A New America Trilogy (Book 1): The Human Wilderness

by S. H. Livernois

  She took a deep breath. "Yes, ma'am."

  "Unsheathe your knife, Mr. Stentz." Olive eyed Dr. Ghrist. "Let Terry see it."

  Eli drew it out with difficulty. The doctor stared at the point with wide eyes.

  "Don't become righteous like this one," Olive said. "Don't begin to think for a moment that you hold sway over me. I rule over you. You are my servant. Do you understand?"

  "Yes, ma'am," Jane said.

  "Excellent. We will get along very well, then."

  Olive looked down at Dr. Ghrist. She smiled.

  "I'm afraid I'll no longer be requiring your services."

  The doctor chuckled. "You're something else, you know that? This is what you wanted, this is your doing."

  A muscle in Olive's jaw twitched.

  "You gave the girls to me, Olive. 'Do whatever you want to them, I don't care,' you said, 'they're your playthings now.'" Dr. Ghrist licked his lips and purred, "So I did."

  Olive cleared her throat and squatted delicately in front of the doctor. "Unfortunately, you're going to die in this basement. Your body will be burned. You'll have no grave, no gravestone, no service. You'll be forgotten. Sadly, your perversions and proclivities won't be."

  Dr. Ghrist stared up at her, and finally his confidence faded.

  "Please, don't," he sputtered. "Just banish me. You'll never see me again."

  Olive put a hand on his shoulder. "So you can do this again, somewhere else, to someone else? I'm not that stupid." Olive turned to Eli. "Slit his throat, Mr. Stentz. I want him to suffer."

  The room swayed and Eli rooted his legs to keep it still. Jane breathed heavily beside him and he wanted to reach out and hold her. Then he realized it was him she was afraid of, remembered her lingering in the dark on that landing in the farmhouse. Listening to what he did to Bill. She shouldn't be surprised, and yet somehow Eli knew she was.

  He curled his fingers around the hilt of his knife as Dr. Ghrist's bald head spun around. His beady eyes locked on Eli's.

  "Please, Eli." The doctor stared at his hands and blubbered. "I couldn't help myself…Please."

  Eli placed a hand on the doctor's left shoulder, sickened. Is this what people had become? The wilderness inside every human exposed by the Fall, releasing the most depraved, cruelest instincts that civilization had buried. Dr. Ghrist's death was justice, but a voice reminded Eli it wasn't his place to exact punishment. He wasn't the law. Another voice told him he had to kill Dr. Ghrist. His life, Jane's, the girls', counted on him in this moment.

  "Do it!" Olive barked.

  "Eli ..." the doctor begged.

  Eli focused on the man's face and the rest of the room dimmed to blackness. Jane's breathing, her warm body, vanished. Eli pressed the point against the back of the doctor's skull and the small man wept.

  "Please, please, please."

  Eli closed his eyes. With a quick flinch of muscle, he thrust the blade into the back of his skull. Jane sucked in a breath with a shrill whimper. The doctor twitched and went limp. Eli let him crash to the floor and stared at the lifeless body, laying between the shelves of cans, the sacks of grain.

  Olive sighed heavily. "That's not what I asked for, Eli."

  Her eyes were bright with joy, but her lips were pursed.

  "I'm sorry, ma'am. His whining got to me, I guess."

  "Yes, well, he was a coward." Olive watched the doctor's blood spread across the floor. She glanced at Jane. "Do you understand what's expected of you?"

  "Yes, ma'am."

  Jane's voice sounded small and weak in that cavernous room. Jane's breathing was quick and shallow, and Eli clung to the sound — the proof that she knew what he really was.

  Part of him wished she'd never come to Grant's Hill.

  Chapter 34

  The next morning was cold and grim.

  Eli wove down the stone path from Olive's to the road and through town, trudging through the shadows that collected inside the walls overnight. His only company were the hooting Parasites.

  As Eli walked, he felt the shifting of seasons. Distant trees beyond the walls pasted themselves flat against a dim blue sky, yellow and orange red. Inside the walls, the gardens had turned into strips of empty brown earth, dotted with the last plants of summer. Geese cawed overhead on their way south. The weather would soon turn cloudy and cold for good.

  The sun's weak light broke free of the wall and poured into the settlement, raking golden fingers across Jane's front door. Eli flexed his hands to ease a pulse of nerves pricking the tips of his fingers. The thought of seeing Jane thrilled and frightened him. They could talk freely alone. Maybe he could hold her again, tell her everything was all right and that he was sorry. Or she would flinch from him, afraid of the man she saw the night before.

  Eli climbed the steps and knocked twice. Footsteps sounded inside. The door popped open and Jane's freckled face appeared. Mossy green eyes peered quickly at his face then studied his feet; she opened the door for him. Eli stepped inside the dead man's house.

  "Jane ..." he began, heart in his throat.

  But she was already walking away from him, past the sitting rooms and stairs. She disappeared into a room at the end of the hall. Eli followed in silence.

  He found her sitting at a small wooden table set in a nook near the kitchen. She sat curled, as if protecting herself, and stared through a bay window at a backyard overtaken by tall grass and weeds. Eli sat down beside her. The house was mostly silent. A clocked ticked somewhere. Outside, the rhythmic crack of an ax cutting through wood echoed through the air. The quiet amplified the thoughts swarming through Eli's brain.

  I'm trying to be a good man, Jane.

  I have so many things to atone for.

  I've been lost without your help.

  After a couple minutes, Jane took a deep breath. She turned slowly from the window. Dark shadows pooled under her red-rimmed eyes, but her gaze was still hard and angry and pierced into Eli's soul.

  "Olive tells me I'm to take care of the girls, not just her. Keep them healthy and happy." Jane held up her hand and ticked off her fingers. "But I'm only allowed in once a week. I'm not to ask questions. It's none of my business who they are. I'm not allowed to talk to them except about their health. I'm not allowed to talk about them to anyone else, either. What the fuck's with all the secrecy?"

  "Jane —"

  "And what the fuck did the —" Her voice cracked. She took a deep breath. "The ... the doctor mean when he said Olive gave the girls to him?"

  Eli stared at the wood grain swirling across the table, stroking the smooth surface absently. He knew Jane too well. Her anger and defiance were dangerous here. If Jane knew too much, she'd act and get hurt. Secrets would protect her.

  "Look at me."

  Eli obeyed. Jane's neck and cheeks were flushed red.

  "He abused them. Drugged them," Eli whispered. "So did Olive's guards, far as I can tell."

  Jane sat back in her chair with a hard thump. A muscle ground in her jaw. "What else?"

  Eli hesitated again. Jane ground her teeth at him. "Someone else is controlling Olive," he said. "Dr. Ghrist said so. Said she has to keep this person happy."

  "You don't know who?"

  "Only that he'll be here soon. For some kind of mission or ritual, sounds like."

  "What kind of ritual?"

  "I don't know."

  Jane huffed. Eli was ashamed he couldn't tell her more. That Jane had instead come here and found him murdering on command.

  "Something don't make sense, though. I've seen some of them girls outside." He pictured their serene faces, their joyful smiles. "They seem ... happy."

  "Happy?" Jane's voice was like a bomb. "Are you kidding me?"

  Eli put up a hand, stung by her anger. "All I'm saying is something don't add up. Some of them girls never come out of the house. One's been causing trouble. Hardly anyone wants to help."

  Jane nodded, her eyes unfocused and blazing with anger. "And Lily? What happened to her?"

&n
bsp; Jane's tone, the hardness in her eyes, asked a different question. What did you do?

  Eli stared at the table again. The wood grain morphed into a cold forest floor, strewn with leaves and pine needles. Lily's small body, stiff and pale, draped across it, silent and silver in the moonlight.

  "Simon killed her." Eli forced the words from his throat. "I found her. Dead."

  A strained, desperate cry burst from Jane's mouth. She grasped her face with her hand, fingers digging into her soft cheeks, sobs shuddering raggedly and violently into her palm. After a minute, she took a deep breath, clenched her hand into a tight fist, and held it, shaking, to her mouth.

  Then she brought her fist down onto the table. Eli flinched and the sound resounded through the quiet house.

  She closed her eyes and spoke softly. "Is he here?"

  "Yes."

  "And he's still alive?" Jane's fist pressed into the table as if she was trying to punch through it.

  "Yes."

  Her eyes sprung open and she lunged forward until her face was inches from his. "Why?"

  Eli studied his shoes rather than face Jane. "He said things weren't like I thought."

  "Meaning?"

  "I don't know, Jane. Said something about this mission. That he didn't know the girls were —"

  "Sex slaves?" Jane stood up suddenly; her chair screeched across the floor and crashed against the wall. "What have you been doing here, exactly?"

  She stared down at him coolly, like he was a shell of the man she knew. Eli cringed under her disappointment, her anger, even hatred. His heart broke.

  "You don't understand, Jane. Olive — she kills people who cross her. I have to be careful. I can't save no one if I'm dead."

  Eli stood and tried to take her arms in his hands, but she jerked away from his touch.

  "I've tried, Jane. Olive has wiped out anyone who could help me. But now you're here." Excitement brought heat to his face. "We can save them, together. There's a back door. We can sneak them out somehow. And there's a town a few miles from here — we can meet there. I'll draw a map —"

  "Why haven't you killed her? Olive?" Jane crossed her arms and glanced up at him, one eyebrow crooked. "If she's so dangerous, so controlling. If this whole thing is her operation and everyone answers to her."

  Sunlight streamed through the window to glint on the streaks of gold in Jane's eyes. They glanced past the man she knew to the darkness hiding inside. She, too, wanted to pull it out. Eli pushed it down, far away from her probing eyes.

  "Kill her and it's over," she said. "I'd do it myself if I had a weapon."

  "I can't." Eli swallowed hard and grabbed Jane's hands. He squeezed them tightly before she could pull away. "When are you going in?"

  Jane sighed. "Tomorrow."

  "We have time to figure something out. And there's a guard who could help … Something that will work."

  "Don't you think she deserves to die for what she's done?"

  Jane fixed him with that sharp gaze he feared so much. Those eyes that unearthed everything he wanted to hide. Eli squeezed her fingers, willing her to listen.

  "It's not up to me to decide that. Please, just talk to them," he said. "We can do this without hurting anyone, Jane. Everyone deserves mercy."

  Jane let him hold her hands for a while, then she unwrapped her fingers from his.

  "Mercy and forgiveness and selflessness ... they don't exist anymore." A single tear fell down Jane's hard face. "All that exists is right and wrong and survival. And Olive deserves to die."

  Chapter 35

  Eli sat on the couch beside Olive. The TV played Roman Holiday, flashing streaks of white light into the dark room. Eli stared at the screen without seeing, but Olive mouthed every line.

  Eli stole glances at her thin bones and weak limbs. The jutting bones and hollow cheeks of her face and her narrow neck. He could wrap one hand around it and squeeze the life from her throat. It would be so easy to overpower her. But the guards who strolled through the mansion, knives sheathed at their sides, wouldn't let that happen.

  Was Jane right? Did Olive deserve to die? Eli saw a cruel, powerful woman next to him. But he also saw a weak, desperate one whose strength came from other men. Without them, she could be overthrown, dominated, killed. Eli had the physical strength, but Olive had something more: loyalty through fear. The only way to fight that was not to. To sneak in a back door, whisper plans in the darkness, and escape unseen.

  Jane had to stick to their plan. Please, he prayed to himself, don't ask me to kill her again. Let me do this the way I think it should be done.

  Jane had gone into the guest house that morning, bag in hand. Her orders: find the door leading to the passageway, tell the girls they were leaving soon, have them prepared and packed. The next morning, he and Jane would meet at her house and discuss the next step.

  Jane would make up a story about a sick girl to get past the guards and into the guest house in the dead of night. Eli didn't expect the guards to let her in, but violence would convince them. They'd wrench away the key and slip inside before the night patrol passed by. Once inside, they would be invisible. The girls would escape in pairs while Olive was sleeping, meet up in that abandoned town.

  He hoped.

  Eli plotted the route home in his mind, but it was fraught with obstacles. Such a large group would be hard to hide from Parasites, and there could be even more girls. Eli had seen over a dozen outside, but how many hid behind those black windows? And how would he keep them quiet and fed? Should they split up into pairs again and go their separate ways? Should they all go to Hope, or back to their own homes? Then there was the matter of the coming winter...

  Hopelessness set in. But then Eli thought of those women and girls in that cold room in the asylum, the ones he didn't help. The same horrors and perversions plagued the girls in the guest house. Who else would save them?

  "Got to love that ending," Olive said suddenly.

  Eli's fantasy faded and he glanced up at the TV — Gregory Peck walked off screen and "The End" took his place. The room plunged into semi-darkness and silence.

  "So sad, yet she had a duty and made the tough choice. To give him up, though..." Olive sighed and gestured to her servant, who was standing at the ready nearby. "Clear this all away," she said, pointing to a wine glass and an empty plate, "then leave."

  The servant obeyed. Olive stopped the movie and the TV screen flashed to blue, filling the room with light. Olive crossed her legs and rested her hollow cheek on her hand.

  "I had an interesting conversation today. I don't think you've ever met Martha. Appalling woman. She lives in the guest house with the girls. Fancies herself their guardian and caretaker. She came to see me before lunch." Olive rolled her eyes. "She's a simpleminded tattletale. As usual, I didn't like her latest report. You're going to help me deal with it."

  A chill crept up Eli's spine. "Yes, ma'am."

  "As you know, one of the girls has been stirring up trouble lately — the one who caused a scene out the window the other day. I understand she's being punished, and rightly so. This morning, Martha found our new doctor in an engrossing conversation with the little brat. Words were exchanged. Martha claims Miss Beedie was impertinent and challenged her authority." Olive waved her hand. "I don't care about that. What I do care about is what this little episode means."

  Olive stood gracefully and glanced at a guard standing sentry in the corner; as if reading her mind, he left his post and fell in beside her. She flicked her head at Eli.

  "Follow me."

  Eli rose automatically. They were going to the basement.

  Olive's heels clicked across the tile floor and the guard's heavy boots thudded behind. Eli followed them down the familiar steps into the dank, quiet shadows below.

  "I thought I'd made it perfectly clear how I feel about rebellion," Olive called over her shoulder. She reached the bottom, stopped, and gazed up at Eli as he came down. "Evidently, I was wrong."

  She walked past
the bloodied spot where Eli executed Dr. Ghrist and headed down the narrow hallway he knew so well. At its end, a dim light spilled out from the small room across the hard cement floor. Eli's head pounded with every step he took closer to that room.

  Olive stopped at the entrance and opened her arm, gesturing Eli inside. "After you, Mr. Stentz."

  He crossed the threshold into the torture room. Olive stood beside him and the second guard remained outside the door.

  Inside, Jane was on her knees with her hands tied behind her back. She glanced up at Eli with a pale, drawn face, her back straight and jaw clenched. Silently, Eli begged her to behave and clasped his hands to stop himself from trembling.

  "Apparently you need more convincing, Dr. Beedie." Olive squatted before her. "You aren't your own woman anymore, but mine. If you want to enjoy the perks of living in my town, and enjoy my charity, you must be compliant."

  "I'm sorry, I —"

  Olive put up her hand, cutting her off.

  "I don't care that you're sorry. You should be." Olive took Jane's chin between her long fingers and shoved it aside. "I told you not to meddle with the girls. And yet according to Martha, you asked one of them where she came from, why she was taken. According to Martha, you nearly got her to talk. Now, I'm going to take that wretched woman's version of events with a grain of salt because, I hate to confess, I need you, and you will meet my every need. If I have to break you to ensure your obedience, so be it. And I will break you."

  Olive stood and paced in front of Jane, who stared into space with narrowed eyes.

  "Let me tell you a story. Back when this place began, everyone served my husband. He died a year after the Fall, along with almost everyone else." Olive paused and her face grew grim, frightened. "Afterward, his men tried to take his place, overlooking me entirely. But I knew what they were doing. Before they could enact any of their shortsighted plans, I had them kneeling in my front yard. I put a bullet between their eyes. All six of them. Needless to say, that's the last time anyone tried to defy me."

  Jane didn't sputter like Dr. Ghrist. She ground her teeth and stared up at Olive and tried to look brave. Eli read the fear in the familiar lines of her face. Olive grinned at her.