The Undead World (Book 5): The Apocalypse Renegades (9 page)

The night the bridge came down, Sadie stood against the wall of her bedroom, her insides quivering as the goons went through her belongings. She didn’t have much; the pack she had carried since Maryland held everything she possessed, she also had Jillybean’s
I’m a Belieber
backpack. One of the goons gave her a look as he picked it up.

“I – I was like his biggest fan,” she explained. So repellent was the idea that the Goth girl almost choked on her words. The goon made a face of disgust and the River King who was standing with his back against the door only continued to glare.

Neither made mention of the very small panties that fell out of the pack when the goon dumped out the contents. Her dad’s sneer grew muddied and he looked ill at ease at the sight of them.
How old does my dad think I am?
Sadie thought to herself. To her it was obvious the panties were about 10 sizes too small, but no one else even noticed. The goon going through her belongings was a big thick man with a fat face that seemed to sit right atop his very thick shoulders. He poked through all the crazy crap Jillybean had managed to collect in the course of her travels, grunting as he did so.

There was string, rubber bands, magnets, scissors, a Swiss Army knife, copper wire, a clump of flower petals, the dress off a Barbie doll, a cell phone with a dead battery, a penlight, a slew of batteries, and the pincushion. But no radio.

“Where is it?” the River King asked.

“It wasn’t me,” Sadie replied.

The River King, blade thin and dangerously fast, rolled his dark eyes at his daughter. “Then who told them?”

“I… I don’t know,” Sadie said. “But I didn’t do it. Even if I wanted to there was no way I could. Do you see a radio?”

The River King cast a dark eye around the room. There were probably a hundred hiding spots to stash a small radio but he didn’t bother to look any further. “Just give me the radio, Sadie. Everyone with any sense knows it was you who alerted that damned Jillybean when we were transferring the prisoners.”

“Well, since no one around here seems to have a lick of sense, I guess I’m home free,” she retorted. “Face it, Dad, you don’t have a shred of proof I did anything.”

He pointed at the door and snapped his fingers, saying to the goons, “Get out.” The goon next to her squinted his little eyes at the pile on the bed, and then once at Sadie, before going to the door. When the goon was safely on the other side of the door, the River King slumped onto the bed and blew out, wearily. “Ask yourself, and be honest, do you think I need any evidence whatsoever to convict you? Really? I could plant a radio on you if I wanted to.”

“Then why ask?”

“Because…because…I need to know you’re done hurting me. I know you care for your friends but you have personally put me in jeopardy. Do you get what that means? If I’m in trouble or if I’m on the verge of being overthrown then you’re on the verge of being sent to New York. Do you get it? They’ll kill you there. And think about Eve. I have two buyers already lined up, eager to take her off my hands. They’re in a bidding war over her.”

“You wouldn’t!” Sadie cried, glaring at her father in a full wrath.

“What can I tell you? The price is up to two grand. Can you believe that nonsense? Two grand for a baby? It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

“You wouldn’t,” Sadie repeated, this time without any of the bluster and rage.

The River King smiled wickedly. “I think we both know I would, if I had to.” Without warning, Sadie leapt at her father with the idea of scratching his eyes out. He was bigger, stronger, and just as fast. He easily caught her wrists and, with a deft move, spun her around to hold her arm behind her back. “I think I should have spanked you more as a child.”

Sadie sneered at the idea. “That would’ve required you to actually have been around and to have been a real dad instead of the mooch you were.”

With a grunt that could’ve been part self-loathing and partially a derisive snort, he threw her down on the bed. “Okay, let’s have the radio right this second or I’ll call Randy back in to take the brat by force.”

Randy had been the no-neck goon who had dug through her things. Picturing him, Sadie’s anger wilted as defeat pervaded her soul. She pointed to the window. “At the top of the track is a gap. It’s in there. But it doesn’t matter, they’re long gone by now. Probably halfway to Colorado by now, I’m betting.”

“I doubt it,” the River King said, confidently. He went to the window and started digging around at the gap. As he did, he explained, “They have no supplies, no weapons, no gas, and most importantly, they have no leader. Neil is a pussy, and Jillybean is just a little girl. We’ll find them and it won’t take long either.”

That had been three days before and, as far as she knew, no one had heard the first thing concerning the renegades. Her father’s mood had turned nastier with each day, but when he came in to see her, just before five in the afternoon, he was practically giddy, though he wouldn’t say why.

She decided to see if his sudden perkiness would translate to her advantage. “Can I go see Captain Grey today?”

Immediately, his dark eyes narrowed. His suspicion lasted only a brief second and then he smiled like a politician. “Of course. He’s been asking to see you as well and now might be the best time. Only one stipulation, you take Randy with you. You know, just to keep you honest.”

“Sure,” she said, with a half shrug.

“And one more thing,” her father added, “the baby stays here.”

A nervous smile crept up onto Sadie’s face. “What, are you looking to bond with your granddaughter or are you looking to sell her?”

“I won’t lie; one of the bidders wants to see her and I need you to know how serious I am about you behaving.”

How badly she wanted to punch him! His entire parenting style revolved around threats and intimidation with the occasional cookie thrown in so he could say he “tried.” Sadie’s fists balled into hard knots, but she managed to keep her cool, barely. “I’m being good. I promise.”

An hour later, she broke that promise, however before she did, she handed Eve over to an ugly couple: the man was very big with a curling lip that seems stuck in a permanent snarl and the woman radiated a greedy, self-centered, evil.

“I changed my mind,” Sadie said to Randy in a whisper. “I don’t need to go to the prison. Send them away, please.”

Randy scoffed, “They’re seeing the baby whether you go or not,” he told her. “Now hand over the little shit or I’ll pull it out of your hands.”

Sadie knew that Randy wasn’t playing around—he never played around. He was a hateful, beast of a man. “No, I’ll do it.” She gave up the baby and then rattled off a list of instructions to the ugly couple on the care and feeding of Eve. “She’s going to be ready for her late afternoon nap anytime. Change her diaper first, then feed her. I have a bottle all ready for her. Now, normally, I don’t like her going down with a bottle but since you’re strangers you’ll probably need it. And don’t forget the baby monitor. You have to remember to turn it on…”

“We ain’t gonna need no monitor,” the brutish man said. “And she ain’t gonna need no nap. Peggy wants to see the baby and no one wants to see one that’s sleeping.”

Who wants to see a baby when she’s cranky because she didn’t get her nap in?
Sadie thought to herself. Aloud, she mumbled, “Fine, then she’s ready to go.” It physically hurt for Sadie to hand Eve over to complete strangers. The second the baby left her hands, she felt a dull ache in her chest that wouldn’t go away. “I’ll be back in an hour,” she said.

“Whatever,” the brute said. He and Peggy were so caught up in Eve they barely paid Sadie the least attention. Not trusting them, Sadie made an excuse to reach into Eve’s diaper bag.

“I just forgot to get…” No actual reason came to mind, though it hardly mattered as the pair were ignoring her. She clicked on the baby monitor and pocketed the receiver. Randy saw but didn’t care. “I don’t trust them,” Sadie explained, in a low voice while they exited the room.

The big man only grunted, “Who the fuck cares?” he asked, rhetorically. “Now, come on. Let’s get this over with. I can’t believe I gotta fucking babysit you.”

Sadie pulled back. “Hold on.” She turned on the receiver and heard Peggy cooing over Eve.

“Great, you can hear them, so let’s go,” Randy demanded. He took her by the upper arm and dragged her down the short hall to the stairs. Sadie walked with the receiver held to her chest. It was the only tonic for the pain behind her breastbone.

On the first floor, the two of them breezed by the auditorium where the cage fighters killed each other on a nightly basis, and then they were out in the late afternoon sunshine. It was a hot day and because of the humidity the sun overhead was hazy and the air felt thick. In seconds, Sadie’s black shirt was clinging to her skin. Randy began to gripe but Sadie wasn’t listening. In the three days since the bridge had been blown up she had barely been given the chance to see the light of day. Her father allowed her only one hour each afternoon to walk around the base with Eve in her stroller; she was always accompanied by a guard.

Because she knew the prisons would smell like hell’s toilet, Sadie tried to suck up as much fresh air as she could on the way. The prisons turned out to be not so bad, however. The smell in the air was sharp but not so overpowering as it had been when the sixty renegades had been crammed in the prison.

The place was dim and the stagnant air held motes, frozen in place. Captain Grey sat alone in a cell; he hopped up quick when Sadie and Randy came in. He wasn’t the only one. The men behind the bars were bored and Sadie was a nice distraction.

“Hey baby, you’re the answer to my prayers.”

“You here in a conjugal way? Cuz I want my turn.”

There was much more and most of it lurid. Captain Grey glared. “Just ignore them,” he said as she came up to the bars. When Randy stopped right behind her, Grey jerked his head to the doors they had entered and said, “Why don’t you give us some privacy?”

“Can’t,” Randy answered. “King’s orders. So get on with your chitchat so we can get the hell out of here.”

Sadie let out a long sigh and took Grey’s hand between the bars. “Now it’s my turn—just ignore him. He won’t leave… and there’s…” She faltered as Grey gritted his teeth and inclined his head toward Randy; he was trying to tell her something but what she couldn’t tell by his little gestures. “What is it?”

Grey forced his mouth into a strained smile and said, “I
need
to talk to you in private; quietly if you know what I mean, it’s too personal to share.”

The man in the cage next to Grey’s laughed loud enough to fill the room. “The soldier boy is in love!”

Another man joked, “You’re really robbing the cradle, Grey. She’s young enough to be your daughter.”

Grey ignored them, he squeezed Sadie’s hand and again flicked his eyes to Randy, who was chuckling along with the rest of the men at the ribbing Grey was receiving. Sadie was stuck. She knew that Randy wouldn’t budge. He was the perfect lapdog of the River King’s; he would stick next to her and report back everything they said.

“I can’t,” she told Grey. “He won’t leave no matter what I say.”

“It’s important,” Grey said, sternly. He then rubbed his stomach but with the knife’s edge of his hand. He was trying to tell her something but Sadie didn’t… Jillybean! He was trying to say something about Jillybean and, knowing the seven-year-old as she did, that meant a rescue was afoot. But once again there would be no moving Randy away so they could talk privately. He would stay no matter what.

Sadie’s mind raced down ludicrous possibilities of finding ways to be alone with Grey: fake illnesses, a cry of rape, pulling the fire alarm down and emptying the building, none of which would work. She was at a loss, and wishing that she had Jillybean’s ability to think on her feet quickly. All she had in her arsenal was speed and a little guts, but how could she use those in order to talk to Grey without being overheard?

A grainy plan, vague in its details came to her. It would never be called brilliant but it would do because it would have to do. She turned to Randy, her babysitter/guard, and said, “Randy, please give us a few minutes.”

He rolled his eyes. “Why do you even bother to ask? You know I can’t…” Sadie kicked him square in the junk. There had been no warning and the kick was launched with all the anger and frustration in her body. Randy’s eyes popped wide and his mouth formed a perfect circle as he was wracked with pain.

All around them the cellblock went ecstatic. The prisoners laughed and shouted themselves hoarse as Randy dropped to his knees, he then collapsed forward gasping, one hand cupping his wounded parts and the other flat on the ground. He couldn’t have been in a better position for Sadie’s next kick. It caught him flush on the jaw and he was out like a light, flat on the ground face first. The prisoners were going mad, whooping it up, however neither Sadie nor Grey was feeling the elation. Sadie knew she had crossed a line and knew that there’d be repercussions to what she had just done.

But that didn’t matter to her now. “What’s going on?” she asked under the cacophony going on all around them.

Grey came up close to the bars, his cheeks pressed against the metal. “It’s Jillybean. She’s leading the group back toward Cape Girardeau. My guess is she’s planning a rescue. It’s crazy!”