“Do you really think you can sneak up on the Bounty?” I asked in a half whisper.
“Sarah?” A familiar voice asked and I narrowed my eyes, so that I could make out my captive's features in the gloom. Then I pushed myself up and held out my hand, so that I could help him up.
“Andy? What are you doing here?” I asked him. I’d known Andy for a long time. We’d taken a couple of jobs together over the years and he was probably the only person on the planet beside my father whom I trusted.
“I heard that there was an old worlder walking around the farming towns, but it seems like you’ve already found her,” he explained quietly, as he looked past me to Natasha who, was curled up the blanket and still asleep.
“That’s some tough look,” I said to him with a grin. “Maybe you’ll get there first next time huh?” Andy and I had always been competitive, even when we had worked together. It was nice among the seriousness of what we did to have a small form of release.
“Was there only one?” he asked me suddenly.
I felt caught off guard and unsure about what to say. I trusted Andy. I trusted Andy almost to the point where I’d put my life in his hands, but I wasn’t sure whether I trusted him enough to put the lives of those people who had been in the camp at risk. “Well, no there were a hundred and I left them all and only brought one,” I said sarcastically. “Jesus, what do you take me for, an amateur?”
He laughed. “Well, we all know you’re not in the game for the money,” he said with a shrug. “It might stand to reason that you’d leave a few behind. I mean, by my estimates, you’re probably going to be paid up soon, right?”
I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. My job is to find them and bring them in. Do you really think they will release my father if they found out that I’d left any behind?”
“You’re right,” he said and he looked sincere. “You must be excited about getting your father out, though.”
I nodded. “I think that she might be my last one,” I told him truthfully. “I think after this, I might actually get to have my father back and walk away from all of this.”
A sound of denim shifting against fabric caught my attention and I realized that Natasha had woken up. She was sitting with her head facing in our direction.
“How much of that did you hear?” I asked her sharply.
“I heard enough,” she said and her voice sounded softer than I’d ever heard it. “Is it true that they have your father?”
“That’s none of your business,” I snapped.
“What, would you rather let me think that you’re doing it for the money? At least if they did have your father then you can’t be totally heartless for doing this bounty crap.”
“Do you think I care about what people think of me?” I asked her and I could feel my eyebrows arching. “My reasons are my own and you’d do well to keep out of them.”
“You know, Sarah, is it really the worst thing in the world if the girl knows why you’re handing her in?” Andy tried to reason with me.
“The last time somebody knew that I cared about something, it was taken away from me and used against me,” I explained slowly and coldly. “I’m not going to make that same mistake again.”
CHAPTER 8
Nathan
I’d been walking for over a day, but I hadn’t caught up with them. I’d managed to find their tracks, though. They were out in the open for anybody to see. It was like Sarah hadn’t even bothered to think about the fact that one of us might go after Natasha. It was that or she just didn’t care. I thought about the gun that she’d had pointed at my legs. She had every advantage over me. I knew that. I knew that what I was attempting was probably a death wish, but didn’t I deserve to die if Natasha did? Wasn’t that just the way things should be?
I stopped when the sun had started to set. I hadn’t slept for two days and I felt weak with exhaustion. I’d been worried about wild animals catching me in my sleep, but other than the odd cricket I’d heard nothing out in the seemingly barren desert. It seemed strange that it was only a day’s walk back to the thick and healthy green leaves of the woodland that I’d been living in.
I let my legs slowly take me to the ground and I just sat for a moment. I knew that it was unsafe to sleep without somebody watching over me. I knew that it wasn’t only wild animals that I needed to fear in the open lands, but that didn’t stop the exhaustion. I knew that if I ever wanted to catch up with Sarah and Natasha then I would need my strength to do it.
I let my head rest against the ground and I slowly closed my eyes. Even with my anxiety over being unguarded I fell asleep quickly. My dreams were an uneasy mixture of Natasha’s face and the fear I’d felt over having a gun pointed at me. I could feel the ache for a peaceful sleep, even within my dreams.
Then I was jolted out of my dreams when I felt something touch my sleeping body.
“What have I found here?”
I looked up and saw a gruff-looking man standing above me. I could tell from the heavy leather clothing that he was a bounty hunter and my heart sank as the realization struck me. I had made it real easy to be caught.
“You know, I’ve just been talking to my friend who had an old worlder with her,” the man told me, not realizing how useful that information might be. “She said that there was only one of you, but it seems to be like she might have been lying.” I could tell that he was talking more to himself than he was to me.
“When did you speak with your friend?” I asked.
He looked at me suspiciously. “What would that matter to you?”
“I thought we were, you know, chatting,” I said innocently.
He shook his head. “You know, with the trouble you’re in, you would think that you’d know to keep your mouth shut”
“Well, here’s the thing though,” I said to him and I grinned, because he had no idea what I was about to do and I knew it would infuriate him. “I’m only going to be in trouble, if you manage to catch me,” I said and then I took off as quickly as I could in the direction which I was sure he’d come from.
I could hear his heavy footsteps behind me, but they were getting further behind with every stride of my legs and I knew from the size of him that he wouldn’t be able to keep up such speed for long. I tried to take deep breaths to ease my burning lungs, but the air just stung against my nose, as I sped on.
I ran until I couldn’t run any longer and I was sure that I couldn’t hear anybody following me. Then I stopped and tried to catch my breath.
He’d said that he’d seen a friend of his and she’d been with an old worlder. That had to be Sarah and Natasha. I was curious, though, as to why Sarah would lie to her friend about how many of us there were. It didn’t seem to me like a bounty hunter kind of thing to do. But then, what did I really know about bounty hunters, other than that they’d been trying to hunt me down my entire life?
My chest ached, but I managed to start walking forward again. I needed to make sure that the bounty hunter who had found me wasn’t going to catch up, until I had found Sarah and Natasha. I had a feeling from the way he had spoken that this guy had talked with Sarah not all that long ago.
My legs ached. Even leaving aside my little foot race, I’d never walked so far in one trip in my entire life. But that didn’t stop me from putting my next step forward, and then the next one. I knew what I was going to do if I reached Sarah and Natasha in time. I knew the deal I was going to strike, a deal which might serve as my redemption.
It was clear to me that Sarah had only wanted to take one person back to The City of Hope, so I was going to let her take me. It was the only way that I could be sure to save Natasha.
I was no fighter and Sarah’s skills were far beyond anything that I could ever conceive of. And then there was the matter of her gun. It wasn’t like I could try to fight her and help Natasha escape. It was clear. Sarah wanted to bring back one old-worlder, and I knew that person had to be me.
The thought pushed me forward. Th
e sun was starting to rise up over the horizon and I noticed two sets of footprints that had broken the smooth surface of a patch of sand. I was going the right way.
Now all I had to do was catch up with them and put my plan into effect before Sarah made it to The City of Hope.
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