by Raven Dark
Pretty Boy laughed and took out something from a back pack sitting on his sleeping bag. “Doc, I’ll take over from here. Crash was looking for you anyway.”
Doc left, and Pretty Boy showed me a small hand mirror. I widened my eyes.
Diamond had drawn dark slashes across my cheeks and a kind of tribal looking pattern of lines above one of my eyes. I looked like a road rat, but more tough.
“You could use some more tattoos, but we don’t have time for that.” Pretty Boy messed up my hair a little more, then put his cheek to mine, kissing it warmly.
“I look ridiculous.”
“You look fucking hot. My crazy woman.”
“Me, crazy? Why?”
“Because you’re doing this. Because no one mouths off to Sheriff that way.”
I rested my hand on his chest. “You’re not angry with me?”
“I should be. I should put you over my fucking knee. I still might, later.”
I laid my palm on his warm cheek. “I’m going to be okay. Trust me, Master.” Before he could say anything, I kissed him gently on the lips, trying to infuse all the reassurance I could into the kiss. He sighed and squeezed me close.
When I pulled back, his eyes were hot, possessive, but he nodded. Then he smirked, a dimple appearing on one cheek. He put his mouth close to my ear. “I can’t wait until your hair is purple again, but I kinda like you like this. You’ll be sucking me off before we clean you up after this, Princess.”
“Dreg women turn you on?” I teased.
He shrugged. “Danger looks good on you.”
I chuckled and kissed him slowly on the mouth, my sex aching with the thought of him pushing me to my knees and using my mouth the way he liked.
When he released me, I looked into his mirror again and swallowed the trepidation that tightened my throat.
Please, let this work.
We went out into the rest of the camp, and I wrinkled my nose at the odd smell that now permeated the area. It drifted from Crash’s tree. Inside, we found Doc and Crash stirring something into a pot over a small, makeshift fire. Steel was standing with them, a hand over his nose and mouth.
“What the fuck is that?” Pretty Boy covered his nose and looked into the pot. “It smells like Steel’s sweat socks.”
“Fuck you.” Steel swatted him in the back of the head.
“It’s a concoction we made two years ago when some of us went out to help the people in Zone 9. There’s medicine in it that you rub on your chest to help get rid of a cold.” Doc added some kind of powder to the mix, and the smell grew more foul. “One of the boys there ate it on a dare. He was…well, you’ll see what it does to people who are dumb enough to eat—or in this case, drink—it.”
“But won’t the Dregs smell it?” Steel asked.
“No.” Doc held up a small vial of greenish liquid. “Ten minutes after this goes in, the smell will go away. It’ll turn odorless, tasteless, virtually undetectable.”
“Huh. Never a dull moment with you around, Doc.”
Doc poured the green liquid in, ignoring Steel’s commentary. “Stir that for ten minutes, Crash. Keep the heat low, or you’ll neutralize the meninoak and it won’t work.”
“How do I know when this shit’s ready, Doc?” Crash stirred the mixture.
“The smell will be gone, and it’ll turn amber, the same color as that moonshine they drink. So…who’s going to do the deed and put this stuff in their drinks?”
“I will,” Diamond said.
Pretty Boy put his head back. “Have you women been smoking that shit in T-Man’s pipe?”
“T-Man said the kegs were at the edge of the camp. No one will see me.”
“Sheriff will be thrilled,” Crash said.
Ten minutes later, Doc poured the now amber liquid into four small vials. He put each into protective metal cylinders like those he used to hold my blood. Diamond stowed them in her brassiere. Doc shut off the burner as Diamond, Pretty Boy, Steel, and I turned to leave.
“Hold on a moment.” He grabbed Diamond’s elbow and spun her around, planting a long, deep kiss on her lips.
“What was that for?” Her cheeks were pink.
“When you get back, I’m still going to whoop your ass for having mouthed off to the General.” He held her tight. “Don’t get dead.”
“I won’t, sir.” She squeezed his hand.
When we were outside again, I gave her a teasing smile. “When did that happen? You and Doc?”
She shrugged.
“He’s a lot older than you.” I guessed Diamond was no more than twenty five.
“I guess I like older men.”
“So you aren’t all curses and toughness.”
“Shut up, Setora.”
But we laughed. The moment of happiness helped to quiet the fear eating at my insides like a parasite. It was nice to see that Diamond had someone I knew cared for her, especially a man as decent as Doc.
Half an hour later, leaving Crash and Doc behind, we rode out with the darkness still blanketing the forest. We rode to within ten minutes of the camp, then stowed the bikes in a copse of trees, making the rest of the way on foot so that the bike engines wouldn’t give us away.
There was a hill on the eastern side of the camp, giving us a place to hide while the men assessed the situation. I followed behind Sheriff and T-Man, Hawk beside me, showing me how to crawl on my belly, elbowing my way along the grass.
At the crest of the hill, T-Man handed Sheriff a strange looking object. It looked like an elongated lens, wrapped in leather, forming a monocular.
“Targets in sight,” Sheriff said softly. “I see them. Lots of cages, hanging from the trees. I see Emmy. She’s in the furthest one.”
When I crawled up beside him, he handed me the monocular. I pressed it to my eye. I had to blink a couple of times to fight fatigue, but finally my vision cleared. The camp came into view in front of the glass lens. I scanned the area and felt the blood drain from my cheeks.
Four bonfires roared about the camp between the huge, thick trees, and around each one, Dregs gathered. Some sat drinking from large mugs, others smoked from pipes or dragged on rolled cigarettes. Many more punched each other, scrapping, rolling around in the grass, getting up and then knocking each other down again. Voices carried, rowdy, loud, every second word a curse. A few spun around on bikes, dirt spewing out from under tires while they cackled and insulted each other.
In the cages that hung above the camp, I caught movement, whoever was in them shifting about, cramped and crouched, folded into spaces hardly large enough to fit a human body. Others slept in the bottoms of the cages, motionless. At least I hoped they were sleeping.
Then I saw her. Emmy was lying at the bottom of her wicker cage, unmoving, her black hair falling through the bottom, between the wicker strips. I could just make out those tattoos covering her legs.
Maker, she was naked.
I gulped.
I looked down at the Dregs again, and the enormity of the situation sent my stomach dropping to my feet. I only saw about thirty men, but if T-Man and Hawk were right, there were a lot more holed up in the trunks of the trees around the camp. Horror for the women in those cages chewed at my nerves, but Sheriff was right, we couldn’t risk trying to save all the captives.
I gave Sheriff a helpless look. He took the monocular back and handed it to T-Man on his other side. “Still think we can play savior, sweetheart?” His voice was rough and low.
I sighed and shook my head.
He turned to Diamond, lying in the grass behind me with Steel and Pretty Boy flanking her. “Diamond, it’s time.”
I saw her heave a breath and then nod. She was halfway up before Hawk moved backward and grabbed her arm.
“Use the trees for cover,” he rumbled softly. “Stay out of the light where and when you can. Don’t go any further into the camp than you have to and come right back here.”
Diamond’s eyes widened with fear, but she nodded.
&nb
sp; Sheriff grunted. “I still think this is a stupid plan.” He watched her slink down the hill in front of us and disappear into the trees and darkness. “If she gets caught, I’ll kill every one of you.”
We waited for what must have been minutes, but it felt like an hour. I felt every thudding beat of my heart as though time had slowed it, even though I was sure it raced like a rabbit.
Just when I started to wonder if Diamond had been caught, I saw her silhouette slipping slowly through the night back to us. Her face and dark hair were slicked with sweat, and she was holding her chest as though trying to still her heart.
“It’s done,” She lay down on the grass with the rest of us.
I found her hand and squeezed it, then scooted back up to the General.
Sheriff’s shoulders relaxed. “Good. Well done, Diamond. Now we wait.”
“Now we wait,” T-Man agreed, pressing the monocular to his eye.
I still had no idea what the mixture Doc and Crash had concocted was supposed to do. Would it knock the Dregs out?
While the minutes once more stretched out before me, Steel slunk up on my other side opposite Sheriff.
“You don’t have to do this, Petal.”
“Yes, I do.” I took his hand in the grass, hoping he didn’t notice how sweaty my palm was. “I’ll be fine. Promise.”
Ten minutes later, T-Man’s soft chuckling caught my attention. His shoulders shook. He lowered the monocular and looked around at all of us.
“What the fuck you laughing at?” Pretty Boy asked.
“You’ll see. Those Dregs will be running in more ways than one in a minute.”
I wrinkled my brow, but he just laughed quietly into his fist.
Sheriff shook his head and snatched the monocular from him. He scanned the camp with it, then lowered it. “Sick,” he said, but he was grinning.
“What is it, Master?”
He shook his head again. “You’ll see soon enough.” His face cleared. “Your turn.”
I swallowed and tried to calm my galloping heart. This is the only way. This time, I was halfway to my feet when Sheriff seized my arm, pulling me down to the grass so that my face was inches from his.
“Master?”
His lips claimed mine in a swift kiss. “No heroism. In and out, nothing else. Got it?”
Again I sighed. “Yes, Master.”
Before I could stand, Steel turned me around and gave me a quick kiss as well. He nodded to the camp. “Be fucking careful, Petal.”
“I will. I…” I stopped. With how dark it was, I couldn’t be sure, but it looked like blood was coming from his ear. In the almost non-existent moonlight, his skin bore a yellow tint.
I shook myself. It had to be that dream. Fatigue and fear were getting the better of me. I shut the images of Steel with his face covered in blood down. If I worried about Steel or anyone else, I’d make a mistake and Emmy would be lost.
I dragged in a breath. Maker, I hoped I knew what I was getting myself into. If not, it was too late to turn back now.
With one last look at my masters, my family, I made my way slowly over and down the hill, toward the Dreg camp.
Chapter 17
Backfire
As soon as I’d made my way to within fifty feet of the camp, I saw exactly what T-Man had been laughing at when he’d been looking through his monocular.
Hidden behind the trunk of a massive dockerwood, I covered my mouth with my hands. If the situation hadn’t been so dire, I might have laughed.
The Dregs, who had earlier been sitting about the fire or riding circles around the camp, were now keeling over or clutching their bellies, some of them groaning or cursing up a storm. Others were hurrying behind trees or into them, moving with the kind of speed I rarely saw men use.
“What the fuck did you put in the food, you fucker?” One of them shouted at another, throttling him. He punched him hard in the face, and the other Dreg went sprawling. “Always playing pranks. I ought to gut you.”
Others started fighting, insulting each other, laying their comrades flat.
Except the mixture wasn’t in the food, but in the drink.
I almost smiled, until I looked up at the cages. Any amusement I might have felt fled. I could see Emmy clearly now, still lying in the bottom of her cage. She stirred with a groan. No one noticed over the fighting and the commotion below.
At least she was alive.
Slinking to the next tree and the next until I was ten feet from the edge of the camp, I took another careful look around.
Across an acre or more, fires burned high, Dregs here and there laughing and talking animatedly, seated on logs. Trays of food stood at the edges of the camp, a few women dressed not unlike me moving among the men, serving up the food and moonshine. Men who weren’t eating or drinking pulled them into their laps, and one or two bent a woman over, taking her right there in the open.
Women squealed and cried out, struggled and occasionally tried to run, only to be tackled and pulled back down.
Where was Saketh? I didn’t see him anywhere. Was he with a woman somewhere? Well, at least he wasn’t with Emmy.
I glanced up at her again. Still lying in her cage.
This wasn’t going to be easy. She was over twenty feet away, hanging at the edge of the camp to my left, and at least ten feet up. A rope suspended the cage from a thick tree branch. Between where I stood and where Emmy hung, a dozen Dregs or more were brawling, drinking, and brawling some more. All of them were occupied, but all it took was one of them glancing the right way, and they’d see me.
Or one of them could decide the newest of their slaves looked good enough to take.
I swallowed and looked up again. I forced myself not to look at the other cages, at the people huddled and curled up in them, focusing only on Emmy.
The one I was there to help.
If I saw the fear and pain in their eyes, I wouldn’t be able to leave them behind as if they were nothing.
Before doubt could eat through my resolve like acid, I made my way into the camp, head down, hoping no one noticed me. I kept to the outer edge of the camp, avoiding the men where I could.
My heartbeat filled my ears; if anyone had said anything to me, I wouldn’t have heard them.
As soon as I reached the side of the camp where Emmy’s cage dangled, I slipped behind the tree and looked around. I couldn’t believe my luck. I’d made it, and no one seemed to pay me any mind.
Slowly, as silently as I could manage, I made my way up the tree, using the thickest branches as a ladder, hoping the thick leaves hid me from view if anyone looked up at it. Rough bark scratched my fingers, leaves brushing my face.
When the branch where Emmy hung stretched out in front of me, I looked down. The closest Dregs were sitting at a fire ten feet away. Another Dreg buckled his pants and joined the others there.
I pushed out a breath and leaned against the rough tree. So far, so good.
From up here, faint snores reached my ears, drifting from some of the cages. Was that Emmy who groaned? Was she hurt?
Inch by inch, I made myself walk out onto the branch toward the rope looped there. The branch grew thinner the farther it reached out. It seemed so much thinner when I was standing on it, barely as wide as my feet. I inched across it like a bird on a clothesline. Sweat dripped into my eyes, and I swore the Dregs or those in the cages had to hear my ragged breaths.
Maker, I must have been crazy to think I could do this.
The branch bowed a little with my steps. I laid down across the branch carefully so that I was directly over the cage. On either side of me, other wicker cages dangled, and I willed my eyes not to stray to the captives balled into them. Instead, I reached down, putting my arm through spaces of the cage’s roof. My fingers just reached Emmy’s shoulder.
She jerked, cringing, and her head shot up. Her dark eyes went huge. Fear flashed in them, then she peered closer and her eyes got even bigger. I gave her what I hope was a reassuring smile.
“How?” she mouthed. The hope in her eyes squeezed my chest.
I gestured to the lid, feeling for a latch or an opening in the cage. She pointed to a small latch on the door to one side. It was about a half a foot down.
Nodding, I reached down. My fingers just missed the latch. Cherry had always wanted me to curse…I would have been happy to let a few choice words out right then.
Again, I stretched my fingers out, trying to extend my arm far enough, but my longest finger missed the latch by an inch. The branch bowed and creaked in warning.
I needed something…
I looked around for a loose branch or a twig to lift the latch but didn’t see one. Shit.
Then I remembered the length of cloth Pretty Boy had used to tie my hair back. I pulled it out carefully and tightened the loop in it. I was making too much noise, for sure, but no one looked up at me.
Emmy watched with wide eyes as I dangled the strip of cloth down to the latch. I had to hook it four times before it caught.
“How do we get down?”
I was about to tell her I didn’t know yet when one of the Dregs sitting on a log closest to us walked over to the tree and started relieving himself.
Maker, please no. All he had to do was look up, and we’d be finished.
I looked closer. He had a rolled cigarette in his mouth, but instead of smelling like the burning tobacco some people grew, it reeked of something alarmingly familiar. The smoke rising from it was black, a thin tendril that smelled of…
Acrin.
He was smoking the same thing in those flashbangs?
The smoke rose high, most of it dissipating, but not before enough of it stung my eyes. I shook my head violently, trying to ward off the sting.
When I opened my eyes, I wasn’t blind, but it looked like there was a faint blurry film over my eyes. Emmy was looking at me with concern.
With bated breath, I waited for the Dreg to return to his friends. When he was gone, I carefully hooked the string on the latch of the cage again. Once the door was open, Emmy bent forward and looked around. She pointed to where the rope suspending the cage traveled up to another branch, looped around it, then ran sideways to the trunk of the tree. I saw what the Dregs had done. It was a pully system that lowered the cage with a yank on the end of the rope.