“The main point,” Fiona said, “is that we can’t know when, if ever, we’ll have most of the camp security gone like this.”
Jill looked at her in confusion. “For all the good it does us.”
The rest of the women turned away and went back to their beds.
Fiona felt a surge of slicing agony jab into her belly. She grabbed Jill’s arm.
“Fiona! Are ye in labor?” Jill said, sucking in a breath.
“Feck me,” one of the other women said. “No wonder she paid us a visit. Wants to see what her new life will be like in a few weeks.”
“Jill, we have to leave this place tonight. It’s our only window. We won’t get this chance again and we have to work fast. The men are doing their rounds. They’ll be here in less than—”
“Is the stupid bitch really telling us when the bastards will be here?” one of the women shrieked. “Do we not have the time burned into our flesh each and every one of us?”
“Go back to your own tent, Fiona,” Jill said sadly. “This was a bad idea. I’m so sorry about Bridget. There was nothing I could do. Poor Maeve—”
“Bridget was not your fault, Jill,” Fiona said in frustration, feeling another coming onslaught of pain.
“And my little Darby?” Jill asked, tears filling her eyes. “How is he? He’s such a good little lad…”
Fiona grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her.
“Stop it! The only way your Darby is going to be fine is if you get off your arse and get him out of here!” She whirled on the others. “That goes for all of you. This is our time! It might not come again but even if it does, not before ye all have been rogered a few hundred more times!”
“What do you know about it? You lot living over there eating full breakfasts, having yer fecking feet massaged?” One woman snarled, approaching Fiona, who instinctively covered her belly with her hands. She felt a warm trickle of blood down her leg.
“Darby is seven,” Fiona said to Jill. “It won’t be long and he’ll be old enough to go to the work mines. There is no happy ending for any of us if we wait for Sinead to write it for us.”
“This isn’t a life worth living,” Jill said softly.
The silence grew in the tent and Fiona felt her belly on fire as she struggled to remain standing.
“I have a plan,” she said. “It’s brutal but it will work. If you falter, if you hesitate, you’ll be back under them by tomorrow this time. Your only hope is not just to fight back but to fight to the death. Do you really believe the police will come raid this place? They’re in cahoots with them. Do you think your men are coming? They’re all dead. And death is the only other way out of this hell. But that doesn’t leave much hope for your children who still believe you’re coming for them and who still believe you won’t let the monsters get them. Will you? Will you let the monsters get them?”
“You don’t think we’ve thought of this before?” one of the women said. She had a thin scar over her eyebrow and a broken nose. “It’s hopeless. When they come for us they always come all together. So if there are four men left in the camp, they’ll come tonight four at a time.”
“Not tonight they won’t. Tonight you’ll only have two to deal with.”
“Where will the other two be?”
“The ladies and I in the pregnancy tent are going to kill them.”
Fiona pulled out four sharpened shivs that Nuala had created from combs but then lost hope about ever using. She laid them on the bed closest to her.
“There are twenty-eight of you and two of them. We are taking the children and leaving this shite house tonight, but you need to step up and do your part. Yes, it’s true they’ll hesitate to use their guns against us but it’s also true there are more of you and you’re not weighed down by carrying a baby.”
Fiona gave Jill’s a shoulder a squeeze and went to the door.
“Once they’re both dead, douse the light and wait for me.”
Jill picked up one of the shivs. Her expression changed from blank hopelessness to determination in the time it took for the knife to fill her hand.
“We’ll be ready,” she said grimly.
Chapter 51
Mac stood in the dark watching the four men drink and smoke. It was unbelievable to him that Sinead believed she was safe with this lot. Was she just assuming Mac was her personal bodyguard or did she really think she was some sort of deity that all men would obey no matter what? Because you didn’t have to see the sly looks among the men when looking at Sinead on her sleeping bag to realize they were up to something.
Why does she have to make everything so difficult? Her insistence on leaving the van by the road—with their girl prisoner bound and gagged in the back—in order to traipse two miles into the woods while it got later and later was plain madness.
Mac lit a cigarette and watched her. Was it true? Was she mental? Could anything about this little outing be labeled sane? She’d frothed at the mouth for the entire drive from the compound about her hatred for this Mother Superior and how she would “make her pay.”
“Mac!” Sinead barked from the place by the small campfire they’d build. “Get over here.”
Mac glanced at the four men sitting opposite them at the fire. Son of a bitch, he was going to have to stay up all night watching these bastards. And all because Sinead had some dramatic notion of hitting the convent in the wee hours.
Does she have any sense at all?
He sat next to her, feeling the comforting weight of the handgun in his holster.
“It’s almost like Girl Guides,” she said as she poked the fire with a long stick. “We just need marshmallows.”
He looked at her with surprise. “Were you a Girl Guide?”
“Don’t be stupid. Now remember, when we get there, I need to be the one to deal with the Mother Superior.”
“I thought the purpose of this trip was to get women.”
“Oh, we’ll get women. We’ll get more than we can carry. In fact, I’m sure we’ll have to do a return trip although I’d like to assume you’ll be able to handle that without me.”
“Since you’ll have already done what you really wanted to do.”
She threw the stick into the fire.
“I don’t know why I thought you of all people would understand. Maybe because most of the time you act like such a lass yourself. That woman tormented me, Mac. Forget her prayers and her costume, her lip service to God. She abused me. She humiliated me.”
Could it be true? Could this nun really have been evil in the way Sinead said?
“I know ye feel that way, Sinead,” he said carefully. “But you can’t really mean to kill her. She’s a nun.”
She sighed. “I don’t know what I mean to do.”
This was why he was here, Mac suddenly realized. There were no longer any laws to worry about, nor any earthly consequence to fear. He was here to stop Sinead from doing something that would endanger her immortal soul. As soon as the thought came to him, the tension in his shoulders relaxed. Sinead could hate him, rail against him, demean him. But in the end, she would know he was right. In the end, she’d be glad he had been here to stop her. Feeling more relaxed, he stretched out his spine and moved closer to where she sat.
“The men are restless tonight,” he said in a low voice as one of them edged around the fire toward Sinead’s other side.
“I did notice,” she said, laughing. “So it’s a good thing I have you along after all, eh?” She turned and laid down on her sleeping bag, her back to him.
Mac looked at the man over Sinead’s prone form. The bastard grinned showing all his teeth.
It was going to be a long night.
*********
Fiona stood in the shadow of the tall wooden fence. Directly across from her was the building with Sinead’s apartment. There was a light on when there shouldn’t be.
Had they returned? The camp was still quiet as if nothing had changed since she’d gone through the fence. But why was S
inead’s light on? Fiona knew no light had been on when she first came over forty minutes earlier. She watched as the pregnant women returned from their showers and, as the group passed her she stepped out of the shadows and joined them.
Had she just created a disaster for the other women? If the camp was back to fully staffed and Jill’s group tried to attack the men…Fiona took a long breath and tried to tamp down her burgeoning panic. There was no sign other than the light in Sinead’s apartment to indicate they’d come back early.
Nuala came up beside her and slipped her arm through Fiona’s.
“Where did you go?” she asked in a hoarse whisper.
“I’ll tell you inside,” Fiona said, leaning on Nuala’s arm as she felt her knees tremble. “Has Sinead returned?”
“I don’t think so. The van’s still gone.”
Fiona felt a rush of relief. Probably just cleaning people left the light on or some such thing. She allowed Nuala to help her into the tent and to her bed, which she nearly fell into.
“Are ye trying to kill the baby, Fiona?” Nuala asked. “Because I ken that’s one way for them not to get it but—”
“Nay,” Fiona said. “I’m not deliberately hoping to kill the baby.”
Catriona had stayed behind in the tent watching the children while the others went to shower. Ciara toddled over to Fiona and climbed into bed with her. Fiona’s heart soared. It was the first time since they’d arrived in camp that Ciara had reached out to her.
Could she dare hope that the child was getting better? She looked to see where Maeve was, since the two children were rarely separated.
“Catriona?” Fiona called. “Where’s little Maeve?” The child had been complaining of a sore throat earlier.
“Oh, no worries,” Catriona said. “Right after everyone left didn’t the new doctor come and take the lass away for a quick look see?”
Chapter 52
“The doctor took Maeve?” Fiona said, her voice rising.
“He…he said someone told him she was ill. He came here to help.”
A quick scan of the room showed everyone shaking their heads. No one told him the child was sick.
“Why didn’t he just examine her here?” Fiona asked, her anxiety ratcheting up.
“I thought because he was new, that maybe the routine was changed,” Catriona said in tears. “I thought it meant we’re to be examined in a proper exam room from now on.”
“You’re bleeding, Fiona!”
“Listen to me, everyone!” Fiona said loudly. “I’ve talked to the women on the other side of the fence.”
A series of sharp gasps interrupted her. “When? Was Julie there? Did you see Megan?”
“Everyone be quiet!” Fiona said impatiently. “We have to act fast now for Maeve’s sake! In less than three minutes Hannah will give the signal that someone is in labor in the pregnancy tent.” She looked at Hannah and the girl nodded solemnly.
The six faces of the other women in the tent were white and slack jawed with shock as Fiona spoke.
“There are four guards on duty tonight but only two will respond to the signal because the other two will be with the women on the other side of the fence.”
“I don’t understand,” Nuala said, frowning. “Are ye in labor, Fi?”
Fiona ignored her. “We’re going to kill them when they come. They’ll be armed but they’ll also be afraid to use their weapons—at least at first.”
“You can’t be serious!”
“We can’t fight!” one of the women said, aghast. “I’m six months pregnant! I don’t want to fight!”
“You have to,” Fiona said. “I don’t have time to paint a picture for you of what your life will be like in three months time and I shouldn’t have to. I’ll bet you can remember back that far.”
The woman who spoke burst into tears and covered her face with her hands.
“But we have no weapons,” Nuala said. Her face looked bewildered.
“We have the weapon of surprise. And we have their arrogance. They think we’re just defenseless pregnant women.”
“If we rock the boat something worse might happen,” Liddy, one of the compound women, said. “I know it’s bad over the fence but we could lose all our privileges!”
Fiona pointed to a nine-year-old girl playing with a doll on one of the beds.
“In two or three years time when she hits puberty, she goes to the other side of the fence. Is there anybody in this room stupid enough not to believe that?”
The woman’s weeping slowed until there was only the sounds of the children playing in a far corner of the tent.
“We have to kill them all,” Fiona said quietly. “Who ever walks through that door is the enemy.”
“What about the midwife? What if she comes too when Hannah gives the signal?”
“I don’t expect her to come but if she does, she does.”
“I don’t want to kill Mrs. Reidy! She’s been kind to me,” one of the women said tearfully.
“She can live as long as she doesn’t stand in our way,” Fiona said.
Nuala stared in the direction of where her two boys played. “Are we really going to do this?” she said as if speaking to herself.
“We have to. We kill them with whatever we have and however we can. Once they’re dead, you, Catriona and Hannah are in charge of keeping all the children safe and together. Nuala and you two will go through the fence and bring out the other women.”
“Where will you go?”
“I’m going to get Maeve back,” Fiona said. “We’ll meet in the parking lot. By the time Sinead returns in the morning we should be a long way from here.”
“Is it really possible?” someone asked.
“It is if you want to keep your baby,” Fiona said as she felt the blood thick and wet between her legs. “Everyone who’d rather die than let that bitch have her baby, get ready to go home with me.”
The women stood up but Fiona could see they were afraid and unsure. She knew they weren’t prepared for what would happen in the next hour. Fiona wasn’t at all sure she was ready.
“You okay, Fi?” Nuala said.
“We only have one shot at this. So don’t hold back.”
“You know I won’t,” Nuala said, her determination growing across her face like a visible expression.
“I’m afraid the children are going to see some things tonight, that will be hard for them to unsee for the rest of their lives.”
“At least they’ll have a rest of their lives. You’re bleeding bad, Fiona.”
Fiona kissed Ciara on the cheek then straightened up and nodded to Hannah standing by the window.
Hannah hoisted the lantern to the window and began to methodically shutter and open the light.
“Get a weapon,” Fiona said as she lay back down on her bed. “A knitting needle, spray cologne—anything. Catriona, you stay with the kiddies. Distract them as best you can. Nuala, you and Hannah are by the front door. Everyone else crowd around me on the bed. Hurry!”
The minutes ticked by with only the sounds of the children talking amongst themselves in one corner of the tent. Fiona gave her only remaining shiv to Nuala. She clutched a nail file. It was dull on both ends but it was something to hold in her hands.
“Everyone must attack them,” Fiona said as the women straightened her bed clothing. “Do you understand? Hit, kick, stab—whatever you can do. Don’t wait for someone else to do it—” Fiona let out a long scream and grabbed the bedclothes in her fists as the first long contraction wracked her body.
“Dear God, Fi,” Nuala said. “Was that for real?”
“I see them!” Hannah said breathlessly. “They’re coming. And the midwife’s with them.”
“Everybody get ready,” Fiona said, closing her eyes to the pain. “Remember, if they don’t die we will. You must…you must…” She let a long groan out just as the door flap to the tent flew open.
“She’s in labor!” Hannah shrieked to the two men and midw
ife as they entered. “The baby’s coming!”
Fiona’s view of the men was blocked by the women hovering over her. She didn’t know if their guns were out but she had to believe they weren’t. The midwife pushed past the clutch of women and grabbed Fiona’s hand to check her pulse. Fiona held tight to the file and caught the woman’s eye.
Scream and you die, Fiona thought calmly.
“What the feck is—?” A grunt sounded from the doorway and the sound of a heavy body hitting the floor. Nuala made a loud gasp of pain.
“Go! Go!” Fiona shouted to the women around her. They turned as one, leaving the midwife kneeling by Fiona’s bed. Nuala was hunched over the body of the first man. Blood dripped from her mouth as she attempted to stand.
“Son of a bitch!” the other man yelled. Still on his feet, his eyes wide with fury and surprise, he reached behind him to dislodge Hannah clinging to his back. She had his ear in her teeth and was jabbing her fingernails repeatedly into his eyes. He grabbed her by the hair and flung her from him. He reached for his gun in the shoulder holster. The women swamped him from the front.
“Bastard! Monster!” they screamed as they pounded him with hairbrushes and fists. One launched herself at his face with her nails out like an eagle descending on a rabbit.
“Goddammit!” the man howled. “Ye fecking bitches!”
Fiona heaved herself to her feet. The midwife put a hand on her shoulder to keep her down but Fiona threw her off and lunged at the crowd by the door.
If he gets his gun in his hand, we’re finished. She squeezed into the middle of the women, punching downward with the metal nail file on anything soft she could hit—face, chest, arm. He screamed as she missed his eye and carved a long jagged furrow down his face. In a burst of violence he shoved Fiona and the other women from him and they tumbled to the floor. He cleared the holster with his gun.
“Fecking lunatic bitches!” he bellowed, aiming the gun at the first woman in front of him.
“Don’t ye fecking dare!” the midwife shouted. “Don’t ye touch them, ye heathen animal! She’ll have your balls!”
Irish End Games, Books 4-5-6 Page 75