Fugitive
Page 22
She continued staring at the glow, trying to feed off its energy. Maybe she was thinking too hard about everything. Maybe it boiled down to Trip’s simplicity. Who were the villains and who weren’t? Could it be as simple as that? Really, the army should be made up of the good guys, in which case someone else must have killed Helen and Jez. But why?
“You never answered the question,” she said, turning to Ned.
“What question?” he said, absentmindedly, his eyes firmly fixed on the rabbit.
“Who were Helen and Jez spying on?”
“Never answered because I asked it. Suppose the question should have been ‘What was of interest up here that needed spying on?’”
Trip took the rabbit off the spit and placed it on the warming stones, then reached around and grabbed a pot. “Best I can do is a kind of stew. Well,” and he shrugged, “soup and meat mixed together, really, but it’ll do for tonight.”
“What would be?”
“The soup,” said Trip.
“No, no,” and Teah held her hand up. “What’d be worth reporting back on? Saggers’ crops?”
“No secret there. Don’t need a radio for everyone to know about that,” Trip reckoned. “Hell, I used to sell them for him in Morton. They weren’t called smokes, though, but Saggers’ Smokes, like he was a brand or something. You know, like Free World Beans.”
“Weren’t Saggers,” said Ned.
“Then what?”
Ned stared at her. Without the booze, his eyes were bright, his skin less ruddy though still drawn. “What does this valley have that no other around here has?” he finally asked.
“Got the preppers,” Trip offered.
“Could be them,” Ned conceded.
“Must be them,” Teah said.
“What about you?” Ned leveled at her, intensifying his stare.
“Me?”
“Yeah, not every valley has an escaped gridder hiding out in it.”
“You think they’d have gone to all that trouble just for me?”
Ned swung his gaze at Trip. “How long?”
“Dump the meat in and stir, and about ten minutes, I guess. Bones ‘n all or not?”
“Taste’s in them bones,” Ned said. “Smoke?”
“Why not,” and Trip raided the bag.
Having lit it, Ned looked her up and down. “Nope, they wouldn’t go to all that trouble just for you. Way I figure it, you were probably a bonus, something to keep them interested.”
“How’d you figure that?”
“’Cause that transmitter, and those folk who came to Aldertown at a very specific time.”
“And when was that?”
“Just after Jenny appeared.”
Teah thought back. “What, after her father gave her the mine?”
Ned raised an eyebrow. “That what she told you? Thought she might have told you the truth. She liked you; thought she could trust you. No, Jenny never owned no mine. Those mines up there, they’ve been abandoned longer than that. Folks just assumed she came from the mine because that’s the way she came into town from that first day, and what with Helen and Jez setting up there almost on the same day, she got away with it. Fitted in like she’d always been there, did Jenny. No one ever questioned her.”
“Jenny lied?” Teah said, incredulous, though why she should have thought it odd when everybody up here lied. Ned nodded. That was just the way of things in these parts, though. But to have done so even to her grave? Whatever Jenny had been hiding, it must have been a huge burden to her, hugely important. Teah ran her fingers through her hair, the hair Jenny had dyed. “But she did know Lester? Was it that mine?”
“Guess so. See, I knew she was lying about her past. I begged her to tell me the truth but she wouldn’t. Funny thing about Jenny: she never wanted to get tangled up in no relationship. We just fell in together over a few drinks. Whatever she’d been tangled up in, Jenny got bored shitless with the life up here. It just didn’t suit her.”
“You mean she was a gridder?”
“Jenny? No. If she was, she was darn good at acting like mountain folk. No, she wasn’t from the city, but thinking about it, probably wasn’t a natural born. Probably wasn’t born around here at all.”
“What’s in that mine?” Teah thought, not realizing she’d asked it out loud.
“A death sentence, I heard,” Trip chimed in.
“Sure is,” agreed Ned.
“One that took both Lester and Jenny to their graves, along with the ‘why’.”
“Must be some secret,” Trip said. “Anyways, food’s ready,” and he ladled his concoction into some steel bowls that looked like they’d seen better days.
They ate in silence, all clearly lost in thought. Teah tried to think simple ones, after all, she was supposed to be simplifying everything, to see through the crap to who was the villain and who wasn’t. The more she delved, though, the more confusing and complicated it got. Perhaps she should just up and concentrate on finding Clay, leave the rest to be what the rest would be.
After they’d eaten they all had a smoke. Trip passed a bottle of whiskey around. Ned declined, whereas Teah swigged her share and his without any remorse. Ned was the first to go to bed, but not after assuring Teah that Jenny might had loved him once, and vice versa; once but not in the last few years. For some reason it seemed important to him. Trip turned in soon after. Four tents, she smiled, one being for the radio. But then again, that might be the very thing that could answer some of the questions. She hoped so, or that something else would.
Taking a couple of smokes, she got up and walked to the waterfall. Climbing the rocks beside it, she wandered up the path for the promontory. Though she’d only been up it that morning, it had seemed an age ago. She wanted to make sure there were still no lights, just to check it hadn’t all been a terrible dream. The climb seemed longer than before, or maybe it was just that she was on her own. Either way, she was lost in thought, lost thoughts that were slowly returning, as she came to the end of the rock.
She found a spot that seemed firm enough not to give way and sat down, dangling her feet over the edge. The dark clouds of destruction had gone away, leaving a cloudless night. She wondered if the promise of the eternal winter that was supposed to follow a nuclear apocalypse would be wrong, for it seemed such a mild night. Above her arched a star-filled sky, a full moon scattering some of the sun’s hidden light down onto the sleeping land below.
“Ground zero,” she mused to herself. Wasn’t that what it would be called? she then thought. But surely, if every grid city had been wiped out like this, then which could claim to be zero? Day three. Was that all it was? Three days since the sky had been filled with death. Yet death and chaos still lie all about. She wondered if this was going to be a simmering down period, after which mankind would finally realize the futility of conflict. Maybe, she hoped. She smiled. But then, maybe it was just Saggers’ special mix turning her into a pacifist, an idealist like Trip.
Then, of course, she wondered about Clay, but the thoughts of her son’s possible fate were too painful to bear. She trusted in Saggers and Hannah to protect him. And who knew, she thought, but maybe Clay was safer not being around her. Maybe she ought to leave him be. She looked up at the stars for guidance, asking them if she should give up her only son for his own safety?
Her unseeing gaze came to rest on the remains of the distant city, a black shadow beneath a dark but bejewelled sky. No office lights shone out to mark its superiority now, no ever-busy illuminated signs peddling their wares, no drones filling its skies, or high, blinking-red aviation lights. The city was as dark as dark could be this new night in their new world, as black as death’s own darkness because Black City was no more, its lost order leaving chaos abroad.
“You made a mistake offing Morrow, you know,” a voice rang out, oddly whiny, like one she’d heard long ago, a familiar terror held within it, the words then followed by the distinctive click of a gun being cocked. “But handy for me. You see,
I do believe he was on his way to kill me.”
“Jake,” Teah whispered, but didn’t dare move.
The End Of Book 1.
Thank you so much for reading.
Next up – Citizen – Teah’s journey has just begun, and her attitude is only gonna get worse .
What promise must Zac fulfil to keep Connor safe, and is Project Firebird all it seems?
Free World Apocalypse – Citizen – is out Nov 1st – but you can pre-order now.
Thanks for reading
I hope you enjoyed Fugitive, it’d be great if you could leave a review - here’s the link. For bonus points, let me know-post it in the Facebook group—join the struggle! The Free World series was a great one to write, and now I have a whole created world to play with!
The next book on is Free World Apocalypse - Citizen and leans slightly more on Zac for the story. Grab it, read it, and let me know what you think.
After Citizen, you have Captive (weighted toward Connor) and then were back full circle to Teah kicking butt in Genesis, the last book in this story arc.
Damn, I forgot Prequel… Well, if you haven’t read that, it’s me putting Teah through the mill—how else was I suppose to get to know her?
I’m off to start a whole new series. If you want to keep up to speed with what’s going on…
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T.K.
Free World Apocalypse - Citizen
By its very nature, The Free World only exists if global conflict exists.
The Free World is on its knees. Oster Prime had the stones, the nukes went up and every city has been destroyed. Now, it’s all about power. The new currencies are guns and muscle; the new politics are greed and corruption…some things never change…
Teah is beginning to remember. The mystery surrounding Connor’s rescue is coming back to her, but it’s patchy, as though someone has redacted parts of her memory. She knows she has choices to make. Should she risk everything and go and attempt to rescue Clay, or should she let things play out and go in mob-handed?
Zac must follow Charm’s secret instructions and repay him for saving Connor. But is the deal a bargain too far? What agenda is Nathan Grimes following?
Connor begins to suspect that all is not what it seems in the bunker, but with Charm messing with his mind, he can’t be sure what’s true and what’s not. Is Byron Tuttle the key?
Citizen is book two in The Free World Apocalypse series and takes us through the apocalypse’s immediate aftermath.
Did Oster Prime have the stones?
You bet he did…
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