“They’re selling people like cattle!” His voice was deeper as his outrage showed through. “My people!”
I nodded. “You tried and, for now, I’m satisfied with the answers you gave me. We’ll leave it right there for the moment. Let’s go on in and see the folks inside. I’m getting an idea about what I’m dealing with here. Probably the most civilized bunch I’ve met since I came into this broken city. Can I ask you one thing?”
“What’s that?”
“Why a gorilla?”
“I wanted the strength,” he said with a shrug. “Plus I read way too many Flash comic books as a kid.”
I grinned and followed Eddie around the turn in the hall, then into one of the meeting rooms.
There were boxes of canned food. Not very many boxes, but it was obvious there had been a lot more at one time.
“You guys showed up at a really good time,” he said. “We were about to have to go out and forage. It’s not easy finding anything out there these days and, frankly, I really don’t like the violence.”
“We figured the food was about to run out,” I said. “That’s why we’re here. We want to keep it from going down any further than it already has.”
“I doubt if anyone has even bothered to thank you for what you’re doing,” he said.
“Most of them have been too pissed about us taking their slaves away from them,” I said. “I was really disappointed in the Blues.”
“I imagine so,” he said. “They are the ones we’ve had to fight several times. They’re armed, and they thought pretty highly of themselves. Billy cured that.”
“Billy?’’
“Rhino.” He shrugged. “He’s basically bullet proof when it comes to small arms. That fifty cal of yours would probably get through. I’m glad the Blues didn’t have any bigger guns. How did you end up with that?”
“Pop’s been collecting guns since long before I was even a twinkle in his eye. He had two of the damn things wrapped up in the barn. I don’t even know how much ammo he’d squirrelled away.”
“Lucky he did,” he said.
“We’re all lucky Pop did a lot of things. This whole thing was his idea. I had a problem with it at the beginning, but the deeper we get into the city, the more I realize it’s the right thing to do.”
“Tell me you feel the same after you reach the Circus.”
“Heard about those clowns,” I said. “You haven’t had problems with them, have you?”
“Not yet,” he said. “There will be at some point, and I’m really worried about it. They’ve got a lot of people there. The clowns are freaking insane.”
I stopped walking, and he turned to me.
“Don’t try to fight those guys, Eddie.”
“What?”
“They’re more than just crazy,” I said. “If you haven’t figured it out yet, there’s a bunch of former Obsidian Agents in there. An Agent can match you guys in strength and speed, and possibly surpass you in both. They’re well trained, and they’re good at what they do. I have to go there and do this thing we do, but I don’t want to. If I don’t, though, they’ll run out of food at some point and start raiding. If Agents go out and raid the rest of the city, it’ll be a bloodbath.”
“We’ve heard rumors of Agents,” he said. “I always thought they were a myth until I saw one about ten years ago. It’s why I did this.”
He was pointing at his chest. “I wanted that kind of power. It was so cool watching that woman just jump two stories and scale the wall of a hospital. It was down south, where all the radiation is now.”
“I ran into a few of them in the war with JalCom,” I said. “Then my brother came back after the bombs fell, and I found out he was one of ‘em.”
“Wow,” he said. “What about you? I’ve seen some of the ones you’re talking about come out of the Circus. They seem to move like they’re ready to erupt at any moment. You have that same feel to you.”
“I’m something else,” I said. “Not sure what’s going to happen with me.”
We again proceeded down the outer hallway. When we turned to the left into the main ballroom, I chuckled. The place the rumors claimed all the people who entered met their fate was more like a refugee camp. These people weren’t prisoners, they were refugees from the holocaust outside the walls. They sat in groups talking to one another. The groups had Genos and Humans alike. Some of them were playing cards.
“This can’t last,” he said. “Sooner or later, someone’s gonna find out we’re not what they think we are, and they’ll hit us with more than we can stop outside. We made a choice when the bombs fell to relocate to somewhere we could defend if we need to. We used the fear most people had of the Genofreaks and kept the worst at bay. I, for one, don’t want to be what we might have to become to keep this place safe. Tate tells me you guys want volunteers to go back with you to the Farms?”
“Yep.”
“There are forty-two Genos who lived in Kelly’s Forest subdivision. Most of us made it here. There are a hundred and eighteen others who have joined us since then. How much room you got for volunteers?”
I looked at him with my eyebrow raised.
“Seriously, man. My people have lived through the whole revelation that we’ve lost so many years of life because the geneticists made us promises. Some have lost decades. None of us know when death is going to be right on our doorstep. I don’t know how many years I have, and I damn sure don’t want to live them as a savage in this Fallen World.”
* * * * *
Chapter 22
“They’re all coming with us?” Gary asked.
“Provided the clowns don’t kill us all and take everything.”
“Clowns?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“I got no problem with clowns,” he said. “Ma was scared of them as a kid. She told me about that a long time ago. They never bothered me.”
“They say these are a little different.”
“I guess we’ll see, huh?”
“Tomorrow morning,” I said. “As soon as it gets dark, we’re moving all the people into the Convention Center. No use taking innocents into a firefight.”
“You sure there’s gonna be a fight?” he asked.
“Actually, I don’t know. But I’d rather not get any of these folks killed if I don’t have to.”
He nodded and started checking over the fifty. “Better make sure this is ready if it needs to be.”
“You’re a good man, Gee.”
He grinned and kept his inspection going on the fifty as the wagons moved forward on the littered street. It wasn’t far to the Mint—or the Circus, as the locals called it. We would have all the wagons pulled in close to the Convention Center for the night.
“You sure we can trust these guys?” he asked.
“I think so, but we’ll keep the guards out and the fifty manned. You up for first shift?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Good,” I said. “Just be sure not to stay extra. I need you sharp in the morning when we move out. I want you on the fifty when we get there.”
“Yes, Sir,” he said with a smile.
Gary was young, but I could see some iron in that boy that many of our men didn’t have. Pop said he was just a younger version of me, and I hoped like hell he wasn’t. I guessed the future would tell us whether Pop was right or not.
I left the youngster with the fifty and went inside the Convention Center. I’d take my watch closer to morning, so I laid my saddlebags down and settled into a corner to nap for a little while. I’d found I lacked the need for excessive sleep, but I needed a little to give my mind a rest even if the body didn’t need it.
Sleeping anywhere was a skill I’d acquired when I served in the Infantry. We never knew where we’d be at any given moment. I’d lost some of that as I grew accustomed to sleeping in a bed at home. I’d also grown accustomed to having Neave beside me. This last year had gotten me used to sleeping wherever I laid my head again, but I still missed he
r when I drifted off to sleep. I’m pretty sure I’d miss her for the rest of my days.
I awoke a few hours later to find Gary entering the front doors to the center. I nodded to him, and he laid his pack on the floor next to mine.
“It’s quiet out there,” he said.
I pulled my pack from its resting place. “Maybe that’s a good sign.”
“Doesn’t sound like any city I was ever in. There was always noise in towns.”
“It’s a whole new world,” I said. “Wonder what they would do for electricity?”
“I’d say they’d do about anything.”
“Me, too.” I turned toward the doors. “You get some sleep. Tomorrow could go either way pretty quick.”
“Stupid clowns,” he mumbled as I went out the door.
I grinned and walked down the line of wagons. I was thinking of going out to scout the Circus, but I didn’t want to cause friction with them if I got caught. With Agents working for them, it would be pretty hard to stay concealed.
The night was cool, and I could see many of the guards huddled inside their coats. Having electricity back at the Farms was a little bit of a detriment when we went out on a caravan. Having heat and light spoils a person. But it was good for them all to see what was out here. It was good for all of us.
I spent the rest of the night walking up and down the line of wagons, but the night remained ominously silent. I guessed the people of Philadelphia were all tucked into whatever corner they had, thinking about the awful shit they planned to do to each other the next day. Some would say that was a harsh assessment of humanity, and it may have been, but it still doesn’t make it wrong.
I turned as Eddie walked out the front doors. He waved to me, and I made my way back over.
“Morning,” I said.
There was gunfire from the mall, and he shook his head. “Just a regular morning in paradise.”
“Who’s got the Mall?”
“It changes hands on a regular basis,” he answered.
“We’re going to go straight to the Circus this morning and get it over with. If things go right, we’ll head by the Mall, then back here. Have your people and mine ready to move out. I want to be out of the city by dark, if we can manage it.”
“We’ll be ready. Good luck to you.”
“Hopefully we don’t need luck.”
“Luck is a wonderful thing, Zee.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m just a little worried about how much of it I’ve already used up.”
“That could be an issue,” he said. “Gary told me a little bit about you this morning.”
“He likes to talk,” I said.
“You were one of the three guys who took out Lassiter?”
I grimaced.
“You know it’s become quite the legend on the west side of the city. Until I talked to Gary, I hadn’t connected the Farms you talk about to that incident. One of the people who saw it swore they called themselves Farmers.”
“The boy talks too much.”
“I’m going to take that as a yes.”
“They killed my wife,” I said, looking west. “They paid for that with their lives. If you hurt one Farmer, you hurt us all, and if you hurt us, we will all come for you. It’s the Farmer’s Creed.”
“That’s what you offer to those who come join you?”
“There are requirements to be a Farmer. Everyone works, everyone eats, and everyone fights.”
“That’s fair enough,” he said. “The Farmer’s Creed, I like that.”
“We’ll see how much you like it when you’re picking beans.”
“You’ll be surprised how little that’s going to bother me.”
“Some surprises are a good thing in this Fallen World.”
* * * * *
Chapter 23
Despite my thoughts of going straight through to the Circus, we still ran into two more zones along Arch Street. They were much like all the rest of the zones, to my disappointment. We left with another thirty-eight volunteers, none of whom trusted anyone enough to go to the Convention Center and wait. They were loaded in the back three wagons.
“Clown,” Jimmy said. “On the right.”
“I see him.”
“Two more on the left. Second one is augmented.”
“That’s the one we want to talk to,” I said.
The clown in question raised a radio and said something into it. He waited a couple of seconds and stepped into the street. To our left was a park with a lot of multicolored tents. A little further ahead and to the left was the US Mint. It looked like a pretty well-fortified building. The building beside us was the FBI headquarters Collins had said he used for a vantage point.
“Everyone but me, stay back. Gee, be ready on that fifty.”
I slid off Dagger and handed the reins to Phil Clayton.
“Be careful,” he muttered.
The augmented clown waited in the center of the street, his colorful clothing fluttering in the breeze that softly blew between the buildings. In another world this would be the place where people lined up to have one of the best times of their lives. As I looked at the cruel faces under the makeup of the two clowns flanking the leader, I figured fun was not what these people specialized in.
“That’s close enough,” the leader said. “What business do you have with the Circus?”
“My name is Zebadiah Pratt,” I said. “We come from the Farms out west of the city. We figured food was getting short and started bringing what we could into the city and distributing it.”
“A familiar name,” he said. “The same Pratt who put an end to the Food Riots? The man who took out the Falcons? I was under the impression he was not an Agent.”
“I’m not,” I said. “I’m something else.”
“Teledyne?” he asked with eyebrows raised.
“No, but I’m not here to discuss the past. I’m here to discuss the future.”
He smiled, eyes roving over the wagons.
“You seem to have come prepared,” he said. “Fifty?”
“Yep.”
“My boss will be here in a moment,” he said. “We can discuss the future when he gets here. I wish to continue talking of the past. You stand here claiming neither Agent nor Specialist, yet you’re obviously augmented. I’m extremely curious about that.”
“I’ll bet you are,” I said. “I’m a little curious, too.”
“Question for a question? Nothing is free at the Circus.”
“Okay, why are Agents running something like this?”
I was glancing between the two other clowns. Both were quite different in physical traits, but they almost moved in unison. They frowned at the same time; they were creepy as hell.
“We’re guards. We are doing our job.”
I nodded. “I’m assuming you want to know about the augments?”
He nodded.
“Blood transfusion from an Agent with close enough genetics not to kill me.”
“Ahh, you get all the pros and none of the cons.”
“Have to eat a lot,” I said. “I’m guessing you do, too.”
“It’s becoming a problem,” he said.
“Why are we talking to this guy?” left clown asked.
“We should just kill them,” right clown said.
“A little bloodthirsty, aren’t they?” I asked.
“They are.”
I saw a small group of clowns leave the Mint and head in our direction.
“Your boss?”
“Yes.”
The guy in the front of the group was augmented, but he seemed a lot more dangerous than the one I was talking to. Not sure what I was picking up on, but he seemed a lot more like Jimmy than the first one. I’m not sure if he was as good as Jimmy, but he was definitely using a different imprint than the other.
“Who is this, Funboy?”
The clown I had been talking to sighed. “You know I hate that name, Boss.”
“I hate when my boys start talking too
much,” the new guy said.
“It was an equitable trade,” Funboy said.
“Maybe,” he returned. “We’ll see.”
He stepped forward to stand directly in front of me. “Now, what’s your business with the Circus?”
“As I was telling your man there, we’re from the Farms out west of the city. We know supplies are getting scarce, and we came to help.”
“Out of the goodness of your hearts?”
“Out of the goodness of the Steadholder’s heart. I just wanted to burn it down, but Pop wants to save what can be saved.”
“What is it you want here?”
“What I have is a sack of these tokens. I’ll give each person in the zone thirty of these. Each token is good for one of these.”
I motioned for Phil.
He tossed me one of the MREs.
I handed it to the clown.
“Some of them taste like shit,” I said, “but you can survive on them.”
“Tell me,” he said, “why are you giving these away? Many would kill for these.”
“Like I said, Pop wants to save as much as we can.”
“Besides saving the world,” he said with hands outstretched, “what’s in it for you? No one does something like this with no payoff.”
“We recruit for the Farms while we’re here. People who are held against their will tend to want to leave.”
“Ah, you want the slaves.”
“Yeah, we want the slaves. You see, I have a real problem with slavery.”
“Yet you’ll not take any of ours,” he said. “With the others, you had your men and guns to back you up. Here, none of that matters.”
“I’m not talking about taking slaves,” I said. “We came to an agreement with all the others. When someone comes with us, they don’t need their thirty MREs. The zone gets them. Basically I’m offering you that for each slave who wants to go with us.”
“So you give away what you were already giving away, and you leave with the slaves.”
“I guess you could look at it that way.”
“I do, and there won’t be a deal like that done here,” he said. “Here you don’t have the upper hand. I could take everything you have and gain a hundred or more slaves.”
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