The Day After Never Bundle (First 4 novels)

by Russell Blake

  “Nice touch,” Lucas conceded, squinting against the blinding light.

  “He’s playing for keeps,” Ruby agreed.

  The door of the trailer opened, and out stepped a man with a neatly trimmed goatee and dun-colored, dreadlocked hair in a ponytail, who appeared to be in his late thirties. The muzzle of a bullpup submachine gun was pointed directly at them.

  “Ruby?” he asked when he saw the older woman. “You got here sooner than I figured.”

  “Never underestimate an old lady.” She dismounted and moved toward him, indicating the others with her left hand. “This here’s Lucas, Sierra, and Eve. Everyone, meet Bruce. Engineer and general troublemaker extraordinaire.”

  Lucas tipped the brim of his hat, and Sierra and Eve managed smiles. Bruce lowered his weapon and gave Ruby a small hug, obviously uncomfortable with the contact. “Wow. I’m totally unprepared. Sorry. You have anywhere to stay?” he asked.

  “We were thinking we’d just camp out wherever you think is safe.”

  “I have a spare bedroom and a sofa. No need to camp, if you don’t mind cramped spaces. It’ll be tight, and I’ve got to move some stuff around, but it should work,” Bruce offered.

  “That’s very generous of you,” Sierra said, and Bruce returned her smile, his eyes lingering on her face.

  “Nothing’s too good for friends of Ruby’s.”

  “Are you sure we aren’t putting you out?” Ruby asked.

  “Absolutely. Mi casa and all that. Go ahead and water your horses – and if they won’t run off, they’re free to graze the field. My nag can’t keep it trimmed, so they’ll be doing me a favor. Just shut the gate and we’re golden.”

  Lucas returned to the barrier and swung it closed, and looked around slowly. “Nice spread. Big.”

  “Yeah, well, there’s no such thing as property values anymore, so why not? Nobody else wanted it. Everyone’s terrified of being on the perimeter, especially after what happened in Loving.”

  “Yeah, the guards told us about that,” Ruby said neutrally.

  “What’s the world coming to, am I right?” Bruce shrugged. “Go ahead and unpack your gear. I’ll make some room inside.”

  “Much obliged,” Lucas said, and Bruce nodded.

  “My pleasure.”

  Lucas removed his saddle and bags from Tango and then did the same with Nugget, Jax, and Sidney – Ruby’s moniker for her new horse, based on an old boyfriend, she said. As they were finishing up, Bruce poked his head from the trailer. “Come on in. You can stow your stuff by the door. Need some help?”

  Lucas nodded, and Bruce descended the two steps to the concrete slab that served as his porch and hoisted Sierra’s tack. When Lucas followed him inside, the first thing that assaulted him was the sickly sweet aroma of stale marijuana smoke. Lucas glanced at the open windows and said nothing – it was none of his business how their host took the edge off.

  Bruce dropped the saddle and bags by the door, and Lucas did the same, and then they went to retrieve Ruby’s gear. Once they were all inside, the door bolted shut, Bruce gave them a ten-second tour of the trailer, which amounted to a central living room with adjacent kitchen, and a bedroom and bathroom at either end.

  “Toilets work. I use a pressure tank on the roof. Gravity fed,” Bruce said, pride in his voice. “And the battery bank will power everything for up to fourteen hours. But I obviously try not to run everything at once – just in case.”

  Sierra and Ruby admired his refrigerator and then moved to the living room, where he had a workstation set up with two large monitors and both a laptop and desktop computer. Bruce sat in a swivel Aeron chair and looked up at Ruby expectantly.

  “Want to tell me what this is all about?”

  Ruby gave him a brief summary of their situation, omitting that half of Texas was on the hunt for them, and handed him the note. He pored over it for several minutes and then shook his head. “Yeah, I don’t see anything obvious. What did you have in mind, Ruby?”

  “I can write a program that will try character substitutions. We can get into more involved cyphers later, if you can think of any, but that’s the likeliest.”

  He stood and gestured to the chair. “It’s all yours. I shall defer to the master.”

  She grinned. “Hardly. But I think I still remember how to write a code string.”

  Ruby went to work, her fingers flying over the keys, and Bruce plopped down on a sagging sofa and motioned to the rest of them to take a seat. They did, and Sierra sighed contentedly.

  “So what is it you do here? Ruby mentioned solar panels?”

  “Oh, yeah. It’s been good to me. I can repair just about anything, and when someone wants to set up a rig, I get the call.”

  “Then business is thriving?”

  “Used to be way better. Problem is that as stuff ages, it degrades. Like batteries. There’s only so much I can do, and then they’re just dead. But inverters, panels, radios, anything electric and most mechanical items, I can make work, assuming I can find, or create, the parts.” He made a face. “Things have been pretty slow for the last six months or so, actually.”

  “Sorry to hear that,” Sierra said.

  Bruce shrugged. “It’s not the end of the world. I mean, we already went through that, so this is gravy…”

  Sierra laughed. “I guess we did.”

  “What’s on the note?” Bruce asked.

  “If we told you, we’d have to kill you,” Ruby called from the keyboard.

  “Seriously,” Bruce tried again.

  “Directions to a pot of gold,” Sierra answered.

  “Where did you get it?”

  Lucas’s smile was anything but friendly. “Leprechaun.”

  Bruce’s eyes hardened as he met Lucas’s eyes. “Ruby, I think I deserve an answer, considering I’m helping, don’t you?”

  “It might be dangerous for you, Bruce, or we’d tell you. This way you don’t know anything.”

  Bruce snorted. “And how’s that good?”

  “You can’t tell someone what you don’t know.”

  “Who’s going to ask?”

  Lucas gave a noncommittal shrug. “Bad guys. Take your pick.”

  Bruce sat back with a frown. “That tells me nothing.”

  Lucas nodded. “Exactly.” His tone softened. “Look, you really don’t want to know. For your own good.”

  “All right, guys, this is freaking me out. What’s going on?” Bruce demanded.

  Ruby sighed and swiveled around to face him. “We think there’s a message, obviously, we need to decode. It’s supposed to have directions to a rendezvous point. But we want to keep it secret. There. Satisfied?”

  “Rendezvous with who? For what?”

  “That’s part of the mystery,” Ruby said. “We’re hoping to learn more from the note.”

  Bruce’s brow furrowed and he shook his head. “Wow. And I thought I was spun.” He opened a small box on the coffee table and pulled out a pipe and some marijuana. “Want some?”

  Lucas shook his head, and so did Sierra. Ruby returned her attention to the keyboard and called out over her shoulder, “Just take it outside, please. I can’t concentrate if the room’s full of smoke. And it’s not good for Eve.”

  Bruce stood. “Now you’re kicking me out of my own house? Fine. More for me.”

  The door slamming behind him sounded like a cannon, and Ruby hesitated before resuming her tapping. Sierra made to rise. “Is he okay?”

  “He’ll be fine once he chills out,” Ruby said. “He’s just high-strung. And he’s got the kind of personality where a puzzle drives him crazy till he solves it. That’s what makes him a good repairman and a great hacker.”

  “Hope so,” Lucas said.

  “I’ll go talk to him,” Sierra said. “Can’t hurt to be nice.”

  Lucas didn’t say anything, preferring to study his boots. Ruby muttered something unintelligible, and Sierra headed for the door. “Are we going to eat anything tonight?” she asked.
>
  “Got jerky,” Lucas said. “Unless Bruce there will let you raid the fridge.”

  “I’ll try some friendly persuasion.”

  She left, and Lucas went to his saddlebags and withdrew a container of jerky. He passed two long strips to Eve, handed Ruby three, and took several for himself. They sat chomping the leathery meat in silence, watching as Ruby worked at the computer, Eve eyeing the lines of code with enraptured eyes.

  Sierra and Bruce returned ten minutes later, laughing, the best of friends. He smiled at Lucas and Eve, his eyes now bloodshot slits, and gestured to the kitchen. “If you’re hungry, you’re welcome to what I have. Caught a bunch of fish yesterday, so that’s fresh, and got some vegetables from my garden.”

  “Is that where you grow everything?” Sierra giggled.

  Bruce laughed. “That’s my little secret. You have yours; I have mine. Maybe we’ll trade later?”

  Sierra batted her eyes, and Lucas found himself struggling to choke down a rising anger.

  “Maybe.”

  Bruce and Sierra prepared a meal while Lucas cleaned his guns, focusing on his task as he bit back any snipes that he felt like taking. He had no claim on Sierra, and they hadn’t had time to discuss what had passed between them, especially with Ruby and Eve always around – not that Lucas had any idea what he wanted, if anything.

  They ate while Ruby continued working, and several hours later, she sat back with a tired smile.

  “There,” she said. “Let’s let it run tonight. I can’t do anything more. The program will try pattern matching at increasingly complex levels, and go through every possible character substitution. We’ll review the results tomorrow. I can’t see straight right now.”

  Lucas yawned. “I’m with you.” He looked to Bruce, who was talking quietly with Sierra. “Is it okay to sleep on this?” he asked, patting the couch.

  “Oh, yeah, sure thing, dude.” Bruce looked at the clock on the wall. “Didn’t realize how late it is. I’m going to hit it, too.” He offered Sierra a drugged half smile. “Unless you want a nightcap or something.”

  She returned his smile. “Rain check?”

  “No problema,” Bruce said, and stood. “Sleep tight. You know where everything is.”

  Lucas watched him walk to his bedroom and throw a final smarmy grin Sierra’s way before disappearing inside. Sierra stopped smiling when his door closed and rolled her eyes.

  “More flies with honey than vinegar,” she whispered, and Ruby nodded.

  “He seems to like you.”

  “He’s kinda sweet, actually. Doesn’t seem like he gets to talk to many people,” she said.

  “Go figure,” Lucas said, and Sierra shot him a puzzled look. He didn’t elaborate, and Sierra elected to lead Eve to the second bedroom rather than engage. Ruby lingered behind.

  “I’ll be there in a second,” Ruby said. When Sierra was in the bedroom, Ruby leaned into Lucas. “She’s a manipulator. Don’t forget that. All useful information.”

  Lucas nodded. “So I see.”

  “In this case, it worked out well for us; but better to know what you’re dealing with than make assumptions, Lucas.”

  “I’m not assuming anything.”

  “You looked about ready to skin Bruce alive at one point. Maybe ‘assume’ was the wrong word.”

  Lucas sighed and lay back into the sofa. “This thing stinks.”

  “Better than spending the night on hard rocks.”

  He sniffed and tipped his hat forward, covering his eyes, and swung his feet up onto the couch, his M4 by his side. “Don’t know about that.”

  Ruby considered possible responses and then shook her head and made her way to the bedroom, leaving Lucas to his thoughts as the computer whirred and blinked, its fan sounding like a small turbine in the still, hot air.

  Chapter 28

  Slim sat in the sandbagged guard station at Duke’s trading post, idly watching bats dart after mosquitoes in the gloaming, their movements jerky and fast yet with a strange grace to them. He shifted on the uncomfortable board seat and stared off into nothingness that stretched to a dim orange glow on the horizon from the setting sun.

  He’d left the family ranch in search of adventure, bored to tears taking orders from his father and older siblings, and had jumped at the chance of being a guard at the trading post, visions of combat, showdowns, and making his fortune coloring his decision. Now, after little more than a week at Duke’s, he’d settled into a routine of crushing boredom and taking orders from anyone senior to him, which meant all the others.

  That wasn’t what he’d signed up for, and he’d quickly realized that with Loving to the north now a deserted smudge and the highway a badland of wreckage and predators, traffic to the outpost was going to be a trickle. He’d merely exchanged one form of servitude for another. It was an improvement only in style, not substance, and he found himself filled with the same sense of dread and resentment that he’d had back home – only here he had to bottle it up inside and not show it, or he’d be fired and have to return to the ranch with his tail between his legs.

  “Pride goeth,” he muttered, remembering one of his father’s often used expressions, and despised himself for his inability to have a more original thought than a repetition of the dogma that had been pounded into his head since childhood. The family had believed that the collapse had been the end of days prophesied in the Good Book and spent their time awaiting a rapture that was a long time coming. Slim didn’t buy a word of it, but he’d been forced to play along or have his ears boxed by his larger, older siblings, all of whom had survived the flu without contracting it, no doubt in part due to living like hermits who eschewed contact with the outside world.

  That had been one thing the old man had gotten right – danger lurked around every turn, and their fellow man was a dangerous creature. But that didn’t dissuade Slim, who was young and fearless; one thing he knew was that his chances of meeting a mate or of having an adventure more memorable than baling hay or shoveling slop were less than zero if he stayed with his family.

  He’d always known he was meant for bigger things, but had nearly given up hope when Doug had ridden by the ranch to tell him of the opening on Duke’s crew. Slim had been packed and on his horse less than an hour later, after a screaming match with his dad. Now, however, he wondered whether he’d chosen wisely after all. Latrine duty and grunt work weren’t his idea of making his way in the world, and his visions of rousting hooligans and rescuing damsels in distress had evaporated when confronted with the mundane reality of the duty he’d signed up for.

  Footsteps approached from the building, and Doug limped into view, his thigh wound nearly healed but the muscles still mending and sore. He handed Slim a tin plate with some sort of stew on it over white rice, the smell of which was less than appetizing.

  “What is this slop?” Slim asked.

  “Supposed to be rabbit. But I think it might have turned. Has something of a tang to it on the end, but it’ll fill your belly.”

  “Why doesn’t he let us go hunting for something fresh? Or at least fishing?”

  “He’s still paranoid about being attacked. Doesn’t want to be caught shorthanded.”

  “So we’ve got to eat dog food?”

  “It’s not that bad.” Doug’s expression turned thoughtful. “At least, I don’t think it’s dog.”

  “Very funny.”

  Doug shrugged. “Enjoy your dinner.”

  Slim swallowed a chunk of mystery meat and choked down a spurt of acid that rose in his throat at the taste, the sour bile making him gag. He set the plate aside and swigged some water, disgusted at the gruel as well as his situation.

  He needed to make a decision. He had information that the Locos had said they would pay handsomely for. All he had to do was seize the moment, take a single bold step, and his life would forever change.

  His father’s voice rang in his ear every time he contemplated selling out the woman, though. “Thirty pieces of silve
r,” the old man snapped in his imagination. “Goin’ price for Judas.”

  Slim tried another spoonful of the noxious concoction and then spit it onto the ground by the gate.

  “Screw this,” he muttered. He retrieved his gun and made his way to the stable for his horse, and was leading the animal out of the barn when Doug emerged from the main building.

  “Where you goin’? You’re on watch another three hours.”

  “I quit. That’s where.”

  “You kiddin’? Duke’s gonna flip out.”

  “Yeah, well, he’ll get over it. I’m through.”

  “Best tell him yourself.”

  “Thanks for the advice, but I’m outta here.”

  Doug gazed off into the gloom beyond the gate. “Man could get killed riding at night.”

  “Better to die in the saddle than live like this.”

  Doug’s voice softened. “What’s wrong, Slim?”

  “If I wanted to be everyone’s bitch, I would have stayed home. I ain’t cut out for this, Doug. So I’m gonna hit the trail, see what’s over the hill.”

  “Just like that.”

  “Yep.”

  Slim unlocked the gate and slid it open. Doug watched him in silence as he swung up into the saddle and put the spurs to his horse, goading it to a gallop as he passed through the entryway. The sound of the horse’s departure drew Duke from inside, and he peered at Doug from his vantage point on the porch.

  “What the hell was that?” the trader demanded.

  “Slim up and quit.”

  “He what?”

  “You heard me. Said hasta la vista and rode off.” Doug scratched his head. “Had a burr up his butt over something.”

  “Damn. That means we’re shorthanded again. Looks like I’ll have to take the bastard’s watch.” Duke paused. “Kinda strange that he rode away without even bothering to collect his salary, isn’t it?”

  “I didn’t even think about that,” Doug agreed.

  “He say where he was going?”

  “Nope.”

  Duke’s expression soured as he turned and went inside to get his gun and flak vest. He’d never had a man quit like that before, especially not at night with no provisions and no warning. Although the youngster had been acting odd the last couple days. Should have seen it coming.