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“Do you know why she’s coming?”
Laura shrugged and gave Trish a small smile. “She and the Wolf team up a lot when something big goes down around here. Plus, she always likes to play with his toys.”
A sick feeling curdled in Trish’s stomach. “You mean Bella and Alex?”
“Yeah, but she’s actually rougher if you can believe it.” Unlike some people in the Compound, Laura didn’t sound like she got any joy from the fact, but she didn’t seem bothered by it, either. Glancing up at the vidscreen, Laura grabbed for the remote and turned up the volume. “Oh hey, look, they’re finally reporting on her!”
Trish looked up at the screen to see the blank stare of Abby, the Wolf’s previous captive. Her family surrounded her protectively, insisting on no comment and ushering her away. It wasn’t until Trish blinked that she realized tears were clinging to her eyelashes.
If—when—Trish was returned to the Moon, there would be no one to protect her from the media like that. They’d hound her, not caring what trauma she’d been through, only caring about the story. She’d only be important to them because they’d want to know about the Wolf.
“I wonder why they never talk,” Laura mused to herself as she continued to color, keeping one eye on the vidscreen.
“Would you want to talk to them?” Trish gestured at the screen as she shuddered. That sounded like her worst nightmare.
“I mean, not to those vultures, but you’d think eventually someone would want to do an interview.” The way she said it was almost sarcastic, as if she thought one of the Wolf’s long-term victims would want another fifteen minutes of fame.
How could someone who seemed as warm and caring as Laura be so callous against feeling anything for the Wolf’scaptives? Maybe it was because she and Laura were alone, or maybe it was because Trish was reaching the end of her rope—as evidenced by slapping Jordan last night—but Trish couldn’t stay silent any longer.
“Doesn’t it bother you?”
“What?” Laura looked up at her, surprised at the vehemence in Trish’s voice.
“That.” Trish gestured at the screen. “Her. Alex and Bella. The others.” She didn’t ask about herself because she didn’t know if she could handle hearing Laura’s answer.
Laura looked at the screen. Shrugged. “So a few Moonies get a taste of what life down here is like, why should that bother me?”
“But life isn’t all like that down here,” Trish argued. “No one else is going through what Alex and Bella are.”
“Not as much anymore,” Laura agreed, but a slightly bitter smile twisted her lips. “The Wolf and Cora and others like them put a stop to most of the worst excesses when they took over, but it wasn’t always like this.”
“What was it like?” Trish’s mouth was dry, but she had to ask. Had to know. Had to understand.
Putting down her pen, Laura stared off into the distance, her expression blank, as though she were looking at something far, far away. “I don’t know what they teach you up there, but it was awful when the Earth and Moon separated. My mother was old enough to remember what it was like before, and she always seemed sad. I mean, nothing was perfect, but when the Moonies first up and left, they didn’t care about what they were leaving behind. The people left in charge were the worst of the worst. Corrupt. Greedy. My mom’s sister was taken off the street by some Moon official who saw her and decided he wanted her, and we never saw her again. I was just a kid, but I remember my mom crying for days. I still don’t know what happened to her.”
“I’m sorry,” Trish said gently, her heart clenching in her chest.
Laura continued as if she hadn’t heard Trish speak. “So people started to revolt. Might made right, whether it was against the officials the Moonies left behind or your neighbor. Everyone was forming up into little groups, and you had to hope your group was strong enough or had enough allies to defend itself against other groups. People were dying, being raped on the street, beaten up and left for dead, killed for food, killed for sport… And the officials the Moon had left behind just gave up and left.
“By that time a lot of the little groups had gotten larger, and the territories were being carved out. My mom and I ended up in this territory, working in the kitchen under the old warlord. He wasn’t interested in my mom, thankfully, or me because I was too young at the time. Then mom died during the pox plague, and I just kept my head down and stayed quiet. The old lord had started calling himself a lord by then, and he was building his harem. I didn’t want to be a part of it, so I just stayed hidden as best I could.”
“He would have forced you to join? No one would have done anything?” Trish whispered, rapt with attention. A cold horror had gripped her at the life Laura was describing. People on the Moon never talked about any of this. She hadn’t realized how much brutality, how much corruption, how much violence they’d glossed over in their little, pat explanation of what had happened on Earth after the citizens of the Moon had left. “There was violence, and things were unsettled until the crime lords took power” just didn’t cover it. Which wasn’t surprising, but it did sicken her.
Laura looked at Trish and snorted. “Even if my mom had still been alive, I doubt she would have been able to protect me if I hadn’t kept to myself. The world was finally returning to somesemblance of order. The lord wanting a small group of women to service him was a small sacrifice to pay for that. He was violent, but his violence had purpose. People stopped looting in this territory. They stopped indiscriminately raping and killing. His bully boys were out, protecting people, and even though we had to pay for it, at least it was mostly safe to walk down the street at night. At least most people could start to rebuild their lives.
“Then, when he and the other original leaders all started to become older, crueler, and talking about attacking the Moon and starting war, bad shit started happening again. Plagues, more violence, ‘peacekeepers’ that the Moon would send down, who didn’t care who they hurt… That’s when the Wolf and the others ended up taking over from the old lords. We didn’t have the technology to face the Moon and win, and the lords were just getting more people killed.”
“Huh.” Trish didn’t know what to say to that, though she felt like she should say something.
‘Sorry’ didn’t seem to cut it.
Laura went back to coloring. “Anyway, if a few Moonies get a taste of our lives, what do I care? I’d rather them than any of us. Some of the other leaders still take their harem from their own populations. At least the Wolf leaves the people he leads alone. He doesn’t split up established couples or pick out people’s children. And the Moonies go back home relatively unharmed, which is more than my aunt could say, if she’s even still alive somewhere on the Moon. Which I doubt she is. That official had a reputation, but at least he’s smart enough to never come back to Earth.”
The bitter hatred in Laura’s voice made her feelings on the matter crystal clear. The Moon was protecting some corrupt official, but if Laura ever got her hands on him…
If everyone had a story like Laura’s, it wasn’t too surprising that people didn’t care about the Wolf capturing and tormentingsome of the visiting Moon citizens. Why should they? The Moon looked down on the Earth, and the Earth looked down on the Moon, for vastly different reasons.
Trish didn’t want their conversation to end on such a negative note, though, or leave Laura dwelling on the pain of her past.
