Sandstorm Box Set

by T. W. Piperbrook

  “Get him back inside!” Sherry screeched.

  “Sherry’s right. Go inside, William!” Jodi urged.

  A few women called out to William from the shadows, but he didn’t listen.

  His arrival had caused a stir. A handful of women looked back at the mouth of the cave, where more children peered out from the shadows, intently watching. Seeing them caused a ripple of doubt. A few of Sherry’s women grabbed hold of the loose child, herding him back inside, but others seemed torn in their allegiance. Tanya and Jodi looked around, suddenly unsure of what they were doing. A few women near them lowered their weapons.

  Trying to regain control, Sherry demanded of Neena and Kai, “Drop your spears!”

  Neither heeded her instructions. Sensing an opening, Neena said, “I’m not doing anything. And neither are your women. Are you?”

  Sherry looked frantically from Neena to Jodi and Tanya. Jodi cried, while Tanya froze.

  “You wouldn’t harm an innocent child, would you?” Neena yelled louder. “Because I would never do that to you. Let Samel go. He has nothing to do with this. Release him, and we’ll all figure this out.”

  Jodi and Tanya looked as if they were considering it.

  Sherry’s face twisted in frustration. Misdirecting her anger, she raised her spear and took a step in Jodi’s and Tanya’s direction, but they didn’t move. A relief spread through Neena, so hard and so fast that she thanked the heavens for her luck.

  Sherry’s next words ripped away that relief.

  “Throw him!”

  A gasp went through the crowd.

  Tanya and Jodi tensed.

  As one, all eyes turned toward them. Neena stepped forward, suddenly regretting her lack of compliance, while Samel screamed.

  “Do it now!” Sherry insisted.

  Jodi and Tanya looked over the ledge, and back toward Samel.

  “I said, now!” Sherry shouted again.

  The crowd shared a single, held breath.

  Jodi and Tanya looked at Samel, who shook his head in a final panic.

  And then Jodi lowered her head.

  “I-I can’t….” she said.

  She let Samel go, and Tanya did, too.

  In shock, Samel raced away from the edge, heading toward the cliff wall and away from harm.

  Sherry turned around, stunned.

  Neena blew a breath, sharing a look of relief with Kai. Her relief didn’t last long.

  “Watch out!” Kai yelled.

  With a shrill cry, Sherry raised her spear and leapt at Neena.

  Chapter 62: Neena

  Neena skirted to the side, narrowly missing the sharp end of Sherry’s spear, as chaos took over the ledge. Women cried out, shocked, or frightened. Some ran toward the cave, hurrying for their children. But some of the allegiant women had started fighting. Out of the corner of her eye, Neena caught a glimpse of a few dozen women rushing at the Right Cavers, engaging them in battle. She had no time to help them, nor did she have time to locate Samel.

  She was in a struggle for her life.

  Sherry’s snarls filled the air in front of her. She jabbed her spear at Neena, striking her shirt near the hip and cutting her skin. Neena cried out at a raw pain she hadn’t expected. She had no time to survey the damage. Leaping backward, she swung her spear, striking Sherry with the wooden part of the shaft. Sherry fell to the ground on her knees, but sprang up just as fast. Somewhere nearby, Kai defended himself from a snarling woman.

  A yell from Sherry kept Neena focused on the current battle.

  “You wench!” Sherry shrieked.

  Holding her spear sideways, Sherry charged Neena, knocking her spear up, pushing her backward across the ledge. Neena fought for balance, crashing into some others who fought around them. Venomous spit flew from Sherry’s mouth. Her breath stank of dried rat and dirty water. Neena dug her boots into the ground, frantically trying to disentangle from Sherry, but she was stuck in a defensive position.

  With a cry, she found strength and pushed hard on her spear, hurling the woman away.

  Sherry fell back a few steps, before lunging again, swinging her weapon sideways.

  The blunt side of the spear hit Neena’s head. She recoiled in shock as blood trickled down her temple and dripped into her eye. Sherry gave her no time to recover. The crazed woman reared back the spear’s point, jabbing, forcing Neena to dodge. Neena avoided being gored, but not before knocking into someone else, pitching them both off-balance.

  Neena and the other person fell in a heap.

  Neena rolled.

  With effort, she broke free from the person, recognizing Samara. Samara sprang up to help her, only to get pulled into another skirmish.

  Sherry charged Neena.

  Rage overpowered her lack of experience.

  She thrust her spear mercilessly, screaming with bloodlust, forcing Neena to retreat while avoiding the ledge. Neena managed a few lucky parries before the spear slashed her arm. Neena shrieked as a fresh wound tore her skin. Sherry’s eyes burned with hatred.

  “I’ll kill you for what you’ve done!” Sherry spat, thrusting her spear again.

  Neena scooted sideways, trading a few more ineffective stabs, before ending up near the cliff face.

  She dodged another jab, listening to the ping of metal against rock. The temporary reprieve allowed her to scan through the commotion toward the Center Cave. A few handfuls of women had fled inside, while others stood frozen. It looked like Jodi and Tanya had caught hold of Samel again. What were they doing? Seeing Samel with them incited her rage. She lashed out with her spear, catching Sherry’s arm. Fabric and skin tore.

  Sherry wailed.

  Her pained scream reminded Neena of how Darius might’ve screamed, or how Samel might’ve yelled while being dragged away. Those thoughts fueled her anger.

  Neena reared back her spear, thrusting hard, grazing Sherry’s leg. Her opponent howled. Instead of retreating, Neena fought harder, switching to the offensive. She plunged her spear forward repeatedly, missing Sherry several times, but forcing her backward.

  Neena kept on attacking, trading positions with Sherry, until she forced the other women up against the cliff face. With little room to maneuver, Sherry frantically tried blocking. She raised her spear, but Neena batted it away.

  Desperate, Sherry lashed out with a foot, catching Neena hard in the knee, sending her reeling.

  Neena recovered, rearing back her spear and thrusting.

  This time she caught Sherry unguarded.

  Her aim was true.

  Sherry screeched in rage as the spear pierced the meat of her thigh, and Neena pressed deeper. She turned the spear’s handle, thinking of all those who had suffered, and all of Sherry’s actions, before pulling it out.

  Sherry dropped her spear and fell to the ground.

  Her hands flew to the gaping wound, tamping the flow of blood.

  She looked from the wound to Neena, as if this might be a dream, or a mistake.

  Neena kicked Sherry’s spear out of reach.

  She moved directly in front of Sherry, holding her spear inches from Sherry’s face.

  Quiet reigned in the gentle breeze.

  Quiet?

  Looking around, Neena noticed that all the nearby battles had stopped. All eyes riveted to the spear in her hand, and Sherry’s anguished face. Gasping for breath, Neena lifted her spear under Sherry’s chin, trying to get a word out.

  “I want my brother back,” she finally hissed. The words came out in barely a whisper.

  Sherry’s eyes roamed from Neena’s face to the spear.

  She opened her mouth to speak, but groaned instead.

  “That’s enough!” someone shouted.

  Neena looked past Sherry toward the mouth of the Center Cave, where Jodi and Tanya stood with Samel.

  “She’s pregnant!” Jodi cried. “You promised you wouldn’t hurt any children!”

  Neena looked from the woman to Sherry, who groaned again, letting one hand off her le
g and grasping her stomach, which had a slight bulge that Neena hadn’t noticed. Neena blinked hard, switching her focus to Jodi and Tanya.

  “Let Samel go!” she yelled over to them.

  The women hesitated only a moment before releasing Samel. His breath heaving, he dashed for the cliff’s face, sticking close to it and finding his way back to Neena. None of the women on the ledge grabbed him, or impeded his path.

  And then he was holding on to Neena, safe. Tears streamed down his face.

  Neena blinked hard. It felt as if she’d dodged a strike of lightning.

  “We only grabbed him again to protect him from the fighting!” Jodi explained.

  Several Right Cavers released the breath they’d been holding. Looking around, Neena saw a few people holding spears on one another. A handful more—including Salvador—were on the ground, shaken, but not majorly wounded. Those women who had fled when the battle began congregated by the mouth of the Center Cave.

  Even Kai seemed relieved.

  Slowly, Neena withdrew her spear, stepping away from Sherry while Samel clung to her.

  “This is over,” she said.

  Tears welled in Sherry’s eyes. Reluctantly, she nodded.

  Samel walked over to Kai, who started cutting the cloth from his wrists, while Neena took a step toward the Right Cavers.

  A shout stopped her.

  “Watch out!” Kai screamed.

  Neena’s head swiveled back to the wounded woman. In a moment’s time, Sherry’s face had turned from anguish to madness. She darted for Neena, hands groping, blood leaking from her leg. Neena scurried backward, but not in time to avoid the woman from crashing into her.

  Still on their feet, they skidded backward, entangled.

  With horror, Neena realized they’d ended up near the cliff’s edge.

  Sherry scratched and growled, tearing at Neena’s clothes and her skin, filling the air with her rabid cries. Neena got up her arms, thrusting her backward.

  And then Sherry was lunging, Neena was skirting sideways, and Sherry was barging toward a target that was no longer there.

  A last, angry cry turned to realization, as Sherry’s balance failed. One boot followed the other. Her arms pin-wheeled. And then she was over the edge and out of sight. Her shriek echoed for a long while, off the lower faces of the cliff, up to where her women and the Right Cavers stood.

  The long, fading scream ended in a thud.

  And then all was quiet, save the wind.

  Chapter 63: Neena

  Nearly a hundred shocked, bedraggled people hurried to the cliff’s edge, while keeping a buffer from the enormous drop. Gasps punctuated the crowd as they looked down. A few women covered their mouths. Those who’d been hiding in the Center Cave slowly emerged, ordering their children to stay put before joining the others.

  Shaking and in pain, Neena mimicked the gathering crowd, peering down. All at once, the fight was forgotten.

  A new tragedy had taken center stage.

  Neena scanned the rocky formation from side to side, searching for Sherry’s body. Sherry’s momentum had taken her to a different place than they expected, but the end result was the same.

  The crazed woman’s pulverized body lay at an ugly angle on an outcrop of stone. Her legs were folded beneath her, snapped below the knee, bone jutting from the ends. Her mouth was open in a ghastly expression of death. Neena couldn’t see everything from here, but she saw enough. She immediately covered her mouth.

  Sherry wasn’t moving, and would never move again.

  Sickness made Neena back away from the edge. A hand on her arm startled her, until she realized it was Kai, pulling her back and away from the dangerous drop. Samel grabbed her in a tight hug, while Roberto, Salvador, and Samara surrounded them, checking on their well-being. All around them, the Right Cavers stood in a stunned cluster, their faces scratched, their clothing torn. A few of the Center Cave women got up from where they’d fallen and hurried back to their peers, joining a cluster of their comrades about thirty feet away.

  At a safe distance, Jody, Tanya, and the rest of the women gathered near the entrance of the Center Cave, watching Neena and Samel, crying, or in shock.

  For a long, uneasy moment, the two groups stared at one another, listening to the whistling wind. Neena squeezed Samel tightly, as if someone might try to rip him away, even though she’d never let that happen again.

  After what felt like a long time, Neena broke the silence and said, “I have no interest in fighting you.”

  The women looked at one another with tear-streaked faces, debating something. No one answered, but they weren’t raising their spears, either.

  Continuing Neena said, “I never intended for Sherry, or anyone else, to die today. All I wanted was my brother back.”

  Jodi and Tanya looked at each other, and then toward the mouth of the cave, where the brown-haired boy—William—and a few others trickled out, hugging their mothers. The women squeezed their children tight, looking back and forth from the ledge where Sherry had fallen to Neena’s group.

  “All we wanted was to keep our children safe, as well,” Jodi said honestly, holding William.

  “I’m not sure what lies Sherry told you, but we never intended anyone harm. It was your people who killed Darius. We only wanted to work together.”

  “I heard you mention that before,” Jodi said, seemingly just as confused as the other woman. “We don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Neena glanced at Kai. “Someone killed Darius in our cave. He was stabbed with his tools and left dead.”

  “We found him right before your men marched,” Kai explained.

  Jodi glanced over at Tanya, perplexed. “We don’t know anything about that.”

  The other women looked around, just as bewildered.

  “We discovered his body right before we discovered my other brother missing,” Neena said, the words bringing back the emotion of that day. “Darius was brutally killed sometime before Raj went to the colony with Bryan and his men.”

  Jodi lowered her head. “I do not know what to say, other than I am sorry for your loss.”

  “And I am sorry for yours,” Neena said, motioning toward the edge of the cliff where Sherry had fallen. “I am even sorrier for her baby.”

  An unexpected tear wet Neena’s eye. As angry as she’d been with Sherry, she’d never wish harm upon a child. A long, emotional pause fell over the cliffs, while some women blotted their eyes, staring vacantly off the edge of the cliffs.

  And then another woman stepped forward, addressing all of them.

  “Sherry was no longer with child,” she said, to the surprise of the others. “We saw her in the cave before we ran out here. She was clutching her stomach, trying to hide some blood on her clothes. I’m not sure if it was a sudden miscarriage, or if it had been happening awhile, but it sounds as if the worst of it occurred before you came.”

  The women at the cave looked from the cliff toward the Center Cave, covering their mouths, or shaking their heads in grief.

  “It seems as if another tragedy has struck our cave,” the woman said, squeezing her eyes shut.

  “Too many losses have devastated us,” Neena agreed, lowering her head. “But my hope is that we can prevent one more.”

  Jodi and Tanya watched her carefully.

  “Samel isn’t the only one I was trying to get back. I was trying to get Raj back, too,” Neena said. “We are afraid he is dead. But we need to find out for certain.”

  Jodi looked at Tanya before speaking again. “Your brother is alive. We saw him scavenging with the men a day ago.”

  “Alive?” A surge of hope coursed through Neena.

  “We saw him from the cliffs,” Tanya said. “There were only two dozen men down there. He was the smallest. I assume it was him. They returned to the Comm Building when they were finished.”

  Neena glanced at Kai. She couldn’t believe what she heard. “If that is true, we have to get to him.”

 
; The news invigorated the Right Cavers, who straightened their backs and gripped their spears. A few looked out over the colony, toward the Comm Building, while others shifted uneasily.

  Their uneasiness spread to the Center Cave women. Neena immediately realized the reason.

  Hoping to dampen their fears, Neena said, “Our intent is not to harm anyone else. But I need to get my brother back.”

  “More deaths might occur, if you confront our men,” called out a woman with fright.

  “Please.” Another woman stepped forward. “Let us speak with them. Perhaps we can convince your brother to come back.”

  Neena exchanged another glance with Kai. She couldn’t agree to that, even if she wanted to. “It is my duty to keep my brothers safe, just as it is your duty to protect your children. What happened to Darius might happen to Raj. I cannot risk it.”

  The woman squeezed her eyes shut. Others held their young ones, fear in their eyes.

  “We will do our best to avoid bloodshed,” Kai swore.

  The women on the ledge wavered nervously. For a moment, Neena was certain they’d block their way, or stir up trouble. They looked at one another, whispering.

  Eventually, all of their eyes landed on Tanya and Jodi.

  A decision formed in Tanya’s eyes.

  “I’ll go with you,” Tanya said. Looking around at the other women, she continued, “I have no children of my own. I will help Neena and her people. Perhaps together, we can avoid more death.”

  “But Tanya!” Jodi objected. “It’s too dangerous.”

  “I have decided,” Tanya insisted. “The rest of you stay here and protect the children. I will return.”

  Neena traded a look with her people, none of whom objected. “Okay. We’ll go together.” Looking at the sky, she saw the clouds darkening. “But we should hurry, before the storm arrives.”

  Chapter 64: Neena

  Stronger wind rifled through Neena’s clothes, making her shiver as she, Kai, Tanya, and the other sixty Right Cavers headed down the cliff side toward Red Rock. Now that the adrenaline of the attack was over, Neena could feel the sting of her injuries more sharply, and the dull aches of her body. But she had even more to consider. For all she knew, she was heading into a predicament from which she might not return.