The Pale Rider

by J B Trepagnier

  “Free meal!” Aeron yelled, kicking Meremoth again.

  This mother fucker right here. Did he take me out of that clinic and feed me nachos as a last meal so I could get eaten to death with him? And pancakes? Was that a trick too? Clearly, trusting anyone during the end of the world was a bad idea. He probably didn’t even know how all this started.

  Meremoth took off running, and we had an entire herd of Rage Heads wailing behind us. It terrified me. My blood was pumping, and I was imagining how awful it was to be pulled from a horse and getting eaten alive. I kept trying to look behind us to see how close those things were getting.

  Aeron gripped my stomach and nudged me with his shoulder.

  “Eyes up ahead, and this will make sense.”

  Nothing made sense ever since I woke up in that clinic. Like inciting a bunch of mutated corpses to chase us would ever make sense.

  “Look up ahead. It’s right there, Ariel,” Aeron growled, digging his nails in my waist.

  That was when I saw it—some sort of makeshift settlement. There were watchtowers, and there were men with guns manning the two towers. The settlement looked like it spread out for most of the woods too. We had two options. Take a longer way around and run into a massive herd of Rage Heads, or go straight through Scooter’s settlement.

  And this crazy mother fucker behind me decided to go straight through with a herd of Rage Heads chasing us. I could hear them screeching behind us. It kept building the further we ran, and the more they screeched, the bigger the herd got. What would stop them from chasing us all the way to California? Aeron had better have thought this through further than getting past the guns.

  And that roadblock in front of the settlement. We were barreling towards a barricade made of wooden spikes at an alarming speed. Someone at the camp was ringing a bell, and men with guns were spilling out of the houses. There were at least a hundred shotguns pointed right at us, and I’m sure we made some sort of fucked up sight. A girl on a horse with a blue baseball bat and a crazy man with a sword being followed by an army of dead cannibals. I kind of wished I was back in a coma.

  Aeron pulled me to his chest.

  “Hold on tight, Speedy!” he yelled as we raced towards that death trap in the middle of the road.

  I held onto the pommel for dear life and shrieked bloody murder, and Meremoth went sailing over that bloody road trap like he was some sort of Pegasus. I could hear the squelch of bodies being impaled on the wooden spikes, and then I heard wood splintering as it broke.

  Gunshots rang out. Most of them were aimed at the Rage Heads, but a few people shot at us at first. I felt a bullet just barely miss my ear before the sounds of men screaming started filling my ears. Scooter’s gang became more concerned with saving their own lives than killing us.

  The sounds of gunshots, screams, and wails of the dead were getting further in the distance, but Meremoth was still running like we were being chased. That damned horse never seemed to get tired, and I didn’t think a regular horse could have cleared that roadblock with two people on its back.

  Meremoth didn’t slow down until we saw a sign that we had entered a new city. Aeron reached around me and patted his neck.

  “Good boy.”

  “Are we allowed to talk now?” I snapped. “Because you are fucking insane. You could have got us killed.”

  “I’ll never get us killed, Speedy. I’m your best shot at living through this. I told you my specialty was death. Scooter’s gang are nasty people. They’ve either raped or eaten everyone in that city or the surrounding cities. I did the world a favor and saved your life. They would have done worse to you if they had caught you.”

  Who the fuck was I spending my apocalypse with?

  Chapter 12

  W

  e ran like the devil getting out of that city, but we took a lazy walk for the rest of the day. Most of the herd of Rage Heads stayed behind to eat Scooter’s gang. We walked in total silence. Aeron never was much of a talker, and I was mad at him about that stunt for most of the ride.

  But the more we walked, the more I found my anger dissipating. It worked, and was what was left of humanity really better off with Scooter and his gang in the world? Not really. If they had come at me, I would have killed as many of them as I could, but I saw how many people were living there. There were way more of them than there were of us. Something was still bothering me.

  “Was there no other way to get out of that town besides right through the front door of Scooter’s territory?”

  “Not without adding two days to our journey, and if we did that, there would be no safe place for us to sleep. We could do it my way and take some evil people out of the equation so some living stood a better chance or we could have tried to go the long way and risked one of Scooter’s men finding us or being discovered by a herd of Rage Heads.”

  “You still should have told me that’s what you were planning.”

  Aeron let out a chuckle.

  “You would never have gotten on Meremoth, and we’d still be back at the cabin fighting.”

  “I don’t like surprises.”

  “I know.”

  “So, what’s next?”

  “I have safe houses the entire way to Mexico. Provided they haven’t been discovered, we should be safe there. We’ll have to make sure no Rage Heads have broken the perimeter and gotten in. Some of them are one-bedroom, so we must share a bed unless you want to sleep on the couch.”

  This guy right here. Didn’t most guys offer to take the couch when there was only one bed? What a gentleman. Well, I wasn’t sleeping on the couch either. It was the fucking apocalypse. There were walking corpses everywhere, and there would be times I was eating out of a can. I was sure I’d end up sleeping on dirt floors or the woods. If there was a bed, I was taking what I could get. Besides, Aeron seemed way more uncomfortable being around me than I was with him, and I owed him a little payback for that stunt with Scooter’s gang. Apparently, I was a passive-aggressive little bitch before I lost my memories.

  “I’m sleeping in the fucking bed, Aeron.”

  I felt him sigh against my back.

  “I had a feeling you would say that.”

  “You can take the couch if you don’t want to sleep next to me.”

  “That couch is all lumpy and has seen better days.”

  “And you wanted me to sleep on it? Dick.”

  We rode all day, and we only stopped so Meremoth could drink water and eat. My ass was killing me. We only got off the back of the demon horse so he could have a break. We stopped at a creek while Meremoth drank and grazed. Aeron and I got to eat our haul from the storeroom.

  Aeron triumphantly whipped something from his bag and shoved it right in my face.

  “I was saving this, but you’re being cranky. I found Cheetos!”

  He was about to smash the bag of Cheetos right into my nose. I snatched the bag away from him and tore it open. I was starving.

  “I have every right to be cranky, asshole. You got us chased by a bunch a cannibal corpses so you could kill some cannibal humans.”

  Aeron whipped out a bag of Funyuns and gave me this shit-eating grin.

  “Yeah, but it fucking worked. Eat your Cheetos, Ariel.”

  “You aren’t always going to be able to bribe me with orange cheese, you know.”

  Aeron leaned back against the tree with his Funyuns. He closed his eyes like Funyuns were his Kryptonite. He had this dreamy look on his face like he did when we were pigging out on nachos. Note to self—look for Funyuns when we were out looting.

  He said I liked Cheetos, and he saved these just for me. In a way, it was probably the nicest thing he’d ever done for me, aside from singing me to sleep. I popped one in my mouth and chewed. Oh, my god. When the popped corn and powdered orange cheese hit my tongue, I nearly came. I closed my eyes and just savored it.

  “You’re doing it again,” Aeron said, snapping me out of my cheese reverie.

  “What?” I asked, suckin
g all the powdered cheese off my fingers.

  “You’re making sex noises.”

  “Well, I apparently like food, and it’s not like I’m getting laid any time soon. You hate me. I’m not sure why you’re so insistent I come with you to kill the president. It’s not like there are any other options out there right now.”

  “Who said I hate you?”

  “You treat everyone like dirt, cupcake.”

  Aeron’s mouth hung open with a Funyun poised to go right in.

  “I don’t treat you like dirt. I got you nachos and Cheetos.”

  “Yeah, you did, but you’re still gruff with me sometimes.”

  “Nachos don’t impress you? Getting those during the apocalypse is almost impossible.”

  Was Aeron… trying to impress me with his storeroom haul? This whole time, I thought the nachos and pancakes were because he wanted them and needed to eat too, but was that Aeron’s way of being kind to me?

  “The nachos, pancakes, and Cheetos are pretty fucking impressive, cowboy.”

  “Then, what more do you want, Ariel?”

  “You never talk to me, and when you do, you act like you don’t want to.”

  Aeron ran his fingers through his pale blond hair.

  “It’s not that I don’t want to, Ariel. Your memory loss is tricky. If I say the wrong thing, all of your memories will flood back in at once, and the damage would be irreversible. I say little because I have less of a chance of hurting you.”

  “You can’t even make bullshit talk about the weather?”

  Aeron laughed and resumed mowing his way through his Funyuns.

  “Fair enough. We can chat about that.”

  “Apparently, orange cheese is my weakness. Are those Funyuns yours?”

  “Close. Have you ever had one of those fried onion blossoms with just the right dipping sauce? I’d walk through a herd of Rage Heads just to get one right about now.”

  I laughed. Now, we were getting somewhere.

  “I’m pretty sure I have, even if I can’t remember when. Maybe we can make onion blossoms happen. Who knows? I mean, we had nachos.”

  “Nachos are right up there as a top favorite food too, so let’s just settle for that. Where we are going tonight doesn’t have a generator, so it’ll be the junk food I took from the closet and cans. It’s not safe to meet with Cougar for trade that late.”

  “Cougar?”

  “She’s kind of the mayor. The town we are stopping in isn’t like the one we left. They’ve secured their borders to keep the Rage Heads and people like Scooter out. I had to work my ass off to be allowed inside. When we get to the gate, don’t speak unless spoken to. I must vouch for you before they allow you inside.”

  “What city are we stopping in?”

  “Before or after the war? Cities and states don’t really exist anymore. I gave you the city you would have known before, but it’s not called that anymore. The settlement we are going to is called Gabriel’s Haven. Cougar runs the place.”

  “Does everyone go by nicknames now? Cougar, Scooter. Is your name even Aeron?”

  “You’re worried about nicknames, Speedy?”

  Did Aeron just make a joke? He was smirking like he did. I laughed.

  “Fair enough, but everyone has a nickname in roller derby. Don’t ask me how I know that.”

  “Many people decided that the world was ending, the government had fallen, and nothing was the same. Their lives would never be the same and some of them were stepping up and adopting identities they never would have before. Why not take a new name? Cougar taught kindergarten before all of this.”

  I waved a Cheeto at him and started my rant. I didn’t even know where the fuck it was coming from.

  “Of course, the well-run, secure city is head up by a woman and a teacher. I hope those assholes she’s keeping safe appreciate her more than people did before the apocalypse.”

  Aeron dusted Funyun dust off his fingers.

  “Oh, trust me. She’s respected and feared by every single person in Gabriel’s Haven. She’s a real hardass. She’s got a barter system set up, and they’ve even got crops growing. We need to get going if we will make it there before it gets dark.”

  I sighed. Baby steps. I would eventually get to the bottom of Aeron with no last name.

  Chapter 13

  T

  he ride to Gabriel’s Haven was long, but at least Aeron talked to me this time as long as we kept the conversation totally neutral. He wouldn’t talk about me, and even though talking about himself would not trigger my memories, he wouldn’t talk about himself. Instead, he told me all about the settlement at Gabriel’s Haven. It sounded like they had a marvelous thing going, but it wasn’t the norm around the world. The world had divided itself between the Cougars and the Scooters of the world, and the Scooters were always trying to take over settlements like Gabriel’s Haven.

  I thought the death trap in front of Scooter’s territory was big, but it was nowhere near what they had at Gabriel’s Haven. It looked like they had raided every possible building and pulled down steel panels for their ten-foot-high fence, which was also lined with barbed wire. It spread out as far as I could see.

  Aeron pulled Meremoth up to the gate and just stopped. Two large rifles popped over a break in the fence.

  “State your business!”

  “It’s Aeron, and I have a guest.”

  He had to announce himself? How did they not recognize that fucking horse if they couldn’t see his face? I heard another voice over the fence.

  “Aeron? He’s cool, Jake. Let him through, and we’ll vet his guest.”

  “That you, Edward?” Aeron yelled. “Since when are you not at the fence?”

  “Jake is in training. I have to sleep sometime, and we need all the eyes we can get. We found the item you wanted on a scouting trip. You got anything good to trade for it?”

  “Yeah, I do.”

  The gate swung open, and Meremoth took us inside. I got my first look at Gabriel’s Haven. As far as apocalypse cities went, it looked pretty well run. The houses were neat, and I didn’t see a broken window in sight. They had managed to get some vegetables growing in soil that had seen better days, and it looked like they had a water filtration system set up. In the event of an apocalypse, teachers really should run everything.

  But I wasn’t welcome here just yet. I was a stranger, and these people didn’t know if I would ruin the tranquil life they had carved out here. I had about twenty guns aimed at my head as soon as the gate closed.

  A regal-looking woman in her sixties came up and sized me up. I felt like a child who had done something wrong, and she could just reach into my mind and pluck my sin right out of me.

  “Who is the stray, Aeron?”

  “A precious package who can help me right some wrongs.”

  What the fuck?

  “Yes, your theory about the water has proven true. We’ve stayed away from certain brands of bottled water on our raids. None of the children have mutated since we took your advice. I know your plan is this big secret. This slip of a thing can help you with that?”

  Were people still having children during the apocalypse? Why not? I suppose condoms were scarce, and there wasn’t much else to do. It wasn’t like you could Netflix and chill anymore. All you could do was the chill part. I suppose I’d be getting my chill on too if I had a pack of condoms and more options than a guy who seemed repulsed when he touched me. I’d take my orange cheese for now. Sex was way too much to ask for.

  “Yes, she can. We’ll only be here for the night. We need to meet part of my team in Mexico.”

  Everyone started moaning and groaning. Cougar just cocked an eyebrow at him.

  “Only the night? You usually stay longer.”

  “I’ll be back, Cougar. And this time with more than just things to barter.”

  “What’s the girl’s name?”

  “Speedy.”

  “I’ve been saving that item you wanted for when you returned
. We actually hit the jackpot in this house we hit, and there was plenty to go around.”

  Aeron was grinning like he just heard the best news of his life.

  “Good, because I hit the jackpot back in Scooter’s territory and can make the trade worth your while.”

  “And Scooter let you leave with it? With a pretty girl with you?”

  “Scooter won’t be bothering you anymore.”

  “With you, I don’t want to know, but we are grateful, like always. Go get the girl settled, and I’ll send Steven to negotiate the barter.”

  Aeron groaned.

  “Do you always have to send the one former lawyer when we barter?”

  Cougar just grinned.

  “Have to make sure the trade is fair. Now, get that sexy ass of yours out of my sight. It’s almost curfew.”

  Aeron did that thing where he smacked Meremoth on the ass, and the horse did that disappearing thing. There might be a curfew for humans in Gabriel’s Haven, but they apparently had no problems with a demonic horse on the loose.

  Aeron grabbed my hand and started tugging me towards the back of town. His house was way towards the back, and I didn’t need to ask why he had this house. Families were living here, and when Aeron was here, he was usually by himself. They didn’t have to give him a house since he didn’t live here full time. But they did, and it was a one-bedroom with basic necessities if you didn’t count the lack of electricity.

  Aeron flung the door open and started lighting some gas camping lamps that were scattered around the place.

  “What’s this big mysterious thing you had them searching for?”

  “Wait and see.”

  “You know I don’t like surprises.”

  “You’ll like this one.”

  I got the feeling in the past I didn’t like any surprises, good or bad. There was a knock on the door, and Aeron went running like this surprise had to be better than nachos or Cheetos. Aeron let a small, wiry man in who had something in a box. Of course, it had to be gift wrapped.