by Eric Vall
“It’s a woman that was at the fort we went to today,” I explained.
“It’s not one of the girls?” Kimmy asked.
“No,” I said.
“That’s a relief,” she said, but she still frowned, “though I’m sorry to hear about this other girl. Will she be alright?”
“I’m not sure yet,” I told her.
“I’m sure Marla is doing all she can,” Kimmy said. “If there’s anything I can do for you or the girls, please let me know.”
“Just watching the kids right now is a great help,” I told her with a soft smile. “The other girls are outside getting some air, I need to go check up on them.”
“Please,” Kimmy said, and she stepped aside.
“Thanks,” I told her as I walked past her.
“Oh, Tav,” she said, and I turned to see her bite her lip.
“Yeah?” I asked.
“You might want to put a shirt on,” she said.
“Oh, right,” I agreed as I looked down at my naked chest that I had all but forgotten about.
I went to my old dorm room and quickly found a tank top on the floor that I threw on, then I headed downstairs and tried not to look at the girl on the couch as I walked by.
Once I was outside I felt like I could take a full breath again.
The girls were gathered around the fire pit with Winchester, so I headed to the gym.
“Where are you going?” Anna called after me.
“I’ll be right back,” I told her, and she didn’t question me again.
Once I was in the gym, I located our supply of liquor and found a bottle of good whiskey that we had picked up from the ski cabin the last time we’d been there. It was a reserve label and fairly old from the looks of it. I didn’t much care about price when it came to alcohol, but I knew Tara had an affinity for the good stuff, and I thought that she and the rest of the girls deserved a nice drink right about now.
Hell, I could use one myself.
I snatched the bottle of whiskey, then headed back out to the courtyard and over to the fire pit.
“Brought you something,” I said softly as I pulled the whiskey from behind my back and handed it to Tara.
“Thanks,” she said with a small smile.
That drink we’d had with Brody was definitely out of our systems at that point, far too much adrenaline had coursed through us, and I knew the girls were as sober as I was. There was nothing to do at the moment except wait for news on whether or not the girl would pull through, and I only knew a few things that made time fly by faster, and alcohol was close to the top of the list.
“Winchester’s upset,” Bailey said quietly as she petted the black headed dog.
“We all are,” I said, and I leaned down to place a kiss on the blonde hippie’s head.
“Good choice,” Tara said as she regarded the bottle of whiskey.
“I thought you deserved some of the good stuff,” I told her.
“Thanks,” she said, and her smile was a little bit bigger that time.
The platinum blonde twisted the lid off and took a long pull of the amber liquid before she passed it over to Anna who sat beside her.
“I wish we knew her name,” the redhead said as she took the bottle.
“Sophia,” Tara said quietly.
“She told you her name?” Bailey asked.
“Yeah,” Tara said, “she was still conscious when I found her.”
“What else did she say?” Anna asked quickly.
“Nothing,” Tara said with a disappointed shrug. “I ran in there and asked her what happened, but she just groaned in response, so I asked her what her name was and she said Sophia. I tried to ask her what happened again, but she just groaned and passed out.”
“You got her help,” I told Tara. “She’d probably be dead right now if you hadn’t seen her in there.”
“To Sophia, then,” Anna said softly, and she flashed a sweet smile at Tara, who smiled in return, then Anna took a swig of the whiskey and passed it to Bailey.
“To Sophia,” Bailey agreed, and she took a swig and passed it to me.
I toasted to Sophia as well, then passed the bottle back to Tara before I took a seat on one of the benches.
“What do you think is wrong with her?” Bailey asked. “I didn’t want to ask in the jeep in case she could still hear us, but do you think Brody hit her or something?”
“That wouldn’t cause that kind of bleeding,” Anna said with a shake of her head, “but I wouldn’t put it past him to hit her.”
“He was so weird about the whole situation,” Bailey said. “How could he have not wanted to get her help?”
“He’s a psychopath,” I said. “And he’s hiding something.”
“Do you feel bad about stealing his sniper rifle now?” Tara chuckled and took a drink of whiskey.
“Not one bit,” Bailey said, then she turned to me. “Wait, did you say he’s hiding something?”
“Of course, he is,” Anna agreed.
“About Sophia?” Bailey asked.
“About everything,” Tara said.
“But especially about Sophia,” Anna said. “Only someone who has something to hide would rather someone bleed out than get help. He’s afraid of what she’s going to tell us.”
“You mean about Brody abusing her?” Bailey asked softly.
“I don’t think it’s abuse in the way that most people would think of it,” Tara said, and she passed the bottle to Anna.
“Yeah,” the redhead agreed. “I don’t think he’s beating her every night or anything like that, but we already knew that the women at the fort felt like they had to have sex with him since he took them in.”
“Yeah, that’s fucked up,” Bailey said, and she put her head down.
“Paige thinks it was a miscarriage,” I said quietly.
“What?” Tara asked, and she leaned forward quickly. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah,” I said with a nod. “That was her best guess, but Marla should know for sure.”
“If that’s what it is then it makes sense why Brody acted like that,” Anna said. “If the baby is his he probably didn’t want it in the first place.”
“Right,” Tara sneered, “he probably knew she was having a miscarriage, but he was happy about it.”
“God,” Bailey breathed. “That poor girl.”
“She’s got to be our age,” Anna said with a sad nod.
“What about the other women at the fort?” Bailey asked.
“What do you mean?” I inquired.
“If this one was pregnant and he’s having sex with a bunch of them, then where are all the other pregnant women?” Anna asked, and Bailey nodded.
“Exactly,” Bailey agreed. “I haven’t seen any, have you guys?”
“No,” I said. A pregnant woman would stand out, particularly in times like this, and the girls had a point, I hadn’t seen any pregnant women at the fort. If Brody wasn’t using contraception, then how had he avoided getting the other women pregnant but not this one?
“Do you think the others are on birth control?” Anna asked.
“That could be it,” I said, then I pursed my lips. “But why would the others be on birth control and not this one? That doesn’t make sense.”
“Maybe she is, and it didn’t work,” Tara said. “The stuff can fail, you know.”
“That’s true,” I agreed.
“And if it does fail then you have more of a risk for a miscarriage,” Anna pointed out.
I had known that was a possibility, but I hadn’t considered that in this case, but it could be the reason why the miscarriage had gotten so bad as well. Maybe the birth control caused the symptoms to be worse as well as upping the risk factor for having one in the first place.
If Marla and Paige could wake Sophia up enough to tell them what had happened, then that could be a great help in figuring out what precautions they would need to take. I didn’t have experience with miscarriages, but if the bleeding stop
ped and they could get her fluids back up, then it seemed reasonable to assume that she would be alright. I knew women lost a decent amount of blood during a miscarriage, but I didn’t know how much was normal.
I looked down at my arms and thought about the blood that had covered them earlier and the amount that had been pooled on the bed. I’d seen soldiers get shot and lose less blood than that, but I reminded myself that we had gotten her to Marla as quickly as humanly possible, and I just hoped that counted for something.
“Pass me the whiskey,” I said with a smile, and Bailey took a swig, then handed me the bottle.
“Here,” the blonde hippie said.
“Thanks,” I told her before I took a long pull. The amber liquor was smokey and smooth, and it went down nicely, but left a pleasant fire in your stomach that instantly warmed you.
I looked up at the sun above us. It was still afternoon, and Rolly, Betty, and the others would be back within the next few hours, I just hoped that we had some information about Sophia before they got back.
The girls all looked down at their shoes, and I knew that I needed to distract them for the time being. The alcohol was a start, but it wasn’t enough, they needed something to take their minds off the situation.
“Hey,” I said, “let’s build a fire.”
“It’s not really cold,” Bailey said.
“No,” I agreed, “but I was hoping that Tara could give us a cooking lesson.”
“Right now?” the platinum blonde asked.
“Yeah,” Anna said, and she began to nod her head slowly. “Yeah, I’m starved.”
“Really?” Tara asked, and she raised an eyebrow at the redhead.
“Yeah,” Anna said, “I think maybe Paige infected me with her hunger.”
“Oh, uh, yeah, me, too,” Bailey said with a nod of her own. “I could eat.”
“Alright,” Tara sighed, “let’s start a fire, I guess.”
I knew that the platinum blonde knew exactly what we were doing, but she played along nicely and helped us build the fire.
“So, what did you guys want to eat?” Anna asked after we had a raging fire at our feet.
“I don’t know,” Bailey said, and she took a swig of whiskey, “what’s easy to make?”
“Nothing is really difficult once you know what you’re doing,” Tara said.
“The whole point is that we have no idea what we’re doing,” Anna chuckled.
“Yeah,” Bailey agreed, “the closest I came to cooking was trying to make my own vegan black bean burgers, and I burnt the hell out of them.”
“I’m not even going to ask about the burgers,” Tara laughed, and she grabbed the bottle and took a swig. “But let’s head over to the gym, we’ll figure out what we want to cook from there. Whatever meat we want we have in the freezer.”
“Alright,” Anna agreed.
We all got up to head toward the gym, but before we made it too far Marla and Paige stepped out of the dorm building, their clothes splattered with now dried blood.
“Hey,” I said, “how’s it going in there?”
“Alright,” Marla sighed and shook her head.
“Is she going to make it?” Tara asked quickly.
“Yes,” Paige assured her. “She looks good now, and Marla got her stable.”
“Oh, good,” Bailey said. “We were really worried.”
“What was wrong with her?” Anna asked.
“It was as Paige suspected,” Marla said. “She had a miscarriage.”
“That’s so sad,” Bailey said with a frown, and she instinctively reached down to pet Winchester to comfort herself.
“That’s not the only thing, though,” Marla said, and she let out a deep sigh.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“This wasn’t an ordinary miscarriage,” the dark haired woman said.
“What do you mean, it wasn’t ordinary?” Anna asked.
“Is a miscarriage ever really ordinary?” Bailey inquired.
“This wasn’t a natural miscarriage,” Marla said.
“I’m not following you,” Bailey said.
“Was it an abortion?” Tara asked, and her head jerked back in surprise. “Are we back to the days of back alley abortions now?”
“Not exactly,” Paige said, “but you guys should come in and talk to her.”
“She’s awake?” I asked.
“Yes,” Marla said, “and we asked her to speak with you and share with you what she told us.”
“What did she tell you?” Anna asked.
“I… I think it’s best you hear it directly from her,” she said, and she looked down at the grass under her feet.
“Marla,” I pushed, “tell us what’s wrong.”
“Come on,” the old woman said, and when she lifted her head I saw that her eyes were filled with tears. “Go inside, just don’t push her or be too loud, she’s still very weak.”
“Alright,” Tara agreed, and she rushed toward the door with the rest of the girls right behind her.
“Marla,” I said softly, and I put my hand on her shoulder.
“I’m alright,” she told me with a wave, and she put her hand over mine and gave it a pat. “Go on, she’s expecting you.”
“Does she know who we are?” I asked, confused.
“Vaguely,” she said with a soft smile. “She remembers you carrying her.”
“Alright,” I said, and I looked carefully at the old woman. This had to be bad if it made her cry, and I wasn’t sure how to feel right then, so I gave her shoulder one last pat before I went inside.
I opened the door to the dorm building and saw that the place had been cleaned up from the disastrous state it had been in earlier after we brought Sophia in. There were no more bloody towels around, and Sophia herself was dressed in a fresh pair of pajamas that I recognized as Paige’s. The young girl had light brown hair, hazel eyes, and she was gaunt and far too thin. I suddenly understood the urge that all grandmothers seemed to have to want to feed those who appeared to be too skinny.
Tara sat on the couch next to the newcomer, and Bailey was on her other side. Paige and Anna sat in one of the chairs caddy corner to the couch, and Winchester had decided that the best place for him was right at Sophia’s feet.
“There he is,” Anna said when I walked in. “This is Tav.”
“Hi,” I said softly as I took a seat on the sofa across from the young girl. “Your name is Sophia, right?”
“Yes,” she said in a small voice.
“I’m guessing the girls already introduced themselves,” I said.
Sophia nodded in response, so I nodded back.
“We were just asking her how she’s feeling,” Bailey said.
“I’m better than I have been the past few days,” she said, and her voice wavered some.
“You’ve been bleeding for days?” Tara asked quickly, and I shot her a look to remind her to take it easy on the girl.
I wanted to jump in and ask her a million questions, too, but I thought it best to let the women handle this. Most women were more comfortable talking about these types of things with another woman versus a man, so I thought if I made myself small and quiet then she might open up more.
“Yeah,” the girl said, and she looked down at her fingers. They were chewed to the point where I could see blood on them, and she had no nails to speak of. She must have endured a lot of stress to pick and bite herself like that.
“Sophia, sweety,” Marla’s voice came low and gentle from behind me. “It’s okay. Can you tell them what you told Paige and I?”
“You won’t tell him I’m alive, will you?” the girl asked, and as she spoke she began to sob uncontrollably. “Please, you have to tell him I’m dead! Please, please don’t make me go back there!”
“Hey, hey,” I said softly, and before I knew it I was on my knees right in front of her with her hands in mine. “We won’t tell anybody anything.”
“Do you promise?” she asked, her cheeks covered in tear
s.
“We promise,” Tara assured her next to me.
“Who is ‘he’?” Bailey asked softly. “Who are you afraid of?”
“Brody,” she breathed. “He can’t know that I lived.”
I had been right. Brody had something to do with what this girl had gone through, and I hated him for it even before I knew what his exact involvement was. She was terrified of him, that was obvious, and people didn’t become terrified of someone without good reasons.
I moved back to my seat on the other couch as Sophia took a deep breath and composed herself. I wanted to give her some space since she seemed so distraught.
Tara moved to speak, but I raised my hand to stop her, and we were all quiet for a moment. I watched Sophia, and once I felt she had calmed down enough, I nodded to Tara to ask her question.
“Sophia,” the platinum blonde said softly, “can you tell us what happened? We promise we won’t tell anyone, and we’ll make sure you never have to see Brody again, ever.”
“Okay,” the young girl said, and she sniffled and nodded. “He gave me the same pills that he gives the others, but something went wrong. I took them three days ago, and the bleeding just didn’t stop. I didn’t know what to do, I thought I was going to die.”
She began to cry again as she spoke, but Tara nodded and placed a hand on her forearm.
“You’re okay now,” Paige assured her.
“What pills did he give you?” Anna asked softly. “Do you know?”
“I don’t know what they’re called,” Sophia said with a shake of her head. “He keeps them in his room.”
I wanted to ask Marla what he could have given her, but it didn’t matter at the moment, I was more concerned with finding out what the hell was going on in that fort.
“Sophia,” I said, “you mentioned that Brody gives these pills to the other women, too?”
“Yeah,” she said, and she lifted a shaky hand to brush her hair behind her ear. “Anytime someone gets pregnant he gives them the pills to make it go away.”
“All of these pregnancies,” Anna said, “Brody is the father?”
Sophia nodded.
“Has this happened to any of the other girls?” Tara asked.
“I don’t think so,” she said with a shake of her head. “But I can’t say for sure. Usually the girl is gone for a couple of days, he puts them in one of the bedrooms and only sends in one of the older women to check on them every now and then.”
