Gemini Rising
Gemini Rising
Chapter One
“Git!” the first sec man snarled, leveling his blaster.
Dressed in tattered rags, with strips of cloth wound around their feet as crude shoes, the couple before him whimpered in fear but didn’t move an inch, so the sec man worked the bolt of his weapon, chambering a round.
“We just want to get out of the cold, sir” the man began, raising his empty hands.
Without a word, the other sec man worked the bolt of his old BAR rifle. The wooden stock was bound with gray tape, the lens in the scope badly cracked, but the barrel was twice as wide as that of the hunting rifle and shone with fresh oil.
“Move away slow, liar,” the first guard ordered, edging closer to the gate of the ville.
The wall surrounding the town was built of everything, bricks at one point, cinderblocks at another, field stones and notched logs here and there. But the patchwork barrier stood ten feet tall, and the top glistened with jagged broken glass. The only visible entrance was a wide gateway, the arch lined with bricks supporting two thick wooden doors hung on six mismatched hinges. The left door was bolted into place, closing off half the entrance. The second was open, allowing a glimpse at the houses and structures within. To the left rose a high mound of busted shale, and to the right was a huge excavation, a stone quarry whose stepped slopes extended hundreds of feet deep to a calm pool of muddy water. In the distance, dark mountains stretched above the thick growth of green forest and disappeared into the gray autumn clouds.
“Liar?” the pregnant woman gasped. “Oh, but sir, I can promise you that”
“You said you two walked here from Culbert ville,” he interrupted. “That was stupid. First off, I never heard of the place, and secondly your shoes and pants ain’t dirty enough.”
The second guard took over. “Plus you claimed not to have eaten in a week. Ain’t no traces of hunger on your faces.”
“Liars and cheats don’t get into our ville.”
The man wet his lips, turning to look at each of the armed sec men in turn, while the pregnant woman shivered and hugged her thin coat closer to her body.
“But, sir,” she whimpered, “I’m close to birthing and the babe will die in this cold.”
“Don’t care. I said git!” the sec man shouted, his breath foggy in the early-morning chill. “Unless you wanna take an air dance like those horse thieves!”
The couple darted a glance to the gallows, which extended over the stout wall surrounding the ville. A pair of human figures dangled at the end of thick knotted ropes, while a crow sat on one man’s shoulder pecking at his face. Hands bound behind his back, the other weakly struggled to scare away the rest of the black birds circling closer and closer. A strip of bark hung about his neck with his crime scrawled there for all to read.
“Mebbe we can make a deal,” the man said softly, his tone and demeanor changing subtly.
“Last chance,” the first sec man stated without emotion, his callused hands tight around the stock of his rebuilt weapon.
“How would you like some of this?” the woman asked, lifting her skirts.
The guards started to back away, but forced themselves to look just in case it was a diversion so she could draw a weapon. But the woman was naked underneath the many layers of shirts and dresses except for tall boots and a padded belt around her fiat stomach to simulate pregnancy.
“What’s the bitch?” The sec man seemed confused.
“Few outlanders want to rape a pregger.” She smirked, easing open a tiny pocket on the pack and withdrawing a little bottle filled with white powder. “Now, just a pinch of this will make ya more happy than ten women, and you can sell the rest.”
“That’s paradise for free!” the man added, grinning eagerly as if he had a done deal. “Just let us inside to spread around some of the joy. Okay?”
“Jolt,” the guard said in horror, and then he spit as if the word itself were unclean. “Stinking drug dealers.”