“This is the last of the batteries.” he told them.
Temperance began laughing hysterically. “We’re going to die out here. I’m freezing. These coats you packed are not warm enough.”
“If we’re going to die out here, what does it matter?” Paul said, rolling his eyes.
They descended the hill and rejoined the main road. In the distance, headlights came on belonging to snowmobiles manned by Fishers of Men, shining at them menacingly through the darkness. They ran as fast as they could down the road, looking for a spot to hide or escape. They slid onto a frozen lake that emerged suddenly from the darkness, narrowly regaining their footing, and continued running. The snowmobiles gained on them.
Halfway across the lake, the ice gave way under Paul. He tossed the bag of supplies to Rachel, yelling, “The two of you must go on. Leave me. I will only slow you down.”
Temperance continued running across the lake to the other side. Rachel stared after her, then went back to Paul. She reached for the bag and came as close to the opening as she could without further breaking the ice.
Paul, clinging to the side, demanded, “What are you doing, Rachel?! Go on!”
Rachel extended the bag to him. “Grab it, Paul. I can pull you out.”
“Go and save yourself!” Paul yelled to her, frantically, as gunshots flew past Rachel’s head.
The snowmobiles came onto the ice and followed them. One of them fell through the ice closer to the edge, and the others backpedaled off the ice. The Preacher screamed at the Fishers for allowing the snowmobile to get damaged, and ordered them to save it before rescuing the rider.
Rachel looked into Paul’s eyes and said, “Do not ask me to leave you behind! Where you go, I go! Where you stay, I stay! Where you die, I die! We’re in this together to the end. Now take the damn bag, Paul!”
This time, he did as she said, and Rachel pulled him in one furious tug to the surface of the icy lake. She helped him up and leaned him against herself.
“Paul,” she told him, “I need your help. I can’t do this alone. You have to move your legs, okay?”
“Okay.” he mumbled, shivering. “I can’t feel them, but I’ll try.”
With some effort, they could make it to the other side where Temperance waited for them. Then, Paul collapsed.
XI.
“Temperance,” Rachel said calmly to her trembling girlfriend, “help me hold him up. We can carry him along.”
“Gunshots.” she murmured. “Almost hit me. Went right past my head. I swear I could see them go by. I could feel them fly past me, Rachel.”
“I know, baby.” Rachel replied. “You’ve got his arm? Good. Now, we move like this, good. Let’s get off the path and go down that hill there.”
Slowly but surely, they made their way through the woods, nearly knee deep in snow. After an indeterminate amount of time, they stumbled upon a cabin. It sat alone at the foot of a large hill. Some smoke plumes rose from its chimney and a dim light emanated from inside. A stack of firewood sat beside the cabin, an axe stuck out of stump nearby, nearly covered over with snow.
“Rachel, we’ll die. Paul will die. If we don’t get warmth and shelter tonight.” Temperance said, staring from the axe to the house. “I wouldn’t take any chances.”
“Are you suggesting I murder the tenants?” Rachel asked, incredulous. “I can’t do that.”
“Of course, you can. You’ve done it before for less of a reason.”
“Not true. That was in defense.”
“This is pre-emptive defense.” Temperance said. “Or you can take them hostage. Your choice.”
“Pre-emptive defense means I’m about to do something to make the tenant angry and rightfully so.” Rachel replied. “I just don’t think I can...”
“Paul is dying. We either do something, or he will die!” Temperance was weeping and nearly hysterical.
“Temperance...”
Temperance wept quietly, deeply distraught over their situation, holding herself and rocking.
Rachel left the two of them sitting on the log stack. Taking the axe firmly in both hands, Rachel stalked into the cabin. Her heart raced. Part of her hoped she would be killed first, since she could barely live with herself after the death of the Toil Master, and couldn’t live with herself if she had to kill an innocent. Another part of her knew this was a matter of survival. Paul was dying, and unless they could warm him up quickly, he would be seriously harmed. Who was she to judge who lived and who died? She wasn’t God. She didn’t want to play God. It was hard enough playing Rachel.
She took two more steps into the room. A candle was about to burn out, and there were but dying embers in the fireplace. A man lay under a blanket on a cot in the corner. As she stepped closer, she realized he was already dead. She sighed in relief. She was grateful she wouldn’t have to kill him. She breathed deeply, realizing how closely she came to betraying her own principles. Rachel decided to examine her feelings about it another time.
They brought the unconscious Paul inside and stripped him naked. Rachel hung his wet clothes, while Temperance started a roaring fire in the fireplace. They placed him on the rug in front of the fireplace. Rachel began stripping to her nude form.
“What are you doing?” Temperance asked her.
“He needs body heat, now. Strip.”
After a moment, Temperance stripped and they laid on either side of him, covering all of them with several blankets. They stared into each other’s eyes. Whenever Rachel gazed into Temperance’s aquamarine eyes, she felt at peace. But this time, she didn’t feel at peace. She felt troubled by Temperance’s easy suggestion that she murder the man lying dead on his cot. Survival makes people say and do things they never would otherwise, Rachel thought to herself.
“Do you think this is all for naught?” she asked Rachel. “That after all we’ve suffered, we may never reach our outpost, and we will get caught?”
“I believe we can make it. I refuse to give up.” Rachel replied. “And though we’ve been tested along the journey, I hope we won’t have to fight for survival constantly once we get there. I hope we can find rest from it. The struggle makes me weary.”
“If we get caught, my love,” Temperance stated, clasping hands with Rachel, “they will torture us. They will do horrible things. I will break first, I’m sure. I know I am weak in spirit, not like you, my Rachel. You’re so strong. It amazes me.” Tears welled up in her eyes. “I’m sorry I’m so weak. I bet you’re wishing you’d never met me, aren’t you?”
Rachel gently traced the outline of Temperance’s face with her thumb as she did at their first private meeting in the broken-down assembly house. “Never. I would never wish that. You think you’re weak? Don’t you know you’re the source of my inner strength? You give me hope. You make me look at the world differently, with fresh eyes. You make me become whatever I need to become. I never thought I’d find a love I could call my own. And I didn’t...you found me instead. I cherish you.”
They kissed each other tenderly, laying across Paul’s chest. Paul moaned in his sleep, his body warm now, a sign he would recover.
“If we were captured,” Rachel told her, “I would fully expect we would both tell them whatever they wanted to know under torture. But where they cannot force us to betray each other is here.” She motioned to her heart. “They can never change how we feel about each other. Our deepest selves belong to us, always.”
They fell asleep smiling and contented, holding Paul between them as they clasped each other’s hands. Rachel dreamt she was in a dark place, waking from a stupor, but unable to fully pull herself out of it, nor open her eyes. Her lids were heavy. She felt small, helpless, powerless. There were voices around her, whispering.
“We’ve got her, finally.” A pause. “What shall we do with her? Kill the little bitch? I could dissolve the body with acid and scatter the bones.”
“No, absolutely not.” This whisper was feminine. “Killing her gives her memory power. We alread
y made that mistake once too often. We keep her, plain and simple.”
“But,” he protested, “won’t she remember who she is? Who her father was? What if she...”
“Let me worry with such matters.” the unknown female whispered, “If I want her to live until the return of the King himself, what is it to you, Fisherman?” Then she bent beside her and whispered into her ear, “Oh, but we will rule them now with an iron scepter, dashing them to pieces like pottery. We have finally overcome!”
Rachel awoke with a start. She lay on her side on the rug, Temperance spooning her from behind, nestled among warm blankets in front of a dying fire. Morning light streamed through the window, and she smelled an amazing, strong, delicious scent. Sitting up with blanket clasped around her, she saw Paul was making breakfast on the old stove. His uniform lay in a neat pile in the corner rocking chair, and he wore clothes that were a bit tight on him, resembling the clothing of the Simmons family.
He smiled at her. “Good morning. I made bacon, eggs, toast, and coffee. He had supplies that weren’t bad yet, and plenty of food stuff in cans in the back room. He can’t have been dead long. Maybe a day or two at most.”
Rachel remembered the dead, nameless man. Did he have anyone to mourn him? She looked at the cot, empty now. “Where is he?”
“I buried him this morning outside. Shallow grave was all I could manage in this weather, and I said a few nice words. Did the best I could for him. The snow stopped for now. But it may come down more later by the looks of it.” Paul poured a cup of coffee into a ceramic mug that read, “Life is too important to be taken seriously.” She raised an eyebrow.
“Ironic, isn’t it?” he remarked. “I put a couple of lumps of sugar in, and I made some milk out of the powder if you want some.”
“No, I’m fine.” she sipped her coffee. It was exquisite compared to the knock-off brand they had in the Gates. “So, this is what real coffee tastes and smells like.” She murmured, closing her eyes and savoring it.
“Rachel.” Paul said, getting her attention. “I laid some clothes for you both to wear over there in the rocking chair. Regular clothes, so we don’t stand out as deviant escapees from the Gates. I’ll go in the back room, and you can wake Temperance and get dressed.”
Rachel rose and dressed. There was a pair of tight jeans that were quite long. She rolled them up, and put socks and her old boots on under them. Then she put on the heavy fleece button down shirt, tucking it into the jeans. Spying a hairbrush, she ran it through her mangled mess of chestnut hair and then pulled it back and tied it into a tail with a red bandana. She knelt by Temperance and gently awakened her, urging her to dress so they could eat together. Once Temperance was dressed in similar fare, Rachel called Paul back into the room. Rachel served them each a plate of food and they sat around the hand carved wooden table and ate.
“Thanks for breakfast, Paul.” Temperance said. “I really wasn’t expecting you to cook, considering you were at death’s door just a few hours ago.”
“When I woke up, I was sure I’d died and gone to heaven.” he replied with a grin, remembering their group nudity in the night. Both women blushed. “Sorry.” He mumbled. “Thank you both for saving my life.” He touched Rachel’s wrist and looked into her eyes. “I only hope that someday I can do the same for you both.”
Temperance took his comment to refer to their nudity, and laughing, she said, “I just bet you do.”
“So,” Paul began, “when shall we move on?”
Rachel gathered the dishes and started cleaning. Temperance finished her coffee.
“I don’t see why we have to move on at all.” Temperance responded. “We have everything we need right here to start a new life of our own. We have fire, warmth, shelter, wood, clothing, food supplies, and so on. There’s probably a well nearby for water. We can live quite happily here, I imagine.”
He sighed. “I haven’t seen a well. And isn’t it a bit morbid to just take over this man’s property?”
“How did he get water then? There must be a well. And it’s a matter of survival and freedom, isn’t it?”
“True. But what if others come to visit and find us here, and threaten our survival? What if he had friends? Family?”
“Then you can charge them for seeing to his funeral rites.” she answered sarcastically. “If he had anyone close like that, they’d be here, wouldn’t they?”
“Maybe. Maybe not. We don’t know enough about this man to make that determination.”
“Exactly.” Temperance said in agreement. “Which is why there’s no good reason not to stay here, at least until Winter passes. We can move on in the Spring.”
“But...”
“I am NOT going through what we went through last night again!” she screamed at him. “You almost died, Paul, of exposure to the elements!”
As Rachel was putting away the dishes, she discovered an old pack of playing cards. She recalled playing games with a pack just like it with her father.
“Playing cards!” she exclaimed, bringing them to the table. “Let’s play!”
“Rachel...” Paul began, to no avail.
“Nope. No more discussion of what we’re going to do, we’re going to forget all that and spend some time feeling like a normal...family. A normal family.”
They spent the next few hours playing cards, reminiscing about their families, and telling humorous stories. Temperance tried her hand at cooking supper, and it turned out dreadful, though edible. At nightfall, they decided to sing all the songs they could remember, but found all of them were religious Kingdom hymns. While they relaxed in front of the fire, Paul thought he heard movement as though someone was outside the cabin. He hushed them, grabbed a fire poker, and headed to the door. He cautiously opened it and looked outside. A semi-automatic weapon was thrust into his chest.
“Where’s Mark?” a gruff voice asked.
Paul motioned to the shallow grave. “We found him last night. Dead.”
“You kill him?” a woman asked, shining a flashlight in his face. “You one of the Preacher’s men?”
Rachel said from behind him, “We’re not with the Preacher. We didn’t kill him. He was already dead when I got here.”
“Who are you?” Paul asked them.
“I’m Maria. This is Thomas. And that’s Benjamin.” the woman named Maria replied. The men nodded to them. “We’ve never seen you in these parts before. Where you from?”
“Look,” Rachel explained, stepping around Paul into their view, “I’m trying to find someone. Now, if you don’t like the Preacher, that makes six of us. I’m looking for a man named Anaxagoras.”
Maria gasped and the men seemed surprised. “It’s...it’s you.” She said.
“Excuse me?” Rachel asked.
“We can take you to Anaxagoras. Now, if you like.” Thomas informed them.
Rachel and Paul were happy to hear this, though Temperance seemed less pleased. They gathered their warm coats, and wrapped blankets around their shoulders to keep them warm along the way. Maria led them over the next three hills, then down into a hidden mine shaft entrance. It became warmer the deeper they went into the earth.
Finally, they entered a large well-lit area. Many people were milling around. Music was playing. Paul and Rachel gasped in recognition as they both said, “Rock n’ Roll!”
Everyone stopped and stared at them. An older woman near the rear left the room through a side exit. Specifically, they stared at Rachel. The young adults knelt before her. She took a step back.
“What’s going on?” she asked Maria.
Maria urged them to stand and they did so. She told her, “They recognize your father’s image in you, just as we did at Mark’s cabin. We’ve been waiting for you to return to us.”
“It’s a sign.” Thomas told her. “The time is almost at hand!”
Rachel felt a sense of panic and confusion. She didn’t understand why they were so interested in her. The woman who had left earlier returned with Dr.
Anaxagoras, who hurried to greet them exuberantly and escort them to a place where they could talk in private.
Shutting the door, Anaxagoras said, “Please, friends, sit. Relax. You’re safe now with us.”
“Are we?” Rachel inquired suspiciously.
“Rachel,” he replied as though wounded, “I’m your father’s best friend. I’d never see you harmed. What’s troubling you?”
“For starters, let’s talk about those young, heavily armed people out there who kneel before me and call my arrival a sign! What the hell is that about?” she demanded.
“I know you were very young when all hell broke loose and the civil war happened.”
“Civil war?” she asked.
“The War Between the Red and Blue.” he stated its full name. “Our nation had grown so divided that we were effectively two different peoples, with two different visions for our future. We had come to despise each other. It reached fever pitch proportions. The religious leaders made an alliance with the corporate sector and a powerful political party of the time. Their goal had been, of course, to use the government to further their moral agenda. But as history has shown, that isn’t exactly how it turned out.”
“No,” Paul remarked, “their allies took over the religion for themselves.”
“Yes, after years of gradual doctrine alteration. Eventually, the original faith had been superseded. It became a mere tool of the state.” Anaxagoras agreed. “It didn’t happen overnight. First, the powerful and wealthy engineered an economic collapse, one they could reasonably predict and control.”
“The recession of 2008?” Rachel queried.
He nodded and continued, “They knew that the people would panic and they could manipulate the political machinery to drain wealth from the bottom up to the top. There was bailout after bailout after bailout, with no oversight or regulation of corporations, banks, or industry. Trillions of dollars were given away to the wealthy from the coffers that belonged to the people. Meanwhile, the grocery and gas prices shot through the roof, and the housing industry collapsed. Families lost their homes in droves, and those who could hang on did so through filing bankruptcy. They outlawed bankruptcy protection for individuals in 2017 saying that true patriots paid their debts, and encouraged rampant predatory lending practices designed to take homes from families and place them in the hands of banks, who then sold them to the highest, wealthy bidder. Those bidders turned them into high cost rental properties, making it impossible for the poor to find affordable shelter. Home appreciation had been the way families gained wealth in the nation, but the value of homes plummeted. Soon, labor unions were busted, and unemployment was rampant. People who had jobs were so terrified of losing them, they gratefully accepted pay cut after pay cut, until finally, the economic middle class was destroyed. Our nation had been thrust into poverty very quickly. Some people had raked up tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt to colleges to try to get degrees to get better paying jobs, but to no avail. Even when unemployment was solved, the jobs created were low paying service jobs. The people were on the verge of revolt, blaming the government for their woes. Although the liberals- or as you know them, the Humanists- tried to create laws to help, their political foes, the forerunners of the Kingdom, obstructed anything that might help, and blamed the liberals for the situation. Desperate, the people voted in one party rule.”
2042: An American 1984-Dystopian Thriller Page 15