Cory

The Underground army was scattered--shattered into small squads of confused soldiers running around the North End of Easternport. We had been hunting them down, piece by piece, squad by squad to try and take control of the area.

I had been assigned a Serpent squad of young soldiers to guide through the Fault since most of them were unfamiliar with the area. They were O-kollectiv mostly, with a few boys from an even younger kollectiv, getting their first experience in the field. The point man for the squad might have been named Omar. I couldn't remember.

For me, the North End was home. I could have walked the streets with my eyes closed and known where I was. But these boys I was with couldn't figure out which way was North, even with their eyes open.

We were assigned to be the sweepers. Our job was to keep any and all Underground patriots from slipping south across the Fault and into Center City. So we moved back and fourth across the Fault line to sweep away any escaping Underground patriots. There weren't many to sweep, which gave me such relief. I couldn't bare to shoot any more Underground patriots than the two I already had that morning. I thought maybe I could take careful shots that would be nonlethal. But then, I just imagined accidentally shooting someone I knew in the leg and him bleeding out before anyone helped him. The idea made me sick.

The streets were shadowless by the time we ran into our last group of Underground. I pointed my gun in their direction and shot at the air above them, giving them a warning to run. I was hoping they'd run back North toward the North End subway station, but instead, they ran South and took cover in a blown out building. We circled the building quickly before heading in the back door to corner them. At that point, I was just following whatever orders I was given, as peacefully as possible.

The point man (more like point boy), pulled open the door and out fell a Center City Police officer. What he was doing this far North was beyond me. I had never seen law enforcement on the Fault before. I didn't get a good look at him since I was behind the other Serpent soldiers and about twenty centimeters shorter than them. I saw his badge on his chest and the back of his uniform as he fled the scene and ran south to Center City.

Inside the building, the Underground patriots bunched up against a cement wall, peaking around the corner and trying to figure out how they would make it out of there alive. They were as young as the Serpent boys I was with. I couldn't stand to see any more get shot.

The whole point of me switching sides to fight with the Serpents was to save as many lives as possible. Mikkel told me that if the war between the Serpents and the Underground went on much longer, then both sides would be too weak to deal with the Jaggars in the south. And no one wanted the Jaggars in control of the city.

That's why Mikkel told me to go to the Serpents and offer information in exchange for asylum. King Marcel had been thrilled. All I had to do was show him my SBS brand, tell him I was an Indigo Child, and say I was willing to give him information on the Underground hide-outs. For that, he promised my safety and the safety of everyone that surrendered—even Miles.

So, again, I warned the Underground soldiers with a shot above their heads and took the verbal abuse of the Serpents with me for letting them get away. And then they stuck me on top of the building and told me to stay there until someone came for me. So I stayed. From there, I had a clear view of the North End subway station where the last of the Underground patriots were holding out. It was their home. It was my brother's home.

By early afternoon, the Serpents surrounded the building and forced the last of the Underground to come out. The Underground patriots stood disarmed in the streets outside of the burning North End subway station. They formed rows of brown that filled the streets and then some, with gray Serpent soldiers circulating throughout to keep them in line. My brothers stood amongst them. It was impossible to tell them apart, where I stood on a rooftop above them. The Serpents waited for everyone to leave the subway, but many stayed—refusing to give up their home. After a time of waiting, the Serpents set off the final round of explosives in the ground floor of the station house and the whole building came down in a cloud of dust. The building itself sunk into the ground as the sub-levels collapsed. Hundreds died below ground, unwilling to surrender to the Serpents.

The war ended before the dust had cleared. I dropped my gun. I had been bracing myself for this moment, but the site was as devastating as the concussion that hit me seconds after. I couldn't breathe—either because of the dust and ash that forced its way into my lungs or because of how many people I had just killed. I couldn't open my eyes for the cloud that had engulfed me. So I sat on the roof and sobbed between coughs until someone came for me. "I had to do it," I kept telling myself. 

"I had to do it." When the Serpent soldiers came for me a long time later I told them the same. They said nothing, but only took my rifle from me along with my pistol, switch-blade, helmet, and vest. 

I stood for a long time with the other survivors, while the Serpents counted heads and took names. I heard Mikkel, Markus, and Miles give their names and titles several rows behind me. All three of them stood together. I wanted so badly to be standing with them, or even just to be able to turn around and see them, but I couldn't. The Serpent guards were pretty strict about keeping us all facing forward. Even the really young kids were told to stand still and face front. 

After all prisoners were accounted for, they were divided and carted off to different locations. It was nearly nightfall then, and I was exhausted. I was taken separately to the Serpent building closer to the center of Easternport. It was an unimpressive building to look at—a short and stubby, two story, concrete block with narrow slits for windows. On one, wide, empty wall the Serpent insignia was painted in bold color to announce their domineering presence. 

The inside of the building was different. It was coated in marble from ceiling to floor. Whatever wasn't marble was gold. It was gaudy. 

I was led below ground into a room cramped with only two metal chairs and a table half littered with important looking accessories. Near the wall stood a husky man with a cigarette in one hand and a tattoo machine in the other. 

The soldiers pushed me into the chair, which was only a step or two from the door. I didn't resist; I had expected this much. The tattoo artist sat down on my right and grabbed my arm tightly in his thick fingers. He bent over in his chair to get a close look at my shoulder, pulled up my sleeve, wiped away a coating of cement dust, squinted and readjusted himself in his chair. 

"You're too short," he said flatly. 

I didn't say anything. I looked at him and then at the soldiers standing by. 

"Sit on the table," he said. 

I got up from the chair and sat on the table. 

The tattoo took longer than I had expected. It wasn't as simple as the M burned into my neck. It was an elaborate design with two striped vipers coiled up to a crown. I wouldn't have known they were vipers if Miles hadn't explained the symbol to me two years earlier. They were European vipers, specifically. But who would know? 

After the tattoo was done, he wrapped my arm with a white bandage and shooed me away. The guards that had escorted me down now guided me back up the staircase to the main floor. There was a meeting going on about the march on the capital and I had to be a part of it. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to view it as an honor to march with them, or a disgrace to be forced to reveal myself as the traitor to the Underground. My only hope was that no one would notice me. 

After the meeting, I asked the commander if I could get a Serpent uniform or helmet or anything to wear, just for the march. He gave me this awful look of scorn and said, "no." Then I was pulled out and sent away. 

I walked all the way back up to the Fault where Dr. Gore's office was. He had agreed to take me and my brothers in until Marcel gave us the go-ahead to move into Rea Estate. 

By the time I got to his place, it was dark outside and everyone was already there. Dr. Gore had ordered food from somewhere and there was some left for me on the kitchen counter. Mikkel, Markus, and Miles were sitting at the table. They looked pretty grim. I had never seen them like that before. They passed around a bottle of liquor and said nothing. Mikkel and Markus didn't even pull out a deck of cards. The three looked up at me when I sat down with my food. Miles tried to smile, but it wasn't working. 

I had never thought about this side of the battle. For me, it was a win-win. I helped the Serpents take the Underground, and in exchange, me and the only people I cared about were promised safety with the biggest military group in the city. The Underground soldiers might have been crafty, but realistically speaking, there wasn't much hope for them to get anywhere in the war. 

But for my brothers, it was different. They had just betrayed their families and everyone that they ever knew. The only positive was the promised safety for those people. But there was a long list of loss. Even the people that they saved had already rejected them. They couldn't ever go back to their families. All the surviving Underground hated them, and the war hadn't even been over for a day. 

Miles had it even worse. There was nothing he could do to save his father—him being the leader of the Underground and all—he had to be killed publicly for this whole thing to end. 

I wanted to say something. I was going to tell him that we just saved a lot of people. But nothing I could say would make his reality any better. And seeing the building fall on all those lives was a nightmare that kept replaying in my head. All I could do was sit with him. He let me hold his hand. It was cold and gave off a sickening hollow feeling. Like there was nothing in him at all. 

The four of us slept on the rug next to Dr. Gore's bed. It wasn't the most comfortable place to sleep, but I'd slept in worse places and the boys were too drunk to even know. 

The next day, the Serpents marched on the capital and I was with them. King Marcel Rea made an inaugural speech on the steps of the capital building, but I don't think anyone outside of the Serpents heard it or even knew what was going on. I couldn't tell, but I think most of it was in Gebrochen. He didn't have a microphone or anything. He just spoke out with a strong voice and when the wind picked it up right, I heard a piece of something that sounded like Gebrochen. 

There were only a few words that I knew in Gebrochen at the time. Mikkel and Markus had taught me some "need to know" words to help me recognize when someone in the Underground or the Serpents were talking sludge about me—words like jine and müll. I wasn't really supposed to know any of it, so I guess it was nice to at least know that much. It didn't help me with the speech at all, though.