Scavenger: Evolution: (Sand Divers, Book One)

by Timothy C. Ward

  He didn’t need to. It was firmly printed in his memory. Plus, he’d not opened it since Fish died. The book was meant to be his someday, and then it was in death, his alone. “No.”

  “Oh, okay. Too bad. Anyway, biiiig towers. Thousands of them. And this guy somehow survived where the other governors did not. When the others died, he forced his reign over their territories until he became the most powerful man from coast to coast. That’s the guy who sent me, but he isn’t without enemies, for sure. Some of them have been expecting him to make a move for Danvar—Denver—for years. I won’t assume they are all in the dark about the nearness of his plans, so when we get into Denver, we need to be ready for trained scavengers eager to stake their claim on the first piece of non Gov-controlled property in two decades. They could be motivated by revenge—The Gov has killed ten thousand people if he’s killed one—or they could just want some of his power.”

  “So you want my daughters to help stop either the most powerful man under the sun or those dumb—or smart—enough to try and stop him? Yeah, I don’t think so.”

  “Stop it, mom,” A girl with long legs and long brown hair said from beside her. “Can’t we just once take a chance toward making a better life?”

  “Take a chance? Your father and I worked to the bone to give you a good life. Taking chances is for sand divers and traders. You know—”

  “—the life expectancy of sand divers and traders,” the woman’s daughter finished. “Thirty five. But how many years better than what I’ve had?”

  Her mother gasped. She reached back and slapped her daughter full across the face, the echo eclipsing the crackle of logs in the fire.

  The girl stood up to her mother. “Please tell me you’ll follow the sun west, because I’m going north.”

  “No you’re not.” Irene reached for her daughter’s mouth, but the girl swatted her hand away.

  “You’ve touched me for the last time, Irene. Dive Master, I’m coming with you. I’ve studied Tai Chi since I was six, so I bet I could be of use with one of those staff, bolter things.”

  Irene pointed at Avery. “You’ll give her no such thing. She is sixteen. And no matter what she says, she’s coming with me. The law says.”

  “The law says,” Star spoke up, “that a parent caught purposely harming a child above the age of eight can lawfully be detained for forty-eight hours.”

  Irene thought for a moment. “What the hell do I care what Springston law says anyway? Lotta good that did us when it mattered.”

  “Mom, we’re alive because of our court date.”

  “Shut it, Monica.” Irene swung a backhand at her daughter’s face. A quick forearm stopped her. Monica brought her fist down across her mother’s cheek, took a solid jab to her nose, and stepped back, shocked.

  Rush made it in between them in time to take a knee to his upper thigh. “Ohhhh.” He dodged out of the way of a hook punch, ducked and swept the daughter’s legs out from under her. “Enough.”

  He stuck his good arm out in time to slow her fall, preventing her head from cracking on the stone floor, but then had to slip his hand out and pin her by the solar plexus.

  Her stare froze above him. A pistol hammer cocked.

  “Kindly take your hands off my daughter’s chest, pervert. We’re leaving.”

  Rush rolled over to a close-up view of the revolver’s barrel.

  “Easy now, Irene.” Avery walked through the crowd as some stood to move away from the gun. “If you are indeed planning to leave, you might consider keeping all the bullets you can. There are plenty more than six cliff dwellers, and if you’ve never tried firing an ancient gun like that at a bobcat, well, you’d be better off throwing rocks.”

  He made it to Rush’s side before she jabbed her pistol at him. “Stop. Monica, get up. I will put a bullet in your arm.”

  Tears staining makeup down from her eyes, Monica obeyed her mother. “Come on, Shell.” She reached out to her younger sister. “I guess we have to wait until the old crow gags before we find our freedom.”

  Irene hit the butt of her pistol into Monica’s face. Bone crunched through the group’s collective inhale. Monica’s head spun and blood splat on rock. She fell to a knee and her sister wrapped an arm around her, crying into her back.

  “Mom, please. Stop. We’re coming.”

  “Old crow,” Irene muttered. “We’re supposed to stick together, not call each other names. I pushed you out and grew these hips because of you.”

  Shell helped Monica to her feet and left after their mother, the crowd parting in the narrow cave.

  “We won’t be here past tomorrow morning,” Avery said as they passed through the short opening into the dusk light. “You won’t find us either.”

  “Good. Good riddance.”

  “Well folks.” Avery turned from his view of their exit. “That’s your call. We’re about to colonize the greatest wonder of our time, but if you want to go get eaten by a bobcat-toting cliff dweller, be my guest. I only want people joining our party that are committed.”

  He stopped by the fire and lifted a canteen to his lips. He gasped in relief. “It has been a long day. If anyone has questions, you have about a minute before I put the perimeter beacons up and then pass out.”

  Even if colonizing Danvar wouldn’t have been the most exciting day in any of their lives, following Irene out of the cave would have been admitting the same level of stubborn stupidity.

  No one asked Avery any questions. They were all lucky to be there that night, and they fell into sleep as soon as they could, as though delay could steal the morning’s opportunity.

  SCAVENGER: Blue Dawn

  Chapter 8

  Rush woke to Avery chewing on leftovers from last night as he rolled a generator over to the far end of the cave. A couple more survivors had sat up and were also feeding on crispy snake. An older brother played the father with his younger brother, making sure he got a big enough chunk of the meat.

  Star rustled, but didn’t wake. Rush tiptoed past her and a couple dozen more sleeping forms to the rounded end of the cave where Avery set his bag. On the floor beside it were two generators on wheels and a stretcher with a thick tarp rolled long ways. As Avery unzipped the front pocket, he asked, “Sleep well?”

  Rush didn’t have any nightmares, and his body and head felt lighter. “Yeah, best night since I can remember.”

  “Good. Your eye looks better. How’s your wrist feeling?”

  Rush blinked his right eye. It didn’t itch like it had, nor did it really feel any different than his left. His wrist still ached some, but not as bad. “Yeah, it’s doing okay. Guess you did a pretty good job sealing it up tight.”

  Avery shrugged. “I guess. Your suit should be done charging by now. Why don’t you go put it on? We need to get moving.” He handed Rush a twelve-inch slab of snake meat. “Eat that on your way. You need meat.”

  Rush hadn’t had a breakfast that large in as long as it’d been since he slept well, but his stomach was eager for him to get to it, so he took a healthy bite. The snake retained its smoky flavor from the fire, as well as the spice kick he loved about rattlesnake.

  The cool morning air and sand beneath his feet met him with the sunlight over the far hill. Families of birds chirped in secret nests in the mountain behind him. The breeze through the fir trees spotted around the valley filled his nose with their scent and the strangeness of his new location.

  Sheets the color of sand hung from the masts of the sarfers, forming tents that didn’t completely hide the boats, but were more subtle to distant eyes than masts wrapped in sails. Avery’s ship was less obvious, having lost its mast. Their sheet covered the deck, regardless.

  A sand hawk squawked above. Its dark brown form soared against the gray blue sky, circling the valley for a breakfast of its own. Rush shoved the last bit of snake into his mouth and walked quickly to the ladder. He’d seen more than one hawk dive bomb a human, and his knife was in his suit.

  He tossed asi
de the camo sheet and stepped onto the deck, the wooden planks cool on his bare feet. The spring’s early morning had yet to heat up a sweat. What day was it? April 11? Yeah. Friday.

  The date and day took on a different meaning than they had in some time. Instead of wanting to forget them and their reminder that life was moving whether he was or not, he felt eager to join their pace. This new day gave him a fresh start and he intended to grab it by the horns.

  His blue suit was folded near the fist-sized hole in the center of the ship. Rush reached for the cord.

  “Nice butt.”

  The comment almost made him lose his breakfast. River. Intent on causin’ trouble. Did he ignore her? He paused in the bent over position, struggling to remove the cord from his suit with his one good hand. He bent further to push the suit down with his cast.

  “Mm-hm. That’s what I’m shootin’.”

  Rush yanked the cord out and stood quickly enough to torque his lower back. He winced as he turned to see River, her robe loose around her ample chest and black laced brassiere. His eyes flicked up to hers, caught noticing her goods. Dang it. He turned his head to make sure it didn’t happen again, and checked out the entrance to the cave. Relief flushed through him that Star was not watching.

  “What do you want, River?”

  “I’ll take you right here on the deck if you’re askin’.” She climbed up the ladder, leaning forward to enhance her hanging appeal.

  “Please don’t do this. You know my wife and I are back together.”

  Her perfume infiltrated his defenses, weakening the layers of his willpower that remembered his longing for her. All the lustful memories flashed through him in an instant.

  No. He fought himself not to return to that state of mind.

  “Don’t make me jump ship.” He paced to the other end, shoving the sheet with his shins.

  “If you wanted to, you would have.” River tickled his lower abs. “Hey! I’m talking to you.”

  She tried again as his reflexes turned him toward her, but he blocked her hand away.

  “Ow.” She lifted her thumb to her mouth for another practiced display of enticement. “That was hard.”

  A gap had formed between her and the ladder side of the ship. Rush strode toward it but she slid into his path, placing herself close enough to grab the band of his pants. He tried to free her hands, but she pulled him up against her thrust. Her hands slid around and squeezed his butt, rubbing him into her in a way his morning self could not endure without effect.

  Oh great.

  Rush bent at the knees, shoved her, but the lack of grip in his left hand failed to push her away. She reached down and took a hold of him.

  “Stop!” He smacked her hard with his good hand, setting her grip free.

  She staggered back. An evil grin formed in her upward stare as she held her cheek. “You know I like that sorta thing, Rush. More than half the time I raised my voice so you could hear.”

  She stood and stepped closer. Rush had been too stunned to have taken advantage of the path to the ladder. Now it was gone, replaced by her hands and their playful fingers. “Your wife’s still asleep, screw me now and I won’t touch you again.” She leaned in and whispered, “Or say anything she wouldn’t want to hear.”

  “Enough people are asleep. I could just kill you now and bury you under the ship.”

  “Mmmm. Prickly.” She plucked his shirt before he could swat her hand away. “Or I scream rape and we do this again sometime, probably not before your wife stops hating you.”

  Star wouldn’t believe her, would she?

  River caught his hesitation with another terrifying smile. “Come on, I’ll make it quick.”

  His bastard of an erection refused to go away. He glanced down to confirm his fear, but not quickly enough for River not to notice. She squealed with pleasure and reached for it.

  “No.”

  He moved, but too slowly, and she found it again.

  A shriek entered the air to his distant right. Even River turned.

  Star stood there. Mouth agape. Tears glistening in her eyes. “Rush,” she gasped.

  The word could have killed him, and as she ran back into the cave, he wished it had.

  “You bitch.” Rush back-handed her face hard enough to make her fall and he ran, his lower self slowly falling from attention, after his wife.

  How the hell am I going to get through this?

  River cackled from the boat as he entered the cave. The sudden dark caused him to miss a blanket inside the entrance. His foot tripped and he fell. The mass at center hit first, bent, and he cried out when the rest of his weight slammed down. “Are you f’n kiddin’ me?”

  He rolled onto his back, grabbing his crotch to minimize the pain that didn’t cease.

  Two teenage boys who’d made their bed near the entrance peeked outside to see where he came from in such a hurry. “Whoa. Hawk’s in trouble.”

  “No slip.”

  Rush thumped his head on the floor in anger, still clueless on how he was going to make this right. “I didn’t do anything,” he said loud enough for the whole cave to hear.

  “Doesn’t look like that to me, Hawk man.”

  “Shut up, kid.” Rush restrained the urge to kick the boy in the face as he rose and limped into a stride toward Star, who was practically hiding behind Avery at the other end of the cave.

  “Stop right there.”

  He did, too ashamed not to do whatever it took to win her back. “Star, please. You—”

  “Don’t. I can’t believe you. Why’d you even save me? Was it some kind of moral responsibility to make up for all the fun you’ve had with her the last two years?”

  Some of the kids oooooo’d at her comment. They weren’t wrong. The statement, and her on-point view of him, hit him like a rattler bite to his heart.

  “How can...do you really believe that?”

  “Even at a distance your interest in her condemned you.”

  If he could ever consider castrating himself, that would have been the moment.

  “She trapped me. I tried—”

  “You were overpowered by a whore? Really, that’s your card? All the stones she lifts in her spare time, she was able to force herself on you.”

  Did they really have to do this in front of everyone? Not one set of eyes missed the show.

  Rush lifted his cast. “I tried to shove her away. This stupid hand didn’t work right. She weaseled in and grabbed me. I’m still a man. I respond to attention.”

  “Clearly.”

  A smattering of the audience laughed. Did they really not see his heart shattered on the floor before them?

  “She’s just mad because…” Rush caught himself from revealing the moment he almost had with her.

  “Because what?” Star asked, eager to find out.

  “Because he was sleeping with me for two years,” River said as she entered the cave, “and then you show up and it’s like I don’t exist.”

  “That’s not true. I never slept with her.”

  Star’s grimace exuded distrust. He couldn’t help but return to the resentment he’d held toward that face for the past few years. “But if that’s what you want to believe, then be a bird’s turd on a rock. I survived just fine without you. I can go on again alone.”

  River’s perfume betrayed her approach, but she surprised him by slipping her hand down his stomach. “Oh you won’t be alone, baby.”

  “Damnit woman.” He spun and shoved her. “Keep your hands off me.”

  She backed off. “Be careful. I get you wanting to pretend in front of your wife. But keep it up too long and I won’t follow you out the next time—”

  “Shut. Up.” Rush’s anger echoed through the cave, and he charged toward Avery. He gripped his dive suit in a fist and fought himself not to throw it into the wall as hard as he could.

  Star shielded away from his approach, thinking he was coming after her. Again, the distrust struck him with piercing fangs.

&n
bsp; He looked away from her, to Avery. “Is there something I can do to help get us ready to go?”

  Av assessed him. “Not in that state of mind. I need a cool head and clear focus to help me get this wall moved.”

  The wall moved? Avery stood with his stuff near an eight-foot-high alcove at a far point of the cave. They were going to move that?

  Rush scratched his head with his cast, wanting to pull his hair out, and took a deep breath. Star sniffed, glaring at him from ten feet away. “She trapped me, Star. She’s mad that I rejected her. I don’t know what else to say. I love you. The birds can peck her eyes out and crap down her throat for all I care.”

  “Don’t let his blue eyes and silk tongue trick you like they did me, Star,” River said.

  Rush found a rock he could palm. “Avery, I swear.”

  He stopped him from picking it up. “No. Cool head.” Avery turned toward River. “D.M. Stenson is the second most important person in this group, and if you’re going to jeopardize his ability to help us reach Denver, then you’re outta here. One more word.”

  “I’m just—”

  “That’s it.” Avery jabbed a finger toward the exit. “You’re gone. Now, before I throw you out.”

  Two men stood up who’d sat next to her during the previous night’s meal. Before they could open their mouths, Avery said, “You, too. All three of you.” He pulled his bolter out and aimed it in their direction. “Anyone else want to stand with the whore? You better have deep pockets.”

  Neither River nor the two men moved.

  Av powered up the bolter. It hummed in the silence as the blue tip began to glow blue.

  They moved.

  When they’d left, he powered down the bolter and stowed it in his pack. He zipped up his suit. “Star, I’m not trying to rush reconciliation between you and Rush. I don’t know what happened out there or what’s passed between you since Fisher died, but I’d bet you know as well as I that Rush doesn’t lie.”