by Belle Harper
He was sitting closer to me now, our bodies just relaxed with the casual conversation. I smiled up at him and his eyes twinkled with his.
“So, did you have a wife or someone before… you know everything?” I asked. His smile dropped slightly, and he shook his head no.
“I was waiting you know… for that right time. That special someone to settle down with. But she never came and then everything happened and I took that as a sign.” He shrugged and looked down at his feet, sliding them back and forth through the dirt. I bent over and picked up a stone, rolling it between my thumb and finger.
“A sign?” I prodded, wanting to know more of what he meant. He turned to look at me.
“You know a sign, that it’s not in the cards for you. Love and family. The Flare was a sign that I was supposed to be alone. Well that’s what I have thought for the last fourteen years.” He shrugged at his word as if they mean nothing.
I grabbed his forearm and gave it a small squeeze. He glanced down to my hand, I felt nervous suddenly and pulled away. He reached for my hand and gently held it as he brought it back to his forearm and rested it there, his large hand warm on top of mine.
“Nova you are amazing, and so strong. And the guys are all so lucky to have you, and you them. I’m sorry I just came barging into your life so suddenly and I know it’s only been a couple of days. But I would love to go on your journey with you. And stay with you all. If you are okay with that?”
His voice was deep and I could hear the vulnerability in there. He had been so honest and giving to all of us. I wanted him to come to Eden. He needed us as much as we needed him. He had done so much for us already, we could never had gotten this far without him. I didn’t know how to say yes without talking to the guys first, so instead I rested my head on his shoulder and watched the moon rising towards its apex in the nights sky.
Then Ryker surprised me and started singing softly, of a man who had found love, but she didn’t love him back. I loved the timbre of his voice. I felt the song through my body. Seeping in and the emotions that went with it gave me goosebumps. Ryker was an amazing singer; he hummed the tune when there were no words.
This was perfect right here in this moment, so real. I almost forgot Ezra was so close. Yeah, Ezra. He had said Ryker could be my dad, but I didn’t see that when I looked at him. No, I was attracted to him, and who he was as a person. He had a neatly trimmed beard of salt and pepper which matched his hair. His tattoos covered his arms and he had one on his neck, but I had not seen any other ones on his body yet. Maybe when he takes his top off next I will have a look. My eyes closed as I listened to him humming other tunes.
“Hey.”
I heard the shout from where Ezra was. I opened my eyes and saw a man in a red balaclava, holding a gun to his head. My heart dropped when I saw more men wearing the same red over their faces behind him. Ryker grabbed my arm, pulled me to my feet and started running, hauling me in front of him. The sound of a gun rang out in my ears.
“No!” I screamed as I turned and dropped to my knees. Ezra was still standing there with the gun pointed against his head. No. Stop. I felt a tugging at my side trying to get me up. Ryker.
“Run, Nova,” Ryker yelled. He was holding his arm and I could see the dark red of his blood dripping down his tattoos and onto the dirt beside me. Everything was in slow motion, I felt like time was standing still. The sounds were filtered to a low hum as I watched Ezra fighting against the man with the gun who then hit Ezra on the head. He fell hard. I struggled to steady myself as my hearing returned to normal, my voice hoarse from the screams emitting from me. Trying to get up on shaky legs, my body was not responding to what was happening. I started running like Ryker kept chanting for me to do. I turned to see the men in red running after me, and they were too fast. Too many. They stomped on Ryker’s arm and he let out a loud wail of pain.
Tears streamed down my face as I turned back to see where I could go, somewhere to hide. Arms ripped at me as one of the masked men grabbed me from behind and swung me around. I gave him everything I had—I kicked and screamed and used my nails until my fingers bled. But it was no use. There were too many of them. They all cheered and whooped. And when they put a hood over my head, I lost it. The panic had set in as they dragged me away before shoving me into a small cage. My body shaking in fear, I curled into a ball and took the hood off my head. I sobbed as they drove away.
The Red Raiders had taken me.
After a while, the vehicle I was in slowed down, and I could hear a lot of chatter between the Red Raiders. A flashlight shined into the small cage I was in. I heard them talking about me. I shivered at the thought of what they were going to do. I kept thinking why? Why now did this happen?
“Put her in the other cages. Get ready for the next city. No one touches her yet. We can get more for a pretty prize like that.” The sound of metal as they unlocked the cage had me scrambling to the other end away from them. Fuck you, assholes! I screamed in my head. I kicked as soon as they reached in to grab me. It was tight effort, but I still managed to get him hard.
“Fucking bitch,” he yelled as he yanked on my foot until I tumbled out onto the dirt. I hit my head on the way down and groaned. I was disorientated and my head hurt. The hood they had shoved over my head fell beside me. Two sets of Raiders grabbed me and dragged me to what looked to be a semi-truck stacked two high and side by side with cages. They were each full of dark mounds. What? Oh, my God. They were people. I tried to see them better, but they were all huddled near each other. The door of one was unlocked and I was shoved in. They taunted me a bit before banging on a few other cages. I saw the people in there jump, there was a few men mixed in but mostly females. They closed a tarp over the top and everything went black.
Shit.
Fuck.
Once it was quiet outside, I whispered, “Hello,” but no one answered. I guessed this was where the hope for our future ended. Ezra, Colton, and Noah. Even Ryker. I wanted them back. I needed them. I broke down and sobbed until my throat was raw and I couldn’t cry anymore. They didn’t even know where I was. I didn’t know where I was.
I woke to voices. My eyes strained in the early morning light filtering through the tarp that covered the cages. I looked down and saw my cage was on top of another. There was a tiny person in a ball huddled to one corner. I saw most the caged people huddled closer to the end of their cage, away from the door. So, I did the same. The tarp lifted and the bright light of the day shone in, it was almost blinding as I squinted to see some figures approached. Was that a… man? Oh my god they were dragging a very thin man toward us. His head hung down with a mop of jet-black wavy hair. The Raiders chuckled as they got closer.
“We are using your cage for a new one.” The one on the left pushed the man to the ground. He held his hands out as he hit hard. I heard him moan when he curled up in a ball. Trying to protect himself from the Raiders.
My throat was dry. I wanted to scream for them to stop. But that would only draw their attention to me. There was nothing I could do to stop them. Everyone around me was in cages, locked up there was no one to help him. Eventually the guard picked him up and carried him toward… me. My eyes widened as they started unlocking my door. Panic set in and I couldn’t hold my bladder anymore. I could feel it running between my legs and down onto the person below me. I was frozen, my body wouldn’t move as my heart raced, yet I couldn’t breathe.
“It’s not like he would know what to do with a woman anyway,” one said, chuckling. They laughed as they shoved him in toward me. He groaned as he hit the cage floor. And I didn’t breathe until they locked it up and left.
He looked up at me through the hair hanging over his face. His dark eyes pinned me. He blinked, breaking our stare, and looked down to his hands where blood pooled around freshly opened wounds. He clenched them into fists and curled in on himself again.
“Hey, are you okay?” I whispered to him. His body tensed at my words but didn’t speak. The sound of the se
mi starting up had me looking around at all the cages. The semi-truck was huge, and held around twenty cages from what I counted, filled with men and women. The tarps were placed back on us, after a round of taunting by the Raiders. And we started moving forward at a fast pace. How did they power this thing? Gas? We were going too fast for any of my guys to find me. Fuck.
“Hi,” the girl beside me whispered. Her hair was short but white just like mine. I was shocked she was talking to me after not answering me last night when I called out. “I’m Harlow.”
She was wearing what looked to be a dress, or once was a dress. It was dirty and ripped. She looked well fed though, not like the man in my cage. He was so thin I could see all his ribs and spine. He didn’t have anything on but dirty sweatpants. “I’m Nova.”
“If you need to use the toilet, you can call a Raider next time. Or you can use the door end of your cage like the rest of us do.” A voice came from below. The body under me untucked itself and blue eyes looked back at me. The same blue as Ezra’s eye. Oh, Ezra. My eyes pricked with tears and a few spilled loose. My eyes were already burning from the night of crying—what was a few more tears over my Ezra. I apologized. I felt terrible that I had peed on her.
“Kento?” the woman, Harlow, called to the man in my cage. “Kento, show me,” she said in such a soothing way. He glanced over to her and shuffled his body, holding his hands out to her. She started whispering things to him and I tried not to listen. But it was hard not to. She was telling him he was strong and brave. And that one day he would be free. He nodded and looked at me, his skin wet with sweat now. He didn’t look well at all. His face was ashen and sunken in. The skin around his left eye was almost green in color from a bruise. Oh, my God, what have they done to this man? This beautiful broken soul.
I reached out to him and he jumped back, hitting his back against the cage. Shit.
“Don’t touch him,” Harlow practically yelled. “Don’t,” she mouthed again.
My eyes went back on Kento, and I held my hands up. “I’m sorry, I wanted to help clean your hands. There is gravel in your wounds,” I tried explaining so they could both hear me. A few others in cages were all talking among each other. Men and woman alike. There were about thirty people altogether, some doubled up in cages like Kento and me. Wow. So many people. We needed to get out of here. I knew the guys were looking for me, but I was worried I would never find them again. How would they find me now? Even if I escaped. All I knew was Eden was north. We didn’t have a meeting point in case we got separated. I wouldn’t know where to meet them or where they would be.
Slowly, Kento sat. The cage was high enough to sit up without crouching over. He looked down at his hands and then over to me. He held his hands in fists but slowly uncurled them and reached them towards me. I was hesitant at first. I didn’t want to scare him. So, I looked to Harlow and she nodded for me to go ahead.
“Nova will take care of you, Kento,” she said in a calming voice to soothe him. I used the same tone with my voice and introduced myself.
When I touched his hand, he didn’t move. He looked away the whole time, not making any eye contact with me at all as I tried to pull out stones and wipe the dirt with my shirt. I didn’t care if I was getting blood on me. This man needed someone to help him. My shirt was covered in dirt and my own urine by now anyway. A bit of blood on it wouldn’t make any difference. Then I saw little dark dots, a splatter of brown on my top. Then remembered Ryker, he was shot. His blood was on me. A reminder of what these Raiders had done to him. I calmed myself and took a deep breath, I didn’t want to scare Kento.
“Kento, that’s a nice name.” I was unsure what to say and that was the first thing that came to mind. I hummed a tune to him when he didn’t answer, the same one Ryker had hummed to me last night. Then finally he looked over at me then with those dark eyes.
“Thank you,” he all but whispered to me. I gave him a small smile. I tried for happy, but I knew it wasn’t coming across as that.
“My father’s name,” he then said. And Harlow looked over to us and gently smiled.
“Kento’s father was Japanese, and what does you name mean Kento?” Harlow asked, I could see her trying to keep him talking but he didn’t answer her. The jolting from the road was making it hard to sit still and the metal bars on the cage floor dug into every part of my body. But I tried my best not to touch Kento more than needed.
“We eat soon. I will bring you back water and food okay?” she told him. And he dropped his gaze to his hands and curled them back into fists as he lay down and closed his eyes.
35
Ezra
Something cold and wet hit me and I gasped for air. My head throbbed as I jolted upright, my eyes scanning around me. My eyes focused in the dark and Colton and Noah were looking down at me. I couldn’t understand what they were saying over the ringing in my ears. “Fuck,” I groaned. “Stop.” I held my head as everything spun, and I heaved to the side of me. I hadn’t been sick in so long. My body felt like hell.
“Where is she?” Colton grabbed me before I lay down again. “Where is Nova?” The panic in his voice had me recalling what had happened. My heart raced. Nova.
I choked out “Red Raiders” as they cussed and yelled. I wanted to do all those things, but all I could do was curl in on myself and try not be sick again. I needed to be strong, I needed to get up but my head… Everything spun and I was sick again.
“Stop, this isn’t helping,” Noah yelled at to Colton.
I knew he was right. Every minute we stayed here meant Nova was with them longer. I cringed, I didn’t want to think about what they were doing to her. Or how frightened she must be.
“Ryker, is he dead?” I looked over to where I’d last seen him lying in the dirt screaming at Nova to run, but it was so dark I couldn’t see anything. They both stopped and looked over. Noah had a flashlight and pointed the light over there. Nothing. Holy shit.
“They shot him. He was running with Nova and they shot him.” I shook. I didn’t trust the guy but he still didn’t deserve to be shot and killed this way.
“Do you think he moved? Like crawled away?” Colton asked seriously as he went over to the area, looking around. When they didn’t find anything, I shuddered. Maybe they took him? Maybe Nova had him at least. I knew he would protect her. Of that I could trust him. After I saw him with her, before those fuckers came. I knew he had her best interests. Even if I didn’t like how close they had been getting.
“Fuck,” I heard Noah say beside me. He held up the book Nova was reading. She had that with her when she was been running. How was it next to me? When he showed me the rabbit foot key-chain, I understood what it meant. Ryker had left the keys there for us, right next to me. He was alive. But where was he then?
“Quick, look to see if he left anymore clues,” I yelled to the guys. The light from the flashlight had been thrown around where I was, but nothing else looked different or out of place. Shit.
“We have a few hours before daylight. Let’s get packed up and hopefully the Jeep will be juiced enough to start now.”
Hurriedly we packed the tent up, grabbed Ryker’s stuff, and piled it into the Jeep. As we started, the headlights turned on, and Colton hissed under his breath. In front of us was a man. He was semi-hidden in the bushes. “I’m gonna fucking kill him,” Colton screamed as he ripped the car door open and chased after him. Noah shouted behind me to stop, but I was just as enraged as Colton. The guy stood up with his hands raised in the air as I ran past Colt and hit him square in the nose, and he dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes. I kicked him as Noah grabbed me and held me back.
“Did you take her you fucking asshole, are you a Raider?” Colton yelled.
He shook his head. “The Red Raiders tried to get into our town yesterday. I thought they had moved on. I didn’t know they were still around.”
“Why did you follow us Kade?” Noah asked this time. He was a lot calmer. Kade?
The guy stood up
, blood running out of his nose as he tried to hold it. It was broken, I could feel that on my knuckles. I hit him hard.
“I wanted to see that you really had a woman with you.”
I froze. He knew we had a woman with us. I turned to Noah and growled. He didn’t look at me. Colt grabbed my shoulder and looked at me. “Calm down.” He commanded in that voice he does. I held my throbbing head and turned my anger elsewhere.
Colt spent five minutes yelling and asking questions, the guy, Kade, said he believed the Red Raiders where going toward Eagle point. And that we should head in that direction. But only if we took him with us, then he would tell us where Eagle Point was. Because of course we couldn’t find it on the map in the Jeep. Which set Colton off for another few minutes.
“Fuck it, he comes. We are wasting time. We need to find Nova now.” I made my way over to the Jeep and sat in the front passenger seat.
Eventually Colton relented and Kade jumped into the back with Noah. I closed my eyes to settle my stomach as we very slowly headed the way Kade directed. Hoping and praying we would get to her before it was too late.
My love.
My Nova.
36
Nova
We had travelled for a while before the vehicle slowed down and stopped. I noticed there were other vehicles with us, and a couple of motorcycles, which came past us every so often. Maybe checking that we all were still there, not that they could see us through the tarp. When some of the Raiders pulled the tarps back I saw that we pulled into what looked like an old motel. I froze. Kento looked up and glanced around to where we were.
“Fuck this shit,” Harlow muttered beside me. I looked over to her, and she scooted to the back of her cage, so I did the same. Everyone around me started to move to the middle, where the cages touch on the other side. I only noticed a woman behind me when she hit the back of my cage trying to put as much distance between the door and herself. Kento looked over to me and moved a little closer. But he was still really close to the door.