Chapter Twenty-Four

 

Tabitha paced. She looked down at the stone floor, half-expecting to see a worn path. The cavern where she and the other women hung out was large and well-lit with floodlights. It wasn’t a prison by any stretch.

The head guy, Lipton, had explained to her that it was a compound and single men and women were kept separate except for scheduled meals and the like. He said something about keeping drama to a minimum.

It was also explained to her that she could potentially leave at any time, but it was strongly discouraged.

“We want you to feel welcome here. If you feel you must leave, you have to be “bagged”. And it will nullify the bargain we’ve made with your, uh, friend.”

“What does that mean?” She had asked.

“We’ll send a group out to hunt and capture him,” Lipton said with a smile. “Back into the cell he goes.”

She nodded. She hadn’t been happy about it, but she’d agreed.

She took a deep breath and started pacing again. The people here didn’t try to talk to her. She was at once surprised and relieved. She had expected propaganda films, booklets, missionaries…something. Instead, they kept to themselves. She saw them whispering to each other though and sneaking peeks.

She began to wonder if this was Resistance or just a large group of a militia-style compound dwellers who sought to be away from society as a whole.

She didn’t see weapons or even any communication systems. There were huge cables snaking around the cavern walls that powered the floodlights, but also a series of refrigerators and deep freezers. A large screen television and gaming console sat neglected in one corner too.

Tabitha began biting her nails. She was going to go insane here.

A woman came up to her and told her Lipton wanted a word. She happily agreed, if only to be doing something.

They met in a pseudo-office. The steady drip of water echoed from one corner. He sat in a shabby office chair, and she sat on a metal folding chair that rocked with her shifting weight.

“Keeping me off balance?” She asked.

Lipton smiled a little.

“I like you,” he said. “But I don’t understand you.”

“What?”

“Why the loyalty to an alien?”

She sat up straight, but the chair bumped on the uneven floor. She cursed.

“You don’t know anything about him.”

Lipton shrugged. “He’s a Krinar. I know they have pushed their liberal ideologies on an entire race of people and have usurped global governments.”

Tabitha looked around the sad office. Hand me down furniture, ruffled papers, moldy books.

“I won’t argue with you about the Krinar settlement,” she finally said. He muttered “invasion” but she ignored it. “I worked for the BC park service before my, my,” she swallowed. “Before.”

His eyes lowered in deference.

“I had no quarrel with the Krinar,” she said. “They stayed out of my hair, and frankly, we didn’t get many up to the forestry office. For whatever reason.”

Lipton nodded.

“I almost died out there,” she said, pointing toward where she thought the wilderness lay beyond the cave walls. “I was breathing my dying breath, and this man came out of the woods and rescued me.”

She stood and began to pace yet again. Hands gesturing, she continued. “I didn’t know who or what he was,” she said and took a deep breath. “All I know is, he took me away from there, and swore to protect me from them for always.”

She faced Lipton who tented his hands under his chin.

Tabitha dashed a tear. “Why do you think I’m loyal to him?”

He nodded and slowly turned his office chair away from her. He spoke in a soft voice.

“I lost my daughter somewhere out there.”

Tabitha put her hand to her mouth. “No.”

He turned back around, a hardness in his eyes. “Something tells me she wasn’t the victim of a grizzly.” He stood up and put his hands on his hips. “Your alien savage comes back with their blood on his hands, I’ll forget I ever saw you two. Don’t make me regret this.”

Tabitha let a tear fall, but she nodded. “I won’t,” she whispered. “I’m sorry.”

Lipton waved her away and turned his back on her again.

She ran out, found the “facilities” and hugged herself, rocking and crying on the cold and damp cave floor. “Come back, Savich.”

Having composed herself, Tabitha sat at a cafeteria style table and picked at the stale bun and reheated pork patty. She missed Savich’s rabbit stew. She recalled his dear face. Always so stern. Always rippling with danger, just below the surface. She tried to reconcile what she knew about the Krinar race with what she knew about Savich.

He wasn’t a vegetarian like the rest of them. Not really. How weird that the bastards who raped her had only ever eaten vegetables. So stupidly ironic that her human captors didn’t kill meat but assaulted her like a…. Her head shot up; her eyes saw nothing. The plastic spork in her right hand snapped in two.

“Oh my God.” She retched over the side, but kept it in. “Oh my God.” She stumbled off the bench and started shouting. “Lipton! Oh my God, Lipton!”

The men and women in the cafeteria watched her, and one man rushed to her side. He took her by the arm and escorted her through the cavern halls until they came to a metal door. “You look at nothing, you listen to nothing, got it?” He hissed at her, squeezing her arm. She nodded.

Bile kept rising, but she pushed it down. The door was opened after the man knocked, and Tabitha caught a glimpse of a huge bank of monitors and shelves of servers. She immediately looked down, waiting for Lipton to come when the man called out to him.

He stepped out of the room and shut the door behind him.

“What is it?”

She grabbed his shirt. “They were Krinar. The men who took me, who took your daughter! They were Krinar.” Tears streamed down her face. “They’re going to kill Savich!”

Lipton grabbed her wrists and extricated his shirt from her grasp. “Who is going to kill Savich?” He made no acknowledgment she used his name.

“The other Krinar. They banished him to Kavelt. He was never supposed to see another Krinar again,” Tabitha sobbed. “They must have known. They had to know! They’re going to kill him now!”

Lipton snatched a handkerchief from his pocket and shoved it at her.

“Why should I care about this?” He finally asked.

Tabitha reacted as if struck.

“But…Savich saved me,” she whispered, searching Lipton’s face for compassion. “If he had come a year sooner, he would have saved your daughter.”

Lipton frowned and grit his teeth.

“These fucking aliens have ruined the Earth,” he uttered, staring her down. “This only fuels my desire to be rid of the sumbitches.”

Tabitha stumbled back. “I’m,” she licked her lips and panted. “I’m leaving now. I can’t stay here. I can’t.” She must have a wild look in her eyes, because Lipton shifted uncomfortably. The deal! “Promise me you’ll leave Savich alone. He will already have a death warrant on his head by his own people. Just leave him be.”

Lipton stared her down for a full three minutes. “You may go.” He gestured to the man who brought her to Lipton. “Give her a backpack. Bag her and let her go.” He frowned at her. “I’m washing my hands of you, girl. Go to your own death, if you want.” He turned his back to her and walked away.

Tabitha cried a little but wiped her face and followed the man. She would find Savich. Find him and warn him. It couldn’t be too late.

An hour later, she stood in a clearing with a backpack of supplies and a couple water bottles.

And in her pocket, the nano-device that they never found, because it never occurred to them to search the human woman, companion to the hated Krinar savage.

Her smile didn’t reach her eyes. She had an alien to save.