Her compliment warms my stomach, and I can even smile as Lance leans in and claps me on the shoulder while accepting his pistol back from Cerena. “That was fucking awesome, big man. The way you ran over those two werewolves? Good enough to make up for our lost packs.”
Shit, Lance is right. All of our traveling packs are back at my little apartment in Bane, and there’s no way we’re getting back into the city now. All we’ve got are our water packs and our weapons.
“Great fucking cavalry charge,” Brandon gripes, and I glance back to see him looking at us with a sneer. He’s still freaked out, but he’s obviously able to at least talk. “Drag me out of one certain death in order to die a slower, more painful certain death in the Scorched Earth. Where the fuck are we, anyway?”
“Heading the wrong direction at high speed,” I reply, looking at the instrument panel. Handling the truck has gotten a lot harder, and I wonder if it’s been damaged. “Uh, Cerena, do you have any experience with one of these things?”
“Just basic technical training,” she admits, looking at the instrument panel. “Uh . . . I think we’ve got a problem though.”
“What’s that?” I ask, and she points at a dial, where a needle is quickly dropping from an F toward an E. “Is that the fuel gauge?”
“Looks just like the ones I’ve seen on electrical generators,” Cerena says in confirmation. “I’d say we’re running out of gas.”
Lance shifts, looking behind us. “And we’ve got shit falling off us. Not a lot. I think we shredded our tires, but we’re leaving a trail for sure.”
“Enough that the wolves can follow us,” I mutter under my breath.
“Great . . . just great,” Brandon says, leaning back. “I followed you assholes because I figured you weren’t threatening to kill me. I didn’t know you’d be the ones getting me killed.”
Cerena looks pissed, but it’s Lance who grabs Brandon by the shirt and shakes him around. “Listen, buddy, if you don’t shut the fuck up, I’ll make sure the wolves won’t have any issues with your escape. They can find your corpse sitting between the wheel ruts this fucking thing’s leaving behind.”
Brandon shuts up at least, and I look over at Cerena. “What do you want to do?”
“Get as much distance between us and Bane as you can while we’ve got the speed,” she says. “Try to circle us north some. I know there are some towns up that way . . . but until this thing breaks, we keep going.”
Chapter 24
Cerena
We made it another twenty minutes before the engine on the truck sputtered and died out, leaving us in the middle of the Scorched Earth with three bottles of water, our weapons, and little to nothing else in the way of supplies.
Of course, that’s not the main thing that’s on my mind as we climb out of the vehicle.
“Grab whatever you can. We’re heading out in five minutes,” I tell the three of them. Tym and Lance nod while Brandon gives me a surly glare, but I guess I’d be upset too. We still haven’t explained who we are or what we’re doing hauling him out into the Scorched Earth.
I don’t have time to worry about that, though. I need to figure out where we are. Thankfully, I always do pack at least my holocomputer and the bare minimum information to let me survive, so I head about a hundred yards away, where a shallow hill should give me the best view of where we are and give me a rough guesstimate of what the next step in our plan is.
The hill’s taller than I thought, or maybe I’m just tired, because I’m sweating by the time I get to the top, kneeling to take a measurement on Bane. Even at this distance, the city’s lights are visible, and I make a guess that we’re about twenty miles northeast of the city.
Not as bad as it could have been. We’d started off heading straight east, and now, at least we’ve got a bit of an angle to work with as I try to get us back to Solace. Checking my map, I make a rough guess where we are and jog down the hill, finding Tym and Lance as ready as they’ll get while Brandon still looks like he’s pissed off.
“So is someone going to tell us what’s going on now?” he asks, looking around. “I’ve barely been able to put together your names, thank you very much. Wish I could do the same. Lance here just keeps calling me pretty boy or fuckface.”
“Yeah, well, stop acting like a whiny little fucktard and you won’t have that problem,” Lance says, adjusting his hospital shirt to help keep out the night wind. It is chilly, and I’m glad that my normal leathers have long sleeves that at least will keep the grit out. Lance, though, is wearing his normal short-sleeved undershirt that gives him maximum range of motion but not a lot to keep out any chill.
“Listen,” Lance continues before I can interject, “I’ll say this just one time. I’m Lance, the big guy with the hammers is Tym, and the girl with the twin swords that’ll turn your nuts into sliced almonds if you keep your mouth running is Cerena. She’s the boss of the mission. You listen to what she has to say.”
Brandon purses his lips but finally nods. “And who am I?”
“Lance, Tym, take the lead,” I order before Lance can argue the point any more. “Push toward the setting moon, and if you see Bane, keep it on our left. We need to get some distance between us and this truck. We know Lucian’s going to send people after us.”
Lance nods, tapping Tym on the arm, and they take off at a quick walk. I wait until they’re about twenty yards away before following, Brandon staying with me. “Your name’s Brandon,” I tell him, “and our mission is to get you to Solace. You know about Solace, right?”
Brandon looks like he’s about to say something, then shakes his head. “I . . . I’ve heard the word before. That’s all I can say for sure.”
Whatever the vampires or werewolves did to him, they did it well. His head’s all sorts of messed up. “Okay. Well, we’ll fill in details as we walk, but here’s the deal. You’re really, really important to Lucian, who’s pretty much the biggest bastard in Bane and the leader of the most powerful werewolf pack in town. Now, he can’t send all his soldiers, because according to what we know, the vampires and the other werewolf clans would capitalize and try to take his place on the totem pole if he did. But that doesn’t mean he’s going to let you go without a fight.”
“Why’s he got a bug up his ass about me?” Brandon growls. “I don’t even know my own name, and now I’m being chased by him and his wolves? Seriously, why would he even want to track us out here?”
“When we have a chance to stop, I’ll think about telling you,” I reply. “In the meantime, what do you know about werewolves?”
Brandon snorts. “They grow fur, like to eat motherfuckers who piss them off, which happens to include us at the moment, and pop a major woody when the full moon’s out.”
Great, this guy’s an asshole. At least Lance, when he’s being crude, is usually funny about it. Brandon’s just . . . an asshole.
“Just keep up,” I growl. “Because werewolves can jog at about fifteen miles an hour like it’s nothing. We’ve got maybe an hour’s lead on them before they find that truck, and then they’ll be coming after us.”
“So, what’s your plan?” he sneers. “Run so we die tired?”
“No,” I snipe back, unusually pissed off at him. I normally don’t get like this with people, even idiots that I don’t know. “But we might need to fight. I know you’ve got a punch. What else can you do in a fight, if it comes to that? Think about that before you say anything else.”
It shuts Brandon up for a little bit, at least, and we catch up with Tym and Lance, who are striding it out. “How’s it going up here?”
“The ground’s smooth and easy,” Lance says. “Question is, where are we headed?”
I pull out my holocomputer and flash up the map. “If I read our location correctly, we’re about ten miles from a town,” I reply, pointing to a spot on the map. “Either of you know this place?”
Lance looks at the map, squinting for a bit as he tries to take a reading while moving, but he shakes
his head. “Sorry, I usually worked in the south. Tym?”
Tym looks and nods. It’s good to see him back in control of himself. “Yes. The place is called Barter Town by the locals. It’s sort of an . . . economic free zone.”
“What’s that mean?” I ask, putting the map away.
“It’s a town that is used by the non-werewolf and vampire races to conduct open business,” he explains. “Everything there has a price, and everything there is for sale . . . if you have something they want. If we can get there, we can probably find supplies and shelter for at least a night.”
“Why probably?” Brandon interjects. “You said it’s a town, right?”
“Yes . . . but it’s not a normal town,” Tym explains. “It’s a trading post more than anything else. Caravans of merchants come and go there constantly, using the old buildings as cover. There’s a deep well that provides the spot with water, which is the only reason Barter Town has a fixed location at all. That, and the surrounding farmers find it convenient to come in there. But what you’ll find there changes from day to day. One day, you might find the finest jewelry in all of the Scorched Earth, the next day corn, the day after that, blankets and everything in between.”
“And nobody stays there permanently?” I ask, intrigued. Tym shakes his head. “Why?”
“While there is water, the land around Barter Town is poisoned. Nothing will grow there, not even weeds,” he explains. “Very few are willing to live in such a place, considering that whatever’s in the soil might find its way into your food as dust.”
“Just great,” Brandon gripes. “To escape the werewolves, we’ll poison ourselves.”
“We’re all getting a full checkup and workover by the autodoc in Solace when we return anyway,” I snap back. “Haven’t you ever been to . . . fuck it, you probably don’t know. Listen, just pick up the pace. We’ll jog for ten, walk for ten. Got it?”
We pick up the pace, shuffling through the dusty darkness. I take the lead, urging Tym to stay with me while Lance and Brandon slide back a little, Lance seeming to understand what I need. Once we have some separation, I glance at Tym. “You really saved our asses.”
“Not bad for my first time driving.”
His words make me do a double-take. “Really?”
“I mean, I have seen it done before,” Tym says as if that explains everything. “And the truck was just a three-speed.”
It’s so Tym. In a flash, using just a little bit of his natural skills, he saved our asses by learning to drive on the fly, and he’s treating it like it was nothing. “Yeah, well . . . we wouldn’t have gotten out of there if it weren’t for you. I owe you, big time.”
“If I were Lance, I’d use this time to make a sexual suggestion,” Tym says with a chuckle, his breath starting to chuff a little as our jogging takes its toll on our bodies. “Would you mind if I did?”
“Depends . . . on what it is,” I tease back. “Lance already seems fascinated with my ass, so you might want to be original.”
“That . . . is why Lance . . . is always in trouble,” Tym says in between deep breaths. “He never takes the time . . . to appreciate and look at things from every angle. Because . . . from where I’m standing . . . there are plenty of things about you . . . that are fascinating.”
He pushes ahead a little bit, and I drop back, letting Tym take the lead. Lance and Brandon quickly catch up, and I urge Brandon ahead to keep pace. “Two more minutes, then we walk.”
He nods, at least not bitching too much about the amount of effort we’re putting forth to flee the werewolves. “So . . . how much longer you want to keep this up?” Lance asks as we fall in side by side. “Because I’m pretty sure I can do this all night long.”
“I bet you could,” I reply, thinking about Tym’s comments. I glance over at Lance, whose dimples and grin are evident even with the light sheen of sweat rolling down his face. “You know, Lance, you’d get a lot farther if you thought about your comments a little bit more. Just sayin’.”
Lance chuckles, nodding. “Probably. By the way, thank you for not teasing me about the nurse.”
“What was her name?” I ask. “I mean, I know Hank’s her husband, but what’s her name?”
Lance huffs. “You wouldn’t believe me.”
“No, really. I’m curious.”
Lance glances over and smirks. “Nancy. I always thought of her as a 4N instead of an RN. Nasty, Naughty, Nurse Nancy.”
I laugh softly. “I bet she loved that.”
Lance shrugs. “I’m not going to make excuses for who or what I’ve done in the past. But I will say one thing.”
“What’s that?”
Lance looks over at me, his eyes gleaming in the moonlight. “I might talk before putting my mind in gear . . . but I don’t need to think to know I’ve found something much, much better than she could ever hope to be. Sort of hoping . . . well, after this, I wouldn’t mind having a drink with you when we get back to Solace.”
I can feel heat creep up my neck, and I nod. “We’ll see. For now . . . let’s walk.”
Chapter 25
Brandon
Barter Town isn’t so much of a town as a collection of wagons that gathered out of the wastelands to hock their mixed bag of . . . stuff. It makes no sense to me at all, but as the morning sun rises burns down from above, Cerena pulls us together.
“Tym, Lance, take these,” she says, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a collection of holochips. “Find what you can, focus on food, and if you can find them Lance, more rounds for your pistol. How’re you looking?”
Lance shakes his head. “Not good. Had a nice big supply when we left the embassy, but I fired off fifteen of them in Bane.”
“See what you can do. And one pack, we can share that among ourselves,” she says. “Thirty minutes, no more. Brandon, you’re with me.”
We split up, and Cerena sticks next to me as we scour the stalls. “Why are we wasting time here?” I mutter as we move. “We spent most of the night hauling ass through the darkness, and now you want to go shopping? What is it about women and shopping?”
Cerena cuts her eyes to me, anger burning in her almond-shaped dark eyes. “Fuck you, Brandon. We’re getting what we need for the trek back. Because unless you happen to find another truck lying around, it’s going to take about two weeks to get back to Solace.”
“You want to play cat and mouse with werewolves for two weeks?” I ask, utterly flabbergasted. “You really do have a death wish, don’t you?”
Cerena snorts. “It’s not like we have a choice. Let me give you a preview of what’s going to happen for the next two weeks. During the day, their senses are no better than a normal human’s. If anything, they’re even worse because a lot of wolves are lazy about training the tracking skills I’ve practiced since I was four years old. So we’ll gain miles during the day, and we’re going to hop, moving from place to place as best we can. At night, when we can, we’re going to hunker down, hoping that we can rest up and stay undetected until the sun comes up. When we can’t do that, we’re going to move fast, move light, and move silently through the night until we find shelter.”
“Why are you doing this?” I ask as we look over some coats. Cerena finds three that look ridiculous, roughly tanned leather hides from some animal that probably looked even worse. She’s excited, though, and while she plays it cool, when we leave, we’re both wearing a long coat while she carries the other over her arm. “What are these for?”
“It’s going to be cold at night, and only Tym has his coat,” Cerena says quietly. “These will give us warmth and let us carry supplies without the packs. We won’t be using fire most of the time.”
We move on, finding a dealer in ration packs, and Cerena looks them over. “You didn’t answer my first question.”
She nods, saying nothing as she completes her trade and stuffs our pockets with the ration packs. “What do you know about yourself?”
“Not much,” I reply honestly. �
��Until you started calling me Brandon, I didn’t even know that for sure. Still, it sounds right, for some reason. And I know I can fight, maybe with a sword, maybe other stuff. What you’re carrying looks decent to me. Other than that, I can point out things, tell you that those are boots, those are tools . . . but I can’t . . .”
Cerena nods, still not answering anything until we meet up with Tym and Lance, who’re carrying a medium-sized backpack filled with supplies. Lance’s eyes light up when Cerena hands him the coat, and he slips it on gratefully. “Thanks, sweet cheeks. I saw that earlier, was hoping we could get it. Is this lizard hide?”
“That’s what the guy claimed,” Cerena says. “Okay, refill our bottles, and we hit the trail. What else did you find?”
We start off again, Lance and Tym mostly sticking together while Cerena stays close to me. It’s annoying. I can see in her eyes that she thinks I’m an ignorant idiot who can’t be trusted on his own. Of course, since I can’t even tell her what my favorite food is right now, she’s not that far off . . . but still, something about her pisses me off.
Partly, of course, is that she’s hot as fuck. The way her body moves in those tight leather clothes she’s wearing, the way her hair dances in the breeze, it’s like she’s sending lightning bolts to my cock. At the same time, though, every time she gives me one of those looks that tells me I’m pissing her off without even doing anything, it’s like she’s got a big pair of scissors and she’s coming for my balls.
“Are you finally going to tell me why you guys pulled me out of there?” I explode after an hour of trekking through the wilderness. “You’re dodging me, but I’m not going to let this slide. You want me to keep going, I’m getting my fucking answers!”
My voice carries through the still air, and up ahead of us, Lance and Tym stop, Tym lowering his hammer while Lance looks like he could stab me with one of those knives he’s carrying around along with that pistol of his.
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