Exodus
Author: Elle Casey
Date: 2012-08-23 04:14:48+00:00
Keywords: Fiction; Dystopian; Science Fiction; Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic; Action & Adventure; Horror
Description: NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR, ELLE CASEY, brings readers Book 3 of 4 in the YA Dystopian APOCALYPSIS Series, suitable for older teens and adults. EXODUS. My name's Bryn Mathis. I'm seventeen years old, and my world has been turned upside down and inside out. I'm racing toward a future I cannot control. I thought I had everything worked out, but then things changed. I thought we were all cut off from one another, but it turns out, we're not. They say people are talking, and word about me and what I've done is spreading like the virus that wiped out millions of people, leaving

Contents

Title page

Copyright

Other Books by Elle Casey

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

About the Author

Other Books by Elle Casey

Acknowledgments

Apocalypsis

Book Three

Exodus

Elle Casey

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

© 2012 Elle Casey, all rights reserved, worldwide.  No part of this ebook may be reproduced, uploaded to the Internet, or copied without author permission.

ANTI-PIRACY SUPPORT:  The author respectfully asks that all her readers support artistic expression and help promote anti-piracy efforts by purchasing a copy of this ebook only at author-authorized online outlets (Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, or Barnes and Noble).  Piracy hurts everyone, writers and readers alike.  Just don’t do it!

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Other Books by Elle Casey

War of the Fae: Book One, The Changelings - FREE!

War of the Fae: Book Two, Call to Arms

War of the Fae: Book Three, Darkness & Light

War of the Fae: Book Four, New World Order

Clash of the Otherworlds: Book 1, After the Fall

Clash of the Otherworlds: Book 2, Between the Realms

Clash of the Otherworlds: Book 3, Portal Guardians

Apocalypsis: Book 1, Kahayatle

Apocalypsis: Book 2, Warpaint

Apocalypsis: Book 3, Exodus

Apocalypsis: Book 4, Haven

My Vampire Summer

My Vampire Fall (Coming Soon)

Wrecked

Reckless

Aces High

(co-written with Jason Brant)

DEDICATION

To my faithful writing companion - the ever present, ever loving, ever joyful poodle, Hercules - who’s laid at my feet for more than a million words.

Chapter One

IT WAS POURING RAIN, BUT we were greeted back at our home in Kahayatle with a hero’s welcome anyway.  Many hands reached out to us, guiding the group of injured warriors to the hut set up for treating them.

We were all soaked to the bone, but no one other than me seemed to care.  I was cold and shivering, lost and confused about what I was doing there.  I should have been back at the canner place, searching for Bodo.  He should have been here with me, smiling, getting his bruised face looked after by the girls living in The Everglades.

Faces that were familiar to me cleaned, stitched, and bandaged the wound on my arm.  Others brought food and water, standing over us, chatting with one another, stopping occasionally to hug or just touch us before asking questions.  When no answers were forthcoming from the exhausted and shell-shocked, they speculated as to the reasons for various injuries and whispered about the possible outcomes that we might anticipate as a result of having attacked the vicious group of canners who lived only a few short miles away.

The bright flashes of lightning slicing across the sky lit up the faces around me in short bursts, reminding me of cameras and paparazzi that no longer haunted the streets of our country.  The thunder rumbled and boomed, rolling across the sky, sometimes sounding as if it were right over the swamp and other times as if it were blasting the roof off the inferno that used to be the canners’ home and a prison for the kids now lying around me.

None of us had told our eager healers yet that we had let some of the monsters escape alive.  The time for dealing with that problem would be later, when we knew how many people would survive their injuries and could discuss the potential fallout.  Maybe the two chiefs, Kowi and Trip, were thinking the same thing I was - that we could delude ourselves for just a little while that there wouldn’t be retribution and that the monsters would just disappear … fade into the horizon never to be seen or heard from again.

I watched numbly, as kids with missing limbs were gently laid on raised pallets set up on the floor of the hut and on the ground just outside when the clinic was too full to handle any more of them.  Many were moved soon after, to the homes of other Miccosukee or Creek indians who were eagerly volunteering to see after these kids who had been captured and kept by the canners, abused horrifically before being set free and brought to Kahayatle.  It was almost an honor to take them from broken to whole - or as whole as they could ever be again.

Celia was on her feet for hours, tending to the wounded and sitting with them as they cried.  She held their fingers or feet with the one hand she had remaining, knowing better than anyone else that while we might be able to heal their physical wounds, the emotional ones went way deeper and would be much more difficult to cover with toughened scar tissue.  I saw their faces and knew that being with Celia was the best thing we could offer them right now.  She gave them hope, and that was powerful medicine.

Peter came in at some point and pulled me to my feet, guiding me away from the crowds.

“Where are we going?” I asked, my voice sounding flat.

“Back home, to our hut,” he answered without looking at me.

I stopped walking.  “No.  I don’t want to go there.”

“Why not?  It’s where we live.  You don’t want to stay in the clinic, do you?”

“No.  But I don’t want to go back to our hut, either.”  I looked down at the ground, fighting back the tears.

“Why not?”

I just shook my head.  I was afraid if I started talking about it, I was going to cry like a stupid baby.

Peter sighed.  “Look … I know you miss Bodo.  I know that’s what this is all about.  But you can’t let that stop you from living, Bryn.”  He stepped closer and put his arm around my waist, half-pushing and half-dragging me along.  “This isn’t like my sister, Lily.  Bodo could still be out there.”

“Do you really think so?” I wanted to believe him.  Peter had seen his sister brutally murdered by animals much like the ones we had just fought.

“Yes, I really do.  No one saw him … dead.”

I stopped again, tears jumping to my eyes despite my attempts to keep them back.  My heart was spasming in my chest as the words I was thinking made the picture so clear for me in my mind.  “Then why didn’t he come to the truck?  He knew we were going to leave.  He knew it was the only way out.”

“Maybe he was busy fighting someone off, I don’t know.  Maybe he was injured.  But he’ll find a way to get back, anyway.  You know him.  He’s stubborn.”

I grabbed Peter’s forearm hard enough to make him flinch, but he didn’t pull away.

“What if he is injured?  And if we don’t get back there, he’ll die from it!”  I wanted to run to the canoes immediately.  I didn’t care that it was pouring rain, that my newly stitched wound was bleeding again, or that I didn’t even know where they were keeping the boats and paddles or the bike or truck I would need to get back to the canner place.

My desire to run must have shown in my eyes, because Peter stepped in between me and the path leading to the water, grabbing both of my upper arms and staring me in the eye.  He shook me hard one time.

“No.  You are not going back there.  You are staying here and waiting.  And if he comes back, good.  If he doesn’t, oh well, we move on.  That’s how it works here.”

I looked at him, aghast.  “What’s wrong with you, Peter?  We’re talking about Bodo.  He’s … he’s … family.”  I searched Peter’s face, wondering if he’d gone crazy in the middle of all the fighting, or had somehow lost his grip on reality.  But all I saw there was firm determination.

“Nothing’s wrong with me.  It’s called loss and you have to deal with it.  Now, come on.  It’s getting dark, and I don’t want to get stuck out here with the snakes.”

As if on cue, a red and black serpent slithered across a set of tree roots very near to where we were standing.  I should have stepped away, but my instincts weren’t working like they should have; I just stood and watched it go by.  Luckily, the snake had somewhere to be and ignored both of us in favor of finding cover under a nearby clump of plants.

“Ick.  Come on.”  Peter grabbed my hand and pulled.

I stopped fighting and followed dumbly along, lost in thoughts of Bodo and what he might be doing right now, wondering if he was alive or dead, injured or healthy.  A piece of me hoped he was injured, because otherwise if he was alive but not here, it was probably because he was choosing not to be.  And I didn’t want to think about what that might mean about us.

***

I woke up the next day feeling hungover.  I’d only ever done that once - drank too much beer taken from a friend’s fridge during a party and severely regretted it the following morning - but it wasn’t something I ever wanted to repeat.  Today’s throbbing headache mixed with the dampness that seemed to pervade every inch of my world was making me feel nauseated.

“Here.  Drink this,” said Peter, standing over me, handing me a plastic bottle of water.  “And Coli told me to tell you to chew on this.”  He handed me a small stick.

I frowned at him.  “You must be smoking something if you think I’m going to chew on a piece of bark sent over from that witch.”

Peter smiled.  “Back with the living, are we?  And it’s not a piece of bark.  Or maybe it is, but it’s like aspirin, she said.”

“Shut up,” I said, snatching the bottle of water from him and gulping it down.  I refused to chew on anything Coli sent over.  One minute she was insulting me, the next she was offering me medicine.  I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to deal with her mood swings.

Peter left the sleeping area and came back with a basket of food, setting it down next to my mattress.  I leaned over to look in, seeing some bread and fruit inside.  I had zero appetite, so I pushed it away.

“You have to eat.  That injury isn’t going to heal if you starve yourself.”

“Who cares.” I laid back down, turning my back to Peter and Buster who’d wandered in from somewhere and looked like he was thinking about diving into the basket.

“No, Buster,” admonished Peter, “this is not for you.  It’s for Cranky Buns.”

I ignored Peter, but Buster was not so easy to blow off.  He climbed over my middle and landed on my injured arm, looking for access to lick my face.

“Get off, Buster, you idiot!  You’re sitting on my arm!”

Peter reached over and plucked Buster away, carrying him out of the hut and disappearing into the trees.  I heard him talking to the dog as he went.  “She’s just sad, so we’ll give her some space to work it out…”  I lost the rest when he got too far away.

I lie there feeling sorry for myself, crying for Bodo and wondering if I were ever going to see him again.  I couldn’t forget that the last time we’d had a private moment together, he’d said he was sure that I was going to tell him I loved him before he was done with his life.  But I hadn’t done it before we’d left to do our recon and rescue mission.  I hadn’t told him, and now I knew that I should have.

I fell asleep listening to the sound of rain hitting the leaves around me and dropping into the swamp below, wondering if Bodo were somewhere out there, alive, thinking about me too.  My mind wandered to the more likely scenario - that he was dead, his body left alone and cold, lying in the wreckage of our battle.

***

It was late afternoon when I woke again.  This time it was Coli sitting nearby, waiting for me to open my eyes.  She was on the mattress next to me, staring at me silently.

I took one look at her and closed my eyes again.  “Geez, Coli.  Do you have any idea how creepy it is to wake up and find you staring at me like that?”

“No.”

“Well, trust me.  It’s a lot creepy.  Go away.”  I rolled over, turning my back to her.

“Kowi wants to see you at dinner.”

“I’m busy.”

“Busy feeling sorry for yourself.  Yeah.  I can see that.”

“Go to hell, Coli.”

“Already there.”

Tell me about it.  I refused to comment out loud, hoping she’d eventually give up trying to engage me in conversation and leave.

“You have to get up and go to the bathroom, eventually.  Don’t you have to go now?”

Now that she’d mentioned it, I realized that I did really have to pee.  Damn her.

“Come on,” she said, standing.  “I’ll walk with you.”

I sat up slowly, battling the dizziness.  “I don’t need a frigging escort to the outhouse.”

“You haven’t eaten in two days, you lost a lot of blood, and you look like hell.  I think you do need an escort, and so does Peter.”

“Screw Peter.”

“I’ll pass along the message.  Now come on.”

The rain had finally let up, so at least my walk to the toilet wasn’t going to get me soaked.  It was too late in the day for the sun to do much more than light up the really wet landscape, but it was a nice reprieve from the blanketing grayness that I’d seen through slits in my eyes over the last who knew how many hours.  Lucky for us, the chickee hut roofs were so well-made that not a single drop of the monsoon that had dumped on us had made it through.  At least I had a dry mattress going for me.

I stumbled on the path, and Coli caught me.  I pushed her away after I’d regained my footing, and she laughed.

“What’s so funny?  Me falling down?”

“No.  You refusing help when you so obviously need it.”

I scowled at her, refusing to admit she was right.  “I don’t like having help from you.”

“And I don’t particularly like giving it to you.  But we do things out here that we find unpleasant all the time, so…”  She shrugged.

I had to smile.  She was so rude, it was comical.  She totally didn’t give a crap what I thought either, which was kind of nice in a way.  I needed brutal honesty right now.

“What are you smiling at?” she asked, scowling.

“You.  You’re like a cactus you’re so prickly.”

“You’re not all that warm and fuzzy yourself.”

“Yeah, well, if your boyfriend hadn’t come back from the fight, I don’t think you’d be all that cheery right now either.”

“So he’s your boyfriend now?  We’re talking about Bodo, right?”

I stopped walking, my smile disappearing in an instant.  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

She stopped and faced me, her legs spread apart and her eyebrow raised in challenge.  “Well, before you left, you kept making sure all the guys around here knew he wasn’t your boyfriend.  Now he’s missing and suddenly he is.  Seems like you’ve had a change of heart, that’s all I’m saying.”

I shook my head slowly in disbelief.  What a bitch.  “Screw you, Coli.  And don’t frigging walk with me any farther or I’m going to forget how helpful you were trying to be and punch you in the face.”

I stalked off, trying to ignore the spinning, spinning, spinning of my brain, but my feet wouldn’t obey.  They walked me diagonally instead of straight, and I got tangled in some roots that were just off the side of the path.

I went down like a drunk sailor into a pile of rotting weeds, landing on my hurt arm.  Intense pain to shot up into my shoulder.  I screamed with the frustration and burning sensation coming from my injury, rolling over onto my back.

“Goddamn it!  Fucking swamp!  Fucking asshole canners!”  I was crying now, big fat tears rolling out of my eyes.  I sat up so they’d stop going down into my ears, and they quickly amassed on my chin and jawline, dripping down to land on my bandages.  I didn’t bother wiping them away.  I just sat there hunched over, drowning in my sorrow.

I heard Coli walking over, her feet swishing in the leaves I’d kicked over onto the path.  For once she wasn’t being totally silent.  She put her hand down to help me stand back up on my feet.

“Come on.  Get up.”

I slapped her hand away.  “Get that out of my face.”

She put her hand back where it was.  “Let me help you up.  You’re too weak to go alone.”

“Fuck you, Coli.”

“No thanks.”  Her hand remained in front of my face.

I’d had enough of her callousness and jealousy and whatever else it was that made her such a jerk to me all the time.  Even now, her temporary niceness was laced with cruelty.

Without thinking, I grabbed her hand with my good one and yanked on it, rocking back and lifting my legs at the same time.

Her body flew forward, her balance thrown off by my unexpected move and unanticipated strength, allowing my feet to make contact with her chest.

I pulled down on her arm and pushed up with my feet, all the while leaning back and using the momentum created by her shifting weight to send her forward.  I grunted with the effort of sending her flying over me to land on her back behind my head.

As she laid there, gasping for breath, I let go of her hand and scrambled around.  I jumped on her, planning to land on the side of my good arm but not quite making it.  I screamed with the pain of my stitches popping, while she yelled in anger at being taken by surprise and thrown into the rotting vegetation.

She tried to buck me off and was partially successful.  I grabbed onto her shirt to pull her with me.

We started rolling around in the leaves and dirt, both of us yelling and screaming, grabbing for each other.  I landed a solid slap to her chin and she punched me hard in the boob.

“You bitch!” I yelled.

“You slut!” she yelled back.

“I am not a slut!” I screamed, completely confused as to what I’d done to earn that nickname but feeling totally justified in using the one I’d chosen for her.

“Yes, you are,” she grunted out, pushing my face into the dirt from behind.

I arched my back and elbowed her off, ignoring my freely bleeding arm.  I grabbed a handful of her hair and plowed her over with my upper body, slamming her head down into the muck with every word I was yelling.  “I’ve…never…done…anything…slutty…in…my…life!”  I let go and backed off a little, sure I’d bashed the fight out of her.

But I was wrong.

She lifted herself up fast and slapped me across the face, hard.

My head whipped to the side, but I caught myself with my arm behind me before falling back all the way.  I lifted up my leg while I was still on my knees and kicked her in the shoulder, sending her back down.

“You flirt with everyone while you lead Bodo on!” she yelled from the ground.

I had lifted my leg up to attack again, but froze in the middle of stomping her, my foot poised above her abdomen.  I slowly lowered it and let it drop beside me, falling ungracefully into a sitting position and moving my arm so it could rest in my lap.  My legs drew slowly inward, until I was cross-legged.

I couldn’t believe what she had just said.  As if I weren’t feeling crappy enough, now I had to face the fact that people, or at least Coli, felt this way about me.

Coli laid there, doing and saying nothing further.

I stood up eventually, swaying on my feet, brushing the swamp garbage off me as best I could.  My efforts mostly just smeared the clumps of damp earth and other things into my clothes.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see bits of leaves and twigs in the sides of my hair.  I reached up and pulled them out, flinging them angrily to the ground.  Stupid leaves.  Stupid swamp.  Stupid Coli.

I gave up on my mess of a hairdo after less than a minute and stumbled away, leaving her on her back on the swamp floor.

“Where are you going?” she called out.

“Go to hell, Coli,” was all I could think to say.  What does she care anyway?  I’m just a boyfriend-stealing ho-bag.  I weaved my way to the outhouse, forcing my feet to take one step and then another, hoping Coli wasn’t following me.  I used to find her annoying, but now I downright hated her.

The whole time I was sitting on the wood bench that served as a toilet seat I fumed.  Who does she think she is?  I don’t want to steal her stupid boyfriend.  If he’s dumb enough to go out with her, he’s definitely not my type. Besides, I was with Bodo, and he’s way better than any of those other guys.  But the things she said about not admitting he was my boyfriend still stung, probably because they were mostly true.  I had refused to acknowledge it for some stupid reason I couldn’t even remember anymore, and now he wasn’t here for me to tell him I was sorry and that I hadn’t meant to deny it.

He told me he loved me, and I didn’t tell him back.  What’s wrong with me?  Why didn’t I just tell him the truth?  The blood from my arm trickled down to my hand and dripped from my finger to the floor, but I disregarded it. I leaned my head up against the wall, crying silently as I thought about all the times we’d goofed around together, kissed, been intimate.  Bodo was gone, and there was nothing I could do about my selfishness now.

***

The first sensation I had was the sound of voices tickling my eardrums … then the smell of the outhouse burning my nose.

“Just be careful.  She’s ripped the stitches out of her arm,” said the voice of the girl I hated.  I wanted to lash out at her, but I couldn’t; I was paralyzed for some reason.

“Watch it!  Her leg’s caught,” said another.  I knew the voice but couldn’t place it.  “Coli, pull her pants up for me.”

I wanted to die of humiliation.  I was being rescued from the toilet by a guy.  I felt my shorts being roughly yanked up to my hips.

“What the hell happened here, Coli?” said Trip.  He sounded mad.

I tried to open my eyes so I could glare at him and tell him what a ho-bag his cousin is, but my eyelids wouldn’t obey my command.  All I could get out was a low moan that I wasn’t even sure anyone heard.  My arms and legs felt like rubber bands.

Slowly, other nerve endings woke up, and I stopped worrying so much about what they were saying and focused more on the burning pain that was coming from my arm.  I groaned louder this time, but the voices around me continued to ignore my wordless pleas.

“Give her to me,” said the third voice.  It was familiar but more serious than I remembered anyone other than the chiefs ever sounding around here.  It sounded like Kowi, but it wasn’t.

“You shouldn’t be doing that.  Your leg…” said Coli.  Her voice cut off in the middle of her sentence and she said no more.

I felt myself lifted up into someone’s arms; they were warm and strong, reminding me of Bodo.  It wasn’t my boyfriend who held me, though.  This person smelled differently.  Not bad or anything, but not like Bodo.  The tears came again and I ignored them, instead blocking out the sounds and the feelings that tried to come.  I wanted to escape into oblivion again, but Coli’s annoying voice wouldn’t let me.

“I don’t know why you’re babying her like this.  She attacked me.”

“You probably deserved it,” said the voice carrying me.  It was more familiar now with a smiling tone added to it.

“Shut up, Paci.  She’s the one who deserves to be slapped around a little.  Always walking around here like her stuff doesn’t smell.”

“Take a look in the mirror, Coli.  I think you’re talking about yourself.  It’s called reflection,” said Paci.

“Shut the hell up,” said Trip.  “Let’s just get her back to the clinic and we’ll figure everything out there.”

“I’m not going,” said Coli.  “I’ll see you guys later.”

“Not so fast,” said Trip.  “You’re going with us.  I’m executing my power as chief over you, officially.”

“Are you kidding me?  That’s bullcrap.  I am not responsible for her attitude.  I have nothing to say anymore about it, so you don’t need me there.”

I heard the sounds of scuffling and tried to open my eyes, but my brain didn’t want to let me.

“Let me go, Trip!”

“No.  You’re coming with us.”

“Fine!  I can walk by myself.  I don’t need you babysitting me, you jerk.”

She was really fuming now, and all I could do was smile.

I heard a quiet voice near my face.  “I see you smiling.  Good for you.  Just hang on to that,” said Paci.

His words were for me, and I doubted anyone else had heard them.  Coli was making too big of a stink right now.

I was finally able to open my heavy lids and look around a few minutes later, as we were entering the area around the clinic.  All of the pallets outside of it were gone now, and just a few kids from the canner place remained inside.  One of them was LaShay.

I avoided looking at her or Paci, closing my eyes instead.  I was embarrassed to be coming in here like this when there were so many other kids with bigger problems than mine.

“What’s her deal?” asked LaShay.

Paci laid me gently on a cot, and I opened my eyes again.  Before I could thank him, he stepped back, limping out of the hut but keeping his eyes on me the entire time.  It should have probably made me uncomfortable, but I clung to it, hoping at least he didn’t hate me like everyone else did.

He smiled at my desperate look, and it immediately made me want to look away.  I decided it was a bad idea to smile back, just in case anyone would take it as me leading him on, like Coli had accused me of doing before.  Plus, the realization that he’d rescued me from the toilet seat was more than a little embarrassing.  I wondered who had pulled my pants back up for me, since I couldn’t picture Coli doing it.

I closed my eyes again so I could focus on getting my world back under control.  Everything was in a chaotic mess for me, but everyone else seemed to be fine.  Even the kids with horrific injuries were taking things in stride and starting the healing process.  The knowledge that I was acting like a baby and feeling sorry for myself made me even more depressed.  I felt like I was falling into a dark, dark hole that I couldn’t get out of.

Coli took it upon herself to answer LaShay’s question.  “She attacked me when I was trying to help her, so I had to defend myself.  She messed up her stitches.”

“What’d she do that for?” asked LaShay, heavy judgment in her voice.

“Because she’s…”

“Coli!  That’s enough!” yelled Trip.

My eyes flew open at the sound.

Coli was fuming, but wisely kept her mouth shut.  Even I knew that when Trip was talking like that it would be stupid to say anything at all.  He was a nice enough guy, and a cousin to Coli, but he was still the chief - or one of them, anyway.

Winky appeared from around a corner and came to sit at the side of my bed.  Everyone else kind of faded away as she sat there, staring at me.

I held her gaze for a few seconds, but then I had to look away.  I didn’t see any admonishment in her eyes, but I didn’t see pity either.  She was just waiting for me to say something.

After a while I couldn’t take it anymore.  “What?  Quit looking at me like that.”

“So, you are fully aware and not catatonic.”

“Yes, I’m aware,” I said bitterly.

“Good.  I have to take those bandages off and sew you up again.  Looks like you did a hell of a job on the good work I did for you before.”

“You sewed me up?”  I felt confused.  Why hadn’t I realized that before?  How out of it have I been?

“Yep.  I’m in the sewing group with Coli.  I used to do a lot of embroidery as a hobby before all the doo-doo hit the fan.  Now I just make clothes and shoes.  I’ll be pretty busy getting stuff together for these new kids, so I need to get you taken care of and healed as soon as possible.”

She reached behind her back and her hand came back out with a knife.  “No more goofing around with Coli.  I don’t want to have to do this again.  Your scar’s going to be ugly enough as it is.”

I looked at her with my mouth hanging open a little.  She was being so matter-of-fact about everything - as if we hadn’t just gone into some stranger’s house and blown it all to hell, killing some kids in the process … very possibly one of them being my boyfriend.

I couldn’t decide whether to cry or punch someone, and I felt sick over doing either, so I opted instead to do nothing.  I watched in silence as she sliced the dirty bandages off my arm and revealed the angry red mess underneath.  I looked up at her, pissed now about the whole ugly world I’d found myself in.

“Don’t look at me like that,” she said.  “Tell me what you’re thinking.  I can see you’re freaking out.  Normally you would have wiped the ground with Coli’s butt, but it looks like she got the jump on you.”

“I can’t believe you of all people are asking me what I’m thinking.  You were there, Winky.  You saw almost everything.”

“Tell me what I missed.  Tell me what happened to you.”

I swallowed hard, battling tears.  I wanted to tell her.  I felt like I was all alone with this nightmare replaying in my mind.  Maybe if I can get it out of my mouth, I could get it out of my head.  I took a big breath and let it out, trying to calm myself before I started telling her my story.

“I was in that pool house with Loco … Dave.  The leader of the canners.  And there was this great kid in there.  Julio.  He had one leg left, and that was it.”  I cleared my throat once to keep the tears at bay.  “He was a soccer star and had a cute girlfriend.  He told me about her.  And then Loco attacked me and I ended up stabbing that disgusting cannibal in the neck, which is way more disgusting than it looks in the movies.  And right after I left, Julio kicked that grenade right at Loco and blew the place up.”

“Wow.  How’d Julio do that when he only had one leg left?”

I noticed the people around us had gone silent.  My story had them all frozen in place, listening.

“It dropped out of the back of my pants and rolled over by him.  And when I fell down nearby, he told me to balance it on the top of his foot.  So I pulled the pin and did it.”

“I can’t believe it didn’t just fall off,” said Winky, her voice sounding reverent.

“He had his foot bent up, like he said he did with hacky sacks or something.  He held it there tight, even after I’d pulled the pin.  I … I didn’t know what else to do.  I didn’t want to kill him, but he kept saying he wanted to go…”  A loud sob escaped my throat.  I covered my face with my good arm.

Winky stroked my arm as it rested on my face.  “Shhh, don’t cry about it.  Peter told us the kids who were left would never have made it.”

LaShay came over and sat down by my feet.  “Julio was done-for, girl.  He had serious gangrene all up in his legs and stuff.  He was dyin’.  I’m surprised he was able to do as much as he did.  You must have inspired him or somethin’.”

“He was telling me how happy he was to be able see his girlfriend again,” I said through my tears.  “She had died already.”

“Yasmine.  He talked about her a lot,” said LaShay.  “Lucky girl.  Julio was a great guy.  What they did to him … evil.  Shameful.  But what you did, girl, was the right thing to do.  Ain’t nobody who was there gonna say any different.  Those killers had it coming to them.  If I coulda shoved that grenade down their throats myself, I would’ve.  Every single one of ‘em was a demon straight from hell.”

I pulled my arm away from my face, my tears stopped for the moment.  “What about that kid Sean?  He didn’t seem like he was totally in with them.” I remembered his conversation with LaShay that I’d overheard when I was hiding in a nearby tree with Winky.

“Sean?  Yeah, I call that demon Doctor Mengele.  You know, like Hitler’s doctor who did all those nasty experiments on kids?”  She shook her head.  “He ain’t no better than the rest of ‘em.  He coulda tried to break us free, just like you did, but he didn’t.  Nope.  He just kept cleanin’ our wounds, stitchin’ us up, keepin’ the meat cold for the kid-eaters.  Huh-uh.  No, ma’am.  Sean is evil.  There ain’t no excuse for what he did.”

“I heard him say that they sicced the dogs on him,” said Winky.  “I think he tried to escape once, right?”

“Yeah, that’s true.  He did try to escape, to save his own ass, not anyone else’s.  And the demons sent them dogs, Duke and Dracula after his sorry ass, too.  Mangled the hell outta his arm and one of his legs.  I was glad when I saw it.  I wished they’d gotten his throat instead.”

“Would you have escaped if you could?” asked Winky.

“Hells yeah.  What?  You think I’m stupid?”  She was obviously offended by the question.

“I was just wondering, because you’re coming down kinda hard on that guy Sean when he did the same thing I would have done … and you too, from what you just said.”

LaShay let out a burst of frustrated air.  “Ssssshhhhh.  It ain’t like that.  Don’t be twistin’ my words all up.  You know what I meant.”  She got up to leave.  “I can promise you one thing.  No matter what you just said, if I see his face anywhere around here, I’m gonna blow it off for him.  Then I’m gonna feed what’s left to the gators.”  She strode out of the hut, her bandaged half-arm held out to the side for balance as she picked her way over the ground of lumpy roots and rotted earth.

“Well, I guess she told me,” said Winky, smiling.

I half-smiled back.  “She’s probably right, you know.  If that guy is ever stupid enough to show his face, I don’t think he’ll survive it.  No matter what we saw or heard, he was there with them … those canners.  He’s one of them, even if he wasn’t totally into the craziness.”

Winky shrugged.  “It’s not all that black and white to me, but whatever.  We need to get you better.  So is that what’s bothering you so much?  That Julio kid and killing Loco?”

I sighed.  “Yes and no, Doctor Winky, psychoanalyst.”

She bowed her head slightly at me, but said nothing.

“I’m mostly upset about other things.  Yes, I’m feeling sick about taking someone’s life.  I thought I’d be okay with it, since the guy was evil.  But imagining it and doing it are totally different things.  I just didn’t realize how different until now.”

I put my hand up to my eyes, covering them as I squeezed my temples, trying to block visions of Bodo’s face from my mind.  “And we left Bodo behind,” I whispered hoarsely.  “I can’t get over that.  I need to know what happened to him.”

Winky leaned over and whispered near my ear.  “I’ll make you a deal.  You get better, and I’ll go back with you and see what we can find.”

I pulled my hand away from my face and looked at her in shock.  That she would offer was one thing, but the fact that her face and tone were dead serious and that she was actually going to do it, was nothing short of amazing.  Friends this loyal didn’t come around very often.  Having Coli around made it even easier to appreciate what Winky was offering me.

“You’d do that?  Why?”

She shrugged.  “You’re part of our tribe now.  Family does what family needs done.”

“It’s not that simple,” I said, knowing as she spoke that neither Kowi nor Trip would allow us to go back.  It was too risky.

“Sure it is.  Bodo needs to be found.  There’s no one more motivated or qualified to do that than you and me.”

I winced.  “How’s that?  I’ve been on one mission and I’m still in the clinic while everyone else is acting like life’s all back to normal.  My qualifications seem pretty sucky.”

“First of all, you suffered more losses than anyone.  You’ve lost the love of your life, right?  And you watched a great kid kill himself to save you.  Not to mention, you killed a guy with your bare hands, which is different than shooting someone, I think.”

I started to cry again, silently.

“But nothing changes the fact that no one can kick canner butt like you.  And no one can track like me.  So together, we make the perfect Bodo rescue team.”

My mind was swirling around with questions and the possible implications of what she was saying.  My tears stopped and I felt energized for the first time since this whole crapstorm began.  The sudden mood swings were making me feel unbalanced, but I kept talking anyway.

“You’re serious?  That you and I could go back there and find him?”

“Or what came of him.  I’m not promising we’ll find him alive.”  She reached over and took my good hand.  “I don’t mean to be harsh, but he could be dead.  But at least we’ll know.  I’ll do my best to find answers with you.”

“Who else will go with us?”

“No one,” she said quietly.  “I’m pretty sure Trip and Kowi will say no if they know about it.  So we do this on our own.  No Peter, either.  No offense, but he’s pretty useless in battle.”

I smiled, feeling a sliver of happiness make its way into my heart.  “He made it out without a scratch.”

“Well, you missed the bruise on his jaw.  He got punched by a canner after he tried to palm thrust him or something, remember?”

I thought back to my tree-surveillance and remembered something happening like that.  “Oh, yeah.  Poor guy.”

“Yeah, well, he’s got heart, I’ll give him that much.  But I think he’d be more of a liability than anything else.”

“Who’d be a liability?  For what?” came Peter’s voice.  He walked up and stood near my head.

“Nobody you know,” said Winky.  “Did you come to assist?”

“Oh, heck no.  That’s gross.  I’m just here to tell Bryn that Kowi wants to see her.”

“Why can’t he come over to me?” I asked.  It’s not that I was refusing to see him, but I couldn’t even make it to the bathroom without passing out.

“He’s injured,” was all Peter would say before walking out.

“What’s up with Kowi?” I asked.

Winky got up and came back with a bottle of water and a bowl.  She put the bowl on the floor and leaned my arm over the bed, rinsing the wound and letting it drain down.  I winced at the stinging pain.

“He got sliced in the gut.  It’s pretty bad.  I think he’s going to be okay, but he’s staying in the clinic so we can keep an eye on him.  It’s been hard keeping him in bed, so we don’t want to encourage him getting up too much.”  She patted down my wound and lifted it up for closer inspection.  “You can go see him when I’m done here.”

Some stitches were still in place and others were hanging by torn skin.  The cut was about six inches long and deep enough to make me feel woozy looking at it.  It was still bleeding, and the skin around it was an angry red.

“You really did a number on this thing,” said Winky, frowning.  “The scar was going to be so nice, too.”  She sighed in defeat.  “Not anymore.”

“Sorry.”

“It just gives me more practice,” she said, smiling.  “Not that you’re going to be happy about that.  We can’t waste pain killers on people who ask for their injuries.”

I rolled my eyes.  “Great.  Now I have another reason to hate Coli.”

“She’s not that bad, you know,” said Winky, threading a needle with what looked like regular button thread.  She ran a piece of wet cotton over it before poising the needle over my arm.

“What is that?  Shirt thread?”

“Yeah.  It’s all we have.  I just sterilized it.  It’ll work.”

“It’s gonna hurt like hell when you take the stitches out,” I said.

“Yep.”

“What about Kowi?  I hope you didn’t use this crap on him.”

“We didn’t.”  She smiled.  “He got the good stuff.”

“Thanks,” I said, rolling my eyes.  I was feeling totally expendable.

“No offense.  But a cut to the gut is more serious than one to the arm.  At least this one is.  So we have to save our surgical supplies for the most serious stuff.”

I waved her off.  “No, no, I understand.  I’m just giving you a hard time.  Go ahead.  Do your worst.”  I leaned back and looked up at the roof of the hut, gritting my teeth as I waited for the pain.

“Here,” she said, holding a thick piece of leather up to my mouth.  “Bite on this.”

I frowned at her.  “Are you serious?  You might as well give me a bullet.”

“Can’t waste the ammo.  Just bite the leather instead.”  I swear she almost laughed.  I was glad someone was enjoying herself.

I took the leather in my teeth and tried to talk around it, but I soon gave up since Winky was so focused on stitching me up that she ignored me anyway.

The pain began immediately and was much stronger than I had anticipated.  The idea of conversing went out the window as I concentrated all my energy on not shrieking in pain.  I wasn’t able to keep all the shouts down inside, but at least they were muffled by the leather.

Twenty or so minutes later she was done and gone.  I rested on my pallet, overwhelmed by the throbbing pain coming from my flaming arm.  I’d started sweating about two minutes into the process and was soaked now.

The smoke from the mosquito sticks was making me dizzy and sick, so I turned my head, trying to find some fresh air.  My eyes locked on the strong leg that stood by my bedside.  I looked up to see who was visiting.

Paci was standing by my bed, a bottle of water in his hand.  “Hey,” he said, looking intently at my face.  “Feel better?”

“No.  I feel worse, actually,” I said weakly.  I couldn’t for the life of me sound as strong as I felt in my brain now, knowing I had a plan.  My body was still too wasted to perform, but my mind was getting stronger by the second.  I struggled to sit up, but Paci sat down on the edge of my pallet and pushed me back.

“Stay.  I just came to see how you were and to bring you some water.  Here … drink.”  He pushed the bottle into my good hand, pausing to unscrew the cap for me.

I took a long sip and then dropped my head back, balancing the bottle on my stomach.

“So, how’s your leg?” I asked.

He glanced down at it.  “It’s okay.  The bullet went through the meat.  I’m going to be fine.”

“What about Kowi?”

“He’s going to be okay, I think.  He’s too stubborn to get sick over it.”

We both smiled.

“So …,” started Paci, clearly a little uncomfortable.  “You … uh … had some issues with Coli.  What’s that all about?”

“Do you really have to ask?” I said, rolling my eyes.

“She is a pain in the butt, but I got the impression it was more than that.”

It was more than that, but I wasn’t sure he was the one to be my confessor.  Something in his eyes, in his body language, made me nervous.  He reminded me of Bodo in some ways, and that made me feel both guilty and sad.

“It’s nothing.  Boring girl stuff.”

Paci stared at me for a few seconds, before reaching over to squeeze my shoulder.  “Okay.  Well, I’m here for ya if you need to talk.  I won’t tell anyone anything you say, just so you know.”

“Thanks, Paci.  I appreciate that.”

“Everyone needs someone to confide in,” he said mysteriously.

I should have said nothing, but I couldn’t just let it hang like that.  “Who’s your confessor?”

He shrugged.  “I don’t have one.”

He’d been so nice to me from day one, even though he’d followed Kowi’s orders to grab me when he first met me.  I’d seen him fight enough times to come to the conclusion that even then, he’d held back and not used everything he had against me.  He was always standing around, smiling, interjecting humor when things got too intense.  All of this made it impossible for me not to respond.

“You can confide in me if you need someone.  I won’t share either.”

He smiled.  “Thanks, Bryn.  Maybe someday I will.”  He stood up, my eyes following him automatically.   “Keep the water.  I’ll come see you at dinner.”

“Okay, thanks,” I said, tipping the bottle towards him before taking another sip.  He walked away before I was finished.

I swallowed, thinking about what had just transpired, letting the water bottle rest beside me.  Paci was a good guy, maybe even a good friend.  It was hard to believe he didn’t have anyone he could talk to; he was a pretty popular guy, always laughing and joking around with everyone.  He was cute, too … really cute.  And I’d seen lots of the girls watching him and acting very interested.  But I also knew that sometimes it was hard to open up, and when you found someone you could do that with, it felt like coming home in a way - to a safe place.

I wanted to be that for Paci, but a part of me felt like I’d be cheating on Bodo.  But I told myself that was stupid, because there was nothing wrong with talking to someone, and I was going to go find Bodo soon anyway.

My mind drifted to his rescue, but my plans were interrupted by Peter who’d arrived again to boss me around, apparently.

“Finish that water and then come on.  Kowi wants to see you.”

I sat up with the plan to gulp the rest of the water down, raising the bottle partway to my lips, when the world started to go faint, my vision narrowing down to a tunnel of grayness in front of me.

I heard Peter say, “You don’t look so good…,” and then a buzzing filled my ears.  The tunnel shut down completely and everything went black.

***

I woke up in my hut, Peter and Buster asleep at my side.  As soon as I moved, Peter sat up quickly, his hair sticking out all over the place.

“What?  Who? …”  He looked around, lost in his dream world for a few seconds until he laid eyes on me.  “Oh.  Hey, Bryn.  Do you need anything?”

“Water?” I asked, my tongue nearly sticking to the roof of my mouth.

Peter reached over and grabbed the bottle next to him.  “Here.  I guess I fell down on the job.  I was supposed to wake you up in the middle of the night and make you drink this.”

I guzzled the entire bottle and burped when I was done.

Peter curled his lip in disgust but said nothing.  I was probably getting a pass since I was on the injured list.  I wondered what else I could get away with.

“What time is it?”  My watch had disappeared somewhere between punching a canner in the face and being here on the mattress with Buster licking my fingers.  I couldn’t remember the last time I saw it on my wrist.  “Ew, Buster, get away.”  I shoved him over onto Peter’s mattress, but he was back in half a second, deciding that me pushing him away meant I wanted more attention from him, not less.

“It’s about seven in the morning,” answered Peter, enjoying Buster’s torture of me.

Buster was angling for a chin lick, I could tell by the way he was staring at me while his butt wiggled with frantic tail wagging.

“No, Buster!  No lick!”

He dove at me and got one in, practically knocking me over in his enthusiasm.

I pushed him away again and held my hand out to stop him from getting close.  “I swear to God, that dog knows when I’m weak and can’t fight him off.”  I waited for him to walk away and then wiped his stinky drool from my face.  “I need some bleach or something.  I probably have an amoeba on my chin right now.”

“An amoeba?  From Buster?  Not likely.  More like e-coli.”

“Are you serious?”  Now all I could think about were the possible flecks of poo on my face.  I scrubbed my chin harder.

“No, I’m not serious, dope.  There’s nothing on your face that isn’t on every other square inch of your body right now.  I’ll help you go take a shower in a minute.  Let me just get some food in you, first.”  Peter left the sleeping area and came back with a basket that had been sitting on the shelves.  “Eat this stuff.  Then we’ll get up and get you clean and destinkified.”

I picked through the basket, not finding anything appealing; but my growling stomach would not be ignored, and the look on Peter’s face told me he wouldn’t be either, so I took out a piece of stale bread and chewed on a bite of it.

“So what happened?  One minute I was getting up to talk to Kowi, and the next I’m cuddled up next to you and the lick master here in the hut.”

“You passed out.  You’ve lost quite a bit of blood and you were just … I don’t know.  Stressed.”  He avoided talking about the reason for my stress.

“Any news?” I asked, chewing on my bread, not looking directly at Peter.  “About anything … or anyone?”

“No.  No news about Bodo.”

I was going to declare my intentions to go after him, but I stopped myself.  Peter wasn’t going to be invited, and I could totally see him tattling on me when he found out he was being left behind.  I changed the subject.  “So what does Kowi want to talk to me about?”

“I’m not sure.  Maybe next steps.”

“Next steps?”  Hopefully they’re not the next steps of us being kicked out of the swamp.

“Yeah.  We didn’t kill all the canners.  Some of them got away.”

My eyes widened.  “Does he want to go after them?”

Peter shrugged.  “I don’t know.  I’m just speculating.  I have no idea why he wants to talk to you or what everyone is thinking.  I’m not in the loop.”

“You don’t sound upset about that.”

“I’m not.  I just want to live here, make some cloth, bake some bread, cook some stuff, and never see another canner for as long as I live - which I hope is a very long time.”  Peter pulled Buster into his lap, allowing him to lick his hand to death.  “And to be honest, I’m not all that crazy about you going out after anyone, either.  I think it’s a bad idea.”

Good thing I didn’t tell him about my Bodo plan.  “Why?” I sat up straighter and picked some more food out of the basket.  My appetite was waking up.

“Because.  We’re never going to be able to kill all of them, and every time we piss some of them off, there’ll be more of them out there wanting to come after us.  We don’t need enemies.”

“You’re right about that.  We just need to be invisible.  But that’s not very realistic, is it?”

Peter sighed.  “I guess not.”  He got up and went over to the pantry, absently moving things around.  “I can dream, though, right?”

“Yeah, you can dream.  Maybe it’ll give us something to shoot for.”

“Well, I know you’re happy here and all.  And as far as invisibility is concerned, it’s nearly ideal. But my idea of the perfect home is not a place filled with mosquitoes, snakes, and gators.”  He emphasized his point by smacking his arm and flicking off the dead, smooshed body of one of the many blood-sucking insects that plagued us night and day.

“I hear ya.  If you can think of something better, feel free to share.  This is the best I could come up with.”

Peter came back to join me, holding his hands out to help me up.  “I’m not really complaining.  Just whining a little.  I’m allowed to do that.”

“Yep, you are.  Where are we going?” I asked, taking his hands and using them to stand up.  I didn’t let go until the dizziness subsided.

“To the bathroom and the showers.  Ready?”

I nodded.  “Yeah.  Just hand me another hunk of that disgusting bread.”

Peter bent down and grabbed it, handing it to me and holding out his elbow.  “M’ lady?”  He was waiting for me to put my hand in the crook of his arm.

“Okaaaay,” I said, doing as expected, smiling at how goofy I knew we looked.

I had to admit, though - it was easier walking a straight line with Peter there to guide me.  We made our way slowly to the outhouse path, with me only tripping once.  I got my business done, without fainting on the toilet, pants down around my ankles, so I considered it a big success.

Our next stop was the shower where I struggled but eventually was able to wash most of the grime off my body.  Peter took my bandages off for me and gave me strict instructions to clean the wound thoroughly.

The stitches were ugly and the skin around them looked nasty.  Winky was right - I was going to have a terrible scar.  But I could tell that the edges of the injury had already started to connect, and so far, I didn’t have any signs of infection.

I started to wonder what Bodo might think about my new scar, but I stopped myself.  I’d cried enough tears for a while … maybe for a lifetime.  I was done with sadness and ready to move on to hope.  Until I saw evidence of his dead body, I was going to assume he was alive and out there somewhere for me to find.

I came out from behind the curtain almost feeling like a new person.  I was clean, my arm was healing, and I had a mission.  Plus, I’d killed a monster that had haunted my nightmares for weeks on end, so that was enough to make me ready to at least face the day and find out what Kowi wanted from me.

“Come on, Peter.  Let’s go find out what Kowi’s deal is.”

“Okee dokee.  Come on, Buster!  Let’s go see the boss!  Yes, yes, yes!” He was baby-talking now.  “The bossy wossy.  The chiefy weefy…”

I smiled, watching the two of them act like complete idiots.  Life did not totally suck, and I refused to wallow in sorrow anymore until I knew for sure that I had a reason to.

Chapter Two

PETER AND I ENTERED THE clinic and went to Kowi’s bedside.  We found him propped up, reading a book.  As we got closer, I realized it was George’s journal.  I bit back the scolding that was on the tip of my tongue.  He had to be bored out of his mind in here, so I could hardly blame him for wanting some good reading material.  I still hadn’t read everything in it, probably because every page was worth studying.

“Oh, hey.”  Kowi held up the book.  “Borrowed the journal.  Hope that’s okay.”

“No problem,” I said, trying to keep my eyes off the bandage that was on his abdomen.  There was some blood seeping through.  “How are you feeling?”

“Better, actually.”  He looked down at his wound.  “If the damn thing would quit leaking, I’d feel a little more comfortable about saying that, though.”

“That’s normal,” said Celia, coming in to join us.  “Hey, Bryn … Peter.  What’s up?”

“Just coming by for a visit,” said Peter.  “How are you doing?”

Celia lifted up her half-arm which was still bandaged.  She seemed to be more comfortable moving it around now, when before she had always kept it glued to her side.  “As good as I can be, I guess.”  She turned her attention to Kowi.  “Here.  Take this.”  She handed him a pill and a bottle of water.  “Drink the whole thing.”

“Yes, boss,” he said, before throwing the pill into his mouth and gulping down the entire bottle.  He handed it back to her.  “There you go.  Ready to poke and prod now?”

She scowled at him.  “I’ll do that later, after they leave.”  She walked away to tend to another patient.

“What are they poking you for?” asked Peter, probably wondering like me if they were doing some weird-ass medicine man stuff on him.

“Just redoing the bandages, seeing if there’s any pus in there.”

Peter grimaced.  “Sorry I asked.”

Kowi smiled.  “Hey, I’m not complaining.  Being poked is better than the alternative.”

“Not being poked?” I asked.

He laughed.  “No.  Being too dead to bother poking.”  Then his smile disappeared.  “Oh, crap.  Sorry, Bryn.  I didn’t … mean anything by it.”

I grinned madly at him.  “No offense.”

Kowi frowned at me and then looked at Peter.

Peter was staring at me like I’d lost my mind.

“Stop looking at me like that.  Bodo’s not dead.  I’d know it if he were.”

Peter’s eyes got wide but he said nothing.

Kowi cleared his throat but otherwise remained quiet.

An uncomfortable silence fell over us, so I said the first thing that came to mind, trying to change the subject.  “So … canners.  Some escaped …”

Kowi glanced down at the journal he held in his hand and said, “Yeah.”  He looked back up.  “I’ve been reading some stuff in here, and I wanted to talk to you and Trip about it.”

“Why me?” I asked.

“Because I trust you to make good decisions for our welfare.  You know how to fight better than any of us, and it’s always going to fall to you to make us ready for whatever comes.”

I felt proud and pressured at the same time.  It brought my happiness level down several notches.

Peter slung his arm across my shoulders.  “Bryn’s totally there for you guys, just like I am.  But she needs time to recover.  She’s been through a lot.”

“We all have.  I’m not saying she needs to do anything until she’s ready.  But I’m worried those canners who got away will try and find us.”

“How will they?  They don’t even know where we came from,” said Peter.

“We were all wearing moccasins and warpaint.  It’s no mystery most of us are Native Americans.  We can hardly hide that from anyone.  And LaShay told us they have spies all over those neighborhoods, and most of them lived in the area before everything fell apart, so they know about the Miccosukee village.  They probably saw us pulling up the minute we came near.  It wouldn’t take long to put it all together with the direction we came from.”

“Shit,” I said, the weight of his words sinking in.  Our sanctuary has been compromised.  “I’m so sorry.”  I couldn’t think of anything else to say.  It felt like it was all my doing.

“It’s not your fault, so why are you apologizing?” said Kowi, sounding angry.

“Because it feels like my fault, that’s why.”

“So, you brought the canners to the area and forced them to hunt kids?” he said sarcastically.

“No.  But your lives were fine.  Everything was going well and then we showed up and the shit hit the fan.”

“Coincidence.  Just an unlucky coincidence.”

I heard a hiss of breath behind me and turned to find Coli standing there, scowling.

“Oh, Jesus,” I said, frustrated that I was going to have to deal with her.  “Are you following me now?”

“Coli, I’m not going to say it again,” warned Kowi.  “You either get over your shit or don’t come in here anymore.”

She glared at Kowi and then at me, looking like she was going to say something back; but instead she turned on her heel and left us.  We watched her back fade into the trees.

Kowi was shaking his head.  “I honestly don’t know what to do with her.”  He ran his fingers through his hair, making the tangles look even worse.  “One minute she’s smiling and the next she looks like she wants to rip my face off.”

I smiled.  “I thought I was the only one she showered with affection like that.”

Kowi laughed.  “Hardly.  Dealing with her mood swings is like being on an emotional roller coaster.”

“Without a seatbelt,” added Peter.

Kowi smiled but didn’t comment.  “So, back to the journal.”  He tapped it a few times on his lap.  “I’m thinking we need to shore up our defenses.  That’s how George put it.”

“In what way?  And what defenses, exactly?” asked Peter.

“Well, to be honest, we don’t really have any defenses other than the natural ones like gators and stuff.  So we need to put something together and try to anticipate what our enemy … the canners … might try to do.”

My mind was racing with the possibilities, both of attack and defense.  “We really could do something, I’m sure.  To make it more difficult for them to get too close.”

“That’s what I was thinking.  So when do you think we can start working on it?”

I held up my arm.  “Well, I’m a little out of commission for building stuff, but I’m okay to discuss and plan.”

“So long as you don’t overdo it,” said Peter.  He looked at Kowi.  “She passed out on the toilet yesterday.”

I shoved Peter with my good arm.  “Shut up, Peter!”

Kowi laughed.  “I heard.”

I rolled my eyes.  “Oh great.  Paci’s gonna get punched.”

“No,” said Kowi, shaking his head, “it wasn’t Paci.”

I put my good hand on my hip.  “Who was it, then?”

Kowi lifted up an eyebrow but said nothing.

“Oh, right.  Yeah.  Roller coaster whacko.”

“Hey,” said Kowi, “try not to forget she’s my girlfriend.”

“Fine.  Sorry.  Whatever.  She’s not the nicest girl in the world, though.  You can’t blame me for being pissed at her.”

“No, I don’t blame you.  But Coli’s a complicated person.  She’s just … a little lost right now.”

“I can help her find herself …,” I said, thinking about doing it with a nice upper cut to the jaw.

“I’m sure she’ll do it on her own, eventually.  But thanks for the offer,” said Kowi, winking at me.

“So where’s Trip?” I asked, looking around the clinic.  I knew he’d been hurt but hadn’t seen him since we got back.

“I don’t know,” said Kowi.  “Haven’t seen him.”

“He’s back at his hut,” said Peter.  “Do you want him to come by?  I’m going to see him later.”

I looked at Peter confused.  How come I didn’t know he was taking care of Trip?  And what’s that all about, anyway?

“Yeah,” said Kowi.  “Tell him to come see me.  I want to be sure he’s okay with all this.  If he is, we can start planning tomorrow.  I’m sure Nurse Coli will tell me I can’t do anything else today after this meeting.”

“Sounds lame,” I said.

“She’s just looking out for me,” he said, shrugging.  He obviously didn’t care she was smothering him.

Good for them.  Even wackos need love.  “Alright, so I’ll see you later.”  I held my hand out for a fist bump and Kowi joined in.  Peter tried but fumbled around helplessly, so I just grabbed him in a hug before releasing him and walking out of the hut.  “I’ll see you tomorrow morning,” I shouted over my shoulder.  “Come on, Buster.  Let’s go take a walk,” I said, patting my leg to get his attention.

“Where are you going?” yelled Peter.

“Nowhere!” I said, lying my butt off.  “I’ll see you at lunch.”

“Okay.  Later.”  Peter left going in the opposite direction.

I practiced my quiet walking techniques as I headed out to the clearing where I’d first seen Bodo with Nina.  I was going to give the harmonica in my pocket a try, and see if I could call any scary-looking pterodactyls over to me.

The leaves crunched under my feet and I sighed, knowing that despite my best efforts, I still sounded like a herd of pachyderms moving through the brush.

***

I reached the clearing where I’d seen Bodo working with Nina a couple times.  There were gators lazing around near the banks and some long-legged birds out in the water, wading around looking for fish; but there were no big hawks that I could see.  I wasn’t sure what I’d expected, really.  A part of me had hoped to see her and another part didn’t really want that.  Maybe if she wasn’t here it meant she was somewhere with Bodo, looking for a way to come home.

I took my shirt off and wrapped it around my uninjured forearm.  Just in case Nina did come, I didn’t want her to tear my skin apart.  I wasn’t sure if the shirt would be enough, but I figured it was better than nothing.

I pulled the harmonica out of my pocket and stared at it for a few seconds.  It was the first time I’d really examined it since Winky had handed it to me.  Bodo had always kept it in his pocket, so I’d never really gotten a good look at it.  I turned it over, noticing a scrolling design on both sides.  It was like flowers and thorns mixed together with some stylized leaves.

The instrument was heavy, much more so than the few toy harmonicas I’d had in my lifetime.  A scratch that looked different than the scrolling on one side caught my eye.  I brought it up closer to my face to see what it was, and was almost sorry that I had, once I realized what I was looking at.  Bodo had etched a small heart with my name next to it into the metal.

My heart squeezed uncomfortably in my chest and my throat got sore with unshed tears.  I couldn’t look at it anymore or think about what it meant, so I lifted the instrument to my lips and blew on it.

One clear note came out and echoed eerily across the swamp.

A few of the nearby birds flew away but none of the gators even flinched.  No hawks appeared on the horizon.  I stared up into the sky, looking for a tiny brown shape that might be coming toward me, getting bigger and bigger as it got closer, but there was nothing above me but blue sky and some wispy white clouds.  I sighed.  At least the rain had finally let up.

I blew on the harmonica a few more times, using different notes and even trying to make a tune out of a few of them, but Nina never showed up.  Adding insult to injury, I was reminded once again that I have zero musical talent, even on an instrument that had only ten holes to blow into and no place to put fingers.

I looked down again at my name and the heart scratched into the metal and rubbed it, enjoying the feel of its uneven surface under my finger.  Bodo had done this with his own hand at some point.  I wondered when.  Was it before he told me he loved me or after?  Did he do it after I knew about Nina or before?  What does it even matter?  He loved me, he told me, and now I have to go find him so I can tell him back.

It was that simple for me.  I couldn’t have Bodo out there in the world somewhere not knowing how I felt.  If he was dead, well, then he already knew, and I was going to have to be okay with that.  But until I knew that he knew how I felt, I wasn’t going to rest.

***

Lunch was filled with talk of setting up our defenses.  Paci and Fohi had designated themselves as leaders of the defense team.  Rob and Jeremy joined in, okay in theory with letting the other two call the shots.  I got the impression they were all just excited about the idea of setting boobytraps for canners.

“Okay, so we need to map out the traps and make sure everyone knows where they are,” said Paci.

“Yeah.  If anyone we like goes into any of them, I’m gonna feel like crap,” said Fohi.

I frowned.  “Are they going to be death traps?  I thought you were just digging some holes or something.”

Fohi smiled.  “Yeah … holes with sharpened sticks in the bottom, maybe.” He snickered.

I flinched at his bloodlust.  “Geez, Fohi.  Lighten up a little, would ya?”

He frowned at me.  “Why?  Do you think the canners will lighten up on us?”

Jeremy joined him, mocking me.  “Yeah, right.”  His voice went up an octave.  “Excuse me, indian boys?  Do you mind if we come into your swamp for a little visit?”  He frowned at me.  “It’s gonna be more like, ‘Hello, assholes.  Here’s a bullet for your face.  Now give me your kidney.  I’m hungry.’”

I couldn’t help but laugh.  “Yeah, okay, so they’re not nice guys.  I’m just saying, if a good guy does end up falling in and getting killed, you’re gonna feel bad.  Just like Fohi said.”

Fohi jumped in enthusiastically.  “No.  I change my mind.  Anyone who’s stupid enough to fall into a trap we tell them about, deserves what they get.  BAM.  Darwin award winner.”

“What if someone stumbles into it at night?”

“Darwin award.”  Fohi nodded his head.

“What if someone’s being chased by a canner and forgets where a trap is because they’re panicking?”

“Hopefully they’ll both get killed,” said Jeremy.

Fohi looked a little worried.

Rob held up his hands.  “Okay, so it’s not perfect.  We’ll do whatever we can to make sure the good guys aren’t caught in any traps.  But maybe Bryn has a point.  Not all of our traps have to be deadly.  Some can just … immobilize.”

Paci looked right at me when he said, “So if we catch a canner in a hole, are you going to be able to execute him later?”

Everyone got quiet, waiting for my answer.

I stared back at him. “Why is this all on me?  Who says I’m the executioner?”

He shrugged.  “Just seemed like you didn’t do all that well with the canners you already killed.  Now you’re talking about having to kill more, instead of letting them kill themselves in a trap.  I’m just asking …”

I didn’t like being pushed into a corner like this, and least of all by Paci.  I thought he was my friend.  I scowled back at him, refusing to answer.  I shoved a piece of fruit in my mouth instead.

“Whatever.  I say we figure out the best places to put them first, and then we can figure out which type of trap would work best.  It’s going to depend on the landscape and stuff,” said Rob.

“Someone’s gotta do a map of this place,” said Jeremy.

“And someone has to be sure the bad guys never get their hands on it,” said Peter, sitting down next to me.

“Where’ve you been?” I asked in a low tone so no one else would hear.

“Out.  Somewhere.”

I narrowed my eyes at him.  “Out somewhere where?”

“Out somewhere.  That’s where.”  Peter picked up a hunk of bread and shoved it in his mouth, acting like he couldn’t talk anymore because his mouth was too full.

“You know … you’re not fooling me for one second.  You’re hiding something from me, and I’m going to find out what it is.”

Peter gave me a sassy look, but didn’t respond.  He handed a hunk of meat to Buster who laid down in front of us with it between his paws, pulling bits of it off and chewing away.  If a dog could smile, Buster would be grinning his butt off.  He stopped every once in a while to look at us, his tongue hanging out.

“Buster, you’re a goof, just like Peter,” I said.  The dog started to get up, thinking I wanted to play, but I pushed him back down. “No, stay.  Eat your brontosaurus.”  I turned my attention back to Peter.  “I can’t believe you’re keeping secrets from me.  That’s so rude.  I’m injured, you know.”  I held up my bandaged arm, hoping it would earn me some pity points and make him feel guilty.

“I’m not keeping secrets.  Not really.”

“Lie.”

“No, not really.”

I sighed.  “Peter.  I know when you’re lying.  You can’t just do it.  You have to say something like ‘not really’ to hide it.  That’s your guilty conscience talking.”  I popped a nut into my mouth and nearly gagged when it hit the back of my throat.

Peter whacked me on the back a few times.  “Okay, Sherlock.  You win.  I’m hiding big secrets.”  He acted like he was patronizing me, but I could tell by the way he was fidgeting with his basket that he was up to something.

“Listen, Peter.  I’ve had lessons in sneaking.  I can follow you whenever I want to.  So maybe it would be better for everyone involved if you just spilled your guts now.”

Peter smiled.  “I’ve seen you try to sneak before … or rather, I should say I’ve heard you try and sneak before.  Your threat doesn’t scare me.  It amuses me, but it doesn’t scare me.”

“Shut up.  I can too sneak if I really want to.”

“Uhhh…no you cant.”

“Bet me.”

“No thanks.  I don’t want to take your money.”

“I don’t have any money.”

“Okay, then, I don’t want to take your harmonica.”

I frowned at him.  “It’s not for sale.”

“If you bet me, it is.”

I sighed.  Peter was impossible to argue with these days.  “What’s gotten into you lately, huh?  You’re acting all … bossy and stuff.”

“I was always bossy.  You just never noticed.”

I shook my head.  “Nope.  Not this bossy.”  I shook my finger at him.  “But don’t you worry, little camper.  I’m gonna find out your big secret and then I’m going to tell the whooooole world.  Everyone’s gonna know it.”

Peter shrugged.  “Be my guest.”

I finished my meal in silence, only half listening to the awesome or not so awesome traps Paci and his buddies were planning to set out in the swamp, in the areas between the canoe rental place and here.  I was more focused on Peter’s secret life.  I couldn’t figure out what was going on with him, but I was going to, as soon as possible.  He was full of extra umph and sassiness, and I knew there had to be a reason for it, other than the fact that we’d just gone and kicked some canner butt.

Now I had two missions:  one was to find Bodo, the other was to find out what or who had lit a match under Peter’s butt and set him on fire.

***

It was several days later before I got my chance to sneak up on Peter and the little mystery he had going on.  I was lying on my mattress after lunch, preparing to take a nap, the heat making it too uncomfortable to do anything else.  I still wasn’t back to one hundred percent with my arm, even though it was healing well and the stitches were ready to be taken out.

“I’m going to take a nap,” I said, yawning for effect.

“Good.  You need it.  I’m just going to straighten up around here for a bit, then maybe I’ll join you.”

He messed around in the pantry for a while, but the whole time he was in there, I could tell his heart wasn’t into it.  Time to trick him into showing his hand.

My fake snoring campaign worked like a charm.  He fell for it -hook, line, and sinker, sneaking off within minutes.  I kept it up until I was sure he was far enough away not to hear it anymore, and then I jumped up, pulled my moccasins on in a flash.  Heading out to follow him, I realized soon enough he was taking the path that led to the shower.

I’d been practicing my sneaking all week, learning better which leaves to avoid stepping on and the spots where I was sure to make sounds everyone around me would hear without effort.  I wasn’t anywhere near as good as Coli, but I had improved.  Maybe instead of sounding like an elephant in the swamp, now I sounded like a gator instead.  I could live with that.

I couldn’t hear Peter in front of me, so I walked as fast as I could, not worrying about a little extra noise.  Eventually, I got to the edge of the trees that ringed the area near the shower.  I hated to think I’d wasted all this effort on Peter taking a shower.  Not only was that not interesting at all, it made me feel a little too much like a pervert for my liking.

But as soon as I got to a tree I could hide behind and stopped focusing so much attention on not making noise, I saw what I’d come for - and it wasn’t just Peter at the shower.  It was someone else, too, and everyone was staying clothed.

Who is that?  I squinted my eyes to see better, but couldn’t make him out.  It was a guy for sure - tall and broad-shouldered.  But he was in the trees on the other side of the shower, and it was too dark in there for me to see details.

Dammit.  Come out here so I can see you, Mystery Guy.  Peter was standing in front of him, and it looked like they were talking.  After a few seconds, Peter’s arms started flapping up and down; he was definitely angry.  He put his hands on his hips next and then crossed his arms over his chest a few seconds later.  Finally his arms dropped to his sides.  His head hung down and the other guy disappeared into the trees.

Peter was turning to come back, so I pushed off the tree and high-tailed it out of there.  I forgot all about trying to be sneaky and quiet in the swamp.  I didn’t sound like just one elephant, I sounded like ten of them, but I made it back in record time.  As soon as I was in the hut, I yanked my moccasins off and threw them on the ground, dropped down onto the mattress, and slammed my eyes shut.  I tried to even-out my breathing and snore a little bit to be more convincing.  It took several minutes for me to be able to calm my racing heart down, and by then Peter had reappeared.

“That’s a fake snore,” he said from the other room.

“Is not,” I said, keeping my eyes closed.  “People are trying to sleep over here.  Do you mind keeping the noise down?”

“Next time I leave, I’m taking your shoes with me.”

I reached my arm out blindly and pulled my moccasins into my side.  “You’ll have to fight me for them.”

Peter said nothing else and my mind raced.  Should I say something?  Should I ask him who that was?  What were they arguing about?  Is Peter sad or mad?

I had a hundred questions, but I didn’t ask him any of them because I felt a little bit guilty about spying on him.  I wasn’t sure if he knew what I had seen, but I decided it was better to wait and see what he said before I pushed him anymore.  Peter was my friend and I didn’t want to blow it.  Until now, I’d just kind of taken his companionship for granted, but now I was thinking that I could possibly do something stupid and ruin it for us.  And I really, really didn’t want to do that.

My mind spun with the possibilities of what I might have seen, but all it did was make me more tired.  Eventually the humidity and the mind-dizzying speculation won out, and I feel into a deep afternoon sleep, still gripping my boots to me tightly.  My last sensation was that of Peter coming over and dropping down onto the mattress beside me, jiggling my prone form in the process.

***

Peter was very subdued at dinner.  We were eating in the ceremonial hut with a few other people, but he refused to look at anything but Buster or his food.  I tried to crack some jokes but they weren’t working.

“What do you call a fake noodle?”

Peter sighed.  “I don’t know.  What?”

“An impasta.”  I nudged him.  “Get it?  An impasta?  That’s funny, right?”

“Sure.”  His response was without emotion of any kind.

“Okay, how about this one: What happens when it rains cats and dogs?”

“Can this be over now?”

“No.  Just answer me.  What happens?”

“I don’t know.  You get wet with dogs?  And cats?”

I shoved him again. “No, silly.  You step in poodles!  Get it?  Poodles?”  I grabbed him and hugged him close.  “Come on, Peter, that shit is funny.  You know it is.”

Buster got all excited over the hugging and started jumping up and down, trying to lick our faces.

“Go away, poodle!” I said, laughing at my own little private joke.  “Raining Busters!  It was raining gang busters and now there’re all these poodles all over the place!  Ha!  That’s funny!”

Peter shook his head at me.  “You’ve totally lost it, haven’t you?”  He stood up to leave, still shaking his head, not even a ghost of a smile on his face.

I just kept on grinning.  “Be careful, Peter.  There are poodles everywhere.  Don’t step in one.  Or on one.”  I fell back laughing at that one.

Buster took advantage of the situation and lick-attacked me, and I was too weak to fight him off.  “Buster, quit, you mangey mutt.  Ew, God, your breath is heinous.  Get away.”  I shoved him off me and tried to get up, but Buster had me down and he knew it.  My one good arm was no use against his devious plan to bathe me in saliva until I vomited from the stench and disgustingness of it.

Paci appeared out of nowhere and took mercy on me.  “Come here, you little turd.  Leave that poor girl alone.”  He grabbed Buster and picked him up, smart enough to keep the dog away from his face.  He held out a hand to me.  “Here.  Let me help you up.  You’re too vulnerable lying on the ground like that.”

Some of my humor faded.  I looked around to see who was watching us, but Peter didn’t seem to care that Paci was being nice to me and everyone else seem otherwise occupied in conversation.  I locked wrists with him and stood, taking a few moments to brush the dirt off my lap and legs.

Paci reached up and pulled a few leaves from my hair and motioned for me to turn around.

I turned and stood there embarrassed while he brushed my back off for me.  He stayed away from my butt, and for that I was glad.  I probably would have taken off sprinting if he’d so much as flicked it at that point.

I turned back in time to see Paci bending over and putting Buster on the ground.  He scratched him behind the ears a couple times before releasing him.  “Now go away and bother somebody else.”

Buster wasted no time following Paci’s orders, running over to the nearest girl with food in her hands.

“Doesn’t anyone ever feed that mutt?” I asked.

“Three times a day he gets choice bits from the kitchen.  I’ve seen him eat every last scrap, too.  I can’t believe he’s not twice his size by now,” said Paci.

“It’s all the nosing around and lick-attacks that he does that keep him so trim.”

The conversation stalled and I felt stupid, standing there talking about Buster.  And I was still worried someone was going to see me talking to Paci and call me a slut over it.  “Okay, well … thanks for the rescue.  I’ll see you later.”  I started to walk away, but Paci held his hand out, catching my arm.

“Do you mind if I walk with you?  I wanted to talk to you … about the defenses we’ve done so far.”

I hesitated only for a second.  “Okay.  Sure.”  I left the eating area used by the tribe and walked back towards my hut.  Paci followed until we were out of everyone’s earshot and then moved to walk next to me.  I couldn’t tell if he’d done that on purpose or not.  I felt weird thinking we were sneaking around.

“So, what’s up?” I asked.

“Nothing, really.  I just wanted to walk with you for a minute.  It seems like we’ve never really had a chance to talk.  You’re always around other people, and I’ve been busy setting up defenses with Jeremy and the other guys.”

I wanted to ask him a lot of questions, but no way was I going to say, Why do you want to talk to me now when you never did before?  It sounded too pitiful and could possibly be misconstrued as flirting.  I bent down and picked up a stick, flinging it into the trees.  I hated that Coli had caused me to question every single thing I did or said near a guy now.

“You’re mad.  Is it at me?” he asked.

I glanced at him and then faced forward again.  “No.  Not at you.”

“Who then?”

I sighed.  “It doesn’t matter.  Really, it doesn’t.  I’m over it.”

“Is it Coli?”

“How’d you know?”  I gave him a half-grin.

“She’s a pain in the ass to everyone.  But she saves her worst for you, for some reason.  What’d she say to you that day that you beat her down?”

“Ha!  I’d say she’s the one who did the beat down, not me.”

“Well, I saw her limping around the next day, so she didn’t walk away at a hundred percent.  What’d she say?”

I shrugged.  I really didn’t want to tell him, but it was eating away at me that she’d called me those names. Maybe Paci would have some insight and could make me understand it from a guy’s perspective.  I’d been too embarrassed to tell Peter about it, maybe because a piece of me had been afraid he’d agree with her.

“She called me a slut.”

Paci laughed really loud.  “She what?”  He stopped walking, his laughter disappearing in an instant, as soon as he saw my sad face.  “Seriously?  She called you a slut?”

I nodded my head.

“Oh, man.  If she were here right now …”

“Don’t worry about it.  I’m over it.”

“No, you’re not,” he said, all seriousness now, but the threats against Coli were fading away to reveal concern.  “I knew something was bothering you.  I knew it.”

“You watch me too closely.”  The minute the words were out of my mouth, I felt like a freak again.  He did watch me all the time, but I shouldn’t have said anything.  I didn’t want things to be awkward between us.

“Does it bother you?”

“It didn’t before.  But ever since Coli said that …” I shrugged.  It wasn’t his fault she’d called me a slut.

“Don’t let that rag decide how you feel about stuff, Bryn.  She’s not worth it, believe me.  She does nothing but cause trouble everywhere she goes.  Even her own brother was glad to see her leave the Creeks before.”

“That can’t be true,” I said, caught up in the gossip.  Who’s own family wouldn’t want them around in times like these?

“Serious as a heart attack.  She was constantly ragging on him, Trip, everyone over there.  She’s nothing but negative, angry, unhappy, bitchiness, twenty-four-seven.  Even her own boyfriend can’t stand her half the time.”

“That’s awful,” I said, now seeing her in a slightly different light.  I’d found love and acceptance here with these people, and they weren’t even my own family.  What would I do if the only family I had left rejected me when the world came to an end?

“Well, she’s brought it on herself.  She doesn’t even try to be nice anymore.  She was always a little bitchy in school and stuff.  But now?  Forget it.  She’s like hate personified.”

“Why, though?  I mean, what is her deal?  We all lost important people, not just her.”

Paci scratched the back of his head and rubbed it a little.  “Yeah, that’s the thing.  She didn’t have anyone other than Jeremy, and he’s still alive as you can see.  She was close to her grandma, but she was old, you know?  I mean, she was going to die soon anyway, even without the virus.  So Coli kinda lost less than anyone, but she’s handling it the worst.”

“Another mystery.”

“Yeah.  The swamp is full of ‘em.”  Paci reached out and playfully slapped me on the upper arm.  “So let’s get back to that slut thing.”

I frowned at him.  “No, let’s not.  It wasn’t one of my proudest moments.  I’d rather not re-live it, if you don’t mind.”

“I’m just curious why she called you that name in particular.  I mean, it’s not like you go around sleeping with guys here.  I’d know it if you did.”

I crossed my arms over my chest.  “Isn’t that kind of a personal question?”  I was trying not to smile, but it struck me as pretty ridiculous that someone would sleep around in the swamp.  It just seemed funny for some reason.

“Yeah, it’s personal.  But we’re friends, right?”  He took a step closer to me.  He wasn’t in my personal space yet, but I could tell by the look on his face that he wanted to be.

I took a step back.  “Yeah, Paci.  We’re friends.  But that’s it.  Right?”

He shrugged.  “Sure.  It’s whatever you want.  I’m here for ya.”

“Good.”  I uncrossed my arms.  “Come on.  I’m tired.  I’m going to go lie down and go to sleep.  Alone.”

“It’s only ten o’clock.”

“Yeah, well, I tire easily these days, I guess.  It’s too frigging hot to do anything else anyway.”

“We could go swimming,” he said, in a teasing voice.

“Yeah, right.  I love being gator bait.”

“We have a gator-free swimming hole.  Wait… haven’t you been there yet?”

I stopped and turned to face him.  “Are you messing with me right now?”

He put his hands up in surrender.  “No, I swear.  I wondered why I hadn’t seen you there before.”

My face fell as soon as I realized why he’d never seen me there before, and I started walking again.  “No, thanks.  Go have fun.  I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Paci rushed to catch up with me.  “Why are you so bummed all of a sudden?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“No.  Enlighten me.”  He grabbed my arm and made me stop walking.

“No one wants me there.  That’s why I haven’t heard of it.”

“Oh, bullshit.  Don’t talk like that.  Everyone wants you there.”

“Everyone?”  I looked at him, challenging him to argue.

“Well, okay … one person doesn’t.  But she doesn’t matter.  I’ve invited you, so you can come.”  He grabbed my hand and pulled.  “Come on.  Come with me, right now.”

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”

“Why not?  You think I’m going to make a move on you?  Come on.  Trust me.  I’ll keep my hands to myself.”

“Bodo’s not out of the picture, Paci.”

“Nobody said he was,” he responded, speaking softly.  He pulled on my hand once more, a gentle tug.  “Come on.  You’re not afraid, are you?”

I smiled.  “I’m not that easy, Paci.”

“That’s not what I heard,” he said, before he dropped my hand and ran away.

I couldn’t resist; I ran off after him, stopping from time to time to grab a branch or rock and throw it at his back.

“Can’t catch me!  Too slow!” he yelled over his shoulder.

We ran for five minutes before a circle of huts appeared in front of us, all of them connected by a raised, circular walkway.  Torches were lit along the way, but the place seemed deserted.

“Where are we?” I whispered breathlessly, finally catching up to him because he’d stopped to wait for me.

“This is part of the old Miccosukee Village that used to be for tourists.  We still use it for making cloth and stuff, and some of the kids crash here sometimes.  But mostly we use it for this.”  He pointed down at the space beside us.

“What is it?” I asked, leaning over.  All I could see was blackness.  He didn’t answer so I looked at him.  He was busy pulling his shirt over his head and stepping out of his shoes.  “What are you doing?”

“Going swimming,” he said simply, dropping his pants right in front of me.

I stood there speechless as he dove into the water that I couldn’t see.

***

I bit my lip.  It was so humid, and the mosquitoes were out in full force.  I was miserable and the idea of a pool was so tempting.

Paci had surfaced and was splashing around.  “Come on in, chicken.  Water’s perfect.”  He swam over.  I could see his face now, reflected in the torchlight.  “You’re safe with me.  Come in.  I promise I’ll keep my hands to myself.  Just get in here and float for a little while.  It’ll help you relax.”

It was too tempting to refuse anymore.  “Touch me and I’ll drown you.”

Paci laughed.  “Trust me.  I won’t be touching you until you ask me to.”

I smiled with him.  “Don’t hold your breath on that.”

Paci took a deep, loud breath and disappeared beneath the surface.

I quickly undressed down to my sports bra and underwear while he was out of sight, tearing the rubber band out of my hair and jumping in before I could second-guess my decision.

The cool water closed in over my head, and my hair swirled around my face like a mass of seaweed.  I could feel the heat that had been trapped in my hair dissipating into the space around me.  It sent a shiver over my body, to be finally free of it.  I’d been so hot for so long, I’d forgotten what it was like to be submersed in coolness.  The shower couldn’t cut it for this level of refreshing feeling.  I was so glad I hadn’t let my fear of what people would think stop me from coming in.

I surfaced, shaking the water out of my face, looking for Paci.  He was about ten feet away, smiling like a fool.  It was much easier to see him from down here.

“Nice, eh?”

“Yeah.  Hell, yeah,” I said grinning from ear to ear.  “You sure there’re no gators in here?”

“Yep.  The water’s clear in the daytime.  We check it all the time.  We’ve set up some spikes around the perimeter to keep them from crawling in.”

“Spikes?”

“Yeah.  Sharpened sticks pointed at an angle that catch ‘em in the beak when they come near.”

“Ouch.”

“They’ve got plenty of other places to swim around.  They don’t bother with places that are hard to get to.   Plus we feed ‘em far from here to keep them kind of managed, so it works.”

“I thought you weren’t supposed to feed the gators in the Everglades.”

Paci splashed me in the face.  “Those were the old rules.  We make the rules now.”

I splashed him back.  “Says who?”

“Says, me!” he growled before disappearing under the water again.

“Paci?” I called out nervously.  He’d been gone for a few too many seconds.  “Paci?  Where are you?”  I patted the top of the water with my palm.  “Helloooo?  Paci!”

Something grabbed my ankles and pulled me under hard.  My scream was lost in the suffocating water that filled my mouth and throat.

I kicked for all I was worth and caught the side of what turned out to be Paci’s face.  I felt his hair run through my toes as I floated to the surface again.

My blood pressure was so high and my heart beating so fast, I had nearly no control of what I did next.  As soon as he came out into the air I started slapping at him.

“Ow, ow, stop,” he said, laughing the whole time.  “Shit, you kicked me in the face … quit!”

“You are such a jerk!” I yelled, my thrashing lessening just a bit.  “You scared the crap out of me, Paci.”

“Wuss,” he said, splashing water in my face again.  “I told you there were no gators in here.”

I pushed water into his face.  “You also promised not to touch me.”

He grabbed my hand and pulled me close to him.  “I thought you meant this kind of touching.”

Suddenly, I was right in front of him, and I was totally aware of the fact that he was naked and I was nearly so.  The splashing stopped and the sounds quieted.  A breeze blew across my cheek as I contemplated his face.

His high cheekbones, straight brow, and strong, narrow nose spoke volumes of his ancestry.  He was nothing short of beautiful, and I wondered for a split second why I’d never really noticed it before.

“Stop,” I said softly.

“Stop what?  I’m not doing anything.”  He reached out for my waist, but I grabbed his hand and pushed it away.

“I told you I’m still with Bodo.”

“But Bodo’s gone,” he said, pity lacing his voice.

My throat went hoarse.  “You don’t know that.”

Paci moved his arms, propelling himself backwards a little.  “Do you really mean that?  You think he’s still alive?”

“Yes.  I do.  And even if he isn’t, that doesn’t mean I’m going to just jump into something with the next guy who comes along.”

Paci treaded water for a few seconds saying nothing.  His expression went stone cold.  “Oh,” he said eventually.  “I get it.  It’s cool.”  He starting swimming away.

“Paci, stop, would you please?”  I didn’t want him swimming off in a huff.

“What?”

“Seriously, come back so we can talk for just a second.”

He made a few breast strokes in my direction, stopping about five feet away.  “Talk.  I’m listening.”

“I thought we were friends.”

“We are,” he said casually.

“So why are you being like this?  You know how I feel.”

“Not really.  You’re not the most open person in the world, Bryn.  I just thought … eh!”  He splashed off to the side.  “Never mind what I thought.  It was stupid.  Forget I said or did anything after jumping in the water, ‘kay?”

“That would be kind of difficult, actually.”

“Well, yeah.  I am pretty handsome, that’s true.  I can see how you wouldn’t want to forget and all.”

I laughed.  “And humble.”

“Yeah, and humble.”  He went underwater to stick his legs up in the air before coming up again.  “So are we good?  Because this conversation is getting lame.”

“We’re good.  Are you going to tell me what you’ve been up all week, then?”  I changed the subject since it seemed like a conversation about catching canners was safer ground for us right now.

“Yep.  Tons of stuff, actually.”  He opened his mouth to tell me more but was interrupted by someone shouting from the edge of the ring of huts.

“Who’s out there?  Can we come in?”  It was Fohi.

“Yeah, man!” yelled Paci.  “Come on in!  It’s a swamp party!”

“Whooo hooo!” yelled Fohi and a few others before I heard several splashes all around me.  A few people were on the walkway, shucking their clothes.  Others didn’t bother, jumping in even with their shoes on.

“Who’s that?” asked Fohi, surfacing next to me.  “Bryn?  Is that you?”

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“And Paci too?”  Fohi looked from Paci to me, back and forth a couple times.  I cringed when his next words came out.  “Well, well, well.  Paci and Bryn taking a little private skinny-dip together.”

“Shut up, dick.  She’s not skinny dipping, and it’s not like that,” said Paci, splashing him in the face.

Fohi dove for Paci and they wrestled in the water.

I took the opportunity to swim away, climbing back up onto the walkway near my clothes.  I was planning on getting dressed but Winky’s voice stopped me.

“Where are you going?  We just got here.”  She came up by my feet in the water.

“I’m cooled off.  Thought I’d go to bed.”

“Don’t let Fohi scare you away.  Nobody listens to him anyway.”

“I don’t need to give Coli any more reason to be calling me … names.”

“Excuse my French, but fuck Coli.  Nobody listens to her either.  She and Fohi should hook up.”

“Hey!” yelled Fohi, still working on drowning Paci. “I heard that!”

“Good!” yelled Winky before turning back to me.  “Come on.  Get in the water.  We’ll go to the other side and gossip with the girls.”

I hadn’t gossiped with any girls in I couldn’t remember how long, and for once it sounded like fun, so I jumped back in the water and swam with Winky over to her group of friends.  Most of them I recognized from the training sessions, but LaShay was there too, along with another girl from the canner house.

“Hey,” I said, pinching the water out of my nose.

“Hey, Bryn,” said LaShay, her voice drowning out the others who were welcoming me.  “This your first time here, too?”

“Yeah.”

“You as nervous as I am about them gators comin’ in here for a midnight snack?”

I laughed.  “Hell, yes.”

“Okay, good.  I decided I’m gonna throw one a these girls in front, if one-a-them monsters gets in here, since they seem so confident it ain’t gonna happen.”

“I’ll help,” I said.

“Good.”  She flopped around in the water for a second and then said, “Shit.  I was jus’ gonna give you some skin but I ain’t figured out how to swim right yet.”

Everyone stopped talking and waited to hear what she was going to say next.  It was painfully awkward, all of us knowing she couldn’t swim well because canners had taken her arm.

“Ya’ll ain’t gonna start acting all weird an’ shit cause I got half an arm, are ya?  I’ll be liable to slap some-a-you if that’s the case.  Serious.”

“No,” I said, “no weirdness here.  Go ahead and flop around like a one-armed seal.  I won’t say a word.”

Everyone froze in place, probably shocked that I’d said it.  But I couldn’t think of any other way to diffuse the uncomfortable feeling, and it didn’t serve any purpose to keep pretending everything was normal.

“I can’t believe you jus’ said that,” said LaShay.

I didn’t say anything.  I was waiting for her to flop around some more and slap me.  I wouldn’t have fought her if she’d decided to do it either, since I probably deserved it.

“That was funny as hell,” she said, smiling.  “Damn, girl.  Remind me never to ask you if I look fat.”

Everyone laughed and the tense moment was over, just like that.

Fohi further erased the bad feelings by swimming over and saying, “We need you ladies to settle a bet we have going on over here.  Who’s better-looking … me or Rob?”

“Paci!” yelled Winky, sending us into giggles all over again.

“Paci’s not in the contest, Winky.  Shut up.  It’s me or Rob, no one else.”

Another girl yelled out, “Trip!”

“Come on, seriously?  He’s friggin’ gay.  Me or Rob.  Tell us.”

“Peter!” yelled LaShay.  “He’s got you all beat.”

Fohi splashed water at all of us.  “Never mind.  You chicks are lame.”

“I pick Rob!” yelled a little voice from the middle of our group.  It was a smallish girl I remembered from one of my sessions.  She’d voluntarily walked out instead of fighting anyone, which had been a relief to me.  She was too tiny to go up against those canners without serious training.

“Whoo hoo!  You hear that, Fohi?  I win!” yelled Rob.

“You cheated,” he grumbled.  “I’m outta here.”

“Poor Fohi,” I said quietly to the girls.  “He doesn’t get any respect.”

“I actually think he’s kinda cute,” said another girl.  “But we don’t need to tell him that.  His stupid head gets swollen just looking in a mirror.”

“Honest to God, I think the chiefs are the best lookin’ guys in this place,” said LaShay.  “You guys musta picked ‘em for that, right?”

“No,” said Winky.  “We picked them for their parents’ positions in the tribes before.  But they’re kind of natural leaders anyway.”

I nodded.  They had different styles, but both of them were effective in their own ways.

I almost didn’t want to broach the subject, but I had to because it was niggling at the back of my mind and I knew it wasn’t going to let me sleep.  “Why’d Fohi say Trip is gay?  Is he just messing around?”

No one said anything for a few seconds and LaShay let out a burst of air.  She was feeling the tension just like I was apparently.

“It doesn’t matter to me.  I’m just curious,” I said, trying to shrug it off.  Hopefully I hadn’t just dis-invited myself from future pool parties.

“It’s just a rumor,” said Winky.  “Nobody really knows.”

“Oh.”  I couldn’t think of anything else to say.  It wasn’t like it was my business, really.  I was starting to really regret saying anything.

“I think he is,” said the girl who said she thought Fohi was cute.  “He’s never really had a girlfriend.”

“Yes he did, Mandy,” said Winky.  “He dated that girl two years ago … what’s her name?”

“Yeah, but they never did anything.  They just went to that formal together and that’s it.  Just a kiss goodnight.  And it wasn’t very hot either, from what I heard.”

“How do you know that?” asked Winky.  “He acts all manly man around us all the time.  I can’t believe he gave an un-hot kiss.”

“Seriously,” said LaShay.  “The boy is hot.  But that don’t mean nothin’.  There’s plenty of gay hot guys walkin’ around.  Like Peter.”

I giggled.  “You think Peter’s hot?”

“Sure, in a prim and proper boy-next-door kinda way.  Right?  Am I crazy?”

“No, you’re not crazy,” said another girl.  “He’s adorable.”

“They would make the absolute cutest couple of all time,” said Mandy.

“Who?” I asked.  I was totally lost now.

“Peter and Trip, duh.  Who’ve we been talking about this whole time?”

“Yeah, but …”  I shook my head.  Peter and Trip?  Is that even possible?  I tried to play back the memory of seeing Peter meeting someone in the woods.  He was tall and broad-shouldered like Trip.  Could that have been him?  And if it was, what were they arguing about?  Whatever it was, it had upset Peter a lot.

“I gotta go, girls.  I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah, see ya, Bryn.  Glad you came out tonight.”

“I probably would have sooner if I’d known about this place,” I said, swimming away backwards so I could still see them.

“How’d you find it this time?” asked LaShay.  “It ain’t like you can just stumble on it.  Everything’s a dang maze in this place.”

“Paci brought me.”  I’d almost reached the spot where my clothes were waiting in a pile.

“Ooooh, Paci!” yelled Fohi from across the pool.  “Paci brought her.  Did ya hear that?”

“Shut up, Fohi,” said Rob, sounding tired of his friend’s nonsense.

I heard some wrestling around after that and was able to see what looked like Paci and Rob working on drowning Fohi.  I smiled to myself as I got dressed, happy in the knowledge that the gossip wasn’t going to be taken too seriously by anyone.  Too bad for Coli.  Turns out I wasn’t going to be rejected for being a so-called slut; at least, not by the group of girls Winky hung out with.

And now I had some ammo to use in my next conversation with Peter, and I was for sure going to get a confession out of him now.  I nearly rubbed my hands with anticipation as I left the pool area for our hut.

***

Peter wasn’t home when I got back, and I was so tired from all the treading water and excitement of the day, I fell asleep soon after lying down.  When I woke up the next morning, he was already gone.  I knew he’d been there, though, because the smoke sticks we used to keep the mosquitoes away were still lit and he’d left me some food in a basket by the pantry.

“Dang that boy,” I said to Buster, who was lying on his back, fuzzy underparts exposed to the world.  He obviously wasn’t one bit worried about leaving himself vulnerable.  Either that, or he was making sure to have his belly available for anyone who might want to rub it a little.  I scratched him between his front legs.  “You are one hot mess, you know that, Buster?  Look at you … your hair’s growing in all tangled, you smell like a fish’s butt, your teeth are just nasty.  What are we going to do with you?”

Buster decided that the thing I needed to do with him was to submit to his licking.  Again.

“Get away, mutt.”  I shoved him over onto Peter’s mattress.  “I have to go talk to a man about a horse.”  I smiled to myself as I walked to the outhouse, Buster at my heels, remembering that ridiculous expression my dad used.  I asked him time and again him why he didn’t just say he was going to the bathroom.

“Because,” he’d answer, “no one needs to know when I’m about to do my business.”

And I’d always respond with, “But everyone knows that expression, so you’re telling them anyway.”

He’d frown at me and give me the same explanation he always did and that would end the conversation.  “It’s all about being a part of polite society, Bryn.  Sometimes it’s important to keep up the charade, and everyone agrees to do that without discussing it.”

What is the world going to do without parents telling us how things should be?  I guess I had my answer with the latest interaction with kids whose parents had done nothing to prepare them - the canners.  Or who had prepared them in different ways than my dad and the parents of the kids in Kahayatle had.

I finished in the outhouse and walked back to the hut, thinking about Peter and Trip and the things everyone had said last night.  Is it possible that Trip is gay?  Could he someday be Peter’s cuddle partner?  Were we all being part of polite society by just ignoring it but wondering about it to ourselves?  I was having a difficult time with the polite society thing.  I wanted to ask and analyze and figure it all out.  Peter needed a cuddle partner, and Trip wasn’t the worst he could do by far - if he was in the market for cuddling another guy.    If Peter were my girlfriend, I’d be trying to hook her up too, so it didn’t feel wrong to have my nose in his and Trip’s business, even if maybe it should have.  My mind wandered to Trip and all of my interactions with him.

Trip had acted all sexy guy-ish the first time I’d met him, but looking back now, I realized that it was almost as if he were putting on a show for all the people watching.  I’d sensed some guys acting attracted to me since coming to the swamp, but Trip was never a part of that group.  More than anything, he seemed irritated by me.  I knew I wasn’t the prettiest girl in the world and not everyone was going to like me, but he didn’t even register on the realizing-I-was-a-girl sensor.

Hmmmm.  I need to find Peter and grill him until he caves.  I had no idea where he was, but I knew he made cloth sometimes, and Winky said it was made in a hut near the pool.  I wanted to check out the no-gators system they had set up there anyway, so I headed off in that direction.

Halfway there, I ran into Mandy.

“Hey, Bryn.  What’s up?”

“Nothing.  Just going to look at the pool in the daytime, maybe check out the cloth-making stuff.”

“You mean the weaving?”

“Yeah.  That’s cloth-making, right?”

“That’s part of it,” she said, stepping over a branch that had fallen across the path.  “It’s the final part, actually.”

“What else is involved?” I asked, mirroring her movements along the path.

“Depends on what kind of cloth.  If it’s cotton, we harvest the cotton, separate it from the seeds, and then go through a few other steps to eventually turn it into a thin yarn.  If it’s wool, we sheer, wash, and spin.  That’s a very simplified version, but you get the idea.”

“Wool?  You guys have sheep?”

“Yep.  Goats, cows, and horses, too.”

I looked around.  “Where are they?”

Mandy laughed.  “Not here, obviously.”

“Obviously,” I said, feeling stupid.

“We have a ranch that’s not far away.  You can get to it by canoe.”

“Aren’t you guys afraid of canners or other people getting out there?”

“No.  We keep it hidden.  And protected.  Even more now that you guys have let us know about the canners.”

“That’s cool.”

“Would you like to see it sometime?  I could take you.”

“I’d love to.”  I couldn’t believe I was actually going to see a horse again.  I’d never been one for riding before, but I couldn’t ignore what great transportation they’d be these days.  “Do you guys use the horses for getting around?”

“Yeah, sometimes.  But we worry about taking them out in front of hungry kids for obvious reasons.”

I shook my head.  “It’s so ridiculous.  I mean, there’s enough food on this planet that no one needs to go around eating kids or horses or dogs or any of that crazy stuff.”

“You and I know that, but they don’t.  You’d be surprised how many kids think food just appears in boxes from some factory somewhere.  I don’t think they ever questioned where their food started, you know, as crops and things.”

“Even if they did, they probably think those crops are all gone and can’t be used anymore.”

“Exactly.  Maybe someday we’ll be able to educate people and make some changes.  But until then, we have to worry about ourselves and keep our animals away from the wackos.”

We had arrived at the pool and I looked around, trying to find the gator traps.

“Are you coming?”  Mandy had walked ahead and was already partway down one of the wooden walkways, going towards the ring of huts.

“Yeah.  I’m just looking for the gator sticks.”

“Gator sticks?”

“Yeah.  The sharp sticks that keep the gators out.”

“Oh.  They’re farther that way and over there.”  She gestured to the perimeter around the outside of the huts.

“What about the snakes?  What makes them stay away?”

“Ginger and Sneaky, the raccoons, the foxes, herons, bass, some other snakes…”

I raised an eyebrow at her.  “Ginger and Sneaky?”

“Our cats.  The snakes don’t really like them.  Plus we have several king snakes around here.”

“King snakes?”

“Yeah.  They’re badass.  Kind of like canners to the cottonmouths.”

I felt myself go faint.  “Cottonmouths?  There are cottonmouths here?”

She smiled.  “Yeah, of course.  These are the Everglades, you know.”

I looked at the pool with new eyes.  “Holy crap.  I swam in a snake’s bedroom last night.”

Mandy walked over and grabbed my hand, pulling me towards the huts.  “No you didn’t, goofball.  There are no snakes here.  We make way too much noise, the cats are always here, and the raccoons never get enough to eat.  Believe me, there are much more peaceful places for them to hang out than here.”

I eyed the water, but saw no wiggly things moving around.  “I want to see these cats.”

“Well, come on, then.  They’re probably inside begging for attention.”

We walked across the boards until we reached a hut that had its cloth sides on but rolled up.  There were already a few people inside, none of whom was Peter.  Dammit.

“Bryn’s here to watch us make cloth.”  Mandy left me to go sit down at a loom.  At least that’s what it looked like to me.

“Whoa. That’s cool,” I said, going over to stand next to her.  I reached out to touch it.

“Ah-ah-ah!  Don’t touch.”  She raised her hand as if to slap me.

I jerked my hand back.  “Sorry.”

“Just watch and learn, grasshopper,” she said.

She moved some levers and passed a hunk of wood with some yarn around it though the middle of what looked like guitar strings stretched across the frame.  She pulled back on a wooden bar, shifted a lever dropping something down, and then moved the hunk of wood through again from the other side.  I watched her for a few minutes and was fascinated to see an actual piece of cloth starting to appear at the frame near her stomach.

“Wow, that is so cool.”

“Yeah,” she smiled up at me.  “It is, right?  I never knew clothes started out this way until I came here.”

“That doesn’t look like clothes material, though,” I said, leaning over to touch it.

She slapped my hand away.  “Don’t touch.  It’s not for clothes.  This is what we use for rugs and blankets.”

“Oh, man.  I want a rug like this.”  The colors were crazy vibrant and I could see samples of finished products folded up on a shelf nearby with patterns on them.

“Play your cards right and you might get one,” she said turning back to her work.  “Now go away.  I’m busy.”

I frowned.  “I want to try.”

She shook her head.  “Nope.  I have a quota I have to get done today.  Talking to you is slowing me down.  Maybe another time.”

I felt rejected, but knew I couldn’t get in the way of their plans.  They had a whole group of new kids to clothe and keep comfortable.  No way was I going to be to blame for getting in the middle of that.

Just then Peter came walking in.  “Hey, Bryn.  What’re you doing here?”

“Didn’t they tell you?  I’m head weaver now.”

Peter frowned at me for about two seconds before he said, “Yeah right.  That’ll be the day.”  He took a seat at one of the looms nearby that was unoccupied, pulling a couple levers and picking up the hunk of wood to start weaving as if he’d been doing it his whole life.

“I’ve got your workout schedule put together,” he said without looking at me.  “I assume you can start tomorrow.  Is that going to be okay?”

“Yeah,” I said absently, watching him work.  I wandered over closer, wondering if I could get him to give me a try.  “So, do you have quotas too?”

“Yeah.  But they’re not as bad as Mandy’s.  She’s the top dog around here.”

“Watch who you’re callin’ dog, dog.”

Peter smiled.  “Whatever, Mandycat.”

Peter seemed happy here - less stressed than he did back at the hut or when I saw him talking to the mystery man in the trees.

“So, Peter, where were you this morning?” I asked as quietly as I could and still be heard over the clacking of the looms’ boards.

“Around.  Coming here.”

“I left after you and got here before you, though.”

“I was in the bathroom.”

“I went there too.”

Peter sighed and stopped working to stare at me.  “Am I in trouble for something?  Why do I feel like you’re watching my every move?”

“Uhhh, because I am?”

“Why?” he whispered, glancing over at Mandy.  I looked at her too, but she seemed very focused on her work.  Another girl came in and sat down at her loom.  The clacking in the room got louder.

“Because,” I whispered back.  “You’re being mysterious and sneaking around and stuff.”

He frowned at me.  “The only one sneaking around is you.  And not doing a very good job of it, either.”

I stuck my tongue out at him.  “Meet me for lunch.  We need to talk.”

“I’m busy.”

“Peter, I’m not kidding.  I seriously need to talk to you.”

He rolled his eyes.  “Fine.  I’ll meet you at our place at lunchtime.  Don’t be late.”

“I wouldn’t dreeeaam of it,” I said, reaching over to pinch his cheek.  “See you later, hot stuff.”

Peter tried to stay grouchy at me but a smile snuck out.  “Bye.”

I left the loom area, keeping a close eye on the pool, seeing nothing moving inside but the currents of water that were feeding it.  I still wasn’t completely comfortable with the idea of going in again, but maybe that was because it was still cool out.  My tolerance for danger seemed to move up and down with the weather and circumstances.

Thoughts of my wavering bravery reminded me that Paci and I never did have that conversation about the defenses they were constructing.  So even though I was a little worried about him thinking I was tracking him down because I liked being with him, I decided to go find Paci anyway and see what he and his group had been up to.

***

Paci and his group of defenders were working near the area where Peter, Bodo, and I had first pulled up in the swamps.  I’d wandered a good hour before I was able to track them down, getting various directions from people I stumbled upon along the way.

Paci was down in a hole banging away on something.  I approached the edge and looked down to find him waist-deep in black water, looking dirty and sweaty as hell.

“What are you doing down there?”

“Oh … hey, Bryn.  Pounding in some stakes.  Wanna come join me?”  He smiled invitingly.

I grimaced.  “No thanks.”  I looked up at Fohi who was standing across from me, handing things down to Paci as he asked for them.

“Pretty tight, eh?” he asked.

“If tight means dangerous-looking, then yeah.  Tight.”

He puffed out his chest with pride.  “Anyone thinking about showing up here unannounced is going to get a little surprise … a nasty one.”

I nodded, not sure what to think about this vicious trap.  Anyone falling in would instantly become a shish-kabob.

“Help me out.  I’m done here,” said Paci, holding up his hand to Fohi.

Fohi grabbed it and pulled, but a piece of the ground underneath him near the edge of the hole crumbled, causing him to lose his footing.

He let go of Paci and his arms flailed out to the sides as he fell forward,  his feet now on solid ground, but his body angling down towards the pit and moving almost in slow motion.

Paci let go and fell back slightly, able to catch himself on the inner wall of the pit.

Fohi, however, had nowhere to go but straight down horizontally.  And down he was going, his entire torso headed for about ten sharpened stakes at the bottom of the pit.

I did the only thing I could think to do, not stopping to consider the possible outcomes.  I leaned over the pit and connected my hands to the top of Fohi’s shoulders, stopping his descent into the hole.

Unfortunately, now we were both leaning over it, and only the triangle made by our feet on the crumbling edges and our connection at his shoulders over the top of the pit were keeping both of us from being skewered below.

“Ahh, Bryn!” Fohi yelled in a high voice. “What are you doing?!”

“Holy, shit, Bryn!” yelled Paci, backing up against the wall as tightly as he could.  “What the hell?!”  He reached his hands up, but he couldn’t touch either of us.

“Get someone!” I grunted out.  “Pull back on both of us … at the same time.”  I could feel my feet slipping.

“Hurry up!” yelled Fohi, his voice two octaves higher.  “Ahhhhhhh!”  He was yelling and gripping onto my wrists with his hands.  His body was shaking with the stress of staying nearly horizontal over the hole.  My abs and back muscles were burning from the effort of not collapsing.

Hands grabbed my waist from behind.  “Wait!” I yelled.  “Fohi needs to get pulled back at the same time or he’s gonna fall in!”  His rescuer wasn’t in position yet.  We waited the few precious seconds for him to get there; it was Yokci and he looked majorly stressed at his responsibility.  I watched as he positioned his feet on either side of Fohi.

I heard Rob’s voice behind me.  “On three!  Ready?  One … two … three!”  I was yanked back forcibly, but the ground under my feet started caving in, so Rob was only able to keep me from landing horizontally over the stakes.  I fell into the hole, my right leg scraping down the side of one of the sharpened sticks, getting sliced open in the process.  I hit bottom but kept my hands up near the top of the hole.  Rob grabbed onto them and kept me from falling over sideways onto a spike.

“Holy fuck!” I yelled, panting now over the pain in my leg.  My wound was being filled with dirty swamp water and bleeding into the pit.

“Get her out!” yelled Paci, and seconds later several hands grabbed me by the wrists and under the armpits, heaving me upwards.  Paci turned around and scrambled out on his own, using one of the stakes to push himself up with.  He crawled over to me on hands and knees, staring open-mouthed at my leg.

I looked down at it with trepidation, expecting to see it filleted open, but it wasn’t bleeding as heavily as I thought it would be.  I couldn’t see much in the way of exposed leg innards, so I was happily relieved, but that didn’t stop the incredible pain from nearly overwhelming my brain.  I started moaning and rocking a little, trying to make it go away.

Paci jumped to his feet, sweeping me up into his arms and taking off in a limping cantor.  “I’m bringing her to the clinic!” he yelled over his shoulder.

I held on tightly, worried he was going to drop me.  My leg was burning, and I could see the blood dripping over the sides and onto his hand.  I didn’t want to think about how my caregivers were going to get this cut clean.  The wound was already filled with gunk that was now getting rubbed in, but I could hardly complain since I was being practically airlifted to the clinic, Paci was running so fast.  It never ceased to amaze me how well the kids who lived here could navigate the uneven ground, especially Paci who still had an injured leg.  I was constantly tripping whenever I walked, but Paci made it all the way to the clinic without missing a step.  It was like he had invisible wings flying us along.

LaShay met us at the entrance.  “What the heck happened to you this time?” she asked, not unkindly.  She pointed to an available spot with her half-limb.  “Put her down over there.”  She reached out and took my hand as Paci walked over.  “You okay, baby?”

“I’ve been better,” I said, smiling at her weakly.  For some reason she instantly made me feel a little less scared about the whole thing, calling me baby.

“What about you?” she asked Paci, giving him a once-over.  “You hurt too?”

“No, I’m fine.  It’s just her.”

“Accident prone?”

“No … heck no, she’s not accident prone.  It’s Fohi.”

“Fohi did this?” She frowned, looking like she was ready to have a few words with him personally.

“No, he didn’t,” I said, waving Paci away.  “Go see if he’s okay.  I’m fine here.  Thanks for the lift.”

Paci reached over and took my hand, squeezing it gently.  “You sure?  I can hang for a little while.”

LaShay came over with a bucket and a cloth, along with a bottle of something that looked like alcohol.  The idea of something like that hitting my long open wound made me instantly feel sick.

“Uh, maybe you can stay.  Just for a minute,” I said, changing my mind.

“Yeah, no problem.”  Paci let go of my hand for a minute to get a stool, but then sat down near my head and grabbed it again.  “I’ll stay as long as you need me to.”

“Aww, ain’t that sweet,” said LaShay, looking at us for a moment before getting all serious again.  “Jus’ stay outta my way.  This thing looks nasty.  I’m gonna have to scrub.”

“Scrub?” I said, fear in my voice, as she leaned over and poured some of the liquid onto my wound.  I was prepared to scream, but it obviously wasn’t alcohol.  It just hurt a little.  “Phew.  That wasn’t bad.”

“Hold on to that thought,” said LaShay, right before she started scrubbing my leg and then pouring more of the liquid on.

I squeezed Paci’s hand hard.  My leg was stinging and burning like it was on fire.  “Holy shit, LaShay, what are you doing to me?”

“Keeping you from dyin’ from a cut, that’s what.  You want some leather to bite?”

I shook my head, gritting my teeth together and channeling my pain into my tightly-fisted hand.  “No.  Just get it over with,” I grunted out.

“Doin’ my best,” she said, scrubbing again.

Coli wandered in and said, “What happened to her?”  She didn’t sound all that concerned.

“She got hurt helping Fohi,” said Paci, staring into my eyes.  His were like liquid pools of chocolate and totally mesmerizing.  It was easier to ignore the pain looking at him this way.

“What’d he do this time?”

Paci didn’t bother answering.  After a few awkward seconds, Coli huffed out an irritated breath and left.

“Mmm-mmm-mmm, that girl.  Tsk, tsk…”  LaShay shook her head.  “Girl’s got a serious chip on her shoulder about you, Bryn.  I don’t know what you did to her, but damn, you better watch your back.”

Thoughts of Coli intruded on the peaceful feelings that I’d only been able to find by losing myself in Paci’s gaze, so I closed my lids, trying to get a grip on what LaShay was saying.  There was no point in trying to ignore the pain anymore now, anyway.  All I could think about was Coli telling everyone that I was messing around with Paci at the clinic.

“I have no idea what her problem is, to be honest.  She’s hated me since day one.”

“She’s jealous,” said Paci.

“Jealous?  Jealous a-what?  No offense, Bryn, but no one here’s got any kind of glamorous life or anything.  Case in point …,” she said, stopping to gesture at my leg.

“I have no idea what she’s jealous of.  It’s her own twisted mind making crap up,” I said bitterly.

“She’s jealous that Bryn got the attention of a lot of guys here.  Everyone kind of hates Coli, and even Trip likes Bryn.  He’s the hardest one to win over, so when Bryn did it her first day, that probably made Coli feel … I don’t know.  Left out, maybe.  Trip’s never liked her, even though they’re cousins.”

“Well, maybe if she didn’t walk around like she has a bee up her butt all the time, it’d be easier to like her,” offered LaShay.

“Seriously,” I agreed.

“Several people have mentioned it to her, believe me.  But all it does is make her worse,” said Paci.

“Girl’s got mental problems,” said LaShay.  “I’ve seen that before, you know.  Girl I knew … she was all bi-polar an’ shit.  All the time she was like perfect and everything was just so in her life, you know?  And then one day, she comes to school a wreck.  I mean her hair was all tore up, her clothes were dirty and wrinkled, lookin’ like she slept in ‘em all night.  She was talkin’ crazy too, like accusin’ me of hiding my glasses when I was wearin’ contacts instead.  It was wild, the way she was bein’ all aggressive towards me and other girls.  I was ready to slap that bitch, but something made me not do it.  She reminded me of a wounded animal or something - upset but only because she was hurtin’.  And it didn’t seem right to slap a girl who was havin’ a hard time about something and confused about it at the same time.”

“What happened?” I asked, almost able to ignore the scrubbing LaShay was back to doing quite rigorously.

“The principal called in the school cop, and they took her to the hospital, eventually.  She was there for a couple weeks, got some medicine, and came back to school like nothin’ ever happened.  She was back to bein’ all controlled again, only now she had a smokin’ habit.  Smoked like two packs a day in the smokin’ area.  Saw her there all the time, hangin’ out with a different crowd than she used to.  She lost all her old friends.”

“Wow.  Holy crap.  That must’ve been horrible for that poor girl.  And that was when we had hospitals and medical professionals and pills you could take.  Now we’ve got none of that stuff.”  I hadn’t thought of anyone with mental disorders being left alone to deal with their problems before.  I’d only considered it in the context of sociopaths who’d turned to cannibalism to survive, and they were definitely not in the same boat as people like LaShay was talking about.

“Do you think that could be Coli’s problem?” asked Paci.  “It would explain a lot of things.”

LaShay shrugged.  “How do I know?  I ain’t no doctor.  I’ve only seen one person with it, and I didn’t know her that well.  I have no idea what it was like for her on the inside - and the outside stuff I saw, was just kind of like casual bystander stuff, you know?  We weren’t really friends or anything, so lots of stuff was just gossip.”

I couldn’t think of anything else to say, but my mind was racing.  What if Coli has a mental disorder?  Should I forgive her bullcrap just because of that?  Should I offer to help her or would that just make her more mad?  Am I in danger from her?  I felt like a jerk, not knowing the answers to my questions.  I wished they had a library in the swamp so I could go look bi-polar disorder up in a book and learn more about it.  I had no delusions about becoming a psychologist or psychiatrist or whatever, but I felt like a complete idiot knowing so little.

“Well, whatever,” said LaShay, sighing.  “I think no matter what, everyone around here deserves a little extra forgiveness, just because of all the garbage we have to deal with.  I’m not talking’ about them demon canners, though.  They get no forgiveness from me.  But the indians here, they do deserve it.  I’m just sayin’.”

“You know, LaShay, you guys really should stop calling us indians,” said Paci.  “I don’t mean to be critical, but some of us get kind of offended over it.”

I frowned at him.  “Why?  You are indian tribes, aren’t you?  Or did I miss something in school?”

He smiled mirthlessly.  “No, I’m sure you didn’t miss anything.  They taught you that explorers like Christopher Columbus came to this country and found the native people here and called them indians.  But some people forget the fact that he called them indians because he thought he’d landed in India.  And this obviously isn’t India.”

“So if we ain’t supposed to call you indians, what are we supposed to say?”

“Most people are okay with Native Americans.  Some prefer indigenous people.  I’m cool with Native American.”

“They’re both a mouthful,” grumbled LaShay.  She sighed.  “But I can hardly blame you for wantin’ it to be respectful.  Believe me, my momma used to get all up in people’s faces when they called her certain things.  Like she hated bein’ called African-American.  She liked it simple.  She said, Don’t call me nothin’ but American.  You don’t need to call me by my skin color or by some place where some distant ancestor might have come from that I don’t even know.”

“What do you prefer?” I asked, curious now about the whole personal identification thing.  I had never really considered it before, probably because I was caucasian and had little information about my ancestors’ origins.

“Same as my momma.  What’s it matter, anyway?  We all in the same boat now.  Don’t matter if you’re black, brown, white … whatever.  We all bleed red, and I’m workin’ on not bleedin’ anymore for as long as I live, so help me, Lord Jesus.”

“Amen to that,” I said, smiling.  My smile turned instantly into a scowl, though.  “Oh, ouch!  That frigging hurts, LaShay!  Do you have to scrub it that hard?”

“I know, baby.  I’m tryin’ to be gentle, but it looks like you rolled in some pile of leaves or somethin’ before you came here.”  She tsked at me while she worked, frowning her displeasure.  “If I leave the garbage in there, you’re gonna get an infection.  And trust me when I tell you, you don’t wanna be losin’ no limb.”

I felt like a real a-hole complaining then, my gaze drawn to her bandaged arm, so I kept my mouth shut the rest of the time I laid there.

I stared at Paci and he stared right back, reaching up to brush hair out of my face a few times.  He was being very gentle and sweet, and I tried not to let myself feel guilty over that.  I needed a little sympathy right now, since it felt like LaShay was pulling my skin off.

“Okay,” she said, finally.  “All done.  Just let me put some ointment on this and cover it and you’ll be all set.”

“Do you need her to stay here overnight?” asked Paci.

I was too wiped out to bother caring where I slept.

“She can stay or go.  Whatever she wants.  I’ll be around.”

“Thanks, LaShay.  You’re an awesome doctor,” I said, smiling weakly.

“My momma was a nurse.  She was always gettin’ awards at work and stuff for being the best.  I think I might have been a nurse someday, too … if the world hadn’t fallen into a cesspit like it did.”

“Well, you’re one now,” I said, “and a damn good one, too.”

She smiled but said nothing as she smeared some goo on my leg and then covered it with some clean cloths.  When she was done she stood up with her supplies now piled in the bowl.  “We boil those bandages to kill the germs, but you still need to keep an eye on it.  Clean it with soap tomorrow and come see me if it gets any puss or red and inflamed lookin’.”

I grimaced at the thought.  The cut went from the top of my thigh to the middle of my lower leg.  What are the chances that this huge thing won’t get infected after having soaked it in the swamp?

“Do you want to stay here or go back to your hut?” asked Paci.

“Go back,” I said, pushing myself into a sitting position.

“Here.  Let me help you,” he said, shifting around to be my human crutch.  I was glad when he didn’t offer to carry me.  I think it would have hurt too much to have my leg flopping around, and I was totally paranoid that Coli was out there spying on me.

I hobbled out of the clinic with Paci supporting me.  He pointed out various traps and lookouts on the way.

“There’s another tripwire there.  We don’t have any live grenades on it now, but we can set one up in a hurry if we have to.”

“Are any of the traps live?”

“Well, today we were making some live.  You can see we didn’t … uh … plan so well for that.”

“Any grenades live right now?”

“No.”

“Thank God,” I sighed.  “Fohi’d probably blow himself up with them.”

Paci laughed.  “I know.  Poor guy.  He’s so enthusiastic, but sometimes …”  He shook his head.

“Points for trying,” I said, wincing as I had to bend my leg to step over a log.  “But do me a favor and map out all your pits and tripwires and bring it to dinner.  I think you guys need to do a group presentation and show everyone what you’ve been up to.  And warn people to stay way-the-hell back from the edges of those pits; they are not stable.”

“Yeah, you’re right.  I’m gonna do that.  I’ll go talk to Kowi after I drop you off.”

“How’s he doing, by the way?”

“Good.  On his feet today earlier.  He’ll be fine.”

“And what about Trip?”

“Yeah, he’s good.  The only ones still needing a lot of help are the kids who were in the pool house.  And you’ve seen LaShay.  She’s doing the best.”

“She’s probably the most stubborn,” I said, smiling.  I liked her a lot.

“Yeah, no kidding.  I do not want to mess with her.  She’s awesome in the clinic.  No one dares whine around her.”

We reached my hut, finding Peter there doing the usual, organizing and straightening.  He came rushing out to help me, taking me from Paci and shooing him away.

“What happened?” he exclaimed, his voice full of worry.

“Long story.  Just help me to bed, would you?”

“Hey, Bryn … I’ll see you guys later.  I’m going to go talk to Kowi.”

“Yeah, okay.  Thanks for your help, Paci.  Talk to you later.”

Paci disappeared and Peter struggled to help me lie down.  I grunted with the pain but didn’t cry out.  I didn’t want Peter to feel like he’d hurt me when he didn’t have the strength to help me all the way down, causing me to fall the last foot to the mattress.

“I’ll be right back,” he said, rushing over to the pantry to get me a bottle of water.   “Here,” he said, coming back to sit by me, thrusting it in my hand.  “Drink.”

“Is that your answer to all of my injuries?  Drink a bottle of water?”

“Yes,” he said staring at me expectantly.

I took a few gulps and then handed it back.  “Here.  Take it.  I have to lie down.”  I laid back and waited for Peter to settle in beside me.  “Where’s Buster?”

“Off galavanting,” he said.  “Probably eating another snake head.”

“Good.  Less snakes to come after us.”  I grimaced as I put my hands behind my head.  Even the small movement of lifting it to get my hands under jogged my leg a little and made it burn all over again.

Once the pain subsided, I fixed Peter with a stare, looking as serious as I could manage.  “Listen … I’ve been wanting to talk to you, and now I’m injured so you have to stay and talk to me whether you like it or not.”

Peter sighed heavily.  “I had a feeling this was coming.  Do we really need to do this?”

“Just stop being a baby and talk to me.  Tell me the truth.  Are you in love with Trip?  And is Trip in love with you?”

***

Peter’s mouth dropped open for a few seconds; then it started opening and closing, as if he were talking, but no sound was coming out.

“Go ahead,” I prompted him.  “You can say it.  What? …  Yes? … No?”

“Gah, no, yes, no … geez, Bryn!”  He stood up quickly, leaving for the other hut.  He was moving cans around now, organizing and reorganizing, his hands almost a blur they were moving so fast.

“Hey!  OCD-boy!  Stop that crazy crap and get over here.”

His hands quit moving and rested in mid-air, a can of beans in each one.  “Bryn…”

He was clearly frustrated with me, but I refused to let it dissuade me from my mission of uncovering all his secrets.  “You know all my junk, Peter.  It’s only fair I know yours.  Now get over here and take care of me because I’m injured in case you haven’t fully appreciated that yet.”

Peter put the beans down on the top shelf, completely disregarding the careful order he normally prized above all else.  That was how I knew how distressed he truly was.  He shuffled over and sat down next to me, his entire body slouched so far over, he was nearly bent in half.

“Hey, little camper … what’s wrong?  Why the long face?”  My dad used to say that to me all the time when I was little.  And Peter looked so damn young right now it was pitiful.

“Nothin’,” he mumbled.

“Do not make me get up and execute Operation Cuddle Peter right now.  I’d get nasty blood and goo all over the both of us.”

He held up his two forefingers in the sign of the cross.  “Stay back, demon woman.”

I closed my eyes, speaking in a very calm voice, hoping it would make it easier for him to talk to me.  “Talk to me, Goose.  Tell me what’s up.  What’s going on in Peter’s world?  Why were you having a clandestine meeting with Trip in the woods by the shower?”

“We were just talking,” he said softly.

“About what?  ‘Cuz whatever it was, it was making you upset.  I could tell by the way you were flapping your little wings all over the place.”

“I wasn’t flapping my wings.”

“Yes, you were.  But don’t change the subject.  What were you doing and what were you talking about?”

Peter sighed heavily but didn’t respond.

I snuck a peek out of one eye and saw that he was looking off in the distance, twirling a leaf in his hands.  I closed my eye, hoping if I waited it out a little longer, he’d cave.  I was rewarded about a minute later, and good thing too, because I’d almost fallen asleep.  Being patient was tiring for me.

“We were talking about the tribes, actually.”

“And …?”

“And … us.”

“Us?  As in you and him?”

“Yes, as in him and me.  Or me and he.  I don’t know.”

“So like … are you guys … cuddle partners now?”  I couldn’t keep my eyes closed anymore.  This was getting too juicy.  I turned my head to see his reaction.

“Not exactly,” he said wryly.

“Why not?  Failure to launch?” I asked, not even sure what that meant, but it sounded good.

Peter smiled.  “You are such a dork.”

“Yeah, so sue me.  Now tell me what I want to know or suffer the consequences.”  I held out my hands making a lameass karate move.

“Fine.  We had a moment or whatever.  And I thought it meant something, but he apparently didn’t.”  Peter shrugged.  “That’s about it.”

“Oh, bullcrap that’s about it.  No way, dude.  Tell me everything and leave nothing out.”  I stared at the ceiling and wiggled a little, pointing my toes.  “I’m ready now.  Hit me with it.” I held my hands out like I was about to start meditating.

He said nothing so I turned my head and stared at him.  “Go on.  I’m ready.”

“Seriously.  I’ve told you everything.”

I slapped my hands down on the mattress.  “Dammit, Peter … if you make me get up, I’m going to be very cranky.  I’m on the injured list and you are making this way more difficult than it needs to be.  Now fess up!”

He giggled.  “Easy does it, there, harpy.”

“Oh, no.  Huh-uh.”  I shook my head.  “You did not just call me a harpy.”

“Okay, you’re not a harpy.”

I tried to flip over on my side, but winced with the pain, giving up and flopping down on my back.  “No, as a matter of fact, I’m not.  I’m a friend who cares about you and needs to analyze your situation to the ninth degree, which I cannot do without all the facts.”  I reached over and grabbed the front of his shirt.  “So dish, baby.  Out with it.  Believe me, it’ll cleanse your soul.  You’ll feel lighter than air when you’re done.”  I let him go, waiting for his response.

“I’m pretty sure it’s to the nth degree, not the ninth degree.”

“Maybe in your world it is, Mathboy, but in mine, there are nine degrees of analysis, and this one merits the highest level.  So go.  Tell me.”

Peter started tearing the leaf into pieces.  “We had one night after dinner where we just sat and talked for hours.  He really gets me, you know?  I know it sounds weird … I mean, we’re totally different.  He was never bullied in school or whatever.  But he has some painful memories of being a bully.”

“I’m not really surprised by that, you know.”

“Yeah, I know.  He can act like a real jerk sometimes.  We talked about that, too.  He has some … difficult feelings he’s dealing with.”

“Like … what kind of feelings?” I had an idea what Peter could be talking about, but I didn’t want to jump to any conclusions out loud.

“I’m not sure if I should say.”

I gave up on being circumspect.  “Because he’s thinking he might be gay and he doesn’t want anyone else to know it?”

Peter’s eyes bugged out of his head.  “How did you know?  Did he say something to you?”

“No.  But everyone knows.”

“Nooo…,” said Peter, looking as if he didn’t dare believe me.

“Yeeeesss.  We were talking about it at the pool last night.  Everyone suspects it.  I guess he was busted by some girl as having totally bland not-hot-at-all kisses after a formal dance or whatever.”

“Pffft.  Well … I can totally vouch for the fact that that is total bullcrap.”

I sat up suddenly and grabbed Peter’s arm, squeezing it hard.  “No!”

Peter just smiled shyly.

“Oh. My. God.  You did not kiss Trip on the mouth.  That did not happen!”  I nearly squealed for joy.

Peter giggled.  “Well, of course it was on the mouth.  What kind of girl do you take me for?”

I pulled him close and hugged him to me fiercely.  “Holy crap, Peter, this is so exciting!” I jerked away to look at him.  “Are you kidding me?  You kissed the second hottest guy in the entire swamp?”

Peter pushed my hands off and said prissily, “No.  I kissed the hottest guy in the entire swamp.”

I laughed.  I couldn’t help it.

“Why are you laughing?  That’s rude, you know.  I just spilled my guts to you.”

“I know.  It’s not funny.  Well, it kind of is, but only because I know how it’s torturing Trip, and he totally deserves to be tortured a little.”

“Maybe a little,” admitted Peter.  “He’s being a big baby about it.”

I calmed down.  “Well, of course he is.  He was probably raised to hate gay guys.  You can’t blame him for being conflicted.”

“Conflicted.  That’s a great word to use for Trip, actually.”

“Poor guy,” I said, play frowning.

“Poor guy, my butt,” said Peter.  “He needs to stop playing games with me and get real.”

“Oooh, he’s playing games?” I rubbed my hands together.  “Tell me.  This sounds awesome.”

“Geez.  You need to get a boyfriend, Bryn.”

His words hit me like a cold shower.

His face went from scolding to shocked, as soon as he realized what he’d said.  “Oh, crap, Bryn.  I’m so sorry.  That was a stupid thing to say.”

I waved him off.  “No.  Don’t worry about it.  I’m okay.”

Peter looked at me through narrowed eyes.  “What are you doing, Bryn?  I see something on your face I don’t like…”

“Pimples?  I have a few, I know.”  I brushed my face absently, trying to blow him off.

“Don’t play with me, girl.  I’m not stupid. You’re planning something.”  He grabbed my wrist with his girly claws.  “Tell me right now.”

“No,” I said, pouting.  “It’s none of your business.”

Peter’s mouth flopped open and closed.  “Huh?  Wha…?  You …?”  He dropped my wrist and lifted a finger, wagging it at me.  “Oh, no ma’am.  You are not playing that game with me.  I told you my secrets and now you’re going to tell me yours.  Or else!”

“Or else what?”

“Or else …” he narrowed his eyes at me.  “I will tattle on you.  To Kowi.”

“You wouldn’t,” I said menacingly.

“Oh, yes I would.  So tell me now, or I’ll leave right this instant.”

“Do you have any idea how much you sound like a mother hen right now?”

“Mother hens cluck, and I am not clucking around.”

I giggled.  “That was pretty good.”

“Yeah, I know, right?”  Peter was smiling despite his seriousness.  “Now, come on.  I’ve told you my junk, now you tell me yours.”

I could hardly argue with my own words thrown in my face.  “Fine.  I’ll tell.  But you have to promise to keep your big mouth shut about it.”

Peter mimed zipping his lip and locking it.

“Throw away the key, too.  Don’t think I don’t know your game.”

Peter rolled his eyes and mimed throwing a key over his shoulder.

I thought about it for about two seconds before I told him.  “As soon as my leg is better, I’m going after Bodo.  And Winky’s coming with me.”

Chapter Three

PETER’S PROTESTS FELL ON DEAF ears.  No matter what he said, I was going to find Bodo, so I ignored him.  His voice reminded me of buzzing bees, and I fell asleep to the sound of his droning on and on about the danger involved and all the reasons I should just stay here in the swamp minding my own business.  I woke up several hours later, alone.

“Come on, Buster.  It’s got to be dinner time by now.  Let’s go find the food.”  Buster did his excited happy-dance, making me laugh with his enthusiasm for something he didn’t understand one bit.

We wandered over to the eating area.  Fohi, Rob, and Yokci were the first people I saw, standing in the hut with some other guys.  The food hadn’t shown up yet.  They came over to talk as soon as they saw me.

“Oh, man …,” said Fohi, “… are you okay?  I didn’t really see your leg before you left, but Paci said it was bad.”  He was staring at my bandage.

“It’s okay.  Not that deep.  No stitches or anything.”  I was looking around for Paci, but didn’t see him anywhere.  I didn’t want to ask anyone where he was, though, so I just focused on the guys standing around me.

“Listen, Bryn … I gotta thank you for that.  I mean, you really saved my ass today.”

“You’re damn right, she did,” said Yokci, which was kind of surprising because I never considered him one of my biggest fans.  I think his general clumsiness with fighting made him feel nervous around me.

“Shit, I know, Yokci!  That’s why I’m saying thank you!  Geez!”  Fohi pushed Yokci, barely moving him, since he was nearly twice Fohi’s size.

“Hands to yourself, twerp, or I’ll make you eat leaves,” warned Yokci.

“Yeah, right.”  Fohi ignored Yokci to look at me again.  “So anyway, thanks.  I’d a-been poked bad if it weren’t for you.”

“Dude, you’d a-been Fohi-on-a-stick if it weren’t for her frigging ninja moves,” said Rob.  “That was quick thinking, Bryn.  One second I saw Fohi falling to his death, and the next you’re there like a human bridge or something, holding him over the pit.  How’d you do that, anyway?”

I shrugged.  “I have no idea.  I saw him falling and just moved.”

“Ninja, man.  She’s a frigging ninja,” said Fohi, his voice full of admiration.

I laughed.  “I’m not a ninja, you idiot.  Just a dumbass who should have let you learn a painful lesson.  I know I learned mine.”  I looked down pointedly at my leg.

“Hey,” said Fohi, acting offended.  “That’s kind of a harsh lesson, being skewered on a pike.  And besides, what’s that all about … learning lessons or whatever?  Don’t you agree with defending our territory?”

“Yeah, we need to defend it.  I’ve got no problem with that.  I’m just worried about one of us getting hurt, that’s all.”

“We got that taken care of,” said Fohi proudly.  “Got it all mapped out today.”  He pulled a paper out of his back pocket.

I held my hand out.  “Can I see?”

“Not so fast,” said Coli from behind Fohi, snatching the map from his hand.  “This goes to Kowi first.”  She marched away and handed it to her boyfriend who had arrived and was standing on the other side of the hut.

“Frigging bi…,” said Fohi, stopping himself from saying the word, fuming at her back.  “Where does she get off, huh?”

“Don’t worry about it, dude.  It’s just Coli,” said Rob.  “We were giving it to Kowi anyway.  She just acted as your personal delivery girl, right?”

Fohi turned around and laughed bitterly.  “Yeah.  Right.  Good one, Rob.”

Rob looked at me when Fohi turned to scowl at Coli again and rolled his eyes.

I had to stifle a giggle in the back of my hand.  While my head was turned, I saw Paci enter the hut.  I wanted to look away and pretend I didn’t care about him at all, but it was impossible.  Not only was he striking to look at in general, but tonight his stride was purposeful and his expression was especially serious as he went right up to Kowi and whispered in his ear.  He looked commanding and a little intimidating.

“What’s going on?” Rob said quietly.

“I have no idea,” I whispered back.

We didn’t have to wait long to find out.  Kowi and Paci came over to stand in front of me.  Kowi spoke first.

“Uh, Bryn … do you know someone named Jimmy?”

I looked at him confused.  “What?  No.”  I tried to think back to my life before my dad left.  There had been a guy named James in my trig class, but I had no idea where he was now, and he’d never gone by Jimmy that I knew of.

“How about someone named …” He stopped and looked at Paci.

Paci spoke up.  “Sissy.  He said her name was Sissy.”

“Sissy?”  Suddenly, it dawned on me.  “Wait a minute … do you mean Jimmy and Sissy at the Cracker Barrel?”  I looked at them like they were crazy.  Why in the hell would Jimmy and Sissy be here in the swamp?  Could that mean Bodo’s here?

I grabbed Paci’s arm and squeezed it hard in my excitement, my heart nearly leaping out of my chest.  “Is it Bodo?”

Paci took my hand and gently pulled it off his arm.  “No.  It’s not Bodo,” he responded, his face a blank mask.  He may have even looked slightly irritated, but I didn’t take the time to decide if it was because I’d just put the kung fu grip on his forearm or because of some other reason.

I looked from him to Kowi, totally lost now.  “What is it?  Who is it?  Why are you asking me this?”

Kowi sighed heavily.  “There are a couple kids who just showed up at the canoe rental place.  They started yelling until someone went to go see them.  They said Jimmy and Sissy sent them and to ask for Bryn and Bodo.”

“So?  Who is it?”  I was getting frustrated with answers that didn’t make any sense.

“Two guys named Ronald and Jamal.  They say they’re twins.”

I backed my head up involuntarily, pulling my chin in.  “Who the hell are they?  I don’t know anyone named Ronald and Jamal.”

“Well, they asked for you, so you need to come talk to them.”

I looked at Paci, lost for words.

He reached across the space between us, putting his hand on my back and pulling me forward, moving out of the way so I could precede him.  “Come on.  I’ll go with you.”

“So will I,” said Kowi.

“Oh, no you won’t,” said Coli coming up behind him.  “No way are you getting in a canoe with your gut like that.  Sorry.”

“Coli, I …”

“No!” she barked at him.  Then in a calmer voice she said, “Trip can go.  He’s on his way.”

Within seconds, the man of the hour came crashing through the trees, entering the area next to the hut, looking almost like a bull ready to chase down a matador.

“What’s going on?” Trip asked loudly.  “We got canners nearby?”  He was definitely ready for a fight.

“No, not canners.  Friends of Bryn.”

“They’re not my friends,”  I protested.  “I have no idea who they are.”

“That’s why you’re going to go find out who they are and how they think they know you.”  Kowi looked at the other chief.  “Trip, go with her.  Take a few guys.  There’s only two of them that we know of, but bring weapons just to be sure.  Keep at least four guys in hiding.  Use the signals to let us know what’s going on.”

“Wait!” yelled Fohi. “You gotta look at the map!  We put in some traps, and I don’t want anyone falling into one on the way.”

Trip shook his head.  “I knew this was a bad idea.”

“It’s not a bad idea, Trip,” said Kowi calmly.  “You know we need to get our defenses lined up, and you need to know where they are before you go wandering around on the outskirts.”  He opened up the map and showed it to all of us.  Someone brought over a torch so we could see it better since the light was getting dim.

Fohi and Rob leaned over Kowi’s shoulders and pointed out some spots that had been marked.

“Here and here are the pits.  Here’s the one Bryn fell in today.”  Fohi looked at me and added, “Sorry about that.  Again.”

Rob pointed to another spot.  “Here’s the other pit.  These two over here don’t have spikes yet.  And those four spots there have trip wires in, but none of them are armed yet.”

I had to admit, their positioning seemed pretty good, considering what I’d read in George’s journal and what I knew of the swamp.

Kowi was nodding.  “Good.  You guys okay with this?” he asked me and Trip.

We nodded our heads.

“Okay, then.  Good luck.  We’ll see you in a few.  Send a signal if you need more backup.”

Trip nodded and then turned, speaking in low tones to Yokci before heading into the trees at a fast clip.

Yokci took off in another direction.

I kept up with Trip as best I could, but even with Paci’s help, I lost him pretty quickly in the brush ahead.

“What the hell is his problem?” grumbled Paci.  “He knows you can’t walk fast.”

“He’s got boy troubles,” I said, before I thought to stop myself.  I tried to cover it up with a lame explanation.  “You know, cuz he’s a boy and all, and he’s troubled about the tribe and the injured kids and stuff.”

Paci gave me a sideways glance but didn’t question me further.

I tried not to sigh in relief too loudly.  I was going to have to watch myself a little closer, or Peter would end up killing me when I spilled the beans about his love life.  It was probably no match for what Trip would do to Peter, namely break his heart into a million pieces.  I had to make sure that didn’t happen, no matter what.

I forced myself to think about these two jokers who were trying to get into Kahayatle using my name as a password.  No way could they be up to any good.

***

Trip made us wait a few minutes before getting into the canoes.  Yokci finally arrived with a couple of loaded guns, and then we left, moving silently down the river.  Paci used poles to push the boat along.  It was quieter than oars and he did a great job of keeping us from hitting the edges, unlike me and my paddling.

We pulled up to the banks near the canoe rental place.  Two black guys were standing at the edge waiting for us.  They looked a little bit younger than me and nothing alike.  All of us were on high alert.

“Yo!  What’s up!” said one of them, a big smile on his face.  “Man, are we glad to see you guys.  I thought we were going to be hanging around all night out here.  These mosquitoes are brutal.”  He reached down and slapped one on his leg.  A second later he was waving something away from the front of his face, before he gave up and started clapping at it.

The other guy reached over and put his hand over his brother’s arms, gently but firmly forcing them down.  “Ronald, chill.”

“Oh.  Yeah.”  Ronald’s arms fell to his sides and his face reanimated.  “Is that you, Bryn?  Wheres’ Bodo?”

“I told you I didn’t know them,” I whispered to anyone who was listening.

None of us said anything; we just sat in the canoe looking at them from the middle of the river.  I was nervous as hell, waiting for a group of canners to come running out of the nearby trees.  Maybe they’re just going to shoot us from under cover.  These two guys could be decoys.

“Who are you?” demanded Trip.  He stood at the front of the boat with his chest puffed out.  I really wished he would sit the heck down and not be such an easy target, but I couldn’t blow his manly cover and risk really pissing him off.  I knew Trip well enough now to know that he would probably prefer a bullet to being emasculated in front of other guys.  Dope that he is.

“We already told one of your friends.  We’re Ronald and Jamal.  I’m Ronald and that’s Jamal.  We were send here by Sissy and Jimmy and they told us to ask for Bryn and Bodo.”  Ronald ducked his head down, looking right at me. “You’re Bryn, aren’t you?  You’re just like Sissy described.”

“How’s that?” asked Yokci, making me cringe.  I really wasn’t sure about hearing Sissy’s description, especially considering I’d disabled the lock on their back door - permanently.

“Brown hair, smallish, cute … and not an indian.”

“It’s Native American,” I corrected.  It was the best I could come up with; my brain was racing trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

“Oh, sorry.  Not Native American.”

“Why would she do that?” asked Trip, sounding angry and maybe a little bit confused like me.

“Because.  They have the waystation.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, tired of feeling like I was in the dark.  “I have no idea what a waystation is, and Sissy and Jimmy are not friends of mine.  I met them one time.”

Ronald scratched his head.  “Okay, let me start over.  Jamal and I met Sissy and Jimmy at the waystation. That’s the Cracker Barrel?  Up off I-95?  Anyway, we told them we were looking for a safe place to, you know, start over, and they suggested we look you up.  They said they had a couple other people ask and they sent them, too.”  Ronald looked at us for a few seconds.  “Didn’t they make it?”

We all shook our heads.

“Oh, man.  Sissy said she’d already sent like three people this way.  I wonder why they didn’t come.”

“What’d she tell you to do?” I asked, still mystified as to how they found me.

“She said to go to the Everglades and that we needed to ask for Bryn.”

“And you found her here.  Of aaaaalll the places in the Everglades you could have gone?” asked Trip, clearly doubting this guy’s story.

“Yeah,” said Jamal in a deeper voice.  “What?  You think we’re making this up?”  Jamal was mad.  I didn’t have to know him to see that.

“Just seems kind of hard to believe,” said Paci.

“Well, when you come down I-95 there’s all these signs for the Everglades and a giant shell shop with discount tickets to the Miccosukee Village … so we figured we’d give it a try, and if she wasn’t here, we’d just keep going down the highway until we found the right exit,” explained Ronald.

“It’s not like we’ve got anything else to do,” said Jamal.

“Other than avoid the crazies that’re out there,” said Ronald.

“Canners,” said Yocki.

“Yo, what?” said Ronald.

“Canners.  As in cannibals,” I clarified.

“Oh, yeah.  You got that right.  Canners.  Man, those loons are everywhere, you know?  But we move at night, when it’s harder to see us.”  Ronald smiled, his bright white teeth lighting up his face.

“You can’t stay,” said Trip, pushing on the pole, sending our canoe a little farther away from them.

I frowned but didn’t say anything.  I wasn’t sure what to do.

“What?  Wait a minute, man!  We came all this way!” protested Ronald.

Jamal hit him on the shoulder.  “Come on.  I told you this was a stupid idea.  They’re racist.  Let’s go.”

“We aren’t racist,” said Paci.  “We just don’t like outsiders.”

“That white girl in your boat says different to me,” said Jamal, challenging him.  He stood there on the bank, his hands fisted by his sides, looking proud and tough.

Ronald on the other hand looked like a deflated balloon.  His arms hung down and his head dipped low, making him seem utterly defeated.  He turned slowly away, saying nothing.

It broke my heart.  “Wait a minute, Ronald,” I said.

“What are you doing?” said Paci in a quiet voice.  “You can’t just let them in here.”

“They’re not allowed in,” said Trip.

“You can’t just leave them out there to get eaten,” I insisted.  “We have more than enough for two more people. And we could use the muscle.  Right, Rob?”

Rob shrugged.  “Couldn’t hurt.  But I’ve got no say in this.  I’m not the chief.”

“And I am.  And I said no.”  Trip pushed on the pole again.  “Leave now,” he said loudly to Ronald and Jamal.  “You’re not welcome here.”

I glared at Trip.  “Listen, Trip.  This isn’t a dictatorship here.  You either agree to take a vote, or I’m outta here.”

Trip scoffed at me.  “Yeah, right.”  He pushed on the pole again, sending us farther away.

I started to stand, but Paci grabbed my arm.  “Bryn?  What are you doing?”

I sat back down.  “I told him, if he doesn’t agree to do this fair, I’m outta here.  I’m not kidding.”

Paci pleaded with Trip.  “Come on, man.  You know that’s the right thing to do.  You don’t have authority to make this kind of decision alone anymore, anyway.”

“Shut your mouth, Paci.  We’re going back,” growled Trip.

“Screw this,” I said, before shaking Paci off, getting up on my feet, and diving into the water.

***

As soon as my head surfaced, I heard the guys yelling back in the canoe.  Then another splash.  A second later, I felt someone come up beside me, and I turned to confirm it was who I thought it was.  Paci was smiling like a maniac at me.

“One thing I can say about you, Bryn … is life is never boring with you in it.”

I smiled back, spitting out the swamp water that had made its way between my teeth.  “Thanks.  Or screw you. I’m not sure which is the right answer right now.”

He grabbed my arm and started pulling me towards the shore.   “It’s a compliment.  Come on.  Your leg doesn’t need to be in this water right now.  Let me get you outta here.”

The guys in the boat were all yelling at us.  I glanced back and saw it rocking back and forth.  Trip was too busy trying not to fall in to push the canoe away anymore, and it was getting all turned around.

We reached the spot where Jamal and Ronald were standing.  Ronald rushed over to help us out, but Jamal remained in place just staring at us.

“Thanks,” I said, taking Ronald’s offered hand.  “Oh, man, that stings,” I said, looking down at my leg.  The cloths that were wrapped over it were in bad shape, so I bent over to untie them and take them off.

“Damn, what happened to your leg?” he asked.

“I fell into a pit filled with … never mind.”  I glanced up at Paci and he gave me a look that said keep our secrets to yourself.

“Damn, girl.  That’s ugly,” said Ronald.

“Thanks,” I said, not even looking at him.  “It’s not as bad as it looks.”

“Yeah.  I’ve seen worse.  Especially these days.”

I finished getting the bandages off and stood, facing the brothers.  “So.  What’s this about Sissy and Jimmy?”

“Like I said … they told us to come here and ask for you.  We need a place to live.  We’re from Tampa.  It’s bad there.  Real bad.  We just kept going south until we got to that Cracker Barrel.  And when Sissy told us about you guys, we decided we might as well give it a shot.  Like Jamal said, we’ve got nothing else to do and nowhere else to go, so … here we are.”

“What makes you think we or anyone else would just let you in?” asked Paci.  “I mean, you said yourself how bad it is in Tampa.  It’s every man for himself these days.”

Jamal shrugged and answered when Ronald seemed too bummed to speak again.  “We heard we had a chance with Bryn and Bodo.  We were told they’re good people.  I guess we were told wrong.”

“Don’t talk like that about her,” said Paci, getting bristly.

“He doesn’t mean it,” said Ronald.  “We’re just frustrated and tired and scared … and tired of being scared.  It’s been a long couple-a months.”

I nodded.  I remembered all too well what it was like to be searching for a home and worrying about surviving the night in a strange place.

“Hey!” yelled Rob from the boat.  “Come on, guys!  We can’t wait out here all night!”

“Get in the canoe, Bryn!” ordered Trip.  “I’m coming to get you.”

I faced Trip.  “You might as well just go.  I’m not leaving here unless they can come, too.”

Trip’s face screwed up in anger, and his grip on the pole tightened until his arms shook.  But then he released it and his face dropped into its regular mask of prideful beauty.  “They can get in.  But when we get back, I’m talking to Kowi, and then they’ll be sent away.  And you’ll have to deal with what you’ve done tonight, too.”

I was so tempted to mock him, I had to literally bite my tongue to keep from saying anything.  Paci put his hand on my back for a second and said quietly.  “Just take a breath.  Don’t say anything else until we’re in front of Kowi.”

I nodded once.

“Who’s this Kowi guy?” asked Jamal.  “He someone we should be worried about?”

Paci moved to help bring the canoe closer, wading out into the water, so I answered.

“Kowi is one of the chiefs.  Trip is the other.  They decide who can stay and go in the swamp.”

“Two chiefs?  Is that normal?” asked Ronald.

“In this world?  Yeah.”  I glanced back at them, and they were looking at each other, shrugging.  I really didn’t get any vibes at all that they had ulterior motives or were working for canners.  Other than the fact they’d made it all the way here from Tampa alive, there was no reason to suspect their story.  I knew Jimmy and Sissy weren’t canners.

“So where’s that Bodo guy?” asked Ronald.

I cleared my throat and looked at the ground.  “We … uh … had a little problem with some canners who live in town.”

“Oh, man.  I am so sorry.  That’s bad.  Really.  My fault, my fault.  I should’ve kept my mouth shut.”

“You talk too much, Ronnie,” said Jamal.  “Sorry to hear about him.  About Bodo.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said, willing the tears away.  Bodo is not dead.  He is not dead.  He’s just … stuck somewhere and waiting for me to come get him.  Which I was going to do sooner than soon.  My leg was hurting, but not as much as I would have expected after jumping in the water and swimming to shore.  That meant I’d be ready to go in just a few days, max.

Don’ t worry, Bodo.  I’m coming!  I looked out towards the town, back in the direction of the house we’d blown up, sending vibes out to him just in case he was able to pick them up.

The canoe pulled up onto the sand, distracting me from my thoughts of my boyfriend.  We all got in carefully, Ronald and Jamal almost gingerly.  Jamal, the tougher-seeming of the two, looked like he was going to have a heart attack.

“What’s the matter?” I asked jokingly.  “Can’t swim?”

“No,” said Jamal in a tight voice.

“You’re kidding,” said Paci, clearly not believing him.

“No, he’s not kidding.  Neither of us can swim.”

“But you’re from Tampa!” I said.  “How can two guys from Tampa, on the coast, not know how to swim?”

“Black people don’t swim, okay?” said Ronald.  “Everyone knows that.”

“Whaaat?  You’re nuts,” I said.  “I know for a fact that LaShay swims.”

“Who’s LaShay?” asked Ronald.  Jamal seemed incapable of speech right now.  He was staring out at the water with stark fear etched into his face.

“She’s a girl who lives with us.  And she’s black and she can swim like crazy, even with … well, never mind.  She can swim her butt off.”

“Well, she’s special then.  Because none of my friends could swim and neither could anyone in my family.”

“And yet you came to live in the swamp,” said Trip, his words dripping with sarcasm.  “Brilliant.”

“You live here, and the place is full of gators and snakes and whatnot.  Didn’t stop you,” said Ronald.

“I’ve lived here my whole life,” Trip argued.

“In the swamp?  I don’t think so,” challenged Ronald.

“Whatever,” said Trip, angrily.  “Doesn’t matter if you can swim or not because you’re not staying.”

Ronald said nothing, looking to me for support.  I patted him on the hand, shaking my head at him so he’d stop talking.  It wouldn’t serve their purposes at all to remind Trip that I held the tie-breaking vote right now, so I wasn’t going to say a word either.  All I had to do was convince Kowi this was a good idea, and it was a done deal.

The kids living here hadn’t turned my family away; no way was I turning Ronald and Jamal away.  We needed to build our community, not isolate it. And this was the first step - letting settlers join us.

***

The canoe pulled up and Trip sent out a birdcall to whoever was listening.  I couldn’t remember what it meant, but nobody showed up with guns or other weapons, so apparently it wasn’t the attack call.  We all got out and walked to the ceremonial hut.  Everyone in the two tribes was waiting.

“Wow.  Word travels fast,” I said to Paci.

“Yeah.”  He looked down at me.  “Listen … I have to go stand with Kowi, but I’m with you in spirit, okay?  Don’t let Trip intimidate you.”

I smiled.  “Don’t worry.  I won’t.”

Before I realized what he was going to do, he bent over and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek.  I was momentarily stunned, giving him time to walk away before I could react.  I was left standing there like a dumb statue.

Peter caught my attention from across the crowded space, giving me bug-eyes and raised eyebrows.  I knew exactly what he meant, and didn’t need to hear what he had to say on the matter.  He was making his way over to me, shoving through the people as politely as he could.  I prayed he wouldn’t want to talk to me about that kiss right now.  We had bigger fish to fry.

Trip and Paci were talking to Kowi now, and he was listening intently.  The crowd was murmuring, everyone whispering or talking in low tones with each other.  The only ones missing were the kids we’d rescued from the canner place.  Must be considered tribe business only.  I wonder why they let Peter come if that’s the case.  I was glad they had, though.  At least I had two people on my side.

Winky waved at me from across the hut and I waved back, trying to smile my thanks for her support; but I’m afraid it came off as more of a grimace because she frowned, her hand dropping.  She whispered to the person next to her - Mandy, if I was seeing properly - and they both started pushing through the crowd headed my way.

A few seconds later, Winky was next to me, casting furtive glances at Jamal and Ronald who were standing just a foot away.

“What the heck is going on?” she asked.  Mandy stood next to her waiting for my answer.

“These guys heard about me from someone we met on the road, on our way down here.  They’re asking to stay.”

“Is Trip going to let them?” asked Mandy.

“He doesn’t want to.”

“I was going to say …,” said Mandy.  “He’s not usually the welcoming type.”

“So what’s the deal?  If Trip said no, why are they still here?” asked Winky.

“Because I said yes,” I said simply.

Mandy and Winky took one look at each other and started giggling.

“What’s so funny?” I asked, feeling uncomfortable that I was being laughed at.

Winky put her hand on my arm.  “We’re not laughing at you.  Get that look off your face.  We’re laughing because we know how pissed Trip is right now.  He’s going to be a miserable beast for days now, you know.”

I smiled.  “It’s not my fault he’s a pain in the ass who won’t see reason.”

“What’d you do?  How’d you convince him to give them a chance?” asked Mandy.

“Nothing much.”

Yokci leaned over my shoulder and filled them in.  “She jumped out of the canoe and refused to get back in until he agreed to let them come and talk to Kowi.”

Winky’s eyes bugged out.  “No friggin’ way!”

I nodded.  “My leg’s killing me, too.  Don’t tell Trip, though.”

Mandy looked down. “You idiot.  That thing’s gonna get infected.  You’d better go get it cleaned right now.”

“I will when this is over.  Looks like I’m up, anyway,” I said, watching Kowi detach himself from Trip’s angry diatribe and come over slowly to where we were standing in our small group.  Peter had made it to my side finally and grabbed my hand, squeezing it in support.

“So, Bryn.  You’ve brought some visitors into Kahayatle,” Kowi said soberly, looking first at Ronald and then Jamal.

The two brothers stood up straighter, maybe not even realizing they’d done it.  They looked so full of both pride and fear, my heart ached for them.  I knew what it meant, to finally find a home after feeling so alone and scared.  It made me even more resolved to do the right thing.

“Yes.  I have.  And I’d like for them to be able to stay.”

“Why should we let them?  Trip makes several good points.  We don’t know who they are.  They bring two more mouths to feed.  They can’t swim.”  His last point was said with a certain amount of incredulity.

“You didn’t know who I was, or Peter or Bodo, but you let us stay.  We have plenty of food to feed two more … in fact, many more.  And they can learn to swim.”

Ronald looked fearfully at Jamal.  Jamal’s mouth thinned, but he said nothing.

“You fought for and won your right to stay.  And if we let these two in, maybe we can feed them, but then more will come, and more and more.  We can’t feed every stray kid who wanders into the swamp.”

“I’ll fight for their right then, if it’s a fight you want.  And why can’t we feed everyone who comes?  We have crops, animals … everything we need to start over.”  I grabbed Kowi’s hands, surprising us both.  “Don’t you see?”  I looked over at Trip, including him in my plea.  “Our only hope of survival is building our community and sharing.  We can’t stay isolated and hope to keep our home.  The more desperate kids get out there, the more they’re going to band together for survival.  And the bigger their gangs get, the smaller we get in comparison!  We have to bring in all the non-canner kids we can and show them we can live without the violence and without the craziness.”  My eyes darted between the two leaders.  “Don’t you see?  It’s the only way.”

Kowi pulled his hands from mine and backed up several steps to stand next to Trip.  He turned to his friend and they shared a look.  Trip whispered in his ear for a few seconds and Kowi nodded, putting his fingers up to pinch the bridge of his nose after.

The entire group went silent.  Everyone was waiting with bated breath, on pins and needles, wondering what the verdict would be.  Finally, Kowi spoke.

“This decision is too important to make right now.  Trip and I are going to discuss it tonight and tomorrow, and let you know what we think at dinner tomorrow night.  These two can stay until then, but if we decide they have to leave, they have to agree to go without a fight.  If they can’t agree to this now, they have to go now.”

I looked to Ronald and Jamal for their agreement.  It wasn’t what I had hoped for, but it wasn’t a no either.  They both nodded their heads.

“Fine.  Bryn, you take them to your place tonight.  We’ll bring food you guys can eat there.  And we’ll see you at dinner tomorrow.”

“Does this mean her training sessions are cancelled for tomorrow?” asked Peter.

“Yes,” said Kowi.

“Her leg’s not ready anyway,” said Trip angrily.  He didn’t have to say that my jumping out of his boat hadn’t helped.  We both knew he was thinking it.

Everyone started talking again, all of them casting glances our way.  I was exhausted from the stress and my injured leg.  I tugged on Ronald’s shirt.  “Come on.  Let’s go.”

“I’m bringing stuff to clean your leg,” said Winky.  “Be there in about ten minutes.”

“Great.   Thanks.”

Peter led the way in front of us, keeping the scoldings I knew he was itching to throw out at me to himself.  I was glad for that, because I was feeling a little touchy right now and liable to say stupid things at the next person who gave me a hard time.

Paci came running up and fell into step beside me.  “I gotta go with Kowi, but I wanted to tell you good job, first.”

“Thanks,” I said lamely.  “I appreciate the support.  I hope it doesn’t get you in trouble with Trip.”

“I like being in trouble with Trip.  He’s an ass,” said Paci, smiling.

“You’re right.  He is.”

Peter turned around and scowled at me.  I stuck my tongue out at him.  I noticed Paci looking at us funny, so I stopped.  “I’ll see you tomorrow?” I asked.

“Bet on it,” said Paci.

I could see him getting ready to kiss me again, so I put my hand on his shoulder.  “Bye, Paci.”  I gave him a look that said not to do it, and he got the message.  He frowned for a second and then smiled again before running off.

Jamal and Ronald tripped their way to my hut, and it made me realize how not klutzy I was these days compared to them.  I smiled thinking about how I was adapting to my new home.  I hoped it was still going to be my home tomorrow after dinner.

***

Jamal and Ronald settled into our hut, sharing Bodo’s mattress which we dragged into the kitchen area to give them some privacy.  After nonchalantly bringing our backpacks with weapons inside over by our mattresses, Peter and I laid side by side, talking in whispers about the day and speculating about what might happen tomorrow.

“Did you talk to Trip today?” I asked.

“No.  He avoided me, jerk that he is.”

“Asshole,” I said, being supportive.  But I also meant it.  Trip was an asshole most of the time.

“He’s not really that bad.  He’s just under a lot of pressure.”

“He needs to have sex with someone, stat,” I said, giggling.

“Stop,” said Peter, shoving me over.  “Don’t be rude.”

“I’m not being rude. I’m just saying … he’s uptight.  He needs to let out some of that stress.”

Before Peter could protest again, Winky came by to fix my leg for me. Twenty painful minutes later, I was gratefully re-bandaged and back to gossiping with Peter.

“So do you think they’re going to let them stay?”

“Trip will say no, I know that.  But hopefully Kowi will say yes, and then I can do the tie-breaker vote and it’ll be done.”

“You know if you do the tie-breaker against Trip he’ll hate you forever.”

“Forever?  Really?”

“Well, maybe not forever.  But for a long time.”

“I don’t care.  I have to do what’s right … right?  I mean, do you agree with this?”

“Of course I do.  Don’t be ridiculous.  We came here just a little while ago and they let us stay.  And I think we’ve integrated just fine.”

“And you’d integrate even more if Trip would let you,” I said suggestively, wiggling my eyebrows.  I wasn’t sure if Peter could see them in the dark, but he got my meaning.

“Would you please shut up about that, already?  Geez, I never should have told you.”

“Yeah, right.  Like you could deny me.”

“Whatever.  The point is … we’re getting back to the point now, by the way … that yes, I agree with you.  But you have to face the fact that Kowi could very well say no.”

“Do you really think he would?”

“Maybe.  To keep the peace here, yes.  To make sure his people don’t starve by letting new people in.  Yes.”

“But they have all kinds of food here! That’s ridiculous!”

“Shhh!  Stop being so loud.  They’re going to hear you.”  Peter continued in a lower tone.  “I know they have plenty of food - for a couple hundred people.  But for more than that, I don’t know.  Eventually the demand will outstrip supply.”

I frowned at Peter.  “Sometimes you sound like a textbook when you talk.”

“Yeah, well I read it somewhere.  Supply and demand.  Look it up.  They could run out of food.”

“Not with two new guys or even a hundred new guys.  Did you know they have cattle?  And horses and stuff?  All they have to do is breed them and make more.  It’s a never ending food supply!  Not to mention all the gators and deer and turkeys and whatever else is running or slithering around in here.”

“I know, I know.  But they’re afraid, and you can’t blame them.  They have that ancient history of being welcoming to people outside their tribe, and look where it got them a couple hundred years ago.  Trip’s all obsessed about not repeating mistakes of the past.”

“Yeah, well, then he’d better remember what happens when people with bigger numbers come in and want stuff.  If it’s not given, they take it - and either kill people off or run them out.  This world isn’t going to be that different from the last.  We’re all still human after all.”

“Which means we act like animals sometimes.”

“Exactly.  Couldn’t have said it better myself,” I said, smiling.

“I know.  That’s why I said it,” said Peter smugly.

I slapped him lightly on the cheek.  “Go to sleep.  Your mighty brain is making me tired.”

“It does that sometimes.”

“And bored.”

“That too.   Especially with the more simple-minded folk.”

I reached over and kissed him hard on the mouth.  “G’night, sweet prince.  I’ll smell you tomorrow.”  I closed my eyes, but not before seeing him wipe my kiss off.

“God, where’s Buster when you need him?” asked Peter absently.

I didn’t even open my eyes.  “If you’re suggesting that you need that fish-breath dog to lick my nasty kisses off your lips, I’m gonna give you a nut crusher like you’ve never seen before.”

“Who me?  I would never …” He giggled and rolled over.

I sighed, but soon fell asleep, for once my dreams not haunted by snakes, canners, or Bodo’s beautiful face.

***

We spent the day hanging out in our hut, making up games using sticks and leaves.  Ronald and Jamal had come up with a pretty ingenious one using marked sticks, based loosely on dominoes.  Peter soon became the reigning champion, making us all look like idiots and barely-qualified minions with his despotic strategies.

“Come on, let’s go.  It’s too humid to be here anymore,” I said, finally giving up on ever winning a single game.

“Where are we going?” asked Ronald, standing up beside me.  He was a few inches taller but very skinny, probably weighing nearly the same as me because of his marked lack of nutrition.  His brother was broader in the shoulder and meatier in the waist and legs. He looked like he’d eaten twice as much as his twin.  If they really are twins.  They look nothing alike.

“To the pool,” I said, staring at both of them, trying to pick out any similar features.  Maybe the eyes…

Ronald sighed loudly.  “I wasn’t joking.  We really can’t swim.”

Jamal slowly sat back down, picking up his domino sticks and shaking them around in his hand, giving up instantly on my pool idea.

“Doesn’t matter,” I said.  “If you don’t want to go in, you can sit on the dock.”

Jamal dropped the sticks and stood back up with a happy expression on his face.  “I don’t mind getting my feet wet.  And it is pretty hot.”  It was the happiest he’d looked since I’d met him.

“Come on then,” I said, gesturing.  “Follow me.”

We walked quietly to the pool, each of us lost in our own thoughts.  I was planning the rescue of Bodo in my mind, finally deciding that I would leave in two days.  That would give Jamal and Ronald a day to get acclimated and acquainted with some of the others before leaving them behind.  They could keep Peter company, assuming they would be living with us.  I figured they would be, since I knew there probably weren’t a bunch of empty chickee huts standing around for random strangers to move into.

The pool came into view, and I could hear from the sounds of splashing that we weren’t the only ones with the brilliant idea of cooling off.  LaShay’s voice could be heard above everything else.

“You go, girl!  My gawd, that was a complete flip.  You are beyond belief, you know that?  Like a mermaid.”

When we were closer I could see she was cheering on a fellow amputee who’d just done some sort of flip in the water.  It had to have been difficult with only one arm to move the water around with.  LaShay reminded me of a physical therapist, guiding her patients and cheering them on.  I smiled at the thought of her in nurse’s scrubs, bossing sick people around.  She would have been an awesome medical person - doctor, nurse, therapist, whatever - she really cared about helping others get well, that much was obvious.

I walked up near to where her head was, at the edge of one of the docks, and bent down.  “Hello, gorgeous.”

She screamed, spinning around in the water, her face a mask of terror.  “Sweet Lord and baby Jesus … Bryn!  You scared the you-know-what outta me.  What’re you doin’ sneakin’ up on me like that?”  Her eyes lost their angry look as soon as they fell on Jamal.  “Oh.  My … goodness.  You brought friends.”  She smiled, reaching her hand up to smooth her hair.  She must have momentarily forgotten she only had the one, because she immediately sunk below the surface.

“Oh my god … she’s drowning!” yelled Ronald.  “I told you black people don’t swim!”

LaShay’s face came bursting up out of the water, spraying droplets around.  And she was pissed.  “What did you just say, boy?”

Ronald cleared this throat and stretched his neck out uncomfortably.  “Uhhh … I said you were drowning?”

“No.  After that.”

“That … uh … black people don’t swim?”

“Boy, get yo’ head outta yo’ butt.  Do you see a black woman up in here?”

“Yes, ma’am, I do.”

“Don’t you ma’am me!  I ain’t your momma or your fat, old lady neighbor!”

“Yes, I can see that.  I’m sorry.”  He sounded so contrite, I felt bad for him.  But I was laughing all the same.

“Fine, then.  You see this black woman swimmin’, don’t you?”

“Yes, I do see that.”

“Good.  Look real hard and say that shit again, then.”

“No.  I … uh … think I’ll just shut up now.”

“Mmm-hmm,” said LaShay, turning her back to him, “that’s what I thought.”  She calmly swam away, only a little bit off kilter because of her missing arm.

I couldn’t stop laughing.  Peter joined in, holding his stomach.

LaShay ignored all of us, continuing on with her graceful departure to the other side of the pool.

Ronald let out a long breath of air.

“That was friggin’ awesome, Ronald,” I said, patting him on the back.  “Thanks for that.”

“That what?  Spectacle?” he asked, still looking pretty stunned.

“The entertainment.  I love when LaShay gets her undies in a bunch.  Come on.  Let’s go swimming.”

Jamal and Ronald both looked afraid again, so I pointed to the dock.  “Sit there, take off your shoes, and dip your feet in the water.  It’s really nice.”  I reached down and pulled my moccasins off.

“Aren’t you afraid of snakes?” asked Ronald.

“And alligators?” asked Jamal.

“Yep,” I said matter-of-factly, and then jumped into the water with all my clothes on.

Within minutes the newcomers had a swarm of girls swimming at their feet.  They were all laughing and joking around, including Jamal.  He kept looking at LaShay, but she wasn’t giving him the time of day.  She was teasing Ronald though, and he was being really good-natured about it.  I had a feeling he must have had a bossy mother, the way he handled her so well.  He never got offended no matter what she said.  I liked him more and more with each passing minute.  He and his brother would be good additions to our little community.

Eventually the sun started going down, so I got out and sat down next to the guys.  “We need to get going.  The meeting will start in an hour or so and I need to try and get somewhat dried off.”

“You should probably get that leg cleaned up, too,” said Ronald, eyeing it warily.

I looked down and noticed it looked a little raggedy.  “I probably shouldn’t have gone swimming,” I said, almost to myself, biting my lip as I tried to touch it without making it hurt.

“I’ll get you fixed up.  Just go to the clinic, and I’ll be right there,” said LaShay.  She reached up and smacked my hand away from my leg.  “Don’t touch!”  She swam away, a group of kids following behind her.

I rolled my eyes and pulled my moccasins on.  I noticed Ronald and Jamal staring at the kids getting out of the water, every one of them missing an arm or a leg.  They exchanged looks but said nothing.  I was glad they were seeing it; I wanted them to know that the people here were the good kind and not the vicious kind.

When Peter and I were ready, the four of us walked together through the trees, headed towards the clinic.  Ronald finally spoke.

“So … we noticed that the kids in the pool were all … you know …”

“Missing body parts?” I suggested.

“Yeah.  I wouldn’t have put it quite so bluntly, but yeah.”

“Canner victims.  We rescued them a few days ago,” said Peter.

“Wow.  That’s amazing,” said Jamal, respect in his voice.  “You guys did that?  Why?”

“Because it was the right thing to do,” I said.

“But didn’t that put you in danger?” asked Ronald.

“Yes, it did,” said Peter.

“They took Celia, one of the Creek girls, and she escaped.  But she told us what was going on, so we could hardly just ignore it and do nothing,” I explained.

“Everyone else does,” said Ronald softly.

“Well, we’re not everyone else,” said Peter, his voice filled with pride.

“Can I ask you a question?” said Jamal.

“Seems like you already have,” I said.  I wasn’t being mean, but it seemed funny to ask permission now.  We’d already had the awkward why-are-all-these-kids-missing-limbs conversation.

“When you all made the decision to go after those guys … what did Trip say?  Was he for it or against it?”

I sighed.  I knew this wasn’t just about the canner mission.  “He was against it at first.  But he changed his mind.”

“Who changed it for him?”

“Kowi, probably.  They’re old friends.  He trusts him.”

“Do you think Kowi’s going to let us stay?” asked Ronald.

“I don’t know.  I want to think, yes, but you never know with these guys.  They have a lot of people to take care of and worry about.”  Even though I was pretty sure Kowi was going to let them stay, I didn’t want to get their hopes up yet.

Nobody said anything after that, all of us wondering about Ronald’s and Jamal’s fates.

We arrived at the clinic and Winky was there to fix me up.  LaShay helped, but mostly she busied herself with changing bandages on the hurt kids’ arms and legs; and she worked very hard at ignoring Jamal, too.  He kept staring at her but she obviously wasn’t interested.  I shook my head. Poor guy.  He and Peter should get together and compare notes on how to deal with difficult crushes.

We left the clinic a half hour later to go to the dinner meeting, along with all the people who worked there.  Everything was riding on this moment, but I didn’t let myself think about the what-ifs and the whys.  I just needed to get through tonight and the next couple days so I could go after Bodo.  Nothing was going to stop that from happening.

***

Everyone but us was already there.  Torches were lit and the food was out.  I walked the two newcomers over to the baskets of food and gave them a basic idea of what they were eating.  I left out the part that one of the hunks of meat might be snake, deciding since it hadn’t killed any of us, they’d be fine eating it too.  Maybe for fun later I’d tell them.  I had a feeling that Jamal might be easy to freak out when it came to eating things that slithered.

We ate in subdued silence, watching the others talking and joking around.  This was a no-big-deal thing for them.  For Ronald and Jamal it meant everything, and I totally felt for them.

I nudged Ronald.  “Don’t worry about it.  I’m sure it’s all going to be okay.”

Ronald shook his head slowly.  “I’m not so sure about that.  He would have sent word we could stay if that was his decision.  That would have been the nice thing to do.”

I hadn’t considered that, but I brushed off my misgivings.  “No.  He’s a formal guy about stuff like this.  He would have wanted to announce it.”

Ronald stopped eating and looked at me.  “You sure?”

“Yeah.  I think.”  I was suddenly even more stressed, feeling like I’d just vouched for an affirmative answer from the chiefs; and while I was confident they’d do the right thing, I wasn’t sure my idea of the right thing and theirs would always match up.  Please let it match up tonight!

“Just let it go, Ronnie,” said Jamal.  “It is what it is.  Stressing isn’t going to change anything.”

“Yeah.  I know,” Ronald mumbled, poking at his food.

My food started to taste like sawdust.  I threw my hunk of bread on the ground for Buster to eat and set the rest of my basket aside.  Maybe I’ll be able to eat it later.

Trip and Kowi arrived, not bothering to get food.  They stood talking for a few minutes before splitting apart, Trip going to stand with Jeremy, and Kowi remaining center stage.  He raised his hands for everyone to stop talking.

My stomach started to burn.

“I need to talk to you for a few minutes and then I’ll leave you to your dinner.”

The talking stopped and everyone faced Kowi.  Coli moved so she was just off to his left, looking every bit the proud chief’s woman.  I wasn’t sure if it was just my imagination or not, but she seemed to be avoiding looking at me.

“As you probably know, we had a couple of strangers enter Kahayatle asking for safe harbor.”  He looked over at Ronald and Jamal.  Ronald waved and gave everyone a quavering smile.  Jamal looked like he wanted to vomit.

Kowi looked out to the group.  “Trip and I have discussed it, and we’ve decided to decline their request.”

Gasps echoed all over the hut, mine included.  My heart spasmed, and the pulse in my neck started hammering.

He looked at Ronald and Jamal.  “You can stay the night, but at first light, you’ll be escorted out of the swamp and given a few days’ rations of food.  But if you try to come back, we will consider it an attack and react accordingly.”  He moved to leave the hut, Coli walking behind him with her chin held high.

I looked at him in shock and then over at the two boys; their expressions told me they were both terrified.

Before Kowi got two steps, I leapt to my feet, ready to blow a gasket.  “What the hell, Kowi?!”

He stopped, but didn’t look at me and didn’t say anything.

No one else spoke until Jamal said softly, “I told you, Ronald.  We’re not wanted here either.”

My heart nearly broke with the unfairness of it.  “You can’t be serious!” I demanded.  “Tell me this is a sick joke, Kowi, please.”

Kowi sighed and turned his head to look at me.  I noticed he didn’t bother to acknowledge the two people whose death sentences he was signing.

“I am serious.  Your tie breaking vote is not needed today.”  He turned his head back and started walking again.

“Well, I’m sorry to inform you that you’re going to get my vote anyway … and that’s that they be allowed to stay.”  I stood with my legs spread and fists at my side.  I felt a hand on my shoulder and shrugged it off.

“Bryn, let it go,” said Paci.

I had no idea when he’d showed up, but he was trying to tell me to back off, and all it did was make me hate him.  “Get away from me, Paci,” I growled, my eyes blazing.

He backed up two paces, frowning at me.

I turned back to Kowi.  “You can’t turn them out like dogs.  Hell, you don’t even turn dogs out!” I yelled at Kowi, pointing at Buster.

“We’re not treating anyone like anything except people who don’t belong.”

“What? … Is this a racial thing?” I asked, completely confused.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” said Kowi in an offended tone.

“Well, explain it to me, then.”

“You aren’t owed an explanation!” screeched Coli.  “You are not a part of this tribe!  So shut up and sit down like a good girl!”

I pushed Peter and Ronald out of my way, advancing on her with only one plan in mind: I was going to slam her smug face into the dirt and suffocate her with it.  She was hateful and nasty to the core and I was sick and tired of her constant ugliness in my life.

Kowi jumped in between us with his hands out.  “Bryn, back down!”

I met Kowi, toe-to-toe.  “Get the hell out of my way, Kowi, or I’m taking you out, too.  She deserves what’s coming to her.”

He pleaded with me with his eyes before doing it aloud.  “Please, Bryn.  She’s out of line.  I’ll talk to her about it.  But you can’t touch her.  I won’t let you.”

I raised an eyebrow at him.  “You think you can stop me?”

“Maybe he can’t … but I can,” said Trip, leveling a gun at my face from off to the side.

I turned my head slowly, fixing him with a death stare, not even a little bit shocked that he’d stooped to this level.  He hadn’t fought me fair before, so there was no sense expecting him to do it now.

“Don’t even try it,” I warned.

“You can’t move faster than a bullet,” he said calmly, never taking his eyes off me or his finger off the trigger.

“Holy shit, Trip, what are you …?  Come on, that’s not necessary,” said Kowi.  “Put it away.”

“What the hell is going on here?!” yelled Paci, louder and angrier than I’d ever heard him before.

Even I was startled enough to turn around.

“Have all of you lost your friggin’ minds?!  This is Bryn here!  And these guys are her new friends … they came her looking for her, not us.  You can’t just … point a gun in her face, Trip!”  He looked at Kowi, scolding him with his expression.  “Kowi, man … what is wrong with you?  You don’t treat people like this.  You’re letting Coli talk to people like they’re trash now?”  He looked back and forth between Trip who’d lowered the gun an inch and Kowi who looked just a tiny bit ashamed.  “Did I fall asleep and wake up in an alternate reality or what?”   He strode forward until he was standing at my side.  Then he roared.  “Somebody talk to me and tell me what’s happening!”

I heard LaShay’s voice behind me very softly say, “Damn … boy’s done lost his mind.”

Kowi was the first to respond, taking a step back before speaking, his hands up in a calming gesture.  “Paci, just relax.  We have enough hot heads here right now.”

“No, Kowi, don’t tell me to relax.  Because I’m pretty sure I just heard you say you were turning these two innocent guys … kids … out into the streets that you know very well are full of cannibals.”  Paci was fuming, spittle flying from his mouth, all the veins in his neck standing out.

“It’s not like that …,” Kowi started to explain but Paci cut him off.

“Yeah.  It is like that.  And pretending otherwise doesn’t change the facts, much as you might like it to.”  Paci looked at me.  “You see, Bryn.  This is what happens when you have dictators in charge.  The power goes to their heads and they can’t see any farther than the ends of their own fucking noses.”

“Paci, you’re outta line,” warned Trip, lowering the gun to his side.  “You’d better just shut the hell up now and go home.”

“Fuck you, Trip.  You too, Jeremy.”  He shot Trip’s sidekick a glare, noticing like me that he’d moved over to stand by his chief.  “You don’t tell me what to do.  If this tribe is about sending innocents to be slaughtered, I’m no longer interested.”

“Paci!” I gasped.  “You can’t mean that!”  My mind was whirling with the cascade of shit that was flowing down over all of us, ready to drown us in awfulness.

Paci turned on me.  “You don’t speak for me either, Bryn.  In case you haven’t noticed, I do what I want, when I want.”

My heart felt like it was breaking into several pieces.  I was so confused I didn’t know what to do or say.

“Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed,” mocked Coli from behind Kowi.

I nearly jumped out of my skin with my anger.  It didn’t matter that Paci had just slapped me down too; he was my friend, and as far as I could see, one of the few people in this miserable swamp who had a real heart and wasn’t afraid to share it.  I leapt at her, intending to go right through her boyfriend since he was in my way.

Kowi grabbed me around the middle and bear-hugged me.  I didn’t want to hurt him, but he left me no choice.  I jabbed him in his injured gut and then kneed him in the nuts when he let go of me to grab for his abdomen.

He slid to the floor of the hut at my feet and I reached over him, grabbing a fistful of Coli’s hair and pulling her to me, putting her in a tight head lock with my other arm.  I twisted my body around hard, ignoring the pain in my leg, and presented her head to Paci.

“Apologize, you miserable bitch!”

“Screw … you!” yelled Coli from under my arm, grunting as she tried to reach up and get a hold of me.

I squeezed her neck harder, cutting off her air for a few seconds.  “I’ll give you a friggin stroke, Coli.  I don’t give a shit if Trip shoots me.  I snap your neck on the way down if he does, I promise.”

I was trembling with the rage and anger and sadness that had overwhelmed me with this horrible situation.  These people who I’d respected and thrown my lot in with had let me down in a monumental way.  My home had dissolved into thin air, and I’d been totally unprepared for it.

“Last chance, ho-bag.  Apologize to Paci or become a bad memory for everyone here.”

Kowi moaned from the ground.  “Do it, Coli.  You were wrong.”

“What?!  She shrieked.  “But, Kowi?! …”

“Do it!” he yelled, lifting his face.  It was beet red with pain and anger.  “Just fucking do it, Coli.”

“Fine,” she said, pushing on my waist.  “Let me go.”

I released her and jumped back, ready for her to go after me.

She threw her long, tangled hair back out of her face and fixed first me and then Paci with a stare so full of hatred, I was almost surprised it hadn’t been physically painful for us.

“Paci,” she said in a low, eerily controlled voice, “I’m sorry.”  She turned to me, her voice going even lower and taking on a slight growl.  “Bryn, I’m not sorry.  And if you ever touch me like that again, I’ll gut you like a fucking fish.”

I took a step towards her and matched her, tone for tone, threat for threat.  “You come near me with a knife, a gun, or anything else I decide looks like a weapon, and I will end you, you crazy whacknut bitch.”

We stared at each other for a few tense seconds before Paci intervened.  He stepped up behind me and put his hands on my shoulders, gently pulling me back away from her.  I never let my eyes break their stare with hers, though.  Eventually she turned away and stalked off, leaving the rest of us in her angry wake.

Fohi came up on my left side, whispering, “Don’t ever turn your back on that viper, Bryn.  I’m serious.”

I nodded, silently thanking him for both his support and his warning.  I glanced over at Peter to see him standing off to the side looking stricken, tears coursing down his face.  He held Buster high up in his arms, squeezing him like a security blanket, burying his nose in his fur.  Even Buster seemed to appreciate how serious this moment was.  He wasn’t trying to lick anyone and his eyes looked sad, moving from me to Kowi and back again.

“Bryn … can we talk about this?” said Kowi.

“Sure,” I said, crossing my arms so I wouldn’t slap him.  “Are you reconsidering your decision?”

“No.  I just want to explain my rationale to you.  And to them,” he said, nodding at Jamal and Ronald.

The twins were standing so close together, they looked connected at the hip.  I could picture them as little boys, being excluded from a group of kids, left on their own and rejected.  It was awful and painful to see.  I couldn’t let this happen.  They’d be killed.

“Go ahead.  But nothing you say will make it okay in my mind that you’re sending them out.”

Kowi stood slowly, holding his gut with one hand and resting his other on his thigh.  “We can’t afford two more mouths to feed.”

“Bull.  I know you have livestock and crops.”

“Yes, but they’re enough for us and a few more maybe.  But not them.”

“Why?  What do you have against them in particular?”  I was so confused, and all Kowi was doing was confusing me more.

“They aren’t injured kids we rescued.  They aren’t one of our tribe.”

“Neither am I or Peter or Bodo.”

“But you had something special to offer us.  They don’t.”

“They can work.  They can make bread or make rugs.  Whatever.”

“It’s not enough.  Anyone can work.  They need to bring us something we can’t provide on our own to be of value enough to spare food and clothes for them.”

I looked at Jamal and Ronald, a question in my eyes; but they just shook their heads.  I guess it was too much to hope that one of them was a Nobel-Prize-winning scientist who could cure the common cold or cancer for us.

“Regardless,” I argued, “they’re human beings.  You can’t stand here and send them to be executed and eaten - and not necessarily in that order.  It’s … it’s inhumane!”

“We have to make hard decisions out here in our world … in Kahayatle.  That’s why I’m chief, because I can make those decisions that affect all these people, even when it pains me to do it.”  Kowi’s face looked miserable.  He honestly seemed to be in as much pain over it as I was, but that didn’t make it forgivable.

I gritted my teeth hard, forcing the tears to stay away.  I was so angry, I was sure they’d come out accompanied by crazed shrieks like those heard at mental institutions from the truly tortured.

Life had been very unfair to all of us, but up until now, I’d found ways to make it fair or to even the score.  But today, in this moment, I felt like we were being dealt a hand that didn’t need to be played - the very definition of unfair.  And regardless of what Kowi said or did, I was going to do the right thing.  Because if my dad had taught me nothing else, he’d taught me that no matter how hard it could be, it was always the right thing to stand up for kids who couldn’t do it for themselves.

I shrugged, taking on a casual air.  “Fine.  I guess we’ll be on our way tomorrow, then.”

“We?” said Peter weakly.

I turned to him. “Yeah.  We.  And that doesn’t have to include you, if you don’t want it to.  No hard feelings.”  I nodded once at him, hoping he’d realize I was expressing my understanding of his need to be safe and to work things out with Trip.  Just because Trip was a dick who’d just threatened to kill me, it didn’t need to mean Peter would miss out on his cuddles.  Love was too hard to find in this world to walk away from it, even if it meant choosing between friends.

Peter sighed.

“Peter?” said Trip, sounding almost vulnerable.

Everyone turned to look at him, expressions of surprise and confusion on their faces.

Even Peter looked a little shocked, but only for a moment.  He narrowed his eyes, a mutinous expression coming over his face.  He looked away from Trip and right at me, saying, “You bet your sweet buns we includes me.”  He bounced Buster up and down twice.  “Come on, Buster.  Time to go pack.”  He picked his way delicately over the roots on the ground, motioning for Jamal and Ronald to follow him.  “Come on, boys.  Let’s hit the hay.  We have a big day ahead of us.”

I shook my head in disappointment at Kowi and Trip one last time.  “Sorry it had to come to this.”

I walked away, leaving Paci standing there fuming at his chief, and the entire crowd of Miccosukee and Creek kids in stunned silence.

Chapter Four

I GOT BACK TO THE hut and found Peter there, crying while he packed our backpacks.  I walked over and pulled him away from his task, putting my arms around him and rubbing his back.  I was crying now too, and Buster was leaning against our shins, trying to get as close to us as he could.  If dogs could cry, he would be doing it now with us.

“I am so sorry, Peter.  You don’t have to go.  Please stay.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he said through his tears.  “I go where you go.  There’s no question.”

I pulled back away from him, wiping my nose with the heel and then the back of my hand.  “It’s safe here.  And you have friends here now, too.  And … well, you know.  Just stay.  It won’t hurt my feelings.  I’ll feel better knowing you’re good.”

He shook his head firmly.  “Who wants to stay with a bunch of fucktards who don’t know awesome when they see it?”

I coughed up a laugh. “Peter!”

“What?” he said calmly.

I frowned through the laughter and the tears.  “Now look at you.  You’re saying bad words.  Everything’s going to shit around us.”

We both smiled at each other, our chins quivering.

“You have snot running down your nose,” said Peter.

“So do you.  And it’s not attractive,” I said, wiping my nose on my forearm.

Peter sighed heavily, disengaging himself from my loose embrace.  “Well, I’m going to finish packing whatever I can here, and then I’ll go see what I can do about getting us some dried beef for the road.”

“Good.  I’ll …”  I looked around me, at a loss for what I could do to prepare us to leave our home.  “I’ll sit down and contemplate the lint in my belly button.”

“Excellent plan,” said Peter, picking up cans of beans and looking at the labels.  “Do me a favor and ask your belly button if it has any ideas for where we should go tomorrow.”

“Will do,” I said, looking over at the sleeping area.  Jamal and Ronald were staring at us with worried expressions on their faces.  “No,” I said to them as I joined them, “I haven’t lost my mind.  We’re just joking around to let off steam.  We’ll be fine in a few hours.”

“Or eighty,” said Peter from the other room.

“Or eighty,” I repeated softly.

“Listen, Bryn … you guys don’t need to do this,” said Ronald.  “This is your home.  You stay and we’ll just go and leave everyone alone.”

“Nope,” I said cheerily.  “We’re going together.  And the first thing I’m going to do, is go rescue my boyfriend if he’s anywhere out there to be rescued.  You guys will have to decide if you want to go with me or do your own thing.”  I looked over my shoulder and said louder, “You too, Peter.  You can hang out in an abandoned house if you want and wait.”

“Nah.  I like keeping you out of trouble.  I’ll be coming with you, even if you decide to go somewhere stupid like the canner ‘hood.”

“You’re talking about going to the place where you know there are cannibals?”  Jamal said.  He looked at his brother.  “I’m sorry, brother, but she seems to be operating with a card or two missing from the deck.”  He looked back at me.  “No offense.”

I laughed.  “Jamal, I’ll try not to take offense to you calling me crazy.  I guess I’ve been called worse.”

“He didn’t mean it like that,” said Ronald, frowning at his brother.  “What he meant was, he’s grateful that you stuck up for us, but maybe you should consider just counting your blessings and staying here in Eden.”

“Pfft.  Eden, my ass,” I said bitterly.  “You get kicked out of Eden for sticking your nose in business you’ve been told to ignore … not for sticking up for people and doing the right thing.”

Jamal frowned.  “Well, yes and no.”

I shook my head.  “I’m not going to have a religious conversation with you right now.  Or ever, probably.  I’m just saying … I don’t want to live in a place where good kids are excluded because people are afraid and being selfish because of it.  Plain and simple.”

“Us, neither,” said Ronald, receiving a nod of agreement from his brother.

“Good.  Then it’s settled.  We start out tomorrow together.  You guys, Peter, Buster, and me.”  I looked around at all of them, Peter having joined us near the mattresses.  “So where are we going to go after we find Bodo?”

No one said anything for a full minute.  It was terrifying to think that none of us had a clue where we’d be living less than twenty-four hours from now.  I tried not to focus on that aspect of it.

Jamal raised his hand slowly, stopping it when it was even with his cheek.

I lifted an eyebrow.  “Are you raising your hand?”

He nodded.

I gestured.  “Go ahead.  By all means.”

“Well … Ronald and I were talking before … before we met Jimmy and Sissy … about a certain place.”  He glanced at his brother, who nodded, so he continued.  “It’s south of here a little bit, but not far at all, really.  We could probably walk there in a day or two.”

“Where is it?”

“Not where.  What,” he said mysteriously.

“Okay, what is it?”

He took a big breath and huffed it out, pressing his lips together once before answering.

“It’s a  prison.”

***

Peter and I looked at each other.  He shrugged his shoulders and gave me a look that said, Why not?

“You mean, like Alcatraz?” I asked.

Jamal smiled.  “No.  That prison was on an island - and probably would have been perfect.  But seeing as how it’s in San Francisco, it probably isn’t very realistic for our purposes.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling stupid.  I had no idea where Alcatraz was prior to Jamal telling me.

“The place I’m talking about used to be the biggest penitentiary in South Florida.  A friend of ours’ uncle was in there, so he told us about it.  He showed me on the computer once.  It’s got barbed wire all around it and fences, of course.  And big buildings filled with rooms and stuff.  We were thinking it could be good for not only living in but for defensive purposes too, if you know what I mean.”

I nodded my head as I thought about all the possibilities.  “Does it have land around it too, or is it all concrete?”

Jamal frowned.  “I can’t remember.  I think I saw some grass and stuff.  But it’s kind of out of the city, so it probably does have land around it.”

My mind was racing a million miles an hour.  If we could get some cattle and horses like the kids here have, and a loom or two and supplies that actually create other supplies instead of just getting used up … we could start a whole new self-sustaining community!  I grabbed Peter’s arm.  “You need to find us some looms.  And figure out what it’s going to take to make a bread oven like they have.”

“Okaaay,” he said cautiously.  “Care to share what’s burning your brain cells at an alarming rate right now?”

“I know exactly what she’s thinking,” said Ronald, getting animated too.  “It’s exactly what Jamal and I said to each other.  We need a place to start over.  To start fresh.  Where we can invite people to join us and share with us.  It’ll be the new world!  Better than the old one!  Without intolerance or racism or hatred or any of that nonsense.”

Peter held up his hands.  “Ho, ho, hold on there, guys.  You’re all getting a little bit ahead of yourselves here, I think.”  He dropped his hands and looked at each of us before beginning again.  “How do you know it’s available and that there aren’t already kids there?  And how are just the four of us going to be able to hold down a place that big?  The logistics of running a whole community are … astronomically complicated.”

I patted him on the back.  “That’s where you come in, little buddy.  You’re the genius.  Figure that all out for us and tell us what to do.  You’re the new mayor of Apocalypsis.”

“Why Apocalypsis?” asked Jamal.

“Well, it recognizes what got us there in the first place, for one.  And it also kind of shows that we’re flipping the world around a little bit, changing the way it’s been or shaped.  No longer round but maybe just a little bit elliptical.  Apocalypsis … get it?”

Ronald nodded, smiling.  “I like it.  I vote yes.”

“Yes for me too,” said Jamal, smiling with his brother and for the first time, showing me clearly that they are, in fact, related.

“Fine,” said Peter.  “If you guys like it, I like it.”

I rubbed his back.  “See how easy that was?  Now do the rest and let us know our parts.”

Peter stood up.  “First thing’s first.  We need to pack.”  And he was back to breaking down the pantry’s contents into the going-with-us pile and the staying-behind pile.

“You guys should get some rest.  Why don’t you crash here, and we’ll talk more in the morning?” I offered, standing and straightening my shorts.

“Where are you going?” asked Ronald.

“I have to go talk to some people.  I’ll be back later, don’t worry.  We’re all going to need a good night’s sleep before we head out.”

Ronald and Jamal nodded.

“I’ll see you later, Peter.  Don’t wait up.”

“Whatever,” he said, too distracted to probably even realize I was leaving.

Now where in this godforsaken swamp am I going to find Mandy?

***

I found Mandy and several others at the pool.  There was none of the frolicking around and splashing I had heard before.  Now people were floating in groups or sitting on the walkways, talking quietly.  Some of them were even crying.  A small piece of me was happy to know that we would be missed, even if only for a day or two.

I saw Mandy and walked over to her, gesturing for her to follow me.  I waited a few feet away and didn’t start talking until I knew we were far enough from the others that they wouldn’t hear me.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hey.  How are you doing?  Are you totally freaking out right now like we are?”  She put her wet hand on my arm.

“Yeah, pretty much.  But I’m here to ask you for a favor.”

“Sure.  What’s up?”

“I need to know how I can get my hands on one of those looms like you have.  If I’m going to be starting over somewhere, I need to be able to make cloth like you guys do.”

“It’s not going to help if you don’t have the raw materials,” she said, sounding sad.  “I want to help you, though.”

“I know that about the materials … I plan on getting some of those, too.  Somehow. I’m not sure how yet, but I will.” I smiled at her sheepishly, a little embarrassed about not having all the pieces together.

“I can help you.  Just go to your hut.  I’ll come by in a little bit.  Maybe an hour or so, okay?”

“What are you going to do?”

“Just go.  I’m going to do whatever I can, but I don’t want to make you any promises, okay?”

“Okay,” I said, a little worried that her idea of help might not actually help me the way I needed right now.  But she walked away and left me standing there, striding down the walkway and into the trees, so there would be no more questioning done by me tonight of Mandy.

I heard wet feet coming over and noticed LaShay approaching.

“Hey, girl.  I feel so bad for you, right now.”

“Don’t.  I’m going to be fine.”

“How are you going to be fine?  I don’t mean to be all Miss You-Ain’t-Got-No-Hope an’ all, but seriously … I’m scared for you and them boys.”

I rubbed her upper arm.  “Thanks for your concern, really.  But we’re going to be fine.  We have a plan.”

“You do?  Already?”

“Yeah.  We didn’t make it this far by being a bunch of dummies.”

“No, I didn’t mean it like that.  I’m just surprised you’re bouncing back so soon.  That’s good.  I’m proud of you, baby.  You’re strong.”

Her words warmed my heart.  “Listen, LaShay … if you’re ever kicked out of the swamp, come look us up, okay?  I think all of us would like that, but especially Jamal.”

“You think so?  Hmph.  Well.  Maybe I will someday.  Where you gonna be stayin’ at?”

“The big prison south of here.”

“What’s it called?”

“I have no idea.”

She let out a big belly-laugh.  “Oh girrl, you crack. Me. Up!  … Don’t know what it’s called …”  She threw her hand up.  “Well how’m I gonna find you then?”

I smiled, giving her a high five and folding my fingers in with hers for a second before letting her go.  “I’ll find the name and give it to you before I leave.  I’ll give it to everyone.  Anyone is welcome to join us there.”

“I’ll spread the word.  Maybe someday when my arm is all better and they don’t need me around here, I’ll wander on down and stay a while.”

“They’re never going to stop needing you here, LaShay.  You’re the best medical person they have … that anyone could have.  And I don’t want to take that from them.  But I’m just saying … if you ever feel the need to leave, you have somewhere to go.”

“You make my soul feel alive again, you know that, Bryn?  Today I know for a fact that there are good people out there, doin’ good things, watchin’ out for their fellow men and women … you are restoring my faith in human beings.  And after what I went through?  … That means a lot.  A lot, lot, if you know what I mean.”

She grabbed me with her good arm and pulled me in tight, soaking me with her wet clothes.  “You stay strong.  Everyone here ‘cept that nasty old Coli is pulling for ya.  You gonna make it, I jus’ know it.”

I patted her back.  “Thanks, LaShay.  I’ll see you around.”  I drew back from her.  “Lots of people to see before I go.  Maybe I’ll see you again in the morning?”

“Count on it.  I’ll be at the goodbye party,” she said, wiping tears from her eyes.

I left her, my heart swollen with love for the kind words she’d shared with me.  Leaving this safe home didn’t feel quite as awful as it had just an hour ago.

***

I was making my way through the trees to go back to my hut when I ran into Rob and Fohi.

“There you are!” said Fohi.  “We’ve been looking all over the place for you.”

“Here I am.  I was at the pool, saying goodbye and trying to figure some other stuff out.”

“Other stuff like what?” asked Fohi

“Stuff like how I can get a loom to take with me.”

“A loom?” asked Fohi, his voice cracking.  “What do you want a loom for?”

Rob hit him in the arm.  “She wants to be able to set up shop at her new place, stupid.”

“Oh, yeah.  Hey, that’s a good idea.”

I smiled.  “Thanks, Fohi.  High praise coming from our demolitions expert.”

Rob laughed, but Fohi smiled, pleased with himself.  “Thanks.  Yeah, I am good that stuff, aren’t I?  Demolitions expert.  I like the sound of that.”  He was nodding his head, biting his lip, looking off into space.

“Yeah.  You’re an expert only because you haven’t managed to blow yourself up yet,” said Rob.

“Shut up, buttmunch,” said Fohi, snapping back to reality.  “Stop harshing on my mellow all the time, would ya?  Geez, why you always gotta do that?”

“Hey, guys,” I said, interrupting Fohi’s whining.  “You were looking for me?  I assume to say goodbye, so … thanks.  And goodbye.”  I put my arms up and stepped towards Rob to give him a hug first.  He moved towards me and pulled me into a huge embrace, picking me up off the ground so I was at the level of his shoulder, about a foot and a half higher than I was used to being.

“Oh, wow, that’s a good one,” I said, giggling.

He put me down, but grabbed my arms and held onto them as they were sliding away.  “Not so fast, Bryn.  Appreciate the hug, but we’re not saying goodbye.  We’re going with you.  That’s what we came to tell you.”

“What?” I said, his words not computing.

“He said we’re going with you,” said Fohi.  “Isn’t that cool?  We’re forming a new tribe and you’re the chief … esse.  You’re gonna be the chiefesse.”

I laughed, still confused.  “You guys want to go with us?  Are you serious?”

“Serious as a heart attack,” said Rob, all the laughter gone from his voice.  “We want nothing to do with a group of people that do what Kowi and Trip did tonight.  That’s the old world.  We want a new one.  A better one.”

“But I have nothing,” I said, flabbergasted.  “I have no food, no weapons, no way to make clothes … you’d be starting from ground zero with me.  Canner bait.”

“We don’t care.  We know we’ll find all that stuff eventually,” said Fohi.  “Besides, who do you think helped get them that stuff in the first place?”

“Other indians?” I said.

“Native Americans!” scolded Fohi and Rob at the same time.

“Oh, crap, sorry.”

“Never mind.  Anyway, what Fohi is trying to say is, we’ve got skills.  And we want to use them for you … as part of your team.  We’re ready to go with you tomorrow.”

I didn’t know what to say.  My mouth kept opening, but no sound would come out and no words would form.  They were offering up their safety.  Their three-meals-a-day security.  Their family.  All to go be a part of mine.  I was humbled to the core and didn’t know how to tell them.

“I can see you’re a little stunned by it, so we’ll just let you chew on that for a while and come get you in the morning, ‘kay?” said Fohi, patting me on the shoulder.  “We’ve got some stuff to do tonight, but we’ll be ready.”

Rob reached out and pulled me into another quick hug and then released me.  “Chin up, Bryn.  Everything’s gonna be okay.  I promise.”

“I promise too,” said Fohi, grabbing me in an awkward hug that felt more like a wrestling move.  I closed my eyes until it was over, afraid if I looked at Rob or Fohi again, I would cry.

They walked away and I waved feebly, too stunned to act like a proper friend and thank them aloud, and too afraid to argue them into staying.  I was going to need all the loyal team members I could get.

***

I got to the hut and found Paci waiting for me, along with my roommates.  He held his finger up to his lips at them, in a gesture that seemed to be telling them to be quiet about something, and met me at the entrance.

“Hey,” he said, searching my face.

“Hey,” I responded, feeling totally awkward and weird about him being there, wondering what he’d been talking to my friends about before I arrived.  I was hoping he wasn’t still mad at me, and I really didn’t want to say goodbye in front of everyone.  I was sure to bawl and get all boogery again.  My feelings for Paci were complicated, but at the very least, he’d been one of my most supportive friends - and this world was too small and scary sometimes to not really appreciate that.

“Can I talk to you for a sec … like take a quick walk or something?”

“I have to get to bed soon,” I said, eyeing him warily.

“It won’t take long, I promise.”

I shrugged.  “Sure.”  I looked over at Peter.  “Be right back.”

He waved me away, busy with his packing.  There were three backpacks sitting on the floor next to him, filled to the brim, packed like my dad had taught me and how I had taught Peter.  It made me smile to see my dad’s influence on him like that.  It lightened my heavy heart just a touch.

Paci left the hut and I followed behind, not sure where he was taking me.  I’d never been the way he was going before, probably because it was a maze of cypress trees that had grown into a web of roots that rose out of the ground several feet, some of them indistinguishable from branches.  It wasn’t an easy stroll down a well-worn path by any means.

He stopped at a big group of trees and roots, pointing up to one that looked like a loveseat hanging in the air.  “Let’s sit up there.”

I nodded once.  It was kind of cool, actually, this natural hangout up in the trees.  It reminded me of the treehouse I’d always wanted.  Paci led the way to the base of the tree hosting the seat and used well-worn nobs and branch-steps to work his way up.  I followed and soon we were both sitting side-by-side on the natural seat, looking out through the trees and down to the ground below.

“Thanks for coming out here with me.  I know you have a big day ahead of you.”

“No problem.  This is cool.”

An awkward silence fell over us.  I busied myself with trying to visually separate the crunchy leaves from the not-so-crunchy ones on the ground, making a plan for a silent disappearance, for no reason other than to avoid thinking about my feelings for Paci which were growing more confusing and stressful by the day, hour, and minute.

“I know I’ve been acting weird around you,” said Paci, “and I’m sorry about that.”

I looked at him, surprised.  “You’ve been acting weird?  I thought I was the weirdo.”

He smiled.  “No.  It was me.  You’re as cool as you’ve ever been.”

I nudged him with the side of my body.  “Thanks.  I think you’re lying, but thanks anyway.”

“I like you, Bryn.  I mean … I really like you.”

My throat closed up a little bit as my pulse rate doubled and then tripled.  My voice sounded strained when it was finally able to work again.  “So you’re just gonna come right out and say it, huh?”

He laughed.  “Yeah.  I figured I might as well.  You’re gonna shoot me down anyway, right?”

My face was burning and I was sweating now.  I sighed.  “There’s no use denying that I think you’re … you know … really good looking.  And funny.  And fun to be around.  But you know I have to find Bodo …”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.  I get it.  I respect that.  I mean, if you were my girl, I’d want to know you loved me that much - to come after me like that.”

“It’s a real relief to hear you say that, Paci, because I don’t want to be mean to you or treat you bad.  I think you’re a really special person.”

“No harm, no foul.  I’m cool.  You’ll probably hate me in a second anyway when I say one last thing.”

I was instantly wary.  “What?  Do I really want to know?  Maybe you can just not say it.”

“No.  I have to say it.  I know I would always regret it if I didn’t.”  He turned to look at me.  “I just want to say that if you go out there, and you don’t find him, or you do and it’s bad news, I want to be the next guy in line.”

My emotions were jumbled up and mixed around like the roots of the tree I was sitting on.  There were feelings for both guys inside me, twisted together so much, I couldn’t see where one started and the other began.  How can I want to find Bodo with everything I have, and at the same time wish I could be with Paci just once, to see how it could be?  I stood up, disgusted with myself, grabbing the branch beside me.  “I’ve gotta go, Paci.  I can’t deal with this right now.”  I’ve gotta get out of here before I do something stupid.

He stood up next to me and grabbed the same branch, towering over me and blocking my way to the tree’s trunk where I could climb down.  “I’m sorry to lay that on you.  Don’t be mad.  I just had to get it off my chest, and let you know how I feel.”

“That’s cool.” I said, looking down.  “I’m not mad.  But I’ve really gotta go.”

He reached up with his free hand and put his finger under my chin, tilting my face up so I was forced to look at him.

I tried not to look but it would have been weak and childish to refuse to meet his gaze, so I did.  Within seconds, his earnest, almost slightly pained expression and the chocolaty brown of his eyes, ringed by eyelashes so dark they made him look like he was wearing smudged eyeliner, drew me in, making me feel a little dizzy.

Neither of us said anything for a few moments.  His hand left my chin and went to my hair.  He pulled a hunk of it out gently to the side and looked at it.  “So pretty,” he said in a soft voice.  His eyes came back to mine.  “You’re beautiful, you know that?  I love to watch you do your thing.”

My breath was caught in my throat.  He sounded like Bodo and then again he didn’t.  He was calmer, but more intense, less playful.

I watched as if in a dream, as his face got closer to me and his eyes closed.  My lashes fluttered down of their own accord, and a second later I felt his warm breath on my mouth and then his lips touching mine.

His kiss was tentative at first, testing me to feel for my reaction.  The fact that he hadn’t really forced himself on me and was still giving me an out made me lose my focus.  To be given this gift, an amazing guy who could have had any girl in the world, wanting to be with me and telling me how pretty I was … it was a heady drug in this world of sometimes very intense loneliness.  His tongue came out to touch the spot where our mouths met, and I couldn’t help but use my tongue to greet him there.

His free hand came up behind me and pulled me against him.  The only thing keeping us from falling fifteen feet down to the ground below was the branch above our heads that we both gripped onto with our other hands.  It was awkward and dangerous and stupid and wrong and right, all at the same time.

The kiss became as passionate as it could have with us like that, standing on a web of roots and holding on for dear life one-handed.

Paci’s hand moved down to squeeze my butt, and without thinking too hard about it, I pulled his waist closer to me.  Something inside of me wanted to feel our bodies pressed together.  He was big and solid, warm and musky-smelling, making me feel safe and desired.

But it was when I felt how aroused he was that the shock of it woke me out of the haze of passion.

I moved my hand that had drifted to his butt, over to his waist and pushed him away, pulling my head back at the same time.  He was left hanging above me, his lips apart and his glistening tongue poised at his bottom lip.

“What?  Why’d you stop?” he asked breathlessly, pulling my head back towards him and resting his forehead on mine.

My brain and body were warring one another.  My hands and hips and breasts wanted to pull him close again.  But my brain knew it was wrong.  I loved Bodo, and until I knew he was gone from this earth, I had to stay true to that.  If he were out there somewhere waiting for me, then I knew he was being true to me.

“I can’t, Paci.  I want to, in a way, but I can’t.  It’s …”

“Bodo.  I know.  You don’t have to say it.”  Paci stood up straight, licking his lips and running his hand over his braided hair.  “Come on.  I’ll stop torturing us both.”  He turned around quickly, moving along the branch like he did it every day, practically running down the natural steps that led to the swamp floor.

I took my time getting down, not trusting myself to be as sure-footed as I normally was.  I was trembling from the pent-up passion and conflicting feelings of guilt.

Paci held his hand out to help me down the last few steps and I took it, releasing it as soon as my foot touched the ground.

“I’m sorry I did that,” he said quietly, breaking the silence that made me want to run away from him as fast as I could.  “I just needed you to know how I felt before you left … to see if maybe there was a chance you’d stay.”

“I can’t stay.  I was hoping you’d understand that.”  I forgot my plan to avoid the crunchy leaves and stepped wherever I needed to in order to get back as quickly as I could without running like a scared little girl.

“No.  I do.  I completely do.  I don’t know why I’m staying, to be honest.”

“Because it’s your home, that’s why.”

“I’m wondering why that matters so much, though, when it’s run by people who’d send kids like you and those other guys out into a world full of cannibals.”

“They’re doing what they think is right.  I happen to think they’re wrong, but I’m not in charge.”

Paci held his hand out, stopping my eager pace.  “What would you do if you were?” he asked.

My feet slowed and I came to a halt, looking at his face.  He seemed dead serious, even though it was a wasted question.  “Why does it matter?”

“I’m just curious.”

I hadn’t thought of it before, even though Fohi’d said that stupid thing about me being a chiefesse.  I had no intention of being the chief of any group.  “I’m no leader.”

“Just say that you were.  What would you do in this situation?”

“I’d let them stay, of course.”

“And what about the next hundred people that came by?  What about them?”

I shook my head at him.  “You’re not getting it.  I’d let anyone come and stay.  Anyone who didn’t mean us harm.”

“But how would you support them?”

I threw my hands up in frustration.  “The same way you’re supporting people now!  Hunt and grow food, grow crops to make clothing, build huts for them to live in.  The place is big enough for thousands of people.”

“But what if you had a ton of kids show up, all at once, and didn’t have the crops or food or whatever?”

“I’d find a way, Paci.  I’d plan ahead and assume they’d come.  I know it might not be comfortable for a season or two, until crops grew or animals were born, or whatever … but this country was big enough for millions of people before.  Surely it can manage a few thousand around here.”

“You make it sound so simple,” he said, shaking his head.

“It is simple.  People need to be with people.  There’s safety in numbers.  Kids who are doing the right thing deserve to be here.  Add it all up.  You want to stay safe against a canner invasion?  You’d better start inviting some friends in here.  Your tribe is about to lose several members.  You should be building your tribes, not whittling them away.  It’s just plain stupid and ignorant, and I’m not going to hang around here and get slaughtered with the rest of you.”

“That’s kind of harsh, don’t you think?” he asked, no censure in his voice.  It was almost as if he were testing me with his questions.

“Harsh?  Only if you consider reality harsh.  I guess it is, these days.  Read George’s journal, which has never been wrong, so far.  There’s safety in numbers.  Our enemy is growing.  There are gangs of those animals in almost every town now.  They’re going to band together at some point when they realize they can take down an entire community of easy meat like you guys and feed themselves for months.”

“That’s kind of disgusting when you put it that way.”

“Whatever.  It sucks, but it’s our reality.  And I’m not going to be a sitting duck.”  I walked away, leaving him standing there.  “I have to go, Paci.  Goodnight.”

“Night,” he said.

I barely heard him as I intentionally put distance between us as fast as I could.  I didn’t need to waste my time explaining myself to him; he either got it or he didn’t.  But regardless, I was leaving and he was staying and I’d probably never seem him again after tomorrow.  And maybe I wouldn’t even see him then.

I wiped my mouth off with the back of my hand, hating myself for kissing him back.

***

I got back to the hut and the guys were sitting on the mattresses, deep in conversation.

“What’s up, guys?” I asked, coming in and dropping down onto the floor, grabbing Buster into my lap to play with his ears.  I needed some doggy therapy to cool my jets.  I watched their faces, looking to see if they were judging me over what they might suspect I’d been up to, but all I saw was concern.

“We’re just talking logistics,” said Peter.  “I’ve got backpacks for everyone, a pair of moccasins for each of the guys, so we’re all set there.  And the food we brought that hasn’t been eaten is all in.  I guess what we don’t have is our trailer and bikes.  I’m worried about doing this whole thing on foot.”

“We’ll get our bikes and our trailer back,” I said.

“Do you think they’ll let us have them?” asked Peter.

I frowned at him.  “Let’s get one thing straight: I’m not getting kicked out of this place.  I’m leaving voluntarily.  And I’m taking everything I brought, including my weapons.  If they think they can stop me from doing that, they’ll soon learn they’re wrong.”

“I’m pretty sure they’re not going to give up the grenades,” he said wryly.

I stood.  “I’m pretty sure they don’t have a choice.”  I stalked off, intent on finding the location of the grenades and bringing them back.

“Bryn, wait!” yelled Peter, but I ignored him.

I went into the trees towards the clinic, not bothering to try and walk silently.  I was too mad and didn’t have enough time to make the required effort.  I needed to get some sleep before we left and darkness had fallen a long time ago.  The grenades were out there somewhere, and I had to find someone willing to tell me where.

The clinic is as good a starting point as anywhere else.  Maybe LaShay will be there.  She seems to know everything around here for some reason.

When I got there, the place was empty.  I sat down on a pallet to contemplate my next move, frustrated, trying to figure out how I was going to find anyone when I’d never been anywhere but the clinic, the eating hut, and the pool.

My worried thoughts stopped when I heard voices.  My head was below the edge of the railing of the hut, which was covered in an elaborately-decorated rug, making me invisible to anyone outside.  The first voice I identified was Winky’s.

“How can you say that, Coli?  She’s done nothing but help us.”

“Please.  All she’s done is get everyone all riled up, sent us into a situation that was none of our business, which ended up getting her own boyfriend killed, and then she comes back here telling us how we’re supposed to live, who’s going to live here, and who’s not?  Who the hell does she think she is?”

“It’s not like that and you know it,” said Winky, sounded disgusted.

“Yeah.  It is, Winky.  And you’d better start remembering who’s in charge around here, too.  Bad things can happen to people who don’t follow the rules.”

The voices stopped just outside the entrance of the hut.  I was two steps away from being discovered, and they were definitely going to think I was eavesdropping, even though it hadn’t been intentional.

“Are you threatening me, Coli?  Get your hand off my arm.”  Winky sounded as if she didn’t believe what she was hearing.

“I’m telling you like it is, that’s all.”

“What makes you think I take orders or advice from you, anyway?”

“I say it and this says it,” she said in a menacing tone.

Winky sighed.  “Coli, put that away.  You’re always waving that thing around, and to be honest, we’re all getting pretty tired of it.”

“We?  Who’s we?”  Coli’s voice had taken on a paranoid tone.  It made a shiver run up my spine, because it sounded like someone who’d lost her grip on reality.

“Everyone you’ve pulled that knife on in the last few weeks.  It’s getting old.  So either use it or put it away.”

“Don’t frigging tempt me, Winky.”

“I’m not tempting you, nutcase.  I’m warning you.”

I heard some shuffling and then a scream.  It was short and wild, followed by the sounds of two people wrestling.

I jumped to my feet, just in time to see Coli swing her knife in a wide arc and catch Winky in the shoulder with it.  Crimson bloomed out across her sleeve.

“You friggin’ cut me, you lunatic!” yelled Winky, dancing out of the way, putting her hand up to her injured shoulder.  Soon it was covered in blood, too.

Coli was crouched down, looking like a cat ready to pounce.

I knew for a fact she was going to make another strike, so I didn’t think about it - I just did it.  With three bounding and relatively quiet steps over towards Coli, I jumped on her back, putting one arm around her neck, and with the other, grabbed her head and twisted it forcefully around. I jerked myself back as hard as I could, and we both went down, me on my back with her on top of me.

I gripped my legs around hers to keep her from thrashing and flipping us over, tightening my grip around her neck to choke off her air supply.

She reached up with her knife hand, so I was forced to release her neck with one hand to block it, luckily making contact with her wrist instead of the nasty blade that was covered in dark red stains.

She strained to bring the knife up close, just inches from my arm.  My muscles trembled with the force it took to keep it from slicing me open to the bone.  I was fairly certain she wouldn’t be stopping with any superficial wounds if she had a chance.  I was going to be filleted like a fish, just as she’d offered to do to me before.

Winky recovered from her surprise, and ran over, kicking Coli’s hand hard to send the knife flying.

As soon as I knew I was safe from that threat, I focused the strength of both my arms into choking her.  I used my free hand to cinch up the one still around her neck.

She struggled and scratched at the skin of my forearm, but within seconds, I felt her losing energy.  I didn’t let go or let up even a millimeter.  She was going to kill me if she had the chance, and I didn’t want my last night to go down that like.  I just had to immobilize her and get away.

Her body stilled, but I waited five full seconds before letting go, just in case she was faking it.  I released my arm tentatively, and when she didn’t jump up to attack again, I shoved her off me, taking Winky’s offered hand to stand.  I frowned at her, mad this fight had been brought to my doorstep, but understanding it wasn’t her fault.

“What the hell was that all about?” I asked.

“Bitch attacked me, you saw it,” she said angrily, moving past me to the clinic, rummaging through baskets to find clean cloths and cleaning fluid.

“Yeah, but why?  Why were you even here with her?”

“She friggin’ followed me.”  Winky growled in frustration, nearly dumping the contents of one of the baskets.

“Why are you mad at me?” I asked.  “Did I do something wrong?”

Winky sighed, stopping to put everything she’d collected down on a small table, looking at me.  “Yes and no.  I’m mad at you because you’ve caused me to question everything I thought I knew.  About myself and my family and the people I live with …”

I frowned.  “How so?”

“Bryn, don’t take this the wrong way, but until you came here, everything was fine.  Everyone just got along for the most part, ate food, slept on a mattress every night, goofed around.  None of us worried about dying or being eaten or blowing things up with grenades …”

“Oh.  So that’s all my fault,” I said in a flat voice.

“No.  It’s not your fault at all,” she said, frustrated.  “You coming here was just a timing thing.  But now suddenly we know there are murdering monsters out there.  That they are going to come for us … that the swamp isn’t as safe as we thought it was.  And that the people I live with are closed-minded assholes who are going to put my life in jeopardy if I stay with them.”  Her voice was rising as she continued.  “And now I’m just trying to come here, get some supplies for our trip, and that crazy bitch attacks me, cuts me - so now thanks to her I have to worry about infection while I’m on the road - and we have to leave before she wakes up, or she’ll start a friggin’ war and I’ll probably get fed to the gators or something!”

I looked at her, a smile dawning across my face.  “You’re coming with me?”

She walked over and punched hard me in the arm.  “Of course I’m coming with you, you idiot.  Now help me get this cleaned and wrapped.  We need to get some supplies and get the hell out of here tonight.”

I reached up to help her, awkwardly putting fluid on the cloth she handed me and pressing it to her wound that she’d revealed by pulling her shirt aside.

“Why tonight?” I asked.

Winky gestured towards Coli’s inert form as I wrapped a cloth around her arm and tied it up.

“Because that bitch is going to wake up and tell her boyfriend you tried to strangle her to death, and that I was going to steal from the tribe, that’s why.  And then we won’t be going anywhere except farther into the swamp.”

“Do you really think they’d do that?”

She raised an eyebrow.  “Do you really want to wait and find out?”

I shook my head, a new sense of urgency overtaking me.  “No.  Come on,” I said, pulling her sleeve back up.  “Let’s go.”

She grabbed my arm, stopping me from leaving.  “Not yet.  I have to get some things from here, first.  And you need to get Rob and Fohi.”

“Where are they?”

“At the pool, trying to get some ass before they leave.”

I smiled.  “Are they having any luck?”

“Rob might be, but Fohi … not so much last time I saw him.”

“Are you gonna meet me back at my hut when you’re done here?” I asked.

“Yep.  Be there in ten.  You’d better run.  I’m going to immobilize the bitch and put her somewhere they won’t find her until tomorrow.”  She looked at Coli, lying nearly lifeless on the floor.  “Better make it fifteen.”

“You sure you can do that with your arm?”

“I can do whatever I set my mind to, Bryn.  Don’t ever forget that about me.”

I put my hands up in surrender.  “Oh, I won’t.  Believe me.”  I reached out and grabbed her into a hug.  “I love that you’re coming with me, but I hate that you were forced into it.”

She patted me on the back.  “No one forces me to do anything.  It was my choice.”

I pulled away, my hands still on her arms.  “I guess you like to live dangerously.”

“Nope,” she said matter-of-factly.  “I like to take measured risks.  And staying here is riskier than going with you, so it’s just simple math.”

I shook my head, dropping my arms.  “I love the delusional.”  I turned to leave the hut, going into a slow jog.  I heard her response floating out from behind me.

“I’m not delusional!  I’m a realist!”

I broke into a run, ignoring the sounds of branches swishing past my body as I pushed through and the leaves crunching under my feet like little firecrackers, echoing all over the place.  Our departure had been pushed forward and I had no time to lose.

***

I arrived at the pool area to find Fohi and Rob sitting on the walkway, getting dressed, surrounded by giggling girls.

“Oh, hey, Bryn.  What’s up?” asked Fohi, separating himself from two who were sitting next to him.

I took him by the arm and pulled him away from the others before saying in a quiet voice, “Don’t freak out, but we need to leave now.”

“What?!” he said in a high-pitched, panicked voice.

I squeezed him arm painfully, whispering loudly in his face, “I just told you not to freak out, stupid!”

“Ow, that hurts,” he said, trying to brush me off.  “Sorry, you just surprised me.  Next time warm me up a little with a, Hello, how ya doin’ kinda thing, before you tell me we gotta run out in the middle of the night.”

Rob had walked up in time to hear the last part of his speech.  “What’d he just say?  We’re leaving tonight?”

“Yeah, you heard right,” said Fohi, bending down to lace up his moccasins.  “She says we have to leave now.”

“Like now now?” asked Rob, looking at me.

“Yeah.  Like now now.  No time to explain.  Can you guys get your hands on the grenades without anyone finding out?”

“I don’t know.  Why?” asked Rob.

I sighed.  “Isn’t it obvious?  I plan on taking them with us.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” he asked, doubt in his voice.

“Do you have some other way to protect us against canner attacks in our new home?” I asked sarcastically.  “A bazooka maybe?  Rocket launcher?  Flame thrower?  Tank?”

Rob held up his hands.  “Easy there, I was just asking.”  He dropped his hands.  “Yeah, I can get them.  You need them now?”

“I’m only gonna say it one more time, Rob.  We are leaving now.”

He looked at Fohi who shrugged his shoulders in response.  “Okay, then,” he finally said.  “I’ll go get them.  Where should we meet you?”

“Meet me at the canoe launching site.  Make sure you have what you need for our trip and the weapons.  If you have a gun and bullets, bring them, too.”

He started to walk away with Fohi, leaning down to talk to him.  I grabbed his shoulder to stop him, taking a step closer to the two of them so I could whisper in both their ears at the same time.

“Listen … we had a little run-in with Coli.  Winky’s taking care of her, but we need to get out before she wakes up.  Don’t say anything to anyone about us leaving early.  We need to do this on the down-low, if you know what I mean.”

Rob nodded, but Fohi had to question me.  I should have known he would, but it was making me frustrated, wasting time like this.

“What’d she do?  What’d you do?”

“I’ll tell you later.  Just go, okay?”

“But what … you mean Winky’s going too?”

“Yes!” I whisper-yelled.  “Would you just go, please?”

“Well, that means we’ll need two canoes, not just one,” he said over his shoulder as I pushed on his back to get him going.

I stopped, realizing he had a point.  “Is that a problem?” I asked.

“Nah,” he smiled, turning to face me while he walked.  “I can get you ten canoes if you need ‘em.”

Rob slapped him on the back of the head.  “No you can’t, idiot.”

Fohi punched him in the ribs.  “Don’t hit me on the head, a-hole.  And, yes, I can.  I know where everything is, unlike you.”

“Do you know where the bikes are?” I asked, suddenly hoping we might not have to walk the entire way.

“Of course I do.  I’m in charge of all that stuff,” he said, puffing out his chest.

“You used to be in charge of it.  Now you’re in charge of shutting up,” said Rob.

Fohi’s mouth thinned, and I could see he was getting ready to tackle his friend, so I put my hand gently on his arm and stared him in the eyes.  I don’t try to use my feminine wiles on guys often - or ever - but this was an extreme emergency.

“Um, Fohi?” I said softly, almost flirtingly.

He smiled lazily, looking a little stunned.  “Yyyeeeah?”

“Do you think you could get us two canoes and some bikes also?”  I rubbed his arm gently, back and forth.

He nodded, his mouth hanging partway open.  A couple seconds later he said, “Uhhh, yeah, I can do that.  Sure.  Uh-huh.”  His head was bobbing up and down.

“Good,” I said, smiling and patting his cheek.  “I’ll see you in about fifteen minutes or less.”  I gave him one last pat on the cheek that was more like a slap, and it woke him up out of his daze.

“Yeah … yeah … okay,” he stuttered.  “I’ll get it.  All of it.  Them.  The things.”  He grabbed Rob’s arm, pulling him along.  “Come on.  I need your help.”

Rob looked over his shoulder at me as he followed his friend.  “Nice,” was all he said, smiling at me, nodding his head.

I nodded once and took off, running back towards my hut and not feeling one bit guilty that I’d manipulated Fohi so easily.

***

I ran right into our hut, not stopping until I got to the sleeping area.  Peter and the guys were lying down.

“Get up!  We have to go now!”  I said breathlessly, turning back to the kitchen area and slinging my backpack up to my shoulders.  I turned back to see Peter sitting up and shaking his head a second.

“What?  Why now?  What time is it?  I feel like I’ve hardly slept.”

“You have hardly slept,” said Jamal, looking at his watch.  “We just laid down fifteen minutes ago.”  He looked up at me and I could hear the concern in his voice.  “Bryn, are you okay?”

“No, I’m not okay.  Get up, please, we’re leaving now.”

“Why now and not in the morning?” asked Ronald, getting to his feet and moving towards his backpack.  “I thought they gave us permission to stay until then.”

“Something’s come up.  I’ll explain later.  I just need you to trust me and come now.”

All three of them moved wordlessly to their backpacks and put them on.  Peter clipped the leash I hadn’t seen since we went after the canners onto Buster’s collar.  He looked around the kitchen and sleeping area, his eyes sweeping past the pantry and then over to my face.

“We’re ready,” he said, looking as serious as I’ve ever seen him look.

“Sorry this is so sudden,” I said, truly regretting how this was going down.

“Don’t apologize.”  He looked first at the twins and then at me.  “I know you wouldn’t do this if it weren’t absolutely necessary.  You can explain later.”

I nodded at all three of them and turned, leading the way out of our hut, humbled by their faith in me.  I was silently hoping Winky would come and find us at the launch site, since she hadn’t shown up at the hut yet.

I tried to be as quiet as possible, avoiding branches and taking bare paths where I could, but my top priority was getting the heck out of there as soon as possible, so there was no way to avoid announcing our travel through the swamp.  I just had to hope that no one would pay too much attention to it and alert the chiefs.

We arrived at the launch site unopposed.  One empty canoe was already there, tied to a tree with Winky standing beside it, waving us over frantically.  I sighed in relief seeing her there.

“Come on,” she whispered loudly.  “Fohi and Rob are already ahead of us.  We’ve gotta go.  They made a hell of a racket.”

I waved the guys to go in front of me.  Ronald and Jamal both got in very carefully, panicking as the boat rocked from side to side.  They held the edges of the canoe with white-knuckled grips, obviously worried they were going to be flipped out and drowned.

Winky got in last after having untied the rope that held the canoe to the tree.  She picked up a pole that was nearby and stood at the back of the boat, using it to push us through the water.  Her muscles strained as she battled the light current that was making our heavy load difficult to control.

I breathed a sigh of relief as we started coasting away at greater speed, Winky finding her rhythm.  I felt a little guilty about not helping, but it was probably for the best; I’d likely have gotten us all turned around and headed in the wrong direction.

The trees and roots slid by, the sounds of animals moving away from us making rustling sounds on the banks.  It was difficult to see anything in the meager moon and starlight, but it would have been impossible to miss the vision that greeted us as we turned a bend in the river.

***

Trip stood with one hand on a large spear and the other hanging at his side.  His right cheek sported the long strip of black warpaint that I had come to associate with attacking canners and winning at all costs.  Winky kept pushing the boat, even as his image grew larger and more sharp.

We were now merely feet away, and he hadn’t moved a muscle.  Rob and Fohi were just ahead of us now, both of them sitting in their canoe stunned, staring at Trip, no longer pushing with their poles.

I turned to look at Peter.  His chin was raised in defiance as he stared Trip down, gripping Buster to his chest.  The dog struggled to be released, whining his displeasure, but Peter didn’t let go.

I thought for sure Trip was going to use that weapon or at least say something, but as we slipped by, he only had eyes for Peter.

Peter looked away as we drew parallel to Trip, keeping his gaze straight ahead, looking so badass I wanted to squeal and hug him for how awesome he was.  But that would have ruined the whole effect, so I kept my cool, turned to face the front of the boat, and focused on trying not to panic over getting a spear tip in my backbone.

I couldn’t imagine riding by and leaving Bodo behind, so this had to be so hard for Peter.  It made me mad at Trip and Kowi all over again for putting him and the rest of us in this situation.

As soon as Trip was out of sight, we all breathed a collective sigh of relief.  Fohi was the first one to speak from up in front.

“What the hell, dude?” he said, looking back at us, leaving Rob to do all the navigating.  “What was that all about?  Did he just do some sick-ass voodoo curse on us, or what?”

“Is he serious?” asked Jamal.

“Shut up, Fohi,” whispered Rob.  “Let’s just get the hell out of here.  This whole thing is just creeping me out.”

Winky must have agreed, because our canoe surged forward enough to come into contact with theirs.  Fohi gave us a dirty look, but joined in pushing his boat again.

Within half an hour we were at the canoe rental place, pulling up onto the sand.  No one was there to greet us.

We all clambered out and grabbed our stuff, anxious to put as many miles between us and Trip - and whatever weird plan he had up his sleeve - as possible.  I noticed the grenade suitcase in Rob’s boat.  Ronald was pulling on it to get it out.

“Careful, Ronald. Those are explosives.”  I looked at Rob.  “You got the grenades, cool.  Thanks.”

Ronald put them gingerly down in the sand and backed away from them, bumping into his brother who was standing there with his mouth hanging open.

“I left them some,” he said, glancing at me as he tied the canoes to the boat rack for others to retrieve later.  “Don’t be mad.”

I shook my head.  “I’m not mad.  That’s fair.  I’m not trying to leave anyone high and dry here.”

“I know,” he said, smiling, coming over and patting me on the shoulder.  “That’s why I did it.  It was the right thing to do, and that’s what you’re all about.”

“Which is why we’re here in the middle of the friggin night, I guess,” added Fohi, struggling under the weight of a backpack that was nearly half his size.

I smiled at him, covering my mouth with my upper arm so he wouldn’t see.  “What’s in that bag, dude?” I asked, masking my laughter with as curious a tone as I could muster.

“All kinds-a shit I have no idea.  Rob.  Friggin buttwad packed it.”

“Shut up, Fohi, or I’ll make you carry the heavy one,” Rob said, throwing an even bigger pack over his own shoulder.

Fohi ignored him, struggling up the slope.  We all followed, helping each other until we were all at the top of the bank looking down.

“So this is it,” said Winky, staring at the canoes and then the water.  “We’re really leaving.”

Peter cleared his throat.  “I’m going to miss this place.”

We all probably knew at this point that it wasn’t the only thing he was going to miss.  Trip had made that clear, stupid, insensitive jerk.

“No shit,” said Fohi.  “It was home for a long time.”

“We’re sorry, guys.   That we made you have to leave,” said Ronald.

“It has nothing to do with you, really.  Don’t worry about it,” I said, trying to reassure them.  “Eventually it was going to happen, either with you guys or someone else.  I’m just glad you thought of somewhere to go.”

“Nobody made us leave,” agreed Rob.  “It was a good place after our parents died, but I’ve been ready for a change for a while.”

“You have?” asked Fohi, sounding offended.  “Why didn’t you tell me before?”

Rob shrugged turning around and answering into the night.  “I don’t know.  I guess I didn’t see the point.  But now I do.  Come on, let’s go get the bikes.”

We followed Rob single file into the trees, none of us looking back.

Chapter Five

I WAS HAPPY TO GET the bike with the big-butt seat for the trip.  It had our old trailer attached and was covered in pine needles and other grosser things I didn’t want to think about.  I brushed the seat off and got on, waiting for my backpack to balance out and stop sliding around so its momentum wouldn’t throw me off.  Peter deposited Buster into the basket on the front, and tied his leash to the handles.

“Now stay put, Buster,” he said.  “We have a long way to go and you need to shut your yap the entire time.”

“Wishful thinking,” said Winky, riding by on a ten-speed that also looked like it had seen better days.

Fohi was next, pumping his legs like mad on a BMX bike that looked better-suited to an eight-year-old.

I smothered a laugh and focused instead on Rob, Peter, and the twins bringing up the rear.  I held my hand out so Rob would wait for me, launching my bike forward to ride next to him.  We were the last in line.

“I need to go find Bodo before we go to the prison.”

“Yeah, I know.  What’s up with this prison thing, though?  LaShay said something about it.  She told everyone at the pool tonight.”

“There’s an abandoned prison south of here.  Not far.  At least that’s what Ronald and Jamal said.  They were thinking it might be a good place to set up a new home, and it sounded good to me.”

Rob nodded his head as we rode over the bumpy path.  “That could work.  So long as it’s still abandoned and not full of canners.”

“I’m trying not to think about that possibility.  Hopefully, it’s too far out of the way from their food supply to work for them.  They’re better off in neighborhoods.”

“Yeah.  Let’s hope.”

He pulled ahead to ride next to Winky in front.  Together, they led the way out onto the main road and pointed us in the direction of Celia’s shell shop.

Buster stood with his front paws on the edge of the basket, his tongue hanging out and the bits of fuzz on his head blowing in the breeze.  He looked back at me once in a while, and I could swear he was smiling.

The sound of Fohi’s tire treads on the ground were the only things competing with the buzzing of the cicadas, busy humming in the night, sounding like they were piled by the thousands in the groups of trees we were riding by on our way into town.  It was both comforting in its familiarity and discomforting in what it meant.  We were riding at a time when the canners were most likely to be awake, and we were heading directly into their territory.

The thought made me pull up short, as Celia’s shell shop appeared like a white beacon in front of us.

“Stop, everyone.  Just wait a second.”  The guys nearest me put on their brakes and walked their bikes back; Rob and Winky made u-turns and rode over to join us in a circle.

“What’s up?” asked Fohi, breathing hard and resting his foot up on the v-shaped crossbar of his bike, wiping his brow with the back of his forearm.

“We need a plan.  I don’t want to go riding in there with all our stuff, making a big announcement that we’re there to kick ass.”

Jamal nodded.  “Please … yes … let’s not do that.”

“Yeah.  We stay alive by staying under the radar,” added Ronald, looking over at his brother.

I looked at each of them in turn.  “None of you needs to do this thing with me.  I have to go in and try to find Bodo before I got to the prison.  You can either wait here or go ahead without me and I’ll catch up.”

“I’m with Bryn,” said Peter without hesitation.

“I’d rather you stayed back with Buster,” I said, sighing.  I didn’t want to hurt his feelings but Buster would blow my cover in a second, and Peter would likely get captured, just like before.

“But I can help,” he said, pouting a little.

“I know you can.  And I appreciate your help, you know I do.  But right now, being with Buster is huge for me.  Please?  I can’t go in there and risk having him bark like he does.”

“Fine,” he sighed.  “But I’m not going ahead without you.  I’ll stay in Celia’s shop.”  He took off on his bike without waiting for my response, riding towards the building.

I looked at the rest of them.  “You guys can stay or go to the prison.  It’s no big deal to me at all.  Everyone needs to stay safe, and I totally get that.”

“I’m with you, Bryn,” said Winky.  “No question.  But I’d like to leave my backpack with Peter so I can ride faster.”

“No problem.  I’m sure he’ll be fine with it.  And he has a gun, so he can stand watch.”

“We’re with you, too,” said Fohi.  “A hundred percent, dude.  I mean dudette.”

“No, man.  You’re staying with Peter and the dog,” said Rob.

“Shut the hell up, Rob, I am not!” said Fohi.

“Yeah, you should,” agreed Winky.  “Peter’s too vulnerable by himself.  We need someone to watch him and all our supplies.  Without that stuff, we’d be sunk.”  Winky’s tone was sufficiently respectful to cause Fohi pause.

“You serious?” he asked, suspicion lacing his voice.

“Of course she is,” I said quickly.  “Those grenades are the only thing we have to set up our defenses with when we get to our new place.”

Fohi nodded, looking up at the sky and rubbing his chin, considering my words.  “I am the demolitions expert.”

“Yeah.  So keep an eye on that stuff for us,” I said.  “Come on.  Let’s get our crap unloaded with Peter and Fohi.”  I didn’t wait around for Fohi to argue anymore, making my way over to the shell shop and riding right through the spot where the front door used to be.

Peter was already inside, standing behind the counter where he’d rested his backpack.  “Where should I put this?” he asked, gesturing towards the bag.

“In that office behind you.  Maybe you and Fohi can hang out in there, just in case someone walks by.  Then they won’t see you unless they actually come in.”

Peter raised an eyebrow at me.  “Fohi’s staying too?”

I battled to keep a straight face.  “He’s our demolitions expert,” I said, walking past him.

Peter followed.  “More like an accident waiting to happen,” he grumbled.  “You’ve put me in charge of babysitting.”

“And dog-sitting,” I added.

“The things I won’t do for you, Bryn Mathis …,” he said, shaking his head.

I dropped my bag on the ground and reaching inside the front pocket to pull the harmonica out, sliding it into my pocket.  I walked back to Peter and pulled him into a big hug.  “Be careful, please.  Get your gun out and use it on anything that doesn’t look like one of us.”

“Will do,” he said into my shoulder.

Jamal and Ronald entered the office.  “This where we’re waiting?” asked Ronald, looking around at the mess all over the floor and the overturned desk and chair.

“You guys are going to be here too?” asked Peter, pulling away from me and looking hopeful.

“Yep,” said Jamal.  “We’re not really the fighting type … but we don’t want to go without you guys on to the prison, either, so …”

“Yeah.  We’re gonna hang out with you, if that’s okay,” finished Ronald.

“No problem,” said Peter.  “The more the merrier.  Do you guys have guns?”

They both shook their heads.

Peter pulled his .357 out of his bag, breathing in puffs with the effort.  “Don’t worry.  Mine’s big enough for all of us.”  He hefted it into the air, his arms practically wobbling with the effort.

Ronald reached out and took it from him gently.  “Maybe I can take a look at this.  And hold it while we wait,” he said.

Peter shrugged.  “You said you’re not a fighter, but if you think you can shoot a canner in the head with it, then be my guest.”

Ronald handed it back, hurriedly.  “Uh, no.  That’s okay.  You look like you can handle it.”

Peter smiled at me slyly and winked, addressing Ronald.  “Yeah.  Sure, no problem.  Just make sure you’re behind me when it goes off.  I don’t have the best aim in the world.”

“He’s not lying, either,” I said.

Ronald and Jamal moved quickly to the back of the office and sat down on the floor, talking quietly to each other and glancing from time to time at my fearless friend.

I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.  “Hold the fort.  We’ll be back in a jiff.”

“How long is a jiff, exactly?” asked Fohi, coming into the office dragging Rob’s and Winky’s backpacks in either hand next to him, his own still on his back.

“An hour?” I said.  “Or eight?  I’m not sure.”

Fohi rolled his eyes.  “Okay.  Ha.  Good one.  We’ll see you when we see you, I guess.”

I looked at Ronald.  “I’m going to use your bike.  If anything happens, you take mine and ride out of here without looking back, got it?”

Ronald nodded.

I left the office and joined Rob and Winky outside, grabbing Ronald’s mountain bike and getting on, my feet barely reaching the ground and the seat grinding uncomfortably into my crotch.  My partners in crime were straddling their bikes, waiting for me.

“So, where to?” asked Rob.

“To Cannerville.  First stop, the canner mansion.”

Neither of them said anything.  They just pushed off, riding ahead of me as I struggled to stay on the seat and follow behind.

***

We rode down the streets of the neighborhood surrounding the canner mansion without talking.  We knew from our previous trip that some of the houses contained spies for the canners, and none of us were interested in finding out whose side they were on now.  The plan was to slip by without being detected.

We arrived at the canner place and I took the lead, riding my bike up over the curb and straight to the front of the house where Winky said she had last seen Bodo.

The front entrance was completely blackened.  The sight of it made me feel sick to my stomach, imagining Bodo stuck inside there when the place blew up.  All messing around aside, Fohi had done almost too good of a job causing a distraction here.  The smell of rotting bodies hung in the air, which made me nervous and sick on several levels.  Please don’t let it be Bodo.

I got off my bike and leaned it against a palm tree, motioning for Rob and Winky to stay there with it; but Winky ignored me and left her bike with Rob, following me a couple paces back.  I looked over my shoulder and saw Rob was off his bike and standing behind a tree keeping a lookout, making me feel reasonably sure that at least we wouldn’t be snuck up on from behind.

We picked our way over the rubble on the stairs just before the entrance of the house.  Most of the junk on the ground looked like pieces of the building, but there were smears of brown that could only have been old blood.  The body parts that had put them there were gone, though, taken either by human hands or animals.  Please let it be animals.

My heartbeat picked up as we got closer and closer to the front door.  Our moccasins crunched over the grit beneath our feet.  The humid breeze lifted some strands of my hair and plastered them to my sweating forehead.  My breath sounded loud to my ears.  I prayed it was only an illusion brought on by my panic and that I was the only one who could hear it.  Winky moved closer to me until our arms were touching.

“What do you think?” she whispered when we were finally in the doorway.  “Should we split up?”

I shook my head, motioning with my hand for her to stay with me.  I didn’t see any value in being alone, and I was worried about a sneak attack.

We stepped over the threshold, peering into the dark interior which was lit from above by the stars and moon shining down into the hole in the roof.  The back of the house still had some cover, but the front was open to the sky.

Pieces of drywall, concrete, and wood lay strewn across the once beautiful marble floors.  My eyes scanned the large foyer and the stairs at the far end of it, looking for signs of human life - or former human life.

A misshapen lump of what looked like rags lay about twenty feet away, near the base of the stairs.  I nodded my head at it and then looked pointedly at Winky.  She nodded silently at me, and we walked across the floor together to investigate.

I could tell it was human as soon as we were about five feet away.  Or it had been.  It was larger than any kid I remembered seeing there, but that was probably due to the bloat that all of the dead seemed to suffer.  One foot had a sneaker on it, cocked at a strange angle.  I breathed a sigh of relief when I realized it couldn’t be Bodo.  He’d been wearing moccasins on the day we were here.

Winky held my arm and leaned in to whisper in my ear.  “Why is this still here?”

I frowned at her in confusion.

“Outside, all the parts were gone.”

I nodded.  She was right.  Something had taken the pieces-parts that had been strewn across the front patio but left the bigger parts here.

I took a few steps closer, trying to get a better look at the body.  I held my hand up to my mouth and nose, trying to keep the smell of my own skin there and hold back the nausea that threatened.  It was tough, being this close to the hideous signs of death.  Even though he’d been a canner, he’d still been human to some degree - and death was not kind to humans.

The face was nearly black with pooled blood and dead skin, the surface of it puffy and blistering.  It wasn’t from the blast.  I’d seen this effect before.  I knew if something jiggled the body hard enough or if it were touched somehow, the skin would just fall off the skull.  I was in no hurry to see that happen, so I stayed far enough away that I wouldn’t create any percussions with my feet that might hasten that process.  This definitely was not Bodo.  The hair was wrong, even if the face was unrecognizable.

I walked backwards until I was even with Winky, whispering, “No scavengers or people have been near this guy - or have touched him, anyway.  That’s weird right?”

Winky nodded and took my arm, pulling me to our left, moving to go around the body and into a room at the side of the foyer.

There were more canner bodies there, these less twisted and bent but no less dead and disgusting.  The smell was worse because of the number of dead, but still, none of them had been ravaged by animals.  Winky pointed at the back of one of them, showing me the bullet hole that had spread blood for a while until his life had drained from him.  He was wearing high-top basketball shoes.  I stared at him almost mesmerized, wondering if it had been Bodo who’d fired the shot.

Winky and I made our way through three more rooms before ending the circle that brought us back to the front entrance.  We’d located three more bodies, but no Bodo.

I looked up the stairs and then over at Winky.

She nodded.

We walked together towards the bottom of the staircase and looked up.  The first eight stairs were heavily damaged, so we had to grab the railing that was still intact to pull ourselves over the larger holes.  Burn marks ran up the wall to our left, and the remnants of spray-painted graffiti showed through parts of it.  Plaster was flaking off nearly to the ceiling.

Once we were halfway up, the holes and scorched wood of the steps were less of a problem and we were able to move faster.  We paused at the top of the stairs, not sure whether to go left or right.

Winky nudged me and motioned to the right, where a long hallway with several doors off of it stood waiting.  I took the first tentative steps in that direction with Winky right on my heels.

We tiptoed down the carpeted pathway that was worn with mud and other disgusting stains I didn’t want to think about too much.  The brownish-colored drag marks could only have meant a bleeding person or part of a person had been this way before us.  The smell of death was here too, but not as strong as below.

As we reached each door, we pushed it open.  Most of them revealed bedrooms in various states of disarray, thankfully none of them containing bodies, but all of them smelling at the very least like unwashed bodies and a complete lack of any attempt at hygiene.  My lip curled at the odors that rose up to assault my nostrils, despite my constant attempts to only breathe in through my mouth.

One last set of double doors remained at the end of the hall, the only ones that were fully closed.  I imagined a monster beyond, breathing heavily and panting with the anticipation of surprising us and then murdering us, making us his dinner.  I held Winky’s hand in mine for a couple seconds, squeezing it to build up the courage to do what had to be done.

I took a deep breath and let it out before gripping the door handle and pushing it down slowly.  The door hardware disengaged from its catch with a faint click.  The door swung open with a long almost sad-sounding squeak.

A rush of humid hair hit us in the faces, sending chills down my spine.  It was as if something was alive in there.

The room was shockingly pristine.  The walls were white and unmarked by graffiti or bloodstains.  Framed prints hung on the walls, and thick decorative ropes held back long silk curtains from the window’s edge.  Even the carpeted floors looked newly done, not a stain in sight.  There was no smell of death here.  The perfection of it all bothered me more than anything else I’d seen so far in the house, including the dead and rotting bodies below.

Winky put her hands on my shoulders from behind, making my heart stop beating for a full three seconds before it spasmed hard and then started again, racing to get to its new accelerated pace.  She leaned in and whispered in my ear as quietly as humanly possible.

“There’s something wrong.  It’s too clean.”

I nodded.  She was exactly right, but I had no idea what it meant.

I was just thinking of making my next move into the room, my foot a split-second from lifting up and taking the fateful step, when a voice came from within, making my blood instantly go cold.

***

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” it said.

Winky nearly strangled me with her grip so high on my shoulders.  I shook her off impatiently, still unable to see the source of the voice, but feeling the need to be ready to kick some serious ass.  All I knew at this point was that it was a girl in there, which meant I had maybe a slightly better chance of fighting her off.  I pulled my foot back and set it down outside the threshold.

“Who are you?” I said into the dark space.  The drapes were drawn back, but the light coming from outside wasn’t strong enough to completely light up the room.

“A better question might be to ask who you think you are.”

The sound of a match being struck reached my ears and the faint glow of candlelight trickled past the door.

“This is my home.  My place.  You have no business here.  Go away.”

My mouth opened to say something in response, but my brain was short-circuiting.  Who would live in a morgue like this?  Who but a deranged, canner-murderer?  I inched my feet apart, ready for her to make her move from behind the door.

My only gauge for her location was the candlelight that was moving ever closer to where we were standing, making flickering and jumping shadows appear on the wall that looked like angry spirits dancing around.

Winky was obviously in better control of her body than I was.  Her voice sounded strong, coming from over my shoulder.

“We’re looking for someone.  We don’t mean any harm, and we’re not here to cause you any trouble at all.  We’re peaceful.”

A bitter laugh echoed in the room.  “Peaceful.  Yeah, right.  I saw you on your bikes.  I know who you are.  You’re the ones who blew up my house.”  The voice was just on the other side of the door now.

She kept calling this place her house.  It sounded too personal to mean anything but the most awful thing I could imagine.

“When you say your house, do you mean this was your house before … like … when your parents were here?”

At first there was no response.  No sound at all.  And then I heard a sniff.

“Yes.  This has been my home for eleven years, five months, two weeks, and one day.”

I risked turning my head to look at Winky.  She was staring at me, her eyes telling me she was getting the same impression I was.  This girl has lost it.  We were dealing with, at the very least, a girl who’d gone insane.

Winky spoke again.  “Please don’t shoot us.  We’re just looking for someone.  His name is Bodo.”

I took over.  “He’s tall, blue eyes, German accent … he’s funny and cute …”  I knew I sounded lame, but this girl was giving me hope.  She had lived here either as a canner or at least with them.  Maybe she’d even seen things that had gone on, through her window.

“You love him,” she said.  It was simple and unembellished, save for one emotion: curiosity.  As if it were something to be examined, this situation of a girl loving a boy in the middle of all this carnage.

“Yes,” I said softly, the vulnerability I had with regard to Bodo coming through in my tone.  I couldn’t have stopped it if I’d wanted to, but I didn’t care what this girl thought of me.  Maybe if she knew how important he was to me, a stranger but someone who meant her no harm, she might be able or willing to help.

We stood there, waiting for her response.  The seconds ticked by and a slight breeze caused the candlelight to flicker.  I grew impatient, and the not knowing who she was or what she had going on behind the door was eating away at my nerves.

“Hello?  Are you there?”

No answer came.

“Hello?!” said Winky in a much louder voice.

I cringed, concerned we’d offended this person, whoever she was, and were causing her to go over the edge even further.

But I needn’t have worried.  She neither responded nor retaliated in any way.  She remained silent.

“What the hell?” whispered Winky softly in my ear.

I motioned for her to follow me, crouching down and pushing the door open slowly … slowly … praying there wouldn’t be a loaded gun on the other side.

***

I almost expected to see a ghost on the other side of the door.  Or a crazed lunatic, bent on my destruction.  I was not prepared for what I did see.

Nothing.  There was no one there.  A candle flickered on a dresser in an old fashioned holder, steps away from the bed and across the room from where we stood at the entrance.  But there was no girl, no person, no living thing that we could see in the dim candlelight.

“Where is she?” whispered Winky.

I listened carefully for any signs of her, but all I heard was the ticking of a windup clock that sat on the night table next to the bed.  A pleated linen lampshade covered a glass bulb-shaped base, the cord running over the back of the table.  The white bed had decorative pillows with ruffled edges carefully placed at its head.  The one in front was one of those neck rolls to use for lying in bed and reading with a book towards the ceiling.  I flashed back to days in my bedroom, hours spent reading about fantasy worlds and romance that never happened for me in reality.

I shook my head out of the past and back to the present.  There was a girl in here, the original owner of the mansion, and we needed to find her before her bullet found one of our heads.  I signaled for Winky to follow me deeper into the room.

Our footsteps made no sound on the thickly-carpeted floor.  We stopped in front of a huge walk-in closet.  I could already see that the interior was bigger than my bedroom at home had been.  A large marble bathroom was off to the right.

“Do you see her?” asked Winky.

I shook my head.  If it were me, I would have chosen to hide in the closet, so that was the direction I went.  Winky went the other.

I got to the entrance and peeked around the corner, revealing as little of my head as possible, just in case she was waiting beyond to blow me away.

The room was divided in two parts.  The first, where I was standing, was a dressing room.  The nearby candle made it possible to see the details of the room.  The center contained a cabinet with a marble top.  The wood of the cabinet was dark and rich-looking, with golden knobs marking the placement of thin drawers.  I walked over and carefully opened the nearest one.

Rows of gleaming, very expensive-looking watches winked up from within, each pushed into a cushioned slot.  Even in the near darkness, I could see some of them contained diamonds.

I closed the drawer, looking around for the hiding place of our mystery girl.  All I saw were shoes of all types and colors, shelved from floor to ceiling, sweaters folded like they were on display in a department store and color-coded by shade, leather purses and other totes lined up like soldiers on a top shelf, and possibly hundreds of men’s suits and women’s dresses and other clothes in the closet area beyond.  Whoever had lived here had spent probably millions of dollars on this closet’s contents alone.  I shook my head at the waste.  It all meant less than zero now.  If this money had been channeled into food, water, protection, and other things, this girl might not have gone bananas.  So, so sad.

I walked into the closet and pushed the clothes from side to side, looking for a girl hiding in their midst; but she was nowhere to be found.  I looked up at the ceiling and saw no attic or evidence of a secret door.  I got bold and kicked the walls behind the suits and dresses, listening for the sound of a hollow space.  But there was nothing there.  She either just disappeared into thin air or she’s in the bathroom, because she couldn’t have jumped out the window, and there is no hidey hole in here.

I panicked a little at the idea of Winky being alone with her, so I hurried out of the closet to join her.  We met as she emerged from the marbled room, shaking her head.  “She’s not in there,” she said, no longer whispering.  “I even looked in the cabinets.”

“She’s not in the closet, either.”

Winky put her hands on her hips, frowning.  “That’s just too weird, right?  I mean, nobody just disappears into thin air like that.”

“Unless she’s a ghost,” I said, only half joking.

“Please, Bryn.  Don’t even think about going there.  That girl was as real as you and me.  She’s hiding here somewhere.”

“Did you check under the bed?” I asked.

Winky walked over and swept up the dust ruffle, getting down on her knees to check.  “Nope.  No ghosts under here.”

“Well, we’re just missing something, that’s all.  Come on.  Let’s look in the closet again.”  I moved to walk past Winky, but she grabbed my arm.

“Maybe we should just leave her alone.  I mean, she survived living in this house with canners.  She’s either one of them or has some serious firepower in here that kept her protected.  Do we really want to mess with that?”

Winky was right, but I couldn’t get the ghost-girl’s response about Bodo out of my mind.  I was banking on the fact that she respected the idea of love.  Hopefully, she wasn’t so cynical at this point, that the idea of me being in love wasn’t going to make her want to murder me in cold blood.

“You go,” I said.  “I’m going to try and talk to her.  She’s here somewhere.  Maybe I can convince her to talk to me or something.”

Winky shook her head slowly.  “You must be totally crazy over Bodo to go through all this for him.  If it were me, no offense, I’d give it up.  Nobody’s worth dying for.”

“Bodo is,” I said, before walking back into the closet.

***

I stood near the cabinet with the watches inside and talked out into the air around us.  “Hello!  Lost girl!  We’re not here to hurt you or eat you or any of that crazy stuff.  We just want to ask you about a friend of ours.  He was here the night we came and took those kids out of here.  He got left behind.”

I waited for a response and got none, so I continued.

“His body’s not downstairs, so I think he might have survived.  The last time we saw him he was fighting on the front lawn or in the front of your house.”

Still no answer.

“Did you see him?  Do you know where he is?  I really need to know!”

I was getting frustrated with her lack of response.  I just knew she could hear me, and the longer I sat there listening to the silence, the more convinced I became that she knew something.  Wouldn’t she just tell us she knew nothing and to go away if she didn’t?

“I know you can hear me.  And I’m sorry those canners … the cannibal kids, took your house from you and ruined it.  I’m sorry there are monsters out here who are doing terrible things.  But we’re not with them.  We’re just like you.  We’re just trying to survive, but we’re not doing it by killing other kids.”

Winky said softly.  “Well, technically we did kill those canners.”

I nudged her to tell her to shut up.

“Okay, so we did kill some canner kids,” I continued.  “But that was only to rescue the kids they were hurting.  That’s okay, right?  To kill kids who are killing and eating others?”

I wasn’t sure if I were asking her or myself at that point.  This one-woman monologue felt like a confession in a way.  I decided to just roll with it.  If nothing else, it would help me get some things off my chest.

“Sometimes we have to make hard choices.  Choices we shouldn’t have to make, because we’re just kids, and it’s not fair that we got left here without our parents.”  My eye ran across all the shoes and handbags in the room around me.  “Even if our parents were jerks, at least they kept the monsters away.”

The cabinet in the room popped.

I jumped back, crashing into Winky.

We stumbled away from the center of the room, towards the entrance, both of us staring at the marble top of the cabinet that was slowly rising up and tilting backwards.

“My parents weren’t jerks,” came the voice of the Lost Girl.  Her head appeared out of the floor, coming up on a staircase that was located beneath the dressing room.

***

She was wearing a white dress.  It almost looked like a simple wedding dress or a communion outfit.  Her heels were made of satin.  She had pearls around her neck and in her pierced ears.  A baby-blue headband lay across her stringy, greasy mouse-brown hair.

Her face was white and drawn, dark circles ringing her eyes.  If I didn’t know better, I would have thought she was a ghost from our world’s much different past.  She was ready to go to a coming-out party or a debutantes’ ball - not meet with kids from an apocalyptic world who were running from cannibals.

“Holy shit,” said Winky, “it really is a ghost.”  She squeezed my arm hard, burying her nails in my skin.

I tried to shake her off.  “Cut that shit out, Winky.  She’s not a ghost.”

The girl just stood there, watching us and saying nothing.

I finally succeeded in getting Winky to let me go, and stood up straighter, facing the girl fully.

“Hello.  My name is Bryn, and this is Winky,” I said, gesturing over my shoulder.  “We’re not here to hurt you or take any of your stuff or damage your house.  We just want to know what happened to our friend.”

“Is he your boyfriend?” she asked, tilting her head to the side slightly.  It was creepy as hell, how calm she was, standing there in her formal wear, her insteps and ankles touching and her feet facing exactly forward.  Her hands were hanging limply at her sides.

“Yes, he is.  And I really miss him and need to find him.”

“Maybe he’s dead,” she said flatly.  “Most of the people are dead.”

“I know.  But he’s not.”

“How do you know?  Some of the living are dead too.  Did you know that?”  She sounded like a small, innocent child.

Oh shit.  She really is bonkers.  “Yes,” I said, “I do know that.  Their souls are dead.  Like the kids we killed here.  They were dead souls.”

She smiled without any trace of humor, making me feel a little sick with the nervousness it created in me.  “Yes.  They were, weren’t they?  Especially The One.”

“The One?” asked Winky in a high-pitched near-whisper.

The girl turned her head slightly to acknowledge Winky standing just to the left of and behind me.

“Yes.  The One.  The one they called Loco.  He came in here, once.”

I swallowed hard, knowing something bad was coming.  She was going to tell us something I didn’t want to know.  The sweat started pouring out of my body.

“He did?” asked Winky, her voice sounding strangled.  “What happened?”

The sound of an infant’s cry broke the following silence.

My mouth dropped open and my throat closed up.  I nearly peed myself with fear and disgust.  Oh God, please don’t … please don’t let that be what I think it is …

The girl spoke, cutting off my prayers, her face now taking on an emotion finally: desperation.  And I knew I would hear her words in my nightmares for the rest of my life.

“Will you kill it for me?” she whispered.  “Please?!”

***

She took a step forward, her hands out.

Winky and I moved backwards, nearly tripping over each other in our need to get away from her.

“Please, don’t leave!” she sobbed.  “I’ve tried to kill it … I’ve tried!  But I can’t!”  Her last words came out as a screech.  Her voice was crazy-demented with anguish or despair, but she had no tears; and that missing link to her misery was so disconcerting, I didn’t know whether to run or smash her in the face to protect Winky and myself from the evil I felt coming at me in waves.

“That’s a baby down there,” said Winky, sounding a little unhinged herself.  “She’s got a fucking baby down there, Bryn.”

“Yeah, I know,” I said, searching the Lost Girl’s face, looking for her to telegraph her next move.  Her body language was all wrong.  She looked like innocence personified, dressed all in white with her little-girl headband on her stupid head, but her lack of tears and grossly freaked out expression made her seem dangerous and downright evil.  My only sense of relief came from the fact that I saw no weapons on her and no signs of any ability to take me in hand-to-hand combat; but I remained on the alert nonetheless.

“It’s his,” she said, talking low, as if someone might hear us.  She was nearly screeching her whisper though, giving it an eerie quality that set my nerves on edge.  “He came.  He came in here and I was sleeping.  He … he … did that thing to me.  And now this is here.”  She gestured to the space below her parents’ cabinet.  “You have to take it away.  Kill it.  Make it go.”  She put her arms around herself and hugged hard, moaning a little before continuing.  “It’s ugly.  It cries all the time.  It’s not human.”

A lightbulb went on in my head.  She’d been damaged.  Way too damaged for me to appreciate or even understand.  And she had this baby down there to take care of.  A baby.  I couldn’t fathom the torture it had to be for her in her current state.  Revulsion and pity warred inside me.

“That canner guy raped her and she had his baby?” whispered Winky, disgust in her voice.  “Oh, that is so messed up.  I can’t even … holy shit, Bryn.  What’re we gonna do?”  Winky came up to stand beside me, gaping open-mouthed at the poor girl in front of us.

“How old is it … is the baby?” I asked.

She shrugged, looking off to the side, almost distractedly.  “I don’t know.  The days go into weeks and weeks go into months and months go into years and years go into decades and people leave and people die and the world ends and we get left alone and terrible, terrible things happen and nothing will ever, ever be alright again …”

I took a couple steps forward and picked her arm up by the wrist, gently shaking it a couple times to wake her out of her nightmare.  “Hey!  Stop that,” I said.

She turned her head to look at me.  The blank stare there was freaking me out even more than her soliloquy had.

“Stop what?”

I shook my head and blinked my eyes a couple times in frustration, trying to get her to make a connection with me that wasn’t totally in another world somewhere.  “Tell me how old your baby is.”

“What baby?” she asked, smiling sweetly.

I squeezed her arm, hoping it would help her focus.  “The baby you have down in there,” I said, gesturing with a nod towards the stairs under the cabinet behind her.

“It’s not a baby,” she said, frowning.  Then she got angry, her words taking on a vicious tone.  “It’s a demon that needs to be killed.”  She shook me off and grabbed my arm, a fierce look on her face, spittle flying as she growled out her next words.  “You’re looking for a boy.  A tall one with a German accent.  I know where he is.  You kill that demon down there, and I will tell you where you can find him.”

I grabbed her hand that had wrapped itself uncomfortably around my wrist and pried it off, stepping back away from her.  I was so angry, I was liable to punch her in the throat and gouge out her eyes.  I needed to put some distance between us so I could think properly.

Winky spoke first.  “We aren’t killing your damn baby.  It’s innocent.  It didn’t do anything to you or us.  Now tell us where Bodo is, you crazy bitch!”

I felt her moving to go after the girl, so I stuck my arm out to block her progress.  “No.  Not like this.  We can’t beat it out of her - she’s a mom.”

Winky stopped pressing on my arm.  “Oh, shit.  Yeah.  I didn’t think of it that way.”

I held my hands up in supplication.  “Listen, um, sweetie …” I was taking a page out of LaShay’s book now.  “ … We just want to help you out as best we can and find our friend.  That’s all.  No one needs to be killed or murdered.”  I took a step towards her, ignoring the cries that came up from the stairs again.  “You’re a mom.  You can’t have your baby murdered.  It’s not right.”

“But it’s not a baby,” she whispered, tears now finally coming down her cheeks.

I was so relieved to see those tears; they gave me hope that she wasn’t totally broken into a million irretrievable pieces.

“It is a baby.  It’s your precious baby.  Just like you were your mom’s baby about … fifteen years ago.”

“I’m seventeen.”

“Okay, then, seventeen years ago.”

“But my mother wasn’t forced to have me.  By a demon.  My father wasn’t a demon.”

“No, she wasn’t … and no he wasn’t a demon, I’m sure.  But the rape you suffered doesn’t mean the baby isn’t a human being … a tiny baby that needs your love.”  I stepped closer and took her hands in mine.  “Is it a girl or a boy?”

“It’s a boy,” she whispered, “just like the monster.”  She smiled, nearly glowing with happiness.  “That’s why you have to kill it!”  She said it with such hope in her voice, it made me think she had been pretending to be a little sane in the hopes that she’d be able to convince me to carry out the murder of her child.

I jerked her hands down once to try and break through to her conscience.  “I told you.  I’m not going to kill your baby.  Please tell me where Bodo is.  I’m begging you.”

She tilted her head to the side, her face a mask of innocence.  “Isn’t that fun?”

I furrowed my brow, confused.  “Fun?  What’s fun?”

She straightened her head back up and fixed me with an evil grin.  “That we both want something so bad, we’re willing to beg for it.”  She jerked her hands away from mine and took a step back.  “Kill the demon below and you will find your boyfriend.”
She spat the word out and then jerked her head back, reaching her hands up slowly to readjust her headband.  “I’ll meet you downstairs.  I have to go feed it.”  She paused halfway down the stairs, her voice coming up from below.  “Oh, and by the way … did I mention you’d better hurry?  Yeah.  Your boyfriend needs you.  Before things get ugly.”

That did it.  I took off after her, ready to wring her neck, baby or no baby.

Winky grabbed me by the back of my shirt, halting my murderous rampage.  “No!” she said in a low tone.  “That’s exactly what she wants.  Don’t go into a trap.”

I stopped fighting her and thought about it for a second.  She’s right. Be smart.  Think about your opponent.  Read her signs.  Measured strikes.  Measured reactions.  My dad’s voice was coaching me again.  It warmed me with confidence and the sense that he was somehow, some way, communicating his love for me.  This is going to work out.  I am going to find Bodo, and I am most definitely not going to be murdering an innocent baby over it.

Winky and I moved side-by-side to the edge of the stairs.  An actual lightbulb lit up the stairwell, its yellow gleam casting a freaky glow over the concrete walls.  A portrait hung across from the light, the glare on the glass not enough to obscure the image of the perfect American family.  One father, one mother, one teenage girl, and one slightly younger, teenage boy.

***

Winky leaned towards me and whispered.  “She had a brother!”

I nodded.  “She probably ate him,” I said over my shoulder as I descended the stairs.  I didn’t care if this girl could hear me anymore; maybe I could make her mad enough to snap out of her fantasy world.  At least then I might be able to count on her acting like a somewhat normal person whose moves I could predict and defend against.

“And she’s got electricity down here.  How is that possible?”

“I have no idea.  Maybe her brother’s alive and she makes him ride a stationary bike to generate the it.”

Winky pulled my shoulder back so she could see my face, giving me a what-the-hell look.  I motioned with my hand, acting as if I were patting something down in the air, trying to signal that she needed to just chill out and go with my flow.

She nodded and let my shoulder go.  We went down a few more steps.

“Hey, Lost Girl!” I said.  My voice sounded like it was in a tin can.  “What’s your name, anyway?”

“Brittney,” came the answer from below.  The acoustics told me she was in a small room that had some form of sound proofing in it.  That baby could probably be crying its eyes out down here and no one would hear a peep above if the cabinet were closed.

We emerged at the bottom of the stairs into a decent-sized space, about the size of half my bedroom back home.  I’d heard of panic rooms and safe houses before, but this one was something else.  There was a cot in the center of the room and three walls were lined with shelves full of food.  The back wall was a door.  Brittney sat on the cot, nursing her baby.

“Daaaamn,” said Winky, letting out a low whistle.  “Do you see all that food?”

Brittney had every conceivable canned good, lined up in rows on the shelves.  She had only cleaned out a couple of them, but had plenty more.

“What’s behind that door?” I asked, pointing at the far end of her hideout.

Brittney shrugged nonchalantly, looking out into space.  Her baby’s pale-white, delicate, tiny hand was resting on her breast.  My heart spasmed painfully to see it.  It’s so perfect and itty bitty and … not demon-like.  How could she possibly even consider killing it?

“Go ahead and look if you want,” she said emotionlessly.

I wanted to do that, but the vision of this baby right here in front of me almost close enough to touch had me frozen in place.  Winky moved around me and walked over to the door, her soft moccasins padding along the concrete floor.

“Wait!” I said as her hand reached for the doorknob.  “Is there anything that could hurt Winky behind that door?”

Brittney frowned.  “What’s a Winky?”

“I’m a Winky, stupid.”

“Oh.  That’s a dumb name.”

“And Brittney’s oh so interesting and original,” mocked Winky.  “Can I go in the room without getting killed or what?”

“Sure.”

My eyes widened as Winky slowly opened the door.  I think we were both waiting for an explosion or something, because she flinched a little, and I grabbed the railing near the last stair where I was still standing.

Nothing happened.  Winky stuck her head in a second later and said, “It’s too dark in here.  I can’t see anything.”

“Turn on the light, stupid,” said Brittney.

Winky whipped around, mimicking her.  “Turn on the light, stupid.  Hey … crazy bitch! … Just in case you haven’t noticed, there are no lights anymore.”

“Light switch.  Left side,” said Brittney.  “And don’t call me crazy.”

Winky turned back around and ran her hand on the inside wall of the room.  I heard a click and an interior light went on, illuminating the space.

“Holy shit-on-a-stick, Bryn.  You’ve got to come see this.”

I stopped worrying about Brittney sneak-attacking us since she was so busy feeding her baby, and strode across the room to stand at Winky’s side.  My eyes were seeing things inside the room but my brain just didn’t want to let me believe it.

“Is that …?”

Winky nodded.  “Yeah.  It is.  Food, water, a sink, a toilet, electricity … ”

I continued the list.  “…Candles, handguns, rifles, machine guns, bullets, knives, axes …”  I turned back and looked at Brittney.  “Was your dad a doomsday freak or what?”

“He believed in being prepared.  He always says, Luck is where opportunity meets preparation.  And I plan for us to be very, very lucky.’”  She laughed bitterly.  “None of us came out on that end of the deal, I’m afraid.”  She looked down at her baby but continued speaking to me.  “So, do you want to know where the German boy is, or not?  You can use any weapon in there you want on this thing.  I don’t care.  Just so long as you take it away from me when you’re done.  I don’t even want to look at it.”  She smiled absently as she toyed with the baby’s tiny fingers.

I shook my head at the vision.  Creepy level, ten out of ten.

I reached deep inside me for the courage I needed to get this all over with, leaving Winky in the other room and sitting down on the cot next to Brittney.  I was unable to stop my hand from reaching out to touch the baby’s little one.  It was soft, covered with the finest fuzzy down, and the delicate skin gave with just the slightest pressure.  I could feel its teeny bone structure beneath.

“Why on earth would you ever want any harm to come to this little thing?” I asked.  I’d never had the opportunity to hold a baby before, but I really wanted to now.  Part of me was curious what it would be like, and another part of me was worried she was going to injure it.

She frowned.  “It’s not a baby.  I told you that,” she said, sounding angry again.

“It cries like one.  It eats like one.  It sure feels like one.”

“Well it’s not.”

“What is she using for diapers?” asked Winky from the other room.  “There are no diapers in this place.  It’s like … the only thing missing.”

I frowned, sniffing the air near the baby.  I didn’t smell anything but very dirty hair, and that was coming from Brittney, not the infant.

“I use cloth diapers.  The demon’s father found them.  I wash them every day, every day, every day.”  She smiled bitterly and then sighed.  “Demons need diapers.” She squeezed the baby hard and it let out a pitiful, mewling cry.

Her words and reaction chilled me.  I held my hands out.  “Can I hold him?  Please?”

She stuck her finger down by the baby’s mouth and removed it from her breast, handing the bundle over to me casually … carelessly, even.

I juggled him uncomfortably for a couple of nerve-wracking seconds, trying to get a good grip on his wobbly form.  He burped and smiled at me.

“How old is he?” I asked, once I had him situated, finding it impossible not to grin at his goofy face.  He looked up at me with chocolate-brown eyes that reminded me of Paci.  I thrust the image of him immediately out of my mind.

Concentrate.  Get Bodo’s location and get the hell out of Cannerville.  Nothing else matters.  I said the words to myself, but this baby looked up at me and it was so innocent, so beautiful … I just knew I wasn’t going to be able to walk away, let alone kill it.

“I don’t know how old it is.”

“Well, that’s just ridiculous,” I said softly, smiling at the baby still, using softer tones so as not to frighten it.  “You have to have a general idea.”

Winky spoke up.  “There was a girl here.  A Native American girl named Celia.  Did you know her?”

Brittney shook her head.  “I knew no one.  I stayed here.”

“You never looked out the window?  Never looked down by the pool or the pool house?” pressed Winky, now standing in front of Brittney, hands on her hips.

“Maybe.  Sometimes.”

“Did you see Celia?  She had an arm taken off.  Did you see that?”

Winky was getting mad.  I shot her warning looks that she ignored.

“She’s our friend you know.  And all those kids that were in that house?  They’re at our house now.  Being taken care of … fed.  You could have done that, you know.  You have all that food in there.”

Brittney shook her head slowly, staring off into space again.  “No.  I couldn’t do anything.  But I saw the girl.  She climbed a tree.  She was stronger than the others.”

“How old was your baby when she climbed the tree?” I asked.

Brittney shrugged.  “A month?  Two?  Three?  A hundred?  Don’t ask me.  Ask the demon’s father.  He’s the time keeper.  He’s the keeper of the children.  He’s the keeper of me.”

I couldn’t stop the shiver that spasmed through my body.  I felt like it was her I should be killing.  She was suffering, that was certain.

“Where’s Bodo?” asked Winky.  “I’ll kill your damn baby for you.  Just tell us.”

Brittney perked up immediately, her expression ecstatic.  “Really?!  You’ll do it?”  She stood up and grabbed Winky by the upper arms, jumping up and down a few times before pulling her into a crazed hug.  “I knew you would.  I knew you were a good person as soon as I saw you.  The indian kids were always nice to me when I saw them in town.”

“Native Americans,” corrected Winky, looking at her with wary caution in her eyes.

“Winky, you’re not …” I started.

Winky gave me a stern look and coughed the words: shut up at me.  Then she turned her attention to Brittney who’d raced into the adjoining room and was talking from within.

“Come in here and pick your weapon!  We have so many to choose from.  I think the axe would be best, don’t you?”  She stuck her head out.  “Come on, silly!  I told you, your friend doesn’t have much time.  There’s going to be a ceremony, you know!  As soon as the moon is highest.”  She grinned and then disappeared again.

Winky mouthed, A ceremony? at me, before turning to join Brittney.  She made it to the entrance, before I heard her say, “Whoa, wow, hold on a second there, looney bird.”  Winky was backing up out of the room, Brittney in front of her holding up a shiny and very lethal-looking axe.

Brittney was smiling like she was posing for a pageant photograph.  “How about this one?  It’s reeeaally sharp.  You can cut off its head with one chop!”  She moved the axe in a slight downward motion, giggling before lifting it back up and gazing at its sharp edge above her head.

Winky and I exchanged a look.  The girl is certifiable.  We had to get this baby out of here and let her think we’d killed it.  It was the only way to get out and find Bodo.

“Here, let me take that bad boy from you,” said Winky, reaching up to take the axe.

Brittney pulled it against her chest, getting suddenly angry and suspicious.  “Wait a minute.  Not so fast.  How do I know you’re really going to do it?”

Winky shrugged.  “You can watch if you want.”  She was deliberately acting casual about it; I could tell from her posture and expression.  I was hoping Winky was right that this mother, even though she was obviously very far gone, didn’t have the stomach to watch her offspring be decapitated.  There’d be no way to fake that gruesome task.

“No, no.  That’s okay.  I don’t need you to do it here.  You can do it outside.  Let’s keep this room and my parents’ room niiiiiice and clean.  When they come back they will have an absolute fit if their carpet is dirty.”  She smiled and giggled for a second.  “Man, are they ever uptight about that stuff.”  She rolled her eyes and gave us a look that said, Parents, right?

Winky nodded, her eyes bugged out and her voice deceptively calm.  “Yeeeah, let’s make sure we keep the parents happy.  I’ll go kill the baby out on the front lawn so we don’t mess up the carpet.”

“It’s not a baby.  It’s a demon,” said Brittney looking at Winky closely, squinting her eyes a little.

Winky stared her down, first shaking her head, then nodding it.  “Yeah.  Of course.  It’s a demon, all the way.  Nasty little canner demon.  I’m going to go kill it right now.  You can tell Bryn about Bodo and then we’ll just be on our way.  Okay?”

Brittney smiled.  “Okay!  You go kill the demon.  And as soon as you bring me back its head, I’ll tell you about the ceremony and the Amazons and the garden of Eden and aaaall of that fun stuff!”  She looked back and forth between Winky and me.  “Okay?  Do we have a deal?”

I nodded, not knowing what else to do, lost in the insanity.

Brittney’s voice took on a business-like tone.  “Give her the demon, Bryn.  She’s gonna go chop its head off for us.  Then we’ll do some girl talk.  Gossip and stuff.”  She flounced down on the cot beside me, crossing her legs and folding her hands over her knee.

“Okaaaay,” I said, standing and gently handing the baby over to Winky, giving her crazy bug-eyes, trying to ask her silently how she was going to show this wackadoodle a baby head without actually showing her a baby head.

Winky took the axe in her other hand, balancing the baby in her opposite arm.  “Okay, Bryn.”  She nodded her head at the looneybird.  “Brittney.  I’m gonna go chop off this demon’s head now.  You guys go ahead and start talking.  I’ll just be a few minutes.  And then I’ll be back.  With a baby head.”  Winky’s head was shaking in disbelief as she disappeared up the stairs, leaving me alone with the Charles Manson of mothers.

***

Brittney swung her top leg up and down, her gaze roving around the room as we waited.

“So,” I said, breaking the freaky silence, “tell me how you know about Bodo.”

She stopped bouncing her leg and looked at me through narrowed eyes.  “I’m not going to tell you how to find him until the deed is done.”

“No, I know.  I’m not asking where he is.  I’m just wondering how you know about him since you’ve been up here in this room the whole time.”

“I saw things.  I hear things.  People tell me things.”

“What people.”

“Sean.  The minions.”  Her voice took on an edge of pride that was more than a little disturbing.

“The minions?”

“That’s what Loco called them.  The minions.  They were the ones who had to do my bidding, since I was, well, you know…”

“I’m not sure I do,” I said, hoping I was wrong about my suspicions.

Brittney smiled in a ghastly sort of way, her face with a far-expression as she spoke.  “I was the Queen.  I was repopulating the earth.”

“And Loco was the King?”

“That’s what he liked to say.  But I was going to pick another King.  One I liked better.  He just didn’t know it.”

“Why did he let you keep all those weapons?  Wasn’t he worried you’d … pick another king or whatever?”

“He never saw this place.  He thought I lived in the bathroom.”

I frowned.  “He’d be pretty stupid to fall for that.  The toilets don’t work up there and neither does the water.”

She shrugged, smiling to herself.  “I threw some poo out the window now and again.  He fell for it.  He brought me stuff to eat and water to drink.  I always gave it to the dogs.  They stood below my window every day waiting for their meals.”  She giggled, obviously proud of herself for outwitting her suitor.

I had to nod and give her the respect she deserved.  She’d taken a more than crappy situation and found a way to survive.  Maybe that’s why she’d left her mind too.  Survival.  Could I have stayed present and sane after being raped and wooed by a cannibal named Loco?  I felt a little sorry for her, then.  I still didn’t think I would have the same urge to kill my baby as she did, but at least I understood where it might be coming from.

“You’re a very strong person, to have gone through all of that.”

“Maybe.  I don’t know.  My brother helped.”

“Where is he?”  I had seen no signs of the kid in the family photo, but the faces downstairs were hard to picture as they had been.  The death mask was too different.

“He’s gone.  He left.”

“Where’d he go?”  I couldn’t believe a sibling would leave like that in the middle of all this.

“He went to the barbecue.”

I instantly felt sick to my stomach again.  Oh, please don’t let this mean what I think it means.

“You’re not saying … that Loco ate your brother, are you?”

“No.  Not just Loco.  Everyone.”  She turned her head slowly and looked at me, dead in the eye, and said,  “Everyone ate my brother.  Eh.  Vry.
One.”  Her mouth thinned into a line.  Then she took a deep breath through her nose, opened her mouth, and screamed with all her might, right in my face.  “EVERYONE!”

My hand rocketed out automatically, and slapped her hard.  Twice.

Her face slashed first left and then right with the force of it.  She recovered quickly and was crying and screaming at the same time as she leaped at me, her jagged nails poised to rip my eyes out.

I jumped to my feet, dancing out of reach.  I wanted to lay her out on her funeral bed with my bare hands, but her story was the only thing standing between Bodo and me, so I couldn’t kill her, much as she might have liked me to.

She rushed me with zero finesse, rage against the world her only guidance.  It was pretty effective, since I had to focus so much on not hurting her.  I let her hit me with her body, using the backward force to bring us to the wall.  I tensed myself for the impact and used the couple seconds she needed to recover to put her in a bear hug.

I slammed her face with a head butt, earning myself an instant headache in the process.  Blood poured out of her nose and ran down the front of her face to her neck.  The stains spread across the white of her dress, hideously gruesome.  She looked like she’d just stepped out of a low-budget horror movie.

She was snarling and screaming and moaning, trying to get away from me, spitting at me and even trying to bite me.  I bent us both over the side and released her just enough to slam my elbow into the side of her head, dropping her to the floor.

I took a few seconds to wipe her saliva and blood off my face, disgusted that I’d let her get into a position to do that.  I hated having to fight and hold back at the same time.

“I’m going to kill you!” she yelled from the floor.  “You’ve ruined my dress.”

I shook my head.  “And here I thought you were going to kill me because I beat your ass.”

“Why don’t you just finish it?” she said, now sounding depressed instead of angry.  “Take one of those guns in there and blow my head off.  I don’t care anymore.”

“You can blow your own head off when I leave.  I want to know where my boyfriend is, first.”  I nudged her with my foot.  “Get up and stop feeling sorry for yourself.”

She whipped her head up, grabbing my ankle.  “Feeling sorry for myself?  Sorry for myself?!”  She got up on her hands and knees, using my legs and then wrists to get to her feet and steady herself.  She was facing me again, her head and shoulders stooped, bodily fluids dripping off her face.  “What do you not understand about my life?”

I shrugged.  “I understand everything.  You were raped by a canner.  He made you eat your brother.  You gave birth to his demon child.  You’ve been stuck here in this hole for almost a year.  You have the worst life of anyone I’ve ever met.”

“And?  So?”

“And so what?  Now you want to be a baby murderer?  You want to kill me too?  You want to commit suicide?  So do it.  No one’s gonna blame you.  Give up.  The world sucks, anyway.  What do you care?”

She looked at me aghast.  “I thought you were a nice person, the way you came in here and looked at my baby …”

I pointed at her.  “Ha!  Gotcha.”

She looked at me, confused.  “You got me, what?”

“You just called him your baby.”

“No, I didn’t,” she said, frowning, looking mutinous.

“Yeah, you did.  And if you wanted to die so bad, you have about eighty ways to get that done hanging on the walls in the next room.  Same for the baby-killing part.  Regardless of what’s happened, you still want to live.”

She shuffled backwards until her legs hit the cot.  She dropped down to sit on it, never letting her gaze leave me.  “This is a shit life and I don’t want it.”

“Then leave your hole.  Go out and talk to some other kids.  You’re taking good care of your baby down here, so keep doing that.”

“I can’t.  I can’t, don’t you see?” she said, now weeping with actual tears.  “I did horrible, evil things.  I … I ignored all those kids … all those kids!”

I shook my head, frustrated with the world how it was now, feeling sad for a girl I also hated.  “Whatever you did, you did to survive.  I’m not saying eating kids is an okay way to survive.  But you did it to save yourself from being murdered probably by your … child’s father or whatever.  No one’s going to hold that against you.  Or maybe they will and you just have to move on from it.”

“Do you have a brother?  Or a sister?” she asked through her tears.

“No.”

“Then you cannot possibly understand what I’ve gone through.  My soul has been destroyed.  I have no life to take.  Don’t you think I would have killed myself already if I thought it would do any good?”

“Uhhh, yes?”

“No.  If I do that, I’ll just have an eternity of the same torture to look forward to.  At least here, I can pretend for a little while that I’m not damned.”  She dropped her head and stared at the floor, looking like a robot that’d had its power turned off.

“You’re not damned.  There’s forgiveness for people who are forced to do bad things.”

“Nobody is forced to do anything,” she said in a monotone, still staring at the floor.  “We always have a choice.  I made the wrong ones, and now I have to live with that.”

I sighed, giving up finally on the idea that I could make her suddenly sane or able to live with the things she’d done and suffered through.  Some things in this world were going to remain damaged, irretrievably broken and tortured until death came to take them away or time wore all traces of them from this earth.

“Brittney … will you please tell me about Bodo?  You said I don’t have a lot of time.  He’s a really good person and he doesn’t deserve to be hurt.”

“Maybe he’s not as good a person as you think,” she said, looking up at me blankly.

“I think he is.  Maybe he’s made hard choices, too, but I believe that he’s good no matter what.”

“Then you’re a naive idiot who deserves what she gets.”  Brittney stood, anger back on her face.

I wasn’t sure if I were relieved by it or happier with the zombie look.  Both were disconcerting.  “So? What is it?  Where is he?”

Before Brittney could answer, we heard Winky’s voice from up above.

“Okay, guys.  Dead baby head, coming down!”

***

Bile rose into my throat as Winky’s moccasins made their way down into the room.  She held a blood-stained bundle in her arms, now much smaller than the original.

My mouth dropped open and stayed there.  I was in complete shock that she’d actually done it.  My attention was drawn from the horror by Brittney’s reaction.

She was jumping up and down with glee, clapping her hands in front of her chest rapidly.  “Oh, I’m so excited you actually did it.  I was afraid you wouldn’t, but I should have trusted you.  I could tell you were a good person as soon as I saw you.  I’m sorry I made fun of your name,” she said, nearly simpering in her admiration of Winky.

I shook my head slowly, from side to side.  This one was a complete surprise for me.  I wasn’t even sure I could hang out with Winky-the-baby-murderer anymore.  What am I going to do?  Tell her to go back to the swamp? Will she listen to me?  Will she try to axe me, too?

My heart was racing again, and now I felt outnumbered.  It was two lunatics and a baby head against me in a tiny, enclosed space.  I opened my stance a little and twisted my head a little to limber it up, never letting my eyes leave Winky.

“Yeah. It was pretty easy, actually.  That neck was tiny.  But here’s the head.  There’s, you know, junk coming out of it though, so I’d keep it wrapped up in the blanket if I were you.”

Brittney cringed a little.  “Ew.  I’m not keeping it.  I just want to be sure it’s real.”  She blinked a couple times.  “You could be trying to trick me.”

Please, God, let Winky be trying to trick her.  I hadn’t considered that because I’d seen enough blood in my life to know what the real thing looked like - and this was it.

“Here you go,” said Winky, pulling back the blanket a little.  A brown, hairy skull peeked out from behind the folds of crimson-stained cloth.

“Okay, okay,” said Brittney, waving her hand hurriedly at the bundle.  “You can put it away now.  I believe you.  Can you please go … put it out in the front yard with the body.  Maybe hide it behind a tree or something?”

“Sure.  You coming, Bryn?” Winky asked casually, as if she weren’t carrying a bloody baby head in her arms.

I nodded dumbly, feeling like I’d been transported to another dimension.  I didn’t know whether I wanted to leave the hell that was down here or stay away from the hell that awaited me up the stairs.  I was so confused.

“I have to tell her about her boyfriend first.”  Brittney grabbed my arm and dragged me over to the cot, forcing me to sit down.

Winky continued up the stairs and disappeared.

“Okay.  First … there are a group of Amazons who are keeping him nearby.  You know the house down the street that was owned by Chancery Crouch, that movie star?  We’ll, they’re there.  And they’ve got him and a bunch of other cute guys, and they’re doing a ceremony tonight where they all get tied to a group of girls for life.  Isn’t that cute?”  She grabbed my arm and wiggled it a little.  “No, you probably don’t think so.  But except for him being your boyfriend, it is pretty sweet if you ask me.”

I held up my hand, feeling almost tired over the barrage of nutty illusions she was vomiting all over me.  “What now?  Did you say Amazons?”

“Yeah.  Amazons.”

“As in, from the rainforest?”

She giggled.  “No.  As in, from Palm Beach.”

“Amazons.  From Palm Beach.”  I shook my head.  “Why did I think I was going to get a straight story from a fucking lunatic?”  I was pissed now.  All this time I’d thought she had something to tell me.  And Winky had killed a damn baby over it.

“Don’t call me a lunatic,” she said angrily.  Then her expression changed immediately to one of a happy prom queen.  “Seriously.  They’re all tall and gorgeous.  That’s part of the rules, you have to be gorgeous or they kill you.  And they’ve captured a bunch of gorgeous guys.  And they’re going to make them bond with their tribe members and then have orgies with them or whatever.”

I felt sick.  She seemed serious, if not totally batty.  “You aren’t kidding, are you?”

“No, silly.  But like I said, you’d better hurry if you want to stop them.  Once the ceremony is over, they’re going to screw the hell out of him.  And then he probably won’t even want to leave.”

“He won’t do that.  He won’t sleep with any of them.”

She frowned.  “Oh.  That’s too bad.”

“How so?”

“Because they’ll cut off his penis and let him bleed to death.  They’ve done it before.”

I stared at her, horrified about the idea of that happening to anyone, let alone Bodo.  “How could you possibly know all this?”

“They were friends with Loco.  He told me everything.  He thought they were funny, plus they had sex with him too, so he considered them friends.”

I gulped down the hysteria that tried to rise up in my throat.  Bodo’s about to get his wiener chopped off or he’s going to cheat on me with a harem of canner-fuckers.  Time to go.

“Okay, well, it’s been real fun and all, but I guess I have to go save my boyfriend’s private parts.”

Brittney stood immediately and held out her hand, smiling like a politician.  “It was so nice to meet you.  Please tell Winky goodbye for me.  I’m kind of tired, so I think I’ll take a nap.  Would you hold my baby for a while for me, before you leave so I can just shut my eyes for a few minutes?”

I shook my head at her, not knowing what to say.

She looked around the room.  “Where is that baby anyway?”  She walked towards the other room.  “David Junior?  Sweetie?  Where aaaaare yoooouuuu?”

I ran up the stairs as fast as my feet would take me, shoving the cabinet back down as soon as I reached the top.  I flew out of the bedroom, down the hallway, and halfway down the stairs before I started yelling, not stopping to consider whether I actually wanted to help baby-murderers or not.

“Winky!  Rob!  Go!”  I jumped over the holes in the last five stairs, falling to my feet at the bottom and scrambling around the bloated body on my hands and knees before I could get upright again.

I was at the front door and running over its blackened threshold when I heard the first gunshot ring out.

***

Rob and Winky were already pedaling away, back in the direction we’d come from.

“No!” I yelled, grabbing my bike and jumping on, slamming my crotch uncomfortably on the hard seat before being able to move the wheels with the pedals.  “This way!”  I knew Brittney the Lunatic would be firing at us for sure out of her bell tower window if we went out the back.  Her collection of firepower was too impressive to hope she didn’t know how to use any of it.

Winky and Rob wheeled around to face me and followed me out the front gate.  That’s when I saw the bloody blanket tied to Winky’s front.

The look of horror on my face must have clued her in to what I was thinking.

“Don’t look at me like that,” she said breathlessly as she pulled up next to me.  We were bumping crazily over the long driveway, almost to the gate now.  “I didn’t kill her damn baby.  It’s right here.”

A little white hand chose that moment to come out and wave around before it clasped the edge of the blanket and stopped moving.

“Oh, thank God,” I said, heaving out a sigh of relief that was nearly accompanied by some stomach fluids.  “For shit’s sake, Winky!  I thought you really did it!”  I was literally shaking, overwhelmed with emotion.

Another gunshot came from the house, but I didn’t feel anything hit me and Rob and Winky kept going, so I ignored it in favor of pedaling like mad.  Two seconds later we were around the corner of the front gate, out of our sniper’s sights.

“You really think we’d do something like that?” asked Rob.  “That hurts, Bryn.  It really does.”  He smiled at me mischievously.

“Shut up, Rob.  How was I supposed to know?  That friggin’ blanket is covered in real blood.  What’d you do?  Cut yourself?”  I looked over, trying to find evidence of a slashed vein or artery on him, but his clothes had no stains that I could see in the dim light of the overhead sky.  There was enough blood on the blanket that it would have had to be a pretty bad injury.

“No, of course he didn’t,” said Winky.  “Don’t be ridiculous.  The blanket is covered in blood just like the spot on the front lawn where Rob killed that damn pit-bull that came after him while he was waiting.”

“That’s dog blood?” I asked, mystified and a little upset about how easily I’d been fooled.  “But what about the baby head?  How’d you find a damn baby head?  Did a rabid baby attack you?  Was that in the front lawn too?”

Rob laughed.  “It was a stupid coconut, dumbass.  You obviously didn’t look very hard.”

“You used a … no way.”  I shook my head.  “That was a friggin baby head.  I know what coconuts look like.”

“You saw what you wanted to see,” said Winky.  “You thought I was a baby-murderer,” she said accusingly.

“I was afraid she’d come out to check what was taking us so long,” said Rob.  “Do you know how hard it is to open a coconut husk without a machete?”

“Yeah, I do,” I said.  “I’ve never been able to do that.  How’d you do it?”

Winky answered.  “Slam it onto the concrete enough times and eventually it cracks and you can peel the husk off and get to the hairy baby head underneath.”

Rob held up a hand with bloody fingers.  “Fingernails are pretty much gone, but I’ll live.”

“You took one for the team,” I said smiling, finally letting myself believe my friends weren’t baby-murderers.  I looked at the bundle strapped to Winky’s chest.  “What in the hell are we going to do with a baby?”

“Have it for lunch?” Winky asked, her voice pure innocence.

I swerved my bike almost into hers, shocked out of my gourd she’d actually said that.

She laughed her butt off and kept right on pedaling down the street.  “Just kidding!” she trilled over her shoulder.

“So where are we going?” asked Rob, a smile in his voice.

“Bodo’s being held prisoner by some Amazon chicks.”

Winky laughed, dropping back to join us again.  “That’s funny.  No seriously, where are we going?”

“I’m not kidding.  That’s what the nutcase told me.  He’s being held at a celebrity’s mansion up the road.  Someone named … uhhh … Chancery something?”

“Chancery Crouch?” asked Rob.  “That’s just up there.”  He pointed a few mansions up from were we were currently riding.  “I went on a tour around here once where the guide was pointing out all the rich and famous people’s places.  Crouch’s mansion has a couple of gigantic pink lions on the gates out front.  You can’t miss it.”

“Hold up, guys,” I said, coming to a stop and dropping down off the seat to straddle the bike.  “What’s our plan gonna be?”

Winky and Rob stopped and walked their bikes backwards until we were three abreast, Winky’s bundle moving a little as the baby tried to kick its legs.

“I don’t know.  What do you think?” he asked.

“I think we just need to go in there and talk to them,” Winky said.  “Maybe they’ll be normal.  Or kind of normal.”

I shook my head.  “I think they had some sort of relationship with the canners.  One that didn’t include them getting eaten and allowed them to live down the street without being killed.”

“Damn.  That means they’re probably nutjobs too,” said Rob.

“Chances are good,” I said, at a loss for what to do now.

“Let’s do a little recon,” said Winky.  “We’ll leave the baby down on the beach and sneak around a little, see what’s what.”

I frowned.  “I was never one for babysitting much, but isn’t that like … poor form, leaving a baby on a beach?”

Winky shrugged.  “What’s the worst that could happen?”

Rob coughed and said, “Uhhhh, it could get eaten by a pit-bull?  Or a canner?  Taken away with the tide?”

“Oh.  Yeah, right.  Better not leave the baby on the beach,” said Winky.

I couldn’t help but smile.  “Seriously, though, guys.  I’m freaking out.  Bodo is, like, just over there, maybe.  I need to see if it’s really him.  I know the chances are not good, but I’ll never be able to live with myself if I don’t do everything I can to find out for sure.”

“What else did the crazy girl say about them?” asked Rob.  “Try to think of everything.  Maybe she told you something that would be helpful.”

I searched my memory, sifting through the lunacy for any actual facts she might have shared.  “Well, she was talking about Eden and a ceremony and sex and cutting off dicks and …”

Winky held up her hands in front of her, palms down.  “Hold up!  Hold.  The hell.  Up.  Cutting off dicks?  You mean, like, Bodo’s dick?”

A little fear trickled into my mind.  “Yeah, but … I mean … she’s crazy, right?  That was part of the crazy talking, not the facts.”  I looked at Winky and then Rob.  “Right?”

“Don’t you know anything about Amazons?” asked Rob.

“No,” I said.  “Missed that in history class, I guess.”

Winky was shaking her head too.

“Well, let me enlighten you.  It was a group of female warriors from ancient times that invaded places and were pretty vicious about it, too.  Some say they cut off one boob so they could shoot arrows without it getting in the way.  And once a year or something they’d go and find a bunch of guys and screw them.  If they got pregnant they’d kill the boy babies and keep the girl ones.  Any guys that weren’t on the to-be-screwed list, were on the screwed list.”

“Damn,” said Winky.  “Serious girls’ club.  I know it sounds a little twisted, but I gotta respect it in theory.”

I frowned at her before asking Rob, “So what are you saying?  That Bodo’s going to be used for sex and then killed?”

“Well, you said something about Eden.  That’s Adam and Eve stuff,” continued Rob.  “Maybe they’re planning to repopulate the earth.”

“Using Bodo,” I said.  The idea was ludicrous.  “No, huh-uh.  That’s just … weird.  Or sick.”

“I don’t know.  It’s not really an original idea, is it?” asked Rob.

“Adam and Eve?  No.”

“No, I mean, find the perfect male specimen and the perfect female specimen, and having them make the perfect baby specimens.”

My blood chilled.  “Crazy girl said that only pretty girls are allowed to be with the Amazons.”

“Oh, shit,” said Winky.  Then she giggled.  “Your boyfriend is about to become a sex slave to a group of hot chicks.  Sucks to be you.”

I punched her in the arm.  “Shut up, this is serious.  She also said that if he refused to comply, they’d cut off his dong.”

“Ooh, ouch,” said Rob, covering his nuts.  He looked towards the mansion where Bodo supposedly was, yelling, “Dude!  Just do it!  She’ll forgive you!”

“Rob, if you were closer, I’d punch you in the face,” I said.

“Good thing I’m not, then,” he said smiling, moving his bike farther away.  Then he got serious again.  “All kidding aside, what’s the plan?  If Bodo is supposed to be their boy-toy, they’re not going to be all that happy about letting him go.”

“Maybe we can offer them a trade,” said Winky.

“Like what?” I asked.  “We have nothing to trade, except maybe a bike or something.

“No, we have something much more valuable than a bike,” said Winky.  “We can trade Rob.”

“Hey!” he said.  “How’s that supposed to work?  Why me?”

Winky shrugged.  “I don’t know.  You said you liked the idea of being a sex slave.  And you don’t have a girlfriend or anything.”

“Screw you, Winky.  I don’t have one because I choose not to have one.”

“She’s just kidding, Rob.  I think.”  I took a few steps, moving the pedal so I could use it to launch the bike by pushing down on it.  “Come on.  Let’s just go over there and see if we can get a peek at what’s going on.”  I looked at Winky.  “Do you think the baby will be quiet?”

“I think it’s sleeping,” said Winky, peeking in the blanket.  “But how do I know?  I’m no baby expert.”

“All right.  If it starts to cry, take it away.  You can wait for us down by the beach.”

We took off, heading towards the gates with the lions.  The closer we got, the clearer it became that there was some sort of party or celebration going on.

Lights from fires made the space above the front yard glow orange.  Noises of girls cheering and laughing floated over the wall as we arrived, and the smell of cooking meat made me salivate.  I felt sick, worried it might be a cannibal’s meal which would be just downright wrong to drool over.  I swallowed hard, trying to move my mind away from anything that would cause me to announce my arrival with the loud spatter of vomit.

“They’re partying it up in there,” said Rob quietly.  He got off his bike and dropped it in the weeds carelessly, silently moving up to the gate.  I watched him climb easily to the top of it and peek over, joining him at the bottom after leaving my bike near his.

“What’s going on?” I asked in a stage-whisper.

“Party.  Big one.”

“How many people?”

After a few seconds of silent counting, he said, “Fifteen girls.  Two guys.”

My heart seized.  “Is it Bodo?”

“I’m not sure…” said Rob, a strange tone in his voice.

I grabbed the posts on the front of the gate next to Rob and climbed as fast as I could, using the lion paws and head as footholds.  I reached the top and slowly lifted my head above the edge.

There was a huge bonfire in the middle of what used to be a big fountain in the front of a ginormous house.  It lit up the entire area so well, I could even see the faces of the people standing nearby.

A driveway led from the gate where we stood to circle the fire-fountain.  Girls were standing around it in small groups, and two male figures were tied to columns at the front of the house.

The one on the left was big and dark-skinned, possibly Hispanic.  He was bald and cleanly shaved.  It was the first time I’d seen a guy with no facial hair in almost a year.  Even the Native American guys had a sprinkling of it on their faces.

Bodo had always had a scruff that he kept short with a knife given to him by Yokci, but this person tied to the column on the right had none of that.  He was also bald, and covered in paint.  Oh, please let it be paint, I begged no one in particular.  It was brownish red and reminded me of old blood.

“What’s going on?” asked Winky.  “Come on, guys.  I can’t climb up here with this poo factory on me.  God, he stinks now,” she whined crankily.

“I’m not sure,” I said, looking down at her before turning back to the scene in front of us.  “It might be Bodo, tied to a pole thingy.  But he’s bald and covered in paint.”

“That ain’t paint,” said Rob, shaking his head.

“Shut up,” I said, hitting him with the back of my hand on the shoulder.  “It’s paint until I say it’s not paint.”  I hated the idea of Bodo being covered in something evil.

“Get off me, you ho-bag!” yelled Winky from below, the sounds of a scuffle quickly reaching my ears along with her demand.  She can’t possibly be talking to the baby, can she?

My head whipped around and down, my eyes taking in the nightmare scene below.  Three girls had Winky in hand, two of them with one arm each and the other pointing a machete in her face.

“There’s a baby here, idiots, be careful with it!” she yelled, trying to twist away from her captors.

“Shut up, bitch!” growled one of them.  “Stop trying to get away and neither of you will be hurt.”

Another girl came walking out of the darkness, pointing a machete at Rob and me.  “Come down and do it slowly.  My machete likes blood.”

Rob and I exchanged looks before slowly climbing down.  We’re screwed, was all I could think.  We were out-numbered, and I had serious misgivings about fighting chicks with knives this big and this lethal, especially when Bodo’s life hung in the balance along with ours.

***

The warrior women led us around the front wall and into a door on the side of the property.  There was one girl in front and two behind, with the others staying on either side of us.  Winky held her arms around the baby protectively, and I could tell from her expression as she searched left and right for a way out of this mess that her mother-like behavior was totally instinctive.  It crossed my mind that someday, she’d be one badass momma.

We reached the bonfire and one of the girls escorting us peeled off to talk to a heavily-painted girl standing on the steps in between the two columns with guys tied to them.  Her markings were all over the place, blue and purple and even bright yellow and orange.  It looked like a rainbow had vomited on her.

As I got closer to the fire and the front of the mansion, I realized it was indeed Bodo tied there on the right side.  He saw me looking at him and smiled lazily, his head bobbing around a little.  He looked so pitiful, especially with his bald, white head.

“Hey!” he yelled, obviously so happy to see me, he was laughing.  “Ha, ha!  Dat’s my girlfriend over dare!  Hey, Bryn!  Ha, ha!  You’re comingk to da party!”  His head bobbed to the side, before he brought it up again and shook it a few times.  “Party, party,” he said, chanting in a monotone.  “Time to make da party.”

“Daaaammmn …” said Rob, sounding impressed.  “He is seriously messed up.”

I was pissed, glaring at the nearest girl.  “You drugged him?  What the hell is wrong with you guys?”

“Shut up, bitch!” she said, stepping over swiftly and backhanding me.

My head whipped back from the force of it.  It took every ounce of willpower I had not to drop her with a solid boob punch followed by a right hook.  I could totally picture myself doing it, but the visualization was very unsatisfying, only giving me a very small measure of pleasure and no outlet for my rage.

Someone was going to get her ass kicked tonight.  Maybe a few of them.  But I had to wait for my moment.  I stood up straight again, shooting her death lasers with my eyes for a couple seconds before looking back at Rainbow Vom Girl.

She finished talking to her informer and slowly descended the stairs like a queen, moving in our direction and finally stopping in front of me.  She was weaponless, and her eyes never left mine.

“Who are you?” she asked simply.

The fire was to my left and her right, making it possible for me to see one side of her face very clearly.  She was blond, and if the light wasn’t fooling me, blue-eyed.  She could have graced the cover of a Vogue magazine she was so beautiful, with her high cheekbones, aquiline nose, full lips, and aristocratic air.  I could totally see her in shiny, brown leather riding boots and tweed.

“I’m Bryn.” I motioned with my head towards the column.  “And that’s my boyfriend up there.  I’ve come to get him.”

Our conversation was interrupted by the sound of the baby’s crying.  I turned around to see Winky gently bouncing it, and shushing it in a quiet voice while talking nonsense.

“Boongy, boongy, baby headsies, no more crying, no more pooping, nozies, nozies, noziiieeees …”

The painted girl spoke again.  “That her baby?”

“Uhhhh, kind of.”

“She crazy?”

I was confused for a second before I realized she was still talking about Winky.  “No.  She’s perfectly sane.”  Her goofy baby-talk made it a hard sell, but the girl just frowned at me, switching topics.

“What were you doing outside our gates?”  Her eyes were scanning me from top to bottom, as if making some crude assessment.  It made me nervous.

I looked around me, at all the faces staring at us.  The talking and laughing had stopped.  Every girl there stood still, wary, looking every inch the Amazon warriors I had pictured in my mind.  They weren’t all necessarily tall, but they were beautiful, tough-looking, and totally confident.  Their body language spoke volumes.

Should I tell her the truth or make something up? My mind was drawing a blank about what to say, so I went with the truth.  It was easier.

“We were spying on you to try and figure out how to get Bodo back.”

Bodo’s head popped up.  “She luffs me, you know!  I triedt to tell you dat, but you don’t listen to Bodo.  Dat’s a problem, you know, dat you don’t listen!”  His head flopped down and he roared, lifting it up again with effort.  “Aaarrraaahhh!!  Get me off of dis thingk, now!  I need to go take care of my girlfriend.  You know she iss helpless without me.  She thinks she is soooo bigk and tough, but I know bedder.  Insite she’s chust a … ahh … fluffy white thing … dat thing … argh!  Honigsuker!  I don’t know what you call dat thing.  But it’s very soft and like sweetness of da sugar.”

“A marshmallow!” yelled the guy next to him, sounding way more sober than Bodo did.

Bodo’s head snapped to the side, acknowledging his tied-up partner.  “Yes!  Dat’s what it is!  Thank you, Alejandro!”  He looked back to us.  “Bryn is chust a marshmallow so she needts me a lot.”

I shook my head.  That boy is so far gone.  He honestly believes that about me.  Idiot.

“So you’re the one we’ve been hearing about non-stop for days,” Rainbow Vom said, no expression on her face.

One of the other warriors snorted.

“I guess so,” I said.  This whole thing was freaking me out.  I saw no good end here and no way to take them all down without feeling the slick blade of a weapon that could cut entire branches off trees with one quick swipe.  The fact that Bodo talked about me while he was gone was flattering, but I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to appreciate it now.  That would come later, hopefully, if I could get our butts out of this mess somehow.

Her gaze flicked over to Rob.  “Bring him to me,” she ordered.

Two of the girls moved in and shoved Rob forward, using their machetes as threats to keep him from doing anything stupid.

He stepped up, stopping next to me and casting nervous glances my way.

“We need a guy to complete our ritual.”  She jerked her chin up at him.  “He’ll do.  I’ll trade you the German one for this one.”

Rob choked and started coughing.  “Gahh!”

I patted him on the back awkwardly.  “Uhhh, that’ll be a definite no,” I said, fighting back the urge to scoff at her ridiculous statement.  “We’re not trading one of our friends for another so they can participate in your disgusting cannibal rituals.  Nuh-uh.”  I shook my head, trying to act casual about the whole thing, hoping I could delay her attack long enough to come up with a plan.

A couple girls near the fire lifted up their machetes in threatened stances, their expressions telling me pretty clearly I’d offended them.

“We’re not cannibals,” said Rainbow Vom Girl.  “We’re warriors.  That’s it.”

“I heard you hang out with cannibals,” I challenged.  Time to clear the air on this crap.

“We might use those guys for certain purposes, but we definitely don’t use them for food.  That’s disgusting.”

I wouldn’t have been surprised if she had leaned over and spit at that point.  She was as tough as they come, despite her glamour-girl looks.  I almost wanted to fight her just to see if she could back up that attitude with some muscle and moves, but this wasn’t a game, and we had to get the heck out of there before things got messy.

“What purposes?” asked Winky.

I cringed, because I had a feeling I knew what was coming.

“Sex,” the girl answered simply.

“That’s just gross,” said Winky, really quietly.  Only the two girls next to her and I heard what she said.  One of them reached up to slap Winky, when their leader yelled out, stopping her in mid-strike.

“Stop!  Don’t hit her.  Just because she doesn’t get us, doesn’t mean she needs to be beaten.  She’s carrying a baby.”

My heart soared with hope.  Mercy in the form of Rainbow Brite.

She turned her attention back to me.  “I made you a deal.  Take it or leave it.”  She sighed once, seeming impatient.

“Look at the moon!” yelled a girl from across the bonfire.

Rainbow Vom Girl looked up, turning and motioning for her friends to come join her.

“Time’s up,” she said.  “What’s it going to be?  Bodo or …,” she gestured towards Rob, “… Jacob.”

***

I started laughing really hard; I couldn’t help it.

“Jacob?” asked Rob.  “Are you serious?”  He knocked me on the upper arm with the back of his hand.  “Did you hear what she just called me?”  He looked back at her, pissed off.  “I’m no werewolf, woman.”

I nodded, and then shook my head, unable to speak.  I’d never heard anyone be so ignorant in my life.  And I thought I’d been bad calling my friends indians.

Rob crossed his arms over his chest.  “Listen, Parrot Woman, no way am I going with you guys, especially since you obviously have no appreciation for me as a person.”

I looked at Rob sideways, whispering, “Do you have any idea how much you sound like Peter right now?”

He frowned at me.

“Who’s Peter?” asked Rainbow Vom Girl.

“He’s our friend.  Our gay friend.  He’s not your type, trust me.”

She shrugged.  “We aren’t that picky.  We just need them to be big and healthy.”

“Why?” asked Winky.  “Why not small and healthy?”

“We’re starting a new race, and only the strong survive.  You should know that by now.  Our children will be the new leaders of this world.  We need to give them every chance they can get.  Bigger is better.”

I thought about it for a second, before responding.  Establish some common ground with her.  Show her you’re not a threat.  “I hear what you’re saying.  I mean, if you can get some of these girls pregnant, then you have a chance at starting a new community.  That’s what we’re trying to do, too.  Not in exactly the same way, but same concept.”

“Minus the orgies,” said Winky.  “We’re gonna do it the old fashioned way.  You know … boy meets girl, boy likes girl, boy asks girl out.”

Rainbow snorted.  “And that worked out so well for our world before, right?”  She glared at Winky and then me.  “Are you complete imbeciles or what?”

I felt my feathers ruffle a little, but tried not to let it show on my face.  “Uhhh, no?”

“Then you have to see the problem with your little plan.  Men ruined our world.  They got power hungry.  They played games with our food, our environment, our genetics … and look what happened.”

Winky and I exchanged glances but said nothing.

“The world ended,” she continued.  “A virus they created with their carelessness and greed came down and wiped away the problem.  And guess what?  We get to start over.  With no more power-hungry men.  No more women playing along with the whole boy-meets-girl bullshit.”  She looked pointedly at Winky.  “Wake up, girls.  It’s time to change the way the game is played.”

The warriors around her were all nodding.  It looked like a party of bobble heads.

“Soooo, you’re all, like, girl-power, is that it?” asked Winky.

“Girl power on steroids is more like it,” said Rob, sounding freaked out.  “I guess it’s a good thing you still need sperm for your plan to work out.”

Rainbow glared at him.  “For the time being.  But that could change.”

Rob gulped.

She looked back at me.  “The moon is full and up.  Our festival is starting.”

“What festival?”  I was trying to stall, trying to come up with a plan.

“The fertility festival.” She looked over her shoulder and yelled, “Bring them out!”

A couple girls left the fire circle and ran up the stairs.

“Who are you bringing out?” I asked.

“Our Eves.”

“Eves … as in Adam and Eve?”

She nodded, waiting for me to say something.

“Let me guess … this is your Garden of Eden.”

She shrugged.  “We do our best.”

Reason is not going to work with this girl.  I panicked, not knowing what else to do.  The warrior girls were coming out of the front of the house now, followed by three girls in white, see-through dresses.  As they descended the stairs and reached the fire, we could plainly see they were naked underneath.

“Please!” I begged, resorting to Plan C.  “Don’t do this!  I love him!  I really do!  I can’t let you force him into this!”  I took a step forward and the nearest girl reached out her arm to stop me.

I reacted automatically, grabbing it and twisting it around so hard and so quickly, it popped at the elbow, causing her to scream and drop her weapon.  She bent over, cradling her wounded limb to her.

Rob dove to the ground, coming up with the big knife in his hand, waving it in front of himself, threatening anyone who came near with a beheading.

“Don’t even think about it!” he yelled at a girl who looked like she wanted to give him a go.

I kicked the girl I’d just injured in the side of the face while she was bent over, sending her into the weeds, and then spun to face the Rainbow Girl.  My fists were up by my face and my elbows in at my stomach, protecting myself as best I could from whatever assault I was about to suffer.

No one moved a muscle.  The heavy breathing of the girl in pain disappeared, and a slight breeze blew through our group, moving the white dresses of the vestal virgins standing by the fire.  Time seemed to stand still, and every muscle in my body was tense and ready to get to the work of survival against very bad odds.  My eyes flicked up to Bodo, and I wondered if I’d ever get the chance to tell him I loved him before we both died.

The wail of the canner baby broke the silence, and I saw its little hands waving outside of the blanket from the corner of my eye.  I didn’t dare look over, knowing there were threats on every side of me just waiting for me to be distracted.

A shriek came from the top of the stairs.  “No!  Wait!  Stop!” came a young girl’s voice.  The slap, slap, slapping of bare feet on marble reached my ears before the vision of another girl in white appeared at the top of the stairs.

She was young, maybe fourteen or fifteen, her long blonde hair flowing out behind her as she ran down from the entrance to where we were all gathered.  Her dress was longer than the others and she was wearing underclothes beneath it, making her look a lot less hedonistic than her sisters-at-arms.

“I heard a baby!” she yelled.  “I know I heard a baby!  Don’t try and lie and tell me I didn’t, Kiersten!”

Rainbow Girl sighed heavily, gesturing to the young, demanding girl who’d just arrived at her shoulder and was now peeking over at us.

“Strangers?  Meet my sister, Melody.  Melody?  Meet the strangers, who yes, have a baby with them.  You can’t have it.”

Melody stepped out from behind her sister’s back and approached, holding out her hand demurely.  She looked like an English princess with the way she did it - so formally and graciously.

I stood up straight, allowing myself to fall out of fighting stance, taking her hand numbly to shake it, not sure if I were dealing with another lunatic or just a young girl who was a little lost.  She was no threat to me, that was for sure, so I allowed myself to feel a measure of security in front of her.

“So nice to meet you,” she said, smiling and revealing a perfectly straight set of large, white, toothpaste commercial teeth.  “Welcome to our home.”  Her voice spoke of breeding and elocution lessons, stunning me with their foreignness in this wild world that surrounded us.  She looked at Rob for a second and then turned away, acting suddenly shy.  Then she took small, tentative steps towards Winky.

I turned to watch her progress, taking one step back myself so I’d be even with my friend.

Melody held out a trembling hand, as if she wanted to touch Winky’s bundle but afraid to for some reason.

“Is it … it’s a baby, right?” she asked.

Said baby started yelling again, causing Melody to jump.  “Oh!  My goodness,” she said, startled, her hand flying to her throat.  “That frightened me for a second there.”  She took another step closer to Winky.  “Is it a boy or a girl?”

“It’s a boy.  And it stinks, so I wouldn’t get too close if I were you.”

Melody smiled.  “Oh, I don’t care about baby doo.  It’s all a part of who they are, right?”  She was talking to Winky as if they shared a bond of some sort.

Winky must have sensed it too, because she frowned at the girl.  “Are you okay?”

Melody was standing in front of the baby now, looking down.  She put her hand up to her mouth and nodded her head silently.  That’s when I saw tears in her eyes.

I looked over at Rainbow Girl, Kiersten, for an explanation.

“Melody, come on,” she said, almost tiredly.  “Go back in the house.”

Melody shook her head.  “I want to hold him,” she whispered, never taking her eyes off the bundle.

“You can’t.  It’s hers, not yours.”  Kiersten ignored me and walked over to her sister, putting her hands gently on her shoulders.  “Come on, babe.  Let’s go back into the house.”

The group was totally silent.  Several of the girls were wiping their noses and eyes now.  It was an emotional moment for some reason, for all of them.  This group of warrior women were all feeling Melody’s pain, and I had a strong feeling I knew what it was all about.

Melody let herself be turned away from Winky and the baby, and the sisters began their walk back to the house.  No one said or did anything other than watch them go.  They got about ten steps into the trip when the words came bursting out of my throat of their own accord.

“Wait!” I yelled, probably a little too loudly.

Rob cringed next to me, his shoulders jumping up to his ears as he gave me bug-eyes.

“She can hold him if she wants to!” I continued.

Melody spun around, clasping her hands in front of her chest.

Kiersten shook her head.  “I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”

“Please?” Melody begged her sister.  “Just for a minute.  I promise.  And then I’ll give him back, I swear to God.”

“No,” said Kiersten firmly.  She gestured to some nearby girls who came running over.  “Take her into the house.  I need to deal with these people before I deal with her.”

They nodded and took Melody gently in hand.  She walked backwards to the house, staring at Winky, not bothering to hide her tears or her misery.  Once she was at the stairs, she turned to walk up, casting glances over her shoulder every few steps.  Eventually, she disappeared out of sight without another word.

“Wow.  That was some heavy shit,” said Winky.  She looked at Kiersten.  “Speaking of shit … you guys don’t happen to have any diapers, do you?”

“As a matter of fact, we do,” said Kiersten.  “It wouldn’t be very intelligent of us to plan to start a new civilization without them, now would it?”

“So, what’s the deal with your sister?” I asked.  “I’m sorry to be nosey, but, I mean, she’s not crazy, right?”

“No.  She’s not crazy.  Not like you mean.”

“Yeah, cuz I’ve seen crazy - one of your neighbors, in fact - and Melody isn’t like that, as far as I can tell.”

Kiersten nodded.  “She’s grieving.  She lost her baby recently, and it’s really tearing her up.  Us too.”  Kiersten cleared her throat and lifted her chin.  She looked like she was in the process of defying her emotions.

“Oh, that sucks.  I guess.”  I kind of saw it as a blessing in disguise.  This world was too harsh for babies, and Melody seemed too young and vulnerable for the responsibility.

“No kind of about it.  It sucks.  Period.”

“But babies are a big deal to take care of.  And it’s hard enough just taking care of ourselves,” I said, thinking out loud.

“We have set up our home to make it as easy as possible.  We have tons of girls to help, and our sole mission is to live together in peace and raise our children - children who will be taught the value of living simply and in harmony with others.”

I wasn’t all that familiar with the seventies, but she reminded me of girls in my high school who’d tried to be hippies like back in those days.  Part of me was mocking her overly-simplistic views, but the other part couldn’t really argue with the logic, so I kept my opinion to myself, hoping there might still be a way out of this mess for us and for Bodo.

“Are you going to kill the boy babies?” asked Rob.

She scowled at him.  “Are you stupid?  Why would we do that?”

He shrugged.  “Amazons killed the boy babies and kept the girls.  That’s history.  I’m not making this crap up.”

“We’re the new and improved version of those warriors,” she said, pride in her voice.  “We don’t kill babies.  And we don’t kill anyone who doesn’t mean us harm.  Our world needs less war and more love.”  She looked at me.  “Your boyfriend isn’t going to be hurt, so long as he agrees to cooperate.”

I looked up at Bodo, and he was hanging from the column, his upper body leaning forward.  I swore I could hear him snoring lightly.

“He’s going to be pretty hard to … uh … do things with in his current state.”

She looked over her shoulder, sighing aloud.  “Yeah.  We might have gone a little overboard with our happy drugs.  But they’ll wear off.”  She turned back to me.  “So unless you want to trade your other friend for him, I’m going to have to decline your offer of taking Bodo away.”  She smiled.  “He’s pretty fun, though.  I can see why you’d want to keep him.”

I was getting cranky over the way she was talking about him.  “He’s not a piece of property, Kiersten.  He’s a man, and a good one.  And he’s mine, besides, as in my boyfriend.  I’m not going to take no for an answer.”  I schooled my mind and body to remain non-threatening.  I couldn’t let her see me as a challenge for her power.  She might be all peace and love and harmony in theory, but she’d found a way to make friends with vicious canners and lived to tell about it.  The only way that happened was by sheer cunning.  Kiersten was no one to mess with.

“Unless you have another offer, you hold the losing hand here,” she said, turning to leave us and walk back to the stairs.

“Wait!” yelled Winky from behind me.  She came up beside me and whispered, “We do have something else to trade.”

“What?  Bikes?”

“No, stupid.”  She lifted up her bundle.  “The baby!”  She grinned at me expectantly.

I looked at her, aghast at what she was suggesting.  “Do you honestly think I’d turn over a baby so it could be molested by a bunch of man-chicks?!”

Winky reached over the baby and punched me.  “Shut up, you deviant!  They wouldn’t molest him.”  She shook her head.  “Damn, Bryn, sometimes you’re so thick.  I’m talking about giving them the baby to replace the one they lost!”  She gestured with her chin at Kiersten who was waiting near the bottom of the steps.

I held up my hand towards her, asking her to give us a minute.

“Are you serious?” I whispered back.  “Is that … I don’t know, even legal?”

“Legal?  Bryn, if you don’t stop that crap, I swear to all-that-is-holy, I am going to slap you right in the face.  There are no laws here.  There are no rules.  We are making this junk up as we go along.”

I pinched her on the shoulder.  “I know that, mean girl.  I’m just saying, isn’t that kind of bad mothering?  To hand over your baby for a trade?”

Winky frowned at me.  “I ain’t this baby’s mother, and neither are you.”

“Yeah, but we took responsibility for it when we murdered it.”

Kiersten had come up to stand behind me, overhearing my last statement.

“You murdered a baby?”

I turned and fake laughed.  “Heh, heh … yes and no.”

She stood there, waiting for me to explain.

“So okay, here’s the deal.  We were at the canner place, looking for Bodo.  And we met this girl there, the Queen of the canners, and she had this baby here.”  I gestured to the bundle that I suddenly noticed was seriously ripe-smelling with baby doodles.  “And she asked us to kill it by cutting off its head with an axe.  She was obviously off her rocker, so we pretended to kill the baby and then took it from her.”

“Yeah,” said Winky.  “And now we have this thing with no diapers, no milk or whatever, and we have no clue how to take care of it.  So, it’s probably going to die.  So what do you say we trade this baby here for Bodo?  That’s a good idea, right?  Little baby for big baby?”

Kiersten tilted her head to the side, thinking.  We all stood with baited breath, like we were in a courtroom waiting for the jury to announce the verdict in a murder trial.

She looked over her shoulder and yelled, “Melody!  Get out here!  I know you’re standing right there!”

Melody came flying down the stairs, obviously having been listening at the door just out of sight.  She arrived five seconds later, breathless, wisps of her blond hair stuck to the sides her face with sweat.  “I’m here,” she said, nearly choking with happiness.  “You’re going to let me hold it?  Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod … thank you, Kiers.  I promise I’ll give it back in just one minute.  One minute is all I need,” she said, holding out her shaking hands.  She was bouncing up on her toes, her expression one of pure rapture.

Kiersten nodded at Winky.

Winky reached behind her to detach the cloth that she had wrapped around her and the baby to keep it secure.  She ducked her head and pulled the cloth over to release the bundle from her front completely, gently handing it over to Melody.

Tears were streaming down Melody’s face by the time she had her arms around him.  “Oh, my dear sweet baby boy … you are so, so beautiful,” she said, moving the blanket aside to expose his puffy baby cheeks.

“He stinks pretty bad,” said Winky, screwing up her nose.  “I wouldn’t get too close if I were you.”

Melody’s eyes never left the baby and never lost their soft and gentle tone.  “He just needs a little diaper change, that’s all.  He’s a little angel, stinkies or no stinkies.”  She leaned down and put her nose to his forehead, inhaling deeply.  She hiccuped a small sob.  “Oh, God … there’s nothing like the smell of a baby’s head.  Nothing in this rotten world could ever take away that bit of heaven.”

I had no idea what she was talking about, since the only smell I was getting from him would never be called heaven in my book.  But I wasn’t going to be the one to burst her baby-worshipping bubble.

I looked at Kiersten, trying to gauge her reaction to the whole thing.

She was crying silently behind her sister, but when she saw me watching her, she moved quickly to wipe her face.  She walked up to stand by Melody’s side.

“Babe.  Look at me.”

Melody shook her head, crying for real now, no longer happy.  “No.  I know you’re going to tell me to give him back, and I know I have to, but just let me hold him for a little while longer.  Please.”  Her shoulders hunched over the baby in what appeared to be a protective move.

The baby started to mewl and that was all it took to start all four of us cry along with her.

The anger and the fear and the dire straits of the moment kind of fell away as I stared at Melody, listening to her weep.  My heart was breaking for this poor girl.  She was the youngest mother I’d ever known, and she’d lost her baby.  Our parents and grandparents and neighbors and friends had been cruelly taken from us, leaving us here all alone, scared and broken.  I could see now how a baby might feel like a new, fresh beginning - the embodiment of hope.  And then to have that hope stolen away when it died … it was too much to contemplate.  I reached up and rubbed Melody’s back in sympathy, begging her big sister with my eyes to take the deal.

“You don’t have to give him back if you don’t want,” Kiersten said in a trembling voice.  “They’ve offered to trade him for Bodo.”

Melody cried harder, pulling the baby up and burying her face next to his.  “I want to, but I can’t,” she said, her voice muffled.  She lifted her head.  “I know what it’s like to lose a baby.  I won’t let you do this to yourself,” she said to Winky, extending the baby out away from her now, trying to give him back.  She looked over at her sister.  “See?  I said I’d give him back.  I just needed to feel him in my arms for a minute and smell him once.”  She looked down at her chest, which now had two wet circles on it.

“I think he peed on you,” I said.

“That’s not pee,” she said, softly.  “That’s milk.  When I heard him cry, it started flowing.”

“Whoooaaa,” said Winky, her arms not moving, remaining at her sides.  “That’s kind of … gross and cool at the same time.”

Melody smiled briefly and then squared her shoulders, standing up straight.  “They’ll dry up soon.  Just take him.  Really.  I’ll be okay.”

Winky shook her head and took a step back.  “Hell to-the-no.  I don’t want that baby.  It’s not mine.”

Melody frowned.  “Whose is it?”

“They said it belongs to the cannibal girl,” said her sister.

“Who?  Brittney?”

“Yeah.”

“You guys know her?” asked Rob, coming over to join us.

“Yeah.  She went to the same school as us, back in the day,” said Kiersten.  “Mean girl.  Totally vicious.”

“Nothing’s changed there,” said Winky, her words loaded with meaning.  “She made us chop this baby’s head off, so I’m pretty sure he’s better off with you.”

Melody pulled the baby back into her chest, gently tugging the blanket back to examine his neck.  “You seem to have missed,” she said, studying his face closely and smiling absently.  She looked mesmerized, unable to tear her eyes away from his.  He stared back up at her, no longer fussing, one little hand escaping to wave around.  She took it in hers and gently kissed his tiny fingers, one at a time.

“We just pretended to kill him,” Winky explained.  “The blood on the blanket isn’t his.  So essentially, we rescued him from a mentally deranged killer, and you need to keep him safe here so she doesn’t come after him.”

Kiersten nudged her sister.  “So what do you think?  Are you okay with taking in a cannibal baby?”

Melody’s face lifted quickly and she glared at her sister.  “Don’t you dare say that about him.  All babies are innocent.  We are not our parents!”

“God, I hope so,” breathed out Kiersten.  She looked at me, nodding her head.  “We accept your deal.  You can have Bodo, so long as you leave the baby with us and release any claim on him.”

“Done,” I said without hesitation, holding out my hand so she could shake it.  Winky put hers on top of ours and so did Melody.  We moved our hands up and down in tandem, all of us smiling.

“Sorry we kind of overdid it with Bodo.  He’s going to be a little bit hard to move for a while,” Kiersten said, smirking.

“How long?” asked Rob.

“A few hours?  So why don’t you stay and have some food with us.  You can go when he can walk.”  She looked at each of us and added, “I promise you’ll be safe.  No one will mess with you while you’re here.  You get a free pass today.”

I looked at the others and they nodded.  I wanted to get the hell out of there, worrying that if we stuck around they might change their minds.  But Bodo couldn’t even stay awake, and I had a feeling he’d collapse to the ground if he were released from his bonds, so I agreed to stay.

“Sure.  We’ll leave in a few hours.  But, uhhh, not to offend you or anything … but we don’t eat, you know … people.”

“Neither do we.  But I hope you don’t have issues with vegetables, because we’re mostly vegetarians here.”

“Mostly?” asked Winky.

“We eat an occasional dog or fish if we can catch it, but only enough to keep our strength up.”

I swallowed hard, thinking of poor Buster less than two miles away.  “Yeah, I’ll pass on the dog, but vegetables sound good to me.”

Kiersten gestured towards the fire, yelling out to the girls.  “The festival has now officially begun.  Bring the food and Alejandro.  Let’s celebrate our new addition!”  She gestured to the baby bundle and Melody held him up, smiling from ear to ear.

The girls started whooping for joy, several of them running up the stairs to do their leader’s bidding and the rest coming to swarm around Melody and her adopted offspring.

I spared a moment to look at the new mom again; she had quieted the baby’s newest fit by giving him her breast, and the look of utter rapture and calm on her face made me almost jealous.

I left her to run up the stairs to Bodo, reaching his side in seconds.

***

I could hear all kinds of things happening around me, but all I could think about was Bodo.  He was passed out, or appeared to be - hung over with his head dropping down to his chest.  I put my hands on either side of his face to lift it up.

He jerked his head out of my grasp and struggled hard against the ropes holding him for a moment until his eyes focused and he realized it was me.

“Ooooh, hey dare, Bryn.  Is dat really you?”  He squinted his eyes and shook his head a little.

“Yeah, it’s me.”  I was grinning like an idiot.  I couldn’t help it.

“You look happy,” he said, smiling back for a moment.  Then his smile turned into a frown.  “Are you with dem now?  Are you going to rape me, too?”

I laughed, grabbing him into a bone-crushing hug.  “No, you idiot.  I’m here to rescue your stupid butt.”

“Oh, dat’s a relief,” he said over my shoulder.  “You are here to rescue da meat.”

I backed off my hug to look at him.  His head was up but still bobbing a bit.

“Meat?” I asked.  “They weren’t planning to eat you, Bodo.  You know that, right?”

“Man meat.  Dey want me to be da man meat.  Not for eating but for da sexy time.  Dat’s what dey said.  But Bryn, I see dat I really don’t like to be a piece of man meat at all.  Dat’s a problem for me.  It’s a bigk problem.”

I hugged him again, patting and rubbing his back, trying not to giggle.  “Yeah, I understand.  I wouldn’t like being treated like meat either.”

“Man meat.  It’s man meat.”

“Yeah, sure.  Man meat.”

Alejandro had been released and wandered over to join us.  “Hi, Bryn.  I’m Alejandro, as you already know.”

I let Bodo go so I could shake his hand.  It was warm and dry, very unlike Bodo’s clammy skin.

“You don’t look very drugged-out compared to Bodo.”

“Oh, I’m not.  Not at all.  I’m stone-cold sober, actually.”

I lifted my eyebrows, waiting for an explanation.

“Don’t look at me like that.  I’ve got an awesome gig here.”  He looked out and gestured to the fire and the people gathered around it.  “I’ve got twenty-odd women worshipping the ground I walk on, any number of them wanting to have sex with me at all hours of the day.  They feed me, keep me clothed, protect me from the crazies … it’s different than before, but hey … it ain’t all bad.”  He grinned.

“Man meat!” burst out Bodo, slurring his words.  “Dat’s all you are.  Man meat.”  His head flopped down again.

“What’d they give Bodo?” I asked.

“Shrooms.  That girl Kiersten is a mad freakin scientist, man.  She’s, like, a genius or something.  She was in college already when the crap went nuts around the world.  She came back home to be with her sister and started working on her master plan.”  He used his fingers to make air quotes.

“Master plan?”

“Yeah.  You heard her.  They’re gonna repopulate the earth with peaceful people who don’t want to start wars and stuff.”

Bodo was looking at me again, staring over the top of my head.  I reached up and smoothed my hair, paranoid it looked really bad.

Alejandro leaned over and snapped his fingers in Bodo’s face a couple times.  “Wake up, dude.  Your girlfriend’s here to take you home.”  He looked at me.  “Where do you guys live, anyway?”

I sighed, my brain forcibly jerking itself back to my other troubles - the ones that had temporarily taken a back seat to my Bodo issue but would soon be front and center again.

“We were living … with some friends.  But we’re moving to a prison south of here.”

Alejandro nodded.  “You were with those guys in the swamp, huh?”

“Yeah.  How’d you know?  Did Bodo tell you?”

“Nah,” said Alejandro, frowning and shaking his head.  “Everyone knows they’re out there.  The crazies were talking about it all the time.”

I took a step closer to Bodo, feeling very protective of him.  “How would you know that?”

He shrugged.  “I used to live on one of the streets down from their place.  I heard stuff.”

“You were one of their spies,” I said, my eyes narrowing, my hands itching to choke him.

“Not really.  They came by and asked us what we saw while they were busy sleeping or whatever … but there was nothing to see.  Not as far as I was concerned,” he said, smiling.

I cocked my head to the side, not sure I understood.  “You mean you lied to them?”

“Every chance I got,” he responded, pride in his voice.

“But what about your neighbors?”

“What about them?”

“Well, if they were telling the truth and you were lying, it wouldn’t take very long for the canners to realize you weren’t on their side.”

“Pfft.  No one was on their side.  Not in my ‘hood.  We met when they were sleeping and made our own plans.  We saw you guys come in that day.  Why do you think your car stayed all fine and wasn’t missing when your guy came back for it?  And who the hell do you think came and got your boy here and took him out of there when the place was going up in smoke?”

“That was you?” I asked, not sure I understood everything he was saying.

“Yeah.  That was me, and my bros.  But that crazy bitch in the upstairs room picked a few of them off before Kiersten and her crew came in and nabbed me and Bodo.”

“Sounds confusing.”

“It was.  Serious shit was going down, and there was fire and yelling and shots going off.  I couldn’t tell if they were from a person shooting or their arsenal exploding.  Some of those assholes got away, though, I know that.  Kiersten’s group didn’t get them all.”

“I thought she was friends with them,” I said, noticing she had left her sister and was headed our way.  I was freaking out, thinking he wouldn’t answer me before she got there.  I needed to know the answer to this question.

“Nah.  She used them for sex and information.  They had a truce, mainly because those guys were tired of raping boys, I think.  They appreciated getting a fresh piece once in a while, if you know what I mean.”

“That’s just sick,” I said.  “And I thought they couldn’t stoop any lower than they did.”

“Oh, trust me.  They stooped as low as a person possibly can.”

I swallowed hard, realizing that Bodo had been with these girls and Alejandro the entire time I’d been back in Kahayatle - almost a week.  I’d been trying to convince myself that he’d been hiding out, looking for Nina, but now I knew he’d been a prisoner of a houseful of horny Amazon women.  What has he been doing here all this time?  I looked at him and then at Alejandro’s smiling face.  I wasn’t sure I was going to be happy with the answer, but I had to ask anyway.

“Did you guys … you know … like, have orgies and stuff while you were here?”

Alejandro laughed, “No, man, I wish.  They’ve been feeding us and getting us ready for the ceremony.  They want to keep it all, I don’t know, legit with the moon and nature and shit.”

“Say what, now?”

“I don’t know.  They’re doing some kind of earth religion thing.  They’re worshipping the moon and the elements and all kinds of stuff.  I just go with the flow, dude.  So long as they don’t eat me, I’m all for it.”

“So, Bodo’s just been hanging out?”

“Nah.  He’s been trying to get out.  Escape.  If he’s not trying to climb a wall, he stands outside and just looks up in the sky half the day, like he’s wishin’ he could fly.  They’ve had guards on him the whole time, but no one was allowed to touch us until tonight.”

I smiled, picturing my stubborn German boyfriend, giving these Amazons a hard time.  “I guess he wasn’t all that crazy about being man meat.”

“Yeah.  Whatever.  Just keep me away from the crazy lunatics.  That’s all I care about.”

“I hope you’re not talking about my girls,” said Kiersten, arriving at the top of the stairs.

“Heck no, Kiers.  We’re talking about the crazies down the street,” said Alejandro, stepping over to be next to her.

She barely spared him a glance.

I stared at her, picturing her as the youngest girl on a college campus, working in a science lab, coming up with all kinds of brews and cures and things.  It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.  But anyone could say crap like that these days and we’d all just have to believe it.  I could tell them I was an Olympic-hopeful track star and they’d have to believe me.

“What?” she said, looking at me in challenge.

“What, what?” I said back, trying to look innocent.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”  She turned to Alejandro.  “What’d you tell her?”

He shrugged.  “Nothing secret.  Just that you’re a scientist with some mad skills.”  He turned his attention to me.  “You should have her tell you about the virus that killed our parents and stuff.  Pretty crazy shit.”

My mouth dropped open.  For a second I couldn’t speak.

“Maybe another time,” she said, gesturing over Alejandro’s head, motioning for a girl to come join us.  “Take him to the fire, would you?  We’re going to do the cleansing ritual.”

Alejandro raised his eyebrows a few times at me suggestively.  “See you ‘round, Bryn.”  And then he jumped down the stairs, two at a time.

I couldn’t help but laugh.  “He seems pretty enthusiastic.”

She smiled absently.  “Yeah.  We do prefer them that way.  Bodo gave us some trouble.”  She looked at him, pushing up his chin with her finger.  “I did so want him to come around, though.  He would have been worth it.”

I reached up and took her by the wrist, gently but firmly moving her hand away from him.  “Hands off, Kiersten.  We have a deal.  Bodo is mine.”

“Man meat,” he mumbled, sounding like he was weeping.  “I am not a hamburger.  I am Bodo!”

I stepped over and rubbed his back.  “That’s right, babe.  You’re not a hamburger.  You’re my boyfriend, and I love you.”  It slipped out, but he was unconscious, so it didn’t matter that it had been done in front of a megalomaniac and while he was tied up.

Bodo’s head snapped up.  “You luff me!”  He was grinning again, his chapped lips looking pitiful.

I leaned in and kissed him gently on the mouth.  “Yes.  I do.  Now just relax and let the mushrooms wear off.  We’ll get you home soon.”

“Okay,” he said, lazily.  Then he looked at Kiersten, his expression turning to one of hate.  “I told you.  I am Mr. Bryn, not Mr. Kiersten.”

She laughed.  “He’s nuts, you know that?”

I smiled.  “Yeah.  I know.  Friggin’ Germans.”

We stood quietly for a minute, both enjoying the moment of girl-connection that was unexpected for me and from the looks on her face, for her too.

“Where are you going when you leave here?” she asked.  “You with those indians out in the swamp?”

“Native Americans.  And no, not anymore.  But, you know, if you could not advertise them being out there, that’d be good.  They don’t mean anyone any harm or anything.  They want to do what you’re doing.”

“Yeah.  I know.  But hey, if you’re trying to keep a lid on the whole secret society out in the swamp, that’s too bad.”

“Why?”

“Because everyone knows about them already.  The fucknuts down the street were already planning their invasion.”

I huffed out a heavy breath.  “Well, I’m glad we put a stop to that, then.”

She laughed bitterly.  “That’s what you think.  They aren’t the only ones out there.”

“I know.  I saw some up north.”

She shook her head.  “No, you’re not getting it.  They have a network, that goes from the Keys all the way up to Georgia … maybe farther.  Word’s out on you, girl.”

“What?” I said, whispering, unable to use my regular voice because my throat had closed up in fear.

She lifted her eyebrows.  “You didn’t know?”

I shook my head silently.

“You’re the girl that bit that guy’s balls off, right?”

My mouth dropped open.  “How … how …”  I shook my head, trying to wrap my brain around the concept.  “How could you possibly know that?”

“I told you.  Those assholes have friends everywhere.  Or at least people who don’t want to cross them.  You bit the nuts off one of their fucking kingpins.  Or one of his nuts anyway.  You left enough of him intact to generate an awful lot of hate.  That guy’s coming for you, and trust me, they know you’re here.”

I felt sick to my stomach.  “We need to get out of here,” I said thickly.  I waved for Winky to come over.

Kiersten shook her head.  “Not gonna happen.  He’s not going anywhere for about …”  She lifted his chin again, prying one of his eyes open, “… three hours.  At least.”

“How do you know?” I asked, my head drowning in possibilities and probabilities.  I couldn’t sort it all out.  Winky and Rob came up the stairs in time to hear her answer.

“I’m good with chemistry.”  She could probably see from our expressions that it wasn’t a good enough explanation, so she kept talking.  “Doesn’t matter.  What you really want to know is that I was working on a project at school that was being funded by the government.  I was low girl on the totem pole, but I was privy to everything they were doing.  I cleaned the rat cages and sterilized the equipment.  They were close to cracking the code to the virus that killed everyone off, but they just didn’t get there in time.”

“It wasn’t just them working on it,” said Rob.

“No.  It was the entire world - the first time a virus had been turned into a priority by every scientific body on the planet.  Even the hacks were in on it.  And they came damn close, too” she said, shaking her head in memory.  “But then we lost some of the key players, and eventually it was just us - the rat cage kids - left.  And we didn’t know what to do with what they’d found, so it all just disappeared.  Samples were destroyed, the virus didn’t survive long outside of live hosts.”

“So it was a virus, then,” said Winky.  “I mean, I heard it was genetic engineering in the tomatoes or something.”  She half-laughed.

“There were several theories floating around.  But that was the one that came out on top.  Something they’d done, altering something or messing around with some man-made chemical weapon that messed up some bird’s DNA and then it spread from there.”

“Like that bird flu?” I asked, remembering vaguely when people in Japan were wearing surgical masks on the streets.  They had pictures of it on the news.  I was so young, though, I really didn’t know what it meant.

“Yeah.  Like HIV started out with monkeys.  Like mad cow disease started out with bovines.  I mean, you mess with Mother Nature in your bid to conquer the world, and this is the crap that happens.”

“How’d we miss out on all the fun?” asked Winky.  “Why’d they die and not us?”

Kiersten shrugged.  “Believe me, everyone was trying to find out.  They knew if they could isolate the one thing we had, that they didn’t have anymore and babies didn’t yet have, they’d find the key.  But no one ever did before all the adults were gone.”

“So they never knew exactly what it was at all.  That is so damn depressing,” said Rob.

“Maybe they did,” Kiersten said simply.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

She smiled, without humor.  “Do you really think there are no adults left anywhere in the world?”

“Uh, yes,” I said, feeling like I was being called stupid, but not sure why.  Everyone knew all the adults were gone.

“Have you been to Europe?  The Middle East?  Did you check online?”

She was confusing me.  “Uh, no?”

“Exactly.  You have no idea what’s going on outside your little world, because you have no access to it.  No more information superhighway.  But maybe, just maybe, there are some communities that survived.  Maybe there are groups of scientists who locked themselves away in an underground facility somewhere who are working on a cure now.  Hell, maybe they’ve already found one.”

“That’s not possible,” scoffed Rob.  “Is it?”  He didn’t sound so sure anymore.

“I saw stuff you cannot even imagine,” said Kiersten.  “Government programs and compounds and stuff, all over the world - and up until the epidemic, operating in secret, even from their own presidents.  Like I said … this was the first time all of the groups around the world finally worked together.”  She was pissed now.  “To think of what they could have accomplished if they hadn’t been so focused on being number one and keeping secrets.”  She shook her head.  “Shameful.  And never again.”

“That is just … so … insane,” said Winky.  “I don’t know what else to say.  That’s totally insane.”

“Yeah.  And I thought we had everything all figured out,” I said.

“Does this change any of our plans?” asked Rob.  “I mean, do we do things differently, now that we know maybe there’s hope of our world not being what we thought it was?”

I tried to think of how it should change what we were doing, but nothing came to mind.  “No.  We do what we talked about: get settled in and work on setting up our community.  It’s the only thing we can do.”

Kiersten said one last thing before walking away and leaving us to sober Bodo up.  “Well, whatever you do, wherever you go … better shore up your defenses, because they’re coming for you.”

Winky raised her eyebrows.  “Coming for you?  Does she mean you, Bryn?  And who’s coming?”

I sighed wearily.  “I bit a canner’s nuts off, or one of them anyway, and now he’s after me.  And apparently all these canner groups are networked together.”

“Networked?  Like computers?” asked Rob.

“Nuts?  You bit someone’s nuts off?” asked Winky.  “Man, that’s some hardcore krav maga.  You’re gonna have to teach me that move.”

Rob winced.

“Yeah, Rob,” I answered, ignoring Winky.  “They’re networked, like with messengers or something.  They share info through their spies or by taking trips.  I don’t know.  Kiersten said they knew about me and you guys out in Kahayatle and were planning on taking us all out.  But we got to them first.”

“Oh, shit,” said Rob.  “That’s huge.  We need to tell Kowi and them.”

“Someone needs to.  Not to be a coward or anything, but I need to get the hell out of here and set up in that prison before the canners figure out where I am and come after me.”  I looked at my friends.  “They’ll take everyone with me.”

“No, they won’t,” said Winky, looking at Rob for confirmation.  “We’re with you no matter what.  No one’s safe from them.  We all taste the same.”

“So what are we going to do?” asked Rob.

“Well, like you said, we need to warn the tribes.  Can you do that?” I asked him.

“Yeah.  But what are you going to do?”  He was looking at Winky and me.

“We’ll go to the prison.  If you still want to come, you can warn the others and then meet us down there.”

He hit me lightly on the arm.  “You think Little Bee and I would let you face down those monsters alone, Nokosi?”

I smiled.  “You’d better not let Fohi hear you calling him that.”

Rob grinned back.  “If you guys are okay with it, I’m going to go back there and get him, go talk to Kowi and Trip, and then get Peter, Ronald, and Jamal and head south to join you.  You taking the highway?”

I looked at Winky and she nodded.  I answered, “Yeah.  We’ll travel from before sunrise to noon every day to avoid the canners.  We’ll sleep in the brush off the side of the highway.”

“I don’t want to pass you up.  We ride faster than you guys.”

Winky joined in.  “We’ll leave you a sign of where we are.  Look for the bird.”

“What bird?” I asked, picturing Nina in my mind.  That was another issue to deal with.  I wondered if Bodo knew where she was, and I hoped he wouldn’t give me a hard time about leaving here without her if he didn’t.

“Like the tattoos you’ve seen on some of the guys.  I’ll use a coal stick to draw one on the shoulder of the highway.  Just keep your eyes peeled.  I’ll try to do it near a mile marker sign if I can.”

Rob nodded.  “Okay.  Listen, I’m going to go now.  I don’t want to waste any time.”

I waved him away.  “Go. We’ll be fine.”

“Grab some food on your way out,” said Winky at his back.  “And be careful with Trip!”

Rob waved over his head, not looking back.

We watched him go over to a table and grab some hunks of food he tossed into his mouth.  He stopped to talk to Kiersten and then left.  We said nothing until the door on the side of the property closed behind him.

“So,” said Winky, looking at me now, “I guess we have some things to look forward to.”  She smiled at me, her spunky personality shining through.

“Yeah.  Like a canner war.”

She shrugged.  “More like canner annihilation.  We’ll be ready for them.”

“You think so?” I asked, not entirely sure I agreed with her.

“Yep.  We have friends here now and in Kahayatle.  We’ll make new ones on our way.  And we’re going to build a fortress no one can enter.  I’ll bet the barbed wire and walls are already there.”

I smiled absently, contemplating my sad, limpy boyfriend and the state of our affairs right now.  I’d mistakenly thought life was going to be easy and that things I’d done far from here would have no consequences out of their immediate area and time.  I’d counted on the fact that there were no communication systems up anymore.  I guess I forgot about the pony express.  Maybe they weren’t riding ponies anymore, but they were definitely getting around and spreading messages.  And we need to do the same.

***

Winky and I alternated between eating bits of food and getting Bodo sobered up.  I tried not to pay too much attention to the festivities that included lots of what looked like Alejandro being passed around.  He didn’t seem to care too much, so I let it go out of my mind.  I needed all my concentration to get Bodo to have a normal conversation, anyway.

When he was finally ready to leave a few hours later, just before sunrise, we dragged him out of the compound, taking one of their bikes with us, promising that if they ever came down our way, we’d give it back.

Kiersten walked us to the gate.  “Good luck down at the prison.  Who knows, maybe someday we’ll come for visit.  Which one are you going to?”

“There’s more than one?”

“Yeah.  There are several.  The biggest one is Everglades, not far from here.  You could probably get there in two days.  If you’re looking to set up a new community that’s pretty big, I’d go there.”

I took her offered hug.  “Thanks.  That’s where we’re going, then.”  I pulled away so she could hug Winky.  “I don’t know how big the community will be, but I guess we should be prepared for the best, right?  And we’d love for you to visit.  That would be nice.”  I wasn’t just saying that either.  I had a lot of respect for someone who could build a family like she’d done.  The odds were against a group of girls making it on their own, but they’d managed, and it was obvious it was because of the strong leadership they had in Kiersten.

Melody came dancing out of the house, running over to us, all smiles.  “Goodbye, girls!  I just wanted to give you some big, fat kisses to thank you for bringing Joshua into our family.”

“Joshua?” asked Winky.

“That’s what I’ve named him.  He looks like a Joshua, don’t you think?”

We both nodded our heads.  I wasn’t sure that I really agreed, but it didn’t matter.  The baby was in loving hands, and that’s what he needed.  Hopefully, his nutty mother would never see him and recognize him as her own, and this girl who lost her baby would find a way to heal from it with Joshua’s presence in her life.

“Thanks for the food.  And for making the trade,” said Winky.

“Yeah, thanks,” I agreed.  “Bodo appreciates it, too.”  I looked over at him, hoping he wouldn’t disagree, but he was too busy staring at a mosquito that was flying two inches from his face to pay any attention to us.  He was still having trouble getting sober and keeping his focus on the conversation, and if it weren’t so sad, it’d be hilarious.

Winky started laughing, only stopping when I whacked her on the shoulder.

“Come on, Bodo.  Time to go,” I said, taking his arm and shaking it a little.

He came out of his dreamland and pushed his bike forward and through the side door in the wall. As soon as we were through and the door closed behind us, he said, “Dat was a close one, Bryn.  I wass almost da man meat of dose war-girls.  Dey said dat if I didn’t have the sex with them, dey would cut off my man parts.  Andt I like my man-parts too much.  I hope dat doesn’t make you mad at me, dat I was going to choose to keep my parts.”

I worked really hard not to laugh.  “No, Bodo.  I’m cool with it.  I would have done the same thing.”

“Okay good.”  He stopped his bike and looked up into the sky, gazing from left to right, back and forth.

I was afraid we’d lost him to his drugged-out confusion again, but as soon as he spoke, I knew that wasn’t the case.

“Before we go back, I need to find Nina.”

I was glad the door had already closed behind us, hoping they’d moved away from it enough not to hear us anymore.  I didn’t know if Bodo had talked about his bird with them, but all we needed was for them to stop us on the way out, thinking we were hiding something they should know about.

“Do you know where she is?” I asked.

“I hope she iss nearby.  But I don’t haff my straps for my arm, so I cannot call her yet.”

“Here,” said Winky.  “Is this what you need?”  She handed over a small bag that one of the girls had given her before we left.  Bodo looked inside and pulled out his leather straps with a smile on his face.

“Excellent.  Now, all I need to do is to call her.”  He frowned.  “I don’t normally do it without my harmonica.”

“Problem solved,” I said, pulling it out of my front pocket.  “Call away.  You have five minutes.  After that, we leave, Nina or no Nina.”

“You are very bossy today, Bryn,” he said frowning at me.  Then he smiled at the instrument in his hands.  “How did you find dis?  I lost it on da day we rescued da kids.”

“Winky found it in the grass, where you’d been fighting someone.”

He looked at her and held it up in a salute.  “Thank you, Winky.  I owe you something in return.  One day you tell me and I will give it to you.  Dat’s not a problem.”

“Hmmm, sounds interesting,” said Winky, smiling at me.

I pointed a playful warning finger at her before replying to Bodo’s assessment of my bossiness.  “Yeah, well today’s the day I learned I have canners on my butt.  So we don’t have time to hang around and get caught here.”

“Let’s ride down da street a little bit,” he said.  “I don’t want dem to see my bird and change dare minds about da man meat.”

“Could you please stop saying man meat?” asked Winky.  “I keep picturing your private parts when you say that, and it just feels wrong with Bryn standing right there.”

I laughed.  “It better feel wrong whether I’m standing here or not, Winky.”

She stuck her tongue out at me and then smiled.

“Well, do you haff anudder word I can use?  Becausse when someone wants to have da sexy time with you ten times a day with all da different girlss, den you feel like a piece of meat.  And I’m a man, so dat’s da man meat.”

“Fine,” said Winky, rolling her eyes, “man meat it is.”

We rode together and waited while Bodo called for Nina.  After five minutes of trying, she came, but only as close as the nearest palm tree.  She refused to come to his arm.

“She iss upset with me,” he said quietly.

I could tell he was sad, so I tried to think of something I could say to make him feel better.  “Maybe she’ll change her mind, after she’s had time to forgive you for ignoring her.”

“Dey are not like people, Bryn.  Sometimes it’s chust a small thing to us, but a very bigk thing to dem.”

“Well, regardless, we have to go,” said Winky.  “I’m getting nervous.  Peter and them are waiting, probably wondering what the heck happened.”

“Rob would have been there by now.  I’m sure they know.”

“Will they still be there?” asked Winky.  “Or do you think they’ll move on without us?”

“I have no idea.  But we need to go find out, before the canners are awake.”  I looked over at Bodo who was carefully wrapping up his leather to put in his pants.  “Come on, let’s ride.  Just blow your harmonica now and again and hopefully she’ll follow you like she did before.”

Bodo said nothing, just looked up at her sadly.  She shrieked one time at him and then took off.  I lost her when she went over the rooftops beside us.

We pedaled back to the shell shop with Bodo between us tooting his harmonica every once in a while.  He was like a crazy drunk driver, swerving all over the road.  He used us as bumpers, keeping himself as straight as possible.  His technique only caused two near-accidents and forced about twenty cuss words to come flying out from both sides, but eventually we made it back to the shop where Bodo got off his bike and promptly vomited in the front door entryway.

“Well.  It’s nice to see you, too,” said Peter, wryly, standing back a bit from the doorway.  Jamal and Ronald were behind him, both of them with looks of disgust on their faces.  Buster tried to get near enough to investigate but Peter shoved him away with his foot.  “Don’t even think about it, Buster, you little piglet.”

“I’m sorry, Peter,” moaned Bodo.  “I had some very badt drugs.  I feel very sick right now.”

Peter stepped over the nastiness and moved Bodo away a few paces before hugging him.  “Glad you’re back, you big dummy.  We missed you.  And don’t you dare vom on me or I’ll kick your butt.”

Bodo patted him weakly on the shoulder.  “I missed you, too.  Every time I doodled, I thought of your nice face.”

Peter pushed him away and smacked his chest.  “Rude.”

“What?” asked Bodo.  “Dey let me doodle.  Dey even had paint and brushes.  I painted your handsome face on da wall dare.”

Jamal and Ronald were looking at all of us and then each other, confused.

“Don’t ask,” I advised them.  “Are you guys ready to leave?”

“Yes,” said Peter, “are we ever.”

“What’d you guys do while you waited?” asked Winky.

“Nothing,” said Peter.

“Not exactly nothing,” said Ronald, smiling.  He schooled his expression to be bland as soon as Peter looked over.

“What’s that mean?” I asked.

“That means Peter did a little cleaning,” said Jamal, smiling.

“Oh, geez, Peter.  Did you have to?” I asked.

Peter huffed out a breath.  “Some people cower in offices when they’re stressed,” he said glaring at the twins.  “Other people do things to keep their mind off the boredom.”

“Like clean out an abandoned, destroyed retail shop that no one is ever going to use again,” said Ronald.

“Until it was so clean you could eat off the floor,” added Jamal.

I shook my head.  “I’m not even going to look.  I had hoped you would have gotten some sleep, but whatever.  Everyone here will be very happy for Peter’s tendencies when we get to our new place.  I have a feeling it’s going to need some work.”

Peter lifted his chin, smiling proudly.  “I told you Bryn appreciates it.”

I didn’t have the heart to burst his bubble and tell him the shell shop could have stayed a wreck and I wouldn’t have cared.  But maybe if Celia ever saw it again, she’d be happy.

“Come on.  Let’s go.  We’re burning daylight.”  I gladly released the crotch-crushing bike and took my big-butt-seated one back, depositing Buster in the basket and getting onboard.  “We’re going to the Everglades prison.  Kiersten said it’s about two days from here, which is great news.  That means we only have to sleep one night on the road.”

“Who’s Kiersten?” asked Ronald.

“We’ll tell you about it on the way,” said Winky.  “Let’s jam.”

“Let’s jam?” asked Jamal, as we pulled away from the shop.

“I’m kickin’ it old school,” said Winky.  “Try to keep up.”  She took off ahead of everyone, waving a middle finger over her head.

“What’s gotten into her?” asked Peter, smiling at her back.

“I think she’s stared death in the face and has come back to enjoy life or something.”

“Maybe getting out of that swamp has something to do with it,” said Ronald.

“I don’t feel so good,” said Bodo, before leaning sideways to throw up again, falling off his bike into the gravel on the side of the road.

***

We were delayed another fifteen minutes while Bodo was rehydrated and given some bread to calm his stomach.  As soon as Bodo looked able to ride again, I pulled him to his feet.

Buster danced nervously around, probably picking up on everyone’s worried vibes.  I let go of one of Bodo’s hands to scoop him up, putting him back in my bike’s basket before letting go of Bodo’s hand.

“Ready?” I asked.

“Not really,” he said weakly.  “I’m sorry for dis, guyss.  Maybe you shouldt go ahead without me.  I will stay here and go later.”

“No way,” I said, standing his bike up and patting the seat.  “Mount up.  We’re all staying together, and we’re all going now.  You barf again and you’re just going to have to keep riding.”

He took the handlebars and threw his leg over the top of the bike to straddle it.  “You are a cruel woman.”

“Yes.  I know.”  I got on my bike and pointed at the road.  “Go.  We need to get on the highway right now.  You have five minutes to be on that striped asphalt, so start pedaling.”  I felt like a military commander or something, but I knew tough love was the only thing that would get him going.

Bodo grumbled, but he went.  I waited until everyone was moving before I followed.  Winky was in front of our crew now and I was in back.  It was sad to think that the two of us were looking out for four guys who, unless you counted their contributions as man meat, were more liabilities than assets.  I was looking forward to starting the training for everyone again.  My classes would be smaller, but that would make it easier to focus on them individually.  I put together practice routines as we made our way to the interstate highway.

Peter dropped back to ride beside me, once we were on the highway going south negotiating the husks of burned out cars and scattered bits of glass.

“So what’s the plan?” he asked.

“Plan?  Plan for what?  Getting there?  Living there?  Narrow it down for me.”

“All of the above, but we can start with the plan for food and water.  We have enough for a few days if we stretch it.”

“Well, you can leave Winky and me out of the meals for the first day.  We ate at the Amazons’ place.”

“You will be telling me all about that, every last detail, as soon as I’m done getting this info.”

“Maybe have Winky tell it.  She’s the baby murderer.  It’ll be more interesting from her perspective.”

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that and move on.  Tell me about food and water.”

“Well, short term, we find what we can and make do.  We’re not far from the ocean and the Everglades, so we can fish.  Longer term, I have seeds for a garden and Bodo says he can put that together.  And I plan to find some cattle and goats and stuff for our meat and milk, and maybe some horses for transportation.”

“And where will we be getting said livestock?”

“I hope we either can find it wandering around out on the old ranches, or maybe we can convince the tribes to give us some that we can breed on our own.”

“So you know how to breed cattle, then?” he asked in a deceptively innocent voice.

“I’m pretty sure they take care of the breeding part themselves,” I said wryly.

“Perhaps,” he said.  “But to get baby cows, you need a bull.  And bulls are dangerous.”

I shrugged.  “So we find a cowboy.  It can’t be that hard.  We live in Florida.  There are ranches all over the place here.”

“In Miami?”

Ronald dropped back to listen in on the conversation.  “Actually, down in Homestead, there are quite a few ranches.  We might get lucky.”

“Really?” I asked, surprised to hear that.  “Ranches?”

“Yeah.  Crazy, huh?  I mean, with Miami so close and all.”

“Nothing’s crazy to me anymore,” I said.  “That word really shouldn’t exist for us at this point, considering what we’ve seen.”

Ronald nodded.  “Yeah.  Tell me about it.”

“Okay, so we are going to grow our own food,” said Peter.  “I like the concept.  Execution’s going to be difficult, but I think we’re capable.”

“If someone had told me a couple years ago that I’d be riding my bike down south to live in a prison with a bunch of strangers to raise cattle and tomatoes, I’d have turned and walked the other direction, thinking they needed to be checked into the nearest mental health facility,” said Ronald.  “It’s wild how much your life can change in such a short time.”

“What were you doing two years ago?” I asked.  “I mean, what was your life like?”

“Well, I guess I have to think about that for a second.”  He changed gears on his bike, pedaling through the clanking noises.  “I was in high school, for one.  Our dad was a pastor at our church, so most weekends I was with him visiting sick or elderly parishioners.  There were always functions to attend, too.  I also had a girlfriend.”  He stopped talking, lost in his memories.

“What happened?  To your girlfriend?” asked Peter.

I was worried about the answer and wished he hadn’t asked.  They were loaded questions these days.

Ronald took a deep breath and said, “She died.  She was older than me by a few years.”

I hadn’t been expecting that.  “Wow, I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Yeah, sorry.  My sympathies,” said Peter.

“Thanks.  I appreciate it.  It’s been a while now, though, so I’m doing pretty well.  In the beginning, it was tough.  Not just to lose her but our father, all the people from our church.  There weren’t a lot of young people in the congregation, so we lost a lot of friends.  A lot.  It’s been a tough year for us.  Sometimes I think my girlfriend was the blessed one, being taken with the others.  Like maybe we were left here as punishment for our sins.”

“I don’t believe that at all,” said Peter.  “I may have had an impure thought or two, but I’m not a bad person who needs to be punished with cannibals eating my family members and trying to kill me, thank you very much.”

Ronald looked at him in alarm.  “I’m sorry, Peter.  I didn’t mean it like that.  I’m sorry about your sister, I hope you know that.”

I wondered how Ronald knew about her, but then realized Peter and he had plenty of time to spill their guts while we negotiated with Amazonian man-meat ranchers.

“Yeah, I know,” said Peter, sounding stronger than normal where his sister was concerned.  “No offense taken.  I’m just saying … none of us in this group or in the swamp are being punished.  We’re being given an opportunity to get things right.  It’s our job to remake this world into the one it should have been.”

“You have no idea how much you sound like the head Amazon over there in Cannerville,” I said, smiling.

“She sounds incredibly brilliant,” said Peter, sniffing.  “I wish I could have met her.”

“Actually, she is incredibly brilliant, or so we heard from her gigolo.  She was already in college and working with scientists on the cure to the virus that killed everyone.”

“No!” said Peter and Ronald in unison.

“Yep.  She wasn’t the head scientist or anything, but I guess she saw what was going on from the inside.”

“So it was a virus,” said Ronald, considering the idea.

“Yeah.  Brought on by people messing around with genetics or bioengineering or some crap I’ll never understand.”

“So she’s talking about doing things different now, too?” prompted Peter.

“Yeah.  She’s going to help repopulate the earth with peaceful people.”

Winky added from the front, “And if they don’t comply, she’s going to cut off their wieners!”

Peter giggled until he realized we weren’t laughing with him.  “She’s kidding, right?”

I shook my head.  “Nope.  Comply or lose your salami.  That’s the deal.”

“Holy crap.  Now I’m not so sure I like being compared to her.”

“Well, her way is working right now.  She’s got loverboy Alejandro fertilizing all their eggs, and a group of badass chicks there to protect the brood.  Peace, love, harmony, and wiener chopping.  Sounds perfect to me,” I said.

“Where does love and companionship come into the mix?” asked Ronald.

“Not sure that’s a requirement from the men,” I said.  “They give it to each other.  Girl power.”

“That kind of girl power just gives me the willies,” said Jamal.  “I like strong women, don’t get me wrong, but that strong?  I’m not so sure.”

Ronald laughed.  “Who are you kidding?  You were in love with that girl, Jade, and don’t try to say you weren’t.”

“Ronnie, you must be smokin’ something if you think that’s the case.”

Ronald looked at me and Peter, dropping his voice.  “Jade would’ve happily beat his behind as soon as look at him, and he would have thanked her for it.  Trust me.  The boy was sick with it.”

“What happened to her?” asked Peter, whispering.

I glared at him.  “Must you, Peter?”

“What?” he asked innocently.

“Ask the question that always comes with the difficult answers?”

“Oh,” he said, looking like he hadn’t considered that.  “I guess you can strike that question.  Forget I asked.”

“No, that’s alright.  We have to be able to talk about our pasts.  It’ll help us move towards a better future, right?  She just disappeared one day with a group of kids.  They went off to start up a life somewhere, away from our town.”

“And she didn’t take Jamal?”

“She already had a boyfriend.  Big dummy named Frisco, so she didn’t even look back.  Girl was oblivious to Jamal’s crush.  He was too afraid to ever tell her how he felt.”

“I can hear you back there,” said Jamal.  “And I’m not sure I appreciate you sharing my business like that.”

“Ignore him.  He’s bitter,” said Ronald.  “Mostly because I told him about a thousand times to get off his seat cushion and tell her.  Next time, maybe he’ll listen.”

“What he calls telling, I call nagging.  Don’t count on me ever listening to that noise.  And beware, y’all.  The boy can nag like nobody’s business.”

I smiled at their easy banter.  “You guys make me wish I had a brother.”

“You have one,” said Ronald.  “His name is Peter, right?”  He grinned at us and rode ahead to join his brother, reaching over to punch him lightly in the shoulder.

I glanced at Peter who was already looking at me.  “I think I would have liked to have you as a real brother,” I said softly.  “Your sister was a lucky girl.”

Peter smiled sadly.  “I was the lucky one.  But if you want, you can consider me your adopted brother.  I’d like that.”

I reached my hand out and he took it.  We rode down the street holding hands for a few seconds until we were interrupted by a swerving, drunk Bodo.   He’d been doing so well and keeping to himself, I’d forgotten that he wasn’t feeling well; but when he kept on riding diagonally right into the guard rail on the side of the road and fell off his bike, I knew it was more serious than I’d realized.

We all stopped and circled back to help him.

“Can we stop for a little while?” he asked from his back on the ground.  “I think I need just a bit of a rest.”

“Whatever gave you that impression?” asked Jamal, straddling his bike.

“I don’t know,” said Bodo, totally serious.  “But something tellss me dat I should not be seeing da sky right now.”

“Get up, goofball,” I said, holding out my hand.  “We’ll stop for some water and food, but then we need to keep going.  We have only a few more hours of travel time before we have to hide and rest for the night.

A couple of cars were nearby, both of them looking like they had been in one of those smash-up derbies.  The others stood around, looking up and down the street nervously.  I knew exactly what they were thinking.  How long can we stand out here and hope to not get challenged by some lunatic?

Peter got off his bike and hunted through the bags to get us all some water and something to munch on.  I waved him away, not yet hungry enough to justify taking part of our meager supplies.  Winky also declined the food but gladly took the water.

“We need to try and catch some water tonight,” said Peter, looking up at the sky.  It was blue as could be right now, but that meant nothing in south Florida.  Rain clouds could move in within minutes.  Seconds, even.

“I’ll get on that,” I said, looking over at Bodo, disturbed by how pale his face was and the skinned elbow he’d suffered in his last fall.  I went over and sat down next to him on the gravelly shoulder of the road, nudging him in the uninjured arm.  “How’s it goin’?” I asked.  “You feeling okay?”

He shook his head and said nothing.

I hated to see him looking so pitiful.  “It is your stomach or Nina?”

“Both,” he said, looking off into the distance.

“Why don’t you call her again?”

“No.  I haff no food for her.  Da first time she comes back, I have to reward her.”

“Can’t you just pet her or something?”

“No.  Birds of prey are not like dat.  Dey are not like dogs dat chust want to have dare bellies tickled.  Nina wants meat from me.  Dat’s all.”

Buster came over as if on cue, angling his head under my hand to get a pet from me.  I absently played with his ears.

“Just like Kiersten and her girls,” I said, trying to get a smile from him.

His responding snort had zero humor in it.  “Maybe.”

I put my arm around him and leaned over to kiss his cheek.  “When we get to the prison you can build a special place for her.  Maybe you can find more birds, too, and train them.  I’ll bet some of the kids would love to learn how to do that … what you do.”

“Maybe,” he said.  He took another small sip of water and then looked at me.  “Thank you for trying to make me feel better.  I’m gonna be okay later.  I chust need some time to make things all straight in my head.  It’s very confusing for me right now.  Da drugs are still swimming and swimming dare.”

I nodded, patting him on the back.  “I know.  I can wait.  I’m here for you if you need me.”

Buster jumped up on Bodo, begging for attention.  Bodo reached out to touch him on the head a few times with the tips of his fingers, making it seem like even petting the dog was too much effort.

“Me too, Bodo,” said Peter, holding out his hand.  “Come on, I’ll help you up.  We need to go.”

A sound of someone shouting off in the distance gave serious emphasis to his words.  Buster barked several times before I was able to grab him and squeeze his mouth shut.

“No, Buster!  No bark!” I growled at him.  He stopped trying to bark and looked at me suspiciously.

Winky cocked her head.  “Did you guys hear that?”

“Yeah,” said Jamal.  “Good guys or bad guys, do you think?”

“Assume they’re all bad guys,” I said.  “We need to get off the highway, now.”

We scrambled to our bikes, even Bodo moving faster than I’d seen him go all day.  He was stumbling a bit, like he was drunk, but he was able to grab his handlebars and get on his ride.

“What about the sign?” I asked, looking at Winky, panicked.  “For Rob and Fohi?”

“I’ll do it later.”  She glanced left and right, looking over both sides of the shoulder.  “Where are we going?  Which way?”

“There!” said Peter, pointing to a copse of trees in the distance, off to our right.  We had to get across at least one hundred yards of weeds and tall grasses to reach it.

***

“Run!” I said, pushing my bike a few feet before jumping on and pedaling.  I waited for Bodo to get in front of me before I put too much energy into it.

Peter was in the lead, pumping his legs as fast as they would go.  Winky was just behind him, followed by the twins.

Buster’s little body bounced all over the place as my bike went over the uneven bumps that sprung up out of the ground.  They were clumps of grass, not earth, and in between the ground was soft.  Our tires kept getting stuck, making the going much slower than I would have liked.

More shouts came from behind us.  I risked a look back and saw no one yet.  “Go!” I said, not too loud, but desperately enough that it had an effect.  Legs pumped harder and bodies hunched farther over the handlebars in our efforts to go faster.

Peter jumped off his bike and started running with it, his tires giving him too much trouble to continue.  The rest of us soon followed suit, and the last twenty yards had us all running like charging bulls at the trees.

We pushed our bikes behind the thickest part of it and stood there for a few minutes, getting our breath back.  Bodo fell to the ground, letting his bike drop with him.  Luckily, it fell in the other direction.  I wasn’t sure he would have been able to move if it had landed on him.  He turned his head and vomited into the grass, moaning.

Peter bent down and stroked his forehead from behind.  “Shhhh, I’m sorry you feel sick, but you have to be quiet.”  He looked up at Jamal.  “Can you bring me some water for him, please?”

While Jamal moved to get him a bottle, Ronald, Winky and I went to the edge of the trees, trying to get a good look at the highway.

At first we saw nothing, but then we saw a guy.  And then another.  And eventually a whole group of them, seven in total.  The majority of them seemed energized, happy to be partying it up on the highway.  But a few of them, three it looked like, did not.  They walked in a line, their shoulders stooped and their hands in front of them like they were folded in prayer.  All of them were staring at the ground.

“What in the …?” said Ronald.  “Why are they walking like that?”

“Who?” asked Winky, pushing aside some leaves that were in her way.

“Those guys with the prayer-hands,” I said.  “In the middle, kind of.”

I looked at Winky in time to see her eyes widen.

“Slaves,” she said in a whisper.

“What?” I asked, looking back.  “Slaves?  Where?”

“She’s right,” said Ronald.  “They have their hands tied, and they’re all strung up together, in a line.  See?”  He nodded his head in their direction.

“I can’t see any rope, but it sure looks like that’s what’s going on,” I said.  “This is not good.  Not good at all.  Maybe they’re not slaves.  Maybe they’re the food.”

“Regardless, it’s bad news.  What’re we gonna do?” asked Winky.

“We’ve got to do something,” said Ronald.

“We do?” I asked, looking to them for confirmation.  Deep down I knew the answer, but I so wanted to be able to just walk away and mind my own business for a change.  I was already worried about taking care of the people we had with us now.  I glanced over at Bodo, sleeping now in the grass with his mouth hanging open, his pitiful bald, white head practically glowing with sweat.  I shook my head at our chances of success.

“Yeah, we do,” said Winky.  “But not all of us.  And not out here in the open.”

“You have a plan already?” asked Ronald.

“Yep.  We wait for them to go to sleep, sneak in, take the slaves out, bring them with us, take off for the prison, make it there by tomorrow.  And pray they don’t wake up in the middle of the rescue.”

“Dang, you’re good,” said Ronald, smiling.  “I appreciate your positive outlook in the face of these odds.”

“Thank you,” she said, grinning back.  “No one ever got anywhere thinking negatively.”

“I couldn’t agree with you more,” said Ronald.  “My daddy always used to say something similar.  Think positive, act positive, be positive.  He always said that you become what you think about most of the time, so you need to think good things to be a good person.”

“Your dad sounded like my kinda guy,” said Winky.  “So are you in, or are you going to stay behind with Peter?”

He shrugged.  “I’ll go.”

“I think it’s better if he stays behind,” I said.  “No offense, Ronald, but Peter and Bodo need someone watching over them, and Winky and I are going in for sure.  Plus, Winky’s the quietest one of all of us, so if anyone’s going to be able to sneak past those guys, it’ll be her.”

Ronald shrugged.  “No skin off my back.  I just want to help any way I can.  If I can avoid being killed at the same time, well, that’s just a bonus.”  He flashed his super-white teeth at us.

“Okay.  That’s the plan, then.  Thanks, Winky.”

“My pleasure.  When do you want to do it?”

“When it’s dark.  We were going to stop anyway, right?  Might as well set up camp here while we wait.  Maybe they won’t go far.”

Winky frowned.  “Okay, well, at some point I need to get back up to the road and put the symbol down for Rob and Fohi.”

“You don’t need to do it during the day,” said Ronald.  “We can keep any eye out for them now ourselves and go get them if they come by.”

“They’re going to be riding right into this group.  That’s what worries me,” I said.

“You don’t think those canner guys or slave drivers will stop here on the highway in the middle of the day, do you?” asked Winky.

“No, probably not,” I said, searching my mind for the options they might choose from.  “If I were a canner, or a slavedriver, were would I go hang out?”

“If you were bold as brass and marching down the middle of the road with slaves in tow?” asked Jamal, coming over to join us.

“Exactly,” I said, not coming up with any answers.

Everyone remained silent for a few seconds, mulling over our dilemma.  Finally, Ronald spoke.

“If I were a highwayman bandit with slaves who look as tired as those ones do, I’d stop in a nice piece of shade where they would have a hard time getting away, and I’d be able to take a nap.”

We looked around the immediate area, since Ronald’s assessment of the slaves seemed to be pretty right-on.  One of them had just tripped and looked like he was having a hard time getting up.

“Problem,” said Winky.

“What?” I asked.

“After we rescue them, how the heck are we going to get them all the way down to the prison?  They can barely walk as it is.”

“Good question,” I said, once again without answers.

Jamal spoke up.  “I would guess that when motivated with the opportunity of freedom, they might find some hidden energy that would at least get them out of the area.  We can also put them on our bikes and push them along.  It would take longer, of course, but it could work.”

“So long as they can hold on,” said Winky.

“Maybe one or two of them could ride in the trailer,” I suggested, looking over at it and wondering how we might rearrange our stuff to do that.

“Hey, Peter,” said Jamal.  “Do you think you could do some organizing of the stuff in the trailer to accommodate some tired riders?”

Peter frowned.  “Riders as in people?”

“Yes.”  Jamal turned and winked at me.

“Probably.  Yes, if I had some time to work it out.”

I nodded.  “Do it, Peter.  Make as much room as you can in there.  We have three people who won’t be able to ride a bike.  We’ll carry stuff on our backs if we have to.”

Peter left the care of Bodo to begin his task, and I for one was happy to have him doing something that I knew would make him feel good about his contribution.  He never complained about being left behind, but I knew him well enough to know that he wanted to pull his weight in some way.

“So where are they going to stop?” asked Ronald, almost to himself, studying the area around the highway.

“You can’t really see it from here,” said Winky, “but there’s a spot on the other side of the road from us that had some shade trees.  I didn’t like it because there was no cover except from above.  Not like here,” she said, gesturing to the heavy brush that was under the trees, making is possible to be hidden from the view of the highway.

“Let’s watch and see.”

The kid who had fallen was on his knees now, causing the other two in his chain gang to have to stop as well.  They stayed there for a while, until their herders realized they weren’t moving.  One of them came over and gestured to the kid on the ground.  He didn’t appear to respond, or at least he didn’t get up.  The slave driver kicked him in the shoulder, knocking him on his side into the street.

“Oh, crap,” whispered Winky.

The slave driver yelled something I couldn’t make out and gestured to one of the other slaves, who hurried over with the other and lifted up their partner from under his arms.  The slave driver looked over towards our trees, making my blood go cold for a moment, before pointing in the opposite direction.  The slaves disappeared from site as they went to where he had ordered them to go.

“They’re going for those trees I saw,” said Winky.

“Thank the Good Lord,” said Ronald, “because I thought for a second there, he was going to tell them to come here.”

“Me too,” I said, still trying to gauge the situation.  “Four bad guys, three slaves.  Can we take out four guys?”

“Are we taking them out or just sneaking the slaves out?” asked Winky.

“I’d prefer to sneak in and out, but what are the chances we could do that?” I asked.

“Probably not good,” she said, sighing.

“You should avoid killing anyone, if you can,” said Ronald.

“Is that the preacher’s son talking?” I asked, trying not to sound sarcastic, but for me, it felt a little late to be talking about morality, considering all we’d been through.

“No.  That’s the guy who doesn’t want other canners to hear gunshots talking, actually.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling a little guilty over assuming he was lecturing me.

“Yeah, let’s keep as low a profile as necessary,” said Winky.

Jamal chimed in.  “Speak softly, and carry a big stick.”

“Theodore Roosevelt.  Very nice, my brother,” said Ronald, holding up his hand for the high-five his twin was happy to deliver.

I had thought that was from Winston Churchill, but pretty much anyone’s knowledge of history was better than mine, so I didn’t argue.  It was a good proverb, regardless of who said it, and it was exactly what I intended to do.  Only my stick was going to be some krav maga and a possibly a knife.

***

We ate small bits of food and drank water, speaking in whispers and sharing stories from our pasts, hiding our laughter in our shirts.  Peter remained on constant guard for Buster’s barks, holding his hand lightly over the dog’s muzzle so that when he did bark, it came out muffled and didn’t carry across the open space to the highway.

While we were doing everything we could to be quiet, the slave drivers seemed almost to be doing the opposite.  We could hear their rowdy guffaws and shouts coming from the other side of the road.  It went on for part of the day and stopped for an extended period when the clouds began to move in as they normally did in the late afternoon.

“Should we go now?” asked Winky.

“No, it’s not dark enough,” I said.

“But they’re sleeping now, right?  When it’s dark they’ll get up and party.”

I looked at the other guys to get their input.

“It’s risky,” said Jamal.  “I wouldn’t do it in the daytime if it were me.  But she’s right about them being awake.  That would be risky, too.”

“I say, wait until it starts to rain.”   Ronald looked up at the sky.  “It’s gonna be a big storm, you can tell from how dark and heavy those clouds are.”

I looked up where he was pointing and realized that he was probably right. They looked like they were only about a half-hour away.  A loud rolling batch of thunder came from off in the distance, underscoring the accuracy of his predictions.

“You can army-crawl through the weeds until you get close and then wait for your moment.”

“Army-crawl.  Fun,” I said sarcastically.

“I do love me some army-crawling through the wet, smelly, snake-infested weeds,” said Winky, smiling.

“Snake-infested?” I said, feeling a little light-headed at the idea.

“Just kidding.  Not really,” she said.

“Not really, what?  Kidding?  Or about the snakes?”

“Yeah.  One of those,” she said, leaning back quickly so I couldn’t hit her.

“I will slap you silly, Winky.”

“You’d have to catch me first.  And I’m fast.”

“But you’ve got to sleep sometime.”

“Okay, ladies,” said Ronald, holding up his hands, “time to behave.  We have plans to make here.”

“Yes, sir, Ronald, sir,” I said, saluting him.  Then I couldn’t help but smile.  “Just messing with you.  I like bossy men.  Tell me what I should do.”

“Me, too.  Boss away,” said Winky, looking at him expectantly.

“I’m not bossy,” said Ronald.

“Uh-hem,” said his brother, clearing his throat.  “Yeah, right.”

“Traitor,” Ronald said, scowling at his brother.

“I just call it like I see it.  And you?  Are bossy.  But you know I like you anyway, brother, so keep on keepin’ on.”

“With my bad self?” he finished.

“Yeah.  Wit’ yo bad self.”

They did a complicated hand slapping thing that had me jealous.  Winky and I giggled as we tried to mimic it.

Ronald put his hands over ours, covering them and halting our progress.  “Girls.  Please.  You’re embarrassing yourselves.”

Jamal snickered behind him.

We stuck our tongues out at them.

“They’re just jealous,” whispered Winky loudly.

“Yeah,” I agreed.  “We’ve got skills.”  We did a messy high-five followed by two hip bumps that sent Winky flying into the dirt.  “Oops, sorry about that,” I said.

We both started giggling, unable to stop.

The guys all rolled their eyes.

Bodo spoke up from his position on the ground.  “You haff to watch out for Bryn’s butt.”

I hid my smile behind a fake scowl.

“Girls,” said Peter, shaking his head and sighing, as he went back to his job of repacking the trailer.  He’d taken everything out and was starting from scratch.

“I’m going to take a cat nap until the rain comes,” said Winky, lying down on her back, using her backpack as a pillow.

“Me too,” I said, doing the same, facing Winky and resting my back against Bodo’s after giving him a kiss on his thankfully cool cheek.

I fell asleep looking at my friend’s beautiful profile, envying her coffee-colored skin and shiny black hair, hoping that no matter what went down later today, that she’d never lose the spunk that made her so much fun to be around.

***

The rain came and brought with it plenty of thunder and lightning.  The drops were so big it reminded me of the shower in Kayahatle.  We were soaked in less than a minute.

Winky and I armed up, each putting two knives and a gun in our clothes.

Bodo was awake and seemed much better.  He protested when he was told he couldn’t participate, but he seemed okay with me going.

“Chust come back to me.  Dat’s all I ask,” he said before giving me a bone-crushing hug.

“You all have to be ready to haul ass when we’ve gotten those kids,” I said, pulling out of his arms.  “If by some miracle we’re able to get them out in secret, we can’t be hanging around here waiting for those slave drivers to come after us.”

“Yeah, this’ll be the first place they look,” said Ronald.

Winky was staring out into the rain, in the direction of the slavedriver camp.

I nudged her in the arm.  “What’s the matter?  Having second thoughts?”

She shook her head without looking at me.  “Nope.  Just getting into the right frame of mind.”

“She’s getting her game face on,” said Peter, standing by the now nearly-empty trailer, all ready for its three passengers.

“Come on,” I said.  “No sense in waiting.  We don’t want the rain to stop while we’re in the middle of it.”

“Do you think the rain woke them up?  Maybe they’re not sleeping anymore,” said Jamal, looking worried for us.

“They could be but probably not.  We’ll have to use the cover of the rain to get as close as we can and then we’ll just have to wing it.  You okay with winging it, Winky?”

She nodded, glancing at me quickly before looking back to the highway.  She was dead serious, totally in the zone.

“Let’s do this,” I said, walking out of the trees.

“Bryn, wait!” said Bodo, immediately getting shushed by everyone around him.  He waved them off and came over to me, grabbing me into another big hug.  Water was streaming down both of us.  I looked up at him and tried not to focus too much on how amazing he looked with his wet face and the flows of water coming off him in small rivers.  Even bald, he was gorgeous.

“Be careful.  I don’t want to have to come in dare and rescue your big butt.”

I smacked him on the arm.  “Watch who you’re calling big butt, big head.”

“I brushed my teeth so I could kiss you.  Iss dat okay?”

I nodded.

He leaned down and kissed me hard on the mouth, gripping the back of my head and forcing the kiss deeper.  His minty tongue tangled in mine, immediately heating me up from my core outwards, the rain only barely keeping us cooled off.

“Gettin’ steamy in heeeere,” said Peter.

Bodo finished the kiss and gave me one more quick peck, before pulling back a little and staring into my eyes, his hands on my neck and cheeks now.  “I’m not kidding.  Be safe.  I luff you.”

I didn’t hesitate.  “I luff you, too.”

He grinned big.  “Dat’s good.  Even if you haff a little Cherman accent.  I like it anyway.”  He kissed me once more and let me go.

Winky grabbed my arm and pulled me away.  “Come on, lover girl.  Time to go whoop some ass.”

I turned away from our friends and followed silently, pushing Bodo’s face and kiss from my mind.  In what felt like less than a minute, we arrived at the edge of the highway.  It was dark and the rain obscured a lot of what we could see.  We had to drop down as soon as we got near the edge of the road to avoid being noticed.

The highway had been built up on a slight hill, with the shoulders on either side going down into ditches and then the fields beyond.  On the other side, there was just a short piece of bare land before the tree and then the nearby town’s outer limits.  The two smashed up cars were in front of us, the closest one a little off to the right.  We used the body of the one farther away to shield us from the view of our targets.

“Now what?” Winky whispered, lying down next to me on the upper slope of the drainage ditch.

“Now we army-crawl up to that car and see what we can see underneath it.”

I tried to ignore the stinging scrapes I was suffering as a result of our choice to go on our bellies onto the highway.  We might have been able to go to the car standing up, but the frame was smashed up, and it hadn’t been a very tall car to begin with.  All of the glass had been broken out, too, making the solid part of the car only a few feet high, or less in some places.  Luckily, there was no glass on this side of the car, but the tiny rocks we crawled across felt like I imagined the glass would have felt, anyway, so it wasn’t much of a consolation.

We reached the middle of the highway before we were able to see anything.  We had an imperfect view of the trees the slave drivers were sitting under from the space below the car.  The weeds on the side of the road had grown so high, we were only able to make out a couple of the people there.  Both of them were leaning against one of the trees, and I couldn’t tell if they were sleeping or awake.

“Can you see anything?” I asked.

“No.  Stupid grass is in the way,” Winky whispered back.

I was straining my eyes to get a better look when the sound of sliding gravel distracted me.  I turned in time to see the black muzzle of a gun pointed at my face.  I followed it up to the hand holding it and then to the arm leading to the face.

It was a guy, one of the slave drivers if I wasn’t mistaken, about fifteen years old with sparse patches of hair playing at being a beard on his face.

I took Winky’s hand and squeezed it hard twice before doing a pushup and standing with my back to the car.

“You too,” he said, gesturing with his gun at Winky.

She stood, glancing at me nervously.

“Don’t do anything stupid.  I’ll shoot you both if either one of you does anything I don’t like.”

I was too busy praying that none of our friends would come after us right now to think of anything to say.  Winky also wisely kept quiet.

“Come with me,” he said, backing up a few steps and waving the gun to our right, telling us to move around the car and join the slave drivers at the tree.

“Well, that went well,” mumbled Winky under her breath.  We were walking in front of the guy with the gun, taking the smallest steps possible, trying to prolong our journey and work out a plan.

“What are we gonna do?” I whispered.

“Kick ass,” Winky said quietly.

“Stop talking!” said the guy behind us.  “Just walk!”

I put my hands up in a surrender position while looking over my shoulder.  “What’s your name?”

“None of your business,” he said, trying to sound tough.

“Mine’s Bryn.  This is Winky.”

“Shut up, I don’t care.”

“Where are you guys from?” I asked.

The guy walked quickly to close the gap between us, jabbing me hard in the spine with his gun.  “Shut up, or I’m going to shoot you in the fucking head!”

I pressed my lips together, trying to control the panic that wanted to well up and take over my mind.  I needed to stay clear, keep it together.  My plan to humanize us to this guy so he’d have a harder time killing us wasn’t working.  We were nearly to the tree now, so I put my plan-making on hold.  I had to focus on being ready to make a move whenever the opportunity presented itself.  I snuck a glance at Winky and she nodded once, just enough for me to see it.  She’s ready too.  Time to kick some slave driver butts.

As we approached, one of the other guys stood immediately.  The other two were sleeping, their backs to us.

“Look who I found creeping around up on the road.”

I looked at the kids who were all tied together.  Two of them were staring at us open-mouthed.  The other was sleeping and even the talking wasn’t waking her up.  They were all girls, which had been hard to see from a distance because their hair had been chopped off to what might have been shoulder-length if it hadn’t been so full of knots.  They were dirty, bone-thin, and their clothes were ragged to the point of being almost useless.  I compared them to the slave drivers who all looked well-fed and clothed in newish stuff, and it made me furious.

“Who the hell is this?” said the smaller guy, taking a few steps until he was just feet away from us.

“How the hell do I know?  They were hiding behind that car up there.”

“Were they alone?”

“They’re all I saw.”

The guy stepped closer to us, eyeing us carefully.  He looked at Winky and jerked his chin up at her.  “You one of them indian kids?”

“No.”

“You sure look indian to me,” he said.

“I’m not from India.”

If she had just come right out and said he was an ignorant ass, it couldn’t have been more clear what she thought of him.

“Ha, ha, that’s fuckin’ funny.  You know what I meant, bitch.”  He stepped over and slapped her hard in the face.  “Answer my question and don’t be a smartass about it.  Are you one-a-them indian kids or not?”

“Like I said, I’m not …”

He slapped her again before she could get the rest of the sentence out.  “I can do this all damn day if you want.”

“Don’t!” yelled one of the slave girls.

He whipped around and pointed at her.  “Shut. The fuck. Up!  I told you before!  No one wants to hear your shit!”  He turned back to us.  “So.  Are you?  Or are you not?  One of those indian bitches?”

“She is,” I said hurriedly.  “She an indian.  A Native American from north of here.  Near Orlando.  We’re both from there.”

“You ain’t no indian,” he said, scoffing at me.

“No, I’m not.”  And neither is she, douchebag.  I kept my thoughts to myself, my mind racing, trying to figure out how I could pull my gun out and shoot all of them dead before getting a bullet in my back.

“Did you frisk ‘em?” he asked the guy behind us, making me feel like he’d just read my mind.

“No.”

“Are you fuckin’ stupid?  You bring these bitches in here and don’t search ‘em first?  Jesus, J-Dog, you’ve got oatmeal for brains sometime, you know that?”

I turned in time to see J-Dog pressing his lips together, and I sensed some pent up rage in him, making me hope we could possibly use that to our advantage later.

The short guy moved up close and started feeling our bodies, spending extra time on our chests and in our crotches.

“I’m pretty sure you’re not going to find any weapons in my vagina,” I said.

That earned me a slap on the face and some more rough handling down there.  “Better shut up or I’ll think you like it,” he said, being even rougher.

My face flamed red, both from the humiliation of being violated and from the anger that was growing deeper by the second.  I was so looking forward to feeding this guy his nuts in reverse.  I tried not to smile at the vision of that move, lest he think he was turning me on with his cruel perversions.

He took the gun and knife from my waistband, but missed the one in my moccasin.  It was smaller, but just as deadly as the other.  I prayed over and over that he’d do the same with Winky.  She put up with the same humiliation as I did, and was relieved of her gun and knife in her pants too.  As soon as he turned away, she spit on the ground near his feet.

The slave girls who were awake, flinched, eyeing their captor with stark fear in their eyes.

He stopped, not turning.  He tipped his head up and turned it a bit to the side.  “Did that bitch just spit at me?”

The guy, J-Dog, behind us cleared his throat.  “Kind of.”

Oh, shit … this cannot be good.  Even his own guy is trying to protect Winky.

The slavedriver turned around and walked over to her swiftly, grabbing her by the hair and dragging her away.

“Winky!” I yelled, reaching for her, afraid to go with her because of the gun still pointed at my back.

“Let’s go take a little walk, shall we?” said the guy, bringing her towards the tree.  “Wake up boys!” he yelled.  “Time to have some fun!”  He kicked the ones who were sleeping in the back, before smashing Winky in the face, sending her to the ground in a stunned heap.

I could tell even from where I was standing, that he’d packed a solid punch.  He was short but stout, and his fist looked like a leg of lamb.

“You two go get her,” he said, gesturing at me.  “I’m gonna work on this one, first.  Then you can come have some sloppy seconds.”  He undid his belt and pulled it out of its loops.

The other two advanced on me, their sleepy faces coming awake quickly, their confusion being replaced with evil grins.  “Nice,” said one of them.  “Not a fuckin’ twig like those other ones,” he said, not even looking at the other girls sitting on the ground.

The other one joined in.  “I like me a girl with some meat on her bones.”  He was rubbing his hands together while the other one unbuttoned his pants.

What to do, what to do, what to do, I chanted in my head, as the slavedriver with Winky lifted his arm up and brought the leather belt down onto her hunched-over back.

She screamed shrilly, arching backwards with the pain.  I could tell she was still dizzy from the punch, and seemed unable to get her bearings.  I had to do something before he beat her too badly.  Or worse.

“Don’t!” screamed one of the girls, looking at the guys coming for me.  “Leave her alone!  Please don’t rape her!”

I was shocked to actually hear the words.  I saw their pants being loosened and the gleam in their crazy eyes, but until they were nearly on me, I hadn’t fully grasped that I was about to lose my virginity to rapist slave drivers.

“Oh, hell no,” I said, dropping into fighting stance.  I calculated the difference between getting shot in the back and being raped, deciding that being shot was a better end result for me.  I had nothing to lose by fighting.

“I’ll shoot!” J-Dog said from behind me, his voice quaking.

“Do it!” I yelled, not even looking at him, circling to the side to get some distance between me and the two a-holes who obviously wanted to eat their own testicles.

“Don’t shoot her,” said one of them.  “I want a taste first.”

I scrubbed my foot in the ground hard, hoping like hell that I was at least loosening up the dirt a little.  The moccasins were great for comfort and protection, but nearly useless for disturbing the earth.  And for once, I really, really wanted to do that.

The two would-be rapists split up, one of them coming in from my left and the other, my right.  I had just enough time to bend down and pick up the dirt I’d loosened before the one on the left charged me.

I threw the sand and bits of plant into his face, taking the few precious seconds I’d gained of him being blind to punch him in the throat and then kick him hard in the nuts.  I got him with my shin, so it was a solid hit, but not hard enough to mangle them for life like I’d wanted.  But he was down for now, and not anyone I had to worry about for the time being.

I spun around to meet my second opponent.

“Get that bitch under control!” yelled the slave driver standing over Winky.

My opponent turned to look at him, so I risked a glance, too.  She was peeking up through her hair at him, and he wasn’t paying attention, too focused on me and his friend to notice that she had somewhat recovered from her earlier braining.

She reached up and grabbed his belt jerking it towards her enough to throw him off balance.  She came up fighting, and the last thing I saw before the other guy was coming at me was a perfectly executed eye-gouge.

His screams of pain and frustration cheered my soul, but I had no time to wallow in the happiness, because the hands of the biggest guy of the bunch were closing over my throat.

I’d lost focus for just a second and that was all it took.  My vision was quickly going dark; this guy was leaving nothing to chance.  This wasn’t just a knock-a-girl-out choke hold … this was a strangle-the-girl-until-she-turns-blue kind of maneuver.

I came in above his hands and tried to bang them away, but I’d lost too much strength along with my oxygen.  My vision narrowed and everything went gray.  I couldn’t believe he’d gotten the jump on me.  I was wondering if I would soon see my dad, when all of a sudden I felt his hands leaving my throat.

I gasped for air, trying to get my larynx to open back up.  It felt nearly crushed from the pressure, and the pain and immediate swelling was killing me.  As soon as I was able to see properly again, I put my hands up, ready to block the next move that came at me.

My vision cleared, and I wasn’t prepared for what I was seeing.  The three slave girls had somehow managed to jump on my attacker from behind.  The one that had been sleeping was awake now and looked incredibly energized as she pulled back with all her might on the rope that was wrapped through the zip-tie at her wrists, connecting her to her friends.  That rope was now around the neck of her captor, and all the girls were choking the crap out of him.

The guy being choked was kicking his legs backwards trying to connect with their shins and reaching back over his shoulders from time to time to try and punch them, landing a few good ones; but they held fast, pulling on that rope as if their lives depended on it.  And I was pretty sure it did, because if this guy escaped, he was going to have more than rape on his mind.

The guy with the gun was standing there agog.  His gun was hanging at his side and he looked from partner to partner, confused.

Winky’s captor was on the ground, unconscious, and she was busy stomping on his face, over and over.  She’d demolished his nose, and his lips looked like hamburger meat.  It was disgusting, but I could feel her rage from here.  The guy was ready to beat and rape her, and she had every right to end him, as far as I was concerned.

I turned my attention back to the kid with the gun, taking two steps towards him since the slave girls looked like they had this other guy in hand.

He saw me coming and held up his hands in surrender, the gun pointed at the sky.  “Hey, I’m not with these guys,” he said.

“Looks to me like you are,” I said in a low raspy voice, the choking having damaged my throat somehow.  It was hard to breathe, too.

“I’m not, I swear to God!  They made me come along and do what they said.”

“You found us and turned us over to them,” I reminded him.  “You didn’t have to do that.”

“Yes, I did!  They test me all the time!” he said, his voice rising an octave.

“I don’t believe you,” I said, stopping four feet away.  He still had the gun which I had to assume was loaded, and I didn’t think I could get to my hidden knife before he shot me.  “Give me your gun if you’re not one of them.”

He looked from them to me and back again.  “Here,” he said, walking over to the guy being choked by the slave girls.  “I’ll do you one better.”  He lifted the gun and shot the guy in the stomach.  Then he walked over and shot the guy I had nut-crushed in the head, ceasing his moaning and writhing around on the ground.

I jumped with the sounds of the gun going off.  The slave girls scrambled back out the way, grabbing onto each other while screaming and crying.  The one who was sleeping before covered her head with her skinny arms, moaning like a wounded animal.

“See?  Would I do that if I were with them?” he asked in a calm voice, smiling at me.

The gut-shot guy was screaming in pain.  His voice sounded inhuman.  I couldn’t tell if the hair lifting up on the back of my neck was from the calm demeanor of the murderer standing less than five feet away from me, or the horrible sounds coming from the dying guy.

“Jesus,” was all I could say, looking at the wounded rapist, watching the blood pour out of his abdomen and onto the ground.  It was mixing with the rainwater, turning it pink.

“Don’t feel bad, he had it coming,” assured J-Dog.  “Let me go finish this.”  He strode over to where Winky was, and before I could think to stop him, he pushed her away and shot her attacker in the face.

My hand flew to my mouth, disgusted by the pure violence of it.  I looked quickly at Winky, hoping she’d thought to turn away before it had happened.

She was staring at the guy with the gun, a look of murderous intent on her face.

“Winky?” I said, confused.

“What’d you do that for?!” she screeched at the gunman.

“I was doing you a favor!  What do you mean, why did I do that?!  He was about to rape you, in case you didn’t realize that!”

“He was mine to kill, not yours!”

“What?  Are you some kind of lunatic?”

He’d turned to face me, opening his mouth to say something, when Winky launched herself at him.  She jumped on his back, grabbed his hair to jerk his head back, and bit his ear hard while she scratched his neck deeply with her fingernails.

He yelled in pain, reaching back with the gun to point it at her.

“Noooo!” I screamed, jumping into action and running full speed at the two of them, knowing I’d never get there in time.

The gun went off seconds before I reached them.

Winky screamed, moving her fingers from his hair to his eyes, digging them in deeply.  Blood from his mangled ear ran down her mouth.

J-Dog spun around, trying to get her loose, and I saw the blood on her back when it was turned to face me.  He went around one more half turn before I arrived, putting him in perfect position for a nut crusher, which I was more than happy to deliver.

“Kill him!” yelled one of the slave girls.  “He’s the worst one of them all!”

I didn’t doubt her for a second.  Neither did Winky apparently, because she reached into her boot, pulled out her knife, and drew it across his neck, cutting deeply.

She leaned back, grabbed his shoulder, and flipped him onto his side, making the blood go into the dirt instead of up in a fountain like it had started to as soon as her blade opened his skin.

I turned to the side and barfed, unable to keep my stomach from rejecting all this violence and gore.  As soon as I wiped my mouth off, I looked up at Winky, expecting her to be suffering the same as me.  But she was crouched over the now dead slave driver, her knife held out in front of her, like she was still seeing possible attackers ready to come for her.

“Winky?” I said tentatively.  “Winky?  Are you okay?”

She swung her knife towards me, narrowing her eyes.

“Oh, shit, Winky.  Don’t go all berserker on me now.  I don’t have it in me to fight you off.”

I heard footsteps behind me, but I was too alarmed over Winky and her knife to turn around.

“Bryn!” came Ronald’s voice.  “What happened?”  He came up next to me, breathing heavily.  “Whoa.  Some doo-doo hit the fan here, I see.”  He looked up at Winky.  “Uhhhh, what’s going on over there?”

I held out my arm to keep him from going any closer to her.  “She’s gone into berserker mode.  She’s done it before, when she was cornered.  We just need to snap her out of it.”

“And how does one do that?” he asked politely.

“One smashes her in the face a few times,” I said quietly, hoping she wouldn’t hear me and take it as a threat.

“Oh, boy.  And who is going to have that fun job?” he asked.

“That’ll be me,” I said, moving towards her slowly.

“Winky!” I yelled, trying to wake her up.  “Get your shit together!  I’m coming over there and I do not want to be gutted like a fish!”

She held her knife up higher, swaying back and forth on her feet, crouched down over the dead, now nearly bloodless body on the ground.  She said nothing, just waited.

I shook my head.  “I hate to friggin do this to you, but you leave me with no choice.”  I walked over to her without hesitating, easily blocking the knife swipe by arching my stomach away from it.  I smashed her in the forehead with my right forearm, doing what I could to not hurt her too badly.  She had such a pretty face, I didn’t want to break her nose and have it be crooked for the rest of her life.  Just because she was berserking on me, it didn’t mean I wanted to ruin her life over it.

Her head snapped back, and I took the opportunity to kick the knife from her hand and then grab her in a headlock.  I bent her over and squeezed at about half-pressure.  “Do you give up yet?!”

“No!” she growled, punching me on the back.

“Give it up, wild woman!” I grunted, squeezing harder.  “I’m not letting go until you find Winky and bring her back here.”

She punched me a few more times on the back and on my hamstrings, yelling, “Let go of me you whore-loving bag of dicks!”

I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Daaaaamn,” said Jamal, coming up to join his brother.  “Did I just hear that right?  Did she just call Bryn a bag of dicks?”

“Yes, you did and yes she did,” said Ronald, whistling out his appreciation.  “Girl can cuss.”

Winky’s hitting subsided and she finally stopped, out of breath and panting, her hands hanging down towards the ground now.

“Bryn?”

“Yeah?”

“Why do you have me in a headlock?”

“Because you freaked out on me again.”

“Oh, crap.  I’m so sorry.  Can I get up now?  Ooooh, cruds my back is burning!”

“Careful!” yelled Ronald.  “I’m not sure I’d trust her.”

“She’s fine,” I said releasing her and standing.  “Welcome back, Winky.  You had me scared for a second there.”  I leaned over and looked at her back, making her turn so I could lift up her shirt.  “That bullet grazed you.”  I examined the spot where the blood seemed to be coming from and didn’t see an actual hole there.

“Good … I guess.  It hurts like a mother, though.”  She shrugged her shirt back down and looked around, her gaze landing on the dead body at our feet.  “Oh, shit.  Did I do that?”

“Yeah,” I said, laughing over the fact that she was a killing machine but was lucky enough to be able to block out all the bad parts.  That was an affliction I wouldn’t mind having.  I pushed her back so she wouldn’t step in my vomit.

“Come on.  Let’s get out of here before someone comes to investigate the gunshots.”

***

I walked over to the three slave girls and spoke to them softly.  I was worried they’d think they’d fallen out of the frying pan and into the fire with us.  Winky had even freaked me out a little, so I could hardly blame them if they thought we were bad news.

“Hey,” I said walking up slowly.  “My name’s Bryn.  I’m sorry this got so violent.  We planned to come in here and sneak you away … but as you can see, our plan kind of went straight to hell when we got caught ourselves.”

Bodo came walked over from the edge of the road, joining me at my side.  “You okay?” he asked, putting his arm on my shoulder.  The sun was peaking through the clouds now and the rain had lessened to a bare drizzle.  He looked gorgeous in the fresh, new sunlight.

I nodded, turning my attention back to the girls.  “This is Bodo.  Those guys are Ronald and Jamal, they’re twin brothers.  That wild woman over there is Winky, and she’s not usually that out of control, I promise.  Back at our camp is Peter with our little dog, Buster.  I assume he’s staying there with our stuff,” I said, looking at Bodo.

He nodded.  “He’s got hiss gun.”

I looked back at the girls.  “So, if you want, you can come with us.”

“Where are you going?” said one of them, the taller one with dirty blonde hair.

“We’re headed to the Everglades prison.”

“Why?” asked another, this one with light brown skin and dark hair.

“We want to set up a new community.  A city kind of.  So we just thought that’d be a good place.”

The three girls looked at each other and nodded silently.

The blonde answered me again.  “We’ve really got no other options at this point.  So we’ll go until we decide we don’t want to be with you anymore.”

The dark-haired girl spoke next.  “We appreciate the offer, though.  Don’t think we don’t.”

“Yeah,” agreed the blonde.  “You didn’t have to come in here after us, and we know that.  And you took care of those monsters, so we owe you big time.”

“We’d better get going,” said Jamal.  “I’m afraid of who else might have heard the ruckus.”

I nodded my agreement.  “Let’s go.”  I looked at the girls.  “You should probably wait on the road.  We have to get our bikes and crap.  We’ll bring them up here and then we’ll go.”

“We’re not going to wait until it’s safer to travel?” asked Ronald.

“No.  Like Jamal said, we caused a ruckus here.  I just want to get the heck out of this area.  Maybe we’ll find a place we can stop farther down.”

“Sounds good to me,” he said, taking off at a jog.

“You girls okay?” I asked.

The blonde nodded.  “We’re good.  Hurry back, though.”  She cast nervous glances at her friend, the one who’d been sleeping.  Her sudden burst of energy seemed to have faded significantly in the last few minutes.  She looked like she was going to go to sleep again.

“Back in a few minutes,” I said.

Bodo put his hand in mine, and we walked together quickly through the weeds to the road, where we stopped to look north and south.  No one was there that we could see, but it didn’t really make me feel better since I had the sense there were people there, hiding.

“Have you tried to reach Nina lately?” I asked.

“I haven’t seen her.  I will keep blowing my harmonica, but I’m afraid she iss gone.”  He pulled it out of his pocket and blew it three times, waiting between each attempt.  We didn’t see anything.

“Maybe she’s just pouting.  Once we settle down at our final spot you can work on getting her to come down.”

He shrugged.  “Maybe.  I don’t want to do it too much because den maybe canners will hear us.”

I nodded.  “Probably better that you don’t.”  I felt bad telling him that, but we really couldn’t risk it.  I hoped he’d be able to find some new hawks to train near the prison.

We walked back to Peter who was standing behind a tree with his gun ready and Buster on his leash.

“Oh, thank God you’re back,” he said, shoving the gun in his backpack that was at his feet.  “I heard those gunshots and thought for sure you were dead.”  He rushed over to hug me, throwing his twiggy arms around my neck.

I hugged him back hard.  “Winky got grazed, but she seems okay.”

Peter left me to go examine her back.  “Oooh, that looks painful,” he said, lifting up her shirt.  “It’s like a cut and a burn at the same time.”

“Yeah.  That’s exactly what it feels like,” said Winky, looking over her shoulder at him.

“Let me just clean it real quick and then we can go.”  Peter looked up at the sky.  “It’s stopped raining.  Do you think you could walk without a shirt on?”

Winky raised an eyebrow at him.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he said gently slapping her arm before going to one of the backpacks.  “I just think it would be better to save our supplies, so if you can just let your wound hang out in the air instead of having me cover it, it might be better.”

Winky shrugged. “I have a bra on.  I don’t care if you guys see it.”

I walked over and helped her out of her shirt.  Peter made short work of cleaning her up and putting salve of some sort over the injury.

“Okay.  That about does it,” he said, patting her on the shoulder.  “Better?”

“No.”

“Good.  Let’s go,” he said, ignoring her frown.

We pushed our bikes out onto the road, all of us struggling a bit under the heavier loads we now had on our backs, thanks to Peter having emptied the trailer.  The only thing left in it was the suitcase of grenades.  Winky had to wear hers too, and I didn’t envy her the scraping on her injury.  She winced every time she moved.

The girls were waiting for us, leaning on the car.  The tired one was sleeping, curled up on the crumpled hood.

“Do you think she can ride in the trailer?” I asked.

“Yeah,” said the blonde.

“What are your names, anyway?” Winky asked.

“Oh, sorry.  I’m Gretchen,” said the blonde.  “This is Bianca, and that’s Jenny.”

Everyone gave a little wave or a nod of the head in greeting.

“Nice to meet you,” I said.  “Can you wake Jenny up and help her in the trailer?”

The two girls gently shook her awake and coaxed her down off the hood.  She moved slowly over to the trailer and curled up in a ball in the bottom, immediately going back to sleep.

“She doesn’t look good,” said Winky, staring down at her tiny form.  Jenny’s freckles stood out in stark contrast to her vey pale face and reddish-brown hair.

“She’s been sick for a few days,” said Gretchen.  “We haven’t eaten much in the last month since they took us from our house.  I’m not sure if her problem is lack of food or something else.”  She frowned, looking at her.

“You live nearby?” I asked.

“We used to live in Miami, near downtown,” said Bianca.  “We were neighbors before everything happened.  Then we lived together in my house.  It wasn’t much, but it was home.  Then the sweepers came and started taking kids out, one by one.”

“Sweepers?” I asked.

“Yeah.  Sweepers.  Like those guys,” she said, jerking her thumb to the other side of the road where the bodies lay.

“I’m almost afraid to ask,” I said.

Gretchen spoke up.  “They come in and sweep kids up and then sell them.”

“To who?”

“Anyone with food or other stuff they want.”

“I’m not sure I get it.  I mean, who buys other kids?  The canners just eat kids, so why would they trade food for food?”

“Some kids don’t like to eat people, so they trade with kids who do, for other kinds of food.  Stuff in cans and boxes, basically,” said Bianca.

“That’s just sick,” said Jamal.  “What is wrong with people?”

“We’ve been asking ourselves the same question for months,” said Gretchen.  “And I can’t tell you how relieved we are that you are saying it too.”

“Alright, enough of the chit chat,” said Peter.  “We really need to get moving.  I’m getting a bad feeling about this place.”

“You’re just getting a bad feeling now?” I asked, giving him a hard time.

“Save it, Bryn.  And get on your bike.  You are the mule today.”

I looked back at the load that was making me the designated beast of burden.  She didn’t look all that heavy.  “If one of you wants to get in there with her, you can.  I think I can handle it.”

“We can walk,” said Gretchen, straightening her shoulders.

“No.  No one walks.  We share bikes,” said Peter.  “Jamal and Ronald, you guys each need to put a girl on the handlebars or something.  Walking will slow us down.”

“Wait!” said Bianca, running back over to the dead guys.

“What’s she doing?” Winky asked.

“I’m not sure I want to know,” said Jamal, under his breath.

She rummaged around in their clothes and came out with knives and guns.  She grabbed a backpack off the ground and stuffed everything inside, before taking the other bag sitting under the tree and rejoining us.

“Sorry.  Didn’t want to leave that stuff lying around.”

I nodded my head.  “Good move.  You can’t have too many weapons around here.”

She slung one backpack over her shoulder and handed the other one to Gretchen, who took it reluctantly, a frown on her face.

“I really don’t even want to touch this thing.”

“Get over it.  It’s a backpack with food and ammo in it.  We need it.  Consider it a parting gift from the monsters.”

Gretchen put it on, distaste written all over her face.

“Okay, no more messing around.  Everyone on a bike, pronto,” said Peter, snapping his fingers before depositing Buster in my basket and getting on his own bike.

No one argued with him or complained about his bossiness.  It actually was a relief for me to have someone else calling the shots and organizing things.  For once I just wanted to follow someone’s orders and do what I was told; that way I could live with the illusion that everything was going to be just fine, because someone other than me was in charge.

Ronald had Bianca ride on the bike seat and hold onto his waist while he pedaled standing up.  Gretchen rode on Jamal’s handlebars, resting her feet on the strut that was over the tire and gripping the handlebars on either side of her butt.

“This will work for about a half hour,” said Gretchen, laughing a little at her awkward position.  “Then I can’t promise I won’t fall off.”

“We can take breaks,” said Peter.  “But only short ones.  I want to get to the prison by nightfall.”

“Are you crazy?” asked Jamal.  “It’s too far.  And what happened to avoiding canners while they’re partying?”

“We’re going to just shoot anyone who gets in our way.  No more messing around,” said Peter, not even looking at us as he pedaled off.

“Boy’s gone bloodthirsty on us,” said Jamal, shaking his head as he pushed off to join him.

“Boy’s gone realistic I think is more like it,” said Winky.

“Boy is da boss,” said Bodo, straining with the effort of moving his bike with the extra weight on his back.

I didn’t share my opinion with anyone.  My thoughts on wrong and right, good and evil, and all the other moral issues I had always assumed would never change, could never change, were in flux right now.  I didn’t know which way was up anymore.

Something told me this was a dangerous place for my head to be, but I didn’t have the time or luxury to sort it out now.  Maybe when we found our final home I’d be able to decide how far I would be willing to go to find happiness and security again and to deliver it to my new family.

Chapter Six

WE RODE FOR HOURS, TRADING bikes and their accompanying loads.  Just when we thought we could go no farther, a small sign for the Everglades Correctional Institution came up.

“That’s kind of funny, isn’t it?” asked Winky.

“What?” I responded, huffing and puffing along, my legs on fire from the overexertion.

“That it’s not called a prison.  I mean, correctional institution?  It sounds like a school for learning manners or something.”

“It was,” said Bianca.  “It’s not polite to rape, murder, or steal, children.”

That earned her a few weak giggles.  We were too tired to do any better.

“Keep going, guys,” cheered Peter, “we’re almost there!”  He had only himself to carry, so he still had enough juice to fuel a burst of energy that had him well ahead of us in seconds.

I turned and looked back at my load.  Jenny hadn’t moved for the entire ride.  The fact that she hadn’t even roused herself enough to go pee with us was sad.  It meant she was beyond dehydrated.  I hated to think we’d rescued her only to watch her die.

Thirty minutes later we pulled into the valet area of the prison.  It looked like a freaky ghost town, trash blown up against the fences and weeds grown up high along all the buildings and in the center section in front.  Even the cracks in the asphalt and sidewalks had grass growing out of them.  It made me hopeful that no one had passed through here or decided to stay.

Peter was waiting for us at the front gate.  Bodo was next, pulling up beside him.  The rest of us arrived soon after, Ronald and Jamal immediately getting off their bikes and putting them down once the girls were off.  Both the guys and the girls who had been riding uncomfortably all laid down on the ground.

“What are you guys doing?” asked Winky.

“I’m just dying right here.  Don’t worry about me,” said Jamal.

“Me too,” said Ronald.  “Just let the Good Lord take me.  I can’t move another inch.  I really can’t.”

Peter was off his bike and pulling on the fence.  “It’s locked.”  He put his hands on his hips and huffed out a frustrated breath.  “And there’s barbed wire around the entire thing.  How are we going to get in?”

“Just give us a few minutes, Peter.  We’ll go around the perimeter and see if there are any breaks in the fence.  I can’t believe we’re the first people to break in here,” I said.

“Maybe we are.  Don’t you remember the news before it went off for good?” asked Gretchen, staring up at the sky.

“No,” I said, trying to think when the last time I watched television was.

“I remember,” said Ronald.  “They turned the prisons into hospitals.  Lots of the people who were dying were brought here.”

“Oh, great!” I yelled, pissed I hadn’t realized this before.  “You mean we came all the way down here to live in a friggin’ morgue?!”

“Well, I guess that explains why this place isn’t being used by anyone else,” said Peter, shrugging his shoulders.

“Peter, you are seriously scaring me with your complete lack of freaking out lately.”

“I freak out when the time is appropriate.  Right now I’ve come to the conclusion that we’ve picked the best possible place to set up our new home.  All we have to do is move the bodies out, clean the place up, and move in!”

“You are actually smiling at me right now,” I said, shaking my head at him.  I looked around at the others.  “Does anyone else feel the wrongness of all of this?  Is anyone else worried about the friggin’ virus that could still be alive in there?”

“Nope,” said Bodo.  “Not me.  I like dat dis place is like a haunted house.  Dat means no one will come here and bodder us.”

“The virus is dead,” said Gretchen.  “Everyone knows that.”

“No, everyone does not,” I insisted, disregarding Kiersten’s statements to the contrary.  “We have no idea what that virus is or what it’s capable of doing to us as we get older.”

“What’s the worst that could happen?” asked Ronald.  “I mean, really.  When you think about it.”

“We could die?  How about that?” I said.

“Yeah?  And?” said Bianca, sitting up and looking at me.  “Dying of a virus sure beats being raped and eaten in my book.”

“Geez,” was all I could say.  My mind was racing with thoughts of our new reality.  I felt cornered and sad and desperate, even surrounded by friends and standing in front of a place that I thought was going to be our sanctuary.  And the most positive thing anyone can think to consider is which would be a better way to die - by the hands of another kid or a killer virus that wiped out most of the human population.  When is life ever going to be about living and not dying?

***

Peter walked the perimeter of the fence with Jamal.  They showed up from the other direction thirty minutes later.

“There are no breaks in the fence anywhere,” said Peter.  “The place is locked up tighter than my aunt’s special closet, and it’s hugely huge.”

“The one with the high heels?” I asked, smiling with the memory of Peter wearing a pair of them when I first met him.

“Exactly.  Secrets are inside this place, I just know it.”  He stood with hands on hips again, staring at the fence.  “I need to get in there.  Why don’t we have a stupid bolt cutter with us?”

“How about we throw a blanket over the barbed wire and then climb over?” suggested Winky, eyeing the offending escape deterrent.  It had bits of razor and twisted, pointy spikes on it.  It looked like a great way to get a set of very painful and infected wounds.

“I think that razor would cut right through it,” I said.

“Not if you fold it up a bunch of times,” said Gretchen, finally sitting up.  “How big is it and how thick?”

Peter walked over to one of the backpacks and pulled out one of the decorated rug blankets I knew had been made by the Miccosukee.  “Here it is.  What do you guys think?” he asked, holding it up.

“Worth a shot,” said Ronald.

“I agree,” said Jamal.  “It’s going to get dark soon.  We need to get inside before the sun goes down, even if we just sleep right there on the other side of the fence.”

“Yeah, I’m not all that excited about exploring the prison in the dark, if you don’t mind,” agreed Ronald.  “Let’s save that for tomorrow morning.”

“Whatever,” I said.  “I’m officially on record as saying I think this is a dangerous place and we need to be super careful.”

“It was your idea to come here, Bryn,” said Winky.

“I got the idea from the twins, first of all.  And second of all, I didn’t realize this place was a deadly germ factory before I said we should come.  If I had known about the hospital thing, I never would have agreed to it.”

“Well, where would we have gone if not here?” she asked.

Everyone went silent, waiting for my answer.

I couldn’t come up with a good one, with all of them looking at me like that.  “I don’t know.  A high school … or a big library maybe?  That would have been better than this.”

“Yeah.  Except you’d be missing all the barbed wire to keep the canners and sweepers out, the kitchens, the bedrooms, the weapons and ammo … need I continue?” asked Ronald.

I frowned but said nothing.  He was right.  The library would have been good for the books, but useless for almost everything else we needed.

“I think we can all agree we need to be careful going in,” said Gretchen, acting as peacemaker.  “Let’s just get in past the gate, go inside to the front waiting area or whatever, and set up camp there.  Then we can decide whether to investigate more or just start spraying bleach on everything first.”

Her mention of the bleach made me feel a little better.  I had forgotten I had a container of it in my stuff.  “We still have the bleach, right Peter?”

He nodded.  “Of course.”

“Fine,” I said.  “I agree to this plan if you guys do.”

Everyone nodded.

“Here,” said Peter, nudging Bodo with the blanket.  “Help me get this over the wire.”

Bodo and Bianca climbed up the fence and reached down for the blanket, which was handed up to them by Gretchen and Peter.  Their skinny arms trembled with the effort, but it was good enough to get the blanket to the waiting hands above.

Getting the material up and over the wire was challenging.  It kept catching on the razors and spikes, and took ages to remove, but eventually they got it over the worst of the offending mess.  It managed to push the wire down a little with its weight, but not enough to flatten it.  I was bummed because it made our job harder, but happy that the bad guys wouldn’t be able to get over any easier than us.

Bodo and Bianca climbed down, both of them sweating and shaking so bad from muscle exhaustion they had to sit down.

“I’m sorry.  Dat was harder dan I thought it wouldt be.  I think that da drugs are still in my body.  I can’t stop shaking,” said Bodo, holding out a trembling hand for a few seconds before dropping it into his lap.

“You’re just exhausted,” said Peter.  “We all are, but you guys more than the rest of us.  Just relax.  Winky and Bryn can take it from here.”

“Hey,” I complained.  “Who voted we get to have our arms and leg slashed open?”

“Good point,” said Ronald.  “Winky’s already been hurt today.  She shouldn’t have to go up there.”

“I can go,” said Winky, her chin coming up a fraction.

“No, he’s right,” I said bitterly, disgusted with my own whining but unable to stop from indulging in it.  “Just sit down and let me get this over with.”  I looked at everyone sitting around.  “And what exactly am I supposed to do once I’m over?  You’ll still be on the other side.”

“Go find a key to open the gate,” said Peter.  “Duh.”  He rolled his eyes and shook his head.

“Come on,” said Jamal, nudging me on the arm.  “I’ll go with you.”

I gave up complaining.  I was just being a baby anyway.  The heat and the rain and all that pedaling coming right on the heels of the fight had taken too much of my patience out of me.  I couldn’t even think straight.  All I wanted to do was whine about my circumstances and go to sleep for about twelve, uninterrupted hours.  With Bodo next to me.

I walked up to the fence and put my hands on it, looking at Jamal standing right next to me.  His face was just inches away.  He had the longest, thickest eyelashes I’d ever seen before.

“That is just so unfair,” I said, staring at him.

“What?  That you have to go first?  Move out of the way, then, and I’ll go.”

“No.  That you have eyelashes that beautiful.  They are so wasted on a guy.”  I shook my head and began my upward climb.

“If I had a dollar for every time a girl said that …”

“… you’d have kindling for one fire,” finished his brother.

“Oh, yeah.  Right,” said Jamal.

I reached the top but was soon stuck.  The blanket was there, but I couldn’t get a grip on anything around it to get onto it.  The wire bulged out over the top, and I couldn’t very well use it for leverage.  I looked down at Peter.  “What the heck am I supposed to do now?  I can’t get over this friggin thing.”

“Push on it,” suggested Ronald.  “Make it flat in that spot right in front of you.”

I sighed, reaching up to push on it gently, testing it for flexibility.  It barely moved.  “It’s not working,” I said.

“Push harder, Bryn, and stop being a baby,” commanded Peter.

I looked down to catch him frowning at me.  I pouted but went back to the pushing.  I used a bit more force, and the wire bounced a little.  I climbed up a couple more inches and pushed again, this time getting it to move several inches.

I took a deep breath.  “Okay, fine.  I’m gonna lean on this thing with my body and just … I don’t know … slide over the top.  When I break my neck on the other side, you’re all gonna feel really bad you made me do this.”

“Okay, good idea,” said Peter.  “Good luck.”

I shook my head at their complete lack of concern for my person.  My conscience tried to prompt me that maybe it was their undying faith in my abilities to get stuff done that made them so unconcerned, but I ignored it.  I was in full-on pity party mode and I refused to come out of it.  At least for now.

I took another step up and then another, leaning way out so my upper body wouldn’t yet touch the blanket.  I needed to make sure enough of my torso would make contact with it, so it could actually push the wire all the way down.

“What do you want me to do?” asked Jamal from behind me.

“Come up here next to me.  I need to get farther up, but I have nothing to hold onto.”

Jamal climbed up next to me, jiggling the fence.

“Slow down, spaz!  I’m barely hanging on up here!” I yelled.

“Sorry, geez.  I’m here now.  What do you want me to do next?”

“I’m going to take another step up, but I need you to push on my back as hard as you can, because I will have nothing to hold onto.  If you let go or don’t push me hard enough, I’m going to fall right off this fence and squash Peter like an annoying, irritating bug.”

“Okay, then what?”

“Then when I say go, push me hard so I can lie over the top of the blanket.  Got it?”

“I think so.”

I looked over at him, “Don’t think!  Know!”

“Okay, okay, geez.  I know, alright?  Just climb, girl.”  He put his hand on the middle of my back.

“Higher,” I demanded.

His hand slid up.

“Good.  Now push,” I said, taking a step up.  I used the force he was providing to lean back more, getting myself up enough that about half of my body was now angled out over the wire, dangling above my friends below.

“Arrrrggghh!” growled Jamal.  “I can’t … do this … for much … longer!”

“Push me hard, now!” I yelled, throwing my hands up in the air, praying that the blanket was thick enough to keep the razors from cutting my boobs open.

He pushed me forward and I used my ab muscles to help with the momentum.  I flew forward, my chest and upper stomach area making contact with the blanket.  I could feel the hard pieces of wire pressing into me from underneath, as the weight of my body smashed it down, flattening it to the top of the gate.

I was dangling now, mostly over the wire with my upper body, and my legs still on the side where everyone but Jenny was standing.

“Okay,” I said, my voice strained from the exertion of balancing on my ab muscles.  “Now what?”

“Go over!” yelled Peter, desperation in his voice.

“I can’t!” I yelled back.  “I’m stuck here.”

“Okay, Bryn, do not get mad at me,” said Winky, grabbing onto the fence and putting her foot on it.

“What are you doing?” I grunted.  “Get off!  You’re jiggling the fence!”

“Jamal, get down,” she ordered.

I could see her determined face from my upside down position.  “Jamal, don’t you dare leave me up here,” I groaned out.

“Sorry, Bryn.  Gotta go,” he said before jumping down.  The fence shook, making me panic as I imagined feeling jagged razor shards digging into my flesh.

Winky started to climb.

“I’m gonna friggin’ kill you when I get down from here, Winky, you bag of dicks.”

She laughed as she climbed.  “Bag of dicks?  That’s creative.”

“I learned it from you, you crazy … argh!”

“Shush.  I need to climb on your back for a second.”

“What?!” I yelled.  “No!  No, absolutely not.  Don’t you dare … Winky!”

She grabbed the back of my pants and pulled herself up next to me.  The wire bent down more and I felt it in my stomach again, harder this time.

“God, Winky, I’m gonna die up here.  The razor is cutting into my artery.”

“No, it’s not.  You’ll be fine.  I’m almost over.”

She scrambled up onto my back, sliding down towards my head long enough to lean over and grab the fence on the other side, below my face.

I was pressed into the blanket now, and I could smell it - it was musty and old.  The pressure of Winky on my back, the odor filling my nostrils, and my general state of panic made me want to barf.  “Get off!” I yelled into the blanket.

“Here I go!” she yelled.  “Wish me luck!”

Her body slid a few inches, she kicked her legs over, and then suddenly her weight was gone.  It disappeared in an instant, and I had time to lift my head and see her legs going over me in a semi-circle, being pulled to the earth by gravity at a much higher rate of speed than she had probably expected.

I craned my neck to get a better view of what she had done.  Her hands were holding onto the fence like some kind of Olympian on the uneven bars.  Her legs crashed down against the fence as her body completed its back flip over me.

Her back bounced off the fence, and the shockingly hard jarring was too much for her to manage.  Her hands were jerked away and her upper body flew forward, sending her face-first into the pavement.  The sound of her body slapping onto the concrete was sickening.

No one moved a muscle for a few seconds.  Winky just laid there.

“Winky!” I yelled, struggling to get off the wire.  “Winky!  Are you okay?”

She moaned.

“Somebody get me over this thing!  Push my legs!”

“No, Bryn!  You’ll do a face-plant too!” said Peter.

Bodo grabbed my feet, attempting to pull me back down on their side, but I kicked him away.

“No!  Get away!  I’m going over.  Winky needs me.”

She moaned again and turned her head to the side.  Her voice came out kind of slurred.  “Damn, dad hurt.”

“Well you’re a friggin’ idiot for doing it,” I said, struggling to pull myself over the wire, trying to grab the fence on the other side, below where I was hanging.  My face was burning hot and I could feel the pulse in my neck because I’d been hanging upside down for too long.  It hurt like hell in the spot where I’d been choked earlier.

I started to slide over the blanket, heading face-first towards the ground.  And the ground was really too far away for anything good to come of it, but the momentum had started, and I was too far gone to stop it.  I grabbed onto the fence like Winky had and held on as tight as I could, closing my eyes and gritting my teeth, sending all my remaining energy into my hands.  Don’t let go, don’t let go, don’t let go!

My stomach tickled like it had butterflies in it the moment my legs fell free of the fence and started their one-hundred-and-eighty-degree journey to the other side of the fence.

A split second later, my entire back half hit the fence hard, bouncing up once to hit again.  I was able to hold on for the first bounce, but the second one was my undoing.  My hands released the metal and I fell to the ground.

Lucky for me, I landed on my feet somewhat, if a little off-balance, and was able to execute a fairly decent drop and roll to distribute the jarring force.

Once I stopped rolling, I scrambled over to Winky on my hands and knees, ignoring the cheering coming from the other side of the fence.

I pushed her shoulder, rolling her over.  Her face was covered in blood and her nose was definitely broken.  “Oh, shit, Winky.  You broke your nose.”

“Bag-a-digs,” she said through her already swollen nose, smiling weakly.

“Bag of dicks is right,” I said.  “And don’t be mad me for what I’m about to do.”

“Wha …?” she said, still in a daze, right before I grabbed her nose on either side and re-set the bone for her with a loud crack.

***

She frowned at me as we walked over to the front doors of the prison entrance.  “You lygd doing dad.”  She sounded like she had the worst head cold in history with a very stuffed-up nose.

“No I didn’t like it,” I said, looking straight ahead.

“Yez, you did.  You were pudishing me for climbig on your bag.”

“Nope.  Climbing on my back was smart.  I was saving your beautiful face from a lifetime of pure ugliness.”

I didn’t have the heart to tell her that her nose was now turning purple and was twice its normal size.  She was going to be ugly for a while, but at least it was only temporary.

We reached the door and I pulled on the handle.  “Locked.”

“Brayg da glass,” said Winky, holding up a rock she’d plucked from the nearby planter.  Her eyes were watering, I assumed from the pain in her face.

I hit the window near the handle and realized too late that there was wire embedded in it.  The glass broke but the wire was still there.

“Sud of a bidge!” yelled Winky.

I giggled.

“Shud up, or I’m gonna go Aberican whide girl all over your azz,” she threatened.

“Technically, you can’t do that, since you’re not white.  But I’ll take your threat under consideration.  Now tell me what I’m supposed to do with this thing.”

“What’s happening?!” yelled Peter from behind us.

“Door’s locked!” I yelled back.

“Break the glass!” he responded.

I shook my head, saying quietly, “Yeah, thanks, Peter.  We couldn’t figure that one out on our own.”

“Here, gib me dad,” said Winky, taking the rock from me.  She bashed the window wire over and over like a mad woman, eventually causing it to bend inward.

When her energy flagged, I took the rock and continued the fight.  Eventually, the wire gave way, and Winky was able to sneak her tiny hand in and find the deadbolt lock knob.  She turned it several times, and we finally heard the solid thunking of lock mechanisms moving back.

I turned around and threw my arms in the air, claiming victory for all womankind.  “We did it!  We’re in!”

I turned back to see Winky grabbing the handle and slowly pulling the door open.  She looked at me and gestured towards the opening.  “Abter you.”

I stepped inside, sniffing the air for the odor of dead bodies but getting nothing back but the smell of old, disused, institutional building.

***

We found a front desk that had a set of keys hidden in the back of the bottom drawer.  It had been locked but we beat it open with a stapler.  The ring was huge, with about a hundred different keys to choose from, many of them strange shapes I’d never seen before.

“This is going to take all night,” I said, moving out of the building and across the front lawn area over to the main gate.  Winky followed behind, slowed down considerably by the pain from her earlier antics.

“It’s about time,” said Peter.  “What took you so long?”

“We were showering and having a meal,” I said absently as I started trying one key after another on the big lock at the gate.  I looked up and noticed they’d already taken the blanket down.

“Try one of those weird ones,” Ronald said, pointing to one that had a flat square shape with some cutouts on the end.

The first one I tried slid in okay but wouldn’t turn. The seventh one worked, and I had to make six full revolutions before the thing actually opened the lock all the way.  Winky and I rolled the gate open a few feet.

As soon as it was open enough to allow all of our stuff to pass through, I threw out my arm and said, “Welcome to Happyville!”

Jamal frowned at me as he passed by.  “Happyville?”  He shook his head and kept on walking.

“What?” I said at his back.

Ronald was snickering as he walked by, and it only got worse when he looked at me.

“Do I have a booger on my face or something?” I said, wiping my nose nervously.

“Maybe they’re just amused by your complete lack of creativity when it comes to naming new towns,” said Peter as he pushed his bike through.  “Or not.  Maybe you have a booger.”

Gretchen came through supporting Bianca, patting me on the shoulder as she walked by.  “We’ll work on it.”

My smiled fell, replaced by a scowl.  “You guys are a bunch of downers, you know that?”

Bodo came in, pushing the bike with the trailer attached, Jenny still sleeping inside it.  “I will vote for whatever name you pick,” he said, leaning over to kiss me on the mouth.  “No matter how stupidt it is.”

I slapped him on the back as he moved by.

The last one through the opening was Buster.  I crouched down next to him and tickled him under the chin and around his ears.  “You like it, don’t you, Buster?  Happyville!  Welcome to Happyville!”

He barked and ran away from me, joining the others who’d gathered at the front door to the penitentiary.

Everyone laughed as I grumbled about being amidst traitors and rolled the gate closed, clicking the lock into place.

***

We set up camp just inside and a little to the left of the front doors.  A group of high weeds and bushes shielded us from the view of anyone standing at the front gate.  Once we’d unpacked enough stuff to be comfortable, all the girls gathered around Jenny.  The guys went to work getting food together for us.

“What do you think the problem is?” I asked, looking at her shallow breathing.

Winky felt Jenny’s forehead.  “She has a fever bud no swed.  She’s dehydraded.”

“We couldn’t get her to eat anything for a couple days now.  They didn’t feed us much, anyway, but she went with nothing for way too long,” said Bianca, stroking her friend’s hair.  “I wish we could get her into a bath or a shower.  I’m sure she’d feel better if she were cleaner.”

“We’ll get that set up as soon as possible.  Maybe even tomorrow,” I said.  “But we have to get some water in her first.”  I turned towards the guys.  “We need a water bottle over here.”

Jamal came over and handed one down to me.  Gretchen and Bianca lifted Jenny up a little so we could tip a capful of water into her mouth.

“Come on, Jenny, babe.  You’ve gotta get up and drink this,” said Gretchen.

Jenny moaned.

“Jenny!  Get up!” said Bianca in a sharper voice.

“I’ve god somethig dad mighd wake her up,” said Winky.

“You gonna pinch her?” asked Jamal.

“No.  Hold on a seg.”  She went over to her backpack and came back with a small bottle.  “Here, hab her sniff this.  Put id under her dose.”  She took the cap off and handed it to me.

I was about to take a whiff of it, before Winky yelled.

“Doe!  Dod you, dubby!  Her!”

“I know, geez.  Bossy ever?”  I leaned over towards the patient, sparing a second to scowl at Winky.  I held the bottle under Jenny’s nose for a couple seconds before she started coughing and then choking, yelling weakly at the same time.

“Oh, no!  What is …?  Ow, that …!  What’s going on?” she rasped out, reaching up a trembling hand to wipe under her nose.

“Holy crap, what was that?” asked Bianca, looking up at Winky.

“Abonia,” she said simply, taking it back from me.  “Worgs lyg a jarm.”  She smiled.

“Can’t you, like, kill brain cells with ammonia?” asked Gretchen.  She looked like she was warring with herself, trying to decide whether to be grateful or pissed.

“Maybe a gupple.  Bud she’s awage now. Give her sub wadder.”

I left the argument about methods alone and focused on getting Jenny to drink some water.  She protested weakly, but was overruled by everyone around her.  She drank a few sips before putting her hand on her stomach.  “No more.  I’m going to throw up.”

Gretchen put her finger in Jenny’s face.  “Don’t you dare!  You keep that down.  No fair dying on us now.  We’ve made it to Happyville.”

Jenny smiled thinly.  “Happyville?  Is that an actual place?”  She looked around.  “It looks like an office lobby.”

“It’s a prison, actually, and the name is temporary.  But it’s a safe place and no one here is going to hurt you.  So please, try to stay awake and eat something.  Please?”

Bianca pushed her further into a sitting position.  “Yeah, please?  Come on, we miss you!  Gretchen is so incredibly boring, I’m going crazy.”

“Yeah, and Bianca is as dull as dirt.  We need you to liven the place up.”  Gretchen was rubbing Jenny’s back in circles.

“I’ll try,” said Jenny.  “But is there somewhere I can go to the bathroom, maybe?”

“Take her outside, in the bushes somewhere,” I said.

Peter ran into the nearby restroom and came out, grinning and holding out a handful of toilet paper.  “Ta daaaaa!” he said, handing it to Jenny.

She took it and smiled.  “Wow.  It’s real.  I haven’t seen anything but grass and leaves in …”  She looked at Bianca.  “How long has it been?”

“Too long,” said Bianca.  “Come on, let’s go.”  She and Gretchen lifted Jenny by the armpits and guided her out the door.  She was walking, but barely.

After the door closed behind them, Winky asked.  “Do you thig she’s gudda mayg it?”

“I don’t know.  We don’t even know what’s wrong with her.”  I decided then not to worry about things I couldn’t control.  I had plenty of other concerns to keep myself worried and stressed about.  I’d leave Gretchen and Bianca to worry about their friend, at least for now.

Winky and I helped the guys with dinner.  We splurged and had some cans of beans, some dried meat, and some limp but still decent vegetables we’d taken from the swamp.  Jenny was even able to eat some of it and keep it down.  As she got more water in her, the heat on her forehead seemed to lessen and she became more animated.

Once dinner was done, we sat in a circle, ready to bed down for the night.  None of us wanted any privacy, and kept our sleeping spots together.

“So what is our plan for tomorrow?” asked Peter.  “And when are we going to start?”

“Step one has to be finding out where the dead bodies are,” I said, without hesitation.

Everyone but Winky and I groaned.

“What?  Stop being babies.  We need to find them and get rid of them.  We can’t make a home here until that nasty business is taken care of.  And we’re all going to help.”

“Except Jenny,” said Bianca.

“Yeah.  Except Jenny,” I conceded.  She was already asleep again, and I wasn’t convinced she was going to survive whatever was ailing her.

“What if there are, like, hundreds of corpses here?” asked Jamal.  “I don’t mean to be morbid, but that’s just … I don’t know.  Creepy.  They’ll all be skeletons by now.”

“Thank you for introducing that image into my nightmares for tonight, Jamal,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“Sorry.  Just thought I’d point out the possibilities.”

Bodo was sitting next to me, holding my hand and stroking my fingers.  It felt good to not only have him near but also sober, finally.

“I agree with Bryn.  We findt da bodies, bury dem in da yard somewhere, clean da place down, and den start to make a home.”

“This place is huger than huge,” said Gretchen.  “We could all fit in the smallest part of it.”

“We’ll only clean what we need to start,” said Peter.  “But as our community grows, obviously we’ll have to spread out.”

“So you really want to build something out here, huh?” asked Bianca.  “Like with strangers and stuff?”

I shrugged.  “Why not?  We’re all strangers, and we get along just fine.”

“Maybe we won’t once we live together,” said Gretchen.  “Bianca snores, you know.”

“That’s okay,” I said.  “Peter has gas.  We’ll all just have to learn to accept each other and our issues.”

Peter sighed heavily.  “We need a name for our town.  Happyville is too … ugh.  I can’t even think of a word.”

“Dorky?” suggested Winky.

“Goofy?” said Gretchen.

“Delusional?” added Ronald.

“Okay!  I get it!  It’s a stupid name!  Geez, pick a new one, already.”  I hid my smile behind my hand, pretending to pick my teeth.

“What happened to Apocalypsis?” asked Peter.  “I liked that one.”

“I don’t know,” I said.  “Maybe it’s too depressing, to be reminded of what got us here.  I’d like something more hopeful-sounding.  Something that stands for what we want this place to be, not what’s already happened to us.”

It went quiet as everyone tried to come up with a more suitable name.

“See?  Not so easy, is it?”

“Eden,” said Jamal.

“Too religious.  Plus that’s what the Amazon girls are calling their place, I think.”

“How about New New York,” said Bianca.

Ronald frowned at her.

“What?” she said, pouting.  “I liked New York.”

“Buzz!  Try again,” said Peter.

“Bryn, what’s your last name?” asked Ronald.

“Mathis.  Why?”

“Well, lots of towns in the United States were named after someone, using their last names.  Like Washington, for example.”

“Mathisville,” said Peter, thinking about it.

“Mathistown,” suggested Jamal.

“Mathis City,” said Winky.

Hearing my name over and over like that in this context made me think of my dad.  If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t even be here.

“What about Derek Mathis City?” I said, not entirely convinced it was any good for a city name, but feeling like I wanted to pay homage to my father.  “I know it’s stupid, but that was my dad’s name.  And he was the most amazing person I ever knew.”  I got choked up at the end of my sentence, unable to finish and tell them what an impact he’d had on my life.

Bodo squeezed my hand and reached over with the other to rub my arm.

“I don’t have a problem with that,” said Gretchen.  “It’s not stupid, to try and remember the people we loved and who tried to take care of us.”  She looked at the others.

“Bryn’s dad did a lot for her.  For all of us, really,” said Peter.  “Without the training he gave her, I’m pretty sure we’d all be dead right now.  Every single one of us.  It’s had a trickle-down effect, protecting each of us at one point or another.”

“Fine by me,” said Ronald.  “Our daddy was a good guy too.  Maybe we can name a part of this place after him.”

“What was his name?” I asked, wiping the tears from my cheeks.

“Gerald.  Gerald Williams.”

“Good idea.  This can be the Gerald Williams building,” I said.

Everyone nodded.

“I want to name da gardens after my mudder,” said Bodo.  “Da Birgitta Ruster Gardens.”

“Lily should have something with her name on it,” said Peter softly.

“How about the hospital?  I’m sure we’ll have one,” I suggested.

Peter nodded.  “She would have liked that, I think.  The Lily Heggenburger Clinic.”

A full two seconds went by before three people snorted.  Then the rest of us, save Bodo and Peter, started giggling.

“What?” said Peter, offended.  “It’s a perfectly good name.”

“Heggenburger?  Is that seriously your last name?” I asked.  “I can’t believe I didn’t know that before now.”

“Yes,” he said, lifting his chin.  “I’ll have you know it has a distinguished history.”

“I like it,” said Bodo.  “It’s a nice Cherman name.  Hegen meanss cherish or maybe … harbor.”

“What about the burger part?” asked Bianca, clearing her throat, trying to get serious.

“A burg is a town and a burger is a person who lives in a town.  So, Heggenburger, dats a person who liffs in da town of harbor or cherish.  Kindt of like dat, but not exactly.”

I nodded my head.  “Sorry, Peter.  That name is actually pretty cool, and perfect for a hospital.  I’m sorry I laughed.”

“Apology accepted,” he said in his haughtiest voice.

“Anyone else?” I asked.

Everyone shook their heads.

“Maybe tomorrow,” I said, yawning.  “For now, I’m going to bed.”

“This early?” asked Jamal.

“Yeah.  I’m exhausted.”  I looked at the guys.  “Are we going to do lookouts or guards?”

“Buster will be our guard,” said Peter, lying down and pulling him close.  “G’night guys.”

Everyone settled in, and I indulged in a nice long kiss with Bodo.

“I’m glad we finally made it here togedder,” he whispered.

“Me too.”

“And you luff me now.”

“Yeah.  I do.”

“Good.  You are Mrs. Bodo den.”

“Whatever you say, Mr. Bryn.”

“I’b aboud do gag on the sugar, guys,” said Winky.

I kicked her gently with my foot.  “Shush.  I’m trying to sleep.”

The last thing I remembered thinking before I fell into a thankfully dreamless sleep was the fact that we’d finally found our safe haven.

***

I sat up straight, yawning as I took in my surroundings.  The lobby had a shimmer of light coming in from the rising sun.  Everyone was still asleep, a couple of them snoring lightly.

“Wake up, everyone!” I said cheerily.  “The first day of the town of Haven has begun!”

Peter sat up and rubbed his head.  “Haven?  I thought we were calling it Derek Mathis whatever.”

“I thought about it and decided that Haven was more accurate.  And easier to say and remember.”

“What’s she saying?” said Jamal, sitting up and pushing on his brother.  “Get up, Ronnie.  Time to do the dirty work.”

“She’s renaming the town again,” said Bianca.  “But I like it, so I’m not complaining.”

“Haven works,” said Gretchen, standing and stretching her long frame.  She was bone-thin and much taller than I had realized before.  She was no longer slouching or looking cowed, and it make me smile.

She caught me staring and reached up to touch her hair.  “It’s my hair isn’t it?  I know, it’s terrible.  This was Bianca’s brilliant idea.”

“No, it wasn’t,” she complained, standing up too.  She was a couple inches shorter than her friend.  “It was Jenny’s idea and I just seconded it.”

“Oh sure, blame it on the unconscious girl,” said Jamal.

“I’m not unconscious,” came a soft voice.  “Just resting my eyes.”

I stood and nudged Bodo with my foot.  “Come on, sleepy head.  Let’s get this over with.”

“Food first,” said Peter, dragging a backpack over to him.  He pulled out a loaf of hard, stale bread.  “Someone hand me a knife.”

Winky sat up, moaning and holding her face gingerly.  She took one hand away from her nose and reached into her boot, pulling out a knife and handing it over to Peter without looking.

“Thank you,” he said, taking it and trying to slice the bread.

“Give that to me before you cut your leg open,” said Ronald taking the bread and knife away.  He put it on the blanket and sawed pieces off for all of us.

We stood around crunching our old bread, smiling at each other.

“Lap of luxury,” said Peter.

“High style,” agreed Gretchen.

“Better than caviar,” said Jamal.  “I think.  I’ve never had caviar before, actually.”

We all laughed.  It felt like a great start to a new day and a new life.

After we all did our business outside, we came back together in the lobby and decided to travel as a group.  Peter volunteered to stay behind with Jenny and all of our supplies.  I made him take a gun and keep it in his lap.

“You don’t need to kill anyone who comes to the gate.  Remember, they can’t get over,” I said, looking at him closely, making sure he was paying attention to me.

“But if they shoot at you, then you shoot back,” said Winky, her voice back to normal, now that the swelling in her nose was down a bit.  Her face looked awful, but I was pretty sure her nose had been saved.

“Yeah, yeah, okay.  I got it.  Just go see what you can find,” he said, waving us off.

We started in the hallway to the left of the front desk area.  In the beginning, we had to use keys, but most of the doors after the front section were open.  They were the bar-type, the kind used to keep prisoners in their area.  We passed room after room of sterile-looking spaces, all of them painted a weird green color, some of them empty and some with desks and chairs.  A couple looked like waiting rooms.  None of them had windows.  The ones that looked like offices had thick wired glass separating them from the hallways.

We went through a triple set of doors and found ourselves in one of the prisoner wings.  It was empty.  We whispered as we walked around the different levels, taking metal stairs with holes in them that made bonging sounds when the sneakers of our friends hit them.  The moccasins were as silent here as they were in the swamp.

“Where are all the bodies?” asked Jamal in a hushed voice.

“Maybe there aren’t any,” said Bianca, whispering.

“No, they’re here,” said Ronald.  “Just not here here.  They couldn’t have disappeared into thin air.”

We found a big, industrial-sized kitchen with a connected lunchroom.  The place could have easily held a couple hundred people.

“Could you imagine the place filled with canners?” asked Jamal.

I shuddered involuntarily, because I could.  I was so glad we’d gotten here before them.

“Come on, let’s go back,” I said.  We’d reached a dead end.

“Wait a minute,” said Ronald.  He’d gone into the kitchen, poking around.

“Come on, Ronald, I’m getting hungry,” whined his brother.

I heard a banging around, the sound of Ronald’s gagging coming just seconds after.  Then a horrible smell hit me.

“Oh, shit, what is that?” asked Gretchen, pulling her thin shirt up to cover her face.

“Help!  Help!” yelled Ronald.  “God, please, get me out of here!”

Bodo and Jamal raced into the kitchen and came out pulling Ronald with them.  He was bent over and still choking.

I was totally confused, rooted to the spot.  “What the hell happened in there?!”

“He foundt da bodies.  Some of dem, maybe.”

Ronald lifted an arm weakly, gesturing in the direction they’d just come from.  “They’re in the walk-in fridge.  Stacks of them.  Everywhere.  Rotten.  Gah!”  He turned and threw up on the floor.

“Great,” I said, breathing through my mouth, pulling in Winky’s sleeve.  “Come on.  Let’s get out of here and figure out what we’re going to do.”

The smell followed us out into the main part of the prison and then into the guards’ area.

We joined Peter and Jenny in the front, and he greeted us first with an expectant smile, and then an expression that made it clear the stink had followed us out here, too.

“I take it you found something,” he said, screwing up his mouth into a tiny grimace.

“Yeah.  They were in the fridge.”

“It was sealed and I opened it,” said Ronald, taking big gulps of air and fanning his face.

Jamal was fanning him too.

“We needt to find some carts to wheel dem out of dare.  It’s gonna take a long time.”

“Can’t we just close it up and leave it?” asked Ronald weakly.  “You guys didn’t see it.  It’s nasty.”

“No.  It’s toxic waste,” I said.  “We just have to suck it up and do it.  And find a place way the hell away from here so we don’t contaminate our ground with it.”

“You didn’t happen to find any biohazard suits did you?” asked Peter.

“No.  But I wouldn’t be surprised to find some here,” I said, trying to think back to our tour and remember if I saw any storage closets with something like that in them.  “It’s a prison.  All kinds of crazy contingencies are planned for here.”

“Did you find guns or bullets?” he asked.

“Nope.  None of that, either.  It’s probably on that side,” I said, gesturing to the hallway to right of the front desk.  “We need to eat.  Then we can go see what’s over there in that section.”

“I’m already on it,” said Peter, gesturing towards the blanket he’d laid out with what looked like a sad little picnic.

I hugged him close.  “You are the bestest, Peter Heggenburger.”

He patted me on the back.  “I know.  Now eat.”  He pushed me away and went to sit next to Jenny, helping her get up so she could join us.  Her cheeks had some pink in them which was encouraging.

We finished lunch, none of us having much of an appetite with that smell still lingering, so we packed up our wrappers and cans and regrouped at the door on the right side of the lobby.

“Ready to do this?” I asked, looking at each of them.

“Yes,” said Gretchen, looking at Ronald.  “And may I suggest that we not open any fridges or other air-locked spaces this time around?”

Ronald nodded, looking chagrined.

“Okay.  Let’s go,” I said, leading the way into the hallway.

More of the rooms on this side were locked.  We cheered when we found storage rooms full of prisoner uniforms and slippers of every size.  I held up a pair at Bodo.  “All you need is a robe and you could look like a mental patient.”

Jamal was studying one closely, bending it back and forth.  “Flimsy.  I guess they didn’t want the prisoners to have anything that could be used as a weapon.”

Winky took the slipper she was holding and reached up, smacking Jamal on the back of the head with it.

“Like that?” she asked innocently.

Jamal blinked slowly a few times.  “I know you did not just smack me upside the head with a slipper.”

“Daaang, girl.  Our granny used to do that to us when she heard us cussin’,” said Ronald.

Jamal smiled and then mimicked an old lady’s voice.  “Do not take the Lord’s name in vain!  Do you hear me, boy?!”

Ronald went over and smacked his brother lightly in the shoulder with a slipper.  “Good times.”

“Yeah,” said Jamal, smacking his brother on the chest with his slipper.  “Good times.”

Ronald lifted an eyebrow, acting like he was going to hit his brother again, but at the last second he reached over and smacked Winky with it on the chest.  “Ooops.  I missed.”

“He’s got really bad aim,” Jamal said, looking down at Winky.

She frowned and then smacked them both in quick succession.  “Oops!  I missed too!”  She stood there, staring them down, hands on her hips, a slipper sticking out on each side.

Ronald and Jamal exchanged evil looks and turned to face her.

Winky must have realized she was out-numbered because she lifted her slippers up and made the sign of the cross with them, holding them up in their faces.  “Back off!  I have a bad nose, you guys!  Seriously!”  She backed up until her legs ran into a desk.

They ignored her pleas, going after her to give her a few smacks on the butt with their slippers, while she cowered behind her arms that she’d wrapped around her head, trying to protect her face.  Gretchen and Bianca joined the fray, encouraging Winky to fight back.  She came out of her little shell and started whirling her slippers around like a ninja with nun-chucks.

I decided I was better off leaving the room before I got smacked myself, so I dragged Bodo out with me and into the hallway.

“Dat’s a good idea, Bryn.  Let’s go hide.”

“I just don’t want to get hit.  Let’s keep exploring.”

We found three more storage rooms with various supplies in them, but the one at the end of this section of hallway with the heaviest door and most complicated locks was the jackpot.

“Holy cannolis,” I said, sweeping my eyes across the room, taking in all the rows and rows of rifles and handguns.  There were even some machine guns mixed in, and bats and tasers.  It was a prisoner’s worst nightmare.

“I guess we don’t have to worry about da guns anymore,” said Bodo, walking over and rubbing his hand up the side of one of them.  “Dey look brand new.”

“I’m sure they cleaned them regularly,” I said, wandering down the aisle, looking at all the rows of firepower.  “There’s even smoke bomb things here I think.  I wonder if they’re tear gas.”

“Dis is pepper spray,” said Bodo, holding up a cannister.  “Dare’s boxes of dem.”

“Sweet.”  I came back to Bodo, taking his hand.  “Come on, let’s go show the others.”

“Not so fast,” he said, pulling me up against him.  “All dis stuff makes me want to kiss you.”  He leaned down and kissed me gently on the mouth.

“I’m not sure whether to be turned on or worried, Bodo,” I said, staring at his mouth and then his eyes.  He wasn’t joking anymore, and I knew exactly what he was thinking.  Before I could protest he kissed me again, only this time, he didn’t pull away.

He pulled me against him, putting both hands on my butt and pressing himself against me.  We both moaned at the same time.  It’d been so long since we’d had any private time together, and I’d replayed our few intimate moments over and over in my mind until I had them like a movie reel I could call up before I fell asleep at night.  But nothing compared to the real heat and heart palpitating excitement that he generated five seconds after touching me.

“Bodo, we can’t,” I said against his mouth.

“Chust let me touch you one time,” he said, putting his hand up my shirt, squeezing my breast.

I tried not to be embarrassed about what I wanted to do with him now, even with our friends just down the hall.  He made me want to tear both our clothes off and mess around on the floor.  I was hot and oblivious to anything but his body and how it felt to be with him.

Voices came from outside the door.

“Where’d they get to?” said Jamal.  “They were just with us.”

“Maybe they’re doing it,” said Winky.

“Shut up, Winky!” laughed Gretchen.  “How old are you, anyway?”

I pulled away from Bodo and pressed down on my hair, trying to neaten it up.  I smoothed my wrinkled shirt down and pulled my shorts out of my butt crack, clearing my throat.

“We’re in here!  Come see all the guns!”  I looked down and noticed a bulge in Bodo’s shorts.  “Turn around!” I whispered.  “Geez!”

“What?” he said, looking down at himself.  “Dat’s normal.  Dat’s not a problem.”  He looked up at me.  “Are you embarrassed?”  He was smiling at me, enjoying my discomfort.

“Yes!  Now turn around and act busy!”

Bodo did as I asked, picking a gun up off the rack and sighting down the barrel, aiming at the wall, facing away from our friends.

I stepped towards the entrance to meet them, just as they were coming out of the hallway and into the room.

“What were you guys doing in here?” asked Winky, her voice full of suggestion.

“Holy you-know-what,” said Jamal.  “Would you look at all the guns?”

“Crazy,” said Ronald, shaking his head.  “We won’t need to find guns ever again.”

“Where’s the ammo?” asked Bianca.  “Guns don’t mean crud without bullets.”

“Over there,” I said, gesturing to locked cabinets lining the side of the room.  “There’s tear gas or smoke bombs, I’m not sure which, pepper spray, pistols, rifles, you name it.  Anything you need to quell a riot.  They even have shields and bullet proof vests and helmets and crap.”

“I guess we’re all set, then,” said Ronald.  He walked over to the door.  “Anyone else ready to head back?”

We followed him to the door.

“Should we take any of this with us?” asked Gretchen.

“If you want,” I said.  “Couldn’t hurt.”

I was walking out the door when I heard a rifle being cocked and Gretchen’s voice behind me, all humor gone from it.

“Stop right there.  Before I blow a hole in your back.”

My heart plummeted and I froze in place with all my friends in the doorway.  I put my hands up in surrender and turned around slowly, expecting to see a couple of lunatic canners who’d pretended to be girls in distress, ready now to fill me full of bullets.

Gretchen and Bianca were standing there, both of them pointing rifles at us, looking dead serious.  For about five seconds they stayed that way before they both collapsed in giggles, falling into each other and crossing their legs.

“Ohshit, ohshit, ohshit,” said Bianca, laughing hysterically.  “I’m gonna pee myself!”

“That was … that was … aaahhhh, God, that was awesome!” said Gretchen, also laughing like a maniac.  “We really had you going there, didn’t we?”  Tears were coming up in her eyes as she hooted away.

I breathed out a sigh of relief and put my open hand back over my shoulder.  “Someone give me a slipper.”

Winky slapped one in my hand, and we all advanced on them, taking about five minutes to beat the crap out of them with prisoner shoes, while they laughed and laughed and laughed the entire time.

***

We made our way back to the front lobby, all of us exhausted from the immediate overdose of adrenaline caused by canner-fakers, followed by the hysterical laughter associated with a sound slipper beating.  We’d almost gotten to the lobby when the door burst open and Jenny came stumbling through.

Gretchen and Bianca ran ahead to catch her as she fell, dropping their rifles in the process.

“What’s wrong, Jenny?” asked Bianca.

“You have to come.  Quickly,” she said, totally out of breath.

We all rushed down the hallway, going as fast as we possibly could.  Jamal got there first and grabbed the door, pulling it open for all of us to run through.  My mind raced, coming up with all the terrible things that could have inspired Jenny to get up and run as fast as she apparently had.  Canners?  Sweepers?  Murderers?  I rounded the corner and my eyes fell on Peter.  He was crouched down by the lobby desk, using the bushes outside as his shield.

He saw me coming and waved me away.  He put his finger to his lips and pointed out the front windows.

I held out my arms to keep anyone from going by me.  “Shhhh, you guys.  Calm down.  Someone’s outside,” I whispered.

“Who is it?” asked Ronald.

“How am I supposed to know?” I whispered back, frowning back at him. “I can’t see around corners.”

“Are they inside?” asked Winky.

“I don’t think so.  But Peter can see them.”

“Why are we whispering?” asked Bodo.

“Peter!” I whisper-yelled.  “Are they inside?”

He shook his head.

“Can I talk normally, then?” I asked in a regular tone of voice.

“Yes, I guess,” he said.

I shook my head, laughing a little.  We were the worst military commandos of all time.  “What’s going on?”

“Someone’s at the gate.  I can’t see who it is.  I’m afraid to stand up.”

“Do they have any guns?” asked Ronald.

“Be right back!” said Winky, pushing off my back and running down the hallway we’d just come from.

“Where’s she going?” asked Jamal.

“Who knows?  Maybe she’s going to get some slippers so she can beat them to death,” said Ronald.

“Peter, I’m coming over,” I said.

“No!  Then they’ll know we’re in here.”

“Don’t you think they already know that?” I asked.

“Why would dey know dat?” asked Bodo.

“It’s kind of coincidental, isn’t it?  That we get here and one day later someone else is here.  I mean, we told about a hundred people where we were going.”

“Uhhh, we might also have told about hundred people ourselves,” said Ronald, sounding guilty.

“Make that about three hundred,” said Jamal.

“Doesn’t matter,” I said.  “We need to let people know we’re here and that we’re not afraid to defend our home.”  I raised my voice.  “Peter, I’m coming over.  Cover me!”

He looked at me fearfully for a second and then stood up into a half crouch, his gun up and shaking, pointed at the glass.

I ran as fast as I could being bent over, skidding to a stop next to him.

“No shots fired,” I said breathlessly.  The adrenaline was making it harder to breathe than it should have been.

“Nope.  They’re not doing anything.”

I stood up halfway and looked over at the front gate.  “They don’t look very threatening.”

“No.  But that doesn’t mean crap,” said Peter, his gun still up and pointed at them.

Winky came running through the hallway door and didn’t stop until she was next to us.  She was carrying a giant plexiglass shield and wearing a helmet that was about three sizes too big for her.  She tipped her head back so she could see me from under the brim.  “I’m ready to go out and meet them.”

“Give me that, you fool,” I said, yanking the helmet off her head.  “You’re not going anywhere with that nose.  You’ll scare people away.”

“Isn’t that the point?” she said, scowling, straightening her hair that I’d messed up.

I put the helmet on my head.  “Hand it over, Winky.  I’m going out.  You can cover me with a gun.”

“How come you get to go out there?” she said, pouting.

“Because I’m … the mayor, that’s why.”

“Says who?” asked Peter.

“I vote for her!” said Bodo.  “Dat’s two votes.”

“Three!” yelled Gretchen.

“And four,” added Bianca.

“Whatever,” said Peter.  “Just don’t get shot.  We need you here to run your classes.  I already have a schedule made.”

“Of course you do,” I said, patting him on the shoulder.  I took the shield and held it up to me.  “How’s this?”

“Higher,” said Winky.  “They can take your face off if it’s too low.”

“What about my ankles?”

“Smaller target than your big head,” she said, shrugging.

I nudged her with my hip.  “Cover me, guys.”

“Hey!” said Bodo.  “Wait a minute!  Is dis a good idea, guyss?  Dat she goess out dare by herself?”

“She’s not going alone,” said Ronald.  He’d gone and suited up, too, only he’d added a flak jacket to his ensemble.  “Here,” he said, tossing me one.

I crouched behind the shield and put it on.  Jamal came out of the hallway with riot gear on as well.

“Ready?” he asked, grinning from ear to ear.  “This is fun.  I feel like a cop.”

“Fun until you feel a bullet,” I mumbled.  But I was glad for the company and figured we’d look more intimidating with the bigger guys standing with me.

We walked to the door together, opening it up and stepping outside.  I waited for a few seconds to see if the strangers would do anything.

“Are we going to go talk to them?” whispered Jamal.

“I wanted to see if they’d shoot first,” I whispered back.

“If it were me, I’d wait until we were closer,” said Ronald.

“Good point,” I said, moving forward again.  Ronald and Jamal fell into step beside me.

The closer we got, the more confused I became.  There were four people there, all of them looking like they’d just gotten into a fight.  It was the blood and the ripped clothes that initially threw me off, making it difficult to identify them; but once we were within twenty feet of the gate, the images hit me like a ton of bricks.

“Rob!” I yelled, throwing down my shield and helmet, sprinting to the gate.

“Bryn!” yelled Ronald, “what are you doing?!”

Rob was holding Fohi up on one side, and another big guy was on Fohi’s other side.

“Oh my god, Yokci!  What are you guys doing here?” I yelled, desperately trying to find the right key to open the gate.  My hands were shaking and they kept slipping away.

Jamal came up beside me and took them from my hands.  “Let me do this.”  He looked through the keys to find the right one.

“I’m sorry,” said Ronald, “I didn’t even recognize you guys at all.”

“Yeah,” said Rob.  “We’ve run into some trouble.”

“But … but … Yokci’s here too,” I said, not understanding.  “How come he’s here?”

“We’ll explain everything when we get in.  Fohi’s in bad shape.  I hope you have some medical supplies in there.”

Fohi’s head was hanging down and his hand was resting lightly on his stomach.

“Hey, Fohi,” I said gently, coming up to the gate and putting my hands on it, looking through the links.  “What happened to you?”

He lifted his head and tried to smile, but it came out more like a grimace.  His teeth were bloody.  “Got kicked a few times.  Stabbed twice.  Rough day at work,” he said, trying to joke about it.  He started coughing and some blood came to his lips.  “Sorry about that,” he said wiping it away with the back of his hand.

Rob gave me a look that meant nothing good.

I heard the lock clicking and moved back so we could open the gate and let them in.

“Is anyone else coming?” I asked.

“I hope so,” said Rob.  “We couldn’t wait around to see what was going on.”

Ronald and I ushered them into the lobby, the rest of our friends running out the front door to help.  Jamal locked the gate behind us.

Fohi was laid out on the ground near Jenny, and Winky and Peter got to work making him comfortable.  I pulled Rob and Yokci over to the side, out of their way, and Bodo, the twins, and Gretchen and Bianca joined us.

“So what the hell happened?  Where’d you guys get jumped?” I asked.

“Just outside Kahayatle.  Near the canoe rental place,” said Rob.

“You were there, too?” I asked Yokci.

“Yeah.  I was helping them get their stuff together.”

“Were you going to come here, though?”

He shrugged.  “Probably eventually.  This just sped up the process.”

“Who was it?” asked Gretchen.  “Someone you know?”

“Canners,” said Rob.  “Guys who got away when we came to their place, I think.  Plus some of their new friends.”

“So they tracked us back there,” I said, thinking out loud and feeling guilty as hell.

“Dey already knew about da kids in da swamp.  Kiersten told me all about it.  She said your days were numbered.  Dat’s a funny expression.  I alwayss pictured a calendar with da days crossed off.  It’s spooky, really.”

“Tell me about it,” said Rob.  “We were ready to come meet you here after talking to Kowi and Trip, and bam, there they were.”

“Who else was hurt?” I asked, not sure I wanted the answer.

“Lots of kids.  Several of them were killed.  Those assholes had serious guns and lots of bullets.  Several of our tribe got away and went off to the ranches where we have the livestock.  We can’t afford to let them get to that stuff, otherwise life will become even more difficult.  I’m not sure how we’d come back from that.”

“They need to get here,” I said.  “We can protect people here.”

“Well, that’s good news,” said Yokci, “because here is where everyone’s coming.”

“What?  Are you serious?” I asked.

“Yeah.  Apparently, Trip had a change of heart for some reason.  I guess he missed you guys or something.  He told us to tell you that you could come back anytime, but that if you didn’t, he and Kowi would send supplies.  And he also told everyone that anyone who wanted to come join you could.”

“Yeah, and the talk around the swamp was, a lot of people were interested.”

“And now that the swamp’s been infested by something worse than gators…,” said Yokci, leaving his statement unfinished.

“Guess we’d better figure out how to feed these people, and quick,” said Gretchen.

“And get rid of all those bodies,” added Bianca.

“Bodies?” asked Yokci.

“We found some of the dead in a sealed fridge,” said Jamal, “courtesy of my curious brother.  So we need to move them out of the building.”

“We can help,” said Rob, nudging Yokci.

Yokci nodded, a little reluctantly.

I took a big breath and let it out in a whoosh.  “Thanks, guys.  I really appreciate you coming all this way.  I know it had to be hard as hell, especially for Fohi.”

Rob gave me a half-smile.  “Well, let’s just say that Fohi had a little personal incentive to get over here that made the trip easier for him.”

I looked over and watched Winky leaning over Little Bee to work on his stomach wound.  He was staring at her, watching her every move.

“Nice,” I said, nodding.  “I’m not sure if he’s tough enough for Winky, but it’ll be interesting to find out.”

“Oh, he’s plenty tough,” said Yokci.  “Trust me on this.  I’ve tried to kill that little pest about five times, and so far nothing’s worked.  He’s hard to kill.”

I laughed at his serious tone.

“Come on,” I said.  “Let’s go see if we can help.”

We spent the rest of the day tending to the sick and injured and investigating our new home - a huge warren of hallways, rooms, and untold riches of general supplies, beds, food, clothing, and equipment.

Bodo laid out the area we planned to use as a place for a mass grave, nowhere near the living facilities and future gardens, on the farthest edge of the property.  We found heavy-duty garbage bags and body bags in storage lockers, not enough for all of the bodies but enough that we could make the job somewhat easier.

There were carts used in the kitchens that would do for moving them, and plenty of disinfecting liquids.  It would be a grisly job, but having all these pieces in place at least made it seem do-able.

We sat around eating our dinner of dried meat and fruits, making plans for the next day, eventually bedding down next to each other again when it was time to sleep.

None of us wanted to be alone tonight, not even Bodo and me.  We fell asleep holding hands, and I dreamed of a safe haven where everyone lived in peace, had food in their stomachs, and a comfortable bed to sleep on.  It would have been a perfect dream if it hadn’t ended with Loco knocking on the front gate, smiling at me with his yellow-brown teeth and asking to be let in while holding up a key to the door.

***

“Bryn, wake up,” said Bodo, right in my ear.

I reached up, wrapping my arm around his neck languidly, pulling him down for a kiss.  I smiled sleepily, anticipating the tickling sensation I was about to get all over my body from the passion he always aroused in me.

He resisted though, and I frowned, pulling harder.  Why doesn’t he want to kiss me?

“Not right now.  You haff to get up.”

I opened my eyes, blinking a few times in confusion, letting go of Bodo’s neck.  The room was still dark, but I could hear whispering.

I sat up, looking around, trying to figure out what was going on.  All the beds next to me were empty, and everyone was standing at the glass doors, looking outside.

“Come on,” said Bodo, holding his hand out for me to take.

I grasped it and stood, pulling my shirt and shorts down, trying to make myself presentable.  I licked my furry teeth, wishing I had time to run my toothbrush across them.

“What’s the big deal?”  My voice sounded weird, being so loud and echoing across the room, so I lowered it before continuing.  “Why is everyone up so early?”

“Come see,” said Bodo, pulling me along to the door.

He nudged Gretchen and Bianca gently to the side, making room for me to get up to the front of the glass.  “Giff her some room,” said Bodo.

Ronald and Jamal split apart so I could stand between them.

I looked out the window, not sure what I was seeing.

“What is it?” I asked.

It was dark.  I couldn’t see anything past the gate.  Something was blocking it.

“I think,” said Ronald, in a carefully measured tone, “that we are seeing the first influx of settlers into Haven.”

I turned the lock on the door and pushed it open.

“Wait!” said Ronald, grabbing my arm and pulling me back.  Jamal placed a helmet on my head and the girls passed a flak jacket and then a shield up to me.

I looked at all of them as I put the jacket on, trying to read their expressions.  Gretchen and Bianca were crying.  Winky was smiling, looking proud like I’d just won a spelling bee or something.

The sleep was still muddling my brain.  “I don’t get it.  Why me?” I asked.

“Because you’re the mayor,” said Ronald, smiling and opening the door for me.

“And because you’re the reason they’re all here,” said Jamal.  “Now go greet the newcomers.”

“Aren’t you coming?” I asked.

“Do you really need to ask that?” said Ronald as he plunked a helmet on his head.  “We can’t just let anyone in here.  We’ve gotta do some checks at the gate.  Jamal and I are on it.”

Jamal had put his helmet and jacket on too and was taking his shield from Bianca.  “Thank you, gorgeous,” he said smiling.  “Ready to go!” he announced, puffing out his chest.  “I still feel like a cop!”

Bodo stepped closer to me, pushing the shield out of the way.  “Be careful.  I will be right here if you needt me.”

“Why aren’t you coming?” I asked, confused why he was taking a back seat like this.

“Dis iss your moment.  Let dem see you in front, being Bryn.  Dat’s who dey want.  Dat’s who dey need right now.  Not me.”

“But …”

“I’m not goingk anywhere.  Don’t worry.  It’s not a problem … I got your back.”  He winked at me.

“I luff you,” I said, smiling nervously.

He leaned down and kissed me.  “I luff you, too.  Hurry up.  My lips are already getting coldt.”  He smacked me on the butt as I walked away.

Ronald held the door open for me and Jamal and then followed us out.

I walked slowly up to the gate, my lips moving as I silently counted heads.  There were at least thirty kids out there, several of them bleeding, all of them looking like they needed food and shelter.

I stopped just a few feet from the fence, making sure I was still far enough away that no one could reach through and grab me.

A kid I’d never seen before was in front of everyone, right by the opening to the gate.

I stood facing him and waited a few seconds before speaking, taking in his ultra-skinny six-foot-tall frame, his brown, unkempt and unwashed hair, and his intelligent but serious eyes.

“Hi,” I said.

“Hi.  Are you Bryn?”

“I am.  And who are you?”

“I’m Derek.  I heard you’re starting a new place down here.  A cannibal-free zone.”

My heart stopped as the sound of my dad’s name came from his lips.  I was unable to speak for a few seconds, feeling like I was seeing a ghost - my dad from another time and place.

Jamal nudged me gently from behind.

“I guess that’s true,” I said, my heart beating double-time to get back to its normal rhythm.  I took a slow breath in and out, calming my nerves that were threatening to run away from me.

“We’d like to join you.”

I raised an eyebrow.  “All of these people are with you?”

He nodded.  “Most of them.  Some we picked up recently.”

“Where are you from?”

“Tallahassee.”

“You’re a long way from home,” said Ronald.

“We have no home anymore, but we want one.  And we’re willing to work for it,” he said, nodding his head firmly.

I wanted to believe him.  He shared my father’s name, making him instantly credible in my heart.  But I put my own feelings aside, knowing I needed to be smart and protect the interests of my community regardless of how I felt personally.  I had to find a way to determine whether he was a good kid needing a home, or a canner trying to breach our defenses.

“How do I know you’re not a canner … a cannibal?  Or a sweeper?”

“I don’t know what a sweeper is, but you know I’m not a cannibal by looking at me.”  He gestured to his gaunt face and skeletal frame.  “Do I look like I’ve been indulging in any barbecues lately?”

“He’s got a point,” said Jamal, looking the guy up and down, shaking his head sadly.

Derek turned and gestured to the group.  “We’re all starving.  Some of us barely made it here.  We’ve been on foot the entire way.  We’d almost given up hope of finding any safe place to live until we came upon the waystation.”

I frowned.  “Waystation?”  He can’t be serious.

“Yeah.  The Crackerbarrel?  Jimmy and Sissy?”

I laughed, unable to help myself.  “Seriously?  You found me through them too?”  I guess they really have forgiven me for breaking that door.

“Yeah.  Word’s getting around.  And they’re good people.  Totally anti-canner.  They help anyone who’s on the same side.  They’re telling everyone you’re down in the swamps.  We started out going there, but then we heard you were coming here.”

“Who told you that?”

“A girl we met by the beach.  She said she met you just the other day.”

I shook my head.  “I can’t believe it.  How is that possible?”

He shrugged.  “It’s a small world, now.  We don’t have the Internet anymore, but we don’t need it.  We’ve got word of mouth.  And word on the street’s you’ve got a good thing going - that you don’t tolerate cannibals or hurting kids or kicking people out who need you.  So that’s why we’re asking.  Can we please come in there and be a part of your community?”

I looked out over the faces, all of them drawn and tired, sunburned and dirty.  Their clothes were ragged, some of the shirts barely covering the important body parts.  Kids who couldn’t have been more than fourteen looked decades older.

But no matter how crappy and exhausted and worn down they appeared, there was one thing that this cruel world had not taken away from them yet.  And that was hope.  I saw it on every single face out in that crowd.

“Open up the gate,” I said, raising up my chin.  My helmet slipped down, and I quickly pushed it up so I could see again.

“You sure?” asked Ronald, holding up the keys.

I spoke up so everyone in the crowd would hear me.

“Everyone?  My name is Bryn.  This town is called Haven.  It was founded just yesterday by my friends and me.  Anyone who wants to live in peace and be a contributing member of our family is welcome in here with us.  Anyone who comes through these gates must be willing to sacrifice his needs and desires for the good of our group as a whole.  We promise, in return, to do everything we can to keep you safe, fed, sheltered, and cared for.  But I warn you now; do not try to mess with us or hurt us, or you we will make you very sorry.  That’s a promise too.”

My eyes scanned the crowd, making sure each and every one of them knew I had absolutely no hesitation about backing up what I said.  Once I knew I had their attention, I finished my speech.  “You make your pledge as you enter, or you stay outside the gates.”

I stepped back as I heard the gate’s lock clicking open.  Jamal rolled the gate open and then stood next to me, his brother on my other side.

We greeted each person as they came through the entrance.

Peter had opened the glass door to the building, and our other friends were standing there, waiting to greet the new arrivals.

Derek stepped through and walked up to me, putting out his hand.  It was cut and bruised, covered in calluses.  I tipped my helmet back and shifted the shield off to the left so I could shake it.

“Welcome to Haven,” I said.

“Thank you for letting me in.  I swear my oath to you.”

“Not to me,” I said, shaking my head, “to the people of Haven.”

He smiled.  “To the people of Haven, then.”  He nodded at Jamal and Ronald and then stood next to Jamal, watching as each one of his group came through and did the same as he had done.

There were kids as young as twelve, some no bigger in size than children of eight because they’d been without food for so long.  I battled tears as they came shuffling by, many unable to walk without help from others.

They’d come from so far and battled so many adversities, just to find a place they could call home again.  And they were all counting on me to make it happen.  I should have been stressed beyond measure, but all I could feel was love swelling my heart until it felt like it was going to burst.

When the last kid limped up to me and grabbed me in a weak hug, because that’s all he could manage, mumbling, “Thank you,” in my shoulder, I couldn’t hold it in any longer.  The sadness and anger and fear and hope and joy all came crashing together, an emotional grenade, exploding out from inside me.

The tears flowed down my face and sobs wracked my body.

Bodo saved the boy from my breakdown by appearing behind me, detaching me and taking me into his arms, just as I was about to collapse.  He picked me up and carried me like a baby through the throngs of kids in the lobby who were talking in hushed tones, some of them lying on the floor now, but all of them smiling and looking relieved.

I heard one child-like voice cut clearly through the murmur of the crowd as Bodo carried me in his big, strong arms.

“Why is she crying?” the girl asked.

Someone I didn’t yet know answered. “Because she cares about us.  That’s why.”

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Elle Casey is an American writer who lives in Southern France with her husband, three kids, Hercules the wonder poodle, and Monie the Bouvier.  In her spare time she writes women’s fiction and young adult novels (you can find her Women’s Fiction work under the pen name Kat Lee.)

A personal note from Elle …

If you enjoyed this book, please, please consider leaving positive feedback on Amazon, Goodreads, or any book blogs you participate in.  More positive feedback means I can spend more time writing!  Oh, and I love interacting with my readers, so if you feel like shooting the breeze or talking about books, please visit me.  You can find me at …

www.ElleCasey.com
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Other Books by Elle Casey

War of the Fae: Book One, The Changelings - FREE!

War of the Fae: Book Two, Call to Arms

War of the Fae: Book Three, Darkness & Light

War of the Fae: Book Four, New World Order

Clash of the Otherworlds: Book 1, After the Fall

Clash of the Otherworlds: Book 2, Between the Realms

Clash of the Otherworlds: Book 3, Portal Guardians

Apocalypsis: Book 1, Kahayatle

Apocalypsis: Book 2, Warpaint

Apocalypsis: Book 3, Exodus

Apocalypsis: Book 4, Haven

My Vampire Summer

My Vampire Fall (Coming Soon)

Wrecked

Reckless

Aces High

(co-written with Jason Brant)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I always acknowledge my readers first.  It’s for you that I write, and without you, I’m not sure if I could technically even be a writer. So, thank you for making my wonderful life as a writer not only possible, but incredibly fulfilling.  Your emails, posts, comments, and tweets keep me going, even when I’m not in the mood to go.

To my writer friends who are always there with a quick joke, a shoulder to cry on, an ear to bitch into … thank you!  Jason “Muskrat Head” Brant, Dalya Moon, Samantha Young, Kary English and many others.

To the book bloggers and readers who take the extra time to review my books and share those reviews with the world.  Thank you!

To my readers who make an effort to tell their friends and family about my work, thank you!  I am well aware of the huge compliment that is, and I appreciate what you do for me very much.

To my Facebook friends and “likers”, thank you!  I love our little community we’ve built there, where you all come by for visits and laughs, to share thoughts on my books and others, and to play my goofy games.  Interacting with you guys is something I look forward to every single day.

To the talented musician, Sarah Jarosz.  Your music is incredibly inspiring.  I listened to it the entire time I was writing this book.  I hope I can see you perform live someday.

To my beta readers and editors: Maggie, Theresa, Aidan, and Craig … you guys are the you-know-what.  You have no idea what a great team you are, even though you toil alone, in the dark as to what the others are doing.  You each find something different that needs fixing.  You’re my superheros.  All of my happy readers need to know what a crucial role you play in making me look good.

Last, but oh so very not least, to Aidan, superfan extraordinaire from Down Under, who made the cover of this book.  Now, that might seem cool in and of itself.  But what you don’t know, that I’m going to tell you now, is that he learned how to use Adobe Photoshop just so he could make me a cover.  For months, he toiled over his computer, while also working full time, taking care of a 2-year-old who doesn’t like to sleep much, and a pregnant wife.  Now THAT, is dedication.  Love you, Aybee!!!  Stay away from the snail wiener porridge!