Matthew 26:52
…"For all who take the sword will perish by the sword."
Daniel placed the back of his hand on the forehead of the groaning Sorrows man lying on the bedroll beside him. His fever was stabilizing, it seemed like. The Sorrows said it was a spirit inhabiting him, but Daniel knew it was worse: an infection.
He tried to clean out the knife wound but knew it would probably be in vain. With a sigh, he sat back on his heels.
A shout caused him to look up, pushing back his hat and squinting. Waking Cloud waved to him from the river, her hurried feet making small splashes. Behind her, two figures sloshed through the water, one of them hidden by a broad brimmed straw hat though the other was recognizable: Follows-Chalk, Graham's errand boy from the Dead Horses.
He wiped his hands on a clean cloth and stood, walking over to where the two were approaching. At this distance, he could easily see the stranger's female form beneath her stained white tank top and rolled up khakis. On her head, a straw hat hid corn-yellow hair. A pistol with an etched barrel and pearl grip was slung at her hip, a sniper rifle strapped on her back. Graham had told him that a stranger from the Wasteland would be coming with supplies for an evacuation from Zion.
She looked up, her freckles crinkling as she gave him a tired smile. "You must be Daniel," she greeted.
"I am indeed. And you are?"
"My name's Penelope." She dipped her head towards him. "Nice to meet you."
"You as well, though I wish it were under different circumstances." He crossed his arms. "The Dead Horses told me the details about the attack on your caravan. A stranger's sympathy might not count for much, but for what it's worth, I'm sorry."
He gestured to the tribals milling about the camp. "The Sorrows will mourn your friends, too. They mourn everyone, even the White Legs. They have sensitive souls. Innocent, if there is such a thing."
"Everyone has innocence in them. It's keeping ahold of that innocence that's hard to do," Penelope replied mildly.
Daniel nodded, but before he could say much more to the stranger, the Dead Horse man beside her touched her shoulder. She jumped, before turning to look at him.
"Here we part ways. I'm needed back at the Dead Horses camp – maybe I'll see you there sometime."
Penelope smiled, and they gripped forearms. "Thank you for your help, Follows-Chalk." She paused. "Goot gonen, ahk is," she said slowly, forming each syllable carefully.
The Dead Horse's face lit up. "Goot gonen," he replied and, with that, was sloshing back through the water.
Penelope turned back to Daniel and studied the man. He was dark haired, with his beard trimmed and blue eyes that weren't quite as brilliant as Joshua's. She shook that thought out of her head.
"Joshua told me you needed a few things." She placed her pack on the ground, taking out the walkie-talkies, several lunchboxes, and a medical kit. "I think this is everything," she said after a moment, trying to control an involuntary spasm that shot through her body.
"Well, I'll be," Daniel said admiringly, giving Penelope a warm smile. "I was starting to lose hope we'd be able to get any of this, much less all of it. Tribals are smart but... well, they're ignorant." He shrugged. "Letting go of a taboo is difficult for them, so I knew it would have to be one of us. Turns out, all it took was a Gentile. Or, uh... no offense." He flushed a little bit, and Penelope chuckled weakly.
"No offense taken."
"These supplies are a godsend, but…" He hesitated, and Penelope suppressed a groan, anticipating the coming request. "If we're going to evacuate Zion without drawing more White Leg attention, I need you to go back into the valley."
Penelope gave Daniel a weary smile. "Yeah. Sure."
Daniel beamed. "Specifically, I need you to scout out some locations for White Legs and try to recover a map of Grand Staircase, a wilderness area to the east. There's also the matter of the roads. We're going to be heading out of the east side of the park, but I'm not sure the way is clear."
Penelope nodded. "Anything I can do to help – but, if you don't mind, I would like to take a night to rest before I get to work on all of that."
Daniel nodded, a look of understanding passing across his face. "I forgot that Joshua told me about your…injury." He paused. "If you don't mind, I could look at the wound for you?"
"Yes, that would be wonderful. I'm afraid that the pain hasn't quite gone away," she confessed, a strained look pulling at her features.
"I imagine it's poison residue still in your bloodstream. The dark datura the White Legs use is some nasty stuff," he remarked, gesturing for her to come sit on a bedroll beneath a lean-to. She obliged, rolling down one strap of her tank top to display the stitching.
Daniel examined it closely. "If you have Med-X, the poison won't incapacitate you. But you need to be careful of how much Med-X you take, else you'll form an addiction."
Penelope nodded nervously. He pulled away and replaced her tank top strap over her shoulder. "Waking Cloud, the Sorrows woman who escorted you in to camp, will help you with your tasks tomorrow and show you around the camp tonight." Daniel looked away, an unreadable expression passing over her face. "In the meantime, I believe we have a visitor."
Penelope looked up and blanched to see Joshua slogging though the water towards them. He raised a hand in greeting, the bandages crinkling around his mouth in what could be surmised as a smile.
"Good to see you, Joshua," Daniel greeted, standing.
"You as well, Daniel," the Burned Man replied, stepping onto the shore and gently shaking a leg to drain the excess water. "Penelope. How's the wound?"
"Still healing. Hurts a bit."
"I imagine you forgot to use the antivenom in treating her, hm?" Daniel remarked. Joshua raised an eyebrow.
"I'm afraid we were out at the time. I had to do the best we could with what the Dead Horses had."
"Of course." He nodded at Penelope before turning back to Joshua. "We will talk later."
Joshua watched as he walked away to tend to a wounded Sorrow before settling beside Penelope. They didn't say anything for a moment before he started to speak, startling her.
"'By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion'," he said softly, his voice on edge. "'Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem who said, 'Raze it, raze it, even to the foundation.' O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed. Happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.'" He paused before continuing once more.
"'Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.'"
Penelope didn't dare breathe, staring out over the river as he turned his head to look at her, his eyes hardened into chips of ice. "Do you know what it means?"
She was silent for a moment before lifting her head. "You don't…want to leave Zion. You'd rather…kill every last White Leg," she said haltingly.
He nodded. "Given those two choices…yes. In the best of all possible worlds, they would just leave us in peace." He sighed. "But they won't. I don't enjoy killing, but when done righteously, it's just a chore, like any other. Practiced hands make for short work. And the good Lord knows there's much to be done here."
Penelope shuddered. "Sometimes, Joshua, you scare me," she confessed. A flicker passed through his eyes, and he looked away. She bit her lip. "What was that about happy…dashing the little ones?"
"Happy are those who do the work of the Lord. Zion belongs to God and the people of God. It is a natural temple and monument to his glory. When our Lord entered the temple and found it polluted by money-changers and beasts, did he ask them to leave? Did he cry? Did he simply walk away?" Joshua's eyes hardened once more, far away in his own thoughts. "No. He drove them out. It is one thing to forgive a slap across my cheek, but an insult to the Lord requires..." here he stopped and corrected himself, "no, it demands correction." His fist hitting his open palm punctuated the last phrase.
"Why," Penelope said softly, "are you talking to me about it?"
Joshua paused, his anger evaporating with the quiet question. "Daniel and I…don't agree on everything, but in our hearts, we both want what's best for the Sorrows and Dead Horses." He looked at his bandaged hands, resting on his knees with palms upturned. "You've seen what the White Legs do, and I think you know what has to be done. If Daniel hears it from someone other than me, well..." His palms curled into fists. "Zion may not be lost to us after all."
A light summer breeze blew through the canyon and Penelope sighed, curling up even tighter. "You're asking a lot of me, Joshua. I'm just an outsider, not a part of the New Canaanites or the Dead Horses or Sorrows." Her brows were drawn tightly together as she watched a small beetle crawl across the valley floor. "You're telling me to pick a side and rig the game in one direction or the other, and affect the lives of these tribes." She hesitated. "I…I need to think about it."
Joshua paused and dipped his head in acknowledgement. "Of course. Think on it, and look in your heart. The light of the mind alone cannot dispel the whole world's darkness."
Penelope didn't watch as he stood, walking away from her. Part of her wanted to chase him down, tell him that she would follow him wherever he led, but she had to think. Clear her mind. An impossible task, with him always so close.
She sighed and rested her head on her knees, staring out over the river.
