Flame

by Jim Heskett

  Some foreign governments, despite the success of eCoin, were secretly considering a switch to OneCoin. While no one knows exactly for certain why Wallace chose OneCoin, some believe she did it because she thought if the US moved to OneCoin first, they would outpace the rest of the world and set the tone. This nameless economist had predicted OneCoin would overtake and destroy eCoin, and the USA could ride the wave back to global domination. With the dollar to back it, what could go wrong?

  Everything went wrong.

  They switched to OneCoin. The stock market crashed. Seemingly overnight, the United States lost all of its wealth and became one of the poorest countries on earth. The pessimists screamed about how they were right, and the optimists retreated into their holes, forever silenced.

  But that was only the beginning of the trouble.

  Chapter Four

  Valentine shifted left and right in the back of the Jeep as it thundered down the highway. The driver—a newer member of the crew named Blaine—seemed to have no sense of how to avoid the potholes in the road. Valentine didn’t know how he’d been selected to drive, anyway. The other three of them were fine behind the wheel.

  They’d stopped making this model of car thirty years ago, a year before Valentine had been born. It was a miracle the solar cells still functioned well enough to give it sufficient juice to travel a hundred kilometers in a day, if at all. But that was the kind of wretched car you could acquire when you were the sort of person who did the sorts of things they did.

  Valentine was in the back with Red, and Galeno sat in the passenger seat. Valentine had known Red and Galeno for years. They’d survived together. They’d killed together.

  She was the token girl in this particular White Flames crew, and that was fine with her. Each of them had tried to seduce her a few times. She’d relented once or twice with Galeno. He always wore a scoundrel smile, and she had a hard time resisting it. He wanted more than the occasional bed warming, though. Valentine had been tempted, but the idea of settling down with someone in her crew didn’t seem smart. Her father would have given her a warning about mixing business with pleasure, probably.

  Galeno was one of those “last big score” people, always looking for the final inside track that would set him up for life. Red was more the kind of person who mostly took pleasure in the pain of others. He relished how easily he could take something someone else had worked for and make it his. Brutally so, sometimes. For better or worse, that earned him a secure spot on the team, because someone always needed to take care of the dirty work. Red didn’t mind breaking limbs to make a point. You need someone like that in your crew. Red probably wouldn’t mind if he broke limbs for a living for the rest of his life.

  Valentine, though, had different goals. She wouldn’t always be a common thief like these others. There had to be a way to rise above the madness of the daily grind and live an easier life.

  “Hey,” Blaine said, angling his head toward the back seat to raise his voice against the howl of the wind. “Are we positive we’re done with the plantación back there? I want to be sure before we get too far away from it.”

  “We’re done,” Valentine said. “Unless you enjoy picking over corpses.”

  Everyone back at Lord Wybert’s plantación was now dead. Anything useful had been scavenged. No weapons, no technology, very little gold. There was absolutely no point in returning there.

  “If we don’t go back now,” Blaine said, “we’ll probably lose our chance for good. Someone else will figure out how to get those gates shut, then it’s back to the way it was.”

  Valentine blew out a sigh. “That’s fine. There’s no need to pick through the trash.”

  “Galeno?” Blaine said, eyebrows raised. The little piece of mierda1 was trying to go above her head.

  Galeno flashed a quick look back at her, then he shook his head at Blaine. “No, she’s right. Let’s keep moving. The plantación is dead.”

  When she’d first heard the rumor about the gates opening, she couldn’t believe it. Sneaking into that plantación to rob it had been a dream for years. Since the walls were so tall and the gates only opened randomly to move trucks in or out, there were countless rumors about it. That the weirdo Wybert had hoarded mountains of gold inside. That he had invented new technologies worth fortunes. Who knew how much of that was true, though?

  And then, like a present on a birthday morning, the gates opened one day. Unfortunately, by the time Valentine and her crew had arrived, the king’s army and other scavengers had looted much of the place. It had been maybe three days total since the word spread, but that was all it took. There’s a lot to be said for being prompt and taking advantage of opportunities when they arise.

  “Stop!” Valentine shouted.

  Blaine hit the brakes, making the Jeep skitter in the street. Road dust scattered and then settled.

  “What?” Galeno said, casting a scowl back at Valentine. “Do you see something?”

  Valentine stood up, grabbing the roll bar for support. Her dark red hair swished in the breeze. “I do. Up there.” She pointed at the plane wreckage on the mountainside, and her companions all craned their necks to look at the potential goldmine up above them.

  “Think it’s looted?” Red asked.

  She nodded. “Most definitely. I can see vegetation on the aviónes’ wings. That thing has been there for a long, long time.”

  “Could be squatters living in it,” Red said, practically growling. “They might have food and weapons.”

  Valentine sat back down. “Never mind. It’s not worth the effort.”

  “There’s no way the Jeep can climb that slope, anyway,” Blaine said. He put the car into gear and hit the pedal, and as it started moving, Valentine tracked the plane with her eyes. Something inside her told her not to give up on it so easily.

  A split second later, she saw the most curious thing. Leaning out of the broken end of the fuselage was a teenaged boy, a rifle clutched in his hands. This boy didn’t see Valentine, but Valentine saw him.

  Interesting. So, there were people in the wreckage as Red had suggested, but not the kind he was probably expecting.

  She put it out of her mind for a couple of minutes as they drove along the highway, then that kid’s face reappeared. Like a lingering storm, it wouldn’t go away. He didn’t look like a mountain person, or someone from the local villages.

  There was something different about that kid, peeking at her out of the junked plane. A thought jumped up into her head, screaming for attention.

  What if that teenager had come from Wybert’s plantación?

  “Stop!” she said, again.

  Blaine slammed on the brakes and glowered at Valentine. “You do realize that every time I stop, it’s chewing up the battery, right? If we want to make it to the next town before sunset, we need to stop with these games.”

  Valentine stood and grabbed her pack from the floor, then slipped it over her shoulders.

  “What are you doing?” Galeno asked.

  “Getting out. You’re going to Pinedale, still?”

  Red nodded. “That’s the plan. What in the stars is going on here?”

  “I’ll catch up with you,” Valentine said as she opened the door and slid out.

  Galeno’s mouth dropped open. “Are you loco? You want to get mauled by a bear or a mountain lion or something?”

  “I’ll be fine,” Valentine said.

  “V, don’t do this.”

  She gave his hand a little squeeze. Quick, so the others wouldn’t notice. “Go on, I’ll meet you in Pinedale by the morning. There’s something I have to do alone, and I don’t want you all to waste time if it turns out to be nothing.”

  Galeno’s mouth hung open, breath leaking out.

  “Good day and kind weather,” Valentine said. “I’ll see you soon.”

  Galeno held out his hip bag. “Take it. You might need this.”

  She accepted it and clipped it around her waist, nodding her thanks. Galeno and
Red looked like they wanted to protest more, but Blaine hit the pedal and sped off. Pinche idiota2. Valentine didn’t mind walking for a while, if only to get a break from Blaine. He could grate on her nerves like the screech of a bird.

  They weren’t far from the next town, so a little alone time didn’t bother her at all. Time to think and reflect.

  Plus, Valentine had bigger aspirations than reaching Pinedale on foot. The spark of opportunity gave her the rush she’d been craving since leaving Wybert’s plantación without much to show for it.

  As soon as the Jeep had left her sight, she began a hike up the mountain, back in the direction of the wrecked plane.

  She hiked for ten minutes before she saw the handsome brunette teenager. Except, he wasn’t alone. He had three companions, all around his same age. Another boy, this one muscular and darker than the others, a pretty raven-haired girl who appeared to be the lead teenager’s partner, and a thin and pale girl who had a Frenchie complexion. Her ears were slightly pointy and stuck out from her head, and she had an angular face that was sharp and noticeable. The burly guy had immense ears and a scraggly beard. The pretty girl’s dark eyes were mesmerizing, even at a distance. Quite an interesting mix, these kids. They stood out like tourists.

  Valentine stayed low and out of sight. No sense in revealing herself until she knew more.

  Within a few minutes, she learned all she needed to learn, though. The pretty girl with the long dark hair, the one hanging on the arm of the leader, dug into a backpack. When she did, Valentine got a clear look at a Ramirez A4 BattleSuit she had stashed in there. It fell out, and she stuffed it back into her pack.

  So, they were from the plantación.

  And, if they had Ramirez suits, then they might also have Ramirez Control Chips. The chips were supposedly as extinct as the dodo bird. Valentine hadn’t heard anyone even speak of them in five years or more.

  But, what if they weren’t extinct?

  If they had chips—even one chip—then they were worth more than Valentine had ever seen in her entire life. The suits weren’t worth much, but the last known rate for a single control chip was 100 kilograms of gold. That was enough for Valentine to slip away and live comfortably for a long time.

  She hustled up the side of the mountain, and when she reached the area where she’d expected to find them, they were gone. They’d turned off somewhere onto a side trail and disappeared from sight.

  But, it didn’t matter. Valentine couldn’t hide the smile on her face. All she had to do was find these four, kill them, and then spend the rest of her life in luxury.

  1 Mierda: crap

  2 Idiota: idiot

  Chapter Five

  PINEDALE

  Traveling through the mountains proved slower, but much safer. Yorick led them along paths, up and down expanses of rock slides, and across streams and rivers. Malina still said nothing along the way, but Yorick could tell she felt some gratification for the group accepting her mountain-travel idea. Fine with Yorick. The quietest one in the group deserved a win after everything she’d been through.

  Within twenty-four hours of leaving the mountainside house with its dead journal-writing history professor in the recliner, they spotted a town in the valley below.

  “What do you think?” Rosia asked Yorick as they all pulled even on the trail to study the area.

  “I don’t know what to think,” he said, and that was the honest truth. They had seen tiny villages and encampments since leaving the plantación, but this was the first proper communal living space.

  Makeshift walls surrounded the collection of fifty or sixty buildings that made up the meager town. Not at all similar to the great cities described in some of the books Yorick had read. The walls were shabby, consisting of different materials like wood and stone and sheets of metal. Nothing like the sheer and well-kept walls of Wybert’s plantación.

  And, several entry gates appeared unmanned. Hardly any visible security.

  “Just because the gates are open doesn’t mean they welcome strangers,” Rosia said.

  Yorick sipped from his water bottle and caught his breath. “True, but open gates are better than shut gates. This way, we have a chance. No one knows who we are. There’s no reason to think anything down there would pose a threat to us or put us in…” he trailed off, the word escaping him.

  “Jeopardy?” Rosia asked.

  “Yes. Jeopardy. So what do you say? We need to come to a decision.”

  Yorick looked at his companions for consensus, and they all nodded, if somewhat reluctantly. Malina seemed the most hesitant of all.

  “I think we should keep to the hills and the mountains,” she said. “It’s been working so far.”

  “It has,” Tenney said to her. “But we could find transportation in town. We have things we can trade.”

  Yorick considered this. He didn’t like the idea of letting go of the bounty they’d uncovered at the mountain house, but perhaps trading a box of bullets for reliable transportation down south would be a worthwhile exchange. Walking hundreds of kilometers would take an eternity.

  He turned around and faced the other three. “Let’s vote. If you favor hiking down to the town to barter for transportation, raise your hand.”

  In turn, Yorick, Rosia, and Tenney all raised their hands. Defeated, Malina frowned at them, shaking her head.

  “Sorry, Mal,” Tenney said. “I think this is the best way.”

  “We don’t know what’s down there,” she said. “There might even be some of Wybert’s old guards there, looking for us. We don’t know what happened to all of them.”

  Tenney pulled closer to his girlfriend. “And you know I’ll protect you, no matter what. Plantación guards, the king's soldados1, White Flames… no matter what.”

  Yorick paused, hoping her face would soften, but it did not. Ultimately, he had no choice but to cinch his pack closer and descend the hillside, even without Malina’s consent. The group had voted. Their course was now set.

  An hour later, they reached the bottom of the slope and found the flat land of the valley. Yorick marveled at how much warmer it could be at level elevation, compared to higher up in the mountains. He’d never known a mountain hike before this week. He’d observed the mountains from inside the walls of the plantación, and he’d seen how the snow would linger on the peaks well into the late spring. This made him conclude the higher elevations were cooler, but now he knew it firsthand.

  The number of new things Yorick had learned this week astounded him. His education as a kid and the books he’d read didn’t begin to uncover the entirety of the world’s knowledge. But, he didn’t allow himself to slow down long enough to feel overwhelmed. South. They had to keep pushing south and east, no matter what.

  They hugged the road into the town, approaching the nearest gate. Cars came and went, all different shapes and sizes. Aside from Wybert’s personal vehicles, Yorick was accustomed to seeing transport trucks. But there were dozens, or maybe even hundreds, of other types of cars out there in the world.

  Near the gate, a single armed guard in a booth took notice of them. He left his post and wandered out to meet these four travelers, with the nose of his rifle pointed at them.

  “Hold,” he said in a gruff voice. “Pinedale is not accepting new settlers at this time. The eastern wall expansion is on hold, so you can check again in the fall, but not before then.”

  “We’re not here to settle,” Rosia said.

  “Then state your purpose.”

  “Trade,” Yorick said. “We’re looking for transport south.” Yorick didn’t know if it would be wise to state their exact destination, so he decided to keep his answers as vague as possible.

  The guard looked at their feet, their shoes worn from days of mountain and road hiking. “You’re on foot?”

  “Foot?” Yorick said, puzzling over the expression. “Oh, yes. We don’t have a car.”

  “Why don’t you have a car?” The guard said. “The closest town doesn’
t seem like it’s within walking distance.”

  Rosia pushed forward, stepping in front of Yorick. “We were from a small village in the mountains up north. Scavengers raided our town and destroyed all the vehicles.”

  The guard appeared to mull this over for a few seconds, then he lowered his rifle. “Understood. Staying in Pinedale for even one day makes you responsible for paying taxes, though. Jefe2 makes no exceptions to the rule.”

  “Jefe?” Tenney asked.

  The guard raised an eyebrow at them as if it should have been self-explanatory. “He’s the town boss. He makes the decisions for us.”

  “We can trade food and ammunition,” Yorick said.

  The guard scoffed. “I think you’ll have a hard time finding people willing to trade for that. Pinedale runs on gold.”

  “So, what do we do?” Yorick asked.

  “If you’re looking for transport,” the guard said, shrugging, “you’ll find someone interested in something you have to trade, I suspect. Check the hotel at the far end of Main Street. It’s where you can find most anything you need.”

  He stepped aside, letting the four access the open gate. He did look at them with a raised eyebrow but asked no further questions.

  Yorick and his crew said nothing as they passed. The guard hadn’t exactly answered his question, which was another fact of the real world he would have to adjust to. At the plantación, you could get answers. You always knew where you were supposed to be and what to do when you got there.

  Out here in the real world, you had to figure things out for yourself, apparently.

  Immediately on the other side of the gate, the paved road leading into town ended, and they encountered a dirt road. One main street ran through the middle, with buildings on either side. A few smaller streets were branching off, but the tallest buildings were along this main section. There were a few people about, wandering, going in and out of buildings, but not much general activity. Still quite early in the day. The sun had barely cracked the line of mountains to the east.