Creaking Dawn: The Denounced, #3

By SJ Sherwood

The final book in the series sees Pod Fifteen finally navigate their way home, but have they made the mistake of their lives? They are still convicted Denounced.  Hunted by a System desperate to hang them. Ned and the rest of the Pod need a place to bide their time and think, finding refuge in a Doubter's Camp. But is their safe haven really that safe, or just another deadly trap waiting to spring? With the Unification War looming and nobody willing to listen, Ned is torn between saving his Pod and the love of his life, or saving a Secular World that wants him dead.

• Language: English
• Publisher: SJ Sherwood
• Release date: Nov 17, 2019
• ISBN: 9781999792947

Book preview

1

I’ve been lucky today.

I’ve slept.

It’s a rare treat, like the scent of clean air or a shower, or not having to watch my back for the Powers-that-Be.

It’s Taylor who’s woken me with his relentless picking at the handcuffs that trap him into our lives. It’s a task he’s committed himself to for every waking moment since we captured him. It’s part to annoy us as a Pod and part to keep us on our toes in case he manages to miraculously pry them off. I can’t see him doing the second part, but you never know with him. The ‘annoying part’ he’s exceeded at and it’s kept us all on edge.

I continue to watch him with a bubbling admiration that I would never let him or the other Pod members know about. He’s a beast of a person, really. He’s strong and determined and aggressive, like I’ve never seen in anyone else.

And he’s right in his own assessment that he’s hard to kill.

They say if the world was ever destroyed the only thing that would survive are cockroaches. They’re wrong. It would be cockroaches and Taylor and the thought makes me wish again that he was one of us or at least fighting on our side.

I glance across at Spencer then Kuro, Diego, Rasa and finally Chantal. Apart from Rasa, who continues to come in and out of consciousness, the others sleep, unaware that Taylor is plotting to kill them given a snippet of a chance. He’s desperate to go back to Quadrants Five-to-Eight and be an Elite Soldier for the Powers-that-Be.

I can see it in his eyes that if he can somehow escape and warn the crew of Shifting Horizons he’d be a hero and get the kudos he so desperately wants.

He suddenly smiles.

It’s more to himself, then he stops picking at the mechanism of the handcuffs, letting his eyes come up to rest on mine.

We stare at each other and I feel a weary unease beginning to take hold.

He’s fighting his way into my Soul, somehow picking at it like he is the handcuffs. I’m not sure what he sees, or even if he understands what he’s looking at. But I’m aware that I’m glimpsing parts of him I’ve not seen before–a dark, troubled interior that is waiting to revenge the wrongs that have been inflicted upon him.

I get it.

I’ve been there myself.

I want to tell him I get it, too.

But it’ll be wasting my time because he’s no different from the Wardens and the Court Officials and the Judges and the Lawyers and Ilse, and all those who have done their best to try and destroy my life. They have listened to the propaganda, making up their minds long before they examined the truth that so blatantly stares them in the face.

Taylor can’t even see that he has the option to think and behave differently.

To take a different view to what he’s thinking now, even for a few minutes.

Omar taught me that you can do it, you can change your thoughts and opinions.

It’s not always easy.

It’s tough.

But it can be done.

Taylor is locked on course like Shifting Horizons is locked on course to dock in our Quadrant, and there’s nothing I can do or say to alter the outcome.

So, I won’t.

I’ve accepted it.

Taylor sits up and props himself against the steel wall of the Hold. It’s been our home for the last ten days, another prison of sorts. Taylor keeps his eyes locked on mine. His smile has shifted to somewhere between a sneer and a laugh, but more weighted towards the sneer.

I think about closing my eyes and ignoring him as I have for most of the journey, but I don’t this time.

I glare back.

Waiting.

Wondering.

Worrying, even.

‘You’re a cruel, person, Ned. The cruellest I’ve ever encountered.’

‘How so?’ I say.

‘You know how so.’

I do, but I disagree with him. He hasn’t given us a choice. We’ve kept the handcuffs on him twenty-four-seven. He’s been cuffed to the wall via a rope as thick as my ankle which loops through a steel ring. Or he’s been cuffed to Diego and Spencer when he’s been allowed his hour’s walk around the Hold. He’s slept in the transport box out of protest, but we’ve kept him cuffed in there, his cuffed arm always at an uncomfortable angle, the rope, pulled tight for his night’s sleep.

It’s cruel, I know, and to add to his anger and isolation, we released Suki from her handcuffs after two days. She’s been the model prisoner. Keeping quiet and doing as we asked, but more importantly she’s kept her distance from Taylor. She sided with us in attitude if not in voice.

I glance across at her.

She’s asleep, but something has changed within her and I don’t know what it is. I sense she’d rather take her chances as a Denounced in our Quadrant than a free Elite Soldier in the World of the Powers-that-Be. I used to think of her as this tough, scary person. Someone who was Rasa’s equal. But she’s not. She’s vulnerable and confused and she lets Taylor use her, like he tries to use everyone he encounters.

It’s a tough choice and she’s made the right one, or that’s what I think.

Not Taylor.

She’s now someone else to add to his hate list which I’m sure is long and forever growing.

He continues, his voice still a whisper but somehow more penetrating.

‘You’ve treated me like a wild dog and I’m gonna make you pay for what you’ve done to me.’

‘And how are you going to do that?’

‘I don’t know. But I’ll get my time again. You’ll see.’

‘I might throw you off the boat. Watch you sink to the ocean floor. Then we’ll have a party afterwards to celebrate.’

‘Fake words from a fake man.’

‘Don’t tempt me.’

‘You would have done it by now if you were going to do it. It’s not in you. You have strange ideas about what is going to happen to you, and what is right and wrong. I’ll tell you what is going to happen to you. You’re going to land back home and they’ll catch you in a heartbeat and then they’ll laugh at you for being the most stupid Denounced of all time. And while they’re still laughing at you, they’re going to put a rope around your neck and then pull the lever and watch you fall through the trap door. The last thing you’ll hear before your neck snaps is their howls of laughter.’

‘Is that right,’ I say.

I know I’m forcing my smile and trying to pretend I’m cool but there’s a sprinkling of truth in what Taylor is telling me.

More than a sprinkling, really.

He’s scaring me and he knows that he is.

His smile is more confident than mine and I wish I was a better actor than I am.

‘You had it all, Ned. Ilse wanted you to be her protégé. You were her Star Pupil and she was lining you up to be a decision maker within the Powers-that-Be. We could have all ridden your wave. We could have all been Stars under you. You could have protected us all like you so desperately want to, but in a different way. You could have had your own power-base. People would have pretended to follow the Powers-that-Be but they would really be followers of ‘Ned’. Then after we had won the Unification War, you could have had it all. The Power. The Control. The Fame. The Digital Credits. You could have saved as many Denounced as you wanted. More than all that. You could have had your Freedom. FREE… DOM. And you threw it away to prove your innocence. Something that’s never going to happen. EV… ER. Watch my lips, Ned. EV… ER.’

‘Shut up. You don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘Whatsup? You scared? You should be. The laughing, Ned. That’s all you’re going to hear. Laughter at your stupidity. The Denounced who was free and who returned to be hung.’

I start to sweat with anger and fear and hate towards him.

I want my freedom and I want it on my terms.

I’m not a Denounced and I’m not Ilse’s puppet or the Powers-that-Be or even Omar’s for that matter.

I own myself and that’s how it will always be.

‘Listen to me, Ned.’ Taylor’s voice dropping to a guttural snap. ‘All you have to do is release me from these cuffs. Then we shake hands. Be partners. You and me. Then together we go upstairs and tell the crew to turn this boat around. The Powers-that-Be won’t punish them for missing the next pick-up if it’s you who returns. We’ll be heroes, Ned. True Elites destined for the corridors of power. What-da-say?’

‘Forget it.’

He smiles.

‘I tell you what. Why don’t you wake the others and put it to the vote?’

‘Their minds are made up. We’re going home.’

‘Your mind is made up. Spencer still wants revenge on our Quadrant, if I’m right? And I am. He’s a real, man. You’re the weak one, Ned. You think you’re strong, but going back to our Quadrant is a sign of weakness not strength.’

Taylor raises his hands and presents them to me.

The rope we used to attach him to the steel ring goes taught.

He tugs at it hard and fast.

Anger and frustration fuelling his sneering smile.

‘Come on, Ned. Let’s put it to the vote? Or, even better, you can be a real Leader and decide for yourself by letting me go. After you do, we’ll do this thing they call ‘our destiny’.’

I stand slow and deliberate.

Taylor matches me.

He’s hyped. He’s been practicing his speech for days and now he’s said his bit, he wants his answer.

I walk towards him.

There’s a metre between us, less.

I can smell the hatred on his breath.

It’s hot.

I can see it in his eyes, burning bright.

‘The only person who is laughing is me… at you. I’m laughing, because you don’t get it and never will. You should join us. We’d be stronger with you, I can’t deny it.’

‘I’m not going back.’

‘Look around you… you are. Change is coming. Peaceful change. The System is going to fall and it’s not going to be via a Unification War. No more hangings. No more Denounced. No more Doubters. We’re all going to be free to choose our own lives.’

Taylor yanks at the rope, his anger boiling over.

‘I’m going to kill you, Ned. And I’m going to enjoy doing it.’

‘We’ll see about that,’ I say, walking towards the Hold door.

‘You’re a coward. You always were and you always will be. I want you to come back and kick me in the teeth again. Kick me while I’m tied up.’

He yanks so hard at the rope it makes me turn around.

He kneels in front of me and juts out his chin.

‘Come on. Do it. I know you want to. It’ll make you feel good. It’ll make you feel like a real man. Something you will never be. I’m giving you the chance to be an adult, even for a few split seconds.’

He starts to laugh at me.

It’s low at first, but gets louder by the second and I think he looks even more like a wild dog than any wild dog I’ve ever seen.

I turn from him and put my hand on the handle of the Hold door.

‘Ned?’ He says.

There’s something in his voice that makes me stop and turn back once more.

‘What?’ I say.

‘Rasa.’

‘What about her?’

‘She’s going to die and I’m going to bury you next to her.’

‘Is that right,’ I say, turning and stepping out of the Hold, closing the door behind me.

‘Yeah, that’s right,’ he screams. ‘I’m gonna do it, Ned. I’m gonna do it.’

2

I do my best to shake off Taylor’s poisonous presence from within my mind as I continue towards the deck.

It’s a morning routine that starts with Taylor waking me with his continued attempts at escape. I tend to watch him until I grow bored, leaving the Hold, safe in the knowledge he won’t escape. I suppose today could be called different, because Taylor had decided to engage with me after a long silence.

Once on deck, I watch the morning sun lift itself into the sky, guilty that the others are below and I’m here enjoying a secret pleasure. I have no idea of the time other than dawn is creaking in. My body-clock has synced with the day and night of our journey despite spending most of my time in the dimly lit Hold that has no natural light.

When I started the routine, I couldn’t resist the drug of peace that seeing the ocean brings and I was panicked by any sound, convinced I would get caught until I worked out three simple things.

This is a ghost ship.

Run by a ghost crew.

Probably heading for a ghost port.

On one of our expeditions from the Hold, we found toilets and separate showers. The space was clearly for a larger crew that doesn’t exist on this journey. I banned everyone from having a shower because of the noise. Kuro was the first to complain until I told him it was better to smell like a rotten cabbage than to hang by a rope from your neck. He reluctantly agreed and that was the last I heard from anyone about the topic. I conceded on the toilets but we flush by washing a bowl of water through the basin rather than risk the noise of the flush. I’m now convinced we could party and shower all we like and we still wouldn’t be heard, but it doesn’t hurt to play safe.

Kuro has calculated that our journey so far has been ten days and ten nights, today being the start of eleven days at sea. My own sense is we have to be close to the end and nearly upon the start of something else, something beyond anything I can contemplate or even imagine.

I’m scared of what’s next and I’m sure the others can see it in me as I can in them.

I turn from the deck and watch the front of the boat part the sea, creating its own wake. I would stake my freedom we are going full steam ahead, the Captain safe in the knowledge he’s going to arrive at his destination. I’m confident we’ve been through the Quadrant Blockade. Four nights ago, during one of my many restless sleeps, I felt the boat slow for the first time. I don’t know why, but I knew deep within me that we weren’t docking, which is why I didn’t wake and warn the others.

If we did slip through the Blockade that night and that easily then the Powers-that-Be have Naval assistance from our Secular World. It means our Quadrants are helping them at the highest possible level, and the Powers-that-Be Spies and Sympathisers must be more infiltrated then even Omar believes. If I think again of the complexity around our kidnap to the Dome, I shouldn’t be as surprised which is why this ship is going to dock safely.

It’s getting lighter and I should return to the Hold, but I allow myself one more glimpse of the slate grey sea with a black tint that looks ice-cold. There’s a permanent chill in the air and I hadn’t thought about it before, but the clothes we have are designed for the heat of the Great Desert and the World we left behind and not for the rain and cold of our Secular Quadrants.

It’s another problem I need to address.

Like Taylor.

I hate him for so many reasons, mostly because he won’t join us, but I hate him even more for being right about Rasa. She’s hasn’t been right since she fell on the concrete steps in the construction site we made our camp on the night before we escaped the Non-Secular World.

I had hoped–begged inside–that she would improve by herself. It hasn’t happened and since we’ve been stowaways on Shifting Horizons she’s drifted more and more in out of consciousness.

The others have called it sleep, but it’s not.

It’s something else.

Something worse and out of all of us, I think I’m the most scared for Rasa.

Spencer’s in love with her and he’ll be heartbroken if she dies, but I need her alive more than he does. I need her warrior spirit to help drive us forward and to keep the unity of the Pod. I know I’m being selfish but if something happens to one of us, especially Rasa, we’ll implode.

It’s that simple.

She has to live.

For Pod Fifteen.

Or everything we’ve achieved so far will disappear, like the foam at the front of this ship.

I hear the light clang of running feet on metal steps.

It’s Kuro.

I’d recognise his light and quick-footed run anywhere, but there’s an urgency within it that makes me start to fret–a habit I’m over developing.

I turn and wait for him to come through the metal door.

A beat later, it opens on a slow heavy hinge.

The first thing I see is blood from a cut lip and I want to ask how, but I know how.

‘I’m sorry, Ned… Taylor’s escaped.’

Of course, he has, I think.

It’s been coming.

‘Suki helped him,’ Kuro adds, panting as he wipes the blood from his lip with the back of his hand.

I want to ask how and why and what went wrong, but it doesn’t matter. Suki can’t help herself. She’s under Taylor vicious spell.

I’m suddenly unconcerned. I step around him and walk a few metres along the deck, so I can get a better view of the main control room from the ship’s tower in front of me. I can see several men going about their business, but I don’t see Taylor or the rush of excitement that a new face on the scene would bring. Rasa and I used Taylor’s and Suki’s Elite Soldier’s uniforms to help us escape. After the ship left port, we dumped them in the corner of the Hold. An ugly pile of clothes that I don’t know why I didn’t throw overboard.

‘Did they pick up their Elite Soldier Uniforms?’ I ask Kuro.

‘No.’

Good, I think, and I don’t see how it would have been possible in the fight to escape, but I needed to double check. If he had taken the uniform and stormed into the Captain’s Quarters then Taylor would be the highest-ranking officer on the ship.

He’s aggressive enough and forceful enough to have the ship turned around while the crew hunted us down.

I look out to sea and then down at the wake.

Nothing’s happened and nothing will.

We are still on the same course we’ve been on for the last eleven days and ten nights. If Taylor does go to the Captain right now, he’s going to look like any other Denounced and the crew will arrest him before checking out his story.

That gives us time.

Valuable time.

‘Go back to the Hold and tell the others to move to the front of the ship. To our reserve spot. Make sure they take our mess so it looks like no-one’s been there. They have to find us to capture us and right now they don’t have the resources or the time.’

Kuro nods, adding. ‘Sorry… it was my fault he got away. Diego was asleep and I thought Spencer and I could handle it.’

‘Don’t fret it. Taylor has his own problems and if this crew see nothing but an empty space, he’s going to have a lot more explaining to do.’

‘What about Rasa?’

He says like it’s a new problem and I’m annoyed with myself for ignoring it for so long.

We all have to stop pretending she’s going to get better on her own.

She’s not.

She’s needs help and I don’t know where to get it from.

‘Get Diego to carry her. Don’t let her pretend she’s all right and she can do this on her own. Diego’s to use his strength if he has to.’

‘And Spencer.’

It’s another question I should have addressed.

He’ll argue that we stay, that it’s safer in the Hold.

It’s not, he just doesn’t want to risk moving her if he doesn’t have to.

‘Diego’s to use his strength,’ I repeat.

I watch him step through the door before turning to the main tower of the ship. I can see the same men going about their business with an increased urgency. I wonder if Taylor has presented himself?

Then I smile and decide he hasn’t.

A seagull has started to track us.

Land is close and it’s why the sailors have upped their energies.

I’ve also learnt something new and I’m not sure if it’s important or not.

It’s eleven days by boat between the Quadrants of the Secular and Non-Secular Worlds.

3

If the seagull wasn’t the sign that land is close, I get the confirmation I need and want.

Shifting Horizons starts to slow. I look down and sure enough the wake is less aggressive than it has been on other morning that I’ve watched it from the deck.

I look up and stare out across the water–hoping in a way that I can’t ever remember–to see land. It’ll be the first time I’ve seen our Quadrant in months, maybe even a year. That would make me seventeen. I feel old suddenly, and I wonder if our Quadrant has changed much in that time.

Do we have new Leaders, I think?

Or new Laws?

Even something good to report?

My thoughts make me twitch with both a fear and an anticipation, even the odd moment of joy filters in. Combined they are strange thoughts. My Quadrant has never been kind to me and I don’t have many good memories of it, but it’s still my Quadrant.

My home.

The place I was born and the place Omar insisted I return, and, maybe, the place that I will die.

My energy deflates as I realise I’m wasting my time waiting to see land. We’ve had a calm crossing, which has worked in the ship’s favour regarding journey times. We’re a ghost ship, remember, with a ghost crew and we’re ghost stowaways. Shifting Horizons is going to dock at night, which is both good and bad. Good because if night works for the crew it will work for us for getting off. Bad because if Taylor convinces them we’re onboard they have longer to search the ship. I’m not sure we can move and hide for a whole day, especially if we have to carry Rasa.

I’m suddenly distracted by the others moving to the front of the ship. Their noise is faint and barely audible, but I would still hear them at a hundred metres, because I’m tuned into their sounds as they are mine.

I glance back up at the ship’s control tower and decide I have zero concerns the crew will hear us. They will only come looking if Taylor convinces them that we are here. He’s going to have to work hard to do that unless one of us is seen,