“Juan, come down here please,” she said.
Anna watched as the set of the boy’s shoulder’s changed, and he begrudgingly climbed down the ladder and setting the bucket down turned to face her. Juan’s face was filthy, he had managed to smear grease all along his chin and in his hair. The old overalls that he wore, undoubtedly and hand me down of Mile’s were likewise dirty and torn. But what was more concerning for Anna was the obvious fatigue she saw in the young man’s eyes.
“What do you think you are doing?” Anna asked.
Juan gave her a confused look and then retrieving a notepad from his breast pocket scrawled a quick reply.
Working??
“Working, really? Because it looks to me like you’re putting the whole damn town at risk.”
What?
“With Miles out of town, you’re the only one left that knows how to keep the pump working properly. What would happen if you collapsed from heat stroke? You think the town can go without water for a day or two waiting for you to recover?”
Juan looked up at Anna and slowly shook his head.
“Of course we can’t, that means one of these…people,” Anna said nodding in the direction of the Grease monkeys, “would have to take over and run the pump.”
The boy turned his head slowly to look at the half-dozen men laying in the shade, several of them wore grease covered rags and most were asleep.
“Is that who you think Mile’s would want running things while he was away?”
Juan looked down in shame and shook his head. Anna reached out and put a hand on the boy’s shoulder.
“Do you know why Miles asked you to bring me my water rations while he was gone?”
Juan scrawled on the paper again and lifted the page for Anna to see.
He thinks I need a babysitter
Now it was the doctor’s turn to shake her head.
“That not it at all. It’s because he knows you Juan. He knows how dedicated a worker you are, and he was worried that you would forget to take care of yourself. He wanted to make sure you spent some time away from the tower and the pump.”
The boy looked up at her then, and the look on Juan’s face told Anna that her words had taken him by surprise. Juan held his greasy hands out in front of him as if seeing them for the first time and then started to rub them across the front of his overalls before realizing they were just as dirty. Anna smiled down at the boy and then looking over that the shack that he and Miles called home asked, “Do you have any water in there? Or food for that matter?”
Juan glanced at the shack and then looked back down at the ground, giving Anna all the answer that she needed. The doctor looked over to the line of workers resting in the shade, none of them looked eager to leave the shade. However, one dark-haired boy, not much older than Juan was sitting up and watching them intently.
“You there, come here,” she called.
The boy hesitated for just a moment before rising to his feet and stepping out of the shade to join them.
“What’s your name?” Anna asked.
The boy hesitated for just a moment before he replied, “Allen.”
“Well Allen, my name is Anna. Will you run an errand for me?”
Allen looked between Juan and Anna and then nodded slowly.
Taking a slip of paper from Juan’s notebook Anna quickly scrawled a few lines and signed her name to the bottom, then she handed Allen the note.
“I want you to take this down to the traders at the hub. It’s a promissory note from me for 5 rations worth of water. They know me down there, and any of them should accept it. I want you to go get as much dried meat as you can, whatever they have and bring it back here, understand?”
Allen looked up at her meeting Anna’s eyes and then nodded once, “I will,” he said.
Without another word, the dark-haired boy turned and ran from the compound. Then Anna turned to look at Juan, “Come on, let’s get out of this heat.”
Anna had never seen the inside of Miles’s shack before, and she wasn’t prepared for what she found. The small structure that once was used only to house tools, now housed two bachelors, one too old to care about cleanliness and the other too young to know any better. One wall was dominated by a heavy workbench, which it appeared Miles was now using as a writing desk. It was covered with an odd assortment of papers, tracings, and calipers. A heavy steel shelf ran the length of the opposite wall and was covered in an assortment of old and mostly rusted parts. The only thing that the bachelors appeared to have added in the way of creature comforts was a bunkbed made from old bits of shelving against one wall and a red pail in the corner, which Anna prayed was for washing in.
“Do you have any other pants?” she asked.
Juan nodded and then pulled a pair of wadded coveralls out from underneath his cot. They were noticeably cleaner than the pair Juan was currently wearing and then she realized why. One of the legs was torn from the cuff nearly all the way to the crotch. Anna just shook her head, when Miles returned they were going to have to have a serious talk with him she decided.
“Juan, run out to the ambulance and grab my medical kit. If I can stitch skin, I think I should be able to handle one seem and while you’re at it, bring us in a gallon of water or so and a clean bucket.”
The boy’s eyes narrowed, and he looked at Anna suspiciously.
“Move quickly now, Doctor’s orders!”
Sometime later Allen opened the door to the shack and stepped inside carrying with him a bundle of dried meat. He found Juan sitting on Miles’s stool in his freshly sewn coveralls while the doctor hovered over him, trying desperately to drag a comb through his tangled hair.
“Excellent,” Anna said, “What did you get?
“Snake.”
“Yum! What, were they out of rat?” Anna replied with a grin.
“Snake is better.”
Anna nodded, “Why don’t you sit and eat with us? I think I’ve done about all I can with this one, at least for now, the last thing I can do is make sure he gets a meal in him.”
Anna stepped back from Juan and the boy immediately leaped off of the stool as if it were on fire. His face and hands had been washed, and while his hair still showed a few dark lines of grease, at least for the moment, the hair was all running in the same direction. Without a table to sit around, Anna sat upon Miles’s stool while Juan sat down on the bottom bunk. Without a second thought, Allen sat down on the hard concrete floor, looking to be completely at home as he did so. They spread the torn bit of plastic bag that the dried snake meat had come wrapped in out on the floor between them and ate with their hands. As Anna ate her eyes wandered between the two boys.
“Allen, how old are you?” she asked.
“Fourteen,” the boy replied rather defensively.
“Where do you live?”
“Wherever I can, in town I mean.”
Anna nodded at the boy’s odd reply and hazarded a guess, “Alone?”
Allen simply nodded, just as she had suspected, the boy was one of the many street kids that made a home in the town’s back alleys and crumbling buildings. Some of the kids had formed street gangs that were rumored to be every bit as vicious as their adult counterparts. But the very fact that Allen was here, working in the daylight for an extra ration of water, rather than waiting to knife some unsuspecting townsperson in the middle of the night told her he wasn’t one of those. At that moment she couldn’t help but shift her eyes to Juan, the boy would be living alone on the street as well, if it wasn’t for Miles. Anna frowned, of course, Miles wasn’t here to look after the boy right now was he?
“Allen, how would you like a job?”
Rite of Passage
The Seeker approached the towering white building, at one time it had been one of the finest hotels in Phoenix, but now it acted as the center of the Masters’ power. Though each held territory and a number of fine homes, years ago the Masters had deemed this the seat of their rule and once inside it wasn’t hard to s
ee why. Through some twisted trick of fate, this gleaming symbol of wealth and privilege had remained nearly untouched during the collapse, while much of the city around it had burned. The floors were all white marble and the walls decorated in swirling patterns painted entirely in gold leaf. In an obscene display of wealth, more than a dozen chandeliers, each hosting an impressive array of candles lined the main hall. At night the building would be brightly lit as if the Masters held sway over even the forces of darkness. As the Seeker strode down the elegant halls, he couldn’t help but shake his head at the sheer wastefulness of it all.
Ahead of him a dozen of the Master’s Chosen gathered around a set of heavy doors in obvious distress. These were all members of the Masters’ court, the never-ending cycle of bootlickers and hangers-on that never strayed far from the Masters’ side, but now it seemed that they had been removed from the chamber. The faces that frequented the Masters’ court were constantly changing as the supplicants either gained the favor they desired or suffered enough humiliation at the Masters’ whims to force them to finally scurry away. The crowd quickly grew quiet at The Seeker’s approach, and every eye turned to watch the tall man. He paid them no mind, and they scurried from his path like frightened roaches. Kyle drove the buggy passed the ruined outlet malls and burned down roadside restaurants that once dotted the busy interstate just north of Phoenix. With each minute and mile that Kyle put between them and the slavers, he allowed himself to breathe just a bit easier. Next to him, Miles snored softly, the old man’s head resting on his chest. Kyle didn’t hold it against his old friend, the morning’s frantic escape had been a violent, terrifying and overall draining experience, and Kyle could think of nothing better than pulling over somewhere in the shade and calling it a day. But hours of daylight remained, and while they had escaped with their lives, it had still cost them nearly half a day, time that they would have to make up. Ahead of them, the road was steadily climbing, and the land around them began to show more of its bones, as desert sand made way for rocky outcroppings and stony hills.
“The land is getting rougher, going to be plenty of places for ambushes ahead of us,” Kyle said over his shoulder.
When no response was forthcoming, Kyle risked a glance back over his shoulder. He found Coal just where he expected, perched on Miles’s makeshift bucket-seats, and gripping the roll bars tightly. But the bounty-hunter wasn’t looking down at Kyle or even at the road ahead, his eyes seemed distant as if he was deep in thought.
“Coal?”
The bounty-hunter’s head snapped down to look at his friend.
“Tonto?”
“You alright?”
“I’m fucking fine, why? You got somebody else that needs killing?” he snapped.
“Ahhh…I hope not? But I was just saying, the land up ahead, well it…” Kyle began.
“It looks like there could be a lot of good places to get bushwhacked? I don’t think we have to worry too much on that,” Coal replied.
“Why not?”
“Taking into account the warm reception we got back there in Phoenix, I’m willing to bet that the Masters and their chosen have probably put any raider types or would be bushwhackers out of business a long time ago. At least within the next 20 miles or so I would guess.”
Kyle nodded in agreement seeing the logic in Coal’s words and felt a bit better as he looked at the winding road ahead of them.
“Hey Coal?”
But with another glance over his shoulder, Kyle found his friend with that same distant look in his eyes and this time thought it best to leave him alone.
The trio moved north in silence, following the broken highway steadily upward through the canyons and passed the scenic overlooks. In places, small rock slides spilled down on to the road, and in at least one place a section of the highway itself was broken and had shifted awkwardly, but these proved little trouble for the buggy and the trio made good time. Just afternoon they reached the outskirts of a town aptly named, Black Canyon City and Kyle pulled the vehicle to a quick halt. The sudden stillness seemed to stir Miles from his sleep.
“What? Where are we? How long was I out?”
“I was wondering that myself, but the map has been plastered with sweat and stuck between your head and chest for the last two hours, so I figured I’d just read the signs.”
Ahead of them, a broken green sign read, Welcome to Black Canyon City, but in truth, the little town looked anything but welcoming. Wedged in a relatively flat saddle between two looming sets of rocky hills the town spread out around them haphazardly. From where they sat Kyle could see nearly a dozen buildings, homes, storefronts, and even a small strip mall, all of which had been raised to the ground as if smashed flat by a huge merciless fist.
“What in the hell happened here? An earthquake?” Kyle asked.
“An earthquake that just destroys buildings, but leaves the road intact?” Miles pointed out.
“Kyle, go ahead and roll forward a bit,” Coal said.
The scavenger rolled down the highway and then up on to an overpass that seemed to mark the center of the dead town.
“Look up there,” Coal said pointing to their East.
Up the side of a long and sloping hill, a paved road connected a series of narrow concrete slabs. Each slab was surrounded by bits of fencing and upon each sat the rusting frame of a 40ft trailer of some sort.
“Do you know what that was?” Coal asked.
“It’s a trailer park,” Kyle replied, “At least it was before it was stripped down to nothing.”
“More of the Masters’ work?” Miles offered.
“I think so, they stripped this place of everything that had any value to them and then dropped every building that was left standing,” Coal pointed out.
“But why? I mean taking the wood, perhaps even some of the steal I can see that. But why go through the bother of knocking down the concrete buildings as well?” Miles asked.
For a moment the three men remained silent, and Coal stepped up on to the top of the buggy and did a long slow turn, looking in every direction. Finally, the bounty-hunter shook his head and admitted defeat, “Beats the hell out of me,” he said.
“Come on, the map says there should be another town, maybe 20 miles from here, I’d like to try and make it there before dark.”
The bounty-hunter climbed back down and Miles nodded his agreement, “Sounds good to me, and anywhere is better than this godforsaken place.”
Kyle was about to throw the rover into gear when he suddenly stopped and pulling himself up scanned the horizon just as Coal had done a moment before. The town had been turned into a wasteland, it looked dead, uninviting and could offer them nothing, not even shade.
“They did this on purpose, the Masters I mean, this is all part of their fucked up plan! Coal, what would you think if you were following the highway south and walked into a place like this? Knowing that Phoenix lay just 10 more miles down the road?”
“Well first off, I’d be wondering why in the fuck I was walking, but after that? Id’ say fuck this place and push on through,” the half-breed replied.
“That’s exactly what they want you to do, the Masters want you to stagger in, road weary, tired and eager to find something, anything really, in the city.”
“And then, some poor asshole chained to the top of a tower spots you and starts flashing messages across town,” Coal said nodding in agreement.
“Chained to a tower?” Kyle asked.
“Never mind.”
The scavenger looked at his friend for a moment suspiciously and then added, “Then before you know it, the Master’s Chosen have you surrounded and you find yourself in chains.”
“Or perhaps sent to the grinders,” Coal pointed out.
“The what?” the old man asked.
“Never mind,” Kyle replied.
The three men went quiet again, each lost in their own thoughts and then Miles spoke.
“We should do something,” he said.
&nb
sp; “Like what? We already tried freeing some of them slaves, they just turned around and walked right back to their Masters! Besides we got our own fucking problems or are you forgetting about that precious pump or yours?”
“I’m not forgetting about anything! It’s just all this…this is insanity, and what, Phoenix is only two or three days walk west of home!”
“You best thank your ass it’s that far, that and the desert is probably the only thing that’s kept you out of a slave collar, or more likely a grinder old man!” Coal pointed out.
“They must not even know we are there,” Miles said rubbing his chin.
“Makes sense, nobody really leaves town these days, except Kyle and me. And I got a feeling these boys wouldn’t let a bit of a walk and a few dry days stand in their way of such an easy target.”
“My god, we…we should go back, we need to warn the town, the council,” Miles blurted.
“The only place we are going is north,” Kyle said as he stepped out of the buggy.
“But the town, the people, Juan, Anna they are…” Miles began.
“They are just as safe today as they were yesterday when none of us knew anything about the slavers,” he replied.
“I knew!” Coal pointed out.
“No, you suspected,” Kyle pointed out as the scavenger knelt down and fished a piece of rebar out of a pile of scrap.
“You knew?” Miles demanded.
“No, you heard Kyle, I suspected! And for the record, I just thought they were cannibals, not slavers, big difference.”
“And neither of you told the council about this?”
“Whoa there, now isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black, Mr. I’m going to wait until it’s convenient for me to tell everyone the pump is failing?”
Miles opened his mouth to reply, but a sudden scraping sound cut him off. The old man stepped out of the buggy and Coal moved to join him. The pair found Kyle standing in the middle of the street, dragging the jagged edge of a piece of rebar across the asphalt.
The Road North Page 16