As we walk, I think of what it would be like to hate my sister as much as James hates Logan. No, I could never hate her that much. Yes we do get in fights but could never hate one another.
Logan takes us inside the restaurant where men are drinking or eating. “This is where most of the men and some apprentices spend their time when they’re not training.” I look around the place with women waiting on the outcasts. Many are having conversations with each other and putting bear to their lips. I turn my head to the left where there is a huge window looking out towards the mountain and my eye catches James, sitting with a younger boy. He looks about one year older than me and very muscular.
I tap on Logan’s arm and point to the boy, “Whose James sitting with?” Logan looks to where I point and his body shifts a little. “That’s Blake, his apprentice. I’ve seen them work together.” He pauses for a moment then looks away, “he’s pretty good.”
I stare at him for a second before he finally catches my eye and we lock gazes. His eyes narrow as his upper lip moves up. He takes a drink of soda and I look away. I get a strange feeling inside me. Something bad was going to come out between me and him, and I’m going to have to deal with it.
Logan takes us outside after that. Snow is falling lightly and the wind is dying down. I look up to see skiers coming down the mountain face.
“Shouldn’t they be fighting?” Ronnie asks.
“No, they’re either (a) not on duty (b) not training to become soldiers or (c) taking a break. We don’t train 24/7, we have to have one day off every week, or more, that’s the rule.” Logan explains. I don’t take my eyes off the mountain as the memories start to flow through me of my first skiing vacation, when I first touched skis, when I was side by side with my father and mother down the ski slopes.
I suddenly feel the tears rushing down my face and I look away whipping them off but more take the originals places. I feel Logan touch my shoulder. I turn my head and look up at him. “Are you alright?” He asks. I look down to see Ronnie starting to cry a little. I bring her close to my chest as we hug for a moment. Logan allows us to cry. I can tell he knows what we’re going through.
Once we both put ourselves back together we start to walk again. My stomach still clenches as we pass the mountain. Logan pulls open a door and we walk in. We are in a small, compact room, I feel around for an opening. Then I see the buttons. I groan, another elevator. “How fast does this one go?” I groan sinking to the ground.
Logan just grins and pushes a button as the two doors close. “Hold on.”
The elevator shoots down without warning and my stomach goes into my throat. When we finally stop I realize we went farther down than usual because my ears are clogged. The doors open and I could barely stand up. I felt like I was going to throw up. I could tell Ronnie felt the same way, but she stood up before me. I push myself up and sway a little back and forth before I find my balance. I look around and see computers and machines all around me. A man was in the corner shuffling up papers.
“Lewis,” Logan says. The man looks up and turns on a light. The room had a walk way down the middle and opened up to a platform in the front. On either side of the wall were computers or machines. On the plat form wall was a huge screen with controls underneath it. On the screen it had a picture of the western and eastern hemisphere.
“Logan,” the man said walking towards spreading out is arms. He was a little smaller then Logan, with a balled head and a tank top on with army pants and clunky brown boots. “I was wondering when you were going to drop by.” He smirks, suddenly his eyes fall on us. “Hello, who are these young ladies?” He crouches down at eye level.
“Kimberley Carter, nice to meet you,” I say it in a serious tone; I’ve never said it that way before. Ronnie steps in front of having the same serious look I had, “Ronnie Carter, I’m her sister.” She has grown from last night; I guess the whole thing is coming to her senses as well. We can’t be little kids anymore. We’re soldiers in training and must act like it.
“Well, welcome to the Outcast tribe. I’m Lewis; I manage the technology department of this little operation.” He looks up at Logan. His expression changes from sweet to stern. “New apprentices, I presume.” His voice is now talking directly to Logan, like he’s angry at him.
“Yes and they will become powerful soldiers I’m sure of it.” Logan snarls back at him. Ronnie looks up at them and I eye them carefully as well, how they bicker back and forth. What happened to his other apprentice?
“You better make sure of it. We wouldn’t want another accident to happen like last time.” Logan clutches a fist, I put my hand on it and it seems to calm him down . . . only a little. Lewis looks down at us again and he smiles sweetly, “If you will excuse me, I have some matters I have to attend.” He stares back at Logan then walks back to the front of the room.
Logan hesitates then walks back to the elevator. He pushes a button and the elevator shoots up. I squeak a little then clutch my stomach trying to keep down my breakfast.
When the elevator comes to a stop, I am not as wobbly as before, but still a little woozy. I straighten myself out. The snow was coming down now but it was light a fluffy. “Logan,” Ronnie starts. Logan looks down at her. “Why does everyone hate us?”
Logan doesn’t say anything until we go back inside. This time we are in the weapons area; guns, knives, swords, ammo, bows and arrows, axes, hatchets, spears, any type of weapon littered the wall. Also there are backpacks, and medical supplies. Logan sighs, “They don’t hate you guys. They don’t think I’m capable of handling another young apprentice.”
“But you just said last night you had two apprentices.” I correct him.
“They’re 12 and 11, and going onto a next level of training, and they’re boys.” He walks over to chair and sits down. We follow and sit on the floor and lean forward eager for another story. Logan just smiles like he usually does and smirks. “Two years ago I had a little girl named Luka. She was 10 when she died, but they blame me for her death. She was becoming a strong soldier and could even beat Blake.” I shudder at the name.
“What happened?” Ronnie asks.
“I told her to go inside a building and get everyone out because Unions were invading. She got most of the people out but what I didn’t know was that the Unions . . . were coming from above. I tried calling Luka to get out of there because she was the only apprentice in the facility but it was too late. The planes came over head and soldiers and outcasts watched in horror as the bombs dropped and the oil building exploded into flames.
“U.S. soldiers soon shot the three planes down but the building was blown to bits and so was everyone in it.” He swallows hard trying to hide his tears, “Luka was gone and when we came back to base everyone blamed me. She was the youngest apprentice to ever die in this Outcast’s facility. That’s why James now has an excuse to try to become head commander. Carson though doesn’t allow though, but she doesn’t let me train young girls anymore.” He looks at both of us. His blonde hair falls across his face, “That’s why I don’t know why she’s letting me train you two.”
We were all silent for a moment. Then Ronnie speaks, “What was Luka like?” Logan leans against the chair’s back, “Determined, stubborn, confident, strong, powerful,” he looks down at us, “I see her in both of you.” Ronnie gets up and hugs him. I hesitate before he opens his other arm just like he did last night for me. I take a deep breath and sigh running into is arms.
“Well, isn’t that sweet,” I push away from Logan and look around. My eyes lock on the person who spoke and I snarl. I see James apprentice leaning against a post having his weapons around him.
I straighten up now wanting to play his game. I walk towards him, scrutinizing my opponent and see his muscular form, knowing I couldn’t beat him. But I am willing to give it a shot.
“Where’s your precious mentor. I’m sure he’s waiting to teach you a lesson on how to talk to girls.” I say.
“At least I know how to fight one.” He grins, “All you know how to do is run away.” Anger is boiling inside me as he says that. I can fight. My father put me in a few fencing classes when I was little. Said it would help with my strength and agility.
“I know how to fight!” I scream.
“Prove it!” Blake demands getting into a fighting position.
“Stop Blake,” Logan rushes between us before one of us has a chance to strike at the other. “Go back to James, Blake. He’s probably looking for you.”
“You are a week mentor. She’ll probably die before she can receive her first mission. She’ll die a weakling, rephrase that,” he stares at me and grins, “She is already weak.” He teases me. I don’t know what I’m doing until I do it. I swipe a knife from Logan’s side and charge at Blake. Logan yells my name but I’m already at my target. He blocks it with his arms, which are bared with metal cuffs.
He pushes me off and takes out two knives from his boots. I wait for his move. He jumps in the air and turns around; I have no time to deflect his move when he kicks me in the gut. I groan and fall to the ground. Blake lands on his feet and grins. Logan comes in front of me, “That’s enough Blake,” but I react instead, doing a shoulder roll under his arm and knocking Blake off his feet by kicking my leg under him. But just when I thought I got him, he pounces up like a panther using his hands to push him up like in those karate movies.
I groan and he plants a punch across my face. I fall to the ground releasing the knife and it slides across the floor. I turn my head to see Blake glowering over top of me. He raises his dagger but I react and use my legs to push on his chest. He staggers back rubbing his middle with his hand. I quickly get to my feet and grab the closest weapon I could find. A hatchet. I spin around and see Blake raising his daggers but I suck my gut in and quickly stepback, just as he swipes them for my chest.
I ram his chest with the side of my body pushing him backwards again. We both hesitate for a minute then I turn my head to see a door heading for the exit. I run towards it grabbing another knife on my way out. Blake doesn’t wait to follow me. This door doesn’t lead to outside, however, it lead to a huge room with people training, different stations where people were practicing skills. I take a wild guess and say this is the training room.
People turn to watch us. I don’t have time to react when Blake punches me in the chest. I huff with my breath and see black spots clouding my vision. Blake grins and runs towards me again. I react and swing my knife and hatchet around me. One of them hits Blake and he falls hard to the ground clutching his side. He hisses but gets up again. I can see his side has a huge gash in it. I stare back at him dizzy, and wobble a little trying to stay in a balanced position. His eyes are filled with hate and disgust. I back up a bit but he charges again. He pushes me to the ground having a hand on my left arm. But I’m too quick for him to pin the other one down. I quickly clench my hand into a fist and use all the strength I have to punch him across the face.
He doesn’t see it coming and is knocked off balance and falls to the side of me. I get back up spin around and put one knee on top of him, right under his chin, the other leg I let dangle off to the side. I raise my knife to strike when someone strong pulls me off him. They throw me to one side and pull Blake up. I look up to see who it is. Sergeant McCarthy. She releases Blake then turns to me. She puts out a hand and I take it. She pulls me up and raises my hand in the air.
“This child has just beaten an apprentice much beyond her learning,” Carson calls out. I look out to see most people have come in and were watching us closely. They are murmuring amongst each other. I can point out what some people are saying. “Who is she . . . ?” “Did she just beat . . . ?” “I can’t believe . . .”
Then I turn to Blake who is madly clutching his knives in his hands with such force, his knuckles are turning white. He turns his head slightly, his eyes narrowed and he bares his lip up showing his teeth. I turn away and look out to the crowd while Sergeant McCarthy continues.
“Like I was saying, this young child has defeated a boy who has had months of training before her. She has proven herself a worthy soldier and is granted full permission to train as an apprentice.” She looks at me then back at the crowed. She holds a hand out to Ronnie who comes over to us. “I have no doubt these two will become strong soldiers.” Everyone was silent and they were looking directly at me and some at Ronnie. They all seemed to be switching on and off between me and Ronnie. I pull my sleeve down making sure no one notices my scars.
“How can they become apprentices, it was just on match.” I hear Blake say pointing at me in shock. “I didn’t even go has hard on her as I usually do to everyone else.”
“Round 2,” I ask stepping around Carson staring at him with my hand on my hip. He throws a knife up in the air twirling it and catching it by the handle, “Anytime, any day.” He stares at me again then walks away pushing past soldiers to make it to the exit.
I roll my eyes and look up at Carson. She kneels down beside me at eye level. “Don’t mind Blake, he means well, but has some controlling issues. He is one of the best apprentices here you know.”
Then the thought occurs to me. I can barely breathe. I just beat one of the best apprentices here.