by Dennis Yates
Patch coughed nervously.
I raised my arm with the amputation bracelet humming like a sleeping wasp. “Have you seen one of these before?”
The boy’s eyes widened. “Yeah, they put them on prisoners. Is that what you are? Do you think you’re going to be able to make a deal with my father? Because he’s not going to play your game. No way. I bet the snipers are already here. Maybe in a couple minutes your brains will meet this dusty turd of a planet firsthand.”
“It wasn’t my idea to come to Lazarus,” I said, holding back the urge to knock out Junior’s dead front tooth and do him a favor. “Your father sent us.”
“You’re lying.”
I dug a black cube from my pants pocket and tossed it to him. He pressed it in his palm and an image of his father appeared. I’d never heard of the man before I was put in freeze. Yet he bore a curious resemblance to the President who had been present during my execution. Was he a son or a clone? I still knew very little of what new things our species had done over the past decade or so. I wondered if I ever would.
The man was not the cold bastard I was expecting. In fact, he seemed genuinely saddened by his son’s disappearance. Inside the cube the President of the Federation explained what was happening and why. At times his voice hit rough road and I felt his emotion as if it were my own. I had to keep reminding myself who he really was. That he was willing to commit genocide in order to save the weakening Federation from total collapse.
When the broadcast was over, Junior Garrett handed back the cube. Tears were cutting paths through the cake of dust on his face. Mostly gone now was the look of a privileged punk. Maybe this was the best thing to ever happen to him and he didn’t even know it.
“I didn’t want to do it,” Garrett said. “But they forced me to. You’ve got to believe me. Killing was never my thing. I only did what I needed to do to survive.”
“So how in the hell do we confirm that?” Patch asked, tilting the bone saw in the light.
Junior stared blankly and didn’t say a word. The shining bone saw seemed to have put him under a kind of spell. Of course, I thought. Patch must have done similar tricks to people in his desert traveling show. A talented mesmerizer of the unwitting common folk.
“Okay,” I said to Junior. “Let’s start from the beginning.”
Chapter 11
It didn’t take much to get Garrett to tell us where he and his crew had abandoned their space craft. He had no idea if it hadn’t been raided by bandits since the last time he’d seen it. Using the coordinates Garrett had memorized, one of Sorenson’s men was able to locate the ship’s position on a map.
For the next two days, the horseman pushed us to the limit in his hurry to get to the ship. Young Garrett was left tied in the back of the supply wagon and kept covered with a filthy tarp. Sorenson wasn’t about to take any chances, and told us if the boy escaped he would kill one of us as punishment. He was spending most of his time on his horse now, shouting orders. We all knew he was running low on whiskey and his leg had worsened and smelled horribly.
Poor Frank walked beside him, hunched over and broken by grief over his dead son. Patch had done what he could for the man’s wrist, but I could see the bandage was soiled with dried blood and hadn’t been changed once. Why Sorenson had allowed the man to live after his attack with the crucifixion cactus, I did not know. Perhaps Frank was simply entertainment for Sorenson until he got bored and killed him. I hung back and kept to myself, listening to the two men talk.
The horseman told the bereaved father he hoped he’d learned something from what had happened. He spoke of the justice the desert hands out, and how it doesn’t give a damn if you’ve tried to live by some code.
“Why?" Frank grimaced. “What’s wrong with choosing not to be a savage?”
Sorenson bent down and smacked the man across the face. “Don’t you understand? It’s because you don’t have a natural place here. The desert thinks you’re an invader and a fool. A weakling that needs to move aside for the strong. It wants nothing more than to see your bones turned to dust.”
“You might be right,” Frank said, rubbing his cheek. There was a craziness in his eyes I hadn’t noticed before. “Tell me. When did you become its faithful servant?”
I find it hard to describe, but you know it when you see it. Something within Frank had died. He was turning into a corpse from the inside out and throwing caution to the wind.
“What the hell are you mumbling about?” Sorenson asked.
Frank licked at his blistered lips while staring intently at a glimmering mirage on the horizon. We were all doing it now. Watching what some claimed were desert spirits stretching and contracting like great globs of mercury. On hotter days, you could swear they were talking to you.
“I think I can hear it at night when everything is still,” Frank said, motioning at the horizon with his stump. “It reminds me of a train sometimes. A train hauling its cargo of death. And it's jumped tracks and is headed right for me...”
Sorenson groaned. “If you think you’re going to get whiskey from me you’re crazier than I thought. I told you not to ask me again. Why would I give you any when I need to quell the fire in my damn leg?”
“Please, Mr. Sorenson. I know it was wrong to attack you, but I swear it wasn’t me who did it.”
“Who was it then?” the horseman smirked. He pressed his rifle barrel against Frank’s forehead. “Don’t tell me you were possessed by some demon spirit, because I swear they’ll be the last words to ever leave your mouth.”
“Mr. Sorenson,” Frank said, shaking, “I would never...”
“I may not have a son of my own, but I’m not stupid enough to think it wasn’t hard for you to see him die. However, you made the decision to stick me with a cactus spine before killing a man who worked for me. Those are the unpleasant facts, and soon you’ll be experiencing the consequences for your foolish actions.”
“Mr. Sorenson. I’m begging you for a drink. I need to numb my brain right now. I can let my legs carry my body forward while I switch off the rest. I swear if I close my eyes and see my boy again it’s going to kill me.”
“Kill you? Come on, Frank. That’s going to be my prerogative, not some goddamn ghost.” Sorenson leaned over and spat whiskey into the man’s face before kicking him in the back with his good leg. I heard a hard thud and Frank cried out in pain.
“Get away from me before I do the Reaper’s work this minute!”
“Yes sir,” Frank said, lowering his head. He shuffled off toward a group walking ahead of us, frequently glancing back at Sorenson with terrified eyes. The man’s not going to last much longer, I thought. He doesn’t realize Sorenson has completely lost it. Or is getting shot by the horseman what he thinks he deserves? This place can make someone very confused once it has a grip on your mind.
Sorenson must have sensed I was behind him because he turned around and gave me a curious look, like he’d thought no one had been witness to his current exercise in cruelty. It wasn’t exactly guilt I saw in his face, but a close cousin. And although he could deny that he’d treated the grieving man poorly, it seemed to bother him more that I might be judging him. As if I had some kind of authority he couldn’t easily dismiss. What he didn’t know was how good I was going to feel shoving him through the burning gates of his own hell. That day couldn’t come soon enough.
I thought he was going to turn his horse around and ride up beside me when he abruptly took off with the few surviving horsemen he had left. Those of us on foot watched as the riders disappeared into the gathering darkness.
As soon as they were gone, I ran until I caught up with Trevor, Jade and Ramos. Patch left the heavily guarded wagon carrying Junior Garrett and soon joined us.
There was no telling how long the horsemen would be gone, but Patch had recruited several of the other captives to keep lookout. We fought back tears as we hugged one another. It felt like a lifetime had passed since Sorenson had forced us into his gang.
>
I inspected Jade’s hand and saw no signs of infection. The wounds were healing nicely as was the scabbed area on the back of her head where the horse had torn away a portion of scalp. Ramos was also in better shape for someone who’d had his ear crudely removed with a hunting knife. It wasn’t until I looked closer at Trevor that I was taken aback by the swelling on his neck where a flying scorpion had stung him the morning before.
“You look like hell,” I said to the boy.
Trevor smiled weakly. “I’ve felt better.”
“I did what I could for him,” Patch said. “Damn thing gave Trevor a dose big enough to kill most men.”
“Have you made a poultice to draw out all the poison?” I asked.
Patch glanced nervously at the ground. “I’m not a doctor. I’m only good at reading medicine labels and making guesses.”
I studied Trevor fearfully. I could see the tell-tale signs of McCarthy scorpion toxin –- red dragon shapes tattooing the whites of his eyes. The infection has spread deep, I thought. It might be too late to stop him from going blind.
The boy could tell something was wrong and his face creased up with worry. “It’s in my eyes now, isn’t it!”
Trevor started fumbling around in his pack for something and getting more frantic every second. I removed a piece of signal mirror from my pocket and polished it with my sleeve. Trevor snatched it from my hand and stared at his reflection.
“You don’t have to tell me, Brand,” he said calmly. “I know what happens next.”
I retrieved a leather pouch from inside my shirt. “I made something last night after I’d heard you’d been stung. I wish I could’ve gotten it to you sooner.”
“Where did you learn how to do that?” Patch asked.
I turned to the showman. “My mother. She taught me how to use what I could find on the land. You may not believe me, but nearly everything we need to cure us is within reach.”
I opened the pouch and removed a thick pinch. The boy winced as I pressed the sticky mixture into his angry wound.
“Don’t fight it,” I said. “It only makes the poison want to resist more. This stuff I put on you will draw it out, but it will take time.”
I placed the leather pouch into the boy’s palm.
“Thanks,” Trevor said as we clasped hands.
“What’s the plan?” Jade asked, getting back to business. She’d wiped off a tear while we weren’t looking but a shiny path still remained.
“Plan?” I echoed, my mind still on Trevor. Wondering if there was anything more I could do for him. Yet Jade and Ramos seemed to have already written the boy off. I started to worry they might be right to.
Jade crossed her arms and stared at me impatiently. “I’m talking about after we find the ship.”
“All depends on what Sorenson has in mind.”
“The bastard will take the ship and leave us here,” Ramos replied, his face hidden in shadow. “He can do it without us.”
“I don’t think so,” I said. “He’s smart enough to know he needs us to complete the deal. The Federation isn’t going to trust him on his own. They’ll think they’re being asked to pay ransom instead of a reward. Wouldn’t surprise me if they didn’t even allow him to board.”
“So you’re still going to broker this?” Ramos asked.
“I don’t see any other way if we want to stay alive. But once we’re back at the Federation, we’re going to have the advantage.”
“How?” Jade asked. “They’re the ones who killed us and then put our corpses on ice for thirteen years.”
“Because we know our way around their ship and Sorenson doesn’t,” I said.
Jade shook her head. “I’m sure he suspects we’ll try something.”
I held up the deadly bracelet on my wrist. It had stopped vibrating. I wondered if the thing could allow Sorensen to hear us. I sat down and stuck my hand in the hot red sand, burrowed it until the bracelet was completely covered. I felt my flesh start to roast, knew I couldn’t keep it in the ground for long. The others stared at me as if I’d lost my mind.
“It doesn’t matter what he thinks,” I said. The important thing is that he can do to us what he did to Frank. We’re going to need to think fast. Create a distraction so we can look for a way to get these cut off.”
Jade frowned. “Things didn’t turn out so well when we tried it at the fort. I hope you’re right about this.”
Ramos swatted a fly away from where his ear used to be. The damn things kept trying to lay their eggs.
“I say we stop Sorenson now. If it costs my hand to see him killed, I’m at the point where it just might be worth it.”
“What if he decides he doesn’t need to take all of us with him?” Jade asked.
“I’m still thinking about it,” I said. But to tell you the truth, I haven’t come up with anything that doesn’t stand to end badly.”
Trevor swayed a moment before dropping to his knees. I got up and Ramos and I lifted him up between us. His face was chalky and dripping from fever. He needs rest, I thought. There’s no way he can walk far like this. Not with that toxin eating his insides...
“I feel worse now,” the boy said groggily. “My eyesight is shot too. I thought that stinky goop you put on me was supposed to make me better.”
“The poison is working its way out of you,” I said. “That poultice is making it feel very unwelcome.”
Ramos turned around and listened to something approaching in the darkness. Despite working with engines most of his life, he still had the best hearing of any of us.
“What is it?” Trevor asked nervously. “Are the horsemen coming back?”
Ramos shook his head. “No. It’s not them.”
Jade was suddenly holding an enormous knife I hadn’t seen before. As usual, she was way ahead of Ramos and me. We had nothing to defend ourselves with except the wooden poles we’d been using to clear snakes for the horsemen.
“Would you lend me your blade?” Ramos asked her.
I felt a hollowness in my gut that wasn’t hunger but a widening dark void of fear. There was no place for us to hide on this open plateau, and Trevor was incapable of walking without our help.
A band of lurching shadows appeared from behind us. I smelled rotting flesh before I heard the excited murmur of rotters anxious to feed, a deep sound that immediately set my teeth on edge.
We walked hurriedly in the opposite direction. Fear motivated the boy to move faster despite the scorpion toxin burning his veins and filling up his eyes with crimson dragons. Yet the situation in front of us wasn’t any better. We could see Junior in the cart trying to defend himself from a mob of the hungry dead. His hands were still tied behind his back, and he could only use his feet to push them away. My heart was punching my ribs so hard I could barely speak.
“Those things are going to take us,” I whispered. “We’re outmatched.”
Jade charged up behind two rotters who were grabbing at Junior and shoved her knife into the backs of their soft skulls before they had a chance to react. Dark matter flew into the air as their bodies slipped to the ground. They gnashed their jaws until the gush of oil-thick blood had spread pools in the sand.
“I’m going to help,” Ramos said before he took off. There’d been no time to protest. Trevor slumped against me as I struggled to keep him upright. If the undead decided to come for us, I had serious doubts we would be able to keep ahead of them for very long. It didn’t matter anyway. There were enough rotters closing in from all sides that we’d soon be totally engulfed.
So far Junior had managed to keep the rotters at bay by kicking in their skulls when they got close. But now they’d broken the latch to the gate and were climbing into the cart with him. The burro who’d been pulling it made a terrified sound and lurched forward. Junior suddenly lost his balance and fell over. Rotters raised their brittle hands too slowly to catch him and he struck the ground hard. He lay still like he’d been knocked unconscious. After a moment, he began to
stir.
Jade and Ramos battled their way toward Junior. Jade decapitated the heads of rotters with lightning fast slashes of her knife while Ramos shoved a sharpened wooden stick through eye sockets or up through the roofs of mouths to reach infected brain matter. Once they got to Junior, Jade cut the rope from his wrists while Ramos fought to keep the undead at bay.
And then the unexpected happened, because the McCarthy desert rarely disappoints. I’d started noticing the shadows of things approaching from behind the lurching band of rotters. They stood on all fours and their heads were wolf-shaped. Piercing eyes zeroed in on potential targets as they crept closer. None of us moved.
Without warning the beasts began attacking rotters and ripping them apart. Yet as soon as the wolves got a taste, they rolled on the ground, whimpering from foaming mouths. That is until they stopped to inhale the night air with renewed hunger. The realization made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. It was us the predators had detected. What else could cause them to whine excitedly other than the prospect of fresh meat?
Ramos and Junior quickened their pace toward Trevor and I. Jade, however, came to a standstill. I could tell she was staring at something behind me. Her knife was raised high above her head and she waved it while shouting words that were too far away to understand. It had to be a warning for Trevor and me. Nothing else made any sense.
We turned westward where we saw the edge of the great pumice plateau. It had to be at least ten more miles to reach the edge. Until then there’d be no rock or vegetation to offer cover. Only flour fine sand that sucked at our feet and slowed us down. It was the perfect human hunting ground. The boy panicked and began to run ahead of me.
“Trevor, stop,” I shouted. “The toxin’s going to sink deeper. You’ll never be free of it.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Trevor replied. “I’m dead anyway.”
As I tried to think of something to say I noticed the solitary wolf creature no more than twenty yards away, watching us with intent yellow eyes. It was much larger than the rest, and likely their leader.
