The Wounded

I did what I was told. I would have been confused if I could bring myself to care. He lifted her body gently and slid the curtain under her middle. She bent in a disgustingly u

Everything quickened. My breath, my movements. Deshi wrapped her together tightly and tried to speak again. This time, I tried really hard to listen.

“There’s a chance we can save her, but we need to be fast. Joseph, look at me,” Deshi said, his dark eyes intense. “Why do you think they wanted me in the first place?”

I blinked and ran my hand through my hair. I felt stupid. Nothing was getting through.

“They forced me to rebuild the healer.”

The realization hit me hard. I snapped Rosa up, trying to ignore how much lighter she felt in my arms. How very cold she was.

Deshi ran ahead. I followed, my eyes forward. Because when I looked down at her head lolling around at the bounce of my steps, I thought I would vomit. This was not meant to happen. I wanted to go back to that moment, put myself between her body and the blade, not the other way around.

He turned down corridors and up some stairs. All I could hear was the drum of my blood in my ears, and the drum of our feet on the tiled floors.

When we hit a dead end, Deshi swore, typing a password into the keypad by the door, a single red light blinking over and over. “C’mon, work, work…” he said.

We watched as the light flashed red and then green, the seal of the door opening with a sucking sound.

*****

The machine was the same as the one from home. I placed her gently on the slab and started inserting needles in her skin, as many as I could find. I tried to pretend she was sleeping, but it didn’t work. I knew this might not work.

The glass coffin wobbled and lowered. I urged it to hurry up. They would be coming soon.

“Block the door!” Deshi yelled as he quickly pried open Rosa’s cold, stiff hand and pressed two pills into her palm, closing it over roughly.

I grabbed a chair and shoved it under the door handle, turning to see the glass close over her body. A glass coffin for this nightmare fairytale. Deshi was frantically typing and pushing buttons at the control panel, his eyes darting towards the blocked door.

He slammed down a final key and then looked at me, his eyes apologetic but fierce. “We have to go.”

I shook my head. “No. I’m not leaving her. I can’t.” I pressed my hands to the glass separating us. The machine started whirring in the background.

Deshi grabbed my arm and pulled. “What about Orry?”

I shook my head; my legs were cemented to the floor. Deshi sighed harshly. “Rosa didn’t throw herself on that knife so both of you could die and leave Orry an orphan.”

The machine clicked. I imagined the door started vibrating from people pushing it from the outside, but it was silent. Dead silent like my girl, lying in front of me.

“Oh God.” I put my hand to my forehead. “But I won’t know. I won’t know if she lives or dies.”

Deshi gave me a half-smile, but I knew he wasn’t sure either. “This is Rosa we’re talking about.”

I laughed. Because I knew as soon as I left that room, the grief would crush me. But at that moment, I could believe that she might live and that if she lived, she would somehow find her way back to me.

We ran to the window behind the control panel and kicked it in, just as blinding light sparked and swirled around Rosa’s body like a miniature storm. My blood red handprints turned black as the light got brighter.

Deshi pushed me through the window, the night air pricking the hairs on my arms. But I couldn’t feel the cold. I couldn’t feel anything.

JOSEPH

From this height, we could see the whole compound spread before us like the segments of a pie. Este’s slice was crowded compared to the other three. They looked more like Salim had described. Open, grassy green mounds separated by low, stone walls, demarcating each Superior's section of land. Desh’s hands were in my back, and he pushed me gently.

“We need to move now,” he said in a coarse whisper.

I blinked away the stray tears that seemed to be making their way down my face and jumped to the veranda and then the ground below, Desh right behind me. I stood in the garden, the grass wet with dew. I could have stayed there. Let the guards, who I was sure were on their way, take me. Desh’s long legs clipped my shoulder as he fell off the roof. I looked down at him and tried to remember. Orry. I had to get home to Orry. But fear seized me. When I saw him, I’d have to explain to him that his mother was not coming home. I froze in the grass, like one of the concrete statues.

Desh shook me. “This way.” He pulled me through the garden, the light from inside casting lines over the bushes in the shape of the iron-framed windows. I didn’t look back. I didn’t need to. The images of what lay in that room were burned in my brain.

I followed Deshi like a robot. My emotions shoved deep down.

We moved silently through the garden. Wet leaves smacked my face. It should’ve stung, but I was numb to it. We didn’t speak. Talking would take us both under. Desh led us away from Este’s compound and into another piece of the pie.

“We’ll go through Sekimbo’s grounds,” he said. “He’s always too drunk to notice what’s going on. His guards often join him at this time of night. And Grant, well, Grant will take his time. Calculating bastard.”

I grunted, a very real pain throbbing in my hollow chest. If she lived, she would wake up and find me gone. She would think I deserted her. I stopped and turned around.

“Oh no, you don’t,” Desh remarked, grabbing my shoulder with his thin hand and dragging me forward. I didn’t fight him very hard. I was lost. Being pulled between my son and Rosa was slowly breaking me into two useless pieces.

We used the border wall as a guide. There was no sign of anybody until we got close to Sekimbo’s house. Drunken laughter spilled out the windows, men shouting raucously and women giggling. We ran around the outskirts of his exotic-looking garden. Strange, spiky-looking plants shot out of sandy ground. I reached out to touch one. Rosa would have loved this. It pricked my hand, and I withdrew. There was no one guarding the gates leading towards the outer wall. Desh sca

“You saw her, she’s nuts! She loves the technology but doesn’t trust it.”

My mind flashed back to that first meeting with Rosa. I’d held her wrist, turning it slowly to scan at the clunky sca

Desh tugged at my sleeve. “Joe, keep moving,” he said between pants. “Just keep moving.”

I trudged forward, my footsteps punishing the earth. And as I stared down at my boot print like it wasn’t my own, the alarm sounded. The same sound the old megaphones made in Pau. It was a high-pitched warning that used to summon us to the center circle. This time it was alerting everyone to the scene at Este’s compound.

Desh cursed under his breath. But this would work in our favor. If everyone was heading towards Este’s, then there would be fewer guards to face on this side. Again, I felt the pull to go back. We ran through a crop of some sort; it smelled sweet. Sticky, green tendrils kept grabbing at my legs. The last gate to pass through glinted in the moonlight. I nodded to myself and swung around, just as the gate in front of us creaked open. Desh jumped into the plants. I just stood there, my rage heating up inside me.