Eversummer: The Forerunner Archives Book 1 Page 28

  25.

  The first thing I notice is that I've just left the cleanest room in the building.

  We're in a hallway on the upper floor. 

  There are doors all along its length, most hanging wide open, revealing rooms that are messy, cluttered, or destroyed. We pass one where a young mutant man stands naked, pulling on a soiled pair of black tunic pants. He snarls at our approach, slamming the door shut.

  "Sorry," I say with practiced sarcasm.

  Tien looks back at me with a smirk. "Try not to be offended," he says. "Most of my brothers have not had contact with an outsider in years."

  "Really?" I ask, shocked and confused. "I thought this was a school run by outsiders, Tien?"

  Tien turns away and walks a little faster, giving me the feeling he'd said something he shouldn't have. "This way," is all he says.

  As we move deeper and deeper into the Manse–for that is what this place is, comparable in size to my own home in Krakelyn–the feeling that this place is not a school grows stronger within me. There's garbage everywhere, for one thing.

  Food, clothing, dirt, grime.

  And it seems like Tien is the only civilized resident.

  "How long did you say you've been living here?" I ask as we descend a massive, curving staircase to the bottom floor. From the condition of the place, it doesn't seem like they've been living this way for long. The mess I'm seeing looks fairly fresh. 

  Since the Final Judgment, perhaps. 

  "Hey, Jurid!" Traylor calls, waving to an excitable young mutant who runs up to greet us as we reach the main floor.

  "Traylor!" Jurid slurs through crooked lips. His eyes fall onto me, growing wide. "Is this your sister?" he asks, staring hungrily.

  "Yeah, that's Juno," Traylor replies, as if he doesn't care. He's too cool for me now that he knows I'm alright.

  "Good to meet you, Juno!" Jurid practically screams, holding an emaciated white hand out to me. I take it, shivering at the coldness of his flesh. He looks a lot like Tien.

  "You too," I say, ending the handshake quickly then closing my fist to warm it up. I sneak a look at his feet. No shoes. And six toes, like Tien. Well, at least now I know that all Everwinter mutants have six toes. Images of the footprints on the beach and outside Ursa's lab haunt me once again.

  We enter a community kitchen of some sort, with long tables and trays of food scattered about, most having been picked over or dumped completely. The leavings are not picked up. A few of the boys are in the midst of a food fight, but when we enter and make our presence known, it stops immediately, all eyes falling upon us.

  Falling upon on Tien.

  It could be my imagination, but I think I read jealousy in a lot of those faces. Faces a lot like Tien’s.

  "Well, Tien?" a voice calls out from the back. "Are we civilized, or are we savages? Aren't you going to introduce us to our guests?" It was a tall young mutant who had spoken. He looks older than the rest, with hair so white it's nearly blue hanging to his butt. His eyes are redder too, cold and calculating.

  Tien pushes his way to the front of our little procession.

  "Sorry, Dura," he calls out, stepping up onto one of the tables in the middle of the kitchen.

  "Dura is like our, um, unofficial leader," Jurid whispers to me, winking when I look at him. I nod but say nothing. I feel like he's undressing me with his eyes. 

  And he's not the only one.

  I realize then that I'm really lucky that Tien was the one that found and took care of me here.

  "Brothers!" Tien calls out. "By now, you all know Traylor Quinn." He gestures to my little brother theatrically. "Now, I'd like you to meet his sister, Juno Quinn! Together, they are the last two humans to survive the Final Judgment!" 

  I can see that Traylor is expecting some sort of dramatic fanfare from that little speech, but all I hear is grumbling–mostly about how they’re gonna have to feed us now too. I look around again, noticing that most of the residents here are emaciated. They're not getting enough to eat. Wasted food lies everywhere, rotting. Whatever happened in this place, these boys were left to fend for themselves without an inkling of how to do so.

  I feel bad for them.

  I step up on the table beside Tien.

  "Hi, I'm Juno," I say with a timid wave. "Look, my brother and I don't want to be a burden on you. We'll be on our way once we find the friends we lost when we fell from the Engie." I pause, seeing I now have their undivided attention. "Um, I guess there's no denying that Traylor and I are the last humans. We're on a mission, I guess you'd call it. To save human kind from extinction. We have to get to Everwinter." Shocked murmurs erupt from the crowd. "We don't expect anything from you," I continue over the noise, "but I do need to ask of you one thing." I breathe deep. "Please, keep our existence a secret. I know you probably don't get many visitors out here but... It's imperative that we keep ourselves hidden. A lot of, um, people, want us dead. They don't want the old world to come back. Frankly, I tend to agree with them. I hated that old religion. But that's not why we're doing this. We're doing this because if we don't, the human race will be extinct within a generation." The crowd gasps, and I hear murmurs of disbelief. "You see, that's the greatest tragedy of the Final Judgment. You're all sterile now, every mutant in the world, and–"

  "But we've always been mutants," Dura's voice echoes from the back of the room, overpowering mine. Silence descends for a few moments.

  "Yes, but–" I start to say, then realize I don't know for certain that all mutants are sterile–just the ones that were created during the Final Judgment. These boys were mutants all along, born that way in Everwinter. I study the faces around me. They all share the same pale gaunt features, and reddish eyes, but they don't have boils or tumors like everyone else.

  I puff myself up. "Dura, is it?" I ask, my eyes now glued to the tall mutant boy, almost a man, in human terms. Dura nods, stepping forward. I'm still standing on the table, but when Dura reaches me our eyes are level. 

  "Yes," he replies sternly.

  I hesitate, unsure of how to proceed. "Obviously, you guys know about the Final Judgment, right?" Dura nods, supported by the others around him. "And, um, did you guys see what happened to the, um, normal people when it happened?"

  Dura huffs in frustration. "We have eyes, Miss Quinn," he sneers sarcastically.

  "Right," I agree. "Well... Did anything happen to you guys during the Final Judgment? What I mean is: did you acquire any, um, new mutations?"

  Dura laughs, shaking his head. "I forget you have never encountered an Everwinter mutant before, Miss Quinn. To answer your question bluntly, no, the Final Judgment had no physical effect on me or my brothers whatsoever."

  I brighten, a smile breaking out. "That's good news!" I announce. "That means you guys probably aren't sterile!" I watch Dura's face for a reaction, but he remains cold. In that moment, a terrible thought occurs to me. Does this mean that every Everwinter mutant isn't sterile?

  It's a scary notion.

  If the mutants of Everwinter–a people marginalized by the humans of Eversummer for centuries–get wind of this, they could rise up and wipe out humanity in its weakened state. Our sheer numbers were the only thing holding Everwinter at bay all this time.

  "That is good news," Dura agrees with me. "For us." He gestures to his brothers. "If you knew the way your kind treated have us in this facility, Miss Quinn..."

  I blush, embarrassed somewhat by my candor, but I don't let it stop me. "I thought this place was a school," I say, turning to eye Tien warily.

  Dura's gaze also finds Tien. "What have you been telling them?" he asks, teeth bared.

  Tien shakes his head. "I was trying to protect the boy." He gestures to Traylor, standing below him at the table.

  "From what?" Dura laughs. "This world is no longer a place for youthful innocence." He hesitates, considering. "Why don't you take them outside, Tien?" Dura suggests. "Show them where our 'education' took place."

  Tie
n seems to deflate, eyes downcast. He doesn't argue. "Yes, Dura," he agrees, stepping down from the table. His eyes meet mine. "Come on."

  Reluctantly, still scowling at Dura, I step down too, grabbing Traylor and following Tien out of the mess hall. The place is eerily calm. The mutant boys glare at us the entire time we leave, some licking their lips, others whistling at us shrilly.

  Whistling at me.

  I can't wait to get the bloody ashes out of this place.