Page 36 of Burdened Bonds
And I know what that feels like. What it’s like to be alone. To have no one. And I keep my hand right where it is.
16
Azlan
The journey is nota comfortable one. Stone wasn’t exaggerating. The car is a rust bucket, a rust bucket that hardly fits my large frame. I am crammed into the seat, folded in half with my knees scraping the underside of my chin, feeling every bump and crater in the road. Every so often I glance in the rearview mirror to be met with my friend’s unamused expression.
It doesn’t help that the girl is a really shit driver. Not that she seems to notice her own limitations, oblivious to our winces and sucked-in breaths, and politely declining every offer I make to take over behind the wheel.
Halfway there I decide I need something to distract me from the near misses and my increased agitation about both Rhi and Ellie. I flip on the radio and scroll through the stations. I’m met with a hissing noise at every frequency.
“They’re all down,” I say. “All the stations.”
However, finally we hit on one lone station, one I bet is situated somewhere as far away from the border and Los Magicos as you can get. It plays old country songs and when one comes on that I remember my mom singing, I sit back and close my eyes, hoping it might calm me the shit down.
Towards the end of the song, however, when the guitars are fading, the song cuts dead and a loud voice blares across the frequency instead.
I snap open my eyes.
“Citizens of the Republic. Yesterday at twenty-one hundred hours forces from the West invaded our lands and attempted to topple our government. They were fortunately thwarted, although not without the loss of lives and some destruction to our great capital.” I sit forward in my seat. It isn’t the chancellor speaking. No, it’s my goddamn uncle. “No doubt we were betrayed by traitors within our midst, citizens who aided and abetted our enemies. As such, a state of emergency has been declared, and the council has chosen to install me, Christopher Kennedy, as temporary Lord Protector of our nation. I will not rest until our enemies – the weeds that grow hidden among us – have been hunted down, tugged out by their roots and utterly destroyed. Rest assured, no such attack will ever be allowed to happen again. You will find me a ruthless tyrant when it comes to our enemies and a fair and just ruler to all those faithful to our republic.”
I sniff. Fair? Just? He’ll hunt down every dissident, every opponent he can and obliterate them. There will be no fairness, no peace. There will only be tyranny and fear.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” Stone says in irritation. “Who the fuck led the attack and why the fuck did they back off?”
I shake my head. I don’t know. Since the fall of the Black Prince two decades ago, the forces in the West have been split and fractious. Different leaders have risen, fighting amongst themselves. No one has wielded enough power to lead an attack like the one last night. If they really did …
“Maybe this has nothing to do with the West after all,” I say, “maybe this was a coup.”
“Moreau insists forces attacked from over the border.”
I shrug. “My uncle could have planned it to look that way.”
“Do you think they’ll reinstate the cell network?” Winnie asks unsurely. “I really need to check that Trent and my family are okay.”
I snort again and Winnie peers at me with distress.
“I’m sure they will,” Stone says, obviously wanting to placate our driver. But he knows it benefits my uncle to keep communications down. He’ll want everyone scurrying around like headless chickens in the dark. Makes it easier to swoop down and pluck off his enemies one by one.
We’re all quiet for the next hour. The scenery beyond the window is one blurred line of color as we hurtle along at unrecognizable speeds, but I catch glimpses: houses, forests, the mountains in the distance. The fighting didn’t reach this far. In fact, out here, you could believe that last night didn’t happen at all, that nothing has changed.
Another half hour passes, the sun sinking behind the horizon and the car beginning to slow.
“We’re here?” I ask Winnie. We’re deep in the wastelands now. The authorities’ grip here has always been weakest, the gangs ruling in effect. Lowsky’s compound lies in the heart of the forest in front of us. It’s not somewhere I’ve ever ventured before.
“I’ve taken us to the point you instructed.”
“Right,” I say, “Stone and I are going to go on foot from here. You need to keep yourself and this car hidden until we return with Rhi.”
“Foot?” Winnie says.
“We don’t know who’s out there. Lowsky’s men may be out patrolling. Fuck, there may even be soldiers from the West or my uncle’s men. We’ll be less conspicuous this way.”
“You’re not going without me,” Winnie says, already unclipping her seat belt.
“Miss Wence,” Stone says, leaning forward in his seat. “You need to guard this car. We may need it as our getaway vehicle.”
“I’m coming with you,” she says, ignoring her professor.
