Shadowmarked, p.17
ShadowMarked, page 17
“Just kill them,” Em suggested.
Caspian tilted his head. “And when they eventually find this train along with four guards with bullets in their skull, they won’t be suspicious at all.”
Em shrugged. “A rogue kid stole the gun and killed them?”
Cas shook his head. “These guys have been where we’re going. If we can’t get through to anyone on the radios, they can at least lead us in the right direction. We need to keep them alive,” he said.
I was glad to see Em still had her jacket, and Theo and Sienna both acquired their own at some point. There were three other kids and only one jacket between them, but there was nothing I could do about that.
I wrapped my own jacket around my body. It warmed my upper half, though my face was already frozen from the wind. I didn’t think we’d make it far, but we began following the others through the snow and up the mountain.
A blizzard hit us only a few hours after we began our trek north. We lost one of the kids within minutes of the wicked snow hitting us. They collapsed in the snow, likely from the cold. Either way, none of the other guards were willing to carry them, and none of us could be seen as sympathetic. The other kids, including Em, Theo, and Sienna didn’t have the strength to carry a body through the freezing snow, so they were left behind. I tried not to feel guilty about it, but it was impossible. This had been my plan, and it was already a royal mess. I had been worried about where they were taking the kids, not the trip there. I hadn’t even considered things could go wrong before we arrived, and now it seemed I hadn’t thought through everything like I should have.
It’d taken the hours we traveled just to calm myself after everything, and still I didn’t feel quite normal. Every little noise I heard had me flinching. I was exhausted from trying to keep it together, and I knew I couldn’t keep this up for much longer.
The cold made it slightly easier to not think of what happened. I’d nearly killed Caspian. I thought he was a nightmare and couldn’t control the panic and fear rolling through me, and he could have died. I couldn’t live with myself if that ever happened. I knew I hadn’t fully overcome this thing inside of me, but I had thought it was under control at least. Turned out I was wrong. Now, we might all be at risk if that happened again once we arrived.
Sienna was still struggling and coughing from all the smoke she’d inhaled before Cas found her. She’d been thrown closer to the explosion than the others and nearly didn’t make it out, had Cas not been there.
When the snowstorm had begun about an hour ago, Em took the opportunity to sneak up behind me. She could see it in my eyes, the fear and anxiety. And she knew I needed something to get me out of it. This time, I didn’t turn away her help.
“If you can’t do anything else, just keep moving,” Em ordered. I glanced at her over my shoulder, the wind blowing against her, sending her white hair flying and mixing with the snow, so they seemed to blend together. “Don’t think of anything else but your next step—we’ll make it there.”
I nodded, keeping my focus on the body ahead of me, Caspian. Each step was an effort but grounded me. My body ached, but only bruises and a few scrapes were there. I gripped onto the back of Caspian’s jacket, so I wouldn’t lose him as the blowing snow increased. Em clung on behind me along with Theo and Sienna at the back.
We kept moving, even as the sun began to set.
“We’re not going to last out here overnight,” Caspian yelled against the wind. “We need to find shelter.”
“Do you see anything outside of snow?” I asked.
He didn’t need to say anything for me to know the answer. The blizzard had hit us out of nowhere. Clouds rumbled over the mountain top on a fierce wind and slammed down before we could make a plan. The only plan now was to keep moving.
“I can’t feel my toes,” Em chattered.
I was worried about her. She’d lost a lot of blood from the wound in her leg, which she limped on, and the only thing she had to keep her warm was the thick jacket. She was lucky she was a genetic kid, it was likely the only reason she was still moving—the small part of her that was Carbon. The jackets weren’t good enough, and all the kids had were flimsy shoes and linen pants. The jacket only covered to their shins.
“Signal to the others we need to stop for a minute.” I tugged on Caspian’s arm. He did the same to the person in front of him and the procession stopped moving.
I knew I didn’t have much time before one of the other guards came to see why we had stopped so I moved quickly.
“Give me your shoes,” I told Em, beginning to remove my own.
“No, I’m fine.”
“Like hell you are. We don’t have time to argue, just do it.”
Em sighed and used Theo to steady her on one foot while she bent down to remove her shoes. All three of them shook. Their lips were blue, and I knew there was no way we’d make it in this state—in this blizzard.
I tossed Em my boots and began pulling on her shoes. They were soaked through and felt like ice blocks immediately. My toes cramped when I stepped down, and snow flooded up my pant leg. I hid the wince against the cold—they’d been walking in these for hours now, and I didn’t have another pair to give Sienna or Theo.
“We need to find somewhere to stop, to make a fire or something.” I nudged Caspian.
I felt him nod before he moved up the line of people to where the guards had taken over the lead when the storm hit. I couldn’t even see the person past where Caspian had stood.
I shifted past Em to where Sienna and Theo were huddled together, the latter trying to warm Sienna’s hands. “How are you guys holding up?”
Sienna shrugged. “Is that a serious question?”
I smirked. “Kind of.”
“Terrible,” she said. “Everything is frozen. Everything hurts. I think my lungs have turned black, and I can’t stop coughing. There is no way we’ll make it to… I don’t even know where our end point is. Does anyone else?”
I grimaced, trying to sound confident even though I was anything but. A small bit of panic clenched in my heart, but I let out a long breath. “We’ll make it there. I promise.”
Caspian returned. “I convinced them to stop. There’s a bit of a valley up ahead, heavy with trees that may cover us from the storm. Just a little farther.”
I nodded, turning back to follow the group making their way towards where Caspian had pointed. Instantly, my feet and legs ached, and I didn’t know how any of the kids had lasted this long. We had to find a way out of here.
We huddled together for another hour before the snow let up. Then someone managed to light a fire, which we all surrounded. It helped thaw out things I didn’t even realize were frozen, but now we had another problem. Food. There hadn’t been anything on the train, and the snow-covered forest made it impossible to find sustenance. No berries or small animals. Nothing but snow and the bitter cold.
“I can’t get a signal,” Caspian said when he’d returned from a small walk up the valley to see if the radios would work now that the blizzard had passed. “And there is nothing farther ahead that looks even remotely like a prison.”
“This is bullshit,” one of the other guards said, his coal grey eyes were fixed on the fire, and he poked a stick at the embers. We’d huddled ourselves on one side of the fire while the genetic kids were across from us. “How the hell did that even happen? How does a train just blow up?”
“It doesn’t,” I said. All eyes turned on me. “That wasn’t an accident. There was a bomb planted on that train.”
“Why would they do that?”
I glanced to Caspian. I’d tried not to think about it while we walked, but I knew the explosion was no accident. There was a slim chance it was a coincidence, and we weren’t being targeted, but it was more likely someone else knew we would be on that train and tried to get rid of us before we arrived at the Black Prison. They at least knew about Em, that could be reason enough to destroy it, but why not just take care of her instead of destroying the entire thing? If Grayson knew we were coming, there was a good chance we were walking into a trap, if we even made it there, but did we have any other choice? We had to keep going.
“Probably some sort of resistance opposed to all this,” Caspian said.
“Thought we got rid of them all,” a female guard said. She had seemed to be the nicest of the five other guards with us, even offering the genetic kids some water she had brought with her.
“Rats don’t die. They just go into hiding and multiply,” one of them said, sneering.
I wanted to ask why the Watchers were helping Grayson, why they would agree to do this when we’d always been focused on peace and helping people, but I knew I wouldn’t get an answer, and it’d only lead to them asking more questions. I knew the real reason they were willing to help her—survival. She had already proven what she could do, and none of them wanted to end up dead. It infuriated me, that people could be swayed so easily.
“Do any of you recognize this area? Any mountains look familiar?” I changed the subject.
“How they hell would we know? We’ve hardly seen anything outside of the train and Black Prison.” The guard shook his head.
“Why do they call it Black Prison?” Caspian asked.
“You’ll see,” the female guard answered. “I’m not sure what you guys did to be ordered to come out here, or why you seemed so willing to go, but that place isn’t somewhere I want to spend a lot of time. Usually, we drop off the kids, get them processed, and head back. Now… I’m not sure what will happen.”
“What’s wrong with it?” I asked.
The male guard let out a curt laugh. “Everything. That place is a shithole. I’d rather die than have to spend more than one day there.”
I caught Em’s glance across the fire, noting the slight bit of worry in her eyes before she blinked it away and focused on the flames.
“Tomorrow, we’ll climb this ridge up ahead, get as high as we can, and hope either the radio works or someone sees us. We should have been there by now, which means someone will notice our absence and should sent out a shuttle,” Caspian said.
I nodded along with him.
“That’s if we survive the freezing cold,” a guard grumbled.
I couldn’t help but worry there might not be anyone looking for us. If anyone knew we were on that train and the bomb had been set intentionally for us, then we just might be all alone with no way home.
CASPIAN
We lost two more overnight—another kid and one of the guards who’d been badly injured. There were nine of us left, two Watchers and two genetic kids alongside us. We had no food, no idea where we were going, and were traveling through a freezing cold mountain range.
“They have to have noticed we didn’t arrive by now. Someone should be looking for us,” the female guard whispered. “They’ll be coming for us… won’t they?”
No one answered. None of us knew what they would do. I had just returned for the second time after sprinting up to a taller peak on the route we traveled across in search of a signal on the radio. Nothing but dead static despite the clear skies.
I kept an eye on Jayla the entire time, worried about what had happened in the train. I knew she wasn’t better, even if she had convinced herself she was fine, even if it was the truth for a little while. It wasn’t something she could expect just to go away because she conquered it one time. I wished I could talk to her, alone, but for now we had to focus on getting out of here alive.
There wasn’t much more we could do. We’d lost the train track after it separated into three different paths, and the one we took ended a short way down. We’d opted not to turn back, but instead head higher up for a signal or some sign of those we hoped were looking for us. The guards had never seen where the train traveled, they were in the same blacked-out cars we were on, and so far nothing looked familiar to any of them. Walking would be useless if we didn’t know which direction to go, and we were all exhausted. We wouldn’t last another night. My body ached, and I could only imagine how the others must have felt. Em looked terrible, her limp more prominent than the day before, and I could see the regret and fear across Jayla’s face, worrying she made the wrong decision, worrying this was all for nothing. I didn’t want to admit I wondered the same thing. I couldn’t. We were going to make it.
The sun was at its peak when we finally heard something. It was a subtle rumble in the distance. We scanned around us for where the sound came from, but it wasn’t until I turned around I realized what it was—an avalanche.
“Run!” I screamed, reaching for Em and pulling her along with me.
Jayla was on her other side as we pushed through the thick snow as fast as we could. Ahead of us, Theo and Sienna tried to clear a path while the others had scattered in opposite directions, some running back the way we just came while others tried to climb trees in hopes they could get up high enough.
“Hurry,” I ordered Em who grimaced, but pushed herself harder. A quick glance up told me we had only seconds before we’d be wiped off this mountain. The ground began to rumble under our feet, and the sound of the snow sliding towards us was deafening.
I knew we wouldn’t all make it, so I shoved the two girls forward just as the snow slammed into my side. My breath was instantly gone, and I had the sense of falling and twisting and turning, but I couldn’t figure out which way was up or down. The initial seconds seemed to go on forever, and all I could think about was trying to stay conscious and move towards the small bits of light I could still see.
I was being crushed. It felt like a giant’s hand pinned me down and pushed me farther into the snow sucking me in, so I tried to kick and move my arms to pull myself upwards. My arms flailed like wet noodles, completely out of my control as I tried to swim through the snow. I wasn’t even sure if I was going in the right direction.
It didn’t last long, though I was certain I might have traveled miles at the speed the snow moved. I had no way of knowing where I was, how deep I was, or if anyone else had made it out safely.
When everything finally stopped, I tried to move my arms or legs but I was trapped. My chest was being crushed, and it was getting harder and harder to breathe. I was stuck in concrete, and it was impossible to dig myself out. I knew I had to stay calm. The others would find me; they would dig me out. I kept my breathing slow and controlled, trying to focus on staying alive. The only thing going through my mind was that I hoped the others had made it to safety. Jayla would be pissed if I died and so would I. This was not how it was supposed to end. My vision began to spark after only a minute, even with my slow, controlled breaths. I was going to pass out. I tried to keep my eyes open, but my lids were so heavy. Everything went black.
I woke to light slamming down on my face. It was so bright I couldn’t open my eyes. Someone knelt beside me, and when I tried to move, I found one arm was free, but the rest was still submerged in the snow.
“Clear this part away, he needs room to breathe.” I heard her voice—Jayla.
When I opened my eyes, Theo had his hands cupped and was digging near my shoulder. Sienna and Em were doing the same by my feet. I could see the tip of my boot poking out of the snow.
“Hey,” I mumbled, and Jayla scrambled to my face. She pushed the snow away from my neck.
“Are you okay? Is anything broken?” Her eyes wildly searched what little bit of me she could see.
I tried to move my body but only managed to wiggle my toe and move my one free arm. I felt an overall sense of pain and discomfort, but when I did a quick assessment of my body, I determined nothing was broken.
“I’m okay,” I said. “Just cold.”
“Hurry up, we need to get him out,” Jayla ordered.
“It’s fine, relax. I’m okay.” I brushed my free hand over her face.
“You were under there for twenty minutes, Cas, and we haven’t even got you free yet,” Em said from a few feet away. I noticed the blood in the snow where she knelt. The wound on her leg must have opened again.
“But I’m alive, so that’s something.”
I tried a smile, but the others didn’t respond. Theo had managed to get my other arm free, and I now attempted to help them pull the snow weighing me down over my chest. All five of us used our bare hands.
“Where are the others?” I asked.
All I could see was snow and debris caught up in the avalanche. The destruction from the slide moved like a trail farther down the mountain and spanned a wide distance across and cleared everything in its path.
“Two guards made it to our side just barely. They’re tending to their own wounds as the snow nearly took them both out,” Jayla answered. “The rest… I don’t think they made it.”
I could only imagine what was running through her mind. Right now, Jayla was just barely holding it together, but the look on her face was something I hadn’t seen in a long while. It was fear, pure and simple. She dug and dug even though her hands were blue and streaks of red stained the snow where her hands touched.
I gripped one of her hands, making her pause and finally look at me. “I’m okay,” I repeated softly.
She let out a shaky breath. “Don’t ever do that again,” she hissed. “What the hell were you thinking?”
“I was thinking that we weren’t all going to make it, and I knew you guys would find me.” I smirked.
She scowled. “You’re just lucky Theo had the good sense to climb up one of the trees and keep an eye on where you ended up. We wouldn’t have found you otherwise.”
I glanced behind me to where Theo was digging around my back. My upper half was nearly all out and one leg cleared up to my knee. “Thanks mate,” I said.
He nodded and continued digging.
Another twenty minutes passed before I was finally out and able to stand. I took my time, testing out my legs and doing a quick assessment for injuries. My entire body ached, and I was physically exhausted, but nothing was broken—I didn’t think anyway.
