“We have been ordered to escort you back to the Nation,” the second warrior added.
Little Bird smiled at that, Two-Steps, that arrogant bastard, liked to act as if he alone protected their people from the harshness of the outside world, but in truth little would ever be accomplished without the cooperation of the Council of Elders. It seemed that she would need to have a little talk with her fellow council members, they were giving the young Chief far too much leeway if he thought he could summon her in such a manner.
“Well young man, I have a very important meeting this afternoon with the City Council, and after that, I will be more than happy to return with you. That way I can thank our great and ever so illustrious leader personally for sending such a…”
The young Brave cut Little Bird off mid-sentence by sharply banging the butt of his spear against the pavement.
“You will come now, old woman!”
“Listen here young man, you may be a Brave now, but I remember that skinny little boy that the other children teased and called Timmy Too-Short or did you think that I didn’t recognize Black Snake’s Grandson!” Little Bird snapped back.
The young Brave’s face went flush, and he took a step back from the doorway and taking his spear in both hands shouted in reply.
“The Chief says we are to take you by force if need be. You can ride your pony upright or lay tied across its back like a gutted deer for all I care old woman!”
Seeing the young warrior standing in front of her now, gripping his spear and seething with anger caused something inside of Little Bird to finally click the pieces together. Two-Steps had sent these two on purpose, they had been made Braves by his hand and owed nothing to her or the Council. These two were eager to prove themselves in the eyes of their Chief and naive enough not to ask any questions. Whatever was going on here, Chief Two-Steps had done away with all niceties and pretext, she would need to play things, perhaps a bit more cautiously than usual.
“Tell me, warrior, did the Chief also tell you to threaten an old woman with your spear and tell her you were going to gut her like an animal?” she asked.
“I did not…” the red-faced warrior began, but his companion stepped forward and placed a hand on his shoulder silencing him.
“Of course not, respected elder,” the second Brave replied, “But he was adamant that you return with us as quickly as possible.”
Little Bird nodded slowly, “You, what is your name? You seem to have half a brain in your head.”
Timmy let out something like a hiss through his clenched teeth and turned away from Little Bird. The second warrior only smiled at her, and he replied, “My name is David, Daniel Strongbow is my father.”
The old woman nodded again, now seeing the resemblance. Daniel Strongbow had the reputation of being a quiet, but dependable man, Little Bird could only hope that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.
“Very well, I can see that whatever need the Chief has of me, that it is urgent or he wouldn’t have sent such fine and… insistent warriors. If you would just allow me a moment to gather my things.”
The warriors stood still for a moment and then exchanged a quick glance.
“Please,” she added to her shame.
Finally, David nodded and then took a step forward planting himself firmly in her doorway. So much for shutting the door and crawling out the bathroom window, Little Bird chided herself. The old woman turned and scooping her rawhide drawstring bag from the foot of the bed she began to pack her small collection of things. In truth, none of it meant anything to the old woman, and as she shoved her only two dresses, both the mirror image of the one she wore now inside of the bag, her mind reeled at how she might get a message to the council. She doubted her baby-faced guards would allow her to stop by on her way out of town to exchange pleasantries. For a moment her mind wandered to Anna, she had told Kyle she would look after the expectant mother, but if Two-Steps had his way Little Bird doubted very much if she would be leaving the Nation anytime soon.
“Anna,” the old woman whispered.
“What was that?” David asked from the doorway.
“Before we go, I have to see the doctor, she was preparing medicine for me,” she replied.
“I’m sorry, that’s out of the question.”
Little Bird turned and looked directly into the young brave’s eyes.
“I’m willing to turn a blind eye to the disrespect I have suffered from the two of you already, and I may even be willing to tell the Chief and the Council of what an exceptional job you did in retrieving me. But I must see my doctor before we leave.”
At the old woman’s words the first warrior, still red-faced, joined his friend in the entryway.
“Don’t listen to her, she is obviously up to something! Don’t forget what the Chief said.”
“And what did our illustrious Chief say?” Little Bird asked.
David had the courtesy to at least look embarrassed, while Timmy just grinned.
“He said that you would make things difficult,” David admitted.
“Difficult? Boys you haven’t even begun to see me be difficult. Now I’m not a fool, I know quite well that you are more than capable of dragging me kicking and screaming from this place, tie me to a horse and present me to the Chief just as you have been commanded, but I would ask that you remember this. It’s the Council of Elders and not the Chief that determines a warrior’s true Indian name, for those lucky enough to achieve that privilege. So, unless you want to spend the rest of your lives known as, Shits on Cactus and Flea Dick, I would suggest letting this old woman stop and see her doctor before we go.”
Anna came awake with a start, she had been dreaming of Kyle, he was walking down a long desert road, and then there was a shot. The banging came again, and Anna jumped in surprise, someone was pounding on the clinic door she realized. She stood and quickly pulled on the same faded scrubs she wore the night before. Anna pushed her way through the plastic divider into the clinic, and the pounding came again, this time followed by muffled words.
“That’s it old woman,” a voice shouted.
“Anna! I need my pills, Anna!”
“Little Bird? Just give me a second!”
Making her way to the door, Anna slid the deadbolt and then removed the wooden block wedge at the door jam. She opened the door and was surprised to find not only Little Bird waiting for her but two Indian Braves as well.
“Good morning Anna.”
“Good morning Little Bird,” Anna replied eyeing the two young men, “How can I help you?”
“I’ve been called back to the Nation, quite unexpectedly.”
As the old woman spoke, her eyes rolled back to point over her shoulder at the two warriors.
“Oh…I see,” Anna replied in confusion.
“So, I’ve come for those pills you promised me since I’m leaving earlier than expected.”
Anna’s eyes narrowed, Little Bird had never come to her as a patient, in fact, quite the opposite, the old woman had been advising Anna on the holistic properties of some of the local plant life. The doctor opened her mouth to speak, but one look at Little Bird’s face and she quickly closed her mouth, the old woman again pointed with her eyes in the direction of the Braves behind her.
“Yes, of course,” Anna blurted, “Please come in, just give me a moment.”
Little Bird smiled and stepped inside followed closely by one of the warriors. The Brave looked young to Anna, but the way he carried his spear and the look in his eyes left her little doubt that he was deadly with the weapon. At a loss Anna turned, her mind was spinning, she wasn’t sure what exactly was going on here, but she trusted Little Bird enough to follow the old woman’s lead. Anna stepped over to the closest cabinet and unlocked it with a key from around her neck. She hesitated just for a moment and then reached for a large white bottle of calcium supplements on the top shelf. After the council had reestablished it’s authority it had offered extra water rations to everyone willing
to turn in any type of medicine, the result was several medicine cabinets overflowing with mostly useless pills. Anna opened a large bottle and counted out two dozen of the supplements before pouring them into a smaller pill bottle.
“Here we are,” Anna announced.
The pregnant woman turned back to face Little Bird, and the old woman smiled at her broadly as she stepped forward to accept the pill bottle.
“Now just take these as we discussed, twice a day along with food,” Anna said.
“Oh, I will, thank you Doctor.”
Suddenly Anna felt a flutter in her midsection, and she took a quick breath placing her hand on her swollen stomach. She had never felt the baby kick like this before and couldn’t help but smile. Anna looked up and found Little Bird smiling as well.
“May I?” the old woman asked.
Anna hesitated for just a moment looking between the two Indian Braves and then nodded. Smiling the old woman placed a hand upon Anna’s stomach, and the two women stood silently for a moment before the baby growing inside of her responded with a fresh round of kicking. Anna smiled and then looking down met the old woman’s eye, and to her surprise she found them filled with fear.
“You are going to be a good mother and this one, a Shichu that anyone would be proud to call their own,” Little Bird said aloud.
Anna smiled awkwardly in reply, then suddenly Little Bird dropped to her knees and planted a kiss against Anna’s swollen belly. Anna froze too shocked to know what to say, the Braves waiting in the doorway had the same reaction and exchanged looks of obvious confusion but said nothing. Anna finally replied, “Geez, thanks…”
Little Bird stood and taking her pills in hand the old woman left without another word and walked out of the clinic, followed a moment later by her escort. Anna shut the door firmly behind them and leaned heavily against it.
“What in the fuck was that?” she asked aloud.
Anna stood there leaning against the door in silence until she heard Little Bird and the warriors mount up and ride out of the compound. Then she reached into the waistline of her scrubs and pulled out the crumpled piece of paper that Little Bird had placed there. She read it silently and then after taking a breath she read it again.
I think he knows, but I will not forget my promise.
For Kyle the morning quickly turned into one of the longest and most arduous experiences of his life. The trio returned to the gravel service rode they discovered the day before and began moving steadily westward. At Coal’s insistence, Kyle kept the buggy creeping along at barely 15 mph, keeping the dust the vehicle kicked up to a bare minimum. While Miles wasn’t thrilled with the prospect of a low-speed escape, he was forced to admit that the decrease in speed would help recharge the buggy’s batteries. The old road snaked along the foothills of Usery Mountain carrying them away from Apache Junction, but Kyle couldn’t help but feel that behind every turn in the road an ambush waited for them.
“Just keep it steady Tonto,” Coal said as if reading his friend’s thoughts. “It’ll take them boys some time to get word back to their Masters and more time still for them to get up a plan and come after us.”
“We should be able to outrun anyone that comes after us though, right?” Miles asked.
“Yeah, we should,” Kyle replied as the scavenger tapped on the battery display.
“They sure as hell aren’t going to catch us with no wagons being pulled by no half-starved slaves, I can tell you that,” Coal chuckled.
Kyle forced a smile, but he wasn’t ready to so easily write off what he had seen the night before. Whomever these Masters were they had managed to establish control of a major city or at least what remained of it, through violence, forced slavery, and cannibalism. As much as the scavenger hoped, he somehow doubted that men like that would allow a few small-town boys to come in, kill their people and get away with it.
“Shit looks like we just run out of road,” Coal said.
Ahead of them the service road dipped down out the foothills and ended at the intersection of what looked like a major road. Kyle pulled the buggy to a stop as Miles consulted the map.
“I think that’s the North Bush Hwy,” Miles said.
“Ha,” Coal smirked.
Ignoring the bounty-hunter Miles continued, “It looks like it follows the Salt River, but beyond that, we should have a few miles of open desert.”
“Sounds good,” Kyle replied eager to be moving again.
“Maybe not, after that it’s nearly an endless line of suburbs and condos. I…well, I think we may be forced on to the surface streets,” Miles explained.
“Give me the map.”
“Yeah give it to him, Kyle does maps good,” Coal smirked.
Miles held the map out for the scavenger to see and just as the old man had said, ahead of them lay the towns of Scottsdale and Fountains Hills and between them, a maze of suburban sprawl turned wasteland.
“Fuck me, this is that last thing we need right now.”
“Sorry Tonto, but I think I got to disagree with you on this one,” Coal said.
“Is that so?” Kyle asked.
“Yeah, take a look.”
Both Kyle and Miles turned to find Coal pointing ahead of them and just to the north. There on the top of a solitary rocky peak in the Superstition Mountains, they could see a glint of light flashing in the sun. Kyle stopped the buggy and stepped out to stand next to Coal. From there they could just see over the line of brush that shielded the roadway from the rest of the valley.
“That could be anything,” Miles pointed out, but even he didn’t sound convinced.
“Well if it is something, then there's more of it happening down there,” Coal said.
Kyle saw it too, several miles to the south from the tower of a small airport near Mesa another series of lights seemed to flash in reply. The scavenger just shook his head, “You can’t outrun the radio.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Coal asked.
“It’s something my dad use to say, and it means we are fucked,” Kyle replied jumping back into the buggy.
“What are we going to do?” Miles asked.
“Same as before, we run.”
The buggy’s hard plastic wheels squealed as the rover left the gravel road behind and turned sharply on to the Bush Hwy. Kyle accelerated quickly racing down the blacktop abandoning all hopes of keeping a low profile. The buggy rounded a curve, and to the right, the dried-out channel of the Salt River came into view. Trying desperately to keep the map from blowing away in the wind Miles shouted, “We need to find somewhere to cross.”
Without warning, Kyle jerked the wheel hard to the right launching the buggy down the steep embankment and towards the empty riverbed below. Coal let out a wild Indian cry and Miles shouted something incomprehensible as the rover raced down the rough slope in a bone-jarring ride. In any other vehicle, the slope would have been suicidal, but the rover managed the incline easily. Kyle let off the accelerator for a moment as the buggy’s wheels hit the gravel river bed and he started to turn to follow the riverbed.
“No, No,” Shouted Miles, “Keeping going across, the river turns into a canal and cuts right through the middle of the city.”
Heeding Miles’ words Kyle continued across the riverbed, jumped the embankment and then began accelerating through the open desert beyond. With the pedal to the floor and the wind whipping in his face, Kyle couldn’t help but feel like they at least had a chance of escaping Phoenix alive. But looking ahead he could see the maze of suburban homes looming in front of them, and a weight settled deep inside of his gut. They had perhaps another mile of open country before they would be forced to slow down and pick their way through a maze of suburban streets, while the slavers closed in on them. Kyle knew that it would only be a matter of time before they would find themselves cornered by men that knew the streets by heart had them surrounded.
“Well one thing is for sure, we’re giving them boys a hell of a lot to talk about!” Coal shout
ed.
Kyle glanced to his right and immediately saw what Coal meant. The light on the top of the rocky peak was flashing again, but instead of the steady stream of controlled flashes they had seen before, the light now seemed to be flashing at a frantic pace. Kyle nodded, their sharp turn off of the pavement had probably taken the lookout by surprise, and now he was quickly flashing updates to his friends.
“Can’t outrun the radio,” Kyle mumbled to himself again.
Then the scavenger glanced back up at the peak, and it’s flashing light, then for a moment, he let off of the buggy’s accelerator.
“But that’s not a radio, is it?”
“What? What are you doing?” Miles demanded.
“Miles, those flashes, is that Morse code or something?”
The old man looked at Kyle oddly for a moment as if confused by the question but then turned to squint up at the peak.
“No, it’s not Morse code. Whatever it is it’s something much simpler, why?”
“We don’t have to outrun the radio, we just have to stay one step ahead of the radio operator,” Kyle replied.
Then the Scavenger jerked the wheel hard to the right, and the buggy skidded in the soft sand turning nearly 90 degrees before accelerating again. The unexpected turn threw Miles against the side of the buggy, and he swore while Coal just laughed. Now racing across the desert towards the base of the mountains again Kyle craned his neck upward to watch the rocky peak. At first, nothing happened, and then after a few seconds, a fresh series of flashes began in earnest. Kyle laughed aloud and then shouted, “Hold on!”
Kyle turned the buggy sharply to the right again, now facing back in the direction of Apache Junction and he accelerated once more. The rover’s wide tires and sharp turns had kicked up a veil of dust that now hung in the air around them. The trio sped back towards the river bed as above them the lookout’s flashes seemed to take on a frantic pace. Kyle laughed aloud, and Miles looked from the scavenger back over his shoulder to Coal with a look of worry on his face. Coal replied with a shrug and a smile and then asked.
The Road North Page 12