The corner of Ben's lips twitched. Gabby couldn't tell if it was a good twitch or a bad one.
"Running them off cost us two of ours," said Ben, gesturing with his head past them. Gabby looked back to see a second gunship had fallen over. The other gunships milled about restlessly and Gabby had the strange sensation that she knew what they were underneath their skins, but couldn't figure it out.
"We can help," offered Milton. "Drogan's a genius with mechanics."
Ben glanced back at the bearded giant leaning against the truck. Suddenly, the whole contingent of Farmers broke out into laughter, just as the GSA retrieval squad had. Gabby shrugged at the other Frags. No one seemed to understand, except Celia who had a tight smirk on her face.
The laughter broke the tension that had been building. Ben smiled at them, giving permission for the others to relax. They'd passed some sort of test.
"Where'd you come from? Before that squad ran you here?" Ben's voice had an easy twang and Gabby found herself wanting to answer.
"The Flock," said Milton, "but since then we've just been heading south.
Ben shook his head. "The Flock. I'm sorry that was your first introduction to the Freelands. We're not all like that." Ben glanced at the gray sky, in the location the sun was hiding. "We should get you back to the homestead. It's getting dark and Melinda and the kids should be getting dinner ready. We can talk more there."
"Our Caterpillar isn't working," said Milton, hitching his thumb behind him.
"It's okay, grab your stuff and we'll tow it back tomorrow when there's more light."
Gabby hated leaving the Caterpillar, but they didn't have much choice. They grabbed their gear and before they loaded into the vehicles, Ben had them all introduce themselves. The Frags did the same. Gabby couldn't quite remember all the names, she was used to LifeGame telling her facts like that and the Blood Farm interface didn't seem to have that function, that she'd found.
Getting into Ben's minibus, she touched the exterior to confirm it wasn't as smooth and chrome plated like it appeared. She could feel paint chips beneath her fingertips. The illusionary skin on the vehicle reminded her of the gunships.
"What are those things? The little mobile gun units that protected us?" she asked Ben as they were getting ready to leave.
Ben focused, clearly changing something in the Blood Farm interface for them, and when she looked back, she nearly fell out of her bench laughing. The other Frags joined her after they followed her gaze.
Roaming around the Caterpillar, chewing grass and swishing their tails, was a small herd of cows, with gun turrets strapped to their backs. The bindings wrapped around the bellies of the beasts, keeping the guns relatively stable. The big bearded man and a couple of others were loading the carcasses of the two fallen cows into his truck with a wench. All the laughter at their expense made perfect sense now. Gabby hoped it was a good omen.
Chapter Thirteen
The name of the Freeland, The Blood Farm, was a bit misleading. First and foremost, they were a farming community, though not of blood. The fields contained wheat and corn and soybeans. There were orchards of apples and pears. Ben admitted they took their name to scare off the curious and the 'blood price' was merely the effort it took to work the fields.
About one hundred men, women and children made up the Blood Farm. Gabby never saw all of them at once during her time there, but she estimated the numbers from the buildings in the compound. It was jokingly called the Blood Fort and someone had even run a flag up on the mess hall. The faded flag had a drop of blood with a white cross in the middle.
The seven of them were given an empty building within the fencing for their own. Its interior was dusty and spider infested, but they had it cleaned out in a day. No one had offered that they join the Farm, but the implication was there. Everyone seemed to go out of their way to make them feel at home.
Pretty quickly, they each found their niche. Milton and Delilah were often seen wandering around holding hands when Milton wasn't working with their programmers designing new security routines for the cattle. The eye-screen technology was pretty cheap, so they put them on the cow's eyes and created a Cow World for them. It was cheaper and easier than fences and they doubled as walking gun turrets.
Michael worked in the medical facilities, which was run by Ben's wife Melinda. Ben's wife reminded Gabby of Blair the Chair (Gabby smiled wistfully remembering the name Zaela had called her when they visited the Library Museum.) The woman was confined to a wheelchair, though she had use of her arms and upper body, while Blair had to affect her surroundings through her robotic helper Frank.
Melinda took to Michael and the two could be seen conferring on medical issues at all hours of the day and night. Gabby hadn't known Michael to be interested in medicine. She wondered if his experience with the Flock had pushed him in that direction.
Mouse, she hardly saw. The slight girl often went with the workers into the fields or on patrols. Gabby kept wanting to talk to her about the red box, but she could never get her alone. At least it kept Mouse from Michael.
The hit of the Frags was Drogan. When they first met Melinda, her wheelchair was wobbling and one wheel appeared to be giving her a difficult time. Drogan went right to fixing it, even though Melinda was still in the chair. At first, the other Farmers moved to stop Drogan, but Ben stayed them. He seemed to sense what Drogan was or he remembered what they'd told him at the border.
After Melinda did a few figure eights and rocked back in a wheelie, the Farmers all clapped Drogan on the back. Gabby was worried about the personal contact, but Drogan took it well, only flinching slightly.
Since then, he'd been holed up in their workshop fixing vehicles, farming implements and whatever else they could bring him. Drogan had never been so happy. Gabby was glad to see his mind off the Bubble World. He'd even stopped saying "cradle will fall" every waking moment.
Only Celia seemed not to mesh into the Farmers. Her bandages and insect sensors made them uncomfortable. So Celia spent her time cross-legged on the front porch working on the damaged hovercraft. The Farm had electronics she could use. Sometimes Drogan helped her when he wasn't in the workshop.
Gabby wanted to talk to Ben about what he might know, but for the first two weeks at the Blood Fort, he was busy in the fields during the day and holed up at night in discussions. So she spent her time reading or searching the Freelands nets for information.
Finally, one warm day, when the gray clouds let bits of sunlight through, like spotlights shining down from the sky, Ben appeared on the little hill she'd taken to reading at.
"Socratic Dialogues," said Ben, matching her cross-legged style, "heretical reading for a LifeGamer."
Gabby glanced over. "I quit the game."
"I can still see it weighing on you. You look like you need to be doing something all the time. Even your foot taps like a metronome when you're reading."
"I keep trying to check my LifeScore," admitted Gabby. "It's strange not knowing my status. Like nothing counts unless there's a score attached."
Ben chuckled. "Don't worry, while the GSA takes activity planning to the extreme, we still have to get things done here in the Freelands. We don't have games to make the tasks more enjoyable, but we still have to bring in the crops and fix the equipment. Trade your score for a few honey-do lists and you'll feel right at home."
Ben flinched and raised his hand to swat down the bug that was pestering him. "Is that one of her bugs?"
She shrugged. "It might be, though hers tend to move more deliberately. But I try not to kill them anyway, just in case. She's saved us from the Coders more than once."
Ben put his hand by his side, eyeing the air above him before turning back to Gabby. She closed her book and set it down. "It's good to get buffed with a little sunshine for once." Gabby regretted using the word 'buffed' after their conversation. It marked her as an escapee from the GSA.
"My fields could use a whole bunch more buffings," said Ben with a wink. "
That volcano stopped spewing its guts out a few days ago. I'm hoping that means we'll see the sun more now."
"I heard from the Freelands network that it could cause the glaciers to grow further south," said Gabby.
"I heard the same things. But it won't be for a long time. Maybe our children's children. Nothing we can do about it anyway." Ben paused. "But talking about volcanoes and glaciers wasn't why I came up here."
Gabby wrapped her arms around her knees and stared at the grass. She knew what was coming. She'd been dreading it for weeks.
"We'd like the seven of you to stay with us. To join the Blood Farm. Every one of you would be a hellava asset to our little community."
Gabby's stomach ached. "I can't. My friend Zaela..."
"I know," said Ben, "the others told me. They said you wouldn't stay and that if you went, they would go."
"What?" Gabby didn't want that. Didn't want that responsibility. It was like Daniel with the Flock. She'd never asked him, but he tried to come anyway and paid for that decision with his life.
"Even Milton?"
"Not in so many words. He still calls himself the leader of your little group, but deep down he knows better," he said. "You're a leader if I ever saw one."
"I don't want to be the leader." Gabby bit her lip. If it hurt enough, maybe the ache would go away. "I didn't ask to be one."
"Maybe you didn't ask, but that doesn't mean you're not one. The only definition of a leader is that they have followers and your friends are willing to follow you wherever you go." Ben paused. "Or not go."
"But people have died because of me," she said.
"I never chose to be the leader of the Blood Farm either and people have died under my watch. More than I care to admit and some directly because of my decisions. I don't sleep so well these days."
Gabby paused. "Does every decision you make seem like a foolish one? All my choices result in someone getting hurt. I never know if I'm doing the right thing."
The enormity seemed to be crushing her. She felt like she was being pressed into the ground.
"That's just confirmation that you are a leader. Leading means taking people where they need to go, but can't make the choices themselves. And it means, at times, you'll be out there alone, fighting the good fight and wondering if anyone will stand by your side. You'll feel like the biggest fool on the earth."
"Have you felt that way before?"
Ben chuckled. "Too many times to count."
A thoughtful silence filled in between them. Gabby let the discussion mull around in her head.
"There's going to be a war between the GSA and the Southlands," said Ben, breaking the silence and squinting southward as if he could see the evidence for himself.
Gabby had heard similar rumblings. The Freelands didn’t care too much as long as they left them out of it. She shook her head. "I have to get Zaela."
"I respect your decision, but you'll be putting them in danger. It'd be a lot safer here for your friends, especially Drogan. He's as big as an ox but has the mind of a child. We could use his skills on the Farm. Put them to use better than you can on the way south. Of course, we could use all your skills if you decided to stay."
Gabby knew what Ben was trying to say. He was suggesting that she leave without them. The thought had crossed her mind more than once. She could chance the Game Train and make her way to the Double Eagle in no time. She could easily weasel Milton's contacts out of him and figure the rest out as she went. And if she needed to sneak back into the GSA to get Zaela, it would be easier for one person rather than seven, assuming Zaela was even in the GSA. She'd practically made up her mind before Ben had come to talk to her, though she didn't want him to know that.
"We'd need Drogan to fix the Caterpillar. If it broke down again we'd be sunk."
Ben's mouth was smiling but his eyes said something completely different. She could see why he was the leader of the Blood Farm. She had a sense he could see right through her.
"I've been meaning to tell you," he said. "The Caterpillar is fixed. Didn't take much work. Only a little time and the right tools."
Ben was holding something back. He wanted her to ask. She thought about letting it go, but decided to let it play out.
"What was wrong?"
Ben glanced back down to the town and then back to her. "It was the strangest thing. I happened to be there when he opened up the gas tank. The thing was half filled with sugar."
Gabby steeled herself from reacting. He wanted to know who she suspected.
"Drogan didn't quite know what to make of it," he said. "He didn't put any meaning to it other than that he had to clean it out. Only Braymer was there and he's not the talking type, if you know what I mean."
Gabby's thoughts ran right to Mouse. There were too many unanswered questions she had about the girl: the Coder's promise at LifeGame, the red box and the other ways they could be tracked. She had no idea how the GSA retrieval squad had found them on the plains so easily. She assumed they'd used human intelligence or cameras or the satellites she heard they still controlled, but it could have been a spy in the group. They didn't have raw sugar up in the mountains but had access to it in the Flock. She didn’t remember Mouse having anything with her, but she had been prepared to leave.
Ben got up and turned to go. He had a piece of grass between his teeth.
"Now I'm not saying what it means. You're the only one that could know that, but if you did have a problem in your little group, we could take it off your hands."
Ben gave her a knowing wink and left her little patch of grass on the hillside. Gabby didn't read her book for the rest of the afternoon. She was dreading the choice, but eventually, as the setting sun blazed the clouds with crimson, she decided she would make her way south alone.
Chapter Fourteen
Gabby didn't leave them right away. First, she had supplies to gather for the journey and she had to do it without Celia finding out.
She hated herself the whole time she was sneaking around, but as Ben had told her, if they found out she was leaving, they would follow her south. There were other advantages to leaving the Frags. The sugar in the gas tank all but confirmed they had a spy in their midst, probably working for the Coders. If she went alone, she'd have a better chance of sneaking back into the GSA once she found out what she needed to know.
Getting Milton's contact had been easier than she thought. Delilah had him on permanent distraction. That next afternoon, while the two love birds were holding hands and chatting softly on the porch, Gabby peppered Milton with questions until he gave her the information, just to make her go away. The former LifeGamer she needed to contact was a man named Jaxon.
Once everything was ready, Gabby realized she only had one more thing to do. It was the hardest part about leaving.
Gabby stepped into the infirmary, the smell of antiseptic hit her nose. Michael was sitting on a stool with a rubber strap around his arm. Melinda was beside him, drawing blood out into a syringe.
"Ni hao," Gabby said, trying to sound playful and informal. Her insides were doing back flips.
Michael jumped at her voice. His eyes screamed at her to leave. Gabby ran out the front door, taking long strides toward the hill.
She heard the door slamming close half way up the street. Michael ran to catch up, he was out of breath even though the distance had been short.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bother you," Gabby blurted out.
"You weren't," he said. "You just surprised me, is all."
"What was she doing?"
"She needed samples. Some tests she's doing. I'm a good guinea pig."
Gabby maintained her brutal pace. Michael labored to keep up.
"Did you want to talk?" he asked, sounding hesitant.
"I...I just wanted to see what was going on," said Gabby. "Since we came to the Blood Farm, we've all been split up. The only person I see regularly is Celia and she's like talking to a lamp post." Then after a pause. "Sorry."
"
It's okay. She creeps me out too sometimes even though she's my sister. I just wish she talked more, but she's so busy seeing with her sensors that she forgets about us at times."
Michael knocked the hair out of his eyes with a hitch of his head. The dark circles around his eyes only made their icy-blue more distinct. Staring into them was like cutting herself. She couldn't figure out how they could look so cold but she felt so warm.
"Gabby?"
She realized he'd been asking her a question. "What? Sorry, I remembered something."
"What did you come to talk to me about? You seemed way more serious than just 'catching up.'"
A fit of madness overtook her and she nearly asked him to come with her. To head south with just the two of them. It would be a glorious adventure and maybe he might figure out what his feelings were for her. She could hope.
But then she saw how thin he was getting. She could see his collarbone poking through his shirt. The journey so far had been hard on him. He needed more time to regain his strength. Bringing him along would only hurt him more and she didn't want to do that.
He was looking to her in expectation as she realized her mouth was open. She asked the first question that popped into her head: "Have you ever seen Mouse with a red box?"
Michael shook his head.
"She got it when we raided the GSA hovercraft tower. Or at least I thought she did."
"Nope," he said, "never saw it."
While she was asking, she figured she might as well get the other one out of the way.
"And when we escaped the Flock, you didn't happen to see if Mouse got anything from them?"
Michael glanced thoughtfully to the side. Gabby's face grew flush and she wanted to lean forward and nibble on his neck.
"Yeah, she did steal some supplies from the kitchens. Yeast, sugar and a few other items. What's the significance?" Michael narrowed his eyes.
"Nothing." He wants to defend her, even though he doesn't know from what, she thought. And before he could ask her another question, Gabby said, "I have to go, I forgot about—" and she ran off without saying what it was.
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