by Aral Bereux
‘You prefer to be next? You want me to string you up beside him too?’ The belt rose higher.
Her waist burned.
The next person to touch it will be smashed in the face.
She stepped aside all the same, deflated before the circle of men watching her.
Fuck you C Mads, fuck you!
Caden pulled her arm back as she walked past. ‘Do you want to be next, Corporal?’
She stopped. ‘No,’ she said. Caden’s hand curled and dug deep into her skin. He wasn’t letting her go.
‘No?’ he leaned down to her ear, ‘No, what?
‘No.’
Asshole. She looked at the door to the farm house. Devo still watched them.
‘Commander, I don’t want to be next in line for your skill in interrogation.’ She rolled her eyes. Her waist stung, her arm burned.
Are we done yet?
His hand loosened. ‘I will deal with you later. This won’t be forgotten.’
Their eyes met.
‘Are we clear, Corporal?’
She nodded and pulled her arm away. ‘I suspect we are, Commander.’ Julianna said quietly and returned to the farm house without looking back.
* * *
Julianna's footsteps creaked on the porch as she swung wire screen door open to the dilapidated farm house inside. It was the first time she’d had a chance to take stock of the mismatched pieces of furniture. The living area was to one side, with its sofa, and the other side was a beaten up kitchen.
A single kitchen counter rested off to the far wall, under a window. Through the dusty panes of glass, Julianna saw the driveway entrance, now overgrown with long grass and random saplings. The kitchen had four rows of baby blue tiles and blue and white cabinets to match. They looked out of place beside the worn floorboards of the living room, in the daylight. Julianna amused herself with the interior, as she sat where Daniel had slept, nursing her bruised arm and swollen side, on the old, worn green sofa, stained near her thigh, where a baby projectile vomited some time ago.
Before the world was a bitch, before the New World Order.
As she watched a bird tap madly away at the kitchen window the bedroom door creaked open. Devo stood in its archway of peeling paint and chipped wood, watching her and edging out shyly. Julianna made an effort to smile at the little girl, a far cry from her warrior ego, out on the road.
‘He does shit like that all the time,’ she finally said and nervously extended a hand to shake. ‘Devo. My real name’s Sarah but they prefer Devo. Short for Deveaux.’ She sat down on the stained sofa. ‘Thanks anyway. He would’ve had me spread on my back at the skirmish. Can never trust a noc.’
‘Sure,’ Julianna frowned. ‘Do you prefer Devo? You said they prefer it. What do you prefer?’
‘Sarah,’ she smiled nervously. ‘But it’s okay-dokey with me. They take care of me you know, like big brothers do.’
‘Sure,’ Julianna said again. I bet they do. She hissed at the pain in her arm when she moved her hand. Some ice would have been good, she thought. Maybe the cold water from the lake. ‘Do your big brothers hit you like that?’
‘Only when they’re pissed at me for something stupid,’ she gave a toothy grin.
Julianna thought she was stunning. Real model material if there were such a thing anymore. Star would love her running the tables, she knew that much.
‘Sooo,’ she cooed. ‘You staying with us? Could really use the girl company since my sister, since she—’
‘Yeah, about that, I’m sorry about Katherine. She saved my life in Sector One the—’
‘Yeah, Bas told me.’ Devo nodded her head, bobbing it like one of those bobble dolls found in the Taxi’s when they were still around. ‘I miss her.’
Please, don’t start crying, Julianna prayed. Please don’t, please don’t, please don’t. Julianna winced at the thought and pushed back the sting in her own eyes. Everything was at risk, teetering on the edge of emotional breakdown. She needed to hold it together just for a little longer, until the numbness settled in again.
‘It gets easier.’ Julianna leaned her head back in frustration. The sofa smelt musty. How Daniel ever managed to sleep so solidly on the thing, was beyond her.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
Julianna squeezed her eyes shut against the noise outside.
Thwack!
‘So, of the two of them, who’s the evil brother?’ she was making light of the situation, wanting to block the sounds coming from outside. The prisoner screamed again, but she didn’t think for long.
Thwack!
Devo looked up. ‘Caden.’
A no frills, definitive without a thought, answer. Great! I’m banging the wrong one.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
She jumped with each one. Devo sat beside her.
The prisoner gave a monstrous howl.
Thwack! Bang!
It was done. Julianna closed her eyes and shook her head. The prisoner was dead. The long sigh that she released didn’t go unnoticed from the girl beside her. She felt Devo’s soft hand resting gently on her leg.
‘But Cade keeps us safe,’ Devo said quietly. ‘I don’t like him, and he don’t like me much, but we have our understanding. He keeps us safe. That I know for sure.’
Julianna took in Devo’s words. She wondered who pulled the trigger before deciding it didn’t matter after all. They were all out there, all guilty.
Yeah, you too, J Rae, you’re guilty like the rest of them too – by association.
The stairs creaked outside under the heavy footsteps. Three sets of pissed off boots stomped their way toward the door. The scrupulous killing may have yielded some results, but she doubted it from a nocturno. She only heard his screams.
The door slammed shut. Caden’s glaring eyes met with hers.
‘Not a lot to tell,’ Daniel said. She felt the need to look away from Caden. ‘But we did find out the comms have a two hour lapse every evening, for Militia communication – and that we can tap into it with the code he gave us.’
A smile crept over her face. ‘Isis?’
‘But you, Miss Rae have some cleaning to do.’ Caden dragged the old blue chair, from the blue table, in the blue and white kitchen, to straddle it over the floorboards.
Just as he had you last night, J Rae.
She looked up from his thighs. ‘What?’
‘The body – get rid of it before it starts to smell, and not near the water for fucks sake, or I’ll belt you some more.’
Her mouth tightened and she twitched her nose. There was no point arguing. In the warmth of the air the stench would reach the house, probably by night fall. Get the job done and go for another swim. Then it’ll be all okay. Talk to Isis too. He can fix this mess.
Julianna lifted herself slowly from the cushions imprinted with her bum cheeks.
‘Would you like me to bathe afterwards for this evening, or will you take me any filthy way you can?’
‘Told you not to go there, son,’ Bas stated.
She stood in front of Caden and his eyes flickered black before turning brown. It was a brief second. He lifted his gaze toward her. Daniel slammed the door on his way out and Caden ignored Bastiaan.
‘I’ll play dirty if it pleases you, Julianna,’ Caden held her with his gaze. He wasn’t letting go. ‘Maybe you can let me in on your secrets while we’re at it.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘Have a way of making people talk, you know?’
She shuffled her feet, feeling herself sway drunkenly to his hypnotic heartbeat inside her mind – echoing a steady boom, boom, beat—
He released her. She stumbled away, loosing balance and touching the floor with her fingers. His eyes flickered again; the known serpent of the preternatural world: cunning, charming, intelligent, and hypnotic.
‘What’s with Daniel?’ Julianna replied. The door still swung in the breeze, his temper failed to latch it.
Caden licked his lips. ‘Jealous, maybe. Go ask.’
His eyes bored through her. Right now, she didn’t feel the need to push him for details, but Daniel was pissed. She didn’t know him well, but she knew the slam of the door meant something else, and she hoped Caden’s words were just teasing.
‘Fuck me, you’re all so fucking useless.’
Julianna turned. The obscenities rolling from Devo’s sweet pout hinted the reason for her nickname. Bastiaan’s hands grabbed her arms, pulling her against him.
‘They didn’t tell you, did they?’ Devo asked.
Julianna didn’t want the answer.
Devo said it anyway. ‘Julianna,’ she stated. ‘Daniel’s your brother, and you’re the freaking Seer.’
The numbness raced over Julianna like a fever. Caden held his head in his hands, feigning interest or dismay at a floor that suddenly fascinated him. An ant farting in the room would have been louder than her reaction.
‘Sarah,’ Bas moaned. He dragged Devo into their room quietly.
‘Someone had to tell her,’ Devo muttered before the door closed in front of her face. Bas locked her in. His face contorted with an expression Julianna didn’t fully understand. Was it concern, sympathy, maybe even as far as the I’m fucked look because I’ve just been caught out look. She didn’t know.
Caden reappeared from his hands. ‘Ahhh shit, Julianna, wanted to tell yer.’
‘Brother?’ she fell back into the sofa. ‘I have a brother?’
A few minutes of banter had turned her world upside-down and inside-out. She had family right beside her, in the flesh, well and truly alive.
‘You kept this from me?’ She frowned.
Caden’s eyes narrowed and she frowned some more.
Why would you do this? Why, oh why, would you keep this from me?
‘Julianna,’ Caden searched for words. He gave up under her stare and turned to Bas for support.
‘And what’s this Seer crap?’ she turned to Bas, too. He was cautiously sitting down on the old sofa beside her. ‘Come on, you always have something to say about things.’
But this time he didn’t.
* * *
The worn out steps gave her presence away. Daniel turned his head from studying the lump of a prisoner lying on the ground, to Julianna pushing through the tall grass. His eyes ran across her face and he nodded, turning back to the heaped mess before him.
‘So they told you then,’ he shoved his hands into his pockets and sighed.
Julianna didn’t answer. There weren’t any words stretching out for her to use. She shrugged, took another step and examined what she was about to move. A hole where the bullet had entered, had caved in the nose, dead center, and it gapped. From a distance the skull looked intact. She gave the head a nudge with her foot – to see if anything fell from the bigger hole in the back. It did, and she recoiled from the white spongy matter spilling out.
‘Need to move him soon, it’s a warm day,’ he said. ‘I’ll help if you like.’
She reached under the arms and Daniel grabbed the legs to lift the heavy weight up.
First brother, sister act, she cringed at the thought. Now there’s a bonding moment worthy of a happy snap. Is this how all my relationships are destined? Bury the dead over a trivial conversation?
Their eyes met as they shuffled sideways, toward the large grassy area to the side of the property. The wild birds would feast tonight, she thought. Maybe a pack of wild dogs will finish with the picked bones.
‘Should’ve said something,’ he dropped his end of the body first. Sweat beading on his forehead was rubbed away with his sleeve. ‘Isis wanted me to keep quiet, Hal too.’
‘Last I looked you were a grown man.’
‘You went there with him, after what I said?’
Julianna rolled her eyes. ‘Maybe if you’d added something like, oh I don’t know, I’m your brother, it may have held more weight.’ she let the head drop to the ground. Blood splashed, and she jumped back. ‘Right now, Daniel, you’re in no position to lecture.’
‘He’s your watcher—’
‘Yeah, yeah, so everyone says. Like I give a fuck about Senate rules and family-fucking-traditions. Like any of it counts anymore.’
Caden leaned cautiously on the old railing circling the house veranda, while pulling apart his Glock. He glanced in their direction and she glanced back. The first of the gun’s three parts balanced on the banister, and he returned to the task of cleaning. She faced Daniel. His eyes were those of a person who understood, not one who was about to lecture.
‘Seems the chief is keeping you close in his sights.’ Daniel brushed his hands together and glanced over to the porch where he stood. Caden’s middle finger rose in Daniel’s direction. ‘Seems he has what he wants.’
‘Being stupid,’ she looked over her shoulder to Caden. His hand quickly lowered to his task of cleaning his gun.
He pushed past her. ‘He’s Council, Julianna.’
‘Was,’ she argued.
‘Is, you idiot,’ he stormed off in the direction of the lake, disappearing between the trees in a maddening pace that forced the grass to bend at his whim, before he strode over it.
Caden followed from the corner of his eye as he cleaned the slide with an oily rag.
She turned back to the corpse staring up at her, the flies were hoarding around the congealment on the side of his face.
‘What are you fucking looking at?’ she held her hands on her hips.
Caden’s restrained laugh travelled to her on the light breeze, and when she glanced back he hid his smile. Caden continued to clean his weapon, shinning it with the rag forcefully, until he was happy with his reflection staring back. When Julianna finished negotiating the long grassed return to the farm house, Caden gave her a fleeting look before moving the rag along the slide again.
‘You think this funny?’ she looked up from the base of the steps.
‘Nope,’ he was trying not to smile. The rag was pushed into his back pocket hastily. He slipped the spring back into the slide to reassemble the weapon.
It wasn’t Julianna’s expertise, she knew the rifle better. He slipped everything in place with an ease and quickness that even in anger, she admired. He was a capable man, and with it came high expectations of everyone surrounding him. Hearing Daniel’s words out loud, hammered it home for her.
‘You Council?’ she asked. He looked up. ‘I mean cut the bullshit, does the Council still exist, and are you still a part of it?’
‘We having angry sex tonight?’ he pulled the slide back, let it fall into place and lined her up in the sights before dropping the gun. ‘I like angry sex.’
The trees swayed, where she looked. Daniel leaned into one with his back turned and an embarrassment crept over her.
‘Bas told me after he cut the IDM from me, that the Council existed. I thought he was trying to get a rise out of me. Are you Council, or not?’
Caden became serious. He tucked the gun under his shirt. ‘Corporal Rae,’ she glanced up, he shook his head and folded his arms. ‘You had no right telling the world about us.’
‘You had no right belting me,’ she replied quickly.
‘Nice watchers don’t exist. The sooner you realize, the sooner you’ll find some peace in our world.’
She took the steps up and leaned into him. ‘I-am not-a watcher,’ she brushed past and reached for the door.
‘You keep telling yourself that, sweetheart, but like attracts like, don’t you think?’
CHAPTER 10
4th May, 2018, 1745 hours.
The Farm House, 7 miles west of Camp 2.2.1
Isis had been antsy with them during their discussion over the comms. It wasn’t about the situation, Julianna picked something else in his voice, and it was directed straight at Caden. Caden noticed too, and as a result, Bas did most of the talking. Now Caden, Devo, and Daniel were on their bikes, heading toward the sectors to meet with a group of men to repopulate their camp while she sat quietly on the sofa listening to Bas strum Caden’s guitar, simm
ering at the last word “No” being shouted at her.
Julianna glanced at Bas. His eyes gave her a fleeting look before returning to E major. They returned to their own worlds again. No love lost; nothing to say.
He knows I’m pissed, I should be riding too.
‘Going for a walk,’ she said.
Bas looked again. His hand rested against the strings to mute the music. ‘Don’t go far, dark soon.’
She nodded. The words she wanted to shout disappeared, as her tongue tied, and her mouth dried. He would have been her High Priest, living at the family estate, just for her benefit. She cursed the memories she couldn’t retrieve. She had no recollection of the first year with her Uncle at the estate or Bastiaan, none what so ever. It’s no surprise, she thought. Kids had the habit of blocking the worst.
The comms rested on the kitchen table, where they had left it. Devo had used a stack of books to prop it on its side. Isis had studied each and every one of them from his platform, notably frowning when he reached her, until they had closed down the communication.
Isis had instructed that she stay with the brothers and away from the city. She argued, and it was useless. Bas had flicked the back of her head, flicking every time she opened her mouth to speak. Her comment about bitch-slapping Isis – if they ever met – didn’t go down well in the group either, though Caden had smirked with the first flick, and with the second one, she got a wink.
She lifted the glass slide from the table and balanced it in her hand. Right now it was a piece of fragile glass that didn’t work, that magnified the specks of blue in the table underneath it. She moved her finger, tracing a scratch in the table made from a knife carving food, and screwed her face. How things changed with a five minute conversation, a single conversation that dictated who may live, and who may die in the next twenty-four hours. Not to mention the silence she received, when she asked what a Seer was. Their response was deafening.
Julianna laid the comms down, letting it rest flat on the table. She thought about Daniel’s reaction. He was gutted. They have Hal. The Gatehouse doesn’t exist. Maybe a conversation tomorrow evening is pushing their luck, Taris is closing in. If we’re all killed, who would Isis talk to? Bas heard her sigh.
