River, Sun, Freedom

Chapter 13: she's one of them now

"like a twin." Jason said thoughtfully. "i knew him the moment i saw him, that this was Jo's brother. He resembled your mother from the photo."

                Laurie was nodding. “you’re right about that, but the community here might use his feelings to their advantage.”

                Jodi frowned. “what I can’t understand is why go to all that trouble? If they want to kill me, why not just do it?” it was a good question, one that covered the soldiers’ faces with blank looks of incomprehension. Why indeed?

                But the ever logical Laurie, as always, had the answer. “I’ve been thinking about that, and I’ve come up with an answer.” She nodded to herself. “they want you for the same reason you’re one of our most valuable assets.”

                Jodi felt a light bulb go on in her head, and the thought crossed her head even as Laurie spoke it out loud. “Jodi’s guns; who else knows how to not only repair guns, but make them and make custom bullets for them as well. No one else I know. They probably only realised how valuable she was after they kicked her out.”

                Cory nodded eagerly. “that’s why they tried so hard to find her.”

                Jodi felt truly heart-broken at their words. Although the idea that the community didn’t want her back because they missed her, but because of ulterior reasons had crossed her mind before, but to have a legimate reason spoken out loud stung her. People don’t easily change.

“Jodi.” Laurie was looking at her with hard eyes and a firm tone “ listen to me when I say this. If the reason they want you back is to use you, you need to be aware. These people may use every trick in the book. Your brother, might just have been the beginning. They’ll play many more mind tricks on you. But remember, they tried to kill you before when they sent you out into the desert with a faulty bike and hardly any water. You were lucky last time, you might not be so lucky again. You-” Laurie stopped suddenly, glaring at something over Jodi’s shoulder. Jodi turned to find Anjali* standing not too far away with a basket of fresh bread. Her expression clearly stated she had heard them, but exactly how much she had heard wasn’t clear.

“what do you want woman?” Laurie said sharply, and Jodi had to look away to stop herself from sending an apologetic look to Anjali. The woman had been with the group that had thrown her out the day her father’s identity had been discovered. Although she could forgive Samuel, Richard and Alice by giving them the benefit of the doubt, she knew for sure Anjali had glared at her in hatred that day.

Anjali hesitated and dropped the basket at her feet. “your bread basket is finished” she stammered. She left the basket where it was and left, disappearing quickly into the entrance of the kitchen.

“do you think she heard?” asked Seth

“does it matter?” Laurie responded. She stood up, walked over to the abandoned basket and returned with it, handing out bread as she went. “they’ll get the message eventually, if they haven’t already. Jodi’s one of us now, and we never leave a soldier behind.”

****

Nate sat in his usual place in Marianne’s room around her battered card table after dinner. Carefully sorting through his cards, he held back a smile as he realised he was a single card away from a royal flush. Nick, Jake, Kaede, Marianne, Richard and Alice sat around the table, each with their carefully composed poker faces, glancing at each other over their mismatched glasses of wine (or orange juice in Jake’s case). Jake was in the process of analysing a twitch in Kaede’s jaw when, with the sharp sound of flapping cloth, Anjali burst into the room, making a beeline straight for Nick’s lap.