The younger man had a look on his face that suggested he had thought things through very thoroughly. “I knew that the second he heard about his girlfriend being in trouble, he would be on the first transport to find her.”
“And what exactly did you think would happen if they captured some of our people? You didn’t think they could get the information out of them?”
His smug look melted. “Our contact told me they would be sure to wipe out the whole crew! This just goes to show that the Cali can’t be trusted! I think we need to revise our plan.”
The younger man was out of line, and needed to be reminded of his place. “Of course they can’t be trusted! It will be irrelevant, however, when I trade all the assets from that facility for a seat on their council.”
The younger man scoffed. “Once you are on the council, what makes you think they will listen to what you have to say?”
“Let me worry about that! Don’t forget your place here, boy! Once I secure a position of power, you will get your reward, but until then, I make the decisions! If Cali discovers the cryogenic facility before we are ready, we will not have anything to bargain with, and it is all for naught. Is there any hope of turning this catastrophe in our favor?”
The younger man shrugged. “It’s out of Jack’s hands now, since he won’t go out and look himself, so there’s nothing to gain or lose by the return of the surviving crew. If his girlfriend don’t make it, it might distract him, but I wouldn’t count on it. The key will now be the success or failure of the group heading to Saber Cusp. Jack hasn’t planned for the possible failure of that mission, and it will take too long to fabricate the heavy machinery they need if it does fail.”
The old man was skeptical, but he tried to hide it. “You weren’t put on that detail. How do you plan to ensure their failure?”
“I don’t think we have to worry too much about it. You know what they’re up against. The chances of their surviving are very low, and with Teague and that damned reborn kid leading the mission it will surely fail.”
“Don’t underestimate Teague. That man has proven time and again that he can be just as resourceful as the most seasoned soldier. Find a way to make that mission fail.”
The younger man sighed in resignation. “It won’t be easy without revealing myself to them.”
“If you cannot do it, I will find someone who can. Just remember what is at stake here.” With that, the older man left the room.
* * *
Anton stopped and Wendy heard a sudden intake of breath. Startled, she whispered sharply, “What is it?” The path they had been following all day was heavy with trees and brush, but here, less than fifteen feet from the path, the trees were spaced so close together that it was difficult to see more than a dozen feet in front of them. Anton didn’t reply, but after a moment he gestured for them to move forward.
After a few more steps she saw what had caused his reaction. There was a medium sized Mute lying against a tree up ahead. ‘Medium’ was a relative description; the man was easily over six feet tall and two hundred fifty pounds, but for a Mute that was average, even for the females. The man was not moving, and it was obvious, after a few more steps closer, why. The Mute’s head rested at an unnaturally sharp angle from his shoulders. Breaking a man’s neck is not an easy task, but certainly possible. Breaking a Mute’s neck on the other hand, was like grasping one of these evergreen trees and snapping it in half. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. What the hell could have done that?
A few more yards revealed two more bodies, both similarly dead. There were still no sounds around them, except for their own. After scanning the trees for a moment, Anton quietly said, “Maybe we should get out of here.”
“Perhaps you should.” The deep voice rumbled from somewhere to the north of them, and everyone spun toward it, their weapons ready. There was nothing in front of them but more trees.
Wendy could not remember another time in her life when she was so nervous, and a quick glance at the other men told her that she wasn’t the only person scared out of their mind. The sudden need to urinate was almost overwhelming, but she was too tense to even piss herself. Wayne whispered harshly “What the fuck is that!?”
Anton didn’t answer, and nobody moved so much as a muscle.
“Please put down your weapons. If I wanted you dead, you would already be dead.” The deep voice left absolutely no room for argument. There wasn’t even a hint of doubt in the voice, and Wendy felt whatever was behind that voice was perfectly capable of dealing with them. She was the first to holster her weapon.
Anton said, “Who are you, and what do you want?” His voice quavered a little, but she was impressed that he had managed to get any coherent words out at all.
There was a slow, deep sound that could have been a chuckle. “Shouldn’t you be asking what I am?”
Wendy could almost feel Anton’s bowels turn to liquid. Hers were already there.
“I... I’m not sure I want to know what you are.” His voice sounded very small.
The deep chuckle turned into what was unmistakably a laugh. When it ended, the voice said, “I took care of your pursuers, do you always look at a gift with such skepticism?”
Anton relaxed slightly, and with more confidence said, “Would you walk away with some unknown entity capable of this kind of violence a short distance behind you?”
There was a pause. “Good point” the rumbling voice said. “Tell you what, put down your weapons and I will show myself, so we can talk about it face to face.”
The fear was being replaced once again with confusion and curiosity. Wendy looked back at Wayne, who only shrugged. Anton motioned for them to lower their weapons. Greg, the man behind Wayne, shook his head and whispered, “Fuck that, you have no idea what is out there. What if it’s a trick?”
“Do you honestly think we would have a chance against whatever did this?” he gestured at the bodies around them. Greg looked at one and shivered, but he lowered his weapon. Anton turned back towards the source of the voice and said “Okay, we lowered our weapons.”
“Thank You. Please do not be alarmed, I would hate to have to kill you all just because someone got scared and tried to attack me.” As he said this, the biggest Mute any of them had ever seen stepped out from behind the tree not ten feet in front of them. The man was easily seven and a half feet tall and had to weigh over four hundred pounds. Unlike most Mutes Wendy had seen, this one had a crude, long sleeved shirt on, as well as long pants, and covering his shoulders was a blanket or cloak made from what had to have been a very large animal.
Behind her, he heard a rifle hit the ground, and as she turned she spotted the backside of Greg as he fled. Anton shouted after him, “Greg, come back!” It was no use, the man was gone. Anton rolled his eyes and shook his head, but then turned his attention back to the current situation. Wendy knew that Greg wouldn’t get far, and they could raise him on the radio if they couldn’t find him.
The range of emotions Wendy had gone through in the past few minutes was too much, and she had finally had enough. “Would you mind telling me what the hell is going on?” She said it with anger in her voice, but as soon as it was out, the adrenaline seemed to disappear and her knees turned to rubber.
The enormous Mute smiled and leaned against the tree. “My name is Bartholomew. Who are you?”
“I’m Wendy, this is Anton and Wayne. Uh... pleased to meet you?” She wasn’t sure what to say, so she figured being polite was the safest way to go.
“Pleased to make your acquaintance as well, Wendy.” He turned to Anton, still smiling. “I guess you are probably confused. I have been following you since you entered the woods yesterday. I was curious what my former clan was chasing, and decided to make things a little more difficult for them. You did a pretty good job of that by yourself, however, so I was just following along for the entertainment.”
Wendy’s fear was partially replaced with astonishment, but Anton seemed to be annoyed at the
Mute’s comment. She had plenty of questions, starting with why he wasn’t trying to kill them, but before she could even form a question, Anton blurted out, “Entertainment? You call our situation entertaining?” He was turning red with anger, and Wendy put a hand on his shoulder.
Bartholomew’s smile slipped a little. “I don’t mean to belittle your fight or your actions, I simply mean I was entertained with the results of your traps. Watching those idiots walk blindly into death heightened my spirits.”
Anton’s anger appeared to subside a little, and before he could reply, Wendy took the opportunity to ask a question. “Bartholomew -”
“Please, call me Bart, if you prefer.”
“Uh, okay, Bart, you said ‘former clan’? Were these Mutes your own people?”
Bart frowned a little. “You know, we tend to prefer the term ‘evolved’.”
Wendy colored with embarrassment and fear. Insulting this behemoth was probably the fastest way to get killed, and it was not her intention. “Oh my God! I’m sorry, I, uh... we...” His laugh was like thunder rolling down a mountain.
“Wendy, I am only kidding with you. Personally I could care less what you call my people. I have washed my hands of them and all they stand for.” He didn’t offer more than that, but her curiosity had grown to the point where she had almost forgotten how afraid she was. Before she could ask another question, Anton looked at his PDP then looked at Wendy. He didn’t need to say that they needed to keep moving if they had any hope of getting rescued today. This presented a problem because she was completely unsure of what Bart’s appearance meant. She had never run into a Mute that didn’t try to kill her, let alone struck up a conversation with her. They needed to determine if Bart was a threat to them before they could go anywhere.
“Can you tell me why you no longer care for your people?”
Bart’s amused expression turned a little more serious. “I had a falling out with my brother. He is the leader of the group that is hunting you. They currently live south of the river near where you were attacked. Once I left my clan, I had few choices. I was never particularly fond of the nomadic lifestyle, and I can’t exactly live with the regular humans in any of the communities.”
Wendy nodded understanding, but before she could say anything, Bart said, “Yeah, it’s terrible being too tall to live in the underground bunkers.”
There was silence for almost five seconds before Bart burst out in laughter. The combination of tension, fear, and intrigue finally boiled over and Wendy began to laugh, almost hysterically. Anton understood the humor, and relaxed a little, probably sensing that Bart was not an immediate threat. Wayne was looking back and forth between Bart, Wendy, and Anton, clearly not understanding the situation in the least. Wendy didn’t hold it against him, after all, ten minutes ago she would never have thought she could have a civilized conversation with a Mute, let alone a lighthearted one.
Bart’s laughter died down and he sighed. “I have really missed getting to laugh with someone else. We do have some serious things to discuss, but I imagine you are in a hurry to get in touch with your people, so we can talk as we go.”
She turned to Anton, but it was obvious he was just as curious as she was to hear Bart’s story. He nodded and turned to head back to the trail. Wayne followed Anton, and Wendy took a dozen steps toward the two men, but stopped when she didn’t hear Bart following behind her. She turned back to see why he wasn’t following and was surprised when he wasn’t there. She scanned the trees but the only movement or sound she detected was from Anton and Wayne. She walked the last few feet to the trail and then followed a dozen steps behind the two men, checking behind her every few steps for any sign of the huge Mute. When they reached the clearing where they had broken for lunch, Bart materialized from the trees to her left, startling her. A rabbit would have made more noise. She shivered, realizing that if he had wanted to kill them, they would have been dead a long time ago.
* * *
When they arrived at the clearing, Greg was there, pacing back and forth, obviously trying to decide if he should move on without them or go back to help. When they emerged from the trees he nearly bolted again, but Anton called out to him, and told him it was okay. After relaying the conversation, he reluctantly nodded and without another word, grabbed his pack and took his rifle from Wayne, who had picked it up for him.
They all gathered their gear and started up the barely perceptible path. Bart hung back for a moment, observing them as they started out. “I am surprised to see you are able to move around so easily, Wendy. You were pretty badly injured yesterday. You must have some good medicine.” His deep voice was oddly soothing. He took a few long steps to catch up to her, then slowed down to keep his stride even with hers”
She nodded. “I never would have thought that one day we would have the ability to heal life threatening wounds in a matter of days.” Before she finished the sentence she realized her mistake. Bart was the first person she had spoken with outside of New Hope since she was reborn, and she hadn’t thought to conceal her origins from the giant man. Anton shot her a look over his shoulder that said she should shut up, and she immediately felt like an idiot.
Bart didn’t appear to notice the exchange. “I assume that means you were not always living with the communities?”
His apparent misunderstanding was the perfect cover for her slip up, and she rolled with it. “I was born up north of here, and lived with my mother and two sisters. A search team from New Hope found me about four months ago, and I have lived with them ever since.” The story was actually true, just not for her. A few months ago on a scavenging mission they spotted a house with smoke coming from its makeshift chimney. A young woman was living alone in the house, and they brought her back. Wendy was fortunate to get to hear her entire life story.
“You said they found you, what about your family?”
“My mother took a nasty fall, got cut pretty bad, and the wound got infected. She passed about a month before I was found. My mother had talked about a community to the east called Deering. It was where my father had supposedly come from. My sisters decided to head that direction, with dreams in their head of finding a city full of men to have babies with and live happily ever after. I thought it was foolish and stayed behind. We had a home, good hunting grounds, and a clean source of water. I never heard from either of them again.” She tried to put a look of forlorn sadness on her face, but wasn’t sure she had succeeded.
“So why are you out here, and not back in New Hope, half way through your pregnancy? Are you barren?”
He was making this easy, so she kept rolling with it. The real woman they had found was in fact very pregnant at the moment. The question sort of hit home for her, however, so it was easy to look uncomfortable with the conversation. He was buying it, hook, line, and sinker.
“I see you do not want to talk about that. My apologies. It must be difficult, living in a society with such great need for children, and not being able to participate.”
The comment surprised her. Not only was Bart very perceptive, but he seemed to know an awful lot about their communities and culture. Before she could comment, he said “Don’t look so surprised, Wendy, I probably know a lot more than you think I do about your community. Actually, I bet I know some things about New Hope that you don’t even know.”
She wondered what that might mean, but before she could ponder it for long, Anton spoke. “Bart, how is it you happened across us in the middle of a battle with your own former clan mates?”
Bart smiled. “You see what I mean? There are many things going on in this world, much more than most of you smoothskins are aware of. Like I said earlier, there are some serious things I need to discuss with you.”
“Please, go on.” Bart took a couple longer strides and caught up to Anton so he wouldn’t have to turn around to talk.
“You are correct in assuming it was not coincidence that I was nearby when you were attacked. My new home is actually not too far from whe
re we are now, and I would never have heard your fight with my former brethren. However, I knew the attack was going to happen before you did. Let me tell you my story, and then you can ask me questions.”
Anton stopped walking for a moment and turned around. When everyone caught up, he turned back around and started walking again. “Okay, tell us.” They were all bunched up now, focusing as much on not stepping on the next person’s heels as on the terrain in front of them. Everyone wanted to hear what Bartholomew had to say.
Bart looked ahead, his pace slow and smooth, allowing everyone to keep up. His deep voice rumbled like distant thunder as he spoke. “Farnak, my older brother, is the leader of our clan. My father was clan leader before him, up until about a year ago. My father always felt that the communities should not be our enemies, and so for many years we wandered around what used to be Idaho, taking what we needed to survive from the land, and scavenging the ruins. We seldom encountered regular humans, and unless attacked, we never started anything when we did. You might be surprised to know there are at least four small families of smoothskins living within fifty miles of where we stand right now.”
This did surprise everyone, including Wendy. She had been flying over this area for a few months now, and never once saw a sign of human life, Mute or otherwise. Bart had asked to tell his story without interruption, however, so nobody asked him to elaborate.
“My father’s goal was to eventually establish peaceful trade with the communities, both the small ones around here and the larger ones like New Hope. Many of our people were against that, based on our history, particularly the last few years before being banished from our own settlement. Most of the Evolved believe that the only way we can survive is to continue on in the smaller groups, and remain as nomads, raiding and scavenging whatever we come across. My father saw things differently. He believed that we could live in conjunction with the communities – maybe even in alliance with them, working toward common goals. It was not popular, but in our culture, popularity has nothing to do with it. The leader is the leader, and if someone doesn’t like it, they can try to kill the leader and assume leadership themselves. It may seem barbaric, but seldom is there a time when someone challenges the clan leader.”
The Freezer (Genesis Endeavor Book 1) Page 34