is off-putting, this creature strikes me as timid. The creature, formerly smiling (I think), puts an embarrassed look on its face, literally leaping from its chair. 

"Oh, I'm sorry!" it says in a shockingly normal, human male voice. "Here! Here!" He ducks down then pops up from the side of the bed, holding my tunic top, pants, belt, and sandals, keeping his eyes off of
me. "Sorry about that," he says, "but it was necessary."

Scowling, I rip my clothes from his grasp and pull them under the sheet with me, getting dressed immediately. "Necessary for what?" I ask with a sneer. I reach down to slip my pants on and
feel a tender tugging at my side. I look down to see where a massive gash in my torso has been sewn expertly shut by the cleanest stitches I've ever seen. My blood stains the sheets beneath me. I flip the sheet off, still naked on the upper half of my body, spinning the wound toward this strange young man. 

"Did you do this?" I ask, pointing at the stitches.

The mutant nods, then shakes his head. "I sewed it shut, if that's what you mean," he answers timidly. "I didn't
give
you the wound."

I laugh, despite myself. "Yeah, that's what I meant." I pause, meeting those reddish brown eyes. "Thank you."

The young man nods sheepishly, still keeping his eyes off my half naked form. "You're welcome."

I grab my pants and finally slip them on. "Where are we?" I ask, really taking in my surroundings for the first time. This room is clearly a bedroom;
there are windows, but the drapes are drawn shut. I step over to the nearest one.

"Where are the other people I was with?"

"People?" the mutant asks as I open the drapes. "I'm sorry, but there was only one other person with you when I found you. Well, actually, he led me to you."

"Who?" I ask, spinning. I've just opened the drapes and catch a gli
mpse of the outside world. It’s not very interesting. Just a sea of grass, as far as the eye can see.