by Martha Woods
“I don’t know if I would trust any of us to be able to slip behind enemy lines either,” Jeremy reluctantly said, “We can do many things, but sneaking isn’t generally one of them. Another thing we lost when Orson’s siblings left us.”
“A small price to pay for not having them around anymore, I shudder to think what any of them would do if they found out about Orson. The traitor.”
Jeremy rubbed at the back of his neck, hiding his eyes so they wouldn’t see the guilt written in them. He’d told the guards that Orson had betrayed them, but he hadn’t given them the entire story, there was no way to ensure their cooperation otherwise. In hindsight, even though all he wanted was to protect the clan, and Orson on top of that, that very decision could very well have gotten him killed. He’d been injured badly in the fight and forced to flee into the cold with nothing resembling warm clothing or food, and the forests had been bare for months, how long could he possibly make it?
“Well, that doesn’t really bear thinking about, does it?” He said after a moment, shaking his head to rid himself of doubt, “If we did have them on our side we’d be able to destroy them from the inside out, but the point stands that we do not, so what is our plan here? Are we going to wait for them to come to us and hope that they make enough mistakes to ensure our victory? Please give me some ideas here.”
“You’re the brains of the operation Jeremy.”
“I am not a war chief, I do not know the decisions and protocols that need to be handled here! What I am is someone very concerned with the people that are going to be caught in the crossfire here unless we do something, so I want you, the expert on war, to tell us what to do!”
The senior soldier watched him, unimpressed, before clicking his tongue, “There is one thing that we could try, but we would absolutely be losing someone in the process. You know their food stores, the big drums filled with grain and seed?”
“No, I’ve never seen them.”
“I have. I’ve been waiting for this day for years, I wasn’t going to be caught unprepared for it.” Grabbing a stick, he knelt in the building snow and scratched at the surface, drawing out a crude diagram. “So they’ve got them in the middle of the camp, surrounded on all sides by hungry wolves ready to kill whatever comes near that isn’t one of them. Except for when they go hunting, that leaves barely a skeleton crew behind to look after the rest of the campsite.”
“Why so many?” Jeremy asked, “Why take away all the guards?”
“Because they’re in the same situation that we are, they have no food and they need all hands on deck to go out and find it. I’m pretty sure that they’ve even got the kids out there hunting with them, same as us. You get one of us in there when they’re hunting with a torch, toss it into each of those silos, watch it all go up along with their food.”
Jeremy had to admit that it sounded effective, if not barbaric. “And what happens to the one that we send?”
The old soldier sighed, “Chances are that if we want this done right they’re gonna have to stay behind and watch it all burn down, which means that the wolves will be back and very angry at them. They’ll probably kill them slow, I’m not gonna sugarcoat it, but at least they’ll die knowing that they gave us the victory.”
“And if they still attack us after that?”
“They can try, but they won’t make it more than one fight before they’re gone, with the appetites that people like us have? They’ll have no choice but to move on, there’s no time to grow nearly enough food to sustain them.”
Jeremy stared down at the drawing of the dead wolf, the grain silos aflame, and he suddenly felt violently ill. It was one thing to throw his friend out to try and protect the rest of their people, but to be a part of potentially killing hundreds of people… it just didn’t sit right with him, and it was finally hitting him exactly why.
But he still had responsibilities, and even if he hated himself for it, he was going to see them through.
“Start planning for it then, make sure that whoever is going to be sent knows exactly what is going to happen to them, I don’t want to find out that they died unprepared, do you understand me?”
“Loud and clear,” The old soldier said, “And at least call me by my name huh? It’s Hank.”
“Hank huh?” Jeremy sniffed, not quite able to contain his contempt for the situation, “Well Hank. Get to work.”
He walked away, hands clenched tightly and his nails biting into his skin, ready to deal with whatever situation came his way next.
“They’re probably plotting our demise as we speak, aren’t they?” Elder Sarah sat with her head in her hands, not having moved from her temporary spot next to the makeshift prison ever since she’d seen it had been broken. “While we sit here on our hands those bears are plotting how best to kill us and strip the meat from our bones.”
“All due respect ma’am, I can’t really fault them for that last part. It’s been a harsh winter for everyone, we’re all missing food.”
“Yes, well, if it’s all the same I would really rather not have it be my bones that are stripped clean of their meat and blood.” She looked up at the man in front of her, unassuming at first, but carrying an air of something heavy about him, like he’d walked through a valley of fire and lived. It was no secret to anyone why she was talking to him. “I’ve already sorted things out with your men, they’re prepared to attack in the next few days. Rushing past the guards and into the heart of their territory, they’ll have no choice but to surrender or be destroyed.”
“Good, very good, I trained them all myself and they’ll do an excellent job.” He sniffed, looking around before taking a knee in front of her. “And what about my job? What should I have my men do now that they’ve made contact?”
“I would say that you should give them the order to… eliminate the threat, as unsavory as it is.” The Elder let her head thump against the wood of the prison, staring up at the sky. “How did it all come down to this again?”
“Fear, ignorance, the same reasons as last time.” He stood, shrugging his shoulders like he’d been reading the weather. “I’m not going to pretend like we don’t share blame for all of this, because we absolutely do. But I’m still going to make sure that we’re the ones who make it out on the other side, you have my word on that, anyone who gets in the way of that is going to lose, no matter how long it takes.”
“Your loyalty is appreciated, and much needed in this time that we find ourselves in. How I wish that I had half the level head that you do.”
“As do I ma’am, as do I. I’ll… leave you to your mourning.”
He stepped away, Elder Sarah watching him go with something between boredom and interest, before she traced her fingers along the ruined wood, along splinters and shards that had been broken apart by her undeniable strength. Strength that should have been available to them all now, if only she hadn’t allowed things to get so out of hand.
“I’m so sorry Jennifer, I failed you so terribly.” She hung her head, scratching her nails in the dirt below. “One of my own, and I cast you aside so easily, even after everything that we’ve been through. What kind of leader does that make me? What kind of person does that make me?”
Sitting there in the dirt, she waited until the fight came back to her. But for now, there was no such thing to be found.
“So I don’t think I ever asked,” Jennifer said through a mouth of stew, “What are the two of you going to do? Like, it’s pretty obvious that you’re not really interested in going back to the camp right?”
Helga shook her head, asking Frank a silent question with her eyes before she looked back at Jennifer. “After this I think that we’re going to travel again, see the world while we still can. We want to have a family, be able to raise them properly where they can be safe, but we just haven’t found a place that will allow us to do that yet. It’s a shame but… the camp just couldn’t offer that, even before all of this.”
“All the worries about food, and the
constant tension with the wolves, I could barely sleep at night thinking that something was going to snatch Helga away from me, can you imagine the wreck that I’d be if I had a kid to protect on top of all that?” Frank laughed, “I probably would have had a heart attack within the first month of having the thing.”
“I would like to say that you’d be worrying over nothing, but I know that’s not true.” Jennifer shrugged, swallowing another spoonful. “Kids died in that last war, and they might die in this next one if we don’t stop it, I don’t think either of you would be able to make a single move without being scared that your kid was going to end up on the receiving end of some claws. That or… just starve because you’ve got no food to actually feed them with.”
“It’s funny, the way that my parents said it to me this whole place was meant to be a sanctuary for us, teach us to be closer to nature and live within our means. All that it’s really done has killed us all over a bunch of nothing while we slowly starve to death the rest of the time, this whole exercise has been… completely pointless. I just wish we’d figured that out before we destroyed the environment as much as we did.”
“Well, now’s the chance to make it alright again, yeah? Get everyone out of here, let the land breathe, actually give all of you a fighting chance at a life.” Jennifer pushed her bowl forward, having finished it to the last drop. “As soon as we deal with all of this I’m getting his ass out of here as far as I can go, then we’re going to look for his family. I definitely suggest that you get as far away as you can, and make the family that you’ve always wanted, nothing can take that away from you.”
“We’ll still keep the house here, nothing good would come from tearing it to pieces, but it will probably be a long time until we come back.” Frank looked up, smiling at the aged wood and the clear glass overlooking the frosty forest. “I do love this house, me and my father built it before he died in the war. He said that a good house, a house that you build with your own hands and your own blood is almost like a member of the family all onto itself. I had no idea what he meant until the first night that me and Helga slept here as a married couple, and even though I’d been here countless times before it… for the first time it felt like coming home, you know?”
“No,” Jennifer said, though she grinned as she said it, “But I’m happy that the two of you found each other. Possibly the only two bears on the planet that wouldn’t just try to kill me on sight.”
“Of course not, we have manners at least,” Helga said, “Though it did get pretty close when I first met you, I thought that you’d killed him yourself before I could come and rescue him.”
“Probably wouldn’t have helped if I said that I felt like I did huh? Not really much time for nuance in those situations.”
“No,” She laughed, “No there is not. But you’re in our house now, you are a guest of ours and we will defend you against whatever comes next, no matter what it is, you have our word on that.”
“Thank you.” Jennifer bowed her head, before standing from the table and backing away towards the door. “I’m sorry to end the moment, but I should really go and check on Orson, make sure that he hasn’t torn himself open trying to get himself out of bed.”
“Not a bad plan,” Frank said, “If he’s broken anything new be sure to punch him in the stomach for me will you?”
“Will do.” She saluted with two fingers, taking the steps down and seeing him lying on the desk in much the same position that they’d left him in, hands crossed over his stomach and his eyes trained on the ceiling, flicking between the pits and scratches that he could see.
“There’s about two hundred scratches on average on each board, did you know that?” He asked, obviously not expecting her to give an actual answer, “No idea what caused so many scratches, but I guess that’s just what comes with building a house right?”
“Ok, I know that you’re bored and everything, but if you count the scratches in the house then you’re going to lose your mind completely, ok?” She took his hand, running her thumb along the knuckles. “You’ve been here before right?”
“A couple times,” He said, “Mostly before Helga and Frank were married, after that it always felt like I was intruding. This is like… their little sanctuary away from everything, I didn’t want to ruin the meaning of that.”
“What was it like before they got married?”
“Me and Frank used to come out here and get drunk when we thought our dads didn’t know what we were doing. I used to swipe something from my dad’s cabinet, he did the same, I think they knew and just wanted us to have a chance to unwind as stupid kids.” Pushing himself up onto his elbow, he scanned the room before pointing at the far off corner of the room. “I puked right over there after drinking way too much, and he just stood there patting my back and promising that he wouldn’t say anything. He said that I looked cool, even though I knew the exact truth of that.”
“Frank sounds like he was a good friend, it’s… hard to find those, nowadays.”
“The war made it hard on everyone, even the ones that survived have a hard time being around each other now. There’s just too many memories, too many people who look like people that we used to know, but aren’t around anymore.”
“I used to see people that looked like my parents, it’s part of why I stopped being around everyone so much I guess.” Jennifer rested against the edge of the desk, trailing her fingers along his arm. “It’s weird, the ways that we try and find some way to make everything better, isn’t it? It’s not even making anything better it’s just… avoiding everything until we can get over it.”
“Loss isn’t something that you can just sweep away, no matter how much you want to do it. I lost a lot of months after my family left me, wrapped up in wondering what I could have done differently, the things I said, the things I didn’t say, nothing made me feel better until I just stopped thinking about it. Even now it hurts, but I just have to keep looking forward and hoping that everything ends up better on the other end, you know?”
“I do.” She nodded. “So what are we going to do to make things better, hmm? We need a plan and we need it soon, so I think that it’s best that we come up with one to make sure that we’re prepared for when the time comes.”
“Well, killing them isn’t an option, and I don’t think that we’d actually be capable of it even if we tried. The Elder raised you almost, Jeremy has been with me for years, they’re still our family no matter how we want to cut it. So that means that we have to find other avenues to make them give up the land, and I don’t suppose that you have any ideas, would you?”
She leaned back, skin touching against his and driving the barest of electric shocks between them. What could possibly have happened, to draw such a reaction out of the two of them?
“Well, I suppose that we should be thinking about not just what they want to attack, but also what they could be invested in defending, the things that would kill their entire purpose for fighting if they lost them.” Tapping at his chin, he rested his head against the pillow that had been placed under his neck and stared back up at the ceiling. “There’s a lot of things that we want to defend, our people, our land… there’s got to be something that I’m missing…”
Snapping her fingers in realization, she shuffled around until her feet were nearly off the ground, one resting completely on the bench and the other perched on her toes. “I know what they’re going to need to protect most, it’s so obvious I’m mad I didn’t think of it before!”
He screwed his eyes up, flipping through what information he knew about his homeland before he too lit up, raising himself up into a sitting position and squeezing her hand. “The food, the crops, without them… without them both the clans have nothing. They’d be forced to leave the land behind or face outright starvation, there’s no question about it.”
“Winter is almost fully here, and most of the animals have already fled for hibernation or safety, there’d be nothing here for them to survive on unles
s they started eating the bark off of the trees.”
Orson nodded, grimacing with the effort as he turned and slipped his legs off the side of the desk, feeling them touching against cold tile for the first time in what felt like an eternity. “But how would we even manage to get through to there, let alone set it all on fire? I know the security for my clan, you can bet that they’ll be watching our food with all attention, what about yours? They have more people than we do, the security seems like it would be ten times as daunting.”
“You’d think, but you’re forgetting just how dire our situation has gotten as well. Before we used to have just small hunting teams going out and catching enough to feed all of us for a month, now we have to send everyone else out along with them just to catch a quarter as much. When they do that… there’s not many people left behind in camp, it would be doable if we were fast enough and quiet enough.”
“And while the fires are going up there my clan might start to celebrate… that would make them drop their guard while they prepare for a follow up attack.” Orson nodded. “I think this is the best play that we’ve got, but it’s going to be very dangerous, you know that right? There’s a chance that we might not actually get out of this alive, and if we do there’s every possibility that they’ll decide to hunt us down together for what we’ve done.”
“I know,” Jennifer said, smiling and daring herself to press a quick kiss to the side of his mouth, “We’ll… we’ll figure it out later, if that’s what it comes to.”
In momentary shock and blushing furiously, Orson pressed his fingers against the site of her kiss, laughing incredulously and leaning into her side. “I suppose that we will. What a… surprise this whole thing turned out to be.”
