Perri was ten years old when she first asked Why. Days like that are hard to forget. It was summer and the nights were short and hot, the days endless. She awoke to her youngest sibling, Aanli, tugging on her ear. “Breakfast,” the tiny girl whispered. Her pale blue eyes met gold as the little one nestled into the crook of Perri’s arm.
“But I just had the most wonderful dream!” Perri whispered back, lifting the younger one onto the bed to snuggle up beside her. She held her as close as she could until the summer heat became too stifling.
“If you don’t get it while it’s hot, you don’t get it at all.” A spindly, fair woman with wide-set green eyes and a wrinkled face - Mamaa - called from the other side of their one-room home. Small and weathered as it was, it was everything they needed. Full of mementos and keepsakes, their home was the glue that kept them together. She hovered above an ancient and dirty range, pouring slop into five chipped bowls. With a yawn, Perri peeled herself from the straw mattress where all four of the Viate children slept and went to the cramped wooden table where her older siblings waited patiently. It was a wonder the table and everything else in the tiny hovel didn’t collapse at even the mention of wind, but just like the Viate family: it was stronger than it looked.
“What’s for breakfast?” Perri asked, a feigned attempt at somberness as a mischievous grin marked her olive features. The room went still. Without looking up her mother responded:
“Mush.” It was always mush. But it was far more fun for Perri to pretend it might be something else. Maybe just once the answer would change. Only, as she was constantly reminded, things rarely changed for Fives.
The oldest Viate rolled her eyes. Her upturned nose was almost as obnoxious as she was. “Questions make you stupid. You really should stop before you get yourself Taken.” Perri stuck her tongue out at the eldest girl, Moniq, who responded by stomping on her foot.
Ow! Perri gritted her teeth. She wouldn’t give Moniq the satisfaction of a response. “Children,” Mamaa said breathily. Lately, she had been in a daze, as if nothing in this dark and tiny room was real.
“I need you on your best behavior,” her mother didn’t command so much as she pleaded. “Papaa needs your help on the river. It’s our time to fish but things are busier than usual.” The room grew silent as the younger girls stared at the floor. Perri began to kick up dust.
Summer was supposed to be a time of peace and relative freedom. The other classes were drunk off the air, lustful in the long days full of illustrious pleasures. The heavy policing, the disappearing Fives… it wasn’t supposed to happen in summer. Summer was supposed to be theirs.
“We will stick together, we will be fine.” Her oldest brother, Erdre, said with a half-baked smile. At sixteen he looked much older, his dark hair was neatly tucked beneath each ear. Despite his greasy appearance, he was the only Viate who could be bothered to keep clean. But his words were for their mother’s benefit, not theirs. For all four of the Viate children knew they had no say in who was taken and who was blessed to live another day.
The family continued their meal in silence, Perri’s stomach exploding with butterflies at the thought of wading in one of the murky rivers or estuaries that kissed the edge of their territory. So blessed they were to have fresh water to look into, to bathe in, to use for food. They may be Fives, but this one fact alone made her feel like the luckiest girl in all the territories.
Only, in recent years the rivers and streams were becoming more and more bare. There were whispers that the pollution of the inner city was becoming too great, that the excess of Science had found its way into the streams. Each season brought fewer and fewer game. For the poorest residents of Markom, this was deadly. Many groupings of Fives relied on the streams and woods to hunt, to scavenge for meat which was never available for fives in markets or available with food tokens. But the leaders of the Lows (always Fours, of course) had claimed that the estuary and rivers were being overfished. Surely if there were regulations put in place the waters would heal and resume being bountiful. Everyone agreed, they had to agree.
And today was the Viate family’s summer fishing excursion. The one time a quarter when they had a long stretch of river all to themselves. The three oldest Viate children walked obediently to the 14N section where over the years they had laid rock tower over rock tower along the bank. A shared piece of heaven for them to call their own.
“Papaa!” Perri screamed with glee as she and her older siblings approached the silty shore. A short but wide man with an overgrown beard and icy blue eyes waded in the water with a battered pole and a silver reel. Perri threw off her boots and jumped into his arms. The water licked at the bottom of her day-dress as she soaked in the smell of him, sandalwood and tobacco. “I’ve missed you!” The worst part of being a family of Lows was the time apart. Fives, being the most undesirable of the classes, were grateful for any opportunity they could lay a hand on. Even if it meant weeks in the cedy underbellies of Markom, weeks selling parts of their soul for glimpses of the happiness that Tokens allowed. The Viate family was lucky to have two working parents, not every grouping of Fives could say the same.
Perri felt back the hot tears that threatened to pour from her at any moment. It was always this way when they came here and her heart swelled with freedom. But she knew better than to cry in front of Moniq. The other children looked awkwardly at their reflections, silent and resolute like the good children they were. Erdre and Moniq made things so dreary, she yearned for the moment Anli was old enough to come along.
“And I’ve missed you too little one.” Papaa’s lips thinned as he let the girl back down and resumed his favorite role, giving instructions. “Well then, only a month on the Remi farm and we’ve got ourselves our fishing equipment for the year. This Rod’s specially plated, won’t rust like the old copper one done.” Perri nodded as she looked at the shiny new pole. It wasn’t exactly new, but new to them and that made all the difference.
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“Now,” Papaa cleared his throat nervously and they all leaned in. “Today we’ve been given authorization for section 14Z, which means we’re headed to the edge. But be careful now, the place is teaming with Threes. Even if we don’t see them, they are there. They’re listening. And any little one far from their Ma or Pa might be needed.” The way he said those words chilled her to the bone. Don’t you leave my sight.” Again he looked at Perri, she simpered back.
She’d never been to the edge. Seen it from afar, of course, but never close enough to taste it! And with all these Threes, she wouldn’t be able to really soak it in. So close but so far, her heart filled with excitement and dread.
The edge wasn’t supposed to be a pleasant place. She had heard the lore of Markom, heard about the kind of monsters that lurked on the other side. The wall had been put up for their protection. Humans were dangerously curious creatures and curiosity was a curse. If these boundaries didn’t exist, mankind would find a way to slaughter and be slaughtered. Except that when curiosity called, there was little that could be done to resist the temptation of fate.
Perri’s stomach was full of knots as she waded through the water. Papaa had forced her to put on her boots and she responded by trudging along in silence. It was odd that they were headed to the edge. People didn’t really fish in the estuary that fed the sea. Most activities near the edge were strictly forbidden. Her family was usually assigned to the Southern part of River 14, but never further than S or maybe T. Perhaps the rumors were true. They must be really desperate for game to venture so far.
After a few minutes of walking, the smell of salt filled the air. They had cleared a thicket of trees that dotted the marshland and could finally see the sparkling edge, their protection against the unknown. Perri took a deep breath in and wished desperately to smell nothing else for the rest of her days. She forced her eyes downward. Even in her imagination, Moniq could make nasty comments about her compulsion to look East.
With their backs to the ocean, the children began collecting worms and small snails. Anything that might be used for bait was plopped into a wide blue bucket.
This was the best part of fishing. She didn’t care much for the act itself - it seemed cruel to lure a helpless creature into being trapped. But soaking in the smells of the world as she felt the cool caress of the water, there was nothing she wanted more.
As the hours of the day crept along, their bucket of fish remained empty as ever. No fish meant worm soup for days, and grumbling bellies until the weeks of fall when they might spend a weekend trapping in the woods further north. Fish or no fish, being so close to the Edge awoke a part of her she didn’t know was there. A feeling of home.
This might be the last time, the only time, she was this close. It would be a shame to deprive herself of the simple pleasure of staring into the abyss. She finally mustered up the courage and snuck a glance into the great expanse.
It was a song, a song of the waves and the sea that filled her heart and soul. It was captivation. It was a tug at the corners of her mind, pulling her forward and backward, all at once. Her thoughts cleared and all that remained was a question. A simple question. What lurks on the other side? Only she had never wondered such sinister things before, never thought to ask about something that wasn’t.
Just then a shiny pink salmon darted through her legs. Perri reached down to catch it only to fall straight into the water. She chuckled as she regained her footing. Moniq snorted and returned to kicking over rocks with her feet. How foolish of her to let dinner shoot right past! Right down the river and, well, perhaps the fish would turn around. It’s not like it could pass the wall, only… she paused. Could fish pass the wall? Certainly not. The fish was about to swim upstream, if she was quick Perri could find a way to trap it. Only, Perri had never seen a fish resist the pull of the water before.
A darker, more menacing thought spun in the center of it all. This one whispered. A low voice, conspiratorial in her ear: “What if we could pass the wall?” She felt a chill run down her spine. Her thoughts were racing so fast she could hardly stop her mind from plunging her feet first into the great unknown.
If they could only cross, surely there was a bounty of fish waiting for them. Surely there were bigger fish, stronger fish to navigate the throws of a wall-less world. Perhaps it was her hungry stomach or her tired mind but her mouth was open before she could stop herself and closed before she could finish.
“Papaa, why can’t we fish in the --”
Blue eyes turned to ice as her father dropped the rod into the water without a thought. It was lucky Moniq was around to catch it, her eyes looking to Perri in horror of what she had done. But what had she done? She’d only asked a question. She’d only asked “why.”
Her heart stopped as she cowered in fear, tears streaming down her face at the sight of her Pa’s racing towards her. She had never seen that look in her father’s eyes. Fear? Anger? It was everything and nothing all at once.
He grabbed her tiny wrist and dragged her to the river bank. His eyes darted madly all around them, at any whistle of the wind or any shaking of the grasses which lined the mounds of earth beyond the stream.
Perri tried to fight him but she was too weak, “No, please!” She cried as he reached for the sheath that lined his boots. In an instant, he pulled out his thin hunting knife. She shrieked as he flipped her onto her belly, nose in the dirt, the blade met the flesh on the nape of her neck.
Her cries became one with the sea as he carved a tiny “?” on her tan skin. When his anger finally subsided, he ceded control and the poor child slipped into the water. She tried to stand, tried to ignore the smirks from her older siblings but the pain was too great. She crumbled into the mouth of the sea as he spit at her feet.
“Because it is forbidden. Questions make you stupid,” Papaa said simply. All emotion had been wiped from his face as if her world hadn’t been forever changed. But Perri’s heart had turned to stone, she would never let her thoughts run so freely again. She had been Marked.