The Culling Page 13

  Then, he heard the sound of boots scuffing the hard packed earth upon which he knelt, and the thump of something hard impacting the ground a few feet to his front. Slowly, he opened his eyes.

  The monitor, now with his jacket and helmet removed, stood there looking at Hiroshi, an expression of bewilderment on his youthful face. The flechette pistol was pointed at the ground.

  “Who are you?” the monitor asked. “Are you one of the Wild Ones?”

  24.

  Hiroshi stared in amazement at the man in front of him – actually, he thought; boy might be more accurate, as the monitor didn’t look that much older than he was.

  “He looks like I must have looked when I first met Abraham and the others,” he thought. “He’s probably never been this far away from New Liberty before, and he’s lost – lost and scared.”

  The monitor was not only looking lost, but the way his eyes kept darting around, as if he was expecting company, Hiroshi saw that he was afraid.

  “He thinks I’m part of a larger group, I’ll bet, and is worried that they’re close by. That’s probably the only reason he hasn’t shot me.”

  Hiroshi realized that the man didn’t recognize him. But, then, he wouldn’t, because proles of New Liberty wore only the drab singlesuits, and he was dressed in a blue and green shirt that had been made by one of Freeland’s tailors, and a pair of pants that Abraham had given him. The monitors out here on the frontier probably wouldn’t have a description beyond ‘missing prole.’ Had he been wearing a singlesuit, no more description would be needed.

  “Are you one of the Wild Ones?” the monitor asked again.

  “We call ourselves Freelanders, and we’re not wild,” Hiroshi said, making an effort to sound tough and authoritative. “You’re from New Liberty. What’s your name, and what are you doing this far away from your home?”

  The boy’s Adam’s apple bobbled as he looked nervously from Hiroshi to the surrounding forest.

  “I’m Leland-27,” he said. “I was part of a team looking for a fugitive from New Liberty. Last night, some big animal, attacked us as we passed through the trees. It killed Godfrey-12 with one swipe of its arm, or leg, or whatever.” Hiroshi realized that he was describing an encounter with a bear. “The rest of us ran for our lives, and I got separated from the group, and now I’m lost. Can you tell me the way to New Liberty?”

  “I was right,” Hiroshi thought. “He is lost.” “I’m sorry, Leland,” he said. “I don’t know the way to New Liberty. But, I can take you with me to Freeland.”

  Leland-27’s eyes widened and his face drained of color.

  “Uh, I don’t know . . . I’ve . . . heard . . . that --”

  Hiroshi held up a hand. “I know. You’ve heard that the people of Freeland, those you call the Wild Ones, will kill anyone from New Liberty, especially if they happen to be a monitor.”

  The monitor’s eyes went from wide in fear to narrow in suspicion.

  “How do you know what I am?”

  “We see those of your kind here in the forest from time to time,” Hiroshi said. “Though, not usually this far out.” He realized that it was dangerous to betray too much knowledge of New Liberty, at least until he was back with the others. “We’ve heard them talking. You are part of the organization that provides security for your community, are you not?”

  “Uh, yes, I am,” Leland-27 said, somewhat mollified. “If I went with you, do you think someone could help me get back home?”

  “I believe that would be possible,” Hiroshi said. “But, I seriously doubt anyone will volunteer, or that when you experience Freeland you’ll want to go back.”

  Slowly so as to avoid more pain, Hiroshi levered himself upright. “Okay, Leland,” he said, brushing dirt and debris from his clothing. “It is okay if I call you Leland, isn’t it?” Leland nodded. “I’ll guide you to Freeland, and we’ll see if someone can help you. You were wise to remove your jacket and headgear. Some in Freeland have had bad encounters with your kind.”

  Leland nodded.

  “I figured as much. I haven’t been on duty outside the fence for long, but I’ve heard stories about what you wild, er, Freelanders, do to monitors.”

  He stepped aside as Hiroshi advanced and pointed to the west. “We go this way,” Hiroshi said. “I think we have about half a day’s walking. By the way, I’m curious about something. Why didn’t you shoot me when I was helpless on the ground?”

  Leland shook his head.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “I wasn’t sure you were alone. I’m lost and thought you might be able to help me find my way. And, oh, it just didn’t seem right to shoot a person who was helpless like that.”

  “I thought you monitors were trained to be without feeling.”

  “I, uh, well, yes, that is part of our training. But, I was assigned to the Chairman’s security detail immediately after training. That was good duty, but I saw how the citizens lived. It didn’t make much impact until the accident that got me posted out here. I guess I started to question a lot of what I’ve been taught.”

  Hiroshi didn’t say anything, but his mind was racing. If a monitor could come to doubt the system of New Liberty, maybe there was hope that the proles could be convinced to rise up against it. He hoped that Washington was already spreading the word that he was alive and had successfully faced down the monitors.

  “Well, Leland, I think you will find Freeland an interesting place to be.”

  25.

  Hiroshi and Leland-27 crossed the river just after midday. They were no more than an hour’s walk from the crossing when they caught up with Abraham Moses and the others.

  Hiroshi’s reunion with his friends was joyous.

  Moses rushed up and pulled Hiroshi into a bear hug as the others crowded around, patting him on the back.

  “Hiroshi,” Moses said. “I was beginning to worry about you, but I guess I should know better, eh. If there’s anyone who can survive out here, it’d have to be you, having already escaped New Liberty once.”

  Everyone had ignored Leland-27 until he pushed forward to confront Hiroshi.

  “He called you Hiroshi,” he said. “Are you -”

  “Yes, I am Hiroshi Jackson.”

  Moses stepped back, eying Leland.

  “And, who might this be, Hiroshi?” he asked with a wary, but menacing tone.

  Hiroshi looked at the young monitor. The man’s face was pale again, and his eyes darted from one to another of the eleven men who now surrounded him.

  “This is Leland-27,” Hiroshi said. “He found me in the forest after I fell down and stayed with me to keep me safe.”

  Moses still looked warily at the newcomer. “Is that so, now? Well, Leland-27, that’s a strange name you have, and I notice that you’re wearing one of those pistols that the monitors of New Liberty wear. Would you by any chance be a monitor?”

  The others moved in closer, murmuring. Leland-27 paled even more.

  “He was running away from the monitors when he found me,” Hiroshi said, moving to stand next to him. “I think he was trying to escape form New Liberty, too. If he wasn’t, why do you think he didn’t just kill me where he found me?”

  Moses rubbed his hand through his beard. He cocked his head and looked down at Hiroshi.

  “Now, you do have a point there, Hiroshi,” he said. “Okay, young fellow, is what Hiroshi says true? Are you running away from the monitors?”

  Leland-27 looked from Hiroshi to the giant bearded man, and then at the others who still regarded him with naked hostility. Even with his flechette pistol, he was no match for so many. The man’s question intrigued him, too. Was he running away from the monitors? Did he really want to go back to New Liberty, where he would still be assigned to external patrol for fear that the Chairman might, if he should catch sight of him, still want him executed, and where he would now be the butt of even more jokes and hazing? Or, even worse, would he return to an atmosphere of suspicion because of his exposure to the world outside
the sterile, controlled environment of New Liberty? These people regarded him with suspicion and hostility, but he was after all a stranger, and that was to be expected. They hadn’t, however, actually done anything to him. If the roles had been reversed, he knew, and a group of monitors had come across a lone Wild – Freelander – the outcome would be different.

  “Yes,” he said. “I w-was running away.” He told Moses of being exiled to the outside in lieu of execution for the sin of spilling water on the Chairman. “It wasn’t even my fault, but they would have killed me for it.”

  “Now, Hiroshi,” Moses said, turning and looking down at Hiroshi. “You see why what we plan is necessary? What kind of society behaves in that manner towards it people? If they’re that callous with the ones assigned to protect society, they must be even more heartless and uncaring toward those on the bottom rungs.”

  Hiroshi nodded. “I see, you’re right,” he said. “I think I’ve seen it all along, but meeting Leland here just confirmed it for me. New Liberty is a corrupt society that is a danger to itself and everyone around it.”

  “Worse,” Leland said. “The current leader is insane. He is planning something terrible. I don’t know what, but when I served on his security detail, I saw him having meetings often with Citizen Halifax, a scientist, and with the minister of defense, Citizen Wainwright. I was never close enough to hear what they talked about, but the looks on their faces when they spoke with him made me believe that whatever he plans to do, it scares them.”

  “Do you know if involves Freeland?” Moses asked him.

  The young monitor closed his eyes in concentration. When he opened them, he had a haunted look. “Once, he was talking with Citizen Halifax, and I just happened to wander near without them noticing me. I heard him say something like, ‘once you complete your project, I can begin to spread our influence beyond the fence.’ I moved away quickly, so I heard no more, but I believe he intends to invade your territory.”

  Moses again stroked his beard. He looked at Hiroshi with a determined expression. “Now, do you see why we must do something, youngster?”

  “Yes,” Hiroshi said simply. “And, we probably don’t have much time.”

  Leland-27 looked from Hiroshi to Moses. “What about me?” he asked. “I can’t go back, but I guess you have no real reason to trust me in your community.”

  He looked crestfallen, standing there in their midst, his shoulders slumped in resignation, looking down at the ground.

  Moses put a beefy hand on the young ex-monitor’s shoulder, squeezing gently.

  “Oh, I think we can find a place for you,” he said. “Welcome to Freeland.”

  26.

  Back in Freeland settlement, Leland-27 was given clothing to replace what was left of his monitor uniform. Moses had taken his flechette pistol, telling him that such weapons weren’t needed in the settlement. He’d been assigned a cabin near the one Hiroshi shared with Clementine.

  Moses had asked Hiroshi to introduce him to Freeland, so after changing into his new clothes, he joined Hiroshi and Clementine in their cabin.

  The three of them were sitting around the small table in the center of what Rebecca Stennis called a parlor, sipping tea that the old woman had taught Clementine how to make from the flowers growing in the little plot in back of the house. Hiroshi had washed and changed in to clean clothing, and except for the stinging in his shoulder where he’d snagged himself on the wire, felt like a new person. The look of welcome on Clementine’s face when he walked through the door, and the way she rushed into his arms, unmindful of how dirty and bedraggled he was, had contributed to his sense of wellbeing.

  “Why did you lie and tell them I’d helped you?” Leland asked. “If I’d known at the time who you really were, I’m not sure I wouldn’t have taken you into custody, or even shot you, and you must know that. Why would you want to help me?”

  Hiroshi took a sip of the fragrant tea, looking over the rim of the cup, first at Clementine and then at Leland, who had already stopped using the number after his name, and was waiting for Abraham and Sarah to come up with a suggestion for an appropriate surname.

  “It’s hard to explain,” Hiroshi said. “When you didn’t shoot me right away, I had a feeling that you were different, I guess. You looked lost and afraid, and I remember how I felt when Clementine and I first ran away from New Liberty. Like you said, it just didn’t seem right not to help someone who was lost. And, frankly, while you might have arrested me, I don’t think you have it in you to shoot an unarmed person.”

  Leland’s cheeks turned red and he looked down at the table top.

  “You’re probably right,” he said. “Well, I’m glad I didn’t shoot you. I guess I can never go back to New Liberty, and it’s good to have someone here I can talk to, you know.”

  Hiroshi didn’t say that he wasn’t sure they’d have anything in common to talk about, so he changed the subject to the way Freeland was governed, which Leland found fascinating, particularly the fact that people could select their own occupation instead of having some faceless bureaucracy decide it for them before they were even old enough to make the decision for themselves.

  “Have you ever thought about being anything other than a monitor?” Hiroshi asked.

  “I hadn’t until I was assigned to external patrol. I’d never been outside the fence before. In fact, I’d only ever been in the prole community once before, back during training. Except for worrying about being attacked by Wild Ones, it was nice being in a place where you couldn’t see the air you were breathing. I think I’d like being a hunter or a farmer, you know, some occupation where I could be outdoors.”

  “Just think what the world would be like if everyone could live like that,” Hiroshi said.

  “Sure, it would be nice, but what can we do about it other than help anyone who runs away?”

  Moses had, in a private conversation with Hiroshi just before assigning him to guide Leland around the community, left it to his discretion about sharing information about Freeland’s plans. There was little danger, since Leland didn’t know the terrain well enough to get back to warn New Liberty, and Moses would probably tell him at some point anyway, but he allowed Hiroshi the freedom of telling him earlier if he thought it wise. There was something about Leland that Hiroshi liked – nothing he could precisely identify – but, a feeling that he could be trusted. So, he told him of Freeland’s plans to try and incite a rebellion in New Liberty.

  “I’ve already shown the proles that the monitors can be stood up to,” he said. “With the right fuse, Abraham believes we can ignite a rebellion.”

  “But, these people here only have spears and arrows. How can they stand against the weapons the monitors have?” Leland asked.

  “There are a lot more proles than monitors and citizens combined. If they all stand together, with Freelander help they could win.”

  Leland shook his head.

  “Maybe, but a lot of people would die in the process. One thing I remember from my monitor training is that you want to have some parity in weapons before going into battle against someone. To do otherwise is a foolish waste of forces and lives.”

  “Some things are worth dying for,” Hiroshi said, and he realized that he meant it. “Besides, as long as the proles allow themselves to be treated as tools or animals, they’re as good as dead.”

  Leland shook his head. “I don’t know. I think being alive, no matter the situation, is better than being dead. And, if the people here go against New Liberty, there’s no telling what Citizen Cruz and The Committee might do. I just don’t think arrows and spears are a match for the weapons the monitors have.”

  “You’re saying that Freeland doesn’t stand a chance against New Liberty?” Clementine asked.

  “No,” Leland said. “I’m saying that Freeland needs better weapons, and I have an idea on how to get them.”

  27.

  Leland’s idea was ambitious – even audacious. He recommended a two-pronged attack on Ne
w Liberty, with one force hitting the fence east of the river to divert the monitors, while another went after the armory west of the river.

  Many of the Freelanders posed objections, arguing that they were no match for the better-armed monitors. But after some debate, Moses decided that it was just audacious enough to have a chance of success. New Liberty, he reasoned, wouldn’t expect people armed with only bows and spears to have the nerve to attack their fortified stronghold. If they hit hard, he argued, they just might succeed, and that would be better than waiting for New Liberty to attack them.

  Leland had told them that he knew the location of the monitor’s armory where weapons and ammunition were stored. It was a concrete bunker near the west end of the northern bridge across the river, just inside the citizen’s community. Because of its location, it was only lightly guarded. It was also in a wooded area, close to the river, and unguarded on that side. In none of his training, he told them, had a defense of the armory been discussed, the reasoning being that no one knew of its existence. All of New Liberty’s defenses were concentrated on guarding the fence.

  Hiroshi remembered from one of the map books in the book cache an old route to the area from the southwest that stayed south of the river. He assumed the fence would be as vulnerable where it entered the water on the west side of the river as it was on the east. Moses agreed, and added that because the previous incursions had occurred east of the river, no one would be paying any special attention to the area to the west.

  It was decided that the raid would be conducted by a force of fifty Freelanders, including Hiroshi and Leland, and they would launch immediately, assuming that the New Liberty officials wouldn’t be expecting them to return so soon. Another fifty Freelanders would make a feint attack on the fence east of the river to draw attention away from their move toward the armory. On the night before they departed, Moses gave Leland his new name – Freeman – an appropriate surname which the former monitor wore proudly.