Liam blinked again, then frowned as the pieces slowly came together in his mind.
“You know Scott?” he asked.
“Know him?” Andrew exclaimed with a laugh. “Hell, kid. He’s the one who recruited me in the first place. I introduced him to Julie. We go way back.”
Liam’s first reaction to this revelation was one of relief; he hadn’t known until that moment how badly he wanted someone to talk to about Scott. Julie was one thing, but the nature of her relationship with him and the distress she’d tried so hard to conceal made it feel wrong to try and reminisce. An instant later, however, his relief turned to crushing, overpowering guilt. Not only had he shunned Andrew due to his association with Damien, but he’d also allowed an entire night to pass without making mention of what had happened at the river.
“We need your help!” Liam said urgently, struggling to keep his voice to a whisper. “Scott is—”
Andrew cut him off with a raised hand.
“I know what happened,” he said. Glancing at the seated militiamen, he laid a hand on Liam’s shoulder and steered him away from any potential eavesdroppers. “Julie told me. You made the right call. Scott would be—is proud, I’m sure.”
“We have to help him,” Liam insisted. “Once we get Julie and her kids to the city, we can head back. Jenn can get us across the river and together—”
The hand on his shoulder tightened and he stopped short. Andrew hadn’t spoken and showed no interest in doing so, but the unspoken signal was clear. The man stared blankly ahead of him. When at last he spoke, his expression was grim and his words soft.
“There’s no time,” he said. “The Occs are massing all along the DMZ. They’ll attack any day now. My orders are to help defend New Lewville.”
“But, Scott is—”
“Scott is better at surviving in Occ territory than any of us, kid. And he’s not alone. He’s got a whole squad of the FSM’s best. I’m not going to worry about him and neither should you. If you want my advice, come to the city with us. Help us defend it and I’ll introduce you to the rest of the militia. When Scott shows up—and he will—that’s where he’ll come looking.”
Liam said nothing. He stood there, searching for some flaw in Andrew’s logic and despairing when he found none. The man was right. It just felt wrong somehow to carry on as though Scott was merely relaxing somewhere.
“You don’t have to decide right now,” Andrew said. He glanced back toward the fire and those around it. “At least have something to eat though. And maybe keep that little blonde of yours from starting any more fights.”
Liam turned quickly.
“Fights?” he asked. “What happened?”
Andrew chuckled and indicated one of his men. The man was burly and broad-shouldered, but knelt delicately beside the roasting meat with an unexpectedly frail slump to his shoulders.
“Nothing serious,” Andrew said. “Bennett there made the mistake of calling her ‘girlie.’ I guess she took offense. Might have kicked his balls clean off if Julie hadn’t been there.”
Fighting the urge to wince, Liam sighed and massaged the bridge of his nose.
“Sorry,” he said. “I’ll talk to her.”
“Good idea,” Andrew said. “Folks in New Lewville can be a bit… suspicious of outsiders. Wouldn’t want Scott to arrive and find you lot in the stocks.”
Chapter Ten
As Liam crested the hill, the sight of the valley below did more than make him pause; it took his breath away. The trees had been cleared for miles in every direction, replaced by hillside plots of farmland and the occasional ramshackle barn. And, at the center of it all, a city bulged from the dirt like a silver-brown wart. A haze of smoke and fog hung low in the air around it, blurring the finer details of the city proper.
What the murky air could not conceal, however, was the astonishing size of the place. Even at a glance, Liam could immediately tell that New Lewville was home to thousands.
Not that such a thing could even be comprehended. It seemed unthinkable that so many could possibly live together without conflict. A few hundred was understandable if daunting, but thousands?
“Quite the sight, isn’t it?” Andrew asked.
Liam jumped; he’d been so distracted by the vista that he’d failed to notice the sergeant’s approach. Turning, he nodded in agreement.
“It’s bigger than I expected,” he said.
Andrew snorted and it was a moment before he spoke again. “Don’t get me wrong, the place is still a shithole. Smells like it too, if you ask me. But it’s the biggest free city within two hundred miles—other than Cincy, of course. If you’ve a mind to settle down somewhere, you could do a lot worse.”
“I’m not planning on it.”
“No?” Andrew said. He eyed Liam thoughtfully, then shrugged. “Well, whatever. You’ll be safe until Scott arrives.”
“I thought you said the Occs would attack any day?”
“Oh, they will. But you’ll have me watching your back. That means—”
“Liam!” Kathryn whined, pulling agitatedly at his hand wrapped securely around her wrist. “No talk. Bored. Walk now!”
Liam glanced at her and forced himself to frown. Understandably, the girl was not keen on being practically attached to his hip, but he’d insisted on it after the brawl she’d had with one of Andrew’s men. Still, his arm was getting sore and he’d grown tired of the indignant looks Jenn sent his way whenever she noticed his eyes following her.
“Fine,” he said. Grasping Kathryn’s chin, he held her face close to his own and stared severely into her pleading eyes. “I want you to promise me. No more fighting. No matter what.”
Kathryn scowled and made a final, half-hearted attempt at escaping his grasp. Then she sighed and nodded.
“Promise,” she said.
“You promise what?” he pressed her.
“No fighting,” she muttered.
Nodding, Liam released her and watched as Kathryn darted away to scramble up a tree in Jenn’s wake. She seemed desperate to spend as much time off the ground before they reached the treeline a few hundred yards distant.
“She’s an interesting one,” Andrew said. “Did the Occs raise her?”
Liam looked at the man, frowning. Andrew’s expression made it clear he was not trying to offend, however, and so he nodded cautiously.
“That’s right,” he said. “Why do you want to know?”
“Just curious,” Andrew said. Pressing on, he picked his way along the narrow trail as the ground gradually became rockier. “I knew a fella once who’d been born in the Occ capital. Talked like that too. Does she know any Occ speech?”
Liam hesitated, embarrassed to admit he’d never thought of asking. There hadn’t seemed to be any reason to question Kathryn on the subject and he was reluctant to broach the subject now. Despite the occasional annoyance of piecing her words together, there was something charmingly innocent about her conversations and he couldn’t help but feel that hearing her carry on in the Occ language would ruin it.
“Not sure,” he said, at last.
To his relief, Andrew let the matter drop.
As promised, the march to the city did not take long. Liam clutched his rifle as they left the relative shelter of the woods and stepped onto a broad path through rolling farmland. His nervousness was abated somewhat by Jenn and Kathryn, both of whom took up positions on either side of him. And yet, as comforting as their presence was, he could not seem to keep himself from craning his head to stare at each stranger they passed. Dozens of men and women worked the fields, pulling weeds and not even bothering to lift their heads to acknowledge the newcomers.
Hurrying to catch up to Andrew, Liam switched his rifle to his opposite shoulder and leaned in to speak quietly.
“There are so many of them,” he said. “Shouldn’t they be inside the city?”
“Why?” Andrew asked. He barely glanced in Liam’s direction.
“It’ll be safer there when the Occs attack.”
“People still need to eat,” Andrew said. Then, in an even quieter voice, he added, “And I doubt the Mayor has told them about the Occs.”
“What?” Liam exclaimed. He stopped walking and stared around in disbelief. “Then we have to warn them!”
“It’s not that simple,” Andrew said. He continued walking for a few steps, then sighed and returned to Liam’s side. “Can I explain it to you later? We’re almost there.”
“Tell me now,” Liam said.
He knew he was being absurd, but the man’s reticence had piqued his curiosity. And, given his present anxiousness, the small curiosity had already begun to chafe at him.
Andrew sighed again and gestured to several of his men who had caught up and stood around with guarded expressions. At their sergeant’s wave, they nodded and continued down the path.
“The Mayor doesn’t trust the Militia,” Andrew explained, speaking in a low, hurried tone. “We help protect the city, but it’s been so long since the Occs launched a full assault that he’s probably more afraid of us than he is them.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Of course it is. But that’s why we guard our reputation. We don’t want to do anything to cause conflict with the Mayor. Like starting a panic by announcing the Occs are going to attack.”
“But they are!” Liam protested.
Andrew hushed him quickly and glanced around again. “I know that,” he said. “The Militia has known for a few days and we’ve made sure the Mayor is aware, too. But there’s no reason to make people worry unnecessarily.”
“Unnecessarily?” Liam repeated. “But they could die! They deserve to know!”
“And they will,” Andrew said with finality. “But not yet. Not until Colonel Ryan decides the time is right.”
“Who is that?” Jenn asked. She stepped up to Liam’s side, putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder. He glanced at her, uncertain whether to be annoyed by her interruption or grateful for it.
“Ryan is the Militia’s ranking officer in New Lewville,” Andrew said. “When the Colonel gives the word, we’ll start spreading the news through the city. The Mayor won’t be happy about it, but by then it’ll be too late.”
“Too late?” Kathryn chimed in. She grasped Liam’s free hand and stared up at him, distraught but obviously pleased to be making her contribution to the conversation. “Not kill Occs?”
Liam grimaced, in part because Jenn had decided to squeeze his shoulder painfully hard. He was spared the necessity of answering, however, thanks to Andrew’s laugh. Chuckling, the man reached out and ruffled Kathryn’s hair. To Liam’s surprise, she did not pull away, but grinned beneath the man’s touch.
“Trust me, kiddo,” Andrew said. “There’ll be plenty of Occs for you to kill soon enough.”
***
Flanked on either side by women he trusted, Liam managed to keep his anxiety in check, at least until they reached the walls of New Lewville. Once there, he quickly discovered that the distance had disguised their size. At first glance, he had thought them only the height of a single story, easily scalable with the right grip. In reality, the walls climbed to more than twice his estimate. And rather than being constructed from wood or stone, they were instead a patchwork monstrosity of rusted iron and crisscrossed metal lattices.
Apparently, that had not been enough for the wall’s architects. Great spools of gleaming razor wire lined the top of the wall and reinforced those sections that would otherwise have been large enough for a man to slip through.
The gate itself proved only marginally more welcoming. Though there was no razor wire surrounding it, a pair of enormous towers observed from either side of the broadening road. They seemed to be constructed from the same stuff as the wall itself, only covered over by countless layers of steel. Here and there, a narrow slit had been cut—or melted, it sometimes seemed—to accommodate the barrel of a rifle. Currently, a pair protruded from either tower, sweeping the approach that led to the door at the gate’s center. That door, though many times larger than any Liam had seen before, was easily dwarfed by the surrounding fortifications.
As before, the emptiness of Liam’s hands nagged at him and he started to reach for the rifle over his shoulder. Jenn caught his hand with a vine before he could properly arm himself, however. She shook her head, then nodded toward Andrew. The man had hurried ahead of their group, empty hands raised.
“Don’t cause trouble,” Jenn muttered.
Liam scowled and glanced her way.
“I wasn’t going to,” he said.
Jenn grinned unexpectedly and leaned in to kiss his cheek. Interlocking her fingers with his, she drew him closer.
“I wasn’t talking to you,” she whispered. Her eyes flicked to Kathryn a moment, then back to his face and creased conspiratorially at the corners.
Liam risked a peek in Kathryn’s direction and immediately understood. The young woman still held his hand absentmindedly, but her other hand had drawn one of her knives from its pocket. She turned it over and over in her palm as she stared up at the city walls in rapt fascination.
“Kathryn,” he said, just loud enough to get her attention. “Put it away.”
To his relief, she did as asked, with only a bit of muted grumbling. He watched her for a time, making sure that she did not immediately take it out again, until Andrew’s return drew his gaze.
“Good news,” the man said, unsmiling. “They’ve agreed to let me vouch for you. You’ll have to leave your weapons at the gate, but—”
“What?” Liam interrupted. Releasing Kathryn’s hand, he clung to the rifle strap against his shoulder. “Why?”
“It’s just a precaution,” Andrew said with a conciliatory gesture. “Citizens aren’t allowed to carry weapons inside the city. But—”
“That’s stupid!” Liam growled. He clung to the strap more tightly. “Do they really think—”
“Can I finish?” Andrew snapped. He waited a moment, as if expecting Liam to continue, then sighed. “As I was saying, you’ll have to leave your weapons at the gate. But, once we visit the Colonel, I can have your names added to the regiment roster. That way, you’ll be treated like any member of the Militia and entitled to carry weapons. We have to provide a copy to the Mayor every thirty days, but I expect he’ll have bigger things to worry about by then.”
When his announcement was answered by only silence, Andrew sighed again and made a show of looking around.
“Unless you expect the Occs to attack in the next thirty minutes?”
Liam grimaced and, after a moment of fruitless hesitation, pulled the rifle off his shoulder and handed it over. Andrew accepted it with a grin and added it to the one he already had.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “It’ll be fine.”
And with that, Andrew turned and led them toward the city. Liam followed, painfully aware of his empty hands and unburdened shoulder. He occupied himself with keeping tabs on Kathryn. In the brief span since he’d loosed her hand, she’d wandered off and looked suspiciously as though she was searching for the best avenue by which to climb the wall. And, if her protests when he once again secured her at his side were anything to go by, he’d grabbed her just in time.
Despite its size, the gate was remarkably crowded. Farmers poured out one side, carrying handheld tools and skins of water. The other half was filled with farmers as well, though most of these entered with wheelbarrows or four-wheeled carts laden with wood, produce, or even livestock. There were so many, in fact, that Liam’s group was forced to join a line dozens-deep just to pass through.
Liam could not help staring, however much the act reminded him of Kathryn’s near-permanent expression of awe. There were just so many people, so many faces, all crowded near one another. The onslaught of new experiences even distracted him, briefly, from his discomfort at handing over his rifle.
His curiosity
did not extend as far as Nora’s. Still glued to Julie’s side, she was quickly drawn into an innocent, but energetic conversation with several farmers who queued behind them. Her seemingly easy conversation only made Liam more conscious of his own silence.
Liam held his breath as their turn finally came and he passed through the gate. Emerging on the other side, he could not help but frown. Everything was just so… bland.
A sea of small tents and huts extended in three directions for nearly a quarter of a mile. They looked to have been constructed from whatever material was available—wood, spare bits of cloth or metal, and even the dirt itself. Here and there, shouting children ran and played amid the narrow, unplanned alleys formed by the arrangement of the buildings. A few women huddled around cooking fires or worked pumps at a small, filthy-looking communal well. But, that was the extent of it.
He was still staring when Andrew appeared at his side. Touching Liam on the shoulder, he gently steered him away from the gate.
“No place like home,” Andrew muttered. He breathed deeply and made a face. “Like I said, it’s a shithole. You ready to meet the Colonel?”
Liam started to nod, then paused when he realized he was holding only one woman’s hand—Kathryn’s. He turned to look for Jenn and spotted her immediately, gesturing emphatically at one of the gate’s guards.
“Ah, now what the hell?” Andrew growled. He stomped toward back toward the gate, a split-second before Liam could do the same. “What’s going on here?”
Liam didn’t catch the gate guard’s words, but whatever they were, it must have been a command of some kind. The gate slammed shut remarkably fast, drawing shouted complaints from the line of farmers, and similar, muffled ones from the line outside. In a heartbeat, nearly a dozen men seemed to materialize from the ether, all clad in the same grey uniforms and with hands resting warningly on holstered sidearms.
Fortunately, they weren’t the only ones accustomed to following orders. Andrew’s men appeared with equal quickness, their scowls and casually carried weapons every bit as threatening as those of the guards.
Feral Empires: Fanning Flames Page 8