by Sean Grigsby
Chapter 30
Dolfuse’s drone flew over the city. The women who’d fled the center where the shipment had landed dispersed three different ways, hurrying as fast as they could without the benefit of motorcycles. Dolfuse watched silently, tense, as the television showed the drone soaring right above the surface of what could only be a river. The small amount of light coming from the buildings cast the occasional glimmer against the water, but other than that it was just a deeper, winding shadow amongst other darkness.
The drone detected more motorcycles with differently colored lights, and flew lower to follow.
Lundgate had abandoned his snacks. Who could eat after seeing what had happened to the shippees?
This other gang numbered only five, travelling like a flock of ducks. A twirl and a dive and the drone circled the motorcycles, keeping up with them along the street. The video jumped, putting the drone closer and showing something poking out of the top of the lead biker’s jacket. Dolfuse rose from her couch and squinted at the television. Was it…?
“Is that a baby?” Lundgate said.
Dolfuse’s gut twisted. It felt like the hairs on the back of her neck had ripped themselves free. “That can’t be. Who would do such a thing?”
“This is going to send a wrench so far up that shipper warden’s ass she’ll be shitting iron for months.”
Dolfuse turned back to him with scrunched brows.
“Oh.” Lundgate’s eyes widened. “Uh, pardon the French, senator.”
“What did you mean about the warden?”
His eyes focused on the screen, Lundgate said, “Well, I mean, there’s a baby on Oubliette. That’s a huge deal. Illegal as hell. It’s definitely going to ruin the warden’s credibility, yeah?”
“I suppose it would.”
They’d throw Beckles from her ivory tower the instant they discovered she hadn’t noticed a smuggled child, or if she’d been behind it. But Dolfuse didn’t see the warden making it easy on anyone who would try. And she had all those guards religiously loyal to her. Then there were all those shippees who’d yet to be sent to Oubliette.
Dolfuse had to warn Spangler. To hell with Beckles. She couldn’t let her friend go down with the warden. Spangler could quit and they could formulate a plan, a defense when it came to the authorities interrogating him. And the questioning would come.
“The motorcycles are stopping,” Lundgate said.
Dolfuse turned back to the TV. The gang stopped in front of a wide, one-story building. When their wheels disappeared, they leapt off their bikes and ran to the front door.
Chapter 31
“Fucking shit!” Ava said.
“How could we have lost Pao?” Dipity asked. “She was right behind us.”
Sterling, the last inside, closed the door.
A hot geyser of hate filled Lena’s gut. She flexed her hands into fists, pacing the darkened front of Grindy’s shop. She wanted to hit something, but Rory gurgling from under her chin kept her from blowing her top.
Such a beautiful girl.
At least the night hadn’t been a complete fuckup. She smiled and bounced the baby against her chest.
“So how are we going to get her back?” Hurley Girly asked.
Rory had to be the most precious thing Lena had ever seen. Even though they looked nothing alike, Lena knew she’d been destined to be her mother. Circumstances, fate, whatever they called it, had brought them together. Maybe there was a God out there, and he paid back his debts even if it was a little late.
“Hey, Horror!” Ava shouted.
Lena jolted, scaring Rory into a whine.
“What are we going to do about Pao?”
“Or was all that talk back there about never leaving our girls behind a bunch of bullshit?” Dipity raised an eyebrow.
“That’s why we’re here,” Lena said. “We need Grindy’s help.” She turned and rocked Rory as she walked away.
“You think she will?” asked Ava. “We’ve pissed on everything she’s tried to hold together.”
“She’s a Daughter,” said Lena. “Always has been. And there’s no more truce for her to defend.”
“Where the hell is everyone?” Hurley Girly asked. “They should have been back by now.”
“Someone get the lights,” Lena said.
Sterling walked over and tried a switch. The dark remained as the light switch sounded an empty click, click. Something was definitely wrong. As they eased through the rows of shelves filled with spare parts and unfinished inventions, shadows played tricks on Lena, flickering at the periphery and making her dart her eyes from one junk-ridden cabinet to another.
A clang to their right. Hurley Girly crouched into shooting position. Her ball shot out and the hairs on the back of Lena’s neck rose. Hurley Girly had successfully murdered a metal cylinder that had rolled off one of the shelves.
They continued on to Grindy’s office. It had been left cracked open, and Lena pointed a finger at Dipity and Sterling to get on either side of the door, while Ava and Hurley Girly squatted further back, facing it.
With a nod from Lena, Dipity pushed the door the rest of the way open. Hurley Girly screamed and Sterling bent over, away from the door, dry heaving. The other two did much the same.
Their reactions told Lena everything, but she wasn’t ready for what she found. She let Rory wrap a tiny hand around her finger and stepped to the open door.
They’d cut Grindy to pieces. Her arms, legs, and head had been nailed to the wall, her face contorted in an inhuman grimace. Where her torso should have been, were the words, No Mo Truce. Blood covered the floor. They must have done it here. Who? The Amazons, who the fuck else?
Lena nestled Rory deeper into the jacket and covered the baby’s nose as she moved in closer. She found the torso. It lay on top of Grindy’s desk, stripped of clothing and most of the flesh.
“These fuckers,” Lena whispered, “are going to wish they never messed with us.”
An ear-splitting scratch came from outside, along with equally detestable laughter. The Daughters sprang to life, casting down their misery, and huddling against the shop’s front door with their backs. Shit was about to get real, but if the Amazons wanted in, they’d have to be stronger than Lena and her gang.
“Daughters,” said a high, singsong voice that could only belong to Farica. “Come out and play!”
The other Amazons whooped and copied Farica’s taunt.
“I’m going to kill them.” Ava rose, and Dipity had to pull her away from the door before she could open it.
“Wait,” Lena said.
Hurley Girly pointed. “We can go out the back. If we leave now, they might not see us.”
“On foot?” Dipity asked.
“There’s no way we’d make it,” Lena said. “But you’re right about the back. They’re going to wise up and come at us from both sides eventually.”
Farica shouted through the door, “We found some gnarly weapons in there that Grindy’s been making. I think she was planning on arming the dwellers with these fucking things.” Something tapped against the street. “Can you believe that? Looks like that blade thing the grim reaper is always carrying around. Sharp glass, too. We gave a bunch of them to our dwellers. I tell you, those crazy sheilas were almost surgical when they cut into Grindy.”
Ava scrambled to get out there. It took nearly all of them to hold her back.
“And now we’re going to use them to fuck up your cyclones.”
That was the last straw as far as Ava was concerned. Lena didn’t know if Ava found some jolt of adrenaline to give her ultra strength or if the other Daughters had loosened their grip on her, but Ava opened the door and got off a shot before Dipity could close it back, just in time, as rang shots hit the glass door in a buzzing thump, thump, thump.
“My foot!” one of them screamed. “Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, fuckity fuck!”
More laughter came, but it was from Ava, maniacal cackling. “My rang ball is still out there.”
>
The Amazons were cursing, screaming, and yelling things like, “Duck!” and “The damn thing’s over there!”
The back door crashed through. Lena and the others raised their rangs, ready to shoot the incoming Amazon, but it was Ava’s ball of light come back home. When it returned, Lena yanked Hurley Girly to her feet and they all ran for the back door. Lena followed at the rear.
Loud humming filled the room from behind. Bursting through the door, one of the Daughters’ cyclones hurtled in without a rider. Instinctively, Lena held Rory tighter, as if she could have prevented the oncoming wheels from crushing and burning both her and the child.
Sterling shoved Lena out of the way. When Lena fell onto her back, head smacking the side of a shelf, Rory cried so hard she gagged tiny baby coughs. The cyclone kept coming, throwing Sterling to the ground and rolling over her legs. Unable to scream properly, Sterling moaned like a drowning lawn mower. Tears streamed from her eyes and into her gaping mouth.
The cyclone slammed into a wall. It stayed in place there, buzzing and moving only slightly to one side.
“Get Sterling on that bike,” Lena yelled at Hurley Girly. “Go to the ganghouse. Get ready for an attack.”
They hurried to put Sterling behind Hurley Girly, and the two of them were out the back door in seconds. The other Daughters followed on foot, not bothering to wait around for the Amazons who’d surely be coming through the huge hole in the front of the shop. Lena tried to comfort Rory, who steadily whined as the Daughters crouched along the side of the building. Hurley Girly’s cyclone wheels glowed in the distance before disappearing around a curve.
What the fuck had Sterling been thinking? Sure, Lena was glad to still be alive, for Rory to be OK. But now it was Sterling whose life was on the chopping block. How could she be so stupid? After all the hell Lena had put Sterling through, why did she sacrifice herself? If Sterling lived, she could never walk again, probably couldn’t ride either. It was something they’d take care of later, if they were lucky enough to talk to her again.
“Run for the cyclones,” Lena whispered. “They’re probably coming through the front now. If you see any of them, shoot until they’re on the ground.”
They ran, and Rory’s cries bucked with the movement. When they got to the front, one Amazon waited on her bike, raised her rang. Lena fired; all of the able Daughters did. The Amazon was too slow, and the shots ripped into her, sending the cannibal flat onto the street.
Lena jumped on her cyclone and held up her rang to catch the returning ball. “Grab her rang.”
By the time Hurley Girly nabbed the weapon, Amazons were rushing from the front of Grindy’s. The Daughters rode away as orange rang shots flew past overhead. Lena had to swerve to deflect one with the back of her cyclone. Farica and her girls had wasted time shooting when they could have been on their cyclones and catching up. But there was only one way back to the Daughters’ ganghouse, and the Amazons always had more than one card up their sleeves.
Chapter 32
“How can we get info on these women?” Dolfuse asked. Lundgate probably had no clue, but she had said it more to herself than him.
“I guess they would have that info at the shipping port,” Lundgate said. “I don’t know, though. It’s just a guess.”
Of course, fate would have her go back to that snake pit and run the risk of having to see Warden Beckles again. Spangler would be pissed as well. She’d already squeezed him dry for favors. But she had to know. Who was the biker woman? Who was the baby? How could she possibly be sent to Oubliette?
“Man,” Lundgate said. “This is better than a movie – static aside. Martin is going to love it.”
Dolfuse looked at him from the corner of her eye. “How well do you know the vice president?”
Lundgate stared at the ceiling, tilting his head from side to side. “Just a little. She’s had me do different things for her. But I wouldn’t say we’re best friends or anything.”
“Do you know why she’s so interested in Oubliette?”
“I could guess.” He wrinkled his brow, throwing her the occasional curious glance as the drone flew behind the warring gangs.
“Just for my own curiosity.”
Lundgate nodded. “Yeah, she’s like a human math problem. I’ve been trying to figure her out for a while. But I have a theory.”
“I’m listening.”
“Well, if the enviroshields break down, or the EA come a-calling, we’re pretty much screwed. And based on how big I’m guessing this city is from what the drone’s been showing us, there could easily be enough room for a few hundred thousand.”
“So why not pack up and move everyone to Oubliette?” Dolfuse said, nodding. It would make sense.
“Not everybody.”
There’s the catch. “And I wonder how the lucky few would be selected.”
Lundgate shrugged. “I don’t know. I haven’t thought that far. Anyway it’s just a theory. I couldn’t see us leaving all these people to die in the cold.”
“We send children to die on Oubliette and in the army,” Dolfuse said, softly.
That got Lundgate uncomfortable. He sighed, hunching his shoulders, and tried to focus on the television.
“And what about the women on Oubliette now?” Dolfuse asked.
“I guess they’d have to be removed.”
Chapter 33
Lena, Dipity, and Ava flew through their front door, and Hurley Girly locked it behind them. Sterling lay on a manna box couch, shaking and gasping. The burnt mess of her legs shimmered wet under the lights, red skin showing through the holes in her pants.
Something slammed against the front door.
“I want my baby!” Farica shouted from the other side. “You all brought this on yourselves. I was being good! I followed the truce. You’re the bad guys here. Not us!”
Lena spit. “We need to get Sterling upstairs.”
No, Sterling signed. The effort seemed to give her more pain. I’ll hold them off.
“Are you fucking nuts?” Lena leaned over her. “You’ve already done enough.”
I’m dead anyway.
“The hell you are!” The last word came out wobbly, as Lena fought the tears bubbling up.
Sterling smiled. Let me.
Lena stormed away, determined to keep her mind from spiraling into the other side of insanity. But maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing to let the monster out. But not now, not with Rory around.
“Ava,” Lena said, “you’re with me. Hurley and Dipity, get the turrets ready.”
“But we never got any extra rangs,” Hurley Girly said.
“Use the one you took off the Amazon.”
“But–”
“Just fucking do it!”
Rory began crying again. Guilt immediately gripped Lena, right in the gut. It wasn’t just the baby. It was the landslide of everything she’d done to call down the shitty predicament they were in.
Lasers sawed through their door.
Lena popped her neck and sighed. “Does everyone have a fucking laser cutter but us?”
Chapter 34
Farica rolled the scythe in her hand as she waited for her sheilas to finish cutting into the door. She’d cut Lena’s throat first. Yeah, she bet Horowitz tasted sweeter than all the rest. She’d been marinating in crazy more than the others.
This was justice, the Daughters brought this on themselves. Nobody liked the fucking truce, but Farica and her Amazons would have upheld it. With the steady supply of meat coming in every quarter, why the hell would they disrupt that?
Because the meat would still come, even if we were the only gang left. Farica grinned, watching light glint off the scythe’s blade.
A common misconception was that the cannibalism had started on Oubliette. Twenty years before, though, a story had ripped through the headlines about a family living off the grid in the wilds of Montana. It had been during the worst years of the famine. Nothing was growing, and most rural communities didn’t have
access to government-issued foodstuffs. Not that it could really be called “food.”
The Altstadt family had been raided by UCNA special forces after several travelers in the area had gone missing. What they’d found was worse than any horror movie: filleted cadavers piled up in a barn, booby traps for anyone dumb enough to come snooping around the property. Several agents had been killed without a shot fired.
In the end, though, most of the Altstadt family was put in the dirt, except for a girl named Farica and her younger siblings who’d hidden in a cellar. The one boy was handed over to the military while the girls were immediately processed and shipped to Oubliette.
Hands washed clean, as far as the government was concerned.
And once she got to Oubliette, Farica gathered her sisters and formed their own gang, named after the game they used to play in the woods, imagining themselves as warrior women who ate their enemies. Time and violence had made her the last original Amazon.
Daughters of Forgotten Light, Farica thought, what a fucking mouthful. And what did it even mean? Well, Farica would make sure they were forgotten soon enough.
“It’s done,” her right arm said.
“Ladies,” Farica said, smiling at each of her gang, “try not to kill Rory when you’re blowing holes through these bitches. Yeah?”
They nodded in unison, building up a momentous energy Farica could almost feel in the air. She kicked at the triangle shape that had been cut in the door. When it fell, the Amazons raised their rangs and entered two at a time. Shit, she was so amped about killing the Daughters, she’d almost forgotten that one of her gang still lay dead in front of Grindy’s. Just another thing for the Daughters to pay for.
The main room was empty.
“Where are they at?” her left leg whispered.