Southeast of Faenella, Eganene
Bekka and Ceril followed Tonelle out of the wagon to the cook fire. Kat had a hold of the pot and the weight pulled at her arms. She hung it from the iron stakes and heaped fresh snow inside.
“Put them in,” she told Ceril, gesturing to the potatoes and onions they were carrying. She turned to Tonelle, “Do we have anything else?”
The woman shook her head. “Game’s been scarce. Franc’s not seen anything for days.” She looked into the woods. “That’s why we put up the fires, just in case. You girls watch yourself in there. I don’t want you in too deep.”
The clearing was surrounded by a dark forest, the fires making a loose circle of light that grew as the sun set. Bekka looked around hopefully, desperate to see something, a house or a hotel, anything, but the whole area seemed uninhabited. The mountain ridge to the right wasn’t steep and there weren’t any clearings on its face. If anyone lived up there, they hadn’t cut down enough trees to be noticed.
Disappointed, she turned back to the wagon. If only there had been some light, she might have risked trying for the woods.
Jaks, Lenold and Franc appeared from behind the horses, their arms filled with wood. Making their way through the snow to Kat’s fire, they dropped their loads and looked to Tonelle for instruction. Bekka thought they looked like children waiting for a treat.
“The girls will give you a hand,” Tonelle said. “Go on and get some more wood. Enough so that the fire is twice the size it is now. But you watch yourselves and go in pairs. I want it done, and you all back here, before it’s truly night.”
Bekka had intended to follow Ceril, but the willowy girl and her boyfriend disappeared instantly. She stood stupidly for a few moments, not sure what to do or where to go until Lenold took pity on her.
“This way?” he asked, pointing in the opposite direction from Ceril and Jaks.
“Sure, ” Bekka agreed. She took a few steps, feeling the snow work its way into her shoes and crunch against her ankles. Her feet were going to be soaked.
Lenold didn’t seem be bothered. He had a dark blanket tossed over one shoulder, bark and dirt covering his shirt. He was also wearing pants, so maybe the snow didn’t bother him as much. He wasn’t leading and neither was she, but they navigated to the forest’s edge without speaking. It was a comfortable silence, the kind people have when they spend a lot of time with one another.
Bekka had a lot of questions. Once they were far enough away, it might be the time to ask them.
“Go ahead in, I’ll wait,” he said when they stopped.
“Thanks.” After all that time in the wagon, she was grateful to relieve herself behind the first large tree. The canopy above blocked out the rest of the evening’s sunlight, making it seem as if it was already night. The wind had died down and it was silent and still in the woods. She listened intently, trying to see if she could hear any sounds.
Nothing.
It was so strange out here, the silence overpowering in a way she’d never known. She was used to cars, the sounds of the highway and the train. Out here there was no ambient noise, no babble of voices humming about her as she walked.
Squinting her eyes, she searched. There had to be a light out there somewhere. The darkness squirmed in her vision, the snow at her feet turning first a dirty lilac color and then grey.
“You done?” she heard Lenold call.
She hiked up her stockings, “Yeah. Come on in.” She could hear his footsteps disturbing the forest floor. “Where to?” she asked when he reached her.
He pointed deeper into the woods. “We’ll probably find some good pieces over there. We were in this way before, picked up all the stuff close to the edge.”
Bekka bit her lip, trying to decide what to ask first.
She knew nothing about him. How was he kidnapped? How long had he’d been with Tonelle? He was definitely the most approachable of the group. If anyone was going to answer her questions, it was probably him.
“What’s that for?” she asked as they walked, gesturing towards the blanket on his shoulder. She’d start with something simple.
“To carry the wood,” he said, looking at her out of the corner of his eye. The dusk light gave his ruddy complexion a smoother look and seemed to minimize the size of his ears.
“You stack it in the blanket? And then we both carry an end?”
He nodded, “Exactly. It’s easier than just filling up our arms, and it’ll take fewer trips.” His eyes were on the ground, searching.
She wondered if he was avoiding her or just trying to hurry and get back. She shivered, wrapping her arms about her shoulders. The weather was a safe topic. She could try that. “It’s definitely cold out here,” she observed.
He glanced up, “It’ll be better once we’re back at the fire.”
It took them another twenty feet to find a downed tree. Lenold spread the blanket and started snapping off the branches. It almost felt like they should be having a picnic, except there was no sun and no apple pie. There was no baseball, no hotdogs, no parks and no ice cream. The only thing out here was the cold forest and Lenold.
At least she had him. Those first few days in the wagon had been tough. No one had wanted to talk to her. She had spent almost all of her time in her bunk trying not to freak-out. “We don’t want those?” she asked, pointing to the limbs lying in the snow.
“No.” His voice was quick and light, the cadence of his speech strange to her ears. “They’re probably rotten and definitely icy and wet. We should be able to find enough good stuff without using them.”
The wind kept moving the blanket so they used the next few pieces of wood to pin down the corners. Working silently, the stillness of the forest was interrupted only by the icy gusts that swept off the mountain. Bekka grabbed a smaller limb and bent it back until it snapped.
She wanted to ask Lenold about the market and find out what he knew about the psychos who bought her from Billy, but she didn’t know how to broach the topic. Awkward small talk wasn’t her thing, and the bizarre situation didn’t make it any easier. What she thought she knew just made her more confused. Talking to Ceril had given her more questions than answers.
She debated for a while and then gave up. The wood was stacking up on the blanket and soon they’d need to return to camp. Right now they were alone. If she was going to find out the truth, she needed to do it now.
“Can we talk, Lenold?” she asked.
He looked up at her, his thin face too serious for his age. He didn’t answer, but asked a question, “Where were you from? Before they found you?”
“From Philly.” Her voice sounded rough, the way it had after she spent hours screaming in Billy’s basement. It was just a question, she told herself.
His expression was intense, “Is it far? Is that why you don’t want to tell me?”
The trees shadowed her, turning her green eyes black. “No. We’re in Philly right now. Or we were, back in the city. These are still probably the outskirts. I mean, how fast can the wagon travel?”
“I don’t know.” He looked concerned. Maybe he was worried that they were getting so far away.
“Is that where you are from?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Philly?” he made it sound like a question, twisting the words in his mouth.
Bekka thought he sounded like he was chewing marbles, “Yeah, Philly.”
“Philly, philly, philly, what a strange word,” the voice murmured.
“Naw,” he replied, breaking off another limb. “I’m not from there and that place we got you from wasn’t called Philly. I’d never been there before, but that’s the place with the big bell, right? We could see it when we stopped, even through the snow. Martin mentioned the name…what was it…I’ll think of it in a moment.”
He was tapping his foot against the ground, and Bekka felt a pang. It was such a familiar motion, one her friend Wyatt always did when he was thinking. Lenold looked up, “It’s getting dark. We should try and hurry up.”
She watched the boy break off another branch, tossing it onto their pile.
“My ma was there once,” he said into the silence. “She told me about it. I think she said it was called Delwere.”
“The Delaware? That’s the river,” Bekka corrected. “Come on, Lenold. Even if you are from…wherever….that was Philadelphia. You know, the city of brotherly love?”
“That is what it is known for?”
“Come on,” Bekka said, annoyed. “Messing with me at this point is not cool. What grade are you in, anyway?”
“What?”
“Even if you aren’t from around here, you have to know where Philly is. I mean, come on. It is pretty important. The Liberty Bell? The Constitution? They teach that in history class…”
The boy flushed, his smattering of pimples burning black in the shadow, “Teach me? You mean you’ve been schooled?”
“Of course!” she exclaimed. “Did you run away? Is that how they caught you?”
How could he not know Philly? she asked herself. Everyone knew Philly.
“He wouldn’t know. Don’t be cruel. He’s been kind to you,” the voice chided.
Bekka ignored it. Instead, she looked at Lenold, her eyes reflecting the moon. “I mean, you’re kidding, right? Everybody knows Philly. The Eagles? The 76ers? The Phillies! You watch sports, don’t you?”
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The boy’s thin face grew darker, “Well, I don’t know Philly and I was never schooled, but it’s not my fault.”
Bekka felt her mouth drop open.
Lenold’s hands were clenched in fists. “And I’ve never run away from anything in my life. You shouldn’t go accusing people you don’t know of being a coward.”
“Whoa, hold on,” she said. “That’s not what I meant. I… Look, I didn’t mean to insult you. But, seriously. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t heard of Philly.”
He had his head down, looking at her from the corner of his eye. It made her feel like she was some kind of crazy person, like she was the one who wasn’t making sense.
“You are strange to him. And you’re not seeing the truth.”
“I am not!” she replied, reflexively.
Lenold jerked back, surprise flashing across his face.
“Sorry,” Bekka muttered. “Seriously, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it. Really. I’ve had a rough couple of days.”
His expression softened, “It’s hard for you, I see that. It was hard for me, too, when I first was… Anyway, it might help to talk about it, you know. Most of the new kids like to talk about what happened. It helps them let go of whatever they’re leaving behind.”
Bekka laughed softly. “Right, well, I don’t think my story would make much sense.”
He shrugged and looked away, “Not everything makes sense. Sometimes it just is.”
How could she describe waking up in the middle of the street to find her grandmother and neighbors gone, a gas leak in her apartment and the explosion. How could she explain how close she’d come to dying and what Billy had done to her.
But if she didn’t open up with Lenold, who could she to talk to? Ceril was totally brainwashed, convinced she wanted to get sold in some place called Orlenia. Lenold seemed genuinely interested in what she had to say. If she wanted him to talk to her truthfully, she had to reciprocate.
“When I woke up,” she started, sitting on the log, “I was outside. I still have no idea how I got out there. I could have been sleeping walking, I don’t know, but I was on a bench and it was freezing. It was in the middle of that snowstorm. So, I got back to my building, but everything was wrong. It was like I was in the wrong place, the wrong building. Except, I wasn’t. I know I wasn’t.”
“Yes,” the voice agreed. “It wasn’t your building.”
Lenold was sitting beside her, his eyes on her face. She wanted to look up at him, but she kept her eyes on the forest floor. It was easier that way.
“The place had been evacuated,” she began, “at least that’s what I thought. Someone had taken most of the stuff. Everyone was gone. I was looking for my inhaler and then there was this explosion!” she raised her arms over her head.
“Whatever happened was huge. My best guess is that a gas leak blew. I don’t really know, but the walls and floor were shaking. I hadn’t found my inhaler and I couldn’t breathe.”
She glanced up at the Lenold’s face, but it was hidden in darkness, “I thought… I thought I was going to die. But right when I passed out, Billy found me and he took me in.”
“He saved you?”
“I guess you could say that,” she muttered. “He gave me something to stop the attack and that was good, but then everything went wrong.”
The boy was silent, but he was leaning forward.
She had to tell him the rest of it, for someone to know. It would be a relief.
“I don’t even know how long I was in there,” she admitted. “Billy, that was the name of the guy who took me in, pretended to be kind. I thought he was helping me, but he put drugs in my tea. I passed out and when I woke up, I started looking through his stuff. He caught me and he freaked.”
“I…” Bekka continued, “well, he hurt me. Gave me the bruises.”
“He beat you?” Lenold asked, softly.
She couldn’t see him, but he was listening. And it did feel good to tell someone. Even if he couldn’t do anything about it, the secret had been weighing on her.
“Yes,” she breathed. “Then he left me alone in a storage closet for…I don’t know how long. It could have been hours or days. I’m not sure I would have known the difference. I hit my head trying to fight him. Anyway, I was in there alone until that crazy lady, Tonelle, came. She thinks…”
“Shush!” Lenold said, covering Bekka’s mouth. His hand was coarse and warm and he smelled like wood. “You can’t say things like that, even out here. She always finds out.”
“There’s no…”
He dropped his hand, but leaned in closer. “I’m serious! You don’t understand how it works around here. You can’t push her. It’s all smiles, you understand? You’re good and nobody hurts you. You’re bad, and they aren’t so nice anymore.”
“Like how she slapped me?”
“No,” he said. “That was nothing. She was just warning you. You don’t want to see her upset. I’ve been with them long enough to know.”
“How long?”
“Couple of months. Long enough to know how things work. It seems like you had a decent enough life before, so things will be harder for you. But this life isn’t so bad. It’s better than some and there is a good chance you’ll…”
“So you believe her?” Bekka asked, hearing the defeat in her voice.
“Of course, but she says they got bonified trading partners in Orlenia, so…”
Bekka didn’t want to believe him. “You know where Orlenia is?”
“Sure, who doesn’t? Just because I don’t know where Philly is, doesn’t make me stupid. Anyway, I heard that the whole market is underground and…”
Bekka wasn’t listening anymore. If Lenold believed in this situation and Orlenia, then maybe Tonelle and Martin weren’t crazy. And if they weren’t crazy, then she was what they thought she was. Owned. But that didn’t make sense…
Her heart started pounding, the heavy thud marking time with Lenold’s excited speech. Bekka glanced back towards the cook fire, at the people crowded around it. She and Lenold had already been gone too long. If Tonelle was back, they were going to be in trouble.
The voice agreed, “You should get back. It is not safe.”
This can’t be happening, she thought back. There’s no place called Orlenia.
“Why are you so sure?”
Bekka felt her breath shorten, her easy draw changing to a jerky inhale. Lenold stopped talking and looked at her curiously. “You all right? I think we have enough. We can go back.”
“I think…” she started, her words interrupted by wheezing. “I’m not supposed to be here.”
Lenold pushed his black hair out of his eyes and squinted at her, “I know you’re upset …”
Bekka looked about wildly. There had to be somewhere she could go, somewhere she could run. She felt her breath hitch in her throat. Her windpipe tightened involuntarily, like a garden hose smashed flat by the tire of a truck.
Lenold grabbed her wrist, his thin fingers wrapping around her tightly. “Stop. You can’t do this, not now. We’ve got to get back. We should’ve been back a while ago.”
It felt like someone had glued plastic wrap to the insides of her lungs, “I can’t,” she rasped. “I just can’t. It doesn’t make sense. I can’t be here.” The iron bands around her chest tightened further, notched tauter.
“I need to go home. I can’t…”
Suddenly, Lenold had his hand over her mouth, his face pressed close to hers. His breath was hot against her cheek. The motion was so intimate, it stunned her. “Shhh,” he said, “I think I hear something.”
Bekka stopped breathing. She heard it right away, the sharp cracking noises that rolled off the side of the mountain. It wasn’t close, she realized, but it was loud. “What is that?” she choked.
He shook his head, panicked, “I don’t know. We need to get back. Come on.” He hauled her towards the firelight, leaving behind their sheet and the firewood.
Tonelle and Martin weren’t at the cook fire, but the rest of the children were. Kat was stirring the pot with a large, wooden spoon and the rest of the kids were huddled close to the flames. “Get Tonelle,” Lenold called, as soon he was close enough.
Franc turned. “And where were you two?” He had his hands on his hips and his broad shoulders were very wide. He looked annoyed.
“Doesn’t matter,” Lenold breathed, running up to him. He towed Bekka along, holding tightly to her wrist.
When they stopped, she coughed roughly. The exhale was a series of sharp barks that flayed the inside of her throat. The run had taken what little breath she had left. The back of her throat burned, the sticky tendrils of pain snaking their way into her chest cavity.
Lenold was still talking, “We heard something in the woods. Cracking noises. It sounded like branches snapping.”
“That just be we,” Ceril said, tossing wood on the fire, but Bekka didn’t think she looked convinced. She took hold of Jaks’ hand, the two of them exchanging glances.
“No!” Lenold shouted, his voice strained an octave higher. “I know what I heard. Whatever it was, it was big! We don’t have time for this!”
Bekka wheezed, trying to pull her arm out of his grasp. Lenold was the quiet one, the meek one. Now, he had his finger in Franc’s face, his whole body leaning forward. Bekka bent over, her breaths short and unproductive. Her lungs ached with each pull.
“Calm down, Lenold,” Franc was saying, his own voice escalating. “You are scaring the girls. It was just your imagination, some normal forest animal. I was nervous, too, after what Martin told us.”
“No!” Lenold yelled. “I know what I heard. Bekka heard it, too. The sounds weren’t right, Franc. It’s coming down off the mountain.” He dropped Bekka’s arm, pointing up towards the dark, forested peak to the west. “There’s no time! We have to tell them.”
Franc was shaking his head. He lowered his voice so that it was unnaturally calm, “Think about it, Lenold. What if you’re wrong? You know what’ll happen. Come on, I’ll walk back with you and give it a listen. If we hear anything, I promise, we can go right to Martin.”
Bekka’s head swam, the boy’s words echoing in her mind. She knew what was happening, knew her brain needed oxygen. Her shoulders rocked back and forth, her entire torso heaving as it tried to draw air. She couldn’t concentrate on his words, couldn’t worry about the noise she heard in the woods.
She could feel it, feel each breath getting shorter and shorter. The air in her chest was growing thinner and thinner. It felt like she was choking.
“Bekka? You be all right?” It was Ceril, the tall girl was on her knees beside her.
Bekka blinked stupidly, unsure when she had fallen. Squinting up at the girl’s worried face, she tried to tell her to get up out of the snow. But, her mind was clouded, slow to process, and her words silent.
The asthma attack had come on fast. Her run through the woods had aggravated the situation. Lenold was right. Those noises had been terrifying. What could have made such huge, violent cracks? She wanted to ask, but all she managed was a high-pitched squeaking noise.
“Jaks!” Ceril screamed, “I think she’s choking!”
Bekka hands were deep in the snow, but she couldn’t feel the cold. There was just the pain. Her whole body was hot as if her locked chest had set fire to her blood. Her veins pumped the heat to her face and skin. Hands were on her body, and she realized they were trying to pull her up. She made an effort to open her eyes, trying to get her feet beneath her so that she could stand and flee.
She wanted to tell them to run, but her head lolled. Her mouth opened and closed silently.
I probably look like a baby bird, she thought inanely.
Someone was on either side of her, holding her up. Her head dropped, but another set of hands lifted her chin. They were helping her, opening her airway. She rolled her eyes left to right.
The dark skin of the girl’s wrist just visible. Her mind stuttered, confused. Was Kat helping her?
The fires around her grew enormous, the flames roaring into the darkness as if someone had thrown gasoline. Swirling tongues of yellow, orange and red licked the sky, twisting about in the darkness. Beneath her, ropes of blue and grey light were twisting up out of the ground. Smaller whips were fluttering against her legs.
What was happening?
She tripped, trying to step over them.
“What’s wrong with her?” it was Tonelle’s voice, loud and angry. The people who were holding her stopped moving.
No, Bekka thought sluggishly. Don’t stop. The world swam under her feet as if the ground was rolling. Breathe, she told herself, breathe!
“You must breathe,” the worried voice agreed.
She tried, forcing herself to stand, to straighten her back. She pulled in as hard as she could, but the frigid air barely trickled down her throat.
“She started choking,” Lenold replied. His words were rushed, hurried, his eyes skirting the forest. “There were noises in the woods, cracking sounds like limbs breaking. I don’t know what it was, but we ran back. Then, she was like this.”
“Martin!” Tonelle screamed. Bekka felt another shock of fear. She had never sounded scared before. “Franc, I’ve got her. Go get Martin. We leave, now!”
Bekka felt him drop her and slumped to the side, her knees driving back into the snow. Tonelle had her a second later, lifting her to drag her towards the wagon. Her eyes fluttered, her view of the world reduced to second long flashes of the wagon, the snow and Tonelle’s feet. It felt like she was drowning, her lungs burned like she had drunk boiling water. She could feel the heat in her face, the blood rushing forward in a great wave.
Everyone was talking, but Bekka had lost the meaning of their words. Her feet paddled, trying to help.
“…got…there…” a deep voice called from nearby as the hands on her arms tightened. Her head dropped suddenly. Her chin hit her chest. She didn’t know who had spoken. She tried to swallow, but the lump in the back her throat was too large. Afraid to choke, she tried to spit on the ground.
The blackness seeped across her vision. It was different than the darkness of the night sky. It was deeper, richer. There were no lights. When her head bounced up she saw grayish clouds, the red sky and the velvety darkness between them.
“…hurry…” someone yelled, jolting her.
She turned her head, looking for the dark mountain. The tree line was illuminated, wisps of color twining through the flames like thick, twisting ropes. Thinner lines of light spiraled off towards the woods. She looked again, fighting the hands of darkness that creeped across her vision. It was beautiful.
“Go…we….” another voice yelled closer by.
She couldn’t see them, but Franc and Martin were already at the horses belting the loose lashes. Every step they took jostled her, her head springing along as if she were a doll. Her line of sight was erratic, but she saw it!
There was something in the woods, something enormous with dark, shining skin and long wings. In the light of the fire, its powerful legs gripped the top of a pine tree. It was big, bigger than any bird. She tried to keep her head up, to see what it was. The people who were holding her up hauled her closer to the wagon and her view disappeared.