by Jean Kilczer
“Damn.” I wiped sweat from my forehead. “We'd better rest awhile in the shade.”
Sophia sighed and leaned her head against my chest.
The sun was directly overhead and there was no shade. I embraced her and pressed her to me, kissing her dark curls.
Huff came down and sat on his haunches.
“Thanks for trying, buddy,” I told him. My throat was becoming parched.
“I tried to find a stream,” he said, “and I looked in every way for a pond.”
“I know.” I patted his shoulder.
“But all I could find was a lake.”
The water was clear and fresh and cool. Sophia and I stripped off our clothes and plunged in. We drank our fill, scrubbed off the sweat and grit and sand, and washed our clothes while Huff paddled around and ducked his head in an instinctive urge to hunt.
“Huff!” I called. “You can't eat the fish. We don't have digestall pills.”
He nodded and dived and stayed down until Sophia and I stopped and waited for him to surface. When he did, he was probably a quarter of a mile away, out in the center of the lake. He was safe. If a Mine hovair flew overhead, he could just stay under. Sophia and I were more vulnerable. But we were both skilled divers and could hold our breath until a craft passed over.
“Wish I had my mask and fins,” she said. “There might be freshwater crusties.”
I grabbed her naked body around the waist and drew her to me. “You're my little freshwater crusty.” I nibbled her neck. “Suppose I eat you up?” My body was responding to her. “I'll start from here.” I licked her nipple.
She put her hands on my buttocks and pulled me close. “Did you ever make love in the water?”
“Not yet.” I lifted her over me and floated on my back. “This is how dolphins do it,” I said.
“That's some fin!” She straddled my hips and wrapped her arms and legs around me.
I was pushed down. “I might drown,” I said, “but it's worth it!”
We clung to each other, but she rolled off me and we both went under, and came up laughing.
“Babe, we're not dolphins.” She pointed to an overhanging thick-boled tree with trailing vines that threw shade in the shallows. “Race you!” She plunged ahead. I caught up and outpaced her to the tree.
She grabbed my foot and held me back.
“That's cheating,” I said. “Let go.”
“All's fair in love, and I'll never let go.”
“You're a ball and chain, woman!” I pulled her along until we scraped the sandy bottom.
“Watch out for your keel, Babe.” She laughed as we approached the shallows.
“OK. I'm saving it for you,” I told her.
And there, in the embrace of the water, like silk veils across our bodies, with hanging vines caressing our skin, we made love like two animals in the wild.
Afterwards, I held her and pretended that all was well, and we could live here under this great tree without fear, and without miles to go.
“Uh oh,” I said as Huff swam closer and saw us embraced.
He shook himself off. “You know, on Kresthaven we do that thing in private.” He plodded to the shore, sat on his haunches, and waited under the tree, staring off into the distance as we got dressed.
“Look, Jules.” Sophia picked up a large nut, bigger than a coconut. “If we could make a hole in this, we could fill it with water and carry it with us.”
“I knew I picked the right lady.” I scooped up a rock with a sharp edge and pounded on the nut to make a hole, but it just kept slipping out from under the rock. I tried breaking it under my foot, but it didn't break. I sighed. “It was a nice thought, Soph. Let's go.”
Huff picked up the nut and dug a canine tooth into it. He turned it over and gray liquid poured out.
We braided vine carriers for six nuts, filled them with water, and slung them across our shoulders. It would give me and Sophia about a gallon of water each, and two gallons for Huff. Enough for a day's walk in the heat.
The sun, in a cloudless pink sky, scorched my neck and back. High humidity kept sweat dripping down my temples and sides. I tied my jacket around my waist. My shirt was drenched with sweat. Water from the large nuts had a bitter taste, and a smell like sour milk. I hoped there was nothing so alien it could harm us. But we had no choice. Winged creatures with bare red heads wheeled and cawed above us. I hoped they weren't vulture-like cleaners of dead meat, just waiting, and following the feast.
As the day wore on, we rested more often. I worried about Huff, with his thick undercoat, but his glistening white fur reflected a lot of heat. Sophia was tiring even faster than me. Huff offered to let her ride on his back. By late afternoon, she accepted and fell asleep sprawled across his back.
I was exhausted by the time dusk cooled the air. I hadn't eaten in a day, and slept little the night before. But we were close to the old mine. What would we find there? I wondered. Could Mack and the guards have followed our people? If we were forced to skirt the mine, there'd be no place left to go except Bolton Springs, a thirty-mile hike. Huff might make it, with Sophia on his back. He had the strength of a tribal race where the weak still died young. But I knew I would never make it.
* * *
“I don't see anybody.” I peered at three dark shacks in the diffuse light of dusk. The closest was large, probably a storehouse. “Do either of you see anybody?”
We stood on high ground and looked down at the mine.
“I see no bodies.” Huff sat on his haunches.
Sophia wiped curls off her sweaty forehead. “If they're here, they're probably hiding inside those buildings.”
I nodded. “And they probably left the vehicles in there.” I pointed to a rotted barn with broken sides, where mine ponies must have been housed. If they're here, I thought and bit my lip. “Wait for me. I'll go check it out.”
“I will checker too.” Huff unholstered a beamer and stood up.
“I'll check three.” Sophia put out a hand. “Huff, can I borrow one of those things?”
Huff looked at me.
“There's no use arguing,” I told him.
“Then I will use no arguing.” He handed her the other beamer. “Now here is the trigger that makes the beam come out through here, Sofa.” He stuck a claw into the short barrel.
“OK, Huff.” She took the weapon.
I smiled. “Try not to shoot yourself,” I told her.
“Keep it up, Superstar,” she said, “and I might shoot you, by mistake of course.”
The shadows thrown by two rising moons crossed in grids that made it difficult to define movement within the trees. Was that an animal standing beside a boulder, or a merging of shadows from surrounding bushes? Our minds automatically make order out of chaos.
I paused and hunkered down behind a mound of crusted salt about twenty feet from the storehouse. “I'm going to try for a probe.” I rubbed my eyes. God, I was tired.
I put a hand to my forehead and imaged the red coil of my tel power forming. It didn't need much strength for a simple probe. I threw it toward the storehouse and felt it enter a large dark room. I probed the minds I found there, touching lightly, in case any of them were sensitives. Some were asleep. Some talked quietly. But it was impossible to know if these were Big Sarge's warriors or Mack's Terran renegades. “There are people in there,” I said.
“Ours or theirs?” Sophia whispered.
“I don't know yet.”
She sighed and sat back against Huff.
I pictured the flower that is the image of my essence, encircled by shields, and moved down to its base. With my eyes closed, I opened my mind to the dark room and imagined myself drifting into it. A loud, humming sound began inside my head as I felt that strange, uneasy break between mind and body. I moaned with the strangeness of my kwaii drifting free, as though caught on a current of space. Huff folded his forearm around my shoulders and pressed me against him.
With Huff as anchor in this reality, I sli
pped inside the building. A shaft of moonlight struck a sleeping figure through a broken window and I recognized squat, mustached Rico. One of our men! And there was Attila, asleep on the floor. And Joe! Joe, stretched out on a cot. Beside him on the floor, Chancey and Bat slept on bedrolls.
I heard myself moan.
“What is it?” Sophia asked in a hushed voice. “What do you see?”
But her voice came as though from another room of space/time that I couldn't enter. I retreated from the storehouse and felt my kwaii seek out my body, drawn to it like a child to his mother. I opened my eyes and looked around.
“Are you all right?” Sophia asked anxiously.
I nodded. “They're ours,” I said. “They're our people!”
I called out to them before we walked to the door, just in case they were on edge and too ready to shoot first.
Sarge threw open the door and spread his arms. “Pretty boy!” he shouted. “I thought Mack got your ass. Come here to daddy, baby.”
“Uh oh.” I nudged Huff ahead of me.
Joe came out rubbing his eyes, with Chancey and Bat behind him.
“Joe!” I went to him, threw my arms around his back, and buried my face in his shoulder. Tears streamed down my cheeks and I couldn't stop them.
“It's all right, son.” Joe patted my back, but I felt him sob too.
“Chancey!” I smiled.
He gave me his wide, toothy grin and smacked my face lightly in his New York style. “Superstar.” He hugged me.
“Bat,” I said. “Bat!”
He grabbed my face between his hands and stared at me. “No new wounds?”
I tried to shake my head. “No new wounds.”
“What about me?” Sarge boomed. “Don't I get a kiss?”
“Let go, Bat.” I shook my head and backed away. The men laughed as they gathered around me and Sophia and Huff.
Sarge reached out and grabbed me around the neck in a headlock.
“No!” I squealed as he planted a wet kiss on my mouth. “You mother fucker!” I wiped my lips.
He held me there and looked around while I struggled. “I've been wanting to do that since we met!” he told the men and rubbed his knuckles into my hair.
“You friggin', perverted slimetroll!” I tried to kick him. “Let go of me!”
I heard Huff's deep-throated growl. Uh oh. “No, Huff!”
“Oh, let me, Huff.” Sophia drew back a fist and hit Big Sarge in his stomach.
“Ooofff,” I heard, and he let me go.
“He's mine.” Sophia's eyes were narrowed, her jaw thrust forward, her fist still raised as she moved close to Sarge and stared him in the eyes.
I staggered back. “You ever do that again,” I told Sarge, “I swear to God, I'll kick off your balls!”
Sarge rubbed his stomach and backed a step with a shocked look stuck on his face. “I guess you won him fair an' square, woman,” he told Sophia.
I heard something fall and looked around. Chancey was on the floor, laughing so hard he was curled into a ball. Bat watched him with a pained expression. Joe shook his head and returned to his cot.
“What's happening?” Apache John asked as he opened the front door and came in. “What'd I miss, white man?” he asked Chancey.
“White man!” Chancey laughed even harder and wiped his eyes. “Nothin', Geronimo. You didn't miss nothin'.”
I slumped into a chair at the table, trying to decide if I was more hungry, more sleepy or more embarrassed.
Sunny the cook had kept the five sous chef units and the boxes of ingredients inside a vehicle. Fortunately it was one of the two our people had escaped in. He brought Sophia and me plates of vegetables, meat, and mashed sweet potatoes with butter. “Hope this is enough,” he told me suspiciously.
“Plenty,” I said as I thought of the pancakes. “Looks great. Thanks, Sun. But, you know, Huff's hungry too.”
Huff looked up from where he lay by my side.
“Already in the pot, so to speak.” Sunny patted Huff's head. “Big chunk o' lard with eyeballs?”
Huff licked his lips. “Lots of eyeballs. Please.”
“Lots o' eyeballs.” Sunny chuckled as he walked back to the humming chef unit.
Sarge pulled up a chair and eased into it.
“Where'd all those come from?” I nodded toward stacks of rolled sleeping bags that lined one wall.
“Some of the boys drove to Wydemont after we got here,” Sarge said. “They hit the same store you did for the rifles. Poor bastard. Hope the owner's insured.” He pulled on his mustache and frowned thoughtfully. “So how do you figure they located us back at the camp?”
The men stopped talking and turned to listen.
I put down the fork. “When we were in the gun store, I went to the credcount to pay for the rifles. Ned and Adam must've used a comlink in the back to get in touch with Mack, or the mine.”
Sarge nodded. “That's what I figure, too. And then they told their contact they were headed for the mine to arm the slaves.”
I nodded. Suddenly, I wasn't very hungry.
Sarge leaned on his elbows. “Mack must've been watching when Attila killed the brothers. I figure he contacted the guards and the bunch o' them followed you and Attila back to camp.”
“How many men did we lose?” I asked quietly.
Sophia put a hand on my arm.
Sarge held up three fingers. “We lost a few more tags who just plain deserted.”
I looked around. “How many people are we down to?”
“Eleven warriors plus me, and your team of six.”
“I'm sorry,” I said into the silence and lowered my head.
Sarge tapped the table. “We all knew what we were getting into when we signed up. Nobody's blaming you.”
“But…we're back to square one,” I said.
“No.” Sarge stroked his mustache. “The guards and Mack lost a lot more people than we did. Killed. Wounded. Deserted.”
Joe and Chancey came and sat at the table. I picked at my food. Sunny brought Huff a plate of lard with eyeballs sticking out and placed it on the floor in front of him. Huff sat up, licked Sunny's hand, and began to eat. Sunny grimaced and wiped his hand on his apron.
“So what's the next move, Sarge?” I asked.
He studied the table, drawing on it with a finger. “We tried it my way. Now we'll try it your way.”
I stopped chewing and glanced at Joe. “You mean, we arm the slaves?” I asked Sarge. “Open rebellion?”
He smirked. “Have you got a better idea?”
I chewed again and smiled. “No.”
Sophia squeezed my arm.
Sarge wanted to talk and plan after we ate. But I was so tired. I stood up for a trip to the bathroom and swayed. “Why don't you talk to Joe,” I told Sarge. “He's the strategist on our team.” I staggered to what I thought was the bathroom door, opened it and went inside.
“Jules!” I heard Joe call.
“What?” I closed the door, turned, and walked into a wall. It was the closet.
Bat opened the door, chuckling, and took my arm. “This way, Bubba.” He led me to the bathroom.
When I came out, Bat had a sleeping bag unrolled on the floor. I lay down on it and sighed. “Thanks.”
“Any time.” He lifted my head and stuck an air pillow under it, then pulled off my boots.
I was half asleep when he unzipped my pants. “Get away from me, Sarge!” I mumbled and pushed at his hands.
“It's Bat.” He pulled off my pants and covered me with the bedroll. “Sleep tight, ya hear, Superstar.”
“OK.”
I felt Sophia lie down and cuddle against me. I lifted the bedroll, drew her closer, and covered her. Huff dropped down behind my back.
“Ah,” I heard Chancey say, “nice family portrait. The mommy, the daddy, and the…”
I was asleep before he finished, but I think he said “fur ball.”
I dreamed a crocodile emerged from a lake and grabbed my
foot. “This time, I will whip you to death!” it said and opened its mouth. Sophia crouched behind a row of long teeth like white bars, calling to me. The croc sank into the lake. I followed, but a tower rose above my head. The croc laughed from the top of it. Sophia slid out of its mouth and fell. I tried to catch her but – Ginny! I cried in my sleep.
I awoke with a start. It was night. Sophia lay asleep beside me. Huff's deep breathing told me he was also asleep. Some of the men were snoring.
Be careful what you wish for, I thought and laid my head back down. Hopefully, we would finally free all the slaves. I drew Sophia closer. But at what cost?
Chapter Seventeen
“We take no prisoners.” Big Sarge studied his warriors and my team by firelight as we gathered around his lead vehicle at midnight in our camp.
I lowered my head as I thought of Azut, the brash, young Altairian guard I had befriended. All he wanted was to return to his homeworld at the end of his tour of duty. Would he get the chance? I doubted it.
“Something tells me you've got a problem with taking no prisoners, Jules.” Sarge folded his arms.
I looked at the grim faces of men about to go into battle. “What if they surrender?”
“You tell me what?” Sarge asked with an edge to his tone. “You want them to live to fight another day? Or do we close down the goddamn mine once and for all!” He slammed the tailgate. “We're fighting the legal guards of a legal conglom. There are no POW camps in this war.”
“But this…killing them all,” I said. “It's even more brutal than what they do to the slaves.”
“You wanted a friendly war?” Sarge shifted position. “You should've taken up football.”
I glanced at Joe, standing beside me. Sophia was on my other side. “The end justifies the means, Joe?”
He scratched his stubbly beard. “In this situation, kid, I have to agree with Sarge. If we want it to end here and now, we don't have a choice.”
“Babe.” Sophia took my arm. “Why not just stay out of it?”
“I can't do that, Soph.” I didn't want to worry her, but I intended to go after Boss Slade, through his bodyguards, if need be, and kill the motherless piece of slime any way I could. “I'm committed too.”