This Fallen World, page 15
part #1 of Fallen World Series
“Soba is good,” I said. “He’ll be as good as the Farmers, given the chance.”
“I will also be talking to Teresa Manora about a closer relationship with her Society. I feel it will be a power to be reckoned with in the future.”
“You both can benefit from each other,” I said.
“I believe you’re right.”
“I need to be on my way,” I said. “Thanks for the medical.”
“No, I thank you for the job you’ve done and the extra help you provided my Patrollers. I must be on my way, as well. I must meet the messenger I sent to the south. We will know shortly if my offer is accepted.”
He shook my hand and turned to leave.
“Grady,” I said. He looked back at me. “Remember the Rift? The world up there is much worse than the Rift ever got. It could stand some of what was done back then.”
“It was a long time ago, in another world,” he said. “I keep my people safe down here, Kade. But there might be a time when I can help in your quest.”
“Ain’t on a damn quest,” I muttered. He smiled and walked out of the Infirmary.
Two other forms came from the shadows.
“Don’t you even think of it,” Lindsey said.
“You don’t wanna know how to make it?”
“Just leave him alone about it.”
“The kid might stay home more…”
“Don’t even go there you old fart!”
“How you holding up, there, Kade?” Michael changed the subject.
“I’ll live,” I said.
“Killian said you had a broken leg, four broken ribs and your gunshot wounds reopened from before. Along with the bite the Geno Freak hit you with, there’s the four cuts from his claws on your back. She stitched those up, nicely.”
“Yeah, I think I’ll take a break.”
“You need to,” Lindsey said. “How did you even survive that fall?”
“The Freak used his body to break my fall.”
“Was awful nice of him,” Michael said.
“I thought so.”
“Ready to get outta here?”
“Definitely,” I said. “Where’s my coat?”
“Don’t worry about that,” Lindsey said. “Doctor Killian won’t let you up, yet, so we’re wheeling you out with one of her chairs.”
“Let’s get to it, then,” I said. “If I’m gonna lay around it’s gonna be in my big comfortable bed.”
“Our orders are to bring you to the Chapterhouse,” Michael said. “I don’t think Teresa wants to leave you at home yet. Right now, you’re not as scary as she is so we’ll follow her orders.”
Michael strode across the room to fetch the wheel chair.
“I love that old bastard,” Lindsey said. “And he’s right. She’s much more terrifying than you.”
I guess there are scarier things than a schizophrenic Corporate Agent in this Fallen World.
* * * * *
Epilogue
“Kade,” Wilson Poe yelled from the front room of Teresa Manora’s quarters.
“Come on in,” I said.
“Teresa requested you join her in the conference room.”
“Sure thing.”
“Want me to wheel you there?”
“I guess,” I grumbled. If she saw me out of the chair, I’d never hear the end of it.
He pushed my chair out of the office where I had been spending the majority of my time.
“Still won’t let you go home?”
“Nope.”
“You could sneak out.”
“You think I would ever hear the end of that?”
“Probably not,” he said as he pushed the door open and pulled my chair through.
“Probably has another job for me,” I said. “I like some time between jobs to heal up. At this rate, I’ll be a quadriplegic before the year is out.”
He laughed and kept pushing me to my doom.
Pulling the door open, he pushed me into a conference room with nine people around the table. I knew all nine of the men in question, one way or another.
Zane stood up and pulled my chair to the table as Poe stepped out the door with a grin. I looked around the room at eight of the Warlords in the general vicinity, including Steiner, the Warlord of our own zone. Zane, Jaxom, Devin, Yamato, and Steiner were Warlords that had been in place for some time. Holden, the replacement for Blechley, and Safro, the replacement for Polk, were new to their jobs.
I chuckled as I saw the final member of this group. I first met him in the street of Moreau. He’d warned me to leave. I’d last seen him when I gave him the skin with the mark on it to control those under the influence of the imprinter.
“Moving up in the world?”
“I kept the mark and took over for a while to make it easier on the folks in Moreau,” he said. “As the folks came off the imprinter, they recognized that I had treated them well and stayed. They made me the Warlord by election. I couldn’t say no when they asked.”
“Understandable,” I said with a grin.
“The name’s Kalib,” he said.
“We requested you be here for a reason,” Jaxom said.
“We all came together to create something, today,” Yamato said. “An alliance of sorts. We are signing contracts to place our zones under the control of one person.”
“Hell no…”
“Teresa Manora,” Zane said.
“Thank God,” I said. “You scared the crap out of me for a second.”
Jaxom chuckled, “All of us have agreed to this alliance with one stipulation. Trust is hard to be given to such a degree, and we will only sign if this contract will be enforced by someone who is strong enough to remove anyone who breaks the contract. No one doubts that you could be that enforcer.”
“We want your signature on the contract and your word that you will enforce it if necessary,” Yamato said.
I find I can still be surprised in this Fallen World.
* * * * *
Seeds
Chapter 1
I stared toward the west with a sick feeling in my stomach.
“They did it,” I said.
“Damn fools,” Pop said, shaking his head.
The cloud from the impact could be seen in the distance.
“They’re far enough away to mean we might survive,” he said.
“People are gonna run,” I said. “They’ll follow their first reaction.”
“That’s the truth.”
“There’s nowhere to run to.”
“Also the truth.”
“I’ll gas up the truck,” I said.
“Reckon we need a few things.”
“Yep,” I said as we watched the world fall.
* * *
“What about the raiders?” Pete Dalten’s voice was filled with fear.
Pop’s voice was deep and calm. “We’ll deal with them if we need to.”
“What are we supposed to do, Kendrik?” Dalten continued. “We’re farmers. We’re not soldiers.”
“Look out there, Pete,” Pop said, pointing toward the door. “We have something the whole damn country is in short supply of. We knew months ago the time would come when we would have to defend it. We have the guns, and you’ve all been trained to shoot. Did you think it was a game?”
He shook his head in misery.
I placed my hand on his shoulder and squeezed lightly. “We can do this, Pete.”
He shook his head as he muttered, “Easy for you, Pratt.”
“Death is never easy,” I answered. “It’s ugly. I never wanted that to be something I’ve done. But it is and I have no illusions; it will have to be done again.”
Five years I was Obsidian Infantry. Five years of fighting before I finished my tour. When it was done, I’d laid down my rifle and joined my father on the farm. I lost two brothers in the war before it had all ended with the bombs. My elder brother, Kolby, died the first year I was in. He had always seemed invincible to me, but the war with JalCom had proven otherwise. And Jimmy? Well, he hadn’t contacted us since the Fall. It was hard not to count him as lost. He’d been on assignment to who knows where. We’d tried to convince him to stay home and work the farm with Pop, but he was a Pratt.
We’d all gone to war. Pop fought against Dellik Unified. Kolby and I had fought against JalCom. And now Obsidian Corporation had come into conflict with the last big company in the west, Teledyne. The whole continent was under the control of the two Corporations. No one knew who launched the first nuke, but the world went to hell when that happened. Teledyne and Obsidian, followed by the overseas Corporations, launched everything. How that had come to be the decision was hard to fathom. The center of what had once been the United States of America was a radioactive wasteland.
Over the six months that followed, we learned that the southern half of the Eastern Conglomerate was completely destroyed. Billions of people died. It was unknown how far west the destruction went.
Before the mushroom clouds had finished climbing through the sky, Pop was planting corn.
The meeting went on for some time before Pop dropped the gavel on the block. There is only so much that can be said. The time for preparation was upon us.
I exited the hall to find a familiar figure waiting for me.
“Thanks, Zee,” Neave said. “Thanks for trying to calm my dad.”
“We’re as prepared as we can be for trouble, Neave.”
She slid under the crook of my arm and walked close beside me. “He’s scared. We’re all scared. All, except you and Kendrik.”
“We’re scared, too, Neave,” I said, pulling her close. “But we can’t let fear keep us from doing what we need to do.”
“There’s no going back to what we had before, is there?”
“I’m afraid not,” I said with a light squeeze of my left arm that circled her waist. She used to walk on my right but now I needed my right arm free to be able to draw the pistol holstered on my side.
I was under no illusions about what was coming. Stories from people fleeing the city to the east about the savagery they had escaped were enough to make me open the trunk I had in the attic. Guns were second nature to me after the war, and the .45 caliber automatic was the same one I had carried while the fighting with JalCom had been at its highest.
“I just wish…”
“I know,” I said. “We all wish we could go back.”
“I’m not sure your dad does,” she said. “He never was very outspoken until after.”
“Don’t ever doubt that he would rather be minding his own business and just growing corn,” I replied. “He set aside the life of peace he’d wanted to do what was necessary.”
“He just seems to be in his element, now.”
“He’s a natural leader,” I said. “He led men in combat in the wars. He gladly laid that mantle aside afterwards. He’d be happily growing vegetables right now if it weren’t for the Fall.”
“What are we going to do about the raiders?”
“We’re going to kill them, Neave,” I said quietly. “And it isn’t going to be pretty.”
“There’s no other way, is there?”
“There’s not,” I answered. “When they come, we’ll kill them.”
We neared her father’s truck.
“I could stay.”
“I have to go scouting tonight, baby,” I said.
“Then I’ll be back Tuesday.”
“I’ll be here,” I smiled and pulled her in close.
Our lips touched, and I heard someone clear their throat behind me. She pulled back and looked past me to see her father.
“You couldn’t wait a few more minutes?”
He shrugged.
She kissed me again, quickly. “Tuesday, Zebadiah Pratt.”
“Tuesday, Neave Dalton,” I returned. “I’ll be waiting for you.”
I watched her climb into the driver seat of the truck, and Pete got into the passenger side. Two younger boys climbed into the back of the truck with rifles. No one travels unarmed in this Fallen World.
* * * * *
Chapter 2
“Easy, boy,” I said softly as Dagger side-stepped. “It’s just a log.”
Dagger was a little high strung, and we needed to spend the time riding him to work some of that out of the big black gelding. I knew he would make a great trail horse when he got used to it. When we had been training the others to shoot, Dagger and the other trail horses had been near. I’d been accused of mistreating them when that started but it was necessary. They needed to be able to handle the gunfire. I had no illusions about what we were going to face when others found us.
I pulled Dagger up as I looked off to the East. The sun was setting behind me but there was enough light to see the smoke from a campfire.
“Looks like I get to walk a while.”
I jumped off Dagger and tied him in a copse of trees where he could nibble on the grass close by. This was another thing we had done as soon as the bombs dropped. We began training the horses for future use. Up until then, they had been pets of some of the residents near the town. When they ran they left the horses. We took them.
Dagger was just as happy to munch on the grass.
I drew the .45 and worked the action, ejecting a bullet. Catching it before it hit the ground, I ejected the mag and slid it back in. The action had been smooth, and I holstered the pistol. As I made my way toward the fire in the distance, I checked the other .45 and the mags stashed all over the vest I wore.
A little while later I slid along the ground toward the fire. I could smell the group of people almost as far out as I smelled the smoke. With several rivers and streams in the area, there was no excuse for the filth.
As soon as I could make out what was being said, I halted.
“…bunch of farmers.”
“Did you see where the food was stored?”
“They got silos of corn. Saw them using those big combines to harvest it.”
I grimaced. The combines had just been running over the last week. We had conserved all of the diesel to run them. After the harvest was done, they would be dead. But we would have a great head start on stored grains. We may be harvesting by hand next year, but we wouldn’t go hungry this year.
Pop had gotten Garrick to start rebuilding the old water wheel on the mill. It had been shut down for years after the big mill upstate had opened. The old mill was local, and we would grind the wheat and corn into meal and flour. We talked about turning some of the lowlands into a place to grow rice.
“What about women?”
“Oh, they got some sweet lookin’ cherries. And kids for the Lieutenant and that group.”
“Guns?”
“Lot of em carryin’ but I don’t think they’re particularly experienced.”
“We’ll hit em tomorrow,” the voice that had been questioning said. “I want that cherry that we saw in the truck. Make sure she ain’t damaged.”
I may not be the brightest crayon in the box, but I always was the first in my platoon when it came to picking a fight.
“Tomorrow?” I said as I strode into their camp. “How about now?”
The .45 from my belt was in my hand, and I put a bullet through the forehead of the guy who had been asking questions. Another slammed through the chest of the scout. Raiders were scrabbling backward, but I felt little mercy as I emptied the .45 and popped the mag out. The other mag slammed home, and I racked the first round into the gun. One shot rang out, and I felt a tug at my arm as it barely clipped me. The shooter staggered and fell as my next round hit him in the chest.
All too soon there was no one left to shoot, and I stood in the center of their camp, breathing hard from the adrenaline that had flooded my body during the short fight.
Around me were twelve dead men. The barrel of my pistol sizzled as a drop of rain hit it. I looked to the darkened sky just as the rain began to fall. Perhaps it would take some of the smell away. The smell of blood, feces, and unwashed bodies permeated the air.
I was untying the picket rope from Dagger when the headlights of several trucks came within view. I looked at my watch. They were from the direction I had traveled from so I knew it was one of ours.
“Probably Pete and his boys,” I muttered to myself. “Hope Neave isn’t with ‘em.”
Her father’s place was the closest farm to where I was, and I didn’t really want her to see what I had just done. I wasn’t sure if she was ready to see that.
I rode Dagger back toward the raider camp. This was something else he would have to get used to. Death would be all too common in this new world we had to face.
He was pretty skittish as we neared the dead raiders. I could tell he didn’t want to go closer, but it needed to be done. My plan had been simple. I needed to get rid of the bodies, which would be a lot harder without the horse. Now that the trucks were coming, that wasn’t the case, but I needed to get Dagger used to the dead.
I picketed him close to the camp and began searching through the raiders’ camp. The rain had become a drizzle, and I could see the moon through the clouds. I had a pile of guns laying close to the smoking wood that had been their fire. There had been some serious hardware in that group. If they had been experienced with the weapons, I would have been toast.
I was laying the last gun into the pile when the trucks arrived and forms piled out of them.
“Grady,” I said to the first of the farmers who stepped into the headlights.
“Zee?” he asked. “What the hell happened? We heard a lot of gunfire.”
He gasped as he saw the first of the bodies. “Jesus, man!”
“You’re bleeding,” Doc said as he stepped into the light as well.
“It’s a scratch,” I said.
“Still need to let me look at it.”
More of the men came from the darkness. Pete was among them. As they really got a look at the camp, I heard one of them gagging. Tony, Pete’s oldest son threw up.
