A Broken Time

by Anna Oney

  Stepping into the thigh-deep, murky water, she savored the cool change in temperature. The creek was around fifteen feet wide. Behind her, she heard Blythe sloshing through the water to catch up with her and grumbling under his breath. She couldn’t make out everything he said, but was able to decipher, “What about the snake?”

  The remains of a weathered beaver dam stuck out to her right. Its ends were still intact, allowing water to rush between them, spilling over to the other side. Blythe seemed enticed by this failing structure as he couldn’t keep his eyes off it.

  “It’s an old beaver dam,” Fawn whispered, as they crossed. “Not sure how long it stood for before the creek swelled up and the current caved it in.”

  Emerging from the water, Fawn and Blythe struggled up the steep embankment, slipping four times. Juniper arrived at the top before they had reached the halfway mark. Topside, Fawn lent a hand to Blythe, who fought to reach the top, and managed to help him the rest of the way.

  Panting, Blythe clung to a stich in his side and peered in the hogs’ direction.

  “They’re still in the same spot,” he grumbled, stretching out his arm.

  Fawn tied Juniper’s reins to a limb. Through the tops of the trees surrounding her, Fawn watched the sun drift slowly below the horizon. With every minute that passed, the area around them became less visible. She knew by the time they arrived home, it would be past dark.

  What they needed was wind, and the air in the dense woods seemed to refuse to move. It was imperative that the hogs catch Tye’s scent.

  Is it too much to ask for a little wind here? she thought, stomping at the ground.

  Fawn’s focus was drawn toward Tye’s body across from the cypress tree. Joy stood in the middle of a swirling circle of white. It took Fawn a couple of seconds to realize it was Stella that was the circle, her red collar mixing in with the white that encircled her mistress. Joy’s blonde hair flew behind her shoulders as she moved her hands in a wafting motion. She looked as though she were collecting the air that Stella created by moving at an impossible speed.

  Leaves and sticks floated within the circle, disrupting Fawn’s visibility.

  “Stella,” Joy said. “That’s enough.”

  The floating debris drifted to the ground as soon as Stella slowed her pace, piecing herself back together. By the time the dog sat next to her mistress, Joy looked as though she were holding an invisible ball. She leaned forward, puckering her lips to whistle. Fawn expected a high-pitched clamor to escape Joy’s lips, but all she did was blow, sending a stream of wind from the invisible ball she held.

  Fawn jumped as the wind soared and twisted in the direction of the hogs. Feelings of rejuvenation rushed through her chest as the animals lifted their heads, sniffing the air. Three at a time, they ventured out with the next three following close behind. The impact of their feet on the ground made a crunch and crack as their weight smashed or snapped everything they stepped on.

  That’s what Joy meant when she said, “Let us worry about the rest.”

  “Get down on your stomach,” Fawn whispered to Blythe. “The hogs. They’re on the move.”

  Just as their chests touched the ground, the hogs came running for Tye’s body.

  Fawn found it difficult to watch them tear him apart. She surprised herself by looking away with Blythe as the animals began feasting on Tye’s flesh. The chomping that emanated from across the creek was just as traumatizing as watching the mutilation take place. It was the sound of grinding bone and shredding muscle. Blythe vomited again after only a few minutes.

  Good night, she thought, turning away from him. Again? What did you eat?

  A squealing fight broke out between two hogs, tugging Fawn’s eyes from the ground. Two boars had separated from the pack, grunting and brawling over Tye’s remaining body part — his foot. The rest were occupied with finishing off the insides that had spilled from Tye’s midsection after they’d ripped him open. The smacking, slurping sounds were almost too much for Fawn to handle.

  Cursing herself for having looked, she cut her eyes to the dirt. She swallowed back the hot bile that had risen in her throat.

  “How much longer do we have to wait ‘til we can get out of here?” Blythe whispered, his pale face beaded with perspiration.

  She had to force herself to raise her head and look again. The biggest boar of the two had won the battle, chewing through Tye’s foot in less than a minute.

  “I’m satisfied if you are,” she replied, crawling backward. “Nothing left but the innards, anyway. They’ll be inhaling that gunk before we make our way out of here.”

  Blythe nodded fervently.

  “I always thought Tye was a piece of shit,” he said, grimacing. “He’ll be one tomorrow. For sure . . .”

  Seeing that the hogs were completely engrossed in their prize, Fawn untied Juniper’s reins, and whistled twice. The horse leaned forward, allowing Fawn to swing her leg over and mount.

  “Here,” Fawn said, offering her hand to Blythe. “You’re not going to puke again, are you?”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Despite Blythe’s unrelenting grip around her torso, Fawn felt as though she could finally breathe as they exited the woods. They’d completed their bloody task and arrived at the back gate with little light to spare. Vance was so annoyed, he couldn’t bring himself to speak to them. He simply pointed to the ground for them to dismount and motioned for Fawn to join him.

  Handing herself over to the NWA was no easy feat. A way to get close to the cylinder had presented itself, therefore, she couldn’t flake out on their plan. Besides, she was guaranteed an audience with the great Cdr. Asher himself. Perhaps she’d learn more about these invaders — preferably, their weaknesses.

  Blythe leaned toward Fawn as Vance was distracted by a cardinal darting past them through the gate.

  “I’ll hide the pistol in your tent,” Blythe whispered to her and nodded, gently squeezing her hand. “You’ll be fine.”

  Vance turned toward Fawn and Blythe and motioned for her to follow.

  “It’s time,” Vance said, linking his elbow with Fawn’s.

  Fawn took one last glance into Blythe’s hazel eyes. He offered her a wavering smile before Vance led her and Juniper through the back gate. Leaving Juniper at the stables sped up the beating of her heart tremendously. Her separation anxiety had kicked in, and its power was debilitating. She glanced repeatedly at the stables as Vance escorted her to the cell in which she would remain until Asher saw fit to release her.

  I’ll get you back, Juniper, she said to herself. Don’t you worry, girl.

  “Aunt Fawn!”

  Reesa sprinted from the steps of her family home, leaving her mother and siblings behind. Each of them had a book resting in their laps. Fawn knew Audrey used this tactic to wind the youngsters down before bedtime.

  “Reesa!” Audrey yelled from the porch. “Come back. That doesn’t concern you.”

  “What’s going on?” Reesa asked, having reached them. Her gaze lingered on Vance’s hand latched to Fawn’s arm.

  “We have to keep moving,” Vance replied, tugging on Fawn’s arm before she could speak up.

  Reesa was left staring after them with tears welling up in her troubled eyes.

  “I’ll be fine,” Fawn called over her shoulder, as Reesa tried gracing her aunt with a smile. “Don’t worry!”

  Ten minutes later, Fawn found herself being walked three tents down from the mess hall and through the flaps of one of the NWA tents. She expected to see a cell made of iron bars, like in the western novels she’d read. Instead of bars, a large wooden box took up most of the space within the tent. One guard stood in front of it, cradling his automatic rifle.

  “What took so long?” asked the man she assumed to be Johnny, opening the door of the box. “Tye said he’d be on his way in no time. When my friend says he’ll be somewhere soon he means it. It’s been hours.”

  Of course, the man on box duty was friends with the rapist, Faw
n thought, rolling her eyes.

  “Tye had me take her and drop her horse off at the stables while he hung back,” Vance replied. “The lady didn’t want to part from the animal.”

  Johnny motioned toward the bowstring across Fawn’s chest and the hatchet at her side.

  “Why didn’t you take her weapons?” Johnny asked, narrowing his eyes.

  “I didn’t see a reason to, Johnny. She didn’t show any animosity toward us.”

  “Take them from her now,” Johnny replied, his face reddening. “That was a dumbass thing to do.”

  Vance took the hatchet from Fawn’s side and eased her bow over her chest. He slipped her quiver full of arrows from her shoulder, leaving her completely defenseless. Stripped of her weapons, Fawn felt just as vulnerable as she had on Lacing Switch road.

  “Leave us,” Johnny commanded, taking Fawn by the arm. “I got it from here.”

  Vance’s feet remained tethered to the ground as his eyes danced from Johnny’s to Fawn’s.

  “I said go, Vance,” Johnny repeated, cocking his head. “Did you not hear me?”

  Fawn nodded to Vance, trying to convey that she was okay to be left alone with this huge specimen of a man. Slowly, Vance backed away through the flaps, disappearing into the night.

  Johnny grinned down at her as he led her toward the open door of the box.

  “How about a kiss?” he asked, stretching his arm across the gaping door.

  From the moment Johnny had laid eyes on her, he’d seen her as an object to be taken advantage of. If he tried anything, underestimating her would become his biggest mistake.

  Scratching her cheek with her middle finger, she flipped him off.

  “No thanks,” she replied.

  She smiled and ducked under his massive arm, entering the dark box.

  ***

  The door was opened twice daily: once for food in the form of a thin slice of bread, and the other to switch out the bucket she used to relieve herself. A gourd full of water had been provided to her after the second day. She was told that if she ran out of water, they wouldn’t be refilling the gourd, so she drank from it sparingly. Every time the door opened, the light sent a stinging pain through her eyes, dispatching tears down her cheeks.

  The only people she was certain had visited her were Reesa and Amos. She could hear their raised voices outside the tent, followed by Gooner’s bark, with Johnny commanding them to walk on. As the days passed more people came and went, protesting her confinement. But after the fourth day, their voices became muffled and distant.

  By the fifth day, Fawn’s body had grown weak and achy from her lack of nutrition and vitamin D. Even though it was on her mind every hour of every day, she refused to give Johnny the satisfaction of asking when she would be released.

  Within the depths of the gloomy box, she lay on her side, worrying over what Hunter was experiencing back at the Bogan Farm.

  Please Lord, let him be okay, she silently prayed, envisioning herself enveloped in Hunter’s arms inside their cabin.

  Just as the image of Hunter’s face was stricken with pain inside her head, the door was thrust open for the first time that day. Blaring light spilled from the rectangular opening. Fawn closed her eyes and curled into a ball.

  “Time to go,” Johnny said, stepping in the doorway. “Commander Asher’s back. He’s asking for you.”

  Grateful that Johnny’s body blocked the light, she eased herself up from her knees.

  “It’s about time,” she said, coming to a wobbly standing position.

  “You should’ve given me that kiss,” he said, smiling as he grabbed her by the arm. “I go easier on the ladies who give me what I want.”

  She realized then that what the NWA wanted was compliance, and if they didn’t get it immediately there’d be consequences. The utter hopelessness of her situation began settling deep within her. Fawn was a great many things, but compliant wasn’t one of them. Her ability to hide how she truly felt was waning. To respond to Johnny, meant risking bursting out in frustrated tears.

  What concerned her now, as Johnny pulled her from the darkness, was how severe the consequences would be if they found out she had fed Tye to the hogs.

  Outside the box, her eyes slowly adjusted to the lustrous sun with every step she took. Five tents down from where she was imprisoned, two men stood at the entrance of what she assumed to be Asher’s quarters. Each man held open the flaps for Johnny to pass through while he kept Fawn close at his side.

  Upon their entry, Asher leaned back in his chair behind his desk, clicking his pen. Dr. Wenze stood quietly to the commander’s right, while Logan, a.k.a. Big Sneed, guarded the commander’s left. Her heart sank as she noticed Pete sitting in a chair to the far left of Asher’s desk, avoiding her questioning gaze.

  A musty scent had taken up residence in Asher’s quarters, tingling her nostrils. A pair of camouflaged pants, socks, and a tan shirt hung from a clothesline stretched diagonally across the tent in the back. Propped up against Asher’s cot, behind the clothesline, was a black cylinder about the length of a yard stick.

  There it is, Fawn thought, as Johnny forced her to sit in a chair across from Asher’s desk.

  Fawn jumped as she felt the weight of Johnny’s hand on her shoulder, warning her to stay put.

  “Fawn,” Asher said, smiling as he scooted back in his chair and rose to his feet. “Sorry to keep you waiting.”

  She pushed back her shoulders, sitting up straight.

  “I highly doubt that.”

  “Despite what you may think,” Asher said, plopping down on the edge of his desk, “I envy you, Fawn. I really do. You see, most of us grew up on the road, with no stability to speak of,” he said, his gaze being transferred over his shoulder toward the general area of the cylinder propped up against his cot. “You’ve lived here all your life. I was never in one place long enough to plant my seed. That’s all we’re looking to do. Create some stability for ourselves and give you all what you’ve been without all these years.”

  “Can we get to the part when you say what you’re going to do with me?”

  “Before we get to that,” he said, rising from the edge of the desk. “We need to discuss the disappearance of one of our own. Corporal Tye Sneed.”

  Big Sneed shifted his stance behind the desk, glaring in her direction. By the way he stared at her, she could tell it was taking everything he had not to snatch her up by the throat.

  “He’s been missing for five days,” Asher continued, reaching up to pat Big Sneed’s shoulder. “Can you shed some light on his whereabouts?”

  “No, sir,” she said, looking Asher dead in the face. “The last time I saw him he was ordering Vance to take me inside.”

  Asher pursed his lips and nodded, making his way around Big Sneed. Sitting down behind his desk, Asher scooted up his chair, and exhaled.

  “That’s the exact same thing Vance said.”

  “Doesn’t come as a surprise to me,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. “That’s what happened.”

  Asher drummed the top of his desk with his fingers.

  “I was told that you still had your weapons on you when you were brought to Johnny. Is that correct?”

  Taking her nod as confirmation, Asher continued.

  “Now that, you see, concerns me because I know Tye would have relieved you of those before sending you off with Vance.”

  Fawn had no comment for Asher’s last remark. She swallowed, feeling as though if she replied, her words would come out a jumbled mess.

  “I’ll just get right to it,” Asher said, pounding the bottom of his fist on his desk. “Because of your complete disregard for the rules and the mystery of Tye’s disappearance,” he said, glancing at Pete who sat muted in his chair, “it is the vote of these four men, myself included,” he said, pausing as he motioned to Dr. Wenze, Big Sneed, Pete, and lastly himself, “that you be banished from the community for a length of time.”

  “Pete—” Fawn began, looking
to her brother, who still avoided her gaze.

  “We feel that isolation is a suitable punishment for your insubordination,” Asher continued, fixing the sleeves of his shirt. “Isolation from your home and the people you love. Any questions?”

  “What’s in the cylinder?”

  Dr. Wenze gave a chuckle and brought his fist to his mouth, clearing his throat.

  “Damn, girl,” Asher said, sitting back in his chair. “I admire your grit, sweetheart.”

  There’s that word again.

  “Even in the face of banishment and possible prosecution . . . it’s unrelenting. You remind me so much of my Oleander.”

  Oleander, Fawn thought, shifting in her seat. Who is Oleander?

  Fawn paid close attention to the tensing of Big Sneed’s jaw and the clenching of his fist after Asher mentioned Oleander’s name.

  “Big Sneed,” Asher continued. “Hand me our plans for Back Wood.”

  “Sir—” Big Sneed began, receiving a wide-eyed glare from Asher.

  “Do as I say.”

  Big Sneed was quick in fetching the plans as it only took him two strides to reach them. He slammed the cylinder upon Asher’s desk, jolting Fawn an inch from her chair.

  “Logan!” Asher exclaimed as Big Sneed stormed toward Fawn.

  Big Sneed thrust his massive boot between her legs, connecting with the seat of her chair. She flew backwards, knocking her head against the hard ground. A blurred, mammoth-sized shadow came barreling down upon her, grasping her shoulders.

  “What did you do to my brother?”

  “N-n-nothing,” she struggled to reply, as he shook her, forcing her teeth to clank together.

  Johnny and the two men who guarded the exit came rushing inside, grabbing Big Sneed by the arms. It took all three of them to pull him off her.

  “I know you’re involved!” he cried, as they stumbled backward to the ground. “I know it!”

  “Get him out of here,” Asher commanded calmly. “Johnny, you stay.”