The Fire and the Free City

by Eric Wood

  "These photographs were taken days ago by my agents outside of Cheyenne. Needless to say, the story they tell is alarming."

  Most of the pictures were taken from a distance and showed the kind of destruction that Roach was intimately familiar with. Burning buildings, smoking wreckage, dead bodies. In her former life as a Ravager, she had taken part in countless raids and sacks. Her band had destroyed caravans, razed settlements, and looted smaller Survivor's Colonies. Once upon a time, it had been her absolute favorite thing in the world. She reveled in mayhem and destruction, exulted in killing her enemies. Now, seeing the aftermath of a sack that less than a month ago she would have literally killed to take part in, she felt vaguely sick to her stomach. She had not been fully convinced until that moment that she had truly become a different person. Now, she knew. The old Roach wouldn't feel like this, which meant she was no longer that Roach. No longer Roach the Ravager.

  Then again, maybe it was the sheer scale of it that turned her stomach. Even at the height of Deacon's ambition, their band had never taken a settlement as large as the one she saw now. In fact, the only settlement of this scale she had seen was the one she found herself in now.

  "They've taken The Springs, Douglas," Ki said. "In the twenty years since the outbreak, the Free Cities have been the one thing standing between humanity and the Infected. In twenty years they have always stood strong. Now, just like that, our southernmost sister city has been razed to the ground. From what I've been told, the majority of its citizens have either been killed by the invaders, or they have contracted the Horsemen and gone viral. That is why I called you to this meeting, why I expose myself to your soldiers, and why I offer to treat with you. We face a danger, Lawbringer, a danger the likes of which we haven't seen in years. If we want this city to survive, we need to face it together. We need to declare a peace."

  Roosevelt sat, rubbing his chin with one hand, watching the images as they cycled by. A picture of an enormous wall with two wide, blackened breaches ripped clean through. Old World buildings belching smoke and flames from their broken-out windows, the charred remnants of new construction strewn all around. Dead bodies littered the streets, slumped over hastily built barricades and strewn alongside scrap metal and burnt wood.

  He looked genuinely disturbed, but only for a few brief moments. He shook his head as if trying to wake himself from a spell of sleep or daze, and he straightened in his chair.

  "Even if these pictures are real," he began, "and I wouldn't put it past you to fabricate something like this, Ki — I don't see what this has to do with us. With this city. I already keep Cheyenne safe from the rest of the Wilds — by myself, as you all know — and I don't see anything here to excite alarm. If those idjits down in Colorado Springs can't take care of their own walls, that's their problem."

  "It doesn't look like they'll have to worry about it anymore," Jacinta said solemnly. "Doesn't look like they'll be worrying about anything anymore."

  The room fell to silence for a while after that.

  "Despite the barbarity of these events," Madame Ki finally said, "I would be inclined to agree with you, Roosevelt. Unfortunately, the trouble that befell The Springs will soon be at our doorstep."

  She nodded to her giant, and the images changed to a new sequence. The first was a mass of people and vehicles, stretching for what seemed to Roach's eye to be miles. And they weren't just any people. Roach knew the look of this army immediately: they were Ravagers.

  "The Springs was destroyed by the largest Infected army we have seen in over a decade," Ki said. Her voice was calm, as if she were reading off a grocery list. "This army is now heading north, directly toward us. You asked me, Lawbringer Roosevelt, why I brought these two, these 'thieves' as you call them, to our meeting. I brought them because of who is leading this army. I brought them because this pair has unique experience dealing with the 'Ravager King', as he is being called."

  The image changed, and Roach's stomach seemed to drop out of her body even before she realized who she was looking at.

  No, it's impossible, she thought, her blood turning to ice. This new image showed a small group of people in elaborate black-iron armor, with red-painted faces under feather-plumed helmets. In their center, one figure towered over the rest.

  "These two have dealt directly with this 'Deacon,' and from what my sources tell me, they’ve already killed him once before."

  26

  It wasn't possible.

  Sam looked away from the image of the Ravager that had killed Vincente, that had almost killed him. The same Ravager that he’d watched die, the body lying in the muck, a bullet in its head. Sam looked back, disbelieving, but the image was unchanged. There was no doubt in his mind — the figure at the head of that legion of Ravagers was Deacon.

  "I may — may — accept that this Ravager army isn't some sort of clever fiction cooked up by your agents," Roosevelt said, "but you can't possibly expect me to believe that these two, these children, defeated a Ravager King. And correct me if I'm wrong, but this particular Ravager looks very much alive."

  "These children, as you insist on referring to them, are more resourceful than they might appear. They had little problem stealing from you, did they not?" Ki asked. Sam squirmed in his seat: he really wished she would stop bringing that up.

  "And you expect me to believe they weren't working for you?" Roosevelt barked, his face beginning to redden. "You expect me to believe they aren't still working for you? I must say, Ki, that as far as your schemes go, this one is proving to be quite weak. Some doctored pictures, some outside agents? Why don't you just tell me what your game is? You already stole my half of the access codes, after all. Your little thieves saw to that. I'm failing to see why I shouldn't demand their lives in payment right here and now."

  Things seem to be taking a turn for the worse, Sam thought. He glanced around casually, looking for the nearest exit, just in case. He then glanced over at Abigail: he'd expected her to be braced for a fight, but she was still staring transfixed at the image of Deacon and his army, her mouth slightly open and her face even paler than normal. She looked like she had seen a ghost, which was understandable, as Deacon should by all accounts be dead: but, Abigail wasn't one to be scared. Like, ever. Deacon might scare Sam, and an undead Deacon even moreso, but there was no reason why he would scare unstoppable, implacable Abby. There was something more that Sam wasn't seeing.

  "Ahh, yes, the codes," Ki said, distracting Sam from his thoughts. "That's what I was brought, of course. Not a data drive containing a suite of computer viruses designed to destroy my security networks." She shook her head with a quick laugh. "How stupid do you think I am, Douglas? Did you really think I would just blindly plug that drive into my system without running my own tests?"

  Roosevelt flashed a furious glance in Sam's direction before composing himself. He might suspect Sam's immediate betrayal of him, but he couldn't accuse him here without admitting his plot.

  "You're not the only one with computer experts, Roosevelt," Ki said. "Though I admit none of mine are quite as talented as your young prodigy. If I didn't suspect your treachery, Lawbringer, I wouldn't be respecting you. And if I really thought reacquiring those access codes would be so easy, I would have done it years ago, and with more capable agents."

  "So you do admit it, then?" Roosevelt said. He pounded a meaty fist down on the table in front of him, sending it shaking. "I knew it." He pointed to the shop owners and saloonists and bakers. "You all witnessed her admitting to —"

  "Roosevelt, please," Ki said, her voice raising slightly, her tone losing just a hint of its relaxed, melodic timbre. "We can sit here and accuse one another of crimes all day long, but that will do nothing to solve our impending problems."

  "Problems you say we have. Threats only you have evidence of, threats that arise with amazingly convenient timing, considering your recent failures."

  "I assure you all the images I show you today are quite real," Ki said. "I wish they were not, b
ut they are. I realize you have no reason to trust me, so I offer you proof. I have brought with me copies of this intelligence. You can have your own experts verify its truth."

  "Bah," Roosevelt said, waving a dismissive hand Ki's way. "Anything can be falsified, given enough time."

  "Time is precisely what we do not have," Ki said. "But, take all the time you need. Your people, or should I say your young Marcus, will certainly discover any falsifications my own experts might have cooked up."

  The citizens nodded in agreement with Ki, whispering among themselves. Abigail, still looking frightened, was staring at her hands now, shaking her head slowly, mumbling something to herself. If Sam strained his ears, he could almost make out the words she was repeating.

  "It never ends. It never ends."

  He nudged her with his shoulder. "Are you okay?" he asked.

  She straightened in her chair. "I'm fine," she said. The unmistakable edge in her voice told him otherwise.

  "Alright, Ki," Roosevelt said. "We'll look over your data, and we’ll see if there is any truth to what you say. Now, I can't imagine you brought us all together just to show us some pictures. You have some sort of plan to present, I presume? Why don't you stop keeping us in suspense and lay it all out? I know I for one am ready to have a good laugh."

  "It's quite simple, Lawbringer. We need your soldiers as well as my agents. We need the combined force of the city's inhabitants working to shore up defenses. And yes, we need to access Warren Air Force Base. As much as we would like to defeat one another, neither of us wishes this city to be destroyed. If we do nothing, that is exactly what will happen."

  "So it’s peace, then?" Roosevelt asked. "That's it? That's all you want. Peace, and my codes. Why don't you just ask me to draw my sword and stab myself through the heart, while you’re at it? You demand things that can only benefit you and doom the good, upstanding people of this city."

  "Dammit, Douglass, be reasonable!" Ki said, finally raising her voice. "Can't you see through your own paranoia for a single moment and understand what we are facing?"

  "Fine," Roosevelt said. "Give me your passwords for Warren's operating systems. I already look to the defense of this city, it’s high time I had access to the Old World drones."

  "You know I can't do that," Ki said, rubbing her temples with her thumbs. "Not any more than I could expect you to —"

  "Then what are we talking about?" Roosevelt snarled. "You ask me to lay down my arms, you want me to give you the drones, and on top of everything else, you parade these two thieves in front of me as a personal insult."

  "I am the only one of us acting like an adult!" Ki shot back.

  "You are the only one of us acting like a schemer!"

  "A schemer? What, because I care about this city? Because I want to use every tool at our disposal —"

  "My forces are not your tools! I should have crushed you long ago —"

  Jacinta stood up abruptly, knocking her chair over behind her. She raised the glass of beer she’d been nursing up in front of her and slammed it down on the table, shattering it and spraying foamy liquid everywhere.

  "That's enough!" she shouted. Surprisingly, her outburst did quiet both Ki and Roosevelt. Ki looked at her with shocked surprise and Roosevelt with barely contained rage. "It really is amazing, sometimes, listening to the two of you bitch at each other."

  "Watch it, Jacinta," Roosevelt growled.

  "I've been watching it. I've been watching you two carve up this city, your people killing each other and catching innocents in the crossfire, for years now. But I still came to this meeting — hell, I hosted the damn meeting, giving up prime revenue to do so — because this is important. Do you two really think all of these people," — she gestured to the rest of the townspeople seated at her table — "would have come here if I didn't call in a half-dozen favors? They thought any meeting like this would likely end in a firefight, and I'm still not sure they were wrong. So you, Lawbringer, and you, Madame, can be quiet for one damned second and let someone else talk."

  Roosevelt grunted and shook his head, but he seemed content to let Jacinta speak.

  "By all means, Jacinta," Ki said, "you have the floor."

  "Well...alright then," Jacinta said. She seemed to be expecting further protests. "The way I see it, we're staring down the barrel of a gun. All of us, the whole city. Ki might be right in that we need to face this threat together. But Roosevelt is also right: our good Madame hasn't exactly got a sterling reputation for dealing honest. Now, when did these Ravagers hit The Springs, Ki?"

  "Yesterday."

  "Yesterday. Okay. So we still have time. There's a lot of ground between here and there, not to mention the Denver blight lands and the Free City at Boulder."

  "Boulder will be a speed bump for a force that size," one of the townspeople said.

  "Speed bump's better than nothing, as far as our chances go," Jacinta said. "Not that we shouldn't warn them of course, they need to know. But it doesn't change the fact that those poor souls' misfortune of geography is our boon. Lawbringer, you don't trust Ki, and Ki, you don't trust the Lawbringer. But you both know I'm not working for the other, because you've both tried to buy me for going on ten years."

  Jacinta put up a hand to stop Roosevelt from interrupting. Sam was shocked to see that the gesture worked. "Here is what I propose," she continued. "You both cease all hostilities for the time being, so everyone can check out Ki's info and verify the truth of it. I will, in my near-infinite graciousness, volunteer as a neutral third party, a go-between in this...trying time. Once we settle the facts we can talk about Warren and the drones."

  Having presented her offer, Jacinta leaned forward, bracing herself on the table with both arms as she looked back and forth between Ki and Roosevelt. "Now," she said, after taking a deep, slow breath, "what do you two illustrious leaders say? Can we please, at least for today, come to some sort of understanding that doesn't involve bullets flying back and forth?"

  The room was silent for a while as both Ki and Roosevelt considered Jacinta's words.

  Ki smoothed her sleeves and nodded. "I agree to your terms, Jacinta," she said. She looked expectantly across the tables toward Roosevelt.

  "What about the thieves?" Roosevelt asked. "I demand justice."

  "Always the Lawbringer," Ki said ruefully. "Very well. As a gesture of good faith, I will exile them from the city. Unless you would rather —"

  "No." The word was past Sam's lips before he could think better of it. Suddenly all eyes in the room were on him. He felt Abigail pinch his side beneath the table.

  "What are you doing?" she hissed. "This is our way out."

  He knew she was right. There was no reason why he shouldn't abandon this city, why he shouldn't just get the hell away from all of this right now. But he knew that he couldn't leave. Deacon was alive, and he was coming here. Deacon had killed Vincente, and he hadn't even had the decency to stay dead himself.

  That was Sam's fault; he had somehow left the monster alive. Sam had let him escape justice for his crimes, and he couldn't live with that. If Deacon was going to attack this city, well, then Sam would stay and fight for it.

  "You need us," he said, trying to convey a certainty of purpose he in no way felt. "As you said, we know this Deacon. We fought him once, and we won. Somehow, he got away, but I promise you I won't let that happen again."

  "Well," Jacinta said, "if they're staying, what the hell are we going to do with them?"

  Roosevelt and Ki both looked at her like they expected something.

  "Oh, come on," Jacinta said. "Like I don’t have enough on my plate already."

  27

  "The two of you aren't going to cause me trouble, are you?"

  Jacinta stood with her hands on her hips looking over Sam and Abigail, her eyes narrowed and her lips pursed, like she was appraising a troublesome piece of livestock after having already bought it.

  The barkeeper apparently lived on a farm. The canvas overalls and the b
lue bandanna binding her loosely tied black hair gave her the look of a farmer: her sour-faced expression gave her the look of an angry farmer. Abigail had never farmed a day in her life, but she was quite familiar with the anger part.

  "No problems," Sam said, nodding. "We just want to do what we can to help."

  Speak for yourself, Sam.

  She could tell Sam was practically chomping at the bit for action once he’d seen that picture of Deacon. Abigail barely gave the former Ravager leader a thought. Her attention was focused on the man walking beside him. It was immediately obvious to her that Deacon, after all, had been reduced to a puppet, and the familiar figure next to him was the one holding his strings.

  Sam might have been surprised at seeing Deacon alive; for Abigail, seeing this other man walking around didn’t surprise her in the least. After all, she had killed her old master Solomon twice now: neither time had death managed to stick.

  It took a lot to surprise her these days.

  "Well then," Jacinta said. "I guess you both better come along. We'll collect your two fellow black sheep, then I'll walk you to where you'll be hanging your hat. So to speak."

  Roosevelt and Ki had both left immediately after the meeting adjourned, each heading back to their respective territories without a word to either Sam or Abigail. The townspeople likewise had dispersed, a few staying to drink but most disappearing back to their jobs. Roach and Rend remained sitting in their corner, whispering back and forth and eyeing Abigail, Sam, and Jacinta furtively.

  Jacinta stuck two fingers in her mouth and whistled at Roach and Rend, the sound loud and sharp enough to make Abigail wince. She spun her fingers in the air in a 'let's go' motion. "All aboard. Unless you two want to sit there all day with your hands tied together, that is."

  Rend nodded and stood up with lopsided grin . Roach got up slightly slower, a considerably more irritated look evident on her face. "If those two are just going to kill us," she said to Jacinta, "I'd just as soon stay here."