After Grace

39. The Serpent Tongue

My eyes couldn't adjust to the light. Two of Emmer's men had come and pulled me from the small dark room. They led the way along an impossibly bright corridor. Though neither man was forceful, I still had to resist the urge to fight them off.

As I finally opened my eyes wide, I realized why I was having such a hard time getting used to the light. It was artificial. The ceiling was lined with long white fluorescent bulbs which burned without heat, washing everything white. Emmer stood by a set of double doors, the word 'cafeteria' was painted in blue over his head.

"What is this place?" I asked.

"Canadian military base. Or it was," Emmer said.

"You got electricity?"

"You use your gas to drive, we use ours to power the generators. Wouldn't normally waste it just for lights but, they're pretty frantic out there. It helps."

Emmer's eyes fell on the crowd beyond the doors, I could hear the murmur of the uncomfortable horde on the other side. He ran a shaky hand through his hair.

"They're losing it, you going out there or not?"

"We have to get my group out of the rain," I told him.

"We have to do this first, unless you want to see them torn to pieces when they get here," he turned back and looked through the glass square in the doors again. "They're agitated because I let you inside without speaking to them first. They want answers. I'm gonna go out there and just tell them-"

"No," I told him. "We have to get this over with now. Just open the door and let me talk."

"Wait," Vicki said as she ran up behind us. "What're you doing?"

"They're not letting me stay," I told her.

"What're you gonna do?"

"Just... wait here."

I pushed through the double door, Emmer followed close but stayed behind me. The people fell silent when they saw me. Their clothes were clean, their faces free of scars. When the elders told stories of life before The Fall, I tried to picture the way they must have looked, but my imagination was never able to comprehend a world without the stains and cuts of struggle. As I watched them now, I saw what life was like before, and I envied their safety.

"My name's Grace," I told them. "I know that doesn't matter to you. You don't care who I am, only that I'm here, breathing your air, threatening to drink your water and eat your carrots... I'm here to beg you to let my group insi-" before I finished the word they began speaking over me, calling Emmer, asking why I had been allowed in. The soft murmur that had filled the room earlier now gave way to a frenzy of shouts. I closed my hands into fists, digging my nails into my palms as the silent rage which had never fully subsided burned within me again.

These people had everything and they cried and moaned the minute they were asked to share it. I thought of what I had gone through and the pain that could have been avoided if an effort had been made by this group to spread out and find people in need. Rather, they chose to hide, ignorant of the horrors on the other side of the wall.

Emmer stepped out in front of me and raised his hands, signaling them to quiet down. Eventually the outcry fell back down to a murmur and within moments, the room was silent once again. "There's a reason Grace is here, something you didn't give her a chance to tell you," he said. Cold eyes fell on me, demanding an explanation for my presence.

"Your people are alive," I lied, "the ones who've gone missing, the ones you thought were dead." Another kind of outcry rolled through the crowd, this one of hope and disbelief.

"How do you know?" a man asked. He stood apart from the rest in size and aggression. "Where are they?"

"They're prisoners of a cannibal group, but the cannibals aren't looking to kill them, they want to build a nation of slave farmers and workers. They're headed this way. If you want to see your people again, you're gonna have to fight. And you're gonna need more bodies than what you've got," I said. The man's eyes glistened with hope.

"Dominic," Emmer said. The man looked up to him. "Help us and maybe you'll see Susan again." Through the glass in the door, Vicki watched, her face turned down to the floor.

"Letting my people in will be how you survive," I said. "Beat them and you'll see your family again. I promise."

Emmer's brow furrowed with inquiry as I moved past him. I knew he was wondering why I promised something I couldn't deliver, especially since no one asked me to. As I left the room and headed out to the hallway, moving past Vicki without a word, I wondered the same thing.

#

"Are you waiting for your friends?" a little voice asked behind me as I watched the door in the gate, waiting for Annie and the others to come through. Emmer had sent a scout to find them on the road, now I stood on the muddy path between the barracks, waiting in the misty rain, hoping the cold hadn't been too much for them, hoping Mother was still a day or two behind us.

"Hellooo?" the little voice said when I didn't respond.

"What? Hi, yes I am," I told the little girl standing behind me. "Who're you?"

"Rooosemary," she sang, "you saved my brother." Seth ran up and grabbed the little girl, taking her up in his arms.

"She bothering you?" he asked.

"Not at all," I said.

"I'm sorry I couldn't help get your people inside, I tried."

"Doesn't matter, they're coming," I told him. He turned to the girl in his arms.

"Why don't you go help the others prepare the cafeteria? They need blankets for Grace's friends." The girl nodded as he put her down, she shot out like a rocket into one of the building behind us. "I heard about what you said. About the prisoners," he said. I turned back to the gate.

"Are you gonna tell them?" I asked.

"I-" he caught the words in his throat. "No, I can't, they'd kill you."

"There's nowhere else for us to go. I did what I had to do."

"I know. But if I were you... " he began, the door ahead finally opened, Emmer's scout came through, behind him walked Ron and Annie. An entire line of people poured inside, wet, hungry, and cold. Relief washed over me. "...I wouldn't stay around here," he finished.

"I was never planning on staying," I told him.