“Well come on out with it. What’s going on?”
Jimmy looked around and then nodded his head out to the porch as he backed up, himself. Billy flushed. Must be pretty bad if he didn’t want Teresa to overhear. Billy had a feeling of dread in the middle of his stomach as he stepped out onto the cool concrete porch. The sharp temperature change made him shiver involuntarily, but he hardly registered it as all his focus was on hearing whatever was so serious that Jimmy had felt the need to come over here at close to midnight to tell him.
“What happened?”
“We found Chase.”
“Good, where is he?”
“He’s dead Billy. Buried in a shallow grave out by the woods. We wouldn’t have found him at all if not for old Bruiser digging around out there. We was out hunting squirrel when I seen him get into it, digging around in the brush. I though he had just gotten a hold of something dead, or maybe digging after a chipmunk, but then I seen a hand sticking up.”
“What?!”
Jimmy tried to continue, but Billy was already getting worked up, his voice carrying through the small village.
“Shhh!”
“Don’t you fucking shush me! That man was family. He might a been a bit of a loudmouth, but so what. How the hell did he die?”
“There was a stab wound in his chest and a pair of shears still buried in it. It looks like he sure got on the wrong side of someone Billy.”
It didn’t take a genius to put two and two together and Billy’s mind instantly went to the healer woman with the young boy. Billy also thought he had good idea of what might have happened. He couldn’t let this go. He had his suspicions already, but he had to get to the bottom of this for sure and make sure justice was done. This wasn’t even just about justice. Chase was one of his men, and as the leader in this town, his death couldn’t go unpunished. There were unspoken rules in this land now. He had to avenge his death and he knew exactly who he needed to find. He sighed, not really wanting to do what he knew must be done. If he was right about his suspicions, then Chase most definitely had it coming. The guy was not the sharpest tool in the shed – or the nicest, if you can extend the analogy. But he had had his uses.
“Get Marshall and be ready by sun-up. We got some searching to do it seems. First thing we have to find Jessa.”
It was clear to Billy that Jimmy hadn’t out the pieces together yet, but he would explain it to him later. Billy was too pissed and maybe a little shocked to have lost one of his own. Chase had been his last blood relative in the world and now he was gone. For a lot of reasons, Billy had to do something to make it right.
He walked back to the bedroom and woke Teresa up. A lot of men used sex as an outlet. Sometimes it’s an outlet of affection. Sometimes it’s all about lust. And other times is can be about aggression, or just clearing the decks in your head. Billy wasn’t really thinking about any of that as his hand went to the soft curls between her thighs. She had slipped off to sleep while he was gone, but was quickly responding to his skillful touch. “Billy.”
Billy turned her onto her side, so he could take her from behind like he liked. Teresa’s thin body writhed against him as her hands pulled down her lacy white panties. Billy growled behind her and slid on his side with his length out and ready for her. There was little said between them as he slid into her wetness. She was always hot and ready for him and he groaned with the sudden pleasure engulfing his rod. Teresa squeezed him tight as he entered, loving the guttural sounds of pleasure he made when she did.
He held her against him with an arm hugging her chest, as his lower body pushed back and forth, slowly sawing into her tight quim. Billy covered her mouth as her tone got louder and higher-pitched. She was close as her body tightened up in front of him.
Billy pulled out right before she was going to explode and went back to his knees. She whimpered in protest and then went to her stomach with the light tap of his hand on her ass. She knew what he liked. Teresa pressed her face into the comforter and pushed herself up into the air. She wiggled her small derriere to entice him, anticipating him entering her again at any moment. When he finally did slam back inside her with a hard thrust, the bedding muffled her deep cry of satisfaction. Her insides convulsed around his silken rod and pushed the man to his end quicker than he would have liked.
Teresa clenched hard on his length, milking the end with her muscles. Her hips rotated him inside of her and he finally gasped, stopping her movement with his hands. He pulled out in a rush and groaned reluctantly. He lied back on his back and Teresa climbed into his arms, laying her head on his hard chest with a sigh. Well, that was nice, she thought. As animalistic as he had been with her, there was neediness in his sex that made her feel a closeness with him that had been missing a little of late. She let that warmth spread over her as they both drifted into sleep.
***
“Good morning Billy. What got into you, last night?”
“I have to leave for a while and I don’t know how long I will be gone for. Maybe I just wanted to some good memories to tide me over until I return.” He said, as he gave her cheek a morning caress.
“Did you get them?”
“Yes.”
His arm tightened around her shoulder and he kissed the top of her head. Teresa was taken back by his sudden tenderness. She knew deep inside he had feelings for her beyond just meeting his male needs, but at times they could be hard to find. He was a complicated man. But this sudden show of real affection let her know he wasn’t just going on a day trip. He would be gone for a bit. How long was hard to say, but he was just never that sweet to her. Following her usual mantra, she wasn’t going to ask where he was going though. If he wanted her to know, he would tell her. The days of sentimentality and finding a sensitive man to hear about her feelings were gone along with television, radio, and getting her nails done. Relationships now, at least to her, were much more as she imagined they had been a few hundred years ago. A man wanted sex and companionship…and hot meals. A woman needed protecting…and maybe had her own needs. But the days of choosing among hundreds of possibilities a day were long gone. In some ways it was easier now.
“How long are you going to be gone?”
“I don’t know. A week or maybe a month. Me and a couple others need to head out. Just be careful and I will see you when I get back. Tell the boy I said goodbye for me.”
Teresa swallowed hard and closed her eyes. She wanted to take in and remember the moment so she could store it away for now and then draw on it in the nights to come. She did her best to memorize the feeling of his strong arms around her.
“Okay.”
She did her best to internalize his touch while he held her for a few more minutes before he got up and started to get dressed. Teresa hated it when he left. She was unclear how many men he was taking with him, but she had no doubt she would be safe here still. He would make sure she was looked after. But she would miss him. He was not going to tell her where he was going or why, but she had a feeling it had to do with her neighbor Jessa. That only made sense.
As she thought about what might or might not be to come, she watched as he pulled his leather jacket from the closet. She saw the necessity in it in this dirty, dangerous world. She knew there were no police. There was no law except the law of might. But still it scared her whenever he put on the leather. It was almost like he was putting on a new persona. With that jacket he changed into someone she didn’t fully know. That persona she suspected had been born when the bombs dropped and the old ways had died. A further shiver ran through her as she watched him pack his bag full of items that made her blood run cold.
2
Jessa took a few minutes to watch the sunrise from the small apartment building’s window. There was a small balcony off of the sliding glass door, but they were too close to the city to actually step out on it. They couldn’t risk being spotted. She looked into the ruined town and felt a familiar sense of dread. Towns were dangerous places these days. Cities were worse.
Jessa ran through her plan and questioned her tactics. They were alone on the outskirts of a place they shouldn’t be, but she had decided that it couldn’t be avoided.
The woman and her son had been holed up in the apartment building for two days now. She was stalling because she knew the decision to go straight through it was incredibly risky. She had been watching the city the entire time, scouting to find the best path and the best time to make the trip. She had left her son, Shane alone on two occasions for a few quick night recon trips. He was only five but had had to grow up twice as fast. It was clear that he was doing his best to pull his own weight and be strong, but in truth he was still just a young child. She could only learn so much without putting herself, or her son, at even greater risk. It was a mile through the mid-sized city or over forty to go around it considering the topography.
Scanning from the window, her eyes fell from the pink and orange hues of the new day’s sky, to the dark burnt out grays and browns of the gritty city below. It wasn’t even a city anymore really. It was just a series of burned out buildings and rubble. This was one of the cities hit by a nuclear device and what life was left looked a lot less like it should. The radiation had subsided over the years, but the mutations had taken hold and multiplied. Jessa had seen the packs of beasts herself. Their ancestors had probably been named “Fluffy” and “Spot”. Now they ran the destroyed city, like a herd or disorganized pack of watchdogs – or watchcats- in a giant junkyard.
There appeared to be very little human activity, though she did see several lights on in the tops of some of the buildings that survived far enough away from the epicenter. Most people, if there were any here, were wise enough to stay in the shadows. What people she could detect had gone to the heights like she had. It just seemed safer with these creatures running around. This world’s version of an alley cat was the stuff of nightmares. She wondered if the people she saw – the lights at least - in the tall buildings were up that high for protection or a better view. Maybe they were one in the same, she realized. Either way, there were several issues to consider. Jessa was feeling anxious to move forward. The path she had mapped out in her mind was hardly ideal.
Looking back at her sleeping son, she wondered if it wouldn’t be better to just go around after all. There was no guarantee that traveling around would be any safer though either. God, this world sucked, she thought, half joking with herself to ease the tension. The only guarantee that she had was that it would be longer and instead of an hour or so, it would take several days.
Not for the first time she said, to the empty room, “Why did you leave him?”
The question came out as a whisper, as it was more in her head than on her lips. But she still did not have an answer. She had been asking herself this question to one degree or another ever since that morning when they slipped off. As a matter of fact, if she was honest with herself, she had been asking herself that question even before they took off on him. Of course then it was “Why are you going to leave him?” It just seemed to be in her nature now. This new reality demanded it. But she knew that she would have felt safer if Michael was with her. No, she corrected herself, she would have been safer in reality if he were with her. She knew that. She still felt his touch when she laid down to sleep at night. Granted, she didn’t sleep much anymore, but when she did she remembered the feel of him beside her. Jessa only got a few hours’ sleep at a time now, and usually only in the daytime, when it was too risky to travel. She still had not fully adapted to the city ways though, but it actually seemed like the opposite held true here. The nights were full of roaming animals, and the days, especially the early mornings were calm and quiet.
A new plan formulated while she went into the kitchen and got a few plates down from the cabinet in her new kitchen. Vaguely she wondered if the woman of the house had picked out the plates herself, or if they had been a wedding present. They were nice blue glass. There was no food or useful items in the apartment that she could take with them, but there were these nice dishes. She liked the idea of eating in a civilized manner, even if just for a few minutes, on real glass plates. They had been on their own for a couple of weeks by then and while by old standards they were on the precipice of hell of earth, it was actually the most comfortable set up they had had since leaving the community. Shane was sleeping on an actual bed and she had a great view. She closed her eyes for a minute and allowed herself the luxury of pretending for a minute that it was the old days, and that if she opened her eyes she would see the beautiful bustling city below her. Of course when she did open her eyes, all she saw was the dead husk of civilization sprawled out below them.
“Good morning. It’s time to wake up sleepy head.”
“Why?”
“Because tomorrow we are going to be leaving this early, so we need to get used to being up and ready to go.”
Shane nodded and got up dutifully, although his face was still a little grumpy. He most definitely did not like to be up early. He was more of a night person like his father had been.
“I’m hungry.”
“You always are,” she said with a wink. “Breakfast is on the table.”
Shane made a disparaging noise and sat down to the same food they had been eating since they got there.
“Why can’t we go find some fruit or something?”
“I don’t trust the food here. I am afraid it could make us sick. In fact the sooner we get away from the city the better.” She had heard stories about people who lived in the cities, and she didn’t want to take any chances.
“Oh. OK.”
Shane didn’t understand what it meant, but he knew that he was going to be eating more of the dried cakes until they got away from there.
“When are we leaving?”
“Tomorrow morning.”
“Good. I like this place. It’s different. And it’s cool to be up so high, but still, I would rather be able to go outside.”
“Me too. We are going to go through the city, so it might be a little scary, ok.”
He shook his head, though she didn’t think he really grasped how scary it might get. He looked at her with a trust that she hoped she had earned. She had had a sinking feeling in her gut ever since they had come upon the city, but she didn’t want to let him know that she felt so nervous.
“It’ll be fine. When we go all you have to do is stay close be really quiet. Everything sleeps in the early morning, so we just need to make sure that we don’t wake them up.”
Shane nodded his head, but with just a hint less certainty, she thought. He seemed to know it might be better not to ask too many questions about whatever “things” she was talking about.
“Now eat up. We need to go through this place and see if there is anything useful we can take with us. I saw some comic books in the back bedroom. Did you see them?”
Shane brightened, as did Jessa. Ah, the power of a comic book to a boy’s happiness, she thought to herself. At least that hadn’t changed. The rest of the day went pretty smoothly and they were both tired by the time the sun started to go down. Jessa lay down with him until he fell asleep and then she went to the window to look out into the city again. As her eyes went to the few lights she had noticed in evenings past, she couldn’t decide if they represented a beacon of hope or a warning. They would just have to find out.
3
Michael passed through the city one last time before the sun went down. He had settled on taking shelter in one of the larger office buildings that had been right outside the blast zone from so many years before. He had kept up with the woman’s trail, even as it drew him closer and closer toward some unnamed city that had appeared on the horizon. Along the windswept and often overgrown roads it had been relatively easy to follow her trail, but as the concrete closed in on all sides he had lost it.
His heart had sank as he had followed the trail closer and closer toward the danger of the city, but at least he had had a trail to follow. But now, with no trail and no sign of her, his worry
had reached a peak. It seemed she had just vanished. Maybe that was good, he thought. She might be keeping a low profile. Besides, she could protect herself, after all. He had seen that first hand when she finished off that guy that had attacked her in the woods. She could definitely take care of herself. But still, this was all conjecture at this point. He hoped for the best, but until he could find her – and her son – she would have no idea, for sure, if they were alive or dead. His gut told him to stay near the city and that she would eventually show herself. That assurance was what kept him going. Some guys might have gotten the hint after a woman ran out of them not just once, but twice, but he was a little more hard headed than most men. Besides, regardless of what she had done, he was not ready to give up on Jessa yet. He could still close his eyes and almost smell her the hair, not to mention feel what it had felt like to hold her. He knew in his heart that despite whatever games she was playing on the outside, she did care for him deep down. She was just of those woman than ran away from that kind of loving, rather than run toward it. She would come around. At least he hoped she would, if he didn’t lose patience first, that is. He had to remind himself that the first order of business was tracking her down again.
Michael had come across a few of people in the last two weeks, but he had remained out of sight and left them to their own devices. There was always a certain amount of risk in making contact with people these days, and he in this situation he decided the risk was not worth the potential reward. There was no way she would have allowed herself to be seen by anyone anyhow. By apocalyptic wasteland standards, the city was virtually teeming with people, but they hid likes rats in the walls. And by teeming he estimated the whole place might have a few hundred people eking out an existence here amongst the ruins. Nature had moved in pretty quickly, so that here and there trees had even taken root in the smallest patches of dirt and cracked pavement. The animals had moved in when man was bombed out. Virtually anything you could have once found in a forest could be found here now, given the right situations. Dogs and cats abounded as did those unspeakable creatures that were mostly dog or cat. Raccoons, deer….squirrel; they were all here. The animals were wilder now of course. Or maybe it was that man was wilder. It seemed pretty likely that man was here to stay. Opposable thumbs and frontal lobes were pretty hard to beat, after all. But when the bombs fell, a seed of doubt had been planted. Maybe man would not make it after all. When meeting those people that were scraping a way through the dust and decay, one was as often as not confronted with a deadness in the eyes that seemed more fitting to a possum than a man. Humanity had been forever changed and their place in the hierarchy of earth’s fauna had definitely taken a serious hit, to say the least.
[Runes of Argyl 01.0] The Runes of Argyl Trilogy Page 125
