In Between Seasons (The Fall)

by Giovanni, Cassandra

  “It’s not my home anymore,” I said.

  “And where is your home?” Hunter asked.

  “Where’s yours?”

  He stared at me for a second before looking away, “They’re going to hate me even more once I promote them.”

  “I didn’t think it bugged you if they hated you?”

  “It doesn’t—what bugs me is the fact that when I do I’m committing to leading them right into their deaths.”

  “What if you don’t promote them?”

  “Then I’ll be heading back there,” he explained.

  “So you have no choice?”

  “Pretty much, my dad gave me my orders. Now I have to carry them out,” he sighed, and his shoulder muscles tensed under his t-shirt.

  Chapter 22

  It had been two days since Hunter’s father had left, and the women were in their typical circle watching TV and drinking beer. I had opted out of beer after the first day because of its foul taste and for the most part kept my mouth shut. Their conversations ranged from who was the cutest star on whatever they were watching to whatever they hated the most about their boyfriend or husband, which tended to be most everything. The negativity that coursed through the air was almost more than I could take on most days, but today I had decided to make an effort at finding out something else about the world I was living in.

  “So Chris got promoted?” I asked Amy.

  “Yeah,” she answered, taking another sip of beer unmoved.

  “Shouldn’t you be happy?” I asked as I picked at a hole in my jeans. This wasn’t going to be easy if she was going to be so nasty.

  She looked me square in the face as she sneered, “Yeah, a promotion was just what Chris needed.”

  I shook my head and stood.

  “Where you going?” A woman named Mara asked, standing with me.

  “To try and find the library. Hunter mentioned there was one,” I explained.

  “You’re going in the wrong direction then,” Mara commented as she twirled a piece of her blonde choppy hair.

  “Are you going to show me?” I asked, even though I wasn’t thrilled with her attitude.

  “Sure thing, doll,” Mara replied, leading me out of the room and past the kitchen, “You really don’t know much about this place do you?”

  “Why would you say that?”

  “These men that we’re stuck with—most of them are jerks, but some of them aren’t….like my husband Rob, but the second they get a promotion they’re less human. Chris’ a jerk, so a promotion doesn’t do Amy any good. Plus it means that pretty soon she’s a guaranteed widow,” Mara explained while opening the door to a room.

  “If she doesn’t like Chris why does she care if he leaves on a mission?”

  She sighed shaking her head as if I were a child, “Without Chris she’s useless here.”

  I thought to myself that she already was.

  “So?” I asked.

  “So she would have to leave, go to the farming base so she would have something to do,” Mara nodded into the room, “Well, here it is. You might have to blow some dust off those things. I don’t think anyone has touched them in a long time…not since I’ve been here at least.”

  I stepped into the room, which was unusually light because of the huge window that was to the right of me. I slipped my shoes off and kneaded my toes into the super plush carpet as I took in the room. The carpet was white and bounced the light from the window against the bookshelves that lined the two side walls from floor to ceiling. The only empty wall in the room was a deep jewel colored green, which matched exactly to the chenille blanket that was thrown over the back of a chocolate colored leather chaise. I took a deep breath of the paper scented air and sighed. As I ran my hand across the dusty shelves something outside the window caught my eyes. The window overlooked a large field where the men were in mock hand to hand combat. It amazed me that they didn’t all come in black and blue from the fighting. My eyes found Hunter with ease and he turned his head seeing me in the window. I smiled and mustered a small wave as I watched his opponent try to level him with a kick to the head. Even without facing his attacker he was able to grab the swinging leg and spin his opponent to the ground.

  Chapter 23

  The days were starting to run into each other, and I was just getting use to the fact that all the women around me did nothing. This was one of the only differences that I could see between my parent’s tribe and this one, or maybe they had always just kept me busy to make me shut up. Either way the men here and there both were mysteriously gone all day. I knew that Hunter was briefing them on missions, and training the beer out of them. It had become a daily ritual for me to watch the reflection of the sun sinking into the horizon off of the TV and pray that Hunter would be there to save me from my boredom sooner than later. The men were now streaming steadily in to the house, either settling at the pool tables or on stools and talking over the blaring television as they drank themselves into oblivion.

  “Would you shut the hell up?” Amy shrieked, turning and looking over the couch, “We’re trying to watch a movie.”

  The man that Hunter had been fighting earlier in the day turned to face us from the pool table and said nothing, but raised one finger.

  “Meg…?” Amy said turning around with a wicked smirk on her face.

  “Andy, do you ever want sex again?” Meg asked with her lips curled downward in an unattractive grimace.

  Andy rolled his eyes and took a swig of the beer that another one of his loud comrades had brought him. Amy huffed and grabbed the remote sending the volume to an unbearable level. I had planned on waiting for Hunter to come in, but I couldn’t stand the ridiculous situation anymore, so I got up to leave. As I walked past one of the pool tables where the men were gathered someone reached out and grabbed my butt. I had had enough from the day full of bickering women and chick flicks. I cranked the man’s arm without a second thought.

  He screamed out in pain, “You bitch, what the hell did you do to me?”

  I turned with his hand still locked in mine, “I thought Hunter told you if you even so much as looked at me wrong he would castrate you?” I questioned as I dropped his immobile arm.

  “What the hell is going on in here?” Hunter yelled as he came in the room, “Turn that TV down before I put a chair through it.”

  “Your bitch of a POW just screwed up my arm,” the man nodded to his limp arm as tears began to flow down his face from the pain, “I want to know how the hell she knew how to do that.”

  Hunter’s face quieted him before he could continue. He stepped in between the man and me as my eyes burned in anger.

  “I think that’s the least of your problems Rick. Now would you mind telling me why she dislocated your shoulder?”

  “You weren’t serious about castration were you?” Rick replied, swallowing as his face reddened in fear.

  “You wanted to find out?” Hunter asked.

  “No, Sir.”

  Hunter took one step forward and placed his hand on Rick’s shoulder. He was trembling in fear as Hunter grabbed his arm and twisted. Rick cried out in pain again, but when Hunter stepped aside his arm was in a normal position once more. The whole room had gone completely silent, and Mara was looking over the couch at me with one eyebrow raised.

  “Does anyone else want to piss me off today?” Hunter crossed his arms over his chest so that the veins in his forearms pulsed, “Good, now if anyone else lays a hand on Kate I will not be so kind. I’ll let her dislocate your shoulder permanently. Am I understood?”

  “Yes, Sir,” the men in the room echoed.

  “You,” Hunter spun on his heels to face the women, “keep the noise down to a human level with that god damned TV, or I ship you out to Farmville, got it?”

  The women said nothing, but nodded their heads.

  Hunter looked at me with his lips in a grim line, but his eyes showed that he was rather amused, “Shall we?”

  “Yes, please,” I replie
d.

  “I’m glad to see that you put your new found skill to use accurately,” Hunter commented once we had reached the deck and stairs leading to his apartment.

  “Are you mad? They’re all going to question where I learned that from,” I realized with a sigh. I hadn’t thought of that ramification when I had done it. I knew we didn’t need any attention drawn to us, or any reason for someone to say something about my skills to his father. It would only raise more questions that neither of us could answer.

  “I don’t think anyone is going to be questioning me any time soon, but if they do I’ll just tell them I taught you for that very reason. So what did Rick do?” Hunter asked, his eyes watering as he tried not to laugh.

  “He grabbed my butt,” I responded, opening the door.

  “That’s a pretty serious punishment for a little grab,” Hunter teased with a smile curling at the edge of his lips as I turned to face him with my arms crossed.

  “It was uncalled for,” I retorted.

  “I’ll keep that in mind next time I’m tempted,” Hunter broke into a full smile, and my brain moved slower than my mouth.

  “You’re different,” my cheeks burned as I realized what I had said.

  Hunter could see my embarrassment and instead of shooting a smart comment back shrugged his arms, “Good job. You executed the move quite well.”

  “I’ll never be as good as you,” I sighed, going into the kitchen to begin dinner. I didn’t think anyone could be as good as him.

  “This may be true, but you might be better in different areas of combat,” Hunter took the lettuce I had pulled out of the fridge from my hands, “Let me help tonight?”

  “Aren’t you tired from training today?” I asked as I took the steak from the fridge.

  “I didn’t really do all that much today. I briefed them about their assignments for the next month or so. The next two weeks are going to be pretty hectic though. I swear all they did was drink beer all day while I was gone and half of the training I’ve instilled in them went right out the window,” Hunter explained, taking a knife out of a drawer and rolling his eyes.

  “I haven’t seen you pick up a beer since you got back here?”

  “Have you ever tasted that stuff?” Hunter asked, and seeing the look on my face he laughed before continuing, “Is that even legal?”

  “I wasn’t aware that there were laws that were enforced around here,” I retorted, my stomach shrinking from the comment. At that moment it was clear to me that Hunter was much older than me, but I had no clue how much. I was too afraid to ask.

  He put his arm around my waist and squeezed, “I’m not saying you’re a baby.”

  “What were you saying?” I replied, pulling away from him. I was angry that he would bring it up, and even angrier that I couldn’t be upset with him when he put his arms around me like that.

  “Who gave you a beer? You don’t seem the type to give into peer pressure?” Hunter asked with a frown.

  “I guess you don’t know me so well,” I retorted, embarrassed by the fact that I had given into Amy out of spite.

  “Come on, Kate. Are you that insecure about your age? I certainly don’t look at you like you’re a baby and from the way Rick got grabby I don’t think anyone else does either.”

  “Sometimes I just feel little next to you.”

  He looked down at me, “You are little compared to me.”

  I rolled my eyes as he wrapped his arms around me in a hug.

  “See you disappear in my arms…That’s the smile I was looking for.”

  “Someday my finesse will kick your ass,” I joked as I breathed in his scent and wished that he would hold me just a moment longer. He smiled at me as if he didn’t believe I could beat him, and then he released me to go to cut the lettuce.

  It took a second for the butterflies to settle and from the look on his face it seemed to me he might be feeling the same. At least I was wishing he felt the same.

  “Speaking of that, I think we need to train at night when no one will be looking for me or you,” Hunter observed.

  “Believe me, none of those girls will miss me if I disappeared for a long period of time. In fact they don’t really notice me at all. I spend most of my time in the library. Sometimes it’s too quiet though,” I explained.

  “I’ll be right back,” Hunter suddenly exited the room.

  “What’s that?” I asked as he handed me a rectangular piece of cool metal with a black glass screen. Hunter touched the screen and it lit up.

  “An itouch.”

  “A what touch?”

  “You can play music files on it. Make sure no one sees it. They’re supposed to be dead technology. My dad, however, got me one when I was about fifteen. The music is about as ancient as our movies and books, but it should help with that quiet thing. I’ll show you how to use it after dinner,” Hunter clarified for me.

  “Thanks,”

  “Anything for you dar—“

  “Don’t,” I cut him off with a shake of my head.

  “Sorry, I forgot,” he said with a smirk.

  Chapter 24

  “I thought you might be here,” Hunter took a seat next to me on the ground, “Hiding in the library again?”

  “The company isn’t always that great when you’re not around,” I sighed.

  “So what are you reading?”

  “All kinds of things. What’s with all these books about the world ending in 2012?” I asked.

  “The Mayan calendar ended in 2012 and there was a prophet who was interpreted to say the world would end in 2012,” he explained as he rolled his eyes.

  “Well, I guess they were wrong, huh?” I asked, shutting the book and standing to put it back on the shelf.

  “Kind of…The world didn’t end, but it did change. It’s why things are the way they are now. Do you know anything about the collapse?” He asked as I sat back down next to him just close enough to feel the heat of his body.

  “I was only three, and my parents basically said that they didn’t have anything to do with it… I know that it started in 2012, and was done by 2016, but other than that I don’t remember what really happened—do you?”

  “It’s hard for me to forget. A lot of the people here are old enough to remember, but chose to believe my father’s version of the truth. Just like he always wanted me to, but I remember and the deceit began before the war even started…”

  “I didn’t think you were that much older than me…?” I interrupted as my curiosity was got the best of me. It seemed the perfect time to drop the age question in, and I felt my palms dampening as I waited for his answer. Although our conversation was serious, the question made Hunter’s eyes lighten with amusement. It was as if he knew I had been dying to ask, but hadn’t had the guts.

  “I’m twenty-five, so that made me ten when everything changed,” his eyes darkened in an instant, “old enough to remember if a person wanted to.”

  “Why not believe what your father tried to tell you?” I asked. My question about his age now seemed petty and was quickly forgotten in the depth of the conversation.

  “You and I are a lot alike…you were just too young to get a real view of what was going on,” he answered, knocking his shoulders against mine, “People are easy to influence when the world they know is falling apart. My father took advantage of that and here we are…a world permanently at war.”

  “What happened to all the cars and roads that the movies show? I can’t imagine they just disappeared in an instant?” I questioned, alluding to the poof of everything with my hands.

  Hunter furrowed his brow looking at my hands and then shook his head.

  “Some left before the government actually collapsed. We all knew it would happen, and the lack of safety once it did happen made a lot of people leave the populated areas. From what I know your father moved the people he had convinced to come with him shortly before the collapse. You were lucky—once the riots started it was a mess to get out of without
being followed. People resorted to their most primal nature—shredding the world we knew to pieces. It’s scary to see civil people resort to that, but my father wanted to relish in the government’s failure.”

  “But here there isn’t even a remnant of the past except for this house?” I observed, shaking my head. It hardly made any sense to me that people could tear things down piece by piece without emotion.

  “This area was never really populated, so it didn’t take much for Mother Nature to take back what wasn’t up kept,” Hunter explained, and the answer seemed rational to me, but left me with more questions.

  “So how is this house, in the middle of nowhere, this nice?”

  “The riots. For the most part everything here is stolen. The ones who were prepared for the fall prepared for the riots. It was all strategized. My mother thought my father was insane, but she loved him so she went with it. They used to joke about doomsday preppers, but my father was—is a much worse version of what those people displayed. My mother was lucky she died before he got really bad—before she could see that he was right and what he would become because of it. He understood the evil because he had conquered it and mastered it inside himself.”

  “How long was it before there was nothing left?” I continued, still shaking my head in disbelief.

  “I’m not really sure; we left within a week because we had everything we needed and then the war began to keep what we had pillaged.”

  “How many tribes are there at war?” I peppered him with yet another question, but his face didn’t show any annoyance. It was a relief to finally get some answers, to finally gain some sort of understanding.

  “At least ten that I know of, but there could be more in further territories,” Hunter answered with a sigh. I could tell he didn’t like not having a solid response to that question.

  “What are we fighting over?” I asked, pulling my knees to my chest and resting my cheek on them as I took in his darkening expression. It was as if he was fighting with whether to protect me still, or to let me see the evil of the world through his eyes.