Chapter Two

Felix was deep in thought while he slowly paced the porch.  He stopped for a moment to admire the brilliant orangish-red sun as it casually set behind the tree line. Being outside to greet the sun when it rose in the morning and to say good-night when it set in the evening was a habit that he developed as a young boy.  It gave him some semblance of peace to witness such a miraculous occurrence.

To his disappointment, the contentment that he normally felt during this time eluded him.  His mind was filled with confusion and frustration.  He’d intently listened to Ari’s tale of woes about all that occurred while journeying from Center Land to his home and was sorry for what she’d endured during it.  A trip that should have taken her no more than two days on foot – less on horseback  - had lasted the better part of a week.  She’d been so preoccupied with fleeing for her life -as well as traumatized by the sight and sound of her mare being devoured- that she’d gone off her intended route and was lost in a barren area for a significant period of time.  Since her supplies were strapped to the back of her mare, she only had the half-empty water canteen that hung, crossbody, on her torso.  Food was something that she’d have to rummage for and, in the desolate area that she’d ended up in, it wasn’t to be found.  She rationed her water while she searched for more and feared dehydration before she’d accomplished it.  For someone whose body wasn’t used to the survival rigors of traveling the countryside afoot, she’d faired poorly; as was expected.

He’d given her food and water and then left her sleeping on the sofa. She looked weak and frail, yet he knew better.  She was a strong and resourceful beauty who shouldered a responsibility that most men would find daunting.  He assumed that the fact that her appearance was deceiving was one of the reasons that the leaders of Center Land favored using her for missions.  He was sure that, like him, when people first met her they were deceived into thinking her weak and unthreatening.  He didn’t know exactly how threatening she could be since the evilness of her late brother, Baelil, had overshadowed all else, but he knew for certain that she was anything but frail.

Regardless of the role that she’d played in delivering misery and mayhem to the life of his family, he couldn’t help finding her attractive. At one time, he’d contemplated mating with her.  Of course, now that he was a eunuch, that could never happen.

The sun was almost completely set when he turned to find her quietly observing him from the doorway of the house. 

“How long have you been there?” he asked with irritation.  He was never one to appreciate being spied upon and that’s what it felt like she was doing.

“I didn’t mean to upset you,”  she offered in a gentle tone. “You looked so deep in thought that I didn’t want to disturb you.  So, I just stood here waiting for you to notice me.”

“You’ve been  noticed,” he growled. Then, when she simply stood in calm silence, he added, “I expected you to sleep longer.”

Ari shrugged. “Not my bed, not my home… I’m sure you understand.”

“That’s a comfortable sofa, but it isn’t a bed,” he said with a smile as he forced himself to relax and be amiable. “I’ll show you to a room where you can clean up.  Do you have a change of clothes in your backpack?”

Ari’s brilliant white teeth sparkled in the sunlight as she grinned.  “As a matter of fact, I do. I saw no reason to change while on the road.”

Felix’s eyes locked on her mesmerizing smile as he nodded. “Understandable.”

Ari nervously fidgeted. “Will Kendra and Rex return soon? I’ve been gone so long already.  I imagine that Olga is starting to get nervous.”

“They’re on horseback, so they go further than when on foot.”

“Horseback?” Ari repeated with furrowed brows.

“There were several freed up after your raid, if you recall,” he firmly stated.

“I’d forgotten about the horses,” she sighed.

“Don’t expect them back,” Felix quickly said.  “They’re the spoils of war.”

Ari tipped her head and looked at him for a long moment. “You don’t like me.”

Taken aback by her bluntness, he sucked in air. “It’s not that I don’t like you.  I just don’t like what you did.”

Ari looked away. “I was following orders.”

“Well, your orders suck,” he grumbled.

“I won’t argue with that,” she said with a soft sigh. “Much of what they ask me to do is distasteful.”

“If you don’t approve of what they ask of you, why do you do it?”  he asked.

She shrugged and looked off into the distance. “If you want to live in Center Land, you have to earn the right.  I find the roles for females far more distasteful than what they ask me to do as a soldier.  It’s the lesser of the evils.”

“What roles for females are distasteful?”  he asked with curiosity.  “Are you saying that you’re not domestic?”

Ari giggled. “I haven’t a domestic gene in my body, but it’s not that.”  After filling her lungs with air and then slowly letting it out, she said, “If I wasn’t working as a soldier for the council, I’d be expected to enter into the breeding program.”  She visibly shuddered.  “I have no desire to become a baby factory.”

Felix suspiciously eyed her. “Enforced breeding is something the aliens do for food supply.  Why would they be doing it in your land?”

“It’s not enforced,”  Ari said. “It’s elective, but expected.  Our reasoning is different, of course.  We aren’t cannibals.  Our goal is to drive the aliens off the planet and we can’t do that until our numbers are up.  There are far too few of us right now.”

“Do the aliens know about your little community?”  he asked with sudden interest.

She shook her head. “If they did, we’d be wiped out by now.  We use a machine that creates a holographic covering over the village.  So far, it’s proved effective.”

“So far,” he mused, more to himself than to her, “but with a breeding program in play, the community must be growing quite large.  How long will the holograph be able to cover it?”

“We send the children to our sister community in the center of the earth where they are raised and given proper training in preparation for when we go up against the aliens.  They have plenty of room to grow and no need for disguise like we have,” Ari offered.

Felix scowled. “So the mother gives birth and then  relinquishes the child?  Egad, that’s awful.  They really are just baby factories.”

“Olga is close to remembering the formula for the cure to zombiesm,” she eagerly offered.  “It’s been a lot of years, but it’s slowly coming back to her.  We expect to be manufacturing it very soon.”

Felix scowled. “Will curing the zombies take care of the alien problem? No, it won’t.  You’ll still need numbers to go up against them.”

“We won’t need to send the children away, though.  They’ll be able to stay with their parents and be raised normally,” she said with a pensive tone.

“I don’t see how,” he said with a shake of his head. “The zombies aren’t the reason you’re hiding your community, the aliens are. You’ll still have to be careful to keep the village small.”

Ari shook her head. “The elders say that when the zombie’s are taken care of, we’ll have no more reason to hide and I believe them.

Felix pursed his lips. “I don’t understand why Olga didn’t come forward  with who she was and what she could do before this,” Felix grumbled. “It would have been nice to know.”

Ari looked surprised. “She never told you?”

He shook his head. “We had no idea who she was until Kendra stumbled into you while hunting and she felt it necessary to tell us.”

“She was hoping that the virus would attack the aliens and wipe them out.  Also, she was worried about the aliens getting their hands on her.  She’d be their science slave if they did,”  Ari said.  “I can’t blame her for not wanting to tell anyone.”

“Yet, she told you,”  he said with a hint of bitterness.

“We want the same thing, Felix,” Ari impatiently stated. “Can’t you see that?”

Felix looked at Ari long and hard before turning away. “It’s difficult for me to separate what was done to me from the lot of you and just blame Baelil.  It is your village’s practice, after all.”

“It is,” she admitted, “but only to prevent severe mutations from being passed on. It shouldn’t have happened to you.”

“But, it did,” he snarled.

“I’m so sorry,” she said in a breathy whisper.

Felix warily eyed her.  Was she truly sorry for the horrific deed that her brother had done to him or was she simply giving him lip service in order to gain favor?  He just didn’t know.

“Did Olga send you to fetch all of us or just Kendra?”  he asked.

“All of you,” she said with a smile that she hoped would help to melt the cold barrier he’d put up.

To her disappointment, instead of  softening toward her, his body visibly stiffened. “I need to know what will happen to Eugene if we go there.”

“Eugene?” Ari repeated with curiosity.

“Your nephew,” he replied with a tone of disgust.

 Ari looked away. Things just hadn’t gone well since she’d left the village.  She was more than sorry to have accepted the assignment. “The children are sent to…”

“Oh, hell no!” he bellowed before she could finish her sentence.