by V. L. Dreyer
By the time I brought the bike to a stop in front of the radio station, there was a crowd of people waiting for us. They shouted greetings and questions, waving frantically at us from beneath their makeshift rain-gear. Behind me, I heard Gavin's sharp intake of breath.
"There are so many people," he said softly, just loud enough for me to hear. "Sandy, did you join a gang?"
"I did at one stage, but that's another story," I replied. "This isn't a gang. The group you see before you are going to be the founding members of the first city our country has seen in far too long. We just need to make it far enough south to lay the foundations."
"Good God," he murmured, easing himself off the back of the bike so that I could get up as well. "Sounds like we're going to have a lot to talk about."
"And you're going to have a lot of names to try and remember," I teased. I killed the bike's engine, and went over to meet my friends. It was just at that moment that I realised something was missing. "Guys, where are the cars?"
"We moved them around the corner," Skylar explained. She rushed over and threw her arms around me, hugging me close. Then she shoved me back roughly and gave me a disgusted look. "Ugh, you're sopping wet!"
"And now you are, too," I replied with a playful grin. "You're welcome."
She snorted in mock annoyance, but then she suddenly seemed to remember why we'd gone away to begin with. "Did you find her?"
"Yes," I said, looking back over my shoulder at the other riders, who were just coming to a stop beside my bike. Gavin rushed over to help with his young charge, his discomfort apparently forgotten for the moment. I looked back at Skye, and gave her a sad smile. "She's in bad shape, though. Where's Doc?"
"He's around the corner, too," she answered, jerking a thumb over her shoulder. "There's a big, abandoned office building behind the radio station. It's not much, but it has a kitchen and toilets, and it's dry. I left him, Anahera, and the kids setting up beds, but they should be about done by now."
"Can you take us to him?" I asked. She nodded and beckoned for me to follow her. I passed the gesture along to Michael and Gavin, and soon the four of us were hurrying through the driving rain, leaving the bikes to be tended to by the rest of the group.
Skylar ducked through a wild garden that had probably once been a courtyard, and down a pathway between two buildings. We came out next to a glass door that was, miraculously, still intact. Skye rapped her knuckles on the metal frame, and we waited.
A minute later, we saw Doc's face appear on the other side of the glass, ghostly pale in the dim light. He nodded, unlocked the door, and let us in. Everything seemed fine, right up until the moment that he saw Gavin, and realised that he was a stranger. He took a step backwards, blocking the hallway leading deeper into the building.
"And who is this?" he demanded warily, jerking his chin at Gavin.
"This is Gavin. He's an old friend of mine," I replied, glancing back over my shoulder at him. "Gavin, this is our doctor, Stewart Cross."
The doctor's brows knitted, and Skylar turned to look at me in surprise. Her eyes widened so suddenly that I realised she hadn't figured out that Gavin wasn't one of our own until that moment. With his hood up and the rain in her eyes, it wasn't all that surprising.
"Please elaborate, Ms McDermott," the doctor demanded, his brows knitting into a frown. "Do we know him well enough to let him near the children?"
"Don't worry, it's fine," I replied. "Gavin's good people. He helped me a lot when the plague first hit – I probably wouldn't have survived without him. I think it's fair to say I know him well enough to vouch for him."
"Wait, is this the honey guy?" Skye asked, curiosity flickering across her face. "I thought you said he was dead?"
"I thought he was dead, but he wasn't," I admitted with a shrug. "Just like I thought you were dead, but you weren't. Apparently, I'm just really bad at keeping track of the people I care about." I made an abrupt gesture with one hand to derail the conversation, and directed it towards the more urgent topic. "Anyway – Doc, we need you. Lily's hurt."
My words seemed to touch just the right nerve. Doc dropped his gaze to the leather-wrapped bundle in Gavin's arms. He glanced briefly at me, then looked at the girl again. Whatever else he might have been feeling, his healer's instincts clearly took precedence; he nodded once, and gestured for us to follow him.
"We found a cache of mattresses stashed away upstairs," he explained as he led us through the hallways. "There's some old food and clothing, too. Looks like someone used to live here, but they're long gone."
I glanced at Gavin, and he nodded. "There used to be a gang here, so it was probably theirs. As far as I can tell, someone came in and wiped them all out. One of the kids survived but he won't talk about it. Won't talk about much of anything, to be frank."
"How many people do you have with you?" I asked him as we climbed the stairs up to the second floor.
"Four," he replied, with just the faintest of smiles. "All kids. I've got the twins, Solomon – that's the kid who survived from the gangs – and another girl named Melody." He heaved a long sigh, his one good eye focused on the stairs at his feet. "After I lost you, I felt so guilty that I made it my duty to protect the kids. All of the kids. Whether they like it or not."
I couldn't help but laugh at that. "Sounds like they didn't want to be protected."
"No, not at all," he admitted. "They hate it, but they've accepted me hanging around because I'm good at finding them food. Melody and the twins were together for a long time, possibly since the beginning. When I first found them, they were like a pack of wild cats."
"Put her down on the mattress there," the doctor instructed, interrupting our discussion. Gavin did as he was told, then we went into the next room with the others, to let the doctor work in peace. The room turned out to be a kitchen, and Anahera was in there stirring something in a giant cooking pot. I took a moment to introduce both her and Skylar to Gavin formally.
"You lot go sit down," Anahera ordered once introductions were finished. "I'll bring you some dinner. You must be freezing."
"Yeah." I nodded my agreement, and went over to a nearby table with my dripping companions. Once we were comfortable, I gave Gavin a curious look. "You were saying the girls were like wild cats?"
"Yeah. It was so over the top that in retrospect, it's pretty funny," Gavin said, shaking his head slowly. "If Melody lets you meet her, then you'll get it."
"If she lets me meet her?" I echoed, amused. "Oh dear, now you have to tell me. What happened?"
Gavin laughed and nodded. "Yeah, all right. I was travelling through… I don't remember where, one of the towns on the east coast. You know how cautious I am, but I'm not as capable as I used to be before I lost my eye. These three little hellcats managed to ambush me. This would have been about three years ago, mind."
"Wait. Let me get this straight." I paused and did some quick maths. "You were ambushed by a pair of nine-year-olds, and – how old was Melody at the time?"
"About fifteen," he supplied, a mixture of embarrassment and amusement written on his scarred face. "Yes, I was ambushed by a fifteen-year-old girl and a couple of nine-year-olds. And they won."
"They won?" I echoed, surprised. "Are you serious?"
"I'm ashamed to admit it, but yes." Gavin shrugged and glanced down. "I'm not the man I used to be, Sandy. The reason I vanished was because I was grabbed by a bunch of gang-bangers, led by this big bloke with a bald head and the evilest eyes I've ever seen on another human being. They accused me of hunting in their territory."
"Oh, God," I whispered, my good mood suddenly vanishing. "So they're the ones that… did that? To your eye, I mean?"
"Yeah." He sighed heavily and nodded. "They broke both my legs, cut me up like a side of meat. The only thing that spared me was luck. One of their scouts spotted something that was apparently more interesting than me, and called them off. I managed to drag myself away and hide, but they didn't come back." Suddenly, he reached out and grabb
ed my hand, a look of absolute panic crossing his face. "I was so afraid that they'd spotted you. I looked for you for weeks, once I could walk again, but I never found you – or the gang."
Sympathy welled up in my breast. I reached out to place my hand over his, trying in some small way to reassure him. "I was fine. Well… I was fine at the time. I was captured by a gang later on, but that was years later. As you can see, I escaped.
"But not without scars," he said softly, reaching up to touch the pink mark on my cheek that had been left by Lee's knife, a few weeks earlier. "Though, this one here looks fresh. What have you been up to, girl?"
"It's a long story," I admitted. "But it actually sounds a little bit familiar. Tell me, the man with the evil eyes – was he a big guy, with a beer gut and tattoos all over his face?"
"Yes," Gavin said, surprise flickering across his face. "A real big bastard, with a full facial tā moko." He paused and shot a sheepish glance at Anahera, who also wore the Maori tattoos he was describing upon her chin. "No offense intended, ma'am."
She smiled and nodded. "None taken."
Gavin glanced back at me, and gave me a quizzical look. "Why do you ask? Have you seen him?"
"You could say that." I glanced over at Skylar, and held her gaze for a second, then I looked back at him. "I'd rather not talk about what he did to me, so let's just stick with the good news. He's dead. Skye killed him."
Gavin's expression flickered through an assortment of emotions in rapid succession, which eventually settled at relief. He nodded once, and looked down at his hands. "I'm glad. I looked for them when I was trying to find you, but all I found were… bodies. Mostly the bodies of girls."
"That's why we're doing what we're doing," I answered, gently squeezing his hand. "I've got a lot more scars that you can't see right now, but I survived them. I consider it my duty to help protect other young girls, so that they don't have to go through the same pain."
"Me too," he agreed. "After I lost you, I wasn't sure if I could forgive myself. I've spent all these years seeking redemption by helping other kids." Suddenly, his one good eye flicked to Michael, and his grip on my hand tightened. "You better take good care of her or else I'll have to kick your ass."
Michael blinked in surprise, then he laughed. "If I don't take good care of her, then I'll let you kick my ass."
"Good man." Gavin nodded firmly, and gave Michael a faint, lopsided smile. His gaze returned to me, and he turned the conversation back towards more pleasant things. "So, I was telling you about meeting Melody, wasn't I?"
"Yeah, you were saying something about getting kicked around by three little girls," I said, giving him a teasing grin. "How did that happen?"
"They came in from my blind spot, the clever little minxes." Gavin sighed and sat back in his seat, finally releasing my hand. "I should also mention that my hearing's been screwed up in that ear since the attack, so I didn't even hear them coming. One second, I thought I was alone. The next, I was flat on my back, with these three wild-eyed, filthy kids holding knives to my throat.
"They tried to rob me, as you can probably expect. I didn't have much for them to take, but I did have a few things that I'd made before I left my roost the night before. Particularly, honey rice cakes. I knew from looking at them that those kids had been on their own for a while, so I just gave them the cakes. You should have seen their eyes bug out. They inhaled them, and then demanded more. I told them I didn't have any, but that if they wanted I could show them how to make them. They've been following me around ever since."
"Ah, the way to a kid's heart is through her stomach." I laughed, and everyone else laughed right along with me.
"Speaking of which," Anahera cut in, setting a bowl of hot soup down in front of me.
I took it gratefully, and smiled at her. "Thank you."
"Of course, dear." She just smiled back, and set bowls down in front of the others. Once spoons were handed out, the conversation halted while we all tucked in. I hadn't eaten since that morning, so even plain fare was better than going hungry.
Just as I was wolfing down the last mouthful, Doctor Cross appeared in the doorway, holding my coat in his hands. I set my spoon down, and looked at him expectantly.
"Well, I have good news and I have bad news," he told us, absently handing the coat back to me. "The good news is that she'll live, and she wasn't sexually abused. The bad news is that she's going to be very sick for a while, until her body recovers from the beating he gave her. She has some internal injuries, but nothing that requires surgery. I would like to keep an eye on her for a few days, if we can."
Gavin looked at me, frowning. "Can you stay for a few days?"
I paused to think about it, and slowly shook my head. "We shouldn't. It's not safe. The reason we're on the road is because there's a mutation of the virus slowly spreading south, and it's turning the human infected into… well, it's making them like pigs. We've already lost way too many people. I can't risk losing any more." I paused, and looked at him. "You and the kids are welcome to come with us, though."
"I don't know how they'll feel about that," he admitted. "I'd be lying if I said I was in control of them. We just travel together, nothing more. I suppose I could ask them if they want to go."
"I'd appreciate it," I said, nodding. "They don't have to stay with us forever, just until Lily's feeling better."
Gavin nodded and slowly rose from his chair. "I'll go find them. Jasmine's going to be panicking about her sister, anyway. I should try to put her mind at ease."
I shot a glance at the others, then looked back at Gavin. "Can I send an escort with you? I'd hate for something to happen to you."
"No, I'll be fine," he said, shaking his head. "It's not far back to the place we're currently staying at. If they want to come and see Lily, then we'll be in a group. If not, I'll come back in the morning."
"Okay." I took a deep breath, and let it out as a long sigh. "If you're sure. Just be careful, okay? It's not safe out there."
"I'm always careful," he replied. "You just watch out for yourself, and keep an eye on Lily for me."
"Of course," I agreed. He nodded once, patted my shoulder, and then he was gone. The doctor followed him out, presumably to go back to tending his young patient. I turned and looked at the others. "Well, that was unexpected."
"The mysterious honey-man reappears, bringing with him a pack of wild kids," Skylar joked. "Sounds like trouble just waiting to happen."
"Oh, probably." I shrugged and gave her a smile. "Still, at least Lily's okay, and I'm pretty sure that guy on the farm won't try anything like that again any time soon."
"Did you kill him, then?" Skye asked curiously.
"No," I answered, shaking my head. "We're trying to avoid doing that, remember? I just scared the hell out of him, and made him realise that there are still rules in place."
"Oh." Skye actually sounded a little bit disappointed. She shrugged and stood up. "Oh well, not our problem. I'm going to go check on the kids. Don't go anywhere."
"Yes, boss," I agreed, giving her a smile. I watched until she left the room, then glanced at the others. To my surprise, I found Anahera watching her as well, her eyes narrowed. Once Skylar was out of earshot, she came over and sat down at the table near Michael and me.
"There is something I should probably tell you," she said, her voice low and discreet.
"What, about Skye?" I asked, uncertain how to interpret her expression. "Has she done something?"
"I don't know," Anahera said thoughtfully. "I have no idea what the implications are. I just want to make you aware of it. After you were attacked by Lee at our camp, I sent my boys out to catch the two men that grabbed Skylar. Do you remember that?"
"I remember enough, yes," I answered with a nod. "I mean, I was in pretty bad shape, but I know you sent people out to capture them. I never found out what happened after that."
"No, I never had an opportunity to tell you privately, until now." Anahera sighed, sitting back in her chai
r. "My men found them dead. Both of their throats had been slit."
"What?" Startled, I looked over at Michael and saw that he was just as surprised as I was.
"She said that she hit them with your taser, then ran back to find me so that we could save you," Michael said. "You think that she killed them?"
"I suspect so, yes," Anahera said, nodding. "My men said that the bodies did show odd burn marks that I presume are the kind left by a taser, but their throats had been cut afterwards. My men estimate that they were unconscious at the time, lying face down."
"Wow," I murmured, unsure what to make of the revelation. My baby sister just didn't seem like the kind that would cut a man's throat in cold blood, even when her life was on the line. But then, how well did I really know her? We hadn't seen each other in ten years. A person can change a lot between the ages of eight and eighteen, particularly in a world as brutal and unforgiving as ours.
I glanced at Michael, and saw the same kind of uncertainty reflected on his face. He'd known her longer than I, but only by a few months. I wasn't sure what to say, and he certainly didn't seem any more confident. I felt a hand touch my shoulder, and glanced over to find Anahera watching me with sympathy.
"I told you because I wanted you to know, not because I expect you to do anything about it," she said gently. "These are unpleasant times, and sometimes we must do unpleasant things in the name of the greater good. If your friend's story is true, then it is likely those men have done things just as terrible as Lee had. I would have done the same thing, in her situation."
I let out a long breath that I hadn't realised I'd been holding, and nodded slowly. "Yeah. You're right. It's just… I don't know how to feel about it."
"I understand." She smiled at us, and gently squeezed my shoulder. "Don't worry, Sandy. Just take your time to think over it, and your feelings will sort themselves out."
I nodded and gave her a grateful smile. Just at that moment, Skylar came rushing back into the room, forestalling any further discussion about her.