It was not an auspicious beginning to the day.
Gabrielle felt Cade's hand on her shoulder. When she turned to look at him, he put a finger to his lips, gently shook himself free of his makeshift camouflage and then slipped away, moving deeper into the woods.
With one last glance at the still rampaging nightgaunts, Gabrielle followed.
10
Cade was worried.
The only living things they'd seen so far had been creatures from the darker planes, which shouldn't have been here in the first place and didn't bode well for humanity in the second.
Get to Ravensgate, he kept telling himself. You'll find answers there.
But he was no longer so sure that would be the case.
Still, it gave them a destination to shoot for, and that, more than anything else, was keeping them moving forward at this point so he made sure to keep his doubts to himself.
They'd lost all of their food and water with the Blazer and while they were fine for the time being, he knew that they would need to replenish them both, especially the water, before too much longer.
They'd been moving through the woods for nearly two hours when Gabrielle called out for him to wait.
"Need a break?" he asked, when she caught up.
To his surprise, Gabrielle shook her head.
"Listen," she said.
Cade did so. At first he didn't hear anything but then, at the edge of his hearing, he caught it. Somewhere off to their right. Faint, but clear enough.
It sounded like...
"Engines," Gabrielle said, finishing the thought for him.
As one, they turned and charged in that direction, determined to catch whoever it was before they got out of range. Engines meant people and people meant answers to all the questions that were plaguing them about what had happened in their absence.
Cade was just a bit faster than Gabrielle and so he was the first to notice the increased light coming through the trees as they raced ahead, indicating that they were nearing the end of the forest they'd been slogging through since they'd left their ruined Blazer behind. The sound of the engines was much louder now, as well, and Cade slowed down, not wanting to rush into a situation they knew little about.
Gabrielle caught up moments later and together they pushed forward the last dozen or so yards. They found themselves standing at the edge of the woods looking down onto a four-lane road that had been cut through the terrain like a shallow valley. A hundred yards ahead of them, two people sat atop a makeshift cart constructed out of the bed of a pickup truck with a driver's platform and extra set of wheels attached. The cart was being pulled by a pair of ragged-looking horses. The older of the pair was a man in his early sixties, or thereabouts, while the other was a young teen, perhaps his son or grandson. They were both dressed in jeans, boots, and thick over-shirts. The younger one had a baseball cap pulled down tight on his head but the older man's scalp was bare. They were being harassed by a group of men on dirt bikes – four in all – who rode in tight circles around the cart, whooping and hollering over the revving sound of their engines.
The bikers were dressed uniformly in grey BDUs, with black boots and watch caps, and had swords slung across their backs, Templar-style. Cade could see a unit patch on their shoulders and was surprised to see it was a black fist superimposed over a red Templar cross. It wasn't a symbol he recognized; none of the Templar units he'd been familiar with had worn patches of any kind for fear of providing the public with a means of identifying them. He didn't see any sign of firearms, but that didn't mean they weren't carrying any in the saddle bags he saw hanging on either side of the bikes' frames, just behind the drivers, or in concealed carry holsters on the bikers' themselves.
"Who are they?" Gabrielle whispered from beside him.
Cade shook his head. He didn't know.
But given these were the first living, breathing people they'd encountered since returning from the Beyond, he certainly intended to find out.
The bikers must have grown bored with their antics for one by one they took up positions around the cart and came to a stop, leaving one of them at each of the four cardinal points of the compass. The one in front – their leader, presumably – turned off his engine and dismounted. He set the kickstand and then slowly, deliberately, approached the pair atop the cart, stopping to one side, away from the horses, and looking the driver and his companion over in silence for several long minutes.
It was the cart driver who spoke first.
"Morning, Captain," he said nervously.
The cart was a dozen yards away from Cade but the men's voices carried easily in the stillness of the morning air and he was able to follow the conversation without much difficulty.
He knew from the captain's initial response that it wasn't going to go well for those in the cart.
"This road belongs to the Regent."
The driver nodded. "Yes, sir. I know, sir."
"You know?"
"Yes, sir."
Another long pause.
"It belongs to the Regent and is therefore reserved for the Regent's official business."
"If you say so, sir."
The captain stared at him and then, slowly, said, "If I say so?"
"Y-y-yes, sir," the driver stammered.
Cade could tell that the old man knew he'd misstepped, but that he didn't know how.
"Are you doubting my knowledge, old man?"
"N-no, sir."
"Calling me a liar?"
"Definitely not, Captain."
The biker captain frowned. "Well, help me understand then. You know the road belongs to the Regent. You know that it is reserved for his official business. And yet here you are."
The driver didn't say anything.
"Are you on the Regent's business?"
He hesitated, then said, "No, Captain."
The other man cocked his head to one side and said, with an air of confusion as fake as a three-dollar bill, asked, "Why are you on his road then?"
Flustered, the older man said, "Ah, well, you see..."
That was as far as he got. The boy on the seat beside him cut in.
"We're going to market and have the proper permits to be on the road!" he said angrily. "Why are you bothering us?"
Cade winced. It was exactly the wrong kind of tone to take with someone like the captain and he had little doubt that the teen was going to pay for it.
The captain did not prove him wrong.
He turned his attention from the old man to the teenager.
"Permits, you say?"
Cade could practically hear the grin in his tone.
"Why don't you show me these permits then?"
The teen glanced at the man beside him, who shook his head and patted the other on the shoulder before turning to the captain.
"I've got the permits," he said, handing the reigns to his companion. "I'll bring them..."
"I said the boy should do it," he commanded sharply. And then, before the other man could respond, he asked, "Is he yours?"
The old man got nervous again. "Y-y-yes sir. My son, sir. Stephen."
"Stephen, huh?" The captain turned his attention back to the other and this time there was steel in his voice. "Bring me the permits, Stephen."
Another glance between the pair and then the old man handed a worn document folder to the teenager, who took it in hand and began to climb down from the cart. Knowing trouble was on the way, Cade started to rise, intent on stopping the abuse, but Gabrielle grabbed his arm.
"What if they've got guns?" she asked. "You could be putting them in more danger by barging in."
She had a point. If he rushed down there now, he might turn an ugly situation into a deadly one. He hesitated, thinking it over, and while he did so the decision was taken out of his hands.
The teen marched over to the biker captain and thrust out the document folder toward him.
The captain stared at it a moment and then, casually, slapped it out of the teenager'
s hands and into the mud at his feet.
"Oh, look at that, would you? Seems you dropped it," the captain said to him. "Pick it up and hand it to me."
The teenager glared at him, unmoving.
"I said pick it up and hand it to me, you mouthy little bastard."
As the teen bent over, the biker captain rammed his knee forward, delivering a stunning blow to the younger man's face that knocked him into the mud next to the papers he'd been trying to pick up.
The blow finally raised the older man's courage. "Hey!" he shouted, as he climbed down off the cart. "There's no need for that!"
The captain glanced at the old man, then looked over his shoulder and nodded to the biker standing on that side of the cart.
The old man hadn't taken more than half a dozen steps toward the captain when the guard ran up behind him and delivered a hefty blow to the back of the old man's head. Cade watched him topple over like a felled tree to lie unmoving in the dirt.
The captain grinned, then turned back to the boy at his feet. "What happened? Did you slip?" he asked in a mocking tone. "Here, let me help you up."
He reached down with one hand, grabbed the other man by the lapel and pulled him halfway off the ground.
Dazed from the first blow, the teen still had enough wherewithal to know what was coming next. He put his arms up, trying to protect himself, but the captain's incoming fist simply pushed them aside before crashing into the teenager's face.
The blow left the boy only half-conscious, dangling there in the biker captain's grip. It also knocked the boy's cap off his head and let the long hair that had been tucked up underneath it fall free.
"What's this?" the captain exclaimed at the sight.
Cade froze for half a second as his mind put two and two together and then he was up and pushing through the branches ahead of him. He slid down the embankment on the other side and when his feet hit the road he rushed forward, determined to help before it was too late.
The captain and the other bikers didn't notice the enraged Templar, too intent on the hapless captive before them to pay attention to their surroundings. As the others slowly moved closer, the captain dropped the teen to the ground. Ignoring the other's dazed protestations to leave him alone, the captain reached down, grabbed either side of the man's shirt and tore it open, revealing pale white skin and a thick piece of cloth wrapped tightly about the other's chest.
Cade could see the man's eyes practically light up at the sight.
The biker reached back to his hip and drew a long, blade knife from a sheath at his belt that Cade hadn't noticed earlier. With what could only be described as abject eagerness, he grabbed the upper edge of the cloth and pulled it away from the skin. Slipping his knife blade behind it, he began cutting downward.
The material parted down the middle, revealing the pair of breasts that it had been designed to hide.
The teenage boy wasn't a boy at all.
"Looky here, lads!" the biker captain exclaimed. "Look what just dropped into our laps like a gift from the devil himself!"
Luckily for Cade, the biker captain couldn't seem to take his eyes off the flesh he'd just uncovered. If he had, he would have easily seen Cade's approach and been able to shout a warning. The battle might have gone much differently if he had.
As it was, their lack of awareness allowed Cade, sword in hand, to run up behind the biker poking about at the rear of the cart. He could feel his anger surging within his veins, a righteous fire that seemed to have taken on a life of its own. His original intention was to club the man in the back of the head just hard enough to render him unconscious, in case they wanted to question him later, but as he closed the distance another alternative occurred to him and he found himself unable to resist. The man still hadn't noticed his presence when Cade reached around, grabbed the man's face from behind, and then, using his momentum, drove his sword diagonally up through the small of the man's back and out the other side of his chest just below his collarbone. Cade felt the biker stiffen at the deadly blow and knew he'd choke to death on his own blood seconds later if he weren't dead already. Cade didn't care; these men deserved to feel the wrath of justice and Cade intended to be the hand that delivered it.
Hidden from the others' sight thanks to his position behind the cart, Cade yanked his blade free, letting the body fall where it may as he did, and chanced a glance back the way he had come.
Gabrielle was just now sliding down the embankment, headed in his direction.
How did I get here so fast? he wondered briefly and then promptly let the thought go. He had three more targets to deal with; now didn't seem to be the time to wonder about trivialities.
Knowing his biggest advantage was the element of surprise, Cade briefly considered climbing up into the cart and using it as cover while he advanced on the other bikers. The fact that he didn't know what was in it and therefore couldn't determine if he could cover that distance quietly made him almost immediately disregard the idea. Same went for the idea of rounding the far side of the cart and attacking the others from the opposite side; it would give them too much time to adjust to his sudden appearance and prepare for his assault. Instead, Cade chose the simplest, and easiest, of the available options, spinning around the corner of the cart closest to him and charging forward toward the two men who were standing with their backs to him.
One of them either heard or sensed that he was coming for the biker started to turn in his direction, but Cade crossed the fifteen feet between them before the man could complete the motion. As the biker's eyes went wide and he fumbled for the weapon at his belt, Cade ran him through the gut with his sword.
Barely slowing, Cade dropped his sword, grabbed the blade from the dying man's belt, and pivoted to his left, slashing the biker's borrowed weapon across his companion's throat before the other man realized what was happening.
Just like that, the enemy was outnumbered two to one.
Up until that point the biker leader had been too busy pawing his unconscious captive to pay much attention to what was going on around him, but the gurgling death cry of his former companion caught his attention. He whipped his head around, took in the situation at a glance, and surged to his feet, drawing his pistol at the same time.
Cade didn't hesitate.
He flipped the knife around in his hand, caught the blade between his thumb and fingers, and drew it back over his shoulder, ready for the throw.
As with the howler demon, time seemed to slow.
Cade watched as the biker's finger tightened on the trigger of the firearm in his hand, saw the muzzle jerk as the weapon recoiled, and knew in that moment that the bullet would miss if he moved ever so slightly in this direction.
He shifted his weight, his body falling into line along the same direction, and the bullet whipped past his head, moving through the space where he'd been just a millisecond before. As the biker's finger tightened on the trigger for another try, Cade whipped his hand forward, releasing the knife at the zenith of its arc. The blade flipped end over end and planted itself with a solid "thock" in the other man's skull.
The gun went off a second time as the biker jerked the finger one final time in death, but by then the weapon wasn't pointed anywhere near Cade and the shot disappeared harmlessly into the undergrowth.
It was at that point that Gabrielle came running up, sword drawn and looking a bit dazed at what he'd had managed all on his own. Cade did what he could to stifle a laugh at her expression.
"About time you decided to join the fun," he quipped and then suggested that she go check on the teenager while he turned his attention to the old man.
Stepping over to him and rolling him onto his back, Cade discovered that the cart driver was breathing steadily but remained unconscious from the blow he'd taken to the back of the head. He had a good-size goose egg where the now-deceased biker had struck him, but his eyes were clear when Cade pulled them open one at a time and took a look into them, which was a good sign. Cade just hoped
the old man didn't have any internal bleeding or other more significant injuries, for there was nothing he could do about them if he did.
Time would tell, it seemed.
With no means of waking him up on his own, Cade made sure the man's airway was clear, and then left him there, turning his attention to searching the bodies of the bikers one by one. None of them, aside from their leader, were carrying firearms, which Cade found surprising. The battle might have turned out very differently had they been carrying, but there was no sense in dwelling on that now.
What's done is done, he thought, with no small sense of satisfaction.
Each of the bikers had knives in addition to their swords. The latter were nothing special, just simple designs that looked as if they'd been cut from a machine press in bulk. He took the one from the belt of the leader and used it to cut the unit patch from the shoulder of the man's uniform. The symbol bothered him and he wanted some time to study it later.
He turned his attention to the dirt bikes next. There wasn't anything fancy about them; they were a mish-mash of common brands, two Yamahas, a Suzuki, and a Kawasaki. Their frames were covered with enough dirt and grease that Cade marveled that they could run at all, but run they did, a fact he confirmed when he chose one at random, straddled it, and kicked it to life. He revved the engine for a moment, then, satisfied, shut it back off.
Three of the four bikes had saddlebags attached and he
brought them together in a row next to the cart and began to go through them one at a time. In them he found water jugs, canned food, and an assortment of camping gear, tarps and ropes and the like, the kinds of things you'd expect a crew that had to rough it out in the open away from base for a few nights to be carrying.
He glanced in Gabrielle's direction, saw that she had the girl sitting up and was helping her get her clothing situated. He felt good about saving her but he was concerned about whatever it was that they had stumbled into. Why had the old man introduced her as his son, Stephen? Why would a girl of that age – or any girl for that matter – need to hide the fact that she was a woman? Had life changed so radically here that being a woman was some kind of danger or problem? If so, what did that mean for Gabrielle?
Darkness Reigns Page 8
