Crimson Sky: A Dark Sky Novel (10 page)

I was shaken by Sawyer’s hostile words, because I believed them. He would fight for Gemma and Nash. Kill or torture for them. Endure agony and die so they would live.

Briggs didn’t understand that, so he chuckled at Sawyer’s threat. “We’ll see about that. Now, before we get started, is there anyone else here with you? Someone hiding that you hope will save you?”

I shrank back into the pile of garbage. I hadn’t been seen yet, and I didn’t have a plan. Running headfirst into the fight would get me captured, and if Briggs knew I was working for the marauders, he would make sure I was tortured the longest.

“Who says we need a savior?” Sawyer taunted. “We’ve gotten through worse dilemmas than this.”

I blinked. Sawyer could have gone back on his word and given me up. He didn’t know I was watching this. Even if he were being noble, he couldn’t expect me to save him or his friends. The whole reason he hid me was because he knew I wasn’t a warrior. I wanted to rely on his word that he, Gemma, and Nash could escape without my help. But he was barely conscious. Gemma was trapped under the net. Nash didn’t seem to be moving. Even if they could escape, they wouldn’t be able to get far before the Junkers caught them again.

“No,” Briggs sneered. “I don’t think you have, boy.”

Brock landed a savage blow to Sawyer’s temple, knocking him out. Briggs began shouting at his men to take the marauders to the main road. Gemma screamed one more time before she was shocked and silenced. I stayed where I was, watching helplessly as the marauders were dragged away by the primitive Junkers.

I could have left them. I could take the parts I needed for the power core. I could go back to the port and rebuild the engine, then look for another crew, even if that meant taking a few more dangerous trips. I shouldn’t have been willing to risk my life for a trio of pirates who would throw me away the moment I’d served my purpose.

But even as the thought crossed my mind, I knew I wouldn’t give into it. Sawyer and his crew had agreed to help me. He’d kept me out of this fight with Briggs. Abandoning him, Nash, and Gemma to that monster wasn’t just wrong– it was cruel.

I looked around the Junkyard, seeing piles of rubber. Remembering where to find flammables and blowtorches.

Seeing the
Behemoth
floating over our heads.

An idea began to form in my head. It was a bad idea. Terrible even.

But it would work.

Chapter 6

The first thing I did was gather the scrap parts and small sheets of metal for the power core and stuff them into Gemma’s messenger bag. Even if my plan went the way I hoped it would, we were still going to have to make a fast escape.

And if it didn’t work the way I hoped, we’d have to escape faster.

As soon as the parts were secure in the bag, I took a shortcut to the main road. I’d been here enough times to know where each path would lead me. But I didn’t avoid caution. I glanced back at every turn to make sure the Junkers weren’t patrolling the roads.

There was no one. The promise of fresh meat must have been too enticing. My stomach rolled at the thought.

Pushing it to the back of my mind, I stopped behind a pyramid of rusted rebar. Ahead of me was another rusted metal shed, but unlike the one Briggs came out of, I knew this one had tools in it. I didn’t carry a blowtorch with me, and would need one to set my plan in motion. I peeked out from the rebar, made sure the coast was clear, then sprinted to the open door of the shed. I pulled to a stop when I was inside, grateful that there weren’t any Junkers working in it. I quickly scanned the shelves and drawers, looking for the blowtorch.

Finally, I came across a handheld one behind a box on the bottom of the shelf. After one glance, I decided to keep it. It wouldn’t be the first thing I stole, or the last, and I was going to need it to make repairs anyway. I grabbed it, welding gloves, a pair of goggles, and extra gasoline canisters, and shoved them all into my bag. It was heavy now, but I would have to adapt to the weight. I pressed my hand against the wall by the doorframe and looked out. The Junkyard was still empty and nightfall was a long time off, but seeing the
Behemoth
linger in the clouds wasn’t filling me with confidence or ease. Hellions came down any time they wanted, regardless of the weather. But the darker it was, the more dangerous they became.

For a brief moment, I wondered about Abby. I told myself that she was all right. She was staying strong and holding out, knowing I would come for her. But nobody knew what happened after the Hellions took a victim up to their ship. There were no stories or rumors, because no one ever returned.

Swallowing my fear, I lowered my gaze and stepped out of the supply shed. I ran onto the main road, which was wider and more beaten than the one I had led the marauders down. I seriously hoped this plan worked and that they would still be willing to help me. If I went through all this only to lose my allies and precious time… I didn’t know what I would do.

I wasn’t seen or accosted, but I slowed down a few minutes later when I came around a bend in the road and found the Junkers and the marauders.

It was hard to see their faces, but I made out the shapes of Sawyer and Nash. They were tied on separate worktables with chains shackling their wrists and ankles. Between the two tables was a generator with two large wheel cranks on each end. The chains on Sawyer and Nash’s ankles were wrapped around the wheel, the chains on their wrists speared to the ground by rebar. It was impossible for them to escape, and whatever the generator did to them wouldn’t be pretty.

Pinned on her knees across from Sawyer and Nash, Gemma was struggling with the chains wrapped around her arms and legs. She thrashed and struggled, but the two Junkers behind her pushed their boots onto her body, keeping her from moving.

Briggs and his dozen Junkers were spread out along the road. Two holding Gemma, four surrounding Nash and Sawyer, and the other six spread out along the road, sharpening knives and propping metal buckets under the tables. A large fire was being coaxed to life in the middle of the road with a roasting spit laid across it. Briggs himself was standing by the tables, staring down at Sawyer. I was about twenty feet away, still hidden by a pile of scrap metal and springs. Near the very top of it were useless rubber tires. They weren’t far ahead and I hadn’t been seen yet, but I didn’t think time was on my side. Hoping that my luck would hold a little longer, I started climbing the pile.

It was hard to do, since the bag weighed down my shoulder and every movement could trigger a slide or knock something out of place. I moved without thinking, knowing that if I stopped to contemplate my actions, I would be seen, captured, and killed. Or worse.

Corroded metal scratched my palms and fingertips. The tips of my boots slipped into open spaces and nearly swallowed my leg. I gritted my teeth and kept climbing. As I moved, I was able to hear Briggs begin a conversation with Sawyer.

“Makes sense to blame the Abernathy’s,” Briggs said, halting my climb. “Every time Garnet sends their bitch daughter up here, I want to strangle her with my bare hands.”

Sawyer raised his head slightly, looking at Briggs with confusion. “Daughter?”

Briggs’ chuckle was harsh. “Kind of ironic, isn’t it? The daughter of those two failures is Garnet’s engineer.”

He didn’t say my name, but he didn’t have to. There was only one female engineer working for Garnet Dayton. I hadn’t expected to tell the marauders who my parents were, but now there would be no avoiding it. The stakes had been raised to impossible heights, but I still had to try and reach them. I continued my steady climb.

“But as much as I hate them, I blame the Kendrics more. They’re the ones who followed the exploration teams through the Breach, and they were the ones who started the fight with the Hellions.”

“You don’t know that,” Sawyer said, so quiet I barely heard him.

“And you do? You’re not that young, boy. You must have heard the stories about Robertson and Davin Kendric.” Briggs chuckled again. “We always thought that Robertson was the dangerous one, but it turned out his worst crime was raising that monster.”

I didn’t argue with Briggs there. Of all the marauders, Davin Kendric was the most feared. He sailed on the
Dauntless Wanderer
with his father, but he was uncontrollable. As a child, I’d heard stories of Davin taking skiffs in the middle of the night without permission, traveling with Robertson’s most vile pirates, sneaking onto other ships, and attacking everyone on board. He didn’t steal the vessels or take most of the goods. Davin’s true goal was to instill fear. He was a formidable warrior and had no problem torturing and raping without mercy. But he never let any of his victims die quick deaths. After they were brutalized, he tied them to the main masts of their own ship, set it on fire, and careened it into the ground. Countless damage had been done and dozens of lives were lost in Westraven during his rampage in the years before The Storm, with Davin Kendric claiming proud responsibility for all of it.

My parents had never fallen victim to one of Davin’s attacks, but I never forgot the day I came along the wreckage of a ship Davin had raided and crashed. I remembered the charred skeletal husks smoking against the mast, and knew the skies would never be safe.

The Sky Guard tried to arrest Davin, but Robertson’s fleet was fast and intimidating. As long as Davin was under Robertson’s care, he was untouchable. My only solace was that both men were dead, killed at the hands of the Hellions.

Recalling this only added to the mystery of how Sawyer found the
Dauntless Wanderer
, and why he was so desperate to revive it.

Sawyer lowered his head back onto the table, muttering something I couldn’t hear this time. Whatever he said made Briggs laugh again.

“No. Of course you’re not like them. But that doesn’t make you better. It makes you a scrounger, just like us. You obviously don’t work for Garnet, so I have to wonder how you survived so long. Did you hear the same rumor we did? Make a deal with the Hellions, perhaps?”

That stopped my climb again. Sawyer said the exact thing that popped into my head.

“You can’t reason with Hellions. They don’t chase us down because they want to chat. Not one of them speaks the same language we do.”

“Well, we’ve heard that one of them does. He’s bigger than the rest. We heard from other unwelcome guests that the Hellions are looking for an engineer to regenerate something called the Vesper, and getting revenge. This engineer was supposed to have a key that will help them.”

I nearly slid down the scrap pile when Briggs said that. He couldn’t have meant me, could he? How would the Hellions even know who I was? I shook my head and tried to tell myself that it wasn’t me at the center of this rumor.

But my hands shook with every crawl. Unless there were other engineers running around with mysterious keys, I was the target of this Vesper. But what did the key unlock? Even if the Hellions found me, I wouldn’t be able to tell them what I didn’t know. They might not even stop to ask. Not when they could rip the key from my neck before tearing out the rest of it.

I suddenly doubted the sensibility of my plan. But this rumor didn’t matter. I couldn’t turn back now. The Junkers had no intention to release Sawyer, Nash, and Gemma. I continued my climb, glancing down as infrequently as possible.

“Looks like our fire’s almost ready,” I heard Briggs say, “so, which one do we want to start with?”

“This one,” a deep grumbling voice–Brock’s– said, indicating Sawyer. He was standing by the generator’s crank wheel, and he gave it a simple turn. Sawyer’s legs began to stretch outward, his face twisting with pain as his limbs were pulled from his body. Panic filled my heart and I climbed faster. The tires were only a few feet away.

“Nah, he’s too lean,” commented another Junker. “The girl’s got meat on her bones.”

I glanced down again, seeing the hearty fire built in the road and the tall Junker crowding Gemma. She turned her head, more like she was disgusted than scared.

“That’s why we save her for last, idiot,” a third Junker said. “She’ll have more to spare.”

The tall Junker paused to leer at Gemma. “Good point. Guess we’ll have to play another game with you, sweetheart.”

“Oh, I’ll play with you,” Gemma shot back. “And when I win, your balls will make an interesting trophy.”

The tall Junker slapped Gemma across the face so hard that I winced at the sound. She didn’t cry out, but Nash roared with animalistic fury. I saw some of the Junkers step back, as if they thought he was capable of breaking the chains. I was hoping the same thing.

“What about the big guy? He could last a while.”

“He’d be all muscle,” the tall one muttered. “Really tough.”

His friend huffed with frustration. “Would you stop being so damn picky and choose?”

While they argued, I reached the tires. I crouched behind them to stay concealed, then grabbed one of the small gas canisters from inside my bag. I unscrewed the cap and threw the liquid around the tire, being careful to keep it from getting on my clothes. Once the canister was empty, I set it aside, backed up, and dug out the blowtorch. Just before I ignited it, I heard another scream of pain. I flinched at the sound of it, turning my gaze back down the pile to see that the generator had begun to whir and operate.

The crank wheel connecting the chains to Sawyer’s ankles was beginning to rotate, slowly stretching his legs from his body. His face was twisted in a pain I couldn’t begin to imagine. Nash and Gemma were screaming for the Junkers to stop, but they continued to approach Sawyer’s legs with large, serrated knives.

My heart jumped to my throat. Once Sawyer’s joints were torn from their sockets, they would cut through his flesh. It would be easier than sawing through the bone.

I whirled around and ignited the blowtorch, then pushed the flame against the drenched tires.

The fire devoured the gasoline and began licking the tires. I shut off the blowtorch and scrambled down the scrap pile, still out of sight but no longer caring if I was heard. It wasn’t long before I heard the Junkers shouting their confusion. I nearly tumbled down the scrap pile, but soon found myself on the ground just behind the burning pile. I jumped when the tires exploded with a sharp
bang!
I looked over my shoulder to see that the fire was burning brightly now, spreading through the pile and sending plumes of smoke into the darkening sky. I raised my head higher to gaze at the
Behemoth
. It was a cruel irony to know that I was waiting for them to start the next part of my plan, especially if they were looking for me.