Chapter 15 Chapter 13 Judgment

"Are they here?" We coughed out the words—they came out of our mouths like water from our lungs.Aside from water, there is only one question that matters, "Did they find it?" Uncle Jeb's face was hard to read in the dark. "Who?" he asked. "Jamie, Jared!" our passionate whispers sounded like shouts, "Jared and Jamie are here. Our brother! Are they here? Have they been here? You found them too ?" There was almost no pause. "No." His answer was forceful, without any sympathy or emotion. "No." We said softly.We are not repeating what he said, we are protesting to take our lives back.What's the point?We close our eyes again and listen to the pain in our bodies, and we let it drown out the pain in our hearts.

"Look," said Uncle Jeb after a while, "I, uh, got something to do. You rest a while, and I'll be back for you." We didn't hear the meaning of his words, only heard the voice.Our eyes were kept closed, and the sound of creaking footsteps was getting farther and farther away from us.We couldn't make out which direction he was going, and we didn't care. They're gone, there's no way to find them, there's no hope.Jared and Jamie disappeared, they knew how to do things like this, and we never saw them again. The water and the cool night air cleared our heads, which is not what we wanted.We turned over and buried our faces in the sand again.We are so tired that we have passed the point of exhaustion, into a deeper, more painful condition.Of course we can sleep, all we have to do is stop thinking about it, we can do it.

We did it. When we awoke, it was still night, but dawn was approaching on the eastern horizon—a dull red behind the mountains.We had a dusty taste in our mouths, and at first we were sure we dreamed that Uncle Jeb appeared, and of course we did. Our minds are clearer this morning, and we quickly noticed a strange shape near our right cheek - not a rock, not a cactus.We touched it and it was firm and smooth.We pushed it, and the sweet sound of water shaking came from inside. Uncle Jeb was real, and he left us a little jug of water. We sat up cautiously, surprised that we hadn't snapped in two like a shriveled stick.We actually felt better, to the extent that it moisturised some parts of my body over time.The pain was vague, and for the first time in a long time, we felt hungry.

We twist the lid of the kettle awkwardly with stiff fingers.The jug wasn't completely full, but there was enough water in it to stretch out my abdominal cavity again - it must have shrunk.We drank all the water, we drank all our rations. We set the metal kettle on the sand, and in the pre-dawn silence it slammed to the ground with a dull thud, wide awake now.We breathed a sigh of relief, preferring not to wake up, and put our heads in our hands.What should we do now? "Why did you give him water, Jeb?" demanded an angry voice from behind us. We turned on our knees, our hearts shuddered at what we saw, our consciousness shattered to pieces.

Eight people stood in a semicircle around where I knelt in the shade.There's no question they're human, they all are.I've never seen a face contorted into such an expression-never in my kind.Those lips twisted with hatred and pulled back to show teeth clenched like a beast.These brows were knit over eyes that burned with rage. Six men and two women, several of them large, most of them bigger than me.I felt the blood drain from my face, and realized why their hands were reaching out so oddly - clasped tightly in front of them, each holding an object.They had weapons, some of them had knives - a couple of short knives like the ones I had in my kitchen, others were a little bit longer, a huge knife, and it was menacing.The knife was not for the kitchen, and Melanie provided the name: the machete.

Others carried long sticks, some metal, others wooden, long sticks. I recognized Uncle Jeb among them.Loosely held in his hand was an object I'd never seen in person, only in Melanie's memory, like a large knife.It was a rifle. I was horrified, but Melanie watched in awe, so many people, eight survivors.She thought Jeb was alone, or, in the best of scenarios, with two others, and seeing so many of her kind filled her with joy. You're stupid, I told her, look at them, look at them. I forced her to see it from my point of view: these menacing shapes, in their dirty jeans and light cotton shirts, tan from the dust.They might be human—when she thought of the word again—but this moment they were something else.They are savages, devils.They threaten us and covet our blood.

In every pair of eyes is the judgment of death. Melanie saw it all, and reluctantly she had to admit that I was right.In this moment, her beloved humans are diabolical—like those news stories we read about in the deserted log cabin.We watch the killers. We should have been wiser, we should have died yesterday. Why did Uncle Jeb let us live but make us face this? Thinking of this made me tremble all over.I scanned the history of human cruelty. I didn't have the courage to face these evils. Perhaps I should have concentrated more.I know there are reasons why human beings keep their enemies alive, even for a while, and what they want from them, mentally or physically, and of course that immediately pops into my head - the secret they want from me .That secret I will never, never tell them.No matter what they do to me, I will kill myself first.

I didn't let Melanie see the secret I was keeping, and I used her own defenses against her.I put up a wall in my head and hid myself behind thinking about this information for the first time since the transplant and had no reason to think about it before. Melanie wasn't even curious on the other side of the wall, she didn't bother breaking through it.The urgency of worrying about the situation at hand outweighed the fact that she wasn't the only one keeping the secret. Is it important that I keep a secret from her?I'm not as strong as Melanie, and I don't doubt she can take the torture.How much pain can I endure before I give them the information they want?

I feel sick to my stomach that suicide is a repulsive option - worse because it would also be murder.Melanie will experience either torture or death, and I will wait until there is absolutely no other option. No they can't, Uncle Jeb will never let them hurt me. Uncle Jeb doesn't know you're here.I remind her. tell him! I stared at the old man's face.A bushy white beard prevented me from seeing the shape of his mouth, but his eyes seemed less angry than the others.Out of the corner of my eye I could see the eyes of several men looking back and forth between us, waiting for him to answer the question that reminded me of their existence.Uncle Jeb stared at me and ignored them.

I can't tell him, Melanie, he won't believe me, and if they think I'm lying to them, they'll think I'm a hunter.They must have had enough experience to know that only hunters come here to tell lies, and that's a story designed for undercover agents. Melanie knew immediately that I was right.Just the word hunter made her wince with hatred, and she knew these strangers would respond in the same way. But that's okay, I'm a soul - that's enough for them. The man with the machete—the biggest one here, with black hair, strangely fair skin, and brilliant blue eyes—made a disgusted sound and spat on the ground.He took a step forward and slowly raised the long knife.

Faster is better than slow, and it would be better for this cruel hand to kill us than my own.It's better that I die not as a brutal creature, responsible for Melanie's blood as well as my own. "Wait a minute, Kyle." Jeb said unhurriedly, almost casually, but the big man stopped.He grimaced and turned away from Melanie's uncle. "Why? You said you were sure it was one of them." I recognized the voice—it was the same guy who had just asked Jeb why he gave me the water. "Ah, yes, of course she is, but it's a little more complicated." "How?" asked another.He's standing next to the tall, dark-haired Kyle, and they look so much alike, they must be brothers. "Look, she's my niece too." "She is no longer your niece." Kyle said without hesitation.He spat again and deliberately took another step in my direction, the knife at the ready.I could tell by the way his shoulders were slanting to strike that those words were no longer going to stop him.I closed my eyes. There were two sharp metal collisions, and someone exclaimed, and my eyes opened again. "I said hold on, Kyle." Uncle Jeb's voice was still relaxed, but the long rifle was firmly in his hand now, the barrel pointed at Kyle's back.Kyle froze just a few steps away from me, his machete held motionless over his shoulder. "Jeb," said the brother, terrified, "what are you doing?" "Stay away from girls, Kyle." Kyle turned his back on us and confronted Jeb angrily: "It's not a girl, Jeb!" Jeb shrugged, still holding the gun firmly in his hand, pointing at Kyle: "There are still things to talk about." "What information might the doctor get from it?" A female voice suggested hoarsely. Hearing those words made me cringe, it was my worst fear.When Jeb called me niece just now, I foolishly had a gleam of hope—and maybe sympathy.It was foolish of me to think, even for a moment, that death was the only pity I could expect from these creatures. I looked at the woman who had just spoken and was surprised to see that she was as old as Jeb, possibly older.Her hair was more dark gray than white, which is why I hadn't noticed her age before.Her face was lined, all pulled down into angry folds.But there's something familiar about the silhouette behind those folds. Melanie linked the older face to the smoother face she remembered. "Aunt Meggie? You're here? Why? Sharon she—" The words were all Melanie's, but they came pouring out of my mouth and I couldn't stop them.Talking for so long in the desert made her stronger, or made me weaker.Maybe it's just that I've been watching from which direction the fatal blow will fall, and I'm ready for our murder while she's reunited with her family. Melanie's exclamation of astonishment was only half-experienced.The elderly woman named Maggie leapt forward, the speed belied her fragile appearance, and she did not lift the hand that held the black crowbar.It was the hand I was looking at intently, so I didn't see her other hand smack my face hard. My head jerked back, then forward, and she slapped me again. "You won't fool us, you parasite. We know your tricks, we know how well you can imitate us." I taste the blood on the inside of my cheek. Don't do that again, I blame Melanie, I told you what they'd think. Melanie was too shocked to answer. "Come on, Maggie." Jeb said in a calm tone. "Don't tell me 'Come on, Meggie', you old fool! She's probably brought a party to us." She stepped back a few steps, and watched my immobility, as if I were A coiled snake, she stopped beside her brother. "I don't see anyone," Jeb retorted, "Hey!" he yelled, and I cringed in surprise.I'm not the only one.Jeb raised his left hand above his head, the gun still gripped tightly in his right. "Here!" "Shut up!" Meggie yelled while pushing his chest.Even though I had every reason to know she was strong, Jeb wasn't shaking. "She's alone, Maggie, and I found her almost dead - she's not in good shape now. The 'centipedes' don't sacrifice their mates like that, they'll find her in time before I do .Whether she or something else, she's just a human being." I see in my mind the image of the long, many-legged insect, but I cannot see the connection. He is discussing you.Melanie explained.She compared the image of the ugly little bug to my memory of the bright silver soul.I don't see their similarities. What I'm wondering is how does he know what you look like.Melanie exclaimed blankly.My recollection of the soul's true appearance was new to her from the first. I don't have time to marvel with her.Jeb walked towards me, followed by the others.Kyle's hand is hanging over Jeb's shoulder, ready to grab him or push him out, I can't tell. Jeb put the gun in his left hand and held out his right hand to me.I watched his hands warily, waiting for him to hit me. "Come on," he urged softly, "if I can carry you that far, I brought you home last night, and you'll have to walk some more." "No!" Kyle snorted. "I'm taking her back," Jeb said, and for the first time there was a harsher tone in his voice.Beneath his beard, he tensed his jaw. "Jeb!" Meggie objected. "It's my place, Maggie, I will do what I want." "Old fool!" she said sharply again. Jeb reached down and grabbed my clenched hand in my lap, and he pulled me up.It wasn't cruel, it was just as if he was in a hurry.However, isn't it the worst form of cruelty that he prolongs my life for his own reasons? I couldn't stand still and swayed back and forth.I couldn't feel my leg very well - it just tingled, like the point of a needle going in as the blood trickled down. There was a hiss of disapproval behind him, coming from different mouths. "Well, whoever you are," he told me, his voice still friendly, "let's get out of here before it gets hot." The man who must have been Kyle's brother put his hand on Jeb's arm. "You can't really tell it where we live, Jeb." "I guess it doesn't matter," said Meggie sternly, "it won't have a chance to spread the word." Jeb sighed and pulled out a bandanna - all hidden in his beard - and wrapped it around his neck. "That's stupid," he mumbled, though he rolled the soiled fabric into a blindfold, stiff with sweat. I remained motionless as he fastened it over my eyes, resisting the mounting panic of not being able to see the enemy. I couldn't see, but I knew Jeb was leading me with a hand on my back—others wouldn't be so gentle. Let's start walking, north, I think.At first no one spoke—just the crunch of many feet on the sand.The ground was flat, but my numb legs kept stumbling.Jeb was patient, his leading hand almost chivalrous. I felt the sun come up as we went, and some footsteps were faster than others, and they went ahead of us until it was hard to hear them any more.Sounds like a handful of people stayed with Jeb and me, I must not look like I need many guards - I'm so hungry I'm shaking with every step I take; my head feels dizzy and hollow. "You're not going to tell her, are you?" It was Maggie's voice, a few feet behind me, and it sounded like reproach. "She's entitled to know," Jeb replied, the stubborn tone returning to his voice. "What you're doing is not good, Jabdia." "Life is cruel, Magnolia." It's hard to tell which of the two is scarier.Was it Jeb, who seemed so determined to keep me alive?Or Maggie?She was the first to suggest the doctor—the title fills me with a visceral dread—though she seemed to fear cruel things more than her brother. We walked for hours in silence.When my legs gave way, Jeb helped me sit on the floor and held a water jug ​​to my mouth, as he did at night. "Let me know when you're ready," Jeb told me.His voice sounded kind, even though I knew it was wrong. Someone sighed impatiently. "Why are you doing this, Jeb?" asked a man, a voice I'd heard before, one of the brothers, "For the doctor? You could have told Kyle straight up, you didn't have to point a gun at he." "Kyle needs someone to point a gun at him a lot," Jeb whispered. "Please tell me it's not about pity," the man continued, "after all you've been through" "After all I've been through, I'd be nothing if I hadn't learned to empathize, but no, I didn't do it out of empathy. If I had enough empathy for the poor thing, I'd let She dies." I shivered in the furnace-hot air. "So, what is it?" Kyle's brother pressed. After a long silence, Jeb's hand touched mine.I grabbed his hand and needed support to get back up.With his other hand pushing against my back, I started walking again. "Curious," Jeb whispered. No one answered. As we walked, I considered several certain facts.One, I'm not the first soul they've caught.There are already some established routines here.This "doctor" tried to get answers from other souls before me. Second, he didn't succeed.If any soul had succumbed to human torture before committing suicide, they would not need me now.It was a blessing that my death would have come very quickly. Oddly enough, I couldn't bring myself to hope for a quick end, but neither did I hope for that.It would be easy to do that, even if I didn't have to do it myself.If all I had to do was lie to them—pretend to be a hunter, tell them my colleagues were stalking me, blustering, threatening them, I could do it.Or tell them the truth - Melanie still lives on in my body, she brought me here. They'll take it for another lie, a lie so utterly irresistible—so tempting, so cunning to believe it from their point of view, they'll believe that I'm a hunter, and if I admit I'm a hunter, they'll Don't believe me so firmly. They'll guess it's a trap, get rid of me quickly, and find a new place to hide, far away from here. You're probably right, agrees Melanie, I'll do it. I'm not in pain yet though, so suicide of any kind is hard to take, my survival instincts seal my lips.I suddenly remembered the last conversation I had with a counselor—a time so civilized it seemed to belong to another planet.Melanie's challenge to me whether someone would get rid of her seemed like a suicidal impulse, but it was only a pose.Sitting in a comfortable chair and meditating on how difficult it is to die, I remember thinking about it. Last night Melanie and I were hoping for death, and it was close at hand.Now that I'm on my feet again, things are different. I don't want to die either, Melanie said softly, but maybe you're wrong, maybe that's not why they keep us alive.I don't understand why they would. She doesn't want to imagine what they might do to us - I'm sure she's thinking of scarier situations than I can imagine. What kind of answers are they so desperate to get from you? I will never say it, not to you, not to any human being. It was a declaration of valor, and by that time another hour had passed before I felt pain—the sun was burning, and its heat was like a crown of flames on my head—the The sound changed.The crunching sound I can barely hear anymore is now an echo from ahead of me.Jeb's feet creaked on the sand, and so did I, but the ones ahead of us had already stepped into new ground. "Now watch out," Jeb reminded me, "watch out for your head." I hesitated, not sure what to watch out for, or how to watch out if I couldn't see.He took his hands off my back, held my head down, and told me to keep my head down.I bent over and my neck was stiff. He led me forward again, and I heard our footsteps echoing.The ground doesn't feel like sand, and it doesn't feel scattered like rocks.The ground felt flat and solid under my feet. The sun is gone - I don't feel it burning my skin or baking my hair anymore. I took another step, and a breath of fresh air rushed past me.Not a breeze, the air is stagnant - I walked into this air.The wind of the dry desert disappeared.The air here is still and cooler.There was an imperceptible humidity in the air, which we both could smell and taste. There are so many questions in my mind, in Melanie's mind.She wanted to ask me questions, but I kept silent, and now neither of us could say anything to help us. "Okay, you can straighten up now," Jeb told me. I raised my head slowly. Even with the blindfold on, I could tell there was no light, and it was pitch black around the bandanna.I heard someone following us, walking impatiently, waiting for us to move forward. "This way," Jeb said, and he showed me the way again.The sound of our footsteps echoing nearby—the space we must be in must be very small, and I found myself instinctively ducking my head. We went a few steps further in, and then we made a sharp turn which seemed to take us where we had just passed.The ground started to slope down, getting steeper with each step, and Jeb grabbed me with his rough hands to keep me from falling.I don't know how long I slipped and slipped in the dark.It felt like the hike was longer than it actually had been, because every minute passed more slowly because of my fear. We turned another corner and started climbing up the ground.My legs were so numb and log-like, and the road got steeper that Jeb had to half-drag me up.The farther we went, the greater the humidity and the wetter the air, but the darkness did not change.The only sounds are our footsteps and their echoes nearby. The path became flat again, and began to turn and meander forward. Finally, a ray of light appeared on the top and bottom of my blindfold.I want it to slide off because I'm too scared to pull it off.It seems to me that if only I could see where I was and who was with me, I wouldn't feel so scared. With the light came a noise, an unfamiliar noise, a low, indistinct hum that sounded almost like the babble of a waterfall. As we walked on, the noise grew louder, and the closer we got, the less it sounded like water.It's so different, the high and low sounds are intertwined and reverberate together.If it weren't so jarring, it would probably be like the music I've been listening to and humming on Singing Planet, only worse.The darkness of the blindfold fits that memory, the memory of seeing nothing. Melanie understood the cacophony before I did, and I'd never heard anything like it because I'd never been with a human being before. It was an argument, she realized, and it sounded like so many people arguing. She was drawn to the sound.So, are there more people here?Surprised both of us even with eight people, what kind of place is this? A hand touched my neck, and I dodged it. "Relax," Jeb said, pulling the blindfold off my eyes. I blinked slowly, and the shadows around me gradually took shape that I could understand: uneven walls, a roof full of holes, worn-out dusty floors.We are somewhere in a natural cave in the ground, we can't be that deep in the ground.I thought it took us longer to go up than to go down. The rocky walls and roof are a dark brown with a purplish tinge, and are riddled with shallow holes, like Swiss cheese.The edges of the holes further below were frayed, but the circles above my head were more clearly discernible, their edges looking more abrupt. The sunlight came in through a round hole in front of us, similar in appearance to the other hollows in the cave, only larger.This is the entrance, an entrance to a brighter place.Melanie was anxious, dreaming of more humans.I hesitated, suddenly worried that it might be better not to see than to see. Jeb sighed. "I'm sorry," he whispered, so low I'm sure I was the only one who could hear. I struggled to comprehend, but couldn't figure it out.My head started to feel dizzy, but that might be from hunger.Jeb reminded me to go through the big hole, and my hands shook like a strong wind blowing leaves. The tunnel led to a huge room, and at first I couldn't take in what my eyes were unfolding before my eyes.The roof was too bright, too high—like an artificial sky.I tried to figure out what was lighting the place, but it gave off wisps of blinding light that hurt my eyes. I was expecting the babbling to grow louder, but there was a sudden deathly silence in the huge cavern. The ground was dark compared to the high, radiant opening, and it took me a while to make out the shapes to my eyes. a group of people.There are no other words to describe it - there was a group of people standing there like stones motionless and silent, all staring at me with faces as intense as fire and hate as I've ever seen at dawn expression. Melanie was stunned and had no reaction except to count.Ten, fifteen, twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven I don't care how many people there are, I want to tell her it doesn't matter.It doesn't take more than twenty of them to kill me, kill us.I tried to make her understand how dangerous my position was, but she couldn't hear my warning at the moment, lost in a human world she never thought was here. A man took a step forward from the crowd, and I first glanced quickly at his hands, looking for the weapons they were holding.His hands were clenched into fists, but otherwise threatening.My eyes adjusted to the blinding light, saw the sunlight gild his skin, and recognized its color. The sudden surge of hope dazzled and overwhelmed me.I looked up and looked at the man's face.