The Wall

Unwelcome noises intruded on my space. Glancing at the clock, it was nearly midday. I slid out of bed carefully and placed pillows on either side of Orry so he wouldn’t roll off the bed.

The rapping continued.

“Coming,” I yelled to the closed door.

As I slipped on my jeans and buttoned my shirt, I could hear more than one voice on the other side, two men complaining to each other. I ran to the door and put my hand on the doorknob. Gripping it tightly, I took a deep breath and threatened myself to relax.

Gus stood right up against the screen door, his small gut pushing through the wires, with Careen and a young man I didn’t recognize flanking him. But they faded into nothing as I looked at Gus and he frowned back at me.

I’d always remarked they were similar but now I could really see it. I could see the truth of what Matthew had told me standing, disgruntled and awkward, at my front door. They were the same person, separated only by age. They had the same hair, although Gus’s was cropped close and he had a short, greying beard. It was the eyes that had my feet pushing me to turn and run. They had the same amber hue, the same long, black lashes framing such cruelty in Cal’s case. I kept telling myself over and over, He’s not Cal. He’s not Cal. But my body was shuddering and trying to hold me in. And keep him out.

Gus tried to pull the screen open but I was gripping it tightly and it sprang back to the frame.

Careen stepped forward and smiled. “Are you going to let us in?”

I nodded and stood back from the door, feeling like I was edging away from a wild animal.

They marched in and the younger man gave me a sideways glance, a mixture of surprise and disdain in his eyes.

Gus’s face had been worried down to a weary point. He looked tired and impatient. His sat in my chair with a thump without asking and looked up at me, plumes of dust motes swirling in the afternoon sun. A sharp pain ran through me again and I found myself strategically moving behind the armchair, putting a physical barrier between the two of us.

It was silent. The words that no one wanted to say hung in the air like small balls of lightning, sizzling and spitting little twirls of electric tendrils to the floor. I decided to strike first.

I opened my mouth to speak, but sound petered out into vapor and Gus cut me off.

“Matthew informed me of your request and it is out of the question. I am very sorry for what my son has done but you are not trained for this kind of mission. I won’t allow it,” Gus said bluntly.

I was flattened, but anger pulled at my restraint, lifting the pancaked edges of my confidence away from the floor. All my carefully selected arguments flew out my head. He wasn’t going to listen to them anyway. Who was he to tell me what I could and couldn’t do?

I razed my eyes across the room. Careen was smiling absently. The other man was watching, interested, like a spectator. “You’re sorry?” I moved around the armchair and placed myself directly in front of him. “I’m sorry too. You will take me. Or I will bring this matter to the leaders. If you want me trained, I’ll train. I have a couple of weeks. You owe me this.” I looked up at the sky, as if pleading to the heavens. “At least this. I’m going. You saying ‘no’ means absolutely nothing to me.”

I turned my back to him and waited. One, two, three. Don’t punch him. Let him think.

I heard a resigned sigh and the creaking of an old man easing himself out of the chair, all cracks and grunts.

“Fine. You have your wish. You will start training today,” Gus conceded, rubbing his bearded chin distractedly.

I thought of Cal tucking his hair behind his ears and tried to stop my eyes from widening and my breath quickening.

“Are you serious?” The young man argued, snapping his head back and forth between Gus and me. “She’s a child. She’ll only get in the way.”

Gus eyed the protestor. “Pietre, you’ve just volunteered to be her instructor.” His face held a self-satisfied look that at least he could punish someone for this inconvenience.

“I’ll help!” Careen was jumping up and down like she was being asked to hand out candy to children.

“Oh, and she will need to be healed before you start.” Gus threw the words over his disappearing shoulder.

He left us standing there.

A triangle of very different people, eyeing each other with varying levels of suspicion and excitement.

I woke Orry and put him inside the capsule. Lifting it with his weight proved difficult, as I was still weak and my broken arm made everything awkward. After a few attempts, Pietre’s patience ran short. He snatched the child from me and slung the capsule over his shoulder.

“Um, thanks,” I said.

“Don’t thank me yet. You have no idea what you’re in for,” he sneered.

I spoke over his shoulder to Orry’s plump, little face, “Guess what, bub? I’m getting healed today; you’ll get to see what happened to your father when he was fixed.”

Pietre shook his head. “Oh no. We’re not adding another child to the situation; find somewhere to drop it on the way to the labs.”

I snarled at him. “My child is not an ‘it’.”

“Whatever,” he said with an infuriating shrug.

After leaving Orry begrudgingly with Odval, I was escorted to the science labs like a criminal. Pietre and Careen walked next to me shoulder to shoulder. I wanted to clip them both. Well, actually I wanted to elbow him in the groin and throw a stick for Careen to fetch. She was so much like a bounding puppy. I swear I heard her panting with her tongue hanging out. I wouldn’t have been the least bit surprised if she had barked. But I kept my cool. I needed their help. So I breathed deeply and imagined I did those things, which gave me some level of comfort. Eyes front, we traipsed towards the town, hopped on a spi

The science labs were co

Looking around anxiously, I worried I would bump in to Joseph, but thankfully he was not near the entrance at that time. As we walked through the doors to the hospital, I looked down the long corridor and wondered if Cal lay there still. I trembled and shut my mind to it, following my minders up the stairs.

As we climbed, Careen separated from me and jumped up the stairs, turning to look at us while she talked. Her excitement was not at all infectious—it was unfitting.

“Rosa, this is Pietre. I told you about him before,” she said, none too subtly. I was surprised she didn’t wink. He didn’t even flinch at the mention of is name.

“Uh huh,” I managed to mutter.

Pietre observed her bounding, his eyes stalking her breasts bouncing up and down, tracking her long legs with a sly gaze. I felt sick to my stomach.

When we got to the walkway, we took it one at a time. It couldn’t take much weight, though Pietre commented that I could probably jump up and down on it and it wouldn’t make any difference. I ignored him but he was trying my patience.

I stepped on; it creaked and swayed like a spring breeze would send it flying out into the atmosphere. The Survivors were a strange people. Why not fix it? They seemed to have the attitude of waste not, want not. If it was broken, they would fix it but they were unlikely to tear it down and build a new one. It brought my thoughts to my mother and her similar attitude, a shiver of nervousness shooting up my spine.