by T. K. Malone
“With Trip’s truck, hidden by a fallen redwood.”
Ned didn’t answer; he appeared miles away, lost in thought.
“How did Jake kill them?” Trip asked.
Teah relayed the story, replacing herself with the unfortunate Jake.
“Damn,” said Trip. “I’d heard he was good, but Morrow and Grizzly? With just a bow and a knife? That’s some killing machine. An arrow, you say, right in the eye?”
“Dead-eyed,” Teah muttered, nodding reassuringly, trying to back away from the lies before she tripped herself up.
“And you just sat there ‘n watched…”
“Figured I only had enemies in that battle. Figured I’d have fewer after, so I figured I’d leave it alone.” She smiled at Trip. “I can get my fair share of fighting without messin’ with someone else’s.”
“Yes…you…can,” and Trip set down his bowl. “Truth is, Teah, not sure I believe such a fanciful yarn. I’ve seen how quick your hackles come up, ‘n I’m fairly sure you’d have taken the opportunity to finish Jake off—leastways confront him.” He scratched at his hair and then wiped his hands on his shirt. “’Least that’s what I think.”
Both Ned and Trip’s eyes fell on her. She struggled for an answer. Trip had seen her in action against Ray, and Ned appeared to have no illusions about her ability to defend herself. She’d lied herself into a corner. Grunting in anguish, she muttered, “I should have done, except Lester made me promise not to hurt him.”
“Lester?” Ned said. “Lester’s long dead and won’t spin in his grave for a promise lost.”
She caught his gaze and held it. “I would, though.”
Ned took stock, put down his bowl and brushed at his jeans, stretching his back and then his arms. “Mighty fine soup, there, Trip. Not quite food for the gods, but not so bad for us mere mortals. Right, let’s see if that radio’s charged.”
“That it?” Teah asked, and immediately regretted her words.
Ned checked himself as he got up. “It? It’s far from it, so far it don’t even know what it is, but if yer hidin’ something, and that ends up getting us all killed, then that’s on your shoulders. Something’s gonna kill us some time soon, I’ve got no doubt about that. You, Trip?”
“Nope,” said Trip. “Not a shadow.”
“So,” said Ned, “it may as well be your lies as anything. And by lies, I mean omissions, ma’am, just so as we’re clear I’m not calling you a liar.”
“Question is,” Trip chimed in. “Question is, what are we going to do. Don’t quite fancy just going up to Briscoe’s gates and telling him what we know.”
“You and me both, Trip.”
“I’ll…erm,” Teah made to say, unsure of her words. Jake’s seemingly difficult plan now appeared impossible to accomplish. “I’ll drive it up there myself. I’ll explain it all to this Briscoe fella.”
Ned squatted by the radio. “No, Teah, no you won’t. I said I didn’t believe you, not the whole story, but I believe you’ve got a good reason not to tell me everything. Jenny trusted you, and now that’s good enough for me. So you won’t be making Clay an orphan just to cover me and Trip, here. We’re from around here, you just don’t do that. Jenny got it, and she wasn’t. Lester understood it, and neither was he. You’re part of me and Trip’s little gang now, and we don’t string up your boots without a good reason.”
“What he said,” said Trip, and he lit a smoke.
Teah ran her fingers through her hair. How was she supposed to think one of them was a traitor? And with the still unanswered question of “A traitor to what?” She felt as though she belonged with these two. She felt like she could actually trust them. Without asking, knowing, or having a good inkling she was lying, with the easiest route being without her, they were both staying. She looked at Trip. Okay, one with slightly more enthusiasm than the other, she decided. Then again, hadn’t Jake told her not to trust everything he’d said? She shook her head to clear her mind, not for the first time in those last few days.
“Everything’s so damn complicated.”
“Amen to that,” said Ned.
“So you’re just willing to let things lie?” she asked, and immediately kicked herself.
“You never asked me where I’d been for the two days after the big bang, now did you, Teah? I could have done in Helen and Jez for all you know. Hell, I could have killed the whole village and made up the rest, but you never asked, just accepted.”
“I guess…”
He looked around from his study of the radio. “Then that’s that.”
She pursed her lips and turned away from him. Emotions ran through her the like of which she’d been denied for a long time. It was like having a partner back again, a proper loyal partner, someone she could rely on.
“Trip?” she uttered, but then smiled as he grinned at her. “Yeah, I know,” she said. “What he said.”
“Yup.”
The radio burst into life: static, dead static. Ned pressed some buttons, twirled a few dials, but nothing. He smashed his fist into the ground. “Stupid, stupid, stupid!” he shouted.
“What?” Teah asked.
“Satellites: they’d have been knocked out in the first few strike waves. EMPs up there,” and he pointed at the sky.
“So we’ve lugged it about for no reason?”
“I might be able to modify it, but essentially, yes, unless some satellite bursts into action. You said there was a radio in Morrow’s van?”
“Yeah.”
“I could go and get that and give it a go, but if Briscoe’s antenna got knocked out, or the jeep fried, we haven’t a prayer.”
“And we’d be going to the prepper’s place blind. Knocking on Briscoe’s front door without a clue what he’s thinking.”
“If we got that far,” Trip said. “You ever been up there, Ned?”
“Nope.”
“It’s one insane place. They’ve got barriers crossing the whole valley. Not a fence, but medieval shit, like spikes on poles, metal rods sticking outta the ground. Piles of tires, ditches, you name it, they’ve got it. Going up there in Morrow’s jeep is asking to be shot from a few hundred yards away, and shot you’ll get.”
“And yet, we haven’t got a choice…”
Into the heavy silence left by Ned came a huge explosion, then another, then a farther one. They all ducked and winced, waiting for the hurt to come. Then, as though the sky had split, an even louder explosion broke the following brief silence like a crack of thunder from Thor’s hammer. Even in the brightness of the day, the light from farther blasts flashed in the sky. More and more bangs resounded around the valley, and then they saw vast plumes of smoke rising from the direction of Aldertown.
“Drones,” whispered Ned. “They’re bombing Aldertown,” and he rushed under the cover of the nearest trees. Trip was on his feet in an instant, kicking at the fire pit, tumbling the flat stones into it. Teah rolled over and into the undergrowth just as a hum became audible, quickly growing louder and louder before a drone flew over them. It was vast, bigger than any she’d seen before. Four massive, silver rotors, one on each corner, held it aloft, its vast metal belly open but now empty. The bomb doors closed and it hovered for a while before flying back toward Aldertown.
“Do you think it saw us?” Teah quietly asked.
“Bound to have heat-seeking shit on board,” Ned managed to say before a smaller drone zipped into view and began firing at them.
3
Teah’s Story
Strike time: plus 4 days
Location: Morton Valley
Teah bolted into the stand of redwoods; bullets zipped by her, ripping up the forest floor. She duck, rolled, and swerved, her mind blank, panic her only instinct. Ned was ahead of her, just hurdling a fallen trunk, catching his trailing foot and flying forward at an awkward angle. Trip was beside her, his arms flailing, cursing over and over, much like the spit of the machine guns overhead.
The burst of fire stopped, but Teah d
idn’t look behind. The drone would be repositioning. Ned’s cry became audible, and she jumped the trunk to one side of where he’d hurtled over, in the hope she wouldn’t land on him. But Ned was already rolling, back on his feet before she’d even landed. The crack of the guns started up again, and the trunk they’d just hurtled over exploded in a thousand vicious eruptions.
“This way,” Ned shouted, and he ran diagonally up the forest’s slope, away from the water’s edge. Teah bolted after him, though it appeared madness, for they’d end up running closer to the edge of the trees, unprotected against the flying death. She looked around, desperate, the drone clearly having come below the canopy and now repositioning, and in that moment, Ned changed direction again and ran the other way across the slope and deeper into the trees.
“Run,” he shouted, “it’ll lose its signal soon enough,” and as he said it, the drone began to fly up and out of the trees. Ned darted around the trunk of a huge redwood and stopped, his back against it. Teah skidded in beside him. Trip limped around and joined them.
“Damn things, one of them spiteful bullets’s gone and bit me in the leg.”
Trip’s leg was covered in blood from the knee down, an almost black stain blooming wetly on the leg of his jeans.
“Gotta say,” he said, “hurts like hell.”
Ned crouched down, reached around his back and pulled a knife from some hidden sheath. He cut Trip’s jeans leg and bent close. “Torn a bit of muscle, there. Missed all the bone, luckily. Just winged you.” He looked up. “Were gonna need to dress it. I’ll cut yer jeans up for now but it might be that Lester’s coat, there, is soon just gonna have to become a little shorter.”
“Is he gonna die?” said Teah.
“Not if we can get to some supplies—bandages and the like.”
“If he ain’t gonna die, Lester’s coat stays the same length. There’s bandages and that in Morrow’s jeep, fairly sure I saw that. It’s in the cage with all the guns.”
“Guns?” Ned said.
“He had some serious firepower, but it was all locked away.”
“My leg?” Trip pointed out.
“Right,” said Ned. “Your leg,” and he continued to butcher Trip’s jeans with his knife, to make a tourniquet.
“Where do you think it’s gone?” Teah asked, peering around the trunk of the tree.
“Must be being controlled by a helo, that’s my best bet. Satellites are all out. It’d make no sense bringing a truck on a drone raid, so it must be a helicopter,” and he brought his finger to his mouth to silence them.
It was quiet, deadly quiet. The whir of the drone’s blades had now faded and the still of the forest had returned. Trip’s breaths were coming hard and fast, the only thing Teah could hear at first, but then, as she became attuned to the quiet, she heard a deep, slow thrum. She nodded to Ned. He pointed up into the air, then over toward the river. It made sense, the helo would stay away from unseen danger if it didn’t have to venture close.
“What do you think he’s waiting for?” Teah whispered.
“Instructions? Us to move? His heat-seeking gear will have us pinned here. Only question is, how much fuel’s he got?”
“So…”
“We walk Trip back to the trucks and keep our eyes open. All the time we’ve got plenty of trees on each side and thick overhead, the helo’s at a slight disadvantage.”
“Walk?”
Ned shrugged. “No point in running. It’s his fuel we’re using up.”
Again, it made sense; besides, she didn’t think Trip would be up for a mad dash.
“Trip, you think you can walk on your own, as normal as possible?” Ned asked.
“I can try. Why?”
“He’ll be able to see if we have to help you, may even nudge him into some kind of desperate play. We need him to have a level head for us to get out of this.”
“You think he’s got one?” Teah asked, knowing it was an impossible question to answer.
“So far,” Ned said. “Now, fallen trunk, you said; huge redwood, yes?”
“Big enough to hide two trucks.”
“About half a mile that way?” and Ned pointed.
“’Bout that.”
“I know the one.” He flicked his hair back, his deep eyes glinting in the diffuse light. “You’re one capable woman, I’ll give you that. Doubt there’s a better place around here.”
“Lester taught me well.”
“That’d explain it. I keep forgetting that part of your life. You set, Trip?”
“Half a mile?”
“Yep,” Ned said and set off, aiming for the next trunk along. “Twenty feet at a time. Hug them trunks like they’re a lover,” he hissed back at them.
Teah took silent stock of Ned. He seemed to know a lot about all of this, almost like he had a military background, and yet he’d never mentioned it. He’d never mentioned anything about his past life, not that she could remember—about his life before Jenny. She’d assumed he was a townsman, but the question had never come up. Could it be he was hiding some previous life? But then, with few kids in the town itself—and thinking about it, she’d seen none in Morton—it was highly doubtful many folk were actually born there. She realized she knew precious little about life up here, really. Lester had taught her to hunt and survive, to live among them, but hadn’t told her much about the folk themselves. Maybe they’d been as much a mystery to him as they now were to her. Trip was struggling. No way was he going to make it. No way was his gait going to go unnoticed.
“We’re going to have to think again,” Teah shouted to Ned. He looked around, silent acceptance written across his face.
“Then let’s help him, but pick up the speed.”
“Why? What happened to keeping the pilot cool?”
Ned grabbed Trip’s arm and pulled it over his shoulder. “If I were him, and I knew I’d winged one of us, I’d position myself to fire through the canopy.”
“Through the—”
“Yup. He’ll know we can’t go zigzagging through while carrying someone.”
“So what do we do?”
“We bolt from trunk to trunk and hope for the best. Ready?”
Teah grabbed Trip’s other arm and they lurched forward into a run. The sound of rotor blades grew louder and louder, but then dropped back as the drone appeared to fall behind.
“That trunk, there,” shouted Ned, pointing and swerving toward the nearest, but before they got to it, an explosion of bullets ripped through the canopy. They managed to get Trip behind the redwood’s trunk just on the ground before it exploded, this time with a ferocity ten times that of the drone.
“Packing some heavy weapons up there. Definitely army.”
“Why?” asked Teah as the burst of fire ended.
“Run,” Ned shouted, and they took off for the next tree—this one closer, the helo’s guns as yet silent.
“Briscoe’s not got guns like that.”
“But he’s got a helicopter?”
“Run,” and they bolted again, across a bullet-free gap to another tree. “So far, so good.”
“Gonna take us all day,” Trip said.
“You wanna be all heroic and offer to stay behind on your own, eh, Trip?”
“Nope, heroes always die.”
“Okay, this time we head for that one,” and he pointed, “but we veer off for that one, instead. Catch ‘im unawares, eh?”
“Hopefully,” Teah muttered, and before it was out of her mouth they were running. Just as they were about to turn, the helo’s guns burst into life. Ned feinted toward the next tree, but then shouted, “That one,” and turned for another. Five trees they aimed for and veered away from, until they were once again safe behind a decent-sized trunk. “It only got the one blast off,” he gasped, “so it’s working.”
Teah listened; the helicopter was still overhead. “And again,” Ned barked, and they bolted once more, Trip now almost dragging his leg, his mouth just a straight line of pain. He was clear
ly determined to survive but was losing color, his strength fast sapping. They chanced another tree, but this time bullets cut through the canopy and strafed the leaf-littered ground behind them. She gritted her teeth, expecting bullets to tear through her flesh as they closed in on the next tree, but then the ground erupted and she was thrown high into the air. When she came to her senses, she was lying on the ground, curled into a ball, waiting for more bullets to come and finish the job. As she desperately wondered how painful her death would soon be, she realized the forest had fallen silent.
“Hold still, Teah,” Ned hissed.
She froze, waiting to die, but the thrum of the helicopter held steady and she wondered why its pilot was hesitating, why he’d not just ended it there and then. Then its noise began to fade.
“Hold still. You with us, Trip?”
“Think I might’ve pissed my pants.”
Teah took a snatched breath and waited, waited for something to rip into the brief peace and stillness.
“God damn, girl,” Ned’s voice rang out. Teah shifted around to look at him. “You still got feet?”
She reached down and checked. “Everything seems intact.”
“That big burst pushed the ground up from under your feet—don’t get much closer to death than that.” He spat a big gob of phlegm. “You might just be one of them there talisman.”
“Be a taliswoman,” added Trip.
“Did you see her, Trip? Did you see her fly through the air?”
“Sure did.”
“With her hand holding the cattleman on. You see that, Trip?”
Teah turned onto her back and gulped in air. “Couldn’t lose the cattleman,” she finally said.
“I swear it were the strangest thing I ever did see,” said Ned.
“Couldn’t lose the cattleman ‘cause Lester would come back from the dead ‘n kill me.”
“Sure would,” said Ned. “He sure would.”
