by Tonia Brown
“He’s a blacksmith.”
It took me a moment to connect all of the clues. “He makes ammunition.”
“He does.”
At last, that made sense. After Mab pointed out the fact that Stretch and I only had nine shots between us, gathering ammo was indeed a good idea. “How far off is he?”
“Not far. No more than a few day’s walk from here.”
“A few days?” Again, I knew I was whining but I couldn’t help it. The longer we took to get to him, the more my mentor would suffer.
Mab must’ve read the worry on my face. “Don’t fret. I told you, we will find him.”
“I know. Thanks for your help.”
“It’s the least I can do. I would’ve spent the next month or so on a fruitless search if you hadn’t told me about your run in with Tinsdale.”
I reminded myself that Mab wasn’t just out to help me rescue Mr. Theo. She was really after her bounties. That was all right with me. As long as she helped me along the way, I was fine with being a side job to her main quest.
We walked along in silence for a few minutes, when I got to thinking about what Stretch and Mab had said about this Dermot person. Everything they had said.
“Where does the dog come in?” I said.
“What?” Mab said.
“You both said we are going to see a man about a dog. What does that have to do with visiting this man?”
Mab cracked a grin. “You’ll see.”
I groaned. Why did people always want to make a show of things? The more I met up with other folks, the more I missed my mentor.
* * *
We spent the next day heading southwest toward our goal, through a mixed terrain of rocky hills and brushy fields. We traveled quietly, swapping stories only when we stopped to catch our breaths. The first night we camped I took second watch, keeping an eye on the others as they slept. Lilly wandered the field beside of us, a hulking beast lumbering about in the moonlight. I had never been fond of horses, yet I found her presence strangely calming. The more I thought about her, the more I realized we had quite a bit in common. We both weren’t normal by any sense of the word. We both acted in ways no one expected of us. And we both were being led around by Mab. This thought made me laugh.
“What’s so funny?” Mab asked as she yawned and stretched.
“I was just thinking how much Lilly and me are alike,” I said.
Mab eyed me. “You have been in the sun too long.”
I couldn’t argue with that.
The next morning we cut westward, toward the line of trees in the distance. It took us most of the day to reach the tree line, at with Mab came to an abrupt stop.
“This will do,” she said as she began unpacking Lilly. “You two pitch camp here and I’ll be back in the morning.”
“No way,” both Stretch and I said together.
Mab huffed and placed her hands on her hips. “If we all go tromping up there, he’s liable to blow us to kingdom come. If I go alone, I can get in and out without much fuss.”
“No,” Stretch said. “I am not letting you go up there alone.”
“Neither am I,” I said.
“Come on,” Mab said, “you know Dermot isn’t fond of visitors, but he likes me.”
“I know he does,” Stretch said. “That’s the problem.”
“Why Stretch, are you jealous?”
“Maybe, but it ain’t just the jealousy talking. That man ain’t stable, and you know it. You go up there alone and there is no telling what he will do to ya.”
“Pish posh. I’ve visited him plenty on my own.”
Stretch started at this news. “Really?” The man composed himself, regaining some semblance of faux aloofness.
I giggled at him. His affection for Mab was so glaringly obvious, he looked ridiculous trying to play it off as something else.
“No,” Stretch said. “I won’t have it said I let you go visit a man unaccompanied.”
“You’re going to accompany me?” Mab said.
“Yup.”
“So I can be accompanied by two men?” She cocked her head at him, giving him a questioning look.
“Yup.”
He thought about this a moment, then slumped his shoulders as he must’ve understood the silliness of it. Never mind the fact that the idea of anyone in the Badlands following anything that resembled etiquette was preposterous, Mab was the least of us that needed an escort. She was capable of taking care of herself. As was I. I just needed a chance to prove it to her.
“Fine,” she said. “You can come if you like.”
“Can I?” he said with excited puppy eagerness. If he had possessed a tail, the thing would’ve been wagging up a dust storm.
“It’s better than listening to you whine about it for the rest of the trip. Sam, you stay put. We will be back in a few hours.”
I was prepared for this command. “You aren’t leaving me here alone. I can take care of myself too.”
“I know,” she said. “That’s why I am leaving you here alone. Because you can take care of yourself. I’m only taking Stretch because he has to be coddled like an egg or he will get himself cracked.”
Stretch shrugged his shoulders. “As long as you’re doing the coddling, darlin’.”
She shot him a withering glare.
As much as I wanted to show her that I could remain here alone and take care of myself, curiosity got the better of me. What in the world was the big deal about her blacksmithing friend?
“I am going,” I said.
Mab mumbled to herself as she rubbed at her temples. “Why can’t anyone just take my advice?” She looked back up to me and said, “Fine. Come along. But don’t say I didn’t warn you, young man.” She stressed the words young man as if it meant something other than young man.
I had no idea what that could be.
“We need to get moving,” Mab said. “His shack is still hours from here and I don’t want to be out in those woods when dark falls.” She nodded to the edge of a forest a good mile away. “Once we get to the woods, you keep your eyes open, Sam. This road has been quiet because it’s well traveled and well guarded. But once we get in there, we need to be on our toes. Got it?”
“Got it,” I said.
Mab gave me a solemn look. “We shall see.”
We picked up and set out again, turning off of the beaten path and toward a line of trees in the distance. Within the hour we reached the edge of the forest and together stepped into the wilderness beyond. Mab guided us along, followed by Stretch. I trailed the pair leading the horse behind me. At first it was quiet, just the sounds of us shuffling through the shadowy underbrush. Lilly huffed every now and again, as if anxious to serve as more than a pack mule. I was certain that the horse longed to get clear of the trees and run free. The woods were even making me anxious. Mr. Theo taught me to avoid large patches of forest if possible when traveling. Too many places for the undead to hide. Of course, it wasn’t always possible to avoid the woods, such as now, so as instructed, I kept my eyes and ears open.
After an hour or so of tense and nearly silent travel, Mab drew to a slow stop. She held up a hand, signaling for us to halt as well. We waited there, in the echoes of our own footfalls, while Mab stared intently into the shadows around us.
“What is it?” Stretch whispered.
Mab hushed him into silence again.
I closed my eyes and listened. There came the steady shuffling of motion through the dead leaves of the forest floor. Just atop this lay a sound that faded back and forth from growl to groan.
“Revs,” I said, looking to Mab.
She nodded, then motioned to the trees at our left as she pulled the pistol from her belt. Stretch yanked his rifle from his back and I slid my blade from my waistband. The horse pawed the ground nervously. She
might not have been able to smell the things, but her hearing was no doubt better than ours. I patted her neck, hoping to calm her.
“How many?” Stretch asked.
“We’re about to find out,” Mab said.
Before Stretch could ask another pointless question, a pair of revs burst from the shadows of the trees a few yards away. They ran forward on all fours, slavering and howling, then leapt in opposite directions. The first fell at Mab’s feet, twice dead thanks to a well timed shot between the beast’s eyes. The second rev landed on Stretch, who tried to swing his rifle into place and failed. I let go of Lilly’s reins and ran forward, swiping the air with my hungry blade. Stretch struggled with the beast, writhing under the snapping jaws of the thing. I waited, timing my attack for the best moment, just as Mr. Theo taught me.
“What’re ya waiting for!” Stretch screamed as he struggled.
Wait, I told myself, ignoring Stretch’s harried screams. Wait. Wait for it. The moment eventually arrived, a small window in which I was able to best strike. I lunged forward, plunging the knife into the beast’s neck. Blackened blood squirted across my hands, making it hard to hang onto the slickened blade. My aim was true, severing the spine from the brain. The rev went stiff all over, then collapsed atop Stretch. The man scrambled backward, pushing the now dead rev off of him as he got to his feet. He stooped, hands on his knees as he breathed hard.
“Thanks,” he said. He grabbed his chest and coughed a few times.
“You’re welcome,” I said. I double checked to make sure the rev was truly dead before I retrieved my blade from its carcass. Both of the beasts were fresh, newly turned undead still wearing the work clothes of Syndicate drones. Dillon’s handiwork no doubt.
“You certainly fight like a trapper,” Mab said, toeing the corpse at her feet.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I snapped.
“She means you took too long,” Stretch said. He coughed again. “Jesus H. Christ, I am getting too damned old for this.”
“I meant you were careful,” Mab said. She touched her own neck. “You struck at the base of the skull instead of just smashing its head in.”
I shrugged. “So what?”
“You saved the brains.” Mab winked at me. “Most of the skin trade might be a secret, but everyone knows you need the brains to do your job.”
I shifted my weight from foot to foot, unsure if she was insulting me or not. “Is that a bad thing?”
“It sure as hell is,” Stretch said.
“Stretch,” Mab chided.
“What?” he said. “You weren’t the one under that thing while princess here weighed her options.”
Heat was on my cheeks before I knew it. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to put you in danger.”
“It isn’t the danger I am worried about,” Mab said.
Stretch stopped his melodramatic coughing and stuck his lip out in a childish pout. “Geesh thanks for caring, sugar-lump.”
Mab ignored his sulking. “Your style is too recognizable. If you hadn’t told me you worked under Jackson, this would’ve given you away.” Mab put a bullet in the beast’s head, slid her pistol back into its holster, then went to calm her nervous horse.
I stared down at the doubly dispatched undead.
“Don’t worry about her,” Stretch said. “She’d be the only one to notice such a thing. It’s just her way.”
“She’s right though,” I said. “Isn’t she? Otherwise she wouldn’t have shot this one as well.”
“It is better to make it look like you weren’t being so careful. Just in case anyone finds the corpses. No need to raise suspicions.”
“I am sorry I took my time.”
“If it makes you feel any better, I’m glad to be alive. Though, I won’t complain if you move a bit quicker next time.”
“I’ll try. I guess killing ’em like this is just a force of habit.”
“Habits are hard to break. I should know. It took me weeks to dry out when they tossed my ass over the line.”
“The drink?”
“The same.” He sighed. “After a lifetime of battling the demon, getting off the sauce nearly killed me.”
“I don’t have a lifetime of habit to blame. Just a hell of a mentor.”
“Learned habits can be the hardest to quit.”
I didn’t really understand what he meant by that, but I didn’t ask. There seemed to be something lurking under his words. An anecdote I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear.
“So,” Stretch said in a slow drawl. “Can you really, you know, skin that thing?”
“I can,” I said, pride touching my voice. “Though so can you. It isn’t much different from any other animal.”
“Yeah, but I can’t make a decent hide out of it.”
My pride deflated. “Neither can I. I don’t have everything I need.”
“Well, um, what would you need?”
I looked to Stretch, not surprised to find a shy grin on his face. “Nice try.”
“You can’t fault me for askin’. I’ve always wanted to know. This is the closest I am gonna come to having a chance to find out.”
“As much as I would love to enlighten you, I am afraid I don’t really know.”
He cut his eyes at me. “No kiddin’?”
“No kiddin’. I didn’t train long enough under Mr. Theo to learn all of the secrets of the trade.”
“Just long enough to learn how to dispatch the undead,” Mab said, joining the conversation again.
“Yeah,” I said. “That was the first thing he taught me.”
“He’s a wise man,” Stretch said.
“He certainly is,” I said.
We got back to traveling after that, though this time not as quiet as before. Stretch grew quite chatty, telling us all about his adventures in foraging. I wasn’t particularly interested in learning the fine art of scavenging, yet I was grateful for the idle chatter. Anything to get my mind off of my mentor and his terrible situation.
Within another hour or so I caught sight of a house nestled in a small copse of trees. Though house was a generous term. In truth, it was little more than a shack; a sloppily constructed building with no windows and as far as I could tell only one door. A narrow path cut through the trees an ended at the entrance. The woods around the shack were unkempt. Unlike the cleared and well-tended space around my mentor’s cabin, this place was overgrown and wild.
“That’s it?” I said.
“That’s it,” Stretch said.
“Looks harmless enough. I expected, I dunno, a big fort or something.”
“Sam,” Mab said. “Listen to me carefully.”
I looked up at her to find a sudden and dreadfully serious expression on her face.
“Do you see that walkway?” she said, pointing to the path.
“Yes,” I said.
“Step exactly where I step. Go exactly where I go. Don’t stray from the path. Do you understand?”
“I understand.” Though I didn’t. It seemed like a whole lot of fuss for such a small place.
Mab tied her horse to the nearest tree and patted the beast on the mane. “I’ll send him back for you in a little bit. Stay put, you hear me?”
The horse chuffed and pawed the ground.
Mab headed down the path, motioning for us to join her. “Single file. Both of you.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Stretch said, falling in behind her.
They both moved in slow, deliberate steps. Mab watched her own steps carefully, checking each spot on the ground before allowing her foot to touch that new patch of earth. I moved in behind Stretch, wondering what the big deal was. Something peculiar poked out from under a bush to our right. It looked like a bit of metal. I spotted another piece of metal jutting out of the ground to our left. Yet another peeked out of a tuft of grass near
us to the right. Back and forth, all across the yard, from tree to bush to ground, these arms of thin metal poked out into the world. I tugged on Stretch’s sleeve and pointed them out to him.
“Yeah,” he said. “I see ’em.”
“What are they?” I said.
“Triggers.”
It was then I realized the reason for Mab’s cautious movements. The whole place was loaded with explosives. My gaze shot from trigger to trigger, trying to count their number. I decided I didn’t want to know when I got past twenty-five.
“Why didn’t she just say that in the first place?” I whispered hoarsely.
Stretch shrugged, a movement that was becoming as familiar as it was annoying.
We kept a tight formation—tighter now that I knew the danger around us—and made our way to the shack. A few hundred feet ahead of us the path ended at the base of the rickety front door, where I could now see a smaller, swinging door was cut from the main door. A small entrance, about the size of a dog.
The same narrow size of the path.
Just as this revelation came to me, a dirt brown mutt leapt from the dog-sized door and bounded down the path toward us, baring its teeth and barking its little head off. I thought it was a giant hound at first, the way it was barking and growling. On closer inspection, the animal was no bigger than a minute. I didn’t know what breed it was, just brown and loud.
Mab held up her hands and stopped. “It’s all right, girly. It’s me, Mab.” She bent double and lowered a hand, offering it to the vicious sounding mutt.
The dog growled deeply as it sniffed Mab’s proffered hand. After the initial sniff of identification, the growling doubled. The little dog nipped at the air between them. Mab snatched her hand back before the thing could land a bite.
“She never did like you,” Stretch said.
On hearing Stretch’s voice, the growling and barking stopped, and the tail wagging began. The tall man lowered his hand to the dog, allowing the now calmed beast a perfunctory sniff. The dog’s tail wagged harder, flicking side to side hard enough thump against her small body.
“Heya Dixie,” Stretch said. He ran his fingers over the dog’s head. “How ya been, huh? How you been? That’s right, it’s good ole Stretch. You miss me?”