CRYERS (17 page)

“Call me
Brian.”

“You didn’t
have to pay a cent to be frozen, but it was in the contract you made me sign in
1975.”

“What’s so
special about him?” Eunice asked.

“Brian
Haywood was a farmer in Dauphin during the time ABZE was searching for a
suitable location for its final subterranean installation. We had to pay him
ten million for the remaining six hundred acres needed to begin construction—a
small price to pay considering the size and expense of the project.”

“That’s what
I figured,” Haywood said. “Chicken feed for a guy like you.”

“It wasn’t
the money I objected to…it was your demand to be frozen that infuriated me.
ABZE clients were supposed to be the best mankind had to offer. It never sat
well with me that the likes of you—a
farmer
who knew he had terminal cancer—could worm his way in with the best.”

“Just
business,” Haywood answered unemotionally.

There was a
groan from behind Lothair. He went to Jenny and looked down into the cryo-tube
at his great-granddaughter’s ravaged body.

“Edna?”

The woman’s
eyes opened. The pinpoint-prick black pupils searched for the voice that had
spoken her name. Lothair said it again and she found him.

Michael
stepped towards the tube and stared at the scarred mass where the top half of
his old lover had rejoined with the lower half. “How is this possible?”

“ABZE
ingenuity made it possible,” Lothair answered. “Along with all the wondrous
advances incorporated into our brains and bodies, they gave us the gift of
organ regeneration. We truly are immortal…practically invulnerable.”

Jenny gasped
when her mother reached out for her. “No. This can’t be happening. I didn’t
believe you when you said she could be brought back. She was dead…blown to
pieces.”

“It was
research realized under her leadership that brought your mother back a second
time, Jenny. Thank her for it.”

Edna
Eichberg’s cold fingers wrapped around Jenny’s wrist; her fingernails dug into
skin. Jenny yanked her arm back. “No! I didn’t want her to come back like this.
I didn’t want to come back
at all
.
This is sick.” She fled from the room.

Lothair
stopped Michael from going after his daughter. “Give her a bit more time. She
was a teen. She’ll…adjust.”

Strope looked
back down at the grotesque join at Edna’s abdomen. He could see intestines
slithering beneath the white skin, searching for proper alignment amongst
ruined but recovering organs. Her body was bent awkwardly where the spine had
fused back together. If she ever walked again, Michael was certain the woman
he’d once loved would be a misshapen, shambling freak.

Her voiced
croaked out his name. “
Michaaaaell
…”

Lothair
clapped him on the back. “You see? As good as new…almost.” He reached down and
placed a hand under his great-granddaughter’s neck. “Help me get her back on
her feet.
Now
it’s time to go outside
and reintroduce ourselves to the world.”

Chapter
29

It had taken
the better part of the next day for Cobe to realize they weren’t going back to
Burn. He’d never set out from the town walls more than half a mile up until a
few short days ago, and the land looked pretty much the same whether half a
mile away or half a hundred. It was bleak and depressing going; the ground was
like dried, burned flesh—cracked and brown. It was flat terrain for the most
part, land the rollers had beaten flatter and drier over the years. The
occasional hills they did cross over, with their collections of dead and blackened
tree trunks, only confused Cobe more when it came to bearing and sense of
direction.

Cobe knew
they weren’t headed back to Burn—not from the layout of the land, but from the
oppressive silence of the man stumbling along beside him. He moved in closer to
the lawman. “They didn’t eat your horse. They didn’t have time, and we would’ve
seen the remains.”

“I know that.
Lode’s full of shit.”

“Then what do
you know?”

“I know we’re
good and fucked.”

Cobe looked
over his shoulder and saw Devon glaring at them. He expected a kick for
staring, or even a foul-mouthed warning to keep quiet; the greasy brute replied
by burying a finger in his nostril and staying quiet. Cobe leaned closer
towards Lawson and whispered, “We’re not going to Burn, are we?”

“If we are, Lode’s
takin’ the long way.”

“We’re headed
north, aren’t we? Lode’s taking us to Rudd.”

“Yeah, would
appear so.”

“Why?”

“No idea.”

Cobe didn’t
believe him but didn’t bother pressing the matter. If Lawson figured there was
something worse than a hanging in Burn waiting for them in Rudd, it was
probably best if they were all left in the dark.

Willem
shuffled up between his brother and the lawman. The boy’s legs were short, and
the length of rope tied at his ankles didn’t impede his walk half as much as
the others. “I heard what you said—why they taking us to Rudd?”

“Keep it
down,” growled a gangly six-and-a-half-foot man with a three-foot ponytail
hanging down his back. Beff was another drunken moron from Burn that had joined
in with Lode’s crew less than a year ago. He’d worked as a tanner’s assistant,
but was released from his duties after he was caught trying to molest the
tanner’s fourteen-year-old daughter. He’d also been beaten to a bloody pulp by
the young girl’s father, and his face was still a misshapen mound of poorly
healed bone and vicious pink scars. “Little fuggers… You and yer brother…
Always fugging whispering.” All of his teeth had been smashed out beneath the
tanner’s fists. He was a bully and a coward—as almost all the men that followed
Lode were.

Willem turned
and faced him, walking backwards and talking at the same time. “It’s pronounced
fuckers
and
fucking
—not fuggers and fugging. If you can’t say it right, don’t
say nothin’ at all… You dumb
fugger
.”

 
Beff stopped in his tracks and stared at
Willem uncomprehendingly. His jaw dropped open, revealing wet gums and black
indents where his teeth used to be. “I’ll
fugging
kill you.” He ran at Willem but Cobe moved between the two first. Beff struck
him away with a backhand and continued after the smaller boy. Willem
sidestepped easily and dodged a second lunge. Beff’s reach was long, however,
and he managed to grab a hold of Willem’s single arm and yank him in. “We’ll
see how
you
talk when I bust out all
your fugging teef.”

He didn’t get
a chance to hit the boy. A big fist connected with the side of his face,
re-shattering the cheekbone. Beff fell to the ground and squealed in pain.
Lawson stood over him, pointing a finger. “Try that again and I’ll bust the
other side of yer face…and yer jaw, and yer nose.”

Lode and the
other men had gathered around and started chuckling amongst themselves. Cobe
nursed the growing bruise on his cheek a few feet away, and thought for a
moment Beff would back down. Lode’s men laughed harder, and whatever common
sense Beff may have possessed evaporated in an instant. He was fast; Cobe had
to grant him that. He jumped back to his feet and plowed his head into Lawson’s
gut before the lawman could clench his fist again. They fell to the dusty
ground in a tangle of swinging arms and kicking legs.

Devon stepped
in and grabbed a fistful of the lawman’s hair, twisting him off of the
squirming Beff. It gave the man enough time to jam a thumb into Lawson’s eye.
Lode pulled Devon away. “No—let
them
settle it.”

Beff was on
top of him now, his hands around Lawson’s throat and squeezing. The lawman
punched at his ribs and pushed him off. Both men staggered back to their feet,
swaying from side to side and breathing hard. On a good day Cobe figured the
lawman could settle things fast. Both men were the same height, but Lawson
outweighed Beff by another fifty or sixty pounds. Unfortunately this wasn’t one
of Lawson’s better days. He was battered and bruised from the constant beatings
Lode had administered since climbing out of Big Hole, he’d lost too much blood
from his encounter with the howler, and his feet were tied together at the
ankles, allowing little room to manoeuver.

Beff could
see all of this through his humiliation and rage. The lawman was a shell of a
man, barely standing and twice his age. Beff screamed and rushed him, swinging
one arm back in a long arc. Lawson stepped forward and leaned in; his elbow
found Beff’s throat and his knee pounded into the man’s stomach. Beff fell to
all fours, gagging.

The lawman
didn’t stop there. He grabbed hold of his ponytail and drove his other knee
into Beff’s temple. Beff fell onto his back and Lawson was on top of him. The
big fists went to work on his face, breaking bones and reopening old cuts.

“Enough.”
Lode pulled Lawson off and threw him roughly next to Cobe and Willem.

“Are you
alright?” the older boy asked.

“Hell, yeah.”

Lode kicked
Lawson into the dirt. He continued kicking and stomping at his ribs and head
long after the lawman had lost consciousness. Cobe sat there, sickened and
silent, looking for any sign of life from the bloodied and still form. He could
hear Trot crying. Willem had started to whimper, blaming himself. The lawman’s
chest rose and fell. He was alive. Cobe heard the words in his head Lawson had
spoken when he’d found him in the toilet stall back down in Big Hole.

Too stubborn to die
.

He should’ve
died then. He should be dead now. But he wasn’t dead, and for the time being,
there was still hope.

Lode cut the
rope between Lawson’s feet and instructed the others to do the same for Cobe,
Willem, and Trot. “I don’t think we have to worry about the old bastard trying
to escape anymore. He turned to the brothers. “Go on—run if you want. Run into
the night…run back to that hole in the ground for all the good it’ll do you.”

Finally Cobe
asked, “Why are you taking us to Rudd?”

“Haven’t you
figured that out yet, boy?” Cobe stared hatefully into the giant’s eyes. “The
Rites are taking place in a few days, and the lawman has been selected to
represent Burn.”

“He can’t
fight in no Rites,” Trot stammered. “You done beat him almost dead.”

Lode shrugged
his massive shoulders and spit a string of green mucus onto the lawman’s chest.
“I’ve conditioned him…helped prepare and toughen up for what’s to come.”

“You made
sure he would lose,” Cobe said. “He won’t last a minute against
anyone
they send in.”

“You saw how
he defended himself. The old man still has plenty of bite.”

Devon rubbed
his filthy hands together next to his leader. “Maybe I’ll volunteer to take him
on myself. I’d tear the old prick’s throat out.”

“That’s not
how the Rites work,” Lode said. “Only representatives from rivalling towns can
be pitted against each other.”

Beff had
worked himself up into a sitting position. He massaged his throat and croaked,
“Don’t matter none who they put in to face him…the old fugger’s dead.”

No one argued
the point. Lode kicked Lawson one last time over onto his stomach and grabbed
the lawman by his shirt collar. He started dragging him northeast. “Come along,
people. The Rites will go on without us if we don’t make it in time. I would
hate to see Burn have to offer up a replacement for our champion.”

Cobe and
Willem fell in behind the giant, eating the dust thrown up by Lawson’s knees
and boots as he was pulled. He won’t be able to keep it up, Cobe thought. Lode
would have to drop him at some point; even a monster that size needed to rest.
When he did, the two brothers, along with Trot’s help, would help carry the
lawman in a more dignified fashion.

Lode didn’t
tire. He continued to drag the lawman by the scruff of his shirt for another
ten miles. Only when it became too dark to travel further did he stop. Lode
dropped Lawson unceremoniously onto his face and studied what land he could see
ahead in the gloom. “You all see those hills in the distance?”

Lode’s crew
squinted into the gathering night and shook their heads. “Ain’t nothing there,”
Beff said through his swollen throat.

Willem spoke
up. “I see them.” They were the first words he’d uttered since taking the blame
for the lawman’s vicious beating.

Lode nodded.
“It’s the same range of hills you can see from the wall surrounding Burn.
They’re higher here, more rugged. The forest hasn’t been harvested over the
years. Folks took to calling them the
Dirty
Hills
. Rudd lies beyond that range.”

“So we gotta
climb some more hills,” Devon said. “Ain’t no big deal.”

“You ain’t
climbed through
those
hills. None of
you have been in the
Dirties
.” He
paused for a moment and stared down at the lawman’s unconscious form. Cobe got
the impression from his look that Lawson had been in those hills before. The
old lawman had been everywhere.

Devon
chuckled uncomfortably. “Gawdamn it, Lode, they’re just hills.”

“It isn’t the
hills and the forest you have to worry about. It’s what’s
living
there.”

“Howlers?”

Lode was
about to answer when Lawson stirred at his feet. The lawman rolled to his side
and sat up slowly, in considerable discomfort. Stay down, Cobe pleaded to
himself. When he spoke, it was choked and strained—a struggle for him to even
breathe—but still the words were clear enough for all to hear.
“Wherever…wherever it is…you plan on going…you better make it quick.”

“Another
threat, old man?” Lode asked.

“Trouble’s
comin’…from the west… I could feel it through my hands and gut on the ground.”

Everyone
looked west, where there was still a sliver of red sun on the horizon. Cobe saw
something black flicker in front of the sliver and vanish. It returned seconds
later along with another black dot, and then a third.

Willem
kneeled down next to the lawman and rested his one hand on the earth. “I feel
it, too. The ground…like it’s shaking.”

Lode took
hold of Lawson by the shirt collar again and started running east.

“Where you
going?” Devon yelled after him. “Why you running for them hills if it’s so
gawdamn dangerous?”

Beff smacked
Devon’s shoulder on his way by. “Run, man! The hills are our only hope.”

Willem and
Trot stood on either side of Cobe and gaped towards the setting sun. The last
bit of brilliant red was swallowed up in black. Either the sun had sunk completely
below the horizon, or the remaining light was being blocked. From the rumble he
could now feel in the soles of his feet, Cobe suspected the latter.

The three
started to back away. Cobe reached for his brother’s hand without looking. None
of them had ever seen a roller this close up before. Now there was a herd of
hundreds bearing down on them. They turned and ran after Lode and his men.

Cobe still
couldn’t see the hills.