“Choose your path and stick to it,” I muttered.
“For all your days will be defined by it,” Blue sobbed, finishing one of our basic mottoes.
As much as I wanted to see Zeke, the thought of talking to him panicked me. He would make one last plea for me to stay, and I would have to say no to him one more time. I thought he was a coward for avoiding me all day. I was oddly relieved and felt smug and superior to his weakness. Now, knowing he spent the day actively trying to help me get home, I felt angry and cheated out of my chance to prove Zeke was too weak to leave my family for. As we walked around the camp towards the domestic tents, I noticed the empty areas that weren’t there yesterday.
“What is happening, where did the coffee tent and the meeting hall go?” I asked.
“Non-essentials are broken down first. We have started moving the people. The entire settlement will be gone in two days.” Chip seemed apprehensive about sharing this bit of information with me. I realized then he knew the full plan the council decided upon and how I played a part in it.
Violet sat on a large crate at the site of their dwelling and watched several small children playing. All the useful aged people were busy packing containers on open bed transports and moving them out to the sand flats—the opposite direction of where I would be traveling.
Violet noticed me walking towards her. She grabbed a package wrapped in twine and headed over to me.” Karine, I have your belongings packaged up as tightly as I could manage.” Chip took the neatly bundled package in his hands and tossed it up and down to gauge its weight.
“Nothing in here will help you on your trip. It’s extra weight. Is there anything in this bundle of clothes you can’t replace when you arrive home?”
“My commerce bracelet. It may help my family track me once I get closer.” Chip looked concerned. “It’s just a monetary gadget of sorts. Nothing to buy here, so I haven’t needed it, besides it’s dead. It will take a few hours in the sun to charge.” I pulled the black and silver object from the pile and slipped it in my pocket.
“They could have tracked you with this thing all this time?” Chip sounded angry. I could see the control he was summoning in his face as he grabbed me by the arm and pulled me close to him.
“It could be hacked. I purposely let it run out of power. I don’t have a death wish. I don’t want these people to be carpet-bombed like water terrorists. I just want to go home with as little bloodshed as possible.” Chip released my arm and looked at me very strangely. “I warned them when we got here. I am the rod. That is what I told them, I used your words, and your elders didn’t believe me.”
“I believe you,” Chip whispered. “You need to make it back to your blood-thirsty people as fast as possible.”
“I agree. The recent bombing was outside the settlement, but close enough, walking distance. If we were all blood-thirsty and savage, Jason wouldn’t have given you a warning shot.” Chip appeared to finally grasp the emerging danger.
Zeke appeared from an old truck’s cab, dusty and sweaty from a day of travel and worry. “You can’t leave tonight. It will have to wait for tomorrow and much better planning.” Chip walked over to the truck and started a conversation with Noah. Zeke looked at my day suit and at my packs. “No, we need time to find you a better path back to the city. Up the rock face is to dangerous.” Zeke explained.
“I’m glad to see you before I leave. Looks like everyone else is moving in the opposite direction of me today.” I pointed to the people busy in the area behind us. They looked organized in their chaos, which made my situation even more surreal.
“Glad to see me? This isn’t happening today. Chip tell her she needs to wait.”
Chip shook his head no. “Sorry, my friend, this needs to happen now. We all want the safety of our relatives, Zeke. She needs to be sent back to hers.”
“So, I get to pay for all of you to live. I have a bride too, young and beautiful, but I have to sacrifice her for the good of my people. We are sending her into a pit of savages to be literally stoned to death because of their ignorance.
“You did this to me, Noah, you undo it. Take her out of my sight. Drive her as far as that piece-of-shit truck will go, and then you walk back. Stay at the end of the caravan, if I see you.” Zeke was yelling at Noah. I was sure he couldn’t even see me anymore.
I pulled the visor over my head and started walking away.
“Karine! Stop!” Zeke yelled. Chip held him at the edge of the encampment.
“You know, I had a handsome husband once. He showed me a pool of the most beautiful blue water and taught me how to swim. We lived a simple and had decades together filled with friends, family, and children. One day I wasn’t there anymore. I died in my sleep and woke up someplace else.” Chip brought the last of my gear and put it in the bed of the old truck.
“You can still choose to stay with me, Karine. We could have all those things.” I could hear the pain in his voice. I told myself not to move. I wanted to kiss him and tell him I could stay. I wanted to pull myself apart and find a way to live in two worlds, but I couldn’t do those things.
“The dead can’t hurt you, Zeke. I’ll remember you happy and surrounded by water.”
Blue secured my glove strings into place. “You
