Chapter 44: The Light
CROC
Willow cried as we left. She fell to her knees on the deck of the ship and sobbed, gut wrenching sounds that sliced my heart in two and made each half battle the other. One wanted to stay, to ignore responsibility and do what was easy. The other half turned dark, pumping rage through my veins. I shouldn't need to do this. She shouldn't need to constantly fear that more Officials will arrive. Julia shouldn't be gone.
I focused on the anger, stoking it like a fire, letting it fuel me forward so I wouldn't turn back. We traveled for hours through the dark woods, guided by Cecil's compass. I'd never seen a town in real life, but what I found was nothing like the pictures I'd seen in books.
Savannah reminded me of Pappy. Not his smile or his words or any of the things he taught me. No. Savannah was the bones he left behind: vacant, lifeless, decayed. It was the shack before Julia came, overflowing with garbage, covered in grime, cobwebs, and dust. It was the shadow of someplace where people had lived. Mothers and fathers and babies. Pappys and Julias. All gone. All killed. All turned into snacks by a predator. I cracked my knuckles, rolled my neck. My muscles wound like a snake, twisting, tightening, preparing to strike.
I was a predator too.
The walls were coated in scribbled words, reminding me of the board Julia had hung in the living room when she was teaching us to read. But there was no lesson here, only pleas for help and forgotten resistance. I imagined this were my home. That the swamp was suddenly over-run by a gluttonous, bottomless beast. Then I remembered that it had been, and too many members of my family were now buried along the bank, mound upon mound of upset ground. But we'd fought back, and they hadn't beaten us.
How many battles had this place won before it ultimately fell?
The town ended like the canal, opening up into a vast stretch of land. We continued forward up a hill, growing increasingly lower to the ground the closer we got to the lights shining in the distance, until we were laid flat on our stomachs, taking it in.
The Greater Good killed everything it touched. Even the Earth surrounding it had rotted. The grass was gone; the dirt was dry. Dust twisted in the air like smoke, rolling with the rhythm of the wind. Each time it blew, I caught a whiff of their scent. A toxic soup made of all the worst ingredients: putrid, festering, rancid. It singed my nose, burned my throat, then hit my lungs like sharp stones. They weren't just killing people; they were killing the mother. They were a disease, and if the canal was her heart, then this was her body. That was why I couldn't feel her here. The swamp wasn't different because it was changed; it was different because it hadn't been.
My jaw clenched, hands fisted. Pappy had tried his best to keep me away from them. He'd done what he thought was right, but nowhere was safe so long as they kept spreading. I couldn't help but feel like my whole life had been leading me to this moment. That maybe I'd needed to be alone, so she could raise me, and I could know her. So she could teach me and make me strong. So I could save her.
They weren't invincible. In the distance, their buildings stood behind a wired fence, and towers rose around their perimeter, casting beams of light so bright it was like the sun shone only for them. All proof that even the beast had reason to fear the dark.
"Croc," Merle hissed.
I blinked, snapping out of my thoughts.
The men had gathered closer together, and they were staring at me. Merle motioned with his chin toward where Reggie and a group of others were huddled around Tex. I crouched and hurried over, and Tex glanced at me as I joined the group, his lips thin. "Nice of you to join us," he said. "There are six towers, and two suits in each one. Two of ours need to sneak up and take them out, before they can sound the alarm." He looked around the group. "Everyone think they can do that?"
We all nodded.
"I sure as Hell hope so," Tex said. "Alright, Croc and Reggie, you take the first—" He continued on, pairing us up, but I stopped listening.
My eyes zoned in on the first tower. Two inky figures stood within, barely distinguishable amidst the shadows. For the first time in my life, if I strained my eyes, I could see the monsters in the dark. I could face them once and for all.
"Go!" Tex snapped, ushering us forward.
I charged. The human parts of me receded, giving way to nature. I was a boy out from under the covers: bigger, stronger, braver. I was a beast sprung from an abused mother, finally grown enough to protect.
"Slow down," Reggie whisper-yelled behind me.
"Speed up," I growled. My heart hammered, blood rushed, feet pounded the ground, eating the distance like a man starving. I leapt, gripping the wooden beams, and scaling upward. Splinters sunk into my palms, slid beneath my nails, the faint scent of my own blood mixing with the stench of them. I kept going, no hesitation, making it to the top, flipping over the wall, dropping into the box.
The two men whipped around, but before they could finish gasping, I yanked two blades from my belt and slit their throats in one fluid motion. They fell, gargling, choking, eyes wide and fixed on me. I stared at the blood, craving more. I rumbled low in my chest, baring my teeth, soaking up their pain, their fear, relishing it.
"What the fuck," Reggie grunted as he struggled over the side. His lip curled at the sight of the guards. "Show off." He strode over and shoved them both out of the way before grabbing the massive flashlight and spinning it toward the center. Then he left it there and grabbed one of the guns mounted on either side of it. He hummed as he tested his aim. "This is a nice one."
One by one, the other towers joined us, their beams intersecting ours. I stepped forward, taking in the scene below. I'd expected something more diabolical, but all I found was one massive main building surrounded by large metal sheds. The ground was dirt, light gray, almost white, as if the color had been drained away. Movement caught my attention to the left, and I looked over just in time to see Tex and the others disappear from view. They were right outside the fence now.
I looked down. The two guards had bled out, their eyes vacant and staring into nowhere. "What do we do now?" I asked, ready for more. But the enemy was hidden somewhere beneath the surface, and the world below was entirely too quiet.
"You have the attention span of a goddamn goldfish," Reggie muttered. "What do you think we do? We stand here, and we cover the rest."
"Cover?"
"Shoot the bad guys." Reggie threw a hand toward the other gun. "Pew pew. Aim and pull the trigger. I'm not sure how much simpler I can put it."
I eyed the gun, then pulled out a blade.
Reggie scoffed. "Whatever."
"There," I said. A lone Official emerged from the darkness to our right, following the fence as he slowly paced the perimeter.
"Shit." Reggie swung the gun around, but he didn't have a shot from our angle. But the other towers would. . .
My chest tightened, as Julia's death flashed to the fore. I'd acted too soon. If I'd been patient, she would still be alive. "If we're loud, more will come," I said.
"No shit, Shirley. That's why nobody's shot the bastard yet."
The guard reached the place directly below us and turned, giving us a clear view of his back as he walked along the front of each shed. He was headed straight past where I'd seen them disappear. Would he be able to see them? I lifted the knife behind my head, poised to throw, waiting for his slightest reaction. Then Tex turned the corner of one of the buildings, coming face to face with him.
The guard startled and lifted his gun, and it felt like history was repeating itself. Only, this time, I didn't make a sound. I flung the knife hard. It sunk into his back, and he fell forward.
So easy. So simple. I stared at him, wishing it were a different Official on a different day. Wishing I'd known.
Reggie whistled. "Nice shot. Ol' boy's deader than a well-done steak."
Tex looked up, giving me a nod before he turned toward the building and beat the lock open.
The men slipped inside, and the scene fell quiet. The corpse lay face down where he'd fallen, soaking the pale Earth in red. I didn't trust the stillness, no matter how long it stretched. I could feel someone watching us, like a rogue gator hidden beneath the surface, waiting for the perfect moment to lunge.
"You smell what I'm smelling?" Reggie murmured, sounding just as on edge as I was. He tightened his hold on the gun, his focus on the main building. "This shit is too easy. Something's brewin', and I don't like it."
I nodded and grabbed the light, scanning the perimeter slowly. The other towers joined me, our spotlights dancing, trying to catch the danger we could sense but couldn't see. But there was no one.
Until a dozen doors all opened at once, and a horde of shielded Officials spilled out.
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