Marked

A few minutes that felt like an eternity passed.

With a quiet purr of the engine and the faint rustling of tree leaves, the aircraft glided away into the night.

Rachel let out a shaky breath and Jose laughed.

They all exchanged glances and the relief plastered on their faces was almost a palpable force.

It was over.

And the compound would be just fine.

Crickets buzzed in the silence that followed with the wind whistling through the leaves, dislodging a few in the process. Rachel placed a hand over her chest, trying to steady the manic pounding of her heart.

“We should get back,” Hector advised.

She’d never heard words she agreed with more.

As they turned to leave, a crack of thunder, an explosion tore at their eardrums and a heavy force thrust them onto their backs on the cold forest floor.

Rachel’s ears rang.

Her body tingled, not exactly with pain as there was too much adrenaline for that, but certainly with shock.

Her eyes drifted slowly to a spinning sky.

Then there was the familiar cloying smell of burning plants.

The smell of smoke.

Get up, she thought to herself, trying to fight off the urge to panic.

Simone’s hand grasped hers, nails digging in.

She knew it was Simone because her face appeared in front of her, mouth moving quickly though Rachel couldn’t hear a thing she was saying.

Pressing a hand to her ear, she groaned.

“-attacking the compound. Rachel! Rachel, get up!”

She tried to stand but wobbled.

Suddenly, Juan’s large hands were there, helping her up, their feud the previous night forgotten. Because there was no room for grudges tonight, not with the scene unfolding before them.

Her eyes scanned wildly across the forest to a break in the trees where she could see a gaping hole on the side of the mountain that spit smoke mercilessly into the darkened sky.

Above the explosion site, two hover crafts deployed men clad in the standard grey city police uniform into the rock’s wound, into the compound.

Rachel clung to Juan’s arm, gripping it until she was sure it would bleed.

“We have to do something!” Jose barked, beating her to the punch.

Beside him, Hector rummaged through his backpack, throwing out a flashlight, a bag of cigarettes, a knife, until he finally produced a walkie-talkie, jamming a button down on it with viscous force.

“Compound, come in compound! This is Hector Hernandez. There are poachers invading the compound! Evacuate now."

But they were only greeted by a maddening silence on the other end.

Rachel worried at her knuckles, snapping each of them until she felt she might throw up all while waiting for someone to respond, for someone to tell them what to do.

She thought of her mother, the way they’d ended things...

She’d just lost Jed...she couldn’t go through this again.

“Hector, we need to do something!” Jose repeated.

A cry broke through the forest.

It was a distant cry, barely audible over the roar of the aircraft and the shouts of the poachers but she knew it meant that the others had been found.

“We have to go back and help them! We have guns, we can--we can...” Rachel floundered, not really knowing what they could do.

They were outnumbered, they were just teenagers and they were all scared.

“Compound, come in compound! You need to get everyone out now!” Hector slammed his walkie-talkie into the ground. He gripped his head, sucking in air as they all looked at him expectantly.

Rachel realized it wasn’t fair to put it all on him.

This was like the scavenging trip all over again. But this time, hesitation meant certain death.

She stood, pulled the safety off her gun and stumbled back toward the mountain.

“Are you crazy?” It was Juan who grabbed her wrist, pulling her back. “There’s nothing we can do. We’ll be killed too!”

“We have to try,” Rachel pulled her arm out of his grasp.

“She’s right,” Hector said, springing into action while drawing his own gun out of his pack. “We’re coming with you.”

He snapped a cylindrical object onto the front of the gun and motioned for them to follow him.

A gunshot cracked like thunder and Simone stood up, as though shot into action. Rachel reached out to clasp her hand, only briefly, but she hoped it was enough.

Though her heart was racing a million miles per hour, Rachel surprised herself at how calm she felt amidst the impending threat she knew was but a few miles from her.

Determination had taken over and love for her mother propelled her to run forward from where they’d come, hands slapping away branches until the highway came into view.

Two officers stood guard here, their backs to them.

Rachel hadn’t fired her gun but their bodies crumpled to the ground, red spots spreading over their gray suits. The gunshots had been silent and had come from beside her, from Hector. Bile rose in her throat but she felt one of the Hernandez brothers grab her and push her forward.

“Pay attention or you die!” Jose ordered.

Hector collected the poacher’s weapons in a swift motion and hung a rifle strap across his chest, the tip of the rifle pointed out and ready.

Adrenaline pumped fast and hard through Rachel’s body as they would around the dead poachers.

When they rounded the corner, they found that the poachers’ vehicles crammed the way up onto the mountain, their giant armored cars having pushed and crumbled the old dilapidated cars before them.

Dead end, she thought.

Hector motioned for them to stay quiet but she could see in the set of his eyebrows that this was as far as they were going to get.

“Let’s go back and use the forest as cover. We’ll get as close to the compound as we can and we’ll help the others. We are not going down without a fight.”

Rachel admired his faith in his people but she wasn’t sure how much damage they could actually inflict.

The female half of them didn’t even know how to shoot a gun.

But surrender was not an option here, not this night.

Not ever.

Hector paused behind a sloping hill of dirt and peered over it. Over his shoulder, Rachel could see the cave that served as the entrance to the compound.

It was still for a moment before mayhem spilled from it.

She could see Ramos among the smoke and fire like an avenging angel, ready to devour anything in his path. He broke through the cave entrance with a machine gun, shooting up everything that got in his ways.

Bullets hit rocks, trees, poachers.

But it was not without punishment.

Rachel could see people pouring out from different exits in the mountain, but among them, the poachers were also closing in.

Compounders ran for the hills, others brandished their weapons, jumping into the fray.

She searched the crowd for the familiar face of her mother but she was nowhere to be found.

“Command one this is Eagle 2, calling for back up. Over.” The voice of the poacher drifted toward them, sounding dangerously close.

“This is a bunch of bullshit,” Two poachers were running near the forest, towards the rest of their team. “They should have told us how many of these insects we would find holed up in there! Shoulda beat it out of that idiot, Jedidiah.”

Rachel’s head snapped up at the sound of Jed’s name.

Jed was alive and he was in the city.

Her heart rushed with happiness until she realized there was no happiness to be had. If it was her Jed they spoke of, if he had truly made it to the city, she could only imagine the terrible things they were doing to him now.

If he wasn’t already marked...

“Rachel, get down!” Hector hissed.

She hadn’t noticed she’d moved until he spoke.

A second thunderous explosion ripped through the forest and fire rose up painting the sky red and orange.

Rachel shrieked and covered her ears but her eyes could still see-her eyes could see the burning forms emerging from within the compound, their cries loud and anguished and their bodies like moving torches.

Rachel’s mouth was dry but her face was slick with fresh tears.

The image of the deer meat she’d cooked that morning emerged in her mind and around her it smelled almost similar, like oils and fat and burning meat.

She threw up.

Ramos stumbled back, trying to save what was left of his people. He flailed with his arms, trying to give out orders but the flames had ensued in a panic that was beyond words.

Those that didn’t burn let out a collective battle cry, rushing toward the poachers.

Just as the first sounds of compounders crashing into poachers filled the air- seething with gun fire and roars of battle- a poacher spotted Rachel’s group.

His gun flicked up, pointed at Rachel’s chest before Hector shoved her out of the way, lifted his gun and shot him clean between the eyes.

She didn’t even have the chance to be impressed by his impeccable aim because war raged around them.

Compounders fought, panic-fueled adrenaline pushing them on. A crescendo of fear and terror bounced off the mountain walls and it was Hector’s voice- packed with authority- that managed to overcome it all.

“We can do better if we stay hidden here. Aim at anything in gray and be careful not to hit any of our own people!”

All was a blur of blood and smoke and fire.

Rachel fixed her gun on a poacher that was grappling with Sung. The barrel of her gun wavered with each of their movements and she didn’t know how to shoot the poacher without hurting Sung.

The poachers hands wrapped around Sung’s throat and Rachel pulled the trigger.

She missed.

What was worse was that the poacher could see her now with his soulless, black eyes.

He took a step toward her but a moment later was shot clean through the forehead.

“Don’t hesitate, Rachel. It’s kill or be killed!” Juan shouted at her.

She nodded her head frantically, fumbling with the gun when a crack and a flash like lightening lit up the night.

Her vision went dark and she sensed rather than felt her body give out.

She landed on her back with Simone thudding on top of her legs.

Her nerve endings were numb--she was paralyzed--and then everything went dark.

When she came to, she wasn’t sure how much time had passed but her body was still tingly, her legs barely able to support her as she tried to sit up.

The battle had subsided and there was something heartbreaking about finding her people motionless heaps on the floor.

She spotted poachers, gathering the compounders where they bound them and lined them up along the highway, their weapons stripped and their fight extinguished.

“We’ve got the hole flushed out and everyone secured. Awaiting further instruction. Over.”

Rachel searched for her friends.

She found them all coming to, gripping their heads.

Hector crawled toward the shrubbery, peering past it to see what she’d seen before.

A voice, slightly distorted through the radio said, “Kill anyone who is not able-bodied. Bring in only the strong and the children.”

A vicious chill ran down her spine.

There must have been at least fifty poachers, all perfectly lined up before the people of the compound.

Rachel recognized some of them, others she’d only ever seen a few times around the mountain but two faces stood out-- those of Mira and Mila, their faces covered in ash and soot.

A thick knot had formed in Rachel’s throat.

The children were gathered in a circle and the younger adults and those who were not injured were shepherd off in another direction.

As the poachers formed a line across from the older people of the compound and readied their rifles, Rachel wanted to scream, run, fight.

But if they shot their guns, they’d be found out and they would die too. She felt like a coward but she knew that any resistance would only result in her dying and her own selfishness disgusted her.

She saw her a few moments later- it wasn’t her mother- it was Mrs. Hernandez. Her dress was torn, her gray hair a tangle and she was on her knees as the rest of them.

The poachers cocked their guns, and aimed. It sounded like nails being driven into a coffin. Fires rang out and she saw, one by one as the bullets sprayed brain matter onto the brown rocks and the faces of her people became unrecognizable smears of blood and gore.

It was then that Jose screamed a heart-wrenching, “No!”

Hector’s hands reached for him but were a few seconds too late.

Jose broke out onto the highway.

Lifting his gun, he unleashed a string of bullets at the poachers who had just killed his mother.

Fifty pairs of eyes jerked toward him and suddenly the guns were pointed at him and they were fired and Jose’s blood sprayed her face as he was riddled through with holes.

“Brother!” Juan shouted.

Not willing to make the same mistake, Hector grabbed him and tackled him to the ground, keeping him safely behind the cover of a tree.

“Juan, no!” He cried as he jerked something out of his bag--a small tube which he quickly lit and threw out onto the highway.

Rachel expected a bomb to go off- instead, the air was filled with gray smoke.

“Run!” Hector ordered.

The cruel truth of what was happening was like an engulfing sea of darkness, rushing over her, drowning her into surrendering. She fought it and pushed herself forward, her hand tightly clasped in Simone’s.

They ran until their lungs ran out of air and they broke into a stream, throwing themselves into it to allow the water to carry them off- away from the poachers and away from the dead people whose graveyard had become the mountain.

*************************************************************

Rachel shivered in her wet clothes.

Her mind’s eye was cruel and tormented her, replaying the horror she’d seen tonight over and over. The group was huddled close in the middle of the forest, the cool air chilling them to their bones.

Everyone was silent and the silence was painful and filled with despair.

She tried to rub some warmth into her arms and was so thankful when Juan- with a tear-stained face- came and wrapped his arm around her. It wasn’t any better- he was all wet too- but it was comforting.

Rachel was an expert in nightmares- had always woken up in the middle of the night, gasping, pulling at the sheets, her heart going a million miles an hour.

Her nightmares had always involved poachers and being forced to get the mark and evil people- but tonight had been a nightmare that made all the others pale in comparison. She felt numb and hopeless and like a part of her had died back on the mountain.

Despair filled her and she barely heard herself croak, “What are we going to do now?”