Refugees from the Righteous Horde (Toxic World Book 2) (14 page)

Careful now.

The kid was about to respond when Annette’s voice shouted from the distance.

“Pablo! Get over here right his instant!”

“Uh oh, I gotta go. See you!”

With a wave and a smile Pablo was gone.

Jeb watched as Annette gave the boy a tongue-lashing. But then she laughed, probably confident that the kid hadn’t been in any real danger. She gave Jeb a hard look before she and her son walked away together. He felt a tug of disappointment when she didn’t come over.

Jeb spent the rest of the day stuck in the pen, watching the world go by. Lunch came, then dinner. Boats sailed out into the cove and came back with hauls of fish. Herds of bleating sheep and goats passed by, their owners leading them out of New City and heading back to the outlying farms now that the danger had passed. A few people stopped to stare, and once a crowd gathered to jeer at the prisoners before a guard shooed them away. Otherwise he and the other prisoners were ignored. It seemed, Jeb mused, that with the attack over and the shattered remains of the Righteous Horde limping away into the wildlands, people were eager to get on with their lives.

And they had lives to live, better lives than he had known since he was a kid.

At both meals he got extra shares. He felt almost full strength now and was growing restless. He found himself pacing back and forth in the tiny enclosure. The machete men huddled to one side to give him room. The one he had knocked out had a black eye. He wouldn’t even look at Jeb. They, too, were regaining some strength, except for the sick one, but none of them showed much life. They were just glad it was all over, and sitting where they were and waiting for their next meal was all they really had any ambition for.

As day turned to night and the gate was closed once again, Jeb realized that Annette would not visit him today, and Pablo probably wouldn’t come back at all. He felt a nagging regret and something else, a strange feeling that he hadn’t known in a long, long time.

A moment later he realized he’d been feeling it all that time and just ignored it.

Loneliness.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Over the next few days Susanna’s life fell into a predictable routine. In the morning after breakfast Bridget would fetch her from the barracks. Thankfully, Derren was usually away or sleeping off the previous night’s drinking, so Susanna didn’t have to see much of him.

During the day Susanna cleaned the house, churned butter, made bread, prepared meals, mended clothing, patched up the boys when they got into fights, and kept Bridget company.

She realized that this last task was what Bridget really wanted her around for. The neighbors tended to avoid her, except for one shrill-voiced old woman named Helga who bitched about life even more than Bridget did, and with far less reason. Her husband—a quiet, balding mechanic who Susanna never heard speak—was completely cowed by his bad choice in wives and did everything he could to please her.

For most of the long hours of the day Susanna was alone with her new mistress. Bridget would steadily drink the whole day through, morphing from the friendly, smiling woman who on their first meeting had filled Susanna with such hope, into a sullen, complaining drunk who vacillated between rage and tears.

If Bridget had been a friend and Susanna had had her freedom, she would have told her to leave Derren, but that wasn’t the situation. Instead Susanna tried to shore up Bridget’s ego and soothe her nerves. She needed to keep her sympathy.

And that sympathy was paying off. Bridget gave her extra food, and every night Susanna went back to the barracks with her pockets filled with bread or dried fruit or other treasures. One evening after an especially weepy session she even gave Susanna a worn old blanket to take back with her. Susanna added to these gifts by swiping food from the kitchen any time she had the chance.

In the meantime Susanna made sure to be present for all three meals Abe’s goons served the prisoners. Bridget let her walk across the compound alone to get lunch. Nobody seemed to care much. The gate was guarded and the sentries assumed there was nowhere for her to run even if she did get out.

She was amazed at how quickly her strength returned. She was eating twice as much as she had in months. Her body began to fill out and her energy went back to normal. After a week she started hoarding food for her eventual escape. She didn’t dare leave food in her barracks—there had already been several thefts and fights over scraps—so she was forced to carry it all with her and hope no one searched her. In the mornings she’d stuff herself to reduce the amount that she might lose if they did, and during the day she’d replace it with the extras Bridget gave her or whatever she could slip into her pockets. She’d never stolen anything before, but she didn’t feel like this was stealing. It was more like retribution.

Once again she was surprised at how lax the guards were. Nobody ever searched her and she was free to go on short errands and walk herself back to the barracks at the end of the day. Abe and his followers obviously figured that nobody would try to escape.

Her next big shock was how quickly she got to prove them wrong.

One morning Bridget announced they were going out into the surrounding hills to gather nuts. There was a copse not far off where a population of squirrels was bound to have a good supply.

“I just can’t stare at these four walls for another second,” Bridget sighed. “They’re closing in on me. It will be nice to have a walk and get some fresh air.”

“But the guards will never let me go out,” Susanna said.

“You’re not a prisoner, you’re a citizen on a probationary period,” Bridget said with ill-concealed mockery. “There’s nowhere for you to go anyway. We’re in the middle of nowhere and the Righteous Horde picked the land clean. There are still machete men out there, you know. A patrol fought some just yesterday.”

Susanna tensed. Was that true, or was Bridget just trying to scare her?

“I wouldn’t want to meet those bastards again,” Susanna said. She didn’t have to feign her fear.

“Oh, I don’t think you have anything to worry about with them,” Bridget laughed, looking her up and down.

Susanna bit back her response.

You’re not much of a looker yourself, and on the inside you’re almost as ugly as your husband.

Bridget packed a basket with bread, goat’s cheese, and some leftover rabbit from last night’s dinner, plus the essential jug of corn whiskey. She gave it to Susanna to carry along with a blanket.

“We’ll have an old-fashioned picnic!” she laughed.

Susanna nodded, calculating how long to food would last her. The blanket would come in handy too. They headed out of the house.

“Where are the boys?” Susanna asked. If they came along that might cause problems.

“Oh, they’re staying at the neighbors, thank God. We’ll be free of them for a day.

And I’ll be free of the little monsters for life.

They headed over to a tool shed where Bridget borrowed a short ladder made of branches nailed together. With Susanna carrying the ladder, blanket, and picnic basket, they headed to the gate.

Susanna’s heart thumped in her chest. The gate loomed closer, flanked by two sour-faced men carrying rifles. The open exit seemed to mock her. She’d looked at it with hopeless longing ever since she’d been brought here. The guards studied her as they approached. Susanna tried to calm herself, breathing slowly and tensing her muscles to try to stop her trembling. She kept her head down as they arrived at the gate.

“Hey Bridget, what are you doing?” one of the guards asked.

“We’re going to gather nuts at the copse. My servant is going to help me.”

“Does Derren know about this?”

The second guard cut in. “He told me. It’s OK.”

The first guard stalked over to where Susanna stood. A rough hand grabbed her chin and forced her to look up at him. Cold gray eyes fixed her with a searching look.

“You better not think of running away,” he said.

“She knows better than that. We’re friends!” Bridget said.

Despite her terror, Susanna had to bite back a laugh.

“Just so you know,” the guard went on, “there are sentries on the hilltops. You probably saw them as you came in. Patrols too. They’ve been given instructions to shoot runaways on sight.”

“Oh Mark, lay off her! She knows which side her bread is buttered on,” Bridget said.

“I’m treated better here than I was in the Righteous Horde,” Susanna said in a shaking voice.

Sad to say, that’s actually true.

The guard’s eyes narrowed.

“We lost a lot of good people because of that stinking crew. You got to earn our trust, you hear me? You probably think we’re taking advantage of you lot, having you work like you are. You think the scavengers would have been so kind? Or the people back in New City? No, they’d have killed you on the spot. We’re giving you a second chance.”

“I know. I appreciate it. Thank you.”

The guard gave her a long, searching look. Susanna tried to control her trembling.

Why is it always this way? Why do I always back down?

The guard jerked his head in the direction of the gate.

“Get a move on.”

She and Bridget walked out of the gate. As they passed through, Susanna couldn’t stop her trembling anymore. She found herself crying, and angrily wiped the tears from her eyes. Bridget glanced at her and looked away, pretending not to notice.

They walked down the path that cut along the side of the hill, then passed through a narrow gully and around another hill. Susanna’s heart lifted as Weissberg disappeared from sight.

Bridget sighed in relief.

“It’s so nice to get out of there. It feels like a prison.”

Susanna resisted the urge to slap her.

“You know, I never wanted to move here, but Derren is Abe’s right-hand man so he couldn’t really say no. Got a bunch of farmland and livestock in the deal and we eat well. No electricity, though. I miss electricity. Only Abe’s got electricity. Him and the machine shop.”

“So why did everyone move out here?”

Bridget made a face. “To get away from The Doctor and that stupid Citizens Council. They’re too soft on scavengers.”

“I’ve seen some here.”

Bridget shrugged. “Yeah, well, we don’t have the numbers to get all the work done. We couldn’t bring the whole Merchants Association all at once. We told the folks back in New City we were moving out to take care of our farms, but if everyone went that would look too suspicious. Abe’s got some scavengers he can trust who have worked on his farms before or done other jobs for him. I suppose the best ones will get to be citizens of Weissberg eventually but I don’t like them. They’re low class.”

“It seems a shame to move away from New City. From what I’ve heard it sounds wonderful.”

Susanna wanted to keep the conversation going. She had a feeling this information could be useful.

“It is,” Bridget said with a sigh. “There’s not another settlement like it that I’ve ever heard of. But the guy who runs it, that’s The Doctor, he’s a real pain. Him and his second-in-command Marcus are always giving away stuff. You know The Doctor treats people in the Burbs and even scavengers for free? He should save his medicine for citizens, not the trash that comes out of the wildlands.”

“I don’t know, it sounds nice.”

“Look where niceness got him! When your army attacked, Marcus let in the people from the Burbs and the scavengers too. Some of them turned out to be spies from your cult. They shot The Doctor. But do you think he learned his lesson? Hell no! Once he recovered he went right back to giving handouts.”

They passed between two hills and out onto a level plateau. The copse stood not far ahead. Susanna thought about what Bridget had said. While she didn’t understand it all, it seemed that this Merchants Association wanted to be in charge even though The Doctor was more popular. He sounded like a great man. Who cured the sick for free in this world? And these people were stabbing him in the back.

If I could get to him, he’d trade a lot for this information.

Susanna felt relieved to finally get to the copse. The ladder was cutting into her shoulder and her feet were dragging.

I guess I’m not as recovered as I thought.

Still, she was determined to go on with the escape. She might not get another chance.

Bridget sat down on a rock.

“Whew! That was a long walk. Give me the jug, would you? I’m tired.”

Susanna handed over the jug and spread out the blanket for the picnic. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Bridget take a long pull, and then a second one.

Good. Get drunk. That will make this easier.

After she had set up everything, Bridget pointed to one of the nearby trees.

“I think I see a hole near the top there. Why don’t you check that one?”

Susanna looked around. She’d collected nuts plenty of times and she saw several other likely spots. To please Bridget, though, she went to the tree she pointed out first.

Setting the ladder against the trunk, she climbed up and peeked into the hole. Sure enough, there was a cache of nuts inside. Susanna started taking out handfuls and stuffing them into a canvas bag Bridget had brought.

“Good eye!” Susanna called down. “We’ve hit the jackpot the first time around.”

“I’m good at a lot of things,” Bridget said, taking another drink. “Derren can’t see it, though.”

“You’re a lot smarter than he gives you credit for.”

Bridget gave her a wide smile, eyes glittering from the booze. “Thank you so much for noticing. I wish more people would.”

Her words came out slurred. Susanna turned away to keep Bridget from seeing her smile.

Keep drinking, Bridget. Keep drinking.

And she did. As Susanna gathered more nuts from the trees, scaring off the occasional squirrel as she filled her bag, Bridget wandered around the copse, taking slugs from the jug and babbling about nothing of importance.

Once the bag was filled, they set down to their picnic. Susanna was dismayed to see Bridget’s drinking had given her a good appetite. As the woman devoured the rabbit, cheese, and great mouthfuls of bread, Susanna saw miles, hours, days of energy disappearing. Every bite that idiot took was one less that could feed her on her way to freedom.

There was nothing to be done about it, though. Susanna comforted herself that at least she was getting a good meal out of it too. Her half of the rabbit was the first proper portion of meat she’d had since the Righteous Horde captured her. The cheese and bread were both freshly made and in good quantity. For once a meal made her feel full instead of just cutting down her constant hunger.

The food was beginning to make her feel sleepy too, and was having an even greater effect on Bridget.

At last Bridget murmured, “You clean up here, Susanna. I’m going to take a little nap.”

She curled up on the blanket and was soon snoring.

Susanna tensed. This was her chance. She took several deep breaths to try to control her trembling. She was risking so much. How did she think she could get past the sentries and patrols and cross days of the wildlands to make it to New City, without even being sure there would be anything kinder than a bullet waiting for her if she made it?