He grinned and was about to protest but he only got as far as, “I think,” before she cut him off.
“Amber will be back any minute and it’s just the two of us and as you can see,” she indicated the stove, “I always make too much. So please, sit.”
Quey smiled and sat. “Well alright then.”
“If you need a sip I think that shine you brought by is still in the cabinet down there.”
“Thanks,” Quey replied, “But maybe I’ll just have a glass of water?”
She pointed to a cabinet above and to the right of the sink and when he opened it he found an assortment of drinking glasses. He selected what he thought was the largest one, filled it from the tap and drank it down swiftly. He’d been teetering on the edge of functionally drunk and sloshed when he knocked on the door and he didn’t want to fall over.
Amber came in through the back door, her dark red-brown hair done up in braids and looked at Quey then to her mother.
“Quey’s going to join us for dinner,” Natalie told the girl.
Amber nodded but said nothing and Quey smiled at her, his head swimming in the alcohol echo downing a glass of water brought on.
“You’ve got like, ten minutes, and then it’s everyone for themselves,” Natalie informed her daughter.
Amber chuckled, “Right mom, and what might happen then? You’ll have only one container’s worth of leftovers?” Then the girl started through the kitchen and to her room to put her bag down and change into something comfortable.
Quey laughed under his breath and filled his glass again.
“Just hurry up smartass,” Natalie said, pushing the back of her head as she walked by.
“She’s twelve right?” Quey asked, sitting down.
“Thirteen, for the time being,” Natalie replied then dumped her pan of meatballs into the sauce, splattering a bit across the top of the stove.
“Woah,” Quey called.
“Yeah,” she replied, “Gets a bit messy but it’s the only way to get all that flavor into the sauce.”
Quey sipped his water.
“You think you could do me a favor?”
“Name it,” Quey said immediately, between sips.
“Well two really.”
He chuckled, “Sure.”
“Tell stories about him at dinner. Not the… you know… just the ones his granddaughter might like to hear.”
Quey smiled and nodded, “I know just the ones.” She gave him a thankful look and he asked, “And what’s the other favor?”
“Reach down in the cupboard and pour me some of that shine first,” she answered and he laughed.
“Can do, darling,” he said as he stood and fetched the bottle from the cabinet and a glass from another. “That is a definite can do,” he added as he poured.
Quey could tell the first tale was hard for Natalie to hear, that she was toughing her way through it, fighting the urge to cry every few moments, but by the end she was laughing. By the time he was spinning the third tale she was joining in, interjecting her own antic dotes and letting them carry her away into other stories that were new to Quey. He and Amber shared a glance from time to time and then often a laugh as they listened to Natalie’s nostalgic recanting.
They went back and forth for nearly two hours like tennis players, volleying the phrase, “Wait let me tell you about this one time.”
When dinner was through Quey had devoured more than his share of spaghetti and meatballs and laughed about an equal amount.
“I’ve got homework,” Amber said as she stood. She kissed her mother on the forehead and gave her a long hug then said, “Nice to see you,” to Quey and headed from the room. Quey watched her with a smile.
“Got a lovely little lady there Nat’lee.”
She smiled and answered, “Yeah, I do don’t I?”
Quey drifted in his thoughts and said absentmindedly, “Five years she’ll barely be eighteen.”
Natalie peered at him queerly for a moment and said, “That’s an odd thing to note.”
Quey tried to shake it off. “It’s nothing. I just was reading something, said maybe the wastes would be planetary within five years.”
Natalie nodded, “Ahh. Well you know all the rumors and speculations floating about on such matters is mostly whoopla.”
Quey chuckled with a smile. “Hope so.” A moment passed silently and he asked, “You’re happy here?”
Natalie grinned, “Absolutely.”
There was another moment and then he asked, “Say the world was going to end in five years…”
Natalie sat back in her chair and sighed. “I don’t want to play this game,” she told him, a slight annoyance had crept into her.
Quey shook his head once and said, “Neither do I.”
After that he laid it all out for her. He started with his story about driving through the wastes and catching the eye of some Once Men who’d come upon working cars at some point and the pursuit that followed. He told her about Ryla and pulled out his sheet computer so he could bring up maps and show her locations. He told her about the Brood attacking Fen Quada and showed her Geo’s app while he explained the reason he was still making the rounds despite not having any shine to sell.
At first she didn’t believe him and just when he thought she was going to get angry and throw him out she asked, “You’re serious aren’t you?” He confirmed he was and afterward she sat quietly and let him get through the rest.
“I don’t understand,” she said hollowly.
“What?”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because Railen was part of the crew, not necessarily when I was around but he and Cal…” Natalie looked at him in a way that told him she remembered the days of Railen and Cal, and maybe they weren’t the best for her. After a hesitation he went on, “And he would want me to. And if you wanted to come along you’re welcome to.”
She peered at him, “What does that mean? That I can leave my home and my job and roam the world with the rest of you as some sort of vagrant?” She crossed her arms across her breasts. “You think that’s a good life? You think that’s a life I’d like for my daughter?”
“If things go the way I think they will,” Quey told her. “It might get bad. If we find what I think we will, that the planet is dying and no one is doing anything about it or can’t do anything about it and it’s going to get real ugly. I’m talking planetary lockdown and extreme police actions. Massive uprisings and demands.”
Natalie started shaking her head and laughing. “You’re crazy,” she finally said. “Not about the planet dying stuff,” she added before he could speak. “But… Quey, you think just because you load a bit of data on the signal people are going to lose their minds? You think, what? There’s going to be an overthrow of the government and the people as a whole are finally going to come together and save themselves? Shit Quey, you know how many truths are floating around out there on the signal right now just waiting for people to pick them up? How many solutions to problems that are literally killing millions of people are just lingering out there on the network and what do people do? They watch cute kitten videos, or people falling off rooftops, or morons slingshotting themselves over things. They look at episodes of their favorite series. They listen to music and play games. You really think your little robot data will make them sit up and take notice? Shit Quey, the planet’s been dying our whole lives and nobody cares. There’s always a new distraction to keep them from noticing what’s become of their lives.”
Quey sat quietly and said nothing when she was through because he knew she was right, but he also knew he wasn’t going to be one of them. He wasn’t going to be one of the people who sat by and did nothing.
“You’re free to do as you like, of course, it’s just I don’t know what else to do. I just know I can’t hunker down, settle in and do nothing. I don’t know what to expect. I don’t know what you want, what you see as your future, I just know you’re worth something in a t
ight spot and I’d rather have you ride with us to whatever end then sit here and wait for it. You never were that girl, and I don’t think you’re that woman.”
She looked at him for a long, cold, silent moment then finally said, “You need a medic.” There was a bit of accusation in her tone.
Quey didn’t bother with a lie. “I need more than that,” he said instead. “If it was just a doc I was hurting for I could have picked up a half dozen or so by now, and any one of those would be better experienced in the field than yourself. It’s true, your talent in that particular practice makes you plenty sparkly to a drifter such as myself but the rest of who you are is what makes you shine.” He smiled at her. “You always said you envied your father’s days with Cal and then me, and the days Dusty and I had as kids—rolling around and meeting new people.”
Natalie laughed slightly and admitted, “I did, and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I do, but I also remember being a scared little girl wondering if her father was going to come home this time, then wondering if he did, what shape would he be in. Him getting shot up was the best thing that ever happened to me because it got him off the road.” She looked over her shoulder, toward the rest of the house where Amber was and said, “I don’t want to do that.”
Suddenly Quey thought of the Angels of the Brood and Amber. His mind had a momentary vision of a horrible thought involving those two things and suddenly he felt like an asshole for asking her to go in the first place. “You’re right,” he said. “If things go bad though. If you need help, or if you change your mind, you call. Understand?”
Natalie nodded.
“No matter what you’re still part of the crew.” Quey stood. “Thank you for dinner and Rachel and the like.” His eyes glazed over a bit as he thought back on the evening, sharing stories and laughing over plates of food with Natalie and her daughter. Absently he admitted, “I almost felt like someone there for a spell.”
She looked at him and asked, “What?”
He shook her off. “G’night.”
“G’night,” she replied and he started for the door.
He was two steps into the living room when he turned and said, “Have a way out.”
She looked at him and cocked her head slightly.
“For if things get bad. Know how you’re going to get out of town and have a place to go in mind. Get that square right away. Don’t go putting it off.”
Suddenly it seemed like something heavy was draped over her shoulders and she nodded.
Quey turned again and this time he made it to the door before she spoke. “Quey?” He turned. “That thing about calling, about being a crew… it goes both ways.” He smiled at her and nodded before turning and finally making it through the door and into the cool night air.
Morning came and the four travelers met in the lobby for one last breakfast at a table before heading out onto the road again.
“We should send Natalie a present,” Rachel said with a playful smile.
“That,” Dusty proclaimed, “Is a brilliant idea.” Then he kissed her on the cheek and pinched her thigh. She yelped a bit and slapped his hand. It was early and the joy radiating off of them was enough to make you sick.
Reggie leaned over to Quey and said loud enough for all of them to hear, “If they’re going to be like this I’m glad we have a second car because I just might shoot them.”
Quey chuckled.
“Hey,” Dusty said, throwing his hands up. “I’m just happy my fiancé’s brain isn’t going to melt or explode. If that’s wrong then I have no mind to be right.”
“I’ll remind you of that the next time you disagree with me,” Rachel said.
“Oh, I’m sure you will,” he replied with a grin and pinched her thigh again adding, “Evil wench.”
She laughed and the banter was about to continue when Quey said, “Alright kids, when you’re done would it be alright with you if we started out?”
Dusty and Rachel settled. “Yes dad,” he said.
Quey smiled. “We’ve got a lot of pavement to cover and I’d like to get a start on it. You two have plenty of kilometers alone in a car followed by nights in a room all by your lonesome.”
They looked at each other and laughed.
Quey stood and went to the front desk where he was checking out when his sheet computer started buzzing in his pocket. He pulled it out and turned it on. He had a new message in his personal box. He never got messages in his personal box, could probably count on his fingers the number of people who even knew the address and most of them were out front waiting to roll.
“Here you are,” the lady behind the counter said, sliding a sheet computer in front of him. He lifted the plastic pen and signed the bottom of the screen with an illegible name, he paid cash and no one ever asked that sort to write clearly. He’d signed without looking over the bill. He didn’t care, he was more interested in his new message which he checked before the lady could even say, “thank you.”
“What is it?” Reggie asked as he crossed from the restaurant to the desk.
“It’s Arnie,” he replied, shocked.
“What’s he want?”
“He wants our help,” Quey replied trailing off.
“Who wants our help?” Dusty asked as he and Rachel joined them.
“Arnie,” Quey replied.
“Quey got a message from him,” Reggie added.
“What’s it say?” Dusty inquired.
And Quey replied by reading it again, “Sorry about the ranch. I know its asking a lot considering I could never pay you back already but I need help and I don’t know what else to do.”
“That it?” Dusty asked.
Quey scanned the message further and said, “Pretty much. After that he just apologizes and then there’s the name of a town I’ve never heard of.”
“Let me see.” Quey handed the sheet to Dusty who looked at the name of the town and shrugged. “It’ll be in the GPS, I’m sure.”
Quey nodded.
“Then we go get him?” Reggie asked in a way that sounded like he was suggesting they should agree.
Quey sighed and looked at the group. “If he’s mixed up in what happened at the ranch then his dick’s definitely in a lions mouth. I promised him help if ever he needed it.”
“I don’t know why we’re still talking,” Dusty said, looking around at the others. “He’s one of the crew. Did his best in Bravette, and on the road leading to it.”
“He’s one of the crew,” Reggie agreed firmly.
Dusty took Rachel’s hand and she nodded.
Quey used his sheet computer to search for the town. “Rachel, you wouldn’t happen to know how to shoot now would you?”
“Not really,” she replied.
“If we’re going to look for Arnie we’ll have to remedy that,” he trailed off staring at his screen. “And it looks like we won’t have much time.” He turned the sheet so they could see the map, “Four days at the most.”
Rachel looked sly as she said, “Luckily I’m a quick study.”
Dusty kissed her cheek and said, “I love you,” and Reggie chuckled.
After a spell spent planning their route the group left the Evening Lilly Inn, climbed into their vehicles and started off to find Arnie in a small town called Vernire.
Twisted Schemes and Evil Deeds
The living compartment in the back of Render’s rig was a good size, considering. He could fit four people in there comfortably and cram six or even eight back there if the need arose. Attached to the back wall was a couch of sorts that pulled out to a bed, there was a table that lowered from the ceiling and a pair of cold boxes to the left and a wet bar to the right. Lying on the floor near his left foot was a bitch named… something. Who the fuck cared?
She was a pretty thing he’d taken for himself two weeks back, captured during a raid after she’d caught his eye. She had blonde hair and a thin, soft face, full of youth. He thought she was seventeen or so, not a virgin he discovered later but
not broken in yet either.
“You wanna live?” he’d asked her in what remained of a small town—Caventeen, he thought it might have been called. She’d sniveled and he barked, “Well?”
She’d nodded furiously.
“Then you can come with me and if you’re a good girl it won’t be so bad fer you. If not, I’ll let ‘em have you,” he warned.
She’d looked over at the pack of broodlings devouring her shape with their eyes, nearly foaming at the mouth for a chance at her. She’d begun to cry. When he took her hand she’d allowed him to lead her over to his rig and climbed into the back. She had wept that first time, but he’d been okay with it because other than that she’d been a very good girl.
Render liked them young, but not too young. He wasn’t a sicko. He wasn’t into children, but he’d been around the world and back again and in all his times and through all his travels he’d never found anything sweeter than teenage pussy. He even liked to lick it, if it was properly cleaned.
Most of the girls he’d been with in his life had taken no pleasure from having sex with him. He knew that. And the ones that had… well it hadn’t started that way. They fucked him because they’d weighed fucking him against being gang raped—probably to death—and decided he was preferable, or they wanted something from him.
This latest one looked up at him with grey blue eyes, fearful still after all this time. She wouldn’t be one of the ones who warmed up to him, he’d had enough bitches to know that much. Still, she was the sweetest piece around. He met her eyes and warned, “You better make my dick cum.”
He saw her stiffen slightly as her heart raced and her nostrils flared, breathing hard. After a moment she crawled to him and opened his pants. He was soft, agitated. The fucking moonshiner was pissing him off.
He’d become quite the thorn, Quey Von Zaul. Sure the ransom for him had been paid but that was the trouble of it when they discovered the girl was hiding in his fucking ranch. Over the course of dealing with him, this Mister Stone had learned things about their operation. He could bring Blue Moon down on them hard, kick in their doors and cripple their organization. Or, as he pointed out, he could simply have them killed.
The Saffron Malformation Page 33
