More sighs emanate from the crowd, but also more lower their weapons.
“How do we know who gets to survive and who doesn’t?” one asks. “Why start a revolution if you’re not going to kill them all?”
“We need men just as much as we need women to survive,” I explain. “But from now on, the women will rule.”
More smiles appear, and most of the women drop their weapons on the floor. “Power to the women!” one of them chants.
Soon, more join in until all of the women have banded together in unity, and the leftover men cower in fear.
“The time for men to rule is over. They will have a place in our society, but it will no longer be one of servitude and punishment,” I say out loud. “Who’s with me?”
All the women raise their hands and cheer. “For the women!”
“Power to the women!” I yell, and they continue cheering while approaching us.
For a mere second there, I’m terrified of what might happen. I’ve never been faced with such a crowd, but at the same time, I know things can’t ever get worse than they already were.
Noah and I squeeze hands, and he throws me a thankful look.
And I know right there and then that we will be okay.
I lean in and press a kiss to his cheeks. “Thank you.”
“For what?” he asks.
“Everything,” I say, and I grab his face and plant my lips on his.
He smiles and wraps his arms around me, kissing me even harder, and the whole crowd erupts into cheers again.
“Get a room,” my mother jokes, and my lips tear away.
“Or a Hut,” I jest, and she laughs.
Noah lets go of me, and I step closer to my mother, who’s looking at the crowd in amazement. “I can’t believe we did all this,” she says.
I nod. “It’s almost unbelievable,” I reply. “Like, that hemlock … I can’t believe you found it right here in the community. It’s almost as if it was meant to be. Like this was meant to happen, and you were meant to help the others poison their husbands.”
“I know,” she replies.
I turn my head toward her. “How did you know what to do with it anyway?”
She shrugs. “I read a botany book.”
That must’ve been the book Patrick found.
“It was just lying on the table in Lawrence’s room, so I took it.”
I frown. “You just … found it lying around?”
She turns her head to me too and narrows her eyes. “Yeah. Maybe he was reading it too.”
My brow rises. “Interesting.”
Maybe the president had intended to poison his own wife too so he wouldn’t have to deal with her any longer and wouldn’t be blamed for her death. Luckily, she beat him to it.
Noah’s suddenly right behind me, and I almost jolt up and down. I forgot he was there. “Were you listening to our conversation this whole time?”
He shrugs, but there’s a particular deviant smile on his face that I can’t quite place. “Can’t help it. It’s in my nature to want to know everything.”
I roll my eyes but still smile anyway because his curiosity reminds me of myself. I guess we were always alike, just in a different way.
“I’m just glad that fucker is dead,” my mother suddenly says.
“Agreed,” I say, chuckling.
Her cheeky smile burns brighter than the evening sun. “Now … Let’s go clean up this community and start again, but this time, we’ll do it our way.”
Noah
Months ago
Before the fire
With the satchel in my hand, I dig up a few holes in random spots along the edge of the forest and empty the satchel above. The seeds sprinkle down on top of the soil, and I cover them with sand. The rain will take care of the water.
With a devious grin on my face, I tuck the satchel back into my pocket and go back to the temple, whistling a tune I learned from that greenhouse guy back when I was visiting with my father for one of our trips.
I go upstairs and go to my room, where I grasp a box hidden underneath my bed. I open it up and take out the book I got from a library in that same town we visited, and I walk back to the president’s room. He’s downstairs, eating lunch, which I’m skipping today, for obvious reasons.
I have a book someone needs to read.
By studying all the patriarchs and matriarchs schedules, I know that Marsha will come to his room in about five minutes … because the president always wants her to be naked in his bed by noon to receive her weekly fuck … And that this moment is by far the time she hates him the most.
Which is the same time I happen to accidentally lose a book on his bedside table. About how to poison a human and get away with it while thinking you were the one who came up with it.