Toy Soldiers

by Dabeagle & Ryan Bartlett

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Chapter 9

Sage

Ms. Klein led me to a room and told me to take the bed by the window. There was another boy in the room, or at least a lump under the blankets on the other bed suggesting another boy. I made a show of taking off my clothes and getting ready for bed as Ms. Klein left, but I never got under the covers. As soon as the door closed I tip-toed to it and placed my ear against it. I could hear Ms. Klein as she went from room to room checking on the other boys, then I listened to her footfalls as she descended the stairs. I waited to ensure the coast was clear when I heard someone coming up. It had to be Harley coming up to bed. I heard a door open then close. I waited until I was confident no one else would be coming upstairs, then I slipped out into the hall. I wasn’t sure which room was Harley’s, but before I could investigate one of the doors opened, and he stood in the threshold.

Words can scarcely describe what it felt like to see him. He was alive. He’d made it. He’d survived. He’d been on his own for a couple of weeks and had successfully evaded the Corporation until now. Until he’d walked down those stairs and I laid eyes on him. Despite the necessity of my mission, the thought of it made me sick. Harley had always made me feel better in the past, and I hoped his embrace would have the same affect now as I threw my arms around him.

“Holy shit, he is hot!” said the boy sharing Harley’s room.

“Sage, Cass. Cass, Sage,” Harley made the introductions as our embrace broke and he shut the door.

The boy, Cass, looked at me as though I were a particularly sumptuous meal, then his wide grin faded as his eyes traveled from my face to my chest, “He…he’s got scars like you.”

Harley ignored him for the moment and turned his attention to me. “Sage, what are you doing here?”

“Is it safe to speak in front of him?” I asked, nodding at Cass.

“Cass is a friend. He knows about the Corporation,” said Harley before repeating himself. “What are you doing here?”

“I-I didn’t know what to do. I was sick and couldn’t get very far the night we escaped, so I hid until the Corporation gave up searching the woods,” I lied, disgusted with myself.

“If these Corporation guys are such a big deal, how did you just hide from them?” Cass asked suspiciously.

“He’s a scout, trained to evade detection and report on enemy movements,” Harley answered. “Go on, Sage.”

“I didn’t know what else to do, so when it felt safe I looked for your trail. It took me a while to find your prints, but eventually I followed them to this clearing where the police officer found me and brought me here. There were bloody prints in the grass; are you alright?” I asked.

“I had to abandon my uniform and stepped on broken glass. That’s when the police found me as well,” Harley explained, then cocked his head at me as though he suspected something. “Sage, if you were in the woods all this time, where did you find the clothes you were wearing?”

“I uh…there was…” I struggled to find a reasonable answer.

Harley pounced on me. He was so fast and so strong as he took me down to the floor, pinned my arm painfully behind me and pressed his knee into my back.

“Dude, what the fuck?” Cass exclaimed.

“Shut up,” Harley ordered Cass in the command voice he used on the training floor.

“Harley, you’re hurting me,” I whined.

“I don’t want to hurt you Sage, you know I don’t, but I do not believe you.”

“Harley, please…”

“Did they send you? They’re coming, aren’t they?” Harley demanded and jerked my arm to emphasize the urgency of his question.

“I-I…I’m sorry,” I began to cry. I couldn’t lie to him. To hell with my arm, he could rip it off for all I cared. It wouldn’t hurt as much as lying to someone who had shown me such kindness over the years. “They have Green Squad. The Director, he made me do it. He said he’d kill them if I didn’t.”

“What did you do?” Harley sighed and released me. The floodgates were open; he knew I’d tell him anything he wanted to know now.

“A woman picked me up on the side of the highway.” I sat up and wiped my eyes. “We were almost to Ohio. I thought I was safe, but they found us. They killed her, Harley.”

“Naturally,” Harley scoffed.

“They drugged me and took me back to Lion Mountain. The Director, he had Green Squad.”

“Everyone?” asked Harley.

“No, he said some fought hard and had to be killed.” I sniffled. “They were all naked and bound. They were beaten so bad I couldn’t even recognize them.”

“Who did you recognize?”

“I-I don’t know. No one specific; it all happened so fast. The Director ordered his guards to draw their weapons. They were going to execute them. I begged him not to, and he said he’d let them live if I did a job for him.”

“He wanted you to find me?”

“He said you were the ringleader. If I found you, he’d let them live. I didn’t want to do it, Harley, I swear I didn’t.”

“How are you supposed to make contact with them?”

“Satellite homing beacon.”

“Where is it?”

“I was separated from my pack when the police officer found me. It’s still at the clearing. I’m sorry, Harley. I didn’t want to do this. I swear I didn’t,” I cried.

Harley pulled me into his arms and rubbed soothingly up and down my back. “It’s not your fault. He didn’t give you a choice. I would have done the same thing.”

“Jesus, this is real, isn’t it?” said Cass. “I mean like, really real?”

“Yes,” said Harley, then he held me at arm's length and looked me in the eye. “Is there anything else? Did anything else happen before they dispatched you?”

“I was still sick. They took me to the infirmary, and let me sleep for a week, then I was woken by one of the unnamed.”

“What did they do to you?”

“Some sort of treatment. She made me lie on my stomach while she did something to my neck. It hurt so bad.” I broke into fresh sobs.

Harlequin

The unnamed…monsters. I pulled Sage close against me and wrapped my arms around him as he wept. I ran my hands soothingly up and down his back then caressed his elegant little neck. I felt something there that sent a wave of panic coursing through my system. I continued to hold Sage as I reached for the bedside table behind him. I yanked the power cord free, and before he could react I pulled away from him and jammed the live wire into his neck.

“AHHHHHHHHHHH,” Sage screamed, and his body jerked until he lost consciousness.

“Why did you do that?” Cass shouted.

“They implanted a tracking device in his neck. Electrocuting him was the only way to destroy it, and I didn’t have time to argue with him,” I explained.

“I-is he dead?”

“No, he’ll be fine, but he’ll need to rest. Cass, listen to me very carefully. Sage’s connection to the Corporation is now broken. They will send security forces to his last known location. We have to leave, right now.”

Our door burst open, and the overnight staff, one I wasn't familiar with, stood in the doorway. “What the hell is going on up here?”

“He came to our room – he's my brother. He screamed and passed out. I don't know what's wrong. Help him, please!” I said, hoping I was convincing. The staff strode to us and knelt by Sage.

“What is...”

His words were cut off as I pressed on his carotid and put him out.

“Duct tape?” Cass asked. I nodded.

Once he was secured, I directed Cass to pack clothes into his pillowcase. Several changes of socks and underwear. Put some shirts on now, perhaps one to two changes of pants. As he moved to comply, I stepped back into the hallway. There was whispering behind doors – Sage's cry had woken some, but they were too nervous to leave their rooms. I couldn't say I blamed them. I went to Pat's old room and found his lump of a roommate still asleep. Quickly I gathered Sage's clothes and took his pillow case before I returned to my room. I tossed the clothes on the floor beside him.

“Cass, dress Sage.” I turned to leave again.

“Aw. He's kinda nice the way he is,” Cass said as he knelt to help.

I ignored his comment and dashed downstairs, filling Sage's pillow case with food. Satisfied I went back up and set about pulling the clothes back onto my...brother. Friend. More? Was there more? I pushed the thought from my head as we finished dressing him, and then I stuffed my own pillow case. As I did, I told Cass to grab toiletries. He dashed from the room and came back moments later with items that he crammed into his pillow case. I handed my bag to him and then dressed. Finally I threw Sage over my shoulder in a fireman's carry, and we headed out the door. Murmurs still came from behind doors, but as long as it stayed that way for a few more minutes, I could live with it.

We hit the sidewalk and crossed the street into the nearby trees. I set a difficult pace, especially with Sage on my shoulder. I moved him periodically and didn't stop to rest for two minutes, until we'd reached the train tracks.

“Two minutes. Then we move again,” I told Cass before finding a soft, grassy area to lay Sage on. I was mindful not to let his head bang to the ground – he was going to be uncomfortable when he woke. Cass dropped down beside him, breath rasping from a pace he wasn't used to. I walked in circles, lifting my arms and trying to increase my oxygen flow. I counted to sixty and then dropped my arms and focused on relaxing, knowing I'd need to lift Sage and pick up the pace again.

I glanced back to my companions and found Cass studying Sage's face. He moved a hand out to move hair that wasn't on Sage's forehead, simply letting his fingers move across his brow. He looked up at me, and his face was filled with concern.

“Harley, he looks like he's my age. When he's dressed, he looks like he could go to our school.”

“I don't know his age any more than I know my own. But, yes, he could have gone to your school.”

“How could anyone do this?” Cass whispered, looking down again on Sage's face.

“From my few weeks being free, I'm left to believe that the Corporation is pure evil.” I bit my tongue, not wishing to make a speech. “Time to move.”

I lifted Sage up, my muscles protesting his weight, and started to move down the side of the tracks, staying close enough to the woods to allow us to duck in as need be.

“Where are we going?” Cass asked.

“When I visited Brent I noted an old building – it appears to have been a restaurant – on the river. It appears abandoned. We need a place for Sage to regain his strength, and I need to deal with Mr. Mullaney. I can't allow him to go after Tim.”

“What are you going to do, kill him?” Cass scoffed.

“Yes.”

“Seriously?” he exclaimed, coming to a stop.

“Keep walking. Yes, seriously,” I replied and shifted Sage. “If what you say is true, the only way to protect Tim is to remove the threat. I can't stay here to protect Tim, and I gave him the advice to ask Samantha to date him. I am responsible.”

“Bullshit. You couldn't have known how unhinged Brent would be,” Cass replied.

I turned my head. “I'm Harlequin Green. Brunswick and I were the oldest. We're responsible for what we say and do. I gave the advice; I bear some responsibility if it isn't good advice. Even if it weren't the case, Tim is my friend. I do not give that lightly.”

We walked in silence, our pace becoming harder to maintain. I was ready to call for another short break when the building loomed in the darkness, a shadow against other shadows. We left the tracks and began moving closer to the road. We moved through the brush and the stand of trees, making our way to the building. Its back faced the river and the railroad tracks, and its foundation was decorated with field stone. It was a long, rectangular building whose main floor was at road level, but a lower level appeared from the dirt the farther back it went.

We paused still in the treeline, and I found a soft place to rest Sage.

“Stay here. Let me look. Be silent.”

Confident Cass would listen, I crept toward the building. There were no lights and no hum of electricity, so my guess was that the building had been abandoned for some time. Old plywood boards covered the windows on both levels. I circled the building once, looking for anything to betray occupancy of any kind. Satisfied I moved to the back of the building. Prying loose a sheet of plywood, I revealed a set of double doors. The doors had small squares of glass set into the upper half, many of them damaged. I pushed one out and unlocked the door.

The interior was bare. It was a storage room of some kind. It would do. I retraced my steps to Cass and Sage and lifted Sage again, carrying him into the store room with Cass trailing behind. I had Cass take some of my clothes and make a pillow for Sage and then set him down. A chill pervaded the air, dust swirled, and there was no avoiding a few sneezes.

“So what do we do now?”

“Tonight, we rest. Tomorrow we wait. Either tomorrow or the next night, I will finish the Mullaneys and then we will leave.” I had a thought that I should say goodbye to Tim, perhaps just let him know he was safe. Likely he wouldn't understand. It was better that I go. His kind of beauty, it only gets tainted when brought together with ugliness like my own.

“Where will we go?” Cass asked. I looked at him, but his eyes were not on me. He was looking down on Sage as he slept.

“We'll plan later,” I said. “Try to sleep. Share body heat.”

He glanced at me, a question on his face. He then used his own clothes as a pillow and lay facing Sage, pushing against him and draping an arm across his chest. It was painful to see someone else guarding Sage, but I squashed the thought. I should be glad.

“Are you going to sleep?” Cass asked.

“No,” I said thickly. “I have the watch. Rest.”

He nodded, and his eyes returned to Sage. I turned and went to check the door, ensuring the plywood was as snug as I could make it, to avoid giving us away. Satisfied I walked the room by the slivers of light that crept around the edges of the windows where the plywood didn't quite reach. By the time I made my way around to them, Cass was asleep. His chin rested on Sage's shoulder, and my heart moved erratically for a beat or two.

I squatted to listen and to contemplate the scene before me. Cass had shown an immediate attraction to Sage – and why shouldn't he? I felt that, as the days passed, that would only grow as he came to know Sage personally. What would Sage think or feel or do? He had only ever shared one shred of his feelings for another with me. Sky. A boy he'd only seen once, and yet that was the only one he'd mentioned.

Cass was softer, part of the real world. Sage would realize that – want that for himself. I did not blame him. Had I not, after all, wanted something of the same from Tim? For the first time I realized that someone else could give Sage something I could not. In the barracks, I had been a leader. A guardian. Here, I was only able to destroy to solve problems. Cass's expression, upon discovering my intentions, were enough to tell me that my methods were alien and, perhaps, extreme. I would wait and watch. If Cass and Sage made one another happy, perhaps they could still find a life somewhere away from the twisted souls like myself.

Sometimes, I thought as my head drooped in exhaustion, the most honorable thing you can do is let things go. I stood and began to walk again. Glancing one last time at their sleeping forms, I realized I could not rest.

I had the watch.