Betrayed (Cry of the Guilty – Silence of the Innocent Book 2)

by Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

  “We’d better find something to eat before it’s all gone,” Sari said.

  Gwin picked up her blanket and took one off an empty bed. She handed it to Sari. “We’re going to need these tonight.”

  They fought their way through the crowd into one of the warehouses. It was almost empty. Gwin pried open a box with an axe she found and looked inside. It was full of packaged meat. She dropped the axe on top of the meat and put the lid back on.

  “Grab the other end,” she whispered to Sari.

  “Why?”

  “It’s full of meat. We’ll hide it.”

  “Where?”

  “In the forest.”

  They hadn’t gone too far when Gwin sniffed the air. “Do you smell smoke?”

  Sari breathed deep and nodded. “Someone’s got a fire going.”

  “Let’s find out who. Maybe they’ll be someone we can work with.”

  Within a short time they reached two prisoners sitting under a tree with a small fire in front of them.

  “Mind if we join you?” Gwin asked.

  One of them gestured for Gwin and Sari to sit down.

  “My name is Gwin and this is Sari.”

  “I’m Georg and this is my brother Jawn. Did you take part in the rampage?”

  “No. We just watched from the sidelines. What about you?”

  “We heard the noise and got there in time to see the chase into the woods. What happened after that?”

  “We didn’t go look but we’re surmising that they killed the guards and police and then they must have threatened the ship because it took off.”

  “It’s left?” Jawn asked. He looked in the sky but because of the tall trees he could only see what was directly above him.

  “Not yet. It’s been sitting over the meadow since this morning.”

  “So what are you doing here?”

  Gwin looked at Sari then back at Georg. “We didn’t think it was a good idea to stay in the village. We’ve got some meat here and we’re willing to share it if we can stay by your fire for the night.”

  “Sounds good to us,” Georg said. “We’ve been starving all day.”

  “Why didn’t you go into the village for food?”

  “We thought it best to avoid the place for a while.”

  “How did you start the fire?” Sari asked.

  Georg held up a lighter.

  “Where did you get that?”

  “One of the cooks was in my dormitory. He told me that the police would take the lighters after they lit the fires for cooking and keep them in the police station. I paid a visit to the station before we left and picked up a few.”

  “Where are you getting the wood from?” Gwin looked at the pile beside the tree.

  “We hauled most of it last night and now we’re finding dead branches and logs to keep it going.”

  Gwin opened the box and took out the axe. “Will this help?”

  Georg grinned and took it from her. “Am I ever glad you two came by. We’ll be able to chop the logs into smaller lengths.”

  They ate some of the packaged meat, then Georg cut strips from his and Jawn’s blankets to wrap around their feet. They took turns looking after the fire throughout the night. It was small, but wrapped in their blankets, it was enough to keep the chill off.

  The morning was frigid with grey clouds hanging overhead. Gwin was watching the fire and she added wood to increase the size and heat. They had the axe to get more. As the others woke they moved slowly trying to make their cramped limbs work. They were quiet as they ate some meat for breakfast.

  “This isn’t going to last us long,” Georg finally said. “And we’re going to need water. We’ve been eating the snow but it takes a lot of it to quench a thirst.”

  “We’ll have to go back for more food and buckets to haul water,” Sari said, standing. “And I want to see if the Federer is still here.”

  “Jawn, you stay with the fire,” Georg said. “We’ll be back soon.”

  Georg wrapped his blanket around his shoulders and led the way. Gwin and Sari with their two layers of clothes followed. The ground was cold and getting hard and Gwin was thankful for the shoes Sari had given her.

  “Let’s see about the ship first,” Gwin said.

  “Yeah, maybe I can get on board it,” Sari agreed.

  “And maybe we can find out what the governor is going to do,” Georg said.

  They came out of the trees to see the Federer still in the sky. The meadow was swarming with prisoners waving their arms and yelling at the ship to land and give them more food.

  “I wonder if they will see me,” Sari said. She stood at the edge of the trees and waved her hand.

  “I doubt that they’ll be able to pick you out of all the others,” Georg said.

  “We might as well go to the warehouses and see if there is anything left,” Gwin said disheartened. “The ship isn’t going to land as long as they are there.”

  As they walked into the village they saw that some of the more energetic prisoners were cutting down trees for firewood, while others were cleaning up the stoves and digging the snow out of the pits. Most, though, wandered listlessly wrapped in their blankets or lay on their beds shivering against the cold. They found two bodies that hadn’t been stripped and George removed their clothes for him and Jawn.

  They headed to the street of warehouses, checking the boxes and sacks that had been scattered by the prisoners. All had been emptied. Grain for seeding and the animal food had been dumped in piles.

  “I wonder what they plan on cooking in those stoves,” Georg said, looking in one of the warehouses. “There doesn’t seem to be anything left.”

  “Maybe we should come back here and help,” Gwin said.

  Georg shook his head. “The more people there are, the more have to be fed. If we keep our group small we will survive better.”

  “Let’s find some food and get back,” Sari said. “Even with two layers of clothes I’m almost numb.”

  They checked through all of the warehouses but couldn’t find anything to take back with them. The boxes and sacks had been emptied and what hadn’t been eaten had been stepped on and crushed into the ground.

  “Look at all the waste,” Sari said, disgusted. “This would be good food if they’d been more careful.”

  Finally, Georg found a bucket and a bag of dried fruit that was hidden under an empty box. “Looks like that’s all there is,” he said.

  “Why don’t we cut some of that canvas and make a shelter?” Gwin said. “We could put it over poles stuck in the ground and it might help to keep the wind and cold out.”

  “And we could use something for our hands and heads,” Georg said.

  They stepped back into the empty warehouse so no one would see them. Georg hunted for something to cut the canvas with while Gwin and Sari placed boxes into a pile beside one wall for him to stand on. He found another axe and climbed up. The canvas cut easily and soon they had three large squares of it. They checked to make sure no one was coming and snuck around to the back of the warehouse.

  Their spirits were low as they headed back to their fire. In spite of the extra axe they now had and the canvas to use for a shelter, they still only had a bag of dried fruit and the remaining packaged meat. When that was gone what would they do?

  Once at the campsite they cut tree branches and pounded them into the hardening ground and stretched the canvas over them. It made a three-sided shelter with the fire at the open end. Lying or sitting inside, they were out of the wind and the snow if it should fall again.

  * * *

  The next morning Governor Lind stood in the command room waiting for a reply from the Leaders. She’d sent her message telling them about the snow, the ransacking of the warehouses, the killings, and the attack on the Federer. She stated that she doubted there was any edible food left in the village and that their only choice was to head for Pidleon because of their low fuel supply. She added that she didn’t believe they could stock up on
food and return to the planet before the prisoners starved to death.

  She wasn’t about make any decision on her own. That would lead to too many questions, too many doubts about her real concerns since she’d been forced into this job. So she’d asked them for advice on how to handle the situation and she hoped it came soon.

  She looked out the view screen at the large group of prisoners still in the meadow. They’d quit brandishing their weapons and shaking their fists. Instead, they’d huddled in groups waiting for the ship to land. Some slept, some talked, and some just stared at the ship as if willing it to return to the ground. She knew that as soon as she did, though, they would attack again and she would have to take off, killing more of them. She could see the bodies that had been scorched by the engines lying where they had fallen.

  And she could see the village and the devastation the prisoners had caused. The buildings were still intact but the streets were littered with bodies and discarded boxes and bags. She could see into the dormitories and the bodies in the beds. Some of them weren’t moving, hadn’t moved since the night before. It was too soon for them to have starved to death. Had it been so cold over night that they had frozen?

  A message began coming through. Governor Lind waited until the machine had quit before going to read it.

  Governor Lind,

  We are disappointed to hear the disastrous news. The colony seemed to have been running smoothly. We really are unwilling to terminate this experiment just yet. There are too many lives at stake. Are you sure you can’t land and restore order?

  Governor Lind sighed. Hadn’t they read her report? Didn’t they realize that landing wasn’t an option? The only options were heading to Pidleon and then home or going to Pidleon and returning here with food.

  “What did they say?’ Captain Wend asked, coming up behind her.

  “They want us to land.”

  “There’s no way we can,” the captain protested. “If we land, they’ll attack and the extra boost we’ll need for lift-off might deplete our fuel enough that we’d be suspended in space until a space fueller could come out to us. That would further slow down our return with food.”

  “I have a feeling that we won’t make it back in time anyway,” Governor Lind said looking out the viewer and seeing that snow was again falling. “I think that many will die because of the cold.”

  “If we can’t help the prisoners, we might as well go home,” Captain Wend said.

  “What about the historian, Sari? She’s down there somewhere.”

  “How would we find her and get her on board, assuming she’s still alive?”

  “I really hate to leave them to die,” Governor Lind whispered.

  “There is nothing we can do. It’s not your fault that it rained and they ate or ruined most of the food. And it’s not your fault that the weather has turned cold.”

  Governor Lind wondered if the Leaders would see it that way. Maybe they would if Captain Wend and her crew, Judge Jym, the craftspeople, and the farmers testified to the facts. She also wondered if later, when she thought about this decision, would she still feel she’d made the right one?

  “Okay. I’ll send a message that we are heading to Pidleon and that we don’t believe that we would be able to make it back here with food before the prisoners starve.”

  * * *

  “Look!” Jawn yelled pointing upwards.

  Through the gap in the trees over their fire he could see the Federer rising. Gwin, Sari, and Georg came out from the shelter and stared, open-mouthed, as the spaceship swung over the village then took off into the sky.

  “You’re leaving me!” Sari hollered in panic. “You’re leaving me here to die!”

  “Come back!” Gwin yelled, though she knew it was useless. “You can’t leave us!”

  Sari dropped to the ground crying. “They knew I was down here. Why didn’t they try to rescue me?” she sobbed. “I’m not a criminal.”

  And neither am I, Gwin thought bitterly. Her rage threatened to engulf her. She had done nothing and here she was abandoned on a faraway planet, left to die with thousands of prisoners.

  They watched until the spaceship was just a speck in the sky. Georg angrily punched the air with his fist then took off into the woods. Jawn watched him go, then, with tears in his eyes, forlornly returned to the campfire.

  “You’re the space person here,” Sari said to Gwin when she’d calmed down somewhat. “What do you think they are doing? Where are they going?”

  “My guess would be that they’re heading for the planet Pidleon to refuel and stock up on food. Then they’ll return here.”

  “Are you sure?” Jawn asked.

  “I wish I could say yes, but I can’t. We don’t know what they or the Leaders are thinking.”

  “If they do come back, how soon would that be?”

  Gwin thought of the two weeks it had taken in the clipper. The Federer was slower. In her heart, she knew it wouldn’t be in time to save them from starvation. “It depends on how fast they are at loading the food, but I would say a few weeks.”

  Georg returned. No one spoke. They just stared into the fire. It was the only thing they had between them and the cold. They’d already decided to ration their meat and dried fruit. It would last them for five more days.

  “What is that smell?” Georg asked.

  They all sniffed the air. “Smells like something cooking,” Jawn said.

  “Do you think they’ve found something to eat?” Gwin asked.

  “Let’s go find out,” Georg said, jumping up.

  “I don’t want to be stuck looking after the fire this time,” Jawn said. “I want to go with you.”

  “I’ll stay,” Sari said in a low voice. “It won’t do us any good anyway. We’re still going to die.”

  Gwin looked down at her. She knew what Sari was feeling and she didn’t blame her. She’d been experiencing those same emotions since the Federer had lifted. In spite of what she’d said, she’d known what that meant. It was a shock to know that she was stranded on an unfamiliar planet with only starvation to look forward to. But she had decided that as long as she was alive she still had a little hope. She doubted that the Leaders would just forget about the colony. They would have to send out another ship to check on it or maybe they would make the Federer return after refuelling at Pidleon. Just as she’d been determined to return home to prove her innocence, she was just as determined had to survive until someone came to rescue her.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Georg, Jawn, and Gwin snuck through the forest to the edge of the village. So far they’d been able to keep their little camp a secret and they wanted it to remain that way. What they saw were hundreds of prisoners struggling to get closer to the stoves and pits. Desperation was palatable in the air. Fights broke out as everyone pressed forward.

  They walked up to a man standing on the perimeter, watching. He had a look of resignation on his face.

  “What’s happening?” Georg asked.

  “They’re roasting some of the animals,” he said.

  “Some of the animals?”

  “Yeah. They killed the pigs and chickens and now they’re cooking them.”

  “How many?”

  The man shrugged. “I don’t know, but it’s not enough for us all to eat.”

  The three turned away. “The animals,” Georg said. “Now why didn’t I think of that?”

  “Let’s go and see if there are any left,” Jawn whispered not wanting to be overheard.

  They hurried in the direction of the animal shelters. There were no pigs or ducks or chickens left. They went to the pastures. No cows were in sight.

  They checked out the sheep pasture. Two sheep came wandering out of the bush and stood near the fence where they were used to being fed.

  “Let’s try one of them,” Jawn said.

  “What are we going to kill it with?” Gwin asked.

  Georg shrugged. “We have axes at the camp. We could take them back there and
kill them as we need them.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Gwin said. “How do we get them there? We can’t have them wandering off.”

  “Jawn, run back to the village and see if there isn’t something we could use to tie around their necks and lead them. We’ll stay guard here.”

  Jawn took off and returned shortly with some sacks and a hoe. “This is all I could find for cutting the sacks.”

  They rubbed the seams of the sacks on the edge of the hoe to cut them open. They wrapped each one around a sheep’s neck and held onto them. They were pleasantly surprised when the sheep willing went with them.

  Back at the fire they proudly showed Sari their animals and explained their purpose.

  “Great,” she said. Her face lit up at the prospect of having some food. “Do any of you know how to kill them?”

  Georg shook his head. “We’ll just have to learn.”

  “Before we do that,” Gwin said, glancing around. “Maybe we should move our camp further away from the village. We don’t want some half-starved prisoner finding us and telling the others.”

  “Good idea,” Georg said. “We should get closer to the river, also.”

  They took down the canvas and put it into the box with the dried fruit and packaged meat. The ice-covered water was dumped out of the bucket and the two axes placed in it. Gwin and Sari carried the box between them. In their other hands Gwin carried the bucket and Sari had the branches used for poles. Georg and Jawn led the sheep.

  They walked to the river then followed it around a bend so they wouldn’t be seen by anyone going to the river from the village. They came to a wide area which ran between the water and the bush.

  “Should we set up here?” Gwin asked.

  “No, we’ll be too much out in the open,” Georg said. “I’d prefer some shelter from the weather and anyone who might happen along.”