The Fall of Man: The Saboteur Chronicles Book 1

by J. V. Roberts

  “So, what’d you say to him?”

  “I didn’t know you well enough to really say anything worth a damn, I still don’t.”

  “But you did say something?”

  “I think I just nodded.”

  “Do you agree with him?”

  The answer was in his hesitation, she didn’t need his words. “Lerah—”

  “Don’t bother.” She sat up and hugged her knees to her chest. She could feel the sand clinging to her naked back. He reached a hand out to touch her and she retreated. “Just please, don’t. I’m fine.”

  She could hear him back there fiddling around with his hands, sighing heavy. His mind was no doubt swirling, trying to find the next right thing to say.

  “I didn’t grow up like the other girls. I would have been cast out of Genesis if I’d refused my place as a Union soldier. While the other girls were learning to apply makeup, I was learning how to clean weapons. While they were batting their eyes and wooing boys, I was learning how to break bones. I’m not just the only female Shadeux, I’m one of the only females in the entire Union military.”

  “Yeah, I don’t recall seeing a girl on the battlefield.”

  “If there were any, they were rendering medical attention to the wounded.”

  “Aye, that’s how we utilized our women as well.”

  She didn’t know why she was explaining herself to an Outlander. Maybe it was because she wanted someone to know the truth about her, to know that she wasn’t just some callous man hating bitch. She didn’t know when, or if, she would return to Genesis. Perhaps this was to be her final confession. If so, his ears were as good as any. “You know, you can only get cat called and have your ass pawed at so many times before you start raising your guard. Men became my competition. I always felt like there was this extra bar I had to try to reach in order for them to view me as something more than just a little girl playing dress up with daddy’s clothes. I broke more than a few noses coming up the ranks. I sent more than a few down to the infirmary before they started to back off and accept me as one of the crew. Yeah, sure, I had my needs, and I handled them when I felt like it. A girl doesn’t have to look far to find a cock that’s willing and able. But I never really learned much about relationships. And you know, after a lot of the interactions I had with men, I can’t say that I ever felt the need for one. I’m not some man hater. I’ve just got my priorities. Does that make sense?” She looked back over her shoulder at him. The moonlight carved the outline of his powerful body from the dark ground. For a savage, he sure cut a fine form. Her heart fluttered as she watched him.

  Stop being such a school girl. He’s a brute. A savage. An Outlander. This was an exchange of pleasure, nothing more.

  “Actually, yeah, I do understand. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m no expert with women either.”

  “Oh, I’ve noticed.” She leaned back on her elbows, smiling over at him, their faces now inches apart.

  “By the way, my lip still hurts like a sonofabitch.”

  “You shouldn’t have stuck it in my mouth.”

  “So you just bite without looking to see what’s there?”

  She fell across him, her cheek against his chest. “It’s a reflex.”

  “Now I know why you’re so unpopular with the boys.”

  She laughed. “Asshole.” She started drawing circles on his stomach with the tips of her fingers. “You know, the Union army would have been there by now.”

  “Been where?”

  “Reeman, they would have been there by now, knocking at the front gates.”

  “Because they use horses?”

  “No, those are strictly for the scouts, we don’t have enough for everyone. But I’ve heard stories from my dad. When they’ve got a target they tend to march all night. They take small breaks for food and water, that’s it. There’s none of this stopping and making camp.”

  Dominic yawned and stretched. “Yeah, well, we’re not the army. When you’ve got fewer guys you’ve got to move smarter, not harder.”

  “Yeah, yeah, excuses, excuses.”

  “You know, me and you, we’ve got more in common than you think.” His breath came in hot bursts against the top of her head.

  “Oh, this should be rich.”

  As his fingertips ran up the length of her back, goose-bumps broke out across her flesh. “It’s not like I’ve got any deep insight, I’m not really that sort of man. There’s just a lot about you that’s familiar.”

  “Like?”

  “The stubbornness. The screwed up family. The loneliness.”

  “Who said I’m lonely?”

  “You’re lying here with me, aren’t you?”

  She laughed and kissed his chest.

  “I just… I think I know how you feel. Sometimes I feel the same way, like my path was chosen for me. I was put out young, you know? When the Rebels came knocking, was a boy with my background and disposition really going to say no to a gun and a full belly? And after the war, what other work was there for a guy like me? So as much as I’d like to believe that I’m drawing the picture of my existence, I get the feeling, sometimes, like there’s another hand guiding the pencil.”

  There was something to the disjointed rambling, a bitter truth, but she had no desire to explore the waters further. She decided to close his mouth with her own, forcing his lips apart with her tongue.

  “I thought this was one time only?”

  “Since we’ve yet to get dressed, I’d say we’re still in the middle of our session. Think you’re up to it?”

  28

  Mother stood in the town square. Colton and Kati were on their knees. They were bound and gagged and white sacks were covering their heads. It was early yet, the sun was still bullying the shadows away, but a considerable crowd had gathered in anticipation of the Fall.

  Zach watched them from where he sat near the front gate, his legs dangling over the edge of the wall. Doc had done a decent job of patching him up, but there wasn’t much to be done for the pain. It burned like fire. A fire that lit through his hand and straight through to his elbow, coiling up, squeezing and laughing as it dug in deeper. Mother and them had done a number, left him with a bloody nub, not fit to scratch his ass. His own Mother had seen it fit to have him butchered up like a wild hog. She’d done him worse than a wild hog. With a hog, you just slit its throat and let it bleed out, quick and painless. You don’t cripple the thing and leave it flopping around in the mud.

  Toby was down there, strutting around, his chest puffed out. The bastard had taken to his new position like stink to shit. After everything he’d done for that empty headed sonofabitch. Whenever Mother came down on him, he’d always had his back, had always tried to make him feel like he was a part of the bigger picture, despite his mental deficit. Zach never asked for nothing in return except for loyalty. Toby, that sonofabitch, didn’t have a shred to give.

  Fuck them! Fuck them both! Their time will come. I can wait it out. I can be patient. Ain’t got nothing but time up here on the wall, nothing but time.

  They’d outfitted Zach with a flimsy pistol. The slide rattled back and forth, the wood on the grip was chipping, and the hollow points were rusting. It’s not like he could use a rifle. That required two good hands. The pistol wasn’t much better. He couldn’t shoot for shit with his left hand and he only got twelve rounds. Once those were gone, he was screwed. A one handed man in the middle of a gunfight, trying to fumble a fresh magazine into his weapon, was as good as dead.

  “You gonna go watch the Fall?” Jeb’s bushy beard was still tangled with the remnants of his breakfast. He let out a giant sigh as he knelt down next to Zach, as if he were a leaky balloon.

  “Nah, fuck them. Fuck that.”

  Jeb let out a little grunt that sounded sort of like a laugh. “Yeah, well, I reckon you got yourself a pretty rotten deal.”

  “You weren’t in the audience cheering my suffering?”

  Jeb shook his head. “Nope,” he said, spitting off
the wall, “was up here, like I always am. Don’t really take no interest in the suffering of other folks. I ain’t seen a Fall in, well, shit, I don’t know how long.”

  Zach hadn’t ever given much thought to the suffering of others. To him there were rules; the Creator set them, Mother dictated them, and folks were required to follow them. It was all pretty simple stuff. If someone decided to color outside the lines, they were punished. Why pity them? They were the ones that had chosen to disobey. At least that’s how he used to see it. Having his fingers chopped off had caused him to start reconsidering a few things. “Yeah, I suppose it’s different being on the other side of it.”

  “Most folks, they’re okay with everything, so long as it don’t happen to them.”

  “You trying to get at me about something, old man?”

  “Not trying to get at you about nothing. I’m just stating the obvious. Two days ago you would have been down there hooting and hollering with your brother, kicking them two kids around, paying no mind to their suffering or the suffering of their folks. But now you’ve felt the lash and your mind is all switched around.”

  “My mind ain’t switched around. It’s the same as it’s always been. They tried to escape, they killed one of our own in the process. They deserve it.”

  “Some might say the same about you.”

  “They might. But I still got one good hand to bust their mouth with. What’s your deal anyway? You’re sitting up here with a rifle, standing guard; you’re no different than any of the rest of us.”

  “Well, you got me there. I suppose I ain’t. I’m just saying, there’s layers to things. Most folks around here seem to miss that.”

  “Mother would have you standing on the edge of the Scar tomorrow morning if she heard you saying some shit like that.”

  “You’d tell her and I’d deny every word. From the looks of it you don’t exactly got her ear at the moment.”

  “To hell with you, old man.”

  Kati and Colton’s parents appeared at the back of the growing crowd. Their arms were linked around each other’s shoulders. Their faces were red. A mass of guards stood nearby, ready to intervene if their emotions overran their senses.

  “All I’m trying to say is that sometimes things ain’t what they seem. I was there in the church when you went in on Terrence. I don’t think you should have had your fingers chopped over that. Mother said you desecrated the house of the Creator, but I saw it, and I don’t think that’s what you did. Was that the intent you had built up inside you?”

  “Is there a reason you give a shit?”

  Jeb smacked his lips together and flapped his shoulders. “I reckon I don’t. I reckon I’m just passing the time.”

  Zach decided to bite, anything to get the old bastard up and moving along. “When Mother hands you a task, it’s got weight to it. She had me up there, filling her shoes, and those are some big ass shoes.”

  “Yeah, but you done it before.”

  “But things weren’t so on edge then. This was me proving myself to her. You know? Proving that I could handle the big time shit. Then Terrence challenged me in front of everyone and said what he said about Mother. What was I supposed to do? Let it stand? I needed to take control. I needed to make an example. Hell, isn’t that what she did with me?” He held up his nub of a hand, wrapped in blood stained bandages.

  “I reckon that’s exactly what she did.”

  “And Toby, down there soaking up the glory; it’s a bitter taste.”

  “Well, sometimes we gotta drink what’s in front of us.”

  “I ain’t gonna have a second glass, I’ll tell you that much.” Zach was tired of hearing Jeb’s voice, tired of watching the crowd and Mother and Toby. He just wanted to walk, put the sun on his face, and wash his mind out a little. He stood, doing his damndest to avoid scraping his tortured limb on anything.

  Jeb joined him, breathing heavy as he reached his feet, his rifle resting across the top of his stomach. “So, what are you gonna do with that second bitter glass when it comes around, toss it back in their face?”

  “I’ll be damned if I know. My shooting hand is useless. I’m shit with a pistol and worse with a rifle.”

  “Nah, you ain’t.”

  Zach shoved the meaty wreckage of his hand in Jeb’s face and waved it back and forth.

  “What of it?”

  “What of it? Are you playing funny with me, old man?”

  “Not playing funny, I just don’t see the problem.”

  “You ever shot a rifle with one hand? I ain’t tried myself, but I imagine it’s pretty useless.” Zach began to stomp off. He was a cunt hair away from chunking the big bellied bastard from the wall.

  “Who said anything about shooting with one hand?”

  Now Zach was sure Jeb was shining him on. “I’ve had my fill of you, mister. I think it’s best we part ways.”

  A slim border of yellow sunlight was slowly wedging itself between them, growing thicker by the minute. “I ain’t running some game here. I had a Daddy that lost one of his arms, all the way up to the elbow, during the war. He shot a rifle till his dying day, and he didn’t do it with one hand neither. He wasn’t no joke. He was a man to be feared when he got behind the sights. Now, if you want, I could show you how. Get you back on a rifle in no time.”

  Zach eyed Jeb hard, trying to find the sincerity somewhere in the slits of his eyes and the deep lines of his leather skin. “How are you gonna go about doing that exactly?”

  “When they leave out for the Fall, how about you come find me and I’ll show you?”

  Zach didn’t have anything to lose and he still had one good hand to bust Jeb with if it turned out he was pulling his chain. “Alright then, we’ll meet up back here when Mother and them light out.”

  “See you back here.” Jeb turned and began lumbering away, the wall groaning beneath him.

  Zach stood there, watching him go. There was a feather tickling the inside of his guts, floating this way and that, carried by a sliver of breezy optimism.

  29

  There was no talk of the previous evening’s indulgences. They rose, dressed, and feasted on almonds and apples. They exchanged cursory glances and mumbled discourse. But despite the want for meaningful conversation, the mood between them lacked the awkwardness Dominic had been expecting. Lerah’s spirits had lifted noticeably. He caught her humming as she wedged her feet into her boots. Even Dominic, operating on a scarce parcel of sleep, felt lighter. Their relationship had evolved, not in the romantic sense. There was an understanding that hadn’t been there before.

  But there were other problems on the immediate horizon. They were nearing their destination and one final obstacle remained in their path. Once they were back on the road it didn’t take long in greeting them.

  “You remember that bridge I told you about?” Dominic took a knee behind a rubbish wall of old tires and scrap metal, a defensive position for the local bandit tribes haunting the area.

  Lerah joined him, staying just off his left shoulder. “Yeah, I wish I didn’t.”

  “Well, that’s it, just ahead. You see the way the ground dips down? That’s where it opens up. That little black strip you see up there, that’s the bridge. I make out four, maybe five guards; can’t tell if that last spot is a rock.”

  She leaned past him, balancing herself on the tires. “There are five, unless rocks have taken to walking.”

  “Those numbers aren’t ideal.” Dominic was chewing at his thumb, mulling over their options.

  “And it’s all open ground… again. I hate this place, all of it. It’s just one big stretch of overheated shit.”

  “Bombs will do that.”

  “You have any brilliant plans?”

  “Not really.”

  “And there’s no way around?”

  “Nope, not that I know of, this is as good as it gets.”

  Lerah threw her hands up and fell back on her butt. “That’s it then. We’re done, time to turn around and
head back.”

  “Ah, come on, just like that? You’re throwing in the towel?”

  “Throwing in the towel? There are five shooters watching that bridge. Money men, right?”

  “Not familiar with that term.”

  “It’s a term we use for thieves.” She shook her head, trying to get back on track. “Point is they’re not Union. They aren’t going to let us just mosey on up like last time.”

  Dominic nodded. “You’ve got a valid point.”

  “Well, thank you. This whole mission has been nothing but bad omen after bad omen: the assassins at the inn, my people at the settlement yesterday, now this. The universe is screaming in our ear. I think it’s time we start paying attention. So, am I leading the retreat or are you?” She wasn’t kidding.

  “You call it a bad omen, but it’s not, it’s the Outlands. Shit happens. You just roll with it. Now, I might have an idea. It’s gonna be prickly as all hell, but I think you’re up to it.”

  “You think I’m up to it? What about what I think?”

  “Well, what do you think?”

  “I haven’t heard the idea yet.”

  “Like I said, it’s prickly. Let me get it all out before you make your mind up about it, okay?”

  Lerah looked as if she’d already made up her mind.

  Lerah walked slowly across the open range, towards the pack of shooters surrounding the mouth of the narrow bridge. Dominic had taken her jacket and weapons. Her arms were raised above her head. Her hands were tingling as the blood drained to her lower extremities. She was going faint. It wasn’t the oppressive heat. It was her nerves. Her legs were limp noodles stuck in the spin cycle of a boiling pot. Her knees shifted this way and that, coming together and moving apart. Her left foot caught up on some invisible hazard and she went down hard. Her hands caught her fall, and the harsh desert landscape dug deep into her palms. She looked up, her entire body rattling with adrenaline. Three of them were approaching her, leaving the other two at the mouth of the bridge. They wore dirty blue coveralls. The tops were unbuckled, hanging down across their groins, the buckles moving back and forth at their knees. They were unwashed and unkempt, with bulging bellies and chicken chests. But they were strong men, with arms of solid muscle. They were licking their lips, flapping their jaws up and down as if they could already taste her, the inside of their mouths an assortment of rusty fish hooks. Their rifles, big and black, were loaded down with drum magazines. All three barrels were pointed in her direction. There was no retreat now. They’d chop her in half.