by Mark Tufo
“I hate to say it, Winter, but he’s right. We can’t give them that option.” Tallow turned the rifle so that the barrel was pointing at Brody who had still not stood up.
“Princess, I have your word.” Brody looked angry. “Is that not worth the air you expelled to say it?”
“Shut up Brody,” Tallow said as his finger moved to the trigger.
“So what’s it going to be, Princess? If anyone’s going to kill me I think it should be you. If you’re going to try and change the way things are, the way things have always been, I think you should be the one to get your hands dirty. Don’t you agree?”
I was lost. I was in over my head and I knew it. Brody’s words had struck a chord. “This isn’t the way things have always been,” I told him. “There were great cities and democratic governments that allowed the people to vote for what they wanted, for who they wanted to lead them. People prospered; they weren’t just given the bare minimum to survive until they went to fight a never ending war against an unknown enemy.”
“That’s a fantasy.” Brody straightened, although his shoulders still hunched a bit. “A fantasy made up by a people dreaming of something better. I’m telling you there is nothing better and there never has been. And I hate to tell you, Princess, but you’ve only made your crappy little existence that much worse.”
“What if I can prove to you that you’re wrong?” I asked.
“What?” Tallow replied, looking at me. “Whatever you’re thinking, you can’t be serious.”
“I am serious, Tallow. It doesn’t look like he knows any more than we do. He’s had a job to do so he’s done it without question.”
“Who cares? He’s the enemy. He’s destroyed our food and the rifles; that was his choice. All he’s ever done is keep us in line until it’s our turn to go, now he’ll see us starve. We get rid of him now and be done with it.”
We’d had to move a safe distance away from the hut that was creaking and groaning as its supports were being eroded away by flame. It wouldn’t be long until the structure collapsed in on itself.
“If I can prove what I have said is true, will you join us?”
“Winter, what is wrong with you?” Tallow nearly shrieked.
“Prove it to me? What could you have possibly come across that would do that?”
Chapter 7
An Understanding
WE PLACED THE Brokers in an abandoned apartment that night and had a couple dozen people guard them. I don’t know if we needed that many as the wind had seemed to go out of the Brokers’ sails. Without their weapons they were as vulnerable as the rest of us, and hungry, too.
When the adrenaline stopped racing through my veins, we went back to Tallow’s quarters and I found a place to sit. I didn’t feel quite as light as I used to. Now it seemed like I had the whole town of Dystance resting squarely on my shoulders.
Tallow sat next to me. “Can you believe we did it?”
“What exactly did we do, Tallow? Because I’m just not clear.”
“We won, Winter!” he said excitedly.
“What, exactly, did we win? Brody’s right. When there’s no food the people aren’t going to care about being right. I’ve had time to think about it. Giving food is a form of control.”
“What are you talking about? We will no longer have them bullying us around for pieces of bread and meat that could be carved from pigeons. No more fighting a war for something we know nothing about.”
“What you’re saying is true, but we are a long ways from there. These people will starve soon, and most of them know no other way. We can show them the berry fields, but those will be stripped clean in a matter of days. And then what?”
“We’ll hunt. There are plenty of elk and moose. We’ve both seen bears as well.”
I smiled at him, wondering how he could be so naïve. Hunting for two was one thing, hunting for two thousand was another. “What if Brody can help us?”
Tallow looked long and hard at me. I disliked the way he was staring. “Winter, have you lost your mind? What makes you think Brody would do anything except what he said? I still think we should go up there and get rid of them all.”
“This is your revolution, Tallow. Why don’t you?”
He looked away. “I’m just saying we should have. It’s different now just killing defenseless men…that doesn’t seem right.”
“I wish we’d never found that book building.”
“And then what? I go to The War and the then the following year so would you. Then what? That’s it. We don’t get to be together–ever.” The last word came out with so much pain attached to it.
“At least we would have had more time together.” I left it open to what that meant.
“That wouldn’t have been enough, Winter.” Tallow brushed a wisp of hair away from the side of my face, as he leaned in and kissed my cheek. I turned so that our lips touched. That first kiss was tentative and slow but quickly kindled a burning ache deep within me. I wrapped my hand around the back of his neck and pulled him tight. I don’t know when and where we would have stopped if not for Cedar bursting through the door. She stopped short when she saw what we were doing.
“Um, I…um…I was helping guard the Brokers. Brody wants to talk.” She smiled at us as we broke apart quickly. It would be a long time, if ever, that we would not be fearful of expressing a forbidden intimacy, long past the end of the old ways.
“Forget Brody,” Tallow said. I was already headed to the door.
“I wish I could. Are you coming?”
“As leader of The Rebellion I suppose I should accompany you.”
The Rebellion? Leader? I didn’t know if he meant me or was talking about himself. The guards looked agitated as Brody was mean mugging them. He would most likely always instill fear into people; he’d been the muscle for the Overseers for so long it would not be something that was easily or soon forgotten; certainly not by him.
“Sticks, Princess? You took us out with sticks shaped like rifles? Wouldn’t think someone as pretty as you would have the brains to match.”
“Shut up, Brody,” Tallow said hotly.
“Oh look, the love interest has something to say.”
“We can still get rid of you!” Tallow had brought his rifle up.
“Enough.” I was speaking to the both of them. “What do you want, Brody?” I hope I didn’t sound as tired as I felt.
“Morning is just about here and I figure you only have a couple of days until the Overseers realize what is going on. Well, that’s if the Meddies haven’t already let them know. Oh, I can tell by your face you didn’t think of that! This is rich. Hell, they could be on their way right now. If you’re going to convince me I would suggest you start now.”
“Cedar, get some help and round up the Meddies,” I told her. She looked scared and who could blame her. I may have written everyone’s death sentence the second we stormed the Brokers’ hut.
I looked over to Tallow. “Well, let’s go then,” he said.
“Not all of us want to eat your stale bread and meat-like substance,” Tallow spat.
“Why not? I make sure to personally lick every piece before it goes out on the carts. Sort of like a flavor enhancer.”
I could tell Brody was just trying to rile Tallow up and naturally he was rising to the bait.
“You’re scum!”
Brody was laughing. Tallow raised the rifle over his head in preparation to strike. With a speed I didn’t think possible, Brody stopped laughing, grabbed the barrel of Tallow’s rifle and twisted it out of his hands. He then kicked Tallow in the midsection, sending him sprawling on the tundra. Before I could even get my rifle off my shoulder Brody had the weapon pointed at Tallow’s prone form. “Who’s tough now? I don’t even need this gun to kick your ass, boy. Maybe a good old-fashioned beat down would be best.” He must have seen me moving out of the corner of his eye. “Don’t even think it, Princess. I can put a bullet in his gut and then one in you before you’ll be abl
e to take the safety off.”
I didn’t even know what the safety was but he definitely had me.
“Kill him, Winter!” Tallow was glaring at Brody.
“Did you know that being gut-shot is one of the longest and most painful ways to die?” He could have been asking either of us the question, pretty sure he wasn't expecting an answer.
“Get up, boy,” he said. Tallow did so warily. “If I wanted you dead I would have spilled your blood already. Now you and the Princess are going to show me what has got your feathers all ruffled and then I will decide what to do about it. In the meantime, I’ll hold on to this.” He shook the rifle. “I’m going to need yours as well.” He was looking at me now. Tallow brushed the dirt off the back of his pants and what he could reach on his back. “Isn’t this fun? Just the three of us enjoying a beautiful day out in nature.” Brody was breathing evenly while Tallow and myself were pulling in heavy breaths.
“Yeah, just wonderful,” Tallow said sarcastically.
It wasn’t long before we came upon the hole that had started all this. I began to pull back the grass.
“Slow down, Princess. I don’t want to have to shoot you because I think you’re digging up a weapon.” Curiosity got the better of him, though, when he saw the rope. “So it was you two that broke in. I figured as much. Should have just shot you and saved us all the trouble.”
He said it so casually, like our murders would have meant nothing to him.
“That a window?” he asked, leaning in.
“I’m going to need a rifle,” Tallow told him, sticking his hand out.
“I’m sure you do, but I’m not giving you one.”
“Listen, jerk, take the bullets out, I don’t care, but we need it to help us get down into the book building.”
“Back up, the both of you.” Brody waited until we were sufficiently far enough away before he stuck his head in the hole and took a look around. He then pulled something out of the bottom of the rifle and pulled a mechanism on the side that made a loud ratcheting noise. A bullet came out the side, which he deftly caught in midair. Without warning he tossed the rifle at Tallow. “You’ve got my attention. Now get us in there.”
Tallow looked over at me. I nodded. What was the harm now? Brody could get rid of us at any time; why he hadn’t was a mystery to me. If he killed us, our secret would die with us. Tallow tied the rope off and was about to start down.
“No, the Princess first, then me and you’d better follow or who knows what could happen to her down here in the dark like this.”
I climbed down easy enough. Brody seemed to have difficulty with the rope and it was easy to see why as he had double my muscle mass.
“All that extra food feeling a bit heavy now?” Tallow taunted.
“Shut up,” Brody said through clamped teeth. Brody let himself drop the final four feet and landed with a heavy thud. I was already working on getting the fire started with the dried tinder we had acquired just for this reason.
“Here, let me get that,” Brody said, coming over. He grabbed something that looked like a flat piece of metal and then from a sheath hidden under his shirt he pulled out a large knife.
“We probably should have checked you,” I told him.
He just smiled and struck the knife against the metal. A shower of sparks shot out and onto the tinder. Within three strikes he had a small flame going.
“Whoa,” Tallow said as he was coming down. “What is that?”
“A knife, dummy.” Brody told him. “Oh you mean this? It’s called flint.”
Tallow seemed to forget all the animosity built up between the two of them as he came over and looked at the strange material. I got the fire stoked to an acceptable reading level and then grabbed the World History book. I shoved it in Brody’s hands.
“A pamphlet, Princess? You really think I’m going to change my view of the world from a pamphlet?”
“Do you know how to read?” I challenged him.
“I do, I read boring crap every day, like those pamphlets they force-feed you, and the reports I’m required to submit every month. Nothing I feel like wasting my time on. I’ll look at this thing only because of all the trouble you’ve gone through, but I’ll be honest–I was expecting more. I mean I don’t know what I was expecting, I just know I figured it was going to be much more impressive than a giant pamphlet.” Brody sat in the seat Tallow and I had used. “Both of you stay where I can see you.”
He opened the first page, flipped through a couple of the preliminary sheets and settled in when he got to the one entitled “Chapter One.” At first he kept looking up after every few sentences, then after a while I noticed he wasn’t looking up at all. He was turning the pages at a rate double, maybe triple of what I was able to accomplish. An hour later, Tallow and I got up and moved away from Brody. He grunted at us and nothing more.
Tallow was pacing nervously. “What if this doesn’t work, Winter? I could rush him. I can take him.”
With the element of surprise there was a chance Tallow could over-power Brody. But as engrossed in the book as Brody was, I still didn’t think Tallow would be able to get within ten feet without him noticing. Plus the fact that he was so involved in the book was something that should have allayed Tallow’s fears, as it had mine.
Time had marched on. I’d even gone up the rope to get more firewood. Tallow had not made his surprise attack; maybe he was waiting for me to issue the order. Night was coming when Brody finally stood and stretched. He tossed the book on the bench.
“I don’t think I’ve ever read that much in my entire life. You believe that book, Princess?”
I nodded. “I do.”
“From what I was reading doesn’t sound like the world was a much better place than it is now. Seems like they had wars going on all the time. And not just eighteen-year-olds were going to fight it. You see all those pictures of the dead women and children?”
“I did.” I nodded again, although it could have been more of a head bow. “They were free, Brody.”
He grunted. “Free to die it seems to me. What now? Either I’m a convert and I want to fight on your side or I don’t. Seems to me we’re at the same point we were at earlier.”
“See, Winter? I told you I should have taken him when I had the chance.”
“When was that?” Brody asked sarcastically.
Tallow looked sullen.
“There was more to life back then Brody–look around you. It wasn’t all just war. They had art and music. They wrote stories just for entertainment. They lived life; they weren’t just waiting to die,” I entreated.
“What do you expect me to do about it?”
“Help us.”
“Help you? Help you do what? I think you over-estimate the power I wield. I’m one rung up the ladder from you.”
I’d never thought of that. The Brokers were something to be feared in our community. They doled out life in rations and they kept everyone in line. They’d always seemed omnipotent.
“What if we take the Overseers hostage when they come?” I asked.
Tallow looked like he was going to swallow his tongue.
“I don’t talk to them much. They come, point at stuff, write notes and leave. I get the impression they aren’t much higher than me. And before you even ask it, no I don’t know who they answer to.”
I sat down heavily. We’d done so much and accomplished so little.
“What now?” I asked with my head between my hands. “Are you going to arrest us?”
“What? No!” Tallow yelled.
“Which one of you killed Durgan?”
“I did,” I admitted.
“Was there any other reason you were at the hut?”
“We were looking for rope to get in here, that’s it. I grabbed the rifle thinking I could hit him hard enough that he’d fall to the ground and we could get away. I did not mean for him to die.”
“And what about Hunter and Torric?”
“We killed them as
well.”
“Those two were self-defense.” Tallow threw in. Not that it mattered. Harming a Broker in any way was punishable by death.
“Yeah, they were asses. Durgan was a good guy though. Who else knows about those deaths?”
“No one.” I lied. I didn’t want him to know I had told Cedar. I was doing my best to not have her dragged into this thing.
“Good, keep it that way.”
I turned my head and was looking through my splayed fingers. I hadn’t been expecting that response.
Tallow was still racing to catch on to what was being said. Brody was essentially absolving us of the murders of his men; he had suddenly become an accomplice.
“I heard about these places,” Brody said as he dragged a callused hand across his face.
“Book buildings?” I asked, sitting up.
“It’s called a library.”
I mumbled the word trying to become familiar with it.
“I figured they were myths, paper being as rare as it is and all. I can’t believe I’m doing this. I have a pretty good life, I mean better than you guys, anyway. I’ve never liked it though.”
“Funny, you’d never know it.” Tallow’s words dripped with sarcasm.
“Can you control your boyfriend, please? I’m at a crossroads.”
I gave Tallow a look that could have frozen water.
“You two...even if the whole township rose up as one–there’s no way you could affect change from within here. They’ll just come in, crush this rebellion and probably be home for dinner. I have a different idea. It’s going to be incredibly dangerous and your odds of success are about as dismal as they are now…maybe even worse.”
“Wait, you...you want to help us?” Tallow was amazed.
“Is he always so quick, Princess?”
“That was actually pretty fast for him.” I smiled.
“Funny, Winter.”
“You don’t look like the Bio Building type,” Brody said.
“I will not become a breeder. I will not have children just for the sake of feeding The War machine.”
“How old are you?” he asked.