by T. K. Malone
Teah, too, trod amongst the dead, but not to kill. She’d not been this close to the pass since she’d staggered through it that day, and now she wanted to take another, but closer look at it, then to spy out the valley on the other side.
She climbed to the alley through which all those Free World soldiers had so confidently rushed out to their eventual death. She looked down at its floor, at where she’d slumped down all those years before, where she’d spent the night shivering and intermittently sleeping. She was soon at its far end, looking down at the lush valley below. Clad in its green cloak of forest, it made her wonder why she’d even bothered climbing out of it for Morton Valley. Should she have stayed down there? Where her and Clay might have had a better life.
But she well understood that without Lester she would have died, along with Clay. She knew that that supposedly chance encounter had saved her, had prepared her for a life outside the city. Taking out a smoke, she sat back on a rock and thought of Lester, as she often did. That bastard Lester, she said to herself, but then felt tears roll down her cheeks.
“Any chance of one of those?”
She looked around, startled. It was R-two. “Sure,” she said.
“This place mean somethin’ to you?”
Teah scoffed. “Last time I was up here, well, I was high on shine, half dead, wet, and pregnant. Looking down there now, I’ve no idea how I survived.”
R-two took a drag on his smoke. “Oh, I gotta pretty good idea—now. You fight dirty; smart but dirty.”
Teah let a small grin feel its way onto her features. “A man taught me, on that ridge down there, a long time ago.”
“How long?”
“Ten years.”
“Tell you one thing, if you want.”
“If you tell me yer name.”
“Justin, but you can call me Juzzo.”
“So, Juzzo, what you want to tell me?”
“You continue to fight like that and you’re gonna get one loyal army behind you. Word’s already spreadin’.”
“Didn’t do nothin’ you didn’t do yourself, Juzzo.”
“Yeah you did. This little skirmish was our war, not yours, and yet you just jumped in, and I’ll be damned if you didn’t win it fer us. You know, I didn’t lose a single man or woman.”
“We’ll have to count that tally again, later today; doubt it’ll be quite the same.”
Juzzo let out a whistle. “Little victories, Teah. You gotta take them little victories. What’d you want me and my troops to do now?”
“They troops now?”
Juzzo smiled. “Sure. They’ve won a battle, haven’t they? That makes ‘em troops.”
“In which case, I’ve a little plan for your troops.” Teah smiled as she beckoned him nearer, despite there being no need for secrecy, and Juzzo eagerly leaned in.
Teah scrambled down the slope and back to her bike, then out onto the ridge’s road once more and cruised down to the valley floor, not wanting to make the engine sing too loudly, pulling off where some dozen bikes had been hidden a short way into the forest. Most had been salvaged from Zac’s gang; they wouldn’t need them where they were now. Ideally, she’d have wanted more, but ideal was hard to get, and most had been either mangled by the drones or fried by Kirk’s EMP cannon. Pushing her visor up, she said “Hello” to a lurking prepper.
“Zero-four?” the woman asked.
“Only when the visor’s down. Teah any other time.”
“That was one cool head you had up there,” she said before walking off into the forest.
Teah followed. “Anything but cool, trust me. What’s yours?”
“My head?”
“Your name, dumbass.”
She spun back to face Teah, but when she saw the smirk on her face, she grinned. “Mackenzie…Mac. You did good up there. Pumped all the boys up.”
“How we doing down here?”
She hesitated. “We changed it a little bit. Moved it back down the valley a half mile.”
“Why?”
“Figured…. We figured it was too close to the mine. Thought they might get nosy while shoring up the road afterward.”
“Good thinkin’,” Teah said, and watched Mac visibly relax. “So, we gotta bit farther to walk?”
“Negative. You’ll be able to join in the fun from farther away. Not all battles are won close up ‘n personal, Zero-four… Er, Teah.”
“True, that,” Teah muttered.
The forest was fairly dense but began to thin out as the mine came into view. The preppers had chosen the place, and though Teah was familiar with the area, she couldn’t have chosen a better one herself. It gave her a little time to ponder Juzzo’s final words to her.
Just as she’d been about to leave, he’d called her back, asking for another smoke. Teah had passed him one and was again about to leave when Juzzo had grabbed her arm.
“Say,” he’d said. “There’s somethin’ you need to know.” The earnest look on his face had told her that what he had to say might well be important.
“Last time you was here… When you stumbled through the ridge and fought with Lester… Well, you must have wondered how?”
“How what?” Teah had asked.
“Well, now you know how close we patrol it,” he’d said, a cryptic edge to his voice.
And then it had dawned on her: the preppers had been guarding this ridge for years, and sure, they probably let most folk through, but Teah had been in the fatigues Croft and Sticks had given her. Why would they have just let an SDF soldier stagger unchallenged into their territory?
“What’re you sayin’,” she’d asked.
“I’m sayin’ we were told to let you through, told to have the mornin’ off.”
“You?”
He shook his head. “No, not me; too young back then to be trusted this far up. Trust me, though, you were let through, unobserved.”
“Do you know who gave the order?”
“Only one man would know that, but he’s dead—Spike.”
“What if I told you Jake was waiting with Lester.”
Juzzo had pushed his helmet back and now let out a long whistle. “I’d say the whole world just got a little clearer.”
That conversation had confirmed what Teah had suspected since remembering about the Bay View Hotel, about May and Roy and Co. She’d begun to suspect it had all been a test, and that her escape had also been staged, seemed nearer to being confirmed. The question that now made her belly feel light and her guts squirm was how far Charm had been involved. She could remember most things now, remembered meeting him just before she’d made her escape. She could even see his lips moving as he’d told her May had been killed and that Oster Prime was responsible. But she knew she still didn’t have all the pieces in Josiah Charm’s puzzle. She wondered whether the name Charm should replace Jevans at the top of her list.
She realized Mac was talking to her, telling her they were close, and her thoughts dissolved away. They were near the river now, it’s chattering sound somehow reassuring, reminding her of those times with Clay, down by her cabin. The distant rumble of the rapids drifted to her from farther down the slope of the valley. From this higher vantage she could see the sandbags and webbing of the preppers’ advanced position. Crouching down, Mac broke from the cover of the trees and scampered toward it. Teah followed her.
She was somewhat surprised to find the observation point deserted.
“Where are the others?”
Mac pointed ahead. “In the scrub and brush. We’ve been tracking the scouts. Ha, I say ‘Scouts’ but they leave a bigger trail than a sounder of stampeding boars.”
“They running far ahead?”
“Of the main convoy? Nah, quite tight really, but they’ll still need takin’ out.”
“Shouldn’t we be out there?”
Mac shook her head. “Trust me, the folk we’ve got out there can sneak up on a ringtail and tickle its chin before it’d even know it. They’ll likely be dead already.�
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“I’ll take yer word fer it,” Teah muttered, resting her rifle on the sandbag wall and looking down the valley through its sight.
Everything appeared peaceful enough, though the soft rumble of The Free World convoy could be heard getting slowly nearer. By now she was sure they’d have cottoned on that their attack on the ridge had gone south, though they’d have no clue as to just how far south. Their commander would have assumed that the preppers had been, at the very least, severely weakened, but they would have been wrong. She wondered who her opposing commander might be. The name Banks had been bandied around, although Sticks had reckoned he’d still be blowing the gates, but then a huge explosion rumbled across the valley. Gray and black smoke soon plumed into the sky, the ground shivering under Teah’s feet. She wondered if the last gate had now been blown, but when her gaze dropped back down the valley, she saw The Free World army for the first time, and her heart sank.
It was vast, the lines of soldiers seemingly endless, four or more abreast and all hemming in tanks, APCs and heavy artillery. A true army, not a ragtag bunch of farmers, criminals and bikers. They marched in perfect time, The Free World flag fluttering everywhere, its black and gold livery emblazoned on every vehicle, helmet and uniform. It was vast, a creature from her nightmares, and she suspected it would be her death.
And then that regimented line, so alien against its natural setting, erupted in chaos and carnage as the column appeared to rise upon a wave that ran through it to its head. Explosion after explosion cracked out and flashed from within the smoke-choked devastation left behind, slowly diminishing as Teah imagined the urgent cries and wails of the dying that would now be filling the valley below. Through her rifle’s sight she saw the haphazard flight of running soldiers, saw the wandering dazed and confused, and the fortunate ones who were trying to pull survivors from the horror. Then, on both sides, the preppers rose from their cover and moved in, their guns bursting into life and raking butchery amongst their enemy, killing those who thought they’d escaped the initial ambush.
Teah gulped and took a breath, then pushed herself up and stared down upon the scene as the preppers retreated to the sanctuary of the forest, more Free World soldiers surging forward from the untouched rear of the column. At the fall of a prepper, Teah slipped her visor shut, jumped over the sandbag wall and raced down the valley side, Mac close behind her, firing off bursts of bullets as soon as she got within range. But The Free World army was already regrouping against the backdrop of chaos.
As they retreated through the forest, priming more previously laid boobytraps and harrying the army’s advance, Teah realized just how real it had all become, and not only the struggle to survive but the scale of the carnage that would be the victor’s price.
She’d earlier reported that she’d given new orders to Juzzo’s company, that they now had a new mission, and her decision had been readily accepted. Like Jake had told her, the preppers were more than capable and were well-prepared, and they were fierce, but they also enjoyed decisive leadership, and they seemed to have accepted they’d found that in her.
Only once darkness had fallen did they finally stop harassing the now more slowly advancing column. They’d inflicted immense damage to its body, but it kept on coming, plugging its losses with a seemingly endless supply of conscripts. The day had seemed endlessly harrowing and exhausting, but they’d eventually had to give up the ridge and the lower valley, finally retreating behind the stockade’s fortified wall.
Teah had now played all her cards, but at least most of the army’s heavy weaponry hadn’t made it through. How long this would last, though, Teah couldn’t even guess, the army would certainly clear a way through the destruction left in the preppers’ wake. But for now they’d at least delayed the inevitable.
10
Zac’s Story
Strike time: plus 12 days
Location: Project Firebird
Noodle paced up and down. “Not my idea of a sensible move, Zac,” he said and pointed to the mine’s entrance. Loser was putting the finishing touches to the explosives, and so Noodle was also pointing at him. “What if he fucks it up? What then? We’re trapped, that’s what.”
“I know what I’m doing,” Loser called, looking over at them, his voice as steady as his hands.
“Says you,” said Noodle.
“Shut up,” Loser barked. “It’ll work.”
Billy Flynn tapped Noodle on the shoulder. “Chill out, Noodle. Anyone would think you hadn’t been buried in a mine before.”
Noodle wagged his finger at the big man. “You’re forgetting the most important part of the plan; the part I just don’t like.”
Billy raised his palms before him, “And what bit’s that?”
Noodle seemed fit to bust. “The… The… The bit where we…where we have to blow our way out!” he finally screamed.
“Oh, that bit,” and Billy Flynn draped his arm around Noodle, escorting him farther into the mine. “I’m not too enamored with that bit, either.”
“I know; right. Terrible plan. Terrible, terrible plan.”
“The thing is, Noodle, we’ve to get through the next couple of days to even worry about that happening, and you know, the odds of that aren’t great.”
“Aren’t great?”
“Well, let’s just say your worrying is a little premature.”
“Premature?” Noodle repeated as they came to the iron bars and their open gates, and walked through. “The wagon came in handy, though,” he admitted.
“That it did. That it did.”
Zac had silently watched the whole scene unfold, as he’d also watched Loser finishing off, but then he went and joined Noodle and Billy, coming up behind them. Even he had to admit it was a strange plan, but one that had been forced on them.
What Zac didn’t trust was Jake. He just plain looked wrong. Whether it was his bulbous eyes or his lopsided face, his habit of just creeping up on people, or his just-plain-sharp-and-to-the-point talk, Zac hadn’t made up his mind. He certainly hadn’t been amused when Jake had informed everyone that his own part lay over two valleys away, at the Meyers' Retreat, and that he’d be taking Laura Meyers', and Renshaw’s men. Zac still recalled Renshaw boasting that they had a man in Morton Valley, and he couldn’t help but now think it had to be Jake. Trouble was, it was made plain that Teah was in charge, and Jake was obviously in her inner sanctum, unlike Zac.
His heart had leapt when he’d first heard her, first seen her, but then nerves had overtaken him like he was a kid on his first date. When he’d fallen into her arms, though, it had been like they’d never been apart. It was then that his heart had torn in two. Before she’d even had a chance to tell him what had happened to her, things had quickly escalated, soon delivering plans that were to keep them apart.
The awkwardness he felt around her was partly due to Laura’s proximity. At the time, Laura had been everything he’d wanted, but he’d soon realized she’d merely reminded him of Teah, of her free spirit, guts and courage. He’d messed up the only night they were likely to have for a reunion, though, and on top of which, Laura had almost certainly fled back to her father to double-cr
oss them, and he now saw he’d only himself to blame.
“Awkward, was it?” Loser asked, as if reading Zac’s mind.
“Was it that obvious?”
Loser shrugged. “Been there, seen it, done it. You get that kinda hope, you know, when you’re a soldier. The hope that time won’t matter, that you’d go away and fight a war, or whatever, and come back expecting just to pick up where you left off. Don’t happen, though.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re clinging to an old version of the person, not the one they’ve become. Ten years, Zac; you’ve both lived ten long and completely different years. You can’t just pick up; you gotta start all over again.”
“Kinda didn’t have the time fer that,” Zac moaned.
“Nope, don’t reckon you did.” Loser picked up his pace, as though he’d said enough.
Zac dropped behind as he ambled on, into what he supposed could be construed as Project Firebird. While it was just its tip, if the rest was as impressive as this little piece, then Connor had been hidden in one fantastic place, that was if it was still standing, so to speak.
“Ah, Mr. Clay,” said Kirk, emerging from the armory. “All set?”
“Yeah, but you sure this is worth the men?”
“To nursemaid a few hundred gridders? Not really my thing, I have to say, but…well, they are the future of the world, after all. Hardly a mundane task.”
Zac cursed under his breath. “Let’s get to it, then.” He slipped into the armory.
Billy Flynn and Noodle were already getting geared up and ready to go, Loser just picking one of the few machine guns left, and Sticks was clearly busting a leash to get going. He shoved past Zac and out of the room, vanishing back up the corridor.
“Can’t blame him,” said Kirk. “The poor sod’s been looking to be reunited with his commander.”
“Well, I for one am in no rush,” said Kenny. “And I can’t believe I’m being ordered back down there. Nearly bust a gut to get out. Tell me: why are we going again?”