Beast - The Soldier

I hear the children screaming:  "Killer!  Killer!  Killer!"

Groups of them run down the hallway, hands in the air, voices rough and loud.  Their shoes clack against the floor with every step.  Some of them carry sticks or rods, the kind that the professors use to punish us when we misbehave.  I dart into the hallway and grab a small blonde girl by the shoulders before she can pass me.

"What happened?" I demand.

"I don't know, let me go!" she whines.  She is younger than me. 

"What happened?" I repeat.

"One of the kids got in trouble and ran off.  That's all I know!"  She spins out of my grasp, squirming until my fingers are dislodged from her coat, and runs again down the hall.

I follow the crowds streaming through the hallways.  I want to know what happened.  I need to know what happened.  What if someone is hurt?  Do they need help?  We never have ruckus like this.  Never. 

Just before I reach the last turn in the hallway I see something through one of the outer windows.  I skid to a stop and look closer.  The door makes the view blurry; the glass is not very clear.  I open it and push into the lab room, and then walk to the outer wall to get a closer look. 

A group of kids outside, most of them older than me, have someone pinned on the ground, hands over his head, and they are throwing rocks at him!  What are they doing?  I run back into the hallway and find another window closer to the group.  I look at the one on the ground.  It is a boy.  I don't know him, but I have seen him around before.  He looks like a teddy bear, all brown and furry and warm.  There are a few others like him around the base, but most of them are older than me so I don't talk to them very much.  I can tell them apart, though.  This is the boy with the green vest.  I have seen him in the art wing before. 

And they are hurting him.

I scurry through the halls to the nearest exit.  I know my way around the base very well; Mother says I am hopeless.  It takes only a moment to navigate to the nearest door, and then I am out on the dirt, among the small round pebbles that dot the grounds inside the fence.  One of the bigger boys throws a big rock at the boy in the green vest, and it hits him very hard, making him cry out.

"Stop that!" I scream.

Three more strides and I have thrown myself in front of the boy in the green vest.  If they want to hurt him they will have to hurt me first.  A rock comes sailing at me.  In defense of the boy that threw it, he let it go before I was in the way.  It pounds my shoulder, bruising, but I don't move.

"Nyiri, stay out of this!" one boy yells.

"Leave him alone," I scream back.

"You don't know what he did."

"It doesn't matter.  Leave him alone."  I am in medical school.  I can't allow this to go on.  It is wrong.  They are hurting him.

"He killed Mae!"

I know Mae.  She is a little girl in art school, with yellow hair and pretty dresses.  She lives in my hallway.  Her parents are technicians.  They work on the engines that keep the base running.

No one would ever hurt her on purpose.

"It doesn't matter what he did," I say.  "No one's perfect."

One of the older boys, a frightening monster with eyes like coal, steps forward, sticking his chin at me like an angry cat.  His hands are tight fists at his sides, and his arms shake like they might fall off.

"If you weren't a Koda, we'd take you down too," he growls.  His eyes glow bright orange in the middle, like fire.

I stand my ground and clench my hands into fists to match the angry boy's posture.  I grit my teeth and make it clear that I have no intentions of moving.

"No matter," the boy snarls. "The MP's will be along for him soon enough."

He slowly turns around, and the others follow him, all growling at me under their breath.  I watch, frozen, until they are gone, swallowed by one of the doors leading inside.  As soon as the door shuts, I un-clench my fists and work the kinks out of the muscles in my jaw.  I slowly turn around and look at the boy in the green vest to see if he is injured.

He is awake, at least.  His yellow eyes are open wide, and he stares at me with his jaw hung down to his chest.  I hunch over him to check for bleeding, but he has to get out of here soon or they will come for him.  He doesn't appear to be hurt.

"I know you didn't mean to," I say.  "You have to run before they get you."

I tug on his arm to help him up.  He is huge compared to me, so I'm not much use.  Judging from the way he moves, he has a few broken ribs and a lot of bruises, but he can move.  I take his hand and try to steady him, but he almost falls on top of me.  He manages to keep himself upright, and I lead him to a spot in the fence that I have used to escape before.  No one else knows it's there.  I look behind us every few seconds to make sure no one has seen us, but the yard is empty.  Probably everyone is trying to find out what happened still.  Maybe they are looking for Mae.

The teddy-bear boy can't help it that he is big.  It is not his fault.

We reach the fence, and the boy is limping badly.  I think he has a broken foot, but he hasn't made one sound of complaint during our run.  In fact, he hasn't made one sound at all.  Which is concerning.

"Are you alright?" I ask.

He nods.

"Can't you say something?"

"Thank you," he whispers.

I smile and lift the bottom of the fence for him.  I can't get it up far enough to keep from cutting him, but the damage won't be too bad, and he'll be much better off with a few cuts than if the MP's get a hold of him.

"You should go before they find you," I say.

"Did you know that girl?" he asks.

I nod.  "She lived by me.  She was nice.  Did you really kill her?"

The boy's lip quivers and he looks down.  "I didn't mean to.  It was an accident."

I nod.  That's what I thought.  "Is your foot hurt?"

"It's alright.  I don't think it's broken.  I can walk on it."

"You better go, then.  They'll come looking for you in a minute."

"If you see her family, tell them I didn't mean to," he says.

"I will.  Go."

The boy wiggles under the fence, scraping his back and tearing the green vest, but he makes it.  He stands on the other side and looks through the links at me.

"You've saved my life," he says.

I smile and run off, hoping he'll do the same before somebody sees.  I know I'll be in trouble if they realize I helped him escape.  I might be in it anyway, since the kids throwing rocks saw me with him.  They'll probably tell their parents.  I'll play dumb if they do.

I step back through the door into the big wheel and watch the people rushing about.  MP's in dark uniforms with big guns hanging on their hips try to force everyone into order, to make the frantic running stop.  Some of them have rifles crossed against their chests.  They stand on either side of the doors where important officers live or work, keeping the crowds away.  I have an idea.  I walk up to one of the MP's with a rifle, hoping I look innocent and hoping this particular soldier hasn't caught me doing something I shouldn't in the past.

"What happened?" I ask.

He glances down but doesn't say anything.  He is on duty, therefore not allowed to talk.

"Is something wrong?" I continue.

The man looks at his twin on the other side of the door.  The twin nods and looks behind him, then down the hall.

The first MP turns back to me and whispers, leaning over so he won't have to talk as loud.

"A little girl was killed.  Crushed, apparently."

I gasp.  "Who?" 

"I don't know her name, honey.  Sorry."

"Do they know who did it?"

"Yeah.  The officer in charge said it was one of them 'Beasts'.  You know, the hairy people?"

"I think I better find my mommy," I say, walking slowly away. 

I hope I look dazed.  I feel dazed.  I wrinkle my nose.  Beast?  That doesn't seem to fit the walking teddy bear in the green vest.  I wonder what his name was.  Beast.

Beast.

The Window

I sit at my desk, staring at my computer all day long.  No one knows my secret.  No one knows that every few minutes I peek over the wall and look down the row of heads, so evenly spaced, between my cubicle and the walkway.  I listen to the rythmic clickedy-clack of long, painted fingernails on hundreds of keyboards and the monotone beeping of the dialpads of phones.  "Thank you for calling Ryotech, how can I help you?" comes right after each ring.  No one ever looks up from their desk, so no one knows that I look out the window.

I can't see much.  I sit so far from the window that the light from the sun rarely touches me, but I look.  The corner of a building is barely visible against the ugly maroon frame that is sometimes crossed with bent-up blinds that my manager has never bothered to replace.  Mostly it is the sky I see.  I look at the sky, sometimes dotted with clouds, sometimes white with the sun, sometimes clear, perfect blue.  And I dream.

Two more weeks and I will be gone.  Retirement.  That's what they call it when someone turns sixty-five and has worked in the same place for too long, too much pay, or whatever the excuse is this time around.  For me, they let me know ahead of time.  So now I don't have to be here...what will I do with all of my free time?  I turn back to my computer, knowing no one has bothered to notice my lapse in attention.  No one will notice if it goes on a bit longer.  I open up a new window - this newfangled thing they call the 'internet' is really something to see.

And I type it in.  Retirement.  Hit enter (that's how you make the computer look for something.)  The first thing I see has something to do with Social Security.  That's not my style.  I don't bother to look at it; I already know what it says.  Instead, I try another search.  Vacation.  That's more like it. 

I have worked my whole life to be able to take a vacation, but in a few weeks I won't have to work anymore.  Or, at least, I won't be able to.

I swim through hundreds of travel pages with pictures of green mountains and white-sand beaches and a ton of activities that would have been fun to try forty years ago.  But I can't wind-surf or jump out of an airplane anymore; I might break a hip. 

I study every detail of the weird turquoise water of the Agean Sea and the wavy dark sand I can see beneath the surface of the water.  I've always wanted to go to Greece.  I look at the pricetag for this particular vacation.  Too expensive.  I want to leave something behind when I'm gone for my grandkids - grandkids that haven't been born yet.

My eyes find their way to the window again.  I put on my spectacles to clear the view, tucking the ear wires carefully under my hair so I don't bend them.  A big puffy cloud has pushed its way through the sky and sits stubbornly in place in the little pane of maroon and crooked blinds.

What would they do if I refused to leave my chair?  Drag me out?  Call the police?  Have me arrested?  For working?

I take off my glasses and set them next to my adding machine.  I pick up the phone.  I have to call Mandy and tell her the news sometime.  It might as well be now. 

"Mom?" she answers on the fourth ring.

"How did you know it was me?"

"Caller I.D.  Are you okay?  What's wrong?  Why are you calling in the middle of the day?"

"I'm fine," I say.  "Nothing's wrong.  How is Casey?  How is my little girl?"

Casey is actually my great niece - born far too early in her mother's life - but her mother disappeared a few years ago and left her with Mandy.  No one has heard from her since.

"She's fine, except we just found out that Joe is getting canned, and he doesn't know if he'll be able to find another job for awhile."

"He'll find another," I say calmly.

"I don't know, Mom.  They got rid of a whole department, and everyone is going to be looking."

"Well, you can always come stay with me if you need to," I say hopefully.

"Please, Mom."  I can hear my Mandy rolling her eyes.  "If it gets that bad he'll just have to work at a grocery store or something.  Between that and my income, we should be able to make due.  At least it's something."

I nod and don't say anything.

"Mom?"

"I'm nodding."

"Are you sure you're okay?"

I nod again, knowing she won't hear me if I tell her now.  "I'll talk to you later, okay?  I just wanted to say 'Hi'."

I hang up the phone and look out the window again.  More clouds.  It looks like rain.

Food for Thought

For all of you new (or not so new) authors out there, if you're having trouble with your query letters, want advice on form and style, or are just looking to get a bit more into the writing world, I would suggest you check out this blog: http://blog.nathanbransford.com/.  Read the posts and the threads, they are really helpful.  Nathan Bransford is a real live agent with Curtis Brown and offers this blog for advice - and it's good advice.  Today he is going to do a critique of a query letter from one of us. (I know.  It's pretty awesome that he does this; it really helped me out.)  He also has some great links on previous posts and page critiques submitted by authors.  I definitely recommend checking it out, joining, submitting, and really getting into it.

Some more helpful links:

http://kidlit.com/2010/05/03/know-your-category/ - Mary Kole (Agent) on children's lit

http://www.scbwi.org/Default.aspx - for anyone who writes for children, the society of children's writers and illustrators

http://www.how-to-write-a-novel.net/index.html - I know it sounds dumb, but there is a ton of information on plot and character development, style, and the publishing process; pretty much anything you can imagine.  And on top of all that, it's pretty well-organized.

There are a ton of resources out there, I've just listed a few that I found helpful.  If you have more, please, please let us all know!

The Night the World Ended - The Soldier

Nyiri knows more of the world than she should, being only twelve years old. She knows that her parents are dead. She knows why. She knows that her sister is counting on her. She knows that she is 'Mother' now.

Beasts are horrible creatures. Beasts killed Nyiri's parents. She hates them. Why should they attack BASE? Why should they kill doctors? Nyiri is a doctor, and she can't imagine enduring a Beast attack. Beasts are all claws and teeth and ugly brown fur, and why did they kill her parents?

She grits her teeth and rocks Mansi back and forth as the girl cries herself into oblivion. She sings a special lullaby, one she just invented. General Coombs has told her that she is to go on a mission in the morning, her first. She will be on a small team of soldiers scouting the mountains for all the best places. Every recon team needs a doctor. He wants to set up remote emcampments for army officials to work out of.

They will find the Beasts.

Nyiri looks at the picture of her parents which hangs on the wall of their habitation module. The wall is shiny silver, like everything on BASE. The frame is shiny silver. Mother and Father's lab-coats are shiny silver.

Nyiri looks at their eyes and their smiles. Her parents are watching over her now. They are not cold silver like the walls of the great wheel of BASE. Father is warm and comfortable. Nyiri feels his arms around her shoulders as he hugs her tight before going to the meeting. Tighter than usual, she thinks, as if he knew he would not hug her again. Mother is nervous; she has been writing in her journal even more than usual, but she won't let Nyiri read the latest entries. She gives Nyiri a quick, distracted kiss on the cheek before following Father down the longest hallway in the world. They turn the corner at the end, heading towards the Security Council's chambers to make a report of some kind. Nyiri doesn't know what it is for. No one will tell her.

Nyiri will go on her mission in the morning. Mansi knows how to work the kitchen cubby in the wall, and she will only be alone for a few days. Chuck will help her if anything happens. Chuck is younger than Nyiri, but smart. Soon, she will be a soldier too.

"Nyiri?"

Nyiri cringes. Mansi is still awake.

"Go to sleep, Mansi."

"What will happen to us now?"

"Don't worry. The army will still let us live here. I work for them and I'm good at my job. You're family, so you can live with me. They'll still feed us both."

"Do you really have to go away tomorrow?"

"Yes. General Coombs is going to let me help find the Beasts that killed Mother and Father."

Mansi is quiet. She turns her head down and buries her face in Nyiri's lap. She pretends not to cry, but Nyiri knows her well enough to see the truth.

"Are they really dead?" Mansi finally mumbles.

"Yes."

"I hate Beasts."

"Me too."