"What"s this?"
"A scavenger, Major," one of the guards said.
"What"s your name?"
Emerson hesitated. Any enthusiasm he held waned in the presence of this man with an eye patch. Instinct told him to stand and run, but the guards continued to hold his arms and knock his feet from under him.
"Emerson ... sir."
"Where are you coming from, Everson?"
"I"m from Michigan originally ..."
The major stepped from the trailer and approached the captive. "Michigan. Really?" He held up his right hand and pointed to the open palm "Which part?"
Gregory smiled and began to point towards the open palm to indicate his hometown.
The palm came crashing down with such speed that Gregory Emerson flinched well after it had struck him.
Blood rushed to the surface of his skin and he felt the sting on his cheek.
"Where were you last, Eberson?" The major held his hand up again, not as a map, but as incentive to answer quickly.
"Uh, New Hope. About a week ago."
"Where is it?"
"Five days, that way." He shrugged. "On foot. About ten miles off the highway."
The major nodded and stepped back into the trailer. A guard closed the door behind him.
The guard behind him stopped kicking at his knees and drew a pistol. Gregory Emerson didn"t see the gun. He didn"t feel the bullet. Then, he felt nothing at all.
The door opened again and the major reemerged. "Another thing, Everman ..." He looked at the body on the ground. "Why is this man dead?"
"You nodded, sir," the guard with the smoking gun responded.
"So?"
"Well, usually when you nod, it means kill something."
"Yes, but I didn"t think you"d be so quick about it." The major stepped from the trailer and stood over the body of Gregory Emerson.
"I ... I don"t know what to say."
"I figured you"d at least drag him to the side of the road. I mean, look at this! You got blood and brain all over the truck."
"I"m sorry ..."
"You had better hope this comes out." The major pulled the guard closer, grabbed the man"s sleeve, and tried to rub the blood from the black paint of the trailer. He succeeded only in smearing it around. Dropping the guard"s arm, he yelled, "Get this cleaned up and get rid of that body."
"Yes, sir."
"And from now on, when I nod, yes, kill something, but take it away and kill it."
"Yes, sir." The guard signaled to the others to dispose of the body as he set to spitting at the splatter on the trailer.
"Not like that, get some water. Take it out of the prisoners" rations."
"Yes, sir."
The guard hurried off as the major yelled after him.
"I want this road cleared STAT. We"re heading to New Hope." He stepped back into the trailer and shut the door.
The wrecking crew, having stopped to witness the execution, returned to their task.
Coordinated as their efforts were, the pileup was extensive. Wrecks of rusted cars were twisted together as one. Torches, jackhammers, and more would take days to clear the wreckage. A respect for the dead would cost them weeks. This would not be a factor.
Sparks flew as they began their work.
SEVEN.
"What do they want?"
"Food, provisions, men, women, and children."
"Women and children?"
"They"re collecting slaves. They kill most of the men and place the women and children in this trailer here." Logan pointed to a crude ill.u.s.tration of the rig that he had sketched on the wall of the town hall barn.
Gasps came from the gathered crowd. Every citizen of New Hope was in attendance to hear the proposed plans for the defense or evacuation of New Hope.
"What do they do with the slaves?" The question arose from the back of the room.
Logan shook his head, "I don"t know. Trade them? Forced labor? Worse? There are no limits to this man"s evil."
"How many men on this truck?" Sheriff Willie Deatherage looked up at the crude drawing of the rig.
"Twenty or more."
"I"m pretty sure we"ve got that many bullets."
Logan raised a hand to calm the lawman. "All of them are well armed and trained. They may be former military."
"I don"t buy it." A young councilman stood in the back of the room. After speaking with Logan, the mayor had requested a gathering of the town"s administrators. Most of the council members supported his plan. Timothy Simmons, however, had been swayed by Roy"s arguments. The young council remained skeptical that there was a threat at all.
Simmons pushed a pair of ill-fitting gla.s.ses further up the bridge of his nose before he spoke. "It"s been seven years. Seven years since everything stopped and we"ve never seen anything like this. Why, all of a sudden, is the post-apocalypse turning into Mad Max?"
Logan straightened, "I don"t mean to argue, but you"ve been fortunate. Gangs have formed and towns have burned. I"ve seen it. And, I"ve stopped it from happening."
"Bulls.h.i.t. Bulls.h.i.t, Mr. Logan." The gla.s.ses slid back down his nose.
"Why would I make this up?"
"A good question, Mr. Logan. Let"s examine that, shall we?" The young councilman approached the front of the room, adjusted his gla.s.ses and spoke to the crowd. "Have you ever heard of the gra.s.shopper and the ants?"
Logan shook his head in disbelief. "That"s hardly ..."
"The ants, ladies and gentlemen, worked diligently all year harvesting food for winter."
Someone in the crowd muttered, "We know the story, Timothy."
The young man continued, fidgeting with his new gla.s.ses as he spoke. "They worked hard, storing food so that they might live. But, the gra.s.shopper ..." He turned to face Logan. "The Gra.s.shopper, Mr. Logan, played and played. And he didn"t do s.h.i.t for work."
"Yes, sir. I know the parable and ..."
"And, when winter came, the gra.s.shopper began to starve. That lazy, lazy gra.s.shopper. And, the ants took pity and fed him. No, wait. That"s not right."
"I think the ants let him starve," said the Director of Internal Communications.
"No, they fed him and he learned to work hard," said the Secretary of the Treasury.
The crowd began to offer their own recollections of the story: "I thought that the gra.s.shoppers were bullies."
"No, that was A Bug"s Life."
"Was that the one with Stallone?"
"No, that was Ant Bully."
"Antz."
"What?"
"You mean Antz. With a z. Antz."
"What"s with a z?"
"The ant movie with Stallone and Woody Allen."
"Look at the movie nerd."
"Shut it, Miller."
"The point is, ladies and gentlemen," Timothy shouted, "that the story is no less true today than when Dr. Seuss first penned it. And here," he pointed to Logan, "is our gra.s.shopper. Knocking on our ant hill with a story about a truck full of killers."
The room was quiet. All men and women looked to Logan. The only sound was Miller and the movie nerd trading insults back and forth. Logan waited for the arguing to stop before he responded.
"Wow. Just, wow. I don"t know what to say to that."
"That"s what I thought," Timothy began to walk back to his seat.
"Aesop, not Seuss, Mr. Timothy, was a wise man. And," he gestured to a gray-haired man in the front row, "you were right, the ants let the gra.s.shopper starve. And deservedly so. The gra.s.shopper sang and played while the ants toiled. He offered nothing.
"I"m no gra.s.shopper. I offer something. If it is just a warning that a big truck full of killers is headed your way ... fine. You can choose to ignore it, or prepare for it on your own. It doesn"t matter to me. But I am offering to stay and help. And not for your winter stores. I don"t want anything."
"Then why would you help?"
"Because, I used to be an ant." He shifted his feet and choked back a hard memory. "And gra.s.shoppers took everything from me. Good people of New Hope, I see potential in this new world. The blight of mankind"s evil was not wiped from this Earth with everything else. But, from what"s left there is the hope that a town such as yours can be the model for the new world. It is a good town. A town ruled by the people. Good people.
"And now you are in the path of a force ruled by fear. The two will collide. Whichever is left standing will shape the world to come.
"There is a gra.s.shopper out there and I can"t let this be a world created by gra.s.shoppers. I want to live in a world of ants. I want to side with you and protect your way of life. Our way of life."
The crowd was silent, but he could see that his words had moved them. Timothy Simmons saw it as well and sank into his seat. Logan was confident that he could speak without protest.
"I don"t want anything from you. I just want to help. Now, I"m going to need some things. We don"t have much time."
"How much time do we have?" the sheriff pointed back at the truck.
"We can"t be certain. I made the drive from Vita Nova in under a day. They"ll take a little longer."
"Why is that?"
"The roads aren"t clear enough for a rig of this size. They don"t have the luxury of crossing medians. They"ll have to make their own path."
EIGHT.
Ash that had been Vita Nova shifted beneath his boots as he moved slowly through the town. Patches of the ground were warm beneath his feet as they stirred the coals of a devastating blaze. An odor hung in the air; it smelled like a campfire that had melted a pair of sneakers.
Frames of the buildings still stood, but they were charred and brittle like burnt matchsticks. Bodies lay everywhere. Some burned beyond recognition, others untouched by the flames. There was nothing left in the town but death and a tricycle.
The little red tricycle lay on its side; one wheel spun from the rising heat of the town. He didn"t see the child that once rode it. He didn"t want to.
Wasteland travels had exposed him to horrific creatures. Mutant animals hunted for prey with a ferocity and viciousness that no creature had been capable of prior to the bombs.