Chapter 6: Rude Awakenings

Judy Bondi, when she woke up the next morning, felt awful. Her head ached, she wanted to throw up -- and on top of all that, she felt she'd let Tuck and her friends down.

She was lying on top of a sleeping bag, not hers and was outside. Judy struggled to sit up, her head throbbing; it was all she could do not to be sick to her stomach.

Elspeth arrived and saw that she was awake. "Here," the older girl said, handing Judy a canteen, "wash out your mouth. Like you said yesterday, it tastes like shit, after."

Judy managed to stand up, went a few steps and swished some water in her mouth, then spat onto a bush.

Elspeth handed her two aspirin. "Tuck said you'd have a headache this morning, that you should take these."

"I'll live," Judy said, shaking her head no.

"Fine, wonderful. That stupid woman and her daughter are gone; they dosed you, then everyone else and left. Tuck went after her. These guys are about to move out. Without him. Without them."

Judy wanted to sit down and weep. What had she done?

"Don't be an ass," Elspeth said roughly, reading her mood. "You might have been stupid enough to drink what that woman gave you; I wouldn't trust her with the time of day. None of the others would either. I have no idea what she did, but everyone else has a splitting headache this morning, not just you. Take the damn pills; it might not be much, but girl, you're what we've got right now."

"There's you," Judy stated, looking right at Elspeth.

"Ha!" Elspeth exclaimed. "You're nuts! Your friends barely move when it's you telling them to move. They ignore me. You can talk to this Gamelin guy. Ain't none of them going to want to be bossed by a pregnant rape victim."

"Elspeth," Judy said patiently, "you might be pregnant, you might have been raped. Neither of those has the least thing to do with what sort of a person you are."

"Judy, I don't believe in relaxing and enjoying it. I put up a fight until it was over. I left my mark on the guy. Girl, this is the real thing. Don't relax, don't enjoy. You're in charge. Leave your mark on it."

In a few minutes Gamelin appeared and signed, asking Judy if she was well enough to travel. Judy nodded. Already the camp had been struck -- it would have been pointless to say no.

The morning was hell. First, leaving the camp and Tuck behind. Then as the heat of the day rose, Judy found herself sweating buckets. Then, there was a hasty conference between Gamelin and some of the others, and some of the soldiers took up positions, watching their back trail. A few minutes later Judy could see Tuck and one of Gamelin's men coming towards them.

She breathed a silent sigh of relief when Tuck caught up with them. She shook his hand, right after Gamelin got to do it. She listened to Tuck describe what had happened to Mrs. Flowers and Sarah. Judy had pretty well gotten past her nausea, but it came back. The men who'd been there when they'd come to this place hadn't been nice; Tuck had said he was sure they were shooting at them. No, Judy didn't harbor any false hopes for Mrs. Flowers and her daughter.

At the noon break, Tuck warned Judy she had to drink more. Judy grimaced, but knew it was true. She was drenched with sweat, her blouse clung to her, and her jeans were damp as well.

They didn't stop until mid-afternoon. The other three girls were exhausted, sitting rigidly in their saddles, their eyes glazed with fatigue and pain. When Judy got off, she realized she could barely walk herself; for one thing, she felt like there was still a horse between her legs. That made for an awkward, bowlegged gait.

Elspeth came up to her. "I have to go pee so bad..."

Judy hadn't had to go until then; it was like magic. Elspeth spoke and Judy had to clamp down tight on the spigot. She walked over to Tuck who was, as usual, talking with Gamelin. "Elspeth and I need to use the bushes."

He looked around, and then pointed to a pile of rocks. "Go behind there."

Judy looked around. Gamelin's men were searching a small patch of trees that promised some shade, once they were resting. They were well away from the rocks. Judy nodded, and checked with Becky and Lydia, who both shook their heads.

"Drink plenty of water!" Judy commanded them. "You have to or you're going to get really, really sick!"

She watched as the others took drinks from their canteens, then she gathered up Elspeth and headed for the rocks.

Out of sight of the others, Judy spied a clump of heavy brush and made for it, Elspeth following close behind.

It seemed like he grew out of the desert; one second they were alone, then a man appeared with a long gun pointed right at Judy's gut. She stopped, stunned. The man was wearing nothing but a wrap around his middle. As she watched, he tugged at the wrap, miming silence. Another man appeared, a knife in his hand, threatening Elspeth. He'd already taken off his loincloth.

Judy's mind raced. She could scream, she could...

The man who'd stepped towards Elspeth suddenly screamed, far louder than Judy could have. Elspeth was holding her switchblade low, watching blood spurting from the man's genitals.

The man facing Judy turned slightly, his gun going off line from her. Judy's hand slapped the knife on her own belt, she brushed the gun further away with her other hand as she thrust hard with the knife at him.

She would remember that instant for the rest of her life. It was like spearing a piece of steak. Resistance at first, then the knife went in to the hilt. The man looked down at the blade sticking out of his solar plexus, then back up at Judy. Then his eyes rolled up and he was dead. Dead before he could fall, even.

There was a clatter of rocks and Tuck was there, his carbine ready. He glanced at the two men, and then hissed at Judy, "Down! Both of you! Get down!"

Judy crouched, but Elspeth simply snorted.

"If they have any friends in the bushes," Tuck growled at Elspeth, "they're going to shoot you first, girl! Now get down!"

Elspeth looked at Tuck with a look of distaste on her face. She stayed standing.

More men arrived, including Gamelin and Vosper. Men fanned out to search the bushes, while Vosper knelt down at the man Elspeth had cut.

The man was still sobbing, holding himself there, between his legs. Judy had a couple of good looks; it was pretty bad. The problem with men, Judy thought, is that they had all that stuff hanging out there, a natural target. And Elspeth had gone for the target she hated the most.

Vosper started asking questions, and the man, pale as a sheet, tried to answer; it was obvious he was in considerable pain.

Gamelin, in the meantime, knelt next to the man Judy had killed, pulling her knife from the man's chest. Gamelin wiped the blade off on her victim's loin wrap, and then handed it back to Judy, hilt first.

"Erst mal?" Gamelin asked her.

He was asking if it was the first time she'd killed someone, Judy was sure. She simply nodded, and then took the blade and put it back in its sheath, planning on giving it a really thorough cleaning later.

It was then Judy realized that there was another drama playing out, a few feet away. The sergeant had stood and with a series of quick words, reported to Gamelin. It obviously wasn't good news.

At the end, Vosper glanced at the man, then at Gamelin. Judy wasn't positive, but they seemed to be concerned about something regarding Elspeth.

Tuck picked up on it, too. Elspeth was just standing still, staring at the man she'd hurt. "Gamelin, how is this done? Wie machts so was?" Tuck asked.

"Ehe, pflict. Versteh? Hochehe pflict," Gamelin replied.

Some of those words were easy to understand. Tuck had said they had nobles, called the ehe or hochehe. The one word she wasn't sure about was pflict. Duty or honor? Or both wrapped up as one?

Tuck reached out and touched Elspeth's arm. Elspeth shook his hand off.

"Elspeth, the man you cut is going to die."

"Good!" Elspeth spat, the spittle hitting between the man's spread legs, close to where he was bleeding.

"Elspeth, I've seen wounds like this. It could take a couple of days for him to die; they don't have antibiotics here. The man is going to die a long, slow painful death."

Elspeth turned to face Tuck. "Too bad I can't stay here and cheer when it comes."

"Gamelin is willing to do what has to be done," Tuck went on, ignoring her. "Hell, I'd do it for a dog. It has to be done."

He never once, Judy thought with admiration, suggested anything to Elspeth. Nothing. Not that it wasn't clear enough.

Elspeth's switchblade snicked open, she leaned down and drew the blade across the man's throat. There was a gush of blood, his heels drummed on the dirt for a second and then he was dead.

Elspeth took a few steps and wiped her knife on a yucca cactus, the kind with wide, thick, succulent leaves. When she finished, she turned back to Tuck. "We still gotta pee; how about letting us use the bushes, now that you all looked?"

Tuck stared at her for a second, mildly surprised. Then he said something to Gamelin. Gamelin looked at Judy. Judy realized he was looking to see if she'd peed her pants. She walked to Elspeth, hooked elbows and went into the cluster of brush.

Later, it was strange. Judy could see that Gamelin's men would stare at her or at Elspeth. They would talk between themselves, usually not very many words. Then it sure looked like they'd have a short laugh before they would go on about their business.

As Judy watched, she came to a slow burn. It had been a dumb mistake, no doubt about it. But it wasn't laughable; it wasn't funny at all. She had to kill a man! Elspeth had killed a helpless man! There was no doubt in Judy's mind that if she hadn't killed the man she would have been raped. The man hadn't been undoing his loincloth because he wanted to take a piss!

The laughter though, that really hurt.

Finally, she walked to Tuck, who was leaning against a rock, his hat over his eyes. "Why are they laughing at us?"

He pushed the hat up. "No one is laughing at you."

"Sure they are," Judy told him, waving at the camp. "A couple of them get together, look at one or the other of us, say a few words, snicker and move on."

He smiled.

"There!" Judy said, outraged. "Now you're doing it!"

"I am not laughing. Amused, yes. Amazed, yes. Judy, do you know what's going on with us?"

"No."

"Well, I'm not sure either. But these men, Gamelin's men, are reserves or National Guard types. Called up to serve occasionally, to keep their hand in; they were supposed to be at peace. Except, the war just got hot. They are scared. These men aren't blooded soldiers, Judy. They haven't been in combat, most of them, not before this.

"You and Elspeth. You met two of their enemies, face-to-face. Enemies they use to scare their children with. Aztecs, I think. You know, the cut-out-the-living-heart-of-the-victim, sacrifice guys."

Judy paled.

"Yeah, those guys. You met them one to one. You, two girls. Gamelin's troops already liked you. There is nothing a cavalry trooper understands better than how hard it is to do what they do. You and the others, you are game, you keep trying and even though you're hurting. Every last one of these men has been there and done that themselves. They know exactly how you feel, Judy.

"And in spite of your gender, you guys keep going." He laughed then and changed his wording. "You girls keep going. It impresses them. And now, the score is girls two, bad guys zero. Every last man in this camp would like to think of himself as better than any teenage girl who ever lived. But they are scared. You did it, Judy. You and Elspeth did it. By yourselves, without their help, you killed their enemies. And on top of that, well, Elspeth could spit and you both had to pee. Trust me, Judy. The first time most people have to kill in combat, the urge to pee doesn't exist right afterwards. Or the ability to spit."

"It was too fast," Judy said, trying to understand it all. "I didn't have time to think. They came out of nowhere and threatened us..."

"And then you killed them. Bottom line, Judy. You killed them. Elspeth's stock went through the roof when she killed the guy. I know it's not something pleasant to think about, but in combat, shit happens. The culture we've landed in is military and has definite notions of honor and dishonor. Elspeth particularly, and you too, did well today."

"Why do they laugh at us, then?" Judy insisted.

He chuckled. "They are laughing at the gods, Judy! They are scared. They've never been there and you have. You've done it; they're telling themselves if you can, so can they. They look at you, and then laugh at themselves for being afraid. When you and Elspeth weren't."

Judy's mouth formed a small 'O' of surprise.

She was further surprised when he put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed lightly. "We've gone down the rabbit hole; even if Alice's Wonderland was never like this. We have to take each day one step at a time, doing the best we can. You're doing really well, Judy. So are the others. It just takes a bit of getting used to."

Judy went and sat down in the shade of a rock. Elspeth glanced up as she sat down. "Anything interesting?"

"Depends on your definition of interesting, I guess," Judy replied.

"Is there going to be trouble because we killed those guys?"

It had never occurred to Judy that there would be. From what Tuck had said, the opposite was true. "No," Judy replied.

"Asshole mother-fucker! The first time I didn't have a knife! I fixed that! It's never, ever going to happen again! Not ever!"

"I think," Judy said quietly, "it would be best if we rested while we had the chance."

Elspeth laughed. "Truth is, you have no idea what it's like. I have to eat for two. And I think I need to sleep for two." Her eyes closed, almost at once.

Judy sagged back against the rock, nearly exhausted.

Later, Judy didn't see the scouts returning, but she heard the discussion. Within a few minutes, everyone was up again and moving. For most of the afternoon they contoured along ridgelines, going neither up nor down. Later they went up a long ridge, gaining another thousand feet or so, but arriving at a small saddle in the ridge at the top, Judy and her friends were totally exhausted.

"There was a bunch of them following not far behind us earlier," Tuck told her when they stopped, just short of dark. "When I caught up. The bad guys stopped then and didn't press.

"Gamelin wants to cross the main ridge of the Mazatzals; that's this range of mountains. When we get on the other side, he'll be able to signal their base about what's going on. That's very high on Gamelin's list of priorities.

"We climbed a thousand feet this afternoon, we'll climb another thousand feet first thing tomorrow. It won't be easy, but Gamelin will feel a whole lot better, once they pass the word."

"But we're not safe, even so?" Judy asked.

"No, like you found earlier, they have scouts out. Gamelin and I talked this afternoon; he's still trying to decide if the man they questioned earlier was telling the truth or not. He said there are a million men headed this way. Gamelin says his boss can, maybe, muster five thousand. Of course there is no guarantee the man was telling the truth."

Judy grimaced, that wasn't good! That wasn't good at all!

"How long are we stopping?"

"Dinner and rest," Tuck replied. "Sleeping bags, no tents, no cook fires. Lucky us, we have trail mix and candy bars. They have that awful porridge, cold."

"If we eat them now, we won't have them later," Judy said, trying to think ahead.

Tuck nodded. "On the other hand, if tomorrow all of you have cramps instead of just you and Elspeth, it won't speed things up. I have a cast iron stomach... and it cleaned out my digestive tract from just one portion yesterday morning."

"I'm fine," Judy told him, pained.

Gamelin came ghosting through the twilight. "Tuck, scouts say, there is movement on the ridge ahead of us."

Tanda looked over the bedraggled group of refugees from the village. Tazi wasn't the youngest, not by half. The oldest was probably three times as old as Tanda. For all of that, they seemed to be the village dunces. None of them knew where the redoubt was, except Smiling Fox. And Smiling Fox was pointing to the southeast. That direction just wasn't possible for them; there was too much open ground there, and more importantly, too many Mexicotal and Zarthani.

She finally decided where to camp for the night. There was a ridgeline ahead. It looked no different than the other ridgelines, but that was only from this side. The other, the northern slope, was far steeper; a man could probably get up it on foot, but a lot of men would make a lot of noise.

They would camp on a little hump, with a clear view along the ridge in both directions and the desert wash and the ridge to their south.

As she expected, they reached the spot just as the last of the light failed. Everyone sank down to rest; the only ones showing any spark of energy were Smiling Fox, who was tending to his woman and Tazi, who was helping him.

Tanda gently pushed Smiling Fox out of the way and looked for herself. One of the old women joined her. They checked Smiling Fox's woman carefully. Tanda knew almost nothing about childbirth; a few sessions in first aid classes, but almost always the warning that in simple cases it was simple and if it didn't look simple, call for a doctor!

Still, she was an herbalist. She took Smiling Fox by the arm. "See this plant?" she asked him, pointing to a small plant with silvery leaves.

"Yes," he replied, exhausted and worried.

"How full is your water skin?" Tanda continued.

He felt it, and then grimaced. "Half. She was so thirsty this afternoon..."

"It is good, you did the right thing," Tanda told him. "This is a young plant, too small. There are some larger ones back there," she pointed back along the way they'd come. "Waist high."

He nodded. "I remember them."

"Take only the biggest, fattest leaves, fold them carefully and put them in your water skin. When you have four hands of leaves inside, close the skin tightly. Then knead it, breaking the leaves inside. Then shake it hard for a finger-width. Return when you are done; the tea will ease your woman's discomfort."

He bobbed his head and trotted off to do what he'd been asked.

The old woman sniffed. "She will start to bleed soon. Then she will die. We can cut the baby from her belly and save it... or let them both die."