Titan (EEMC Book 2)

by Bijou Hunter

  My feelings aren’t sexual, really. Pixie is beautiful. Her dark brown eyes shine when she’s happy. And her lips are made for smiling. Pixie is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.

  But that’s not why I’m obsessed. Pretty women are a dime a dozen at the clubhouse. I never trust them. Even though the club bunnies in Elko are nice to me, I suspect they’re faking it. I’ve never been smart about women. I’m probably stupid by trusting Pixie too.

  I need to stop visiting her. The Volkshalberd are weird and possibly dangerous. Plus, they’re giving my club trouble.

  Bronco welcomed me into his community. He gave me a chance at a new life. He would be pissed to know about Pixie. I should stop coming here.

  But once she’s out of my sight, I need to see her again. No other woman interests me. I can’t be with the bunnies. Only Pixie matters.

  When I watch a movie or TV show, I memorize every detail to share during our next visit. I’m always thinking of treats to bring her. I worry about her eating enough at the Village. The Volkshalberd are so poor, and she isn’t in good graces with the top assholes.

  Pixie shares things in passing about how the old people died in the winter, and the new people aren’t smart. Her mama thinks everyone will be dead by the end of the year. Pixie doesn’t seem scared when she says those things. She never acts bothered except when she speaks of her papa.

  Yet, I hate her living at the Village. I’m also concerned about keeping her a secret from Bronco. I spend every waking minute worrying about one thing or the other.

  Sooner or later, something will have to change.

  PIXIE YABO

  No one’s journey is easy. I’ve been blessed, though. I enjoyed a charmed life on a commune in Indiana. Our people—the Dandelion Collective—were my garden. My family lived there since both of my grandmamas were babies. I rarely had a bad day with the Dandelions. Every morning, I woke in our one-room house, next to my family and knew I had a full day of activities ahead of me. There was the Dandelion school and then free learning when I got older—reading, writing, herbal medicine, agriculture, and humanity’s struggles. Everyone in the commune was my friend. Any discord was dealt with in festive ways.

  That’s not how the rest of the world works. Out here, people are angry and violent. We have to fight for food and shelter. I can’t turn my back on anyone. Everyone separates themselves by superficial categories.

  Back during the attack on the Collective, I hadn’t understood why those government men were so angry or why one of them shot Papa. They attacked our home, yelling at everyone and waving around their big, black guns. I thought they were monsters.

  I understand now. People in the outside world are often angry and cruel. The ones with the big guns do what they want, and the ones with no guns have to tiptoe around to avoid getting hurt. That’s how it is now in the Village.

  When we moved to Ohio, I didn’t like the new commune. However, back then, there weren’t so many guns.

  The Volkshalberd are hard people. They lack the sunshine in their hearts like at the Collective. My sister, Dove, misses the warmth of the old community. The Village is surrounded by woods except for the area with the crops. Where we sleep and eat is always shaded. Dove needs light to bloom. The Village offers little.

  Leaving the new commune isn’t an option, though. Where can we go in a cruel world with angry people who want to hurt us? We don’t know where the other Dandelions went after the government made us leave the Collective. Mama said we couldn’t go back. The government tried to make us live in an apartment and wouldn’t tell us what happened to our friends. They told Mama that she would go to jail if she complained about Papa dying. Everything was very confusing.

  All we had left was each other. Panicked at our situation, Mama took Dove and me to the Village after a man said we would be safe there. He promised the Volkshalberd were good people. Daniel was his name, but he died last winter from the flu. So many of the elders coughed themselves to death. With so many dead, a new Volkshalberd torch bearer took control.

  “That man has the dead eyes of a squirrel,” Mama whispers to me when we first meet John Marks. The outsider looks weird with overcooked skin and a shiny bald head with stringy white hair that starts growing at his ears. Somehow, the odd stranger becomes the torch bearer for the Village. His ascension makes no sense. He’s only been in the Village for a few months. Plus, Marks doesn’t work, and he isn’t smart. He also smells like beets and can’t poop right.

  “People who can’t poop,” Mama told me, “are filled with negative energy. Be wary of them.”

  And I was very wary of John Marks. Even before he became our new torch bearer, he wanted to touch all the women. Mama told Marks that her body belonged to her Volkshalberd helpmate, Perry.

  “Only he can know me,” Mama insisted.

  Marks backed down. Despite liking to push people around, he’s very weak and cowardly. When she told him no, he claimed Mama was too old to continue his bloodline. Everyone knew he was lying since she gave birth to my brother, Future, two summers ago.

  When Marks came for me, I told him I had been blessed with the gift of syphilis.

  “Can’t you get that fixed?” he asked in his sloppy way of speaking as if his tongue is too big for his tiny mouth.

  “I prayed to the Eye of God, and I am now filled with syphilis,” I said and spun around triumphantly. “Do you want to be blessed, too, John of the Marks?”

  My ruse worked, and he decided he didn’t want to be blessed with my disease. Several other women came down with similar cases of syphilis after my triumph.

  More recently, Marks noticed Dove, who has a new woman’s body. When he asked to see her alone, Mama screamed. Then I screamed. Then the other women screamed. I don’t think they knew what we were doing. Mama later said that the women don’t like John Marks because his bloodline is tainted.

  “The family is weak,” Mama whispered as we cuddled at night in our tabernacle. Perry warned her to be quiet, but she shushed him. Her helpmate isn’t as strong and smart as my papa and mama. That’s why he does what she says. “The Village shouldn’t honor a bloodline so foul.”

  I don’t care about bloodlines. When I have a baby, I only want it to have sunshine in its heart. Until Anders, I never consider a helpmate for the baby-making.

  After Mama spies on the biker man and me, she says he is a grand sequoia. “Mighty and unbreakable against the ages.”

  I don’t know if that’s true. Anders has sad eyes. I believe he’s very breakable. That’s why I give the big blond bear lots of hugs and tell him that he’s special. I don’t think he knows he’s a grand sequoia. Anders believes he’s a single weed in a world wanting to tear him out of the ground and throw him away.

  I see so much beauty in the large man. Anders sits with me and talks while our skin warms in the sun. I shouldn’t sneak off, but the Village is tedious. We never have anything fun to do. The crops fail. We rarely build anymore. No one sings or dances. We just pray all day, and the prayers are filled with lies and greed.

  That’s why I wander away from the Village. And one day, there is Anders. When I leave him, I don’t expect our paths to cross again. I never see the same people when I visit the stores in Elko.

  But then, Anders returns. I find myself going to the same place, wondering if I will hear the growling of his big bike. Will he smile this time? He doesn’t always. Anders is sad in a way I don’t understand. He isn’t unhappy like I am over missing Papa. Anders suffers from the sort of melancholy that bleeds out of a person with a broken heart.

  I don’t know who hurt this big man. I bet he got sad when he was little. Everyone’s vulnerable when they’re a kid, even if they’ll grow up to be as big as a tree.

  Anders doesn’t tell me about his broken heart. He talks about movies and television shows. Food is important to him. He needs to feed his muscles a lot, so he can stay strong. I like how his blue eyes brighten when he speaks of a good meal.

  But he
won’t tell me about food after the Volkshalberd get in trouble with his big bike friends. John Marks wronged them, and now we don’t get to leave the Village. Lately, there’s almost no food. All the good stuff goes to John Marks with his fat butt and his mean sister with her fatter butt. They’ve convinced the young men and some of the older people to trust in their plan. Now, most of the Village starves, but John and Steph don’t.

  Though Mama worries about Anders’s intentions, she knows he brings me snacks. That’s why she lets me go. Life was barren even before the Village got in trouble with the Executioners. Now we barely have enough to survive.

  One time, I bring Dove and Future with me. Anders only has a single apple for us. I tell him it’s enough, but then Future cries after he eats the last slice. Seeming angry, Anders orders us to stay there, and then he disappears on his loud bike. My brother sits in my lap, weeping over how empty his stomach feels.

  Soon, Anders returns with more fruit from a store. When I show Future how our big friend brought more, my little brother gives Anders a hug. I think love is what the giant man needs most.

  After that time, Anders brings more food. Each time, he gives me things I can hide. Nuts and fruit are my favorites, but he also brings dried meat and tiny bags of cereal. I only eat a little during the visits. Then at night, in our family’s tabernacle, when the rest of the Volkshalberd prepare for sleep, I show our treasures to Mama, Perry, Dove, and Future.

  My brother gets so excited that we have to cover his mouth so he won’t yell. Then Mama divides the food. She is always fair. Being the biggest, Perry wants more. Mama refuses to be browbeat, though.

  “These are the treasures of my womb,” she angrily whispers when he tries to grab more food. “They must be fed. If you want more food, go make John of the Marks share with you. He’s got enough to be fat.”

  Perry only lowers his head. He fears John Marks and all the angry young men with their shiny, new weapons.

  I’m not really afraid of them. Yes, I saw Papa’s heart explode. I understand how guns are demons that destroy. But I’m not scared of little boys pretending to be men.

  Many days, the brainless toadies—that’s what Mama calls them—are as hungry as us. Marks refuses to share. He tricks them into thinking they’re getting more, but they aren’t. I’m not scared of dumb people.

  “Will the biker men ever let us leave?” I ask Anders one day when he visits.

  “That’s up to your leader.”

  “The torch bearer is a dumb man. You said your leader is smart. Why can’t your man make mine do what he wants?”

  “Bronco’s trying. That’s why he locked everything down. Otherwise, he’d have to kill people in the Village.”

  Sensing Anders doesn’t understand, I explain, “But people are hungry. Without food, they’ll die.”

  “Then, they should rise up against your torch bearer.”

  “But they have the demon guns.”

  “They’re just tools like hammers and rakes. If you take them, you can use the weapons against Marks,” Anders says, and then his blue eyes get so big. “Well, not you. Or your family. Maybe your stepfather can do it. But I don’t want you getting hurt.”

  Right then, I hug Anders. His soft heart hurts when I’m hungry or scared. I don’t like it when he suffers either.

  That’s why when Rusten runs toward Anders with a demon gun, I have to stop the young Volkshalberd.

  Moments earlier, the two young men appeared from the woods with murder in their eyes. Before they arrived, Anders stood away from me while I ate a snack. He told me about the television show he watched last night. We weren’t harming anything.

  Then Myles shoots a demon gun at Anders. At that moment, I imagine a world without my grand sequoia. The choice for me is clear. The Volkshalberd do not own my heart, while Anders does. I will kill to protect him.

  If I was faster, I could have tried to stop the government men from killing Papa. Today, I’m quicker than Rusten. Once Myles shoots at Anders, the big man uses his own gun and puts a big hole in the Volkshalberd’s face.

  Rusten hollers in rage and points his demon gun at Anders. I jump on the young man’s back, knocking him to the ground. I hit him with a rock until he stops fighting.

  I don’t care if Rusten dies. I never believed the Volkshalberd’s views about death and what happens to us afterward. I am a Dandelion. Rusten can live his story again in another world. His time here is over. In his next story, I hope he’s smart enough to avoid hurting my blond bear.

  “Fuck,” Anders growls when he realizes the men are dead.

  I wipe my bloodied hands on my skirt and think about the food Anders brought. I should run to the Village and give it to Mama. If the men find me first, she won’t eat. Future is getting so thin. Hunger makes Dove only want to sleep. If I’m about to die, I need to give them the food.

  But Anders takes my arm and pulls me toward his big bike. Panicked for my family, I yank free.

  “What?” I cry when his angry face scares me.

  “There could be more of those assholes. They’ll kill us both. We have to go.”

  “I need to give Mama food.”

  “We’ll come back for them. First, I need to talk to someone.”

  I glance between the dead men and Anders. Even with his big scary face raging like a beast, I know he won’t hurt me. He’s got a baby bear’s heart in a big bear’s body.

  Thinking I hear the horn in the distance, I start moving away from Anders and toward the bodies. I take the demon guns and bring them to the giant man who looks ready to yell.

  “They can’t shoot us with these if we take them.”

  Anders’s face does something that makes me think I’m missing an important step. He doesn’t explain. Instead, he takes the demon guns and shoves them inside a pouch attached to his bike. Then he picks me up like a toy and puts me on the seat.

  “You need to hold on,” he demands as he slides over the middle part of the bike.

  I wrap my arms around his waist and smile at him. Anders doesn’t need to know I’m scared. His heart is stormy, while mine can seem calm. I decide to pretend I’m not scared at all as the bike rumbles between my legs.

  We ride so fast away from the Village. As the sun begins to set, I think of Mama worrying. Then I imagine Dove unable to sit up. Future will cry without food. I need to go back.

  But I can’t jump off the bike. I don’t know where we are. Is this still Elko? I only know the few shops the Volkshalberd frequented before the Executioners locked us inside the Village. Where am I?

  The buildings are big, and many have flashing signs. I see the big highway we used years ago to arrive in Elko. All that concrete reminds me of the government place we went to after Papa died. The world here is hard and sharp. There’s less grass and trees, more people and noise.

  As my heart pounds, I want nothing more than to return to the Village. I don’t care if I’m hungry, or John Marks hurts me. My family is back in the place where the cicadas are louder than the traffic.

  Anders slows down near a metal gate and waves at a man in a booth. Then the loud bike roars faster, forcing me to hold on tighter to avoid falling off. Anders races us up and down roads lined with big buildings. These aren’t stores, but I’m not sure what this place is or why we’re here.

  “This is my house,” Anders explains after his bike rolls into a strange room with a door that slides down. “I need to figure things out.”

  He climbs off and waits for me to do the same.

  “I’ll stay here,” I insist, too cowardly to see what’s on the other side of the house’s smaller door.

  “I can’t think if you’re in the garage.”

  Anders picks me up and carries me like a baby into another part of his house. This area is cold and bright. The gray wood floor feels chilly against my bare feet. The ceiling of one room is so high that even Anders can’t reach the top. The walls are very white, and the furniture is very black.

  Once curio
sity takes over, I forget to be nervous and start exploring.

  “This is where you go when you leave me?” I ask, looking back at where Anders paces back and forth near the inside fireplace.

  “Yeah.”

  “Do all the biker men live here?”

  “No. Just me.”

  Frowning, I doubt he needs all this space. Of course, he is very tall and has the biggest shoulders. Maybe he just likes to stretch out a lot.

  “I’ll feed you, and then I’ll call them,” he mumbles, nervous even though he’s in his home.

  Anders takes me to a refrigerator. Finding little food inside, I wonder if he’s poor like us at the Village.

  “Crap. I don’t keep a lot of food here,” he says, rubbing his neck too roughly.

  I slide my fingers over the skin he scratched raw. “I have the food from the road.”

  “No, you need more.”

  Glancing out the large, glass doors, I see a grassy park. What is this place? I notice a pool like the one near the apartment building the government told us to live in after the Collective was no more. There’s a metal fence around the pool and then a wooden one around the grassy area.

  The sun has finally gone down, and I imagine Mama worrying about me. “My family needs to see my face. Take me back on the bike.”

  Anders startles me by putting his big hands on my shoulders. I stare at him and wonder why he looks so afraid. Is he worried about Mama, too?

  “I’m not supposed to be giving you food,” he says, frowning in a terrifying way. “I’m not supposed to go out to see you while the lockdown happens. I promised Bronco I wouldn’t. He won’t understand.”

  “I can go back.”

  “No,” he growls in a deep voice that makes me fear him for the first time.

  “Why?”

  “I need you to be safe.”

  Hugging him, I rest my head on his wide chest. “Don’t worry. You are a ray of sunshine. You told me that the Bronco man is the one who gave you a home. Be honest with him.”

  Anders’s face gets really grumpy, making him look like a baby that needs to sleep. “You don’t understand how things work.”