by T. K. Malone
“I thought you left because you’d wanted me dead. I thought you were jealous of his attention.”
Jake laughed at that. “Jealous? No. The old bastard beat survival into me over more years than I care to mention. How do you think I can move around without you even noticing me?” He turned and bid Teah do the same. “Time to get back,” and he began to walk toward the waterfall, but then, halfway along the path, he checked his stride. “I left you because you needed his undivided attention. Time was short, too short,” and then he carried on walking. “I wish you could have met him in his prime. Hell, I wish I could, but he told me some of the stories, and others told me more. No, Teah, I never wanted you dead, but I don’t want you to trust me, either. Everything you’ve heard is just words; never trust words.”
“So,” Teah said as she hurried to catch up to him, “if I can’t go after Clay, what am I supposed to do?”
“You have to flush out the one who you can’t trust.”
“How do I do that?”
“You think, Teah, you think. Do they work for the army?”
It was her turn to stop, but only to reason further. The answer had come to her straight away. “No, no they can’t or they’d have handed me over.”
“Exactly. So who else could they work for? Who else is left?”
“The preppers; the Spike guy.”
Jake clapped his hands together. “See, it works; thinking. So now you know what to do.”
Teah wished she did, but the fog of indecision was falling around her again. What indeed? She could only think of one thing, and that was plain craziness.
“Drive up to the preppers compound?” she said, her voice uncertain. “That way… That way the one who doesn’t try and stop me is the traitor?”
“Something like that, though uncovering a traitor isn’t an exact science. But that would fit right in with my plans.”
“What would?”
“If you drove up to the prepper’s compound in Morrow’s jeep. Tell them Morrow and his big hairy friend copped it on the road between Morton and Aldertown, and tell Spike that you saw me running away from the scene.” Jake smacked his lips together, making a sucking sound. “Yep, that should do it.”
“Why would you want me to do that?”
They’d reached the end of the path. He looked at her, the gloom of the night hiding any clues as to what he might be thinking. “You’ve grown out here. I’ve watched,” he sniggered. “Hell, I’ve watched you climb the walls with the boredom of motherhood, and I’ve watched how free you are in the forest. The Sequoias make you taller, Teah, the Redwoods make you stronger; never forget that. I want you to do that because I want you to gain their trust. I want you to be accepted by them. But most of all, I want to draw Spike out of the compound.”
“Why?”
“To kill him, of course. Then they’ll look for another leader, one I might be able to work with.”
“But what if he kills you?”
Jake walked on. “If he kills me, then I am but another piece gone, and it will be up to the queen to kill the king.”
2
Teah’s Story
Strike time: plus 4 days
Location: Morton Valley
The queen, Jake had called her, and Teah had spent the night mulling it over. Sleep had been a welcome end to a night of thought, but it had come too close to dawn to let her recuperate from the past few days’ drama. Despite what Jake had said about Clay being beyond her reach, about him being safe for now, the urge to try and rescue him was nigh on impossible to resist. It tore at her sanity, a constant heartache combined with her deep soul-searching both rendering her desolate, devoid of any faith she might actually be a decent mother. Slowly, crawling acceptance had overwhelmed her and she’d come to the conclusion Jake was her only choice. The man she’d spent years being wary of, the man who by his own words had told her not to trust him, the man who had called her the queen, could now be her greatest aid—or he could be her death.
“Queen”; when that word had floated to her on the meek wind of the night, when it had curled into her mind, she’d lain rooted. The only other man ever to have likened her to such an exalted position was a man she’d only recently remembered, a man called Josiah Charm. Though that word didn’t belong to him and him alone, its coincidence was just too outrageous. Every instinct in her had told her to run after Jake, to grab him and shake him until he leveled with her. She’d wanted to wring the truth out of him. Were they just drip-feeding her clues? Was this all planned?
She sighed and pushed herself up, unzipping the tent flap and letting in the unwelcome day. How, she thought, was she going to do what Jake wanted? Outside, Trip was tending his fire, humming some song or other, sitting cross-legged and apparently lost in a world of his own.
“Where’s Ned?” Teah asked, but Trip only shrugged at first, before he eventually looked up.
“In his tent?” he finally said, still prodding the fire pit with a stick. “You think it’s going to rain today?”
Teah looked up at the sky. “Nah, sky's too clear, though it comes in quick here.”
“I think it’s going to rain, and I normally get it right. I think we should hold tight for a day.” He started prodding the fire harder. “Thing is, I know you want to go get your kid n’ all, but I can’t help but think it’s going to be tough going up on that ridge.” Looking straight at her, he asked, “You ever been up there before?”
“No,” she lied, though the memory was still so blotchy it might as well have been the truth.
“High, the part Ned’s talking about, but the only part with a trail down the other side; rest is all crags ‘n crevices, great for bears but bugger all good to us.”
She squatted by him, the warmth from his fire somehow comforting. “You think I’m crazy, taking on the army, don’t you?”
“You ever see a raccoon eat up a yellow jacket’s nest? There’re thousands of those evil little bastards in them nests, and yet the raccoon, he knows this and still he attacks. Know how he does it?”
“No.”
Trip pulled his stick out from the flames, its tip glowing red, grey ash falling from it as he poked it at her. “He waits till the hornets are asleep, or till it’s cold and they’re all huddled up, then he strikes: in, out, and he’s gone.”
“So you think we can do it?”
“Not a hope in hell,” he said, returning to tending his fire.
“Not a hope in hell of what?” said Ned, emerging from the radio tent, holding the satellite dish.
“Teah,” Trip offered, “is still hell-bent on taking on the army single-handedly.”
“Thought we were just going to check them out?” Ned said. “‘Sides, I ain’t going anywhere till I get this radio going. Could give us a better clue as to what’s going on.”
Any clue would be nice, thought Teah, and she strode off toward the waterfall. Climbing the rocks, she sat by a small and still pool and splashed some of its cool, clear water on her face. She had the distinct feeling these moments would prove to be the calm before the storm, that somehow something would unlock the secrets of her past and everything would come tumbling through her like an avalanche. She welcomed the prospect, being tired now of all the games. It dawned on her if she were, indeed—the queen—then perhaps she should begin acting like one. Queen of what, though? she then scoffed.
Rinsing the water through her hair, she looked up at the sky. Direction; it would be nice to have some sign, she thought, and she sat awhile. After a night of tossing and turning, of thinking about probabilities and consequences, she just sought a clear choice, and after a while it came down to the answer to a single question: what would Lester do?
Just the thought of the old man made her smile. His grin, his very expressions, could be read only like you would a great story. Or the way his body moved like a dancer—even though age had ravaged him—so fluid, so economic. The old man would do what Jake would have her do, she decided: route out the traitor, foo
l the king, and take the throne. Only with the preppers behind her could she go after Clay, only then, when she could go on her own terms. And if the army proved to be on the side of the true, then she could walk right in and they could work together. If not, well… The only thought that niggled, as she returned to the camp, was what was “true” now?
Ned was tinkering with the radio, Trip cooking up some soup. Her dysfunctional family seemed to be functioning quite well, despite containing a traitor.
“Soup, Trip? That all you can cook?” Teah asked, sitting down and grabbing a smoke from a little pile he had by his side.
“Ain’t got much else.”
She jumped up and ambled over to Ned. “What d’ya think? Viable?”
“Reckon in about…” He jammed a jack into the sun cells and the radio blinked, then lit up, a small band of red LED blips pulsing up and down in a line. “About now, really, but we’ll have to wait and see. Gotta charge first, then I can set about trying to tune it in—see what’s about, and the like.”
“How long?”
“Why? You got plans? Trip isn’t keen on going anywhere today, and I sure as hell could do with a day to get my head together, to get settled again. ‘Sides, Trip reckons there’s a good chance of rain.”
Teah studied him as he went back to tinkering with the radio gear. “I think you’re both right, and I’ve been thinking, as well. I can’t ask you both to come with me. You two should take the guns, the stuff we’ve buried, and go up to the prepper’s compound. I’m sure they’d let you in. You can both track, both got useful skills. Bet they could use all the help they can get.”
Ned studied her, letting his eyes absorb her as though trying to wring her intent out of her. His hand raked at his trim beard as he sought his words. “And what makes you think that?”
“Just think about it. If they’re the only ones growing crops round here, stands to reason the army’ll come knocking sooner or later. There’s conflict there; it’s awaiting; just lurking behind that ridge.”
“So, why not just choose the army, then?”
Teah took a drag on her cigarette. “No chance there; there’s army and everyone else with them. We…you’ve got a chance with the preppers—a chance to become part of a community, a chance to contribute.”
“Bit sudden? Yesterday you wanted to rip the world apart to get Clay back.”
“A sleepless night gets a lot of thinking done.”
“Amen to that,” said Ned, “but there’s a problem with your plan. The preppers: they ain’t the welcoming kind.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Spend your life preparing behind a palisade, your faithful beavering away for a day that may never come. Hell, then when it does, why should you let the unbelievers in?”
“So, you think they’ll just stare out at us with a ‘Told you so’ look on their faces.”
“Now, if I was them, I’d wanna do that,” and he laughed.
“Seriously?” Teah said, the conversation not coming to the conclusion she was trying to steer it toward.
Ned looked at her, all sign of his humor gone. “They keep themselves to themselves, Morrow and some grizzly bear the only ones who ever venture out. They used to stop by in Aldertown every now and then, but that stopped a while back.”
“Had words, they did,” Trip offered.
“Who with?”
“Saggers. See, Saggers out-and-out confronted Morrow in Trip’s bar. Accused him of ruining his crops, stealing the weed, all sorts of stuff. Morrow, now, he may be a bastard, but he’s a man of principles—him we could talk to. Briscoe: not a chance. Anyways, Morrow takes umbrage at Saggers and they square up. Then The Grizzly starts getting up-and-up, and up. Well, Saggers: he’s one for self-preservation, and so he backs away and falls clean over that wall and onto where you buried Ray. Morrow: he don’t forgive or forget slander, so he just withdraws all their business from Aldertown, such that it was, and that’s when a lot of folk moved out. Since then, they’ve just traded in Morton.”
“Ruined my bar trade,” Trip piped up. “Used to run to Morton for them, to get their drink and stuff. Never did much care for Saggers after that, ‘cept when he had a handy basement to take refuge under—then I reappraised my thoughts on the man, I can tell you.”
Teah took it all in. They both appeared to know a lot about the preppers, though perhaps Trip’s involvement with Morrow made him the favorite to be the traitor. She was, though, thinking that “traitor” might just be Jake’s word. Could it be someone could just be aligned to the preppers without it necessarily being to her detriment? The real question she was going to have to answer was how to break the news that she’d withheld Morrow’s demise from them, especially seeing both seemed to hold him in at least some regard.
Teah stood, kicked at the dirt and wandered back to the fire pit. “What happens if Morrow’s dead? What happens then?” She looked at Trip, but he just shrugged.
Ned shouted “What?” and marched over, grabbing her arm. “Morrow’s dead?”
“And another big fella, huge, hairy hulk of a man,” Teah said, looking up at him, trying to hold his gaze but wanting to look away. “Saw it happen, a day or so before it all went to shit. I kinda forgot…no, not forgot, just stuck it to the back of my mind. I saw it happen, though.”
“You sure?” Ned demanded. “You absolutely sure?”
“Positive, and I saw who did it.”
“You mean—”
“It was Jake, out on the road. It was Jake that done fer them.”
Ned shoved her arm away and slumped to the ground. “Where’d this happen?”
“What does it matter?” Trip asked, appearing to become a little more interested in the two men’s demise.
“It matters, Trip, because it if happened anywhere near Aldertown, Briscoe will come looking for answers, and we’re the only ones with throats that can spill.”
“Well, it ain’t got nothin’ to do with me. Why’d Jake kill him, anyway?”
Teah shrugged, “Beats me; even left the jeep in the road. Rolled the bodies down the ravine, though.”
Ned was quiet for a while; he drew seemingly random lines in the dry mud by the fire, as though he was thinking things through. Whatever his scribbles meant, he began to point repeatedly at a particular point and then looked up. “Where were you? While all this killing was going on, where were you?”
“Me? I was watching from the woods. I was on my way back from Morton—”
“Why not use the road?”
“Thought they was bounty hunters. That’s why I was checking out Morton. You all had me convinced that Jake had put the snitch on me, and I wanted to make sure it was bull.”
Ned nodded slowly. “And you just happen to come across a double murder on the way back and not be seen or tell anyone.”
“And steal the jeep,” Teah added. Seeing she was on the verge of the fanciful, she thought she may as well go for the improbable.
“You did what?”
“Well, Jake did what he did, rolled the bodies off the side of the hill, and then he just ran off—must have had his truck stashed somewhere nearby.”
“Why didn’t he roll their truck off the edge?” Ned asked.
Teah shrugged and tried to think of a good reason. “You’ll have to ask him that.”
“Probably didn’t want the attention.” Trip said, breaking the brief silence which had fallen between them. “After all, he’d just up and killed two preppers, them two and all. He’d want to get his heels kicking dust before anyone came along.”
Ned was still eyeing Teah. He shuffled over to Trip, leaned in and grabbed a smoke. “Mighty coincidental. Hang on, you just said you took the truck; why?”
“Why?” Teah echoed, incredulously. “Why? It was a free truck, that’s why. ‘Sides, I thought they was the bounty hunters so I was quite relieved that Jake had done them in.”
“Relieved?”
“More confused,” she admitted, realizing she ma
y end up getting trapped in her own lies if she wasn’t careful. “Look, there was a jeep, it was a long walk back. The keys were there and I thought…bugger it.” She smiled. “Thought I’d got myself a free ride.”
“Nope,” Ned said, “you got yourself a death sentence.”
“But I didn’t—”
“Won’t matter to Briscoe, not one bit. He’s gonna split his jeans when he hears,” Trip said, reaching around for the bowls and then pouring the soup out. “Briscoe is a one-direction—route one, if you like—kinda guy. He takes to excuses like a raccoon takes to yellow jackets, just eats ‘em up and spits ‘em out, and the end result is you’re dead, anyways. Best thing me ‘n Ned could do is shoot you right here, right now.”
“Wouldn’t help,” moaned Ned. “Then the shadow of blame would fall on us two.”
Trip spooned some soup into his mouth, jigged about a bit when it appeared too hot, and then began to nod.
“The army base it is then. Either way, we’re going to die.”
“Why don’t we just drive the jeep up there and say we found it?” Teah asked.
“Because…” said Trip, but then put his bowl down and scratched his head. “Ned?”
“Briscoe wouldn’t have that. When was it?”
“Day before the big bang,” Teah told him.
“Was their radio in the jeep?”
“There was an aerial; didn’t take note… No, there was a walkie-talkie in the front. But it was quiet all the way back.
“Morrow would have radioed from Morton to say he was on his way. He’d have been missed about sunset, I guess, just as long as all this happened in the morning. That gives us a day to cover.”
“To cover?” Teah asked.
“Yes,” said Ned. “At the very least Briscoe would have expected us to contact him and tell him what happened.”
“You mean Helen and Jez. They were the ones with a radio.”
Ned looked up, almost startled. “Er, yeah, Helen and Jez. Okay, the day Jenny died, the next day we buried her, then the nukes and the EMP. No, we’re cool, that’s a boatload of excuses. We might just have a chance. Where’s the jeep?”