Emily and Joniver shared a look. “What did he mean by especially for you?” Emily asked.
Joniver shook his head, took Emily by the hand and said, “Come on, let’s get inside.”
The building they walked into looked like a giant warehouse. The interior was relatively warm, but its spartan interior and drab coloring gave no sense of comfort.
They got coffee and some sweet bread right before the short man walked in from a side room.
***
Reyes continued, “You will have snowmobiles, but those can only take you so far, and then you will have to walk the remaining distance. In total you will need to go about twenty kilometers or so. This will get you to the tunnel entrance, and it’s another twenty kilometers to the camp once you’re in the tunnel. Any questions?”
One Angriff trooper raised his hand. “When does the hard part start?”
Laughter all around.
“I am about to show you how to pack your gear and prepare. You will then put your stuff together and I will come around and observe. Any questions?”
In the adrenalin-laden thrill of the escape from the Old Airport - had it really been less than 24 hours ago? - Joniver had forgotten to ask about Olinar and Nana. Dunston said they were safe, but Joniver wanted assurance.
He raised his hand, looked back at Dunston, “What about Olinar and Na - my grandmother?”
Dunston said, “I’ll give you a full update as soon as Reyes is done. I’ve heard from North Command and I know where they are.”
Joniver breathed a sigh. But Dunston never really answered his question, did he? Joniver was on edge, hardly hearing anything, waiting for his chance to get clarification from Dunston.
Reyes continued for another fifteen minutes and turned the group loose to collect their packs and/or sacks, go through the shelves of equipment, and load up. As soon as he finished his lecture, Joniver made a beeline to Dunston with Emily hard on his heels.
Dunston saw him coming and broke off the conversation he had going with one of his men. “Come over here,” he said, motioning to the two of them. He turned three chairs facing each other in a circle off away from the group.
“Well?” Joniver asked, concern writ large on his face and displayed in his eyes. “You said you knew where they were.”
Emily was as concerned as Joniver, but so far said nothing. Nana, Ms. Ruth, took over in her life after her aunt died, and she did not want to lose anyone else.
“Joniver,” Dunston said, “your grandmother is almost to North Command by now. They were able to get her before you were even taken to the Old Airport. However this trip as you can already see is better undertaken in youth. She has not fared well, and I understand she is sick. They don’t think it’s anything serious, but you’ll want to see her first thing.”
“Absolutely!” Joniver said. “What about-"
“We will!” Emily said interrupting, then finished Joniver’s thought. “What about Olinar?”
Dunston dropped his head, “He never made it to the rendezvous point. We’re trying to determine his location now.”
“Joniver, Emily,” Dunston said, “Olinar was the reason we were able to get to you when we did. As you’ve no doubt figured out by now, we put Olinar in contact with you to watch your back.”
Joniver frowned. “I just thought he was my friend."
Emily gently touched his arm.
“Oh, he was your friend, Joniver,” Dunston said grinning. “Olinar became your friend and admirer. So much so, we thought we would have to pull him off you. We were not sure if he was objective enough about you. However, if we had pulled his assignment, we felt certain he would have chosen to stay and hang out with you anyway.”
Joniver smirked. He was glad Olinar’s friendship had not been faked, but also worried about where he was and what was happening to him.
“You said you knew where he was, but now you say you don’t - which is it?” Joniver sounded accusatory and he meant it. Joniver knew Dunston had lied to him earlier. He was tired of it. “Can we go back and get him?”
“We will,” Dunston said, ignoring the accusation, “but we get you three North first.”
“Three?”
“Yes, you two and the Guardsman. If he is who Jones thinks he is…” His voice trailed off.
“My brother?” Joniver asked. Dunston nodded.
“I want to come back and help get Olinar,” Joniver said.
Emily shook her head. “No.”
“We’ll see,” said Dunston.
“I-"
“I said we’ll see,” Dunston cut him off. “I didn’t say no. You clearly have some skills and abilities, but you need training. Look, I want - we all want to get him back. When I said I knew where he was; I do know generally, but we’ve got to be sure.”
Emily just sat shaking her head. Now that she had Joniver, she was not letting go.
Joniver saw Emily’s expression but ignored it. His voice and expression softened. “I don’t think we’ve said thanks - at least, I haven’t said thanks.” Joniver extended his hand.
“I haven’t either,” Emily said. “Thank you.”
Dunston took Joniver’s hand. “I’m glad you’re both here,” he said, and meant it. He shook Emily’s hand.
“I didn’t mean to be a putz back there, but-“
“Don’t talk about it,” Dunston said, meaning it for more than one reason. “None of us would be here if it wasn’t for you. Now, let’s get you North so you can see your grandmother, and then we’ll talk about getting Olinar, and figuring out why you and your brother are so important to command.” He stood up. “That’s Olinar’s fiancée there, by the way,” Dunston pointed over Emily’s left shoulder, who turned to see. “Joniver, I think you’ve met her already.”
Joniver and Emily looked and saw a young woman about their age. She was beautiful with long strawberry blonde hair and a fair complexion. She had the serious look. The one Joniver and Emily had come to expect from people in the North.
“She was the one who knocked the guy - my brother - off me in the terminal,” Joniver said.
“She saved your ass. She’s a good soldier.”
Joniver nodded, but it felt awkward. He was saved by a girl in the terminal, but he had just tried to convince Dunston to take him on a rescue mission.
“When the time is right,” Emily said, “we will get with her.”
Joniver nodded, and they each headed over to the storage racks to load up their gear for the journey. They landed here, but it was not their final destination.
“By the way,” Joniver turned and asked Dunston, “why is the camp so far north?”
“Implants don’t work up there,” he said.
“Huh?” Emily said.
“The implants they use to get Guardsmen and company workers. They put those in at the harvesting centers. That’s what harvesting centers are for, among other things.”
He saw their puzzled looks.
“Look,” Dunston said, “let’s get to North Command and we’ll go over all of it there.”
***
Joniver and Emily worked side by side preparing their gear for the journey North. Each glanced at the other for unspoken tips, not wanting to bother the more experienced in the group. Reyes walked by.
“Hey Jon, What are you expecting? This being your first time in the North?” Reyes said.
Emily started a bit and looked at Reyes.
“I don’t know, and my name is not Jon, it’s Joniver,” Joniver said. Emily just shook her head slightly in answer to Reyes question.
“Oh, right, Joniver. Sorry,” Reyes said. He examined Joniver’s pack and disassembled it. Joniver opened his mouth to protest, but Reyes raised his hand and shot him a sideways glance.
“I’ve never been to a place where people are free, so I don’t know what to expect,” Joniver said.
Reyes snorted, “You’re not going to a place where people are free. People in the North aren’t free - not at all.”
> “They don’t have the company, or Hunter, though,” Joniver protested.
“Doesn’t make them free. Here, do the folds like this - see?”
“Sure,” Joniver said.
He looked at Reyes.
“Well, if people in the North aren’t free, what’s the fight about? Isn’t freedom the thing? Make the world better, and all that?” Joniver said.
“The world is as it should be Joniver,” Reyes said.
“I’m hearing that a lot lately,” Joniver said, half under his breath.
“You can’t change the world because you can’t change people. The only way to change the world is to change people, and people are inherently screwed up. You can try and make it better, and maybe you should try, who knows? But you can’t change the world unless you change people. And good luck changing people.”
“Well, you are just full of sunshine this morning, aren’t you?” Joniver quipped.
There was an awkward pause and Reyes stared at Joniver for a few seconds. Emily listened.
“I heard you were a smart ass,” Reyes said. “I’m just trying to help. Don’t be disappointed with what you find up there. Only worry about what you can do. That’s all I’m saying.
“You aren’t the first bright-eyed, bushy-tailed idealists to come through here. Be honest with yourself about what you see. Make sense?”
Joniver nodded. He had no idea what Reyes had just said, but it already gnawed at him.
Reyes inspected Emily’s pack, nodded approval and moved on.
“People can change, can’t they?” Joniver asked out loud. He wanted the company to fall and Hunter to be removed - killed, maybe? - because what Hunter was doing was wrong. Getting rid of Hunter was a needed change, and he could not sit by and watch, especially now. He needed to do something. And what about Olinar? Shouldn’t we try and do something to help him? What Reyes said maybe made some sense, but not with real people. When it came to living, he was going to try and make the world as it should be. “Whatever it takes,” Joniver said to himself.
Joniver wanted very much to change some things. The first thing he wanted to change was his relationship with Emily. He did not like fighting with her, but he found it so difficult to get to a place he could tell her what he wanted to.
Why?
He felt, at least he was pretty sure, he loved her, and he was pretty sure she loved him too, although he did not understand why she would. He had to talk with Nana. When will I see Nana?
He looked over at Emily. She did a great job with her pack and gear, but his wasn’t right, despite Reyes help. “Can you help me?”
“Sure,” she said, and in what seemed to him like no time, Emily had everything in its place. Folds and inserts were crisp and external wear gear laid out as Reyes had instructed.
“Thanks.”
“You know,” Emily said, “I’m not being critical, but it’s interesting to me - you are so deft with your hands you can pickpocket Dunston’s gun and steal apples at the market but you have trouble with this kind of stuff. Why is that?”
“I don’t know. Some things just seem to come so much easier.”
“Yea, I suppose.” Emily picked up her pack.
“Wait...you know about the apples too? Does everybody know?”
Emily smiled.
Joniver strapped on his sword under his knee length jacket so the tip could be seen just beneath.
“Why are you keeping the sword, Joniver?” Emily asked.
“I..I’m not sure. Leaving it feels wrong.”
“I guess you never know when you’ll need a sword in a gun fight,” she said and shot him a sideways glance.
“Whatever!” he said, and they walked hand in hand toward the departure site.
Chapter 14
“I just want to go back to the way things were!” Joniver said aloud.
No one heard. Every cold, soggy step was a reminder of what he had left behind and could never recapture.
The fierce wind cut deeper and a biting chill blew strong, entering Joniver’s hooded sweatshirt underneath his outer coat. The pack on his back, no matter how expertly put together, did little to keep him warm. The sharp sting of winter wind shot frozen daggers down his neck and back, and he tensed against the frigid invisible razors of the winter air. His tender flesh protested the onslaught with ripping pain in his shoulders.
He wanted to be warm and at this moment there was little he could think of he would not do to get warm. His feet were so frozen he could not feel much below his ankles. His fingertips, though sheltered in winter gloves, only shook uncontrollably when he held them out in front of his face.
The thought of going back kept picking at him. As he stepped on he heard himself say, “Everything’s changed; and it’s not going back!"
Still, no one heard. They would not have cared if they had, so cold and bitter was the afternoon, and so long the journey.
Joniver slogged onward. He was unsure of the destination, or what would happen when he arrived, but on he walked, because right now, he knew nothing else to do. Everything felt so pointless, and it felt empty. What was the purpose in going on? He despaired of this journey and at times despaired even of life. He knew there was something out there; something more than what he could see feel and touch right now - he did not know how he knew it, but he knew it. What Reyes had said had not made a difference with him, although he knew the words had left an impression. No, there was more.
What Reyes said to him simply reinforced what he already knew was right. He wished it wasn’t right, but he knew it was. The words awakened something in him. There was something he kept stabled at the edge of his consciousness like a wild thought, which if allowed to take shape in his mind and command his thoughts would cause him to do crazy things.
What things, he now wondered. And how did he know they would be crazy? Who told him they would be crazy?
What made something crazy, he asked. Crazies were not called crazy simply because of the way they acted. They’re called Crazies because of who they are.
He knew he was not crazy; this was not who he was. Although walking in freezing cold with too little clothing not knowing where you were going, or who you were going with, seemed pretty crazy enough right now.
Joniver shook his head as he let it droop from his shoulders, using it to fight the cold and wind, like the bow of an ice boat cutting through the frozen waves. In his case, the waves were winning, and Joniver pulled his jacket tighter and his arms in close.
There was a part of him that wished he did not know what he knew. He realized because of what he knew, things could not go back to the way they were. Wait, no, that wasn’t right either.
What Joniver thought he knew and the way things were, was not really how things had been. He had chosen to believe things to be a certain way. What he knew now was he had been deceived, by himself, and by the company. He had lied, and been lied to in order for others to have control. They have the life they want at the expense of the lives others deserved. Hearing the delusional talk of Hunter had driven the truth home to him. He saw clearly now, some people in the world had while others did not.
That is crazy, Joniver thought.
And Hunter is crazy. No, Hunter’s a lunatic.
This is not the way the world should be. A few people having everything. Things they have taken by force - by theft - being willingly led by a lunatic like Hunter. That’s crazy!
He remembered his own theft at the market each week. But that was different. The people he stole from were not deserving of what they had.
Who decided they were not deserving?
“You’re thinking too much, Joniver,” he said. So much had happened so fast, and for Joniver, it was too much for a cold trek through snow and freezing rain. The journey felt like a dead man’s march, and Joniver knew, for him, it could be.
Despite the discomfort, he did not want to go back. He wanted to go on. He hated the cold and the bite of the wind, and he was not sure he liked the peopl
e he was with. At least he knew now what was real - really real, as Joniver thought of it. He understood a bit better how the world was supposed to work, and how people were supposed to live and be treated.
The fuzzy, cloudy memory of the night he took the sword jumped to his mind, and his head felt all the more cold because of it. He had done wrong; he doubted he could have saved the man; in fact, he was sure of it, but he could have tried.
The man deserved for Joniver to try, and he did not try to help at all. He would not ever, ever, ever do something like that again, but he also knew he could never eliminate the memory of what he had already done. Neither could he make up for how he had treated the man. There was no going back, and he must look elsewhere for redemption.
Although Joniver was not sure why, he just knew they - he was now thinking of himself as part of this group - were in the right, although he was not sure he clearly understood who they were. The thought warmed him some. He did not have this feeling often, but he knew it now.
Joniver put his hand on the hilt of the sword. He had taken advantage of the man, whose name he did not know. He took advantage of whomever he could. He was selfish and it shamed him. From now on, Joniver told himself, he would not take advantage of people. He didn’t like the feeling, and he made the commitment to himself that he would not do it again.
So he trudged on, waiting and wanting for whatever lay ahead and sure whatever it was, it could not possibly be as bitter as this cold. He was wrong, but he had no way to know it. Joniver looked forward to seeing how things would unfold once they reached the North Command, because for the first time in his life, he knew where he was going.
The End of Book 1
Book 2
"I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination."
Jimmy Dean
“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.”
Another Force Page 16
