"Soon Bliss, we will be done with this terrible chore soon."
Bliss glanced up from carefully placing a rock on the grave. He had been saying that since they started. "Yes, Mr. Hadley." She wasn’t in any particular hurry. Sitting back on her heels she regarded Hadley out of the corner of her eyes. She wiped a hand across her forehead to make it appear as though she were taking a small break. Mr. Hadley was being ever so helpful, now. At first he had nearly blown a circuit when she had insisted on burying the dead. Now he was digging the second grave and sweating like a pig in spite of the cool weather. She wondered if he would have a heart attack and neatly fall into the hole he was digging. It would save her a lot of trouble, but she knew that she would not get that lucky.
"Don’t worry Bliss, I’ll take care of everything." Hadley smiled his empty toothed smile at her.
You spend too much time in the sun, she thought. "Yes, Mr. Hadley." Bliss went back to piling rocks on her grandfather’s grave. Once done she stood and brushed her hands over faded jeans. She glanced over at the quilt-covered lump that had once been her grandmother and let out a small sigh.
"It’s a good thing you weren’t here when the raiders came or I’d be digging your grave too." Hadley leaned on his shovel, taking a break from digging. "And you are lucky I came along when I did to help you."
"Yes Mr. Hadley, lucky." Bliss looked out over the small hovel that had been her home all her life. The exterior wasn’t much to look at but it served it’s purpose. It hid the underground rooms that had really been her home. Now she was going to have to leave it. That idea saddened her almost as much as the death of her grandparents.
"You are a very lucky girl Bliss."
She nodded. "Yes Mr. Hadley." Picking up the edge of the quilt she dragged her grandmother’s body into the hole that would be her grave. She stood watching a moment as Hadley started shoveling dirt a top the quilt. Grandmother’s favorite quilt, better it was buried with her than let the scavengers get it. "I’ll get some more rocks."
"Be careful now Bliss, wouldn’t want anything to happen to you."
Sure you wouldn’t you dung eater. "Yes, Mr. Hadley." She set about gathering up stones to put on her grandmother’s grave, her mind wandering over the events of the past few hours. Bliss had been over to what passed for the local trading post to get the supplies. She had made the same trip, on the same day, since she had turned twelve. Everyone in the area knew it. It wasn’t luck that she wasn’t home when the raiders hit her home and killed her grandparents. It had been planned. She had been at the trading post, talking with Mrs. Worth, when she got the weird tingle in the back of her skull. That tingle signaled something bad was happening at home. She hopped back into the wreck of a vehicle that served as the family truck and sped for home. She knew the instant her grandfather breathed his last, the tingle became a sharp shooting pain. It happened again when her grandmother expired. She was going to be too late to save them, too late to do anything but bury them.
Instinct or the tingle, she didn’t know which told her not to just barrel on to the scene. What ever or who ever had killed her grandparents might still be around and they were. She laid on her belly looking over the top of a small hill watching three men mill around out in front of the hovel arguing. Their motorcycles parked in a neat little row by the well. Her grandfather’s body lay just beyond the well, her grandmother’s by her small outdoor garden. Bliss lay there, in shock, listening to the men below. One of the men was yelling at the other two about not having to kill the old folks. What she heard next made her blood run cold. "We did wha’s we was paid to do." Then laughter from the other man. The first man ripped off protective facemask revealing a shock of blonde hair nearly as pale as her own. "Great, you just killed the only person for miles who knew a wit about doctoring! Who ya gonna see next time you got a hole in ya that needs stitch’n?" "Wit’ wha’s ole man Hadley is paying us I can afford to go to the city and fixed up proper like." And still man laughed.
He stopped laughing as he head exploded in a fine red mist. Bliss felt the bullets strike near her feet but she calmly aimed at the second man and watched as a red bloom erupted right over where his heart should have been. Then she aimed at the blonde man. He just looked up the hill at her. He hadn’t even drawn his weapons. She lowered her rifle and walked down the hill towards him.
"I did try to stop them." His pale blue eyes meet her deep brown ones evenly. "Your Gran was the only thing this area had close to a medic."
"I know, that’s why you are still breathing." She shouldered the rifle. "Hadley hired you."
He nodded, even though it wasn’t a question. "He hired me to rob your place, mess it up a bit, but he didn’t say anything about killing. He wanted to convince you to…"
"I know. He wants the well and me." She glanced down at the bodies littering her yard. "Help me hide these bodies in the shed before Hadley gets here." Her eyes lifted to the meet his. "I want one of the ‘cycles, a hand gun and some ammo. What ever else they have on them is yours."
With a nod he grabbed the ankles of one of the dead men and started dragging it towards the shed.
Bliss wasn’t worried about this last man turning on her. The tingle in her skull told her that he would kill her if he had to but not in cold blood.
"How did you know Hadley would be coming here?" He asked upon returning for the second body.
"Logical conclusion. He paid to have my grandparents killed so I would be left alone and defenseless. He will be here shortly after he expects me to return from the post. Here to rescue me from my sorrow, offer me his protection and a place in his home." She kicked back the stand on one of the motorcycles and pushed it towards the shed.
"You are hardly defenseless from what I’ve just seen."
"He don’t know that and he won’t until it’s too late."
Between them they hid the motorcycles behind the shed, the bodies inside and covered up the blood pools in the front yard with dirt.
"Soon Bliss, we will be done here soon."
Hadley’s voice pulled her from her reverie. "Yes, Mr. Hadley." She dragged the cart full of rocks over to the filled in grave and set about piling them over the dirt in a neat oval. She took her time knowing that she was angering him in doing so. When her grandmother’s grave was properly finished she stood. "You’ve gone through a lot of trouble Mr. Hadley."
"Least I could do for you Bliss. You grandparents were fine people." He gave her a toothless grin. "We should be getting back to my place soon. It’ll be getting dark soon and those raiders might be coming back."
"Yes, they were good people, Mr. Hadley. The raiders won’t be back." Bliss set her hat a top her rough-cut blonde hair. "And I won’t be going back to your place with you." Her deep brown eyes settled on him with a baleful look. "You went through a lot of trouble for nothing Mr. Hadley."
"What do you mean?" Hadley eyes narrowed then shot wide open as the blonde haired raider stepped into view from behind the shed and waved. He swung his gaze around to Bliss.
"I offered him a better deal." She calmly stated while pointing her new semi-automatic handgun at his belly. "My grandparents were very fine people, Mr. Hadley." Before he could say another word Bliss calmly pulled the trigger shooting him in the stomach. She watched him crumple to the ground. "Now you will die too Mr. Hadley, but not quickly because you are not a fine person."
The blonde raider strolled over to Hadley and stripped him of anything of value as he writhed in pain on the ground. "I get everything of yours now." He glanced over at Bliss. "And everything you ever wanted, you old bastard, think on that as you die."
He watched her as she relaxed by the fire. It had been months since they had formed their alliance, since they had dealt with Mr. Hadley. It was a strange partnership, at least to him. He was teaching her about survival, how to shoot while riding her cycle, how to find food, water and shelter. Teaching her all the things she would need to know once she left her lifelong home. In turn she was teaching him how to read, write and bargain. How to repair machines and people, all the things her grandparents had taught her. He ran a hand through his shock of blonde hair, a smile lighting up his features. It was amusing, this going from a raider and scavenger to a businessman of sorts. The trading post was his now as was everything that had been Hadley's. She didn't want any part of it.
"You should smile like that more often Daniel. It almost makes you seem friendly."
He lifted his pale eyes to meet her dark ones. "This from one who almost never smiles." He watched as one of those rare true smiles spread across her angular features. "Course when you do it is something to behold."
She laughed. A soft musical sound that so startled Daniel that he came near to falling out of his seat. His reaction made her laugh all the harder and his raspy chuckle joined hers. "Damn Bliss, I don't believe I've ever seen or heard you laugh before. Remind me to make you do it more often."
"There is not a whole lot to laugh about Daniel." Her eyes turned back towards the fire. "How much longer do you think it will be before you can take over the post completely so that I can be on my way?"
"Soon Bliss." His laughter faded. He didn't want her to go but knew she would regardless of what he said or did. There was only so much stalling he could do before she was going to catch on. His eyes sought out the fire. She wouldn't stay with him any more than she would have Hadley. Bliss didn't blame him for her grandparent's death, but she wouldn't stay. "There is something I have to do." She would say, but even she didn't know what it was that she had to do.
Daniel shook his head. Damn woman. He'd tried to become more intimately involved with her on one occasion. It was not planned. He had been teaching her hand to hand combat techniques and with one move they had both ended up on the ground, with him on top. How was he supposed to react? She was warm, alive and oh-so-female. He kissed her softly and upon not receiving resistance from her, he kissed her again.
Bliss glanced away from the fire at Daniel and noted the far away look in his eyes. A tiny smile crept over her face. She wondered if he was trying to come up with another way to stall her, to keep her around longer. She was truthfully in no big hurry to leave but she knew that she had to eventually. Daniel just couldn't or wouldn't comprehend why she had to go. Sometimes she didn't understand it herself. Some days he got very frustrated with her and she knew it. He wanted things from her that she didn't have in her to give. He didn't understand that either. She didn't blame him, mostly because she didn't have a way to explain it to him.
He sighed remembering how she had calmly pushed at his shoulders as he deepened the kiss. When he lifted his head to gaze into her deep brown eyes she softly said, "This is not something I asked you to teach me." He rolled away from her cursing vividly then apologized for kissing her. He still couldn't believe that he had actually apologized.
"Remember to watch the quiet ones, they are the thinkers and much more dangerous than the screamers."
Bliss gazed out the window at the rain. If you could call the poisonous muck pouring down from the sky, rain. Chemical filled droplets of death would be more accurate a description but that is what rain had become well before her birth. The fire in the stove did little to ease the damp chill that filled the tiny shack but she was oblivious to the cold. A little discomfort was a norm, one learned to accept and adapt. That is what her grandparents had taught her, accept that which you can not change then adapt and use it to your advantage. An increased tolerance to heat or cold would serve her well someday.
"Bliss come down stairs where it is warm." Daniel poked his blonde head up out of the hatch that led to the small complex below. "Or at least let me come up there and keep you warm." He gave her his most dazzling smile, filled with promises of what could be.
She glanced away from the window, her eyes catching his smile. "I’m not cold Daniel, but thank you for your concern." His smile evaporated as if it had never been there. "I’m sorry Daniel." She looked away from him, not wanting to see disappointment and frustration clear in the pale blue depths of his eyes.
He pulled himself up, out the hatch and joined her by the window. "Not as sorry as I am." He looked out the window. "The rain that interesting or are you just zoning out on me again?" He couldn’t help but grin when she replied, "Zoning I’m afraid." "You think too much Bliss. Always turning this puzzle or that problem over in you mind. I’d be willing to bet everything I have gained that you are once again trying to plan the best route to the nearest City of size. Calculating mileage, water and food consumption and mapping out possible dangerous areas."
She smirked. "You’d win that bet. Daniel, that’s the way I’ve been fashioned. I was taught to think, to cover all the angles so that when push came to shove I would be able to react with the best plan already in the forefront of my mind." She turned her eyes towards him. "I was also taught to complete a project from beginning to end and allow nothing to distract me from completing that project."
"And I am a distraction." He sighed deeply. "Well, I’ve been called worse. I don’t suppose you’d like to tell me what this project of yours is?" He watched her shake her head. "Didn’t think so. Bliss I’m not trying to distract you from this project of yours. I’d help if you’d tell me what it was you feel you have to do."
"I’ve got promises to keep Daniel." Her tone was flat. "I promised not to involved anyone else in it. And you are trying to distract me. You want me to stay here with you and I can’t."
"We could have a good life here together Bliss, everything we need is right here." He wrapped his hand around her cold fingers. "We are too far off for the Church or Freemen to bother much with this area. We could build a good life together."
"You could repair the mechanics and I the organic." Bliss shook her head. "Been there Daniel, done that. It worked for my grandparents. It might work for you and I, but I doubt it. They had something we don’t." She gave his hand a gentle squeeze. "I’d always be restless and unhappy with myself for not keeping my promises."
He released her hand and turned back for the hatch. "Once you leave, you will never come back." It was a statement not a question. He stepped down on the first rung of the ladder that led below. "Don’t stay up here too long. It’s cold and you wouldn’t want to get sick and have to stay with me any longer than you have to."
She watched him disappear down the hatch, a worried frown etched on her face. She didn’t completely understand the change that had come over Daniel. At first he had been distant, almost nasty to her. Then as time passed he had expressed more and more interest in building some sort of life with her. From a raider to a man who wanted a quiet, relatively safe, boring life. It didn’t make much sense to her. She blinked as suddenly it hit her. She was leaving a place of safety for a life of uncertainty and danger; he’d already done that and wanted a little peace. She began to feel better about the situation. Now she understood Daniel wanted and knew he’d find it if he kept looking. Mrs. Worth had three daughters, any one of which would make a good match with Daniel. None of them was particularly pretty, but then neither was she. One of the Worth girls would make him a fine mate and be happy to remain in this area for the rest of her life, however short or long.
A flash of lightening drew her eyes back out the window. A small smile brightened her face. "Soon Bliss, you will be on your way. You don’t have to worry about Daniel anymore, he will do fine without you." She felt as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. The time to leave was very near but first a few introductions had to be made, as in Daniel meeting one, if not all, of the Worth girls.
Bliss had one more duty to perform before she departed her life long home. She sat straight up on her motorcycle, a hand casually resting on the gas tank as she looked down into the tiny valley below. Her chocolate colored gaze rested on a tangle of green in the center of a fenced in area. The She. The green death as some of the locals called it. Bliss just called it Mom.
"Hello Mom. I see you survived the rain, yet again. You'd think it would poison you to such an extent that you would turn brown and die." She didn't really expect The She to respond to her voice but she watched for a response nonetheless. She heard the whispers in her head, the call to join, but she just pushed it away to the back of her mind. "Sorry Mom, but green just isn't my color."
Her mind drifted back to her first meeting with The She. Bliss had been nine years old when her mother had first brought her here. Her mother had always been a bit crazy around the edges. Bliss had endured her ranting for as long as her memories went back. Her talk of the man she had left. Her grandparents had told her of her Mother leaving their home with a soldier that they had run across out in the flatlands and had nursed back to health. They hadn't really expected to ever see her again so they were surprised with she turned up on their doorstep half a dozen years later with her round belly. The tale had not been a happy one. The soldier she left with was killed in battle shortly after they got back to -civilization-. Her mother had been devastated by his death, alone and lost in a world she knew little about. Then the Man had come along. He made her safe, made her his and she was happy again. It didn't last, but in Bliss' mind it rarely did for long.
When Bliss' mother had told her Love that she was with child, instead of reacting with joy, he told her to get rid of it. He didn't want it and if she wanted to keep the babe he didn't want her either.
Before her mother had to make a decision she was 'rescued' and brought back to
Sabatt. The rescue was a part of the tale that was always glossed over when told
by the members of her family. Bliss was born not long after her return. Her grandparents had always tried to tell her that her mother was a good woman, just a little confused. But all she could remember was her mother blaming her for being the reason she had lost the love of her life. She could remember that lovely face, framed in long black curls, twisted up in a sneer. The voice emanating from round full lips shrill, the words cruel. It was always the same thing. "If not for you I would still be happy. If you hadn't come along we would still be together." Bliss learned early to tune out the sound of her mother's voice.
Then she had been brought here to where The She existed. Her mother spouted off her plan with a frightening gleam in her eye. She would give Bliss to The She, make her one with all. One little scratch from a thorn. That's all it would take for her mother to be free to return to her lover. It all made perfect sense if one was mad. After all, she wouldn't really be killing her daughter, just changing her. Bliss, however, had an entirely different plan for her own future.
She would never forget the look of utter surprise on her mother's face when she dodged The She's thorn covered appendage while pushing her mother into it. She could still hear her mother's howl of fury when she looked to her own arm and found it bleeding, a thorn embedded in it. Bliss had just turned around and started trudging up the hill. A form crested the top of hill and she knew it was her grandfather. He'd come to take her home.
Her grandparents had never asked her what happened that day. They cared for her mother the best they could. They even looked for a cure for her but of course they didn't find one. When they finally accepted that their daughter was going to -die- no matter what they did, they took her away. She never came back. It was years before they told her what they had done. They had fed her a poison that would kill what ever human was left in her then taken her back to The She that had infected her and left her.
Bliss reached behind her for the launcher she had traded for some of her most precious belongings. The
trader Caine had driven a hard bargain for this little piece of equipment but he left the door open for her to trade it back to him. He had marked the maps that had been part of the trade with the route he was taking so she had a good chance of running into him again. If she didn't blow herself up with it she planned on trading it back to him for something she found more useful. She aimed the launcher carefully, it wouldn't do to miss, and fired. The canister rocketed right for her target, dead center of The She.
A wide grin spread across Bliss' face. "Gotta love those delayed fuses." She quickly tucked the launcher back in behind her and restarted the Cycle. It came to life with a satisfying roar. Her eyes went back to The She for a moment. "I apologize to the overall She for what I've done, I do hope you will understand. Good-bye Mother....pay back is a bitch." She turned the Cycle away from The She that had once been her mother and sped away at full speed. The cycle ate up the ground. Bliss had set the timer on the canister to give herself enough time to get well clear of any debris that might come her way, but not so far away as not to be able to hear the explosion. When it
sounded a full fledged smile erupted on her visage. One promise kept, a few more left to go.
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Friday, June 04, 2010