Outpost (14 page)

This is sheer cunning, and they have such numbers.

I became a creature of reflex and training, born to slash with my daggers. I fought three at once, wheeling away from claws and fangs. I knew firsthand how they could rend fragile human flesh—and how prone such wounds were to infection. My left blade opened one’s throat, and I wheeled to take another, my spin low so that I sank my right knife into the Freak’s belly. It keened, both clawed hands going to cover the wound, and its fellows paused to watch the death for seconds that cost them in other ways. But it was a gesture of respect that said the Freak I’d killed mattered to them. These weren’t like the ones we’d fought in the tunnel, at the ruin of the iron carriage, who cared for nothing but the meat.

Fear boiled in my veins. I fought it even as I lashed at the Freaks. If I let this feeling grow, it would overwhelm me. I’d break and run, and if I did, others would. The battle would be lost. The Freaks attacked; therefore, they would die, or I would. It could end no other way.

My hands steadied.

None shall pass
, I told myself. It was a vow in the silence of my own head. I shut out the external distractions, inner dread, and focused on my enemies. They were stronger than those I’d fought in the ruins, better nourished. They ate well in the wilderness, plenty of big, meaty game, which made me think they had another reason for attacking us. Certainly, we were a food source, but their hate-filled cries told me they viewed us as real enemies. It was a horrifying thought.

To them,
we
are the evil ones.
We
are the threat that must be exterminated.

The idea shook me so much that a Freak pushed me back, unbalancing my stance. Its claw raked a runnel in my stomach. I lost sight of the terrain around me and stumbled over the corpse of its fallen brethren. I landed hard, and my right dagger bounced out of my hand.

For this,
I thought
, I deserve to die.
I’d failed in my training. Permitted my thoughts to break my concentration. The shame would kill me if this Freak failed. Nonetheless, I aimed my left dagger at its hamstring and sliced, driving it away from the killing strike.

In that extra moment, Stalker and Fade came from either side, cleaving the Freak nearly in two. They’d cleared a path to me, the dead falling in great waves behind them. Morning sunlight limned them, darkness and light, and they both offered me a blood-slicked hand to pull me to my feet. In that, I accepted help from them both, and I sprang up, away from my humiliation; they did not chide me. Stalker handed me my fallen weapon.

We went together back into the fight, and I focused. I stabbed and blocked, kicked and struck without consideration, without mercy. By the time we defeated the last of the desperate rush, we had lost five more guards. This time, at least the growers had gotten to safety—and we’d prevented the Freaks from pushing past us into Salvation. For long, terrifying minutes, we stood out front, crimson smeared and weary, waiting for those inside to finish repairs.

I trembled with exhaustion. Fade touched my chin lightly, drawing my gaze up to meet his. “Are you all right?”

“Not my most shining moment. But thank you for saving me.” I directed my words to both of them, Stalker standing to one side. He nodded, but didn’t approach, and I ached that I’d driven him away by choosing Fade, that we apparently couldn’t have
anything
without the kissing. Sometimes I didn’t understand boys at all.

At last, the gatekeeper called, “Come in!”

With Fade’s help, I dragged a guard’s body inside the wall, and others followed suit. We would not leave these men to be desecrated as the others had been. It seemed odd to me that I would find that offensive. After all, down below, we had routinely put our dead out to feed the Freaks. But they had never returned any of our offerings in such a hideous fashion. They ate until they could hold no more and then they left the rest for the tunnel creatures. Perhaps, then, it was the obvious loathing those poor impaled heads represented. I had never thought Freaks capable of strong emotion, other than hunger, but it had become obvious that these were.

Once the gates closed behind us, the guards dropped the reinforcing timber. In the time I’d been here, I had never seen the great doors sealed in this way. Which established how unprecedented these attacks were. We’d warned them that the Freaks were changing, but even
I
didn’t expect these tactics.

My heart thumped wildly in my chest, both in reaction to the fight and the alarm at the unknown. It seemed that the Freaks got smarter all the time, but
why
? Then again, if I could answer that question, I could rule the world. I puffed out a shaky breath and rubbed my hands along my arms.

“Any thoughts?” I asked Fade.

He shook his head. “If we could somehow study the Freaks, catch one or two and observe them, that might help.”

I choked out a shaky laugh. “I’m sure that would go over well with the good folk of Salvation.”

Fade trailed a finger down my cheek, and it came away tacky with blood. “You’ll notice I’m not in any hurry to propose the idea to anyone but you.”

I began, “Please tell me you’re not suggesting—”

“No. I think all creatures have the right to be free, even those trying to kill us.”

“And they’re getting better at it all the time,” I muttered, shivering.

In silence, I studied the people of Salvation for a moment. Gazing on their tired, hopeless faces, I thought
, They’re not equipped to fight a war. Even their guards don’t like leaving the walls.
And that was probably why I’d been included in the summer patrols, considering their feelings on proper women’s work. Longshot’s support wouldn’t have been sufficient, otherwise, but they simply didn’t have enough fierce Hunter spirits to protect everyone else.

This is your mission. This is why you survived the ruins and came Topside.
Silk’s voice rang unmistakably in my head, so clear that I looked around for her. The order roused the Huntress in me, spurring my desire to defend and my need for a purpose. The misery of Salvation’s citizens only reinforced the calling. Word was already spreading, and people came in small groups to claim their dead. Quiet sobs filled the air, along with whispered fears and recriminations.

Fade wrapped an arm around my shoulders and drew me away, toward the well near the barracks. I understood his intention and we washed up in silence, listening to the distant drama of lives cut short. The wound on my stomach throbbed; it wasn’t deep, but it required a bandage. As we returned, damp but clean, Longshot strode away, presumably to find Elder Bigwater.

It was beyond time for that council meeting.

Assembly

There was no building big enough to hold the combined mass of the concerned citizenry, so Salvation assembled on the green. It was a chaotic scene with everyone yelling at once and demanding answers. I stood at the back with Fade, interested in the outcome. Longshot had cornered Elder Bigwater and drawn him out.

This was the first good look I had gotten at Salvation’s leader, since I wasn’t important enough to merit his personal attention. He was a tall, thin man with cavernous cheeks, flesh sunken around the bone, and he had eyes deep-set beneath a protuberant brow. I guessed Justine took after her mother—and a good thing too. I couldn’t imagine a young girl here faring well with that face.

Momma Oaks slipped up beside me, my foster father trailing in her wake as he often did. She checked me out in a visual inspection and then relaxed visibly when she realized I was all in one piece. Edmund smiled in greeting but didn’t speak because the meeting was about to begin. Fade took my hand, and I drew some comfort from his presence, even if our safe haven had just suffered a tremendous blow. But I wasn’t as unsettled as some, who wept quietly nearby; I had long ago internalized the lesson that safety was an illusion. That was one gift they’d given me down below.

“Quiet!” came sonorous tones from Elder Bigwater. He waited until everyone had stopped talking, gimlet gaze boring into those who didn’t comply fast enough. “I collect there has been some difficulty with the spring planting.”

“Eleven dead so far,” a grower cried. “And nothing to show for our efforts!”

Elder Bigwater frowned. “I did not give you leave to speak. I’ll hear the formal report from Karl before opening the matter for discussion.”

Longshot summarized the situation much as I would have, sticking to the facts without judgment or embellishment. And when he finished, Elder Bigwater wore a darker look than sat comfortably on his hawkish features. He put me in mind of birds we’d encountered in the wilderness, black ones that hovered over fallen creatures in hopes of picking the flesh from their bones.

“It is, indeed, a dire dilemma,” he said at last. “However, I am not interested in hearing you bewail our changed circumstances. If you have a workable solution, raise your citizen’s token, and I will grant you the floor.”

Citizen’s token?
I didn’t have one. I exchanged a glance with Fade, who shook his head. Maybe it was age related, and we needed more birthdays before we’d be granted the right to speak in a public assembly. That didn’t seem right. Age had nothing to do with how well my brain worked. At first, it was dead quiet, and then growers proposed some of the same ideas they’d offered on the way back to town.

The elder rejected the idea of enclosing the fields in another wall. “Unguarded walls are useless … and worse, it would grant them the opportunity to study close up and figure out how to climb over or destroy them. You.” He nodded next at a planter who had his token in the air.

“We can’t leave the fields unattended, it’s clear,” he said. “Guards need to be posted at all times.”

“And who would be so … fearless?” By his hesitation, Elder Bigwater made it clear he meant foolish—that he thought this notion was no good, either.

But I didn’t notice him solving the problem himself. He struck me as the sort of man who preferred to “lead” while everyone around him did the actual work and he reaped the benefits. The silence built. It seemed nobody would volunteer to risk himself like that.

In that moment, I felt vaguely ashamed of every guard present. What was the good of having such a fine home if you weren’t willing to fight for it? Though still damp from the well and disheveled from the fight, I let go of Fade’s hand and pushed through the crowd. There was no way I’d make a good impression on Elder Bigwater, but I didn’t care, either. This town didn’t need another normal girl in a fancy dress with pretty curls. Whether they knew it or not, they needed me.

“I will,” I said, once I felt sure I had his attention.

To his credit, the elder made a thorough visual inspection, taking in the knives on my thighs and the way I stood. “You’re one of the new young people,” he said thoughtfully. I could see him calculating the odds of making use of me against the possibility of garnering disapproval by going against the old ways.

Yet something had to change. For the Freaks, it already had.

“Me too.” I hadn’t been sure if Fade would follow, but there he was at my side, braver than guards twice his age.

I stood a little taller. And then Stalker came up on my left. I knew a moment of pride to surpass anything that had come before, even on my naming day. We were teaching these people what it meant to be steadfast—to do one’s duty even in the face of possible extinction. Maybe a few of them would choose not to cower behind their walls after this; and if the growing season came to fruition, it would be because of us.

“I reckon these younguns need somebody who knows the lay of the land,” Longshot said, as he stepped up beside us.

There weren’t enough of us. For a permanent outpost, we needed at least twenty men, so that some of us could sleep while others patrolled. We’d had more volunteers for the summer patrol, but that was before, when they knew they got to come home at the end of the day and leave the wilderness for the town walls. Though the fields weren’t far in distance, it was a world of difference in terms of safety.

“You men should be ashamed,” Elder Bigwater snapped. “Since none of you are brave enough to step forward, we’ll draw for it.” He turned to his daughter, who stood close by, offering a pretty picture in a dark time. “Fetch pencil and paper, Justine, and then write down all the names.”

Her bright smile said she enjoyed the hint of power. A restless dread pervaded the crowds, women clutching their men’s arms for fear they would be chosen. I didn’t know how they could wait, myself. Justine returned, cheeks glowing from her run, and then she circulated through the crowd, taking down the identities of all town guards. They received special considerations and did no other work apart from their stints on the wall, but I didn’t think much of their Hunter spirits. I suspected most just didn’t want to turn their hands to real labor.

Once she finished, Justine placed the slips in a fine polished bowl. It was handmade, I could tell, and nicer than anything I’d seen down below. Guards glared at the four of us, as if we’d volunteered just to make them look bad. I didn’t care about their bruised feelings.

Elder Bigwater beckoned to Longshot and then whispered with him for a few moments. When Bigwater addressed the crowd again, it seemed that Longshot agreed with my silent assessment of how many men we needed out on permanent assignment, for the elder said, “We’ll pull sixteen names now, and if any should fall this summer, we’ll draw to replace him.” A low murmur of protest ran through the crowd, but not enough to drown Bigwater’s booming voice, more impressive a sound than a narrow chest like his should make. He went on, “Momma Oaks, will you do the honors?”

Since she did the sewing in town, she had no hope of receiving special treatment from the elder for her cooperation. People needed what they needed. At his choice, some citizens relaxed a bit, seeming to trust she would be impartial. Others whispered among themselves, and one woman glared at me pointedly.