Them and Us by Paul Schueller - HTML preview

Chapter 17

Two days passed and it was time for Dr. Canard, Joe, Kevin and three armed guards to head to the open range. Sam laid out a map and pointed to a big bend in the river where the plains met the forests. “This is where us will meet.” Sam said.

“Fine.” Dr. Canard said. “Us’ll take helicopters and be there at noon. Let’s see if us can wrap this up before the end of the day.”

“That’s very unlikely as they may take a day or two just to watch us to ensure they are comfortable coming out. If they see any drones or other unusual activity they will not meet with you.”

“That’s insane. I won’t have it.”

“You don’t really have a choice if you want to make this happen. Let’s get going.”

After a two-hour helicopter ride and over 100 miles out past the edge of the growing fields they landed in an open field near a tree line that represented the beginning of a great forest. As the helicopter blades glided to a stop they unloaded their gear. Soon after that the helicopter, with just the pilot remaining on board, hovered for a bit then moved quickly out of sight.

As they started to observe their surroundings Sam could see the angst in their eyes and body language. It’s like they were stripped naked and both body and soul were exposed without the protection of the buildings and life in the city.

For 24 hours the group mostly sheltered in their tents waiting for their guests to arrive. Dr Canard grew restless and sent the three guards out to see if they could locate the tribe. An hour later he asked Joe to walk outside with him. As they poked their heads out of the tent they were greeted by Alexandria and Gideon standing calmly and patiently in the middle of their camp. Kevin herd the noise and scurried out of his tent.

Sam had gone for a short walk and when he returned he saw the two groups facing each other about 10 feet apart. He positioned himself between them and began to speak. “Dr. Canard, Joe and Kevin, this is Alexandria, the leader of their tribe, and her husband Gideon. As requested, us have kept drones away from this place so that us can speak openly, but where are the guards?”

Dr. Canard answered. “I sent them to scout the area.”

Then Alexandria jumped in. “That is why we are here now, so as to not be disturbed.”

“Thank you for meeting with us.” Dr. Canard said.

“What do you want of us?” Alexandria said.

“I can see you get right to the point. So, I will reciprocate. Us want your DNA.”

“Our what?”

“Us want your heredity. Us need your skill sets and your way of living, crossbred with us to develop a group of soldiers that can continue to protect our city for generations.”

“Protect you from what?”

“Ah, from other cities and poachers.” Dr. Canard said.

“Or do you want to protect yourselves from us?” Alexandra asked.

“No, you are not a threat to us.” Dr Canard stated with confidence.

“So then you want our people to breed with your people.”

“Not exactly, but the details of how this would work can wait until later.”

Gideon jumped into the conversation for the first time. “Why should we agree to such a thing and even if we did what would we have to gain?”

Dr. Canard looked at Sam, confused and Sam quickly realized there was a communication problem and spoke up. “We means all of them, as a group, kind of like us but more together.”

It started to register with him so Dr. Canard continued, “Us would provide you with your own territory. Where you’d be free from having to travel all over the open range to gather and kill food.”

“That is the last thing in the world we would want. We have history books from before the cities. We know what the ancestors of the city people have done to groups like ours in the past.

We will not be set aside by the city.” Alexandria stated.

“I do not know the history books you speak of and don’t fully understand what we really means.” Dr. Canard said.

“It’s all of us as a people, together, wanting the same thing and to be there for each other and fighting and dying for each other if necessary.” Alexandra stated.

For all his faults Dr. Canard was an intellectual man and wanted to understand what he was dealing with so he continued to probe. “Does that mean you don’t care about getting yours?

Don’t you care about yourself?”

Alexandra smirked and said “Yourself. That is a funny word.”

“Not to us. Everyone deserves to get what is best for themselves.” Dr Kanard stated.

Now Gideon spoke up. “That’s another funny word. We don’t use these words.

Dr. Canard now grew impatient and wanted to move things along. “So, even us are part of your we?”

“If not we, it becomes us and them. That is not a good way to live.” Alexandra stated.

“Well, if you help us, us will help you somehow.” Dr. Canard stated.

“You want protection from your neighbors but these are our brothers and sisters. They are our mating partners, thus they are our families. We will not protect you against our own.”

“There are cities all over this world and three that can get to us quite easily.” Surely you don’t care about them.” Dr. Canard said.

“We don’t know them but if they are open range people then they are our brethren, so we do care.”

“But us are your brethren too. Us come from the same people.” Dr. Canard, although manipulative, was accurate.

After some thought Alexandra spoke again. “You are right. We are from the same distant tribe but seem to be more different than the same after all these generations. You are clearly too weak to survive in the open range and we are clearly too proud to be part of the city and do the things that you ask.”

Things weren’t going anywhere and tensions started to escalate. All except Sam now had a gun or crossbow in their hands. Alexandria spoke next. “Sam, do you wish to stay with us. We are leaving as clearly this conversation is going nowhere.”

Sam immediately responded, “Yes I do.”

Alexandra said. “Well then, the way I understand it, we need these three to speak of your death so that your parents and their children are ok.”

Sam looked puzzled and then spoke “Of course that would be nice, but really…”

Alexandria jumped in before Sam could finish. “Your family will be losing you so in the eyes of the city you will be dead. That means they deserve what the city promised.” Alexndra turned back to Dr. Canard, Joe and Kevin. “Can we trust you to do this for Sam?”

“Why would us do that?” Dr Canard asked.

Alexandra continued, specifically speaking to Dr. Canard. “Because it is the right thing to do.

Because you used him and now his parents won’t have him with them. Can we trust you to do that?”

“Of course you can.” Dr Canard assured them.

Alexandra continued. “I don’t know that I trust you and we really only need one of the two of you to return.” It was clear from making eye contact that she was referring to Dr. Canard and Joe who were standing next to each other.

That sounded like a threat to Dr. Canard and he turned and walked in front of Joe and shot him in the chest with the force of the bullet launching him back several feet with his shoulder blades and head the first to impact the ground.

Dr. Canard then turned back to Alexandria and said. “There, now us have only one of the two of us that can return to the city. Before us go won’t you reconsider helping us? Then perhaps I can find a way to work something out for Sam and his family. Let’s just put our weapons down and talk further.”

Alexandria and Gideon remained remarkably calm and then Gideon said “Dear you said one of two of them, didn’t you mean one of three?”

Alexandria looked at Dr. Canard and then Kevin and said “Oh yes, silly me I did mean only one of three.”

Kevin looked startled but dropped his weapon to his side and said “Hey hey, let’s wait a minute here, I’m not shooting this idiot and I hope you’re not letting him shoot me.”

As he ended his sentence Dr. Canard looked at Kevin as Alexandria and Gideon pointed their weapons towards Dr. Canard. Sam stood by helplessly and unarmed. Kevin froze, unable to even raise his gun.

Dr Canard turned towards Kevin and said “They can’t kill me if you are gone.”

Before he could pull the trigger, a shot rang out hitting Dr. Canard in the back of the head. He fell forward, dead before he hit the ground. They all turned to Joe who had used his last breath and bit of strength to shoot Dr. Canard.

Sam and Kevin looked at each other, stunned. Sam finally regained his composure and said to Kevin. “That sure could’ve turned out worse for you.”

Kevin also recovered from the shock and said. “If you people don’t mind I’d be happy to return to the city and ensure that Sam‘s death is recorded properly and also get word to his parents of his unofficial status.”

“That would be a good and wise use of your time.” Alexandria stated. “And I assume you will also take care of the bodies and get the guards to help clean this mess up. Shouldn’t be too hard since they killed each other. No need to drag our people into this, I assume.”

“You assume correctly. But may I ask, what if you had just said you needed to trust the three of us?”

“Well, then that is what we would have done. We just needed to see how selfish Dr. Canard might be. The more selfish the less we would trust.”

“And how did you know it would play out this way?”

“We didn’t know exactly but thought these men lacked the most important quality in the world.

And that’s how it played out here.”

Kevin looked confused again. “What quality is that?”

Alexandria stated. “Empathy.”

“And what is empathy?” Kevin asked.