Out of the Dawn, page 14
That was fine. Al knew things about this new world. Not everything. Not even as much as he wished he knew, but he’d proven today that he knew more than Eva. He would keep proving it. He would also fuck her. His laughter was caught and blown away by the wind. Though he wouldn’t kiss the bitch. The swarm under her control might fascinate him, but he was not going to allow her to breathe them into his body.
The town of Prineville came into view and he stopped the bike. Patches of green mist rolled with the steady morning breeze and he decided to skirt the town—it was a shithole anyway, and as he was on a bike he really couldn’t scavenge much. The bike handled well off road, though he had to slow and was glad when the town was behind him and he could get back on highway 26. Originally, he’d headed south, thinking that he’d reconnoiter in Sunriver and check out the multimillion-dollar homes there. If any were still standing, they would interest Eva, and the more he could pique her interest the better for him. Not that he needed Eva’s approval. It wasn’t that. He could kill her today and take her place, but that would be a lot less entertaining than manipulating her into believing she needed him so much that she handed him the keys to her city—literally and figuratively. He would build an empire to control in this new world, and the simplest way to go about that was to begin in Madras, where Eva Cruz had already attained control over the sheep she’d gathered.
Also, it would be enjoyable to conquer Eva. She was conquest worthy—a female version of himself. He looked forward to bending her to his stronger will.
So he would take the bike down to Sunriver and see what of interest he could find there. But first he needed to return to the place it had ended and begun. Eva was busy keeping an iron grip on her people, and it would be good for her to wonder where he’d gone, what he was doing. And because he’d awakened her so early, it was barely midmorning. Al had all the time he needed.
Al’s bike flew up the highway, easily dodging around wrecks and sinkholes. He saw a few people, mostly dead, though a couple times he noticed someone stirring around the crappy properties that had been built off the highway. He made mental notes of where they were, but felt no compulsion to stop. He felt only one compulsion.
It didn’t take long to get to Mitchell. The bike was fast and it wasn’t like he had to deal with rush hour. The wind had remained brisk, which meant it was blowing mist in and around the town, so he’d be quick.
He guided the bike to the spot he’d been killed and halted there briefly. The road was still stained with his blood as well as the Mexican’s. It was a dark, rust-like blemish that marked his end and his beginning. He’d returned here often, hoping that those women would also be compelled to return. He ached to find them—to show them that they hadn’t conquered him—they had only helped to make him better, stronger, more dangerous. And then he would show them what else he was, and their endings wouldn’t be as poetic as his.
On the bike Al continued to the heart of the little nothing town. The stench of death was thick and he was glad of the reprieve the breeze brought. He stopped again in front of the Feed’n’Farm and got off the bike. Across the street was a general store. If the women returned, they would come here, so here was where he would leave his gift for them.
Al walked around the side of the Feed’n’Farm to the rear where brown grass attempted unsuccessfully to choke out weeds. He kept walking through knee-high grasses and weeds until he came to the bank of a little stream that wound its way through the town. It wasn’t much—a dried-up ditch most of the year, but it was still early enough that some water dribbled over the rocks.
That’s where he left his little friends—in the stream. Al whispered to them first, sharing his will with them. His leeches understood. They didn’t speak, of course. That would be insane. But they were part of him, which meant they understood him completely. They didn’t need to speak for him to be sure that they would wait and do as he willed. And he would know if they were successful. He would know …
CHAPTER
16
“MERCURY, SERIOUSLY, I wish you guys would stop treating me like a child! It makes sense that Chad and I take Marcus’s Jeep to get the colorful clay while Karen and the kids keep making bricks and you guys go to Mitchell for more supplies. I mean, the kids are going to run out of the Painted Hills clay soon and there’s no reason we should stop making bricks until whenever you guys get around to bringing us more clay. Chad and I can get it right now.” She paused and then added. “Or we can just make a bunch of boring dirt-colored bricks.”
Stella snorted and Mercury hid her smile.
“We’re not treating you like a child,” said Imani. “We’re being smart. Sending you and Chad out alone isn’t a good idea.”
“Gemma, I don’t have to remind you how dangerous it is out there, do I?” Mercury asked as she dunked a bucket in the creek and then splashed water from it onto her face, washing off the sweat and dirt that had caked her skin. She stepped aside and Imani took her place, sighing in pleasure as the cool water cascaded over her face. The day before, Mercury had carried a trough filled with their brickmaking tools clifftop, and since just after dawn that morning she and Stella and Imani had been schlepping their extra food and supplies up there. She’d climbed that damn steep path six times—twice the number of times her friends had gone up and back— between dawn and midmorning, and even with her super strength it had been sweaty and difficult. She was in no mood to deal with Gemma’s whiny insistence that she needed to do something more than fish to help, even though she was still favoring her leg and the dark circles under her eyes looked like bruises.
Stella washed her face and then turned to Gemma. “Kid, you know how much we care about you and respect your gifts. We’re not trying to be assholes. We’re just trying to keep us all alive and safe.”
“Hey, I’ll keep her safe. I can handle myself,” said Chad. He winked at Gemma, who smiled back at him.
Mercury wiped her face with her shirt. “Yeah, we saw how well you could handle yourself when we found you.”
“Anyone can get snake bit,” muttered Chad.
Stella snorted and splashed more water on her face.
“What if I go with them?” Marcus spoke up from where he was sitting near the bank of the creek gutting and scaling the fish he, Gemma, and Chad had caught that morning. “My leg is hardly causing me any pain and I won’t be walking on it anyway.” He turned his dark eyes on Chad. “I’ll be chaperoning. And I’m good with weapons. I won’t let anything happen to the kids, and baby girl is right. It’s a waste of time to sit around here not making bricks, or making boring bricks, as Cayden and Hayden call them, without the colorful clay.”
“You sure your leg is up to it?” Mercury asked him.
He looked at Gemma. “What do you think, Doc?”
“I think the short ride to the Painted Hills will be a little uncomfortable, but I won’t let you do any walking, so you should be fine,” she said.
“There,” said Marcus. “We all know she wouldn’t let me do something that would mess up her handiwork.” He patted his injured leg.
Mercury looked at Stella. “What do you think?”
“I think Marcus is an excellent chaperone.”
“Then we can go?” Gemma asked, bouncing a little on the balls of her feet.
“Which do you prefer—a .38, a Glock, or a rifle?” Mercury asked Marcus.
“The Glock,” said the big man.
“I’ll get it for you. Karen and the kids are clifftop making bricks and finishing readying the garden rows for planting,” said Mercury. “If you hurry, you’ll be back from the Painted Hills before any of them even know you’re gone. Gemma, I’ll put the buckets and a bunch of those shopping bags we got in Mitchell in the Jeep, but I don’t want you to carry any of them up the cliff after they’re full. Your leg still isn’t a hundred percent.” She turned her gaze to Chad. “That means you’ll be hauling the clay up the cliff when you get back. Karen and the kids will want to help you. Let the kids, but it’s a lot for Karen just to get up the cliff. Don’t let her do too much.”
“Well, okay, I’ll try. But you know my hand—”
Mercury cut him off. “How’s his hand healing, Gemma?”
Gemma answered quickly and honestly. “Doing really well. I still want him to keep it out of the mud for another day or two, but it’s good.”
“Then you’re cleared to carry clay,” said Mercury. “And you’re a lot younger than Karen.”
“He’ll do the carrying,” said Marcus. “Because it’s the right thing to do. Isn’t it, Chad?”
“Yeah.” Under Marcus’s steady gaze the boy’s response was quick.
“Good, then it’s decided. I’ll wash off these fish guts, then Chad can help me stash the fillets in the fish cooler and I’ll be ready to go,” said Marcus. He grinned at the big shepherd who was lapping the creek water with Khaleesi and added. “I’ll take Badger. He’s also a good chaperone, and he moves a lot faster than I do.”
“Excellent idea,” said Mercury. “Take Khaleesi, too.” She watched Chad’s gaze go from the big man to the well-trained shepherd, and she didn’t like the frown that pulled the corners of his lips down.
In the Jeep, Gemma followed close behind the truck so that when the two vehicles came out on Bear Creek Road they only had one set of tracks to obscure. Then Gemma turned to the right to head to the Painted Hills, and Stella went left where Bridge Creek Road would take them to highway 26, which went directly through Mitchell.
Gemma stuck her arm out the window and waved happily. Mercury craned her neck, watching the Jeep until it disappeared around a curve in the two-lane road.
“They’ll be okay,” said Stella. “The dogs are massive deterrents, and even with that messed-up leg, Marcus is formidable.”
“Yeah, unlike Chad he can actually handle himself,” added Imani.
“I’m really trying to like that boy,” said Mercury.
Beside her, Imani nodded. “Ditto, sis.”
Stella said nothing. She kept two hands on the wheel with her focus on the road.
“It’s just that I get a really bad vibe from him,” said Mercury.
“He has a serious case of look at how cool I think I am, which is annoying as hell,” said Imani.
“What’s really annoying is that Gemma is falling for it,” said Mercury.
Imani shrugged. “She’s sixteen. He’s, what, eighteen, maybe twenty? To Gemma he’s an older man with a charming smile who’s paying a lot of attention to her. I’m not surprised she’s falling for it.”
“I just wish I knew if we dislike him because he’s irritating, entitled, and lazy—or if we dislike him because he’s a danger to us.” When Stella remained silent, Mercury bumped her with her shoulder. “Woman! Have you nothing to say about this?”
Stella guided the truck around a sinkhole before she answered. “I’ve already said I don’t like him and I don’t think it was in our best interest to pick him up. But I’m also not infallible. Hello! Ford’s death proved that.” She paused and then blew out a long breath and continued. “I don’t know what else to say. Plus, what if I did know he was going to do something that put us in danger? What can we do about it? He knows where our settlement is and that we have powers. Gemma has a crush on him. Short of snatching him in the middle of the night, taking him outside of camp somewhere, and killing him there’s not a damn thing we can do.”
“I would not be for taking him out and killing him,” said Imani.
When she felt her friends’ eyes on her Mercury spoke up quickly. “I wouldn’t be for that either. I guess I just needed to vent about him.”
“Hey, I didn’t mean to sound bitchy,” said Stella. She wiped her palms on her jeans. “It’s returning to Mitchell—it has me tied up inside.”
Mercury nodded. “I get that.”
“It’s a lot for you two,” said Imani. “Which is why it’s good we have our list.” She held up the piece of paper filled with Stella’s distinctive scrawling cursive. “Let’s get in, check off the items we need, and get the hell out.”
“And worry about Chad later,” said Mercury.
Stella and Imani nodded and the cab fell silent. Mercury stared out at the desolate landscape. It was a little over two weeks since the bombs had dropped, and she’d imagined that people would be making themselves known again. They were not. Or at least they were not anywhere within sight. No one stirred. The skeletal ruins of homes were commonplace, though in fairness the land between their campsite and Mitchell had only been sparsely populated before the bombs. Mercury made a mental note of homes that were still standing and had outbuildings, especially barns. She liked Gemma’s idea of luring goats to them, and once they’d caught their own flock they’d need hay and such until they’d grown their own feed. Maybe they’d even manage to find a few horses.
Thinking of horses reminded her of Ford, and her last dream of him came back with a tidal wave of conflicting emotions. Had she really seen a hoofprint on the floor of the cave beside her that morning? She hadn’t told anyone—not even Stella—about the incredibly realistic dreams she’d been having about him. How could she? She’d felt horns on his head and his leg had been covered with fur. Then she’d seen a hoofprint. A hoofprint, which disappeared.
Mercury’s mind went round and round, replaying the dreams until she convinced herself that of course she was having super vivid dreams, she’d lived through a fucking trauma! It was normal for her subconscious to process it via dreams. If she did tell Stella, her best friend would just say she should relax about it. As long as she wasn’t waking covered with sweat and screaming from night terrors, all would be well.
It didn’t seem as if they’d been traveling long when Stella braked the truck on the incline that looked down on Mitchell.
“Well, it’s not totally covered in green fog,” said Stella. “But it’s definitely floating around down there.”
“It’s too windy today for that stuff to stay still,” said Mercury.
“That means we’re going to be on high alert. No one needs another exposure to the green.” Stella spoke firmly.
Mercury, remembering what she had seen in Fossil, nodded. “Yeah, let’s avoid that.” She looked at Imani. “It’s gross down there, so prepare yourself.”
Imani nodded shakily. “I remember you said there were dead bodies everywhere.”
“There still are,” Stella said grimly. “I’m going to turn around and park the truck where we did before, in the middle of Main Street between the grocery and the feed store. I’ve been checking in with my intuition and I don’t feel like I did last time when I said we needed to be quiet, but my gut is uneasy. As per usual, I can’t tell for sure it that’s because of what happened when we were here before, or because there’s danger lurking, or just because we’re heading into a town full of bloated, rotting corpses with green mist swirling around.”
“So we stay within view of each other,” Mercury said.
“I have zero desire to wander around by myself,” said Imani.
“Okay, here we go.” Stella drove the truck down the highway that fed through Mitchell’s Main Street, frowning as she focused on steering around stalled vehicles.
But before they got to the heart of the little town Imani shouted. “Hey, stop!”
Stella braked hard and Mercury put her hand on the revolver she’d tucked into the waist of her jeans.
“That falling down sign on the store over there says Redwood Bench and Table Company, and the building is still standing.” Imani pointed to their right.
“Holy fucking shit,” said Stella. “We didn’t even notice it last time we were here.”
“We were too focused on the groceries and the feed store,” said Mercury, feeling a little trickle of excitement. “Ohmygoddess, look! The sign on the door says unfinished furniture.”
Imani’s voice echoed her excitement. “They should have at least enough lumber in there for me to make brick molds.”
“I don’t feel like there are any booger monsters close, but I’m leaving the truck running.” Stella put the Chevy into neutral and set the parking brake. They exited the cab, each grabbing one of the flashlights they’d brought.
“Oh, thank the Goddess,” Mercury murmured as she saw the CLOSED SUNDAYS sign on the glass front door. “Means we won’t find a bunch of bodies inside.”
“But it’s locked,” said Imani.
“Not a problem.” Mercury looked around the front of the building, found a bread loaf–sized rock, and told her friends, “Move away from the door and turn your backs.” Then she closed her eyes and threw the rock at the glass door, which shattered with a sound so loud Mercury cringed.
“It’s okay,” Stella touched her shoulder. “I do not feel any people near. I’m sure of it.”
“Careful with the glass,” Mercury told Imani as she picked her way through the shards, slipped her hand within the newly made opening in the door, flipped the lock, and went inside, flicking on one of their precious flashlights.
“Okay, I see a lot of raw wood shelving, which I can use after I take it apart, but it’d be easier if I could just find some two-by-fours.”
They followed Imani through the store to a door in the rear that was marked STAFF ONLY. It was unlocked and opened to a workshop that had Imani squealing with joy. “This is perfect! Look at this raw wood! Oooh! And there are tools! Lots of tools! And nails! I can make a railing for the path up to the cliff and a sturdy ladder so we don’t have to rappel over the side to get to our home. Karen has been seriously worried about that. Not that I blame her.”
