16. Abscond
As the fire began to die out, it appeared that Torben was succumbing to sleep. He had drained three more pitchers of whatever brew he was drinking, Lucille topping him off at regular intervals. Some of the villagers had drifted back to their own huts. Tyler had never stopped moaning in pain, and when Kim appealed again to Torben, he gave a nod. She immediately went to Tyler and, with the help of another woman, pulled him onto a mat and began to drag him off. When Brendan rose to help, Kim shook her head. He sat back down, his legs and back stiff. He felt dizzy from the day’s heat. Lucille had reclined next to the warlord, her hands wrapped around one of his forearms.
“We were to have our ceremony, boy,” Torben called. He didn’t have the strength to raise his head. He beckoned Brendan over. Brendan went to the man’s feet and knelt. “At least you’re obedient. Either a good slave or a warrior. I don’t have time for grown children.”
Brendan didn’t know what to say. He remained quiet.
“You’ll be marked tomorrow. So will this one.” He gave a slight nod towards Lucille. She didn’t seem to notice. Is she asleep? “But these two boys. More from your school?”
“Yes. They’re from my school.”
“And what did they teach you there if not to fight or serve?”
“Electronics. History. Math. English.”
Torben went silent. He shook his head slowly and sputtered a laugh. “Who would bother with that now? If none of you know how to fight, then I hope you have enough women to keep me entertained.”
He considered Lucille again. His fingers were playing with her hair. She opened her eyes and looked at him.
“Sleep,” she said. He closed his eyes. “Sleep,” she whispered. “Sleep.”
His head dropped, and he began to breathe deeply. She had a hard time rising and getting Torben’s hand off her. With a heave, she was free from him, although she almost fell over. Torben didn’t stir.
She leaned on Brendan and looked down at the warlord. “I put the bastard to bed. It took a while.” She looked up at Brendan and offered a weak smile. Her head bobbed, and then a panicked look crossed her face. She turned and threw up on the ground.
He crouched down next to her and held her hair out of the growing puddle of puke.
“I’m okay,” she said. “Everything here, the food, the drink, it’s overwhelming.”
“You had quite a bit.”
“Every bite, every sip made me feel stronger. But I can barely stand.”
“What about him?” he asked, nodding towards Torben.
“He’ll do as he’s told.”
***
One of the women was tying Tyler’s lower leg tight between two short boards. He had exhausted himself crying and could do little but groan and pant. Kim was holding his hands and whispering to him. He clung to her as if he would drown if he let go. By Kim’s expression, Brendan could tell she was concerned about Tyler’s condition. Blood was seeping through the cloth on Tyler’s leg. The bones had broken through the skin.
“Torben?” Kim asked.
“Asleep,” Brendan said.
“Can’t you…can’t you give me something?” Tyler asked.
The other woman said, “We don’t have anything but this.” She put a cup to his lips and he sipped. He immediately started coughing. When she pulled the cup away, he beckoned for more.
Lucille knelt by him and caressed his cheek. He breathed a long sigh of relief as if she had taken some of his hurt away. Both of the other women watched with amazement.
“Oh god,” Tyler said. “I thought you were gone.”
“I’m right here. See? It doesn’t hurt so bad, does it?”
“That guy out there. He killed Paul. How did he do that? He tore him apart like he was nothing.”
“I know.”
Tyler looked up at Brendan. “At least we found him like you told us to. That’s what you wanted. And we found you too. Now let’s go back home. I don’t like it here.”
Kim escorted the other woman out of the tent. She spoke in a low voice. “They’re all going to be keeping an eye on you. I don’t know what your plan is, but his leg is bad. Tell me what you’re going to do. Which route leads back the way you came?”
“There’s a pool,” Lucille started to say, but Brendan cut her off.
“If you’re coming with us, we’ll show you. But what about Torben? How long does he normally sleep after drinking?”
“It’s unpredictable,” Kim said. “Sometimes he stays up all night. He can drink the entire time. It usually doesn’t hit him so early.”
Brendan looked at Lucille. “How much control do you have over him?”
Lucille appeared uncomfortable. It was clear that neither Tyler nor Kim understood what he was asking her, and perhaps she hadn’t ever spoken about her talents with anyone.
“It’s hard to say.” She caressed Tyler’s cheek. He was now completely tuned out of the conversation, luxuriating in her touch. “It’s usually a slow thing I notice over time. Physical contact is part of it. It helps if they notice me.”
“You make yourself hard to ignore.”
“You seem to manage just fine.”
He ignored the edge in her voice. “What about Torben? You worked your magic pretty quickly.”
“It’s complicated. It’s not like a muscle that I can flex. It’s not a matter of concentrating harder. What I do know is that the food Charlotte brought me made it all much quicker. I felt so weak coming here; I thought it was gone. But then I had the fruit and some of Torben’s moonshine. It made me feel supercharged.”
He noticed she was speaking a bit loud and her words sounded thick. She was quite drunk. “So if you told him to sleep when he doesn’t want to, how long do you think it will last?”
“Can’t say.”
Brendan crouched next to Tyler. The injured boy made a face as if Brendan was offending him. “You and Paul made the swim okay. But going back with your leg will be hard.”
“I’ll be fine,” Tyler said with a note of desperation. “Get me to the water.”
“Do you have some sort of stretcher?” Brendan asked Kim.
“Yes. In one of the storehouses. But bringing it here and leaving with him won’t go unnoticed.”
Lucille waved Brendan towards the hut exit. She led him outside. As he shoved past the long hut flap, she stood close and tried to take his arm. He pushed her away from him.
“What are you doing?” he said, trying to keep his voice low.
“Convince you to leave now,” she whispered. “He can’t walk. He’ll need to be carried. He won’t be able to swim. I barely made it over that pathway, and my leg’s not broken. I don’t have shoes, and it’ll be dark. That makes our chances pretty slim.”
“You’re amazing. You’d leave him after he came here to rescue you? It’s not like you’d make it to the pool with the amount you’ve had to drink.”
“That’s why you’re going to help me.”
“Keep your distance. If you try that again, I’m going to hit you.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
He shushed her. “Keep it together. We’re taking him, or at least I am. If you’re coming with us, then you can help. We’ll need some kind of light to navigate.”
Kim came out of the hut and looked around at the dark village. She appeared skittish. “You need a light? One of the men has a survival flashlight that should be waterproof and still has power. Will that help?”
“Yeah. And what about the stretcher?” Brendan asked. Lucille had her arms crossed and her pout face on. He ignored her.
“Help me get it,” Kim said.
They didn’t see anyone still up in camp. Brendan guessed that with a monster like Torben ruling over them they were on edge and on their toes during his waking hours, and whenever he slept, they fell away exhausted.
The flashlight was in a small trunk in front of one man’s shelter. A spear leaned on the outside tent wall. Kim handed the flashlight over. It h
ad a small crank on top, a survival flashlight for emergencies. Brendan considered the spear. The metal blade looked sharp. With a single blow, properly placed, he thought he could kill Torben as he slept. But Kim said it had been attempted. She herself had tried. If volcanic glass couldn’t do the job, what could?
The storehouse was little more than a giant shipping container. Empty baskets and plastic crates were stacked out front, as were piles of what could only be scavenged goods, including enough rough building material to make at least a couple more huts. The heavy door squeaked no matter how slowly they opened it. When it was wide enough for Brendan to slip inside, Kim gestured for him to look far in the back. He nodded.
The interior was pitch black. The flashlight didn’t come on at first. Then he remembered the crank and gave it a dozen spins. The weak brown light barely illuminated the boxes piled directly in front of him. Brendan moved through untidy rows of cabinets and random pieces of furniture. He didn’t know whether all these things were placed in here after the disaster or if the shipping container had belonged to some furniture warehouse. Towards the back he saw more orderly arrangements of books, electronics, and what appeared to be plumbing supplies.
Someone was snoring.
Curled on his side was an elderly man with his head resting on his arm. He slept on a small air mattress. Brendan tried not to shine the light directly at the man. He stepped carefully around him, playing the light ahead as he tried to spot the stretcher. Then his toe punted a jug. The jug spun forward, toppled, and clattered. The man stirred.
Brendan turned off the light and froze.
“Mmmwho’s there?”
The mattress squeaked as the man moved. He cursed under his breath. There came the sound of hands feeling around the floor, and Brendan could smell the man’s sour body odor. The jug scraped. Liquid was swallowed. The man let out a long sigh before settling back in on the mattress. In moments the man was breathing deeply, a faint rattle passing through his mouth with every inhalation.
Brendan turned the light on again.
As he made his way to the back of the cargo container, he discovered what appeared to be all the trappings of a well-furnished home as well as framed posters, bookcases with stacks of dusty paperback novels, a record collection, a pinball machine, bike frames, and other personal belongings. It was as if random items had been placed inside for preservation, an ark of the mundane packed to survive whatever cataclysm had struck the world outside.
He saw the green canvas stretcher leaning on the back wall.
Just moving aside enough boxes to make space to pass tired him out. He had regained some of his strength—the food had no doubt helped with that—yet everything just felt so much heavier than normal. By the time he lifted the stretcher above the clutter, he was exhausted. Getting back past the sleeping man proved easy enough, even as he juggled the flashlight and the stretcher while maintaining his own balance. The man’s wet snores rattled the air.
Once outside, he didn’t see Kim. He turned off the flashlight and waited for a moment.
“Ms. Hayes,” he hissed.
All he heard was the faint crick-crick, crick-crick of an insect. Then he made out the faintest buzz from somewhere high up. A drone? Passing clouds made the night extra dark. He saw nothing. Just my imagination. As he tried to listen, Kim crept up next to him.
“You found it,” she whispered.
“Where were you? I thought you were keeping watch.”
“One of the men was making his rounds. I intercepted him and walked with him back to the center of camp and his hut. He was slightly drunk. He won’t be a problem.”
“Did you see anything else? Like something flying?”
“No. Why?”
He shook his head. “Probably nothing.”
***
Tyler had to bite his lower lip to hold back a scream when they moved him onto the stretcher. Lucille stood back and watched as Brendan and Kim lifted him. They picked him up easily enough.
“Oh god,” Tyler was whispering. His muscles strained as he gripped the bars of the stretcher. Sweat poured from his face. His moans were getting louder.
“Lucille,” Brendan hissed. “Help him.”
“What do you want me to do?” she asked in a huffy tone.
“Whatever you did before. Comfort him. Can’t you get him to go to sleep? If he makes too much noise, we’re toast.”
They set him down, and Lucille went to Tyler. She put a hand on his forehead and whispered into his ear. He visibly relaxed. His breathing slowed. He put his head back and his eyes became droopy.
“It’s the best I can do,” Lucille said. “So are we doing this? Are we going?”
“If you can keep your voice down,” Brendan said.
Lucille held the flap open while Brendan and Kim carried Tyler out. Once they were all outside, Lucille whispered, “You guys have got this. I’ll go on ahead of you.”
She walked awkwardly into the night, stopping momentarily to pick something out of the bottom of one of her bare feet. Brendan hissed her name.
“Where is she going?” Kim whispered.
“No idea.”
“If we’re doing this, let’s go.”
At first, it didn’t seem like Tyler was that heavy. But they weren’t far down the trail through the palm trees when Brendan had to readjust his grip. His arms and shoulder ached. His hands kept sweating. Kim didn’t appear to be having the same issues. This was her Earth; her body was used to it.
Again came the buzz high above them. Kim looked up too.
“We might have company,” Brendan said.
“Who?”
“Someone else from my world. They have a security drone flying above us somewhere. It’s watching us.”
Kim halted. “Will they stop us from going?”
“I don’t know. I thought it was a friend, but now I’m not sure. I don’t know what to expect.”
They found Lucille in the garden. She was filling a basket with as much produce as she could.
“Leave it,” Brendan hissed. “It’s going to be hard enough getting Tyler back.”
She ignored him. Brendan kept shifting the load. No matter how he tried to hold his end of the stretcher, he was uncomfortable.
“We can’t wait for you.”
“I’ll catch up.”
Kim’s attention was on the tree line, but the surrounding grove of palms was silent. They continued with Tyler and left Lucille behind. Soon they were wading through the dark water by the high walls of concrete. Moonlight reflected blue over the water’s surface. The wet sand pulled at Brendan’s sneakers. The broken stone pathway that ascended between the rising slabs came next, and the way forward was a corridor of darkness. Each step had to be chosen carefully. Brendan wanted to use the flashlight but couldn’t think of any way to hold it while managing Tyler. They stumbled and Brendan’s end of the stretcher dropped. Tyler screamed.
They both shushed him. Tyler nodded as if understanding. “Let’s just…wait for a minute. Let me catch my breath.”
Brendan picked up his end of the stretcher. “We’re almost there, but we can’t stop. We’re not going to leave you behind.”
The buzzing returned, louder this time. There was no question anymore as to what it was. Then one of the little black drones swooped low out of the night, almost within reach. It hovered above them.
“Doesn’t look like any drone I’ve ever seen,” Kim said.
“Charlotte, if you’re there, we need help,” Brendan said to the drone.
The drone remained motionless for a moment before climbing away.
“That machine can hear us?”
“It has a mic and camera. Charlotte’s piloting it. It has to be her.”
“Please tell me she’s going to help.”
“I hope so. Because if not, then we’re in real trouble.”
They kept hiking around a turn in the path. Here the moonlight lit their way. Drone sounds approached. A group of the little machines a
ligned themselves before them, the black palm-sized bots levitating and holding their position. The way forward was blocked even as Brendan suspected they were now near the top of the concrete warren.
“What are they doing?” Kim asked.
“Keep moving. Charlotte has to have seen we’re carrying someone.”
As they got closer, the formation spread out. One of the drones flew forward and brushed Brendan’s head. Brendan ducked, and the stretcher almost fell out of his hands. He set it down and Tyler cried out.
“Where’s Lucille?” Tyler asked through gritted teeth.
Kim set her end of the stretcher down. She picked up a rock and threw it. It came close to one of the drones, but the drone adjusted slightly and avoided the projectile. The pack of bots formed up again in front of them and moved as one, inching forward as if to force Brendan and Kim back. There was no cover. The walls of concrete hemmed them in. They had to get down to the inner pool, but that meant continuing forward before they could begin their descent. He had no idea how they would get Tyler down the narrowest part of the gap just above the pool, but none of that mattered if Charlotte was going to murder them with her remote-controlled robots.
“Charlotte, stop!”
The drones flew past them but didn’t touch anyone. Brendan and Kim both ducked. The machines came around for another pass. With a hand held up in front of him, Brendan stepped forward. One drone shot out directly at him and whipped by his face at the last moment. He flinched, but he stood his ground.
“Are you trying to get us to go back?” he asked aloud.
“Are you sure she can hear you?” Kim asked.
“I hope so. But she could really hurt us with those things if she wanted to. She’s trying to ward us off. I think.”
“Then tell her we can’t go back now. Torben will murder us.”
Brendan stared at the drones. “You heard her. We can’t go back.” He picked up his end of the stretcher. Tyler moaned as he was jostled. “Pick him up,” he said softly. “Let’s see what she does.”
The Supervillain High Boxed Set: Books One - Three of the Supervillain High Series Page 36
