Steven Santos - The Culling

Hot tears sting my eyes.

It worked .

I spring to my haunches, ignoring the pain. “Is everyone okay?”

“I–I-I think … so.” Cypress calls back. I can make out her silhouette through the smoke as she crawls to her knees.

“Looks like I’m still in one piece!” Ophelia shouts, hands waving from further down the slope. Despite the hard edge in her tone, I can almost hear the giggle hiding just beneath it.

Ahead, Gideon sits up, his face smudged with blood and dirt. His glasses hang askew on his nose. “Still breathing,” he mumbles, sounding more cursed than relieved.

But what about-?

I leap to my feet. “Digory!” My heart pistons up my throat. “Are you hurt?” I stumble down the slope, wiping my eyes against the wet haze obscuring everything.

Smudges of blood and dirt glisten through the sweat on his forehead, contrasting against his noticeably paler face. “Guess I banged myself up a bit.” He climbs to his feet and moves his hand to rub his injured shoulder, jerking it back as though he’s touched an electric fence.

“Careful!” I hold him steady, gently grazing his exposed shoulder with my palm.

He flinches, squeezing his eyes shut. “You think it’s broken?”

I shake my head, studying the angle of his shoulder. “Nope. Looks dislocated to me. We have to reset it.”

He shakes his head.“No time. Let’s go.” His hand grips my arm as he struggles to retain his balance. Another flash of pain on his face.

Touching his good shoulder, I hold him firmly in place and gaze right into his eyes. “I just want to look at it.”

“Okay.”

Digging my fingers into his shoulder, I yank on his hand.

Pop!

The snap echoes through the valley. Digory drops to his knees. “Son of a-!” His jaw flexes and his eyes squeeze shut for a moment. Then he looks around at the fallen turrets, turns back to me, and winks. “You did good.”

“We all did good.” Turning, I make eye contact with Gideon and give him a thumbs-up.

He nods and returns the gesture.

The entire valley thunders with the hum of the Squawkers’ engines.

They’ll be on us again any second …

“I’m not waiting around!” Ophelia dashes toward the wall.

The Squawkers are directly above. Tiny black shapes drop from their underbellies and zoom toward us, reminding me of the bees that stung Mrs. Juniper to death.

Cypress grabs my arm. “Run!”

Without bothering to answer, I haul Digory to his feet and motion to Gideon.

Then we’re all scrambling down the rest of the hill toward the wall.

KABLAM!

Another of the Squawkers’ bombs plows into the field behind us, striking with the force of a major earthquake, scattering us like paper dolls in a breeze. Waves of heat emanate from the fireball, shoving me forward with fiery hands.

Then the next bomb hits, and the next, rocking the ground with a deafening roar that transforms the entire field where we stood just a moment ago into a raging inferno.

A black cloud covers everything. I choke on the thick, pungent smoke, trying in vain to cough out the gritty intruders lodging in my lungs. I drop to the ground, gasping for air and only succeeding in inhaling more dark death, smothering me with each breath. My eyes water, and I can’t help but think how unfair this all is … how close we were … making it past the guns, just to suffocate … I lose focus … as if I’m drifting into a nightmare …

Digory latches onto my arm, rousing me from my stupor, pulling me through the smoke until I can glimpse the small scrap of sky. He half carries, half drags me from the smog. We stagger to the wall a few feet ahead. His strong hand is slapping my back over and over again. I alternate between gulping fresh air and hacking out ash.

My eyes regain focus.

Everyone’s crowded around us, staring up at the wall’s smooth surface. It must be almost thirty feet high, with no footholds or handholds in sight. Something glistens on its top surface, reflecting the deep oranges and reds of the blazing tongues that lick at our backs.

Bracing against the steel of Digory’s arm, I pull myself to my feet for a better look. There’s a metal ring embedded at the top of the wall. A metal ring attached to … is that what I think it is?

“Up there!” I shove a finger in the direction of the ring. “It looks like a rope ladder!”

More explosions rock the terrain behind us. The Squawkers fly past. I can already see the angle of their flight pattern arcing in the sky, preparing to zoom in for another run. With the blazing field behind us and the wall blocking the path ahead, we’re boxed in.

“What good is a rope going to do us up there?” Cypress shouts over the aircraft’s growing buzz. “If we could reach it, we wouldn’t need it!”

Ophelia sucks in her cheeks. “Looks like the Establishment has a sense of humor after all.”

Digory and I exchange glances. He shakes his head, probably thinking the same thing I am.

There’s no way out of this.

But that makes no sense. If the Establishment wanted to murder us outright, it could have done so at any time.

I glance above and then back at the others’ faces. “That rope has to be there for a reason. It’s a test, just like the gun turrets were. Somehow, someway, we have to reach it and pull ourselves over.”

“Maybe only one of us is meant to reach it.”

We all turn to look at Gideon. He takes off his glasses and wipes the sweat from his eyes, focusing on me.

“Gideon’s right,” I say. “We need to form a human ladder.” My eyes bounce from one to the other of them, estimating their different heights, adding them up and figuring the distance between the ground and the top of the wall.

Ophelia’s eyes roll. “That’ll never work!”

The hum of the circling Squawkers gets louder.

“Doesn’t look like we’ve got too many options. Let’s go.” Cypress holds out her uninjured hand to Gideon. “You coming?” She fixes a tender gaze on him.

He shrugs, and his eyes drop to the ground. But he takes her hand and slips his fingers through hers.

Digory’s staring above us. He squeezes his injured shoulder and winces, then turns to me, shame flooding his eyes. “I’m not sure how much weight I can take on this damn shoulder.”

I smile at him. “Don’t worry. I got you covered.”

“What order do we go in?” Cypress asks.

Ophelia steps forward. “I’m the lightest. I’ll go first -”

Digory bars her way. “Not a chance. The moment you get up there you’ll climb over without tossing us the rope and leave the rest of us behind.”

Her eyes become angled slits. “How surprisingly self-righteous of you, Tycho.” She circles him. “What’s to stop you ”-her gaze burns through the group-“or any of you from doing the same thing?”

Gideon swats cinders away from his face. “She does have a point … ”

Cypress avoids eye contact with all of us.

I can’t blame any of them for having doubts, especially Gideon and Ophelia. They know better than the rest of us what’s at stake.

I clear my throat. “We don’t have time to debate this. The Squawkers will be here any second. Even though Digory’s the strongest, with his shoulder in the shape it’s in, he won’t be able to support any of our weight. So he’ll have to be the one to climb to the top-”

Digory shoots me a shocked look.

“But-” Ophelia interrupts.

“All of you, especially you , Ophelia, believe that Digory and I have each other’s back. Which is why we’re going to be on opposite ends of this task. He’ll be at the top of the wall, and I’ll be at the base of the ladder. If you truly believe we’re working together , then you must believe he’ll never go over the wall and leave me behind.”