The Pure: Book Three of the Oz Chronicles (11 page)

“‘What’s to tell?’ I said. ‘He used to
be a jockey. He’s a little slow. I found him in Alabama. Mobile. He’s
harmless.’

“‘Why would the Bashir be so interested
in him?’ she asked. “‘I don’t know and neither does Bobby. You’re wasting your time
if you’re trying to get any information out of him.’

“‘It’s the bite!’ April said.

“‘What?’ Madison said walking over to
her pen.

“‘The skinner dead bite. We were
attacked by some skinner dead and one of them bit Bobby. That’s it. The Bashir
smelled the bite. That’s all,” April said with such confidence that I was
willing to accept it as an explanation.

“‘Doubtful,’ Madison said. She turned to
me. ‘You fought off some skinner dead?’

“I looked at Tank and April before I
answered. ‘We got away.’

“‘Impressive,’ she said. ‘They’ve taken
out more than a few of our own.’

“I hung my head. I didn’t have the heart
to tell her that they would have gotten us all if it weren’t for Lou.

“Madison leaned in close to me and said
quietly, ‘I’ll do what I can to protect Bobby, but you gotta tell me everything
you know.’

“‘I have,’ I said.

“She sighed deeply. ‘All right. Try not
to worry. If the Bashir see a value in Bobby then so does Carl. He’s not going
to do anything to jeopardize that.’

“‘Yeah, well Carl doesn’t exactly strike
me as the most rational guy on the planet.’

“She smiled. ‘Bobby will be okay.’

“I shook my head. ‘I don’t get it.
You’re not like the others. You see through Carl’s crap. I can see it in your
eyes. Why are you so loyal to him?’

“This time she dropped her head. ‘He’s
my father.’

“Shocked by her revelation all I could
say was ‘Whoa.’

“She nodded. ‘Bobby will be fine.’ She
turned on her heels and walked back to the house.

“‘You trust her?’ Tank asked.

“I looked at him for a long time before
I answered. ‘I don’t know if I trust anybody.’

“He nodded. ‘Me either.’”

***

“It was nightfall before we saw anyone
else from the community. Jerry and the two goons who took Little Bobby entered
the pen area and unlocked our doors. They didn’t talk. They just stood and
waited for us to exit the pens on our own. We did so reluctantly.

“With no verbal communication at all,
Jerry and the other two directed us to the front yard of the house. The entire
community had gathered around a huge bonfire. The crowd parted as we entered.
Carl and the rest of his captains stood near the flames. We approached
tentatively. I scanned the area for Bobby, but he was nowhere to be found.

“‘We sent out a scout team after your
test today,’ Carl said.

“‘Where’s Bobby?’ I asked.

“‘I’ve trained my people well,’ he said
ignoring my question.

“‘Congratulations. Where’s Bobby?’

“‘The scout team is made up of some of
my best.’

“‘I don’t care about your scout team,’ I
said. ‘Where’s Bobby?’

“‘I sent them looking for any signs of
Bashir.’

“‘Terrific! Where is Bobby?’

“‘They didn’t find any Bashir, but they
did find this.’ He stepped back, and somebody was shoved forward. It was a
girl. Her disheveled chestnut hair covered her face. She brushed it back and I
saw Lou’s bruised face looking back at me.

“I stepped forward, but Jerry grabbed my
arm. I tried to work myself free of his grip, but I was grabbed by another one
of Carl’s goons.

“‘A friend of yours?’ Carl asked.

“‘We’ve met,’ I said.

“‘She doesn’t talk much.’ Carl grabbed a
handful of her hair and yanked her head back.

“‘Take it easy,’ I said. ‘She’s just a
kid.’

“‘Kid?’ Carl laughed. ‘Charlie, Randy,
Melissa, front and center.’ Three battered and beaten members of Carl’s
community stepped forward. ‘Meet my scout team.’

“I held back a smile. ‘She’s still just
a kid,’ I said.

“Carl shoved her forward and let go of
her hair. Lou stumbled and landed at my feet. I helped her up.

“‘You okay?’ I asked.

“She winked.

“‘This has gone too far now,’ I said.
‘You should let us go. We’ll take Bobby and get out of here.’

“‘Lou!’ A voice cried. I turned to see
Madison escorting Bobby from the front porch of the house. ‘It’s Lou. It’s Lou.
She saved me from the dead people.’

“Carl scratched the back of his neck.
‘It’s true you people have proven to be quite the liability.’

“‘Then let us go,’ April pleaded.

“‘Can’t,’ Carl said. ‘You know where we
are.’

“‘Hey, genius,’ Tank said. ‘If you’re so
worried about keeping this place a secret, why do you have a bonfire shooting
flames twenty feet into the air?’

“Carl admired the fire. ‘Beautiful,
isn’t it? But it’s not for show. It’s for protection.’

“‘Protection?’ April asked.

“‘The lung locusts are coming tonight.’

“‘Lung locusts?’ I said looking at Lou
to see if she knew what he was talking about. She turned away. Not a good sign.

“‘We call them that, but to be honest we
don’t know what they really are. They come by the billions. They fill the sky.
Black out the night. And they come every sixty-three days. There’s so many of
them that you can’t help but breathe them in. They fill your lungs, and you
drown in locusts.’

“‘Gee, that sounds fun,’ Tank said. ‘Why
don’t you just go in the house?’

“‘They get in the house. This is the
safest place. We only lost five people last time, but they were the draws.’

“‘The draws?’ I asked.

“‘The locusts are drawn to blood. We
post five people on the farthest points of the property to draw most of the
locusts away from us. The fire protects us from the rest.’

“I did the math in my head. With Lou,
our group was now five members strong. ‘Five, huh?’ I said.

“Carl smiles. ‘You catch on quick. Takes
care of two problems for us. What to do with you and who we’re going to
sacrifice as draws.’

“‘Wait a minute,’ Tank barked. ‘No...
you can just forget it. I’m not standing out there waiting... to be swarmed
by...’

“Carl laughed. ‘You didn’t really think
we were going to ask you to volunteer. I’m afraid you have no choice in the
matter.’

“‘You think I’m just going to stand out
there and let those things...’ Tank started.

“‘Again,’ Carl said. ‘You underestimate
us. Your accommodations have been arranged.’

“‘Accommodations?’ Tank said.

“April shrieked. We all turned to see
her frantically raking her hands through her hair, and hopping around like she
had suddenly gone insane. ‘Get it off! Get it off!’

“‘Get what off?’ I ask.

“A single locust flew out of her hair
and landed at my feet. ‘That!’ she screamed.

“Carl walked over and picked up the
insect. ‘A scout.’ He tossed it into the fire. ‘Get the draws to their posts!’

“Jerry grabbed my arm and started to
escort me to my post, but we were stopped by Madison. ‘I can’t take the retard
anymore. Let me have this one,’ She said to Jerry.

“‘But Carl put me in charge of this
one,’ he answered.

“‘Jerry, we don’t have time to argue.’
She pried my arm away from him and handed him Bobby’s arm. Jerry hesitated and
then took hold of Bobby. ‘You’re taking the heat from Carl if he gets pissed.’

“‘Deal,’ she said, and began to roughly
escort me to my post. She looked over her shoulder a few times to make sure we
weren’t being followed. Finally she spoke. ‘Here.’ She handed me the Bashir’s
claw. ‘I can’t give you a knife because Carl knows every knife on the compound.
If one goes missing, he’ll do whatever it takes to find out who took it. This
should cut through the ropes.’

“‘What about the others?’ I asked.

“‘I can’t do anything for them and, if
you try, the locusts will get you. In about ten minutes, visibility will be
almost zero. We won’t be able to see you from the bonfire. Cut your ropes and
run.’

“‘I can’t leave my friends.’

“‘You have to.’

“‘Would you?’

“We reached a ten foot post. ‘Doesn’t
matter what I would do.’ She put my back against the pole and tied my hands
together. ‘I have to make this tight,’ She said. ‘I’m sorry. I wish I could do
more...’

“‘Maddy,’ Carl barked. ‘Who authorized
you to switch with Jerry?’

“‘No one, sir. I just couldn’t take that
retard anymore.’

“Carl rapidly approached. I cupped my
hand around the Bashir claw. He stepped behind me and yanked on my ropes.
Satisfied, he peered at Madison as he stepped toward her. Without a word, he
backhanded her across the face. ‘My orders are never to be altered again!’

“She reached up and massaged her cheek.
‘But, Daddy...’

“He hit her again. Through gritted teeth
he said, ‘Don’t ever call me that. I’m not your father. I’m your leader.’ He
pulled her knife from the sheath on her belt. Holding it in front of her he
said, ‘Cut him.’

“She took the knife. Her eyes on him,
she slashed the blade across my ribcage. I felt the cold sensation of the blade
followed by a searing heat. I fought not to cry out in pain.

“He eyeballed her a few more seconds and
then walked off to inspect the other draws.

“‘Wait until you can’t see the fire,’
she whispered. Tears were flowing freely down her red cheeks.

“I could see Jerry tying Little Bobby to
his post, but I couldn’t see the others. ‘Where are the others?’

“She sighed. I could tell she was
fighting with herself. Part of her didn’t want to tell me, but the other part
of her knew she had to. ‘The posts are fifty yards apart. They stretch all the
way to the inlet. Just keep heading east.’ She started to walk away, but
stopped. ‘If you try to save the others, you’ll all die.’

“‘Maybe,’ I said. ‘But if I run, I won’t
be able to live with myself anyway, so I don’t have anything to lose. Why are
you helping me?’

“She smiled. ‘Because I don’t have
anything to lose.’ She turned and ran to the bonfire.

“The next few minutes were eerily quiet.
Other than the roar of the fire, there wasn’t a sound. I could see the
silhouetted figures of the members of the community swaying back and forth in
front of the flames. The silence was broken by a sudden low rumbling thunderous
buzzing. I looked up at the sky and watched a black curtain shut out the purple
nightglow. It was impossible to make out individual locusts because they flew
in such a tight formation. I started to cut away at the ropes. It was difficult
to get my hands in position , and I almost dropped the claw at one point. But
once I got the claw in position, I sawed away at the rope at a breakneck pace.
Little by little, the fire and the silhouetted ghost community began to vanish.
The rope snapped strand after strand as I cut through it. I tugged with all my
strength and broke free from the post. I slipped in the dirt as I headed east
toward the next post. Stumbling forward, I placed my hand on the ground and
lost my grip on the Bashir claw. The light was totally gone. The claw was only
out of my hands for a second, but it might as well have been lost to me years
ago and miles away. I couldn’t find it. I fumbled through the thick grass,
mumbling to myself, ‘Please, let me find it. Please.’ My hand ran across
something sharp. I winced in pain and nearly cried tears of joy. I picked up
the claw and called out, “Who’s there? Where are you?” The buzzing locusts grew
closer and closer.

“‘It’s me,’ Little Bobby yelled. ‘Why?’

“I followed the sound of his voice and
ran into him almost at full speed. I succeeded in knocking the breath out of
myself, but I held tight to the claw.

“‘Heyyyy,’ Bobby gagged. ‘You hit me.’

“I felt in the darkness for Bobby’s hands.
‘Stand still.’

“‘Archie?’ he said. ‘It got dark.’

“‘Yeah, I know,’ I said as I cut away at
the rope.

“‘What are you doing?’

“‘I’m trying to cut you loose.’

“Bobby’s rope was easier to cut than mine.
I freed him in a matter of seconds. ‘C’mon,’ I said grabbing his hand. We ran
screaming in the darkness. When someone screamed back, we headed toward the
sound of the voice and found Lou. As I was cutting her rope, I felt a locust
smack me in the head followed by another and another. We freed her and again
cried out for the next person to give us their location while we ran through
the darkness holding hands. April was next. Lou held on to Bobby while I cut
through April’s rope. I could feel the locust crawling all over me while I cut
with a frenzy I had never known before. April yelped in pain as I accidentally
cut her hands. ‘Sorry,’ I said.

“‘Don’t be sorry,’ she said spitting a
locust out of her mouth. ‘Just cut!’