Outlaws of Babylon

by Eugene W. Cundiff

  “So, not as many as they thought?”

  “I guess not? Ric’s told me that this is the largest group of us he’s seen outside Appalachia.”

  “Your leader’s been to Appalachia?”

  Mory nodded. “On his way here. He’s from California, same as Jen. And yeah I know, they’re both bloody barking crazy. But they stayed in Appalachia for a while, apparently.”

  Benny nodded. “Reverend Goodpaster spoke of it. He was thrown out of Appalachia, and nearly killed there.”

  “Ric mentioned his sort of beliefs were illegal in Appalachia, pain of dust. That still seems harsh to me, but I guess if someone tries to start a rebellion the ones in authority tend to take action to respond. I guess given his platform involves killing me and my friends just for existing and calling it God’s work despite the Lord’s rather firm stance on the subject of murder I can't be too upset at that.”

  “Do you hate him?”

  Mory's expression grew confused. “Do I hate who? Your Reverend, this Goodpaster?” She softly shook of her head. “I've never actually met the man, for all Father’s speaking of him.”

  “But...?"

  “I don’t make a habit of judging people I’ve never met Benny. Much less hating them.”

  “What about your father, then? We heard so much about him. His service in the last war, his crusade against... well, his crusade, his loyalty to the Reverend…”

  “Leaving out his drunken beating of his daughter? Had my nature been known I suspect that would have been brought to a violent end quickly and called another victory for the Lord.” For all her effort, Mory could not quite hide all the bitterness from her words. She sighed when she saw recoil. “I’m, I’m sorry Benny. “

  Benny’s voice was small and quiet. “You’ve got nothing to apologize for, Miss Whitechapel. Especially since you’re probably right. That it took an arrow from on high to show me how far I’d strayed is...”

  Mory smiled, placing her hand on his own. “It is what it is. Now it's up to you to make the most of this second chance, Benny.”

  “Yeah. I just hope the others, your friends…”

  The pale teen shook her head. “Jen pretty much hates everyone and everything anymore, in a lazy, petty sort of way. You should see how much she likes me right now, even after we seemed to hit it off at first.”

  “What happened?”

  “Ric took a fancy to me. It’s mutual, believe me, but though Jen’s apparently got no interest in boys, she took issue when another girl took interest in her ‘Boytoy.’ So yeah, she’ll warm up as much as she ever does eventually. And she won’t do anything but grumble and snipe so long as Ric says no to more than that.”

  Benny nodded. “And what about the bloodied one, with the blue fire in his eyes? I swear, I thought he was going to rip me apart at the seams!”

  “Kurt.”

  “Kurt, then. What about him?”

  Mory sighed. “Well, he means well, but Kurt’s still hurt by losing his home and family in the Preserve, on the Island. He’s latched onto us as a replacement. Me especially.”

  “That has to make it awkward with Ric? “

  She shook her head. “No no, it's’ not like that, not with us. His father served with mine in the War. We were raised around each other, until about ten years ago.”

  “Oh. “

  “With Kurt it's sort of a big brother thing, even if I’m a little older than him. Flattering I guess, even if it's kind of funny to see a Preserver trying to watch out for a bit of Irish Kitchen trash like me. Not like I’m like Ronnie, thank the saints and the Lord above for that.” Mory blinked as a thought struck her. “Hnn, maybe… I don’t suppose I could beggar a favor of you, Benny?”

  The penitent man looked to his hostess, eyes full of confusion. “I’m not sure what I could offer you, Miss Whitechapel, but I’ll be glad to do what I can?”

  Mory forced a smile. “Maybe if you talk to him, my idiot little brother will see the truth as you have.”

  “I don’t understand?”

  “He idolizes Father, idolizes your former cause, and hates me for taking him away from both. Even having Big Jerry condemn his foolishness wasn’t enough. I just don’t know where else to turn in breaking him of it. Maybe you can. If you’d be willing?”

  Benny nodded. “Not sure he won’t just call me a liar and a traitor who you’ve conned into forsaking the Paladin, but if you think it’s worth a try, I will.”

  Mory smiled gratefully and leaned in to kiss his cheek. “Thank you for this, Benny. I... it means a lot.”

  “Just one more question?”

  “Hnn?”

  Benny looked to the floor. “I understand the others being a little distrusting, a little slow to forgive. Looking on it from your side, I’d probably be no more forgiving, sad to say.”

  “But?”

  “But, especially knowing what I do now? The hardest thing of all is to try and understand why you don’t hate me and everything I stood for. Why didn’t you let them tear me apart? After all you’ve said, after what your father had done, after what the Reverend lead him into? Why are you... why are you being so… I don’t know, so…”

  “Forgiving?”

  Benny swallowed a lump in his throat, nodding. “I might have said ‘nice’ but yeah, I guess ‘forgiving’ works better. Why are you so forgiving of me, so accepting, so open?”

  Mory smiled, gently. “Everyone makes mistakes, and everyone finds protection with whoever will offer it in this city. The politics of survival are rarely pretty.”

  “But a day ago, had I known what you were, what you are...“

  “I’m damned hard to kill. Long story, lot of adapting to frequent physical neglect and punishment. I won’t bore you with it.” Mory smiled, patting his hand again. “The future’s unwritten, the past is dead. No day but this one, today.”

  Benny shook his head. “Maybe it’s all the End-of-Days rhetoric, but honestly? Looking around this place, this world, the state it's in? It wasn’t too hard to swallow back when the Sixes made the pitch, that the world was doomed and all we could do was defend God’s true children until the Rapture took away the virtuous. Until He called up the crusaders and the noble dead of the cause.”

  Mory sighed. “I never could stand that kind of logic, honestly. I know it was Ben Franklin and not the Bible but still...“

  “’God helps those who help themselves?’”

  “Bingo.”

  Benny nodded, slowly. “You still haven’t explained. “

  “Love thy neighbor, and turn the other cheek. Both seem to be pretty clear in their wording.”

  “Even if I were really just a spy? I mean, you taking my word at face – not that I'm not grateful! Not at all, it’s just that...“

  “It’s strange to you. To have someone show trust.”

  “Yeah, that’s about it.”

  Mory shook her head, that small smile she favored returning. “Well, I can have faith in the fact that you were touched by the Almighty by some force or agency.”

  Benny began to reply, but Mory raised a slim hand.

  “And failing that? I can have faith in you having seen what my little family were going to do to you before I stepped in, and that my word alone is probably all that’s holding them back for right now.”

  Benny paled, and stammered wordlessly. His expression earned a short, genuine laugh from Mory before she continued.

  “So I’m not worried too much about you losing the straight and narrow now you’ve found it. Should I be?”

  Benny’s head shook so violently that the joints of his neck popped audibly. Mory smiled and gave his cheek a soft kiss.

  “Good. Now with that settled, you can stay here until we can arrange a more-permanent touch of shelter.” With that, she slipped out quietly, chuckling to herself. Benny watched her go, bowing his head to offer unspoken prayers of gratitude to the Almighty.

  17

  “You actually said that? You?”

&nb
sp; “Oh stop acting like it's so bloody unbelievable!”

  “Even though it is?”

  Mory struck Ric upside the head with one of the mismatched cushions that served as their pillows. The Californian sputtered.

  “Hey now! No way to treat a returning hero!”

  “Isn’t it?”

  “Not usually!”

  Mory smiled coyly and slipped under the blankets, curling her willowy form against Ric. She kissed his neck softly. “Better?”

  Ric grinned, tilting her head back gently to kiss her in turn. “Better. Still, the notion of my Ivory making threats like that…”

  “Scares you?”

  “More like turns me on.”

  “I can tell.” Mory smiled wickedly, pushing away from him. “Besides, you’re going on about me making threats? What about you? Benny seems like a decent guy in a bad place, but he himself said a day ago he’d have as soon shot me than spoke to me. I may be a good Catholic girl –“

  “That’s what they all say!”

  Mory smacked him across the chest, continuing. “-but I’ve learned that miracles are rare on the ground in this town, Ric. Factor in the amazing invisible boyfriend, and I don’t need that so-called ‘woman’s intuition’ the Oldtimers talk about to put two and two together and get blasphemy.”

  Despite her words, Mory's voice was amused. Ric shrugged, grinning.

  “Honestly, I was about to knife him when the idea to pull the Wizard behind the curtain bit hit me. Bolt from the blue, as they say. So maybe the burning bush was occupied and the Almighty made due. Or maybe it was just a random stroke of genius and holiday goodwill on my part. Even I honestly couldn’t say. Can’t argue with the results either way, can we?”

  Mory shook her head and laid back down, cuddling against him. “Suppose you can’t. Still, I can't say I’m not worried though.”

  Ric pulled her tight, kissing her again. “Worried about what?”

  Mory's large, sad eyes met his. “The world is changing, and fast. Faster than it has since the War. Certainly faster than it ever has in my life.”

  "And the change frightens you, babe?”

  She shook her head. “Not the change so much. More the outcome. It feels like we're in the eye of the storm, and I worry about where the wind may be blowing us.”

  Ric smiled softly. He ran his fingers through Mory's hair before caressing her cheek. “Why’s that?”

  Mory curled tight against Ric, wrapping her arms around him and embracing him with all the strength her frail limbs could muster. “I think part of it was learning how Mom must have felt, knowing Father was off in a warzone and feeling so helpless to do anything.”

  “Hey, from what I understand, you saved Kurt’s life. Or at least saved him weeks of recovery.”

  Mory shook her head. “I still wasn’t out there, with the rest of you.”

  Ric kissed her, and his hands slid up her slim arms to take hold of her shoulders. “Because you were needed here. Mory, my sweet wonderful crazy martyr-chick Catholic hottie that you are? Listen to what I’m about to say, and pay deep, deep attention. All right?”

  Mory nodded, her expression confused. Ric smiled rakishly.

  “Good! Do you have any idea how rare it is for me to get that from someone? Damn I love you babe. Anyway, look around Ivory. I love her like a sister but Jen is the biggest flake I know, and hot-blooded to boot. T.J.’s got a good head but he’s not developed enough of a backbone to hold it up yet. Killer?” Ric shook his head. “Kurt will get there one day, maybe. Once he gets over his temper and gets some experience with the real world. But for right now? All these people who’ve gathered here around us look to us as their foundation, their solid rock. I know it’s unfair, and I know it’s insane. Believe me, I know that.”Ric paused a moment, letting his words sink in. He leaned in to steal another quick kiss from Mory. “I also know that with the way this world goes, I could get killed tomorrow, or tonight.”

  “Is this where you give me a line about not wanting to die having not known me intimately?”Mory smiled gently, and Ric grinned as he reached down to swat her slim hip.

  “Naughty girl! I’d tell you to go to my room but you’re already here.” He gave her thigh a gentle squeeze, kissing her again. “Not that I wouldn’t mind but hey, you’re a good Catholic girl and I’m not going to push you there. But the point you’re making it damned hard for me to make is that I am not going to be around forever. If and when something should happen to me, I want to know there’s someone who has the proper reserves of care and competence to hold this madhouse down in my perpetual absence.”

  Mory blushed, shaking her head. “I... Ric, I’m not...“

  “You’ve kept your idiot of a brother alive this long despite all his efforts to the contrary, and all his attempts to make you want to throttle him in his sleep.”

  Mory sputtered, and then chuckled weakly. “Okay, you have a point.”

  “Good. It’s nice to have someone admit that for a change, too. A lot about you is nice, really.”

  “Flatterer.”

  “Guilty as charged. But you’re not going to change the subject any longer, my lady. What was on your mind?”

  Mory paused a long moment, but finally she answered. “Like I said... I know, asking a question to answer one but what keeps me up at night? “

  “Besides my company and your wonderful little lack of a need for sleep?”

  Mory swatted him. “Yes, wise-ass, besides those. What keeps me up is wondering what sort of future we're building.”

  “A better one, I would hope? Not that hard a challenge, more’s the pity, but still. Why, babe? What’s got you worried?”

  “I... well, all the anger in the camp, especially now….”

  “Oh, because our benevolent criminal hosts chose to abandon the camp’s leader? I mean I get the tactical sense of it but well...”

  Mory shook her head. “Believe me, Auntie Aces will be getting an earful from me when I see her next. But still, there's a lot of anger, Ric. I got a look at that cargo as the crew were unloading. Do you realize what that many guns and that much ammunition means?”

  “That now we’re as well-armed as we are good-looking?”

  Mory sighed. “I’m serious here, love. That big a stash of weapons and ammo makes us the most heavily-armed group in the city. More than the Irishmen, even. The Council collectively might be able to give us a run, but getting every single member of it to unify would –“

  “Be impossible short of a new World War?”

  She sighed again, nodding. “If even that would do it. Even then, it’s not like warfare between Council groups isn’t expected to a point. It’s just how the city is.”

  Ric nodded, his manner grave. “So, in short we’re now not just the freaks with superpowers, we’re the freaks with superpowers and more guns than anyone else.”

  Mory nodded. “I guess that would be the take-away there. We’ve got a lot of power at our call now.”

  “And you’re afraid it makes us a big target?”

  “No, well no more than usual there. No, what really worries me is with so much anger, so much power, the fragile state of things? This city’s a pipe bomb on a short and burning fuse most days, and if we’re not careful…”

  “Boom?”

  “Boom,” Mory sighed softly. Ric moved to let her rest her cool face against his shoulder.

  “Well, you know what a famous New Yorker once said.”

  “What’s that?”

  “’Great power comes with a great responsibility.’ Or something like that”

  “Some mayor or someone?”

  Ric shook his head, sadly. “Nah. Just a poor bastard with a hard life and a good heart. And superpowers that never made his life any easier.”

  “Oh, you mean he was like us?”

  Ric grinned before shaking his head again. “Nah, it was a comic book, over sixty years old now.. It was sorta a classic of the genre before the War. They made movies and everything. Lo
ng story, we’ll have to see about looting an abandoned comic shop sometime. Still though, point is it seems to me that we got it backward.”

  “I don’t understand?”

  Ric shook his head. “We got the responsibility first. Hell Ivory, even the last time the country fell apart this bad we’d still have been thought of as not much more than kids, and that was almost two hundred years ago now. We’ve been tossed into this ruined wastehole that our parents left for us, with nothing but a few wise words and wishes for our luck. If we even get that.”

  “And most people just give up.”

  “Yeah, they do. They just give up, say how great the world used to be and sit around wishing it was like that now, wishing they’d been born in some other place, or some other time, or maybe not even been born at all. But that’s just a load of crap. What we have here is the rare, rare mix of great power and great will. Most of us, anyway. I didn’t get it at first Ivory, what drew me to you -“

  “Besides my pretty face and Old World 'super-model' body?”

  Ric chuckled. “Okay, I had that coming. “ He gently poked her stomach. “Though I prefer you now, bow that you look like someone actually cares for and loves you. The lack of that for such a rare and precious treasure as you was heartbreaking. But no, what I see in you, for the first time in way too long, is a desire to make this world better. To help people with no thought of your own profit in it. You meet a tiny few people like that here and there, but most of ‘em have their dark sides, their limits, their true agendas, some angle or another. Even Haddix down in Appalachia is getting to enjoy a pretty good hand as Councilor-General of his own little fiefdom." The Californian shook his head. "You, though? I don’t need to have T,J,’s gift to know you’ve tried to do good by this world all your life, and that the world’s done its level best to discourage you from it - or that it's failed on all accounts at doing so. So now, when the world seems to be going right for a change?”

  Mory sighed, trying in vain to hide her tears. She nodded to Ric, weakly. “Yeah.”

  He embraced her tightly, kissing her and murmuring into her ear. “It can’t rain all the time, sweetheart. We may not know the future, but so long as I have you by my side I can’t see it being anything but bright.”