by Griffin, Gen
Seth hesitated for a brief second and then shrugged with feigned casualty. “We're Rurals. Today was the first time my girlfriend and I have been into the city in a while. She'd never seen the meat market before and she wanted to see it.”
“You're Rurals?” Gauge narrowed his eyes at Seth. “You're certainly dressed like Rurals. All pretty hair and snazzy clothes. Just decided to come to town and visit the meat market for a sick thrill today?” The condescension in his voice was brutal.
“It's her birthday.” Seth jerked his chin in my direction.
“And she wanted to see someone murdered in cold blood?” Gauge looked disgusted.
Moira burst into a fresh round of tears. I might have held Seth's story together if it hadn't been for the crying child.
“Did you really want to watch my Momma die?” Moira asked.
“No.” Hot tears began pouring down my cheeks. “No, baby. I didn't want to see anyone die.”
“Then why did you come?” Moira whimpered.
I pressed my cheek into her hair so that I didn't have to look at Seth. He'd be furious if I blew our cover story because it hurt too badly to lie to a heartbroken child.
Gauge made another huffy noise. “Nothing says romantic like a trip through the meat market.”
The room was completely silent except for Moira's sobs.
“It's not like that,” Seth said finally. “Look, you said you've been sitting outside the meat market every day for the last two years?”
“I said that, yes.” Gauge was nodding again.
“You see everyone who comes in and out?”
“Where are you going with this?” Gauge crossed his arms over his massive chest. He was eyeing Seth skeptically.
“Just answer my question,” Seth snapped.
“Give me a reason to,” Gauge countered.
The two of them stared one another down for a minute and then Seth did something I wasn't expecting. He gave.
“You're right. We didn't come to the meat market to sight see,” Seth admitted. “We were looking for Pilar's parents. We think they were brought through the meat market sometime in the last month or so.”
“Brought through the meat market, as in sold at the meat market?” Gauge clarified.
I could feel his blue eyes traveling over me with open curiosity.
“Yes,” Seth said. “We were hoping they were still there. I was going to-.”
“Buy them?” Gauge guessed. “Not with the bag full of pennies you pulled out of your pocket earlier.”
“What I brought should have been enough.”
“You haven't been to the meat market in a long time, have you?” Gauge asked.
Seth hesitated and then rubbed his chin with one hand. “I avoid the meat market whenever possible. It's been a few years.”
“What you brought would have been enough three or four years ago. It's not enough now,” Gauge said. “Prices have tripled during the last year. The supply of pure meat is dwindling.”
“Since when?” Seth asked.
Gauge looked at him with open curiosity now. “You think there are still plenty of virus free people roaming through the woods outside of the city?”
“I, um.” Seth had gone too far and he knew it. “I just didn't think they'd ever run out, I guess. I hadn't really thought about it. I try not to think about the meat brokers.”
“Except that you know what the going rate was for flesh a few years back.” Gauge shook his head at Seth. “Make up your mind. Do you know how to play the game or are you some bumbling Rural sticking his nose where it doesn't belong?”
“Does it matter?” Seth's hand went to the waistband of his pants. I knew he'd hidden a large knife on his belt as well as the handgun my father had left behind in the Cube when he'd been taken by the Bud Moon. It was my gun, but Seth carried it because he knew how to shoot and I didn't.
Gauge didn't move a muscle. “It matters to me.”
I took a deep breath and turned to face Gauge. Moira's tears had soaked part of my dress. My arms were starting to burn from carrying her weight for so long. “He's telling the truth. We came to the meat market to try to find my parents. Their names are Carolina and George Augustus. My mother looks like an older version of me. Brown hair, brown eyes and olive skin. She's two inches taller than me when we're both standing barefoot. My dad is short. He's barely five foot four even with his boots on. He's a big guy though and really strong for his age.”
“For his age?” Gauge asked.
“He would be sixty today. He was 44 when I was born. He and my mother weren't married until after the apocalypse. They'd both had children before the zombie virus ended the world, but none of their other children survived. I was their last ditch effort to have a family.” I didn't even bother trying not to cry. My tears ran down my face and mixed with Moira's. “My mother would have been terrified to be here. She hadn't even been outside in more than twenty years before she was taken by the flesh-broker. My dad is loud and he's a fighter. He wouldn't have gone quietly. You would have heard him arguing with people. He would have fought for his life and the lives of everyone around him.”
Gauge hesitated for a second. He was frowning now. “You said your dad's name was George?”
“Yes.”
“You happen to know the name of the flesh broker who brought your folks in?” Gauge asked.
I hesitated and looked over at Seth. He nodded. I took deep breath. “His name is Bud Moon.”
Gauge looked me up and down. He rubbed his sandy blonde goatee thoughtfully. “Bud Moon only brings in people from inside the Cube.”
“I know,” I said.
“You two are from the Cube?” Gauge asked.
Seth and I exchanged a startled look. Gauge shook his head again. “Scratch that question. She's from the Cube. You're not. I don't know what you are.”
Seth didn't answer.
“I'm from the Cube,” I explained. “He's just. Well. He's Seth.”
“Yeah. He got wrapped up in a spiked whip and didn't even flinch. Most people would be crying on the floor from pain or panicking about their risk of infection by now. He can't even be bothered stopping the bleeding.”
“He's-.”
“I'm not important. Have you seen Pilar's parents or not?” Seth cut in. “She's told you the truth.”
“I don't remember her mother. I may have seen her, but she didn't stand out to me if I did. I do remember her Dad. He was loud. Outspoken. Angry but he didn't rage. He preached. He sat in the cage and preached about equality, values, god and forgiveness.”
“He was a pastor before the apocalypse,” I whispered.
“Everyone in the meat market was calling him Preacher George,” Gauge said.
“You know what happened to him?” Seth asked.
“Same thing that happens to everyone else who winds up for sale in the meat market. He was sold for slaughter.”
“Oh god.” I couldn't breathe. I felt like a massive weight was pressing down on my chest.
“You know who bought him?” Seth asked. “He might still be alive if it hasn't been that long since the sale.”
“Not a clue,” Gauge replied.
“Can you find out?”
Gauge stared thoughtfully at Seth. “I might be able to, depending on what you can do for me.”
“You want the money, it's yours.” Seth reached into the pocket of his jacket to pull out the money bag again.
“I don't want money. I want the gun you're wearing in the waistband of your pants.”
“You want the gun?” Seth looked both startled and relived as he turned to me. “Your call, Pilar. It's your gun.”
I opened my mouth and then frowned at him. “The gun was my Dad's. It's the only thing I have left from my parents. I'll only give it to him if he helps us get my Dad back. Or at least helps us find out what happened to him.”
Seth turned back to Gauge. “You heard her.”
“I did,” Gauge said with a nod. “My informatio
n isn't going to be enough. You want me to get my hands dirty.”
Seth shrugged with feigned casualty. He was great at keeping a straight face behind those dark sunglasses. I got the feeling he was amused by the negotiation.
“I want help,” I clarified. “We came here today thinking my parents would be in the meat market and hoping that we could purchase them and then walk away. It's not going to be that simple now. We might need help getting to Dad.”
“If he's even still alive,” Seth mused under his breath.
I shot a nasty glare at him. “Don't. Please don't. I can't let myself think he's gone.”
Seth abruptly shut up and raised his hand in surrender. “Sorry.”
Gauge narrowed his bright eyes at Seth. “I'll help you guys find her dad. You have my word. I'm a man of my word. I hope you are too.”
“Oh, you can trust me,” Seth said with a dark smile.
“Why do I very seriously doubt that?” Gauge asked.
Chapter 9
“I need to go back out into the city for a little while. Do you want to come with me or would you rather stay here?” Seth stood over me as I laid on a makeshift pallet bed with a snoring, snuffling Moira curled into my side.
The little girl had refused to let me go, but her traumatized exhaustion had been very visibly taking her over during the last hour. Gauge had suggested I lay beside her until she fell asleep and then extract myself from her tiny, iron-like grip. Moira was now sound asleep but I hadn't worked up the motivation to slip away from her.
“Do you want me to go with you?” I tried to hide my own exhaustion. The disappointment of not finding my parents had hit me heavily in the hours since we'd left the meat market. Gauge had sent some of his people, a tall scrawny boy named Derek and a chubby girl with a nose-ring whose name was Eden, to look for leads into what had happened to the man who the inhabitants and shoppers of the meat market had dubbed 'Preacher George'.
“It's up to you,” Seth said. “I'm just going to talk to a few people I know. Try and turn up a few more weapons. See if anyone can tell me whether Bud Moon is still in town or if he's headed back to the Cube.”
“You're going to go looking for Bud Moon?” I didn't know if I should admire his bravery or condemn his stupidity.
“He knows what happened to your parents,” Seth pointed out calmly. “He's the one who brought them to Ra-Shet. He should have some kind of record as to who he sold them to.”
“Isn't going directly to Bud Moon insanely dangerous?” I asked. “Don't get me wrong. It makes perfect sense that Bud Moon would have records about where he sold my parents to, but can you really just waltz right up to him and ask him to hand over his paperwork?”
“Aren't you the same girl who said that I do whatever I want, whenever I want?” he asked.
I sighed. “Let me work myself loose from Moira. I can't let you face Bud Moon on your own. They're my parents. I should be helping find them.”
Seth shook his head at me. “Honestly, it would probably be better if you didn't go with me to face Bud Moon.”
I stopped mid-way through trying to pry Moira's fingers out of my dress. “You don't want me to go with you?”
“I'm not going to walk into Bud Moon's house as the nice guy who just wants to help a pretty girl find her parents, Pilar. I'm going in there as-,” he hesitated and then looked around us, “as me. The real me.”
It made sense. I took a deep breath and nodded. “Would you hate me if I asked you to wait to confront Bud until tomorrow?”
“Depends on why you want me to wait.”
“I want to go with you. I just don't think I can handle seeing Bud tonight. Not with the meat market so fresh in my mind.” I closed my eyes and tried to pull myself together. “I'll be able to handle going with you if you can wait until tomorrow.”
“I still need to go out and find out whether or not he's around,” Seth reminded me. “But if you want me to wait on you to deal with Bud, I will.”
I nodded. “Do you think it's safe for me to stay here?”
Seth looked around the dark, mud colored room for a minute and then nodded. “It's safe enough.”
“You trust Gauge?” I asked.
Seth nodded again. “He may not know who I am, but I do know who he is. His little group here isn't exactly a secret. They're activists. Mostly non-violent pacifists who think the key to change and reform is to protest the less savory aspects of life in Ra-Shet.”
“Like the meat market?” I recalled seeing Gauge outside the meat market this morning.
“Exactly,” Seth confirmed.
“Why would pacifist protesters want my gun?” I asked thoughtfully, recalling the agreement we had made earlier.
“I have no idea.” Seth pursed his lips thoughtfully. “But guns have a lot of cash value. He may need the money he can get from selling it.”
I considered and then decided his explanation was plausible. “I think I'll just stay here while you're gone. I need some time alone to gather my thoughts.”
“I'll be back in a couple of hours,” Seth said. “Promise me you'll stay here until I get back.”
“Believe me when I say that I have absolutely zero intentions of going wandering through Ra-Shet alone at night,” I said with a small smile. “With my luck, I'd get eaten.”
Seth snorted and then bent down so that our faces were only inches apart. “I would never let that happen.”
I blinked at my own reflection in the lenses of his sunglasses. Without being able to see his eyes, I couldn't judge his moods at all. I didn't speak as he gently brushed his lips across my forehead in the slightest kiss. Twenty seconds later, he was gone into the night and I was alone with my thoughts.
Chapter 10
Dinner in the underground turned out to be pan friend potatoes with chunks of sausage and little bits of green peppers. The conversation revolved around an increase in rent taxes that the king was threatening to inflict upon the poorest people in the city.
The general consensus was that the citizens of Ra-Shet were already being taxed to their breaking point and that additional fines could very well start riots in the poorest neighborhoods. Dinner conversation revolved around possible evacuation routes from the city if things got too bad. One woman was concerned that zombies would be turned loose in the Burroughs as a form of intimidation. No one disagreed and I was suddenly, overwhelmingly glad that I hadn't grown up in the city.
The Cube might have been restrictive, but I had never lived in fear of the Powers That Be. Not until after I'd met Seth, anyways.
When dinner was over, everyone dispersed to wherever they spent their nights. I went up to the top of the building to stare out the window and wait for Seth to return. I'd been sitting in a windowsill for more than an hour when I heard someone come walking up behind me.
“Are you okay?”
I turned to see a ridiculously pretty girl with sleek amber colored hair and eyes that almost exactly matched the color of her hair. She was wearing a soft red shift-dress and carrying a box I recognized as a first aid kit.
“I'm fine.” I didn't move from the wide windowsill that I had curled up in. The view of the city from the building Gauge and his crew called the Underground was very different from the mountain view I had been so fascinated with last night. The shops, people and smells were so much closer and just so much more real than they had seemed last night when Seth had stood in the beauty school window at the top of the mountain and pointed out the various landmarks to me.
“Are you sure?” The amber-haired girl asked. “Gauge said that he thought you might have scraped your knees.”
I flexed my right leg without thinking about it. The slight soreness reminded me that there were a few small scratches from where I had knelt down in the gravel to pull Moira away from her doomed mother. “I'm fine.”
“Did you clean those cuts?” She pointed at the scratches on my knees.
I halfway smiled at her. “Actually, yes. I've spent most of my l
ife working in-.” I stopped myself before I blurted out that I'd been trained as a nurse in the Cube's hospital ward. Gauge already knew that I was from the Cube but it wasn't exactly knowledge that needed to get around. “I know a little bit about first aid.”
“I see.” The girl clearly hadn't missed my near blunder. I could see the curiosity in her eyes. She sat down on the edge of the windowsill beside me. “My name's Lola. What's yours?”
“Pilar.” My name wasn't a secret.
“Gauge told me that your parents got sold in the meat market and that you're trying to find them,” Lola spoke the words gently. The expression on her pixie-like face was kind.
I took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly. Tears were burning the backs of my eyes. “My dad might still be in the city somewhere.”
“Gauge told me that too. He's sent a few of our people out looking for information about who bought him.”
I nodded and wondered whether Lola knew we were trading Gauge a gun for his help. If I'd learned one thing in the last month, it was that everyone in the world outside the Cube was big on keeping their own secrets. Honesty seemed to have flown out the window around the same time as my parents had disappeared from our apartment without a trace.
“Don't give up hope.” Lola put her hand over mine. Her skin was soft and warm. “If your dad is in Ra-Shet, Gauge will find him. Gauge may seem a little scary but he's a good guy. He takes a lot of pride in reuniting families whenever he can.”
I nodded again as the tears came. I turned my face away from her so that I didn't have to look at Lola as I cried. The lights of the city were so close and so bright that they burned my eyes.
Lola scooted closer to me and wrapped her arms around my shoulders. “It's okay to cry.”
“I just thought we would find them today,” I whimpered as tears streamed down my cheeks. The sobs were coming faster now. “I just want to know where they are. Not knowing whether they are alive or dead is so hard.”
“Oh honey.” Lola stroked her fingers through my hair and then pulled me tightly against her. She smelled like roses.
