Refugees from the Righteous Horde (Toxic World Book 2) (27 page)

CHAPTER FORTY

Susanna and the others were hustled through a jeering crowd and into Weissberg. Bridget leapt out from the throng and raked Susanna’s face with her fingernails before being pushed aside by one of the guards.

“You bitch!” Bridget shouted. “This is how you repay me for my friendship?”

“Derren is cheating on you,” Susanna called over her shoulder as she was led away.

“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” Bridget wailed.

Marcus and the others were led away towards Abe’s house, while a pair of burly men dragged her back to her old barracks. It was the middle of the morning and the slaves were out working, so she was alone when they tossed her inside her old prison and locked the door behind them.

“Derren will be coming in a minute,” a guard shouted through the door. His laughter had a sick tone to it.

She lay on the floor where they had thrown her, too weak to get up. So this is how it would end, being beaten to death by some thug in the slave quarters. She had finally straitened her spine and this is what she got for it.

She wondered about Donna and the other slaves. She had hoped to free them. Now it looked like they would die in captivity.

Maybe I won’t be the last. Maybe someone else will rise up.

Derren did not come in a minute, or in the next hour after that. Susanna wasn’t fooled. The sick bastard was making her wait, hoping she’d be trembling in terror in anticipation of what he was going to do to her.

She wouldn’t give him that satisfaction. She knew she was dead, and besides feeling disappointment at not freeing the slaves she didn’t much care. She lay on Donna’s bed and dozed.

The rattling of the lock on the door woke her. She sat up in bed. So this was it.

Susanna got to her feet and stood tall.

But Derren didn’t come through the door. Abe did.

He had a confused look on his face.

“The Doctor wants to see you,” he said.

“The Doctor is here?” she asked.

“He will be. When your friends radioed back to say they were about to be captured, that son of a bitch took my people and all my property in New City. Now he’s coming with a convoy of vehicles. Asked to see all the prisoners. Wants to make a deal.”

“And he asked to see me too?” Susanna said. Her estimate of that strange man who had founded New City went up a notch.

Abe frowned at her. “Just who are you anyway?”

Susanna looked him in the eye.

“Someone who stopped being a victim. Watch it, Abe. I’m dangerous. People like you and people like me can’t share this world.”

Abe sneered. “I should have left you starving in the wasteland where I found you.”

Two hours later they stood on a barren plain. The other prisoners and some guards stood with them, as were about fifty armed men and women from Weissberg who had taken up positions behind rocks and in hastily dug trenches. Derren, Susanna noticed, was not among them. A large bonfire blazed nearby, its column of smoke a signal to the convoy of vehicles they could just now make out as a trail of dust on the horizon.

Abe shook his head in disappointment.

“Look at that. Have you ever seen half a dozen vehicles all driving at once?”

“I’ve never seen any vehicle driving until today,” Susanna said.

“We had it all in New City,” Abe said, his voice going distant, “and we’re going to lose it all through bad leadership. Just like in the Old Times.”

Susanna looked around at the men and women with rifles and automatics.

“If you ambush them—”

“It will be war. No, these are for my protection. Despite what Kevin said I don’t want to restart the City State Wars. I want to live in security. That’s why I and my people had to get out from under that madman.”

The vehicles drew closer. A guard next to Abe carried Kevin’s radio and a mobile power pack. He directed the New City convoy to stop a few hundred yards away. They did, their vehicles glinting in the sun. Men and women in Kevlar and carrying automatics piled out and took up position on both flanks.

Abe snorted. “Looks like The Doctor came prepared.”

The guard handed him the radio. The Doctor’s voice crackled through the speaker.

“I’ve brought a few of the prisoners as a goodwill gesture, and there’s one of your men at New City radio ready to broadcast an amnesty once I give the word. You can pick the signal up here?”

“Yes, we can receive New City Radio here, but it will soon be moving its location.”

“We’ll see about that. Bring the prisoners forward and I’ll do the same. We’ll meet in the middle. I want to talk to you face to face. We each bring ten guards.”

Abe gave a crooked smile. “Mutually assured destruction. You know your history.”

Abe assembled some guards and moved forward. Susanna was glad to see that Marcus seemed better, although his head was swathed in a bandage and he still limped. Abe noticed it too.

“Why are you limping?” Abe asked.

“My sciatica,” Marcus grumbled. “Got bad when I jumped off the wall during the siege to go secure the gate. You know, when you were hiding in your compound not helping?”

“Just protecting my property, Marcus, just protecting my property.”

The two groups cautiously approached one another.

“That’s close enough,” Abe said when they got about ten yards apart.

The Doctor took another step forward. His eyes held a dangerous gleam. Susanna could see now how this man could have founded a city from the ruins of the Old Times. While Abe didn’t look his match, he must have had an iron will, or an insatiable greed, to want to go his own way.

“Here’s the deal, Abe. I release your people and you release mine. You take all your portable property but your lands are forfeit.”

Abe nodded. “I have better lands here. Define portable property.”

“Anything your people can carry with them today.”

“No deal. We have stocks of flour. Corn meal. We’re going to disassemble our houses and bring the building materials here. That will take time.”

“You can take the food. The building materials, no. You forfeit New City radio too. And another thing,” The Doctor raised his voice. “You are all hereby stripped of your citizenship or associate status and are forever exiled from New City and the Burbs.”

Abe let out a little chuckle. “Don’t you think they already know that?”

The Doctor went on. “Everyone in the Merchants Association and anyone else who has aligned themselves with Weissberg has seven days in which to return to the Burbs and take an oath of loyalty. You will be granted amnesty and allowed to live in the Burbs and take the building materials from your old house in order to rebuild it there. You will also get to keep half your lands.”

Susanna looked around at the men and women of Weissberg. Some sneered. Others looked uncertain. One man and woman, perhaps a married couple, were whispering to each other.

Then everyone’s attention was diverted by one of the Weissberg men running in from where he had been keeping watch on the periphery. He hurried up to Abe.

“Scavengers, a whole crowd of them coming this way, and they’re led by that guy who called a strike in the Burbs.”

“What?” Abe said, looking confused. The Doctor’s jaw dropped.

A moment later they appeared, closer than anyone had anticipated. A score, two score, no fifty, ragged men and women appeared from behind rocks and out from a nearby gully. They kept low, uncertain at the presence of so many guns. Only one walked tall, an old man with a bandage on his nose.

He strode up to where Abe and The Doctor faced off, stopping a little distance away. The three men formed a triangle, each glancing from one to the other.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Abe asked. The Doctor looked like he was wondering the same thing.

“Word is that some scavengers have thrown in their lot with Weissberg,” he said in a loud voice. “Looking around I see that’s true. The Burbs have always been the best market for scavengers looking to trade, and just when we’re finally getting some rights with New City the Merchants Association wants to break away and leave New City weak?”

“That’s our decision, not yours,” Abe growled.

“That it is. And here’s my decision,” The Giver turned and faced the Weissberg crowd. “Any scavenger who works for or trades with Weissberg or any of its citizens will be declared outlaw by the Association of the Wildlands.”

“The Association of the Wildlands?” The Doctor asked. “There’s no such thing.”

The Giver glared at him. “There is and there has been for some time now. If you got out from behind your walls more often you’d find that there’s a lot going on in the wildlands you don’t know about.”

Abe laughed. “You’re bluffing. You don’t control the scavengers. No one can control that group of lowlifes.”

The Giver gave him a contemptuous look.

“Just you wait and see.”

He turned to Susanna.

“I see they captured you again. You were brave to leave New City after you got free.”

“I’m not scared of them,” Susanna said. “There’s nothing they can take from me except my life.”

“Not on my watch,” The Giver replied.

Susanna considered his words. He obviously knew that she had made it to New City, and then went with the convoy back here. But how could he know these things?

The scavengers, of course. They were everywhere, and if they were organized, they could see and hear everything.

Not everything. They didn’t know what happened in Jessica’s bedroom. The Giver figured she had delivered his message and hadn’t asked for Jessica’s reply. He obviously assumed the girl would do as she was told.

Should I tell him, like Jessica wants me to? No, that would cause trouble. Let her have a little bit of freedom.

“Enough of this, we came to make a deal,” Abe said.

“And we’ll make one,” The Doctor replied. “This changes nothing, not for this deal anyway. We make the exchange of prisoners and you get to take your food and portable goods.”

Abe made a sour face. “Deal. Let’s exchange the prisoners. I want you off my property.”

“No deal!” Susanna shouted.

“Shut up,” Abe said.

“No deal. They’ve taken a group of porters and are using them as slaves. They need to be freed.”

The Doctor shook his head. “I’ve made a bad enough deal as it is. There’s nothing I can do for a bunch of prisoners of war. I’m freeing you, aren’t I?”

Susanna met his gaze. It was a hard thing to do, something she could have never done a week ago. But she met it, and held it.

“The deal frees them or I stay. You’ll be responsible for my enslavement.”

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Annette whipped out her pistol and fired through the windshield. The cultist in the road in front of them pirouetted and fell under Rachel’s tires.

“Damn it, where am I going to get another windshield?” Rachel shouted.

“Go!” Annette hollered back.

Rachel hunched over and to one side to see through a part of the glass that wasn’t spiderwebbed with cracks. A bullet clanked through one of the rear doors and Charley flinched.

“Did it get you?” Jeb said, turning back.

“No, got my pants leg, though. Damn.”

Another bullet took out a side view mirror, and then they turned a bend and got to a decently preserved straightaway. Rachel stepped on the gas and they shot forward.

At the next turn Rachel slowed down.

“What are you doing?” Annette asked.

“Got to drive carefully.”

“They’re still chasing us!”

Rachel laughed. “We’re in a car, we’re not running from them.”

Suddenly the weariness of the long chase weighed Annette down like a sack of lead. She looked back at Jackson.

“How’s he doing?”

“The bleedings slowed down,” Christina said.

“Can The Doctor save him?” Jeb asked from where he was crammed in the seat next to Annette.

“He saved me from a worse shot a couple of years ago,” Annette said.

Jeb smiled at her. “I figured you were a veteran.”

Jeb shucked off his pack, which he hadn’t had time to remove when he leapt into the vehicle. Annette had to duck to keep from getting clonked on the head by the baseball bat.

“You still have that?” Annette asked, feeling her heart lighten. During the chase they had thrown aside everything they didn’t need—spare clothes, blankets, empty ammo magazines, anything that could weigh them down. Yet he had kept Pablo’s gift.

Suddenly Jeb looked embarrassed.

“Well, yeah. I put so much work into it I figured it would be a waste to throw away. Besides, how often does Pablo get up into the mountains to find a maple tree?”

“Never.”

They looked into each other’s eyes for a moment. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.

She looked back at Jackson. She didn’t have time to think about anything but him until she saw him back and safe with The Doctor.

Rachel took it as fast as she dared as they went over the pass and down to the familiar side that was New City’s domain. The trip was a blur. The lack of sleep, the nightmare chase, and the relief to finally be relatively safe took Annette into a strange space between dreaming and wakefulness. She heard Rachel talking on the radio and faintly realized there was some trouble back in New City, but her mind was incapable of focusing. Whatever trouble there was, someone else could handle it. She slept.

She awoke, head muzzy and with a body like lead, just as they were driving through the front gate.

She immediately perked up. It looked like an attack was on. Groups of armed men and women lined the walls and protected the gate and other key areas. It looked like every citizen had been called up.

No, not every citizen. Over at the cluster of houses where the Merchants Association lived, where they had made a fort within a fort during the siege, Clyde was overseeing the dismantling of a barbed wire perimeter. A line of sour-faced men and women stood with their hands on their heads as Clyde’s guards kept guns trained on them.

“What the hell happened?” Annette gaped.

“The bastards tried to have a coup,” Rachel said. “Word came in on the radio while you were sleeping. They’ve been setting up a secret city.”

“A secret city? A coup?” Annette was still trying to get her mind to work.

Then she remembered something more important. She turned back to look at Jackson. Christina nodded to her.

“The bleeding has stopped and he’s breathing OK. You patched him up good.”

Rachel pulled up by the warehouse where The Doctor had his clinic. Warned ahead of time by radio, medical personnel were just emerging as they stopped. Ahmed and two assistants eased Jackson out of the back seat. His fiancée Olivia ran up and hugged him, sobbing. The medics spirited him away. Charley and Nguyen, who both had superficial wounds, stumbled after them, looking utterly spent.

“Where’s The Doctor?” Annette called after them.

“Visiting Weissberg,” Ahmed replied over his shoulder.

“Weissberg?”

“Abe Weissman’s new city.”

With that Ahmed and the others disappeared into the warehouse. Annette stood for a moment, stunned and unsure what to do next. It seemed like everything had changed in the few days they’d been gone.

“Mom!”

Pablo ran up to her and barreled into her chest, almost making her fall over.

“Are you hurt?” Pablo gave her a worried look from where he had wrapped himself around her waist.

Annette gave him a hug and buried her face in his hair. It was nice to smell something other than toxins and gun oil.

“No Pablito, I’m not hurt.”

At least some things hadn’t changed.

After a long minute she let him go and looked around. Frank and Clyde were waiting for her. Jeb stood close by. He had laid his AK on the ground. Christina walked over, gave him a grin, and picked it up.

“So how are things in the Burbs?” Annette asked Frank.

“Good, and bad,” Frank said. “Things have been quiet since word got out about the Merchants Association. They barricaded themselves inside and for a while everyone thought there was going to be a fight. Then The Doctor and Abe talked on the radio and it looks like they’re going to come to some sort of a deal.”

“I really should have gone with him,” Clyde said, looking worried.

“He needs someone here to hold the fort,” Annette said. She turned back to Frank. “You said there was something bad too?”

Frank’s face turned grim and he nodded. “Tiffany, that working girl. She turned up dead.”

Annette felt her stomach clench. Murdered. Murdered while she was off trying and failing to kill The Pure One. Why was it every time she went into the wildlands she overlooked something important to do at home? Pablo gave her a reassuring hug. She stroked his hair.

“So?” Clyde said, looking eager.

Annette shook her head. Clyde looked stunned.

“What happened?”

“I shot him. The bullet got stopped.”

“Stopped? What, he was wearing Kevlar?”

“No, it was. . .I don’t know.”

“A blue shell of light appeared around him,” Jeb said. “I saw it.”

Clyde looked confused. “A what? Well didn’t you shoot at him again?”

Annette’s face flushed. “I. . .couldn’t. I only had one bullet.”

There was a long pause.

“You went out there with only one bullet,” Clyde repeated.

“Yes.”

“You took out a whole posse after the most dangerous man in the wildlands and you only had one bullet.”

Annette could only nod.

“She hit him,” Jeb said.

“I wasn’t asking you,” Clyde said, suddenly angry.

“Yeah, but I’m telling you,” Jeb frowned at him. “She would have got him if it wasn’t for that weird light.”

Clyde’s face went blank for a second, then lit up.

“Both of you, come with me!”