The Bleeding Crowd

by Jessica Dall

  Ben continued to act remote and stoic. Dahlia just looked sad. The anger holding her up had faded and now she felt deflated. She had made herself a bed out of the blankets they had found in one of the crates and a combination of that and simple physical exhaustion had kept her asleep for the majority of the flight. Even Abel knocking over the better part of a crate of pewterware hadn’t made her stir in her little cocoon of blankets. Then again, with the crown of her head barely peeking out from the blankets, all the sound in the cargo hold would be muted.

  Jude dropped off the crate, taking a seat next to Ben on a lower box. “Hey.”

  Ben nodded in recognition, not taking his eyes off the far wall.

  They sat in silence for a long moment.

  “We okay?” Jude glanced at him.

  Ben let out a long breath. “Yeah.”

  “Good.”

  Ben nodded and then sighed. “She’s hard to turn down when she’s got her mind set on something.”

  “You have no idea.” Jude ran a hand through his hair.

  Ben finally looked at him.

  “Okay, probably you do,” Jude conceded. “Seriously, it was the first time since Eileen—”

  “Eileen.” Ben smiled to himself.

  Jude shoved him. “I was seventeen. Let it go.”

  Ben shrugged.

  “But yeah, first time since Eileen that I’ve got to sleep with someone because I wanted to, not because I had to.”

  “Not our fault most legislators are in their forties.”

  “With the hot ones nearly always useless.” Jude nodded.

  “Universal constant.” Ben looked at the wall across from them again.

  Jude glanced at the patch of brown hair peeking out from the blankets before looking at Ben. “You know I can back off if you want. We get along well, but there’s no real reason for us to sleep together again.”

  “I need to be here for you to make this decision because...?”

  “Because you haven’t talked to me since—”

  “I said we’re cool, didn’t I?” Ben stood. “If she wants to...do whatever, it’s none of my business.”

  Jude looked at him.

  “What?”

  He continued to focus on his friend.

  “You stop that or I’m going to knock you off that crate.”

  Jude didn’t look away. Suddenly, he found himself hitting the ground with a thud.

  Heather got up. Dahlia’s head emerged the rest of the way out of her nest.

  “We’re trying to be quiet, you realize.” Heather helped Jude up.

  “Tell Jude not to be a klutz.” Ben crossed his arms, taking a step to balance himself as Jude hit his arm.

  “Yeah, I fell off on my own.”

  “You deserved it,” Ben snapped.

  “Jesus fucking...” Des sat up. “Dahlia, will you just go over there and screw Ben already?”

  “What?” Dahlia frowned through a yawn.

  “Go back to sleep.” Heather waved Dahlia away. “We’ll be landing soon. You’ll need to be on your feet again.”

  “I’m not a toddler,” Dahlia said. “I don’t need to be told to take a nap.”

  “Come on now little sis-in-law.” Des looked at her. “You know how cranky you get if you stay up too late.”

  “How did I become the baby here?” Dahlia frowned. “Abel and Zechs are both younger than I am. David’s pretty much my age to the day.”

  “They’ve had more in their life to age them than you,” Des replied. “You’re the youngest in terms of life experience.”

  “I hate you all.” Dahlia disappeared into her cocoon of blankets.

  Heather watched her and then turned back to Ben and Jude. “Are we going to have to place you in opposite corners from each other?”

  “No, ma’am,” Ben’s voice dripped sarcasm. He rubbed his arm where Jude hit him. “I think we’ve worked it out.”

  “Looks like it.” Heather frowned, her doubt clear.

  “You get us caught screwing around in here and I’m going to make the whole sex issue completely moot for both of you.” Des frowned. “Understood?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Ben and Jude said in unison.

  * * * *

  The plane landed in the dark, providing a chance to escape Des insisted they take. The group slipped out of the cargo bay, and one by one, evading lights, and workers, edged into the first patch of trees they came across to head away from town. They made camp only after Des found they were a satisfactory distance away from any other sign of civilization.

  “Are we in New Zealand?” Abel finally asked.

  No one spoke.

  “Hopefully,” Heather said.

  “If we are,” Zechs said, “where are we going?”

  “North, I would imagine.” Dahlia looked around at the trees. It was a forest no doubt, much like the one they had just left, but the trees looked different. She touched the bark, found a leaf, a conifer perhaps, but something altogether unfamiliar.

  “What?” Zechs asked.

  She snapped out of her examination. “Assuming we got on the right plane, which I believe we did, we’d have landed on the South Island. Capital is Wellington on the North Island.”

  “How far?” Isaac frowned.

  “You all really didn’t think this through, did you?” Dahlia frowned.

  “How far?” Isaac repeated.

  “From cargo entry point?” Dahlia considered. “I don’t know, something like eight-hundred kilometers.”

  “Is New Zealand even that big?” Jude frowned.

  “It’s why they have a high-speed train linking pretty much everything,” Dahlia said.

  “Well, it’s not like we can take that.” Heather sighed.

  “If we walked twenty-four hours a day, it would take us at least a week to get up there,” Des said.

  “We could steal a car,” Dahlia suggested.

  “The camps have cars,” David said.

  “We’re not going anywhere near a camp.” Ben shook his head.

  “You might have supporters in other camps,” Dahlia said.

  He glanced at her before looking away. “We aren’t going to a camp.”

  “So what? We’re going to walk eight-hundred kilometers?”

  “At a fair pace is should only take...” Des did the math in the dirt. “Sixteen days, give or take.”

  Dahlia laughed. “You can’t be serious.”

  “Three miles an hour for ten hours a day?”

  “You think she could do three miles an hour for ten hours every day?” David gave Dahlia a doubtful look.

  “That’s what?” Dahlia looked at Heather, “Five kilometers an hour?”

  “About that.” Heather nodded. “A little less.”

  “Going five kilometers an hour for ten hours a day?” Dahlia repeated. “Ten hours a day for over two weeks? How about I just wait here for all of you?”

  “You’re going to sit in the forest for over a month waiting for us?” Jude frowned.

  “If you haven’t gotten it yet, I’m not really good with the whole hiking thing.”

  “You hide it so well,” Ben mumbled.

  Dahlia sent him a look, but didn’t take the bait. “Four days almost killed me. I don’t think I can make it for another sixteen.”

  “We weren’t pulling three miles an hour then,” Isaac said.

  “Should we steal horses?” Abel looked to Des and then to Ben.

  “I think stealing in general would be a good idea,” Heather added. “We’re running low on supplies.”

  “I’m going to find a place to wash up.” Dahlia moved in the direction they had been going, away from the group. “I’m all grimy again.”

  “You haven’t moved in at least ten hours.” David looked at her.

  “Well, what can I say? I maintain a higher standard of cleanliness.”

  Ben sat. “I say let her. Just make sure you have a rope around her waist to pull her back when she gets lost.”

 
; “Maybe I should just take Jude with me,” Dahlia said to annoy Ben. “He has a good sense of...direction.”

  Jude’s eyes widened as he watched Ben.

  Ben took a breath and relaxed again. “Maybe you should. Would save the rest of us from having to spend time looking for you out in the middle of the forest.”

  “Maybe I will then.” Dahlia looked at Jude. “Care to make sure I don’t wander too far away from the group?”

  Jude looked at her, and then Ben, and then back again.

  “Go on,” Ben urged.

  Jude didn’t move, as if he could disappear by being still.

  Dahlia sighed and turned to the other men. “Someone else willing to babysit me, since Ben is so worried?”

  “I will,” Zechs said eagerly, before freezing and looking at Ben. “I mean-”

  “Come on.” Dahlia took him by the wrist before Ben had a chance to respond.

  Ben began to push himself up before catching himself and dropping back down.

  Des sighed. “Would you just swallow your pride and tell her you love her already? She’s going to work her way through all of your friends at this rate. I don’t think she’s buying the whole ‘I don’t care’ routine’, if you haven’t noticed.”

  Ben glared at Des.

  She sighed and looked at Heather. “Why did we agree to work with them again?”

  “They were perfectly sane beings until we got the straight girl involved.”

  “Your sister you mean.”

  Heather sighed.

  “I’m going to see if there’s anything around to eat.” Ben scrambled to his feet.

  * * * *

  A small pond sat not far from where they had stopped. Dahlia sat looking at it. Some old knowledge about standing water tried to surface, didn’t make it. She pulled off her shirt and jeans, happy to feel warm this time, letting Zechs stared, bug-eyed.

  “No, that’s the entire issue.” She rubbed the shirt with the pebbles at the bottom of the small pond. “Five kilometers an hour, three miles an hour, is a pretty quick pace. I could probably keep it up for a little while, but not for two weeks.”

  “It doesn’t sound like fun, I’ll admit.” Zechs stood behind her, staring at the ground.

  “I don’t think any of this experience has been fun.” Dahlia shook her head, shaking the shirt out and frowning at the wear marks she had caused under the arms from the scrubbing.

  “Zechs.” Ben crossed his arms. “They need you back at camp.”

  Zechs started, looking at Ben sheepishly.

  Ben nodded towards the camp. Zechs glanced at Dahlia and back to Ben, his leader. Rolling his eyes, Ben shoved the boy towards the forest. “Get.”

  “Need something?” Dahlia laid the shirt out and undid her bra.

  He caught her under the arm, forcing her between him and a tree.

  “Stop it goddamn it!” She rubbed her arms as he let go. “I’m not a damn doll. I have legs that work perfectly well, even—”

  He kissed her.

  She let him for a moment, frozen by surprise, before stepping back. The trunk of the tree stopped her retreat. His placement of her suddenly made sense.

  He looked at her. “What?”

  “What??” she repeated shrilly. “You can’t just all of a sudden decide to come manhandle me and expect me to be all right with you sticking your tongue down my throat!”

  “I hadn’t gotten to that part.”

  “You know what I mean, damn it.”

  “Maybe I don’t.” He boxed her in with his arms.

  She frowned. “What do you want?”

  “You haven’t worked that one out yet?” He looked down at where her unhooked bra gaped enough to expose her breasts.

  “You don’t seriously think I’m going to have sex with you right now, do you?”

  “Why wouldn’t you?”

  “Seriously?”

  “You brought Zechs out here.”

  “If you didn’t notice, I wasn’t having sex with him.”

  “Not when I got here.”

  “Back up before I hurt you, Ben.”

  He scoffed “Right.”

  “You may not have that chip, but my knee is in a very opportune place,” she threatened.

  He looked down, sidestepped so her leg wasn’t in between his, looked back up.

  She released a tense breath. “Are you jealous?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “If you are, I don’t see what you gain from denying it.”

  “You want to have sex,” he said. “Does it matter if it’s me or anyone else?”

  “When did I say I wanted to have sex?”

  He frowned. “Zechs—”

  “I never said we were going to do anything,” Dahlia said. “He’d probably be too shy to anyway. He wouldn’t stand within a meter of me as soon as I took my shirt off.”

  “So you were or were not going to sleep with him?”

  “Why do you care?”

  “Just wanted to check if you were only trying to be suggestive enough to make everyone think that’s what you were planning on or what.”

  “Everyone? Or you?”

  “Everyone I would think.”

  “If you say so.” She forced the bra straps up and crossed her arms to create a barrier between them.

  He pressed himself tighter against her anyway. “So why did you wander all the way down here?”

  “Why do you think?” She leaned back as much as she could. “I came to find water to wash up.”

  “Are you sure about that?”

  “No.” She rolled her eyes. “I’m so wishy-washy that I don’t know what I’m doing here.”

  His gaze wandered over her.

  “Back up, Ben,” she said, the words low in her throat.

  “What if I don’t want to?”

  “I think the fact that I want you to is a little more important.”

  “Because you’re so much more important than me.”

  “Maybe I am.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Now that’s not politically correct, sweetheart.”

  “So sue me,” she said. “Oh, wait, you have no standing in any court.”

  His jaw twitched

  “Hey, I never claimed to be some ‘men’s rights’ activist.” Dahlia poked him in the chest. “That’s not why I ended up here.”

  He faltered just long enough for her to slip away from him, hooking her bra again.

  He released a breath. “Why are you here then?”

  “A myriad of bad choices,” she said.

  “Then why haven’t you left?”

  “I told you why. I got myself involved in this the second I decided not to turn you in about the computer thing. At this point, I’ve completely screwed myself over.”

  “I didn’t ask you to come.”

  “I believe you’ve said that a couple times now.”

  “Hey, you said ‘get lost’ I—”

  “I told you I couldn’t be involved,” she interjected. “I didn’t tell you to ‘get lost’. If you hadn’t been obsessed with this little revolution—”

  “We’d have had another week and then you’d ship me off anyway for the next guy.”

  “Then you could have had someone else to spy on.”

  He opened his mouth. Closed it and then started again. “I know you don’t get it, but I am actually trying to do something with my life.”

  “Just because I’m not crusading against social injustice doesn’t mean I haven’t done anything with mine.”

  “Oh, right, you went right off the conveyer belt into a lab coat.”

  “I save people’s lives.” She barely stopped herself from slapping him and pointed instead. “I saved your miserable life.”

  “And I thanked you for that. Should I send you a fruit basket when I get the chance?”

  “Maybe you should try to think of me for once.”

  “When haven’t I thought about you?”

  “Please.” She scoffed. “Every
thing you’ve ever done has been for your cause, been to right every social injustice that your poor bleeding crowd has had thrust upon them. Did it ever even cross your mind that I’m alone out here? That I never meant to be here, and I don’t even have y...” Her voice wavered. She collected herself. “I don’t even have someone out here who is my friend. Why do you think I went to Jude?”

  He snorted. “You can’t pass that off as my fault.”

  “Fault?” She raised an eyebrow. “I think there’d have to be some regret there to start trying to makes something someone’s fault.”

  “Well then, why aren’t you with him right now then?”

  “Because he’s scared to death of getting you upset at him for one,” she said. “He’s your friend. They’re all your friends. My friends are thousands and thousands of kilometers away. They probably think I’m dead at this point.”

  He looked away from her.

  “I’m alone out here, Ben.” She lowered her voice. “I have to find my allies while I can. Right now, one word from you and they’d leave me out here. Jude won’t even talk to me since...” She stopped and released a breath. “You know what? I can’t deal with this right now. You should get lost.”

  Ben took a second. “Did you hear that?”

  She shook her head. “I swear to god, Ben, if this is some set up for a bad joke—”

  “Shut up.” He motioned, listening to something.

  She sat down and splashed some water on her face. “I don’t hear anything.”

  He listened another moment and then looked at her. “Get dressed.

  “This again, really?”

  “I’m serious.”

  “Well, when aren’t you?” She rolled her eyes.

  “Dahlia—”

  A man stepped out of the trees. “I’m impressed you heard me.”

  Dahlia jumped up.

  The man looked her over. “Hello.”

  “Hi,” she answered, not moving.

  He took in Ben and her. “This is an interesting picture.”

  Dahlia paused and then nodded. “I’m Dahlia. That’s Ben.”

  Ben sent her a warning look.

  She sighed. “What the hell’s wrong now?”

  “Are you out here alone?” The man looked around.

  “Maybe.” Ben crossed his arms. “Depends on who’s asking.”

  “What’s your name?” Dahlia picked up her jeans, wringing them out.