Against The Darkness (Cimmerian Moon)

by A. M. Griffin

  Mia frowns and eyes the men up and down. “That is not okay. This is America.”

  “Aw crap,” Shayla says under her breath, as she sits on the other side of MJ. “She’s going to get us all killed.”

  The new man points over to Ms. Burgess. “I’m not going to tell you again. Get over there with your kind.”

  Mia lifts her chin defiantly. “I’m Columbian. My mother and father moved here when I was younger.” I swear the Latin accent that I haven’t heard since we were kids is back and thicker than ever.

  The men exchange glances of bewilderment. Mia, with her dark brown hair and light skin, stands defiantly with her chin raised and a hand on her hip. “What does that mean?” Eddie asks the others.

  She squints, looking the men up and down. I can almost feel her temper rising. “That means I belong over here.” She strides to us and drops to her butt next to me.

  “So now that you’ve pissed off the children, what are your plans for us?” Ms. Burgess asks exasperated. “Why don’t you just let us go so we can be on our way?”

  “Be on your way where?” the new man asks, with a sinister chuckle.

  “I already told the other gentlemen, that we’re going back home to Michigan,” Ms. Burgess says.

  The new man swings his gaze to Eddie and his friend. “Didn’t ya’ll explain where we was takin’ ’em?” he asks the other men.

  “We told her she ain’t goin’ back to Michigan,” my assailant says.

  “Jon-Jon don’ told you right,” the new men says. “Them aliens is everywhere. We’re goin’ ta take ya’ll back to the hills. Right, Eddie?”

  Eddie leans and spits out another disgusting wad of spit. “Yep.”

  WTF?

  Although I wish I wasn’t right, they really are the people from The Hills Have Eyes.

  “You just said that aliens are everywhere.” They look at each other. Ms. Burgess rolls her eyes. “So that means…they’re in the hills too,” she says slower.

  “Naw, they ain’t goin’ ta find us where we are.” The new man indicates with his gun at us. “Where yer gonna be too.”

  “Thank you for inviting us to hide out with you, but we’ll take our chances by ourselves.”

  “You just don’t get it,” Eddie says, laughing. “We need to stick together. Shake them ideas of goin’ to Michigan cause there ain’t nobody there waitin’ on ya’ll but aliens.”

  Ms. Burgess sends a glance our way. “Stick together?” she asks, raising a brow. “You’ve just separated us.”

  “Oh don’t worry about them. They can come too, but they won’t be helpin’ us repopulate the world.”

  I almost laugh out loud. I’m not even bothered that he doesn’t need Mia, Shayla or my help to repopulate the world one bit.

  Thank God they don’t want me for that.

  “Thank you, but no thank you,” Ms. Burgess says in a terse tone.

  “Let me put it another way.” All three men raise their guns and aim them at Ms. Burgess. “If you ain’t with us, yer against us,” Eddie says in a growl.

  “Well then. Since you’ve put it that way,” Ms. Burgess replies.

  Chapter Seven

  Somewhere in the hills

  April 19th, 2012: Day 28

  The walk up the hill, following the path, wasn’t that bad. It wasn’t worn out, like the other paths we found in this area, so I could tell not a lot of people have come this way. Normally I wouldn’t have any difficulty following along. That is, if my ankle wasn’t bound to Shayla’s with rope and the other wasn’t tied to MJ’s and if my hands weren’t tied behind my back.

  The smart-ass in me can’t help but be sarcastic about our situation.

  So, yep, pretending that this is some kind of leisurely stroll up a backwoods trail is a whole lot better than the reality. I don’t want to focus on how I’m tripping over rocks and tree roots. Or worry that an alien could jump out from behind one of the trees to get us. Because I’m pretty sure if that were to happen, The Hills men would run away and let the lizards take us in their space ships to do God knows what.

  Yep, a leisurely stroll.

  I almost feel as if I should be whistling or something, just to set the mood.

  “What are you thinking about?” MJ asks me.

  I shake my head. “You really don’t want to know.”

  “If it’s a plan to get away from these fools, then I’m all ears.”

  “I don’t have a plan.”

  “Who has a plan? You have a plan, Sin?” Shayla asks.

  I turn my head, peering over my shoulder at her. She’s practically on my back. Her face is just a few inches from mine.

  “I don’t have a plan.” She frowns and looks down, as if I crushed all of her hopes. “I wish I did though.”

  Eddie pulls on our rope, making me stumble into MJ. “Stop talkin’ back there! I don’t need ya’ll tryin’ ta hatch-up a plan.”

  I fall ungracefully onto MJ’s solid back, knocking my face against his shoulder blades and biting on my lip in the process. He’d put a foot forward, bracing himself so I don’t knock him over. “Ouch.” The metallic taste of blood coats the tip of my tongue.

  “You okay?” he asks.

  Using my tongue, I feel the hole in the inside of my lip and the swelling that has begun. “Yeah. But now I really wish I had come up with a plan.”

  Once I regain my footing, he starts walking again. “Me and you both. Someone’s going to end up breaking a bone out here.”

  And I can’t help but pray it isn’t me.

  This is how we spend our morning, walking up the hill, being pulled by Eddie and trying to come up with the plan that I said I wasn’t thinking about. We can worry about the aliens when and if that time came. Eddie and his crew are in the here and the now. And we have no idea what they have planned for us, but it’s not good. Who ties people up and leads them away like prizes?

  People who aren’t right in the head, is what I’m thinking.

  When we break through the trees to a clearing, I assume this is their home. The five log cabins, built in a circle around a campsite, have that hillbilly appeal. I look up and can clearly see the sky. It’s like they don’t care if the lizards can see them. “Why haven’t the lizards got them yet?” With their cabins so visible it seems these men would be easy pickings.

  “Your guess is as good as mine,” MJ says.

  As they lead us into the center of the campsite, I start to wonder if the men get their own cabins and if so where the other two people are. I can’t spend too much time trying to figure this out before Jon-Jon stops me and, with a hand on my shoulder, pushes me to the ground. I sit without a fight. Shayla and MJ sit next to me and Mia plops down on the other side of MJ.

  Along the way, I found out the third man’s name is Holt. Holt’s already made Ian, Wade and Ms. Burgess sit across from us. We’re still divided, with a fire pit between us. I can only guess they’re going to keep us separated from now on out.

  “Do you mind if the children eat now? It was a long walk and we’ve all missed breakfast.” Ms. Burgess asks.

  I’m surprised by how steady and calm her voice sounds when I know she’s just as nervous as we are. But the fact that she keeps addressing us as children makes me speculate that she’s trying to draw some kind of compassion out of them.

  Jon-Jon chuckles. He throws my small black bag and our food bags toward one of the cabins. “The children will eat when we see fit.”

  So much for having compassion.

  Ms. Burgess lets out a sound of disgust. “Then at least tell me where we are.”

  Eddie smiles, like she just asked him the million-dollar question, and throws open his arms in a grand gesture. “Welcome to the Tanner homestead. This is where we’ll ride out the alien invasion and, when the government comes a-calling, we’ll join up with the Army and help fight them sons of bitches.”

  How will the Army feel about the Tanners when they learn we’re being held here against our will? It seems as
though someone should point this out to Eddie. I glance toward Ms. Burgess and raise a questioning brow. As if knowing what I’m thinking she shakes her head, as if to say “let it go”.

  Eddie hooks his thumbs in his pants and walks around us, as he does his boots kick up dirt. “We have a couple of rules here. But the main one is that, no matter what, we keep Tanner land clear of any and everything unholy.”

  He’s talking as if we willingly signed up to join his team and we’re here because we want to be.

  “But, Eddie,” Jon-Jon says, interrupting him. “We got them on our land.” He nods in our direction. I take it that “them” are people of color—or whatever other name they want to call us. “Ain’t they unholy?” Then he glares directly at me. “Ain’t she unholy?”

  I peer at him through the slits of my eyes. What’s unholy is three grown men taking people hostages.

  Eddie raises his hands up to the sky. “I’m talkin’ about the Goddamn aliens, Jon-Jon. We got bigger shit goin’ on right now.”

  Jon-Jon nods as though he now understands, but I know he doesn’t because of the blank look in his eyes. I don’t think Eddie is fooled either, but he doesn’t spend any more time trying to get through to Jon-Jon. How do you get used to stupid? I don’t even know. Eddie continues, “Tanner land has been in our family since before the Pilgrims came over on the Mayflower.”

  Huh? What?

  I look at Mia. What the hell is this idiot talking about? is what I wish I could say out loud. But I don’t need to, because she’s giving me pretty much the same look.

  Ms. Burgess clears her throat. I know the teacher in her wants so bad to point out that before the Mayflower, Tanner land belonged to the Native Americans, but she keeps her mouth shut while Eddie rambles on like he’s giving us the orientation for our first day at work. I liken this to the ‘history of the company’ part.

  “What did we promise Pa?” Holt and Jon-Jon straighten, as they realize Eddie is expecting an answer from them.

  “Keep Tanner land in Tanner hands,” they both recite.

  “Oh, Jesus.” I can’t help but let it slip from my mouth. This is too crazy for words.

  Eddie points to one of the cabins. “Pa would roll over if’n he had an inkling of unholy aliens patrolling our woods.”

  We all turn to the cabin he’s pointing to.

  Mia scrunches her face in confusion. “I don’t understand,” she whispers.

  “Pa is dead,” Eddie continues. “But his teachings is still with us.”

  I frown, as I keep watching the cabin where Pa is, or was. I’m so confused.

  “Just tell me one thing,” MJ says, under his breath. “Do these fools have their dead Pa in that cabin?”

  “I have no idea,” I reply.

  Jon-Jon raises a fist in the air. “We ain’t gon’ let nobody or no alien take over Tanner land!” he yells vehemently.

  “Damn skippy.” Holt makes the most disgusting sound ever in the back of his throat and then spits on the ground. “That’s why we’re going to protect this land with everything we have. We’ll go down dying before we let anyone take our land from us.”

  The aliens have taken over Earth and the Tanners are worried about a plot of land in the middle of nowhere. Clearly their priorities are off kilter. What do they expect? Once the aliens have a stronghold on Earth, they’ll leave the Tanners alone? I shake my head in disbelief. They can’t possibly be this stupid.

  “Umm…what about us?” Ms. Burgess asks. “We’re not Tanners and we don’t belong here.”

  Jon-Jon whirls around to face her. “Not yet, you ain’t.”

  Holt begins to giggle and Jon-Jon slaps him on the back.

  “How you think we is goin’ to keep Tanners goin’ for generations?” Eddie asks.

  Wow. The gene pool needs to be snuffed out here.

  Ms. Burgess recoils, with a look of pure terror on her face.

  “I told you I would figure us out a plan!” Eddie yells over his shoulder to Holt and Jon–Jon, who both laugh and giggle uncontrollably.

  “Too bad we ain’t got no preacher here.” Jon-Jon shrugs. “But the chilrens won’t be bastards ’cause we’ll claim them at birth. That is, unless they look like one of them aliens.”

  Eddie shakes his head. “We ain’t claiming no alien bastards.”

  “They are sooo crazy,” MJ mutters.

  “I’m so glad I told them I was Columbian,” Mia murmurs.

  “But Ms. Burgess…” I hiss.

  “And ya’ll.” Eddie points to Ian and Wade. “Ya’ll ain’t Tanners but we can find you some nice white women. But until then, ya’ll can help us fortify our land and protect us from the aliens.” Eddie turns to the “colored group” and points. “And ya’ll help with the protection and cooking and cleaning.”

  Oh great, back to slavery.

  “While I can’t fault your ingenuity I will have to object. I don’t want to marry you, and holding us against our will is illegal. Just because aliens have invaded Earth doesn’t mean that all laws are thrown out the window.”

  “Yes it does, little lady,” Eddie declares.

  Ms. Burgess opens her mouth then closes it again, as if trying to talk sense to the Tanners wouldn’t do any good.

  “You know what? Bump all the crazy,” Ian says, as he tilts onto his side.

  “He just does not know when to shut up,” MJ says.

  Ian struggles to his knees. “You know what MJ? Screw you and screw them too!”

  MJ leans back. “Sure. Go ahead, speak your piece, because that’s clearly what’s needed right now.”

  “Listen boy,” Eddie says to MJ. “Don’t you dare disrespect one of yer betters.”

  MJ’s eyes squint, showing a glint of anger between the thick eyelashes.

  “MJ,” I snap. “Let it go.”

  MJ rolls his eyes and looks away, but just when I think the argument has passed, Ian starts up again.

  “I think I’ve heard all I plan to hear from you,” Ian says. “I’m not staying with you to help you guard a piece-of-shit land that nobody wants anyway. I’m going home and, when I get there, I’m telling my father what you’ve done to us and what you tried to do to us and when this is all over, he’s going to come here and bulldoze this place and put up a mountain retreat. And as for your Pa—”

  Jon-Jon is on him before he can finish his sentence. The crack of his fist on Ian’s jaw echoes off the trees.

  I cringe as Ian falls flat on his back and Jon-Jon jumps on him, raining punches on his face. “Don’t you ever talk bad about Pa! He ain’t done nothin’ to you.”

  “Get off of him!” Everyone except for MJ yells out.

  “Dang, he got his butt kicked by a chick and now by a hillbilly,” MJ says.

  Holt grabs Jon-Jon by the back of his shirt, pulling him off Ian. “He learnt his lesson.”

  Jon-Jon lumbers to his feet, wiping his nose with his hand. “I couldn’t stand hearing him talkin’ about our Pa like that. He was a good man. Gooder than this pussy bitch will ever be.”

  “Pussy bitch,” MJ mutters. “I must remember that line.”

  “Cool it. We’re in some serious trouble here,” I say. If these guys kill us out here, no one will ever know it.

  MJ tilts his head to the side. “No. Out there is serious trouble. In here we cook and clean and watch Ian get the cat-mess beat out of him.”

  Mia sniffles. “Stop it.” Tears stream down her face, leaving clean tracks through the light coat of dirt there. “Ian can be a jerk sometimes but he doesn’t deserve this.”

  “No, he doesn’t,” I agree.

  Jon-Jon rocks back on his heels and massages his stomach. “I done worked up an appetite.” He glares over at us. “Must Eddie explain your duties to you again?”

  * * * * *

  The screams.

  I can’t get Ms. Burgess’ screams out of my head. Her screams are blood-curdling and loud. Every now and then a shrill cry bursts through and cuts through the air. I almost
welcome the thought of the aliens hearing her and coming to get us. At least then she would be rescued from the Tanners.

  It happened right after dinner. All three of them stood around her and declared her as their wife. Then before we could figure out what was going on, they dragged her, kicking and screaming, into one of the cabins and there was nothing we could do about it. Not with our hands tied behind our backs and ankles tied to together. And if that wasn’t enough, Holt had staked the ropes securing our arms into the ground.

  Wade keeps beating his fists into the dirt. Even from where I’m sitting, I can see blood dripping from them. Ian is lying on his side, curled into a ball with his hands over his ears, trying to block out the screams. MJ is pulling at his ropes, trying to unearth the stake. Shayla and Mia are doing the same as me, crying hysterically. But I’m also rocking on my butt, holding onto my knees, praying that they let her go.

  I don’t want to think about what’s being done to her. I just want it to stop. I’m also worried about the rest of us girls. They said they didn’t want anything to do with anyone not white, but I doubt it. They’re animals. They’ll turn on us too. Those will be our screams next.

  Panic starts to replace the scary thoughts. I won’t go without a fight. I’m small and I know I won’t be able to hold them off for long. But I can’t let them take me to one of those cabins, but what’s to stop them?

  Weapon.

  I need a weapon. I won’t find a knife or gun, but a stick, I can get a stick. A sharpened stick will come in handy when the Tanners come for me.

  I wipe my eyes on my shirt, clearing my vision. But even so, the tears are still flowing and I’m sniffling, trying to catch my breath.

  Pull it together.

  I scan the ground behind me, where I find the majority of sticks. They’re from the area that surrounds the cabins, probably kicked closer during the course of the Tanners coming to and going from the woods.

  I twist, contorting my body uncomfortably. With my legs extended, I hook a handful of sticks with my shoes and pull them closer. More determined than ever, I do it again, pulling more sticks my way. By the time the Tanners come for me, I’m going to have so many weapons they’ll think twice before messing with me. I don’t know how I’m going to sharpen them into spears, but that doesn’t concern me right now. Surviving does.