Born (24 page)

He licks his lips and whines. I feel
sick. He's anxious. Something isn’t right. I look up at Will, "Do the
camps get attacked?"

Will looks like he might say no, but he
stops himself and nods, "Once. It was a long time ago. Not that camp but
another one. Why, is he saying that?"

I shake my head, "He's anxious and I
left him with Meg. He left food and a bed to come find me. Seems weird. He's
lost weight. He's been hunting for himself. He leans out when he hunts alone.
Sometimes when I would camp out in one of our houses he would stay in the woods
nearby and hunt. He would always lean out."

Will looks toward the mountain, "We
need to get going then."

I want to stay one night but the dead men
scattered about the yard make me rethink that plan.

"Anna go close off the bunker and
Jake close up the house. I'll get Leo some water and refill the water
bottles."

Will smiles, "I'll stay guard and
Sarah can give me a hand."

She smiles at him. She likes him a lot. I
wonder if she feels safe with him the way I do?

I stay focused on his blue eyes for a
second and then force myself up.

I run my fingers along Leo's fur as we
walk to the huge well. I pump the primer and then lift and pump the handle. I
always let the first few pumps of water leave the spout and spill on the
ground. Leo knows not to drink them too.

He waits patiently. I pull the pan I
leave lying around the well house, out of its hiding spot. I rinse it and fill
it with the cold water after about fifteen wasted pumps. Leo laps it up fast.
He looks when the shallow bowl is empty. I fill it three times before he
doesn’t seem interested.

I fill the water bottles in my backpack.
I drink one full bottle of the fresh clean water and then refill it. Anna comes
over and drinks one and lets me refill it too. Jake joins Will and Sarah. His
limp is still pronounced. I wonder if it'll ever be better.

We leave the farm in a way that makes me
feel odd. We walk and talk and snack on the jerky I had stored the last time I
was stocking my supply cupboards.

Leo doesn’t seem to like it either. He is
restless.

I worry about Meg. We pass by the meeting
tree. I can see Leo has slept here. The grass and branches around it are in the
shape of one of his nests.

We turn the opposite way of my cabin and
my heart tugs. I want to go home. Leo stands there for a second and whines.

"Come on boy."

He trots after me and keeps perfect pace
with me for a while. Soon he relaxes and starts to trust I am not going
anywhere and moves ahead. He scouts perfectly. He is silent and sharp.

We move along the hillside without
talking. I have given Jake a dirty look every time he started talking to Sarah.

I look up as we near the camp to see the
scout in the tree. Will waves and the scout shouts down, "Holy shit look
what the cat dragged in."

Will waves and laughs, "Actually
it's what the wolf dragged in." He looks back at me.

Leo raises at lip at Will. I stroke his
face.

The camp is bustling, just as it was when
we left.

Mary comes running up and I hear the
squeal of the little white haired brat.

"Wolfie!"

Leo curls into me. The little monster
comes barreling at us. Before I have a chance Anna has his little arms,
"The wolf is going to bite you. We trained it to bite little kids."

She turns and growls at Leo who growls
back. The little monster cries and runs away.

Anna gives me a look. I've warned her
about the little monster.

 
I laugh. Mary gives me an evil stare. I laugh harder.

"He means no harm." Her voice
is soft and insulted.

He runs to her and hugs her. He fake
cries and snuggles into her. He looks back at us and makes the production even
louder. I roll my eyes, "Mary this is Sarah."

Will cuts me off, "And my sister
Anna and my brother Jake." Mary smirks at Jake.

Jake blushes. I feel funny. She kissed me
and now she's eyeballing the guy who I happen to like a lot. I feel angry. I
don’t know why. Mary isn’t my girlfriend and Jake isn’t my boyfriend but the
idea of them being together hurts me.

She walks over and kisses Will on the
cheek, "Well come home and welcome to the rest of you."

Okay I've had enough. I walk away and
head to the tent.

Leo is clinging to me. He keeps looking
back at the bratty kid in Mary's arms.

I look down at him, "I know buddy. I
won't let him hurt you."

Our tent looks smaller than I remember
it. I open the flap and feel heat rise in my face instantly. Meg is in the
embrace of a guy I would guess is somewhere around thirty. Before I wait for
explanations or introductions. Meg's eyes flicker on me and she starts
screaming, but I can't stop the momentum. I leap into the tent and rip him away
from her. I'm choking him on the ground and she is tearing at my arms. Leo is
in the tent and growling. His slobber is falling all over the man's face.

His hands go up in the air. He tries to
choke words out but I'm holding his throat with all my might.

"Emma sweet mother of all things
holy stop trying to kill him. He's my boyfriend. Eric honey this is Emma. Emma.
EMMA!"

I ignore her and smash his head down on
the soft cushy pillows. I wish it were a rock.

Leo leans in closer. I understand his
anxiousness. He knows this pervert has been taking advantage of Meg. She
probably kicked him out of the tent. I want to throw up thinking about this
asshole hurting her.

"EMMA!" A man's angry voice
fills the tent.
I feel arms grabbing me. Strong hands lift me off of him but I kick. My boot
lands square in his face. I hear the crunch. Blood gushes from his face. His
hands fly to protect his face but I get a few more kicks off before I'm dragged
from the man's body.

Meg is in my face slapping me, "STOP
EMMA! STOP!"

I growl, "He's an old man Meg. He's
taking advantage of you."

Mary is in my face. She pets my cheeks,
"Emma, Meg's turned sixteen. She is allowed to choose her lovers at
sixteen."

I kick Meg in the thigh with my boot,
"She lied to you. She doesn’t turn sixteen yet. She's still fifteen."

Mary looks at Meg who blushes. Mary looks
pissed at her but looks back at me, "You have no right to attack anyone
Emma. Not here. We are a peace camp."

Will shakes me from behind and grips my
arms tighter, "Emma call him off." I can still see the tent wiggling.
I know Leo is probably eating the bleeding man. I wait and let him suffer for a
few more seconds.

Will grips me harder and I scream as my
arms go up my back. Leo is out of the tent before I have to call him. He jumps
at Will and knocks us both to the ground. He is growling in Will's face.

Meg cries, "Leave him be Emma. You
aint my momma. Eric? Baby?"

I look at her and point, "Get him
out of my tent. I will kill him before you turn sixteen Meg." I get back
on my feet. Leo still has Will on the ground.

The bleeding half naked man stumbles out
of the tent. His arm has a good bite mark on it that is seeping a slow stream
of blood.

He glares at me, "Crazy bitch."

"Fucking pervert." I spit at
him.

He comes at me but I am ready. I punch
him in the eye. He screams again and stumbles back. I leap at him but my body
is caught mid air. Jake holds me to him and covers my face.

"Meg is it? Get your friend out of
here." Meg is on her knees crying. I want to choke her, not to death. Just
till she loses her memory and forgets he exists.

Mary steps in the way, "No let me.
Eric and I have some talking to do. This isn’t his first offense in this
area."

Will gets Leo off of him and grabs my
arm, ripping me out of Jake's embrace, "Jesus Christ you are insane
sometimes."

Jake laughs, "She was raised by
wolves Willy boy. What do you expect?"

I laugh. It isn’t bitter or angry, it is
a real laugh. It bolts from my body and I double over from it. It feels like a
release similar to crying. I feel a cramp in my guts I laugh so hard. Leo looks
scared and nudges me. He has never seen me laugh like this. Tears pour from my
eyes.

Will shoves me, "You are insane."

Jake catches me. I don’t feel the pain of
the rejection from Will. I know I will later but for now I laugh and it feels
good.

Her tears bother me. I can't stand that
she's upset they can't be together.

"You're not like Romeo and Juliet
moron. He's, like, an old man and shit. He's a pervert." Anna is trying to
talk sense to her. She sounds like Jake as she talks. Meg ignores her and howls
in pain. Sarah holds her tightly and strokes her head.

"It aint easy to find a good man
who'll take care of you."

I feel my nails cutting into my palms.
"You don’t need a man. I'll take care of you."

Meg cries louder, "I hate you
Emma."

I sigh and look at Sarah, "You ready
for a swim?"

She nods. She seems intimidated again.

"The same thing is going to happen
to you if you date old guys. I kill old perverts."

Sarah frowns, "What's a
pervert?"

I sigh, "Let's go swim kid."

I leave the camp area and walk the path
that I have thought of a million times. Every branch and stone is burned into
my memory. It's the first time I felt something amazing enough to make this
kind of a mark on my mind, a positive one.

I have no words for what Sarah is about
to see and I don’t want to ruin it for her. I want her to see the whole thing
the way I did. It feels more dramatic at night.

We crest the hill and walk down the
slope. Sarah is behind me. We walk into the clearing and the swimming hole is
visible to the right of us. I see the awe on her face. She takes a breath and
takes it all in.

She walks to the large flat stone and
stands there, mesmerized.

Mary is beside me suddenly, "What's
her story?"

I shrug, "Abandoned by her own
mother. Sold to the military for smokes. Sent into the breeder camps. They take
them young now and get them healthy so they can breed them as young as fifteen
or sixteen."

She looks horrified.

"It's so much worse than you can
imagine."

Mary squeezes my hand suddenly with her
warm soft hand and whispers. "Let's not ruin the moment for her then by
discussing it."

I love Mary. I can't help myself. Her kid
is a pain in the ass and she lets grown men have relations with sixteen year
olds but I still love her. Even though we kissed and I liked it, I love her
like a sister. An older sister. She is free the way Jake is. None of the
bullshit has destroyed the joy inside of her.

I pull my shirt off, determined to be the
first one to crack the flat glass of the calm water. The moon is full and high
in the sky. It is reflected perfectly on the lake water. I push my bottoms off
and see Mary pulling her dress off. I kick my boots off, run for the water and
shallow dive in just like my dad taught me to do.

The cold water shocks me. The air is
warmer than last time but the water is still really cold. I want to scream and
holler and have fun. I look back at Sarah.

"Can you swim?"

She shakes her head.

I swim back but Mary steps in and mothers
her.

"I won't leave your side. We will do
it together and I won't let go okay."

Sarah smiles and pulls her shirt off. She
kicks her pants off and sits at the edge of the water and dips her toes in. She
gasps from the cold.

Mary sits on the edge beside her and
lifts herself into the water delicately. She hangs onto the rock and takes
Sarah's hand. Sarah lets her body flop into the water, not gracefully.

She panics and slaps her hands around
like Leo does when he swims.

Mary takes her hands and focuses her
face, "Calm. Swimming is all about being calm."

Sarah is gasping in fear. Mary takes her
hands and kisses them both, "Stay calm. Now trust me and we'll have you
swimming in no time."

Sarah stops slapping and splashing. Mary
turns her on her back, "Just relax. Let me float you. You look at the
stars."

I decide to do the same. I lie on my
back. I let go the nerves of watching Sarah freak out and just float. The water
calms me and Mary's soft voice whispers to us both.

"Relax the body and let the water
lick at it. Feel my hands holding you up. I'm strong enough to do that. Look at
the stars. Look at the shapes on the moon."

The moon is so bright and blue. I've
never seen it like this before.

"It's so blue." I say to no
one.