Gaia's Brood

by Nick Travers

  Chapter 34

  A hand holds me fast by the ankle, “Shush, do you want them to hear you?” A rough voice that sounds vaguely familiar. I squirm quickly around, a pistol bow at the ready. But we don’t appear to have attracted any attention.

  “Jed, is that you?”

  My foot is released as the hand’s body collapses onto the floor of what I now realize is a cage. I scramble down to the floor and crouch by the bars.

  There’s a black liquid spreading over the lower half of a figure I can barely make out in the gloom. Then I realize it must be blood. Reaching up to grab me must have opened up a wound—a pretty bad one by the looks of it.

  “Jed, is that you?”

  “Stupid girl, you came back. Did you get the goods?” Jed’s voice is weak and he’s sucking in ragged breaths.

  “Yes.”

  Jed laughs and coughs up blood. I need to get him some medical attention, and quick. “Did you look inside it?”

  No point in lying now, he’ll be dead in a few minutes. “Yes. Where’s Trent?”

  “Then you know what they’re after.”

  The ice cold fear that grabs me is like nothing I have ever felt before—worse even than the blinding panic that overwhelmed me when I looked in the box that Scud and Fernando had opened. My whole body tenses, but I have to ask. “The Reavers?”

  “The Reavers and every other damn person in this godforsaken world.” Jed coughs up more blood and draws in a labored rattling breath. “I thought I could sell it back to its owners for a handsome profit, now look where it’s led us?”

  I need to keep him talking before I lose him for good. “Jed, where is Trent? Where is my crew? Is he alive?”

  “Cage on the corner, left side, approach it from the back.” A sudden movement from inside the cage and Jed has reached through the bars and snatch up my hand in a vice—like grip. “Promise me something—take as many of my people with you as you can.”

  What? He wants me to risk my neck for him again. No way. I try to tug my hand free, but he’s got it firm. More of the black liquid spills around my feet. I have to give him something—otherwise he won’t let me go. “I can’t promise, but I’ll see what I can do.”

  “Thanks.” Jed convulses in a fit of blood-spittled coughs. “And destroy that damn box, before it destroys all of us.” The hand holding mine goes limp. Silence.

  I wait, but I hear nothing, not even a ragged breath. He’s gone. I wait another moment out of respect for Jed’s departed soul then I get moving.

  I locate the cage Jed mentioned in the left-hand corner of the plaza—assuming the left Jed meant is also my left. I slowly work my way around and through the buildings behind the plaza until I find a dark alley that looks as if it might come up behind the corner cage.

  At the far end of the alley I carefully unlatch a head—height gate and peek through. I’m behind the cage and can see straight through to the wild revelry in the plaza. Light from the cooking fires doesn’t quite reach the cage, but I can see it is full of people: men, women, and children.

  “Trent,” I whisper. “Trent, are you there.”

  There’s a scrabbling as someone moves closer. “Nina. Oh am I glad to see you.”

  My relief is overwhelming and I feel tears sting my eyes—I wipe them away, angrily. “Thank God you’re alive, Trent. I’m going to get you out of here?”

  The timbers of the cage are pretty substantial and I realize I need tools. A few minutes of scrabbling round the house next to the alley and I’m back with a large hand drill and the longest widest drill bit I can find.

  The drill is whirs quietly as I crank the handle drilling as many holes through the base of a timber bar as I can. It takes me a back—breaking half hour of slow grinding before Trent stops me. “I think that is enough, Nina. Stand back.”

  Trent drops a Kung Fu kick on the post and it snaps off at the base. I didn’t know he could do that—he’s good.

  I dart quickly back into the shadows and Trent slumps by the base of the broken bar in case the noise has attracted any attention. Nothing. I bet the Reavers didn’t hear a thing over the sound of their partying.

  I pull the broken cage bar to one side, making a large enough gap for a slim person to squeeze through. Trent is pretty slim so he has no problem and to my surprise he hugs me. “You’re amazing, Nina Swift.”

  I’m embarrassed by the hug and I certainly don’t feel amazing: scared, confused, exhausted, but not amazing. “Who’s next?”

  “Nina, we gotta go, right now, before we’re spotted.”

  “I’m not abandoning them, Trent. I don’t leave anyone behind, remember?”

  Trent grabs me by the shoulders and shakes me. “This isn’t some game, Nina. We gotta go or we’ll be spitted over one of those fires.”

  For a moment I wonder who this new sensible Trent might be, but I don’t have time. I raise my fists and bat his arms away. Then I address the people in the cage. “I’ll take anyone with me who cares to come. There’s a ship moored at the edge of the platform, you can make a dash for it in that.”

  A few parents with children, an old lady, one of Jed’s henchmen, a young man, and a dopey woman, are all that respond. The majority squirm further into the corner of the cage, as if it’s me who’s going to eat them.

  I’m confused by their reluctance. “What’s wrong with you all?”

  Trent pulls me back. “There’s nothing wrong with them, they’re just scared. They’d rather take their chances on the Reaver treadmills than risk death, or worse.”

  This mindset is completely alien to me. “Why wouldn’t someone take the chance at freedom when it’s offered?”

  Trent looks as if the weight of the world has settled on his shoulders. “Many have grown up, from an early age, always beholden to someone else—it’s all they’ve known, what they understand, where they feel safe. To them, freedom is new and scary, therefore not to be trusted.” In the dim light he suddenly looks older. Different. “You believe you have a right to freedom, Nina; most in this world believe they have a right to be looked after by someone else. Not everyone is like you.”

  It’s a profound statement about human nature, and makes sense of much that I have seen. But it doesn’t sound like the Trent I know—maybe I had misjudged him. And I still don’t like it.

  I grab his shoulder as he makes to move out. “Trent, the Reavers are here for the goods we collected for Jed.”

  “Great, so we’ll just give ‘em what they want and run—that way they’ll leave us alone.”

  “I can’t do that Trent. You’ll understand when you see what’s inside the box.”

  Trent looks shocked, but quickly recovers. “Lighten up, Nina. Anyone would think the ‘ol world’s after you.”

  “The whole world is after me. Me and the thing in that box.”