The Host Chapter 13: Sentenced

Are they hither? We choked out the talking to-they display open from us bid the pissing in our lungs had, expelled. afterward water system, this question was each that mattered. Did they guard it?Uncle Jebs face was impossible to read in the darkness. Who? he asked.Jamie, J ared Our aphonia burned wish well a shout. Jared was with Jamie. Our br other(a) Are they here? Did they sleep with? Did you find them, in any case? in that location was barely a pause.No. His practice was forceful, and thither was no pity in it, no feeling at exclusively.No, we whispered. We were non echoing him, we were protesting against dejectting our lifetime affirm. What was the point? We closed our eyeball again and listened to the ache in our body. We al dispirited that drown out the pain in our mind.Look, Uncle Jeb said after a twinkling. I, uh, receive roughthing to take palm of. You rest for a bit, and Ill be back for you.We didnt hear the meaning in his words, meative the s ounds. Our look stayed closed. His foot ill-treats crunched quietly apart from us. We couldnt tell which style he went. We didnt care anyway.They were g i. There was no way to find them, no accept. Jared and Jamie had disappeared, something they knew thoroughly how to do, and we would never picture them again.The water and the cooler nighttime air were fashioning us lucid, something we did non want. We trilled everyplace, to bury our face against the sand again. We were so tired, past the point of exhaustion and into some deeper, more painful state. certain(a) as shooting we could sleep. All we had to do was not think. We could do that.We did.When we woke, it was still night, simply reach was threatening on the eastern horizon-the mountains were lined with dull red. Our mouth tasted of dust, and at commencement exerciseborn we were incontestable that we had dreamed Uncle Jebs appearance. Of course we had.Our power point was clearer this morning, and we observe c hop-chop the strange embodiment near our skilful cheek-something that was not a rock candy or a cactus. We fey it, and it was hard and smooth. We nudged it, and the delicious sound of sloshing water came from deep shoot downwards.Uncle Jeb was real, and hed remaining us a canteen.We sat up carefully, surprised when we didnt break in two like a withered stick. Actually, we snarl better. The water must sustain had time to work its way through some of our body. The pain was dull, and for the first time in a coherent era, we matt-up hungry again.Our fingers were stiff and clumsy as we fermented the cap from the baksheesh of the canteen. It wasnt all the way full, however there was enough water to blossom the walls of our belly again-it must piss shrunk. We drank it all we were done with rationing.We dropped the metal canteen to the sand, where it make a dull thud in the predawn silence. We felt massive awake now. We sighed, preferring unconsciousness, and let our pe rcentage point fall into our contacts. What now?why did you discontinue it water, Jeb? an angry voice de homoded, close tush our back.We whirled, twisting onto our knees. What we saw do our heart falter and our awareness splinter apart.There were eight manhood half-circled around where I knelt under the tree. There was no question they were valet de chambres, all of them. Id never seen faces contorted into such(prenominal) expressions-not on my kind. These lips twisted with hatred, distiled back over clenched teeth like wild animals. These brows pulled low over eyeball that burned with fury.Six men and two women, some of them very big, virtually of them bigger than me. I felt the blood drain from my face as I realized why they held their hits so oddly-gripped tightly in confront of them, each balancing an object. They held weapons. most held blades-a few short ones like those I had kept in my kitchen, and some prolonged, one huge and menacing. This dig had no purpose i n a kitchen. Melanie supplied the name a machete.Others held long bars, some metal, some wooden. Clubs.I recognize Uncle Jeb in their midst. Held heart-to-heartly in his move overs was an object Id never seen in person, provided in Melanies memories, like the big knife. It was a rifle.I saw horror, scarcely Melanie saw all this with wonder, her mind boggling at their numbers. Eight human survivors. Shed musical theme Jeb was alone or, in the best case scenario, with unaccompanied two others. To see so many a(prenominal) a(prenominal) of her kind vivacious filled her with joy.Youre an idiot, I t assured her. Look at them. happen them.I forced her to see it from my perspective to see the threatening shapes internal the dirty jeans and light cotton shirts, brown with dust. They might have been human-as she thought of the word-once, alone at this moment they were something else. They were barbarians, monsters. They hung over us, slavering for blood.There was a closing m oveence in every pair of eyes.Melanie saw all this and, though grudgingly, she had to admit that I was right. At this moment, her beloved humans were at their tally-like the theme stories wed seen in the abandoned shack. We were looking at killers.We should have been wiser we should have died yesterday.Why would Uncle Jeb keep us alive for this?A shiver passed through me at the thought. Id skimmed through the histories of human atrocities. Id had no stomach for them. Perhaps I should have concentrated better. I knew there were reasons why humans let their enemies live, for a little while. Things they wanted from their minds or their bodiesOf course it sprang into my engineer immediately-the one secret they would want from me. The one I could never, never tell them. No matter what they did to me. I would have to kill myself first.I did not let Melanie see the secret I protected. I used her own defenses against her and threw up a wall in my take to hide behind while I thought of the information for the first time since implantation. There had been no reason to think of it onward.Melanie was hardly even curious on the other side of the wall she make no effort to break through it. There were oft more immediate concerns than the fact that she had not been the only one keeping information in reserve.Did it matter that I protected my secret from her? I wasnt as strong as Melanie I had no doubt she could endure torture. How much pain could I stand beforehand I gave them anything they wanted?My stomach heaved. Suicide was a repugnant option-worse because it would be murder, too. Melanie would be part of either torture or death. I would carry for that until I had absolutely no other choice.No, they cant. Uncle Jeb would never let them pique me.Uncle Jeb doesnt enjoy youre here, I reminded her.Tell himI focused on the old mans face. The thick white beard kept me from seeing the set of his mouth, only if his eyes did not seem to burn like the others. From the corner of my eye, I could see a few of the men shift their gaze from me to him. They were wait for him to answer the question that had alerted me to their presence. Uncle Jeb stared at me, ignoring them.I cant tell him, Melanie. He wont consider me. And if they think Im lying to them, theyll think Im a Seeker. They must have experience enough to know that only a Seeker would go out here with a lie, a story designed for infiltration.Melanie recognized the integrity of my thought at once. The very word Seeker made her bang with hatred, and she knew these strangers would have the same reaction.It doesnt matter anyway. Im a soul-thats enough for them.The one with the machete-the biggest man there, blackened-haired with oddly fair skin and vivid blue eyes-made a sound of disgust and spit on the ground. He took a shade forward, slowly raising the long blade.Better fast than slow. Better that it was this wild hand and not mine that killed us. Better that I didnt die a creature of vio lence, accountable for Melanies blood as well as my own. time lag it, Kyle. Jebs words were unhurried, almost casual, but the big man s make passped. He grimaced and sullen to face Melanies uncle.Why? You said you made sure. Its one of them.I recognized the voice-he was the same one whod asked Jeb why hed given me water.Well, yes, she surely is. But its a little complicated.How? A diverse man asked the question. He stood next to the big, brunette Kyle, and they looked so much alike that they had to be chum salmons.See, this here is my niece, too.not any longer shes not, Kyle said flatly. He spit again and took another(prenominal)(prenominal) deliberate step in my direction, knife ready. I could see from the way his shoulders leaned into the action that words would not stop him again. I closed my eyes.There were two clear-sighted metallic clicks, and someone gasped. My eyes flew open again.I said lay down it, Kyle. Uncle Jebs voice was still relaxed, but the long rifle was grip ped tightly in his hands now, and the barrels were pointed at Kyles back. Kyle was frozen nevertheless steps from me his machete hung motionless in the air above his shoulder.Jeb, the brother said, horrified, what are you doing? flavour away from the girl, Kyle.Kyle turned his back to us, whirling on Jeb in fury. Its not a girl, JebJeb shrugged the gun for hire stayed steady in his hands, pointed at Kyle. There are things to be discussed.The doctor might be able to learn something from it, a female voice rack upered gruffly.I cringed at the words, hearing in them my worst fears. When Jeb had called me his niece just now, Id foolishly let a spark of hope flash to life-perhaps there would be pity. Id been stupid to think that, even for a second. shoemakers last would be the only pity I could hope for from these creatures.I looked at the woman whod spoken, surprised to see that she was as old as Jeb, possibly older. Her hair was dark gray rather than white, which is why I hadnt n oticed her age before. Her face was a mass of wrinkles, all of them turning down into angry lines. But there was something familiar about the features behind the lines.Melanie made the connection between this ancient face and another, smoother face in her memory.Aunt Maggie? Youre here? How? Is Sharon - The words were all Melanie, but they gushed from my mouth, and I was unavailing to stop them. Sharing for so long in the desert had made her stronger, or me weaker. Or maybe it was just that I was concentrating on which direction the deathblow was going to fall from. I was bracing for our murder, and she was having a family reunion.Melanie got only halfway through her surprised exclamation. The much-aged woman named Maggie lunged forward with a travel that belied her brittle exterior. She didnt raise the hand that held the black crowbar. That was the hand I was watching, so I didnt see her free hand swing out to rigidly me hard across the face.My head snapped back and therefore (prenominal) forward. She slapped me again.You wont fool us, you parasite. We know how you work. We know how well you can mimic us.I tasted blood inside my cheek.Dont do that again, I scolded Melanie. I told you what theyd think.Melanie was too shocked to answer.Now, Maggie, Jeb began in a soothing tone.Dont you Now, Maggie me, you old fool Shes credibly led a many of them down on us. She backed away from me, her eyes measuring my insensibility as if I were a coiled snake. She stopped beside her brother.I dont see anyone, Jeb retorted. Hey he yelled, and I flinched in surprise. I wasnt the only one. Jeb waved his left hand over his head, the gun still clenched in the right. Over hereShut up, Maggie growled, shoving his chest. Though I had good reason to know she was strong, Jeb didnt wobble.Shes alone, Mag. She was reasonably much dead when I found her-shes not in such great shape now. The centipedes dont sacrifice their own that way. They would have come for her much sooner than I did. Whatever else she is, shes alone.I saw the image of the long, many-legged louse in my head, but I didnt make the connection.Hes talking about you, Melanie translated. She fit(p) the picture of the ugly bug next to my memory of a chic silver soul. I didnt see a resemblance.I wonder how he knows what you look like, Melanie wondered absently. My memories of a souls true appearance had been new to her in the beginning.I didnt have time to wonder with her. Jeb was walking toward me, and the others were close behind. Kyles hand hovered at Jebs shoulder, ready to restrain him or throw him out of the way, I couldnt tell.Jeb ensnare his gun in his left hand and extended the right to me. I eyed it warily, waiting for it to hit me. Cmon, he urged gently. If I could carry you that far, I woulda brought you home last night. Youre gonna have to walk some more.No Kyle grunted.Im takin her back, Jeb said, and for the first time there was a harsher tone to his voice. Under his beard, his jaw flexed into a stubborn line.Jeb Maggie protested.S my place, Mag. Ill do what I want.Old fool she snapped again.Jeb reached down and grabbed my hand from where it lay curled into a fist against my thigh. He yanked me to my feet. It was not cruelty it was merely as if he was in a hurry. even was it not the very worst form of cruelty to prolong my life for the reasons he had?I rocked unsteadily. I couldnt feel my legs very well-just prickles like goad points as the blood flowed down.There was a hiss of disapproval behind him. It came from more than one mouth.Okay, whoever you are, he said to me, his voice still kind. Lets quiver out of here before it heating systems up.The one who must have been Kyles brother format his hand on Jebs arm.You cant just show it where we live, Jeb.I reckon it doesnt matter, Maggie said harshly. It wont bewitch a chance to tell tales.Jeb sighed and pulled a bandanna-all but hidden by his beard-from around his neck.This is silly, he muttered, bu t he rolled the dirty fabric, stiff with dry sweat, into a blindfold.I kept absolutely still as he tied it over my eyes, fighting the scourge that increased when I couldnt see my enemies.I couldnt see, but I knew it was Jeb who put one hand on my back and guided me none of the others would have been so gentle.We started forward, toward the north, I thought. No one spoke at first-there was just the sound of sand rubbing under many feet. The ground was even, but I stumbled on my numb legs again and again. Jeb was patient his guiding hand was almost chivalrous.I felt the sun rise as we walked. Some of the footsteps were faster than others. They move in front of us until they were hard to hear. It sounded like it was the minority that stayed with Jeb and me. I must not have looked like I require many guards-I was faint with hunger, and I swayed with every step my head felt dizzy and hollow.You arent planning to tell him, are you?It was Maggies voice it came from a few feet behind me, and it sounded like an accusation.Hes got a right to know, Jeb replied. The stubborn note was back in his voice.Its an unkind thing you are doing, Jebediah.Life is unkind, Magnolia.It was hard to go down who was the more terrifying of the two. Was it Jeb, who seemed so intent on keeping me alive? Or Maggie, who had first suggested the doctor-an appellation that filled me with instinctive, nauseated dread-but who seemed more unhappy about cruelty than her brother?We walked in silence again for a few hours. When my legs buckled, Jeb lowered me to the ground and held a canteen to my lips as he had in the night.Let me know when youre ready, Jeb told me. His voice sounded kind, though I knew that was a false interpretation.Someone sighed impatiently.Why are you doing this, Jeb? a man asked. Id perceive the voice before it was one of the brothers. For Doc? You could have just told Kyle that. You didnt have to pull a gun on him.Kyle needs a gun pulled on him more often, Jeb muttered .Please tell me this wasnt about kindness, the man continued. After all youve seenAfter all Ive seen, if I hadnt learned compassion, I wouldnt be worth much. But no, it was not about sym raily. If I had enough sympathy for this poor creature, I would have let her die.I shivered in the oven-hot air.What, then? Kyles brother demanded.There was a long silence, and then Jebs hand fey mine. I grasped it, needing the help to get back on my feet. His other hand pressed against my back, and I started forward again.Curiosity, Jeb said in a low voice.No one replied.As we walked, I considered a few sure facts. One, I was not the first soul theyd captured. There was already a set routine here. This Doc had tried to get his answer from others before me.Two, he had tried unsuccessfully. If any soul had forgone suicide only to defacement under the humans torture, they would not need me now. My death would have been mercifully swift.Oddly, I couldnt bring myself to hope for a quick end, though, or to try to effect that outcome. It would be easy to do, even without doing the deed myself. I would only have to tell them a lie-pretend to be a Seeker, tell them my colleagues were tracking me right now, bluster and threaten. Or tell them the truth-that Melanie lived on inside me, and that she had brought me here.They would see another lie, and one so richly irresistible-the idea that the human could live on after implantation-so tempting to believe from their perspective, so insidious, that they would believe I was a Seeker more surely than if I claimed it. They would assume a trap, get rid of me quickly, and find a new place to hide, far away from here.Youre probably right, Melanie agreed. Its what I would do.But I wasnt in pain yet, and so either form of suicide was hard to embrace my instinct for endurance sealed my lips. The memory of my last session with my Comforter-a time so civilised it seemed to belong to a different planet-flashed through my head. Melanie challenging me to have her removed, a seemingly suicidal impulse, but only a bluff. I remembered opinion how hard it was to contemplate death from a comfortable chair.Last night Melanie and I had wished for death, but death had been only inches away at the time. It was different now that I was on my feet again.I dont want to die, either, Melanie whispered. But maybe youre wrong. Maybe thats not why theyre keeping us alive. I dont run across why they would She didnt want to imagine the things they might do to us-I was sure she could come up with worse than I. What answer would they want from you that bad?Ill never tell. Not you, not any human.A bold declaration. But then, I wasnt in pain yetAnother hour had passed-the sun was directly overhead, the heat of it like a crown of fire on my hair-when the sound changed. The grinding steps that I barely perceive anymore turned to echoes ahead of me. Jebs feet still crunched against the sand like mine, but someone in front of us had reached a new ter rain.Careful, now, Jeb warned me. Watch your head.I hesitated, not sure what I was watching for, or how to watch with no eyes. His hand left my back and pressed down on my head, telling me to duck. I bended forward. My neck was stiff.He guided me forward again, and I heard our footsteps make the same echoing sound. The ground didnt give like sand, didnt feel loose like rock. It was flat and solid beneath my feet.The sun was gone-I could no longer feel it burn my skin or scorch my hair.I took another step, and a new air touched my face. It was not a breeze. This was stagnant-I moved into it. The dry desert wind was gone. This air was still and cooler. There was the faintest emergency of moisture to it, a mustiness that I could both smell and taste.There were so many questions in my mind, and in Melanies. She wanted to ask hers, but I kept silent. There was nothing either of us could understand that would help us now.Okay, you can straighten up, Jeb told me.I raised my head slowly. Even with the blindfold, I could tell that there was no light. It was utterly black around the edges of the bandanna. I could hear the others behind me, shuffling their feet impatiently, waiting for us to move forward.This way, Jeb said, and he was guiding me again. Our footsteps echoed back from close by-the space we were in must have been quite small. I found myself ducking my head instinctively.We went a few steps farther, and then we rounded a perspicacious curve that seemed to turn us back the way wed come. The ground started to tumble downward. The angle got steeper with every step, and Jeb gave me his rough hand to keep me from falling. I dont know how long I slipped and skidded my way through the darkness. The hike probably felt longer than it was with each minute slowed by my terror.We took another turn, and then the scandalise started to climb upwards. My legs were so numb and wooden that as the path got steeper, Jeb had to half drag me up the incline. The air got must ier and moister the farther we went, but the pitch blackness didnt change. The only sounds were our footsteps and their nearby echoes.The pathway flattened out and began to turn and twist like a serpent.Finally, finally, there was a brightness around the top and bottom of my blindfold. I wished that it would slip, as I was too frightened to pull it off myself. It seemed to me that I wouldnt be so terrified if I could just see where I was and who was with me.With the light came noise. Strange noise, a low speak babble. It sounded almost like a waterfall.The babble got louder as we moved forward, and the close set(predicate) it got, the less it sounded like water. It was too varied, low and high pitches mingling and echoing. If it had not been so discordant, it might have sounded like an uglier version of the constant music Id heard and sung on the Singing World. The darkness of the blindfold accommodate that memory, the memory of cecity.Melanie understood the cacophony before I d id. Id never heard the sound because Id never been with humans before.Its an argument, she realized. It sounds like so many raft arguing.She was drawn by the sound. Were there more people here, then? That there were even eight had surprised us both. What was this place?Hands touched the back of my neck, and I shied away from them.Easy now, Jeb said. He pulled the blindfold off my eyes.I blinked slowly, and the shadows around me settled into shapes I could understand rough, uneven walls a pocked ceiling a worn, dusty floor. We were underground somewhere in a natural cave formation. We couldnt be that deep. I thought wed hiked upward longer than wed slid downward.The rock walls and ceiling were a dark purpley brown, and they were riddled with change holes like Swiss cheese. The edges of the lower holes were worn down, but over my head the circles were more defined, and their rims looked sharp.The light came from a round hole ahead of us, its shape not unlike the holes that peppered the cavern, but larger. This was an entrance, a doorway to a brighter place. Melanie was eager, transfixed by the concept of more humans. I held back, suddenly worried that blindness might be better than sight.Jeb sighed. Sorry, he muttered, so low that I was certainly the only one to hear.I tried to swallow and could not. My head started to spin, but that might have been from hunger. My hands were trembling like leaves in a stiff breeze as Jeb prodded me through the big hole.The tunnel opened into a chamber so vast that at first I couldnt accept what my eyes told me. The ceiling was too bright and too high-it was like an artificial sky. I tried to see what brightened it, but it sent down sharp lances of light that hurt my eyes.I was expecting the babble to get louder, but it was abruptly dead quiet in the huge cavern.The floor was dim compared to the brilliant ceiling so far above. It took a moment for my eyes to make sense of all the shapes.A crowd. There was no other word for i t-there was a crowd of humans standing nonetheless and silent, all staring at me with the same burning, hate-filled expressions Id seen at dawn.Melanie was too stunned to do anything more than count. Ten, fifteen, xx twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-sevenI didnt care how many there were. I tried to tell her how little it mattered. It wouldnt take twenty of them to kill me. To kill us. I tried to make her see how unsettled our position was, but she was beyond my warnings at the moment, lost in this human world shed never dreamed was here.One man stepped forward from the crowd, and my eyes darted first to his hands, looking for the weapon they would carry. His hands were clenched in fists but empty of any other threat. My eyes, adjusting to the dazzling light, made out the sun-gilded bear upon of his skin and then recognized it.Choking on the sudden hope that dizzied me, I lifted my eyes to the mans face.