When you left, the stars went soon after. The end of everything would have been nothing if they hadn’t taken you. But I won’t forget. And I won’t lie down in wait. I will find you, I will make them suffer for every second we were apart.
“Five minutes,” Kennan said quietly from the forest outside the tent. He had the schedule, and while he was not one of many words, the group treated his speech as gospel. Those who hadn’t were long gone.
I got out of my sleeping bag, and quickly rustled through my backpack for my glasses. I was sick of my mind slowing me down, harboring me with hatred for the Enforcers, rather than a clear head. I unclasped the tent entrance, and covered my eyes as the light of the solid magenta sky burned. This close to a scheduled sweep, and even the best sunglasses we had made it only barely manageable.
To my left, Fern was stomping out a campfire, and to my right Herman had a tarp over his shoulder, on his way to cover any remnants of what Fern left over.
“This should’ve been done already,” I said, moving to help Herman pull the tarp over the blackened sticks, and smother any smoke that threatened to rise.
“Prayer comes first, miss,” Herman responded. I didn’t push back on it. It was his source of strength, and I wouldn’t dare take that from him.
“Three minutes.” Kennan stood holding a ceramic tile, which had something which looked like a star map engraved in it. Kennan was the only one who could decipher it. The schedule. The only reason we were still alive.
Herman and I exchanged a look, and joined the line. I counted thirty of us. Last sweep, there were thirty-two. I didn’t know them before. I didn’t have to. Once we learned how to survive, it became a matter of wanting to survive.
Hatred was useful for that. It was my strength, my purpose, and after everything we lost… It was so easy to hate them. Some people couldn’t justify their lives like that, and they found their own way out. It wasn’t giving up, it was their own defiance of how they forced us to go on.
Finally, Kennan’s last call before the sweep came. “One minute.”
We looked over the edge, at the water below. It was the only way to avoid detection. I breathed deeply, leading the pack as I plunged myself into the depths. I felt someone else brush against my leg as I forced myself as deep as my body could handle, pushing down and down.
Bubbles raged against my skin as the desperate peddling down of thirty people disturbed the water. My lungs started to burn, but I noticed it was easier this time.
Then it came.
One could not adapt to the sweep. First, the sound. A planet wide ping at both a rumbling bass that shook the crust of the Earth itself, then a higher screeching which shattered glass. The noise that turned cities to shards. Even so far under the water, my eardrums ached.
Next was the light. Like all the stars of the universe which had disappeared on that day condensed and crammed into a single ray. I had my sunglasses on, the makeshift band around the back keeping them tight, and my eyes shut. Yet everything in that moment burned in brilliant terrifying brightness.
Lastly, and worst of all, a measure the water had no effect on, was our minds. The Enforcers spoke to us during the sweeps. They called with lures and promises, images of desecration and beauty and terror. A war so grand that we were imperfections in the bloodspill. They told us we were avoiding our fates, that there was so much more beyond our existence. If only we would just give ourselves up. No words were said, but the meaning was searing.
I swam further down still. I fought and I kept kicking, and when I felt like I couldn't take another second, I kicked again.
And like nothing had ever happened, it was over.
When we broke the surface, the sky was blue. I swam for the shore, and accepted a hand from Henry, who’d made it out first. A minute later, I did a recount of the numbers. Thirty strong. I let out a breath I didn’t realise I was still holding. We were okay for now.
----------------------------------------
After the sweeps, I usually tried to keep myself occupied. Letting one’s thoughts wander was too dangerous, especially so after the invasive thoughts that the Enforcers planted.
So when Herman proposed a fishing trip, I gladly obliged. It was our only real source of fresh meat, since the animals on the surface had all succumbed to the first few sweeps. I gave some more slack as I waited impatiently for feedback from the rod. Behind me, Herman was going through the basics with the mute kid, Ollie.
“Worms are about as good as we’ll do for bait. The fishies love em’,” he said. I looked over, and he had the kid holding a worm, and showed him how to thread it on the hook.
I shook my head at the absurdity of it. Herman and Fern had taught them all how to survive out in the wild. They were both rangers, before. Herman was on the older side, and together with the kid, it looked like a father son fishing trip.
“Now Ollie, watch how Ava does it, and then you have a go,” Herman announced, tapping me on the back. He then leaned in to whisper, “You alright, miss?”
I realised my fist was clenched around the pole. Ollie had no parents anymore. This was his childhood now. In time, this life would be all he knew, the time before a faint dream. They’d taken that from him. I calmed myself and just nodded.
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
The line in my hand jerked, and I pulled up. It was a good sized trout. I let myself smile, and handed the pole over to Ollie. “Now, Herman, don’t give credit for that one to the Lord. I worked for that”
He laughed. “I know when to keep my trap shut, miss.” He looked at the boy. “Now you just put the pole here, and hold it steady, like that. She'll do the rest.”
I gutted the fish while I watched the sun set over the lake. We still had that, at least. All the other stars had vanished but ours. It was the most peaceful afternoon we’d had in a while, and successful, too.
As Ollie reeled in another fish, and I packed up the equipment, a shadow loomed overhead.
“Shit,” I muttered, dropping to the ground as a ship passed by, leaving the trees shaking violently in its wake. The angular crafts were far less common to see these days.
It didn’t stop at our camp, but we all knew what it meant. Someone nearby had been found by the Enforcers, and they would be taken. We had a few hours to pack up.
I got to my feet, and rushed to Herman, who was looking into the direction the ship had flown. His expression was dark.
"That way is the East Coast, ain't it?" he asked.
I nodded. “Thought that region was dead. But they’ll look harder for remnants now.”
Ollie tugged on my trousers, and signed annoyance. He was dripping wet, having jumped into the water as soon as the ship came. I ruffled his brown unkempt hair.
We’d have to move at least ten miles to be safe. I looked over the lake, as the orange rays shone back at me, almost taunting. I only hoped that maybe we could cycle back once the Enforcers were done. At least now we had good food for the journey.
----------------------------------------
We marched well through the night. Fern took the lead. She held the only gun of the group, and we were in bear country. I was right behind, map in one hand, compass in the other.
As far as we could tell, there were two main ways of attracting Enforcer attention. One was to be on the surface during a sweep. It worked to be in a cave, a building or in a tent, but then you went blind or deaf from the scanning. Second was any form of technology. So GPS was unfortunately off the table. I was navigating us towards a decent sized lake, out the way of any city. Cities were death traps with the amount of circling Enforcer crafts.
“We need to do a tick check next time we stop. I swear I can feel them biting me all through my pants,” Fern said, “How much further is it, anyway?”
I consulted the map. “Still a while. There’s a smaller body just beyond those hills. We can stop at the top for a bit, and get some water too. There isn't a river on this side, so we boil it. That sound alright?"
She grunted in response. I dropped pace a bit, and let myself get caught up by Kennan, who was on the outside of the group. He was odd. There was no other way of saying it. I didn’t know what he was like before, but I knew he was in a city when it happened. When we’d found him in the woods, he’d been wandering aimlessly, almost catatonic, grasping the schedule.
"Hey man. You doing alright? I didn’t see you eat dinner. I’ve got a couple of cereal bars left if you want one," I offered.
He stopped and turned his head toward me, as if considering. He nodded, and I turned my backpack towards him, stopping to let him reach in and grab one. He was always on the edge, and his ears bled regularly.
“So,” I said, “When does it say the next sweep is?”
He stopped and looked down at the stone, and traced a finger over the engravings.
"I think... four days? Not sure," he said, his voice strained, "Maybe three? Or... or five. Sorry. Sorry."
"Okay, man. Don't worry, you're doing great," I said, trying to reassure him. He could be hard on himself too. Besides, that was long enough away that it didn’t matter yet. The chart became clearer to read the closer the sweep was anyway. I had no idea how it functioned, or how he could decipher it at all, but I wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth.
“Hey,” Fern called, “Everyone look sharp. Water’s just here, but I’m also seeing footprints in the mud.”
Suddenly, she pointed her gun at a point up on the hill between a couple of trees. Everyone froze.
I moved beside her, and followed her gaze. Two girls, no more than sixteen years old. I put a hand on Fern’s gun and lowered it.
“Just kids, Fern, and they’re not armed,” I said, “I’ll go talk to them, see if there’s any others.”
Three others came to the front, obviously intent on making contact too. I didn’t argue. The girls didn’t run as we approached, but they did look nervous, skittish. I noticed they were skinny, terrifyingly so.
“Hi, we came to get some water. Is that okay?” I asked slowly. The last thing I wanted was to scare them even more than they already were.
The girl on the left stepped forward to respond. “Are… are you one of them?”
I looked at my companions in confusion. It quickly turned to horror as I ran through the possibilities. We hadn’t run across any large groups yet, only stragglers who’d joined us. But we weren’t stupid. There would be people out there who would do anything to survive, even people who took pleasure out of plundering vulnerable people like these girls.
“One of them?” I asked, as I signaled back to Fern to look out.
“They found our camp. There were so many people…” she said, tears suddenly streaming down her face.
A man on my right, Henry, quickly knelt down before the girl and placed an arm on her shoulder.
“Who did this? Are they still here?” His voice was soft but firm.
The girl sniffed, and nodded. I looked back, and signaled the group danger. They formed a formation we hadn’t really practiced, only discussed. Makeshift knives came out of packs, machetes too. Fern stood in the centre of what now resembled a circle, hunting rifle on a swivel. Herman took the three kids of the group, and ran the opposite direction. They would hide until the area was safe.
Henry and I gently guided the girls back to our circle while we prodded them for more information. They were too shocked to give helpful answers.
“How many exactly were there that raided your camp?” I asked, loud enough that everyone could immediately understand the situation.
“Ten. No… twenty.” One of them responded.
The other quickly butted in. “But we couldn’t see all of them… they were… quick… and they wore weird suits.”
I suddenly had a sinking feeling. “Suits? What do you mean by that?”
“White ones. Like… astronauts, but slimmer.”
No.
Everyone stopped what they were doing to look at the girl, horror playing across their faces. At the same time, a blaring siren blasted from above, along with a shadow. The girls’ camp hadn’t been raided by a group of humans. The Enforcers had taken them, and now they’d followed the trail right to us.
Fuck. I steeled myself and shouted, “Run! Split up and run!”