by S. J. West
I had no idea what to do. Ash was gone, and I had no way of knowing if or when he would find his way back to us. I stood there holding a crying Rose against my shoulder, trying to console her while scanning the area around us to find some means of escape.
The Harvesters exited the SUVs and covered the parking lot like locust, reaping humans quickly and tossing them inside the transport trailers like they were nothing more than rag dolls. I did the only thing I could think of and ran inside the store, hoping to find a way out the back.
I ran down an aisle marked as once having canned vegetables. The shelves were bare now from people grabbing what supplies they could in their futile hope they could remain free long enough to actually eat them. Many of those same people were outside now being gathered up by Harvesters and thrown into the silver trailers that would take them either to a breeding camp or a harvesting facility. Both options meant death. The only difference was timing.
When I reached the back of the store, I found it completely empty. It seemed strange that no one was trying to escape out the back like I was, but I didn’t give it much thought. All I knew was that I needed to get Rose and me as far away from the culling as I could. I ran toward a door with a lit sign overhead marking it as an exit. Just as I was about to push the bar to open the door to the outside, I heard them. I closed my eyes and counted the number of heartbeats I could hear just on the other side of the door. It was one of the few times I was thankful for my enhanced Harvester hearing. I counted at least five people standing right outside the building.
“Get that truck to the harvesting facility,” I heard a man order gruffly. “The Queen wants to start stockpiling organs. We won’t be taking many of the people in this city to breeding camps.”
“Too bad,” the woman replied, just as the door in front of me was snatched open.
The woman stared at me as I shielded my eyes from the unexpected brightness of daylight streaming through the now open door.
“Well,” the woman said, looking me up and down, “at least this one has already had a child for us to take to a nursery.”
The woman reached in and grabbed a fistful of my hair to drag me out into the open.
The sudden movement made Rose cry in alarm.
“I‘ll take that,” the woman said, taking a step toward me, intent on whisking Rose out of my arms.
As she approached, I formed a fist with my free hand and hit her square in the chest. I heard the crack of bone and watched her body fly in the air until her back hit the cinder block wall by the still open back door.
She fell to her hands and knees gasping for air as three male Harvesters surrounded me with stun batons at the ready.
“Wait,” the man who seemed to be their leader said to them as he came to stand in front of me.
“Who are you?” he asked, looking me up and down.
“I’m no one,” I answered.
“Everyone’s someone,” he replied. His eyes were drawn to the wiggling pink bundle in my arms. “Whose baby is that?”
“Mine.”
He glanced behind him at the woman who was still on her hands and knees trying to catch her breath before he looked back at me.
“You’re a Harvester. Why are you carrying a human baby around?”
“Like I said, she’s mine.”
The man crossed his arms in front of him. “Who’d you steal it from?”
“A friend gave her to me.”
“Well, your friend should have had better sense.” The man looked at the three Harvesters surrounding me. “Take the baby and kill the girl. Something’s not right about her.”
I positioned Rose in my right arm like a receiver would a football. In my mind, I saw the fight before it happened. I knew I could take the three in front of me as long as no one else tried to interfere.
Two of them pointed their stun batons in my direction supposedly to make sure I stood still while the third stepped forward to take Rose out of my arms.
“You’ll have to kill me if you want to take this baby,” I told the Harvester as he approached.
“I’m okay with that arrangement,” he said snidely, filled with Harvester arrogance as he stretched his arms out to take Rose.
Before any of them had time to react, I lifted my left leg and kicked the Harvester in front of me in the groin hard enough to know a certain part of his anatomy would be crushed to a point beyond recognition. As he fell to his knees screaming in agony and bleeding out, I bent my right leg at the knee to lower myself with my left leg still stretched out. When the two other Harvesters closed in on me with their batons extended in my direction, I spun on the ball of my foot and swept my leg underneath the one on my right, causing him to fall to the ground and crack his head on the pavement hard enough to render him unconscious.
The one at my back rammed his stun baton into the middle of my spine for a split second before I reached behind me with my left hand and ripped it out of his grasp. I quickly stood and twirled the baton between my fingers before I stabbed it in the Harvester’s neck, instantly causing a spray of blood. I held on to the handle of the baton as he fell to his knees. With one quick twist, I snapped the Harvester’s neck, pulling the baton out as his body fell to the ground. The Harvester in charge pulled his gun out of the holster on his hip and pointed it directly at my head.
I felt the first bullet hit my right shoulder but kept my hold on Rose as I rushed the man, leading with my left shoulder until he was pinned between me and the back wall of the grocery store. Without even giving it a second thought, I grabbed his head and slammed it so hard against the cinder block behind him. His skull caved in, leaving a trail of brain matter against the wall as his limp body slid to the ground.
I looked down at Rose still in my arms to make sure she was all right since her crying had stopped. I found her looking up at me with eyes wide and filled with complete and utter trust.
“I won’t let them take you from me,” I promised her, feeling a sense of overwhelming protectiveness consume me.
Before I had time to contemplate my feelings, the female Harvester I first attacked seemed to have recovered from her wounds. She stood a few feet away from me with her handgun drawn and pointed at my head.
She opened her mouth to say something but didn’t get the chance to put words to her thoughts.
Two steel arrows pierced either side of her throat. She began to cough up blood as her knees hit the pavement. Yet another arrow was fired, the head of which protruded from the middle of her forehead. She fell to the asphalt, unmoving.
My eyes were drawn to a girl at the corner of the building holding a bow. Her gaze drifted from the fallen Harvester to me, cautiously meeting my gaze. She was petite with short hot pink hair and pale white skin. She looked to be around my age. The girl carried a black backpack on her back and a brown leather quiver of arrows across her left shoulder.
“If you’re looking for a way to escape, follow me,” she said.
“Who are you, and why should I trust you?” I asked her.
“I’m Lux. And there’s really no reason you should trust me other than the fact I just saved your ass from being shot. I’m offering you and your baby a way out. Take it or leave it. I really don‘t give a shit,” she said with an unconcerned shrug.
The girl began to walk past us toward a group of five apartment buildings behind the store. I looked at the Harvesters around us and knew I needed to move quickly. The Harvesters out front would be looking for their fallen comrades soon. As I passed the male Harvester I had kicked in the groin early on in the fight, I kicked him in the head for good measure to make sure he remained unconscious for a while and didn’t try to follow us.
I healed the bullet wound on my shoulder as I caught up to the girl across the parking lot.
“Where are we going?” I asked her.
“My hideout.”
“Which is where exactly?”
She looked over at me and narrowed her eyes like she didn’t appreciate me asking s
o many questions.
“Listen,” she said, “I’m just helping you out because you have a baby. Don’t go thinking we’re buddies now, because we’re not. I’ll let you stay with me one night, but after that you’re on your own. Got it?”
“Yes,” I told her. “I’ve got it.”
“Good,” she said with a nod of her head. “Now, just follow me and keep your mouth shut before you draw their attention.”
In spite of myself, I started to like Lux. She seemed to be pretty no-nonsense and straightforward. They were traits I could appreciate.
I followed her through various neighborhoods as we headed east of our location. She kept us off the streets for the most part as we traveled through backyards. It didn’t seem like the Harvesters had made it this far into town yet, though. Almost every home we passed felt deserted. It’s odd how you can sense the absence of life around you. There’s a stillness, a void, you can’t quite put your finger on. It’s a lonely feeling that leeches hope from your soul, imprinting only emptiness.
Lux seemed to know exactly where she was going. There wasn’t a moment of hesitation in her steps like she needed to decide her path. She seemed to know it by heart. I saw no reason not to follow her. If she meant us harm, she would have simply left us back at the store, not invited us to join her.
After walking for about two miles, we came to a small marina. Lux walked down one of the wood plank docks to a small yacht. She turned to me before stepping onto the platform at the back of the boat.
“Coming?” she asked, as I remained standing on the sidewalk at the head of the dock.
“Where exactly are we going in that boat?” I asked.
Lux crossed her arms in front of her.
“Out to the middle of the lake. Harvesters don’t seem to be interested in coming out that way yet. We’ll be safer.”
I remembered the last time I had gotten on a boat. That ride didn’t end too well with Jackson melting the hull and sinking it. But I couldn’t argue that Lux’s plan wasn’t brilliant. All we had to do was float down the canal and out onto Lake Ontario. The Harvesters were so busy on the mainland it would probably take them a while to even think to search the lake.
I walked down the dock and followed Lux onto the stern of the boat. Written on the back of it was the word Sundancer. The cockpit was furnished with an outdoor, leather sitting area covered by a tan canvas awning. Lux walked through an enclosure where the helm station was located and threw her backpack, bow, and quiver onto a table bolted to the floor, situated in front of a wraparound white leather couch. She plopped down into the chair in front of the steering wheel and did something I couldn’t see to switch the engine of the boat on.
“You might want to take a seat,” she told me, not bothering to look back at us but studying some illuminated monitors on the dashboard above the wheel.
I sat down and placed Rose on the table in front of me, holding her in place with my arms on either side of her small body. She gurgled for my attention.
When I looked down at her, her bright blue eyes danced as if she were excited about being on the boat. I just shook my head at her. Apparently she didn’t remember the last boat ride we took together. If she did, I felt sure she would be crying instead.
Lux backed the boat away from the dock and out of the marina, setting us on our way up the canal. The sun was high in the sky and shone down through the two retractable sunroofs covering the deck.
“So, where did you learn how to drive a boat?” I asked Lux.
“This used to be my parents’ boat,” she told me. “I practically grew up on it.”
I looked over at the bow and arrows sitting on the table.
“How is it you’re able to shoot like that? I doubt many people could have shot two arrows at one time and hit their mark.
“I was training to go to the Olympics in archery before the war started,” she told me, turning her seat around to look at us. “Of course, that all got shot to hell pretty quick when the Harvesters found out they needed our organs to survive.”
“So, I guess you were rich?” I asked, glancing around the boat, knowing it had to have cost a pretty penny in this time period.
“My parents were. I guess it really didn’t do them any good in the end though.”
“Why? Where are they?”
“Dead.”
She said it so matter-of-factly it took a minute for it to register.
“Mind me asking what happened?”
Lux shrugged. “Not much to tell really. They were in New York when the bombs fell.”
New York was the first major American city nuked in hopes of annihilating as many Harvesters as possible. I knew from history that the government believed the Queen was there leading her war against humanity from somewhere within the city. Unfortunately, they were misinformed. She was nowhere near New York City when it was basically wiped off the map.
“I’m sorry,” I told her.
Lux shrugged. “Nothing to be sorry about. Shit happens.”
Lux stared at me, and I could tell she wanted to ask me a question.
“What?” I asked, feeling uncomfortable underneath her scrutinizing gaze.
“What are you? You have to be more than human to take out five Harvesters alone. I thought you were a Harvester until I saw the way you looked at that baby. You look at her like you care about her, not like she’s a future bag of organs. So, what are you?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” I said.
“Try me.”
I didn’t trust Lux enough to tell her the whole truth. Besides, she probably wouldn’t believe me anyway. Who in their right mind would believe the story of my life?
“I’m an experiment of the Queen’s,” I said, deciding to tell half of the truth.
“What kind of experiment?” Lux asked with true curiosity, not fear.
“I have nanites like the Harvesters do, but mine give me special powers as well as their physical enhancements.”
“What kind of powers?”
“I can heal myself and other people.”
Lux sat up straighter at this news. “You can heal people? Like heal a wound?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“Prove it.”
“I don’t see why I have to prove anything to you.”
“You don’t,” Lux said, apparently not being the sort of person to threaten me to do what she wanted. “But I need to know if it’s true. Please. It’s important.”
The desperate look on her face made me realize just how important it was to her. I decided it wouldn’t hurt to show her what I could do, considering the fact she was helping us while not asking for anything in return.
I looked around the cabin and saw a set of knives by a sink area. I moved Rose from the table to the wraparound seat for safety’s sake and walked over to the knives to retrieve one. Once I had the knife, I faced Lux and held out my hand, palm up, running the edge of the knife across my hand so she could see the cut for herself. Within a few seconds, the cut healed itself.
“Shit.” Lux turned around and pushed the throttle to increase our speed down the canal.
“What’s wrong? Why was it so important for you to know for sure?”
“Nothing’s wrong. Not if you can heal other people too.” Lux glanced over her shoulder at me. “A friend of mind got shot yesterday when she and her family came to shore to get supplies. None of us are doctors, so we can’t get the bullet out without killing her for sure. Do you think you can heal a bullet wound?”
“Yes.”
Lux nodded and sighed in relief, focusing her attention on getting us down the canal as quickly as possible and into open water.
It didn’t take us long to reach the middle of the lake where a grouping of five other boats similar to Lux’s were floating close together in a loose circle. As we approached, I saw someone from each boat come out and point either a rifle or a shotgun in our direction. Lux didn’t seem too alarmed by this show of firearms, and I had t
o assume it was simply a safety precaution meant to ensure no Harvester had commandeered the boat while Lux was on shore.
Lux brought us up beside one of the boats and pushed a button on the dashboard in front of her. I heard the clang of metal and assumed she had just lowered the anchor to keep us in place.
She hopped out of her seat and said, “Come on. She’s probably gotten worse since I left.”
Lux grabbed her backpack from the table and walked past me to the stern. I picked Rose up and followed her out.
A man stood at the back of the boat we were anchored next to with his shotgun lowered and at his side.
“How is she, Joe?” Lux asked the man as she took his offered hand to help her hop the short distance over to his boat.
“Not good,” Joe told her, lines of worry creasing his brow. “Were you able to find anything that might help?”
Joe looked to be in his mid-forties with black hair that was just starting to gray at the temples. He was heavyset and had a rather hairy torso underneath the tank top he wore. His brown eyes focused on me with curiosity.
“Who’s the girl?”
“She’s what I found to help. Trust me, Joe.”
Joe nodded. “I trust you, Lux. I’m just praying for a miracle right now.”
“I think I found it,” Lux told him, looking back at me with undisguised hope in her eyes.
Joe helped me cross over to his boat, and Lux didn’t lose any time by quickly leading me down a set of stairs to the living quarters below deck.
Lying across the dining table in the galley was presumably the body of the girl Lux had brought me here to help. Just from her short length, I could tell she was young, possibly not past the age of seven. I couldn’t see her face because a woman with pale blond hair stood next to the table, obscuring my view. When she heard us come down the steps from the deck, she turned to face us. It was apparent she had been crying because her eyes were bloodshot and the skin around them raw from wiping at her tears. She looked to be in her mid-thirties and well along in a pregnancy.