Neena clutched her empty bucket. At least it wasn’t heavy, without water splashing around.
Taking advantage of their lighter load, the Right Cavers curved with the tunnel, following Darius’s circular marks and chatting. Neena and Kai cast their torches ahead of them, leading the others around the last bend that gave way to the wide chamber and the spring.
She slowed as they rounded the corner.
Deeper in the chamber, torches burned.
Voices rang out.
The smooth walls of the chamber sloped upward, culminating at a ceiling almost as tall as a storehouse building. To the left was the solid part of the tunnel floor, continuing north. To the right was the spring.
Forty people stood at the spring’s edge, dipping their buckets in the water, quietly chatting. Neena tensed as she recognized Sherry, Ed, and some other people from the Left and Center Caves.
Neena’s people stopped short.
Noticing Neena’s group, the colonists at the spring ceased their conversations. Slowly, they removed their water buckets and migrated away from the spring, clustering behind Sherry and Ed.
Once again, Neena felt as if she had entered the Left Cave.
The tension in the air was thick and palpable enough that Neena could feel her heart beating in her ears. She swallowed.
“What are you doing here?” Sherry called across the gap between them.
The question was rhetorical.
Of course, everyone knew.
Struggling to maintain her cool, Neena called back, “We collect our water at this time.”
Sherry looked at Neena. She looked at her bucket. Slowly, she arched her back. She made a decision.
“Not today, you don’t,” Sherry said.
Next to her, Ed held his chin up in defiance.
Sensing the not-so-subtle threat in those words, Sherry and Ed’s group came toward Neena’s.
Neena stiffened. She looked behind her at the twenty men and women who waited, watching her reaction. Looking at the larger group of Left and Center Cavers, who outnumbered them, Neena knew they had no chance at winning an argument, and certainly not a fight. But they needed their water. Beside her, Kai dug his heels into the ground, steadfast.
Hoping to squash an altercation, she waited until they got close before saying, “We’ll wait our turn.”
“You heard what Bryan said about getting in our way,” Sherry spat, to the murmuring agreement of the forty or so people behind her. “Now, turn around and head back to your cave.”
“We won’t get in your way while you finish collecting what you need,” Neena promised.
“Leave.” Sherry’s face was stern.
Neena looked among the people in front of her, hoping to find a reasonable face among them, but not one met her eyes with kindness. Even those she recognized as former acquaintances neither smiled, nor broke his or her threatening composure.
Sherry’s eyes blazed with intensity as she said, “Turn around and go.”
Neena bristled. Forcing amicability into her voice, she, said, “We’ll head back a little way, and then come back.”
“We’ll be here a while.” Sherry’s face was stone. “We’re taking our time.”
A long moment of silence took over the two groups, as they waited for someone to yield. Before Neena could think of another way to handle the situation, a voice interrupted.
“We’re not going anywhere, Neena.” The words echoed off the walls of the cave, surprising all of them. Neena turned to find Samara stepping forward, clutching her two empty buckets. “My children need their water. We’ll wait right here until they’re finished.”
The atmosphere changed in the room. The people on both sides of the cave stiffened. Neena looked among her twenty people. Of course, some carried spears or knives, but mostly, they carried buckets. They’d come here for water, not an altercation.
Still, some of them looked as if they were ready to fight. They inched forward, clenching their fists. Too many days of nervous, confined anticipation had taken their toll.
Sherry stepped sideways, getting nose-to-nose with Samara. Her line of people shifted.
“Tell your friend to back off, Neena,” Sherry warned, her people pressing in behind her.
Neena opened her mouth to speak, but Samara interrupted.
“We have just as much right to this water as you do. We’re not going anywhere.”
A glimmer of violence crossed Sherry’s eyes as she heard Samara’s words.
“Darius found this spring,” Samara persisted, drawing strength from those behind her. “This is our water, not yours.”
Angry spittle flew from Sherry’s mouth. “Take another step, and we’ll see whose water it is.”
All eyes locked on Sherry and Samara.
Defiantly, Samara took another step.
With a cry, Sherry shoved her backward.
Pandemonium erupted.
Shouts filled the air.
People pushed, shouted, and swung. Water splashed everywhere. Colonists toppled in all directions, fighting for the upper hand, dropping their buckets, or using them as weapons. Neena scrambled back, dodging a screaming, charging woman. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ed swing, and Kai duck. A few people fell to the ground, victims of pushing hands.
A shriek ripped her attention right, where Sherry and Samara locked fingers, pushing each other back and forth.
And then Samara was falling back on her butt, Sherry was reaching to her side, and a knife was flashing in Sherry’s hand.
People on both sides fell back, as the altercation took a severe turn. A few people on the ground scrambled to get up. Others looked on with mouths agape.
Sherry swung the knife in front of her, advancing on Samara, a crazed expression on her face.
“Come on, you piece of filth!” she yelled at Samara. “Let’s see you threaten me now!”
On the ground, Samara scooted backward and away. Fear flickered through her eyes.
Sherry swung her blade again, nearly slicing Samara’s ankle, while the other Right Cavers ran forward, grabbing Samara’s arms and pulling her from harm.
“Get up and fight, you bitch!” Sherry shrieked.
She kept advancing, close enough that her next swing would surely cut flesh. Before that could happen, Neena yelled, “Stop!”
Her word echoed around the chamber.
Pulled from her maniacal daze, Sherry froze.
The rest of her group fell back around her.
“A bucket of water isn’t worth a life!” Neena yelled, looking from one side of the cave to the other. Hating the words she spoke, she said, “We’ll go, for now. This is over!”
“Neena…” Samara started, through the fear in her eyes, as people helped her to her feet.
“We’re leaving,” Neena said adamantly, looking among her twenty people. “Collect your buckets and follow me.”
A few hesitated, but most fell in line. Eventually, with the insistence of Kai, the others did, too. Keeping an eye out over their shoulders, Neena and the Right Cavers returned the way they had come.
“That’s right!” Sherry shrieked triumphantly. “Run away! This is our time to collect water now!”
Neena rounded the bend, ignoring Sherry’s cries.
Swallowing through the lump in her throat, Neena looked among her twenty people. “We’ll come back later. I promise.”
**
Neena and her group walked slowly through the cave. The aftermath of the altercation was a weight in the air, pressing on each of their shoulders. They could no longer hear the voices of the Left and Center Cavers, but they felt the outcome of the argument in the empty buckets they carried.
“Did you see their faces?” piped up one man. “They treated us like rats running along their bedrolls, rather than people among whom they’ve lived.”
Spite filled Samara’s face. “They have no right to that water. They can’t do this.”
Grimly, Kai said, “They had us outnumbe
red two-to-one. If we’d kept fighting, we might’ve died.”
Samara’s bruised pride was written on her face. “And now we will die of thirst, instead.”
“We’ll return later,” Neena said. “We’ll just have to go in larger groups.”
“And if they’re there?”
“We’ll get our water,” Neena said resolutely. “Whatever it takes.”
“The next time I see them, I’m not backing down,” Samara promised.
Neena felt a similar anger, but she forced herself to say, “Just hold tight, Samara. I promise things will get better.”
She forced certainty into those words, even though she had none.
Chapter 48: Neena
“Neena,” Darius said, sensing something on her face. “What’s wrong?”
Neena looked behind her, watching the twenty people returning to their relatives with empty buckets. The tension of the encounter was written on their faces. They would tell others their story. And that story would spread like a sickness, weaving through the cave until everyone was just as nervous and angry. While Kai headed over to brief Amos, Neena stayed with Darius and continued explaining.
Darius listened as she told of the altercation with Sherry, Samara’s bravery, and the battle that almost led to bloodshed.
“At the time, leaving seemed like the best option,” she finished.
“I think you made the right choice,” Darius told her.
“But still, that is only a temporary solution,” Neena said. “What if we go back, and they are there again?”
Darius pursed his lips in worry. “Now that they have found a new way to threaten us, I don’t think they will relent.”
“So, what will we do?” Neena asked.
A din of nervous conversation spread around them. People looked at the empty buckets of water, or examined their flasks, ascertaining how much further they had to ration.
“The situation is dire,” Darius said, scratching at his stubble. “Anyone who didn’t know it before, knows it now.”
“Do you know of another place to get water?”
“There is another spring, much farther than the one I showed you,” Darius said. “But it would take as much as half a day to get there. Going back and forth wouldn’t be efficient.”
Neena looked around at the people in the cave. An idea she hated struck her. “Do you think we should move?”
Darius thought on it for a long time. “There are plenty of other caves here. But I’m not sure that would solve our problem, either. The Left and Center Cavers might see us, and they might follow us there, too, if they were intent on intimidating us. How long would it take for them to realize they could take over a new water spot, too?”
Neena shook her head. “It wouldn’t take more than a few days for them to scour the caves and find us, or notice the smoke of our fires, if they wanted to.”
Darius sighed, looking around at the people around them. “Moving would be another patch on the problem. I will not lie: we are at one of the lowest points I thought we’d reach.”
His gaze wandered to the ground.
“I saw the spark of aggression in our people’s eyes, as they went into this skirmish,” Neena said. “We were lucky to get away without any injuries. But if Bryan, Sherry, and Ed start something again, we won’t be as lucky. The fighting will be worse, and everyone will lose. We need a way to keep people together without resorting to violence.”
Darius shook his head. “We’ll keep thinking. Hopefully we’ll come up with something.”
Chapter 49: Bryan
Bryan gazed across the wide, rounded chamber—the same place where they had examined the strange object the night before. Now, two dozen torches splashed light over the dirty Watchers who stood with their spears, and the cloth-wrapped bags of sand at which they aimed.
“Prepare to throw!” yelled Louie, his voice echoing off the cave walls.
In unison, the thirty men reared back their weapons.
“Set, aim…release!”
The sweaty Watchers flung their spears.
Thirty long, sharp weapons arced through the air, headed toward the targets. Most found their mark, penetrating the dirty cloth and cutting to the sand beneath. Only a few fell to the ground before their mark, landing on the rock floor with a clang. The throwers looked from their spears to Louie, awaiting his feedback.
“Good!” Louie said decidedly.
While his comrades walked over to retrieve their spears, Louie walked over to where Bryan stood.
“Their skills are sharp,” Louie said, with a firm nod.
“They are experienced, as we know,” Bryan said, watching the men return to their positions. Looking behind him at the mouth of the cave, he asked, “How have the Center Cavers been doing?”
“Better than I expected,” Louie said. “Of the hundred and ten men and women that Ed brought us, many have innate ability. They aren’t as talented as our Watchers, of course, but they can hold and throw their spears.”
“Good,” Bryan said. “And we have most of the Center Cave in our ranks?”
“All except the elderly, some women, and the children. I will continue training them, so they can be prepared for the monster, or anything else we need,” Louie confirmed.
Bryan nodded confidently. Having so many people at his disposal was a boon. Together, they watched the men wield their spears and aim.
“Have you heard anything from the scouts you sent out to the ground to check for the monster?” Louie asked.
“Nothing yet,” Bryan said, “though we’ve had a few groups moving around covertly, doing their best to keep out of sight of the Right Cavers. They’re checking the desert and reporting to me regularly.”
“Perhaps soon, they will have an update,” Louie suggested.
“The Abomination is still around,” Bryan said, firmly. “I know it. And as soon as we have evidence of it, we will face it.”
They turned their attention back to the drilling Watchers, who flung their spears at the targets. A voice echoed from down the tunnel behind him, calling Bryan.
He turned, catching sight of a familiar person carrying a torch.
“Keep practicing,” Bryan instructed Louie. “I’ll catch up.”
Louie nodded, heading back to the others, while Bryan headed to meet the person farther down the tunnel. Excitement lit Sherry’s face when she saw him.
“I have news,” she said, her eyes flickering with intensity.
“What is it?” Bryan asked.
“This morning, we encountered Neena and some others at the spring,” Sherry said, dragging a hand across her sooty mouth.
“What happened?” Bryan asked, surprised.
“We sent them away without their water.” Sherry’s eyes were wild and enthused. “They tried resisting, but we fought them.”
“You did?”
Sherry told of the warnings she and the Center Cavers had issued to Neena and her people, how some of Neena’s people pushed back, and how they’d skirmished. She concluded with how she’d clawed and tore at one of the Right Cavers. Sherry’s eyes grew wild as she spoke of the knife she’d pulled.
“I wanted to use it,” Sherry said, clenching and unclenching her hands.
“But you have a child coming,” Bryan said with a frown.
“The child is fine,” Sherry affirmed.
“Still, you should be careful.” Bryan raised his chin and looked at her.
The last thing he wanted was for her to hurt her unborn baby. Still, he couldn’t deny the feeling of power that overcame him as he listened to her report. Standing in the dark cave, he felt like Thorne. No. That wasn’t right.
He was Thorne.
“Did any of my Center Cavers waver?” he asked, unable to refrain from another question.
“No.” Sherry’s smile was wide as she looked at him. “They all backed up Ed and me.”
Bryan nodded, smiling back. “They stayed true.”
“None of them questioned us
, or you.” Sherry looked up at him. “It is because of your leadership that we will regain our colony. It is because of your courage that we stay strong.”
Farther down the tunnel, around the bend and in the chamber, Louie’s voice echoed, as he continued drilling. Sherry tugged a lock of dirty-blonde hair behind her ear. Standing together with her, listening to the thud of the spears in their targets, Bryan felt as if he were a younger man, practicing for his duties. He felt a nostalgic freedom that extended far beyond these cave walls.
Sherry’s eyes were equally nostalgic.
He took a step toward Sherry, and Sherry stepped, too.
All at once, their torches were on the ground and their hands were on each other. Sherry’s fingers were wild and feral as she pawed at his arms, pressed her lips against his, and pushed him back against the cave wall. Bryan flinched as her mouth moved to his neck, his chest, and his lower body, pleasing him, hurting him.
The story of the skirmish had sparked something in both of them that neither could deny. Or maybe it was the loss of Gary—Sherry’s husband, and Bryan’s best friend—that created a hole they both needed to fill.
Grief had turned to lust.
Feeling the scratch of her nails, Bryan positioned her so her back was against the wall, ripped her clothes away, and took her.
A strange, pleased laugh escaped Sherry’s mouth, as she tilted her head back and moaned. For a moment, he wondered whether Sherry had lost her sense.
But if she had, he had, too.
It wasn’t insanity.
It was victory.
Chapter 50: Bryan
“Raj!” Bryan said. A smile took over his face as he watched the boy enter the drilling chamber the next night with Louie, bearing the object. “You made it!”
Raj’s face was pensive, but excited, as he brought the object over. A long day of teaching the Center Cavers had tired Bryan out, but seeing the object in Raj’s hands gave him a new dose of strength.
Sandstorm Box Set Page 52
