Born (7 page)

My father is pushing me along the road.
Cars and trucks fill the freeway. People sit in them still, but my dad doesn’t
think we have enough time to get out. He has waited for this day his whole
life.

"Em we need to get to high ground
and we need to get away from these people." His fingers bite into my back,
poking it.

"Dad maybe we should go back to
granny's." My voice is small, compared to the noise from the masses.

"No. Run faster Em. We need to
run." He is in front and dragging me up a grassy hill. My little legs
hurt. He's made me workout and run since I can remember, but it's late and I'm
tired.

I think a bad thought. It's a thought I
will regret always. His erratic behavior forces the thought.

His hand squeezes mine.

I hear a cracking noise. My father's face
fades.
I wake and look around but I see
nothing. My eyes are blocked by something. I lift my head to realize I'm face
down in a bushy branch. The smaller branch, I'm resting my weight on, is
breaking. I struggle for a moment and pull myself up but the branch below me
snaps loudly and falls. It hits every other branch on its way down. I cringe,
as each noisy strike fills the air. The rustling of the bushes overtakes the
night.

I pant loudly, waiting.

My heartbeat is throbbing throughout my
body.

I have nowhere to go if anything has
heard my noise. I stay perfectly still, willing my body to calm itself.

I can't believe how close I came to
falling out of a tree. I never sleep in trees, I always choose underground, but
tonight I have no choice. I have no plan. It's one of my rules to always have a
plan. I feel naked without it.

I stay in the tree, resting my eyes and
listening to the sounds of the night.

I climb down before the sun comes up. I
never move much in the day. It's one of my rules but I have no choice. I'm
limited for time.

I walk quickly, trying not to imagine the
fever that has flushed his cheeks or the pain the leg is causing. His eyes
unnerve me, even in my own mind.

I see the trees thinning. I am close. My
stomach is a bundle of knots and nerves.

I walk as close as I can with my weapons.
I grip them close to me as I have my last few seconds with them. I've only been
here once and it scared the shit out of me.

I tremble and I put them in a hole under
a tree. I stuff the bow to the very back of the hole and my knife. I shiver
from the nakedness of being without them and I cover the hole with branches.

I walk away, breaking a branch with my
hands every few steps. I leave the snapped ends hanging. It looks like a bear
or another large creature has roamed the woods.

My father's craziness will live inside of
me forever.

The first few steps from the woods feel
like wading through the river. My legs ache, but the anxiety of being on an
open road is making them feel like I'm wearing cement boots.

My breath increases. My peripheral vision
becomes sharper. I see a leaf blowing down the concrete. I see an old brown
stain and force my brain not to hear the ripping and tearing. It feels weird to
walk on a road. It's been so long I can't remember the last time.

Just when my stomach can't hurt worse, I
hear them.

They're a ways down the road but they
holler at me. I know it's me they're shouting at.

My legs break into a run for the gates of
the town, before I dare to glance at them. My muscles push and my bullet hole
stings.

I run in a way I haven’t in a long time.
No backpack to weigh me down, just a small sack in my hands. No heavy clothes
what with the spring sun popping out. I wearing just a long sleeve t-shirt,
cargo pants and my thick-soled boots I took from the dead. I'm faster than I
remember being. It could be that I'm more scared than I remember being.

My arms pump as my legs dig. The ground
is passing by me in a blur.

I see the guards. They won't protect me
unless I reach the town. They'll watch the men tear my clothes from my body and
rape me in the field out front.

The voices behind me are closing in on
me. They're fast too. They run more than I do.

"Don't run baby. We'll make it worth
your while."

I blast through the guard gate and drop
to my knees inside the walls.

I hear a guard through the blood pounding
inside my ears, "Halt."

I turn around to see four guards suddenly
there. They stand in front of the gate with huge guns.

The five men, who have chased me, are
bent over and breathing heavy. I see the smirk of one of the men as his eyes
meet mine.

He points at me, "See you on the way
out. Maybe we can give you an escort home."

Shivers travel my spine. His grin scares
me.

He is seedy and dirty. His smile makes me
want to gag. I move away from the contact of a hand gripping my arm suddenly.
An older woman helps me stand, "I won't bite." She looks back at the
man and gives him the middle finger. My dad called it the bird. "Not like
them anyway."

She smiles at me. Her teeth are brown.
She was probably poor before the world ended. The poor lived longer than any of
the rich. They already knew how to survive.

I hate the smell of the town. I remember
that now, as the different smells wash over me. Sewage being the more distinct
one.

"What can we do for you dear?"

I glance at the old lady. I don’t trust
her. No one should trust townies. I have to remind myself of the desperate
situation I am in.

"I need medicine for blood
poisoning."

She winces, "Are you injured?"

I shake my head, "Not for me."

"What kind of injury?"

I pause not wanting to talk to her, but I
know I don’t have time to take any chances, "A stick went into his leg. I
sewed it up but I think bark is in there still."

She nods, "I have just the
thing." She pulls me along.

The town is a shantytown, made up of
rundown houses and lean-tos. They would have been nice and pretty fancy before.
Now the lean-tos almost seem nicer. The walls surrounding the town are made of
sharpened poles like out of a medieval village. I see the smelly people
peddling their wares to the pass-throughs and I feel like we have entered a
dark age. I wish knights in armor were part of this nightmare.

I am permitted to sleep one night with a
purchase. I feel excitement I can't explain at the idea of sleeping. My rest in
the tree was terrible.

I am a pass-through. I may buy whatever I
can carry. Buy is trade and I have very few things I can trade.

We enter a rundown house with stacks of
papers and garbage inside. I can smell the garbage before I enter. The people
who sell things raid old towns and landfills. It's funny that the world before
made enough crap to last us even now.

She clears away a stack of plastic bags
and other garbage from a long wooden counter. She lifts a white metal chest up
and grins a brown smile at me.

"This is very special. It's from the
city. It's what they use to treat the breeders. My son works there. He lets me
have some, to help us here."

Her words both disgust and scare me.

I can't help but look around the room. I
feel the ambush is upon me any second.

She laughs, "Kid don’t be a fool. He
was taken there. He doesn’t work there because of the special perks." I
gag at the way she says perks and raises her eyebrows.

"He's a doctor. All the doctors were
taken."

I don’t feel better at the thought. I
feel myself panicking at the idea of the breeder farms.

"Girl you're going to have to wow
me, for me to give you some of this."

I pull out the big guns on the first try.
I would try to bargain but I'm in a hurry to get some sleep. I have to sneak
out of the town in the middle of the night. The wolves at the gates have
changed my initial plan.

I pass the small blue bottle to her. Her
eyes light up instantly.

"Is it still sealed?"

I nod. She snatches it and kisses the
bottle. I feel my nose scrunch up.

She eyeballs me with her crazy eyes,
"How did you get this?"

"My father had a health food store.
He left me a couple bottles. This is the last one." I hate that I've given
it to her. It's not really my last one but it's still priceless.

She pushes three vials at me from the
white chest and points to the door, "Leave and tell no one what I've sold
you."

I nod, "Likewise."

She hands me the slip I need to get a
nights sleep at the Inn.

I leave feeling her eyes on me, but when
I look back she is hugging the bottle of pure tea tree oil like a nut. Her
messy long white hair makes her look like the evil queen from snow white,
hugging the poisoned apple.

I walk out into the broken concrete
street and look around. I see the Inn in the far corner of the shops. I keep my
eyes low to the ground as I cross.

"Bread miss? Eggs?"

I look at a young man pointing to a
house. I shake my head. I don't eat anything that comes from other people.
Especially not townies. The sanitation here is far below the standards we had
as a civilization. I had heard rumors of a new plague the last time I had come
through.

I enter the Inn and look around. A woman
with bright red hair eyes me up and down. I pass her the slip of paper. Her
face brightens up.
"Good to have patrons this early in the spring."

I look around, "How safe is the
town?"

She shrugs, "Depends. A sweet piece
of virgin ass like you is going to have troubles no matter where you go."

I frown, "Thanks."

She croaks a laugh, "Precious you
are risking a fuck of a lot coming here. The hunters are looking for breeders
like you. Clean virgins."

I pass her a diamond ring from my pocket.

Her dark brown eyes light up,
"Luckily, a lady like me runs this Inn. You'll be safe."

I smile bitterly, "Wait until you
see the ring you get when I leave here in one piece. Virginity intact."

She raises an eyebrow at me, "I'm
starting to think maybe you're not too virginal. Most girls who look like you are
slightly more fun to mess with."

I shrug, "I aim to please."
I've read the line in a book once and always wanted to use it.

She croaks again and turns away from me.

"I'd sneak out in the night if I
were you. The things that circle the town have what they want by sundown."
She turns back to me and grins a bright white smile, "Like I said, the
girls that look like you are more fun."

I meet her smile, "I'm fun. Just not
in a way anyone appreciates."

I climb the stairs, trying not to let my
exhaustion be too obvious.

A hand slips over my mouth. I instantly
think of the germs.
 
I squeeze my
lips together.

"Don't move princess. They've come
for you. Those fuckers sold you out to the breeders. Or it was that old bitch.
You should know better than to trade with the first person who talks to you.
You bush people are stupid." Her bright white smile flashes in the
darkness, "Don't look so scared, I have a way out."

I nod. She pulls her hand from my face
and puts it out in front of me. I slip my hand into my sports bra and pull out
a massive ruby ring. I took it off a dead woman in a pile of rubble. It's
gorgeous. It sparkles, even in the muted moonlight filtering in through the
thin curtains.

She turns her back on me and walks to the
closet.

She opens the door. I follow her. I'm
holding my sack close to my chest. She pulls the rod for hanging clothes in the
closet, making the wall pop out. She pushes it inside and walks into the wall.

She enters the darkness. I put my hands
out. I hear voices coming to the room. I close the wall behind me, shutting
them out and me in.

I feel her hand grip mine suddenly. I
want to scream but I don’t. My pulse is vibrating throughout my body.

Words are whispered into the darkness.
"Stairs." I put my feet down to the next level slowly.

I hear men's voices above me, "What
the fuck is this?" They sound like they're right on top of me.

"She was here."

I hear the old woman's voice. I feel
cheated and betrayed. For trade she would sell me out. Sell me out to the
farms. I know humanity is a disgusting disappointment, but I still have a hard
time imagining a woman turning another woman into the farms.

"She was here please. Let him just
come home for a few days."

I continue down the stairs, feeling for
each step with my toes. It feels like an eternity has passed by the time I
reach the bottom. The voices are gone. Replacing them is a dripping sound and
dank cold air. The kind that can only be found underground.