She stopped and had a sip of water from the collector. I studied her profile from the corner of my eye and her pinched, pale face worried me. I wasn’t sure that the telling was doing her any good.
“Did you, well, did you have to go through the welcoming ceremony?” asked Jake quietly.
“No, thank God. Before the next full moon, they were sure that Amethyst was pregnant and suspected that the other girl was as well, so they didn’t want to risk another baby so soon. I saw how they pampered the pregnant girls and knew that they were safe, at least for the time being. So I bided my time, becoming more cooperative and eventually I got more freedom. Most of the women were small framed and weaker; a genetic mutation, I guess, so my strength and height came in handy. I started seeing less and less of Amethyst, as she got sucked further in to their beliefs. I guess it helped her cope with the aftermath of the Welcoming. She was only thirteen and I suppose she just did what she needed to. I stayed, thinking that I could get us both out, once she had the baby.” I thought she’d finished, but after a long pause, she sighed and added, “Yeah, once she had the baby.”
There was a long silence and we waited patiently, eyes on the ever fading trail that would take us in to a similar hell. We’d spent a large part of the day looking for tracks and dumb luck had brought us to a way marker, several miles past the highway where we’d lost the trail. The light started to fail and I didn’t want to risk giving away our position by turning on the roof lights, so Jake wound up walking in front of the car with a shaded light stick, picking the path out in the dark. He seemed eager to get out of the car, not curious about how Cedar’s story turned out. Maybe he had a premonition.
The rest of her story made my hair curl. She fled, knowing that the survivalists were looking after Amethyst. She told us that she just couldn’t stand watching her little sister slowly getting indoctrinated in to that way of life. Cedar didn’t go far though, she found shelter and lived off what she could steal from the settlement. It was dangerous and she started weakening, as the months passed and food and water got harder to steal. Every once in a while she would catch a glimpse of her sister, growing ever larger with child. As the birth date drew closer Cedar started keeping a closer eye on the compound, readying herself for a plan that slowly hatched in her brain as she waited for her niece or nephew to be born. If she could just get them out of the settlement, everything would return to normal, but it would be easier once the baby was born. She couldn’t face trying to bring an infant in to the world all by herself and what if something went wrong? At least the women in the camp were experienced at such things.
“I was watching the camp from my hiding place and I noticed a change in the daily routine; the men disappeared over the dunes and all the women kept inside, so I guessed it must be time,” she explained me. “I crept through the building, using back halls and hiding behind crates of supplies, until I found the room where they were keeping Amethyst. The seven women were busy making preparations, while my sister moaned her way through the process. Leave it to the men to bail!” This she said with vehemence, distaste thick in her voice. “It took forever and I could tell that things weren’t going well. She wasn’t even fourteen yet, for God’s sake, her body just wasn’t ready for having a baby. The women whispered amongst each other and came to some sort of conclusion. It all happened so quickly, I didn’t even realize what was going on, until it was too late. Six of the women rushed off and the last woman, Mary, pulled out an old metal knife. She didn’t even hesitate when she sliced open Amethyst’s stomach to pull the baby out. I was so shocked I couldn’t move or even breathe and then Mary rushed out of the room, taking the baby with her. She didn’t even have the decency to look back.”
“I ran over to try and do something, anything. There was blood every where. I looked around for something to stitch her up with, but even while I was doing it, I knew it was too late. They hadn’t cut her to save her, they just wanted the baby. I held her hand and she turned her head towards me, her eyes slowly focussing on my face as she struggled with the pain. She called my name and I said ‘Shhh, it’s okay, I’m here now; everything is going to be okay.’ I was such a liar and she knew it. She asked about the baby and I told her it was fine, but I wasn’t even sure of that. She told me not to be afraid, that I would be alright and that she would be waiting for me, with Dad and Mom, when I was ready. She said it so surely, like she could see them waiting for her and then she asked me to look after her baby.
“I don’t know how long I stood there; looking down at her face, well after the light had left her eyes. Her face was wet and it took me a long time to realize that it was my own tears that ran over her cheeks and down into her hair. I bundled her up and carried her to where I’d been hiding and buried her. I didn’t have anything to make a marker with and couldn’t even find the words to send her peacefully to her rest.
“I watched the camp for three weeks, waiting to see or hear something of the baby, but there was nothing and the general mood of the camp was subdued, so I guessed that the baby hadn’t made it either. I had done everything I could; so I returned to the spot where I buried Amethyst and I laid down; prepared to die. I mean what was the point of even trying? I had nothing and no one. I couldn’t tell you how long I was there, waiting for dehydration to take me, but, one day, on the shifting wind I heard something that made me try to get up. I was so weak, my skin dry and parched, that I felt like it might crack if I strained too much, but I got up and listened nearer the entrance of my hideout and I heard it again; a baby crying. My sister’s baby; it couldn’t be anything else. I had to rescue it. I couldn’t let it live out its life in that horrible place with those terrible people. If it was a girl, it would suffer the same fate as Amethyst and if it was a boy, well I couldn’t let him do the same thing to some other poor girl. I didn’t really think it through, I just walked right in to the camp and picked up the baby from its bed and started walking back out again. It must have been so unexpected that it shocked the people that saw me, but somebody eventually came to their senses and called out the alarm and I was surrounded just before I had made it back through the gate. Mary pried the baby out of my arms and gave me the once over. I guess I wasn’t much to look at by then, having lived rough for almost nine months.
“’Take her out to the middle of the Bee Zee and leave her, she’s no good to us,’ she commanded three boys, fairly new to the teen years, if I had to guess. They were all heavily armed, so there was no point in resisting. I don’t think I could have if I’d wanted. They tied me up and did as they were told; porting me out in to the dunes like so much garbage. One of them must have felt badly, because as the others were making their way back he undid the knot from my hands and left me a packet of water pills. He’s the only reason I’m here and I really don’t know whether I’m grateful or not.” With that, she laid her head back and closed her eyes, completely spent.
I couldn’t think of anything else to say, so we followed Jake through the darkening night, until he finally waved us to a stop.
Chapter 18 – The Hunt
He gestured for quiet and motioned us to look at something he’d noticed in the sand; well-sheltered by a rock formation, or perhaps the ruin of a building. We eased ourselves out of the car, muscles tired from sitting and drained emotionally, and we hovered around the tracks on the ground. There was an outline, where something sizable had been placed. The shape was mildly kidney formed, or perhaps more like a comma. It wasn’t hard to tell that a body had been placed there for a time and there were a lot of foot tracks that led up to the spot and returned the way they had come. The most distressing thing of note was a small dark stain near the crest of the comma. Blood; most likely Blossom’s blood and the thought made my gut tighten.
We all turned in the direction of the footsteps, straining our eyes through the waning night in search of clues and unwelcomed sentries. The moon was sinking into the western horizon and in the dim light we could make out several shapes of boulders and fur
ther away the rigid lines of man made objects, presumably buildings. We’d come quite a ways back through the mountains and finally hit a patch of sand free road, which was pure luck. Before we could do anything, we had to find a safe place to hide the vehicle and scout the area before the sun was fully up. We also desperately needed sleep.
The Sand Walkers had selected a community far enough outside of Montreal to avoid detection, but close enough to raid, when necessary. The upside for us was that there were enough hidey-holes outside the compound to suit our needs. The gas station we found was similarly situated; close, but not too close and we discovered that we could hide the car in the collapsed oil change area without much trouble. From the outside, it looked like nothing had changed, but with Betsy secured inside and us comfortably stashed away in the supply room, we felt safe enough to sit and hatch up a plan. The paved road had been a blessing, as we didn’t have to trouble with hiding our tracks and we settled in to try and get some rest, before scoping out the situation at the survivalist compound. We slept in shifts, leaving Cedar to take the last watch. She needed the sleep after her releasing all that emotion and I thought she might be sleeping more soundly, now that she’d told us about Amethyst. I had a million questions for her, but I just couldn’t bring myself to put her through more suffering, so I zipped my lip and scanned the horizon looking for any signs of movement, mechanical or human.
The sun inched its way across the sky, each painful degree seemed an eternity, as we waited for the long shadows of late afternoon. Cedar assured us that this was the best time to check out the situation, as most of the Sand Walkers would be catching up on much needed rest and even the guards would be half asleep at their posts. I guess it made sense, killing the hotter part of the day inside and sleeping as the day started to cool off a little, but the whole thing made me nervous. We had one hand gun and a half repaired bot with a battery that would be running low in the next 24 hours or so, if his energy panels weren’t repaired. I looked over at Pipkin; the damaged ear was slowly being rebuilt. I wondered if the entire ear needed to be complete before he could start charging himself up, but I didn’t bother to ask. Whatever it would be was what it was. Besides we were only going on a reconnaissance mission; we weren’t taking on a den of survivalists without knowing what we were getting ourselves in to.
“So, did you ever go back to try and find the baby?” Jake asked Cedar. I shot him a warning glare, but he was too busy picking his finger nails with a roundish gadget that he often fiddled with. I hadn’t seen him with it since school let out, but wasn’t surprised that he still had it. I ducked my head and returned to hunting through our slip shot selection of clothes, looking for something beige. We’d agreed that it would be better if we blended in to the environment as best as we could.
Cedar cleared her throat a little and I noticed that a fleeting tightness crossed her face.
“Yeah,” she said quietly, “well, no, but I tried. I couldn’t find the compound again. I mean, I was unconscious when they brought me in, so I really didn’t have a good sense of where we were and then I was so dehydrated and weak when they took me out, I couldn’t have paid attention if I’d wanted to.”
“Oh,” replied Jake, a suspicious rosy colour gracing his cheeks, “sorry.” At least the kid had realized his carelessness.
“Don’t be. Every time I come across a compound I try and see if I recognize anyone, but it’s been thirteen years. Besides, the kid is as happy as it can be and doesn’t know any different, right?” It sounded like an argument she’s had with herself a thousand times and all Jake could do was nod. She looked at me, eyes filled with anguish and before saying anything stupid, I nodded as well. “Let’s head out.” With that, she rose and picked up Pipkin, placed him on her shoulder, where he could scan well ahead of us. I checked my hand gun for possibly the hundredth time, patted Jake on the shoulder and pulled on my sunglasses.
The compound was due east of our hiding place, so the sentries, if there were any, would be looking in to the lowering sun as we approached. The strong light of final day would hopefully camouflage our arrival and we’d use the cover of outlaying buildings for further cloak our movements.
We skirted around and through buildings making our way towards where we thought the compound was located. Most of the buildings were stripped of anything useful, but one drew Cedar’s attention as we neared it. It was crumpled and deteriorated to the point of being dangerous and I warned her away, but she just shook her head and gestured for Jake and me to follow. She placed Pipkin near the entry with strict instructions to stay out of sight, but keep lookout and then she crawled through the collapsed doorway, shimmying through a gap in the bricks. I eyeballed the passage, gauging the chances of me getting through without getting stuck. As I watched Jake slip through easily, I couldn’t help but think that while I might be broader across the shoulder, Cedar was thicker through the chest…I cut the thought off and pulled myself through. I could feel the press of the bricks against my skin, tearing my Sunskin and grazing my own skin as well. There was a fleeting moment when I thought I’d wedged myself in, but Cedar and Jake, none too gently, pulled me through.
We cracked some new light sticks and gazed around us. The interior was disorienting, in that it seemed structurally sound and was well laid out and roomy. The space was obviously used for storage, with crates neatly piled against the walls and in man-made stalagmites.
“I knew it!” crowed Cedar, prying open the nearest box, I was going to ask her to clarify, but she pulled out a semiautomatic weapon and waived it around jubilantly. She dug around a bit more and pulled out three boxes of rounds. “Look around, they might have some other stuff we can use.”
We filched through the stacks of cartons, trying to find anything that might give us an advantage. Jake loaded himself down with hand guns, another semiautomatic and, for reasons that were strictly his own, a crossbow. Cedar found a high quality sniper’s rifle with a night vision sight and I found a Corner Shot and boxes of ammo for my Ruger. While the technology was old, the weapons were in full working order, obviously well maintained in the unlikely event they’d be needed. I also came across a lethal looking bowie knife that I strapped to my leg, which Jake couldn’t resist and took some time finding his own. We added a pair of high power binoculars and three pairs of night vision goggles to our arsenal. The final additions to our wardrobes were some very comforting Kevlar flak jackets.
“Let’s stock up and take some of this back to the car,” I urged, filling every available pocket with ammunition for the two guns in my possession.
“Get serious, Dax,” snorted Cedar, packing clips in to her waistband, once her pockets were full, “we don’t have time and all this stuff will just weigh us down. We have to get Blossom out; the sooner the better.”
“I’m not going to leave all of this here where they can use it against us,” I rationalized. I had no idea how many people were in the compound but it could be up to twenty or so, according to Cedar and I was kind of fond of breathing.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got that covered,” she replied smugly, waiving a detonator at me. Jake let out a low whistle and gave her an impressed nod.
“Christ, you can’t blow the place up, or they’ll know we’re here! The only thing we have to our advantage is surprise.” I ran distracted hands through my hair and gave her my most serious “teacher” glare.
“Well, I’m not that stupid,” she said wryly, “I was planning on using it as a diversion.” I looked at her blankly. “If we time it right, they’ll come out here looking for invaders, while we do what we need to in the compound.” I thought it through and realized that she was brilliant.
“Right, of course,” I nodded and proceeded to drag myself back through the opening, trying not to feel like an idiot. The sun was beautifully positioned on the horizon, but the glare blinded me as my eyes adjusted from the dim interior. My only comfort was that the sun would be as disabling to the people in the compound.
We f
ollowed the bots prompts and plodded through the sand, trying to keep out of the line of sight until we were within a few hundred metres of the compound’s wall. The Sand Walkers had pulled down any buildings within that range, making it impossible to sneak up to the barrier. The wall wasn’t ridiculously high, only a couple of metres, but it was solid, so we couldn’t tell if there were look outs or not. If we could reach the fence, we’d be fairly safe, as long as we stayed away from any openings, as there were no obvious lookout towers. We slunk around the outlaying buildings, slowly circling the wall, hoping to find a weak spot or likely entry point. We crouched down, behind a small cement wall that was cracked and broken and scanned the outer perimeter of the compound. The walls glowed with a beautiful golden light that came from the sun sinking in the west.
“Look, there’s a door in the wall there,” pointed Cedar, using our newly acquired binoculars. She passed them to me and once I’d spotted the entry, I passed them on to Jake. “It looks like it’s just got a standard lock with a numeric code. Maybe we’ll get lucky and be able to crack it.” At her words, I saw a smile creep across Jake’s face and he turned to us with a look of such boyish delight, that I caught myself smiling back at him, not even knowing why.
“I’ve got that covered,” he said, with a quick nod towards the doorway. He pulled out the disc that he had recently used to clean his nails, as means of an explanation. I didn’t get it and he could tell by my expression. “Look, let’s just say I’ve gotten around a lock or two, okay?” He flipped the disc opened and one side had a nifty arrangement of doodads that seemed well suited to bypassing electronic locks. “So what’s the plan?” Cedar looked around at the buildings in the outer periphery of the gated village.
Last Farmer: Last Farmer Series - Book 1 Page 17
