Awaken (18 page)

Did Tater truly have to use so many
words to ask if any of us has a plan? But as irritated as I am at
him I don’t say what I’m thinking ‘cause I don’t want to admit I
got nuthin. None of us speak for a bit. Then, finally, Jax breaks
our silence.

“
Whatever we do it will have
to be soon, before the Army has us. If they get their hands on us
we are done for. But there’s no way we are going to be able to take
out all these raiders unarmed, that’s for sure.”

I snort quietly at his words and mutter
“Ya think?” but he chooses to ignore me. Instead he keeps talking
to Tater.

“
Our best bet would be to
wait ‘til nightfall, ‘til most of them are asleep. I’m an expert
shot. If I could get my hands on one of their weapons we may stand
a chance.”

I nod my head. “Aye, that should work.
Just grab one of their shooters. Oh...wait....our hands and feet
are tied....and we have guards watching our every move. Got a
backup plan genius?”

He don’t ignore me this
time.

“
Yeah, we just let the Army
take you...its only you they want anyways freak...make a deal for
the rest of us, see if we can keep ourselves alive!” he snarls,
glaring at me. He ain’t whispering no more and it catches our
guard’s attention.

“
Hey...what’s going on over
there?”

“
Oh nothing to concern
yourself with my good man.” Tater holds his tied hands up in a
gesture of innocence. “It’s just that this young man is a little
perturbed at being around a new blood is all. Nothing to worry
about. It’s not as if we are making escape plans or
anything...Hah!” Tater’s nervous burst of laughter makes me roll my
eyes and groan inwardly. Did he truly just say that? The guard eyes
us all suspiciously, pointing his iron shooter. He looks us over,
trying to see if anything is amiss.

“
Yeah well none of us is
happy having this mutie around but you don’t hear us all
bellyaching about it. Keep it down. And don’t try anything
funny...we’re watching you.”

“
Certainly, certainly good
sir. We will be as quiet as a mouse.” He grins at the guard and
holds a finger to his lips to further his point. The guard gives us
one last hard look before he joins the rest of the raiders at the
now roaring campfire. Busher is sitting cross legged by the fire
watching us intently so we hold off on any more talk. Once he is
satisfied we are behaving however he lets his attention be pulled
away by the sudden appearance of a whiskey jug. Only then do we
dare to continue our conversation.

“
Let’s get two things
straight.” Tater jumps right back in. “If we stand any chance of
escape it has to be tonight. Jax is right, once we are under the
Army’s watch we will not stand a chance in hell. And if we are to
escape then you must both let go of your annoying
idiosyncrasies!”

“
Idio....wha?” I start to
say but Tater cuts me off impatiently. “You have to stop fighting
and work together...got it!”

“
Well why couldn’t you say
that in the first place!” I snap hating how his way of talk always
made me feel so stupid. He ignores my biting remark and continues
on.

“
Earlier when I pretended to
stumble into one of the guards I skillfully managed to relieve him
of this.” One of his tied hands deftly pulls a small dagger down
out of his sleeve for a quick perusal before it disappears again. I
was impressed. I had seen Tater fall into the guard earlier and it
had earned him a hard punch to the back, I had no idea there had
been another motive for his contrived clumsiness.

“
Ask and ye shall receive,”
he says to Jax, grinning from ear to ear. “Now as you said a moment
ago we wait until most of them are asleep. These past two nights I
have noticed our guards have been taking forty winks at their post.
Obviously with Tara’s lack of any show of power they have become a
little lax about our threat assessment. We wait until they are
asleep tonight, I cut our bindings and we make a run for
it.”

I look to Tater expecting to hear more,
but he don’t say anything else. Jax and Finn look just as
expectant, waiting for Tater to go on. Finally...

“
That’s it? That’s the
plan?” Jax asks, not bothering to hide his disbelief.

“
Yes...that is all. Do you
have a better idea?” Tater says looking at all of us as if he don’t
quite understand. “I free us, we run. What else do you expect? As
you most astutely pointed out we cannot go up against so many armed
raiders.”

Tater is right. “Sounds good enough to
me,” I say. “Finn you make sure you stick to me like a shadow...I
don’t wanna lose you in the dark.” He nods at me all
serious.

“
If we get split up head
east into the hills....that will keep you onto the path to
Littlepass.”

A loud whooping from the group round
the campfire interrupts Tater and he clams up but they ain’t paying
no heed to us. The whiskey jug is being passed around freely and
they’re celebrating like they already got their reward. Busher
catches my eye and raises the jug to me in a mock toast before
taking a big swig of the brew. I hope he chokes, I think, but it
don’t happen. I drop my eyes and look toward the horizon....not
much longer ‘til sunset I reckon. Tonight would be our only chance.
Tater’s plan was sound...sorta…but since it was the only plan we
had, we’d better make the best of it. For some reason I had this
sinking feeling it just wasn’t good enough. I’m hoping I was dead
wrong.

The first inkling we get that something
ain’t right is when hat head, back to being his cocky self again
now that he’s been swigging the whiskey, saunters up to us all
wobbly like. He brushes past Tater and Finn to stand directly in
front of me. I get to my feet. I don’t like having to look up at
him and I ain’t sure what he’s about to do. He stares at me,
swaying back and forth like he downed the whole jug himself. There
ain’t no way he drank enough to be this wasted, I think.

“
You don’t look like no
freak...” he says, least I think that’s what he says, his words are
all slurred like his tongue is too big for his mouth. He wobbles a
bit more then points his finger at me.

“
Ya...nawe...bood...”

Huh? What the hell is wrong with
him?

Then suddenly his eyes roll back in his
head and he falls with a loud thud, face first into the ground. I
jump back. Shizen! What’s happening? Before I can get a word out
though, I hear another thud...then another. The raiders. They’re
falling like leaves in a big wind, one after another.

Busher is the last to be standing. He
is wobbling just like hat head did but he’s fighting it. He lets
out an angry roar and he kicks the whiskey jug over. His eyes, so
full of hot anger, seek me out. He looks like a mountain bearing
down on me and I cain’t help but back away, as far as the rope will
allow me. But he don’t get to me. He falls to his knees before he
can get more than four paces. Trying in vain to push himself back
up he gives me one more burning look before he also face plants the
ground....hard.

“
What the gods....?” Tater
is looking at me but I’m just as dumbfounded. I shake my head at
his unspoken question. It wasn’t me...I don’t have no idea what
just happened!

I look around at all the raiders on the
ground laying where they fell....are they dead? I think. Finn’s
panicked “Tara!” pulls my attention away from the bodies on the
ground and I follow his scared gaze to a figure approaching us from
the trees. It was walking kind of hunched and shuffling but I
recognize it right away. The creature I had seen that night in the
sand lands and again in the valley on the other side of the
mountains. I was right...it had been following us! It comes closer
and I get a better look at its face. Shizen! What the hell is it?
It resembles something more out of a night terror than a human
face. Its yellowed flesh hangs in loose folds ‘round its neck and
the skin on its odd shaped head that wasn’t covered by tufts of
hair is dotted with visible veins. There ain’t much nose to speak
of, just a bump with two holes where a nose should have been and a
fleshy mouth that looks too wide for the face it was on. I can feel
the bile rising in the back of my throat and I find myself
searching the ground looking for anything that I can use as a
weapon. Finn cowers against me and I hold him close as it
approaches. I can hear Tater muttering something, praying maybe,
and Jax starts tugging at his ropes, cussin’ under his breath. It’s
almost like the creature ain’t real....and tied and bound like we
were there ain’t nuthin we can do but watch helplessly as it
shuffles closer.

The muttering gets louder and I almost
yell at Tater to shut up when I realize the sound ain’t coming from
him. In fact Tater don’t look worried at all. The muttering is
coming from the critter. Its mouth is moving all odd like, like it
ain’t used to forming words...but that’s exactly what it’s doing.
It’s talking! Good Gods...it’s talking! As much as it terrifies me
I find myself straining to hear what its saying.

“
Mus...ove....mus
ove..”

I don’t understand but it keeps moving
towards me like its words were meant for me and me alone. It comes
straight for me and I’m shocked to see its eyes. As strange and
wrong as the rest of it is, its eyes....they’re so human like! It
grabs my wrist with a skeleton like hand and the contact sends a
tingling up my arm. The dark eyes bore into mine with such fear I
shiver, I cain’t help it.

“
Mus..ove!” It speaks with
more force this time and suddenly I understand.

“
Move! We must move!” I say.
It nods, in relief I think. I can feel my tension easing some as I
come to realize the creature wasn’t trying to harm us, but help
us.

“
Men....come.” Its long
finger points to the trees.

“
There are more men coming?”
I ask and it nods again. Tater looks at me fearfully.

“
The Army,” he says and the
creature confirms.

“
Ess...yes...must
go.”

Tater don’t hesitate. The little blade
suddenly appears and he starts sawing at his bindings. The creature
is also prepared. It pulls a wicked looking blade from the sash
round its waist and starts at my ropes. The smell of it so close to
me is overwhelming but I just hold my breath and let it continue
sawing my ropes, then Finns. As soon as we are free I reach for hat
head still lying at my feet and pull the shooter out from
underneath him, throw it over my shoulder. Tater by now has freed
Jax and they get the same idea grabbing the nearest weapons they
can find. Tater even takes the time to scoop up his hat even though
the creature is making frantic movements with his hands trying to
hurry us. But there’s still something I need to know.

“
The raiders...” I point at
the bodies on the ground. “I’m guessing you did this, are they
dead?”

“
No...dead....sleep. Po no
kill.”

“
Po?” I say, not knowing
what the critter means by this. It points at itself and says
again

“
Po ...no kill.”

“
Is that your name? Po?” It
nods a yes and I find myself amazed that the creature...that he (I
assume it’s a he) had the smarts enough to carry out such a plan.
Somehow it had figured out a way to put a sleeping herb or such in
the raider’s whiskey. It must have been waiting for its chance for
days to do so. Why though? Why was it helping us? I don’t have time
to ask however ‘cause Tater, hat now planted firmly back on his
head, interrupts.

“
I hate to interfere with
your getting acquainted and all but as the mutie so accurately
pointed out earlier, we must move!”

I realize the cause of his growing
concern as I hear the dull thumping coming from the ground below
us. Horses....a lot of them, and they were coming fast! The Army
was here!

“
This way!” Jax makes a
beeline for the closest grove of trees and we hightail it behind
him. We hear shouting and then popping sounds...they were shooting
their iron shooters! Did they see us already? But then we hear more
shouting and I remember the scouts Busher had planted around the
campsite. They ain’t had a chance to drink the whiskey, they were
still awake. And from the shouting we were overhearing the Army
weren’t greeting them none too friendly like. So much for honor
amongst thieves or such. I grab Finn by the front of his tunic and
drag him faster trying to get into the cover of the trees. I don’t
want to be in view when they reach the campsite. We stumble into
the trees and I look round wildly, fearing either raiders or Army
to be waiting for us but we’re alone. Tater bends over, hands on
his knees and starts wheezing loudly.

“
Tater?” I say worriedly but
he just waves a hand at me and keeps gasping.

“
I’m okay,” he manages to
croak but Jax grunts impatiently.

“
We don’t got time for this
old man.” He ignores my glare and paces around a bit. Finally he
jerks a hand over his shoulder.

“
This way,” he says but Po
puts a restraining hand on his arm, much to his obvious
disgust.

“
No,” the creature says and
points with his bony finger. “There.”

Nestled away in the trees was Winnie
and Busher’s much larger horse, grazing contentedly, unaware of the
trouble around them.