Twell and the Rebellion (23 page)

I pushed through the
students towards the podium. I knew it was only a matter of time
before our leaders would allow such a scene of unreined emotion
before putting a stop to it, and I was right. Maza appeared,
followed by two-dozen officers, marching through the room with
straight shoulders and purpose. Climbing onto the stage, her voice
soon rang out across the room. It pierced through the panic with
authority and for once, I was almost glad to hear her voice, still
calm and assured, taking back control. “Cadets, be still and
listen!”

A hush fell in a heartbeat.
Everyone surged forward towards the podium, pressing in around me
from all sides. All we wanted, after all, was answers to our fears
and direction as to what was going to happen now.

“The Abwarzians have retreated
today, but they made their message loud and clear. They want a new
war and for the second time in history, they have shown they are
not afraid to lose some of their own to achieve it. They have not
evolved since the first war and their increasing desperation for
fresh water will make them do drastic and barbaric things to get
our attention and achieve their purpose.” Maza paused for a moment,
letting the weight of her words settle over us all before she
continued. “Well, they have our full attention and next time we
will be ready for them because we have weapons they don’t know
about...and those weapons are you.”

A chill crawled heavily into my
heart. The hope of Comian citizens was mostly crammed into this one
hall and I wondered if we could ever be enough, despite our
abilities.

“We will be sending our regular
soldiers today to begin our counter attack. You will all need to
complete your training by the end of this moon because the time to
fight has come sooner than we had hoped.”

The end of the moon would be a
marker of my transformation from cadet to soldier. There would be
no turning back if I passed all the tests. I would be going to war.
Gasps of realization and fear surrounded me and a wave of nausea
hit me as beads of sweat broke out on my forehead. I clenched my
hands tightly to my sides, the slight sting of my nails biting my
palms tying me to reality in a situation that felt surreal.

“Why can’t we fight back
now? We’re ready!” someone shouted. A chorus of feverish agreement
ensued. After what I’d seen today, the metallic scent of blood
still lingering in my nostrils, I couldn’t imagine the point of
going back to training either. Our enemies had initiated another
devastating blow to our people, and I wanted to fight back. The
realization struck me with force and I gasped. I wanted to hurt
them. I wanted revenge, as though the fervour of their bloodlust
was contagious. We called ourselves a peaceful nation, but as soon
as we were provoked, we were preparing to retaliate. Were we as
willing to spill blood as they were? Or had they truly left us with
no choice but to defend ourselves?

“You will fight soon enough, but
you must finish your training so you can be as prepared as
possible. You’ll need all your wits about you to fight the
Abwarzians, they are cunning and their weapons are superior to
ours. We need to ensure your powers can be even more effective than
their armoury.”

There was a murmur of
discontent, but no one argued any further. If it meant the
difference between life and death, we couldn’t afford to let our
emotions overrule our common sense.

“DNA samples have
confirmed whom of our people died at the hands of our enemies
today,” Maza continued. “If you had family who worked there I will
need you to report to the recreation room now. You may bring your
partner if they are here.”

The ice working its way through
my veins made my whole body freeze to the spot. The pressure of my
nails sliced into my skin, the pain somehow grounding me and
containing my rising hysteria.

“Everyone else is to remain here
for midday meal and then you will return to an accelerated level of
training. Please remain calm and focused. They have hurt us today
but we will fight tomorrow and I have total faith you will change
the course of history this time. You are special and you are
valuable. Together we will overcome our enemies.”

I had to hand it to the woman;
she knew how to deliver one heck of a speech. Order had been
restored, although the easy banter of this morning was now replaced
by an oppressing unease visible on everyone’s faces. It seemed
incredible to me that anyone could think of eating when I was about
to find out if my guardian had been murdered. Feeling completely
alone in the midst of so many, I began the nerve-wracking walk to
the recreation room, my legs beginning to shake again. There was
absolute silence in the hall and walking to the room felt like
walking to a funeral, everyone mute with respect for the dead.

Eighteen other cadets sat in the
rec room when I arrived and it wasn’t hard to tell which of the
partners were the ones whose family might be affected, because
their faces were as white as the Comian sands. Some clung
unashamedly to their matches, while the more reserved only went as
far as to politely hold hands, their pale pinched faces the
indicator of their distress.

Mira sliced sharply through my
line of vision without warning. “Twell, I came to see if you are
okay. You know, your guardian…”

I looked at her with
appreciation. She knew what loss felt like, even if we weren’t ever
going to be besties. Appreciation for her empathy was momentarily
comforting.

“I’m waiting to find out.” The
words came out like my voice had been grated against glass and
Mira’s expression darkened with understanding. Then I started as if
I’d been slapped. “I’ll call her!” I cried, the sudden adrenalin
making my chest squeeze tightly. “Why didn’t I think of that
earlier?”

“Twell I don’t think tha…”
Mira trailed off, but I wasn’t listening, my fingers shaking and
stumbling over my wristband until I managed to locate Shay’s
contact code. I watched without breathing while her face appeared
in my screen from a picture I’d snapped several moons ago. Her
gentle features crinkled with her familiar smile, while her eyes
were as warm as they were in life. But the image stayed frozen,
gazing patiently at me while time dragged unbearably on.

Eventually Mira closed her hand
over my shaking wrist and disconnected the contact. “Don’t panic
yet,” I heard her say, a perfect echo of Avin’s earlier words,
while my stomach lurched. I fought to control my breathing, which
was becoming more shallow and fast with my rising hysteria.

“Twell Anar?” an officer
approached me, his eyebrows rising in a question mark. I stared at
him and forgot I could speak.

“Yes, officer?” Mira answered
for me by pushing me forward.

“Please follow me.” He swung
away, forcing me to follow stiffly on legs that were not my own. I
stumbled after him into a large round office and stopped when the
officer halted me and shut the door behind me. The room was
sparsely furnished and quiet. Right in the exact centre sat Officer
Maza, regarding me calmly behind a huge glass desk. The soft light
filtered through the glass ceiling and touched the room with a
muted glow that momentarily made even Maza appear softer and less
intimidating than I’d seen her so far. The peace and light stood in
bizarre contrast to the darkness and death I’d faced within the
same day.

Then Maza spoke and the
abruptness of her tone cut through the serenity of the room. “I
won’t dance around the facts. Your guardian and five others
employees are missing and presumed dead,” Maza said without
emotion.

“M…m…missing?” My emotions rose
with relief then plummeted with dread all at once.

“Yes, her DNA has not been
identified on any of the corpses, yet we know she signed in to the
base two mornings ago and did not sign out again.”

“So she could be alive?” I
ignored her first statement entirely as wild hope whooshed through
my veins.

“There is little hope of
that and if she is, you would be better to wish her dead.” Maza’s
reply cut into me like a shard of glass, and I swayed as a wave of
nausea washed over me.

“Are you implying she’s been
taken prisoner?”

“There is no other obvious
conclusion,” Maza replied bluntly. “She has a vast knowledge of
their world, as well as confidential and highly classified
knowledge of Como that only a handful of other specialists share.
She’s a valuable bargaining tool, so I’m certain we shall hear soon
enough if she’s in their custody.”

“So there’s some hope.” My voice
sounded so raw and dry with fear it was almost unrecognizable.

“As I have previously stated,
this would be a fate worse than death for her,” Maza barked
unsympathetically. “You know from your studies the Abwarzians
prefer torture to questioning.”

Even as a child, I’d
always understood that Shay was one of the smartest women on Como.
Although she told me little about her career, I’d seen the fatigue
in her face many nights when she’d come home from work, the burden
of her secrets strained across her face. Now I had no idea what had
become of her. As I stood in Maza’s office, the things Shay had
taught me about the Abwarzians came screaming back in a montage of
horror, draining all the blood from my body. I knew the methods of
torture they imparted on their prisoners and they merged in my mind
with the images of carnage they’d inflicted on our cities. I’d seen
their weapons; the nuclear horrors that could melt the flesh off
our bones while we were still standing. They were images I was
never supposed to see because our Governing Body tried to control
the fear of our people. They had rebuilt our world in a way that
covered up the truth and justified it by calling it
‘
protecting
us
.’ But I’d been exposed to the
truth,
and now the memory of their evil weapons flashed
through my brain. The jets of acid, the fire guns…the images
screeched on and on through my frantic mind.
Then, of course, I saw Shay being tortured, screaming for
mercy as they hurt her. My throat tightened until I gasped for air.
I could see her, see her begging for me to save her, imploring me
with agonized eyes. Every moment I delayed was a moment longer she
suffered, a moment lost where I could save her.

It was too much. The
gravity and shock of the entire day hit me with one heavy blow and
I let out an anguished cry so deep and raw I didn’t identify the
sound as my own. The room spun away from me, a loud overwhelming
roar like rushing water filling my ears. I saw the door burst open
and Jonaz darting towards me, pushing past the officer who’d
escorted me in. I heard Maza’s muffled roar and Jonaz’s own voice
rising in retaliation, as though they were in another room and I
was listening through the thickest wall. Then I couldn’t see
anything, as the light left my eyes and I let myself fall. The last
thing I felt was Jonaz catching me in his arms, and for the first
time in my life, I fainted.

Chapter
Ten

I’ve always considered
myself a reasonably tough sort of girl. I never cry over silly
girly things. I rarely cry at all. I have a high pain threshold and
creepy crawlies don’t bother me…much. But one thing I have
never
done
is faint. Not even when Raze tried to kill me. I simply lost
consciousness from blood loss, which is totally different and,
therefore, no fault of my own. Needless to say, I was extremely
mortified when I came to. I was also disorientated because I’d been
moved.

“You’re in the medical
facility,” a voice murmured gently somewhere to the left of me. It
was dark, darker than my sleeping quarters, with no windows to let
in the moon. It was also silent and I realized I was in a small
room by myself. Well, not exactly by myself at that moment. His
fingers stroked gently through my hair and I turned my head towards
him until he came into focus. Jonaz’s dark eyes were fixed on me
intently. It seemed incredible I’d ever perceived them as black
when in fact, once I got close enough, I realized they were the
deepest, richest brown with faint flecks of gold. Tonight they
stood out even more against his skin, which seemed paler than usual
and his eyes were ringed with dark bruises of fatigue.

“
How long have I been
out?” I moaned.

“
It’s nearly tomorrow.”
Jonaz smiled slightly.

“
Did they let you stay
with me all night?”

“
Hardly.” Jonaz smirked.
“Sazika snuck in and timed their shifts for me. I have till dawn
before someone checks on you again.”

“
Sazika helped
you?”

“
I’ve had quite a bit of
help from Sazika.” Jonaz grinned. “She’s been assisting me a lot of
late.”

I’d had an inkling she might
have been involved in the shower visit, but I hadn’t had the
opportunity to ask her. I really owed that girl.

“
You caught me.” I
remembered. “Did you get in trouble?”

“They gave me an
allowance
under the circumstances.”

“
What if we get caught
now?” I frowned.

“
What can they do? Ban us
from seeing each other again?” Jonaz shrugged.

“
They could expel us from
the army,” I reminded him.

“
I don’t think they will.”
Jonaz’s tone turned thoughtful. “I think they’re focused on bigger
things and under the circumstances, I’m sure they’ll understand why
I’d be here with you.”

“
Or they’ll make a final
example of us in some publicly shameful way,” I
muttered.