Aftertime

dishes and emptying latrines and carrying water, the things no one else wants to do. The slave labor jobs.”

Cass felt faint with dismay. “But the babies-”

“Who knows, Cass? Infirmary or cradle camp or something. Come on, they’re not going to let them starve. But you can bet they aren’t getting much attention. Probably just enough so they grow up to join the labor pool.”

Cass slowed, her body going numb with the horror of it, but Elaine did not slow down. After a moment Cass had to jog a little to catch up. “You could be wrong… About all of it. I mean, you yourself said you don’t know.”

“You’re right,” Elaine said. “I could be wrong. You want to take that chance? You think any mother here wanted to take that chance? That’s why we sent the ones away that we could.”

“Their own children…”

“Look, Cass, you haven’t seen the others. You wouldn’t recognize them. You want to know why I got this job? Why I’m a trusted member of the team around here?” The sarcasm in her voice was painful to hear. “Because I didn’t fall apart like some of the others. The parents. Do you want to know how many suicides we’ve had since then? No…you don’t. Trust me, you don’t. The Convent would only take the girls. The families with boys? They…”

She shook her head, went silent. Cass walked beside her, making almost an entire lap, both of them lost to their thoughts.

“The boys went with the Rebuilders,” Cass finally said. “The girls went to the Convent.”

“Yes. That’s what I’ve been telling you. And you need to be grateful. Maybe they have to listen to Jesus talk morning, noon and night. Maybe they practice witchcraft or worship phases of the moon. Does it really matter? They’re safe. They’re safe enough for now, Cass, and that’s enough. That’s all we have anymore.”

“But why didn’t the parents go with them? The mothers, at least-if they allow women-”

“The Convent refused,” Elaine said. “Only the children. The Convent takes new acolytes sometimes but only the ones they feel are called. They wouldn’t take the mothers because they said they weren’t called to join, but the girls were still innocents, so they could. Their leader, this woman they have, she makes all these decisions. I don’t know, maybe she reads tea leaves or whatever, but she sent the word down. They took eleven girls. Ruthie was the youngest. The oldest was fifteen.”

Ruthie, given away again…how many times in her short life had she been passed along to strangers? Cass felt the guilt and grief encroaching and gritted her teeth so hard her head pounded. “When did they take them?”

“Almost three weeks ago. After the scout came…they took them the next morning.”

“Who? Can I talk to them?” Maybe she could find out more about the Convent, maybe they could tell her how to get in, who to talk to, how Ruthie had done on the journey, if she was frightened or sad, if someone had been there to take care of her-anything, anything at all. “No, Cass,” Elaine snapped. “Don’t you get what a risk I’m taking just talking to you? I just wanted you to know. The best thing for everyone is for you to go tomorrow. Go down to Colima, be grateful-let them do their experiments and feed you and take care of you, and forget all about Ruthie.”

Her voice broke at the end in a little choked sob, and Cass put a hand on her arm, forcing her to stop. Elaine shrugged it off, yanking her wrist back and rubbing furiously at her eyes.

“What?” Cass demanded. “What is it?”

“Nothing,” Elaine mumbled. “Nothing, okay? Only don’t you think-don’t you know-can you really-”

Elaine looked wildly around and then Cass realized that her old friend longed to bolt, to leave Cass standing there, that only a sense of duty and fears about being watched kept her rooted to the spot. She was acting as though…a thought occurred to Cass.

She had been gone two months. Two months was a long time, especially Aftertime. Time enough to grow attached to someone. “You took care of her, didn’t you,” she said softly. “You took care of Ruthie.”

Elaine wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Someone had to. You weren’t here.”

“Oh…Elaine.” Cass said. “I didn’t know. I’m sorry. I’m-thank you. How can I ever thank you-all that time, and I- if you hadn’t been here for her-I got here as fast as I could. You have to know that.”

“But you weren’t here after it happened.”

“After I was attacked? I know, Elaine, and I-”

“No!” Elaine spat. “No! Not you. You weren’t here for her after she was.”

Dread bloomed in Cass’s gut. Oh, God…no. Not that-

“When she was attacked! God damn it, Cass, don’t pretend you don’t remember!” Elaine spoke in a furious whisper. “I saw you watching! I saw you screaming when it happened. The whole time, when they were dragging you off-you were screaming her name and-”

“I don’t remember!” Cass said, half pleading, half begging. “I don’t!”

Elaine made a sound in her throat, a gasp of choked fury. “How many people are going to suffer for you? How many, Cass?”

“What do you mean?”

Elaine looked at her for a long moment, the anger slowly draining from her face, leaving her pale and tired looking.

“What do you mean?” Cass repeated, whispering. Trembling, she let go of Elaine’s arm.

“I’m sorry,” Elaine said after a moment. She had resumed the same stoic look that had apparently gotten her through the turbulent weeks past. “I shouldn’t have-I know you’ve suffered, too. I was out of line.”

She started walking again, trudging more slowly than before. Cass kept pace, as they made a second pass around the courtyard.

“Please, just tell me,” she begged. “I swear to you I don’t remember anything after-after I saw them coming, after the first one got to me. I remember throwing myself on top of Ruthie-”

Because the Beaters had been loping and lurching, colliding with each other, tripping over each other in their mad rush to reach her. And she had covered Ruthie as well as she could, pushing her down, wishing she could send Ruthie into the ground where she could be cradled and protected by the earth itself.

Elaine sighed, her shoulders slumping. “Well, you…they got to you and…took you. Four of them.”

Cass nodded. By then, the Beaters had worked out a system. They didn’t fall upon their victims in the street anymore; they took them back to their nests, where they could devour them in peace. Four Beaters: each took a person’s arm or leg and then they hauled their victim away, taking care to keep their quarry from dragging on the ground, oblivious to their screams.

“And then?”

“There were two left. And then Bobby came running out.”

Bobby? Cass racked her brain, trying to remember. Elaine at the door with a group of women, talking in the sunshine. But Bobby? Had he been there?

“He heard you screaming. He ran out of the library,” Elaine went on. “You wouldn’t stop screaming Ruthie’s name and he ran to you. Everyone was yelling at him…but it was like he didn’t hear them, like he didn’t care. He was almost all the way to where you were when you…”

“I what? I what?”

“You were being dragged, but you were holding on to Ruthie and you screamed at him to take her.”

Cass widened her eyes, incredulous. “But that means…”

“He did. He got her,” Elaine said quietly. “He fought hard. He got between them and Ruthie, even though they were…they bit him. He held them off long enough for us to come and get her. Barbara and me. We waited until they were focused on him and then we ran and got her.”

“And they took him? Away?”

“No, Cass. He was able to run, when the Beaters saw us. They let go of him for a second and he got away. Everyone ran. We carried Ruthie back inside and…and Bobby ran to the creek.”

“To the creek? Why would he go to the creek?”

“He didn’t stop there, Cass. He followed it down to the cliffs.”

A sick understanding dawned in Cass’s mind, the full horror of what had happened.

“The cliffs…”

A mile down, as it wound past the edge of town, the creek widened and formed a deep pool rimmed with