Compulsion

by Perrin Briar

  Wyvern and Siren’s eyes went wide. They backed away. Bo was big and strong. He was more than capable of dealing with them, as he had already proven that morning.

  Bo shook his head.

  “I can’t do this,” he said. “You’re just a couple of kids. You deserve to escape. Go now. Run. And you might just have a chance of escape.”

  “What about you?” Siren said. “And the community?”

  “We can defend ourselves,” Bo said. “We always have before. We will again. Go. Now.”

  Chapter Seven

  SIREN and Wyvern burst out of Bo’s Control Center. They thought they had outrun the Raiders, thought they were now safe. But here they were, still on the run. The Raiders had created a trap, locking the town down in order to root them out.

  The air was cool, the sky beginning to light with the rays of a new day. They wouldn’t have long before the darkness gave way to it.

  And then they heard it.

  The signature sound of the Raiders. Roaring, revving engines.

  They alone possessed the resources necessary to power modern machines. Able to move so fast, they could hit a small community hard and be out of there before the members even knew what had happened to them. But with any strengths, there were also weaknesses.

  Machines were loud, noisy, and required fuel to keep them moving. They were easy to follow, easy to track, and easy to avoid, so long as their riders did not spot you.

  They were revving now, on the other side of Main Street, where Siren and Wyvern were currently running. No doubt the locals could hear the engines, had heard the explosions. But they still hadn’t come from their homes to investigate. They had a system in place, and trusted in it to protect them. Siren wished she could have felt the same.

  Wyvern came to a stop. He held out a hand for Siren to slow down too. She did, drawing up alongside him. They were crouched behind a hot dog stand. It had been converted into some kind of street food diner.

  Raiders ahead. They roared down the street, whooping at the top of their voices. Nothing like making an entrance, Siren thought.

  Siren looked at Wyvern. Her eyes flashed with fear. Wyvern grabbed her arm and pulled her into the maze-like back streets and alleyways. Siren was running as fast as she could. Wyvern kept his grip on her arm, almost dragging her. She was nearly a foot shorter than her brother and struggled to keep up.

  “I can’t!” Siren said. “I can’t keep going!”

  “Push!” Wyvern said. “You can do it!”

  More roaring engines, on the other side of the alley. They didn’t know what would happen to them when the Raiders caught them, but it wouldn’t be anything good. That much was for sure.

  “Push,” Wyvern said. “Keep pushing!”

  Hearts pounding, blood pumping, adrenaline flooded their systems. Their feet slapped the pavement, shoes drenched in shallow puddles. They were approaching the last intersection on the east side of town. The woods loomed ahead.

  A shout. Behind them.

  A quick glance over Siren’s shoulder told her everything she feared.

  The Raiders had spotted her. A man on the back of a motorcycle waved a hand, pointing out their location. The teenagers couldn’t make out his words, but it was obvious what he was saying by his body language.

  “This way!” Wyvern said.

  He took them down another alleyway, and then another. They would be heading perpendicular to the direction of the Raiders who had seen them. The motorcycles roared on either side of them. They were drawing in the net, closing down the space the teenagers could run.

  They ran left, right, pausing when they heard the roar of the engines, but each and every time they turned a corner, there were more and more noises: the voices of the Raiders, rough and coarse, the roar of the engines. They were getting closer.

  “We’re not going to get away from here,” Siren said.

  Wyvern panted, looking left to right. There had to be a way out of there. There just had to be. They were just a day away from Whitegate. They just needed to get to it and everything would be okay.

  Except he knew it wouldn’t be okay. Chances were, it wasn’t really the haven they thought it was, just as the others hadn’t been. Still, he preferred to do that than to end up here, cornered like a wild animal.

  “Get behind the dumpster,” Wyvern said.

  He was referring to the large green bin that stood against the wall. If they couldn’t escape the way they were, then they would wait until the right time, when the Raiders had passed them and they could emerge and get out of there. It was the only option left to them.

  Chapter Eight

  ON THE NORTH side of Brookdale, the Grayskins were shuffling their leadened feet in the direction of the loud explosion that had occurred.

  The area was burnt and black. Some of the trees were still smoking. The Grayskins hacked at the trees with their clawed hands. The bark tore at their fingers and wrenched their fingernails free, but the Grayskins paid no more attention than if they had been visiting a nail salon.

  Most of them stood in place, standing morose and unmoving, lost. The same way they would stand there until something else caught their attention.

  Roar! Roarrrr!

  In the distance, back in the direction they had been heading in earlier. It was a soft noise, but at odds with the relative silence the Grayskins currently found themselves. They no more understood what the noise was or what was causing it than they understood the deep intricacies of the universe.

  Half a dozen turned and lumbered in the direction of the noise. The others growled and followed in slow pursuit.

  Chapter Nine

  “THEY CAME this way, boss,” a slippery voice said. “I saw ‘em turn down here just a minute ago.”

  The Raiders were heading down the alley in the teenagers’ direction.

  They’re going to find us here, Siren thought. They’re going to find us and they’re going to do terrible things to us.

  A whimper escaped her throat. Wyvern glared at her. The message couldn’t have been clearer if he’d said it out loud: keep quiet. Siren nodded and put a hand over her mouth to stop any further utterances.

  Wyvern clenched his teeth and gripped the knife he’d swiped from Bo’s kitchenette in his hand.

  They were perched on the edge of the dumpster, on a pair of handles, so their feet wouldn’t show underneath.

  “Come out, come out wherever you are…” a taunting voice said.

  Wyvern and Siren shared a look, and this time Wyvern looked as frightened as Siren. They didn’t need to look over the dumpster to know what the person who had just spoken looked like.

  His name was Hell’s Angel. He was a big man, tall and strong, the leader of this gang of Raiders. He was physically powerful, a mass of a man like a solid brick wall. He wore a black leather vest, seemingly an obligatory part of the Raider uniform.

  Everyone in the world had been forced to do things they wouldn’t normally have done, but this man was different. He enjoyed it. Siren got the feeling Hell’s Angel had a headstart on the others in this world. He had been like this before the world had been ruined.

  “Now, I know you’re hiding here somewhere,” Hell’s Angel said. “I know you’re right here. You’re making the mistake of operating under the dangerous impression that we’re just going to leave here without conducting a thorough search of the place. You see, we went to a lot of effort to find you, and we’re not about to up and leave right now.

  “Unless of course I’m wrong and there is no one here, in which case I’m just talking to myself and, well, that would hardly put me in a good mood now, would it? So, if you want my advice, and you want me in a good mood, I suggest you come out now and join me. Come on. Don’t be afraid.”

  Wyvern leaned his head against his forearm, deep in thought. He knew they were doomed. There was no way out of this situation. There was nothing they could do.

  “What are you thinking?” Siren said.

  “I’m t
hinking we’re beat,” Wyvern said.

  Siren had never heard him say those words before, and it was something of a shock to her to hear them now.

  “We can’t be,” Siren said. “We’ve always been able to think our way out of a situation before.”

  “Look where we are,” Wyvern said. “Does this look like a situation we can think our way out of?”

  He shook his head, angry. At himself, at their predicament, at the world, at everything. Why did they have to be in this place, in this world, right now? The universe had conspired against them. There was nothing they could do. It was a nightmare.

  “There’s only one thing I can think of that might work,” Wyvern said.

  “What’s that?” Siren said.

  Wyvern lowered his eyes and looked pointedly at his knife.

  “I sink this blade into Hell’s Angel’s body, put him down, then perhaps the hierarchical structure of the Raiders will be wounded too,” Wyvern said. “That might give us at least a little time to break out and escape.”

  Maybe the Raiders wouldn’t even give chase any longer. Maybe the vendetta Hell’s Angel had had against them would finally come to an end once someone else was at the helm. Either way, both outcomes would result in a better situation than the one they currently found themselves. Probably.

  “Well?” Hell’s Angel said. “Are you there, or aren’t you?”

  “Yes,” Wyvern said. “I’m here.”

  “There, you see?” Hell’s Angel said. “I knew you were! So why don’t you come out here and give us all a little greeting, huh?”

  Wyvern took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He lowered his feet from the handle he was perched on.

  Siren put out a hand to her elder brother’s forearm.

  “Wait,” she said. “Don’t go. I don’t trust them. Hell’s Angel is bad to the core.”

  “He might be,” Wyvern said. “But he’s our only way out of here.”

  Despite her instincts screaming at her, telling her not to let him go, she relented. She knew her brother wouldn’t have gone if she’d told him not to, but at that moment, she couldn’t think of a single effective counter argument.

  It wasn’t until much later that she realized her instincts were all the argument she needed.

  Wyvern stepped out from behind the dumpster. Hell’s Angel opened his arms wide in a friendly gesture of welcome.

  “There he is!” Hell’s Angel said. “Wyvern. My good friend. You know, I was beginning to worry about you. I thought maybe you didn’t like me.”

  Wyvern eyed the men. There were more of them than he had expected. Two dozen, maybe more. He was nervous, and he let it show.

  Hell’s Angel wrapped his big bear arms around Wyvern, hugging him close, too close. He couldn’t hope to get his blade free at such close quarters.

  Hell’s Angel drew back but kept his hands on Wyvern’s shoulders, looking deep into his eyes. His goatee was white, stained brown around his mouth.

  “My good friend who killed two of my men in order to escape,” he said, clucking and shaking his head. “What am I supposed to do with you?”

  Wyvern drew as close to Hell’s Angel as he dared, and felt the blade poking out from the end of his sleeve. It wouldn’t be visible to the armed men, not yet, though they would see it the moment it was free. They were not the kind of people to take unnecessary risks.

  The men were armed to the teeth with pistols, rifles and machine guns. Some were trained on him. A single twitch of their index fingers, and it would be the end of Wyvern. He would have no chance to defend himself. He needed to bide his time, then he could slash Hell’s Angel’s throat open.

  What would happen then, he didn’t know. He would probably get riddled with bullets, especially out in the open as he currently was.

  “I almost forgot…” Hell’s Angel said in a tone of voice that betrayed how he hadn’t really forgotten. “Your sister. Where is she?”

  “She ran away,” Wyvern said.

  Hell’s Angel’s eyes narrowed.

  “Is that so?” he said.

  “Yes,” Wyvern said. “She’s always been wild. She’ll always do what she thinks is best, no matter what I think, or anyone else thinks. She never listens.”

  “I can understand that,” Hell’s Angel said with a nod. “I have my own difficulties in controlling my men at times. It’s like they think they have their own minds, but nothing could be further from the truth. You control them by keeping a tight grip on them. Take charge.

  “What seems strange to me is that your sister seemed to really care about you the last time we met. She cared about you and your opinions, your thoughts. It seems weird to me that she would suddenly not care about you at all. Don’t you think?

  “Now, I’m going to have my men check behind the dumpster you were just hiding behind. I don’t want you to think I’m checking up on you, Wyvern. I’m just doing my job. I’m merely concerned she might be behind there and there’s no way to know that without checking. So, don’t take offence, okay?”

  He turned to his men.

  “Boys?” he said.

  Three men stepped forward to approach the dumpster.

  Siren clenched her eyes shut and said a prayer. She knew what she had to do, not that she was looking forward to it.

  “It’s okay,” Siren said, raising her voice. “I’m coming out.”

  “Isn’t that remarkable?” Hell’s Angel said with a fake slack jawed expression. “You said she ran away, and here we found her! The back of this dumpster must be bigger than it looks!”

  He turned in Siren’s direction.

  “Come out here, darling,” he said. “There’s no one here who will hurt you without my say so.”

  Without my say so, Siren thought. It was barely even a disguised threat, not that Siren for a second thought it was meant to be. She climbed from the dumpster and stepped out from behind it, the leather-clad men not relaxing until Siren was in full view and they could see she was unarmed.

  There was a real sadness on her brother Wyvern’s face, as if he really regretted this and everything that had led up to it. He was meant to protect her, and instead he had just put her in even greater danger.

  “Siren…” Wyvern said, a single tear running down his cheek, sensing what was about to happen.

  Siren had never been so afraid, had never been so angry. She could sense the malevolence bubbling inside Hell’s Angel, could feel his evil, what he would do if given just half a chance. And yet there was nothing she could do about it.

  “Please,” Siren said. “Please don’t hurt us.”

  And then a strange thing happened. Hell’s Angel nodded, and it seemed to Siren that it was a nod of agreement, the way some people did when you were talking to them, because they were taking in everything you were saying, really listening to you in a deep, heartfelt conversation.

  But then he blinked, shook his head, and regained the harsh expression he had previously fostered. It was easy to tell it was his normal expression because there were deep ridges and lines from where he wore it so often.

  “Come here, sweetie,” Hell’s Angel said, managing to make the affectation sound like it was the worst word to have ever been uttered by man. “Your brother here committed an atrocity. He has no way to pay for it. Someone has got to pay for it, and I’m afraid it’s going to be you. You love your brother, don’t you? You wouldn’t want him to get into trouble, would you?

  “So, the boys and I have had a long hard ride in getting here to you, and the way we see it, you owe us. We expect to get some recompense for what we’ve been through. You see, the boys and I have a hunger, a hunger every bit as strong and powerful as that of the Grayskins, only this is something only you can help us with. Are you catching my drift?”

  Unfortunately, Siren was. She looked at Hell’s Angel and lifted her chin in the only gesture of defiance she felt capable of. And though she was scared, terrified out of her wits, she did not want for these men, these scum of the u
niverse, to know it, much less see it. She could never forgive herself if she appeared weak in front of them.

  “That’s it, girl,” Hell’s Angel said. “It won’t be nearly so terrible as you might be imagining. After a while, you won’t even notice it. It’ll be easy. It will be pretty rough at the start. But you’ll learn to enjoy it. I can promise you that.”

  “No,” Wyvern said.

  “Excuse me?” Hell’s Angel said. “What did you say?”

  “I said no,” Wyvern said. “What kind of man are you to do something like this? You’re not a man. You’re a-”

  “Hold up there, sonny,” Hell’s Angel said, his eyes blazing pits of fiery fury. “You want to watch your tongue. It might get you in trouble.”

  Wyvern wouldn’t, couldn’t, control himself, not when an act of injustice was taking place. Siren could see what was going to happen. It was as plain to her as the nose on her face. It was obvious. Despite that, it was a shock to Siren to see it happen.

  Siren’s voice was trapped inside the prison of her mouth. She was choking on her own words as Wyvern stepped forward. The grin on Hell’s Angel’s face widened, his sinister pointing eyebrows drew down in concentration. He was not one to take risks, not at all, and he wasn’t now, not with his men standing to attention around him, their pistols and gun barrels pointing down Wyvern’s nose.

  Wyvern was right. There was no win in this situation, no way out. And that was still the case.

  Wyvern’s hand came up, revealing the pointed end of his blade as it swung around to cleave through Hell’s Angel’s throat.

  There was the slightest of movements from Hell’s Angel, who reciprocated the movement. He brought his own, larger, blade up to meet Wyvern’s. It parried Wyvern’s short-lived blow. Hell’s Angel moved swiftly, in close to Wyvern.

  Siren thought she could feel the blade as it sliced up into her brother’s body, tearing at him. He gasped, wide eyed, and dropped his own knife. It clattered to the concrete.