World War IV: A Broken Union (8 page)

Once everyone understood their roles once aboard the ship, most of the group settled back down onto their makeshift beds and caught a few more hours of sleep before dawn.

While eyes closed around him, Jason sat awake, watching Rio from atop the hill under the night sky. From here he could see the ship at the docks, floating silently in the water. He rubbed the dirty fabric of the uniform between his fingers, the coarse wool scratching his skin. His body felt tired, but his mind was alive with thought. He’d spent most nights awake like this, wondering what tortures befell his crew after he was taken.

It was always such a ludicrous idea to Jason that men would willingly lay down their lives for him. He actually found it a relief that the thirty rebels sleeping behind him cared little of his fate tomorrow. While the Mars name carried with it legend, he was merely a shell of the persona that had spread across the world.

When he was a boy, he fed off of the stories other people would tell him about his father, uncles, and brothers. And while he never underestimated their prowess in the field of battle, he learned quickly that his family was not immortal. It was a sobering truth as he grew older, understanding what it took for the Mars name to be etched in blood and lead.

Jason had spilled his share of legend onto the Mars coat of arms, and with it a piece of his soul. Everything he did, he justified in the name of protecting his family, his people. The leaders of the enemies he faced were vile men, driven by violence. But he’d seen enough of the soldiers they commanded to know that they were just men following orders. And in the last moment of their lives, he saw who they were. Farmers, blacksmiths, merchants, husbands, brothers, fathers, each of them with their own family and friends and life beyond the battlefield. But in war there were no half measures. You killed, or you died.

The rebels behind him stirred with the rising sun, and Jason dressed himself in the officer’s uniform, which stank of beer and death. The group broke camp quickly, Jason wanting to get to the docks early to miss as much of the crowds as possible. Just before they entered the city limits, Jason helped put the shackles on their arms, making sure they were closed but not locked.

With Jason keeping to the side, they shuffled through the streets toward the docks. A few early risers saw the spectacle, gawking at the rebels parading through Rio. And each time rocks, dirt, or spit came hurtling toward them, Jason thought their cover would be blown. But to the rebels’ credit, none of them said a word. They only offered an expression that hinted at murder, which played well into their persona as prisoners against their will.

Jason lined them up single file once they made it to the docks, and marched them down to the ship, where Jason was greeted by a half dozen guards. Jason barked for the rebels to slow, even smacking his palm against the back of a few of their heads, doing his best to sell it.

“What is this scum?” The officer on duty stepped forward, a sergeant with flabby cheeks and a harelip, paired horrifically with a row of crooked teeth. His smell was just as offensive as his speech. “No prisoners are supposed to be moved down here today.”

“The general wanted the ship cleaned, and these are the rats that will be scurrying about to get the job done.” Jason grabbed the back of the unit’s leader and screamed into his ear, “Isn’t that right?” Then he shoved his head down.

The sergeant motioned the soldiers around him up, eyeing Jason carefully. “And if you don’t mind me saying, Lieutenant, who the fuck are you?” His chubby fingers slowly grazed the hilt of his sword, just as the others walked up to him.

Jason quickly slapped the sergeant’s left cheek. The noise echoed across the water and left a red print in the wiggling flesh of the soldier’s skin. The other guards stood there aghast, and while the sergeant turned red faced, Jason stepped forward. “You listen to me, Sergeant, if this ship isn’t scrubbed from head to toe by the end of breakfast, I’ll be taking these rebels back to the prisons heavy one extra pair of shackles.”

The soldiers behind the sergeant backed down, and without a word, the officer slowly stepped away, opening up the ramp to the ship. Jason made sure to stare the man down as the rebels loaded the deck. He looked over to the others. “Well? Don’t just stand there, make sure they’re doing their jobs!” The soldiers quickly followed the rebels up the ramp, and Jason motioned for the sergeant to follow. “Up you go.”

On the walk up the ramp, five successive thuds hit the deck, and by the time Jason and the sergeant made it aboard, Jason had a pistol to the fat sergeant’s back and the other soldiers lay lifeless on the floor. The sergeant whirled around, nearly shouting, but the pistol’s barrel made him think better of it. “You want to live, stay quiet.”

The sergeant bit his tongue and held his hands up in the air. “You won’t get away with this. The navy is just beyond the port, waiting for the Mars brother to arrive and have his armada blasted to pieces. You won’t even make it out of the harbor.”

Jason jammed the end of the pistol into the fat man’s cheek. “We will, and you’re going to be the one who helps us.” He shoved the sergeant up to the wheelhouse while the rebels quickly started stowing lines and warming up the boilers.

Jason removed the sergeant’s pistol and sword then holstered his own weapon. “When the harbormaster hails us down, you will give the clear. He’ll recognize you. And if you even think of signaling anything to him that’s out of the ordinary, just remember that I have thirty very angry pieces of scum that would love nothing more than to tear you apart.”

The ship lurched forward and separated itself from the docks as Jason navigated it through the waters. The harbor narrowed at the exit, and Jason kept the speed slow to avoid any suspicion, with one hand on the wheel and the other on the sergeant’s arm.

The harbormaster stepped out of his office, paper in hand, scratching his head, no doubt wondering about the unscheduled departure. “What’s this about?” His high-pitched voice rang across the water as Jason brought the ship to a crawl.

“The general wanted to see what the Mars ship could accomplish, so we’re running some drills to look for weak points,” the sergeant answered. “We’re hoping it will give us an advantage when the brother gets here.”

The harbormaster looked back down at his paper then yawned. “All right.” He waved them forward, and Jason found his body relaxing. The ship passed through the narrow harbor entrance, and Jason made his way south, toward the coast.

Once the port was firmly in the distance behind them, Jason bound the sergeant’s wrists and ankles and stowed him below deck in the brig. The man squirmed and screamed the entire way down, making sure his outrage was known. “You’ll never get away with this. You hear me? You traitors will never have the palace. Ever!”

The iron doors clanged shut as the sergeant rolled on the saltwater floor, his coat, shirt, and pants darkening in color. A few of the rebels returned the spit they’d received on the march to the dock on their new prisoner as they left one by one.

“I’d start being a little more forthcoming with any questions we ask,” Jason said, leaning against the wall, the low-lying film of salt water sloshing back and forth with the motion of the ship. “I can’t make any promises to you once we arrive at our destination.”

“You Mars scum are all dead men. We’ll come for you. Just like your brother!”

Jason rushed over to the bars of the cell. “Who will come?” But the sergeant only continued to roll in the puddles on the floor in fruitless attempts to push himself up. Jason fumbled with the keys in the lock then stepped inside, seizing the sergeant by the collar. “Did you know about the attempt on my brother’s life?”

“Ruiz knows your family is too dangerous to stay alive. They’ll all kill you. Every last one.”

“Who will?” But before Jason had a chance to get the answer to any more of his questions, the leader of the rebel unit descended the steps and flung Jason aside then mercilessly pummeled the fat officer until his body went limp.

Jason leapt to the sergeant’s aid, knocking the rebel leader to the floor. “I need him alive!” Jason lifted the sergeant’s face, bloodied and swollen. When he checked the sergeant’s airway, the rebel knocked Jason across the chin and to the floor.

The two men grappled on the ground, their shouts bringing more of the rebels below. The leader’s comrades egged him on, some even shouting for Jason’s death. The rebel wrapped his hands around Jason’s throat and squeezed until Jason’s face turned a light shade of purple.

The pressure mounting in Jason’s head hammered against his skull. Jason repeatedly kneed the rebel in the stomach until the grip around his neck loosened, and he gasped for air, twisting his assailant off him. Jason subdued the man in a headlock until the rebel tapped out, and Jason shoved him away.

The two men panted on the wet floor, catching their breath while the sergeant still lay face down and lifeless. Jason reached over and checked the officer’s pulse. Nothing. “We needed to question him.” Jason steadied himself with a shaky arm and got a leg under him to push up. “He knew things we didn’t.”

“And now he knows nothing.” The rebel spit on the ground. “And if you ever interfere with my work again, I’ll kill you.” The rebel left, his men in tow, leaving Jason alone in the cell with the dead man.

Jason’s family was being targeted for extermination. That was why Fred was killed, and that was why he was almost taken here in Rio. It wasn’t a war against his people; it was a war against his family.

Hundreds continued to pour into the city day and night. Homes and rooms were bursting at the seams, and those that couldn’t find or afford a roof pitched tents and blankets on the outskirts of town. Farmers, fishermen, hunters, blacksmiths, merchants—anyone and everyone that was affected by the Russians marching south fled to the protection behind the front lines. And with an influx of people came an influx of sick, wounded, and the dying. The hospital was already bursting at the seams, and the fighting hadn’t even started yet.

Kemena rushed from room to room, table to table, to every man, woman, and child that stepped inside. She stitched wounds from the journey and wounds from scuffles between men in the streets over food or bedding, she cooled fevers, cleaned mange and lice, and fed and watered more malnourished peasants than she’d seen in her lifetime.

Moans, cries, and pleas were the only noises she heard anymore.
And the fighting hasn’t even started.
It was a thought that plagued the few moments of peace she received sporadically throughout the day in a closet next to her office. She sat, leaned against the shelf, the noise of the hospital muffled by the thick wood. Even when she was alone, in the quiet, her pulse raced like she had just sprinted.

The long hours had left Kemena dirty, tired, and with a light tremor in her left hand that she found trouble keeping steady. She held out her palm and watched it twitch with an agitated mind all its own.

Kemena shut her eyes, curling her fingers back and forth from a fist to open palm, forcing her mind to regain control of the deft hands that had served her so well all her life. Those hands that had healed and saved so many. While her mind was slowly draining, she could not lose her hands.

“Dr. Mars?” The knock startled her along with the timid voice on the other side. “Are you in there?”

The nurses and assistants had done what they could, but not all of them possessed the mind and knowledge of healing like she did. And the volunteers that she managed to round up could do no more than carry the sick, bury the dead, and bring whatever supplies she could scrounge up from other towns and villages. Everyone tried to help, but the brunt of the burden was hers.

Kemena opened the door, and one of the volunteers stood before her, blood stained on her shirt, but from which patient there was no way to tell. “Yes?”

The girl had mouse-like features and scurried about the hospital floor in the same manner. She’d arrived with her family of farmers who lived north of the city, right in Rodion’s war path. She’d come on their first day and offered whatever help was needed. “Your nephew is here to see you.” Before Kemena had a chance to respond, the girl was already down the hallway and gone.

Kemena pushed her way through the main hospital floor, groping hands reaching up to her by the dozens, bombarding her with their questions, with their ailments, with their pleas.

“Please, my daughter, she was hurt on the journey south.”

“Doctor, my father has not been well for some time, and the stress of the war has only worsened his condition. You have to help.”

“One of the Russian scouts attacked us in our home. My son, please, you have to save him.”

Each theatrical plea was accompanied by pained faces dripping with expressions of helplessness. It was all Kemena could do to make it through the massive crowds in one piece. When she stepped out onto the street entrance, the crowds only worsened, and she found Kit with General Monaghan.

“Governess, I found your nephew jumping aboard a wagon heading for the front lines, dressed in military uniform and armed with rifle and saber.” The general lifted the arms belt, and Kit lowered his head. “He tried getting a jump on me in the morning by waking before dawn to hide amongst the crates of provisions. Luckily, one of the lieutenants recognized him and found me.”

Despite Dean’s orders for their nephew to keep out of military affairs until the general bid him fit for battle, the boy had continually tried to sneak into the front lines. With the influx of sick, there also came the healthy. Fathers and sons with nothing to their name were eager to take the military’s offer of three meals a day, clothes, and a place to sleep in exchange for their service. The scouts coming back from tracking the Russians’ progress had told of very large numbers, and the generals here worried that their main forces would have trouble fending off the advancement.

Kemena shifted her gaze to her nephew, who still refused to look up. “Thank you, General. I’d like to have a word with my nephew alone.” Monaghan gave a stiff nod and, taking Kit’s weapons with him, disappeared with a unit down the street, leaving one guard to escort Kit when Kemena was done with him. She took Kit’s hand and led him to the edge of the porch near the hospital’s alley, which provided only a slightly more private area to talk. “Kit, what are you doing?”

The boy remained silent, and Kemena lifted his chin, forcing her nephew to look at her. He twisted his face away and turned his back to her. Kemena wrenched the boy around forcefully and shook him by his shoulders. “You listen to me, young man. Whatever dreams of grandeur you plan to find on the battlefield will not be happening anytime soon. Now, I don’t care if I have to chain you to your bed, you are not going to fight.”

Kit turned on her so fast and quickly that Kemena flinched backward. The boy was taller than she was, and thick for a boy his age, and what she saw in his eyes was a man’s rage. “The people that killed my mother and father are coming to finish the job. You and my uncle think that I don’t have a place out there, but I have more of a right to fight them than any of these beggars on the street!” He raised his voice, his face reddening. “No one will hold me from that right. Just because you open your legs for the regional governor doesn’t make you one.”

Kemena slapped Kit’s cheek hard enough to stumble him sideways. The faces in the street all turned at once to watch, but the soldier ushered them to keep moving on. She reared on her young nephew. “You talk to me like that again, and it won’t be my hand that hits you. You have
no
right to speak to me or anyone else like that, do you hear me? Whatever right of nature you think you have, you don’t. This rage is nothing more than a child’s tantrum.” Each word and syllable dug deeper into the red handprint etched across Kit’s face, crushing salt in his already burning wound.

When Kit lifted his face, he held his cheek. His eyes had reddened, but the rage and anger she’d seen just moments ago had vanished as quickly as they appeared. Now all that remained were glistening tears collecting at the corners of his eyes. “I’m sorry.” His words left at the edge of a trembling lower lip. “I’m so sorry, Aunt Kemena.” The dam holding back his grief finally burst, and the boy collapsed to the floor, crying uncontrollably. He buried his face in his hands, his shoulders trembling.

Kemena sat down next to Kit and put her arm around him. She gently rubbed his back, pulling him closer until his head rested on her shoulder. It was the first time the boy had showed any sign of grief over the loss of his parents. He’d kept it bottled up for so long, all of his emotions had transformed into nothing but rage, and with that anger finally dismantled, what should have come out long ago finally left. “It’s going to be all right, Kit. I know how much you miss them.”

Kit sniffled, doing his best to regain his composure. Even though he nearly had the body of a man grown, in her arms he felt as small as she remembered when he was a child. He leaned back, his face wet and slick with tears and sweat. He wiped his eyes, trying to get a handle on his breathing. “Everything that’s happened. I just… I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.” He turned to look at her with the same eyes that she’d seen in the hospital, pleading for guidance, looking to be saved.

“You are supposed to live, Kit.” Kemena leaned close. Her voice was soft but strong. She held him firmly, feeding him what strength she could. She grazed her fingertip across the indentation her hand had left against his skin, still irritated and red. “Neither of your parents, your father included, would want you to consume yourself with revenge. It is a war with no end, and no winners or losers.”

“I just feel so helpless.” Kit fidgeted uncomfortably. “I know I can fight. I know the type of soldier I could be on the field. Even if my parents hadn’t died, I’d want to fight.”

“Dean knows what’s inside you. It’s one of the reasons he wanted to keep you away from that while he can. There will come a time for you to take the field, and I have no doubt you will carve your own legend on the Mars family tree, but with legend comes pain and burden. Your father and uncles learned that lesson far too well, and they wish to keep you from it as long as they can. And so do I.”

Kit offered a smile and nodded. “Thank you, Aunt Kemena.” He wiped his nose again and looked down to her stomach. “How are things going?”

Kemena clutched both hands around her belly and the tiny bump that had risen there. She was barely showing, and no one knew about the pregnancy other than family and a few select guards stationed with her for protection. “Everything’s fine. I just hope your uncle makes it back before the birth.”

War drained life in many ways. Sometimes with blood. And others with time. Both were costly, but which was more dangerous varied for each soldier and his family. But one thing was certain, with the number of soldiers already engaged in the fight to come, it would not be over quickly. The larger the armies, the longer the wars. Kemena had come to terms with the fact that Dean may not see their child before it could walk.

“Are you nervous?” Kit asked.

The question threw Kemena off guard, but she knew what the hint of concern was for. She grabbed his hand and squeezed, offering a smile to ease his worry, and her own. “A little, but it’s natural. And it’s more of an excited nervous than a fearful one.”

“I know it happened to my mother,” Kit replied. “Before I was born. She never spoke of it, but the few times it was brought up, she always changed the subject quickly.”

“It happens to many mothers,” Kemena answered. “We don’t know why though. Everything can seem fine, and then… well, everything changes. But that’s not your concern to worry about.” She stood, offering her hand to help him up as well. “You go with the sergeant back to the house and check on your brother. With all of the commotion, he’s probably going stir crazy there by himself. And talk to him.” Her words were again soft, doing her best not to prod the fresh wound. “Both of you went through something very terrible. It’s rare you have someone to lean on in such a tragedy.”

Kit wrapped Kemena in his arms, and she once again felt the returned strength of the man she’d seen earlier. “Thank you. And I’m sorry for what I said.”

When he pulled back, Kemena grabbed him by the chin, her eyebrows raised and her eyes wide. “Remember what I said. Never again, Kit.”

“Yes, ma’am.” And with that he disappeared back into the mob that had become the street. The sergeant gave a light bow up to Kemena then followed Kit through the masses.

Kemena smoothed out the front of her blouse and tried putting back the strands of hair that had sprung loose from her bun. She started for the hospital door but stopped just before entering. She quickly turned her back to the street, a well of grief rising up within her that was just as surprising as it was frightening. She pressed her forehead against the wall, shutting her eyes hard.

The miscarriage from three years ago had been later in her pregnancy. She was nearly eight months when she felt something wrong. A week later she bled profusely, worse than she ever had before, which triggered her into labor, where she gave birth to a stillborn son.

Kemena could still see the dead piece of life in her arms. It was the most painful experience of her life. The child that had grown in her, been a part of her, was taken before she even had a chance to meet him.
Zachary.
That was her son’s name. The son that never learned to walk, or speak, or write and read. The boy that would never scrape his knees and come running to his mother for help. The son that would never grow into a man with a life of his own. All of that ended when she held him in her arms.

It was months before she let Dean touch her again. She knew how hard it was for him. She had completely shut herself off. She wouldn’t speak to anyone, she didn’t eat, or drink, or sleep. A glaze of impotence covered her, disabling her to the point of death.

After nearly two months of the vegetative state, Kemena finally started performing simple tasks for herself again. She went through the motions like a child, dressing and feeding herself, understanding the concept but struggling with the execution. Then, slowly, over time, she returned to normal. Going outside, speaking to people, eating regularly, going back to work, and eventually, sleeping with Dean again.

They’d tried having others since then, but this was the first time something stuck. She’d eventually just stopped thinking about it, and after two months without bleeding, she knew something had changed.

But for such good news to come in the middle of all this seemed foreboding. And Kemena had never seen Dean in such a haste before a war, nor had she seen such a gathering of soldiers as what collected north on the front lines. Whatever fate befell them, victory or defeat, would carry its own devastation.