Eden's Promise, page 12
Four other women were in the room, looking as surprised as she felt. Two women were dressed in desert camo pants and beige T-shirts, but one of the women had the T-shirt stretched over a hugely pregnant belly. Another woman was older, maybe fifty, with wiry salt-and-pepper hair and a defeated expression. The fourth woman was maybe thirty, and watched Eden apprehensively.
Eden took all this in in the time it took the guards to close the doors and she pivoted. Too late, not that she’d been very effective anyway. She took in the barred windows, the cinderblock walls, the metal doors, the Spartan furnishings.
“What is this place?” she asked.
“Hell,” said the pregnant woman.
***
She discovered the pregnant woman was Annie, and the other soldier was Christine. Both had been serving on the base when the world went to hell. Other women had been stationed here at the time, but many left to go home to their families. Christine and Annie had felt compelled to stay. And then the commander, who was not military, as Aaron had suspected, had arrived at the base. He’d applied to them for help, and then took over, turning some of the soldiers against command, then stepping in to fill the void. He’d locked the women away from the other soldiers under the guise of protecting them from the baser instincts of men. But then he started visiting them regularly, then sending other men to them, some of them soldiers they’d served with, some of them strangers he had apparently let onto the base.
“And you see the results of that,” Annie said darkly, rubbing her hand in wide circles over her belly.
“I came here with my husband seeking help,” the younger civilian woman, Teresa, said. “We were starving, our city had gone crazy, we were looking for a safe place. We were so enthralled when we saw all the food, all the preparations, the normal way of life. We were sold. We wanted to stay. And then one night, they came to the room and separated us. I haven’t seen my husband in weeks. I don’t even know if he’s still alive. Other men come, but never him.”
Eden’s stomach twisted. She didn’t know if Aaron was alive, either.
The older woman, Adele, spoke next. “My husband and I also came here looking for help. He was taken away and I was brought here, but I’m not...used...as much as these women. And I am allowed to see my husband for short visits. But my husband likes it here, he feels like he’s providing for me by doing as the commander asks. He believes in the life we’re building here.”
“What kind of life? The kind where women are used as, what, release and brood mares? The one where they’re whored out to well-behaving soldiers?” Annie asked, her tone weary. Apparently they’d had this conversation before.
“What’s your story?” the older woman asked. “Did you come here alone?”
“With my husband.” Still felt strange to say the word. “We just wanted a night inside, and were planning on making our way to Texas. But the commander decided he wanted us to stay. He hit Aaron, so hard.” She swallowed the bile that rose when she remembered the sound of the pipe cracking against Aaron’s skull. “I don’t know if he is all right or not. Surely, if he wanted Aaron to be one of his soldiers he wouldn’t kill him, right?”
“Maybe he wasn’t looking for a soldier. Maybe he was looking to add you to his harem,” Christine said.
A chill ran through her as she thought about being someone’s whore—worse, a whore for more than one man. Not when the only man’s touch she wanted was Aaron’s.
“There has to be a way out of here.” She scanned the room, but the only windows were high along the ceiling, and covered with wire mesh. Had this place been the brig?
“You think we haven’t thought of that?” Annie spat. “You think we want to just lie back and take it? There’s no way. Even if we could get out, we wouldn’t have the supplies to survive.”
“We could find them.”
“And the commander and his men would be hot on our heels,” Christine said. “We’d have no means to fight them off, and we’d be dragged back here.”
“I won’t leave my husband,” Teresa said. “I don’t know if he’s alive or not, but I won’t leave without knowing.”
That hit home. Aaron wasn’t her husband, but she couldn’t imagine being out in the world without him. But if he was dead, then what? Was she willing to be a whore instead of striking out on her own?
No, she wasn’t.
“And there’s no way of seeing the men? Seeing where they are? If he’s hurt, there’s an infirmary, right? We can’t get to it?”
Three pair of accusing eyes turned to Adele, who backed up, hands raised. “They occasionally bring me in to help, but I don’t know who the men are, not well enough to tell you how your men are doing.”
“Aaron is almost thirty, brown hair, hazel eyes, and has a tattoo on his chest below his left shoulder. Please, I need to know.”
Adele’s expression remained aloof. “I can’t just tell the commander to let me in there. I have to be ordered.”
Already Eden could see why the other women were frustrated with her. How could she stand back and let this happen?
“And when any of you are hurt? Are you sent to the same infirmary?”
“That’s never come up, but I can only imagine. I don’t think there is any place else.”
Eden stood and braced herself. “So someone hit me.”
***
Aaron came to on his back on a flat bed, staring up at a florescent light. So long since he’d seen artificial lighting, and it burned his eyes, sending a hot blaze of pain through his already throbbing head. Turning his head took great effort, nausea rising in him with the movement. Shit, he had a concussion. Even if he was able to get up, get out, he wouldn’t get far.
And first he had to find Eden.
She wasn’t here, in the sterile infirmary. Hell, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen a place so clean, spotless, no sign of being without supplies or power in almost a year.
The room had no windows, or from what he could see, neither did the hall. Were they underground? That would make escape that much more difficult—fewer ways out, and all likely guarded. And he was without his weapons.
“Glad to see you’re coming around.”
The commander stepped into his line of sight and Aaron fought back the anger, the urge to rise and fight back. Ridiculous, since he didn’t think he could sit up right now.
“Where’s Eden?”
“Safe, for now.” The man affected a casual pose, propping a foot up on the rung of a stool, folding his hands over his thigh. “I can make a good life for both of you here. You’re a smart man. Surely you can see that.”
“We prefer to be on our own, together,” Aaron said through his teeth.
“Being on your own is too hard, even for a SEAL like yourself.”
Aaron tensed. He didn’t have enough control to mask his concern, but he did have enough to hold his tongue.
“I recognize the tattoo,” the commander said, straightening, both feet on the ground.
His tattoo. He realized now he was wearing a different shirt—someone had changed him, maybe because his other shirt was covered with blood. But his tattoo didn’t have a SEAL insignia or anything blatant. He’d been thankful for that when the world went to hell. Only someone from his own SEAL team would know, but he didn’t know this man. Was one of his other teammates here? What would be the odds of that?
“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” Aaron muttered, closing his eyes against the light that made his head hurt.
“Of course you do. I see it on your face.”
“I just want my wife. I just want to go to Texas.”
“I’m sorry about that, truly I am, especially if your people are still there. But I need a man like you. And God knows, I need a woman like Eden.”
Aaron’s better judgement left him, and he heaved himself off the cot and lunged for the man, dropping to the cement floor feet away, his head spinning, pulse pounding against his skull. The commander merely laughed and turned away, leaving him on the cold floor.
Chapter Thirteen
“No, stop.” Adele stepped forward and caught Christine’s fist just as she was about to plow it into the side of Eden’s head. “I’ll see what I can find out. I will.”
Slowly the older woman moved to the door and knocked. It opened a crack and one of the soldiers stuck his head in. His response was so quick, Eden realized the room was always guarded. God. What was she going to do? As far as she could see, that was the only way out. Her only hope was to get to another part of the compound and gauge her options from there.
As Adele talked to the guard about working in the infirmary, Eden tried to remember what she’d seen as she’d been dragged to this building. They’d been in the officer quarters, she guessed, which was connected to the mess. How many buildings had they passed as they brought her here? Had this been the brig? The high windows suggested that. Or had they adapted it with the bars after they’d decided they wanted to keep their own harem?
The door closed behind the guard and Adele turned to them, her mouth turned down, her shoulders slumped.
“I can’t get in there now, they said. They want me to stay with Annie because she’s so close to her time.”
Eden turned her attention to the pregnant woman. “How close are you?”
“A matter of weeks, I think.”
“The baby has dropped in the past couple of days,” Adele said.
Annie rolled her eyes. “Which means I have to pee all the time and walking is a pain.”
“I can’t imagine having a baby in this world,” Teresa said, voicing Eden’s own thoughts. “No baby wipes, no disposable diapers, no formula, no bottles, no pacifiers.”
“Women have been doing it long before all those things,” Adele said. “We’ll manage.”
“We’ll manage,” Annie said bitterly. “I never wanted a child in the first place. And to have one in this place, in this time? A child whose father I despise? It’s a nightmare.”
“You’ll feel differently when you hold him in your arms,” Adele said, a little sadly. “Once you experience that, you’ll do anything in the world for him.”
But the mutinous set of Annie’s jaw said otherwise.
***
Aaron didn’t know how much time had passed since he and Eden were separated. Without windows, he had no concept of night and day. His head hurt less, and he could walk around without staggering, for the most part, which meant he’d be moved out of the infirmary soon. His thoughts bounced between finding Eden—God, what was happening to her?—and trying to figure out what the commander knew about his tattoo.
His contact with the other soldiers was limited. He saw the same three or four guys all the time, and none of them would tell him where Eden was.
During one visit, two new men came in with Starling, one of the soldiers he was accustomed to seeing. Starling and one of the other men sat him in a chair and the third man turned on his electric razor. The man ran the razor over Aaron’s head in the shortest cut he’d had since basic training, and the idea struck him. In order to get out of here—he had to kill the generators.
Once he was done being shaved, Starling tossed clothing at him. BDUs. Great. He thought he’d left these behind in the old world. They’d gotten him nothing but trouble in the new one. But at least he was getting out of the infirmary and could look around, maybe find out where Eden was.
“When you’re dressed, we’re taking you to the commander and he’ll give you your assignment,” Starling said.
“Likely the latrines,” one of the other men said with a snort.
He didn’t care where they assigned him, as long as he was out of this damned bunker.
***
“Today,” Adele said, turning away from her conversation with the guard at the door, her lips drawn down, her eyes sad.
“Today?” Eden echoed. Three days she’d been locked in here with these women with next to no privacy, unable to rest because her mind spun from one idea of escape to another, all ending in dead ends, which was fine because she wasn’t leaving here without Aaron anyway. And she couldn’t do that until she knew where he was.
“The commander feels you’re acclimated enough to the place. Tonight he’s coming to you.”
“Coming to me? Like...coming to me?” Eden’s knees turned to water and she sat down hard on the edge of the bed.
“We’re to get you ready.”
“Wait.” She gripped the edge of the bed, as if that would stop anyone from moving her where she didn’t want to go. “Wait. There’s—he just—in front of all of you? He doesn’t take us to his room?”
“He pulls the curtain.” Adele motioned to the curtains around the beds, kind of like hospital curtains.
“It doesn’t give a lot of privacy,” Christine said. “At least he pulls the curtain. A lot of them don’t. They want everyone to see what they have in their pants.”
Nausea rolled in her stomach. “I can’t. I can’t do that. Why doesn’t he take us to his room?”
“Security,” Teresa said. “I tried to convince him, but he refused. It wasn’t pleasant, so I wouldn’t suggest it.” She rubbed a scar at the side of her head.
“We’ll get you ready,” Adele said. “The more pleasing you are to look at, the better it will be for you.”
“I don’t think being raped is a question of degree,” Annie said from her own bed.
“What I mean is, he won’t hurt her. He can be a little rough if he’s unhappy,” Adele said.
God. God. God. God. Eden battled tears. She couldn’t do this. But what would happen to her if she used her training to fight him off? He’d kill her, probably, and she’d never get to Kelly, never get home. Was surviving worth getting raped?
Christine crossed the room to her with a brush. She motioned for Eden to turn around and started brushing out her hair. “It’s best if you just let your mind go somewhere else, somewhere happy. He takes a long time, and will want some help from you. Just do it and don’t think about it. And don’t think about your husband, because you’ll start to cry and the commander hates tears. Your husband would want you to do anything you can to survive, right?”
Eden knew the answer was yes, but Aaron wasn’t really her husband, couldn’t know the terror she’d be facing tonight. And if he was dead...
This was her own fault. This trip had been her idea. Now they were stranded on the mainland, prisoners, and Aaron could be dead.
Again she thought about asking Christine to hit her, to put her in the hospital, but suddenly she couldn’t stand the thought of being helpless. If the commander came, she was going to fight him, no matter what it cost her. She would not lay back and take it.
Teresa approached with a bag. Make-up—Eden smelled it before Teresa even opened it. Without a word she started applying eyeliner and eyeshadow to Eden’s eyes, and lipstick. She felt fairly heavy-handed, so Eden didn’t ask for a mirror. What did she care what she looked like, anyway?
A heaviness fell over the room as Eden was prepped, mentally and physically. They all jumped at a knock on the door, but it was only their evening meal.
Annie moved to sit at the table in the center of the room and groaned halfway there. The other women jerked to attention. Annie straightened, rubbing her side.
“Contraction?” Adele asked.
“Whatever it was, it didn’t feel good. I think I’m going to lie down.”
“A good idea.” Adele rose to assist her, but Annie waved her off.
The other four women ate in silence as Annie shifted restlessly, trying to get comfortable on her bed. Then another groan and a curse.
“I just wet the freaking bed,” Annie said, sitting up with some effort.
“Your water broke,” Adele said, jumping up from the table and running over. “Eden, tell the guard Annie needs to go to the infirmary now.”
A reprieve, was all Eden could think as she hurried to do Adele’s bidding.
Having a purpose was a wonderful thing, after days of having nothing to do but think. She and Christine were tasked to keep Annie calm and quiet between contractions. When the commander strode in a few moments later, Adele stood with more spine than Eden had seen in her since her arrival.
“We need to get her to the infirmary and comfortable before the labor progresses further. And I’m going to need help.”
“One of the men—”
“No. This is for the women. Eden has experience delivering, and I don’t. I need her with me.”
The commander turned his gaze to Eden and looked at her for a long moment. Until then, she’d forgotten about the heavy mask of make-up. Would he deny Adele’s request and keep her here?
“This is your child’s health we’re talking about here,” Adele said. “Don’t you want the best possible outcome?”
“Fine,” the commander said at the last moment, not looking away from Eden. “But be aware, you will be watched closely. And if anything happens to that child, you will be the one to pay.”
She nodded shortly, her stomach lurching. She had to hope Adele was right about Annie’s maternal instincts kicking in when the baby was born. Otherwise she feared Annie might kill the infant, and Eden and Adele would pay the price. The commander turned and gestured to two men at the door. They hurried in with a gurney and loaded Annie on it. Christine ran alongside as they carried her toward the door, holding Annie’s hand, but the commander stopped her.
“Just these two.”
Eden cast an apologetic look toward Annie’s best friend as she and Adele were ushered out the door.
“Take good care of her!” Christine called as the heavy door was shut behind them.
Eden didn’t have a chance to respond as she hurried along behind the gurney.
