by Jason Luthor
Nobody says anything after that, so I just throw up my hands. “Meeting adjourned,” I grumble, and everyone starts pouring out of the room. On his way out, Dravic stoops and takes a look at me and Tan. His eyes narrow as that gray, stubbled jaw of his grinds his words out.
“A mistake was made here today.” It’s all he says before he turns around, and it leaves a shiver in my spine. The only people left in the room are Martin and Tan. Michael’s hands are on his hips, and he’s got his eyes pinned to the floor.
“I lost my cool there,” he says, obviously regretting what he did. “I’m sorry.”
“You weren’t wrong, Tan. Dravic should know better than come for you specifically.”
“It’s not like I have it out for him—”
Martin laughs. “Yes, you do, and that’s fine, in my opinion. You’ve said before that he lies in bed with snakes? Well, he is the snake.”
“Still, I didn’t help the situation.”
I wave him off. “Dravic had it coming. He always has it coming, but especially after what he said to you. That was pretty disrespectful.”
“Maybe we should have a talk with Branagh soon. Just the three of us. Plan some way to get control back from the councils and stick to the terms of the deal we originally struck with Fort Silence.” His eyes go to Martin. “That is, if you’re with us.”
The colonel shifts on his feet, looking uncomfortable. “It’s not that simple. My first duty is to the protection of Central Freedom.” He looks aside and shakes his head. “With that said, it’s obvious it needs protection from its own leaders, who seem dead set on turning it into their personal piggy bank. So, sure. As long as it looks like it’s going to serve the city, I’m with you.”
I smile as I look his way. “And I remember a time when you felt we should be kicked out of the city because you though we might be raider spies.”
“Well, it actually turns out I was right about there being traitors. It just so happens that they were living in Central all along.”
Intercepted Broadcast from the Tank 01
We recognize the wrongs done against us as the justification for the retaliation we must take. We did not start the war. Every one of us remembers the day the forces of Central Freedom invaded our homes. When they attacked the innocent and left innocent men and women dead in the streets.
I do not want to start a war. I do not want to send the people I care about to their deaths. You are the people I have shed blood with. The people I have stood by. I was there when we took this part of the Deadlands for ourselves. I fought alongside you as we pushed back the Creep and made this a place worth living in. I’ve shared drinks with you, celebrated birthdays with you.
So my decision to take us into war against Central Freedom and its ally, Fort Silence, is not one I make lightly. But, we understand what those two represent. Despite its name, Central Freedom represents oppression. It represents an idea that we can be free, but only conditionally.
More than anything else, Central Freedom represents betrayal. Each one of us knows the sacrifices Erin Donoghue made to help us create a home in the Deadlands. Every one of us owes him a debt for his countless sacrifices made in battle, sacrifices made so that we could live free. It was only because of Erin that we ever agreed to a peace with Central.
It was not us who broke that peace. It was not us that turned our backs on the chance for security. And that is why we are justified in fighting back. If we do not, then your freedoms will continue to die, a little at a time, as Central and Fort Silence continue their aggression into the Deadlands. If we do not act, we will live to see a day when our homes are no longer ours.
Or maybe we won’t live at all. There may come a day when there are no more children to shed tears over their parents, and when there are no parents to fear for the safety of their children. Because we, as a people, will be no more. That is the only future that awaits us if we do not fight back. That is why we are justified in going to war. One last push to create the home for ourselves that we have struggled to create year after difficult year. Because if we do not stand today, then we will not be here tomorrow. Today, we must fight for our future, and make it known that we deserve to exist free of tyranny.
Jackie’s Recording 07
Mandy looks over at me. “Some people disappeared out past Freedom Bridge.”
“Yeah.” I shake my head as I’m looking at her from beneath the fake sun in the Green Zone. “Yeah, I heard about that.”
“They say it used to happen all the time.”
“Well, if what I’ve heard is right, then that’s because, once upon a time, there was a lot less security to take care of people. Things’ve changed.”
“Then why did they disappear?”
“Because, even if you try to get everything right, it’s impossible to protect all of the people all of the time. It’s still a crazy world out there.”
“I guess.”
“I mean, that’s why we’re here, right? So you can learn to take care of yourself without having to worry about someone saving you?”
When I say it, she smiles. “Yeah. You’re going to show me how to be a professional killer.”
“Hey. None of that. I don’t do any killing if I don’t have to.”
“What about all those walker you fight?”
“Fun fact? I always cut them off at the joints. When a soldier rides in one of those things, their arms and legs don’t come down past the suit’s joints. It’s the weird way that power armor’s designed, with the controls in the upper arms and the movement in the upper legs. It’s also why anyone over six feet tall can’t normally ride in one. Anyway, when I cut out a limb, I haven’t actually injured the guy inside.”
“And the Suiciders?”
“Mandy, you don’t even want to know how many of those guys I’ve circled back around to pick out of the sky and drop them on rooftops. Others I’ve had to lock up at a . . .” I try to find the right word for it. “A prion. But seriously, I try to avoid killing if it’s possible. Then again, I can afford do that most of the time. That wasn’t always the case, especially when I was younger. Even these days, sometimes I’m too weak and . . . Well, it’s a war zone out there. Sometimes you just have to do what you can to survive. I’m not saying that’s great, and there are a lot of times where I wish this was a comic book and I could just save everyone.” I sigh as I shrug my shoulders. “It’s just not.”
“I don’t want to kill anyone if I don’t have too, either. But I want to be able to protect Cynthia.” She smiles. “And Mike, when he gets older and can’t defend himself.”
“Yeah, he’s getting there, the old man,” I tell her with a smile back. “Now, come on. Hit me as hard as you can, right in the stomach.”
“It’s not going to hurt?”
“It wouldn’t even matter if it did. I’d heal from it in about half a second.”
Her eyes squeeze together as she walks up to me, winding her fist as far back as possible and swinging it right into my stomach. I see her squint when she hits, and she pulls her hand away, waving it in the air. “Ouch. That hurt.”
“Well, yeah. You just threw your fist into my stomach.”
“But I was supposed to hurt you, not hurt me.”
“In an ideal world, yeah. Your punch is all wrong though. It’s all arm.”
“But . . . that’s how you hit someone. With your arm.”
“Well, yes, but actually no,” I tell her as I bring my fists up. “You’ll learn that in the real world, you’re not always going to get a clean shot, but while we’re practicing, you at least want to work on getting some good form. First of all, winding all the way back like that? Bad move. Do it again.”
She frowns at me as she brings her hand way back behind her. The second she does, I just barely tap her across the face and then her stomach. A second later she grabs at her cheek, rubbing it. “That’s not fair.”
“Fights aren’t fair. Even when there are rules, winding back like that’s going t
o leave you open. You’ll get popped in the face over and over, and I get the feeling you don’t want that.”
“No, obviously. I want to be the person that’s doing the hitting.”
“Great. So, instead of winding your arm way back, keep your hands in front of you to block, turn with your hips, and then bring your punch forward while you’re turning into me,” I say as I’m giving her a demonstration. “You create a lot of power when you’re using your hips. Your back leg can really push your punch harder.”
“Like this?” she asks she plants hard behind her and twists into a punch. It slams into my stomach and I can’t help but exhale, because honestly, I wasn’t expecting it. Still, she walks away shaking her wrist again. “Ow! It still hurt!”
“Well, you’ve still got to make sure you’re not bending your wrist. Your practically hit me with the top of your hand. You want to use the front of your fingers a little more.”
“Okay, but when am I going to be as good a fighter as you are?”
That really sends a smile across my face. “Maybe when you’re a little bit older. You’ve still got a lot of growing up to do, you know? You still need all your muscles to really grow. I mean, you can work on your form for now and exercise a lot, but you won’t hit a peak for a while. Technically, I don’t think I’m really supposed to have peaked yet.”
“You mean, you can get stronger?”
“It’s hard to say. People hit their peaks in their mid-twenties and early thirties. That’s still a few years away for me.”
“So, I’ve still got to wait more than ten years before I can be strong?”
“No, of course not. Hey, don’t you forget, by the time I was 17, I was fighting Creepers. You can get strong by then, learn how to fire a gun, all that stuff you need to survive. But believe me, the older you get, the more you’ll wish you were younger. I wish I could go back to when I was your age.”
She frowns as she drops into the ground, crossing her legs as she looks up at me. “Why would you want to do that?”
“Because life just gets really complicated by the time you’re my age,” I tell her as I sit down across from her. “And I have it on pretty good authority that it doesn’t get any simpler.”
“Yeah, I get that.”
“You do?”
“Mike and Cynthia have been talking about you a lot.”
“Really? Does he totally hate me by this point?”
“No. He loves you a lot. You can tell.”
Those words make me wipe my face, like I can wipe away the past few weeks. “I almost wish I hadn’t asked.”
“I don’t like having to walk around with all those tanks everywhere, but I get why they’re there. It’s so everyone stays safe.”
“Yeah. That’s all I really want, you know?”
“Me too. I understand, Jackie. You know I want to be in the militia one day. I want to protect people too.”
“Well, no offense, kid, but it’s harder to do that than you think. One day you think you’re doing the right thing, the next you’re wondering if you need to just get the hell out of Dodge.”
“What does that mean? What’s ‘Dodge?’”
I frown. Nobody’s ever really asked that before. “Uh, I’m not sure, actually. People used to say it in the movies I watched back home. It’s supposed to mean you just want to get out of a tense situation.”
“Oh. Things here are tense for you?”
“They are since I’m constantly wondering if I made the right decisions.”
“I guess I’m lucky. I just want to be a soldier.”
“You’ll get there.”
“But also. . . I know I don’t want people to have to have their bags checked when they go places or have soldiers looking over our shoulders all the time. It’s not right. We’re not the bad guys, but they’re treating us like ones. If I fight, if I make the world safer, maybe that won’t happen anymore. Maybe they’ll leave us alone.”
“The soldiers really bug you, huh?”
She looks away, and she doesn’t look happy. “Did you like it when you had people always asking you where you were going?”
“No.”
Mandy shrugs. “Why not?”
“Because I felt . . . violated. I didn’t understand back then that they were keeping me safe. It felt like they were intruding in my life when I wasn’t doing anything wrong.”
“But that’s the problem. They’re treating us the same way, but . . . Well, look at Cynthia. Do you know what it’s like to watch your sister treated like a criminal? To see them always checking her bags before she visits the clinic or going through the messages she’s sent to the Deadlands? You know, they watch us extra close because we used to live in the colonies.”
That makes my eyebrows tighten together. “They what?”
“Yeah. Cynthia says it’s because they’re afraid we might sympathize with the raiders, so they’ve put extra security on us. It’s harder for us to send messages back to our old friends now. The soldiers don’t admit it, but they read all the stuff we send.”
“And how do you know that?”
“Because Tommy told us. He’s high up enough that he knows all the security that goes into it.”
Now I’m the one who looks away, my hand covering my mouth as I process what she’s saying. “I’m sorry, Mandy. That’s not . . . It’s just, it’s really hard to balance making people safe with also making sure they have their privacy.”
“I get it, but I want to be someone who fights for people. We need to beat the Creep, because I want to make sure we don’t have to live like this anymore. It’s not right that they’ve decided we’re guilty for no reason.”
“Yeah. Yeah, it’s not.”
“It’s just hard to believe I’ll ever be strong enough to do anything about it. I feel helpless living here now. I didn’t even feel like this when I lived out in the Deadlands.”
Those words literally gut me, and I just lean into her and stare her dead in the eyes. “Mandy, I know stuff isn’t the greatest right now, but you can do anything you want to. I’m still . . . I’m still on your side, but one day you won’t even need me anymore. You’ll be able to stand on your own two feet and make this place better.”
She smiles this little, sad smile that breaks my heart. “You haven’t been going out as the Angel anymore.”
“Yeah. I know. I just didn’t think it was the best idea. People need to be able to trust the system. They don’t need someone like me screwing everything up. I did what I had to to make sure everyone was safe. Now, with all the military around and the soldiers, who even needs me? Central can protect itself from the raiders now.”
“I know that. It’s not like I’m worried about the raiders with all these soldiers around. That’s not what I’m talking about.”
“Then what is it?”
She frowns as she takes a deep breath. “I worry about you too, you know. You talk like nobody needs you, but Dodger told me what you said to her. How you helped her believe in herself again.”
“She what . . .”
“You’re just . . . you’re awesome sometimes.”
“Awesome, huh?”
“Yeah. I know you’re doing what you think is best for us.”
“You just don’t feel the same way about the War Council and General Yousef.”
“I don’t know them. I shouldn’t say anything.”
“No. No, it’s good. Thanks for telling me about how they’re reading your messages. I’ll look into that.”
She looks back at me and smiles. “See what I mean, Jackie? You’re always looking out for people. I want to be able to do the same thing someday.”
I bury my fingertips between my eyebrows. “God. Now I’m a role model. Okay, well, now I’ve really got to look into what’s been going on around the city.”
Jackie’s Recording 08
Yousef has to know what’s coming the second I’m through the door to his office. He’s immediately out of his chair and onto his feet,
his face looking twisted up as I march up to his desk. “Jackie. I’m glad you chose to visit Fort Silence again.”
“I’m not here to play nice with you, Yousef.”
“Excuse me if I’m not remembering correctly, but I thought we enjoyed ourselves the last time you visited.”
“You think this is about a kiss?”
He genuinely looks a little hurt when I say it. “That was nice, yes, but I was talking about the conversation. The friendly sparring. What happened at the end of the night was just a highlight to what I thought was an amazing evening.”
“Yeah, it was nice. It was nice hearing you say that you’d use some restraint when working in Central, and then I find out you’re tapping calls out to the colonies?”
His mouth hangs open for a second. “We tap them to guarantee no one is making contact with the raiders.”
“You think those colonists out there are doing business with raiders?”
“I don’t know if that’s the case. Jackie, you do know that some of those colonists out there weren’t always members of Central, right? There’s no small number of them, or their fathers and grandfathers, who lived under the rule of Neddy Lancaster at one time. Neddy Lancaster who, before he was ever an ally of Central, was a known Deadlands warlord. He held the entire Roost, from the opposite side of the river from Second Freedom west to the Green Brook. That’s more than a dozen miles of the most prosperous lands outside of Central.
“Others of them came from the north and south. Some of them served under Erin Donoghue. Others of them came from as far north as Daniel Pearson’s territories Wild Forests. This is a man with the single largest independent army in the Deadlands outside of the Tank’s. These former raiders are people we can’t be sure we can trust. The wiretaps might not sit well with you, but we have to be proactive in what we do.”