Fight for Power (15 page)

I looked at Leonard. “I understand if you're feeling nervous about showing us where you live. We don't have to go there if you don't want us to. You know we aren't going to harm you or your family. Is that what you're worried about?”

He didn't answer.

“Leonard,” Todd said. “We are not going to do anything. Adam is the nicest person I've ever met. He always keeps his word about everything.”

“But it's your choice,” I said. “Do you want us to wait here or come with you?”

“I guess you can come with me. I'd like you to meet my mother and my grandfather.”

Leonard walked forward.

We followed him down the path. It was narrow with thornbushes sprouting on both sides. There should have been a way around this patch, so there had to be a reason why he was going straight through it. I heard a noise and turned.

There was a woman standing in a clearing behind the bushes, and she had a rifle pointed right at us.

Instinctively, my hand started to move toward my pistol.

“Don't even think about it,” she said. “Put your hands up, both of you.”

I hesitated for an instant.

“Now!” she ordered.

“Better do what she says,” I heard Todd say from behind me.

I started to raise my hands when Leonard pushed past me. “They're with me, Auntie Mary.”

“You weren't supposed to bring them here. You know that!” she yelled.

“They're my friends.”

“Your friends are carrying weapons,” she said.

“Everybody who's got any brains is carrying weapons,” Leonard called back. “Could you stop aiming that rifle at us?”

I expected her to do what Leonard asked, but instead she pulled the rifle up so that she was looking down the barrel, right at us, right at me! In response I raised my hands a little higher, trying to somehow appease her.

“Look, there's no need for this. We'll leave the supplies … even our weapons if you want. Let's not do anything we'll all regret.”

“Come on, Auntie Mary,” Leonard said.

The rifle remained aimed above Leonard's head and right at my chest. I was wearing body armor—so was Todd—but would that stop a rifle shot at such close range?

I saw a glimpse of movement behind Leonard's aunt and couldn't believe my eyes. Leonard seemed too distressed to notice anything at the moment. “You know,” I called out to his aunt, to keep her attention focused on me. “I really don't want to cause any trouble at all. I was just wondering if—”

Silently, Lori appeared out of nowhere directly behind our opponent. She placed a pistol against the back of the woman's head. Then she leaned in close and said something, and the rifle lowered. Then it was in Lori's other hand.

“Don't hurt her!” Leonard yelled. “Please don't hurt her!”

“Nobody is going to hurt anybody,” I said, my voice sounding hoarse and hesitant. I walked over as Lori, still holding both weapons, backed away from the woman.

“Hello, I'm Adam,” I said, offering Leonard's humiliated aunt my hand.

She didn't respond. Her expression was blank. Not hostile, not friendly, just neutral. Leonard came to her side.

“I thought we had a deal,” I said to Leonard.

“We did … We do.”

“Did that deal involve us being threatened with a rifle?” Todd asked. “Because I wouldn't have agreed to that deal.”

“I'm sorry. I didn't know she was going to do this, honestly. My aunt has been through a lot … She doesn't really trust people.”

It wasn't just the words he was saying but the way he'd reacted to things that made me believe him. He had seemed as surprised as we had been.

“Are there any more surprises we need to know about?” I asked.

“None … Well, I don't think so.”

I couldn't help but laugh, and that lessened the tension for everybody.

“Do you still want us to come to your camp?” I asked.

“I'd like that. Please.”

“You and your aunt should lead, then.”

Leonard gave her one of the bags, then took her by the hand and pulled her down the path. They squeezed by Todd, who looked both confused and amused. He shrugged. “I guess as long as she didn't shoot us it's all good.” He turned around and started after them.

“What are you doing out here?” I asked Lori while the others walked ahead.

“Apparently saving your bacon.”

“I was trying to talk my way out of it.”

“I saw how that was working.” She strapped on the rifle and took some of the load I was carrying.

“No, seriously, why are you out here?” I asked again.

“I thought you could use some backup, and I guess I was right. Are we going with them, or are we going to play twenty questions?”

“Going with them.”

Lori went down the path and I stumbled after her.

“I guess I should have invited you to come along in the first place,” I said.

“You guess? It seems pretty certain right now. You know, I'm not helpless.”

“I don't think you're helpless … just special … too special to put at risk.”

“I know that was supposed to be a compliment, but I'm just as capable as you out here, probably more so with a gun.”

“I didn't say anything about that.”

“I was raised on a farm and spent a lot of time playing in the woods, so it probably would have been better if I went out and you stayed inside the fence.”

“Look, I'm sorry. I won't do that again, I promise.”

She reached over and took my hand. “Apology accepted.”

“Thanks. And thanks for saving our bacon.”

She laughed. “You're welcome. Just be more gracious the next time it happens.”

We hurried to catch up to the rest. They were still in sight and hadn't gone far, although falling back might even have been better. I didn't want any more surprises.

The path opened up into a small clearing where there were two tents, one orange and the other bluish—no, the bluish one wasn't a tent but two tarps, one tied between trees for a roof and the other as a lean-to. I'd seen tents sprouting up in other places outside the neighborhood, but I'd never talked to anybody who was living in one. The orange tent was old and sagging, and it looked like a rip in the side had been sewn up. Sitting at a picnic bench beneath the tarp was Leonard's sister, Penny, a woman who I guessed was their mother, and an older man—I assumed he was the grandfather.

Leonard led us into the clearing and everybody got up. Auntie Mary walked off to the side and stood there, staring at us. I tried to keep an eye on her in case she went looking for another weapon. She made me nervous.

“This is Adam,” Leonard said.

I placed my bags and the rifle on the ground beside the ones the others had been carrying. I shook hands with the grandfather. “Pleased to meet you, sir.”

“Likewise, son. You can call me Sheldon.”

“And this is my mother,” Leonard said.

“I'm Amy. Glad to meet you, Adam.”

“Did you get it all?” Auntie Mary called out from across the clearing to Leonard. “Did you get what you'd been promised?”

“I didn't get all the deer, but—”

“Why not? We need that meat!” Her expression changed from blank to angry.

I was almost reassured by the anger.

“There's more here than just the deer meat,” Leonard said. “They gave me canned goods and bags of pasta and some stuff to make the water fit for drinking.”

“That's wonderful,” Amy said. “I was a little worried about how we were going to keep all that meat fresh long enough to eat it. Thank you.”

“You're welcome.”

“Would you like to stay for a cup of tea?” she asked.

“We don't want to take your supplies,” I said.

“You brought us enough in return. Besides, we have plenty. It's brewed from local chicory,” she said.

“My grandfather knows all about using natural ingredients,” Leonard said.

“There are hundreds of plants that can be used for foods,” Sheldon said. “Everything from reeds to pine cone seeds can be eaten or brewed or chewed on.” He paused. “Although, unfortunately, there's no easy way to replace cane sugar. There's honey, but that's hard to come by.”

I bent down, reached into one of the bags, and rummaged around. “Then I guess you could use this.” It was a small bag of sugar that had been included as part of the exchange for the deer meat.

“Then you have to join us,” Sheldon said. “Please, have a seat.”

“We really have to get back soon,” I said. “People will get worried if we're gone too long.”

“I can understand that,” Amy said. “There are lots of reasons to be worried, but we'd be grateful for the company and the conversation.”

“Well, I guess we could stay for a bit.”

Todd and Lori took a seat on both sides of Penny. She looked happy to have them join her. I sat down on the other bench, sideways so that I could face Leonard's mother but still keep one eye on his aunt.

“You don't have to worry,” Amy said quietly. “She won't hurt you.” She gestured to the aunt.

“She had that rifle pointed at us,” I said. “Lori took it away from her.”

“She's had a rough time. She was in the city when it all happened. She's just scared.”

“I guess we're all a little scared,” Lori said. “It's okay.”

“I've heard stories about the city,” I said. “It got pretty bad, pretty fast.”

“I won't be sharing my sister's story, but it was pretty bad for her. And then when she did get home, she was forced out by the fire.”

“Is that why you're out here?” Todd asked. “There was a fire?”

“The whole complex went up.”

Leonard's grandfather returned and set down mugs of steaming tea in front of us.

“There have been a lot of accidental fires,” I said.

“There was nothing accidental about this fire,” Sheldon said. “It was deliberate. A bunch of fools set one townhouse on fire, and it spread to every unit. No fire department to put it out or police to stop it from happening to begin with.”

“Adam's mother is—” Todd began.

“Really upset about all of this,” I said, cutting him off and giving him an evil eye. What was the point in telling them that my mother was the person responsible for there being no police to help them outside our walls?

“I lived on a farm. We had to leave it, too,” Lori said. “There were groups of armed people who forced us to go.”

“That's why we're better off out here in the woods, away from people, on our own,” the grandfather said. “You three are dressed for trouble. I've never seen anybody except riot police wearing body armor.”

“We were lucky enough to get us a few sets,” I said, downplaying what we had. “We wouldn't want to be out here without it.”

“Probably smart. That's why we're staying in the woods,” Sheldon said. “There are people living all through these woods.”

“I've seen flashes of color as I fly over,” I said.

“Fly?” Amy said.

“Is that you up there in that little plane?” Sheldon asked.

“That's me.”

“Pretty amazing. You must be just about the only thing in the skies,” he said.

“He is now that we shot down that Cessna,” Todd said.

There were shocked looks from all of them. I wished Todd had kept his mouth shut. Now I had to say something.

“It was self-defense,” I explained. “They were trying to shoot me down.”

“They were going to kill all of us,” Todd said. “But we took care of them.”

Again, I wanted to reach out and give him a slap. Instead I shot him a dirty look that he didn't seem to see.

“We had no choice,” I said. “They had already wiped out an entire neighborhood and they were coming to destroy us.”

“But you have lots of people, walls, and weapons—I see them poking over the walls. How many of them could there have been to be a threat to you?”

“There were hundreds of them,” I said, “and they had more weapons, better weapons that our walls couldn't have stopped.”

“But we stopped them at the bridge. You should have seen it!” Todd exclaimed.

“The Burnham Bridge?” Amy asked.

I nodded.

“I wondered what that was all about,” Sheldon said. “We heard the explosion and saw the clouds, so we went to investigate. So you people did that?”

“Again, it wasn't what we wanted to do, but they were coming to attack us. There was no choice.”

“I saw the trucks at the bottom among the rubble,” he said. “How many died?”

“There were over—”

“More than any of us would have liked,” I said, again cutting Todd off. “We were only doing what we had to so we could survive … It's hard to explain.”

“No it isn't, son. A few months ago it would have been impossible, but now … well … if you threatened my family, I'd have no hesitation shooting you.”

“Have you had to shoot anyone?” Todd asked.

“The forest has been enough protection. The people around here living in tents have agreed to help protect each other, and we're hidden. So far that's been enough.”

“That's okay for now, but what about in the winter?” Todd asked. “You can't live in tents then.”

“I'm sure this will all be taken care of long before that,” Amy said. She hesitated. “Unless you know something we don't know.” There was worry in her voice.

“We don't know anything for sure,” I said. “Nobody does. We're all just trying to do the best we can, the way you've been doing.”

“We've been watching your neighborhood since the wall started going up. How many people are working together inside there?”

“I'm not sure.” I knew, but I wasn't going to say anything. I stood up. “We should be going.” Todd and Lori got to their feet. Todd was still holding the mug and tipped it back to finish off his tea.