After The Apocalypse (Book 2): Church of Chaos (7 page)

Chapter 12

“I think I've found a lead as to where your mother may be-.” Gauge stopped mid-sentence. He stared at Lola as she pulled back away from Seth, wiping her lips with the back of her hand.

“Gauge. I wasn't expecting you to find out anything tonight.” Lola shot him the same pretty, harmless smile that she had used on me earlier. I was beginning to suspect the smile was part of an act.

“I got lucky.” Gauge's eyes went from Lola to Seth and then back to Lola. “You two know one another? Or did you take me a little too literally when I asked you to help make our guests feel welcome?”

Lola let out a shrill, high pitched giggle. She fluffed her short amber hair and shrugged her slender shoulders in a delicate gesture that I could never have managed. “Sorry Gauge. I didn't realize you cared who I kissed?”

Gauge raised one eyebrow at her skeptically. “I don't care who you kiss. I just question the wisdom of making out with a potentially dangerous stranger.”

“We're not strangers. We grew up together. Seth was born in the Burroughs.”

Seth stepped in between Lola and Gauge. “You said you found a lead?”

“You're from the Burroughs?” Gauge's voice was thick with disbelief.

“I was born in the Burroughs.”

“I've never seen you there,” Gauge said.

“I haven't lived there in a long, long time.” Seth rubbed his hands together casually. “But where I spent my childhood really doesn't matter. We'll have all the time in the world to chat about the miserable, roach infested hellholes we grew up in after we've found Pilar's parents.”

Gauge chewed his lip for a minute and then shrugged. “You said her parents were taken by Bud Moon, right?”

Seth nodded.

“Something Pilar said earlier gave me an idea,” Gauge jerked his chin in my direction. His dark blue eyes were focused entirely on me as he spoke. “You said your mother would have been completely terrified by the city and the meat market. Do you think she would have been hysterical?”

“Yes,” I said with a nod. I didn't need to think about the question. Mom had gone hysterical at the sight of sunlight and open doors since before I was born.

“I thought so. I remembered you saying that she hadn't gone outside in more than 20 years.” Gauge rubbed one hand against the back of his own thick neck. “It got me thinking, what if they couldn't sell her?”

“Huh?”

“You mean if she failed a safety check?” Lola interrupted abruptly. Her eyes were bright and her expression thoughtful.

“A what?” I looked to Seth for an explanation but he just shrugged.

“The meat market has gotten a little more health conscious since the last time you lit it on fire- I mean visited.” Lola quickly corrected herself as she focused her attention entirely on Seth. She hurried on with her explanation. “All the people who are sold for their flesh in the meat market have to meet a certain health standard now. Someone sold a couple of contaminated girls last year. Infected the family of one of the king's personal advisers with the zombie virus. The adviser, his wife, all four of their kids and his mother-in-law had to be euthanized. It was ugly. The king passed a law that requires every person brought into the meat market to pass a health check before they can be sold.”

“What kind of health check?” Seth asked. “I mean, what are they looking for?”

“No cuts or open wounds anywhere on the body. They have to be able to perform an assortment of basic physical activities.”

“Perform physical activities?” Seth raised one eyebrow skeptically.

“They have to walk and talk coherently. Sometimes they're asked to perform a few basic exercises. Pull ups or jumping jacks. Something that proves they have human coordination.” Gauge crossed his hairy arms over his broad chest. He was watching Seth intently now.

“Clever.” Seth didn't look impressed.

“Do you think your mother would have passed the tests?” Gauge refocused his attention onto me. “No one I've talked to remembers seeing her in the meat market. Not one soul. It makes me think that she might not ever have made it onto the sale lot.”

“I don't know,” I admitted reluctantly. “There wasn't anything physically wrong with her, but she panicked every time she even thought about stepping foot outside the Cube. Dad couldn't even get her to go out into the garden with him. She'd freeze up and start crying every time she got within 20 feet of the outer doors.”

“Sounds like it's possible that she wouldn't have passed the health check,” Lola tapped her index finger against her chin. She turned back to Gauge. “What do the flesh brokers do with the people who don't pass the health check?”

“Rumor has it that Bud Moon houses them in a bunker on his family's property.” Gauge leaned back against the nearest wall.

“You think my mom could still be on Bud Moon's property?” I scarcely dared to hope that she might still be alive.

“She's not in the meat market. She's either at Bud Moon's property or-.” Gauge hesitated.

“Or she died in transit,” Seth bluntly finished the sentence for him.

I let out a sharp hiss of breath. Lola swatted at Seth, smacking him lightly on his chest.

“Stop scaring her.”

“Pilar and I have a relationship that's built on honesty, Lola.” Seth pursed his lips at her and then looked back at me. His mirrored sunglasses were starting to drive me crazy. I couldn't look at him without seeing this new version of myself, a girl I barely recognized, reflected back at me. Right now, my reflection looked a lot calmer than I felt.

“There is a difference between being honest and being cruel,
Sethra.
” She drew out the name with extra emphasis.

Seth positively glowered at her. “Don't patronize me. And don't call me-.”

“It's okay,” I said after a slight hesitation. “Sethra?”

“His holy name,” Lola said with a wink. “He hates it.”

“You have a holy name?” I blinked at Seth.

He rolled his eyes. “Assigning ourselves holy names wasn't one of Jeremiah's better ideas. You can continue to call me Seth. You know I don't have much faith in religion.”

I nearly laughed. “Last I checked, you were trying to rewrite religion.”

“And you're going to help me do it,” Seth said with a smirk. “But back to the problem at hand. I guess I have something else to look for when I pay my visit to Bud Moon tomorrow morning.”

“You're going to pay a visit to Bud Moon?” Gauge gaped at Seth. “You think he's just going to let you stroll right into his heavily guarded compound?”

Seth laughed. “There are methods to my madness. Don't you worry your pretty little head about how I'm getting in. Just know that we're going in first thing tomorrow morning. I'll bet security isn't real good right around first light.”

Gauge hesitated again. He was very visibly taking Seth's measure. “You're probably right about the security, but I'm starting to think I should have asked you for more than just a handgun in exchange for my help. You're going to get me killed.”

“Actually, the survival rate for my help is pretty good.” Seth grinned cockily.

“Wait, you're trading Gauge a handgun in exchange for helping you?” Lola spun around on Seth with narrowed eyes.

“It was his price,” Seth said with a shrug. He gestured to Gauge. “You asked for the gun, didn't you?”

“I did,” Gauge acknowledged. “Lola, I know you don't approve of violence but the entire city is in upheaval. A gun would give us a backup plan if the king tries to raid the Underground again. It may not save us but it gives us the ability to put some distance between ourselves and our attackers.”

Lola opened her mouth and then closed it again. She pursed her plump, pretty lips and then shook her head. “Every time I start to think you might have a soul, your actions remind me otherwise.”

“Lola, I want that gun.” Gauge sounded distinctly annoyed.

“You'll get the gun.” Lola narrowed her eyes at Gauge. “It's a pittance for the crimes he'll want you to help him commit.”

“Crimes?” Gauge scowled at Seth. “I'm not about to get run through the corridor of zombies for you.”

“I doubt she's referring to tangible crimes. A better word to use would have been 'sins',” Seth commented dryly. “Lola considers me to be morally bankrupt.”

“Most of us are morally bankrupt by Lola's standards,” Gauge acknowledged.

Lola sighed at them. “Why is it so hard for either of you to be good?”

“What do you want from me, Lola?” Seth managed to look imposed upon and bored at the same time.

“I want-.” Lola frowned and took a deep breath. “I want the same thing I've always wanted.”

Seth scowled. He started to open his mouth but Lola pressed her finger against his lips before he could speak.

“Jeremiah wanted to make this world a better place. He promised me a better life. He promised safety and equality. I still want that.”

Seth pushed her hand away from his mouth. “I'm not Jeremiah.”

“No, unfortunately you're not. Jeremiah had a conscience and a sense of responsibility to help his fellow humans.”

“Jeremiah's conscience got him killed,” Seth snapped.

Lola looked away from him briefly and then shook her head. “It doesn't matter what happened to Jeremiah. What matters is that Gauge and I have been working on figuring out a way to sneak people out of the city before the king issues orders of execution.”

“You're trying to create an escape route?” Seth pursed his lips at her. Even I could tell that he was interested in the idea.

“We have created an escape route,” Lola clarified.

Gauge grunted. “Lola, I'm not sure that telling him-.”

“Shush and trust me, Gauge.” Lola barely flicked her eyes in his direction. All of her attention appeared to be focused solely on Seth. “We have the escape route. We can get people out of Ra-Shet.”

“If you already have your escape route, what do you want from me?” Seth asked.

“Protection,” Lola said.

“Protection?” Seth frowned at her.

“On the outside,” she clarified. “We can get people out of the city but we have nothing to offer them once they're outside of the walls. No shelter. No food. Nowhere to go for shelter or food. They're completely vulnerable once they leave the city.”

“Zombie bait,” Seth mused.

“We're actually more concerned about the Church of Chaos,” Gauge said.

I blinked at him in surprise. Seth opened his mouth and then closed it again. Lola shot him a pointed look. “People are afraid that they'll be attacked or killed by the zombies that are controlled by the Church of Chaos.”

“Zombies that are controlled by the church?” I frowned.

“If you're from the Cube, you probably don't know a whole lot about the Church of Chaos,” Gauge was speaking specifically to me. “Suffice it to say, no one really knows exactly what the Church is or what its members do. We do know that they can use zombies to do their bidding.”

“Oh.”

“Their high priest is supposed to be some kind of god. People say he can even control the weather.”

“I seriously doubt that,” I muttered.

Seth scowled at me. “The rumors are really getting out of hand these days.”

“We don't know what is rumor or what isn't,” Gauge said. “A lot of people are too afraid to leave the city. Even when staying in the city is almost guaranteed to be a death sentence.”

“And you expect me to change their minds?” Seth asked.

“I'm thinking you could promise them safety once they get outside the city?” Lola was looking directly at him. She had a pointed and intense look on her face.

“Why would I want to do that?” Seth sounded almost amused but he managed to keep a completely straight face.

“Why wouldn't you?” Lola countered.

“Wait a second,” Gauge cut into the conversation and gestured at Seth. “You're saying he lives outside the city?”

“Yes,” Seth said with some obvious reluctance.

“I thought you grew up in the Burroughs?”

“We left. My family and I left.”

“And you're living outside the walls?” Gauge appeared fascinated.

Seth nodded. “I do.”

“And you can just come and go from the city whenever you please?” Gauge pressed the issue.

“Entering the city has never been a problem,” Seth seemed to be weighing his words carefully. “It's the leaving that can get sticky. Why do you think I try to avoid coming here?”

Gauge considered him for a minute and then nodded. “Do you think you might be able to offer shelter to some of our refugees?”

Seth made a face. “You want me to babysit people who are fleeing the city?”

“We need to find a way to offer them food and shelter until they can find their own,” Gauge clarified. “If you're in a position to do that, it would be a significant help to a lot of people who are otherwise in a very bad position. The king is going to raise taxes again within the next year. There are hundreds of people living inside the walls of the city who won't be able to pay. I assume you know what the king does to people who fail to pay their taxes?”