Subject 15

CHAPTER 9 - Seth

Pain. A dull, steady pain, in my shoulder and my head. I groaned and slowly opened my eyes. Raven's face was just a few inches above mine, her hair hanging down and her eyes locked with mine. I quickly brought up my arm, startled, in an attempt to grab her. I didn't get very far – searing pain shot up my arm into my head, making the headache I had much worse, stopping my movement in it's tracks.

Raven jumped back a little, then slightly growled and said, "Don't fucking scare me like that Seth!"

I held my head with my left hand, letting my right fall to my side, the soft carpet of our cubby putting me at ease. "Sorry," I weakly replied. "Instinct."

Raven, slightly confused, looked at me before sighing and said, "I'm not talking about jumping at me! I'm talking about letting me find you here, a hole in your shoulder and covered in blood!"

I stared at her, not saying anything as she ran her hands through her hair, saying with a slightly shaky voice, "You were out for three whole days, Seth... three!" Raven looked at me with a small glitter in her eyes, the reflection of the evening fire in the traces of tears and fear. "You rambled in your unconsciousness, muttering nonsense about the Majestic, the wilderness, and something called Project Persian."

I weakly tired to sit up, but only got halfway before Raven put her hand on me, keeping me down, drilling her eyes into mine. "Seth, what happened?"

I looked into Raven's dark eyes, seeing worry, fear, concern, and a host of other emotions swirling in them. "I don't know," I honestly replied. "I was about to get into the Majestic when..." I shook my head, finishing, "I blacked out. I don't know what happened after that."

Raven sat back, twisting her hair around one of her fingers nervously. I sat up, the roles switched as I stared at Raven, concerned. "Raven... what happened?"

Raven looked at me, fear in her eyes, and she said quietly, "Someone in the later afternoon went to the Majestic, one of the runners for their drugs." Raven was silent for a time before saying in a whisper, "They were all dead, Seth. All of them, up to the gang leader!"

I leaned forward, Raven moving to sit on her feet, her legs tucked under her as she quickly finished, "The runner said that he saw men who looked they were ripped apart, as if a pack of howlers had gone through there."

Raven shook her head before looking up at me, fear in her eyes, and she said, "Seth, tell me you didn't do this."

I stared at her, my jaw stiff before I finally said, "I wanted to stop them..."

Raven froze, but I slowly, surely finished, "But I never wanted to kill anybody."

Raven sat there, silently staring at me, waiting for me to say something else, but all I did was shook my head and put my head in my hands. "I don't know what happened," I said after a while. "But whatever killed them wasn't me." I looked up at Raven and finished, "One way or another, it wasn't me."

We sat there, deadlocked, for an eternity, before Raven slowly nodded, whispering, "I believe you." I nodded, and hung my head, closing my eyes and silently wondering if I could have done such a thing.

Of course you could, whispered the Demon in my head. The question is did you?

I felt something softly grab my hand, and I opened my eyes at the touch. Raven had moved forward a little, just close enough to gently hold my hand in hers. I looked up at her, and she said softly, "I believe you."

I slowly nodded, but, not trusting myself, pulled away, and slowly stood to go and look out at the city. The faint light of the Majestic shone in the distance, dwarfed by the neon glow of the Outside.

What have I done?

* * * * *

I stood there for a while, the fire keeping my back warm. I looked down at my shoulder, at the fresh bullet scar that was there, then back at the glow of the Outside. Raven had told me that, once the destruction of Scythe had gotten around, a raid of the Majestic had taken place on Day 2 of my blackout. There had been food, water, weapons, and even a few terrified hostages there, who wouldn't utter a word about what had happened. The black market had surged with goods Scythe had laid claim to, and Raven had been able to bargain for a good amount of food and water, and a small bundle of wood with a pint of lighter fluid.

Raven had also said that she had gotten the scholarship, and if she used it wisely, might be able to get me in there with her. "It's fairly simple," she said. "I know someone who can hack into any PA for the right price. If we hacked into a higher up's, a student's from the Outside, and we'd get busted for sure. But if the lowlife charity case gets hacked, nobody will think twice about it. We just tell him to put the funds into your PA, get you situated with an ID, and then we'll golden."

Seemed simple enough; we just needed to see if it would work.

We planned to make the transaction two days before school started, to give the least amount of time to the authorities to stop it, but still affording us enough time if things got messy. The man Raven found had a relatively cheep price – two days food and water, and though it hurt to give up such valuable materials, if the operation worked, it would be worth it – both of our lives, Raven and my own, would start to drastically improve.

"It'll just take a sec," said Raven's hacker, who was hard at work on an ancient monitor and keyboard. "The system is so far beyond these things," he explained, "that tracing it will be a difficult task – the supercomputers aren't used to trying to find and adapt to such old tech... but with some nifty fingers and a little magic..." He hit a key, and leaned back with a smile. "Anything is possible."

"So it's done?" asked Raven, who had crossed her arms and stood tensely for the whole ordeal. The hacker nodded and replied, "Pleasure doing business with you. You'll find that everything is arranged as you wanted it – even the ID." He turned to me and lifted his chin, staring at my blank, white Mask, saying, "I uploaded everything to that Mask of yours."

I nodded and held out my hand, saying as he hesitantly took it, "Thank you for your help."

"No problem," he replied, pulling his hand away as soon as he could.

Though I was slightly hesitant to admit it, everything had gone according to plan. I was registered for a few fall classes alongside Raven, starting late in the eighth month, and the exact amount we agreed on had been transferred to both accounts.

For once, it seemed as if luck was on our side.

It didn't stay that way for long.