The Razor's Edge: A Postapocalytic Novel (The New World Book 6)

by G. Michael Hopf

  Needing a short break, Lexi got a drink and ate a protein bar while Nicholas sat and watched over the man.

  “You know you’re the one who’s fucked, right?” Nicholas said.

  The man held his head low and mumbled something unintelligible.

  “I’ve known that girl for not even a week and I wouldn’t mess with her, and let me tell you, I’m a tough guy, but I think she’s tougher,” Nicholas said.

  “Shut the fuck up,” the man grumbled.

  “Suit yourself, I thought you’d want some light conversation before she works you over,” Nicholas replied.

  “My friends will find me,” the man threatened.

  “Um, somehow I doubt that,” Nicholas remarked.

  “They will, and when they do, they’ll kill you.”

  Nicholas stood up from the log he was using as a seat. “Do big bad guys like yourself get a book, a How to be a Gangsta Rule Book when you join your little boys club called a gang? Do you? Because I swear you guys use the same tired old cliché comments.”

  “Fuck you.”

  “No, my friend, like I said, you’re now the one that’s fucked. Plus, answer me this. Why can’t you just be a nice guy? What is it with the raping and pillaging? I understand our society is now primarily hunter/scavengers, and I get the stealing stuff, but raping and just murder and torture for no reason. What kind of sick person are you?”

  “Says the guy whose girlfriend is going to torture me,” the man quipped.

  “First, whatever she does to you is justice—I mean, you did try to rape her—and second, she’s not my girlfriend, though I’d love to change that. Maybe you could see I have an eye for her,” Nicholas said.

  Lexi stood at the open door and looked at Nicholas. She had clearly heard him.

  “Oh, hey, um, I was just getting to know our new friend here.”

  Lexi squinted her eyes at Nicholas and exited the house. “So what have you learned about him?”

  “He’s not much of a talker.”

  “Well, we’re going to change that right now,” Lexi said. She wiped her mouth with her sleeve, pulled one of the long blades from the small of her back, and squatted down in front of the man.

  “Like I told him, my friends will come and find me, and when they do…argh!” the man wailed in pain.

  Lexi jabbed the six-inch blade in his right calf muscle. She twisted the blade and asked, “Enough of your bullshit. Are you with a group of slave traders?”

  “Argh, fuck you!” he replied.

  She slid the blade in to the hilt and twisted it in the opposite direction. “Tell me.”

  “Ouch, ouch, ouch!”

  “Yes or no?” Lexi asked.

  Nicholas sat mesmerized by Lexi’s sheer brutality.

  “No,” the man cried.

  She twisted the blade back clockwise.

  “Argh!”

  “Yes or no!”

  “Yes, yes, I am,” he confessed.

  “Now that’s better.”

  “Please pull the knife out, please,” he pleaded.

  “Are you going to talk?”

  “Yes.”

  She removed the knife, wiped the blood on her pants, and put it back in the sheath. “Tell me everything you know about the farm, numbers of people, how many slaves are there, weapons, everything.”

  The man rattled off each item in detail. He told her there were seventeen people there, mostly men, and that number didn’t include the teams they had on the road, which ranged up to twelve. Those teams came back at various times, all depending on cargo. The slave situation as it was that morning was seven people total, six women and one little girl. They had nothing but small arms, semiautomatic rifles and pistols, no heavy weapons of any sort.

  Satisfied that he had told her what she needed, Lexi gave Nicholas a look and asked, “Do you have anything before I let him go free?”

  Nicholas shrugged and replied, “You can’t be serious about letting him go.”

  “You shut up. I only talked because I thought I had a chance,” the man barked.

  “Lexi, he’ll go back to his people,” Nicholas complained.

  “I know that and I’m counting on it,” she said.

  “How does that make any sense?” Nicholas asked.

  “I won’t. Let me go free and I won’t say anything. I won’t tell them you’re here, nothing,” the man pleaded.

  Nicholas came up to Lexi and said, “You’re crazy.”

  “I’m setting him free and that’s it,” Lexi said.

  The man looked panicked as he wondered who would win out.

  Nicholas was in disbelief that she’d even consider what she was thinking. “Just keep him tied up or, fuck, I don’t know, kill him.”

  “Kill him? You want me to kill him?” Lexi asked.

  “No, dude, shut the fuck up!” the man hollered.

  “Okay, then you do it,” Lexi said.

  “You want me to kill him?”

  “Yeah, you think setting him free is a bad thing to do then take him out,” Lexi challenged.

  Nicholas wasn’t expecting this. She had turned this around on him. He’d taken lives before and wasn’t afraid to do so when faced with a threat, but this man was their prisoner; he was tied up. It would be an execution, maybe even murder.

  Lexi waited a few moments for his response. She cocked her head and asked, “Well, what is it?”

  “Keep him tied up,” Nicholas said.

  “That’s not an option. We set him free or we kill him, and I vote you be the one to do it.”

  “C’mon, enough, you said you were going to let me go.”

  Lexi rushed the man and kicked his bleeding calf. “Keep your mouth shut.”

  “You’re in charge, I can tell. Just let me go. I won’t say nothin’, I promise.”

  “Well, Nicholas, which is it?”

  Nicholas pulled his Glock from his waistband and walked up to the man and pointed it.

  “No, man, no! This wasn’t the deal,” the man begged. Sweat streamed down his grimy face and mixed into his filthy thick beard.

  Nicholas hovered the pistol out in front of him. He placed his finger on the trigger but didn’t squeeze. He just thought about what he was about to do. He wasn’t opposed to killing when confronted with a do-or-die situation, but this just felt wrong.

  Lexi watched Nicholas carefully and waited.

  “Please, man, don’t,” the man begged. He was on the verge of tears.

  “I can’t, it feels like murder. Lexi, let’s just tie him up really good,” Nicholas said.

  “I said that wasn’t an option. Now help me get him up,” Lexi said.

  Nicholas stuffed the pistol back into his waistband and asked, “Where are we taking him?”

  “Back to the market, where we met so romantically,” Lexi joked.

  ***

  The walk so far had taken an hour, but soon they’d be at the market.

  The man hobbled along but didn’t complain. He just felt blessed to be alive. His hands were still bound behind him, but that was to be expected, so he said nothing.

  His failure to act decisively ran through Nicholas’ mind and plagued him with doubt. He had no place for bad men, but just executing him was out of his comfort level. Back and forth he tried to reconcile it. He still planned on going with Lexi to attack their farm, but that seemed to fit into his moral parameters.

  Lexi walked in silence with Beau tagging along.

  When they reached the tree line, Lexi ordered them to stop. “Let’s take a look around.” She removed a pair of binoculars from her vest and scanned the area. “Looks clear.”

  “Thank you,” the man said.

  Lexi didn’t respond. She only gave Nicholas a cold stare.

  “What were you doing there?” Nicholas asked.

  “I was out scouting when I saw her go in there,” the man answered.

  “Were you on foot?” Nicholas asked.

  The man looked at Lexi then back to Nichola
s and said, “No. There are lookout posts. I was manning it.”

  This was news to Lexi, as she hadn’t seen them the other day nor had Nicholas. “Where are they?”

  “About a mile out,” the man said.

  “Where’s yours?” Lexi asked.

  “You see that metal-sided building? On top of that.”

  Lexi put the binoculars to her face again and looked. She focused in on the building in question and froze when she saw a man sitting on top behind a short wall of sandbags. “Well, fuck me.”

  “What is it?” Nicholas asked.

  “He’s telling the truth, look,” Lexi said, handing Nicholas the binoculars.

  He looked through and said, “Glad I asked.”

  “Yeah, you are good for something. So how many of these posts do you have?”

  “Four, one north, south, east and west. That one there is the south post. You said it was manned, so that means they know I’m missing.”

  “Do those posts have night vision, thermals, anything like that?” Lexi asked.

  “No.”

  “That number of seventeen you gave me, does that include these posts?” Lexi asked.

  “Yes.”

  “So we’re only dealing with a baker’s dozen at the farm unless some of your scouts are back?”

  “Yes.”

  Lexi thought for a minute and said, “I’ve got a plan.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “Two birds with one stone is what I’ll call it,” she said and began to take off her weapons.

  Cheyenne, Wyoming, United States

  Baxter along with the other senior staff and cabinet sat pensively in the situation room. Their only connection to the rescue teams was meager radio communications that weren’t live action. What he was doing was risky and, if the intelligence was incorrect, could result in the death of Cruz. What was clear was this would most assuredly start a conflict with Western Canada. Both of which weren’t desired, with the former being more problematic.

  “How cool must it have been to watch those SEALS kill Osama? To sit in that situation room and watch it like you’re watching your favorite show,” Franklin gushed.

  Megyn was asked to join them, but since divulging everything she had remained silent.

  Baxter kept a close eye on her. After everything that had happened he still had doubts. His paranoia had grown since his short stint with the resistance.

  Franklin got up and walked to a small side table that was topped with coffee, water and snacks. He poured a steaming hot cup and headed towards Baxter.

  “You look tired, my friend,” Franklin said, taking a seat next to Baxter.

  “I am.”

  “You’ve got a pair, I’ll give you that,” Franklin joked.

  “Why would you say that?”

  “This, the whole operation, it’s ballsy. Don’t get me wrong, it’s the right play. I just know how easy it is to sit back and say how things should be. It’s entirely another to shoulder the responsibility and consequences for your decision.”

  “I’d agree with that.”

  “You know if the president doesn’t come back, we need to get you sworn in right away. There’s no sense waiting. We’ll need to show continuity of government without delay to the American people.”

  “We’ll see.”

  Franklin shifted in his seat and leaned towards Baxter. “And you’ll need a VP, got to have one. The president didn’t and it caused some issues. We can’t have that again. If you assume the office you’ll need a strong and capable person who you know you can trust,” Franklin said just above a whisper.

  Baxter didn’t reply, he just looked at Franklin.

  “I’ve always liked you, General. You’re a smart man, disciplined and honest. We could use a good military man in the office during these troubling times. Someone of your strength.”

  “Right,” Baxter snarked.

  “But let’s pray President Cruz returns though,” Franklin said, shifting his tone.

  The speaker in the room crackled to life.

  The muted conversations and chatter ceased instantly as everyone listened.

  Baxter leaned forward and placed his elbows on his thighs and prayed. He liked Cruz and didn’t want anything bad to happen to him, but there was an inkling of desire for him to be gone. With him in the sole position of power, he could cover up the last remnants of his past transgressions.

  “Cheyenne, this is Pelican One. The package is secure, say again, the package is secure.”

  The room erupted into applause and cheers. People hugged and shook hands.

  “Congratulations, Mr. Secretary, that was a big gamble and it paid off,” Franklin said.

  “Thank you,” Baxter mumbled.

  Tired and with the successful rescue of Cruz over, Baxter needed some rest. He still had some major obstacles but would need to handle those when he woke from a short nap.

  “If you’ll excuse me, I need a few hours of shut-eye, as I can imagine you all do too. Today was a remarkable day. Once again we have come together and been victorious. If anyone has any questions, please hold them until our staff meeting later.”

  “Aren’t you going to the airport to greet the president?” Franklin asked.

  Baxter sighed. He hadn’t thought about that but he was weary. “You go. Tell the president I’m in my office and that I’ll see him later.”

  “You want me to go?” Franklin asked, surprised to be given the honor.

  “Yeah, you go,” Baxter replied and placed his hand on Franklin’s shoulder. “It will give you some time to brownnose.”

  Franklin sneered at Baxter.

  “Now, I have an appointment with a pillow and a couch,” Baxter said and left.

  Megyn followed Baxter out of the room. “Is there a place I can go get some rest too?”

  “Yes, get with my staff and have them arrange you something. Make sure you’re back here later for the meeting. I’m hoping the president will be present and I want him to meet you.”

  “Thank you, I’ll see you later.”

  Baxter slowly walked the halls and stairwells until he reached his office. He entered, locked the door, and fell onto the couch. Thoughts of Eli and how he’d handle that came to mind, but sleep won out and he quickly dozed off.

  West of Joseph, Oregon, Republic of Cascadia

  Lexi enjoyed surprising people and especially enjoyed the look of shock on the faces of people she would fool. Like the time at Rahab’s camp, when presented with an opportunity to use a man’s sexual desire as her weapon of deception, she went for it.

  Nicholas had already figured out she liked to take risks, but he now could see she did so because it brought her great joy. He watched as she exited the woods and walked briskly towards the market, which was only two-tenths of a mile away.

  She left behind all of her weapons, minus her trusted long knives, and her coat and had removed the tie from her hair so it would cascade down along her face.

  “Your girlfriend is stupid. That’s Big Mike up there; she’s no match for him,” the man said.

  “So he’ll come down to get her too, like you did?” Nicholas asked.

  “We’re not supposed to, but we do when we spot a single woman.”

  “Let me guess, you and Big Mike there don’t listen to orders well,” Nicholas said.

  “Yeah, but it’s mainly because we don’t like sloppy seconds.”

  Nicholas gave him a hard look and chose not to reply.

  Lexi kept her eyes glued to the building and could see movement; she watched the blurry figure rise from his position and climb down.

  He had taken the bait. Now she just had to pray everything else worked out.

  Lexi cleared the distance to the market and went inside. She remembered seeing a back room and thought she’d take cover there. From there all she had to do was wait for Big Mike to come and get his prize.

  Minutes passed but nothing.

  She now wished she had taken a radio with her, but she
had a love-hate relationship with communications. They were convenient, but if one was trying to hide, they had a way of giving away one’s position.

  From his position, Nicholas watched Big Mike approach the market, a small and isolated building along the highway.

  Beau was not happy about his role in this plan. He whined and paced back and forth. A leash tied to a tree held him back from being a part of what was happening.

  Nicholas panicked when Big Mike disappeared behind an abandoned car and sat. “What’s he doing?”

  “Your girl is literally going to get fucked.” The man laughed.

  Unable to control his anger, Nicholas punched him.

  The man took the punch and received it loud and clear as Nicholas’ way of saying to shut up.

  In the back room, Lexi grew impatient. “Where are you?” she muttered under her breath.

  Big Mike sat and removed a folding knife; he opened it up and admired the blade.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Nicholas said.

  Lexi was done waiting. The back room didn’t have a window, so she had no idea what was going on, and she needed to find out. But just as she thought about leaving, she stopped herself. “He’s coming, I know it, just be a bit more patient.”

  Big Mike stood and began the final march towards the market. The folding knife was clenched in his right hand.

  “Since you’re going to let me go, how about I give you a bit of advice,” the man said, a look of amusement on his face.

  “Keep your mouth closed,” Nicholas said, his eyes fixed on the lens.

  “You should put those down and pick up that rifle and stop screwing around. Put a bullet in Big Mike while you can,” the man said.

  The temptation to do exactly that came to Nicholas’ mind. His window of opportunity was shrinking fast. And any rational person knew she wouldn’t be able to go toe to toe with Big Mike. From his guess, he had to be six foot six and weighing in around three hundred pounds.

  “Do it, man,” the man urged.

  Lexi gave him specific instructions only to shoot in the event Big Mike called a team. Otherwise taking a shot with the rifle would alert everyone for miles they were there.

  Nicholas dropped the binoculars and grabbed the rifle. He put it to his shoulder and looked through the optics only to see Big Mike disappear inside. He was too late; it was all up to Lexi now.