August Burning (Book 2): Survival (5 page)

“And he’s with you?” Joseph asked.

Jaxton grimaced in embarrassment. “I wish not.” He leaned closer, and dropped his voice till it was a hoarse mutter. “It doesn’t have to be this way. We need to stop working against one another.”

“Fine,” Bennett said. “Work with me. Let’s prepare to welcome this new band of survivors, and let them help us.”

Jaxton frowned, his grey eyes bloodshot. “We’re not just going to hand over control of our fate, and our town, to outsiders, to a government that failed us time and again. This is about
her
, isn’t it?”

Bennett felt Adira’s eyes on him. Puffing up his chest, he said, “I certainly trust them more than I trust you.”

…

“Where did they go?”

Liam stared at Harley with accusing eyes, though she knew he wouldn’t blame her. “They were all there yesterday. What’s gone?”

Liam fumbled through the cabinets in the nurse’s room. “I’m not seeing half the painkillers, a bunch of the antibiotics, the creams, the bandages.”

Harley rose, sweat building at her brow. “It was all there. You don’t think he took it do you?”

Liam rose to his full height, and stretched back his shoulders like an alpha male predator preparing to fight for his turf. “It was him. He almost killed Bennett yesterday. And how many times has he grabbed you? And now this. I walked away the first time, at your request. Not this time.”

Harley rose, her heart pounding with excitement. She could not deny it; she wanted Liam to fight for her. “Follow me.”

They found Terrence on the roof, with five of his dirty cronies, all drinking in the dusky October sun. He grinned appreciatively when he saw Harley’s tight hugging sweater and jeans, and licked his lips. “Have a drink,” he oozed.

“Where is the medicine?”

The smile dropped from his flushed, grizzled face. His eyes became stony, and hostile. “What of it?”

Harley felt Liam’s hulking form ease to her side and put a slender arm out to stop him.

“So, you did take it.”

Terrence flashed a toothy smile. “Of course I did. Why would I trust you with something so valuable? I don’t know you, either of you.”

“You can’t just take whatever you like,” Harley snapped as she took a step closer, her blood warming. She could see his eyes crawling all over her, and she remembered the night his rough hands groped her against the cold lockers.

The cronies seated at the flanks jostled humorously in their rugged outerwear.

Terrence rose. “When’s the last time you made a food run? All I ever see you doing is watching over your prize there to make sure no one else gets a piece?” He spat, eyes alight.

Before anyone could stop him Liam had broken free of his lover’s light touch and lowered a shoulder into the bulky fiend.

…

Terrence was stronger. Or maybe just more savage. Liam felt the shame burning through him. This was his thing, damnit! And this jackass was taking it to him! As he felt his neck compress into a headlock, he strained to see Harley at the edge of the little crowd, fighting to get closer. Liam strove with all his might, seeking to break the iron grip which now locked him in the bully’s embrace. Nothing. He heard the men laughing as the sweat made their limbs slippery. Terrence bellowed and flipped him over, so that Liam’s face was pressing against the rough roof. Through the tears in his eyes he saw all his friends emerging from the ladder exit. There was Jaxton, Bennett, and Elvis. Others followed. He imagined how he looked now, completely at the mercy of this stupid fucking brute. He felt the shame, unimaginable in power, coursing through him. In a vicious frenzy one of his flailing hands caught Terrence by the collar and dragged him down, freeing him. Liam snapped his elbow back and caught his foe in the lip, hammering his head back. He broke free, and rolled to his feet, panting with triumph. Terrence staggered to his feet, his usual swagger replaced by something purely sinister. In that moment, Liam was totally afraid.

“ENOUGH!” Heavy boots thudded. Jaxton approached, his oily brown hair hanging in front of his eyes. His garb was ragged and rugged, a motley collection of hiking gear mixed with some camouflage. His pistol was jet black. Terrence’s men moved back slightly at his approach.

“What’s wrong with you? I have to babysit you twice in two days?”

“Thank god. The king has arrived,” Terrence cooed.

“Someone chain this fucking
dog
,” Liam ventured, his voice higher than he had wanted.

“The young lovers seem to have a problem with my allocation of resources.”

Harley shoved her way through the crowd. “He took almost all the heavy drugs for his crew,” she said, to the group’s amusement.

Duke and Wilder jostled in, making sure to flank Jaxton. They looked to him expectantly, prepared to hang on every word even if they did not realize it.

“Did you not, in your wisdom, ask me to put together a team after our little…altercation in the gym yesterday… and scavenge the houses in town for canned food?” Terrence demanded.

Liam saw Jaxton bristle. “I did.”

“Which I have done.” Terrence said, gesturing to the twenty or so men and women that had now gathered. “And I had to risk my life to do it. I had to kill six of those fuckers, our there, beyond these walls. So if I want my team to have the best drugs, so what?”

“Everyone does their part,” Liam snapped as he massaged his neck.

Terrence chuckled. “Some more than others! Why shouldn’t those who risk their flesh outside this citadel get the better share of the spoils?!”

The crowd responded. Those who fought outside with Terrence jeered their approval. Others, whom he had stolen from, leered at, or attacked remained silent or grimaced.

“That’s not for you to decide,” Harley growled.

“Then who is it for to decide?”

Bennett, who had been wavering on the fringes, now dove in. “This is the kind of thing that’s going to get us all killed. We can barely govern ourselves, let alone fight the infected.” The crowd jeered again with an even mixture of approval and displeasure.

“How far out are they? This other group.” Jaxton queried intensely.

Bennett stared straight ahead. “Two days, now.”

Without thinking, Terrence snatched up his assault rifle, one of the few in their care. “You again. Your eye looks a little messed up. You need a woman to fix you up.”

“I think it looks good on me,” Bennett countered, drawing the laughs of several in the boisterous crowd.

“Ahhh, I had forgotten. I hear you
had
a woman, and then our
king
Jax took him from you.” Terrence spat. “I don’t blame him. You’re weak.”

Terrence shoved his way through the onlookers, taking six or seven others with him. The rest of the crowd remained silent, taut as a bowstring, their eyes flipping between Bennett and Jaxton.

“If you don’t do something about him, I will.” Bennett sputtered, his face ruby red.

…

“I thought I’d find you in here.” The beauty stalked in, one foot placed lightly over the other, like a cat.

Jaxton didn’t turn, but smiled appreciatively, already anticipating the warm touch of dancing fingers. “I did ask you to find me, didn’t I?”

Miniature pillars of black smoke hustled skywards from the flickering wax columns. His map spread to each corner of the heavy wooden table. Adira laid her long fingers down on the heavy art-paper, stitched together meticulously. Here were the ridges of the valley, protecting the town on all sides like earthen walls. He had drawn out every street, every unique building. Certain areas were marked with green tape, where she knew teams had already searched for food and supplies. Red areas were untouched.

“May I enter the lord’s chamber?”

He smiled, his chiseled face newly shaven. “You may.”

“How does it feel? Playing King of the Castle?”

Jaxton chuckled. “I suppose I should say something like, it’s overrated, right? Isn’t that what would I should say?”

She inhaled the smoke in the room, and felt a dozen memories of summer bonfires sweep into her.

“You should say what you feel,” she said seriously.

He frowned. “Well, I love it.”

She nodded, approvingly. “Go on.”

“Do you know how many miles it is from the Western Ridge, to the Eastern one?” He continued, gesturing over his map. “Twelve miles. And we exist as we decide. We are bound by no one’s laws but our own.”

“So you enjoy the power? I like that you do, but you have some work to do. Terrence. Bennett. They threaten the Kingdom.” Her dark eyes smiled, teasing.

“You know I wasn’t always Superman.”

“No? How could that be?”

He taped another green tab to the map, just under
The Cathedral
. “When I was still in high school, in these halls, I was obsessed with making sure people didn’t think I was a coward. That’s where my boldness came from, I think. It was born of my being frightened. Fear of shame. Rather than be paralyzed by inaction, I trained myself to
do
. Just do without thinking. As long as it meant I didn’t freeze up.”

“I can’t even imagine you frozen by fear.”

“One time I was slapped in the face, at lunch. Scrawny little me didn’t do a thing, in front of fifty kids, all staring at me. Gave them something to talk about for a few weeks. Told myself I took the high road. Don’t accelerate the fight. I was being the bigger man.” Jaxton sighed, his tired eyes wrinkling slightly. “That’s bullshit. Cowards don’t strike back. Cowards don’t act.”

“One slap when you were 14 doesn’t mean a thing.”

Jaxton kept talking as he moved his pieces around the map. “But that was the problem with our generation. Our parents were obsessed with pacifism, and lawsuits. They were the kids that grew up in the 70s. Don’t. Hit. Back, they said. That’s what I grew up believing.”

“So you started fighting back…” Adira said expectantly.

“Of course not! I’d have been sued, or expelled. Kids fought wars with words, dripping with sarcasm and insensitivity. I was never good at that. I would stumble over my words in shame. They were never very sharp. Never very cunning. My instinct, suppressed of course, was to answer physically. Society suppressed my instincts, and I suffered for it.”

“Your greatest fear. It’s shame?”

He looked at her, nodding with his green eyes sharp in the soft firelight.

“That’s why I love this place. This time. Because the rules that forced me to use cunning or hold my fists at my sides are gone. Because I never have to confront that shame. I’m good at doing things with my body. If someone insults me, I hit them.”

“I don’t understand it. But I love you.”

Jaxton pressed her hips against the table, sure in that moment he felt as she did. He didn’t say it, though. In the back of his mind, he knew it could change so quickly. He had been here before. But it didn’t matter. Not now.

He broke off their kiss. “2003 was a great year for music.”

Adira laughed, confused. “What the hell are you talking about?”

He held up a finger, and drew something out from under the oaken table.

“Oh my god! Where did you find that?!” Her fingers explored the vintage boom-box system, marveling at something they wouldn’t have given a second look six months ago. “But we ran out of batteries in August didn’t we?”

“I found it in one the houses.” He popped open the back. “Yeah, unfortunately you need six of those big batteries.”

Without another word Jaxton dropped a handful into her hands.

She counted them. “There’s six here.” He smiled. She stuffed them into the ports eagerly; she hadn’t heard music since before the fall of man. “But it takes CDs!”

Jaxton drew a single case out of his jacket pocket. “Perhaps you thought I had forgotten what you told me in June, when we both got far too drunk off that $200 whiskey. You told me about that instrumental music you used to listen to, the songs that could almost move you to tears if you let them.”