Badlands Trilogy (Book 3): Out of the Badlands Read online

  “Deal,” Ed replied.

  * * *

  “Up there,” Ed said, pointing.

  “Jesus,” Tex said, straining his eyes to look ahead. “He don’t look so good.”

  Ed didn’t reply.

  Tex piloted the brown jeep around an abandoned Ford Focus before bringing the vehicle to a halt. He left the transmission in neutral and the engine running. “Let’s go have a look.” They hopped out of Tex’s ride and ran to the overturned war jeep. Inside Ed found the driver and the gunmen in the passenger seat. Both men lay motionless, blood pooling around them.

  Ed’s optimism waned, but he crawled toward the back of the jeep anyway. There he found Jasper, hands still bound and both legs pointing in an unnatural direction. Ed reached out and grasped Jasper by the collar, shaking him.

  “Jasper!” he called out.

  No reply.

  “Help me pull him out,” Ed said.

  Tex gripped Jasper by the shoulder of his jacket. Both men gave a yank and he came free, sliding out onto the crumbling concrete highway. Ed recoiled at the sight of his friend’s face. Despite this he smacked Jasper’s cheek with some force, calling out his name again.

  “Shit, man…” Tex said, trailing off.

  “Come on,” Ed said, smacking Jasper’s puffy and swollen cheeks again. “Wake up.”

  Jasper didn’t respond.

  “Sorry, my friend,” Tex said. “It don’t look good.”

  “No, no, no…” Ed said, giving Jasper’s face a solid smack.

  Jasper’s eyes fluttered slightly. Not much, but just enough to prove he was alive.

  “Did you see that?” Ed asked.

  “I did. Put him in the jeep.”

  A groan escaped from the gunman in the passenger seat.

  “Cocksucker,” Tex said. “Fuckers don’t know when to stay dead.” Retrieving his pistol, he placed the muzzle against the top of the man’s head and pulled the trigger. Blood and brains splattered on the seat and the doors of the overturned jeep.

  Ed jumped as the shot exploded.

  Tex holstered the pistol and looked to Ed. “Let’s get your friend out of here.”

  * * *

  The three women accompanying Tex slipped into the truck beside Terry and gave directions. Terry forced the truck through a slight opening alongside the roadblock, too narrow to be obvious or to take at high speed. Terry gunned the engine, squeezing through the cars and scraping along the highway’s side wall until the truck came free.

  He continued on, driving as fast as he could, the women leading him off the highway and onto various side streets, twisting and turning until he couldn’t remember which way was which. They introduced themselves as Autumn, Summer and Winter. Terry chuckled at the names and the girls gave him a stern stare.

  “This is a new world,” Autumn said to him, her face pretty but haggard, like she’d seen too many bad things in too short of a time. Shortly cropped, blazing red hair sprouted from her head. “We picked new names.”

  “Fair enough,” Terry said.

  “The wounded in the back,” Summer said, her dirty blond hair draped over one eye. “We have someone who can tend to them.”

  “Tex already clued me in on that,” Terry replied. “But I got news for you, sister, some of them ain’t wounded.”

  Summer pursed her lips and nodded.

  “We’re not hippies, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Winter said. “No weird cult shit going on.”

  “I wasn’t thinking anything,” Terry said, lying. He’d been thinking exactly that.

  “We have a nice little group,” Autumn added. “You’ll see when we get there.”

  “I surely hope so,” Terry replied, “cause the last group we hooked up with wasn’t so nice.”

  “There’s Tex, behind us,” Winter said, glancing in the truck’s side mirror.

  “So Tex is the leader then?” Terry asked.

  “Sort of. It’s not all that structured, but I suppose if anybody’s our leader it’s him.”

  “He from Texas, I assume?”

  Summer shook her head, her brown curls bouncing. “Detroit.”

  “New world,” Winter said.

  “That it is,” Terry replied.

  “Over there,” Autumn said, pointing, her arm covered with freckles to match her fiery hair. “Turn right and then park. The others will let us in.”

  Terry smiled. “Your wish is my command.”

  Chapter Forty-Three

  The EMT’s name was Emily. She had a slim build, an oval face and curly brown hair that rose six inches from the top of her head and draped over her shoulders another six inches. She had a slightly crooked front tooth that didn’t detract from a natural beauty that Ed could immediately appreciate.

  “He’s probably going to be okay,” Emily said, looking Jasper over. They met in a room inside an old office building that Tex used as his base of operations. The jeep remained parked in an enclosed loading dock around the back of the building, along with four others just like it. Only Ed and Tex met with Emily, the others in Ed’s group awaited a medical assessment from Emily, after Jasper had been stabilized.

  “Probably?” Ed asked.

  Emily shrugged. “He has some nasty lacerations from the wreck. I stitched him up, but infection is always a risk. We have some antibiotics, but it’s not like I have an entire hospital at my disposal. He’s got a couple of cracked ribs, but no organ damage that I can tell. He took a real beating to the face, which I assume didn’t come entirely from the accident.”

  “No, that probably came from Roman and his boys,” Tex said.

  Emily nodded. “Most likely.”

  “Who’s Roman?” Ed asked.

  “That’s who chased you down,” Tex said. “Probably beat your location out of your friend there and then brought him along as a human GPS.”

  “There was another person with him, a woman,” Ed said.

  “Was she pretty?” Tex asked.

  “What’s that got to do with anything?”

  “Plenty.”

  Ed shrugged. “Not particularly.”

  “Then she’s dead,” Tex replied. “If they’re comely then he keeps ‘em.”

  “How do you know so much about them?” Ed asked.

  “Like I said, our paths cross.”

  “Go ahead. Tell him,” Emily said.

  Tex sighed, but didn’t reply.

  “He’s Tex’s brother,” Emily said.

  “Really?”

  “Not something I’m proud of,” Tex replied. “He’s a squirrelly little fucker. Been trying to catch him for years now, but he slips away every time.”

  “He’s a thorn in our side, that’s for sure,” Emily said. “But now for the bad news.”

  Ed nodded. “Go ahead.”

  “You lost one. The skinny guy with the glasses.”

  “Burt,” Ed said.

  “He was dead when he got to me. Took some slugs on the back of the truck. We’ll need to bury the body within the hour.”

  “Sure,” Ed replied. The woman got right to it.

  Tex’s lips formed a thin line. “Sorry for your loss.”

  Ed nodded.

  “What’s important is that your friend is probably going to make it and you folks have a place to stay,” Tex said.

  “We appreciate that,” Ed replied.

  Tex turned to Emily. “Honey, can you give us a minute?”

  “Absolutely,” Emily said. “If you need me, I’ll be tending to the others.”

  “Thank you,” Tex said. He waited until Emily closed the door behind her. His face turned serious. “Okay, Ed, I’m going to need to ask you some questions and I’m going to need you to be straight with me. Understood?”

  “Sure,” Ed said, cautious.

  “A big group is hard to manage. Believe me, I know for a fact.”

  “I’m not sure what your point is.”

  “My point is that I need to know from you who’s solid.”

 
“They’re all okay, I suppose.”

  “You all been together for long? From the beginning?”

  “No, not all of us.”

  “What I find is that when a group grows organically, there’s usually a core group at the center. The old timers. They absorb the new kids, but each one is more and more difficult to really know.”

  “My kids and Trish have been with me from the beginning.”

  “Sure, your family.”

  “Jasper too.”

  “He saved your life once, you said.”

  “Yeah.”

  “What about the others?”

  “Terry’s new, but he’s really stepped in and helped out.”

  “You trust him?”

  Ed nodded. “I do.”

  “What about the rest of them?”

  “They’re new. We picked up a few just before we got attacked.”

  “So you never got to vet them then.”

  Ed shook his head.

  “Hey,” Tex said, his face immediately shifting to a smile. “You gotta take folks in. I do it myself. But you’ll understand that I gotta protect myself here. I just met you and some of these folks you just met yourself. So let’s take it slow and spend some time on it. I’m going to put a few people on you, just for safety’s sake.”

  “And if I don’t want that?”

  Tex chuckled. “Your choice. You can walk outta here right now and take anybody you want with you.”

  “I don’t know that I believe that,” Ed said.

  “It’s true.”

  “You can’t because of Roman. He might find us and force us to give up your location. For all you know, we’re part of his group.”

  Tex smiled. “You don’t really think this is HQ, do you?”

  Ed didn’t reply.

  “Look, Ed. I’ve been doing this a long time. I’ve figured out how to survive. These folks say you’ve been put in charge. Might do you some good to stick around and see how it’s done here. Could prove useful.”

  Ed paused, considering. He didn’t really have much choice, the more he thought about it. “Sure.”

  “Good,” Tex replied, grinning. “Now let’s get you to Emily and see about that leg. Afterward we’ll get out in front of these folks and let them know what’s going on.” Tex’s grin faltered. “Lesson one, Ed…keep your people in the loop. If you don’t, they’ll conspire against you.”

  “Point taken,” Ed said, following Tex out of the room.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  When the short guy with the army gun stopped them, Chloe thought for sure they were dead. But after they met with the guy she figured was the group leader, a man around her father’s age before he died, she thought she and Sam might be okay. People seemed to listen to the guy and he didn’t come off like a maniac.

  Then more men with machine guns started firing and she—along with Sam, Lester and a bunch of people she didn’t know—were thrown in the back of a truck and taken on an insane chase. One guy got his throat shot out. It was terrible. The truck was all over the road, tossing everyone around like rag dolls. She clutched Sam tightly and they held on, keeping low and out of sight.

  But when the truck stopped and the van came barreling toward them, Chloe knew the end had truly come. It was only a matter of time; first her father had died and then her mother. Nobody could survive the virus. It got you directly or it got you indirectly, years after. If she was lucky her end would come with a bullet to the head. If not, it would come after enduring horrible things she didn’t want to think of.

  When the van exploded she didn’t believe what she’d seen. By the time they ended up gathered together in a room, being examined by an honest-to-god EMT, she began to consider that this might not be her day to die.

  The survivors were gathered in a large room and there they were told that they’d be staying with another group, the group who’d saved them by blowing up the van chasing them. Their rescuer’s leader introduced himself as “Tex”. Tex turned out to be tall, lean and good-looking…for an older guy. He had a comforting voice that made her want to trust him.

  Exactly the opposite of how Lester made her feel.

  Lester. She didn’t know what to do about that guy. Something was off about him, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Her mom could have though. Her mom was always good at figuring people out. It was part of the reason they stayed alive so long after the virus hit. Her mom knew who to avoid and who to trust. Chloe didn’t know if that skill was something you were born with or something that you learned (or a little of both), but either way her gut told her that Lester was somebody she couldn’t trust. Something about his eyes.

  She’d deal with it later. For now she and Sam were safe and that was what mattered. A few people had piped up and objected to the decision to stay with Tex, the short guy who bossed them around with the army gun earlier. She didn’t like that guy either. The leader (whose name she finally learned was Ed) put the issue to bed though. She also learned that he had two small boys of his own. He seemed genuine. Nice, even.

  That night all the people in Ed’s group slept in a large room together. She and Sam stayed with them. So did Lester, as much as she didn’t like that idea. Tex’s people got them blankets and some pillows. She and Sam slept together under the same blanket, sharing the same pillow (there were only so many to go around). They both slept on their sides, Sam behind her with his left arm draped over her. He allowed some distance between them at first, a respectful gesture that Chloe appreciated but didn’t want. She snuggled into him, pushing her back into his belly and he held her tightly. Sam fell asleep quickly, lightly snoring in the darkened room.

  Amidst the random sounds of dozen people rustling, coughing, snoring and whispering Chloe felt safe and warm. She fell asleep after a few minutes, filled with a sense of contentment and security she hadn’t had for a very, very long time.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  “How’s the pain?” Ed asked from Jasper’s bedside. He didn’t comment on how bad his friend looked nor did he look away, despite how much he wanted to. Jasper looked like a dead body that had been reanimated by some sadistic scientist.

  Jasper grinned, his split lip producing a drop of blood. “What pain?”

  Ed shook his head and grinned in spite of it all. “Always the smart ass.”

  “I gotta be me.”

  “Seriously, how is it?”

  Jasper shrugged and then winced visibly. “Bearable. The drugs are doing their job.”

  “Emily says you took a solid beating and not just from the accident.”

  “Those guys worked me over pretty good.”

  “You want to talk about it?”

  Jasper paused for a few seconds, thinking. Ed could see his friend’s expression change dramatically.

  “It’s my fault,” Jasper finally said. He looked down at his feet, his eyes focused and low.

  “What’s your fault?”

  “I’m the reason those guys found you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Jasper didn’t reply.

  “You can tell me, whatever it is, no matter how bad. You know that, right?”

  Jasper took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. His eyes remained focused downward. “Sue didn’t give you guys up, but I did.”

  “What happened to her?”

  “They killed her.”

  Ed has suspected as much. “What exactly happened?”

  “One of those…assholes who got us. Gorilla or Monkey, whatever he called himself. Big guy. He beat the shit out of us. Sue wouldn’t talk, so they beat her to death. Then they started hardcore on me.” He looked up. “I talked, Ed. It just hurt so bad and I knew they’d kill me. But I’m a pussy and I talked. I thought I was ready to die, I thought I was brave, but I’m not. It’s all my fault because I’m a coward.”

  Ed shook his head. “It’s not your fault.”

  “Don’t fucking lie to me, Ed. It is and you know it.”

  “I don’t k
now any such thing. Did you beat yourself up? Did you kill Sue?”

  “That’s a stupid question.”

  “Answer it.”

  “No, I didn’t.”

  “Then how the hell is it your fault? Those guys killed Sue and they beat the shit out of you. Then they attacked us and tried to kill the rest of us. You didn’t do any of those things.”

  “But if I’d kept my mouth shut then Burt would be alive now.”

  Ed shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. You don’t know if they would have found us.”

  “They wouldn’t have.”

  “You don’t know, and don’t pretend that you do. Things happen. It’s not your fault you ended up in this situation. You were only trying to help.”

  “Lotta good that did.”

  “You saved my life once, if you’ve forgotten about that. You got me back to my kids, to my family. You’ve done a hell of a lot of good in this world and that’s after it all went to shit. If you start selling yourself short on it and blaming yourself for other people’s actions then that’s on you, and you’d be wrong.”

  Jasper sighed and looked down, shaking his head. “I don’t know, Ed. I don’t know how I’m going to get around this.”

  Ed paused. “You’re not the only one who’s had to make awful decisions, you know?”

  Jasper wiped his eyes and looked up.

  “I killed my wife,” Ed said. “She got the virus. I shot her in the head myself.”

  “I didn’t know that.”

  “The woman I knew, the woman I’d married and the mother of my two boys, she was gone by the time I did it. I didn’t let the boys see her, but they knew. It took me an hour to get up the nerve. I did it from behind because I couldn’t stand to see her face. Her eyes were just empty…like there was nothing behind them. I pulled the trigger and put a bullet in the back of her head, then I watched her bleed to death.”

  Jasper remained quiet.

  “I spent a long time beating myself up over it, but eventually I accepted what I did. You will too, it’s just going to take a while. It won’t happen today and it won’t happen tomorrow, but eventually you’ll heal. You’ll learn to accept that the world forced this decision on you. You didn’t ask for it any more than I did. But what’s done is done and now we have to use whatever time we have left to make something worthwhile in this godforsaken hell hole.”