Seeking Eden Read online

  “They’re just girls,” she said, remembering the fresh faces beneath the dirt. “Teeners!”

  “They kill people. And they’ll kill us, they’ll kill the people here, if they find out we’re here. We need to go.”

  A chill skittered down her spine. She nodded, crossing her arms across her chest and hugging her elbows to warm herself. “All right. Tomorrow morning. We’ll go.”

  Tobin looked over her shoulder, back toward the Stolzfus house. His face was grim, his mouth set in a thin line. He pointed.

  “We may not make it to tomorrow morning.”

  She turned, dreading what she knew she’d see. Gappers, five of them, dressed in green and wearing their helmets with the face masks. They all carried guns.

  −

  36-

  Elanna hadn’t seen much of the town or met many people other than Samuel and the Stolzfus family. She was surprised to see the number of women running out from their homes. She was even more surprised by the number of children.

  Even as her heart thudded in her chest at the sight of the Gappers, her throat closed with emotion at the sight of the little ones. Many looked to be between six and ten years old, but she saw a few toddlers. Their chubby legs and sturdy bodies took her breath away, and when she saw one of the women clutching a blanket covered bundle to her chest, Elanna put both hands on her empty womb. But she did not allow herself to cry. She had no time for grief.

  “Move your fucking asses!” Came the cry from one of the Gappers. The high voice sounded familiar. Lovett? Or Maranian? Or maybe just another teener girl.

  Tobin held her hand so tightly she winced. “Toby,” she murmured, twisting it in his. “Let go.”

  He didn’t take his eyes off the group in front of them. “They’re lining everyone up.”

  “Where are the men?” Elanna asked. Tobin still didn’t move, and she stayed with him. Together, they watched the Gappers parading up and down the street, poking their guns at the women and bending down to frighten the children.

  “Out in the fields?” Tobin replied, his answer just another question. “Working?”

  One of the taller Gappers barked a series of orders, and two of the others ran off down the street. To find the men? She didn’t know, but watching the children crying as their mothers tried to shield them, Elanna was no longer afraid.

  She was furious.

  “Who do they think they are?” She watched as one of the Gappers, shoulders shaking with laughter, knocked a little boy no more than a toddler into the dirt. “He’s only a baby!”

  “Elanna,” Tobin said warningly, but she shrugged him off.

  “They’re hurting children!”

  Just then, the lead Gapper looked over to where they stood. “Hey you! Chakey and Emma! Get your Plain asses over here!”

  “She thinks we’re someone else,” Tobin said, but Elanna didn’t think that was the case. The Gapper’d spoken with a forced, sarcastic accent. She was mocking the Plain People, calling Tobin and Elanna by common names.

  “No,” she said. “She’s just being an asshole.”

  Tobin looked at her, an odd smile twisting his mouth. “Now you sound just like them.”

  “We’d better go over there.”

  He nodded. She could still see the fear in his eyes, but it was further away now. Like hers. Anger could do that.

  Together, they walked across the grass to the street. The tallest Gapper motioned with the gun, and Tobin and Elanna got in line. The Gapper strolled over to them, ignoring the others who still taunted and teased the women and children.

  With one quick movement, she tugged off her helmet and mask. The young woman with the gun couldn’t have been more than twenty years old, though her eyes looked much older than that. Her skin was pale and unmarked by blemishes, though a thin layer of grime coated her fine, even features.

  Deep blue eyes, clear as water, glittered beneath heavy brows the same golden shade as her hair. She shook her head to clear her face of some errant strands, turned her face to one side, and spit an amazingly huge glob of spittle onto the ground. Elanna recognized her. Major Kodak.

  “You should know the fucking drill by now, Emma,” Kodak said. “Were you and Chakey too busy getting it on over there to notice we were here?”

  Without waiting for an answer, she turned to smirk at Tobin. “Not out plowing and sowing with the other losers?”

  Tobin opened his mouth to say something but shut it quickly. Watching him, Elanna guessed he had thought the same thing she had; his accent, or lack of it, would give him away immediately. So far Kodak hadn’t seemed to guess they were the prey. The clothes had helped disguise them. Their voices wouldn’t be so easy to hide.

  Rachel Stolzfus, arms wrapped protectively around Amos and her youngest daughter Levina, muttered something that Elanna didn’t catch. Apparently Kodak heard it. The woman turned quick as a rat, eyes narrowed, to glare at Rachel.

  “Speak in English, dumbass!”

  Rachel lifted her chin. “I said, we what you wanted sent already.”

  The Gapper laughed and spit again, narrowly missing Rachel’s shoe. “Well, maybe we want something else this time.”

  Nobody else had time to say anything more, because the other Gappers came back with the men. Elanna saw Enoch, head held high and his face calm. All of the men looked calm, in fact. They all looked alike, dressed the same and most of them with beards.

  “Line ‘em up!” Kodak called, pointing with her gun. “Two lines, across from the runts and the bitches. You,” she said, pointing to Tobin. “Get your ass over in the line with the men. Unless you’re a pussy.”

  She waited to see if he’d react but didn’t seem surprised when he didn’t. Tobin’s jaw clenched, but he wisely kept silent as he moved across into the other line to stand between two men Elanna hadn’t met.

  “You’re all pussies,” Kodak snapped, looking them up and down. She bent in to spit again, this time at Tobin’s feet. Again, he didn’t react, though his face was not as smooth and calm as the other men’s. “Never lift a finger to defend yourselves.” She made a low sound of disgust in her throat.

  “Sir, Major Kodak, Sir!”

  The head Gapper turned to the young girl, no more than twelve, who’d called her name. “The fuck is it this time, Dallas?”

  Dallas gulped but continued bravely. “Permission to use the latrine, Sir!”

  Kodak rolled her eyes but nodded. “God damnit, Dallas, didn’t you go before we left headquarters?”

  “Sir, no, Sir!”

  “Get out of here!” Kodak snapped, and watched as Dallas scurried away. The younger girl tripped as she ran, dropping her gun. The weapon landed in the dirt, clanging against a rock. “Damnit, Dallas!”

  “Sorry, Sir!”

  Kodak shook her head and rubbed at a spot between her eyes, as though she had pain there. “Tayler! Winslow! Front and center!”

  Two of the older girls jogged up, holding their guns firmly. Each snapped her hand against her forehead, then out and down. “Sir! Yes, Sir!”

  “Tayler, you start down there with the women and the brats. Winslow, you start with the men. You know what I want to know.”

  “Sir! Yes, Sir!”

  With another of those hand snaps, each Gapper went to her assigned spot and began talking. Kodak walked up and down the rows, watching. Blinking. Spitting every so often, and sometimes scratching, too. Elanna itched just watching her.

  It was going to take forever for Tayler to get to her. The Gapper was slow, taking her time with each woman. She even bent down to talk to the children. She asked them all the same question, over and over, even to the littlest ones who couldn’t be expected to answer.

  “Where are the man and the woman who came in the car?”

  One after another, the women shook their heads or mumbled something in the language that sounded like Yiddish but wasn’t quite. The children hid their faces, not speaking. At least Tayler didn’t poke them or make them cry.