"Yes and no," Mila said as she stared blankly in my direction. "I lack the ability to process all the normal ranges and types of light. I can, however, see forms and heat patterns."
"Thermal imaging?" I asked as I wondered how that worked. Was it a mutation? Instead of a superpower it left her in a diminished capacity instead.
"Something like that," she answered as she glanced around the room like a robot. "I recognize each of you from previous meetings and I can tell that the one that operated the sniper rifle has sustained an injury to her lower right leg."
"That's fascinating," Jada said with a sarcastic and disinterested tone. "But since time is of the essence, maybe we could get more useful information from her."
"Yes, of course," I responded, trying not to look at Mila's eyes. Maybe I could avoid any potential secret attack if I did. "Why did you say that your people will not send another wave of attackers?"
"Because the Children of the Phoenix are not an army," she answered as she rolled onto her side and squirmed a little to get comfortable. It was the most human thing I had seen her do since I had met her. "They have just enough weapons and trained soldiers to keep them safe. Usually, it is just to maintain the peace. In situations like this it is to protect the perimeter. You have killed half of their force in one swift battle. They won't risk losing more and not being able to keep their people from fighting amongst themselves. Why did you do that, by the way?"
"Do what?"
"Kill all those people," Mila answered. "You are not a killer. And neither are these women that cling to you like their god."
I ignored the second part assuming that it was meant as flattery. "How do you know what I am?"
"I told them," she said. "I told Esther and the others that you would not attack their community. But they had heard rumors from the Coalition that used to provide them with a level of protection. They painted a mental picture of a mutant villain. Propaganda, wasn't it?"
This was not the conversation that I was expecting to have. "Mason," Jada urged me to keep focused.
Mila turned to look at my chief of security that was currently rubbing her ankle. "You have the hardest aura among your group, and yet it is still very pure."
"Aura?"
"It shines bright white like Mason's when you are with him," Mila continued. "The same is true of the others. I have never seen anything like this before in my entire life. Not even before the apocalypse."
"I don't know what you are trying to do, Mila," I started.
"See, even now while attempting to interrogate me you use my name," she told me. "You humanize me when a hardened war general would do the exact opposite. You wouldn't even consider killing me now unless I became violent and a security risk."
"I might," Jada responded.
"No, you won't," Mila turned to her. "It is not in your heart to do it, and you certainly wouldn't risk alienating Mason to do it. He is your husband, isn't he?" Then turning back my way, not quite looking directly at me, "They are all your wives, aren't they?"
"That's none of your business..." Jada started.
"No, wait," I cut her off. "I want to hear more about this aura business. But first, tell me why Esther didn't listen to you. If she knew that you could read people's true nature..."
"She didn't," Mila answered quickly. "None of them knew. May I please sit up?"
I stared at the unusual woman. She had started off as a freakish robotic redhead with dead eyes. But now I was seeing so much more. Her actions and her nature made more sense now. It could be a ruse, but it would be the most effective one ever created.
I debated briefly on whether this was another Celeste type incident. Both my brain and my heart told me that it was not. I decided to trust my instincts.
"Untie her," I told Jada. "Let her sit on a chair."
"What?" Jada asked in shock, shaking her head exaggeratedly. "Should I give her a gun, too?"
"No," Mila answered her. "I don't want one. But he will feed me when I am hungry, give me water when I am thirsty, and let me use the bathroom all by myself if I have to pee.”
"Is that some kind of holy verse from your cult?" Jada asked.
"No," Mila replied with her first smile in our presence. The genuine expression supported my instincts. "But I hope that it someday will be. I kept my ability hidden from everyone because I was afraid at first. Then later, I hoped that I would find my calling. This blindness with benefits stopped feeling like a curse just recently. I now believe that I was meant to be a prophet."
"A prophet?" I asked. This conversation kept going farther away from where I had originally intended. But I didn't want it to stop.
"Yes, Mason," Mila said as she shook off the binding that Jada had released. Instead of rising to sit in one of the chairs she crawled toward me on her hands and knees. Not seductively, like Jamila or one of the other women, but reverently. She stopped just short of my knees. My revolver pointed at her head had no apparent effect. Then she bowed her head to the floor. "It would be the greatest honor to be your prophet, Mason."
CHAPTER TWENTY:
"What the hell is happening here?" Alexa asked when she walked back into the room with three weapons that she had collected from the streets. Riley and Stella were right behind her with even more.
"Is there any sign of another attack?" I asked my returning wives.
"No. Not yet," Alexa answered.
"I told you, master," Mila said as she raised her head to the height of my knees. "There will not be another attack."
"Master?" all three of the women that had just entered the conversation asked.
"It's a long story," I tried to explain without having to do any explaining at all.
"No, it is not," Jada insisted. She had returned to her chair with a pistol ready but did not look all that concerned about Mila becoming violent. Probably, she was relying on Alexa's skill to detect it and Riley’s speed burst to negate it.
Jada then told them, "This chick claims that she can see people's auras. She told her people that we were not a threat because our auras are pure white apparently. But they didn't know about this special ability, so they attacked anyway. Now she says that she wants to switch sides and be Mason's prophet. You see, not a long story really, but the question is how much of it is a crock of shit."
"Not much, I'm betting," Alexa responded.
Mila turned to face the new arrivals. "The three of you are some of the most unselfish souls that I have ever encountered. But there is some jealousy."
"That would be Alexa," Jada said.
"No," the redhead turned to stare at a wall beyond the sofa where Jada rested. "You all have it. Even you. I'm guessing that Alexa is the one that came to terms with it already. The one that seems to know whether or not I am lying."
"I don't like this," Stella said in a low voice, almost like a child expecting something bad to happen.
"There is no reason to be concerned about me," Mila turned back toward the threesome as they continued to keep their distance. "I have no interest in being Mason's wife. I can see that all of you have earned your high positions. Your connections are among the strongest I've ever seen. As strong as a mother with her newborn child."
Nobody said anything then. We all waited to see what else this strange woman would say. Though otherworldly, it had a ring of truth to it. And Alexa was clearly not going to deny that.
The reference to a mother’s love for a newborn child brought my mind back to the possibility that Stella might be pregnant. Was Mila about to announce that next? Could she see a separate aura of an unborn child inside another aura?
"I merely want to tell others about you." Mila said softly.
"What would you say?" I asked.
"No, no," Riley interrupted as she stepped over to stand just inches from Mila's kneeling position. The redhead looked up toward my thinnest wife. "You fired a gun at us."
"No, I fired the weapon into the ground well away from your position as I separated myself from the others.
"
"But you took Jada hostage with a gun to her head," Riley insisted.
"I did not want to be killed," Mila answered. "I wanted to meet you, talk with you, to understand how you could be so good-hearted and yet kill so many people. I did what I thought would give me the best chance of making that happen. I put myself at risk to be in this exact position before you now instead of returning to the Children of the Phoenix."
"She's not lying," Alexa informed us.
"I've noticed that you have yet to refer to this cult group as your people," Jada said to Mila.
"They are not a cult, but they do have similarities with a religious group," the pale skinned redhead replied. "And I only joined them a couple months ago, searching for my calling. But their leaders are not pure souls like the six of you. Their council tries to do what is right for their followers, but they still struggle with selfish motives. They will not be able to keep their people safe forever. The Children of the Phoenix need a new leader if they want to truly be reborn from the ashes of this world."
Turning back toward me, Mila then said, "Mason, they need you."
My body tingled like I just felt a chill. I wanted more than anything to keep my women safe and happy. I was able to expand that desire to include a hundred more people at our last compound. Could I do that again? Would the followers of this Phoenix group accept me like the reborn had?
"How many people does this church group have?" I asked.
"They have over three thousand registered residents," Mila answered. "Most of them live on the other side of the main road, but almost all are not from this area. They heard about this movement and journeyed here to join it. Some from a hundred miles away. As a group they are good people. There are only a few bad eggs in there. I will gladly point them out to you when you take over."
"Take over?" Stella asked. "Can't we just live here in peace for a while?"
"You can have whatever you want, miss," Mila told Stella. "Mason will make sure that you get have it. Surely you know that by now. But there are others that need his help. And the help of all of you together. You are not as selfish as you are pretending to be at this moment. If ten humble people knocked at the door asking for food, you would be the first one to give it to them."
"She's got that right," Riley said. It sounded like she was finally being won over.
Alexa stared at me for several seconds as those faint blue lines appeared on her skin, barely visible. I knew what she was doing. She wanted to know if I had sexual feelings for this new woman. She had shared me with enough lovers already, so I couldn't blame her.
Mila had an attractiveness about her after we started getting to know her, but I had no intention of inviting her into my bed. Those dead eyes would be even freakier in a lover. Then again, I knew that I could get used to them. I just didn't want to think like that while Alexa was scanning me.
"What do you suggest, husband?" Alexa then asked me.
"I'm not sure," I replied. "Like Stella said, we were just hoping to settle down and live peacefully."
"But you can't turn away from people in need," Riley then said. She wasn’t pleading. She was simply stating a fact about my nature.
"Master," Mila asked me timidly.
"Please stop calling him that," Stella mumbled. Maybe she was one that had not yet come to terms with her wifely jealousy.
"This is what I ask," Mila said to me as she tried to focus on my face. I had no idea what it was like to only see people as thermal images. It had to be very challenging to make a connection like only eye-to-eye contact could do. "And I ask it not for myself. If I wanted to be free, I could have fled when the battle started, or even after. I ask this for the thousands of people that you could help, and for you yourself. You have greatness in you, and you will not truly be happy until you have impacted this new world like no one else can."
She barely paused before saying, "Send me back to the Children. I will reveal my ability to them. Plenty will believe me right away. I have made friends quickly with the best of them, the ones that wanted to show kindness toward a blind person. Then I will tell them about you. About all of you. However, I want to hear your story before I go, so I can relate it to them. These bonds that you all have are incredible. I know there have to be some great stories behind them. Then I will convince them that you mean them no harm."
"Then what?"
"I will then ask for a meeting between you and their current leaders. You will be able to set the terms as you see fit. They might not welcome you to the throne where you belong right away, but in time they will see what I have already seen because of my gift."
There was a lengthy pause then. No one wanted to talk until I spoke. It sounded like a good idea to send her back. But was I ready for this? Was I being too humble if I said no? Or too ambitious if I said yes?
Finally, I said, "Bianka should be here for this."
"Mast..." Mila began, then adjusted with a head movement toward Stella. "Sir, Bianka will agree with whatever you say, just like these four wives of yours will."
"That's true," Alexa said. Others mumbled their agreement.
Mila intently listened to our story as we told it. I started off, but one by one the others joined in to tell their side of things. Eventually, Jada relieved Bianka so she could share her story as well.
I started off by telling Mila about the evening that I met Alexa and how much that changed my life. Then how we found Jada fighting off dozens of skanks all by herself. When I got to Riley, Alexa took over and we all laughed about me being knocked unconscious by the angelic waif.
Bianka and Stella came along later but fell in love with me in time just like the others. They had gone through some very bad times after the world went to shit. Though few men survived the multi-virus pandemic, most that did were evidently complete assholes. Mila agreed with that statement as well. I wondered what an asshole’s aura would look like, but that would be a question for another day.
We talked about our friends that were no longer with us and how much we really hoped to get them back in our lives again. By the time our story was complete we had all come to terms with what potentially lied ahead of us.
Mila cried from those blank doll eyes when each of us gave her a hug and sent her on her way. She took only a few steps before turning back around on the front porch. Then she proceeded to drop to her knees and bow to us. Before rising again, she said some very impactful words.
"Thank you so much, Mason, for finally giving my life meaning."
Thank you for reading Dystopian Girls 6. A sequel is planned or may already be available. If you enjoyed the writing style and story, please check out other works of mine listed below.
Writing a novel can often be challenging, requiring perseverance and intense focus. Along every step of the way I think of my readers and what they enjoy. Please take a moment to rate and review this novel on Amazon and Goodreads. Not only will it help me make adjustments, your words could assist other readers like you take a chance on this series.
I appreciate it.
Rodzil LaBraun
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