24. SONNY

24

SONNY

My head hurts from shouting.

My heart is wild.

My legs are shaking.

But they will listen. They will. They have to!

“Gaaaaaaa-rik! Roooooof!” I shout my friends’ names. “Gaaaariiiik! Roooooof! Staaaaaaahp! Staaaaaahp!”

I saw them on the camera, so I know it’s them. I also saw the reflectors. Those are from those Supermen shirts I got with my Ayana bracelet and snuck out to them.

That means all of them are here.

I stand in the field. The guards shout at me. But I don’t turn back.

It’s dark.

I can’t see much.

But I see the flares.

It’s them. I know it’s them.

“Gaaaarick! Iz’ me!”

An explosion flares right next to me, showering me with pebbles and dirt. It burns my cheek. It blinds. It hurts. But I wipe the tears off my face. It’s hard to see. Everything is blurry. Smoke burns my lungs.

I’m scared. So scared.

But they can’t get hurt. I won’t let them.

“Gaaaarik! Rooooof! Jooooonaaa! Staaaahp! Eeeet’s meeee! Staaaaaap!” I shout, my voice breaking.

I’m breathing so hard. Air is melting my insides.

I hear the cracking. Voices.

For a moment, everything goes quiet in the night jungle.

I stop too and wave my arms. I stand straight. I will stand straight as long as it takes.

“Don’t shoot!” I shout. “Don’t! Shoooooot!” I scream.

There’s a lone shot.

I duck.

But it’s not in my direction.

It’s in the air.

Then another.

“It’s me!” I shout at Garrick. “It’s me! It’s meeeeeee!” I repeat, croaking, because I barely have any voice left.

I do the last thing I can. I make a sound like a seagull in alarm.

“Kha!”

I go quiet. The dark jungle goes quiet.

“Kha!” I go again, breathing hard. Come on, come, on, come on. “Kha!”

A whistle comes from a distance ahead of me. “Kha-Kha!”

My heart slams hard. “Kha!”

And the response comes again. “Kha-kha!”

“Kha!” I shout with as much force as I can manage.

And suddenly, there is a whole forest of seagulls ahead of me, and other sounds too. We all had our secret codes when we used to get around town. When the guards were too close. When one of us was taken. When there was danger. That was how we found Bennelin when she was taken by the local drunks. They threw her in a dirty room and wanted to take her clothes. That time, we heard her secret code from outside. We made a racket. Garrick threw broken bottles at the house. Two drunks came out and started chasing us. Garrick and Roof snuck in through the window and helped get Bennelin out.

“Kha-Kha!” The sound comes closer now.

Then I see him, the face I know, the Superman reflector on his chest.

“Sonny!” the shadow shouts but doesn’t come closer. It’s Garrick.

He steps into the moonlight. His expression is stern. His eyes are angry. He holds a backpack. Where did he get a backpack? A bottle with a rag sticking out of it is in his hand. That’s one of those things that blow up.

And then others come out. There’s dirt on their faces. More bottles in their hands. Even Bennelin is here, and she is only seven.

“Wha’ ye want?” Garrick asks sharply.

There’s a whole lot of them. They step out of the bushes. Some look scared, some curious. Their faces are dirty with some smudges, like those soldiers in movies.

But they are on the wrong side.

“Come with me, all of you!” I say in a raspy voice.

Garrick scowls at me. “You stop’ sending food,” he shouts in response. “You one of ‘em now!”

“Yeah!” Roof says with an angry nod. “One of ‘em!”

“Traitor!” someone shouts.

“Traitor!” another echoes.

“Traitor!”

“Traitor!”

“Traitor!”

I shake my head. I panic. “No,” I say. “No-no. No.”

Garrick raises his arm with the bottle at me, his eyes angry. “Traitor,” he snarls.

“No, Garrick! They can help!” I shout, feeling so sad. So-so sad.

They can’t do this.

They don’t know the bad guys.

They stand there staring at me, hands raised to throw bottles with fire.

But they don’t move.

The little ones next to Garrick glance at him. The little ones are skinny. They are hungry. They don’t even know how to fight. I know them. Nelly. Marve. Dew. Kelly. Kelly is so little, her skinny legs shaking beneath the torn blue oversized dress, barely standing up, hair dirty, but she’s holding one of those deadly bottles, her wide blue eyes so bright, so hungry.

And I shake my head, tears streaming down my cheeks. “No,” I whisper. “Come with me.”

Suddenly, the ground shakes, and a bright flash explodes behind them. We duck. The trees shake above us. The birds fly out into the air with a screech.

They all turn to look back, their eyes wide.

I know what’s happening. The men from town want to kill them. But Garrick and them all don’t know that.

“Traitors!” I shout, pointing behind them in the direction of the town. “ They are traitors! They tricked you!”

Garrick and the others turn toward me, alarm on their faces.

“I know where food is!” I shout. “Come! Come with me!”

Another explosion shakes the ground, this time closer.

“Put the bottles away!” I shout. “Leave them! Follow me! I know where the food is. A lot of food! Follow me!”

And I wave my arms as hard as I can for them to follow. Because if they don’t, they will die. And they can’t. There’s so much food. And good things. And movies. And clothes. And tigers. And rainbow marshmallows. I wanna tell them there are so many treasures, and I can give it all to them, but they just have to go with me.

“Cooooome!” I shout at the top of my voice, waving my arms, though they hurt so bad, so bad, so bad like they will fall off. “Follow me!”

There are Ayana guards in front, but they have guns and bombs and they can shoot. But I walk toward them.

The guards are with Raven. They can’t shoot. They are with Raven, right? They won’t shoot. They’ll help.

“Help!” I whisper to them as I walk toward the raised rifles. “Please, help,” I whisper in a voice that doesn’t sound loud. It’s broken.

I know the cameras. I saw them when Raven showed me at the Center a long time ago. Raven will see me, Garrick, and the others. He will get us.

Raven will help.

I look behind me and see Garrick and them, all slowly following me, their eyes wide with fear.

And I pray.

I pray.

Maddy said that when you want something so much your heart hurts, it comes true.

And I want Garrick and everyone to be safe and get food.

So I step toward the guards again, raise my arms in the air, and whisper, “Please, help us.”