by Megan Hart
The boy ran to his father, who clutched him to his side and stared at Tobin and Elanna. Apprehension was clear on his face, even with the beard and the hat shielding his expression. He spoke sharply to the boy, who nodded and pointed at them.
“He’s afraid of us,” Elanna murmured. “We should get up and talk to him.”
Get up. Tobin hoped he could. He took a deep breath and gathered what little strength he could find. Even then, he had to lean heavily on Elanna just to stand.
Once on his feet, he felt a bit better. His legs, at least, didn’t seem to hurt much, and if he concentrated hard enough he could stand without shaking. Walking, though, was another matter altogether.
“Can you make it?” Elanna asked softly.
Tobin gritted his teeth. “I can try.”
As they stepped toward the man with Amos, the man moved back. He pulled Amos with him, though he never took his eyes from Tobin and Elanna. The boy struggled briefly, pointing and jabbering some more in the language Tobin couldn’t understand.
“He’s telling his daddy that we’re all right,” Elanna said. “That we aren’t…something…I couldn’t quite catch it.”
Tobin paused, not wanting to scare away the man or the child. He raised his hands into the air, hoping the man would see he was harmless. Unfortunately, he had to let go of Elanna to do that, and his head began to spin dizzily again.
“Don’t you faint on me,” she whispered, knuckling him sharply in the ribs. “You’ll take me down with you if you fall.”
“English!” The man shouted.
Tobin looked at Elanna. “Is he talking to us or asking us a question?”
“I don’t know,” she said.
”English you are?” the man shouted.
A question, then. But how to answer. They weren’t English, at least not in the way Tobin thought of the word.
“We…we’re American!”
“Ve all Americans are, naw vunst,” the man said back. Tobin was relieved to see the twitch of a smile cross his mouth. “But you English are? Yankees?”
Tobin realized he could understand the words, if not the content. He remembered reading Mark Twain, long ago. “I guess you could say I’m a Yankee. Sure. I’m not from Connecticut, but --”
The sound of thunder rent the air again. It was still far away, but coming closer. Not from the direction they’d come, but from the side.
Tobin saw the man look toward the side road just on the other side of the creek. He clutched the boy to him harder. Amos squeaked, growing pale-faced under his hat.
The man turned and began to run, holding Amos up so the boy wouldn’t fall. He did anyway, going to his knees on the road and letting out a shrill cry of pain. When his father yanked him up, Tobin saw the boy’s pants had shredded.
“Wait!” Elanna left Tobin to run a few steps after the man and the boy. “Please! What’s that noise? Help us!”
The man didn’t slow, and she tried again. “Helfn mir, bitte!”
The man stopped and turned. The thunder grew louder. Tobin imagined that the earth trembled under his feet. Maybe it did, or perhaps he was still having trouble standing. Either way, he didn’t like the feeling.
“What is that noise?” Elanna cried.
There seemed to be no distance now between Tobin and the man. Their eyes met, both unwavering. Tobin thought the man meant to come back, to help them. Instead, he turned and picked up the boy, then continued to run. They passed out of sight just around a corner, and were gone.
“They left us,” Elanna said.
He was alarmed to see that her face had grown pale and sweaty. She licked her lips nervously, eyes gone wide in fear and shock. She was, he saw with a start, going to faint.
As if in slow motion, Elanna began to sink. Tobin grabbed her by the arms, hard enough to sink his fingers into her skin. She groaned, head sagging and knees buckling. He couldn’t hold her up, not in his condition. Instead of him knocking her down, she was going to do it to him.
Now the air was definitely trembling. He stared in wide-eyed horror at the side road that twisted sharply away, out of sight. They were coming, those people from the barrier. He knew it. They were coming with their guns and their trucks, or whatever it was that made that ear-wrenching noise.
Elanna slipped from his grasp and puddled to the ground. He tore his gaze away from the horizon long enough to look at her. Her eyes fluttered, not quite closing. Her hands batted at the air, trying to grab him. She wasn’t quite out.
Tobin didn’t know what to do, or where to turn. He saw the thick gouged marks in the earth that showed exactly where they’d left the road and where the car had stopped. The car would be no protection.
“Tobin?” He knelt beside her, and she clutched his shirt. “I can’t get up.”
“You have to get up.”
Now he could hear whoops and cries along with the sound of the roaring. With numb fingers he pulled on her until she could stand along with him. He didn’t dare look back now. He didn’t want to see their deaths, and he was afraid that’s exactly what was coming for them.
He’d had nightmares like this, ones in which something was chasing him and he couldn’t move fast enough to get away. Only this time it was no dream, it was real, and it would appear around the corner any minute.
“Run!” Even as he spat the words, he knew they’d do no good. Neither one of them could move any faster than they were.
Elanna tripped and fell, sprawling. Tobin went with her. It was his pants that shredded on the blacktop this time, but if his skinned knees hurt he didn’t notice. He rested his cheek against the gravelly surface, surprised at how warm it was. If he could lay here and sleep, maybe it would be over soon. Maybe he wouldn’t have to wake up.
Thunder of a different sort roared out from the road ahead. Elanna screamed from beside him, and he lifted his head. The beast bearing down on them was the largest he’d ever seen. Its four legs pumped up and down, straining to pull the large wooden wagon to which it was harnessed. Its hooves clattered on the road with a sound like pottery breaking.
Small Amos clung to the wagon seat beside his father, whose expression was fierce and determined. The man pulled hard on the straps attached to the animal’s mouth. Its hooves slid on the road, spraying up gravel. Some of it hit Tobin in the face, and the dust stung his eyes.
“A horse!” Elanna said from the dirt beside him.
Reading about them was not like seeing one in real life. He wondered briefly if he had, indeed, passed out again, and was dreaming. Or maybe, he’d died. But he’d never remembered smelling anything in dreams before, and if he was dead, surely he wouldn’t smell anything either.
The horse had lifted its tale and dropped a pile onto the ground. No, he had to be alive and awake to see and smell that. Hysterical laughter bubbled in his chest.
“Kummen zie, bitte,” the man said. “Hurry, Yankee. They soon will here be.”
Tobin looked up at the high wagon bed, and down at himself. “No way. There’s no way.”
“I’ll help you,” Elanna said. “You can lean on me.”
“In the wagon not.” The man looked to where the sound of the hooting and rumbling was almost upon them. “Under it you will go! And hurry!”
Tobin looked at the champing, stamping beast, and then at the high wagon. Plenty of room under there, but what would hide them? Elanna hadn’t hesitated, though, and was squirming underneath.
“Into the grass,” the man said, clucking to the horse. Obligingly, it moved a few feet closer to the edge of the road, where the weeds and grass grew thick. “Hide there.”
Tobin didn’t hesitate again. The rumbling and yelling was so loud now that he could make out the individual words, even over the sound of the engine or whatever it was that was making the racket. Whoever was coming wasn’t crying out warm welcomes, either. He scooted under the wagon, following Elanna to where the grass was thick. He rolled in, and the man clucked to the horse again. The huge beast bent to ch
ew at the grass, its massive teeth grinding and chomping mere inches from Tobin’s face.
He’d gone just in time. Around the bend roared a vehicle twice the size of one of the gatherers’ largest trucks. Clinging to it on every side were men in green uniforms. Just like the bodies on the other side of the barrier.
−
30-
Made of some greenish gray metal, the huge vehicle rolled not on wheels but on two gigantic metal treads. It had no windshield, only a tiny, shuttered opening on top of what looked, absurdly enough, like a turret. The long, thick cylinder jutting out from the turret was anything but absurd.
The men hung off every side of the massive vehicle. As they whooped and waved their guns around, Elanna shuddered. They acted like children, really, playing at a game. This was no game.
Though they all wore green, she could see that their uniforms were not identical. They looked like they’d been pieced together from several different styles. In some cases, they didn’t fit very well, either. Pants legs dragged and jackets flapped. All of them wore helmets and masks of black netting that made their faces disappear. And they all had guns.
As the big vehicle pulled to a stop on the other side of the creek, they jumped off it one by one, and began shouting at the man.
“Hey, old man!”
“Enoch Stolzfus!”
“Hey!”
Their other comments were far less polite. They jeered and taunted him, some of them making obscene gestures to go along with their insults. Through it all, Enoch said nothing. Elanna couldn’t see him from his hiding place in the grass, but she imagined him as stony-faced.
Let them stay on the other side of the creek, Elanna prayed. Tobin’s breath puffed hot on her cheek as she leaned closer to him. He settled his arm around her shoulders, both of them wriggling into the dirt. She buried her face in his shoulder for a moment, glad for the strength of him next to her.
The horse bent his head to pull up another mouthful of grass, right from above her head. She swallowed heavily to stifle her yelp of surprise. She’d seen a horse before, a long time ago, but not from this close, and not one this healthy.
“The gatherers caught one, once,” Elanna whispered to Tobin. “A horse, I mean. From the Park. There’s a herd there, but it’s wild.”
“What did you do with it?”
He looking out through the grass, not at her. She knew it was stupid to be talking, but the words had blurted out before she could stop them.
“We ate it,” she whispered. She shot a sideways glance at the horse, and then up to the wagon. “It was a cold winter, Tobin.”
He looked at her then, and smiled. She could’ve kissed him for the grin, which somehow made her feel that everything was going to be all right. She did kiss him, lightly on the cheek, and his grip around her shoulders tightened.
“They’re coming across,” Tobin whispered grimly.
Elanna bit her lip. The fear that had settled in her stomach when he’d shouted at her to get in the car was still there, but she’d grown numb now.
The first man jumped across the creek easily enough, but the one to follow him had no such luck. His foot slipped in the mud, and he fell, splashing into the shallow water. Spluttering, he flailed his arms as he got to his feet, dripping.
He didn’t seem so scary now, Elanna thought. Apparently, his friends felt the same way. Judging by the catcalls and insults ringing in the air, these men were merciless even to their own.
“Shut up!” The wet man said, making threatening gestures at the others. He had the high, whiney voice of an adolescent girl. “Just shut the fuck up!”
The harsh language coming from the high-pitched voice shocked her and made her want to giggle, too. Elanna pressed her face further into Tobin’s shoulder. If she laughed, they were dead. No matter how ridiculous the man who’d fallen into the creek looked or acted, these men were dangerous.
She counted quickly. Ten, and who knew how many inside their vehicle. Four of them had crossed the creek. Two stopped to examine the rough gouges the car had made when it crashed, but the other two kept coming.
“Ruich,” she heard Enoch say, as though to the boy.
Quiet, still. She knew he was actually talking to them. They didn’t need to be told.
They both pulled back into the grass. Now she could see nothing but shadows and the occasional movement of the horse’s head as it cropped at the weeds. A sharp pain stung her eyes, and she realized she’d forgotten to blink.
“Hey, Stolzfus!” Not the voice of the one who’d fallen into the water. This one was deeper and more authoritative. “You got our fucking stuff?”
“Yes,” Enoch said calmly. “In the back of the wagon, it is.”
“Walsh, check the wagon.”
Elanna heard a snort and some thumping. Someone, Walsh, she guessed, was searching the wagon.
“Where’s the red-beet eggs? And didn’t I tell you no more freakin’ chow-chow? Where’s the apple butter? Didn’t I tell you to send more apple butter next time?
“We the one small crock of apple butter have there,” Enoch replied. “The rest is all. No more will there be until autumn.”
Not being able to see what was happening was worse than having to watch. Elanna moved, but Tobin’s arm held her down. He slowly, slowly, turned his head to face her. His cheek pressed into the dirt and stones, but he didn’t move again.
“No,” he mouthed. “Stay still.”
A cramp was working its way into the tender muscles of her calves, both of them. If she didn’t shift her position soon, the pain would get worse. She didn’t move, though her eyes had begun watering at the pain. Instead, Elanna dug her fingernails into the dirt, not caring that small stones and grass got shoved beneath her nails.
“You see anybody in a car?” asked the second voice. “Two people. They came this way.”
“No, no,” Enoch said. “Nothing like that we have seen today.”
Two shouts from farther away, near the car. They’d found it. Elanna heard boots thudding on the road, but she couldn’t tell if both men had moved away from the wagon. If she didn’t stretch her legs she was going to scream. Biting her lip didn’t help, and neither did clenching her fists. The cramps had locked the muscles into a throbbing spasm.
Just as the horse let out a loud, whinnying cry, she straightened her legs. The pain relaxed instantly, and tears filled her eyes from the relief. Tobin’s expression twisted at her movement. Had they heard her?
A moment passed, and then another, without the green uniforms parting the grass to discover them. Still, whatever numbness had crept over her was gone now. She was back to being terrified.
“We found the car!” came a shout.
“And it’s full of all kinds of shit!”
She was confused for a minute, then realized what they meant. Stuff. The car was full of stuff.
“Report, Private Lovett,” said the husky voice.
This one was another high voice, though not of the one who’d fallen in the creek. “One vehicle, Lieutenant. No occupants. Blood on the steering wheel and seats, though, so they’re wounded.”
“Is the vehicle operable?” asked husky voice.
“No, Lieutenant, Sir,” said the voice of the one who’d gotten wet. “The front axle’s been snapped.”
“Shit and piss on a brick!” Lieutenant, Sir shouted.
“But the car is full of all kinds of shit,” Private Lovett said. “Maranian dripped on most of it, though.”
“Fuck you!” Maranian squealed.
Elanna heard the sounds of scuffling.
“Enough!” It was the fourth voice, as yet unidentified. “I don’t have time to stand around here all day listening to you bitch. Stolzfus, take that wagon over to the crick and start unloading it. Lovett, Maranian, you get back to that car and start unloading whatever’s in there. Lieutenant, check the perimeter and see if there’s any sign of the intruders.”
“Yes, Sir, Major Kodak, Sir,” said Lieute
nant.
Elanna heard the sound of boots stamping on the pavement, and then they moved away. Enoch clucked to the horse. The wagon began to move, the wheels creaking.
Her breath stuck in her throat and her mouth felt as though it were filled with dirt. She couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think for the terror that filled her as the wagon started to pull away from their hiding place.
Only Tobin’s grip on her shoulder kept her here. Without his touch to tether her to the earth, she would have flown away. He trembled beside her and she turned to him, loving him for trying to comfort her even through his own fear.
