Last Fight of the Valkyries (18 page)

“Well?”

He hunched his shoulders. “Dunno.” So far he had
nothing but flimsy speculation. Blue was almost left behind for dead.
If she planned her escape up to that point, she did a terrible job
closing the deal. She was smashed to the roof of the MRAP. She would
have been dead if he hadn't noticed her.

And Pink, or Saffron, was exposed on the mud flat well before the
boat showed up. She couldn't have known anyone would rescue her. She
was going to die, too.

Except they didn't. Twice.

As a postscript to their discussion, he continued. “One
thing I know for sure, something doesn't smell right here. I don't
just mean you,” he said with a teasing look at her. Quieter
despite the drone of the motors, he went on. “I don't like
whatever it is Blue is doing inside this cabin with the captain. I
don't like whatever it is that brought her twin to this boat. And
now, I'm beginning to wonder if we've gotten ourselves into something
more than we can handle by going to that mine. I don't like any of
it.”

She turned toward him with mock exaggeration. “Liam Peters.
Are you saying you aren't enjoying your time here in the Apocalypse?
Is that it? …Cause I will stop this whole thing right now and
take us back to the beginning if that's going to be your attitude.”

Ah, back to the tree under the Arch. He wouldn't mind going back
to when they met. It was as clumsy as it was exciting for him. One of
the few bright spots from those early days.

But time marches on. They rocked as the boat sped up the river,
the air dried their bodies, and Liam and Victoria both managed to get
their clean clothes back on before any more trouble found them. He
didn't think he'd like fighting zombies in the open with just his
drawers to protect him from bites.

The afternoon wore on into tedium, and sleep.

Nearly out, he sprang awake with an important piece of awareness
from his recent dream. Something he missed the first time. He'd
assumed the dream represented some subconscious, um, desire, for
Blue. That's why he saw the blue bow on one of the three figures in
the back of the bus. But something told him he also saw a pink bow.

That's what I'm talking about. I don't like this one bit.

He kept that piece of information to himself, for now. Having
weird dreams was Grandma's specialty...

5

Victoria kicked him gently to wake him up.

“Don't you ever sleep?”

She looked down at him condescendingly, hands on her hips and head
cocked. “And all you ever do is sleep. What am I going to do
with you?” She straightened and smiled as she reached down to
help him up.

“You'll want to see this.”

When he had his footing, she walked him across the deck to her
side. There, across the river, was the bridge they'd seen two times
now in their travels. The blown bridge over the Meramec River. The
bridge was a couple hundred yards up that river, but they could
easily see the downed span where the wrecking ball ruined it. That
crane still towered over the ruin.

Liam laughed. “I wonder how many times we're going to pass
that thing?”

He was happy to watch it from a distance. He had nothing but bad
memories from their first encounter and didn't want to relive them
now. Content he was safe and dry, he relished his time standing next
to Victoria. The rocking motion of the boat ensured he rubbed up
against her arm from time to time. It made him feel giddy.

His peace was disturbed as the captain kicked open the door.
Nothing was said to them, but he was talking in a loud voice to
someone on the radio and wanted he and Victoria to hear.

“No copy. Say again.” He angrily yelled it to whomever
was on the other end of the connection.

“You are entering a restricted waterway. The channel north
of Interstate 255 is closed due to navigational hazards. Over.”

The captain passed quiet words with Blue. Liam couldn't hear what
was being said. He considered going inside the cabin to escape some
of the noise of the motors, but he'd received no invite.

“Understood. We have freight to deliver to the Koch Hospital
Quarry. We will hold to the south of the interstate. Over.”

The radio was quiet for a full minute. The captain made no effort
to slow to wait for permission.

Then the voice continued. “Negative,
Lucy's Football
.
For your own safety, we require that you turn around. Do not proceed.
How do you copy?”

Blue came out of the shaded cabin with several bottles of water.
She seemed calm and refreshed as she handed them out. A great
contrast to Liam and Victoria, who spent the day covered in residue
from the river and the sweat of a hot day. Her sister looked even
worse, and she hadn't woken up since the rescue. She somehow slept
just in front of the two motors, occasionally sliding side to side as
the boat made course corrections in the choppy current.

“Hey Pink,” she shouted. “Wake up. There's
trouble.”

The girl stirred while Blue turned to Liam. “You guys sure
you want to do this? The captain said he would try to get you close,
but it doesn't look like he can get you all the way to the docking
platform in front of the mine.”

Liam looked at Victoria, but he knew her mind already. “Just
have him get us close and we can walk the rest of the way. We can't
be more than a few miles now.”

He didn't want to tempt fate. That was always bad these days.

As he turned to Victoria, he noticed a drone hovering about a
hundred feet over their heads. It looked like it was attached to the
boat because it moved at exactly the same speed.

The girls noticed it, too, as they scanned the sky to see what he
was watching.

“Everyone smile for the camera,” Victoria joked. Liam
laughed, despite himself. The last time she'd gotten her picture
taken, it had been by Duchesne—the man who tried to kill Liam's
whole family.

Note to self: take her picture!

He waved like he was on a luxury yacht putting on a show for the
paparazzi. He was startled when he leveled his head back toward the
front and saw the captain. He was in the doorway.

“What's wrong with you, kid? Don't you know they're taking
your picture?” He looked at the three girls in turn. “All
of you. You shouldn't take this lightly. Never let them see your face
if you can help it.”

Liam's mouth was open, but Victoria beat him. “Who do you
think is taking our picture?”

The grizzled man gave a look of disgust and turned to go back to
the controls. As an apparent afterthought, he stopped and looked out
of the shaded cabin. His voice was calmer.

“Well, at least you stupid kids make me look more like a
party boat than a serious threat.” Then he shook his head and
turned away for good. The door was still open; it swayed with the
turbulence below the boat.

Liam had to practically bite his tongue not to reply. His first
instinct was to explain how wrong the captain was about the crew he
was carrying, though he felt he learned his lesson over the last few
weeks about bragging to strangers. But the real reason he didn't
reply was because he
was
a stupid kid in this instance, and it
made him realize how fast he reverted back to his old care-free self
on this trip.

He looked at Victoria, wondering what she was thinking. Surely she
could make the same case to the captain. Did she also understand how
right the man was? Her countenance told him nothing. She was playing
it cool, like him.

Blue helped Pink in the back. The drone above them had come down
almost to eye level. It was black with four fans, one on each corner.
The enclosure above the fans was circular, about the size of a small
car tire. On instinct he moved to the door and pulled it shut. He
slammed it with as much force as he could muster. He hoped the
captain would notice why.

Soon they all watched helplessly as the thing lazily hovered next
to the boat as they continued up the river. The captain yelled
obscenities at someone, probably on the radio.

Liam couldn't eliminate the possibility he was yelling at him.

The boat lurched to the left, into the path of the drone. It
easily maneuvered out of the way, and sped ahead of them so it could
hover in front of the bow, as if telling the captain to stop. He
responded by accelerating.

The four of them standing on the back had to hang on to the sides.

Liam watched ahead as the captain opened the door on the front of
his cabin. He brought something up he'd been holding. A gun.

Through the glass he watched as the captain lined up a shot with
his shotgun, then pumped off a quick couple of shots. The sounds were
loud in the open air.

He missed the drone, and it dipped low to the water's surface and
then sped away from them. The captain didn't waste any more shots.

Liam used the opportunity to voice his concerns to Victoria. “I
didn't say this at the time, but do you think the people taking those
pictures know who we are? Like, specifically who we are and what
we've done?”

Victoria looked at the two girls at the back of the boat. Pink was
on the ground again, crying. Blue remained on her feet, but was
studiously watching the drone as it flew toward the Illinois shore.
She then turned back to him.

“I bet whoever is looking at those photos probably has us
already figured out. Duchesne said he had bosses over in Illinois.
Maybe they had agents down in Cairo watching us leave. Who knows? But
even if we weren't on a watchlist before, we have to be now. We're
accomplices to this,” she pointed into the cabin, “jerk.”

He grabbed her hand as he held onto the railing with his other
hand. They watched ahead as the land got closer.

The captain ran the boat as near to shore as he dared, but
continued northward despite the warnings he'd been given. Liam
decided his life was in enough danger so he'd confront the surly man.
He shuffled over the shifting deck to grasp the edge of the door and
speak to him.

“Sir, uh, captain, I think we deserve to know what's going
on. Who was on the radio?”

The man didn't look back. He stood in front of his controls. One
large screen to his right showed a rolling script of colors and
beeped loudly in the small cabin. He reached over and shut off the
screen, and the warnings stopped.

“That is your new lord and master, the kings of St. Louis.”

When the man failed to laugh, Liam countered, “I've been
downtown, there's nobody in charge.”

“Bingo! There
is
no one in charge. But there are
groups
taking
charge. This side of the river,” he nodded
to Missouri, “is controlled by a group of Marines. That side is
controlled by some damned fool Army unit that got lost after the
Battle of St. Louis. Up north of the city and into Illinois is in the
reach of the official US Army fortress—and they've been taking
what they want all the way to the Mississippi River from their base
near Springfield.”

Liam was surprised at the depth of the man's knowledge. “What
about the rest of the city?” He'd seen the Marines a few times
now, and each time, he saw fewer of them. “The military can't
control the whole thing.”

“You're smart kid. No, they can't. And they don't. A few
parts are controlled by leftovers of local governments. Others are
maintained by groups of neighborhoods protecting each other. Even the
Catholic Church has organized defensive pockets for their flocks.
They had the resources to try it, at least. But most of the city is
controlled by the undead.”

“You mean the zombies?”

The captain turned around with crazy eyes. “You on drugs?
Zombies? No, these are the walking dead. Spirits that come back from
the dead.” As he turned around, he continued, “I saw
barges of 'em tossed out like trash and sent to float the river until
some dumb riverboat crew happened upon them.”

Liam knew exactly what the man was talking about. He'd been
swimming inside just such a ship. But he held his tongue. In a few
moments, the man continued on his own.

“Me and Pete ran this boat for twenty-five years. Well, not
this boat, but boats like it. We ran the river together. When the
Final Day arrived, we were on the river...”

He faded away for a few long seconds.

“After all that...stuff, he and I ended up in Cairo, needing
to refuel. Credit cards stopped working, and with no other money, we
started working for that town. Our job was to go out and find
resources for the city government, until stuff got better. A few days
ago, a few miles south of here, we see a large flotilla of loose
barges bumpin' and grindin' down the waterway. We picked out one
barge to dock with and evaluate its cargo. I had to stay with the
boat, but Pete went up and boarded to check it out. He got up there
OK, and walked out of my sight on the high deck. Five minutes later,
he came back with a gunshot wound to his chest.”

Another long pause.

“Someone shot him. He kept repeating the word 'shore' which
I took to mean someone on the shore did it. I got him to Cairo, they
threw him in their third-rate medical clinic where he died not much
later. There—”

“And that's where he found me.” It was Blue. She'd
come up behind Liam. “I was in the hospital with Pete, and—”

The captain cut her off. “I need you guys to sit down and
hold tight. We're going to beach right up here.”

Liam was full of questions, but he admitted he
always
had
questions.

Back out on the rear deck, he took a seat next to Victoria. Blue
and Pink sat across from them. They all huddled as close as they
could to the cabin, toward the middle of the boat. Liam was once
again reminded how much better he felt having Victoria by his side.
She grabbed onto his arm. He smiled at her and was relieved to see
she didn't have any fear on her face.