by T. K. Malone
She took another long drag on her smoke, frustration at how full her head now was of memories, some vague, as though purposely hidden from her. Yes, before, he’d said something, called her somethuing. What the hell was it? Then it hit her, as clear as the day she’d heard it, and she muttered, “You are my queen.”
“What?” said Trip.
Teah stared at Trip’s face, watched it drift in and out of focus, as if the effort to remember had been too much. She felt giddy, sick, exhausted.
“What, Teah? Come on, quit fooling.”
She gasped in air, the revived memory overpowering. She’d remembered nothing then, not until she’d woken up in a bed next to the boy’s own—next to Connor Clay, the boy who’d died. He’d been sleeping, a coma or something, but she’d been unable to leave, as though tied to him in some way. That was when she’d met Zac. He’d been so relieved at first, friendly to her, but then he’d distanced himself. But it had only made him more attractive, more alluring, and that had been it. She’d been drawn close to Zac, had fallen for his austere ways, his aloof love, until he’d put up a wall between them. Had that been Charm too? she wondered. Had she been manipulated all along, Connor, herself and Zac all instruments in Charm’s unknown plan. Could it be that even Clay was a part of it? She scoffed. No, Charm was still very much alive, still pulling the strings. She turned to Trip.
“The man I need to look for once said to me: ‘You are my queen’.”
“Clay’s father?”
Teah shook her head. “A man named Josiah Charm. The man I must find.”
“You want a hand?”
22
Teah’s story
Strike time: plus 3 days
Location: Aldertown
“Hey, my truck’s still there,” Trip said, his voice a mixture of amazement and glee. Teah looked past the trunk, past the town beyond it. Something was wrong. The smell of the place, that was it. Something smelled different. It was the reek of gun oil, of soldiers, and now she was glad they’d chosen to search the town before returning to Saggers’ house.
They’d taken the trail back to Aldertown past the ruins of her house. Odd thing, she’d thought as she’d kicked through the ash of the cabin. Black City was gone, she’d lived there, Lester’s hut, the cabin, and now Saggers’ place had all been destroyed, too. Could some morbid demon be following her around, lurking, ready to destroy any place she dared to call home? Not that she’d called any of them that, far from it. She’d never felt particularly attached to any place, though the cabin had been her favorite.
It had been a few minutes since they’d passed the pile of jutting timbers that was now Saggers’ house and were coming into Aldertown proper. Not a soul was about. Jenny’s, Mary’s, Trip’s and Hannah’s houses were all empty, all lifeless and still, Trip’s truck where he’d left it, parked up by his house, by the side of the bar.
“I wonder where they all are,” Teah said, and walked up to Hannah’s house, pushing the front door open even though she knew no one could be home. Inside was a mess of tumbled chairs and broken glass, of crockery and smears of blood, all no doubt the result of Hannah’s fight with Ray. Trip held back as Teah walked around. “Liveable,” she muttered.
The gun rack by the door still had a full complement of guns, the kitchen still the makings of a few days’ food. Everything appeared as it should be. The next house along was Mary’s. Teah nudged her door open, calling out. Once again, the house seemed normal, just lacking any inhabitants, lacking Mary and her kids. Curiously, though, not a thing had been taken. Jenny’s was the same, as was every other house in the town. It was like everyone had just upped and vanished.
“Where do you think they’ve all gone?” Trip asked, and Teah looked back at Saggers’ place. Clay? she thought, before running.
They scoured Saggers’ garden, then peered into the basement through the chaos of their escape route; nothing. Teah tried to calm herself, tried to think what might have happened. How long had they been gone? The morning—it was well past noon—so a good few hours. She cursed herself for not bringing Clay along with them. Trip tried to calm her, but she was now like a caged bear, growling, crying, hitting out at everything and anything. Once she’d punched herself out, she slumped to the ground, her back against the flagpole. “Where in hell is everyone?” she asked no one in particular. Trip, though, had been trying to stay as inconspicuous as possible.
“I’m guessing the army,” he tentatively ventured. “I’m guessing they came up and took everyone to Morton. Like as not, we’ll get there and find them all. We can use my truck.”
“Why not the preppers?”
“Preppers, nah, it wouldn’t be them. They’d have taken everything useful. They’d have picked the place clean down to the white of its bones. ‘Sides, we’d have heard them from where we were. Nope, they’ll be at Morton, I’m sure of it.”
“So, what are we waiting for?” Teah said, jumping up.
“Hold on,” Trip said, his voice louder than need be, now more commanding. “Think about it: they’ll be safe down there, but it’s just a little odd, is all.”
“What is?”
“Sit. Sit down. Let’s have a smoke and think this through.”
Teah bit her lip. Her every instinct told her to get in Trip’s truck or go find her jeep, then go get Clay, but he was right. She dropped to her haunches and lit a smoke. “What’s worrying you, Trip?”
“All of them? You really think all of them would have wanted to go? Think about it.”
“So, the army comes up here, all trucks ‘n megaphones, and everyone just meekly gets aboard and goes off with them? Something’s up.”
“Most would have wanted to stay. That’s why they’re up here. That’s why they live here.”
Teah knew them, knew Trip was right. Plus, Saggers’ house was farther out. He could have just ignored any trucks, probably wouldn’t have seen them, and yet he’d vanished too. What could have compelled them just to leave like that, not even waiting?
“Can you see any tracks?”
Trip shook his head. “No obvious signs in the town, and none here.”
“So they just vanished?”
Trip got to his feet and paced up and down. Then he appeared to have some kind of inspiration and scrambled back into the basement, soon coming back out with Clay’s jacket. “Wherever they went, they just upped and left. No preparation; no nothing.”
Trip looked down at the ground, at the mess it had become. “Boot mark,” he said after a while. “And more here.” Slowly, Trip led Teah back into Aldertown, though he lost the track a few times. It took them to Jenny’s house and around the back.
A large circle of vegetation had been flattened, Jenny’s wicker chairs no longer on the back porch but scattered around the yard. One of her dogs yelped from the nearby woods.
“Makes sense,” Trip said.
“What does?”
“Drone transporter. Probably accompanied by a few smaller ones. That’s why we never heard them, that’s why there were so few tracks.”
“It also explains why they got here so fast. They didn’t come in force, just sent the drones and a few men.”
“They came and searched everyone out,” a voice startled by saying, “one by one.” It was Ned, emerging from the woods, looking like he’d been there all night. In the shade of his peaked cap, his eyes were drawn, the way a man’s became if he’d spent the last couple of days in the company of a bottle or two. “The drones,” he said, “they came with them, rounded everyone up and took ‘em away. Couple of hours after dawn. Truck full of soldiers too. Stopped just shy of the village and went house to house, all quiet-like, commando-style.”
“How come they didn’t get you, then?” Trip asked.
Ned stroked his black beard and looked from Teah to Trip. “Guess they didn’t look in the woods. I’ve taken to sleeping out there, or more like passing out. But I kinda like the stars, and the house don’t seem to be the same place without Jenny. Gu
ess I did kinda like her.”
“You were saying about the drones,” Teah prompted.
“Them, yeah, they hunted fine, found everyone they were looking for. Must have been using heat-seeker cameras or some such crap. Surprised they’re all up and running what with that EMP blast and what have ya, but they herded them all into this massive drone that landed here, then they just up and left.”
“Which way?” Teah said, closing the distance on him. He stank of booze and barf, looking even worse up close, gaunt and empty. Ned managed a small grin. “Never were shy of a confrontation, were you, girl? Which way, eh? Well, down the valley, that’s which way. Though if you’re figuring on going chasin’ after ‘em, I’d have a little peekaboo in Helen’s house first. You remember her? Nice woman, and Jez, her husband, nice man. Now they didn’t want to go.”
“So what happened, Ned?” Teah asked. Trip had come closer himself, as though he’d appointed himself her unofficial guardian. She wondered if he knew what he was letting himself in for. She had a good history of trouble.
“You got any of Saggers’ smokes?”
“A few, and plenty at the house.”
“That wreck? But take a chance fishing in there,” and he nodded toward Helen’s house. “I’m not sure, but the soldiers went in and Jez and Helen never came out. You can go look, but I gotta feeling I know what you’ll find.”
Teah gave him a smoke. “So what are you fixing on doing?”
Ned strolled up to the porch and flipped one of Jenny’s old wicker chairs up. “Me? I’m at one of those loose ends, why? What you got planned?” He lit the smoke and took his cap off.
Trip went and sat on the porch step. “You fit to do anything?”
Ned scoffed. “Not much; not at the moment. Been an odd few days. You know what the worst part was?”
“Nope.”
“You remember, Teah? You remember how glad I was that the gridders were gonna fry?”
“I remember, Ned.” Glad? she thought, positively jumping up and down like all his birthdays had come at once.
“When I saw the sky go black… When we were in that time-out between every nuke of ours having been sent on its way and we were just looking up, waiting for theirs to come, I kinda rooted for them sorry bastards. I kinda hoped that them Russian bombs would get blasted out of the sky by some defense lasery-type-thing that The Free World had kept all quiet about, but it never happened.” He took a draw on his smoke. “No, I didn’t get no pleasure from their demise. In the end I felt nothing but emptiness, a bit like after Jenny’s wake. Thought I’d be glad to be rid of her, but I wasn’t.”
“Some confession there, Ned,” Teah muttered, sitting beside Trip. “Had Trip, here, going all idealistic on me earlier, and now, well, I’ll be dammed if you haven’t found some good inside that strung-out body of yours.”
“Half the world dying can do that to a man,” Ned muttered. “You never answered my question. What’re you fixing on doing?”
“Guess I’ll go find my kid.”
Ned nodded. “You think they’ll just hand him over?”
“I don’t tend to think that far ahead, but I’ll get him back.”
He held her eyes in his gaze, his own now with a hint of a glimmer of life. “Let’s say you do find him, get him back; what then?”
Teah lit herself a smoke. “Then I need to find a man.”
“Man with a strange name, Ned,” said Trip.
“Sounds like an adventure. A man knows when he needs something to focus on, though if I could make a suggestion first, and I know you’ll be kickin’ and screamin’ to go get after your boy, but I’m figuring he’s not in too much trouble just yet.”
“Shoot,” said Teah.
“Say,” Trip chimed in, “I’ve got me some ale, we can nip over to my place and plan stuff.”
“No one said anything about a ‘we’, yet,” Teah made clear, her gaze still fixed on Ned.
“And I get that,” Ned said. “I get that, but I can be useful. I know my way around an engine, know how to hunt, and, more importantly, I’ve been thinking a lot since the big bang.”
Trip stood up. “Hell, I could use a quick drink.”
Trip led them from Jenny’s house, across the road and down the alleyway to his beer garden. He slipped behind the bar and rummaged under the counter. Bringing up two bottles of ale, he gave one to Teah before gulping down some of his own. “Time you got dry, Ned.”
“Wasn’t askin’ for one, and I don’t need you fixing me. You want me along, Teah, then I’ll stay dry. You don’t have to worry about that.” He pulled up a stool and sat. “I can fix myself. Done it afore.”
“So, what’ve you been thinking?” Teah asked.
Ned scratched his head. “Well, before we up an’ shoot, I think we should rifle through this place for everything we may need in the future: guns, food, traps, rods, everything. We stash it all, somewhere in the forest, somewhere close by. Then when your done with your killing—or whatever you’re gonna do, even if the preppers have come by then, it’ll all still be there. Only cost a day.”
Teah flicked Trip a glance. He looked non-committal for a moment, but then nodded. “Makes sense.”
Teah couldn’t think of a decent argument against it, either. “Agreed. I take it you’re fairly sure they won’t be back.”
Ned tapped the bar and relaxed, rocking himself back and forth against his foot. “I don’t know. I watched them fer a while. They were scoping the place. Trying to get a feel. I think they knew some were missing. Ray, for instance. Didn’t see him come or go.”
Teah took a sharp breath and Trip glanced at the grave. Ned smirked. “Guilty as charged, you two, guilty as charged—no words needed—and that’s why I think they’ll be back in one form or another. They took a long time in this here garden, and those troops weren’t hanging around. It was as if they wanted to dive in and dive out, vanish as fast as they’d come, but they lingered here, and they didn’t like what they found. Nope, they ain’t coming back, but their drones might. So…which one of you done Ray in? Was it for what he did to Hannah? I’m guessin’ that.”
“Ray had it coming,” Trip said.
Ned scoffed, “So it was you, not her? Why do I not believe that?” He jumped off the stool and went over to the wall. “This his blood and guts? Shoulda cleaned it up.”
Trip reached beneath the counter, the sound of a rifle being cocked, and Ned tilted his head in recognition and stopped talking, raising his hands as Trip leveled the gun at him.
“Now, there’s no need to go all cowboy on me, Trip. I never said I cared one way or the other. I’m just pointing out that you might need a third in your party of two, to take care of the little things.” He spun around, his eyes now alive, his face full of color. “You know, there ain’t nothing like having a gun pointed at you to get shot of the old hangover. No, your little hurried burying of Ray was a mistake. If you’re going to kill someone like that—for whatever reason—you need to cover it up properly.” He went back to his stool. “Now I think you need a level head in this group. Two impetuous souls need a little balance, and I think I can add just that.”
Though she didn’t overly like Ned, he was certainly making a compelling case. Teah thought back to her time as a stiff. She’d always been given a partner more cautious than herself, one who would calm her adrenaline when it pumped, one who’d hold back when she rushed in. Trip would do anything she asked, she was fairly sure of that. He wouldn’t argue, wouldn’t try to reason with her. No, he’d just rush in with her. Maybe she did need Ned. Maybe he would keep her alive.
And then it struck her, out of the blue, as though her memory had clicked back into place. Her old partner, what was his name? Yeah, Baz, or was it Boz. No, definitely Boz. He’d been her counterbalance. Hadn’t he tried to stop her going onto the wastelands? Hadn’t he tried to stop her searching for Connor? What had happened to him that day? He certainly hadn’t been there in the underground tubes…but then she remembered
: Boz had been with her right up until the tramp had appeared. Where’d he gone from there? Had he gotten a call?. Yes, that was it, he’d gotten a call, but the signal had been weak and so he’d walked back toward the city a ways. She never saw him after that. Another outrageous coincidence, or had it been preplanned?
“Teah?” Trip shouted. “She keeps doing this,” he explained to Ned. “Keeps wandering off into the world inside her head.”
Teah shook that head like she’d just woken. “What?” Her mind felt foggy, like it had been working overtime, as though it had remembered too much. It was like fragments of her memory were falling into place, lost fragments from that day. She felt what she thought were Trip’s hands grasping hers, but then saw it was Ned. He pulled her to face him, his rancid breath washing over her.
“Are you remembering?” he asked.
She nodded.
“I think I know why. Let’s get this place cleaned out, then me cleaned up, and we can talk. That okay?”
Teah nodded, temporarily lost for words. She felt numb, frozen, as though she was finding out who she really was now, not just accepting her life for how it had turned out. Something was off, very off indeed. Ned let go her hands and wandered out of the garden, saying he’d be back once he’d cleaned up. Trip fished around in Lester’s coat and pulled out the last of Teah’s smokes. He lit one for her and stuck it between her lips. She took a drag and exhaled without removing it, trying desperately to get her head straight. Why was she remembering all this now?
“What is it, Teah?” but she couldn’t answer just yet, her mind too busy processing her new memories. Her partner, the hospital bed, the chance, the million-to-one shot, and Charm, though she’d often seen his face in her mind. You are my queen, those words turned around and around in her brain.
“Think I’m going insane, Trip. I keep remembering things, things that have laid dormant in my mind for a decade. Things I know, Trip,” and her voice was urgent now. “Things I know, but I just don’t understand.”