I Am Eve

by Nicolina Martin

  My heart begins to pound faster. The images from the website of Farmer Joe flicker before my mind. I got the impression he runs a huge place. The possibility that we’ll secure all that land, with cattle and crops, makes my mind spin. I think of Toad and his bleak future here at our barren plant with nothing but concrete and steel as far as the eye can see.

  “How many are they?”

  “They’re about fifty, all in all. Maybe twenty of them are somewhat able-bodied men.”

  “Can they fight?”

  Coran gives me a half shrug and makes a face.

  “Okay.” I sigh. “I’m sure they can do something. Everyone can aim and pull a trigger. How many at Joe’s?”

  “From what I’ve learned he’s got probably a hundred men.”

  I sputter.

  “But we have an advantage, remember.”

  “We’re taking their water?”

  “Yep.”

  “And we know how to access that?”

  “The other guys do.”

  “All right.” I think about my men and our resources. “Joe has more people. And we gotta assume they’re trained. But I’m liking this idea. He’s fucking vermin, and I’m gonna enjoy taking him down.”

  “He shouldn’t have taken our cargo.” Coran clenches his jaw.

  I grin and pat the silky dark hair at the back of Toad’s neck. “He definitely shouldn’t have done that. Let’s gather our guys and our toys. We’re going to acquire ourselves a farm.”

  “Know anything about cattle? Sheep? Poultry?”

  “Moo,” says Toad.

  I smile at him and then nod. “That’s about as much as I know too.”

  Coran shakes his head, but he looks as pleased as I feel. I’ve got a good feeling about this. A not so small part is because as soon as we are done with this shit, I’ll go fetch myself a very peculiar, very unique woman. My woman.

  Eve

  I fall asleep leaning my head on Kiki’s shoulder, and wake when we come to a stop. There’s a metallic rattling and people talking outside the car. In the distance there are rapid thuds, irregularly repeated in sequences I can’t find the rhythm of.

  “What’s going on?” I whisper.

  Kiki sits stiff, her fingers find mine. “We’re here. They’re opening a gate. That’s what makes the noise.”

  “Not only,” I say. “Do you hear that other thing?”

  “No…?”

  “Pa-pam, pa-pa-pa-pam. Those.”

  She’s silent a little while. Then, “Oh. I think that’s gunfire.”

  “Why would they be shooting?”

  “Maybe they’re…slaughtering animals?”

  I raise my eyebrows, and I can tell from her voice that she doesn’t believe what she just said either.

  “This the new meat?” says a man whose voice I haven’t heard before. He sounds as close as if he’s in the car, and I push myself tighter against Kiki, away from him, my heart thudding almost as rapidly as the faraway sounds of guns.

  Meat?

  My fears for my friend grow with every passing second, and I’m beyond frustrated that I lack such a vital sense as vision. “Tell me what you’re seeing, please. What’s around us?”

  “We’re on the only road in sight. There are plains, hills in the distance. Everything is very green.”

  “Do you see animals?”

  “Yeah. There are cows on the fields.”

  “Houses?”

  “There’s a fence. With barbed wire. Several guards with automatic weapons. Then the road continues. I can see a large group of houses a bit further down the road.”

  “Right, take them to the stable,” says the same man as before.

  We’re moving again.

  “I’m scared, Kiki,” I whisper. “Why do they have guns?”

  “The world isn’t what it was. People have become desperate for food, water, and safety.”

  “Did you say there’s no government?”

  Kiki sighs. “I shouldn’t have mentioned that.”

  “No, talk to me. I need to know.”

  “All you need, my love, is to keep creating your beautiful art.”

  “While you spread your legs for a man for protection?”

  “Eve!”

  “Isn’t it true?”

  “Something is different about you. What’s changed since last week?”

  My heart clenches as I think of Adam. I press my thighs tighter together, wishing I could have touched him once more.

  “This,” I say. “You’re pulling me out of my home, out of my safety.”

  “You wouldn’t have stayed safe there for much longer.”

  I’ve always trusted Kiki. We’ve known each other a long while, and she has always been there for me, since long before the plague, long before my family abandoned me. Today, I think she made a mistake, though.

  The car stops, and my throat tightens. This is it. A car door slams, then the passenger door next to me opens and the car is filled with scents of spring, of earth, fertilizer, flowers, and dust.

  “Time to move, ladies.”

  I shuffle sideways until I can set a foot on the ground and step out. Kiki follows right next to me and lets me grab onto her arm.

  A sudden draft right before my face makes me flinch.

  “Hey!” says Kiki. “That’s an asshole move.”

  “Just checking.” It’s our driver’s voice, and I don’t have to ask to know what he just did. He waved his hand right in front of my face to see if I reacted.

  “Come with me. It’s time to show your new, temporary accommodations.”

  “Temporary?” I ask as we walk.

  “You’ll be quarantined, obviously, before you’re let inside the premises.”

  “For how long?”

  “Five days.”

  “Is that enough?” asks Kiki.

  “Yep.”

  Gravel turns to a harder, but still uneven, surface, maybe concrete, and then we enter a shadow. I feel it because the warmth of the sun is suddenly lost.

  “There are steps,” says Kiki and guides me as we make our way up five steps.

  The driver grunts behind us. “Is she of any use whatsoever?”

  “Can you quit being an ass for one minute?” snarls Kiki.

  His words poke a hole in my already fragile defense. I fight to keep it together when in reality I fear I’ll never find my bearings again. I have lost all sense of direction, everything smells and sounds different, and I’m acutely afraid for our wellbeing. For good reason. I know why we’re here. I know Kiki will be used, and maybe I will too, but even if I won’t, her pain is my pain, and I’ll carry it alongside her.

  Our driver’s laugh is not a friendly sound. “In here. Someone will show you where you’ll sleep. All you ladies are today’s arrivals, so stay the fuck away from each other is my recommendation.” The door slams shut, the lock clicks closed, and then everything is silent.

  “Are we alone?” I ask.

  “No. We’re in a corridor with doors on each side, some open, some closed. At the far end is a common room with a couch and I see someone there. A woman.”

  I hold out my hand and wait until Kiki’s fingers tentatively touch mine. I close my hand around hers and squeeze, trying to give comfort from a well of nothing. Despite the hot day, her skin is cold and clammy.

  “Well, let’s go introduce ourselves.”

  My bed doesn’t smell like my own even though I’ve spent four nights here. I haven’t bothered trying to make it mine. We won’t stay. I have barely been able to sleep. My stomach is in knots, and my soul is frozen in constant worry. One more night, then we’re moving again.

  Kiki has had her picture taken. She didn’t tell me much about it, but she came back reeking of despair. I doubt it was only a headshot.

  My fingers itch for clay. I’m desperate to create as the scream inside me grows with each passing day. I thought I had put them to rest a long time ago – my inner cries of agony, my one constant friend and en
emy throughout life – but they always loomed in the shadows, waiting to return. With Adam’s sudden appearance and disappearance, with the transport to this farm and everything being taken away that I knew, the walls I had built have been torn down.

  I don’t sleep. I listen to the bunkhouse, to the creaking noises of the wind, to the faraway sounds of cattle stomping the earth. I’m convinced we’ve walked right into our doom.

  There are two other women here in the building, on this doorstep to whatever inferno lies ahead. Only women. No men. No children. We don’t talk much. Everyone waits. This is no sanctuary, no paradise. This is hell on earth. I don’t know what’s on the other side of quarantine, but I bet that this too-hot barrack, with its moldy shower and dusty floors, is heaven in comparison.

  “You promised!”

  “Joe makes no promises to no bitches.”

  “We had an agreement.” Kiki’s voice is tense, a loud whisper. Maybe she doesn’t want me to hear? She can’t know that I hear everything. My four remaining senses are honed to compensate for my lack of vision. It’s hard to keep secrets around me, but I’ve always kept that to myself. It’s how I survive.

  “Just get in the fucking car or I’ll tie you on the flatbed instead. Your choice.”

  There’s a shuffle of feet from several people. I press myself against the wall, grounding myself with my palms against the cool surface behind me. It’s time. Whatever happens, happens now. I won’t be able to prevent it, so I might just roll with it instead. My legs shake, but I take a step forward, then another.

  The shuffling stops. No one speaks. I know there are eyes on me. I feel it deep in my bones. There’s the silence, the judgment, the wonder.

  “Fuck’s sake,” says the man. “That is one freaky-looking bitch.”

  “Hey!” says Kiki, her voice tainted by rage.

  “It’s okay,” I say, my voice calmer than I feel. “Can someone lead the way?”

  Sometimes I wish I knew what I look like to other people. I know I’m tall and white. I know I don’t add up, but I also know I’m just me, and I always wonder why looks matter so much.

  Wiggling my fingers, itching to touch the shape of the man I lost, I move toward the sounds of breaths from several people. I recognize Kiki’s strong, lean hands. Finding her face, I trace her cheek and then cup it.

  “It’s okay,” I mouth.

  “I’m sorry I got you into this.”

  “You had no choice.”

  “I didn’t look hard enough.”

  “I’ll take care of you,” I say.

  I don’t know how, and I don’t know when, but I will save my friend. I will save all these girls. Their stuttering breaths, the little whimpers of fear that catch in their throats, pull me from my numbness. I can’t see, but I hear, I feel, I smell, and I taste. I taste something rotten on these lands, and this cannot pass.

  As the truck moves, as we’re herded into a new building, and as the scents of sweat and semen build, my resolve increases.

  I will find the man responsible for all this pain, and I will make him scream.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Adam

  I’m lying flat on a hilltop with Coran next to me, studying the farm through a pair of binoculars. It’s the first time I see it for real. I’ve only studied maps and pictures these past few days.

  We’ve all had a sense of urgency while we prepared. The water plant workers from the other county have been eager to get going, what with the missing sister and all, and I am haunted by the memory of Eve. I need my goddess by my side. I need her to know I didn’t abandon her, that things happened that were beyond my control. I need her with me.

  “So, tell me they didn’t do something stupid, like go and poison the water reservoir,” I say.

  Coran shakes his head. “There’ll be an explosion in—” He looks at his wristwatch, then pulls the jacket sleeve back down to cover it. “Fifteen minutes. It’ll cut off a few pipes and create one hell of a distraction. A second explosion will rip open the fence holding the cow brigade on the east side. When Joe diverts his workers and security, we’ll hit them right in the heart of things.”

  “Cow brigade.” I snort. “And the fucker is home for sure?”

  Coran taps his elbow to mine and points. “A little to the left.”

  I gaze along the rooftops, finding a few lit windows. Shadows move around, but there is no direct view on the people. “What am I looking at?”

  “That long building that looks like a barrack is where he keeps his closest staff. Workers, security, women. Joe lives in the green house with the pillars right next to it. He rarely leaves the premises. He’s there. He’s been there since we began keeping watch.”

  “No one’s out yet.” I hand the binoculars back to Coran.

  He takes them and throws me a skewed smile. “Because it’s early. We’re gonna take them with their pants down. Literally. Show’s about to start. Wanna stand here and watch?”

  I take in the lush, peaceful landscape. There’s still dew in the grass and the birds tweet furiously, building nests for their offspring. Like us, I realize. It’s what we do. We nest. Everything is quiet. Soon the mayhem will begin. We will take back what’s ours, expand our territory and make a safe haven for our crew and their families. I stand and brush off some dirt from the front of my jacket.

  “Fun as it sounds to watch things explode, I wanna be in the thick of it. Let’s go.”

  We turn and walk through the high, probably tick-infested, grass, toward our pickup. I look at the long, straight road that leads up to the farm’s gateway.

  “We’re driving right up to the gates? They’re gonna see us coming from a long way.”

  “They’re not gonna shoot first. I’ll hide in the flatbed, under some tarps. We’ll time it to match the explosions. When they stop you, I jump up like a clown out of the box and pop my side. You do yours.”

  We’ve reached the pickup, and I pull open the driver’s door, looking at my mate. “How very dramatic of us.”

  Parked next to us are two other pickups – our people waiting to strike. I gesture for them that we will go first and then point at the radio. They’ll await their signal.

  Coran grins. His black beard has gone wild, and he looks positively feral. He pats his automatic that he has hanging on his hip. “Sometimes drama is the only language left. We owe these fuckers a good show and a message who not to fuck with.”

  I nod and hop in behind the wheel as Coran climbs up in the back. “Truer words have rarely been spoken.”

  Two weary guards with face masks, and with their guns showing, wave us down. I approach a little too slow. It probably looks weird as all hell, but I’m waiting for the moment when the explosions will go off. They gesture for me to stop. I look around and take stock. They really are only two. How fucking stupid of them. I click once on the button to the radio as my gaze follows the guard who moves over to the passenger side of the pickup, looking inside, trying to gauge what I carry. My signal to Coran how many he will have on his side.

  A massive thundering sounds from a distance, and almost simultaneously, like an echo, a second explosion comes from another direction. The weariness in the eyes of the guard next to me is immediately replaced by a startled look. I raise my gun and pull the trigger twice. While he’s still falling, two quick shots from the back confirm that Coran has done his part. I hop out and dive into the little shack, flipping the lever that opens the gate. The radio on the counter before me comes to life, and someone starts spouting orders. They’re playing right into our hands.

  I jump into the pickup, next to Coran, who has taken a seat. Next stop is the barracks that are being emptied of guards. We’re going for the main attraction, Joe himself.

  I press down the talk button on the radio, sending a message to all our forces. “Alpha is through the gates. Delta and Omega can roll in. We’re moving toward the main houses. Fence, report. Over.”

  The radio crackles. “Fence here. We’re in positio
n. Awaiting cowboys. Over.”

  “Good. Water, report in. Over.”

  The houses approach. Some cars start driving away from us, toward the reservoir. Guess they noticed the water in the taps dropped pressure.

  “Water here. We fucked up, boss. Over.”

  “Explain,” I snarl as I follow the toy soldiers before us, while more and more come out of the building. If anyone notices us, they’re not focusing. “Tell me you’re wet. Over.”

  “Oh, we’re drenched.”

  “Then what the fuck’s the issue?”

  “All the pipes blew. We’re gonna drown the place. The reservoir is emptying.”

  I blink as I stop behind a wall, right out of sight from the main house. Coran frowns as our eyes meet, then he pulls down his mask. He’s flustered, and little beads of sweat pearl in his hairline. “These are the water plant guys. They’re engineers, not soldiers. They probably had something smoother in mind.”

  “Over,” says the man on the radio.

  I press down the button. “Well, that’s a non-issue. It’ll be taken care of when the time is right. You did good. Await the cowboys and take them out when they come for you. Any questions? Over.”

  “I think we’re already seeing the first wave.” The radio goes silent. From afar a few faint pops are heard.

  “Fence here. Got visual too. Over.”

  “I promise wine, women, and weed,” I say. “Let’s do this. Over and out.” I unfasten the automatic and raise it, peeking around the corner.

  “Wine and weed?” asks Coran as we approach. “That’s generous of you.”

  “Don’t forget women.”

  I want to keep the men happy. Myself, there’s only one woman whose long legs I want wrapped around my hips as I bury myself inside her.

  “Nah, I’m good,” says Coran.

  From two directions come rapid pops of gun fire. Two men come running out, aiming for a car. Coran and I step out from the shadows, shoulder to shoulder, and open fire, spraying bullets, taking them down before they have time to react. A woman screams somewhere inside the building in front of us. A loud bang is heard, and splinters of wood fly off the wall behind me. We both drop to the ground and roll in different directions as we look for the shooter.