The Supremacy (4 page)

Chapter Five
Declan motioned for the driver to exit the bus in front of him, leaving me with the cloaked man that was slowly unlatching the lock to the gate. I stood once he pulled the metal ends apart, waiting for my instruction to leave the bus, but he surprised me when he pushed me back into my seat, “I have explicit instructions for you to stay put.” He ordered brusquely.
It was shocking, as a Keeper, he had no reason to clarify his actions to me. He could have easily just subdued me with a shock or shackled me back to my seat.
One by one, the bus was unloaded and my breath caught when I saw John. It took everything in my power to stay in my seat. The Keeper watched me intently, noting how my eyes scanned over John’s body, checking for any lingering wound that Declan might have inflicted upon him.
“I’ll be fine, Rin.” He whispered as he passed. “It’s
you
that I am worried about.”
“Keep moving!” The Keeper ordered before slamming the heel of his boot into John’s back, causing him to jolt forward. 
“I am so sorry, John.” I whispered to him as he shuffled away from me and out the door.
The Keeper dragged me from my seat once everyone else exited.
The midafternoon sunlight was blinding when I stepped out of the dark bus. Once the brilliant glare of the blaring sun waned, the sight that faced me nearly doubled me over in shock. I was so frightened, it was nearly numbing. The buzzing that began in my ears was deafening, and soon my head began to swim.
Hundreds if not
thousands
of others were gathered in what could only be described as a corral.
We were all packed in like animals, surrounded and detained in a small lot by towering cement walls and razor wire. This was not a school.
With an unyielding fist to the small of my back, the Keeper pushed me forward, effectively waking me from my stupor.
I searched for John, as I walked where the Keeper guided me, and I soon found him standing on the outskirts of the gathering. The screeching sound of a microphone sounded over the roar of the herd gathered, affectively piercing the ominous air around us. The Keeper stopped walking, halting me with a firm hold on my back, and we all looked to the stage that stood at the front of the confinement. “Good afternoon!” The same brash voice that I heard over Declan’s radio addressed the crowd in front of him. “I am
thrilled
at the wonderful turn out that we have.” He smiled out towards us, his eyes scanning the gathering, “But before we sort all of you into your respective houses, we must first mark you.”
Just then, I spotted Declan stepping up beside him, Tarant, I think is what he called him, and once again, Declan’s penetrating glare found me.
“We will do this in the most orderly fashion available to us; you will come up one by one and be marked. And with that being said,” A wicked smile crossed the man’s otherwise passive face, “I
urge
you to comply.”
My stomach felt like an empty pit, my heart lodged itself in my throat as the Keeper behind me pushed me forward. My foot caught on a rock, and I stumbled to the ground, my hands being the only thing that stopped my head from crashing into the gravel beneath our feet. Immediately, I felt a strong hand come up and around my arm, I knew that hand well. It was John. I lifted my head, and in his eyes, I could see every word that he could not say. He was just as terrified as I was. Maybe even more so because I knew the last thing he would do was comply with their demands. I knew that John would fight, and he knew that as well. And by fighting back, he would surely die. 
“Come on,” He smiled at me without the slightest hint of humor in his tormented brown eyes, “might as well get this over with.”
Wobbly, I stood to my feet with the Keeper still at my back, pushing me through the crowd. It didn’t take much effort to reach the podium seeing as how the crowd parted like the Red Sea as we made our way closer to the massive stage.
Why I had to be the first in a crowd so dense was beyond my knowledge. It could have been hours before I had to be marked, but something or
someone
wanted me to be first.
I wished John would fall back, but even
I
knew uttering the words aloud would have been fruitless.
Even with a Keeper at my side, John would not leave me. Whatever happened to him from that moment on would forever be my fault. And that was a knowledge I would always carry with me.
I was guided smoothly to the steps, and Declan’s eyes remained fixated on me from the start. He reached out for my hand with a knowing smile playing across his lips; I hesitated for a split second. It was flight or fight time. I had one Keeper at my back and one to my front. Not to mention what could only be a High Supreme standing in the center of the lectern. There was nowhere to run, and far too many to fight. That probably made me a coward, but it was either comply or die.
My father’s words rang in my ears,
“Never bow your head, Rin. Never lose your sense of freedom. You may die, but you will die with your principles intact.”
What would my father say to me if he could see me now? If he could see what a disappointment his daughter had become?
I watched as Declan’s smile faded and his head began to slowly move side to side. I knew what he was doing, it was a warning, a very subtle warning that only I could make out. He knew what I was thinking, and he knew that I would die.
With my hand in Declan’s iron grip, I climbed the stairs on shaky limbs. My breath hitched seeing the one named Tarant step closer to me. Tarant’s piercing eyes went from mine to Declan’s and back again. With a lazy swoosh of his hand through the air, he motioned for Declan to release, but not before he leaned against his side. I could hear what he whispered but his words did not make sense to me, “I can now see what you meant. This one is everything you promised. Out of an entire crowd, you would think we would have gotten more.” He shook his head in disappointment as he straightened his back and spoke louder so his words could not be mistaken, his gaze floated over my frame, and soon settled impassively on my face, “But we can always make more.” A sinister smile stole his lifeless expression. My back stiffened once he closed the small gap that separated us. Declan’s fist went into my spine, another warning I supposed, and when Tarant motioned for my hand, I stepped forward.
“This won’t hurt for long.” He breathed in a sickly sweet voice that I knew held nothing but disdain. We were animals to The Supremacy, nothing more, and they treated us as such whenever the opportunity arose.
He pulled a syringe from the inside of his long black cloak and nuzzled the piercing end into the crook of my arm. His grip tightened around my hand as he forced the point into my skin. Through the clear lining of the needle, I could see what was being inserted; a small black piece of plastic was being propelled into my body. It could have only been a tracking device. The ‘marker’ he spoke of before.
Once the device found its place in my flesh, the cold hands of Tarant released me, and with a smile, he turned to Declan, “We found our Grade ‘A’ in this one.”
I was steered off the stage by the same Keeper that held a fist to my back from the moment I stepped off the bus. I knew the next to be marked would be John. He had followed me to the lectern; so inevitably, he would be the next in line.
I was stopped in a small clearing when I heard the scuffle break out. I did not want to turn around. I did not want to see them take John down. It would be an image that would be burned into my mind for the rest of my life.
I heard John’s unmistakable scream. When I turned, my eyes met his flailing body. He was flying through the air with Declan’s hand at his throat. Declan had lifted John’s limp form as if he were a rag doll. A scream of my own left my lips, one that I tried to muffle with an outstretched hand.
Declan’s eyes met mine the moment John’s back hit the unforgiving wood of the stage. Was John dead? It looked like it. His chest did not heave for breath. His body did not make a single movement. Declan’s eyes were blazing into mine as I looked from John back to him. He had just killed my best friend. He murdered him with a massive gathering watching. How could one person kill another with so many others watching. How could one person do something so sinister without one coming forward to try to stop them?
I ran to John. I didn’t care what they were going to do to me. If he was dead, I was not about to leave him alone on the cold wood of the stage.
I made it halfway to the stairs before an unyielding hand came around my neck. The Keeper had me pinned to the ground before I had even the slightest chance to struggle. My face was being ground into the rocky earth beneath me. I could taste the blood that trickled out of my broken flesh as he held me still.
“
John
!” I managed the scream even as my head was forced deeper into the rocks beneath me. He was smothering me. The Keeper’s fist ground into the back of my skull, the pain was so immense that I thought he would soon crush it.
I coughed through the blood that began to pool in my mouth, choking off my tortured screams of agony.
My vision started to cloud, going darker and darker until I could see nothing. I could still hear, but the sound was only muffled bits of words.
I could hear Declan’s voice yelling close by, but I could not make out what he was saying. Soon the pressure at the back of my skull ceased. It was a short reprieve for soon I was completely gone. No sight, no sound, I was in the dark, in the infinite obscurity with my only recollection being the sight of my best friend lifeless at the hand of a Keeper.
We all knew our fate long ago. We all knew that one day all of our lives would be taken by the hands of The Supremacy, but that did not make any of it easier to cope with. We had all seen countless of our loved ones taken from us, but John was all that I had left, and now he was gone forever.
My fault. My fault. My fault.
***
I woke disoriented in a room that I did not recognize. My head throbbed an unrelenting the humming in my ears had yet to cease and the coughs of yet to be dispelled blood shook my body. Pulling my head up, I scanned around the room. Dozens of frightened eyes met mine. Hushed whispers came from all around me as they noticed me coming to.
A small voice came from beside me, “Are you okay?”
I turned to look at her. She was young, much younger than I was. Her tiny hand trembled as she placed it on my shoulder, “We had thought they had killed you too.”
Too
. Too, as in, they had killed John.
My
John. A sob left my lips, my body quaking uncontrollably until I collapsed back to the hard, cold, cement floor.
Her small hand caressed my cheek, catching a tear that I had not known had fallen. 
“You were brave.” She smiled, her tiny hand grasping mine in a fierce squeeze, “Much braver than any of us.”
I let my eyes scan the room again, and this time I counted as I went. There were twenty, including me, “Where are we?” I managed to choke out. It was dark and cold. The bodies around me shivered in the darkness, whether from fear or from the chill, I did not know.
“After they marked us,” She showed me her arm that was already beginning to show signs of bruising, “they lead us in here.”
“But where is
here
.” I asked, pulling myself to a sitting position.
Her small frame began to shiver as she looked around the room, “I’m not sure. Everything looks the same out there. Cement wall, floors, small rooms.” She shrugged into the corner and hugged her knees tight to her chest, “I don’t know.”
I crawled after the young girl knowing that it was she that now needed my comforting. I laid her head on my shoulder and caressed her back. It reminded me of how I comforted Trent when his dreams had woken him. How easily my thoughts drifted back to him. I could not stop my mind from thinking of his chubby dimpled face and his infectious carefree laughter as he ran through the meadow that was our backyard. He was so full of life and love, much like the girl that rested on my shoulder. I could see it in her eyes. She was so small; if I had to guess, she was barely ten.
Her arms soon wrapped themselves around my neck, “What are they going to do to us?” She sobbed into the hollow of my throat.
I did not want to lie to her, to give her false hope, but I knew I couldn’t tell her the truth. We were all going to die.
I caressed her wet cheek, “I don’t know.” 
I don’t know how long I sat there rubbing the young girl’s back. It could have only been minutes or it could have been hours. Time did not exist there, only torment. I wondered if that was half the fun for the Keepers. They could watch us waste away right before their eyes. They didn’t have to do much at all, no physical accretion necessary for one of them to kill an entire group of us. Denying even a small glass of water could have done us in.
Soon, we heard the faint sound of echoing footsteps coming from down the hall. Every whisper in the cell ceased into a deafening silence. You could hear nothing but the ominous footfalls coming closure and the
drip, drip
of a leaky old pipe that hung overhead.
I held the girl closer to me, her face burying itself even deeper into my neck. I wanted to take her mind off the noise; I had to say
something
, “What is your name?” I whispered to her as the footsteps grew louder.
“F-faith.” She stammered, her shaking growing stronger.
“Faith.” I echoed happily, “That is a beautiful name. My name is Erin, but you can call me Rin.”