As she did every night, Rebecca tried to whisk herself off to sleep with fantasies of flying. She once dreamed of flying to the moon or across the ocean, but there were no planes or rockets anymore. They were old hopes and dreams, from a life she barely remembered living.
Hope led to disappointment.
Dad, Gabe, Abby.
Their names were like the prick of a needle in her brain as she recited them over and over. In the back of her mind, that little voice spoke to her, reciting one question louder and louder: What if the reunion wasn't real?
They hid in the school.
Rebecca had no proof that Martha was lying, just a feeling, and the feeling was born from fear. Until there was proof, Rebecca could still hope that the story was true. She closed her eyes, willing her tears not to fall so August and Jonah wouldn't see her cry. They sat on either side of the fire, chatting. August's amused voice, with his lilting accent, slithered across her skin.
"Why is it so hard to believe they're zombies? Crazier shit has happened."
Rebecca peeped at them from the corner of her eye. August rested against the cabin wall, one foot propped on the stone rim surrounding the blaze. Jonah sat on the other side of the fire, facing Rebecca. She felt his eyes on her.
"But they aren't dead," Jonah said.
"You're not thinking creatively, my friend. Their bodies are still alive, but up here"—August tapped his temple with a fat finger—"they're dead. Like being on life support. These creatures, whatever you want to call them, they're shells, just bodies. Mental zombies, so to speak."
"But what's keeping their bodies alive? There are no machines —"
"There's the question." August paused. "Maybe the parasite is steering the ship?"
Silence fell. The fire crackled. August's shadow moved across the ceiling.
"There's something in their eyes," Jonah muttered. His voice had a faraway, sad quality. "Some life..."
August grunted.
"They talk," Jonah said.
"They howl and point. That isn't talking."
"It's something."
August hummed. The sound of another log thrown on the fire.
"They have sex," Jonah said.
"You don't need a brain to have sex. Just a hole and a pole. Put a paper sack over a woman's head — or a gag over her mouth, in that one's case." Rebecca watched the shadow of August's arm point in her direction. "All you need is a body and an urge."
Jonah said nothing. Rebecca turned over on her pine bough bed so her back faced them. The cabin was silent for a breath, the only sounds the crackling of wood and the soft swish of leaves tossed in a breeze.
"Do you believe in Martha's crap?" August said suddenly. "Right behavior, correction, confession — all that?"
A long, pregnant pause. "To a degree, I s'pose," Jonah said. "We all can do better, be better, these days."
"You have to believe people can be fixed, in that case."
"You don't?"
"You do?"
"We were made in the image of God."
"There you're wrong, son," August said. "Man was made in the image of the devil. Just look at those zombies, whatever they are. That's what we truly are, when everything else is stripped away."
Jonah sighed but didn't argue. Moments later, Rebecca heard the deep sighs and raspy grunts of the two men lying down to sleep. Soon, August's snores reverberated through the cabin alongside Ruby's gentle, soft breathing. Jonah, as usual, was silent.
Thankful for quiet, Rebecca closed her eyes and tried to clear her mind. Envisioned the blue curve of the Earth, hazy and delicate in the vacuum of space, and her gazing down at it all. Her sleep was so shallow she wasn't sure she’d slept at all; the noises around her melted into her dreams, the hooting of owls and buzzing of insects, the men shifting in their sleep.
A warm presence moved behind her. Fingers ran through her hair. Then a warm body scooped hers, legs tucking underneath her bottom, a solid chest at her back. She felt soothed, admired, calm.
She woke, opening her eyes to the rough curve of a log. A hint of sweat and musky skin, warm breath on her neck. An arm draped over her side, and she studied the hand — long-fingered, dirt-stained, young.
Rebecca turned around.
Jonah's face was inches from hers, with his long nose and deep-set eyes, thick blond beard.
Not a dream.
Rebecca stiffened. Jonah was breathing softly as he stared at her, his expression serene and comforting.
"Don't worry, you're safe," he whispered.
Jonah brought a finger to her jaw, brushing the skin tenderly, then palmed her cheek with a hand rough and hard as bark. His distraction gave Rebecca a moment to spy the knife at his hip.
With one swift move, she whipped the knife from its sheath and pointed it at Jonah's whiskered neck. Fear flashed in his eyes, then he smiled.
"Save me, beautiful girl."
She didn't see lust in his calm gaze, but something she couldn't define.
Rebecca scowled. Her grip on the knife loosened. "What —"
Boots scraped the earthen floor; August cursed. Cold steel jabbed into her own neck and August's red face appeared over Jonah's shoulder.
"Drop it." August dug the blade so hard into Rebecca's neck that it pierced her skin. Hot blood ran down her neck.
Behind her, Ruby shifted in her bed. "Rebecca..." she whimpered.
The sound of the girl's frightened voice jolted her. Rebecca lowered the knife.
"That a girl." August removed the knife and seized Jonah's shoulder, yanking him backward. "Get away from her, idiot."
Jonah fell hard against the wall, his eyes fixed on Rebecca. She stared back, confused and shivering, then Ruby squealed and Rebecca's world went black.
"Quiet!" a voice hissed from far away.
Rebecca's vision cleared and with it, a stab of pain across her cheek where August had struck her. She gazed up to find his fat finger in her face.
"We have a lot more ground to cover before we get to the asylum." He breathed heavily and sweat glistened across his forehead. "You better learn to follow the rules and behave yourself. "
"What asylum?"
August shook his head, his eyes burning hotter than the fire. "Stop asking so many goddamn questions."
Rebecca glanced at Jonah, crumpled on the ground. His deep-set eyes expressed hope and a little guilt.
"Are our families there?" Rebecca pressed. "Or was that a lie?"
Ruby's sobs swelled to a shriek; beneath the cries, she muttered "Mommy." An ache cleaved Rebecca's heart.
"Very well —" August growled. "If you want to be stubborn..."
August paced the cabin, his eyes to the ground, his stocky shadow undulating across the rough wood walls. He bent down and pulled a rope from the floor, then gripped Rebecca's wrists with one meaty paw.
Jonah rushed to his feet, gripped August's shoulder. "Don't punish her, it was my —"
"Do not question me."
Ruby's sobs grew to a crescendo. Ignoring her, August cinched the rope around Rebecca's wrists and ankles and shoved a bandanna in her mouth, tying it tightly around her head.
"People are going to start doing what they're told around here." August grabbed Ruby by the shirt. A fierce anger uncoiled in Rebecca's chest and she wrenched against her binds. "If you don't be quiet, girl," August growled in the girl's face, "I'll tie you up tighter than this bitch."
Ruby's cries sputtered into a shuddering quiet. August returned to his own bed by the fire.
"No more bullshit," he said. "From any of you."
"There's no need for this," Jonah said, his hand upraised. "I'll stay up all night, watch them."
August thrust a finger at the younger man's face. "Sit your ass down."
Jonah lowered his hands, backed away, and sat down by the fire. He glanced at Rebecca and leaned back against the logs, facing her with a slight nod. She understood the gesture: he'd stay up and watch them anyway. The act, and the sensation of him curl
ing behind her as she'd slept, was unexpectedly comforting.
The sudden rush of adrenaline abated and she began to shiver, both from anger and fear. She tried to sleep, but a little voice shouted from the back of her mind, forcing her to acknowledge that something wasn't right.
That voice had spoken to her the night she escaped. When Martha made her and Ruby promise not to tell anyone where they were going. Why? She’d met her and Ruby at a blind spot in the wall. How'd she know exactly where to go? Then she’d unfurled a rope, a grappling hook tied at its end. Where'd she get that? Rebecca had watched as Martha flung it over the top of the wall. The voice spoke to her when August tied them up on the other side.
It told her she and Ruby had been kidnapped. And this mission, whatever it was, had nothing to do with seeing their families again. But she'd been too blinded by hope to listen.
Across the cabin, Rebecca caught Jonah calmly watching her. He smiled a little and she shut her eyes. Sleep was impossible now, with her heart thumping and Ruby sobbing in her bed. Instead, she shut her eyes to erase the cabin and the violence that had taken place there, to focus her mind away from the horrifying question: Why had they been taken?
In the velvet dark, with miles of empty wilderness stretching around her, Rebecca's last hopes drifted from her body like wisps of her soul. So she imagined herself in a rocket, soaring across the arc of the sky, punching through the atmosphere and into the stars, looking down at Earth.
Her fear and pain focused to a pinpoint. In infinite space, the troubles of one sullen girl, lying on a dirt floor in the middle of the woods, were too small to matter. No one knew or cared where she was. Her family wasn't waiting for her. With a stab to the stomach, she realized what she'd always known: They were probably all infected, roaming the wilderness mindlessly with the others, howling at the moon.
The last thing she heard, before sleep took her, were their distant calls, screeching into the night.
A screaming girl woke Rebecca up. She opened her eyes on Jonah's profile.
The fire had burned down to embers, its comforting orange glow chased away by the eerie gray light leaking in below the door. Outside, a chorus of birds chirped cheerily. Their song was interrupted by someone screeching.
"What's her name? If you've met her, tell me!"
And then Martha hissing back, "Be quiet, you wicked thing."
Ruby shifted on her pine bough bed with a soft groan. Jonah jolted awake with a sharp intake of breath. Outside, August said, "Shut the hell up, both of you."
"I will not," the girl shrieked.
Martha's voice rang clear on the other side of the door, "You will mind me, Gwen."
The door banged open, slamming against the wall. The thread of gray light grew to a rectangle and filled the cabin. Jonah sat up as Martha's silhouette appeared, flanked by two smaller figures, their hands tied. August stepped inside last.
"Truss this one up like a hog," Martha said, flinging one of the girls into the cabin. She fell to the ground with a whimper.
"You said my family was waiting for me!" the girl, who Rebecca guessed to be Gwen, yelled as August approached with a length of rope. She swung her tied hands at him, long auburn braid flipping side to side. "Or were you full of shit?"
Your family is waiting for you, my dear.
"Don't fight me," Martha snarled. She gently nudged the second girl, who was tall, blond, and skeletally thin, into the cabin. She went to stand next to Ruby, who sat in a corner with her legs drawn up to her chest.
"Where — are — they?" Gwen screamed again.
Yes, Rebecca wondered, where were they? Martha had promised. Your brother and sister can't wait to see you... But how did she know about them?
Martha slammed the door shut, plunging the cabin into semi-darkness. The remaining light traced Gwen's form, kicking and punching. Her fist connected with August's gut and he growled.
"Help me with her, will you?" he said, and Jonah shuffled to his side.
Their dark shapes bent over Gwen. She squealed and writhed, but it was hopeless; Jonah held her down as August looped the rope around her ankles, tied her ankles to her hands. Gwen's squeals were cut off into coughing gags as something was shoved in her mouth.
"Crazy little bitch," August said.
Martha shook her head. "You brought this on yourself, my dear." She looked at August. "One of you rekindle that fire. Ava needs something to eat. This one will be fed when she decides to be a good girl."
Then Rebecca realized how Martha knew about Gabe and Abby. So clever, and Rebecca had been so stupid. Everyone in Hosmer was so excited to see a new face, a survivor. Who wouldn't trust a woman who looked like your grandmother? Martha asked everyone so many questions. Where were you from? Who did you lose? Did anyone in your family survive?
Rebecca must've mentioned Gabe and Abby that night.
Clever. So clever they didn't even know they were being kidnapped.
"Answer her question," Rebecca said suddenly. "I want names."
It took a moment for Martha to find Rebecca, tied up on the ground in the dark. Jonah rekindled the fire; nascent flames licked the old woman's cheekbones and forehead while black shadows collected beneath her eyes and nose. She looked like a gargoyle.
"What did I tell you about impertinent questions?" Martha crossed the cabin to Rebecca's side, and her eyes fell on her cheek. "What's this bruise?"
"Rebecca decided to be a bit of a rebel last night." The fire grew and August's face popped out of the darkness, its plump features outlined in red. "So I took it upon myself to teach her a lesson."
Martha helped Rebecca sit up and probed the bruise along her cheekbone; Rebecca winced in pain. "And which one of you struck her?"
August threw logs on the rekindled fire. "That was me. Little bitch had a knife to Jonah's throat." He chuckled. "Let's just say he was thinking with his cock and not much else."
Rebecca witnessed the sharp change in the old woman's expression, which she'd seen herself two days before: from gentle to livid.
"I don't know why I trusted you to control your animal urges for two days," Martha spat. She fished through her knapsack and drew out a small bottle. She doused a cloth with the liquid inside and brought it to Rebecca's eye. "Next stop, you'll be subjected to Confession. Stamp those sinful feelings right out of you. Understand?"
"Yes, ma'am," Jonah grunted.
"Now, let's clean these cuts." Martha pressed the cloth to Rebecca's skin, but she slapped her hand away. She finally knew the kindly grandmother for who she really was.
"Maybe you'll answer this question: What's at the asylum?"
Martha sighed and folded the cloth. "What did you tell her?"
August stared at his hands. Rebecca could feel the truth hiding just beyond her reach, bubbling to the surface. She glanced at Ruby, eyes shimmering with tears.
I'll gut them all...
"What did you tell her, idiot?"
"Nothing, ma'am. Just to behave. The bit about the asylum slipped out."
"Slipped out? You are supposed to keep your mouths shut."
Gwen shrieked into her gag. A flush of embarrassment came over Rebecca. This girl had seen the lie instantly. Why had Rebecca fallen for it? Why did she, for even one second, believe that anyone in her family had survived, and that they sent Martha to find her?
She'd been a fool to hope and to let Ruby believe in a false hope, too. Some big sister she was. The embarrassment morphed into a sudden temper that boiled her blood. Rebecca saw her own hand lunge at Martha's throat and squeeze.
"This whole thing is a lie, isn't it? There's no reunion. You've never met our families."
Her outburst helped her bite back tears, and she squeezed harder. Rebecca had truly lost her family. For three years, she had held a hope, deep down, that they had survived. The loss had felt more like a separation. Now she admitted the impossibility of their survival. Accepted the reality that they were gone.
Fear sparked in Martha's eyes and her wrinkle
d hands clawed at Rebecca's fingers as she gurgled and wheezed. Rebecca stared at the trussed girl in the corner.
"She lied to you."
"No, no," Martha choked.
August cursed, then raced across the cabin. His paw clutched Rebecca's shoulder and he threw her against the cabin's rough log walls, knocking the breath from her body. Ruby ran to Rebecca's side and hugged her shoulders. She couldn't bear to look at the girl so she glared at Ava instead, who'd plastered herself into a dark corner.
"We've all been kidnapped."
Martha coughed and rubbed her throat. "No, no, no, no. Please stop, Rebecca. Listen to me."
"Why should I?"
A new expression flashed across Martha's face: a manic brew of terror and desperation.
"Listen!" she shrieked. "I didn't lie when I said I was taking you girls to an amazing place. I am, I promise. A place where you will be protected and cared for, because you are precious, every one of you."
Rebecca scoffed as she accepted another truth: Martha was crazy.
"The life you've lived so far has been a shadow of what it could be. You've been afraid, mistreated, abused. I know." Martha squatted in front of Rebecca and stroked her hair. "I know what it's like to be a woman among men, an innocent among the sinful. And I can save you from all that. But you need to listen to me, trust me."
Tears pricked the corners of Rebecca's eyes and ran down her cheeks. "You told an orphan she'd see her mother again. You made me believe my family was still out there. What kind of a cruel bitch —"
Rebecca's cheek stung with a sharp slap. "Don't you dare defy me. This mission is more important that you are, little girl."
There was that word again — mission. Rebecca once thought it a hopeful thing, but why was this Savior collecting girls? A shiver rippled down her spine. Something worth trekking across a dangerous wilderness for was either something wonderful or horrifying.
Martha stood, smoothed her clothes, took a deep breath and composed herself. "I can see things aren't going to be as easy as I'd thought."
"No, ma'am," August said. "That's what I've been trying to tell you."
The Human Wilderness (Prequel): Among the Monsters Page 3
