“You have kept these people together, and I get that, but they need more than to simply get by.”
Johnnie looked up at him and shook his head, looking with disgust as if he had been given a grave insult but would not explain why. Yet he could see his people were already turning in favour of Zed. Lannie had been the key to it all. They looked to her for support. She stood with Zed, and that was enough for them. Johnnie looked both sad and disappointed, and that was not his intent.
“After all these years I have worked to protect you, and fight for you. Will you now go with this man? The man who abandoned you, the man who has brought this new trouble to your door?” he asked them in a loud voice that carried to the two-dozen listening.
No one responded, and that gave him his answer. He strode up to Zed as if wanting to hit him once again, but stopped a few feet short.
“You have no right to do this, none at all. Not after everything you have done to us. I wish they could see it, but they will pay for their mistake in blood. I only hope the cost isn’t so dear that this town dies with them.”
He turned and stormed off angrily. Zed still didn’t quite understand what it was between them that created such anger and bitterness. He could only hope the answers would come in time. They all looked to him now, and more were piling in to hear him speak. He hadn’t thought this through. He’d hoped that his brother would stand with him and lead the way, and yet it had all come down to him now.
“Say something to them,” said Lannie.
He was aware he had her full support. He knew from the moment he had arrived that she was with him all the way.
Is that the reason my brother hates me so much? I have to focus on the task at hand.
“Jay has taken your food and your people. Soon he will come and take more. He will grind you into the dust. He will keep you alive and spare just enough of you so that there is something left to take each time he comes back. You can sit back and let that happen, slowly fade away. Starve and die slowly, miserable and starving. Or you can stand, and you can fight. People will die whatever you choose, but this way you get a chance to be human beings. You get a chance to fight for those you care for. Will you do it?”
There was silence for a few moments. He could see in their faces that they had seen war before. They knew what it would cost them, but they were also still hurting from what Jay had done to them. There was anger in their eyes that stemmed from their want for payback.
“I will!” Lannie declared.
Several others agreed, and more grunts of approval soon followed.
“What do we do?” asked Lannie.
That brought silence as they all looked to him for answers. He wanted to fight, but he hadn’t thought of how yet. He hadn’t even expected them to side with him like they did. In fact, he hadn’t expected the topic to even be broached so quickly. All he had hoped for was for Rave and him to be accepted into their town. Things were already moving far faster than he had anticipated. All he could think to do was roll with it.
He thought back to his time in Jaytown. Surviving had been all that had occupied his mind, but now he had gotten time to think more about it, and see what Jay and his people did to others, including those he cared for.
The bitter hatred Johnnie feels for me; that is what I now feel for Jay.
“Jay rules this place because of fear. He is a bully, a man who only understands violence. There will come a time when we must try and negotiate to live in peace. I have no desire to massacre a town because I don’t like them or the way they live, but we need to send out a message; a message that he will understand and take seriously. The time for words will come, but not yet.”
“What message?”
“That we are a force to be reckoned with.”
“We...we have some weapons stored and hidden from the war,” said one of the men nearby. He looked barely older than Ed, with dark ginger hair and a scruffy beard.
“Against the Boss?” Zed asked.
He nodded.
“All right, what’s your name?”
“Miles.”
“Okay, Miles, I want you to go and break out those weapons. Anyone who knows anything about Jaytown or their movements, come to me. The rest of you…”
He looked around at the town. They had been capable of making structures, but had done little to fortify, besides the large gateway and the choice of land that gave them some natural protection.
“I don’t want to fight a war here, but it might come to that. I want walls, barricades, shooting positions, make this place ready to fight.”
For an hour he talked over plans with anyone that came forward, but they could offer little help. They had stayed well clear of Jaytown, and for good reason. The one person who he knew could help had remained silent. He thanked them for their help and let them be on their way. He headed out to the entrance path of the town and sat on the rock where he had talked to Johnnie the night before. Footsteps soon approached. Rave was heading his way. She took a seat beside him just as she had done before.
“All that info about Jaytown. You have it and you said nothing.”
“It was the one place you said we would never go back to.”
“Are you scared of Jay?” he asked in amazement.
He could see it in her face, but she didn’t want to admit it.
“If he ever catches me…”
“That’s not going to happen. I won’t let it happen.”
“But what if you can’t? He is strong.”
“Trust me, I’ll find a way.”
They watched the townspeople go about the building of the defences. It was as if they had done them before.
“You know I never built walls around this place because I wanted the people here to live free,” a voice said solemnly.
It was his brother, standing ten feet behind them. He strode up, and Rave tried to leave to let them speak, but Zed held out his hand and stopped her from getting up.
“You can hear whatever he has to say. That’s what trust is.”
She looked appreciative, but also surprised.
“We fought. We fought with everything we had, and we lost. But the one thing we had left was that we could live free. Get on in our lives. And now we can’t. That is on you. Had you just stayed away, you could have made sure this never happened.”
Zed got up to face him.
“What is it that you think I could have changed?”
“Everything. You made your bed a long time ago, and now you want to come back and start over again. Well, I don’t believe it. I don’t believe in you, or your bullshit story. You are giving hope, but they will just get more suffering, because that is your way. Everywhere you go and everything you do. You gave me your word, and you even broke that. These people are fools to trust in you. It is only a shame how long and how many deaths it will take for them to see it.”
With that, he turned and left. Zed felt that every confrontation with his brother was the same.
Why can’t he just understand and get along? It is a mystery I hope will be solved soon enough.
“He really does hate you,” said Rave.
“Indeed. Well, at least I have you.”
That brought a smile to her face and instantly seemed to relieve some of the fears she had.
“Must be nice to have your family back,” she added.
He was certain she would do anything for the same.
“I wouldn’t go that far. It wasn’t exactly the warm welcome I was hoping for.”
He thought back to the moment he had arrived, and Lannie began to explain how it was. He recalled how she had said his daughter had died. He barely remembered her, and that made him feel sad. He would try to find out more about her, but now was not the time. He could only hope those memories would come back in time.
What made no sense to him was why he ever would have left in the first place? He was so drawn to finding them, and it hadn’t been so difficult.
What made me go away and stay aw
ay before? Was my return a good thing?
He had no answers to any of these questions. All he could do was fight against the challenges that were placed before him.
“If we started causing trouble for Jay, would the Boss get involved?”
“I don’t think so. Jay is expected to manage this area, and he’d never go to the Boss for help.”
“Because it would make him look weak?”
She nodded.
“Then that will be his downfall. Pride.”
“I don’t get you.”
She didn’t need to. It was coming together in his mind now, all that he must do, and in some ways it made him excited. The same excitement and joy he had taken in the violence he had been involved in these past few days. He both liked and feared that feeling all at once.
“Do you really intend to attack Jaytown? It’s suicide.”
“Not if I don’t have to. First we get back what was taken.”
“How?”
He thought on it for a moment. The situation seemed so familiar. Was this a call to war? He had felt it before, but from before all this began or after? Somehow he knew what to do.
Am I a Marine at heart? Do I believe that tattoo? Something has kept me alive, more than just raw willpower and a desire to live.
“If we can’t hit Jay in his fortress, we hit him outside. Do you know the routes his vehicles take?”
“Some of them, yes.”
Zed smiled. He knew what he had to do.
Chapter 15
Rave swung a punch wildly. Her opponent ducked under and pushed her over with a heavy shove. He leapt towards her as she tried to recover. All she could see was a ginger madman coming at her with his bare hands. It was Miles. She rolled out but didn’t quite make it in time as his foot connected with her stomach and rolled her over onto her back. All the while they could hear the rumble of engines growing nearer.
His foot was high over her head ready to stomp when she rolled out as quickly as she could and got to her feet to take up a fighting stance. Instinct made her reach for the hatchet, but it was nowhere to be found. Neither of them had a single weapon to defend themselves with except for their own bodies.
The engine roar was drawing nearer now. They both turned in fear to see a sand rail buggy storming towards them. There were three occupants, a driver and passenger beside him, and another psychotic looking character waving a fire axe over his head, as he hung on from a platform at the rear of the vehicle. He was stripped to the waist and covered in tattoos with a brightly collared Mohawk hair cut. He looked like some kind of fanatic, and Rave knew exactly how true that was.
They both turned and ran as fast as they could. There was nothing like the fear of death to motivate speed. The buggy was catching up quickly. A ram on its front had been fashioned from corrugated highway barriers, and it was hot on their heels. They took a turn in between some rocks, and that gained them some distance as the vehicle slid on the sands. The over steer was a little too much, and the rear engine pulled the vehicle around into a spin.
But that only seemed to spur them on as they screamed and whistled while the dust engulfed the vehicle. The engine roared, and the rear wheels spun as they were once again whirled around and propelled forward into the opening where their prey had gone. They had entered a canyon that was drawing tighter, just fifty feet wide now.
“They’ve got nowhere to run!” yelled the Mohawk, as he laughed to a sickly and murderous tune.
“Run little rabbits!” he screamed and cackled.
The vehicle had got back up to pace now, and they were soon on the heels of the two runners once again. They matched their speed now rather than running them down as they could. They were savouring every moment.
“Jay’s gonna have fun with you!” one of them yelled.
They all recognised her, and that set her pulse racing even more than the running had.
“He ain’t gonna kill you quick!” another screamed.
There was another turn in the canyon, and the buggy’s rear end swung out once again. It was too heavy on the back, and the psycho on the platform over the engine bay wasn’t helping. Their reduced speed allowed the driver to snap the back end in line just before it hit the rocks, spoiling any hope the runners had of them crashing out. They got another hundred feet when they hit a dead end and were forced to stop.
Rave and Miles turned to face their fate with a look of dread on their faces. The buggy’s brakes were slammed on, and it slid to a halt ten feet in front of them. The Mohawk leapt off and approached with nothing in his hands but a thick steel chain. He looked a sadistic type that would enjoy making them suffer, but he stopped halfway between them and the vehicle, to relish the moment and see the fear in their faces.
“Jay wants you alive, but that don’t mean we can’t have a little fun before he gets you.”
A rock that seemingly came out of nowhere struck the Mohawk on the side of the head. It was enough for him to keel over slightly before recovering and reaching up to find the side of his head was cut and bleeding.
“What the fuck!” he screamed out.
He looked up for some sign of where it might have come from and found Zed standing on a rock edge twenty feet up with his rifle aimed at him. The Mohawk looked around the canyon top. Another two men and two women; all armed with firearms that were pointing at him.
“Bullshit, you ain’t got no ammo!”
Zed pulled the trigger, and a bullet struck the ground in front of the man’s feet. The arrogant look on his face was removed instantly.
The engine roared as the driver put the vehicle into reverse and spun the buggy around, but before he could put the power down, another two men rushed out from hiding places amongst the rocks. They were dragging thick chains with heavy-duty hooks attached to the end. They locked them onto the bars of the vehicle as the wheels spun, and it began to race away. It rocked to a halt as the chains reached their full length to the boulders they had been lashed to.
The driver was snapped forward and hit the wheel. He was knocked out while the passenger was launched out through the front of the vehicle and tumbled to a halt twenty feet in front. Only the Mohawk remained standing. He had a smile on his face still.
“Dangerous games you are playing, little girl,” he said to Rave.
She paced up slowly towards him as if confident and cautious at the same time. He grinned broadly to bare his filthy teeth. She stopped in front of him. He didn’t appear threatened at all. But without him seeing, a club hammer slipped down from her sleeve, and she swung it for his head.
The impact felled him in one, and he was out cold on the floor. She didn’t even bother checking if he was still alive.
“We weren’t trying to kill them!” Zed yelled.
She turned and looked at him with a smile as she shrugged.
“Neither was I.”
He was still shaking his head at her, but he appreciated why she needed to do it.
* * *
As morning light broke, the bells of Jaytown rang out loudly and violently as screams accompanied them. The battlements of the well-fortified town were filling with the brutal inhabitants. They all came to look at the same thing. Out there on the sands before the main gate was the sand rail buggy. Tied to the front ram was the Mohawk. He was bleeding badly, but still breathing and conscious now.
That wasn’t what interested them most. Nobody sat behind the wheel of the solitary vehicle on the plain. Just one man was sitting casually on one of the front tyres. He was calm and relaxed, as if he had been waiting there for a while. He was well over a hundred feet from the gates, and yet nobody had heard or seen him arrive in the night.
Zed carried no weapons at all and simply waited as if he was expecting someone to invite him in or come out to him. He could see the hulking figure of Jay appear on the walls and look out at him.
“That’s right, you son of a bitch, take a good look,” Zed said to himself.
A few minutes passed as he heard a hi
ve of activity and conversation on the wall. Eventually, the doors were drawn open, and two motorcycles raced out, followed by the old cruiser he had seen before. Zed didn’t move an inch as he waited for them. The bikes raced past either side, circling him a few times until the car got close and drew to a halt twenty feet before him.
None of them were Jay, but he hadn’t expected them to be. The man on the back of the cruiser was one of his Captains that he had seen before.
“You!” he growled.
“Yup.”
“Why did you come back? Do you want to die?” he asked.
Zed slowly got up and walked a few paces. He stopped so that he could address the Captain. He was calm and showed no fear at all.
“I didn’t come here to fight,” he stated.
“Then what do you want?”
“Yesterday you went to a town called Calico. A town you used to stay away from. You took three people and plenty more. I want them back.”
He began to laugh.
“You want to bargain? Jay takes what Jay wants.”
“Yeah? Well, I guess I’ll start doing the same. This vehicle is now mine, and the three assholes who were in it when I found it.”
“Found?”
“Yes, found,” he replied with a smile, “Now, I want our people and our supplies back, and I don’t want to see you around Calico ever again. In return, you get back what I have taken. I think that is a fair deal, don’t you?”
“No deals, kill him!” the Captain yelled.
The two bikers reached for weapons, but as they did so, two figures arose from the sand thirty feet either side of the buggy. They were hidden under blankets in the sand, and each fired at the bikers who were struck down instantly. The driver of the Captain’s vehicle slammed his foot on the gas and began to race backwards, realising the threat they were facing.
“Tell Jay the deal!” Zed shouted after him.
He leapt onto the buggy along with the other two and stormed off into the distance. He turned back and looked several times, but nobody seemed to follow. He wasn’t sure if that was because they weren’t ready to do so, or just shocked by what they had seen. He looked to his side. Rave was one of the shooters that had leapt into the seat behind him, and Miles was on the back. She was smiling at him.
15 Years Later: Wasteland Page 11
