Fireside

by Brian Parker

  “What if I don’t?”

  “Dad, don’t say that!” Kayla exclaimed. “You’re gonna pull through whatever is making you sick. Anna needs her grandpa in her life.”

  Tyler’s grim expression softened. “Oh, I’ll be here. Don’t worry, sweetie.”

  Anna started to cry and he handed her back to her mother who slipped the baby under her shirt to feed. Aeric stood aside and watched the small family’s interaction with one another. He’d been the one to slight the Vultures, causing them to seek him out. If it wasn’t for him, they probably wouldn’t even know that San Angelo still existed. He needed to do whatever he could to keep his friends and family safe. It was his duty to protect them and put a stop to this whole mess.

  He’d made up his mind about what he was going to do, regardless of Veronica’s protests. He’d vowed to himself long ago that he would never allow himself to be hunted down again. Aeric was a hunter; he didn’t cower in the corner, waiting for someone to attack him. He went out and met them on his own terms.

  His friends and family were the most important things in his life, a close second was the city of San Angelo, and he’d do whatever he could to end this before it even began. He planned to leave for Austin first thing in the morning.

  TEN

  “The little girl, Anna, that’s Grandma, right?” Tanya asked with wide eyes.

  Aiden adjusted the pillow under his arm and used his good hand to pull it in closer to his side. “Yes, child. Kayla, was the little girl that Aeric and Tyler rescued when they went to Missouri to find Aeric’s family. She grew up and had Anna, whom I married years later, after the fall of the city.”

  “Are you making all of this up, Grandad?”

  He chuckled and accidentally swallowed a little bit of saliva, causing him to choke. Tanya backed away, frightened that he was going to be sick. He raised his hand to let her know that he was fine. “I’m okay. I’m okay, just swallowed some spit.”

  He gestured weakly and said, “Come back over here. I promise that I’m not making this up. It really happened.”

  “What about Kate’s sister, uh…”

  “Julie.”

  “Yeah. What about Julie, is she in this story too?”

  “No, I’m sorry, child. Julie died of the flu or dysentery or one of the other godawful diseases that hit the city after her sister died. So many people died between when Aeric first came to the city and when I was born. It’s a miracle that most of our family survived.”

  Tanya’s eyes fell to her lap. Aiden had to strain to hear her tiny voice, “Grandad, why does everyone die?”

  “It’s a part of life, sweetheart. Everyone—and everything—dies at some point. There’s nothing we can do about it. The real measure of a life is how you choose to live it.”

  “Like you and Aeric?”

  “Yes, like all of our ancestors. I’ll die one day—no, not today,” he smiled at her expression. “When I do, I want you and your cousins and all of the family to say that I lived an honorable life. That you are proud to be related to me.”

  “Of course I am, Grandad,” she said and hugged his neck a little too roughly.

  “Then I can die a happy man, and know that I did my duty for our family.”

  *****

  Aeric waved at the trucks as they headed back towards San Angelo on the old road. He’d gone to Lorelei and asked for a lift to the edge of the renewed patrolling area. He hadn’t wanted to risk going any closer to Austin in the Shooters’ loud, steam-powered trucks, so he figured the town of Eden would be fine. That way, the city’s defenders could make a loop through the outer defensive perimeter and it would save him about thirty miles of riding.

  Of course, Lorelei had insisted on coming with him, which he’d refused. Her place was leading the defense of the city and ensuring that all of the residents there were safe. She eventually relented. It didn’t stop her from trying to load him down with more weapons than he could feasibly handle. He’d taken a 30.06 rifle with a high-powered scope and silencer, instead of the 30-30 that he’d had forever, because he needed the stopping power at a distance that the larger caliber would give him. He also had a military style M-4 rifle for close targets, ammo for both weapons, and his fighting knife. Everything else was too unwieldy to balance on a bike for the two hundred and fifty mile round trip.

  He watched the twin rooster-tails of dust recede in the distance and then lifted his leg up over the frame of his bicycle. He had about a hundred miles to ride; if he pushed it, he could be on the outskirts of the old Austin city limits within a few days.

  “Mind if I tag along?” a familiar voice called out from behind the wreckage of an old car beside the highway.

  He turned slowly back to where Joseph emerged pushing a bicycle of his own. He must have been in the second truck and hidden until they were too far away for Aeric to call them back. “What the hell are you doing here, Joe?”

  “You need help. You can’t do this on your own.”

  “I don’t need your help. I’m not planning on staying long; just gonna snoop around, see what they’re up to and then get out.”

  “Don’t lie to me, Traxx. If that were the case, you probably wouldn’t have taken a sniper rifle as well as an assault rifle. I think you want to take out the leader of the gang and you hope it will be enough to end this.”

  Aeric set his jaw. That was exactly what he planned to do. The only person he’d told that to was Veronica, though. How had Joseph learned of it? “Who told you that ridiculous story?”

  “Call it a hunch,” Joe replied. “Look, you can’t make it there in one day, so you’ll need someone to share guard shifts with at night and I can be a spotter for you when you’re using that big rifle.”

  Dammit! He had a good point about sharing responsibility during the night. Travelers who fell asleep unguarded tended to end up dead—or worse. He absently rubbed at the chain scars across his hand; there were much worse things than death to contend with in this world.

  “Fine, you can come with me.” Aeric held up a finger in warning, “If you get in my way, we’re done. If I see a target, man or woman, that I think is a threat to San Angelo, then I’m taking the shot. Understand?”

  Joseph smiled, “Of course, sir. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Let’s go see what these Vultures are made of.”

  Aeric ducked his chin in approval and hopped on the bike. He had to readjust the big sniper rifle across his back and then adjusted the Velcro straps on the handlebar so he could secure the M-4 rifle. Once all of that was done, they began the first leg of their journey towards Austin.

  They made it less than a mile out of the remaining one hundred and fifty before Joseph saw movement in the old prison that caused them to veer sharply off the road. A man with a horribly disfigured leg that angled outwards limped rapidly across the yard.

  Aeric pulled the strap holding his rifle to the bike and pulled the weapon up against his shoulder in a practiced motion. He fired one shot along the man’s line of escape, kicking dirt up into the air. The man stopped and raised both hands over his head.

  “Grab him!” Aeric ordered, causing the old man to begin running again.

  Joseph weaseled his way through a cut in the chain link fence while Aeric kept his rifle sites in the small of the man’s back. The chase was over before it began; the disfigurement to his leg made him an easy target for the physically fit Shooter. He picked up the older man like he weighed nothing and carried him back towards the road. After a little maneuvering, the Shooter was able to get him out of the prison’s fence and into the street where Aeric stood waiting.

  Besides the wretched leg, the old man was as thin as a pole and absolutely filthy. His clothing must have been an orange prison jumpsuit at one time, now it was a dull, muted brown with splatters of what must have been either paint or blood. Aeric looked him up and down, noting the rags on both of his hands, one of them clearly missing at least two fingers.

  “What are you doing out here?” Aeric a
sked.

  “Old Judd lives here! This is my home!” the man replied.

  “Shut up, don’t tell them anything!” he said in a different voice.

  “It’s better to tell them the truth. Maybe they’ll let you live.”

  Aeric held up his hands and shouted, “Stop! What the hell is going on?”

  The man, whom Aeric realized was probably insane, got a sly grin on his face and in a completely different voice, he said, “Don’t tell them about the Vultures. Let the fools stumble into the master’s trap.”

  “Darn it, you fool! Stop thinking about it, they can hear your thoughts.” The old man collapsed to the ground and held his hands against his ears as he writhed on his side.

  Aeric’s eyes met Joseph’s. “What the hell is wrong with this guy?” the Shooter asked.

  “He’s crazy. Normally, I’d say we should just bypass him except that he mentioned us getting trapped by the Vultures,” Aeric replied. “So that means he knows something… We’ve just gotta figure out how to get it out of him.”

  He looked back down to the pathetic creature on the ground trying to “hide” his thoughts from the newcomers. “Alright, you…uh, Judd? Hey, stop that. We can’t read your thoughts.”

  “Even if we could, why would we?” Joe snorted. “He keeps telling us what he’s thinking.”

  The watcher stopped and looked up at Joseph. “What did you say?”

  He crouched and got at eye level with Judd. “I said that you keep talking out loud and telling us what you’re thinking.”

  “Dammit, Jake!” he shouted, causing Joseph to jump back involuntarily. “I told you to stay inside your room!”

  He glanced over at Aeric and adopted an apologetic countenance. “I’m sorry, sir. My friends sometimes shout things from their cells.” Then he put his hand up beside his mouth, hiding what he said from the prison, whispering, “They’re kinda crazy sometimes. They’re locked in their room, but boy, they like to shout like a bunch of monkeys at the zoo!”

  Aeric didn’t know what to make of Judd. Clearly, he was insane; his eyes spoke volumes in that regard. What he didn’t know was whether the old man was truly alone or if there were more people inside. And he sure as hell hadn’t expected to get sidetracked before he even left the drop-off point.

  “So, your friends are locked inside? Do you have any who come outside with you?”

  “Of course he does! I’m here,” Judd muttered. “I’m always being dragged places I don’t want to go.”

  “Lawrence, I thought you liked the fresh air. Don’t be like this,” Judd accused himself.

  “No, I like the fresh air,” he countered. Aeric sensed that whoever was talking now was at least the third personality inside the old man’s mind.

  “Look, this isn’t getting us anywhere,” Traxx stated. “How many people do you feed?”

  “Hmm?” Judd asked, clearly confused. “Feed? Like who eats in the prison?”

  “Yeah. How many people eat your food supply?”

  “I, uh…” His face screwed up in thought for a moment and then he replied, “I guess just me. Nobody else ever asks for any food. But I don’t have enough for you to take any! We’ll die if you take our food.”

  “Okay, that’s what I thought.” Aeric motioned to Judd and told Joseph, “It’s just him. We can probably relax a little bit.”

  He nodded in agreement and then picked Judd back up, pulling him into the shade of the watch tower that he’d observed them from originally. “Okay, old man,” Joe said as he slid his hands out from underneath Judd and then wiped them on his pant legs. “What did you mean about a trap set by the Vultures?”

  Judd recoiled as if he’d been slapped. “I… I didn’t say anything about a trap.”

  “Don’t tell them anything!” he said immediately after the word “trap” was out of his mouth.

  “Alright, I’ve had just about enough of this crap. I want to talk to Judd,” Aeric demanded.

  “I’m right here talking to you. No need to shout at me,” Judd moaned.

  “What trap are the Vultures setting?”

  “I don’t know! I promise. They gave me a radio—a real-live, working radio!—and told me to call them when the soldiers from Salmon-Jello came back. So I called them.”

  “Shut up you fool,” Judd’s second—or third—personality said.

  Aeric ignored Number Two and asked, “Did they tell you what they were going to do?”

  “No! The master wouldn’t trust poor old Judd with that. Think about it, dummy. I’m here, all alone…since my friends are hiding!” he shouted. “If they told me what they were going to do, people like you would find out.”

  Aeric clenched and unclenched his jaw. The old man had a radio to contact Austin? Maybe he could call them and find out what their plan was. “Okay, get up,” he ordered. “Where’s this radio of yours at?”

  “It’s upstairs, in the warden’s office.”

  “Let’s go, then,” Aeric said. “I want to see your radio.”

  Judd looked back and forth between Aeric’s stern, fatherly appearance and Joseph’s overtly hostile demeanor and apparently decided to do what the men ordered. He pushed himself up painfully, “The master will be very mad at us.”

  “Shut up. You’ve already told them about the radio. There’s nothing I could do to keep your mouth shut.”

  “Okay, stop it!” Aeric thundered. “I only want Judd to talk. The next person to say anything, whether it’s Lawrence, Fred or goddamned Michael Jackson, I will beat the shit out of you guys. Understand?”

  The old man nodded his head forlornly. “Sorry, sir. They can’t help themselves sometimes. We do love Michael Jackson though. Do you have any of his music?”

  Judd started bobbing his head to some imagined tune and Aeric sighed, “No, Judd. Nothing electric works anymore.”

  “Ha! You’re wrong!” he said, hopping on his good leg while he held his bandaged hand in the air. “I have a working radio. It doesn’t play music, though. A woman talks to me on it.”

  “Well, then let’s go see this radio of yours.”

  He stopped dancing and pulled his hands in close to his body while he hunched himself up. “You’re not going to try to take my radio are you?”

  “You can’t take our radio! The pretty lady—”

  The other personality was cut off by a quick punch to the side of the head from Joseph. “Traxx said only Judd could talk.”

  “You’re right, you’re right,” Judd said rubbing his head and then pulling away a scab there. “The master will be very mad at you for hitting me. Only he’s allowed to hit me.”

  The old man popped the scab into his mouth and Aeric cringed. “Take us to your radio. Now,” he ordered.

  Judd looked hurt emotionally, not physically. “You two are mean-spirited. If the nurses were still here, they’d put you in solitary for being so rude.”

  “Talk and walk, Judd,” Aeric sighed again. Judd was wearing on his nerves.

  “Huh? Oh yeah, you want to see my radio. This way!” He turned sideways and slid through the chain link fence and limped off into the compound.

  They followed him across the courtyard and into a building marked CELLBLOCK B, then through a dark, smelly hallway. Cells lined both sides, their occupants long dead. Some of the cells had bones scattered around like they’d been torn apart by animals who couldn’t fit the bones through the bars, while others had complete skeletons, resting peacefully on their beds. Aeric had seen these same prisoners decades ago when they were here and guessed that the locks wouldn’t open after the power went out and everyone in the cellblock starved to death. What a shitty way to die.

  Just before the stairs to the second floor, they came across something truly disturbing. Giant birds, presumably vultures, were painted on the cinder block walls. The paint was mostly a dull, light brown color, sometimes dark brown where the fluids had pooled heavily. Aeric stepped closer and saw bloody rags along the base of the wall and a knife.

>   “Judd, did you cut yourself to create these?”

  He unwrapped his hand and held it up. A partially-healed scab covered the injury where his index finger had been chopped away at the closest joint to his palm and a fresh wound indicated a more recent removal of his middle finger at the first joint. “Paint! We needed paint! We learned after the first time,” he grinned as he pointed at the nub where his index finger used to be. “Oh yes, we learned. This one was too far, too much gone! Now, when we need more paint… Just the tip! Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!”

  “You sound—”

  “Shut up! He’ll hit you again.”

  “Both of you, shut up,” Aeric told Judd. “So, you painted these giant birds, why?”

  “Vultures! They are vultures! The master will be pleased when he sees them.”

  “Your master, when was the last time you saw him?”

  Judd’s face fell. The joy and elation at showing off his masterpiece drained away from him. “It’s been forever. What’s it been?”

  “At least ten years.”

  “More like fifteen, you idiot.”

  Aeric held up his hands to quiet them down. “Okay, it’s been a long time. It’s a dangerous world out there, are you sure that your master is even alive anymore?”

  Without warning, Judd sprang at Aeric. He landed on his chest, knocking him backwards. As they fell, Judd beat weakly at Aeric’s face screaming, “The master loves me! He said he’d reward me for telling him when the Jello soldiers returned. They know! The Vultures are going to kill the Jello people.”

  Aeric hit the ground hard, then rolled to the side. Judd scrambled after him and Aeric kicked out with his boot, catching the insane watcher squarely on the chin. He dropped, out cold.

  “Where the hell were you?” Aeric asked Joseph.

  “I was in shock that the… Holy shit, you should’ve… You should’ve…” Joseph started laughing uncontrollably. “That little old crippled man just attacked you. Oh god, that was funny.”

  “He could have had a knife and that ‘little old crippled man’ could have killed me as quick as a demonbroc, Joe.”