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handed off to the other nursing women and passed around to feed. With so many twin babies he didn't know which pair was his sons. He watched the children in the courtyard for hours determining who his children were. As time passed he discovered two boys who looked like him. Jeremiah and Josiah. Caleb often whispered their names out loud as if sending up a prayer to be with them.
    Oh, yes, he prayed to the human god. He knew the Bible as well as his father. He had since found his own copy during a town mission for money and supplies. He needed to understand this god humans worshipped. The god his father believed he was. Religion provided humans with purpose and peace and a sense of belonging to something bigger than themselves. All he desired. His father used the human Bible for his own power plays. Caleb read it to know what lay at the core of humanity and people's hearts. Their found strength in faith gave him strength and hope. He needed both.
    But for now he had no time for prayer. He had to report to the whipping shack. He headed there through the wooded path near the perimeter of their compound. He reached the twelve-foot high fence which bound him to this place. Guards patrolled at intervals along the fence. The shadow of one walked now in the distance. Out there held freedom. The pine trees swayed free, their own master. Unlike him. Someday he would become his own master and take his sons with him. But if he tried and failed—they would die. If his father discovered his plan—they would die.
    The screams brought him back to his world.
    Caleb hesitated then pulled open the door to the rough-hewn shed. Thomas, a skinny young man, stood sobbing. He faced the back wall, naked with his hands tied over his head to a rope hanging from the ceiling. Savage red marks painted his pale back and buttocks. Blood streaked across him like a child's rough painting. His legs shook and urine trickled down them. Eli, an Enforcer, relaxed his leather whip—the end tinged crimson with blood—and frowned at Caleb as he entered. Whippings had increased by his father's decree.
    "Not done yet. Your father ordered twenty lashes for the second offense of trying to desert. And ten more for self-healing yourself after your last whipping, weakling! I've got ten left to administer." Eli flexed his enormous muscles and massaged his wrist. "Got a wrist sprain from all this work lately." He grinned. Caleb did not grin back. Thomas continued to cry.
    "Stop your blubbering, Thomas," Eli said. "This is well deserved, you know. Putting our community at risk. Where were you going?"
    "Any…where…but here." Thomas cried harder. He swayed from the rope holding him up by his pitiful arms and his knees buckled.
    "Yeah, well, after this it's the stocks for you all night outside. Caleb is here to take you over."
    "No, no…please. The females will see me. They don't want me. No one does. It's why I had to leave."
    "They sure will see you, Son." Eli winked at Caleb. "You know the rules. The females will have something to feast their eyes on in the morning as they go about their chores. And no self-healing, little Thomas, or they'll be a bigger whipping in store for you."
    "I'll finish up here, Eli," Caleb said. He pulled his lips back in what he hoped fared as a smile.
    "I don't know. Adrian was specific."
    "Don't worry. I'll get ten good lashes in. Go back to your bunk and ice that wrist."
    "I think I will. Thanks, Caleb." Eli handed him the whip. "Thomas, watch out no woodland animals visit the stocks tonight. They may nibble on your tiny member then there won't be anything left for the few females who'd have you." He slammed out of the shed with a roar of laughter.
    Caleb stood quietly, the whip limp in his hands. Thomas bent his head down further into his chest. His sobs turned to ragged whimpers. Caleb took a deep breath and flung the whip out.
    S-n-a-p .
    It cracked the wall. Thomas screamed then twisted his head toward Caleb with a puzzled look.
    "Nine