This Shattered Land - 02

by James Cook

  She paused, staring at me. I reckoned she was waiting for me to feed her a line. “And what would that be?”

  Her full lips curved into a pained smile. “You either die, or you kill them all.”

  We held each other’s gaze for a long moment. A kind of understanding passed between us. She got up from behind her desk and sat down in the chair next to mine, stretching her feet out in front of her and staring out the window.

  “Sometimes the shepherd has to protect the flock, Mr. Garrett. When the wolves come around and threaten the sheep, you can’t just ignore them and hope they’ll go away. You have to do something about it. Problem is, you can’t fight wolves with sheepdogs.”

  She turned her head and fixed me with a piercing stare. “You have to fight wolves with lions.”

  I met her gaze for a few heartbeats, and then looked back out the window. A cloud moved across the sky outside, casting the town’s main street in shadow.

  “What did you have in mind, Mayor?”

  “We need antibiotics and pain meds. You have both. If you don’t want to get involved in this mess, you can pay us a third of your medical supplies and be on your way.”

  My eyebrows arched up. “A third? That’s a lot less than I thought you would take.”

  She smiled and reached over to pat my forearm. “I’m not unreasonable, and I’m not a thief, Mr. Garrett. But I do have a serious problem on my hands.” Her expression grew serious again. “The Legion isn’t going to just go away. Every day there are more of them. They have our town nearly surrounded, and the few caravans that are willing to risk the trip to trade with us are getting skittish about coming here. Right now we’re still strong enough to hold them off, but for how long?”

  She left her chair and slowly walked over to stand in front of the window, her arms crossed under the swell of her breast. She was trying to play it cool, but tightness in her shoulders gave away her worried tension.

  “I’ll be grateful for the medical supplies, if that’s all you’re willing to give up, but what I need is someone who can lead. Someone who can take the people of this town and turn them into a force so dangerous that no one will want to take them on. A force that can take the fight beyond these walls.” She waved a hand at the wall in the distance, “A force that can hit the Legion where they live.”

  I didn’t respond for a moment. The mayor was showing her cards, letting me see her as vulnerable and desperate. She seemed genuine enough, but I’m not known for my expertise with women. If she was trying to play me, she was doing a damned good job.

  “What about Captain McCray? He seems to know his business. Why not have him do it?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “The Captain and his men are too busy trying to track down the Legion’s headquarters to train anyone. I need someone else for that.”

  “Someone like me.” I said.

  She turned to look at me, a silent pleading in her eyes. “Someone like you.”

  I nodded. “I’ll need to talk it over with my friends. I’m sure you understand.” I said.

  She turned to face me. “Of course. But I’ll need an answer by tomorrow, before sundown.”

  I stood up and offered her a hand. “Been a pleasure meeting you, Mayor.”

  She shook my hand, her long fingered grip surprisingly strong. “Likewise. And call me Liz.”

  I smiled. “Liz, then.”

  Chapter 14

  Thunderheads

  While Gabe was out deciding our fate with the town mayor, Allison left the clinic early to pay me a visit before reporting for sentry duty on the wall. The door had closed behind her for precisely one second before her arms went around my neck and her soft tongue went in my mouth. I lifted her up off the ground as she wrapped her strong, slender legs around me. I walked her to the couch and fell down on top of her, breaking contact long enough to pull my shirt over her head, then leaning back down to kiss her again. She kissed me back, fierce and hungry, letting out breathless little moans as she reached down to tug at my belt. I struggled out of my pants, then ripped open a drawer in the coffee table and fumbled out a condom. I tried to open the packaging, but my hands were shaking too much.

  “Here, let me.”

  She took it out of my hands and tore open the plastic. Her deep, dark eyes locked to mine as she put the condom to the head of my penis and rolled it down. I moaned and cupped my hands around her face while her fingers slid down the length of me. She slid her hands up my back, pulled me down, and then I was inside of her. I’m not sure how much time passed that way, deep in her heat and thrusting. At some point she was on top of me, then bent over in front of me, and then I was on top of her again on the living room carpet. I hooked an arm under her leg and rolled her over so that she lay flat on her stomach, pushing her thighs apart with mine. She turned around to kiss me as I slid back into her. The combination of her soft lips and the wet warmth inside of her was just too much for me. I came harder than I ever had before in my life, gasping and thrusting. Her nails dug into my arm as I pushed through waves of ecstasy that felt so good they almost hurt. We both cried out as I plunged into her one last time, deep and hard.

  We lay panting on floor for a few moments before I rolled off of her. I pulled off the condom and tossed it aside. Allison slowly crawled over and laid her head in the crook of my shoulder, breathing hard.

  “Well…that was…energetic.”

  I laughed, and leaned up to kiss her the forehead, winced, and lay back down. The wound in my side was healing well, covered as it was by a fresh layer of tender pink scar tissue, but it wasn’t a hundred percent by a long shot.

  “It’s been a long time since I was with a woman.”

  “That’s not true. What about last night?”

  I laughed. “You know what I mean.”

  She smiled contentedly and ran a hand over my chest. “I know. I hate to say this, but I’m kind of glad you got shot. You’re my favorite patient ever.”

  I grinned and pulled her close, breathing in her scent. “To tell the truth, I’m kind of glad I got shot. And you’re definitely my favorite doctor ever.”

  She kissed me, then lay her head down on my chest. I pushed all thoughts of what had happened over the last couple of years out of my head and resolved to enjoy this fleeting, wonderful moment. Just me and a warm, beautiful woman.

  It’s the simple things that make life worthwhile.

  *****

  A couple of hours later, I left a note on the door telling Gabe where to find us, and followed Allison to the perimeter wall. It was the first chance I’d had to see the town’s defenses, and I was thoroughly impressed by what I saw.

  On the ride to town in the back of Declan’s wagon, I had noticed that most of the telephone poles along the side of the road, and the cables connecting them, were missing. The empty holes left behind were the only evidence to show they had ever been there. I’d also spotted hundreds of tree stumps that had looked recently cut down. Standing in a tower and looking out over the barrier, I suddenly understood why. The locals had dug deep footings to anchor the telephone poles and trimmed tree trunks into the ground, sharpened their tops into points, and then reinforced them with a deep earthen berm that climbed halfway up the fence’s height. There must have been thousands of individual posts that comprised the sturdy fence, all cut to stand about twelve feet in height. A long trench, dug ten feet deep and eight feet wide, waited to greet anything that made it over the wall and down the berm. The perimeter was huge; its pointed posts marching off into the distance all the way north to the far end of town. Catwalks built on top of the berm connected guard towers that stood at regular hundred-yard intervals.

  “How big is this fence, exactly?” I asked Allison as we stood next to each other in one of the guard towers.

  “Pretty damn big.” She replied. “It runs across North Street between Mill and Seminary, and follows the roads all the way down to the railroad tracks on the south side of town.”

  “How the hell di
d you people build it?”

  “With a lot of sweat, blood, and heavy equipment. We finished most of it before the fuel supplies ran out the first few months after the Outbreak. After that it was all muscle power. It was hard work, but we got it done.” She said with a note of pride in her voice.

  “Is it all like this? You know, the wooden posts?”

  “No, only about two-thirds of it. The part on the north side of town is made of concrete and steel, but we ran out of concrete and had to start using wood.”

  I shaded my eyes with one hand to see into the distance. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  Allison looked over at me, adjusting her hunting rifle on its sling. “We have a lot of hard working people here in Hollow Rock.”

  “And one amazing doctor.”

  That got a smile out of her. She stepped closer and slid a hand behind my neck, pulling me down for a kiss. Her lips parted from mine a lot sooner than I wanted them to.

  “It’s against the rules to do stuff like this on watch. You should probably go home.”

  I grinned. “What wrong, can’t keep your hands off me?”

  “I can, I just don’t want to.” She smiled back.

  I gave her one last kiss, and then stepped away. “Gabe and I are going over to the Glover’s for dinner tomorrow night. You want to come?”

  “Sure. What time?”

  “Probably around seven. That okay?”

  “Yeah, that’ll be fine.”

  “Okay, see you tomorrow.” I started down the stairs.

  “Hey Eric?”

  I stopped and turned around. “Hmm?”

  “I…um…” She looked down, seeming almost shy for a moment. “I don’t usually move this fast. You know, with what’s happened the last couple of days.”

  I hesitated, not quite sure where she was going. “Allison, we don’t have to go any faster than you want to. I’m not too proud to let you lead the way on this, if that’s what you want.”

  She took a deep breath and nodded, her expression relieved. “Thanks.” She opened her mouth to speak, closed it, then tried again. “I don’t want you to think I’m pushing you away, but I kind of think we need to slow down. I mean, things have been happening pretty fast.”

  I laughed, and crossed the short distance between us to reach out and take her hands in mine. “I like you, Allison. And you’re not going to chase me off by telling me that you need your space. I get it, I really do.”

  She squeezed my hands, her eyes warm and happy. “Thank you. I don’t want to push away, don’t ever think that.”

  “I won’t.” I kissed her again, briefly. “I should go. Gabe’s probably home by now. I imagine we have a lot to talk about.”

  “Okay.” She said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  I climbed down from the tower and made my way home. The sun had fallen behind the horizon by the time I got back, and a low blaze of candlelight shone through the front windows of my house. I went inside and hung my rifle on a hook next the door, pausing for a moment to listen. Low voices drifted out to me from inside the kitchen.

  “Eric, that you?” Gabe’s gravelly voice called out.

  “No, I’m a thief. You better get out here and shoot me.” I replied as I walked into the kitchen. Steve, not surprisingly, sat across the table from Gabe with a tumbler of bourbon in front of him. Gabe glowered at me from over his glass.

  “Don’t tempt me.” He rumbled.

  I grabbed a chair and flipped it around, draping my forearms over the back as I sat down. “Steve, what brings you here, man?”

  “What, you’re not happy to see me?” He asked, smirking.

  “Well, you gotta admit, every time you come around, trouble follows.” I smiled, but I was only half joking. Steve let out a brief, bitter laugh.

  “Story of my life, my friend. Story of my life.”

  I shifted my attention to Gabe. “So how’d things go with the mayor?”

  The big man took a deep breath and sat back in his chair. “She wants me to build her an army.”

  I blinked.

  Of all the things he could have said, that was about the last one I would have expected.

  “Um, that seems like a bit of a steep price for some antiseptic and a few stitches.” I said.

  Gabe shook his head. “It’s not really about that, Eric. Mayor Stone is willing to let us walk, but she needs our help. The Free Legion is becoming a problem.”

  A month ago, my response would have been something along the lines of, ‘Who cares, let them fight their own battles. I’m done with being a hero.’

  But now, after seeing these Legion bastards in action, there was no way I was just going to walk away from this particular fight. Besides, the fuckers shot me, they shot Gabe, and they shot Brian. That alone was enough to make me want to wipe them out. Add to that the knowledge of what would happen to Allison and every other woman in this town if it fell into their hands, and I had all the reason I needed to take up arms again.

  “Okay, I’m in.” I said.

  Steve raised an eyebrow at me. “Just like that?”

  I nodded. “Just like that. What’s the plan?”

  Steve looked over at Gabe. The big man shrugged.

  “Told you he wouldn’t be a hard sell.” He said, and poured me a glass of bourbon.

  *****

  The smoke from Tom’s charcoal grill was making my mouth water. A local farmer had slaughtered a couple of big grass-fed cows, and Tom had managed to score one of the tenderloins by rebuilding his front porch. Not just a few steaks, mind you, but the whole damn tenderloin. I helped him clean and trim the piece of meat while Sarah, Allison and Brian made a big pot of garlic mashed potatoes. As Tom took the steaks off the grill and arranged them on a serving platter, Allison sat across the picnic table watching me.

  “I’m guessing it’s been a while since you’ve had steak.” She said.

  I swallowed so that I wouldn’t drool when I opened my mouth. “Yeah, it has. Two years, at least.”

  She smiled and laid a sympathetic hand on my arm. “You poor thing. We’ll have to fix that.”

  There was a good bit of conversation going on during dinner, and I’m pretty sure some of it involved me to some extent, but I wasn’t really paying attention. I was too busy trying not to cry at how amazingly good my steak tasted. I felt like a parched man crossing a vast, empty desert that rounded a corner and suddenly came face to face with cool, refreshing oasis with all the water he could drink. Allison looked on with a bemused little smile.

  “…so that’s where I think we should start.” Gabe said, finishing a sentence I barely noticed.

  Sarah nodded and looked over at me. “What about you, Eric? Have you met anyone around here you think could help Gabe?”

  I paused, my mouth full of food and a rivulet of sweet tea dribbling down my chin. “Urn, nngh scnd.”

  Brian and Sarah exchanged an amused silence while I chewed hard and chased my mouthful down with more tea.

  “I…uh…I’m sorry guys, what were you talking about?”

  Sarah laughed. Gabe scowled. “Oh, nothing much.” He said. “Just wondering how the hell we’re going to handle the threat posed by the Free Legion, and how we’re going to train an army to deal with them. Nothing important. Don’t suppose you might know anyone who could help me out with that, do you?”

  The Irish devil in me reared its ugly head, and I bristled at Gabe’s tone. “No, Gabe, I fucking don’t. How could I? I spent my first week in this town confined to a hospital bed, and haven’t wandered more than a half-mile from our house since then. So you tell me, who the hell could I have met that might be able to help us?”

  Brian rolled his eyes and pointed his fork at me. “First of all, you two sound like an old married couple. Stop arguing. Second, I don’t think he meant anyone you met in town, Eric. He was talking about you.”

  I paused. “Oh. I didn’t catch that.”

  Gabe blew out a sigh and leaned his head down, p
inching the bridge of his nose between his fingers. The gesture was familiar, but the big man’s aspect was not. He was barely recognizable without the long shaggy hair and the thick growth of beard. I could almost imagine him as the man he used to be; young, unscarred, and absent the decades of war now written on his face.

  “We don’t have time to put a bunch of small classes through a basic training curriculum. Nor do we have the manpower to train them.” He went on. “We’ll have to train a class of instructors.”

  “Cool.” Brian piped up. “Like Muad’Dib training the Fremen in…um…what was that movie?” He tapped his finger on the table trying to remember.

  “Dune.” Allison said. We all looked at her.

  “What?” She said, shrugging. “So I was a dorky kid. Sue me.”

  I smiled. “I think I like you a little more now.”

  She perked up. “You’ve read Frank Herbert?”

  “Just the first three books in that series.”

  Gabe held his hands out to the side and looked around the table. “Am I talking to myself over here? Am I the only one worried about this shit?” His harsh tone grabbed everyone’s attention. “Maybe you don’t understand how serious this is.”

  Gabe knocked his chair over when he stood up, and began to pace a circle around the table, glaring at all of us and jabbing a finger at the ground as he spoke.

  “This town is surrounded. Surrounded. That means the Legion is closing a circle around us like a fucking noose and is going to lay siege to this town. They don’t have the numbers to pull it off yet, but it’s only a matter of time. When, not if, but when they decide to attack, if we’re not ready for them then every single man, woman, and child who lives here is going to be slaughtered or captured. Oh, and lest I forget, there’s a few hundred million walking corpses out there who would like nothing better than to rip down these walls and tear each and every one of us apart. Meanwhile, we’re all sitting around here shooting the breeze and dithering about a bunch of mindless pop-culture bullshit!”