Chapter 48
Forty-Eight
Tobias
N ot even an hour later, the doors to the meeting room opened and a line of men began to file in. I entered among them and took a chair near the back, where I hoped to go unnoticed. Fungus farmers, bullet makers, quartermasters, and repairmen filled in the seats around me.
Then someone said, "Pardon me. I need that chair right there."
I looked up to see Sylis, the young hunter I'd met on the way to the Dragon's town, shuffling his way to the chair beside me. He sat, then jerked his chin toward me in greeting. I grunted to show I'd seen him, but my eyes were looking him over.
"Get healed?" I asked.
He nodded. "Sewed up by your girl after another cleaned it. The green-eyed one's yours, right?"
"Yeah."
"Think she'll accept your proposal?"
I huffed out a dry laugh. "I think having the elders give me permission means no one else will bother to court her. So yeah, she'll have to."
Not that I wanted to force Callah to marry me, but that would be better than her other options. My goal was still to get her out, but I couldn't figure out how. I'd hoped to learn the code on our way in. Instead, Gideon had refused to share it.
Sneaking her out would be nearly impossible. Both Meri and Ayla had been thrown out. They'd broken one of the Ten Commandments. The only way for Callah to do the same involved stabbing me. Not exactly something I wanted, but if I could tolerate the pain of the bite on my arm, I could deal with being stabbed to save a girl I liked.
"I just hope you'll allow her to keep healing," Sylis said softly. "Too many of us aren't making it back."
"I intend to," I assured him. "Might be for selfish reasons, but I like knowing she can put me back together when things go - " The rapping of the gavel made me pause before finishing, "- wrong."
Mr. Saunders continued to hammer the gavel on the table he and the other elders sat behind, calling the meeting to order while reminding all the men in the room to stop talking. Tonight, it took longer than normal. I was pretty sure pulling men from their evening relaxation with no warning might have something to do with that.
Then Mr. White pushed to his feet. "Unless you all want to starve to death, listen up! The hunters have returned!"
That made the massive room fall silent. Mr. Saunders nodded in approval, but waited until Mr. White sat back down before he started speaking.
"Once again, our hunters were defeated by the forces of Hell," he announced. "Seven men - seven! - returned."
"Out of how many?" Mr. Carter asked.
"Fifty."
There was a rush of murmurs that ran through the crowd. Men began to look around, likely trying to check for friends or enemies who may not be there. Like them, I looked, easily spotting the men I'd walked back with. All of us sat in small groups, no different than Sylis sitting beside me.
"What's worse," Mr. White said, taking over, "is those seven weren't able to get any meat."
My head twitched at that, because we had. Not much, but that wasn't the same as none. Granted, saying one carcass led to questions of what type, and that could get inconvenient for the elders.
Mr. Becker tapped his finger on the table. "That's nearly eighty men killed in the last month."
"Just under," Mr. White corrected, "but yes. The surface is a dangerous place, as we've known, but it seems to be getting worse."
"And we do not have the men to combat it!" Mr. Saunders snapped. "The wild men have overrun our farms. The demons have attacked our men. We have more widows in the compound than ever before, and no children being born to replace the lost fathers. We cannot continue on like this!"
"We need more children," Mr. Becker said.
"We need more hunters!" Mr. Peterson called to them.
"We can put the older boys into training," Mr. Myers suggested. "That has already been discussed."
"We need more than that," Mr. Saunders insisted. "After this loss, we need those boys out there hunting. We barely have any veterans left."
Mr. Morgan was nodding. "So we graduate them from sermon at eighteen. Mr. Cassidy, are they prepared for manhood?"
"I believe so, yes," said the man who taught children their sermon.
I glanced at Sylis nervously. They wanted to send boys out to fight against Dragons? Did these men even know what was out there on the surface? We weren't allowed to speak of it, so what had they been told? Or did they simply not care ?
Sylis shook his head, clearly as confused as me. Neither of us said a word, but as I glanced around, I saw all the hunters bent together as if conferring with each other. The other men? Quite a few were sitting taller, as if they thought this might finally be their chance. How little they knew.
"What about the girls?" Mr. Saunders asked, pulling my eyes back to the front.
Mr. Myers looked down the table at him. "What about them, Reynold?"
"If we're graduating the boys earlier, then why not the girls as well? We need more children, gentlemen. More Righteous! That is the only way we will push back the Devil and his forces of evil. The children born now will not be ready for eighteen years, but the sooner we start..."
"We have widows as well," Mr. White pointed out. "Some of them are avoiding remarrying much longer than necessary."
My breath caught.
"So if we lower the age of graduation," Mr. Saunders said, unconcerned with the way my heart began to slam against my ribs, "then the boys will be able to serve as hunters or gatherers. We can increase the number of boys collecting vegetables as well. At the same time, if we allow only three months of mourning for these wives? Ninety days after they are widowed, they will become available again. We can allow a week for the interested men to seek their hand. At the end of that week, the same system that chooses for young women could be used to match our widows to their next husbands, correct?"
"There's no reason it wouldn't work," replied a man in the crowd. I was pretty sure he was in charge of ancestry. "We already have their list from when they turned. Adjust the options for the men who are now mature and remove any who have been lost? It wouldn't be hard."
"Whoa," Sylis breathed beside me.
But I couldn't pull my eyes away. My heart was now hammering so hard I could feel it in the back of my head. This entire conversation? The elders were rewriting the rules of our society - and they were doing it so easily! Mourning for widows had just been restricted to a mere three months? Never mind pushing the age of maturity down two whole years!
And Callah was nineteen.
We should have two months left to figure out how to get her out. We were supposed to have time, but this? Somehow, I had to get her out of here before she was forced to marry! I was supposed to save her, to prove I deserved to have her speak up for me, because otherwise, Ayla and the Wyvern would never allow me to live.
I'd be dead here. I'd be dead there. Somehow, there had to be a way to make this work, but I couldn't figure it out. The best I could do was try to breathe slowly and keep my face stoic. I was just big and dumb. I was too simple to care about this. If anything, it merely meant I'd get to wed my girl sooner. I wouldn't have to wait. This should be a good thing for me.
It wasn't .
But a man in the crowd thrust his hand up, breaking my spiraling thoughts. "What about the pregnant widows?"
"That's a good point," Mr. Carter said. "It would be unfair to saddle a man with another's child."
Mr. Saunders made an almost dismissive gesture and said, "Six months after the birth of the child, she will be available again. That's about how long it takes a woman to wean an infant, yes? And for those who lose the pregnancy? I think a month after the loss will be fine. Ninety days after her husband's death is enough time for a woman to know if she's with child. If she's not, she'll remarry. If she is, she'll carry and wean the child, unless she loses it."
"And for the ones who refuse to accept a proposal?" Mr. White asked.
"The council will decide for them, just like with the girls," Mr. Morgan decided. "Women are too flighty to understand the need for good, solid marriages - and the children produced from them."
"Our compound needs to replenish the ones we have lost!" Mr. Saunders insisted, pounding his hand just as hard as he had the gavel. "The Devil is winning this battle. God has called upon us to make sacrifices. We, the Righteous, must prove ourselves. We are expected to repopulate the Earth, so our wives should not be without a child in their bellies! Our nurseries should not be empty! For every man the Devil cuts down, we should produce two more!"
Around the room, dozens of men cheered in agreement. I tried, but my guts were twisting in horror at what they were saying. Beside me, Sylis simply sat stunned, staring at the elders as if he couldn't understand what they were saying, so I nudged him in the side.
A confused expression quickly claimed his face. It was meant to be a smile, but looked more like disgust. Still, he lifted his hands and clapped. He also very pointedly avoided looking at me.
"So, men," Mr. Saunders said as he pushed to his feet, "prepare your homes for this change. The council will discuss the mechanics of how to make this possible. For those who are not currently married, we will give you time to look over the young ladies who will be available soon."
"If you're currently courting someone, make sure there isn't a girl you'd prefer more," Mr. Myers joked.
Sylis grunted, but it was soft enough and ambiguous enough that it could've meant anything.
"Once we have the details worked out, we will make an announcement," Mr. White said. "For some of you, this may mean moving children to the nursery or appropriate wings. For all of you, we will expect you to do your duty just as faithfully as the hunters who gave their lives for this compound. God demands that we repopulate this Earth. Each of you has a duty to uphold that. For those who have avoided marriage so far, be aware that we are watching you."
Mr. Saunders picked up the gavel and rapped it again. "This meeting is dismissed. Consider your future, gentlemen, for we all must do the same. The kingdom of God is great, but it will not come easily. We must all sacrifice."
"At least our sacrifice is enjoyable," the man in front of me said around a chuckle.
The guy beside him nodded, but they were already getting up to leave. I simply leaned back in my chair, pulling my injured arm into my lap. I really didn't want to be jostled in the press to get back to my room and rest. The bite was starting to throb, and I could think here as well as there.
"At least you already know who you want to marry," Sylis said.
I grunted at that. "Yep."
"I should probably consider a wife as well, huh?"
Slowly, I nodded. "Sounds like they expect it. I mean, you could wait. You're still young, but if there's a girl you're interested in, she might get snatched up."
"There's not," he mumbled.
So I reached over, thankful he was on my good side, and clasped his shoulder. "Women are simple things, Sylis. Find one you think is pretty or kind. Smile at her. If she smiles back, then walk with her. If you listen to what she has to say, she'll think you're appealing."
"But - "
I looked over. "That's all I did."
His eyes narrowed. "Yeah," he breathed. "Unlike you, I'm not the biggest man in the compound."
I shrugged that off. "Girls like nice. Be nice, and girls will like you. They don't like men who hit them."
His gaze felt like it intensified. "I'll remember that." Then he pushed to his feet.
I watched him go, trying to remember if I'd said anything that would get me in trouble. I was pretty sure I hadn't. The closest was that women didn't like being hit, but I could play it off.
But maybe, just maybe, he'd listen to me, and another woman could look forward to a future where she wouldn't be hurt by the man who was supposed to protect her.