The Feral Daughter

Don't get caught, don't get caught, don't get caught.

The mantra sang to the pounding beat of my heart as the hinges on the hundred-year-old door screamed in torment, threatening to expose me at any second.

Frozen in terror, my ears strained for any warning of something inside.

Seconds passed. The dust danced a slow-motion, silent ballet through the slivers of sunlight leaking past the tattered and broken blinds.

Nothing but sun-beams moved inside and the pounding of blood in my ears reminded me to draw in a breath.

I will not get caught.

This is my only chance. There has to be something here.

I slid inside the decrepit house, camouflaging myself in the shadows and trying not to breathe too deeply the scent of mold and decay and abandonment.

The first house I found after emerging from the safety of the forest was far enough from The City it was unlikely to be inhabited. But I knew so little about the monsters who would kill me on sight, I couldn't afford to take anything for granted. I had to be on guard every second.

I can't fail. I can't let her die.

Gaining confidence as I moved through the rooms, I started to search. Maybe there'd be something here. Maybe I wouldn't have to go into The City after all. Maybe she was wrong just this one time.

At the thought of Mother, the familiar sting of tears burned my eyes, and a lump the size of a crab apple lodged in my throat, painful to swallow around.

It's just stagnant air. This is no time to let fear in.

But the hollow pit of hopelessness started to swallow my stomach. I'd never been on my own before.

And if I couldn't find something to help Mother, I would be alone for real. Forever. Unless they caught me. Then I'd be luckier to be dead.

Don't think like that!

This house offered nothing but dust, feathers, and clothing that looked ready to disintegrate. Some were rotted into the deserted furniture. I wasn’t going to find what I needed here. I had to go deeper into The City, just like she told me.

I will find something to save her. I will not let her die.

The highway was too open and obvious, but the ditch on either side provided a small measure of cover while still leading me to my ultimate goal. My leather clothes and tangled mass of brown hair helped me blend into the brown, dry brush but every movement caught out of the side of my eye sent me hurtling toward the earth in terror.

I'm really starting to hate crows.

I ran my tongue over my teeth, cringing at the sandpaper texture that had built up over the hours I’d been walking.

Growing up inside the sanctuary of the forest, surrounded by new-growth trees, sparkling streams, and cool, secure caves, I had never truly understood the extent of the damage to the earth Mother had described to me.

Humans destroyed the earth, she told me. Not in any one way, but by gradual over-population and over-consumption that escalated until the earth began to die - humans wiped out by the natural disasters they set in motion.

Most humans. Not all.

In 2033, they made a discovery. In only a few years, a new race segregated themselves in The City, removed from the rest of the population of Earth, waiting for the untreated humans to die out. Only those deemed worthy of "The Treatment" would survive.

The new humans, the Gray as we called them, eradicated disease. They could heal any wound, not that they were even human enough to hurt themselves anymore. They were too calculated, orchestrated. They didn't have accidents.

As a measure to protect the earth from a repeat of history, they also removed the ability to procreate. They wouldn't die, so why would they need to reproduce?

But not all untreated humans died. A few escaped and hid in the wild, in a section of forest that had escaped the fires, tornados, and earthquakes that devastated the Earth outside The City. Those few humans brought life to a few more new humans, but it wasn't enough. After 100 years, only Mother and I survived.

For 30 years it had been the two of us. And now she was dying.

The monsters in The City will live forever and Mother is dying. I will not fail her.

Brushing angry, hot tears from my dust-dry face, I realized I hadn't seen or heard a bird in miles. Shades of purple and navy drowned out the clear blue of the sky as night fell and artificial lights started to tear through the dusk.

The City.

The slight movement of air against my suddenly damp skin raised goosebumps. I quickly glanced around for cover and eyed the houses lining a street not more than 100 feet away.

Idiot!

Exposed, I wrapped my arms around myself to still the shaking and crouched, searching for the best route to find cover.

Staying low, I left the ditch and started toward the houses, calling on my many years of hunting experience to shroud myself in shadows and disguise the sound of my movement in the rustle of wind-blown, dry leaves.

I approached the back of a dark house and reached out to grab the post of the fence creating a laughable barrier between me and the house.

I guess the robots don't need real security.

As I prepared to launch myself over the low fence, ice trickled into my veins, flowing from my fingertips as they gripped the post and speeding upwards, freezing my arm in place. Before my heart hammered more than 3 warning beats the chill stiffened my limbs and numbness coursed a path through my body.

What is happening?

Black spots threatened to blind me and the world tilted and twirled before me as my body stayed rooted in place. Bile burned in my throat.

My brain commanded my arm to pull back, my legs to run, escape, flee. My arm didn't retreat. My legs didn't run. But my body didn't fall.

I was frozen in place, attached by the tips of my fingers to the fence.

The fence!

Lights flashed, blinding me as much in terror as by the sudden brightness. And then it was dark. I could see nothing. Feel nothing. Hear nothing.

I ceased existing but was still aware of myself somehow.

It happened so fast. Only an instant later, I was somewhere else with bright light enveloping me again.

White and sterile, it was nothing like the warm glow of daylight. It wasn't even the cold serenity of winter sun glaring off sheets of ice and snow so brilliantly white it was almost blue.

This light was empty, dead, artificial.

My eyes took so long to adjust I thought I was alone at first. My heart should be pounding in my chest, my fingers trembling, and my knees so weak they would surely collapse and I would fall to the ground. I had never known fear so overwhelming and yet I could feel none of it.

I couldn't feel anything, but I could hear again.

A carefully controlled cadence of a man with authority ripped through my awareness. I knew it was a man's voice only because it wasn't a woman's voice. At least, not anything like Mother's voice.

"What do you mean, they are not extinct?" The words sounded slow as they reached my ears.

"There are reports." A new voice, more robotic.

"Fewer and fewer as the years went on, but there have been reports. Smoke seen in the distance that we attributed to natural causes. Animals discovered on missions, butchered by tools only Ferals would use. There were survivors. Not enough for us to concern ourselves with but if She found them..."

The long, gaping pause triggered a new pulse of terror.

She?

"She escaped with enough of The Treatment to survive this long, but our projections tell us She would have run out 5 years ago."

5 years. 5 years ago Mother started getting sick.

What is happening?

I wanted to scream, run, attack. Do anything, but I was still frozen. Only my thoughts were alive in my body, and I didn't understand anything. Everything was foggy and nothing made sense.

"Why are you telling me this now?" The man's voice.

He sounds human.

Another identification made out of contrast. He sounded like life in comparison to the other voice, dead and void of emotion.

"If She was going to be a threat, She would have done something by now. She obviously died out with the rest of the Ferals. Why continue to live in fear after this long?"

"Because a woman has been captured. Last night. A Feral."

The robot was talking about me. I was sure of it.

I'm going to die. They're going to kill me. Or worse. Experiment on me.

As the sudden silence suffocated me I realized I was moving. Blurred shapes drifted past my frozen frame of reference. As if I was moving toward something and, as I got closer, a veil was being lifted from my eyes.

Inanimate, colorless objects glided past and two people walked in step with each other on either side of me.

They wore beige the color of fine sand by the riverbed. I couldn't tell if they were men or women, human or monster.

In front of me, two more shapes emerged. A person, neither male nor female but human-like, wearing brown the color of the forest's earth.

And a man.

I had never seen a man before but I knew this was a man. He was taller, wider, and larger all over than the person beside him. His face was hard next to the blank look of The Gray.

By this point it was clear the beige and brown-clothed creatures were The Gray. We named them after Mother's story of Dorian Gray. Selfish, self-obsessed, soulless, undying perfection.

They were staring at me.

I stared back, imagining my hatred would pour from my frozen eyes and burn them to ash where they stood.

They stood tall, safe. Seemingly as frozen as I was. The Gray was blank and impassive. The man looked...curious. His eyes locked on mine.

Monster!

I raged inside but couldn't avert my eyes.

Please, please just let me die. I'm so sorry Mother. I failed. Don't let them break me.

A sparkle interrupted my vision and I cursed the paralytic poison that would let my tears run freely when my eyes couldn't even blink.

I will not cry! I will not give them the satisfaction!

But I saw another glint.

And another.

It wasn't coming from my eyes. I wasn't crying!

There was something behind the people staring at me.

My eyes tried desperately to ignore the monsters and focus on anything else to distract from my rapidly panic-ridden thoughts.

It was a trinket. Something shining and glittering.

And then I remembered her last words to me.

Find the heart-shaped locket and you will find your answer.

My heart gave a thud and I felt it. My limbs started to melt and finally the hot trail of tears traced a path down my cheeks. Where once my every limb was frozen and numb, now I was shaking. I collapsed to the ground, unable to hold myself up.

Fear pounded in my head, deafening. I thought being paralyzed was terrifying. This was worse.

I could feel again.

I had found what Mother had sent me to find and I would never be able to use it to save her.

This time, I welcomed the blackness as it soothed my awareness into nothingness.