by M E Williams
That was not our only attack on the trip by nature. The elements were cruel and the temperatures dropped so low some nights, that even with fires and things keeping us warm it did not seem to matter. More times than not, the weather would seem just fine, sunny, and bright, and some sort of flash storm would take place.
The Queen was right about taking the long route though, because we were not attacked by any people at least. Zander told me no matter how dangerous I thought traveling out in the open was between the storms and animals, people would always find a way to do way worse.
Well, not until we finally made it to Queen Kunova’s compound. I felt like for the first time, I was seeing what people were truly capable of and the lengths they would go to in order to possess and control.
CHAPTER FIVE
Queen Kunova, to my surprise, was much shorter than Queen Lisa at only about five feet three inches. She was so much shorter than her guards that I actually did not get a good look at her until the welcoming party that night. Queen Lisa sat in the middle, Marriah to her right, and Oya stood behind them. Queen Kunova sat to her immediate left. Besides the height difference, they did resemble each other. She appeared younger and less intimidating.
She had her hair in really small twist, making it looked kind of crinkled. She had half of it down, and the other half on top of her head looking a lot like a crown. Queen Lisa demanded attention and respect with her height, tone, and demanding presence. Queen Kunova, on the other hand, looked as if she was born to be a Queen, with her aura and demeanor. Whenever I would glance at the table, she was never saying too much, but listening to and watching intently the comings and goings of everything and everyone around her.
Next to her was her eldest daughter, Kunova II, looking the spitting image of her mother right down to the nose; she was just an inch or so shorter. To the left of Kunova II sat her younger sister Vanessa. She was taller than them both, taller than me too, but not as tall as Queen Lisa.
They all had their individual guards behind them, tall muscular women, so no one would dare approach the table.
Those of us who could handle the weather were ordered to set up camp around the compound. Some of the males, surviving children, and suitwearers were sent underground to recuperate and get checked by medical. Zander and I found ourselves near each other again, which suited me just fine. She’d saved my life. I trusted her.
We were setting up in relative silence when I decided to start up a conversation. “You know, you are the only person who’s not asked me what I am.”
She broke her concentration and dropped a metal frame she was carrying, “I know what it feels like for people to question what you are.”
“Because of the red hair… there are a lot of others with red hair.” I had her full regard now. “Are you messing with me?” she asked, suddenly serious.
“No, I mean, I have noticed you around but keep to myself,” I said honestly, trying to gain trust in this clan.
She laughed suddenly and I did not know what I expected her to say, “I’m one of the Third Sex.”
“Third Sex has helped humans evolve enough to survive some of the natural attacks, no?” I still wondered how we had being questioned in common.
“Well, yes,” she said and then seemed like she was looking for the right words. “Yes, there are more and more of us, especially now. But there are only a few of us at Queen Lisa’s compound.”
“I see,” I said, thinking, then finding my words, “You are human and did not hesitate to save my life.”
She laughed again and we went back to setting up our camp. Nighttime was soon approaching and it was colder than we’d both thought it might be. We decided it would be much warmer if we shared a sleeping area. Zander was in the middle of telling me her story about how she’d traveled all the way from Sudan and ended up in the Midwest of what used to be the United States compound, when Lagelica approached us.
We did not hear her until she was right up behind us both, since we were deep in conversation and facing the fire. “Queen Lisa wants to see you.” I just about jumped out of my skin at the sound of her voice.
She saw how confused I was, looking around. “I’ll take you to where she is.” The compound was laid out in a similar manner to ours, but could still get confusing, especially at night.
“Thank you, Lagelica.” And I thought for a second, “Goodnight, Zander. I will see you tonight.” I did not know how the night would turn out.
Lagelica led me underground. To my surprise, we entered a small room not unlike the one I was just released from a few weeks before arriving here. When I opened the door, I waited for Lagelica to walk in with me. “She said just you. I hope to see you tomorrow.” And with that, Lagelica had gone back the way we’d come.
I stepped through the door and only Marriah turned to acknowledge my entering the room. Her face looked visibly sickened, as if she would lose the contents of her stomach at any moment. I focused in on the see-through window. Memories about my time in a similar situation came to me and I found myself frowning.
Queen Lisa, Oya, Queen Kunova, and her guard stood up close near the large window. Princess Marriah, Princesses Kunova and Vanessa stood behind them. Through the large window, I saw a male suit wearer with various bruises and two female suit wearers all cramped into the same little room.
For a moment, I felt fear. The thought of being put back into their place caused a fear deep inside of me that I did not know I had. “Mari. Step up here,” Queen Lisa said, interrupting my musings.
I took a place beside her, which meant I was directly in the center of the large window. I was unsure of my reasons for being here but stood strong and with a straight face. “Translate,” the Queen said, addressing me.
“How many in your clan?” Queen Lisa asked clearly.
One of the women stepped forward, “We are many. You can’t find us all.”
“Of course, I will.” I think we all noted the Queen said she would as a statement of fact. “If you surrender now, I’ll allow your children to live.”
“No, my people need a place to stay,” the woman replied.
“Why, Meghan? I let your people here. I trusted you.” Queen Kunova openly seemed heartbroken.
The woman’s head sank for the first time. “We needed more.” It seemed like that statement held so much meaning and encompassed reality of a world of the past.
Queen Lisa tapped on the glass, giving no time for even Queen Kunova to digest the situation. “And what do you get out of this?”
The man looked up and stepped forward in front of me. “BJMTS-TM.”
“You said you were the only one.” My surprise was evident, but the Queen did not care. She was not visibly upset, but I could feel how my life depended on these answers.
“My Queen. I was in an accident. I do not know how many others there are on this planet.” She did not believe me, but for the moment, it would seem she might still need me.
Her thoughts may have been interrupted by his continued speaking. “‘KLM-GNW?”
“What is he saying?” Her voice was now harsh.
“He asked why I called you Queen.”
She continued questioning, “And what did he say before?”
“There is no direct translation, but something like, we do not answer to humans.” I was still looking at him and wondered why he had taken the form of such a human. But we were not here to take sides, only to gain intelligence—so we needed various identities.
The Queen would get the information she needed one way or another. “Where are they hiding?”
He directed all his attention to me. “BMJ-GNW-KLMKM. LWM-’H-FKM-WK-’JN-TO’OY-”
“Stop talking!” He was interrupted by the other woman in the cell. She obviously could not understand him, but she knew I could.
Queen Kunova reached into the bag she was carrying and pulled out a rather large gun. She opened the door to the small room. The two women began asking her to spare them, but the K’LM stayed
staring at me. She shot the female who interrupted in the head and chest. A quick death. At this point, Meghan stopped begging and stood silent and hoped. Queen Kunova calmly placed the weapon back into her bag and pulled out a knife. She just stood there waiting.
“DB-N-BMJ. YNF-LK-ZL’HCNW.” Queen Kunova moved quickly and stabbed Meghan in the right upper portion of her abdomen. She did it slowly and she pulled the knife out and stabbed her again in the same general area but a different location.
“‘W-N-RFS-Y-KS-Y-NZKSK.” As he finished, Queen Kunova walked behind him.
Queen Lisa looked at me and I told her what she requested, “He said they are North. Only one day’s ride.” I then looked at him, “The mountains?” He nodded—yes.
It looked as if Queen Kunova would kill him too, before Queen Lisa spoke up, “No. Mari will do it.”
She left the cell and I walked in. As he requested, before he told me the location, I did not hesitate. I slit his throat. It was easy. This time, Marriah did throw up. Princesses Kunova II and Vanessa watched as if they witnessed this type of scene all the time. There had been uprisings in the compound so I would not have been surprised if they had already had their first kill.
“Oya, round up the warriors. Alicia, round up all the suit wearers, except those who arrived with us. Bring them to the underground training area.” Queen Lisa gave the order. Alicia looked to Queen Kunova before leaving. I did not have a good feeling about this.
Queen Kunova led our group through several doors underground until we ended up in the training area. Queen Lisa and Queen Kunova looked like they were in an argument, while Princesses Kunova II and Vanessa were talking. I placed my hand lightly on the small of Marriah’s back.
“Are you alright?” I asked her quietly, not wanting to embarrass her in front of her cousins.
“Yes, she’s going to kill them all you know?” Marriah said in a light voice. Before I could respond, Oya walked through the doors with several warriors.
Something passed between Oya and Queen Lisa. Oya nodded. “Form around the wall!” Oya said very sternly.
We were in a rectangular area and I immediately ran to claim a space along the wall. I did not want to be seen as not following orders, especially after the scene earlier. I knew even if Queen Lisa was not watching me, she was keeping a close eye.
We stood in silence for a while, all standing straight and looking forward. The only voices audible were those of Queen Lisa and Queen Kunova still engaged in a battle of wills.
Many people started arriving through the doors. It started in single file, but soon there was just a cluster of several hundred suit wearers wondering what they were here for, many too afraid to actually ask the question out loud. Alicia was the last to walk through the door and she and their warriors filed in and blocked the doors and the rest of the rectangle.
Oya thumped her staff twice and there was complete silence. It was silent so long I could tell all the people in the middle were growing more nervous by the second. Even the people along the walls, including myself, were growing more anxious with every passing moment.
“I provide you food, shelter from the sun, and allow you to freely mingle; I am repaid with betrayal, attacks on our supplies, and attacks on my people.” Queen Kunova was speaking and Queen Lisa looked on with approval. Whatever disagreement they’d been having before, it seemed as if they had come to an agreement now. “Tell me who’s behind the attacks.”
All at once, hundreds of people began denying, accusing, and pleading. That was until a voice rang out. “Silence!” It was Queen Lisa’s turn to take over.
She stood up and pointed out several men and women one by one. Everyone else in the ground distanced themselves from them. “Do you all have families?” Many of them said yes and their families stepped up next to them as well.
“Princess Marriah, come here.” Marriah stepped forward next to her mother and Queen Kunova.
“You all are guilty of treason.” Queen Lisa spoke it as fact.
A blonde-haired white woman who appeared just as tall as Queen Lisa stepped forward to speak on behalf of the group, “You have no proof of that. You can’t possibly kill us all for what a few decided to do.”
Queen Lisa looked her up and down. “I don’t know what gave you the slightest idea this was a negotiation.”
Queen Lisa looked around the walls. “Your weapons.” We all drew our knives. She then looked at Marriah, who did not have a weapon. She took out her knife and handed it to Marriah. She drew another knife-this time, a hunting knife-from her left boot.
The Queen then centered herself directly in front of the woman. “Kill them all!” And there was a rush of people from every point of the wall toward the middle group.
I did not move. My focus was on Marriah who also was not moving. It seemed while she was frozen, a man with blond hair and eyes that were noticeably blue and manic-looking, took the opportunity to overpower her.
I sprang to action and my knife severed his spinal cord. He landed on top of Marriah. She struggled to free her body from underneath his as I helped to push him off. She sat there looking in his dead eyes. I stood there watching her and the scene around me, resigning myself to protecting the Princess.
As the fight dwindled down to the last remaining suit wearers, Queen Kunova addressed her sister. “You said we wouldn’t have to kill all of them.”
“We kill a few and leave it open to a rebellion in the future. Or even worse, martyrs.” Queen Lisa began to look around, deeming the conversation over. She spotted Marriah and saw her covered in blood. Then, she looked at me. The three of us knew Marriah had not killed anyone.
Queen Lisa now stood in the center of the rectangle, surrounded by the freshly dead. “Get rested. Tomorrow morning, we move to the mountains.”
I was not allowed to go back to my camping area. I had hoped to see Zander again, and Queen Lisa had ordered to me tag along with Marriah. In some sort of twist, I think she found me a suitable protector for her, although she never mentioned Marriah not making a kill.
Marriah, on the other hand, spent the night tossing and turning and woke up throughout the night in several sweats. In the beginning, I tried resting but it proved impossible. Waking to comfort her and putting her back to sleep was difficult enough. So, instead I formed a plan on how to get the environmental information, and details of this clan back to my KGNRV. When we were watching, we’d see how humans lived but not the intricate details.
It crossed my mind that Marriah, Zander, or even Rance might get hurt in our war with A’ABM. Marriah, no matter how much her mother willed it, would not be a Queen that would make the hardest decisions. What I had learned was that no matter how much they tried, humans made most of their decisions based on emotions and I thought this information would come in handy for our upcoming battle.
As morning approached, I sharpened my knife. I heard footsteps approaching, and the Queen opened the door. I moved to wake Marriah, but Queen Lisa lifted her hand to stop me. For a while, she just sat there watching Marriah. Then, she looked like she wanted to say something to me but quickly decided against it. So, we sat there and I watched the Queen. She looked… fatigued. She stood up.
“Princess Marriah should not be here,” I said to her back.
“She doesn’t have a choice. None of us do.” She proceeded to leave.
Was Queen Lisa just as reluctant has her sister Queen Kunova? She had various battle scars and marks all over her body from previous fights. What had she been through to make her the decisive leader she was today?
I gently touched Marriah on the arm a few times to wake her. In contrast to her sleep overnight, her eyes opened slowly and, for a brief second, looked at peace. Then, it all seemed to set in and her eyes grew dark and withdrawn.
“We should not be late.” We heard the noises around the compound. People preparing. Preparing for battle. Preparing for victory. Mostly, preparing for death.
Once again, a group of us stood looking up to Qu
een Lisa; Oya was by her side again but slightly behind. Queen Kunova stood almost on equal footing with Queen Lisa, while Alicia stood by the side of Queen Kunova.
Their children then were standing to the rear of them. Down in our crowd, there was a mix of the warriors of Queen Lisa and Queen Kunova but there were fewer survivalists and medics. There would not be a need for them during this trip.
Some warriors would stay behind to guard the compound even though day attacks were very rare. The suit wearers would not be able to fight long enough to cause any real damage if they attacked during the day, and Queen Lisa used this to her advantage as she had done many times before. Once I zoned back into the speech, they all put on their masks. I noticed the masks of Kunova II and Vanessa looked just as battle-tested as every other seasoned warrior.
We began our march toward the mountains. Not too far. Again, I and other recruits ran along the outsides of the rest of the warriors. This time, they brought only four horses, no cars, or other modes of transportation. We were actually moving faster. Queen Lisa set the pace as always.
CHAPTER SIX
Sometime later, we stood at the bottom of the mountain. It was actually more of a cave-like entrance. We were a big group, many of us chanting, so I was sure they heard us inside. Queen Kunova and her troops went in search of other potential entrances or exits.
“Volunteers!” The yelling was endless. They needed the volunteers to go in first. Since they probably knew we were prepared to take their home by force, we were sure they’d set traps.
I moved up to the front, intending to volunteer. When I made it through, Zander was there as well. She looked over, smiled at me and I smiled back. There were about fifty of us, more people than they probably even had inside. Lagelica came up on the other side of me.
“You’ll earn that mask, won’t you?” She laughed and everyone else began laughing as well.