by James Axler
For some reason, the old courthouse was left alone. Perhaps because it had the shrine in front of it, and even in their confused state, freed from the hypnotic bonds of the baron now that the vid screens were blank and silent, they still held a fear of the place where he had once dwelt.
No matter. It suited the companions well for this to be the circumstance. It gave them a chance to rest up and wait in the middle of all the mayhem, to have a chance to recuperate before attempting to leave the walled ville and return to the swamp.
By the middle of the following morning, a kind of calm had descended over the ville. A few fires still burned, and there was the occasional crackle of blasterfire, but for the most part the people had fallen into a kind of stupor, worn from the fighting of the previous night, and dazed about what to do next.
Ryan gathered his people in the baron’s old chambers.
“Time for us to leave,” he said simply. “I figure the best thing we can do is get hold of a sec wag and try to drive out as far as possible.”
He turned to Marissa. “There’s a chance that some of your people who managed to escape the battle last night may be trying to get back to your ville. Mebbe we can pick some of them up along the way, if they—and us——can avoid the sec patrols who are coming back. I figure it’d be good if you were there to meet them,” he finished.
Leaving the old courthouse, keeping the same formation as the previous night, even though both Jak and Marissa seemed fully recovered from the drugs, they searched for a sec wag. It didn’t take them long to find one. All the wags had been deserted, and some had been set ablaze.
Ryan and J.B. sat in the cab, with the others on the bench seats on the open back. Keeping triple red as they drove through the ville—as a precaution—they found that there was a defeated atmosphere about the walled ville, even though the only battle had been among the ville dwellers. People looked on blank-eyed as the wag passed them, unable even to register curiosity. When they reached the gates, they found that they had been left gaping wide, the SMG posts along the walls deserted. Wags were scattered around the entrance, left by returning sec patrols who had no orders and leadership anymore, and who had rushed into the ville to take part in the firefight within. Some of sec men sat by their wags now, returning to them as they had little idea what else they could do with themselves. They, too, sat and watched as the companions drove past.
Without his charismatic figurehead, the reign of Dr. Jean had ended within hours, the great empire he had planned to build little more than dust. Jak and Marissa looked on this, but neither considered their army to have been the cause. If anything, the catalyst had been the intervention of those who sought to save Jak and Marissa when their own campaign had crumbled. As the wag ground to a halt where the swamp became too impenetrable for a four-wheeled vehicle to proceed, they both considered—separately—that this had been a Phyrric victory: they had defeated Dr. Jean, but at the cost, it seemed, of all those who had remained united against him.
So it was with a weary tread and heavier hearts that they made their way through the hidden paths of the swamp to where the settlement lay hidden.
Scouts who kept watch on the paths sent ahead word of their arrival, so that they were greeted by Beausoleil when they entered the ville. Those who had been left behind gathered with the old man. To Marissa and Jak it seemed a pitifully small number of old men, old women and children.
“So you reached Lafayette in time to save them, if no one else,” was his bleak greeting.
“There haven’t been any others made it back yet?” Ryan countered. The old man shook his head.
The one-eyed man told the assembled throng what had happened. The others left it to him, and for her part Marissa was glad not to have to talk about the action she now saw as ripping the heart from her ville.
“I suppose you’ll say you told me so,” she said bitterly, addressing Beausoleil when Ryan had finished.
The old man shook his head. “Ain’t no blame to put anywhere. Never forced no one to do nothing. Besides which, Dr. Jean is gone, so whatever comes next has got to be better. Sometimes it just costs more than jack to get things done.”
“How can you say that? Nearly everyone is chilled,” she countered, tears beginning to flow down her cheeks.
The old man shrugged. “Things is as they is. Don’t expect me to feel bad to make you feel better.”
He turned and walked away, leaving her to start sobbing on Jak’s shoulder.
OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS, some did come back. They had tales of how they had run through the streets of the walled ville, hiding while the firefights raged, then made their way out past blank-eyed and lost souls wandering the broken ville. Some carried injuries that had slowed them, others had stayed to try to loot before running for home, hoping to bring things back with them. Eventually, the stream trickled and dried. About sixteen of the rebel army had managed to stay alive and stay free, making it back to the hidden settlement. If nothing else, it made Marissa feel better. They now had a few more people back to band together and come out of hiding. There was nothing to hide from. Now they could start to build a new community, a new life.
And Marissa wanted to build it with Jak. But the albino hunter had no wish to stay.
“But why?” she asked him when he told her. “I thought we were your people, and you were one of us…and I thought that you and me…”
Jak shook his head. “Nothing here now. This your land, your people. Mebbe been away too long, and mebbe not really belong anywhere anymore. Except mebbe with them.”
He looked over to where the companions were preparing to leave. J.B. and Mildred had been distributing ammo and med supplies as needed before they set out for the redoubt they had originally been headed for. They figured that Dr. Jean’s sec force would have wandered away after his fall, and they could enter undisturbed. If nothing else, a few now-isolated sec men would present little problem. As he watched the companions, Jak knew that they were his people. When he had chosen to leave with them the first time, when he had returned to them after avenging the murder of his wife and child… They shared bonds that no one else could understand.
How could he explain that to her?
Jak took Marissa’s hands in his and looked in her eyes. “Another time, another place, mebbe this was home. Mebbe always looking for home. Thought found it, but was wrong. Mebbe home is with them, wherever find together. Mebbe… But even with you here, this not it. Not know where it is.”
“So how will you know?” she asked him tenderly. He could only shrug.
“Only know when find it. So until then, can’t stop searching.”
ISBN: 978-1-4603-7338-5
STRONTIUM SWAMP
Copyright © 2006 by Worldwide Library.
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Worldwide Library, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
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