GENERATION Z THE COMPLETE BOX SET: NOVELS 1-3

by Peter Meredith

  “I know.”

  “You knew he was going to try and kill himself and you still sent him out? You are sick. You are…”

  Jillybean interrupted, “I didn’t know beforehand. I knew after. You can see that he was shot over there, in the road. He came over here and fired off two magazines and never once touched his wound. See his right hand? It’s clean. He could have tied it off or called for help, instead he was going to let himself die.”

  “It’s still your fault.”

  After a long breath, Jillybean growled, “Jenn, you’re being obtuse about the whole affair. Obtuse is when someone is being purposefully blind, as you are…never mind. Live in your own bubble. It’s what you Hill People have perfected.”

  While Jenn stewed in anger, Jillybean bent back over Stu’s wound, and said, “Hmmm,” as she dabbed at the hole in his arm. “We’ll pack it and wrap it, and when we get him back to the clinic we’ll…How exactly is this my fault?”

  She had changed direction so quickly that Jenn was slow to catch up. “Huh?”

  “How can you blame me for their wounds? None of you listened to me. You all blew me off, thinking you could do this without me. As if any of you know the first thing about battle or tactics or anything concerning war at all. All of you are infants in war and yet, you have the temerity to question me. Unbelievable.”

  Jenn was tempted to punch her right in the eye, but she didn’t and it wasn’t because she was afraid of her, or of Eve. It was because Jillybean was at least somewhat right. They hadn’t wanted to hear what she’d had to say. Not that it would have mattered too much. They went into the fight, over-matched and outgunned, attacking over open ground with virtually no room to maneuver, against an opponent who’d had hours to prepare their defenses.

  As Stu had remarked, they had been lucky that the Corsairs had attacked.

  “Like you could have done any better,” Jenn challenged. “You’re all talk, you know that? You hide behind your voices in your head and your need to play doctor, but I think it’s because you’re chicken.”

  “Me? Chicken? Saying that takes an astonishing level of stupidity. When have I ever displayed the least degree of cravenness?”

  Jenn scoffed, “Oh and you hide behind big words, too. I guess you meant to ask when were you ever a chicken? All the damn time. You have Eve do your dirty work. You have Sadie stand up for you and you have us fight your battles. When did you ever really fight?”

  Jillybean hesitated and looked around. It was only then that Jenn realized they had been getting loud and were attracting an audience. Manny Lopez had come slinking back along with the Sacramento guy, Steven Yingling, who had taken a shower of rocks in the eyes from a ricochet and was practically blind. He was being led by Kimberley Weatherly. Colleen and Nathan had never left the safety of their wall and were now peeking their heads over it. Shaina and Miss Rebecca had also come to see if they could help.

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jillybean whispered, trying to regain some of her lost dignity.

  “I think I do,” Jenn shot back, coming nose to nose with the Queen over Stu’s unconscious form. “The only battle you actually were a part of was when we stole the Saber, and where were you when we grabbed it? Were you on the deck with me and Mike when a hundred people were shooting at us? No, you weren’t. You were out on that little skiff keeping out of harm’s way. And when we came back here, did you volunteer to run out among the horde, or did you have me do that?”

  “I was busy saving…”

  “You were busy saving your own butt!”

  There were just enough people around them to make their oohs and ahhhs, comical. Jenn’s eyes flashed in triumph. This was her first step in exposing Jillybean, who was backed into a corner. Once more they were seriously low on ammo, too low to mount any sort of attack.

  Jenn figured Jillybean would use that as an excuse not to attack and, right or wrong, Jenn would hammer her with it and Jillybean knew it.

  “Are you trying to make me angry? I have to warn you, you won’t like me when I’m angry.” Jenn shrugged, baiting her, however Jillybean suddenly changed course. “You would seriously endanger Mike and Stu this way?” she asked. At first Jenn thought that she was threatening their lives. Then Jillybean said, “If I die, and they develop an infection or some sort of complication, they don’t stand a chance. You know that is a fact. And who will even close them up? You?”

  “Yes,” Jenn said, defiantly. “I take full responsibility for them.”

  “And will you take full responsibility when Eve gets out and destroys everything and everyone you’ve ever loved?”

  A laugh escaped Jenn. “Do you mean, destroy it worse than you already have? I honestly don’t think it can get any worse.”

  “You have no idea,” Jillybean said, taking the gun from her hands.

  Chapter 14

  Jillybean

  The gun was still agreeably warm as Jillybean loaded it ten minutes later. There was a certain amount of contentment found in a warm gun on a cold night, seconds before a battle was to start. It was reassuring. In a way it was friendly. The gun felt alive.

  After a last check on Mike’s wound, and after secretly giving Stu’s unconscious lips a kiss, Jillybean went to Johanna Murphy and saw what Jenn had seen: a corpse without any apparent cause of death. Using the pen light, she inspected Johanna closely. For the last twelve years, Johanna Murphy had lived a life of desperate fear as a slave of the Corsairs, and yet somehow, the real Johanna, the woman she had meant to be, had emerged and she had lived her last day on earth with amazing bravery. There was no way she had died of fear, not while running to help a fallen comrade.

  It turned out that she had been shot straight down her open mouth as she had fallen, tripping over the loose rocks. The bullet had knocked a chip from her tooth and left a scorch mark on her tongue before it passed down her throat and into her heart.

  Jillybean closed her partially open eyes. Unlike the gun, Johanna was already growing cold. “I want her buried in a proper grave,” she said to Shaina, who gave only a quick nod. Shaina had a great deal of deference and compassion for everyone, except for the two ex-slaves of the Corsairs. It didn’t make any sense; Jillybean didn’t bother trying to understand what passed for logic with her, especially now that they were both dead.

  “And make sure you add a tombstone.” Jillybean could picture lumpy-headed Shaina diligently looking for an actual tombstone shaped stone and added, “Though it doesn’t have to be stone. A wood or metal plaque will do.”

  “Whatcha want it to say? You know, the words on it.”

  For one of the few times in her life, Jillybean drew a blank. RIP or any of the usual stuff wasn’t enough. It didn’t capture what Jillybean felt. “Have Jenn think of something appropriate.”

  Shaina reached out and tried to smooth down one of Jillybean’s stray locks. Over the last two days, it had become an odd habit of hers which Jillybean allowed, though she drew the line when Shaina had attempted to use saliva to paste her hair down. Shaina’s finger got caught in the wilds of Jillybean’s hair and as she tried to extract it, she asked, “Is she gonna be queen again?”

  Without hesitation, Jillybean answered, “If I don’t come back, yes.” Even though, Jenn had practically forced her into taking on the task of clearing the Corsairs from the island, she was still the best leader left. She was also fast becoming the only leader. They couldn’t afford any more losses, which was one of the reasons why Jillybean was attacking alone. The other reason was Eve.

  Sadistic, maniacal Eve was growing larger inside of her and clamoring to get out. It would happen soon. Jillybean had been holding onto herself with a will that was beginning to fail. When the guns began to roar and the screams wailed from the darkness and the lust for battle began to creep over her, there’d be nothing stopping Eve from coming out.

  Jillybean would try to hold on, of course. At the same time, she would make her own preparations, not only for her vict
ory, but also for her return.

  “Here you are, my Queen,” Miss Rebecca said, emerging from the night, sweat on her brow glinting in the starlight. “This is it for the ammo. Eighty-seven rounds, sorry. Maybe—I don’t want to, you know, overstep or anything, but maybe we should consider heading south to the Santas. We could trade the boats for some ammo and head inland. You know, maybe to Sonora or somewhere like that. I heard there’s some nice land up in there.”

  This was a pipe dream and a particularly foolish one. After their losses, the Santas would not want to antagonize the Corsairs by parading around in more of their boats. The boats had no worth as trade items. In fact, the group would be lucky not to be attacked by the Santas outright.

  “We’ll have all the ammo we need when I get back,” Jillybean told her. Rebecca glanced uneasily towards the causeway, where there was plenty of ammo among the bodies sprawled in a no-man’s land that was deadly to either side. Jillybean waved her hand to get Rebecca’s attention. “Did you also get the smoke bombs?”

  Miss Rebecca unslung her pack and had just opened her mouth when Jenn stepped around her and asked, “When I get back? You’re going alone?”

  “Yes.”

  Jenn came closer and squinted at Jillybean, perhaps trying to discern if she was still Jillybean and if so, whether she had the same sort of death wish that Stu had.

  “I’m still me,” Jillybean told her, not adding the word, Barely that practically demanded a place at the end of the sentence. “And, yes, I’m going alone.”

  “That’s crazy. Sorry but it’s…hey, whatever. It’s your funeral,” Jenn said, with an uncertain shrug.

  The word funeral triggered a laugh from deep inside Jillybean and there was an echo of that same laugh coming from Johanna. Jillybean snuck a glance to the side at the corpse and saw its belly bouncing up and down. She turned her back on it.

  “You can’t go alone,” Miss Rebecca practically shouted sending out a real echo that kicked off the walls on the other side of the causeway. A gunshot from the half-circle building reminded them they weren’t alone. Even though it seemed as if the bullet missed by a good way, everyone except for Jillybean ducked down.

  There were quite a number of people on the causeway beside Jenn, Rebecca, and Shaina. Manny and Kimberley were pouring water into Steven Yingling’s eyes, while Colleen and Nathan were whispering to Aaron Altman about how they had been pinned down with bullets coming hot and fast.

  “We tried to get to Johanna,” Nathan began again after the gunshot, “an’ I would’ve if it hadn’t been for the bullets hittin’ all around us. I reckon we had the en-tire Corsair army gunnin’ for us.”

  Jenn shared a look of incredulity with Jillybean right up until someone started laughing. Jenn didn’t even blink at the creepy sound.

  The laughter came from Johanna.

  “I don’t need this,” Jillybean said under her breath as she turned away, looking back up the causeway. “Let’s clear the bridge, I-I mean the road. Shaina, what did you do with the blankets I asked you to grab?”

  She had set them down but couldn’t remember where. When they were found, they were used as stretchers for Mike and Stu. Soon it was only Jenn and Jillybean left on the causeway.

  “I don’t get this,” Jenn admitted. “Trying to do this alone is stupid and you don’t do stupid things. You do evil things on occasion, but not stupid things. So why? Are you trying to bring Eve out? Because if so…”

  She left off with a shrug, the meaning of which was obvious: she would kill Eve the moment she stepped out of line, or perhaps even sooner. Jillybean couldn’t fault her in that.

  “I fully intend to come back as myself.” This sounded hollow since there was never any guarantee, and they both knew it. “Either way, clean the wounds thoroughly like I’ve showed you. They can remain open until morning. Open but covered. You don’t want…”

  “I don’t want infection, I know.” The two young women stared uncomfortably at each other for some time, neither wanting to give in and say a real goodbye first. Jenn lacked Jillybean’s poise and patience. “Good luck,” she eventually said, with all the stiffness of a fireplace poker. “Good luck for the greater good.”

  Jillybean cracked a smile. “I don’t know if you meant for that to be funny but it was.” It was so funny that Johanna began to laugh as well and there was an echo of the word “funny” floating through the night air. Jillybean felt her right eyelid begin to twerk. “You should go. I’ll see you in a few hours.”

  Jenn didn’t leave right away. She had picked up Mike’s starlight scope and gave a quick look through it down the causeway. “You’re being stupid, but maybe it will be for the best.” A new shrug, a last look and Jenn walked away.

  I thought she would never leave, Eve said. So, what’s the plan? I know you have a plan cooking up in that noodle.

  Noodle, noodle, noodle…echoed from out of Jillybean’s mind. When the echo came back, it seemed to be coming once more from Johanna, which was understandable. If anyone had reason to complain about Jillybean’s actions it was Johanna. She had paid the price for Jillybean’s anger towards Jenn. She had died because Jillybean had left a brokenhearted, angry man, a pleasant but dim pretty boy, and a fifteen-year-old girl, who had been frothing with righteous indignation, to plan an attack.

  “I’m sorry,” she said to Johanna.

  Forget her! What’s the plan?

  Eve wanted to know the plan so she could take over, which was all the more reason not to have a plan at all. Bits and pieces would slip out until she was able to figure out the whole. Jillybean hoped that she’d be able to keep Eve confused and second guessing herself by winging it.

  “We start with a flameless fire.”

  A flameless fire? What the hell good does that do anyone? No, what you need is a flame-full fire and a big one. One that will draw every eye in the bay. And then when the pathetic Corsairs see it and hear the screams, they’ll know not to mess with us. They’ll give up right off the bat.

  While Eve lost herself in the idea, Jillybean lit the first of her four smoke bombs. It had Eve in a fury, but a confused fury.

  Why? Why? Why on earth did you just waste a smoke bomb in the middle of the FRIGGIN night! Or didn’t you notice the dark? And not only is it in the middle of the friggin night, it’s in the middle of a friggin dark night!

  “Yes,” Jillybean said, feeling more in control of herself. The more confused Eve was, the weaker Eve was. The ten-pound smoke bomb sent up such a thick cloud that Jillybean was forced back as it broiled over the entire roadway.

  What good did that do you? Eve demanded.

  “Watch.” She gave the smoke bomb a few more seconds to bloom into a tremendous, and for the most part, unseen shadow. It was certainly unnoticed sixty yards away at the other end of the causeway. Jillybean raised the thermal scope and with it, was able to see through the cloud as if it wasn’t even there.

  You bitch.

  “Yeah,” Jillybean conceded, training the crosshairs on one of the Corsairs—not one of those in the front, or even one loitering near the wall by the half-circle building, but one standing further away. The scope even picked out the steady stream of urine coming from him in an arc. Gently she pulled the trigger and was properly surprised when the gun kicked and the night exploded.

  The pisser went right over, falling into his own puddle.

  “Do you think that pulled slightly to the right?” Eve didn’t know, so Jillybean lined up another shot. This time she crouched, steadying the rifle on the large stonewall that Mike had built for Jenn. There were fewer obvious targets, now. Almost everyone had ducked—almost. Once more, people further back thought that an extra forty yards would keep them safe. The opposite was true.

  Shooting people further from the first line of defense kept those up front ignorant of their true casualties. They would look left and right, see their friends unharmed and assume that everything was still okay. And if they heard a cry from behind, they would think it
had been a lucky shot, or a ricochet. What was more, they would likely think the lucky shot was deserved, since only cowards lingered so far behind.

  Jillybean took advantage of their mindset and fired from behind her cloud, almost in perfect safety. The Corsairs returned fire, of course, but as they could not see the flash of her gun they had no target to aim at. Their bullets wizzed harmlessly all over the place. Eventually someone ordered them to stop firing altogether.

  “Stop shooting! Stop shooting!” the ghost-like figure said. “They’re trying to get us to waste our ammo.” Seeing as they were shooting ten rounds for every one of Jillybean’s it wasn’t a bad theory. Jillybean proved the man wrong by killing him half a minute later.

  She had taken down all the furthest targets—that’s how she forced herself to keep going, by thinking of them as targets and not as people— and had started on the closer ones, working her way from the sides and towards the middle, when someone finally caught on to what was happening. Someone began shouting for reinforcements at the same time others started running away. A few of them rattled off whole magazines, hitting nothing but air.

  Jillybean went after those running first, hoping to show the others what sort of fate awaited them if they tried to flee.

  But the majority of them had no intention of fleeing. In a move that surprised her, the entire front line leaped up from cover and charged down the causeway in an all-out sprint. There were too many, coming too fast for her to get them all. Four or five went down before the rest rushed right up to the cloud of smoke which had been expanding, growing wider and taller. The black smoke churning in the black night had been invisible and now that they had been unexpectedly confronted with the billowing, dense cloud, they hesitated just a few feet from it before plunging in.

  Once inside, they were completely blind. Their confidence faltered and their speed became that of an arm-waving walk. From the other side, Jillybean shot them down. She almost couldn’t miss, they were so close. Their huge, glowing white bodies took up most of her scope and she fired and fired until the pulse of the rifle reverberated deep in her chest and the thunder of her gun became muted in her ears.