Altruist (The Altruist Series Book 1) (27 page)

“My name is Leah, and I’ll be accompanying you on the remainder of your journey,” she announces, then turns to Eliath and salutes. “Commander.” Eliath nods in approval.

Leah drops a large black tactical duffle bag and kneels beside it, unzipping the canvas. She lifts matte black metal bars out the bag. They’re curved and flat on one side with small bulbs on the backs. She hands a pair to Ben and Max and then presses a pair to the back of her legs. They blink to life and light up, emitting a charging sounds as they adhere to her leg. Ben and Max follow her lead and do the same.

Max’s eyes light up and they blink white and eventually green.

“What are these?” he asks.

Ben stays quiet but the look on his face says everything, he’s dying to know.

“Well,” Leah says.

“Not all of us are as fast as our friends here.” She smiles.

“These help to level the playing field.” Leah smirks at me and I smile.

She is strong and secure, she is a soldier and I feel better knowing she’s escorting us out of the city.

We step out of the tunnel and into the warm spring air as the sun hits my face. Bad things shouldn’t be permitted to happen on days like today—if only that were how the world actually worked. I look from side to side and then back at the city and its perfect skyline of skyscrapers. From this distance it nearly looks like a serene place to live, protected by an invisible wall of energy.
If anything happened to him, you’d burn it all down.
Abel’s words echo in my mind and I swallow hard, hoping it doesn’t come to that. I step across the imaginary perimeter that separates the sewage system from no man’s land.

As soon as the convoy fully exits the tunnel Ben shouts, “Now! Run!” Instantly the group takes off as a nearby patrol halts to a stop behind us and begins to yell for our immediate surrender. They’ll need to radio for the wall to be turned off. We have at least 15 seconds of safety. I push my legs farther and farther, harder,
I will never stop.
I regulate my speed so that Max stays in front of me. 15 seconds speed by quicker than I ever thought time could move and I begin to hear the sound of the patrol’s assault rifles firing, one after the next.

“Zig zag!” Leah yells and Max quickly obeys, but his young 14-year-old frame isn’t quick enough and a bullet pierces his side and blood immediately saturates his shirt. His cries erupt in the sunny morning air and he stumbles.

“Max!” my lungs burn for him.

“Keep going!” Abel shouts as he stops and throws my brother over his shoulder.

Bullets whirl around me and I would do anything to stop this, to disappear, to have never existed. It’s then, in the midst of this dusty field that I do something I’ve never done before. My heart cries out to our creator
, Please protect us, give me the chance to do your will,
I beg of him.
Allow me to do what you put me here for.
I push myself harder.

The sounds of battle encircle my head and as I hear the air separate behind me I fall, chest down to the ground, allowing the bullet to pass me. I yell for Abel to duck, but there isn’t time. Ben, seeing the shot, leaps to take the bullet in his own chest. He topples over and I propel myself up onto my feet as the others run past him. But I can’t leave him, not while a glimmer of life exists. I pull his arms over my shoulder. Blood pours from the hole in his chest and soaks my shirt through. I can feel its warm drip down my side and gather in the waist of my jeans. “Hold on, Ben. We’re almost there,” I plead. His feet drag against the dirt, as if the earth were pleading with me to let him stay put and rest. He tries to speak but I can’t understand his words as they get caught in his throat and he chokes on blood. His head falls against me and his sweat feels cool against my neck.

In seconds I will be at the tree line, farther than the guards will venture on their own. But those seconds, the very time that the universe has created, seems to have slowed to a crawl and eventually stops my world in the process. My shoe catches on a rock and I trip, tumbling into the dirt. Ben makes a guttural moan and I’m thankful for the small sign of life. I stand and turn, staring at Ben and then at the soldiers approaching. I grab Ben’s arms and drag him into the tree line. I’m drained, I need this charge off of me, I can’t handle the power and can feel my body quickly becoming worn for the energy beating into me.

“Issachar,” Leah orders. “Make sure the wounded are all right. Abel, take a headcount.”

Issachar kneels beside Ben, checking his pulse against his watch. “He’s not going to make it, the bullet is lodged near his heart. We can’t save him.” Issachar’s tone is so void of emotion; he simply stands and races away.

I pull my bag off of my shoulder and place it underneath Ben’s head, hold his hand and wipe his brow.
I can’t do this. I’m not strong enough to handle this, not Ben
.

“It’s okay, Cate,” he struggles as his lungs fill with blood and it flows through his lips and down his chin. “I knew the risk, I knew you, what you are, who you are…” he chokes, “was worth it.”

“Stop, Ben. We can get through this, you’ll be okay,” I say through tears, now streaming at will down my face. I hold onto his hand, refusing to let him go.

“Look after Joseph. Don’t let him become a puppet for the freedom fighters’ propaganda.” He chokes up more blood. “He’s been used enough.”

“I won’t let that happen, Ben. I promise.” And before I can say anything else, his shallow breathing subsides and there is nothing, nothing. His body isn’t his anymore. It’s not him. His eyes are blank before I can ever thank him for his sacrifice, for saving Max, for saving Abel.

Max
. I stand and run to where Max lays unconscious. I search Issachar for an answer. “He’s going to be okay. The bullet passed through his ribcage. He’ll only suffer from tissue damage, didn’t even pierce the bone. He’s lucky.” I stare down and my brother, proud of him in a strange way,
he’s a fighter.
I stand and leave Issachar to work from his small field kit, bandaging Max further than he already was.

I see Abel walking towards me, faster than normal. “Are you—” before I can get my question out he wraps his arms around me tighter than I’ve ever been held. “Abel,” I say and squeeze him against me and try to make him understand that I’m okay, that I’m still here. He pulls away and holds my face in his hands. There is only him, he is the sum total of all of my memories. There is only him and there will only ever be him. I am a variable and he is a constant. 

“I couldn’t lose you again. I couldn’t, Cate. I can’t make it through that again. I need you.” He presses his lips against mine and pulls my bottom lip into his mouth. I’ve never needed anything as much as I need him right now. I instantly understand his desperation, because I feel it too. I bury my face into his neck and feel hot tears run down my face. I cry from anger, I cry from pain, I cry from losing Ben, I cry because Max was saved. I cry because a part of me is still human.

Chapter 29

We construct a makeshift gurney for Ben and his lifeless body accompanies us, his heels dragging along the dirt; I can’t leave him here like that, without a place for him to rest, a place for him to have peace. Then we make our way deeper into the forest, taking turns carrying Max and praying that his fever subsides. The Council will send soldiers after us soon, they may already be on their way, so the time we gain now is crucial and Leah reminds us of that fact every twenty minutes or so. The trees watch us, permitting us a narrow passage under their cover in the spring air.

I’m not sure where we’re going, I’m not sure I care. My entire life, this entire life has been a lie, but damn, it’s been one hell of a lie. I will miss the people that I knew, I will miss the people that got me to this point. I will miss my room and I will miss walks around town. I will miss the way the sun looks when it stretches awake over the mountains behind our house. I will miss the way the butterflies lived in my stomach when Abel came into my life. I will miss the way I thought life was, the simplicity that came along with him and the normalcy that came along with becoming an ‘us’.

Those things are gone. They are not coming back. I may never be able to love this life, but I will adjust and become ‘okay’ with this new normal. I never asked for this world but I refuse to be the reluctant girl in the story. This is my story, and I’ll be damned if I play a passive role.

I walk in silence. I walk staring back at Ben, staring forward at Max. I walk. I walk until my heart and lungs scream at me to stop and then I walk more. I clench my jaw because the idea of rest seems pointless, because the idea of safety seems imaginary. I grip my fists because the Brotherhood will pay for the lives they’ve taken. I breathe deeply because a day of reckoning will come for Aliah who for too long has enjoyed the oppression of others. I am the Altruist, and there will soon be a day that Nassai will shiver at my name, but for now, I walk. I walk.