The gap in the fence I’d used in the past was hidden amongst some overgrown, scrubby brushes, and by the time we had forced a way through, both of us were sweating, despite it being a relatively cool day.
“What is this place?” Jevyn asked, his voice muffled by his hand over his mouth.
“Officially,” I said, “it is the Ann Morrison Refugee Camp No. 2. Over on the other side of the park is Refugee camp No. 1. To the locals, it’s called Gehenna.”
“What does that mean? I’m familiar with your language, but that word is unknown to me.”
“Its translation is hell but not the hell of the dead. Living Hell.”
Jevyn was silent for a while other than the sound of him mouth breathing and coughing occasionally. “Why two, and what is that hideous smell?”
“That, Jevyn, is the smell of five thousand people crammed together with nothing but the most basic hygiene. The second camp is no better. That is for VAMPs only. People who have been infected and displaced. That is not a place a normal person would ever visit.”
“Why do people stay here? Why don’t they go away?”
“Well, I guess when you have nothing and have nowhere to go, even a living hell is better than a horrible death. I mean the place is a cesspit, but there is some order here. Most of the green areas of the park have been dug up and planted with crops. There are even some basic industries. Baking bread is one. Other people make new clothes from old ones or from whatever scraps of cloth they can get their hands on. There is even a camp brewery and many of the people brew their own beer. Living in a place like this, they need something to take the edge off things.”
Jevyn coughed again.
“Come on, let me show you. The people here know me. I bring stuff over to trade as often as I can, but I haven’t been here for a while. The last time I came, the fence between the regular people and the VAMP camp had come down, and there had been a running battle all night. It was only down to a few cool heads on either side that there wasn’t a massacre.”
Jevyn said nothing, reverting back to covering his mouth. As we walked farther into the camp, rows of tents and ramshackle constructions that masqueraded as adequate shelter were set out on either side of the path. Along the path, occasional tiny efforts at trade took place. Whatever scraps and oddities that could be salvaged were on display on tarps on the ground.
Occasionally a sheet would have fruit for sale or some homegrown vegetables.
The few people that were around were thin and listless, tan skin due to almost constant exposure to the elements hanging loosely on their bones. A few people were walking around, but most of them sat outside their tent or shack, occasionally looking up to the sky, either to watch the weather or in supplication to their god to get them out of this hellhole.
“The last time I came here,” I said as a small child began to follow us, “I was looking for information about the rips and to see if anyone knew anything about dragons, so we could get more—” I stopped suddenly, not wanting to talk about consuming dragon blood or what I had originally planned for Jevyn and for our trip through the veil.
“It’s okay, Katie. I understand.” He didn’t look at me, just kept walking with his hand over his mouth. I’d already been able to ignore the smell.
“Well, I was looking for information, and the guy who is like the unelected leader of the people here said he might know something. I never got a chance to talk to him because SCAR turned up, and I had to get out of here. I mean, I—or in this case, we—do tend to create a stir when we turn up.” I thumbed over my shoulder.
Jevyn looked back quickly at the crowd of twenty scruffy, grubby, but still hopeful kids who followed us without ever getting too close.
“We’re going to see him now, aren’t we?”
“Try to. Let’s just say Hector can be a little irascible.”
“Is that you being polite?”
“Yeah.”
“So, he can be an asshole, you mean?”
I looked across at Jevyn. I’d never heard him use bad language while he was here or on Dracos.
He shrugged. “It’s a word, and a concept, I’m familiar with. We have our fair share of assholes on Dracos too.”
I stepped off the path, heading for a slightly larger shack than most of the rest. It was made from pallets and plastic tarps with a piece of drainage pipe acting as a chimney, from which a thin wisp of smoke emerged, twisting in the air and then dissipating on the breeze.
“Hector is a good man. He wants to help his people and isn’t interested in taking from them.”
“Then he is one of very few great leaders.”
“Yeah, say things like that when we see him. He does like to be told how good a leader he is.” I stopped by the door to the shack and waited for Jevyn to stand next to me. “Let me do most of the talking and try not to mention you’re a dragon. The fewer people who know about that, the better.”
“Then you had better talk about things like that more quietly,” said a disembodied voice. “Come on in, Katie, and bring your dragon friend with you.”
“Shit, sorry,” I whispered to Jevyn. “Thin walls.”
“And good hearing,” the voice inside came again.
I showed a sorry face this time. Jevyn held up his hands in forgiveness and pointed to the door.
I grabbed the handle and pulled.
Chapter Twenty-two
Jevyn
Gehenna Camp, Earth
WHEN KATIE OPENED the door, I made the mistake of taking my hand away from my face to hold the door open so she could go ahead of me into the hovel. Although having my hand up had masked some of the smell that had felt like it was suffocating me when I first sensed it, at least some of it had gotten through. It was like nothing I’d smelled before, and with my hand down and the door, a fetid gust of concentrated stench washed over me.
I managed to keep down what little was in my stomach, although I had the taste of acidic bile in my throat that wouldn’t go away when I tried to swallow it back.
It was worse than the smell of some of the livestock sheds back home on Dracos.
I forced myself to step inside the dark interior of the shack and left the door open behind me in the hope that some fresher air might filter in and help me be able to talk rather than fall into a coughing fit.
Inside the room, and there was only one room, a woman sat on a blanket on the dirt floor. In her lap, a small, frightened-looking child huddled, her arms gripping onto her mother’s arms tightly. Another child, thin and gaunt, sat with legs crossed next to his mother. I figured he must be six or seven years old at most.
The woman herself had dark eyes under heavy brows that left her eyes deep in shadows. Her face was fixed in an emotionless stare at the two of us as we walked inside.
On another side of the room, a man sat in a wheelchair. He at least looked like he was pleased to see Katie. He didn’t look quite so pleased to see me when he looked me up and down in a swift accounting.
He was dark-haired like the woman, although both of the children had light, almost-blond hair, which I puzzled over for a moment before Hector began to speak.
“They are the children of one of our people who died.” His voice was accented but not heavily. “We took them in. It has been a blessing after our own children were taken from us.” He looked down at his hands for a moment while I wondered what had happened to his own children. “They died in a cholera outbreak three years ago.”
“How terrible. Three years?” I was shocked that anybody could live in such squalor for three weeks, never mind three years. When I looked around the room, I realized it was actually spotlessly clean, although the number of flies buzzing around bothered me. I hated flies. Vile things.
“Yes, three years, and before you ask, this shack is a big improvement on the tent we lived in for the first two years.”
I shook my head, not wanting to imagine what life in a tent for two adults and two children would be like.
“If you do
n’t mind my asking, what is that smell?”
“What smell?”
“The smell. All around. A really strong smell.”
“Jevyn!” Katie whispered and jabbed me in the ribs with an elbow.
Hector laughed loudly. “The dragon is a brave man, Katie, risking insulting his host by asking about a smell. I like that. That smell, Jevyn, is humanity. That’s the smell of our ancient forebears before such things as sewage treatment and proper drainage was developed. Not more than a couple hundred years ago, the whole planet would have smelled like this, and now it is making a return. Get used to it.”
“Is there nothing that can be done to make it any better?”
“Look around you, Jevyn. When people have little, they can do little. Take it from me, it is better here now than it was.” The man held out a grubby hand. “I am Hector.”
I leaned forward to shake it, but the man had a grip like iron, and he pulled me in to him. His breath smelled rancid, and his body and clothes not much better. “So, what brings a dragon like you to Earth?”
“I did,” Katie said.
Hector’s dark eyes flashed over to Katie.
“You? I didn’t realize you had the power.”
“I don’t, Hector. But I know a woman who does?”
“Not Lynnette?”
“Yes, why?”
Hector burst out into a loud laugh again. “You are either very brave or very stupid and very lucky to go through a veil ripped open by Lynnette and come out the other side in one piece.”
“You know Lynnette?” I asked.
“Everyone knows Lynnette.” Hector accompanied the words with a wry grin and a sad shake of his head.
“I wanted to show Jevyn why I so desperately need to find a cure for the virus, Hector.”
“Ah, yes. You, Katie, are a fine leader of your people. Your cause is a just and honorable one.” Hector slid his hand slowly across the vinyl-covered arm of his wheelchair and then looked up at me. I felt Katie nudge me gently, and then I remembered what she said about stroking the guy’s ego.
“And you are a fair and honorable leader of your people too, Hector.”
“How do you know that, dragon boy? You come into my home and start to mouth platitudes when you know nothing about me.” As he spoke, Hector’s voice deepened, he stood up from his wheelchair, and only then did I realize just how tall he was. As his voice echoed around the shack, he seemed to grow before my eyes, towering over me, looking down upon me with fiery eyes until he seemed to reach the ceiling. I took a step back.
I heard Katie giggle slightly, looked at her, and then turned to Hector who had stepped back and was bent over, his hands on his knees, his shoulders bobbing with laughter.
“What?” I asked. I couldn’t work out what was going on, why they were laughing.
“Ah, Katie, it works every time does it not?”
“What works every time? What’s going on?” I asked, still confused.
“Every time Katie brings someone to see me she tells them I’m some kind of unpredictable maniac, and then I lose it for a second, and the faces of the people who come are pictures I would hang on my walls if I had any. Walls, I mean.”
“What?” I didn’t like this. On Dracos, business was business, socializing was socializing. Humans seemed to need to blend both together and add a joke or two to the mix just for good measure. They really were the oddest race.
“Your face was a picture, Jevyn. As soon as Hector stood up, you looked like you were ready to crap your pants.”
“But it was a surprise. I thought he was . . . you know . . .” I felt incredibly uncomfortable.
“Disabled? Bound to a wheelchair?” I nodded while Hector spoke. “No, afraid not. It is mere furniture with no practical use for me. I dislike sitting on the floor.”
“Oh, right,” I said.
“So, what can I do for you then, Katie? You’re always welcome, but normally you want something.”
That sounded more like it to me.
“Information, Hector,” Katie said. I wondered what information a guy who was stuck in a refugee camp could offer.
“About?”
“Dragons.”
“What about them?”
I was confused again. Dragons lived on Dracos. Unless she was looking for another dragon that had fallen through a rift and out the other side.
“Are there any around here? A little while ago you told me you had some interesting information about dragons; then, something happened, and we never talked. Well, I’m here now.”
“You’re with a dragon, Katie. Why not ask him?”
She looked over at me. All I could do was shrug. I had no idea what was going on, so I played it safe and kept my mouth shut.
“He’s not of this world, Hector. I’m looking for dragons who live here.”
Hector looked thoughtful for a moment, glancing at both Katie and me, rubbing the bristles on his chin with a rasping noise.
“That kind of information is worth a lot, Katie. More than you have.”
“I thought you might say that, Hector,” Katie said, reaching into her pocket.
“Consistency is my middle name. What have you got?”
As I watched, Katie removed her hand out of her pocket, pulling out a bracelet that I recognized immediately as Dracos made, but it was nothing, a trinket that some quack doctor sold to the unwise.
I was about to say as much when Katie held her other hand up in my face to stop me.
“Here,” she said, holding out the bracelet. “Solid gold. Worth a fortune. Enough to get you and your family out of here.”
Hector reached out a dirty hand, but Katie snatched it away before he could take it.
“How do I know it’s real?” Hector said, his eyes hooded and suspicious.
“How do I know you will tell me the truth?”
For a few moments, there was silence, and then I spoke. “I’ll hold it. Let Hector examine it. If it is what you say, I’ll hold on to it while you pass on the information, Hector. If Katie is satisfied, I’ll hand the bracelet back to you.”
Hector glared at me for a moment and then glanced at Katie. She said nothing, just raised her eyebrows as a question. Eventually, Hector agreed, and Katie handed over the bracelet.
Hector took his time. He weighed it carefully in his hand, scratched at the surface with his thumbnail, and then bit into it with discolored teeth.
He checked me out once more and then tossed the bracelet to me.
“So, what do you know, Hector? The sooner you tell me, the sooner you can get your family away from this place.”
“Katie, I understand what you want, and I will tell you, but that bracelet would buy enough food to feed the whole camp for a year or enough seed for us to grow our own food and machinery to dig drainage channels. I could no more use it just for myself than you could use it for yourself. So . . . okay, just outside of Nampa there’s an old quarry. Indiana Avenue. They have set up camp there. They’ve managed to disguise it very well.”
“Over by Lake Lowell. I know that place. Last time I was over there it was abandoned.”
“Not anymore. The camp is not visible from the road, but the camp is run by a dragon and some of his shifter friends. Go talk to them. Maybe they will have what you need. Tell them I sent you over, and they will be fine.”
“Who should I ask for, Hector? Who’s the boss?”
“Ask for a dragon called Nindock.”
I dropped the bracelet on the dirt floor and yelled, “What?”
“Nindock. Why? Do you know him?”
“Oh, yes. Like Lynnette here, everyone knows Nindock.” I bent over, picked up the bracelet, tossed it to Hector, and grabbed Katie by the arm. “Come on, we need to go.”
Chapter Twenty-three
Katie
Nindock’s town
Near Lake Lowell, Nampa, Idaho
“HOW DO WE get to Nampa, Katie?”
“What, now? I was hoping to get some food,” I sa
id. I was starving. I felt like I hadn’t eaten for days.
“Yes, Now.” Jevyn looked worried, which bothered me. If he knew Nindock, and was that concerned to get there quickly, I had to wonder what I was going to find when we arrived.
“Well, we can’t walk. It’s twenty miles or more. We need some transportation.”
“Is there a bus?” Jevyn asked.
“Nah, they all stopped running. Security reasons, according to SCAR.”
“Can you drive?”
“Of course, although it’s been a while.”
“Where can we get a car from?”
“There’s a whole mess of them parked over there.” I pointed over to a small lot.
“What? You mean, steal one?” Jevyn was taken aback. He was obviously shocked at the thought of taking a car without the owner’s permission. I just rolled my eyes and headed toward the lot, wondering how someone could have lived such a sheltered life.
Two minutes later, with the air conditioner cranked up to the max, we were out on the street, heading toward Nampa.
“That was not a good thing you did.” Jevyn had been glum since we had gotten into the car.
“I’ve done a lot worse than steal a car.” I was trying to keep my eyes on the road. “And I only do things like this when there’s a true urgency. I’m trying to save people, Jevyn.”
“I didn’t mean that. I meant the bracelet. It was worthless.”
“Maybe in your world. Here it was worth a small fortune. You heard what Hector said they would be able to do with the money they get for it.”
“But it was just a trinket.”
“A gold trinket.”
“Ah right. I forgot. Gold is so common on Dracos it holds almost no value at all. You still shouldn’t have stolen it though.”
“I’ve done a lot worse things,” I said quietly to myself.
We sat in silence for a while as we made our way through the city and out into the maze of roads and intersections, farmland and buildings that filled the space between Boise and Nampa. The land, dry and dusty in places, green and lush in others, passed by quickly, although I was careful to stick to the speed limit. In the distance, the forbidding dark line of the hills and mountains sailed serenely past, barely changing from our perspective.
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