Page 12 of Ruled By Their Desires

Two

It didn’t take much after that for the Director to agree to send a team to meet her people. He asked for a copy of the vid of her killing the KC to share with his people. She’d used the phone Marcus had given her to massage Hawk telling him to send it on the next contact. When she heard the location, it wasn’t a surprise. She knew they’d have picked a route just outside the FHA area in the hills, somewhere defensible. The time and location only coming to her and the Director. As usual it would be a stepped route. Time to rid themselves of any followers and unwanted attention. Fight if they had to, run if they had no choice. Her father wouldn’t take the risk of sending them directly to what had been effectively their home for the past ten years.

An old military bunker and safe zone that had several hidden entrances and exits deep in the mountains. The days of living on old tribal land was long gone, unless they went hunting. If you weren’t hidden, you made yourself a target. They’d done better than most being transient, picking up the old ways once more when the burn occurred being able to hide and use old school ambush tactics that had served them well for generations, but the SC’s had still found them while they’d been looking for a new home.

The tribe had moved off the reservations into open plains hiding in plain sight for years after the burn, until it became too dangerous and headed into the mountains and forests which had better cover. They’d been lucky in that so many of her people had been in the forces. When the fall came, they knew where to find equipment that would be useful. That would help hide them, keep them alive and through the chaos, they had the tools to do it too, it made it easy to access and take what they needed. Using thermal disbursement army sheets, they’d quickly put-up camo that hid heat signatures from long distance. It was one of the ways KC’s found humans and her people quickly adapted.

They were excellent tribal trackers. Could track anything and one day a scouting party came across two separate tracks, of two very different kinds of Cyborgs. One, that was tracking the other. And to their surprise, the second had attacked the first taking them out and freeing the people. It gave her father cause to consider a new path of possibilities.

Making a point of tracking these new Cyborgs, in case it was a one off or a ploy by the KC’s to draw them in, they kept watch and a pattern soon emerged.

These new Cyborgs were taking out the KC’s on a regular basis and freeing the humans they’d found. From what they could tell, the humans had been given a choice, go their own way or go with them and they would protect them. Not unsurprisingly, the humans went with them and although her people struggled to track the Cyborgs, they had no trouble tracking the humans and found their base of operations. She had often wondered if that had been deliberate. The SCs were better than that. But in the distance, they’d found a defunct military base hidden in the mountains, that had been long forgotten and taken over by the SCs gaining access somehow and taken it over. Luckily for them, it had a shit load of analog technology. And the copper wires were still out there if you knew where to look.

They’d followed them on and off for months. When those same Cyborgs walked into their compound twelve days later after the last tracked raid with no weapons out and hands up. They’d taken a huge risk but clearly her people were not the only ones good at tracking and her people had been excellent at hiding. Hardly left any tracks at all. It was a reminder of how good the KC and SC were.

And that was how she’d found her uncles.

Her people had been so scared on seeing them, but even as a child, she’d sensed these were not like the others, but you could still taste the fear in the air. It felt so wrong to her and they’d felt so alone. To the shock and fear of her father, she’d gone running up to them, smiling in welcome looking at the leader who held a beauty that was stunning to her even at eleven years old. So different to her people, his hair short and sharp, tall and muscular with beautiful grey eyes. That had been Marcus.

“Hello, I’ve been waiting for you, you’re mine.” She’d told him to his surprise.

She remembered how shocked he’d looked for a moment, before it was gone, along with the hope that played out in those eyes before that too, was gone. And against her father’s orders, she’d grabbed what turned out to be Hawk’s and Crash’s hands and started to pull them towards her father telling them; “Come,” she was completely unafraid unlike everyone else around her. “I am in need of uncles and you, are in need of family.”

Comet had dropped down and picked her up in his arms. “You sure you want us little bit?” he’d asked her.

“Oh yes. I need to learn how to kill the bad men and you know how.”

“You are not scared of us?” Spike had asked her. She held out her arms to him and he took her from his friend without hesitation and held her in his own gently.

“No. Why should I. I won’t have to cut your stems; you are my friends and will be my family.” They had laughed at her comments, jostled her a little passing her from arms to arms, telling her how brave she was and how they would train her to be able to fight and win. Marcus had stood there watching them.

And they were right, she’d found her uncles and her people had found what they needed to stay alive. Both sides better for it.

But Marcus, he was something different.

He never talked to her. Never engaged with her. He held himself apart from the four. Barked at her when he had to. Even at that age she knew he did that for a reason. Like her father, being in charge, you couldn’t always be everyone’s friend and she had sensed even at that age, he had his own demons to deal with. So she’d given him space and was convinced he’d come around.

How wrong she’d been. He never did.

In contrast, the other four gave her no space at all.

From that moment forward, one or more was always with her. She spent much of her time being carried around. Never out of their sight. Even when Marcus left next day after meeting with her father, they stayed and trained her people. And much to her fathers’ concern, even at night, one would let themselves into their home and guarded her or she’d make her way to where they were sleeping, or in their case not sleeping, and take one of their empty beds. The world was a dangerous place but with them, she’d never felt anything but safe.

She was sure, there had been more than one conversation with her father about the propriety of a young girl, staying and being guarded by adult male Cyborgs, but they’d never been anything but careful and determined that she would be able to protect herself and survive. And over time, her father gave up any pretence of trying to keep her away.

That first year had been a proving ground for all of them.

They’d started to work together, using intel from both sides to plan attacks. Marcus would come in for planning meetings and she stayed out of his way. The Cyborgs trained her people on how to fight the KCs on their own terms. How to use the advantages they had and in turn, her people had showed them how they’d survived with old school skills. And her uncles gave her no excuses, they trained her almost from day one and trained her hard. Time moved on and within six months and several raids with the right kind of outcomes, her people started to accept them.

And during that first year, she’d catch glimpses of Marcus coming to see her father. But that last time he’d brought 3 new squads with him to stay. And she just knew he was trying to take her quad from her. All weekend she’d tried to corner him. Hawk never left her side trying to pull her away to work. But she’d found a way. Confronting him in her father’s office early one morning.

“You will not take them.” She ordered storming into the office. Marcus had just sat there looking at her 12-year-old self before answering.

“They’ve been here a year. It’s time to move on.” He barked out.

“No.” She’d told him straight planting her feet.

“You don’t get to decide that.” He told her showing no emotion.

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