by Coralee June
A heavy silence filled the transport. Jacob’s mindspeak said what we were all thinking. “Well hell. That sounds just fantastic.”
We didn’t really know much about the city, aside from what little Thurst and Bowden could provide us with. We were operating on the hope that it was where Mia and Chief Aarav were taken. I didn’t know if I wanted to find Mistress Stonewell, Payne and Hope. If they were with Cavil’s men, then there was no telling what sort of things they had to endure. I struggled between wanting to find them as quickly as possible and wanting them to be safe. We were going off of hearsay, and once again I found myself feeling frustrated about the lack of information and answers.
“People that live in Lythe are different. They’re survivalists to the core. They rarely leave their underground city and are naturally suspicious of anyone they come into contact with,” Bowden added again while running his fingers over his scalp and biting his lip. I tried to imagine what this underground city looked like. How could people possibly survive there? I spent a lifetime indoors at Stonewell Manor but still went outside weekly to run errands. I thought I would go crazy if I had to spend my entire life without the feel of the sun on my face.
I turned my attention to Kemper. He was staring out the window as Bowden spoke, and I could sense that he didn't like that we didn't have a plan going into this. He was methodical. Systematic. He looked at every single side of a problem and approached it after examining each and every variable. In some ways, Maverick was the same. He liked knowing everything. He prided himself on being the smartest man in the room. I looked at Mav and smiled when I saw him checking and double checking the first aid kit we’d packed a few hours before leaving. I had given him a crash course in herbs, and he seemed eager to learn. It felt terrific to be able to teach him some of what I’d learned in the Deadlands.
Kemper groaned. “I don’t like not having a solid plan. Should we send a couple people in to scout first, that way we aren’t risking all of us in one go?” he asked.
Luckily, Jules and I responded at the same time, “No. Absolutely not.”
There was no way in Ethros I was letting us split up again. I wasn’t about to risk letting my men get captured. We were doing this together. Since my night with Cavil, I learned that we didn’t always need a plan. There was something to be said for a person's instincts. I had faith that I could claw myself out of a situation if necessary—or kill my way out of it.
Cyler squeezed my hand once more in solidarity. I was worried that he and Maverick were too weak still from the death pill to fight, but we didn't have many options. I knew that I needed him with us. No man left behind. We were stronger together.
We parked in the cover of trees and exited the transport. All of us went quiet as we looked around on high alert. I flashed a glance at Tallis and smiled when I saw his familiar fierce expression. He and Jules had disappeared for a few hours earlier, and he reappeared looking more like his old self. "Lead the way, brother," he said to Bowden before grabbing Jules’ hand and walking south. Cyler wrapped his arm around me like this was a casual date and not a rescue mission.
"You look nice, Babe," he said, bumping his hip against mine flirtatiously. I smiled. He was trying to calm my nerves, and it was working.
"Are we on a date right now? I feel like I should have worn a dress," I joked before patting the pocket where Jules' necklace was sitting. I just hoped that it was enough for access to the underground city. Maybe Kemper should bring the bomb. If they were a group of survivalists, maybe they’d appreciate it more than Jules’ necklace. I'd been checking that it was still there all throughout the drive. It was our ticket to Mia—to Payne.
"Romantic stroll through the woods? Why the hell not? I mean, you get hot romps in the Deadlands with Huxley, so it seems only fair," Cyler replied with a smirk. I glanced up at his expression, the moonlight and toxic gas in the air illuminating the woods just enough to see his playful smile. He wasn't jealous, well, not completely jealous. He was teasing me.
I opened my mouth to reply, but Jules interrupted. "We're almost there. Pay attention for fuck's sake."
Bowden pushed aside some thick bushes, revealing the abandoned city of Lythe just a little further up a makeshift path. The state of Lythe didn't surprise me. I wasn't sure if it was because I was desensitized to destruction, or if it was because I’d already seen it a couple of days ago when we passed through. Boards covered every window, and some buildings were burned to the ground. Rotting corpses lined the streets, and I had to put my hand over my nose and mouth to cover the stench. To the untrained eye, this looked like an abandoned city.
It was genius, really, hiding the real civilization beneath the surface.
I looked around at our group. No one seemed too distraught by their surroundings. The road was narrow, so we filed down to two at a time, and a gust of wind billowed up, kicking up the stench of death and sand with it. Jacob gagged at the smell. I just kept going.
Bowden led the way and kept looking over his shoulder at us in a way that was a little too suspicious for my liking. "How much farther?" Cyler asked beside me. I sensed that he was feeling the same unease that I was.
"Not much," Bowden replied, his voice bubbling up with unspoken tension. Huxley surged forward to closer inspect him as I looked at the Scavenger's trembling hands. He then stopped in the middle of the road and turned to face us. I couldn’t tell if the sad expression on his face was because he was nervous about going to the city or if it was something else. I didn't peg Bowden as the type to get anxious. Emotional, maybe. Devoted for sure. But not nervous. My instincts were telling me to run, but my feet remained rooted to the spot. “I’m so sorry, Tallis,” Bowden said while holding his hands up. “I had to.”
Huxley grabbed the back of his neck, causing our group to erupt into chaos. Tallis immediately stalked closer, fists clenched, ready to defend Bowden. That blind devotion was understandable, but the unease in my stomach was making all of this difficult to swallow.
"Get your hands off him, Hux," Jules warned while eying Tallis. "Now isn't the time."
"Not until he tells me why he's sweating so much that his shirt is drenched and his hands are trembling. What do you mean you’re sorry?" Huxley sneered just in time for Tallis' fist to connect with Huxley's jaw. He'd been looking for a way to get out his pent up frustrations over everything, and Huxley gave him the perfect opportunity to feel like he could defend his people.
Cyler let go of my hand to pull Huxley away, and to my surprise, Bowden tackled Tallis, a sob breaking through his pursed lips. "Stop," Bowden growled as Cyler wrapped his arms around Huxley like a bear hug. Jacob, Kemper, Maverick, and Patrick were ready to dive in, all of them standing in front of me with arms flexed. "He's right," Bowden choked out.
All at once, we turned our attention to him. Tallis got out from under him and gave his friend a deep scowl. "What do you mean he's right?"
The moment that question left Tallis' lips, arms circled around me, pinning my arms down and drawing me into a chest and large stomach. "Let go of me!" I screamed just as everyone turned around to see what was happening.
The person holding me smelled like sewage, and I thrashed my body to try and break free of their hold until the barrel of Heat was placed at my temple. "You sure are pretty," a low, raspy voice growled in an accent I knew came from the Southern tip of the empire.
"Let her go," Huxley replied while taking a step closer, holding his hands up like he was approaching a wild infected Walker. I couldn't twist my body enough to see who was behind me, but based on the murderous looks in the guys' eyes, I sensed that this wasn't good. Another voice spoke to my right, and I turned just enough to stare at who it was.
"I wouldn't do anything rash, boys. We've got a deal to complete." I looked at the man approaching. He was wearing all leather and boots with a heel, but it did nothing to help his height. He was probably at my shoulder level. I noticed that he was cradling a blanket in his arms and headed for Bowden. He wore a wide
smile, showing off his toothless grin and thin lips. His beard was long, and I noticed a small hand reaching up for the wiry hairs of his beard. "Well done, Scavenger." He handed the bundle to Bowden, and I watched the tall, muscular Scavenger crumble in relief.
Hope. They had Hope. Grateful tears slid down my cheeks, and I nearly sobbed along with him. He looked her over, cupped her cheeks, and I heard the sound of a childish giggle from the blankets. He quickly clutched her to his chest, and with one sad look at me, started running like his life depended on it.
I wasn't even mad. And if in his shoes, I'd give up anyone or anything to get my child back. Tallis and Jules took one second to watch his retreating back before sprinting off after him.
"Jules!" Cyler yelled angrily. He couldn't blame her because she was chasing after her family.
The short man chuckled. "Let them go. I have no need of Scavengers. Got plenty of them in the city." I turned my attention back to the man and nearly fainted when I saw that he was wearing a guard uniform. It had splatters of blood on it, but Cavil’s crest was still proudly on his chest.
"Who are you?" Cyler asked as the man holding me gripped me tighter, squeezing me so hard I knew I'd have bruises in the morning.
"We're no one. A little bit of the Old Guard. Some Elites. A few members of the Resistance. Some would even call us the new empire," the shorter man said. "You can call me Lenny," he then added.
"Lenny, wanna explain to me why you have Heat aimed at my woman?" Cyler asked. I noticed Jacob spinning his mindspeak in his fingers, likely not trusting himself to put it in and give up his thoughts.
"Well. I've heard lots about the Dormas men. I know how strong you are. I’m not a stupid man," he said while holding his hands up. "We just need your cooperation. When we ran into those two Scavengers by the creek, we knew they’d bring you to us."
“What do you need from us?” Kemper asked while taking another step closer.
"Finding the boy that Cavil was searching for. Payne? We captured a few Scavengers that leaked he was last seen with you. We heard he has the cure."
"Why do you want the cure?" Maverick asked. I noticed how he watched the scene before him, gauging everything that was happening before speaking. But I also knew that a person's intentions were important to him—hell, it was important to all of us.
Lenny threw his head back like the question was ludicrous. "Same reason everyone else wants it, you dumb fuck. I want to fucking live."
Maverick pulled a knife from the waistband of his belt, and I swallowed. The man holding me started gripping me tighter. “Let her go, and I’ll make your death quick,” Cyler said with a growl.
“Come with us, and we won’t snap her neck while you watch,” Lenny replied. His tongue jetted out to lick a bead of sweat that had collected there. He looked feral and like he would have zero qualms about ending my life.
I watched the silent communication between my men, and I urged them with my eyes to go with Lenny and his thug. We wanted in the underground city anyways, right? This was a good thing. Hope was safe, and we now had a one-way ticket to where Mia and Chief Aarav were.
Maverick must have realized the same thing because it was he who answered for the group. “Fine. But if anything happens to her, I’ll chop your dick off.”
Every man within a fifty-mile radius cringed at that visual. “Deal,” Lenny grumbled in response before leading our group towards Lythe.
Chapter Eight
The underground city of Lythe smelled like sulfur. Every time I breathed in the scent, my lungs wanted to scream. The moment Lenny and his goon forced us into the elevator, it felt like a sheen of filth coated my skin. We descended what felt like ten stories down below the surface of the city, and when the doors opened, I let out a choking cough. Lenny rolled his eyes at me like he wasn’t amused by my reaction to his prized city.
My first impression was that this underground city wasn’t sanitary. Sewage lined the crowded entrance, and once we were shoved into a great room, I let out a gasp in shock. I’d never seen so many people in one place.
Hell, it had been a while since I’d seen so many people alive.
“Gotta scan you for X,” Lenny said before pushing me into a tube with a scanner attached. “We don’t want that shit spreading around our safe haven!” As I stood in the tube, the infrared rays trailed up and down my body then blinked green when it determined I wasn’t sick. One by one, the rest of my men followed suit as the people of Lythe watched us in silence. It was like a ghost town filled with people.
The underground city was just a large cavern with tall ceilings. Tents and people were set up all around the great room and well into a hallway that had more citizens lying around. Once Cyler was scanned, he went to stand beside me while Lenny’s man kept Heat pointed at my back.
“This place reminds me of the gold mines, but more disgusting,” he said under his breath. Each inhale made me want to gasp for air, but the more I gasped, the more the stench of this place made me sick to my stomach. It was making me dizzy, too.
“How do people survive down here?” I asked. It was almost a blessing that Jules had run off. We’d have to listen to her complaining about the stench the entire time. It wasn’t right, all these people living in filth. It was worse than the Zone.
“How do people live up there?” the beefy man guarding me asked while nodding towards the ceiling of the cavernous tunnels. He had a point. I guess nowhere was habitable at the moment. At what point would we start to prioritize the quality of someone’s life over just...living?
Jacob wasn’t handling the claustrophobic city as it reminded him of the sewage drain he fell down after being attacked in Ethros. After he was scanned, Lenny told him to file in beside Cyler. I ignored the threatening barrel of Heat at my back and reached around Cyler to grab Jacob’s hand, noting that he didn’t trust himself to put his mindspeak back in.
I took advantage of our time there to take in the room, observing everyone and looking for how strong of a guard presence there was but didn’t find anyone. There didn’t seem to be any class system down here. I noted Walker tags, purple fetter scars, and heads of white hair scattered around the cavern. It all blended together in a mass of humanity. There was a sense of community here that I hadn’t seen before. No one was fighting or even speaking as they stared at us. It felt like a quiet—and hopeless—existence. Ahead of us, a young boy was bringing an old Scavenger a bucket of water.
“They’re all so quiet,” I whispered. “They seem to work well together.”
Lenny must have overheard me because he then spoke. “You just need one commonality, miss. Survival bonds us. Anger keeps us going. We have strong hearts...and stomachs.”
Cyler watched the room also, and I knew that he was thinking the same thing as me. Although they had Heat, they didn’t have many guards. We could overtake them if necessary. Right now we were just playing along to gather intel and find the Scavengers Lenny and his man had captured.
Once Huxley passed the X scanner, they guided us to the middle of the room. “Everyone!” Lenny yelled through the cavernous room, his booming voice echoing off the walls. “We are one step closer to finding the boy with the cure. We’ve been searching for every Scavenger in the empire, and it has led us to a good lead. Soon we will all have the cure!”
There were a few polite claps, but something felt off. It was like everyone was in a daze, not really present as Lenny boasted. I looked around and noticed how still they were, like lifeless bodies with a pulse. Something was seriously wrong, and Lenny seemed manic. No one really respected his authority or his cause. It looked like they didn’t really care about anything.
He led us down the makeshift tunnels, and all of us watched in stunned silence, not sure how to take in everything before us. “So what was your plan?” Cyler asked, looking around at everyone with the same intensity as me. I knew that as a natural leader, he was taking mental stock of the living conditions, aligning his standards to his devoted leadership t
eam, already making plans to save the people of Lythe.
“We found a Scavenger a few weeks back that gave us a good lead. We know she knows where the cure holder is. We can’t get her to talk, but I have a feeling you’ll be able to get her to sing. Found out from another Scavenger that she used to live in Dormas and knew you. It was only a matter of time. You’ll get her to talk.”
“And if we don’t?” Huxley asked. I still couldn’t shake the feeling like something was off about all of this. They didn’t seem normal; it was like they’d been drugged or something. I glanced at Maverick, and he kept sniffing the air like something was wrong. Suddenly, his eyes went wide like he’d realized something.
Lenny replied while his man shoved me. “Then we rip the information from her skull. I’m not afraid to do what’s necessary.” The dark cavern was lit with green flames that flickered with intensity, shifting at the air whenever we walked by.
I swallowed. What if this man went on a killing spree? We turned down another hall which was much more crowded. We were practically on top of one another, shoved against the slick walls of the cavern as we followed Lenny, who was the only man that didn’t have to hunch. Jacob grunted and grabbed my hand—I could feel each tremble through his body. I didn’t offer for him to stay in the more massive tunnel, though. I knew he wouldn’t, and I definitely didn’t want any of my men out of sight.
“Here’s where we keep prisoners,” Lenny said, a proud boast in his tone that had me feeling sick. Huxley was at the front of our group and saw the Scavenger with supposed information about Payne. I knew it was bad the moment he screamed.
“Let her out of that fucking hole right now before I kill you both,” he growled. I shoved my way forward past Patrick and Maverick to see.
“You don’t get to make demands, traitor. I’m the one with fucking Heat,” Lenny boomed. The other guy, currently holding Heat on us was just swaying, watching us with a lazy grin. I maneuvered around them to see who was in the prison and gasped.
