The Freezer (Genesis Endeavor Book 1) (34 page)

The range of emotions Wendy had gone through in the past few
minutes was too much, and she had finally had enough. “Would you mind telling
me what the hell is going on?” She said it with anger in her voice, but as soon
as it was out, the adrenaline seemed to disappear and her knees turned to
rubber.

The enormous Mute smiled and leaned against the tree. “My
name is Bartholomew. Who are you?”

“I’m Wendy, this is Anton and Wayne. Uh... pleased to meet
you?” She wasn’t sure what to say, so she figured being polite was the safest
way to go.

“Pleased to make your acquaintance as well, Wendy.” He
turned to Anton, still smiling. “I guess you are probably confused. I have been
following you since you entered the woods yesterday. I was curious what my
former clan was chasing, and decided to make things a little more difficult for
them. You did a pretty good job of that by yourself, however, so I was just
following along for the entertainment.”

Wendy’s fear was partially replaced with astonishment, but
Anton seemed to be annoyed at the Mute’s comment. She had plenty of questions,
starting with why he wasn’t trying to kill them, but before she could even form
a question, Anton blurted out, “Entertainment? You call our situation
entertaining?” He was turning red with anger, and Wendy put a hand on his shoulder.

Bartholomew’s smile slipped a little. “I don’t mean to
belittle your fight or your actions, I simply mean I was entertained with the
results of your traps. Watching those idiots walk blindly into death heightened
my spirits.”

Anton’s anger appeared to subside a little, and before he
could reply, Wendy took the opportunity to ask a question. “Bartholomew -”

“Please, call me Bart, if you prefer.”

“Uh, okay, Bart, you said ‘former clan’? Were these Mutes
your own people?”

Bart frowned a little. “You know, we tend to prefer the term
‘evolved’.”

Wendy colored with embarrassment and fear. Insulting this
behemoth was probably the fastest way to get killed, and it was not her
intention. “Oh my God! I’m sorry, I, uh... we...” His laugh was like thunder
rolling down a mountain.

“Wendy, I am only kidding with you. Personally I could care
less what you call my people. I have washed my hands of them and all they stand
for.” He didn’t offer more than that, but her curiosity had grown to the point
where she had almost forgotten how afraid she was. Before she could ask another
question, Anton looked at his PDP then looked at Wendy. He didn’t need to say
that they needed to keep moving if they had any hope of getting rescued today. This
presented a problem because she was completely unsure of what Bart’s appearance
meant. She had never run into a Mute that didn’t try to kill her, let alone
struck up a conversation with her. They needed to determine if Bart was a
threat to them before they could go anywhere.

“Can you tell me why you no longer care for your people?”

Bart’s amused expression turned a little more serious. “I
had a falling out with my brother. He is the leader of the group that is
hunting you. They currently live south of the river near where you were
attacked. Once I left my clan, I had few choices. I was never particularly fond
of the nomadic lifestyle, and I can’t exactly live with the regular humans in
any of the communities.”

Wendy nodded understanding, but before she could say
anything, Bart said, “Yeah, it’s terrible being too tall to live in the
underground bunkers.”

There was silence for almost five seconds before Bart burst
out in laughter. The combination of tension, fear, and intrigue finally boiled
over and Wendy began to laugh, almost hysterically. Anton understood the humor,
and relaxed a little, probably sensing that Bart was not an immediate threat. Wayne
was looking back and forth between Bart, Wendy, and Anton, clearly not
understanding the situation in the least. Wendy didn’t hold it against him,
after all, ten minutes ago she would never have thought she could have a
civilized conversation with a Mute, let alone a lighthearted one.

Bart’s laughter died down and he sighed. “I have really
missed getting to laugh with someone else. We do have some serious things to
discuss, but I imagine you are in a hurry to get in touch with your people, so
we can talk as we go.”

She turned to Anton, but it was obvious he was just as
curious as she was to hear Bart’s story. He nodded and turned to head back to
the trail. Wayne followed Anton, and Wendy took a dozen steps toward the two
men, but stopped when she didn’t hear Bart following behind her. She turned
back to see why he wasn’t following and was surprised when he wasn’t there. She
scanned the trees but the only movement or sound she detected was from Anton
and Wayne. She walked the last few feet to the trail and then followed a dozen
steps behind the two men, checking behind her every few steps for any sign of
the huge Mute. When they reached the clearing where they had broken for lunch,
Bart materialized from the trees to her left, startling her. A rabbit would
have made more noise. She shivered, realizing that if he had wanted to kill
them, they would have been dead a long time ago.

* * *

When they arrived at the clearing, Greg was there, pacing
back and forth, obviously trying to decide if he should move on without them or
go back to help. When they emerged from the trees he nearly bolted again, but
Anton called out to him, and told him it was okay. After relaying the
conversation, he reluctantly nodded and without another word, grabbed his pack
and took his rifle from Wayne, who had picked it up for him.

They all gathered their gear and started up the barely
perceptible path. Bart hung back for a moment, observing them as they started
out. “I am surprised to see you are able to move around so easily, Wendy. You
were pretty badly injured yesterday. You must have some good medicine.” His
deep voice was oddly soothing. He took a few long steps to catch up to her,
then slowed down to keep his stride even with hers”

She nodded. “I never would have thought that one day we
would have the ability to heal life threatening wounds in a matter of days.” Before
she finished the sentence she realized her mistake. Bart was the first person
she had spoken with outside of New Hope since she was reborn, and she hadn’t
thought to conceal her origins from the giant man. Anton shot her a look over
his shoulder that said she should shut up, and she immediately felt like an
idiot.

Bart didn’t appear to notice the exchange. “I assume that
means you were not always living with the communities?”

His apparent misunderstanding was the perfect cover for her
slip up, and she rolled with it. “I was born up north of here, and lived with
my mother and two sisters. A search team from New Hope found me about four
months ago, and I have lived with them ever since.” The story was actually
true, just not for her. A few months ago on a scavenging mission they spotted a
house with smoke coming from its makeshift chimney. A young woman was living
alone in the house, and they brought her back. Wendy was fortunate to get to
hear her entire life story.

“You said they found
you
, what about your family?”

“My mother took a nasty fall, got cut pretty bad, and the
wound got infected. She passed about a month before I was found. My mother had
talked about a community to the east called Deering. It was where my father had
supposedly come from. My sisters decided to head that direction, with dreams in
their head of finding a city full of men to have babies with and live happily
ever after. I thought it was foolish and stayed behind. We had a home, good
hunting grounds, and a clean source of water. I never heard from either of them
again.” She tried to put a look of forlorn sadness on her face, but wasn’t sure
she had succeeded.

“So why are you out here, and not back in New Hope, half way
through your pregnancy? Are you barren?”

He was making this easy, so she kept rolling with it. The
real woman they had found was in fact very pregnant at the moment. The question
sort of hit home for her, however, so it was easy to look uncomfortable with
the conversation. He was buying it, hook, line, and sinker.

“I see you do not want to talk about that. My apologies. It
must be difficult, living in a society with such great need for children, and
not being able to participate.”

The comment surprised her. Not only was Bart very
perceptive, but he seemed to know an awful lot about their communities and
culture. Before she could comment, he said “Don’t look so surprised, Wendy, I
probably know a lot more than you think I do about your community. Actually, I
bet I know some things about New Hope that you don’t even know.”

She wondered what that might mean, but before she could
ponder it for long, Anton spoke. “Bart, how is it you happened across us in the
middle of a battle with your own former clan mates?”

Bart smiled. “You see what I mean? There are many things
going on in this world, much more than most of you smoothskins are aware of. Like
I said earlier, there are some serious things I need to discuss with you.”

“Please, go on.” Bart took a couple longer strides and
caught up to Anton so he wouldn’t have to turn around to talk.

“You are correct in assuming it was not coincidence that I
was nearby when you were attacked. My new home is actually not too far from
where we are now, and I would never have heard your fight with my former
brethren. However, I knew the attack was going to happen before you did. Let me
tell you my story, and then you can ask me questions.”

Anton stopped walking for a moment and turned around. When
everyone caught up, he turned back around and started walking again. “Okay,
tell us.” They were all bunched up now, focusing as much on not stepping on the
next person’s heels as on the terrain in front of them. Everyone wanted to hear
what Bartholomew had to say.

Bart looked ahead, his pace slow and smooth, allowing
everyone to keep up. His deep voice rumbled like distant thunder as he spoke. “Farnak,
my older brother, is the leader of our clan. My father was clan leader before
him, up until about a year ago. My father always felt that the communities
should not be our enemies, and so for many years we wandered around what used
to be Idaho, taking what we needed to survive from the land, and scavenging the
ruins. We seldom encountered regular humans, and unless attacked, we never
started anything when we did. You might be surprised to know there are at least
four small families of smoothskins living within fifty miles of where we stand
right now.”

This did surprise everyone, including Wendy. She had been
flying over this area for a few months now, and never once saw a sign of human
life, Mute or otherwise. Bart had asked to tell his story without interruption,
however, so nobody asked him to elaborate.

“My father’s goal was to eventually establish peaceful trade
with the communities, both the small ones around here and the larger ones like
New Hope. Many of our people were against that, based on our history, particularly
the last few years before being banished from our own settlement. Most of the
Evolved believe that the only way we can survive is to continue on in the
smaller groups, and remain as nomads, raiding and scavenging whatever we come
across. My father saw things differently. He believed that we could live in
conjunction with the communities – maybe even in alliance with them, working
toward common goals. It was not popular, but in our culture, popularity has
nothing to do with it. The leader is the leader, and if someone doesn’t like
it, they can try to kill the leader and assume leadership themselves. It may
seem barbaric, but seldom is there a time when someone challenges the clan
leader.”

Wendy was about to break in and ask about that, but Bart seemed
to almost be reading her mind. He glanced back at her and then continued.

“My father had gone so far as to try to contact each of the
communities, but most did not answer, probably fearing a trick. In the end, the
only one who even answered was Cali, and that was when the trouble started. At
first, Cali was very friendly with us. They traded technology, sometimes for
meat that we hunted, and sometimes for goods we scavenged. Then, after a few
months, they asked that we raid the local communities and capture the men and
women to sell to them. My father was not happy about this, and he let them know
that he felt that all communities should work together peacefully. A week later
he was found dead in his own tent.”

Bart stopped talking for a moment, and everyone respected
the silence. He cleared his throat, the sound so deep and loud that a bird was
startled from a tree not far from them.

“We never discovered if he died naturally or if he was
murdered. My brother took over, and it was not long before he made it clear
that we would not remain as peaceful as my father had wished. We raided two
local families in the course of the next two months. We captured six men and
three women, and killed three. Farnak sold them to Cali in trade for weapons. I
confronted him in front of the whole clan after that, and expressed my distaste
with what he was doing. He told me that if I didn’t like how he ran things, I
could challenge him, knowing full well that I would not kill my own brother. He
held a vote, and because of my supposed cowardice, I was cast out of the clan. My
own clan mates turned on me that night.”

They walked along for another half hour before anyone spoke.
Wendy broke the silence. “So how did you know they would be there attacking
us?”

Bart smiled mischievously. “Before I confronted my brother,
I took a few precautions, just in case... I hid some devices in some of items
that normally reside in the clan leader’s tent. These devices allow me to
listen in on their meetings. I also manipulated their radio equipment so that I
can listen in on their communications with Cali.”