The Woman They Kept (24 page)

“
Leanin, what are you
doing? You'll hurt her.”

“
It has to be done,
Gideon, otherwise they'll just keep coming for her. They're
tracking her.” She spun and pushed Gideon away with her
elbow, driving him backwards as she pulled Rolanda by the hair down
onto her knees. The knife flashed in the light of the stove and
then Leanin was digging at Rolanda's neck. A quick spurt of blood
sprayed out where the knife entered and then a shining silver
capsule, no larger than a pill, plopped out of her and landed on the
floor. A red light pulsed faintly in the middle of it.

His eyebrows contracting and his
hands shaking, Gideon lifted Rolanda to her feet.

“
You're welcome, by the
way,” Leanin said. “If we hadn't found that they would
have surprised us in the night and killed us all. Now at least we
have a little heads up. Gideon, you should get your pistol.”

Harold pulled
himself to his fullest height, towering over them all, his arms
crossed over his barrel chest. “Alright, I think we need to
know about your history with these people, in detail. It's time we
cut through the bullshit and you tell me exactly what's going on.”

Rheannon held Rolanda's hand as
she told her story. Gideon and Leanin filled in the gaps, taking
over when Rolanda couldn't continue because she was crying too hard.
They told everything, from the initial capture and Gideon being
left for dead, to how Rolanda was seasoned and rented out to paying
customers. Harold stood through the whole story, leaning against
the wall with his arms crossed over his chest, his face a mask of
stone. When Rolanda finally finished telling her tale, they sat in
silence for a long time, letting everything sink in.

“
Akem is here,”
Leanin said, “we shouldn't be just sitting around. Gideon,
get your gun. They'll be coming towards this little tracker, I
think we would do well to plan for it.” She unbuckled the
strap on her own pistol.

Harold cleared his throat.
“Plan? It sounds like you want to go on the offensive. We're
simple folk, don't you get that? We don't owe nothing to you, if
anything you owe us, and you expect us to help you with something
like this?”

Rheannon slapped her palm down
hard onto the table, making everyone jump. “Harold! What
kind of talk is that? This is the next generation, it's our duty to
protect them. These are someone's children,” she looked to
Rolanda and then quickly away, “and they might have children
themselves one day. I won't have them die out because we stood by
and did nothing.”

Harold touched Rheannon on the
shoulder. His face had softened, his lips pursed in worry. “We've
built our entire life up here, I just don't want anything to happen
to that. I love you, Rhea, our life together means more to me than
anything.”

“
Storm's here,”
Rolanda said in a quiet hush. Her head was turned toward the
window, where a flickering orange light was streaming.

Harold's face was slack as he
looked out the window. The sudden sound of hoof-beats came through
the walls and he pushed the door open. Animals were running from
out of the woods over and around the cabin. Above the green and
brown of the forest an orange light flickered through the trees.
“Rhea,” Harold said in a voice barely above a whisper,
“the forest is on fire.”

Rheannon stood with a jolt and
joined him at the doorway. “We have to leave, right now.”
She turned to the rest of them. “Alright, children, get up.
We're going.”

Leanin and Gideon picked up
Rolanda and followed them outside. Half of the forest was lit, the
trees forming shadows against a wall of flames.

“
Let's go to Beamer's
place,” Harold said, “that tracking thing is inside, so
they won't follow us there.” He led them around the back of
the house, away from the towering inferno burning up the woods. He
stopped just short of the chicken coop, a group of men stood in a
semi-circle, caging them in. Their features were obscured in the
darkness, standing still like shadows, until one of them stepped
forward.

“
Hello, Gideon,” the
shadow said, gaiety in its voice. As it stepped into the light the
delicate and serpentine features of Akem illuminated. He smiled,
his teeth sharp, his eyes openly gleeful. The other shadows stepped
forward as well, though Gideon didn't recognize any of them. They
were armed with rifles, one holding a flame thrower in his hands.
“I trust I find you well?”

Gideon pulled himself in front
of Rolanda, Harold did the same for Rheannon. Leanin placed a hand
on the pistol at her side. “I've been better, Akem,”
Gideon said.

The little man stepped closer
and spread his arms wide, the smile still on his face. “I
suppose you know why I'm here.” He was only a few feet away
from them, stepping lightly in his riding boots across the uneven
ground. “I'm a businessman, you know that, and I can't have
uneven books. My employers would be most displeased.”

Gideon's mouth dropped open.
“You have employers?” he said.

Akem chuckled to himself. “Of
course. In this world everybody is owned by somebody. I don't
think you would like to meet my employers.” Akem turned his
back and stepped up onto a fallen log.

Harold growled, a low and
beastly rumbling that grew from his stomach to his chest, and he
charged at the small man perched on the log. Too late, Rheannon
tried to put a hand to his shoulder; he was just beyond her reach.
He spread his arms wide and leaped toward the figure standing so
calmly on the log.

Akem moved so fast his motions
were almost imperceptible, ducking under Harold's arms and kicking
upwards, tripping the larger man. Harold fell heavily to the
ground, the air knocked out of him with a groan, and then Akem was
on top of him. A flash of silver appeared and a dagger was pressed
against the skin on Harold's neck.

“
Careful there, gentle
giant. Know your enemy before you attack him. Now,” he said,
looking to Gideon, the knife still poised above the pulsing vein in
Harold's neck, “I like making deals with you, Gideon. So
let's make some deals. You're already in my debt for more than you
know, but I'm a man who savors the little things in life. I feel
this moment has promise.”

He paused and smiled, his eyes
trailing over the rest with a keen hunger in them before returning
to Gideon. “You sought sanctuary here, thought to try and
steal from me and get away freely. Would I be right in guessing
that these people didn't have a clue what they were getting into
when they agreed to take you in? Did you see how this one,”
he dug into Harold's neck with the knife, “tried to shield the
old woman? I sense a husband and wife.” Akem looked around
at the cottage and the chicken coop, the little yard with a chopping
block and an ax stuck into it. “What a nice little life they
must have had here! Just think big boy,” he said, ducking
down and speaking directly into Harold's ear, “none of this
would have happened if you hadn't taken in these stragglers. Well,
no good deed goes unpunished, as they say.”

“
So, Gideon, I'll give you
the choice; who lives and who dies?” Akem asked. “Between
the big boy here and his wife, I'm going to kill one of them. But
the great thing is you get to choose! If you choose this guy, no
matter what happens, I won't harm the old lady. If you choose her,
I'll let this one go, but she'll be fair game.”

Rheannon gave out a cry like a
wounded animal and tried to throw herself at Akem; Leanin grabbed
her shoulder and held onto her.

“
Keep her back, Leanin!”
Harold shouted out. “That's a good girl. Gideon, give him
the word, I won't have this monster harming Rhea.”

“
He'll kill you both,”
Gideon said, “don't you get that? You can't trust him.”

Akem frowned at Gideon. “Sad!
I'm a little heartbroken. Have I ever done anything I said I
wouldn't? I'm not even here for Rolanda, you've already made that
trade, do you remember? I'm just here to take back what you traded
me her for.” His eyes strayed to Leanin and she shivered
violently. “But you involved these people with me, and this
one attacked me.” He trailed the knife slowly down Harold's
cheek, drawing a line of blood out from him. “I have a right
to defend myself, don't I? All I'm doing is giving you the option
to do another business transaction.”

Gideon bit at the insides of his
cheek so hard he drew blood. He gave the slightest of nods.

Akem jerked the blade across
Harold's neck with a wolfish smile and stepped back. Harold made a
few choking sounds as blood spurt out from the wound in a steadily
slowing rhythm. He jerked and kicked on the ground, his hands
desperately cupping at the wound.

Rheannon shrieked and pushed
Leanin away from her, running to Harold's side. She propped his
head up in her lap, stroking the side of his face in quick, frantic
motions. “Harold, Harold, Harold,” she said, repeating
his name over and over as his eyes went glassy and he stopped
kicking.

Gideon was quaking with rage and
fear. Rolanda held him tightly from behind, it was the only thing
keeping him on his feet.

Akem clapped his hands and
cackled with delight. “That was fun. Alright, on to other
business. Now, let's accept that as of right now, Leanin is mine.”

Leanin cocked her pistol and
pointed it at Akem. The men surrounding him responded by bringing
their assault rifles up and pointing them at her. “What makes
you think I'll go with you? I could take you down right now.”
Leanin said.

Akem leaned forward and cocked
an eyebrow at her, a wolfish grin on his face. “Do you think
that you can kill me? Do you really think that a man like me can
die?”

“
You're flesh and bone,”
Leanin said, the barrel of her pistol held steady, “just like
everyone else.”

“
Sure, why not. But so
are you, and right now all that I'm asking for is one of you two
girls. If you begin to fire that little pistol of yours, we
certainly have the right to defend ourselves, and we'll kill all of
you.” He directed his attention back to Gideon. “So
I'll give you the same choice I gave you before. Leanin or Rolanda.
I get one, you get one.” He held up a finger. “But
there's something that you should know before you make your choice.”

“
Gideon," he
continued, "did Rolanda ever tell you what it was like when she
was working for me?”

The fingers clutching at
Gideon's back shook; he could feel her entire body quiver behind
him.

“
I'm guessing not.
Despite what you may think, we run a fairly tight ship where disease
is concerned. After all, you can't keep selling something if it
kills the consumer quickly, can you? I bet she never told you how
often our doctors spread her open and looked inside.”

“
Huh?” Gideon said,
cocking his head to one side.

“
You see, it's much too
early to tell by the naked eye, but my doctors knew right away.
Gideon, did you know that Rolanda has a baby growing inside of her?
How does it feel to have another man's seed in the womb of the woman
you were planning on marrying?”

The world swooned and fell away
from under Gideon, giving him a weightless feeling as his stomach
floated up into his throat. It was just too much, too large of a
thought to pass across the little synapses in his brain, and so they
all fired at once and then stopped, leaving him unable to think.
The only things that he experienced were little tactile sensations,
the tightness of his jacket from where Rolanda was squeezing it, the
little waves of heat and faint smell of smoke coming from the forest
fire, the thickness of his throat as he tried to swallow, the
darkness edging in on the corners of his vision.

“
Steady, Gideon,” a
voice whispered in his ear. Leanin's hand on his shoulder brought
him back.

“
The spiders,”
Rolanda whispered, “the spiders are real. The spiders are
real.”

Akem laughed again. “So
which is it? I give you the choice, who do you want to take to
safety, and who will you give to me?”

Gideon's vision gradually came
back into focus. “I can't,” he said. Rolanda tightened
her grip on his back and Leanin turned her head towards him. “I
won't. You always give me these choices, but they aren't yours to
give. You've made me participate, made me play your games, but I
won't anymore.” Gideon drew his own pistol. “This ends
now.”

Akem turned his head to the
side, his smile faltering. “Well that's a shame,” he
said.

Gideon fired first, the loud
crack of his gunshot deafening, aiming at the small man in the
center. Leanin followed suit, squeezing off a shot at the man
holding the flame thrower. They ran towards the chicken coop while
they fired, the quick staccato of gunshots following them.

Gideon felt the pressure before
the pain, like someone pressing hard on his legs and stomach, and
then a fiery bolt of agony shot up his leg and he fell. The shadows
were coming, blurry against the wall of flames. Rheannon was laying
by Harold, Gideon wasn't sure whether she was dead or grieving, but
it didn't really matter now. The ground came up to meet him hard
and the pain spread through his entire body. The grass felt cool
under him, a soft pillow to lay on. They were closer now, and
everything was blurred. Gunshots rang out, but they were distant.
He could see the fire belching out of the end of their weapons, but
the sounds came from so far away. Darkness crept in from the edge
of his vision and he lost consciousness.