Luminosity (13 page)

“Which one?” another teammate finally yells, but it is too late.

From behind a sofa, a young girl darts out and grabs the other children by their wrists. Immediately, the boy and the girl beside her drop to the floor, dead. The child starts to laugh, until Gabe yells, “Fire!”

The mother and the father scream and jump out of the way as a few from our team fire a spray of bullets that shatters their picture window and riddles the Dreamcatcher girl’s body. Her laughing stops abruptly and the girl falls to the ground in a puddle of her own blood, which now speckles the room with crimson.

“Cease fire!” Gabe shouts over the loud discharges of our weapons. When the firing stops, all we hear are the wracked sobs of the parents, who clamor over their two fallen children—even the Dreamcatcher. The headache goes away. Mae starts to vomit, spewing her guts up all over the pavement. One-by-one, we stand and turn away from the grieving parents. Every time Echo calls to me I feel a twist of pain in my chest. Eventually, though, his voice dissipates and I can only hear my own heavy breathing.

“Let’s go.” Gabe’s words are muttered as he is forced to turn away from the scene and press on. We can’t stand here and grieve too. We are sitting ducks if we dare.

I pat Mae’s back and tug her gun up and into her hands. “Come on, Mae. It’s not going to get any better.”

“She was just a girl!” Mae cries, wiping spittle off her mouth.

“She was a Dreamcatcher who was a girl. She killed her own brother and sister.” I nudge Mae forward as the team starts to march again. “She was the enemy.”

Mae sniffles, and I watch as plump teardrops trail down her tanned cheeks. Doesn’t the Keeper care about what Mae will become at the end of the day? Mae looks back at me, violet eyes dimming. “She was just a girl.”

I don’t argue with her. Mae only sees the good in people. Even if she just watched a Dreamcatcher’s merciless killing, all Mae will concentrate on is the fact that the Dreamcatcher was a child, and is now no more. I let her cling to her goodness, because I wonder how it would be to only see the positive. When she looks out over the City and its barricades, does she see a different place?

We march down another street, toward the sounds of a major scuffle. Gabe puts a hand to his ear, where a small radio has been attached so he can keep in touch with the other team leaders. After an attentive pause, he turns back to us, but his gaze locks on mine. “The other two teams are in big trouble. They’ve come across a mass of Dreamcatchers who have taken over a row home south of here.”

I jump at a loud explosion that goes off from that area, and smoke and flames are quick to rise into the air after the noise. Putting my hand up above my eyes to shield them from the brightness, I watch as the plumes of fire lick into the air like fingers wiggling at the sky.

“Come on!” Gabe doesn’t give us any more information as we take off toward the looming disaster south of here. I can’t let him get too far away from me. I can’t lose him. So I dart down side streets with the rest of my team and keep an eye on Gabe and Mae, though Mae still looks pale and disoriented after our first kill. As we run to our target location, groups of Watchmen also book it to the scene.

The heat of the explosion stings my face. When we round the last block, we come upon a scene much more gruesome than the family in the picture window. A whole house is on fire, rapidly burning out of control. The brick walls encase the flames, giving them a safe place to grow and overwhelm the rest of the structure. Hunkered down on one side are Teams B and C, taking cover where they possibly can, behind Dumpsters, hiding in alleyways and inside other houses. They are shooting toward the fire, where I can barely make out about ten or eleven Citizens— No, Dreamcatchers. We’ve found our enemy.

“Get to cover! Get to cover!” Gabe grabs my arm and drags me with him before I have a chance to move. We shield ourselves behind a brick wall that encloses someone’s front yard. I duck down to keep my head safe and check my gun to make sure it’s ready to fire. Really, I need to catch my breath to make sure
I
am ready to fire.

“Grenade!” The shout goes up from more than one person, and Gabe throws himself over me, pushing me to the ground. The explosive goes off to the left of us, destroying the facade of the nearby house. Pieces of brick tumble from the sky like hail in a storm, and one catches Gabe’s face, tearing the skin by his eye.

“Damn it!” He climbs off me and wipes the blood out of his eye, but as soon as it is brushed away, new blood pools in its place. “I can’t see!”

“It’s okay, Gabe. I got this.” I push myself up and rest the barrel of my gun on the wall in front of me to keep it steady. Staring down the sight, I try to find a Dreamcatcher in all the smoke, fire, and mayhem, but I can see nothing but, well…smoke, fire and mayhem. “I can’t see them anyway.”

“
Feel
them, Bea.” Gabe points somewhere off to the left, and though he can’t see, when I turn my sight in that direction, I can make out the form of a man with a gun, shooting at our forces.
How did you do that?
I don’t ask any questions aloud, though. Instead, I open fire. The first few rounds, I don’t seem to hit him, but as soon as I start firing again, I catch the man in his shoulder with a beacon bullet and he drops his gun to the ground.

“Got him!” I chirp, waiting for Gabe’s praise.

“Did you
kill
him?” Gabe already knows the answer to this, though. I know he does, because he shoves me back toward the wall, one hand over his eye. “Kill him.”

The words sound so unfair to me. Though we’ve been training for this moment, I don’t feel right knowingly murdering someone. I don’t even know what is going on here. Sure, we are fighting off the Dreamcatchers before they can infiltrate the Institution, but why are they attacking anyway? Why do they want the Institution?

I don’t think when I pull the trigger. I do see the man go down, though, and he doesn’t get back up. He’s dead. Gabe nods his head and wipes at his eye again. “Good!”

There’s the praise, but I don’t feel good about what I’ve done at all.

The Watch is also opening fire on the Dreamcatchers, and one-by-one they fall, followed by a shower of beacon bullets from one team or another, and the return fire eventually stops. A cheer goes up from one of the other teams, and eventually everyone is cheering. Everyone but me. They could still be out there. We shouldn’t be celebrating yet.

Gabe pats my back, and we both stand. The other Seers pop up as well, like the prairie dogs we’ve seen in our environment textbooks, peeking up from their burrows. I spot Rachelle standing on top of a pile of rubble, holding a Dreamcatcher’s head up by the hair, his body a dead weight underneath him. She is proud of her trophy and lifts it high for everyone to see. We’ve become bloodthirsty and savage. The Keeper has turned us into well-oiled killing machines, and though I couldn’t see it then, I clearly see it now.

“We did it, Bea,” Gabe whispers and wraps an arm around my shoulders, pulling me close, seemingly forgetting about the fact that I ditched him on the rooftop.

I hug him in return, but not because I’m happy. “Yeah…we did it.”

The blood by his eye doesn’t stop running, and is getting everywhere. I pull away from Gabe before it can get on me, and I reach up to examine the cut. “You are going to need to get that sewn up, you know.”

“What’s another scar?” Gabe smirks lopsidedly. Despite the chaos, I can’t help but be reminded about how ruggedly handsome he is, especially in his new role as a leader and soldier. “I heard you girls like scars anyway.”

“Us girls?” I look up as a siren begins to wail, calling us back to the Institution. “I’ll take a scar over you being dead, Gabe.” I take his hand in mine and start back to the Institution, wary, confused, but still alive.

Chapter Seventeen

Gabe lies on a cot in the infirmary while a nurse stitches together his cut. It’s about two inches long, and too close to his actual eye. The stitches are the clear kind that disintegrates when the wound heals, minimizing any scarring. When the nurse is done with her work, I can hardly tell the suturing is in place, save for the raw, pink line that surrounds the cut.

My bodyguards have found me again, and stand out of the way by the door leading from the infirmary. They watch us closely, but thankfully they haven’t tried to separate me from Gabe. Yet. And if they tried, I don’t think I’d let them this time around. I almost lost Gabe. I’m not going to allow them to take me from him now.

“How’s it look?” He asks me as he pushes himself up to sit. Surrounding him are rows of other cots, spanning out left and right. In about a dozen of them, other patients lie groaning and holding their middles, or their legs, or their arms. There are trails of spattered blood that lead to back rooms where more serious operations are taking place.

“I didn’t know so many others got hurt,” I absently note as a familiar girl from Team C starts to yell from her bed. The doctor pulls on her shoulder then pushes it back in a rough, jerking motion to pop it back into its socket.

“Yeah, but how about my eye?”

I look at Gabe and his eye. “It looks like an eye, Gabe.”

“You know what I mean. How’s the cut?”

“It looks fine.” He always looks this way. More than fine. But I don’t have it in me to say anything like that to him. Instead, I reach out and brush some of his hair out of his eyes. “You look fine.”

The nurse pats Gabe on his leg and pushes her little supply tray out of the way. “Make sure you keep it clean with the anti-bacterial fluids I gave to you, Seer Gabriel.”

“I will. Thank you, Nurse.”

She walks away and into the infirmary’s well-organized chaos, leaving both of us alone.

“Think the girls will like it?” Gabe tentatively touches the stitches and winces in pain. “It still hurts.”

“That’s because the stitches were just done, Gabe. And I don’t know what the girls will like. Why do you care anyway?” I don’t realize the defensiveness in my tone until the words play back in my head. Surely Gabe didn’t miss it either.

“Because maybe I care about what other girls think?” Gabe challenges, swinging his legs around the side of the cot until his heels are back on the ground.

“Oh really?” I don’t buy it for a second. Especially not after the kiss. The very thought of it brings a blush to my cheeks, and I duck my head to hide it. “Just make sure you keep it clean or your face will look all messed up. And no girl likes a messed up face.”

“Very clever, Bea.” Gabe rises and grabs the anti-bacterial solution from the tray. “Let’s get out of here. There are too many people screaming and carrying on.”

My attention is drawn to those who are wounded. I blindly follow behind Gabe, and my guards follow behind me, but I can’t keep my eyes off the others. There’s a Seer who can’t be past twelve years old who cries on her cot with a bloodstain as big as a plate on her chest. A nurse passes by her and hits a button, which controls the IV stuck in the girl’s arm. Her crying dies off and eventually stops altogether as the painkillers cloud the suffering.

“I didn’t know so many others got hurt,” I repeat, looking at Gabe as he beelines out of the infirmary. Perhaps it is bothering him as well.

“I heard there were fourteen in there. Three of them pretty critical. They were probably in the back.”

“None from Team A?”

Gabe shakes his head, smiling proudly. “Not one. Well, not one but me. Then again, we did get to the fighting a bit late.”

And if we got there sooner, would we have been able to prevent all those people being in the infirmary?
I cast one more look over my shoulder as the doors close behind me and block out the sights and sounds of the other patients. My guards have become more restless, even as they follow, and they start to walk faster, gradually closing the space between us. “Well, I guess it’s good that there were only fourteen people hurt. I’m not really sure what happened out there. I feel so…disoriented.”

“What is there to understand? We had to help the Watch seek out the Dreamcatchers and kill them, and we did.” Gabe stops in front of one of the lifts and slaps the up button.

“Why didn’t they tell us we could do that before?”

“What do you mean?”

The doors to the lift open and fortunately no one else is inside. Gabe grabs me and pulls me into the tight space. The doors shut behind us, leaving the guards behind, and the lift starts to shoot up the shaft to where our bunks are.

I slam my hand on the stop button and the elevator jams to a halt. Gabe almost tumbles over at the sudden stop and frowns. “What the hell, Bea?”

“You aren’t listening to me, Gabe. We aren’t on the same page here.” I search the elevator, knowing it’s probably bugged. They are following me, after all, and I’m sure that even now the Keeper has her sights on me. “We have to talk.”

“Well, you have me trapped in here, so why don’t we start talking?” Gabe folds his arms over his chest, his eyes stern and filled with annoyance. Still, he looks so handsome with the dirt and soot smeared on his face, and the cut by his eye. I can feel myself blushing again, and I quickly turn away and pull on the stop button so the lift starts to move once more.

“We will talk later.”

Gabe continues to stare at me and drops his arms to his sides. “Fine, whatever Bea. After dinner, then. I’ll meet you…somewhere.”

“We’ll figure it out.” I frown because I know I am still blushing, and if Gabe isn’t suddenly blind from his injury, he surely sees it too.

Our elevator stops at the bunk floor, and the doors slide open with a hiss. We step out at the same time and turn in opposite directions to where our assigned rooms are. Down the hall, the stairwell door slams open, nearly knocking out another Seer, and my two bodyguards stumble out and start to look for me.

“I’ll come get you for dinner.” Gabe starts to walk off. “You better be ready.”

I watch him leave, or rather, I watch as he walks halfway down the hallway and some lingering female Seers follow him and gush about his dire wound. I roll my eyes and start for my room. “Stupid girls,” I mutter to myself as my fingers rake against the walls, making an annoying screeching noise. The guards eventually catch up with me, and they are not very happy. One tries to lecture me about running off, but I ignore him and eventually he gives up.

When I get back to my room, finally alone with the door shut behind me, I’m filled with an overwhelming sense of relief. I sink into my bunk and start untying my boots, which fall to the ground with a clunk. Next, I strip out of my jumpsuit and throw that to the side. My room smells like smoke and sweat. Left in my white T-shirt, I curl beneath the covers and pull my pillow over my head. There has to be a reason why we’ve never been told about this Dreamcatcher sense before, these pounding headaches, and why they are just starting to kick in now.

As I think about it, exhaustion grips at my body, and I fade into sleep.

…

When I open my eyes, Echo stands over me. We are in my bunk and not in the field, and I shoot up into a sitting position, startled.

“What are you doing here?” I whisper in exclamation, though Echo seems unconcerned about his sudden appearance.

“What were you doing out there?” He asks me in return and sits beside me on the bed.

“I…we were ordered out there. To fight.”

Echo sighs. “It is getting worse now, Beatrice. There will be more and more danger, and all the more reason for us to save each other.”

“You keep saying this…but I don’t understand how I am supposed to save you, Echo.” I chew on my lower lip, peeling some skin from it in the process. “I don’t even know where you are.”

He laughs and reaches out to turn my face to look up at him. “I am right here, Beatrice.”

I’m filled with that tingling, fluttering sensation as I stare into his eyes. I can’t look away from him. I have no desire to. In fact, I don’t want him to go. I want him to stay here with me, because with Echo, there’s a sense of security that I don’t feel the rest of the time when I am alone. Or with Gabe.

“You know what I mean. You aren’t really…here. You are here.” I tap my temple to indicate that he’s only inside of my head, my dreams and nothing more.

“Am I?” Echo smiles at me like I’m a child who can’t comprehend what he means. “I’m out there too. You just have to find me.”

“And what about you? Will you be looking for me?”

“I will be hunting you and the other Seers.” Echo’s hand drops from my face, but his eyes never leave mine. “Like all of the other Dreamcatchers. I will be trying to find you and kill you. Destroy you and all of your kind, and then the Citizens will be ours.”

I feel the blood drain from my face. The fluttering feeling immediately stops. “What?”

“Don’t act as if this is a surprise, Beatrice. I am a Dreamcatcher. You are a Seer. We have been at war with one another for more years than we’ve been alive, and now the war is on your front step.” Echo stands and moves to the window. He pushes the button that raises the blinds, and inch-by-inch the City is exposed in its full glory. The dingy afternoon sun tries to illuminate all of the buildings, and in some places the light reflects off the many windows, making it seem brighter than it actually is. Smoke still rises from the south, but is slowly dissipating so that it looks more like fog or exhaust than the aftermath of a bomb. “We are out there, waiting for the order to attack.”

“This isn’t your attack?” I walk over to stand beside him, pressing one of my hands against the glass.

“No. This is
your
attack. You will know when we attack.” Echo puts his hand next to mine, and we both gaze out over the City. “The Dreamcatchers are desperate, Beatrice. Our people are dying of the plague in Aura, and we need the Citizens in order to live.”

“That is madness, Echo. I am sure there are other ways to heal yourselves…”

“There aren’t. This is the way it has to be. It’s how we were made. It’s all we know.” Echo glances to our hands. “I’m sorry it upsets you, Beatrice.”

“It upsets me that you cannot see how wrong this is.”

“Is it wrong to want to save your own kind from becoming extinct? You might be safe in your City here, but we are quickly fading into nothing back in Aura.”

I think about what I would do if I had a chance to save the lives of thousands by taking the lives of others. It doesn’t make sense to me, but I’m also not the one watching all of his people die. Would I kill a Citizen in order to save Mae? Or Brandon? Or even Gabe?

“It feels like a piece of the puzzle is missing, Echo. Like we only know so much and someone is hiding the rest from us.”

“I know. I’ve been trying to figure it out myself. Perhaps that’s how I came to be in your dreams. We heard that your Sight was strongest, and I thought to try and reach you and see what you knew. And now I know that you are so strong and brave…so smart.” Echo looks at my reflection on the window as he speaks to me. “That is why we have to save each other. My talents exceed my kind, and yours exceed yours. I need to free you from here, take you with me where you can flourish and help us.”

“And where would we go? No one has been out of the City in many years. I don’t even know what is past the barricades.” I never really thought about it before, either. No one ever made it a goal to break free. We’ve been taught from a very young age that the City is all of the world we have to know. It is all there will ever be for us. It is hard to imagine a place that has never existed for me.

Echo smiles. “You will see when we get there.”

For the first time, I am impatient with him. “What do you mean by that? You can’t have a plan and then not tell me how it ends.”

“That’s what life is, Beatrice. It is unknowing.” His smile doesn’t falter. It’s as if distress cannot reach him. I admire the resilience and part of me envies it as well. “Besides, you are the Seer. You are supposed to be telling me what will happen…not the other way around.”

Now, it’s my turn to smile. How I can be smiling at a time like this, I don’t know, but Echo’s infectious demeanor is beginning to wrap its tendrils around me, embracing me in calmness, and I don’t resist. Then Echo really does put his arms around me, drawing me close to him and guiding my head to rest on his chest. Unlike Gabe’s startling kiss, this feels much more natural, like I belong in Echo’s arms, and nothing could possibly come between us. And what could in my dreams?

“You haven’t told anyone about me, have you?” Echo whispers in a soothing tone. His hand strokes my hair down to the middle of my back, over and over again.

“Of course not.”

“Not even Gabe?”

Echo has never mentioned Gabe before. I pull back, curiously looking up at him. “No, not even Gabe. How do you know about him anyway?”

“He’s in your dreams too, is he not?” Echo’s fingers lace through my hair as he drags some of the black strands away from my face.

“Yes, but–”

“So, I know who he is. And that you feel for him. And that he kissed you.” Echo’s stark blue eyes lock on mine. Is he jealous? I can’t read him through that guarding smile he wears at all the right times.

“Yes, he kissed me, but so what?”

“Do you love him?”

I realize now, despite the obvious tension growing between us because of Gabe, that Echo and I are still close together. I rest one of my hands on his chest and then lay my head down on my hand. “I don’t know, Echo. What does this have to do with anything? We are in the middle of a war, and we have to figure out how to save each other from it…”