Changeling Winds: Episode Two (The Bachelor Battles Book 2) (19 page)

Flo’s Floozies.

I winced as I spotted the whorehouse, and then the long line of red-eyed females waiting for relief. I kept my head facing forward, afraid of seeing someone I had known from the complex. If I did, I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t beg my new owner to save them as well.

At the end of the street, our escorts turned right again, and I followed their lead closely as dozens of heads turned our way. To my surprise, some of these Changelings raised a hand in greeting that Angelica returned. I hadn’t expected her to be friendly.

We rolled to the edge of a driveway next to a crumbling white dome that had only the rounded, rubbed-coated white top showing from the earth. Behind it, I could see the edge of a neighborhood and a long pile of debris that I was guessing hadn’t been touched in a long time. It reminded me strongly of the slums outside the Network complex. Their citizens still lived in the aftermath of the war.

I turned my head back to the small house, eyeing the two dark windows and the tall, rusted door warily. The yard around it wasn’t any more encouraging. It was lined in thorn trees, the deadly kind that came to life once a year and ate anything they could reach - including each other. I tried to imagine raising a family here, but couldn’t. Happiness only went so far.

I felt Angelica’s tension as we slid to a stop. There was a thick silence and I adjusted carefully to see her face. I couldn’t read anything, but I paid attention to the feeling.

“We could stay a day.”

Angelica shook her head at the comment from the largest of our escorts, but didn’t look away from my face.

“No. We roll straight through til we hit the Borderlands.”

“Probably a trap waiting, anyway.”

“I’d lay odds on it.”

“Wendy, you’d lay odds on anything!”

I understood from their banter that Wendy liked to gamble. It also meant she liked to drink and be in areas where service was available. I looked away before I could draw her attention.

Angelica’s gaze returned to the crumbling homestead and I wondered what she saw.

“This is where we would have lived.”

I winced, more from her pain than the state of her home. As long as I was out of Rankin’s control, I could live anywhere.

I studied the area more closely now that I knew where we were. Those thickets of evil thorn trees ran the length of the property, creating a hedge that screamed
danger, beware of residents
. I tried not to shudder at the thought of being closed up in that small dome with all these women.

Angelica grunted knowingly. “The inside is far different.”

I shrugged. “Do you need anything here?”

She shook her head at my question, not looking at me. “What I need couldn’t be found here, either.”

I opened my mouth to offer comfort, and she took her hot hand from my shoulder. “Let’s go.”

Puzzling over it, I did as she said. I didn’t understand, but I was glad she wasn’t going in there. Rankin had been here, knew the layout. An ambush was very likely and I got us moving faster. I wasn’t ready for that confrontation yet.

Angelica

They came up on our left flank riding fast, two-wheeled bikes that we had little chance of out-running. Their small numbers and large weapons also told me who was after us. People out here called them bandits. We Pruetts knew them by a different name.

“It’s The Ring!”

Sam’s shout wasn’t worried, and I made a motion that said I would cover Jason while she and her Runners did their duty.

I leaned close to his ear, ignoring the automatic flinch. “Keep us moving!”

His head swung around to see the faster bikes of The Ring catching up. I pointed out the direction that would take us into the Borderlands and a number of places where we could make a stand.

 
Jason swerved that way, and I drew my weapon. I wasn’t as good as my sister, but I would be careful and make each shot count.

Gunfire rapped out behind us, sharp and hungry. I got set.

Jason

I didn’t feel like a rebel.

I was flying down a dirt path like the Hounds were on our trail. I had a red-eyed Changeling behind me, about to exchange gunfire with The Ring, whom I’d only met one time but had never forgotten. Bullets were slamming into the ground around us and I instinctively kept weaving around the ruts. I should have felt like a rebel in every way. Instead, I felt like a marked male about to be recaptured. If they took me back…

It kept me increasing the speeds until Angelica was forced to turn around and help control it. The bikes behind us sounded closer but there was no turning around to look as we flew down a steep incline.

I thought we were going to tip, but Angelica yanked backward on the handlebars with her Changeling strength and kept us balanced enough to allow momentum to carry the bike down.

We hit the bottom of the rough hill with a breath-taking thump, and she pointed again as she turned back around.

Knowing how vulnerable we were as the bike got back up to speed, I concentrated on hitting the gas correctly and not spinning the tires. The Mopar shot forward smoothly, and I began increasing our speed, aiming for a crumbling wall of stone that ran the distance as far as I could see.

Bang!

It was the first shot Angelica had fired, telling me our pursuers were closer. I pushed the bike back up to the red line, knees molded to the hump. Behind me, Angelica held onto my waist with her free hand and fired repeatedly with the other.

As we neared the stone wall, I saw the gap she wanted me to take and headed that way. The rocks that lined it were dangerous, hidden traps that I avoided as best I could. In places, I couldn’t at all.

We hit a small pile of these rocks, bouncing up into the air to land with another bone-jarring clang. The closer we got to the gap, the more rocks there were, and I had to slow us down further. As I did, I realized the rocks were the missing stones from the wall.

Angelica’s movements told me she was out of ammunition, and I listened for instructions but heard only her grunt of effort. The sound came again… throwing something. Those deadly spikes on her belt, I guessed, spinning tires as we hit a patch of dirt before the gap.

It slowed the bike enough for me to make the turn instead of wrecking us like it should have, and I gunned it again, shooting through the doorway.

“You can stop now.”

Angelica’s words were calm and I immediately spun us back around in a cloud of dust to see our trail of death streaming in vivid detail.

Half a dozen Ring members lay between the wall and the hill we’d bounced down, those closest with spikes plunged into their uncovered foreheads and throats. Twisted metal hulks and smoking debris made up the rest of the path, completed by the Runners now cresting the hill. There was no sign of any surviving Ring members, and I turned around to smile at Angelica.

“Don’t scare them.”

We were being watched by a thick row of darkly clad people holding unlit torches and swords. Behind them, lay the ruins of a city, but I couldn’t look away from the yellow eyes and open sores
.
Lepers.
Oh, shit.

Chapter Eleven

Jason

“Don’t scare them?” I quipped lowly. “What about me?”

Angelica’s soft chuckle told me she was no longer in kill mode. I was relieved to see the people lower the swords in response. I’d never been around lepers, but I’d listened to stories of their scarred skin and running wounds with horror. The tales weren’t exaggerated, but there was also a quiet sense of menace about these silent outcasts that I was sure Angelica wasn’t ignoring despite her calm attitude.

“We’re sorry to have crossed the wall.” Her voice was steady. “But as you saw, it wasn’t our choice to make.”

The Runners stopped outside the gap in the stones, but each of them raised an armed hand, telling the colony they wouldn’t stay there.

“We want no trouble with your people. Nor do we wish to bring trouble here.”

One of the darkly cloaked figures stepped forward, a man as far as I could tell, though the voice tone gave me no clue. All I heard in it was suffering without distinction.

“You may go or stay in peace, Pruett clan.”

Their cloaks were longer than most, sleeves coming down to cover sore-riddled hands, I was guessing. The hems stopped at the ankle, and I was a bit shocked to see that they were barefoot, with exposed skin as dark as night.

 
“Wonderful. Perhaps we could give you something you need, in return for such hospitality.”

Their faces lit up, and I sensed the leper colony got few offers like that. So, they did feel more than pain. Were they were curious about the outside world that shunned them? What did they need?

The man (I’d seen the Adam’s apple and made my choice) gestured in sarcastic respect.

“Yes. Anyone who kills on our doorstep is welcome to trade with us. Such openness is needed among our kind.”

Angelica’s voice was grave. “There are many enemies to be slain.

The man’s sore-riddled face broke into an ugly sneer. “That could be, young Pruett, but you’ll have to sell it. The future means more to us than it does to you.”

“Those are fair words.”

Angelica studied them, no doubt seeing what I was (no desperation, children in the rear, not starving and not appearing sick) and more.

“The hunting of lepers will stop and Network scientists will start searching for a cure. Do those terms suit you?”

Her tone was firm, set. I doubted she’d give more.

There was gratitude in his voice now.

“Aye.
It does indeed.
Mostly because you’ve eliminated our biggest killer.”

“The Ring.”

“My people are sport for them.”

Angelica’s voice was proud. “Not anymore. Who are you?”

“
Cain,
and these are my people, the lepers.”

It was stated with a slight sneer that said he was very bitter.

Their leader was my size, average, and I noticed he was the only one wearing shoes. They appeared to be woven from corn stalks, but I wasn’t sure. Unlike the others, his cloak was decorated with glittering yellow specks of some shiny bead that ran the seam line over the entire garment.

I wondered suddenly if it was a sign of his place among them and was sure I was correct. Why else would he have a staff with those same designs carved and painted into the wood? He clearly wasn’t old enough to need it, though I did think the end may not be far away for him. The blue and black patches were endless on his exposed skin. Did it itch?

In the distance, I could hear a loud noise, one that seemed to be getting closer. It was a wild buzzing and I opened my mouth to ask...

“Perhaps we should continue this inside.”

“Yes.”

Angelica made a motion, and the Runners lowered their weapons and rolled slowly through the gap to flank us as we followed the contagious colony inside.
A type of walking dead, the lepers of this buried city were
akin to a legend and ghost story combined, and I wasn’t the only one staring at them openly.

As Cain moved, I saw that he did indeed need the staff to help him get across the threshold. Despite his young age, the disease was eating his body, weakening him and stealing his life.

Now unblocked by the glare of the setting sun as we neared the buried city, I didn’t understand what I was seeing. There were tall edges of dust-covered buildings, but where was the rest of it? This had been a major city before the war, connecting multiple trade routes along an incredibly long river. How could this be that place?

This city was gone, buried…
under our feet,
I realized. Nature had reclaimed most of its property, filling in the riverbed and the city with hundreds of years of harshly blown sand and grit.

The gap in the wall had once been a bridge, I realized, seeing how the stones had been laid against the arched frame of it and then cemented with mud-like glue. Across this fifty foot span that now held who knew how many feet of dust and rubble, was a wall of sand with a door sunk into the side of it.

When a small group of the lepers began pulling on the ropes, lifting it, I realized it was a tollbooth. I’d seen them in the museum at the complex, but this one had been reinforced - many times from the chunky, uneven appearance of the welds. It would probably keep a bullet out, though, explaining why the Network had been unsuccessful in their quest to exterminate the lepers. A city buried in sand, with only one or two entrances, would be easy to defend.

I rolled us through the narrow gap and then stopped as the booth came down behind us, snapping into place with a loud, metal clank. Angelica led me from the bike with only a wave of her hand and I stayed close as the Runners surrounded us, taking in the buried city.

Sand walls created rooms and walkways that had been cut out around relics of the old world. Parts of cars, and edges of homes glared balefully, preserved under the ground like an ancient tomb. A lot of the organic matter was gone, but there was enough of a frame for me to even be able to recognize the fire truck on the other side of the wide, rounded room.

Every few feet held something more fantastic, like the bars with a silently screaming skeleton peering through them, or the statues of dragons engraved in what appeared to be gold.

In the center of these artifacts, was a wooden platform that led down a set of spiral stairs with a thin banister. They continued as far as I could see when I leaned over the edge, drawn by all the movement below… by the relics I could see down there. I wanted to touch the fountain and see if the swing still worked, or maybe even stand on the small footstool that was overturned near a charred bicycle frame…

“Easy.”

Angelica’s hand on my arm reminded me of where we were, and I followed her silently as she turned back to our diseased hosts.

Angelica

We moved into the abandoned city of St. Louis with lepers as our guides and the buried city as our shield against the hordes of bugs now flooding the area ahead of the storm. Most were harmless, but some, like the cicadas that lived and bred aboveground every year, were deadly. When they attacked, they blinded and poisoned.

I’d planned to hole us up a little further along, but I hadn’t realized the bugs were so close. We were trying to move between squalls while the Network troops would be holed up and waiting it out, and I was glad my family had made contact with this colony a long time ago. It was very convenient.

I hadn’t ever sheltered with the lepers, though, and I stayed on full alert. We would wait until the swarm of bugs was past, and slip out between them and the coming dust storm. Until then, we would talk with these shunned people and try to sway them to our side. The Network may have yet another surprise coming from those they’d been abusing all these years.

“This may help the rebels.”

I nodded at my sister’s hand-delivered comment. It could also help us. If we took our leave by an unknown exit, Rankin might be lost long enough to reach the rebels and set up a trap.

We moved deeper into the city than I’d been before, and I kept Jason close as we hit their living quarters. The lepers were a group my family hadn’t run afoul of, but if I had to cross them to get all of us back out of here, I would.

Draped in dark brown shirts, pants, and dresses, their wool clothes still carried a heavy scent of its origins as the group of twenty escorted us… surrounded us. I supposed they might do a bit of trading for cloth, but I doubted they managed enough to outfit the entire colony. They were using their own animals. Smart.

Lights flared in the darkness, torches being lit, and I heard Jason’s gasp echo through the courtyard we emerged in. Full of giant, ape-like statues with glowing yellow orbs, it was a bit menacing and I swept the lepers again, this time in appreciation. Having them on our side for the coming battle might make all the difference. The Network wouldn’t know what to do at first and we would use that time to our advantage.

“This is one of our worship halls.”

Pushing a bit, I started the conversation. “Is it okay to ask about that or would you prefer we stayed on business terms?”

The man leading us gave a gentle snort. “We’d speak to you of many things, Pruett. Ask your questions.”

“What do you consume that makes your eyes glow?”

I didn’t care about the color, but the glow was one I’d studied during our visits. Candice had been too polite to ask.

“It is an effect of the desert dust that blows over our farms from the North.”

“Because the Network would find you if you farmed anywhere else?”

“Yes. We’ve tried indoor growing and manage to feed our children that way so that at least they can remain free of our curse.”

“And what of your disease?
How do they avoid it?”

“Some are born immune. We learned that if they are handled carefully and not fed from their mother’s sickened milk, they stay that way. The amniotic sac protects them.”

“Does the Network know?”

“Yes, of course, they do.”

Jason’s voice had the entire group stopping, turning toward him.

Jason

I flushed as they all stared at me.

“Rankin said they also have a vaccine for that, to keep themselves from getting it if they ever accidentally have contact. The last I heard, their test cure was 90% effective.”

A stunned silence fell after my words and I instinctively moved closer to Angelica’s heat. Had I made a mistake with my words? I was trying to help the cause, to enlist these people because Angelica wanted it. I wasn’t sure what she planned to use them for, but I was glad of the response.

“It would seem that you now have friends here, ones who can be counted on so long as it includes our conditions and immediate distribution of that vaccine the second they fall.”

Angelica held out a hand, making me tense.

“As long as your conditions are not unreasonable, we have an arrangement in place.”

Surprised, the man shook with a fast, light grip. I was glad to see his hands sheathed in gloves, but I wasn’t sure it would have mattered to my owner. She didn’t seem to fear them at all, not backing away or avoiding brushes as we got moving through the worship area again. I wondered why that was, but wasn’t so brave as to ask in front of them.

The lepers moved quietly, exchanging low words and curious glances that I could feel going over our clothes and equipment, but especially Angelica’s unreadable face. They were sizing her up; taking her measure… what else did they want from her? What were the conditions?

As we moved by, a woman near the door held out a hand in hope toward the young girl next to her, except their skin didn’t actually touch.
The child must not be ill,
I thought, instantly approving of their caution, their determination to save some of their future.

Angelica

“We had other visitors, recently, who took shelter with us from the start of the storm season.”

I knew who he meant and it relieved a part me even as it increased the worry on another side. “They seemed well?”

Sam had left our parents near here, on her way to escort me to the trials in Adelphia. They had already begun the hard task of gathering help for our cause, planning to meet us in New Network City when they were finished. We were calling in our favors, hoping they would stack up to the battle ahead.