by Rod Carstens
First, there was an old road sign that said Warning. Beyond it was a series of logs across the road that acted as speed bumps, and finally there were large chunks of concrete in the road that they would have to slowly weave their way through to reach the bridge. Both sides of the bridge had what appeared to be bunkerlike emplacements manned by men and women with weapons. This group was as well organized as Tanner’s group, only they had chosen a bridge as their safe place.
“What are we going to do?” Johnny yelled up.
“Good question.”
Tanner knew they couldn’t bust through that roadblock. It was too well constructed, and the buses would never make it. When they’d built the shacks along each side of the bridge, they’d left a lane open down the middle that served as a street so people could move about freely. There was no way around this bridge, and it crossed a river they would have to ford even if they could find a way around.
No, they were going to have to deal with these people somehow. Tanner dismounted and stood by the SUV. Johnny had shut off his dirt bike and was standing beside Tanner. The only thing Tanner could think of was to go and talk to these people, or at least try.
“Peter, you stay here. Johnny and I are going to go and try and talk to them.” Tanner slung his rifle over his shouler. “Johnny, sling your rifle and hold up your hands. Let’s try and not get shot before we get a chance to talk to these folks.”
Tanner and Johnny began to slowly walk through the elaborate roadblock toward the entrance to the bridge. He could see the barrels of several weapons pointing at him from behind the barricades as he approached. Two runners ran back onto the bridge, yelling something he couldn’t understand, and people began to take shelter in their shacks. As he neared the concrete blocks in the road, he could see a small group running toward the bridge entrance. Tanner and Johnny had just gotten past the last obstacles when a voice yelled, “That’s far enough!”
Tanner stopped, his hands in the air. “We are friendly. We don’t want any trouble. Can I talk to someone in charge?”
“They’re on their way. You stay real still and no quick movements.”
The small group was now walking up the road with a tall woman in the lead. The rest of the men and women around her were armed. They spread out when she stopped. She was as tall as Tanner with long, dark hair in a ponytail down her back. She had a pistol strapped to her thigh, and a rifle slung over her shoulder.
“Who are you?” she shouted.
“Vin! Vin Tanner!” shouted back. “We’re a convoy of settlers just trying to move down the road to a new settlement.”
The woman peered past Tanner down the road. “Where’s the rest of your group?”
“Just over the hill!”
“If you’re what you say you are, then have them come forward so we can get a look at them!”
“Okay, let me send my boy here back to tell them to come up!”
“Okay, he can go!”
Tanner turned to Johnny and said, “Run back and tell Cat what’s going on, and have her bring the convoy up. But make sure everybody is ready for an ambush.”
“Got it, boss.”
Johnny turned and ran back over the hill.
“Can I put my hands down? They’re getting tired.”
“Yes, why don’t you move forward until I tell you to stop? I want to get a closer look at you.”
Tanner slowly walked forward, his arms down but out to his sides, away from any of his weapons. As he neared the woman, he saw that she was not that attractive, but she had an air of authority and competence that made her stand out in the crowd of people.
“That’s close enough. You have military weapons and a military-style vest. Who are you?”
“I was a Resource Control operator before I walked away!”
“Resource Control, huh?” The woman’s voice was not friendly.
“Yeah, I walked away a few months ago!” Tanner said.
“Why?”
“It’s a long story!”
“We’ve got time!”
Tanner didn’t like this, but he didn’t have much choice. If he were in her shoes he would be doing the same thing; she was being careful. He also knew if it were him, any bad answer or wrong move and he would have his people open fire.
“Then can I move forward enough so I don’t have to shout?”
The woman motioned him forward and Tanner slowly approached the group until she motioned for him to stop.
“Okay! On our last mission they sent a Spec Act team out to kill us because we knew something they didn’t want anybody to know. We ran and found a group of settlers with the man they didn’t want us to know about. They accepted us into the settlement, and now we’re here!”
The woman didn’t say anything for several moments, then said, “You’re right! It sounds like a long story!”
“It’s hard to tell when I’m shouting!”
“Let’s wait for your convoy before we do anything further!”
Tanner stood there watching the woman and the villagers on the bridges behind her. They were very well organized and appeared to be very well armed too. He wondered how they’d ended up here. This bridge setup was as good or better than the Mall, but the biggest weak point would be people passing through on the road. In addition, the shacks were not well built, but they would be cold in the winter and hot in the summer. They were growing all types of plants on the roofs of the shacks, so they had plenty of vegetables, and he could see some fishing lines over the sides of the bridge. Having a flowing river full of fish was a great source of protein for them.
How were they going to move through these people? He was trying to think whether there was any way around them, but they had not passed an exit for hours. He didn’t want to double back and take the last exit they’d passed, not knowing what they would encounter.
As he was thinking, he heard the convoy as it crested the little hill and saw Cat in the second SUV. He looked at the woman and said, “I’m going to raise my arm and signal my people! Okay?”
“Okay!” the woman yelled back.
Tanner raised his arm above his head and made a circular motion, then pointed to his location. Cat pumped her fist twice. That let him know she understood. She jumped out of the SUV and went back to the first bus. Soon Brandon and Julia emerged, and the three of them began to slowly walk toward Tanner. When they reached him, Cat leaned over and asked, “What the hell have we got going on here?”
“We’re about to find out,” Vin said. “Here goes nothing.”
He then yelled so the woman could hear him. “These are the leaders of our community! Can we approach so we can discuss this situation?”
“Yes, but be careful how you move!”
With Tanner in the lead, the four of them approached the bridge. As they did, the tall woman and three others also approached, until they were just twenty feet away. Tanner sized the woman and her group up. The men and women all looked well fed and well armed. They had an air of confidence that came from experiencing challenges and finding that you and your group could meet them. The tall woman crossed her arms and said nothing. Tanner decided to get the ball rolling.
“I’m Vin Tanner, and this is Brandon Rule and his daughter Julia Rule. This is Cat Vasquez, my second-in-command. We’re the group that makes decisions for our community.”
The big woman looked down her nose at them with a look of arrogance for a moment before she said, “I’m Jo Lanier. This is Janice Mills and Chris Tamez. Now explain to us what you’re doing,” she demanded.
Brandon stepped forward and said, “Ms. Lanier, we are just relocating our settlement farther away from the City.”
“You can call me Jo. Everyone does. Why this way? Why not another?”
“We have a destination in mind. It’s still close to seventy miles farther on.”
“Where?”
Brandon looked at Tanner and Julia before he said, “That’s our business. It’s a place we have found that will suit our purp
oses.”
“Why won’t you tell us where you’re going?”
“For the same reason you are not allowing us to move through your community at this point. Safety, of course.”
Jo said nothing. She continued to stare at them.
“These two,” she said, nodding at Cat and Vin. “They’re former military by their clothes and weapons. We don’t trust anyone former or current military, no matter what they say.”
“Understandable. But these two and one other man have, to a large extent, saved our settlement and because leaders within it without the use of force or coercion, through their actions in protecting and leading us.”
Jo stared at them for a moment again before she said, “We’ve had people come through here before, and their intentions were not peaceful. Why should I trust you?”
“Because if you look over my shoulder, you will see families exiting the second bus and enjoying the stop. We are not a militarized settlement.”
Jo looked over Brandon’s shoulder and saw the families piling out of the bus, with children running around laughing and playing. “They could be a diversion. What if I told you I had people moving through the trees on either side of the road?”
“I would tell you that my flankers will ambush them and we can start this party if you want that,” Cat said coldly. Her hands were moving to her rifle, slung across her chest. She raised her hand, and a number of rifles eased out of the buses and gun trucks, aimed at the roadblock. The families began to scramble back into the bus.
Jo looked and saw that Cat did have flankers out on both sides of the interstate, as well as the additional rifles appearing out of the vehicles.
“We’ve fought our way through ambushes and roadblocks. We don’t want trouble, but we’re goddamn sure going to protect ourselves. So Jo, or whatever the fuck your name is, you decide how this goes. Just so you know, you don’t see him, but my sniper Matos from our old team has his cross hairs on your forehead, and if things go bad you will be the first to die,” Tanner said, his voice cold.
Rule stepped forward between the two groups and said, “Please, let’s all take a step back before something happens that none of us want. Please.”
Blondie walked up to the group and stood beside Cat. She leaned over and said, “I’ve been watching. What’s going on?”
Jo saw Blondie and pointed to her. “You people either look like military or City dwellers. She’s the only one who looks like us. I’ll talk to her.”
Blondie looked at Tanner and Rule. They both nodded.
“See if you can find out what she wants to let us through,” Tanner said.
“Got it.”
“Be careful.”
“Don’t worry. I got this, boss,” Blondie said.
Blondie walked across the twenty feet that separated the two groups and said, “Okay, I’m here.”
“How did you come to join this group?”
“Vin over there rescued me from a gang. We’re just a bunch of people trying to relocate, that’s it. We’ve got no goals beyond that.”
Jo looked at Blondie for a long moment. She was a big woman, as big as Blondie, and carried herself with the confidence that only came from physical confrontations won. Blondie had thought there were both men and women around her, but once she got close, she realized they were all women; it was just that some had very short hair and carried themselves more like men. Blondie had been around a lot of physically tough women, but there was something about these women that bothered her. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it.
“I will talk to you alone, but I will not stand out in the open with a sniper having a bead on me. I want you to come to this barricade so we can talk,” Jo said.
Blondie thought for a moment. She was armed, and Matos would have her back, not to mention Cat and the others. She wasn’t afraid of this woman, but something was off, and it made her nervous.
Still, they weren’t going to get anywhere until they worked something out, and it looked like that was going to fall on Blondie’s shoulders.
She turned to Cat and the others and called, “She’s nervous out here in the open. She wants to talk behind the barrier. I’m going with her.”
“Blondie—” Cat yelled.
“I’m okay!”
Then, turning to Jo, she said, “Let’s go.”
Jo turned and led Blondie behind the barrier on the right side. It was made up of fallen trees and concrete chunks that looked like they’d come from the interstate. It was a formidable obstacle and would provide excellent cover for the guards. There were several chairs behind the barricade that the guards probably used to rest during their shifts. Jo pointed to one she sat in another. Blondie looked around and noticed that there were no men. Only women manned the guard posts, even behind the roadblock. Something weird was going on, that was for sure.
Blondie sat and rested her shotgun across her thighs.
“Now, really, how did you come to be with them?” Jo asked. “You’re out of their sight so you can tell the truth.”
Blondie glanced around. Everyone looked as if they expected her to say something different. “I told you. Vin, the guy in charge, rescued me from a gang that had been holding me captive.”
“A male gang, right?”
“Uh, yeah. Why?”
Jo leaned back and looked at Blondie carefully. “We’ve taken care of that in this settlement. Women are in charge and are the protectors. Any man who didn’t go along was taken care of by my Shield Maidens.”
“Shield Maidens?”
“Yes. That’s what female Viking warriors were called.” Shit, Blondie thought. This bitch had been watching too many videos.
“Are there men here?”
“Yes, but they know their place. What happened to you happened to many of us, and it will never happen again. That’s what this settlement is about. Protecting women. We are starting over here.”
Jo paused and then said, “You are welcome to stay with us. You would make an excellent Shield Maiden.”
Blondie knew how someone could feel this way. If it hadn’t been for Danielle and the others in the settlement, there was a good chance she would never have recovered from what happened to her. But she had, and that was important. Her experiences were giving her a strength she hadn’t known she had. She was teaching the children how to defend themselves, and it was working—all you had to do was look at Kathy. She was treated as an equal by everyone. No, this was not the way, but she wasn’t going to argue with this woman.
“No, thanks. I’ll stay where I am. All we want to do is move on down the road. So will you let us pass?”
Jo looked at her, obviously disappointed. “Your choice. We have never encountered a convoy the size of yours before. We need to hold a council to determine what to do. You’ll have to wait until the morning before we can give you an answer.”
“The other convoys what do you ask of them?”
“To offer asylum to any woman who wants it and other considerations.”
“What do you mean ‘other considerations’?”
“That’s what the council meeting tonight will decide.”
Blondie watched the big, plain woman; her eyes had a look that remaindered her of Bear, the gang leader who had held her for so long—one of power and hatred. In the vacuum of the Zones, men and women of strength were reacting to the no-rules environment in many strange ways. Jo was right. Most of the gangs were all male. But now that she was with Vin and the group, she had seen that there were communities working to preserve the best of the old society and to form new tribes.
Blondie had seen it all up close once you started going down the wrong path, there was no telling where it would take you as you got more and more powerful. Blondie was concerned about what the council would come up with as their toll for crossing the bridge. She turned and stared at the bridge and the men an women moving around on it. She could feel the vibe of fear even from afar but it was nothing like the fear that permeated Bear’s
old gang.
“Okay then, I’ll go back, and I’ll tell them what you said, and we will wait for your answer in the morning.” Blondie stood to go.
“You won’t consider joining us,” Jo said.
“No, thanks.”
Blondie turned to leave, but two women blocked her. They were both as tall as she was and looked as strong. Blondie stared into their faces and said, “Listen, you don’t want to try this. I’m no Shield Maiden or whatever the fuck you call yourselves, but I’ll guarantee you will be very sorry.”
No one moved. Blondie slipped her finger onto the trigger of her shotgun.
“Let her go. Leave her to her fate.”
The two parted, and Blondie stepped between them, her neck itching with the feel of eyes on her. She walked around the barricade and back to the small knot of people from the convoy. Tanner was in the center.
“Boss, those are some batshit crazy broads in there. Women run the place. They asked me to be a Shield Maiden or some shit and stay there with them. They want to give any woman in our settlement the same chance. They’re going to have a council meeting to determine what our toll is going to be.”
“What do you think?”
“She reminded me of a female Bear, only with other priorities. I don’t like it. We need to think about things. I have no idea what they’re going to come up with for a toll, and I’m not sure they do either.”
“Shit,” Vin said.
Blondie exchanged a long, affectionate look with Cat that said she was glad she was all right.
“Okay, folks. It looks like we’re going to harbor up here tonight. Spread the work so Nikki can get to cooking, and let’s set the security. I want a double guard. What do you think, Cat?”
Cat looked over her shoulder at the bridge. “Yeah, that makes sense. Something doesn’t feel right about this.”
CHAPTER TEN
“I’m not going to let them dictate to us. We have to come up with our own answer to this problem. But I don’t want to get into a firefight just because people have different views than we do,” Tanner said.