Atonement

by Adalyn Ramsey

  9

  THERE WAS A scream and Elida’s eyes snapped back open. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been out this time, but he could feel something heavy pressing down on his legs. Something smelled like piss. He groaned, thinking he might have pissed himself when he lashed out at Sinnett, but after a moment he realized it wasn’t him and he was relieved. At least this much dignity he had retained.

  Bright lights shined down on his face and temporarily blinded him. There were voices. He thought he could recognize Zeke and a few of the others talking in the room, but he couldn’t pick out words or make sense of them.

  Raising himself up on his one good elbow, he lifted his head a couple of inches. Across his legs was the form of a man, half-conscious. Several other men were detaining the man with cuffs, their knees and elbows pressing punishingly into his back, adding to the weight that Elida felt in his lower extremities. With the cuffs secured, the other men stepped back and hoisted the prisoner upright.

  Elida’s mind clicked back into focus when he recognized Sinnett’s face. He hadn’t been out for long at all. Probably only a few seconds, given the look of things. But still, he was a bit confused by the blank spot in his memory.

  As he watched, Sinnett seemed to regain control of his body, looking around furiously. Drool and spittle ran down his chin, and he fixed his face in a grimace like a mad dog. He growled but didn’t speak as the men hauled him out of the tent and away from Elida.

  “What just happened?” Elida whispered, his voice scratching out of his throat.

  Zeke turned to face him and conducted a quick inventory of his commander’s state before relaxing.

  “I’ll fill you in when you’re feeling better, but the short version is that Sinnett was responsible for the explosions, and just now he was trying to finish the job. Luckily, one of our guys figured it out and came rushing over here to see you, thanks to Clarke. He caught Sinnett in the act and tased him. The bastard fell forward like a sack of potatoes. Sorry about the err… mess. Didn’t mean for him to piss all over you when he got hit.”

  Elida raised his uninjured hand to wave off the apology, but he frowned at the stiffness in his muscles. As the tent quieted down, he closed his eyes again, running through all the questions that were closing in on him. It had confused him when he thought Clarke planted the explosives, but this new turn of events was even more confusing. And where was Clarke now?

  When Zeke turned to leave, Elida began retracing his conversations with the two recruits, looking for any clue that might tell him how he had ended up here. He recalled Sinnett’s recognition of the symbol on the crates. Somebody had told him what to look for. Sinnett was no history buff. They had trained him.

  There were no simple answers, but one thing was clear to Elida: he was definitely the intended target. If Sinnett was the one behind the explosion, someone had put him up to it. There’s no way the recruit could have planned this on his own. Somebody had instructed Sinnett to take out Elida at the first available opportunity and then coached him on where to find the resources to do so. And yet, he had never heard of any previous missions to this planet. The only people who would know such a thing were the same government officials who had sent him here with doctored intel in the first place.

  “As for me and my family… Elida made a deal with the devil.” Memories of the night he had accepted the land from Elizabet played through his mind. The dissenting voices of his own people back on earth echoed back to him, and he could almost see the self-righteous looks on their faces as they reminded one another that they had been opposed to this idea all along.

  And then there was the insidious fury he felt toward himself. Ever since they had landed, he had been on edge. He had been waiting for the enemy to breach their gates, whatever that enemy might be. He had made his men build fences and walk the perimeter and prepare to fight off mighty beasts, and yet, he had let his guard down with his own men. He knew better than that, and the failure stung, even if nobody would dare call him out on it. He glared at the ceiling of the tent, imagining what his old drill sergeants would say to him now, a twinge of regret forcing him to swallow hard.

  “Sir?” Zeke’s voice came from the tent’s opening, and Elida jumped in surprise, groaning at the pain. “Here, take this.”

  Zeke slowly poured a warm liquid into Elida’s mouth, making sure not to spill the soothing medicine by pouring too fast. When he finished, he sat down beside the Captain’s bed.

  “We’ve got Sinnett detained and we’ll keep a watch on him at all times. You don’t have to worry about him anymore, but I have other news. First, he destroyed most of our supplies in the explosion. I have a team sorting through the remains to see what we can salvage, but a lot of tools were damaged or destroyed completely, not to mention our food supplies. We will have to hunt for food soon, and we don’t even know what that looks like.”

  Elida could only nod his understanding and roll his eyes with frustration. Hunting for food would be a real problem, especially if they had not yet identified any animals that they could eat. How were they going to feed nearly fifty men now?

  “There’s one more thing,” Zeke interrupted Elida’s train of thought. “Several men have gone missing. We think they may have helped Sinnett, but we can’t be sure. It’s possible they defected on their own, although that seems unlikely. In any case, they seem to have made off with some supplies as well. I reached out to our friends back on earth to gather some information on the missing recruits. They’re looking for anything that ties them together, or that might explain why this happened. We will sort this out, one way or another.”

  Elida smiled at the tremble that snuck into Zeke’s words. Nobody was sure of that, least of all Zeke, but at least the kid was trying to keep it together. Elida was glad he had a good head on his shoulder’s and most of the exploratory team seemed to carry on with the things they knew needed to get done.

  This new layer of complexity was both good and bad. On the one hand, it meant there were a few fewer mouths to feed in the near term. Unfortunately, it also meant that there might actually be enemies at the gates again soon, and they would already know all the camp’s defenses, inside and out. That was a problem, but it wasn’t one he could solve. Zeke had to figure it out on his own this time.

  The pair of them sat in silence for an unusually long time, until someone called for Zeke and he stood to go. On his way out, he squeezed Elida’s hand softly, imparting some sense of courage before he went.

  “I’ll check back in later. Get some rest.”

  10

  WITH EACH PASSING day, the rawness in Elida’s throat subsided, and he could slowly speak more and more. Zeke kept him up to date on new developments, and he gave advice when asked, although Zeke made a point of letting him rest more often than not, insisting that he had it all under control.

  The medical team came and went in short flurries, interrupting his sleep and feeding him strange concoctions derived from local plants and animals. Nothing tasted quite right, but he wasn’t sure if it was because the food was bad or because the explosion had charred so much of his sense of taste. It was hard to say.

  While the security detail kept a trained eye on the fence line, the missing recruits did not turn up. After a while, everyone in the camp assumed that they had died out there in the wilderness from exposure or starvation. Zeke continued to dig for details, looking for a connection between them and Sinnett, but Sinnett insisted that he was acting alone. Elida assumed that was a lie. Whoever he was working for probably trained him to say that too. Whoever put him up to it must have had something good on him.

  “Bring him to me,” Elida demanded one day, finally strong enough to sit up in his bed and face the man who had attempted to take his life.

  “Are you sure, sir?” Zeke asked, a look of concern furrowing his brows.

  “I’m sure. The bastard needs to know he can’t take me out that easy. I want to see his face.” Elida set his face with a grimace and waited patiently as
Zeke left the tent.

  When Sinnett stumbled through the tent flaps, he looked a mess. His hair stuck to his forehead, and his beard had grown out in patches. He had not been well-fed, but then again, none of them had. It was a bad place to be a prisoner, Elida supposed. When they were face to face, Elida stared hard into the man’s eyes, looking for some glimmer of the soul that hid behind them. He wanted to know what that soul contained. He received a face full of spittle as Sinnett spat at him and growled.

  Elida wiped the mess off of his face casually, and after a solemn pause, lashed out with his strong arm, the back of his hand slamming into the other man’s jaw. Sinnett dropped to the floor in shock. His nose bled onto the dirt, and the guards stood over him, ready to wrestle him back up, but Elida lifted a hand for them to step back.

  “I was trying to do the right thing, you know?” Elida began, looking down at the disheveled man with interest. “I was trying to do what was best for all of us. But you couldn’t let that happen, could you? You couldn’t let our people succeed. Why not?”

  Sinnett glared up at their leader from where he lay on the ground. “I have my reasons,” he said between clenched teeth.

  Elida tilted his head to one side, raising a quizzical eyebrow at the man on the floor. A second later, he was sliding off the medical bed and placing his boot on the back of Sinnett’s neck. “And why exactly is that?” he asked.

  “Because you sold us out,” Sinnett croaked from under the boot. “You can kill me, but you won’t get rid of the opposition. There are too many of us. You don’t know who is on your side anymore. Even Zeke here. You don’t know what you’re up against. I’m just sorry I didn’t kill you the first time.”

  Elida stumbled backward to the bed, alarmed by the venom in Sinnett’s words. He looked at Zeke suspiciously, who raised his hands defensively, stammering that he had no idea what the prisoner was talking about.

  “Sold who out?” Elida asked the room, knowing the answer deep down in his heart.

  “Us. All of us. The people who elected you to lead and protect them. I voted for you way back when, but you made this deal with the Central Government behind closed doors, and then demanded that we put our lives on the line for a pipe dream. They offered you a taste of something good, and you fell right into their trap like a blind puppy. Tell me, did you feel powerful when you shared that stage with her? Did you feel legitimized? Let me tell you what the rest of us saw that you never did: they played you. They knew you would lead us on a wild goose chase for your own glory, storming foreign planets and giving up the few luxuries we had back home with stars in your eyes. Our people will suffer for years to come because of your misstep. None of us on this planet will make it back to our families, and none of them will ever make it up here. This was all a farce, and all I ever wanted was to get rid of you so nobody else would try to do something as foolish as building a colony here. The broken promises and the missing gear and the awful stinking wind that makes everything taste like rot. The Helechi people deserve to know the truth. You owe them that. So tell me, oh fearless leader, do you have what it takes to face them and tell them you failed? Go do it. Go back to the ship and send a transmission explaining how wrong you were.”

  Sinnett’s words cut off as one guard kicked him in the side. “You’re in no position to be making demands right now, prisoner.”

  Elida seethed, leaning against his bed and shaking weakly. Zeke stepped forward to help him up onto the meager padding, but Elida jumped back at his touch, suddenly distrustful of his second in command.

  “I’m telling you they will find out one way or the other. They sent those ships that fly over every few days to take pictures of your grand success. Elizabet had a whole big photo op planned out, but you failed. There is no camp to take pictures of, so she is already telling everyone that you weren’t quite the leader she expected you to be. Everyone back home thinks you’re dead. So either you need to go send a transmission to our people explaining that they took advantage of you, or you let them think whatever they’re told is the truth. That’s on you.”

  “Is Elizabet behind this or not, Sinnett?”

  “Does it matter? She knew enough to know that you weren’t meant to succeed. She may have been rooting for you, but her actions contributed to the mess you’re in now. At best, all she wanted was for you to get enough of a colony going to make it easier for her to sell the land to investors later on. The flyover pictures would have gone a long way toward building her PR campaign.”

  “That’s enough!” Zeke exclaimed. “He’s lying. Take him out of here.”

  The guards hefted Sinnett to his feet, and Zeke tensed, looking at the man’s face. Sinnett smirked back, looking over Zeke’s shoulder to give Elida a sly wink. Elida didn’t know what any of it meant now. All he knew was that the supplies were dwindling, and whether or not Elizabet was behind it, failure was imminent. He had to act now.

  If he pulled them out of this pit of despair, he would face Elizabet afterward and get some real answers out of her. Until then, his mind needed to focus on solving the problems immediately in front of him, and for that, he would have to make a few quick decisions.

  “Leave me alone, Zeke. I’ll call for you when I need you.”

  “Sir, I hope you know I would never do what Sinnett suggested. I couldn’t-”

  “That’s enough. I have some thinking to do. Go check up on your crews and make sure everything is going well.”

  Zeke received the command with a crestfallen look, but turned on his heel and exited the tent promptly. Sinnett had made enough problems by blowing up their supplies, but now he was sewing seeds of dissent and things were quickly spiraling out of control. If Elida didn’t get a handle on things quickly, the remaining crew members might abandon him altogether and follow Sinnett’s lead, and that would be even worse for their hopes of building a colony.

  As Elida lay on his bed, he closed his eyes and considered his options. They had him in a corner, and the only solution available to him was to change the entire game, turn the tables. But how? His mind raced back through the forest and to their ship, searching for another avenue to save the mission. There had to be a way. Then it came to him.

  11

  “FIND ZEKE, RIGHT away,” Elida shouted from the entryway of his tent. As he peered between the flaps, he took in the scene. Zeke had kept things moving along, more or less, but most of the camp was still in disarray. They hadn’t quite solved the problem of transporting water or locating food efficiently. They had repaired the tents damaged in the explosion with a mess of patches and makeshift panels. It wasn’t pretty.

  Zeke came jogging up and greeted Elida breathlessly. “Yes, sir?” he panted.

  “Come inside. We need to talk.” Elida held the flap open and waited patiently for Zeke to get out of his way. “Sit down.”

  No matter which way he looked at it, Elida knew this conversation would be a hard one. There was no simple way to do what had to be done next, but it was the only way he could free himself from the yoke of this failure and keep his dreams of a colony alive.

  “What are we going to do?” Zeke asked, bright-eyed and ready to follow his leader anywhere at all.

  “Burn it all down,” Elida answered frankly, searching Zeke’s face for a reaction.

  “B-burn it?” Zeke asked, unclear on whether this was a metaphorical or literal burning they were speaking of.

  “Listen to me, it’s the only way we can start over. We’ve only been here a few days. It’s not like we’ve built anything substantial here, anyway. We now know that they have eyes on us, and they’re waiting for signs from the insurgents that they can celebrate our failure. Let’s give them a sign. And while they’re busy watching the camp burn, we can go underground. You, me, and a handful of others I think we can trust. I will need your help to weed out the bad apples, but I think we can do this.”

  “But what then, sir? Where do we go?”

  “Think about it. That old drug company didn’t just
send expensive equipment up here on a whim. All we have to do is find the whatever they were digging up when they went down and we can hide out there. According to our historians, they had some kind of transport tunnels underway, which will mostly protect us, and we can work out the rest from there. Either way, we can’t rely on Elizabet or the central government to send us any more supplies. Relying on them was a stupid move in the first place. Sinnett wasn’t wrong about that much. But that means we need to work with what this planet gives us. Besides, if we want to have a permanent colony here, we must do that before long. But with fewer of us to support, we can move faster. All I need from you right now is to pack up enough supplies for five of us to escape with. Make sure nobody sees you. And bring me those maps we had from our initial landing. They might be of use.”

  “Sir, I don’t think you’re well enough to be tromping off through the forest right now. What about your health? And we know those maps aren’t accurate, remember?”

  “This is life or death, Zeke. For all of us. I will bring my most trusted medic to keep an eye on me. You just worry about supplies. As for the maps, they may have been doctored but they’re not completely false. There might be something useful there. When you leave, send Clarke in here.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And don’t get caught,” Elida hissed at Zeke as the young man turned to go.

  Zeke marched away, leaving Elida to his own devices. He had only a cursory idea of the land that lay beyond their perimeter, but it was a start. He could retrace his steps toward the old wreckage and extrapolate from there. The forest was large and dense, but that ship was headed somewhere. It was worth following their path to see what was out there.

  Footsteps approaching his tent made him pause. He would come back to plotting their route as soon as Zeke brought him some maps. For now, he had another matter to attend to.