Fireside (13 page)

In the warden’s office, he worked the latch to open the compartment where the battery went and folded the hinged lid over. Inside the drawer was a battery that had never been opened, it was sealed in a metallic foil bag of some sort. Judd made quick work of the packaging with his knife, wrinkling his nose at the strange odor that came from inside.

Once the battery was free of the foil, he examined it until he found the indention where the plug down inside the battery box would fit and aligned the two before pushing the battery home. He tapped it gently several times to ensure that it was seated properly and then closed the lid, latching it to ensure a good connection between the post and the battery.

He connected the wire that ran to the antenna on the roof to the upper left of the radio like he’d been shown and then fiddled with the knob on the left until he rotated it all the way over to the letters “
FCTN TST
” and waited. Judd didn’t know what the letters meant, but Kendrick had told him that it was important to do that first to get it going.

The little screen lit up with a pretty greenish-yellow light and the word “
GOOD
” appeared in black letters. That meant the radio worked, so he twisted the knob back up to the “
ON
” position. He pulled a notebook out of the desk drawer that had a secret code written on it.

Judd couldn’t help but mumble the words out loud as he pushed the buttons. Sometimes talking out loud helped him to concentrate and not screw it up. “One. Two. Three.” He tore his eyes away from the screen and verified the next number in the code before continuing. “Four… Five!”

He waited. Nothing happened so he checked the notebook again. That’s right, he was supposed to hit the “
STO
” button. He depressed it and again, nothing happened. Judd picked up the radio and looked at it.
Why wasn’t it working
? Kendrick had made it work to show him.
Had all that time caused the radio to go bad, like all the rest of the electronic stuff, like the television
?

Then he remembered about the black handset with the twisty cord. “Oh, man. How could I have been so stupid?” he yelled, startling himself with the noise. He plugged in the handset and examined it. There was a button on the side of it that he had to push to talk.

He pushed the button in with his middle finger and what remained of his pointer. “Uh, hello. This is Judd. Master?”

He listened to the receiver and still nothing happened.
Maybe I should have practiced this a few times
, he told himself. He thought back to that night when Kendrick had shown him how to operate the radio and remembered that he had to let go of the button for them to answer.

His fingers flew open to allow the radio to work and he almost dropped the handset in the process. He listened for a few seconds and then pressed the push-to-talk button again, “Hello. This is Judd.”

He released the button immediately this time and a woman answered, “Hello, Judd. My name is Starr. The Vultures have been waiting for your call.”

Judd was ecstatic that the radio worked, but he was disappointed also. He’d wanted to talk to the master, not some girl. The only girls that he’d ever talked to were the nurses and his momma, but they’d abandoned him to the prison with only his friends for company. “Uh…hello?” he asked into the handset. “Is Kendrick there?”

“Rustwood is presently engaged. Do you have a message for us?”

He thought about what “presently engaged” meant. He knew that before people got married, they were engaged. Did this Starr-woman mean that Kendrick was getting married and that’s why he couldn’t come to the radio? That must be it! He was happy for his master, getting married was a big deal.

“Tell him that old Judd says congratulations!” he stated emphatically. “That’s exciting.”

“Okay… I’ll let him know that you said so.” She sounded angry to him, had he said something wrong? “Do you have news from your location?”

“No ma’am, the television in the cellblock doesn’t work anymore, so there’s no news.”

“What the hell are you talking about you crazy bastard? Kendrick said you were a fucking looney, but Jesus!”

Her insults slid past him and didn’t affect him. Before he came to stay at the detention center people used to say things like that to him all the time. The only time it had ever really bothered him was that one time when the O’Connor boy said that mean stuff and then hit him. Judd didn’t really know what happened after that. The next thing he knew, there were police officers everywhere. They were really nice and gave him a free ride to his new home. The part of his mind that didn’t get to talk much told him that he bashed the boy’s head in with a baseball bat. Of course, that wasn’t true, that part of his mind just liked to make him feel bad. That’s why it wasn’t allowed to talk much.

“No, ma’am, I’m not a looney. The crazy people live in the East Ward and the baddies stay in Cellblock A. I live in Cellblock B and make paintings and talk to my friends. Sometimes we play cards.”

“Stop. What the hell are you talking about?” the woman asked. “Do you have information about San Angelo or are you just wasting the battery on the radio?”

“Oh!” She reminded him about why he’d called. “Yes, the Jello soldiers came through in their trucks today.”

“Jello? What the fuck? Oh, you mean
Angelo.
The soldiers from San Angelo came in to Eden today. Is that what you’re saying?”

That’s what he’d just told her.
She
was the crazy one. He’d already told her about the soldiers three or four times. Talk about not listening. He thought that maybe she was slow in the head, so Judd spoke slowly and made sure to enunciate each syllable. “The soldiers from Salmon-Jello came through town today. Kendrick told me to call when they came back.”

“Alright. Got it,” she answered. “I’ll tell Rustwood about your message. Keep the radio connected, he’ll contact you soon.”

Judd leaned back away from the radio and smiled. The master would come back to him soon. He had to tell all of his friends! They would be so excited—well, everyone except Jake. He didn’t like the Vultures and told Judd that constantly. Everyone else would be happy to see their old friends though, especially the guys over in Cellblock A, they really liked the Vultures a lot.

NINE

“I’ve always been able to know what would happen in the future,” Maria mumbled, choosing to stare at the empty bowl of stew instead of either adult seated at the table. “I didn’t start having the visions until a few years ago—that’s when my family got mad at me and made me leave.”

“Where are you from?” Aeric asked.

The girl shrugged. “I don’t know the name of the place. I was too little to learn it; San Angelo is a lot bigger. There were ten or eleven houses behind a big wall.”

“That could be just about anywhere, then,” Veronica interjected. “Does it really even matter where she’s from?”

Traxx glanced at his wife, “Of course it does. If there’s a powerful settlement nearby, then we need to know about it.”

“They obviously weren’t that powerful if they were scared of Maria’s visions.”

“Oh, they’re probably all dead by now,” the girl said without a hint of remorse. “Nobody liked me because of my dreams. I told them about the birds coming there too and they wouldn’t listen. That’s when they made me leave and go out into the wastelands.”

“These ‘birds’ that will attack San Angelo, can you describe them?”

Maria seemed to sink into herself and she picked at one of her fingernails. “I don’t like to talk about my visions. They’re scary.”

“You certainly didn’t seem to mind talking about it when we were in the Barrio,” Aeric said.

She frowned. “I’m sorry, Mr. Traxx. When a vision happens, I can’t stop myself from saying whatever I see. I don’t mean to be bad.”

He smiled at her use of the words and reminded himself that even though she certainly seemed older, the girl was way too young to be carrying all the baggage that she had. “It’s alright, you’re not bad. Were the birds black, maybe with a hooked beak?”

She nodded, obviously intent on not speaking about the vision. “Do you know what a vulture is?” Aeric asked gently.

“No, sir.”

“Hmm. Okay, I think I know what you’re vision meant about the birds. There’s a gang in Austin called the Vultures. They’re a really nasty bunch—or at least they used to be. We’d thought that they all died out or killed each other off. Now I’m not so sure that we were right.”

He paused to organize his thoughts into a manner that would be understandable for her and then continued, “They took me hostage right after the war. My girlfriend killed their leader when we escaped and came here.”

Maria’s eyes widened and she looked over at Veronica. “He
killed
someone?”

“No, honey,” Veronica interjected with a pointed stare at Aeric. “Mr. Traxx had a girlfriend who was in a very bad situation and she killed the Vulture leader. Aeric didn’t do it.” Aeric agreed with his wife’s tactic; it was probably best to not upset the girl any more than she already was.

“What happened to her?”

Veronica chose to avoid the obvious question about what her bad situation had been. Maria didn’t need to know the details of what happened to them in Austin. “Kate—that was her name—died in childbirth.”

“Oh. I’m sorry to hear that,” she answered with a sad smile. Then, her eyes glazed over and she stared intently at Aeric for a moment before saying, “Your son is going to kill you.”

“What?” Aeric’s voice boomed across the little dining area.

Maria jumped and scooted her chair backwards, causing the same noise that had grated his spine earlier. “I said I’m sorry that your girlfriend died,” she whimpered.

“No, the other thing,” he demanded.

“I… I don’t know what you mean.”

Veronica’s eyes flashed an angry warning at him. He took the hint and sat back in the chair with his arms folded across his chest. She reached over and grasped the little girl’s hands. “Sweetie, you said that Aeric’s son was going to kill him.”

She looked back and forth between them. “I did? I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say that.”

Veronica waited a moment and then asked, “Is that normal for you to say strange things in the middle of a conversation? Do the wrong words sometimes come out, or is that part of your Gift?”

“I, uh… I don’t know. Most of the time I know what I’m saying. It’s like I’m standing beside myself and I watch my mouth move and words come out, but can’t stop it from happening.”

“So maybe it was a slip of the tongue then,” Veronica offered hopefully.

Aeric knew what the girl said, even if she didn’t realize that she did.
Telling someone that their child was going to kill them wasn’t something that you accidentally say
, he told himself, fuming in silence while his wife tried to defuse the situation.

He thought about his boys, Mason, Anthony and John. Could one of them actually kill him? How was that even possible? Of course, it could always be some type of mercy killing, like if he was disemboweled by one of those damn demonbrocs that Huerta was raising in the Barrio. Whatever the reason, it didn’t sit well with him that Maria had so casually stated that one of his sons would kill him, without realizing the impact that her words had on him.

He tried to relax and cleared his throat, “Ah, I guess… I guess we should get back on topic. You said the Vultures were going to attack—”

“I said the
birds
were going to attack. I don’t know what it means. Maybe there are giant birds out there that you don’t know about.”

He nodded his chin for show, but he wasn’t naïve. He knew exactly what the reference about birds meant. “Okay, good point.
Something
is going to attack San Angelo and it’s my fault. You said the walls would come down and everyone would die. That about sums it up, right?”

She thought about it and then replied, “Yes. I think that’s all that I saw.”

“Do you know when?”

“No. I’m sorry. You looked roughly the same, not gray-haired or anything.”

“Hmm…” Aeric rubbed his chin as he thought about a way to figure out a timeframe for the attack. “Was it harvest time or were there vegetables on the crops?”

“I didn’t see that,” she said. “Everything was on fire. I saw you and several men run towards the birds and then they…”

She stopped talking once again. “It’s okay, Maria. I’ve lived a full life and can handle what you’re going to say. What about me?”

“They’re going to put your head on a pole by one of the gates. Maybe the Northern Gate. I’m not sure.”

Veronica let out a sob and pushed away from the table. Aeric watched her rush off towards the bathroom. He considered going after her and discarded the idea. It would be better to let her be alone for a moment and give her time to calm down. He glanced back at Maria, who was staring at the empty bowl once again. “Do your visions always come true?”

“Mostly,” she replied.

“Are you sure that you don’t have any idea of when this is going to happen?”

“No. Sorry, Mr. Traxx.”

“It’s okay. Looks like we need to start preparing our defenses better though, huh?”

She shrugged, “Couldn’t hurt.”

He smiled and pushed himself up from the table. “Okay, kiddo. Thank you for telling me everything that you know. I’m gonna go talk to Miss Veronica. Make yourself at home. There’s more stew in the pot if you’re still hungry.”

Aeric didn’t wait to see if she acknowledged him before walking into the next room. That girl gave him the creeps. He knocked gently on the bathroom door and heard Veronica pour water into the toilet’s tank behind the seat, then flush away whatever had been in it.

“It’s open,” she said.

He turned the handle gently and slipped inside. The air smelled of partially digested stew. “We don’t get much meat, can’t be wasting it like that,” he teased.

“Shut up. I couldn’t help myself.” She wiped her eyes with a rough hand towel that had seen better days. “I thought that we’ve set up a nice, safe home here and… And I’d hoped that all of that stuff with the Vultures would be in the past.”

She wiped away more tears and jabbed her finger towards the door, “That girl is talking about them cutting your head off. Babe, I can’t…”

Veronica trailed off, not wanting to finish her statement. Aeric reached out and pulled her to him. He wrapped his arms around her, resting his cheek on the top of her head as she cried into his chest. “We’ve lived far longer than most people have in this screwed up world, love,” he mumbled into her hair. “I don’t want to die either.”

“Then let’s leave,” she said unexpectedly, leaning back and wrapping her fingers around his jaw. “We can go. If the Vultures want you, then we can leave and they won’t even have any reason to attack the city. We can choose our own future, regardless of what that little girl says.”

He shook his head gently. “I can’t do that. I am the mayor of this city. I can’t run away and leave them to whatever the Vultures have in store for them.”

“If we leave and that will save the city, then isn’t that better for everyone?” she pleaded.

“I wish it was that easy. You’ve heard the stories about them, the Vultures won’t stop until they’ve finished the job they started when they initiated the war. The fact that I’m here is just a bonus to them.”

“So we’re going to wait here to die?”

“No, we’re not,” he answered. An idea had been kicking around in his head from the moment he heard Maria say that the birds were going to burn San Angelo to the ground. “I’m going to Austin to stop them. They’ll never expect an attack.”

*****

“How are you holding up, Ty?” Aeric asked his best friend.

“I’m good, bro. You?”

Traxx nodded his head noncommittally. “Is there anything I can get for you, maybe some aspirin for the pain?”

“Nah, save that shit for someone who has a chance. I can take it,” Tyler replied. “It’s been a couple of days since you were over, what’s going on?”

“Nothing. Everything is good. We’re doing alright,” he answered woodenly.

“Yeah, you can tell me what you did with Aeric, you pod person… Body snatcher!” Tyler reached over playfully from the couch towards his friend.

“Tyler, be careful,” Nicole admonished. “You don’t want to start coughing again.”

Aeric eyed the bloody towel on Tyler’s lap, evidence that something was majorly wrong with the big man. He’d seen him go into a coughing fit a few weeks ago from exertion while walking to the Provisions Warehouse where he worked.

Tyler stuck his tongue out at Nicole, who snorted. “Oh, that’s really dignified for such an old man,” she scoffed.

“Old? I’m only fifty-five! I’ve got thirty good years ahead of me.”

His comment hung in the air, silencing the banter between the three friends. Tyler was sick, most likely cancer, and Aeric doubted if he’d survive the upcoming winter. Even with their masks, the two of them had spent months upon months on the open road immediately after the war on Aeric’s quest to find his family, planting the seed of guilt firmly in Traxx’s mind that his friend’s illness was his fault. Added to that were the decades that Tyler spent as the leader of the Gathering Squad as the city struggled to procure every usable resource in the surrounding area, breathing in the shit in the air and eating food that was probably tainted with radiation.

Aeric plastered a fake smile across his face and said, “I didn’t know they let the nursing home patients talk that way to their caretakers.”

Nicole folded her arms under her breasts and cocked her hip out to the side. “Aeric, this old fool wouldn’t know what to do with a nurse as hot as me. Nah, I’m just here to make sure he doesn’t crap his pants.”

Tyler grinned and mumbled, “Thankfully,
that
hasn’t happened to me yet.”

“Can I get you anything to drink?” Nicole asked Aeric.

“No, thank you, I’m fine. Have a seat; I’ve got some news that is going to affect everyone.”

She started to sit on a side chair, then thought better of it and sat on the couch beside Tyler and gripped his hand in hers. “What is it this time, Aeric?” Tyler asked. “Are Martians invading and we’re Earth’s last hope? Do we need to go fight some dinosaurs that hatched from million year old eggs?”

“Oh man, I wish it were that easy,” Aeric replied. “Do you guys know Maria Salazar?”

Both of them shook their head so Aeric tried another approach, “Have you heard of the children with the Gift? It’s what people in the community are calling the kids who can predict the future.”

“And this girl, Maria, can predict the future?” Tyler surmised.

“Yeah—well, not really predict, she has visions of what will happen. The other kids seem to be able to determine a few things here and there, but they’re not reliable and she has a much better track record with her visions. Like a hundred percent success rate.”

“Pretty good odds,” Nicole smirked. “Can I take her to Vegas?”

Aeric laughed at her attempt at lightening the mood in their home. “She says that the Vultures are coming.”

Tyler sighed and asked, “To San Angelo?”

He nodded. “Granted, she didn’t say the
Vultures
were coming, her visions aren’t that specific. She saw giant birds attacking and burning the city. So unless there’s some type of crazy mutation in the bird population that we don’t know about, I’m pretty sure that she means the Vultures.”