Rachel

The black night air was cold as it wrapped around Rachel's exposed skin making her shiver. Mama would never have let her go out on such a night without a coat to supplement the thin cloth of her dress. The slavers, on the other hand, seemed not to care how uncomfortable she might be. But what did the cold matter? What did anything matter now? Mama was dead. Papa was dead. The idea seemed so impossible Rachel wasn't entirely sure she hadn't dreamed it. But could any dream be so horrifying? The echo of the gun still rang clearly in her ears, throbbing against her temples, all too real to deny.

The small party dragged her, stumbling along towards the bright orange-red flames in the distance. The spot where her beloved town should have stood, Rachel realized. As they drew closer to the town center the skeletal outline of the burned-out buildings became clearer, the smell of smoke, ash, and death hanging heavily in the air, burning her nose and throat.

 Walking down the streets that should have been familiar, Rachel felt the reality of her situation settling all the more heavily in her mind. The home she knew was gone. Small fires still smoldered all around, painting the night air with an unnatural orange-tinted glow, marking in ash, the places where store fronts and houses had been just hours ago.

Rachel saw large sibla men still patrolling the streets, likely looking for any humans they had missed, but the sound of screams  Rachel had heard earlier seemed to have been silenced, the crackling of dying fires taking their place. There was still a good deal of sobbing to be heard in the air somewhere not far off though, punctuated by the jumbled sound of harsh orders barked in reply. She dreaded facing whatever terror lay ahead, but with her hands bound and an armed retinue just behind her, there seemed to be no choice but to keep moving forward.

Rachel's eyes opened wide in horror as her captors forced her down the main street. There, right in the town center was a line of bodies. It seemed the sibla had rounded up all of the townsmen and shot them. Each of the corpses was dotted with dark patches where the bullets had pierced their flesh, the ground around them stained with their blood. She looked away, not wanting to see if she recognized any of the faces, but that didn't help the churning in her stomach. She imagined that all the corpses wore the pained expression her father had as he rolled on the ground in agony. 

She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment to try and will the image away. She was alone now and she had to take care of herself. She had to be brave as Mama said and try to figure out how to get away. But where could she possibly go? Everything she knew was gone now.

The sounds of commotion increased as they neared the edge of what remained of the main town border and Rachel quickly saw the cause. A large bonfire in the street clearly illuminated what seemed to be some sort of processing station the sibla had set up. 

Rachel could see two large tractor-trailers, the vehicles that had brought the sibla to their village.  The trucks' long metal forms cast dark shadows along the ground that seemed almost as monstrous as the creatures behind her. Struggling to see inside of the open trailers through the darkness, Rachel could just make out the rows of cages crowded into the vehicles. Eyes peered out through the bars. The rest of the town's inhabitants, she realized with horror. They were all being taken prisoner!

 Turning her attention to the light of the bonfire she could see a small group of terrified women standing beside it, guarded by heavily armed sibla. Each was being taken forward one by one towards the flames where sibla men waited, holding long rods of iron in their hands.

Rachel froze watching one of the struggling victims as a sibla ripped the shoulder of her dress away to expose her flesh. The poor woman emitted a horrible cry as one of the iron rods was pressed, white hot, into her skin, branding her with an angry red scar. Rachel's mind raced. They were leading her towards that same fire. She couldn't let them.She couldn't! 

"Keep moving," one of the men behind her barked. Rachel turned to see him staring her down with a disapproving frown.

"Please," Rachel whimpered. "Please don't make me."

"I said move!" the man snarled. He gave her a hard shove and sent to stumbling forward. As Rachel recovered her footing she felt his large hand come to rest on the back of her neck, practically wrapping around it. She stopped resisting and walked towards the fire, her whole body trembling in fear.

No, her mind protested as the heat of the flames grew stronger. No. No!

"Got one more," the man holding her said, grasping her arm more tightly prepared to fight against any resistance. "Think we found the last of the houses. And another young one to add to the lot no less." Rachel saw that the sibla holding the brand did not look as excited as his friend.

"Well let's get her processed," he said. "We're just about ready to move out."

Rachel saw the man holding her nod. Panic filled her at his wordless response. 

"No!" she shrieked, wriggling and twisting in her captor's grasp. "No!" Her efforts to escape were useless. The man picked her up from the ground as if she was weightless and carried her forward to his friend. Rachel heard the tear of cloth of her dress was torn from her shoulder and felt the cold against her exposed flesh.

"Hold her still." Rachel heard the command of the man by the fire. Her eyes opened wide as she saw the glowing iron in his hand. She could feel the heat of the metal as he positioned the brand close to her skin.

"No!" she screamed once more, but her cry of protest quickly morphed into a howl of agony as the pain jolted through her body. The smell of burning flesh filled her nostrils and tears streamed down her cheek as she gasped in choking sobs, trying to control her breath. She let out another cry of pain as the man by the fire set down the brand and picked up a metal can from the ground spraying some horrible stinging solution on her skin, turning the wound a brownish yellow.

"Ought'a be enough to keep the wound from infection, the man by the fire said. She is the last of em right? Running low on antiseptic."

"Yep. We didn't find anything else worth taking."

The man nodded. "The rest are all caged and ready to go," he said. I know I'll be glad to get back on the road. Decent haul I'd say. With any luck, we'll make quite a profit on these lot. Get her loaded up."

"Where are the other vealers? The man holding her asked as his friend began packing up his horrible tools.

Profit? Vealers? The words felt jumbled in Rachel's mind as the sibla men talked over her. She couldn't really make sense of them. Her arm burned horribly, the scared skin remembering the heat of the iron as if it was still pressed against her. Tears dripped down her cheeks.

"Go ask the guys by the cars what to do with her," another sibla said. "The cages with the little ones are pretty full already though."

Rachel felt her captor's hand on her neck again, pushing her forward. In a daze of pain, she stumbled along obediently, too much in shock to do anything else.

As they arrived at the trailers Rachel jumped at the harsh sound of metal scraping. Her head turned to see one of the sibla closing the doors to the vehicle beside them.

"I've got another to load in," the man holding her said. The other sibla shook his head. 

"No room in here. Vealer cages are all full up."

"Then what the hell am I supposed to do with this thing?" the first said, shaking Rachel slightly. She bit her lip to keep from crying out.

"Got a cage of young females that still has space. Toss her in there and let's get moving. Gorn wants to make it to town in time to sell off the haul bright and early. With any luck by tomorrow night we'll all have a tidy sum and be drinking in toast at the pub." He grinned and Rachel heard the man holding her chuckle.

"Just imagine, we almost missed this setup entirely," he said, "turned out to be quite a haul. Gotta hand it to them, these humans hid themselves well. Was starting to think that Demin was really lost."

"Well," his friend answered as he climbed up into the trailer, "No one ever said humans weren't crafty little buggers. Hand me the kid."

Rachel let out a sort squeal as she felt her feet lifted from the ground, passed through the air like a sack of potatoes.

"Damn noisy animals," the man in the trailer commented as he grabbed hold of Rachel and frowned at her. This lot just haven't shut up all night. Be glad to unload them. I swear the domesticated humans are a hell of a lot quieter and compliant."

"You oughtta go back to working the farms," his friend replied with a small laugh. "I'll tell ya though, the money in ferreting out the wild ones from hiding pays a hell of a lot more. You'll be singing a different tune when you get your cut tomorrow night."

Rachel blinked, trying to adjust her eyes to the dim light of the trailer. She saw the outline of cage after cage, extending into the darker recesses of the vehicle's carriage. She could see the fear in the eyes of the people crammed into them, hear their whimpering sobs, smell a sharp odor of whatever other animals might have been transported in these cages in the past mixed with the scent of the hay that lined the bed of the truck.

"In ya go," the man holding her said as he pried open the door of the nearest rusty metal cage and shoved Rachel inside, where she fell into another woman, causing all in the cage to let out small cries of protest and pain as they tried to avoid scraping themselves against the bars of their tightly packed cage. The creaking door  of her prison slammed shut behind her.

"All loaded up!" the sibla man called out, jumping down from the trailer. "Let's move out!"

With a heavy metal thud the trailer doors were closed, plunging the world around Rachel into near total darkness. She soon felt the engine of the vehicle come to life beneath her feet, the smell of exhaust mixing with the other odor in the trailer made her stomach curdle. The car lurched forward with a sudden start and all of the captives screamed as they were sent subliming into one another.

 Panic, fear, sobs, prayers, Rachel was bombarded with terror like she'd never experienced before. She could barely see the girls beside her in her cell but none of them looked familiar. Mama and Papa always preferred to keep Rachel close, never allowing her much freedom to meet many townspeople. They'd stayed on the outskirts, kept to themselves, and encouraged Rachel to do the same. Besides, the others in the cage with her were all older, at least in their teens, and it seemed no one was daring to talk to one another, all too caught up in their own misery to even take note of those around them.

With barely enough room to sit without falling on top of her neighbors, Rachel lowered herself to the ground. She wished she could wrap her arms around her body, but her bound hands made that impossible. Instead, she hugged her arms to her chest and brought her knees in tight to her body, trying to take up as little space as she possibly could.

Just close your eyes

That's what her mother said as they'd lain under the bed. If she closed her eyes now would the monsters go away as Mama had promised they would? Would she be back at home, safe and sound with her overly protective mother by her side, her father standing watch, their village whole again, risen from the ash like the phoenix in Mama's stories? She wished with all her heart that it might be so. As the car rattled along the road for what seemed like hours, Rachel finally felt her exhausted mind releasing to slumber.