by P. S. Power
“Some of the other girls caught me out alone, going to the showers this morning. I’m not so popular at the moment.” She looked down, sad, a tear coming to her eye.
“I see. Is it because of your totally lame attempt to fight three zombies in the snow with your bare hands? Because you know, I can kind of see it if that’s the case. Next time take weapons, and plan things out a little. Clear some ground so you won’t slip, and learn some things, like… that it’s nearly impossible to take out even a single zombie without a weapon. You need at least a stick and even then, I’ve only seen that work a few times. I don’t know, interview Vickie and Tipper, maybe some of the other Cleaners at the House first, since they have the field experience, and draw up a plan?” Jake didn’t smile, knowing that to this girl, getting a good name was really important.
“I’ll bring help in case you need backup and we’ll have a party after. Just a little one though, with no poisoning attempts and about five people.”
Six laughed. It was a real thing, if a bit depressed.
“I don’t think I’m going to be allowed to leave here alive. Only the words that you spoke to my mother have let me last this long. A few more weeks and someone will forget, in a rage, and go too far. Or maybe it will be many people. I can’t fight an army alone. It is what I deserve for my failure. For my stupidity. Still, thank you for making the offer. It means much to me.”
No one spoke for a while until Yalla came in, having run herself. The place was bigger than the farm the House was on, but it clearly wasn’t vast. That or they both lived by the visitor’s center.
Instead of letting the woman say anything, Jake silenced her with a look. He smiled too, but it probably wasn’t the peaceful thing that any of them expected. She was dressed like the others had been, but with a blue shirt showing under the white snow outfit. The front of the outer jacket was half undone.
“Hi Yalla. Say, do you mind if we steal Six away for a bit? She’s going to go and get her name, for real this time. I don’t know the rules for that… Say, would you like to come down for that too? There’s going to be a party after. You know, if she doesn’t die. She shouldn’t, this time she’s going to learn strategy first and all that. If that’s allowed I mean?” He didn’t look away from the woman, who had pretty light blue eyes, but a kind of mannish and lightly lined face. Crow’s feet at the eyes and lines around the mouth. More like Tipper than Vickie.
“For that matter, we’ll get everyone in for it, small party be damned. She kind of needs to redeem the Valkyrie name right now. How embarrassing... messing up and having to be bailed out by A Very Good Man… It's like a lion being saved by a bunny or something.” He shook his head sadly at that last line, but Cam laughed.
Then the Teleporting girl nodded at Six.
“That’s a good plan. Really the big thing in all this, too. Don’t want people to think you’re a wimp or anything. At least, if we present it that way to people often enough they might agree that it’s pretty much fixed when she earns her name. Do you have one picked out yet? I always thought 'Cameron' was a nice name for a girl…” A chuckled followed her own joke, but Six just nodded.
“It is indeed a good name. I have another in mind though, a name of great honor and power.” She let her chin come up then, proudly.
“When I have a name, the world shall know me and sing songs of me to train their children the meaning of courage. They shall all sing the praises of…”
The pause was totally for dramatic effect and her mother rolled her eyes, trying not to grin. So Yalla might have been mad at her daughter, but was probably not setting her up to actually die. Six looked at Jake directly then and finished it her voice going a little loud for comfort.
“Matilde!”
Chapter six
Yalla didn’t say anything for a while, but she walked slowly over to Jake and finally, slowly, put her right hand out and clapped him gently on the left shoulder.
“So, you seek to fix the wounds that we have caused? Even though it nearly cost you your own life?” She glanced over at Six as if to make sure the girl wasn’t looking too happy anymore. She didn’t.
Jake grinned and shook his head.
“Every single day almost costs me my life. I didn’t die, so no harm done. To tell the truth though, no. That’s not why I’m doing this at all. First, I just figure we can save someone a few weeks of beatings this way, and maybe get some useful work out of her at the same time.” Jake gestured to the chairs by the fire and got three more, or tried to. The others took them from him and looked scandalized that he’d actually do physical labor. Maybe it was something else, but when they settled a few moments later he continued.
“The real point is more basic. This will, if we do it right, get everyone else that was at the party back in where we can see them again. Cam, Six, and I will get with Lamont and his people to set this up. I don’t know everyone that was there, but some of the people I think we can just trust automatically. At least in regards to not having tried to poison anyone.”
Stander shook her head.
“You are too trusting, perhaps. That is the way of your kind, but not all these beings are the gentle things you might think.”
Not able to help it, Jake laughed at her, a genuine chuckle that he had to stifle a bit. Cam did too, but eventually the three Vals kind of glared, feeling made fun of.
“Oh…” He waved his hand at them and took a breath, collecting himself. “It’s not that I’m that trusting, just that some things make it very likely that certain groups weren’t behind it. For instance the Telepaths. They could be behind it, as a group, but they’d have had to fool Nate, who wouldn’t betray us. If only one of them was in on it, the others would have noticed it, I think. From what Nate told me, being around another telepath is like listening in on a conversation being shouted from five feet away. Not something easily missed.
“Morris’s people, well, if they wanted something like that done, then a few grenades in the right place, or something done wherever the Comtrices live would be easier to pull off I imagine.”
He stood and listed off the few others he knew and his reason for not thinking they were directly involved.
“You Vals could do it of course, but no one has ever said they found you wanting in honor. Not even when they were mad, and making angry accusations. If you’d tried, it would have been a straightforward armed assault anyway. A fight at least, not a food ruining botched attempt like it was.
“The Comtrices… might have poisoned themselves, I mean I noticed that none of them drank any of the cider even though a few other people had some before they were stopped, but I can’t think of a single good reason why they would. Not at all. The rest, well, I guess the Bawdri might be cleared, but that’s based on the fact that I like Sammi and were friends, nothing else. Her grandfather has some issues and thinks he’s smarter than everyone else. The sad thing there is that he just might be, and a convoluted plot with eighty twists in it sounds just about his speed. It don’t know why I think that, but I do.”
Then, the Bawdri leader wasn’t exactly a people person, was he? That didn’t mean he was evil though. Heck, Jake wasn’t exactly Mr. Congeniality himself, that didn’t mean he wanted the Grand Comtrice dead. Or any of her people. She was a nice enough seeming older woman, so hurting her wouldn’t make any sense.
Unless it did to someone else.
He really needed to get with her and her people. Maybe they knew something he didn’t? Like, for instance, how to run an investigation? That would be useful. Everything Jake knew about that kind of thing was from movies and television. Only his suspect pool could include almost anyone in the world, except the kids at the House.
Remembering the shape shifters he had to take even that back. Everyone was a suspect. Since he couldn’t rule out mind control of some kind, even he could be the one that did it. The Bawdri could influence thoughts like that. Others probably had tricks for it too. Jake shook himself a bit and smiled at Yalla.
Hard work, something he’d been getting kind of good at, he thought, wasn’t enough for something like this. He wasn’t enough for it. It wasn’t something that they needed Jake the killer for, or a warm body to perform a repetitive and boring task. The only thing he might be able to really add here was poking other people into taking action instead of fighting with each other.
Blinking for a second he felt something odd. It really was a feeling too, something from deep within himself, something that gave him a specific piece of information. A truth that couldn’t be ignored.
He was a moron.
That got Jake to grin at least, probably the most genuine expression he’d had in days.
“Yalla… Would you get with the other… we need a name for what used to be individual societies. Um, sections?” He looked at the woman for any idea’s she might have, but nothing came. Stander nodded though and smoothed her hair with a gentle pat.
“Yes. We can refer to them that way for now. If we’re going to be a unit we need a name for the whole thing, I think. For everyone in the world now. At least those on our side. I don’t have anything myself, but maybe you could get people to vote on it?” She looked not at Jake, but her own leader, who looked around and slowly smiled.
Then she reached out and touched Jake’s arm gently.
“I see. So you truly intend for us all to be one people now? That might not sit well with everyone. I know it won’t. Some of these groups can barely stand being around the others.”
That got a chuckle from Cam who made a point of reaching out and resting her hand possessively on Jake’s back. It was a gentle movement, but a deliberate one, getting Yalla to fix her with a stare. Stander too. The girl spoke into the silence.
“Like that, Be-Dehist. They fear that I’m going to steal you away with a thought, even knowing that I work for you personally and follow your orders. If you told Stander here to kill Yalla, Six and me, now that she knows who you are, she’d do it without hesitation, or at least try really hard. If you told me to fight them all I’d do my best, even though they’d kill me in seconds and it would mainly be hair pulling and slapping ineffectively until they did… but tell them to trust a 'Skalliwaga' and they just can’t quite do it, can they?” She took her hand back slowly, clearly trying to show good will. “And really Jake, the Valkyries are probably one of the most open minded groups around. Even more than my own people. You keep saying 'work together' like it’s some easy thing for us all, but there’s a lot of history in the world and some of these people lived it themselves. That makes it a lot harder to just forget. If you want us to get along… You might want to stock up on bullets.”
Maddeningly the others all nodded in agreement.
Jake wanted to scream, but even here that couldn’t be a good idea. Poor habit at any rate, fence or not. Isolated like it clearly was away from people and zombies. Instead he cleared his throat, trying not to growl.
“All right… if you’ll all do what I want for real, like Cam just said… then work together. I’ll be around to enforce that I guess. Yalla, could you arrange for an investigations team? For the poisoning and anything else that comes up? Get with the other leaders and tell them I asked for them to render all needed aid to you on this. I mean it too. For what that’s worth. I know that people are, in their deepest hearts, good. They don’t want to hate, it’s fear that drives people to such things and we all have a lot to be afraid of right now, but we don’t have time for it. So, nerve wracking or not, we all need to trust each other.” Jake stood, pants still damp to the waist from snow, but warm from the fire. He needed to change soon, just for comfort.
He turned, back to the flames, which warmed his back and let him look at the women in front of him clearly. The windows weren’t letting in light now, but the fire was enough.
“I’ll, um, get someone, one of Cam’s people, to come and work with you, if I can. So you can travel places quickly, on demand. If they won’t do it… I don’t know. I’ll think of something. This probably isn’t that important, the poisoning. Maybe some old rivalry or something? We need to stop things like that though. Find who did it, get to the reason why and get them to agree not to do that kind of thing anymore. Spank them or something if we need too. I don’t know.” Pacing he made a flickering shadow on the back wall.
He laughed, not a real sound, one that rang hollow and dark, but fit his mood pretty well at the moment.
“Right now I need to change. Cam?” That got her to rise and close her eyes, hands held out from her sides just slightly so that people could take them.
“So, we’re borrowing Six, and we’ll get you in for the whole name thing. Matilde? Well… It could be worse. I won’t mention how, in case it would give her ideas.”
It took a while to get things around, but teleportation was still way faster than any other form of travel and not fifteen minutes later they all showed up in Jake’s kitchen. He had his eyes closed, of course, when they did, but opened them instantly, going for his sidearm, when he heard the gasp. It was just Jill though. She was sitting at the table, working with a bit of leather, punching holes in it with a small sharpened screwdriver and hammer.
“Um.” The woman said confused by the sudden appearance. That, or she was taken aback by Six’s face. The girl still had blood on the front of her white outfit too. Not a lot though. The Vals kind of sealed off wounds really fast somehow, even bad ones. It meant they didn’t fall in battle nearly as quickly as a human would. A really handy trick.
Making the introductions Jake waved his hands a lot, then had the girl drop her things in the center of the three upstairs rooms, going with her for that. Cam followed the whole time, watching everything closely. After a few seconds in the door of that room, she walked to the next and then came back after a few seconds.
“Hey, can I use the last room there? Unless I’m… You know, going to be sharing your bed, down in the kitchen?” There was a smirk in her tone, something that didn’t need to be seen in order to get.
Why not though? If she was handling transportation, she should have a bed. It would leave her on tap to work in the middle of the night, if it came up.
“Take the room. The same rule applies for all of you though, I’m not sleeping with anyone under nineteen. We’ve got to keep some kind of standards after all. I may eventually lower that to sixteen though, but not for at least several months.” It was an excuse not to have to deal with those complex emotional issues at least. It would be really hard to turn the girl away from his bed if she pressed things, but she was too young. Only fourteen. Just wanting to have sex wasn’t enough of a reason to let go of those rules, was it?
Softly, with a thick accent, Six spoke then.
“I’m nineteen.” It wasn’t an offer of anything, just a statement, but the words got Cam to make a funny face and step forward, hands on hips.
Jake recognized the move as one of Lois’s. The kitchen lady was having an effect on people for sure.
“Oh? Well, you don’t even have a real name yet, so that means you’re just a child, as far as Vals go, right? It could be whole days, maybe even weeks before you’ve earned one or whatever you people do. Until then, hands off the Ba-Dehist.” She grinned. “Or I’ll tell your mother.”
For some reason all that got a happy, if pained, look from Six.
“Do you really think it will be that fast? A name must be earned in battle and the stronger the foe, the more prestige it will carry. About this time I could use some of that.” She went glum again then, but Jake gestured to the space.
“Yeah, you’ll see battle soon. You’ll do it right too, and not grandstand like an amateur. I’d get Vickie and Tipper to kick your behind for that last stunt, but it seems like overkill right now. For the time being I’m putting you with
her though. No… Wait, Tipper did teaching for you guys, right? I’ll see if she’ll do it. You can take my place as sticker on her Cleaning crew while I’m busy pretending to be A Very Good Boy or whatever, traveling around and acting like anything I have to say has meaning. Please get into something without blood on it, and lets go and see to that?”
The girl didn’t wait for him to leave the room, she just started stripping. She had layers, so Jake turned and walked out before he saw anything good, pulling the door shut as Cam scurried to stand next to him. Like a shadow. Really being alone would have been nice for a while, even after five days of it, but that wasn’t the plan for the day, so he headed back down the stairs to try and find everyone. Morten was gone, and Billi, George and to his surprise, Kara, who was normally painfully shy, had gone with him.
“Just back to the House,” Jill put in, still working on her project. It took a second for him to get the idea of what she worked on with the deer skin, but then he nodded.
“Shoes?”
“First try. Burt told me what to do, so I figured why not? Kara said you were going to be doing it, but, well, I think people have other plans for your time. Figured I’d try to make myself useful. We don’t really need them yet, but the television programs here suck. The radio too. I did get to listen to some though, in the radio room at the House. Tracy and Burt set it up.”
“Really? I know there was a plan for it, but I haven’t gotten to see it yet. I haven’t even been down below. Anything interesting on it?” It kind of amazed him that he hadn’t known they had radio, but Jill just kept working and sighed.
“They didn’t tell you? That… figures. Things have been kind of busy, haven’t they? I don’t want to tell you either, but I guess I should. Anyway, they’re broadcasting our location. The House I mean, and telling people to go there, if they can. It’s the military doing it. They claim they’re going to drop supplies in, and that we’ll keep everyone safe. Protect them.” She just shrugged. “Nate thinks that they just want to give people hope, and that no one will come, but… Things are really bad now Jake. If they can do it, even in the snow, a lot of people might just try. We need to be ready.”
