Radio Hope (Toxic World Book 1) (11 page)

Just then Clyde hurried in, his sweating face a mask of worry. The conversations began to die away as people saw him.

The Head of the Watch hustled up to the stage and took his seat.

“What’s happened?” The Doctor asked.

Clyde wiped his face and tried to catch his breath.

“Bad news,” he managed to gasp out. “The worst.”

Clyde looked at the audience when he realized that they had all fallen silent and were watching him.

“I concede the floor to the Head of the Watch,” Abe said and sat down. He looked as worried as everyone else.

Clyde stood up, cleared his throat, and looked back at The Doctor. Receiving a reassuring nod, he turned to the audience, cleared his throat again, smoothed his camouflage shirt, and took a deep breath.

“The patrol in the South Pass just radioed in. The Righteous Horde is coming through. An advanced group of their scouts surrounded our patrol. The last radio message said they were cut off and most were down. I could hear gunfire. Then the signal went dead.”

A woman stood up near the back.

“Who was on that patrol?” she asked in a quavering voice.

Clyde’s mouth made a grim line. “Charles Leslie, Edward Hall, Lester Freeman, Marsha Crawford, Johnny Kim, and Virginia Barnes.”

Gaps and sobs rose from the crowd. The woman turned pale and sat down.

“How long before they get here?
” The Doctor asked.

“They didn’t have time to radio in their position but given that they only left from the outer farms yesterday and that the signal was pretty clear, I’d say two days.”

Abe Weissman sprang out of his seat. “We need to close the gates right away!”

“You don’t have the floor,” Marcus snapped.

“The hell with the floor, they probably have spies here right now. Who’s to say that guy selling the radios isn’t one of them? He’s sure eager to come in.”

“Why would he be trading crystal sets that pick up Radio Hope if he’s with the Righteous Horde?” Marcus scoffed.

“Maybe they’re one and the same,” Abe said.

“Now you’re just being stupid,” Marcus shot back.

Murmurs of agreement came from the crowd. Someone shouted, “Sit down, Abe!”

Abe looked around him. Marcus could tell he was cursing himself for going too far. He was about to say something more when The Doctor cut him off.

“If reports of their numbers are true—”

“We don’t know that!” Abe interrupted. The Doctor rolled right over him.

“If reports of their numbers are true, we can’t stand against them. I move that we let in the associates immediately. . .”

The Doctor paused. There was no objection to that since there was precedent for it.

“. . .and that we let the scavengers we know in.”

Once again the Citizens C
ouncil burst into a dozen arguments. The Doctor raised his hands for silence.

“We don’t have time to deliberate all day. Let’s have a voice vote. All in favor of this plan say aye.”

A few dozen voices called out.

“And all those in opposition say nay.”

A chorus of nays rumbled the room, significantly louder than the ayes.

Rachel Barry stood up, her mechanic’s overalls smudged with grease.

“May I have the floor?” she asked.

“Yes,” the Doctor replied. “Thank you for asking.”

Marcus stole a look at Abe. The merchant looked like he had just sucked on a lemon.

“I
move that we let the scavengers in who we know and can vouch for, but disarm them. If it turns out we really need them on the wall, we can give them their weapons back.”

“They’re aren’t going to go for that!” someone called out.

Rachel scowled at the crowd, looking for the dissenter. “Well we won’t know unless we ask them, now will we?”

“I second the motion,” Marcus called out.

“All those in favor say aye,” The Doctor asked.

The ayes were much louder this time.

“All those opposed say nay.”

The nays lost by a narrow margin.

Ahmed stood up and raising his voice to be heard over the grumbling of the Merchants Association he asked to be given the floor. The Doctor nodded to his assistant.

“I’d like to propose that all scavengers be allow
ed in under those circumstances,” Ahmed said.

Abe sprang from his seat again. “Are you crazy? There’s got to be three thousand people in the Burbs. We let them all in they could take over, plund
er every storehouse, every home!”

Ahmed
gave him a withering look. “I know you’re very concerned about your property, Abe, but have you considered we’re talking about people’s lives?”

Abe made a face. “Scavengers, only scavengers.”

“Watch it!” someone shouted. “Some of us were scavengers once.”

Marcus looked around nervously. So many angry faces, angry for so many reasons. While he liked seeing Abe put in his place, this sort of disunity was bad news before a siege.

“Let’s put it to a vote,” Ahmed said.

“You need your proposal to be seconded,” The Doctor said.

“Well, second it then,” the nurse replied.

The Doctor didn’t reply, his face stony. Ahmed’s eyes narrowed.

“I second it,” Rachel Barry called out.

Virtually no one said aye and
the nays won easily. Ahmed frowned and took his seat.

The Doctor nodded
. “I’ll bow to the will of the gathered citizenry. But I’m warning you,”—and he stuck out his index finger like he was chastising a group of children—“they may not go for this. This newcomer seems to be banding them together. He’s bought a lot of goodwill by practically giving away those radios.”

“I move that we grab him and make him tell all he knows!” a member of the Merchants Association shouted.

“That’s a security issue and is up to Clyde and me,” The Doctor replied. “Don’t worry, we’ll be talking to him. But there won’t be any grabbing or we’ll have a siege on our hands a lot sooner than two days from now.”

Marcus looked around at all the frightened face
s, the citizens who had turned ugly against the traders who supplied them their needs in exchange for the surplus from their farms, and realized that in a sense, the siege had already begun.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Jackson cursed. They wanted to go back downstairs into a crowd of tweakers for Ha-Ram’s backpack? What the hell was in it that he and Mitch cared about so much?

They clattered down the hallway, Jackson lagging behind as he tried to load Annette’s pistol while
running at the same time. He cursed again as he dropped a bullet. He hesitated, then grabbed it and put it in the chamber. Snapping the cylinder into place he sprinted to catch up with the others, who had already made it to the stairway.

“Ha!”

“Hoooooo!”

Mitch angled his AK-47 down the stairs and let loose on full auto, the muzzle of his weapon sending out a bright flare that lit up the dim staircase. A moment later he hustled down the steps with the other two behind them.

Jackson got to the top of the stairs and saw them rounding the next landing down past a heap of crumpled bodies. He felt a rising panic, the raw fear of being left alone in this place. He’d always been a loner, even more so after being branded and cast out, but the thought of being alone in the city for even a second gave strength to his tired legs and hurled him down the steps.

He caught up with them halfw
ay down the next flight of stairs, having to pull himself up short because the three of them had formed in line across the stairway and were giving everything they had into a mass of tweakers below.

Jackson brought up the r
evolver and tried to find a position where he could safely fire between them.

He didn’t get a chance. All the tweakers were down in an instant.

Ha-Ram hurried over to his pack, stumbling over the writhing forms of the dying chem addicts in the rush to get it. He picked it up, grimaced as his hand smeared a spray pattern of blood, and opened it up.

“Everything looks OK,” he said to Mitch.

The burly man looked it over. “No bullet holes. We were lucky.”

Jackson glanced from one to the other. What was going on here?

The sounds of approaching footsteps brought him to a more important matter. He looked around, saw the opening to another hallway leading toward the back of the building, and jabbed a thumb in that direction.

“Let’s look for that back exit now.”

“Cover us,” Annette said, “I think you’re the only one’s who’s loaded.”

They hurried around the corner, Jackson taking point. To his relief he saw the w
elcome rectangle of sunlight from an open doorway at the end.

A few seconds later
Jackson burst out, pistol at the ready. They were on the broad street that ran along the top of the ridge. No one was in sight.

“Let’s go!” Jackson urged them on.

His companions didn’t need a second invitation. They sprinted the next two blocks, humping it over the ridge and running fast down the steep slope on the other side. Beyond they could see the other half of the city spread out below them. Much of it was charred from some long-ago fire, only blackened shells of buildings remaining. Off to their right they could see the blue sea, the brown countryside, and a thin ribbon of sand between, all bright now in the sunlight that had broken through the clouds.

The group slowed down to a panting walk. Despite the chilly sea breeze sweat poured down their faces. Jackson gave Annette a concerned glance. She’d been scratched pretty bad by that tweaker’s filthy nails, and then got its blood sprayed in the wound. Good thing Mitch had some iodine. No telling what could get in those scratch
es. From the look on her face Annette was worried about it too.

Of more immediate concern was getting out of the city. He didn’t think the tweakers would pursue them. Chances are they had forgot about them already and were feasting on a bounty of fresh meat. Jackson shuddered.

After another block they stopped by unspoken consensus. Everyone reloaded. Mitch cursed under his breath.

“What is it?” he asked the baker.

“Burned too much ammo back there,” Mitch grumbled. “Only enough left to fill one magazine and leave the second a couple rounds short.”

“I only have enough for two more clips,” Ha-Ram said, reloading his 9mm.

He looked to Annette.

“I got plenty of shells for this shotgun,” she told him.

Jackson gestured at the rifle case strapped to her back. “And that?”

A trouble
d look passed over the woman’s face. “Don’t you worry about that.”

“I’m more worried about this,” Jackson said, holding up his pistol. “Only six rounds. Mind not being so stingy and giving me the rest of your supply?”

Annette paused for a moment, then dug into her breast pocket and came up with a handful of bullets. Jackson counted. Ten.

He looked back at her. “That’s all?”

“Yeah.”

Jackson sighed and stowed them away.

Mitch snapped a full magazine in his Kalashnikov and said, “We got enough for one good firefight and then we’re screwed.”

They started walking again.

“We going to have another firefight where we’re going?” Jackson asked.

Mitch shrugged. Jackson looked at Ha-Ram.

“Mind telling me what’s so important about your pack?” he asked.

Ha-Ram looked about to reply when Mitch gave him a hard look.

“Nothing,” the technician mumbled.

Jackson shook his head. Olivia better get her ass inside the walls after all the shit he
was going through to get her there.

This part of the city seemed all but abandoned. Large se
ctions of it had been burned. Jackson figured there was less to scavenge here and the tweakers preferred the more industrial part of the bay where they could get more chemicals. Only twice did they see lone figures in the distance. One was staggering away from them, the other squatting in the middle of the road with his pants around his ankles. Jackson hurried them on, eager to avoid contact.

By sunset they had left the c
ity behind them and walked by the side of a highway that snaked along high ground overlooking the sea. The old highways were good direction finders in the wildlands, but nobody actually walke
d
o
n
them anymore. Decades of weathering had cracked and buckled the asphalt, making it rougher terrain than the soil to either side. In some spots grass and bushes grew out of the middle of the road. Further on away from the toxins Jackson knew that even trees had pushed their way through.

They found shelter for the night in an old gas station.
Its pumps had been stripped for scrap metal, its windows shattered and its interior cleared out of everything except the counter and a few rusted shelves. The roof was still good though and after checking it out they broke out their food and blankets and settled down.

Annette found a sliver of mirror behind the counter and sat applying iodine to her face. Mitch didn’t object to
her borrowing it again. He looked horrified that she’d been touched by one of those things.

Jackson sat near the front looking out to sea, wondering why Abe Weissman hadn’t lent them his boat. It would have made the journey quicker and safer. Then he realized why—Abe only had one boat.

Wants a backup plan in case the cultists break through the wall.

Jackson shook his head. He
’d bet his life the rich scumbag wouldn’t take anyone with him. Probably had a year’s worth of Blue Cans stored in the hold too.

Ha-Ram stood outside looking up at the faded sign in front of the store. Jackson followed his gaze and saw it read “Choi’s Gas and Groceries” in English and then another line of text in some Asian language.

“Can you read that?” Jackson asked.

“Yeah, it’s Korean. Says the same thing as it does in English.”

“I thought you were Chinese,” Mitch said.

Ha-Ram laughed and shook his head. “No. My great-grandparents came from Korea right after unification.”

“Unification?” Mitch asked.

“Korea used to be two countries
. Then it became one. Then none.” Ha-Ram’s face darkened.

“And here I th
ought your ancestors came with the invasion!” Mitch laughed.

Ha-Ram shook his head. “Came to escape an earlier invasion.
My family was big into the old country, though. My grandparents had never been there but told us all sorts of stories they’d heard from their parents and made sure everyone in our family learned the language. We all got traditional names. Mine means ‘gift from heaven’ because my mother was so happy that she finally gave birth to a live child.”

“With all the shit those assholes spread it’s a wonder any of us were born at all,” Mitch grunted.

“What we got was nothing compared to Korea,” Ha-Ram replied.

“You’re steering close to Blame, guys,” Annette called out from where she sat dabbing iodine on her face.

Jackson shook his head. “If you’re going to blame someone, blame the right people. The rich of all countries—”

“Watch it!” Annette snapped.

Jackson turned to her. “What are you going to do, brand my other cheek?”

Annette looked down at the floor.

“Instead of screaming about people with better survival skills than you, how about you break out that map while there’s still light enough to see? We need to plan tomorrow’s march,” Mitch said.

Jackson shrugged. Might as well. He pulled out the map from where it was tucked into his shirt and laid it out on the dusty counter. The other
s gathered around. Ha-Ram stood right next to him. Jackson laid his hand over the map’s key.

“It’s hard to tell since the coastline has changed a lot since this map was made, but I think we’re about here,” he
said, pointing to a spot on a road leading south from the city.

“How can you tell that?” Ha-Ram asked.

“From the contours of the land,” Jackson replied.

“And how does the map tell you that?” the technician pressed.

Jackson gave him a steady gaze. “It just does, OK?”

“So now what?” Annette said, looking at the map with a stare that was reassuringly blank.

Jackson’s finger traced the line of the road down to where it intersected with another road heading east into the mountains.

“We need to follow this road until it links up with one that goes east and through the pass.”

“How far?” Mitch asked.

“Twenty miles to the intersection and another five to the start of the pass.”

“That’s not far,” Annette said. “Why do so few people know of it?”

“The mountains
take a loop to the west just where the city is. The edges of the city go right up to its foothills. Since everyone sees it as a no-go area, hardly anyone ever comes this way.”

Ha-Ram measured the first distance with his fingers. Jackson glanced at him just in time to see him mouth the word “twenty.” Then he narrowed the space between his fingers and laid them out between the intersection and the mountains. He got the distance almost perfect, his forefinger touching where the contour lines crowded close to show a steep rise in elevation.

The Korean technician studied those lines for a moment. Jackson saw understanding dawn in his eyes.

Better watch this one
,
Jackson thought
.
Abe probably told him to figure out how to use my map. Probably means to take it. Sorry, Mr. Weissman, but you have too much power already. You try to steal mine and your lackeys are going to suffer.