by Garr, Amber
“Vee?” Hunter asked, trying to find room to sit up. “Do you know what will happen to us?”
I looked around the darkened truck to see that several deserters eagerly awaited my response. How did I suddenly become the expert?
“We’ll have to work. Probably preparing bottles or cleaning toilets or something mundane like that.” My heart pounded in my chest when I thought about toilets and latrines, and my Zach digging hole after hole without complaint. Every pore of my body knew that part of my life was over now.
“Or they’ll just execute us for running away.”
I snapped my head around to look at the man hunched in a corner who’d just incited unnecessary fear in all of those trying to be strong. His dirty hair covered his face and the burlap-like tunic hung from his gaunt frame. He looked like he smelled.
“I had a friend once,” he continued. “He got captured and they cut off his head and stuck it on a stake as a warning to others.” The man shook himself. “They don’t need us as workers. They need us to set an example.”
“How do you know that story is even true?” a young girl asked. I couldn’t see her face, but her voice quivered with each word.
“I just know,” he replied.
“Stop it,” I said. “It’s just a scare tactic. We live in a civilized world not the Dark Ages.”
“Civilized?” The man tried to stand only to fall on top of three other prisoners. He continued talking from the floor. “You’re sorely mistaken, miss. Civilization went away the moment those nukes left the planes.”
“He’s right.”
“They don’t need us.”
“We’re going to die.”
Sobbing soon filled the darkness and I wished our captors would hurry up and get us out of here. If I spent too much longer with these people, I feared I would give in to the despair in my stomach telling me we were doomed.
The truck lurched forward, knocking many of the deserters down, and forcing me to bump into Max again. I heard the distinct sound of a metal gate scraping behind us and realized we must be getting close.
After five more minutes of slow movements over bumps and turns, it had me wondering if we’d actually arrived at the factory. But then I smelled it. A sickly sweet odor oddly reminiscent of cotton candy. Or sugar. Perhaps that was part of the water bottling process?
The truck stopped again and within seconds the tarp ripped open at the rear exit. Bright sunlight blinded us but the sound of birds chirping trumped my curiosity. I thought we were coming to an industrial park, yet the smells and sounds inundating my senses told me otherwise.
My personal captor, Riley, reached his hand inside the truck. “Come with me,” he said. I looked around only to notice everyone staring back. Riley had spoken directly to me.
“Not without him,” I said, grabbing hold of Hunter’s hand.
A slight smirk pulled at the corner of Riley’s mouth. “Fine.”
“And him,” I said nodding toward Max.
“He’ll join you later.”
“No, now.” Although when I looked more closely at Max, I realized he wasn’t going anywhere. Still breathing, his two hundred plus pound body would be impossible for me to carry. I bent forward and whispered into his ear. “I’ll find you later.”
Hunter gave Max a quick hug before following behind me to escape our dark prison. Riley kept his hand outstretched waiting for me to take the bait. I couldn’t do it.
When I stumbled out of the back, a searing pain raced through my leg. My knee felt more than just bruised. However, I did the best I could to control my face and not let them see any of my weaknesses.
And by them, I meant the armed guards standing every twenty feet apart from each other and watching the perimeter with careful eyes. A ridiculously tall fence bordered the east as far as I could see. Around the top, barbed wire curled in a spiral formation reminding me of a slinky and a snake all at the same time. If the large, automatic weapons weren’t enough to instill fear, than the armed sniper in the evenly spaced watchtowers did the job.
“This way,” Riley said, as though expecting us to follow him.
For the first time, I turned around and looked at the sight in front of the trucks.
“What is that?” I asked. Hunter’s jaw dropped open, seeing the same scene.
“Welcome to Oasis One.”
Hunter and I didn’t move. One by one the prisoners jumped out of the truck, and one by one they had the same reaction. This wasn’t a factory where people were forced to work. This was a city with a thriving population in the middle of a post-apocalyptic world.
“How…?” I couldn’t even form a complete sentence. The smell of candy, pine, and moisture overwhelmed me. The only time we’d been close to seeing nature as it used to be happened as we ran for our lives through a government monitored wetland.
“Better than living out there, isn’t it?” Riley asked. I looked up at him, curious as to why he felt the need to speak to me.
“Sir?” An armed guard jogged over to Riley, holding his cap down against the wind. “Sir, they’re ready for you.”
Riley nodded and for the first time I really took notice of his outfit. If the stripes on his shoulder where any indication, I’d guess he held some sort of higher rank in the mercenary’s twisted society.
“You’ll be going with them.” He jerked his chin toward the row of deserters lined up against the chain linked fence. “But don’t give them any trouble or they’ll put you in lock down.”
“What?” I asked, confused again by his sudden interest in my safety.
“It’s not too bad if you go with the flow. Serve your two years and earn your freedom.”
Before I could ask anymore, he turned on his heel, threw the gun over his shoulder, and walked away. He disappeared between the cargo trucks and some part of me wanted to run after him. I couldn’t explain it, but I just knew he’d given me a very valuable piece of advice.
As I looked beyond the line of prisoner transporters, the sharp points of tall buildings pierced through the hazy sky. Wanting to get a better look, I dragged Hunter a few feet to the side and wrapped my arm over his shoulder.
“Do you see this?” I asked in awe.
“I thought all of the cities were destroyed,” he said.
“Me too.”
Green pine trees and magnificent oaks flanked the metropolis as though completely unaffected by the wars or water loss. If this was Oasis One, or the factory, we should be close to the Mississippi River. Maybe that explained the excess greenery uncommon in most of the world. Everyone knew the government built dams to covet what little usable water remained.
“Hey!”
Someone shoved me in the back. I turned and pushed Hunter behind me, ready to fight to the death if necessary.
“Chill, babe. You just need to line up over there.” The young man pointed to the group of deserters with his rifle tip. “Time for your shower.”
“What?” I asked again, clearly unable to produce any form of intelligent thoughts.
“You’ll see.” He smiled then quickly cleared his face back to business. “Over there.”
Remembering Riley’s cryptic advice, I swallowed the urge to bash the guy’s head in and shuffled to the line. I wished for the thousandth time that I had a sword in my hand. At least it would be partially fair then.
The trucks continued to block our view of the city, especially since we began walking away from it and down a steep hill. A worn out trail along the fence pointed us in the direction of our new fate. No one fought back. Probably because no one knew what would happen next. Or maybe because we were all still digesting the reality of this oasis in the middle of our shitty world.
“Look, Vee,” Hunter said, pointing to some kind of tunnel entrance in front of us and earning a couple of glares from the guards. “What is it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Hey, there’s Max.”
I looked to the side and followed Hunter’s stare. Several
government workers, guards, mercenaries…whatever they were, carried military green stretchers filled with those deserters who hadn’t woken up yet, along the side of the our line. Max’s head had been bandaged and for the first time since last night, I wondered if we would really survive this ordeal. Maybe two years of service wouldn’t be too bad. At least they supplied medical attention.
“It looks like they’re taking care of him.”
Hunter sighed. “I wish they’d take care of me.”
I turned his head toward mine, being careful to avoid the swollen cheeks and eyes. “Are you in pain?”
He smiled and shook his head. “Nah. I’ll be okay.”
I nudged him in the shoulder. “Of course you will. You’re the toughest of all of us.”
Hunter sucked in a breath and I instantly regretted my words. There were only three of us now. Wrapping my arm tightly around his shoulder again, we walked in silence until it was our turn to enter the tunnel.
The large stone entryway had been built into the side of a slope. Still on the Oasis One property, the fence continued well beyond the hill and off into the distance. How much land had the government been able to gather?
“Keep it moving,” one of the guards shouted at us. Where else would we go?
“I can’t do this!” A woman screeched and pushed her way out of the line in front of us. She darted past two guards before breaking free and running off to the side, away from everyone. Surprisingly, no one followed her. The deserters stood as still as statues and the guards didn’t break formation along out flanks.
A second later, I knew why. The sharp crack of a rifle split the still air and echoed through my ears. I turned just as the woman fell to the ground and rolled lifelessly back down the hill. The watchtower sniper stepped back into the shadows and the rest of us were ordered to move ahead.
I felt Hunter tense under my arm, so I gave him a tight squeeze. The reassurance was just as much for him as it was for me. Don’t fight Riley had said, and now I knew why.
Once inside the darkened tunnel, I relished the moist air. Cool wisps of wind, followed by smells of moss and life brought an unexpected comfort to me. The tunnel itself would fit at least ten people across and boasted twenty-foot high ceilings. Probably large enough to bring their equipment inside, I wondered if this underground bunker was used for more than prisoner transportation.
The brick floor and stone carved walls reminded me of the caves we’d made camp in back when my family first joined the deserters. Deep in the Appalachian Mountains, those caves provided the best protection and made for many great nights exploring all of the small tunnels. Zach and I loved practicing our people hunting and avoidance skills in the dark and far away from our parent’s watchful eye. My heart clenched.
The dim lights gave way to brighter fluorescents and we were all ushered to a hallway on the left. Another hundred feet down the corridor the room opened up and the sound of running water stopped my forward momentum. Running water—another facet of modern society I thought gone forever.
Steam drifted over our heads and Hunter and I looked up at it like it was an illusion. Only one thing would create steam like that.
“Hot water,” Hunter said with amusement. “Vee! They have hot, running water!”
I couldn’t hide my smile. As we walked past the guards blocking the entrance to the shower room, they shoved a towel in our hands and pulled Hunter off to the side.
“Boys over here. Girls over there.” The guy on my side took an extra long glance at my body, making me fight the urge to slap him.
“This way, miss.” Another, more polite, female guard directed me to right. She pointed to several large circular walled structures that reminded me of the communal showers at my old high school.
I followed the wet footprints to the first wall. Just as I rounded the corner, I ran into a tiled bench and hit my shins.
“Shit,” I mumbled, rubbing the indents in the hopes of avoiding more bruises. A dozen women stood in front of me, showering and smiling and laughing. Where I may have normally been modest, the sound of a fresh shower won out. I didn’t see their emaciated, broken, and wilting bodies, I only saw salvation.
Stripping down to nothing, I tossed my dirty, raggedy clothes to the side. I tried to untie my hair, but the knotted mess wouldn’t cooperate. Dark stands fell down my back and I dreamt about running shampoo through each one of them. Multiple times.
A young girl about my age stepped out from under the shower, the smile on her face matched by no other. I quickly jumped under the stream, amazed at how fast it warmed my body. An odd mixture of chills and fever swept through me, my senses unable to comprehend how I felt.
“Shampoo?”
I opened my eyes to see an older lady holding a plain white container out toward me. Smiling, I grabbed the bottle and stuck my nose up to the opening. Strawberries. They gave us strawberry shampoo.
After three washes, I finally started to feel like I’d removed the grime from my hair. Now on to my body. The metal pipe supplying the water had been built with a circular shelf that sat halfway up the pole. I reached forward to snatch the bar of soap before anyone else could, and began the luxurious task of washing five years of war off me.
I don’t know how long I was in there, but when someone cleared their throat, I noticed all of the other ladies had disappeared and only I stood under the fantastic flow. Suddenly, the water stopped and all thirst for life shut off with it. It felt like the world ended again.
“Come,” a guard said to me. Although male and young, he stayed polite and averted his eyes while I wrapped the towel around my torso. Departing the shower area left an empty feeling lingering in my gut. I wanted to rush back inside and spend another day under the water. Maybe it would wash away all of the bad in my life and take me to a different place.
The guard picked up a bundle loosely wrapped in brown paper and a piece of twine. Without saying another word, he pushed it in my hands and pointed to a set of double doors on the far wall.
Alone, I walked in the direction like an obedient dog, wondering if there would be a treat waiting on the other side. As I got closer and heard the sound of laughter, I thought I’d entered a dream.
“Vee, look!” Hunter jumped in front of me, startling my heart and making me jump in to a reflexive fighting stance. “Come here.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me into the room.
To say I’d died and gone to heaven would be dramatic, but the sight of a hundred beds and warm blankets brought tears to my eyes.
“Maybe this won’t be so bad after all,” Hunter said as he pulled me over to a set of bunks. He jumped up on the top one with surprising grace and bounced up and down.
“Beds, Vee! They have beds, and showers, and I bet we’ll get food next.” His contagious enthusiasm spread to my smile, and I warmed at hearing my nickname.
I sat down on the bottom bunk, patted the perfectly firm mattress, and sighed. How I wished Zach could be here too, instead of out there somewhere hurt or dead or gone. I felt guilty for enjoying the creature comforts so foreign to us now. I opened the package to find a standard issue jumpsuit, undergarments, and combat boots. Just like everyone else had on.
I nestled myself into the corner and quickly dressed underneath my towel - a skill I’d mastered many years ago. Hunter still bounced on his bed, trying out every position he could think of to see which one felt best.
Lying back on my own mattress, I let the guilt wash over me like the warm water had moments ago. A roof over our heads, clean clothes, food, water…being captured by the government was proving to be anything but a death sentence. Still, something didn’t feel right, and I needed to keep focused.
I let my eyes close as I contemplated our next steps and calculated a way to get out of here.
ELEVEN
Zach
“I don’t think they went this way,” Trevor said for the twentieth time in the last five minutes.
I watched Jackson grip the crossbow until hi
s knuckles turned white. A part of me wanted to see how much longer he’d last, but I knew he had much more patience than me. We’d been following several sets of tire tracks, but none had led to anything significant yet. One made a large circle around the camp only to be intercepted by another set that looped us back to the beginning. So now we were focusing on a single set of tread marks that led through the twists and turns of the forest.
“I’m telling you-”
“Shut up, Trevor.” Sasha cut him off just before yanking the wheel hard to the right. The brakes squeaked under the pressure of her foot and the off-road vehicle lurched to a halt inches from an unwelcome boulder in the middle of the path.
“Damn it!” Sasha slammed her hand against the plastic dashboard several times. It creaked and groaned but none of us stopped her.
Rachael made some sort of noise that sounded too much like a laugh, even through her muffled mouth. Sasha whipped her head around and glared at the girl. My blood ran cold with the look in her eyes. I’d never seen our leader so out of control.
“Sasha, don’t…” I said, but it was too late.
In one quick move, she jumped from her seat and pulled the girl out of the back by her hair. The sound of stifled cries and scuffling boots consumed the otherwise quiet morning. Jackson, Trevor, and I scrambled to run around the other side, where Sasha now kicked our prisoner over and over, oblivious to the fact that she barely moved anymore.
“Jackson, do something!” Trevor yelled, too afraid to get in between the wrath of Sasha and her punching bag.
Instead of making a comment, Jackson set his crossbow on the ground, moved stealthily behind Sasha, and wrapped his arms around her. She continued to scream and spew one curse after another, fighting to break free. Her hair whipped around her face like an invisible wind had been conjured by her anger. The redness in her pale skin contrasted sharply with Jackson’s dark arms, and I worried about her blood pressure. He held tight until she finally began to calm down.