Rise of the Scorpion Read online

  Brother Ark Book II

  Rise of the Scorpion

  By

  Scott McCord

  Copyright © 2020 Scott McCord

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form without written permission of the author.

  ISBN: 9798615315930

  Independently Published

  This story is a work of fiction. All characters and events are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to any person, living or dead, is coincidental.

  for Allison

  Acknowledgements

  Thank you to the following people for making this a better story than I could have written alone:

  Mom, Dad, Ashleigh, Joan, and Olivia for reading a pretty rough first manuscript and for all of your suggestions for its improvement.

  Anna Claire, for your patience with my preoccupation of an imaginary world.

  Joan, for your continuing support and encouragement to get the work done.

  Olivia, for allowing me to tap into your imagination from time to time to help fashion a story that has never been told.

  But mostly Allison, whose love and patience anchors me through the madness of writing. Sweetheart, there are no words without you.

  I sure do love you.

  Contents

  Rise of the Scorpion

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  30

  31

  32

  33

  34

  35

  36

  37

  38

  39

  40

  41

  42

  43

  44

  45

  46

  47

  Coming Soon

  1

  Mim

  “Ruuuun!” Will drops into the arena, running and screaming for us to follow him out. Starter and Thirty-three sprint for the door, dragging a litter piled with their wounded teammate as the doctor tries to keep up. I’m disconnected, somehow, as I watch Will shouting and scrambling for the exit. Evan’s dead, Gas is alive, and I just shot a Scorpion in the face. How can there be more? How can there be any more? I don’t understand.

  “Can you run?” Tommy asks Gas.

  “I got legs. Don’t wait on me.”

  “Mim!” Tommy jerks my arm. “Mim, we have to leave.”

  “Come on, the Ark is moving!” Will shouts.

  Gas, Tommy, and I hobble into a trot, following Will out of the arena. My legs are in knots from the match and my knees don’t want to work right, but it’s move or die, so when Will asks if I’m okay, I say I am. If anyone is going to need help, it will be Gas, and I won’t have Tommy and Will worrying about me instead of him.

  I take a moment to catch my breath. The back side of the arena is quiet, ordinary, like any other day. The sky is blue and a stiff breeze bends the tall grass in the rear pastures. It’s beautiful.

  “Everybody okay?” Will asks. We nod. “Good, let’s get out of here.”

  We trot around the building into the thoroughfare and stop. Chaos is everywhere. Group 1 has crumbled into mayhem and herd animals. People are shouting and dogs are barking. Sheep and goats plow over everything in their path. Tents and lodges are being crushed to the ground as men and women with arms full of small children or crying babies, scramble to survive. Outside is coming and it’s coming fast. If something miraculous doesn’t happen, most of Group 1 will be left, silent and blue, as first casualties of this migration.

  “It’s too much! We can’t get through!” Tommy yells.

  He’s right. Stumbling bodies and razor sharp hooves are collapsing into the main escape routes. Middle groups aren’t evacuating fast enough and a glut of refugees, clawing and climbing over one another, is swelling between the tents. People go to the ground and don’t get up. We can’t get by. The perimeter is our only hope. If it isn’t clear, we’ll cut into the tall grass and take our chances running blind.

  “This way!” I bark, doubling back around the arena. I don’t wait to see if my friends are following.

  The culling field is on my right. People lashed to posts gasp for air, and the sweet, putrid smell of vomit hangs all around as Outside takes its victims row by row. The Back Edge is closer than I thought. I stop to check on the boys.

  “Pick it up Will! I’m not kidding! Tommy, quit holding back for them! Gas, be faster!” I yell.

  I turn to keep going, and in a few more steps I’m standing on the matted grass of the perimeter where there aren’t as many animals and the crowd is thinner. We can make it from here, catch Group 14, and get off the Back Edge. I feel better. Tommy is the first to reach me.

  “My legs are killing me,” he says, leaning over to massage his calf. “Did you see my last shot?” He gives me a quick glance, I shake my head no, and he returns to rubbing his leg. “Right to the back of the net. It should count…even if Will did kill their goalie. I’m pretty sure he was still alive when I poked it in.”

  Will trots up. “Why are you standing here? Don’t wait on us.”

  “If I wait, it’s because you’re not keeping up,” I snap as Gas limps to a stop. He’s bleeding and still holding Will’s knife. He needs bandages and salve, but when I mention it, Will cuts me off.

  “There’s no time for that, Mim! We have to keep moving. They need you on survey, so quit holding back and get to Group 14.”

  “If Gas goes down because those wounds aren’t tended, who’s going to carry him, you?”

  More people begin spilling out to the perimeter.

  “I won’t go down,” Gas says. “It looks worse than it is, besides, I need you to find Ellie and tell her I’m okay. She’ll be worried.”

  “I’m not leaving.”

  Tommy looks up. “You have to. They need you on point. It’s okay, we’ll be there soon.”

  Three against one, like always.

  I puff and shake my head. “Okay, but don’t take too long. You guys run like crippled old women, and if I have to come back here—”

  “You won’t,” Will interrupts. “We can take care of ourselves. When you see my dad, tell him I’m on the way.”

  There’s nothing more to be said, Tommy and Will are going to stay with Gas, and I’m headed for Group 14. I turn and haul ass, dodging my way through people and sheep, hurdling abandoned crates of supplies, passing mothers carrying babies with younger children in tow. Fear is everywhere, but I move quickly enough to avoid caring for anyone other than the boys behind me.

  I hold up when I’m even with Group 6 and Will can’t see me anymore. Screaming and shouting rings in my ears as I stand breathing hard, staring back in the direction of my friends. Brother Ark is moving fast. I’ll wait here until I see the chuckleheads aren’t in trouble. Ellie would rather me look after Gas than comfort her with empty words of how he was fine the last time I saw him. Besides, I can’t leave Will…even if he tells me to.

  I put my hands on my knees to rest as faceless people stream around me. I glimpse over. Tents are collapsing, hastily tossed into moving ox wagons alongside other haphazard cargo. People salvage a
ll they can, thinking there’s time to save just a little more as the low drum of stampeding hooves rumbles the ground. I’ve outrun the main herd for now, but the tide of sheep and goats is coming, flooding up the thoroughfare, churning everything in its path to fertilizer. I watch a man set a small girl to the ground while he loads a spinning wheel onto a hand cart, and the sight chills my bones.

  “Hurry! You have to hurry!” I yell, but the man doesn’t hear me. I step toward him, but stop. I have to stay focused. The people around me will have to take care of themselves. I turn away and wait to catch a glimpse of Will, to make sure he’s coming, that Gas hasn’t fainted or Tommy isn’t cramped up. As soon as I see they’re okay, I’ll move up a few more groups and wait for them again. Those boys can be pretty stupid, so it’s better for me to hold back a bit, no matter what Will says.

  “Go! Go! Go!” A border guard runs by chasing after his dog. The thunder of hooves grows louder as a gang of rough-looking men with shepherd crooks appear and disappear around me. Women scream, calling for children. I glance for the man who set the girl down to load his cart. He’s disappeared into a river of people. Hopefully the Forward groups are doing better.

  “Come on, Will, where are you?” I mutter…and then…I hear her.

  “Rosie! Rosie!” a sobbing woman screams out into the tall grass. She’s frantic and trembling, catching me by surprise at how suddenly she seemed to appear behind me. I didn’t notice her go by, or emerge from the ruined tents to look for her child.

  “Rosie, where are you baby? We have to leave! Please come to mama!” she calls.

  I do my best to ignore her. I’m going back, the boys should be here by now. Something’s happened.

  “My god, my god Rosie, sweetheart, we have to leave!” the panicked mother wails.

  I wheel around, pointing at the woman. “You have to go! You have to go now!”

  “No! I can’t. My baby, my little girl, she’s afraid, she’s hiding. I can’t find her. I have to find her! She’s not far away, I know it, but I can’t see her,” the woman cries. “Rosie, please come back, please come back,” she chokes, falling to her knees, continuing to sob her daughter’s name.

  The thunder of hooves grows stronger, rumbling the ground hard enough to tickle my toes. It wouldn’t take much for a small child to get lost in the grass. It’s easy to get turned around a few steps in, and with all the shouting and confusion, a toddler might not hear her mother, or may be too afraid to come out. I move to the woman’s side.

  “You saw her go in?” I ask.

  She looks up, eyes drowning in tears, and nods.

  “Where?”

  She points to the straw.

  “I’ll get her.” I glance down the perimeter, hoping to see Will. I don’t. I step into the tall grass, and it closes like a curtain behind me.

  Four paces in…something’s wrong. If Rosie came in where her mother said, the straw would be bent the opposite way. Someone much heavier than a child passed by, not going out into the field, but entering Community instead. That’s why I didn’t see Rosie’s mom before she appeared at the grass-line. What is this? Every instinct fires. I whirl around to escape, bumping into the woman. No longer weeping, she’s followed me in.

  I push to get by her, but hands belonging to hidden faces shoot out, taking hold of my arms and wrists. Their grip is hard as oak, but I’m sweaty and slip through the grasp of one attacker. I twist into the other, bringing my legs up chest high and kicking away. I go to the ground hard, crawling, scrambling to my feet. I have to get out of the grass! I’m almost there—

  Panicked voices no more than an arm’s length away hurry along the perimeter. I can see their owners, but they don’t see me. A hand grabs my ankle, I stumble, spinning around to break away, but I’m wrapped up from behind and wrestled into submission by silent men with arms of stone. I scream—no one hears. Rosie’s mother appears before me, pulls a cloth from her pouch, and presses it over my nose and mouth. I jerk my head back and forth, but she manages to keep my airways covered. The smell is sharp, burning through my nostrils and the back of my throat on its way to my brain. I fight, but I’m losing consciousness anyway.

  Through the grass, I see Will and Tommy trot by with a hobbling Gas. They’ll worry about me when they get home. I wish they wouldn’t. I try to call out, but Rosie’s mother keeps her cloth on my face, and my friends pass me by like I’m any other ripple in the straw.

  The noise of desperate people trying to keep up with Brother Ark echoes in my head as my kidnappers lay me to the ground. A blue sky frames unfamiliar faces, and an indistinct conversation circles above. My ears buzz deep and my body seems to be somewhere else. Did Tommy really make that shot? I imagine my lips curling into a smile. I’m sorry Will. I didn’t mean to leave like this. I would never leave without saying goodbye…

  2

  Mim

  There’s nothing. No sound, no sensations, no dreams—like I don’t exist at all. I have no sense of time and when I finally open my eyes, all I can do is stare down as the forest floor rushes by. I don’t know where I am or what’s happening to me as I float sideways through the woods. What little I can see is mesmerizing—a rock, a stick, a weed with a yellow flower…pretty. My face tingles, and when I’m jostled my cheeks explode into funny pins and needles. It tickles, and from some far off place, I hear myself laugh. There’s a hand dangling below me, but it doesn’t seem to be mine. I watch it intently, slowly becoming aware of the weight of my own arms and legs. They’re heavy and useless, but at least I remember them. The sound of walking fills my ears. I’m draped across someone’s shoulders. There was a little girl.

  “Did you find her?” I ask, but my tongue is too thick, so the question comes out a slur. “Did you find…Rosie? Is she safe?” I scream in my head, but the words circling back are only inarticulate croaks.

  “She’s waking up.” A man’s voice resonates through my chest. He must be carrying me. I struggle to lift my head, but can’t.

  “Just relax, Mim,” a woman says.

  “The girl?” My words are better.

  “Ah, honey, there never was a girl.”

  A cloth covers my face and a familiar sharp smell burns through my nostrils. I want to turn away, but my body won’t respond. I slip back to nothing.

  How long I’m gone, I don’t know—hours, days maybe. There’s no way to tell. I open my eyes to a woman trying to give me a drink from a waterskin. She has me propped against a tree. I turn my head and raise my hand to limply push her away before she drowns me. I sputter and choke as the conscious world ekes into focus.

  “No, no dear, you need this. Try to get some down or you’ll dehydrate,” she says, pressing the nozzle to my lips. She sounds gentle, but with my brain in cobwebs, I can’t connect what she’s saying with what she’s doing. I turn my head again and sweep my wrist across my face to knock the waterskin from my lips.

  “She’ll drink when she’s ready.” A man’s voice comes from somewhere behind the woman. “But right now, we have to keep moving. We have to catch up.”

  “What do you think Cassandra will say when she sees what we have?”

  “I don’t know, but Jonathan will be delighted.”

  “I hope you’re right,” the woman says.

  Other voices swirl in the background, but they’re indistinct, and I can’t tell what they’re saying.

  “Last chance.” The woman holds the waterskin to my lips. This time I don’t turn away. My body is heavy and numb, but I’m awake enough now, and my tongue is dry as kindling. I let the water roll in and out of my mouth, trying to swallow what I can, with most of it overflowing down my chin. “There you go. That’s better,” the woman says.

  I blink.

  She smiles and reaches into her pouch for the cloth. She leans in to cover my face.

  “Don’t.”

  She stops and looks around.

  “She’s had enough,” the man says.

  “She’ll run away.”

 
“No she won’t.” The man kneels down. “Hello, Mim, please don’t be afraid. My name is Jack and this is Mary. We weren’t in Community for you, but the Ark broke loose and you were standing by yourself, so we took the opportunity. It was just luck.”

  “Hurry up, Jack,” a hushed voice demands. I hear people shuffling to their feet making ready to leave.

  “Mim, Mary wants to put you out again—thinks you’ll take off on us if we don’t. But if you don’t eat and get some water, you’ll get sick.” He’s direct, but his tone is kind, trying to lull me into forgetting he’s my kidnapper. I’m not sure what he wants, but I know what he is.

  “Slitter.” The weak word barely escapes my lips, but it makes Jack’s face pucker.

  “Enough of this,” Mary says. “Another round won’t matter much, and if she wakes up enough to give us trouble, we’ll never catch the others.” Mary reaches for my face with her cloth, but Jack grabs her wrist and pushes it away.

  “Mim, I don’t want you getting sick, but I don’t want you to be a problem either. Do you understand?”

  “Slitter.” I manage to get out again.

  “We don’t have time for this,” Mary says.

  “I know,” Jack answers without looking around. “But I don’t want her on death’s door when Jonathan sees her.”

  My stupor is wearing off enough to realize Jack doesn’t want to drug me again, but Mary is afraid to let me come out of it…and she’s right. Me running away will be the least of their worries if I can grab a bow and get into the trees. I decide to play along.

  “Do you know who I mean when I say Jonathan?” Jack asks.

  I’ve only ever known one Jonathan, but he’s long gone. I find enough control of my muscles to shake my head no. It’s more of a twitch.

  “She doesn’t know,” Mary hisses.

  “Mim, if we put you out again, someone will have to carry you until the Ark finds its ground. You won’t eat, and we’ll have to force water down your throat. You’ll be gone for days if you come back at all. Do you understand?”