At first, he doesn’t respond. She waits, holding his gaze steadily.
“We need supplies. The land out west is . . . difficult. Not at all like the fertile fields in Bellator. It’s a hard life out there, nothing like the one you are no doubt accustomed to.” He shoots her a look and she glares at him. “Well you are, aren’t you? Satin sheets and comfortable pillows, a plentiful supply of hot food, a reliable defense system which protects you?”
She nods and waits for him to continue.
“I suspect your teachers in Bellator make out that we’re beasts. Am I right? Out for nothing but our own pleasure at the expense of our womenfolk.” He glances at her, but goes on without waiting for a response. “What they don’t tell you is that our children are hungry, and we often have nothing to feed them.”
She has never thought of children. He is right. Any teachings about Eremus center around the violent actions of the men in charge and the miserable life of servitude of the women who are imprisoned there. There is never any mention of a younger, more vulnerable generation.
“We come here and hide, within reach of the city, to sneak in and gather supplies. A small team each time, carrying out a number of separate raids on Bellator to avoid detection. We stay a few days, making as many trips as we can manage. The items we take allow us to survive, that’s all. To feed our children.”
“Do you have children? Paulo, is he your son?”
Fortis smiles, but it is one of sadness. “Paulo is my brother’s son. He is young. Only twelve.”
“Then why is he permitted to come on such a dangerous mission? Surely you have other men who could undertake it? Why put him at risk?”
Fortis’s eyes harden. “My brother Virtus died a month ago. Killed in one of the Femcom raids. We have a warning system, we usually manage to get everyone out, to hide. But this time they snuck in somehow, and we were caught unprepared. Virtus stood and defended the camp while the rest of us fled. He fell that night, trying to save his people. So, to answer your question, part of me wanted Paulo to see the place where his father’s killers reside. As you saw earlier, he’s far too trusting and gentle.” He grimaces.
“And you want to destroy that trust, that innocence? Why?”
“Because he won’t live long in this world if he doesn’t toughen up!”
“So, you thought it was a good idea to bring a twelve-year-old boy to Bellator?” Auro fights to control her fury, “For what? Revenge? Did you want to murder the women responsible for your brother’s death? In that case, the Bellator teachings about the violence of men seem pretty accurate!”
“And what of your Femcom armies? Are they not violent? Did you ever stop to think that the men in Eremus and the other wasteland colonies commit violent acts simply because they are trying to defend themselves? To prevent the total extinction of their communities?”
“But what about Paulo’s mother? You’re telling me she was happy to allow him to accompany his uncle on this mission, to put himself in such danger?”
She thinks Fortis will get angry again, but this time his voice is only quiet, and filled with grief. “Paulo’s mother died giving birth to him. She was weak, hungry, and we don’t have the doctors or the medicines to treat patients properly in Eremus. There was nothing we could do but watch her go. Paulo has known nothing but his father and myself since birth.”
“So, when he asked to accompany you . . .”
“I felt it was the only way I could keep him safe.”
This time the silence is brittle, and Auro tries to grapple with the story Fortis is telling. She finds it hard to reconcile what he is saying with the truth she has always accepted without question. But his face, and his voice, now that he is calmer, are steady, and the sadness in his tone rings true.
“How far pregnant are you then?” He casts his eyes over her stomach and looks away as she catches him doing so. “You don’t look . . .” He breaks off, his face coloring slightly.
“Only eight weeks or so. That’s when they do the Gentest. It makes any deletions that may be necessary much simpler. Less painful.”
“Deletion.” He spits the word, and she respects him all the more. “What a . . . detached term.”
“Yes, I’ve always hated it,” she confides. “And I—”
Her words are interrupted as Regum re-enters the room, rubbing a tired hand across his cheek. “He’s gone down again. Keeps asking for Virtus. Over and over.”
Fortis stands abruptly and stalks to the window, looking out into the night. Regum crosses to him, as though they are the only two people in the room. He places a hand on Fortis’s shoulder, repeating the comforting squeeze he had previously offered Auro.
“This will pass. He will get through it. As will you.” Regum takes Fortis’s arm and steers him back to the chair, easing him into it. “You’ll see. We have most of the stores we need now, and Spiro will return soon. Wait ’til we get back to camp. We can start to heal, get back to something more like normal.”
“Spiro?” Auro’s question is a whisper.
“The last member of our team. He went on a solo raid early yesterday morning.” Regum casts a worried glance at the door, before squeezing Fortis’ shoulder. “He won’t be long now though.”
Regum’s behavior is as far from anything Auro has ever been taught to expect from a man. He is more like the women she knows who are directed into the caregiving professions back in Bellator. She never anticipated a man could display such kindness or concern for others. When he turns back to her, his expression remains mild, but his tone is firm.
“How long have you been on the run?”
She thinks. “Four . . . no five days.”
“And who will have missed you?”
“Missed me?”
“Yes. Surely there is someone who will know you are missing? You missed your deletion appointment . . . At the very least, the hospital will have alerted someone that you didn’t show up.”
She casts her eyes down at her lap. The same thought had haunted her.
“I live in a shared apartment with three other women. When I left the hospital, I ran home to get some supplies and left them a note. Told them I was going away for a couple of days. It should have stopped them contacting the authorities to begin with at least. But you’re right . . . the medi-center will know.”
“They’ll know the reason you’ve disappeared, too. You left the medi-center instead of attending your deletion . . . Women who reject the deletion process are rare, I imagine, but you are not the first. It might take them a few days to make the connection, but they’ll have started looking for you by now. The last thing they’ll allow you to do is walk away.”
“Why?”
“Why?” Fortis snaps, his voice full of its former bitterness. “Because you are carrying a male child, and not one ‘sanctioned’ by Bellator. Didn’t you listen to me earlier? They send out the Femcom armies to kill as many men as they can find in Eremus. Why would they let you go out into the wilds with a male child in your belly? It’s one more they’ll have to hunt down in the future! They’d rather get rid of it before it becomes a real problem.”
She glances despairingly at Regum, hoping his eyes will reflect a kinder prospect, but they too, though sad, show Fortis’s words to be true.
“Their aim is to eliminate all males not under their control. You are carrying one such male.”
“But he’s a baby! How could he—”
Fortis cuts her off, his brittle laughter silencing her. “How can you be so naïve?”
Regum places a hand on Fortis’s arm again, this time to silence him. “She doesn’t know any of this. Bellator works hard to keep its citizens ignorant of the truth. It’s not her fault.”
She attempts a smile to show her gratitude, biting her lip to stave off the tears which threaten to betray her, but he isn’t finished.
“We have to consider what we do next. Your presence here is a threat to us all. They’ll have tried to follow your trail. And they won�
�t stop until they track you down. You were ahead of them, to begin with at least, and you kept moving for what . . . three, four days? But then you stopped. Here. They will catch up, and if you are found, we’ll all be in danger.”
She stares at Regum, his eyes kind, but fearful. “I’ll leave.”
“We’ll all leave. As soon as Spiro gets here. Maybe sooner. If he isn’t here by the morning, we’ll have to go without him. He’ll work it out, catch up. But we have to go.”
Fortis starts up again, and is only contained by Regum’s hand pressing down on his shoulder. “What? We’re not taking her with us! Having an overly-sensitive twelve-year-old along is difficult enough, but a pregnant, pampered woman? From the very place that hunts us down and kills us? No!”
“She is a victim of the system, like us. She only knows what she has been taught. I think she’s shown great courage, leaving Bellator with no knowledge of what is out here. She’s stronger than you think.”
“But I can’t come with you, I . . .” She feels foolish as her voice breaks off.
“Where else are you going to go?”
The two men’s eyes rest on her curiously and she realizes she has no idea. Her instinct was to flee. She had no real plan beyond that, and in four days of running she has had to keep pushing any concept of a final destination out of her head.
“To Eremus?”
“You wouldn’t be the first.” Regum almost smiles as her eyes widen in shock. “That’s why they’ll want to stop you.”
“You mean . . . ?”
He nods. “Yes. There have been other women, who have run with their male babies over the years. One or two of them have ended up in Eremus.” He pauses and waves a hand at Fortis, who seems shocked. “Before your time.” He turns back to Auro, a kindly smile warming his features. “We’ll provide sanctuary for you, as best we can, if you like?”
Fortis has recovered and is staring at Auro again. “It won’t be like home . . . you’ll have to live without your luxuries.”
“But I’ll be able to keep my son, right?” She glares at him.
“You will.” Regum’s voice is still calm and he steps in between the two of them. “Look. Let’s all get a little rest, and in the morning we’ll take the truck back to Eremus.”
“Truck?” Auro knows she hasn’t seen a vehicle.
“It’s well hidden, a little way away. We don’t like to keep all our assets in one place. We have it already packed with the stores we’ve collected over the past few days. Hopefully we’ll be able to load it up with Spiro’s final haul at first light, and get going.”
She nods, her head feeling heavier by the minute, her thoughts dazed by what she has discovered tonight. Regum waves toward the first bedroom.
“How about you take that one? Fortis here can keep first watch. I’ll bunk in with Paulo.”
“Oh no, but I—”
Fortis cuts across her, his tone not unpleasant, “Like we’d let a woman with child sleep on a sofa!”
He snorts impatiently and moves to hold open the door to the bedroom. After a moment, she follows him. She stops in the doorway, though he refuses to look at her.
“Thank you.”
She lays a hand on his arm and he flinches, but meets her gaze for a split second. His eyes are dark, but there is an uncertainty in them she has not seen before. She continues past him and hears the door close quietly behind her.
Muted voices continue to converse for several minutes, but she cannot make out their content. After that, all goes quiet. As she relaxes into sleep she feels happy for the first time in a long while.
Much later, she is awoken by the sound of anxious voices, and a hand slamming on her door.
“Auro! Get up. Now.”
Immediately awake, she pushes herself into an upright position, groping for her jacket and backpack.
The door to her room bursts open and Regum stands in the doorway. “They found you. Just a single patrol, I think, approaching from the East bypass road. I’d just taken over from Fortis’s watch and was circling the house doing some checks when I saw the searchlights. They’re on foot, I think, but their vehicle won’t be far away.”
Fortis appears behind him, his face gray with fatigue.
“Neither will backup. They never travel in a single vehicle. There will be others, fanned out across the forest. They could be here in minutes.”
He doesn’t look as though he has managed to rest at all. He returns to the living area and begins gathering things, muttering under his breath.
“Essentials only. We’ll have to leave without Spiro. He’ll figure out what’s happened.”
Paulo staggers out from his own room, rubbing sleep from his eyes. “What are we—?”
“No time little man. Got to go. Escape protocol.”
He seems to understand what is being asked of him, and slides back into his room to prepare. Clearly, this is a familiar drill. A suffocating guilt settles over her.
She wants to be useful. “What can I do?”
Regum has joined Fortis in sweeping the room, grabbing only the necessities. Both men hold knives, and Fortis has a rifle strapped to his back. He glances up, “Just make sure you have your own things. And maybe help Paulo with his?”
She follows the boy into his room and helps him scoop together a few items, throwing them into a pack he fetches from underneath the bed.
“It’s already mostly packed,” he pants, “we keep it that way in case . . . in case . . .”
She puts an arm around him as he almost loses it.
“In case of a quick escape, right? Which is what we’re doing now.”
He nods.
“Ok, so we need to work fast, but stay calm.” She squeezes his arm. “Do you have everything?”
His gaze darts around the room and he counts things off on his fingers, a mental checklist he has previously memorized.
“Think so.”
“Then let’s go.”
They hurry together to the door but stop at the sound of footsteps thundering to a halt outside. Regum and Fortis freeze and stare at one another, their glances conveying a silent message. For a moment they seem to argue in silence, the meaning in their eyes clear only to themselves. Then, slowly, Fortis backs up, positioning himself in the doorway to Paulo’s room. His large body fills the gap, essentially trapping them inside and blocking the outer room from view.
The footsteps have halted. There is a loud banging on the front door.
“Auro Madden? Are you in there? Are you alone?” The voice is female, but strident, sharp.
They remain frozen, silent. She wonders if there is any hope the people outside will assume the house is empty and leave. Recalling her own approach, she remembers how easy it was to break in and her heart sinks.
“Open this door or we’ll break it down.” A pause. “Auro, if you’re in there, we mean you no harm. We’re just here to bring you home.”
Her sharp intake of breath at the word is louder than she anticipated, almost a cry. Fortis glares, and pushes her further inside the room, his arm circling her body and his large hand covering her mouth to silence her. They stand, waiting.
“Last warning, Auro!”
The seconds that hang in the balance as they stand there seem to last forever. She hears Paulo’s quiet panting, his fear almost, but not quite, silent. Her eyes meet Fortis’s, his hand still on her mouth, his expression filled with fear and a desperation to protect the others in his charge. And finally, she looks into the main living space at Regum, who has moved to the door. He looks as though he might open it and peaceably greet whoever stands there. The knife is still in his hand, but it remains by his side.
As he reaches the door, its hinges burst and tiny fragments of the wood splinter inwards. She watches as they shatter in Regum’s face, his shock evident as he belatedly raises the knife in defense. It is no match for the woman on the other side. She registers that he is male and raises her gun. There is no hesitation.
The doo
r to the bedroom is slammed as Fortis thrusts them all back into the space. The sound of multiple gunshots echo through the cottage and all she can think of is how Regum is only one man. One man cannot need so many bullets to put him down. Fortis shoves them down behind the bed and moves back to open the door a crack, his own rifle ready in his hand. A cry escapes Paulo’s mouth and Fortis shoots Auro a look from his position by the door. She repeats his earlier gesture, placing a gentle hand over Paulo’s mouth and soothing him until he is quiet.
The shots have died away now, but the woman has advanced through the door and can be heard prowling the room. She knows they are here. She will come for them next.
“Stay down.” Fortis hisses from the doorway, before easing the door open a crack. He slides his rifle through the gap and angles it slightly to one side before letting off a round. There is a short scream, followed by a thud.
More voices sound from outside. The woman was not alone. Auro considers their enemy. A single patrol would contain four soldiers, so unless there is more than one unit, they are now down to three. She wonders how many bullets Fortis has, how accurate a shot he is. While Paulo cowers underneath the bed, she raises her head slightly. Fortis turns, his eyes boring into her. He points to the window, then to himself, and then out into the living area.
Her eyes widen in panic and she tries to protest silently, but he waves her gesture away. He points again at himself, and gestures to the back of the cottage. She nods. He disappears through the door.
Securing the pack Paulo has filled onto his back, she taps his shoulder and motions toward the window. His glance darts to the door and he sees that Fortis is gone. His eyes fill with tears and he makes to stand and follow his uncle, but Auro takes hold of his hand and gestures to the window.
“He’ll meet us out there.”
It takes a little repetition to convince him, but eventually he follows her to the window and they slide up the sash as quietly as possible. In the distance, there are footsteps and voices, but they are not close enough to be of any danger at the moment. Auro is thankful that the patrol has yet to surround the cottage. Clearly, they do not think she has the intelligence or the cunning to escape. She slips out of the window, then turns and helps Paulo to follow her. Together they crouch low and creep into the bushes behind the cottage, repeating her earlier route.
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