Chapter 1 #2
Asha wanted to vomit, but wisely decided against it.
She needed all the calories she could get, because who knew where her next meal might come from.
As the sky darkened, they brought her to a copse of trees several metres from the main campfire.
She was surprised to find two other women there, tied to tree trunks.
Both women were fair-skinned and blonde, and thin as a rail, their faces smudged with dirt.
There was a bone-deep weariness to them that showed on their faces.
It was only their lack of wrinkles or expression lines that gave away their youth: neither could be more than eighteen or nineteen years old.
At twenty-six, Asha knew she looked younger and healthier than either of them.
It didn’t bode well that, in the company of these men, a couple of vital young women looked this haggard and unwell.
She wondered how long they’d been there as they watched her, wide-eyed, while Pike made her sit and be tied to an adjacent tree trunk.
“Go to sleep,” he ordered, smacking his lips unpleasantly. “No talking.”
They weren’t wrong about Wastelanders back home, Asha thought, wrinkling her nose. They’re repulsive.
Pike wandered back to the main campfire, leaving Asha and the two women alone. Asha glanced in their direction. Both of them studied her with an intensity that made her uncomfortable.
“So, where’d they get you?” the blonde on the left asked in a low voice. She had a smudge of mud on the tip of her nose, and her blue eyes were wide and curious.
Asha stayed silent. She wasn’t sure what to make of them, and she didn’t want to provoke Pike or the others by talking.
When it became clear she wasn’t going to reply, the other woman said, “I’ll bet she’s one of the volunteers Daddy told us about, Becks. Too pretty to not be.”
“Ah, you’re probably right,” Becks replied knowingly. “Is that it, pretty girl? You offered yourself up to the men?”
“What?” Asha said indignantly, startled into speech. “No. As if I’d ever volunteer to be tied up in the woods by a bunch of Wastelanders.”
The girls blinked at her. She realized too late that they’d probably never heard the term before…which meant they also didn’t know that it was mostly used as a pejorative, thank God.
Get your shit together, Asha, she scolded herself. These people are dangerous.
“What’s a Wastelander?” Becks asked, raising her eyebrows. “That another gang?”
In a manner of speaking.
“It’s a word for outside people,” Asha answered cautiously, and when they gave her another look of confusion, she sighed.
“Outside?”
“Never mind,” she hurried out, not eager to explain. She had no idea if she could trust these women, but she could gather information from them. “Who are you?”
“I’m Brigid, this is Becks,” the girl on the left said. “We’re twin sisters from Milton. Settlement owned by the Skulls.”
“The Skulls?”
“The gang these guys belong to,” Becks answered, nodding back towards the main campsite, where a dozen men were laughing and drinking around the campfire.
The Skulls? Asha wrinkled her nose again. Did they get a bunch of edgy teens to name their gang?
“How did you end up here?” she asked, nodding at Brigid.
Brigid shrugged. “Our Daddy owed them a debt, and he couldn’t pay.”
Asha’s eyes widened. “He sold you off to them?”
Becks scoffed. “Not like they gave him a choice. You from one of those free settlements? You got your nose in the air like you are.”
Free settlements? Asha wondered. At the Cave, they’d always said that the entire Wasteland was dominated by vicious gangs. So far, her experience bore that out…but Becks was implying that not all settlements were under gang rule. She filed that away in the back of her mind.
“I’m from a compound,” she finally answered.
“That’s why she looks so different!” Becks exclaimed to Brigid. “Old Alex said they have microchips in ’em to make ’em prettier. That true, miss?”
Asha couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “It’s an implant, not a microchip. And they’re not for looks; they’re for health. But yes, I have one.”
“Old Alex said he knew someone from one of them places,” Brigid said wisely. “Guess he was right.”
Asha frowned. She’d never heard of anyone escaping or leaving the Cave. The general policy had always been no one comes in, no one goes out. But then, she’d also never known about the violent rebellion brewing inside the compound…so clearly, the place was good at keeping secrets from its residents.
“What does it do?” Becks asked, sounding more excited than Asha felt the situation warranted. “Make you invincible?”
She scoffed. “No. Feeds us vitamins, hormones, and other stuff to slow the effects of aging and maintain health. Blocks sun damage. Speeds healing a bit. That’s about all.”
She didn’t bother to add that it prevented pregnancy. Control over fertility was part and parcel with compound living.
“That’s all, she says,” Brigid repeated incredulously to Becks. “Sounds like a superpower to me.”
Asha opened her mouth to retort, but then Pike was back. His furious face glowed red in the firelight.
“Go the fuck to sleep!” he screamed, obviously tipsy. “One more word from you whores and I’ll whip you raw.”
Definitely not feeling super right now, Asha thought as she cringed.
“They’d probably enjoy it,” a man jeered from the campfire, and Pike laughed. “Don’t worry, ladies, soon you’ll have a new owner to do it for you.”
Owner. The word struck fear into Asha’s heart. It was the first time she understood that these men didn’t see her as a person. Not only did they not care if she was frightened, they reveled in it. She, and the Wastelander girls sold off to the highest bidder, were chattel.
Nothing more.