by Brown, TW
“What about Valarie?” Kevin said in an even whisper that did very little to hide his anger.
“That’s the other thing,” Matt spoke up despite the warning looks he received from both Aleah and Heather. “I know you have some sort of soft spot for her, but she has been a danger to herself and all of us. She screams at things that aren’t there, she is filthy…you saw her.”
“Yet Shari of all people has taken it upon herself to care for the girl?” Kevin shot back.
“She almost killed us all when she caught the country club on fire—” Matt continued.
“What?” Kevin exploded. “Why would you say that?”
“Everybody knows it,” Matt replied, not backing down from Kevin despite Heather’s hands on his chest. “That lunatic kept screaming about fire being the only way, and then…whoosh! Middle of the night, we all have to jump through windows or whatever to escape as the building burns to the ground.”
Kevin placed his hands gently on Aleah’s that were—like Heather’s—squarely set in the middle of his chest in a gentle effort to keep Kevin and Matt apart and pushed them aside. He leaned in close to Matt’s face and smiled.
“Who told you that Valarie started that fire?”
“Nobody directly,” Matt said with a scowl. “But everybody was talking about it. In fact, that major you have such a thing against, it was her that kept Valarie from being thrown over the wall. There were even a few fights and three soldiers ended up being sent to isolation for a few days because they got so mad when the major wouldn’t just deal with the problem.”
“I set that fire,” Kevin said with almost no emotion in his voice. “It was part of mine and Willa’s plan to flush the soldiers out.”
“You set a building on fire knowing that we were in it?” Erin stepped into the middle. Whether it was the fact that she had gotten tired of being ignored, or really had something to say was unclear.
“The plan was to force the major out into the open,” Kevin said.
“And then what?” Matt laughed. “What were the two of you going to do against a military unit?”
Kevin opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He had turned everything over to Willa at that point. Sure, they had argued, but she was so set and certain that this plan would flush out the major. He hadn’t thought to ask what they would do next. He had simply accepted that she had a plan. He was so determined not to fail Valarie that he had agreed. Had his judgment been too clouded? Had she taken advantage of that fact?
“We hadn’t gotten to all the details yet,” Kevin admitted sheepishly.
“But you had enough of a plan to set the building that we were in on fire?” Aleah asked.
“Look, I wasn’t totally on board with everything that she planned, but I was getting desperate. It wasn’t easy for me to be out here not knowing what was going on,” Kevin protested. “I couldn’t keep my mind straight. All I could imagine was the kind of stuff Shaw and his men did. I couldn’t let that happen to you.” He looked Aleah in the eyes. “I could not allow myself to just walk away…or to do nothing.”
“You could have killed us all,” Matt insisted.
“I could have left you in the middle of the road,” Kevin snapped. “But since neither of those things happened, maybe you should shut your mouth and start deciding what side you want to be on.”
“Kevin,” Heather put her hand on Kevin’s, “nobody is blaming you for anything…and nobody is changing sides, or whatever you think is happening. I think we are all just trying to figure out what is going to happen. To be honest, we all thought that you might be dead. This is really the first time we have all been allowed to be together. They’ve kept us apart since they took over.”
“I understand that you had to make some tough choices out there,” Aleah added. “And none of us think that you would do anything to intentionally hurt any of us. It’s just that you were working with somebody that we don’t know. And now, just like you have your concerns about the major and her band, we are trying to wrap our minds around this Willa person and wondering if there is a lesser of two evils.”
Matt and Erin were nodding as she spoke. Something on Matt’s face changed and he stepped around Heather to address Kevin. “Man, I’m not going to ever forget what you did that day you guys found me. I didn’t mean to come across like a jerk. It’s just that things have been tense. I feel like I let everybody down when we got overrun. You’ve always been the man with the plan, and I have no doubt that you will figure something out here. I shouldn’t have gotten in your face like I did.”
The two men shook hands. But Erin was not ready to let things be. “I still don’t understand how you could just set our only form of shelter on fire. I—”
“Enough!” Heather snapped.
“So it is okay with everybody that we were all starting to agree with the soldiers about them putting Valarie over the wall when we thought that she burned the place down, but since it was Kevin—”
“I said enough!” Heather spun on the younger girl. “And not all of us were okay with putting Valarie over the wall.”
“Then why is it that my sister is the only person who has stepped in to take care of her?”
“I imagine it was because she was sick and tired of taking care of you,” Heather replied. “You don’t lift a finger to help anybody but yourself…you didn’t before the soldiers took over, and you have done everything possible to avoid working since they came.”
Erin’s face turned red and she sputtered over words that seemed to all arrive at the same time on her lips.
“Don’t think we haven’t heard,” Matt added as he stepped up beside Heather.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Erin blurted.
“You don’t think the soldiers talk?” Matt raised an eyebrow.
“They…I…” Erin stumbled and stammered as she backed away.
“What am I missing?” Kevin asked with genuine confusion.
“Erin has been…performing favors…for some of the men in exchange for them doing her work,” Heather said, her eyes never leaving the younger girl’s.
“You mean—” Kevin glanced at Erin.
“Most of the soldiers don’t actually know her real name…they just call her Bee-Jay,” Heather said with a smirk. “It seems that she provides her…services…to anybody willing to take care of her kitchen shift.”
“Does Shari know?” Kevin asked the young girl who was now glaring daggers at Heather.
“She spends all her time with that retarded girl!” Erin snapped. “She hasn’t hardly spoken to me for…” Her voice faded and her words trailed off.
“Since you let your baby die?” Heather prompted.
In a surprising flash, Erin’s fist lashed out, catching Heather on the nose with an audible crunch. There was a snarl of anger and then the younger girl tackled the older one, sending them both to the floor in a heap.
Kevin and Matt waded in to pull the two apart—Matt ending up with Erin and Kevin with Heather. The tent flap opened and a soldier stuck his head inside. He only seemed to take a casual glance before ducking back out.
“You two need to knock it off,” Kevin hissed. Heather went to pull away and he jerked her back hard. “I mean it. If we are going to survive, we will all need each other before this is done and over.”
“It won’t ever be over!” Erin spat. “Those dead things aren’t ever going to go away. Nothing is ever going to be like it was!”
“No,” Kevin agreed, “it’s not. And I won’t lie to you and say otherwise. However, we are still very much alive, and I intend to do everything in my power to keep us that way. What I won’t do is victimize others in the process. I can’t accept this major and her people as anything more than raiders and bad guys. They rolled in and took our place. And I’m not asking you to trust Willa and her group either. However, if it weren’t for her…I might very well be dead. She actually left her group to come find me, and then helped me get back here.”
&nb
sp; “She sounds pretty amazing,” Aleah whispered.
“And she also knows that I have an unwavering crush on a beautiful woman.” Kevin wasn’t sure, but he thought he detected something weird coming from Aleah. Having never really had a serous girlfriend—much less one that would display anything remotely resembling jealousy—he was on some uncharted ground.
“So what is it that you would have us do?” Matt asked, still keeping a grip on Erin; tightening it any time she struggled to get free.
11
Vignettes XXVIII
Aaheru gazed out at the sea. The surface was as smooth as glass; a delicate veil of mist swirled across the water in spots. The sun was still below the horizon, but its orange glow already gave the sky a lovely tinge of blood red that could easily be seen as an omen for what lay ahead.
“Pharaoh?” a soft voice spoke from behind him.
“Yes, Ahmes?”
“I have news.”
Aaheru turned to face the girl. Her dark caramel skin was made even more radiant by the light of the breaking dawn. She stared at the ground, waiting for his acknowledgement. Her beauty made him pleased with his decision to do away with those cursed burqas. Women were truly a gift from God to be enjoyed by all the senses.
“Then do not have me wait, Child of the Moon.”
“Your seed is strong and I am with child.” Ahmes glanced up, her dark eyes betraying her. The pride was etched clearly on her face.
“Are you certain?”
“I have not had any tests by a doctor…but a woman knows her body.”
Woman, Aaheru tried to conceal his smile at her use of that word. By most standards, Ahmes was still a girl. When he’d first laid eyes on her, he’d imagined her to at least be sixteen. The night in his bed that she revealed herself to be a mere thirteen, he’d almost sent her away…almost.
Who could fault him? The girl was a true Egyptian beauty. Besides, the ideals of the Old World had considered her of a suitable age after her first bleeding. Those ideals were being revived as he assumed the title of pharaoh. If they were to give rise to a New Egypt, then they would have to bring children into the world in abundance.
“Are you pleased, my Pharaoh?” Ahmes whispered, a tinge of uncertainty clouding her eyes and forcing the glow of pride to hide like a sun behind scudding clouds.
“I am, my beautiful child,” Aaheru said, scooping her up in his arms. When he brought her up to his lips for an embrace, he only briefly considered the difference in their size as he felt her feet brush his knees.
Eventually he set her on the deck and they stood in silence as the sun lit up the sky. Despite its radiance, there was still a chill in the air and Ahmes shivered slightly against Aaheru.
“So, where are we going?” Ahmes finally broke the perfect stillness, her voice barely audible above the deep—more felt than heard—resonance of the ship’s engines.
“Off the shores of Greece there are hundreds if not thousands of islands. My vision is that we will claim one and make it our home. Over time, we will grow in strength and claim them one by one as ours. Eventually, we will be ready to claim the mainland.”
“So do you aspire to be Pharaoh or Caesar?” the girl said with a tinge of laughter.
“You surprise me yet again, Ahmes,” Aaheru said, turning the girl to face him.
“My name has more meaning than the one you chose,” she said with that pride returning to blaze in her eyes. “It was also the name of a famous scribe.”
“Still,” Aaheru countered, “it is uncommon for a daughter to be so well educated except in the most wealthy of families where the thinking has a more…Western leaning than is the norm.”
“My father was the Ambassador to Great Britain,” Ahmes said with a sigh. “We were only supposed to be visiting for a dignitary’s wedding. We were in the airport when they came in great numbers and overwhelmed the security force. I watched my entire family fall under a wave of those repulsive creatures. I managed to climb up on top of a statue. I sat on its cold marble shoulders for two days trying to be silent as those things stumbled over each other. Every time I thought I would be able to crawl down and run, somebody would appear and stir things up again.
“Sometimes one of them would spot me and begin to paw at the statue and make noise. This would bring others. Then, somebody in hiding would try to run and draw them away. Finally, I decided that I had no choice…hungry, thirsty, and covered in my own filth, I made a run for it.”
Aaheru had a new appraisal of this girl. She was not so different from him. She would fight to survive at all costs. Her will to live matched his own.
“You are indeed the choice of the gods to be my queen and the first Mother of New Egypt.” Aaheru felt a stirring deep down below his belly.
Scooping the tiny figure into his arms he carried her to the stateroom that he had claimed as his own. The soft moans of passion wafted from beyond the closed door a few moments later.
Ahi stood in the corridor for a moment. He’d come to speak with Aaheru about a disturbing discovery. The engineer had come to him moments ago to report that an attempt had been made to sabotage the engines. The perpetrator had escaped before being identified or apprehended.
The sounds of passion were rising in intensity and volume. Ahi shrugged. He’d been outside Aaheru’s tent before during such instances. He could wait another minute or two.
***
Mackenzie felt the air swirl across the back of her hand as the mouth closed with a snap, missing her by a hair’s breadth. She staggered back a step as the dog rolled over and landed awkwardly on the floor at her feet. Something struck her in the side knocking her over. Her head bounced hard off the floor causing a bright flash and then the sensation of the room tipping and spinning like the old Tilt-a-Whirl at the county fairs she had loved so much as a child.
There was a commotion and an odd gurgle, followed by a dull thud and sickly crunch. Mackenzie struggled to remain conscious and found herself looking up into a face that took her a moment to recognize.
“Juan?” Her hands went to his cheeks and she could feel the moisture of tears coating them.
“Are you okay?” Juan’s voice was frantic.
“I’m fine,” she moaned, “and if you would get your huge body off mine, I might even be able to catch my breath.”
Juan rolled away and got to his knees. He glanced over his shoulder just as Frank was yanking his machete from the skull of the dog. The two shared a look and Frank quickly glanced around. His eyes came to rest on an old blanket thrown over the back of the couch in the living room. As he went about the task of wrapping the remains of the dog and dragging it outside, Juan helped Mackenzie to her feet. Twice he tried to lift her up, and twice his hands were slapped away.
“I hit my head, Juan,” she said softly, wincing with each word. “I didn’t break my legs.”
“Maybe you should lie down for a while,” he suggested.
“Actually, you get to stay up and be my alarm clock all night.”
Mackenzie patted Juan’s arm as she made her way to the bathroom where she used a make-up mirror and the one on the medicine cabinet to get a look at her head. She fumbled around in the cabinet until she found a bottle of hydrogen peroxide.
“Pour some of this on my bath towel and dab at the wound. It is going to bubble up, so don’t worry.”
“I know what hydrogen peroxide does,” Juan grumbled as he did as she asked.
A few minutes later, they returned into the living room to find Frank on his knees with a bucket, rubber gloves, and scrub brush, cleaning up the mess from the dog. Juan cleared the table, suddenly no longer hungry. He didn’t think it had anything to do with the dog turning to a deader; he’d seen them before and it was only slightly less unpleasant than seeing a child, but not enough to put him off his dinner. No, he knew damn well what it was. He glanced at Mackenzie who was making small talk with Frank as he continued to clean.
He’d almost lost her.
Not wantin
g to wait another second, he pulled one of his field belts from the pegs in the hallway and strapped it on his waist.
“So you’re heading out to go find those children?” Mackenzie asked.
“Not tonight,” Juan replied with a shake of his head.
“But—” she began to protest.
“Going out at night in this weather is asking for trouble. We will end up with more people dead and nothing good to show for it,” Juan cut off Mackenzie’s protest. Frank opened his mouth and Juan held up a hand. “And I can’t tell you what to do, but if we are going to have a chance at finding your friends and making it back alive, then we do it my way.”
“So what does that mean?” Frank asked as he carried the bucket to the front door, stepped outside and tossed it. Almost on cue, a flash of lightning lit up the darkness to reveal a pouring rain.
“That means I will get a couple of others to come, and we will let you direct us as to where we search…but I have my conditions.”
“I’m listening.” Frank set the bucket down and closed the door on the storm outside.
“We go out there for three days. If we don’t find anything in that time…I come home and bring my people with me. You aren’t under my orders in that decision only. You want to stay out there and keep looking, then you go right ahead. But I am not going to risk a bunch of my people for some kid who wants to be an idiot.” Juan paused for a moment before adding, “And I am bringing all my boats back with me.”
“That’s fair,” Frank agreed.
“Juan,” Mackenzie whispered.
“Yeah,” he turned with a look of concern on his face. There had been something in her voice that he didn’t like.
What he saw when he turned around brought a lump to his throat. His mind tried so hard to process what he was seeing, but nothing made any sense.