JACKAL
The male bedbug stabs into a special place in the female’s abdomen and inseminates her. This is traumatic for the females' exoskeletons, but they’ve adapted ways of minimizing the damage to protect themselves.
At first, when Phoenix and I lie in bed together, I’m not sure what to do. I’m good at the playacting, great at the fucking, but when it comes to curling up in bed with a woman, I am knobby knees and awkward elbows. We laugh and bump around for a bit before I pull her back against my chest and wrap my arms around her. Nestling my nose in the back of her neck, I inhale the scent of eucalyptus, which she tells me she soaks her body in after a long day of dancing. I allow myself to relax, letting sleep tug me slowly away. She eases against me, sighing.
“I don’t even need a heating pad with you in my bed,” she slurs sleepily. “Feels good…”
When I open my eyes again, Phoenix is jumping up, pulling a shirt and pants on.
“Someone’s out there,” she hisses, looking toward the window.
I hear it then, a continuous thud at the front of the house.
“Did you hear that? Someone’s at the door.” Her voice is panicked and I get up too, striding toward her and putting my hand on her back.
“Stay here,” I order.
I move into the hall, Phoenix on my heels, and Gwen walks out of her room, wild-eyed. Phoenix puts her finger to her lips to make sure we’re quiet while the pounding at the door gets louder.
Going to the window furthest from the door, I look out through the crack in the curtains. The figure is small; I can’t see all of the person, but the shirt is familiar.
It hits me suddenly who it is. I fling open the door as the girls simultaneously shout, “No!”
There’s a moment of shocked silence before Tahira falls into my arms, sobbing and clutching at me frantically.
“Oh my God,” Phoenix says. “Oh my God.”
Tahira’s arm dangles from a bad break. I snatch her up, carrying her to where the fire is still dwindling, and gently set her down on the sofa.
Gwen pushes me out of the way just as Phoenix rushes from the kitchen with an armload of supplies. Tahira’s eyes flutter open. When she sees Gwen, an anguished moan presses through her lips.
“Gwen...the others,” she sobs. “The others.”
“What happened, Tahira?” Gwen tries to keep her voice even, but I hear the tremble as she slides scissors up the girl’s shirt, cutting it away from her body.
It peels back with a wet slap, and Gwen drops it on the floor.
“Cardi’s gone,” she says. “They beat her until she passed out and then took the twins. I think Khan was killed in front of Kelsy.” She sobs. Phoenix and Gwen exchange a look as they clean her wounds. “I ran. I didn’t know where I was going. I tried to go back to where Jewel told us to find her if anything went wrong. She said she’d wait a while before heading back. My arm…I fell. I got turned around, but I eventually found her and she set me up with someone she trusted to drive me back. Jewel stayed to see if she could find Kelsy.” She swipes her face angrily. “I don’t even know if she got out of there. I asked the driver to let me off at a station,” she says, looking at Phoenix. “And then I ran the last five or six miles. I saw the barn at the end of the street and found my way back. I’m sorry. I don’t think anyone saw me.”
Something flashes across Phoenix’s face, but then my attention turns to Gwen who lowers her head. I see her shoulders convulse in silent sobs. I rest a hand on the back of her neck. After a few minutes, she reaches back and places her hand on top of mine. Emotion washes over me so fast I almost walk out of the room. My feelings: I mostly keep them detached. They float outside of me until something other than me tugs the string and reels them in; that something is Gwen’s tears. Her skin is warm and her sobs feverish. Gwen is tied to Foley now. He’d be here if he could, if he knew what was happening. Something or someone is holding him back. She hasn’t talked much about what life was like in prison, but the bond between all of the girls has been apparent.
Phoenix puts her hand on Gwen’s back, her own eyes filling, but when Tahira cries harder, she shifts into action. “I need to reset your arm and put it in a splint.”
Tahira’s eyes widen. “You know how to do that?”
“I’ve had to do this before. Dancing, you know? I’ll be quick. I need to get a few things...” She waves me over.
“Get ready to hold her hand,” she says.
Within minutes, she’s back. She leans over and when she has everything in position, she moves the bone in place. It happens so quickly, Tahira barely has a chance to realize it’s already time for the splint.
Gwen wipes her face and looks on, impressed. Phoenix kicks it into another level of busy mode—fluffing pillows behind Tahira, rushing to the kitchen to give her water and the painkillers from the kit, covering her with a blanket.
“Are you sure you weren’t followed?” Gwen finally asks, reaching over and putting her hand on Tahira’s good arm.
“I don’t think so,” she says. “I kept watching out of the side mirror—nothing suspicious—and I waited until the woman pulled away after she dropped me off.”
“What was it like at the border?” I ask.
“It didn’t seem like there were many guards, but they had guns and these other weapons—I’d rather have a gun shoot me than be hit with those weapons.” She shudders.
“How old are you, Tahira?”
“Fifteen,” she whispers.
I try to control my reaction but have a hard time hiding the shock. Phoenix’s head jerks up and she sits down on the chair next to Tahira, looking stunned.
“Fifteen? What could you have possibly done to get you in a maximum security prison?”
“I tried to take what belonged to me.” Her lip trembling, she stares up at the ceiling, anything to avoid eye contact.
I exchange a look with Phoenix then glance at Gwen. She puts her arms around Tahira and comforts her, face mottled from her own emotion. She asks Tahira something under her breath and the girl nods.
When Gwen has regained her composure, she looks at me. “The Society has found another way to make money. They’re stealing the lottery births and selling them off to the highest bidder...and not just those babies—they’re stealing the underground births as well.”
“Underground births?” I repeat. “What do you mean?”
“Babies are being born in the underground and then kidnapped—”
“How are they getting away with—” I stop talking before my idiotic question can fall out of my mouth. I know what the Society is capable of; nothing should surprise me. They continue to destroy lives with no consequence. I put my fist over my mouth and ask exactly what’s nagging me. “Are some of the End Men complicit with this?” I go through each one and think about their strengths and weaknesses. As much as they annoy me, I can’t think of a single one who would be this cruel. “There’s not much more time left in a day to impregnate the underground too!” I shake my head. “What’s going on? How is this happening?”
“There are men, Jackal,” Gwen says. “They’ve been hiding as women for years.”
“The fuck?” I back up and sit down. Open my mouth and shut it. “You’ve met them?”
“I have,” Gwen says. “One of them helped Folsom leave the Regions.”
I guess it’s not that hard to believe. Nuclear accidents, hydrogen bombs, terrorist attacks—it became hard to keep track of everyone. Especially after the government was overthrown. For nearly twenty years the continent was in chaos. Why have I never heard about them before now? God, the Society has consumed my whole life. I look at Tahira.
“You got pregnant...by one of these...men?”
She nods.
“There are babies being born that have absolutely no connection to the End Men,” she says.
I shake my head, still in shock. I was told there were no more. I was told it was up to me, up to the twelve of us. Has it all been a lie?
“The government knows, they hunt the babies down and take them.” Tahira’s voice breaks and she closes her eyes for a moment before continuing. “I stayed hidden for most of my pregnancy. Someone turned me in. I don’t know who, but the Society has recruited people who work for them. They came and took my baby—my son—off of my chest in the middle of the night while we were sleeping. I ran after them, but they got in a car. They got away and I searched for my son for days…”
Her eyes squeeze shut and her shoulders shake with her sobs. She gulps and when she speaks it’s aimed at me, each word an effort to speak.
“One man’s privilege is another man’s sacrifice. Make sure you know what you’re fighting for.”
My eyes blur and the shame is absolute. I feel injustice about the life I lead, while others are living a life of hiding and poverty, trying to protect their babies. How the fuck do I wrap my mind around this one? I wonder if Folsom knows about this.
Gwen speaks up then. “When we started talking about it in prison, many others shared similar stories. I’m certain the Society is behind it. We know they’re behind the lottery babies being sold. Everyone who pushes back is thrown in prison. The Society threatens their families. There are probably more who are too afraid to say anything and keep quiet to stay with their families. Or even in hopes of getting their babies back one day. It’s what kept me going while I was in there—getting my son back.”
Her Silverbook dings and a smile covers her face.
“Jewel is safe. She’ll be here soon.”
The girls hug each other and we have a moment of quiet.
Phoenix looks at me and the dread curls around my gut like a worm. I already know what she’s going to say.
“We need your help, Jackal. We have to stop this. I have a plan to get Rebel back.”