Intermix Nation (24 page)

“So you must,” Cayus says, gesturing to
Adamek, who has been watching their heated interaction in silence.
“You must be very tolerant to associate with someone who is
revolted by you, sickened at the very thought of you. Someone who
hates you to the core, simply because you exist.”

From the corner of her eye, Nazirah sees
Adamek’s fingers clench and unclench. Casha tries to intervene. “My
love –”

“Quiet!” he snaps, raising a threatening
hand. Casha looks meekly at the ground.

“Don’t speak to her like that!” Nazirah
shouts, seeing red. In that moment, she finds no difference between
Cayus and the Chancellor, or Casha and Victoria. And Nazirah is
more grateful than ever to call the unbending, iron-fisted Riva
Martel her mother.

“Casha knows her place, Nazirah Nation,”
Cayus says. “It’s time you learned yours.”

“I know my place!” Nazirah fires back,
pointing at the entrance. “It’s out there, with the rest of the
world, as an equal! It’s you who must learn!”

“And I suppose you will be the one to teach
me?”

“Do you want to live like this forever?”
Nazirah asks. “Do you want your children, your grandchildren, to be
confined to these slums their entire lives? Living every day in
fear and starvation, without any hope of breaking that cycle? I’m
asking you to set aside your blatant prejudices and help all
intermix regain what we’ve lost! We fight for you either way!”

“Do you know,” Cayus asks slowly, “the
soldiers of Mediah come, with their fire cannons? They burn our
huts to the ground, trying to slaughter us, for sport. It is a game
to them, guessing where the flames will fall.

“We have dealt with this burden our entire
existence. We have come to expect it. But that is not what hurts us
most, what scars us deepest.” The silence hangs over the hut like a
thick fog. There are loud noises, shouting and barking in the
distance. Cayus leans closer. “It is the Eridians who deal us the
most painful blow – in here.” He pounds hard on his chest. “It is
intermix like you, who have lived mere miles away your entire
lives, yet have never even contemplated our struggle, our
existence. Until you want something from us. It is your
indifference to our plight, your apathy, your willful ignorance of
intermix poverty that cuts straight to the heart.

“You pass us every day, blissfully unaware
of our desperation. That is what hurts the most. And you want me to
forgive them? You want me to take up their burden at the expense of
my own people? Make no mistake, Nazirah. We may be poor and we may
be hungry, but the intermix are not going anywhere. We have dealt
with strife for centuries and we will endure. I cannot say the same
for the Eridians.”

“But we’re fighting for the same thing!”
Nazirah cries. “Like the Eridians, you want freedom and peace! You
want the power over your own life!”

Adamek’s eyes are on her, but Nazirah doesn’t
look his way.

“In this, you are correct,” Cayus says,
appreciating her persistence. “But I am sorry. I cannot help
you.”

“Why not?” asks Aldrik.

Nazirah puts her face in her hands, feeling
nothing but despair. She hears crying and wailing outside and
imagines the slum dwellers are as upset with their leader as she
is.

Cayus stares at Adamek’s hands and then into
his eyes. “Tell me, Adamek Morgen,” he says. “Tell me how many
intermix you have killed.”

“A lot,” Adamek says, not missing a
beat.

“I see.”

“And how many intermix have you killed,”
Adamek counters, “in order to obtain your leadership here?”

“A lot,” Cayus responds slowly. “But you can
understand why I could never fight alongside you?”

Adamek is silent then, as is Aldrik.

Nazirah looks at them, enraged. “Well, I
can’t!” she shouts, standing up quickly. “He killed my fucking
parents! If I can do it, then you most certainly can!”

Cayus also stands, causing everyone in the
hut to rise apprehensively. “Even the intermix of the slums are not
immune to the gossip of the world,” he says, looking curiously
between the two of them. “You come here and ask me to forgive.
Nazirah Nation, daughter of Kasimir Nation, lover of Adamek Morgen,
how have you forgiven him?”

Nazirah opens her mouth, completely prepared
to lie to the best of her ability. But Cayu rushes frantically
inside the hut, cutting her off. “Father!” he screams, pointing
outside. “The cannons are here!”

Loud booms shake the ground. Cayus pulls the
flap of the hut entrance open, disappearing outside. Nazirah can
see plumes of black smoke rising in the distance. The Medi vehicles
retreat, as a huge fire begins to eat up row upon row of huts.
Nazirah watches breathlessly as hundreds of intermix men run
towards the ocean, preparing to fill wooden buckets with water.

Aldrik and Adamek run outside to help.
“Nation, stay here!” Adamek shouts at her, before sprinting towards
the massive ball of flames.

“Let go!” Cayu screams, trying to break free
of Casha, who holds onto his tiny wrist. He clearly wants to help
his father. Casha looks overwhelmed, trying to handle her small
children, but Nazirah cannot stay with her.

“I’ll be back!” Nazirah yells at Casha and
rushes out of the hut.

Nazirah darts down the rows, searching for
anyone who may have been trampled in the chaos. Getting closer to
the inferno, Nazirah feels the heat scorch through her body. Smoke
fills her lungs and she coughs into her hand. The acrid smell of
burning wood, metal, and flesh sears the air. Sweat and fear soak
her clothes. Several meters away, she sees Adamek and Cayus joining
the massive effort to quell the flames.

Men surround the wall of fire, beating it
down with wet rags, towels, and clothes – anything that will
suffocate the flames. Others form a human chain, an endless system
transporting buckets to and from the ocean. The fire has already
decimated dozens of huts and is quickly engulfing more,
incinerating everything in its path.

Squinting, Nazirah sees Cander and several
Eridians rushing down the shoreline to help. The smoke is thicker
now, heavier. Nazirah’s arms are red and blistering. She bends
over, trying to catch her breath, just as a small boy sprints past
her. Nazirah doesn’t need to look twice to know who it is. “Cayu!”
she yells.

Nazirah races after him, screaming his name.
But he’s too far gone, already several yards ahead in the distance.
Nazirah musters every last ounce of strength she has, running
through the flaming rows as the huts around her begin collapsing.
Nazirah sees Cander through the flames and calls out to him. He
doesn’t hear her and quickly retreats from her vision.

Nazirah ploughs forward, tripping over a
dead body in the lane. She gags but doesn’t stop. Someone grabs her
from behind, slings her over their shoulder. “Put me down!” Nazirah
screams, kicking furiously.

Adamek drops her harshly and grabs hold of
Nazirah’s arm. His face is full of ash, but his green eyes blaze
brighter than the fire, furious. “What are you doing here?” he
growls, yanking her forcefully away from some falling debris. “I
told you to stay put! You never listen!”

“Cayu ran here!” she cries. They both duck
as the hut beside them collapses. “I have to find him!”

“I’ll find him!” he yells. “Get out of here,
Nation!”

“No!” she shouts, wrenching her arm from his
grasp. She runs away from him and back towards the wall of fire.
Adamek shouts her name, chasing after her. Nazirah doesn’t know
which of them is the faster runner, but she’s about to find
out.

Nazirah runs in the direction she last saw
Cayu, jumping over burning pieces of debris. Adamek is right behind
her. He tries to grab her, but she ducks into the adjacent row of
huts. Nazirah spots Cayu right at the encroaching wall of fire,
about twenty huts away. She watches in complete horror as Cayu
throws some water from a small pail onto the flames. He’s so
focused he doesn’t see the collapsing hut until it’s too late.
Moments later, he’s trapped underneath the rubble.

Adamek comes up behind Nazirah, spotting
Cayu only a moment later. They look at each other and
simultaneously sprint to Cayu’s aid. Nazirah is fast, but Adamek is
faster. Adamek reaches him with Nazirah a step behind, and pulls an
unconscious Cayu from the rubble just as the fire begins to catch.
Nazirah leads them away from the heat as Adamek holds Cayu in his
arms.

As they run, Nazirah can see that Cayus has
intentionally destroyed dozens of huts near the blaze, clearing the
debris in order to starve the fire of more fuel. Through the
relentless efforts of intermix and Eridian, the flames are being
suffocated. By the time Adamek and Nazirah reach Cayus’ hut, the
fire has mostly died, leaving only smoldering remains and a thick
black plume of smoke.

Casha waits at the hut entrance, where the
air is still breathable, holding a wailing infant in her arms and
looking petrified. She nearly faints when she sees Adamek walk in
with Cayu. Adamek gently lays the boy on the floor of the hut.
Casha hands the infant to an already frazzled Nazirah and then
rushes over to her son and cradles him in her arms. The three of
them exhale when Cayu coughs and his breathing steadies.

“Thank you!” Casha sobs, bordering on
hysteria. “I can never repay you for this!” Nazirah is frankly more
concerned about the finicky baby in her arms. She tries to soothe
it, wincing as it pulls her hair with its tiny fists.

“It’s not a bad look for you,” Adamek says,
absurdly trying to lighten the mood. Casha quickly pulls the baby
away, cooing.

Nazirah runs her fingers through her hair,
laughing a little insanely, completely unable to process the
situation. Cayus and Cander walk inside, weary and exhausted. They
both have minor burns on their arms and faces. Aldrik enters last,
hacking loudly and collapsing onto the nearest stool. Some of his
hair has burned off, the rest still sizzling, and he has lost his
eye patch. As soon as Cayus sees Cayu, he falls to the ground,
kneeling before him and sobbing.

“He ran off,” Nazirah explains.

“You saved my son,” Cayus says softly to
her.

She shakes her head, then nods silently at
Adamek. Cayus looks at him, bewildered. Nazirah can see the
amazement behind his eyes, and the sadness as well. Cayus returns
to his son, stroking his cheek tenderly.

“Well,” grumbles Aldrik,
coughing loudly and rising in pain, “we will leave you to mourn
your deaths in privacy.” He looks at Nazirah and Adamek pointedly.
“We should
go
.”
Nazirah knows what Aldrik is really implying – that this fire was
not meant for the slumdwellers.

The three of them, along with Cander, exit
the hut and stand awkwardly before the entrance. Nazirah nervously
wipes the ash from her face with the back of her hand. She can’t
leave yet. There’s something she has to do, something she has put
off for far too long. “Excuse me, Aldrik,” she says, immediately
wincing because he is bound to know something is up. Nazirah is
never this polite. She clears her throat, trudging on. “This is
Cander Caal, Cato’s older brother.”

Aldrik eyes her suspiciously. “We met
yesterday,” he says, “at the meeting.”

“Right,” Nazirah mumbles. “Well, you see,
his family is like family to me … you know how close I am to Cato …
and I haven’t seen them in so long. I was hoping I could walk back
with Cander to his house and visit them quickly … just for a few
minutes … and then Cander will walk me back to the inn and we can
leave.”

Cander and Adamek look at Nazirah
quizzically, since they both know she’s lying. She tries to look as
innocent as possible, avoiding their eyes. Aldrik processes her
request thoughtfully, scratching his singed head. “You’ll walk her
back?” he asks Cander.

“Of course,” Cander lies smoothly.

“Fine,” Aldrik concedes. “But don’t be long,
Nation. And don’t be seen! The Medis know of our presence in Rafu;
we’re not safe here anymore. We leave in an hour. Morgen, I’ll be
waiting in the car.” He hobbles away.

“What was that about?” Cander asks her.

Nazirah only bites her lip, not wanting to
answer. “I’ll see you soon, okay?” she says quietly to Adamek, who
remains silent.

“Be back before dark,” Cander says. Nazirah
nods, the two of them grudgingly coming to terms with each
other.

Nazirah begins walking down the rows towards
where they first came in. She can see that the intermix are already
piling up their dead, aiding the injured and rebuilding what’s been
lost.

“Nazirah Nation!”

She turns around, facing the direction of
the voice. “Cayus?”

“Leaving without saying goodbye?” he
asks.

Nazirah looks at the ruins, shaking her head
sadly. “How do you go through this?” she asks. “Why don’t you pack
up your homes and leave, move somewhere else?”

“And where would we go?”

“I don’t know!” she cries. “Just somewhere
else, somewhere the Medis won’t find you as easily!”

“Nazirah,” he says patiently. “The intermix
have lived on this small stretch of coast for centuries.” He opens
his arms wide. “This is our home. We are tied to this land. And
without it anchoring us, we would be drowning nomads in a sea of
loss. Life here in Rafu may be hard, and it may often be grim, but
it is where our hearts lie. And that is why we choose to rebuild
here, day after day, year after year. Surely you, of all people,
can understand that.”

“You’re right,” Nazirah says, glancing
around. “I do understand.”

“You never did answer my question,” he says,
smiling knowingly.

Nazirah looks into his eyes, finding warmth
there that she did not notice before. “I haven’t forgiven him,” she
replies honestly. “Not even close.”

“A Medi and an intermix,” he says, shaking
his head in disbelief. “I never thought I would live to see the
day.”