An Echo of Royalty

10

    James and Nick waited for us next to the wood pile with their own equipment including a thick rope. I silently prayed to let us get the body down and back to camp without anyone getting hurt. That we could get through this situation. There would be a panic when we came back with a body though. I hoped it would resolve itself.

    We stomped into the forest, me in the lead. I remembered where I’d started off, and pointed my flashlight, hoping I could find the spot. When I came here earlier I watched my feet, not looking around very often. I tried to do it again hoping that it would work this time as well. Just like last time, I started to notice the flowers. I looked up, glad I’d found my way.

    I turned to the guys. “This is where I picked ‘em.” I shone my flash light at the missing patches. At the end of the patch I found a small indent in the ground with the back of heel as an imprint. I stood up right here. I followed the footprints. I saw the blood trail and began to chew on my lip, not wanting to go further. I knew what I would see, but, it didn’t make the fear of the images themselves go away. I pointed my flashlight at the tops of the trees looking for the body. My light found the hanging shoe, red with blood. There he is. I shined the light on his face.

    “Shit.”

    “Damn it.”

    I watched their reactions. James’ hands went to his head, dropping his stuff. His mouth hung open as he stared. 

    Carter turned around, looking into the forest, then slowly looked back. 

    Nicks’ eyes were wet and his chin shook as he ground his teeth. He turned and stepped to a tree. He leaned his head against it.

    I heard a thud behind me, followed by a curse and a grown. I turned to see Joe stepping away from a tree, wringing his hands together. He rubbed his right fist before glancing up at me. Nodding to me, he shuffled passed me to the others.

    “James, will you go up there and get him down?”

    James looked at the ground and nodded. Reaching down, he picked up his looped rope, and swung it over his head and left arm. 

    “Nick?” Joe asked softly.

   He still hadn’t turned back from the tree. Joe touched his shoulder and Nick turned to look first at Joe,     then Rico.

    “Catch him when James lowers him, ok?” Joe asked.

    Nick nodded and stepped towards the bloody tree. 

    They went to work; James climbing the tree, trying not to get in blood on him while Nick waited below, staring up at his friend. 

   I watched his face. His lips were parted and I could see his chest rise and fall hard. Looking down at my feet, I shuffled them on the ground.

    I listened to everything around me, my imagination running wild; Vampires popping out of nowhere in the dark, killing us each in turn, drinking Joe’s blood in front of me. I looked at a tree, blinking hard.

    If it somehow was a normal vampire, it might come back. I looked around the forest into the darkness. There was a light coming from the direction of our camp. Nothing could miss that. Only animals would pass by, and even then, we still get animals that came into comp every now and again. 

    The darkness didn’t give anything away, so I pointed my flash light out around us, hoping not to see anything. Vampires have night vision like most predators; they could be standing out there watching us and we wouldn’t know it. 

    I had a stake in my hand, holding it to my chest, ready.

    James swore and I looked back up into the tree. He lowered Rico to the ground. “I gotta say, Rico don’t exactly smell good from bein’ barbied in the sun.” 

    “Shut up, James.” Nick and Carter said together.

   “That’s not appropriate.” Joe added.

    “Sorry, there’s too much tension.” James muttered

    Normally I would have smiled at the joke even with so much tension. But this being Rico, I couldn’t. I understood why he said it though.

   Nick caught the body slowly and laid him gently on the ground, letting his head down last. His eyes were watery but not spreading tears. I wanted to comfort him, pat him on his back, or something. At the same time, Nick and I were never close and I knew it would be out of place.

    Instead I made myself see Rico, trying to look at his face, but couldn’t. Not at the open dead eyes, glazed and staring into space. My eyes wandered to his clothes instead. I could feel the throb in the back of my throat; a pain that I got whenever I’d been around blood in the past. 

    Since he had been moved, the dried blood cracked, showing still wet goo seeping out in a light red trickle. I swallowed back a thirst thinking of how I’d forgotten to bring water.

    A hand on my shoulder and Joe saying my name made me look at him.

    I blinked. “What?”

    His face shown confusion. “What are you doing?”

    I looked back at Rico, who was now just a foot from my outstretched hand. I had stepped closer while staring, not even aware of the movement. I drew my hand back, regarding it with surprise.

     I swallowed again. “I don’t know. I thought…I saw something.”

    “I wonder if he ever found his family.” Nick muttered. 

    I looked at him, then back at Joe. I stepped away to stand with the others. “I wondered that too. I hope he did. At the same time, I hope he didn’t, so they didn’t turn out like he did.”

    Nick nodded. “Maybe that’s why he’s here, maybe he couldn’t find them.”

    James came back down the tree and over to us. “I believed yah when yah said it was him, but… I was  hopen’ you were wron’.” He looked at me from across the body.

    “Me too,” I said back. “So, now what do we do?”

    Nick spoke first. “Can we burry him?”

    “Yeah, we can bury him he deserves a proper burial. I want to look at him under better light first though. See if we can find any clues on him.” Joe said

     Nick and James grabbed Rico’s body, holding on to his feet and arms. Joe walked next to me and we watched them carry Rico through the trees. “What are we going to say to everyone when they see the body? They’ll be worried.” I whispered to Joe.

    “The only thing we can say; we found him in the woods. We can’t lie to them. They need to know the truth but not all of it. I think if we just tell them what we know, then we can contain the situation. If we keep them updated, I think they’ll absorb the situation better instead of everything at once.”

    I didn’t respond, but I agreed with him. If we were to lie to them, we could cause confusion if anyone were to find out the truth from someone else. The truth is the best answer to everything. 

    “So, I know you probably don’t want me to ask you this, but would it be alright if I hold your hand?” Joe asked quietly. 

    James and Nick were far enough ahead they wouldn’t be able to hear us. 

    I thought to myself of what to say. “I guess.” Is all I could think of. We could both use the comfort. Even if it’s only for a couple of seconds, it would be nice to hold someone’s hand.

    He reached out and laced his fingers through mine; it was nice. When we came back into camp, I let go, wanting to be prepared for the crowd that would surely build. Just as I knew would happen, people began to stop and stare, some gasped.

    Trina had set up a table near the kitchen for us to set the body on. People started to crowd around us, wondering what was going on; who was the person lying on the table? What happened?

    I watched from the other side of the table as Emily reached it. She saw Rico and the look on her face changed. Her mouth opened and eyes went wide. She covered her mouth with her hand just as the tears started to flow. She really liked him, and now he’s dead. They’d spent a lot of time together because Emily followed him everywhere she could. She looked up, and saw me watching her. She turned and squirmed back through the crowd.

    Joe tried to calm everyone down. He had to whistle a couple of times to get everyone’s attention. “Guys, please be quiet so we can tell you what’s going on.” 

     Sindy had reached the front and stared at the body, her expression sober, unchanging. Maybe it’d been the first body she’d seen, or maybe she had seen too many to be affected by them anymore. Of course, being held captive by vampires, she must have seen them kill people.

    The crowd had calmed enough to hear as Joe continued. “I know this is scary, but we’ve all been through this. Don’t let this be too hard to handle. I heard someone ask if this is Rico. I wish it wasn’t, but it is. To answer the question of what happened; Echo found his body earlier. We don’t know yet how long he’s been dead, but we think it was…vampires.”

    They stirred, hands clasped over mouths, eyes darted, some spoke loudly. Here’s the panic. They didn’t like the information so far. “Come on guys, I’m not finished.” They calmed, but not as much as before. Joe breathed out heavily. “We still have questions about what happened. We’re going to examine the body and try to find more details. I know this is going to be hard to ask but we need to look everyone over. I know it’s confusing. Please trust me guys, you always have before. We need all the girls to head over to Trina’s tent and all the men to go to James’ tent. We were going to wait to do this tomorrow, but you guys probably aren’t going to be able to sleep anyways. We’ll explain more at the tents. Please just go for right now, and we’ll try to have all the answers.” 

    Some of them shook their heads and spoke in alarmed voices, but they began to walk to the tents, doing as they were asked. They trusted Joe, but they were scared.

    I didn’t want to look at everyone until tomorrow but Joe said we’d do it tonight. At least this way we would know if someone’s tattoos were something important, before they ran off. 

    I glanced back at Joe as I walked. He looked down at Rico’s body. Carter stayed to help him look through his clothes. I could see the loathing in Joe’s face at what he had to do; he didn’t want to look at Rico, not this way. It was too personal, and at this point in time, gory. 

    I turned at the doorway to Trina’s tent and I pushed through the crowd to get inside. 

     I looked at the line of women, starring at me, scared. How do I tell them to take off their clothes in front of me and Trina? Great question! “I know this is weird, not just for you, for me to. We need you guys to come in individually and,” I paused and looked at Trina, “strip.” Their voices rose with replies of “no.” They didn’t like the idea. “Guys, I’m tired. I want to go to bed, I want to dream happy thoughts, and sleep like a baby.” They calmed. “In fact, I want to wake up and find out that this is all one big bad dream. But guess what, it isn’t. I hate the fact that the body on the table over there is Rico. But guess what again, it is. There is nothing we can do about that, but we can try to prevent it from happening to any of you. Just help us out. Come in one at a time, let us check you over. Then you can leave and go sleep, dream, cry, talk, whatever. The sooner we get this done, the sooner we all get some sleep.” 

    I didn’t get very many nice looks, but they weren’t rebelling anymore. That’s a good sign. I stepped into Trina’s tent. Ringing her hands together, Natalie came in behind me as our first stripper. She started taking her clothes off.

    “Natalie, I’m sorry about this. Just strip real fast, spin for us and you can be done. Were not guys, we just want to check something out,” I said.

    She nodded and did it faster. I felt bad when she came down to her underwear and bra and stared at the ground. Her face looked as though it might turn green, but she swallowed and turned around slowly. 

    We had her lift her arms up and show us her inner thighs. I couldn’t help but say sorry as she put her clothes back on. Trina had started a list on a clip board with Natalie’s name at the top. 

    Melissa came in next. She didn’t even hesitate, just started taking her clothes off. “So what are you guys looking for?”

    “Tattoos.” I replied. I made it simple but truthful, just like Joe said we should.

    “What for, you guys already know us. You can recognize us with blood on our faces.”

   “Well we’re keeping track of them. You’ll find out the rest of the details tomorrow.” She had stripped, turned, and did everything we wanted her to. “You’re good to go.” I told her.

    She put on her clothes in silence while Trina finished writing her info down. Before she walked out, Melissa turned to us. “So who’s going to check you two?”

    I hadn’t thought about it before. I knew myself and that I hadn’t done anything and I never figured Trina for a killer or having any tattoos. We looked at each other then back at Melissa. “Would you be willing? We can do it right now and be done with it.”

    “Sure.” She came back to us and took my place in the chair as I stood. I stripped and suddenly had the same anxious feeling that they’d had. I knew why we were checking everyone, so I hadn’t realized they’d be nervous. 

    I didn’t like it because I grew up in a family where it was immoral to take our clothes off in front of anyone except our spouse or a doctor. It was uncomfortable. 

    I waited for them to decide if my front was clear before turning. 

    Trina’s eyes narrowed. She stood up and came me, studying at my left collar bone. “What’s that?” She pointed.

    I spotted the mark. “It’s a bunch of freckles all placed together right there. We went to a doctor and had it checked out to make sure it wasn’t cancerous or anything. The doctor said it was normal.”

    She went back to her chair. “Should I write it down?” She looked at me.

    “Yeah, I think it would be good to write down the birthmarks too.” I turned around, raised my arms and showed them my inner thighs. Trina approved me.

    While I put my clothes back on, Trina took hers off. She did like the rest of us, and just like I thought, there were no tattoos. She dressed quickly.

    Melissa got up to leave. “Thanks.” I told her.

    “No problem, let me know if you need anything else.” She sent in the next girl.

    We went through the women looking them completely over. I kept wondering if anyone was going to complain or ask for information, which, reminded me that we hadn’t seen Sindy yet.

    When Sindy came in I expected lots of questions. I was surprised when she undressed in silence. She had a birthmark like mine on her left hip. Just in the curve of the hip joint.

    Similar to mine, freckles splashed around in a spot the size of my fist. Other than that she was spotless. She walked out with not so much as a word.

   We inspected everyone for marks. About half of camp had tattoos and just as many had birthmarks. By the time we were done, it was two a.m. I stretched and yawned in my chair. Trina looked at the paper.

   “How are we going to discern which ones the spy? I don’t want to accuse the innocent.”

   “Me neither. I’m hoping we’ll find someone on our lists is missing tomorrow. As crappy as that is to say, maybe checking everyone out tonight, will flush them out. Scare he or she into running. I don’t want to openly blame someone. What if they didn’t do anything? Hopefully Joe will have an idea. That way, in case nobody is missing tomorrow, he knows what to do about it.”

    She nodded. "I guess we just wait.  I think I'll go to bed, then."  She stood and put her chair away.  

    “Yeah, I will too. I am so tired.” I stood and headed for the entrance. “Keep hold of that list. We wouldn’t want it to go missing.” 

    “Yeah, that would be bad. We’d have to start all over. Sleep well, hun.” Trina said.

    “Night.”

    The cool air was refreshing. I observed camp and didn’t see any of the women around. They were probably in their beds thinking of how bad everything had been for them. I stretched my arms up above me. It felt good to be standing instead of in the chair. 

    Someone grabbed me from behind. I grasped the hands around me and bent the thumbs back and twisted out of the arms. I kicked whoever it was.

    I stepped back to clear myself and get into a fighting stance. I looked down at the body. Joe was laying on his back. “Holy cow! Do you have any idea how painful your kicks are?”

     I relaxed my body and dropped my stance. “You’d think you’d know by now, not to sneak up on me. Maybe you wouldn’t be in pain so often if you wouldn’t do it.”

     He leaned up on his elbows. “I wasn’t sneaking up on you. I was waiting for you while everyone else went to bed. I needed to hear what you guys found out. That’s not sneaking. It’s waiting.”

   “Well you handled it badly. You should have spoken up or made a noise. Geeze I was stretching. Do you know how much it’s going to hurt for my muscles to come out of the shock you gave them from stretching? Lots!”

    I eyed him still on the ground. “Would you like some help up?”

     He looked around himself. “No, I can get up. I was just relaxing. My ribs are gonna kill me tomorrow.” Rolling himself over he got to his knees and stood up. “Did you find anything out? Maybe something that could give us a clue?”

     I headed to my tent as I thought. “The only thing I can think of is me and Sindy’s similar freckles. Also there is pretty much not one person here that doesn’t have a tattoo or birthmark. Which doesn’t help our search any. What did you guys find out?” I stepped into my tent. 

    He trailed behind me. “Well, we already knew it was Rico. I didn’t find anything on him. All of his pockets were empty. I mean no food or water, supplies. There was nothing.” 

    I sat on my cot, took my shoes off and focused on him as he spoke. “I hated going through his stuff. I mean I know we’ve searched bodies before, but this was different. We knew him. It just…felt, weird…wrong.” He sat down on the ground next to my cot. “There was nothing but bites and scratches on his body. He hasn’t been dead for more than ten hours.”

   “Are we still going to bury him tomorrow?” I asked him. 

    “Yeah. When James and Nick were done looking at all the guys they came to talk to me about that. They wanted to know the same thing. We’re going to let everyone know tomorrow that we’re postponing the patrol. I think it’s obvious to everyone, but we’ll make sure. Maybe then we’ll see if someone’s missing.” I didn’t really think about it but Joe took his shoes off. He rubbed his feet.

    “What did James and Nick find out?” 

    “Pretty much the same thing you did. Everyone either has tattoos or blemishes. Most of the tattoos are small, no bigger than a quarter and some you can tell were cheap. The more expensive ones were well done but were like eagles or flowers or bikes. Not really much to go on. The marks are like moles, freckles or funny coloring on the skin.” He stretched his legs out and leaned back on his palms. “You mentioned that you and Sindy have the similar birthmark. What did you mean?”

    I pulled my shirt down past my collar bone to show him the freckles. “Just freckles bunched in the same area. Both designs are different but they look alike.”

    He leaned forward to see it. “Cool. I don’t remember ever seeing it before. Do you think that means something for you and Sindy.” He laid on his back. His legs crossed and his arms underneath his head. He looked comfortable. That was something nice about my tent. The ground was dirt, but we had been here so long that all the stepping on the ground in my tent had flattened the ground so there were no rocks or roots. I even had a rug on the floor.

    “I’m not sure.” I thought about how we could be related. Then it hit me. We never asked Sindy’s last name. She’s been here for a couple days now, and we haven’t gotten her last name. I laid down, the same as Joe, and stared up at the tent.

    Joe interrupted my thoughts. “I can’t believe how many people are actually in this camp. You know I think there’s around sixty of us. It never seemed like it, but now that we made a list and actually spoke to everyone, it amazes me how we all fit here.”

    “Yeah I couldn’t believe how long it took to look at all the girls. I think there is actually some that I don’t know.”

    “That doesn’t really surprise me, you haven’t exactly tried to meet everyone. I know everyone here, I just didn’t realize how many there were.”

    I wasn’t sure if I should take it personal. Two days ago I would have, but after what’s happened, I could agree with what he said. I purposely tried not to get to know everyone. “It’s easier to not have people to say goodbye to. Look at me and you. You won’t leave me alone, I have my own personal stalker.”

    “Yeah, but it’s a good stalk.” His voice was getting deep. I leaned over the cot to look at him. He appeared to be asleep. I smiled, and wanted to snuggle. With him laying on the ground like that, so tempting. Rolling myself back over, I closed my eyes.