15 Years Later: Wasteland (13 page)

That struck home with her, and it was clear that she was starting to think of him like a big brother.

"There has to be something more to live for than this shit, and I'm willing to fight for it. So I am going back there, whether they like it or not."

He strolled back into town just as he had done before, but the wailing and crying had stopped. No longer were people lying down and cursing. They had already gone back to work. Building, cleaning, cooking, and all the other things they would have to do daily to survive.

Is this to take their minds from what has happened, or have they just accepted
their fate and carried on with their lives? They are tough people;
that’s for sure.

A few of them stop and stared at him, but nobody said a word, not until Johnnie came on the scene. He was clearly the leader of the town.

“I told you to go!”

There was a quiver in his voice as if he needed Zed to have gone, rather than really wanted him to.

“No, I am not running anymore,” he replied in a firm and loud voice.

Lannie stepped out from one of the huts, having heard what he had said. She looked to Johnnie with some hope that he may accept it.

“Why do you care for us now?” Johnnie asked, “You have done nothing but brought us pain and suffering. Why can’t you just leave us for good?”

“I don’t know why I left you before, but I can’t change that. All I can do is decide what I can do right now, and I am deciding to stay. I want to help.”

“What if we don’t want your help? What if the only thing we want is for you to leave and never come back?”

Zed shook his head.

“I don’t care whether you will accept it or not. I am not going anywhere.”

“Why? What possible good can you do here?”

He took a deep breath and looked at the faces around him. They were as doubtful and questioning as Johnnie was, and he could see why. He had to choose his words carefully, and he wasn’t comfortable with that. It was a new pressure he had not known.

“Jay has taken from you, and you let him. Why not stand up and fight?”

Johnnie laughed loudly.

“Fight? Fighting nearly cost me my life, and you should know that!”

He didn’t understand what he meant, but it wasn’t his place to ask. His brother harboured a massive hatred and resentment for him, even though below it all there was a love that was buried deep. A love that had stayed his hand and not let him pull the trigger, he let him go on.

“I rose up and fought the Boss. It cost us one hundred and nine lives, people with families of their own. I have to live with that. It’s on my conscience. I have to live with that every day of my life. I did what I thought was right, and it caused more pain and suffering than we get at the hands of Jay and the Boss if we just do what they want. I don’t like it, nobody does, but it’s better than the alternative.”

“So you lost, is that a reason to give up?”

“You would have us throw all those lives away again, for what?”

“You don’t see the worth because you lost. That is not a reason to stop fighting. You fight again, and you fight until you win.”

“Yeah, well, you would think that, wouldn’t you? You’ve never lost anything in your life!”

“I lost you, and I lost Lannie. I lost my daughter. Now I have a chance to get some of that back, but not while animals like Jay rule around here. He’s just taken more of your people. Will you not fight for them? For your son?”

He lowered his head and shook it in disbelief. He was distraught and traumatised by what he had been through, and that was evident.

“He’s right,” added Lannie, “We can’t let our friends and families be ripped away from us, or it is no better than if they had died fighting us.”

He looked up at her in surprise as if she had never spoken this way before. Zed could see that so many more of the people around them were in line with her thinking. Clearly, nobody had questioned this before.

“You have kept these people together, and I get that, but they need more than to simply get by.”

Johnnie looked up at him and shook his head, looking with disgust as if he had been given a grave insult but would not explain why. Yet he could see his people were already turning in favour of Zed. Lannie had been the key to it all. They looked to her for support. She stood with Zed, and that was enough for them. Johnnie looked both sad and disappointed, and that was not his intent.

“After all these years I have worked to protect you, and fight for you. Will you now go with this man? The man who abandoned you, the man who has brought this new trouble to your door?” he asked them in a loud voice that carried to the two-dozen listening.

No one responded, and that gave him his answer. He strode up to Zed as if wanting to hit him once again, but stopped a few feet short.

“You have no right to do this, none at all. Not after everything you have done to us. I wish they could see it, but they will pay for their mistake in blood. I only hope the cost isn’t so dear that this town dies with them.”

He turned and stormed off angrily. Zed still didn’t quite understand what it was between them that created such anger and bitterness. He could only hope the answers would come in time. They all looked to him now, and more were piling in to hear him speak. He hadn’t thought this through. He’d hoped that his brother would stand with him and lead the way, and yet it had all come down to him now.

“Say something to them,” said Lannie.

He was aware he had her full support. He knew from the moment he had arrived that she was with him all the way.

Is that the reason my brother hates me so much? I have to focus on the task at hand.

“Jay has taken your food and your people. Soon he will come and take more. He will grind you into the dust. He will keep you alive and spare just enough of you so that there is something left to take each time he comes back. You can sit back and let that happen, slowly fade away. Starve and die slowly, miserable and starving. Or you can stand, and you can fight. People will die whatever you choose, but this way you get a chance to be human beings. You get a chance to fight for those you care for. Will you do it?”

There was silence for a few moments. He could see in their faces that they had seen war before. They knew what it would cost them, but they were also still hurting from what Jay had done to them. There was anger in their eyes that stemmed from their want for payback.

“I will!” Lannie declared.

Several others agreed, and more grunts of approval soon followed.

“What do we do?” asked Lannie.

That brought silence as they all looked to him for answers. He wanted to fight, but he hadn’t thought of how yet. He hadn’t even expected them to side with him like they did. In fact, he hadn’t expected the topic to even be broached so quickly. All he had hoped for was for Rave and him to be accepted into their town. Things were already moving far faster than he had anticipated. All he could think to do was roll with it.

He thought back to his time in Jaytown. Surviving had been all that had occupied his mind, but now he had gotten time to think more about it, and see what Jay and his people did to others, including those he cared for.

The bitter hatred Johnnie feels for me; that is
what I now feel for Jay.

“Jay rules this place because of fear. He is a bully, a man who only understands violence. There will come a time when we must try and negotiate to live in peace. I have no desire to massacre a town because I don’t like them or the way they live, but we need to send out a message; a message that he will understand and take seriously. The time for words will come, but not yet.”

“What message?”

“That we are a force to be reckoned with.”

“We...we have some weapons stored and hidden from the war,” said one of the men nearby. He looked barely older than Ed, with dark ginger hair and a scruffy beard.

“Against the Boss?” Zed asked.

He nodded.

“All right, what’s your name?”

“Miles.”

“Okay, Miles, I want you to go and break out those weapons. Anyone who knows anything about Jaytown or their movements, come to me. The rest of you…”

He looked around at the town. They had been capable of making structures, but had done little to fortify, besides the large gateway and the choice of land that gave them some natural protection.

“I don’t want to fight a war here, but it might come to that. I want walls, barricades, shooting positions, make this place ready to fight.”

For an hour he talked over plans with anyone that came forward, but they could offer little help. They had stayed well clear of Jaytown, and for good reason. The one person who he knew could help had remained silent. He thanked them for their help and let them be on their way. He headed out to the entrance path of the town and sat on the rock where he had talked to Johnnie the night before. Footsteps soon approached. Rave was heading his way. She took a seat beside him just as she had done before.

“All that info about Jaytown. You have it and you said nothing.”

“It was the one place you said we would never go back to.”

“Are you scared of Jay?” he asked in amazement.

He could see it in her face, but she didn’t want to admit it.

“If he ever catches me…”

“That’s not going to happen. I won’t let it happen.”

“But what if you can’t? He is strong.”

“Trust me, I’ll find a way.”

They watched the townspeople go about the building of the defences. It was as if they had done them before.

“You know I never built walls around this place because I wanted the people here to live free,” a voice said solemnly.

It was his brother, standing ten feet behind them. He strode up, and Rave tried to leave to let them speak, but Zed held out his hand and stopped her from getting up.

“You can hear whatever he has to say. That’s what trust is.”

She looked appreciative, but also surprised.

“We fought. We fought with everything we had, and we lost. But the one thing we had left was that we could live free. Get on in our lives. And now we can’t. That is on you. Had you just stayed away, you could have made sure this never happened.”

Zed got up to face him.

“What is it that you think I could have changed?”

“Everything. You made your bed a long time ago, and now you want to come back and start over again. Well, I don’t believe it. I don’t believe in you, or your bullshit story. You are giving hope, but they will just get more suffering, because that is your way. Everywhere you go and everything you do. You gave me your word, and you even broke that. These people are fools to trust in you. It is only a shame how long and how many deaths it will take for them to see it.”

With that, he turned and left. Zed felt that every confrontation with his brother was the same.

Why can’t he just understand and get along? It is a mystery I hope will be solved soon enough.

“He really does hate you,” said Rave.

“Indeed. Well, at least I have you.”

That brought a smile to her face and instantly seemed to relieve some of the fears she had.

“Must be nice to have your family back,” she added.

He was certain she would do anything for the same.

“I wouldn’t go that far. It wasn’t exactly the warm welcome I was hoping for.”

He thought back to the moment he had arrived, and Lannie began to explain how it was. He recalled how she had said his daughter had died. He barely remembered her, and that made him feel sad. He would try to find out more about her, but now was not the time. He could only hope those memories would come back in time.

What made no sense to him was why he ever would have left in the first place? He was so drawn to finding them, and it hadn’t been so difficult.

What made me go away and stay
away before? Was my return a good
thing?

He had no answers to any of these questions. All he could do was fight against the challenges that were placed before him.

“If we started causing trouble for Jay, would the Boss get involved?”

“I don’t think so. Jay is expected to manage this area, and he’d never go to the Boss for help.”

“Because it would make him look weak?”

She nodded.

“Then that will be his downfall. Pride.”

“I don’t get you.”

She didn’t need to. It was coming together in his mind now, all that he must do, and in some ways it made him excited. The same excitement and joy he had taken in the violence he had been involved in these past few days. He both liked and feared that feeling all at once.

“Do you really intend to attack Jaytown? It’s suicide.”

“Not if I don’t have to. First we get back what was taken.”

“How?”

He thought on it for a moment. The situation seemed so familiar. Was this a call to war? He had felt it before, but from before all this began or after? Somehow he knew what to do.

Am I a Marine at heart? Do I believe that tattoo? Something has kept me alive, more than just raw willpower and a desire to live.

“If we can’t hit Jay in his fortress, we hit him outside. Do you know the routes his vehicles take?”