36 Yu Yan sends a drone (2/2)
The human body forged with the creature had been sewn so tight it was nearly impossible to recognize it as a person. The only thing still linking it to its humanity was its blood, which pooled on the ground in large trickles.
An Ning glanced at the severed head and laughed.
”Can't you be more boring than to bring me a drone? You lack imagination, girl. This,” she said, indicating the island, the women, and everything that Yu Yan had tried to destroy, ”all this is finished. You failed, you dumb loser. Wait for me. I'm coming to get you, you fucking cunt.”
The head seemed to twitch angrily. With a last triumphant laugh, An Ning pulled out the eyes and destroyed its last bit of consciousness by blowing the sockets off with a gun.
An Ning stared at the carnage with an unreadable face. When she looked up, the first person she saw was Richard. She didn't even evinced any surprise to see him. The two of them stared at each other silently, the distance between them lengthening with each second.
An Ning finally pulled her gaze away and glanced at Taey.
”Is everything ready?” she asked.
Taey looked somberly at her and nodded.
”Start the evacuation then,” she said, walking over to the women huddled together watching her.
”You are pregnant,” Nyra said, looking weirdly at An Ning.
”Yes.”
”How far are you?”
”Nearly seven months.”
There was silence as the women looked at each other.
”Hippolyta once attacked a garrison in the south when she was on her eighth month. Li Cheung was furious and tried everything to stop her from going. He even used magic but she was so stubborn, so convinced that what she was doing was right,” one of the women told her, her eyes faraway as if she was seeing a different world where Hippolyta and the Amazons once ruled with their might.
”I remember the fight they had,” another woman added to the story. ”Li Cheung threatened to leave if something happened to the baby. Hippolyta merely laughed.”
”He didn't know how strong Hippolyta really was. She never even got sick in her life,” another woman said.
”How did it end? The argument?” An Ning asked curiously.
”Hippolyta went to war and Li Cheung went with her. We stormed the garrison, won the war and came home with riches. A month later, your mother was born. Li Cheung of course fainted during the birth. He couldn't endure the sight of your grandmother in pain more so her threats that she will never sleep with him again because it hurt too much to give birth to his brat,” Nyra said, chuckling at the memory.
An Ning smiled, happy to see the women looking somewhat relaxed and carefree. The water from Hippolyta's grove was more potent than she first thought. It practically worked like an elixir of life, bringing some color to the women's cheeks, brightening their eyes, strenghtening their muscles and giving luster to their hair. The children, too, looked more alert than they did before. They were shy and self-conscious but they met An Ning's eyes with a smile.
”It will not affect the baby,” Nyra was saying. ”We never lost a child even we fought while pregnant. We were made different from other women. I guess, we evolved that way just because,” she shrugged.
The evacuation went smoothly without any more incident. Of the twenty thousand women that Yu Yan kidnapped, brainwashed and left to die on the island, about eight thousand survived. Nyra was unflinching when she told An Ning of cannibalising their fallen comrades the first year they arrived and everybody sickened because of the lack of food and the harsh elements. Then a crate of dogs appeared out of nowhere, perhaps lost during a storm from a stranded ship. They raised the dogs for food while others fished.
They made a hard scrabbled existence on the island for twenty years, occasionally attacked by pirates who raped and impregnate the women then left never to be seen again. Some one hundred children were born during this time. Some died while others lived. Those who lived were mostly female children but there were about ten male children who survived but were so weak they were almost bedridden.
An Ning went from women to women introducing herself and trying to make them feel safe and protected. She saw how the women looked at the men, angry and suspicious. It made her feel sad that the Amazons who used to fight yet deal fairly with the opposite sex had been reduced to this cliché of liberal female clichés : resentful and hostile because of a man.
The boats ferried the women and children to the cargo ship in less than an hour. An Ning carried the puppy in her arms as she and the women on the boat looked back at the island in silence. It still looked like a battleship with its giant sea wall buttressing the falling buildings; it still looked lonely and desolate but it was no longer a prison.
An Ning tickled the puppy under its chin. It licked at her fingers with tentative affection. The puppy's black hair shone with red highlights under the sun. It was quite a lovely color, like sunset on the cusp of blooming.
An Ning took a last glance at the distant island. It was the start of a new beginning. She turned around as the boat finally approached the cargo ship.