LZR-1143 (Book 4): Desolation (35 page)

Fray was a small woman, but carried herself with seriousness and attitude. Her large vest and belt with the thigh rig and extra ammo clips made her appear twice her size, and the short black hair over her dark ebony complexion made her appear as a specter in the falling darkness.
 

Sherman was the opposite. Tall and blonde, a thick scar ran from her hairline to her chin, marring what would have otherwise been a striking face. She threw Kate a quick smile—rueful and almost regretful, Kate thought—before sliding past her and into the roundabout, joining Fray as they pulled their carbines up and knocked on the door to the admin building loudly, trying to draw any creatures to them. Hearing nothing, they disappeared inside.
 

Her door open as she listened to the convoy spreading out and setting up, Kate let her head fall back against the seat as she took in a breath and tried to collect herself. She was bone tired, and feeling further and further from her goal. While they were traveling north, she knew that they were going to have trouble leaving this group. And that meant finding Liz—or any chance she had of finding Liz—was quickly becoming more difficult.

She had to find Ky, and make sure the kid understood. They had to leave.
 

“Thinking about leaving?”
 

Shit, she thought. Speak of the devil and she shall appear …
 

Starr’s grin was easy as she leaned against the door frame, her hands on either side of the door. A large rucksack sat at her feet as she glanced away, watching some of the vehicles move past. Dust rose into the air and twirled in the dying light. The smell of gun smoke and body odor was still thick in the humvee and Kate suddenly wanted to leave the confining space.
 

“No, I was actually just resting my eyes. It’s been … a day.” She gestured shortly around them. “Besides, how could we think of leaving something so palatial and opulent? I only see five corpses from where I sit. That’s moving up in the world.”
 

She felt flip and exhausted, and didn’t give a shit right now for what this unbalanced soldier thought of her.
 

“Outstanding,” said Starr with a brief chuckle, not taking umbrage at the humor. Her eyes moved across Kate’s face in an odd way, and she shrugged, taking her arms from the humvee. “Well, seeing as this is your first night with us, the rules are pretty simple. We eat together, we sleep in groups, and we take turns on guard duty. Given your heroism in saving those girls today, I can exempt you from pulling duty tonight. Not sure you’d be able to stay awake anyway.”

She let her head come around again as she heard a single gunshot followed immediately by the shouted “clear!” from inside the admin building. Nodding, she turned back to Kate, one hand resting casually on her pistol and the other hooking a thumb through her harness. Kate noticed absently that her nails were pristine.
 

“How’d you do that, anyway?” Starr asked, eyes hard and curious above her fake smile. “The jumping and the chain, I mean. You’re fit, I see this, but you’re no ultimate fighter. That chain had to weigh fifty pounds, and you threw it around like it was tooth floss. Steroids? And don’t tell me adrenaline, I’ve seen adrenaline. I know adrenaline. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that.”
 

Kate cursed herself for not seeing this coming. This woman was a borderline sociopath, she was certain of it. And she had revealed that she had attributes that made her valuable. All the more valuable if Starr wanted to press her on how she got that way.
 

She didn’t know how to play this. If she lied, she was fairly certain Starr would know. If she told the truth, she didn’t know how the woman would react. Would she demand the treatment? Would she turn the convoy south? Kate was certain that the base at Seatac had been destroyed—if that water could do to the countryside what it did, there was no way the city and all those buildings abutting the water could have survived. That included the airport and the fortress built around it.
 

But that didn’t help Kate and Ky if she turned the convoy around with them in it. They might heal fast and have some special abilities, but outrunning a bullet to the head wasn’t one of them. She made the only play she could think of on short notice.

“I … I’m a …” she began, trying to affect an embarrassed tone, lowering her voice and shifting her eyes. “It’s embarrassing.”
 

Starr simply stared, willing her to go on.

“It’s meth,” she said, not lifting her eyes. She laid on the tone and the voice that she had heard countless times in her work. The shame of the addiction. The false penitence. The shameless lies.

“I’ve been addicted since before this thing started, and we just found a new score—well, I did, the kid is clean. I was hopped up before we even met you all, and I snuck another while we were riding. It just … took me. I felt like I could do anything.”
 

She didn’t look up, fearing that her eyes would betray her. She allowed one hand to palsy slightly, as if symptomatic of coming down from the high. Shifting slightly in her seat, she clutched her other hand closed in anticipation, hoping that it would pass as discomforted shame.

Starr stood motionless for several moments, and Kate heard the roar of the Rhino as it lumbered past, the last vehicle to turn on the circle and face outward in case they needed to leave fast.

Finally she spoke.
 

“Meth,” she said simply, her voice unreadable.

Kate nodded, watching Starr’s boots shift slightly in the gravel. Then her hands came away from the doorway to the humvee and she spat loudly into the dirt. Her voice was flat, disbelieving.

“Dinner’s in twenty. Don’t be late, or all the good shit will be gone. I’ll see you in my tent at seven. If you don’t have a watch, check with one of the girls, they’ll give you what you need.”
 

Kate hated the powerlessness of it all, but all she could do was nod.
 

“And Kate?”

Finally she looked up at the woman, whose face was painted bright red by the last rays of the dying sun. Her eyes were humorless above a quick and unreal smile.

“Don’t be late.”

***

They set up the mess area in the long grass of the main courtyard inside the roundabout, two folding tables, a vat of soup, and some dried venison washed down with canned peas and water. Kate found Ky sitting with the two little girls on a small card table near the admin building that Starr had made her own barracks. Several of her troops were bunking there as well, and they ate as a group near the main entrance.
 

Another woman—portly, with bright eyes and graying hair over thick red lipstick and a worn face—sat at the table with Ky. Kate had met Donna briefly in the Rhino before she had moved to the Humvee and she nodded once as she sat down. Her sad plate of dried meat and peas stared up at her as she felt her appetite waste away.
 

“Finding everything okay?” Donna asked between mouthfuls, her eyes moving to Stacy and Annie to make sure they were eating. Ky was engaging them in animated conversation, and they were happy to have the attention, laughing as Ky made faces and funny voices over the din of the other people sitting around them. Laughing as if they couldn’t remember that their mother had died that afternoon.
 

“Yeah, I found some loaner clothes and got Ky situated. Some ladies from over that direction,” she gestured vaguely toward one of the cars, “loaned us a tent, and we got set up for the night.” She looked around, nodding appreciatively at the food and curious if this woman had any more information she could ferret out before her meeting with Starr. She decided to fish a little.
 

“You all eat like this every night?”

Donna smiled and nodded.

“We do okay. Most nights we don’t have any problems. We’ve been foraging for months, gotten pretty good at it. Mostly just focus on places where there were clearly huge groups of these things under the theory that the killing happened faster and folks would have had less time to squirrel away food and such. Ammunition is our big need, honestly. Canned food — that’s in most houses that haven’t already been hit out here. Since we’re pretty rural, we find decent stores in the back roads. But ammo is always an issue.”
 

Kate nodded amiably. “Isn’t it amazing how so much can just disappear in a matter of days? Ammo, food, medical supplies. Whole huge stores of it get ransacked, then the people that took it spread out, they die on a road or in a house somewhere, and all those supplies get spread out, used up and wasted. A crappy way to treat those of us who need that shit, huh?”

The woman chuckled as Kate leaned forward conspiratorially.
 

“Can I ask you something?”

Donna looked suspicious but nodded her pudgy head once, as if both curious and worried at the same time.
 

“Not that I’m complaining, because they just complicate the shit out of everything, but … where are all the men? Gotta admit, this is the first all-ladies group of survivors we’ve come upon.”

She watched as Donna’s face became passive and her mouth turned up at one edge. Before she could speak, Annie whispered loudly across the table.

“We don’t like men. They’re dangerous. Even my daddy, they said. That’s why Captain Starr said she had to …”
 

“That’s enough, honey,” said Donna seriously, as Ky gave Kate a curious look. Donna patted Annie’s arm and gestured toward the tents. “Why don’t you head back to get ready for bed? You’ve had a long day.”
 

The girls nodded and rose.

“Go ahead, take them to their tent and wander back, okay?” Kate said to Ky. Donna was fussing briefly with one of the girls and Kate managed a gesture indicating that Ky should stay cool and they’d talk when she returned.
 

“Okay, then,” said Ky, taking the girls under her arms. She was also wearing some borrowed clothes, and the overly large dress shirt she had tucked in to baggy jeans made her look like a giant bird. “Let’s go girls, I’ll race you.”
 

Donna watched them go and turned back to Kate, clucking under her breath quietly and shaking her head. Looking up and checking over each shoulder before speaking, she said simply.

“Captain Starr has had some … experiences … since this all started.”

“Haven’t we all? Jesus, I could tell you …”
 

“No, I mean other than the zombies. Her commander was a … well, he didn’t treat women too well at the end. Had some sort of break. She and several of her other soldiers had to endure some pretty shitty stuff, is what I heard. Maybe made her a little harsh with men.” Her voice hardened quickly, her eyes worried suddenly, as if she had said something wrong.

“Not that I don’t agree,” she stressed. “We don’t need them. We do fine on our own, and there’s no need to involve people that are dangerous. It’s just … it’s hard sometimes.” Absently, she twisted her left ring finger, where the skin was a full shade lighter.
 

Kate realized quickly that Donna had been married, and she had likely sacrificed her husband for the safety of this criminal band.

“It’s hard when we miss the ones we love,” she said softly, playing the hunch.

Donna nodded once, eyes distant.

“Donna, is there anything else you can tell me about Captain Starr?” Kate said. “You know, just so I can try to fit in better?” she added, trying to cover up the snooping tone.
 

The larger woman turned slightly, as if aware of what Kate was doing, and she shrugged noncommittally.
 

“Just know this. We don’t take with men.” She paused, as if the short moment of silence pained her. “Or boys,” she whispered softly, glancing at Kate furtively.
 

Kate nodded once, unable to contain a frown as Donna looked away. She sighed once and looked at the table with sadness.
 

As she suspected. They were off the reservation, these women. They had traded their freedom and their humanity for the dubious safety of a ragtag militia of people who had been wounded some time in the recent past. And they were being led by a madwoman.
 

Donna shook her head and rose, glancing around before locking eyes with Kate.

“You take care, okay? And you be careful. Just remember, the Captain,” she thought for a moment, chewing on her lip. “Just remember the Captain doesn’t like to be refused … not nothin’”
 

Kate narrowed her eyes briefly as she considered the statement, putting together the glances she had seen from Starr earlier in the day and then leaning back in understanding.

So that’s how she played it. Dominance in every aspect. She had to be in control—the had to exert power in every aspect of the group’s life. And new recruits had to be initiated.
 

Swallowing once, she nodded in thanks as Donna pulled herself up and managed a brief smile before waddling away.
 

Kate rose, her mind already churning with possibilities and challenges for tonight’s dinner. She saw Ky returning quickly from dropping the girls off at their tent, moving with purpose, as if she were uneasy in the open among these people. Kate nodded her over quickly and pulled her to the side.
 

“I have to go now. Starr wants to see me. But stay alert. Don’t trust anyone. And start paying attention to routines. I think we …” she trailed off and looked over her shoulder as a pair of the soldiers walked by, talking loudly. She lowered her voice.

She continued in a hushed voice.
 

“I think we need to start thinking about leaving. But be cool. We need to make it seem like we’re on board and all that. Until I come back tonight, stay away from anyone else. Go to the tent and stay there. Got it?”
 

Ky nodded, eyes serious. There was no ambiguity there. No teenager disagreement. She could feel the same thing Kate could. Something was wrong with this group—they didn’t act normal. And Ky knew that a group this large had to have made decisions not to help men or boys along the way. That they must have driven past needy groups that contained men. Men like her father, and Mike. Good people, trying to survive and to protect their families.