After Grace

11. Exodus

I woke up screaming. The nightmare which jarred me to consciousness quickly vanished when I felt the sting of tearing muscle cutting down the length of my shoulder. Blue light showered down from above, the entire room was filled with a cold teal glow. My head spun with the turmoil of the moment. The wall beside me suddenly dropped and white light burned behind it. My head wouldn't stop spinning.

"Shh," a man's voice soothed. Remembering the threats Tamara had made, I began to fight-- pushing and kicking as he put his hands on me but my shoulder stung so much I was paralyzed by the pain.

"What hurts?" he asked.

"What'd you do with them?" My eyes were beginning to adjust. I wasn't in a room but a tent.

"Them? You mean the brave Anastasia and the quiet Camden?" His face became more and more clear now. He was so close I could distinguish the individual stubbles of his recently shaved beard and see the chestnut shine in his eyes.

"Where are they?" I asked. He ignored the question, trying to find the source of my pain.

"Your shoulder's been dislocated. We can help with that," he said.

I turned over and raised myself to my knees until I was able to stand and move around him. I held my shoulder in place to stop it from swinging loose and stepped outside. We were on the shore of a calm clear lake. My tent was only one of a hundred set out on the sand.

As a cold breeze rolled over the water and brushed past me, my cheek began to ache and I remembered Tamara's knife cutting into me. I put a hand to the wound, my fingers ran along the smooth braid of thin nylon stitches. Looking at my hands, I saw clean cotton rags wrapped around my burnt wrists.

"I didn't know about your shoulder, would've been better to have done it while you were out. Gonna hurt like hell now."

"You did this?" I asked him, still holding my cheek.

"One of ours did. I'm shit with needles."

"Where are the kids?"

"Look behind you."

I turned back to the lake and scanned the shoreline. I saw women and children bringing buckets of water to the fires on the sand and setting them over the flames to boil. At the edges of the crowd, men and women patrolled, bullet-proof vests strapped to their chests, guns in their hands, eyes to the distance.

Camden was smiling beside his surrogate sister. Annie lifted her eyes from the plate in front of her, a goofy smile cracking across her lips when she saw me.

"Was it you? In the truck?" I asked him without turning back.

"Yep."

Annie put the stew down and ran over, throwing wide arms around my waist when she reached me. I hugged her back and knelt to look at her close.

"Are you okay?" I asked. She nodded feverishly.

"They have food! We're eating duck, you ate some too but I think you were half asleep." Camden walked over behind her.

"And how are you feeling? Did you drink some water?" I asked. He nodded.

"You're not a mute," Annie said looking at him. "Talk to her, she saved our lives." He looked at me with blank eyes, after a few seconds, he smiled. "He's ridiculous," she said. "Never shuts up when we're alone."

"It's okay, he doesn't need to say it, I already know what he's thinking. Go finish your food, I want to talk to our new host," I told her. She took Camden's hand and dragged him along.

"Look!" Camden yelled, he was pointing up to the sky as a swarm of birds passed by. I turned back to the man behind me. He was very pleased with himself.