Madelyn's Last Dance

by Ike Hamill

  The rifle began to poke back out from Ryan’s hiding place. Madelyn focused every muscle and waited for the wind to lull. She fired her third shot and knew immediately that it was on target. Ryan was fifty meters away, but he might as well have been standing at the end of her gun. The bullet struck the forestock of the rifle just below the chamber. The weapon flipped and spun from Ryan’s hands.

  Ryan’s gun started to slip from his cave. When he reached forward to snag it, Madelyn put her fourth shot through his hand. Ryan lost his balance and tumbled from his cave. He disappeared into the brush at the bottom of the cliff.

  Madelyn’s eyes immediately searched for Elijah.

  She didn’t see him.

  # # # # #

  Madelyn watched the bottom of the cliff for several minutes before she backed away from the edge of the drop. Ryan was crafty—he had proven that time and again. She wasn’t going to be fooled into giving away her position before she was sure that he wasn’t playing possum.

  She slid back as silently as she could and slung the rifle over her shoulder.

  Madelyn turned her head and listened. There were people coming.

  She rushed down the back side of the slope and then retraced her steps to the base of the rocks. After watching for a few seconds, she decided to press her luck and move along the wall of rock. She would get to the position much faster.

  The loose rock shifted under her feet. She was making a ton of noise. It was stupid, and she cursed the decision with each step. As she got close to the spot where Ryan had fallen, Madelyn pulled the rifle to her shoulder. She advanced slowly, moving her head in an effort to see around the brush. She finally spotted a foot and picked up her pace.

  With her rifle fixed on the patch of shirt she could see, Madelyn reached forward with her foot and brushed away the limb. His face was purple. His head had been snapped back during the fall. Still, she watched his chest carefully, looking for any movement. Her eyes went back to his face, where she studied his skin for signs of circulation.

  Finally, she reached forward and touched his hand. Her rifle was still pointed at his chest and her finger was on the trigger. She pulled back her hand and fired a round into him. The bullet made his body shift, and Madelyn flinched back.

  “He’s dead,” she called. Madelyn held her breath and waited for the response. “Elijah?”

  Madelyn dropped the rifle and slapped away the bushes as she moved to where she had last seen him.

  She heard his breathing and used the sound to find her way to him. Her feet stopped on their own when she picked up the scent. It was same thing she had smelled from Caleb—arterial bleeding.

  “Elijah!” she yelled. She found him with his back pressed against a tree.

  His hand was to his chest.

  “What happened?” she asked. It was a stupid question—she knew that—but she couldn’t make her brain understand what her eyes were seeing. Elijah was invincible. He was immortal. He was clever and cunning. How had he managed to get shot in the chest?

  She didn’t ask the question. Instead, she took his hand and pulled it away. The wound didn’t look so bad. There was a hole in his skin, but not that much blood.

  “We’ll get you back. We’ll get you fixed up,” she said. Madelyn pulled at his hand. She may not be immortal, but she was strong. She would carry him all the way to Flower Street if she had to.

  When she saw the bark of the tree behind him, she caught her breath. The little trunk was soaked in blood. Her arms went weak and Elijah slipped to the side. She saw the giant exit wound on his back. She saw the terrible mess of exploded flesh that the bullet had torn from his body.

  Madelyn fell to her knees.

  “We’ve got to go quick,” she said. “You’ve lived a long time, you can hold out a little while longer.”

  Elijah smiled.

  “You got him?” he whispered.

  “Yes,” she said. As she nodded, the tears fell.

  Madelyn pulled him over her shoulder and stood. Her muscles strained against her skin like hot wires, but she managed it. She started slowly and picked up speed gradually.

  The sound of her own breathing blotted out the approach of the others. When she saw them, she had almost forgotten they were coming.

  The people were looking down, tracking the footprints. From the rear of the group, Penny pointed. They rushed to her.

  “I need help,” Madelyn said. “He’s been injured. Who has first aid?”

  She lowered Elijah’s body. One man covered his mouth when he saw Elijah’s wound. A couple of others backed away. Madelyn dropped to her knees to lay him gently on the ground.

  Penny came forward to assess.

  She put a hand on Madelyn’s shoulder. Madelyn looked down at Elijah’s face. She crawled forward to look down into his eyes. She threw her head back so she wouldn’t have to look at the terrible sight.

  Chapter 51

  {Order}

  THE BULK OF THE group went on to recover Ryan’s body. Penny sent two of her mob to escort Madelyn back to town. She refused their help in carrying Elijah’s body. She draped him over her shoulders and felt the heat leaving his body as she walked.

  She stepped over the tree where Elijah had killed Niren. That body was already gone.

  She saw the bloody trail that led to where they had found Caleb. From the marks on the ground, she assumed that they had collected him as well. All of the Optioner children of Fairbanks were returning home to be judged. Madelyn realized that she was the only one still alive.

  She took him to Flower Street, but didn’t stop at the healers. Instead, she took Elijah to the morgue. There was nobody home. One of her escorts opened the door and let her inside. She put him on the table and found a sheet to drape over his body. Before covering his face, she kissed his cheek one more time. Her tears fell on his waxy skin.

  At home, she would have incinerated his body and returned the rest of his heat back into the ground. She would have collected his skull and mounted it to the wall, so he would always be there with her.

  They had different rituals in Fairbanks.

  Madelyn had one more thing to do. She reached under the sheet and found his knife. When she pulled it out, her two escorts backed up hastily.

  “Relax,” she said. She raised her foot and propped it on the counter. One scar was bigger than the rest. It had been reopened too many times. Just above it, she cut a deep line. It only bled for a second.

  She didn’t wipe her blood from the blade. Elijah’s cold fingers were beginning to stiffen as she wrapped them around the knife handle. He would complete his journey armed and with her blood drying on his weapon.

  “Okay,” Madelyn said. She led the way out of the building and turned to her escort. “I’m done with you.”

  “We’re supposed to escort you to the hearing,” the man said. “They have to assess what crimes have been committed.”

  “I’m done with you,” she said again. When she moved closer to them, they both backed away. “You need to go to that hearing and listen closely. Don’t accept any facts without scrutinizing them first. Don’t let them talk you into believing something that you know to be untrue.”

  Madelyn walked away. They were armed, but didn’t try to stop her.

  # # # # #

  Madelyn stopped in the street. Gabriel’s old truck was parked in front of Elijah’s house. Harper and Jacob were sitting on the porch. Before approaching, Madelyn checked each direction and studied their eyes.

  “You moved the truck,” Madelyn said.

  Jacob nodded.

  “We wanted to see if it would draw any Hunters,” he said.

  “That seems like a big risk,” Madelyn said.

  “On our way back here, we ran into Isaac. After the guns fell, he went for the fires. He wanted to be sure that someone tended to them. He went to the airstrip, and someone had lit that fire. By the time he realized it, he was close enough that he should have been swarmed, but he wasn’t,” Harper said.


  “So we wanted to see if the truck would bring any in,” Jacob said.

  “It still seems like an enormous risk,” Madelyn said. As she said it, she thought about her own experience. She had just fired a gun several times from the same location. If anything should bring in Roamers, it was that.

  “They’re gone, Aunt Mac,” Jacob said. “Can’t you feel it?”

  “Many people have died from underestimating Roamers, Jacob,” Madelyn said.

  He nodded.

  “We should get going before Cleo sends her posse out to round us up,” Madelyn said. “If we can get into the cellar, I’ve got plenty of provisions up at the cabin. They will last us until we can revive the garden.”

  Jacob took Harper’s hand.

  Madelyn nodded. “I’m going alone?”

  Harper looked down.

  “They’re going to find someone to pin blame on,” Madelyn said. “Cleo won’t give up her power easily.”

  Madelyn caught a scent on the wind. She turned as she saw Penny’s group round the corner. Madelyn sighed.

  “Keys are in it,” Jacob said. “You can outrun them.”

  “This has to be solved too,” Madelyn said.

  She turned to face the group.

  # # # # #

  Madelyn kept control of herself. She didn’t let her body attack the weak people that surrounded her, but she couldn’t stop from seeing the opportunities. There were only a couple dozen people in the meeting room. They put her in front, facing the group. Madelyn smiled and sat.

  Cleo was seated as well. She looked too old and frail to stand on her own.

  “I convene this special meeting in order to pass quick judgement on the enemies of our community,” Cleo said. She cleared her throat. “So we can return to normal life.”

  Jacob and Harper sat in the front row. They were flanked by Penny’s guards. Madelyn had a strong suspicion that their trial would be next.

  Someone in back stood up.

  “Recognize Jayden Lindquist,” Cleo said.

  “I move to use this special meeting in order to call for the impeachment of Cleo,” Jadyen said.

  “Second,” someone called.

  Cleo blinked slowly and gave her head a tiny shake. “That requires a special meeting and a petition to call. Please, Jayden, we’re on the path to healing here. Please don’t derail that.”

  “This is a special meeting,” Scarlett said. She stood up. “You just said so.”

  “And we have a petition,” Jayden said. He raised a handful of papers. “Me and Andrew collected these ourselves. We verify them to be valid.”

  Cleo shook her head again. The murmurs of the crowd grew into arguments and shouts. Penny stood up and pointed orders to her guards. One guard with a gun was quickly disarmed by a citizen sitting near. Once that gun changed hands, rifles and handguns appeared everywhere. Madelyn crossed her arms. She appeared to be the only person unarmed.

  Penny motioned and her guards lowered their weapons. She achieved a peaceful standoff with the group, but it was clear from their faces that the standoff was temporary.

  In the back, Jayden shouted. “Call for impeachment. All in favor?”

  The crowd fell silent. The, “Ayes!” came slowly at first and then popped up around the group.

  “Call for impeachment,” Jayden said again. “All in favor?”

  This time the Ayes were in unison and thunderous.

  “Opposed?”

  A few weak voices responded.

  “The Ayes carry the motion,” Jayden said. “Andrew will start the list of grievances.”

  The young man next to Jayden stood. He had his own piece of paper.

  “We tracked Ryan out into the woods. He killed Wyatt. When we came back, they told us that it was Jacob who was killing people but Jacob was in the woods at the same time.”

  “That investigation is ongoing,” Cleo said. “We haven’t ruled out any suspects.”

  Brook stood up and pointed. “Madelyn saved us from Building Three and then went back to save the others. Cleo hanged Madelyn for it.”

  “She was hanged by due process,” Cleo said. “That’s our law.”

  “You should have listened to our testimony,” Brook said. Her statement brought more murmurs from the group.

  Amelia stood up. “The experiment that set up the safe harbor was designed to kill the volunteers. We found the machine that did it. I think Cleo knew about that.”

  “That’s hearsay,” Cleo said. “I’ll admit, that in retrospect, Ryan was a bad person. It was wrong of me to trust him, but it was a mistake that most all of us made.”

  Madelyn could see that the case against Cleo wasn’t landing for a good portion of the group.

  Cleo seemed to sense that the mood was turning as well. She straightened in her seat and appeared more alert. “If there are no more unfounded accusations, I’d like to get back to the original purpose of this meeting.”

  “Hold on,” Harper said. She stood up and turned to address the people. “We don’t have to accuse her of crimes. We can kick her out just because she has been horribly ineffective. Look at what has happened here. Ryan killed a bunch of people and The Wisdom rolled into town and killed even more. Then, Ryan tried to trap us all in the safe harbor where we would have starved. What did Cleo do? We had to rescue her. There’s only one person that has been right and tried to warn us about all of these threats.”

  She turned and pointed her finger at Madelyn. “Madelyn told us about The Wisdom. She told us about Ryan. She saved a lot of us, time and again. Most everyone here saw her kill that bear with nothing more than her hands, and she was instrumental in defeating The Wisdom, disabling Ryan’s guns, and then she went and shot Ryan herself.”

  “Denying us the right to give him a fair trial,” Penny said.

  “Stopping him from killing us,” Harper said. “The only things we’ve gotten from Cleo have been bad decisions and cover-ups. This is an impeachment vote. We can kick her out of office just because she’s an ineffective leader, whose bad decisions have gotten most of us killed. All in favor?”

  The Ayes were so loud that Madelyn flinched back. She looked over and saw that Cleo had closed her eyes.

  “Opposed?” Harper asked.

  Her question was met with silence.

  Harper pointed at Madelyn again. “I nominate Madelyn as our new leader.”

  “Second!” Scarlett shouted.

  “All in favor?” Harper asked.

  “Stop!” Madelyn said. She stood up. The guard on her right raised his gun to cover Madelyn. With a quick slap, Madelyn batted the thing out of his hand. It skidded to a stop against the wall. Nobody else attempted to point a gun at her.

  # # # # #

  Madelyn let the silence settle the group.

  She spoke in a calm, conversational tone.

  “You don’t need a leader. You need organization, sure, but please don’t repeat the same mistakes that got you to this point. This is a new world that you’re going to have to face. The ether is gone. We’ve untied the loop that made it possible. It was the only way to survive. Q-batteries are gone too. You’ll need to find a new way to pump water and fabricate parts. The world you’re facing is going to require a lot more stamina and hard work. Don’t waste your time on government. You’ll need all your energy to survive.”

  The crowd was silent.

  Penny stepped forward.

  “I agree, but we still need good leadership. There will be a lot of decisions to make. We have to assign people to important tasks. How are we going to do that without a leader?”

  Madelyn shook her head. “No. Each person should worry about their survival. Don’t centralize food gathering, hunting, and security. The more you centralize, the more you focus your weakness into a single point of failure. You don’t have to convene meetings, and vote on everything. Keep in mind that if one of you fails, it increases the likelihood that you will all fail. It’s not any more complicated than that.”

&n
bsp; Madelyn reached towards the nearest guard. The woman shied away, but Madelyn snatched the gun from her hands. Madelyn held up the rifle in front of her. “Save every bullet for hunting. It’s going to be a while before you figure out how to pack your own loads. Trust me—don’t waste them on each other.”

  “We should move the books from the library,” someone said. “The roof is already leaking in the corner.”

  A couple of conversations broke out in the group. Two people near the back stood and moved towards the exit.

  The meeting was falling apart. Madelyn saw her chance.

  She handed the gun back to the guard and nodded to her nephew. Penny pretended not to notice as Madelyn walked towards the exit. When she got outside, Madelyn turned her face towards the sky and took a deep breath.

  “You really think we’re better off without leadership?” Harper asked.

  Madelyn turned. She ignored the question.

  “Let’s go see the fire for ourselves,” Madelyn said.

  # # # # #

  They stood at the fence and looked across the asphalt.

  Harper shook her head. “That’s not a good fire,” she said. “Won’t last more than a few more hours.”

  “Does it need to?” Madelyn asked.

  They hadn’t heard even a single click.

  Jacob squinted west and looked at the horizon. “Looks like the fire at the center is going. Maybe they’re over there.”

  “Wait here for a second, then we’ll go check,” Madelyn said.

  She ducked through the hole in the fence and jogged towards the fire. She swiveled her head back and forth as she ran, listening for any sign of them. It was hard to believe that the ether and Q-batteries were dead. It was even harder to imagine that the Roamers were gone. They had been a constant in her life ever since she had crossed the muddy river out of Detroit. She had lived in fear so long that she couldn’t imagine that threat being gone.