Page 17 of Barren

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  "Where is she!?"

  Jesse was raging within his cell, screaming to whoever could hear him, which was likely to be a lot of people, considering how loudly he roared.

  "Jesse, calm down," Abbas said firmly.

  "We never should have let her go," Jesse growled, pacing in his cell like a caged tiger. "Who knows what they've done with her? It's been hours! She could be dead!"

  "She's not dead," Bell said, sitting on the floor and hugging her knees to her chest.

  "How do you know?" Jesse demanded. "You saw what Boroslav did to Lowe! How do we know he didn't do the same to Mackenzie? Or worse?"

  "Because they need her for something," Bell pointed out.

  "That's right," Abbas agreed. "Why else would Scylla not kill us?"

  "She was going to," Jesse countered. "She gave the order."

  "And then changed her mind," Bell said.

  "When she heard Mackenzie's name," Abbas added thoughtfully, stroking his beard.

  "Why?" Jesse demanded, forcing himself to calm down somewhat. "Why does her name matter?"

  "I'm not sure," Abbas admitted. "Hopefully Miller can fill us in when she gets back."

  "And if she doesn't come back?" Jesse asked.

  "Then we have bigger problems," Abbas said darkly.

  "Hey," Bell interrupted, rising to her feet and peering through her plexiglass cell down the corridor. "Someone's coming."

  Abbas and Jesse fell silent and heard approaching footsteps. A figure began to come into view in the semi-darkness, carrying something in their hands. It appeared to be a tray, balancing three bowls on top. When the person reached their cells, Jesse, Abbas and Bell were able to clearly see the person who was carrying the tray.

  "Scylla!" Jesse hissed.

  "No," the woman replied. "Just an unfortunate resemblance. My name is Min-Hee."

  Looking again, Jesse could see that, while this woman looked remarkably like Scylla, there were differences. Her hair was longer, she was a little shorter, and she was wearing a sleek blue jumpsuit.

  "I've brought you some food," Min-Hee said, lifting the tray slightly to show them all. "It's not much, but it's the best I could get for you."

  "Thank you," Bell said. "I'm starving."

  Min-Hee approached Bell's cell first and pulled open a drawer beside the door. She placed one of the bowls inside, then pushed the drawer shut. The bowl slid into view inside a small open window in the wall on the other side of the plexiglass. Bell gratefully took the bowl and began to eat with her hand, scooping the unappealing porridge-like substance into her mouth like it was ice cream. Min-Hee repeated the process with Abbas and Jesse, no one speaking while she catered to them.

  The food was bland and sloppy, but it was still food. None of them had eaten the whole day and ate too fast to realize it tasted terrible. Min-Hee stood awkwardly by, waiting for them all to finish.

  "I need the bowls back when you're done," she explained when she noticed Abbas looking at her quizzically. "Or else Scylla will know I fed you."

  "You weren't supposed to?" Abbas asked.

  "No," Min-Hee shook her head. "Scylla wanted to starve you into compliance. I feel that's unnecessary. She already has you all imprisoned. Starving you is pointless cruelty."

  "Agreed," Bell nodded, speaking around a mouthful of gruel.

  "So why are you doing this?" Jesse asked. "Why help us and go against your sister?"

  Min-Hee's eyes widened in surprise. "How did you know?"

  "Wasn't hard to figure out," Jesse replied, still watching Min-Hee suspiciously. "You look just like her. You look too close to the same age to be her daughter. That pegged you as a sister or cousin, so I took a shot."

  Min-Hee nodded. "Yes, you're right. Scylla is my sister."

  "So why get us food when Scylla wants us to starve?" Abbas asked.

  "It..." Min-Hee hesitated. "It's complicated. But she is needlessly cruel. To her own people as much as anyone she deems a threat."

  "Do you know what happened to the girl who was with us?" Jesse asked. "Mackenzie Miller?"

  "Yes," Min-Hee nodded, looking uncomfortable. "But I'm not allowed to tell you."

  "Why not?" Jesse snapped.

  "Please, if you have finished eating, let me take your bowls," Min-Hee said, looking as though she desperately wanted to leave.

  "Min-Hee," Jesse began, his tone so uncharacteristically soft that Abbas and Bell both stared at him in surprise. "Is there anything you can tell us about Mackenzie? We're really worried that something happened to her. We've already lost one member of our team. I don't think we can stand to lose another. Please."

  Min-Hee regarded Jesse for a long time, then sighed.

  "Put your bowls in the return slots," Min-Hee said gently. "Then I'll tell you what I know."

  "Agh!"

  When Mackenzie woke up, it was once again to find herself in pain. Only this time, it was far worse than just a headache. Her head was pounding, of course, but that was the least of her concerns. Her ribs felt like they were on fire and her arms felt tender and sore.

  "Now I know how tenderised meat feels," Mackenzie murmured to herself.

  Looking around, Mackenzie found herself in a wide room, full of beds. Each bed had white sheets and a metal bar hanging from the ceiling, like a curtain rod, that ran all the way around the circumference of each bed. There was some light in the room, though not much, the overhead lighting having been dimmed. It didn't take Mackenzie long to realize she was in an infirmary.

  Gritting her teeth in pain, Mackenzie tried to sit up, but found she was unable to do so. Looking down at herself, Mackenzie saw that there was a blue strap over her chest, holding her down on the bed. Another strap went over her waist and a final strap was tightly fastened over her legs. Beginning to struggle, Mackenzie realized her arms were pinned down at her sides by the blue strap. Panic began to set in and Mackenzie struggled more, but cried out in pain when the fire in her ribs burned too intense.

  "Ah!" Mackenzie gasped as she collapsed back into the bed.

  "Take it easy," a voice whispered in the near-darkness to Mackenzie's left. "You don't want to hurt yourself more than Vasilii already did."

  Turning her head to the side, Mackenzie peered into the semi-dark. She was startled at first to see a pair of eyes staring back at her, but then realized they were just the eyes of another patient, lying in the bed beside her. Mackenzie was surprised she hadn't immediately noticed the woman before, but supposed she was distracted by having woken up, yet again, in a strange place with no memory of having gotten there.

  "You must be Mackenzie Miller," the woman whispered, smiling politely.

  "Er," Mackenzie replied, surprised. "How do you..?"

  "I heard the soldiers talking when they dragged you in," the woman explained. "That was a brave thing you did for those people. Not that the soldiers thought so."

  "What happened?" Mackenzie asked urgently. "To the boy and his mother?"

  The woman slowly shook her head, the smile fading from her face. "I don't know."

  Mackenzie felt the helplessness wash over her and she groaned loudly as she let her head fall back onto her pillow.

  "They're dead," Mackenzie whispered thickly. "Because of me."

  "You couldn't have done anything to stop it," the woman soothed. "Even if you had made Scylla leave them alone, she would have just killed them later. That woman doesn't like to be told what to do."

  Mackenzie and the woman both were silent for a moment, images of nameless faces swimming in front of Mackenzie's eyes. The mother and her son. Most likely both dead by now.

  "I'm Ileana, by the way," the woman in the bed beside Mackenzie's said. "Ileana Rivera."

  Mackenzie turned her head and regarded the woman, wondering if she could be trusted. She looked healthier than the slaves Scylla forced to work for her, but didn't look much like a soldier. She was thin and had a haunted look in her eyes, as though every moment was a waking n
ightmare, despite the smile she offered Mackenzie. However, Mackenzie did notice that this woman wasn't strapped down to the bed as she was. That was a red flag right there.

  As if noticing Mackenzie's suspicions, Ileana grinned and shook her head gently.

  "I'm not with Scylla," Ileana said. "I'm a prisoner here, just as much as you are."

  "Oh," Mackenzie said. "I'm sorry."

  "It's okay," Ileana replied. "I'd have trouble trusting people in this place, too, in your position."

  "Are you one of the slaves Scylla keeps?" Mackenzie asked, feeling a fresh wave of anger as she thought of the thousands of malnourished and dying people who had been working around the Panspermia wreck.

  "In a way," Ileana said. "I'm not much good for physical labor these days, but Scylla finds me... useful... in other ways."

  "How long have I been here?" Mackenzie asked. "My friends, they're probably worried about me."

  "You've been sleeping for the last couple of hours," Ileana said. "Don't worry, you don't have a concussion. But you do have two broken ribs and some hardcore bruises. You might be feeling a burning sensation in your ribs, but don't worry about it, that's just the nano-tech micro-bots repairing your bones. They should be done in the next half hour or so, but I'd advice that you take it easy for the next day or two and refrain from trying to be a hero. At least until your bones are fully healed."

  Mackenzie jut stared at Ileana for a moment, surprised. Ileana smiled again and chuckled.

  "I'm a doctor," Ileana explained. "Or I was, at least. But Scylla still keeps me around for my medical knowledge. You might have noticed how so many of her people have congenital defects and physical abnormalities."

  "Wait..." Mackenzie said slowly. "You said your name's Ileana? Ileana Rivera?"

  "That's right," Ileana replied, a touch of sadness to her tone.

  "I know that name," Mackenzie said, trying hard to remember.

  "I imagine you would," Ileana said. "It's probably on the wall."

  Mackenzie realized with a shock what Ileana meant. The memoriam in Town Hall, the one Mackenzie had been looking at less than two weeks ago. The long list of names carved into the plaque to remember those Diviners who had been lost to the deserts of Icarus.

  "You're a Diviner!" Mackenzie gasped.

  "Once," Ileana nodded. "Not anymore."

  "How long have you been here?" Mackenzie asked in a horrified whisper, terrified of the answer.

  "Oh, I lost count of the years a while back," Ileana said softly. "Maybe fifteen, close to twenty years, I'd guess."

  "Twenty years?" Mackenzie repeated, aghast. "That's like... my whole life!"

  "So I guess I'm old and a prisoner," Ileana joked, smiling a little.

  "How did you end up here?" Mackenzie asked, forgetting about the restraints holding her down and trying to sit up.

  "Just lucky, I suppose," Ileana replied softly. "My squad got trapped in a sandstorm that snuck up on us, which wrecked the truck. Once the storm passed, we had no choice but to go out on foot. Eventually, we found the Panspermia wreck."

  "And you took shelter there?" Mackenzie asked.

  "For a while," Ileana replied. "But Scylla found us. We were searching the ship for supplies when she showed up with about fifty guys with guns, all aimed at us, telling us to go with her or die right then and there. Didn't really leave us a whole lot of options."

  "She was looking for Diviners?" Mackenzie asked, confused. "She didn't care about the ship?"

  "Not at first," Ileana said. "I suppose she thought she could salvage parts and materiel from it, but she was more concerned with us at the time."

  "Why? What did she want?"

  "Well, you've noticed how a lot of people around this place seem to have some physical health problems," Ileana said by way of response.

  "Like Boroslav and Vasilii?" Mackenzie asked.

  A sudden look of fury crossed over Ileana's face and she glared up at the ceiling with her teeth clenched tightly together. "Yes. Like them."

  Ileana exhaled a short, angry, breath, then continued in a calmer tone.

  "Scylla needed a doctor," Ileana said. "I was the medical officer for my team. Scylla kept me for my medical knowledge and surgical skills. See, Scylla had her own health problems at the time."

  "Like what?" Mackenzie asked.

  "Some of her organs didn't function properly," Ileana explained. "Her kidneys were failing. She'd be long dead by now if it wasn't for the transplant."

  "Transplant?"

  Ileana turned her head to look Mackenzie in the eyes. "Her sister. Scylla forced me to remove one of her sister's kidneys and give it to her."

  "Min-Hee?" Mackenzie asked, remembering the VTOL pilot.

  "So you've met her," Ileana nodded. "She was so young, younger than you are now. She was scared and didn't want to give Scylla her kidney, but Scylla didn't leave her any choice. I operated with a gun to my head. I removed one of Min-Hee's kidneys and gave it to Scylla. I shortened the life expectancy of a young, innocent, girl, and extended the life of a monstrous cow."

  Ileana sighed heavily as Mackenzie processed what she had just heard. But Ileana's story wasn't over.

  "Min-Hee would be dead right now if it wasn't for another Diviner on my squad," Ileana went on. "Carter Hughes. See, Scylla's health problems didn't stop at her kidneys. She also had a congenital heart defect. Apparently she'd already had one heart attack before the age of twenty-two, so she was desperate to do something about it. Scylla was going to make me give her Min-Hee's heart as well as her kidneys, but she came up with another solution. Turned out Carter was a viable donor. So Scylla figured she could get a new heart and let her sister live."

  "She... she made you give her your friend's heart?" Mackenzie asked quietly, horrified at the thought.

  "That's right," Ileana said. "Carter... Carter told me it was okay. If it was going to be me or him, he wanted it to be him, but... I shouldn't have done it. I cut out his heart. And broke my own."

  "If you didn't, Scylla would have killed you both," Mackenzie pointed out.

  "I wish she had," Ileana said bitterly. "I should have refused to help and let her kill me."

  "Don't say that," Mackenzie said. "Hey, why don't you take these straps off me? We can figure something out. A way out of this place."

  Ileana didn't say anything, instead just continuing to stare sullenly up at the ceiling.

  "Ileana?" Mackenzie asked. "Did you hear me?"

  "I heard you," Ileana said thickly. "But I can't take the straps off you."

  "Why not?" Mackenzie asked. "What's wrong?"

  Ileana sighed heavily, closing her eyes as she spoke. "When I finished the surgery and I was the only one of my team left, I tried to escape. I tried to fight my way out. I killed a couple of guards, injured a few more. But Boroslav stopped me in the end."

  Mackenzie noticed that Ileana said Boroslav's name like she was spitting acid out of her mouth before it could burn her. As though the very name might hurt her.

  "He brought me here," Ileana continued. "He forced me onto this bed. Then he... he..."

  "No," Mackenzie whispered. "He didn't?"

  Ileana only nodded as tears spilled from her eyes. "Yeah. I couldn't stop him. And then, when it was over, Scylla came to me. She told me I wasn't allowed to ever leave. My medical knowledge was too useful to them. So... she programmed the nano-bots with a specific command. Then injected them into my spine. They... they paralysed me, Mackenzie. I can't move from the neck down."

  Mackenzie could only stare at Ileana in open-mouthed horror and revulsion. Now Mackenzie knew why Ileana wasn't strapped down.

  "That... That..." Mackenzie struggled to find something to say, anything that could accurately describe the depravity of what Ileana just told her. Mackenzie scoured her mind for a way to sufficiently console someone for such a monstrous and disgusting thing, but there were no words. Even the fury and boiling rage that Mackenzie felt towards Boroslav for what he had
done was beyond expression. These emotions, and countless more, rushed through Mackenzie like a sandstorm, blotting out all rational thought. All she knew was horror and rage and pity.

  "I'm so sorry," Mackenzie finally offered, unable to think of anything else to say. She hoped that her tone expressed just how deeply sorry she was, for everything. For what Scylla did, for what Boroslav did, for what Ileana had to do to survive, for her squad...

  Her squad, Mackenzie thought, a nagging suspicion spinning in her mind. Twenty years ago?

  "That's awful," Mackenzie whispered to Ileana. "I wish I could say something better."

  "It's okay," Ileana sniffed. "I haven't talked to anyone this long in years. I never even got to say any of this out loud before. Talking about it doesn't make it better, but... I guess I feel a little better. Thanks for listening."

  "Any time," Mackenzie said. "But, if you don't mind me asking, what happened to the rest of your team?"

  "I was wondering when you'd ask that," Ileana replied gently. "Well, you know what happened to Carter. Our navigator, Crichton, she was killed. I don't know how, but they told me she died. The other two... They made it out."

  "And, er..." Mackenzie began, hesitating, afraid that she already knew the answer to the question she was about to ask. "What were their names?"

  Ileana turned her head and looked Mackenzie straight in the eyes as she answered. "Sacha Vasseur and Joseph Miller."

  Mackenzie felt her heart sink and she slumped back into her bed. "I knew it," she whispered. "So that's how Vasseur and my dad met Scylla."

  "So he is your father," Ileana noted. Mackenzie didn't miss the way Ileana's voice suddenly quivered with anger.

  "Why didn't my dad try and save you?" Mackenzie asked, feeling heartbroken. She always thought her father was a hero for his time as a Diviner, but how could he be if he left Ileana Rivera to this fate?

  "Save me?" Ileana asked in disbelief, suddenly laughing. "Mackenzie, he's the one who handed me over to Scylla! He's the one who she bargained with!"

  "What?" Mackenzie asked, her voice smaller than she could ever remember it being.

  "Joseph sold me," Ileana snarled. "He knew Scylla was going to kill him and Vasseur, so he made her an offer. She could keep me, use me however she saw fit, and he would make sure that Scylla would be supplied with whatever she needed, forever. Tools, food, people! Joseph said he would provide as long as Scylla let him live!"

  "That's not true," Mackenzie said, shaking her head. "He wouldn't do that."

  "He did," Ileana insisted. "Your father sold me into slavery and forced prostitution! Left me here to be crippled forever, and raped more times than I care to remember."

  "You-you must be wrong!" Mackenzie cried.

  "I've had twenty years to think about it!" Ileana shouted. "I'm not wrong! Joseph made the deal right in front of me! Vasseur tried to talk him out of it, but Joseph convinced him to go along with it. I heard Vasseur died, and you have no idea how happy that made me. He was just as guilty of what happened to me as Joseph. I know this is hard for you to hear, Mackenzie, but it's a fact. Your father sold me out to save his own life. I trusted him!"

  "Don't trust him."

  Vasseur's dying words suddenly echoed back in Mackenzie's ears, as though he had just whispered them. At the time, Mackenzie had had no idea who Vasseur could have been talking about, and with everything that had happened she had completely forgotten about the warning. Could he have been talking about Joseph?

  "Mackenzie," Ileana began, sounding a little calmer now. "I'm sorry to dump this on you. But you deserve to know what you're up against. Scylla isn't the only monster in the desert."

  "Are you saying my dad is working with Scylla?" Mackenzie snapped. "Because that's bullshit. He'd never do that."

  Ileana gave Mackenzie a long look of pity. "Look," she began. "Your dad never came back out to the desert after only he and Vasseur made it home, did he?"

  "So?" Mackenzie demanded. "He wanted to be there for his family."

  "I'm sure that was true," Ileana nodded. "But he also didn't want to risk Scylla taking him again. So he decided to retire from the Diviners. He let Vasseur take over as Commander, while he worked to place himself in a position of power. He and Vasseur were going to stage some heroic return where Vasseur was close to death and Joseph saved his life, but tragically couldn't save the rest of his squad. I bet it helped support his lobby for Secretary-General, am I right? So he runs everything in Town. He communicates with Scylla through a laser relay. She tells him what she wants, he gets it for her. And if he finds anything he thinks Scylla needs, he gets that for her too."

  "He wouldn't do that!" Mackenzie shouted angrily.

  "Open your eyes, Miller!" Ileana snapped. "I know what Scylla's planning and it all went tits-up when you came out here instead of that Renaud kid! You weren't part of the plan, but you can be damn sure Scylla will use you however she can now that you're here."

  "You're wrong about my dad," Mackenzie growled. "You're wrong."

  "If that's what you want to believe, I can't change your mind," Ileana huffed. "But do me a favor. Don't be so blind in the future. If you survive, that is."

  Mackenzie was breathing heavily, almost winded by her anger. Forcing herself to calm down, she took a few deep breaths before speaking again.

  "You said you knew what Scylla was planning," Mackenzie began, every word uttered strained with the effort of holding back her rage. "What is it?"

  Ileana sighed. "She wanted Renaud to build something for her. She has her own scientists and engineers and everything, but apparently this Renaud kid is some sort of genius, able to build highly complex machinery."

  Mackenzie remembered the way Scylla was examining her bionic hand, as though it was a priceless treasure. Scylla had almost regarded it with some sort of reverence.

  "What does she want built?" Mackenzie asked.

  "Something big," Ileana said cryptically.

  Ileana opened her mouth to say more, but was suddenly interrupted by a door opening at the end of the infirmary and the lights brightening, causing both Mackenzie and Ileana to squint as the sudden light hurt their eyes.

  "Dobroho ranku, ladies," Boroslav grinned at them as he entered.

  Mackenzie was so overcome by a wave of hatred and loathing at the sight of Boroslav's smug face that she nearly tried to fling herself out of bed and lunge at him. The knowledge of what he had done filled Mackenzie with a rage she had never known, and was a little afraid of.

  "You twisted son of a bitch!" Mackenzie roared.

  Boroslav calmly put his index finger to his lips and whispered, "Shh. Vasilii doesn't like that kind of language."

  Mackenzie then noticed the frail Vasilii entering the room behind Boroslav, a content smile on his face. Mackenzie remembered the way Vasilii had wailed on her with the wooden post, clubbing her relentlessly because she had been "bad." The mindless fury was gone from him now, though, and he seemed completely calm and happy.

  "Scylla told me to make sure you did not die in the night," Boroslav said pleasantly as he strolled into the room. "I asked Vasilii to come along, too."

  "She was bad, wasn't she, Mikhail?" Vasilii asked Boroslav.

  "Yes, Vasilii, she was," Boroslav replied, sneering with his cleft lip at Mackenzie. "But like Scylla said, we need her safe and alive for now. She doesn't understand our laws, but she will."

  "Please," Ileana began and Mackenzie realized that she was begging. "Please, leave her alone. She hasn't done anything wrong."

  "That much is debatable," Boroslav leered. "Now, Scylla does not want her harmed, but she does still need to be punished for her interference and for placing a gun to my head. You know, I don't respond well to threats, pretty one."

  "I should have shot you when I had the chance," Mackenzie spat.

  "Shut up!" Vasilii suddenly roared, taking a step towards Mackenzie's bed, his body beginning to shake.

  Boroslav placed a hand on Vasilii's shoulder
, saying, "Calm yourself, Vasilii. We aren't going to hurt her again, like Scylla told us. But we are going to show her what happens if she does anything so foolish again."

  "Does that mean I can play with her now?" Vasilii asked, excited.

  "No, Vasilii," Boroslav grinned. "Not yet. But you can play with your other toy, and Mackenzie can watch. That will be her lesson, and I believe she won't forget."

  Confused, Mackenzie turned her head towards Ileana, but saw that the former Diviner had squeezed her eyes shut tight. Mackenzie connected the dots with horrifying clarity.

  "No," Mackenzie whispered. "You're Vasilii's toy?"

  "Yes, she is," Boroslav said quietly. Then, to Vasilii, Boroslav said with a nasty grin on his face, "Go play."

  "NO!" Mackenzie bellowed as Vasilii started towards Ileana. "No! Don't you touch her!"

  Boroslav leaned over Mackenzie, still smiling, placing his face close to hers. When he spoke, he whispered, as though telling her a deep secret.

  "I want you watch this, Miller," Boroslav breathed. "Because when Scylla no longer needs you, you won't be under her protection anymore. And then you can be my toy."

  Mackenzie felt a wave of horror wash over her and a chill ran down her spine. But she was still overcome with rage and disgust, so rather than show her fear, she spat directly into Boroslav's face.

  "Piss off," Mackenzie hissed. "You'll never touch me."

  Boroslav slowly wiped Mackenzie's spit from his face, never taking his eyes off of her. Then he whipped his hand forward and roughly grabbed hold of Mackenzie's chin, digging his fingers painfully into her cheeks as he forced her to look at him. Mackenzie grimaced in pain, but refused to cry out. She would not let Boroslav have that satisfaction.

  "Look at that, pretty one," Boroslav whispered. "I'm touching you."

  Then, slowly, Boroslav forced Mackenzie to turn her head so that she could see Vasilii climbing onto the bed with Ileana, who still had her eyes closed tight.

  "Now," Boroslav breathed in Mackenzie's ear. "Watch Vasilii touch her. And think about what the future holds in store for you."

  No matter how hard Mackenzie struggled, she could not break free of Boroslav's hold. So, forced to see Vasilii's inhuman violation, Mackenzie only screamed in helpless rage.