Ordinary (Exceptional Book 3) (16 page)

Stosh had set his sleeping bag on the ground and was unrolling it.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“I’m going to sleep by Sabine’s side, one last time,” he responded, not looking up.

His eyes were red and puffy, and he had a determined look on his face. He was meticulous as he spread it out beside her grave, which the men were packing down, making sure it lined up perfectly.

Ally needed to return to the transport to watch over it tonight. She also knew that Stosh needed this time alone. He needed to mourn in private, and say goodbye to Sabine in his own way. She knew that the loss was still too fresh. They would both be dealing with this for the days to come, in painful ways, and her loss would never quite leave them.

She thanked Vinny and the men and made her way back to the transport. A man was waiting at the perimeter of the woods.

“I’m here to keep watch while you get rest,” he said.

“Thank you,” Ally responded. She hadn’t even thought about how she would have slept tonight without Stosh to take shifts.

She spent an hour arranging and rearranging the packs and their contents. She continued with the busy work until her body and mind were exhausted. She worked until she knew she could lay down on the sleeping bag, a gun tucked into her arms, and fall asleep before she had any chance to think about Sabine. Before she had any chance to think about her brother’s pain. Before she had any chance to think about Luke and Max and what was happening with them on their journey.

She settled into her bag and laid her head on her makeshift pillow, which was just one of the extra sleeping bags rolled up and fluffed.

She took a deep breath and broke into sobs. Her throat hurt and her eyes were swelling. Thankfully sleep took over quickly and she drifted off, hoping her dreams were filled with the good memories of Sabine. If she could just see her face… one more time.

[ ally ]

The next morning two men met Ally at the transport. Stosh stumbled in behind them, looking unrested. His eyes were puffy, as though he had been crying all night.

“Joey,” the first man introduced himself. He appeared to be in his late twenties, and had dark brown hair pulled back into a short ponytail. He was very tall, muscular, and had a friendly smile despite his intimidating size.

The second man introduced himself as, “Neil”. He wasn’t as intimidating as Joey, only about as tall as Stosh, but he had defined arms and strong hands. The people of Hope Town were no strangers to hard work.

Ally laid out a map on the back end of the transport and they all leaned over it. “We’ll head to these two towns first.” She ran her fingers across the map. “And then we stop here.”

Ally looked up at Stosh but he wasn’t truly paying attention. She could see the distant look in his eyes.

“New Eden,” she said. “Hopefully our welcome is better than the last time. Stosh, why don’t you ride in the back and get some rest.”

“I’ll take front,” Joey said.

“Can you drive?” Ally asked.

He shook his head. “We don’t have working vehicles in Hope Town. But I’m a fast learner.”

Ally nodded. “Good.”

The first town was only an hour drive from Hope Town, so Ally took the wheel. She figured she could teach everyone else to drive on a few of their overnights in the woods. She had needed to learn fast, and she was sure that they could as well.

The first town on their list was a small town called Little Hope. Kirk had told her that back before he was even born there were two leaders in Hope Town. At first they were handling the responsibilities well but soon they couldn’t agree, and neither wanted to step down. They decided that one of them would take over a small town to the east and settle there. The town voted on who stayed, and the other leader left, taking a small portion of the townspeople with him.

Kirk said it was a miracle they survived in the beginning but they managed to keep the population up and sustain their small town.

Ally found the name of the town, and the situation, silly but it sounded like Little Hope had similar values. Possibly more stubborn than Hope Town, but at least they weren’t hostile, according to Kirk.

Joey didn’t seem to want to talk on the drive. He mainly went back and forth between watching Ally drive and looking at the map from the General. She was sure he’d have questions for her, especially given the unusual nature of her travels, but he was quiet. Kirk had been somewhat quiet too, only hearing her story because she offered it up almost immediately.

“So what made you volunteer to come with us?” she asked.

Joey shrugged and she rolled her eyes.

“Do you not have family waiting for you?”

He looked up. “I have a daughter. She’s two. My wife died two years ago from illness.”

“I’m sorry,” Ally said quietly. “Thank you for choosing to help us.”

“If there is any chance I can give my daughter a better life, I’ll take it. I at least need to try.” He went back to looking at the map.

Ally wanted to ask him more questions, anything to distract herself, but she decided to leave him alone. She could only imagine the pain of losing his wife and then leaving his young daughter. If she ever had kids, she hoped they were born into a changed world, not this one.

She almost laughed at the thought. Kids seemed so far off for her, even though a lot of couples in the settlement married young and started families, especially with population issues. The thought brought her to Luke and Max. Who could she picture starting a family with?

She felt as though Max was the safe option. He didn’t have the weight of a City on his shoulders, just small town dreams. He was compulsive, though, and scattered at times. Ally was still mad at him for taking the Exceptional serum without even consulting her. Not that he owed it to her, but she couldn’t help how she felt.

Luke. Luke was her first love, maybe her only. She didn’t quite get that pitter-patter of the heart for Max that she felt when she was around Luke. The way he intensely watched her. The way he believed in her even when he thought she was crazy. The way he nurtured her dreams instead of holding her back. There was a new problem in her mind, one that flopped down into her stomach and twisted her guts. If Luke hadn’t brought the Exceptional serum on the trip in the first place, Sabine would still be alive.

She blinked back tears.

“Turn up here,” Joey said suddenly.

Had they already been driving for an hour? Ally turned the transport onto a thin dirt road.

“We should park and walk into town. They aren’t used to receiving visitors in vehicles. Normally we enter on foot,” Joey said to her.

She nodded and parked the transport. The back door was opening when they stepped around the side and Neil jumped down.

“He isn’t doing too good back there,” he said to Ally.

She rubbed at her eyes and pushed her hair back from her face. “Can you stay with him Neil? I don’t think he is in any position to guard the transport. Joey and I can go into Little Hope and hopefully be back by nightfall.”

Neil nodded. Ally showed him where the guns were, both regular ones and the ones with the cure serum in it.

“Remember, if you see a Rogue. Don’t hesitate. Shoot them before they have a chance to kill you,” she reminded him before leaving.

Joey smiled as they were walking away from the transport. “I think you scared the crap out of him.”

Ally looked ahead. “Good. He should be scared.”

It was a ten minute walk into Little Hope, and the road led right into the middle of town. The homes looked unoccupied at first, but as they walked further, Ally realized it was all a ploy. The cracks were drawn on with dirt and the brush was tied together for easy pull away. The disguise kept them safe from most unwelcome visitors, which Ally didn’t think was completely necessary. At this point, not too many people were traveling the country looking for a place to settle.

It was amazing she could think of these things now. Before, only her settlement and the City existed to her. The Wilderness seemed untouchable and empty. Now that she had traveled around, she could only imagine all of the towns and cities out there, thriving in silence.

A tall, spindly woman met them in the middle of the road.

“Joey,” she said with a head nod. “Trades aren’t for another two weeks. Is something wrong?”

Joey seemed completely relaxed, unlike Ally who was on alert.

“We are here for… unusual reasons,” he said, looking toward Ally.

This was her cue.

Ally took a deep breath. “I want to tell you a story, my story…”

It was how she decided to lead off her conversations with these towns from now on. She realized that her story was what led her here, starting with her pull to leave the City. Everything she did up until this point paved a path toward the future, toward her goals. Any differences and she could be anywhere else, doing anything else, but she was here.

“… Let’s take a walk,” she said to the woman.

Ally left Little Hope feeling good. The woman, Deb, had listened patiently to her and asked questions that were to be expected. She said she would need to talk to her council about it and then they would converge with Hope Town on the rebuilding process if they agreed.

Ally couldn’t afford to stick around and wait for her answer. She was there to share her ideas and hopefully elicit a helpful response, it was all she could do right now. Eventually she would come back and check in on the progress, maybe help implement certain projects. If she lived that long.

She shook the thought from her mind. The sun was setting by the time they got back to the transport, and Neil had already started on the fire. Stosh was sitting on a log nearby, skinning a rabbit, his makeshift bow and arrows by his side. Ally hoped that hunting had allowed him to get his mind off of Sabine, if only for a short time.

“We’ve had two easy town visits,” Ally said to Joey as they dropped their packs by the transport. “What are the chances we can continue like this?”

Joey took a swig of water. “Probably not good. The next town on your list? Well, the people there are sort of…. crass.”

“Crass?” Ally asked. She was unfamiliar with the word.

“You know,” he gestured. “Rude. Blunt. Obscure.”

Ally frowned. “Don’t tell me that.”

Joey laughed. “I thought you’d appreciate the warning. Generally when we do trades with them, which is once every few years, we meet off site and less than five words are exchanged.”

“Great,” Ally said. “What do you think would be the best way to approach them?”

“Don’t?” he responded with a smirk.

She raised her eyebrow at him and he held his hands up.

“We can’t surprise them. We need to make our presence known as we come into camp.”

“So then we should drive in?” Ally looked at the transport. “It’s bullet proof.”

Joey smiled and nodded. “Definitely.”

After another uneventful night, to Ally’s pleasure, they were on the road first thing in the in morning. Joey took front again and Neil stayed in the back. She noticed Neil and Stosh had a few quiet conversations last night and wondered if they had somehow bonded already. She felt a pang of jealousy. Stosh should be opening up to her, not someone they had just met.

This town was further out, taking them three hours to drive to. This time Joey tried driving for a bit of it, doing okay for his first time. When Ally couldn’t take anymore of the jolting starts and stops and near misses of trees, she took back over. They stopped a short distance from the town to refuel the transport and eat a small lunch, and then they were on their way.

“What does this town call themselves?” she asked.

“They don’t have a name,” Joey responded.

“Interesting.” Ally was feeling more and more uneasy about this town visit. Joey directed her to a road that led into this small town. The sound of the transport was enough to bring people from their homes. By the time Ally had pulled to a stop in the middle of the road, dozens of townspeople had gathered.

“Should we get out?” She looked at Joey.

“No,” he said, nodding out the front with his head.

Ally followed his gaze. Several men had gathered with axes and large sticks with nails hammered into them. Ally could see a definite disconnect between this town and the previous two. The men and women were filthy and seemed aged, even though she was sure some of them were her age. Children ran around the transport unclothed, and no one made a move to retrieve them.

“Who is the leader?”

Joey looked around. “I’m not sure. It changes often from what I’ve gathered. People tire of the person in charge and someone fights him to the death.”

“The death!” Ally choked out. “And
that
wasn’t something you felt like you needed to tell me beforehand? I thought this town was civil. The General has it marked in green.”

Joey shrugged. “Maybe they are to Zone D, since they can knock their town off the map in a matter of seconds. Us however? We are a handful of people in a vehicle. It may be bulletproof, but I doubt it is roll proof.”

Ally was starting to panic. “What do we do?”

Joey was still scanning the crowd. He pointed to someone on the right, but Ally couldn’t tell who. “I’ve been on two trades here and he has been to both of them. Maybe he’ll recognize me.”

Joey rolled down the window and waved at him. Ally was half afraid one of the men with weapons would run up and beat him to death. Instead, a man stepped away from the crowd and held his hand up. This seemed to settle the gathered people a bit. The man approached the window.

“It isn’t trade time. What the hell are you doing here?” he asked.

Crass.

“We aren’t here to trade,” Joey said. “We are here to discuss an opportunity.”

The man scowled. “And if we don’t want to
discuss
with you?”

Joey shrugged. “Then we’ll be on our way.”

The man held up one finger and walked back to the crowd.

“Maybe we should just leave,” Ally said.

Joey looked over at her. “Are you going to run away from everyone who is difficult to talk to?”

Ally sighed. “No.” She couldn’t afford to.

The crowd continued to stare with their menacing glares, the children continue to run around the street screaming, and they sat that way for what felt like hours. It was probably only ten minutes before the man Joey had talked to returned, this time with a young boy with him. This boy couldn’t be older than Luke or Max, but he was tall and very muscular, veins protruding from his arms and neck. He was shirtless, and covered in dirt, his long hair hanging in dirty strings by his cheeks.

“Nice moving home you have here,” he said.

Ally looked at Joey and then back at the boy. “Excuse me?”

“This home on wheels.” He stepped onto the side of the transport and pulled himself up by the window so that he could see Ally.

Clearly these people had limited knowledge of transports, or at least what they were called. Perhaps the soldiers from Zone D had visited on foot, or just hadn’t had a chance to inform them.

“Um, thanks,” Ally said. She silently chastised herself for saying
um
. It didn’t make her sound confident or in charge. She had been reminding herself to act like an adult. Problem was, she was still a teenager.

“This would be a nice addition to
our
home,” he said.

Ally laughed humorlessly. “Well, you can’t have it. We are here to talk, and then we will be on our way
with
our transport.”

The boy smirked at her. “So you think.”

Joey reacted before Ally even did. He punched the boy in the face, causing the boy to fly backwards off the transport. He was obviously stubborn enough to believe that they were just going to give the transport over. Joey rolled up the window and screamed “Drive!”

Ally hit the pedal with her foot and turned the wheel hard to the left. Thankfully the children ran screaming but a few of the men with weapons got in her way. She closed her eyes and she rammed into them, cringing as the transport bumped over their bodies.