Captive Travelers

by Candace Smith

  It had been more than an hour since Kayla had said they were almost at this marker. The line between this and the one before it was less than an inch. The line between this one and the mound was almost two inches. It was a welcome surprise when they exited the forest into a clearing fifteen minutes later.

  “We found it,” Kayla exclaimed.

  “We found it, all right,” Cici muttered. “Where’s this campsite Hootie told you about?”

  Kayla rolled her eyes and giggled. “God, Cici, you make her sound like an owl. Let me climb the hill and see if there’s a clear spot close by.”

  There was a one-foot area of grass around the small mound before the ground sloped up onto the mound itself. Kayla was on the hill and looking down the sides. In the grass on top there was a big design made with half buried rocks that was a copy of the one they had seen carved into the stone earlier. It formed a circle, and the U shapes pointed away from it on each end. The mound itself was only about fifteen feet around, and other than the sloping sides, there was a small patch of grass before the forest began.

  “It must have overgrown. I’m sure Hehewuti hasn’t been up here in years.”

  “Shit, Aubrey, did we really waste our spring break vacation to find a green hill?” Cici whispered.

  “It appears so,” Aubrey answered, kicking the grass. She shouted up, “Hey, Kayla. Is there enough room to set the tent up on top of the mound?” She so did not want to go traipsing around looking for a campsite. Cici was not the only one sick and tired of all the hiking.

  “Yes, but I don’t know if that’s a good idea, though. This is supposed to be sacred.”

  “It’s mystical, Kayla. Mystical doesn’t necessarily mean sacred,” Cici called to her. She mirrored Aubrey’s thoughts and whispered, “If she makes me truck around through the woods to find a damn place to pitch the tent…”

  “I guess it’s okay. Come on up, and just don’t mess with the rocks,” Kayla decided.

  Cici was relieved that the entire surface was not covered with rocks, just the design. There was plenty of cushiony green grass, and she shrugged out of her backpack and laid down, using it for a pillow and looking at the clouds.”

  The girls managed to get the tent up just before dark. They were exhausted and ate protein bars washed down with a bottle of water. No one had the energy to build a fire, so they curled into their sleeping bags and nodded off within minutes.

  They drifted into a deep sleep and their minds wandered into a realm of strange dreams. The girls writhed in their sleeping bags, occasionally gasping sounds of pleasure… and often whimpers of fear and pain. By morning, the dreams were forgotten.

  * * * * *

  Hehewuti had Bobby move all the living room furniture against the walls. For once, he did not argue with her about helping with her strange rituals. He had been proud to show Kayla off to his friends, with her tight ass and big tits. She had a knockout face to go with her body, and a few of his friends teased him and said he would never be able to hang on to her. The bitch had humiliated him, and the thought that his grandmother backed him and agreed that it was all Kayla’s fault for not treating him with respect, justified his hatred for her.

  Hehewuti’s tribal sisters began arriving, and she showed them to their rooms while Bobby carried their suitcases. They were in for a lengthy ritual that could last several days.

  “The map was accurate?”

  “Yes, except for the distances. I didn’t want them to get discouraged and turn back,” Hehewuti answered. “My grandson walked the trail to tamp down some of the growth, and he cleared some moss off a few of the markers. The girls are smart. They’ll find it.”

  “It’s good to be sending new spirits. There have been so many problems between the government and the tribes. They are still arguing about our landholdings, and we’ll all be dead before they get the lease payments straightened out.”

  “All three of them have gone up there. I was a little worried about one of the girls. Bobby says she’s heavy, and he thought she might back out. Three spirits should help us a lot.”

  In the evening, Hehewuti set the candles in the middle of the living room floor. The other Indians helped her make the circle of the earth, with the symbol for the bowls that held the spirits of this world and the other. This was their third night of chanting, and Hehewuti felt certain that by now, the young women were camped on the mound.

  She declared the charges against Kayla… of how she humiliated and spurned an Indian warrior… and she offered the two friends as an additional gift. She did not want the spirits to only receive a woman who had disrespected the tribe. The woman began their chant, which would last until dawn again if necessary.

  After three nights of the monotonous chanting, Bobby was bored with the nonsense. At least he was getting some good meals out of the deal. Still, he wished his grandmother would just tell them that the bullshit ritual was finished and he could get back to running around with his friends. One of the first things he had planned was to ransack the girls’ apartment with his copy of Kayla’s key. The bank card was not the only thing he ripped off from her.

  A few hours later, the candles all went out at once, leaving the room in darkness. The chanting stopped, and Hehewuti announced, “It is done.”

  Bobby felt icy fingers grip the back of his neck and melt down his spine. His stomach knotted with a cold fist of dread, and he glanced towards his grandmother’s shadow. He could sense her eyes on him in the darkness, and he could feel the wave of fear from her.

  Three years ago, his grandfather had been shot by an arrow during hunting season. Tommy found him quickly, but it had taken too long to transport him down the mountain to a hospital. Although he was still barely conscious, there was nothing that could be done to save him. Before the old man died, he called Bobby and Tommy to his side. “An Indian killed by an arrow,” he chuckled softly at the irony. Then, his rheumy black eyes focused to an intense stare, and Bobby could remember his grandfather’s warning. “Don’t ever fuck with the spirits, boys.”

  Many miles away, Tommy Windsong sat with the shaman and other spirit guide apprentices of their tribe. The shaman cast the bones again, and the Indians read the message. It was a confusing tumble of tokens, but Tommy recognized the signs for his destiny on the edge of the casting. He ran his fingers over the symbols for Bobby and his grandmother, shaking his head with sadness.

  Chapter II

  Aubrey was the first one to wake up, and she slithered out of her sleeping bag to find a place to pee. She expected the mountain air to be crisp, while she looked for a likely spot from on top of the hill. What she saw around her made no sense. She looked back at the tent in confusion. “Kayla? Cici? Can you guys come out here?” Her questioning voice was barely a whisper. A few seconds later, Aubrey realized she was not dreaming and a terrifying panic set in. Aubrey screamed, “Kayla… Cici… come out here.”

  “What?” Kayla scrambled out of her sleeping bag and grabbed the bear spray lying next to her backpack. The terror in Aubrey’s voice had Cici fighting the confining sleeping bag to get out of her cocoon.

  Kayla stared around and could not say a word. When Cici finally emerged, she grumbled, “What the hell, Aubrey? I was just getting to the good part of my dream about…” Her mouth dropped open as the surroundings finally set in. “Where are we?” Cici asked quietly.

  Aubrey turned in a slow circle, and in a dazed murmur she asked, “Kayla, there isn’t any way Bobby could have drugged our water or something, is there? There’s no way we could have been moved with all of our stuff and not known about it.” There was nothing but waist high golden wheat in all directions. A gentle breeze swept across the field, rustling the grass and leaning the stalks towards the west.

  “I don’t think we’re even in Kentucky any more. This looks more like the Midwest.” As a young child, Cici grew up in Nebraska, and this looked awfully damned familiar.

  Aubrey climbed back into the tent and dug through her backpack. She em
erged again with her cell phone in her hand. She held it up, slowly spinning. “No signal, damn.”

  “They never work when you need them to; only when you’re in church or class,” Cici grumbled.

  “Well, we need to find a phone, first off,” Kayla decided. The whole situation was confusing. At first, Kayla thought she might be dreaming, but the earthy smell of the field made her believe what she was seeing was real. “I swear, if that little prick is behind this, I’ll throttle him.”

  The girls packed their things and stood in the field, searching the seemingly endless sea of waving wheat. “Well, which direction?” Aubrey asked Kayla.

  “Fuck if I know. Either of you have a particular choice?”

  “I don’t think it matters,” Cici answered. The last thing she wanted to do was to spend another day hiking.

  The girls headed west, only to keep the sun out of their eyes. They walked for an hour and the wheat gave way to dry, parched areas of dirt. “Let’s walk around the edge of the field,” Cici suggested.

  “Why? We know there isn’t anything out there,” Kayla said.

  “Yes, but where there’s a crop, there’s usually a farmer,” Cici reasoned. “I don’t see anything in front of us, either.”

  Aubrey sighed. “At least it’s a plan.”

  They made it halfway down one side of the field, and Kayla squinted. “I think I see smoke.” They walked a little further, and they could make out a small cabin type house with a fence, sitting at the north side of the field. “Thank you,” Kayla gasped. She was seething in anger, more than ever convinced that Bobby was responsible. “Look, if it was him, chances are this field is one of the lease holdings his tribe owns. Let me talk to them.”

  Aubrey stirred the dirt with her toe, absently studying the circled trenches she was making. “You do know that Hehewuti had to be in on this, don’t you?”

  “Not necessarily. She might have just mentioned my visit, and Bobby and a couple of his yayhoo friends decided to take advantage of the information.” Kayla hoped the old woman was not in on it. She wanted to talk to her when she got back. She was counting on the Indian to give her information to use on her thesis for her finals. Hehewuti might even agree to take her to the reservation to talk to Tommy.

  “This might be a stupid thing to bring up, but how the hell do you think they carried me down that mountain? Really, guys, how could they do it? It took us almost three days to reach the mound, and isn’t like they could have wheeled me down that trail,” Cici said. “And the field. When we walked out, the wheat crunched down behind us. I could see a path all the way to the tent. When we woke up, there wasn’t any sign of people walking through it.”

  “I don’t know. Maybe they had a helicopter, or something. Some of the Indians tied in with their casinos have a lot of money,” Kayla said.

  “A helicopter? Oh for god’s sakes.” Aubrey did not have the answers to Cici’s questions, but she was fairly certain they were not airlifted anywhere. Maybe there was a quicker way to reach the mound than the one the Indian woman had mapped out for Kayla. Aubrey was not nearly as convinced that Hehewuti was not responsible. Goosebumps raised on her skin when she remembered joking with Cici about the old woman saying that she worked with destiny and spirits.

  They continued towards the little house. “Remember, let me do the talking,” Kayla reminded them.

  They walked a little closer to the cabin. “Kayla, they don’t have a phone.”

  “What, Cici?”

  “No phone lines, and I don’t see a car either. There isn’t even any kind of driveway,” Cici observed.

  Aubrey began to notice other things were missing. “There’s no dish on the roof for television, and I don’t see a power pole. Maybe whoever lives here is a survivalist, or one of those strict religious groups.”

  “Or maybe it’s Indians, Aubrey,” Kayla reminded them. “Some of them try to keep to the old ways. I think they’d still have to have a horse and cart or some way to get to town. We’ll find a phone there.” Kayla was beginning to get nervous now, too. Something felt wrong, but she could not figure it out.

  They finally walked up to the door, and Kayla turned to whisper to let her do the talking again. She knocked, and a few seconds later a woman opened the door. She was dressed in a long blue dress with a white apron, and her hair was pinned up. She had no makeup on, and her brown eyes widened with as much surprise as was on the three faces on the young women on the porch. She was definitely not an Indian. “Oh god, Henry. Travelers,” Clara gasped.

  Her reaction seemed awfully extreme to the girls. “Um… um… we’re kinda’ lost,” Kayla said. She glanced around the barren yard. No doubt, they don’t get many visitors out here.

  “Get them inside.” The man had an edge of panic in his voice. “Do you see anyone, Clara? Anyone in the field?”

  “No, Henry.” She reached out and grabbed Kayla’s arm. “Get in here, quickly.”

  “What the hell?” Kayla was dragged inside, and Cici and Aubrey followed her.

  The man had bolted up from the table and he was running to the windows. “Did anyone see you?”

  “What?” Aubrey was becoming frightened by the man’s panic.

  “God, Clara, their clothes. Get them something.” Clara continued to stare at the women. “Now, Clara,” the man demanded.

  “Let me see what I can find.” The woman sounded as terrified.

  “I don’t see anyone,” Henry called to back to her. She was across the single room, digging through a chest. The man looked over at the girls. Three of them. How the hell can I hide three of them? “Where did you wake up?”

  “What? In our tent,” Kayla answered.

  “No, I know damn well you went to sleep on one of the mounds. Where did you wake up?” he demanded.

  Cici began crying. Aubrey whispered, “In the field. What’s going on?”

  “This will work for you two, but I’ll have to figure something out for her.” Clara thrust an armful of clothes in Aubrey and Kayla’s arms. “Pull that curtain and you can change behind there.”

  “Lady, I’m not changing anything until someone tells us what the hell is going on,” Kayla replied. Aubrey could hear the fear quivering in her voice. She was damn close to the edge herself, from the building panic surrounding her.

  “You’re travelers, just like we are. Which mound did you sleep on?” Henry rifled his fingers through his hair. “Shit, it doesn’t matter. They’ve got the damn things hidden all over the place.”

  “Calm down, Henry. Remember what it was like for us,” Clara said.

  “That was over a decade ago,” Henry reminded her.

  “Yes, but remember what it was like when we got here?”

  “Where the hell is here?” Kayla demanded. A voice in her head whispered, Don’t go there. You don’t want to know.

  “We’re where you would think the Dakota’s would be. You’re in the tribes’ spirit world, and this land belongs to the Wehali.” Henry looked at the girls. “Which one of you crossed them? One of you knows an Indian, and you pissed them off.” He needed to know which one the tribe would be after.

  Aubrey was too shocked to speak, and she pointed at Kayla.

  “This is bullshit.” Kayla’s voice was a little too loud, and it betrayed her angry fear. “Where the hell is Bobby? Your joke has gone on long enough.”

  “It’s no joke. Dammit, look around you. I don’t know what kind of gadgets you have now, but do you see anything modern? Clara’s cooking on a stove made from rocks.” Henry was getting frustrated with their stubbornness. “Have you seen any planes or cars?” They shook their heads. “And you won’t, either. They aren’t here.”

  Clara swiped at her eyes. She was terrified of the danger the travelers brought with them. “Change. It’s going to be hard enough to hide you.”

  “Hide us from what?” Aubrey asked, moving towards the side of the room.

  “The Indians. Aren’t you listening?” Henry was trying to figur
e out how to get them out of his house. He knew that Clara would probably argue about just putting them out. She had refused, last time. “God, just get changed. Clara, you gotta’ find something for the other one.”

  “Rebecca’s things. I think I still have her other dress packed away in the barn. I was saving it to cut it up for a quilt.”

  Clara had one hand on the door when Cici asked, “Who’s Rebecca?” Clara’s feet froze for a moment, and then she ran through the door without answering.

  “Take everything off. You can’t have anything from the other place on you,” Henry called to the two young women. He was still walking from window to window and scanning the field. “Faster,” he ordered. Oh shit. Oh god. What the hell are we going to do with them?

  Clara flicked her wrists to snap the dust out of the dress. She was crying again, and remembering the Wehali warrior’s fierce eyes when he grabbed the front of her dress, ripped it open, and slapped her breasts. It had always been Tocho’s favorite punishment for her. Poor Henry had to run a gauntlet, and he ended up with three cracked ribs and a broken arm. And that was just for hiding one traveler, she remembered. Even with her exhaustion of caring for Henry and the farm until he was better, when Clara closed her eyes at night she would see Rebecca’s terrified face and hear her muffled screams while the Indians dragged her away.

  She dashed back to the house and tossed the worn dress at Cici. “Oh god, hurry.” Clara pushed her towards the curtain and noticed her painted nails. She tipped a lamp and spilled some of their precious kerosene into a bowl. What did not come off with that, they would have to sand off them.

  Aubrey felt ridiculous. She came out from behind the curtain, wearing the floor length dress and apron. She held the cap in her hand. After Kayla and Cici were finished changing, Clara sat them at the table and told them to get the nail polish off. While their fingertips soaked, she began collecting their jewelry.