Page 39 of Orc’s Promise (Knotty Monsters #3)
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
TANSEY
I wasn’t sure where to go when Ethan and I escaped the fight. I ran with my baby in my arms, terror driving me away from the shelter and the orc sector.
When I reached the common area of the market, the place was empty.
People had fled to their shelters. The intense wind and rain turned everything not cemented in place into a deadly weapon.
Tables flew by, nearly striking my head.
Trees toppled in front of us, and smaller items, wares from vendors’ tables, batted us as I ran.
The only safe place I could think of was the shelter in the human sector. The last place I wanted to go, but we couldn’t stay outside in the storm.
As I stand in the shelter, shivering from the cold, twelve men and three women from New Earth, most of whom I recognize, stand on the far side of the shelter, staring at me as the storm rages on.
“I see Caleb and Joe found you,” Stevens says. “Where are they?”
“With some vints,” I answer, afraid to put Ethan down even though I’m fucking exhausted .
“They should have returned by now,” a man I don’t know says, glaring at me as if their absence is my fault.
Joe is dead, but Caleb could return any minute. The fact that he hasn’t could mean the fight ended and Verig is still alive.
God, I hope he is. What will I do if he’s not?
I can return to New Earth. Except, I don’t want to…do I?
My eyes gloss over the people who were once my neighbors.
My fellow colonists. I don’t see friends and family in them any longer.
They are strangers whom I never truly knew or wanted to.
That’s why I chose the most isolated section of the colony in which to raise Ethan.
I didn’t want to know them then, and I don’t want to know them now.
My heart lies with Verig and always will.
“You can put Ethan down,” Holly says. “You’re safe with us.” She’s sweet, one of the few people I’ll miss when I return to Mount Racha with Verig.
When did I decide to stay with the orcs?
The moment I ran from the orc shelter and left Verig behind. He enabled us to escape. Risked his life for us. Which is more than anyone has ever done, including the people in this shelter.
“Here, I have some cookies I was eating when Stevens ordered everyone to the shelter.” Holly approaches, the first person to come near us instead of keeping her distance like we have the plague, and holds out a cookie to Ethan.
He must be starved. It’s been a full day since we left Mount Racha, and I didn’t bring any food for him because we didn’t know he had stowed away in the cart. I set him down and brush his sopping wet hair off his face. He’s shivering. The temperature must have dropped twenty degrees from the storm.
Despite all the people crammed into this small space, it’s cold in here. Several of the men and women have blankets draped over their shoulders. In the far corner, there is an open trunk. Emergency supplies. Empty now, from the look of it.
My arms and back are aching, so I’m thankful for the chance to put him down. I point to Holly. “Sweetie, Holly has a cookie. Are you hungry?”
Ethan nods, but doesn’t speak.
When Ethan doesn’t move, Holly approaches us and hands him a cookie. He holds the cookie in clammy hands, but doesn’t eat. I pick him up again and hug him tight to me, hoping to share my body warmth, what little is left, with him.
“Does anyone have a blanket? I think he’s in shock,” I say.
“Are you coming back with us?” Stevens asks.
“Do you have a blanket or not?”
“Depends on your answer.”
“Really? You’d hold medical care from a child unless I answer the way you want?”
“I take that as a no,” Stevens said. “You’d rather be with the orcs than your own kind. That’s sad and disturbing.”
“She’s been brainwashed by those fucking orcs,” a man I don’t know says from the back of the group. “It’s what they do, or some of the women would have returned by now.”
“Many of us wanted to return but couldn’t. Did you even try to find us? “
“Council said it wasn’t worth the risk. Or the trouble.”
“What about talking with the orcs that came to Pen’Kesh? I know they’ve been here many times.”
Stevens shrugs. “It’s easier just to get more women with the next ship from Earth.”
I can’t believe what I’m hearing, but I no longer care. “Give me a fucking blanket for my child.”
“Are you coming back to New Earth with us or not?” Stevens persists.
“She could already be preggers, Henry. With one of those monsters. Leave her here.”
“I never said I was going with you,” I speak up. “And you need to check the definition of monsters. Oh, wait, I can help you with that. A person who denies a child a fucking blanket when he’s obviously cold, shivering, and in shock!”
“Two months with those monsters and look how aggressive she’s become,” Stevens says to the man beside him, his eyes rolling over me as if I’m an animal in a lab. “Maybe there’s something viral that causes the orcs’ aggression.”
“We can’t risk it,” Lisa says.
“They shouldn’t be in here, Henry,” Mark agrees. “Throw them out before we all get sick.”
I look at Holly, the only voice of reason. Her eyes dart side to side as if she doesn’t know what to do or say. Her head lowers. I’m on my own.
“We’ll leave when the storm ends.”
“Not good enough. These storms can last hours.”
“Seriously, Mark, should we be breathing the same air?” Lisa asks.
“Leave, Tansey. Both of you. Now.”
A crack of lightning nearby makes me jump. Ethan starts crying against my shoulder. I can’t put him down, even if I wanted to. His arms have locked around my neck like a vise.
When I make no attempt to move toward the door, Stevens pulls his shirt above his mouth to serve as a filter and grabs my upper arm.
“Get the fuck away from me!” I yell.