Chapter 52: Sherry
Commotion rippled through the Center Cave. One by one, heads turned, ceasing their private conversations and turning in the direction of the rear passage. Whispering turned to exclamations. Children tugged at their mother’s shirt sleeves.
No one could miss the coming spectacle.
Sherry proudly marched Samel through the middle of the cave, stopping when she’d reached the middle of the crowd. All around her, people gasped and pointed, looking between her and the frightened, bedraggled boy. Tanya and Jodi stood a few steps behind, looking hastily around.
There was no point in holding anything back.
“The Right Cavers are on their way here,” Sherry announced, to the Center Caver’s startled reactions. “They are coming to face us. We must prepare.”
A few handfuls of women rose to their feet, grabbing their spears or their children. Others leapt up, ready to flee.
“What is he doing here?” asked a mother, frantically pointing at Samel.
“Jodi and Tanya took him from their cave,” Sherry said. “They did it so we would have leverage when the Right Cavers arrived.”
“Leverage?” another woman asked. “We were supposed to ward them away, not lure them here!”
“What have you done?” cried another woman.
“They were already coming to face us,” Jodi defended. “We had no choice.”
“Your comrades have done us a service,” Sherry said, lifting her voice over the crowd’s protests. “Confrontation was inevitable. Sooner or later, they were going to attack us. We have no choice but to defend ourselves.”
More women stood up, fear in their eyes. A few children burst into tears. The commotion in the cave was quickly descending into chaos.
In a shrill, commanding voice, Sherry yelled, “Quiet! We must plan our defense!”
Some of the din lessened.
“I have told you this day was coming,” Sherry said loudly, raising a hand to keep the cave in order. “It is not a surprise.”
A few guards at the door scrambled to raise their weapons. Before the disorder could get out of hand, Sherry barked out orders. Pointing to a cluster of women on the left-hand side of the tunnel, she said, “You women over there! Guard the front entrance of the cave!” To the women gathered on the right-hand side, she said, “You others, watch the rear entrance of the cave, past Gideon’s cove! The rest of you stay in the center, protecting the children!”
A stream of women poured past her, heading down the long, rear portion of the tunnel and following her orders, while more went to the front. Others stayed in the center, gathering up the children.
“What about us?” Jodi asked, her voice shaking.
“You and Tanya follow me,” Sherry said. “We’re taking Samel with us.”
“What about our children?” Jodi asked, looking toward a brown-haired boy in the middle of the room.
“Have them go to the middle of the tunnel with the others. I need you by my side.”
Jodi paused, unconvinced, until she saw Sherry’s unrelenting stare. “Now!” Sherry dragged Samel past a few hesitant women. Looking down at them in disgust, she said, “To your feet and defend yourselves, women! Defend yourselves, or die!”
The women looked around wildly, before obeying.
They would fight, because they had no choice.
Chapter 53: Sherry
“Where are we taking him?” Jodi asked.
“To a place where we can hide him, for now,” Sherry spat.
She wrenched the boy’s arm, pulling him down the long, dark tunnel, while Tanya and Jodi kept an observant eye out. Up ahead, she heard the voices of the women headed to keep guard in the far end of the tunnel. Samel yanked against her grip.
Finding courage through his fright, he cried, “Let me go!”
Sherry looked down at the distraught boy. Fresh tears tracked his cheeks. Fear glazed his eyes. Despite his obvious terror, she saw a defiance she didn’t like.
Stopping, she pulled out her knife and poked him. “Shut your filthy mouth!”
Samel quickly silenced.
She kept going.
Rounding the next bend, they came upon the entrances to two familiar coves. The healer stood at the mouth of the second.
“What’s going on?” he asked. “Gideon wants to know!”
“I’ll tell him later,” Sherry snarled.
Sherry pulled Samel into the first cove, instructing Tanya to stuff her torch into a crevice on the wall. The added light gave her a better view of the whimpering boy, and the empty place where they’d kept the ill and the injured. Bedrolls and kitchenware littered the floor. A few lizards scuttled into crevices.
Sherry surveyed the abandoned room, looking for something she couldn’t find.
“Go get something to tie him up with!” she told Tanya.
Tanya nodded through the fear on her face, hurrying from the cove and out of sight.
Sherry pushed Samel toward Jodi. “Hold him.”
Jodi obeyed, turning him around.
“What is Neena planning?” Sherry demanded of the boy.
“I’m not sure,” Samel said. “Please don’t hurt me.”
Advancing, Sherry held out her knife, tracing his features with its sharp blade. The boy flinched under its touch. His eyes widened. His tan skin and his rounded nose reminded her of Neena. She wanted nothing more than to carve him up. Tilting up the blade, she kept it near his eye, contemplating a slice that would ease her own pain. Samel’s eyes darted around the cove, looking for an escape he’d never find.
“You knew they were planning on coming here, didn’t you?” Sherry insisted.
Swallowing, Samel said, “I don’t know anything. I swear.”
Sherry’s eyes fixated on Samel. Rather than seeing a harmless, frightened boy, she saw an enemy, whose existence tainted Gary’s memory.
He deserved to pay for what his sister had done.
All of the Right Cavers did.
“Please, don’t hurt me,” he whispered.
Sherry kept moving her knife along his cheek, unable to quell the aching, hollow pit in her stomach. Hurting herself made the emptiness go away.
But hurting Samel… That might be even better.
“What are you doing?” Jodi asked.
Ignoring Jodi, she pressed gently, just deep enough that a single drop of blood escaped the boy’s skin. Jodi pulled Samel away.
“He’s just a child,” Jodi said. “We need him intact, so that we can use him.”
Startled, Sherry looked at the knife in her grasp. Anger coursed through her. Before she could scold the woman, a voice interrupted.
“Sherry!”
She spun to find Tanya returning.
“I found some shreds of clothing we can use,” she said, holding them up. “Want me to tie him up?”
Sherry returned her knife to her sheath. “Do it.”
Tanya moved in, coordinating her efforts with Jodi’s and binding Samel’s wrists and ankles.
When the chore was done, Sherry instructed, “Stay here and keep guard. Don’t leave.”
“Okay,” Jodi said.
Sherry’s stomach churned. She looked down, startled by another of the baby’s unexpected, early kicks.
“Is everything all right?” Tanya asked.
“Yes. I’m going to check on the rest of the women. Whenever the Right Cavers get here, we’ll be ready.”
Chapter 54: Neena
Sixty people’s boots hit the ground behind Neena, keeping pace, their harried breathing filling the air. Neena’s knuckles were white from clutching her spear. Thoughts swirled through her head. How long had Sherry and her people known the location of their chamber? More urgently, what were they doing with Samel?
She couldn’t stop thinking of the last time she saw him, or the precise moment he might’ve been snatched. Perhaps the fire had all been a ploy, leading up to this.
Filthy vermin. That’s what they were.
Ho
rror mixed with her rage.
She envisioned Darius’s bloodied body, stabbed with tools. Kai’s description had haunted too many of her dreams, and her waking hours. Each panicked thought drove her feet faster. She couldn’t let the same thing happen to Samel.
Reaching a split in the tunnel, she asked Kai, “Which way is the quickest?”
Kai scanned between the two passages, locating one of Darius’s faded marks. “If I remember correctly, the right passage will lead us to the Center Cave. That will be the quickest way, but it is less familiar. Which way do you want to go?”
It wasn’t a question. Not really.
They were going right.
Neena stormed up the right-hand tunnel, inspiring the others to follow. Her people moved without whispers or protest. No one argued with her, especially those with children, because they understood her pain.
Neena’s brow beaded with sweat. It already felt like they’d been traveling forever. Or maybe it was the urgency of getting to Samel, which made her feel as if she couldn’t walk fast enough, or far enough.
She concentrated on the path ahead. At any moment, she might find a mob of dastardly women, or a screaming boy. Watching the darkness at the edge of her torchlight, she felt frustrated.
Each tunnel looked the same.
None of them yielded Samel.
What if they had already chosen an incorrect path?
Not for the first time, she asked Kai, “Are you sure about our direction?”
“Pretty sure,” Kai said, forging ahead. A little way farther, Kai noticed a jagged section of the wall, where part of the rock had crumbled away. “That’s familiar! Darius and I came here once in the first few days, catching rats. We’re making progress.”
The Right Cavers trekked on, passing a few more tunnels, eventually squeezing through an area where a passage grew tight. They shuffled in rows of three, while Neena called out for her brother.
“Samel?”
Her voice no longer echoed.
Strange…
She thrust out her spear, taking a few more steps, until she found the reason for the dampening sound. In front of her, blocking the tunnel from floor to ceiling, was a wall of piled rock. Shock overtook her group.
“I don’t remember this being here,” Kai murmured.
“What’s going on?” someone asked.
Neena clawed at the rubble with her hands, but there was too much of it, and it was stacked so high that she saw nothing around it.
Frantically scanning the wall of rock, Kai said, “They must’ve put this here to block us!”
“Dammit!” Neena threw down her spear, frantically removing pieces of the obstruction.
A few others leapt in, doing the same, but the narrow passage prevented too many people from working at once. Grunting, Neena tugged at larger rocks, hoping to make quicker headway. A rumble startled her. She cleared the way just in time to avoid a few rolling, mid-sized stones tumbling to the floor. The noise frightened the people in back, who leapt away. When the dust settled, they looked at the area on which they’d worked. More stones stood behind the first blockade—enough that no one could see past them.
“Who knows how many rocks they’ve put here?” Kai said in frustration.
Neena shook her head, but it was quickly becoming clear that they were wasting time. Who knew how long the stones would take to move?
“We’ll have to backtrack,” Kai said in frustration. “It’s all I can think to do.”
Neena looked ahead. She looked behind. Every moment they remained here risked Samel’s life. But what choice did they have?
“Let’s go!” Neena said, turning around, trying not to think of the repeat distance they’d need to travel.
Chapter 55: Raj
Raj craned his neck up from his bedroll, scanning the sleeping people. Earlier, he’d seen Louie waking Ed and speaking in a hushed whisper. His attempts to eavesdrop had been fruitless. He was too far away, and too scared to get closer.
Now, he watched Ed rouse from his bedroll, collecting a handful of Watchers.
The men gathered their spears and their bags, tiptoeing through the room. Only a few people woke, looking at them in confusion. Raj was contemplating getting up and asking them where they were going when one of the men glanced over at him.
Their eyes locked.
A sudden, paranoid fear made Raj wonder if they had figured out his suspicions.
The man looked away.
Intent on his mission, the man moved for the front doors, joining the other Watchers. One man quietly removed the wooden braces, while another opened the entrance.
The men filtered silently out.
Chapter 56: Ed
Ed fought a prickling chill as he crept over the wide, Comm Building path and curved north. In his short time away, more sand had piled over the area where they trekked, creating a bumpy, uneven journey. It felt like as if nature was trying to bury the colony.
Or maybe it was his imagination.
In any case, he couldn’t wait to get the mission over with.
Following the path next to the annex, he brought his men past it, rejoining the main path and walking between the intact and shattered hovels. He crept along, reaching the area where they’d been with Louie’s men the day before.
To his relief, the same quill still protruded from the ground.
Reaching the object, Ed carefully removed it from the sand, holding it up for his men to see. He waited until they nodded before lowering it.
It was their example.
Hopefully the horrid thing satisfied Bryan.
Ed kept on, leading his men up the path until they eventually reached the hunter’s path.
And then they were in the desert.
Uneasiness crept over him as he and his men passed between the enormous spires, moving in and out of the long, ominous shadows. Caving holes covered the ground around them. Most of the horn blower’s bodies were buried, but every so often they saw an irregular lump in the sand, or some unraveled, rotting intestines. Once, they came across a dusty, gore-stained shawl.
Death’s fetid odor was a constant reminder to keep wary.
Soon, they reached the rock formation where the second group of horn blowers had fled. About halfway up the rock was the jagged stone where the creature had impacted. Below it were piles of stone, which had plummeted and stuck in the sand.
Following Louie’s instructions, they sifted through the rubble.
“Careful,” he mouthed, scanning the dark crevices.
He was starting to think Bryan’s suggestion was a failure when someone waved their hands and pointed. The group turned their attention toward a long, sharp object, protruding from underneath a rock pile.
Success!
Ed’s hope grew as The Watcher pulled out a second quill and held it in the air. A ripple of quiet enthusiasm went through the group. After more searching, his men found a few more of the long, smooth objects, covered in sand, or wedged between fragments of rock. They kept searching, until they had eight of the strange objects in their possession.
The wind gusted.
His men turned.
North, deep in the desert, a billowing cloud of sand moved in their direction.
A storm.
Making the best decision he could, he whispered, “To the tradesmen’s buildings!”
The men followed his direction, hurrying to complete their mission and return to Bryan.
Chapter 57: Neena
Neena tore down the tunnel, ignoring the sweat dripping from her face. Her legs ached. Her clothing was drenched. It felt as if it’d been days since they’d found Samel’s shirtsleeve. The backtracking they’d done had killed any hope she had at catching up to Samel’s captors.
Now all they could do was confront Sherry when they arrived.
Neena kept a wary eye on the cracks in the walls around her, as they made their way back to the Right Cave. For all she knew, Sherry’s women watched them from some hidden crevice. Th
e Center Cave women were like snakes, slithering through the formation and finding cracks she didn’t know existed. But their sneaking and plotting would end soon.
Finally, they came around the last bend leading to the Right Cave.
The faint scent of smoke reached Neena’s nose. She forged ahead, thinking of the sick people they’d left behind, and of Samel—always Samel. Soon they stepped over the burned blankets and kindling that Sherry’s women had used to start the fire. None of the ashes were disturbed, or bore the prints of vile women’s boots.
They moved into the main cave.
The Right Cave reeked of stale sweat and old smoke. The abandoned tunnel no longer felt like home.
Neena’s anger was a building dam, threatening to burst. She let that drive her through the Right Cave, pushing toward the entrance.
And then they were almost on the ledge.
A gentle gust of wind blew, rifling through Neena’s hair as she stepped out into the open. She instinctively looked to the horizon, where some ominous clouds gathered. A pit settled in her stomach.
“A storm is coming,” Kai warned.
Neena gritted her teeth.
Even that wouldn’t stop what she needed to do. She spun toward the Center Cave, where a few women suddenly scattered, or pointed.
“There they are!” Kai cried.
More of the women retreated back into the cave, presumably getting reinforcements, while others raised their spears. Neena’s resolve stiffened.
“Let’s go!” she yelled, driving her people forth.
Together, they charged down the ledge.
Chapter 58: Bryan
“You found them!” Bryan said, wide-eyed and excited, looking from one Watcher to the next.
Ed stepped forward, holding up his quill as if it were a baby he had delivered. Bryan approached, running his fingers over the long, smooth object, marveling at its texture. The object was hard, but surprisingly flexible. He pushed it, watching it bend. He recalled the way the quills unfurled from the creature as it launched from the ground to the sky. It seemed as if they helped propel it through the ground, but they were clearly defensive, too. One prick from the jagged end of the quill would gore a man.
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