Jessica13 scowled at the tower and more importantly, at the two balloons like the ones around the bunker they had helped fix. These flew a great deal higher, however, all the way up in the clouds.
She wasn't sure if it was true that Athena—or Lady Hoot, as she was apparently known—could control the rain but seizing the water underground did make sense. She'd read about some of the bunkers being built to sustain and maintain water supplies in the surrounding areas with the purpose to make the Outside fit to live in again. This one likely had a massive underground reservoir, which was how she could manipulate how much water these people could access from underground.
"How does Lady Hoot collect what she needs from you to keep delivering the water?" Jessica13 asked.
"Oh, you know…” The woman shrugged. “Sometimes, it's only the admins sent from the bunker who take what they need, plus parts and pieces and sometimes, even folks." The idea of them seizing people was a concern. Had they all ended up like those in the church, or did Athena have a more sinister purpose for them? While she couldn’t imagine what that might mean, she did know she didn’t want to find out first-hand and cast another surreptitious look around her.
"They say that there are other towns she collects from,” her companion continued, “but since she takes so much from us, I don't understand why she would need theirs as well. Maybe they only need to give up their goods for her to be able to give the water?"
It seemed like the people in the area had been cowed into submission through control of their water supply. Not everyone, obviously, because the signal for help had been sent. She wondered if there were others who were still alive who didn’t believe that Athena actually provided the water.
Technically she did give them the water, but she used it to extort what she wanted from the local populace. Not only that, she was only able to give it because she’d stolen it from them in the first place.
And not only Auburn, if the girl was right and there were more towns she collected from.
Jessica13's gaze returned to the smoking ruins of the building and reminded herself that someone had, in fact, called them for help and that they were likely inside the smoking remains of that building. Athena’s control, when the threat of no water didn’t work, was obviously enforced a little more compellingly.
"What happened on that hill there?" she asked and tried to keep her voice as neutral as possible. She’d learned more from this young woman in a few moments than she’d gleaned from the town as a whole thus far.
"Oh, Papa says I'm not supposed to talk about it," the girl said a little too quickly. Her expression flickered between fear and resentment and a slightly rebellions gleam in her eyes said she wanted to share what she knew with the newcomer.
"Well, far be it from me to make you break your word to your father," she replied lightly, hoping her apparent lack of interest would encourage her companion to speak.
"He's not my father. He's my papa," the girl protested and her eyes widened when she realized the statement had been a little forceful.
"He's not your father?" Jessica13 asked.
"No, I…” She looked away and swiped at her eyes. “My father died because he disobeyed Lady Hoot," the girl said. "Papa is the man Lady Hoot told my mama to marry after that. He told me not to say anything to anyone because no one is allowed to talk about it."
"Do you want to say anything?" she asked gently. It was apparent that the young woman didn’t necessarily dislike the man her mother had married, but she was also torn. If they weren’t allowed to discuss people who had been killed by Athena, it meant she wasn’t permitted to speak about her father either. It couldn’t be easy to grieve in those circumstances, and she was probably afraid to say anything even to her mother.
"I want to but I shouldn't."
"Well, you must do what you think is right. But I won’t tell anyone if that’s what you’re worried about. I can keep secrets when I need to and besides, I’ll be gone soon.”
"Well…you promise not to blab to anyone?" The girl finally sighed when she nodded. "Papa helped Lady Hoot with the collections this month and she needed more than the past couple of months. People complained, and a couple of them were caught sending signals out of town. The priest who made service in the church used the bell tower to try to call someone else who wasn't Lady Hoot. I guess he wasn't good at it and only Lady Hoot heard, so she took the priest and the people who helped him, and…"
"Burned them inside the building," Jessica13 said and finished the girl's sentence for her.
She nodded and wiped her eyes again. "I didn't like it. One of them was my friend's father, but Papa said she would get a new papa too, so I guess she’ll be okay. My Papa isn’t cruel, and he takes care of us, so maybe hers will too. But it’s still sad because her father and mine were good too. I miss him, although I can’t say it because Papa says it’s dangerous. It doesn’t seem right that they had to die to make an example, whatever that really means."
Jessica13 finished her work on the desalinator and looked at the young woman, who now kicked at the rocks on the ground with a kind of dejected acceptance. It was oddly surreal to discuss people being killed like it was something
