The nephew coughed blood, clawed at the arrow.
Sera tried to rise but a firm grip held her in place. She closed her eyes. This couldn't be happening.
"You shouldn't have gone off to have your fun." Titan grinned. "The raiders couldn't resist."
The nephew sagged and the arrow's shaft snapped under his weight.
Titan tucked the broken piece into his belt. "Your daddy should have shared that bitch dame of yours. But no, he had to hoard his tribute, no matter how many times I offered to trade."
She pressed against her rescuer’s body as Titan stomped closer. He couldn't see them, could he?
"Now, I'll have the bitch and her daughters too." Titan paused by the dead girl and stroked her hair. Pulling a long thin knife from his shirt, he scalped the girl in a few long swipes. "I can use a new shirt."
OhGodOhGodOhGod. They wore people's hair.
Tucking the trophy into the sack at his waist, he hefted first one corpse onto his shoulder then the other. Humming, Titan marched from the clearing.
Her rescuer hauled her to her feet and pulled her into the forest. "Come on."
Sera stumbled after him. This had to be a nightmare. Kids didn't kill kids; uncles didn't stab nephews in the throat and wear people's scalps.
He shook her. "Pick up the pace. If those 'Viders catch us, they're not going to care if you're a raider or not. You will die slowly. Horribly."
Right. She boxed up the images in her mind, tucked them away into a dark corner and slapped 'do not open until forever' stickers on it.
Then she ran.
Chapter 10
The woman must have lightning in her veins. Pain plated Harlan’s ribs as he panted for breath. He pumped his arms and legs faster, closing the distance between them. Pine needles and grass deadened their footfalls. It was good she could run fast. Hurdling a bush, he landed on a rock. His ankle twisted and the abuse blazed a trail up his calve and thigh muscle.
Unfortunately, she was circling back toward the ‘Viders.
Heading into a ravine, he launched off the side. His arms wrapped around her chest. As they fell, he turned his body to take the brunt of the landing. Jagged rocks dug into his back. The impact knocked the air from him, and stars danced in his peripheral vision.
She jabbed her elbow into his gut. Twice. Three quick kicks to his shins followed.
Dammit! Didn’t she have enough sense to figure out he was the good guy here? He sucked in a breath, wrapped his legs around her before she went crazy-mule on him again then rolled over, pinning her beneath him.
She squirmed then clutched his finger and tried to pull it off his hand.
“Stop!”
Ignoring him, she attempted to bend his finger backward.
God damn it! He jerked free before pressing his forearm to her throat then squeezed. “Do you want to die?”
She stiffened under him and stopped struggling.
That was better. He eased up a little. But just a little. She’d try to get away as soon as she saw an opportunity. It was an admirable quality——one that would take her far. One that he could use in his attacks on the ‘Viders. Too bad Sera was a woman and easily overpowered. Her skin was soft as if she hadn’t toiled in the sun, and her hands... There wasn’t a callus in sight.
She cleared her throat. “If you plan to turn me over to those bald-headed barbarians, you should just kill me now. Because I will kill you at the first opportunity should you try.”
Harlan snorted. That and a knife shoved against his throat might make him a little leery. “I’m Harlan Westminster. Tribute liberator and raider.”
She glared at him. “I don’t feel liberated now. Nor did I feel free when you tied me up and threatened to torture me.”
That was the thanks he got? He had saved her from a ‘Vider. “And if I was gonna cut you up for information, I would have done it instead of just yakking about it.”
His gut had told him she was different. But how and in which way, he still had to determine.
“Good to know.” She wiggled and her backpack crawled up her back. "Now get off me."
“Not until we establish some ground rules. A raider can’t be too careful these days.” The face of the boy Harlan saw murdered flashed through his mind. “I’m getting blamed for all sorts of things these days.”
"Must be your winning personality." She blew her bangs out of her eyes. Leaves stirred near her head.
That almost sounded like an insult. Harlan stared at her smooth cheeks--pink and velvety like an exotic fruit he once stole. This woman shouldn't be here. This Sera didn't fit in this world, nor the one before the 'Viders came. She was too... He groped for the word. Too delicate. Yeah, that fit. Even her name sounded like nothing more than a breeze through the trees.
"Enjoying yourself?"
Yeah, he was. But telling her so would have her rabbiting even faster. "Don't flatter yourself, Peaches. If I want a woman under me, I pay a good price for it."
Sera turned her head, rested her ear on the ground. Tremors seized her body.
God, was she having some type of seizure? He rolled his body weight to his limbs.
She inhaled then coughed. "Oh my God! You're bragging about paying for women to have sex with you?"
Obviously, she wasn't from around here. He had a reputation as being generous in more ways than one. "They enjoyed it and most can't wait until I come back."
"I'll bet," she snorted.
Now that was insulting. "Finish your laugh riot quickly, Peaches. Soon, these woods will be crawling with big bald baddies."
She pressed her lips together and turned to face him. Her fists bracketed her head. "What makes you think I want to stick with you, let alone learn some ground rules?"
Harlan ran his finger along the soft underside of her wrist. "If you want to live, you'll stick with me and learn the rules of this place."
"Is that a threat?"
"That's a fact, Peaches." He leaned over her pack. Her hair smelled of sunshine and flowers. Of course that didn't prove she was from the fairyland of Dark Hope. The high muckety-mucks in Abaddon were too good for lye soap, too. "You were running back into the 'Viders waiting arms."
She bit her lip then sighed. "If I follow your rules, you'll teach me what you know and answer all my questions."
"Yep." Harlan's muscles tensed. That was a little too easy. Maybe she planned to send his balls into his throat, if he freed her now.
"I mean real answers not some made-up crap because your male ego can't admit not knowing something."
His jaw ached as he rose. Maybe he should leave her here. Life was peaceful when there weren't women about. He started up the side of the ravine. But he had wanted to save one; she was one.
If he left her here, she'd likely be killed.
Hell. He raked his fingers over his scalp. He had enough blood on his hands for this and the next two lifetimes.
Rolling to her feet, she brushed the dirt and leaves off her chest. When she looked up, her brow was furrowed. "I'm sorry, I'm not fluent in silent brooding."
Harlan held out his hand to her. "I said I'd answer your questions."
"Alright." She slipped her palm against his then scrambled out of the ravine. Stopping, she set the toes of her shoes against his. She scratched her cheek and left a smear of mud behind. "What are your rules?"
Smiling, he ducked his head. That smudge would make listening to her fancy words all the easier. "Stay close. Move fast. And shut up when I tell you."
She blinked.
Rats rustled in underbrush. Shadows cloaked the woods.
"That's it?"
He nodded, then shook his head. "No, there's one more thing. Give me your boots."
She looked down at her feet, shifted her weight from foot to foot. Her tracks dug deeper into the ground.
Harlan pulled his knife. Maybe he should add another rule, just for her. No questioning his orders.
Her lips parted and she gasped. "I'm leaving footprints."
<
br /> Well, how about that. She got it.
Crouching, she jerked on the laces and yanked them free of their respective holes. "I don't think I'll be able to walk very far or very fast without shoes. I only went barefoot when I snuck into the Burbs."
"I thought you said you were from Dark Hope."
She toed out of her boots. Pink bunnies grinned from her white socks when she pushed pebbles out of the way to stand. "The Burbs are on the outskirts of Dark Hope. It's where most Outlanders live so they don't get overwhelmed by the city."
Outlanders like him weren't allowed to sully their precious city. So much for paradise. Picking up her boots, he sliced the deep treads off and tucked the rubber into his pocket.
She crossed her arms over her chest. "What do you have against Dark Hope?"
Handing her the retread boot, he picked up the other. "I didn't say anything."
Dropping it, she pushed it upright with her toe. "Maybe not in words, but your body language is screaming your hatred."
Laying a hand on her arm, he stopped her from stepping in. "Wait until we get on the trail. It'll be harder for them to track us."
She rolled her eyes. "Duh, I should have thought of that. Are the 'Viders good trackers?"
"As good as me." He handed her the other boot and shook the rubber in his pocket. Would they hurt more or less than a rock when fired from a slingshot? "I've never heard of anyone getting away from them either."
"Good to know." She swallowed hard, knotted her laces together and looped them through a metal hook on her pack. "Should I grab a branch? They're bound to figure out the bare footprints are mine and track us that way."
Turning, he presented her with his back. "Thought of that."
She set her hands on his shoulder. "I'm not as light as I look."
No one was after a while. Cocking an eyebrow, he glanced at her.
"I warned you." Bending her knees, she jumped onto his back and wrapped her legs around his waist.
He staggered a little under her weight and adjusted his hold. Christ. The stuff in her pack didn't seem that heavy when he was sorting it. He retraced their steps.
"A good tracker will notice there's only one and that he's heavier." Her breath swirled in his ear.
Ducking under a low pine bough, he angled toward the sun, just beginning its descent. He had hoped she wouldn't notice that. Perhaps he'd underestimated her. "We'll move faster with me carrying you than you picking your way across the forest."
"True."
Silence settled around them. He moved quickly through the shrubs. The trail would be easy to follow. At least until he reached the road.
"So why do you hate Dark Hope?"
His thighs protested as he carried her up a small incline. He should have known she wouldn't forget her question. Women could be almost as dogged as 'Viders. "I don't hate it."
Hell, he didn't actually believe the place existed until she'd claimed to be from there. Maybe she lied. But his gut rejected the idea. She was too... different——like a flower he'd once seen blooming in the middle of an ocean of sand. She just didn't belong. "Why did you say you fell from the sky?"
"Because I did."
Following a runoff channel, he marched down the slope. Rocks tumbled ahead of him. "And? You can't say that and not say more."
She chuckled. The soft sound rumbled through her chest. "Tell you what, you answer one of my questions and I'll answer one of yours. Kind of like a game."
She'd said she liked games. He shook his head. "Do we get hats?"
"And here I thought you weren't listening." She snuggled tighter against his back.
Reaching the bottom of the incline, Harlan paused by the bushes. His muscles trembled from her weight. Pain pulled on his back. The black rock of the ancient road lay a hundred yards away. Grass swished in the breeze between them and it. He scanned the area. No one seemed to be about.
"As a gesture of faith, I'll go first. I didn't really fall from the sky; I was pushed out of an airship." She tsked. "An airship is——"
"Oval-shaped thing that flashes colored lights in the sky." He'd spent enough time in the desert to figure that on his own. But he never considered that it housed people or that those people came from Dark Hope. His pants clung to his legs from the damp.
"Yes. How..." She waved a hand. "Never mind. And that's not my question, by the way, so don't answer it."
"Wouldn't think of it." He veered toward a sapling. It wouldn't provide a lot of protection, but some was better than none.
"I managed not to splatter myself all over the desert because the bad guys pushed a crate out after me and it had a parachute that automatically deployed."
Harlan stopped by the road and set her onto the broken, black rocks. Once free from her weight, his arms practically floated.
"You know what a parachute is?"
No, but he could guess. "Jellyfish looking thing with its legs all knotted at the bottom?"
She reached for her boots then froze. "You've seen a jellyfish?"
"In a book. My mother taught us to read with it." Although the book, Animals of the Earth, had been missing pages and the photos were fading, it had been the most amazing thing. To think such amazing creatures once walked with people. "I can't imagine what the world was like before someone fucked it up."
"There's still jellyfish." She bit the knot and worked it loose. "Not as many or as diverse, but we did save some."
He clamped his lips together. Had she seen them? It didn't matter. He lived in this world, not hers. Even if she offered him a golden ticket to Dark Hope, he couldn't accept. He still had his sister to rescue and friends to avenge. "Stay on the black rock."
Keeping the sun on his right, he jogged over the road and paused here and there to tip over a rock or press the treads of her boots into the soft ground. A hundred yards away, he spied the rockslide where he'd stashed his gear. After quickly unburying it, he slipped the double pack on and headed back.
She crouched in shadow of the sapling and rifled through her pack. Chewing, she offered him a brown bar, four inches long and two wide. Another piece had two bites out of it. "Eat it."
He pinched it between his finger and thumb as he walked past. He sniffed it. Fruit and wood. Not exactly appetizing. Couldn't be poisoned if she was eating it, could it? His stomach growled. He tore off a corner and popped it into his mouth. A sweet, nutty flavor rolled over his tongue.
When was the last time he ate?
With his men. Just the other day before... His stomach cramped and the food turned to ash. He couldn't help them; but he could avenge them. He shoved the rest into his mouth and chewed without tasting it.
Hooking her pack with her arm, Sera jogged to catch up and licked her fingers. "Where was I? Oh, yeah. So, I really did fall from the sky. And with the help of a parachute made it safely to the ground."
Swallowing, he nodded. Rescuing one woman, even one from Dark Hope, wouldn't make him square with the debts he owed his men and his family.
"So what do you have against Dark Hope?"
Everything. Nothing. Food for everyone. Clean water. Cancer cures on every corner. It couldn't possibly be real. Nothing that good ever was.
Life sucked and then you died. Horribly.
"Come on." She nudged his shoulder. "You don't get a party hat if you don't answer."
That was the most retarded thing he'd heard. You couldn't want what you'd never seen.
She smiled——a flash of white teeth and crinkly eyes.
Well, shit. "The rumors of Dark Hope's existence reached my village just when the 'Viders found us."
Her grin slipped. Anger blazed in her brown eyes and red dotted her cheeks. "You think those...those... barbarians are from Dark Hope. We are evolved! We don't go around smashing children upside the head with rocks or stabbing them with arrows."
Christ! Her hair practically stood on end. Harlan kept his arms at his side instead of smoothing it down. It was probably soft, like her. Hell, he already k
new it smelled different. And who needed that? That kind of crazy would get him killed. "I never thought that."
God, now he was lying. He set his jaw. He didn't lie to soothe her feelings. Nah, he just needed her not to screech. The 'Viders would be following them in a day or two.
"Yeah. Right." She clamped her lips together, jammed her arms into the straps of her pack and muttered under her breath.
He leaned closer, heard monkeys and ass before she shut up. If it wasn't for her gear, he'd be kinda inclined to think she was a bit off her nut.
She stomped along the road.
If her eyes could throw knives, he'd be flayed alive worse than if the 'Viders had gotten him. Best to distract her. But with what? She'd probably seen and touched the animals he'd only read about. The one thing she seemed interested in that he had a snowball in summer's chance of not looking like a fool about was the 'Viders. Sweat misted his skin. He had kinda agreed to the tit-for-tat questioning.
"There's only one Provider; the rest are just 'Viders. They're related just not the same thing."
She cocked her head. "Like a hierarchy?"
"Hierarchy." So that's how that word was pronounced. Good thing he hadn't polished it off to impress her. "Yeah. They're animals after all. Just, they have males and females mashed together not separate. The new Provider is a woman."
If it was the bitch he thought it was... He shut the thought down. No point in stirring up ghosts; he was already haunted by enough. He boxed up the past and shoved it into the dark parts eating at his soul.
"What else do you know of their society?"
"I've never been able to free someone from their camp." At least not whole. He'd found his father's head——features twisted with pain, fear and helplessness. Harlan swallowed the lump in his throat. He'd never seen those things before on the man's face. His father had always been so strong, determined.
Sera slipped her hand in Harlan's and laced her fingers between his. "But you've saved some, right? I mean you're a famous raider."
He glanced at their clasped hands and the tightness in his chest eased just a little.
Conceived in Blood, A Post-Apocalyptic/Dystopian Novel Page 7