Chapter Fifteen: Flaming Arrows
Copyright © by J. Faith Kenney
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission.
My eyes open slowly to an empty barn. I try to pull myself up, but instantly regret it because of the pain that runs through my whole body. I look down to my wrist, noticing the bruises where the little girl with scars put her hands and sent darkness into me. The bruises are light, but the main bruises are on my bones.
Getting up and out of the barn, I am careful not to touch my wrist on anything, and use my elbows to open the door. Another new feeling besides the pain strikes. It’s like a ball of wind and darkness is going through my whole body. It’s unsettling, like a dead weight.
Kids of all ages from three to fifteen, play a game of football in the yard with Zac. The older kids are on one side, and the younger kids on the other with Zac. The sight brings a smile to my face, and I almost forget the aching pain in my wrist before heading inside to the house.
Tess sits at the table closest to the kitchen talking to Mrs. Abby as she prepares a vegetable and fruit tray. Tess and Mrs. Abby talk like good friends who haven’t seen each other in ages and need time to catch up. Lucas is sitting beside Tess, not saying a word, his face tight from not wanting to be here.
As soon as Mrs. Abby sees me, she smiles. “Good morning, sleepy. Do you want some eggs and some fruit for breakfast?” she asks.
“Um, yeah, that would be nice. Thank you.”
She nods, turning to the stove, and gets right to work making me a plate of food. I take a seat next to Tess, holding in my scream from pulling out the chair. Tess pours me some water out of the pitcher, noticing my bruised wrists with a worried eye. She looks up to my eyes, and I look down to the table, placing my hands in my lap away from her eyes.
Mrs. Abby places a plate of food in front of me and returns back to the kitchen. I look up to Tess, who turns her attention back to Mrs. Abby, and they begin talking again. Feeling Lucas’s eyes on me, I look at him. He just stares at me with a puzzled, angry look. Uncomfortable, I eat my breakfast, unsure where to look.
I only have a couple of bites left when the door to the kitchen bursts open. A little boy crying and holding a scraped, bloody arm comes in.
“Mrs. Abby!” cries the little boy.
She turns and bends down to him with a worried, motherly look in her eyes. “What is wrong?” she asks in her motherly voice.
“I fell, and I-I scraped my elbow,” cries the little boy.
“Oh, okay. Let’s go get it all cleaned up to make it all better.”
“I can do that,” I blurt out, not realizing how desperate I sound until afterward.
Man, I really miss being a Caretender, but I won’t ever be one again. The thought is like a stab to my heart.
Mrs. Abby looks at me and smiles with a nod. She turns back to the little boy. “Thela will help you and make it all better again. She is a Caretender, and I trust her to help you.”
The little boy nods, his lip quivering from the last of his cries. Getting up from the table, I cross to the little boy, grateful to be out of Lucas’s eyes and to be helping someone. He follows me to the bathroom in Mrs. Abby’s room where the first aid kit is. Just like when I was a kid.
He lifts himself up onto the counter for me to get a better view of his arm. It’s only a simple scrape that has broken just enough layers of skin to draw blood. Setting the open first aid kit beside him on the counter, I grab a rubbing alcohol pad and two regular size bandages.
“This might sting a little, but it is only because it is cleaning it out,” I say, using my softer kid friendly voice. “We don’t want it to get infected, because that would be very bad.”
He nods, looking at the scrape and only the scrape. Within a matter of a few seconds, the scrape is clean and the bandages are over it. The little boy stays quiet throughout the whole thing, not even squirming a little bit. A shy grin curls his lip as I finish up and close the first aid kit beside him.
“There you go, it’s as good as new,” I say, taking a step back.
He slides down from the counter, not saying a word, but the shy smile remains on his face. He looks up to me for a second before taking a step forward to give me a hug— a hug that a son would give his mother, and I hug him back.
I know the feeling—hoping, wanting so badly for the connection shared with an adult stranger to be like having a connection to a parent. Every orphan in the back of their mind hopes that their parents will come for them, even though every orphan knows that is only a fantasy.
The little boy pulls away and runs out of the room. I stay where I am, watching him leave and not noticing Zac standing in the doorway. All I can do is soak in the feeling as the few memories go through my head of the same thing, just me as the kid.
Zac moves to stand in front of me, and even then I am still in a little daze. I look up to his face with the smile that says everything will be okay, and I match his.
“Brings back memories. Some good, but the underlying hurt and jealousy is still there,” says Zac in the same daze, having those memories as well.
“Yeah,” I breathe back.
Zac places his hands on my shoulders, giving them a little rub to ease out the tension that I hold without realizing. “Thela, we need to leave, and you know that too.”
“Why?” I say, begging, almost whining—but I know why, and I didn’t need to ask.
He looks out to the bedroom toward the open door on the other side of the room. Zac closes the bathroom door and leans against it before looking at me.
“They will find us, and you and I both know they won’t stop the danger, even with little children around. They will hunt you down just to take you—to hurt you.” Zac’s voice filled with concern as he takes a step closer to me.
Flashes of Zac bleeding out as he lies on the floor in his room go through my mind. It seems so long ago, but the scar it left is fresh, only two weeks old. I look up to him before looking down to the wound covered by his shirt, but I know exactly where it is at.
“And they will kill you,” my words only a whisper, but a quiver runs through them.
Zac nods, his jaw muscle clenching, but not with anger. Fear.
“Zac, let’s go. I don’t want to be the reason so many kids die.” Because Lily would do it. I learned that last night. “We told Mrs. Abby one night, and our one night is up.”
. . .
Within the hour we leave the orphanage after saying our goodbyes. Zac, Tess, and I promise to come and visit again—if we all stay alive. The feeling of leaving the orphanage is cold filled with emptiness, like it is the wrong thing to do. It’s not, it’s the right thing to protect them from the danger that Lily brings. At least, that is what I am telling myself over and over again.
While I am heading up the nonexistent trail back into the depths of the woods, the little girl with scars appears. She follows us—me—and I hope she will go away, but she doesn’t.
We walk in a single line with Zac taking the lead. I keep my head down and my eyes on the ground, mainly so I don’t have to see the little girl with scars, but I still feel her. My nerves are strained with the feeling that something will happen at any given second. Why is she here? I am not telling anyone about my mind, or about her, so to speak.
Panic hits, making my nerves jump on edge, and I know it has nothing to do with me, rather the little girl with scars is forcing it on me. This can’t be good. I try taking a deep breath, hoping to calm my nerves, but that only seems to make them electrified even more.
. . .
Time. So much time has passed of us just walking in what feels like circles. The little girl with scars still lingers around, not budging to leave anytime soon.
My heart starts to pick up pace, and the hair on my arms rises. I look to the little girl with scars, and she only shrugs, placing her pointer finger over her mouth. Zac stops and I almost run into him, not paying any attention.
“Shhh, we are being watched,” Zac says through gritted teeth, not making a single movement.
I look back over to the little girl with scars, but she is nowhere to be found. Of course, this is the time that when I look at her, she is gone, out of sight.
None of us makes a sound. We all just wait for something to happen. I inch toward Zac slowly and reach for the back of his shirt to gain support to help quell my fears. Zac leans back, his muscles tight under his shirt and his biceps tenses. He is trying to protect every one of us, it is in his blood. He is calm though, ready to face any challenges like a true Protecttender.
Rustling in the trees makes all of our blood turn to ice, and we fear what is going to come out. With the passing seconds, the sound grows louder, until a little rabbit comes out and makes my pulse stop completely.
“This is ridiculous!” shouts Lucas with angry annoyance.
He starts walking, and as soon as he takes the first step, an arrow, on fire at one end, lands in one of the trees close to Lucas. Tess screams, getting closer to me as I get closer to Zac.
“GET DOWN!” yells Zac.
With Zac’s words ending, five large men in fur coats come out, pointing their fiery arrows at us. Afraid, Tess and I move even closer, holding each other for safety. Lucas freezes in his spot, his eyes widening at how close the arrow came from going through him. Zac is the only stable one, getting right in front of Tess and me to block us from view with his body.
One of the men steps toward us, laughing, and Tess and I take a step back. Zac stays where he is, not moving an inch or flinching with fear.
“Well, well, well. Look what we have here, boys,” says the man, so close to Zac that I tremble for him. The man’s voice is rough like he smokes a pack of cigarettes every few hours. “It’s our pal, Protecttender Zac.” A roll of laughter goes through the five men, and shivers go through Tess and I.
“Hi, Dal,” Zac says, his natural calm, soothing voice gone.
Tess and I exchange a look of confusion before looking back at Zac's back. How do they know Zac? How does Zac know them?
“So, Dal,” continue Zac. “Have you killed anyone lately? Stolen anything?”
Criminals. Murders.
The main man—Dal—laughs with a snort. “If I did, it’s not like you guys are gonna catch me. I have been doing this business for twenty years without you guys catching me. I have been this way longer than you have been alive.”
Zac nods, his muscles tightening all over. He reaches for his hip where his gun would have been if he were wearing his uniform. Zac rests his hand there, playing it off like he meant to do that. I can’t see his face to tell what he is thinking, but his body language is enough.
This guy—these guys are crazy nuts. They are criminals breaking the law because they want to do so. It pains Zac in a way to do nothing about it right now.
No one is making a sound, not even birds or wild animals, because they know to be quiet. Zac stares at each of the men, and they stare back, deadly, hoping to kill Zac with their eyes—or planning on killing him in real life.
Tess still clings to me, scared to move. I untangle myself from her and take a little step to the side to see the men, but still have the protection of Zac. Their arrows are still pointing at us with fire burning at the ends.
Lucas moves, clearly getting bored, but he doesn’t think about his actions. Three out of the five men shoot at Lucas’s feet, catching him off guard and making him lose his balance. Zac is quicker and catches him before he falls onto an arrow and kills himself.
Zac punches one of the men who shot an arrow, and the whole fight begins. Within seconds someone has a tight hold around my waist, and my feet are off the ground. The person’s long, sticky beard, which hasn’t been washed in months, touches my neck, making me twitch.
I kick and wiggle to get free from the man, but mainly to get the beard off me. Kick, nothing. Kick, nothing. Kick, the man grunts, releasing me as he curls into a ball.
“Thela watch out!” yells Zac or Lucas.
Turning just in time, to see a huge man coming at me with his arrow ready to shoot. He fires it, and I dodge it and pick up an arrow from the man still on the ground. While coming back up, I kick him in his potbelly to give me enough time to shove the base of the arrow at his throat and knock the air out of him.
At the corner of my eye, Tess is being strangled, her face bright as she gasps for air. The man presses down harder, a cruel smile on his face. I try running over to her, but the man regains his breath and picks me up off the ground. His hold on me is so tight, crushing my elbows into my ribs as he grabs my bruised wrist.
“AHHHH,” I scream with the surge of pain that goes through my whole body.
He laughs sickly, enjoying the pain I am in. “I see I can finally make you scream.”
He crushes my elbows harder into my ribs, and I hold in a scream, not giving him the satisfaction he wants. As I squirm to get free, he laughs like a madman and holds me tighter.
The laughing stops suddenly. The pressure loosens up but not for long. It’s replaced by a new pressure, the weight of both of us falling to the ground. My chest hits fist, and the wind is knocked out of me that I can’t replace. The man is at least three hundred pounds and lands on me, crushing any chance for air.
I am surprised I am still conscious or alive at all. Stars dance over my vision, and I barely hear the sharp whistle as another round of arrows goes up into the air. My screams echo in my ears as the warm liquid touches my fingers and runs down the side of me.
Zac comes over to me and shoves the man off of me. He helps me up to my stumbling feet. I look at the man who was on top of me before Zac can divert my eyes. An arrow is through his head, burning his skull and leaving char marks. His eyes and mouth are wide open, but he still looks like a madman even in death.
“Is everyone okay for the most part?” asks Zac.
“Yeah.” Tess’s voice shaky, and I don’t need to look at her to know she is trembling.
“Yeah, I am fine,” hisses Lucas, getting up off the ground.
Zac turns to me, and my eyes are still on the corpse. I don’t need to say or do anything. He already knows I am going to crumble at any second. He pulls me in, wrapping his arms tightly around me and diverting my eyes from looking down to the blood on the scrubs top.
I want to cry, but I hold it in. I hold Zac tightly to feel stable again, to forget the world. To forget the blood on my hand that doesn’t belong to me. Zac doesn’t mind that I wipe my bloody hand on him, he just holds me, bringing me to safety.
Lucas walks over to me and Zac, and points an angry finger at me, his brows furrowed with rage. “This all happened because of you! You didn’t need to escape Lily, because all you are doing is putting us in danger!”
Pulling away from Zac, scowling at him. But before I can say anything, Zac steps in.
“You didn’t need to come if you are gonna play blame games,” hisses Zac, but his voice still even.
“And you,” Lucas says, now pointing his angry finger at Zac, “who the hell are they, and how do you know them? You guys acted like best buddies.”
“We’re not buddies,” Zac says as he swats Lucas’s hand away. “They’re criminals, they want to hurt or kill people because that is what they live for.” Zac looks down to the dirt, his voice dropping. “A couple of months ago, I was assigned to their case. It was me and two other guys with experience with them. One of the guys died with a burning arrow through him. The other was severely injured. He may never be able to work in the field again.”
“Why didn’t you take them right now?” asks Tess, her voice low.
“Take them with what? I have no cuffs, no car, and I can’t even call for backup.” Zac pauses, shooting Tess an apologetic look before he continues. “There are more of them than just five, and I and the two men I was with learned that the hard way. We were trying to take them to prison, and we almost had them, but then more showed up and killed an innocent man.”
“What are they?” I finally ask, finding my voice.
Zac looks down at me while I am still in his arms. “They call themselves the Flaming Arrows, but down at the Protecttender station, we call them the devils. They live and do whatever they please, not caring if they break the law,” Zac states coldly, but not to me. To the group called the Flaming Arrows.
Tess and I nod, looking more terrified than before. Lucas looks confused but still angry.
“We should keep moving,” states Zac, and we all nod and follow him through the woods.
As we leave, the little girl with scars appears. She waves to me, and underneath her scarred lips is a smile. I nod to her, accepting that she is there before bringing my hand to my lips to blow her away, and she disappears. I look down to my wrist. The bruises are vibrant, darker than this morning.
. . .
The sun goes down, and not too long afterward, we stop for the night. The temperature drops at least twenty degrees cooler than what it was during the day. Zac is in the middle of the trees, starting a fire for us so we stay warm.
Tess goes to a few trees down from me as Lucas goes to the tree diagonal from her. He keeps his back to her, making no eye contact with anyone. Might as well see what’s going on. With Tess, not Lucas, he is the main reason we are here and I don’t really know him that well.
As I get up from the tree I am at, Zac is heading my way and gives me a small wave with a smile. I return the gesture before turning my attention back to Tess and taking a seat by her.
“Why are you sitting all alone over here?” I ask her.
“I am not alone, you’re here,” replies Tess.
Chuckling, I shake my head. “I mean, why are you not with Lucas?”
“I don’t know.” Her voice soft with pain, but she shrugs it off like it is nothing.
I look at her with questioning eyes, seeing right through her. She sighs, looking up at the sky, and her eyes become glossy before she looks back at me.
“I feel like we have drifted apart from each other. This is the first time in four years that we have talked, not only about my sickness. We just met about a month before I got sick and ended up in the hospital. Then I got sick, well my genetic cancer came back, and four years has rolled by with him still there, but I don’t really know him.”
“You only really like him because he made you feel like you weren’t alone. You had someone there when you were sick, and you were happy about that.”
She nods, tears rolling down her cheek. “Yeah,” she breathes. “It was easier to get treatment, even if the treatment led to another thing.” She wipes her tears, releasing another sigh before leaning her head back into the tree.
“I was so mad at you though,” she continues. “I was mad at you because I thought you told someone with power what I am. In the back of my mind, I knew you would never do a thing like that. I should have been mad at him, not you.”
“Tess, you didn’t know. It was easier to blame it on me than him, and I understand that.”
“Thank you for that,” she whispers and looks over to Lucas, then back at me. “I was happy to see him, not mad at him at all because I wasted my anger on the wrong person. But now things are different, my anger is coming back.”
Tess isn’t in rage, but I can hear the hurt in her voice. I pull her in for a hug, and she accepts it easily, falling into my arms as the tears leave her eyes.
“Lucas knew my mother and what she was,” says Tess as she pulls away. “When he turned her in, he said it was for the best because she is dangerous. He didn’t care that she was my mother or that I begged him, saying she was not dangerous.” Her voice gets caught in her throat but she continues. “I still tell myself she is alive, but I know she’s not, because I have seen the memory of her dying and I thought it was a dream.”
“How does she die?”
“Escaping, trying to see me in the hospital. She risked her own life just to see me again. She didn’t make it though, and her owner shot her, not caring to give her a chance to live because he has others like her.”
I nod for the loss of her mother as silence fills in every free breath. Her owner didn’t see her as a person; he just saw it as killing a monster to help society.
“You’re a Dangerous Neuroner, Thela.” She doesn’t ask but she waits for me to answer.
“Yes.” My voice barely audible, as I still don’t know what it means.
“You are more valuable than me. In fact, I should have been killed, but not you. I only know you are one because I recognize the bruises on your wrist. The same spot where my mother had hers.”
I look down to the bruises that are darker than this morning, even after the fight with the Flaming Arrows.
“Why are we called dangerous?” I ask, keeping my eyes on my wrist.
“Because they don’t know how to control you, and they’re afraid because they can’t.” I look at her and she looks me in the eyes. “Your brain, Thela, has stronger nerves making it more powerful than others, including mine. It’s part of the reason you guys get to live to be lab rats, all because they want to understand your mind and take control of it. Like they have done to regular Neuroners.”
I nod, looking back down to my wrist and absorbing the information Tess just gave me. They want to learn what makes us this way, just so they can kill the Dangerous Neuroners off like they are doing to Neuroners.
🧠
Before my eyes even adjust and focus on my surroundings, I feel the adrenaline pumping through my veins. This is different and not my memory. Trees at dusk and the sun hiding in the earth appear in my vision. As I breathe in the cooler air, Zac comes running past me in his uniform with two other men following close behind.
Zac’s memory. The time he was in the field with the Flaming Arrows and watched the other two men get hurt. One died.
The memory comes into clear focus, making it easy for me to see Zac and the others chasing a member of the Flaming Arrows. They get farther ahead, and the memory doesn’t stop for me. Even the memory itself is moving at a fast pace. I run after them with a burst of energy I have never felt before. Even though I am chasing after a madman, I can’t help but smile.
I catch up to the others at a campsite that looks like a tribe’s. Little huts make a circle with a fire that is the size of a hut itself in the middle. Member after member of the Flaming Arrows comes out of the huts, and some stand around as if ready for a fight.
The one who was being chased screams to the others, saying something that is not comprehensible, but the other members understand it perfectly. My feet slow to a steady walk, and my smile is gone as two men tackle one of the Protecttenders, bringing him down to the ground. The Protecttender lands on his back as his hands are reaching up to the Flaming Arrows member’s throat.
His hands reaches his throat, but the Flaming Arrow puts his knees in the Protecttender’s chest. The other Flaming Arrows man lights one of the arrows on fire and shoots it right through the Protecttender’s hand. He screams with pain, but it only adds to the noise of crackling fire and screams.
I look through the crowd of men, trying to find Zac as panic rises in me that he might be dead. He’s not dead, and you know that. I find Zac with blood dripping from his eyebrow, caking his face, and a black eye already starting to form. The other Protecttender is close behind, fending off two men as he fights for his life.
A man holds Zac’s throat, his knuckles turning white. Zac elbows the man, trying to break the hold on his neck. The man doesn’t budge and slams Zac into the nearest tree. One fat hand is tight around Zac’s neck while the other grabs an arrow. From where I am standing, I can see the sharpness of the arrow and how easily it can cut open skin.
The man slams it down, but it goes into the tree as Zac ducks just in the nick of time. I scream without knowing it as my heart forgets to beat. Zac wastes no time and slams his shoulder into the man’s belly, knocking him off his feet. Zac is smart and grabs an arrow from the men and digs the razor sharp point into the man’s stomach.
The man’s yelp is nothing compared to the rumble of the ground and the explosion that follows. Everything stops. It’s easy for me to see how every hut and the trees around are in flames or already charcoal.
A SWAT team appears through the flames, and the chaos begins all over again. A flaming arrow shoots through the sky, piercing right through one of the Protecttenders who was fighting for his life along with Zac only seconds ago.
All of the adrenaline leaves my body and is replaced with the instinct to throw up as the man falls to the ground. Dead. My head turns only to see more horror. Zac is held to the ground by three men, taking punch after punch, his own blood splatting the ground.
My legs wobble and all I can see is blood twirling with the flames. My body starts to shake, and I feel the pain in my wrist as my body fills with darkness. I scream but no one hears me, and I can only see darkness.
My eyes open to the dead grass and dead trees as the pain fades away. The darkest place in my mind where the little girl with scars lives. Feeling her eyes, I turn my head to her, meeting her scarred eyes.
She is sitting on a nearby tree, her back against the trunk and her legs curled up next to her. She is wearing all black like normal, but this time her arms are showing in her short sleeve shirt. Scars of all shapes and sizes run up both arms, covering every inch.
“How was that memory?” she asks casually, looking at her hands like the memory is no big deal.
“I didn’t like it. I don’t like seeing someone’s life being taken from them.”
“Why is that? You’re a Caretender, you deal with life and death all the time.”
“Was a Caretender.” Those words taste bitter in my mouth, and she looks at me, knowing I hate those words together. “I was a good Caretender, and most of my patients stayed alive because I worked hard to keep them that way,” I explain.
She nods and lets her legs dangle from the tree. We make eye contact again, and she holds my stare.
“What if you had to take a life?”
“I could never,” I snap out.
She shrugs, making a plan in her head. “What if it was to save your own? To save Zac’s or Tess’s?”
I consider the possibility, but even then my mind can’t wrap around it. “I don’t know. Probably not.”
Silence falls and a smile curls her lips. “Well let’s find out,” she says, her words cold.
“Wait-” I start, but she snaps her fingers. The little girl with scars disappears as I wait for something to happen.
A tall, wide man appears and starts running after me. Before my mind can even comprehend what is happening, the man pushes me to the ground, and my head hits hard. If I were awake and this really happened to me, I would be unconscious from the impact. Instead, my head just pounds with a headache at the base of my skull.
No time to think about my head as the man’s grip tightens on my neck. He presses me down into the ground, leaning closer to me. His bloodshot eyes wide with excitement. As soon as he is close enough, I bring my elbow up and slam it into his temple. The grip loosens enough for me to push him off and jump to my feet.
My fists goes up as he gets to his feet, putting his fists up as well. We circle around each other, neither one of us taking the first punch. He punches and I block by grabbing his fist and twisting his elbow to face the dark sky. I bring his fist down to make it easier for my knees to hit the inside of his elbow.
A bone breaking crack fills the air, along with a yelp of pain from the man. Instead of caring for his broken elbow, he uses it to his advantage to turn toward me, his other elbow hitting me in my stomach. My grip on him lost, and he shoves me to the ground.
He grabs my legs and drags me, scraping my back on twigs and rocks on the ground. Blood trickles down my back, and he stops to fall back onto me, but I roll out of the way. He grabs my arm and pins me down, his knees going into my elbow. I yelp from the pain as his hand wraps around my neck. In his other hand is a knife pointing at me.
My eyes close, knowing this is how I am going to end. When nothing happens, my eyes open and I am the one on top of him with the knife in my hand. My breath comes in short, heavy gasps, and I am not sure what to do. One gulp, and the knife goes down only to stop half an inch away from his chest.
“I CAN’T DO IT!” I scream.
Not even a full second later, the man is back on top of me with the knife in his hands. He brings it down, and my eyes close. I will die today. I will die from the darkness in my own mind.
The stab and the pain never come. Instead, there’s a snap of the little girl with scar’s fingers. My eyes open, and I release a breath that I thought was my last. Carefully, I sit up and she looks down to me from a tree where she sits with her legs dangling. No disappointment is written on her face, which I expected, rather than a smile.
“You didn’t do it,” she states calmly.
“I couldn’t,” I say, catching my breath.
“Well, now I know what you are capable of.”
I look down to the dead grass, not meeting her eyes. “Did I fail?” I ask.
“No, you kept your word, and that is more than what I expected.”
I look up to her in complete shock, and she just shrugs. The darkness of my mind starts to disappear around us, until it is just her and I. She fades away and my vision goes blank.
🧠
My eyes open and there is a smile on my face. The smile is wiped clean to worry, as I feel Tess shaking me and see Zac standing above her. Both of them have alarmed looks written all over their faces.