Liar's Harvest (The Emergent Earth)

by Michael Langlois

  Jamal came back in and sat down, making the chair creak under his bulk. I shut off the water and leaned back against the counter.

  Leon frowned at me, his head moving side to side as though he could simply say no to what he had just seen. “What the fuck were those things?”

  “Some kind of scavenger,” said Anne. “Makes sense.”

  Chuck looked at her like she had lost her mind. “What the fuck, exactly, makes sense about what we just saw?”

  “Prime is harvesting bones. But he’s limited by how fast those wooden men can work.”

  “Yeah, that’s a real shame.”

  “Will you shut up? Having each wooden man kill someone, then take them apart, then bring the bones to Prime, and then go out to get another victim, is too slow. Instead, Prime just creates a lot of those scavenger things and lets them loose all over town. Now the wooden men can just kill everyone in an area and pile up the bodies, then move to the next place. The scavengers find the bodies and harvest the bones. If there’s enough of them, Prime gets a constant stream of bones, just as fast as the wooden men can find victims.”

  “No offense, but only a crazy person would think of that after what we just saw.”

  “She’s right, though,” I said.

  “Oh, I’m sure she is. Doesn’t change anything.”

  Jamal looked at each one of us in turn, eyes wide. “What the hell are you people talking about?”

  I said, “There’s a wooden man that looks just like Leon here who needs a big pile of human bones. He’s created an army of other wooden men who don’t look like Leon, and apparently a whole lot of big wooden bugs, in order to get them from the closest source of bones he can find, which happens to be the people in this town. Oh, and when he gets enough bones, something very bad is going to happen.”

  “Worse than killing everybody in town and tearing out their bones?”

  “That’s my guess, yeah.”

  He gripped the sides of his head with both hands. “Shit. Shit!”

  “Pretty much.”

  Leon hopped up and sat on the counter. “So now what?”

  That was a damn good question. “As I see it, we have two objectives. The first is to defend the remaining townspeople at all costs.”

  Another unwanted image passed through my mind’s eye. A dark school gymnasium, the bleachers filled with Piotr’s victims. An entire town, lost.

  “Easier said than done,” said Leon. “Don’t get me wrong, I grew up here. My family is here. But how are we supposed to defend an entire town? Especially since everybody is holed up in houses and stores all over the place? There’s no way.”

  “I’ll think of something.”

  “Okay, let’s say you do. What’s the second objective?”

  “Same as before, destroy Prime.”

  Leon rubbed his thigh with the palm of one hand. I don’t think he realized that he was rubbing the spot where the seed took root in his flesh. Maybe he did. “I’ve been thinking about that. It’s my fault that Prime exists at all, so if it comes down to it, I’ll take him out, even if it kills me.”

  “Christ, when did you get to be such a martyr? We’re not sacrificing you. I’ll figure something out.”

  “Whatever. Just don’t miss your chance. I won’t.”

  “Well,” said Chuck from across the room, “unless you’re gonna try hugging him to death, we probably need to keep looking for some extra guns in this place.”

  We agreed and left the room to resume searching. Jamal stuck close, his eyes rolling around in his head like a spooked horse.

  I don’t know that I looked much better. Having seen the scavengers escape into the ceiling before, every tiny creak or scrape I heard while walking made me imagine the hollow spaces all around us filled with the things. Fortunately, it only took a few minutes to find the armory.

  Things must have gotten pretty exciting during the attack, as the door to the gun locker was wide open. Only four Mossberg 12-gauge shotguns remained at the end of a rack that could hold twenty and most of the metal shelves inside the locker had been emptied of shells.

  Even so, there was no way we could carry all of the remaining ammo, so I yanked a drawer out of the room’s desk and dumped the contents onto the floor. Anne swept boxes of shells into it and we headed for the exit.

  We were just about at the front door when a staticky voice called out from behind us.

  “Is anyone there? We need help! Can you hear me? Someone please answer!”

  Leon turned around and stared back into the station. “Aunt Emily?”

  39

  We scrambled for the comm center.

  Inside we found three computer screens displaying a bewildering array of small colored boxes filled with text and a massive phone switch with a hundred blinking clear plastic buttons. On the counter was a portable shoulder-mounted radio. The base unit was a black rectangle with a stubby rubberized antenna coming out of the top, and connected to it by a thick, curly cord, a small clip-on speaker with a red talk button on the side. Emily’s voice was coming out of it.

  “Hello? Please answer!”

  Leon snatched up the mic and pressed the button. “Aunt Emily? It’s Leon.”

  After a long pause, her fuzzed and distorted voice came back. “Leon? What are you doing on the radio, baby? Are you at the police station?”

  “Yes, ma’am, that’s where I am now. Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine, but you need to put on an officer. We need help at the hospital.”

  “There aren’t any officers here. Are you hurt?”

  “Oh, Lord. There was an officer here, but he’s dead. The EMTs brought him in with a broken neck. I’m using his radio because the phones don’t work. If you’re safe at the police station, then you stay there, baby. Don’t go outside, you hear me?”

  “Aunt Emily! What happened over there? Are you hurt?”

  “I’m fine, but there’s lots of folks here that need my attention right now. You wait there for the police to come back. Tell them we need help at the hospital okay? I need to go.”

  “Aunt Emily? Hello? Are you there?”

  The radio was silent.

  Leon picked it up and clipped the receiver to his belt and then the mic to his shirt pocket. “I hate it when she does that.”

  “At least she’s okay,” I said. For now. I picked up the phone and listened. No dial tone. “Leon, how would you cut off communications in town?”

  “Why are you asking me?”

  “Because I think Prime knows everything you do. He didn’t just jump out of the ground with the knowledge of a full grown adult without getting it from somewhere. He clearly has knowledge you don’t, like how to build those wooden men and whatever his ultimate goal is, but the baseline, I think, is you.”

  Of all of us, Prime had to get the knowledge and skills of a Recon Marine with extensive anti-guerrilla training. Fantastic.

  Leon scrubbed one hand across his forehead. “Well, I guess the first thing I’d do is take out the phone substation. There’s only one for the town and our cell tower runs through it as well. It wouldn’t be a total blackout, of course, but outside of CB’s and internet access that doesn’t use the phone system, like cable modems, I think it’d be a pretty good start.”

  “Okay, he’s done that. If your mission objective was to kill the population of a town, what would you do next?”

  “Hey, fuck you. You think that’s the kind of shit we did over there?”

  I raised my hands. “I know you didn’t. That’s not what I meant. But that’s essentially what Prime’s trying to do.”

  “And he’s me. I know, sorry.” Leon hissed air out from between his teeth. “I can’t believe all this happened so fast. And every last bit is my fault. I started it, and now another me is out there right now taking the whole town apart.”

  “Leon ...”

  “Yeah, okay. Old news. I guess I’d take out the organized, armed resistance first, which it looks like he did, but aft
er that, I’d have a problem.”

  “Which is?”

  “Well, fighting in a small town in the South is a lot like fighting in Afghanistan. There’s not much in the way of an official ground force, but everybody’s armed to the teeth and knows the local terrain inside and out. Hell, half of them have hunting camps in the woods full of supplies and more weapons. If I had a choice, this is the last group of people I’d be fucking with on their home turf. Especially if all I had was infantry.”

  I shrugged. “Too bad for Prime, then. Because that’s the hand he’s been dealt. But that still leaves a ton of non-combatants for us to worry about. Which is why he must be after the hospital. It’s basically a big stockpile of soft targets and he doesn’t have to chase a bunch of armed outdoorsmen through the countryside. I don’t know how many bones he actually needs, but I’d bet money that if he takes everyone in the hospital, he’s done.”

  Anne righted the chair on the floor and sat down wearily. “So we defend the hospital against who knows how many wooden men, plus these scavenger things. And if we get lucky, we get a shot at Prime when he shows up to deal with us.”

  Chuck snorted. “Piece of cake, right? There’s four of us, five if you feel like trusting Mr. “I Sell Weed Behind the Feed Store” over here. I and don’t, for the record. The hospital is frigging huge and there’s a door or window every ten feet. There’s no way we can defend that place.”

  Jamal spoke up. “Say what you want about my occupation, but there’s one thing that I have that you need.”

  That got my attention. “And what’s that?”

  “Soldiers.”

  40

  It was getting pretty crowded in the Rover. Anne and I sat up front and Chuck, Leon, and Jamal crowded into the back. They made Jamal sit in the cargo space.

  We added the four shotguns and the drawer full of ammo to our collection, bringing the total to five semi-auto pump shotguns, plus Anne’s drum-fed custom weapon.

  Chuck and Anne were still carrying their pistols, but only Anne was accurate enough to hit a the vulnerable area of a wooden man while it was moving. And even then, only if she was wasn’t being pressed. The closer they got, the more she likely she was to freeze up.

  I was following Jamal’s directions to his house, which he gave in clipped tones while trying to look out all of the windows at once.

  I caught his eye in the rearview mirror. “You sure your people are going to be at the house?”

  “Most will, yeah. That’s where the shit is, so we keep the place locked down. Angelo and Big B are on top today, so I guarantee those wooden fucks ain’t gettin’ in without a fight.”

  “How are you set for weapons? Besides handguns, I mean. Those are going to be pretty much useless.”

  “Shit, don’t you worry about that. I got the manpower and the firepower, like I said. Pull in right here, the gray one.”

  I pulled up to the curb in front of a ratty single story house with peeling paint and garbage bags piled up on the porch. On either side were neat, well-kept homes whose owners were no doubt thrilled to be next door to a crack house. Of course, it was unlikely that they still cared, considering that all of the houses on the street had the front doors smashed in, including this one.

  We got out of the Rover and opened the rear hatch so that Jamal could heave his massive frame out. The street was silent.

  Leon handed Anne her .410 and Chuck a 12 gauge. Then he held out another 12 gauge to Jamal, but didn’t let go when Jamal grabbed it.

  “Think twice.”

  Jamal shot him dark look. “I didn’t have to bring you here, man.”

  Leon gave him the shotgun.

  Anne gave me the all clear, so we headed towards the porch. Halfway to the house, a voice came through the darkened doorway.

  “That’s close enough!”

  Jamal shouted back. “Angelo? It’s Jamal, man. We coming in.”

  He didn’t wait for a response, instead he just stalked up onto the porch and through the doorway. We followed.

  The living room was destroyed. Pieces of shabby furniture lay scattered against walls covered in bullet holes, with the exception of the couch, which had been used to block the entrance to the kitchen. The carcass of a wooden may lay on the floor, pretty much shredded by gunfire. Nearly every inch of its body was covered with splintered holes, and all of its limbs were broken off.

  Two big men were in the room with us. One carried an aluminum baseball bat and the other a short, boxy machine pistol. Both were easily six-foot-five and thick all over. And they were both still smaller than Jamal.

  Jamal stepped over the wooden man and traded grips with the baseball bat guy. “I knew those things would be sorry if they tried to get in here. How you doing, Big B?”

  “Alive.”

  Jamal turned to the other man and bumped fists with him. “Angelo, hand me your piece.”

  Angelo did, and Jamal handed him the shotgun.

  Jamal pointed the machine pistol at me and said, “Toss me your keys, bro.”

  Anne, Chuck, and Leon all pointed their guns at Jamal. He saw the motion, but his eyes stayed on me.

  I took a slow step to the left as I spoke, pulling his field of fire away from the others. “They’ll shoot as soon as you do.”

  “I don’t think so. Come on out, boys.”

  Men came out of the kitchen, pushing past the couch to stand beside Jamal, and others stepped out of the hallway on his side of the room. There were now eight men facing us, all armed with pistols and shotguns. Their eyes were flat and hostile, although more than one guy was staring at Anne, eyes flicking between her and the drum-fed shotgun she was carrying.

  Jamal grinned. “You’ll get some of us, but I guarantee we’ll get all of you. Now, keys.”

  “Why? You must have a half-dozen cars between you, what do you need mine for?”

  “Are you blind, motherfucker? How many cars did you see on the way here sitting on a full set of tires? Angelo, how many drivable cars we have?”

  “None, they all fucked up.”

  Big B tapped the side of his head with his free hand. “See? Jamal always one step ahead. That’s why he’s the shit and why you’re gonna hand over your ride so we can get the fuck—”

  The rest of his sentence was cut off when the wooden man leapt out of the kitchen doorway behind him and slammed into his back. The impact drove him to the ground, knocking the baseball bat out of his hand.

  I ripped Hunger from its sheath and stepped forward. The wooden man had one hand buried in Big B’s back. The guy was screaming with a raw, animal intensity that was painful to hear.

  A few members of the gang had managed to point their guns at it, but were unable to shoot without hitting their buddy. Most of them just stared with wide eyes, guns silent.

  I hit the creature with a rising backswing, right across its jaw. The wooden head shattered and ripped free of the creature’s body. Gang members flinched as it embedded itself into the plaster ceiling with a thud. Anne fired once, neatly taking out the knot with a .410 slug.

  The headless body sagged and fell to one side, one hand still clutching the top of Big B’s spine, which it had ripped halfway out of his back.

  Anne spun around, facing the front door. “Abe! The car!”

  I ran outside just in time to see a Scavenger slice through the right rear tire with its jaws. The tire collapsed with a hissing pop, and the Rover sagged. More pops followed, and it sank low to the ground. Scavengers ran out from underneath the car and scattered in all directions like roaches.

  I looked around, and ten gang members had gathered in the front yard behind me. Most of them looked the part, with shaved heads, pierced noses and lips, and tattoos running up their necks, but each and every one of them had the same look in their eyes.

  Fear.

  41

  Guns were in every hand, but pointed carelessly, as though forgotten. I walked up to Jamal and stuck my hand out.

  He stared down, easily a head
taller than me and half-again as wide, with tree trunk arms and legs. He looked worried when we shook. “We cool? You know, after back there?”

  “You still offering to help?”

  “Yeah, man. We should stick together.”

  “Then we’re cool.”

  He nodded, his eyes looking at the empty houses up and down the street. “Long walk to the hospital. Five miles, easy. Go the other way and that same walk could take us out of town, yo. Free and clear.”

  I shrugged. “You can make either one by dark, but if you head out of town all that means is being on the highway next to the woods at night. The hospital has a tornado shelter, which I think will be pretty defensible. I also figure that a lot of people ran for that shelter when things started getting out of hand, especially if they had wounded to take care of. There’s going to be a lot of scared people there. A lot of kids, I’d imagine.”

  Jamal squinted up into the gray sky. “You got a point. I don’t want to be caught outside in the dark. We’ll go to the hospital.” He raised his voice to a bellow. “Angelo, Netty, Falo! Get the guns and the cash from the house. Leave the shit, we’ll come back for it later.”

  Three men nodded at a few others and about half the group ran into the house.

  I went to the Rover and held up the two remaining shotguns.

  “Listen up. Shotguns work a hell of a lot better on those things than pistols. The only way they’ll stay down is if you find and hit the knot on them, like Anne did in the house. Break the knot, and it dies. These are up for grabs if anyone wants one.”

  Jamal pointed at two men and they stepped up to me and took the guns. I hauled out the drawer full of shell boxes, and set it on the grass. They filled their pockets, and when they were done, so did Chuck and Leon.