by Chu, Wesley
Hengyen had pushed the fifteen-member wind team hard, stopping only three hours during the night for a quick rest. It took them a little under twenty-four hours to reach Fongyuan, finally stopping to set up camp a quarter of the way up a mountain on the northern side of the village.
She would have thought that everyone would be allowed to rest after such an arduous trek, but the windmaster immediately deployed scouts to the village and also sent someone farther up the side of the mountain to maintain a lookout.
“I want to be heading back to the Beacon by tomorrow, whether we find this village or not,” he announced. The windmaster was adamant they return to the Beacon before the main body of the typhoon reached it. He had been moody and irritable the entire trip, often pausing to look back toward the direction of the settlement. Hengyen had put up a confident front, but he was obviously concerned about leaving on this raid at this crucial time. The windmaster had made it very clear that it was only on Guo and Wangfa’s insistence that he had agreed to come.
His rush was understandable. He was worried about the typhoon. They all were. They had departed the Beacon on the morning of the second day of the front of the typhoon. When they left, hundreds of jiāngshī were spilling into the Charred Fields every hour. There were already rumors that parts of the outer perimeter were under duress.
Elena leaned against a tree and scanned the rooftops of the village below. She had come to detest this cursed place. As bad as things had been before, it was this village that had introduced all the recent chaos to her life, a little over a month ago. Just seeing this place once again raised her hackles and made her tense like a cornered animal.
Although to be fair, if they hadn’t come she wouldn’t have ever learned what sort of a conniving asshole Zhu was. The secretary had shown her a mountain of evidence. Zhu had planned on robbing and abandoning the Beacon ever since his return. He had spent all his points and had his belongings packed and ready to go. Ming also believed it was Zhu who had been pilfering supplies. It appeared he was going to funnel everything to his new woman and her village before he left. To make matters worse, one of the guards involved in his capture claimed Zhu had set Bo up to take the fall so he could escape. Poor Bo was now facing penance for the rest of his life. The pain of his betrayal—not only to her and Bo but to the Living Revolution as well—was unforgivable.
A tiny part of her—the part that still loved him deeply—still balked at this revelation. This portrait of him everyone was painting wasn’t the man she loved. Zhu was honest and trustworthy, caring and considerate. He would never do this to her and Bo. He was a good man. That part of her shouted that none of this made sense. However, that small voice that refused to believe the truth about him was shouted down by her rage. Every time Elena thought about her ex-boyfriend, she couldn’t help but see red and get worked up into a fury.
When she managed to find a few minutes alone with Bo, he had emphatically denied everything that Zhu was accused of. He even went as far as to say Zhu wasn’t trying to escape and that it had been he—Bo—who had forced Zhu to leave. The whole thing was preposterous. Elena was now seeing things with fresh eyes. Her cheating boyfriend had played everyone for fools, especially her. She thought about everything she had given up for him. From small things like her scavenge points and rations, to the monstrous fact that she had stayed in China for him. That fact rattled her the most: that she had inadvertently chosen to ride out the apocalypse with a liar over her own kin. The ache in her heart glowed and built into a hot, bitter anger.
Chen Wenzhu would pay, one way or another. Secretary Guo was even generous enough to offer a way for her to clear both Bo’s and her names. “I have known Haobo ever since he arrived at the Beacon of Light. He is a good man with a kind soul, but he is not very wise and easily coerced and manipulated. That is why I am willing to forgive his crime if you redeem him.” That was the main reason she had agreed to turn on Zhu and work with the windmaster to find and raid this village. She wanted to absolve Bo of these crimes.
Okay, that wasn’t true. Elena couldn’t let Zhu get away with his betrayal. She didn’t consider herself the vengeful type—well, maybe just a little. But she could never live with herself if he got away scot-free. She had tried to convince herself that it was all about the justice and fairness of it all, but the truth was it was all about revenge.
It wasn’t just because he was a cheating boyfriend; she had gone through those before. She loved him, but not only that, she gave up everything for him. Zhu was the reason Elena was stuck here in China, the reason she wasn’t with her family, and the reason she was now forced to do so many despicable things.
So yes, she wanted to save Bo, but she needed to make sure Zhu paid for his crimes.
Of course the secretary’s offer to send her home contributed to her decision, but it was really all about saving Bo. That’s what she told herself. But just because she thought she was doing the right thing didn’t mean it wasn’t eating her up inside. It occupied her mind for most of the day.
The first group of scouts returned at noon. They hadn’t seen any people but had discovered a caravan of mixed wooden wagons and hollowed-out trucks with the engines removed half-hidden beneath a group of willow trees. The beds were empty, but the footprints around the vehicles were fresh. Someone—more accurately, a big group of someones—was getting ready to move.
Elena was deep in thought when the second group of scouts returned with something even better: a prisoner. She quickly threw the strap of her rifle over her shoulder and joined the crowd of windrunners gathering around a young woman, really barely more than a girl.
“We found her hiding inside a partially caved-in roof in one of the houses,” said the scout. The woman grabbed the girl by the rope bound around her wrist and gave her a hard yank. “Watch her mouth. The brat already thinks she’s half jiāngshī. She tried to bite me when I stuffed the rag into her mouth.”
At first, she looked like just a typical village girl. Soft and innocent compared to most vultures. Her clothes were relatively clean and fresh. She looked well nourished. Most telling, her eyes weren’t wild or bloodshot, as were so many others’.
Elena reached for the girl’s hand. The girl shrank away, terrified. Elena grabbed her hand more forcefully and felt her palm. “Calloused, but not torn or scarred.” She lowered her face to the girl’s eye level and flashed her palm. “I’m going to take the cloth out of your mouth. Don’t try anything. You’ll be dead before you can take a bite of me. Understood?”
The girl’s eyes darted left and right. She nodded.
Elena admitted to holding her breath when she plucked the rag out. There was only one way to treat an amputated limb out here. “Now,” she said in her most soothing voice. “What’s your name?”
When the girl didn’t answer, one of the windrunners slapped her face.
“Hey,” Elena barked, pushing him away. “I got this.”
The man raised his hand again, but Hengyen’s hand on his shoulder stayed the blow. The windmaster nodded for Elena to continue. She acknowledged him and led the girl away from the crowd.
“Listen,” she began, touching her chest. “I’m Elena. What’s your name?”
“Shenyang.”
“That’s a pretty name.” Elena brushed several loose strands of hair from the girl’s face. “Shenyang, the Chinese government sent us. We’re here to help. We need to speak with whoever is in charge at your village. Do you understand?”
The girl pursed her lips and made no indication of understanding.
“Do you know Chen Wenzhu?”
No answer.
“He’s a friend of ours.”
Still nothing.
Elena turned her to face the group of windrunners. “You want to talk to me, because those guys over there are monsters. They’ll hurt you. I’m trying to protect you.” She tilted her head at the windrunner who had slapped the girl. It took the guy a few seconds to realize what she meant. He eventually got her hint. H
e snarled at Shenyang and drew his knife. Not the most convincing performance, but it was enough to make the girl jump.
The charade went on for a while longer, but the girl didn’t budge.
Finally, Hengyen pulled Elena back. “We’re wasting time. The village will realize she’s missing. Maybe they’ll come looking for her. Maybe they’ll go into hiding. Either way, that puts us in danger or compromises the raid. Either we get actionable information from her, or we tie her to that tree and leave her for the dead. Enough delay.”
Elena bit her lip. Hengyen had made it perfectly clear that they returned to the Beacon within the next four days no matter what. That meant at best they had two, maybe three days at most to find Zhu and capture the villagers. Secretary Guo had also made it perfectly clear that Elena and Bo’s pardon was contingent on capturing these villagers as well. The thought of losing her only way home made Elena’s entire body clench.
So much for this good-cop crap that always worked in movies. Elena tried one last time. She drew her knife and stalked back to Shenyang. She held the knife to the girl’s neck. “If you don’t tell me where your village is, I can’t protect you anymore.”
Shenyang whimpered and squeezed her eyes shut.
“Damn it. You’re really going to die for your stupid village?”
The girl had called her bluff. Elena lowered her knife and looked away. She had promised herself that the old woman with the pŭdāo would be the last. She didn’t want to do this, but she had no choice. There was nothing left for her on this side of the world anymore.
Elena was dog tired. Exhausted by playing this stupid game of trying to be nice or do the right thing. Tired of feeling like everything was out of her control, and that nothing she did got her any closer to what she wanted most in the world. Just once, just once dammit, she wanted something to be easy. Why did everything have to be so hard? Her chest seized. Desperation and anger took over.
Without warning Elena’s slashed her knife across Shenyang’s face, her movement so quick most around them didn’t even notice at first. That is, until they saw the blood sprayed across Elena’s and the girl’s face. Shenyang blinked, momentarily confused. Then the pain registered. She palmed her cheeks and screamed as blood spurted out of both sides of her face, soaking her hands and pouring down her arms and shirt. Her cries were cut short when Elena stoppered her mouth with a palm. With her other hand, she pointed the tip of her knife inches from her the young woman’s eye. “One more noise out of you and I’ll shove this clean through your skull. Do you understand?”
Shenyang made no sign that she did and continued her muffled scream. Off to the side, several of the windrunners shouted. At first Elena thought they were under attack. Perhaps the girl’s people had found them. She turned to see a jiāngshī stumbling out from the trees. It was skinny and bald, wearing traditional clothing, which resembled a cross between a bathrobe and a potato sack. He had an overbite and what looked like two or three teeth left, which he was using to chomp repeatedly as he dragged a lame leg.
One of the windrunners cursed, drew a club, and walked over to the old dead man. Before he could bash its head in, Elena called out. “Stop. Leave it.”
The windrunner looked at her curiously. When the jiāngshī changed course and lumbered toward him, he gave it a swift kick in the chest, sending it flying back. He raised his club as if to smash its head in again.
“Stop,” Elena repeated. She grabbed the still sobbing girl by the hair and dragged her to the fallen jiāngshī. “Hold it down,” she snapped at no one in particular.
The windrunner hesitated, but did as ordered as Elena pushed Shenyang’s head down until it was only inches from the jiāngshī’s snapping jaws. The girl’s muffled screams would have otherwise been bloodcurdling.
Elena hissed in her ear, barely above a whisper. “Tell me what we need to know, or I will let this monster tear your flesh apart bite by bite. But I won’t let it touch your face, because when we find your village—we’ll find it with or without your help—I’m going to use their little Shenyang to keep them all in line or you’ll turn them into jiāngshī as well. Do you understand?”
The girl was moaning and sobbing out of control. Elena had pressed her face so close to the old jiāngshī’s that the blood dripping from her cheeks was falling into its mouth. The thing went crazy and was squirming so hard it almost broke free of the windrunner’s grasp. Finally, Shenyang moved her head in something that resembled a nod, and Elena pulled her back up and tossed her roughly to the ground. She fell into a broken heap, sobbing.
Elena rubbed her hands together to hide the fact that she was trembling all over. She looked up to see the entire wind team staring back at her, eyes wide with shock and fear. Elena set her jaw as she walked away from the ugly scene, pausing as she stopped by the windmaster. “The girl shouldn’t give us any more trouble. Let me know when we’re ready to move.”
She kept walking until she was well out of earshot. She hid behind a small cluster of fir trees and leaned against the trunk of an ancient knotted cypress, her adrenaline and resolve leaking out of her body. She clenched and kneaded her still-shaking hands trying to calm her nerves. Finally, with a frustrated snarl, Elena drew her still-bloody knife and tossed it into the brush. Then she buried her head in her hands and sobbed.
22 INTO THE FOLD
Zhu and Jincai were just coming back from the nest after Shenyang failed to return to the village that morning. The two had just crossed the river and were creeping through the tall weeds along the water’s edge when they heard the first pops: fast and sharp, their echoes lingering in the air. Several more rattles followed. A jiāngshī standing a few meters away, a lanky bald man wearing fishing waders with a fishing pole still in his hand, turned toward the sounds. It made a guttural grunt that sounded almost curious to Zhu’s ear and began to lumber in the direction of the sounds. Right to the entrance of the hidden pass leading to the village in the valley.
“What was that, shīfù?” asked Jincai, a few steps ahead of Zhu.
“Gunfire,” he replied, his concern growing. “It’s not far.”
Jincai, leading the way, disappeared into the underbrush. The teenager was well acquainted with these surroundings and guided the two safely through the dense foliage. While the forested area near the pass had been mostly cleared of the dead, there was still a steady stream leaking in here from the main road a few hundred meters to the east.
Thinking of that reminded Zhu of the daunting journey ahead. With the caravan composed of old wagons and hollowed-out cars with the engines removed, there was no way they could travel on the dead-infested highways. Their only option was the winding back roads, which were hit-or-miss. They could be on an empty stretch of road for a hundred kilometers, or they could run into a storm of jiāngshī. Their one advantage was that there weren’t any big cities between here and the Precipitous Pillars, only small villages. Zhu preferred they avoid the roads entirely, traveling on foot and carrying their possessions on their backs, but that was not feasible with so few strong and healthy people in the village.
Zhu shook himself back to the current situation. None of that mattered right now. There was no point in thinking about tomorrow if no one survived to see it. He didn’t know what they were facing. If they were lucky, someone was practicing with rifles at the village, although that was doubtful, considering the bullet holes at Shenyang’s nest. It was more likely that a group of vultures had stumbled upon her and forced her to reveal the village’s location. He prayed she was still alive.
They continued for another twenty minutes through the thickets, painstakingly moving from cover to cover. They finally reached the narrow winding pass that cut through the mountains into the valley. So far, there was nothing out of the ordinary except for two jiāngshī who were making their way toward the village.
Jincai pulled out his knife when Zhu stopped him. “Let them go first. We’ll follow behind at a good distance. Anything that happens will hit them first.
”
In hindsight, it was probably a bad plan. The dead were notoriously clumsy, and walking uphill did them no favors. Zhu and Jincai waited in the shadows while the two jiāngshī spent almost ten minutes trudging up the small stretch of road. Zhu thought once they began down the hill, things would go a little faster, but the two jiāngshī stumbled and face-planted multiple times until they finally reached level ground. It was a frustrating exercise in patience.
Zhu sighed. “We probably should have just killed them.”
Jincai only chuckled.
Zhu couldn’t help but join in. They kept the jiāngshī in sight until the decoys reached the barricade guarding the entrance to the valley. It had been partially smashed, and the wooden gate at its center was torn off its hinges. It appeared abandoned. No one stirred behind it as the jiāngshī lumbered across the stretch of land leading up to it.
Zhu was about to step out from the boulder they were hiding behind when a man poked his head out above the gate. He was bald, with an ugly zigzag scar running across the crown of his head. There was a rifle slung across his back. Instead of drawing it, he drew a long spear and strolled up to the two jiāngshī, stabbing them each through the head.
Zhu’s breath caught in his throat, and he quickly ducked back. That was Raisin-Head Fang. He had often played board games with Zhu when they had down time. Fang was very competitive and broke the rules any chance he got, but he always shared his plum wine.
These weren’t vultures. The Beacon had found them.
Jincai clutched his knife in his hand. “There’s only one person there. I think we can take him.”
Zhu grabbed the teen by his collar, shook his head. It was a good fifty meters across an open field to the barricade from their hiding place. Fang wasn’t a great shot, but he’d have to be blind to miss them out in the open at this distance. Zhu nudged Jincai. “I’m going to distract that guy. When his back is turned, jump him.”
