The Token, Kevin Bird [dark books to read TXT] 📗

be back to normal now. For others life would never be the same again.
Jacob and his family lay together on the roof of their barn looking up into the night sky. They talked sadly about how fate had altered their plans for the future, and how the next day, they would all try to be strong for each other. The stars overhead, usually so exciting, now seemed ominous; a suggestion of distant places that offered nothing but war and the separation of their family. Maybe even death. This might well be the last time the three of them would be together as a family; tomorrow one of them would be forfeit.
Jacob’s plan had horrified Bella, as he knew it would, but as Bettine’s father he couldn’t stand by and let her be taken away from her home to who knew what kind of a future. In fact, the likelihood was that her future would be a very short one if she were dragged into this war.
“How you know they believe you Jacob?” Bella’s voice was soft and quiet; too much crying had given her a raw throat.
“They’ll have no choice.” He lay on his side so he could look into her eyes. “The records will prove everything if I tell them where to look. It’ll work, honey.” He kissed her cheek.
“Dad, I don’t think I can go through with this. I don’t want to be away from you.” Bettine had begun to quietly cry again, her eyes red and swollen.
Jacob could see his daughter’s condition under the bright moon and his heart felt like it was being torn from his body. This was his little lady and he might never see her grow up to be the adult he knew she would become. How he hated war and the strife that came with it!
“You’re strong, Bettine, and you’ll be fine. We’ve raised you well and I’m proud of you. Everything will be OK.” He didn’t believe it for a minute, but as he shifted to look into his daughter’s eyes, he couldn’t imagine telling her what he really expected would happen in their future. It was a future not to be dwelt upon.
Rising to his feet, Jacob grabbed the hands of his wife and daughter and pulled them up too, “Let’s go down and eat. It’ll be dawn soon and we’ll have to get the animals ready for tomorrow’s collection.”

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As the sun broke over the horizon there was a palpable feeling of expectation all around. Even the animals in their pens seemed to feel it, prancing about and clearly jittery; today would be a special day and somehow the world knew it. When Jacob and Bettine walked down to the pens, the blues and greens ahead of them seemed agitated and were milling around uncertainly and seemingly mirroring the emotions of the father and daughter.
“Give them their feed but not too much. Once those ships start zooming around space the crew won’t be very happy if these guys have full bellies. It could get very messy up there.” Jacob was trying to get his daughter to crack a smile, but there was little hope of that and they both knew it; still, it was worth the try. Bettine headed off to the feed barn, her head hanging low.
From behind him, Jacob heard an electric buzzing noise, and he turned to see a long row of trailers being pulled behind a powerful hover cart. They were heading past his farm towards Dale and Blake’s properties to collect their Tokens. He was pleased for them, knowing that they would both be able to make the payment that was due them. In fact to his knowledge his would be the only farm that would fall short. He didn’t bear any of his fellow farmers a grudge, as they had to take care of their families first. If they didn’t have enough extra animals to help him out, then so be it.
A few minutes passed and then he saw another series of trailers heading down the hill towards his own farm; the time was here. He knew he had the resolve to go through with this, but he was hard pressed to overcome the fear of loss that was almost overpowering him. Bella must have seen them, too, as she was running over from the house. When she reached him she threw herself into his arms and he could see she was only stopping herself from crying by strength of will.
“Please, don’t do this Jacob!”
“What are my options Bella? We don’t have a choice; our decision is made for us. Please try to understand.” He was fighting back his own tears so he gently pushed away from her to get busy with something so he could succeed. “Why don’t you go and help out Bettine? She’s over by the feed barn.” She left him and he walked over to meet the men stepping out of the cart that had pulled up.
“You are Jacob?” The voice was cold and officious. The man, along with his two comrades, was in a grey uniform that was of a military style. However, Jacob knew it as a design used only by those working for the Suppliers and their other divisions, such as these Collectors. Not really officers in any military sense, these men still had attitudes suggesting they were aware of their positions of power. Jacob could also quickly tell that they were not entirely pleased with their lot in life and would be happy taking it out on anyone that gave them any trouble.
“Yes, sir.” Jacob didn’t see any reason not to be polite; after all there was still a chance, small though it was, that the Collectors might actually act with a little compassion. He almost laughed out loud at his own naivete. He realized there was more chance of the war ending today than these men would show any humanity towards him. The rules were clear and the Token was theirs to collect; now!
“Your Token is due and we are here to legally obtain it in the name of the Suppliers on pain of forfeit.” It was the standard statement of power and intent that Jacob had heard many times before. However, this was the first time that he’d felt frightened on hearing the words. The man looked down at a hand held computer which clearly gave him all the information he needed with a few finger taps. “You must provide us with seventy adult blues and sixty adult greens. All must be in good health and stand over eighteen hands at the shoulder. We will start loading them on the trailers now. You will help.” Jacob thought he sounded more like a machine than a man.
His initial reaction was to bridle at the man’s rude nature, but he held himself back knowing the man was just doing his job in a fashion that, maybe the Collector felt, was just being efficient. Jacob also realized that this man must have had to deal with many people who had tried to argue or had even become violent when their Token was due, especially if, like him, they could not fill it.
“My daughter and I will gladly help you.” He still felt it might be worth being polite, but his slim belief in the chance of any compassion from these men was almost gone now. “It looks like she’s finished feeding the blues so why don’t we start with them?” Bettine was dragging a bag of feed to the far pen holding the greens, her mother behind with another bag.
The men wheeled one large trailer over to the gate of the closest pen, which Jacob opened and from which he began to herd his animals. As he did so, the two men without the computer checked each animal for overall health and measured their height. As they nodded their approval the other, clearly in charge, tapped into his computer and nodded at Jacob to bring another animal out. As the job progressed, Jacob felt himself become more and more nervous. His feelings were well founded as he discovered when the last of the blues was loaded into the third trailer they had wheeled up.
The man with the computer looked over at Jacob and frowned. “You’re short by two blues. Do you have more somewhere else?”
Jacob felt his stomach knot, “No sir, that was the last of the adults except for the minimum we would need to breed back up for the next Token.”
“Let’s move on to the greens and if we can come up with..” He tapped for a second before looking back up at Jacob. “With three extra greens we’ll call your Token fulfilled.” He moved off without waiting for Jacob’s reaction and had the other men return the trailers with the blues on board up to the cargo vessel. In a few minutes they returned with new trailers they drove over to Jacob’s far pens where he housed his greens.
Jacob heard the head Collector speak into a device attached to his shoulder, “When you’ve done loading Cargo 2, come to our position. We’re loading the last of this farmer’s stock, but we’re at capacity now. I’m expecting at least sixty animals more and you’ll have to take them on board.”
A voice came back, “Affirmative, we’re almost through here. We’ll be at your position in about ten minutes, out”
Jacob looked over at his daughter, “Bettine, take over for me helping these gentlemen. I need to go back to the house for something.” He turned towards his house ignoring the suspicious look on the face of the man in charge. He also had to turn his back on the pained look on Bettine’s face. Bella came over and walked back with him, her arm around his waist.
When they got to the house she kissed him with all the passion she could muster then helped him put a large backpack across his shoulders. They heard a loud throbbing noise followed by a blast of air and they walked outside to see another huge vessel settle just uphill from the first. They then walked back to the pens and, dropping the bag down at his wife’s feet, Jacob relieved his daughter and finished ushering the last few greens out of their paddock. As he was herding them towards the trailer he saw Blake walking up.
“How’s it going, Jacob.” He asked gently.
Jacob knew his friend was trying to be understanding, as Blake knew as well as he that with the events of the last few days he’d lost enough animals that his Token might not be met.
“Hi Blake. Not too well at the moment but we’ll see. What about you?”
Blake looked relieved, “Oh, came through by the skin of our teeth. We were lucky. It’ll be hard to get ready for the next Token. One of the others had a problem though. Hadley fell short, and Collectors took his son, Sean. Horrible, he’s only eleven...”
“Fifty seven.” The man’s voice broke into the friend’s conversation and it sounded strange. Jacob, his senses heightened in his precarious position, heard many things in it. The man was angry, but also sad and resigned. Obviously the man realized what he would now have to do, didn’t enjoy it, and was not looking forward to the reaction the parents would have when he took their child. “You don’t have enough greens even if you hadn’t been short with your blues. You’re short by a total of five animals. What can you do about that?” All three uniformed men were standing in a group staring at Jacob. He noticed that they had all pulled out small weapons from somewhere; and though they were not pointing them at him, their intent was clear. They