INITIATION ULTIMATE, Chapter 19.2: Narrated by Saphara

Attenti and Saphara need to find an Exodus in order to send the injured Initiate home.

I can’t help but falter, looking into Talaimai’s resolute hazel eyes as he stands protectively near Rede.  He’s showing a side that I’ve never seen in him before:  threatening.  Even on the job, I remember him as just a tired young man doing the work he was trained to do, a tired seventeen year old who didn’t enjoy the position but was extremely good at it and dutiful either way.  But with Rede…  How could I have not seen it?  How could I have not seen that he loved her all along, and would do anything for her?  I had thought the whole time that Rede was just Talaimai’s support system, when really she is more than that.

 

“Come on,” Attenti growls, pulling my arm.  “You heard the Warleader.  Rede needs us!”  At his urge, I race beside him, following as close as possible.  Attenti has been showing a new side as well:  serious and determined.  He isn’t the fun know-it-all that used to provoke Rede and I with his complaints and teasing, but an initiate trying to live up to his value of Attentiveness.  Now that I think about it, Attenti did seem to act this way when I had first met him, when we were running from the helicopters.  It shocks me how much people can change their ways when stress comes into the picture. 

“You know where you’re going, right?” I ask.  “Even in the dark?”

“Of course I know where I’m going!”  Suddenly, he halts mid-step as we enter the darkness of the forest, which contrasts with the light of the torches on the medic tent.  “D****t!  I forgot the flashlight!  Stay right here!”  Wheeling around, he sprints high speed back to the medic tent.

 

The absence of action around me gives me time to think and breathe, and I begin remembering Talaimai in the pre- Initiation days.  Back when he was younger, he’d always manage to get himself into a fight with a certain group of bullies.  He would never take the blame for his fights.  Basically, what he’d do would be to refuse to play the bullies’ games, and instead cross his arms and shake his head.  His passive resistance would be seen as a threat, and he would begin to be clobbered, refusing to strike back the whole time.  Fights either ended with him crouched on the floor while shielding his inner organs, or having teachers race to the rescue and stop the bullying.  Once, it ended with Handal’s older sister picking up rocks from the ground and chucking them at the bullies.  The bullies then turned their attention to her, instead.  She was chased until she arrived at her house, where her father easily scared the bullies away.

I never did find out why Talaimai was picked on so much.  Everyone who knew about the ordeal always said that he was the ‘smart one.’  They’d tell me that the aggressive students eventually disappeared without a trace, labeled and discarded as risks to society.  Tal was always so brave, but he wouldn’t fight back for the world.  Now that he has Rede, his whole world must have changed.  How will he react once she is gone?  I…  I hope he doesn’t leave me earlier than planned…  I’m still not confident with my training…

 

I can hear Attenti’s voice from a long distance away.  “I’ve got the flashlight!  And a compass!”  After stopping next to me and reading the compass, he points ahead.  “It’s this way!  I can’t use landmarks in the dark, so I have to use this.  Tal showed me how to use it.  Did he show you anything worthwhile?”

“No…”  Tal hardly spent any time at all with me, here, actually.  A pang of jealousy towards Attenti springs up within me, and I shove it under the surface.  This is not about my weakened bond with Talaimai.  This is about Rede, the one who took me under her wing, who will die if we can’t find the Beacon.

“Well then, why did he make you come with me?  Alright, let’s go!” 

Feeling useless and irritated, I follow Attenti at the heels, letting him do all the work and acting the part of a heavy weight.  Why couldn’t I have been trained to do something useful besides picking berries and purifying water?  Maybe it’s because Attenti’s a boy that they’re letting him do all the work.  It’s not fair, because I’m just as capable.  And I’m Talaimai’s own sister, which should count for something…  “Hurry up!” Attenti urges about an hour in.  “Every minute we stop and take a break, the venom is hurting Rede more!”

“You’re really annoying when you act like this,” I mutter, trying to speed up and ignore the stinging lactic acid buildup in my muscles.

“I’m annoying either way.  Are you coming?”  Attenti takes off, and I strain to follow him into the darkness.

About three hours into our journey, Attenti crumples into a heap.  “Arrrrgh,” he begins moaning, writhing in the underbrush.

“What happened?  What happened?” I call out worriedly.

“Watch the roots, Saphara,” Attenti groans. “They’re trippy tonight…  Real trippy…  Argh, I think I sprained my ankle…”

“C-Can you walk?”  I step forward, and my foot catches on the root he had tripped on.  Like a loop protruding from the ground, it had been practically begging for a victim.

“No, I can’t walk, obviously,” he bursts out between moans.  “But you’re in luck.  Just keep going in that direction,” he points out a course, “and you should start to see a glowing blue Eiffel-like tower reaching up into the sky.  You can’t see it right now, because it’s surrounded by cliffs.  Coming up, there’s a crevice where you enter easily from here, though.  Just keep going, and ask for the Exodus.  Don’t worry, walk!”

“What about you?” I worry.

“I won’t run away,” Attenti brushes off. “Just call for me once you’ve found the Exodus, okay?  I’ll wait right here for you.”

“If you say so,” I nod, and start off alone.

“Don’t sprain your ankle,” he calls out halfheartedly behind me.

 

 

***

 

            Attenti’s right, it’s not all that difficult to find the entrance past the cliffs, toward the Beacon.  A blue glow in the dark sky gives me a hint about the Beacon’s location, and by time I reach the cliff entrance, I’m literally surrounded by blue light.  Twenty figures wearing unusual, neon green bandannas lay in sleeping bags, some off-shift and sleeping, and others wide awake and guarding.

            “Are you the Beacon guards?” I ask the nearest awake figure, a boy with black hair and eyes.   

Upon my arrival, the boy stands.  “We are the Messengers of the Beacon,” he greets me, bearing an emotionless composure.  I wonder if that behavior was taught to him, or if it’s just how he is?  “Can we be of any service to you?”

“We…”  I look around for Attenti, and then remember he’s stranded and waiting for me.  “I mean, I have a seventeen year old friend that’s severely injured, and she needs to make it back to the U15 as soon as possible.  Talaimai Neowarren of the New Initiation Shores Clan told me that an Exodus is needed for Rede - er, that’s the friend - to make the journey.  Do you have any of those here?”  Nervousness causes me to shift around on my feet, unable to stop moving.

“Please follow me right this way.”

As I follow the Messenger, I realize that his arm band is indeed Messenger yellow, and the blue light is the only thing making it appear lime green.  Will a new Messenger be assigned to Talaimai?  I wonder.

The Messenger stops at one of the Beacon’s four legs, where screens carrying computed messages and news from the U15 hang.  Beside a screen, there’s a large, strange device that I haven’t seen before in my life.  He reaches inside of a flap, and pulls out a circular silver device that can fit in the palm of my hand.  “One Exodus.  For you,” he says, gently placing the device in my hand.  “Do not open it until you have reached your injured friend, and do not press the sides too hard.”

“This is it?” I exclaim.

“Yes,” the Messenger nods.  “It will call the transportation needed to take your friend home.  Where does your friend live?”

“I’m really not sure… She said it snowed year long, though,” I explain quickly.

“The Messengers of the Beacon wish your friend a safe return, and we wish you, too, a safe trip back to your friend.”

 

 

***

 

            “Attenti…  Attenti…” I call at the top of my lungs as I return.  “Attenti… Please answer… Attenti…”

            “Woohoo!  Saphara!”

            “Attenti!  Where are you?”

            “Saphara!  Over here!”

            “Attenti!”  I give a cry of joy when I see the boy propped up against his tree, leg stretched out in front of him with his shoes off.  I shine the flashlight onto his ankle, only to see a mess of black and blue.  “Are you alright?”

            “It’s nothing I can’t handle,” Attenti says, grimacing.  “The question is: how will we get back to Rede?”

            I give a little jump as an idea sparks in my mind.  “You can lean on me, and we can walk together back!”

            Attenti frowns.  “You’re sure you can handle that?  It took us three hours getting here, and that means three hours plus coming back…  You’re going to be really tired…”

            “STOP UNDERESTIMATING ME!” I holler, flushing with embarrassment afterward.

            Eyebrows raised at my outburst, Attenti puts his hands in the air.  “Okay, whatever you say, dear…” he mocks.  I barely refrain from kicking him, knowing that it would make the situation even worse.  Instead, I help him up, and we begin walking back together, his arm over my shoulder to support his weight.

            “Marco, polo!  Marco, polo!  Marco, polo!”  Attenti begins muttering aloud as we make the journey back to Talaimai, checking the compass ever so often.

            “If you keep it up, I’ll drop you,” I state smugly.

            “Sheesh,” Attenti murmurs, and ceases to annoy me for the rest of the trip.