Escape

by L. S. O'Dea

  He couldn’t be serious. “But, I still don’t know anything. Only the one building was bad, horrible, but Mirabelle likes it here. She’s looking forward to going to the Warehouse District.”

  He snorted in amusement.

  She grabbed his arm. “Why is that funny? I need to see for myself. Take me there.”

  He shook his head. “Absolutely not. Trust me, nothing good happens to your kind at the Warehouse District.”

  “If you won’t show me, then tell me.”

  “Ah, Little One, I don’t want to be the one to tell you the truth of life.” He looked up at the sky for several moments then he lowered his gaze, his eyes pleading. “This knowledge will change you and I don’t want that. You’re kind and helpful.”

  “What does that...”

  “You’re different, Little One. You’re the most compassionate creature I’ve ever met.” He kicked one of the carcasses, hard and then took her arm, leading her toward the woods. “We’re holding you against your will and yet, you offered to help us with the serum without asking for anything in return. You saved Mirra when it would have been in your best interest to let her fall. You even helped a River-Man.” He stopped and stared at the encampment. “I’m begging you to let this go. Some truths in life are better left unknown.”

  “I’m tired of secrets. I need to know. I deserve to know.”

  He nodded and sighed as if this decision pained him. She inhaled slowly. This was it. She was going to find out what even adult Producers didn’t know. He covered her hands with his much larger ones. His eyes were filled with a lifetime of sorrow. Her heart skipped a beat. Did she really want to know?

  “They kill and eat you.” He blurted it out as if saying it quickly would lessen the horror.

  She blinked. She opened her mouth to speak but the words froze in her chest. She must not have heard right. That had to be it. She shook her head to clear her ears.

  “You heard me correctly,” he said as if reading her thoughts.

  He was still holding her hands. His were warm but hers were now cold as ice, like her words. She pulled from his grasp and as she did all warmth fled her body. She was frozen. Numb. She walked a few feet away, amazed that her legs obeyed. They were foreign, no longer belonging to her. She turned back to face him. Please, let this be a joke. A terrible, awful joke.

  He stared at her, his eyes bleak with the sadness of truth.

  “No. That can’t be.” She slumped against a tree. Her body was limp like someone had removed her bones. “All those Producers. Every year. Adam.” She slid down to the ground. The bark scraping her back, but there was no pain. There was nothing. No hope. No future. Nothing. How was something like this kept secret? “Who all...eats us,” she whispered.

  “Wild predators, ones that live in the forest, like Mirra and I, will kill and eat anything. The others...the domesticated ones, they may not know what they eat. They just know that it’s meat.”

  “Meat. But you said meat was rabbit.”

  “I didn’t exactly say that. I told you that Producers didn’t eat meat and that I was cooking rabbit. I let you draw your own conclusion. Meat is flesh. In the forest it can be rabbit”—he looked at the dead bodies—“or Guards or any creature, but in town it’s mostly Producer.” He broke a stick off a tree limb and began whittling. “Your father probably doesn’t know that meat is Producer.”

  Her father. She hadn’t even thought of him. Did he eat meat? She’d never seen him eat it but she only saw him at home. He was a House Servant. Jethro said House Servants ate meat. Jethro ate meat. He’d offered her a sandwich with meat on it. Who was that? Did she know that Producer? She tried to swallow the bile that was rising in her throat, but failed.

  When she was done retching, she stood, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. Her kind were prey as Gaar had told her from the beginning. She just hadn’t understood the extent. “I have to go home and warn them.”

  “No.” He stared at the stick that he sharpened, refusing to meet her gaze.

  “How can you say that?” Her heart twisted.

  “Why do you want to go back? They never accepted you anyway. You had no friends, you said so yourself.”

  Her mouth dropped open. What difference did that make? They weren’t her enemies. They didn’t eat her. “My mom is there.”

  “Ahh, yes. The mother who forced you to hide what you are after she created you.”

  “I love my mother. She did what she had to do.”

  “Really?” His black eyes met hers and held.

  He was right. She’d been angry with her mom for years, but this was different. This went beyond anger. “I’ll make you a deal.”

  He raised his brow, a small smile playing about his lips.

  She wanted to hit him for his arrogance. He believed that she had no power. Everyone believed that she had no power. “Tell me, truthfully, that there is a retirement camp for Producers and I won’t go home. My mom is going to be retired soon. If she’ll be safe, I’ll stay away from the camp.” She put her hands on her hips and waited.

  He sighed. “I should lie to you, but I won’t. There is no retirement. Only death.”

  She fought back tears. That was what she’d expected him to say but it still hurt. She stared into the distance but instead of trees, faces appeared. Maple, the elderly female, who had given her flowers when she was eight. Buster, the old male, who had taught her mother and her about medicinal herbs.

  “I’m sorry, but you can’t go home.” Before she could argue, he held up his hand. “Mirra won’t allow it.”

  “Mirra can’t stop me.”

  “Do you really believe that?” He laughed, but the sound was mocking. “Even if you do slip away, she will hunt you down. A few fences won’t keep her out. She’ll be inside your camp in a flash and you’d better hope that no one tries to stop her.” His gaze held hers. “She won’t care if they are your friends or family. She will slaughter them without a moment’s hesitation.”

  He was right. Her stomach churned again. “I need to be alone.” She walked farther into the woods and sat down, wrapping her arms around her knees. What was she supposed to do, just sit here and let her mother be slaughtered? Let everyone she knew, everyone like her, be murdered?

  There was a rustle in the weeds. Her ears adjusted to pick up the sound, but other-than-that she didn’t move. Who cared if it was a predator coming to kill her? What difference did it make if she survived? She had no future. She would be alone. Even if she, by some miracle, found a mate, she couldn’t have a child knowing that it was destined for someone’s plate or to be stuck between two slices of flimsy, white bread.

  Mirra stepped out of the brush. “You alone. No safe, Little One. Predators smell blood. They come.”

  She shrugged. She should be dead by now. Something’s dinner. It was why she was bred.

  “What wrong?” Mirra cocked her head.

  The concern of the Tracker was the last straw. “Why? Why didn’t you eat me?”

  Mirra crouched in front of her, swaying back and forth studying her. “Don’t know. Something different about you. Special.”

  “But I’m not.” She wiped her nose on her knee. “I may be a Producer and House Servant but I’m not special. I’m no more special than Adam, or Travis or any of the others.” The tears she’d been fighting to hold back escaped.

  “Ah, you know fate you kind.” Mirra reached out and wiped the moisture off Trinity’s cheek, her nail gently scraping the skin. “Long time ago, Mirra and Gaar-Mine lost all others. Mother, father, friends. Everyone. Mirra can’t undo. It happened. No changing.” Mirra’s dark green eyes clouded with sorrow.

  “But I can change it for my kind, my mom.” She grasped the Tracker’s hand. “Please, let me go home. I won’t stay. I promise. I’ll just warn them. Help my mom and Remy escape. Save them.”

  Mirra studied her for a moment and then pulled her paw away. “No. It no safe. You no go. Mirra and Gaar-Mine you family now.”


  The words were like blows. “That’s not fair.”

  Mirra bristled and the sadness fled her eyes. “World no fair. It no fair Mirra has no mate. It no fair Mirra take shots make Mirra sick.” She stood. “This you life now.”

  That was it, then. She could save no one. Nothing mattered anymore. “What if I don’t want to live this life?” she said quietly.

  Mirra glared at her and bared her long sharp teeth. “Mirra help with that.”

  The Tracker leaned toward her, eyes gleaming. Suddenly, it wasn’t the Mirra who had saved her, but a wild predator. Without thinking, she leaned back and reached for the knife at her side.

  Mirra dropped her lips over her teeth and her eyes shone concern not anticipation. “Little One, want live. Everything does, even when hurt.” She reached out and touched Trinity over the heart. “Pain here. Will stop hurting later. Trust Mirra.” She stood. “Come.” She held out her hand. “Mirra hungry. We go find Gaar-Mine now.”

  Mirra was right. She did want to live, but on her terms. She’d figure out a way to escape, to warn the others. She let the Tracker help her up and they walked back to where Gaar waited.

  “All better?” he asked as he put another spear in the quiver.

  The question was so absurd that she almost laughed. It would never be better. “I’ll be fine. Until someone decides to eat me.” She wanted to take the words back; they sounded childish even to her, but it was how she felt.

  “Everything is food for something.” He nodded at the Guards.

  A crow had landed on the chest of the Guard who had attacked her and was feasting at his throat. She pushed down her revulsion. Guards ate Producers, so why should she care that the crow ate the Guard.

  “What the Almightys do to your kind is not right. They trick you into believing that you’re their friends, helpers, but the fact remains that everything is food for something,” he said.

  He was so nonchalant about it. Too bad Handler wasn’t on the menu. Then he would sing a different song. “Really? What eats the Almightys?”

  “Anything in the forest. Anything wild. If they don’t go into the forest and they die some other way, then the bugs eat them and they become food for the plants.”

  “So, I’m supposed to feel better that they live to be old and then in a sense I eat them when I eat plants?” He was unbelievable.

  He shrugged. “I never said you’d feel better.”

  She gritted her teeth. He could be such a Grunt’s ass sometimes. She headed toward the encampment. The sadness and hurt was changing into something raw and hot. She refused to leave and forget about this. She was going to do something. She was going to save her kind and she knew exactly where to start

  “Where are you going?” he asked.

  “To free the Producers.” The sooner this was done, the sooner she could go home. She wouldn’t allow Gaar or Mirra to stop her. She’d figure out some way to escape from them.

  “What are you going to do with them once you set them free? The forest is a dangerous place.”

  Harsh laughter burst from her throat. “Not more dangerous than our homes.”

  He grunted. “You have a point, but some of them are happy here. How are you going to convince them to leave? You can’t tell them that they’re going to be killed and eaten.” He jogged to catch up with her.

  Why did everyone insist that it should be a secret? She stopped and spun around. “Why?”

  “It’s cruel,” he said. “They can’t do anything about it. You can’t save them all. Most won’t believe you. Most will refuse to leave.”

  She shrugged, but the thought of leaving any of them behind burned in her gut. “I can’t force them to go. I can only tell them the truth and let them make their own choice.”

  “But by telling them, you’ll plant a seed of doubt in their head and they will live the rest of their days in fear. Let them live in ignorance instead.”

  “I will not,” she spat out. “I did nothing once. When they took Adam.” The raw wound oozed and the pain bubbled up becoming strong and poisonous. “I stood there while they squeezed and poked at my baby brother, making sure he was tender enough for their plate.”

  “You didn’t know that at the time.”

  “It doesn’t matter! I should have done something. I should have stopped them.” She turned away, wiping the tears off her cheeks. “He cried for us when they took him.”

  “There was nothing that you could have done.” He placed his hand on her shoulder.

  She stepped away from his touch. “Ignorance is what got us into this mess. If we band together we can live free.” She held up her hand when he started to interrupt. “Some of us will still die. Most, probably, but we will be free. We will have a chance. A choice.”

  “Yes,” he snapped back. “A chance to live free and be afraid. Think of how you felt when you were alone in the forest. You would have been torn apart if Mirra hadn’t come along.”

  She wanted to scream, but she kept her voice low. “Do you think I don’t know that? I know that I owe you and Mirra my life, but at least out here, I have a chance.”

  “You say that now, but what if you didn’t know your fate? Wouldn’t you be happier in the encampment with others of your kind? You would feel safe, at least until the end. And trust me, I have been there for the final moments of many and no one feels safe at the end.”

  Would she be happier in one of the encampments as long as she didn’t know any better? Yes. It had only been a few hours ago that she’d been thinking this camp would be ideal for her, but that was only because she didn’t know. The other Producers should be told. They should have the freedom to choose how to live and die.

  Gaar grabbed her arm. “Think about this. They won’t live long out here alone.”

  He was right. She wouldn’t have lasted a day if it weren’t for Mirra. “Help me, please.”

  “I can’t babysit a camp full of Producers. We need to free the Trackers and the Handlers.”

  His kind came first for him, which was understandable but why couldn’t he see that her kind came first for her. “I’ll help them. I’ll show them what you’ve taught me.”

  He grunted. “It’s getting late. Do what you need to do. We’ll stay here tonight. Other predators are coming. They smell the blood.”

  The tension fled her body. He was going to let her free them.

  He glanced back at the carcasses and pursed his lips. He pulled out his knife and walked over to the nearest Guard. He sliced through the Guard’s pant leg and then cut off a chunk of the Guard’s thigh.

  Mirra grinned at him and picked up one of the other Guards, tossing him over her shoulder. She headed toward the forest and leapt into a tree. She stretched out on a limb and began to feed.

  She turned away, fighting the urge to vomit. They were predators. They’d never pretended to be anything else. They ate meat. It was better that their dinner be Guard than Producer.

  CHAPTER 17

  GAAR STUFFED THE CHUNK OF GUARD into his backpack, collected his spears and the few weapons that the Guards had before heading toward the camp. “We should get inside the fence before the other predators show up.”

  Trinity nodded, more than happy for a change of scenery. She had to stay focused on freeing the Producers. She couldn’t allow herself to think about anything else, especially, the look on the Guard’s face when she’d stabbed him. She’d had no choice.

  “Where do you want to start?” he asked, closing the gate behind them.

  Her knees almost buckled from relief. He was going to help her. She was not in this alone. “The last building. The Producers there want to be free. The others might not.”

  “The others may change their minds when they realize they no longer have protection.” He looked back at the dead Guards. “Eight Guards will not be enough to feed everything that arrives hungry.”

  Flies were already swarming around the bodies. Another bird landed on the ground and began pecking at a dismembered arm. She turned
away and wiped her hands on her shirt. Eventually, everything was food for something. She had to remember that.

  They entered the building where Travis was being kept.

  “Holy Gruntshit, that stench.” Gaar covered his nose with his arm.

  Some of the Producers looked over at them and began fighting their restraints.

  “Easy, easy. He won’t hurt you. Will he?” She sent him a speaking look.

  He shrugged. “Not today. I can’t make the same promise in a couple of months.”

  The Producers struggled harder.

  “That is not helping,” she said under her breath.

  “If you insist, I’ll take Producer out of my diet,” he grumbled.

  “Thank you.” That was one creature that would no longer eat them. It wasn’t much, but it was a start. She walked directly to Travis. “We need to get them out of their neck and hand restraints. Their cages are unlocked.”

  Travis lifted his head. “Trinity. You shouldn’t have come back.”

  Gaar examined the locks on the closest Producer. “I may be able to break them.” He looked at the long row of cages. “But I don’t know if I can get them all.”

  “We can’t leave any of them.” She grabbed the lock around Travis’ neck. “Keys. The one that they called J.R. used keys to open the gate. He had brown hair and was...”

  “No,” said Travis. “The red-haired Guard was the only one who ever came in here.”

  “That was the one that I...that almost...” She fell silent. The experience was too fresh, too raw.

  “I’ll get them,” said Gaar and he left.

  “Are you really going to set us free?” asked the female Producer next to Travis. She was a typical Producer with long, brown hair and brown eyes.

  “Yes,” she said, squeezing the girl’s hands. “What’s your name?”

  The female smiled; it was warm and friendly. “Tammie.”

  She could be friends with this girl. Maybe, they would be one day, if they both survived.

  “What about the Guards?” asked Tammie.