Lady Grace & the War for a New World (Earth's End Book 2) (5 page)

“Veronica Piermont Edgarton,” she typed, hitting
enter
decisively.

The screen indicated a message had been sent. Her broadcast was successful.

6

Sam seemed to be wounded. He held one arm wrapped around his belly and positioned the other arm over it, pushing down hard with both. He’d run a few steps and bend over, groaning.

“We can’t stop, Sam. I don’t know if they’re following us.” Jeremy felt sorry about pushing him, and worse the more he observed his condition. It was almost dark, but he could see that Sam’s skin was gray-white, dusted with something like splotches of flour. Jeremy recoiled when he realized what it was: mold or a fungus. Jeremy couldn’t slow down, no matter how hurt his companion was.

Sam’s bare feet looked as tender as his own. He’s never walked on anything but a cement or dirt floor, Jeremy thought. He walked as fast as he could, an arm around Sam’s back, holding him up with a hand under the armpit. He could feel the other man’s ribs. His shaved head and face were covered with stubbly hair. Jeremy thought he was in his fifties or sixties, though with his gray skin, it was hard to tell. Sam was very tall, probably as tall as Sam Baahuhd had been: 6’ 8”.

Jeremy had had the growth spurt that everyone told him would come while they were on the golden planet. He’d gotten used to being a big man, at least compared to the other humans in the golden world. But Sam was still half a head taller than him, maybe more.

Sam had some muscle. He didn’t look like a concentration camp victim, quite. But he looked like he was in very bad shape. Another week in there and he would have been dead.

Shit. He realized why they’d put him up the canary-port. They must have run out of canaries. They threw Sam up the hole because he was going to die anyway.

Pissed, Jeremy made a final charge to his home in the machine shop. He deflated when he realized that his companion couldn’t climb into the buried building. If he managed to get in, he’d never get out.

The wolves howled, coming closer.

“We may end up wolf-chow,” Jeremy said to his new friend. Jeremy saw his face clearly by moonlight. Once again he was struck by the resemblance to Sam Baahuhd.

“Sam? Is that you? Sam Baahuhd? The headman of the village?”

“I’m Sam, but not Sam Baahuhd.”

“Which Sam, then?” Jeremy remembered that Sam seemed to be the favored name of the village.

“I’m Sam of the line of Sam and Emily, and I have Arthur in me, too.”

“Who is Sam Baahuhd?”

“He who threw me out.”

The raging degenerate. A chill went through Jeremy. “How is he related to Sam Baahuhd?”

“He is straight bred to Sam and Mollie.”

“Sam’s wife who had the disease?”

“Aye. He has the disease and more.” Sam leaned over and groaned, his lips pulling back from gray teeth. He swayed.

“We can rest if you want.”

“No. They will find us.”

How he made the last few hundred yards, Jeremy didn’t know. He kept looking for the pipe sticking up under the trees, but he couldn’t find it. He found something much easier to spot: a light with a huge black mass next to it.

“Oh, Jeremy! I’ve been so worried about you!” His mother was standing in front of a storage container like they put on ships and trains. It sat on railroad ties, raised a bit off the ground. She wore black pants, a parka, and combat boots. Next to her were a plastic table and chairs. An electric lantern sat on the table. Night bugs dive-bombed it.

Jeremy stopped dead, digging his fingers into Sam. “
Mom
! What are you doing here?” He stood, open-mouthed and rigid.

“I came to be with you, Jeremy.”

His head moved from side to side, denying her silently. “How did you get here?”

“It wasn’t easy. I had to get through the security measures on your computer.”

“My computer? Which one?”

“The one from your room at the Hermitage Academy.”

“What were you doing with my
computer
?” His sense of being violated merged with his shock at seeing her.

“Arthur put it on a cylinder and had it smuggled to me just before the meltdown. I hid it in my uniform in the bunker before we were frozen. When I woke up, I downloaded it and hacked into it.”

“You saw everything on my computer?”

“Yes. From the cylinder. Getting it wasn’t easy, either. A half dozen people put their lives on the line to get it to me.”

“I can’t believe you’d do that … And you got Arthur to help you. He was my friend.”

“He was my friend, too, Jeremy.” She stepped closer, holding her hands out to him. “Why are we arguing? Aren’t you glad to see me?” She smiled tremulously. “I contacted the people on the golden planet and asked them to reunite us. I asked them to bring that,” she nodded her head in the direction of the storage container, “so we’d have what we needed to survive. There was one with weapons, too, but they didn’t send it.”

“They sent
you
, but kept Ellie?”

“Yes, Jeremy. They came to me before they sent me. I could feel them floating around in the bunker. Then they put me here.”

“They didn’t say anything about Ellie and the others?”

“No. I knew they had sent you back to Earth alone, but I’m not quite sure how.”

“That’s how they are. No words.”

“I’m truly sorry about Ellie.” She looked at him tenderly. He regarded her without saying a word. Her mouth tightened.

“It’s nice to see you, too, dear.” She held her head high, but her lips quivered. “I rather hoped for a warmer welcome.” She turned to Sam, who was slipping out of Jeremy’s grip. “Your friend seems to need help.” The wounded man fell on the ground, groaning. “Who is this? My goodness, he looks like Sam Baahuhd.”

“He’s from the underground shelter, Mom. They were using him like a canary to see if the air’s safe.”

“
What?
”

“They had him tied by the waist and threw him out the chute for the canary cage.”

Sam made a choking sound, the sort of noise someone who was determined not to show pain would make before completely losing control. He held his arms over his belly.

“Are
you
hurt?” Veronica asked. Jeremy shook his head. “Let me see what’s wrong with him. Hold up the lantern, Jeremy.”

“No! No light!” Sam gasped and passed out.

Veronica bent over him and untwined his arms. She looked, and quickly wrapped his arms back again.

“What was that, Mom?” Jeremy asked. “It looked like an eye sticking out of his stomach.”

“That’s exactly what it is: an eye like the ones they used to have in public places to spy on us. This type hooks up to the victim’s belly and looks out from there. I’ve seen them in the general’s camps.”

“Shit. I’ve never heard of anything like that. Does it know we’re here?”

“Maybe. Depends on its range. Did he keep it covered like that all the time?”

“Yes.”

“Good for him. Whoever was on the other end was undoubtedly hurting him to make him uncover it. Did he show pain?”

“Yeah.”

“We need to get it out of him. I’ll get some things from the container.” She disappeared and came back with a tarp and medical supplies. “You take his shoulders, I’ll take his feet.”

They lifted Sam on the tarp and got ready. Sam awakened during the process, looking at them with wild eyes.

“Sam, we’re going to get this thing out of you, and we’re going to do it without killing you. I’m going to give you a shot to dull the pain around the implant. You’ll feel a stick or two.” Veronica injected spots around the eye. “It won’t hurt as much in thirty seconds.” She looked at her watch and flicked his belly with her fingers. “Hurt?” He shook his head.

“OK, let’s go.” Veronica took a scalpel from a sterilized packet and made a neat incision around the eye’s head, revealing the casing, a cylindrical sheath about two inches wide and a half-inch deep. The eye was on the front of the head, the side that had been exposed. They could see a snakelike tail sticking out the other side, tunneling under Sam’s skin.

“Look at this, Jeremy. This is why the people who try to remove this themselves die.” Her fingers wrapped around the circular head of the device, below the eye. Three long, slender protuberances sat below a rim. “Retractable knives are positioned at the end of the cord. They withdraw into the cord to allow it to be inserted or removed by people who know what they’re doing. If someone tries to pull it out of the carrier’s belly without depressing those, the knives will spin and cut a three-inch swath inside the carrier. Who then dies.

“When you remove this from Sam, you need to press all three buttons flat and totally under the rim. That will pull the knives back in. Then yank that thing out as hard as you can. I’ll be ready with the gauze pads to stop the bleeding. Whoever put this in him will know that it’s being removed. They’ll try to kill him. The eye is electric; it’s still hot.” She turned to Sam.

“Sam, I’m going to count to three. While I do that, breathe in as much air as you can. Take big breaths, starting now. On the count of three, blow out hard. Do you understand that?” He nodded. “OK, Jeremy. On three, you pull. One … two …
three!
”

Sam blew out and Jeremy pulled. The thing ripped out, with small chunks of Sam attached. It was a monster; they’d seen the top of the head, but it looked bigger pulled out. The tail was a segmented metal line a foot long and a quarter of an inch thick. The minute Jeremy let go of the three buttons, something like a propeller burst out on the end and started spinning, outside of Sam.

“Jesus!” Jeremy exclaimed.

Sam passed out again. Veronica bent over him with heavy sterile pads.

“I’m going to take care of him while you disarm
that
. See the tool kit in the bucket? You need to pop the eye out of the casing, turn the device inside off, and disarm it. It can explode.”

Jeremy picked up the toolbox.

“Pop the head off it by keeping those little buttons pushed in and twisting the eye. Careful, it will try to shock you.”

The tail turned and twisted as though it were trying to find Jeremy’s skin. He did what she said and the tail went limp.

“What a nasty bastard,” Veronica said. “It’s an all-purpose device: You can torture or track or eavesdrop with one, or use it as a mine. They can’t have one of these on everyone down below. They’d lose too much population. Sam must have tried to escape or done something they really didn’t like, so they put it on him.”

She appraised her patient’s condition. “He’d have been crow bait in a couple of days.”

“No crows down there. Now what do I do?” Jeremy had the top of the eye open. The lens looked around balefully.

“Don’t let it see you. It will remember you if it sees your face. Remove the battery from the unit underneath and separate the eye from the holder. Then it’s disarmed. Don’t smash it. We may be able to do interesting things with it tomorrow.”

“What about him?”

“He’s stopped bleeding. I’ll bandage the wound. Most of those who take them out themselves die of infection, if they’re not cut to ribbons by the blades.

“We have the means to keep him alive.” She filled a syringe from a glass ampule. “Penicillin. With this, all of us have a better chance. Hope he’s not allergic. We’ve got the equivalent of a hospital in there,” she jerked her head toward the container. “The medical supplies are set up right inside the door so we could get them in emergencies. Like now.”

She injected the antibiotic into Sam’s buttock and dropped the needle in a vial filled with clear liquid. “Bleach. Another lifesaver. We’ll have to reuse needles. We don’t know how long we’ll have to nurse our supply.” She filled another syringe with something else. “I don’t like to give people this, but he’s going to need it.”

“What is it?”

“Morphine. That wound is going to hurt very badly, very soon. Stow those pieces of the eye where animals won’t get to them, Jeremy. I don’t want it inside with us tonight, even if it is disarmed.”

“OK. Mom, where did you learn all this?”

“In the general’s camps and his commando training programs. You’d be surprised what I know, Jeremy. I’ve been busy the last few years. Now please stow that thing.”

After doing as she asked, Jeremy was ready to lift Sam into the crate and go to sleep. He was exhausted. He turned to see his mother examining their naked visitor with gloved hands. She was peering at his genitals when Jeremy looked. She lifted his balls and looked under them very carefully.

“What are you
doing
, Mother?” he cried.

“What did you think, Jeremy? I’m jumping the first man I see, even if he is unconscious and almost dead.”

Jeremy ducked his head, an admission that what she had said was exactly what he thought.

“I’m checking him for parasites. If you recall, the village crawled with them. Can you imagine what it’s like underground now? Our friend has crabs, body lice, head lice, and funguses. I do not want to have them, too, and I’m sure you don’t either. Understand?”

“Yes, Mom.”

“We’ll discuss your feelings about me later. Right now, I need to treat him for those. I’m not putting him in the crate with me while he’s infested.” She applied a parasiticide cream to Sam, covering him entirely. “Help me push him to the side.”

They rolled him to his side. Veronica parted his buttocks and looked. Her face registered distaste, and then bounced back to its professional expression.