The Intruders

Chapter Ten

THERE'S NOT MUCH to say about Natalie. She keeps to herself. She has a strong posture. Strong bone structure. She's only turns back to me to make sure I'm following. Her eyes are like daggers and as she steps the guns on her belt click and clack against each other. There's a trail of capturers following us, along with glares from members of Saxet.

Voices of those who I don't know, but who know me. Their painted version of me, one that I can expect is extremely different from the girl who lives in my body.

Natalie leads me to the abandoned part of the city. Opening up the gates allowing myself a capturer in, another few stay at the entrance.

I take a deep breath as I turn the corner where the trains run, and I used to race them. The ground feels very still, and now I think about it, I haven't heard the chug of the trains running through Saxet's body.

"Where are the trains?" I ask her.

"They're not running, the body is on a train track." She informs me, and I nod.

"Why hasn't it been moved?" I ask her, scratching at my neck.

"We've been waiting for you." Natalie replies, and turns back leading me towards the fence separating us from Saxet.

My eyes catch movement from the right, and I see a chip of brick crumble onto the floor. I see Natalie storming on ahead, and I convince myself I can catch up with her. I move towards the crumbling, and the hole in the wall.

My hands touch the wall.

"Oi, Sterling!" I hear a voice, and I turn around, Natalie is stood, hand on hip, tapping her wrist.

I nod the wall goodbye and walk to her. I remember the first time I saw that brick wall; when the gun rung and the notebook was revealed.

The Phoenix will rise and you will die.

Bright, burning, bleeding red; I swallow. Shaking the notebook out my head.

"Be prepared." Natalie says. "Although I'm sure you have seen worse." She turns a corner with me, and my eyes aren't ready for what they see.

I place a hand over my mouth, bending over, but that doesn't stop the vomit coming.

I excuse myself, running from the body, throwing up onto the side of a building. I see the coffee, the apple and oatmeal curdling below me. I use my sleeve to wipe my mouth and dry my tears and my nose.

I take a deep breath, leaning against the wall.

I turn back, Natalie is just stood at the body, completely unaffected from the nightmare on the floor.

I was going to ask if they were sure an Intruder was behind this murder, but after the state the body was left in, there is no doubt about it.

I slowly walk towards Natalie, my eyes on what I think is the skull, or what is left of it.

The body is left in a crumple. The skin has turned a nasty green colour and is starting to slide off, a pool of yellow liquid around the body, mixing with the goopy blood that surrounds every wound. Every limb is pointing in several directions, every finger and toe tip is gone, the hands and feet separate from the body and lined up in front of the body mess. Bones petrude from the bent limbs. The head is placed in between the hands and feet line up. Her tongue lying in front, her eyes gone, her cranium concave, hair bloodied and matted. I'm not even sure what colour it is. Half of their neck remains, and it just looks like the head was ripped off from the body in one motion.

The body is stripped naked, the clothing in tears dotted away from the body. The torso hunched over, cracked, torn; the heart of the body hanging out.

And all my brain is saying is that somewhere on my family tree, there is an Intruder and this is what they used to do, this is how they used to kill. This is what they would do to humans, who have done nothing wrong, and I have to live with the fact that some of my DNA wants me to do that too.

"Do we know who it was?" I break the silence; my face moves from the body to Natalie. She nods her head, not moving her eyes.

"Her name was Meredith." Natalie replies. "She was seventeen, we believe she was caught off guard leaving the bakery, just after curfew."

The generators would've been off, the city dark, the only light coming from the Resistance building and the sky. No capturers to lead the way. The winter nights coming in furiously.

"Has her family been told?" I ask.

"Yes. They are just not aware of what the state the body is in." Natalie explains.

"How did an Intruder get in here?" I ask, an open question to anybody. Natalie doesn't reply. But I have an idea of what she is thinking. The Old City is big enough; Intruders could be out there without us or the Resistance knowing. Why would they bother killing us fully well knowing that we can't die, and there is a whole city of vulnerable people?

The stench from the body sneaks into my nostrils, and I cover my mouth again.

"No throwing up on the body please." Natalie says, heading towards the body.

"I'm sorry, it's just the smell." I reply, swallowing the acid in my mouth. She kneels in front of the body.

"It's decomposition. Have you never smelt it before?" She asks, and I shake my head furiously. "Surprised, seeing as you Survivors love murdering our capturers."

"I never get rid of the bodies." I reply, thinking of the grim task that Luka and Mikko choose to do. "How can you get so close to it?"

"It doesn't bother me." She says. "Want to get a closer look?"

I shake my head.

"Oh Mavis," she sighs. Something in me stings. I've heard someone say that before; in that exact tone, in that exact voice, it's like Natalie's voice changes and becomes something different in those two words. I know her. I'm so sure I know her. I must know her. She's inside my head somewhere, but I can't figure out where.

"Who are you?" I ask her.

She doesn't reply.

"Natalie,"

"Your job is kill an Intruder, not try and figure who I am." She says bluntly. "You're nothing to me."

She walks away from me.

"What am I supposed to do with you?" I ask the body of Meredith, expecting her to give me an answer.