Read Online The Woman They Kept by Andrew Krause - Free Book Online Page B

Leanin pressed a hard pace, the
muscles in Gideon's forearms ached and by the time they stopped his
right arm was cramping and spasming painfully. He massaged it
gently as Leanin threw a tent.
    They were fully down the
mountain in a grove of hard, stubby little trees that had no leaves
on them. They pitched the tent off the track, where it could not be
seen easily. A creek babbled quietly in the background, running
alongside their campsite.
    “ I wouldn't drink that,”
Leanin said as she was setting up a fire. “It's toxic enough
to be flammable. Drink what you brought.”
    The water looked fine to Gideon,
but he sipped from his canteen anyway. “Toxic? Probably,
everything out here is. But flammable? I can't believe that. It's
water.”
    Leanin
knelt down beside the creek. “Look at it at an angle. You
see that shine on top? It looks pretty, doesn't it? All purple and
green as it swirls around.” She filled a cup with the water,
pouring it on the logs she had set up in a square formation. When
she struck a match and threw it on the logs a thick whoompf came in response as the water caught fire.
    Gideon raised his eyebrows.
“Okay,” he said.
    They sat on opposite sides of
the fire eating hard strips of beef that Gideon had brought. The
lower half of Leanin's face glowed, her lips set in a frown.
    “ You look mad,”
Gideon said.
    Leanin scowled at him.
“Everyone says that. I'm not mad, this is just how I look.
Deal with it.”
    “ Why did you want to help
me?” Gideon asked. “Don't get me wrong, I need all the
help I can get. I'm just curious is all.”
    Leanin's teeth looked sharp as
she gnawed into a large chunk of dried beef. The fire reflected in
her eyes when she answered him. “I knew a girl once who would
be happy I was helping you.”
    Gideon let the remark be and
stared into the fire. “You know, I've heard if we stay
outside of the bubbles for long enough the air will give us cancer.”
    Leanin laughed, and for a moment
her face lost all the sharpness in it and was surprisingly
beautiful. “I believe it. We're all dead somehow, so I don't
think it really matters. That's okay though, not everyone gets a
good life.” At that last remark her face fell and the
sharpness returned.
    “ Who was it that Daniel
owned? Who was Jenny to you?” Gideon asked suddenly.
    Leanin's face twisted into a
scowl. “That's not a question I'm willing to answer. Daniel
was a pig though. They're all pigs.” She tore off another
large hunk of beef and chewed for a while before continuing. “I
stormed a brothel once, a while back, and killed the riders that ran
it. There were only about five or six riders to about thirty girls.
If the women had all just stood up and said no they could have
easily overpowered the riders, but they were all shit scared. As I
was telling them they were free I heard a grunting coming from one
of the locked bedrooms. I kicked in the door and saw one of the
worst things I've ever seen. You ever been in a zoo?” she
asked suddenly.
    Gideon had to think. “Yeah,
there was a small one in Cormac when I was a kid. Only a few
animals, but yeah.”
    “ Do you know what an
orangutan is?” Leanin asked. Gideon nodded. “Well,
when I kicked in the door they had this orangutan that had one arm
chained to the bed. It was completely shaved, it looked like the
ugliest woman you've ever seen. I was wondering why in the world
they would have an orangutan when it flipped over and prostrated
itself on the bed, gyrating and grinding towards me. They had
trained it to fuck.”
    "That's terrible,"
Gideon said.
    "That's humanity,"
Leanin responded.
    They were quiet for a long time
after that, staring into the crackling fire. Gideon stood, a sudden
urgency to get traveling again gripped him, though he knew it would
be hours before that was possible. “I have to go to bed,"
he said, "I want to get to Fouchbough as soon as possible.”
And with that he bade her goodnight and crawled into the tent,
hoping