BARREN: Book 2 - Escape from the Ruins (A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller)

by J. Thorn

  Dia averted her gaze, moving her hair out of her eyes and nodding. She patted Decker on the head, scratching behind his ears.

  “It’s going to be all right, Dia. We’re going to make it out of here.”

  “I know. I trust you.”

  “Do you remember what you’re supposed to do?”

  Dia nodded.

  “Good. Remember, have Decker by your side. Are you ready?”

  “As ready as I’m going to be.”

  “All right.”

  Hado lay down on the floor, against the wall farthest from the door. She curled into a ball and grabbed the stub where her arm used to be.

  Here goes nothing.

  Hado began groaning as she rolled around on the ground, loudly enough that it could be heard on the other side of the door. Then she looked at Dia, giving the girl her cue.

  Dia nodded, then started crying.

  “Help! Guards, please, come quick! Oh, God!”

  The door swung open and two guards hurried into the room. One of them asked, “What’s the matter?” Her eyes shifted to Hado rolling around on the floor and groaning.

  “What’s wrong with her?” the second guard asked.

  “I had to amputate her arm only a few days ago. She’s had pain, but nothing like this.”

  “It burns,” Hado said, thrashing her stub and kicking. “God, it burns.”

  “Help her!” Dia said, crying harder. Decker barked at the guards.

  “I’ll stay here and try to calm her down,” one guard said to the other. “You go and get a healer.”

  The other guard nodded and raced out of the room. The remaining guard stood in the middle of the room, staring down at Hado, who had rolled onto her side and into a fetal position, moaning in pain.

  “Do something!” Dia said. “Please!”

  The guard gave Dia a sideways glance and shrugged. She set down her spear and kneeled next to Hado. She put her hand on Hado’s back.

  “Stay calm; she’ll be back soon with someone who can—”

  Hado swung her arm back, landing a blow to the guard’s face with her elbow. The guard remained on her knees and ripped off her mask. Blood flowed from her nose as she covered it with her hand.

  “You bitch! I’m going to kill you!”

  The guard stood up and went to take a step away, but found the head of her own spear at her throat. Dia had picked up the weapon and now held it only a thrust away from slitting her neck.

  “Don’t say a word, or I swear to God that I’ll kill you. Now raise your hands.”

  The guard could only laugh as she followed Dia’s command. “You’ll never make it out of here alive. You know that, right?” She looked at Hado, who had stood. “You lying piece of shit. Arina is going to kill you and sell your little dog. Both of your bitches.”

  “Yeah, we’ll see about that.”

  Hado caught the guard with a blow to the temple, hard enough to knock her out. She could have taken the spear and killed her, but she regretted what she’d done in Erehwon. If she could help it, her days of killing fellow Venganza were over. Even if she had the chance to kill Shiva, she wouldn’t. That kind of vengeance was what had put civilization on the brink of extinction to begin with.

  “That went better than I thought it would,” Dia said. “Here.” She offered the spear to Hado, who accepted it.

  “We’re lucky so far, but we’ve got to get moving.”

  Hado opened the door and looked both ways down the hallway. On the left and twenty feet away, a couple of women were moving away from them, walking with baskets filled with zucchini, but the right side of the hallway was empty.

  “Stay close,” Hado said. “We’ve got to move fast.”

  “The guard went left when she went for help,” Dia said.

  “Good. Same direction those women were headed. We’ll go right.” Hado had no idea where she was going, so avoiding the direction help would be coming from was the only logical choice.

  They left the room, shutting the door behind them. Then they started right down the hall. Hado noticed Dia walking at a quicker pace than normal and looking all around them.

  “You’ve got to sell it, Dia. Walk at your normal pace, and don’t look around so much. You look nervous.”

  “I am nervous. I want to get out of here.”

  “I know, but we’re only going to get out if—”

  Shouting and heavy footsteps came from behind. Hado turned around.

  Oh shit.

  The guard had returned, racing down the hall with three other warriors, including one familiar face.

  Arina.

  Arina’s eyes went wide as she made eye contact with Hado from fifteen feet away. She pointed at them.

  “There!”

  Hado put her hand on Dia’s shoulder. “Run!”

  Women and children stopped and gawked as Hado and Dia ran past them down the corridor. From behind them, Arina shouted. But it wasn’t warriors walking on this level of the settlement. Most appeared to be ordinary Venganza—mothers who were not trained to fight, elderly women, and young kids. Even so, Hado knew they would eventually run into hardened warriors who would hear Arina’s shouting and stop them. They had to try and find a way to shake their pursuers before that happened.

  They had a healthy head start on Arina, but Hado knew the warrior could probably navigate the labyrinthian settlement blindfolded.

  “There!” Hado said, pointing at a set of stairs ahead.

  They hurried down the steps, rushing past the women coming upward.

  “Someone, stop them!” Arina shouted from above, but Hado and Dia had already gone down two flights, Decker right on their heels.

  “Come on,” Hado said.

  “Shouldn’t we go all the way to the ground level so we can get out of here?” Dia asked.

  “Too many people down there. We need to find somewhere to hide so we can get them off our ass.”

  They hurried away from the stairs and headed around a corner. Hado peeked into an open door. No one inside. She saw nobody in the hallway, either. She gestured to Dia, and they went into the room and immediately shut the door.

  Decker whimpered.

  “How do you know they won’t find us?”

  Hado placed her index finger over her lips. “Keep it down. They didn’t see which level we exited the stairwell from, and I’m pretty sure no one else saw us come in here. We’ll wait, but be prepared to fight if anyone comes through this door.”

  Hado heard shouting and footsteps in the corridor on the other side of the door and she stopped talking, all but holding her breath.

  Arina shouted commands, her voice cracking as it rose in volume.

  “Split up! Find them!”

  It sounded as though the soldiers who had gathered outside the door had scattered in different directions. Hado cursed herself for not running to the end of the hallway and finding a hiding spot farther from the stairwell exit. If one of the warriors started searching rooms on this floor, this room would be one of the first examined. And if that happened, Hado might have to go back on her vow to not hurt another Venganza.

  She waited as the boots and voices subsided, and soon a relative calm filled the hallway on the other side of their door.

  Hado sighed, and whispered, “They must have started searching from the other end. There must be multiple stairwells in this stadium, and they’re not sure which one we came down or which level we’re on now.”

  “So, what now?”

  “We wait a couple of minutes for the soldiers to thin out a bit more, then we try to make it down to the ground level. This building is round, and this corridor goes in a circle all the way around it. There are many staircases we can take. I saw several when they escorted us to our room.”

  Dia shook her head. “I don’t know how we’re going to make it out of here alive.”

  “We will. Trust me.” Hado grimaced, though, her own words feeling cold and slick.

  It’s doubtful.

 
After a few minutes, Hado turned back to the door. She put her ear to it, but heard nothing in the hallway.

  “It doesn’t sound like anyone is out there—they must think we’re on a different level. We should leave now.”

  Dia took a deep breath, then nodded. She patted Decker on the head.

  “You ready, buddy?”

  Sticking his tongue out, the dog wagged his tail and moved up next to the door.

  At least one of us is confident we’re going to make it out of here.

  Hado drew a deep breath, then pushed the door open. She looked both ways, seeing nobody in the corridor. Hado gestured with her head to Dia and took a right out of the door. “Remember to act normal.”

  But even after giving Dia the reminder, Hado found herself walking faster than she normally did.

  They came to another stairwell, and Hado poked her head around the corner. She could see the main village only a couple of levels down, and both the front entrance and the stables were in view.

  “There,” Hado said, pointing down to the stables. “That’s where we’ve got to go. If we can—”

  Hado stopped herself when she saw a guard walking by the stairwell door on the level beneath theirs. She pulled back around the corner, dropping the spear she’d held and grabbing onto Dia to yank her out of sight.

  “What?” Dia asked.

  “I saw someone. Stay still.”

  Hado hoped the guard hadn’t seen them. She kneeled and retrieved the spear.

  After several moments, no guards had come out of the stairwell. Hado looked around the corner and down the stairs again.

  “We’re getting lucky,” Hado said. “Let’s get our horses.”

  Hado led the way down the stairs and all the way to the ground level where most of the people in the village resided. They would have an easier time folding into the hectic bustle here, but it wouldn’t be difficult for Arina and her guards to find a one-armed Venganza warrior with a teenage girl and a dog. Hado pushed the thoughts aside.

  Get to the horses.

  They made it to the stables unnoticed and went to the back side where they were hidden, and where there was a rear entrance.

  “We’ll get in, get our horses, and then head for the main gate.”

  “What about the guards?” Dia asked.

  “One obstacle at a time.”

  Hado opened the door and they entered the barn.

  The front doors had been closed, and several candles illuminated the musty stalls. But they had startled the barn’s attendant, who snapped around and looked up from brushing a brown horse standing in the stall closest to the doors. The young girl, about the same age as Dia, looked at the two women and the dog with her brow furrowed.

  “Who are you? Why did you come in that way?”

  “We’ve come for our horses,” Hado said.

  “You’re the two women who showed up here yesterday, aren’t you?”

  “Yes. And we’d like to take our horses.” Hado nodded towards Ree and Piva. “That’s them there.”

  “I know which horses are yours. And I was told by Arina to keep them here.”

  “But they belong to us,” Hado said.

  The young girl shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. You two need to leave, now.”

  “We aren’t looking for trouble,” Dia said. “We just want our horses so we can leave.”

  The girl took a few steps back toward an open stall, moving slowly as she reached into a pile of hay. Hado sprang forward, raising the spear.

  “Don’t move another inch.”

  The girl stopped, her hands shaking. Dia moved to where she could see into the open stall and saw a spear leaning up against the wall.

  Hado gritted her teeth and said, “I won’t hesitate to—”

  “Stop,” Dia said to Hado. “You’re scaring her.”

  The girl’s hands still shook, and her eyes turned red as a first tear fell.

  “What’s your name?” Dia asked.

  The girl sniffed and wiped her nose. “Kam.”

  “We aren’t going to hurt you, Kam,” Dia said, speaking calmly. “But we’re going to leave, and you’re going to get out of our way.”

  The girl shook her head. “I can’t let you. Arina said you were dangerous. And if I disobey her orders, she’ll have me killed.”

  “That won’t fly with the Council,” Hado said. “They’d never let that happen.”

  “They’ll have no say in it. Arina, she… does things on her own. She wields a lot of power, and has ignored the Council when it suits her.”

  Hado shook her head, wondering if it was possible for anyone to lead without being corrupted by such power.

  “We aren’t dangerous,” Dia said. “Whatever you were told about us is lies.” Dia stepped closer to Kam; the young girl didn’t step away, and she wasn’t shaking as hard as she had been. “Please.”

  Tears streamed down the girl’s face, and she looked at Hado before looking back at Dia. She lowered her head and then looked up, her chin held high.

  “Take them. I have an aunt on the Council. Arina will have to deal with that.”

  Dia looked back at Hado and smiled before turning back to Kam. “Thank you.”

  Dia hugged the other girl then, squeezing her close. At first, the girl hesitated, but finally she wrapped her arms tightly around Dia’s neck.

  “You stand up to her, Kam. Don’t you let Arina make you do things you know are wrong.”

  Hado grinned, watching and listening to Dia.

  “Don’t let anyone ever do that to you.”

  Kam took a step back and swatted at her tears, her eyes now tight and fierce. “This time of day, there should only be two guards at the main gate,” Kam said. “That’s your best chance.”

  “I’m worried more about making it to the gate than I am getting through it,” Hado said. “If we’re spotted by Arina or any of her guards looking for us, we won’t be able to outrun them or fight them off. We’ll need to lead the horses until we’re almost to the gate. We’ll walk between them and hope nobody steps on Decker. When we get closer to the gate, we’ll mount and make a run for it.”

  Dia sighed. “I guess that’s as good a plan as any.”

  “I’ll open the doors for you,” Kam said.

  “No,” Hado said. “Go out the back door and hide. We don’t want to risk anyone seeing you in here with us. You tell them you left for a moment and the horses were gone when you came back. That will be the truth.”

  Kam nodded, and she went to the back door. Dia grabbed her by the shoulder as she walked past.

  “Thank you, again.”

  “Yes, thank you,” Hado added.

  Kam smiled. “You’re welcome.” She looked at Dia. “I can see a light in you, something we do not have here despite our stables, crop rotations, and fresh cisterns. I hope that you escape and that you someday come back and shine your light on us.”

  The girl walked through the back door of the barn then, never looking back.

  Hado said, “I hope she doesn’t go and tell—”

  “She won’t.”

  Hado nodded.

  They positioned themselves between the two horses, hiding in plain sight from anyone on either side. They only had to worry about being seen from straight ahead.

  We’ve only got to make it fifty yards, Hado thought. Fifty. Yards.

  “Ready?” Hado asked Dia.

  The teen nodded.

  Hado opened the doors, and natural light flooded into the barn as they walked out into the crowded village.

  We’re going to make it.

  Hado had mounted the spear on Ree’s right side so as to appear less threatening, and this had also freed up her hand to hold onto the horse’s reins. Women walked all around them, but Hado kept her eyes fixed on the gate. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Dia looking ahead, as well. The young woman stood up straight, holding a gritty smile on her face. She even turned and winked at Hado once.

  Dia had amputated
her arm with a rusty ax. She had calmed a frantic girl accosted by strangers in her barn. This wasn’t the same girl that Hado had dragged from Erehwon, she knew, and that made her smile.

  Hado glanced back. They were halfway to the gate.

  “We’re almost there,” she said to Dia.

  Dia looked around the settlement. Her eyes scanned the village huts as well as the skyboxes that were most likely holding the Denver Venganza’s most important women. Hado thought she could feel hidden sets of eyes watching them.

  “They’ve come a long way. Done better than Erehwon.”

  “It’s not your fault,” Dia said.

  “I wasn’t suggesting that it was. I did what I did in the Cleveland ruins because I’d been blinded by rage and couldn’t see the truth. Shiva manipulated me the same way she manipulated you. I don’t know if things would have turned out differently if we’d had ample water supplies for Erehwon. Maybe Katy…”

  She trailed off, surprised by her own reflective, internal thoughts. Hado couldn’t remember the last time she had spoken the woman’s—her birth mother’s—name.

  “We’re going to get to San Francisco. And we’re going to bring back the technology we need. Not only for Venganza, but for everyone.”

  “Keep going,” Hado said, cutting their conversation short. “We’re almost out.”

  When they reached the main gate, Hado stopped ten yards away as the guards turned toward her and Dia.

  “They’re here!” one of the guards yelled. “Alert Arina!”

  “Stop them!”

  Arina was running through the middle of the settlement, waving her hands at the guards but impeded by the women clogging the pathway. “Don’t let them leave!”

  The guards raised their spears and stepped in front of the horses.

  At one time, Hado would have killed the two guards and been running past them before they’d hit the ground. But with only one arm, she instead had to adapt to the threat instantly. Things were different now, without question, and she felt as though, if she didn’t get Dia out of Denver right now, the girl would forever be trapped here.

  Hado started to raise her hands as Decker stepped forward. The dog growled, bearing his teeth. His tail was stiff, his back legs slightly bent. He barked and sprang forward.