Blue

A Drop in the Ocean

'You're wondering, I'm sure, why you're here by yourself?' Anton asked. Adam nodded his head. He was a good fighter, but he had to be, in order to hold his ground against Fabayo and Anton.

'Fabayo thought you had potential. It's why she paired you with herself instead of your little friend. He's terrible, by the way. Curtis. He's awful. I'm half surprised he made it through the Culling. To be honest, you should probably not expect to see him after the Hunt,' Anton said. Adam felt his right pinky twitch slightly. It wasn't that Anton was wrong; Curtis was entirely poor at being an Ensign. It was the bluntness of it. The expectation that Adam would walk into battle with his friend and only keep track of himself throughout the battle. This was what other Ensigns did, Adam supposed. They whispered that bullshit motto about death making you stronger and left the other Ensigns to die if it meant saving themselves to be able to take down more sirens. Adam had never had that intention. He had dragged Curtis into this, into being an Ensign, despite what Curtis said, and he was going to have Curtis' back during the Hunt. Anton didn't seem to notice the tiny little twitch of Adam's pinky. He continued on his speech.

'She was right, though. I've never had a newbie take me on and live to tell the tale. You're quite a talented swordsman, but then, I guess Alvaro figured you could be. Trust me, Adam, when you're in that mess hall and you feel them, really feel them, you'll know who's ready. You'll know who's on top and hungry. You'll know who might survive. But that's not why we're here. I think your blood will be nice and potent.'

He lifted Adam's hand and pulled him towards the screen. A tall metal box rose up beside it, a small finger indent illuminated on it. Adam could see the sharp needle-like thing in the center of the finger indent, ready to draw blood.

Anton released his hand. 'When we take in the siren blood–if it doesn't kill us–some of us seem to get more than others. We can use the blood and this thing in order to chase down their approximate location. If we combine that with the other two rooms, then we can get a much more accurate location. It works best on the full moon, because their bloodlust is strongest then.'

'How does it work?'

Anton made a face, 'Dunno. It's been here for a lot longer than I have. I'm repeating what an Ensign told me. Everything we have here is just tradition and hatred passed down and melded together to form a tiny little life preserver for us. Come on, Adam, you know that. Your friend Curtis has been here for longer than any of us and even he doesn't know where this thing came from. Who knows? Listen, you want to give it a try or not?'

Adam looked at the panel doubtfully. He shrugged. Why not? It wasn't like he was never going to do this again. He placed his finger down on the indent, inhaling sharply when the object cut into his flesh. Blood dripped into the machine.

The screen stuttered to life, coming slowly into focus and becoming brighter and brighter. Adam realized it was flipping around a map, becoming brighter and brighter, the light cool and white, like moonlight, and then suddenly, it zeroed in on a spot in the ocean. There they were. It felt strange to be able to say that he had finally found the sirens. Anton nodded enthusiastically.

'Yeah. Exactly. See? Easy. Great. Alright. Come on, let's go round up the others. Time to put those training skills to the test, new kid. Time for a Hunt.'

The walk back to the mess hall was so different from his first time going that he could feel that unease fluttering and rustling around in his stomach again. Curtis had had a strange expression on his face when they had gathered everyone from the third tracking room, a mixed expression between excitement and dread, but he was still and pale now. He plodded slowly on next to Adam, his face pointed directly ahead of him, his shoulders slumped. For some reason, memories of Blue's funeral suddenly slammed into Adam. He had the strangest sense of deja vu.