The Day After Never (Book 2): Purgatory Road

by Russell Blake

  “Bitch who sells us grain just back-talked me. Over.”

  Luis knew the woman. She was an older widow, hard as flint and short of temper. He also knew that she’d be hard to replace if they executed her. But if he allowed her to get away with dissing one of his men, the act could start a wildfire…

  “Drag her to the square and we’ll whip her until she’s bloody,” Luis ordered. The spectacle should serve the same purpose as a killing. The townspeople would see that the cartel was still in charge and would think twice about resisting. But that would only last so long. He needed to recruit more men, and soon.

  “You going to come for the fun? Over.”

  “Wild horses,” Luis said. “I’ll be there in ten. Don’t do anything until I get there. Over.”

  “Roger that.”

  Luis returned to the improvised operating room and took a final look at Cano. “I’ve got to get going. Have one of my men call me if he dies or if you need anything.”

  Another clank as a piece of shrapnel hit the bottom of the trashcan. The veterinarian didn’t look up. “Will do.”

  Luis made for the door, where his horse was tied beside the front façade in the shade, anxious to get to the square before his men arrived with the woman for the flogging. He needed to keep up appearances, and he’d learned from Paco that nothing established pecking order like administering punishment in front of his men.

  He reached up to where a bullwhip was coiled by his saddle horn, and his fingers grazed the woven leather.

  Time to work up a sweat. If the woman survived, she’d carry the scars till her dying day and would never back-talk a Loco again. If she didn’t, they’d leave her to rot in the square until the carrion birds had cleaned her bones, sending an unmistakable message to anyone who felt like crossing swords with the cartel: do so and perish.

  Chapter 27

  The trek to Artesia from Duke’s trading post took two grueling days. The first night they camped northeast of Malaga, a ghost town south of Loving that had been abandoned after the collapse. They set up on the bank of the Pecos River, where Lucas and Ruby caught sufficient bass to feed everyone, if not in a particularly appetizing manner. The following morning they were underway just after dawn and gave Loving a wide berth, as though mere proximity to the site of the recent atrocities might contaminate them.

  Nobody spoke as they rode past the town’s walls in the distance. Lucas’s mind filled with vivid recollections of the dead; his grandfather’s face flooded his memory, and he blinked the image away, intent on spotting any present threats – there would be time enough down the road to grieve for Hal and the rest, and he couldn’t allow his mind to wander.

  The horses’ hooves on the dusty trail drummed a relentless cadence as the sun ascended in the sky, and when they neared Carlsbad, they stuck to tracks that skirted the remnants of the town, preferring to pass unnoticed by the residents so as to leave no trail for the cartel to eventually follow.

  The reward that Duke had warned him about would make life harder on them – if they’d broadcast it over the radio, then anyone could be a turncoat. Still, there were limits to the cartel’s reach, and the further they traveled from Pecos, the less weight the group had. His bet was that nobody would give them a second look once they were almost a hundred miles north of the Locos’ stronghold, the offer of a reward an empty one to those who’d never seen one of the cartel members in their lives.

  As they neared Artesia, Lucas and Ruby held a hushed discussion, riding side by side.

  “He’s expecting us tonight?” Lucas asked.

  “No. He probably didn’t expect us to push so hard. I’d guess tomorrow morning.”

  Lucas nodded. “Good. Then our arrival will be a surprise.”

  Ruby gave him a dark look. “I see this trip hasn’t been good for your trust issues.”

  “I don’t trust anyone.”

  “Exactly.”

  Ruby had assured him that her discussion with Bruce had been coded so any eavesdroppers wouldn’t know what to make of it, but a coil of anxiety was wound tight in Lucas’s stomach as they neared the man’s spread on the outskirts of Artesia, a medium-sized berg that had been reduced to a fraction of its pre-collapse population. Bruce lived in a single-wide trailer surrounded by barbed wire, just inside of the perimeter fence the militia had erected to protect the town’s border.

  Two armed locals barred their way as they approached the entry to the inhabited area and advised the travelers to keep their hands where they could see them as they drew closer to the gates. It was nearly dark, and the men were clearly spooked by a party of three adults and a child materializing from the gloom.

  “We’re here for Bruce,” Ruby announced.

  “State your purpose,” one of the men called out.

  “Got problems with some electronics. We already cleared it with him.”

  The man checked a clipboard. “What’s your name?”

  “Ruby. He’s expecting us.”

  “Says here you aren’t comin’ till tomorrow.”

  “Well, I’m here now. We made good time.”

  “Who’re they?” the man’s partner asked suspiciously.

  “My daughter, and her husband and child.”

  “Don’t say nothing about that on here,” the first man said, eyeing the clipboard.

  Ruby rolled her eyes. “That’s Bruce for you.” She hesitated. “Come on, guys. A four-year-old and her parents aren’t going to take over the town. Give us a break…”

  “I’m five,” Eve protested, and one of the men smiled.

  “Mine does that too,” he said.

  “Hard for grandma to keep everything straight these days,” Ruby agreed. “Time sure does fly by, don’t it?” she said, adding the folksy country homily as a sweetener. Who would turn away a grandmother and her charges?

  “Well, we ain’t supposed to let strangers in, but I suppose since you’re together, and he’s expecting you…” The man stopped when he saw Lucas’s M4 strapped to his back. “Where’d you get that, cowboy?”

  “What? The rifle? Traded a month’s worth of moonshine to some crook who runs a trading post south of here,” Lucas said, his tone friendly.

  “Yeah? You make juice?”

  “Best around. Grow my own corn. Nothin’ like it,” Lucas said, pouring on the aw shucks accent he knew well.

  “Got any on you?”

  Lucas eyed the guard. “I might.”

  “Reckon I could taste it? Always in the market for a new supplier.”

  Lucas nodded. “In my saddlebag.”

  The man smiled. “Go ahead. Won’t shoot you or nothin’.”

  “Good to hear.” Lucas dismounted from Tango, removed one of the jars of white lightning, and approached the men. He unscrewed the top and handed it to the first guard. “Just a taste. That’s Bruce’s payment there, so don’t go heavy.”

  The first guard took a sip and let out a whoop. “Damn, that’s got some fire to it!”

  “Told you.”

  “Lemme taste it,” the other guard demanded, and reached for the jar. The first one almost spilled it as he handed it over, and the second man took a small gulp and then exhaled loudly. “Sweet Lord, but that’s clean.”

  “Secret’s in the corn,” Lucas said, motioning for them to pass the jar back to him. The second man took a long, rueful look at the moonshine and returned it to Lucas, who screwed the top on tightly and replaced it in his bag.

  “Where you say you was from again?” the first guard asked. Lucas resisted his natural inclination to respond that he hadn’t, and let Ruby field that one.

  “Got a spread down south of Carlsbad. Out in the middle of nowhere. Just us and six more like him,” she said, pointing at Lucas. “We do okay. Nobody messes with us.”

  “You had any trouble here?” Lucas asked.

  “Nah, not for a spell. Maybe, I don’t know, six months ago, bunch of highway thugs tried something, but we made short work of them. Been pretty calm, overa
ll. You hear what happened down Loving way?”

  “No. What?”

  “Whole place burned to the ground,” the second man said.

  “Really? Who did that?” Ruby asked. “I traded some with them.”

  “Nobody knows. Guy riding north told us about it. Don’t that beat all, huh? Spooked us good here.”

  “I’ll bet,” Ruby said. “When did it happen?”

  “He told us almost a week ago. He didn’t know for sure, but we saw smoke back around then, so that was probably it.”

  “Damn shame. Good people,” Ruby said, and the men nodded.

  “Well, you all can come in. You know where Bruce is at?”

  “Not really,” Ruby said.

  “Over by the fence, about a quarter mile on the eastern side. Can’t miss it. Only trailer there. Nobody but a damn fool would live on that stretch, I been sayin’ for years, but you can’t tell him nothin’,” the first guard said.

  Ruby nodded and rolled her eyes. “Tell me about it. Stubborn as my mule. But has a way with gadgets like nobody’s business.”

  The men let them through, and they rode to Bruce’s trailer, which appeared to be older than Ruby and in considerably rougher shape. Lucas and Sierra exchanged a look as they neared the rusting side of the dwelling, which for all its conspicuous faults, was well lit with outdoor LED lamps. On the roof, an array of solar panels provided free advertising for Bruce’s talents. A motion detector tripped when they opened the gate and stepped onto the property, and the entire yard was illuminated by high-glare spotlights.

  “Nice touch,” Lucas conceded, squinting against the blinding light.

  “He’s playing for keeps,” Ruby agreed.

  The door of the trailer opened, and out stepped a man with a neatly trimmed goatee and dun-colored, dreadlocked hair in a ponytail, who appeared to be in his late thirties. The muzzle of a bullpup submachine gun was pointed directly at them.

  “Ruby?” he asked when he saw the older woman. “You got here sooner than I figured.”

  “Never underestimate an old lady.” She dismounted and moved toward him, indicating the others with her left hand. “This here’s Lucas, Sierra, and Eve. Everyone, meet Bruce. Engineer and general troublemaker extraordinaire.”

  Lucas tipped the brim of his hat, and Sierra and Eve managed smiles. Bruce lowered his weapon and gave Ruby a small hug, obviously uncomfortable with the contact. “Wow. I’m totally unprepared. Sorry. You have anywhere to stay?” he asked.

  “We were thinking we’d just camp out wherever you think is safe.”

  “I have a spare bedroom and a sofa. No need to camp, if you don’t mind cramped spaces. It’ll be tight, and I’ve got to move some stuff around, but it should work,” Bruce offered.

  “That’s very generous of you,” Sierra said, and Bruce returned her smile, his eyes lingering on her face.

  “Nothing’s too good for friends of Ruby’s.”

  “Are you sure we aren’t putting you out?” Ruby asked.

  “Absolutely. Mi casa and all that. Go ahead and water your horses – and if they won’t run off, they’re free to graze the field. My nag can’t keep it trimmed, so they’ll be doing me a favor. Just shut the gate and we’re golden.”

  Lucas returned to the barrier and swung it closed, and looked around slowly. “Nice spread. Big.”

  “Yeah, well, there’s no such thing as property values anymore, so why not? Nobody else wanted it. Everyone’s terrified of being on the perimeter, especially after what happened in Loving.”

  “Yeah, the guards told us about that,” Ruby said neutrally.

  “What’s the world coming to, am I right?” Bruce shrugged. “Go ahead and unpack your gear. I’ll make some room inside.”

  “Much obliged,” Lucas said, and Bruce nodded.

  “My pleasure.”

  Lucas removed his saddle and bags from Tango and then did the same with Nugget, Jax, and Sidney – Ruby’s moniker for her new horse, based on an old boyfriend, she said. As they were finishing up, Bruce poked his head from the trailer. “Come on in. You can stow your stuff by the door. Need some help?”

  Lucas nodded, and Bruce descended the two steps to the concrete slab that served as his porch and hoisted Sierra’s tack. When Lucas followed him inside, the first thing that assaulted him was the sickly sweet aroma of stale marijuana smoke. Lucas glanced at the open windows and said nothing – it was none of his business how their host took the edge off.

  Bruce dropped the saddle and bags by the door, and Lucas did the same, and then they went to retrieve Ruby’s gear. Once they were all inside, the door bolted shut, Bruce gave them a ten-second tour of the trailer, which amounted to a central living room with adjacent kitchen, and a bedroom and bathroom at either end.

  “Toilets work. I use a pressure tank on the roof. Gravity fed,” Bruce said, pride in his voice. “And the battery bank will power everything for up to fourteen hours. But I obviously try not to run everything at once – just in case.”

  Sierra and Ruby admired his refrigerator and then moved to the living room, where he had a workstation set up with two large monitors and both a laptop and desktop computer. Bruce sat in a swivel Aeron chair and looked up at Ruby expectantly.

  “Want to tell me what this is all about?”

  Ruby gave him a brief summary of their situation, omitting that half of Texas was on the hunt for them, and handed him the note. He pored over it for several minutes and then shook his head. “Yeah, I don’t see anything obvious. What did you have in mind, Ruby?”

  “I can write a program that will try character substitutions. We can get into more involved cyphers later, if you can think of any, but that’s the likeliest.”

  He stood and gestured to the chair. “It’s all yours. I shall defer to the master.”

  She grinned. “Hardly. But I think I still remember how to write a code string.”

  Ruby went to work, her fingers flying over the keys, and Bruce plopped down on a sagging sofa and motioned to the rest of them to take a seat. They did, and Sierra sighed contentedly.

  “So what is it you do here? Ruby mentioned solar panels?”

  “Oh, yeah. It’s been good to me. I can repair just about anything, and when someone wants to set up a rig, I get the call.”

  “Then business is thriving?”

  “Used to be way better. Problem is that as stuff ages, it degrades. Like batteries. There’s only so much I can do, and then they’re just dead. But inverters, panels, radios, anything electric and most mechanical items, I can make work, assuming I can find, or create, the parts.” He made a face. “Things have been pretty slow for the last six months or so, actually.”

  “Sorry to hear that,” Sierra said.

  Bruce shrugged. “It’s not the end of the world. I mean, we already went through that, so this is gravy…”

  Sierra laughed. “I guess we did.”

  “What’s on the note?” Bruce asked.

  “If we told you, we’d have to kill you,” Ruby called from the keyboard.

  “Seriously,” Bruce tried again.

  “Directions to a pot of gold,” Sierra answered.

  “Where did you get it?”

  Lucas’s smile was anything but friendly. “Leprechaun.”

  Bruce’s eyes hardened as he met Lucas’s eyes. “Ruby, I think I deserve an answer, considering I’m helping, don’t you?”

  “It might be dangerous for you, Bruce, or we’d tell you. This way you don’t know anything.”

  Bruce snorted. “And how’s that good?”

  “You can’t tell someone what you don’t know.”

  “Who’s going to ask?”

  Lucas gave a noncommittal shrug. “Bad guys. Take your pick.”

  Bruce sat back with a frown. “That tells me nothing.”

  Lucas nodded. “Exactly.” His tone softened. “Look, you really don’t want to know. For your own good.”

  “All right, guys, this is freaking me out. What’s going on
?” Bruce demanded.

  Ruby sighed and swiveled around to face him. “We think there’s a message, obviously, we need to decode. It’s supposed to have directions to a rendezvous point. But we want to keep it secret. There. Satisfied?”

  “Rendezvous with who? For what?”

  “That’s part of the mystery,” Ruby said. “We’re hoping to learn more from the note.”

  Bruce’s brow furrowed and he shook his head. “Wow. And I thought I was spun.” He opened a small box on the coffee table and pulled out a pipe and some marijuana. “Want some?”

  Lucas shook his head, and so did Sierra. Ruby returned her attention to the keyboard and called out over her shoulder, “Just take it outside, please. I can’t concentrate if the room’s full of smoke. And it’s not good for Eve.”

  Bruce stood. “Now you’re kicking me out of my own house? Fine. More for me.”

  The door slamming behind him sounded like a cannon, and Ruby hesitated before resuming her tapping. Sierra made to rise. “Is he okay?”

  “He’ll be fine once he chills out,” Ruby said. “He’s just high-strung. And he’s got the kind of personality where a puzzle drives him crazy till he solves it. That’s what makes him a good repairman and a great hacker.”

  “Hope so,” Lucas said.

  “I’ll go talk to him,” Sierra said. “Can’t hurt to be nice.”

  Lucas didn’t say anything, preferring to study his boots. Ruby muttered something unintelligible, and Sierra headed for the door. “Are we going to eat anything tonight?” she asked.

  “Got jerky,” Lucas said. “Unless Bruce there will let you raid the fridge.”

  “I’ll try some friendly persuasion.”

  She left, and Lucas went to his saddlebags and withdrew a container of jerky. He passed two long strips to Eve, handed Ruby three, and took several for himself. They sat chomping the leathery meat in silence, watching as Ruby worked at the computer, Eve eyeing the lines of code with enraptured eyes.

  Sierra and Bruce returned ten minutes later, laughing, the best of friends. He smiled at Lucas and Eve, his eyes now bloodshot slits, and gestured to the kitchen. “If you’re hungry, you’re welcome to what I have. Caught a bunch of fish yesterday, so that’s fresh, and got some vegetables from my garden.”