The Age of Embers (Book 5): The Age of Defiance

by Schow, Ryan

  “I was head of security where she brought in the candidates,” Carver admitted. This earned him several stares.

  “You saw this start?” Fire asked, astounded.

  “I saw the final phases, and though she brought in half a dozen candidates at a time, I tried to intervene. One of the Ophelias let me know she had no problem taking my life. She slaughtered most of my security team. Maria, not the Ophelia. The only thing I could do was follow her, see what she was up to, hope to find a way to kill her.”

  “There had to be a way,” Indigo said, her stare penetrating. “You just didn’t try hard enough.”

  “This is me trying harder, Indigo,” he snarled.

  “Well good for you.”

  “The day you found me,” he told her, dialing it back, “the day I came in the kitchen for food, that’s when she approached me. She’d been playing me all along. She knew I was there. She has been playing all of us.”

  “Now she wants what we have,” Rex conceded.

  “There’s more to it than that,” Carver explained. “She only wants a homestead to gather up an army. First she thought she could take over California, but realizing how damaged the system was, she decided instead to move to Idaho where they have the first EMP proof power grid. For her, this is the only way to gain control. If you have independent power, you have everything. You have civilization.”

  “Do you think we’re ever going to bounce back from this?” Fire asked.

  “Not in our lifetime,” Rock said.

  “And not in hers either,” Stanton added.

  “She won’t age the same way we will,” Carver said. “She confessed to me that because of her new DNA cocktail, a formula she invented, she would age at half the rate of a normal human.”

  “In other words, she’s got all the time in the world,” Macy said.

  “Yes,” Carver added, looking first at her, then at Draven. His friend’s face had gone several shades whiter, the outlook sitting hard in his features.

  “If we kill her, what does it benefit us?” Eliana asked.

  “Revenge,” Indigo said.

  “That isn’t a good enough reason,” Carver argued. “And if that was the only reason to find her and attack her, then I would say you’re wasting lives and supplies, but this isn’t the case.”

  “She’s going to attack us here, isn’t she?” Draven said.

  “Not if we attack her first.”

  “What are you proposing?” Rider asked.

  “I will give you everything you need, but I have to go back now, and even if you’re certain you can kill her, you can never let on that I told you what she’s doing, or who she is.”

  “Why?” Atlanta asked.

  “Because she told me she’d pull my entire spine out of my ass if I ever betrayed her. Those are her words, not mine, and I know firsthand that she’s capable of that literal act.”

  “Good God,” Marcus said, stroking his beard.

  “Now can I get some mother freaking food and water please? Before I pass out? I still have to get back home, and quick.”

  Cincinnati stood and said, “I’ll fix you a plate, but you give the others directions to where you’re staying and any other particulars you deem necessary.”

  “If you’re lying to us,” Jagger said, “if we find out you’re working for her against us, that you’re complicit, what we do to you will be as bad, if not worse, than what she promised.”

  “You’re not that cruel,” Carver said. “You can’t be that cruel.”

  “This war has made monsters of us all,” he replied. “Don’t you ever forget that.”

  “Again,” Draven said, “I vouch for him.”

  “Well I don’t know you from Adam,” Rider turned and told him, “so right now your word doesn’t mean squat to me. In time, maybe. But not in this moment, not with these stakes.”

  “About that food…” Carver said, ignoring all the blustering.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Carver staggered in to the front door where there were now men watching the lobby. Before arriving back to home base, he peeled any remaining scabs from his face, squeezed the blood out, then smeared it around. He looked like a murder victim that refused to die.

  “What happened to you?” Aaron asked.

  “You don’t want to know.”

  “Where’s Myron?” he asked. This stilled Carver. He was so focused on getting home and not getting caught he’d forgotten that Myron was no longer with him.

  “We were ambushed,” Carver said. “He saved my life, but…he didn’t make it.”

  “He’s dead?” Aaron asked, dropping a handful of wiring. Carver nodded, solemnly. “Well he was always an odd bird. At least he died saving your life.”

  “Yeah, he’s a real hero.”

  “I’m going to miss those teeth,” he said, picking the wire back up.

  “So is he,” Carver said under his breath.

  “Excuse me?”

  “I said, ‘Same with me.’ Meaning I’ll miss them.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Is Maria here?”

  “Upstairs, I think,” Aaron said.

  Weary, beaten, aching for a soft bed and a long nap, he huffed and puffed it up the endless flights of stairs, then dragged himself in to the bedroom where he collapsed face-down on the bed. Maria was standing before the gaping hole in the side of the room, staring down at the street below.

  “Heard you arrive,” Maria said, suddenly standing over him. “Where have you been?”

  He rolled over and said, “We got ambushed.”

  She sat down on the bed and said, “Sit up, give me your wrist.”

  “No, I need sleep. I’m exhausted. Have you even seen my face? My ribs? They’re bruised to all hell, I know it.”

  “I’m just going to ask you a few questions, then you can lay down. Now sit up, give me your wrist and quick crying like a baby. You’re not only embarrassing yourself, it’s setting a bad example for One.”

  On the couch beside them, One said, “I want to be called Sally, remember?”

  “Yes, Sally,” she said.

  He wondered if the girl felt like he’d sided with Maria over her. She’d wanted him to take her away from Maria when they first met each other on the road out of Palo Alto. He’d been skulking around the house she and Maria were squatting in late one night, or perhaps in the early hours of the morning. That’s when she asked him to take her away. Now the roles were reversed. He wanted someone to take them both away from her, for now they were both locked in Maria’s orbit. Sitting up, he handed Maria his wrist and she found his pulse. He was extremely nervous, so he knew his heart was racing.

  “What are you nervous about?” she asked.

  “Actually, I’m incensed.”

  “Well suck it up and just play along,” she said.

  “If it amuses you,” he said, scared. To keep his pulse steadily racing, he thought of leaving her, taking Sally and running far away from there. But would they survive? Would Maria hunt them down? He looked her in the eyes, but didn’t smile. Would she find them and kill them both for betraying her? He let these emotions run, used it to establish a base.

  “Were you ambushed?” she asked him.

  “If you’re going to be a human lie detector,” he said, “why don’t you establish a baseline before you start asking the important questions.”

  “Is your name Carver Gamble?”

  “Sort of, but you forgot to ask about my middle initial,” he said, letting his emotions loose, allowing them to run rampant. “If you’re going to do this right, you should at least know the answers to the questions you’re asking.”

  “What is your middle name?” she asked.

  “I don’t have one.”

  Frowning, this flustered her. He quickly spun his hands around and grabbed her wrist, and before she could react, he said, “Is your real name Maria Antoinette?”

  “Yes,” she said, cold. Shaking off his hands, she gripped his wrist again and
said, “Quit procrastinating.”

  “So are you lying because it’s not the body’s name, or are you telling the truth because that’s the name you gave yourself when you stole this body?”

  “Is your name Carver Gamble?” she asked again.

  “Is your name Body Snatcher?”

  Now he saw the fire in her eyes. The pain in his wrist began to deepen, and this in turn kept his heart racing.

  “Were you ambushed?”

  “Yes,” he said, fully believing he was ambushed. He was ambushed by his emotions, by the sight of so many burning bodies, by Myron killing almost indiscriminately, by his need to retaliate on the ugly, bucktoothed redhead.

  “Was Myron killed in that ambush?”

  He had to ride that hard line of anger just to keep the baseline steady. He thought about Maria killing his men back in Palo Alto, thought about the audacity she had to sit there giving him a human lie detector test when what he needed most was sleep.

  “Yes,” he said, ripping his arm away from her. She tried to grab it again, but he hit her hand off and said, “This day has done me in. LOOK AT ME!”

  She reached for him again and he reversed the grip and put her in a thumb lock that forced her to react. If she didn’t feel pain in the sense that it hurt, if it just registered it on some sort of monitor that he was trying to injure her, then perhaps he could unsettle her—

  He saw her throwing the punch. He didn’t even feel it connect.

  Ruby was just outside the open door, listening to all this go down. When she heard Carver yell, she eased her face against the door, saw Maria had her back to Ruby, saw One sitting on the couch watching, and then she saw Maria punch him in the face and him slump over unconscious.

  Horrorstruck, she stood there frozen.

  “What can I do for you, Ruby?” Maria asked, having never turned to see her.

  “I…I uh…I’m sorry,” she stammered. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

  “Carver had a long day, I was just putting him down.”

  “Down for a nap or down for the count?” Ruby asked, trying to swallow past the biggest lump in her throat.

  “You pick,” she said.

  “Looks like he’s out for the count,” Ruby replied.

  “He was being evasive,” Maria said. “On a different note, one of the guys found a shepherd and his flock of sheep just outside the city. The flock isn’t huge, but he’s got some little ones in the mix.”

  “You’re going to steal his animals?” Ruby asked.

  Now Maria turned around. Her face was genial, which wasn’t right for a woman who had just been violent.

  “If he had chickens, yes,” Maria answered. “But his sheep? No. Well, just one. I should be able to get in and out without being seen. Perhaps you could come with me?”

  “I’d rather not,” she said.

  “You’ll have to pull your weight if you want to stay,” Maria warned.

  “And if I do something that displeases you,” Ruby asked, her heart racing, “will you put me down, too?”

  Smiling now, the gesture not touching her eyes, she said, “Perhaps.”

  She swallowed again, unblinking.

  “I’m not a tyrant, Ruby,” Maria said. When she said this, however, Ruby saw One’s eyes dip, almost like she couldn’t look at Ruby knowing she was being lied to by Maria.

  “I’ve never thought you were,” Ruby said, telling the truth. All that just changed, however, but she refused to make mention of such thoughts.

  “Carver said he had the best sleep in months with you,” Maria said. “Did he sleep that well?”

  “He told you that?”

  “I heard him tell you that,” Maria said.

  “You were eavesdropping?”

  “Of course,” she said. “You were in bed with my man.”

  Her jaw dropped and she said, “We didn’t…I mean, it was just sleep. We didn’t do anything…I wouldn’t…”

  “I was hoping to hear you two having sex if it’s any consolation.”

  “Wait, what?”

  “I wanted to hear how he was with you to compare how he is with me.”

  “Well you won’t be hearing us have sex,” Ruby said, astounded. “Have you brought me here to be your toy? Because I’m no one’s play thing.”

  “Of course, you are.”

  “First off, I’m not cute enough for that, and second, I never made myself into an object. If you did, that’s fine, but not me.”

  “I’m no one’s object, but I do signify something,” Maria said, overly cordial.

  “Yeah?”

  “I am the top of the food chain,” she said proudly.

  “That remains to be seen,” Ruby replied. Not wanting to take this much further, she said, “What can I do to help today?”

  “Do you really not want him?” Maria asked.

  “If you hadn’t noticed, if you haven’t seen what’s been going on, survival comes before everything else, especially sex. We’re not going to survive, Maria. And if we do, what will we even be living for?”

  “Humans need connection.”

  Shaking her head, she said, “If you want me to be honest, I’d rather be with you than him, that’s how my preferences work.”

  “I’d love for you to go with me to get a lamb, but perhaps you need time to get your energy back. Danny found a mid-town deli with an old refrigerator in it earlier today. The way he described it, I think we can run it off the generator. Aaron’s getting that wired up as we speak. Maybe you and Mr. Sleepyhead can go foraging for food, or water, find something you can use to prove your value.”

  By this time, Carver was coming around. Maria ran a loving hand through his hair, gently stroked his face, and then—when he opened his eyes, cleared his brain and realized he was back—she said, “Whew, that was a long nap!”

  “What time is it?” he asked, groggy, shifting his jaw back and forth and groaning.

  “It’s been a couple of hours and you’ve been sleeping like the dead,” she said. “Best get up and help Ruby find some food and water. I’m going to get us dinner tonight. Take One with you, make sure you keep her safe.”

  “I was already out today,” he mumbled, groggy sounding. “With Myron.”

  “He’s dead,” Maria said.

  Sitting up, still out of it, he looked at Ruby, then at One, and then back to Maria. “Why did you hit me?”

  “When it comes to violence, men need a reason, and women just need a hole.” When she said “hole” she pointed to his mouth. “Your hole was being unruly.”

  “You hit me because my hole was unruly?” he asked, rubbing his jaw.

  The dark circles under his eyes were more prominent than ever, his face was cut and bleeding—although the scrapes were scabbing over—and his lips were split open and red. On his knuckles were little cuts and scrapes, and his hands had dried blood on them.

  “What happened to you?” Ruby asked.

  “Ambushed.”

  “So he says,” Maria muttered. “Find the nearest residential section of homes and hit them. There’s a better chance of finding something there. Plus, the apartment towers aren’t safe. You never know who’s lurking around in the dark.”

  “Do we have anything I can use to clean these cuts?” Carver asked.

  “Antiseptic wipes downstairs, but you really need a shower,” Maria said. “And soap. Lots and lots of soap.”

  “Ha!” Ruby said. “Don’t we all?”

  “I don’t feel well,” Sally said.

  Everyone looked at her, but it was Ruby who said, “What do you mean?”

  “I’m just tired,” she said. “I don’t want to go out.”

  “Can you stay here by yourself?” Maria asked. The girl nodded. Then, to Ruby and Carver, she said, “Now that you’re ready and he’s done with an extra long nap, you two should get going.”

  Downstairs, before Maria was about to go for dinner and Ruby and Carver were about to head back out scavenging for food, one of
the new guys said, “So when we get the lights hooked up, and the fridge going, what then?”

  “We build our supplies, start to map out a strategy. There has to be more food and water left in this city. There has to be more weapons, EMP proofed cars, trailers, a way to move.”

  “Move to where?” he asked.

  “Idaho,” Carver said.

  “What’s in Idaho?” Aaron asked, suddenly interested.

  “Our future,” Maria said.

  Now that Carver had his senses back, he was fairly certain he didn’t get the several hours of sleep Maria had claimed he’d had. He was pretty sure he’d only been out a few minutes. In fact, he felt so unrested, it was a wonder he was even standing.

  The way she’d hit him, then smiled at him when he woke up not even making mention of it, he wondered when the day would come that she’d really put her all into it and that would be the last shot.

  And now they were talking about Idaho again.

  Freaking Idaho.

  Aaron seemed comfortable speaking with Maria, but he also had that little bit of hesitation when he spoke to her. Was he smarter than he let on? Carver didn’t know. If they hoped to survive her, collectively they’d have to outmaneuver her—which he wasn’t sure was even possible—and that’s why he had to play dumb and keep his plans close to the vest. If Aaron was planning something, perhaps he was doing the same. The truth was, there was no telling when she would go off the rails and turn on her own people. And she clearly placed little or no value on human life. If there was an exception to that rule, Carver knew it wouldn’t be him…it would be Sally.

  “Idaho was the first state to host a nuclear plant that’s been ‘EMP proofed,’” Maria explained. “In the event of grid collapse, it operates independently of outside water and power. The chances of the fuel rods melting down aren’t even a factor.”

  “Nothing is hardened to that effect,” one of the men said.

  “And you know this how?” Carver asked.

  “I’m an engineer,” he replied.

  “I’d trust her over you,” Carver said of Maria.

  “Most of the safety measures at this facility are gravity driven, which eliminates both mechanical and human error,” Maria said. “And like I said, there’s no need for external power. Or even additional water.”