by Beth Reason
Chapter 9
The foursome jostled silently in the rig. They had stayed at the barn only long enough to fix the vehicle before deciding to push on through the night, and for as long as was safe in the morning to get back on the right track. The new right track, that was.
Scarab couldn't believe the plan Hark and Enna had worked out. She couldn't believe it because she didn't want to. To say it was risky would have been putting it lightly. Insane, was the word she said to them over and over. It wouldn't work. And even if it did, what kind of life was that?
Tenet was oblivious to the ways of the world in many more respects than he'd care to admit. What once was years of solid fact completely known to him without question had, in a few short weeks, been kicked aside as meaningless fairy tales. The rose colored glasses were off, and though he still didn't know much about it, he didn't like the plan, either. Parts of it, sure. But the overall picture didn't paint a great future, even in the very best of scenarios.
Enna and Hark knew the plan would work. Despite the initial outrage from Scarab, and the innocent protests of Tenet who didn't know better one way or the other, it would work. It had to. It was their only chance.
Hark looked at Scarab's scowl in his mirror and sighed. “Come on, missy. You got a better idea?”
“It'll get us killed.”
“It might,” conceded Enna. She pivoted in her seat, turning around so she could talk to them. “I can't sugarcoat it. It very well might get you killed. Today, tomorrow...ten years down the road. You have to decide which is worse: trying it and maybe failing, or sticking with your contract. Scarab, you've been at this a long time, long enough to be able to trust your instincts.”
Scarab scoffed. “Lot of good my instincts have done so far this trip.”
“Enough of that. Say you didn't take this bounty. Okay, you take the next, and end up dead like the other seven hunters already this season. You get eaten by monstrous gilla, or set upon by wraiths when you've got a bounty who's not nearly as capable as Tenet.” Tenet smiled at the compliment, and Scarab scoffed and rolled her eyes. “It's a crazy season. Nothing is right this time. Absolutely nothing.” Enna took a deep breath and sighed heavily. “We might all be done. Maybe the bounty hunter will be a thing of the past.”
“Don't get on the philosophy, woman,” said Hark gently.
“My point is that you can't predict what will happen, so you have to go on instinct. What does your instinct tell you?”
Scarab didn't want to answer the question. Her instinct screamed to grasp at any straw she could, even the crazy scheme the older hunters cooked up. But she didn't want to. She didn't want to change her life. She didn't want to give it up. She wanted to drop Tenet off...somewhere...and then continue just as before.
“The Cons won't take us,” she said firmly.
“Not like this, no,” conceded Enna.
“I need that part explained again,” said Tenet. “I've studied the world for years now, top marks in my class...”
Scarab tossed her hand in the air. “Here we go again.”
“No, this time, I mean it. I was being groomed for government, and privy to some fairly high level security information. I've never heard of them. Not once. Not even in a whisper. Not even in the back rooms and secret meetings. I admit there are things I've been blind to over the years, didn't want to see or know about...but there has never, ever been any mention of these Cons.”
Hark let out a bitter chuckle. “Course not, boy. They don't want you to know 'bout it. They don't wanna think anyone knows about it.”
“What are they? Rebels?”
“Not really,” said Enna. “In fact, most of them were born and raised in the Borderlands, going back for generations, before the Great Change.”
Tenet frowned and shook his head. “I thought the Borderlands were uninhabitable?”
Scarab sighed. “I told you they weren't.”
“Then why aren't we there? Why isn't that huge section of the world part of our world? Why do they teach us it's a horrible, nightmare landscape with hurricanes and tornadoes and constant shifts in the weather? What possible reason would the government have for closing it off and lying about it?” He shook his head and waved his hand. “Sorry. I just have a hard time swallowing it. What possible benefit could there be in closing it off?”
“It's not about benefit,” said Scarab. “It's about history. When the asteroid shifted the earth, what happened?”
“Well, aside from an overwhelming percentage of the population dying and the climates drastically changing, a new government rose from the ashes...”
Hark's cackle interrupted his ingrained speech. “You a professor or somethin' kid?”
Tenet cleared his throat, slightly embarrassed. “She asked, I'm answering.”
“Throw away the book learnin' and think about it," Hark said. "So the ones that was left, stuck on this rock, with climate changes they never imagined. Way up north freezes solid, even colder than ever before in winter, but heats itself right back up in summer. Can't live up there in Winter, boy. Nothin' can; almost nothin'. But can't live here in Summer. Gets too hot...winter's nice down this way, though.”
“Right. I understand that.”
“What you don't seem to get,” said Scarab, “is the fact that world became divided in ways it never was before. Before it all happened, the earth was divided into hemispheres, with four seasons. Winter meant cold, but not too cold, and summer meant hot, but not too hot. Around the equator was always hot, but folks could still live there. And of course the poles didn't have much in the way of life.”
Tenet was impressed. Not a lot of people knew the pre-modern history of ecology. “Where did you go to school?”
Scarab gave him a bland look, then kept talking. “Then the crash. Now, we've actually got two separate worlds. North and South. Above the equator and below, same thing. Only now we're separated by an equatorial desert that can't easily be crossed.”
“Watch it, professor. I think someone's stealin' yer class...”
Tenet didn't care. He never imagined that Scarab would be so...so...learned. He sat back and enjoyed the surprising lecture.
“So we've got four 'hemispheres', really, when you think about it. North is divided into two, so is South. Let's look at North. We've got our government...”
“South's part of it,” interjected Tenet.
“In name only, and don't you tell me any different. It's not as if we could actually do anything if they decided not to be. Can't launch a war across the desert.”
“Technically, it would be possible...”
Scarab was fully into the conversation and began getting heated. “And how would we accomplish that, huh? Just where would we get the resources for an attack of that magnitude?”
“If every sector contributed,” said Tenet quickly, getting heated himself, “it would not only be possible, but wholly plausible. Everyone combining forces...”
Scarab scoffed. “Oh. Yeah. Like that's going to happen! The sectors can't even agree on simple Agro prices, for God's sake. And you think we're organized well enough to mobilize an army?”
“You're getting off subject,” said Enna, smiling about the friendly argument.
Scarab realized she was getting carried away. “Oh. Yes. Well, let's just agree to disagree on that one.”
Tenet gave her a grin. “I'll agree that you're wrong.”
Scarab quirked an eyebrow, but got back on topic. There would be time to argue about the finer points of government later. “Anyway, as I was saying, for all intents and purposes, we're two different worlds.” She shot Tenet a glance to see if he'd argue, but he held his hands up and motioned for her to continue. “North. Divided into two hemispheres. South, the same. When you think about it that way, we actually have our own equators, the land that always has sun, always has heat. Unlike the equator, though, it also has cold. The Borderlands are temperate.”
Tenet applauded her lecture, but had to correct it. �
�I concede that the Borderlands have both climates. However, I wouldn't call them temperate. On a strictly scientific level, what happens when you mix hot and cold?”
“Warm.”
He sighed. “I mean when you factor in all that weather has in store. Storms. Hot front meets cold, you have a storm.”
“True. I'm not saying any different.”
“Well, now, yes you are. You'd have me believe that it's some...some..." He waved a hand, searching for the right word. "Some utopia. Best of both worlds. I can't swallow that. You've seen what it's like when the sun hits here. I mean really hits. The first weeks before migration bring such a violent time, weather-wise.”
“But that's such a drastic clashing of heat and cold,” countered Scarab. “Look at the equator of old. Not now, but before it was a desert.”
Tenet shook his head. “You keep saying North has its own equator, and that's not actually true. The equator of old had the sun on it all the time. What about winter, when the sun's on the other hemisphere? I mean South, of course. Not these psuedo hemispheres you're talking about.”
“Well, then, the Borderlands get cold. But not that cold. They are still habitable.”
He frowned and thought for a second. It was logical, he supposed. But it still didn't make sense with everything he'd always learned. “Then why? If it's such a great place, why aren't we there? The ecology lesson is nice and everything, but it still doesn't answer my initial question.”
“I was getting there when you sidetracked me.”
“Oh.” He motioned for her to proceed.
“After the asteroid, people banded together. Most people found the extreme North to be the best place to live when it was Summer, and the worst in Winter. Thus began the migration.”
Tenet sighed. “Well, you're forgetting a whole lot of factors. The main purpose wasn't comfort of life...it was survival. Yes, we had a significantly reduced population...but it would grow. We needed a way to feed everybody. You can't fault people for figuring out that the migration would allow the entire population to have two crops a year instead of one.” His tone was instantly defensive, and Scarab wondered if he'd ever outgrow the need to jump to the defense of a government that no longer wanted him.
“No need to get defensive. I'm not 'faulting' anyone. I'm not even criticizing the system. Overall it's worked for us. How many generations have benefited from it? Who knows. Maybe it's what had to happen. And most of the population was on board with it.”
“Of course! Food around the year, in a new climate such as this...the promise of it, of a secure future...”
“I get that. However, not everyone wanted to be a part of it.”
Tenet sighed. “Oh, I suppose we're going to get into the Great War, now...”
Scarab crossed her arms over her chest. “What's that tone for?”
Tenet shrugged. “I can just guess what side you're on in that one. I guarantee, I'm on the opposite.”
“You think it was right that the new government wanted to force people to be a part of their plan?”
Tenet decided not to rise to the bait. He pressed his lips together tightly and determined not to continue a pointless argument. He sat there a few minutes until it built up and he couldn't take keeping his point of view- the right point of view- to himself any longer. “Alright, I'll say it," he blurted out. "Yes, I do think they were right. Every person was a member of this planet, of the human race, and they all had an outright obligation to advance the survival effort.”
Scarab shoved her hand through her hair in frustration. “I knew it. I knew you'd take that position. I happen to think that no one should tell someone else what they have to do.”
Tenet scoffed. “Hollow words coming from the likes of you! Your entire life is spent forcing people to do what you want them to do!”
Scarab's eyes went wide. “How dare you!? I apprehend those breaking the law. The law! They did it to themselves. They had a choice, they chose to break the law, and they have to suffer the consequences! I don't force them to do anything. I arrest them for breaking the laws of this planet and that's all.”
“There's my entire point!” Tenet's voice squeaked. “You just proved my point. There are laws people have to follow, and that is that.”
“I'm not saying there aren't. All I'm saying is that it's just not right for this new and perfect government to cut off the people who wanted to stay on their homeland, to stay year round in the place they knew.”
“If the Borderlands are so great, and you truly are the rebel you pretend to be, why don't you live there?”
The question snapped Scarab's mouth shut.
“She can't, boy,” said Hark on Scarab's behalf. “She was thrown out.”
The revelation stunned all in the car. Enna knew nothing of Scarab's past. Scarab didn't know anyone knew. And Tenet...he felt like he was looking at a stranger.
After a moment of stunned silence, Enna cleared her throat and looked at Scarab. “Is it..is that what happened?”
Scarab looked out the window and bit her lip. She suddenly wanted to cry, to die of humiliation, to beat Hark and all of them looking at her like that.
“Scarab?” said Tenet, urging her her talk.
“They gotta know,” said Hark, looking at her in the mirror. “They gotta know before we do this.”
Tenet touched her arm, and she jerked away. She couldn't feel his touch through the suit, but just knowing his hand was there when she felt so naked and vulnerable was too much. "They don't 'gotta' know anything."
Hark scowled in the mirror at her. "The kid's got a right to know what he's facin' up there."
“Which is why your plan won't work,” she said quietly.
“I told you. We've got Weevil. He'll help.”
“And what's he going to do, huh? Erase the past? Erase me?”
Hark nodded. “Yep. Somethin' like that.”
Scarab scoffed and shook her head.
“Missy, start talkin'.” It was an order. Not a request from an old friend, but the order of someone who could, and would, do away with her if he had to. In his day, he was the hunter, the one who knew it all because he started most of it himself. When Hark spoke in that tone, you listened...or else. Didn't matter who it was.
Scarab ground her jaw tightly. He wanted her to talk? Fine. She'd spell it all out for them. “Yes, I was thrown out. I was born in the Borderlands, thrown out with the rest of my family when my father committed the unforgivable sin of slaughtering someone else's cows.” She turned to Tenet, trying to shock him. “You see, we weren't starving or anything. He just liked beef.”
Tenet wanted to gasp with disgust, and get as far away from Scarab as possible. But the challenge in her eyes told him she was expecting it, waiting for it. Part of her probably wanted that reaction. He looked at her levelly and waited for her to continue.
She turned away and glared out the window. “It didn't matter that we were children. It didn't even matter that my mother was innocent. In a land that can only farm Agro for half the year, a large part of survival is meat. And when my father killed that cow just because he felt like steak and not tough, gamy goat for dinner, he threatened the survival of the McGees. The McGees could have ordered his execution. By law, they had the right. My mother, though,” Scarab paused and shook her head. The next words were spoken bitterly. “My stupid mother wouldn't let them. She saw nothing wrong with what my father did. She never saw anything wrong with what my father did. Threw herself on the mercy of the McGees, and we were banished. All of us.” She stopped suddenly and looked directly at Tenet. “Do you know what that entails? Have you ever sat in on one of the Border meetings to determine the fate of those who have been kicked out of one land, but weren't really acceptable in the other?”
“Of course not.”
“Of course not,” she repeated. “How could you be? You're not part of that branch of the government.”
“I'm not part of the Borderland.”
“The ones
who determined my fate were your government. We got banished. Stripped of everything. And I mean, everything. No possessions, not even the clothes on our backs.”
Tenet's eyes went wide, but Scarab continued. “A woman, a thief, and their children brought to the edge of the Borderlands, told that we'd have to try for a life after walking over a hundred miles and begging entry to the other side.”
Tenet couldn't believe it. He couldn't believe the horror, the pain. He wanted to hold her, to scream at the injustice, to do or say something. But nothing he could say would do.
“My sister was young and fragile, too soft for that kind of trial. She didn't make it very far. My mother couldn't take it. We reached a large mountain, and instead of pushing on, she took her life.” Enna gasped, but Scarab had to get it all out and didn't even pause for breath. “That hill, the one she jumped off like a coward, that was the last. At the base of that mountain was the start of these lands. So we straggled in, my father and I, broken, beaten, half alive. We straggled in and begged to be part of your society.
“The border guards asked my father's crime. When they discovered that we lived on a diet of mostly meat, we were given the option of joining their society if we repented. We didn't have any other choice, so we went through their conditioning program and did our penance.”
Tenet frowned. “What does that mean?”
“You stitched me up. You saw the scars. Figure it out.”
The scars that criss crossed her body...Tenet felt sick. “You were just a little kid,” he said hoarsely.
“And I paid for being a meat eater. I paid for what my family put on the table to keep me alive.”
The words hung in the air between them, a heavy weight of knowledge that Tenet both wished he never heard, and wished she had told him sooner. All those bitter words, the arguments. If he had only known.
“Don't feel sorry for me," she said, hating the look on his face. "I learned my lesson. I learned that there was no one but me. My father was assigned an Agro crop on the outskirts of society. Alfalfa. And he was told to make it work, or there'd be nothing for us here. So he did what he had to. He farmed that horrible chunk of land that was more rock and hills than actual fields. He did what he could, and he tried to make it. I'll give him that. He tried his damnedest to atone for his sins. He worked the fields day and night trying to somehow make up for the pathetic excuse of a life we had. In the end, he was no farmer. The crops failed year after year, and he died alone and miserable in them.”
“What...” Tenet swallowed the bile rising in his throat. “What happened to you?”
“I was ordered to live with a neighboring family. They were nice enough, I suppose, but liked the free labor more than having another child. Still, they fed me, clothed me, gave me somewhere to play. And had me tutored. I never had any education before I got there. I couldn't even read. When I came of age, they summoned the Guard, said goodbye, and said how much they'd miss me in the harvest.”
“Ouch.”
Scarab shrugged. “I appreciated their honesty.”
“So what next?” He had her talking, and as painful as it was to hear, as much as he didn't want to know any more horrible stories, he wanted to know her. They all did.
“I had very few options. The Guard brought me before the Career committee. I was asked a series of questions, to make sure I had completely changed my ways, to assure themselves I wasn't a threat to their livestock, and to make it absolutely clear that I was under their control. I was given the choice of two professions. I chose the only one that wasn't a test.”
“A test?”
“They offered me military service.”
Tenet frowned. “I don't understand how that's a test.”
“They wanted to see if I was still the bloodthirsty little demon I was when my father dragged me here.”
Enna sighed heavily. “Oh. Oh, Scarab. I had no...”
“No,” she said fiercely. “I don't want sympathy. I don't ask for it, I don't expect it, and I don't want it. Everyone has a rough part of their life. My story was no different from lots of peoples'.”
Tenet ran his hands through his hair and sighed deeply. “And this Borderland...this unforgiving world who would banish their own children...this is where you expect me to go?”
Scarab whirled around and stared at him. “The Borderlands? You blame the Borderlands?”
“They sent you out. How can such a place be so...”
“It's not their fault my father broke one of the cardinal laws. How can you blame them for enforcing it?”
“How can you not blame them?”
“For the same reasons I am a hunter. What's right is right, what's wrong is wrong. I have never held a grudge. They could have executed us on sight for that. How can they take the chance that we wouldn't grow up and be just like the parents that tried their damnedest to teach us it was acceptable to put the lives of the community at risk on a whim?”
“But still...”
She wouldn't have it. “No," she said firmly. "There's nothing else they could do. I don't blame them. I curse them sometimes for the necessity of laws like that, I curse the McGees for being 'kind' enough not to have my father executed and us rehabilitated. But I don't blame them. Our family was in the hands of my father and mother, and they dropped the ball. My mother, she was just as guilty as my father. I remember it, you know.” Scarab turned away and looked out the window. “I remember how excited my mother was when he brought home the steaks. And the skin, the leathers. She went on and on about how sick she was of weaving sweaters with the goat fur and how wonderful she'd look in a beautiful leather dress.” Scarab scoffed. “Hell, maybe that's why my father did it in the first place. Maybe it was her all along.”
“People make rash decisions, Scarab,” said Enna gently, wiping tears from her eyes. “Don't blame them for being human.”
Scarab looked at Enna. “I don't. I blame them for being too human,” she said bitterly.
Enna turned away, deeply affected not by the words, but the unforgiving tone.
“So you see," she said with a tight voice. "I can't go back. I'd be shot on sight.”
Everyone was silent, letting it all sink in. Hark knew the story, from bits of information handed to him through the years. He had never heard all of it, and never even a word about it from Scarab herself. He had heard similar stories through the years. It happened. Banishment from one society to the other happened. But to hear it, cold and distant right from her mouth... It made him ache to kill someone for the injustice of it all.
“We'll get to Weevil,” Hark insisted with determination.
Scarab gave a bitter laugh. “Hark, forget it. I'm tagged, by both sides. There's no way...”
“Will you at least talk to him? He's the best, Scarab. Please?” Enna's pleading voice cut through, and Scarab knew she couldn't say no.
Scarab threw her hands in the air. “Fine. I'll talk to him. But it's just a waste of time. No way he can erase me. Even if he can, he can't erase Tenet.”
Enna shot Hark a look of triumph. “Oh, we'll just see, dear. We'll see.”
