by Tara Brown
Will licks his lips and thinks for a second. “You can't hold us up."
Jake rolls his eyes and sighs. “Let's just go.” He points into the woods.
I hold the water bottle out for one more second, but he doesn’t take me up on the offer so I turn and start to run. My leg is sore too and my stomach is empty.
When the sun is setting, we are where I hoped to be. Jake hasn’t complained and Will is starting a small fire so I take my bow and leave to find a nice quiet spot to sit and wait for something to make a sound.
The silence of the forest is alarming. I've never been in the woods here. I'm exhausted but I have to focus. We need to eat.
The crunch of a stick grabs my attention. I raise my arrow in the direction of it to see a large hare hopping over a branch and sniffing the wind. Its ears twitch. It smells me. I release the arrow, anticipating the hop it makes and the arrow slices through the neck of the rabbit. It tries to move for a second before the arrow stops it.
I wish this wasn't my life for the seconds it takes me to retrieve my arrow, but it is. I gut the hare where I have killed it. I never bring it back with all its guts. Leaving guts outside the cabin proved to be a mistake. I skin it quickly and I leave the animal's remains before heading back to the fire.
I hear the crackling of the wood when I get close. Through the woods I can see Will standing over the fire and Jake sitting on a log next to him. "So is there something between you two?” Will asks.
“I don't know. She's a tough one to get to know. We sort of kissed. It was a mistake." Those words hurt coming from Jake. I never thought his hugging me and telling me he liked me was a sort of anything. When he kissed my cheek it was huge for me and I think I hate that it wasn't huge for him.
Will looks at him and smiles. “I hear that. You remember the Lara Croft movies where Angelina Jolie was all hot and quiet, but would kill anything that moved?"
Jake laughs weakly. “Yes. Exactly. Man, give her some pouty lips and bam—Lara Croft." To me Jake was already family. Anna and Meg are my family and Jake was there too. We snuggled and I saved his life. I thought it was all more than sort of anything. And making fun of me behind my back—I thought we were friends.
My insides tremble with a weird feeling, like I’ve been betrayed. I don’t remember the movies they're talking about. I can't help but think it’s probably bad.
Will laughs and shakes his head. “But what a hellcat though, huh?"
I want to leave them there but the starvation in my stomach, and the thought of the only human friend I have had in ten years being captured, tell me I have to suck it up. At least I see them for what they are, players. Just like the ones in Granny’s books who kiss and tell.
My legs want to run so badly that I have to close my eyes and tell myself they’re just two men I don't care about. They’re just talking in the woods and we are sharing a fire because we need to. The important thing is saving Anna and that's why I’m here. I can be angry later. That's all. I grab a rock from where I'm hiding and toss it back a few yards.
"She's back.” Will speaks low and starts poking the fire. I stand and walk from the bushes. I just want to throw the stupid hare down and leave them there, but my stomach is growling and I’m exhausted. I will stay as long as it takes to eat, and then I'm sleeping in a tree. Maybe if I'm lucky, I will fall in my sleep and wake up in Heaven. Maybe Anna is already there waiting for me.
Will holds out a small sack from his backpack. “I have some potatoes and tinfoil from the camp. I could barely get anything ‘cause you were in such a hurry but this is better than nothing."
“In a hurry to save your sister.”
He winces. “We still could have stopped and grabbed supplies. We have very little.”
I feel awkward. Them calling me a hellcat, a word I don't know but have to assume is bad, is awful. Having Jake say it was a mistake to kiss my cheek all sweet like he did, is killing me. I can't look into their eyes as I walk around them to find a good stick to make a spit with.
I search the ground around the fire until I find a good branch and then strip the small twigs and leaves from it. A smile crosses my lips absently as I stare at the ground and shove the stick into the open neck, imagining it's one of them.
"You're a scary little thing."
I frown at Jake who is watching me get the hare on the spit.
"It's a compliment."
I don’t stop frowning. It doesn’t feel like a compliment.
My mind wanders through everything as I build a spit with rocks, branches, and twine from Will’s backpack of miraculous things. He has sliced the potatoes and laid them in the tinfoil. He places them high on a rock with a flat surface in the circle around the fire and then glances at me. “So what's the plan?"
"Get captured and free us both."
He laughs.
"I can do it."
He shakes his head. “I know you can. It's just funny, that’s all. You're willing to sacrifice yourself to save my sister? You just don't seem like the type."
I don't know why but that stings a little. I snap back at him, "You haven’t seen her in years—I know her better than you do. She's the first person I've met that I liked. Genuinely.” It's a dig at them both. Screw them.
He raises his eyebrows. “Fair enough.” He looks hurt.
Jake looks hurt. “What am I? Chopped liver?"
I smile. My granny used to say that if I hugged my grampy first. I hate that I'm smiling. I hate that he makes me smile so easily.
Will clears his throat. “So how will you get captured?"
I shrug. “Just act lost near the area.” I glance at Jake, who is still staring at me. His grin hasn’t left his face. I dig my stick into the dirt and draw a circle, but I hit a rock and dirt goes flying up at Jake on his stump.
It makes me laugh as he wipes his face clean and gripes, “Thanks."
Will chuckles too. “Stop being a baby."
“You did that on purpose." Jake shakes the dirt out of his hair.
I put my hands up with the stick in them. “I didn’t, I swear.” I wish I had.
Will stops smiling and chuckling and gives me a look. "I don’t think you should go in there, Em."
I dig the stick in again. “I have to.” I don’t say that I led the hunters for the others straight to her. I don’t say that it's entirely my fault. I don’t have to, I’m sure we all know it's true.
Will turns the hare on the spit slowly. The smells are starting to make my stomach growl in ways I haven’t heard since before I found the cabin.
Will looks around. “When you get captured, you need a way out.” He gets up from the fire and mutters. “Jake, turn the hare.” He goes to a tree and rips off a branch. Sitting down next to me on the log, he bends down and draws a rectangle. The heat of him makes me scoot down the log a bit as he draws some more. In each of the corners he makes small boxes. “There is a section that is for the women who are pregnant or about to be impregnated. This is probably where you'll go. Then this wing is for the younger girls who can't have babies yet. This is for the women with the babies. This is where the little girls are kept. Girls they raise to be breeders from really young now.” He moves the stick to the other side and makes a smaller box. “This is where the men are, if there are any men. Sometimes they don’t have any there.” He clears his throat nervously and draws an X in the middle but off to one side. “This is the fertility lab. This is where the lab coats, doctors, and cleaners all stay. These hallways all make a maze. When you get inside you’ll need a card and when you slide it through a slot by the door, it unlocks. When you get inside watch everything they do. Every move they make, every spot that's sort of empty, and how they open things. That's how you get back out. That is your only chance. They will have a dump somewhere near the clinic. The garbage goes out every few days. There’s a truck that picks it up."
I frown at him, but Jake asks the question burning in my mind before I can. “Dude, how do you know so much about the breede
r farms?"
Will blushes in the firelight. “I lived there for a time."
Jake raises an eyebrow. “As a cleaner or a doctor?” He laughs like he knows the answer or is making fun of something I think would be treacherous.
Will laughs. “I wish." His face reddens even more.
“Nasty, dude. Nasty." Jake shakes his head.
I think I’m lost. I stare blankly at them both. Will's face looks like it's on fire. “I was forced to, um . . . donate."
“What?” I don’t understand what they're talking about.
Jake makes an odd motion with his fist. “He had to wank his pud for the man."
I don’t know what this means either, but I nod before they explain. I have a bad feeling about it. Will watches my face and laughs again. It must have been a horrible job if he’s blushing. I don't think anything makes him embarrassed.
Jake turns the hare. “So, how many little Willys are running around?" he says it like he’s chatting about the weather but my stomach drops when I finally understand.
He has fathered children.
Judgment burns its way across my face as he shakes his head, avoiding my stare now. “I don’t know. I wasn’t exactly in on the plans."
Jake pokes the hare. “How was the life there?"
“Thinking about signing up?" Will laughs.
Jake looks up and shrugs. “Hey, if there are three square meals a day, and I get all the, um, reading material I need to deliver the goods—I'm in."
The humor falls from Will's face. He almost twitches when he shakes his head. “No material, Jakey. It's more like milking a cow and the three squares aren’t worth it."
Jake ignores the terror on his brother's face and grins from ear to ear. “Are there milk maids?"
Will nods. “Not the kind you're thinking of. Mine was a guy named Dr. Angles."
Jake gags. “Oh, nasty. Never mind."
Will looks down at the drawing again and chuckles, but I can tell he's haunted by it. “There is no human contact, Jake. It's all done by machines—the girls and the boys. If Anna is in a breeder farm, they won’t hurt her. Anyway, this section here has the surgeons’ clothes and booties. Change and climb into the garbage bin in the morning, if I recall correctly. If the garbage doesn't come, you can always run in the nurses’ clothes.”
It makes me sick, thinking about the plan. I'm not as strong as the look on my face suggests I am.
"I think this is done.” Jake pokes the hare.
I shake my head. “Always overcook wild animal."
Will nudges me with his body, almost playfully. “You sure about this?"
I nod and reach into the flames to turn the potatoes. The fire licks at my skin but I ignore it. It hurts. It's a warning of pain to come if I continue to stick my hands in the fire.
Chapter Fourteen
Crouching in the woods, gripping the branch of the tree next to me, I try to ignore the tumbling inside of me. If it weren’t for the fact that I was scared beyond functioning, I would blame the hare. It feels like food poisoning.
My feet are stuck not wanting to cross over and step onto the road. I glance at the gravel on it in front of me and then glance back at Jake and Will in the forest, hidden by the trees. Jake smiles at me like a goof. Will looks worried. His face is the one I trust. He knows what I'm about to do.
"Em, we'll wait, okay? We won't leave you,” Jake whispers loudly.
"You leave me and Anna if I'm gone longer than two weeks. They'll have us pregnant by then anyway,” I say. I'm talking to Will. I know Jake has no survival skills. He would die in the woods waiting for us. Will will leave me before the two weeks are up.
Will clenches his jaw. “You be fast, Em."
"Sneaky. Fast and sneaky. Oh—and don't get pregnant,” Jake says, making me gag as terror rips through me and the truck I’m waiting on approaches. I glance at them one last time and nod before I take a deep breath and push myself away from the tree. I run across the road and into the ditch when the truck rounds the corner.
"HALT!" someone shouts from the truck.
I run but not as fast as I can. My legs want to push it hard, but I have to keep reining them in. They want to do what they're good at—flee. But if I let my legs go, they will outrun everyone in the truck. I could outrun the truck if I had to.
I see a log on the grassy field in front of me and brace myself for what is going to come next. I half jump and feint tripping, discovering that the ground isn’t as soft as I assumed it would be. The strands of grass are filled with sticks and branches I can't see as they scrape their way across my body as I tumble.
The footsteps of the men who jumped from the truck to chase me are coming. I pretend to scramble up to run some more, but they are too close.
Huge hands rip into my arms as they throw me to the ground and pin my face into the rough grass and one man fondles my entire body. His hands run over my legs and in between my legs, muttering, “Stay calm and we won't hurt you. We’re just looking for weapons." They don't find any. I have left them all with Jake, even my bow.
A tremble roars through me as the fear takes me.
"She's clean.”
"She looks freaked, man. Cuff her."
A knee digs into my back, making me cry out as cold metal grips my wrists. I'm lifted off the ground by my elbows which bends my arms at painful angles. I want to fight and my body is screaming to defend itself. I breathe heavily as tears stream from my face. They aren’t fearful tears, they are my rage leaking from me. When I glance down, trying to hide the drops of blood, I see they are starting to make shapes on my chest. I can’t help but stare at the blood shapes, forcing myself to focus on them and be still.
"She's pretty at least." One of them lifts my face roughly and I see them for the first time. One man is incredibly tall. He must be a foot taller than me. He looks like a man my father was friends with named Serge who ran an ammunition and hunting-supply place, before. But what are the odds I would know the man about to torture me?
He looks at me and narrows his eyes for a moment, convincing me even more that it is Serge.
The other man grabs my arm and pulls me through the grass. He's closer to my height and has the fieriest red hair I've ever seen. He grins at me. “I hope you have diabetes or something."
What a terrible thing to say. I frown at him before looking back at the man I'm almost positive is Serge. He looks at me and nods. “She's going to be healthy. You can tell."
The redhead grins. “Maybe I can find a way to fall on her before we drop her off."
The Serge guy grips my other arm and drags me closer to him. “No. You leave her alone."
“Fine, if you want her, that’s cool. Jesus, like I care. There are plenty of ladies in the back of the truck. She has no boobs anyway." The redhead looks confused.
My chest is heaving with panicked breath and my face is stinging where the blood is dripping from. I sniffle the blood in my nose as Serge takes a cloth from his belt and wipes my face. He whispers, “Lenny. You knew Lenny?"
I glance into his green eyes and see the panic and recognition. I nod. Lenny was my father. He is Serge.
"Em?" Of course he recalls my name. Dad bought my first camouflage from him. He laughed at my dad for outfitting me at the tender age of four. He hasn’t seen me since I was nine. "You look just like him."
I always thought I looked like my mother.
Serge leans in. “Go with what I say, okay?" I nod again but can’t help glancing nervously at the redhead.
The truck is a huge delivery truck, like the ones from before but this one is more rusted and pieced back together with boards. Men stand outside of it with guns and disturbing grins. When they see me the catcalling starts.
"Nice find, boys.”
"Look at the arse on her."
"Sweet God."
Serge almost rips my arm off as he pulls me into him. “She's a fighter. I caught her—I get first dibs."
The other guys laugh. “Dirty bastar
d. You're old enough to be her daddy.” One of the men opening the door winks at me as he laughs, making my stomach twist and turn.
I know—no, I hope—Serge is saying all those things to protect me, but I don’t know what he's been doing for the last ten years beyond abducting girls. Maybe he likes his job. He did chase me down.
The redhead leans in. “She smells bad, Serge.” Serge takes my cuffs off as the back door is swung open and I'm pushed toward the opening. I glance back at the woods once and climb inside of the truck. I'm thrown forward. Something jabs between my legs as my face strikes the wooden bottom of the truck. I growl back at the redhead grabbing at my thighs and kick wildly before I can stop myself. My boot lands on his nose making a crunch as he is thrown back. He screams. Serge sees what I've done and closes the door. I don’t notice the other people in the truck. I just see the light leaving me as a scream tears through the air.
"She broke my damned nose!” People pound on the door and muffled screams fill the air around us. I can't make out all of what they’re saying, but it sounds like the redhead should be allowed to break my nose as revenge. The other men are calming him down.
In the dark cold air of the truck, I notice there are sounds. It’s frightened breath and anxiety slipping around in the blackness. I press my sore hands into the wooden floor and push myself up onto my knees. I put a hand out in the dark and feel nothing.
A woman whispers into the darkness, “Sit against the wall before we start moving, girl."
I crawl my aching body to the wall of the truck and sit and press my back against it.
In the dark reality fills the small space I am trapped in.
In flashes, I remember it.
The crystal clear image of my hands pressed against the gun.
The sound of Anna crying outside my door.
The feel of the vibration from her pounding in her fit and her words begging me to kill her.
The fear in my heart that everything will be different if I open the door. The look in Leo's eyes.
I miss Leo.
Will I ever see him again?