New World Order

by S. M. McEachern

  We listened to them as they sorted out which twenty men to take and set the price for compensation. From what I could gather, the foot soldiers were paid with three meals a day and the chance to get on with one of the rigs full time. The owners of the rigs, or carts, were referred to as captains. They “hired” escorts to work with them by negotiating a percentage of whatever payment they received from Ryder.

  Kane directed the rest of our caravan to make camp. Not far ahead, we rounded a bend, and the landscape opened up to a large, flat area. The stone wall of the mountain rose on one side and on the other a ravine led down to the river. Only one path led in and out.

  Screams echoed through the forest before we even rolled to a stop. They were so unexpected, so piercing, that I forgot I was bound when I jumped to help. My arms wrenched back and the plastic binds cut into my wrists.

  More screams. At least two different women... and was that a child?

  “What are you doing?” I asked Hollywood.

  “Making camp,” he said dryly.

  The screams were begging now. Pleading. My heart hammered in my chest. Naoki was across from me, wide-eyed and pulling against his bonds too. Talon was sitting up as straight as his tethered wrists would let him, his eyes alert with fear.

  “They’re hurting them,” Naoki said.

  Hollywood came around to the back of our wagon and opened up the wooden crate.

  “I thought you said women weren’t worth much,” I said. He didn’t look at me. “Leave them alone!”

  He paused in his task long enough to give me a bland, disinterested look. “Not worth much to me. I already got enough.” He pulled the plastic container of meat out and set about feeding the bears.

  The screams came less frequently, but when I could hear them, it was always a feminine voice. I realized then that the men would have been shot with devil’s blood and were probably out cold. God help me, but I couldn’t stop thinking, Lucky them, they won’t have to live with the memory of what happened to their wives and daughters.

  Sunny’s image was determined to creep to the forefront of my thoughts, but I pushed her away. Her memory—her very essence—was the only thing keeping me sane since my capture. She was my happy place, the place inside my head where I could go to escape my reality. I couldn’t allow that place to be tainted with their screams or, most of all, my humiliation at not being able to do anything about it. Tethered, powerless and at the mercy of the dumbest masochist I had ever met, I was impotent.

  I could tell by the set of Naoki’s face and the way the cords of his neck stood out that he felt the same way. This was the world that his people had so desperately tried to escape by making their home in the mountains. I remembered when I had told Dena that maybe it was better to run from Holt, and she had responded by asking, Run where? Now I understood.

  My chest constricted as I watched my captors, who so righteously carried out the orders of Father Ryder, and wondered if I was staring at the future of humanity.

  A short time after the screaming stopped, just as the last of the sun’s rays streaked across the sky, the new recruits were brought into the camp. I didn’t get a good look at them, but the entire camp cheered at the sight of a wagon full of women. I suddenly wished they’d shoot me with devil’s blood again.

  I looked at Naoki. “The minute they cut me loose, I’m going to kill every last one of them.”

  He gave me a curt nod. “I’ll help.”

  Chapter Six

  Sunny

  Dena always did have a way of pointing out someone’s faults without actually laying blame, which had the effect of putting you on a guilt trip instead of on the defensive. Ordinarily I didn’t appreciate guilt trips, but in this case I welcomed it. Not only did it force me to start exploring my own feelings about bringing a child into this world, but it also took my mind off the physical trip I was on: in a raft navigating a river swollen by winter melt. At least I could stomach it. Summer was positively green.

  Jin-Sook and Eli were the only ones with experience operating a boat, so they took control of the raft and were patient enough to instruct Summer, Reyes, and me on the art of navigation. Most of the time the river did the work of propelling us forward, so we mostly used the paddles to push away from rocks, fallen trees, and any other debris caught in the current. It was intense work made easier by the fortified strength our exoskeletons gave us, but it still required a sharp eye, quick reflexes, and our undivided attention since the burgeoning waterway had swept up a lot of winterkill from the riverbanks. Talk among us was kept to short phrases like Rock! Tree! or Look out! I didn’t mind the lack of conversation. It forced Reyes and me to work together toward a common goal without our usual snide exchanges.

  As leery as I was about his motives for wanting to be there, I recognized that his presence had a calming effect on me too. Reyes was familiar. No matter how horribly our relationship had ended, I didn’t want it to be our defining moment. We started out as friends, collecting memories together the very first day we met at school when we were only six years old. I couldn’t just cut him out of my life. Where we grew up, good memories were a rare commodity and far too precious to waste.

  Of course, I didn’t know how he felt about me. I could only guess from the grunts and sneers he often threw my way during our training sessions with the militia. He was obviously not in agreement with Doc’s choice of me as leader, yet he wasn’t disgruntled enough to leave our elite group either. Then again, Reyes had always been tough to read. His brooding, silent exterior made it impossible to see inside.

  After the third time Summer heaved over the side of the raft, I suggested we stop for a break. I didn’t have to look at my watch to know it was past noon. The sun had already reached its peak an hour before. With the unpredictable spring weather, I would have preferred to keep going while it was on our side, but I knew if we pushed too hard now we’d pay for it later with exhaustion.

  As soon as we had pulled the raft safely onto dry land, we filled our flasks from the river while Jin-Sook and Eli scooped water with both hands and drank. Summer, Reyes, and I had to wait for our water to percolate through the filter, and I watched it with anticipation. I seemed to be constantly thirsty these days. After a good long drink, I opened a pack of freeze-dried food and added the water, turning it into a mush not unlike the stew we had been fed in the Pit. Jin-Sook knew of our need to protect ourselves from radiation, but Eli didn’t, and he looked on curiously.

  “We have food sensitivities,” I explained.

  Summer grimaced at the smell of her pack. “I don’t think I can eat it.”

  “Try,” Reyes said firmly.

  His harsh tone irritated me, but I resisted snapping at him. “He’s right, Summer. You have to eat.”

  She groaned and took a mouthful.

  Jin-Sook finished her last bite of dried meat and licked her fingers. “We should scout for signs of recruiters passing through here while we’re stopped.”

  I wasn’t sure about taking the time to do that. “Does it matter if they passed through here? They have over a week’s lead on us, and Eli’s pretty sure he knows where they’re going. We should keep moving.” I chugged back some of my mush.

  “They’ll be traveling a lot slower than us,” Eli said. “The bears hauling the carts don’t move very fast, especially down a mountainside. They’ll have to pick their way down, all the while looking for more recruits.”

  Summer took the flask away from her mouth. “Bears?” she choked. “They use bears to haul the carts?”

  “Yeah,” Eli said, as if it were a widely known fact. “They’re big enough to pull a cart full of recruits and surefooted on just about any terrain, including in water.”

  “They are huge,” I agreed. Jack and I had spotted one a few miles from our city when we were out for an afternoon of target practice. “A lot bigger than the ones recorded before the War. I wonder why?”

  Reyes swallowed some mush and cleared his throat. “Gee, if only I knew s
omeone who always had her nose stuck in a nature book.” He looked at me. “Oh, wait. I do.”

  His tone was kind of friendly, and it caught me off guard. I regarded him with suspicion. Was he being nice to me? Better to go on the assumption that he was and keep the peace. “I don’t know. Because...” I tried to think of a reason why. “Bears eat fish and berries, right? Obviously there wouldn’t be any berries for them to eat during a nuclear winter, but maybe fish?” Even as I said it, I knew my logic was flawed. Without sunlight, the aquatic food chain would’ve broken down during the nuclear winter too.

  Both Jin and Eli gave me a weird look. “Berries?” Eli asked. “Bears eat meat. Humans, small game, fish, insects—”

  “Did you just say humans?” Reyes interjected.

  A little bit of my mush regurgitated on me and I swallowed it back down. Of course he said humans. Only meat-eaters survived the nuclear winter. And I had learned from Dena that human meat was a key source of nutrition in the years immediately following the War, which made sense since the global population was close to eight billion. People were the most abundant source of food.

  “It explains why they survived,” I said. “They could’ve hibernated through most of the nuclear winter, waking only long enough to replenish their fat stores. It makes sense that the only thing to eat when they did wake was meat, anything and anyone that had managed to survive in a world without sunlight. Cross-mating with other species would have contributed to their evolution and size.”

  “I knew all that dry reading would pay off one day,” Reyes said and downed the rest of his food.

  Was he really being friendly or was it a reminder that he had always hated it when I’d chosen a book over his company? I didn’t want to ask though. I preferred this friendliness to our usual uneasy conversations.

  I directed my gaze to the stark forest behind us. Winter had not fully given way to spring, although the patches of snow that clung to the ground were no longer white as their melt had mixed with the thawing ground to make a cold, slippery mud. The trees and brush were still dormant, their branches bare of any foliage, so even though they were fairly dense, they didn’t provide much privacy. And I really needed to pee.

  Hey, little guy, I thought, casting a covert glance at my belly. Why do you want water all the time if you’re just going to make me get rid of it?

  “We can have a quick look around,” I said to Jin-Sook and Summer.

  Summer caught on immediately, the way only a best friend could. “We’ll be right back,” she said to the men.

  We didn’t stray too far from the shore, choosing a suitable boulder to squat behind. Doc had thought of everything when he designed the suits, so it wasn’t difficult. We took turns, two keeping a watchful eye for anything that might cross our path. I looked for signs of recruiters having passed through, but found nothing, not even small animal prints.

  A cold breeze blew through the leafless forest, and branches whispered against each other. It wasn’t an unfamiliar sound, but I was used to hearing it as part of an orchestra of traffic on a busy street, the incessant chatter of people, and the hum of electricity. On its own, it sounded hollow and lonely, and I was suddenly aware that we were the only living creatures for miles.

  Summer and I stood watch when it was Jin’s turn. “Are you feeling any better?” I asked. Summer looked pale.

  She shrugged. “Drinking water is helping a lot.”

  I put my hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked you to come. Maybe it’s too soon.”

  Only seven days ago she had been hooked up to an IV, kicking the alcohol in her system. She was strong in her fight against her addiction, stronger than I had ever seen her, and I had thought taking her away from the temptation of booze would help. But she was on medication Doc had prescribed to take the edge off her cravings and keep her withdrawals in check, and now I was afraid she was vomiting them up.

  “No. I’m glad I’m here,” she said, putting her hand on mine. “I’ll get used to the raft. Don’t worry about me.”

  Jin-Sook finished, and we returned to the shore.

  “There’s no sign of them,” Jin said to Eli.

  “It doesn’t mean we’re going in the wrong direction,” Eli said. “They won’t stray too far from a water source, but traveling the riverbank with wagons is difficult. They probably kept to the higher trails.”

  This was a river valley. The shore on either side of the river ranged from somewhat flat and pebbly, to sheer cliffs, to everything in between. Our current position was relatively flat, but the terrain on either side of the river crept steadily upward to eventually tower over the valley.

  We stowed our packs in the raft and pushed it back out onto the water before we all hopped in. Although I was still uncomfortable being on the water, I was beginning to trust that the raft would stay afloat. Summer didn’t look any more comfortable. It took only twenty minutes for her to lose her lunch.

  The current was swift and, I was pretty sure, stronger than it had been before we had stopped. We navigated our way through some rapids, and eventually the current slowed as the river widened into a lake. Reyes and I dug into the water with the paddles, using the boosted strength that our exoskeletons gave us to power across the lake. The calmer waters gave Summer a brief reprieve, but soon enough the waterway narrowed and we switched from paddling to repelling away from rocks. Even taking turns, the work was exhausting.

  Occasionally I looked up from my task to scan the mountaintops on either side of us, wondering if recruiters were watching our progress. Oddly, the thought didn’t scare me. It gave me hope that Jack might still be in the area and I could bring him home sooner than anticipated. Yet, as the day wore on, all I saw were rocks, bare trees, and the occasional small animal getting a drink at the river’s edge.

  When the water became too rough to navigate, we pushed our way back to shore. Summer jumped out of the raft as soon as we were in shallow water.

  “We’ll need to go on foot for a few miles at least,” Eli said.

  “Thank God,” Summer whispered and sat down on the ground with her head between her knees.

  I grabbed my backpack and Summer’s, took out our flasks, and filled them with water. Eli and Jin attempted to help Reyes get the raft ashore, but he waved them away, picked it up, held it aloft, and carried it up onto dry land. Setting it down, he fumbled with a mechanism on the back of it, and a whirring started as the raft began to deflate. Summer looked at the boat with detest.

  “Are you going to make it?” I asked, handing her the flask.

  “Would you believe me if I said I was getting used to it?”

  Pulling my mouth into a wry smile, I dropped down to sit next to her. “No.” I took out a freeze-dried food pack, mixed it with water, and offered it to her. She gagged and turned away. “You have to eat.”

  “I will as soon as the ground stops moving. In the meantime, can you take that away from me, please?” She motioned toward the food.

  I stood, taking the offending food with me. “Okay, but in an hour I’m going to make you eat.”

  Even though the gray mush was less than appetizing, my stomach growled. I caught Reyes looking at me as I chugged it back.

  “Keep going through your rations at that rate and you’ll be eating radioactive squirrel soon enough,” he said.

  I ignored the jab, finished my mush, and helped fold the raft until it was small enough to tuck into Reyes’ backpack. It was a lot heavier than it looked, and even with the aid of my suit, I struggled to pick it up singlehandedly. Reyes took it away from me, slid it into his pack, and settled the weight onto his back as if it were feather-light. I found myself wondering how much of that strength was him and how much was the suit.

  “We’ll have to hike over that ridge,” Eli said. “And we might as well make camp there tonight since it’ll give us a good vantage point over the valley.”

  As we left the shore and entered the stark forest, the sound of rushing water began
to fade. Jin-Sook and Eli led the way. I never tired of watching the ease with which they glided through the forest, leaving barely a trace of their passing. Eli wasn’t quite as graceful as Jin, but then again he hadn’t been born and raised in the Nation like she had. She’d been taught from birth that her first defense against an enemy was not to let him know you were there and had spent a lifetime perfecting the art of being invisible. She had also been taught what to do if that defense failed... and, frankly, I felt sorry for anyone who made the mistake of seeing through her camouflage.

  Looking behind us, I saw that the only footprints left in the mud belonged to Reyes, Summer, and me. I would attempt to move as Jin and Eli did, but I was pretty sure I’d just end up slipping on the patchy ice. The hydraulics in our suits made it easy for us to move faster, and the three of us frequently had to check our speed to allow Eli to maintain the lead. He was, after all, our guide. Summer and I didn’t mind the slower pace, but Reyes huffed a few times.

  When we reached the top of the ridge, we stopped to take in the view. The sight of rolling peaks separated by valleys was quite breathtaking, although the dark clouds gathering in the sky above were not.

  Eli pointed to one of the distant peaks. “That’s your Dome.”

  Could it be true? Had we really traveled that far from home in just one day? Summer and I looked at each other, silently communicating both our fear and our excitement at straying out into the world.

  She smiled broadly, looking a lot better than she had a few hours ago. “We’re just like Heidi!” she exclaimed. We both fell into a fit of giggles at the mention of our favorite movie—the one we used to act out in our imaginary childhood world inside the confines of the Pit. She and I always took turns being Heidi and Klara.

  Reyes chuckled. “I remember Heidi,” he said. “Grade Three every recess, that’s all you two ever played. And you used to bug me and Mica to be the goat and Grandfather.”

  Our giggles turned into hysterical laughter as we remember how ridiculous, and yet awesome, Reyes and Mica had been for playing along with us. “But you only ever wanted to be Fraulein Rottenmeier,” I said.