Ever Onward (23 page)

Grinning, Josh herded all the males
further up to swim in the falls, leaving the pool for the
females.

An hour later, on the steep trail
above the pool, Brad, bringing up the rear, suddenly came across
Flame sitting on a log having a smoke. The day had turned very hot
and Flame’s white t-shirt was soaked with sweat. Brad tried his
damnedest to keep his eyes of her nipples.

She patted the log beside
her.

“Take a load off, Brad. I’ve been
waiting to talk to you.”

Brad sat down, not bothering to take
off his pack.

“You don’t trust me much, do
you?”

Before he could respond, she
continued. “Oh, I know you like what you see, but you still don’t
trust me.” She turned to face him, her left breast brushing his
arm. He suddenly felt like he’d been burned. Looking up into her
green eyes, he saw both frankness and a hint of laughter. “I just
wanted to let you know it’s cool. I don’t blame you for not
trusting me. As for the other, well, I’m used to it. I even enjoy
it.”

Brad held her mocking gaze. “Why are
you telling me this?”

She smiled, a real smile this time,
with a hint of something else. “All my life I’ve been looking for
something. I guess you’d call it freedom. That’s why I hung out
with bikers. I tried the surfer shit, but they’re just brainless
kids. For a while I hung around with rock bands, but all they
wanted was drugs and endless sex. Bikers are much the same, but at
least they do things, go places. They even have their own kind of
honor. I like that about them best. “ She turned away, her voice
dropping. “They’re not all like that pig Snake.”

Not knowing what else to say, Brad
asked her about Blade. She smiled, yet there was a lingering
sadness in her eyes. “He was up front. A nice guy. Under all the
macho shit, he actually cared about me. It was him that saved me
after the world went belly-up. Those first couple of days ---
without him I wouldn’t have made it.”

“And yet you shot him.”

Her green eyes went the color of
steel. “He was going to kill Tina. At first I thought it was a
bluff, just a way of getting us away from you guys and Snake. But
then I saw it was no bluff. He would have done her for sure if I
hadn’t ---”

She fumbled in her pack for another
cigarette. The zipper snagged and she gave up. Brad thought she was
either telling the truth or giving a damned good performance. A
picture flashed in his mind of her accepting an Oscar for her part
in the hit film ‘Biker Sluts From Hell’. In his mind her dress was
cut all the way to her navel.

When she turned back to face him, her
Smith & Wesson was in her hand. Brad’s heart raced. It was only
after she reversed her grip and handed him the gun that he noticed
there were tears in her eyes.

“I know you and Eddy don’t trust me.
The rest do, even Josh to a point, but you and Eddy don’t. If I
give you this, maybe you will.”

Brad frowned down at the heavy gun as
she continued.

“I don’t want to be alone. Never have.
And now that the world has...” Her hands went to the hem of her
sweat-stained t-shirt. Slowly it began to rise. “I’ve seen how you
look at me. It’s okay. Like I said, I like it.” The shirt was high
on her chest now. Brad suddenly found the sun very warm indeed. Her
voice purred on, though he wasn’t watching her lips. “I just
thought that maybe we could be... friends.”

His hand slowly reached out. His
fingers touched hers --- gently pulling the shirt back down. Then
his eyes sought hers. They looked as deep and clear as the
beautiful Gem Pool. His voice sounded lower than usual.

“I’d like to be your friend. And to be
honest, I’d like the other as well --- but not this
way.”

“Why not?”, she asked. “I can tell you
want to.”

Brad smiled warmly. “Friends don’t
take advantage of friends.”

She sat looking at him for some time,
then leaned forward and kissed him lightly on the cheek. “You’re
one of the ‘good guys’, aren’t you? Just like Josh.” Then she
hefted her pack and started up the trail. After a few strides she
stopped and looked back. There was a hint of mischief now in her
green eyes. She nodded at her gun still in his hand.

“Keep that for me. But remember,
friend; you can give it to me whenever you want.”

With that she was gone up the trail,
leaving Brad to ponder the double meaning to her words.

Chapter 19
: ‘THE SILENT
BARD’

San Bernardino

California July
11

Jocco Wellington was not in a good
mood, and when that happened, more than shit hit the fan. Bobby-Joe
Burlis glanced nervously at George the Man. Both had been given
field promotions two weeks before. Now, as senior officers in the
Army of the Dark Stranger, Jocco held them accountable for any and
all screw-ups.

They’d been in San Bernardino for
three days. Every few hours one of his Sweep Crews, led by an
original recruit from China Late, brought in new applicants. These
were quickly processed. Name, age and a brief background were
noted, along with any special skills or abilities. Then the
applicant was then tested. Those that passed were issued army
fatigues and given the rank of private; those that failed were
taken out back and shot. The pile of bodies at the rear of the
plush hotel was growing rapidly, yet not as quickly as the ‘army’
itself.

Still, Jocco was far from satisfied.
For one thing, the goddamned power was off! Not just here, but
everywhere! It happened the day after they arrived. Power meant not
only that the lights didn’t work, but the elevators, stoves,
fridges, everything electrical had all suddenly gone the way of the
fucking dinosaur!

Then there was the goddamned traffic!
Stalled, wrecked and abandoned cars everywhere! It had been bad
enough coming down I-15 from Barstow, but the closer they had
gotten to San Bernardino, the worse it had become. The centre of
town was a bloody nightmare!

Surprisingly it was Lt. Walter
Piss-In-His-Pants Pinkton who had come to Jocco’s rescue. The timid
little faggot was a fucking genius when it came to organization!
The Sweep Crews had been his idea, as had the Road Crews who
cleared the area around the hotel and the Cook Crews who found
propane stoves and lanterns and kept Jocco’s growing army eating as
well as moving. Even the Test Crews had been Pinkton’s
brainchild!

No longer was the ‘initiation’ one
long drawn-out drunken gang-rape. No way Hoe-Say! Wicked Walter had
suggested that each candidate be told very clearly exactly what was
expected of him, then taken to one of the hotel’s testing rooms.
Inside he’d find an armed guard and a woman tied to a bed. If the
candidate passed, fine. If he didn’t, well, the Sweep Crews were
bringing in a constant line of new candidates and Walter’s Burial
Crews were there to take care of those who failed. That dubious
duty, by the way, fell to the newly recruited members of Jocco’s
merry men. After that they worked their way up to Latrine Crew.
Like newly made Lieutenant Georgie-Porgie laughingly reminded them:
“It may be a ‘shitty job’ boys, but it beats the fuck out of
burying your buddy – Hoo Ha!”

Jocco had set Pinkton the up in the
room down the hall from his. There the little prick was told to
write down any and all ideas that came into his perverted but very
fertile mind. Jocco had been so pleased with the little shit’s
twisted plans that he had given him his pick of the women. Walter
had chosen the blonde they had found hiding in the church at
Barstow. Though he hadn’t seen it himself, Bobby-Joe had told him
that Walter kept her chained naked to the bed and higher than a
kite on pills Rat found for him.

Walter J. it seemed had a latent taste
for S & M. Good, Jocco reasoned. It never huts to know a man’s
weaknesses.

“What is it, gentlemen?”, Jocco
quietly asked the two men suddenly standing before him. His voice,
coming from behind the manager’s desk in the Plaza Hotel, was soft,
cold and very dangerous.

Bobby-Joe glanced at George, then
spoke up. “It’s the fucking traffic, Jocco! The road to the airport
is jammed with wrecks!”

“Then clear them, Lieutenant. By
tomorrow.”

“I’ll need more men and more
tow-trucks.”

Jocco looked down at the duty roster
Walter had drawn up. “Use the Road Crew working outside. Take
Corporal Shehe and his Weapons Crew as well. But get it
done!”

Bobby-Joe scrubbed the stubble on his
chin. He was tired, filthy and in need of a hot shower and a cold
drink. He was also pissed off and about to step out on some very
thin ice. “Shit, Jocco, what’s the fucking rush? We’re stretched
out as it is! Half the men are out on Sweeps, the other half are
working there asses off ‘round here!”

Jocco smiled, all the while fixing him
with that cold stare . Bobby-Joe suddenly felt the already thin ice
get one hell of a lot thinner. His stomach did a half-gainer while
his scrotum tried to crawl back into their hairy sack.

“By tomorrow, Lieutenant.” The moment
stretched away into eternity, then was gone as Jocco turned that
cold smile from Bobby-Joe to George. “How are the Tests coming
along?”

George the Man fumbled a small
notebook from his pocket. “Pam the Bitch says another seven men
passed. That makes a total of twenty-one in three days. Pretty
good, eh?”

“How many women found?”

George didn’t need to refer to his
notes for that one. “Five today, but two of them were old scrags. I
assigned them to the Cook Crew. The three younger ones went to the
Test Crew.”

“Well done, Lieutenant. If you wish,
you may choose one for the rest of your shift.”

George the Man’s expression lit up.
Since they’d reached town all of them had been working eighteen
hour shifts. “Fucking-A!”

“Dismissed, gentlemen.”

Bobby-Joe was hastily following an
ecstatic George out the door when Jocco softly called him back.
Walking around to meet him, Jocco placed a hand on the shorter,
heavier man’s shoulder.

“We’re moving blind here, Bobby-Joe.
As you yourself pointed out, ground travel is hampered by the
traffic, yet I need to see what’s out there. A blind army is easily
defeated. I need to reach that airport.”

Bobby-Joe nodded, willing himself not
to sweat. “Okay, Jocco. I’ll do my best.”

Jocco clapped him on the shoulder; his
voice had that velvet edge to it that sent shivers down Bobby-Joe’s
spine. “I know you will. Oh, and Bobby-Joe, when you get the road
cleared, tell George to pass on his new distraction to you when
he’s finished. Just as failure should not go unpunished, I believe
hard work should not go unrewarded.”

Bobby-Joe nodded and left
quickly, glad to have escaped the room alive. It didn’t do to
disappoint Jocco. It didn’t do at all!

Four doors down from where Bobby-Joe
stood sweating in the hall, Lt. Walter J. Pinkton stood looking
down at the naked girl on the bed. As her eyes widened with fear, a
little shiver of his own ran down his spine. The pretty blonde
pulled on the handcuffs chaining her to the brass bed. The effort
made her breasts heave, increasing Walter’s shiver. Stepping
forward, he grabbed her long hair.

Lovely. Soft.
Hi!

The act itself didn’t take very long.
When it was over he walked on trembling knees into the bathroom.
Ten minutes later, having showered and put on clean fatigues, he
was once sitting at his desk, pen in hand. The blonde on the bed
now forgotten.

He wrote on the thick,
leather bound journal, his letters neat and
precise.

1]Data base needed. Get lap-top
computer. Extra batteries needed.

2]Portable gas generators
needed.

3]Look into heating hot water for
officers.

4]Burial Crew changed to Flame
Crew.

5]Topographical maps of area
needed.

6]Double number of Testing
Teams.

7]Double number of Weapons
Training Crews.

The blonde let out a little
whimper. He frowned at her, then turned back to his
list.

8]Get more pills from Rat.

9]Set up Transportation Crew. Buses
and trucks equipped with CB’s.

10]Set up Communications Crew. Check
local radio stations.

He paused for a moment, a cold smile
crossing his pinched features.

11]Set up Punishment Crew.

12]Public execution for all
offenders.

13]Crucifixions or
beheadings?

14]Heads on poles sends better
message

15]plus bodies can be
burned.

16]Check with
Jocco
!!!

Satisfied, Walter put his gold pen
down and poured himself a glass of wine. All in all, it had been a
very successful morning. In fact, these last two weeks had been the
best in his career. Where, he mused as he sipped his wine, had it
all started? Ah, yes. With the death of God. Well, not God really,
but with the idea of God.

But then, wasn’t that the same
thing?