Born to Fight (12 page)

"EMMA!" she screams and swims for me. She can swim. I fight the tears in my face, the hate in my heart and the betrayal that’s rotting my guts.

When her little hand is in mine, I pull her into my arms and close my eyes. I tread the water and squeeze the life out of her.

"Oh, Sarah," I sigh, "You're safe." The attachment feels stronger, like I am linked to her even more than before. I didn’t even know how much I worried about her until this moment. The water ripples around us. I look up to see the kind eyes of Mary. I smile, "Thank you."

She shakes her head, "She was amazing."

I shake my head, "I saddled you with it all and I think it's been more than you'll tell me."

Her eyes speak the words she can't, because the little ears with us don’t need to know about how bad things got around her. Sarah is a sharp girl; she no doubt noticed it all anyway. She'll tell me later.

Mary clears her throat, "It was my honor."

I wrap my arm around Mary and hug her too. I notice the way I fold myself around them; I'm not so wooden anymore. Things are different about me now.

Sarah sees Anna and swims to her. I glance at her and Jake diving in and smile. But Mary's hand on my arm and the tension of her grip, swings my head back around. Her eyes have changed, "You gotta go. Take her and Meg and get them the hell outta here."

I knew it. I knew I had sensed a change. "Why?"

She shakes her head, "Marshall has them all convinced that you are some kind of evil."

I sigh and look back at Jake, Anna, Meg, and Sarah. I feel a ticking start in my body.

"Is that baby of yours a breeder baby?"

Her eyes tell me the truth of the matter. I nod, "You love him and treat him with kindness, but you aren’t giving him enough rules. The only reason I'm not like those freaks in the city is my Granny and Gramps.  They loved me, and my dad Lenny would tan my hide if I got out of line. You need to give him rules or he'll become like those things in the city. We aren’t right in the head." I swim away before she can ask questions. There's a fire burning in my belly that is making me feel sick.

I climb out of the water and pull my dirty clothes on. I notice the way they stink as I pull them on. I miss doing laundry and being clean and being alone. I miss everything but I'm in too deep.

Leo is waiting for me on the trail. He knows what I'm about to do. I can see it in his eyes. He nudges me . I shake my head, "No." I scratch his ears and walk past him. He nudges me again, but I continue up the hill.

When I get back to the camp I see them crowding and talking to Will, who looks angry in a whole new way. I climb onto a stump and whistle. Leo jumps onto the wide stump with me, almost knocking me off of it.

A man glances at me and points, "You need to leave."

I cross my arms and wait for them to gather. My belly is churning like something is tearing it out. I almost want to run away, but I need to fix it for my family.

The voices rise and the anger approaches. Another man shoves in front of the other people and points, "You're a danger to us all."

I watch his face. His confidence is based upon the other people; he glances nervously at the crowd for support. I lean in to Leo whose hackles are up. He growls at the group. Will is stalking towards me. He scares me way more than the other people.

A woman makes her way to the front, "She saved us, you idiots. She isn’t a danger—she's a savior. She stopped the farms."

A voice from the back shouts up, "They burned my town looking for her. She is trouble. We should give her back to them men."

That brings my attention around, "What men?" My tone is harsh and cold.

The woman in the front gives me a frightened stare, "Men came for you. They were looking for you. They said Marshall sent them here. Told everyone you were unstable and dangerous, not human."

It stings for a minute, but I swallow it. "Did they take anyone with them?"

She swallows and looks down, "They took a couple of the younger girls. Told us that we needed to replace what you stole from them."

My stomach burns more. My heart is picking up in pace. It makes Leo snarl at the closest man. He backs up.

"YOU LET THEM TAKE YOUNG GIRLS?" I shout at the crowd.

Will gets to the stump and drags me off. I pull my arm from his.

He turns and shouts, "This camp is going to lose its democracy and become a dictatorship, like the other camps in about two minutes. One more person speaks or makes a move, I end that."

The looks on the faces of the other people are intense. Some follow him, I can see that, but others are scared of me.

Me.

That almost makes me laugh. I glance at Leo and know it's probably him and not me.

"Will, she needs to leave. She brings danger."

I feel like screaming, "I am a person like you. Only I'm not a coward. If some men strolled into camp I would never have let them take girls. I am not an idiot like you. You are pathetic. The minute Will leaves the guards are taken down, so men can stroll into camp? The kids are forced to hide while you pigs make wine and beer and drink too much? The women aren’t safe? What the hell was the point in having a safe haven, if you can't keep it safe? You should be ashamed of yourselves. I have never harmed you, any of you." I turn away and walk to the path. I'm shaking and angry. I don’t try to control the rage I'm feeling, but I know I have to. I crawl into the bushes and sit on a log. My body aches from the pain in my heart.

Warmth wraps around me. His fur covers me. I dig my hands in and hold on.

"I wanna go home," I sob. Before I feel any sorrier, I hear twigs snapping next to me. I brace for Leo to attack, but he doesn’t. Another person joins our embrace. I smell him instantly.

"You ever want to tell people all the bad things you been through, so they'll feel sorry for you and be nice to you?" I ask.

Jake chuckles, "They aren’t worth the time it would take, but yeah. I want them to know everything you've been through. They believe Marshall is so great and he's an asshole. He's hurt you. I wish I had let Will kill him."

I blink tears down my cheeks and look up at him, "I don’t have any answers or courage or strength. I'm just me. I don’t know what to do next. I am sad—sadder than I've ever been. I think I was so excited to get here, and now that I am, it's disappointing. Like we got nowhere else to go in the world."

I see Will standing behind him looking down on us. His face is pained, "It's called postpartum. It's from being pregnant and your body making all the hormones. The baby dying hurts you, emotionally. You don’t even know it. It's common in women who have miscarriages and abortions. The doc was telling me some of the things we could expect."

I swallow and nod, "I have felt like a giant baby since then."

Jake looks sick, "You were pregnant?"

I nod, "They put a baby in there at the breeder farm, when I thought I was going for routine checks. I didn’t even know. They didn’t even tell me they did it. We were there for a couple weeks and we went for routine checks constantly." I don’t know why but the sentence makes me ashamed, like I did it somehow.

He winces and holds me tighter to him, forcing my head down and kissing the top of it. He's like Leo, he doesn’t need to talk about, just hug it out.

"We need to leave here, Em."

I close my eyes when I hear Will's voice. I take a deep lungful of Jake, "I know, but we take everyone, Sarah and Meg."

"That’s dangerous." His tone is that one where he doesn’t want me to argue.

I glance up and shake my head, "Something bad is happening here, Will. The women are scared. I'm not leaving Meg and Sarah here. We gotta stop leaving people behind. If we aren’t coming back here, then I'm not hiking that damned hill again."

He sees my face and nods, "Fine. Where are we going?"

I swallow and look at Jake, "The new city. You remember the way?"

Jake's eyes widen. He looks at Will who is stoic and giving Jake no obvious hints on what to say, so he stammers, "Uhm…uh…y-y-yeah."

I sniffle and wipe my face, "None of us is sick. We should pass through the gates easily."

Will frowns after a second, "They will try to take you and Anna and Megs for sure."

I stop and think, "We dress Megs and Sarah like boys, it's blood work, they aren’t checking gender are they?"

He sighs, "I don’t know. We need a solid plan though."

I grin, "It's a long walk, we can plan along the way."

He looks like he might strangle me, "When have we heard that before?"

I sneer, "Well, it's what's happening. We sleep tonight and leave tomorrow morning."

He nods, "I'll tell the savages that I am taking you out of here. We leave at sunrise."

It hits me, "You acted like you weren’t on my side!"

He licks his lips, "I needed answers. Better for them to think I was with them." He turns and walks away. I don’t like that.

Jake hugs me tighter, "We need to get outta here, Em. We should leave tonight."

I pull away, looking up into his beautiful blue eyes, "You don’t trust him do you?"

He swallows hard and twitches his head back and forth, "He isn’t the same guy he used to be. They did something to him, they broke him somewhere along the line. He went crazy on Marshall and he's been weird about you. He built these places with Marshall."

I don’t like that either. "Shit," I mutter, "I don’t know what to do."

He looks down at Leo, "Will, will be fine if we leave him here. We need to get the heck out of dodge. You and the girls need to leave now. I can come back for Will when we get settled and safe somewhere."

He's right. I hate it but he is. My nerves are back as I stand out of his grip and look at Leo, "Stay here and guard the path. Don’t let them come down to the water and surprise us."

Jake nods, not realizing I'm talking to the wolf. Leo stands and walks to the path where I'm pointing. Jake follows him, making me smile past the millions of things flying through my mind.

I can't help but see the similarities in the romance novels Granny had. The bad hot guy was always really bad, and the girl always missed it, somehow. I hate that I kissed him and that he made my heart pitter-patter. I want to hate him. I realize I'm muttering to myself when I meet Mary on the trail. She snickers, "You okay?"

I frown, "No. You need to tell me how bad we're talking."

She looks back and shakes her head, "I was leaving in a couple days with Megs and Sarah and my boy. I wasn’t staying here, no way. We'd be safer in a town."

I scowl, "Come with us." I don’t trust her enough to give details.

She nods, "When?"

I shake my head, "Talk to Will. He's working out the details."

I am testing her and I see the team she's on when her eyes flash, "You can't trust him. He's still in charge of this camp and those people who hate you. This isn’t that kind of world; you can't trust people. I know you think he’s going to save you, but you’re one girl, and this is an easy life here. He isn’t going to trade the easy life for traveling and being on the run with you. He's not that one-woman kind of guy."

"Be ready then and I will signal you to make a run for it."

She smiles, "Okay. Who is coming?"

I shake my head, still watching her face, "I don’t know. Us girls."

She seems satisfied. I'm terrified she isn’t real either. My stomach is screaming to run from her too. I nod toward the pool of water, "I'll get them and put them to bed in a tent, we can see about leaving tomorrow in the morning, before daylight."

She scowls, "That’s early in the summer."

I nod once, "Okay. That’s the plan then." I turn and hurry to the water. We're leaving now. I don’t know what's up, but the magic in my belly is telling me we gotta leave now.

Meg sees me first, "Get them out." I say. She hears the panic and waves at Anna and Sarah. They swim over. Anna sees my face and grabs Sarah's hand. She drags her to the edge of the water and pulls her up onto the flat rock.

"We are leaving now."

They look at me. I don’t need to explain.

Anna hauls her clothes on as I hold up Sarah's shirt for her. Meg is dressed and on the path. We run up the hill to see Leo and Jake there. Jake is petting him and acting nonchalant.

I don’t hear anything else. No birds, no noises, no people. I sneak up on Jake and whisper, "What's going on?"

He jumps, looking shocked, "Dude."

I frown. He shakes his head, "No one came."

I look past him; it's quiet in the camp. I point to the left, "We go that way, run for the opposite side of the hill."

He looks stunned, "We're leaving now?"

I nod.

"What about Mary? She said she was coming tomorrow."

I want to slap him in the head, "No. We leave now. We have enough people to be responsible for." I look back, "Anna get Sarah down the left side of the mountain. Meg, go steal some food, knives, and water. We have the rifle and the bow. I'll get Jake down the side over here, he's too big to go that way with you. Meet at the bottom of the second big hill." I remember getting arrows down that way.

Anna grabs Sarah's hand and they're gone before I even turn to face Meg. She grins and vanishes amongst the tents and trees. I grab Jake's hand and pull him. He crunches and plods along. I grip my bow and hold my breath, so I don’t snap at him. Leo scouts ahead. The guys in the trees aren’t back up yet. If we hurry they won't even notice us leaving. We're still hungry and cold and wet; even in the hot summer sun, the forest is cool and damp.

"I don’t understand why he came all that way to get me back with you and Anna if he was just going to betray me here," I mutter and continue dragging his huge ass down the hill.

"I don’t know if he will betray you, but I don’t trust him," he huffs and puffs behind me.

I look back, "You seemed pretty sure a few minutes ago."

He shrugs and climbs over a fallen log, "He's acting weird, Em. What do you want me to say? He isn’t the same person he used to be. His moods are weird. He was insane when we were looking for you—insane. Then we found you and he seemed like a psycho, all angry and pissed. He beat Marshall to near death. He screamed at Anna when she found us and had you in the woods. He shook her so hard. I don’t trust him. He was desperate to get here, now they don’t want us. He loves this camp. He's lost his damned mind. We can come back for him. We know where he is."