Chapter 40: Jada
I can’t believe she’s dead. Tanziona James is dead. I find myself trying to deny it. It’s all a dream. A nightmare. It has to be. Tanzi was only my age or maybe just a tad bit older than me. Maybe I will wake up and she’ll be sitting at the foot of my bed. Maybe she’ll just be in an infirmary. But no, she is dead.
We take her body to Commander Marcs and lay it before her. When she sees Tanzi’s dead body, she barely makes a face of concern or remorse as her own baby daughter lies before her. She just has her prepared to be buried next to her father. No one says anything as she’s layed in the ground.
Three days go by with no one talking. We just barely do the things that should be basic for us. We don’t even leave the cabin at all. We just sit in a stupor of depression. I think back to that day in the woods, the last time we were together. We were talking, and then Izzy came, and then Tanzi protected me from an arrow. She protected me, and I should have protected her. I should have stuck by her, but instead, I had to dance around with these stupid sais. I should have been the one to get hit by the arrows, not her. It’s all my fault that she died.
I throw my sais against my wall—one sticking in the wall, and one in the door—and bury my head into my pillow. I just scream and cry into my pillow as if will help. It doesn’t. I just get light-headed, but I don’t want to take my face from the pillow. I don’t care, I deserve to be dead right now, and I would probably have passed out if someone hadn’t taken the pillow from under me. I look over to see Izzy standing beside me with my pillow in her hands. She drops the pillow and just sits on the bed. As soon as she does, I slide onto her lap and cry some more.
Izzy just rocks me gently as she strokes my hair. I hate that she can’t talk, but still talk anyway.
“It’s all my fault,” I sob out. “She’s dead because of me.”
Izzy loosens her grip on me as she looks me in the eyes with a confused look.
“She saved me from an arrow and I left her alone. I should have been beside her at all times, that way I could have at least protected her from the second arrow. If I had, she would be alive right now, but I just had to lose myself in those stupid sais!”
Izzy pulls a note pad from her pocket and writes something down. She flips it over so that I can read her message: “You are not the cause of her death. Everyone is blaming themselves for Tanzi’s death, but anyone could have been hit. If anything I’m guiltier than you because I didn’t pick up that the carnagions were but mere weak distractions for Kane to kill all or one of us.”
“But I volunteered us to go into the woods,” I admit as I start up more tears.
Izzy writes something else on the paper: “She went on her own. Plus, you didn’t know that something more than critters would be in the woods.”
“I still should have saved her,” I say as I turn away from her. I put my hands over my face and try to wipe my tears in them, but it’s no use.
“It was out of our hands what happened, Jada.”
I slowly slide my hands from my face and turn around to see Izzy staring blankly at the wall. Did I imagine something, or did she just talk? I stare at her astonished as she looks at the wall, and then the ground, then me.
“I thought you couldn’t speak,” I say as I wipe my eyes.
“Technically, I’ve had my speech back for a week,” Izzy sighs softly, “I’m just supposed to be careful with it.”
I just stare at Izzy. I had forgotten what her voice sounded like. It actually makes me crack a small smile for a short while before I’m sucked back into my depression. Izzy grabs me and holds me like I’m a child. I guess it doesn’t help that I let her, or that I actually look like one.
“One thing I’ve learned from being in the arena all my life is that nothing is ever fully predictable,” Izzy rocks me. “You never know when your friend or loved one may get taken from you. That’s partly the reason why Xain and I are the way we are. We don’t trust, used to not care about, anyone. It just made it easier if they died or moved.”
“So why did he trust me?” I ask as the last bit of tears dry. I don’t know if it’s because there are no more left or if I’m feeling better.
“He said that you reminded him of Xania,” Izzy smirks, “but I trusted you because I knew that you really cared for Xain. You had the kind of spirit that could heal and remake someone into a better person.”
I pull out my phoenix necklace from under my shirt and rub it in my hands. Izzy smiles as she sees the small, golden-orange bird. She opens up to say something, but then Katya pops into my doorway and is distracted by the blade sticking through the door.
“You threw this, Jada?” She asks astonished.
“Yes,” I say a little ashamed at my actions.
“Nice,” Katya says, but then leans in and says quieter, “Meet in the woods in five minutes.”
She disappears down the hall after the words are spoken and I look at Izzy for some clarity. She shrugs and gets up.
“You can walk, right?” Izzy asks me.
“Yeah,” I answer as I sit up.
“Good,” Izzy turns and walks out, but first she pulls my sais from the wall and door and tosses them to me.
In the woods, everyone stands in a near circle. Xain brought wild flowers as a cover-up that we’re all just laying flowers around Tanzi’s death place. Once in the woods, he tosses them and faces us. He looks as stern as I have ever seen him.
“We’re being tracked and betrayed somehow,” Xain says as plain as day.
“What do you mean?” Alestra says in a confused tone.
“I mean, someone is giving information to that rogue mercenary, Kain, and our other friends,” Xain explains further.
“You don’t know that for sure,” Kandi says.
“Explain how the capitol knew that Prosper and Jason were traitors,” Xain is calm but stern.
“Or the message on the wall,” Sugar says as she starts to look and sound like Xain. “How did Kain know we were coming for Honey?”
“Or that we would be at a separate outpost that was completely classified?” Alestra catches on. Mason starts to realize it too.
“What are you saying?” Mason asks me. “We have a traitor or spy?”
“Yes,” Xain responds, “Someone on the inside. I trust it’s no one here in this group.”
“What should we do?” Kandi asks generally.
“We should act as normal as possible so that we don’t attract attention,” Alestra says. “Trust no one but each other and possibly…”
Alestra stops mid-sentence. I think she’s starting to realize the same thing Xain and Mason do. The rest of us are clueless.
“We checked all of their clothing and belongings,” Mason says to Alestra. “There’s no way they are the moles.”
“Did you examine everything?” Xain asks sternly.
“What do you mean?!” Mason responds. “We burned their clothing, and they had nothing material wise on them. We did the same for everyone that was with them.”
“How about their skin?” Sugar speaks out. All eyes are on her now. “The Capitol had a new spy technology they were developing that could tap into your nervous system and turn the whole body into a beacon.”
“How do you know about this?” Kandi questions her cousin.
“I hung around a lot of chatty soldiers in Devinia,” Sugar answers. “A lot were perverted and just wanted to flirt.”
Needless to say, everyone moved past that last point, so Sugar goes on. “It would appear as a tiny mole on the body, but no one would be able to tell the difference without looking closely.”
“Did those perverted Capitol officers happen to say anything about how to detect it?” Abi asks. Sugar smirks.
“The dumb perverts let me in the lab,” she responds.
“So then let’s go and rip the things off,” Mason starts to walk away, but Izzy grabs him and shakes her head. “And why not?”
Izzy begins to sign something, but then Abi tells her to talk. Everyone looks at Izzy confused as she smiles.
“Okay, I have my voice back,” Izzy says, but continues before anyone can ask any questions. “If we rip out the trackers, it would bring Capitol troops or carnagions to our location.”
“So you’re saying leave them in?” Mason sounds mad as he says the words.
“We take them somewhere that is unoccupied and take out the trackers,” Abi defends her sister. “All we have to do is knock them out so that the Capitol can’t see or hear anything. After that, we just need to locate and remove them.
There are no objections so we just make a plan and head back to camp. It’s not hard to get Prosper and Jason out of the outpost and convince them to go on a road trip. They don’t even mind us not telling them where we’re going. They just hop in the van and ride.
About five miles out from the forrest, we give them an anesthetic. All we had to do is slip it in their drink. Lucky for us, it’s a tasteless one. Also, they were already tired from staying up all night working on a new prototype suit. Once their knocked out, Sugar gets to work. We have to unbutton their shirts so that we can see the “moles” better. Sugar doesn’t mind it, but I turn away slightly.
Sugar runs her fingers up and down Jason’s body as she peers through a magnifying glass to find anything that looks abnormal. After about five minutes, she finds something on his lower back. She flips out a slender knife from her belt and peels it off of him. She places the small device on a white cloth and goes on to Prosper. The mole is on Prosper’s neck, just below the collar of his shirt.
“Well there you have it,” Sugar smiles as she presents two identical black specks on a cloth. “What’s say we cross study these and make more for our use.”
“Good idea I say,” I smile, “not everyday the Capitol gives us a gift.”
Everyone laughs at my joke. I didn’t mean for it to be funny, I was just saying.
“I think we should start to head home now,” Mason says as he continues driving. “We did what we needed to, so now it’s done.”
“Wake the sleepy-heads up first,” Alestra says as she hands Kandi two viles of liquid. “Those are a quick wake for people under the anesthetic. We should also go into the town for a little. We could use some groceries and time away from the woods.”
“We can’t really attract any attention right now,” Mason says, but doesn’t stop the car. “I mean, if we’re recognized, someone could report us to the scatter of Capitol officials in the area.”
“You’re such a worry wart,” Sugar scoffs.
“Name one thing that could actually go wrong,” Kandi says as she wakes Prosper and Jason. They shoot awake as quickly as the first drop hits their tongues. She orders them to keep drinking, so they do. They probably feel the energy coursing through their bodies.
As soon as we are outside of the city, the van is thrown off the road by some force. Luckily, none of us are hurt. We quickly grab our emergency weapons and hop out. Jason has two guns strapped to his ribs and Prosper has a rod that extends. I think he has some guns hidden somewhere.
“What happened?” Abi says as she pulls out two swords.
“I don’t know,” Mason says as he pulls his weapons. “We were blown off the road.”
By now, people are staring at us with crazy looks in their eyes. Most are whispering out of the sides of their mouths. I listen closely to some of what is being said. Some of them recognizes some of us from television. One of them recognizes me as the phoenix girl who danced with Xain. Oh no, Mason was right. We, the fighters from C-5 and maybe even Jason, are being recognized. I try and figure a way out of here, but I see no way of getting home. Just then, an arrow hits the van and beeps.
“Everybody down,” Mason shouts and we all jump to the ground. Most of the civilians look confused while others follow us. The van explodes in just a few seconds and throws people and debris in all directions.
When we get up, there are Capitol guards coming towards us. We try to run, but within seconds we’re surrounded. Something drops from above us. It’s a man in a black hood. When he removes it, we see it’s Kain.
“I would have never thought you’d be able to figure how we were tracking you,” Kain says and looks at Jason and Prosper. For once, we’re close enough to see his red and silver snake-like eyes. “It took the top engineers in the Capitol to develope the ‘moles’.”
Prosper and Jason look confused. “We weren’t traitors,” Prosper says.
“We weren’t telling the Capitol anything,” Jason is trying to explain to us, “Trust us…”
“We do,” Alestra cuts him off, “He planted ‘moles’ on you and Prosper that we had to remove while you were asleep.”
Now they look even more confused. A couple of the capitol officers fire into the air and cause the citizens to scatter away. After that, they point at us. I know that they are anxious to get the order to kill us.
“I am, however, sorely disappointed that it took this long for you to realize you were being tracked,” Kain continues, “If only you knew ahead of time, little Tanzi and sweet Honey could have been living.”
Alestra and Kandi leap to attack, but he kicks Alestra and grabs Kandi by the throat.
“Look at you now,” he says as he holds Kandi in the air, “Capitol designer to rebel fighter in just weeks, how would mommy and Daddy feel?”
Kandi spits on Kain and he throws her back onto a fruit cart. She breaks it and slams to the ground, but gets up with ease. By now, she’s probably used to the pain.
“I wish I could stay longer, but I really must go,” Kain says as he walks away. He stops by the leutenant with a gun and say “Finish them off” before walking completely off, and that’s when it hits us all: there are about thirty Capitol officers, but only five have guns. The rest have clubs and batons.
Before the guards can even ready their weapons and be given the order to fire, someone tosses a smoke bomb onto the ground. We all get down as the officers fire their guns at us. Jason and Prosper shoot at the guards with guns while the rest of us ready our weapons and get to cover. Once the smoke has cleared, the officers realize that the leutenants are dead and we’re gone. They look frantically for us, but we’re out of sight.
“Find them,” one of them commands, and they split up. One of them comes my way and I slip behind a fruit cart. He hears me, but doesn’t see me.
“Come out where ever you are,” he says as if I would obey him. “Don’t be foolish, kid, there are more of us than you.”
I see two more come up beside him. I smile as I step out with my sais in my hand. They laugh when they see my size.
“Make this easy on yourself and just toss away the weapons,” one of them taunts me. I just look at my sais and smirk.
“You want me to toss the sais,” I say as I twirl them. “Okay.”
I throw the sais and they duck. “Ha, you missed!”
“That’s what happens when you get little girls to fight your battles,” a man says as he brings up his club.
“That’s funny,” I say as I bring my hands up, “I never miss.”
Right then, my sais pierce two of them in the backs and they fall. I bring out my sword and charge the third before he has time to react. He collapses to the ground and I put my sword away. Grabbing my sais, I look at the third guy and say, “Not bad for a little girl, huh?”
He dies after my words. I look up to see that other soldiers are being taken down. I run towards the fighting, but am grabbed by a heavily armed officer. He’s strong and is trying to crush me. Nothing I do seems to free me. I’m out of air before I know it, but then he drops me. I look to see an arrow in his back and about five others running for me. My sais are under the dead body, so I grab my sword. But before I can use them, some one yells “duck”.
I hit the ground as the arrow beeps, then clicks, and then fires thin missiles at the men. Kandi comes down from a building and smiles at me.
“Like the arrow?” Kandi asks, “I thought of it myself.”
“Thanks for saving me,” I say as I try to retrieve my weapons from the dead officer’s body. Kandi puts the bow on her back and tries to help me flip the man.
“I thought you would be with your boyfriend,” Kandi says as I grab my sais. She quickly fires an arrow at another man before I can answer.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I answer, “We went separate ways. Have you seen him?”
“He’s probably with the others,” Kandi says and begins to run where the others are. The remaining officers run off and she pulls an arrow back.
“Let them go,” Abi says, “it’s pointless to kill them if they cower away.”
Kandi puts her arrow away and shrinks her bow. I look around and see that there’s just ten of us. I double check and see that he is missing.
“Where’s Xain?” I ask, but before I can get an answer, a beam shoots from what looks like nowhere. It hits the building in front of us and drops a rope. All of us watch the rope that we know must be from an invisible hovercraft and are stunned by Kain being carried up. Kandi pulls an arrow while Jason and Prosper pull their guns and aim, but no one shoots. We just stare as Xain’s unconscious body as it is also pulled up.