“Of course I’ll go back and let everyone know. I’d be willing to bet that you’ll get hundreds, maybe even thousands, of new residents based on the air conditioning alone,” I said as I gestured vacantly into the air around me.
The minister pushed a button on his desk and one of the guards was at the door instantly. “Go get two EMT medical kits and give them to that mutie that came here with Chuck. And don’t harm the fellow when you hand him the kits.”
The man nodded and closed the door. The minister leaned back again and unzipped his pants. “Candy, your turn,” he said. “God damn, I love making a deal. It turns me on! Last chance to get in on this before you get back on the road.”
I declined as politely as I could force myself to be.
ELEVEN
“That has to be one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen,” I muttered to Alejandro as we slowly walked our horses back down Main Street towards the front gate.
“I bet it was tough. Must have been very difficult for you seeing those naked girls, I’m sure!” he replied.
“It was so much stranger than just the sex slaves though. They’re not interested in foodstuffs, but he was extremely interested in how many people we had, even more so about how many police and security personnel we had. I don’t have any idea about how many people live in Carlsbad. Hell, we didn’t even know if it still existed. I made it sound like they had a large population and he seemed a little concerned by the amount of people that I said that they had.”
“How many people did you tell him lived there?” Alejandro asked.
“Eight thousand.”
Alejandro snorted a laugh out the side of his mouth. “I bet he about shit his pants.”
“Yeah, he seemed concerned that there were so many people. I wasn’t sure that Cara was telling the truth, but after meeting with that guy, I think that they really are raising an army to try to take over the area.”
“So, what does that mean for us?”
I thought about his question for a moment as we walked. Rusty’s head hung low right behind my shoulder and his breath warmed my neck and made me feel like someone was watching me. It reminded me of the feeling of being constantly on the edge during our evacuation south. It was a feeling that I didn’t want my family to experience anymore.
“We’re only 150 miles from here. These people are planning to turn this region into a war zone. It may not be the same scale of warfare that I saw up in Illinois because obviously there are less people still alive down here, but that doesn’t mean it will be less violent or senseless.”
“I think you’re right,” Alejandro agreed. “If history has taught us anything about human psychology, then it would be that we want what others have and will do terrible things to get it. That goes for empires as well. Once a group has stabilized their area, they will inevitably want to expand it.”
I looked sidelong at him and nodded. “What I’m trying to say is that even if New El Paso takes over the west Texas area peacefully, there’s going to be another group that wants their resources after that,” he continued. “I wanted to see it for myself, and I’ve made up my mind about what’s going to happen. Hell, we didn’t even know about the racism that was happening here, that by itself is going to spill over soon, you can sense it. There’s going to be war for land and resources between.”
I agreed with him and then I thought of another aspect to this whole convoluted mess. Those groups of people who were still alive up north where the weather was too cold for farming would eventually hear that the entire continent wasn’t in a deep freeze and they’d come south, which would mean even more war. “Balmorhea was a blessing at first,” I responded. “The position right near I-10 was a perfect spot, but I think it’s actually a liability now that we know what’s going on outside of those walls. The interstate will be a natural conduit for these armies to use as they travel.”
Alejandro’s scarred face made his expression difficult to read, but I could tell that he didn’t like what I was about to suggest. “You know as well as I do that this is coming. Maybe not this year, but it will be the next or the next after that. We need to move farther into the wasteland away from the road and isolate ourselves from everyone for a few years until the fighting is over.”
We walked in silence for a block, both of us leading our horses. The wall loomed ahead of us and the gate was open. Beyond the gate, I could see the shantytown and the Changed sitting beside the street, waiting for the next traveler to come through so they could beg or trade their goods for food. This was a scene that was only going to get worse as local warfare took hold of the region.
Alejandro placed a hand across my chest. “Someone from out there just told me that the crowd plans to jump us and steal whatever we got from the Ministry of Trade.”
“How did you—oh, the telepathy. I keep forgetting.”
“The same person told me that we could go to the north exit and ride around the city.”
I considered it for a moment and then replied, “What if that person who’s giving you the ‘warning’ is actually the one planning to ambush us? Is that why he’s directing you to the north?”
“Yeah, there’s no way of telling. The Main Street gate is the main entrance to town, so it makes sense that it’s the most heavily guarded, we have no idea about that northern gate.”
“Let’s mount up and ride as fast as we can out the main gate,” I said. “There are only a few blocks where the village is close to the road so we should be able to make it through pretty quickly.”
He nodded and then walked around to the side of Bob and stuck his foot in her stirrup. He pulled himself up with a grunt and I took it as my cue to get up on Rusty as well. We double-checked that all of our supplies were properly tied down and that the medical kits were secured before making the final approach to the gate.
Ramsey, the young guard who’d gone to high school with Cara, was still at the front gate. He waved as we got closer and asked, “Hey fellas, y’all leavin’ already?”
“Yeah, we’re gonna go back to Carlsbad with the Trade Minister’s proposal,” I said. “Hey, have you heard anything from the crowd outside?”
He scratched idly at his scraggly beard. “Now that you mention it, it’s been just the opposite. We’ve had a really quiet day other than when you came in. Why, what have you heard?”
I glanced at Alejandro who replied, “Someone told me that the crowd was gonna jump us outside because they knew that we had food.”
Ramsey looked over our meager supplies. “You guys must not have that much food,” he mused. “But these are desperate times. You get that message from one of the Changed?”
Alejandro nodded his head. “Did you guys work out a deal with the minister?” the boy asked.
“Yeah. He gave us these medical kits as a sign of goodwill,” I stated. “We’re taking his proposal back to our community.”
“Okay, good enough for me,” Ramsey said. “Wait here a minute.”
With that he leaned over and said something to Chris, who glared at Alejandro in unmasked hatred. Then Ramsey trotted off towards the way we’d come and went into the first building along the street. The horses shuffled their feet impatiently while we waited for the guard to come back.
There were some muffled shouts and we could hear loud noises coming from inside the building. It sounded like men preparing for war. I’d heard those exact sounds before, when I lived in Virden. Hell, I’d made those sounds as we tried to psych ourselves up for battle. I didn’t want to have to fight our way out of town and through the crowd both, but if I had to I would.
I relaxed a little when I saw Ramsey trot out of the house. He waved and called out, “Alright, I have your escort ready.” He paused as about two dozen men filed out of the house and began walking towards us. They were dressed in full riot gear. Each man wore the standard SWAT team get-up that I’d seen on TV many times, plus they had bulletproof vests, shields, helmets with facemasks and they carried wicked-looking met
al clubs. These guys weren’t going to take any shit from anyone.
“Shit, these guys mean business,” muttered Alejandro.
“Yeah, well we protect our trade partners,” Ramsey replied.
“You guys ready to go?” one of the escort group asked.
“Yes, uh…sir,” I stammered. “We were just getting ready to run through the crowd until we cleared them”
“Well, don’t do that. Stay with us,” the grizzled veteran said. “We’re going to escort you as far as the energy generation farm, but then you’re on your own. We’ll probably have to kick some of those muties’ asses, so don’t worry about what’s going on around you.”
He held up a finger and said, “But if anyone starts shooting, then take off like a bat out of hell because we can’t protect you from that. During our last escort that turned violent, the guys didn’t run and ended up getting themselves killed.”
“Uh, thanks,” I replied.
“Alright, let’s go!” the escort commander said with a wave of his hand.
They shuffled around until we were completely surrounded by a sea of armored men and then we started moving forward. We passed through the town’s front gates and out into the ramshackle huts immediately outside of the gates. A few people milled around and watched us, but there were very few of the Changed to be seen. I didn’t take that as a good sign.
We rode our horses while the men marched along. At the halfway point of the village, men and women began to stream from between the huts on either side of the road. They had murder in their eyes, but the damned people weren’t saying anything. It was like I was watching a movie with the volume turned down and it was one of the creepiest experiences of my life. I could handle the moaning and grunting of zombies, but this absolute silence was scary.
I looked over to Alejandro and said, “Are they saying anything to you?”
His eyes were just as wide as mine probably were. “No, I can’t hear anything.”
“Get ready!” the escort commander yelled.
The Changed closed to within ten feet and then suddenly charged as one. The escort expanded from their protective circle to give themselves room to fight and the two sides met. We did our best to keep the horses calm and in a stable location, but the metallic tang of blood that permeated the air around us made it difficult to rein them in. All around us, the escort bashed away at the continually-pressing mob of Changed with their clubs. A couple of the guards went down and were dragged off into the crowd screaming.
I watched in horror as an escort swung his club with full force into the face of a man. In what seemed to be slow motion, I saw the club collapse his cheek bone and continue downward to the jaw. The force of the blow ripped the poor man’s mandible completely from the side of his face and he stumbled away attempting to hold his jaw in place. The escort didn’t even break stride and by the time that I was able to refocus on him, he’d already delivered another savage blow to a woman’s neck.
The battle raged for a full ten minutes and when the remaining Changed broke and ran for the safety of their huts there were easily a hundred prostrate and bleeding men and women surrounding us. Most of them had severe wounds to the head and with the lack of medical supplies I doubted if they would survive the day. There was no sign of the men from the escort who’d been dragged away.
I felt a tap on my leg and a member of the escort said, “The captain is gone. Come on, we’ll get you to the power generation yard, then we’ve got to come back and try to find him.” The remainder of the escort reformed around us and we ended up trotting the horses to keep up with their newfound pace. They were in a hurry to be rid of us so they could return and rescue their leader, or at least return his corpse to his family.
The men didn’t say anything as we neared the field full of exercise bikes and elliptical machines. Once we reached some magic boundary, they parted to let us through and turned around back towards New El Paso. The guards in the fields acknowledged us with a nod and then refocused their watch upon the men and women who were using the machines to generate power for the water pumps and so the trade minister could receive his blowjobs in air conditioned comfort.
We decided to trot our horses the remainder of the way to Verne’s Garage so we could collect Jackson and his new friend and then get the hell away from this place. The remainder of the trip took less than an hour until we saw the road that Cara had indicated and we turned to take it.
Alejandro held up his hand and told me to stop. He nodded his head a few times, but I could tell that he was having a conversation in his head with someone. “Okay, we can go now,” he muttered.
“What was that about?”
“Someone contacted me from Verne’s,” he answered. “She told me that we had a rifle aimed at our heads and wanted to know what we were doing here. I told her we were here to meet up with Cara and Jackson, then be on our way. Apparently, that was good enough for her because she said we could come in.”
We walked the horses down the lane slowly and deliberately in order to look as non-threatening as possible. I didn’t want the sniper to misinterpret our haste to be away from this forsaken place as a hostile act towards the residents of the garage. As we walked along, a large fenced-in junkyard stretched away as far as the eye could see to the south.
After a half of a mile, we came to the parking area of the old garage and Jackson came out of the building. I swung down off the horse and he wrapped me in a huge hug. “Oh shit, Chuck! Cara told me what was happening at the town, but we weren’t allowed to leave,” he said.
“Wait, you mean Cara is a Changed too?” I asked incredulously.
“Yeah,” the boy responded. “Even though she’s only got a little bit of scar tissue, she can still do the mind-talking thing. The Changed around New El Paso have all linked their minds together and they hadn’t taken her out of the loop yet so she knew the plans to jump you guys.”
“Would have been nice if she told us,” I retorted.
“I did. I told him,” Cara exclaimed as she walked towards us from the garage.
“That was you?” Alejandro asked.
“Of course, who do you think it was?” she replied. “No one else around here gives two shits about you people other than what they can take from you. You guys are my ticket to safety. Besides, Jack would have been devastated if something happened to you.”
“Jack?” I said with a raised eyebrow towards my adopted son.
“Yeah,” he blushed. “Cara likes ‘Jack’ better than ‘Jackson.’ She says it makes me sound more grown up.”
I started to say something that sounded witty in my head, but thought better of it. Let the boy learn for himself, I thought. “Alright. I want to thank Verne and be on our way,” I said out loud.
“That’s not necessary. He wants us to leave before there’s any more trouble,” Cara remarked.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“He seemed pretty adamant that we leave as soon as you got here, Chuck,” Jackson answered for her. “He even had me prep Gertie so we could leave right away.”
I glanced towards the building where his horse was tied to a ring set into the wall. She had her saddle on and Jackson’s backpack was strapped down behind the lip of the seat. There was another, smaller bag that hadn’t been there before cinched tightly next to the backpack. Cara saw that my gaze lingered on the second bag. “Verne gave me some of his wife’s old clothes,” she stated. “I really didn’t have but the clothes that I’m wearing and he’s been nice to me all these years. That’s his final gift.”
I nodded and waved towards the wizened old face that appeared behind the safety bars of the garage window. He waved back and then he was gone. “Alright, let’s get going then,” I stated. “I’d like to be well away from here before nightfall.”
The kids mounted old Gertie and I noticed that Jackson had Cara ride in front of him, which was different than they’d been riding before. His arms circled protectively around her to grasp the reins and she
leaned into him. There seemed to be a genuine chemistry between the two, but I hoped that Jackson wouldn’t get hurt. He was such a sensitive young man, it would break his heart if the girl he suddenly found out that he liked decided that she liked someone else closer to her age. I guess time would tell.
* * *
The return trip to Balmorhea took almost four days. The trip was quiet and easygoing with no signs of anyone out on the roads. Cara thought that was strange since the Changed had regularly been heading south to gather building supplies, but we assumed that the assault had put a temporary halt to the normal day-to-day operations.
The more time I spent with her, the more I liked Cara. She was extremely intelligent and could carry on a conversation about most topics. Even with the scarring on her face, she was very pretty and I really hoped that she and Jackson could develop a relationship. Even without my secret approval, the two of them were growing closer every day and I was happy for them.
We began to see smoke on the horizon when we were several miles from home. Distances on the plains could be deceiving, but there wasn’t a doubt in anyone’s mind that the fire was at Balmorhea. We spurred our horses to run as fast as they could safely travel and a scene of total devastation awaited us when we came within view of the town.
The walls were still intact, but there were wrecked and burning vehicles piled up at strange angles and bodies were strewn about all over the place outside of town. We pulled up short when the ground in front of us began to kick up in little puffs of dust. A few seconds later, the report from a rifle carried over the distance, confirming that someone from the town was shooting at us.
“What the hell are they doing?” I shouted in frustration.
“We’re still too far away for them to see us clearly,” Alejandro surmised. “They probably think that we’re part of this group out here that attacked them.”
Enduring Armageddon Page 29