Doppelganger Girl

by T. R. Woodman

  Jane had insisted that Evelyn land the shuttle so she could take a closer look, and Evelyn knew the moment had shaken Jane deeply. She thought she understood why, but standing in the dirt, in the presence of millions of people whose bodies had been so grossly defiled, she felt the full gravity of the moment crushing her chest, squeezing the life out of her.

  Evelyn felt herself get a little woozy. She started to turn, catching the toe of her boot on something, and found herself moments later lying in the dirt. Dizzy, she pulled her arms out of the shoulder straps on her pack and got to her knees. She shook her head.

  “Come on, Evie, pull yourself together,” she chastised herself, realizing that it wasn’t just the extreme death making her shaky, it was seeing it at the tail end of a thirty-mile hike with a thirty-pound pack on her shoulders.

  Just then, she heard a grinding in the distance. She looked over her shoulder in the direction she had come, and about a mile off, she could see a vehicle of some sort driving toward her. Unsure what to do and unable to clear the fog from her brain, Evelyn felt her heart start to pound. She couldn’t think, but a swell of panic overcame her. She wanted to run, to hide, but there was nowhere to go.

  Lifting herself up, she looked at the bone wall and gritted her teeth. Seconds later, Evelyn stood, took two steps toward the wall, and leapt, trying feebly to dive over it. Crashing into the top and sending human remains flying in front of her, she tumbled down the other side, careening into the dirt amid a collection of bones.

  Wincing, she realized she was lying on top of something bony, and reluctantly she brought her hand back to retrieve the femur that had tried to insert itself into her pelvis the hard way.

  Evelyn scrambled to her feet and peeked her head just over the top of the bones. She could see a cloud of dust billowing behind the vehicle, which appeared to be some sort of truck with an open bed. It rumbled over the dirt, and Evelyn realized she hadn’t jumped over the wall a moment too soon; just seconds later, the truck started to slow as it approached.

  Evelyn didn’t think she had been seen, and she ducked back behind the wall. Dear God, I don’t know who they are, but please, please, please don’t let them find me.

  Squinting and praying, Evelyn heard the truck roll slowly past, and then over the clatter of the rickety old truck, she heard a man’s voice.

  “Hey, stop the truck!”

  The brakes on the old truck squeaked, and Evelyn heard the tires slide to a stop on the gravelly road.

  Her heart thumped in her chest, and she thought about running. She reached for her pack.

  “Hold up for a second,” the voice shouted again. “There’s something in the dirt.”

  Panicked, Evelyn looked around and realized what the man had seen. Her pack. In her haste, she had left it on the other side of the bone wall.

  “Dammit,” she mouthed, feeling her face flush with heat and her stomach churn at the thought of being caught.

  Quickly she looked around and noticed the giant sage not ten feet from her. As quietly as she could, she crept to the other side and held her breath. What am I going to do? If they take my pack, I’ll be stuck in the desert with nothing. Dammit, dammit, dammit!

  She heard the footsteps just on the other side of the wall.

  “It’s a pack,” the man’s voice called again.

  “What’s in it?” another man called from a little further away, presumably back at the truck.

  “I don’t know.”

  Evelyn heard the man unzip her pack.

  “It looks new, and it’s full.”

  There was a pause, and Evelyn heard the man unscrewing the cap on one of her water bottles. “The water’s fresh,” he said, and then added a moment later, “There’s a bunch a girl things in here too.”

  Evelyn clenched her fists, more pissed at herself for being so stupid than at him for looking through her things. The trend she was seeing of her underwear finding its way into other men’s hands—first Joseph’s, now this guy’s—was beginning to disturb her too.

  “Well, grab it and let’s go … You know it ain’t safe out here,” another voice called.

  Evelyn had no idea how many men there were in that truck, but she had heard at least three voices so far. Her mind scrambled. Think … think … think!

  The man with her pack didn’t respond, and everything around her got eerily quiet, just as it was hours before in the darkness. Evelyn tried to peer through the bush at the bone wall but couldn’t see anything. She couldn’t imagine what he might be doing. If he was going to take her pack, she wished he would just do it.

  Then she heard the click. The quiet click of someone trying to muffle the sound of the action on a pistol as they pulled it back. Evelyn felt the fear of being killed—or worse—overwhelm her, and she clenched her teeth and tried not to cry. Crouched in the dirt, she struggled to keep her herself from wetting her pants and then realized that it was only because she was totally dehydrated that she hadn’t.

  “Get outta there!”

  Evelyn jerked at the sound of the man shouting, and she couldn’t help the whimper that escaped. She thought about running, but she looked around and realized there was no place for her to go. She sat still, as if there may be a chance to fool him into thinking she wasn’t there.

  “Get out. Now!”

  Evelyn jerked again and realized she had no other options. “Okay, okay … just please don’t shoot me,” she said, hardly loud enough to hear and with a crackle in her voice.

  She put her hands up and out to the side of her shrub, her head following closely behind them. As she walked around to the front, totally exposed, she saw the head of her hunter pop up over the top of the bone wall, a surprised look on his face.

  “Oh damn,” he said quickly, obviously picking up on the fact that she was terrified and unarmed. Evelyn heard a click—the sound of the action clicking back to safe on his gun—and then saw him raise one of his hands over the bone wall at her.

  Neither of them said anything for what seemed like hours. Evelyn stood frozen, her hands in the air, and stared, unsure if she should move and unable to take her eyes off the man in front of her.

  He looked to be a few years older than she was, but she couldn’t tell for sure whether he was or if it was just sun-damaged skin that made him look older. His hair was bleached from the sun, not quite blond, but lighter than it ought to have been given his complexion. He had a thin, strong face, and while Evelyn felt her chance of dying right there in the Texas dirt was decreasing by the second, there was still a toughness in his light-brown eyes, the likes of which she had never seen before. It was as if he were staring her down, waiting for her to flinch as he sized her up. But in spite of the eyes, he had a friendly face, like someone she could have gone to school with if she had ever been a kid.

  Evelyn swallowed hard and started to open her mouth—to say what, she didn’t know—and as soon as she did, she saw his eyes soften.

  He heaved a single laugh and smiled. “You look like you need a lift.”

  MARTIAN

  Evelyn didn’t move except to peer slowly over the wall at the pickup beyond. There were two people in the front seat—men, it looked like from where she stood—and one more in the bed of the truck—also looking rather mannish. She may have had big teeth and all the voluptuousness of a preteen boy, but deep down Evelyn thought she was pretty enough, and her mind raced quickly to a horrible place at the thought of being abducted by four men in the desert. She froze. She looked back at the young man, still unable to say anything, thinking for a moment she still had a chance to run.

  The young man turned quickly to look at the truck and then returned his gaze to her. His eyebrows lifted. Eyes that seemed capable of drilling through granite with a stare momentarily flickered with a glimpse of hurt at the implied accusation of Evelyn’s silence. He started to pull away the bones from the top of the wall.

  “Look, I’m gonna make a way for you to get back through this mess … so you don’t have to c
limb over it again. When I’m done, I’m gonna walk back to the truck, and I’ll leave your pack right here … This is your pack?” he asked, pausing to look back up at her.

  Evelyn nodded and didn’t say anything. She was ready to run. History was full of stories of guys who seemed nice and then turned out not to be, but she needed her pack if she was going to survive in the desert.

  “Okay … well, I’ll leave it here for you. If you want a lift, then you can come along.”

  The young man pulled at the bones, which didn’t seem to want to budge.

  “Where are you headed anyway?” he said, grimacing as he pulled a ribcage loose, tossing it behind him.

  Evelyn put her hands down and gently cleared her throat. “San Antonio,” she said.

  For a moment, the young man stopped. His hands latched onto something on his side of the wall. “Well,” he said, raising one arm to wipe away the sweat that had started to collect on his weathered forehead, “you’re in luck. That’s where we’re headed.” The young man looked back at his handiwork and kept pulling at the bones, which appeared to be coming away a little easier now.

  Evelyn watched as the barrier between them weakened, and she felt herself turning slightly, ready to run if he so much as sneezed in her direction.

  Moments later, he had carved a notch in the wall at least a couple feet down, low enough for her to step through. He looked at her and held out his hand—a gentlemanly gesture in a horribly grotesque setting. “Well, are you coming?”

  Evelyn didn’t move. She didn’t say anything. Finally, she felt like she might be getting her wits back about her.

  The young man paused for a moment, his smile flickering, perhaps not expecting her to respond as she was. He raised his eyebrows, a clear look of concern in his eyes.

  “Look … I just don’t feel right about leaving you out here alone.”

  Just then, the horn honked. “Ollie, get on it!” the man shouted from the passenger-side seat.

  Ollie looked quickly at the truck and returned his glance to her. “Are you coming or not?”

  Evelyn took a shuffle step backward, but still didn’t say anything.

  Heaving a little sigh, a clear look of disappointment on his face, Ollie lowered his hand. “Well … suit yourself,” he said, then turned, walking around her pack, which still sat in the dirt, and jogged back to the pickup.

  Evelyn watched him leave. She hoped he would, but only because she wanted to see if he would be true to his word, figuring if he would leave her alone, he may be an okay guy. As he climbed into the bed of the truck, and the bald tires, looking for traction, spun in the dirt, Evelyn hopped through the gap in the bone wall and grabbed her pack. If it wasn’t too late, she was going to take a chance on Ollie.

  “Hey,” she shouted, running toward the truck, “wait!”

  Evelyn heard Ollie rap his hand on the metal siding. “Tanner, stop the truck,” he yelled, and the truck skidded from slow to stopped with a little cloud of dust swirling around the already dirty tires.

  “Ollie, dammit, we gotta keep moving,” Evelyn heard the driver call out the window.

  Evelyn ran with her pack and watched Ollie as he stood up in the bed of the truck, a grin creeping across his face. Stomping his foot down on the gate of the bed, Evelyn watched it bang open. “Well, come on,” he said, moving to the end and holding his hand out to help her. “My brother lacks patience,” he said louder than he needed to, but ensuring Tanner heard it loud and clear.

  “I can’t afford patience, and neither can you,” Tanner batted back. Still a few feet from the bed, Evelyn hauled the pack off her back, heaved it into the bed, and taking his hand, let Ollie haul her up with more strength than he looked like he should have had, given his thinness.

  “My name’s Ollie,” the young man said, still holding her hand and flashing his friendly smile at her.

  “Yeah, I got that,” Evelyn replied through a small laugh, having heard the driver yell it through the window more than once. “I’m Evie.”

  “If you two are done playin’ grab-ass back there, then sit the hell down,” the driver shouted again.

  Evelyn looked at Ollie. They both laughed and quickly sat. Not a second later, the truck lurched forward as the tires ground into the dirt, apparently having caught ahold of something more solid that gravel.

  Evelyn looked at the bed of the truck. There was hardly a scratch of paint left on it anywhere on the inside, and she wondered how it could even be holding together as it was, given there appeared to be more rust than metal everywhere she looked.

  She also took a second to glance over at the other passenger in the bed. Now that she was closer, Evelyn realized that it wasn’t another man, but a young woman, maybe her age, with almost no hair under the filthy cap she had on her head. Her skin was pasty and pale, despite the obvious sun exposure, and she had slid down to lie on her side, her back to Evelyn. She still hadn’t said anything and hadn’t made a noise, and if Evelyn hadn’t seen her sitting upright moments ago, she may have wondered whether the girl was alive at all, given the grisly fence she had just seen.

  “That’s my sister, Tillie.”

  At the sound of her name, the girl lightly lifted her hand as if she were trying to wave hello but was too tired to move. From everything Evelyn had gathered, it looked like the girl was really sick, though what she had was a mystery.

  “My brother Tanner is driving, and that’s my other brother Malcolm.”

  Evelyn looked at the back of the head of the man in the passenger’s seat.

  “He doesn’t say much, except to echo what Tanner says,” and just as before, Ollie started raising his voice, wearing a mischievous grin, making sure the driver could hear, “and since Tanner is always grumpy, they’re both just a couple a pains in the ass!”

  Evelyn couldn’t help but laugh, trying to keep it mostly to herself, not wanting to insult the men who saved her from another seventy miles of walking in the heat.

  Malcolm looked over his shoulder through the hole in the back of the cab with an eyebrow raised and a disapproving look on his face.

  “Knock it off, Ollie,” Tanner yelled over his shoulder. “Ye’re the one bein’ a pain in the ass … makin’ us stop … slowin’ us down … if you had any sense at all, you’d be tendin’ to yer sister, not runnin’ yer mouth like a damn fool.”

  Ollie gave a little laugh at the teasing, and while the smile on his lips didn’t fade, the one in his eyes did as he looked at Tillie.

  “You’re gonna be fine … aren’t ya, sis?” he said more than asked, under his breath, and more to himself than to anyone else. A moment later, he looked back at Evelyn. “Yeah, well, don’t pay any attention to them, Evie. We’re just a couple hours outside of old San-An-tone, and then you can be rid of all of us.”

  Evelyn smiled. Now that she got a closer look at Ollie and his brothers, they all seemed harmless enough, though she couldn’t shake the first image she had of his eyes from her memory, the moment she had seen them over the bone wall. He may be a lighthearted guy, but she was sure if anyone came between Ollie and his family, they wouldn’t live long. Even so, she felt safe around him, like somehow he had decided she was okay, and that was good enough.

  “So, since we have some time to kill, why don’t you tell me what in the hell you’re doing hiking the borderlands by yourself.”

  Evelyn had just pulled a bottle of water out of her pack and was taking a drink when she nearly shot the water out her nose. She hadn’t even thought about what her cover story ought to be. Her mind raced as she tried to figure out what to say, then decided to stick with something resembling the truth, just not with all the detail.

  “I’m trying to find my brother. I heard he was in San Antonio, and I didn’t have anyone who wanted to come along,” she said, shrugging her shoulders and looking away as if that was all she had to say on the matter.

  “So you just went out on your own?” Ollie asked, Evelyn just catching the raised eyebrows and obviou
s look of surprise on his face out of the corner of her eye.

  “Yeah.” She shrugged her shoulders again, still not looking directly at him.

  Ollie said nothing for what seemed like an hour, and Evelyn felt his stare and surprise saturating her. It was becoming clear she had said something wrong, but she had no idea what it was, and she felt her heart start to thump in her chest. Even Tillie, who looked like she was running a fever and might melt right there in the truck bed, opened an eye and looked at Evelyn with a glint of disbelief, and then, without warning, Ollie burst into laughter.

  “Oh damn,” he said, seconds later, slapping his knee. “No offense, Evie, but you gotta be either tough, crazy, or stupid to try something like that, and I’m pretty sure you’re not stupid.”

  Evelyn wasn’t so sure. She was clearly out of her depth with Ollie. She had no idea what was going on around her. She thought she was in Texas, but a thirty-plus-mile fence made of bones, and the fact that Ollie had just called the area they were in “the borderlands,” made her realize she was completely in the dark about what had happened in the six years she had been gone.

  Evelyn smiled and gave Ollie a sideways glance. “I’m pretty sure being out here at all makes me a little bit of all three, and probably you too.”

  Ollie smiled and nodded. “That it does, Evie.” Ollie sat up straighter against the bed of the truck. The dust was kicking up behind them, and the breeze tussled their hair, but Tanner didn’t seem to be going faster than about thirty or forty miles per hour. Maybe he was worried about the truck falling apart, or trying to conserve gas, but Evelyn was happy for the slower pace.

  “You’re just lucky we found you,” he added, a little more serious look in his eyes. “Wouldn’t matter how tough you are if get yourself pinned down by a bunch of scodes or wasters.”

  A moment passed, and Evelyn watched as the bone wall continued to get further away from the road they were traveling. She could hardly see it all—or maybe she was just imagining it was still out there, and her eyes were playing tricks on her in the morning Texas desert heat.