Shymers (31 page)

“The ocean!” she yells out joyfully.

We grin at each other before scrambling up the steep hill ahead with some difficulty. Once we make it over, the amazing blue water is revealed to us, sparkling in the sunlight. Waves roll together in large swells, riding into the rocky cliffs below and making soft noises as they splash. I never imagined the ocean would be this massive. It appears to go on forever, to the ends of the earth.

“It’s lovely,” Bree whispers.

So much emotion slams into me that I only nod in agreement. The thrill of seeing the ocean for the first time still isn’t as grand as it should be. Olive should have been here by my side. Bree’s hand curls around mine as we stand together, taking the enormous body of water in. Holding her hand is not nearly as exciting as holding Olive’s, but I appreciate the contact. It makes me feel less alone.

After a few moments of gazing at our new discovery, Bree turns to me. “I have to go to the bathroom. I’ll be back in a minute.”

I shake my head. “I’m not letting you leave my side. That’s exactly how I lost Tayrn.”

She sighs deeply before nodding. Together, we scamper back down the hill. Bree drops my hand when we reach the thick of the forest and frowns. “You can at least turn around.”

 
I chuckle and do as she says, listening as her feet shuffle across the ground.

Suddenly, there is a loud, piercing scream.

Olive

21 – There Are So Many People

After jabbing my sleeping brother with my foot, his eyes open. Immediately he bolts upright, sensing danger. I spin around to face whoever is wearing the boots.

“Zeke!” I yell out in surprise.

A wide smile spreads across Zeke’s blotchy face. “I told you I’d find you.”

He wears a soldier’s uniform of white pants and a white shirt, complete with the white beret on his head. In his hands he also holds a very large gun like the soldiers carry. My pulse quickens. Is he here to turn us in? Kendall told me the government would be interested in finding me as the Rebel’s daughter. Had Zeke’s father allowed him to join the soldiers with the threat of the Rebels uprising?

My brother turns to me with a look of confusion and anger. “Yo
u
kno
w
this guy?”

Arlandria is awake now and staring at Zeke with her arms crossed over her chest and a look of total irritation growing on her face.

“Who are these people?” Zeke asks, pointing the gun at Kendall.

I lean over to shield my brother with my hands held up. “Put that down! They’re friends,” I insist. “Their names are Kendall and Arlandria. Guys, this is my friend Zeke.”

The two guys glare at each other suspiciously.

“Are they Rebels?” Zeke asks.

Is it safe to tell him? Just days ago he was so adamant in following the ways of the government, yet he was easily persuaded to help me. Can I trust him? He could be unstable. And dangerous.

I look to Kendall for help. His head dips slightly, encouraging me to tell the truth.

“Yes,” I finally answer Zeke. Kiki begins to move around next to me. I stroke her hair, more out of nervousness than anything.

Finally, Zeke lowers his gun. “You can’t stay here. There will be soldiers coming out in full force today.”

I exhale, relieved. “You mean you’re not here to turn us in?”

Zeke glances down at the uniform he wears. “Oh yeah, sorry. I forgot. I stole it from my father’s base. I figured it could come in handy if I were caught. Your disappearance caused quite the stir back in Society, Olive. They’re saying your mother is some kind of Rebel leader.”

I nod. “So I hear.”

Zeke’s eyes grow wide in surprise. “You mean it’s true?”

“Hold on,” Kendall blurts. “What do you mean b
y
your father’s bas
e
? Does he work for the government?”

“He’s a commander,” Zeke answers.

Kendall lowers his gaze. “What else do you know? Did your father say anything to you about the government’s plan to stop the Rebels?”

Zeke’s lips reshape into a smirk. “My father and I aren’t exactly on good terms. He left me in an orphanage. Obviously it would have been too disgraceful for a soldier to have a Shymer living with him.”

“I’m sorry,” Kendall says to him.

Zeke shrugs again. “I did find out from the Rebels who helped me cross that there has been a lot of activity back at our orphanage. Director Mahr started pulling people in for questioning, asking everyone what they knew about Olive and Harrison.”

“What have I done?” I groan. The Shymers are already treated like worthless animals, and now they’ll be subjected to Director Mahr’s cruelty, all because I wanted to run away from there. Now more than ever, I am almost blinded by the need to help the Rebels.

“It’s no
t
al
l
because of you, Olive,” Zeke tells me. “Director Mahr has been trying for years to please the government and get into their good graces. He only has a few more years until his DOD, so he’s on a mission to prove himself worthy to them.”

Maybe that’s why Director Mahr has been against me from the day I walked into his office. He knew I was living in the Free Lands with my family, which is considered to be an act of the utmost rebellion by Society. If he is trying to win over the government’s approval, punishing me would have been looked at as a valiant act.

 
“You’re not going to pass as a solider with your hair that long,” Arlandria tells Zeke sharply. “They’ll know on first glance that you’re not one of them.”

Zeke throws a hand up to the skies. “I really don’t have anything to lose at this point. There are only a few weeks left before my DOD. They are probably trying to track me down for not reporting back to the orphanage.” His eyes dart to mine. “Where’s Harrison?”

I shake my head, trying to hold back the overwhelming grief that strikes me. “He never showed up at the meeting point. But we found a communicator in the forest. I think it has to be from him or his cousin.”

“We don’t know that for sure,” Kendall reminds me.

“I
t
coul
d
be,” I snap.

Kiki rubs her eyes with both of her little fists and becomes a blur of motion until she is sitting up at my side. “A soldj’a!” she screams, her wide eyes frozen on Zeke.

I wrap my arms around her. “No, he’s just pretending. He’s a friend. It’s okay.” Kiki continues watching him with wide eyes, unsure if she wants to believe me.

“Who is this?” Zeke asks, scowling. “Dragging a little kid around the forest is only going to slow us down.”

Kendall turns to Zeke, his gaze hard and protective. “She’s my sister.”

Kiki struggles free from my hold to run to our brother. She sits as close as she can without touching him. Quite suddenly, I am extremely jealous of her. Kiki isn’t even his real sister and they already seem to be much closer than the two of us will ever be. Although I wasn’t old enough to remember the time we spent together, Kendall i
s
m
y
brother. He was never there to comfor
t
m
e
whe
n
I
was afraid. My life would have been so different having a sibling around.

I tell myself I shouldn’t be jealous—Kiki’s parents must not be good people, or Kendall wouldn’t have taken her away from them. Do they know about Kendall being the other child of the Rebel leader? Are they supporters of the government? There are still so many unanswered questions, none of which I will probably be able to ask Kendall as long as Zeke and Arlandria are near.

“She’s a good kid,” I tell Zeke. “She won’t slow us down.”

He snorts. “If you say so. Either way, we need to move along before the helicopters get here.”

Everyone gathers their sparse belongings and stands to leave. Taking the lead, I turn back in the direction I know the familiar creeks to be.

“This way,” Kendall says behind me.

Turning to him, I frown. “The only things you’ll find that way are a bunch of cliffs and the ocean.”

He nods. “Exactly. Cliffs with a lot o
f
hiding place
s
.”

Arlandria raises one of her eyebrows. “Sounds promising.”

As Zeke warned, we run into hoards of soldiers. There are so many that I fear we will surely be discovered. For a while we are able to hide from them. A few hours later, however, the thickness of the forest begins to narrow down and the safety of the bushes and trees vanishes. As two male soldiers approach, we realize there is nowhere to go.

“Here we go,” Zeke whispers.

“Take your hair down,” Kendall says to me under his breath. “Don’t look them in the eye. Act like you don’t know what’s going on.”

“That part will be easy,” I mutter, pulling the ribbon from my hair that holds it away from my face. With my heavy blanket of hair now covering my neck, I suddenly feel as if I will pass out. At least my Shymer mark is hidden.

“Don’t tell them who she is,” Kendall warns Zeke under his breath. “They may not recognize her.”

While they may not recognize me, won’t they know who really I am the minute they run an eye scan? The closer the soldiers become, the more I fear my heart will explode. Kiki clutches my hand. Can she feel how badly I shake?

The two soldiers are tall and broad, their blond hair nearly styled in identical short cuts. When they see our group approaching, their heads perk up in interest. They hold their guns taut against their chests. The fear inside me swells.

“Afternoon, soldier,” the taller of the two greets Zeke in a deep voice. “What is going on here?”

“I recruited some volunteers,” Zeke answers. “The commander ordered as many people as possible to search the Free Lands for the Rebel’s daughter.”

The men’s eyes sweep over us, one by one. I don’t quite pass as a Future with my less than perfectly shaped face and duller blond hair. After spending so many days on the run with no showers or change of clothing, I probably look a mess. Then there is little Kiki, who would have no business out helping in such a search in the first place.
 

Arlandria is quite obviously a Rebel with her colored hair and Zeke probably looks the most suspicious of all with his bad teeth and long hair. Kai once told me that although it’s not completely unheard of for a Shymer to be a soldier, it is considered quite unusual. We would have been better off giving the uniform to Kendall.

“What’s with the little girl?” the shorter of the two soldiers asks, frowning at Kiki.

I tremble, fearing this is the end for us.

Kendall strides forward to stand just inches from the men. “She’s with me.” He suddenly jerks the gun away from the taller soldier. In a flash that seems too quick for my eyes, he then hits the soldier in the forehead with the fat end of the gun and does the same to the other soldier. They both fall down to the ground like sacks of flour. Kendall calmly straps the gun to his body before collecting the long black weapon from the shorter man’s still hands. I stand watching in amazement, my jaw dropped. Is my brother dangerous? Where did he learn such things?

“I can’t believe you just knocked those two out like that!” Zeke hollers. “That was amazing!”

“They were on to us,” Kendall says. “I had no other choice.” He holds the gun out to me. “Don’t use it unless your life depends on it.”

I back away from him. “I don’t…I wouldn’t know how to use that.”

“You point it at your enemy and pull the trigger,” he answers impatiently. When I still refuse to take it, he grumbles and hands it to Arlandria instead. She throws it over her shoulder with such ease, it’s like she’s done it a thousand times before.

Just how much training have these Rebels been given in preparation for the uprising? Do they all know how to use a gun? Do they all know how to fight like Kendall? Is our mother well trained like he is?

Kendall tilts his head toward the cliffs. “It won’t be long before someone either finds them or wonders why they aren’t answering to orders. We need to move.”

The rest of us scurry behind him, finding no reason to argue.

* * *

The afternoon sun feels even more brutal than usual without any kind of shade. Kendall wraps his shirt over Kiki’s head to protect her face. No one says anything about the rest of us using some kind of covering, although we really don’t have any other options. Just how much direct sun exposure does it take to kill a person?

The cliffs under our feet are alarmingly high. The view of the ocean would be amazing if we weren’t so fearful for our lives. Down below there is nothing other than jagged rocks and the vast swells of the ocean that continues on as far as the eye can see. Waves crash against the cliffs, splashing white droplets into the air. When the wind picks up, the lightest of mists sprays up toward us. Still, it’s not enough for us to feel any kind of relief. A sour smell drifts up off of it, filling my lungs and making my eyes water.