by Shade Owens
“You’re being fuckin’ stupid!” shouted another one of her women. This time, a rock came hurtling through the air, hitting Flander underneath the eye.
“Hey!” I shouted, and the woman who’d thrown the rock smirked at me.
I’d left my bow and quiver in the cave, so it wasn’t like I was prepared to threaten her by aiming my shot at her face. Rocket, on the other hand, was prepared. She and her Hunters, including Elektra whose skin was so red it looked like she’d been sunburned, stood stiff with their bows drawn and their arrows pointed at Hawkins’s women.
Were they seriously waiting for me to make a decision? Why was it up to me? And why was Hawkins looking at me like that? I knew what this was—it was a test. If I stood up to Hawkins, she would accept that as my refusal to hand over my women.
“Did you know?” Proxy said, pointing a wet finger in the air. When no one turned to listen to her, she raised her voice. “Did you know the blue whale is the largest animal to have ever existed?”
Several women scoffed at her.
“Bullshit,” someone said. “Dinosaurs were bigger!”
“Actually, blue whales are larger than prehistoric dinosaurs.” She shot her arm straight into the air and everyone looked at her. “Ironically enough, they eat tiny krill despite their massive size.”
Someone opened their mouth, but Proxy cut them off. “Krill are like shrimp. And an average male blue whale can eat up to 36,000 kilograms of krill per day. Do you have any idea how much that is? That’s the equivalent of eating the weight of six African elephants.”
Collins shifted her weight onto one leg and a wave of water crashed up against her knee. She held her spear at her side, tilted her head, and gave Proxy a look that said, Why the fuck are you telling us this?
“Blue whales,” Proxy continued, “are incredibly intelligent animals. Why kill such a beautiful creature for food that is going to go to waste? In fact, even if you killed it for its meat, you would never be able to consume all of it before it rotted on the shore.”
“Yeah,” Biggie cut in. “This is bullshit. This thing’s a beast. And the longer y’all stand here bitchin’ about what to do, the more you’re makin’ it suffer!”
Glances shifted between Hawkins and me.
This was it—I had to make a decision.
Although Fisher had remained at the back of the Cove, against the cliff wall, I could feel her eyes on me. I didn’t look back at her, but I pictured her leaning the weight of her body into her staff, waiting to see what I’d do.
“Brone,” Hammer said. She moved toward me gently, arms swaying from side to side with intent. Her hair barely moved in the wind because she’d let someone cut it—though I didn’t know who—which made her look more like the Hammer I’d first met when arriving at Kormace Island. The difference between now and then was her weight, which she seemed to be regaining at a gradual pace. “You can’t let them kill a helpless creature. Look at it.”
Its eye slowly rolled toward me, almost as if it were capable of understanding what was going on.
Maybe it did understand what was happening. Who was I to judge?
I smiled at Hammer, though I didn’t mean to. Were we, a bunch of murderers, seriously considering saving the life of an animal?
* * *
“Honestly, serves them right,” said the old woman.
She leaned sideways in her electric wheelchair, and with her wrinkled hand, she plucked the newspaper off its shelf. It read: “Kormace Island—New Prison for Female Convicts.” Underneath the headline read another headline: “Krimos Islands Save Government Millions of Dollars.”
It was the only newspaper on the shelf. The government had shut down hundreds of newspaper companies.
“We live in an era where paper is no longer necessary,” one politician had declared.
These islands, I remembered thinking, must have been pretty damn important to be on the front page of the only newspaper in town.
The Department of Justice had finally come forward and announced two of their new locations; Kormace Island, the land reserved for female convicts, and the Krimos Islands, a collection of islands reserved for the most notorious and violent of male murderers. A lot of attention was focused on the Krimos Islands because of the heinous crimes committed by the male convicts.
Who would end up on Kormace Island? I’d never heard of female serial killers. Although, surely, they existed.
“Bunch o’ punks,” the woman said.
The old man standing next to her smiled sweetly as if seeing her for the first time. He laid a gentle hand on her shoulder, revealing a wedding ring around his finger.
The woman slapped the magazine on her lap and laughed. “Aren’t you glad we led a straight life, Alex?”
The man chuckled with his wife, shaking his head. “Good on the government. We don’t need people like this leeching off our system.”
“Exactly!” the woman exclaimed. “I hope they all kill each other on those damn islands.”
“Jessy,” the man hissed, his eyes darting around the convenience store.
It was obvious he didn’t want anyone hearing them trash-talk criminals. I looked away before he caught me staring and went on to the chip aisle. On the other side, they kept going, now chuckling like teenage lovers.
“If you’re gonna take someone’s life, then you’re nothing but a piece of shit,” the woman said. “Those criminals have no souls, Alex. None. They’re evil. I’m telling you. I bet they aren’t even human.”
* * *
Hammer stared at me, her eyes pleading. “It’s innocent and helpless,” she repeated. “This isn’t right.”
That couple was wrong, I thought to myself.
We are human.
And humans make mistakes.
I watched, mesmerized, as countless women crossed their arms in front of the whale to protect it.
We aren’t evil or heartless.
And this island wasn’t about things being black and white.
It was possible, I realized, to become hard without losing my humanity. It was possible to want to kill someone while wanting to save another. I didn’t have to be all or nothing.
I wanted Zsasz dead, but I wanted this innocent whale to live.
Did that make me a bad person? Did I even care about good and bad anymore? Maybe there was no such thing—maybe everything sat on a fuzzy gray line.
Glaring toward Hawkins, I too, crossed my arms over my chest. At first, she raised her chin and an arrogant smile distorted half her face. But when she realized what was going on, she glowered at me.
Leaning into Rocket, I whispered, “Can you go get me my bow?”
She nodded and bolted through the mud like a professional athlete.
If Hawkins wanted blood over this, she’d get it, because I knew this wasn’t about wanting the whale dead—this was about power, and I wasn’t willing to play her game.
The moment Rocket came back, I drew an arrow, stretched the elastic of my bow, and pointed the arrowhead straight for Collins. With a hunched posture and with water splashing up to her knees, she spun her spear in her fist as if preparing to launch it straight at me.
Several women shouted, some with balled fists and others submissive with their hands almost shielding their faces.
“Whoa, come on!”
“Fuckin’ shoot and see what happens!”
“Is this what you all want?” I shouted. “War? Because that’s what Hawkins wants.”
It took everything in me not to release my arrow. I was so angry at all of them. Most of Hawkins’s women, if not all of them, had once been Murk’s people. What had gone wrong? How had they gone from living in a civilized society to acting like a bunch of animals?
Several of them exchanged glances, clearly contemplating which side to take.
If looks could kill, Hawkins would have torn me apart into countless bloody bits. In silence, she stood away from everyone, squeezing her knife as if trying to draw blood from its h
andle.
She hadn’t expected this.
Neither had I.
What was I doing? These were my people, I thought. I’d gone through hell and back to protect them. I wasn’t about to let them go to some psycho bitch. And it wasn’t about power, either. I didn’t want the power or the fame. All I wanted was for these women, myself included, to have a semblance of a normal life.
I was so sick of the fighting, the violence, and the petty wars.
Finally, I understood what Murk had fought so hard to maintain.
“Let’s get the whale back in the water,” I said, staring at Hawkins.
With a venomous scowl, she aimed her knife at the whale. “Kill it.”
The moment Collins raised her spear, I fired my arrow through her thigh. She shouted so loud that everyone around her fell silent. In seconds, I drew another arrow and aimed it at the woman next to her who’d also moved toward the helpless creature.
“If you any of you touch that whale,” I growled, “you’re dead.”
They all stood there like zombies, exchanging confused glances that translated to, Who do we listen to?
In any other situation, I wouldn’t have played this hand. But as I observed the women standing protectively in front of the whale, I realized a good portion were Hawkins’s women. In this fight, we were outnumbering Hawkins.
The tip of Hawkins’s knife slowly turned on me. “Our deal is off, Brone, and you’re fucking dead.”
CHAPTER 11
“What deal?” Johnson asked.
“What was she talking about?” Hammer cut in, before throwing the entire weight of her body against the whale’s side.
“Girl, that ain’t gonna do shit,” Coin said, sucking on her front teeth. “The thing prolly weighs tons.”
“You’re correct… Coin,” Proxy said as if she’d been standing there the whole time waiting to give us another Did you know…? “In fact, it could weigh anywhere up to two hundred tons. Although… this one looks quite young. If I were to estimate, I would say that it weighs approximately six to eight tons.”
Johnson rolled her eyes and replicated Hammer’s body-throwing movement. “I think you’re exaggerating, Lisa Simpson.”
“Don’t think she is,” Rocket said, sliding a gentle hand across the whale’s skin. She scooped water from the ocean into her hands and splashed it on the whale.
One by one, women around her started doing the same.
Hammer threw herself at it again, but this time, grabbed her neck and made a sour face. Sliding down the side of the whale as if wearing an invisible neck brace, she said, “Ah, fuck. I think I pulled something.”
Johnson burst out laughing so hard her voice carried over the crashing waves. She grabbed for her groin, squatted, and sat still as ocean water pooled around her waist.
“Are you seriously pissing beside us?” Coin asked.
Johnson’s face was beet red and her eyes little moons. “I can’t…” she said through broken laughter. Finally, she stood up, let out a relieved sigh, and threw her head back. When she caught everyone staring at her, she said, “My bladder isn’t what it used to be, and that shit was funny!”
Rubbing and stretching her neck, Hammer walked long strides out of the water. “I need to go sit.” As she walked by me, she grabbed my wrist. “I’ll get it out of you sooner or later.”
She was obviously referring to my deal with Hawkins, which I had no intention of telling her about. It was over, and it wasn’t real, anyway. She wouldn’t have gotten us off this island.
Right?
I shook my doubt away and helped Coin and several dozen women pull a net around the whale. The thing was so massive that the women had tied numerous nets together to make a giant one. The whole thing had been Proxy’s idea, so I hoped it would work.
At the other end of the Cove, Hawkins sat in her wooden chair, staring at us from a distance.
What was she planning?
Collins sat in the chair beside her, throwing her head back as one woman wrapped a bandage around her thigh.
Great.
Now two people at the Cove wanted me dead.
“Now!” Coin shouted as the tide came in, and all at once, women pulled the nets on either side of the whale. The whale moved a little as the tidewater went back into the ocean, and women bent forward, catching their breaths.
It was incredible to watch so many women come together to achieve something that appeared to be impossible. Was it even possible? Could we manage to help such a big animal?
I admired their tenacity, but I wasn’t convinced that saving a beached whale with such limited resources was even possible.
“Now!” Coin shouted again, and the women pulled as hard as they could, while others pushed on the whale in the direction of the ocean.
Were they even moving it? It appeared to be in the exact same spot as before. It was like watching a thousand women attempt to move a brick wall.
“You just gonna stand there?” came Ellie’s voice.
She jogged passed me while tying her hair up into a bun. I followed her and joined the women pushing the whale’s body. Foam pooled around my ankles and then my knees. The sand around my toes was warm and creamy. I rested both hands against the whale’s body, and a sense of calmness overcame me. Its skin was smooth and slippery like wet silicone, and the moment I touched it, all I wanted to do was save its life.
For the first time in my life, I was part of something bigger than myself. We, a group of so-called criminals, were fighting to save a life.
“Now!” Coin shouted, and pumped by the crowd’s energy, I pushed as hard as I could, feeling my toes slip past underwater fungi.
It was moving! Or at least, I thought it was. Even if it had moved a centimeter, I thought, it was better than nothing. Or, was I the one moving? Were we simply slipping backward?
We continued this at least another dozen times, until finally, Coin shouted, “Big wave coming! Let’s give it all we have!”
Everyone scattered away from the whale as the water came blasting toward us—the last thing we needed was for women to be crushed under its weight. Water came up above our knees, spilling out on the beach like a bucket of paint left unsupervised around a group of toddlers. The water, smooth and frothy, came back toward us, and as it did, everyone gave it their all.
We pushed, and pushed, and pushed while the women on either end tugged on the net’s ropes as if holding on for their own survival.
And then, it happened.
Something shifted, and the whale’s body slipped a bit deeper into the ocean floor—either the result of a natural dip in the sand or a sinkage caused by the weight of the whale. Women shouted in victory, fists blasting into the air, while others slapped hands over their mouths as if having witnessed a miracle.
Was it a miracle? It felt like it. It was difficult to imagine that we, such small human beings in comparison to this mighty creature, had come together to save its life.
The whale fought hard to make its way back into the depth of the ocean, though it was barely noticeable. It was so massive that every movement seemed to be in slow-motion.
But I knew it was trying. It wanted back into the depths of the ocean.
And then, like butter slipping across a hot pan, the whale turned away from us and sank deeper into the water. It slapped its giant tail atop the water and several women jumped out of the way. But it had worked…
“Holy shit!” Coin shouted, slapping two hands over her fuzzy hair.
Women began cheering and throwing their arms around each other. What surprised me most of all was to see some of Hawkins’s women grinning from ear to ear as if they’d won an international championship. Some of them even went as far as to hug some of my women. Then, I noticed the other groups were present, too—an interracial mix without hatred or intolerance.
Everyone was celebrating our astounding accomplishment.
We’d done it.
We had done it.
All of a sudd
en, the whale expelled a large amount of air through its blowhole, almost as if thanking us for saving its life. It slapped its tail one final time and methodically made its descent into the ocean’s dark blue water. We all stood still, almost like wax figures, silent and in awe. I couldn’t have been the only one who was feeling a high.
When was the last time I’d felt like this?
It was as if all the goodness in the world had been bottled and gifted to me. At that moment, all I could feel was love, contentment, and pride.
Nothing else mattered.
Not Hawkins, not Rainer, not the Northers.
“If we can push a fucking whale into the ocean,” I shouted, and everyone’s eyes rolled my way, “we can do so much more together! Don’t you guys get it? We’ve been so caught up hating each other that our lives have been complete shit! Do you seriously want to keep fighting over pieces of jewelry? Over food? There’s plenty of fish in the water, and I’m more than happy to teach any of you how to fish.”
A handful of Hawkins’s women scoffed and walked away, but everyone else listened attentively as if I were a world-renowned inspirational speaker. It wasn’t even about me—it was the message I was delivering.
They knew I was right.
Nobody in their right mind wants conflict.
Only miserable people want conflict.
What if there was a way for us to work together at rebuilding what we once had under Murk’s reign? Would that be possible? For sure, it would be difficult, but it wasn’t impossible.
“The Northers took away everything we had—” I started, and some women looked away, no doubt devasted by the memory of that horrid day. “But they didn’t break us. If you’re standing here right now, it’s because you’re a survivor.”
Women nodded as a gentle wave came slipping past their knees and ankles.
“You survived because you’re strong,” I continued. “We all did. Some of you”—I pointed to the women I recognized from the Norther city, the ones I’d rescued from imprisonment—“are experiencing freedom for the first time in your lives.”
