Chapter 19
“This place is just as ugly as it was the last time,” I said.
“You noticed the first zone we entered was a little different?” Phil Clayton said.
“Yeah.”
“It’s because you’ve already been through there. The longer we keep doing this, the better it will get.”
“You have more faith in humanity than I do, Phil.”
“People will start being people again when they have the opportunity. You just watch and see.” He grinned.
“Tell me that after we get in there to the trouble spots Collins mentioned. That guy was a pleasant surprise. We may get some diesel out of that one. Spriggs even got the suspension fixed on the guy’s car. Maybe we can give it back to him later. I’d say a car with bulletproof glass would be hard to find. Well, most of the glass, anyway. The driver side window was screwed.”
“What did he get shot with to put that hole in the side?”
“Fifty cal would be my guess.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” he said. “Makes me kind of happy knowing Angie isn’t with us if he got shot at with a fifty somewhere in here.”
“I think he said he was somewhere else when that happened.”
“Still glad she’s back on the Farms.”
“We needed her to finish that list she’s making. Who knew there were so many plants and stuff that can be used as medicines? You could have stayed, too.”
“You guys should have a medic along on these things. Bonus is, I can shoot fairly well, too. So you have an extra gun.”
“True enough. We may need all the guns we can muster if these folks aren’t civil.”
“What did Collins say about these ‘Blues?’”
“He just said he was warned to steer clear of ‘em. I think we’ll be fine. We have two hundred people with automatic weapons.”
“Here we go,” I said as the former City Hall came into view. There were a lot of people in the street, and they all wore the blue uniforms of the Obsidian Police Department, or they had blue armbands.
“OPD?” Phil asked.
“Maybe some of them,” I said. “Some of those guys sure as hell don’t have any sort of training. Hold with the wagons. I’ll go in and get started.”
“Going in by yourself?”
“I’ve got Dagger.”
“He’s a horse.”
“Yep. Just keep your eyes peeled. Gary! Get that fifty ready!” I’d deliberately said that loud enough for everyone to hear.
“Yes, Sir!” I heard him rack the bolt on the belt feed. Even more importantly, the men waiting in the street heard it too.
I rode forward to stop in front of the crowd of Blues. Resting my hands on the pommel of the saddle, I nodded toward them. “I’m pretty sure you know why I’m here, but I’ll go through the spiel if you want me to.”
“I know what the rumors say about you.” One of the Blues stepped forward. “If they’re correct, there shouldn’t be any issues with us. Frankly, I find it hard to believe.”
“Then I’ll go over exactly what we’re offering. Thirty meals apiece for every person in the zone. Each person will have to collect their own meals. Everyone will receive thirty tokens. Each token is good for one of these.”
I reached into my saddlebag, pulled one of the MREs out, and tossed it to the man. “If you come to me with more than thirty tokens, I’m going to assume you took the extras from someone else, and I will shoot you.”
“You’ll shoot them?”
“Absolutely,” I said. “Keep this honest and keep it civil, and we both stay happy.”
“What’s to keep us from just taking it all?”
“I’m glad you asked that,” I said and pointed to the second wagon. “You may get a few of us before Gary can really get to work with that. I’m guessing you know what it is.”
“I do.”
“There’s enough ammo in that wagon to cut a hole right through this zone, building and all. I’d rather give you some food, but we can do it the hard way if you like. Problem with massing enough people to take us is, we have a target rich environment. There may be no way I walk off this street alive, but there’s no way you do, either. So what say we get down to business?”
“I’m listening,” he said with a wry grin. “So what do you get out of this?”
“We run the Farms outside the city. We can always use more hands. I’ll be recruiting as we go. People who are held by other people against their will tend to want to go with us. I, for one, despise slavery. You, being former police, should be much the same. If any of your folks decide to relocate to the Farms, are we going to have issues?”
“Now, if we had any such people, why would we let you take them?”
“If such people were to decide to go with us, they might not need the rations they would be due. Now, those people might decide to give their tokens freely to the warlord of the zone, who could use said tokens to purchase additional MREs. Or perhaps some sacks of flour, or cornmeal. Might be possible to purchase a sack of beans. If said warlord had anything else we might find useful, there may be some more trade done.”
“There weren’t any rumors of trade,” he said.
“It’s a relatively new practice. Actually, this is going to be the testbed for the practice. If we can do business, perhaps we’ll start using a similar paradigm with the rest of the city.”
“I need to confer with my boss.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
The trading was a success. We traded for a whole stack of coats in various sizes, some beautiful jewelry that was basically worthless to anyone else, and sixty pairs of cowboy boots that had been taken from a western wear store right after the Fall.
As far as the other thing, I’d expected better of the OPD than what we found there. We left the Blue zone with a hundred and five new volunteers to join us on the Farms, seventy-eight of whom were women who were more than happy to leave the zone. The warlord, who’d been the city manager of the Philadelphia District, left the table with close to three thousand MREs and five sacks of beans.
I was pretty sure we should have just shot the Blues and gone on. The world would have been a better place without them. My disappointment in my fellow man was becoming a regular thing in this Fallen World.
* * * * *
Chapter 20
There was a smaller zone between the Blues and the Convention Center. We spent a short time there doing our normal food delivery. We also spent a little time trading some items. We had twelve more volunteers join us, and none had been slaves of the others. Once again, I thought about shooting the Blues and giving their zone to the warlord in this zone, named Riley. But we had a lot of people who would’ve been in the crossfire if we’d gone into the Blue Zone with guns blazing.
“Now let’s see what the Genos have done to the place,” I said.
The wagons rolled down the street to stop in front of the main entrance to the Philadelphia Convention Center. Two guards stood at the door. One had pointed ears and a tail protruding from a hole in the back of his pants. The other was closer to the wolfmen who’d been after the kids.
“Why would he want a tail?” I muttered. “That’s got to get in the way all the time.”
I dismounted Dagger and handed the reins to Phil, who sat on the seat of the first wagon.
“Back in a minute,” I said.
As I strode across the street, the one with the pointy ears and tail grinned with some very sharp looking teeth.
“That’s not disturbing at all,” I muttered.
Then I stopped at the edge of the sidewalk. “I’d like to speak to your warlord, if you don’t mind. I have goods to trade and an offer to make.”
“We are aware, Human.”
“Okay, so are we going to talk, or am I just riding on by?”
“Jacobs has tasked me to decide if you’re to be dealt with, or if we’ll just take what we wish.”
“Make your decision quickly,” I said and pulled the long coat back
past the gun on my hip. “I have shit to do.”
“You couldn’t even reach the weapon before I—” He was staring down the barrel of my Colt.
“Now I’m fine with you making your own decisions about whether to deal with me and mine or not. But you’ll find yourself dead very fast if you try to take a damn thing from us.”
Another man stepped out of the main doors. He was big, and his skin was grey. There was a horn jutting from his forehead like a rhinoceros.
“Comic book fan?” I asked.
Pointy ears pointed at the gun in my hand. “That’s not going to do you much good with him.”
“Look at the top of the second wagon,” I said, my gun never wavering. “That’s for him if you want to have this dance. Before he can move, I’ll have a bullet in you and your partner. Then he’s going to be dancing to the tune of a belt-fed fifty caliber with armor-piercing rounds. Now I love a good two-step, but I gotta have the right partner to really enjoy it. What I’d rather do is holster the gun and do some trading. But if you’re set on dancing, let’s do it.”
“And just what do you have to trade?”
“I have thirty MREs for each and every person in the zone. I also have beans, flour, and cornmeal I’ll trade for things you may have that we need. I’m also recruiting for the Farms and would like to invite volunteers to come with us.”
“Humans only, I’m guessing.”
“Not necessarily,” I said. “There are places for any of you who want to join us. Typically, people who decide to join us were being held against their will by those holding the zone. I was quite disappointed with the representatives of our old police force at City Hall. Do you realize they were practicing slavery? Can you imagine that? I left with a hundred and five volunteers. Now, those volunteers decided to give the rations we provided to the warlord as they left to join us. He left the trades with a pretty sizable amount of MREs.”
“He did, did he?”
“Yes he did.”
“I’ll go to Jacobs and tell him I’d trade with you. Perhaps he will overrule my decision and send me back with all our people to take what we wish.”
“Sure thing,” I said. “I’ll be waiting over by the big gun.”
He chuckled and turned to enter the building. He stopped and looked back. “And by the way, the tail does get in the way all the time.”
“Heard that, did you?”
He pointed at his large grey ears and grinned with his sharp-looking teeth.
I nodded and laughed. Then I holstered the .45 and walked back to the wagon.
“That one’s a comic book fan?” Jimmy asked as he walked around the wagon.
“I’d say so,” I said. “Looks just like that guy on the Spiderman comics you have.”
“Rhino,” he said. He tapped his head. “This Jimmy would have already made himself a Spiderman costume by now.”
“Yes, he would have.”
We stood patiently for almost twenty minutes before the guard returned. Behind him was a damned gorilla. Or as close to a gorilla as he could be and still be human.
“I am Grodd!” he said in a deep booming voice. “Tell me why I shouldn’t just take what I want!”
I glanced at the fifty and back at him. “Really?”
“Hell, no,” he said in a much higher voice. “I’m just messing with you. My name’s Eddie. Tate says you guys have some stuff you want to trade?”
“We’re from the Farms outside the city. Been trying to set up trade with the zones inside the city. We’ve got food, and we’re willing to give a certain amount of it to the residents of each zone.”
“That’s not what we usually see here,” he said, waving toward the city around us. “So what’s in it for you?”
“We don’t sit out there and watch the city devour itself. The food is almost gone, and there’s a lot of savagery that follows. We want to keep that from happening. Here’s what we offer. Each person in the zone receives thirty of these.”
I held up the white plastic chip. “Each of these is good for one of these.”
I stepped over to Dagger and pulled an MRE from the saddle bag.
“Now we’re also willing to do some trading for items, if you have anything we could use for additional supplies. This part of the deal is pretty new, so we’ll just have to do our negotiations as that part goes on.”
“So far I don’t see a great deal in it for you.”
“There’s a part of this that most of the zones we go to have a small problem with. We recruit people to return with us to the Farms and help work the land. They’re housed and fed. Most of the zones have been a little hesitant to allow certain people who’ve been held against their will to come out for their rations, since those people inevitably decide to join us. I’ve made an offer to them that seems to allay their reservations. Any who wish to come with us won’t be needing the rations we’re offering, so the zone will get their portion.”
“So, you bought all their slaves.”
“Yep. It was easier than shooting them all and freeing the slaves, which was where things were heading. I abhor the whole idea of slavery, especially in no more time than it’s been since the Fall.”
“So what you’re telling me is that you want us to give up all the slaves we have inside? Or there’s liable to be a lot of violence and such?”
I was beginning to have an inkling that rumors might be wrong about the Genos.
“Yeah, but I have a suspicion you don’t have any.”
He grinned.
“This front you have out here,” I said, pointing at the Rhino, “I think it terrifies the people outside the Center.”
He chuckled. “Come on in and see for yourself. Bring as many guards as you need.”
“I only need one,” I said. “Jimmy, let’s go get a look inside.”
“Okay,” he said, and followed me and Eddie into the front doors of the Convention Center.
The Guynoceros grinned as we walked past him.
The foyer of the Convention Center was pretty big, and there were a number of Genos moving about, but they didn’t send any alarms up for the soldier in me. Several were women, and many had very mild modifications. I even saw two kids who looked to be ten or so, but with Genos, you really couldn’t tell.
“These are some of the folks who help me keep the place running smoothly,” Eddie said. He waved at the woman escorting the two kids. Both kids had modifications that gave them a distinct feline cast to their features.
“Ginger,” he said. “How are these hoodlums?’
“A handful, as normal.” She pulled the kids aside and looked at us suspiciously before continuing past.
“They’re young,” I said.
“They were both born at the same time,” Eddie said. “Damn those doctors and their promises. Some of us got a bad deal from the mods. She was modded with the cat genes five years ago. She got pregnant just before the Fall and had four kids.”
“Four?”
“Most animals have more than one, and she had a whole litter, you might say. I wouldn’t say it to her, though. She’s a little touchy about being referred to as an animal.”
“Are they aging faster than, I hate to even say it, normal kids?”
“That they are. Both of the kids you saw are three years old.”
“I thought they might be.”
“Frankly, I’m surprised at the lack of shock.”
I stopped in the hall. “There’s something I’m going to tell you that you may really get upset about. It’s bothering the shit out of me, and I’m just going to lay it out straight.”
“Well, that sounds ominous,” he said. “By all means, I prefer straight forward.”
“I’ve found it to be the quickest way to dig through a lot of bullshit in this Fallen World.”
* * * * *
Chapter 21
“Honestly, with what you’re offering, I really don’t want there to be any bullshit, Mister…?”
“Pratt, Zebadiah Pratt. Mo
st folks call me Zee.”
“As I said before, my name is Eddie, Eddie Jacobs. So let’s lay it out then.”
“Alright,” I said. “A week and a half back, three girls and a boy showed up on the Farms. Gene modified kids. They were being attacked by three Genos who’d pursued them from the city. These guys were trying to kill those kids, and we made sure they couldn’t. Now here’s the part I have a problem with. They were modded as babies on some island down in the Caribbean. They claimed they were bought by the Genos here.”
“They’re safe?”
I could hear the worry in his voice. I wasn’t sure what to make of it yet.
“Yes, and they’ll stay safe as long as they want to be.”
“Oh, thank God,” he said.
“And now I’m confused again,” I said. “Those kids were bought to be used as breeding stock, according to them. Care to dump out this bag of snakes and straighten them out for me?”
“I can see where you’d have suspicions about us after that. We have to keep up a front, as you saw out there, to keep our people safe inside here. We heard rumors of a man on the coast who’s selling Genos as property. We sent an envoy to take all we could spare and buy as many as he could. He was to bring them back here. There were eight people in our group that went east. One made it back and died after he reached us. He told us of the attack on their group and the abduction of three girls he was able to purchase.”
I sighed. I was pretty good at reading people, but he was different. He could have been lying, but his voice was genuinely distressed.
“What about the Genos who went after them?”
“Greg said the man who sold the girls also had some pretty scary guys working for him. Men crossed with predators. They really made him nervous.”
“They won’t be making anyone nervous again,” I said. I was watching his eyes as I said it for a reaction. I saw relief.
“We’ve been worried about them following Greg. If that sort of Geno made it into this place, we could be done for.”
“Big risk, sending someone out to a place like that.”
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