by Brian Parker
“How’s it taste, honey?”
She waited for his answer and then slammed the knife into his chest, leaving it in. “Okay, this is boring. See ya.”
Starr pushed up off of his stomach and wiped her bloody hands on his pant leg before wandering off into the corn field.
Kendrick realized the irony that he lay beside his stepfather’s body, bleeding to death. The one man who only two weeks prior would have done anything for him. Instead, the son had attacked his home, destroyed everything that he’d worked for and orchestrated the man’s death. Kendrick wanted to beg the corpse for an apology, but his pride wouldn’t allow him to do it.
Instead, he turned his head, choosing to stare at the green fields that he’d worked as a child. He tried to conjure up fond memories. The only ones that would come were of the shame and humiliation he felt from being lied to by Traxx, who pretended to be his father.
Kendrick watched the gently swaying corn stalks, feeding on his hatred of Traxx, until he died.
*****
They ran as soon as the girl appeared and provided the needed distraction. Aiden’s legs were bruised, probably bleeding underneath his jeans. He’d never given any thought to how tough sweet potato plants were before now.
What are you doing, you selfish turd? his mind screamed at him. His grandfather was dead and that madman had cut his head off. Why had he cut the head off of a dead man? What purpose did that serve?
He’d been the one who cried out when that happened and made those men come to investigate the noise. Tyler had made quick and quiet work of them and now he was covered in the blood of his grandfather and the three strangers.
Aiden had learned a great deal about Tyler from his grandfather over the last week when the man was bedridden after his heart attack. To the boy, he’d always been the big, goofy uncle who was clumsy and knocked things over because he couldn’t see well, especially in the dark. Aiden had been around him almost every day of his life until he got sick about a year ago and until last week, he thought he knew all that there was to know about him.
Further proof that he didn’t really know his uncle was the way that Tyler had flipped the switch from sorrow to mind-numbing violence when those three men entered the field and scared Aiden. He’d never witnessed anything like it before and he was in awe of the man’s capability to kill so effortlessly.
They’d run for a good ten minutes, jumping over old golf cart paths into new types of crops, never daring to run down the path itself, when Tyler called for a halt. “I’m sorry, Aiden,” he said between great, heaving coughs that spewed blood in all directions. “I need to walk. I can’t keep going like this… Just need a break.”
“It’s okay, Uncle Tyler. I know that you’re sick.”
He coughed into his clinched fist again and then craned his neck far to the side so he could see Aiden around his eye patch. “You know I’m not your real uncle, right?”
Aiden took an exaggerated step over a large watermelon. “Yeah, I know. Grandad told me all about you and him last week while he was resting.”
“Did he? Only the good parts, I hope.”
The boy shrugged, “I don’t know. He might have left out parts of the story, but I don’t think so. He seemed to think it was pretty important that I know the Traxx family history.”
Tyler nodded, “Your grandfather was a smart man—way smarter than me—and honest. Good Lord, was he honest.” He laughed and that turned into another coughing fit.
When that passed him by, he pointed to his eye patch and said, “We didn’t always see eye-to-eye, no pun intended.”
Aiden rolled his eyes and replied, “Ha ha, Uncle Tyler.”
A massive hand landed on his shoulder. “Look, son. I’m having a hard time dealing with Aeric’s loss as well. We’ve been almost inseparable for more than thirty years and now he’s gone. It’s… It’s tough.
“I told him…” he sniffled, causing Aiden to look up at him. Was he crying? “Only a few hours ago, I told him that our friendship was over. I’d disagreed with something that he did. Looking back on it, he was right. Those kids would have caused further damage to the survivors of the battle. It had to be done.”
“I’m confused. What had to be done?” Aiden asked.
“We had to kill them,” he replied. Over the next several minutes, Tyler related the events that had occurred in the Barrio after Aiden went to warn his grandmother.
Gunshots rang out occasionally while Tyler told the rest of their story. When it was complete, Aiden took a deep breath and let it out. “I knew those kids. They weren’t much older than me. I can’t believe that Grandad killed them like that.”
“I felt the same way at the time. I know now that it had to be done. Look at what they did to the city with the fires and all the death that they caused by blowing a hole in the wall. They were evil.”
Aiden nodded. “Most of ‘em were, but not all. Flame was a good guy when the rest of them weren’t around. He was just scared and tried to join whatever team gave him the best chance at survival.”
“You’re probably right,” Tyler agreed. “Thankfully, your Grandad took that option away from me and didn’t let me vote. He eliminated any chance at further betrayal. He was exactly the strong, confident leader that this city needed.”
They traveled in silence after that until they came to the end of the fields. The Northern Gate was on the other side of the darkened medical supply factory that seemed to absorb the darkness around it. They could hear the murmur of a large crowd of people. The survivors of San Angelo had remembered the fallback point in Tennyson and were trying to escape.
“I wonder how many people made it out,” Aiden contemplated aloud.
They rounded the corner of the building and saw hundreds of people holding backpacks and suitcases. Some people had carts and wheelbarrows loaded with their possessions. Tyler clapped him lightly across the back, “I bet most everyone did. That’s why there’s so many of them.”
The crowd seemed to be milling about, not exiting as they should, so Tyler asked a woman in the back who was trying hard to keep six children together. “Hey, why aren’t people leaving? We can’t stay here any longer.”
She looked him up and down. Her eyes went wide at the blood covering him. She put her hands over the eyes of a young boy, replying, “The Shooters only have two trucks; they’re taking as many at a time as they can.”
“What? Everyone is waiting for a ride? The Vultures are all over the city, we need to leave. Now!”
“Don’t bark at me, soldier. I already have two other families’ children to watch because they went off to fight. We’re doing what we can.”
Aiden watched the interaction and the expression that passed across Tyler’s face. The big man was about to explode. He reached out and tapped him on the arm. “Uncle Tyler, you’ve gotta get up high where everyone can see you and tell them. Talking to one lady isn’t gonna help.”
He ruffled Aiden’s hair and he felt several strands stick to the mess on Tyler’s hand. “Sorry, Aiden,” he apologized and wiped his hands on his pants. “You’re right. Come on, stay with me.”
They shoved their way through the crowd until they came to an old car that had been modified to act as the gate. Giant pieces of metal were bolted to one side and a team of men would roll it into position when the gate was closed. Tyler climbed on the car’s hood and shouted for the crowd to listen to him. Even Aiden, who was only a few feet away, had a hard time hearing him over the murmur.
Emotions played across his uncle’s face, the scar that disappeared under the eye patch where his eye had been poked out by the Vultures stood out stark white against the deepening red of his face. Tyler pulled his pistol from the holster on his shoulder and fired two rounds into the air.
Several people screamed while others raised weapons towards him. Once most people had quieted down, he yelled, “Listen up! I’m Tyler Nordgren, a lot of y’all know me. Until I got sick I was in charge of the Gathering Squad
. We have to leave, now! We can’t wait for the Shooters to come back with their trucks. It’s an hour round-trip up to Tennyson. The Vultures are inside the city and getting closer every second.”
“Where is anyone who’s still in charge of anything, Tyler?” a man yelled.
Aiden recognized him as Christian Santos, one of the engineers who helped Mr. Winston maintain the walls before he died. “To be honest with you, I don’t know where Captain Griffith or Nicole Martin are.”
“What about Traxx? Nobody’s seen him since the explosion down south.”
“Aeric…” Tyler took a breath and then coughed. “Aeric is dead. The Vultures killed him when we were making our way across the old golf course fields.”
Several people gasped and looked to the southwest in alarm. “That’s what I mean,” Tyler shouted them down. “The Vultures aren’t far; we need to leave. Take what you can and start walking. Hopefully they’ll be satisfied with sacking the city and taking our supplies and just let us escape.”
“How do we know that you’re telling the truth? Maybe you and the other Gatherers just want us to leave so you can have everything to yourself.”
Several people shouted encouragement for the dissenter and the crowd began to become rowdy. Aiden scrambled up the hood and stood beside Tyler. “My Grandad died right over there,” he said as he pointed towards the fields. “I watched one of them cut his head off with a knife.”
The crowd slowly began to quiet down at his words and Aiden continued, “Aeric Traxx was trying to make it to the Northern Gate to make sure people got out of the city. San Angelo is lost. The Vultures own it now. They were the ones who set the fires; Aeric killed them. He killed all of the infiltrators except Edward Huerta. He’s the leader of the Vultures in San Angelo and he’s the reason that the wall exploded.”
A commotion in the center of the crowd caught his attention. The scuffle lasted for a full minute before several men dragged a bruised and battered Huerta through the press of bodies. They dropped him heavily to the ground and Tyler eased off the hood of the car, and then walked over to the traitor.
“Why did you do it, Ed?” Tyler asked between wheezing breaths.
“Because you people are so simple. None of you understand that the Vultures are the only power that matters anymore. We were the creators of the Reset and we’ll be here long after you pathetic worms are gone. The Christian bible was wrong. The mighty shall inherit the earth; the meek are just fodder to be trampled upon under the soles of our boots!”
Tyler shook his head and muttered, “I haven’t heard that shit since I was a prisoner in Austin. Is that where you were before all of this? Did you come from Austin?”
Huerta’s eyes shone brightly in the moonlight. “I was one of Justin’s original disciples. I knew the man and was there when you people killed him. I followed you and Traxx here all those years ago to keep an eye on you until the Vultures could reestablish control after you’d cut off our head. Kendrick offered to make me his second in command once every one of you was dead.”
“Is that why you’re trying to sneak up to Tennyson? Were you planning to betray us there as well?”
Huerta shrugged, “The offer was plain that all of the city’s leadership had to be dead. I’m simply following through on my investment.”
“In fact, as soon as I can, I will kill all of you, just like that bastard Traxx—”
Aiden jumped backwards and almost fell off the car. The impossibly long blade of a sword pushed its way through Huerta’s chest from behind. The Vulture gurgled and slapped ineffectively at the blade before falling. When he fell, Aiden saw his grandmother, Veronica, standing in the front of the crowd. She held Aeric’s old sword that he used to spend hours training with in case the ammunition ever ran out.
“Grandma!” Aiden shouted and jumped from the car. He dodged around the body and hugged her tightly. “I thought you’d gone.”
“We tried to, but got stuck in this crowd.”
Aiden looked expectantly behind her. He saw his brother Alex and a few of his cousins. There wasn’t any sign of his parents. “Dad?” Aiden asked expectantly.
Veronica shook her head. “He was stationed out on the western perimeter along with your mother and uncles. I haven’t seen any of them since they left John and Anthony with me.”
Aiden suppressed the urge to cry. His grandfather had been a great man, the leader of everyone here. He could hold it together for a little while longer if it meant that they’d be able to help save everyone. “Alright,” he said loudly so others could hear him. “My father and mother know where Tennyson is. It’s our duty to escape so we can survive. If they make it out of the city, they’ll meet us there.”
Several people murmured approval at his words and he was clapped on the back and hugged more times than he could count. Words of encouragement and sympathy passed over him from friends and strangers on their way towards the gate. His grandfather had been well-respected and most people seemed to genuinely like him because he was willing to make the hard choices when others wouldn’t. Aiden grasped his grandmother’s hand and shuffled his feet along with everyone else.
The press of the bodies began to lessen as the crowd streamed out of the open gates into the wasteland beyond. Most of them, Aiden included, had never been beyond the walls once they were built. It was simply too dangerous in the outside world. That way of thinking would have to change for the time being…at least until they found a new home.
Aiden knew that Tennyson was only a temporary solution. They couldn’t stay there forever. The Vultures were a plague. They’d use up the resources in San Antonio and move to the next place. At best, they could only stay a few days before it became prudent to leave once again and get ahead of their enemies.
He kicked his foot at a fresh pile of ash, the remnant of a home near the gate that had burned quickly when the Vultures started the fires earlier in the day. The gray flakes flew outward in all directions, a few of them landing on his nose and causing him to cough.
The only place that he’d ever lived disappeared slowly behind him, one step at a time.
EPILOGUE
“That’s how we came here, Grandad?” Tanya asked.
“Hmm? Yes, dear. Tyler led our group to Tennyson. Out of the five thousand or so who’d started the day in San Angelo, less than a thousand made it to Tennyson.”
“Were all of them killed?” she asked.
“Nobody knows for sure about the residents who didn’t make it to Tennyson because the Vultures occupied the city after that. We know that most of the Shooters and Gathering Squad were killed in the morning when they blew the wall and during the stand at the Provisions Warehouse. People continued to trickle in for weeks after the city fell…” he trailed off. It had been a lifetime since he’d thought about most of the people whom he’d known as a child that died in San Angelo.
“My father and mother were in Tennyson when we got there. Both of my real uncles were dead, along with one of my aunts who’d been killed by a stray demonbroc when they fell back from the walls on the western side of the city.
“Kayla was there with Anna, your grandma, when we arrived at the stronghold as well, but Tyler died a few days after he convinced everyone to take a chance in the wasteland and led the group to Tennyson. We never heard anything about what happened to Nicole. They may not have been lovers, but Tyler and Nicole were absolutely in love. Her loss tore him up more than the cancer ever could have and he lost his battle.”
“So, Maria’s vision that Tyler would save everyone was true?”
Aiden grinned at her. “I never believed that looney old bird could predict the future, but yes, in a sense, all of her visions came to pass, more or less. The funny thing is that my grandmother never had any more visions after the city was destroyed. She lived to be almost ninety years old, even with all the radiation and poor diet that we were subjected to on the journey here.”
“Wow, she lived a long time,” the little girl said solemnly.<
br />
He nodded. “Veronica Traxx is the matriarch of our family. She brought Aeric to San Angelo and she was the one who made the decision about where to go from Tennyson. She even convinced several other families to go into the wilds with us. Without her, we probably would have stayed in Tennyson.”
“Did you leave the new place because of the Vultures?”
He shrugged, the girl lifting into the air as his stomach muscles contracted. “That’s one of the reasons. There were rumors that Starr became the leader of the Vultures and enslaved everyone who’d chosen to stay in San Angelo. We thought it best to leave and take our chances far away from them.”
He chuckled, trying to lighten the girl’s mood. “You know, Maria survived too.”
“She did?”
“Yeah. She married my brother Alex.”
“Aunt Mary was Maria? Is that why you called her a looney old bird?”
Aiden nodded his head. “She changed her name after we left Tennyson. The name Maria had been given to her by people who abandoned her and reminded her too much of the harshness of the Barrio, so she altered it slightly. When she married….”
He swiped angrily at his eyes, muttering, “Damn, must be some flies in here or something.”
“It’s okay to cry about Uncle Alex.”
Aiden smiled sadly at his granddaughter and wiped at his eyes again. “Thank you, sweetie, I’m better now. When Mary and Alex got married, the one thing that she wanted most in life was beyond them. They tried for years to have a family. Unfortunately, she never became pregnant and died without any children.
“Now that Alex is dead, I’m the only person alive who knew Aeric Traxx.”
Tanya lay against him and rested her head on his chest. “Grandad, I know the story of our family now and I won’t forget about Aeric,” she stated solemnly. “Or Tyler or Veronica. We’re alive because of them.”
The front door opened and closed. He looked up expectantly towards the study door. Aiden’s two remaining sons appeared and Blake shook his head slightly. They hadn’t found the boys.
