Chapter 10

*edited for clarity*

 I figured the farmer would have some questions for me after that morning, but it wouldn't be until the chores had been done, so I had some time to try to think up a story.   Or at least I thought I did.  I was making my way to the worker's quarters for dinner, when the farmer invited me up to the house for dinner.   Nervously, I followed him.   How was I supposed to explain why I had taken off in the middle of the night?  I could hardly tell him the truth.  Even if I could trust him and his wife, it would put them at too much risk.  

However, it turned out I didn't have to try and figure out a story.  When we got to the kitchen, and I sat down, he slid a piece of paper over to me.  When I saw what was on it, I paled.  His wife stared at me anxiously.   

"I figured you wouldn't be running without a good reason," he said, simply.  "But then I saw this hanging up at the store and I figured it out.  I'm afraid it won't take long for other people to connect the dots, either."

I stared at the picture, my appetite gone.  It was a bounty for me.  A $10K bounty, to be exact.  In the picture, I still had the long hair and looked like a girl, but you could tell it was me if you knew who I was.  

"I took this one down," he continued, but if those idiots you ran into in the forest see it, you'll be in trouble, and the areas by the borders are full of them."

I shuddered.  Only one of the men who had found me had been an idiot, the rest was smart and I'd been lucky that he'd believed the farmer.  I don't know what I'd been thinking.  Of course they'd be patrolling the borders.  

"Surely they can't be everywhere," I whispered.

"They have put millions into protecting the border," my boss said, sighing heavily.   I stared at him.   "The guys you saw today are not even employed by the government - the government guys are well, trained, and they're lethal.  They use heat seeking drones, and don't even have to be there to shoot you, with the press of a button the drone will shoot you.  

He continued, as I stared at the my own bounty posting.  People were starving, many of them would turn in their own family member for $10K; I didn't stand a chance.  

"They've taken the Park ranger towers and cabins and turned them into border patrol headquarters," he explained.   "Those drones also have facial recognition, so it's almost certain that you would be caught.   Since you have a bounty, you wouldn't be killed, but you would most likely be tortured by your captors."  

I fought back the nausea.  I was glad we'd had this conversation before we'd eaten, or I'd almost certainly have thrown up.   

"How can this be happening?" I said, finally looking up.  "Why aren't other countries helping us?" 

I knew the answer to that.  The other countries, our former allies had already had high tariffs thrown on them, and the Leader had left United Nations.   He owned the media, so only what news he wanted to be presented went out.  He owned the internet, and controlled what people saw.  The outside world probably had no idea what was going on behind the Border wall he'd spent millions to build.  

Then his wife spoke up.  "How long?" she asked quietly.

I stared at her.  "How - how long?" I asked, uncertainly. 

"How long have you been with child?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.  

"I - I don't -" I stammered, horrified that my secret was out.  

She looked at me sympathetically.   "I've suspected for a while now," she said.  "A mother can tell these things." 

Suddenly, I wanted to cry and I wanted my mother.   I swallowed the lump in my throat. Obviously, if i stayed here much longer, they'd find out anyway, and now that I knew the once peaceful forests was a personal hunting ground for bounty hunters, and full of unseen threats, I had to come up with a different plan.  To think that I'd thought wild animals would be my biggest problem.  

"What are you going to do?" I asked , not answering the question right away.  "You know the laws on harboring a fugitive,"  I said.   "I can't let you risk everything like that.  You could lose everything," I finished fighting back tears. 

"What good is it if someone gains the whole world but loses their soul?" she whispered.  "If I have to ignore the evil around me and refuse to help those in need in order to keep a safe comfortable life, then I'd have no soul, now, would I?"

I stared at her.  I hadn't expected this.  "I - well, no," I said, feeling a range of conflicting emotions.  For so long I hadn't trusted anyone, a but now I had to either trust them, or attempt to cross the border on my own and that had been disastrous.  I had been lucky this time; the next time, I might not be. 

I looked at my boss and he nodded.  "She's right," he said.  "And a few of the workers have suspected that you're - biologically female," he said.  I looked at him in horror.  "I don't mean to offend, kiddo," he said, "I just want you to be aware.  I told them to mind their own business and a few more months of work would put some more muscle on you," 

I huffed out a sigh of relief; I hadn't even realized I'd been holding my breath.  Well, that would work for NOW but what about in a few more months?  

"In a few more months I'm gonna have a lot more than muscle showing," I said, shakily, voicing my fears.  "And it's okay," I said.  "I'm not trans, but they're looking for a woman, and women can't get jobs, so I kinda thought this was the best option.  My brother, my twin, is trans, and so I learned a lot from him before - " my throat caught.  I didn't like talking about when they took him away. 

The woman looked at me sadly.  "Where is your brother now?" she asked, gently.  

"In one of those "re-conditioning" camps," I said, bitterly.    "I was going to try and rescue him, but that's kinda impossible at the moment," I said, looking down at my stomach.  

"Do you know which one?" my boss asked.  

"I'm not sure, but I think it is Fort McCoy, the previous Army base in what used to be Wisconsin," I said.   After the Leader took over, there was just the Military, and all the training was the same.  Soldiers were mandated to join at 18 and serve for two years, and were given the job that AI assigned them based on scores and physical traits.  So there were smaller bases in every city and the military regularly did exercises on the streets in display of the citizens, and regularly did patrol as well.  

"Well, don't give up hope yet," he said gruffly.  "What about your parents?" he asked.  

"My mom was a single mom and was evicted when we couldn't pay the rent so we had to go to a work camp," I explained.  "When they came for my brother, to take him to that... that camp, Mom and I both fought them off to try and protect him, but they took him anyway and Mom was arrested after that for uh, "endangering a child" and "resisiting the government".  I don't know what happened to her.   I don't even know if she's alive," I said, trying not to cry.  "I uh - " my face darkened with shame.   "I was so- " I didn't want to say the horrible word sold so I finally said, "I was forced to marry this horrible man, and when I found out I was pregnant, I knew I had to get out"

The boss's wife made a sound of distress.  "They sold you?" she whispered, picking up on what I had been about to say.   

Unable to look them in the eyes, I said, "yes," while inspecting my fingernails for non existent dirt. 

"How old are you?" she asked me, her voice sounding shaky.  

"I'm 16 now," I said, deciding on honesty. "But I was 15 when they forced me to marry him."  I jumped when my boss made a sound of outrage.  Instinctively, I shrank back.  

"I'm sorry," my boss said, "I didn't mean to scare you. I'm not angry at you, I'm angry about what they've done to you.   We heard rumors of course, about forced marriages, but selling women?  And children? God, Angie it makes me sick," he said, running his hands through his hair.  

So that was his wife's name - Angie.  

"So you're not mad that I lied about my age to get the job," I asked.  

My boss looked at me incredulously.   "Mad? Kiddo, you were just trying to survive. Hell, no I'm not mad.  I'm proud of you for doing a damn good job surviving this long."

I blinked in surprise.  It had been a long time since anyone had said they were proud of me,   That had seemed like a lifetime ago.  

Angie looked at me.  "You're welcome to stay here as long as you want, but we wanted to tell you about another option, instead of you trying to cross the border right now, and one that keeps you better hidden than you are now."

I looked at her, hardly daring to hope.   

"There's a woman in the forest on our property, who raises bees.  They ran her off her property so we let her live on our land.  It works pretty well, she gives us honey, her bees pollinate our crops, and she is somewhat of a "bee whisperer"."

I started to ask what the hell a bee whisperer was, but Angie kept talking.   "It's like she can communicate with her bees.  She knows when there are intruders on our land, and where food is, and where to find fresh water, all from her bees.   She came to me today, and told me the bees told her about the one being hunted, who needed a place to hide, and she said you will be safe with her.  No one goes near her place because they are afraid of the bees, who won't let strangers near."

"Well if the bees won't let strangers near, then how will I be able to stay there?" I asked.

"Because the woman said the bees seem to think you belong there," said Angie.  "I know it sounds strange, but you can trust her, and her place is probably the safest place for you.   James and I will protect you with our lives, but we can't stop those Enforcers from coming back and if they see that Bounty notice, then they WILL come back." 

I let out a shaky breath.   Leaving made sense, and I would probably be safer hiding there than in a wilderness full of bounty hunters and Enforcers.   "I - I don't know what to say," I said.   "I can't bear to see you lose everything if you get caught helping me, it's not right."

"Hell," said James, "don't worry about us.  We can take care of ourselves.  It's not the first time I've stood up to bootlickers, and it won't be the last.  What ain't right is a kid being sold into slavery, especially in what used to be a free country.  You just worry about yourself and that kid, we'll be fine. "

Well, when you put it that way...   

"You're stuff is still in the truck," he said.   "I figured we could go to the bee keeper's place tonight, after dinner.  Does that sound okay to you?" he asked. 

I hadn't had someone give me a choice for so long, it took me off guard.  I promptly burst into tears.  Unable to speak, I nodded.  

"If it's too soon..." James started to say, but I shook my head.   

'It's - It's okay, I just - it's a lot," I tried to explain.   

"Well, we should eat soon, but I'm going to go out for a smoke, first," James said, as he looked significantly at Angie before leaving the room.   

"If you need to have a good cry, let it out," said Angie gently, sitting next to me.  And I did. I sobbed my heart out, and she held me, just letting me cry until there were no more tears left.  I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders.  

"thank you," I sniffled, my eyes red rimmed.  she got up and handed me a cool wet cloth.  "here," she said, "this will feel good on your eyes.    As I made myself presentable again, she started getting the food ready, talking as she went.   

"James and I have helped others," she said.  "There are others, who are also willing to stand up and do the right thing and when the time comes, we'll work to get you safely across the border."   

"How - how does it work," I asked.   

"Well," she said, "we all have code names.  No one knows each other's true identity so that if we are captured or questioned..." her voice trailed off.  "We meet at spots in public; no one knows where anyone lives. Usually it's a simple switch.  For example, one of us will sit with the Rescue on a bench, and then the pick up person will come, we'll exchange the code, if they answer right, we get up and leave and the Rescue leaves with the other person."

"How do you know if they get there safely?" I asked.  

"Sometimes we don't," Angie sighed heavily.  "It's hard, but we can't risk the safety of the operation."  

"how do you communicate in the first place?" I asked.  "They monitor our phones, what internet we DO have access to is highly censored - emails, messages, all that is heavily monitored."

"Well, ironically, we use the Government community page," Angie said, a slight smirk on her face.

I nearly choked on my drink.

"You what?" I gasped.  

"Well, you see, the community page you can post that you are looking or work or workers, etc, and people can answer.  So we put up a message saying something like, 'Found: missing cat, no collar' and then post a picture of one of our barn cats.  Or someone else will say they're missing a cat or a dog, and that means they can take in a Rescue."

"How do you know it's not actually for an animal?" I asked, confused.  

Angie laughed.  "Well, James figured that one out.  We'll use codes in the announcements, so for instance, in the "found cat" posts, the person who has a "missing pet" has to have a certain response.  And if they don't use that, we know they aren't rescuers.  

"Wow that's actually really cool," I said.   

"Sometimes it's something weird like, "spotted - red throated Warbler" and the date and time of "sighting".  

"Why is weird?" I asked.   

"Well, because unless you're a birder, you probably wouldn't know that those particular birds don't usually live in this area - they are found in higher elevations, and they like forests, so say, if you posted that you saw a red throated warbler downtown at the town square, most people would not look at it twice, it would be a boring post about a bird.  But we'd know that it means to meet for an exchange at the place the bird was "sighted"."

"Oh, got it," I said.

Suddenly, I didn't want to get across the border.  If I could keep the baby hidden, and safe, then maybe I could help.  Maybe we could get my brother out.   Maybe we could even find my mother.   

"Maybe I could help," I said, shyly.  I wondered what Angie would think.  Here they were risking everything to help me and I was suggesting throwing that away to stay and join the Resistance.   I hadn't even known there was  a Resistance, but there was no way I was going to walk away from it.   

But Angie smiled at me.  "I thought you might say that," she said.  "You can't go out in public, that's too dangerous, but you can help write the notices, and look for posts.  We also sometimes splice into the radio station and do quick broadcasts, so you can help write those, if you'd like.  Our hope of course, whenever we do this, is that those broadcasts will reach Canada or Mexico".

My eyes lit up.  "yeah, I can write," I said.  "I love writing."

Angie smiled.  "I had a feeling about you," she said.  "The moment I saw you, I could tell you were a fighter.  James did too.  He's never wrong about people, and when he hired you he told me that there was something about you.  He said you were gonna change the world some day."

"Me?" I said, in disbelief, just as the door opened and James came back in.  

"Yes," Angie said, with a smile.  "Don't underestimate yourself.  You are stronger than you know.". 

Well, I didn't know about being stronger than anyone I knew, but I was here, and I was still fighting and I was still alive, so that was something.