A Warrior's Journey (24 page)

The men steadily closed in on them until
they were, but five feet from her and the children on all sides.
She did not like the feeling of being trapped, but it was a trap of
her own making so she had to live with it.

It was the red haired warrioress from the
prison that Larc had a crush on. How had she found us and why where
two young children with her?

She looked like she’d been worked over badly
since last we’d met. Larc started out and the rest of us closed in
likewise, as it appeared that she was alone except for the
children. She looked somewhat apprehensive as we closed in on her,
but who wouldn’t be?

Larc did all the talking and he started with
the most obvious question in all of our minds.

“How did you find us?”

She looked at Larc and said simply, “I
remembered what you told the shop owner as to what your purpose was
for being here and when you were leaving the Committee office one
of the audio recorders heard a conversation where one of you
mentioned that you were headed to a sanctuary. I thought of what
you would consider as a sanctuary and this place came to mind. I
would recommend leaving this place before someone else comes to the
same conclusion.”

“I suppose you have a good reason for being
here.”

“Yes.”

“What is it?”

She paused for a moment and then said, “It’s
no longer safe here for the children. Their caretaker is dead and
they’re not safe while there here with me. I want you to take them
back with you to your world and raise them as your own.”

After a shocked moment of silence shared by
all of us Larc asked, “And why would we do that?”

“Because I can lead you to what you came
here for, the Bible.”

“You know where there’s a Bible?”

“Yes.”

“Is it near here?”

“No, it’s several days journey in land from
here. I doubt that there’s a Bible to be had any closer to the city
than the place I know of. I will guide you there and back if you
promise to take the children with you.”

“You do not wish to go as well?”

“I would neither presume to ask that given
what I’ve done, much less do I deserve such a second chance at
life. I will stay here and see you and the children clear.”

I looked at her in surprise. She didn’t know
how her humble speech had impacted us. We all had a role model in
mind, who had sacrificed everything in the pursuit of saving the
lives of children.

Her selfless statement and offer to see us
clear was a sure statement of her worthiness to go back with us in
my opinion. If I wasn’t mistaken Larc was thinking the same
thing.

Larc responded, “I accept your offer.”

She seemed to visibly relax some of the
tension that she exhibited and it was clear to see then that she
was scraping the bottom of the barrel energy wise.

She seemed to gather herself, “We should
leave now while it’s still dark and the city hasn’t been blocked
off.”

“I agree.” Echoed Larc.

Larc knelt down and looked at the two little
children, who clutched tightly to either of Evette’s legs and
smiled kindly, “We have to move quickly and you both look very
tired. These nice men,” he gestured to Orhanin and Thanic, “are
going to carry you, okay.”

Evette looked like she wanted to say
something against his statement of intent, but refrained from doing
so.

Orhanin and Thanic stepped forward and
picked the little children up gently and started off into the dark.
Larc rose back up to his feet and reached out a hand to pull one
side of Evette’s jacket to the side.

The light colored shirt she wore had dark
spots all over it that I took to be blood. Evette snatched her coat
flap back out of Larc’s fingers and covered her shirt back up.

“You need some attention given to that as
well as these!” He said gesturing to her wrists, which clearly
showed the signs of having been chained harshly.

What had they done to her after we had
left?

“I’ll be fine!” Evette said defensively.

She turned to follow after the children, but
before she could even put up a struggle Larc stepped forward and
scooped her up in his arms. She went stiff as a board and was about
to protest loudly, when he cut her off.

“You’re about to collapse and no doubt would
after ten steps. If you want us to honor the bargain then you have
to let us take care of you so you can lead us to the Bible!”

She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t
relax much either. There was scarring there that went further down
then just skin deep I thought speculatively to myself. Talaric
glanced at me and I could tell he was thinking the same thing I
was.

He whispered to me, “He’s gonna have a real
time of it trying to convince that one to be his woman!”

I nodded.

She didn’t know it but she had probably
never been safer from the danger of brutish men in her life than
she now was in Larc’s arms. She had better get used to it, because
I doubted that Larc was ever going to let her go again.

Thirty minutes later we were in a side alley
along a main street that had vessels parked all along it. Evette
motioned to be let down, which Larc did so.

She turned to me, “Do you have a slim dagger
that I can borrow?”

I glanced at Larc and he nodded.

I pulled one out from behind my neck and
handed it to her. She approached the vessels parked along the
street. She avoided the ones that were shiny and newer looking and
instead headed for a big one that showed some age and rusty dents
on it.

She glanced around and after seeing that the
coast was clear she jammed my knife down into the door next to the
window and fiddled around with it for a moment. Something popped up
and she withdrew the knife and motioned for us to come closer. The
doors of the vessel opened to reveal two rows of seats behind the
driver that Larc, Orhanin, Thanic, Talaric and the two children
piled into.

The message was clear I was elected
unanimously to be driver once again. I gritted my teeth, as I slid
into the driver’s seat with Evette sitting across from me. I
reached for the little metal key, but it wasn’t there. Now
what?

I glanced over at Evette and saw her extend
the knife out to me and gesture towards my feet.

“Get down and you’ll see several wires. Pull
them out and I want you to strip off the outer coating on the ones
I show you and then touch them together. I did as she directed me
and the vessel came to life.

What a resourceful woman!

She was rather handy to have around. I moved
the vessel out into the street and what I feared would happen did!
The annoying little alarm only different in sound, but none the
less annoying started ringing again. I pushed the pedal to stop and
the vessel stopped abruptly in the middle of the street. Everyone
was looking at me.

My fingers gripped the wheel as I turned to
look over at Evette. “You as a person of this world can surely tell
me why there is the need for this incessant and annoying alarm,
when the vessel is operating perfectly fine!”

She stared at me like she couldn’t believe I
was serious, but when she saw I was one corner of her mouth quirked
up slightly. She lifted one hand and tugged at a strap that was
across her body.

Where had that come from?

I turned to the side and saw a matching
strap along my side of the vessel. Pulling it out I clipped it in
like hers was and the ringing stopped.

Oh thank God for that!

I looked over and gave Evette a look of
utter appreciation. Her quirked up lips had made it to a full
smile. The smile was very becoming, bruises and all.

Larc was a very lucky man and so was she,
because he would make her smile a lot more.

Larc’s voice spoke up from the backseat,
“Now that we have that issue resolved could we continue on with the
mission?”

I glanced at the mirror that showed me the
back rows of the vessel, “If anyone else would like to drive this
vessel you can go right ahead. Who wants to try it?”

There were no volunteer replies. Point made.
I let off on the stop pedal and gave it power. With Evette’s
directions we were past roadblocks and out of the city with a
minimum of pain involved.

We had been out of the city for roughly an
hour, when I noticed in the darkened interior of the vessel that
Evette seemed to be tense about something. Her hand was white
knuckled where it gripped the side of her door. Was she in that
much pain?

“Evette are you okay? You seem very tense
about something.”

Her hand lifted and pointed out the window
ahead of us at a little sign that was coming closer and closer. It
read simply, ‘55 mph’. I looked over at her not understanding the
significance. She pointed to the center display in front of me. The
red needle was between 80 and 100. I let off on the pedal on the
floor and watched as the red needle fell down around the 60
mark.

I heard a barely discernible ‘Thank you.’
from the vicinity of Evette. Glancing over at her I thought maybe
it would be best if I kept over in the right lane again too.

It just made more sense to move around on
the wide road then it did to stay glued to a narrow lane, but we
didn’t need to attract attention to ourselves. Thankfully we seemed
to be the only ones on the road.

All in all I didn’t think things were going
too badly. We had gotten out of the city virtually without any
incidents. My eyes drifted to the cabbage junks still hanging on to
the wipers of the window before me. It hadn’t been my fault that
the person had chosen to step onto the street when I was driving
down it in one of these fast vessels. Didn’t the people of this
world respect how fast these vessels could be?

Why would someone step out in front of one?
It had been a foolish mistake to make and the bags in his arms had
paid the penalty of it, as he had narrowly missed a similar fate.
Hopefully he would learn his lesson and stay off the roads from now
on.

After another couple hours the sun started
to make its way up into the sky before us. Evette directed me to
pull off onto a side road. After a while we pulled off that road
onto a dirt one. There was a blockade of wire and wood across the
road ahead of us.

There were signs that said the area was off
limits and that trespassers would risk death by entering. I glanced
at Evette still unsure of how much I was willing to trust her.

“Drive around the barrier.”

I drove around the barrier through a grassy
field and then back up onto the road. Soon the buildings of a small
town emerged, but there was no sign of life anywhere. The town had
a lonely sad feel to it that I didn’t care for, like it had
witnessed something that nothing should have.

“What happened here?” Larc asked.

“In the early days after the disaster when
the Committee came to power there was a Committee member who had a
gripe against a man who lived in this town. The townspeople were
put at gunpoint in order to force them to tell the whereabouts of
the man. They insisted that they didn’t know the man or where he
could be found. A story was started that the townspeople were part
of an organized rebellion against the new confederation and they
were all taken out and shot as traitors. We passed the mass grave
back in the field.”

“The children too?” Thanic asked
incredulously.

Evette looked out her side window for a
moment before answering, “After the disaster that split the country
there were too many parentless children for the state to care for
with its limited resources. The order was given to get rid of the
excess children. It is a crime to be a child without a parent.
Parents who can’t afford to keep their children or just don’t want
to care for them anymore leave them out on the street for the state
officials to dispose of.”

“These children?” Asked Thanic in reference
to the children they had brought with them.

Evette nodded.

After a moment she asked, “Is it the same on
your world or is it better?”

“Better! Much better, at least in our
country it is.” Larc intoned deeply in reply.

We pulled up to the town, “Did they find the
man?” Larc asked.

“Later it came out that the man came from a
town one county over with a similar name and that he had died three
months prior in a car accident. To bury the mistake the committee
declared the town to be off limits and placed motion activated
bombs throughout it so the supposed rebellion could never rise
again. Years later with resources even tighter the committee came
back and collected the bombs back up. The people living in the
vicinity still think the towns rigged to blow. We’ll be safe here
during the day.”

I asked softly, “How do you know so much
about this?”

“I was part of the team that came back for
the bombs.”

She seemed to understand the underlying
question as she continued with, “I’m not proud of much that I’ve
done professionally, but I did what I had to survive and to ensure
the survival of others. Working for the Committee was advantageous
to get what needed done, done.”

She was mistaken if she thought I was
judging her. In fact she seemed in some ways a saint in comparison
with the others I had seen of this world so far.

Something inside of her must be tormenting
her over the guilt of some past actions of hers.

Larc asked, “There were others that you
protected?”

A softly spoken, “Yes” was the only reply
that she gave.

It seemed to underscore with gravity the
personal hell the woman had been through over the past day or so. I
watched a single tear slide down her bruised face before she
hastily wiped it away.

Orhanin asked, “What are their names?”

“The boy’s name is Tyrone. I don’t know what
the girl’s name is. She’s new.”