by Ethan Proud
She found her words and spoke first. “Who are you?” Deirde’s words came out clearly and she was glad she didn’t stutter.
“My name is Jarrod. I didn’t believe there were any other outcast colonies alive,” he stated in a blunt monotone.
“Outcast colonies?” Deirde asked. She believed that the only survivors lived in her colony.
“We were banished several months ago from the Shrike wreckage,” Jarrod stated plainly as if it was common knowledge.
“Exos still live at the wreck site?” Deirde asked, her astonishment slightly masked by her anger.
“Exos have lived at the wreck site for hundreds of years,” Jarrod said slowly. “Nearly one thousand.”
Deirde’s mind reeled and she almost lost her balance. She had been told that the Shrike lost its coordinates and crashed on AE625 only three hundred years ago, and that her colony was the only surviving population. In a few seconds her life had been turned upside down. “That can’t be right.”
Jarrod stared at Deirde quizzically. Her firm statement made the man question her origins.
“You’ve never seen the original settlement? Or at least known about its existence?” he asked, raising one eyebrow, and his numerous piercings shot into the air before resuming their normal position.
“My colony is the remaining survivors of the Shrike wreckage. I was told there were no others, and that we wouldn’t be able to return for another two centuries,” Deirde said warily and Jarrod laughed.
“You are part of the Hydra movement?” He bit his lip in amusement and Deirde watched as one of his rings slipped behind his teeth.
“The what?” she demanded angrily.
“A group of Exos left the Original Settlement in search of water three hundred years ago, believing that the spring beneath the Shrike would be tainted by the fuel that leached into the ground upon the wreckage, and that the water would run out and we would die of thirst. They set out with meager supplies to hunt for alternative sources of water and lived as nomads. A representative from the Hydras comes to visit the Original Settlement every year with a copy of the map you produce. Shrike civilians, or Shrikers as we call them, visit the springs you find and harvest the water for use at the Original Settlement,” Jarrod explained plainly. “You are being used.”
“You swear this is the truth?” Deirde said, while behind her Deirde squirmed restlessly.
“I’m an exile, why would I lie to you?”
“Why were you and your people exiled?” Deirde asked and her eyes narrowed suspiciously.
“That is a story for another time,” Jarrod said firmly, his eyes set like granite. “Will you return to our camp with us tonight?”
“No. I must go back to my camp and warn my people,” Deirde said and turned to leave.
“They will never believe you. The leaders and elites of your community already know the truth. If you stay the night with us, we can travel to your camp with you and give your story more credibility,” Jarrod said kindly.
Deirde thought of Rio and how anxious he would be if she didn’t return, and then she eyed the stranger and felt her stomach churn lustily. “I will eat with you tonight and return to find you tomorrow,” she said coming up with a compromise.
Judging by the look in Jarrod’s eye he had the same desires. He barked an order to his clan of exiles and they began setting up camp where they stood. The tents were more lean-tos, supported by the three poles in the center of the tent and pinned down with heavy stakes to prevent them from being torn from the ground by the vicious winds. The sun wasn’t yet beginning to set and Deirde knew she had plenty of time to return to the camp before stirring anyone’s suspicions. All the exiles retired to their own tents and Deirde decided that on AE625 community meals were not a tradition. She slipped into Jarrod’s tent and saw that he already had a pot of boiling water with something cooking in it. It smelled good, but Deirde the goni floated near the top of the tent, even though it was only five feet tall. The snuffling creature was staked outside.
“So, how long have you lived in exile?” Deirde asked, avoiding making eye contact with Jarrod, instead staring awkwardly at the walls of the tent.
“Idle conversation isn’t why you wanted to stay for dinner, now is it?” Jarrod asked, his eyes locked onto Deirde’s.
She swallowed hard and shook her head. Jarrod moved across the tent sinuously despite the limited amount of room. He held Deirde’s face with both hands and pressed his lips against hers firmly. She kissed him back fervently and felt his body against hers. She fumbled with his belt and slid her hand down the front of his pants and was relieved to find him more responsive than Rio. She hesitated, and Jarrod sensed her trepidation.
“You haven’t ever done this before, have you?” Jarrod asked, and Deirde demurely bit her lip and shook her head. Jarrod chuckled and moved a little more slowly after the admission. Above the pair of sinners, Deirde brooded angrily.
When Deirde and Jarrod finally extricated themselves from one another, they were both glistening with sweat and spunk. Deirde let out a sigh of relief, and at once felt guilty. She turned her mind to food to alleviate her conscience.
“What’s for dinner?” she asked, reveling in the delicious odor filling the tent.
“Goni,” Jarrod said and moved to stir the pot.
Neither he nor Deirde had dressed yet and now she felt her skin crawl once more, though this time in revulsion. “What?” she demanded, pulling her clothes on as swiftly as she could.
“Try it, it’s a delicacy,” Jarrod insisted, but instead Deirde fled from the tent, pulling her backpack on, Deirde flying behind her, matching her urgency.
On her way out of the camp Deirde kicked the snuffling creature, understanding that it was what led the exiles to her, following the scent of her goni. If Deirde had stayed, her goni no doubt would have ended up in a stew.
Chapter Six
Deirde’s feet kicked up a torrent of dust behind her as she left the exiled Exos. Beside her, Deirde floated along easily, but her master could sense her seething rage. The goni was furious that Deirde hadn’t listened to her warnings, even though she couldn’t fully express them. Once they were far enough away that they could slow down, the goni landed on Deirde’s shoulder and nipped her ear hard.
“Ow! I know, I know,” Deirde exclaimed. “I should have listened.”
The goni purred smugly. Deirde felt her stomach drop as realization poured over her. Eventually she would have to confess to Rio what she had done. Their relationship was the only kind like it in the colony, and Deirde knew that she jeopardized it. Rio would at least be understanding, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t be hurt. Each step she took in the direction of camp, her dread built. She didn’t even know if she could look Rio in the eyes. Her pulse quickened with anxiety, and on her shoulder Deirde squawked in alarm. She could sense her master’s unease but couldn’t detect the real problem. The human Deirde cursed her foolishness and resolved to not worry about it anymore until the time came to admit her wrongdoings. But if things were different between her and Rio it would never have happened. She just needed to experiment a little. Her transgression had no effect on how she felt about Rio, other than that she felt like scum at the moment.
Wrapped up in her thoughts, she returned to the colony before she had realized it and was standing before the central tent. She reported her lack of findings, much to the chagrin of the Elders. She took their disappointed looks with a grain of salt. After the day’s revelations she was no longer impressed with them. She perceived them to be just as dastardly and treasonous as she was. Deirde heard the familiar footfalls of Rio behind her and focused on maintaining a cool composure. As Rio checked in with the Elders he linked pinkies with Deirde, and she felt her pulse pound with guilt. Rio was against any form of public affection and often seemed cold and distant to those who didn’t know him well. The light touch of his littlest finger was the most physical attention he would give Deirde outside the privacy of his tent.
“Find anything today?” he asked her, and in her mind she imagined how her confession could go. She quickly dismissed the thought and lied.
“Nil,” Deirde said, tight lipped.
“Same here.” Rio sighed and shouldered his pack, after showing the Elder’s that he indeed had nothing.
Together Rio and Deirde exited the tent and headed back to Rio’s tent. Once safely inside, Rio told her of his discoveries for that day.
“I think I found something, it may be nothing…or it might be just what we need,” he said in an excited whisper.
“You found enough water for three of us to escape?” she said in a hushed urgent whisper, thinking of the nomadic exiles who might be arriving at their colony the next day.
“I’m not sure, but I think there may be a fissure in a cliff caused by a spring of sorts.”
“Could we leave tomorrow?” Deirde asked with a dangerous gleam in her eyes.
Rio shook his head. “It would be risky. There might be nothing more than a trickle.”
“When was the last time anyone found enough water to refill the holding tank? It’s been months and we’ve been surviving on mere mouthfuls. It might be the only chance we get for another year,” Deirde argued.
“We have nothing but time, but in all honesty, I would be willing to give it a shot. After all, what is the difference between dying today and dying tomorrow. We are living like ghosts, repeating the same task day in and day out,” Rio said, and on the last sentence his voice turned sour.
“Perfect, when Yuto returns we will come up with a concrete plan,” Deirde said. Her nerves began to tingle with anticipation, and her stomach tightened. She would finally be leaving the colony.
Rio agreed with her and went about extracting molla out of the dried caps he had in his pack. He shoveled a tiny amount into his nose and passed the cap to Deirde. After she had insufflated a sizeable pile she began rolling the cap between her fingers, crushing it into a fine powder to be smoked. She breathed in the first hit and exhaled just as Yuto burst into the tent. He tore his goggles off his face, his hair disheveled and grimy with sweat. His eyes shone with excitement in the dark living quarters.
“We’re leaving tomorrow!” he crowed, albeit it was hushed.
“We just decided that, actually,” Rio said with a smirk.
“You found water too?!” Yuto whispered and his excitement grew.
“Well, maybe. But we decided to chance it,” Rio explained.
Yuto shook his head humorously. “We aren’t chancing anything. I found several underground, man-made aquifers. I am positive that the Elders use them. I backtracked some of the previous sites I’ve found to see if any of them had refilled enough for us to leave, and I found four aquifers,” Yuto breathed, and took the pipe from Rio after he took a hit and inhaled one of his own. “We are going to rob the Elders and return to the Original Settlement!”
Deirde’s eyes darkened as she began to understand the implications. Perhaps the exiles she had encountered were also raiding the aquifers. In that case she and her friends might face some opposition. “We should take weapons. Better to be prepared than to be caught off guard.”
“You think other people are also involved in this?” Rio asked.
“Maybe we aren’t the only people who survived the crash. After all, who built the aquifers? The Elders didn’t do it. And everyone else in camp is accounted for during the day, unless hunters are the only ones out of the loop. And if that’s the situation, we are all getting shafted.” Deirde’s own conspiracy theory grew in her mind. The Exiles surely hadn’t built the aquifer, but someone had to. And how did they avoid detection?
“Should we warn the other hunters?” Yuto asked, and Rio answered before Deirde had time to blurt out “No!” The two were in accordance. Yuto furrowed his brow. “Why not?”
“Wouldn’t we hear from other hunters if they spotted a crew with machinery moving around away from camp? We all have specific perimeters that we are assigned to search to prevent overlap. Maybe the other hunters are helping the Elders?” Rio said suspiciously.
The fact that the three were smoking molla probably wasn’t helping their burgeoning sense of paranoia.
“But I found them in my field of operation,” Yuto said, and at the same time six eyes narrowed.
“What the hell is going on?!” Rio exclaimed, almost a little too loud.
“There are others,” Deirde said in a hoarse whisper. Her blue eyes darted behind her dark lashes. “There’s no other explanation. Everyone has been drinking the piss water in this colony. There’s no way the Elders could make it out into the desert every day and take enough water in secret. What if the water is for someone else?”
“So our goal of finding the Original Settlement may not be the best idea?” Yuto asked and took another hit and blew out a cloud of blue smoke to fill the already hazy tent. “We might receive a hostile welcome from its inhabitants.”
“Whatever we do, we should proceed with caution. And we should leave soon. It may not be safe for us here anymore,” Deirde said, proud that she was able to make the information she had learned from Jarrod sound like pure speculation. Perhaps she would be able to keep her secret, but only if they moved fast.
“Tomorrow it is, then.” Rio agreed with Deirde’s demand for haste and Yuto nodded in affirmation.
Chapter Seven
The next morning the three would-be-saboteurs rose in the dark and prepared themselves for the long trek across the forsaken climate they lived in. They took extendable spears fashioned from tent poles with jagged scraps of metal welded to the topmost piece, crude machetes, and whatever knives they had available. They quietly moved about the camp stealing any spare water canteens they could find, along with any waterproof fabric they could use as canteens. In only a few minutes the other hunters would rise to find they were missing three of their own. Yuto would lead them to the nearest aquifer and they would take as much water as they could before setting off in the direction of the Shrike wreckage.
Before they left camp, they saw a flame flare to life on the edge of the colony. It was held aloft on a torch, whose light illuminated a pierced face and a snuffling creature. Behind the figure of the man several more Exos could be barely made out in the dark. Jarrod saw the three conspirators and made his way towards them, the familiar he held on the leash wrapped tight around his knuckles beginning to snort in excitement. The gonis Aileen, Herma, and Deirde stirred angrily and rose into the air hissing.
“Rouse your camp,” Jarrod commanded, and Yuto and Rio bristled, while Deirde froze in fear.
“And who are you to be commanding anyone?” Rio demanded of the stranger.
“I can be your messiah, if you have the wisdom to listen,” Jarrod answered presumptuously.
Yuto snorted in derision. “We have no need for a savior. You would do best finding another colony to plague.”
Jarrod’s eyes landed on Deirde and flickered with recognition. “Ah, so she hasn’t told you the truth of your desperate situation.”
Rio and Yuto looked at Deirde in unison.
“I might have met him yesterday,” Deirde admitted, looking directly at her boots. Her face flushed red with shame, but no one could see it in the dark.
All around them, Exos began exiting their tents to see what the commotion was outside. Rarely did the hunters make a sound in the mornings. As the crowd gathered, Jarrod waited patiently and smugly.
Finally the Elders hobbled from their tents and a man by the name of Rumo exclaimed loudly, “What is the meaning of all this? We have a busy day ahead of us. Too busy to be causing this ruckus!”
“I assume that you will be very busy,” Jarrod said coolly, and watched with pleasure as Rumo and the other Elders’ faces blanched.
“Who are you? And where did you come from?” Treya, the old crone who checked in Yuto’s molla count two days ago, croaked out.
“You know good and well where I came from, but as far as formal introductions go
, I am Jarrod. And I have been exiled for believing that the Original Settlement should recall the Hydra colonies so they may live in luxury with the rest of the Shrikers,” Jarrod said theatrically and slowly rotated, arms spread, so he could see each face in the colony. Murmurs spread quickly through the colony, and Jarrod’s eyes flashed, he wasn’t done. “Your efforts and poor living conditions are not suffered for your survival. You suffer so that the original colony can have a constant supply of water. This is orchestrated by your Council of Elders. You have been duped!”
“Is this true?” Taiga exclaimed angrily.
The Council of Elders attempted to sputter out a response, but their old minds were too feeble to fabricate a lie swiftly.
“It is, I backtracked to some of my previous sites and found aquifers had been built to draw water to the surface,” Yuto said solemnly.
Taiga stormed over to his side. “When did you discover this?”
“Yesterday.” Yuto braced himself for the sting of a slap but nothing came.
“Why didn’t you tell me?!” Taiga’s nostrils flared with anger. “You planned on leaving, didn’t you?”
The accusation went without saying, and when Yuto didn’t answer, Taiga slapped him. She stormed away from him and disappeared into the crowd.
“Did all three of you plan on leaving?” a hunter, Lepiro, asked in confusion.
Luckily, before Rio, Deirde, or Yuto could answer, Jarrod intervened.
“I believe that you are losing sight of the problem. There is corruption running rampant in your colony. We must recruit the other Hydra colonies and save them from their inevitable doom,” Jarrod said, and Deirde found it hard to believe that he had the best interests of the colony at heart. She halfway suspected that he came to the Hydra colonies to find gonis to eat.
