Page 68 of What Blooms in Barren Lands

Something dark and lethal flashed through his eyes, like the slashing of a knife in the night. A powerful tremor ran through me. As if in a trance, I knelt close to the edge of the bed, in a sudden, overpowering desire to get nearer to him, have him touch me. Intuiting this, he ran his hand along the side of my face, rough and gentle at the same time.

“I get a thrill out of killing. Having that kind of power over someone, holding their life in my hands, taking it from them ... You know that about me, don’t you, my girl?”

Looking up at him, I swallowed and nodded.

“I do. And I like that about you. It excites me that you’re willing to take that power.”

He nodded imperceptibly, his face severe, but the shine of a smile lingered in his eyes for a heartbeat before the look in them hardened again.

“Well, killing those two was ecstasy like I’ve never known. The primal kind. They tried to stealyoufrom me. There’s no bigger offence against me than that. I don’t care about the Ten Commandments and the extinct laws of our extinct society. My right to end them for what they wanted to do to you issacred.”

He ran his fingers along my nape and into my hair, before closing his fist around it, forcing me to tilt my head backwards. With his other hand, he traced his thumb across my lips.

“Still, you should be angry at me, too. I never should have gotten myself in a situation where you had to do that. Look at what I’ve caused!”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself all the time.” He shook his head and sat back beside me, pulling me onto his lap. “Not bringing your bow was a mistake. But you wouldn’t have stood a chance against their rifles even if you had. It was just bad luck. They likely saw you leave the settlement and went after you. I’m not upset with you,” he assured me with a tense smile.

“Einar, what will we do?” I groaned, resting my forehead on his shoulder. “If as few as five of them arrive here with firearms, we won’t be a match for them. Not without heavy losses.”

It felt completely surreal even to contemplate such a scenario. The sunlight didn’t reach our east-facing bedroom window in the advancing afternoon, and the room was dim and shadowy. The black satin covers looked dull as I hitched them higher up my body, suddenly feeling cold.

“We must not face them. Not when they have guns and we have bows. The way I see it is there’s only one thing to do ... We must move. All of us. And we must do it fast.” Einar squared his shoulders resolutely. “The only question is what will be fast enough.”

23

PUNISHER’S PRIDE

Dinner that night was delicious, consisting of rice and Asian-flavoured vegetable sauce, and yet I could not force myself to eat more than a few bites. Dave, Josh, Kevin, and Amit were all engaged in lively conversation around me. Only Monika was as silent as I was, her face blotched from crying, and her expression pinched nervously.

The fireplace provided soft, orange light, enhanced by candles spaced evenly on the tables. It was warm and cosy, the comfortable smell of wood accompanied by pleasant, companionable chatter. My heart squeezed tighter and tighter with each passing minute.

At the end of the meal, Einar stood up as he often did, but heavily that night, his eyes solemn. In a calm, measured tone, he explained what had happened and why it put us at peril. He held his hands up, his palms large and fingers long, the accompanying gestures he made with them unhurried and forceful.

He explained why we had to leave Ascu as fast as possible, presenting his arguments so calmly that he earned only a few protests and overall murmurs of agreement.

“It’s a sad reality,” he finished recounting the day’s events, “that in a fury-infested world we still mainly have to be afraid of other healthy people.”

He then laid out the plan in the same composed manner, as if he had days to come up with it, as opposed to only a few hours. Jean-Luc would take his jeep and accompanied by a few guards, he would drive our supplies and equipment down to the ‘Rotunda’, a large stone hut a few hours from Vizzavona, located in the last cleared area. With first light, people would begin departing on foot in groups accompanied by archers and march towards the Rotunda. They would reach it in three days and camp there for a couple more, whilst we archers would clear Vizzavona, our new home.

Meanwhile, Russ would visit the other settlements and bring our new recruits to Vizzavona instead of Ascu.

I doubt that many people slept that night. I certainly didn’t get a wink of sleep, busy as I was helping to pack. The whole settlement buzzed with nervous energy. I dozed off for a few hours on the couch by the extinguished fireplace in the dining hall, but I kept being woken up by restless dreams of hospital corridors, crowded with men who were obviously infected but also carried guns, and were closing in on me. Jerking awake from the final nonsensical nightmare, I gave up. It was the longest, most unpleasant night, and I couldn’t wait for the sun to rise, illuminating the way across the mountains, so that our people could finally depart for safety.

Einar slept even less than I did, marching around, directing everyone, helping with heavy lifting, imposing order on the chaos that would have reigned otherwise. He wouldn’t let anyone see his fatigue, his mind sharp as always, his movements energetic, and his overall manner confident and calm. But I sawhim sneakily snack on chocolate bars stolen from our supplies, shoving them whole into his mouth, which I knew he only did when he was stressed. Nor did the worried lines in his face escape my notice, though they may have slipped anyone else’s.

On the several occasions that our paths crossed during those endless hours, we embraced wordlessly, he bending to me so that his forehead touched mine, frozen together in something akin to a prayer.

“Just as long as they don’t come until tomorrow,” he whispered into my hair once. “Just don’t let them come until later tomorrow ...”

And then he was gone again in a flurry of activity.

Towards the morning, just as the deepest darkness began to ebb away slowly, I was hard on my feet and grateful for the cold air and the refreshing smell of dew to keep me awake. I was swaying with exhaustion, depleted to the point of crumpling down, my senses slow and dull. I was completely unsure just how I would be able to hike across the mountains the whole day.

People were emerging from inside now with their bags packed. Einar and I would leave with the last group, I knew. Hours and hours would pass yet before our own departure. I sat down on an abandoned recliner near the dining hall entrance and closed my eyes. My head throbbed and spun around. For a minute, I felt almost as if I could drift off to sleep. But then I was rudely jerked awake by raised voices nearby.

“Albert, stop it, I vill valk like everybody else! Nobody else goes there in a car!”

“Nobody else is pregnant! Besides, Jean-Luc will drive Madeleine for sure.”