Greenhaus:Storm

by Reckelhoff, Bryan

  She didn’t care if these were their real names. Or that they were old and possibly from the Inside. None of that mattered. Ella instantly fell in love with the hostages, despite knowing next to nothing about them or where they came from. The one thing besides their names she knew about them… was enough. This one thing made her heart beat funny again and made her cease the interrogation. This thing was special, a power no one else in the camp possessed, a power greater than all the Beasts the whole world over.

  Chapter 21 (Jacob Niles)

  “Focus, Sylvia, focus,” he joked, as he loomed over her, pointing and hopping back and forth all the while.

  “I guess I deserve that,” Sylvia replied as she got up and dusted off. “We should get back. You need a comprehensive tour of Newer Orleans.”

  After putting on their masks and hopping aboard the ATV, Sylvia reminded Jacob, “Once we get back, we don’t mention anything about any of this to anyone. The Oasis doesn’t exist as far as others are concerned. Only the Whisperers know of this place, no one else. We aim to keep it that way.”

  “I’m not saying anything when we get back. I’ve learned my lesson,” Jacob quipped.

  “Ah, you are a fast learner after all, Jacob,” retorted Sylvia as they both chuckled.

  Sylvia’s mood had switched back and forth and then back again on him. Jacob wasn’t sure what was real and what was fake. “Can I ask you something?”

  “Sure, fire away,” responded Sylvia.

  “It’s about earlier, ya know, is any of that real?” he asked the vague question before clarifying what he meant. “When you placed my hand on your breast, the flirty eyes, the soft touches, is any of that real, or is it all ‘part of the job’?” He was hesitant to ask, but the question burned at him.

  “Both. It was meant to distract you, to test you, but also because I like you. Well, at least, I think you’re kinda handsome. Your shyness is cute, too. See, the storyline written by the higher ups says we have to be together until you are trained, but it doesn’t say anything about what happens after. As long as we are seen together, that’s all that matters. We can be a happy couple, a fighting couple, they don’t care. And the last two recruits I trained, never even got as far as you did. I was a complete bitch from the jump, so consider yourself lucky, mister.”

  “So how far does the storyline take us?” he asked, as they trudged through the mud.

  “Until you are trained, Jacob. I already told you that, try a lil’ harder to keep pace.”

  Jacob’s heart sank. He immediately thought of ways to slow his training, to spend more time with Sylvia, even though he knew that was not where his head should be. He was taken aback by her beauty, but it was her dedication to the cause that drew him to her more than anything. He thought they would make a great power couple, one that could lead the Whisperers into its next chapter.

  “But,” she continued, “after the training is over, we get to write the story.” She grabbed his hand and placed it over hers on the handlebar.

  “Any chance of a fairytale ending?” he asked, not in any way joking. “A ‘happily ever after tale’ like in the saved texts?”

  “Well, Jacob, how we write our ending is up to us. If you play your gredits right, you might get your wish,” Sylvia said, batting her eyelashes as she turned around to look at him.

  Jacob liked the sound of that. Either she knew how to play her part perfectly and had him completely fooled, or her feelings were genuine and he could be looking at a life similar to his parents’. He prayed to Mother Earth that the latter and not the former was true. He thought this could be the beginning of something special. He had no experience with courtship rituals, but he imagined they started something like this.

  Jacob’s top priority was not whether Sylvia’s feelings were true. Either way, he did not want to be slammed again, or worse, so he tried his best to focus on their mission and asked an off-topic question. “Not to change the subject, but do we have any idea what my father found, or maybe even where he found it?”

  “No, but it wasn’t long after he disappeared that others came up missing too. It put everyone else in his inner circle on high alert, especially Jasper. He went into a shell and forced the Whisperers to go temporarily underground. Those that remained after the net was dragged haven’t relaxed one bit ever since.”

  “What was Jasper’s role in all of this?” Jacob wondered aloud.

  “Jasper was top dog, Chief Whisperer, if you will,” Sylvia informed him. “Has been since your father was taken from us. He took what your father started and made us what we are today. He personally recruited almost every member,” she informed him. “On the beams, he used sign language daily, to pass and receive messages to those around him, silently planning our next step.”

  “No,” Jacob protested. “That can’t be. He was quiet. I worked with him almost every day, and I never saw him communicating with anyone, verbally or otherwise.”

  “That’s because you didn’t know what you were looking for is my guess,” Sylvia told him. “The signs are not going to be obvious or flagrant. We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves or make the signals easy to intercept or decipher.”

  “So what you are telling me is that this secret organization was started by two regular ole working men, two friends….”

  She put on the brakes, causing them to fall forward ever so slightly, the mud slurping all around the tires. After swinging her right leg over the handlebars and resting it next to her left, she turned her body and sat mask to mask with Jacob. “So wait, you don’t really know the truth, do you?”

  “The truth about what?” he replied with a furrowed brow.

  “I heard you refer to him as your dad’s friend on the Inside, but I thought you knew that was a cover,” Sylvia said.

  “A cover? Now I’m all confused again.” Jacob brought his hands to the sides of his head, a sign of his frustration.

  “I said it before and I will say it again, Jacob Niles, you have a lot to learn,” Sylvia repeated the line he had already heard several times that day. “I suppose you will eventually learn the truth, so I might as well just tell you.”

  The slight pause was like an eternity to Jacob, eager to know the secret.

  “Jacob, Jasper and your father weren’t just friends,” she stopped and took a deep breath. “They were brothers. I’m surprised you never made the connection. It must have been killing him not to tell you all these years.”

  Chapter 22 (Ella Storm)

  Ella’s camp had someone that could read. “Unbind the hands of these men, they are our guests,” Ella commanded. “And get them some masks!” Then she turned to the duo, softening her tone with them and offering her apologies. “Sorry about the hostility, but we can’t be too careful. We had an internal ambush that almost wiped out the camp a while back.” Then she barked more orders to those in the vicinity. “Bring Niles and Jordan to my tent, and when I am finished with them, see that they are given a proper meal befitting guests, not hostages. And throw a couple extra cots in the Elder tent.” Captives a week ago might not have been so lucky.

  Ella returned to the tent and waited for Niles and Jordan. They can read. They can read! She kept her calm, but inwardly Ella wanted to explode. Her excitement was tempered by one recurring question: Do I really want to know what the letter says or is it a stone best left unturned?

  Finding out what the letter said could help answer the many questions that floated around her head. She might learn why the Elders of all five camps died. A part of her was dying to know what the letter said, but considering what happened to those in possession of it before her, Ella wasn’t sure the questions needed to be answered.

  “Elder Storm,” a soft voice called from outside the tent.

  “Yes?” Ella answered.

  “It’s Ren. I have Niles and Jordan,” the voice informed her.

  “Enter,” said Ella as she rushed over to pull the flap of the tent open. She scanned Ren, observing the flame down the mid
dle of her mask, flanked on one side by two crossed icicles and three water waves on the other, meaning that like Ella, Ren had been part of many camps. Because faces were hidden behind masks, these distinct marks were the best way for Ella to identify everyone. She recognized Ren as the young spotter that led her the morning of her first day as Elder. Her marks and her jade green eyes were both hard to forget.

  “Zac said we should blindfold them, so they couldn’t see the way, just in case,” explained Ren as she removed the folds of cloth from the masks.

  “Thank you Ren, I can handle it from here,” Ella told the ex-Fire camper. “See to it that the guards let no one through, I mean no one,” Ella commanded.

  After Ren left, Ella brightened the dimly lit tent, attaching copper clamps to a charged battery, causing a ring of white lamps to flash light throughout the tent. Niles, Jordan, and Ella simultaneously shielded their eyes from the sudden influx of light. After everyone’s eyes adjusted, Ella pulled the envelope from her backpack, opened the clasp, and removed a crumpled and creased piece of paper. A single sheet of paper wielding power that could potentially alter the future of many things, both in her world and in the world of those behind the glass. She held it close to her heart and thought about putting it back into her sack. She had been silently wavering over her decision, and felt she owed it to everyone in the camp to weigh as much evidence as possible before making her next move.

  “Let’s cut right to it,” she started. “There is something very important on this piece of paper,” she explained, reluctantly sliding the paper to Niles. “Something that has already caused much trouble in this camp, almost destroying it. You have to promise that its contents will not leave the confines of this tent.”

  Niles nodded as his eyes darted back and forth across the page. Ella stared intently, trying to read his gut reaction to the letter, a tough task when the face is hidden by a mask. His eyes were all she could see, and they offered no clues, no involuntary, uncontrollable tics like the mouth and rest of the face might. Niles finished the letter and gave it to Jordan. Niles stayed quiet. Ella assumed him to be deep in thought, searching for some distant memory, tucked away in a corner of his mind that only a younger version of him had access to.

  “Niles, what is it?” asked Ella.

  “The letter triggered something, but I’m not sure if it’s real; everything is so foggy, my memory so clouded,” he answered. “Not sure if it’s a memory or a dream; roaming so long can have that effect on someone.”

  “How long have you been roaming?” Ella questioned.

  “It’s hard to say. It was awhile before I even started to think about counting days. I had roamed for a time when I found the Oasis. It gave me hope, a reason to track things like time. I lived there for years, able to stay hidden until I was chased away, and then roamed until I found a place even better. Been roaming ever since, waiting for the end to come. I saw a lot of others around me fall, but I’m still hangin’ on.”

  Hope. That is just what I need right now, some hope. Because no matter what move I make next, the end result leaves us with none.

  “Well, you won’t be for long if you go without a mask around here. How were you able to breathe without one?”

  “Down south I didn’t need one, but the air got heavier and harder to breathe up here,” he answered, still not fully engaged with Ella. “But when you get to be my age, things like labored breathing seem normal, so I just thought I was getting tired.”

  Just how do you get to be so old?” was Ella’s next question. “There isn’t anyone who appears to be older than half your age in this camp.”

  “By livin’.” It was the perfect reply, followed by another golden nugget, “Or more specifically, by not dyin’.”

  Simple, yet to the point. “Where is this Oasis?”

  “I forgot. I can’t remember much these days, but like I told the guys that brought us here, this was the wrong way. He just wouldn’t listen.”

  Not the answer I was looking for. “Tell me more about this place.” She wanted something, anything that could be an alternative to an attack on Glass City. Fishing for hope in a sea of hopelessness, and his answer only depressed her even more.

  “It’s beautiful, lots of trees. Tall green trees. And the ocean comes up all around it sometimes, and when it recedes, it leaves behind pools of water, full of life,” Niles explained as Jordan finished reading the letter.

  Ramblings of an insane man. Roaming for so long had blurred the lines between fantasy and reality, between truths and his dreams. Ella had seen that place too, on the rare night the rage didn’t control her dreams.

  Jordan placed the letter on the table. “Well, Elder Storm,” he said, “this letter could be very dangerous if the wrong people got ahold of it.”

  “What’s it say? Read it to me,” she insisted.

  Jordan replied, “I will, but first let me ask you a question. How bad do you really want to attack them?”

  “So bad it hurts,” she lied through gritted teeth, unsure if she could trust them with the truth.

  “Then maybe this letter is best unread,” Jordan responded.

  “No, I want to know. I need to know what it says. So many have already died because of it,” she pleaded, twisting one of her braids around her finger.

  “And if I do read it, I have a terrible feeling even more will die,” Niles said. “But if you insist, I will read it.”

  “I do.”

  Niles took the letter from Jordan and began to read, squinting his eyes as he did so, causing his crow’s feet to reveal themselves and other wrinkles in his face to deepen.

  “It’s from the Department of the Rangers,” he began, pointing to the heading of the page.

  “To our friends on the Outside,” the greeting in the letter stated. “We are sure you see our newest addition, Annex 23, being built, as we have spotted your members spying on it from the nearby hills. Once the annex is finished and enclosed by the dome currently being built, construction will begin on the innards. Upon its completion, it is my pleasure to inform you that you will be recruited to join us on the Inside. You will be given all the training and time necessary to acclimate to this newer, better way of life. All the amenities we enjoy, you will have too. Representatives from the Department of the Rangers will be sent to collect recruits when the project is finished. Until then we ask for your continued peaceful coexistence.

  Peacefully yours,

  Marvin Law

  Commissioner of New St. Louis”

  Arrogantly written, assuming we’d all want their lives, but nothing less is to be expected from the Inside. Ella knew not all would go along with this, so she decided not to tell the camp and avoid the potential bloodshed it could cause. “Thank you, and I hope you will both be discrete. If this information got out, like you said, many lives could be lost.”

  Ella didn’t trust anyone completely, especially those on the Inside. She remained skeptical of the amount of truth the letter contained, but was also at the mercy of the men before her. She had no way of proving whether the letter actually said what they claimed, or if they just made it all up.

  Though she still felt conflicted, the part of her that wanted to attack continued to shrink as more information poured in. The letter, if read correctly, had to be the reason why the Elders before her didn’t attack.

  “I have a hard time remembering anything these days, so forgetting something shouldn’t be a problem for me,” said Niles, adding a slight chuckle.

  “Good, and what about you, Jordan?” Ella asked the more stubborn one of the pair. “Can I trust you to keep a lid on it?”

  “I am a man of few words,” replied Jordan. “My lips are sealed.”

  “Good, well… the guards will set up your sleeping arrangements once the cots arrive. You will be staying in this tent with me, behind that partition. It’s more privacy than most get. Go take a tour of the fortress after your meal. It isn’t much, but it’s all we have until our collectors come back. I
have some thinking to do and need to be alone.”

  “Thank you for your kindness and hospitality,” replied Niles as they stood and shuffled their tired bodies toward the exit.

  “Psst, hey Niles,” whispered Ella, stopping him before he could exit. “Suppose I decide not to attack the Glass City. If we took one of these vehicles and enough fuel, do you think you could find this Oasis you speak of?” she asked, knowing full well that no such place actually existed.

  “I suppose so,” he answered. “The funny thing about the mind is that it’s just as easy to remember something as it is to forget it.” He closed the flap and left Ella alone as she thought about her next move, more complicated now than it was just a few minutes ago.

  Chapter 23 (Jacob Niles)

  All those years, Jasper sat silently at work, never uttering a word about any of this to me. “It must have been killing him not to tell you all these years,” Jacob heard Sylvia say over and over in his head. And the minute he started talking, it literally did kill him. Why did he start blabbering on anyway? He knew the rules. I guess we all have limits to our sanity.

  “Jacob, are you ok?” asked a concerned Sylvia.

  “Uh-huh.” Anyone with a set of ears or eyes could tell he was lying. His tone and posture betrayed his words. His head and shoulders slumped and he forced his next response, “It’s just a lot to process is all. Can we get back to the ‘Haus please?” Jacob believed the stunning news was just the tip of the iceberg. What else have I been lied to about?

  “Sure no problem,” she answered. “I’m sorry for upsetting you, but I just thought you should know the truth. I want to always be honest with you, just in case there is an ending to the storyline, one that we write ourselves.”

  That brightened his mood a bit, though a part of him still felt it was an act. Confused and depressed as he was, Sylvia knew exactly what to say to cheer him up, like she was trained specifically for that task.