INITIATION ULTIMATE, Chapter 16.1: Narrated by Tharseo

It's about five when I return to the house, dragging a brown sack of items behind me.  Using Unari’s map, I was able to find two glowing plates that were untouched, but the rest had already been emptied or had very few items on them.  Like Unari had predicted, I hadn't faced any competition over what I found.  The small number of people around her can be unnerving at times, but at least it left for good loot; if I hadn't found the brown sack on the first plate, I don't think I could have carried all these items back with me.  I expected to see the “barbarians,” but they’ve been staying far away lately… Is it because I have a gun, or are they just afraid of Unari?

           

Unari sits on his rooftop, bearing a rifle.  I hail him to make sure he recognizes me, because he could shoot me if he mistakes me for another.  Whatever glass-thin trust he's giving me, I don't share the same yet.   Unari reenters his house through a window and then opens the front door, gesturing for me to enter, and I give a brief hesitation before doing so.

The inside of Unari's house isn't what I expected it to be.  Given his limited resources and the crude look of the outside, the inside is actually designed quite well.  On the lower level, the floor beyond the kitchen is covered in reed-woven mats, which must be a substitute for carpeting.  Within the kitchen, a handmade table and chairs set sits near the fireplace, which is currently being used to roast several skewered strips of meat.  On the walls, dried herbs and harvested berries hang from pegs, and a wooden ladder leads upstairs.  "Set the bag down on the table, and we'll go through it," Unari instructs after giving me a little time to look around.

            Together, we open the sack.  "This is the largest amount of items I've seen yet," Unari grins, taking in the contents.  "I don't usually like to stray too far from here, so I just grab what I can get and return to the house as quickly as possible to make sure nobody does anything to it.  But what do you have here?  A ton of canned foods, several rolls of toilet paper, batteries, cord, wires.  Army boots... I could use some of those!  Blankets, a multi-tool, a small shovel, a flashlight... At least the one you gave me had a laser on it.  What's this?  Cool, a personal water purification device.  You can have that, because I already collect rainwater.  Yes, more bullets!  I'm pretty sure bullets of this caliber will fit my rifle.  Oh, here’s gunpowder.  More canned foods..."  Unari eagerly sorts the items out on the table, brimming with excitement.

 

            For the next few hours, we're stuck in a debate on who gets to keep what.  Eventually, we agree that all the items will stay in Unari's house for safekeeping, and they’ll be shared between us.  We devise a special knock for me to use on Unari's door whenever I need to take an item, just so he knows that it's me entering his house and not another person.  We both agree that keeping the items in my tent would make them too easy to steal.

 

***

 

            In the next few weeks, I get to know Unari more as an friend and less as a potential enemy.  I learned that in the United 15, he wasn't very wealthy, but he had parents who held him to the highest standards.  They would refuse to acknowledge him if he couldn't meet these standards.  He was the only child in his house, and had a grey cat as a pet.  His favorite food was broccoli, but not the raw kind.  He preferred it steamed and spiced to perfection.  Since his parents wouldn't regard him much of the time, Unari had to do everything on his own, including cooking.  Therefore, he ate his favorite food a lot and was pretty good at doing things by himself.

Unari had told me a lot about himself, but one day in the rabbit pen, he asks a serious question concerning me.  “Did I ever ask you how you got here to begin with?  The Island Initiations, I mean?” he asks one day, holding his favorite ‘pet’ rabbit.  The long eared creature kicks around in his hands, biting him in protest.  He lets it scamper off to join the rest of the livestock rabbits, wincing, and then glances back up at me for my answer.

            “Long story,” I begin, “but to sum it up, I was late to the Naming Ceremony because I went to speak to someone early in the morning.  I was knocked unconscious, and my weapon was stolen.  When I finally made it to the court, I challenged the High Judge so I wouldn’t be eliminated right away, and I guess it worked.”  Not to mention, I had a hidden identity and I wasn’t even supposed to exist in my county.  If I hadn’t of lost my weapon, I probably wouldn’t have been noticed among the crowd, and if I was, it would have been my death.

            Unari gives me a long look.  “Honestly, I’m surprised that wasn’t enough to keep you from being here today.  For my story, I was sent here because my friend from school was given the elimination sentence, despite having a perfectly good speech.  He tried hard on it.  It’s his grades that were his downfall.  I had already given my speech and received my Scars of Honor when this happened, but when they told my friend that he was about to be eliminated, I had taken a knife to that High Judge’s throat and threatened to use it if they shot my friend.  They shot him anyway, but they shot me through the foot first.  My destination was changed from the Initiations to here.”

            “I’m sorry…”

            “They told me that they admired my value of bravery,” Unari growls with loathing.  “But really, what’s the point?  Keeping me because they liked how I proved my value of bravery.  My friend, although not too smart, could have proved his value of kindness just as well.  He was the kindest person I’ll ever meet, even though he was not the smartest.  Now I’ll have a 13 year old image of him forever.  No kid deserves to die at age 13, does he?”

            “No innocent person deserves to die at the hand of another,” I say rather forcefully, “regardless the age.”

            “Ah, so you have experience?” Unari sulks grimly, taking note of my tone.  “I swear, we all can relate in some way nowadays.  Dying at the hand of another is timeless, with infinite possibilities.  Back then, people would die at the hand of another in wars, murders, or willingly in order to protect themselves from wars or murders.  Like people who fed their loved ones cyanide to prevent them from being raped, dying a painful death, and in many cases, both.  That really happened, you know.  Nobody enjoys wars, and murderers were stuck in jail or given the death sentence once they were tracked down...  So who do you see preserved in time?  Friend?  Family?”

            “Yes, my parents and my brother,” I say, and leave it at that.  

            “Funny how that works out,” Unari says sourly.  “At least now we're in a place where our fate is based on our own decisions.  I can do whatever I want here.  That’s why I like it here in the Island Initiations, and that’s why I’m going to stay here until I’m not allowed to anymore.”  We kneel in angry silence, vengeful of the people who killed the ones we cared for.

 

            I sit at the kitchen table, wordlessly eating a croissant.  My head is low, and my back hunched, overwhelmed with memories.  Get out of my head… get out of my head… get out of my head…  A cold hand runs up my spine; I am being watched.  I look up; indeed, I am being watched.  Aunt Renci, Uncle Jimmedari and 293 / Amor can’t get their eyes off of me!  Is it the healing scars on my face that captivate their attention so much?  Is it the haunted look of my eyes that draws them to me?  Is it that I am a stranger to them still, a cousin that they hardly knew before the tragedy? 

With one swipe, my meal clatters to the floor.  I sprint out the door, shoeless, the sunny blue sky and the soft green grass mocking me as I run.  Since I’m not wearing shoes, I take the walking path to Sofos’s, running as fast as I can and dodging pedestrians as I run.  Tears obstruct my vision and I force them away; crying is for babies and the weak.  Once I had seen how my tears had impacted Sofos by making him change his life for me, and how my tears had helped torture Ionracas, I had pledged to myself that I would cry no more.  Where am I running?  Well, it’s an instinct of mine to run to Sofos.  When I see his hut in the distance, I instead turn and run through the forest beyond until I get to a meadow.  It wouldn’t be right to plague him anymore.

 

A tree absorbs my wrath as I pummel the thick bark.  Each stab scrapes my knuckles, and I continue, blind with fury, until my fists are red with blood.  If I keep this up with my wrists, I could damage them beyond repair.  I resort to kicking the tree until I collapse into a heap, splinters in my toes.  More furious tears well up in my eyes, but I forbid them to fall.

“To be angry is to revenge the faults of others on ourselves,” a familiar voice says, full of shock.  I blink my eyes until they clear, only to see my guardian angel standing above me.  He offers me a hand, but I get to my feet by myself.  “Alexander Pope.  What has gotten into you, 444, my boy?”

“I have memories stuck in my head,” my ten year old self moans.  “And now I have splinters.”

“I see that,” Sofos says, turning my hand as he observes it.  “Lucky for you, I have tweezers.”

I cringe at every splinter Sofos extracts from my knuckles, palms, and feet.  Liquid alcohol burns on my bloody skin, but I take it as a punishment for what my anger has done.  At the time, I had thought that I had deserved every pain.  Before Sofos departs to go back into his hut, he leaves me two final quotes of wisdom.  “The best revenge is to live on and prove yourself… Eddie Vedder.”

“Who was he?” I ask, my anger beginning to fade.

“An American musician and songwriter from way, way back then,” Sofos explains, checking my hands and feet for remaining splinters.  “Well, you’re looking okay now.  I’m going now; you better go home, too.  I know you’re unhappy with all the new stuff around here, but you shouldn’t worry yourself.  Things will get better for you if you let them.”

 

Unari picks up another rabbit by the scruff of its neck and then walks out to the forest to slaughter it.  “Make sure nobody enters the house,” he tells me, stopping at the door to look back inside.  “The guns are upstairs in the safe.  You know the code.

"The Cantiko proofing is soon to expire because I treated my property a year ago.  Tonight, you’re going to help me catch a Cantiko… Yes, you heard what I said.  After that, I’ll teach you the method I learned so that you can keep it up, even after I’m gone.  Fun times, Tharseo.  Fun times.  Now, I’ll be back in a few minutes."

            

Author's Note

Constructive Criticism is appreciated.