He aimed that at Aimee as a warning. She inclined her head as if to understand the threat.
“I’m sure we’ll be fine,” Charlie said. “I’ll see you kids later.”
Aimee turned and encouraged Charlie to her side. The two guards led them away.
Denver knew she and the guards wouldn’t know he was carrying a pistol in a lower back holster, or that he had two knives below his trousers strapped around his calves.
Once they were out of sight among the sprawl of the town, Denver closed the door behind him and sat opposite Maria.
She had a pot of root tea on the table and filled two mugs. She handed one to Denver with a smile.
“Thanks, I could really do with this with the exertion yesterday,” Denver said, knowing how lame that sounded, but needing a way into the conversation without being his usual blunt self.
The two of them sipped the root tea for a moment, sharing an easy silence as the root helped calm them, rejuvenating their tired muscles.
“So,” Maria said, looking down into her now-empty mug. “I think I know who I’m cloned from.”
“Oh?”
“I’ve been having flashbacks for the last few days, and dreams… so real I thought none of this was real and the dreams were my actual reality. With meeting another clone, I think it’s shaken something loose up here.” She tapped her head.
“Tell me about it.”
“It’s all connected. We’re connected, through time.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Roanoke,” she said. “I was there.”
“You what?”
Maria leaned forward, placing the mug on the table. “The real Maria, the one I’m cloned from, was there at Roanoke—and the aliens.”
“One thing at a time, tell me what you’ve seen.”
Roanoke, 1589
Maria lifted her skirts and stepped over a muddy puddle. The heat in this infernal place was thick and humid, making her sweat uncomfortably. The dense trees made it hard going. Up ahead, Franklin and Edgar slashed at the trees with their machetes, beating a path through the woods.
Behind her, she could just about see the mast of their ship, now wrecked against the rocks of the island.
With the local Croatoan tribe of Indians forcing them from their garrison, they had little choice but to carry on north. The plan was to meet and seek sanctuary with the rival Chowanoke tribe, offering their knowledge of the Old World in return for safety.
If only Walter Raleigh’s imbecilic friend John White had returned with more men and supplies when he had promised, they could have avoided all this.
If the earlier colonists hadn’t antagonized the local tribes over a missing silver cup, then negotiations of cohabitation could have been an option. One cannot sack and burn a village and not expect reprisals.
Now there was only certain death or become a slave to the Croatoan Indians if their appeal to the Chowanoke leader failed, which it seemed certain to do.
Only one hundred and fifteen of Maria’s fellow colonists were left to fend off the tribes. Hungry and under resourced, they were unable to resist.
This New World was not worth the blood and sacrifice. She regretted ever having agreed to come here. All the promises of wealth and riches were now nothing more than lies.
Maria stepped forward into the clearing to join Franklin and Edgar.
“I see smoke,” Franklin said, wiping his sleeve across his forehead. His dark hair was slick with sweat and humidity. He’d removed his shirt. His muscles looked knotted between his bones.
They were getting weaker. She had seen it herself, her ribs showing through her sagging skin. Potatoes and the odd crab caught on the coast were not enough to sustain them since the destruction of their colony.
Those who weren’t killed by the tribes had agreed to integrate.
As slaves.
But Maria’s best friend, Elizabeth, had escaped, telling her tales of devil worship and satanic beasts. The rest of the colonists were taken away to Roanoke Island, across the sound.
Sometimes, at night, Maria heard screams and cries on the wind and couldn’t entirely rationalize them as coming from the local fauna or the tribespeople.
“This is madness,” Maria said. “No good can come of this. We should seek a place far from here, seek out a trader or privateer and get word back to England.”
“It’s far too late for that now,” Edgar said, his jowls wobbling. His fever was getting worse. Hair slicked against his face, which had taken on a grave pallor.
“Someone’s coming,” Franklin said, backing away.
Across the clearing the trees were swaying.
Footsteps and snapping branches came from all around them.
“The Croatoans,” Maria said. “They must have found Elizabeth’s body and tracked us here.”
Spinning around with panic, Maria realized they were trapped, entirely surrounded and no way out. This was it, then—the end of this infernal adventure. Despite her heart racing, a part of her welcomed this. It had been such a struggle for so long. White wasn’t returning. Raleigh had forsaken them.
Ahead of the clearing, the trees parted and four figures stepped out.
“The devils!” Maria screamed when she saw them.
They weren’t human. The figures walked upright but with satyr legs. Their faces were large and resembled turtles. They made strange clicking noises and were armed with weapons that only vaguely resembled dueling pistols, only much larger and carried with two arms.
Before Maria could run, a pair of strong hands grabbed her from behind.
Franklin and Edgar too were caught, and no amount of screaming or thrashing could dissuade the beasts from dragging them away.
Maria wiped the tears from her eyes and sat back on the sofa. Denver moved to sit next to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
“It’s okay,” he said. “It’s not you, even if you have the memories.”
“They… did things to them. Once they were taken to Roanoke Island,” Maria said, gathering her composure. “The tribespeople known as the Croatoans were just simple Indians. They didn’t understand what was happening. They thought the aliens were gods.”
“At least we now know what happened to all those poor colonists,” Denver said. “My dad will want to know this.”
“Of course,” Maria said, “I want him to know all this. There were a dozen of us colonists strapped to their operating tables, their engineers prodding and testing us, pumping us full of drugs.”
Maria leaned into Denver, resting her face against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her. “I promise,” he said. “They’ll pay for everything they’ve done.”
“You can’t trust them,” Maria said. “No matter what they say or try to prove, they cannot be trusted. They’re evil, Den, truly.”
“Which is all the more reason I have to see this through.”
He had the bomb and he had his dad. Whatever plan Hagellan had in mind, they were two factors that would be beyond his reckoning.
Maria looked up at him. “Promise me you’ll come back. Somehow… just come back.”
He couldn’t mean it, as he didn’t believe he would be coming back, but he promised anyway, wanting to give her something to believe in. They sat there together in each other’s arms as they waited for Charlie’s return and the start of the end.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Aimee walked by Charlie’s side. She moved gracefully along the main dirt road through Unity, her green silk dress gently flapping in the cool breeze.
Two miserable-looking men guarded their flanks, carrying bolt-action rifles with wooden stocks.
The stalls lining the main route were a hive of activity, just like when he was first dragged through by his neck.