Drastic Times (Book 3): Fierce Freedom

by Rock, R. A.

  Nathan was dressed smartly and had been bandaged up where Yumi had shot him. I was surprised to see him up and about. But she had been pretty pissed that she hadn’t killed him. I guessed the shots weren’t serious. Painful, most definitely. But not fatal.

  “Fine,” Nathan said, a cool expression on his handsome face. “Help.”

  I heard Grace calling for blankets and hot water bottles, then she came over to me and I saw that there was still a guard holding a gun to her head as they removed the cuffs. Natasha had told Nathan how dangerous Grace was and he was clearly taking the warning seriously.

  She pretended to be checking us over as she began warming me. I could feel her slowly heating my core, knowing that she had to work from the torso out.

  “Not me,” I managed to rasp. “Yumi first.”

  She frowned but glanced at Yumi, seeming to realize, for the first time maybe, that she was unconscious.

  “I was going to do both of you at once,” she murmured, reaching over me to touch Yumi.

  “No. Her first. I’ll be okay.”

  She scowled at me.

  “I’ll do Yumi first but you’re not much better than her. I don’t even dare check you for fear of freezing my mind.”

  I didn’t know if that was actually possible. But I didn’t care because we were out of that water and Grace would warm Yumi up and we weren’t going to die.

  Not today.

  I couldn’t help but feel intensely grateful that my lungs weren’t full of water right now.

  Grace worked with some other people, putting a thick layer of blankets on the floor, laying us on them, and then covering us up with a big pile of other blankets. Then she tucked hot water bottles all around us.

  But the real warming was already going on with Grace using her Kinetic powers to warm our cells an atom at a time. I had no idea how she did it, I only knew that she could and already had done it once when Yumi fell in the lake back home. And she had warmed me when I nearly froze on the ice planet, Load.

  I breathed a sigh of relief when Yumi’s cheeks finally looked pink again and her lips went from blue, to purple, to a healthy red.

  Thank God.

  Then Grace went to work on me. Fussing with the covers and moving the water bottles, trying to give herself enough time to finish the warming procedure before Nathan called her away.

  After some time, I felt warm. And like I could sleep for days. Not because I was tired — Grace had made us good as new with her healing kinetic powers — but because I wanted to forget about the past few days, weeks, months.

  In fact, I think I would be okay forgetting the entire past year.

  Not that that was an option. No matter how much I wanted it.

  I felt a hint of a premonition wash over me and a thought came to me…

  Be careful what you wish for.

  I froze, wanting time to think. Wanting time to sort out what that precog had been. But there wasn’t time for anything.

  As soon as Yumi and I both had our eyes open and looked to be conscious again, Nathan called Grace away. The guards approached with the cuffs.

  “Both your body temperatures are stable and there should be no after drop,” Grace whispered to us. “I was careful.”

  “What’s happening?” Yumi managed to get out.

  Grace’s eyes got cold.

  “It seems I’m getting married.”

  “You and Shiv are getting married?” Yumi said, confused.

  Grace shook her head.

  “No, Yumi. Nathan and I are getting married.”

  I WAS ALIVE.

  And I felt great.

  Grace had warmed us up and healed us, giving us energy at the expense of her own, no doubt. It pissed me off for a moment, until I realized that I would have done the exact same thing.

  But what the hell was she talking about that she and Nathan were getting married?

  I sat up. Chad was already sitting. I was shocked to see the great hall full of people in their best clothes. Nathan and Grace were standing before somebody who looked an awful lot like a priest or some sort of official who could perform marriages.

  Grace was wearing white, the silver adamantium cuffs on her wrists a strange accessory to her wedding dress. Clean, bright morning sunlight glanced off her pure white dress — a strange counterpoint to the darkness, violence, and death that had surrounded us since we got to this cursed place.

  No. No, I wasn’t going to let this happen.

  Nathan would not get her.

  I got to my feet, surprised to find I wasn’t the least bit sore or tired, even after what I had been through. Grace had done her job well.

  The official was beginning to speak but I didn’t care.

  “Yumi.”

  I ignored Chad and shrugged off the guards who put their hands on me, trying to stop me and walked right up to Nathan.

  “You can’t do this.”

  Nathan smiled at me.

  “Actually, Mrs. Dvorski, I can,” he said, and had the nerve to look me over. My red dress from the night before was still wet and plastered to my body, revealing, well, everything. What a bastard. “Restrain her so she can watch without interfering.”

  Guards approached me but I kept speaking.

  “You can’t do this, Nathan. I won’t let you.”

  “Mrs. Dvorski, you seem to have an inflated sense of the power that you have over your own life. I’m marrying Grace and you can’t stop me.”

  “Yumi,” Grace’s voice was a warning. “Please. It’s okay.”

  I didn’t see how this could ever be okay.

  “Wait,” I said, as the guards put their hands on me. I yanked my arms away again. “What about a deal?”

  Nathan looked intrigued.

  “What sort of deal?”

  “I don’t know,” I said, having no real idea. I just knew I had to keep him talking until I thought of something to do or the forces from the outside got in and saved us from this asshole. “Maybe someone else could take her place?”

  I glanced around the room. No one said anything and most of the women looked appalled that I would even suggest it.

  Shit. No takers. Even though Nathan was handsome, rich, and powerful. That spoke volumes as to how much they feared him.

  “There is no one else I want,” he said, turning back to Grace. Then he tilted his head, his considering gaze raking me from head to toe. And I couldn’t help but think he was imagining what he would do to me if he got me alone. “Unless…”

  “Unless?” I grasped at the word that held the possibility of getting Grace out of this. My little sister. My best friend. There was no way I was going to let this marriage happen. Not if I could prevent it.

  “Unless you would take her place?”

  The hall went silent.

  Chad’s fury was practically melting my mind, so I shielded from him.

  This was obviously the way to go. The right course of action.

  And yet I hesitated.

  The old Yumi wouldn’t have thought twice about it. But I did. I thought about Chad’s words of censure…

  When will you ever learn to stop going off by yourself and getting into trouble… blah blah blah?

  I couldn’t help but think that this solution fell into that camp.

  When would I learn?

  “Well?” Nathan said, and he licked his lips as if he couldn’t wait to taste me. I hadn’t been imagining the lewd looks then.

  “I would, but…” I searched my mind for a way to stall a little longer, keep him talking. But this was Chad’s forte, not mine. Still, I had to try. And I remembered how Chad had saved me from an unwanted marriage last time. “But I’m married.”

  Nathan smiled as if I had just walked straight into another trap and with his next words, I realized that I had.

  “You don’t have to be,” he said.

  I frowned, not following.

  “Cuff her.”

  A guard came forward with what I instantly recognized as anoth
er set of adamantium cuffs. I struggled but the huge guard smacked me hard in the head and I went limp, fighting to hold onto consciousness.

  “If your husband was dead,” Nathan explained, making a hand signal. “You wouldn’t be married anymore,” Four big guards grabbed Chad, who looked alarmed. They dragged him to the end of the room where the different colour of tiles had made me think it was a dance area. But I soon realized it wasn’t, as several large men turned huge cranks and the floor opened up.

  Nathan walked over to the hole in the floor, followed by Grace and I, exchanging worried looks. When we got there I saw that there was a man in the hole. Just one. No beast, as I had almost expected. Then the man looked up at me and I sucked in my breath.

  His eyes were a deep purple and there were no whites.

  And even from up here, I could see the madness in their depths.

  No. Not a Plague Carrier.

  Why the hell did Nathan have one of those creatures here?

  “What do you mean?” I said just to keep him talking, though I was pretty sure I knew what he meant at this point. “My husband’s alive.”

  “Not for long,” Nathan said, and at his nod, the guards pushed Chad into the hole.

  “THE PIT IS usually used for cage fighting,” Brett’s voice floated down to me from above. “But this morning it will be used for another purpose, though it will likely be as entertaining, if this man is as quick as I hope he is.”

  I landed and rolled with it, trying not to break my ankle. I came to my feet across the Pit from the Plague Carrier.

  Ever since I had seen them for the first time in the Wastelands, I had been having nightmares about being infected by one. Now it seems those bad dreams were about to come true.

  The man turned after a long moment to look at me with his creepy eyes and with a start, I barely recognized Damien — the man who had been kind to me when we had been on the digging crew together. What the fuck had that bastard, Nathan, done to him?

  Yesterday he had been normal and now…

  Now he was the opposite of normal. He was hideous. No longer anything that you would call human. With a snarl like a rabid animal, he lunged for me. I darted away, rolling and coming back up on my feet as far away from him as I could get.

  Nobody was cheering this fight, I noticed. There was dead quiet in the ballroom.

  He stood for a moment, confused before he twisted his head and spotted me again. He ran at me again and again I dodged. This game went on and on and my ragged mind searched for any way out of this. Any way to survive this trial. I had searched the walls for a way out but they were smooth, with no handholds.

  And the Plague Carrier didn’t seem to be tiring, as I was. He just kept coming at me, drooling like he was starving. And maybe he was. I heard Nathan’s laughter and cursed him in my mind.

  And when I was ready to give up and just let the damn thing bite me or whatever he wanted to do to me, that was when I heard it. A trembling voice, a little raspy and not quite sure, but the notes were true and pure and sounded wonderful what with the amazing acoustics in the great hall.

  “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound to save a wretch like me.”

  Yumi was singing.

  Singing to save me.

  I glanced over at the Plague Carrier and saw that he had completely lost interest in me and was gazing up out of the hole, his whole being yearning towards that voice. That song. That beautiful music.

  A rope dropped down the side of the Pit and I ran towards it, not caring who had put it down, only needing to get out of this place where I was trapped. I grabbed ahold and began hauling myself up, hand over hand, until I made it to the top and heaved my body on to the floor. Most people were still mesmerized by the singing. Grace had joined in and they were finishing my favourite line in harmony.

  “Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home.”

  I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe some deity had been watching over us tonight. There was no other explanation for the fact that we were still alive. Whether or not grace would lead us home, though, was yet to be seen.

  Nathan saw me climb out and narrowed his eyes at me, as if wondering where the rope had come from and spoiled his fun. I certainly didn’t know, since no one was holding the end of it. It was tied to a nearby pillar. Everyone standing in that area seemed oblivious that I had climbed out of the Pit and were listening to Yumi and Grace’s singing.

  I didn’t much care who’d dropped the rope. I was only desperately glad to be away from that Plague Carrier. But the question was… What would Nathan do now?

  Yumi and Grace finished the song and they both ran to me. We put our backs together and prepared for our last stand, fists up.

  Nathan started that annoying slow clap that people do when, instead of wanting to truly applaud someone, they just sought to disrespect them. I hated the slow clap.

  “Nice try,” Nathan said. “I concede, another point goes to you for that ingenious method of escaping the Pit. Singing. Who’d have thought? But I’m afraid that you just can’t win today. No matter how hard you try.”

  He jerked his head and a huge group of guards surrounded us on all sides with guns, tasers, and swords. There was no escape this time.

  We were still Nathan’s prisoners.

  And I was pretty sure the luck we had been pulling out of our asses so far had completely run out.

  Then everyone’s head turned at the sound of Ernest’s quiet voice with the tiny inflection, which indicated that he spoke Cree in addition to English. It carried across the entire great hall, now silent again as we listened to him — his grief somehow commanding everyone’s attention.

  “Nobody wins today,” Ernest said, walking in carrying the baby that was squirming and making noises. She must be getting hungry by this time with no mother to nurse her. He was holding his four year old daughter by the hand and his face was grey, his eyes haunted.

  “Nobody wins today,” he repeated. “It is a day of death.”

  I KEPT MY eyes trained on Ernest, not having any idea what he was doing here, how he had got here, or what his plan was, but just glad to see that he hadn’t died of grief, which had seemed like a real possibility yesterday.

  He moved through the great hall with dignity, stopping in a ray of morning sunshine and speaking from the bottom of his crushed heart.

  “This man let my wife die. This man has deprived these two little girls of their mother. This man tried to kill over a dozen people tonight.”

  No one said anything but their faces weren’t surprised in the least. They were used to Nathan’s harsh ways.

  “You don’t care. This doesn’t shock you,” he said, his deep voice reaching even the farthest end of the room. He stared around at the people gathered in the great hall in their finery. Nearly all of them dropped their eyes, not wanting to meet his gaze. “Well, I suppose that’s fine.”

  He nodded, turning and studying the people before him.

  “It wasn’t you drowning in that water chamber. It wasn’t you dying only a couple hours after you gave birth to your child.”

  There was a muffled sob from the crowd that echoed in the stillness. He stopped turning and spoke more softly than ever, and yet we all heard every word.

  “Perhaps you people, as uncivilized and likely uneducated as you are, have heard of something called the Holocaust.”

  I frowned, vaguely remembering something about that from one of my history classes. By the looks of horror on the faces of the people present, they knew exactly what he was talking about.

  “Maybe you remember that he started with just one group that he wanted to exterminate. And nobody said anything.”

  The silence in the hall became filled with the realization that every person in this room… hadn’t said anything when Nathan had hurt people. They had known and they hadn’t stopped him.

  “But then there were more people and more caught in his net, until finally there was no group that was safe from h
is tyranny.”

  The people stared at Ernest, once again mesmerized.

  “And then they cared. Then it mattered. Then they wanted to speak up. But it was too late. Things had gone too far. If they had stood up and said no when it first began they might have stopped him in his tracks.”

  He shook his head.

  “But at that point it took many countries and many deaths to stop him. And probably then they wished they had cared sooner.”

  “Are you comparing me to Hitler?” Nathan’s amused voice was perfect. There was no sign of the fear I could sense coming off of him like a noxious gas. He was keeping his terror completely hidden from the group that surrounded him.

  People all across the room were shuffling and rustling. No one spoke yet but you could feel the tide of the room turning.

  Ernest looked at Nathan with nothing but contempt and absolutely no fear.

  “If the shoe fits…” he said.

  “I am nothing like Hitler,” Nathan said, attempting to keep the people on his side. “I’ve given you food, shelter, luxuries. I have kept the dangers of the outside world at bay. I have given you people everything that you could need or want and all I ask is allegiance. How is that like Hitler?”

  Nobody said anything but there was now doubt on some faces.

  “You don’t have to work. There are other people who prepare your meals, clean your clothes, and provide entertainment for you. How is that like a tyrant? You didn’t have such easy lives before the solar flare. Before you came here.”

  There were heads nodding all over the room and I cursed internally. Damn. Nathan was fucking smooth.

  “Just because he provides for you, doesn’t mean that this isn’t a prison,” I said into the quiet. “If you feel free here, raise your hand.”

  Nobody moved.

  “But…” Nathan sputtered, finally showing some real emotion. “But… I give you everything. You ungrateful bastards. I’ll turn you out on your asses every one of you. Or maybe I’ll throw you all in the water chamber. You think you can insult me. Well, you’ll find that…”

  And then his eyes got big as he realized what he’d done in losing control. He had just proven that everything was true. That he really was a petty tyrant that didn’t care about them.