Emergency Transmission

by Sean McLachlan

  David got back to work as the sheriff pushed the crowd away. In less than a minute, the second barrel had clanked to the ground. He picked up the pieces, plus a large burlap sack full of magazines and ammunition, and headed out of the Burbs. Annette and a small crowd followed.

  He headed for the beach. As he passed through the Burbs, those who followed called out to anyone nearby, telling them what he had done. People asked him why he had destroyed his guns, asked him what he carried in the bag, but he didn’t reply. The crowd grew. Sheriff Cruz tried and failed to disperse them.

  He passed beyond the last shacks and tents and the ground grew sandy. The harsh chemical tang of the sea stung his nostrils. He continued over a row of dunes and down the other side.

  The sea lay before him, the freighter moored in the distance. He paused by the edge of the water and turned to the people who had followed him.

  “People tell me that the people of Weissberg were your friends and neighbors a few months ago. What changed? Just because they moved to a different town they’re now enemies?”

  He waded out into the water. Once he got up to his waist, he tossed the pieces of his Kalashnikovs one by one into the sea. A few in the crowd shouted at him to stop. Then he opened the bag and dumped out the magazines and spare bullets and pistol as well. By the time he had finished and turned around, everyone had grown silent. David waded back to shore.

  “OK, show’s over. Get on back to town, folks,” the sheriff shouted. Slowly the crowd began to move off.

  “Sheriff Cruz!” David called.

  “What?”

  “I need to see The Doctor.”

  “Not sure he’s interested. Haven’t you caused enough trouble?”

  David nodded. “I did and I want to stop it. I’m the one who killed the people in the vehicle.”

  Twenty minutes later, The Doctor was glaring at him in front of the gate to New City, flanked by Clyde, Yu-jin, and several heavily armed guards.

  “So you say you were minding your own business scavenging to the south of here when that Humvee just drove up to you and they started shooting, and you managed to kill them all?”

  “No, they started to rob me and it looked like they would kill me, so I defended myself.”

  The Doctor’s eyes narrowed. “You killed four of Weissberg’s guards. Just like that.”

  “I’m a good fighter.”

  “I believe that, but I don’t believe your story. Why would they bother with you? And how did you have the weaponry to defeat them all? I’m sure they were well armed.”

  “I defeated a bandit, I told you.”

  “Oh right, the bandit story. You leave quite a trail of dead bodies in your wake.”

  David hung his head. “It’s true. I’m trying to change that, but God seems to have other plans.”

  The Doctor snorted. Anger rose in David’s chest like acid but he tamped it down.

  That’s the old reaction, the old you. You have to be better than that.

  David reached into his pocket and pulled out the keys he had taken from the vehicle.

  “Do you recognize these?”

  The Doctor’s and Clyde’s eyes widened.

  “Well, I’ll be damned,” Clyde muttered.

  David smiled sadly. “More likely that will be me, my friend. Let’s stop this foolish fight before it gets any worse. Ask for a parley. I will tell them what happened and in return for peace I will tell them where they can find their vehicle and give them these keys.”

  “It’s not as simple as that,” Clyde said. “They stole that Hummer from us.”

  “You’d lose lives and take lives just for some machine from the Old Times?” David asked. Clyde looked away.

  There was a pause. Everyone looked to the mayor of New City.

  “All right,” he said at last. “They can keep the damn thing if they promise peace and return any prisoners and loot they took.”

  Yu-jin put a hand on her arm. “You did the right thing.”

  The Doctor managed a ghost of a smile. David took a deep breath.

  “I must ask for something in return.”

  The Doctor rolled his eyes. “Imagine my surprise.”

  “It’s not for me, it’s for all of you. I want you to let Reverend Wallace go.”

  “Impossible,” The Doctor said with a curt shake of the head.

  “I’ll get him to apologize and promise never to do it again. I can make him see reason,” David said.

  The Doctor laughed, although there was no real joy in it. “That’s even more impossible.”

  “He has a large following. If you brand him and exile him you will divide your community even more that it is already,” David said.

  The Doctor hesitated, then gave a dismissive wave. “Wallace won’t see reason.”

  “At least let him try,” Yu-jin said. “You saw how Wallace stopped the fight. I think he’s changed.”

  “Then why hasn’t he made another public statement?” The Doctor asked. “He’s been silent since the firefight.”

  “We have enough trouble with the Burbs as it is,” Clyde said. “If Wallace comes around, he can be a big help.”

  Clyde and Yu-jin looked at each other. David got the impression they weren’t accustomed to being on the same side of an argument. The Doctor, however, remained unconvinced.

  “How about this,” David added. “All I ask is that I get to try. If I fail to move his heart, I’ll still go and tell your neighbors what happened.”

  The Doctor shrugged. “If you want to waste your breath, be my guest. But hurry up. Weissberg won’t wait for long before they make their next move.”

  David nodded. “You’re a good man.”

  “We won’t let them take you,” Clyde said. “They get the Hummer back and that’s it.”

  The Head of the Watch glanced at the mayor for confirmation. After a moment he got a nod in response.

  As Clyde went to the tower to get in radio contact with the Weissberg faction, David hurried off the Reverend Wallace’s church, followed by a couple of guards. David wasn’t sure if he was a prisoner or not and decided that it didn’t matter. He had more important things to think about.

  David stopped at the closed door to the church. Should he knock? He’d never knocked at a church door before. The thought felt distasteful. And yet he didn’t really know about churches. Those were things from the Old Times, something he’d seen in faded photographs or heard about from those old enough to remember the last of the city states. He had been praying all his life but did not actually know how to act in a church. Clyde’s men stood a little way off, waiting.

  David tried the door, found it open, and pushed.

  It swung open easily, with only the slightest creak of the well-oiled hinges. Another miracle of this wealthy place.

  Reverend Wallace knelt alone before the altar, his head bowed. He had set a chair next to him and leaned on it so he could keep the weight off his injured leg. David watched him for a moment, standing on the threshold. After a moment the Reverend finished his prayer, unclasped his hands, and painfully pulled himself onto his chair.

  “Why are you here?” he asked. David couldn’t decide whether he sounded afraid or simply confused.

  “Here in the Burbs or here right now?”

  The Reverend didn’t reply. Holding onto the altar railing, he stood up, brushed off his knees, and studied him.

  “May I come in?” David asked.

  Reverend Wallace’s eyes narrowed. “Let’s see if you can come in on your own accord.”

  David stepped across the threshold. “Why did you say that? You afraid I might be a devil? Sometimes I wonder about that too.”

  “Don’t get cute with me, young man. Devils do walk this world in human form. I even had one hiding in my congregation.”

  “You mean that Chinese woman? They’re not devils.”

  The Reverend snorted. “What would you know about the Chinese?”

  David felt pity for this poor sinner. He
had thought his intervening in the fight meant he had seen the error of his ways. Now he could see Wallace had slipped back to his old way of thinking.

  “I’ve met many Chinese in the wildlands,” David said. “There are more out there than people think. There are good ones and bad ones and most of them are somewhere in between.”

  Reverend Wallace glared at him. “Why are you here?”

  “I spoke with The Doctor. I caused the trouble between you and Weissberg. The Weissberg men in the vehicle attacked me. I killed them.”

  “Why would they attack you?”

  “Spite. They saw a lone black man with no one else in sight and decided to have some fun.”

  The Reverend Wallace nodded, his face grim. “A lot of Weissman’s bunch are like that.”

  “I admitted what happened so Weissman doesn’t blame New City. We might be able to stop this fight.”

  David saw hope flash in the older man’s eyes.

  “Thank the Lord!” Reverend Wallace said. “With that damned ship here we need to keep a united front.”

  “I thought you changed your mind about the ship.”

  Wallace shook his head, his mouth a prim line.

  “You just can’t trust the Chinese.”

  You just can’t trust white people. That’s what David’s father always used to say.

  “What did they do to you?” David asked. He already knew, but he wanted to hear him tell it.

  Wallace let out a long sigh. “Killed my whole family. They killed lots of people. They ruined this land.”

  “I’m sorry to hear about your family, but we all ruined this land. We all ruined it together. God gave us a Garden of Eden and we ruined it with our greed. Don’t let your personal grief blind you. We’re all sinners.”

  Wallace shook his head. David went on.

  “I should have come to you sooner. Thank you for stopping the fight.”

  “I wasn’t thinking straight. I said some foolish things. And here I am still under arrest.”

  “You were thinking straight, and you said some wonderful things. And now you’re slipping back into your old ways. I know all about that, trust me. I keep trying to put violence behind me and it keeps dogging my footsteps. I think God is reminding me that my past will catch up with me sooner or later.”

  Wallace studied him. “And what past is that?”

  David almost told him. It would feel good to let it all out, to confess his litany of sins to a man of God, even one who had strayed like Wallace. He found his mouth opening, the words welling to the top of his throat.

  Practicality intervened.

  “We all have pasts, Reverend. And we all need to get over them. Everyone here has suffered, but dragging all that along only brings more suffering. Once again, I’m sorry I didn’t visit you sooner. The tweakers have been keeping me busy.”

  “That was amazing what you did,” Wallace said, hobbling down the steps from the altar. David rushed to help him and Wallace did not reject his help. “How did you do that?”

  “I didn’t do anything. God did it all.”

  Wallace looked at him in amazement. “I’ve been hearing so much about you. Everyone is talking about you.”

  David chuckled. “They’ll be talking more now. I just threw all my guns into the sea.”

  “Why?”

  “We have to stop this war. I asked The Doctor to allow me to speak with you. We made a deal. I’ll confess to killing the Weissberg men if you publically say you’re wrong about the Chinese.”—Wallace drew back, and David felt immediately sorry for the lie—“Wait, no. That’s not the whole truth. I’ll confess even if you don’t do it. I just hope you will. You haven’t said anything since the firefight and people are wondering what’s going on in your heart.”

  Wallace stood there, deep in thought. David tried to be patient. They didn’t have much time.

  “Yu-jin came to see me yesterday,” the Reverend murmured. “I turned her away.”

  “If she comes back will you see her?”

  Wallace looked at his feet. Suddenly he burst into tears. He almost collapsed in David’s arms and David led the wounded man to a pew so he could sit.

  “Send her,” the Reverend Wallace said between sobs.

  David put a hand on his shoulder. “All right. Pray on it, and she’ll come soon enough.” He spotted one of the guards at the door, looking at him impatiently. “I need to go now. I’ll come back as soon as I can.”

  David left the Reverend Wallace alone in his church, slumped on a pew and crying softly to himself.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Roy really, really did not want to go on this peace mission. The Doctor had gotten it into his head that just because he ran the most popular bar in the Burbs, everyone liked him and that he could be useful in the negotiations. What he didn’t see, because he never got out of that damned warehouse, was that a lot of the Weissberg folks didn’t like his kind. And even the good ones were all former citizens and almost never deigned to come out to the Burbs for a drink. He made a lot of deliveries to New City for people who wanted to drink in their snug, safe little houses.

  But the mayor of New City wanted someone close to back him up. He still didn’t trust Clyde, and didn’t want to risk bringing Yu-jin, so that meant Roy had to go.

  Even worse, he brought Hong-gi and an officer from the freighter along. The Doctor figured Weissman wanted to stay in the good graces of the best trading partner to come along in a generation. Sound reasoning, but did he really have to bring a kid into a warzone? Yes he did, because in his mind Hong-gi was expendable and Yu-jin wasn’t. Sound reasoning again, but pretty soulless reasoning too.

  Damn that man.

  Clyde had already made contact with Weissberg and arranged a parley, and Rachel drove them close to the spot in their one remaining Hummer. She had to make three trips to get everyone there, grumbling about the loss of the other Hummer all the way. It seemed like every year their resources got thinner and thinner.

  The meeting place was an area of dead ground between two farms, a small patch that had some mild toxicity. The area was level, with little cover and only some scraggly grass. Neither side could set up an ambush.

  “You’re sure making an impact, brother,” Roy said to David as they waited for the Weissberg delegation.

  “I’m only following God’s will,” the scavenger replied.

  Roy studied him. David looked like a completely different person than the ragged, exhausted, and soul-weary man who had dragged himself into his bar only a week before. Now he stood erect, poised, and looked more at peace than anyone he had ever met. It wasn’t only that he had had a chance to clean up and get a few decent meals in his belly. The man had changed.

  Roy wondered how much of that change was real and how much was a show.

  Whichever it was, David had become the talk of the town. After that scene with the tweakers, Roy’s bar was filled with talk of this guy. In fact, he’d taken some of the focus away from everyone’s troubles. Instead of fear, people now felt a sense of wonder.

  And it was a wonder. When a man or woman gave themselves up to huffing, it was like they had died. Everyone avoided them and acted like they didn’t exist any more. Soon the addict drifted off into the wildlands or along the tainted shore and no one had to see them.

  But David had talked with them, preached to them, even touched them. And now they had followed them here. He wondered what Annette and The Doctor would do about that. So far they were too preoccupied with more important problems.

  Maybe they wouldn’t do anything at all. The tweakers hadn’t caused any trouble, besides stinking and looking bad, and some Burbs residents had even begun giving David food to distribute to them.

  Plus, there hadn’t been any more incidents against the Chinese. That counted as a minor miracle. No one had stirred things up in the Burbs like this in a long, long time.

  They stood in the barren field for nearly an hour. This was one of Weissman’s tricks, keeping peo
ple waiting to show he was in charge. Roy boiled with impatience but kept on that winning smile. Anger was like the flu, it spread. One man stubbornly pretending to be at ease was sometimes all that was needed to keep a tense situation from exploding.

  At last some figures appeared in the distance, spreading out and coming in their direction.

  Roy recognized every one of Weissberg’s guards. Many had been in positions of trust in New City, and now here they were pointing guns at its mayor. Roy shook his head. People never learned.

  The Weissberg men ranged out in a disperse line, guns ready. Weissman strolled up behind them with a casual air, his gold eyeglasses glinting in the sunlight.

  He addressed the ship’s officer first.

  “Lieutenant Jingchen, ni hao.”

  The officer nodded. “Ni hao, Mr. Weissman.”

  Always a suck up to people he wants something from, and always a bastard to people he doesn’t, Roy thought.

  “So,” Weissman said, rubbing his hands together and turning to The Doctor. “I hear you have a trade for me.”

  The Doctor glared at him. Roy could practically hear his blood pressure going up. In fact, he looked a bit unsteady on his feet.

  “We didn’t kill your men. A scavenger did.”

  Weissman turned to David, who was the only person in the crowd who he didn’t know.

  “Hello, I’m Abraham Weissman, although I suppose you already know that. And who might you be?”

  “David.”

  “David?”

  “Just David. I was hiking to the south of New City when your men jumped me.”

  “Jumped you? Why would my men do that?”

  A flicker of anger passed over David’s usually calm features.

  Careful now, brother, Roy thought.

  “They saw a lone black man in the wildlands and saw easy pickings. They were wrong.”

  Roy blinked. For a moment David looked like he was made of cast iron.

  Aw, shit. My first impression was right. This guy is trouble.

  “So you killed them,” Weissman said. He did not look upset.

  “I had no choice. I wish it could have been some other way.”

  One of the Weissberg guards took a step forward. “Earl was my friend, you fucking—”