Farmer's Creed

by Christopher Woods

  * * * * *

  Chapter 26

  “I heard a lot of gunfire,” Faulkner said. “Was that you?”

  “It was,” I said. “The Blues decided they didn’t like the deal I gave them. We lost some good men.”

  “You’re still here,” he said. “Judging by the amount of blood still on you and the bullet holes in your coat, I’m guessing they lost some, too.”

  “They lost everything, Faulkner.”

  “What do you mean, everything?”

  “There are no Blues anymore,” I said. “I have some men coming with a bunch of supplies and weapons. I intend to leave them with you.”

  “Why me?”

  “You’re better than almost everything I’ve run into in this place. With the weapons and supplies I’ll be leaving with you, those yahoos in Lassiter won’t be giving you any trouble. You might even talk to your neighbor to the west. I think he might be interested in joining you. That’s just a thought I had. There’s nothing concrete about that. I’m kind of interested in the real estate he occupies. We’ll see how it goes. Caravans back to the Farms are going to take too much time. We can’t distribute everything fast enough. I think we’ll be setting up a distribution point on the edge of the city.”

  “You must have been busy while you were in there this time. Not long after you went in, a big truck wheeled out of there with a lot of holes in it.”

  “Interesting. Speaking of trucks,” I said, “there are a couple here in your zone that I’m interested in. You care if I take ‘em?’

  “Take any of them you want; there’s no fuel for them.”

  I pointed toward an alley. “That box truck and the other one over there. I’d like that pickup over there as well.”

  “Go for it,” he said. “You’re leaving weapons and supplies with me. It’s the least I can do. But what are you going to fuel them up with?”

  “Billy!” I yelled, and he walked from behind the war wagon, which is what we’d started calling the wagon with the fifty.

  Faulkner took a step back as Billy strode forward. He was still bloody, but he was wearing new pants.

  “Jesus Christ,” Faulkner muttered.

  “What do you need, Sir?”

  “The two box trucks need to be pushed out into the street and fueled up from the barrels.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  “And that Chevy over there. Make sure it’s a diesel. I think it is, but be certain before you fuel it up.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  “You don’t have to ‘sir’ me, Billy.”

  “After what I saw today, I’ll be saying yes, Sir. You’ll just have to deal with it.”

  I grinned. “After seeing what you did in there, I’m not planning on arguing.”

  He returned the grin and strode across the street toward the first box truck.

  “He’s a—” Faulkner started.

  “Yeah, he’s a Guynoceros.”

  “Holy shit,” he muttered. “You brought back some of those Genofrea—”

  “I wouldn’t say that too loudly, Faulkner. They have good hearing, and a lot of them don’t like the name. And I didn’t just bring back some of them. I brought them all back with me. So far they’ve been the best people I’ve found in that cesspit, aside from a couple of folks we met the first time in, and possibly better than any I’ve met so far.”

  He coughed. “Okay.”

  “Tommy! You and Alan help Billy fuel the trucks. Then I want all the wounded on the box trucks that we can fit in them.”

  “Gotcha, Boss,” Alan said, and Tommy nodded.

  “You got any more trucks stashed in here anywhere?” I asked Faulkner. “Diesel trucks?”

  “There’s an ambulance in the next zone to our north. It’s been stripped clean of anything usable, but I think it’s a diesel.”

  I waved at a pair who were just stepping around the war wagon. “Johnson! Coleman! Come here.”

  “Sir?” Coleman asked as he approached.

  “I need you to take about twenty men and go to the next zone to our north. The guy running it is named Olinski. There’s an ambulance up there, and I’d like for you to look at it. Let me know if it’s worth fueling and taking back with us.”

  “Yes, Sir,” he answered, and Johnson nodded.

  The day was fading as the two box trucks, an ambulance, and a nice Chevy dually pickup with one of our wagons hitched behind headed west. Our caravan moved out right behind them, and we made it five miles out of the city before camping.

  I breathed a sigh of relief as I waded into the stream to wash the blood from me and my clothes. Pulling my clothes off in the water, I began wringing the blood from them. I hated the time we spent in the city. It stank of unwashed bodies and feces in most places. And it shouldn’t have. The water was still flowing through the pipes, and someone had been keeping it doing so. I was curious about that, but not enough to go back into Philly and find out.

  It took a while for all the red-tinted water to flow away from me. I’d been covered in blood. Looking back toward the shore, I saw the Geno named Ginger lay a small pile of clothes on the shore and nod to me.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  “Come out, and I’ll bandage your wounds,” she said.

  “I don’t have any clothes on,” I said.

  “I’ve seen it all before,” she said, “and then some. I worked a retirement home for a few years.”

  I chuckled. “I guess you probably have seen it all.”

  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a person with that many scars from gunshot wounds.”

  “Some people don’t seem to like me,” I said.

  “Imagine that,” she said and examined the new wounds.

  There were two that grazed my right arm, one in my left leg, and one through my shoulder. Surprisingly enough, none of them had done excessive damage.

  “These were from today?”

  “Yeah,” I said.

  “They look days old, and the one inside your leg is still in there.” She shook her head. “How is that possible?”

  “I heal fast now,” I said.

  “It’s too late to dig it out of your leg, but I’ll still wrap these before you get dressed. Hopefully the bullet doesn’t do any more harm inside you.”

  “Thank you,” I said.

  “It’s the least I can do for what you’re doing for me and my children.”

  As she walked away, I thought of my worries before we took the caravan into the cities. The ones I’d been the most worried about were the Genos. They’d been the best of them all. Even the clowns had been mostly civil. The Blues had been the ones I’d been least worried about, and they’d been just the opposite. We lost six good men because of them. They should’ve been the best of the zones we’d visited.

  To prevent disappointment, I guess a person should always expect the worst of people in this Fallen World.

  * * * * *

  Chapter 27

  “Didn’t Faulkner say something about a truck full of bullet holes?” Billy asked.

  “Yes he did. And that looks like a truck full of bullet holes.”

  “I’ll go check it out,” he said.

  Billy was over beside the truck before I could say anything. He was probably the best one to do it anyway. He was practically bulletproof.

  “Sir! There’s a note in the driver’s seat!”

  “What’s it say?”

  “Well, it has your name on it.”

  I dismounted Dagger and walked around the truck. Billy held out the folded letter with Z on the outside.

  “Hmm, looks like we have another wounded Agent. Phil took him to the Farms. It does say the tanks on this rig are half full. Why don’t you siphon the fuel into the barrels we emptied?”

  “Really? I just got that nasty taste out of my mouth from yesterday.”

  “Don’t drink it,” I said.

  “Ha, ha…”

  I laughed and returned to the caravan. “Keep moving until the last wagon g
ets here. Then we’ll stop long enough to put the fuel in the barrels. Might be a good time to let everyone out to stretch their legs. Maybe get a bite to eat.”

  “You just ate about an hour ago,” Gary said from the cupola. “How are you hungry?”

  “I’m always hungry. Even more so when I do something stupid, like charge into a building and get shot.”

  “You should dodge,” Jimmy said from the driver seat of the war wagon.

  I looked at Gary, who shrugged. “He’s right. Try not to get shot. You know Pop’s gonna be pissed when he hears about it.’’

  “Maybe you shouldn’t tell him then.”

  “I’m not the one who tells on people.” He was pointing at Jimmy. Jimmy looked back, but Gary was already looking off to the side, trying to look innocent.

  “At the rate they’re healing, I should be okay by the time we get home.”

  “I’d be worried about the one still in your leg,” Gary said.

  “Nothing to be done about that out here. Maybe Doc can cut it out after we get home.”

  “Nanites will probably take care of it,” Jimmy said.

  “What? Will they push it out or something? That sounds uncomfortable.”

  “They’ll break it down and dispose of it through other means.”

  “Other means?”

  “It’ll be cycled through the body as any other waste product.”

  “So basically I’ll have lead in my ass at some point?”

  “Yes.”

  “Pop always told me to get the lead out of my ass.”

  Gary snorted, but Jimmy just looked at me.

  “Never mind,” I muttered

  Jimmy tapped his head. “I recognize the times when I would’ve laughed before. If you want me to, I’ll do so.”

  “No, Jimmy. You don’t need to fake anything for me. I do miss the old you at times. You would have loved this whole thing. You’d be a superhero. Probably be in spandex and everything.”

  Gary chuckled. “I guess there’s a silver lining to it. At least we don’t have to scrounge for spandex in the wreckage.”

  “True enough,” I said.

  “Of course, you could start wearing spandex and a cape now that you’ve started turning into one of the heroes yourself.”

  “Bite your tongue,” I said.

  Gary laughed. “You can put a big ‘Z’ on your chest.”

  I shook my head and turned Dagger toward the back of the caravan. “Let’s go, boy. There seems to be a lot of smart ass up here. Or maybe it’s a lot of dumb ass. Jury’s still out on it.”

  Dagger snorted and tossed his head.

  “He agrees with me,” Gary said with a laugh.

  “Whatever,” I said and rode down the line of wagons.

  Everyone was unloading from the wagons, and I could see many avoiding the group of Genos from the Convention Center. Eddie had left with the wounded, but there was a woman steering everyone from the wagons to a place near a tree where they could be in the shade.

  “Hello there,” she said. “Thanks for sending Eddie with the others. I tried to tell him he needed to go, but he never listens to me. I’m just his damn wife. He’s spent a few years now learning to ignore me.”

  “Eddie said he was married, but I hadn’t gotten the chance to meet you yet. Yvonne, right?”

  “The one and only,” she said.

  “I’m a little surprised you don’t have any of the mods.”

  “Oh, I’m a Geno alright. I used to live down in New Orleans. Loved the ocean. Now I got a handy dandy set of gills, some webbing between my toes and fingers, and probably lost my golden years. Maybe my Silver and Bronze years, too. Who knows?”

  “Damn.”

  “Yeah, it’s harsh, but it’s what we ended up with after the doctors made all their promises. They promised me functional gills and the ability to breathe both fresh and saltwater. Wasn’t long after that the early Genos started dying. Ain’t that a bitch?”

  She shrugged. “Eddie just wanted the strength from a gorilla. He ended up looking a lot more like one than he planned, but he got the strength they promised. If you ever see him without shoes, you’ll see he’s got feet that work a lot like hands.”

  “Guessing that wasn’t what intended,” I said.

  “You’d be right there.”

  “You guys meet in Philly?”

  “We were together before the mods. We each went for what we wanted, and here we are.”

  “Hell of a thing.”

  “We both celebrated when the whole thing was shut down. Now he tells me it never really stopped. He said they’ve been making Genos out of babies. Is that true?”

  “I’m afraid so. We have three girls we took in who are in their teens. They’ve been raised as sex slaves. From about age five they were fully grown, and you can guess what they’ve been through. There’s a boy of twelve that’s close to seven feet tall and has more dog genetics than he should have. They put him in a damned arena. There’s a special place in hell for the people who did that, and I intend to send them there one day.”

  “I’d like to help with that,” she said.

  “Not sure when I’ll get to do it, but it’s going to be done.”

  “Like I said, I’ll be there to help.”

  “Don’t be surprised if I take you up on that one day,” I said. “For now, I’ll be happy to get you folks out to the Farms.”

  “Where we get to work the rest of our lives?”

  “We all work, we all fight. If they hurt one of us, they hurt all of us, and we all respond in kind. That’s what Pop is building out here. We’ve stumbled along the way, and we’ve lost people, but we’re getting there.”

  “I’ll work when I need to, and I’ll fight when I need to. If you’re shooting straight with me, I’ll gladly be a part of that.”

  I nodded. What more could you ask for in this Fallen World?

  * * * * *

  Chapter 28

  “So where’s this Agent they picked up on the road?”

  “Infirmary,” Pop said.

  “You talked to him?” I asked.

  “Yeah. He’s got some connections down in the Gulf. Might get a line on some fuel for the machinery.”

  “That would be nice. We’re going to need it. This is a lot bigger project than I imagined.”

  “Bigger than any of us imagined. How’d the deal with those clowns go?”

  “Not as well as I would have liked. Got all the slaves, but had to pay a heavy price for ‘em.”

  “That’s what Phil was saying. We need an edge. I want to discourage slavery, not encourage it.” He sat down in the rocking chair on the porch.

  “Not many choices left to us out there,” I said. “Pay the price, leave them behind, or have a shootout with close to fifty Agents and over a hundred people imprinted with a psychopath.”

  “Psychopath?”

  “Talk to Doc about the people we brought in. They’ve been treated pretty roughly. I’ve had a few conversations with the folks on the way back, and I have no reservations about the word. They’re psychopaths.”

  “What are we going to do about ‘em?”

  “Honestly, I don’t know. We fight ‘em, we lose. You’ve seen what Jimmy can do. There’s fifty of them. I think, based the reactions of the guy we talked to, Jimmy’s a lot tougher than any of them one on one. But fifty to one?”

  “I see your point,” he said, “but we have to do something.”

  “I have an idea,” I said, “but I need to go out to the dam and talk to Spriggs before I get too far into it.”

  “We need something.”

  “I know,” I said. “Is the next caravan loaded?”

  “Yep. Thank God for all those horses Eric told us about when he showed up.”

  “At least we didn’t have to use that damn pony to breed the mares.”

  “No doubt.” He laughed. “Three horse ranches close enough to get to fairly quickly. Eric’s worked several out west of us, too. I sent him
out with Grady and twenty others to check those. Hopefully they come back riding new stock.”

  “Nice,” I said. “I don’t know why we didn’t think of it earlier.”

  “Had a lot of other things on our minds,” he answered. “Didn’t take long to see the worth in scouting the ranches.”

  “True. Gary took a lot of satisfaction in tearing down that contraption you made out by the barn.”

  “I don’t know why he was so happy to help tear it down when he refused to help build it.”

  “Probably because you tried to get him to ‘milk’ the pony.”

  “We needed more horses.”

  I laughed. “We got more without creating any more rainbow-haired ponies.”

  “I noticed someone dyed Wandrey again,” he said. “All the things we lost when the world fell, and they’re still finding hair dye.”

  “I know, right? Traded two MREs for five cases of dye in one of the zones. Thought they might be running low.”

  “You’re shittin’ me aren’t you?”

  “It was a family, and they didn’t have anything else to trade.”

  “Thought you wanted to set it all on fire,” he said.

  “I guess I only want to burn pieces of it now.”

  “Then you’re going to be alright.” He said it as a statement, and I could hear the relief in his voice.

  “Yeah, Pop. I’ll be alright.”

  “The trading you started up on this run will be a good thing, but it’ll go through supplies faster.”

  “We can use some of the stuff they still have inside the city,” I said, “and I think we can take more sacks of beans, flour, and meal this time. They’re happy to see the MREs, but the flour is what they really wanted. Bread is hard to come by.”

  “I had Kalet changing the loadout as soon as you got back. Gary already talked to me about it.”

  “He’s a good kid turning into a hell of a man, Pop.”