Drowning in Deception (31 page)

Her father took center stage and tapped
the microphone that stood waiting there. There were two dull thuds as his finger
hit it. “People of Eadin,” he called. 

He waited as the mumbles of the crowd slowly
subsided, all eyes focussed now on Bromer Swelton.

Clover nudged her friends and gestured
to them to make their way to the front of the crowd so they could be near the
stage. Joseph and Darna, knowing they were wanted criminals, stayed back to
blend in with other faces, but the rest merged forward. They shoved their way
through the massive sea of people as Bromer began to speak. “I'm afraid this
has all been one big misunderstanding. On behalf of all the hard working people
of the Watch Tower, I would like to apologize for all of the trouble. I can
assure you that both newspaper articles in question are nothing more than
fiction. It is my belief that the person who wrote them meant them only as a
joke.” 

A shout came out of the crowd. “Are you
saying the milk doesn't contain poison?” 

He smiled out into the crowd. “We have
spent the past few days rigorously testing it, and I can assure you all that it
is perfectly safe for consumption.” 

“Then how come we feel so different now
that we've stopped drinking it?” came another yell from within the swarm of people. 

“I can only assume that it's because
your body is no longer getting all the healthy vitamins and nutrients it is accustomed
to.” 

A low buzz started. It continued to grow
louder and louder as people began debating the topic with one another. There
were more shouts from the crowd aimed at Bromer, arguments broke out within the
people, and it looked as if all control was about to be lost.

Smith shoved his way through the final
few people at the front and scrambled up onto the stage.

The voices in the crowd slowly startled
to ebb as the people began noticing this stranger that now gazed down on them.
They spoke in hushed tones as they stared at the man that looked like none they
had ever seen before. His arms and legs were covered, due to the cold winter
day, but it was clear that the flesh on his face was raw and pink with
scarring.

Bromer had obviously assumed a few
reassuring words would have sent the people home. Clover could see the
frustration taking form on his face as he realized it wouldn’t be that easy. “And
who the hell are you?” he sneered at Smith. 

Smith shoved slightly at Bromer and
leaned in to the microphone to address the crowd. “My name is Smith Hardwin.”
There were a few scattered gasps followed by mumbles. 

“Impossible,” scoffed Bromer. “Smith Hardwin
is...” 

“Dead?” asked Smith, turning to look
Bromer boldly in the eye. The big man's expression changed quickly to shock
after a quick search of Smith’s eyes. It was clear that he recognized him. 

“Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm very
much alive.” He smiled, causing his one cheek to bulge out in ugly lumps. A few
people at the front of the crowd made squeamish noises.

Smith turned back to the people. “My
fellow citizens of Eadin. We have all been lied to. The milk is not poisoned.
It’s purposefully drugged at the Watch Tower. It has been for more years than I
know - possibly even for many lifetimes. Why, you ask? To keep you, the
citizens of Eadin content...happy...compliant. I found out a few years ago, and
when I tried to tell other people, they...” he gestured to the men who were
holding guns behind him.  “They did this to me.” Smith pointed directly
at Bromer, causing more gasps from the onlookers. 

“We did not do this to you.” Bromer
looked at Smith like he was a pitying an insane man.

“No, not directly. You tattooed my
entire body with words like ‘Sinner’, ‘Monster Snack’, and worse. Then you
dropped me over the Wall to be murdered.”

A voice from the crowd yelled out, “Is
that what happened to my wife? She got caught on the other side of the boundary
line. They took her away and I never saw her again.”

Another voice added, “And my brother. He
used to work at the Watch Tower. He told a few people they were adding
something to the milk. He disappeared too.”

A number of people started shouting and
the crowd turned into a chaotic mess. Clover’s father raised his hands to
settle them, but he was ignored. He gestured to one of his men, who, without
hesitation, fired a single shot into the air.

There was instant silence.

“Now, please…” tried Bromer.

Another voice came from the crowd. “What
about the monsters? The newspaper said they are actually people that we steal
from. So what are they - monsters or people?”

Clover’s father narrowed his eyes at the
crowd. “They are disgusting, heartless beings that look like you and I. But
that is their allure. They get you to trust them and then they turn into horrid
beasts and eat you alive.”

The crowd startled mumbling.

Smith raised his arms to quiet everyone
again. “Yes, they do look like us, and yes, they do change into hunters. But
they are not heartless. In fact, they are more compassionate than some of the
people here in Eadin.” He shot a look at Bromer. “When I was dumped in Quell to
die, a couple of them took me in, helped me survive. I’m alive because of them.
Now you tell me. Who is the monster? The one who scars you for life and dumps
you in the wilderness to die, or the one who takes you in, feeds you, and
nurses your wounds?”

The gathered crowd began mumbling
quietly amongst themselves.

“Do not believe this man. He is a
criminal,” boomed Bromer as he took Smith by the arm and started to lead him
off the stage.

But he stopped when a man at the front
of the crowd asked, “So, is it true? Do most of our food and supplies come from
over there? Do we take it from them? And if so, why? We have farms here.”

Smith yanked his arm free and stepped
back up to the microphone. “Yes, it’s all true. Think about it. Look around at
all the people gathered here today. And this isn’t even the entire population
of Eadin. Do you really think that one dairy farm here, with twenty or so cows,
is capable of supplying milk to all of us?”

He paused a moment to the let people
absorb his words.

“Does anyone here know where we get the
electricity that powers our city? Have you ever even thought about it? There’s
no power plant anywhere in Eadin. It’s on the other side of the Wall, in Quell.
The people there keep it running, yet they are not permitted to have
electricity in their own homes.”

Mumbles began throughout the crowd
again, until the same man climbed up onto the stage to address the crowd
himself. “So, who do we believe?” he asked his peers. “It seems obvious to me
that we’ve been fooled about the milk.
Something
is in it. I feel different,
clearer somehow, than I ever have before. And what about the rest of it? Do we
believe a Watch Tower man who knew there was something in the milk, but kept it
from us, or do we believe a random man with a shocking story?”

Smith spoke up before the crowd could
get noisy again. “Look at these men behind me. They have guns. Were any of you
even aware that there were guns in Eadin? We are preached to that we are a perfect
society, a peaceful society. But I ask you, what kind of peaceful society has
guns at the ready for a gathering of its citizens?”

“They are merely for everyone’s
protection,” Bromer stated quickly.

Clover could hardly stand it anymore.
Watching the exchanges on the stage and watching the mixed reactions from the
people was hard to take. Poor Smith was trying, but he wasn’t getting far.
These people had been brainwashed for so long. The very idea of the horrors
they were learning about was hard for them to swallow.

She shifted from one foot to the other,
listening helplessly to the muttering of all the people around her. She decided
this was it. She needed to stand up to her father again.

She started pushing forward and felt a
hand on her back. It was Sera. “I’m with you,” she said.

“No. You can’t come up. My dad might think
you’re still Gart’s girlfriend. You could get Gart fired…or killed.”

Sera stopped abruptly and let Clover go.

As she climbed up onto the stage, the
man from the crowd jumped down. She marched right to the microphone, past Smith,
and past her stunned father. She spoke loud and clear so that no one would miss
what she said. “I’ll tell you who to believe. You believe this man.” She
stretched her arm straight out so everyone could see, and pointed her index
finger right into the scarred face of Smith.

“And who are you? Why should we believe
you?”

“I am Clover Swelton. And you should
believe me because…” She thought of Rye, and how he’d said she was ashamed of
what she was. She looked into the crowd and found Sera’s encouraging face,
nodding for her to continue, to tell them all the truth. But she couldn’t do
it. She couldn’t admit that she was a Carnae. She scanned the thousands of
hushed faces that stared up at her. “…because I am this man’s daughter.” She
moved her pointed arm from Smith and aimed it directly at her father.

Bromer’s face looked as if it had turned
to stone.

“And I’m here to tell you that my
father, Bromer Swelton, is a liar. He’s lied to all of you, and he’s lied to me.
And I know this because I have worked at the Watch Tower. I have not only seen the
drug being added to the milk, but I myself have put it in the milk.” She
swallowed and licked her lips. “And you should believe Smith because… I have been
to the other side of the Wall.” She saw the shock in Bromer’s face from the
corner of her eye. “I have been to Quell and I have met these so-called
monsters. And I have witnessed the shocking treatment they receive from the men
of the Watch Tower who call themselves their gods.”

She waited a beat to let everyone take
in what she had said. “All they want - the people of Quell - is to be left
alone. That’s all they want from us. To be able to live their lives.”

Bromer strode up to the microphone. “That
is quite enough,” he boomed. “This is nothing more than a huge
misunderstanding. My daughter has an overactive imagination. Please, good
people of Eadin, go home. Get on with your lives and forget this nonsense ever
happened.”

Clover took a breath and shoved forward
to step in front of her father. “This man, my own father, my own flesh and
blood, steals from and murders the people on the other side of the Wall.” There
was no going back now. This was her father. She pushed back the memories of the
fun times they’d shared together, the way his giant bear hugs used to feel, his
booming laugh and his fatherly scent that always made her feel safe. What he
was doing was wrong, and if she didn’t stand up to him, how could she expect
anyone else to. “I believe the people of Quell should be left alone. They have
done nothing wrong. They don’t deserve to be treated so badly. Who agrees with
me?”

Clover lowered her head to await the
deafening silence that was sure to come. But much to her surprise, a booming
cheer erupted from the crowd.

She smiled and lifted her eyes to the
crowd, searching the faces as elation pulsed through her. They believed. They
were on her side. “But they need our help. They can’t fight against these men
with guns when they have no weapons of their own. Who wants to help them?”

Another echoing cheer roared up to meet
her, quaking through her body.

 “Who will stand with me in the name of
freedom for the people of Quell?”

This time the screams and hurrahs were
twice as loud. She was both surprised and thrilled that they believed her, that
they wanted to help. It had worked. It had really worked.

Gart had told her there was a scheduled
supply flight that night. This had to be it. With so many people behind her,
surely her father and the others wouldn’t go. This could be the end of it - the
end of it without any war, without any bloodshed.

Arms raised high in the air and a big
smile sweeping across her face, Clover yelled, “When the choppers fly tonight,
I will be waiting on the other side of the Wall with my friends in Quell. I
will be waiting to make a stand against the gods of Eadin. I will be waiting to
tell them, “No more gods”. Who will be there standing with me?”

She closed her eyes, ready to take in
the cheers and yells. But it didn’t come. Instead there was instant,
bone-chilling silence, as if everyone had been suddenly frozen to ice by the
cold. Clover overheard quiet mumbling throughout the crowd. She caught pieces
of conversations: “But they are still killers…”, “I want to help but that’s
asking too much…”, “…monsters…”, “not going to risk my life…”, “crazy, we could
all be killed…”

She glanced over at her father. He
raised his brows at her and offered a sympathetic, yet smug grin.

He stepped up to the microphone and
addressed the massive group. “Please understand. I didn’t make the laws. These
gentlemen behind me did not make the laws. They were put in place years ago to
protect our home and our people. They are all for our own good and I plan to
continue to uphold them for the sake of every person in Eadin.” He paused and
glanced around. “This meeting is adjourned.”