by Sam Ryder
Hannah watched from a distance, a frown cresting her pretty brow. Gehn held Chuck’s collar, just in case he became agitated. The last thing we needed was my overzealous dog starting a fight by biting someone.
“I said, ‘Morning,’” I said to them.
“We heard you,” the lead human answered. Now they were avoiding eye contact entirely.
The Ender groaned and turned to face me. The guy next to him stuck out his hand, gesturing him to settle down.
“You didn’t say ‘Morning’ back.”
“Last I checked, it’s still a free country.”
I chuckled at that. “The Rising doesn’t seem to think so. Have you heard they’re planning to get electricity going again and charge an arm and a leg for it?”
“None of my business,” the leader said.
“All right,” I said. “What’s the deal? Have you guys heard of us or something?”
“We’ve heard of you,” the bearded man said, giving nothing away.
“And...?” I said.
“We don’t trust you,” he answered.
“I don’t understand. You’re a mixed group too. Of anyone, you should trust us.”
“The world’s changing,” the man said. “People are afraid of change. We ain’t. But you’re something else entirely.”
“Explain,” I said simply.
“You’re traveling with her,” the skinny one said, looking up at Hannah on the other side of the water. It wasn’t a lascivious look because she was hot and fully naked somewhere beneath the water. It was a look of disgust.
It dawned on me. “What, because she’s a First?” I asked. “Fuck it, guys. We’re all working together on this one. Yeah, Hannah was Guild for a while, but she got the hell out of there as soon as she realized they were in bed with the Rising.”
“Then why does she still wear the bracelet?” the leader asked.
That was one question I had also had but had never voiced. “I’m not sure. You’d have to ask her. Maybe it’s a reminder? I dunno. In any case, the Ender we’re traveling with is her sister. So she’s against the Rising one hundred percent.”
The threesome blinked in surprise. Good, I thought. Maybe they’ll get some sense into their heads. The bearded man shook his head and pulled his feet out of the water, standing to stare at me face-to-face. “Who do you think you’re helping?” he asked.
“Nobody yet,” I answered. “But we’re on our way to Rome. We have a plan.”
The man scoffed. “What you’re doing is stupid,” he shot back. “If you think you’ll be able to walk out of Rome alive, you’ve got a hard lesson to learn.”
“Hypocrite,” I said. “You’re in the shadow of the Rising’s city, too, last I checked. And with an Ender in your party?”
“We’re not planning to march into the city in broad daylight. Our business is our own.”
I was about to respond but was cut off when the male Ender made a loud grunting noise. He was stared at Gehn longingly. She was bending over to give Chuck a scratch, giving him a damn good view from behind, her dress cresting the base of her ass. I got angry at the thought of what was going through his mind.
“OK, no more sharing this oasis. It’s time for you all to leave.” The situation was getting out of control. These should be the sorts of people I should be recruiting to our cause, whatever our cause was, and yet I was fighting with them. How was a world like this one supposed to change?
“Not till we tell you what we came to say,” he said.
“Fine. I’ll bite. Issue your cheap threat. I’ve heard it all before.”
“I suppose you never heard about a First named Katherine?” he said.
“No,” I said, frowning. It wasn’t what I’d expected him to say.
The man smirked and shook his head, turning away from me. I grabbed his elbow.
“Who’s Katherine?” I asked. “Why should we know her?”
He looked down at his elbow, then back at me. “If you want to keep that hand, let go of my elbow.”
It was a fair request. I shouldn’t have laid hands on him when he hadn’t even pulled a weapon on me. I released him.
“Katherine was a First,” he said. “A revered member of the Guild. She was smart, resourceful, and succeeded in whatever she wanted to do. She was a rising star.
“But that wasn’t enough for her. She started consorting with the Rising, coming up with new and creative ways to kill Enders.”
“What for?” I asked. “Did an Ender do something to her?”
He shrugged. “I guess so. I was never clear on that part of the story. Anyway, she figures the best way to do it is to infiltrate the Enders and make some new friends. So she cuts off her bracelet and pretends to be a sympathetic human trying to help them. She befriends an Ender named Ezekiel, or ‘Zeke’ for short. She convinced him she knew the way to peace to the world, and that they should ride together through the wastelands. She wanted to unite the people.
“Next thing anyone knows, Zeke was dead. They found him lying on the desert floor, a knife embedded into his back. Katherine always claimed innocence when confronted by it. She said it was self-defense, that the Ender had turned on her, tried to rape her because of his uncontrollable carnal desires. She helped to paint the picture in the land that Enders were all irresponsible and incapable of handling their emotions. Which is a goddamn lie. Marty here gets urges, but look at him? In the presence of two beauties like the ones you got and he’s setting here with us, doing nothing but watch.”
Seeing the Ender, Marty apparently, like this was a major revelation, I had to admit. I always thought of them as lumbering killing machines, not far from the experience I’d had the night before. Marty was an example of what male Enders could be. Normal. Not far from human, except for appearance of course.
“And you’re certain this woman, Katherine, wasn’t attacked by the Ender, this Zeke guy?”
The guy shook his head. “Nope, I know it didn’t happen. I didn’t have to be there. The Rising views Enders as just another thing they can hunt for their own personal gain. They don’t care about the people behind them. They go out, lure some Enders, and kill them like wild animals. The process repeats indefinitely, until they’ve eradicated them like vermin. In their version of a perfect world, Enders don’t exist. The only way to get Enders to no longer exist? You kill them one by one. It’s genocide, plain and simple.”
Hannah was treading water in the background. Gehn was crouched next to Chuck, still watching us. The thought of anything happening to them made me furious.
“Yeah, well, you guys are humans too. Aren’t you luring your Ender into a false sense of security?”
The man chuckled. “We’re armed. Even if we are disgusting members of society, we have our own way of doing things. And we make sure that our Ender is armed, too. That he’s got a gun on him at all times is comforting to him. He has the power to retaliate if he wants.”
“Are you expecting that?” I asked.
“Of course,” he replied. “We’d be fools not to expect the worst in the Ends. We have business here, but we’re ready for whatever happens.”
I thought of Gehn and her constant sense of dread. Maybe she would be more at ease if I gave her a gun to keep by her side.
“I’m just saying, watch out,” the man said. “The woman in that water is beautiful, but she might just be playing her part before she kills the both of you. She’s still wearing the goddamn bracelet.”
That would be quite the long con. But he was right in that respect: it was weird we were all together. I knew that. I felt it every time we ran into other people.
I didn’t have time to figure out whether or not it was a bad sign that Hannah was with us. I trusted her at this point. If that became my downfall, so be it.
The guy walked back to his group and lowered his feet back in the water. Hannah smiled at me from the other side of the oasis. I smiled back.
If Hannah really was conning me, that still didn’t ans
wer one of the biggest questions I had about this journey: how did word of our group spread so quickly? Electricity was one thing, but it wasn’t like all the destroyed cell towers had been repaired. You couldn’t just call someone anymore.
I walked around the oasis. Hannah glided through the water and exited the water where she could hide her nakedness from the strangers by a large boulder. Gehn brought her close to her and then returned to where we’d parked our cart.
I approached her just as she leaned back against the wagon to wait for us.
“What did they say?” Gehn asked with a frown.
I didn’t answer the question. It’s not like I could just tell her the men suspected Hannah of being some kind of a Guild spy. Instead, I slipped Beta out of her holster. “I want you to carry this,” I said. “You’ve had it before, but now I don’t want you to give it back.”
She looked confused. “Why? This is your gun.”
“I have another one,” I said. “It’s for your protection.”
Gehn hesitated but then accepted the gun and held it, feeling the weight of the weapon. “I thought you were my protection.”
“I am,” I said. “But you never know what might happen out here in the wilderness. It might work in your favor to have a little extra protection in case I’m predisposed. Plus, anytime you feel the…anger brewing inside you, shooting from afar may help you afterwards…so you don’t feel so different.”
Her eyes met mine, and I could see the gratitude mixed with the sadness. I wished I could take all her pain away, but that was impossible. All I could do was help her to manage it.
I didn’t want to doubt Hannah, and I didn’t, not really. But what if the man was right? What if she was playing her own sister, luring her like a lamb to the slaughter? I cast aside that thought because it didn’t matter.
One way or another, we would find out in Rome, which would be the true test of everyone’s loyalty.
Chapter 26
Rome
“So, how are we going to play this?” Hannah asked as we approached the city limits of Rome. Torches marked the borders, dancing flames in the darkness of night, but there was no sign of old-world lights. That was good. At least the Rising couldn’t claim credit for bringing back electricity. At least not yet.
I tugged on the mule’s reins and we slowed to a stop. The mule stood there, looking like she just wanted to rest. I couldn’t blame her—we had traveled a long way to get here. I wanted to give her a break, too, but Hannah was right. We needed a plan.
“Hannah, you know Rome better than any of us,” I said. “You should lead us through. Help us find our way in there. Talk to whoever you need to talk to. Make sure your bracelet is showing. Gehn, stay in the cart tucked away. Keep your hat on.” I knew I didn’t need to tell her that, but it never hurt to reiterate the most important things. People did crazy things when fear was present. Returning to Rome, I knew, was Gehn’s greatest fear. “And, for god’s sake, if you get any weird feelings, let us know immediately, okay?”
Gehn nodded. “What are you going to do?” Hannah asked.
I touched Alpha, which I knew was a habit of mine whenever I needed comfort at feeling her presence on my hip. “Whatever I have to do,” I said.
With a tug on the reins, I encouraged our engine to get going again. Grudgingly, she lumbered forward, towing us behind her.
Despite the torches, there were no guards at the city limits, just a crisscross of tracks from the various merchant and passenger carts and wagons that traversed the distance between Rome and the various outposts, as well as Geneva and Paris.
As we entered the city limits, buildings sprang up on both sides of us. I steered our wagon to a hitching post on the edge of town where people tied up other wagons and animals. It was a good a place as any to stop. In order to thoroughly search the city for the dream reader, we would need to travel on foot.
I climbed off the wagon and then helped each of the women down. Finally, I whistled for Chuck, who dutifully jumped off and fell in beside me. Despite the occasional torch lighting the way through the city, the shadows seemed to coalesce into armies, blocking our every turn.
“Everyone ready?” I asked, taking a deep breath. Hannah nodded.
Gehn avoided eye contact. “I know this place all too well. This is where we need to be, but where I’d rather have never returned. All I sense is darkness, and yet I can feel an approaching light. Does that make sense?”
“No,” I said, smiling so she knew I was half-joking. “But it’s not like we’re turning back now. Let’s go.”
Despite the hour, the streets were relatively crowded. All were humans—presumably members of the Rising or those from the outposts forced to stay the night due to darkness, waiting for morning to come before they traveled to wherever their final destination would be. With leather bracelets proudly displayed, Guild members wandered the streets too. A few noticed Hannah’s bracelet and nodded in her direction, their gazes flitting to me and to Gehn, noticing our own bare wrists. As usual, word of our strange group would probably travel fast. There was nothing we could do about that, except try to be as quick as possible.
Of course, there was not an Ender in sight.
Back at The Last Stop, there were generally no Enders. Whenever an Ender wandered in, someone showed them the door, because ‘We don’t want no trouble in these parts.” So I was used to being surrounded by non-mutated humans. This time, however, it gave me an unsettling feeling. I’d grown so accustomed to Gehn’s presence, as well as the other Enders I’d seen in Geneva, that now not having them around felt unusual.
My eyes darted about, trying to read people and determine whether or not they were onto us. I knew it was only a matter of time before someone would realize Gehn’s hat was more than just a fashion statement, especially because of the dark feeling she had.
I scanned my surroundings, getting used to them. The buildings weren’t any taller than any of the others I’d seen in the outposts or Geneva. But here, they were a little better constructed. They looked solid, like they could withstand a hurricane. Lanterns and torches lined the streets, getting closer together as we moved into the heart of the city. According to Hannah, there were two major city markets, and we spilled into one almost immediately. The noise overwhelmed me, obliterating the quiet of night.
Sellers hawked their wares at the top of their lungs, clamoring for attention. Some sold meat. Others sold produce. Still others sold handmade goods and clothing. They all competed for the same airspace, screaming and shouting their deals to attract as many customers as they could.
I longed for the simple peace and quiet of The Last Stop, where a man could drink without being bothered. In Rome, the bother followed you around.
The denser the population became, the closer the four of us stuck together. I was becoming disoriented. I motioned to Hannah to lead, and she darted in front of me, ploughing through the crowd with experienced zeal.
Before my very eyes, she transformed from the sister of an Ender to a confident First who stopped for no one. To my surprise, the crowd seemed to part for her. It was an awe-inspiring sight. Or at least it would’ve been if it wasn’t the shining example of how fucked up our society was.
As a First, she wielded a power and deference that Gehn and I could never match. It proved our strategy was sound. By letting her lead the way, nobody asked us questions. That one stud on her wrist was all we needed to move through without a lot of resistance. Who knew what the people thought about Gehn and I, but as long as we passed by swiftly, they wouldn’t have much time to think about it.
About halfway through the marketplace, Gehn’s breathing became loud. I glanced at her. Her face was pale, and her eyes bugged out of their sockets. She was desperately trying to keep it together, but I remembered she was smack in the middle of a place where the Rising had brutally murdered her parents. The only thing I couldn’t tell: was she scared or holding back the urge to tear into these peoples’ flesh with her teeth?
That’s no place to sit. There are people all over it. I almost grabbed Hannah to ask her what the play was but stopped when I realized my error.
I should have known better. Once we were within a few feet, Hannah stepped forward and raised her wrist. The people scattered, leaving the bench to us.
I shook my head. Damn, the Firsts have it good here.
The three of us sat down, and Chuck trotted over to my feet, lying down and resting his legs. His tail wagged, and he shook with excitement. No matter where he looked, there was action. It had been a long time since he was in the middle of so much commotion.
I wrapped a comforting arm around Gehn, who stared at the ground, her breathing rapid and rough.
“What’s up?” I asked. “You’re feeling danger?”
Her colorless cheeks were damp with sweat. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I just need a minute. I haven’t been back here since... you know.”
Hannah and I both nodded at her and exchanged concerned looks. Hannah, though she would have the same horrid memories of this place as Gehn, seemed better able to control her emotions. This was one risk we didn’t really consider. Gehn had a great instinct for danger, but we didn’t consider whether her Ender body could cope with this place. Maybe we’d asked too much of her.
“We can go back,” I said. “We can leave now, no questions asked.”
Gehn’s eyes darted up to meet mine, and I could see the temptation to take me up on my offer was strong, but then she shook her head. “I can handle this. Just need a minute.”
I realized we hadn’t eaten in a while. Food would help. “Is anyone hungry?” I asked. Both women nodded. “Maybe I can hustle up some food. I have a few coins left.” I didn’t need to mention they were the coins taken from the dead men back in Geneva.