“As soon as everyone is fed, we’ll begin the next step in our journey,” Jane said. “As always, you’re welcome to pursue your own path at any time, but do say good-bye if you are going to leave us.”
No one was going to leave. He was sure of it. The vagrants were more loyal to Jane than anyone he had ever seen. People did what the coalition told them to, but they didn’t enjoy it. Chad’s favorite pastime had been complaining about the mayor, and he had many spirited companions in that endeavor. Thinking about the mayor floating past him after the danger was gone made Jeff sick. He would find the man and all of his lackeys.
“Jeff, a word,” Jane said. Everyone moved with a purpose and experience that showed practice as they set about breaking camp once again. It wasn’t surprising; they were called vagrants for a reason.
“Good luck,” Stefani said after helping him to his feet.
“Thanks.” He smiled at her. She was rough around the edges, but Jeff couldn’t help but like the woman. Sure, she had asked Carlee to leave him for dead a few times, but she didn’t hold his survival against him.
“I was up much of the night trying to find the right path for you,” Jane said. “It has been a long while since I was so conflicted on a decision.”
Jeff didn’t know whether to thank her or apologize. Carlee revealed zero emotion, declining to help him understand what was happening.
“And what path have you decided upon?” Jeff asked. He wasn’t sure if it was correct terminology, but he went with it.
“We will take you with us to Dallas, where we will help you find a new life among the people there.”
8 ONLY A GUEST
THE DECISION HIT HIM ALMOST as hard as Horus’s laser. Jeff had decided that he wanted to stay with the vagrants only a dozen hours ago, but he had already set his heart on it. After losing everything in Fifth Springs, it had given him a new purpose.
“I . . . I would like to stay. I’d like to become a vagrant . . . to help.”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t allow it. Our paths are not reconcilable with desirable outcomes,” Jane said.
“Please—”
“Don’t,” Talon said.
Jeff stared at up the massive man. His tone was dangerous, and he looked prepared to tear a leech in half at any moment.
“Let’s get ready to go,” Carlee said. She led him away while Jane returned to her tent. Most of the camp had already been packed and loaded onto the antigravity transports. The tents set up and collapsed at the touch of a button, which allowed the camp to move in a matter of minutes. The amount of wealth the vagrants displayed in just those vehicles alone was astounding. Of course, wealth got you killed almost as fast as ignorance.
“So, that’s it?” Jeff asked. “Some girl stays awake in the night, having visions, and she gets to decide my entire future?”
Carlee pulled up abruptly and rounded on him.
“Don’t you ever talk that way about Jane in front of me again,” Carlee said. She stepped into his personal space and not in the way he would have enjoyed. “Or I will leave you worse than I found you.”
It was so out of line with everything he had ever seen from her that he would have been surprised if his anger hadn’t taken control.
“You might as well have left me,” Jeff said. “You say you want to help? Help what? Help who? Make me a leg and send me on my way so you feel good about yourself. That’s trash.”
Carlee’s hand flashed to her side in a whipping motion. Jeff looked down just in time to see a metal handle come flying from her belt and into her hand. In a single motion, she grabbed the handle and hurled it toward the boulder where he had slept. A pinkish, translucent force field burst from the handle and formed a nasty-looking dagger just before it lodged itself deep inside of the rock, directly above Jeff’s sleeping bag.
“Do you want pity now, Jeff?” Carlee asked.
“I . . .” Her sudden display of spectacular frustration left him searching for words. He wanted to applaud her, fight her, and ask her to teach him how to do that all at the same time, but the fire in her eyes burned away his ability to speak.
When he didn’t respond, she melted back into her former self. Her eyes eased up, and she let go of a pent-up sigh.
“I tried to keep you here,” Carlee said. “I told her that I thought you might be an asset to our group, but she couldn’t be dissuaded. So, it is what it is.”
She walked toward their transport, ignoring the awkward glances she was receiving from the other vagrants for having thrown a force-field knife all the way across the camp with extreme precision. Stefani had already loaded up their tent and belongings.
“Why?” Jeff asked. Carlee stopped a dozen feet away from him, but she didn’t turn around.
“Because I thought our paths might have crossed for a reason. Because I thought you had the potential to become one of us. But that doesn’t matter now. Get your bag. We’re leaving.”
“It’s a tough break, Handsome,” Stefani said. “I was hoping you’d stick around for a while. I like you more than the others.”
“Others?” Jeff asked. He didn’t feel like talking, especially with Carlee in the transport with him, but he didn’t want to ruin what small friendship he had started to form with Stefani even if it were doomed to end when they arrived in Dallas.
“We help people,” Stefani said. “You’re not the first, and you’re not the last. Most of the time that doesn’t involve bringing them with us halfway across the continent, but sometimes it does.”
“Do you call them all Handsome?”
“Only the handsome ones.”
“Carlee seems to think that I had the potential to become a vagrant,” Jeff said. “Does she say that about all of them?”
“You can ask her—she’s sitting right there.”
Jeff looked over to her. She was calm now, but Jeff sensed residue from their fight. Carlee shifted on her bench and looked him in the eyes.
“No, I do not say that about everyone we help.”
“But some of the people you find get to stay. They get to become vagrants.”
“Everyone can press,” Stefani said. “To a certain extent anyway. Most people don’t even know they are doing it. But only certain people can do it well enough to have it be of any use. Carl thinks that you might be one of the few who can do it well enough to help.”
The answer caused him more frustration, but he kept his cool. Getting upset with them wasn’t going to change Jane’s decision. But nothing would change his goals now. If pressing could be learned, he’d figure it out on his own. His brother’s death demanded it.
“In your experience,” Jeff said, trying to make himself sound as objective and studious as possible, “if someone were to have this potential you speak of, why would they be turned away?”
“You sound really stupid when you’re trying to sound smart,” Stefani said. She was cleaning her giant gun while the transport sped across the landscape.
“There’s more to being a vagrant than just knowing how to press. In the end, we’re just people, and that makes things complicated,” Carlee said. “It makes things especially complicated when you factor everything into the equation. One member making a bad decision can get the rest of us killed. One person learning to press could draw an Apostle down on all of us.”
“Does that mean—”
“Don’t try to understand it,” Stefani said. “Trust me. You’ll be happier in the long run.”
He’d only be happy with Dane, Sean, the mayor, Horus, and the white Apostle dead at his feet. In a way, they had all done what Jeff hated the most—they had picked on the weak, and that was something that Jeff couldn’t forgive. His entire career as a fighter was based on standing up to bullies, and he wasn’t going to let those bullies run free.
“Brace yourselves,” Jeff said. He wasn’t sure why, but he knew something was going to happen. He looked over, but Carlee had already started to move before he spoke.
An explosion sent t
heir antigravity vehicle flipping through the air. The force-field cover above their heads kept debris and shrapnel from tearing into them as they twirled around. Jeff wasn’t able to hold himself in place with just one arm, and he smashed into the force field, then the floor, and finally into a crate of supplies.
The transport dug into the ground upside down as it shuddered to a halt. He thought he was going to pass out for a moment, but he was able to retain consciousness even if his head was reeling.
Stefani’s cursing was the first thing he remembered hearing after the crash. The second was Carlee pulling his arm across the floor of the transport. The force field had deactivated as smoke starting pluming from the vehicle.
“What was that?” Jeff asked as he struggled to escape the burning antigravity vehicle.
Stefani was coughing as she stumbled in front of them and dropped a knee, holding her gun up, ready for use. Jeff looked around to see a similar scene involving a larger transport a few yards away, but it was the only other piece of the caravan in sight.
“Great,” Stefani mumbled. “Class B, leech coming in hot, Carl.”
“I see it,” Carlee said. Her voice was nearly serene, but a thread of worry crept through.
“We’re going to need some shields,” Stefani shouted.
A cloud of dust rose just above the hill they were at the bottom of. The desert had given way to a more varied environment, but visibility was not great. The air above them filled with hundreds of balls of molten energy. But instead of following a straight line, they arched downward, accelerating in speed as they came hurtling toward them.
Jeff shied away and tried to cover his head with his one hand, despite the fact that it was enough firepower to level half a community. Deafening recoiling noises filled the air, but Jeff didn’t die. He looked up again to see that a powerful force field had materialized above them at the last moment.
“Here it comes,” Stefani said.
From over the hill, a giant spinning wheel of death rocketed forth; it hung in the air, discharging hundreds of scorching energy blasts. Jeff could do nothing but stare in awe and horror at the spectacle.
“Light it up!” Carlee shouted. And Stefani gladly obliged. Streams of brilliant light shot from her gun and hurtled toward the leech.
Carlee raised her arms in front of him, and the air twisted around them. A moment later, dozens of force-field generators surrounded her feet. They popped online a split second later, encasing their small party in bubble after bubble of translucent force fields, just in time to absorb the barrage of deadly energy from the leech.
The generators burned out under the onslaught, and layers of bubbles dissipated at the tremendous amount of energy exploding on their surfaces. Jeff trembled because he wasn’t sure they were going to hold, but the air cleared, and they were still alive.
The leech landed on the ground, sending torrents of dirt and grass flying into the air behind it. Stefani’s blasts hit the back of the wheel, tearing into its massive frame, knocking the leech off course. Stefani continued to fire at it as it circled around them, its giant teeth eating into the earth. It continued to exchange fire with Stefani as it lined itself up with them directly.
“Problem!” Stefani shouted.
“Keep shooting,” Carlee said. Her voice was difficult to hear over the chaotic sounds of the battle.
Razor-sharp force-field blades extended from the sides of the leech. There were ten on each side, extending for ten yards each. It would be impossible to dodge them if it got close.
He felt completely helpless. And worthless. The leech in front of him couldn’t think for itself, but its programming was still incredibly sophisticated. Leeches like the one heading for them did the Apostles’ dirty work, mindlessly leveling whatever they were pointed at.
“You got that, Carl?”
“Aim up!” Carlee shouted.
Jeff stumbled backward into the wreckage of their antigravity vehicle while the roller dug a ten-foot trench into the burning surroundings as it plowed toward them. Carlee stepped forward, placing herself between them and the roller. Her dark gray cloak riffled in the wind as the leech bore down on them.
“Carl!” Even Stefani was concerned with how close the roller had come.
The air rippled in front of Carlee, and a series of force fields snapped into existence, forming a ramp above them. The roller’s momentum carried it above them, where it slammed into more force fields. Stefani was directly below the roller; its giant metal teeth spun in place, creating a blustering wind inside of their force-field cage.
Stefani screamed as she fired blast after blast into the leech above them. The leech whined as it absorbed the devastating blows, but it spun onward. Carlee moved close to Stefani and then turned her hand to the side, and a long spear with a hefty tip appeared in her hands. A green force field surrounded the head of the weapon as she jammed it upward into the slowing leech.
It sliced into the roller with ease. Electricity crackled around the edges of the dying robot. Carlee pulled her spear free, but the tip was missing. She tossed her staff to the ground as the leech exploded from the inside, sending flaming shards of metal showering over the devastated landscape.
9 DECISIONS
THE BATTLE HAD ENDED, BUT it wasn’t time to slow down. Carlee somehow flipped the antigravity vehicle upright, and she and Stefani quickly prepared to leave the scene. Jeff did little more than stand around and watch, feeling useless. Grass burned all around them, sending dark smoke billowing into the air.
The force fields had protected the area surrounding them in a thirty-foot circle, which was left widely untouched. Outside of their protective bubble, it looked like a scene from one of the great battles of the past, the ones that the piners —those who lived only for the memory of the old days— spoke about.
“Any bodies?” Stefani asked. She was seated in the back of the transport with her gun to her face, searching the landscape for any signs of oncoming leeches or Apostles.
Jeff appreciated that. One of the only things he knew about the vagrants’ powers was that they attracted Apostles. And Jeff had no desire to see Horus up close again. At least until he had learned how to press—then he’d have a few things to say to the Apostle directly.
“I don’t see any,” Carlee said. She continued to quickly search through the remains of the other antigravity transport.
“Well, that’s too bad,” Stefani said. “It would have been what the twins deserved.”
“Looks like they flew the roost,” Carlee said. She finished her inspection and quickly climbed back into the transport.
“How brave of them to take advantage of us distracting the leech,” Stefani said.
The transport accelerated away from the site of the battle, heading northeast. They crossed the shattered remains of an old highway. Piles of rusted old cars and bones whizzed by as they flew over them. One of the advantages of their transport was that it didn’t need to use any roads, and when it came across a barrier, it simply flew over it. Roads were havens for raiding parties and warlords.
“That’s not the way to Dallas,” Jeff said once Carlee was settled.
“We’re not going to Dallas,” Carlee said.
“But Jane—”
“That was before we got jumped by the leech.”
“But aren’t the rest of the vagrants going to Dallas?”
“Every time we travel, we have a rendezvous point established in case something like this happens,” Carlee said.
“That’s smart.”
“It’s not our first leech bash,” Stefani said. She turned around and set her rifle down, apparently satisfied with the distance they had put between themselves and the battlefield.
“So, this happens often?”
“There are many Apostles, and each has its own army of leeches and that—”
“Everyone wants to pick a fight with us until they actually have to fight us,” Stefani cut in. “I’d say we run into some turbulence once out o
f every handful of trips.”
“Even with Jane’s guidance, these things still happen fairly frequently. Not always with a leech of that size, but we manage.”
“It was worse before we joined up with her,” Stefani said. “We could hardly go ten feet without running into something that wanted to kill us. I’ll give her that.”
“So, you two were vagrants before you found Jane?” Jeff asked.
“There are many vagrants out there,” Carlee said. “For now, working with Jane is the best arrangement for us.”
“So how long have you been with her?”
“Ever since—” Stefani said.
“A while,” Carlee said. She apparently didn’t want to discuss that part of her past, so Jeff switched topics.
“So, some vagrants can fly?” Jeff asked.
“Oh, we can all fly,” Stefani said. She was back to using her coy voice. She seemed to enjoy knowing all the answers and teasing him with her knowledge. “We’re like a bunch of angels hiding our wings beneath our cloaks.”
“So, when you said flew the roost, you meant literally flew?” He refused to feel dumb about his questions. He’d been with them for several days, and they had been less than forthcoming about how their powers worked.
“They most likely flew,” Carlee said. “And yes, most of us can press in equipment to help us fly. Paul and Lionel are frequent users of that particular strategy.”
She wasn’t quite back to her calm, confident self, but it was close enough to make her more trustworthy than Stefani. The two of them seemed to be constant companions, but they didn’t seem to have much in common personality wise. He hadn’t quite put a finger on the dynamic yet, but Carlee was clearly the alpha even if Stefani liked to talk like she was.
“That’s incredible,” Jeff said. “Why not fly around all the time, then? It seems like it would have tons of advantages.”
“It’s tiring to fly for long periods of time. But mostly, we draw enough attention as it is,” Carlee said. “Flying around is just begging for an Apostle to blow us out of the sky. The higher we fly, the more exposed we become.”
Vagrants (Vagrants Series Book 1) Page 6