Joanne stared after the men, wide-eyed.
Green rubbed his forehead and shook his head.
Castle ran a hand through his sweat-soaked hair. “If we were anywhere else, I’d say they’d lost their minds.”
“But they’re humans,” Jeff said. “So where are they from? What are they doing on this ship?”
“What did the guy mean by ‘punishing the whores’?” Mac wondered aloud.
“Should we talk to them again?” Shorty asked. “Shouldn’t we stop them from dragging those women to death?”
“Better not,” Jeff said, remembering the murderous gaze of the bearded man. “We don’t know what’s going on here. They could attack us and do the same to us.”
Joanne sighed. “So what do we do?” she asked finally.
Jeff rubbed his temples. “I say we keep going. There seem to be more people here. Maybe there are some we can actually talk to.”
They picked up their belongings and continued walking.
Joanne was marching alongside Jeff. “I don’t get it. How did those people get here? Did they crash land like we did? Were they taken in like us and then lost their minds? Where do they live? What do they eat?”
Jeff didn’t have any answers. But he hoped to find some soon.
They were nearing another group of people. Jeff could hear the screams from afar and swallowed. It was no better than what they’d just left behind. Ten wooden crosses stood on a small hill. On each of them hung naked men, bleeding from multiple wounds. Some were unconscious or dead. Around the crosses stood a crowd of twenty or thirty men and women covered only in tattered loincloths. The women hadn’t bothered to cover their breasts. Some of the men at the front were holding long, lance-like weapons in their hands, and were repeatedly prodding the flesh of the men hanging on the crosses. The rocks below were colored dark red.
Mouth agape, Jeff stopped about thirty feet away from the scene and watched the angry mob.
Joanne came up beside him. “What the fuck is going on here?” Her voice was barely more than a whisper. “What is this place?”
A large woman was in the process of attacking one of the men on the crosses with a lance. The sharp tip plunged deep into his thigh, and blood gushed over the blade and down the man’s leg. His screams turned into whimpers and then stopped altogether as he slumped down on the cross, held up only by the ropes around his arms.
“I don’t know,” Jeff replied quietly. He wanted to speak to someone, but was scared. Scared of ending up on a cross himself.
A small, blond woman was standing a little to the side. She looked calmer than the rest of the pack. Jeff beckoned to Castle to follow him and approached her, keeping a tight grip on the butt of his gun. Given the number of potential opponents, it wouldn’t help him much, but the touch of the bare metal gave him some reassurance.
“Excuse me,” Jeff addressed the woman tentatively.
She took no notice of him, her gaze was fixed on the nearest cross, on which a bearded man with gaping chest wound hung apathetically. The woman was mumbling something to herself. Jeff thought he heard the words “Bleed, you sinners!”
“Excuse me?” Jeff spoke a little louder this time, and tapped the woman’s bare shoulder. She briefly turned in his direction. Jeff got goose bumps. The woman was a good head shorter than him. She had a pretty, striking face with narrow, expressive lips and a button nose. But the pupils of her eyes were completely dilated. She looked mad. Jeff was reminded of the look on Owl’s face before he had slashed open his stomach. Then she turned around again and continued with her mumbled litany.
It was pointless.
Jeff took a step back. The people here had evidently all lost their minds. They needed to think of something if they were going to get anything out of anyone.
He looked around. The rest of his shipmates were gathered at the bottom of a small hill, huddled around the equipment sled. Then Jeff had an idea. Maybe they could learn something if they separated one of the people from the rest. The blond woman, perhaps? Yes, it was possible, because the others were so busy watching the men being tortured on the crosses, they weren’t paying attention to anything else.
Jeff waved Mac and Castle over. They listened to him with strained expressions, while he explained the plan to them.
“And you reckon that’ll work?” Mac sounded doubtful.
“They could kill us,” Castle added.
Jeff sighed. “We have to take a risk if we want to find out what’s going on here. Let’s go.”
Mac shrugged, crept up behind the blond woman, flung one arm around her chest and covered her mouth with his other hand. Castle grabbed her by the ankles. The woman writhed, but Castle tightened his grip. She didn’t stand a chance. Hurriedly they dragged her behind the little outcrop. Jeff and the others followed, glancing around nervously to check that they hadn’t been seen. It looked like nobody had noticed them.
“Put her down over there,” Jeff ordered.
Castle loosened his grip and the woman immediately started kicking. Mac struggled to keep her under control.
“Looks like she’s gone mad. Like Owl. Is there anything you can do?” Jeff asked Joanne. She was pale but composed and immediately started rummaging in her medical bag. She took out a small pre-filled syringe and injected the clear solution into the woman’s stomach. Immediately the woman began to calm down.
“What did you give her?” Castle asked.
“An antihypertensive. But the stuff is also used as an antagonist for various psychoactive substances. Might work.”
“How long till it has an effect?” Jeff asked.
Joanne shrugged. “I don’t know if it will work at all.”
But finally the woman stopped kicking. After a few minutes, Jeff nodded to Mac to take his hand off her mouth.
“You should be hanging from a cross,” the woman’s voice was slurred. Her pupils were still very dilated.
“Don’t worry,” Jeff spoke in a reassuring tone. “We just want to talk to you. We have a few questions.”
“What have you got?” The woman looked at him uncomprehendingly.
“A few questions. Please don’t worry.”
“What kind of questions?” the woman asked, as if Jeff had made a stupid joke.
“What are you doing with the men on the crosses?”
“Punishing them, obviously. What did you think?” The woman stared at him as if she were dealing with an imbecile.
“What did they do?”
“They’re sinners,” the woman said.
“Sure, but what are they being punished for?”
“They sinned,” she said firmly.
“Are you saying you don’t even know?” Joanne asked.
“It doesn’t matter. Who cares. They’re sinners and must be punished.”
“Yes, but who says they’re sinners?” Jeff asked.
“Everyone knows it.”
Jeff shook his head. They weren’t getting anywhere.
“How did you get here?” he wanted to know.
The woman stared at him like a ghost. “What do you mean?”
Jeff could feel anger welling up inside him. He took a deep, slow breath. “It’s a simple question: How did you get here?”
The woman regarded him in silence for a moment, then finally opened her mouth. “I died. How else would I have gotten here?”
Jeff’s draw dropped. The woman must really be mad. There was no other explanation. “Where are you from? I mean, what planet did you live on?”
“On Deneb-6,” she replied.
No, that can’t be. Jeff bit his lip until he tasted blood in his mouth.
“I died when the planet exploded.”
Dad died when Deneb-6 exploded. Jeff was unable to continue.