Recall

Chapter 4

Devonte:

I fluttered my eyes open and reached over onto my nightstand for my watch. "Shit!" I yelled. It is ten thirty. I slept in too late. There is no way I am going to be able to hunt for food or gather water now. I was supposed to be up at six, three hours before the henchmen and guards got up, otherwise they would be swarming around the lakes and guarding three quarters of the fruit trees and especially since that Samantha girl and her friend showed up in the forest, henchmen have been multiplying. The sound of loud snores coming from behind me must mean that Brody slept in as well. Poor guy was tired; he went searching for our tribe while I was stealing and gathering information. He still has hope. He still thinks that they are around here somewhere, and he won't stop looking till he finds them. I am going to gather the stuff, and when I get back he is going to be so happy but annoyed that I went alone. Though he will understand when I say that I wanted to let him sleep. So I quickly grabbed my pine needle made brush and quickly brushed at my buzz cut hair. Then I grabbed a cloth and dipped it in our bowl of water, also called our bathroom sick and washed my face. Once I was down the ladder I toss my sack over my shoulder and run straight through the forest. I knew exactly where the henchmen would be placed. So I climbed up a tree and grabbed onto a vine, then swinging from one to the other, but not too fast. The trick was to be subtle and swift. That's what Devannah taught me this one Sunday day. When I was sixteen, I was still scared when it came to being here and adapting to having to run away from henchmen until we were all ready to take down Coral and her kingdom. I shake my head, trying to rid myself of Devannah. She is not here. She left you Devonte. Remember, she is not coming back. She left you for dead.

Brody is going to be so happy. I cannot wait to see the look on his face when I tell him that I fought off eight henchmen and managed to obtain his favorite forest food, rabbit. We have not had rabbit in so long. Before I left I wrote him a letter just in case he woke up. It was simply me telling him about my where-abouts. I walked with the sack over my shoulder and whistled. Those henchmen did not even see me coming. I flew at them and punched and kicked. Well I got to admit that they did get me. I have a cut along my chest and a few on my arms and a round spot on my hip from where the electric bullet got me, but after that I am fine.

It smells funny, unusually weird. I have been walking down this route for three years and it has never smelled this weird. The smell was faint in the beginning, it smelled like hot pine and flaming wood. As I got closer to where I lived, the smell got stronger. There was smoke everywhere so I could not see anything. The smoke stung my eyes, causing my eyes to water. What kind of smoke is this? I shield my eyes with my only free hand and continued to walk through the forest. Once I began coughing, I tried holding my breath in for periods of time. When I finally sensed that most of the smoke had vanished, I released my hands from my face and opened my eyes. My heart rate sunk, the blood from my veins suddenly began to slowly drain and the oxygen could not reach my brain. My body was stiff, I couldn't move and I felt cold. I wish I had not removed my arm from my eyes. I wish the fog had flooded my insides and drowned me. I wished the smoke had burned so much that my eyes fell off. Suddenly I was able to get blood pumping inside me and I was able to move again, so I dropped my bag to the ground, in the same way my whole world fell when I saw it. The tree house, in flames.

"No!" I eventually yell. "Brody!" I scream and sprint forward, not caring if I caught aflame as well. The ladder was nowhere to be seen and there was no way for me to get inside. I drop to the ground and cry. It was something I never do, something I hadn't done since Devannah left. Brody was like a brother to me, like a little brother to me, even though he was older than me. He was just nineteen, never fell in love, and never got to find his parents. I took care of him as if he was my own. I use to brush his long brown hair, hair that he claimed to never cut. He was such a bad liar too. I remember how his green-blue eyes would shift colors whenever he told a lie and his low voice would squeak. It was him. The Commander did this, he always does this. He was supposed to be looking for Samantha and Tré and instead, for fun he went searching for the kids that he had been seeing lurking around the forest. Coral knows we exist, she just has not asked for anyone to dispose of us yet because she has better fish to fry first. He destroyed the only person I could call family. I stopped crying about an hour ago. It's been three hours since the incident and I have been going back and forth to toss water at the flames. Three hours later it finally stopped. I dropped the bucket that I had gotten from the tree house in sector ten and fell onto the ground. There is no one left in the tribe but me. They are all dead. I rolled over onto my back and starred at the sun. I starred at the bright sun.

"What the hell do you have there?" I asked Brody. "It's a book." He said and I rolled my eyes. "Yeah no shit Sherlock but why do you have it?" I fold my arms across my chest waiting for his answer. "It's a poem book." His seventeen year old self grinned with glee at me and he tossed the book at me. "Brody I told you, I don't remember how to write poems." I told Devannah not to tell him. Everything about my past that she knows, she always tells Brody and he always pesters me to try and remember but I don't want to. "Maybe if you actually put your heart into it then you could probably remember something."

"I remember!" I yell. "You hear that Brody, I can recite a poem for you, are you listening?" I yell at the sky.

"Authority taketh what cannot be forgiven- They sacrifice the undeserved. It is a system that I never dream to become; it is a tragedy that I can never overcome. They slaughter the dead, with their dreadful deeds- and ignore the pleads and shouts of the living..."

I do not continue from there, because if I do then I will cry and this time I might not be able to stop. I drown in my own fluids, in my own despair and sorrow. I am all alone, and I do not think I can make it. I turn my head to the side and notice something shinning. What the hell? I think. Without hesitation, I lift myself from the ground and run straight for the tree that held the shinning object. I was never the best climber, which is why we had a ladder in order to get up into the tree house but today I pull myself up the tree as if it were something I been doing for years. The object was really high up and my arms are beginning to hurt from all that pulling. It was like having to do chin ups over and over again and I can only do ten at once. Lucky for me there was a vine at the next branch and I used that to climb instead. I finally made it. The shiny thing turned out to be a piece of glass that was taped to my hat. My hat hung on a nail that was recently placed on the tree. I can tell by how fresh the hole looks where the nail was. I removed the glass piece from my hat and place my hat on my head. Brody saved my hat, but why? And that's when I see it. A note. I grab it quickly and unfold It so I could read its content.

Hey buddy, you haven't cried for me right? I am not that important. I bet you are surprised that I can even write. Well I can. Anyways, I knew they were coming for you bud. It's not your fault don't worry. You are not the only one who went sneaking out on the ship for information. I know about the convicts that they are looking for. Samantha, right And Tré or whatever? Well they want all of you. Why? You may ask well you are going to have to figure that out on your own. I am not dead bud don't worry I will see you in time. Just please, all I ask of you is to just remember before it's too late. Devannah did not leave us on purpose; she was only trying to lead them away from you. Now get your ass up and find those two, you're going to need them in order to see me again, in order to remember, in order to get your life back on track again. Oh and one more thing one of the henchmen is a traitor, he goes by the name of William. Learn it, and don't forget. You need him as well. I will see you in time.

Ps, I got out the compass and the hat out of all things for a reason, try not to lose them. They will come in handy at some point.

~ Brody

I sat there on the tree branch and just tried taking in all that information: Like the fact that he is alive, that there actually is a way for me to gain my memories back again, that the convicts are my only hope at regaining my memories again and Devannah left to protect me. Now why the hell would she do that? There were a group of guys there before me and she favorited me enough to sacrifice herself by leading the henchmen away from me. Though a better question is, what does coral want with me?