Seeds - Six

Part 6

Conway sat on a plain stool looking out over the palisades to the road. One long leg was stretched out before her, the other bent and dangling. Black hair caressed the fist on which her chin rested. The crust cracked in her teeth; the flesh of the bread was quickly hardening with age and her appetite turned with the stiff breeze that brought the stench with it.

Two green clad guards carried the corpse of a third up the road. Hard, grey eyes followed them through the tall log gates. They passed by the shuttered window where the campman, Rudolf would normally be selling lunch to the traders. The dining benches had been removed from the concrete slab and stacked atop each other beside the cubelike concrete structure. A bench had slid off and lodged itself between the commissary and the compound's log walls.

Wrapping the hunk of bread in brown paper, she slid it into a pocket at her waist. She tossed the last of her tea out over the wall with the teabag, shook the cup out and stowed it deep inside her thick grey coat. Taking up her long rifle, she checked the caps covering the telescopic lenses and slung it over her shoulder. The steps of the short stairs creaked as she followed them into the open yard. The supply store and armory faced the gate, as silent now as the two men and their fellow. They lay him in the dirt, alongside another quiet fellow; he was the tenth, and thus, the last corpse of the row; the next body would become the first of the sixth row. Fifty so far, a huge blow for the Camp, which jealously guarded the lives of their own people.

The two men noticed the woman ranger, watching from a few feet away and stood uncertainly, waiting. Their eyes followed hers, drifting over the sea of bodies. Her eyes followed the dead man's, to the blue heavens and the soft pillows of white drifting lowly in the breeze. Conway avoided the faces n as they lay shoulder to shoulder, arms folded across their chests. She knew what she would find in those faces; some peaceful, some shocked, some with expressions contorted by the indignities of desperations felt in the final moments.

An acidic stench of half-digested food and voided bowels hung over the open square, Conway had a hard stomach and sneered at the squeamish, and had not shied away from cannibalism when circumstances were dire enough, it was another tool in a ranger's kit. It was the decaying stench wafting over the palisades that had driven her off the raised platform. The Others were piled indignantly a hundred feet away from the gate, for no one could have foreseen the cloying, wet fog of sulphureous mist that had burnt her nostrils and stolen her appetite. She sniffed the air and took out her bread again, staring up at the sky.

'Sir-', the campman began warily.

'It's ma'am.', she corrected tearing into the flaky crust with her teeth.

'S'cuse me?'

'A sir is male.'. The man seemed vaguely aggrieved. 'What's the female?'

'I've never thought about it.', he said cagily.

'It's ma'am.'. Her hard eyes came from the sky and settled on his beleaguered countenance, 'What do you want?'

He seemed uncomfortable, 'You should go look. They're rotting right quick out there.'

'Hmm mmm. Go tell your general.', she answered mumbling around her dry meal.

'He's meeting with the soldiers in the housing compound.'

Her thin lips smiled at him, 'You forgot to add ma'am.'. Both men glared at her. She added, 'Ranger is fine too. Yes, boys, I insist on it. It's what you lot are big on innit?'

'Now, is not the time for this.', the second man indicated the bodies.

'Oohhh, I disagree, I think discipline and respect is exactly what's needed. Now especially. I'm a ranger or I ain't boys. You, are wasting my time with this nonsense.'

'You're right,', the first guard said, 'ma'am.' But the second was stubborn and took an elbow in the gut from his fellow before he grudgingly said, 'Sorry ranger.'

'Good.', Conway began wrapping the bread the again, 'Go report to General Traener. Whatever I'm about to see, he needs to know as well.'

'Yes, ma'am.'.

She turned to the gate, marching across the square and past the commissary. The first man followed her silently out into the Needle-trees. 'It's just grieving and terror, ma'am.', he apologized, 'If you told me yesterday, how it'd be today, I wouldn'ta believed it.'

'Hmm mmm.', she stepped over a root, following the smell.

'Ephelsus was on Gate duty. I haven't found him yet.'

'Yeah? What's he to you?'

'Well ma'am.', the guard was quiet at her shoulder for a time, 'Winters is long and sometimes you need someone who...', he trailed off, embarrassed.

She snorted, 'You're saying there's more to fucking than the fucking.'

'Yes, ma'am, it's part of the whole.'

'Yeah, I get it.'. Conway halted. The man flinched away from her reaching hand, but she grabbed him and yanked him roughly him into her embrace. She trapped his arms with hers, and held the stiff man tightly, 'You're a spoilt lot to find shame in intimacy.'. Resting her chin on his hair she told him, 'If you haven't found him, it means they took him along.' Conway felt him tremble, then relax.

His arms circled her waist, holding lightly onto her. His cheek fell to her chest, saying, 'He was sitting in that same stool you used. I took him breakfast and talked about them raiders hitting the city from the far west. Could have talked about anything else.', he shook, 'It kills me thinking he's out there. What'll they do to him, do you think?'

'Can't be worse than what people normally perpetrate on each other out there.' The rot had grown too thick to breathe and she released him, marching along with her tall stride.

'Them's the ones you shot at the gate, over there.', he pointed past her feet. A pit had been hastily dug through the needles and into the dark soil beneath. They came up on the edge.

She glanced in and took an involuntary step back, 'Oh, shit.', Conway covered her face, breathing through her coat. Blackened flesh sloughed off the pile of skeletons, dripping and slithering as mud through a sieve, until it pooled at the bottom of the pit like drying sewage. 'This is from last night?', she asked, knowing the answer already. She recognized the misshapen ribcage with the mismatched legs. In her scope the thing had run on its knuckles, dragging the long right leg behind it like a tail. Her bolt was still where she had put it, in the thing's temple.

'We'd cleared these ones from the camp by dawn and have been ranging down the road collecting ours. They smelt like rotted corpses then, but it's now, when we came up with Rodham that we couldn't ignore it and came to check.'

'Burn it.', she said turning her back on the pit, 'Then bury it.'

He almost had to jog to keep up, 'Yes, ma'am, we'll gather some wood.'

'What's wood going to do? Use napalm.'

'The engineers won't give us napalm, maybe if you-'

'If I what?', she laughed, 'Where do they keep the engineers? Third, fourth or fifth compound?'

'Fifth.', he answered.

'Occasionally, I still got to smack a guard about just to let me into the ranger's compound. No, you Camp boyos bicker it out amongst yourselves. Or fuck it, leave that unholy hole as it is. See if I care.'

The gate came up before them.

'It's just, you're a bit strange to us is all-', he began.

Conway stopped under the gate's ramparts. She snapped her fingers in the man's face, 'That's not what I'm talking about. Now, I'ma city girl and both things are cause for you fuckers to annoy me with, it's the same cause that would bring me great joy to stride through Trade Camp smacking y'all about until I could find an engineer, drag him to Supplies by the ear and twist it until he shits out a mountain of napalm. Sounds like a good time. But look at my hand.', she opened her palm for him to inspect, it was empty, 'There's no salaried assignment there.'

'But, you're a ranger.', the man answered plaintively.

'You're cute.', she smiled down at him, 'You guards sit along the road dreaming up stories about us. Truth is, Rangers are about the same to the Camp as the incubates, or the slaves that clean the latrines.'

'That's not true, ma'am.', he protested.

'We do your dirty work for your tokens, then we pay you with those tokens for supplies and food, that we then use to do more of your dirty work. Listen buddy boy, for every ranger you've heard a story of, there's a thousand graves for fools who've tried and failed. It's no honor being the subject of gossip, so what's the difference really?'

'Then why do you insist on being called ma'am?', he walked away before she could reply.

More guards had come from deeper in the camp. Some rifled the pockets of the dead as another stood counting and yet another wrote the tallies. The general would emerge soon and she would collect her debt before accepting new work, it would likely be sparking a row. Her nose pulled in disgust; she'd had enough of the stink. Her stomach growled.

Conway chose a tree a hundred and fifty feet from the gate and slid her back down against it so she could watch the gate and anyone coming up the road. She lounged on a protruding root, chewing listlessly on the shrinking dry hunk. Adjusting for the season, it was about an hour before noon.

More people might show up but she doubted it. Large marauding groups were not unheard of but she'd never seen anything on this scale. The initial fighting had woken her and she'd shot three of the things as the soldiers rallied into the trade compound and managed to close the gates. Conway had spent hours scoping the dark, trying to discern the enemy. Obviously there had been some organizing principle and she was convinced that the compound itself had not been the motivation for the attack. This hadn't even been slave taking; why the aggression if that were the case? Why the retreat at dawn? Where had they come from? How would The Camp react?

She finished the bread but had no water. Folding the brown paper into a neat square, she stowed it and closed her eyes, she relaxed her body and focused solely on the sounds of the world. Needles fell and the trees sighed as the breeze rustled their dresses.

Before long she heard a pair of feet running up the road, she frowned, cracking an eye. The young man set a good pace though he toddled from foot to foot, near exhaustion. He was tall and lithe, and his shoulder length black hair drifted on the air behind him. There was a softness to his hawkish handsomeness, pale cheeks blushing naturally below a sharp brow, and his full, pink lips contrasted with the angular jaw. His dark eyes were focused on the road in front of him. He wore the same overalls that the guards and soldiers were issued with but dyed dark green with orange and brown splotches to meld with the environment.

She grinned as he passed before her, unseeing. 'Hey buddy!', she called.

He stumbled to a stop, his head twisting this way and that. He gasped, 'Mom?'.

'Here.', she waved her hand, 'You're very late.'

'I, uhh...', his blush deepened.

'Shush. I know.', she smiled reassuringly.

Conway patted the ground beside her, 'Come here, Balt. Find your air first, then we'll talk.'. She motioned him closer and he practically collapsed against her. She put her left arm across his shoulder, her fingers gripping the top of his head, she pulled him close and kissed his hair, 'I was worried.'

'I didn't make it to the plains.', he said carefully.

'That's yesterday's business, the general's got last night on his mind.'

'Won't those city people be angry I missed the pickup?'

'We'll just do what we did last year.' His eyes looked up at her questioningly. 'Oh, right.', she sighed, remembering another tall dark-haired youngster, lying face down on the ground, a bamboo stalk sprouting from his neck where the skull and the spine met. She had buried him and taken a week to observe his murderers chewing their own bamboo as she lived on their supplies. 'We took canned fruit in syrup. They don't have that kind of thing.'

'It's my favorite.', he commented, satisfied.

She nodded her head at the camp, 'It's all closed right now. When they open I'll get you some. How does ice-cream sound?'

'Really good.', he answered, 'Mom? Do you have water?'

Conway noticed his missing harness, 'No. Where's yours?'.

'They nearly caught me, I had to unclip my harness to get away.'. She gripped his chin, inspecting his face, then his arms and legs. 'I'm ok.'

'Sure?', she asked sniffing at him.

'Yeah. I'm sure.', he smiled reassuringly, 'Just tired and thirsty.'

'Well, you stink of sweat, let's go take a shower and find some food. Sleep's never better than with a full belly.'. She stood and dragged him up.

'Can I carry the rifle?', he asked.

She handed it to him and they sauntered slowly towards the gate. The guard from earlier emerged with two others and turned left, towards the pit. Each gripped a small yellow cannister in their fists. 'They're going the burn those...', she hesitated, 'things.'

'They must be happy you were here.', he said.

Conway shrugged.

'I should tell you, I found Ranger Dugar close to guard post twenty-three, he said he was coming to Camp.'

'Duran was in the forest? When?'

'Yesterday. After dark, maybe two or three hours. I guess he'll arrive here by evening.'

'Alright. Good. He say why?'

Balt shook his head, no, explaining, 'There was fighting in the forest already. And, there's another thing. There's a group a behind me, about a dozen guards and traders. They said there was a ranger with them, but he split off early this morning.'

'Who?'

'They just said it was the big ranger.'

'Tell me.'

'He was leading them. Then this girl came and then he went east with her.'

'East? As in, after those things?'

Balt nodded, 'They said east.'

'Weapons?'

'Umm, spears and a big gun. The big ranger gave a spear to the girl.'

'What girl?'

'Short. Fair hair. Big mouth. They think she was an incubate. The ranger shouted at her lots.'

'Shit. Shit, shit. If it's Luri then it means Reince has gotten himself caught.', Conway said lowly, 'What the hell is Bannon thinking?'

Luri followed him, below the waist his clothes were stained black, the only part of him that seemed to have escaped the spray of slaughter was the broad back framing the large rucksack. His blunderbuss hung from a loop on the right and his blade tipped spear swayed with his gait like an antenna on the opposite side. In his hand, he carried a smaller version of his own spear. Resentment burned in her chest, 'Ranger Bannon.'

'Hold on.', he rumbled, stopping and waving the traders on. The men were dead eyed with fatigue and the nightmare of the dark. The guards in their green overalls came up the rear like zombies. Luri waited at Bannon's his side until the guards came by. Bannon said, 'Sover? I can't see you lot which-from which under all that shit.'

Sover's hair and neatly kept beard were shot through with silver despite a youthful face, and he looked no better than Bannon. Scraping dried blood from his cheek with his nails, he said, 'Sir?'

'I ain't the army. Don't call me sir.'

The man shrugged wearily, 'Right now, I'm the ranking. But the way I see it, you're the one giving the orders.'

'Don't guff me!,' Bannon waved the comment away as if it were a fly, 'Next one of you shits what calls me sir ain't making it back.'

'Just old habit, si- Ranger.'

'Where's this post?'

The man pointed at the rocks before them, 'That's an outlook, the station's a few minutes later.'

'Good. Clothes, food, water and crossbow bolts?'

'It's a storage post normally, sir.', Sover nodded.

'Normal,' Bannon said disgusted, 'fuck. We'll see.'. Bannon looked back at the road snaking through the forest to the south. 'Keep it moving at the front!', he roared.

'I'll take spear, Ranger.', Sover said before breaking from the line and sprinting forward.

He waited until they were out of earshot then continued, 'Look Little Lady, I like you, I do. Reince, I found the man tolerable, good company if you got him inside a bottle, damn nearest thing to a friend I got. He's dead.'

Luri stamped her foot, 'No, they took him.'

'Gah, don't guff me that shit. You don't know what they did.', his ruddy eyes glared at her, 'You're a fine puss and I got respect for what you done do, but look at us, this ain't the result of talking or that click-clack shit. It's slaughter.'

'I heard them.', she insisted, 'Please, he'll pay you whatever you want.'

His meaty arm swung at the mountain, 'Why do you think I'm so eager to get up there? If Trade Camp's been looted, the bank's been looted and neither I, nor Reince's corpse got a fucking token left between us.'

She blinked, feeling tears welling up but she stared at him defiantly, 'They said they wanted to take him. He's alive.'

'You've said, they said.', agitated, he pointed the short spear at her, 'What exactly did who say? Cause I don't believe it. What, exactly?'

'An emaciated man. Short like me. Hair like this,', she circled her head. 'He said "Campman" and "come with us".'

'Fuck you.', Bannon drew the words out skeptically. 'I smell your shit worse than the rot on me.'. He turned away, following the column. Luri watched his backpack swaying away as her mind worked furiously.

'He saved your life.', she told his back, 'That winter you got lost. He went looking for you.'

'Dead men collect no debts.'

'What do you want!!!', she screamed at him. Several guards looked back at the noise, one stopped.

Bannon rounded, his belly hardened then he stormed at her like a charging bull, his free hand crossing his waist, preparing for the blow. Luri stood her ground, snarling at back him. Her forearms came up in the last instant, but the force lifted her off the ground and sent her flying sideways. She hit the needles, stunned. Bannon loomed over her, 'I took ya friendly cause Reince took ya friendly.', he said coldly, 'But it's them Camp cunts what pay the wages and what are you? An incubate bitch with no owner.'. The spear blade nestled in her neck, 'Disrespect me again.'.

'What do you want?', she gritted through her teeth.

'A case full of the bottle, a pretty boy with a juicy asshole, and a warm bunk for both.'. He flipped the spear up, shaking it speculatively, 'But the boy's dead and the next drink might be way, way the fuck up at Army Camp. And all I've got is you.'. He leant down, lifting her easily by the front of her shirt so they were nose to nose, 'Under all that shit, I cain't even tell what you are. And today, I'm too horny and pissed off to care. Fuck it. I got tokens in my pocket; you'll be my companion.'

'I saved your life.', she said to his face.

'Ah, ha ha. Fuck you.', Bannon let her go and walked away, saying, 'You're a thing. Incubates can't collect debts.'.

'That's not how you talk in the bottle.', Luri spat in desperation, 'Is the Great Ranger a campman then?'

He turned, his eyes narrowed dangerously, 'When did you gain my lifedebt?'

'Twenty-seven weeks ago. Spring festival. You called his father a whore. You fought. He wanted your kidney; I stopped the blade.'

He stared at her, 'Fuck!'. He paced heavily to the other side of the road. Pointing the spear at her he shouted, 'Fuck off! Fuck you! Fuck, fuck, fuck.' Bannon lifted the spear over his shoulder, the sharp tipped square blade bit into a tree a few feet from her, it twanged and the haft vibrated noisily.

Bannon stormed up the hill shouting, 'Oi, food and water! Gimme what you got!'

Part 6

Conway sat on a plain stool looking out over the palisades to the road. One long leg was stretched out before her, the other bent and dangling. Black hair caressed the fist on which her chin rested. The crust cracked in her teeth; the flesh of the bread was quickly hardening with age and her appetite turned with the stiff breeze that brought the stench with it.