“I think that’s enough for now, don’t you?” Mary-Anne scolded.
“That’s not your decision to make, is it? You’re not my Ma.” He paused, thought about his words, then chuckled. “Ha ha, ‘Ma.’ M.A. Mary-Anne. You are, aren’t you? You’re my Maaa.” He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and was met with a look of mild contempt. “You’re old enough to be my Ma, aren’t you sweet-fangs? How old are you… Ooh—”
He stopped talking and did his best to keep from shouting as Mary-Anne took one of his fingers and bent it back until there was an audible snap. Jaxon let out an empathetic yip from under the table.
Ash and Alice both leaned forward and gasped at the awkward angle Kain’s finger was bent in.
“What are you doing?” Ash whispered, glancing at the other tables to check no one was listening.
“It’s rude to ask a woman her age,” Mary-Anne replied, looking as if butter wouldn’t melt on her tongue. “Besides, he’s a Were. He’ll heal soon enough.”
Kain whimpered as they slipped out and headed for the gates. The night air was cool, and they could hear the festivities from halfway across town now. The sky above glittered with a million bright white stars.
“You be careful out there, Kitty Cat,” Alice said, smiling affectionately and coming in for the hug. They wrapped each other tightly in a hug. Alice placed a small kiss on Caitlin’s cheek. “We need you back in one piece.”
Ash was next, his hug warm and supportive. “The world isn’t ready for you, Caitlin,” he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small leather belt with four throwing knives attached—a small gift inherited from Mary-Anne’s treasure trove of weapons. “Take these and watch yourself. You’ll do great things, I just know it.”
Caitlin could feel tears rising but did her best to pull them back. How could she have found such wonderful people out there in the place where the governor had told them only Mad existed?
“You two take care of each other, okay?” Caitlin said, pointing one of her new knives between the two. “If I come back and you’re, like, dead or something, there’ll be hell to pay. I need you guys to be my eyes and ears. No getting beaten up and making yourselves vulnerable. I mean it. Top form.”
Alice and Ash grinned. He wrapped his arm over Alice’s shoulder. “Sure thing.”
Sullivan and Dylan looked at each other. Dylan nudged Sullivan ahead, clearly uncertain of what to say to Caitlin. In all honesty, he hardly knew her.
“Erm…you…” He took a deep breath. “You do you.”
Caitlin laughed and pulled Sullivan in for a hug. Her hands barely met around his huge frame, and she had to stand on her tiptoes to whisper, “Without you, I know my brother would be dead.” She kissed his cheek, and he blushed.
When Sullivan stepped away, Dylan approached.
“Oh, enough of the goodbyes. Can we get going already?” Kain complained between hiccups.
They all snorted, a mixture of mockery and amusement. Dylan bent down and patted Jaxon’s head. The dog snuggled into his palms, whined, then licked his face. “I wish you didn’t have to take this one with you, too,” he said.
Caitlin smiled. “He’s the best Mad detector around.”
Dylan reached forward and pulled Caitlin in for her final hug. They held each other for some time before he let go. “My little sister, out to tackle the world.”
“You know it.”
Dylan held her shoulders. “There was never a part of me that doubted you belonged at the front of it all.”
Caitlin looked confused. “What do you mean?”
“Who do you think it was who convinced the governor to make Hank allow women on the ranger patrol?” His smile stretched ear-to-ear.
Caitlin’s eyes lit up. “You?” She thought for a moment. “Not that he needed much convincing in the end, though.”
Dylan nodded. “Still, Ma and Da always said it. Great things will come from you. Great things already have. I have no doubt that everything you touch will turn to gold, and before long, this town will be flooded with people saved, trading routes will open, and a whole world will fall at your feet.”
Caitlin blushed.
Dylan smiled. “Now, head on out there and bring some color to this miserable gray-scale fuckery of a world.”
Caitlin stared at her brother, overwhelmed with emotion. She felt she could stand there forever, savor the feeling, and be with them all for eternity.
That was until there was a sound of chains and scraping metal from the large wooden gates behind.
“Er…guys?” Kain said, a note of definite alarm infusing his voice.
They all turned to see the gates now wide open and Kain on the floor next to the heavy chains which operated the mechanisms. He scrambled backward as a handful of Mad looked at them as if in surprise, then began to run.
“That’s what we get for inviting the gate guards to dinner,” Caitlin said, reaching for her sword.
Dylan stayed her hand with his own. “We got this, sis,” he said with a cocky grin on his face. “Sully, go right. Matt, you take left.”
“It’s Ash, dufus!” Ash said with a laugh as he ran at a woman whose body had half rotted away from the Madness. A moment later, his sword had sliced across her hip, causing her to buckle and fall sideways.
“Great. Alice, take front and center with me. We’ll grab the big boy.”
“Oh, her name you get right,” Ash said, spinning in a half circle and stabbing his sword through the Mad’s back.
Sullivan used the flat side of his sword and batted his target back. The man was huge, with strength that even he was unaware of. He swatted the Mad like a bear might swat a fly.
Caitlin gritted her teeth, tried again to draw her sword, and felt resistance where there should have been none.
She looked down and saw Mary-Anne’s hand on hers.
“What are you doing?”
“They’ve got this, Kitty-Cat,” Mary-Anne said softly.
But Caitlin found it hard to stand by and watch. Even after Ash floored his Mad and stabbed her in the chest, forcing the red eyes to extinguish. Even after Sully clobbered his enemy with a rock and watched until he stopped twitching. Even after Dylan and Alice paired up and took down a Mad who looked like he’d eaten quite enough out there in the forest. Fresher than the others, his stomach was the size of a beach ball, and when he was felled, Caitlin swore she felt the ground shake.
“See,” Dylan said, a little breathless as he wiped his sword and sheathed it once more. “Piece of cake.”
Caitlin looked from her brother to the forest outside.
“We got this, Cat,” Dylan smiled.
Then, feeling more confident than ever that her brother had things handled, she gave Dylan a final hug and whispered, “I know you do.” With new resolution, she kissed him on the cheek and headed off into the forest with Mary-Anne and Kain.
Chapter Two
Silver Creek Forest, Old Ontario
Caitlin took the lead, slightly ahead of her friends, with Jaxon sniffing the ground by her side. They all wore dark green cloaks—gifts from her brother from his old duties—which helped them blend in with the surrounding forest. The trees were thick, though as they walked along, they often passed signs which showed them that the world hadn’t always been as confused and overgrown as it now was.
At one point, they passed what looked to be the remnants of an old tarmac road on their left, its surface thick and black with faded white lines painted along its center. Trees had taken root and eaten into it, leaving crumbling chunks as a brittle reminder of the past. Caitlin tried to remember what she knew of the old world, way before the Mad or the fall had happened and thought back to a book which told of the days when people had supposedly ridden in metal vessels with wheels at unimaginable speeds.
She could hardly believe it now. That this might once have all been roads choked with traffic.
A short while later, a large metal pylon loomed over the trees. Years ago, it mig
ht have spiked all the way into the clouds, towering higher than any tree she’d ever seen. But now, the thing was rusted and folded over. A giant metal flower, devoid of water and sunlight.
They stopped for a short while in its shadows, Kain using the pylon’s thick metal beams as a lean-to. Jaxon used it as a peeing post.
“What was it for?” Caitlin asked Mary-Anne. Though she was sure that Kain was much older than he looked, she was more confident that Mary-Anne was the eldest of the three and would therefore be the most knowledgeable.
“What makes you think I know a damned thing?” Mary-Anne’s false protest preceded a hand placed dramatically across her chest. “How dare you suggest that I’m old enough to know the ways of the old world?”
“Because she’s smart,” Kain scoffed. “Know anyone else with an entire stockroom of weapons from over two centuries ago? Those swords in your attic. What are they? Relics you’ve found?”
Mary-Anne shrugged coyly.
“I didn’t think so,” Kain said and bent down to pick a particularly long piece of grass and place it between his teeth. “You watch her, Cat. She’s your encyclopedia from the old days, I guarantee.” He grinned at Mary-Anne. “C’mon, sugar. How old are you, really? Two-hundred-and-fifty? Two-seven-five?”
Whatever Caitlin thought, it certainly wasn’t anywhere near those numbers. No matter what breed of creature you were, how the hell could anyone live for that long without turning to dust or drying up?
Mary-Anne waved a hand and said, “Oh, you’re too kind. To think of me as such a young lady.”
Caitlin’s mouth fell open. “You’re older than that?”
“How old are you, Kitty Cat?”
“Nearing thirty summers.”
“Aww, cute.” Mary-Anne turned and looked up at the pylon. “Let’s just say I’m old enough to remember a world when these stood fully erect.”
Kain obviously couldn’t help himself as he tried to capture his laughter but failed. “I bet you do.”
Mary-Anne whispered to Caitlin, “Poor choice of words, I know. Still, he’s a kid, really. You’ve got to do what you can to keep them engaged.”
When Kain eventually finished laughing, they continued through the forest. Mary-Anne explained that once, the country had been dotted with tens of thousands of those metal structures for the people to communicate with each other. Miles upon miles of wire once connected the world, creating communication channels in nearly every single home across the world.
The thought of it blew Caitlin’s mind.
“You’re telling me that you could dial a combination of numbers and speak to your friend halfway across the world in a matter of seconds?” Caitlin demanded as they climbed over a small pile of vehicles that lay like abandoned corpses in the thick undergrowth of the forest. Though they made a quick examination, there was no way in hell any were remotely able to work anymore.
“Yeppers. As easy as that. Though that wasn’t even the most impressive part of it all. Towards the end, in the final years before everything fell apart and a century or so before the Madness came, humans figured out how to do everything wirelessly.” Mary-Anne emphasized that last bit and waited for a reaction from Caitlin.
Caitlin’s mind worked double, trying to process it all. In a time long past, if she wanted to stop in the middle of the forest and communicate with Dylan, all she had to do was press some buttons and wait?
What kind of futuristic society existed back then?
Could something like that ever exist again?
“Okay, that all sounds fantastic,” Kain said, also seeming to try to wrap his head around it all. “But if the world was that freakin’ great, why the hell did everything implode? We all know the world blew itself up. But why? I mean, look at that.”
Kain pointed through the trees. For the first time, they all noticed that they could see much further ahead. The trees had begun to thin, and in the spaces between trunks were whole bundles of what appeared to be junk.
Metal piled on metal. Rubber tires and tin cans. It looked like some kind of garbage disposal service had unloaded its contents all around the forest. Caitlin walked forward and accidentally kicked a can. It clanged around so loudly that they suddenly became aware of how much noise their discussions were already making.
“What is this place?” Caitlin said. She did her best to evade the trash on the floor, but as they moved further into the thick of it, avoidance became more and more difficult. Huge, precarious piles of varying colors of junk and garbage sprawled around them. Some looked like they had been deliberately shaped into huts and cabins, while others seemed to have simply been piled and left.
Mary-Anne sniffed the air, and her fangs came out. “I don’t know, but something smells funny to me.”
As if in agreement, Jaxon began to growl.
“Might be you,” Kain said, pulling out his two short swords from their sheaths—gifts from Mary-Anne’s stocks. He danced them around in figures of eight and kept his body low and his knees bent.
Caitlin looked around, unable to see any imminent danger. As they passed a cabin made from garbage, she poked her head inside. The place was small, only big enough for the small stack of rotten leaves in the corner which might once have been a bed.
“Not exactly the comfiest place in the world,” Kain grumbled. He took a big sniff and recoiled at the stink of old urine which even Cat’s limited human sense of smell could identify.
“Who the hell would sleep here?” she asked, reaching down to pick up a can with a faded and half torn label. It showed a grayed picture of ripe red tomatoes on the side, but inside was nothing more than a thick cluster of mold.
“I don’t know,” Mary-Anne replied, her eyes alert and glowing.
Jaxon suddenly let out an explosive bark. The sound of a shotgun being cocked came from behind them.
“I’lls tell yas where yas are,” the man said, whistling through the gaps in his teeth as he spoke. “Ya’s trespassing on my God dang propertys, and it woulds do ya well ta keeps that dog under control, steps away, and leaves.”
Silver Creek, Silver Creek Forest, Old Ontario
Dylan and Sullivan watched the new recruits with great fascination as they drilled.
The training facility was little more than a small fenced-off area of Silver Creek. It was the place where all the town’s guards would come to practice their swordsmanship as well as their hand-to-hand combat. There were dummies set up around the area, made up of thick wood, to take the sword blows and seating areas for rest when required.
Not that these guys seemed to want a rest at all. If anything, they seemed pissed off, and Dylan couldn’t quite work out why.
The closest to Dylan—a young woman with a fierce attitude, whom Dylan had come to know as Belle—toyed with a dagger in one hand and a sword in the other. She grunted, stabbed the dagger into the dummy’s neck, then played a deadly combination with her blade, twisting around in a full circle before the sword lodged in the dummy’s hip.
Where the hell had she learned that combination?
He actually knew where, though he didn’t understand it. His sister had always been a fast learner, but to see and watch what some of these guys could do made his head spin. They outshone the guards that Hank had trained and, even more surprising, their camaraderie seemed unshakeable. Since the liberation, he had hardly seen Caitlin’s Revolutionaries separated for longer than a few hours.
But there was one vital mistake the girl had just made.
“You know, you should never turn your back on your enemy,” Dylan said, leaning against the fence. Belle turned, as did a guy to her right, Vex. “The last thing you ever want to do is leave a big meaty marker open while you’re dancing around with your sword.”
“Ooh, saucy,” Vex said. “What are you doing watching my mighty meat?”
Belle took a moment to reply, perhaps evaluating Dylan’s words. “They’re mighty big words from a guy who found himself captured and taken into the governor’s pr
ison for weeks.” Belle caught Vex’s gaze, and they both grinned.
“Watch your tone around the captain—” Sullivan began.
Dylan hushed him with a hand. He knew Belle’s words didn’t mean any harm. “Still, they’re the words of a guy who has spent his nights out in the wild with the Madness. I’ve probably taken down more of those sons-of-bitches than you’ve seen days, and the last thing I’ll ever do is turn my back on one of them.” Dylan moved closer. “All it takes is one bite. One scratch. One tiny droplet of their blood to enter your system, and its bye-bye humanity, hello Madness.”
“That’s not all it takes,” Vex said.
Dylan turned, looking Vex up and down. “Excuse me?” He wasn’t sure he liked the tone that Vex used. Though they had all fought together, Dylan had to play this carefully. It was his job to watch the town in Caitlin’s absence, and he wanted to make sure that people respected him and knew their place.
Dylan squared up to Vex.
Vex began to square up, too. He glanced over Dylan’s shoulder at Belle who must have shaken her head because he slowly relaxed.
“Not that you’re wrong,” Vex said, stumbling a little over his words now. “It’s just that we’ve seen stuff out there, y’know? Me, Belle, and the others who lived out in the shitty wilds with nothing more than a length of barbed wire fence the governor had given us as ‘protection.’ We didn’t have your walls or guards. We had to survive out there, and we’ve seen stuff.” Vex walked around Dylan and stood next to Belle, playing with the sword in his hand. “It’s not always blood and biting. Sometimes it just…happens, y’know?”
Dylan pondered this for a moment, trying to gauge if Vex was playing him for a fool. When he saw that there was a genuine honesty on his face, he relaxed a little.
“What do you mean, it just happens?”
“I mean exactly that. I can’t explain it. Sometimes people just…turn.”
Vex moved back to his training, then, patting Belle on the shoulder as he went. A shadow crossed her face, and she nodded at Dylan before returning to her own.
Dylan stayed a while longer with Sullivan at his side, discussing what exactly Vex had meant. In all their experience, they had only known the Madness to affect people who had come into direct contact with a Mad-infected person. Spread was caused by direct contact and an exchange of fluids.
The Caitlin Chronicles Boxed Set Page 26
