Farmer's Creed

by Christopher Woods

  “I don’t need your condolences. I needed the Guard. You refused to let them go with me.”

  “We can’t mobilize the whole Guard for a single person, Kendrick.”

  “We can, and from this moment forward, we will.”

  “You don’t have the authority to…” Oslo Trip started.

  “I have the support of over a hundred of the Farmer’s Guard.”

  “What?” Trip asked.

  “As of this moment, the Council is dissolved.” Kendrick pointed at them. “You sat here and let them run away with a member of this Council, his daughter, and the kids under their care.”

  “We couldn’t…” Hollis began.

  “You don’t get to make those decisions anymore.” Pop looked a great deal like Zee at that moment, and Gary saw the faces of several councilors pale. A couple smiled. Sampson Chaney and Simon Freyr both looked quite happy with the whole situation.

  “It was decided to create this Council so our democracy could survive,” Hollis said.

  “And the first opportunity you had to show our people they’d be protected, you failed.” Pop pointed again at Hollis. “I set this Council up because I felt it was necessary, so the fault is my own. I’m here to rectify that situation. Your services are no longer needed. I’ll be taking the position of Steadholder. You’ll be contacted when I put my Board of Advisors together. Advisors will be elected, and their job is to do exactly that. Advise. Final say will be mine. Our mandate is simple. If you attack one of us, you attack all of us. If you have a problem with it, feel free to leave. We’ll provide you with a weapon, ammunition, and a month’s supply of rations.”

  “You can’t do this, Kendrick Pratt!” Hollis spluttered.

  Simon Freyr stood up with a grin. “Looks like he just did.”

  Sampson Chaney stood, too, and nodded to Kendrick.

  Both men turned and walked away from the table that had been set up for the Council.

  Hollis sneered, “You don’t have all of the Guard.”

  “I have enough.”

  “There are still two hundred more Farmer’s Guards.”

  “Try and turn them against me, and I’ll kill you, Drager. You’re done. Keep talking, and I’ll provide your month’s provisions.”

  Pop turned to walk out of the Council Hall. Gary saw Hollis’ hand reaching for the rifle leaning behind him.

  Pop stopped. “You’ve got kids, Drager. Don’t make me orphan them.”

  Gary’s hand was on the pistol at his side.

  Hollis Drager stopped with his hand inches from the gun. Pop hadn’t even been looking toward the councilors.

  Pop continued out the door. Gary and Grady stood staring at the remaining four councilors. Hollis Drager looked into the cold eyes of the young man beside the door and shivered.

  You have to choose your battles carefully in this Fallen World.

  * * * * *

  Chapter 3

  I opened my eyes.

  “Shit,” I muttered. I hadn’t planned on that.

  Raising my arm to rub my face was easier than it should have been. I knew I’d taken a shot to that shoulder. It hurt some, but I’d been shot often enough to know what it should feel like.

  “Must have been asleep a long time,” I muttered.

  Deli walked in the door to the room I was in. She took a deep breath as she saw I was awake. Then a look of sadness crossed her face.

  “I’m so sorry, Zee,” she said as she crossed the room to take my left hand.

  “Pop? Jimmy?”

  “They’re both fine,” she said. “Pop just rode in yesterday. He went straight to the Council and disbanded it. I just got back from the power plant. I wasn’t here when you needed my blood.”

  She looked down with shame. “You gave your blood to save me, and I couldn’t repay you when the time came.”

  “No shame in that,” I said.

  “But there’s no telling what his blood is doing to you,” she said.

  “Whose blood?”

  “They didn’t tell you?”

  “I just woke up a few seconds before you walked in.”

  “They used Jimmy’s blood,” she said.

  “That might explain a few things,” I said. “Like why I woke up at all. Sure wasn’t planning on that. And how my shoulder feels like it’s been healing a couple of weeks instead of… How long have I been here?”

  “Four days.”

  I shook my head. “Could be why I’m starving, too.”

  “Let me go get you something to eat,” she said. “Jimmy said you’d wake hungry. Something about fueling nanites.”

  “He was right,” I said. “Can you find Jimmy for me?”

  “I will.”

  “Thanks, Deli.”

  She nodded and slipped back out the door.

  I heard snoring from the other recovery room. That would be Pete. Neave always said he was the loudest…

  She’d never get to say things like that again. I closed my eyes, wanting to scream. I wanted to kill them, but we’d already done that. I’d been shot enough times I knew I was done for, and then I woke up here.

  How the hell had I gotten here? With that many bullet holes, there seemed to be no way I could have made that two-and-a-half-day trip.

  * * *

  The door opened, and Pop was there. He didn’t say a word about her. He just took a seat beside the bed and laid his hand on my left shoulder.

  “Thought I’d lost you, boy.”

  “Don’t rightly understand how I’m laying here, Pop.”

  “We duct taped you up as best we could, then Jimmy picked you up and took off running.”

  “He ran all the way back here? Carrying me?”

  “He ran most of the way. Caught up with the others, and Gee pulled you up on that crazy horse of yours. He ran the rest of the way. That horse would run himself to death for you, boy.”

  “He’s loyal.”

  “He’s a lot like his rider.”

  I shrugged as best I could, which was a lot better than I should have been able to do in the short time since I’d been shot in my right shoulder.

  Pop’s eyebrow raised as he noticed the same thing.

  “Whatever they put in his blood is healing you up fast, son.”

  “I know,” I said. “I’ll be up and about in a few days. But damn, I’m hungry.”

  “Maybe you should talk to Jimmy about what to expect from the nanites.”

  “I asked him,” I said. “He doesn’t know any more than we do, and he said they should’ve killed me. Maybe our genes were close enough for them to accept me as a host.”

  “I’m glad they worked. I came home thinking they’d cost me my boy, too. Was ready to kill every damn one of them. They took the disbanding pretty rough—at least some of them did. Drager and Trip were the worst. I expect either one of them to draw a gun on me at any moment, and I’ll have to kill them.”

  “May be best to send them on their way,” I said. “I’m going to have words with them soon enough.”

  “Boy, I’ve done what needs to be done. You need to leave it be.”

  “She’s dead, Pop.”

  “I know she is, son.” Pop stood up from the chair he’d been sitting in. “They were afraid. If you must blame someone, I put them there thinking we could grasp what little was left of a Democracy. I gave them that power, and I took it away when we got back. I should have taken it before I left. I didn’t understand what that monstrosity to our east had become. I’ll regret that for the rest of my days. Now I plan to fix it.”

  “Burn it.”

  “Son, I know what you’re feeling right now, but there are still some good people in that place.”

  “Not so sure about that,” I said.

  “I am,” he said. “I spent a day and a half with some of them. I’ve set up something that might help us with what we need to do there.”

  I just stared at him.

  “I know,” he said. “Probably not interested in helping th
em.”

  “I’m not.” All I could think of was the bloodstain that had grown across her chest just before she’d fallen into my arms.

  “You’re the only person I can talk to about it, though,” he said.

  “She said she was sorry, Pop.”

  “What?”

  “The last thing she said to me was she was sorry. Why was she sorry? I was the one who was too late. She did everything I taught her to do. She killed four bandits that I know of. She did her part, Pop. I’m the one who failed.”

  “Failed?” he asked. “You didn’t fail, son. They released the prisoners and ran when they saw you coming. She didn’t fail. She defended those kids like a mother bear. That bullet hit her through sheer chance and bad luck. She stopped to usher the children behind the car. The only thing that could have changed what happened was if she’d jumped behind the car before the kids. Then one of the kids would have been carried back instead.”

  “But…”

  “But nothing! I loved that girl like she was one of my own. She was my daughter. We killed every last one of the bastards who were responsible for what happened out there. We left their bodies hanging from the damn light poles all through his damn zone. That’s what I did after you were carried out of there. I left them as a message. ‘Don’t come to my house! Don’t hurt my people! Don’t fuck with the Farmers!’ That’s my rule from this day forward.”

  I nodded. I don’t think I’d ever been as proud to be a Pratt as I was at that moment.

  Sometimes fear is the biggest weapon in a person’s arsenal, and it can be a powerful thing in this Fallen World.

  * * * * *

  Chapter 4

  “I’m hungry,” I said. “Why am I hungry? I ate less than an hour ago.”

  I reached into the saddlebags and pulled out another MRE.

  “At this rate, I’m going to need all of them for myself. What the hell? Shouldn’t the damn nanites be through by now?”

  Jimmy shrugged. “They should have killed you.”

  Dagger snorted.

  “You just keep your opinions to yourself, horse.”

  He snorted again.

  “Smart ass.”

  “You should be nice to him,” Gary said from behind me, riding Kennedy. “He sure was happy to see you this morning.”

  “I’m just glad Doc gave in and let me ride. I was going stir crazy.”

  “Yeah, Pop said you needed to go to the dam today. Said you were talking about some things.”

  “Maybe.” I shrugged. “Nothing too serious.”

  “You threatened to kill a few council members.”

  “Just a couple. Nobody’s going to miss a couple.”

  “And we’re riding to the dam, freezing our asses off.” He pulled the coat tighter around himself. “You’re not supposed to tell people things like that. Keep that sort of thing to yourself. Then we have a quiet evening in the heated farmhouse, not wind up traipsing through the freezing woods.”

  “I understand why I’m here, Gee.” I turned back in my saddle to look at him. “Why are you being sent?”

  “That doesn’t matter,” he returned.

  “I heard something about a fight out by the Guard barracks.”

  “Who told you about that?”

  “I did,” Jimmy said.

  “Shit!” he said. “I can’t really take issue with him for it. He might decide to break me in half.”

  “True enough,” I said. “I guess it was better that you did it. I’d have just shot him. Might still do it.”

  “And I think that’s why Jimmy was sent with us,” Gary said. “If either of us decides to go back and do bodily harm to Hollis Drager, he’s supposed to stop us.”

  “In your case, it would be more bodily harm. I guess it was pretty satisfying.”

  “It was. I put my fist right into his self-righteous face.” Gary looked a lot more vicious than he had while riding in the back of a truck with me after I’d killed twelve raiders. Then he’d looked scared. Now, he looked more like he’d have done the deed himself.

  “He deserved it, and he deserves much more,” I said. “I don’t see a trip to the dam changing how I feel about that.”

  “Maybe he just wants to keep us away long enough to do it himself.”

  “He’s not that mean,” I said.

  “He’s plenty mean enough,” Gary said. “He was so close to just shooting the whole damn Council when he came back. And after what I saw in the city, I firmly believe he could have.”

  “I’ve known how tough he is for years.”

  “I see where you got it now.”

  “I’m nowhere near Pop.”

  Gary shook his head. “That’s bullshit. I saw what you did in that street. We all did. Pop said he’d never seen anything like it.”

  “Hmph.”

  I saw light ahead. “Looks like we’re here. Let’s tend the horses and get inside.”

  Gary slapped his gloved hands together. “Maybe I’ll be able to feel my fingers again.”

  We both looked at Jimmy, who wore a light jacket.

  “Agents get cold, don’t they?” Gary asked.

  “Yes,” Jimmy said in his normal, emotionless voice. “I prefer to have the freedom of movement.”

  Gary just shook his head.

  “Come on, boy.” I nudged Dagger’s ribs, and he sped up to a low canter. “If Gee wants to figure Jimmy out, he’ll be a long time at it.”

  The horse snorted.

  “Yeah, me too,” I said.

  “Does he always talk to his horse?” I heard Gary’s question as I got to the edge of the trees.

  I glanced back. It seemed like a long distance to have heard the boy so clearly. Turning my head back toward the front, I clearly heard Jimmy respond.

  “The horse always answers.”

  I thought, just for a second, that he’d told a joke. But he hadn’t. He was completely serious and probably right. My little brother would have loved all of this, and I missed him. If I could destroy Obsidian, I would, for what they did to my brother. But they were already gone, and all I could do was watch their handywork as my brother tried to be what his memories said he had been.

  There are times I envy his lack of emotion. Times her face hovers just past my awareness. Times I see her in everything around me. But I have them, and I hold them inside to keep the others from knowing what I long to do. I want to burn it all.

  Pop wanted to try to save the city. I wanted it to burn. My guess was that me out here at the dam, freezing my ass off, was his plan to keep me from going the other direction.

  I jumped off Dagger to open the door and tripped, as I landed a little further from him than I’d planned.

  He snorted.

  “Laugh it up, Chuckles,” I said as I caught my balance and opened the door to the barn we’d built beside the power plant.

  “Looks a little funny with the concrete right next to hand-hewn logs,” I said as Dagger followed me inside and back to the furthest stall.

  I took his saddle off and hung it on the wooden horse that was made for it. Turning around, I saw someone enter the door.

  As I saw what she carried, I knew why I was out here.

  “You wily old bastard,” I muttered as I looked into the eyes of the one piece I had left of Neave in this Fallen World.

  * * * * *

  Chapter 5

  “Not sure if this is the best move, but you’re the boss,” I said, looking toward the east. “We start this, and they’ll know we’re out here.”

  “If we don’t, the rest of them starve or come out after us anyway,” Pop said. “I know you don’t want to help them.”

  “They murdered…”

  “They didn’t.” His voice was hard. “The ones who murdered my daughter are dead.”

  My eye was twitching as I looked back toward the city in the distance.

  “We have to do this now, or we won’t get the chance to do it at all.” Pop turned to the line of wagons. “If we wait, the
y’ll come out of that city. There are thousands of folks still in there. They’ll be like a swarm of locusts. Then we all die.”

  “We can feed some of them,” I said. “There’s no way we can feed them all if we have to fight our way into the city.”

  “That’s why we’re starting on the edge, where we’ve already been. They saw what happened, and they won’t interfere with us. They know what we can do to them.”

  I looked at the city growing closer. “And if they interfere anyway?”

  “Then they die, and we move on to the next zone.”

  I almost wanted them to try to hit us. I knew in my soul he was right. If we left the city to its own devices, they’d overrun the farms as they fled. Part of me welcomed the chance to do what I’d excelled at in the wars. Pop had almost done me in by sending me to Ally. She needed me now that her mother was gone.

  “Have you eaten yet?” Pop asked.

  “Been about an hour and a half.”

  “Use one of the damn MREs.” He pulled one from his pack. “Keep hoping the damn nanites will slow down.”

  “They’re doing something to me, Pop,” I said. “Doc says I weigh fifty pounds more than I did before, and I’m not getting bigger.”

  “I know.” He looked over at me with a worried expression.

  “Doc doesn’t have a clue what they’re doing.”

  “They need fed as long as they’re doing…whatever they’re doing,” Pop said. “The rate you’re eating, we may not have any left in the wagons by the time we get to the city.”

  “I think even I’d have trouble eating close to a hundred thousand MREs, Pop.”

  I wolfed down the food.

  “Sure about that?”

  I looked at the empty package and shrugged.

  He chuckled. “I bet the horse isn’t all that happy you’re gaining weight. Gonna be a lot harder to carry you around. We had to use the draft horse for Jimmy. He’s too hard on them if they carry him any distance. Better to put him on a wagon.”

  “At least he’s a big horse,” I said. “He can carry the weight.”