3.
~ The drugs helped to keep her hunger at bay. She slept for a little while, enjoying the clean sheets of her hospital bed. The pain medications making it easier for her to slip in and out of sleep.
"Ariadne?" a voice broke her apart dream world. A world where she and a handsome, faceless man in a nice suit were eating dinner. They rode the elevator upstairs and he whispered he loved her.
She opened her eyes to see the evil colonel and stared at him dumb founded for a second.
"Arthur." he said. Putting his hand to his chest as though she didn't understand. He gave her a little bow. "Colonel Castus." he added.
She pulled her blankets up over her chest and looked around for help from the nursing staff.
Her door was open and they were at the nurses station, working quietly. She looked back up at her visitor.
"What… what do you want?" she asked.
"To bring you dinner." he said and moved a tray on wheels to her bed. She could already smell the tantalizing aroma of hot food.
"I'm afraid hospital food hasn't changed much. Sorry it isn't something better." he said sadly and uncovered the plate to reveal a portion of pot-roast, green beans, potatoes and carrots. There was even corn bread and a little cake with chocolate frosting on a small plate next to it. A can of real soda and a glass of milk sat cold and ready to be drunk. Ariadne felt her head spin at the most beautiful sight in front of her.
Her hands were shaking as she had never been so hungry in all her life.
"Go ahead." he said and sat down in a chair next to her.
She looked back at him. It would be a betrayal to her mother and brother if she ate food from the enemy. But she was so hungry. She could hardly resist.
"It's not poison." he promised and she broke.
Forgetting all table manners, she stabbed the soft, stewed beef with her fork and started eating. She barely had time to taste it before swallowing and starting in on the side vegetables.
"Slow down." he warned her. "You'll make yourself sick. We can't have that."
She reasoned he was right and tried her best to time her meal.
'Chew it. Swallow. Drink the milk slowly. Then have another small bite.' she told herself. 'It will last longer this way.'
She sensed the colonel was watching her eat and tried to shake off the unease that came with him.
She could feel his eyes on her as she ate, and finally looked back at him.
"What?" she challenged.
"Nothing. Just waiting till your finished so we can talk." he explained.
She wanted to say she wasn't going to talk, but didn't. If she did, he might take her food try away and she hadn't even touched her cake yet. Much less her soda.
She ate, and wished there was more. Her stomach had shrunken since the invasion and she could only hold so much now. Out of sheer stubbornness, she finished her cake and decided to keep her soda for later. She couldn't eat another bite just now.
"Good?" he asked her and she tried to make her face turn to stone.
"Ariadne Bell." He sighed and looked over a tablet computer.
She tensed and wondered what he was looking at. The invaders kept a file on her? Surely they kept one on everyone. Before the internet collapsed, her life was just as public as anyone else's. All they had to do was hack into her old Facebook account, or email to know all about her.
"Mother was Annie Bell, killed while brother Ryan Bell was taken in for relocation." he said sadly. His brow furrowing in a deep crease.
"By your people." she said darkly and looked at her window.
"Father is Nathan Bell, arrested and sent for relocation. An aunt and uncle, both relocated. A cousin… relocated."
"A fancy word for death camp." she said.
"Not a death camp. Work camp." he corrected.
She felt her freshly filled stomach want to throw up and had to fight to keep her meal.
"Your tactics are despicable." she whispered and a few tears escaped her eyes.
"Not my intention to be despicable." he said and closed his tablet. "I can see why a girl like you feels she has nothing left to lose."
She was shaking slightly.
"But you have plenty to lose. Your own life, for example." he said.
"You wouldn't put pins in my leg and then kill me. I already told you I don't know where Cobb is. We all skatter when there's been a raid."
"But he will try to make contact with you soon." the Colonel reasoned.
She looked at him in shock.
"You're wasting your time. You might as well kill me now. Cobb will never fall for it. I won't help your people in anyway." she told him.
The colonel nodded.
"I'll have them release you. You may have trouble walking home. Also working for that matter. You have to share a dormitory with another family, right? can't be easy, relying on them to shelter you. I doubt they want to feed an extra mouth with you not being able to work." he said.
Ariadne felt her heart break slightly. Everything he had just said was true. How could she work with her knee so messed up? She could barely move, let alone walk or carry things.
She pursed her lips tighter.
"Ariadne, please help me here." he sighed.
She tried to will her body to turn to stone. Tried to keep her face her hands, even her breathing still. She tried not to blink, only stared at the wall in front of her. She was a stone statue, something that could not be talked to or reasoned with. She wouldn't hear anymore lies from this man.
~ Arthur left the invalid in her bed. After her slight meal, one which she looked to have needed, she refused to answer his questions.
Maybe she was right. Maybe it was despicable to bring up her family. He wasn't aware that Lewis was exporting people to work camps.
He asked the nurse to look after the prisoner. That if she requested more food, to give it to her. The Colonel grumbling a bit as the nurse made him sign a form to grant an extra ration for the prisoner.
What kind of a world was this when a small young woman like this was a prisoner?
He left the hospital, into the brisk evening. Winter was settling over the city, and it pleased him to be in a place that was slowly yielding to the power of the Army. His native flag was draped over windows, indicating the people inside the building were friendly to him. He was surrounded by ten thousand men and women who were dedicated to taking this God forsaken city and eventually country, away from the gangland fighting, politically corrupt and drug addicts. Soon, all the undesirables would be eliminated and there would be peace. It was brutal, certainly, but progress is always difficult for the ones who have to change.
"Colonel." sand a deep voice behind him. Arthur had pulled his coat on a little tighter against the cold and turned to see who had called him.
"Hello, General." Arthur groaned. They saluted each other casually and the older man shook his hand.
"I heard you captured one of the rebels. The same group that was making our lives a little more difficult than necessary." the General asked.
"A young woman." Arthur said.
He didn't care for the General. The older man treated the occupation, the taking of a city and all the brutality involved like it was a game. He refused to elaborate on the subject of that poor, half starved girl.
"She's in the hospital?" the General asked.
"She sustained serious injures during her capture." Arthur explained.
The two men walking to the snow covered side walk. Only military were out after dark now. Sand bagged blockades cut off streets and kept the Army safe from insurgents.
"I see. So instead of using her injury to get information, you had her treated?" the General asked. "I want your opinion, Colonel. Are we here to heal the sick and feed the poor?"
"I was my understanding we're here to liberate the people from their own self destruction." Arthur said.
"Yes, by assimilating them into our own ranks. It's necessary to weed out all these rebels and other citizens we don't want in our new society." the General said.
"She has information on Mr. Cobb." Arthur explained.
"Mr. Cobb is running out of places to hide and will be caught very soon. Even now, we're turning out the slums looking for him."
The General shook his head.
"It's positively filthy the way those people live. I went there once. Saw a family of five living into a two bedroom apartment." the older man shook his head.
"We put them there." Arthur pointed out.
"Our troops needed the room." the General shrugged. "We don't want to stay in filth, do we?"
"Sir, I wasn't aware you gave the order to send older citizens to relocation." Arthur said.
"It's just testing to see if they will be willing to accept the new regime. It's important to know what kind of job training they have. If we have a place for them in this new world."
"And if they don't? Have a place I mean?" Arthur asked.
"They are not young people, Colonel." the General said lightly.
"Sir."
"We've also begun the training of young people in the city. Those under twenty, will be re-educated and soon, become established members of this new world. It's what we want, isn't it, Colonel?"
"Yes, sir." Arthur said. His insides twisted like he had a belly full of knots. "It's what we want."
