The Dark Miracles

Chapter 6

Today we had to go into Cardin, a small strag community. We were all hungry and it was the only option. Owen and I packed everything away while Blythe kept his little sister entertained.

"Have you ever been to a strag town?" Owen asks. The question catches me off guard. I've seen photographs, and they aren't pretty. They're borderline scary if you ask me.

"No. But I assure you I will blend in quite well," I respond. He stops wrapping the tent and looks up at me.

"You won't be doing any talking, you're too well-spoken."

"What's wrong with that?" I ask, taking the tent from his hands and wrapping it myself. He moves on to packing his backpack.

"Half the people in strag towns are borderline illiterate," he says, "You'll stand out."

I roll my eyes and walk over to Blythe and Brim. Blythe used water from his canaster to make shapes with the liquid for Brim. First, he made a heart, then a star, and an animal that he claimed was a dragon but Brim and I saw a cat.

When the camp was all packed, Owen put his screen back up and entered directions for Cardin.

We all followed behind him. Most of the walk was silent, Owen told us it was only a forty-minute walk, which wasn't too bad compared to the walk from the Great House to the camp from yesterday. While we were walking, I mostly focused on the beauty of the forest. When I looked up, golden sunlight shined through the emerald leaves that were attached to sky-bound trees. When I looked down, the grass was a wonderful shade of green with yellow and orange leaves coated on top.

After a good deal of shuffling through these beautiful woods, the sound of a vehicle emerges from behind us.

It wasn't too close, but it sure as hell wasn't far. We all stop in our tracks and I look over at Owen.

The deafening engine of Great House guard vehicles only grows closer. Owen shoots his gaze to Blythe, "Hide the girls," he says. Blythe puts Brim on his back and grabs me by the hand. We run for a few moments until he finds a large enough tree.

"Lay down," he says. "Both of you."

The two of us do as we are told and lay our backs on the cold, wet ground. When we are in a flat position, Blythe gathers bunches of leaves with his arms and starts to cover us up as fast as he can. It takes him about a minute for him to fully hide our bodies. Before he leaves, he whispers to us. "Do not move," he says. "If neither me or Owen come back within ten minutes, you're going to lay here for an hour, and go to Cardin without us."

With that, we both hear his heavy footsteps fade into the trees. I try to mask my shaky breaths but it's so hard. It's cold, I'm afraid, I've hardly processed the events that occurred in the past few days, and I might die in a few minutes.

Honestly? Nothing new.

The two of us hear guns go off and faint grunts from all the soldiers. I listen to the water splash and what sounds like roots growing out of the ground. I hold out hope for the pair that's fighting for us. A few moments pass and the noise hasn't ceased. It is, however, interrupted when I hear what sounds like Owen yelling Blythe's name. Something isn't right.

I try to fight off the urge to disobey Blythe, but that won't matter if he's dead. I whisper to Brim, "Stay here." With that, I burst through the leaves and covered up the little girl by my side even more. Pausing for a moment, I listen for the sounds coming from the conflict, and when another gun goes off, I follow the noise. My boots were heavy and didn't let me sneak up on the houseguards like I thought I could. When I make eye contact with one of the men, he raises his fist and points at me, "There she is!"