GENERATION Z THE COMPLETE BOX SET: NOVELS 1-3

by Peter Meredith

  Stu reached out and caught Jenn as her legs buckled. They had only run away to Sacramento because One Shot had been murdered and Jillybean was scheduled for execution. If he had remained alive, they wouldn’t have gone to Sacramento and the second battle with the Corsairs would have caught them unprepared and easily taken.

  “It was her,” Donna whispered, faint and ghost-like. “She did this. She did all of this. We would never have been attacked if it wasn’t for her.”

  The group stared, most with their mouths hanging open, some with rage in their eyes. Eve grinned from ear to ear. “Now you know how I feel,” she said. “Everyone loves her. Everyone thinks she walks on water and all that, but look at what she’s done. Look at the lives she’s wrecked. Those are the mutilated bodies of your friends and family. Look at them!”

  Everyone looked only now they did so with disgust mingled with outrage on their faces. They had been tricked, fooled into a war they never wanted. It was with hatred that they turned back to Eve, who couldn’t stop beaming with happiness. “And this is why you never mess with me, Jillybean,” she said to the girl caged inside of her.

  “I should kill you,” Donna hissed.

  “What did I do?” Eve asked, complete innocence etched into her now beautiful face. “I didn’t do anything but try to warn you. It was all Jillybean. You should kill her.”

  She started to laugh, but midway through she choked on it and the broad, overdone smile disappeared, leaving behind a look of uncertainty that didn’t sit right with Jillybean’s normal confidence. With growing dread, she peered into their eyes. Then, as if it had stung her, she flung away the radio in her hand. It had been sending the entire time so that everyone had heard.

  “Is-is what she said true?” Stu asked. “Did you do this on purpose?”

  “Of course, it’s true!” Donna screamed. “She spelled it out and…and it all fits. It all fits perfectly. She used us.”

  Jillybean took a deep breath and without looking up she nodded. She swallowed, thickly twice before admitting, “I did use you. Everything she said was true, except, I didn’t kill One Shot. And, and she left out that what I did was for the greater good.”

  “You sacrificed us!” Donna raged.

  Again, Jillybean nodded. “Yes, I did. I did it for the greater good. Someone had to stop the Corsairs before it was too late. Someone had to risk…” Her eyes flicked up to Stu’s face. “Someone had to risk everything to stop them. You couldn’t see it, tucked away safe and sound like you were, but they were growing and growing, and I knew they would soon be unstoppable.”

  “So, you sacrificed us?” Jenn asked, tears in her eyes. “You let Mike sail away to die and you actually think that was a good thing? Really?” Jenn reared back a hand and slapped Jillybean across the face. The blow had been both slow and obvious, but Jillybean let it land. It was the least she deserved.

  Jenn knocked her down with the stunning slap and now stood over her, furious anger making her shake uncontrollably. “You talk about risk? What in the hell did you ever risk? Huh? You risked nothing for your little war. You haven’t fired a single bullet this whole time, except when you shot One Shot and he was unarmed. I can’t believe…” She stood back suddenly as if Jillybean were diseased. “I can’t believe I called you queen.”

  She walked in a big circle, seething in such anger that she missed the Corsairs gathering their fleets into three parts again. They were just about to come on again when two of the boats collided sending up a scream of wood that could be heard all over the bay.

  No one other than Jenn seemed to have heard the scream. They were all still uselessly, staring at Jillybean. “Stu,” Jenn said. “We can’t sit here.” Stu, always quiet and still, now looked like a carved totem of misery. “Stu!” Jenn clapped her hands, breaking through the fugue-like state he found himself in. “Take Donna and whoever will fit on the boats over to that island. Then get the children to safety. That’s the most important thing. Everyone else collect what ammo you can find. We might have been tricked into fighting someone else’s battle but the Corsairs won’t see it that way. I don’t think we want to be alive when this is all done.”

  No one would look at Jillybean as they scurried to do Jenn’s bidding. Stu was the only one who hadn’t moved. He was so shattered in mind and spirit that he didn’t think he had the strength.

  “I think you should get going, Stu,” Jillybean said in a whisper. They were four feet from each other, but it felt much, much further, as if there was a gulf or a chasm between them that neither could cross. She was just as weak as he was and her head was spinning from the slap. Filled with apathy and a hundred-pound weight of self-loathing, she struggled to stand.

  She found she couldn’t look at Stu, so she watched Jenn as she prepared to send off the first boats. Jenn was the youngest one there and yet she had discovered a strength of will. “If nothing else,” Jillybean said, “I have made a true queen out of her.”

  “So, you really never loved me.”

  Finally, she forced her eyes toward him. He might have been made of stone for all the emotion he showed. “I loved you more than I thought possible,” she told him, “but I knew this would happen in the end. I knew we were doomed.”

  He still wouldn’t look up. “We didn’t have to be. You could have told me the truth. Or better yet, you could have been…I don’t know, normal maybe.”

  “I’ve never been normal. I don’t even know how to act normal. Like right now, what would a normal girl do?”

  A shrug. “It would be nice if you’d say you’re sorry without adding ‘but’ to it. That would be a start.”

  “A start to what?” He shrugged in answer. “And would you believe me if I said sorry?” His next shrug was expected and was probably a lie. She sighed. Just as she had foreseen, they were doomed. It was why she had resisted her feelings for him for so long. She had told herself not to fall for him and yet she had anyway, and now she felt gutted, broken inside, ruined.

  A huge part of her wanted to die, which really was the easiest thing to do in her circumstance. It would be for the best.

  “I know you won’t believe anything I say. After all, words can be meaningless. Actions speak louder than words and bombs speak louder than anything.”

  He blinked, uncertain he had heard her correctly. As he started to ask what she meant, she stepped right up to him and kissed him. After everything that had happened he wanted to pull away, however his heart, broken as it was wouldn’t let him. The kiss was frantic on her part and terribly confusing on his. It was the wrong kind of kiss, though he was sure he didn’t know what the right kind could have been just then.

  “I can give you a half hour head start. Make it count,” she said, when their lips parted.

  Too stunned for words, he could only stare as she went to the edge of the container and dropped down to the little lane between it and the next. With his head spinning, he tried to follow, losing her after only a few turns. Not knowing what he would say or do when he caught her, he went in circles before he wised up and climbed to the top of a container. From there he finally spotted her at the back ramp. Over one shoulder was her bag of bombs and in her other hand was a white sheet.

  She could feel his eyes on her and she turned to wave, even managing to smile, despite the glares around her. Jenn’s being the coldest—a withering ice-blue stare.

  Jenn recognized the heavy bag. “Those are our bombs. I guess I didn’t make myself clear. You’re banished. You get nothing, not even a gun. Now go away. Go die somewhere. Try to have some dignity when you do it.”

  “Dignity? That’s a good word, a very good word. I wish I could…” Jillybean faltered, knowing that Jenn didn’t care what she wished and wouldn’t listen to another apology or explanation. Jenn would never let herself realize that the Corsairs would’ve come for them eventually and found them weak and easy pickings.

  “Forget it. I need the smallest canoe you have and the bombs. If you want to see what I’m willing
to sacrifice, you’ll give them to me.” The two, almost sisters stared steadily into each other’s eyes and Jenn did Jillybean proud by refusing to back down. “Please,” Jillybean added as she felt time slip away.

  Only then did Jenn look away. She stared upwards where the smoke of a nearby burning boat obscured the sun. As she watched, the cloud broke, blinding her briefly. Logic told her not to trust Jillybean—after all, past actions were more than likely indicative of future ones. Jenn was tired of logic.

  “I trust the signs,” she stated, bluntly, knowing how much referencing the signs bothered Jillybean. “Take the canoe, but hurry.” The clouds of smoke had quickly hidden the sun, which Jenn interpreted to mean they were nearly out of time and yet, with seconds zipping by, the two stared at each other once more. Jillybean wanted to hug Jenn and beg her forgiveness, but the ice was still between them and she had to settle with gripping the girl’s firm arm.

  “Be a better queen than I was,” Jillybean said before stepping into the canoe and pushing off. She told herself to count to a hundred before looking back and she also told herself not to cry. She disobeyed both of her own commands. The first time she looked back, after only fifteen seconds, she saw both Jenn and Stu watching her. The next time they were gone, hidden by the smoke.

  This is your fault, Eve said. Don’t blame me.

  “I don’t.” Feeling empty inside, except for the diseased presence of Eve, Jillybean paddled on, the white sheet tied to an empty rifle propped in the front of the canoe. The little boat had a slightly curved prow, which was where she stuffed the bombs. There was enough explosive power in them to vaporize her, the canoe and fifteen metric tons of salt water.

  Eve was so eager for the bombs that she wouldn’t let Jillybean turn her head away from the Corsair boats.

  You’ll let me take over when things get down to it, right? I am better at these sorts of things. You saw me with that jackass, Tony Tibbs. I can do that with any of these guys.

  “I’ll let you know when I need you,” Jillybean answered, pulling the paddle from the water and taking off the three-quarter length coat as well as her long boots. They wouldn’t be needed one way or the other.

  She should have been sick with fear as she picked up the paddle once more. In front of her were a hundred and ten boats, many of them shot so full of holes they hung low in the water or were being bailed by their thinned-out crews. The Corsairs had paid a tremendous price for their attack and they were in a foul mood. They cursed and taunted her, and spat at her if she ventured too close.

  “We’re not done yet,” she said, in answer to them, and she said it over and over, making sure everyone knew that the fight would go on and on.

  Finally, disheveled, covered in snot and sweat, she made it to where the Sea King was anchored, snuggled in among fourteen other boats that were lashed together side by side. Hundreds of bearded, dirty faces leered down at her as she slowly made her way around the back of the boats, tying the canoe off on the anchor chain of the Sea King and calling up, “Permission to come aboard?”

  “Permission to get gangbanged,” one of the sailors snorted.

  “Let’s see that you’re not armed,” another said. Holding onto the chain, she stood and turned to show there was no place in her tight jeans and short sleeve shirt to hide either a gun or a bomb.

  Then how are we going to threaten them? Eve demanded. Jillybean tried to ignore her by running numbers in her head. You can’t threaten people with a bomb when they don’t…Jillybean, damn it, listen to me or I swear…

  “Let her come up,” a rough voice said. She thought it was the Black Captain. Jillybean should have been completely overcome with fear. Everyone knew he was a monster. He was, perhaps the most evil man left alive. He would do horrible things to her, there was no doubt about that. Still, she wasn’t afraid. She was dead inside.

  A knotted rope hoisted her aboard and from the high stern of the Sea King she could see every ship in the fleet, many of them crowded in close. It wasn’t the Black Captain. “Are you Phillip Gaida?” she guessed. Gaida was the Captain’s chief lieutenant and had a reputation for torture that was unrivaled. She had expected him to be as vile-appearing as his reputation suggested, however he was very average, all except for the hardness of his slate-grey eyes. These were more reptilian than human.

  “I am.”

  “My name is Jillybean.” His hard eyes widened slightly. He had heard of her, but wasn’t surprised to see her, which made her hesitate as he gestured at a spot on a silk-covered bench across from him. “So close, so soon? Wouldn’t it be better if we take this a little slower? We wouldn’t want people to talk.”

  He smiled showing a wide, almost peasant-like gap in his front teeth. “You want to take things slowly so your friends can attempt to escape. Do you think I’m blind or just stupid?” He gestured to where the Puffer was laboring toward Yerba Buena.

  “I honestly think you are both,” she replied. “May I look at your boat while we talk? It’s a beauty.” The hard eyes narrowed but she ignored them and started forward, moving sideways so she could watch him. “So what inducement may I offer so that you and your filthy band will leave?”

  Show him the bomb! Eve demanded. Violence and death are the only things he understands.

  Jillybean wobbled under the strength of her will. Seeing her clutch at a line made Gaida’s smile broaden. “I can’t imagine you have anything that will suffice. You see my men are quite upset at the rough handling you’ve given them. They are hungry for vengeance and anyone with any sense doesn’t get between a starving dog and its bone.”

  Her eyes began to blur and she heard Eve cackle, “So you think they’re dogs too?”

  She was running out of time more quickly than she had expected. It wouldn’t be long before Eve was strutting around waving the detonator. “Sorry about that,” Jillybean said, embarrassed by the juvenile humor

  “I take it that was Eve,” Gaida said, calmly. Jillybean could feel her mouth fall open. He laughed at her, and the smug chuckle nearly brought Eve out again. “What? Did you think the Black Captain would fail to have spies in Bainbridge? Spies and assassins. You have upset the delicate workings of things and I have a feeling that a timely reply is in order. Hopefully, you said a proper goodbye to Papa Neil.”

  He laughed again, but with Eve screaming, Let me kill him! Let me blow him up right now! the sound barely penetrated to where Jillybean was trying to hold on. She was on one side of the ship and he on the other. She stumbled further along the ship to get away from that laughter. The Sea King was sixty-four feet from stem to stern and there were sailors everywhere it seemed. They laughed at her and pushed her, but did nothing more to interfere with Gaida’s prize.

  She had made it nearly to the bow before Gaida called out along the length of the ship, “Where do you think you’re going? We haven’t even discussed how I’m going to kill little Emily Grey. Oh, but I forgot. She’s not that little anymore. From what I understand, she’s just getting ripe. Maybe I shouldn’t kill her. Maybe I should feed her to my dogs.”

  His men began a mad barking interspersed with wild howls.

  Now Jillybean felt something. It wasn’t love. It was boundless hate. She reached into her mass of hair and pulled out a very small black square. She held it up for Gaida to see it. He was smart enough to know the danger he was in, but too slow to do anything about it as Jillybean ran for the bow and dove for the water, pressing the button on the detonator a millisecond before going under.

  Epilogue

  With the sun setting and the bay growing dim, the Sea King exploded in a vast and shocking display of light and sound. At first, the light was white and piercing but it quickly turned orange and black, roiling into the air.

  “All the way over to port!” Mike yelled at Kasie, even as burning pieces of wood were falling around him. He was hauling up the mainsail and blinking away huge blobs of purple and yellow when he saw the bow turn the wrong way. “No! The other direction. Turn the whe
el the other way!”

  Pretty much against his will, Mike had taken the Captain Jack in among the other Corsair boats. With them all around him he’d had no choice, though he did his best to creep to the outer ring so he could make his escape at the first chance.

  Then he had seen the canoe with the white flag making its way from the barge. “We’re giving up,” he had said in a whisper to Colleen and Kasie. His first reaction was to feel sick to his stomach. Then he got angry and began to plan outlandish rescue operations, none of which had any chance of working but all of which entailed getting in close to the Sea King.

  This he did as slyly as he could, though being sly only meant pretending to let the Captain Jack get away from him. He had to endure many dark looks and even more curses, but eventually, just as Jillybean tied off her canoe, Mike was sixty yards away; as close as he could get.

  He was so close that the explosion partially deafened him. The main was up in seconds. “Switch places with me!” he roared at Kasie so loudly every ship in the bay heard him. “Get the jib up and try to look manly.” No one paid attention to what she looked like. The entire fleet had sprung into action, scattering from the burning wreckage. His was the only boat heading toward the blast zone.

  For a sailor, it was a horrible scene. What was left of the Sea King was burning and sinking, simultaneously as were the two boats on either side and as they sank they were dragging an entire line of boats down with them. Captains were braving roaring fires to cut their ships free before they too were burnt or sunk.

  Gunfire suddenly broke out. It was just a quick rattle, but it was a prelude to guns going off in every direction.

  “Kasie, what are you doing?” Mike bawled. “Get up. They’re not shooting at…crap! Colleen, take the wheel.” He ran forward, leapt over Kasie, and hurried to raise the jib. He then leaned out over the rail, searching for… “There she is.” He pointed and saw that Colleen was looking thirty degrees from the direction of his hand. “Turn the wheel to your left. Stop! Hold it there.”