Page 28 of Everything Under the Sun

A flurry of excited voices rose above the crowd.

I kept my gaze fixed on the Overseer, realizing now what it was about him that was so interesting before: the more he seemed to stand up for women against the dangerous soldiers that outnumbered him, the more I believed that he could somehow help Sosie and me.

But then all of that hope came crashing down when he said to Marion, “I agree with you”, and my heart fell into the pit of my stomach.

Atticus stepped away from Marion, passed me and Sosie, and made his way back up the concrete steps where he stopped at the top and turned to face the crowd.

“However,” he began in a loud, clear voice so everyone could hear him, “when it comes to new women, you all know as well as I do that Rafe and Overlord Wolf always get first pick. And Rafe chooses who goes where, not any of you who take it upon yourselves to choose for him.” His eyes scanned the crowd. “And none of the women, no matter where you think they’ll be placed, will be violated before your leaders have seen them first.”

“So then where does that leave you?!” someone accused.

All eyes were on Atticus, even mine—especially mine.

“It leaves me with the temporary authority to put these women where they belong within the city,” he answered. “Because the Overseer post was appointed to me, and I will do the job that I was entrusted to do.”

“Even taking any one of them for yourself!” another soldier called out.

“I have no use for a wife,” Atticus said. “But I will keep watch over any of them I feel might be of interest to Rafe, since Overlord Wolf is not currently interested in taking any more wives. The others will be sorted accordingly.”

The same men opposing him, were now slowly agreeing with him. Heads nodded, whispers of acceptance were exchanged, disgruntled faces became expressions of approval.

After a moment, Marion walked to the bottom step. “I may have misjudged you, Atticus,” he said. “Though I hope you’ll understand that I’m just here to do my duty same as you are, and as leader of my scouting party, that includes the protection of my men.”

Atticus nodded. “And hopefully your women as well,” he said, and looked down at the defiant girl. “Because that one”—he pointed at her—“I’m assigning to you, Marion. She could be of use to an outfit like yours. Teach her to fight and how to shoot—though I gather that won’t be hard to do, considering.”

Marion looked like he wanted to take back the words of apology he had just spoken.

“I’m not going anywhere with him,” the girl shot back, her dark eyes boring into Marion beneath scraggly dark hair.

“You will,” Atticus told her, “and you will cooperate, or Marion will bring you to me and I’ll kill you myself.”

The girl’s lips snapped shut.

“Fine,” Marion grumbled. “And if she tries to kill me?”

“Then I suggest your hand is quicker than hers.”

Marion and the girl shot each other with angry glares.

“Now, let’s get on with this,” Atticus announced, and turned his attention first to the girl who had been raped. “Bring her forward,” he told Marion as he descended the steps.

Marion stepped up with the rope in his hands; the girl followed without argument, kept her face down, as always.

I did the same, to avoid drawing attention to me and Sosie, despite knowing the attention was inevitable.

“Don’t worry, darlin’,” the brute holding my rope said. “I already know where you’re going.” He smiled, displaying his largely gapped front teeth.

I closed my eyes and said a silent prayer.

“The girl will go to the workers,” Atticus announced, to the surprise of everyone.

Marion did a double-take.

“What?” he asked, with the same disbelief the other soldiers shared.

“Look at her, Marion,” Atticus said, pointing. “Who, other than Private Bell, who isn’t so pretty to look at himself, will ever want to fuck her? If I put her in the brothel she’ll be a waste of space. She can’t defend herself much less fight to defend anybody else, and no man here is going to want her as his wife, so with the workers is the only place left to put her.”

Atticus motioned an old woman over.

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