He needed to stop doing that, it hurt like a bitch.
‘I weren’t stealin’ it! Honest!’
‘Like fuck you weren’t, but I couldn’t give a shit about that kid.’ He eyed her up and down.
She had a similar build to Leci, was a bit smaller, clearly younger. Her hair was shorter but the same muddy blonde colour. She was wearing the cookie shirt. It didn’t hug her curves like it did Alecia’s, the scrawny kid barely had anything to call a curve, but he hadn’t been able to tell that so well from the back. He was majorly pissed with himself for falling for something so simple, but he had to admire his girl for thinking of it.
‘The girl who gave you the clothes and the horse kid, what did you give her?’
‘Huh?’
Her confusion was more because of the unexpected line of questioning rather than because she didn’t know what he was talking about. It took her a few seconds to realise that this crazy looking dude wasn’t interested in the bottle she’d been swipin’ from her old man. She relaxed visibly.
If this guy wasn’t gonna tell her Pa what she’d been up to then maybe she could avoid a nasty beatin’. All she had to do was keep him sweet, give him what he wanted.
‘The girl... Um... She wanted a horse, and my clothes. I traded Pa’s nag with her. Good deal, did you see what she gave me for it? It’s a fucking good pony, reckon the old man’ll be pleased?’
She looked frightened, but at the same time eager to please, a desperation in her eyes that told him she spent her entire life trying to stay on her father’s good side but not usually managing very well. Amato felt a flicker of sympathy for the girl and he relaxed his grip on her arm, keeping hold of her, in case she tried to run again, but not putting such bruising force into it. She was just some poor kid who’s dad took out his anger on her with his fists.
‘What clothes did you give her? What’s she wearin’ now?’
The girl looked at him as though she thought he was mad. He gave her an impatient shake.
‘Ok! Ok! Um... I swapped her for my cap, hers was in better shape, mine was full of holes but she didn’t care. It’s a red one. Well, it’s got some red patches on it, it’s mostly dirt coloured I s’pose.’
He nodded.
‘What else?’
The girl’s curiosity got the better of her and she suddenly looked more interested than afraid.
‘What’d she do Mister? Why you chasin’ her? She killed someone?’
‘No, but she’s going to if I don’t find her soon. Now tell me what the fuck she’s wearing!’
‘Alright, alright... Eesh, calm down. I gave her my tank top, it’s like a muddy green, got some holes in it and one of the straps broke, I had to tie it back together so it kinda hangs lopsided now. Looked worse on her than it does on me cos she had bigger tits than I do, and my camo pants. One of the legs is ripped off at the knee. It got a hole in it sometime y’know? And I just sorta dug at it an’ dug at it until the hole was mostly all the way around and I pulled the leg off. She liked em cos they had a belt on though, didn’t care how stupid the legs was.
‘Oh, she wanted my knife too. Just a little one, made me give it as part trade for the horse. She wouldn’t swap her shoes though. I wanted them badly too, hers didn’t have no holes in em. Bitch wouldn’t give me her jacket either. Was a real nice one and it was way too big for her. I thought she was gonna hit me when I tried taking it off her. Was the shoes I wanted most though, looked real comfy.’
She looked down forlornly at the ragged excuse she was wearing on her feet. They were little more than thin straps of material wrapped around her dirty bare feet.
‘Say, can I have yours mister?’
‘Can you fuck. And for the record, a fucking gnat’s got bigger tits than you do, Sweetheart. What colour is the horse you gave her?’
She pouted sulkily, sticking out her bottom lip, either upset by his refusal to give her his shoes, or pissed at his comment regarding her lack of cleavage. For a moment she looked as though she might respond by clamming up and not telling him what he wanted to know but she soon changed her mind when he unslung the rifle and pointed it at her face.
‘Fuck... Fuck! Grey! It was a grey old nag! Don’t shoot me mister!’ She held her hands up protectively in front of her and he put the weapon away. Taking the opportunity, the kid ducked under his arm and fled. He didn’t try to stop her, he’d gotten everything useful out of her.
Well, almost everything.
‘Hey, kid!’
She stopped and turned around when he yelled, watching him cautiously but obviously relatively sure she was a safe enough distance from him now.
‘Which way did she go?’
The girl smirked, stuck her middle finger up at him, and disappeared around the corner of another building.
Amato swore and kicked at the ground, swirling up a cloud of dust around him.
The only benefit he could see to this whole farce was that she had downgraded her ride and he might be able to gain a bit of ground on her.
Fuck, he hadn’t even asked when she’d been here.
He thought about chasing after the kid, forcing her to answer a few more of his questions but decided against it. The time he’d waste doing that could mean the difference between life and death to Alecia and he wasn’t going to risk it.
The best he could do was try and think how she would, or, how he thought she would, and just trust that he was heading along the right sort of line. She was looking for civilisation, she’d follow whatever there was that looked vaguely manmade.
Saddling up again, Amato followed what remained of a dirt beaten track that maybe once had been able to be called a road.
She suspected he might be following her and she was trying to throw him off, that much was clear, but he didn’t think she’d go out of her way to do it. She would be hoping that the time she’d gained with this little stunt would be enough.
He was praying that it wouldn’t.
Chapter 26
Ok, so she was the first to admit that trading a good horse for this pile of crap had been a phenomenally bad idea.
Nevertheless, it had seemed like a clever thing to do at the time, and it was too late to be whinging about it now.
The poor thing was covered in sweat and was panting like a dog that had been left out in the sun. She had to give it its dues, it was a fighter alright, but the last hour or so had just seemed cruel, pushing it on mercilessly, and she was looking forward to being able to ditch the animal, perhaps more to assuage her own guilt rather than for its welfare.
She was seeing people now, it had started as just a thin trickle at first, a couple of hours back; one or two men on horses that were carrying packs laden with trader’s goods, the odd farmer trailing a cart, one or two pedestrians. Gradually the dirt trail she had been sticking to had widened, become more pronounced, turned into an actual road. More and more smaller tracks were forking off from it, and at each one there seemed to be more and more people adding to the growing traffic.
This was a good sign.
It had to mean that she was getting close to somewhere large enough to be worth travelling to for these people.
Maybe it was market day somewhere, or maybe Officials had arrived in town and were handing out free guns, or maybe it was the coming of the freakin’ Messiah.
Who gave a fuck why they were flocking?
All she cared about was that a big number of people heading in the same direction was exactly what she was looking for.
Still, it wouldn’t do her any good right now if any one of the travellers on the road happened to be an Official keeping an eye out for her. This wasn’t the right place and she had a lot of work to do before she let herself be found, if she was going to do it right she had to find somewhere secure to get a little rest before she even tried putting her plan into action.
Confident that she was heading in the right direction, Leci steered her nag away from the road.
The dry and dusty desert h
ad given way some time ago to a more lush environment. The landscape dipped and rose, dotted with hilly mounds that were patchy with brittle, brown grass. The occasional tree grew and in places there were tall weeds that didn’t hide her but provided decent coverage. She rode parallel to the road, keeping her distance but not letting it out of her sight. It would be too easy to get lost when she was so tired and struggling to pay attention, and she didn’t want to be detouring unnecessarily when she was on the right track, when she was so close.
When she cleared the next rise Leci stopped and looked down at the town below her.
From where she stood, she could see a large market square, full of tents and stalls and bustling with people. There were several dilapidated buildings, she could see a tavern and a stable, a couple of workshops and at the far end there seemed to be a campsite.
A nicely populated and busy area.
She quickly found what she had been hoping to see.
The largest of the buildings still standing was a four-storey one. From the look of the front of it she figured it was probably an old apartment block. Some of them still stood and had several rooms that were habitable. Over the years they had either been claimed by people who made their money renting out rooms to weary travellers, or they simply stood waiting to offer a temporary free room to anyone who might need it.
Leci narrowed her eyes and could make out the rusted metal ladder that climbed the side of the building. It was rare to find one intact and this wasn’t any different from usual. The ladder began just above the window line of the second floor and went up to the roof. It wouldn’t be any use to her unless she could access it from the inside. This posed a challenge, but wasn’t impossible, didn’t worry her.
Overall, the place would suit her needs very well indeed. It was as close to perfect as she could’ve hoped for.
There would undoubtedly be Officials somewhere in the crowd below her, probably on the lookout for a blonde girl, a redhead, a bald guy and an ex prison guard.
Good.
They’d see her when she was ready for them to.
Dismounting, Leci didn’t bother securing the horse, she simply pulled down her pack, slung it over her shoulder and allowed the animal to wander off to graze. She had no more need for it. It could fend for itself, run free, find civilisation or lie down and die for all she cared, it was no longer her responsibility.
She tugged the cap down low over her eyes and tucked her hair up into the back of it, hiding as much as she could. She pulled Amato’s heavy leather jacket onto her shoulders and slipped her arms inside. She was already sweating and it was far too hot to be wearing it, but she zipped up the front regardless. It was oversized and hid her figure nicely. If she were lucky, she might be mistaken for a boy dressed like this; draw less attention to herself, less cause for suspicion.
The town below had no boundaries, no fence or wall around it and so she kept away from the road that led straight onto the main street, instead snuck in through an alleyway that ran alongside the apartment building. She stayed to the wall and checked the windows as she passed them, hoping to find somewhere that was clearly deserted.
The first room she came to was bare other than a filthy mattress lying on the floor against one wall. A thin woman and two disgustingly dirty children were curled up asleep on it, and she moved on to the next quickly.
By the time she reached the corner of the building she’d had no luck in finding a suitable room. She was nervous about the idea of simply going inside and requesting one, there was a chance that people like the owner had been warned to watch out for her, but she finally decided to take the risk.
She kept the rim of the hat low and her head down as she hurried inside.
A skinny guy, kind of old looking, maybe around forty or something, no hair left on the top of his head and a bad comb over trying to hide that fact, looked up at her from the dirty, in both senses of the word, magazine that he’d been pawing through.
He grinned at her and she couldn’t hide a grimace as he exposed rows of rotten black teeth.
Shit, so her run of luck had ended? Was it too much to ask that he’d been a little less gross?
He was eyeing her up and down and she resisted the urge to vaporise him.
‘Got a room?’
‘Yep.’
Leci licked her lips nervously. Was it too much to ask that instead of being able to start fires she’d been given the ability to do something cool like... hm... like... ooh, like influence people’s thoughts or create objects out of nothingness? Yeah, either of those would’ve been so much cooler, and far more useful right now.
‘I got no money...’
He grinned again, she knew he had been expecting that, and she closed her eyes, wondering if this was really necessary.
‘Close your eyes and think of Amato...’ she thought, trying to console herself, to dispel the bile that was threatening to rise in her throat. God, she wanted to wipe that grin off his face...
‘I’m sure we can agree on some form of payment.’ He told her, rubbing his hands together. He stood up and she caught sight of the rifle that was propped against the wall next to his chair.
‘Foller me boy’, I’ll show yer to yer room.’
He picked up the gun and headed for the staircase. Leci brightened slightly. Not only did the second floor mean that she’d be closer to the metal ladder and wouldn’t have as much difficulty getting to it when she needed to, but the nasty piece of work in front of her had been fooled, apparently liked little boys. Maybe when he found out she wasn’t his type he’d let her off the hook and just give her the room out of embarrassment.
#
Or maybe he just wasn’t particular about where he stuck his cock.
‘That earns you a stay for tonight.’ He told her, buttoning his pants.
‘I’ll be back again t’morra if yer wantin’ to stick around longer.’
Leci managed not to be sick.
‘I’ll be out of here before then.’ She replied and he shrugged, retrieving his rifle from where he’d left it propped by the door. He left the room without another word and she was alone.
She shivered and pulled the thin, unclean sheet around herself as she curled into a ball on the grimy mattress.
She’d done this sort of thing more times than she could count, since she had been old enough to know that she had something men wanted from her. It had never bothered her this much before, even with worse guys than that, though she’d had to try very hard to stop from gagging when he’d been there, above her, inside of her. His skinny white ass jerking up and down in the air as he clung to her tits and pumped away at her, his breath, putrid, foul smelling and hot against her cheek as he’d grunted and panted, then, when he came, squealing like a fucking stuck pig.
She had raw, red finger marks on top of the bruises she’d already had. He had tried to kiss her once but she’d turned her head to the side and he hadn’t tried again.
At least it had been over fast.
Shaking her head in disgust, either with herself for using her body as currency or with that fucking pervert for exploiting her, she wasn’t sure, but she was disgusted all the same. This was an unusual feeling for her and she couldn’t explain it, had never before felt any emotional connection to what she was doing. The act was a business deal and nothing more.
Why had this been different?
She wrapped a corner of the sheet around her hand and scrubbed between her legs, wiping away the sticky substance that was running down her inner thighs, getting rid of as much as she could.
She dressed quickly, moved to the glassless window, and stuck her head out.
She was on the third floor and as luck would have it the metal ladder ran right beside her room, she would have full and easy access to the roof.
Nice, she felt it was payment, reward even, for what she’d just had to endure, things were evening themselves out, gotta take the bad with the good, and all that shit.
Content with this sh
e picked up one of the metal chairs, there were two of them around a small table in one corner of the room, she took it to the door and jammed it beneath the handle. It wasn’t a great deal of security, but it made her feel a hell of a lot better, especially when she didn’t have any trouble at all picturing that slimy freak hovering outside the door...
Avoiding the stained mattress, she settled down on the hard wooden floor in a far corner of the room, using Amato’s jacket as a pillow, holding it against her face and breathing in the musty, strong scent. Clearing her mind, allowing it to go blank, she finally gave in to the need for rest and let her heavy lids close, drawing blackness into a world that, right now, already seemed pretty bleak.
Chapter 27
When Leci woke it was dark, and that was just fine.
She felt so much better, refreshed, able to think clearly, and ready to get this all over and done with.
She began to uncurl slowly from the ball she had pulled herself into while sleeping. Her limbs ached numbly after being in the same cramped position for too long and when that wore off, they tingled uncomfortably.
She might’ve realised something wasn’t right sooner if she hadn’t been distracted by the sensation of pins and needles running through her hands and feet.
Not that it would have done her any good.
It crept over her slowly, the feeling that she wasn’t alone. She sat perfectly still, her breathing controlled as she tried to listen for anything that might give away whether her instincts were right, or whether she was just being paranoid. It reminded her of the time in the alleyway, the first time she had ever burned anything, the night she had discovered what she could do. That had begun very much like this, waking to the knowledge that she was no longer alone.
Maybe the creepy apartment owner had just freaked her out more than she had thought.
Or maybe he’d come back for more...
Impossible!
The Condemned Page 19