Purpose (The Wanderer Trilogy Book 1)

by B. Buechter

  Chapter 13

  Jake turned to Eva as they pursued the three Gang members through the city. “They must be from this region right?”

  “I really hope so,” Eva whispered back. “No one that I know of has ever ventured past the city borders in the south. I’ve never been out that far, but rumor is that it’s just a vast wasteland.”

  Eva and the McAvoy brothers made sure to stay at least two blocks behind the cloaked travelers, being mindful of the placement of each step. The winter winds had broken brittle tree limbs and scattered them across the street. Any pressure placed on a fragile branch, dead leaf, or icy surface would signal their location. Eva felt like her predatory instinct was returning, and she welcomed it. It filled her with prowess. She knew that her prey hadn’t detected her yet. The feeling was so invigorating that she shook a little.

  Based on their route, Eva believed the three shrouded figures entered the city from the East. She, Jake, and Tommy stopped every few blocks as the Gang members looted for scrap. At first, the scavengers said nothing to one another. Perhaps they felt the presence of the three hidden in shadows. As they moved on, they loosened their uncertainty and began chatting. Each time the wind blew, it carried back a few words here and there, but they were indiscernible. Jake pondered whether they had been talking about their Gang, so he begged Eva to close the gap between them to find out.

  “The closer we get,” she said and looked around the next corner. “The more dangerous it gets. If they hear any of us, we’re dead. Did you see what they were carrying?”

  “Uh guns?” Jake questioned whether Eva was joking. “They won't see us.”

  She crossed her arms with a gun in one hand. “And if they do?” Her voice was at a loud whisper. She was losing her patience. “What happens then, Jake? You both could get captured and they would execute me. Or all of us. That is the problem.”

  “Stop arguing,” Tommy whispered and pointing down the street. “We’re gonna lose them.”

  Eva shoved her gun in it’s holster, hard. “I’ll scout ahead. You stay here. After a while, we meet up and, if they say anything about your father, I will tell you. Keep following them until they lead us to their compound and we can figure out what to do from there. Fair?”

  She looked at Jake. He nodded. Then, she looked at Tommy. He also agreed. And in the blink of an eye, she had vanished from sight. Shallow breaths and silent movements made Eva completely invisible. She remained in the shadows. Only one block stood between her and the Gang members, but she still could not hear well enough. A hand remained tightly gripped around her blade. There could be more of them waiting to spring a trap at any moment.

  This is what you are the best at Eva, she psyched herself up. You play this game better than anyone else. This is why you continue to survive. This is why you are feared and revered. Because alone, no one can hold you back.

  Confidence washed away any seed of fear or doubt left in her mind. A mere twenty or thirty feet now stood between Eva and the mysterious Gang. Finally, she was close enough to hear them. She found a secure spot behind a brick wall so she could see down the road where Tommy and Jake were hiding. If either group moved, she had a clear path to escape.

  “As I was trying to say, asshole,” a woman laughed. “We never really find anything good in this damned city.”

  “But we need the metal to melt and trade,” the man said. “Gotta keep the Gang profitable.”

  “Lest we fall into history where no one remembers our name.” A second woman sounded like she was reading from a script.

  The first woman made a gagging noise. “That sounds like something the Chief would say. Does he always talk like that?”

  “Everyone who works for him says so,” the other woman replied. “None of us would know. We just do the runs.”

  “And torture the servants,” the man reminded. He stepped closer to where Eva sat hiding. She could hear the gravel crunching under his shoes. “Don’t forget about that.”

  “You just take advantage of the women Dirk,” the women said in unison. “Disgusting.”

  Eva reached up and slowly pulled out both of her blades. The laugh from the man materialized images in her brain of young women and children being abused by his hands. It made her sick.

  If I kill him… then I give away my position. Both of the women have guns and will shoot without question.

  “A man has needs ladies,” he snickered. “And the rest of you are off limits.”

  “I should drop you where you stand Dirk,” one of the women said as a gun clicked. “Even though they’re Doxies, what you do is disgraceful. If the Chief knew… You men are sad excuses for human beings.”

  “Well they aren’t really people are they?” Dirk pulled out his gun as well. “We all know that you enjoy a good torture as much as the rest of us.”

  “That’s different, Dirk.”

  Eva wanted to smash their heads against the brick wall. It took everything in her not to pounce. She took a crouching step closer to the edge of the crumbling half-wall that she was hiding behind.

  “Only because you end their miserable lives out of mercy or some shit,” the first woman chimed in. “Then we have to find more metal to trade and replace the Doxies and Bondsmen you kill. It’s wasteful.”

  “Don’t forget that you have a weakness for some of the better-looking ones, Olivia,” Dirk smirked.

  “And the Chief made a good spectacle out of your last love,” the second woman spat. “Even I remember Nora. Too bad she met her end so horribly. I mean, really, how is it even possible to fall in love with a servant? Despicable. He should have killed you as well.”

  The first woman gasped. “Don’t. Go. There.”

  “At least McAvoy works hard.” The man flicked the safety on his gun and the tension dissipated. “My favorite so far.”

  “Such a surprise that he came from that Vault.” Olivia picked up a chain from the ground. Eva could hear the clanking. “He always talks about it. A reward is out for his sons, too, but if the Serpents got to them, they're dead or working at least.”

  “It would be nice to find them out here though,” the nameless leader yawned. “We’d get real good with the Chief. Two Bondsmen that we paid nothing for.”

  By the time Eva heard McAvoy’s name, she had already returned her blades to their sheaths and was on her way back to Jake and Tommy. Some sort of reward had been placed on them. But how could a servant ask that of a Gang? Maybe he traded his skills for his sons? Or his life. When she returned, she told them everything.

  “He has to be a prisoner there,” Jake declared. “There’s no other way. I knew he wasn’t dead.”

  “My question is why they would care about any reward from a servant?” Eva was thinking out loud. Her eyes watched the Gang members digging in a large pile of rubble for metal to fill their bags.

  Tommy tugged on her jacket but she shooed him away. Jake cocked his head. “What do you mean?”

  “A slave does not make demands to a member of any Gang unless he has something to give in return. They already have his life in their hands. What else could he offer?”

  Jake thought for a moment. “I remember that he was great with strategy. He always beat me in board games. Maybe he helps the Chief with organizing his slaves and troops.”

  “That would be something of value,” Eva scratched her chin. “Because it isn’t a thing, the Gang cannot simply take it. As the Serpents Mistress years ago, many smaller Gangs that I absorbed lacked strategy. The only reason the Tigers survived was sheer size. But now, they could rival each other. Interesting.”

  Once again, the Gang members were on the move. The three cloaked enemies continued to weave through the city streets in search of more scrap. Every so often, they would stop and comb through piles of rubble, saving only certain pieces of metallic objects. The McAvoy brothers and The Wanderer were only a few steps away and they were all deep in thought.

  Dirk, a rather bulky man with slicked blond hair and a deep
scar running across his eye, had seen a deer. Without thinking, he shot it. Jake and Tommy thought that he was just hunting, but Eva watched with intrigue. This prey was not shot to be consumed. He had a clear shot to kill it, but chose to aim low, striking the creature’s leg.

  Sickening as it was, Eva watched him with her jaw locked tight while he tortured the poor animal. Tommy and Jake had to look away. Even the women who were with him ignored its sounds of pain. After a few excruciating moments, it was over. Olivia, the one with the dark hair, put the poor beast out of its misery.

  “I am going to kill him before the others,” Eva promised. Her face felt hot and her teeth were grinding. “And it will be slow and painful.”

  “Not if this girl does it first.” Jake pointed to Olivia. She had her gun pointed at Dirk who was kneeling next to the deer.

  Bang. Dirk sunk to the ground, motionless. All of his darkest thoughts and actions, gone in a flash of light with a single bullet. Shame, Eva thought. Should’ve been me behind that smoking barrel. His comrade and killer tore the pistol from his hand and emptied the contents of his pockets. She only took a few things, including his bag of scrap, then stood up and spat on his corpse. The woman with no name had been observing her comrades silently. As Olivia met up with her, they continued on.

  Daylight was dwindling and the two mysterious women had not yet left the city. As they distanced themselves from the pale corpse of their kin, Eva ran over to examine it. Tommy volunteered as lookout and Jake watched the women as they filled their bags to capacity.

  “Damn.” Eva threw a rusted knife to the ground. “Nothing. She must have taken his insignia.”

  “Why would she kill one of her own?” Jake did not glance back once. “Doesn’t make any sense.”

  “They have the right to end anyone’s life,” Eva said as she searched through his pockets and glanced at the trickle of blood between his eyes. “This piece of shit deserved it. He was cruel, even by their standards. Guess they just had enough.”

  “Merciless,” said Jake. “All of them.”

  “We all are merciless executioners Jake,” she sighed loudly and stood up. “Even you have taken a life.”

  “What?” Tommy jerked around. Eva knew she had made a mistake instantly. She bit her lip. “You killed someone?”

  Before Jake could respond, his brother shoved him and turned his back. The two remaining Gang members were moving again. Eva grabbed Tommy and Jake and pushed them onward. There was no time to be upset. They had to keep moving if they were going to find their father.

  “I had to find you,” Jake reasoned. “If I had let that guy go. He would have gotten both of us. We would both be dead.”

  Tommy refused to hear any of it. His brother tried to explain, but they both felt the fist of The Wanderer against their backs as they pursued the hooded women as the sunlight finally disappeared. Eva was the first to notice that Jake was getting too noisy and hurled them into an alleyway. The women had heard them.

  “Shut up,” she berated. “Now is not the time for this shit. Jake did what he had to do. I told him to do it. Because, unlike both of you, I know what it is like inside the heads of these people. Tommy, you need to understand that. Jake had to do it. And it won’t be his last. Now stay quiet.”

  “Is anyone there?” one of the women called up the street. Their footsteps quickened. Eva jumped inside of the only thing in the passageway, a dumpster. It reeked of death and decay, but Jake and Tommy did not hesitate to follow. With the lid shut above their heads, they covered their noses and waited.

  “Better not be playing tricks on us,” the one named Olivia said. “If you know what’s good for you. We don’t play nice.”

  I swear, I am going to disembowel Jake if they find us. Eva’s thoughts ran wild. I have had enough of this hiding shit. It smells so bad in here that my puke would make it better.

  Two sets of footsteps marched down the street, stopping in front of the dumpster. Rust had eaten a hole through the side of the bin where Eva could see their shadows in the moonlight. The first woman peered down the alleyway but saw nothing. The other woman mentioned “I could have sworn I heard voices,” shook her head, and turned in the same direction they came. Eva and the brothers wasted no time jumping out into the fresh air, forcing back any vomit that was starting to make its way up their throats.

  Both of the women were very wary now. Each of them took a turn to look back at the beginning and end of every block as they exited the city. Jake and Tommy were still queasy from before. They moved much slower than they had been and it was getting late. Neither of the groups lit a fire nor ate that night. They could feel someone watching them. The air itself was unsafe, but they slept nonetheless.

  ***

  Eva jerked awake to a crow’s ear-splitting caw. Her leg had fallen asleep and she completely forgot where she was. Off in the distance, the two women from the unknown Gang awoke when one of their packs had spilled from a second story overhang. The noise from the crashing metal sent a flock of birds bolting into the sky. Jake and Tommy sat straight up with their heart beating in their ears.

  “Come on Olivia.” The woman’s voice echoed through the empty street. “We have to get back sometime this week.”

  “Let’s go,” Eva said and they continued tailing their targets. When they had rested for the evening, they had made it to the outer border of the city. It was not long before they saw the Rover colony on the horizon to their right. A few months had passed since she last stepped foot there, but her anger still burned with the same intensity. The highway they had taken separated the forest and the town. Even in the wintertime, the pine trees held their greenery. The other trees had been stripped of their leaves and loomed over the street like gnarled hands. Above them, the sky had thickened with clouds and the smell of snow filled their nostrils.

  “Dirk deserved what he got, right?” The other woman was within earshot. “I mean, I don’t think what you did was wrong.”

  “They’re going to ask questions,” Olivia responded as she hoisted her bags over both shoulders. They had taken a short break to eat a small meal. “We may get demoted.”

  “What do you mean we?” The woman stood up with a hand caressing her handgun. “Chief would believe me if I told him that I tried to stop you. And after you killed Dirk, I delivered justice.”

  “You’d do me in to seem so heroic?” Olivia now brandished her weapon.

  “Why not? It’d make me look good. I could work directly under the Chief.”

  “Or I could shoot first and blame the whole thing on you.”

  Jake looked at Eva in bewilderment. The Wanderer’s eyes remained fixated straight ahead. “Are they really going to kill each other?” he mouthed. At this point, they had hidden themselves between two cars that were mostly intact. But they were dangerously close to the quarreling women.

  Eva’s only response was holding up one finger and using it to draw a line across her neck. She believed that, by the time they reached the compound, there would only be one returning member. The next second confirmed her answer. None of them were paying attention when the shot was fired. When they looked up over the trunk of the car, both women were still standing. The look of total shock was plastered on their faces, but only one dropped to her knees and fell limp at the other’s feet. The one named Olivia was the survivor. She simply threw a third bag over her shoulder, dug through and removed a few of her victim’s belongings, and made her way down the street, whistling.

  “What just happened?” Jake, Eva, and Tommy had distanced themselves from the deranged Gang member.

  Eva stepped over the woman’s dead body after finding no indication of the Gang she once belonged. “I think that’s pretty clear, Jake.”

  “She killed her friend,” Tommy said. He had been silent for the majority of the day. Deep down, he still struggled with the news that his brother was no better than Olivia.

  “Unfortunately,” Eva squinted at the Old Time homes that were beginning to appear in
the distance. Snow started falling lightly on the ground. The pavement was becoming slick. “There are no real friends in those compounds, Tommy. No one really cares about anyone. All they want to do is impress whoever’s in charge to rise through the ranks. Those on top reap the best of everything.”

  “Oh.” Tommy dropped his head.

  “This world does really suck,” she soothed. “I know it does. But there are those who care. Like your brother. He would do anything to save you. Believe me. He risked his life coming to find me, risked it when he helped me kidnap two Tigers, and risked it when he took his first life.”

  The little boy with almond eyes nodded up at her with a half-smile. Her words had lifted most of the weight he had been carrying. Jake hugged him tightly. Tommy thanked his brother for rescuing him from the Tigers.

  Olivia had started to fade from view as the blizzard moved in. What had once been a calm covering of snow was now dropping in thick sheets. Eva saw the outline of the woman rush into a building. They chose the one next to it. Nearby was the familiar home they had spent a couple nights in, The Post. They had put a few miles behind them since. The homes on this street were in particularly rough shape. She worried that the weight of the snow would collapse the roof, but the other homes she could see were no better.

  “We have to wait out this storm.” A large white blanket had already formed on the yard separating the lunatic from Eva and the McAvoy brothers.

  Tommy decided to keep to himself, adopting his old, silent nature. Even as they ate nearly frozen food, he sat in the foyer of the old home. Eva and Jake made their temporary home in the living room at the back of the house. Attempts of getting Tommy to talk were unsuccessful. The rest of the evening Jake spent looking over his shoulder at his younger brother.

  “He will get over it.” Eva had been trying to talk with Jake for some time. She was annoyed.

  “Tommy doesn’t just get over it.” Jake’s first sentence of the entire night. “I know him better than anyone. Trust me, he lingers on things.”