by Justin Clay
“That said, you will be given a task every day that you are specifically good at, which we will find out soon enough,” she went on, holding her arms behind her, “and secondly, you must follow every command given to you, whether by myself or another official in charge at the dam, and there are three…Myself, my friend Commander Jed, and Lieutenant Sanders. You must do what is asked of you always and without question, because it is for the best…And rest assured we will not ask of you what we know you cannot accomplish…
“We are not that foolish here; children are not allowed to be outside without adult supervision, and there are only certain times which you can be out for safety precaution; and those goes for anyone, myself included. That’s from eight in the morning to five in the afternoon…No one is allowed to be outside at night, unless accompanied by an official and anywhere outside the Wall is completely off limits unless we escort you out…
“We consider children here to be twelve and younger, and therefore are not allowed to possess weaponry of any sorts…Thirteen and older are allowed possession of a gun once they have earned the privilege to do so by completing the test, and then and only then are they able to be apart of our Protectors…
“We have four groups here,” she goes on, proudly, “The Protectors — us, the soldiers — the Caretakers, the ones who upkeep our quarters, make our clothes, provide medical assistance, and prepare our meals; those are the Facility Caretakers. Our doctors and nurses are the Medical Caretakers. There are the Growers, who obviously harvest what foods we grow here outside our operations…And lastly, the Workers, who assist the groups I just mentioned in whatever way deemed fit.
“We have fifteen Protectors, including myself, eight Facility Caretakers, six Medical Caretakers, five Growers, and twenty-three Workers, each having their own leader who provides the orders for that group all overseen by me — and oh there’s eleven children here, I do believe, and that’s the way we’ve been running and will continue to run as long as we are here.”
Correction, I think to myself. As long as you are here — Cari. Not so sure it would be like this otherwise. She seems a little power hungry with such a strict set-up.
“Today marks the hundredth day without an accident or fatality, in fact, and it’s because of these rules set in place,” she announced very proudly, too proudly. “They may seem rigid — they are rigid, yes, but they yield results…Reliable results that have kept us alive for as long as we have…There haven’t been too many hordes of Frothers that have crossed our paths of late or bandits for that matter.
“But that doesn’t mean there isn’t danger out there…There is.
Mark my words. Nowhere is completely safe anymore, but all be damned if we don’t try and do our best to keep it as much as we can like before…To keep us sane and keep us going…”
“I see you have a doctor, I presume, with you, by the lab coat you’re wearing,” she said taking note of the scrawny man named Doc, whose been oddly quiet these past few days, mostly keeping to himself, which doesn’t bother me any. “You are a doctor, correct? Speak up, I can’t hear you.”
Doc cleared his throat and tentatively agreed, “Yes —yes I am a doctor…or was one…I was a cardiovascular specialist in Cheyenne before — ”
“No need for specifics doctor, you’re familiar with medical standards, I presume…?”
“Er, my name — well you can call me Doc, and um, yes that I am. But I’m not the only one…Kage, here, was a neurological assistant.”
“Excellent,” she says, and immediately shouts for someone by the name of Marty, which sends my mind reeling into the past. For a second, I lose myself and quickly shake my head of the Marty I knew, of his nightmarish end. A stringy young man in his late twenties pops up, wearing grayish clothing and carrying a notepad at his side. There’s a black pen sticking along his ear through his curly blonde hair.
“Yes, sergeant?” he says a bit stunned; he had been in mid conversation with someone else a distance from us before Cari had called for him.
“Marty is one of our top Medical Caretakers,” she addresses us, then turns, brushing one of her arms outward in gesture. “See to it that our new guests here, Doc and Kage — as they call themselves — are taken to our medical center and debriefed…Because we have quite the need of men of your talents here, if you don’t mind?” It didn’t really seem that Doc had a choice with Cari’s assuming tone, but it didn’t matter. He was already nodding his head.
“Yes, of course.”
“Splendid, Marty take him, along with Kage, and introduce them to the others.”
“Will do,” Marty piped, and guided Doc and Kage away from us to most likely wherever this medical center Cari spoke of is located.
“The rest of you seem fit enough,” she continued on looking our group of six over, her eyes narrowed. “You’ll do just fine here…Any questions?”
I had one, so I raise my hand awkwardly.
“Yes, what’s your name?”
“It’s Rian.”
“Okay, Rian, what’s your question?”
“Why are so many of you soldiers here?”
“Long story short, we were once guards for the Helena Safe Zone, that’s now nothing more than a Frother wasteland, and so we continue our pledge to protect humanity here as well…As we are the last surviving of that zone to my knowledge, unfortunately…Does that answer your question, Rian?”
I nod, not sure what else to say. She is too matter-of-fact for me. Maybe, I’ll warm up to her. But it’ll take quite a long time for that to happen. More time than I think of us to be staying here. I get why she is the way she is…The absolute necessity to maintain order, but damn…It’s like the woman is a robot. The woman endeavoring to save humanity seems to have just enough in her to not be deemed tyrannical, because of what she’s fighting for. Or is she really? Does she just enjoy reveling in the power system she’s created for herself? I’m not so sure…
“Perfect! Milly, our oldest Facility Caretaker, will show you where you’ll be sleeping tonight — can you go and get her?” she requests of a red-headed woman hovering behind Cari that I take as her assistant — a Worker — whatever. She had been there, glimpsing about absently, for quite some time unacknowledged by Cari until now.
Our trucks we had hijacked from Cheyenne eventually ran out of gas while we were in the outskirts of Helena, and our attempts to find any fuel to speak of were for a lack of a better phrase — an utter failure. We — Eli, Lena, June, Doc, Kage, Terek, two of the trailer hostages, June and I — the last remaining alive traveled the rest of the way to the dam on foot. And we were all terribly exhausted by that point, our feet throbbing, necks sunburnt, and Cari’s prolonged rule speech was just salt to the already sweltering wound.
I’m thinking about all of this while lying on one of the three mattresses in the room, looking up to the gray void of a ceiling, waiting for sleep to take hold. But it just wouldn’t. Not yet. I listen to my sister snore quietly beside me, curled up like a housecat. I want to brush the hair out of her face, but I don’t. I just watch her sleep peacefully. Across from me somewhere, Eli is snoring quite violently. So much so, I consider that another reason of why I also can’t sleep, besides everything else going on in my head. Lena had been sleeping on the third mattress the last I checked.
I want to know more about Eli and Cari’s history. What had happened between them. And why he’s really here. What he needs from her. Because it’s obviously something important. But what? Lena would know. And I feel like she’d tell me if I’m persistent enough. Maybe, I could talk to her now — while Eli is sleeping. I look over to where I know I would find her reclined shadow thrown onto the wall by the small portable lamp set in the center of the room. But I don’t necessarily. She’s sitting up, cross-legged, staring at the wall. Why is she awake?
Regardless, I make the decision to get up and tell her what’s on my mind.
“You should be sleeping,” Lena tells me when I sit down next to her, wincing
a little from my hurt side that hasn’t fully healed yet. My side has been wrapped up with makeshift gauze — tight white fabric — for days now, since Kage examined it. I have been taking the painkillers he had stocked up. Lena has her eyes closed.
“It’ll be a long day for you, tomorrow,” Lena goes on.
I think about what she means. They have reluctantly decided to allow me a position amongst the Protectors, after much convincing on Eli’s behalf. Which I am very thankful for. There’s no way I could carry on in this monotonous place doing work of a Caretaker, or Grower or anything else than what I’m good at. Shooting. And tomorrow they are going to access my abilities to decide how much training I need, if any. “I guess, but here we are.”
“Here we are,” Lena echoes quietly.
“Do you want to be here? Really be here?”
She is silent for a moment. “Honestly, no,” she tells me with a frown. “Eli can’t know this but I’m not that fond of this place or Cari for that matter…She’s too stiff for her own good; but I suppose her tactics as ruthlessly rigid as they are have kept this old plant going, if gradually.”
I think to myself a bit before asking. “Lena?”
She looks at me, her eyes wondering. “Yes, Rian?”
“Why did Eli bring us here? You said before that he needed something? It has to be important, getting us come all the way here…Right?”
“You’re right, Rian,” Lena says to me, nodding. “And I suppose it would be sort of pointless by now to keep it a secret…Well, to understand why Elijah brought us here…You should also know that he’s been a on mission…Remember when we talked that night in the forest?”
I nod, and she continues, “I told you that Eli hadn’t told me what he had been planning for so long, but he did…very briefly, however, but enough to keep my trust in him, because at that point in our relationship things were becoming sort of rocky…But that isn’t important…I’m sorry I lied to you Rian; I know it was wrong of me, but I felt like the time wasn’t ready yet for you to know…And there could have been a chance that Eli might have overheard…And that would have been…Well, anyway…
“Elijah — Eli, you know — isn’t a man of many words…He keeps to himself; and if you knew his history, you wouldn’t blame him…But he doesn’t say much because of what happened to him…He’s emotionally, traumatically scarred — and please Rian don’t mention this to him, because if he should know that you know, he would —well, let’s just put it this way: he can’t know we had this conversation…Promise?”
I shake my head, agreeing. I know Eli wouldn’t ever turn violent over something like this, but he would definitely lose a great amount of trust in Lena. I don’t want that happening. Trust is such a fragile thing; once it’s broken, it’s nearly impossible to piece it back together the way it was before. It always turns out being quite different…
“Eli’s past is precious to him,” she says, look out into the dark emptiness, her voice carrying a terrible weight to it, “just as much as it is a burden on him…It’s all he has left, memories — that’s it…You see, Rian, his family was murdered. In cold blood by a man named Judas…You see, Elijah married at a young age and had a daughter; she didn’t even get the chance to live to be a year old before the fire happened…The fire Judas began, because at that point he had become maniacal — you know once someone falls off into the deep end they’ll liable to do quite anything it takes to be noticed…
“And ever since then, Elijah has been on a mission to hunt this man down, following every clue he can to get to him and make him suffer for what he did to his family…He feels that he cannot let their deaths go in vain…Eli won’t hear of it…I had tried to talk to him about that, but believe me — he’s set in his ways…For too long has this desire festered within him to where now…It’s become a part of who he is…That he can’t simply get rid of, I suppose.”
My brow furrows as I mull over what Lena’s just told me, swallowing. My heart is beating too fast. I look over to see if Eli has stirred, but no — there he lies on his side, unmoving. I breathe a little easier, and lean toward Lena. “Okay, but what does that have to do with Cari and us being here?”
“Well Cari knows Judas.”
This strikes me as odd. “How?” I ask.
“Because, Rian,” Lena answers, “Judas is her brother.”
I sit there for a moment, a bit stunned. Not sure what to say, or how to react. My eyes are widened, but I am still confused. “But still what does he need from her and how does Eli know that? How did he know where to find her?”
Lena chuckles at my multiple questions. “Eli has known both Judas and Cari for a long time,” she reveals. “At one point Eli…Eli fell in love once, yes — I know it’s unlikely, but he was different then — He fell in love with the woman that Judas also had deep feelings for, but she could not return those same feelings and this drove Judas into a dark madness — so much it so it eventually led to the killings I told you about.”
“But still what does that have to do with Cari? Well, I mean her brother killed them and I guess she would know best where he’s at…”
“There was one other sibling to Cari and Judas, and that was their sister Ariana — who Eli loved and was married to for a short time.”
This is nuts. “He killed his own sister and niece? That’s crazy!”
“Not so loud,” she cautions. Eli continues to lie inert, despite my outburst. “Yeah, tell me about it…Well, anyway…To get to the point, Eli needs Cari’s help in finding him; it took a lot of hard work, but he managed to track her down…After the fire, Cari fled and now I assume has assimilated herself into the army…From what I know, they haven’t seen each other in years.”
“Wow,” I say quietly. “But she didn’t look that surprised to see him? Surely, she would have said something.”
Lena’s expression is wary. “I wouldn’t be so sure…She doesn’t seem like the type to want to appear vulnerable…She most likely revealed her true self to him when they were alone talking, upon first arriving here…From what I know, they talked for a long time.”
“Did Eli tell you anything?”
She shakes her head, meaning no this time. “Unfortunately, no,” she says. “He seemed quite frustrated to say the least, but still things can change…”
“And all of this happened before the Spill?”
“Yeah, well most of it,” Lena confirms.
“So this man Judas has been in hiding all this time?”
“Yeah, well I assume so…For all we know, Cari could be hiding him here somewhere…He is her brother after all, but I think that would be highly unlikely.”
I remain quiet for a while, thinking to myself. Lena tells me I should probably get some sleep now. Before I go, I ask her if all of this was what was keeping her up. She simply nods. Lying back down next to my sister, I watch her trying not to dwell on what Lena told me too much.
Part of me feels incredibly sad for Eli and another urges me to stop him from doing what he is doing. Killing Judas would only bring him down to his level, and possibly hurt — or kill him too. But will it?
My mind grows clouded, and my eyes heavy while looking at my sister breathe in and out slowly, her tiny chest rising and receding, before my sight blurs and I’m lost in sleep finally.
15
THE ENEMY
THERE’S A DULL THUNK when the arrow I shot hits the bull’s-eye of the target, a heavy, filled burlap sack Workers had set up about twenty feet away. The brown sack, hanging from an erected post had a red circle marked on it’s upper half, in the center. The arrow’s impact was so harsh the wooden shaft split in two. We — all eight of us — are standing in one of the larger chambers of the dam’s complex, the entire long, gray walled room bare except for the random targets set up for practice shooting.
Eli, Lena, Cari and one of her assistants are positioned behind me, overlooking from a safe distance. Kage and Commander Jed, accompanied by Lieutenant Sanders are somewhere in t
he room too. June isn’t here; Terek is watching her in the commons area.
I had struck the target better than I hoped, and for that reason I smile. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I am not a little proud either. I hear clapping erupt, and turn to see it is Commander Jed, a tall brooding force of a man, looming over six feet easy, fiery orange hair sticking out beneath his military hat, his pale skin gleaming in the fluorescence. He dwarfs Sanders by a couple of feet who is still muscular and has a chiseled faced, so much so it looks as if carved from stone most of the time; I don’t think I have seen him smile once since being here to tell the truth. And as usual Sanders keeps his bulky arms held behind him, standing with incredible posture.
“Well done, well done,” the commander congratulates cheerily. “Hit the target on the first try and a dead on, no less! Great — you’ll be a great asset for the Protectors…Sergeant?”
