Explosive Resistance

by Linda Jordan

  Also by Linda Jordan:

  Rescue Mission: Islands of Seattle, Book 1

  Explosive Resistance: Islands of Seattle, Book 2

  Battle Magic: Islands of Seattle, Book 3

  Warriors Rising: Islands of Seattle, Book 4

  Divine War: Islands of Seattle, Book 5

  Notes on the Moon People

  Infected by Magic

  Faerie Unraveled: The Bones of the Earth Series, Book 1

  Faerie Contact: The Bones of the Earth Series, Book 2

  Faerie Descent: The Bones of the Earth Series, Book 3

  Faerie Flight: The Bones of the Earth Series, Book 4

  Faerie Confluence: The Bones of the Earth Series, Book 5

  Come on over to Linda’s website and join the fun!

  LindaJordan.net

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  Explosive Resistance

  Islands of Seattle, Book 2

  Linda Jordan

  Metamorphosis Press

  Copyright © 2019 by Linda Jordan

  Published by Metamorphosis Press

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places or incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, or persons, either living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Contents

  1. Damon

  2. Evangeline

  3. Cady

  4. Damon

  5. Evangeline

  6. Cady

  7. Damon

  8. Evangeline

  9. Cady

  10. Damon

  11. Evangeline

  12. Cady

  13. Damon

  14. Evangeline

  15. Cady

  16. Damon

  17. Evangeline

  18. Cady

  About the Author

  To Michael & Zoe

  1

  Damon

  Damon woke to yelling. He slid off the feather mattress and stood in one movement. He’d napped in his clothes, holster and boots even. No need to dress. Grabbing his pistol off the side table, not bothering to holster it, he bolted out the door of the small house.

  The yelling came from the edge of the village. It was daylight, but the sky above was so gray there was no telling what time it was. The air felt cool on his warm skin. Damon moved between the shrubby alder trees in the general direction of the yelling. He alternated between running quickly and walking, trying to make no noise. His achy muscles protested, but he ignored them

  “I said halt and hands up!” yelled the guard again.

  “I bloody well don’t have to halt. This is my home,” yelled another man.

  The guard fired a shot.

  Damon raced down one of the dirt paths circling the fir and maple woods surrounding the village. His breath came fast now, his muscles stretched out, then he slid to a stop.

  Two men stood in the path leading to the village, their hands up. The redhead was large and rather round, out of shape, fat even. The other man was wiry and strong, but much smaller. The guard had things under control. Damon slowly walked forward.

  The guard, Jax, had lowered his voice, but not his weapon.

  “Do you have any weapons?”

  “Of course we do,” said the bigger man. The belligerent one.

  Damon had reached them by this time.

  “Is there a problem?” asked Damon.

  Jax rolled his eyes and then pointed to the two.

  “Intruders, with weapons.”

  Damon said, “Gentleman, there’s been a change in this village. The Goddess Morrigu has found and claimed this abandoned place. If you wish to enter, you will surrender all weapons. At least temporarily. They will be kept safe and returned to you should you wish to leave.”

  “This is my bloody home!” yelled the big man.

  “That remains to be seen,” said Damon, quietly. “Whether you stay is up to Morrigu and myself. And that will be decided by whether you will fit in with her plans.”

  The two intruders grumbled quietly to each other. Then they began pulling out battered knives and ancient handguns. The two men had no coats, no packs, nothing much beyond the weapons and the clothes on their back. They must have left the other villagers quickly. In time, Damon would find where the village had gone and why. And why these two had been in such a hurry to leave it.

  Jax took their weapons, putting them in a pack he’d stashed behind a huge fir tree. Then he returned to his post.

  Damon followed the two down the main path towards the center of the village. He didn’t put his gun away.

  Morrigu was sitting on the massive tree stump which she’d apparently claimed as her throne. It was draped with a green blanket. She looked regal and strong. Living out in nature apparently agreed with her. Or perhaps it was all the challenges she faced.

  The center of the village was crowded with people finishing dinner. Damon hoped he’d only slept for a few hours and not an entire day. The smell of chili hit his nose and his stomach grumbled. He’d get some later.

  “Morrigu, we have visitors,” said Damon.

  The two men stood and gaped at Morrigu.

  “On your knees. Show some respect,” said Damon, pushing them forward with the gun and kicking each of them behind the knees when they hesitated. These two needed some humbling. They both stumbled to their knees.

  “Well, what brings you two here?” Morrigu asked, her deep voice almost purring like a cat he’d once seen.

  “We came back. This is our village,” said the big man.

  “Was,” said Morrigu.

  “It was our village.”

  “Why did you leave?” she asked.

  “Sam said he had a vision that people from the Zoo would invade our village. So we all moved. It was a trick. Waste of time.”

  “Wherever did you go?” asked Morrigu, casually.

  “To a horrible lake up north. Terrible place. The whole village has gone insane. Mason and I were lucky to escape with our lives.”

  The man was lying. Damon didn’t have much magic, but he did have that gift. Why had the two really left?

  “What is your name?” asked Morrigu.

  “Liam.”

  “Mason,” said the wiry man.

  “Well Liam, what did the two of you expect to do here, if the village was still deserted?”

  “Live in peace,” said Liam.

  Another lie.

  “You don’t seem like the peaceful type,” said Morrigu. “You seem like the kind of man who likes a little excitement. We can offer you that.”

  “What kind of excitement?” asked Liam, looking around as if to confirm he’d been offered something too good to be true.

  “We have a very evil enemy. He’s killed hundreds of our friends. He thinks we’re dead, but we’re only hiding from him. Building up an army. And when we’re ready, we’re going to destroy him and take over his empire.”

  “Who is this enemy?” asked Liam, his eyes flitting back and forth warily.

  “A robber baron who lives on the Eastside.”

  Liam looked stunned. As if the Eastside was a world away.

  “I’ve only heard about the Eastside. Does it really exist?” he asked.

  “It exists. And we’re going to invade it and take over.”

  “I’m in,” said Liam.

  Morrigu looked at the other man.

  “I’m in, too,” said Mason.

  “Good,” said Morrigu. “Have you eaten your evening meal yet? We don’t have much, but we do share. The food is over there,” Morrigu pointed to the new building. “Then come back to the main table here and Damon will see that you�
��re assigned housing and explain the details for you.”

  The two men rose, looking at Damon. He’d backed off, holstering his pistol, and waited for them to go get food.

  “Well,” said Morrigu, “those are the first ones.”

  “He lied, you know.”

  “I know. I looked into their minds. Liam doesn’t fully believe in magic, thinks its evil and to be avoided. Only bad people have magic in his mind. The other villagers have gone to a lake where magic is more abundant than here. There are places where it’s easier to make magic happen. A concentration of what humans once called ley lines, energy lines that cross this earth. That lake will have drawn many deities and spirits to it. It would feel repulsive to humans not accepting of magic. He’s hiding more beyond that, though. There’s a lot of emotion involved. Anger, fear, guilt. Keep an eye on them.”

  “I will.”

  Damon would keep them so busy, and tired, that they couldn’t get into trouble.

  “Anything else?” he asked.

  “No, go about your work. But please, get more rest tonight. You are tired, I can tell.”

  “I’ll work on that.”

  Damon left to get a bowl of chili. It was hot and steaming. Chunks of some sort of meat floated among the carrots and beans.

  He noted that the two men had sat down to eat inside the building, with some of the guards. The two had their backs to him and Damon gestured to Eamon. He pointed two fingers to his eyes and then to the men. Eamon gave a slight nod of his head. He’d make sure they stayed out of trouble.

  Damon went back to his table. He sat down and began eating the hot chili, blowing on each spoonful to cool it down. The meat was earthy tasting. Maybe rabbit. The chili wasn’t very spicy, but it was good all the same. Rich and tomatoey. The cooks were amazing.

  He looked at his papers trying to take stock of where people were. One group had come back with a small herd of goats and information about how to care for them. They’d commandeered several people and were busy building a larger escape-proof pen for the goats, as well as a barn. The cooks had been ecstatic about the possibilities of goat milk and cheese. They were busy researching new foods.

  The people scavenging wire and other electrical supplies had returned with a large haul and the pile of things they’d brought back surrounded Carlos and Martina. They were hard at work sorting through it, deciding what they could make work.

  That left only three more groups still out. The hunters for tomorrow’s meals hadn’t returned yet, that was normal. But the other two groups had been gone for over a week. Still looking for animals and seeds, as well as information about how to grow both. Jack was with one of them. Damon hoped they returned soon. He didn’t want to have to send people out looking for them.

  The looms had been finished. Now they needed wool to spin or yarn or something like that. Damon couldn’t remember the details. But sheep or alpaca needed to arrive soon.

  Liam and Mason walked up to his table.

  “Just a minute and I’ll find you a place to sleep.” He dug through his papers for the housing assignments. There were two beds in separate houses. It would probably be good to split these two up, anyway.

  “Follow me,” he said, walking towards the first house. It was shared by four guards, one of them Gregor. He’d put Liam in there, he seemed to be the one of the two who was in charge.

  The house was maybe ten years old. Cedar wood, unpainted it had turned gray. The building was plain in contrast to the little house that had been Cady’s, but then that had been old construction. From before. A miracle it had held up so long.

  At the doorway, Damon stopped.

  “There’s an empty room in here for you Liam. Go in and find it. We’ll wait.”

  It took Liam less than a minute before he returned.

  They continued on through the village. The ground here was laden with decades of fir needles dropping from the trees above. And probably decades of feet, pounding them down into a firm surface. Nothing grew here, the light was dim, but even in winter there would be no mud. Not like the place Damon had grown up in. Since it was the end of summer, everything was still dry. Probably the one time of year it would be.

  The next house looked much the same, but only three rooms in this one. Eamon and Jax lived here. They’d keep an eye on Mason.

  “Mason, these are your new digs. There’s three rooms, the empty one is yours, go in and find it.”

  Mason glanced at Liam and went inside.

  “Liam, what did you do back when you lived here?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “How did you pull your weight in the village? Build things? Raise animals?”

  “I worked leather. Made shoes, some clothes, belts, holsters, knife sheaths. That sort of thing.”

  “Where are your tools?”

  “I left them. At the lake.”

  “Can you scavenge new ones? I know we’ll be running out of boots soon.”

  “I probably could. There’s some rich finds around here.”

  “Great, I’ll send you out with the next scavenging party. The hunters have been catching deer lately. Maybe you can start on those hides once you get some tools.”

  Liam looked more relaxed. Mason came back out of the house.

  “Mason, what did you do when you lived in this village?”

  “I fished some. Mostly, I raised chickens and ducks.”

  “We need someone who knows about fishing. We always need more food sources. And we have people out trying to acquire animals. If they don’t have birds, we’ll add that to the next trip out.”

  “There’s some chickens and ducks that have gotten loose over the years,” said Mason. “They’ve gone wild. None of us were concerned about that, because we always had enough. I could work on catching them.”

  “Wonderful. After breakfast most people who have any fighting skill train with Gregor. He’ll decide what your skill level is and how to increase it. Then between lunch and dinner, Mason I want you to work on catching those birds. Liam, I’ll send you out with the scavenging party. Right now, let’s hunt down Karan and Mason, you can tell him what you’ll need in order to contain any birds once they’re caught.”

  “The chicken coop is probably still here, unless you folks tore it apart. It was too big and heavy to move. I just need wire fencing around it. That we took with us.”

  “We’ve got lots of wire fencing. Let’s go find Karan.”

  They found him in his workshop, making platforms for beds. Mason described to him what was needed and they all went to the chicken coop. It was out in a meadow on one side of the village. Made of flimsy wood, salvaged wood and still painted a fading green. There were ramps up to windows that could be closed with wood panels covering them. There was also a large door for people to walk in, to clean it and collect eggs.

  “Those are the nesting boxes,” said Mason, looking in the open door. “I’ll need to collect some long grass or something to put in there, so the hens will lay their eggs.”

  He pointed outside the coop.

  “We took up all the wire, but the entire ground sides and top need to be covered with wire. No gaps or holes else critters will get in and eat the chickens. From about here, to here,” Mason said, pacing out the dimensions.

  “Why wire on the ground?” asked Karan.

  “Weasels. They’ll dig a hole outside, under the wire and come up inside the fence. Kill the birds. Once the wire’s down, I’ll cover it with dirt. Or sawdust if I can get it. And if I catch ducks, I’ll need a big tub that holds water. Something they can swim in.”

  “Do we want ducks?” asked Damon.

  “They’re mighty tasty. I also raised turkeys too, but I don’t know if any of those escaped,” said Mason.

  “What do all these birds eat?” asked Damon.

  “Bugs, worms. Dried corn. Other grains and seeds, sometimes.”

  “And you found all this around here?” asked Damon

  “Yep,” said Mason, puffing u
p with pride.

  “Good,” said Damon. “At night here, those of us not on guard, go to bed when the sun’s gone. We rise with it too. So wander around a bit, see what’s new, go meet your housemates and turn in early. I’ll talk to both of you later about where the scavenging is rich.”

  The two of them nodded and walked off.

  “New recruits?” asked Karan.

  “Yeah. There’s going to be a lot of that soon.”

  Damon walked back to his table, trying to stretch out his muscles. All his old injuries ached. There was moisture in the air. It might rain tonight. He should bring all his papers under cover.

  He’d need to appoint someone to take charge of orienting new people soon. After he’d met the new ones and figured out what their skills were and how to assign them work.

  At least he was skilled at that part of this job.

  The next three days brought an occasional person to the village. All of them young and from places the groups seeking out animals had visited. Word was spreading.

  Finally, on the fourth day, one of the groups returned. They had a small herd of sheep, three cows, two alpaca and a llama. They also had a small stock of various types of seeds, which seemed to please the cooks. And one of the young men who’d arrived knew how to grow them. The animals were put in one the enclosures that the former villagers hadn’t dismantled and taken with them.

  So, that was one problem sorted. Mason had managed to catch six chickens and confine them. The man was working on taming them, so they didn’t have a heart attack every time a human walked past.

  Damon decided that if the other group didn’t return in two days, he needed to send someone out to search for them.

  He needed Jack who had the names and locations of those locals who’d bought arms. Morrigu wanted guns and ammunition. Every new person who joined them brought her closer to creating an army.