Resurrection (14 page)

Chapter 34

Who is he?” Said the crooked old man.

“That is what I was hoping you could tell me,” the bald man said.

The crooked man lifted the photo from the table and squinted at it with his one good eye and then put it back down and struck a match on the sole of his boot and relit his pipe.

“So who is he?”

“Who is who?” The crooked man repeated.

A fly buzzed the crooked man’s sweat saturated face, he shooed it away with a wave of his crooked hand and then exhaled a puff of pale blue smoke. The fly disappeared into some fly time warp to which only flies have access only to rematerialize to trouble the man yet again.

The bald man sat silent watching the crooked man swat at the fly as it landed on the tip of his crooked nose. The clock on the wall ticked monotonously and then chimed one time and a mouse leapt from the clock and onto the bar and scurried away.

The fly vanished once more.

“Hey old man, I said who is the guy in the photograph?”

The old man picked up the photo once more and gazed sideways at it.

“Never saw him before, I would’ve remembered a face like that if he’d of come in here,” the crooked man said. I’m not one to forget a face no sir not me; now a name well that’s a different story. What’d you say yours was?”

The bald man did not answer but instead glanced at the two men standing just inside the doorway. They moved silently and stood on either side of the table just behind the crooked man.

The bald man casually picked up the photo and stuck it in his pocket and then without warning he stood and violently tossed the table aside and it went crashing into some other tables at the far side of the room.

He grabbed the crooked man by the collar of his ratty coat and shoved him into the bar and slapped the pipe from his mouth, smoldering embers flew in every direction as it hit the floor.

“I am going to ask you just one last time old man and if I don’t get the right answer the Wasters are going to pick your bones clean tonight, do I make myself clear?”

He removed the picture from his pocket and shoved it into the crooked man’s face. “Have you seen this man?”

“Yes, yes he was in here two days ago, he drank some of my good stuff I keep hidden, he paid me with a fifty dollar bill!”

Did he give you his name?”

No he just drank a couple of jiggers and then left.”

“Which way did he go?”

“When he left here he was headed west which direction he went after that I can’t say.”

The fly returned and this time buzzed the bald man who snatched it from the air with one effortless movement and held it in his fist. He gave the old man a malicious grin and then shoved the fly into his mouth and forced him to swallow it.

One of the men who was with the bald man turned the old man’s chair upright and the bald man jerked him over and sat him in it.

“Now old man we were never here do you understand?”

“Yes you were never here.”

The bald man walked out the door followed by the others. One of the two paused and picked up the crooked man’s pipe and stuffed it between the old man’s teeth.

“Good luck you old bastard,” he said.

The crooked man watched them as they mounted their horses and headed off down the dusty street followed by about a dozen others.

Chapter 35

Later the next day, the terrain changed drastically from flat grassy plains to one of rocky hills and cliffs and dunes. It was just what Charlie had been looking for; here he and Peter could hide at night.

It was rough going, the land was hard and the environment was forbidding. At noon they came to a river and climbed down to the bed and followed its sandy winding course which made walking easier and provided access to water.

Late in the afternoon Charlie climbed out of the riverbed to the top of a high bluff and pulled out his binoculars. Peter soon joined him and they examined the area in all directions. Charlie checked his compass to make certain they were still on a south heading.

“Do you see anything?” Peter said.

“Nothing, not one thing,” Charlie said handing the binoculars to Peter.

Charlie found a small cave in the rocks on the banks of the river.

“I think we’ll stay here for tonight,” he said. “We should be safe from attack and we might even be able to get a small fire going, maybe.”

As dusk turned to night Charlie again climbed to the top of the bluff to look for Wasters. As he stood there the horizon suddenly lit up, this was his first affirmation that the light he had been seeing had some form of intelligent control.

He returned to the cave and hung his blanket across the opening to block the light and lit the small stack of sticks Peter had gathered for the fire. They each opened a can of food and heated it over the flames. It was a good feeling to have warm food for a change and the fire brightened both of their spirits.

Neither of them spoke much that night, their journey was beginning to take a toll on Peter and he was asleep almost as soon as he was done eating. This left Charlie alone with his thoughts, it was his belief that a man should not spend too much time in his own head; he felt there were problems enough in the present without rehashing the mistakes of the past.

The night passed without incident, both Peter and Charlie were rested and ready for the next leg of the journey. Charlie was even able to sleep some and the rest did him some good. He and Peter walked to the river, the water was shallow but it was cold and refreshing and it removed the dust and grime from the last several days.

After they packed their gear they were on their way down the winding river. They climbed out of the riverbed sometime after midday, with his binoculars Charlie spotted a house southeast of their position.

“Think anyone is at home?” Peter asked.

“I don’t know, most likely if there is anyone there they won’t lay out any welcome mat for us. My gut tells me to stay away.”

The house was actually a shack which someone had called home sometime in the past but now nothing much remained of it but crumbling brick and broken glass. They approached with caution; weapons drawn. Peter signaled that he would approach from the back, Charlie agreed and he made his way to the rear.

Charlie checked the windows, peering in from the outside before making his way onto the front porch. After seeing nothing he stepped inside further, the place looked ready to fall in at any moment. The house sat on a concrete slab and was probably built in the waning years of the last century.

He made his way to a long hallway and saw Peter stick his head out from a doorway at the end of the hall. They checked each room until they met at the last one. Charlie entered first and Peter followed. He approached what looked to have been a walk in closet and took a light from his belt and shined it inside.  He felt Peter tug on his shirt sleeve and point to the far corner of the closet. There he saw three Wasters sleeping in the darkness.

Peter took three arrows from his quiver and quietly loaded one into his crossbow. Cautiously he approached one and fired, the arrow hit home severing the spine of the sleeping creature. He dispatched the other two with the same combination of coldness and precision. Charlie watched the boy as he retrieved his arrows and cleaned them and returned them to his quiver.

“I think the house is clear now!” Peter said assuredly.

They drug the bodies out into the sunlight and secured the closet for themselves for the night. They ate and as night approached prepared for sleep.  Charlie stayed on his guard that night. To him the cave they had slept in the previous night was much safer than this house because a house would attract the attention of any humans that may be traveling this way. A few wasters were nothing; rouge humans were far more dangerous.

He figured he must have drifted off for when he awoke it was night was full on. He got up and stepped out of the closet. He saw that the room was dimly lit and there was no moon.

From the window he could see that the glow now filled the entirety of the horizon. It was far brighter than it had been the previous night in fact it looked to be no more than a few miles away at the most.

He awakened Peter and motioned for him to follow. Once outside he could see that the glow looked to be right over a small rise. The pair walked and then began to run to the top of the rise. Abruptly the earth ended and they found themselves on the edge of a cliff; they had been walking on top of an immense mesa. Before them was a vast valley and in that valley was a large brightly lit city. The pair sat at the edge of the mesa as the sun rose and the lights flickered out.

“They’re on an automatic timer or a sensor,” Charlie said.

“What do you think it is?” Peter asked.

Charlie held his binoculars to his eyes, “I don’t know, I mean, it looks like a military complex.

“You see anything down there?”

“No, not really, it’s too far away.”

Charlie spent the day watching from the cliff, he couldn’t make out much from this distance. There was no movement in the valley below, no one coming or going and they were too far away to see movement in the city.

He was able to make out what looked like structures but the heat haze made it impossible to see any details. He realized he would have only his instinct to go on and like it or not and despite the danger posed by Wasters they would have to travel under cover of darkness.

“We are going to slowly make our way down this cliff during what is left of the daylight, we shouldn’t have any problem keeping hidden in the trees below. Once we are about three quarters of the way down we’ll stop and wait for nightfall,” Charlie said.

Chapter 36

“You’re certain that he’s headed in our direction?” A man’s voice crackled over the handheld.

“Yes sir, we’ve been tailing him for two weeks now and are finally close enough to see him and he’s coming right at you. Someone is with him though” The bald man said.

“The girl, I thought the girl was dead McFadden.”

“She is sir I saw her myself.”

There was silence at the other end of the line. McFadden waited as a rider approached him.

“There’s a house about a mile up that way, I think they may have spent the night there.”

“I need him captured alive and unharmed and brought to me. Mr. Lynch cannot be allowed to enter our fair city unfettered,” The voice on the radio said.

Just then another scout rode up. “Sir he’s over the side of the cliff!”

“Mount up, we’ve got our target sir,” McFadden said into the radio. “It’s time to send in your boys now they’re headed into the valley.