“Uh. Just entertaining negative thoughts that I shouldn’t be,” I lowered my voice. The sun beamed on his mask as he looked out onto the mountainous horizon.
The light cast an orange tint on the sprawling snowscape. The rolling, white hills seemed to go on forever. Luther squinted. “I have extreme difficultly believing we’ve been through so much... only to fail now,” he said. Luther put his hand on my leg as we reached the bottom of the mountain.
He pointed around the bend. “Head to the north side, we’ll wait there,” he instructed as I stayed on a path that seamed between a tree line and the mountain. I slowed down as I noticed several armed nomads on the path.
“Wait,” Luther said. The tallest nomad waved us toward him, pointing to a dense thicket. I pulled up next to him as he approached Luther’s door. I noticed his left ear was missing and the skin on his neck was severely burned.
His ocean blue eyes widened as he saw Luther’s menacing mask. “My name is Soran. General Haik wants you to stay here for now. He’s mobilizing our forces down the mountain,” the soldier said with a thick Russian accent. He was a blond man with a mohawk. I noticed the sides of his head were covered with strange tattoos. They reminded me of Egyptian hieroglyphics.
“Where are your vehicles?” Luther asked Soran. He looked away and paused for a moment, then pointed toward a pile of brush near the mountain. “Over there,” Soran said.
Nomad guards began removing the brush, revealing a large cave entrance. The tan rock walls had been chipped away to increase the ceiling’s clearance. Inside was a guard standing in front of a colossal armored truck with a canopy on the back.
“That answers one of my questions. I was wondering how they were going to transport enough troops for this ambush,” Luther said.
Soran walked away, doing a double take at the Mauler as he approached his comrades near the cave. He had a vacant look about his stare as he narrowed his eyes right at me, cracking a smile.
“I don’t like that guy,” I said.
“Why?” Luther asked.
“I’m not sure, I just get a bad vibe from him,” I said.
“I don’t think any of these fuckers are trustworthy, except maybe Roman, and he’s not even coming with them,” Neona said.
Leo sighed, glancing at his sister. “How much support do you think they’re bringing? How many nomads will fit in their transport truck?” he asked her, sizing up their vehicle. I got the feeling Leo was trying to shift her thought process down another path, away from the negativity.
“Hm. I’d say thirty-five troops max capacity, at most. That’s including equipment, then another four in the cabin,” Neona guessed.
“But they also have a large jeep in addition to that truck, so we’re looking at close to fifty nomads total, right?” Leo asked.
“Yeah. Actually, fifty isn’t a bad number now that I think about it, so long as they can shoot,” she said. One of the soldiers popped the hood on their armored truck and looked it over, while another checked the tires and headlamps.
I noticed Luther staring intensely at them. “Is something wrong?” I asked, lowering my voice.
He shook his head and turned toward me. “No. It’s just these men do things that remind me of Micah. I can see his influence is apparent. Before he became the Warden, he learned much of it while we were training to be knights. They possess a certain military bearing with the way they conduct checklists. It makes sense, it’s just odd to see the kinship with our knights in action,” Luther said.
“They’re like our extended family,” Leo said. His hazel eyes gazed through them.
“You mean dysfunctional family, especially with Haik running the show,” Neona spoke up.
A powerful gust of wind funneled through the mountain pass. The tall pines around us whipped back and forth. The heavy snow was knocked from their limbs, filling the area with a powdery mist.
AFTER ALMOST AN HOUR of waiting, a jeep came up behind us. “Luther,” I said, nodding in my rearview.
“I see them,” he said as everyone turned around.
A group of about forty nomads were marching behind the jeep. “There’s the cavalry,” Leo said.
“I think we’re the cavalry, not them,” Neona replied.
The jeep crept slowly, keeping pace with the nomad foot soldiers. It pulled up beside us. Luther opened his door, looking over at General Haik and Kodiak in the front seat of the military jeep.
Haik leaned around to have a look at us. “Looks like we won’t be needing the full two hours of preparation. We only need another ten minutes,” he said.
“Good,” Luther said as snow flurries whipped into the cabin. I felt one of them stick to my neck and quickly melt.
Haik pointed ahead at the path. “On our way to the rally point, we’ll take the lead,” he said. I noticed Haik staring at me. “Is she your only driver?” he asked Luther in a condescending tone. I imagined he’d never seen a woman drive anything before.
“Yes,” Luther said.
He raised an eyebrow at me. “Hm. Can you see behind you, how’s your rear visibility out of that vehicle?” he asked me.
“I saw you coming up behind us just fine,” I replied, raising my voice over the wintery winds. Kodiak and Haik spoke for a moment before Haik looked back at me. “Take the rear flank and keep an eye out on the way there. I don’t expect to see anything, but you never know. We have two scouts waiting for us at the rally point. It could be a six-hour journey or more,” he said.
Haik nodded at Luther, holding up his radio. “We’ll be on channel three, let us know if you see anything out of the ordinary,” he added. They drove ahead of us as the transport truck pulled out of the cave. The nomads loaded up a heavy machine gun into the back of the transport truck before getting into the vehicles themselves. The blond nomad with the mohawk stared at us suspiciously before closing the curtain on the back of the truck.
“Captain, that was a fifty-caliber machine gun,” Xena said.
“I saw that. That will pierce the armor of most any vehicle,” I said, glancing at Luther.
The transport truck cut in front of us, lurching forward as black smoke bellowed from the tailpipe. Ahead of that was General Haik’s jeep leading the three-vehicle formation that included us.
“Here we go,” Leo muttered.
Luther turned around in his seat. “Xena, I want you to watch our rear flank for the duration of the trip there,” he said.
“Roger that,” she said.
Luther faced forward as we moved away from the mountain into a forest. Mostly, we were heading north, snaking around a winding path at a modest thirty kilometers per hour. After about an hour, I could see a small stream ahead.
“Captain, I’m detecting a slight increase in radiation levels. Nothing to be concerned about yet,” Xena said.
Luther looked over at me. “It might not subside. We’re heading in the direction of one of the nuclear blast zones,” he said. I donned my helmet as Leo and Neona put on gasmasks. The gasmasks would not stop the radiation itself, but they would at least filter out radioactive particles from inhalation.
Neona handed Xena a gasmask. “Here you go,” she said.
“Oh, thank you, but I’ll be fine,” Xena said.
Neona laughed out loud. “You don’t think I know that? Lighten up there, bot,” she said.
Xena stared at Neona for a moment without a word. Beside the stream was a small wooden structure built from logs in the shape of a rectangle. There was a large hook on the top of it that hung down. On the ground directly below was a pile of snow about knee high. I imagined the carcass of an animal was under the snow. There were two pots and a pan strewn about, making me think someone was forced to leave in a hurry.
“Anyone hungry? I bet whatever is under that mound of snow is still preserved,” Leo joked.
“I’m good for now, maybe on the way back,” Neona replied. As we crossed over the stream, I noticed several light green objects in the water the size of my foo
t. I narrowed my eyes. “Those can’t be some kind of lobsters, not in freshwater?” I asked.
Luther leaned forward to have a look. “Those are actually Crayfish. Mutated Crayfish. I’ve seen one of them before. I’ve been told by the hunters that they were near the high radiation zones and eventually migrated this way through the years,” Luther explained.
“Please tell me those are not the Crayfish we’ve been eating through the years? They’re disgusting,” Neona asked.
Luther glanced over his shoulder at his daughter. “Crayfish stew. Served every first Tuesday of the month,” Luther replied.
Neona sighed loudly. “Great. That was one of my favorite dishes.”
“If it makes you feel any better, the hunters try to get the ones with less of a green hue,” Luther said.
Luther turned toward me. “We test our food and try to consume the lowest levels of radiation possible. The good thing is, the shell of the Crayfish contains most of the radioactive isotopes, while the eatable flesh has less.”
I glanced up into the thick, low-hanging white clouds. “Before the nuclear war, everything was saturated with pesticides, preservatives, and chemicals, so I guess low levels of radiation is the tradeoff. Buying organic food became so expensive only the wealthy could afford it. Remember?” I asked.
He glanced out into the wilderness. “Now that you mention it, I do.” Luther’s response made me think about how he’d moved on from the old world we lived in. It made sense considering how long he had been here, but I wondered just how much he’d forgotten to help him cope with this reality.
Luther’s radio beeped. I heard some static as he held it out in front of him. “Engineer, can you hear us?” General Haik asked.
Luther looked at me before holding the radio close to his mouth. “Yes. Go on.”
There was a five second pause before the radio beeped again. “We’ll be following an old highway north that eventually ends up in the city once called, St. Petersburgh. But we won’t be going all the way of course,” Haik said.
Luther looked at me. “We couldn’t get close to that city if we wanted to. It was completely destroyed by a nuclear fire, heavy radiation levels,” he whispered.
I knew there was heavy loss of life in many of the major cities around the world but being so close gave me the chills. All those millions of people extinguished in an instant.
“Look,” Neona said. Ahead, there was a four lane highway that stretched on for kilometers. I couldn’t believe it. It was jam-packed with vehicles as far as I could see in both directions, trucks, cars, even military vehicles. All of them were covered in snow.
“They had a name for this place, my father told me about it,” Leo said.
“What?” Neona asked.
“When groups of Australians first migrated here many years ago, they called this place, the Freezeway. The Russians that survived told them the story. They said when bombs started flying, everyone desperately tried to escape the major cities. St. Petersburg was one of the last to get hit. This delay gave people time to evacuate, but it didn’t matter,” Leo said, pausing for a moment.
“These roads weren’t built to handle this much congestion. After hours and days of sitting in their vehicles, people ran out of fuel and were forced to abandon their cars and go into the wilderness. To top it off, it was one of the coldest days of the year they said,” Leo recalled the story.
I followed the convoy along the left side of the highway. We stayed off the road, taking a path beside it. “Your father told me about it as well, tens of thousands died here,” Luther gazed out at the endless columns of cars.
“The Russians told Micah that people with solar and battery powered vehicles were eventually targeted as gas and diesel vehicles ran out of fuel. Many of those drivers were killed as people panicked to find shelter from the cold, and escape from the radiation,” Luther said.
“What a delightful time to be alive,” Neona said.
There was a single cab truck next to us on the highway with both of its windows broken. The cabin was filled with snow. There were two corpses huddled close on the driver’s side. One appeared to be an adult while the other was a child, maybe eight or ten years old. The adult had its arms around the adolescent.
“Eyes front,” Luther said. The convoy slowed down as something darted by General Haik’s jeep into the forest. I scanned with my helmet, observing three wild dogs or coyotes chasing a boar. They disappeared out of view.
“Look! Opposite side of the road,” Leo said. I panned around and saw a large man. He ducked behind a toppled over ambulance.
“Those were probably hunting dogs, and that man is the owner,” Luther guessed. The convoy stopped.
“What should we do?” I asked.
“Just stay put,” he said.
“Anyone see anything?” General Haik radioed.
Luther met eyes with me, holding the radio close to his mask. He glanced at the man by the ambulance. “No contact,” he lied. Our position at the rear of the convoy gave us a unique perspective of the man. I gathered Luther wanted to move on without interruption.
The man suddenly appeared, walking toward General Haik’s jeep with his hands up.
Luther shook his head. “Dammit. Why didn’t he just stay put?” he asked. Surprisingly, the unknown male was smiling.
Two nomads got out of the back of Haik’s jeep with silenced rifles. They trained their weapons on the man. “On the ground!” one of them yelled.
“We don’t have time for this,” Neona said. The man dropped down on his knees, yelling something. He began to weep with joy it appeared. He slowly outstretched his arms toward the closest armed nomad.
“Has he lost his mind?” I muttered. I edged closer in the Mauler as Luther cracked his door to have a listen. The man was speaking loudly in Russian, his powerful voice echoed through the landscape. He wore a large fur coat with a bow and quiver full of arrows slung over his shoulder.
“What’s he saying?” I asked.
“Captain, the unidentified male is expressing how happy he is to see another human face. He says we’re the first he’s seen in four years. He claims he is a hunter and that he comes from the east. Despite his initial fear, he was willing to risk his own safety just to talk to someone again,” Xena said.
Haik’s soldiers reached to take the man’s bow, but he resisted. One of the soldiers kicked him, knocking him to the ground. “Stay down!” one of them yelled.
“Sire?” Leo asked. Luther didn’t respond. The other soldier gave the hunter two more swift kicks in the stomach for good measure. He groaned in agony. I could see Leo getting antsy in his seat as his eyes stayed glued on Haik’s soldiers. “That hunter has done nothing wrong, he’s just overwhelmed to see another person,” Leo said.
“I know that. But any objection we present, no matter how diplomatic we are, could cause a rift between us and General Haik. He’s an unreasonable leader, and we cannot risk this mission over one man, Leo. Thousands of lives are at stake. We stay put, we stay quiet,” Luther explained. The nomads began to search the hunter’s large coat.
One of Haik’s men turned toward the jeep. “General, he’s clear. This man has nothing of value on him,” he said.
“Get back in the vehicle, now,” Haik ordered. Suddenly, the dogs returned, attacking Haik’s men while their guns were drawn on the hunter.
Five silenced gunshots were fired as one dog yelped and collapsed into the snow face first.
“Oh no,” Neona muttered. The hunter jumped up from the ground, grabbing one of the soldiers around the neck. The two remaining dogs, assisting their owner, bit the soldier’s legs.
“Get the damn mutts off me!” the nomad pleaded.
The snarling dogs ripped away the nomad’s pants as he fell to the ground. Suddenly, a large pistol was aimed out of General Haik’s jeep. It fired, blowing a hole in the hunter’s forehead.
“Shit,” I said. The two remaining dogs escaped into the forest as the deafening gunshot r
ang out across the landscape.
Smoke wisped from the hand cannon’s barrel as it was reeled slowly back into the vehicle. I assumed it was General Haik who fired it. One of the soldiers inspected the man’s body. “He’s dead,” he said, kneeling beside it. Luther shook his head as the soldiers loaded back up into the jeep.
General Haik’s jeep moved forward as the transport truck followed. I paused for a few moments, staring at the hunter’s body. Blood splatter dotted the pristine white ground as he lay face down near one of his dogs.
“I knew that wouldn’t end well,” Leo said, slumping his head.
“Senseless,” I said.
I caught up with the convoy as we edged alongside the highway. For almost three hours, no one said much. The highway was jam-packed with vehicles the entire duration, many filled with decayed corpses.
Every few hundred meters, we were forced to navigate around a vehicle that had pulled off the side of the road. The snowfall began to increase, with large, powdery flakes slowly drifting down.
Luther’s radio beeped. “Engineer, we’re approaching the rally point.”
“Understood,” he replied.
I could see two men on the road ahead, rifles slung over their shoulders. General Haik’s jeep pulled up next to them. I went around the transport truck in front of me, stopping beside General Haik. “What are you doing?” Luther asked.
“I want to hear what they have to say,” I replied.
Luther glared at me. “I do too but wait for my word next time. Clear?” he asked.
“Yes, I just did it out of instinct,” I replied. General Haik and Kodiak got out of the jeep. Kodiak shot us a dirty look before stepping in front of the two scouts. The men were wearing hooded white furs, even their faces were painted white. They appeared underweight, with gaunt faces and narrow shoulders.
Luther got out of the Mauler and marched next to General Haik. The scout’s eyes widened as they saw Luther. They did a double take at one another before looking back at Kodiak. I saw fear in their eyes as they looked him up and down. “The Engineer?” the one on the left asked.
“Yes. The Legion will be driving the bait vehicle,” Kodiak said, pointing at the Mauler.
The Legacy of the Lioness Page 5
