Page 19 of Their Property
“Um, yes. I guess so.” I swallowed, idly spinning the ring on my finger. “I don’t remember, exactly.”
“Don’t remember?” Now the governor turned to look at me, his expression incredulous. “My dear, how could you not remember the mostdevastatingevent in recent history? A powerful, united country for hundreds of years, crumbled to dust overnight. My word, some days I still wake up and I can’t believe it was real.”
I looked down at my hands in my lap, my embarrassment rising and unsure of what to say. What would they think if I told them I didn’t know it’d happened until almost a week later? That my father kept it from me, acting like everything was normal for several days. He wasn’t a governor back then, but a mayor of a medium-sized city which was now in ruins. I remembered him looking more tired and stressed than usual, his hushed meetings with his staff that went late into the night, but thirteen-year-old me hadnoidea.
Not until my language tutor came in for our weekly sessions. She seemed tired too, and like she’d been crying a lot. Halfway through our lesson, she broke down completely. She sank to the floor, sobbing and wailing. I went to comfort her and she cried into my arms. She had tutored me for years and I wondered if something had happened to her sons or her husband.
“They killed everyone, destroyed everything,” she had cried. “Senators, judges, hundreds of congressmen…all dead. DC is in ruins…I don’t know what’s going to happen, Kyrie, but I’msoscared. Women already have no rights, and girls are being kidnapped everywhere.”
That was the moment I could never forget. Her grief and her utter terror at what was to come next.
When I confronted my father that evening, he didn’t deny it. It happened a whole week earlier, the storming of the US capitol by an angry mob in the thousands. They murdered all nine Supreme Court justices in cold blood, trapped lawmakers in barricaded chambers and offices, to which they then set on fire. Thousands of documents were destroyed, monuments and statues blown up and defaced.
Tension and unrest in the country had boiled over to the point where people didn’t just cripple the US government. They cut it off at the head, then watched it fall and bleed out. Everyone called it the Collapse.
With nothing to unify this now nameless, gigantic continent, there was chaos. People fought over territory, resources, power, everything. Nothing was against the law, because there were no laws. Eventually, territories arose from the skeletons of US states. Many were still volatile and dangerous, depending on who was in charge. But a few were safe, stable, and prosperous, like the one my father created—Four Corners.
One thing I still resented him for was that he staunchly defended his decision to keep me in the dark about the whole thing.To protect me, he said.
He didn’t protect me. He made me ignorant. And now I looked like a fool in front of these two men who I would be working with in recovering from the Collapse. I’d bet anything Nathan’s parents didn’t feel the need to protect him from such a catastrophic event that literally affected everyone.
“Where were you when it happened, Uncle Kurtis?” Nathan asked. The conversation had moved on from me, thankfully.
“Ah, a decade ago, I worked for the mayor of Salt Lake City,” Governor Perry said. “Truth be told, I hated that job. I always thought I would make a better mayor. He was far too outlandish with his ideas, wanted to do idiotic things with the budget, and what-have-you. Truth be told, the Collapse made a clean slate for this area. We can finally return to our original values and build a proper society from the ground up.”
I didn’t realize how hard my fists were clenched until the pain sliced through my palms. A clean slate? What a fucking callous thing to say, and from a governor, no less.
“The people who were robbed, kidnapped, and murdered in the chaos probably felt a bit differently,” I said before I could stop myself.
The two men looked at me again. “Yes, the ensuing violence was unfortunate,” Perry mused in a placating tone. “But consider this, Miss Vance. We’ve lost over fifteen percent of habitable land in the last hundred years due to the rising sea levels. With California and Florida underwater in a mere decade, it pushed more people inland. Everywhere, from major cities to small towns, ran out of housing for these people, most of whom turned out to be criminals anyway. And the population continued to boom, despite all this! Is a bit of population control to maintain order so bad?”
Nathan was nodding along as his uncle spoke, clearly in agreement, while every word made me want to throw up.
“If the goal was to prevent overpopulation and decrease criminal activity,” I had to say every word slowly in order to not scream in their faces, “maybe sixty percent of US states shouldn’t have outlawed birth control services or cut ninety percent of funding to public schools. Maybe then we wouldn’t have needed the Collapse to create aclean slate.”
“Spoken like a true, idealistic young person.” The governor smiled like he was trying to come off as teasing but I only felt patronized. “You weren’t even a thought when the countdown to the Collapse began, my dear. Unrest had been building for decades, and there were many contributing factors to the country’s demise. It’s a very complicated situation with no clear solutions. We’re just doing the best we can.”
I slumped back in my seat, disbelief rendering me speechless. “Of course. You’re right, governor.”
My mind reeled as the two men resumed facing forward. Did they feel satisfied at putting the dumb little woman in her place? And did they really see the mass panic, the looting, rioting, displacement and trafficking of thousands, as necessary to justify their end goal?
So many people had suffered. The leader of my father’s military, General Bray, and his wife had escaped from a labor camp and would have died if they hadn’t reached Four Corners. Nearly every adult in my home territory had a similar story. For all of my father’s faults, at least he never saw others’ pain as a benefit to him. He rolled up his sleeves and helped his fellow man. I came to Sevier with the goal of doing the same, and I never imagined I’d see such nonchalance from my own colleagues.
The weight of a large hand came to rest briefly on my shoulder. Grudge. I’d forgotten about him for a moment, silently observing from the backseat. I reached up to touch his hand but he’d already taken it away.
Still, I recognized the gesture for what it was. Comfort, solidarity. He couldn’t voice his opinion, but he knew where I was coming from. After feeling chastised and dismissed, I was grateful for that small reminder that I had someone on my side.
The driver parked at our first stop, immediately coming to my door to help me out. I was relieved that it was him and not Nathan or his uncle. After Anita and the others got out, Grudge came up next to me with an intense look in his eyes.
He touched my arm, then gestured to his ear with his other hand before bringing his palm over his heart. Anita stared at us, looking puzzled, but I understood his meaning perfectly.You speak from the heart, and I hear you.
“Thank you, Grudge,” I said with a nod and forced smile. “I’m glad you’re here, and I appreciate you saying that.”
I went to touch his arm as he did with me, but he had already pulled away and resumed his guard position at my back. What I really wanted to do was hug him. He looked like he gave warm, wonderful hugs.
Who was I kidding? I wanted to burrow into the middle of a Sons of Odin cuddle pile and never come out.
Especially now that I had an even bigger uphill battle than I imagined with this job. I thought I’d found new opportunities but so far, I’d only been met with more barriers.
