Chapter 8

The crisp autumn morning brought a thin mist that clung to Littlechapel and refused to let go. The weather was turning, it was official now. Gone were the easy days of spring and summer, where the children could wear themselves out in the gardens or down at the freshwater creek where they collected water, caught fat bullfrogs, or lay on the warm rocks in the sun like little lizards. There still were the autumn harvests, but now the kids ramped up trapping and hunting to make smoked meats and the dreaded pemmican (useful and life-saving, but not very tasty) to last them through the bitter winter.

The storage room was full, thankfully. Cans from before the Collapse lined one shelf and their own homemade cans lined several others. Though Lucy wasn't the only one in there tallying inventory, she felt more alone than ever. It was time to start setting aside supplies for the next tribute. It was a delicate balance to give the Coven as little as possible without arousing suspicion or anger. She set aside some pre-Collapse cans with no labels, those were the worst to deal with, anyways. Was there a bounty of green beans or sweet corn inside? Or just olives or water chestnuts that hardly anyone wanted? Let the Coven sort it out, and all for the better.

She loved the kids, each one of them, with a fierceness that almost frightened her. But this many children alone…she missed other adults. Other sane adults, to be specific. The adults in the Coven were eerie, with their painted faces and shifting eyes. All they had were demands or threats anyways. Lucy had no peers here, and before the strangers had briefly visited, she couldn't recall the last time she spoke with another adult. Though some of the kids were getting older now, a few of the boys even sprouting a head taller than her, they still had the tempestuousness of raging hormones, and that lost feeling between childhood and adulthood. Disillusionment tangled with grandeur. Lucy just wanted to talk to someone, vent, release all this pent up anxiety she hid from the children.

Lucy sighed and set aside some canned asparagus. Sometimes she could get away with pawning the less desirable items off, but usually needed to balance it with useful items as well.

"What about canned meat?" Abby's voice called over from the next shelving aisle.

"What's the canning date?" Lucy called back, snapping out of her thoughts.

"The earliest ones we tried, of course! Chicken. A few venison. Lord knows if these are a hotbed of botulism. Maybe they'll all get sick and drop dead."

Lucy chuckled. "We can only hope. Yeah, send the early ones we tried- they were terrible anyways. If any have puffed out lids, we should throw those out, though."

They filled a few more boxes before Lucy left Abby to supervise the few others.

She went outside, zipping up her jacket to brace against the chill, piney air. Conspiratorial voices caused her to halt just as she was about to turn the corner to go back to the main house.

"I dunno Billy, it's risky. I don't Mom would approve."

Mom. Some of the smaller kids had started calling her that. She let them call her whatever they chose. Some still called her Miss Lucy, others the Warden as a joke that stuck.

"Gotta do somethin'. We can't keep giving offerings for them not to kill us. Someday, they'll see us getting more grown up and decide the risk isn't worth it."

"I dunno…"

"What ain't you sure about? They killed that other little settlement down south, and we found two other camps murdered and burnt. Those were all adults."

Lucy felt a tug of panic. What? None of them had said anything about other settlements nearby, dead or alive. It sounded like Billy, though the other whispers were too hard to distinguish.

"I guess you're right. We should talk to her about it though."

"Not yet. Can't give her a crappy plan, it's gotta make sense. Otherwise, she'll think it's too dangerous. Don't let on to the littler kids. We'll all meet later after bedtime."

"Alright. See ya."

Footsteps retreated, crunching softly on pine needles. Lucy leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. God, they've starting making plots now. She knew the day would come when they would want to fight back, but she hoped they had more time. The big kids had always been protective of the younger ones, taking on scavenging and hunting so they all could eat. If anyone would raise a rebellion, it would be Billy. Tough as nails, and quick as a switchblade.

She wiped away a few tears that managed to escape, and took a few deep breaths before turning the corner. Maybe they were right. Maybe it was time to take a stand.

| / | \ | / | \ |

The sunlight was fading and one of their spare cars, a mid-sized SUV, was packed with offerings. A dozen or so kids gathered around the car chatting excitedly as Axel, Nathan, and Ethan shuffled the contents around. Lucy approached with a few paper bags after finishing dinner arrangements with Cupcake and fetching some day-old bread loaves to offer. Negotiating bread rations with Cupcake was an exercise in patience itself, and Lucy understood. All that effort to put into making the loaves, only to have them go to their overlords.

"It's no fair that all boys are going this time," Abby said with a scowl. Little Tully clung to her free hand, her other hand supporting Molly balancing on her hip.

"You look like you got your hands full already," Axel said, slamming the trunk closed. Abby responded with a scathing glare.

"Chill out, it's just the rotation system. Sometimes all girls go," Nathan said. Ethan grunted in agreement.

"He's right," Lucy said. "Nothing personal, you know that. It's always dangerous, no matter who goes. Here," she handed Axel the bags. He peeked inside, and was unimpressed with the contents. A good sign, she didn't want to be giving away too much good stuff.

"Oil looks good," Stark said, gently closing the hood of the car. "Probably another few trips before we gotta change it."

"Good." Lucy caught the keys when he tossed them, and opened the driver's side.

Axel's eyes grew wide. "Are you coming?"

Lucy smiled. "You bet. It's been awhile, don't you think?" Nathan and Ethan shrugged, unaffected by the turn of events, and began a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors to determine who got to ride shotgun. Lucy turned to the other kids. "Cupcake's in charge, and Fletch is her back-up while she's cooking. Now, be kind to one another, be helpful, and don't be jerks! It'll be a free-time night, Stark is going to set up a fun…ish… project and we'll see about getting a movie started tonight."

A dozen cheers pierced the air. Axel groaned in disappointment, they'd likely miss the movie. Nathan and Ethan were too busy dead-arm punching one another to notice.

Lucy shooed the kids inside. "Go on, now. All of you get inside before it gets cold."

A dozen heads nodded, then bobbed off into the mist towards the main house, shoving and joking with one another.

Lucy jumped in the driver's seat and turned the ignition. The SUV roared to life, and she pulled towards the gate. The kids on guard waved, and one dashed out to open the gate, shutting it behind them.

"Alright, any CDs you guys want to listen to?"

The next five minutes was spent bickering over what music to listen to, and various CDs were tried and determined to be too lame or too boring. Nathan wanted Metal, which Lucy immediately nixed. They finally agreed on a non-controversial compilation of rock songs, and they settled in for the drive. The tribute spot had never changed, and Lucy assumed it was purposefully out of the way for both the Witch and her Shadow Coven, and for the Littlechapel gang. Meeting elsewhere was always better than when the Coven came around collecting, so they made sure to always be on time with as much supplies as they could spare.

The misty fog made it hard to see, and they crept along the winding mountain roads further and further up the mountain. Axel rummaged around for pack of stale, hard gum and passed around the sticks to help with the air pressure. He then collected the foil wrappers, Stark always had a use for the little foil wrappers and usually would barter for them.

Pine trees loomed on either side of the road, watchful sentinels, tall and silent. No one maintained the roads anymore, so they had to stop a handful of times to clear debris that blocked the road. Asphalt crumbled away at the sides of the road, worn by rain, snow and ice. Sometimes she had to serve to avoid a nasty pothole, or a particularly large eroded section of the road lost to the steep ledges.

Axel and the twins were the best companions to have for drop-offs. The twins were unaffected generally by anything, they could either be categorized as generally unemotional in most situations or stoic, accepting things for the way they were with minimal complaint. And Axel? Well, Lucy was sure Axel's blood had a mixture of vinegar in there. Between him and Billy, there were always at least two kids that could make the hard decisions.

They reached a fork in the road, and Lucy rolled the car to a stop. One curved further up the mountain, the other was a simple dirt road that led up slight hill and cured around a big boulder that partially blocked the road.

"Alright. You guys ready?" Ethan and Nathan grunted in the backseat.

"Who waits here?" Axel asked.

Lucy looked at him, confused. "What do you mean? We're all going together."

Axel chewed his lip and glanced at the twins in the backseat. Finally Ethan spoke. "We started leaving someone at the fork, just in case things go wrong."

"Oh!" Lucy felt her cheeks turn pink. Of course they'd adapted and changed the plan. The kids, delivering supplies by themselves had met with some sticky situations themselves. It was dangerous, but what other options did they have? She couldn't always accompany them, although she used to do the tributes exclusively in the early days. Embarrassed and shame fought in her belly. She had put these kids at such risk that they modified their own safety plans.

"That's…good, guys. Good thinking. Gotta be flexible, gotta adapt."

"Are you okay?" Axel asked, his voice uncharacteristically soft. "Don't cry, Miss Lucy. It's okay, we're tough kids."

Lucy nodded, wiping away a few rogue tears and forced a smile. "Of course you are. I'm so proud of all of you. I just- I just wish we didn't have to do this." She searched for more words, there were so many tumbling around in her head, but they all felt lacking.

"Me too," said Ethan.

"Me three," said Nathan.

"I dunno," said Axel. "Maybe someday we'll kick their asses and stop this shit."

"Axel! Language!" But that did the trick: Lucy chuckled a little, the bubbling tension eased for now. "So what does the person waiting do?"

Nathan spoke up this time. "Just wait. Listen for trouble. We hid a few bicycles around here to ride back in case shit- sorry. In case anything goes down. The way back home is all downhill. Easy peasy. I'll go- Ethan did it last time."

Lucy nodded. Nathan got out of the car and slung a backpack over his shoulder. He soon disappeared into the mist, a receding shadow. She glanced over at Axel and he nodded solemnly: onward they went, up the dirt road.

They followed the road for a mile or so, until she pulled the car off to the side of the road next to a meadow clearing. Weeds were already taking over the road here, but Lucy wasn't sure if their car kept them at bay, or whether someone came here to make sure it was driveable. In spring it was beautiful here: wildflowers grew with careless abandon, bees heavy with pollen buzzed lazily from bud to bud. But it was autumn now, the flowers long dead from morning frost. Now it was only fragrant green grass, with the eerie mist clinging low to the ground.

They got out of the car, gravely silent, and unloaded the car. They carried the boxes to the meadow, tramping down the wet grass in three lines. Despite the fog, the air crackled with static. A storm's coming, and soon, Lucy thought. She just hoped it would hold out until they made it home.

She stayed in the meadow while Axel and Ethan went to get the rest of the supplies. Soon, she was surrounded by boxes.

Their food. Their equipment. Their supplies.

These were cultivated, scavenged, or created by the children, and now they'd be taken away by some group of weirdos. Creeps. Murderers. Lucy felt her underlying fear now retreating in favor of something else: anger. How dare these assholes take hard-earned and hard-worked supplies from goddamn children? The only ones that would save the human race. She balled her fists and counted slowly back from ten. No use getting them into trouble now, she had to set a good example. Be cool, be quick, get home.

By the time she got to one, dark shadows emerged from the treeline. Lucy waved to Axel and Ethan, and they retreated behind her a bit. The shadows shapes masked by the fog, but they grew more recognizable as they approached.

The Shadow Coven. A dozen or so men and women, spaced apart almost equally across the expansive meadow, although as they approached the spaces closed between them. They looked wild- the woods had claimed them. Some had designs on their faces, painted with a reddish-brown mud, or grey-black soot. Their eyes were hard, their faces harder. A patchwork of clothes adorned some, squares of mismatching fabric crisscrossed haphazardly, while others wore close to nothing. Most were barefoot, but some had old boots or homemade shoes cobbled from old soles and scraps of fabric. Many of the women had long, unkempt hair with feathers and mouse bones weaved in, but a few were shaved bald with a few dark red lines from being cut. None of them said anything – they were spirits of the forests. Ghosts, or shades that apparated from the mist. Lucy held back a shudder.

One man walked slightly in front of the others, holding a torch that sputtered and popped in the misty fog. His face was covered in a simple canvas cloth with two eyeholes cut roughly into the fabric. He was a head taller than most of them, equal in height to the twins who seemed to grow an inch every time Lucy saw them. Muddy handprints were stamped across his chest, still glistening with moisture. Though he was a tall man, he was not particularly large. His chest was hollow and the skin between his ribs were deep, like claw-marks. Though he was rather skinny, all of them were, his muscles were pronounced, sinewy ropes that snaked along his arms and legs. Around his neck was a string of human teeth.

Lucy had never seen him before, but she knew of him instantly. Her heart plunged deep into her belly, but she tried to erase any emotion from her face. Beartooth, the Witch's right-hand man, possible lover. If the whispers were true, that is.

There were wildly varying tales about him, but they all shared one shred of truth: he was a bear hunter. He wore two yellowing canine teeth woven into thin willow branches as a sort of crude crown, the two teeth hooked up towards the sky on either side of his devilish head. They looked more like devil horns to Lucy, and now she fully understood why the children were so shaken when he would arrive unannounced. He handed the torch off to a rat-faced man on his left that sported a costume made entirely from strips of bark.

The rest of the Coven held back as Beartooth approached Lucy. His eyes were gray, colorless things floating behind the cream canvas.

"Blessings from the trees," he said in a deep voice, slightly muffled by his mask. His eyes were cold gray, cold as the mist around them.

"Blessings from the earth," Lucy returned. She took a step towards him, despite her brain screaming at her not to. She wanted to put space between him and the children, although she didn't doubt that if pushed, Ethan and Nathan together could potentially cause some serious damage.

"You must be the protector of your flock." Beartooth said, tilting his head slightly. It was not a question, and Lucy didn't answer. "We do not have dealings with you usually, meatbag."

Lucy shrugged, ignoring the derogatory term. All outsiders to the Coven were 'meatbags,' and it no longer jarred her, or the kids. "We can talk about it if you'd like, or we can get this over and done with. Supplies are here, feel free to inspect them."

Beartooth laughed. It was a high, brittle thing that didn't seem to align with his low, haunting voice. He spoke slowly, as if each word was carefully cultivated before being set free. "They said you were straightforward and to the point. I like that."

Lucy held his gaze, hoping she looked a lot tougher than she felt. Beartooth was much taller than her and those sinewy arms were much stronger than they appeared. "Well, maybe we'd be friends under different circumstances. We got food, clothing, and medical supplies in those boxes there. We're getting low on most medicine, so I threw in some blankets to make up the difference. Good ones, thick wool for the winter."

His steely eyes narrowed, but Lucy just stared back. She would not let him think she was intimidated. He said nothing, so she filled the silence. "Medical supplies are only going to get worse. Looters are traveling further up the mountains, and things are getting cleaned out. Meds are expiring, or going bad from lack of refrigeration. That's just the way it is. Tell me a reasonable substitute, and we'll do it. But I can't procure them out of air."

Beartooth waved a hand, and a bushy-haired Coven man stepped forward, picking through the boxes. He looked wild, like a mountain man of the Wild West, except he wore long cargo pants and an unbuttoned flannel with no shirt underneath. After he inspected the last box, he nodded to Beartooth.

"All here."

Beartooth nodded. "Then take them."

Coven members silently stepped forward and gathered the boxes. Axel had his hand hovering near his knife, just in case, but Lucy shook her head slightly. The Coven members stared at her for a moment, but she just stared back, willing her face muscles to stay frozen in neutrality.

Those with boxes turned and walked back from where they came, blurring in the fog before finally disappearing into the forest. The crunch of leaves and dried grass beneath their feet faded. Beartooth and a few others remained.

"One of yours saw us, meatbag." Beartooth said.

"Of course. They see you every time we do this."

"No. Outside of the usual exchange," Beartooth said. The remaining Coven members took small, tentative steps forward.

Lucy crossed her arms and glared at the others slowly forming a half-circle around her. Axel coughed uncomfortably. "Well," she said. "If you're going to sneak around my territory, of course the kids are going to see you. I've told your people my kids patrol the area around our home. If you don't want to be seen, then keep away. That's on you."

Beartooth's eyes crinkled, presumably in a smile. Lucy was glad she couldn't see his lips, likely twisted in some cruel sort of smirk. "We go where we like."

"Certainly. You all can camp out right by our gates, if you're so inclined. But don't get bent out of shape if you're seen. That's only logical."

"The Witch would like this girl. The one who saw her."

Lucy's eyes narrowed. Kira. She recalled how frightened the little girl was, shaking like a leaf and inconsolable. Anger flared in her belly – hadn't they taken enough from them so far?

"No," she said. "Why?"

"It's not a request, meatbag. This girl is ours now. She saw a sacred rite, not for outside meat. The girl is no longer yours, but ours now."

"And my answer isn't changing. The kids stay with me, that was part of the arrangement. Nothing about seeing sacred rites being done right outside our gate. If you're going to just make up rules to snatch up my kids, then we need to reevaluate our situation."

Shit, shit, shit, shit. Sometimes a thing needed to be said, but it was still terrifying to say.

"The arrangement has changed, then. Should I pluck out her eyes, instead?" Beartooth's eyes were cold as ice. The others shuffled, making soft squelching noises in the muddy terrain. Lucy looked back. Axel was holding Ethan's hand, wide-eyed. Ethan looked bored, as usual, but Lucy saw his fist clenching. She shook her head at him almost imperceptibly, and his fist relaxed. Slightly.

Lucy looked back at the Coven. "Here are your supplies. Whatever she saw, she didn't understand it and is no threat to you. I'm not discussing this further. You've given me no good reason to hand over a child to strangers."

"Meatbag, you aren't thinking clearly. Think of the others. They'll suffer if you refuse us."

Lucy stepped closer to him, so close they were almost face-to-face. The cloth over Beartooth's face was heavy canvas, and made him look faceless. But there was a face underneath that canvas, and it could bleed. She could break his nose, just like anyone else. They stared at each other, sizing up, measuring. The other Coven members reached for their knifes, some pointed spears at her. She could smell sweat and mud, and something flickered behind those cold eyes. Was it fear? Anger?

Finally she spoke, leaning in so close she could have kissed him. Or bit him. "You touch any of my kids, and you'll be the ones suffering," she said in a low tone. "You tell the Witch I refuse her demand. She won't have her, or any of them. You want more food? Have it. Take the rest of our medicine? Fine. But you will not have any of the children.

"In the end, you're all a bunch of adults taking from children who work twice as long, twice as hard as you, and are far better people in the end. You think you'll make us suffer? You're the ones who can't feed yourselves. You talk a big game, but I see the hollow cheeks and hungry eyes your people have. Maybe you can wreck havoc on our defenses. Maybe you can try to hunt us in the night like the bears you stalk. But maybe you'll be the ones that suffer, come winter. When your babies, or whatever the fuck you animals give birth to, are starving in your arms, too tired to cry for milk, lips blue from the cold, you'll remember my words. When they gasp their final dying breaths from your arrogance and stupidity, then maybe you'll remember how bad you well and truly fucked yourselves over. Consider this our last tribute, you parasitic, pathetic assholes."

With that, she took a step back and spat on the ground next to his feet.

"Come on," she said, yanking Axel and a dumbfounded Ethan towards the car. She threw Axel in the passenger side and slammed the doors, ignoring whatever Beartooth was shouting at her, and burnt rubber filled the car as she peeled out, charging out of the tribute place.

When they were a good distance away, Lucy let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding.

"That was way cool," Ethan said, bouncing in his seat. "He was pissed as hell. His eyes looked like he was going to kill you, but you slayed him pretty fucking good, Luce."

So was Lucy. She didn't even bother scolding him for language as she slammed the breaks on near Nathan's spot. His head poked out from behind a rock at the sound of the engine, then he lumbered towards the car, shoving into the backseat next to his brother. Nathan looked at the tense, worried faces and Ethan only shrugged before jolting backwards from Lucy slamming on the gas.

"Did you hear what he was yelling?" Ethan asked. "I couldn't hear."

Lucy said nothing, trying to slow her breathing and ease up the grip on the steering wheel. Her knuckles were white and beginning to ache already, but she had to hold on tight to keep her hands from trembling.

Axel was staring out the window, but his eyes were unfocused, unseeing. His voice was distant, far-away.

"He said we're all going to die."

/ / / / /

AN: Thank you all for the lovely reviews/comments, kudos, likes, favorites, follows, etc.! I hope you all are enjoying, and thank you all for sticking along with this journey. I hope you all are staying well and safe. 33