Feral Heart by Duron Crejaro (distant reading .TXT) 📕

Tarin, and the brief moments of romance, letting them concrete me in reality. It helped, not a lot but it did help. Of course, I still found myself once again imprisoned. My need to fix the problems in my life dragged me once again into a drastic situation that I saw no clear solution to. The waiting continued, with no end in sight. No meals were forthcoming, no visitors, nothing, just waiting. It got to the point of maddening. I tried to pass the time, letting my mind wander to thoughts of my family, my friends and the odd Nali situation they found themselves in, and of course, I thought of Tarin. I knew he must have been going out of his mind with worry by now. I pictured him, discovering my disappearance, trying to convince everyone to chase after me, only to give up and come searching for me on his own. It sounded like him.

 

I sighed, rolling over on the hard mat that served as a mattress. My stomach grumbled at me in despair. I heard a click; at first, I thought I imagined it, then another click. My heart started pounding as the door slide open. Two dour faced enforcers stood there looking at me; the lights brightened turned up for their safety. They converged on me, cuffed me without a word and led me into the hall.

 

We traveled through the halls of some structure I couldn’t recall ever seeing before. The halls were massive open areas, capable of fitting masses of people through. We turned right, headed up a narrow staircase. We stopped at a door. They opened it, thrust me through the entryway, and closed it behind me. I found myself in a large open room. It contained a bar, a row of couches, a few monitors in various places along the walls. To my surprise, an entire wall had been taken out, and in its place, a clear glass window had been placed.

 

“Pretty interesting isn’t it?” A voice said.

 

I turned to the voice. Mrs. Davenport’s smiled as I looked at her. “You should see the view from over here. It really is quite spectacular.”

 

I shook with rage, fought the urge to attack her. The fact that I remained restrained would have prevented me from doing any real damage to her anyway. I walked over to where she sat, trying to keep my cool. I wished my hands were free; clawing out her eyes would have pleased me. I stopped and stood just out of arms reach from her. She hadn’t been lying I thought as I gazed out the window. I knew where we were now, the old Stadium. My father had talked about it before, a grand arena he called it. In his youth, they had played games in places like this, for the amusement of humanity.

 

“I thought you’d appreciate seeing it empty. Also, we had so little time to talk last time. Just us girls.” Mrs. Davenport said.

 

“I’ve got nothing to say to you witch.”

 

“You know, you’ve caused quite an uproar for us. Running off after your friend, staging attacks on my convoys, getting yourself caught so you could take down our secret military base.”

 

“None of that was my fault. If you hadn’t been taking the Wylder to experiment on none of this would have happened.”

 

She grew angry at my words and struck me across the face, “Your people are an abomination of mankind.” She stood and paced around me as she continued, “You are wild dangerous animals and must be dealt with as such.”

 

“Oh really?” I asked. “If we are so dangerous how come I’ve never heard of the Wylder harming anyone in Nashboro before?”

 

She said nothing, and just stared at me with distaste.

 

“That’s right, because it’s not true. I lived with them, and despite there differences, they are just as human as us, sometimes more so. But people like you would rather experiment on them without really knowing them.”

 

“It’s thinking like that, that has brought us to where we are. You and your kind are filth. You must be eradicated from this planet before we can rule it again.” She said, “That is why tomorrow. You and anyone who has ever had a child test as Wylder will be publicly executed, right here in this stadium, with the whole city watching. Then everyone will know who rules Nashboro and what happens to those that oppose us.”

 

I lunged at her as she finished speaking. Pure rage and hatred flowed through me; I had no mind, only the unsatisfied desire to cause this foul woman pain, unending pain. Her fist connected with my face; it brought me to a halt and forced me to my knees. I glared at her, malice and intent written on my face. I ignored the pain, and just stared at her in knowing silence. She pressed a button and I heard the door open behind me. I didn’t struggle as the guards hauled me to my feet and drug me away. I kept staring into her eyes, she paled a little, she knew I had nothing but her death on my mind.

 

I spent the night in my cell somewhere on the premises of the arena. I spent it in lonesome contemplation of my life. A bliss filled childhood of ignorance, getting told stories of the Old World, how wonderful it had seemed. Then the pandering stories of the Wylder, told as ghost stories to frighten children. Stay out of the Old World, it isn’t safe they said. Into my years of school, being told filtered truths society was willing to tell, leaving me with only more questions. The long days of hard work in the field, tending crops to feed the masses within Nashboro came to mind. After that, the rebellious entry and exploration of the Old World by my friends and I. Then this year, the Academy, Wylder being taken with force, from their friends, and family. Cami’s disappearance, and everything I went through to find her.

 

Tears brimmed in my eyes, the unfairness of it all was staggering. I thought of Tarin, So brave, and genuine. Did I love him? Probably. What did it matter now I thought, after tomorrow it will all be over. The coolness of tears slid along my cheek. My friends, family and the family of all those Wylder I fought to save were all going to die tomorrow. The impending doom of it all weighed on my shoulders as I wept. I decided to let them go tonight. Tomorrow I would not give her the satisfaction of seeing my despair. I held no hope of salvation this time, I knew the numbers of enforcers in the city. If by some miracle help came, what could so few do against that many armed soldiers. The city would become a river of blood, thousands would die, Wylder included. The people of Nashboro in their discriminating knowledge of them would rise up, the resulting massacre would be on the level of things I read about in history. No, better to let it end with me I thought.

Chapter 28: The Arena

I don’t remember falling asleep, but I must have. The dim cell in which I awoke gave me no clear indication of the time. It didn’t matter I thought, soon enough nothing would matter. Though I remained locked away, I could hear noise, subtle, almost inaudible through the walls of my cage, but I could hear it. I imagined the view from the glass room again, high above the arena, overlooking everything. People streaming in from all over the city to watch whatever Mrs. Davenport planned. Did they know I wondered? Were they aware that they came to watch a public execution? Would they be surprised to see friends and co-workers, people they had known for years, lined up and murdered for no other reason than they had a genetic disposition that bore Wylder? Would they care that they could be next? Would fear of the unknown overpower their sense of decency, of right and wrong? What would they do if they knew; they could be next to fall under her malice. I sighed, I knew what the sounds of a gathering crowd meant. People were arriving and that meant it was well into the morning, and time ticked away towards the end of my life. A chill rolled through me, starting at my toes and washing up through me. Is this really it I asked myself; am I going to die today to thunderous applause?

 

I spent more time just waiting. I almost wished they would hurry up and get it over with. Almost. Soon, I heard the horrifying click of the door unlocking. Cold adrenaline washed through me at the sound. A bitter bile taste retched the back of my throat as panic set in. This time as the door creaked open, the urge to fight set in. Mrs. Davenport must have suspected that I would be less than enthusiastic about my impending demise, because this time instead of two enforcers, seven stood in the hall outside my door. My eyes and cheeks scrunched up in revulsion; I knew I stood little chance against two guards, let alone seven.

 

They cuffed me yet again and led through the massive complex. People milled about; no doubt, the entire city would be present for this spectacle. Some stopped to stare at me on my march. I paid them little attention, my mind blank and numb. This time, they led me downstairs into some kind of locker room for the old sports players. Worn benches, unused showers, large tubs were scattered about the room; a dank musty smell assaulted my nostrils. We didn’t tarry there; instead, we pushed through into a long corridor. At the end, I could see the blinding light of a noon sun pouring in through an open cavity. Alarms again started sounding off in my head, I knew this would bring me center stage in front of the city. I would be laid bare before everyone in the center of that grassy field I looked upon from on high only the day before. I stopped on the cusp of the opening, and stared into the blinding light. My eyes half closed of their own volition, not willing to bare it. I knew that I had to go out there and face whatever lay in store for me, but my body resisted.

 

I stumbled forward, a rough shove from behind courtesy of an enforcer pushed me across the threshold. It took a few minutes for my eyes to adjust to the blinding brightness of the October sky. The deafening roar of so many citizens gathered in one place died down to a murmur washing over me as I stood, waiting on my eyes to adjust. That intense feeling of being watched crawled across my skin; I shivered fir a moment as hackles raised across my body. As my eyes began to adjust, my wonder grew at the display before me. A large stage decorated the center of the field. Enormous, it took up a little over half of the field I now stood on.

 

A single podium sat in front of it, and on stage were countless families, cuffed to a long singular