by P. S. Power
“Learning where places are. Off with Morris doing that.” Sitting up was harder than it should be, and he groaned, feeling a bit achy and sore, even though he’d had all that rest.
It wasn’t near meal time yet though, so he’d have to wait. Really, he should do something useful, but he didn’t have a clue what to do at all. Everyone was just standing and watching him, so he stretched up to the ceiling and realized that if he was going to be all “Very Good” he needed to not keep Vickie in the dark about what was going on inside his head. It was the coward’s way out, but Robin knew part of the story. It was something she’d lived with, longer than he had.
“Could you,” he made eye contact and didn’t blink. “Tell Vickie about Rachel? What happened… I… Can’t hear it again. But she should know.” He’d have to fill in the rest later, maybe.
Unless she just didn’t care? It didn’t seem that important, not with zombies and cannibals running around and half the world wanting to kill, or at least insult, the other half.
Maybe they could get Sammi around to tell them things like Vickie had suggested? That would be more interesting than what he had planned. Which was nothing, really.
For a while everyone else moved and he just stood, not having a plan, Cam came back with Morris, both smiling, and holding hands. Morten looked at the hands and then just shrugged.
“If you try to sleep with her I’ll have mom stab you in the groin while you sleep. Not that I’d blame you for trying, little cutie that she is, but…”
The issue would be age, no doubt, Jake understood, but Cam, just as surely as if her power was telepathy, not teleportation, looked into his eyes, sighed, and gave a knowing smile.
“It’s not that, age of consent for my people starts when you can shift yourself away from any situation you don’t want to be in. So, you get the idea, when anything you do is really your own choice. That pretty much means being able to do it within ten seconds or so. I’m still over five minutes. It wouldn’t matter if I was twenty-five, until I can do that, it’s not legal. Like Morten said, Theresa would make sure he didn’t take advantage of anyone twice, leader or not. Kind of keeps everyone honest. It’s one of the only times we do anything violent. Surprisingly, it doesn’t come up all that often for some reason. The rest of the time we just run away.” Cam gave Morris a grin.
“Now, after that, when I can shift in an emergency, things are more fluid. A girl could do worse than Morris. Especially around here. Not a lot of guys, in case you haven’t noticed?”
“I have, actually, especially at the House. Why is that?” Morten asked Cam directly, so Jake didn’t give the answer, wondering what her take was on it.
“Oh, well, most of the guys at the House are basically decent. So, early on, before people knew all the rules to keep themselves alive, a lot of them died, fighting to save the others. Then over the last five or six months, a bunch more died doing stupid things. The Westwood police force had a compound, but they kept trying to attack the House, so Jake killed almost all their men and then saved the others. That’s where I was. It wasn’t a nice place.”
Morten laughed, having to slap a hand over his mouth to not get too loud, but Morris just grinned, shaking his head.
“Son. It’s true, as strange as it sounds. The Ba-Dehist, he killed tens of men, in combat as they tried to kill him, to protect others. Those weapons he wears aren’t decorations.” There was a shaking of heads, even from Cam, as if trying to deny it all. The girl spoke soberly, bright red hair shining slightly in the light from the window.
“It’s so incredibly sad to see. You can feel the pain come off of him when he does it. I’ve seen it. Felt it. You can’t miss it, not if you aren’t lying to yourself. It’s… He’s probably not sane now. I would have stolen him away, like in the legends, but no place was safer for him than here. Not really. Not in this world. I think it’s too late for that now, he won’t leave these people I don’t think, since that would leave them unprotected.”
The two men stared at her for a second, then at Jake. He got it, he was supposed to be mad at being called insane? He’d been, he realized, totally gone for a long while. Since the second day after the announcement, when he’d had to shoot his own parents. No one here had ever seen what he was really like, had they?
It was all that had kept him alive.
It didn’t matter though, so he reminded Morris that getting some volunteers would be a wonderful thing and then sent the men on their way, since Cam could do the rest of the transports for the day. Morten stuck out his tongue, then blushed.
“I mean, no, Ba-Dehist, I won’t leave the little girl to do all the work. I’ll help. I mean if you allow it?”
What was he going to do to stop him?
More, why the heck would he try? That got said and finally, everyone left, finally leaving him alone for a bit. It was nice. It meant he didn’t have to think anymore and could just sit and cry.
Poor Rachel.
He sat on the edge of his bed as he did it, not bothering to wipe the moist tracks away, just staring at the far wall. After a while, not too long, maybe twenty minutes, Jill came in, bright red jacket already on, with Billi, Kara and George in tow. They stared at him. He just sat and didn’t say anything.
What could he say?
It was odd, but Kara, the one he always thought of as the most afraid of him, the most traumatized, came and sat next to him, then hugged Jake to her and just held him for a long time, rocking back and forth, silently. No one asked about it and he didn’t tell them. It didn’t matter, not now. It wasn’t fair, but then nothing was.
Not anymore.
But Jake couldn’t just sit and wait now. Life wouldn’t come to him here if he tried that, only death. Taking a deep breath he stood, then offered a hand to Kara, who took it, shyly, for all that she’d just been hugging him for what must have been almost five minutes. Half of forever. One of those.
“Back to the House then. We have to find out about a crime, see how it ties in to the new kind of zombies and get back here before too late. Tomorrow is a real work day. For me at least. None of this playing around, acting all gloomy. The depressed die now. I can’t do that. Sorry about… Letting myself…” He shrugged, waving a little at his face.
It was the dark skinned woman that spoke, her voice calm and rich, resonant. Billi took his hand when she did it too.
“You mean, you’re sorry for being human? For caring about other people? Don’t be. If what I’ve been hearing is right, then almost everyone you know has been treating you all wrong for this situation. I promise, people will start stepping up and helping now Jake. If they don’t I’ll cry them into submission.”
It got him to smile, which was a very good thing, in its own way. He had to keep that in mind, that there was still room in the world for laughs, and smiles. Maybe even real ones.
“I need to get moving, or I’ll just stop, I think.” He literally moved, getting his warm green coat, and this time some gloves, just in case he got caught outside. Cam and Morten had everything in hand, transport wise at least. It was really the older guy, who could virtually blink in arrange a group and be gone again so fast it boggled the mind. Cam was so much slower it was almost hard to watch, but Morten didn’t let her off easy, making her do half the transfers herself. When she was gone on her second one, after he’d finished all of his, he looked at Jake and smiled.
“Yes, I could do the rest in about two minutes, but this kind of practice is about the best thing she could be getting and if she’s going to be the personal servant of the Ba-Dehist, she can’t be taking fifteen minutes to make a single shift.”
“Six.” Cam said it as she came back in, looking pleased with herself, holding Six by the hand, it took him a second to put it all together, what she was getting at.
“I think I have it down to six minutes now. That’s almost two full minutes faster than three days ago. I know, I have a lot further to go, but…” She clearly didn’t expect praise for her efforts,
not from Morten, who walked over to her with a serious look.
Then picked her up into a hug.
“That, is simply amazing!” He husked, keeping his voice down.
“Why at this rate, in a month you’ll be an adult and I can marry you off to my little brother. You’ll like him. Taller than me, but better looking. He knows it though, so maybe you’ll want someone a little better than that?” It had a teasing tone to it.
“Probably. I’ll give him a once over though, see if he makes the grade.” Nails got brushed on an imaginary shirt front, then she blew on them. It was clearly a cultural thing, playing like that.
Sighing Jake shook his head.
“Well, crud, by their standards I’ll never get to be a grown-up, will I? I can’t teleport at all yet hardly.” He hung his head in shame as the Teleporters both went wide eyed.
Morten swallowed as if the situation was suddenly dire and Cam looked down, breaking eye contact. Finally after a few seconds the man decided to explain.
“That… Well, it’s not the same of course, but… That’s why we always took the Dehists we found, in the past. They couldn’t defend themselves, and they couldn’t flee, not like we can. So they needed to be protected. It’s in our legends and stories. They are the best of us all, so we need to make sure they’re cared for and never want for anything. Like… children.”
At least he blushed. Cam just rolled her eyes and hummed a bit under her breath.
“Anyone thinking this Dehist can’t protect himself is a fool though. So “Outsider” rules apply. That means you get to be an adult when your own culture says you are one. So… When you got your driver’s license or could legally drink, I think, for you. Or for Six, once she faces a real battle. Technically fighting with those zombies last week probably should have counted, but then, you know, things happened so no one wanted to admit she did OK.”
The Val shrugged and nodded.
“That’s about the shape of the thing. Now I need to do something big enough to wipe out the memory of my failure. It won’t be easy.” She sounded so bland about it Jake wondered if she planned to survive the attempt.
She’d better, they needed her party to get everyone together. Well, maybe not now, but…
Heh.
Well, if Nate had already cracked the case of “Too Much Arsenic in the Cider” they probably didn’t need the rest of the thing did they? Maybe a real party then instead? Show everyone that it was fine and he wasn’t holding a grudge? Or too point out that his being scratched a little wasn’t the real issue at all and that Six had really shown what she could do?
Looking up Jake saw a woman lurching towards him, she looked fine, at first. Good even. Kind of cute, if not dressed for the weather very well. A light dress that was almost gauzy over her pale skin, lighter than he’d remembered seeing it before. As she closed though, he saw her face, which was a bit more vacant, a little more still than it should be. Bloodless and slightly grey. He drew his nine and pointed it at her, which got her to stare at him for a long time.
Finally she spoke, her voice harsh, like she’d screamed for a long time and hadn’t stopped.
“I come to beg a boon from you, Oh Very Good Man.” Alyssian said, her mouth barely moving as she did it. She took two steps towards him.
“I don’t have long, I need to speak to father, daughter. The ledger must be balanced. Can you arrange such?”
Jake nodded, not really certain what he was seeing. Or how it was happening. Or, honestly what the heck she was talking about.
“Morten, can you go and get Sammi? Princess Samantha. She should be at the House, in the kitchen, this time of day.” The words weren’t even all the way out before the man was gone, and Jake didn’t find any new words before they were back, about fifteen seconds later.
Sammi reeled, but didn’t vomit, though she’d clearly had her eyes opened the whole time. She must have literally been ripped out of place and brought along. Her eyes found her mother, then, calmly, she walked over and touched her hand. Already cold and lifeless, moving or not.
“How?” the voice held awe, rather than fear.
“I was taken, I’ll tell you all, and Darian, but we must hurry, the contagion slips through me and I don’t think I’ll live much longer. No, that’s false. I do not live now. My will to resist the hunger fades though. A few hours, no more. Perhaps less. It is a greater thing than I can describe.”
It took ten minutes to find Darian, who brought Robert and another man of about the same age, and build, but who was blond, like Sammi and Alyssian. All the men were dressed in rather plain black clothing, like military fatigues. They asked to use the house for a while, which meant the rest of them had to go to the House then. That or hang out in the snow.
It didn’t make any sense, how Alyssian could have been turned into a zombie. Or how she managed to still speak. Maybe that’s what happened to Bawdri when they turned? Still, a simple bite shouldn’t have done it. Not to one of them. Jake hoped that they’d get that out of her, when they said their goodbyes or whatever.
Cam did the transport, even though it was eight people, over nine hundred pounds, and took her nearly the fifteen minutes that Morten had teased her about earlier. That had to do with the weight though, they told him. It was harder to move more and that meant greater focus to get it done. It was still faster than walking.
They walked into a hornets’ nest of noise that was loud enough Jake drew his side arm and started pointing it at the whole room, which didn’t really work. Most of them went quiet though, as soon as they noticed. Darla, who was short, looked seven, and was as dead as any of the zombies walked over to him, looking up. She was kept going by the blood of the living. A vampire. Blond and pale, and except for the eyes, she could have been Alyssian’s daughter.
“A man came and removed the Bawdri Princess. Do we need to ready for battle?” It was clearly spoken, with no little girl cuteness to it at all. No fear either.
“No, she’s at my house. Something happened to her mother. We… don’t know what, not exactly.” He described the whole thing, standing in the kitchen, with some fifty people crowding in the doorway to listen. It was hot, from the woodstoves used to prepare all the food and the bodies, and smelled of soup and people, which it shouldn’t have. It looked like roast meat that night, with potatoes, mashed again. Mary, the mashed potato girl, looked worried, but kept working, which got Lois and eventually others doing the same, once they knew Sammi hadn’t been really stolen.
It was the unwashed bodies that shouldn’t have been smelled though. Everyone should be bathing regularly enough to not stink. He’d have to get with Nate on that. Maybe they could increase the heat in the wash houses? A good fire in the wood stoves all the time? Not really his problem. He noticed Nate, beard a bit fuller now, standing at the back of the crowd, listening. He waved to Jake, then spoke, his voice sounding gentle.
“Meeting in here, now. If everyone not cooking could come? The adults at least.”
People crowded in, and Nate held up his right hand until everyone was silent. Then he nodded to Jake, and gestured for him to come stand next to him. That meant a lot to Jake. Not the being included part, the leader was just that kind of guy. No, it was that Nate stood. That meant he wasn’t planning on talking for an hour about everything first. Not that the talking was bad, but sometimes he could go on about things that were already decided for quite a while.
Not today though. It was completely different in tone.
“I found out who planted the arsenic. I just wanted to give her a chance to come forward on her own, so that we can mitigate any punishments. I think I understand the reason why it was done, and I think that Jake will agree with me that we shouldn’t make too big a deal out of this, but if I have to make an accusation, it’s going to ruin my day. So, how about it?” Then he looked up at the ceiling, clearly trying not to look at anyone at all.
No one said anything of course. Nate sighed.
“Last chance. I understan
d it’s nerve wracking and embarrassing, but you really will look better if you step forward on your own and explain to everyone why you did it. Take your lumps as it were. It’s clear there was no real harm meant. Not physical harm. That means a lot.” Then he just waited.
For a second Jake wondered if Nate’s bluff was being called, but the House’s leader looked down finally and stared across the room. Directly at Cisco. After a few moments she made a face, scared, at first, but then ending in a frown.
“Fine. It was me.” She didn’t growl the words, but only just. Her arms got crossed though, as if she was feeling defensive.
It was hard to defend trying to poison people though wasn’t it? Especially her own people.
That part was a bit odd to Jake, so he stared at the women, knowing he had to look perplexed. He felt that way though, so instead of frowning or pulling a weapon, he just spoke. Actually remembering to use his words. That was all enlightened and stuff, right?
“OK, would you, I don’t know, explain to us… Um, really… what the hell? Why did you even have the stuff in the first place or…” Jake spoke clearly, not too loud, but it was close. He wasn’t mad, but it didn’t make a lot of sense. They weren’t really friends, sure, but he’d had some of the cider and so had a few other people. If this was about him, well, that would be hard to hear.
For the most part he’d always hoped that if people had an issue with him, they’d just tell him.
The Comtrice shrugged. Then she pulled a knife and cut her hand. The move nearly got her shot, but Vickie put a hand on his arm fast.
“I think she’s going to use her power. I mean, to read someone. She can’t lie when she does it, so whatever she tells us has to be true then. I don’t know what her intent is, but I doubt it’s an attack. She’d never make it out of the room alive and she knows it. Especially with Dave pointing that shotgun at her head.” Vickie pointed, and sure enough, there the kid was, right behind her, muzzle pointed at the base of her skull.
He chuckled slightly.
