White Spruce

I had just killed Henryk.

Sylvie heard my shot. She quickly looked my way, and then froze when she saw the direction I was facing. She half-turned, as if to look at what I'd been shooting at, but then she stopped, and looked back at me. Even at this distance, I believe that I recognized the expression on her face; it was the same as when we first met - officially, I mean - the night she helped us escape from White Spruce.

I felt... fine. It was simple satisfaction. I might have felt this way if I had been the one to kill Captain Stanton. I wouldn't recommend killing as a hobby, or a way of life, but there is no doubt in my mind that ending someone evil is a good thing to do. Hunters, soldiers, Stanton, Henryk... all good.

But there were still hunters out there, and our work wasn't done. I pointed at them, and gave Sylvie the 'Forward' signal. For good measure, I followed that up with 'Be careful'.

We got them all. I was barely involved. The pair of Knight Lake fighters to my right finished off the wounded hunter. From their description, it was more of a mercy killing than anything else. They were careful to avoid straying too close to the Indie house.

Their two partners came into action

behind

the remaining hunters. Preoccupied by the growing threat to their front, those three men never saw their doom approaching.

Sylvie came over to me.

- "What have you done?"

- "He was targeting

you

. He would have shot you."

She didn't ask me how I knew, or if I was sure. Sylvie could see in my face that I was telling her the truth.

We saw the hunters' flying boat take off. Whether the pilot was a friend or just a charter, he had waited as long as possible for his passengers to return. When they stopped answering their comms, he wisely left before we could get to him.

We all gathered around their final position. Sylvie and I went to console the young walker from Knight Lake who'd lost his sister. His name was Tee, and he was clearly devastated. We helped him recover her body. Only then did we rejoin the others.

It was Silent Rick who asked the question.

- "Where's Henryk?"

- "I shot him." I said.

***

Silent Rick took charge of my unofficial hearing. He seemed to be a reasonably fair guy, and Sylvie didn't raise any objection to him taking the initiative. That was good enough for me.

- "Why did you shoot him, Mike?" he said. "Tell us what happened."

I told them what I'd seen, and what I did.

- "Could he have been aiming at someone else? One of the hunters?" asked Corinne.

- "He was behind Sylvie, and the hunters were straight ahead of him. There

was

no target within range to his right - except Sylvie. Or me."

- "He could have been scanning for hidden targets." said another of the Mack Lake fighters. His name was Perch. "We only have your word for it that he was aiming at her. And..." Perch looked around at the others. "Henryk didn't pull the trigger. He hadn't done anything yet."

- "So you're saying that I should have waited until he killed her? By that logic, I could target you with my rifle - and you'd have to wait until I shot you before you could retaliate."

- "Okay, that's not helping." said Rick.

- "Come on." said Perch. "We all know what happened at Mack Lake."

- "Oh?" said Sylvie. "What was that? What is it you all know?"

Perch scowled. "You broke up with Henryk. You dumped him for the new guy. Mike. Then you threatened Henryk, and told him to stay away from Mike or you'd kill him."

- "Wow." said Corinne. "You are

so

stupid."

- "What?"

- "She couldn't break off with Henryk because she was never with him in the first place. She never told him anything but no. Rick knows that, too."

- "It's true."

- "We both saw Henryk trying to provoke Mike into a fight." continued Corinne. "Several times. I know it's supposed to be bad to speak ill of the dead, but he was a real asshole where Sylvie was concerned. Yes, she told Henryk that she'd kill him if he went after Mike, but she had good reason."

- "Thank you." said Sylvie.

- "I know." said Silent Rick. "But Mike may have been jealous anyway, or afraid. He might have taken the opportunity to strike first, to protect himself."

- "There was nothing to be jealous of." said Sylvie. "Mike knew that. He wasn't afraid, either; he was willing to fight Henryk. I'm the one who asked him not to."

The leader of the Knight Lake party, a man named Darko, spoke up for the first time.

- "Why don't we go take a look at the body?" he suggested.

That was when it hit me.

- "His gun!" I said.

- "His gun?"

- "It's a Van Guren."

Half of the fighters present understood immediately

- "If he was targeting me," said Sylvie, "then the weapon will still be in that mode. Targeting mode."

- "Let's go!" said Corinne.

- "Wait." said Sylvie. "Let's take the hunters' weapons, at least. Just in case we're interrupted."

Rick agreed, as did Darko. We stripped six dead hunters of their rifles, and collected the missile launcher. The other three bodies were too close to the Indie house; we didn't want to get shot.

Then we all trekked up to Henryk's body. Even Corinne winced. I had blown a pretty big hole in his chest.

Rick let Darko pick up Henryk's rifle. He checked the sights.

- "

Holy shit.

" he said.

Silent Rick went over to take a look. He let out a long, deep sigh. Then he turned to me.

- "Sorry to have doubted you." he said.

- "You had to." I said.

We had to wait while Corinne, Perch, and all of the others came forward to examine Henryk's Van Guren, and see for themselves that it was still in targeting mode. The only possible targets for Henryk to have locked onto were Sylvie and me.

- "That's not all." said Darko. "Look at the hole. The entry wound, I mean."

- "What about it?" snapped Perch. Despite the evidence, he still seemed to think that I'd murdered Henryk.

- "Dead centre - in the front. Mike was hundreds of metres to Henryk's right. To hit him in the chest? Henryk had to have been facing that way."

- "I agree." said Silent Rick. "Mike was justified. Self-defence. Does anyone disagree?"

Perch was still sulking, but no one said anything.

Silent Rick wasn't finished, though, and he became a very good friend to me at that moment.

"Perch, you have the right to disagree. You also have the right to take a complaint to Emile Grandjean, our Headman. You will lose your case, of course, just as you have here. But what you

cannot

do is spread rumours. If any of us hear whispers that Henryk was murdered, we will all know where they originated. And if I

do

hear that, then I promise you that

I

will take a complaint to Emile, and ask to have you expelled from Mack Lake."

- "For fuck's sake! What happened to free speech?"

- "You just had it. We all listened to what you had to say. Then you were outvoted 8-1. That's not including Sylvie and Mike, of course. And you still have the right to complain to Emile. But you do not have the right to start baseless rumours and cause trouble."

And that was the end of that - for the moment.

We went back to search the hunters' bodies. Sylvie handed me her rifle, and approached the Indie house. She stopped where the first hunter had been shot.

- "You have nothing to fear from us." she called out. "Unless you shoot at us. Then we will use the hunters' missile launcher." She let that sink in. "They're all dead. We're searching their bodies now. Except for this one. His gun and whatever else he's carrying are yours, since you shot him first."

There was no reply from the house.

"Do you need help?" she called.

Again, there was no response. Sylvie came back, frowning.

- "Something wrong?" I asked.

- "Everything."

She kept frowning, mulling it over in her mind. Then she sought out Darko.

- "Darko, do you remember a couple of men from Knight Lake who went Indie a few years ago? Three years ago, maybe? One of them was called Remy, I think."

- "Remy and Webb. I remember. It's not that often that two guys go Indie together. They left with three women."

- "That's it."

- "Why do you ask?"

- "Look at that house. Look closely."

Darko did. "It's big." he said. "Too big for one family? Is that what you're thinking?"

- "Yes. And look at the roof. That kind of frame is a two or three-person job."

- "Okay."

- "So if that is Remy and Webb, why didn't they answer my hail? No thanks, no attempt to claim part of the spoils."

Darko scratched his head. "You know Indies, Sylvie. They get... strange, after a while."

- "Those two have only been gone for a few years. That's not long enough to go feral. And they set up here, less than a day away from Knight Lake."

- "Could be paranoid. Afraid of a trap."

- "They saw me. How many female bounty hunters are there? They have to know that we're from Mack Lake and Knight Lake. What's to be afraid of?"

- "I don't know. Just saying they could be."

- "What about this: when Mike and I were approaching, we heard the first exchange of shots. How did it go, Mike?"

- "One shot, followed by two."

- "Check with Tee," said Sylvie, "and he'll tell you the same thing. One shot from the house, two from the hunters approaching. Why only one shot from the house, if there are two of them?"

- "Might not be them." said Darko.

- "Look at the house again. It took more than one man and one woman to build that."

- "Well, maybe the other man is away hunting."

Sylvie just shook her head. Even I knew that one man hunting alone couldn't carry back all of the meat if he succeeded in bringing down big game. It made no sense to go hunting alone if there were two of them.

Darko was getting mildly frustrated. "I don't know, Sylvie. I don't understand what you're getting at. Maybe the second man is injured, and couldn't go. Or maybe you could just explain what you're driving at."

- "That house is for more than one family. But there was only one shot. Even if the second man is away, and the one there is injured, why is there only one gun in the whole house?"

Now I understood. It would be crazy for an Indie household to rely on a single weapon. And Outsider women learned to shoot when they were young. Even Ashra was learning how to handle firearms.

If that man in there has only one weapon, why didn't he rush out to grab another while we were gathered at the hunters' last position? And let's say he

is

injured - then why not send his woman?"

- "I don't know." said Darko. "Alright, it's weird. But Indies

are

weird."

- "There's something wrong in there." she said.

- "Maybe. What are you suggesting we do about it? Use the missile launcher to blow the place down? And it's not like we can stay and keep watch. We've got to get moving soon, because we're going to have to carry Kelly's body back to Knight Lake."

- "I know."

Darko moved off to rejoin his companions.

- "Is that we're going to do?" I asked. "Stay and keep watch?"

Sylvie looked me in the eye, and gave me a little nod. "I can't shake the feeling that there is something very wrong here. I have to know what it is."

- "I understand."

- "Michael?"

- "Yeah."

- "You saved my life."

I hesitated for a moment. "I don't know for sure. Maybe he was just getting his jollies by targeting you, and he wasn't going to actually shoot."

- "He would have. He said that if he couldn't have me, then no one could. Even if that was just talk,

someone

was going to end up dead."

- "Then I'm glad it was him."

Sylvie stepped closer, and leaned against me. Her arm went around my neck.

- "

I love you, Michael

."

- "I love you, too."

- "I loved you before you saved my life, but I thought you wouldn't mind hearing it."

Sylvie then explained her suspicions to Silent Rick and Corinne.

- "That

is

weird." agreed Rick.

- "Do you want us to stay and watch with you?" asked Corinne.

- "We can't." said Rick. "I'm not exactly expecting trouble from Perch, but I want to get back and explain what happened to Emile. I'd like for as many people as possible to hear my version first."

- "Well, what if I stayed?

With

Perch."

- "I like the way you think."

Rick and Parker, the fourth man from Mack Lake, stayed to help bury Henryk. We moved the bodies of the hunters away from the house (all but the first man, with his gun), and buried them in a common grave. There was nothing religious or even remotely spiritual in this; it was simply not wise to let predators get used to the taste of human flesh. Not in that kind of quantity.

Then Rick and Parker were off. Perch had mixed feelings about being left behind: he wasn't thrilled to have to stay with Sylvie and me, but he seemed to have a thing for Corinne - despite the fact that she did not appear to feel the same way at all.

We ate together, and then took up positions a little way apart, a few hundred metres from the house. Perch made no secret of his intention to sleep until Corinne woke him for his turn on watch.

- "What are you hoping to see?" I asked Sylvie.

- "Not sure. I'll know it when I see it."

It was in the middle of the night when I sensed her shifting her position. She didn't make a sound, of course, but I saw her raise her rifle. That was a good idea, so I did the same. When I scanned in the direction of the house, I immediately picked up a single figure. It was a man, moving carefully towards the dead hunter.

Then Sylvie fired, and blew the man's arm off at the elbow.

Corinne and Perch were instantly awake.

- "Clear!" said Sylvie. "One target only. Target down. Wounded, likely incapacitated. I'll approach first."

- "What happened?" asked Corinne.

- "Come and see."

Corinne and I took turns advancing, and then covered Sylvie as she approached the man. I had him in my sights. He was moving, trying to wrap his shirt around what was left of his right arm. Then he began to crawl back towards the house.

Sylvie got there first. She stepped on his rifle, pinning it to the ground. Then she spoke to him.

- "Hey, Webb. Where's Remy?"

Corinne and I drew closer.

- "What the hell, Sylvie?" she said. "Why did you shoot him?"

- "We saved his life, Corinne. His and everyone else's inside. Don't you think it's odd that he didn't thank us? Even with just a wave?"

- "Well, yes... but he's an Indie."

- "Only for a few years. He knows very well who we are. I offered help. All he had to do was say no, or tell us to get off his land. But he didn't."

- "Son of a bitch!" said Perch, who had come up behind us. "You blew his fuckin' arm off."

- "And if I'm wrong, I'll apologize."

Corinne must have known Sylvie fairly well; there was a fair degree of trust between them.

- "Wrong about what, Sylvie?"

- "I don't think that Webb here wanted anywhere near his house. There's something he doesn't want us to know."

- "Like what?"

- "Why was there only one shot fired at the hunters? He came out here carrying his gun, Corinne. If this is the only gun they have, why didn't he have his friend or his woman cover him from inside? Where is everybody else? Webb came out here with Remy and three women. Where are they?" She looked down at the man she'd shot. "Where are they, Webb?"

- "Fugg you." he muttered.

- "Cover him, Mike. Let's take a look."

Sylvie, Corinne and Perch walked up to the house, carefully, and then went inside.

Perch came out first, only a few moments later. He staggered a bit, and then threw up. Sylvie came out next. She walked right up to the wounded man, and shot him in the head.

I just stood there with my mouth open.

- "We need your help, Mike. Brace yourself: it's pretty bad."

'Pretty bad' didn't even come close to describing it. The interior of the house was filthy, and stank of human waste.

There were three rooms. The main room was a mess - it was worse than disgusting. The other two rooms were... indescribable. I thought that I'd already seen some horrible things, but there was no way I could have been prepared for this.

In the second room, a naked woman was tied to a makeshift bed. She was filthy, with sores and bruises all over her body. Her wrists were tied together, with a rough rope fastened around her neck and wrapped around the bed post. Her ankles were likewise tied together, and this rope went under the bed.

She was pregnant.

On the floor next to the bed was a small child who couldn't have been more than two or three years old. She wore a filthy shirt, streaked with snot and blood. Her wrists and ankles were bound, and she was tethered to the foot of the bed.

- "Take her outside, Michael. Please." said Sylvie.

It took me several minutes to cut through the ropes with my knife. I couldn't see well enough to undo the knots with my fingers, and I didn't want to hurt her. The knots were too cruelly tight, in any case.

I lifted the soiled, filthy pregnant woman in my arms, and carried her out of the house.

***

There were two women and three small children, the oldest of whom was only two years old. Both women were pregnant, which didn't make sense mathematically, until I discovered that there had been a third woman.

Sylvie was right; they'd left Knight Lake together a little over three years earlier. Remy and Daria were a couple, and Padma was his second woman. Webb and Barbara were a couple. They'd discussed striking out as Independents. The five spent some time choosing the location they wanted, and gathering stones and wood for building.

They built a large house for the future, planning to fill it with children. Daria became pregnant first, then Barbara. Daria gave birth to a little girl, and Barbara was close to delivering. Remy and Padma were still sexually active, but Webb was jealous. He suggested sharing Padma, at least temporarily - an ideas which the others immediately and indignantly rejected.

The men went hunting. Webb returned alone, claiming that Remy had been killed accidentally. He tied Barbara to her bed, hand and foot. Then he forced Padma to tie Daria to her bed, beating her when she broke down crying. Daria was left tied up, with her baby at her breast, while Webb raped Padma in the main room.

That was the fate of all three for the next two years. He tied a heavy log to their ankles, so that they couldn't run. One or two at a time, he would make them work in the vegetable garden behind the house. He would have one of the women tie the other two to a bed, then check the ropes himself. The third woman was then raped in the other room.

This happened every day, sometimes several times a day. Padma tried to run, and was savagely beaten for it. Barbara and Daria had small babies, which prevented them from running, but they were also frequently beaten.

They and their babies were all hostages for each other. He would take one woman hunting, warning the other two that he would kill her if they attempted to run. Webb hid all of the weapons, including knives, an axe and two hatchets.

Barbara was wracked with guilt; if not for her, Webb would not have been there at all. She tried to strike him in the head with a piece of wood, but failed to incapacitate him. Webb then beat her to death, also killing her second unborn child.

When the hunters attacked, Webb kept his prisoners bound to their beds, and gagged them for good measure. He did the same with the babies.

It was two months later before I heard the full story. Neither woman wanted to go back to Knight Lake, to face people they had known. Padma decided to go to Mack Lake with her child. She might have made some kind of connection with Corinne.

Daria was in awe of Sylvie, and asked if she could go to Ten Lakes with her child and Barbara's. She was understandably leery of men, and skittish around me. The children were so traumatized that they couldn't bear to have me nearby - yet they never cried.