The Tribes, Chapter 24

The heavy ambulance had barely disappeared from view when the Eco Tribe confronted Jack and Dal. Pride stepped forward, looking resolute. “Sparrow’s not getting any better, is he?” Pride asked for the Eco Tribe.

“Getting better is a relative term,” Jack said. “We’re getting his temperature under control again, but we are experiencing some post-op complications. It’s nothing we didn’t expect,” Jack explained, hurriedly. “We’d like to have more time to get even more aggressive with the antibiotics and try to get the inflammation under control before we resort to anything more drastic.”

Pride nodded in understanding as he looked around at his Tribe mates. “That makes sense,” he finally said. “Some in the Tribe are a little concerned that Sparrow still hasn’t woken up, yet, though.”

Jack almost laughed with relief. “Don’t let that worry you,” he said. “We’re keeping him sedated for as long as we can.”

“Why,” asked Moss suspiciously.

“Because as long as he’s asleep, he’s not going to move around too much,” Jack said. “And, not moving around too much will keep him from suffering too much pain. And, unless we use some potentially dangerous and really addictive pain killers, he’s going to suffer more than you can imagine.”

*****

Lou was only beginning to understand true meaning of suffering. He had been afraid to return to the Brotherhood and the inevitable wrath of The Leader and Gull. There had been other Brotherhood survivors of the fiasco at the bridge and they were sure to tell how he had jumped the gun before the entire team had been in place. Lou was all too aware of how The Leader and Gull repaid failure and he had no intention of suffering Gull’s demented tortures for hours, perhaps even days before his balls were chopped off.

At first, Lou had just run – his intention was to put as much distance between himself and the bridge as possible. He had run for about an hour before he realized to his horror that he was absently headed back in the direction of the Brotherhood. He stopped running and left the tarmac of the road and ducked into the bushes to think things out. It didn’t take him long to realize that he couldn’t stay where he was, and he certainly couldn’t head back to the Brotherhood. He thought that maybe he could disappear into the relative crowds of The City. He rubbed the heavy cloth of his robes – with the growing reputation of the Brotherhood, Lou doubted he’d be accepted anywhere dressed the way he was.

Peering furtively from his hiding place in the bushes, Lou decided to strike out cross-country and put as much distance between himself and the road as possible. He’d ditch the robes as soon as he found a community or even an isolated house – that is, if the house hadn’t been totally ransacked. Peeking around again, Lou stood and began the first leg of his planned escape.

Lou had no idea how far he’d traveled through the woods when he came upon a subdivision tract of homes. Even with overgrown lawns and hedges, Lou could tell that this had at one time been an upscale community. He stealthily crept around the houses looking for signs of recent habitation and gang or Tribe graffiti. He didn’t find any, and hadn’t really expected to, either. From past experience, Lou knew that the survivors had probably gravitated towards the shopping centers and malls – or else they had migrated to The City. Satisfied that he was unlikely to run into anyone, Lou began searching the houses – peering through windows – for signs that teens had been among the occupants back before the virus hit. After peeping through the windows of nine houses, Lou finally saw a family room with a series of family pictures ranged tastefully across the wide mantle of a huge fieldstone fireplace.

For the first time since he had realized the gravity of what happened at the bridge, Lou grinned. He worked his way around the house checking doors and windows for a way into the house. Not finding any unlocked; he headed back to the sliding glass doors looking out onto the patio around the pool, planning to smash them out with a metal lawn chair. Coming around the backside of the garage, Lou stopped. A vague memory burned to life in the deep recesses of his brain – a memory of a garage about as large as the one behind him now. He recalled climbing out of a pool dripping wet and heading towards a house similar to this one. He had been headed straight for the sliding glass doors of that house when he was stopped in his tracks by a woman’s stern, but amused voice.

“Louis!” The woman’s voice – his mother’s voice – called out. “Don’t you go dripping water all through the house! There are fresh towels in the mudroom – go into the house through there.”

The mudroom – it wasn’t really a room made of mud, he remembered. It was like an airlock where the washer and dryer had been kept, a place where mud could be tracked into the house and hosed down a drain. There was a door at the back of the garage that went directly into the mudroom. Turning, Lou stared at the back of the garage and grinned – there was a door there, just where it should be. He sent his thick-soled boot crashing against the door, just above the lock and sent the door crashing back.

Cautiously stepping into the house, Lou smelled the faint odor of decay – not fresh decay, to be sure, but decay nonetheless. The door between the garage and the house stood ajar. Pushing it open, Lou found the scent of decay slightly more pronounced. A short hall led directly into an expensively appointed kitchen/breakfast room that led directly onto the patio. The room combination was large and spacious with several work islands, stainless steel refrigerator and freezer units, and a counter with stools tucked neatly under it.

Ignoring the kitchen for the time being, Lou wandered upstairs to the bedrooms. Pushing open the door to the master suite, Lou discovered the source of the odor of decay. The corpses of two adults and two children were laid out neatly on the bed, arms crossed neatly over their chests. Time and decomposition had done their work to turn the bodies into shriveled husks, the skin stretched tightly over the skeletons and leather-like. Lou backed out of the room, and began poking through the other bedrooms. One clearly belonged to a young boy – posters of Pokemon characters adorned the walls. Star Wars figures were lined neatly along a shelf and Star Wars themed sheets covered the bed.

Pushing open another door, Lou discovered that the corpse of the second child had been a girl. He shook his head – he certainly wouldn’t have guessed that from the almost mummified corpse laid out on the king-size bed in the master suite. Her room was done in frills and lace. Instead of anime characters, posters of the Backstreet Boys and Aaron Carter adorned her walls. Lou stared pensively at the posters and idly wondered if any of them had survived the virus, and if they had, where they were now. He shrugged and moved on – it didn’t really matter where any of them were right now.

The last bedroom he tried belonged to the teenage boy he had seen in the pictures on the mantle. Lou half expected to find the teen’s desiccated body sprawled on the bed, but the bed was empty and neatly made, almost as if the former occupant of the room intended to come back one day. Three shelves held a neatly arranged array of trophies. Curious, Lou picked up one of the trophies to learn that Jonathan Samuel Pembroke had been captain of his high school soccer team when they won the state semifinals. Checking the date, Lou realized that those semifinals must have been among the very last sporting events held in California. Not long after the semifinals, things began to fall apart. Looking around, Lou found a picture of the champ in question on the corner of the desk.

Sitting down at the desk, Lou picked up the framed photograph and studied it. If he didn’t know better, ol’ Jonnie-boy could have been one of his own classmates at the exclusive high school he’d attended. Jonathan Samuel Pembroke was one of those perfect athlete/jocks. Lou didn’t need to check the trophy shelf to know that somewhere up there was an award for extended academic achievement. The photo showed a handsome teen who had managed to escape slipping across the line into being pretty. Jonathan Samuel Pembroke had a mouthful of perfect, gleaming white teeth bracketed by a hint of dimples, set in a square jaw. Merry green eyes twinkled from underneath a head of thick, deep chestnut hair that had been carefully brushed off his forehead.

Lou tossed the photograph onto the desk, smiling in satisfaction when the glass in the frame broke. He and Jonathan Samuel Pembroke may have come from the same backgrounds, but Lou knew that’s where the similarities ended. He had never had the discipline to keep his own room as neat as the room he was in now. He had never felt the urge to make the effort to excel at anything on his own. Every one of his few successes had come as a result of constant prodding and exhortation to live up to his full potential.

Standing from the desk, Lou hurriedly stripped from the heavy crimson robe and sat on the bed to unlace his heavy boots. Standing up totally naked, Lou padded over to the dresser and began opening drawers. Finding the neatly folded underwear, Lou frowned when he found nothing but white jockey-style briefs. He’d always preferred bikini style briefs for himself. Lou knew he couldn’t afford to be choosy and so slipped into a pair of the tighty-whitey briefs, luxuriating in the feel of wearing underwear for the first time since he had joined the Brotherhood.

Rummaging through another drawer, Lou pulled out a pair of jeans and slipped them on. A striped Rugby shirt, white tube socks and a pair of Jonathan’s sneakers completed his new outfit. Free of the robes, Lou felt almost free of the influence of the Brotherhood and The Leader. He ran a hand over his closely cropped hair – he’d let that grow out again, starting right away. There would be no more submitting to having hand operated clippers run over his head every week for him. His stomach growled, reminding him that it had been a long time since he had last eaten. He decided to see how his luck was running and bounded down the stairs to see if he could find anything left to eat.

In the kitchen Lou ransacked the cabinets and felt like screaming with glee. The cabinets had been stocked full of canned and packaged foods. He knew better than to try either the refrigerator or freezer – everything in them would have spoiled shortly after the electricity went off. Rummaging through the cabinets, Lou pulled out a couple of cans of beef stew and began searching through the drawers for a can opener, hoping the Pembroke’s didn’t rely exclusively on electric can openers. The first two drawers yielded nothing and Lou began to get a feeling of desperation as he jerked open the third drawer. Then, he heaved a sigh of relief when he saw a manual can opener sitting there at the front of the drawer right next to a box of matches.

He was reaching for the can opener when he stopped and stared curiously at the matches. He wondered why there was a box of kitchen matches in the drawer. He spun around and stared at the stove as he suddenly remembered something he had seen outside – a large, cylindrical tank that had been surrounded by a decorative redwood fence. Staring at the stove, everything fell into place for him – the burners were gas burners, not electric, and the large white tank tastefully hidden behind the decorative fence was a propane tank.

Lou had a silly grin on his face as he grabbed the matches, went to the stove and turned one of the knobs. He was rewarded almost instantly with the sound of gas hissing. Lighting a match, Lou held it close to the burner and was rewarded by the appearance of a bluish flame. Lou still had the silly grin plastered across his face as he searched out a pot and dumped the cans of stew into the pot. Minutes later, the pot sat over the blue flame, the aroma of the stew filling the kitchen as Lou opened a box of Saltine crackers and selected the wrapper that had the fewest weevils in it. Opening the wrapper, Lou picked through the crackers, brushing the little bugs off until he had a stack of about a dozen and a half crackers in front of him.

Lou perched himself on a stool at the breakfast bar and took a strange pleasure in crushing the slightly buggy crackers between his hands before dropping them straight into the pot of stew. He stirred the stew around and began spooning it into his mouth, dripping gravy all over the counter as he contemplated his future plans.

Looking around him, Lou decided the Pembroke house would make a nice place to lay low for a while. Of course, he’d have to remove the Pembroke family from the master bedroom. He didn’t have any superstitious qualms about ghosts of the Pembroke family wandering around and haunting him. And, he certainly knew those dried out corpses weren’t going to rise from their resting place on that king-size bed and snack on him during the middle of the night. He’d seen enough dead bodies to know that dead was dead, and the dead didn’t turn into zombies who preyed on the living. Lou just didn’t like the idea of sharing his abode – however temporary – with a family of corpses.

Finishing up the last of the stew in the pot, Lou decided he’d get some rope and wrap the Pembrokes up in the bedspread, tie it together and drag the bundle over to the next house. They could sleep eternity through in the garage of a neighboring house as well as they could in the master bedroom upstairs.

After dumping the dirty pot into the sink, Lou scrounged around in the garage for some rope. He was just about to give up when he found some carefully packed camping equipment. Rooting through the box, he was rewarded with a hank of nylon rope. Passing through the kitchen on his way up to the bedroom, Lou grabbed a knife from the rack to use if he needed to cut the rope before continuing with his task.

In the bedroom, Lou found it easy enough to pull the edges of the bedspread and roll it around the Pembrokes. He had to roll the mother and father face down on the dried corpses of the children to get the bundle as tight as possible. He wrapped the rope around the bundled bedspread, leaving himself a long loop at the foot of the bundle. He was surprised to find out how light the four desiccated bodies inside the colorful bedspread were – he had expected them to be heavier, but was happy that they weren’t.

Dragging his grisly bundle out the front door of the Pembroke house, Lou was delighted to find that the garage door of the house across the street was standing open and grinned. He dragged the Pembroke mummies across the road to the open garage and left them tucked away between a chest-style freezer and the washing machine. Turning as he wiped cobwebs from his hair, Lou caught his reflection in the side window of the SUV behind him and frowned. He had forgotten about his crimson dyed hair. That was another link to his past with the Brotherhood – he immediately decided that he’d have to do something about that immediately. He had two options – he could shave his head and let his hair grow out in its natural color, or dye it.

The sight of a ten-speed bike hanging from pegs on the wall helped Lou make his decision. He really hadn’t wanted to shave his head – that brought back reminders from his days as a novice in the Brotherhood. He’d use the bike to scout the area and find a little shopping center – he should be able to find some hair dye there. In his experience, fancy sub-divisions always had ritzy shopping centers close by for the convenience of the rich residents. Pulling the bike down, Lou searched around for crowbar or other tool and finally settled on a heavy ball peen hammer. He could use the tool as a universal key to get into any shop – that is as long as it hadn’t already been broken into.

*****

It didn’t take Lou long to find the local shopping center – he’d been riding for only about twenty minutes before he saw the fancy little strips of shops designed to look like Tudor buildings – the last building in the row was a pharmacy. Lou found someone had beaten him to breaking into the shop – the door had been kicked in. Keeping the hammer in his hand as a weapon, Lou cautiously entered the pharmacy, stepping gingerly over broken glass and splinters of wood.

Wandering around the littered aisles, Lou was surprised at just how many things had been left on the shelves. Whoever had been here before him had concentrated mainly on ransacking the junk food and snacks. Crumpled potato chip and candy bags were strewn all over the floor. Roaming the aisles, Lou eventually found the hair care products. Most of the shampoos and conditioners had been left untouched, but sadly, most of the hair coloring products had been thoroughly picked over. Picking over what was left, Lou selected a box of dark brown hair dye and another box of black hair dye. He figured if the brown didn’t cover the red dye in his hair, the black certainly would. Tucking his choices into his shirt, Lou continued exploring the pharmacy.

Wandering through the cosmetics section, Lou was disappointed to see that most of the makeup had been thoroughly picked over. He needed something to cover the phoenix tattoo on his forehead and figured makeup was his best choice. Picking over the meager supply of cosmetics that remained on the shelves, Lou realized that he’d never find something that would give him a normal looking skin tone. Oh well, he figured – if he couldn’t disguise the tattoo, he could find something else and mask it. Turning to leave, Lou found that the stationary section was almost untouched and selected felt tip markers in black and bright red. They should work to cover the tattoo – at least until he could find someone who could cover the offensive tattoo with another tattoo of his choosing.

A little over an hour later, Lou was leaning over the sink in the bathroom off of Jonathan Pembroke’s room and rinsing the dark brown dye from his short hair by dumping container after container of water over his head. He had filled the containers with water from the pool in the back yard. Standing, he toweled his hair off and examined the results in the mirror. His hair was a dark, chocolate brown that didn’t look in the least bit natural, but the red color was gone and that’s what really mattered to him. The phoenix tattoo was hidden behind the black rectangle he’d drawn on using the black felt tipped pen. The red felt tip hadn’t succeeded in masking the offending tattoo.

Stepping back from the sink, Lou continued to examine his reflection in the mirror and decided he was satisfied with the results of his efforts. To his eye, all outward indications that he’d ever been associated with the Brotherhood and that nutcase, The Leader, had been successfully hidden. He figured that he could rest here for about a week before the canned food in the cupboards ran out. Until then, he could sleep in a real bed every night – he didn’t think Jonathan Samuel Pembroke would mind – and even bathe in the swimming pool. Then, when he was well-rested and had a full belly, he could pack a backpack – again courtesy of good old Jonathan Samuel Pembroke – he could use the bike from across the street to take him to his next destination – wherever that might be.

For the rest of the week, Lou feasted several times a day on canned stew, corned beef, canned chicken and tuna, and Spam. He bathed in the pool every day and let the sun dry him as he sprawled in one of the chaise lounge chairs on the deck at poolside. As the week drew to a close, Lou put off packing some fresh clothes and instead opted to raid the neighboring homes for more canned food.

During one of his scavenging trips in the middle of his second week at the Pembroke house, he found a case of beer and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening working his way through the beer, enjoying the buzz he had going. By the time he staggered off to bed, Lou was decidedly drunk and it took him nearly fifteen minutes to fumble his way out of his clothes. He finally succeeded in stripping out of his clothes before falling back onto the bed naked.

Lou’s head was throbbing when he woke the next morning. Groaning, he opened his eyes and quickly closed them again, the morning light burning his eyes. He groaned again and put a hand to his face, deciding that he wasn’t just hung over – he was still drunk from the night before. All the beer he’d consumed was making him see things – for the brief moment that he opened his eyes, he thought that the bed had been surrounded by robed figures from the Brotherhood. Instead of frightening him, the thought made him giggle and he opened his eyes again.

The giggle died on his lips as he peed himself with fear.

He hadn’t been hallucinating – a squad of Enforcers from the Brotherhood did surround the bed, and Gull was with them. Lou didn’t even have time to sit up and scream when Gull barked out an order to seize Lou and take him with them. As the reaching hands grabbed at him, Lou humiliated himself even further when his sphincter involuntarily released and his bowels emptied all over him and the bed. The Enforcers ignored the excrement running down Lou’s legs as they dragged him naked from the house.

A flatbed farm wagon with two upright posts and drawn by twenty naked slaves stood waiting outside the Pembroke house. The Enforcers manhandled Lou up onto the flatbed and padlocked a chain connected to the two upright posts around his neck. More chains were attached to his ankles and wrists and connected to the posts. Gull climbed into the bed of the wagon and knelt in front of Lou as he attached a tight leather band around the base of Lou’s scrotum. Lou winced in pain as metal spikes on the inside of the leather band bit into the tender flesh of his ball sac. Small trickles of blood dripped to the bed of the wagon as Gull attached a ten-pound weight to the rings on either side of the band. Ignoring Lou’s cries of pain, Gull climbed up onto the bench seat of the wagon and gave the order to move out.

*****

The trip back to the Brotherhood headquarters was one of unending physical and mental agony for Lou. The weights attached to his scrotum swung back and forth with the movement of the wagon, sending fresh waves of pain through him with each jolt. The metal spikes on the inside of the leather band seemed to dig in deeper every time Lou moved. Periodically, Gull would shift in his seat to turn halfway towards Lou to remind his prisoner of the pain he could expect once they reached their destination.

Stopping for the night, Gull watched silently as his Enforcers set up camp and secured the slave team for the night. Once the Enforcers and the slaves had eaten, Gull approached Lou with a large plastic cup of water. Despite his pain and humiliation, Lou was eager to have a drink – his mouth was parched. Smiling evilly, Gull held the cup to Lou’s lips and encouraged him to drink. Lou didn’t need extra encouragement and eagerly took a large gulp and immediately began gagging.

The water had been generously laced with salt. As Lou gagged and sputtered, Gull barked out orders for his assistants to hold Lou’s head back and pinch his nostrils shut as he continued to pour the salt water down Lou’s throat.

“Wait until we get back,” Gull hissed, grabbing Lou’s lower lip and twisting it. “Your arrogance caused the failure of a scouting mission and resulted in the death of my second in command, you bastard. I loved Hawk like a brother, so I’m going to take special pains to make sure you suffer beyond your wildest fears.” He shoved his face closer to Lou’s. “As a matter of fact, you’re going to suffer beyond my wildest dreams.”

Aside from doubling the weights hanging between his legs, Gull and the others left Lou alone for the night. He found it impossible to get any sleep – every time he drifted off, he’d jerk awake as his full body weight pulled on the chains attached to his wrists. The salt water he’d been forced to drink was also having an effect on him – his mouth dried even more than it had been and his thirst became worse. Halfway through the night, Lou was ready to beg for a drink of fresh water from anyone willing to have mercy on him. But, no one even came close to him all night long.

When morning came, the entire crew – Enforcers and slaves alike breakfasted on canned corned beef hash and powdered eggs. Lou’s breakfast – after everyone else had eaten – was another large serving of salt water. Once again, he gagged and sputtered as Gull and his assistants forced him to take every drop of the vile water.

As the wagon moved out, making his bellyful of salt-water slosh around, Lou felt his bowels churn. He begged Gull to pull to a stop so he could relieve himself by the side of the road. Gull’s only answer was a short, unkind bark of a laugh as he shouted back that Lou could just shit himself again. Lou tried valiantly to control his bowels so he didn’t add to his embarrassment, but about half an hour later, his sphincter let loose explosively bringing laughs from the Enforcers walking alongside the wagon. Lou hung his head and cried silent tears of shame as he felt the liquid excrement dribble down the back of his legs. Lou didn’t have any trouble imagining the jeers that would be hurled in his direction when Gull’s wagon trundled up to the Brotherhood headquarters.

Lou’s imagination didn’t do justice to the jeers, gibes, and catcalls that greeted the wagon as it slowly rolled down the street towards the hotel where The Leader was waiting, standing on a balcony. He watched silently as Gull had the wagon roll to a stop directly below The Leader.

For a long time, The Leader stared down at Lou silently as the entire Brotherhood gathered closely around the wagon, laughing and jeering Lou’s condition. Finally, The Leader raised both arms high over his head and called for attention. The jeering died almost instantly.

“Behold the murderous traitor!” The Leader bellowed venomously. “The Brotherhood took this – this so-called person in and fed and clothed him when he otherwise would have starved. The Brotherhood elevated him to the ranks of the Enforcers – the most elite of our Brothers. And, how does this viper repay those generosities? He sabotages a scouting raid and causes the death of one of our most loyal members.” An angry murmuring ran through the crowd as they listened to The Leader list Lou’s transgressions. “We know from loyal survivors of the raid that the only reason that it failed was because this pig deliberately disobeyed the plan that Hawk had devised and because this traitor ignored the plan, Hawk’s life was needlessly sacrificed.”

“And, you might ask, just how do we know that this scum deliberately sabotaged the mission?” The Leader shouted out. “Look at him!” The Leader cast an accusing finger down at Lou. “He has dyed his hair in an attempt to disguise his membership in the Brotherhood – he has covered the mark of The Phoenix that you all carry on your foreheads. That is proof of his deliberate intent to sabotage the mission and endanger not only the scouting team, but all of you as well!”

The crowd surged forward and might have torn Lou to pieces right then and there if Gull’s Enforcers hadn’t suddenly appeared to surround the wagon. The sight of those crimson-robed Brothers was enough to stop the crowd in their tracks.

“This scum will pay for his crimes,” The Leader called out. “Gull will see to that, and as you all know, he has never failed the Brotherhood.” The Leader, his face a mask of hatred, looked down on Gull and nodded. “He belongs to you now – you may begin preparing him for his punishment.”

Gull turned to face The Leader, bowing low to him. Rising, he snapped his fingers at two of his assistants and barked out: “Shave him down – let the whole Brotherhood see him stripped of his rights in our community.”

Grinning, the two assistants reached into their robes and produced straight razors. They eagerly climbed up onto the bed of the wagon and taking their place on either side of Lou went to work dry shaving his head, removing his freshly dyed hair. The crowd went wild as the assistants worked at removing all of Lou’s hair. The Brothers jeered as Lou’s hair fell in clumps onto his shoulders and to his feet. They laughed riotously as the two Enforcers scraped away Lou’s eyebrows, leaving Lou’s head totally smooth.

When Gull’s assistants had finished their tonsorial work, the Enforcer leader easily leapt onto the wagon and took the straight razor from the assistant nearest him. He flipped the wicked-looking blade open and held it high above his head as he faced the assembled Brotherhood.

“What you see before you is a runner,” Gull cried out. “He betrayed his team and all of you and then tried to run away from his just punishment.” Once again, the crowd began shouting and calling for Lou’s blood. Gull stepped around behind Lou. “He’ll never run again,” he shouted, bending down and slashing at each of Lou’s Achilles tendons.

Lou screamed in pain as the razor severed the tendons, crippling him. He felt hot blood running over his heels and hoped that he’d bleed out before having to face any more of Gull’s depraved plans for him. He almost sobbed in frustration when he saw one of the Enforcers holding a propane torch and heating a steel rod until it glowed white hot. He realized that Gull would have been prepared to prevent his victim from bleeding to death before all of his torture plans had been carried out.

*****

Over the course of the next week Lou discovered just how depraved and inventive Gull could be. Lou had never imagined just how much pain Gull could inflict and still keep his victims aware of what was happening to them. After keeping Lou on display for the better part of the first day, Gull had ordered that Lou be moved to the Enforcer headquarters in the YMCA building where he was immediately hung by his wrists from a hook suspended from a pulley in the ceiling. As Gull’s assistants hauled Lou higher, Gull slowly paced around his newest victim, examining him from head to toe.

“This thing is filthy,” Gull said to his assistants, referring to Lou. “Clean him up – get that dried shit off of him.” Gull headed for the door. “Come get me when you’ve finished cleaning him.”

The assistants disappeared for a long time before returning with several buckets of water and long handled stiff bristled scrub brushes. Lou eyed the buckets with rising apprehension after he noticed steam rising from them. He couldn’t tell whether the water was simply warm or hot, but quickly learned that it was actually scalding when the taller of the Enforcers took one of the buckets and doused Lou’s backside with the bucket’s contents. Lou screamed as the water burned his ass, his legs and underside of his testicles.

The Enforcers guffawed as Lou whimpered and jerked around. Soaking their brushes in one of the other buckets, the two Enforcers went to work scrubbing at Lou’s skin. They didn’t miss an inch of skin on Lou’s lower body. They even held his ass cheeks apart and scrubbed his ass crack raw with one of the brushes. By the time they were done, Lou’s backside and legs had been scrubbed raw, causing him even more pain. Gull returned to inspect the work done and praised his assistants for getting Lou so clean and announced that it was time to begin Lou’s punishment.

“Bring the cart over here,” Gull ordered, watching the fear blossom in Lou’s dark eyes as the cart was rolled into place next to him.

Lou watched as Gull opened a medical package and extracted a long plastic tube. When Gull ordered one of his assistants to hold the prisoner’s dick, Lou realized that Gull intended to catheterize him and began whimpering again, begging not to be hurt. Gull’s only response was to smile wickedly as he squeezed the mushroom head of Lou’s dick and start shoving the tube into his piss slit.

“I’ve never done this before,” Gull said loudly over Lou’s screams. “You have the honor of being the first to experience being catheterized here.” He continued pushing the plastic tube deeper and deeper, and then feigned surprise. “Oh goodness,” Gull exclaimed. “I forgot to lube the tube up – that must hurt like a bitch!” The two assistants sniggered as much at Gull’s comments as at Lou’s jerking around in a futile attempt to escape the tube invading his body.

“I know you think that was painful,” Gull said, grabbing a handful of skin at Lou’s waist. “But, that was nothing – absolutely nothing compared to what you’re about to experience.” Lou watched apprehensively as Gull carefully fitted the free end of the catheter to a plastic bag filled with a red liquid. “Normally, this bag would be strapped to your leg or the side of a hospital bed to collect the urine from your bladder,” Gull explained, hanging the bag from another hook hanging down from the ceiling. The thick red liquid began to sluggishly move down the clear plastic tube. “But, I figured it can also be used to help fill your bladder up – if that’s what I wanted.”

“Wh-wh-what is that stuff?” Lou stammered.

“Oh, nothing special you turd,” Gull snapped. “Just a common everyday item found almost everywhere.” Gull placed his hands on either side of the plastic bag and slowly squeezed it, forcing the liquid to move faster along the tube and into Lou’s bladder.

Lou threw his head back screeching and howling in agony as the red liquid entered and began filling his bladder. It felt like Gull had poured liquid fire into his body, and through the haze of pain that forced almost every conscious thought from his mind, Lou suddenly recognized the red liquid as Tabasco sauce. Lou could feel his bladder swell as the fiery liquid entered it. He tried hard to force himself to expel the fluid, but Gull clamped off the catheter refusing him relief.

Lou screamed and jerked uncontrollably as the Tabasco sauce set his bladder on fire. His frenzied movements sometimes brought both feet off the floor at the same time, adding even more pressure to his shoulders. His lips bled as he chewed them in a futile effort to bring himself under control. He wept, pleaded, whipped his head violently back and forth, and screamed as Gull stepped back and dispassionately watched his handiwork. After several minutes – which seemed like years to Lou – Gull motioned to his assistants and invited them to join him in a snack break. He looked over at his victim, who continued to gyrate wildly and scream uncontrollably, and announced that he was sure Lou would still be hanging around waiting for them when they returned.

Time lost all meaning for Lou as the fire in his bladder intensified. In one of his more lucid moments, he had hoped that he’d eventually become inured to the fiery pain – but he didn’t. It only seemed to intensify the longer he was forced to wait. Sweat poured from his body in rivers as he jerked around. Eventually, his muscles became exhausted and his gyrations slowed to feeble twitches, but the fire in his lower belly still burned unrelentingly.

*****

When Gull and his assistants finally returned, they found Lou hanging limply – his body twitching feebly. Lou managed to lift his head and hoarsely beg for relief in a ragged whisper.

“You want that hot sauce out of you?” Gull asked, almost as if he actually cared about the pain Lou was suffering.

“Puh – puh – puh-lease,” Lou gasped. “Learned … my … lesson. N-no … more.”

Lou’s mind was too fogged by the unremitting pain to register the evil smile on Gull’s face as he agreed that it was time to let Lou get rid of the hot sauce. His eyes twinkling with dark humor, Gull slowly wrapped his hand around the plastic catheter and violently jerked it free.

Lou thought he had screamed himself out, but as the Tabasco sauce flooded through his urethra bringing him to new levels of agony, fresh screams rose from his sore throat. The sounds coming from Lou sounded more animal than human, reaching pitches so high and loud that even Gull found it necessary to cover his ears.

*****

Over the course of the next week, Lou was forced to admit that Gull had been right – the pain he suffered was far worse than anything he had imagined in his worst nightmares. Gull and his various assistants had developed methods of torture that caused unimaginable pain, and yet, didn’t bring the mercy of death. Some days he was suspended by his wrists and others, he was strapped to a wooden table. One-by-one his fingers had been broken, the bones crushed beyond repair as they were inserted between the jaws of a heavy vise. Gull’s assistants tried to outdo each other in screwing the vise closed as tightly as possible, cheering at the sound of bones being crushed.

After his hands had been mangled, Gull showed up one day with large deep sea fishing hooks and used the hooks to pierce each of Lou’s nipples. Strong wire leaders were attached to the hooks, which were then attached to increasing amounts of weights.

Lou began to think that he’d be glad to face castration, believing that castration would be the final indignity inflicted on him before Gull grew tired and finished him off. He couldn’t even count the number of castrations he’d witnessed – from his experience, the event was quick and had to be relatively painless compared to the tortures he’d been suffering. But, Lou hadn’t taken Gull’s anger into account.

“Do you know what I found when Hawk’s body was brought back to me?” Gull snarled one day when Lou was strapped down spread-eagle to the wooden table. “He’d been castrated and his balls had been stuffed into his mouth.” Gull grabbed Lou’s balls in his powerful hand and twisted them viscously. He was actually foaming at the mouth as he screamed obscenities at Lou. “He was more than just my second in command,” Gull roared, twisting Lou’s balls even more. “He was my friend and yes – my lover! You took him from me!”

“I – I didn’t mean a-any harm,” Lou sobbed. “I – I w-w-was just eager to get – to get the attack underway.”

Gull slapped Lou’s face. “You’re a fucking liar! The survivors who came back told us how you deliberately disobeyed orders in an attempt to get glory for yourself!” Gull screamed backhanding Lou’s face. He grabbed Lou’s ears and pulled Lou’s head from the table. “Well, you’re going to know exactly what poor Hawk experienced at the bridge. I’m going to cut your fucking balls off and make you eat them – do you understand you sorry fuck? You’re going to eat your own balls.” Gull turned to his assistants. “Band him – I don’t want him bleeding to death. He stays alive after I cut his balls off.”

Lou thought he had cried himself out days earlier, but hearing Gulls plans for him brought fresh tears. He wailed and twisted as much as his bonds allowed as one of the assistants – a young teen who looked no more than fourteen – fitted a castrating band onto the Elastrator prongs and approached the table. Incredibly, a small, super rational corner of Lou’s mind took in the young teen’s short, freshly cropped hair and new dye job and realized that the youth was a new Enforcer – one eager to participate in his first castration.

The young teen squeezed Lou’s balls more than he needed, as he worked each of the prisoner’s balls through the stretched band and moved it close to Lou’s lower abdomen. He slipped the band off of the tool and stepped back grinning hugely, proud of himself. He looked up expectantly at Gull who praised him for doing such a good job the first time out as he lifted a set of sharp scissors from the cart next to the table. He snipped the right side of Lou’s scrotum open, smiling savagely when his prisoner cried out in pain – he had purposely not waited until numbness set in. Gull reached into Lou’s opened sac, pulled out his right testicle and used the scissors to snip it free.

He held the bluish orb in the palm of his hand for a moment before handing it to the young Enforcer. “Cut it into quarters, Eddie,” Gull ordered. “I don’t want him choking to death.”

Young Eddie grinned like he’d won a prize as he took the testicle from his boss and carefully sliced it into quarters. He arranged the quarters on a small plate before handing it over to Gull. Knowing what was about to happen next, Lou squeezed his lips closed tightly.

“You really think that’s going to stop me?” Gull asked. He lifted a spring clamp from his work cart and opening it wide, clamped it over Lou’s nose cutting off his air. Lou held out as long as he could, his cheeks puffing out as his face turned deeper and deeper shades of red. When he couldn’t hold out any longer, Lou’s mouth opened as he exhaled explosively. Before he could close his jaws with a snap, Gull had slipped two rubber dental blocks between Lou’s teeth, forcing his mouth open. Gull dropped the quarters of Lou’s testicle into his mouth.

“Swallow,” Gull ordered, clamping his hand over Lou’s open mouth, again cutting off his air supply. Swallow all the pieces, you shit. Swallow them!”

Tears were streaming along the sides of his head as Lou was finally forced to swallow his own testicle. Gull nodded in satisfaction. “One down,” he announced grimly. “And one more to go.” He watched Lou swallow convulsively several times. “Go right ahead and vomit them back up, I’ll just feed them to you again – vomit and all,” Gull hissed.

Lou swallowed again, trying to force his the contents of his stomach to stay down. He knew Gull was serious and he couldn’t imagine being forced to swallow his balls over and over. He cried uncontrollably, just wanting the ordeal to be over and done with as quickly as possible.

Lou squeezed his eyes closed as Gull lifted the scissors again. He winced as he felt the scissors cut open the other side of his scrotum. The pain wasn’t as intense this time, but it still made him wince. He moaned forlornly when he felt Gull’s fingers digging in his nearly empty sac before finally pulling out his remaining testicle and snipping it free from his body. After several long moments, Lou heard Gull approach the head of the table again and opened his eyes.

Gull’s face was stern and unyielding as he held the plate in front of him. “Here’s the last one,” Gull said gruffly. “Make it easy on yourself and swallow it without a fuss. Or, make all the fuss you want,” he said. “It doesn’t matter to me – one way or another you’re eating this one, too.”

Lou hesitated briefly before slowly turning his head towards the Enforcer leader. As much as he hated the thought of what he was about to do, he feared the repercussions refusing Gull’s command would bring him. The only thought he had was to cooperate and prevent further torture. Maybe if Gull thought he was totally broken, he’d lose interest and bring everything to an end quickly and without suffering.

*****

Dal came up behind Jack who seemed to be studying the farm’s windmill. He didn’t seem to be aware of Dal’s presence as he stared up at the structure. Dal knew the way Jack’s mind worked – once he became engrossed in solving a problem, his mind entered a different plane of thought and everything else was ignored. He hesitated, unsure of whether to interrupt his friend’s train of thought or wait until Jack’s mind returned to the normal world.

“He’s not getting any better, is he?” Jack asked without turning around.

“No – not really,” Dal said. “We’re keeping the fever under control, but it’s clear that Sparrow isn’t going to recover unless we operate again.” Dal reached out and laid a gentle hand on Jack’s shoulder.

Jack turned around and gave his friend a wan smile. “Okay – let’s take him off the sedatives and let him come around.”

“You’re going to tell him what’s going to happen?”

“Of course – it’s the right thing to do,” Jack said. “We’ll have Pride and Eagle with us when we talk to him. He has to know that there isn’t any other choice, and that his friends will be behind him.” Jack turned and looked over his shoulder at the windmill again. “I think we can make the windmill a little more efficient with a couple of modifications.” He turned and stared past the farmhouse to the RVs. “Besides, I want to go over the procedure again before we operate. C’mon, let’s get things moving.”

Jack’s first stop was to tell Selene to stop sedating their patient and let him start coming around. He prepared a couple of syringes with a local anesthetic to prevent Sparrow from suffering more pain than was absolutely necessary. Then he and Dal went in search of the two Eco Tribe leaders and explained the decision they had reached. Pride and Eagle listened carefully and finally nodded in agreement – they weren’t willing to let Sparrow die when there was an option available that would save his life. They both agreed that Sparrow should know what had to be done to save his life and why.

“When will you operate?” Pride asked.

“About this time tomorrow,” Jack said. “Sparrow should begin to come around sometime this evening and should be fairly lucid by morning. We can all talk to him then and explain everything. After that, the sooner we operate the better.” Jack nodded absently and wandered back to the RV where the three Shiprats were staying, leaving Dal and the two Eco Tribe members standing in the yard.

In the RV, Jack pulled out the medical books Amber had packed for him, thumbed through the pages until he found the section he wanted and began reading. Within minutes he was totally engrossed in the material and didn’t even notice that Selene had entered and started a pot of coffee for him. He acknowledged her presence only after she shook his shoulder and slid a mug of the fresh coffee under his nose. Grunting thanks, Jack absently sipped the coffee and returned to his reading, occasionally making detailed notes to himself on a legal pad at his elbow.

Dal quietly slipped into the RV to bring Jack a plate of food Lucy had prepared for Jack’s lunch – thick slabs of fresh roast pork rested between newly baked bread next to a mount of fries. Lucy intuitively knew that Jack would probably ignore any food that he couldn’t eat with his fingers. The plate was mostly untouched when Jack finally stopped his reading and note taking and looked around, blinking owlishly as he wondered why it was getting harder for him to read.

Lifting his head from the books and notepad, Jack realized that he hadn’t turned on the lights in the RV, and the sun was already low on the horizon. Munching on half of the cold pork sandwich, Jack stepped out of the RV and was surprised to see Lucy directing the younger kids in getting the tables set for the evening meal. Stretching, Jack wolfed down the rest of the sandwich half in his hand and wandered over to the other RV where Sparrow was.

“How’s he doing?” Jack asked Selene as he climbed into the RV.

“He’s awake off and on,” she answered. “I don’t think his mind is really clicking yet, though.”

“That’s not surprising,” Jack said, checking Sparrow’s pulse. “Between the physical shock he’s suffered and the sedatives we’ve kept him on, it’s no wonder he’s worn out.” He stood and slowly rubbed his head. “Let’s increase the flow of the saline drip.” He turned and indicated the refrigerator. “Does the freezer work?”

“I’ve already made some ice cubes,” Selene said.

Jack shook his head in admiration. “You and Dal are both one step ahead of me – I couldn’t ask for two better assistants. Did Amber send any juice?”

“There’s some jars of baby juice,” Selene said. “Some apple, grape, and orange juice, I think.”

“Good, good. Make some ice cubes from the apple and orange juice,” Jack said. “When he wakes, you can let him suck on a couple of those. If he can handle that, then you can let him try sipping some juice….”

“And if he keeps that down, he can have some clear broth, right?” Selene laughed.

Jack rolled his eyes. “If you’re going to stay one step ahead of me, I might as well go for a walk.”

“You’d do better to get something hot to eat and get some rest,” Selene told him. “And, that’s my sound medical advice for you.” She firmly pushed him towards the door. “Go on, Lucy’s almost got supper ready to lay out on the table. Out of here, now.”

Jack allowed Selene to push him out of the RV, knowing that she was right – while they’d all need rest before the operation tomorrow, he’d need to be the most rested since he would be doing the cutting. He’d see if some of the Eco Tribe could watch over Sparrow during the night in case he woke up. If Sparrow did wake up, Jack could be at his side in just minutes.

*****

After another of Lucy’s delicious meals, Jack returned to his RV and was asleep almost instantly, the medical text open on the bed next to him. Mercifully, Jack slept soundly untroubled by nightmares of failure during the impending surgery. A hand on his shoulder shook him awake. Bolting upright, Jack found Pride standing over him.

“Relax,” Pride whispered. “Everything’s okay – Sparrow’s awake.”

Jack looked around, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Glancing out the window, Jack noticed that it was pitch black outside. “What time is it?” He asked, swinging his feet to the floor and grabbing for his clothes.

“After midnight and well before dawn,” Pride said.

Jack groaned, cursing himself silently as he stole a glance at the clock and seeing that it was a little after 2 A.M. He should have known that clocks and watches were among the things the Eco Tribe had given up. Pausing only long enough to splash some water on his face and run his hands over his hair, Jack followed Pride to the other RV.

Jack was surprised to find Sparrow remarkably alert – weak and more than a little confused – but alert enough to answer questions lucidly. His voice was soft and hoarse – he paused quite a bit to take a sip of the juice Selene held to his lips, always reminding him to take small sips – just enough to wet his mouth. Jack arrived in time to hear Sparrow describe how he’d come to be injured – how he’d been surprised by a Brotherhood scouting party. He shook his head in disbelief as he described how he’d leapt over some bushes and landed in a gully, impaling himself on the branches of a fallen tree. He remembered hiding, and some of his desperate journey home – how he was sure that he was dying, but that only inspired him to greater efforts to reach his Tribe. He didn’t want to die alone and wanted his friends with him when it was his time to cross over. He didn’t remember being found or any of the trip to the Farm Tribe.

“I’m going to die like Hedge did, aren’t I?” Sparrow finally said nervously as his tale wound down.

“No, you’re not going to die,” Eagle said reassuringly. “Thanks to Pride, and his friends here at the Farm and their friends from The City.” Eagle pointed to Luke and Jack and his companions. “Especially thanks to these Shiprats,” Eagle added. “They saved your life.”

“How?”

“They have medicine and know how to do surgery,” Eagle explained. “Jack here has already operated on you once, and he’s going to have to operate again to keep you alive.”

Standing at the foot of the bed, Jack haltingly explained what he had already done, his voice faltering at the look of shock that came over Sparrow’s face when he heard that he had lost one testicle already. Jack gulped and looked around helplessly. Everyone face looked away guiltily – each as unwilling as Jack to tell Sparrow what faced him now.

Taking a deep breath, Jack continued, “I should have done the complete nullification the first time I operated. But, I was afraid to – I hoped I could control the infection and save as much as possible. I was wrong.”

“I don’t think I understand,” Sparrow croaked.

“By the time I got out here, your whole groin had become infected,” Jack said – his voice cracking. “I – I tried to save your other testicle and – and your penis.” Jack’s words began spilling over each other as his voice quickened. “I thought I could fight the infection with high doses of antibiotics, but I was wrong.” His voice trailed off, his eyes watering as he watched the expression on Sparrow’s face.

Sparrow licked his dry lips. He waved his right hand vaguely towards his crotch. “You – you mean – every – everything down there?” He asked. He swallowed hard. “You’re going to cut off everything down there?”

Jack pressed his lips tightly together and bobbed his head quickly. He was afraid to speak – afraid his voice would betray him.

“I – I don’t want that to happen,” Sparrow said. “I’d rather be dead.” He turned hateful eyes to Jack. “I don’t want any more help from The City – nothing good comes from The City. Go away and let me die like Hedge.”

Eagle climbed to her feet and stared sternly down at Sparrow. “Shut your mouth!” She snapped harshly. “What the hell do you mean ‘nothing good comes out of The City?’ Jack and his friends came out here to save your life! From where I stand, that was a damn good thing. They didn’t have to come out here you know – they didn’t even know our Tribe existed. But, they dropped everything and rushed right out here and worked like mad to save you.” Eagle grabbed Jack’s chin and turned his head to the side to expose the horseshoe scar that was almost hidden by his growing hair. “You should know that Jack is barely recovered from surgery on his brain – but he didn’t claim he was too weak or too sick to save a stranger! You better believe that’s something good that came out of The City.”

Jack pulled away from Eagle and quietly left the hospital RV. Pride started to go after him, but Dal who had remained silent so far, took Pride’s arm and shook his head. “Let him have his space for a little bit.”

“But….”

“Leave him be,” Dal insisted gently. “Don’t embarrass him by following right away – he wouldn’t want you to see him right now. Believe me, I know.”

“But, he’s talking about cutting everything off….” Sparrow’s voice held the plaintive tone of a frightened child.

“No, he’s talking about saving your life,” Pride said kindly.

“Oh great,” Sparrow snorted. “Saving my life for what? I won’t have anything to live for…I – I won’t be…” His voice trailed off.

“What bullshit!” Eagle exploded. “Don’t even try to give me any of that ‘I won’t be a man anymore’ crap! Of course you’ll still be a man. You’re not a man because you have some extra things dangling between your legs.” Eagle stabbed a finger at Sparrow’s chest and head. “You’re a man because of what’s here and here!

“And, if you need a reason to go on living,” Pride added. “I’d say that living to defeat the Brotherhood is a good reason to live.”

Sparrow looked at Eagle in confusion. “B-but, I thought the Eco Tribe wanted to stay out of outside affairs.”

“The Tribe was wrong,” Eagle said. She held herself straighter. “I was wrong. The Brotherhood is an evil that endangers everyone. If we want the world to be a better place, we have to stand up against their evil.” Eagle took Sparrow’s hand in hers. “This world is going to need good people like you to stand up against the Brotherhood.”

*****

Leaving the RV, Pride didn’t have much trouble tracking Jack’s trail. He followed the trail past the farmhouse and to the far side of the fields to an orchard by the stream. He stopped and melted into the shadows of the trees watching the small Shiprat. Jack was on his knees, legs splayed wide, his thin body bent almost in half, his forehead pressed against the ground. For a moment, Pride thought that Jack was in the midst of an emotional breakdown. He instinctively stepped forward and then hesitated – unsure of whether to move on and comfort Jack or leave him in peace.

Blending deeper into the shadows, Pride eased closer. He wanted to close the distance between himself so that he could step in if necessary to prevent Jack from doing himself harm. As he silently drew closer, Jack’s soft voice reached his ears. Pride was amazed at the vehemence and anger he heard in Jack’s voice. He couldn’t hear most of the words, but a few did reach his ears and Pride realized that Jack was making a pact with God, or Nature, or the Cosmos – Pride had no idea of what Jack’s beliefs were – to bring down The Leader and oppose Evil they represented.

Moving closer, Pride was shocked when Jack straightened from his doubled over position, leaning back so far that he was almost doubled over in the opposite direction, his face turned to the heavens and offer his life in return for The Leader’s downfall. Pride felt his cheeks burn with shame. He realized that the basic philosophy of his Tribe was faulty. It wasn’t enough to desire to be good – goodness came only from actively opposing Evil.

Pride cautiously moved back away from Jack, keeping to the shadows in order to remain invisible. When he was a good distance away, he moved back onto the farm road and deliberately made enough noise for Jack to hear his approach.

Pretending not to know where Jack was, Pride called out. “Jack? Jack are you out there?”

In the distance, Pride could hear Jack scrambling to his feet followed by silence. He could almost imagine the confusion going through Jack’s mind – should he call out to Pride or remain silent and let the Eco Tribe member move on?

“Jack? Where are you?” Pride called again.

Finally a cough came out of the darkness ahead of him and Jack called out from the orchard ahead. Pride took his time moving down the lane to where he knew he’d find Jack.

“I uh, I – um, I just needed to take a walk and clear my head,” Jack said, as Pride approached out of the darkness.

“Yeah,” Pride nodded in agreement. “I know what you mean – I like to take walks at night, too. Seeing all those stars and the moon brings me some peace – kind of like Nature’s promise of a new day coming with fresh possibilities.”

“Yeah – new possibilities,” Jack agreed.

“Hey, about what Sparrow said….” Pride began.

“It’s nothing,” Jack said a little too quickly, staying under the shadows of the low branches, thinking he could hide his tear-streaked face from Pride. “I mean it’s pretty heavy news to get, it’s normal for him to get knocked off balance a bit.”

“He didn’t mean what he said, you know,” Pride said gently. “In fact, he’s ready for the surgery any time you are.” Pride paused, not sure if he should go on. “In fact, the sooner the better.”

“Yeah – um, could you do me a favor and ask Dal and Selene to get Sparrow ready for surgery in about an hour or so? I … um … need a little time to get ready.”

“Sure,” Pride agreed. “I’ll met you back at the farm in a little bit, okay? I’ll have some coffee ready for us.” Pride didn’t give Jack a chance to refuse. “Give me about fifteen minutes and meet me at the farmhouse. I’ll be the one with fresh coffee on the table.”

Pride turned and disappeared into the night before Jack could agree or disagree.

*****

Dal was waiting for Pride when he returned from his search for Jack. “You found him,” Dal said.

“Yes, yes I did,” Pride admitted. “There’s an intensity to Jack that is amazing. I’ve never known anyone like him.” Pride paused and stared hard at Dal for several moments. “I really admire him, but….”

“There’s something about him that scares you,” Dal finished. “I love him like a brother, but sometimes I’m afraid for him and of him.”

“You too?” Pride asked in surprise.

“Me, too,” Dal said. “And, I think Bray feels the same way.” Dal looked off into the darkness as if searching for Jack’s return. “I’m afraid that if Jack thought he could bring The Leader and his Brotherhood down, he’d gladly trade his own life to accomplish that.”

“I think so, too,” Pride agreed, not telling Dal what he’d heard back in the orchard. “Jack said he’d be ready to operate in about an hour or so.”

“I figured that,” Dal said. “Selene and I have already prepared Sparrow for the operation. We’ll be ready to get started whenever Jack wants.”

“Cool … well, I’d better get started myself,” Pride said. “I promised Jack fresh coffee waiting on him when he got back.”

Dal’s smile was cocky as he stepped to the side and pointed to the table in the breezeway where a large thermos and several mugs stood waiting. “Selene and I figured he’d need some coffee before he got started.

Pride shook his head in wonder. “You guys must be psychically connected or something.”

“Nah, nothing like that,” Dal grinned. “It’s just that after a while you get to know Jack’s habits. He’s pretty predictable when he’s not being unpredictable.”

*****

Sparrow was already asleep and laid out on the field operating table when Jack stepped into the hospital RV, ready to scrub and change into his operating scrubs. He glanced curiously at Pride who was scrubbed and dressed in surgical garb. He seemed about to speak, and then just nodded and disappeared into the back. He emerged long minutes later, scrubbed and dressed for surgery, his hands held out in front of him. Selene slipped latex gloves over his hands and then stepped aside to let him approach the table.

Jack stared down at Sparrow’s draped form. “Who catheterized him?” He asked.

“I did,” Selene said. “Was I wrong?”

“No, I just wanted to know so I could say what a good job it was,” Jack said. “Thanks.” Jack leaned close and examined Sparrow’s groin intently, then shook his head. “I should have done the whole job the first time. I should have known the infection had gone too far. Okay, let’s do the job I should have done before.” He looked up at Dal. “Would you dissect the penis?”

“You want me to do it?” Dal asked nervously, his large dark eyes doubtful.

“Sure, I’ll walk you through it,” Jack said, his voice full of confidence. “Use a light stroke and cut down to just above the urethra. We’ll give ourselves some extra for the relocation.”

Dal nodded, not feeling quite as confident as Jack seemed to be. He took the scalpel and began making the incision as Jack talked him through the procedure. As he went along and things seemed to move smoothly, he began to feel more confident in his abilities. Exposing the spongy tissue inside Sparrow’s penis, both Dal and Jack shook their heads sadly – for the first time they could see more clearly the unmistakable signs of how much of the tissue had been destroyed by the raging infection. Dal knew that Jack was right to try to save Sparrow’s genitals, even though they both suspected it had been a lost cause from the beginning.

When he reached the pubic mound, Jack took over and showed Dal how to excise the root of Sparrow's sex organ. Jack also removed some of the fatty tissue to make sure they were leaving Sparrow with only healthy tissue. With the penectomy completed, the work of removing the remaining testicle and diseased tissue of the scrotum moved along much quicker than Dal had expected. Jack extended the incision into the perianal region and then demonstrated to Dal how to relocate the urethra.

“Okay,” Jack said, once the urethra had been relocated. “We’ll close the incision first, then trim the urethra and suture that in place, and then, we’re done.”

“Is that all there is?” Selene asked.

“Pretty much,” Jack admitted. “It really is a pretty straight forward operation, thank goodness. And, it’s made even less tedious because you and Dal are so good.” Jack stretched and then looked around the room. “Okay, let’s finish up. Selene, you close the main incision – then, I’ll show Dal how to close the new urethra opening. But, I want you to watch close, too, Selene. You’re more than just a nurse, you know.”

Bringing Dal and Selene close, the three huddled together as Jack instructed them on how to inspect the edges of the incision and place the sutures in the various layers of muscle and flesh to cleanly close the wound. When Dal was halfway through closing, he looked up at Dal and raised his eyebrow while tilting his head in Selene’s direction.

“Good idea,” Jack agreed. “Selene, it’s your turn. Take over from Dal, he’ll assist you the rest of the way.”

“I don’t think I’m ready to do that,” Selene protested.

“Sure you are,” Dal encouraged.

“You’ve stitched up small wounds before,” Jack said. “You’re ready for the next step. Go on – time to move ahead.”

Selene sighed and took her turn in closing the incision. She worked slowly at first and then her pace picked up as she developed more and more confidence in her ability. She continued placing sutures until Jack stopped her, announcing it was time to suture the urethra in place. He kept up a running commentary on how to correctly trim the urethra, place it in its new location and suture it in place. When the suturing was done, Jack replaced the catheter and began dressing the incision. Minutes later, the bandages were in place and Selene began checking Sparrow’s vital signs.

“We’ll let that drip run out, then start a fresh one and see how Sparrow feels when he begins waking up,” Jack said. “We’ll keep him on the operating table until he begins waking up. Let’s keep an eye on the bandages and make sure there’s no bleeding. Once he’s awake and everything is cool – we’ll transfer him back to his bed in the back.”

“You could use some sleep yourself,” Pride said.

“He’s right,” Selene agreed. “The table there can be lowered to make a bed, or you can go back to the other RV,” she added hopefully.

Jack actually yawned as he looked around. “Y’know, those captain’s seats in the front recline,” he said. “They look pretty comfortable – think I’ll try one out.”

Selene just rolled her eyes – she knew there was no way to argue Jack out of his plan to nap in the front of the RV. She looked in on him after a few minutes and found that he was already fast asleep. To her surprise, Dal had taken the seat on the driver’s side and, like Jack, was already dozing away. Selene stared down at Jack’s sleeping form – he was curled up in the reclined passenger seat, his knees pulled almost to his chin. He looked so peaceful and innocent in sleep. Selene was surprised at how long Jack’s eyelashes were – she had never really noticed them before. The long lashes gave him the look of a cherub in repose. Seeing him like that, Selene could easily understand exactly why Bray was so unabashedly in love with Jack.

The morning sun was bathing the farm in rosy light when Jack opened his eyes, yawned, and stretched as he climbed from the passenger seat. He tiptoed back to where Sparrow lay. Selene was stretched out in a sitting position on the well-padded bench at the dining table, her eyes closed. Jack leaned over Sparrow, checked his vital signs and his bandages. To his satisfaction, everything was in order and actually a little better than he had expected.

“Is he okay?” Selene asked from behind him.

“You should get some rest,” Jack whispered.

“I wasn’t sleeping, really,” Selene said.

“I know you weren’t,” Jack reassured her. “What I meant to say was that you need to get some rest. You deserve it.” Jack looked down at Sparrow. “He’s doing really well – better than I hoped. His temperature is almost back down to normal and his respiration and pulse are solidly normal now.” He tilted his head towards the front of the RV. “Are the farmers up yet?”

“They were up just as the sky began to get light,” Selene said. “I watched them all disappear in different directions – guess getting their chores underway.”

“Probably so,” Jack agreed. “You don’t look really comfortable there – the passenger seat is pretty comfortable. Give that a try – I’ll call you and Dal if I need you. And, I promise to wake you when Lucy starts laying out breakfast.”

Pride and Eagle showed up just before breakfast to see if Sparrow was ready to be moved to the RV’s bedroom. Jack nodded and together they squeezed the field operating table to the back of the vehicle and transferred the patient to the bed. Eagle insisted on staying with Sparrow while Jack and the others went to eat when Lucy began ringing the bell by the back door of the farmhouse.

Pride looked around the long table in mild disbelief. There were three Tribes represented by the people at the table – and the most amazing thing in this new and crazy world was that everyone was getting along. He could see that friendships were already developing between members of his Tribe and the Farm Tribe. And, everyone – both Eco and Farm Tribe – openly admired the representatives of the Shiprat Tribe. The actual breakfast meal had ended long before, but everyone lingered over coffee, fresh milk, and juice chatting and joking. Even Jack was smiling and occasionally laughing – the lines and creases that had been on his face the night before had seemed to magically disappear.

At the moment, Jack was nearly doubled with laughter as Mustardseed was telling about one of his misadventures. Mustardseed was a fantastic storyteller and his recounting never failed to leave the audience weak from laughter. Suddenly, Jack, who was facing the road, stopped laughing and his face went blank. Within seconds, the laughter from Jack’s side of the table dwindled to silence. Pride spun around on the bench to see what the matter was.

A horse-drawn wagon had just appeared from around the bend in the lane. Several groups of people wandered alongside the wagon. Turning back to the table, Pride was stunned at how quickly and quietly almost everyone had disappeared. Only the Shiprats, he, Lucy and Luke were left at the table. All of them had risen to their feet. Jack’s hand reached out towards the table. Glancing down, Pride was amazed to see Jack surreptitiously slip a paring knife from the table and palm it – hiding it from open view, but keeping it ready for instant use if necessary. It was clear that Jack was familiar with knives and how to use them. He wondered where Jack had picked up skills like that.

The strangers stopped their wagon far from where the RVs were parked. Several sat on the ground, and most of the others milled around close enough to the wagon to seek refuge in it if necessary and yet, far enough away to make it clear that they didn’t have weapons hidden readily at hand. A small group of newcomers gathered by the wagon, apparently to hold a conference of their own.

Glancing around, Pride noted with satisfaction that most of his Tribe had taken up positions around the newcomers while staying well hidden. Only Pride’s own skill at hiding allowed him to pick out the places where his mates were hidden. He knew that at the first sign of attack, or at a signal from him, the Eco Tribe would attack the newcomers.

Eventually, the group of newcomers who had been conferring left the side of the wagon and two of them headed toward the breezeway. Even from a distance, Pride could tell that the tallest of them – the one with straight black hair that fell over his shoulders, was Asian. The other was shorter with a shock of sun-bleached light hair. The stopped several paces from the breezeway and the tall Asian bowed low.

“Greetings,” he said in a melodious voice. “My name is Tong Li – my friends and I are entertainers. We’re mostly tumblers and acrobats. We’re headed to The City and wondered if we could use your water and a meadow to rest our horses.” He turned and looked back at the horses. “They’re good animals, but need some rest – we’ve been pushing them almost nonstop for the last couple of days.”

“Why would you abuse them like that?” Luke asked.

“To put as much distance between us and the Brotherhood as possible,” Tong Li replied simply. “I don’t know if you’ve had any experiences with them – but, they’re about as evil a bunch of bastards as they come.”

Everyone on the breezeway breathed a collective sigh of relief and Luke hurried down to greet the newcomers. He made introductions all around, shouting to the other newcomers to come join them on the breezeway. He didn’t need to look around to know that Lucy was already scrambling around to get more food and drink prepared.

“What’s taking you to The City?” Dal asked.

“Word reached us from someone we used to know – a minstrel by the name of Sasha that there was a real Marketplace there, where we could perform and actually trade our skills for more than just food.”

“That was months ago,” Dal said.

“I know,” Tong Li replied. “But, word travels slowly without phones anymore and trying to avoid slavers and more especially the Brotherhood, can make travel even slower.” He glanced around nervously, and tried unsuccessfully to suppress a shudder. “I don’t know if you guys have any experience with that Leader and his Brotherhood, but lemme tell you – they are bad news. We’ve seen the aftermath of some of their attacks and you wouldn’t believe the shit they do.”

“I would,” Jack said flatly. “We’ve had some experience with the kinds of things they’ve done.”

Lucy appeared from the kitchen and began loading the table down with huge platters of ham, bacon, fresh biscuits, butter, and honey. Tong Li protested that it wasn’t necessary for her to provide them with food, although from the expression on his face it was clear they hadn’t eaten that well in a long time.

“Nonsense,” Lucy said firmly, putting an end to his protest. “No one comes here in peace and doesn’t get a good meal. It ain’t fancy, but it’ll fill your bellies.”

“It’s a feast,” the light-haired newcomer said, his eyes huge with wonder. “I don’t think I can remember what real bacon and butter tastes like.”

“Then dig in,” Lucy ordered. “Call your friends up here and belly up to the table. Don’t let the food get cold.” She turned to head back into the kitchen and called; “Hot coffee and tea will be ready in just a bit.”

Luke laughed. “Don’t even think about arguing,” he warned Tong Li. “Refusing Lucy’s offer of food is the best way to make an enemy.”

Tong Li gave a smile of genuine pleasure. “Okay, but in return my friends and I will perform for you and your friends. We’re a small troupe, but one of the best you’ll ever find anywhere.” He turned, put his fingers in his mouth and gave a shrill whistle, waving to his friends to join them at the table. “We’re mostly tumblers and acrobats. But, we also do some magic – Sasha taught us that….”

“And, I’ll promise one of the best puppet shows you’ve ever seen,” the fair-haired newcomer said, buttering a steaming biscuit. He took a big bite of the biscuit, making his cheeks bulge out like a chipmunk’s, before holding out a hand to Jack. “By the way,” he said, his words slightly muffled by the biscuit in his mouth. “The name’s Keith, but my friends call me Paolo.”

To be continued….