Dia sprinted back down the hallway, but she could already tell that the door she’d come through had been shut because two men stood in front of it, glaring at her only five feet away.

  “Slow down, kid.”

  The man who’d spoken towered over the guy standing next to him. He had flaming red hair pushed straight back which mingled with a matching beard resting on his chest. The man wore a black leather vest without a shirt, his tattooed arms as thick as the wound steel cables holding the Bay Bridge upright.

  Dia stopped at the same time two women and another man appeared behind her, out of breath from running up the steps from the factory floor below.

  “We’re not going to hurt you. My name is Willie. This shithead next to me is Snowball. We’re Los Muertos. No reason to freak out.”

  She looked over her shoulder, expecting to be taken from behind, but the people who had come from the factory floor hadn’t advanced—keeping about a ten foot distance. When Dia looked at Willie, she noticed he had his hand up, keeping the others where they stood.

  “I didn’t know… I just…”

  Snowball glanced to Willie. “I’ve never seen the girl before.”

  Although six inches shorter than Willie, Snowball was not short. He had to be six feet tall, with broad shoulders and a tight waist in the classic V-figure of the most hardened warriors who trained hours each day to be that physically fit. Snowball had jet black hair pushed straight back like Willie’s, but this man kept his beard neatly trimmed. He wore a white t-shirt beneath his black leather vest and a black bandanna across his forehead, pulled down over his eyebrows.

  “Don’t mean she’s not one of them.” Willie took a step toward Dia. “Where you from?”

  “East.”

  “Ah, well, that explains it.” Snowball put a hand on his hip, wrapping his fingers around the handle of a knife.

  “Shut the hell up. I can handle this.” Willie smiled at Dia, revealing a mouthful of missing and gold teeth. “What do you mean east?”

  “My friend died back in the Nevada territory. We were coming here.”

  Dia had hidden her Venganza mask in the Oakland ruins shortly after arriving. She couldn’t understand why she’d done that other than that it hadn’t felt right here to wear it here.

  “Ain’t no Los Muertos left in Nevada.” This time, it was Willie raising an eyebrow, his words heavier than they’d been before. Dia turned and saw that the people who’d chased her from the factory floor must have gone back to work, leaving the interrogation in Willie’s competent hands.

  “Lake Erie. That’s where I was born.”

  Snowball shook his head. “And where the fuck is that?”

  “East,” said Willie. “Just like she said.”

  Dia looked past the men at the door and Snowball saw it in her eyes.

  “There’s no way past unless you’re going to kill us first. So how about you drop that bow and relax?”

  Willie put an arm out as if to keep Snowball from acting on his veiled threat. “A girl like you, in these ruins. You’re not going to last for long. We’re not the only clan trying to stay alive in these shitty ruins. I think you should do what my friend here suggested. Let’s start by having you drop that bow.”

  They didn’t frighten her. Dia had been on the road for too long, and seen too many things to be scared by two Los Muertos with beards and tattoos. But the laws of physics still applied. She wouldn’t get past the factory workers on the floor below, and even if she could, there was no guarantee there was an exit down there. And these two bruisers had the drop on her. She could put an arrow in one of them, but the other would be on her before she could noch another.

  “Okay.” Dia dropped her bow.

  Snowball came forward and kicked it toward the stairs. Willie took another step toward her.

  “People don’t just show up here.”

  She didn’t know if he meant the massive ruins ready to topple into the Pacific or this factory on a deserted island. Either way, Dia decided it was better to listen than talk.

  “Did you come from San Fran or Oakland?” Willie asked.

  Dia shrugged.

  “Toss her and be done with it. This girl can barely talk.”

  Willie scowled at Snowball, then turned back to her. “Don’t make this hard on me. Answer my damn question.”

  “I was hunting. Followed a fawn across the big bridge.”

  “Bag it?”

  Dia cocked her head to the side.

  Snowball huffed. “Did you kill the deer? He wants to know if you got it. This girl is fucking dense.”

  “Yes.”

  “How far?”

  “C’mon, Will. I don’t see what this has—”

  “Shut up.” Willie turned away from Snowball and asked Dia the question again, this time elaborating. “How far was the kill shot?”

  “100 yards.”

  Willie whistled and used his elbow to nudge Snowball. “Head shot?”

  Dia puffed her chest out, beginning to take pride in something she’d just considered survival. “Right shoulder.”

  “Yes!” Willie clapped his hands together. “Instant kill shot. Am I right?”

  Dia nodded.

  “You got some in your sack?” Willie asked.

  Her heart dropped into her stomach. If they were willing to steal her food, how long would it be before they took other things from her? Things that, once stolen, could not be returned.

  “Two cuts. I hid the rest.”

  “Then you’d better eat them soon because that meat ain’t gonna be there when you go back. Coyotes been coming down out of the hills the last few years, and we don’t have the bows to keep ’em at bay.”

  Snowball shook his head and walked past Dia, using his rock of a shoulder to knock her out of the way. “We got water to filter. There’s no time for these games.” He disappeared down the hallway and Dia heard his boots stomping down the steps.

  “He’s a crank. You get used to the miserable bastard. Hell, sometimes I even miss him when he’s not around.”

  She stood still, one hand rubbing her shoulder where Snowball had barreled into her. Dia gave Willie a tight grin.

  “You ain’t Venganza, thank God. Those motherfuckers haven’t come all the way out to Cali yet, but we’ve heard from other chapters—they will be. You seen any of the masked devils on your trip from Lake Erie?”

  Dia shook her head, looking down at her feet.

  “Ah, you have. But you’re afraid. I get it.” Willie took another step, now getting so close that Dia could smell the tobacco smoke and pinion pine wafting off his clothes. “But I don’t think you’re Los Muertos, either. Are you?”

  “I was born Los Muertos.”

  Technically not a lie.

  “And between your birth and you stumbling into our plant, you crossed the fucking continent. By yourself.”

  She remained still, wondering how to respond when Willie continued.

  “Fine. You don’t have to get into that now, but you will. Do you know where you are?”

  “Treasure Island.”

  “Yes. But this place. Do you know what it is? Do you understand what we’re doing here?”

  “You have machines. You’re making something?”

  Dia’s only knowledge of the Industrial Age had come from the old timers’ stories and the mechanical carcasses she’d marveled at as a child. The Cleveland ruins had been full of dead and forgotten machinery that had fascinated her and filled her dreams.

  “Yes, I guess you could say that. We’re making water.”

  Dia took a step back, shaking her head. As a water whisperer, her job had always been to find water. How would one make it?

  “I’m gonna show you how.” Willie had answered her next question before she could ask it. “But you gotta earn some trust first. Snowball. The others. They don’t got the read on people the way I do. See, I knew you wasn’t no threat the second I laid eyes on you. But the others, you’re gonna have to prove it to them.”

  “Then just let me go.”

  “No can do, sweetheart. What we got going here is too valuable, and we can’t have random girls walking around the Bay and telling others what we’re doing. I’m sure you understand.”

  Dia hated the fact that she understood completely.

  “So, how about you let me bind your wrists before we head down into the plant? You know, for show.”

  Dia looked deep into Willie’s eyes, paused for a moment, and then held her hands out to the man.

  Chapter 4

  Compared to some of the abandoned structures they’d found on the road, the windowless room in the far corner of the factory felt more like safety than a cell. Dia recalled the cabin where she’d been forced to amputate Hado’s arm—an act which, in the end, wouldn’t save the woman anyway. This cold, cinder block room felt like luxury compared to that experience.

  They’d shut the door and locked it, and she could hear occasional voices coming from the other side. Maybe they were discussing the water, or possibly what to do with her. Willie had untied her hands once they’d escorted her to the room, so at least that felt like a thread of hope she could hold onto.

  Someone slammed on the door three times and then it opened, the old hinges moaning as the knob came to rest on the wall. Snowball and Willie filled the doorway. Snowball had his arms crossed over his chest and Willie held a hammer in his right hand.

  A tool or a weapon. All depends on the circumstances.

  Willie took a step into the room. “Get up.”

  “Why?”

  “Don’t mouth him, girl. I’m just looking for a reason to do away with ya.”

  Willie glared at Snowball, and the man rolled his eyes but didn’t speak again.

  “You ain’t Venganza, so that means you’re not dying. Today.”

  Dia said nothing. For the first time in a long time, she thought about her true identity. Not so long ago, the Venganza had chased her through the ruins of Cleveland. And before that, Los Muertos had used her to water whisper when the rains had dried up. But then had come Hado, Dia’s time in Erehwon, and finally the two of them fleeing across the continent as Venganza traitors. Who was she? Really?

  “Okay.” Dia could only muster the one word.

  “Word has it that those beasts are moving into the Bay area. Once that happens, we’ll be at war. If you had shown up wearing one of those hideous masks, your body would already be floating in the bay.”

  She could see Snowball trying to hide a low grin but not doing a good job of it.

  “So, we can assume you’re a loner, maybe some girl left way out in the Oregon wilderness and tracking west like so many road bandits do.”

  “I’m not a bandit.”

  “That we know of.”

  Again, Willie turned to Snowball, this time shaking his head once.

  “And that’s what we’re gonna assume unless you prove otherwise. But know this, you try any fuckery and Snowball here will take over for me. Now, what’s your name?”

  “Dia.”

  “Okay, Dia. Here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to walk out of here with you and show you the plant. We’re always short on hands and, until we can trust you, we’re certainly not putting a bow back in yours. That means you’re gonna help out here and earn your keep.”

  “But, Willie, you can’t—”

  “Shut up. I can and I will. She’s a kid and she deserves a chance to earn our trust.” Willie turned from Snowball and faced Dia while still speaking to his companion. “But if she tries any bullshit, we will kill her.”

  Dia nodded as Snowball turned around and stomped out of the room.

  “You know anything about water other than how to drink it?”

  She thought for a moment—a dozen ways to answer that question coming to the surface, but none finding their way to her tongue. Dia shook her head.

  “That’s okay. You will. Follow me.”

  She followed Willie out the door of the room on the north end of the factory floor, seeing high windows on the long ends of the rectangular building facing east and west. Dia saw the light coming through the east side windows and guessed it was approaching midday. She thought of the deer for a moment, that little fawn and what had happened because she’d been too stubborn to let her prey go. Dia next thought of Hado, as she had many times since the woman had died for her, wondering if the Venganza warrior would have applauded her or chastised her for running blindly across the bridge. But then again, what did it matter? She was here now, in this situation, and she’d handle everything one step at a time. That’s what Hado would’ve done.

  Willie walked down the middle of the factory floor while other Los Muertos continued to bang on pipes, loosen valves, and measure levels in the cisterns. Dia knew enough about water to understand what they were doing, but she couldn’t figure out how they were doing it. They’d found a way to clean the water before storing it. That had to be the basics of this operation, but she’d let Willie explain.

  “We work in shifts. But there aren’t many of us left who are dedicated to keeping the plant operational. Which, when you think about it, is crazy. I mean, nobody lives if we don’t keep the taps on. Right?”

  Two people walked past Willie as he spoke, both glaring at her with tight eyes. Dia thought that they might have been upstairs when she’d first been caught, but all the people in this factory looked to be about three steps from the grave—gaunt, dark, and wearing rags.

  They passed two massive tanks, each one reaching almost to the windows at the top of the factory and with the girths of ancient Redwood trees.

  “Some of the old pipes still feed water from altitude streams, which is a stroke of luck but not something we can count on. We’ve got some water traps set on the island, but of course those are entirely dependent on rainfall. If you’ve spent any time here, you know that it can be feast or famine.”

  Dia listened, mesmerized not by Willie’s words, but by the way in which they’d changed, as if he’d started tapping into a past life. This was something Dia had noticed in Erehwon around some of the old timers. Their previous lives sometimes came to the surface, the past painted on a canvas of words. If she’d had to guess, Willie had probably been of the science tribe before it had all ended, but the years and the hardships had worn him down to the raw man she saw today.

  “Spent my whole life here. Worked for the SPUC before the shit hit the fan, so Los Muertos was lucky to find me.” Willie winced as if realizing he’d accidentally revealed too much, too soon. “Those lines,” he continued while pointing at two 24-inch pipes coming in through the west wall, “that’s our primary source. We lose those or the water doesn’t come through, we’re fucked.”

  “Is it clean?”

  “Hell no, it’s not clean. Damn, girl, what would be the point of all of this if it was?”

  She felt her face blush, and then a burning in her chest. Why did she care about embarrassing herself in front of this man?

  Willie smiled and then softened his tone. “We filter it. This plant, these pipes, these people—not important. You can find a place like this in any ruins you explore. I mean, it took us years to find the parts and build it, but it’s the technology that’s valuable, not the building or the people working here.”

  “Except for you.”

  Willie raised his eyebrows and folded his hands over his chest.

  “You know how filters work. How to make them. It’s why you’re in charge here.”

  “That’s true. Back in the day, they called me a scientist, working for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. You ever heard of that job?”

  Dia shook her head.

  “Didn’t think so. It doesn’t matter. The point is that it’s the filtration knowledge that is the difference between life and death. I show them how to build filters and that’s what we use so we can drink the water. Could they build a filter without me?”

  Willie pointed at Snowball with his chin. Dia watched, seeing that the man had just been banging on a valve with a wrench before realizing he’d been using the wrong end. Dia smiled at Willie and they both broke into laughter at Snowball’s expense; he’d been too engrossed in the valve to notice.

  “Yeah, probably not,” she said.

  “I know you know more than you’re showing. You’re a smart girl. If I were you, I wouldn’t tip my hand, either. You don’t know what any of us might do. I like the spark in your eyes, so for the love of God, please don’t do anything stupid, okay?”

  Dia nodded, unsure if that was a promise she could keep.

  Chapter 5

  As the sun crested the eastern horizon, Dia rolled over and opened her eyes, but she couldn’t ignore the aroma of bacon wafting through the hut. A fog hung over the morning in a misty blanket of mystery. Dia sat up and looked around at the hut they’d given her. Willie had walked her through the settlement the previous night and had promised a few introductions in the morning, which Dia didn’t look forward to making. She would’ve been happy spending the rest of her life alone and in the ruins—but sometimes her curiosity got the best of her. Dia had no interest in making friends although that’s what seemed to be happening.

  She slid from her warm roll and into the chill of the morning, grabbing her flask and opening the door a crack so she could get a sense of the bustle occurring outside. Willie hadn’t locked her door, but Dia knew they’d been watching her. If she fled, she’d only get as far as they’d let her. This chapter of Los Muertos knew these particular ruins, and Dia did not. They’d hunt her like a fawn if they wanted to.

  “Hey.”

  Dia spun, startled by the single-word greeting. Willie stood on the other side of the door, and another man was behind him, but she could tell right away that it wasn’t Snowball.

  Good. I don’t like that man.

  “Hi.” Dia looked around for her bow before remembering that it had been “stored” for her. Snowball had it.

  “We have some wild pork roasting over the fire. Haven’t gotten one in weeks, so you should come out and have a few strips of bacon. No telling when we’ll catch another.”

 

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