Her hands were warming now, but she could easily feel Tilly’s ribs. One of the supervisors had taken a liking to Tilly. She’d rebuffed his advances. Now, he purposefully didn’t punch her chit. Saying she’d taken too many breaks, when she hadn’t. He was trying to starve her into having sex with him. Rape in the camp was punishable by death. No trial, just a bullet to the head. Megan had urged Tilly to tell someone, but Tilly was afraid.
“It’s his word against mine. And then what? I get kicked out. Or, starve to death?” She’d wept. She knew Tilly wasn’t thinking straight. None of them were, the fatigue from long hard days of work and lack of food was taking their toll on all of them. Some of the men looked nearly emaciated.
“You need to tell someone, this is wrong.” Megan had urged. But Tilly hadn’t and continued to waste away. Megan had had enough and on her lunch break, had gone to the administrative trailer. It had taken twenty precious minutes, but she finally was admitted. She’d told the clerk about the supervisor and about her friend. The clerk was a woman, she too was in a yellow jumpsuit with a black belt. Megan watched as the woman picked up a phone.
A few minutes later, a man, in civilian clothes came to the desk.
“Can you prove your accusations?” The man asked. He had a somewhat florid complexion with a graying comb over, he also looked twenty pounds overweight.
“Right now, Tilly and I work on constructing the framework for the solar panels. We work side by side, working roughly at the same speed and producing roughly the same number of frames. Yet, every day, she is missing lunch. She only gets breakfast and soup at night. That’s it. Lynch has been doing this for a week now and Tilly is losing so much weight that her body is starting to shut down. If you don’t believe me, have someone observe Lynch. He’s doing it to other women. Look for the women who look the thinnest.”
Two days later, Lynch was pulled out from the construction site. Work halted as three men in black coveralls walked him a short distance away. A fourth man walked up and shot Lynch in the head.
They’d all been shocked. Megan had thought the man would just be reassigned or chastised. It was like some B movie, some crazy different dimension thing. People didn’t just walk up and shoot other people. It just didn’t happen. It had shaken Megan to her core. It had frightened her, the power these people from the Hive had over all of them. Life or death and the wrong word could get someone killed. Later that afternoon, rules were posted throughout the camp. Essentially, any infractions were to be severely dealt with. Rape, sexual intimidation, food intimidation, and theft, drugs and drug abuse would be punishable by death. Immediate execution.
Megan hadn’t told Tilly that she’d gone to see the administrator, she felt too guilty about Lynch’s execution. She knew Tilly would feel it as well. She wanted to spare her friend that. She was still trying to cope with that horrible guilt. She didn’t like the man and what he’d been doing to Tilly, but she didn’t think he deserved to die. Again, where did the Hive get the authority to kill someone, just like that?
Megan’s body finally stopped shivering, the penetrating cold abating. She was finally feeling the warmth steal over her. Hopefully her friend would put weight back on. The days were long, and the food just barely kept them going. She wondered about all the other people outside the razor wire. The refugees weren’t given a lot of information. They did know that North Korea had dropped bombs, they did know that part of the United States was dead. She wasn’t sure if she felt lucky to be in the refugee camp or not. She felt more like a prisoner than anything, losing most, if not all, of her freedoms. She’d done nothing wrong except to survive.
Ӝ
Tilly could feel her friend’s restlessness. She was so tired, and her body ached. Her bones hurt, her back hurt, and her stomach. She’d been so shocked at the execution of Lynch, that she’d not known how to feel about it. In some ways, she was satisfied, because she was sure the man would have let her starve to death. She also felt a bit protected; someone fixed the problem. She wasn’t sure about the man’s death and how those ripples would affect her.
She was just glad that tomorrow, she could eat. She’d always been a rule follower. Always done what she was told. It had frustrated her and frightened her that Lynch could get away with it. Bastard. But in her experience, upper management was always backed up. Not this time. At least for now, the Hive had worked for her. She knew Megan hated it here. She did too, but she didn’t see a way out. She didn’t know where else to go. Now that Lynch was gone, maybe she could
