The sun is setting as we weave our way through the many trees. A breeze sweeps my hair back from my shoulders. With it brings the scent of pine and dead bunny. I listen to the larger quiet of the forest and the smaller crush of our feet against the earth. We get closer to Kale with every step. I pick up my pace so that I can see his brown eyes and his kind face.
But, our little area is empty. Where is he? I poke my head into the lean-to, “Kale?” Empty. “Kale,” I call out. “Kale!” Still nothing. Where is he? I can’t lose him now. “Kale!”
FALSE ALARM
Kale runs through a break in the trees panting. “What is it? Are you okay?” He’s carrying his new ax with a firm grip on the rudimentary handle.
“Where were you?” I screech at him. I’m frantic and frozen with the fear that’s still coursing through my body.
“I was testing this out,” he holds up his ax with a lopsided smile plastered across his adorable face. “I wanted to see if it would cut through a tree, but I didn’t want to do it right here—in case it did work and sent the tree crashing down on you two or our shelter.”
I was going to say, well leave a note next time, but that’s obviously not going to happen. So I hug him instead. His embrace is just as comforting and consuming as his kiss.
“So, did it work?” I finally ask.
“Well, I got about halfway through a tree when I heard you yelling. So yeah, I guess it does.”
We walk together toward Victoria, who is already skinning the poor rabbit with a sharp rock she found. It’s a tedious job. I avoid looking as much as I can, but Kale is impressed. “Hey, you caught dinner.”
Victoria looks up from her work. “Sure did. Fat sucker too,” she says, pleased with her catch.
We sit down together. Kale starts a small fire with a match that Kansas gave us. I cozy up next to him and enjoy the peaceful evening. I even smile a little.
While Victoria cooks, we make plans for our future here. Kale has grand plans for the cabin he wants to build, complete with three small rooms—one for us, one for Victoria and her baby, and one for cooking and living. Victoria makes jokes about cutting up her dress and making curtains for our dream home. None of us talk about the possibility of ambush or starvation. We are all trying to be as positive as we can be. We need to make the most of what we have here and now. Of course, I still want to go home, but right now I’m okay. I’m alive.
We enjoy our dinner, and I am pleasantly surprised that it actually tastes amazing. This is most probably because I haven’t had meat in a very, very long time. There is even enough rabbit left over for breakfast in the morning, which we hide down in our food hole. I was against the idea at first, but Victoria seems to think the temperature in the ground will keep it cool enough. If I get food poisoning, I know who to blame.
Before bedtime, Kale makes plans to leave first thing in the morning for a water haul. Victoria is set to take the dreaded middle shift. That means that Kale has the first shift, and I have the last shift. So the middle shift is the only time for Kale and I to rest beside one another. We can neither fall asleep together nor wake up together. Bummer.
And how many hours is that from now? Too many.
I want to stay up with Kale, but it’s not a smart thing to do here. Who knows if something will happen, and we won’t be able to sleep again for days. Reluctantly, I follow Victoria to the hut, but first stop to kiss Kale goodnight. His lips are soft and press against mine in hope of a tomorrow, neither a better nor a worse tomorrow—just a tomorrow.
***
I rouse when Kale wakes Victoria from her slumber to keep watch. He gives her his hand to help her up and then slips in beside me. He drapes his arm over me and pulls me close. He kisses my shoulder.
And before I know it, Victoria is waking me up for my turn and shoving the gun in my hand. I watch her as she lies next to Kale, and I’m happy to see that she’s lying head-to-toe beside him. I wander over to where our small fire was earlier. I sit with my back to the hut, the gun resting in my lap.
There is no wind to swish the trees or foraging animals to scurry over the fallen leaves. All is quiet . . . too quiet. I wrap my arms around myself and sing some stupid pop song in my head that I haven’t thought about since I was in my old life. I haven’t thought about popular music at all since I’ve been here. Auntie Josephine’s opera and lullabies were the only bits of music that I had heard in a long time. And even that seems like forever ago. I miss her.
After sitting for probably an hour, I hear it. I stop singing in my head and listen more closely. It’s the howls and cries from last night. They are far away at first and several minutes apart. Slowly, they get closer and closer to our camp. They pick up in frequency. I can hear at least three distinct calls.
And then they stop. It’s eerily silent again. I look around in the dim light and see only the dark outline of tree trunks. There’s rustling behind me, above the overhang. I jump to my feet and spin around. It’s so dark that I can hardly see a thing. The moon’s waning light barely trickles in through the trees. Dawn is quickly approaching, but the new sun hasn’t quite made its way into the forest. So, I’m screwed. I squint my eyes, but it doesn’t help. I hold the gun out in front of me. It’s shaking, but I can’t steady my nervous hands. Adrenaline is pumping through my body at a rapid pace, and my breathing is starting to become shallow.
A twig snaps off to my left, so I turn that way. I can’t see!
Then, I hear someone jump off the overhang behind me. There’s a blacker than night shadow with reflective stripes of white and gold. CANNIBAL!!! Holy shit! It’s a freaking cannibal. How many of them are here?
I don’t wait to find out. I fire the gun. It kicks back and I nearly fall over.
There’s a lot of movement around me, and Victoria is screaming. I don’t know which way to look.
“Kale?” I call to him.
There’s a scuffle by the hut, a howl from the forest, and then nothing.
The sun finally clears the plateau above the valley floor. It starts to find its way through the trees, bringing light to our camp. Kale is the only person I can see. He’s on his hands and knees. I rush to his side and see a pool of blood under him.
“Oh no! No!” I shot him.
WORSE DAY EVER!
Kale falls back against the cliffside dazed, while I frantically search his body for a bullet wound. Victoria hikes up her long skirt and crawls over from the lean-to crying. Her hysteria rattles me even more. I can’t seem to calm my jittery hands as they pull at Kale’s shirt. We are both a mess of raw emotions.
“I think I shot him,” I’m crying now too. “There’s blood everywhere.”
He grabs my hand as I try to push him over and examine his back. “I’m okay. I’m okay.” He attempts to reassure me.
I don’t believe him though. There’s blood everywhere. How can he be okay? “But you’re bleeding. You’re not okay. You’re just in shock,” I argue with him.
“That’s not my blood.” He eases back into a more comfortable seated position. “I did take a pretty good blow to the head though. Everything’s spinning.” He groans and leans his head back against the wall.
I look over to Victoria who’s frozen. “Victoria, go get Kale some water,” I tell her. She jumps up, relieved to have something to do.
“Are you okay? How bad is it?” I ask him.
“I’ll be fine in a few minutes,” he says. “I have to be. I need to go and get the water. I don’t think those cannibal guys will be coming back anytime soon, since you shot one of them. They know we have a gun now. They obviously don’t, because we probably wouldn’t be alive if they did. I really think now is the best time to go.”
“You can’t be serious. You are not going. I’ll go,” I say to him, as if he’s insane for even considering it.
He takes a deep breath and climbs to his feet just as Victoria hands him a plastic bottle. There’s only about two sips left. “That’s the last of the water,” she confesses.
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“See? I’m going. Now. The sooner I go, the better. They won’t be coming back now. And look, I’m fine.” He does seem okay, but I’m still worried about him. He climbs to his feet and strides over to the backpack, where he loads it with the empty pot and three water bottles. He picks up the gun that I dropped on the ground. “Be careful with this,” he tells Victoria as he hands her the gun.
“We will,” she answers him.
He comes to stand before me. “We’ll move to another location as soon as I get back. You two can work on taking the walls apart.” Kale motions toward the lean-to. “Now, are you okay?” He cradles my face in his hands and waits for me to answer.
“I’m fine. Just shaken up. I shot someone. Didn’t I?” The reality of my actions suddenly weighs heavily on me. Did I take a life? There’s no dead body here, but who’s to say they will heal from such an injury? The Keepers aren’t going to patch us up here.
“You shot someone that was probably going to eat us. You protected us. I’m proud of you.” He kisses my nose. “I’ll see you soon, Princess. Oh and I love you.”
“I love you too.”
He kisses my mouth and leaves me with the promise to return. I touch my bottom lip and let my fingers linger there as he walks away.
***
There’s not much to do while Kale is gone. The lean-to came apart in about 10 minutes, and we covered the pool of blood with dirt in about two seconds. There’s nothing to build since Kale took the ax for protection and nothing to cook since the traps are empty. We gather them up, as we go along. We need to take them with us when we move locations later today.
After we eat the leftover rabbit, Victoria messes with the pelt she kept from the poor, dead animal. She thinks if we get enough of them, we can make a nice blanket or coats that will be useful—if there is a winter here.
I sit next to the disassembled lean-to and watch her while she works. I’m not really sure what she’s doing since her back is to me, but her movements are deliberate and practiced. I’m starting to really appreciate her being here with us. I could never have killed and skinned a rabbit, even if I was starving. No way.
I’m finally able to relax since the morning’s crazy events. I even drift in and out of sleep; confident Victoria will warn me should something suspicious occur. The temperature is pleasant, and there’s a nice breeze. In my drowsy state, I find myself wishing I had somewhere to bathe. I must reek. I lower my head down to take a whiff of my armpit.
Ouch! Someone grabs me by my hair and yanks me to my feet. I look over to Victoria, who’s being restrained as well. A man in a brown peasant top and brown leather pants is holding her tight. He has a sword at his waist and our gun in his hand.
“No!” I try to scream as a hand falls over my mouth. I try to fight the man that’s holding me, but he’s twice my size. Like the other man, he’s also wearing a brown top and leather pants. I struggle against him again, but he’s so big that he doesn’t budge at all. I look around for some kind of help.
And then, I see the most unexpected thing ever.
YOU SON OF A . . .
Oh my goodness . . . the profanities that would be coming out of my mouth right now if it wasn’t covered up. James saunters over to me with the cockiest grin I’ve ever seen. He’s dressed in all new clothes: new blue jeans, a red and blue plaid shirt, and nice leather boots. “That’s her.” He points toward me. “You can leave that one,” he adds, pointing toward Victoria. “She’s of no use to anybody. Got herself knocked-up.”
I’m going to kill him!
I try to shout at him, but the rough hand that’s partly shoved into my mouth muffles my words.
“Let her speak,” he tells the man holding me.
The first thing I do is spit at him. Score! It actually reaches his cheek. I learned that from the fleeing woman the Keepers caught in the pine forest. I’ve never thought to do something so unladylike, but there are certain times when you have to throw such values out the window—or forest.
Unfortunately, I receive a slap across the face in return. And oh, it stings like a giant rubber band popped me. I may actually be seeing stars.
Yeah, still worth it.
“What do you want James?” I ask, my cheek burning with pain.
“You, of course.” He paces back and forth in front of me, like an evil dictator of his own country. “You see, when y’all kicked me out, I went over to the bar in the next town. There were rumors there that the King was looking for a virgin bride, and well, I knew just where to find one. So, I’m trading you for a nice, cozy spot in the castle and all the food I can eat.”
“What? I don’t understand.” I shake my head, trying to make sense of what he told me. “What happened to the guy that misses his mother and sister—that took care of them when his father died? How can that guy turn into this?” Just like I said, I don’t understand.
“You stupid girl. I just told you what you wanted to hear. I was alone and bored, and I could tell the second I laid eyes on you that you were in love with me. I don’t have a mother named Helen or a sister named Rose. It was always just me and my horse and the whores in each town I passed through.” James nods and shoots a glance over to Victoria, insinuating she was just one of his whores.
Victoria looks like she wants to kill James for his hurtful words. She is furiously trying to wiggle out of her captor’s hold, but she’s so tiny she can’t break away. She looks like a fish dangling on a hook with no chance of freedom. She will get her freedom back though. It’s me James wants, not Victoria.
“Screw you!” I scream at him.
He orders the man behind me, “Gag her.”
The man ties a thick band of material around my head and tucks it into my mouth. Yuck. It tastes like salt and dirt and smells like B.O..
I have murderous thoughts when the other man shoves Victoria. She clutches her belly as she falls to the ground. James walks over to her. “Tell Kale that if I ever see him again, I will chop his feet off at the ankles and let him bleed to death for taking my boots,” he states. He makes his intentions known before dragging me away.
“Oh, I’ll tell him all right.” Victoria’s hate for James drips off her every word.
I refuse to walk. James’ helper gets tired of dragging me, so he throws me over his massive shoulder. I lift my head up and see Victoria getting smaller and smaller as we get further away from her. She’s weeping. “He’ll come for you!” she screams. “Don’t worry Emma! He’ll come for you!”
I’m trying to yell “No! No! No!” as I furiously shake my head. One man is no match for a castle and a King with an army.
THE CASTLE
I think I might puke.
I was totally over bouncing around on James’ lackey’s shoulder after the first fifteen minutes of our journey. It’s really not an enjoyable experience. And the bad thing is, if I do puke, it won’t have anywhere to go because I have a gag in my mouth. So naturally, I start to wiggle around on the guy’s back and try to talk—beg really.
Finally, James gets annoyed enough with me that he makes everyone stop. “Pull that thing out of her mouth and see what she wants,” he demands. “Hurry up. We’re almost there.”
The man hauling me puts me down. He loosens the too-tight gag, causing it to drop around my neck. The corners of my mouth are already sore, and I feel like a fool as my words haphazardly fall out of my mouth. I may even be drooling. “Please let me walk. I promise I won’t run away. I’m going to be sick if I’m upside down any longer. Please.”
“Fine. Let’s go. But put that gag back on her. I won’t hesitate to shoot you if you try to run away. Got it?”
I nod a quick yes.
The burly man looks relieved that he doesn’t have to lug me any further, but he has no problem covering my mouth back up. He spins me around and pushes me in front of him. “Walk,” he grunts.
I stumble forward but don’t fall over. And even though I was warned, I look around for any possibility of escape, something t
o use to my advantage; be it a person, a weapon, or a jeep to commandeer (wishful thinking)—anything at all. Unfortunately, there are only trees and more trees behind, to the sides and in front of us.
Eventually, our destination comes into full view. The stones forming the castle’s walls and the rocky mountainside seamlessly converge. I can’t tell where one ends and the other starts. It feels cold and oppressive here.
The feeling of dread washes over me when I see the first head on a bloodied spike. Its mouth hangs open in horror, and its body is missing. We pass two others before we reach the castle’s entrance. I start to get nervous as the iron gate rises. We pass under a gatehouse before entering a courtyard. Guards watch from above as we pass under them, their bows visible. I wonder if they’ve ever dropped hot tar on insurgents from up there. It would suck to go out that way, almost as much as it will suck to go out the way I foresee my light dimming—as a virgin bride to some scary King.
As we walk into the courtyard, it’s like I’ve been transported back in time. There are women chasing chickens and children wearing handmade clothes. There are also some men dressed like my captors in brown leathers. Some are dressed in the full knight getup with chain mail and a metallic, sculpted helmet. I suppose they are the guards.
Everyone pauses to stare at me. I feel like folding into myself and hiding behind one of my captors, but that’s not how I was raised. I keep my head held high and look each of them in the eye. Some stare back at me, some turn their heads, and some bow, knowing I am to be their queen in the very near future. It’s a mixed bag of reactions.
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