by Megan Hart
“They’re just girls,” she said, remembering the fresh faces beneath the dirt. “Teeners!”
“They kill people. And they’ll kill us, they’ll kill the people here, if they find out we’re here. We need to go.”
A chill skittered down her spine. She nodded, crossing her arms across her chest and hugging her elbows to warm herself. “All right. Tomorrow morning. We’ll go.”
Tobin looked over her shoulder, back toward the Stolzfus house. His face was grim, his mouth set in a thin line. He pointed.
“We may not make it to tomorrow morning.”
She turned, dreading what she knew she’d see. Gappers, five of them, dressed in green and wearing their helmets with the face masks. They all carried guns.
−
36-
Elanna hadn’t seen much of the town or met many people other than Samuel and the Stolzfus family. She was surprised to see the number of women running out from their homes. She was even more surprised by the number of children.
Even as her heart thudded in her chest at the sight of the Gappers, her throat closed with emotion at the sight of the little ones. Many looked to be between six and ten years old, but she saw a few toddlers. Their chubby legs and sturdy bodies took her breath away, and when she saw one of the women clutching a blanket covered bundle to her chest, Elanna put both hands on her empty womb. But she did not allow herself to cry. She had no time for grief.
“Move your fucking asses!” Came the cry from one of the Gappers. The high voice sounded familiar. Lovett? Or Maranian? Or maybe just another teener girl.
Tobin held her hand so tightly she winced. “Toby,” she murmured, twisting it in his. “Let go.”
He didn’t take his eyes off the group in front of them. “They’re lining everyone up.”
“Where are the men?” Elanna asked. Tobin still didn’t move, and she stayed with him. Together, they watched the Gappers parading up and down the street, poking their guns at the women and bending down to frighten the children.
“Out in the fields?” Tobin replied, his answer just another question. “Working?”
One of the taller Gappers barked a series of orders, and two of the others ran off down the street. To find the men? She didn’t know, but watching the children crying as their mothers tried to shield them, Elanna was no longer afraid.
She was furious.
“Who do they think they are?” She watched as one of the Gappers, shoulders shaking with laughter, knocked a little boy no more than a toddler into the dirt. “He’s only a baby!”
“Elanna,” Tobin said warningly, but she shrugged him off.
“They’re hurting children!”
Just then, the lead Gapper looked over to where they stood. “Hey you! Chakey and Emma! Get your Plain asses over here!”
“She thinks we’re someone else,” Tobin said, but Elanna didn’t think that was the case. The Gapper’d spoken with a forced, sarcastic accent. She was mocking the Plain People, calling Tobin and Elanna by common names.
“No,” she said. “She’s just being an asshole.”
Tobin looked at her, an odd smile twisting his mouth. “Now you sound just like them.”
“We’d better go over there.”
He nodded. She could still see the fear in his eyes, but it was further away now. Like hers. Anger could do that.
Together, they walked across the grass to the street. The tallest Gapper motioned with the gun, and Tobin and Elanna got in line. The Gapper strolled over to them, ignoring the others who still taunted and teased the women and children.
With one quick movement, she tugged off her helmet and mask. The young woman with the gun couldn’t have been more than twenty years old, though her eyes looked much older than that. Her skin was pale and unmarked by blemishes, though a thin layer of grime coated her fine, even features.
Deep blue eyes, clear as water, glittered beneath heavy brows the same golden shade as her hair. She shook her head to clear her face of some errant strands, turned her face to one side, and spit an amazingly huge glob of spittle onto the ground. Elanna recognized her. Major Kodak.
“You should know the fucking drill by now, Emma,” Kodak said. “Were you and Chakey too busy getting it on over there to notice we were here?”
Without waiting for an answer, she turned to smirk at Tobin. “Not out plowing and sowing with the other losers?”
Tobin opened his mouth to say something but shut it quickly. Watching him, Elanna guessed he had thought the same thing she had; his accent, or lack of it, would give him away immediately. So far Kodak hadn’t seemed to guess they were the prey. The clothes had helped disguise them. Their voices wouldn’t be so easy to hide.
Rachel Stolzfus, arms wrapped protectively around Amos and her youngest daughter Levina, muttered something that Elanna didn’t catch. Apparently Kodak heard it. The woman turned quick as a rat, eyes narrowed, to glare at Rachel.
“Speak in English, dumbass!”
Rachel lifted her chin. “I said, we what you wanted sent already.”
The Gapper laughed and spit again, narrowly missing Rachel’s shoe. “Well, maybe we want something else this time.”
Nobody else had time to say anything more, because the other Gappers came back with the men. Elanna saw Enoch, head held high and his face calm. All of the men looked calm, in fact. They all looked alike, dressed the same and most of them with beards.
“Line ‘em up!” Kodak called, pointing with her gun. “Two lines, across from the runts and the bitches. You,” she said, pointing to Tobin. “Get your ass over in the line with the men. Unless you’re a pussy.”
She waited to see if he’d react but didn’t seem surprised when he didn’t. Tobin’s jaw clenched, but he wisely kept silent as he moved across into the other line to stand between two men Elanna hadn’t met.
“You’re all pussies,” Kodak snapped, looking them up and down. She bent in to spit again, this time at Tobin’s feet. Again, he didn’t react, though his face was not as smooth and calm as the other men’s. “Never lift a finger to defend yourselves.” She made a low sound of disgust in her throat.
“Sir, Major Kodak, Sir!”
The head Gapper turned to the young girl, no more than twelve, who’d called her name. “The fuck is it this time, Dallas?”
Dallas gulped but continued bravely. “Permission to use the latrine, Sir!”
Kodak rolled her eyes but nodded. “God damnit, Dallas, didn’t you go before we left headquarters?”
“Sir, no, Sir!”
“Get out of here!” Kodak snapped, and watched as Dallas scurried away. The younger girl tripped as she ran, dropping her gun. The weapon landed in the dirt, clanging against a rock. “Damnit, Dallas!”
“Sorry, Sir!”
Kodak shook her head and rubbed at a spot between her eyes, as though she had pain there. “Tayler! Winslow! Front and center!”
Two of the older girls jogged up, holding their guns firmly. Each snapped her hand against her forehead, then out and down. “Sir! Yes, Sir!”
“Tayler, you start down there with the women and the brats. Winslow, you start with the men. You know what I want to know.”
“Sir! Yes, Sir!”
With another of those hand snaps, each Gapper went to her assigned spot and began talking. Kodak walked up and down the rows, watching. Blinking. Spitting every so often, and sometimes scratching, too. Elanna itched just watching her.
It was going to take forever for Tayler to get to her. The Gapper was slow, taking her time with each woman. She even bent down to talk to the children. She asked them all the same question, over and over, even to the littlest ones who couldn’t be expected to answer.
“Where are the man and the woman who came in the car?”
One after another, the women shook their heads or mumbled something in the language that sounded like Yiddish but wasn’t quite. The children hid their faces, not speaking. At least Tayler didn’t poke them or make them cry.
Elanna shifted her feet. The ache in her womb flared again, and when she moved blood gushed hot between her legs. The thick pad of rags they’d given her to stanch the flow would be soaked through by now. She was starting to feel faint. She needed to sit, to have a cool drink.
Winslow was much faster than her cohort. She’d already worked her way down the line, stopping at each man and looking him in the eye while she asked her question. She could do that because she was exceptionally tall for a girl, standing nose to nose with all but the tallest men. When she reached Tobin, she’d have to look at his chin, Elanna thought woozily. Her legs started to tremble. She folded her hands in the depths of her skirt, clenching the fabric like that would help her to stand.
Now Winslow had reached Enoch, who met her gaze steadily, without flinching. “The others I told,” he said firmly. “No man or woman we saw. Avay they ran, into the trees.”
Winslow seemed satisfied with the answer and moved to the next man. Tayler had finally reached Rachel, who gave the same answer as the other women had. Next the Gapper would come to Elanna. What would she say? She had a bit of Yiddish that might pass for their speech, but it wouldn’t help her if they demanded she speak in English. And it wouldn’t help Tobin at all.
The blood was running down her legs now. It was sticky. A rivulet slid over her ankle to drip into her shoe. She thanked Adonai for the heavy skirts hiding this embarrassment.
“What about you?” Tayler looked over Elanna without seeing her as anything but Plain. “See anything?”
Taking a chance, Elanna didn’t speak. She hoped a mere shake of the head would satisfy Tayler, whose tender treatment of the children made her seem a little less cruel than her fellow soldiers. The movement made her woozy, though, so that she had to shift her feet again just to keep her balance.
“What’s that?” Tayler asked snidely. “I couldn’t hear you, Emma. Speak up. See anything?”
“N…no,” Elanna ventured. Her voice almost refused to come. Her tongue felt glued to the roof of her mouth.
“S’matter, cat got your tongue?” Tayler asked. She reached out and poked Elanna in the chest, just over the bib of her apron. “Huh, you dumb bitch?”
Over Tayler’s shoulder, Elanna saw Tobin take a step forward. She wanted to warn him back, but again her voice wouldn’t come. Truth be told, she felt so lightheaded and sick she was almost afraid to speak in case she threw up all over Tayler. That wouldn’t go over very well at all.
“Get back in line, asshole,” Winslow ordered.
Kodak, who’d been down at the other end of the men’s line, whipped her head around. “What’s going on?”
“This asshole didn’t like the way I talked to his bitch, I guess,” Tayler said. She poked Elanna again, harder, and watched Tobin’s face.
“’Zat so?” Kodak asked. She stopped in front of Tobin, who’d had the good sense not to step forward again. Elanna saw rage in his eyes, and prayed he’d control it. “So, Chakey. Don’t like us messing with your woman, huh?”
Tobin said nothing. Kodak laughed, turning to the other two who joined her. She stopped laughing suddenly as if somebody had slapped a hand over her mouth. Reaching out her gun, she used the tip of it to toss Tobin’s hat off his head.
With his face exposed to the sun, the bruising and cuts he’d earned during the past few weeks were glaring. Kodak leaned forward until she was almost nose to nose with him. Tobin didn’t move, his eyes looking over her shoulder to catch Elanna’s.
“How’d you hurt your face, Chakey?” Kodak asked softly. She reached up one hand and pressed her thumb against the deep purple bruise on his forehead. “Huh, douchebag?”
“Maybe it was a plowing accident,” Tayler offered with a smirk that Elanna wanted to slap off her face.
“Maybe he tripped going to the outhouse in the middle of the night,” Winslow said. “He sure smells like shit.”
The pair of them laughed meanly, not joined by Kodak this time. The head Gapper looked over at Elanna, then back to Tobin. Considering.
She put her hands on his shoulders, ran them down the length of his arms and then settled them at his waist. “I think that maybe Emma over there just likes a little kink in the bedroom. ‘Zat right, Chakey?”
Tobin still said nothing, though Elanna guessed it was probably killing him to stay quiet. Kodak, getting no response, put her hand on his crotch. Tobin jumped a little, but her hand at his waist kept him in place.
“Oooh,” Kodak breathed in a feminine voice completely at odds with her appearance. “Chakey’s sporting quite a package. C’mere girls, and feel this!”
Tayler and Winslow each took a turn, rubbing and giggling. Kodak ordered them away, stepping back in front of him. His face was red as fire, Elanna thought, and her own cheeks burned with fury.
“I can be rough too, honey,” Kodak cooed mockingly.
At the endearment, Tobin slapped her hand away. His face had become dangerous, something Kodak didn’t seem to see or recognize. And though Elanna wanted him to stay quiet, she couldn’t stop the pride she felt when he turned his face and spat on Kodak’s boot.
“You can’t call me that,” he said, wiping his chin.
Tayler and Winslow seemed stunned. They looked at each other, mouths open and eyes goggling. If Elanna didn’t feel so terrible, she’d have laughed. Kodak wasn’t laughing.
“You punk-ass jerkoff,” she hissed. She looked down at her boot. “You asswipe!”
“Sir!”
It was Dallas, back from the latrine. She’d come up behind Elanna, nudging through the line and nearly knocking her over. Now she stared at Elanna, eyes round with surprise.
“Not now, Dallas.” Kodak was toe-to-toe with Tobin, gun held in her two hands like she was going to hit him over the head with it.
“But Sir!” Dallas squealed.
The girl peeked around Elanna, looking behind her. Elanna felt another slow, hot burst between her thighs and clamped them together. It was no use. She’d been on her feet too long when she should have been sitting.
“The fuck is it?” Kodak screamed, turning from Tobin to confront the young girl.
“It’s her!” Dallas cried, pointing. “She’s bleeding!”
“What the fuck?” Tayler said, looking behind Elanna. “Oh, fuck!”
The dismay in her voice brought Winslow, who grabbed Elanna’s arms and turned her around. As she did, Elanna shuddered at the wetness of her skirts against her skin. The blood must have stained through. The flow was even heavier than she’d thought.
“Shit on a brick!” Kodak grabbed Elanna by the arms, and suddenly Elanna was glad to be grabbed. Without Kodak holding her up, she thought she might fall.
Kodak ripped the bonnet from Elanna’s head and looked at her face. Elanna saw sudden recognition in Kodak’s eyes. The head Gapper let go of her arms, and Elanna stumbled back, barely managing to keep her feet.
“Holy shit,” Kodak said. “It’s her. The bitch from the car, I’m sure of it. And that asshole is the guy!”
She whirled around, gun in the air. “And you all lied to us!”
She couldn’t seem to believe it. She shrieked the accusation again, throwing in a few more curses. Even Tayler and Winslow backed off, and little Dallas burst into terrified tears.
“Get them in the truck!” Kodak ordered, poking Elanna in the upper arm with her gun. “Get moving!”
Tayler and Winslow did as ordered, grabbing Elanna by the arms and dragging her away. Kodak grabbed Tobin, who wasn’t struggling to get away. He pushed Kodak’s hands off him, then ran to catch up to Elanna.
“Let go of her,” he said. “We’ll go with you, but you leave her alone. Don’t touch her.”
Something in his voice made Tayler and Winslow do as he said. Dallas looked at him with wide, wet eyes, her cheeks painted with tears. She was just a child, Elanna thought.
“And for the rest of you dumbfucks,” Kodak screeched, “We’ll deal with you later!”
She pushe
d her way through the women’s line, following them. When she got to Tobin, she shoved him apart from Elanna. Caught off guard, he fell back a few steps.
“And you’d better learn to obey orders, asshole,” Kodak said.
Tobin steadied himself, his dark eyes grown darker with anger. Elanna wondered how he could speak so clearly through jaws so tightly clenched, but every word stood out. “Keep your hands off me, and keep them off her, you bitch.”
Kodak’s eyes widened and her mouth opened in a scream of fury so loud it hurt Elanna’s ears. Dallas wailed louder, clapped her hands over her eyes and shrank toward Elanna.
