Marked

Rachel woke up feeling exhausted the next morning, thinking that it might not have been the best idea to stay up all night discussing fake marks with the Hernandez brothers.

Now that her stomach grumbled with hunger, she also regretted skipping out on dinner even though it had seemed like a good idea at the time.

There was no way she would’ve been able to eat after everything she’d seen yesterday but now she was starving.

Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she allowed herself a small peak towards Jed’s cot. It was still difficult to wake up and see the place where he had once slept empty but slowly she was beginning to accept that he was gone.

Besides, today brought with it its own set of responsibilities. She was on cook duty which might as well have been purgatory in and of itself but at least there was the leftover deer meat to look forward to.

As she dressed, she saw in the dim light of the lanterns that Ruth was nowhere in sight and with no desire to see her, she laced up her boots faster. She threw aside the make-shift door to their cave-a checkered blanket, staked into wooden posts by two bent nails- and made her way down to the dining hall, passing all the small little caves that housed her fellow compounders.

The mountain walls were perpetually wet, always held the scent of damp moss between each crack and crevice. Some pathways were gray, others brown, others interrupted by tufts of vegetation, others still smooth and polished, as if someone had taken a grinder to them.

She went first to the place where the underground river ran and filled her canteen until it overflowed. She tilted her head back and let the cool, refreshing water slide down her throat and lost herself for a moment in the rush of the river.

It was her one minute of peace before she had to begin her day’s work, which she could already tell was going to be exhausting.

Women lined the rocks here beside their piles of clothing, their hands scrubbing away in the river while their children kicked pebbles under the soft glow of lanterns and candles.

Across the river and on the other side, she spotted Hector with two little girls by the stream. He helped one, the smallest of the two, wash her face. The oldest carried a brown bucket, which she filled with water.

She leaned a little too far over where the river frothed with motion and its rush was but a roar that echoed throughout the cavern.

Hector threw out an arm across the young girl’s stomach. She turned and smiled to which he responded by tapping her under the chin.

As he stood, he spotted Rachel and waved.

With a small smile, she waved back, before tearing herself away from the river and preparing herself for the day ahead.

When she reached the dining hall, two other women were already there hard at work.

The compound had always scraped by with what little food the gatherers could scrounge up but this morning, the air was lighter, the mood less heavy as there was finally enough food to go around for everyone.

Rachel scrubbed her hands and got to work dicing up nuts, cleaning meat, washing dishes. She didn’t love cooking, and for the most part ignored the other ladies as she worked, but she didn’t hate it nearly as much as scavenging out in the open.

She could smell the sweet, poignant smell of cooking flesh and her stomach growled as she sprinkled herbs onto the deer meat and stuck the rest of it in the fire pit.

Two large fans were set up in the cooking den that were in charge of dispersing the smoke so by the time it reached the outside world, it was scarce and barely noticeable. The fans made Rachel’s eyes water but she pressed on, hoping to get done in time to meet Simone and the guys at the landing.

As crazy as they sounded, she had to admit she was curious about this fake mark. Plus, since Jed had left she hadn’t really hung around too many people her age and she thought it was time to stop sulking.

When the cooking was finished, she headed to the dining area where tables and chairs had been fashioned out of tree stumps. Here the ground had been gutted and many rocks had been removed so that the floor was smooth and even.

Rachel was startled when Jose approached her and plopped down beside her. “You’re still down for tonight, right?”

“Shh,” Rachel hissed, looking around. If anyone found out that they planned to sneak out during the middle of the night, they’d spend days on grunt duty- washing clothes in the river and polishing boots.

“What? No one heard me. And don’t tell me you’re chickening out.”

“I’m not,” Rachel protested. “I’ll be there.”

The two were interrupted by the sudden entrance of Ramos. It still shocked Rachel how big he was no matter how many times she saw him. He was a bear of a man, tall, with arms corded with muscle and veins. Rumor had it they’d tried to mark him as a young man but he’d killed his captors and had escaped with the mark half finished. As a result, he now had a scar over his forehead.

Usually Rachel shied away from looking at him head on, but tonight, with everyone else’s eyes trained on him, she allowed herself to stare.

Three of his hunters trailed behind him and they were pushing a bound man with a brown sack over his head into the middle of the room.

Ramos spoke. “We found this one out by the highway. He’s injured and he was begging for help.”

Rachel’s heart thudded in her chest. What if it was Jed? What if he had never made it to the city- had gotten injured and had made his way back?

She waited, eyes so focused on Ramos that she felt they would all but pop out of her head. “He is unmarked. We’ll keep him down in the hole for now until we vote on whether we should allow him to stay or not.” Ramos ripped the sack away from the man’s head and revealed a blond-haired young man about Rachel’s age. Eighteen or Nineteen, but definitely not as young as her brother.

He’s not Jed, she thought and disappointment rushed through her. The boy’s eyes darted around the room, looking wild and bloodshot.

As they were taking him away they passed by Rachel and she thought she heard the stranger whisper, “The poachers will kill us all.”

*************************************************************

Rachel entered her room feeling full and content. The taste of the deer lingered in her mouth and she sighed, setting down the plate of food she had brought for Ruth who was sitting in her cot, reading a thick, leather book.

She didn’t even look up when Rachel arrived.

“Mom, I brought you some...” She trailed off. She hadn’t noticed at first, but now that she focused, she could see that Jed’s side of the room lay barren.

“Where are Jed’s things?” Rachel demanded.

“Gone. I’ve donated them to others who need them more.” Ruth replied as she spared Rachel one glance over her spectacles. Rachel felt a sour feeling settle into the pit of her stomach.

Everything was gone, not even a small souvenir to remind Rachel that her brother had once existed.

“You had no right to do that.”

“Well, why not?” Ruth snapped. “He’s gone and there is no reason those items should go to waste when others need them.”

Rachel spoke slowly so that her mother would not miss a single word. “You may not have gotten the mark when you were younger but you might as well be one of them.” She paused to swallow hard. “Your heart is just as cold.”

She stepped out of the room, anger bubbling up inside her.

How dare she?

How dare she erase the memory of Jed from her mind? If she wanted to forget Jed that was fine but she couldn’t force Rachel to do the same.

“Hey, there’s a meeting in the dining hall. Let’s go!” Simone interrupted her bout of rage in a sing-song voice. She came bounding down from her home a few caves up from Rachel’s and slammed into her side.

Rachel carefully compartmentalized her anger so she wouldn’t take it out on her best friend and swallowed past the dryness in her throat.

“A meeting for what?” She asked.

“For the guy they brought in earlier. They want us to vote on whether or not he gets to stay. If you ask me, he looks like a nut and we should just throw him out.”

“Simone,” Rachel said, stunned. “We don’t do that to people.”

“I know-I know,” She said with a shake of her hand.

“We take people in all the time...”

“I’m just saying, Ray. He looks freaky.”

When they reached the dinning hall, the same commotion that had littered the compound over the deer now made the ground vibrate with the peoples’ bickering on whether or not the blonde man should be allowed to stay.

“Settle down,” Ramos said in a clear, booming voice.

The arguing died down and Rachel and Simone took a seat on a wooden bench. Across the room she spotted the Hernandez brothers.

Gathered all together like that, she was surprised by how big of a family they were--a mom and five kids but she had never seen their father. Hector held the toddler girl in his lap and next to him, his mother stared on, haggard and weary.

“We’re gathered here today to discuss the future of our newest refugee. As always, we have left it up to you, the people, to decide who we welcome into our home.”

“I don’t trust it,” An olive skinned man with a thick beard stood and placed his arm protectively around his family. “This man that keeps blabbering about how we’re all going to die. It all seems too fishy.”

“Maybe he’s in shock. He did look pretty hurt.”

“He’s not okay, Pat. He’s crazy, you all saw it. My brother Fred’s a guard down in the hole and he says this guy’s been banging his head against the wall and keeps mutterin about how the poachers will kill us all. Doesn’t that scare you?”

“I say we let him stay but we keep a close eye on him. He’s unmarked and that makes him one of us.” Old Hal offered.

Ramos eyes scanned the crowd of people. "Let's leave it up to a vote. All in favor of giving our refugee a chance please say ‘I’.”

Only a select few people raised their hands and Rachel was sad to see how fear was so much stronger than compassion.

“Look, the Hernandez brothers are leaving. That’s our sign to leave too. Come on, let’s go.”

Rachel wanted to stay and voice her opinion but she had never been good at public speaking so she nodded and let her best friend lead her away, leaving the others to decide the fate of the new mystery man.

*********************

A/N: Do you think they should have taken in the refugee or do you think they made the right choice?