Chapter 6
After that day, Ion is short with me, but he isn't telling me what's wrong. He turns off the electrical fence, and walks out the front gate. He wipes something on a rock, but I don't know what's happening. He enters back in the gate, turns on the electric, and stands by the fence. He looks at me, and I see the pain in his eyes, and then he quickly watches the rock. Suddenly, the ground outside the gate moves, and three hellbug warriors rise to the surface. I watch him fire three rounds, one for each hellbug, and they lie dead outside the fence. He turns off the electrical system, and pours something on the rock, and when I walk up to him, he's quiet. I try to help him clean the bugs, but he insists he's man enough to do it by himself.
"Are you going to talk to me, son?" I ask. It frustrates me that he's not talking to me. He's puffy, but he isn't saying much of anything.
He pouts as he drags one of the hellbugs through the fence. It's heavy, but he manages to scoot it with all his strength. I drag the other two, and my mere presences frustrates him. I see it in his face and the way he breaths: short, angry breaths. My son is upset with me, and I don't know the exact reason, but I think it has everything to do with his little girlfriend down the street. Okay. I do know the reason, but I don't want to face it. I want everything to be alright without having to explain myself. I bite my tongue. I explain myself to strangers who didn't deserve to hear an explanation, but I'm reluctant with Ion. He deserves to know the truth, and if there's one thing I know, it's loss. My actions cost me one family, a family that I actually needed, and the loss of that family nearly destroys me.
When I save Ion and Naira from the arkfall, I didn't know I would have to explain my actions in Olmec, Mexico. The memories of that time are always fresh in my mind, and when I'm not careful, April's crying face haunts me. I see her tears. I see her rage. I see her hate for me. It crushes me. It burns down to my very essences, and no matter how hard I try to clear my conscience of that mistake, there's still April's face. There's Derrick Shooty Jr. And just when I feel like I'm over it all, I remember there's one more child: the one I never see.
Ion quickly removes the pincers from the hellbugs, and sets them to the side. He works through the beast's innards like he's done it a million times, and the works seems to keep his mind occupied. He works like I'm not watching him. It's because he knows the value of what he's doing. He knows the sandwiches won't make themselves. He knows no matter the pain he feels in his heart shouldn't interfere with what he has to do: make the sandwiches before noontime.
"You're my son, Ion," I say, "You can talk to me."
He pauses for a moment, and stares at the ground. "Rynn's parents said you killed Iraths."
I sit on the ground, and ask him to sit with me, and he does. "I was a soldier," I say, "An officer." He looks at me with sad eyes. "I received orders to go to Olmec, Mexico to find a kidnapped politician. I came up on a tribe of Iraths, and I lost control of the situation. One of the Iraths shot one of my soldiers, and we wasted the entire village. Some of the survivors ran into the wilderness, but nobody who stayed survived."
He's crying, and I don't know how to give him comfort. "This story hurts, father."
"When I return to my base, my commanding officer tells me there was never a missing politician. It is a ruse to bring about this war. I resign from the military the next day because it is hard to live with what I did. Ion, you, Naria, Rory and Radon are my family. I would move the heavens and the Earth to protect you. I promise."
The conversation Ion and I have is a hard one, and I don't know how much he truly understands, and at the same time, I realize no matter the orders, it was my decision to kill those people. I feel that ball of pain in my throat, and I know behind that ball is a flood of tears. I don't want him to see me cry, and I push it down, way down into my stomach. No matter how I explain those days, the reality is I am the devil, and it's that part of me that scares me. Half of me finds killing reprehensible while the other half desires it. Everyday, I oppress the part of me that desires to kill, and to be honest, Rota helps me the most with my humanity.
Rota cooks the pincer meat on the grill, and I hop into the roller, and travel to I-ron's house. He plays catch with Rynn when I pull up, and he immediately sits down the ball and glove when he sees me. He's tense. Their land is full of animals: pows, chickens, pigs, and a pond full of fish. Rynn is no more than ten-years-old, energetic, and she looks exactly like her mother. She stands by her father, and they walk over to me.
"Can we talk, I-ron?" I ask. I reach out to shake his hand, and he returns the gesture.
"About what?" He ask.
"About my son. He wants to visit your daughter," I say.
"We've discussed that," he says, "He can come and visit. The last time he was here, Rynn taught him how to lure hellbugs with pheromones. "
I laugh. "That's how he caught those three hellbugs this morning. He sells pincer meat sandwiches at the Bazaar."
"Cool," Rynn says, "Dad, can I go to the Bazaar?"
"You want to sell pincer meat sandwiches?" I-ron asks.
"Yeah," she says.
I-Ron looks at me for a moment. "Rynn, go wash up, and then I'll let you go to the Bazaar." She runs into the house, and I'm standing in front of I-Ron. His wife walks up to him with a book of old pictures. They're basically pages of photos of his community in Olmec, and when he opens the book, I see April. She stands in the middle of the Iraths with Derrick Shooty Jr. strapped to her back and my other child strapped to her front. She looks plain. Her face is without a smile, but she's holding a staff, and several Liberati are behind her. It's like they found their way to Olmec.
"Your children," he says, "April is so smart and talented. She helped us rebuild." He turns to another page, and April stands with the boys, and they're just as tall as her. She looks sophisticated, and stands in front of a University with our boys. "All your boys have PhDs from Mexico University by five-years of age," he says, "April has three doctorates. It is my greatest pleasure to teach a family so strong and like sponges when it came to knowledge."
"A day doesn't pass that I don't think about them," I say, "Surely, she's forgotten me."
He laughs. "Nobody will ever forget you, especially April," he says, "She never married. She went on a quest to find the rest of her people."
Later that morning...
I drive Ion, Naira, Rory, and Rynn to the Bazaar, and help them setup. I have a small refrigerator on the back of the roller to store the sandwiches so they won't go bad. I place the refrigerator in the back of their boothe, and plug it into the electrical outlet that sets in the rear. All four of them have walkie talkies in case of an emergency. Rory, Ion, Naria, and Rynn pull the container of sandwiches out of the roller, and set them up on the table. They place about twenty in the refrigerator, and will heat them up with the microwave when the time comes. They have a heat-lamp to keep the food warm and a microwave oven to heat the sandwiches. Rynn turns on the heat lamp, and places a few sandwiches underneath it. Several patrons walk over, and buy a few sandwiches, but the traffic isn't anything like Iroza's chilli booth.
Iroza and Tommy sit at their booth selling hellbug chilli, and he prepares a bowl of chilli for a patron. She sits the chilli underneath a glass container to protect it from things that could accidentally fall into it. Tommy wears a plastic bag over his black hair with all the amenities to protect patrons from contamination, and I realize my kids need to do the same thing. Tommy yells out for other people to come to his booth in both English and Irathient, and the people are lining up for a bowl of chilli. Iroza handles Tommy with patience, gentleness, and understanding, and he thrives under her astute care. Iroza's booth even has a nice refrigerator filled with soda pop.
It's not odd for Iroza and Tommy to sell goods without Irocuz because of his love of booze. He wears his disease on his sleeve, and I see that it weighs heavy on Iroza. I try never to mention her bruises, and now with the advent of ark hunting, the stresses of making money is palpable. With the deaths from ark-hunting rising, a job like that I will never have. It's a dangerous job, a job that makes the average man a slave to alien tech, and the desire to make the most script leads to death and destruction. I look over at Iroza, and I see Irocuz's handywork above her right eye. Eventually, she will leak out her husband's physical obscenities against her, and she will say it with the rage of leaving him, but go back to him for the good of the family.
I sit in the rear of the booth, and the girls travel around the Bazaar while Ion sells sandwiches, and they plan on working in shifts. Rynn walks by without the other two girls, and Tommy stops her.
"Miat es nuwada?" he says. That translates to "What's your name?"
"Rynn, nia," she says, "Rynn Inola, nia." That translates to "I am Rynn Inola."
Tommy replies, "Yinn, Lil' Panther, nia." That translates to "Yinn, I am Little Panther."
I laugh for a moment because Tommy is mispronouncing her name, but she doesn't seem to mind. He's only like six-years-old, but he's flirting with her like they're the best of friends.
Tommy says, "Inyee prapai." That translates to "You're beautiful."
Rynn looks at him for a long moment, and smiles. She says, "Tahani." That translates to "Tease."
"You like them older, Tommy?" I say.
He laughs. "Enadee!" That translates to "True."
Rynn laughs, and says, "Oadi. Vochadia nia." That translates to "My. I am embarrassed."
"Oshea," Tommy says. That translates to "Sorry."
Rynn walks away, and Ion says, "Tommy oragra Rynn." That translates to "Tommy loves Rynn."
Tommy sticks his tongue out at Ion, and then laughs.
"Lil' Panther, be nice," Iroza says.
"Soya." That translates to "Okay."
Tommy is Lil' Panther because he's so small, dark skinned, and fast. When I first arrive to the area, I see Iroza chasing Tommy through the Bazaar, and she starts calling him Lil' Panther. She loves him so much like she birth him, and she teaches him every day. I'm afraid sometimes that I can't live up to what my kids need. I teach them how to fight, and Rory teaches Ion and Naria English. I sometimes tell them things I think they need to know, but it isn't a studious environment.
Rory's nickname is "Sigi Mosa" or "White Rose," but after Rota and her go bra shopping for the first time, she drops the name. Sometimes Rota calls her Sigi Mosa, and it drives her crazy, but she tries not to show it. Rota tells her it's a beautiful name, but Rory rejects it. Ion and Naria don't have nicks, but in a year or so, they will take the Warrior Challenge, and have nicks after that.
A large, grouchy looking Irathient man comes to the booth, and says, "Two sandwiches." He looks back at me, and says, "Sup, old devil." I lean forward, and it's Sukar, a young man the commune excommunicates three years earlier. He's about thirty with long, orange hair, and about twice as big as me. "Thanks for those guns."
"It was a crazy world," I say, "I couldn't let you go out without protection."
He laughs. "What are you doing this far outside the commune?" He asks. "I thought you were a lifer."
"Killed a hellbug with a potech pistol," I say, "Broke the no gun policy."
"It's the craziest policy in the world," Ion says, "That bug was killing people!"
"This your boy?" Sukar asks.
"Yep," I say, "I have two other kids roaming around here."
"He's about that age," Sukar says, "I'll be presenting the Warrior Challenge next year."
"Okay," I say, "Where?"
"Near Old Saint Louis," he says, "The place is pretty much gone, and a new community has started."
"Cool," Ion says, "I'm ready."
Iroza walks over, and says, "I heard a lot of prime real estate in that area."
"Yes, ma'am," Sukar says, "When the war stops, it's going to be a land grab."
"You hear that, Ion?" I ask.
"Yeah," he says.
"I'm going to head back, Derrick," he says, "Keep in the spirit."
"You too, brother," I say.
The girls return with a lot of candy, and Ion immediately leaves. Several older people hobble by the booth, and purchase a lot of sandwiches, and Rory is raking in the cash. Naria sits by me, and Rynn stands in back of the booth. Ion walks back over, and grabs some more sandwiches out of the refrigerator, and places them in the container.
"My stock is moving fast today," he says, "At this pace, we'll be sold out in about an hour."
"That's fast," I say, "It's not even two o'clock yet."
Naria eats her candy, and she's loud about it. Ion looks back at her, and says, "Close your mouth."
"You're not the boss of me," she replies.
"Naria, it's polite to eat with your mouth clothes," I say.
Rynn walks over to Tommy, and says, "Lil' Panther, eerah." She hands him a candy bar, and his eyes light up.
"Yinn, ahiha," he says. That translates to "Thank you, Yinn."
Naria laughs. "I'm here all the time, and Lil' Panther doesn't even wave at me," she says, "Not that I'm jealous."
Rory looks back at her, and says, "You're jealous."
"No I'm not," she says.
"I'm jealous," Rory says, "I guess Rynn gots that spark."
"It's because she's nine…"
"No ten," Rynn says.
"Ten, and a little closer in age to Tommy," I say, "Tommy is six."
"Oh, okay," Naria says.
Later that day…
Rota and I sit at the bottom of the hill with the baby while the kids play in the river. The water has a steady flow, but nothing the kids can't handle. I gently massage Rota's shoulders, and she relaxes in my arm with the baby suckling her breast. I have my potech pistol next to me and Ion has his shot gun on the side of the river. Rota says nothing about the weapons because she knows hellbugs can scuttle up through the earth, and snatch any of us at any time.
"I want the girls carrying," I say.
Rota tenses up immediately, and she turns towards me. "No. We talked about this. Ion only."
"I want you to carry," I say.
She hands me Radon, stands to her feet, and then grabs him out of my arms. "I'm not wanting to hear this, Derrick Shooty."
"We don't live in a peaceful world," I say, "The girls need to carry. You need to carry."
"What happens when they shoot themselves?" She ask.
"That's offensive," Rory says, "Naria and I are more mature than Ion."
"Don't throw me under the bus," he says. "Did I say that right, dad?"
"Yes you did, son," I say, "I love my children, and I want them to be able to protect themselves after I'm gone."
"Where you going?" Rory asks.
"Nowhere," I say.
"'Cause if you go, I"m going. Just sayin'," she blurts out.
"Me too," Naria says.
"Count me in too," Ion says.
She looks at the kids, and says. "Oh, please!" Rota gives me a mean look, and her face changes to a scowl. "Are you insinuating something, Derrick Shooty?"
"What?" I ask.
"Don't play dumb with me," she says, "You're trying to say I don't love our girls."
"Let's go, y'all we don't need to see or hear this," Rory says.
"I want to stay," Ion says.
"Get your gun, and let's go, stupid," she says, "You too, Naria."
The kids head up the hill with Radon, and we sit back down on the ground, but Rota doesn't say anything immediately. I've known her for a long time, and she likes to speak from a position of calm because she doesn't want to say anything she will regret later. She sits down on the ground with her breast hanging out of her two piece, and looking sad. I scoot close to her, and gently play with her hair, and she relaxes a bit.
"The kids love you," she says.
"They love you too," I say.
"Listen. They love you, and do what you tell them," she says, "You don't have to repeat yourself. So, you give them guns, and they'll use them, but any mistakes will come back to you."
"I know," I say, "But we have good kids."
She leans up against me with her back to me, and the sun descends behind the mountains. The humidity is bad, but the air is almost bug free. I massage her scalp, and pay extra attention around her ears, and it arouses her. She stands up for a moment, and I slide her panties down and then I remove my trunks, and she sits on my lap. She presses down on me with all her thrust, and pounds until I release inside of her, and it's more than a lot.
"What was that about?" I ask, "You didn't let me pull out."
"I want another baby," she says softly. She's still on top of me, and I can feel her vagina throbbing, and everything is wet because of my semen. She looks me in the eyes because she knows that I want her to lift up off me when I push upwards on her bottom, but she continues to push downward even harder. Her breasts drip milk all over me, and it runs down my chest. It's nature's cruel game that I let her do that to me for a second time in our relationship, and for the second time I didn't complain while it happens. I enjoy the climax, the moment of ambivalence after the climax, but then I dread the moment that I realize she's trying to get pregnant again. She stares directly into my eyes, but doesn't say anything. I feel the warmth of her vagina around my manhood, and the throbbing sensation re-arouses me. I feel her clamp down around my manhood again, and she grinds harder now than she did the first time. She moans, and I'm breathing heavy, but she's not doing this for pleasure. Her goal is to get pregnant, and her multiorgasms is a byproduct of her aggression. Her breast spews more milk on me, and it mixes in with our sweat. When she feels me about to climax for the second time, she locks her legs around me so tight, that I can barely breath. She doesn't release her grip until she feels my manhood go limp.
****April 16 2031 *****
The Votanis Collective controls all of the property in Arkansas, and has the rights to dole out the property to the people of the area. I sign for my property, and now I possess the deeds to over five miles of property, and that includes the mountains. I use the property for my business, and I am happy with the deal that I have. My property bumps up against I-ron's property, and from what I heard, his property is full of gulanite. There's so much of the blue ore on I-ron's property that he should be set for life.
Rynn has a birthday party a few days earlier, and all the kids are there. I-ron cooks a pow, and it is the best meat that I ever ate in my entire life. Iroza brings Tommy, and she bakes a large cake that's so moist that angels must have iced it. Tommy sings a solo happy birthday song to Rynn in Irathient, and all the girls fall madly in love with him, but Rynn says, "He's mine." The party last four hours, and Tommy falls asleep, and Iroza takes him home. Rynn kisses him on the forehead. Ida takes plenty of pictures, and shares them with us. It's the best day that we all have as a community.
"We'll do this again," I-ron says.
"That's forsure," I say, "Things are about to change for the better."
"Now that this silly war is over," Ida says, "I see big things for us."
I have a litany of workers harvesting pows and hellbugs on a nonstop basis, and we're moving tons of meat every day. Everything moves so fast that I can barely keep up with the money, workers, and product, so I hire three Liberata office workers named Bixby Baker, Terry Kishner and Tina Cooper, and they are all masters at managing workers. Bixby is a perfectionist, and when I say he, it's because I don't know his sex, at least not at first. I can't tell the Liberata apart, and not to sound like a racist, but they all look exactly alike. Well, not Terry because she's a Liberati, but Bixby and Tina look alike. Bixby is the first Liberata I hire, and he suggests name tags for all office workers since silly humans aren't able to tell aliens apart. He's probably no more than four foot five inches tall, and chubby. He wears glasses, and his wolfish appearance is off putting. His skin is light, but with a soft tan and wrinkles. He wears gold necklaces, but he claims he lives an ascetic lifestyle. His roller is equipped with gold spinners, and I haven't ever seen anything like his car in years.
I hire Terry Kishner after watching Bixby work diligently for a month. He never misses a day, never complains, and never makes a mistake with my money. When I tell him that I will hire him an assistant, he doesn't appreciate it. In fact, he takes it as a slap in his face.
"You don't like my work?" He asks. He's gawking at me with his beady eyes, and making me nervous.
"You'll have time to find a lady," I say. He grimaces at me, and it isn't a nice look at all.
"I'm glad you're interested in who I plow, but I'm a woman," Bixby says, "If you don't know something, it's okay to ask."
Terry, on the other hand, is a Liberati, and she's fair and pleasant to the eyes; she's a genetically enhanced race of Liberata, and in some parts of the world, outlawed. I'm familiar with the Liberati on a personal level, and I know of a military operation against them a year earlier in Brazil. The genetically enhanced race forms an army called the Vahadi, and they are beheading anybody who opposes them. This group of soldiers are all Liberati who practice an ancient Liberata art of killing, and they've assassinated many high ranking political officials throughout the region, and are now in control. The leader of the group is called Rose Red, and rumor has it that she's killed thousands with her bare hands.
I promise Ion I'd take him to Rynn's house before I take him to the Bazaar, and to be honest, I don't know or understand kids and their relationships. Rynn is his friend, and she is just his friend and no more. They talk hellbugs all day and every day. I say, "Ion, what are you and Rynn going to do today?"
"Talk about the best way to kill hellbugs," he says.
"That's it?" I ask. I look at him for a second, and ask, "So is she your girlfriend?"
"I see where you're going with this, and it's not like that, Dad. She's my best friend."
"Maybe you can work for I-ron when they start mining for that gulanite," I say.
Ion laughs. "He's too much of a save-the-world kind of guy to allow for that."
I think for a second that no man in his right mind would ever oppose the mining of gulanite. It's more valuable than oil in the twenty-first century. Originally, the scientists said that gulanite came from ships crashing up against the Earth, and the ore embeds itself into the crust, but that's not true. There isn't any truth in that scenario at all; but according to the new data on the matter, it's a byproduct of the terraforming. It's in the matrix of the new planetary design. The Earth produces volumes of gulanite on the daily, and once one mine stops producing, another one pops up. The blue crystal has many uses for every humanoid species on the planet; humans, petrohol for powering their machinery; Votans, supplying energy for their alien technology. I-ron is in a position to become one of the riches Iraths on the planet because his property is infested with gulanite.
On April 15, the Armistice takes place, but I don't celebrate because I'm preparing to buy my land. Irocuz purchases his property and some land up north in case he grows tired of living here, but he doesn't have any gulanite on his properties either. I ask him to come work in my meat processing plant, but he declines. The job starts at fifteen script per hour, and it's a pretty good wage for the area. Irocuz is an expert Ark Hunter who strips the alien technology of all it's cabling. It's one of those jobs that most hunters avoid because it's dangerous. One wrong move, and people die from electrical shock messing with the cabling.
There are more than four thousand pows running wild, and as far as I know, only one pregnant pow escapes from I-ron's property about a year earlier, and now I have more animals than I can process. No matter how many I kill on a daily basis, I can't stop them from procreating. I see hellbugs attacking them, but their numbers only grow more each day. Bixby starts off the work day ensuring we have at least ten pow carcasses on the conveyor belts. The Irathes clean them, dissect them, and package the meat. It's a lucrative business, and four thousand pows is almost an endless amount. Almost one third of the animals are pregnant at any given time, and when they have babies, they will have eight to twelve at a time.
"Sheesh! Those pows tear up everything," Ion says, "I've shot hundreds, and I haven't put a dent in them."
Ion sells pow burgers and hellbug sandwiches at the Bazaar, and now he's raking in over five thousands scripts a week. I turn one of the old, army reefer trucks into a rolling freezer where I sell pow and hellbug meat to restaurants, and in the last three months, I've made nearly three million scripts. I buy several reefer trucks, and supply pow meat to restaurants as far as Old Saint Louis, and even with my business growing daily, the pows are increasing in number. I have sixteen Iraths working for me now, two Liberata, and one Liberati, and they live in shipping containers on the far edge of my property.
Bixby comes to work with some pow jerky, and he's calling it Shooty's Jerky, a chewy treat for the avid Arkhunter, and when I take a bite, it's tender, chewy and delicious.
"What will it take to start producing this?" I ask.
"Shoot! Set Up another shipping container, and I can do the rest."
Grocery stores in major cities sell my hellbug meat, and it goes by the following names: land shrimp, fake crab, monster meat, and fake shrimp. With I-ron's and Ida's pheromone technique of capturing hellbugs, I can lure thousands of hellbugs into a fenced in area, electrocute them, and process the meat. The innards of hellbugs are ground up into a fine paste, breaded, and become hellbug nuggets. There commercial name are Shooty's Buggets. My trucks ship more Buggets out than any other meat item. Everybody loves fried Buggets, and that's the product that will make me one of the wealthiest men in the New World. Bixby's Shooty's Jerky is the next big seller, and Arkhunters love the stuff. I am amazed how well his marketing ploy works, and now he makes a sizable profit off it a month. His basic pay is nearly five thousand script a month, and with the bonus he makes off the jerky, he clears twelve thousand script a month.
I sit in my office right in front of the mountains, and I notice several rollers roll by, but I don't think much about it. Terry walks over to the window, and she strokes her long, white hair. Ion and the girls are at the Bazaar, and Rota takes care of Radon while she's six months pregnant with our second child. I walk outside of my office, and look at the vehicles rolling down the street. The reason I'm on edge is because there have been a slew of bullies trying to force Iraths into selling their newly acquired property for cheap prices, and if they don't sell, they end up dead. Behind my office is a huge warehouse that processes all of the food products, and ships them off. We have trucks coming in and out of the area all day.
After about fifteen minutes, I hear two gunshots, and I hop in my roller.
"Where you going?" Bixby asks.
"Hold down the office," I say, "Checking on I-ron."
I can't get in the damn thing fast enough, and I roll towards I-ron's house. When I arrive on the property, I see one of the vehicles drive off, but I get the license plate number. When I hop out of my roller, I hear a man screaming at Rynn, and it enrages me.
"Come here you little, bitch!"
I grab my potech pistol, and creep around the house. The guy is holding a large knife to Rynn, and he's trying to stab her while she's crouched underneath the house. I-ron and Ida are dead in the front yard, and all I can feel is anger. I shoot the man in the back, and he falls face down on the ground. He's struggling to crawl away from me, but I won't let him move. I push down on his back, and he tries to brace himself with his hands. I blow off his right hand, and he falls to the ground. I then blow off his left hand.
I hear Rynn crying from underneath her house, and I can see that her face is cut. "Are you the devil?" She asks.
"Yes," I say.
She crawls from underneath the house, and I grab her by the hand. She's bleeding and crying, and I say, "This man killed your parents." He's on the ground struggling and screaming for his life. She looks back at her parents lying on the ground dead. I give her my gun.
"What do you want me to do?" She asks.
"What would the Devil do?" I ask.
She walks up to the man, and pauses for a second. She cries loudly, and squints. Her hands shake, and I see her fear. It's palpable. I don't think she has what it takes to kill the struggling man. "Do it, Rynn. Pull that trigger."
"Will I be a bad person?" She asks.
"Only if you don't avenge your parents," I say, "If you let him live, then you're the worse kind of person."
She screams. She grunts. She pulls the trigger, and his brains fly all over the yard. She runs over to me, and I pick her up. Her face is cut badly, and I put her in the roller. I give her some tissue so she can wipe her face, and I notice that she's cut badly. I grab my pistol, and then fly down the road until I arrive to the base.
It doesn't take long for the Doctor to mend her face, but she tells us that Rynn will have that scar for life. I walk over to the Bazaar with her, and Iroza is immediately upset that somebody hurt Rynn. The kids give her a hug, and Tommy hugs her for so long that I didn't think he will ever let her go. She sits in back of the boothe, and cries, and when I look over at her, Tommy is sitting next to her quietly. Tommy walks over to the booth where the lady sells roses, and purchases one for Rynn. He hands it to her, and says, "This is for you."
"Ahiha," she says.
"We have to go, Rynn," I say.
Tommy runs over to his booth, and grabs one of his drawings. "This is us Yin. Keep it always." It is a picture of him and Rynn holding hands.
She hugs Tommy, and then walks over to the roller. "Bye, Lil' Panther."
The Badlands are cruel and unforgiving, and if I don't hide Rynn, then her life is in danger. I give I-ron a few thousand dollars a month for his help with building my company, and now that money will go to Rynn's caregiver. The only person I know with the compassion to take in a beautiful child like Rynn in Sukar. I train Sukar when we live at Yosemite, and I supply him with all the materials he needs when he's excommunicated from the commune. I consider Sukar a strong, head strong male figure with the compassion to care for Rynn.