Juniper stares at me like I've suddenly grown another head.
“But that’s unheard of.”
“Fifty years ago, zombies were unheard of, yet here we are.” I squint into the trees. I can vaguely make out the shape of a building.
“So, why did those guys take you?” Juniper asks as we close in on what looks like a fortified encampment.
There’s a scattering of wooden buildings placed strategically through the trees. I’m surprised at how organized the small village looks. I was expecting more of a cave people type of settlement.
“Why do you think?” I murmur, barely paying attention to the other woman as I catalogue everything I can about the outsider camp. The fact that there seems to be a permanent or semi-permanent settlement defies expectations.
Outsiders are mobile, nomadic. They never stay anywhere long. That’s their survival mantra. Don’t stop moving. Their core belief is that they can live off the land and keep one step ahead of the Primitives. It’s why they’re known for being tough and resilient.
Yet, here I am, walking into a settlement of Outsiders. A different kind. As I gaze around, I wonder if there are more villages like this one.
“Sex.”
“What?” I swing my gaze back to Juniper.
“You asked why I thought they took you,” Juniper says, her eyes shining with humour. “Sex, obviously.”
I snort my derision at the idea.
“Are all of your houses built into the trees?” I shade my eyes and gaze upward at what appears to be a series of tree houses.
“Mostly,” Juniper says. “It’s harder for the Primitives to get to us. We have a few communal buildings on the forest floor, but we only use them during the day when we’re alert. We use them for cooking and meetings and stuff.”
“This way,” Alfie says gruffly, pointing his weapon toward one of the few buildings on the ground.
A large, wooden and well-built structure. It almost looks like a community hall. People are coming and going from the building, smiling and talking with each other. They appear relaxed and mildly curious when they catch sight of the stranger among their hunting party.
They look… healthy.
How is it possible? I’ve lived most of my life with the unassailable understanding that humans need Sanctuary to survive. There are Sanctuaries all over the world. We attempt to remain in touch using radios, though it isn’t always easy. Global communication is no longer something that exists without a lot of effort. Sanctuaries often go silent. When that happens there’s usually an understanding that they have fallen. Hawaii has been dark for twenty years and no one has tried to cross over to the islands to find out what happened. We just assume the Primitives somehow got over there and infected the citizens, then died out as their food source disappeared.
“You live here all the time?” I ask Juniper quietly as we enter the communal wooden structure.
“Yes, unless we’re hunting or trading with other settlements.”
“How did I not know about you?” I’m in awe of what I’m seeing. Healthy people everywhere, a flourishing society out in the open where they can be easily taken by Primitives, but still somehow manage to survive.
Juniper shrugs. “We keep to ourselves. Sanctuary is dangerous for us so we avoid it.”
“How is Sanctuary dangerous?” The very idea is contrary to everything I know and understand. I want to be offended but considering what has happened to me inside multiple Sanctuaries, I can’t entirely disagree with Juniper.
Before Juniper can answer, I’m led into a smaller room where a woman squeals and throws herself at me.
My first reaction is to reach for a weapon. Lucky for Scarlett, I’m low on weapons.
I catch the younger woman and suffer through a strangling hug before setting her aside.
“I thought they’d killed you!” Scarlett cries, staring at me as though I’m a ghost.
Scarlett was always the most dramatic of the women in our harem. She would try wild shenanigans to gain the Warlord’s attention. Silas was… is… I need to remember that he’s alive and living as a Primitive under lock and key in our Sanctuary. Silas never appreciated Scarlett’s unpredictable behaviour. He was a quiet man with solitary tendencies. It’s why he preferred me and Hannah.
“You should know better than that.” I look around the room. It’s pleasant enough, with an open window that lets in sunshine and fresh air. There are chairs and a table with bowls of fruit and vegetables. “You’ve been treated well here?”
“Oh yes, these guys saved my life.” Scarlett sends a flirtatious smile toward Alfie, who stands unmoved.
I turn to Alfie. “Who’s in charge here?”
He stares back at me long and hard before answering. “We have a committee.”
“Which you’re a part of,” I guess.
He gives a curt nod. “As is Juniper and a few others.”
“What do you intend to do with us?”
He frowns at me, and I can see the gears in his brain working. His gaze strays to Scarlett. “She’s free to go any time she wants.”
“Not without Skye!” Scarlett says indignantly, looping her arm through mine.
I disengage myself and pull a chair out, settling into it. I’ve had a long day already, and it looks to be far from over. I reach for a papaya, likely imported from further south, and bite into it, the burst of sweetness against my tongue a welcome balm to a shitty day.
“I’m too connected and too valuable for them to let go.” I mean the words for Scarlett, but I keep my eyes on Alfie, judging his reaction. “They need to use me as a bargaining chip when Wolfe comes rampaging through, looking for his woman.”
Alfie says nothing, but the grim set to his face tells me I’m correct.
“They’re wondering if they should have just left me to deal with the Outsiders alone.”
“But these guys are Outsiders, too,” Scarlett says, clearly confused.
“Yes, that’s the point.” I keep my eyes on Alfie. “They’re worried that Wolfe won’t differentiate between those other Outsiders and this peaceful settlement.”
Alfie finally speaks. “We probably should have left you behind.”
“But you didn’t.”
His gaze is steady on mine. I’m right in my assumption that this is the man I should be talking to. There might be a ‘committee’, but Alfie makes the decisions for his settlement.
“You want the vaccination,” I finally say what’s on both of our minds. “That’s why you took the risk of bringing me here.”
He stares at me, then gives a brief nod, finally holstering his weapon.
“Then we’d better start negotiating, because if I’m not happy when Wolfe arrives, you’ll have some explaining to do.”
Three
Wolfe
Going to one knee next to the body of a man riddled with bullet holes, I look dispassionately over the fucker who’d taken Skye. It’s not the bullet holes I find interesting though. Or at least not all of them. There are only two wounds I care about: the stab wound to the man’s gut and the bullet to his head. I recognize the signature offensive move.
It’s mine, and it’s Skye’s.
I’d taught her to take down her enemy with the knife and finish them with a bullet. Quick and efficient. Skye had been an apt pupil, but she isn’t quite strong enough to spill the guts the way I’d instructed her to do. Instead, she rams the knife into her victim and twists.
That’s how I know she’s been here, in this clearing littered with bodies. I suspect she killed her captor and used his body as a shield.
I lay on my stomach next to the body, which is starting to smell in the hot New Mexico sun. There are crawl marks underneath the abandoned car and a piece of fabric where her clothes got caught. Climbing to my feet, I stride around to the other side, examining the dirt where she’d huddled.
I glance toward the tree line, judging it too far away for her to have escaped. She would have climbed into the car an
d used it for cover, shooting anyone who came close.
But what happened when she ran out of bullets?
I look inside the car, into the back seat. One cushion has been moved forward a few inches. She went into the trunk through the interior of the car. Further examination of the trunk and the surrounding bodies has me shaking my head in appreciation.
She fought her way out of a situation where she’d been grossly outnumbered. There’s no blood in the dirt where she’d crouched or in the car, so she hadn’t been harmed. At least not enough to bleed.
She used every skill she possessed to get away from the motherfuckers holding her. She’d done her job brilliantly. Now it’s my turn for cleanup. I’ll hunt down every man involved in her abduction and slaughter them.
“Every bullet found its mark.” Kingston’s admiration is evident as he looks over the other bodies. “A bullet to the head for each one. She didn’t miss.”
Of course she didn’t miss.
“What next, boss?”
Kingston stopped calling me the title of Warlord when it became clear the title would go to Skye. His lack of judgment toward Skye is one reason I wish to elevate the other man in position. I need good men on Skye’s security detail. Men who can see her skills better than they can see her gender.
“We follow the trail.” I walk into the trees, motioning for the others to follow. We have five men, including myself and Kingston. “I’ll find Skye. You track the Outsiders. I want them alive.”
A chill goes through the men. They’ve seen what I’m capable of doing to a person who makes themselves an enemy.
Without acknowledging the men, I stride into the forest and start hunting my woman. She’s light on her feet and fast, but I’m able to follow her trail. She hasn’t taken any pains to disguise it. I’ll have to talk to her when I find her. She can’t allow panic to make her sloppy.
Her delicate prints are far enough apart that I know she’s been running. I find the occasional broken tree branch as she rushed past the trees. I discover a strand of long rich brown hair caught in a bush and crush it in my hand.
I’m not worried. Skye can handle herself. If I didn’t believe that, then I would never have let her go when I left the Tucson Sanctuary. I would have forced her to go with me back to Santa Fe so I could monitor her.
I’ve always known how extraordinary she is. From the beginning she’s been a fighter. I’d even admired the way she worked her way up the Warlord’s harem to become his first wife, seizing whatever power she could. I was eaten up with jealousy, but I’d admired her skill, perseverance, and intelligence.
I continue to follow her trail until I reach a stream. She’d bent to have a drink, scooping the water into her mouth, leaving herself vulnerable.
Rage engulfs me as I realize someone snuck up behind her.
Now, I’m not entirely sure of her fate, especially as several other sets of footprints tell me she was surrounded. She’d left her weapons behind; the gun in the dirt after she’d run out of bullets, and the knife lodged in the eye of one of her victims.
Skye can still defend herself weaponless, but not against the number of people I count. I suspect six, three smaller than the others. Women probably.
There’s no blood in the dirt, no sign of a struggle, so Skye kept her head and went with them.
I will find her, and when I do, there’ll be hell to pay. No one fucks with my Warlord woman and survives.
Four
Skye
“We don’t have much time,” I say to Alfie, or Alfonso Delgado, as I’d learned is his full given name. “He’s coming.”
“How do you know?” Alfie demands from across the table.
For a warrior, he’s been surprisingly deft at negotiating. In the space of half an hour, he’s tried negotiating for the vaccine, antibiotics, a dentist and access to Sanctuary’s water supply.
I’ve agreed to nothing, nor will I, until I’m confident I’m not being held as a hostage.
“Can’t you feel him coming?” I say in a spooky, hushed voice, staring blankly toward the window. “He’s like an approaching storm. If you listen closely, you can feel the thunder in the distance.”
“Oh my god!” Juniper gasps, while Scarlett nods sagely.
“Bullshit,” Alfie says.
I grin at him. Yeah, I’m bullshitting them. “I know he’s coming because I know Wolfe and he’s never far behind me.”
“With the exception of leaving you in another Sanctuary to fend for yourself.”
Alfie’s comment wipes the smirk off my face.
“You must have spies in my Sanctuary if you know that.”
He stares steadily at me, neither agreeing nor denying my charge.
“You’ll want to come clean,” I advise him. “Your people won’t stay hidden long when we start looking for them. Sanctuary is big, but not so big that we can’t ferret out the people who don’t belong.”
“Stop being cagey, Alfie!” Juniper scolds. “We can’t put our people at risk. There aren’t enough of us.” She turns to me with an apologetic smile. “We don’t mean any harm, but we can’t always get everything we need out here in the bush.”
“So you take it from Sanctuary.”
“It’s not like that.” Her voice is pleading. “We trade goods when we can and do our best to repay everything we take. We’re honest people who choose to live differently from those who live in Sanctuary. Is that so bad?”
“Yes, when you sponge off Sanctuary without giving back to our society.” She looks upset by my comment, so I relent. “There’s nothing wrong with the way you live, but you should have come to us, explained your situation. Let us decide what’s worth trading for. You don’t need to hide from us.”
“Yes, we do,” Alfie says bluntly. “Your warriors don’t differentiate between Outsiders and us. They see us as just as much a threat to Sanctuary as the men who kidnapped you.”
“Yeah, well, those same warriors are on their way here. Let’s get these negotiations moving. Once Wolfe gets here, there’s only one way these discussions will go.”
He stares at me, studying me. “You won’t give us anything until you’re no longer a hostage?”
I nod.
“Then you’re free.”
I do exactly what he expects. I push back from the table and stand. “Come on, Scarlett,” I say without looking at her. “Let’s go.”
I feel her stand and take a nervous step toward me. Alfie watches us without expression as we walk toward the door. No one tries to stop us.
Finally, Alfie speaks. “We need you.”
I turn back to him. “Why?”
“The attacks last year hit us hard. We lost people… loved ones, to the virus. If it happens again….” he shakes his head.
“If it happens again, you’ll have no choice but to beg for Sanctuary.”
He doesn’t respond, but I can see the truth in his face.
“You need me, because you can’t steal enough vaccine inside our Sanctuary to cover your people.”
He nods.
“Well, you better show me your settlement. Show me what’s worth giving up my blood for. If I like what I see, we can negotiate.” I pause and wait for the others to start moving. “I want to know that you run a fair and kind society before I aid you.”
Alfie snorts. “Put your own house together before casting judgement. We are better to our people than you are to yours.”
I don’t answer because he’s not wrong, at least not about my Sanctuary. Before the attacks, Silas had been in charge. While not a brutal man, he ruled as an autocracy. His people weren’t given choices in career, family, food, anything. Wolfe is better, but he doesn’t care about the health of his Sanctuary beyond making it livable.
Alfie follows me from the building out into the sunlit forest.
It truly is an ideal setting for a small group of people. They appear to live harmoniously among the trees.
“Tell me how you keep yourselves safe from the Pri
mitives? I know you use the trees, but I see people coming and going on the ground. You clearly don’t live up there all the time.”
Alfie loosens up as we walk and talk, becoming increasingly willing to share information. He explains that they have scouts who rotate throughout the day so they stay sharp. It’s their job to sound the alarm when they see Primitives heading toward the settlement. They take up posts among the treetops and use horns and whistles to spread the word. Alfie assures me they’ve perfected the technique to where the villagers have an average of six minutes to make it into the trees. They haven’t lost anyone for over a year.
“Impressive.”
The settlement is larger than I first thought. The villagers have built their houses into the treetops, using moveable ladders to climb up and down. They use the forest floor for outhouses, gardens, and large communal buildings that won’t fit in the trees.
According to Alfie, the gardens have been largely ignored by the Primitives, but lately, they’d begun tearing up the plots.
“I know it sounds ridiculous, but it’s like they know they’re destroying our food source and weakening us. As if they’re trying to drive us out of the trees.”
“Not ridiculous,” I murmur, my heart sinking. “This kind of organizational behaviour is in line with what I saw when I was touring the Sanctuaries with the vaccine. Somehow they’re evolving, especially their group behaviours.”
Alfie leans against a tree, crossing his arms. “How would they do that? My understanding is that evolution takes a helluva lot longer than a few decades.”
“Okay, maybe not evolving, but certainly developing,” I admit. “Biologically speaking, it makes sense for them to become better. If we think of them as animals, then they have three biological needs: food, water and reproduction.”
“They get all three from us,” Alfie says thoughtfully, “but we’ve gotten smarter too. Organized ourselves. We live in Sanctuaries and settlements like this one, which means they have to work harder for their survival.”
Skye's Sanctuary (The Sanctuary Series Book 5) Page 2
