Outcast: A Corporation Novel (The Corporation) (32 page)

Day ten

Ethan

The next time I come to, it isn't as difficult as the first. My surroundings snap into focus with a sharp clarity, as if I've been given a shot of adrenaline. We're outside. It's evening; the sun must have just set because I can still feel warmth in the air. The sky is a dark blue overhead; with the sun fading into lighter and more diverse colors the closer it gets to the horizon. But it's changing fast. All that's left is a dusty color that I can't quite name, it's almost not a color at all, but what takes form in-between all the other colors.

“You're up, good.” Dhevan is sitting next to me against a wooden post. One end has been buried into the ground, who knows how deep, probably pretty far because it doesn't budge when I try to move it. His hands are like mine, tied behind his back and around the poles. Our ankles and knees are still roped together. It's rather effective in limiting our range of movement. I try to move my legs back and forth in opposite directions to test just how strong our restraints are.

“It's useless,” Dhevan says in a straight forward kind of way. “I've been trying all afternoon when they weren't around. They're tied pretty well.” His eyes travel down to the knot at his knees. “Actually, I hope I can recreate them to use with the cows, that's assuming we ever get out of here.”

“How long have I been out?”

Dhevan shrugs. “Not sure. But, they’ve come by with water and scraps of food twice, so far. Raj is refusing to eat.”

“Well, I don’t plan on being here when they swing by again,” I say. I'm angry at myself. We’re here because of me. If I hadn’t gotten bit by that snake, there wouldn’t have been a need to sneak in without first studying this place and knowing exactly what we were getting into.

“They seem pretty intent on making sure we don't.”

“Where's Raj?” I say.

Dhevan nods over his shoulder to my left. I look in that direction and see him tied up in an identical manner. His chin is resting on his chest and I hear a steady stream of low babbling coming from him. I try to lean forward and make out what he's saying but can only catch a few phrases.

“Raj.” I don't get any reaction. I glance around and risk raising my voice. I don't see any immediate threat, but that doesn’t really offer any security. “Raj!” I say in a harsh whisper. His ramblings don't break stride, but they do get a little louder and I can finally hear what he's saying.

“Hepromisedhepromisedhepromised” over and over again.

“He's been doing that since they tied us up here,” Dhevan says, still emoting next to nothing. I'm trying to decide if that's because he's the kind of guy who's extremely calm in stressful situations, or if it's because there's something broken upstairs. It really is a tossup as to cause.

“What's he saying?”

“He goes back and forth between, 'he promised, liar, and not dead'. Not sure what any of those things mean, but whenever the Guards come around, he kind of snaps out of it and tries to attack them. So they tied him up like us.”

“Wait. He wasn't always tied up?”

“Not in the beginning. He was walking around and yelling at the Guards. Asking for one in particular. When they refused, he started freaking out and throwing things, attacking the Guards with whatever he could find. That's when they tied him up. He's been babbling like that ever since.”

I look over at him one more time. He's trying to curl up into a small ball. “You seem far too calm for what's going on around us,” I say.

“I could say the same about you.” This is a true statement. “I'm calm because I know you're going to get us out of this.”

I'm suspicious of this seemingly nice compliment. “Forgive me for looking a gift horse in the mouth, but you aren't exactly one to hand out compliments. Especially to me.”

“You're going to get us out of this because you're one of
them
.” I know he means what the Guards represent, the Corporation. He still doesn't trust me. “And I know if you don't get us out of here, I will kill you in a more unpleasant way than these Guards will.”

“Well, since you asked nicely.” But it's true. I've been trying to think of a way out since I woke up. But it's proving difficult. I could try and use my title, but I’m not sure how far that would get us.

We're in the middle of an open expanse that's completely naked except for our forms tied to these posts. There's nothing around us that would be remotely useful except for dirt, and that's only to make the ground a bit softer. It looks like the soil has been carefully groomed to get rid of any rock or pebbles. Barracks and buildings are at least fifty yards away from us on any side. There's what looks like a training field straight ahead, but it's empty.

My stomach squeezes and lets out a rumble. Must be dinner time. I can make out the glimmer of the force field dome hiding the camp about thirty yards or so to my left.

Nothing's coming to me. I have no idea how long they're planning on keeping us alive or what they intend to do with us, so the fact that nothing is coming to me and the fact that escape looks bleak, really weighs me down.

Maybe I could do something when the Guards came to check on us again. My legs and arms are out of the question, but maybe my head? No, no that wouldn't work. Even if I could knock one out, I still wouldn't be able to get us untied. Maybe when they moved us next we could—

“They're supposed to be alive,” Raj says in a voice that is impeccably clear and sane. I look over at him and he's staring at me, with an intensity that makes my skin prick. His eyes are desperate. “He told me that if I brought you here, he'd give me my family back.”

It takes a second for his words to register, a split second after it registers for Dhevan. “What did you say?” I ask, even though I know exactly what it is he said.

“
You
did this to us?” Dhevan says. “You lured us here, handed us over to the Guards?” I don't have to turn around to see the expression on his face or the tension of his body. His words paint a pretty clear image in my mind of how he looks right now. And the reflection of that image on Raj's face confirms it. He shrinks back into his already small looking frame.

“You don't understand. He said if I did this, this one thing, he would give them back to me.” He sounded so desperate and…small. Like a little boy. Part of me feels sorry for him.

“Give who back to you?” Dhevan's voice is still dangerous. Which makes me think that he must like me, at least some, because he’s never sounded this way towards me.  “Who said that?”

“My wife and little girl. My family.” He takes an unsteady breath. “Akin promised.”

His family?
“Your family is dead,” I say, and watch as that last word shatters his body like a physical blow. “Karis told me she saw Guards kill them in the streets before they dragged you away.”

“Akin said he could bring them back.”

“My father is a liar,” I spit out. “No one can bring back the dead.”

“He said he could. I had to take the chance.”

“So now you're with us. Bound and sentenced to who knows what. With no family.”

“These bindings,” he lifts his arms a little behind his back, “they're a mistake.”

“The Guards seemed pretty confident about what they were doing with you when you brought us here,” Dhevan says. He's back to his normal demeanor. I steal a glance over at him. Except for redder cheeks, one would never know what was boiling inside of him.

“He was young and new nothing of the Corporation's arrangement with me. When they come back for us, I'll talk to a Guard who actually knows who I am and what I've done. They'll let me go and I'll take my case to the President. He'll bring back my Tula.”

“You're delusional and desperate,” I say. “You won't speak two words before my father throws you out of his sight. He will laugh at you and not let you speak a word. You set your fate when you went into the snake pit and tried to charm the deadliest viper there is. Did you think you could actually play your flute and lure him into giving you something he couldn't even do to begin with?”

This sets Raj off and I'm glad he's bound. Spittle flies from his mouth and his eyes open wide and are bloodshot. “I didn’t lure him, he offered! Akin
will
bring my family back. And when he does, if he hasn't killed you already, I am going to do it myself. And then, I am going to go after who you care about most!”

My body jerks in reaction as I lunge towards him. The rough ropes bite into my wrists, but I don't say anything about the sting or Raj's threats. “You will not get that far. If my father doesn't kill you first, your stupidity will be your downfall.”

“Children, children.” A new voice enters the fray. One of authority. “We can't have you fighting.”

We look up. Two Guards stand in their crisp and clean black and red uniforms, hats pulled low over their eyes. The young one is just a face to me, but the older one, him I recognize. Sergeant Nan. He’s a staple in the Corporation’s Guards force. His eyes meet mine and except for a slight eyebrow raise, he pays me no attention.

“Private Kelsik, here, tells me you were a bit of trouble when you first came to us.”

“Private Kelsik, is it?” Raj's stupidity is masked in bravery and has returned full force. “I'll remember that name when I meet with President Hughes. This Guard has seriously overstepped his authority when he chose to tie me and treat me like a criminal.”

“Oh?” Sergeant Nan looks intrigued. “How so?”

“Akin—”

“President Hughes,” Nan corrects politely.

Raj's jaw clenches. “
President Hughes
tasked me with bringing these two here. I have kept up my end of our deal. I expect my payment in return. And to be untied at once.”

“We have not been advised of any such arrangement.” Nan is cool and collected. His hands are clasped behind his back, his feet hip distance apart and his weight evenly balanced. There's something about his stillness that makes me want to keep my distance. He is not a man to be played with, that much I can tell. “You are being detained for breaking into a secured area with goals of confiscating top secret information and will be punished as such.”

“That's not true!” Raj pulls against his ropes again. “Just contact the Corporation, send a Comm to President Hughes. He'll confirm what I'm telling you!”

Nan steps closer and drops down on his heels so that he's at eye level with Raj. He removes his hat, resting it on a knee. He pauses for a moment before asking, “Will he?”

The perfect clarity of his words rings through the resulting silence. They knew Raj's claim was true. And we know now that my father had no intention of keeping his promise. It was his plan all along to have Raj taken. To be thrown out with the other garbage. Cleaning up two messes for the price of one.

Raj's face shows recognition as the truth seeps into his soul. His face falls. His shoulders stoop. And finally, his heart breaks. I can see it in every part of his being. He knows he’s lost. That his family is gone forever. That he has been made a fool.

Karis

We narrowly escaped a potentially serious situation and the air is charged with a new sort of excitement and life.

“You trusted her before to help you?” Adami asks a bit incredulously. “She's a bit out there.”

“Yeah, well, she wasn't like that when I first met her and it wasn't as if I had a lot of options. It was either her or a pack of dangerous men who had singled me out.”

“In that case, good choice.” We walk quickly through the streets, sticking to the buildings and trying to avoid any potential Guard locations. Tonight must be our lucky night, because we haven't run into any. “What’s a Comm?”

“They’re booths with boxes that hold receivers. If you pick one up, you’re instantly and directly connected with the nearest Guard post or the Corporation.”

“Where's the one she was talking about? Do you think it really works?”

“There's only one way to find out.”

This is so different from Ethan's stance on being overly careful and waiting until the
time is right
. Adami is in the same place as me—get it done, and get it done now. I like it. A lot. We turn around and head back the direction we came. It's dangerous, I know. If the witch finds us, we'll be in for a world of hurt, I'm sure, but we need this question answered more than I'm afraid of running into her again.

It doesn't take long before I make out the washed out blue light indicating a Comm location. It's north of the Artist's house, on the opposite side of where the Black Market had been.

We stand a block away. “There it is,” I whisper, nodding to the station.

“What do we do now?”

“The only way to see if it works is to pick up the receiver.”

“Sounds simple enough.”

I press my lips together and squeeze my hands into fists a few times. “When we pick up that unit, if it’s still in use, someone
will
be on the other end. If they suspect anything suspicious at all, they'll send out Guards to investigate. And since no one likes using a Comm in the first place because it brings the Guards, they'll know something's up when they answer it. If they answer it.”

“In other words, if that Comm works, picking up the receiver will put us in significant danger by dispatching Guards here.”

“But we'll know for good if Bak used it or not.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” He smiles at me and I smile back.

“Let's go.”

We hurry over to the station. I pick up the receiver. It clicks twice, quickly;
click, click
, before a voice says, “Guard Station 206.” I hang up the receiver.

“They answered. We need to hide,” I say, and Adami and I sprint down the street and duck into an abandoned house. We crouch beneath a broken-in window and wait. It's a matter of seconds before the sound of several pairs of boots crunching the crumbling street approaches us and passes. I dare a glance and look out the window. Four Guards form a semicircle around the Comm Station.

“This is the unit, Captain,” one of them says.

“You're sure?” The Captain’s hand is on his weapon and his head and eyes scanning the surroundings.

“Yes, sir.”

“Alright, search the immediate area. Whoever it is that called in couldn't have gone far. And when you find them, take them in. The Corporation wants all calls made on this Comm to go to them directly for handling.”

That's strange. What's so special about this Comm? I duck down beneath the window and look over at Adami. He’s still and quiet, but I can see a bit of trepidation in his features.

“This isn't good,” he mouths to me with a shake of his head, “is it?”

I shake my head back. “No,” I mouth back. It isn't good at all.

We look around the room we've holed ourselves up into, trying to see what our options are. The way we came in isn't a possibility, unless we want to go wherever the Guards were going to take us; and I, for one, do not.

The room looks like it had been a part of a bomb attack. The walls don't make it up all the way to the ceiling, with big sections missing and open to the night sky. Parts of the ceiling and wood from the walls and debris from the street cover the floor, making it so any real sort of movement would sound like an alarm to the Guards outside. There isn't a back door like I hoped, and the only windows are the two we're huddled under.

Adami whispers, “This isn’t looking too good, Karis. Maybe we shouldn’t have checked the Comm.”

Maybe we could sneak out the window when the Guards were at the opposite end of the street? But that doesn't seem like a real sturdy option. There has to be another way out. No one in this part of the city would have had only one exit from their house. And since I can't see any, I hope that means it’s a hidden one.

“Quick,” I whisper. Adami is immediately all ears. “Look around the room for a way out—a secret door of some kind.

“Do you really think we would be that lucky?” he asks, but he starts to press his hands around on the wall, searching.

“This was never a good part of the city. It wasn't always the Black Market, obviously, but it was unsavory at best. Every building and house in Neech has two ways out. For safety and escaping Guards. When a place has a feeling like this one does, you make it a priority.”

Adami pauses to look at me. “Really? That’s fascinating.” He goes back to patting down the walls. “Okay, so, I'm looking for false walls, furniture on a wall that moves, trap doors in the floor. That sort of thing?”

I look at the back of his head peculiarly for a second before answering, “Yeah.”

I start on the opposite side of the room from him and begin to press on the planks of wood that cover the walls. It's a two story house, so neither of us bothers going up the stairs. There wouldn't be an inconspicuous way out, up there.

We move chairs, rugs, pull a bookcase out from the wall. Nothing. And the Guards are getting closer. We're running out of time. We both swivel our heads and take the small space in, looking for any place we might have missed.

I can hear the low tones of voices not far off. Adami and I look at each other with wide eyes. My gaze flits to the wall under the stairs. I look back at Adami and point with my stare to where I was just looking. He, too, studies the wall by the stairs, looks back at me and nods.

I go to the window to keep a look out as Adami heads to the stairs. I hear him knocking softly with the meaty part of his fist, testing for a hollow spot. Then he stops. I look over my shoulder and see him fingering a seam in the wood planks. His finger catches on something and he starts to tug. Nothing happens at first. Then, with a loud creak, the panel comes apart and starts to swing out. We both freeze where we are and listen.

“I heard something,” a Guard says. “This way.”

Adami crouches low to the floor and hurries my direction. “We need to go. Now.”

I nod. “But they're too close for us to open the door all the way. They'll hear us and come inside. We won't be able to get away.”

“What do we do, then?” He looks out the window with me. There are four Guards across the street from us, shining flashlights into the dark windows. I look around the living room floor. There are broken pieces of wood, glass, rocks, bricks, furniture. An eclectic variety of weapons.

“Okay, this is what we’re going to do.”

“I’m all ears.”

“When I say go, make your way to the door and open it just enough for us to get through. We'll have to hurry and close it as quickly and quietly as we can.”

“What are you going to do?”

“It’s either this or hide and hope they don’t find us.”

Adami lifts himself up so that the top of his head is slightly higher than the sill. “There are four Guards, and they’re all looking in separate areas. I hate to break it to you,” he slides back down to face me, “but I don’t think your plan is going to work.”

He’s too calm about his conclusion. “It has to work, because it’s the only one we have.” I pick up a rock that was probably thrown through this same window to begin with. I stand up and heave it through the night, as far from us as I can.

It hits the side of a building, causing the Guards to group together and hurry after the disturbance. Adami grabs my hand and we hurry to the door, slipping through the small opening and closing it behind us. It's pitch black, but it is a way out. I can feel the breeze from the night air around our ankles.

“Ready?” he whispers against my ear.

I adjust my hand in his, lacing our fingers together, and squeeze.

“It's dark, so we have to go slow.”

“As long as we're going in a direction that's away from the Guards.” I put my free hand out in front of me, feeling out the way in front of us.

Our steps are small and our going slow. Neither of us says a word the entire way, we only breathe in and out, never letting go of each other's hand.

७

I don't know how long it takes us to get through the tunnel, but by the time we get to the end, we are both sweaty and dirty. But we’re safe. Adami and I stare out at an unfamiliar section of Neech. We turn in a slow circle. I'm trying to get my bearings, and Adami’s expression tells me that he's just trying to take it all in. I look for the only point of reference we have, Corporation Tower. It's behind me and to the left, a blue-black, dull throb of light in this blacked out part of the Outer City.

“There's the Tower,” I say, pointing up.

“The Tower?” Adami asks.

“The only part of Dahn that's visible from Neech. Corporation Tower. If we head towards it, we'll eventually come to a part of the Outer City I'm more familiar with.”

“It looks rather imposing,” he says. “A very twisted North Star.”

“You should see it up close. It's downright scary.”

“I can imagine.”

We start our journey back home, silent for the first few blocks, making sure we aren't being followed and that there aren't any Guards nearby. Things start to look familiar. There's Sachi's bakery. And down the road a ways is one of the hostels for the steelworker apprentices. I relax more, knowing where we are and that it won’t be much longer until we’re home.

“Tell me about Nagar.”

“It's not too exciting. Nothing like here, that's for sure.”

“Is it a city, like Neech and Dahn?”

“It's more of a community. It's small. There are only a few hundred of us. We have tents and lean-tos and shacks for homes. We have to be able to get up and move quickly if we feel threatened or in danger.”

“Does that happen often? Moving, I mean.”

“Our community is in the middle of the Wasteland, so there are many potential dangers, but only a couple, since I've been there, that we've had to pick up entirely and move somewhere else.”

“What happened?”

He mulls it over before he speaks. “Outsiders came. We've always been wary and cautious of outsiders, but when it comes down to it, those are the people who make up Nagar. After all, my mother and I were both outsiders at one point. But these people were different. They were aggressive and forceful. Marlo, our leader, felt they would do us harm, threaten our way of living.”

“So what did he do?”

“He asked them to leave.”

“And did they?”

“At first. But, the next night they came back, and they brought others with them. They wanted our camp. We're a level-headed group, we think things through, but we will defend what we have with our lives and do whatever it takes.”

“And what did it take?” I'm almost too nervous to ask.

“It took their lives. They proved themselves to be untrustworthy to just walk away, showed us they had to be stopped. We couldn't afford the risk of leaving and having them come back with even more like them and harming us. Our community is based on honesty in all things. If it's found you're lying, there are serious consequences.

“So, in the middle of the night, a few of our best fighters snuck into their camp and broke their necks.” He says it so simply, so void of any emotion, that a shiver crawls down my spine. “After that, we moved camp. That was seven years ago. We haven't been found again since.”

“It sounds like Nagar is filled with dangerous people.”

“Their danger is only equal to that of the threat you possess to them. Nothing more. They're humans, and families. They're no more dangerous than you would be in their situation.”

“If Nagar is trying so hard to remain unfound, and out of the line of sight from others, why did they send you out into the Further to find us?”

He lets out a half laugh in the form of an exhaled breath. “That's a funny story, actually. You and I are more alike than you realize. I'm kind of a you, where I come from. I never do what I'm told and always do what I want. It’s why my mother has silver hair and why Marlo is always threatening to exile me from the community, to live on the fringes.”

“So they didn't send you out here?”

“No, I came because I wanted to see what else there was in life.”