The Abyss (The Island Book 3) Page 4

  “Okay, calm down,” Carmichael says, holding his hands up as if to show that he doesn't have a weapon. After a moment he takes another step toward Eve, who immediately turns and aims the gun at him.

  “It hurts!” Nissa sobs. “Please, Iris...”

  I raise my right hand, telling her to wait.

  “So why don't you tell us what you're doing here?” Carmichael asks, taking another step toward the woman. “It's not like we get new arrivals every day, and especially not by boat.”

  Eve aims her gun briefly at Ripley, and then turns it toward Carmichael. She knows she's outnumbered, and I'm starting to think she's not as confident as she wants us to believe.

  “This isn't an accident, is it?” Carmichael continues, with his hands still raised. “You must've come here deliberately, and you must've expected to meet people once you got here. So what was your plan? To take a scared little girl hostage? Okay, well, you've achieved that, but now what? What do you want?”

  “I'm here to find someone,” she explains. “Someone who was sent here a long time ago.”

  “Odds are,” Carmichael replies, “that someone's dead.”

  “I reckon she'd have as good a chance as anyone,” Eve continues. “Even without her memories, she'd be a match for pretty much anyone she met. No offense, but most of the people who were sent to this island were wastrels and idiots. But Asher...”

  Carmichael and Ripley both turn to look at me, and a moment later Nissa opens her eyes. She recognized her mother's name.

  “You came for Asher?” Carmichael says after a moment, his voice filled with uncertainty.

  “Do you know her?” Eve asks. “Do you know that name?”

  Carmichael turns to me again.

  “I see it in your eyes,” Eve continues, “you do know her. So where is she? What -”

  Suddenly Ripley lunges at her, grabbing her arm and cracking her wrist against the side of the boat. Eve fights back, slamming Nissa into the deck and then swinging at Ripley, but Carmichael rushes at her and starts pulling her away. The gun fires once into the sky before falling from Eve's hand and hitting the deck. I quickly grab the weapon before hurrying forward and trying to pull Nissa away from the fight. At that moment, however, Eve manages to slam her elbow into Ripley's face, before turning and punching Carmichael and then kicking Nissa hard.

  I raise the gun, aiming at Eve's face just as she turns to me.

  “You wouldn't shoot,” she gasps angrily. “You don't have the guts!”

  Chapter Eight

  Asher

  Many years ago

  Mads' remaining eye is twitching in its socket, although now I can see several small cameras arranged in a circle on the bloodied bone of her forehead.

  “Extraction activated,” a calm voice says, speaking from a speaker embedded in her neck. “Asher, why didn't you save me?”

  “No,” I gasp, “I -”

  “Why didn't you save me?” she scream, lunging at me and grabbing the sides of my head. “Why did you let me die?”

  “Mads, no!” I shout, suddenly sitting up and finding that I'm in a med lab bed with various wires running from my body, connecting me to machines and scanners on the wall.

  “Easy, there,” a nurse says, placing a hand on my shoulder. “Welcome back to the world.”

  “Where am I?” I gasp, looking around and seeing more machines. It takes a moment, but finally I realize that I must be back at the unit's main base. “How did I get here?”

  “You were evacuated from the combat zone,” the nurse explains calmly. “You're a very lucky young woman. A reconnaissance team found you while they were searching for... Oh, I don't remember, they told me but it slipped my mind. Anyway, they found you unconscious out there and they brought you back with them.”

  “Mads,” I whisper, as I feel a rush of panic rising through my chest. “Where's Mads?”

  “I'm sorry, I don't know who you're talking about.”

  “Mads is my friend,” I reply, “she -”

  Before I can finish, I remember the sight of her scraping her own flesh away and revealing the computer system attached to her skull. I tell myself that must have been a nightmare, that it can't possible have happened, but the image keep replaying over and over in my mind until I realize that I've begun to zone out. Turning and looking across the room, I see that the nurse is opening some small plastic packets and dropping what look like pills into a cup.

  “The war,” I whisper, “is it... Is it over?”

  “Over?” She glances at me with a faint smile. “Of course not. You just got evacuated, that's all. There are still plenty of other people out there.”

  “What about my unit?” I ask. “Please, you have to find out for me! I need to know about Mads and Harold and Collins and all the others!”

  “I don't know anything about units,” she replies, but I can see a hint of sorrow in her eyes, almost as if she's hiding some bad news from me. “My job is to help you recover from your injuries. Which, by the way, necessitated a fresh pair of lungs as well as some serious skin growth treatments. You were badly burned.”

  “I was?”

  Looking down at my hands, I see that the skin around my right wrist is bright red. I pull the sleeve of my hospital gown up to the elbow, and sure enough there's a plastic gel wrap around my arm. I know enough to understand that I must have suffered serious burns, and I can just about see pink flesh beneath the wrap's translucent surface.

  “So how good are you at relaxing?” the nurse asks. “On a scale of one to ten, I mean.”

  “When I'm in the middle of a war and I don't know whether my friends are still alive?” I reply. “What the hell do you think?”

  “I think you should take these,” she explains, bringing the cup of pills over and handing them to me. “Are you hungry?”

  Looking into the cup, I see that there are half a dozen pills and tablets of varying sizes, shapes and color. The sight of them makes me nauseous, although I know from experience that there's no point trying to resist. When these people want to put something inside you, they always get their way.

  So that's why, with a trembling hand, I take the cup.

  “I'll fetch you some water,” the nurse says with a smile, “and -”

  “Asher!”

  Turning, I'm shocked to see Harold limping into the room, leaning heavily on a set of crutches. There are stitches running across his cheek and his left foot is heavily bandaged, but he hurries over to me and immediately leans close to give me a hug. Ignoring the wires and tubes that run in and out of me, I hug him back, while taking care not to drop the cup of pills.

  “I couldn't believe it when they said you'd made it back!” he sobs, hugging me tighter and tighter. “I was so sure you'd been lost out there.”

  “We got separated from the rest of the unit,” I reply, still shocked by his sudden return. I watch as the nurse leaves the room, and then finally Harold pulls back from the hug. “It was just me and Mads out there.”

  “I don't even know what happened,” he says, taking a moment to disentangle himself from my various wires. “I swear, once we hit the ground, it was just chaotic. The plan fell apart within minutes and it became a free-for-all. I think we must have lost half a mile by the time the first hour was up.”

  “Do you know where Mads is?” I ask.

  “Mads?”

  He hesitates, and I can see the sadness in his eyes.

  “Asher,” he continues finally, “didn't they tell you already? Mads didn't make it.”

  “Yeah, she did,” I reply, struggling to hold back tears. “She was hurt, her face...”

  Pausing for a moment, I think back to the sight of her bloodied skull.

  “It was still her,” I continue, “and -”

  “Asher, listen to me,” he says firmly, taking my hands and squeezing them tight. “I think I can guess what you saw. I spoke to someone who knows someone. Whatever came back from the battlefield, it's not Mads. As soon as her body retur
ned, the computer elements are stripped from her bones -”

  “No,” I reply, shaking my head.

  “They'll be reused,” he continues, “but Mads' body has been disposed of. There was nothing more they could have done for her.”

  “No,” I say again, “you're lying. Or you're wrong.”

  “I know what I'm talking about, Asher,” he says with a sigh. “I've worked in that department before, remember? I've seen it with other bodies, I know the procedure.”

  I shake my head.

  “Denying it won't make it any less real!” he snaps. “Get a grip!”

  “She was talking to me,” I continue. “She was begging me to...”

  My voice trails off as I think back to the way Mads was pleading with me to kill her. She must have known that the system in her body would get rid of the flesh, in order to improve its chance of getting back to the unit's base. She must have realized that she was about to get scraped away from her own bones. I remember the sound of her scream cutting off dead.

  “You have to stay in reality here,” Harold says after a moment. “No amount of denial is going to bring Mads back. Nothing can do that.”

  “How did I survive?” I whisper, replaying the final moments with Mads over and over again. “Why did I survive, and why did she die?”

  “There's a one-word answer to that question,” Harold replies, still holding my hands tight. “And do you know what that word is?”

  I shake my head, as tears stream down my face.

  He leans close and kisses me gently on the forehead, and then he whispers the word.

  “Luck.”

  Chapter Nine

  Iris

  Today

  “Keep moving!” Ripley hisses, shoving Eve forward and causing her to stumble as she's led through the forest. “You won't last long here if you can't even handle a short hike.”

  “I don't plan on lasting long here,” Eve sneers, turning to glance at me. “I've come for Asher, and what happens after that is none of your business. I'm only -”

  “Move!” Ripley shouts, pushing her again and this time causing her to drop to her knees.

  Grabbing Eve's collar, Ripley hauls her back onto her feet and pushes her forward.

  This time Eve stumbles but doesn't fall, although she mutters something under her breath.

  Carmichael is a few steps behind them, with the gun raised and aimed at the back of Eve's head.

  Falling back from them a little, I look down at Nissa. She's clutching my hand tight, while watching Eve with an expression of pure fear. In the struggle back at the boat, she ended up getting her face bashed against the floor twice, leaving her with a bloodied wound on her right cheek. I tried to take a look at the damage, but she was sobbing and eventually I figured that Olivia can check it out once we get back to Steadfall. The physical damage should heal soon enough, but I'm more worried about Nissa's emotional state.

  On the way to the boat, she was a cocky, slightly over-the-top nine-year-old girl with attitude.

  Now she's almost like a zombie. She seems terrified. I don't blame her, not after her experience just now, but I'm worried she might not snap back to her old self.

  Suddenly she stops, and I stop with her.

  Holding my right hand up, I make a circle, which is my way of asking her what's wrong?

  She stares at the others for a moment as they continue to walk toward Steadfall, and then she looks up at me.

  I wait, but she remains silent. Usually, Nissa speaks so fast, it's difficult to hear what she's saying. I've never seen her like this before.

  “She mentioned my mother,” she says finally. “She said she came to take Asher back. Why would she do that?”

  I pause, before shrugging.

  “Why didn't you tell her that she's dead?” she asks.

  I shrug again, even though this time a shrug feels wholly inappropriate. It's just my way of telling her that I don't know the answer right now.

  “Why would someone come all the way across the ocean,” she continues, “just to get my mother? You told me Asher was good at things, but other people are good at things too. It doesn't make sense why that woman would come here just for her, not unless...”

  Her voice trails off, and she seems hesitant about completing that sentence.

  “Is there something you haven't told me about her?” she asks finally.

  I shake my head, even though there's plenty I haven't told Nissa about her mother. I've told her the things she needs to know, but I've held a lot back.

  “Are you going to tell her that she's dead?” she continues. “You have to, don't you? If you don't, she'll just wonder where she is.”

  I pause, before nodding.

  “And if you tell her that she's dead,” she whispers, “then you have to tell her how it happened. And then you have to tell me too, don't you? Because I know it was during childbirth, but I still don't know exactly why or how.”

  I don't know how to respond to that question, so I simply place a hand on her shoulder. Nissa's a smart girl, but I don't believe for one second that she's ready to know the truth about how she came into the world, or about what happened to Asher. That's a can that I've been kicking down the road for years now, and I'm not ready to admit the truth. Not to Nissa, and not to the rest of Steadfall. Besides, I don't even know how I'd begin to explain it all.

  Finally I pull on her hand, hoping to get her moving again, but she stands her ground. This time, I realize that she's looking past me.

  Turning, I see that Carmichael and Ripley are still leading Eve back toward Steadfall. When I turn back to Nissa, however, I see tears in her eyes.

  “Are they going to tell people?” she asks.

  I furrow my brow.

  “About what happened on the boat,” she continues, and now her bottom lip is trembling again. “I let someone capture me, and then I got scared and I messed myself like a little girl. Are they going to tell everyone? Will everyone at Steadfall laugh at me?”

  I shake my head.

  “But what if they do?” she whimpers. “What if everyone finds out what happened, and they all think I'm just some stupid idiot?”

  Again, I shake my head. I wish I could say something, I wish I could make her feel better and convince her that everyone will be far too busy worrying about the newcomer, but all I can manage are a few broad hand gestures. Maybe now that Nissa is getting older, she's going to need to be guided by someone who's able to talk to her properly.

  “I'm sorry!” she sobs suddenly, putting her arms around me and hugging me tight. “I'm sorry I let you down!”

  I shake my head, but I don't even know if she realizes.

  “I was supposed to be brave,” she continue, still hugging me, “and instead I nearly got us killed. I thought I checked the cabin and that there wasn't anyone there, but that woman must have been hiding somewhere I didn't look. It's my fault she managed to attack us, Iris!”

  Again, I shake my head.

  She's still sobbing, however, and I honestly don't know how to make her feel better. I put my arms around her and reciprocate her hug, but deep down I'm starting to feel wholly inadequate. When we get back to Steadfall, I'm going to have to get Olivia or somebody else to talk to Nissa and explain why she has no reason to apologize. When it comes to discussions, I can manage the broad strokes, but Nissa needs someone who get down into the nitty-gritty, and that's definitely not going to be me.

  And then, just as I'm about to pull away from the hug, I spot a figure watching us in the distance.

  Just a silhouette, standing at the top of a hill.

  I knew she'd be close. I knew she'd be watching. I also know that she's going to want to know everything about the woman who just arrived on that boat.

  Chapter Ten

  Asher

  Many years ago

  “You're doing well,” the physio says as I try to support myself on the metal bars. “Don't push too hard and too fast, and you'll be recovered in no time.”<
br />
  “I'm recovered already,” I reply, letting go of the bars and limping forward. “See? I can walk just fine.”

  “Your ankle's broken,” he points out. “You're on a lot of pain-killers, but if you want the ankle to heal properly, you need to do proper physio.”

  “I don't have time for this!” I tell him with a sigh. “I need -”

  “Asher, do as you're told,” Harold replies, still watching from a seat in the far end of the room. “I'm pretty sure this gentleman isn't here because he wants the pleasure of your company. He's been assigned to help you so that -”

  “So that I can be sent to fight again?” I snap, turning to him.

  “No-one's going to force you to fight,” he replies. “I told you, we've been offered an early discharge and a mind-wipe after what happened out at Talton V. Believe it or not, we did so well, some people are acting like we're heroes.”

  “I'm no hero,” I mutter darkly.

  “Oh, I know that,” Harold continues. “Believe me, I know that better than anyone. You and I survived through sheer, dumb luck.”

  “And is that why Mads and the others died, too?” I ask. “Sheer dumb luck?”

  “I'll leave you two alone for a moment,” the physio says, turning and heading out of the room.

  “Well,” Harold continues with a smile, as he gets to his feet, “I guess we succeeded in making that poor sucker feel uncomfortable.” He comes over to join me. “There's no way in hell I'm going back to war. I've already accepted the out, and I've been offered a decent job in government. Believe it or not, I think I can rise pretty high.”

  “You're selling out?”

  “I'm buying in.”

  “To the propaganda.”

  “I'm not getting my memories wiped,” he continues. “They've offered, more than once, but I told them I want to remember. Then again, I was relatively lucky. I didn't see some of the more traumatic things.” He eyes me with concern for a moment. “I didn't see my friend, and lover, get scraped off the outside of an augmented skeletal system. That's gotta be nightmare fuel and -”