by Jim Miesner
“I’m sorry.”
Marlena looked down at Sam’s and Jenny’s clothes before she rifled through another basket. She pulled out a small tattered shirt and patched up jeans and threw them to Jenny.
“Put those on. You stick out like a sore thumb.”
“Thank you,” Jenny said.
Marlena looked back into the basket and tossed it at Sam’s feet.
“There should be something in there for you.”
“Thank you.”
Marlena glanced at Sam and then brushed past, hitting her shoulder again as she left. Sam had to grab the pole of the tent to keep from falling.
"Dammit. What’s her problem?"
“She really, really doesn’t like you.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Tent poles fell, canvas rolled, fires doused, animals led back into cages, vegetable baskets tossed into carts, dune buggies revved to life and horses were mounted; in twenty minutes the busy market was transformed back into wilderness. They left nothing behind except for some animal droppings and smoldering coals where they had been roasting pigs.
Sam watched the last shirtless, straggler disappear on foot into the mountains carrying a sack of turnips over one shoulder and a small goat on the other. She itched the thin wool sweater and tightened the rope that held up the baggy cut-off cargo pants she now wore. The clothes were awkward but the need to blend in was greater.
“Hey,” she said to Emmanuel as he tied the last of his sacks of wool to the back of the cart. “Thank you,” she said before coughing into her hand.
He looked back to the sacks as he tightened the ropes.
“Thank you for not saying anything,” she said.
Emmanuel looked at Jenny as she climbed into the back of his wooden wagon and petted one of two sheep. It nuzzled her chin as she laughed and pushed it away.
“Are you still sending us back?” Sam asked.
He shook his head.
“Then you’ll take us North toward her family?”
“I didn’t say that either.”
“Oh… I’m sorry. Come on, Jenny,” she said and stretched out her hand.
Jenny didn’t seem to hear her as she laughed at the sheep.
“You’re going to get yourselves killed going that way. Don’t you think they realize where you're headed? They'll be watching everyone traveling north.”
“So, what do we do then? Wait here? Live in the caves?”
Emmanuel drew closer to Sam before looking back to Jenny as she continued to pet the sheep. “All I’m saying is you are making it easy for them, and what’s to say her family will even be there?” he said with a hushed tone.
“What are you saying?”
“What do you think they’ll do to her family when they find them?”
“They would never…”
A smile curled up one side of Emmanuel’s face before he shook his head back and forth.
“You don't know your people like I do. What you’re asking us to do is suicide.”
“Come on, Jenny,” Sam said louder.
“Where are we going?” Jenny asked and put one foot over the wall of the wagon that was made up of planks sandwiched between posts at the corners. She put her foot down on the wheel well as the cart shook with her weight.
Sam thought about it but didn’t have an answer. Was the half-naked guy with the sack of turnips really their best option? She helped Jenny down from the cart and they began to follow the path the turnip man had taken.
“Wait,” said Emmanuel. “There’s a guy, his name is Scully. He might be able to help you.”
Sam turned around with her mouth pressed shut.
“He deals in recommissioned drones.”
“So?”
“They’re Covenant drones that were shot down and altered. He uses them to watch the skies beyond the safe zone.”
“The safe zone?”
“We have a truce with the Coven. It doesn’t extend to those beyond the desert.”
“This is the safe zone?” Sam couldn’t help but laugh.
Emmanuel licked his lips. “Scully could send in a drone to see if it’s clear. If Jenny’s family is okay.”
Jenny paid attention to their conversation now. “You think my family is in trouble?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know, but you need to make sure before you walk into a trap. You won’t be able to help your mom if you’re caught.”
“Where is this Scully?” Sam asked and coughed into her hand again. There was some brown phlegm that she wiped onto her pants.
“About a hundred miles that way.” Emmanuel pointed east.
“So…” She coughed again. “You take us to him and then what? We are even farther from her mom. What good does it do us to know they are safe and be even further away?”
“He has a helicopter. He can bring them to us once we know it’s safe.”
“We have nothing to pay him with or you,” Sam said. “Why would you help us?”
Emmanuel looked off into the distance, the direction the Covenant ship had left. “You don’t have to worry about Scully. He owes our family a favor.”
“And what about you? Aren’t you afraid of them catching us with you?”
Emmanuel bit his lip and shook his head. “They won’t and it’s on our way.”
“We have nothing to give you, though.”
He raised his finger toward Jenny. “I saw the girl’s satchel. Just give us whatever medicine is left after you take care of her mother. How does that sound?”
Jenny looked up at Sam with wide eyes. “Can we go with them? Please.”
Sam flexed a fake smile. As much as she wanted to get away from these people, she didn’t have much of an option. She raised the timbre of her voice. “Of course.”
Jenny hopped into the wagon as it bounced. “Thank you,” she said. “Thank you for helping me find my family.”
Emmanuel nodded and Marlena cinched several bags of wool to the top of her buggy, with three times the amount of force that was necessary as she watched the scene. She seemed far from happy but if she had any objection to them tagging along, she said nothing.
It took two more minutes for Emmanuel to stretch the tent they had been in across the top of the wagon. As he finished it up, it reminded Sam of a 19th-century pioneer wagon. The kind they used to take on the Oregon Trail. Jenny smiled at Sam. On one side of her was the sheep and on the other four huge sacks of unsold wool.
“I can’t fit back there,” Sam said.
Emmanuel hooked the final loop around the poles and tightened the canvas. “Sorry, first class is all filled up.”
“First what?”
“It’s an old expression.”
Without warning a motor roared to life and Marlena buzzed by as Sam jumped back. The boy looked back at them with his arms wrapped around Marlena’s waist. Instead of a tarp, sacks of wool were tied to the top of the frame to block the sun. They disappeared over a hill before John’s vehicle roared to life and followed them. Sacks of wool covered the top of his buggy, too. They had come here to sell it, or trade it for whatever and now because of Sam and Jenny, they would have to wait until whenever the hell the next one was.
“Ready?” Emmanuel asked.
Sam looked at Emmanuel and then Jenny and the sheep in the back. Flies buzzed around and landed on their mouths, their wool, their anuses. Why did they always have to land on the anus? She took a breath and put one foot on the wheel then whipped her other foot over the top of the cart as it wobbled.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.”
Something pressed against her butt and she screamed as she almost lost her balance. It was the sheep. She pushed it away, swung her other foot around and got in all the way. The sheep came toward her again and she pushed it away with her foot.
“What’s wrong with this thing?”
“That’s just Penny. She just wants to get to know you better,” Emmanuel said.
Sam repositioned a bag of wool and wedged i
t between her and the animal. “I think we’re acquainted enough.”
The buggy roared to life with no warning and jerked forward as Sam fell over the bag of wool into Penny. Penny baaed right in her ear and she felt her hot, wet breath on her face, right before it licked her. She pushed it away again and wiped her face in vain, wondering what kind of parasites and bacteria sheep might carry.
It didn’t matter though. As they headed out Sam fanned herself with the itchy sweater and saw the first signs of the thin black tendrils creeping up her chest. It wouldn't be long before they would cover her entire body, and not long after that she would be dead.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“Okay back there?” Emmanuel yelled and glanced back with a smug smile on his face, as Sam tried not to vomit. He was enjoying this way too much.
Sam held onto the cart as it shook and bounced up and down over the rough terrain. She white-knuckled the boards that made up the walls of the cart. They were vibrating so fast they looked blurry and they were so thin she felt like they could snap any second. The headache and queasiness grew in the pit of her stomach as she looked out on the desert. They had been traveling about fifteen minutes when the cart slowed and the motor cut out.
“Dammit.”
“What’s wrong?” Sam asked.
“You didn’t feel that? We blew a tire.”
Emmanuel immediately jumped out of the buggy and picked up flat rocks that he tossed next to the driver’s side wheel.
“You’ll need to get out, so I can change it.”
Jenny hopped down almost before he was done talking. Sam took a second longer as she wiped more sweat from her forehead and climbed over the wobbly wall. She fanned herself with her sweater again. It made a nice little breeze that blew over her face and relieved some of the irritation. When she pulled it away, she stared down at the black tendrils that were creeping up her chest. She wondered how long before they would go beyond the neckline.
“You okay?” Jenny asked.
Sam shook her head. “Just thinking.” She turned to watch Emmanuel as he looked up at the sky and shaded his face from the sun. Then he pulled a tool from out of the buggy and went to work on the tire as he turned the bolts.
“You’re a shepherd?” Sam asked, trying to change the subject. She let out a soft burp and a sour taste filled her mouth.
Emmanuel grunted and nodded. He put his full weight into the bolt, his arm muscles bulged until there was a pop and the tool jerked loose.
“Has this happened before?” she asked.
Emmanuel went to the next bolt and twisted it. “A flat tire?”
He pulled again and grunted as the sweat trickled down his forehead and there was another pop until the tool jerked loose again.
“No. The Covenant. Have they come to the market before?”
Emmanuel grunted again. He strained and the tendons in his neck stuck out as he groaned but it didn’t budge. He took a deep breath and tried again. Every muscle and tendon in his body flexed but still, the bolt didn’t move.
“Damn.”
“Is there anything we can do?” Sam asked.
Emmanuel shook his head and got to his feet. “You can stop asking stupid questions.”
He pressed one foot against the tool. Then put his full body weight on it. He bounced up and down, shaking the whole buggy but the tool didn’t move. Jenny crouched down near the tire and inspected it. Emmanuel wiped his brow.
“Maybe it’s rusted,” said Jenny.
He sighed, got on the tool again and jumped up and down, but all it did was rock the buggy and cart harder. The sheep baaed in unison.
“What is the truce?” Sam asked.
Emmanuel raised his eyebrows. “A truce is an agreement between two enemies to not fight.”
“Seriously? You make it sound like we’re at war.”
He pushed again, his face was getting red as he grunted. “Of course. Your people don’t need to go to war. War is for the desperate, right? People like us? The Chewers?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to. I can see it on your face.”
He jiggled the tool back and forth.
“We leave them alone, and they leave us alone. It’s that simple.”
“It doesn’t make any sense. I mean the Covenant has an impenetrable wall. Why would they bother to make a truce?”
He rested with his weight on the bolt and let out a deep breath. “Your bald boyfriend or his buddies never mentioned any of this?”
Sam’s nose wrinkled up in disgust at the thought of it.
Emmanuel puffed out his cheeks as he blew out a breath and wiped the sweat that trickled down his forehead. “It was a few years ago now, my father helped negotiate it. They needed to do some kind of experiments. They said they couldn’t be performed inside the Shell and they wanted to make sure their scientists were safe. If we promised not to attack, they promised to leave us alone.”
“You mean your children?”
Emmanuel nodded.
“Your father got everyone to agree to that?”
“Most.”
“Most?”
“Those that had children taken already weren’t so keen on the idea.”
"Where is your father now?"
"With my mother."
"And she is?"
"Dead."
"Oh, I'm sorry."
"It's life, people die all the time."
Sam looked around uncomfortably, the image of Dr. Tesla still in her mind. Yet if it hadn’t been for that she would have struggled to think of someone she knew that had died. People in the Covenant often lived to a hundred-fifty or more years, some almost reaching the two-century mark.
“What kind of experiments?” she asked.
He shrugged his shoulders and then put his fingers under the body as he pressed down with all of his strength but still the bolt didn’t budge. After several seconds he gave up and wiped his brow.
“I don’t know. They weren’t really forthcoming. Can you help me out here or are you just going to keep asking questions all day?”
He looked up at the sun again and then toward the direction John and Marlena had headed out.
“Maybe we just need more weight.” Sam stepped forward and put her foot on top of Emmanuel’s. He looked surprised, then understood what she was doing as she put her full weight on his feet. The bolt creaked but didn’t move. She jumped up and down but all it did was rock the cart again.
“It’s no use.”
“Wait,” said Sam.
“Jenny, come here. Get on my feet.”
Jenny put the bolts down and stepped up onto Sam’s feet. The bolt creaked again underneath their combined weight but didn’t budge. Sam braced herself.
“On the count of three jump. Okay?” asked Sam.
Jenny nodded.
“One… two…”
Jenny jumped too early and Emmanuel shook his head.
“Hold on, I’m getting there. Okay, again. One… two… three.”
This time Jenny jumped but Sam hadn’t timed it right and Jenny came down before she got any air. Still, she swore they all moved a millimeter.
“Let me count,” said Emmanuel. “Alright. On the count of three. Ready? One… two…”
Sam bent her legs and watched his mouth this time as his tongue touched the top of his teeth. “Three.”
She jumped a fraction of a second behind Jenny. Enough so that they both got airborne four or so inches. It was practically nothing at all but as they both came down the bolt jerked loose under their combined weight. Jenny fell sideways into the dirt and Sam slid forward into Emmanuel as he fell onto his back.
Sam froze there a moment as his body shook and he laughed while he looked straight up. At that moment she realized how his eyes were the same color blue as the sky. She had never seen that before in someone’s eyes. She smiled until he looked right at her and then she felt her face flush red as her muscles tensed up. She rolled sideways into the dirt a
nd landed on her back.
Jenny laughed and Emmanuel got to his feet. He offered her a hand but Sam shook it off and got to her own feet, before she dusted herself off and coughed into her hand.
“I guess that’s one way to do it,” he said. He picked up the tool and loosened the last of the bolts. “Can you prop those rocks underneath as I lift this?” he asked.
Sam itched her chest again and nodded. His muscles strained as he lifted the buggy and she pushed the rocks underneath. When he let it down the wheel was an inch off the ground. Emmanuel pulled it off and switched it out with another wheel off the back that had a patch. The treads on the new wheel were almost totally worn away.
He put the bolts back on and hand tightened them before he kicked the rocks out from underneath. The whole cart bounced once and then he picked up the tool and gave them all one good last twist before he turned to look back at Sam again and smiled. She smiled back. Maybe in another life, another time they could have been friends. Her mind broke free from the moment when she noticed Jenny out of the corner of her eye. Her hand reached out for the bloody hood ornament on the front of the dune buggy. Sam had almost forgotten all about it.
“Don’t touch that,” she yelled, and ran toward her.
She didn’t reach Jenny in time though as her knuckles rapped against the top of the skull and Emmanuel laughed. The sound was all wrong. Sam looked closer at the hood ornament and then rubbed her fingertip over it. It was too smooth. She rapped her knuckles against it, then her fingernail. It wasn’t hard enough.
“Plastic?” she asked.
“Found them in a university a few hundred miles from here…”
“Why?”
“It’s still a dangerous world. You don’t know what you’ll come across. Better to be intimidating and make friends later than to make friends with the wrong people.”
“What about the blood?”
“Lamb’s blood.”
Sam folded her arms. She felt like an idiot.
Emmanuel stepped closer. “The patrol goes out the night before the market to make sure there are no surprises. They don’t know who they will come across. It’s important to keep up appearances out here.”