“Are you Sunny O’Donnell?” asked the man working next to me.
I gave him a sidelong glance and noticed a few men appeared to be waiting for my answer.
The man on the other side of him snorted with laughter. “Don’t you mean Mrs. Kenner!”
Fear momentarily gripped me, robbing me of any thought. All I could do was stare at the man, wondering how he knew. Then I remembered how quiet it was in C Block when I told my mother the truth. News travelled fast.
Although Gaia continued to shovel, her attention was on our conversation. I didn’t want her to know about Jack. If I couldn’t get to the corral by the end of the day, we would need to maintain our cover story.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I struck the ground with my shovel, relieved to hide behind the physical distraction.
The man looked up at the soldiers closest to us. “Terran and Flint came to our corral last night. They said you talked about a war starting in the Pit—that there’s already been a bloody battle. That true?” he asked in a low voice.
I nodded. This was information Gaia should know. I just hoped she had missed the “Mrs. Kenner” crack.
“He said he overheard you telling your mom that Jack Kenner is working for our side. That true too?”
All eyes were on me, including Gaia. Sweat broke out on my forehead and I rubbed it away. If I told the truth, Gaia might tell the general, but if I lied to protect Jack’s cover, then no one would trust him. We’d all end up working against each other instead of with each other.
I took a deep breath. “Yes, its true. It’s all true.”
Gaia stopped shoveling, her mouth hanging open. The men also stopped working to stare at me. A few soldiers came closer and ordered us back to work. We all returned to our task. Eventually the soldiers wandered away in search of shade.
“You expect me to believe the heir is on our side?” Gaia asked.
“I don’t believe it,” one of the men said. “Jack Kenner isn’t any better than Holt.”
“Keep your voice down,” I said.
A few soldiers turned in our direction to shoot us annoyed expressions. We stopped talking and concentrated on shoveling. They went back to their conversation. With their attention elsewhere, I quickly gave an abbreviated version of the events in the Pit that led to Jack and me coming out here. Everyone listened intently.
“So what color is the sky in your world, Sunny? Because out here, it’s a nice shade of blue and I like it,” Gaia said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“That I don’t believe you’re married to Jack Kenner and the two of you are going to free us. Your delusions are going to get us all killed.”
I looked at her in shock. “My delusions are what’s going to get us all killed?” I said, but instead of answering she drew her mouth into a tight line. “You know exactly what President Holt has planned for every last urchin because you heard it straight from the general’s lips. Are Jack and I the only ones deluded enough to try and stop him?”
The man beside me leaned forward to get a better view of Gaia. “You heard it from General Powell?” Gaia paused for a moment before she nodded her head. I was relieved she decided not to lie. I would’ve lost all credibility. He turned his attention back on me. “Then what do you and Kenner have planned? How will you stop him?”
“We’re trying to get a message to the Alliance, but it doesn’t look good,” I said, motioning toward the communication cable we were digging up. “In the meantime, he’s going to shut down the tagging system. Everyone needs to be ready to go.”
Quite a few men had stopped shoveling, too intent on our conversation. A group of soldiers left the shade and strode in our direction. One of them smacked the butt of his rifle against the urchin closest to him. “I’m getting real tired of coming over here,” he said.
We all put our heads down and concentrated on shoveling. This time the soldiers didn’t leave.
Although the men didn’t seem to be having much difficulty shoveling, Gaia and I were struggling. The hot sun beating down on us wasn’t helping either. As my arms and legs weakened, the thought of running away to find Jack faded. With my strength sapped and so many armed soldiers, there wasn’t a chance I could escape from here alive.
A truck drove by, kicking up dust and rocks.
“Lunch!” someone shouted.
The soldiers ate their lunch in shifts before we were permitted to put down our shovels. We lined up at the lunch truck and soldiers stood close by, ready to deal with any troublemakers. When we collected our rations, they allowed us to sit in the shade to eat. Gaia and I took a seat under a tree. The man who had been working beside me approached us, but a soldier sent him in a different direction. It was then that I noticed the men were segregated from the women during the meal.
“I knew you were trouble the minute I saw you,” Gaia said in a low voice.
“Gaia, please don’t tell the general. Please. Jack and I will leave as soon as we can.”
“Tell the general what, exactly? That the heir’s mistress fancies herself married to him? He’d laugh.”
I took that to mean she wasn’t going to tell Powell, though there really wasn’t anything I could do to stop her. It just made our departure that much more urgent.
The midday meal lasted only thirty minutes and then it was back to work. As Gaia and I headed toward our shovels, a soldier stopped us.
“Change of plan. Get in the back of the truck with the others,” he ordered.
We looked at the vehicle he motioned toward and only women were getting in. Gaia and I exchanged a worried glance, but we got on the truck. We had no choice.
“I don’t know what they’re up to—the general doesn’t allow soldiers to use women,” Gaia whispered. “They wouldn’t dare touch us.”
“I thought you said they could do whatever they wanted.”
“Except that. If any man laid a hand on me, Powell would kill him.”
I hoped she was right.
All told, I counted ten women, four soldiers in the back with us, and two more in the front of the truck. The vehicle made its way up the mountainside. It followed a crude pathway, almost as if a road once existed but was now being reclaimed by the mountain. After ten minutes of driving, the truck came to a stop. We all jumped out, wary.
“Follow me,” a soldier ordered, heading toward a wooded area.
The other soldiers motioned for us to get moving. Gaia’s hand gripped mine and I held it tight. The soldier we followed stopped and pointed to something.
“This is a cable. Since you’re useless with a shovel, your job is to find exposed cable and examine it for any breaks.”
Relief flooded through me. Gaia gave my hand a victorious squeeze.
The cable was running along the top of a huge stone outcrop, which explained why it wasn’t underground. I had to wonder why they didn’t look here first.
“We’ll split up into groups. There’s a lot of territory to cover.”
Gaia and I shuffled closer together in the hopes of not being separated. It worked. Assigned to our group, we headed up the mountain with our armed guards.
Some sections of the cable wound around boulders and skirted thick stands of trees. A nervous excitement began to take root in the pit of my stomach. I might be able to escape after all. If I did manage to run away unnoticed, I knew I couldn’t go to the urchin corral. I would head for the slagheap. That’s where Jack and I had arranged to meet if we ever got separated.
“No breaks,” Gaia announced, interrupting my thoughts.
“I didn’t find any either.” I wasn’t really looking. I was too preoccupied with finding a way out. If I did manage to get away and Jack di
dn’t, would he be blamed for my disappearance? I doubted it. More likely everyone would pity him for losing his mistress.
“It disappears here,” Gaia said. I almost asked what she meant but saw she was pointing to the cable. It was partially buried. I examined the ground for any visible signs of having been dug up at some point but couldn’t find any. “I think it winds around those boulders.”
We were slightly ahead of the rest of the group, but they were catching up. Jack would probably still be at work. If I took off now and word of my escape got back to General Powell, would that prevent Jack from being able to leave? Maybe it was too early to run. Or maybe this was my only chance.
“Let’s keep going,” I said. My heart was pounding so hard my voice trembled. If we continued, the boulders would block the soldiers’ view of us.
“I don’t know…”
“It’ll be fine,” I said. I glanced at the soldiers. They weren’t paying attention to us.
We zigzagged through the boulders and ended up in a heavily wooded area. The tree roots were thick on the forest floor, and I doubted a cable could be buried there. Our military escorts would start searching for us once they noticed we were missing, so I didn’t have a lot of time. I turned to tell Gaia that I would go and scout up ahead, when I noticed the look on her face. Following her gaze, I saw a small child standing in an open area, dappled in sunlight. He was painted, like the heathens. I peered into the trees and found a few more people standing stock-still. One of them was in a tree, a stick or something in hand.
“We should go,” I whispered.
Just as I said it, I heard a soldier right behind us.
“You don’t leave my sight!” he said in a threatening voice.
“Sorry, we took a wrong turn. We were just coming back,” I said.
Quickly we turned and walked in his direction. I didn’t want him to see the people.
“Well, what the hell do we have here?” he said, looking beyond us. “Hey, Rick—get your ass over here. It’s a heathen!”
My heart sank when he noticed the child. Even though he was out in the open, I was hoping the bourge still wouldn’t be able to see him. Rick rounded the last boulder, escorting the other three members of our group.
“Holy crap, it is!” Rick said gleefully. He took his cap off and wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. A smile lit his face. “Hey little dude, where’s your mommy and daddy?”
Rick walked toward the child, who remained still except for the quivering of his lower lip. It was obvious Rick couldn’t see the others in the trees. He squatted down to bring himself to eye level. “Can’t you move?” he asked, laughing. He poked the child in the chest a few times. The quivering lower lip turned into a cry. “Awww…that’s right, you cry for your mommy and daddy.”
The soldier standing with us laughed and looked around the forest. I didn’t see any recognition on his face when his eyes passed over where the people were standing.
“Cry louder. Bring them out in the open. General Powell would be real proud of us if we brought back a couple of heathens,” Rick said. He picked up the child and stood, wagging him in the air while he turned in a circle. The child screamed.
It was too horrific to watch. My feet started moving before my brain even ordered them. “Put him down!” I said.
“Get back here!” the soldier behind me ordered.
“I got this,” Rick said.
“He’s a baby, for God’s sake!” I said. The child was absolutely terrified.
“You think you can talk to me like that just because you’re some big-wig’s whore?” Rick demanded. “Maybe you need to learn you’re still nothin’ but an urchin.”
I had almost reached them when Rick put the child down.
“Run. Now!” I told the kid. I was rewarded by the sight of little feet beating a path into the forest. He stopped screaming, ran past the group standing still, and kept going.
Rick took a step toward me, fist raised, and I cringed in expectation of the blow. But he suddenly stopped and slapped the side of his neck. He gave me a stunned look for a moment before his eyes crossed and he crumpled to the ground. Dumbfounded, I looked at the people in the forest. The one in the tree was in the process of taking the stick away from his—or her?—mouth.
I heard the other soldier running up behind me.
“What the hell did you do?”
I consciously kept my gaze from straying to the forest. I was pretty sure he had no idea they were there.
“Nothing. He just fell.”
“You did something.”
I sighed, knowing I had to accept responsibility. “He was going to hurt me.”
An angry glare met my gaze and he punched me in the face. For a split second, stars danced behind my eyes, and then everything went black.
Chapter Fourteen
The truck bounced down the mountain path, and my head boomed with every bump. Rick lay on the floor at our feet, his slack body moving fluidly with the motion. The rise and fall of his chest confirmed he was still alive. As his head lolled to one side, I caught a glimpse of something sticking out of his neck. I stared at the small black protrusion in a vain attempt to identify it. I had never seen anything like it, although I was almost certain it had come from the one in the tree.
Disciplinary action was going to be taken against me, that I knew. If I were still in the Pit, I would die instantly for harming a soldier. Fortunately, things seemed to work a little differently out here, so perhaps I had a chance.
“I’ll try to talk to the general,” Gaia whispered. “In private, he treats me like his wife. Maybe I can get him to go easy on you.”
I was surprised by her offer. All along she had been saying she didn’t want to be associated with me. “Thanks, but it’s best not to get involved.”
Gently I ran my fingers along my cheekbone. It was going to be a decent bruise. At least my sunglasses hadn’t been broken.
Jack was going to be upset when he heard I was arrested. I hoped we would be given a private moment together so I could tell him I was okay. We knew all along what we were doing was risky. I’d take whatever consequences I had coming and he could go forward with our plans to free the Pit.
The truck continued straight into town and didn’t stop until we reached the medical center. The soldiers wasted no time getting their friend inside. One soldier remained behind as our guard. I dropped my head in my hands and said a silent prayer that Rick was okay. Not that I knew how to pray. But if there was a God, perhaps now was a good time to introduce myself.
When I looked back up, I saw Jack crossing the street with General Powell beside him.
“What happened?” the general demanded. “Who’s hurt?”
Our guard snapped to attention. “Sir. This one did something to Private Mayer.”
“At ease,” Powell said.
“Did what?” Jack asked, never taking his eyes off me.
He clenched his teeth when he saw the bruise on the side of my face. Almost imperceptibly, I shook my head no. He’d have to distance himself from me now. Everything would be lost if he didn’t. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Gaia looking from me to Jack, and I returned my gaze to the truck floor.
“I’m not sure what she did to him, sir. Private Mayer is in bad shape, though.”
The general beckoned me. “Come down from the truck.”
My legs felt weak but I managed to jump down onto the pavement. Jack moved to my side and as he did, I saw his hand unclip the holster of his pistol. From behind the safety of my dark glasses, I looked at the general and our guard to see if they noticed. They hadn’t.
“Who the hell hit her?” Jack yelled at the soldier. “Was it you?”
“Calm down, Jack,” Powell said. A crowd began to gather across the street. Powell surveyed the street. “Let’s talk about this somewhere a little more private.”
He headed in the direction of the medical building. Jack seized me by the arm and dragged me along.
“Are you okay?” Jack whispered.
“Don’t do it,” I begged. But he wasn’t paying attention to me. I wasn’t even sure my words registered.
As we entered the building, I surveyed the room. Jeffrey sat behind the reception desk and Rick’s comrades occupied the chairs in the waiting room.
“Officers in the room,” a voice boomed out. All the soldiers stood at attention.
“Who’s in charge?” asked General Powell.
A man stepped forward and saluted. “Sir, I am, sir.”
“You have one man guarding a truck full of urchins. Get out there!”
“Yes sir!”
The man saluted and led his troops outside. Jeffrey remained at attention behind his desk.
“At ease,” Powell said. “How’s the victim?”
“He’s in with Doc, sir. We haven’t had word yet.”
“Is there an office I can use?”
“Right this way, sir.”
Jeffrey came out from behind the reception desk and led us down a hallway.
“This is the main medical center for the community,” Powell said conversationally to Jack, “although it isn’t fully staffed yet. A larger hospital is still under construction.”
“How many work here now?”
“Just Doc and Jeffrey. Believe it or not, Doc is an urchin and an absolute genius. His work in genetics is unparalleled and we’ve been able to apply it to crop production. The fact that he’s a physician as well made him the perfect choice to bring with us.”
Jeffrey stopped and opened a door.
“Aren’t you afraid he’ll run away?”
“Jeffrey is both his guard and his clerical assistant. Besides, Doc’s been out here since the beginning and he’s never tried to leave.”
Worlds Collide: Sunset Rising, Book Two Page 14