by A. J. Sikes
Jed had no answer for the man. His throat was dry. If they were on their own, and Mercer’s crowd was the closest thing they’d find for a command structure, then Jed had managed to land his people deep in the suck without even trying. But if Kipler or Jordan had been here, maybe some of the sailors talked with them. They might have some idea of where they went after Mercer kicked them out.
“Sir, we’d be happy to get out of your hair and—”
“Negative, Sergeant. You’re inside my wire, so you’re mine to command. You’ll be part of my security apparatus for the time being.”
“And how long is that, sir?” Jed asked, with a growing dislike of the officer standing in front of him.
“As long as I require, Sergeant. You’re on the north perimeter. I saw six people in your squad, that makes three teams. Two roving, one in the tower. Monitor the area for activity.”
“With respect, sir, we just needed to get somewhere secure and try to establish commo with Galveston.”
“Good luck with that, son. They’re not answering. I’ve been trying to raise them ever since the sapper pulled his move. No, you’re working my perimeter, Sergeant. If you can prove you’re friendly, you’ll be free to head off into the wilderness later. Your first shift starts now until 1800 hours. You’ll be off duty from 1800 to 0200, then on again. Wash, rinse, repeat until I know you can be trusted.”
Jed didn’t want to ask what would happen if Mercer decided they couldn’t be trusted. He brought his feet together and straightened his back as he met Mercer’s eyes. The man stared back and told Jed he was dismissed.
“You’ll want to stop by our supply point to get radios for your people. I expect hourly updates.”
“We have a radio, sir,” Jed said. “Our RTO—”
“You’ll use our gear,” Mercer said, coming around his desk to open the front door.
Jed nodded, pivoted on his heel, and left the house.
His squad was where he’d left them, alive, armed, and looking just as uncomfortable with the situation as Jed felt himself.
What the hell did I get us into?
Mercer stepped out of the house behind him to say, “Supply is two houses along on the right.” He pointed down a street that went into the neighborhood.
Jed nodded at the man and motioned for his squad to follow as he moved off to get the radios for their first guard shift in Mercer’s compound.
This ain’t no neighborhood; it’s a fucking dictatorship. And we just got ourselves stuck in it up to our eyeballs.
— 9 —
Emily stared into the shaken, bloodshot eyes of a girl who probably hadn’t taken a bath in weeks. Her face was darkened with dirt and grime, some of it looking purposefully applied. Her hair stuck out from under a dark gray knit cap. Some of it caught flecks of light leaking into the space, reflecting hints of bright red. She wore a combination of military uniforms, too, with a too-big black-and-green patterned shirt on top. Her pants were the gray, black, and white style Emily’s brother always called cosplay camo.
The weapon she held was just like Chava’s, only longer.
And it was empty.
Emily held up the magazine she’d found. “You need this, chica?”
The girl’s eyes went wide with anger. “I ain’t no chica. Now gimmee that!”
“Uh-uh,” Emily said. “If I give you this, you’ll kill us, or take us prisoner and take us back to the militia people. You’re with them, aren’t you?”
“No, I ain’t.”
Emily wasn’t ready to hear that, but at the mention of the militia, the girl shrank into herself, pulling her rifle up close and tight.
“You’re afraid of them,” Emily said. “Why?”
“If you know about them, then you don’t need to be asking me that.”
“Okay, so you’re on the run from them, too—”
“Didn’t say I was running. Just said I wasn’t with them assholes. Now gimmee my ammo and let me get out of here.”
“This isn’t your hideout?”
“Hell no. What kind of stupid person hides out next door to the men trying to kill her?”
Emily looked between the girl and Danitha. A handful of years separated them, maybe more. The new girl could have been of age, but Emily doubted she’d seen a day past sixteen.
“Mija, you are safe with us. We’re not going to hurt you or let the militia find you.”
“Longer you take to give me my ammo, the less chance I have of getting away before they do find me. Now—”
“You have a truck. Outside. Let’s leave together. All of us.”
“No way. I ain’t taking on no baggage, and ’specially not tainted goods like y’all are.”
Danitha’s lip curled at the comment. “Girl, you need to look all the way into a mirror before you come with that noise.”
“It ain’t like that. I mean y’all are wanted, and they’re paying a bounty for you. Last thing I need is to get mixed up in that. Now for the last time. Give. Me. My. Ammo.”
As she spoke, the girl reached one hand to a knife on her hip. She unclipped it and drew it out slowly. The blade glimmered in the streams of light filtering into the space. Danitha grabbed the magazine out of Emily’s hands and stood up, holding it above her shoulder like a brick.
Emily put her hands out, stepping between them. “No, no, no. Just cool down. Please. We can help each other,” she said, looking quickly from Danitha to the new girl.
“Just give me my ammo,” she said.
“Come take it,” Danitha spat back.
“We’re not going to survive like this,” Emily said to both of them. “Put them down. All the weapons. Please.”
“Why should I trust either of you?” the new girl asked. “Y’all could just hand me over to the militia if I’m not careful. Use me to get out of your own mess.”
“They want you too?” Danitha asked. “What the hell for?”
“None of your damn business.”
“Please, Dani,” Emily said. “And you, what is your name?”
The girl answered by holding her knife out, pointing it at Danitha.
Emily knew she had seconds to stop something terrible from happening. With a deep breath, she stepped in front of Danitha and held her hands up, hoping to convince the new girl to relax.
“My name is Professor Emiliana Garza. I’m a virologist. Dani was an intern in my lab. We escaped a neighborhood the militia took over. They killed people who didn’t agree with them, and who weren’t—”
“Weren’t white like them. I know. I seen it done around here. That’s why I left them fools. I won’t be part of that. But that don’t mean I’m fixing to run with y’all. I just want my ammo so I can get back to surviving on my own like I been doing.”
“How long?”
“What?”
“How long have you been out here? Living like this.”
“Few weeks? A month? I don’t know. Time’s not important anymore.”
“Have you seen the monsters? The bats and dogs?”
The girl’s eyes flashed wide but narrowed just as fast. “You trying to trick me? Everybody knows the monsters are gone. They been gone for years.”
“No, chica. No, no, no. They are back. Not the same ones as before, but they are here. We’ve seen them. Please, we need to get to Galveston. My brother is a Marine there. We’ll be safe. Please, take us there in your truck.”
The girl hesitated, but lowered her knife and finally put it back in its sheath. She held her rifle in the other hand for a moment, then let it hang on a sling that she’d made out of an old belt. “Still would like to have my ammo back,” she said.
“Not until I know for sure you ain’t gonna shoot us with it,” Danitha said.
Emily turned to face her. She was still holding the magazine like a club. Emily put out a hand for it, and Danitha shook her head.
“We have to show her we can be trusted. I trust her. Please, Dani.”
Finally, after several tense breat
hs, Danitha relaxed and passed the magazine to Emily. She turned around and held it out to the girl, who snatched it from her and slotted it into her weapon. She pulled back on a handle and Emily got a brief glimpse of the brass and copper of a bullet before the girl released the handle.
For a second, Emily thought she had doomed her and Danitha to die, but the girl let the gun hang on its sling again, then looked Emily in the eye.
“You said y’all are going to Galveston?”
“Yes, my brother is there. With the—”
“With the Marines. Yeah, I heard. But how come I ain’t heard about any Marines being in Texas? I know we had some Army around Houston, but they either got themselves killed or joined the militia.”
“I told you, Professor,” Danitha said with a sneer. “Didn’t I say the Army was just as bad as the militia?”
“Maybe so,” Emily said. Then, to the other girl, “But if we can go in your truck…”
“No chance,” she said as she stepped back from them. “I’ll tell you this though. If y’all are heading south, you want to stay away from Baytown. That’s a militia stronghold, and that’s gonna make your trip kinda hard, since only one bridge makes it over the bay between here and Galveston, and it’s the one goes from Baytown to La Porte. You could try heading into Houston and turning south around Channelview, but I wouldn’t if I were you. Army and militia had a big fight up there last year. Wasn’t the good guys who won.”
Emily choked on her fear. They were right back where they’d started, only now it was worse because the militia knew they were in the area, and they’d placed a bounty on their heads. Danitha was right. They should have taken guns, if only to make sure they decided their own fate.
The girl stepped back a few more paces, slowly, and then with more purpose. She was at the door before Emily managed to speak.
“Please,” she begged. “Help us get out of here.”
“Where to? I ain’t driving all the way to Galveston. Won’t be able to trade for enough fuel to get that far anyway. Truck only has another couple miles in it before I have to go scrounging up another one.”
Emily could see the cage of empty water bottles behind the girl. “You’re running low on water, right? They have food and water in Galveston. Places to sleep that aren’t filled with garbage and broken glass. How long can you survive hunting for food? What happens when you run out of bullets?”
The girl stayed with her back to them, standing at the threshold. After a deep breath, she turned back to them. Her face went slack and she sucked in a breath as tears spilled down her cheeks.
“Y’all really got food and shelter waiting on Galveston? People you can really trust?”
Emily nodded sharply, hoping Danitha wouldn’t say anything to ruin their chances. After another shaking breath, the new girl shook her head and said, “Shouldn’t be doing this. But come on. Quick before I change my mind.”
Emily put a hand on Danitha’s arm and guided her forward.
“I don’t like this, Professor. We should keep going on our own.”
“You won’t get very far,” the girl said.
When they reached her, at the back of the space, she held out a dirt covered hand. “My name’s Angie.”
Emily took her hand.
“Thank you… Angie.”
“Truck should get us through Mont Belvieu. Militia ain’t around here much. Only reason they been here is probably looking for you two.”
Angie led them outside. Her truck was parked behind the store, tight against the wall so it would be concealed from the road in both directions. It was a small pickup, missing both bumpers and bits of trim, and was probably blue or green underneath all the mud.
“Dirt makes it harder to see at a distance,” Angie said. “Took all the chrome off it so they wouldn’t spot me so easy if I had to be out in daylight. You don’t like it, you can walk.”
They climbed in, with Danitha going first to sit against the passenger door. Emily went next, and Angie got in to drive. She slid her rifle down between her seat and the door, and drew out a pistol from underneath her seat. She held it out to Emily.
“Here. Y’all need to be able to shoot back if we get spotted. You know how to work a gun?”
“No,” Emily said, shaking her head.
“Ain’t got time for shooting lessons right now. When we get somewhere safe, that’s the first thing we do.”
Angie tucked the pistol back under her seat, started the engine and drove them away from the gas station.
“Easier to hide by staying off the roads,” she explained as she pulled onto the shoulder. They bounced across the rough ground, and swerved to avoid wreckage the storms had swept into the area. After a few hundred feet, Angie peeled to the right and took them into the maze of pipes and oil tanks in the refinery fields.
The whole area was a mess of shadows and hiding places for the monsters, and Emily was sure that any second now they would be swarmed by hideous bats or snarling, rabid dogs. She held her fear close around her, making sure to watch in every direction she could in case something came for them. Danitha was doing the same, but also kept looking in Angie’s direction until the girl spoke up about it.
“I ain’t gonna kill y’all. Would’ve done it back at the station if I was.”
“Then what are you gonna do?” Danitha asked.
“Get you as far as this truck will take us. After that, or if it comes to it sooner, we part ways. Need y’all to know there’s only one head of hair I care about, and that’s mine. Expect y’all to be thinking the same thing about yourselves if you want to survive out here.”
Emily nodded at that, but didn’t know what to say in response. Her safety felt secure not too long ago, when she and Danitha were living in a community of people rebuilding the world one neighborhood block at a time. Now she was on the run from bounty hunters and murderers, and her only company were two people who had yet to say a kind word to each other.
She tried to find words that would smooth things out, but nothing came to her. She was still thinking about how to make things better for them when a dark shape separated from an oil tank up ahead. It sprang to the ground, landing behind a pile of debris. Emily tried to find it, and screamed as a dog monster jumped from another debris mound, shrieking as it flew toward the windshield with outstretched clawed hands.
— 10 —
Jed and his people rallied at a corner, just down from the house that served as Mercer’s office. He needed to fill them in, and he needed to know they were still his people. Without any command structure other than Mercer to point at, Jed would be the source of all the squad’s direction. And that meant he’d be the source of all their troubles as well.
Shit don’t roll on flat ground.
“All right, y’all, two things. First, either Kipler or Jordan was here before us. The guy who runs this place said he had a squad of Marines show up recently.”
“Where are they now?” Garza asked.
“He doesn’t know or didn’t say. They pissed him off and he gave ’em the shove.”
“Nice guy,” McKitrick said. “So, we’re back to square one. No help and no idea where to look for help. I could get used to this if it didn’t remind me of the Corps so much.”
Jed had to laugh at that, but got back to business quick. “I know this is some serious green weenie bullshit. Mercer’s got himself strapped like a Taliban warlord, and even if his people look like they’re on our side, I don’t doubt they’d put us down if he ordered it. We gotta play along, play nice, and get gone the minute we can.”
“Why can’t we leave now?” Keoh asked, sending a look over her shoulder at the gate guards.
“He wants us to pull fire watch until 1800—”
“The fuck?” Garza yelled. “I ain’t—”
“You’re gonna stand post like the rest of us, Garza!”
In a quieter voice, Jed said, “Mercer says he needs to know we’re cool. It’s like he thinks we’re part of some OPFOR shit
. He took what I told him about the sapper and turned it around like it was us that bombed the bridges. He knows that Radout guy and his people, but didn’t seem too happy with them. And him sending Kip’s or Jordan’s squad for a walk makes me think he’s afraid of anybody with authority around them.”
“They were here?” Garza asked.
“Can’t confirm. He didn’t have names for me. Just said some Marines showed up, made him unhappy, so he told them to get fucked. What really spun me was him saying CENTCOM is dust. Gone.”
“What?” McKitrick asked. “Then who the fuck’s calling the shots?”
“He is,” Jed said. “That was his whole story. There is no higher anymore.”
“Did you tell him about the sucker faces being back?” Keoh asked. “You know that body wasn’t just chewed on by a gator, Sergeant. That was—”
“I know what I think it was, Keoh. But I only saw as much as you did, and we haven’t spotted any of the things since we got here, or any real sign that they’re back. Shit, I hardly got a word in about the sucker faces anyway. Mercer either didn’t want to hear it, or wouldn’t believe me no matter how much I told him. He’s got something working on him, like he’s afraid but doesn’t want to show it. He used the same breath to say we were in his good books and that he doesn’t trust us.”
McKitrick cleared her throat. “So, we’re standing guard for him while he does a background check?”
“Yeah, something like that, I guess. We’re on the north perimeter and tower. We get radios from his supply at that house up the street. Then we’re on until 1800. Back on at 0200.”
“How long does this shit detail last?” Garza asked.
“He didn’t really say. Just until he’s ready to trust us.”
“Motherfucker,” Garza said. “I get a chance, I’ma—”
“Stand post,” Jed said. “Stay with me, Garza. This is grade-A horseshit, and I know it same as you, but it’s the best thing we got for now. There’s nothing out there for us to fall back on. No TOC to call for extraction or close air support. Nothing. Kip or Jordan might have been here before us, but who knows where they are now. Parsons, you tried to get them again?”
