by Jessica Dall
“Living at the camps?” Dahlia said.
“Can’t say it’s one of the more positive memories of my life.”
“I’ve never seen a camp,” she said.
Heather snorted. “You wouldn’t like it.”
“How would you know that?”
“You don’t like roughing it when it’s green and beautiful around you. Why would you like it when you’re stuck inside a concrete box that’s filled with mostly mud, maybe a little grass? It’s not a pretty place. It’s not even a mildly attractive place.”
“Why did you stay then?”
“What?”
“You could have left, couldn’t you?” Her head jerked back slightly as Heather pulled.
“Sorry.”
Dahlia waved it away. “Couldn’t you? You were a guard, not a prisoner.”
“Where would I have gone?” Heather gave another mildly hard yank, then started braiding Dahlia’s hair. “The only job I could possible get was the one I had. It’s how you sidestep the entire issue of homosexuality, after all. You put us out of sight.”
She considered the words. “And the men?”
“What about them?”
“There are male homosexuals I take it?”
Heather hesitated. “Yes.”
“What do they do then?” Dahlia asked. “I mean, lesbians are supposed to be mannish, so homosexual males would arguably be womanish then, wouldn’t they? That would theoretically make them better than regular men.”
“You’d think that’s how it would work.”
“Think,” she repeated. “So that’s not how it works?”
“No,” Heather said. “That’s not how it works.”
Silence fell between them for a moment.
“Are you going to tell me how it does, then?” Dahlia finally asked.
“You don’t need to think about it.”
“Think about what?”
“The camps.”
“But I want to know.”
Silence.
“Heather, if you don’t tell me, I’m just going to ask someone else.”
“Do you have a hair tie?” Heather asked.
Dahlia slid one off her wrist. “Please tell me.”
Her sister sighed. “They go the way of any other undesirable man.”
“Undesirable?”
“Well, they’re useless, really.” Heather wrapped the tie around the end of the braid, smoothing Dahlia’s hair down across her scalp a final time before stepping back. “Men are used for recreation and procreation. If they don’t want to have sex with women, they’re useless.”
“So what happens to useless people? Useless men.”
“I supposed the politically correct term is that they’re ‘disposed of’.”
“They’re, ‘disposed of’,” Dahlia repeated. She turned when no answer came. “I don’t think I know what that means.”
“I don’t think you want to know what that means,” Heather said.
Dahlia just looked at her.
“Well, they, all undesirables, they mysteriously have heart attacks it seems.” Heather sighed. “It nearly seems that being gay gives men some genetic defect.”
“Homosexual, you mean.”
“Gay, homosexual.” Heather shook her head. “Same basic meaning.”
“Why would being a homosexual give you a higher chance of heart attacks?”
“Personally, I believe it has a lot more to do with the sprigs of oleander that mysteriously go missing when there’s a new group locked up than anything to do with genetics.”
“They...” Dahlia’s face tried to work out the meaning behind Heather’s words, she blanched. “Oleander?”
“They grow it near the edge of camp.” Heather nodded. “Would make just about any execution look like a health problem, wouldn’t you think?”
Dahlia’s eyes widened. “They kill them?”
“Politically it’s a brilliant move,” Heather said. “The fewer men in the camps, the fewer who can revolt. They need most of the men because most of you turn twenty at some point. Low mortality rate. However, the ones they can’t use anyway...There’s more danger in keeping them than profit. Not to mention how much it saves on food and housing.”
“That’s awful.”
“That’s life at the camps. As a whole you might have maintained a tenuous hold on peace, but everything comes from some very ruthless, but brilliant politicking.”
Dahlia shook her head. “If people knew—”
“They’d ignore it,” Heather responded. “If there’s nothing else you all are good at, it’s dealing with willful ignorance.”
“That can’t be true,” Dahlia insisted, appalled.
“You all got to this point somehow, and it wasn’t by asking a bunch of questions.”
Releasing a breath, Dahlia rose. “Come look at the clothes. You can’t be happy in...that. It’s filthy if nothing else.”
“You want to dress me?” Heather crossed her arms.
“Yeah.” She smiled at her older sister. “It’ll be a complete flash back to my life-size doll I had when I was little to dress up.”
“You realize I’m not a doll.”
“Well, at this point I figured.”
Heather smiled. “I suppose. Lead the way.”
* * * *
“Should I assume you’re the one who gave her that?” Jack sat down next to Dahlia.
She looked up, following his line of sight to Heather. “Oh, yeah. I thought she’d like to get out of grey. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Not at all.”
“I think maroon suits her.”
“She looks hot.” Jack nodded. “It’s too bad she’s not into men.”
“She’s ‘married’ apparently,” Dahlia tried out the word.
Jack nodded again. “Both would work against me, I’m sure.”
Dahlia smiled. “You want to have sex with my sister?”
“Honestly, it’s been a good few months since I’ve seen any woman, so all of you look pretty good at this point.”
“That’s only because you haven’t had anyone to compare to us,” Dahlia said.
“You know that’s not what I meant.”
“It’s what you said.” She reclined half-way.
Jack smiled looking between Dahlia and Heather. “You’re sisters?”
“So Heather tells me.”
“I suppose there’s a resemblance there.”
“I think there would be more so if she grew her hair out.” Dahlia watched Heather join Des off to one side of the camp. “She’s actually quite pretty, don’t you think.”
“Well, I said the resemblance was there, didn’t I?”
Dahlia looked at him, shook her head with a bit of a smile. “Do you think we’ll be moving again soon?”
“You don’t like it here?”
“It’s a lovely camp,” she said, “but it’s been three days, and the longer we’re here, the longer I will have to live in a forest, and, just in case you haven’t realized, I’m not a big fan of the whole sleeping outside thing.”
“Oh, that reminds me.” Jack rose. “Follow me.”
“Where?”
“Nowhere far.” He grinned. “The guys just cleared out some of the storage tent, so if you wanted to be under cover, maybe away from the guys...”
“What?”
“Well, I haven’t been around women for a while, but I figured you’re probably used to things a little nicer than we have here, so I thought you might like it.”
He pulled the tent flap open to reveal a little room carved out in the middle of the rest of the supplies. The light from the fire was just bright enough to shine through the tent’s red walls leaving the light muted and shadowy inside.
She stepped inside. “You did this all for me?”
“We had the space.” He shrugged. “You fixed up Benny’s ankle. It was the least we could do.”
“Thank you.” She smiled, turning around to take in all of it .
“You really didn’t have to.”
“I wanted to,” he responded. “Is there anything else you need? There a sleeping bag there, and we set out some water if you want to wash up...”
“Five star accommodations,” she said.
“You like it then?”
“I love it.”
“Good.” Jack brushed his hands off on his pants, looked around a final time, and then nodded. “Why don’t you get some sleep then. We’ll probably take off sometime tomorrow if you’re feeling up to it.”
She nodded. “Thank you, Jack. You have no idea how much it means to me that you did this.”
“I’m glad you like it,” he said. “It really wasn’t any trouble. Sleep well.”
“You too.” She smiled and moved to the sleeping bag.
* * * *
With addition of the new men and packs, the going was even slower than before, a phenomenon which worried Heather and annoyed Des and Ben, but Dahlia was more than happy with the slower pace. Her body adapted to it much better than it had to the forced power walks.
Ben moved forward to scout what was ahead of them, before dropping back into the group.
Dahlia sighed as he fell into step beside her. “Please, Ben. I’m too tired to deal with any sort of banter today.”
“Didn’t sleep well in your tent?”
“Ben...” She sent him a weary look. “I’m serious.”
“I’m just saying you must love all the special treatment.”
“Yes, yes, I do.” Dahlia looked away from him. “It’s nice that someone is willing to acknowledge that this is hard for me.”
“Oh, and it’s all rainbows and butterflies for the rest of us.”
“Ben, please. Go find someone else to vent at. I can’t take it right now.”
“You realize all of it is because he wants to sleep with you.”
Dahlia sighed, tired of his complaints. “What?”
“Jack,” Ben said. “He’s trying to warm you.”
Dahlia hummed. “The rest of the men too?”
“A good portion I’d say. The rest just don’t know how to deal with women in general. I think they’re operating purely out of fear.”
“Or maybe some people are able to maintain some sense of courteousness and compassion for their friends while also feeling overreaching concern for the rest of the human race,” she said, letting her eyes slid over to him. “Just a thought.”
Ben scoffed. “He isn’t your friend.”
Dahlia didn’t bother to argue.
“Seriously,” he said.
“Seriously, Ben, leave me alone.”
He looked at her for a moment before slipping to the front of the group again.
* * * *
Jack poked his head into the tent. “Am I interrupting?”
Dahlia looked up from taking her own blood pressure. “Oh, I was just taking some vital signs. I felt a little dizzy today. Didn’t even get up the energy to knock Ben down a peg or two.”
“He’s a little...” Jack appeared to be searching for the proper word. “Off, isn’t he?”
“Jackass-ish is what I’d say.” Dahlia smiled.
Jack nodded. “You aren’t feeling well?”
“Just dizzy and tired. I was wondering if my blood pressure was too low.”
“Are you all right?”
“I’ll be fine,” Dahlia reassured him. “Based on the symptoms, I would guess I’m a little anemic.”
“Anemic?”
“The iron level in my blood is low. It makes you tired...” She pulled her pants legs up. “You bruise easily.”
“Those are intense.” Jack looked at her shins. “What’d you hit?”
“I think I’m just thrashing in my sleep.” She shrugged.
“And you got those?”
She shrugged again.
“Do you need anything?”
“Just some water.” Dahlia shook her head. “I’m going to take an iron pill and then try to fall asleep. Hopefully, that’ll take care of it.”
“Are you sure it’s anem...”
“Anemia,” she repeated. “I can’t know. I’d have to take a blood test, which would be pretty hard in the middle of the forest.”
Jack nodded. “Let me know if you need anything.”
“Just water,” she said again. “Please let Heather know I’m not feeling well. She should know what anemia is.”
“Can do.”
* * * *
By the next morning, Dahlia was feverish. Heather opened the tent flap, frowning at the pallor of her skin other than the bright red cheeks. Heather knelt, laying a hand on her forehead. She turned to the flap.
“Someone get some water.”
Jude was the first of the group to arrive. “Is everything okay?”
“She’s got a fever.” Heather grabbed Dahlia’s bag and pulled out a thermometer. It beeped as it came to life. “A bad one from the feel of it.”
Heather placed the thermometer in Dahlia’s ear and waited for it to beep again. She pulled it out, looked at the reading, and hissed. “We need to bring it down before her brain bakes itself.”
“How?” Jude looked at Dahlia’s pale face.
“Ice, ideally. Water if nothing else.”
“Bad?” Abel stuck his head in the tent.
“Yeah.” Heather nodded. “Is someone getting water?”
“I’ll go.” Abel looked at Dahlia for a long moment before heading back out.
“What’s wrong?” Ben pushed his way through the group at the flap.
“I don’t know.” Heather shook her head, pulling all the blankets off Dahlia. “Take the tent down. We don’t want any heat trapped anywhere near her.”
“You don’t know what’s wrong?” He stepped forward to let the others pull the tent down.
“I had two years of basic medical training,” Heather snapped. “I’m hardly qualified as a diagnostician. All I can tell you is that a fever means there’s an infection. Viral, bacterial, fungal, there are several possibilities. All I can tell you is that there’s something in there that her body’s trying damn hard to fight off.”
“She wasn’t sick yesterday.” Ben’s eyebrows creased.
“It wasn’t...” Heather shook her head. “Sudden fever. It’s got to mean something, I just don’t know what.”
“Then, what can we do?”
“Nothing,” she said. “We can try to bring the fever down, but if it’s a virus, there’s nothing anyone can do. If it’s bacterial, well, she’s the one who could give us a dosage she’d need, or even what do use. I don’t know what half the things she has in that bag are.”
“Here.” Able set a bucket down.
Heather took a shirt lying nearby and dunked it into the water, wiping down Dahlia’s forehead.
“Is she going to be all right?” Abel hovered nearby.
“She’s young,” Heather said less than decisively. “I don’t know what she has, but she’s healthy. She should be able to...”
“We really can’t do anything?” Ben whispered.
“She’s the doctor.” Heather wrung the shirt out and dunked it again. “I’m not.”
No one spoke.
Jack moved around the other men. “Why is she unconscious?”
“Because she’s sick,” Ben spat.
“I got that,” Jack said.
Ben tensed, but didn’t respond. “She had an entire book of herbs. I can’t remember any of it.”
“You didn’t know you’d need it,” Jude said, kneeling next to Dahlia.
“I...” Ben released a breath. “Can we move her?”
“What?” Heather frowned.
Ben had already turned. “How far are we from town?”
“Five miles, maybe,” one of the men said.
“Five miles which way?”
“Ben, what are you thinking?” Heather looked at him.
“She needs a hospital,” he said.
“We can’t just stroll into town and drop her of
f.” Jack looked at him, incredulous.
“I’ll figure something out.”
“Ben.” Heather turned to face him. “It’s very noble what you’re trying to do, but getting both of you killed won’t help anything.”
Ben hesitated.
Dahlia’s eyes fluttered, but she didn’t seem able to open them.
“Give her to me,” he said.
“Ben...” Jude reached for his arm.
“Which way is town?” Ben bundled Dahlia in his arms.
* * * *
Ben shifted her weight, watching from the last line of trees at the edge of town. Women moved through the street, completely unaware of his presence. He had to find an area just quiet enough to let him drop her without being seen, but not so desolate that she wouldn’t be found for hours, maybe even days.
Another group of women passed, leaving no one in sight behind them. He slipped out of the trees just a little too far to be safe, and left her by the side of the road. He shifted her so she looked comfortable, then slid back into the trees to wait.
It didn’t take long for a woman to pass by. She stopped at Dahlia, knelt, stood, and ran toward the hospital. He watched to see what happened. There was only one woman who even so much as glanced at the forest. The rest of them didn’t seem to entertain the idea that the unconscious woman would have had to come from somewhere. They got a stretcher and moved her off.
Ben waited another moment, and then moved away, heading back to camp. They’d have to move out if anyone wondered where she came from.
Chapter Thirteen
Dahlia blinked. The familiar beeping sound and smell of antiseptic made her head spin. She tried to open her eyes, but even just looking around was painful. Her body felt tired and sore. She took a breath and forced her eyes open. It was a hospital, but not her hospital. Her hand found the call button without needing to look for it.
A woman in light blue appeared within a minute or so. “You’re awake.”
“I seem to be,” Dahlia said. “Where am I?”
“Palmerston General,” the woman answered. “I’m going to get your attending.”
She watched the woman turn before forcing herself up. The room wavered a bit, but she stayed upright. She pulled the chart off the end of the bed:
Jane Doe
DOB: Between 18-25
Patient presents with a fever of forty-one degrees, fever related unconsciousness, and various bruising on the extremities. No other signs of illness.
