Five Days Dead (20 page)

And three weeks later she was killed by Harley Nearwater, struck down by a coward just as she was about to devour her husband and children. But looking at his memory cube of the family he once knew but who were now only foggy memories, he wondered. Vania had said her husband’s name before Harley killed her. He had screamed at her and she had stopped and said his name and Harley had used that moment to strike her down.

Orrin turned off the cube and tossed it back into the pack. She would have killed them, her husband and her children. She would have killed them and stayed with him if the drifter had not intervened.

Harley Nearwater had killed his queen and then he had been present when the old wizard had slain so many of his Wrynd. He didn’t know who the old man was, but the drifter did. The old man held power beyond anything Orrin had ever seen, but he would kill him. He had taken up weapons to make sure it was so. He had broken his oath to make it so. 

The clothes came and the food and Orrin dressed and ate and thought of vengeance and Lord Judge Syiada, whom he had betrayed. He considered for a moment seeking an audience with his Lord, to tell him about the old man and his powers and how he was protecting the drifter Harley Nearwater. Tell him about the Gray Walker the pilgrims and the neands whispered of, but he knew it would do no good. The Lord Judge and his marshals and the Wrynd Kings were nothing without their word. He had given the Lord Judge his word.  His life was forfeit. But before it was forfeit he hoped the Lord Judge might allow him to have his revenge.

There was a knock at his door and Ralph opened it slowly. “King Orrin?”

Orrin stood and stretched. His arm still ached, but the medpack had done an excellent job and he felt much stronger than before. “What is it?” His voice felt like his own again. He had regained his purpose and his purpose was revenge.

“The marshal. She just landed in a wing.”

Orrin gritted his teeth and strapped on his sidearm and put on his powerband. Perhaps the Lord Judge would not allow him his vengeance, but he would take it anyway.

“Are there deputies with her?”

“No. She brings the drifter. Harley Nearwater is with her. He is wearing binders.”

Orrin’s eyebrows raised and then a slow, joyful, terrifying grin washed over his face. He roared with hatred, with anger, with triumph, spun up his scye and raced out the door.

Wildfire

Pinnacle Peak stands defiantly, majestically among the bluffs, a tower of dirt and shale of the desert like an exposed and fractured rib of the earth itself. Jodi dropped Harley at its base as she released the wing and flipped to the ground beside him. He spun, stooping low, his right hand rushing for a sidearm that was not there and Jodi stood in front of him, her hand resting casually on her own blaster and her scye hovering beside her. The sun was being swallowed by the smoke as the fires in the mountains raged. She did not seem particularly concerned, but since she had a wing there was little reason for concern. Harley, on the other hand, felt a tad bit anxious.

He had no weapon to bring to bear and so he stood and clasped his hands in front of him, smiling softly at the young marshal.

“I liked you better in the shorts,” he offered.

She nodded. “Well, I’m on duty now.”

“And what is your duty?”

“To deal with the Wrynd, who have broken their treaty.”

“Hoped you might say that.”

“And the Gray Walker and the old man.”

“Still wouldn’t advise it.”

She narrowed her gaze. “And you, Harley Nearwater.”

Harley sighed. “I kinda thought that might be on the agenda when you scooped me up like that. Never been swept off my feet by a beautiful woman before marshal.”

“Stow it Harley.”

“Don’t suppose you would give me a weapon, make this an honorable fight?”

“Don’t suppose.” She pulled a pair of binders from her belt loop and tossed them at Harley’s feet. “Put those on.”

Harley considered saying no and forcing her hand, but he knew from the ice in her gaze that if he forced her hand she would play it and the dance would be done.  It was better to wait and see what other opportunities might present themselves than to rule them all out.  He slipped on the binders and smiled a smile that looked like a grimace.

“Who are you Harley Nearwater?”

Harley squinted into the distance. Smoke was starting to waft into the valley. “Just a no-account Marshal. All I’ve ever been.”

“You sure you’re not the Gray Walker?”

Harley nodded. “Sure enough. So are you. So what’s the plan Marshal Tempest?”

Jodi stepped forward and checked the binders. She smelled like wildflowers. “There are a number of zombies down there who are very interested in your whereabouts.”

“I’d just assume not be on the Wrynd menu if it’s all the same.”

“I don’t think it will come to that.”

“Why’s that?”

Jodi shrugged and Harley grinned. “You think the Gray Walker or this mad old man is going to come storming into town to save ol’ Harley Nearwater, don’t you?”

“It crossed my mind.”

“Not going to happen. They have no interest in me.”

“So you say. But every time there’s been anything out of the ordinary happen in the Wilderness in the past few days you’ve been at the center of it. Bit of a coincidence.”

“I have a talent for being in the wrong place at the wrong time Marshal.”

“So you say.” Jodi called her wing and it swooped down and attached.  She picked up Harley and they flew toward Price. “We’ll just see if your talent can present itself one last time.”

The flight into Price took less than two minutes and Harley tried to enjoy dangling from the mechanical arms of Jodi’s wing. It was starting to look like it would be the last flight he ever experienced. He looked up at the early evening sky and could see nothing of the Wheel. It looked like dangling from a wing over the desert might be the closest he ever got to it. It was a shame, really.

They landed in the parking lot of the Castle Valley Inn and were immediately surrounded by Wrynd. Jodi sent the wing to hover over the city and calmly smoothed her uniform over her body as if she was getting ready for a business meeting. She glanced around as the zombies gathered. She had 49 deputies at her disposal since the death of Deputy Shelley. She had considered calling on them but had decided she would handle this issue on her own. She didn’t regret her decision but hadn’t expected to see quite so many Wrynd in the parking lot. Orrin had far more than 200 zombies at his disposal.

A skinny young female Wrynd aimed a blaster at Jodi and fired. Jodi deflected the blast easily with her scye and then sent it to strike the young woman in the side of the head.  The zombie fell dead on the pavement and Jodi cast a glance around her. 

“Stop wasting my time. Where is Orrin?”

“King Orrin!” A crying young man roared as he bent to lift the dead woman.

“Whatever.” Jodi was mildly surprised to see the man crying over the dead Wrynd. Even drug addicted cannibals can love, she guessed.

Night was settling in fast and with it came the smoke from the mountains. In the distance you could see the fires burning, roaring, consuming the university and surrounding homes and Harley didn’t give it long before breathing in Price became something of a chore. The fire was not likely to stop until it had taken the city. He didn’t think it would be that much of a loss, all things considered.

Another slim Wrynd rushed into the hotel and a short, attractive woman with a sadistic smile sidled up to Harley but did not dare touch him. “Looks like I might get me some man jerky after all,” Nina purred.

Harley narrowed a gaze at her. “Not sure you could digest me girly.” The young woman snarled and stepped away.

A roar erupted from the upper floors of the hotel and Harley felt the slightest twinge of anticipation. 

“He sounds excited to see me.” Harley muttered to Jodi.

Jodi nodded. “If you have help coming your way, you might want to ask it to hurry.”

The big Wrynd King stormed out of the front door of the hotel and cast a murderous glance toward Harley. The lights of the parking lot were shining brightly but not bright enough for him to see a way out of this.

“Harley Nearwater!” Orrin cursed and raced toward him, his clawed hands raised above his head. His tribe parted for him.

At the instant before he laid hands on him Jodi stepped between the two and her scye hummed menacingly. Orrin batted her scye away with his own but before he could take another step Jodi pulled her blaster and pointed it between the big man’s eyes.

“Hold.”  She said it softly but with the greatest of authority and Harley found himself grinning. She really was quite good.

Orrin took a deep breath and lowered his hands. “You bring him to me Marshal and then won’t let me kill him?”

"You'll have your chance to kill him." She lowered her blaster but did not holster it. The Wrynd King had showered and wore clean clothes and his wounds were cleaned and bandaged.  He held his shoulder as if it no longer bothered him. Harley realized he now looked considerably worse for wear than a maniacal cannibal.  He wasn't sure what to make of that.

“What are we waiting for?” Orrin took another step forward and Jodi brandished her scye. Orrin raised his own to counter, but they did not engage.

“I was hoping to see something of this old man and the Gray Walker.”

“The Gray Walker will not help him!”

“You say that with some authority. How can you be so sure?”

“He told me so!” Orrin roared.

If Jodi was surprised she did an admirable job concealing it. Harley detected only the slightest quiver on her lovely lips. “You have met the Gray Walker?”

“We have met. He has no interest in Harley Nearwater.”

Harley sighed. “Told you.”

“But the old man might.”

Orrin paced in front of the marshal and Harley, his clawed hands clenching and unclenching. “You really think this one has friends out there who will ride to his rescue?”

“They did before.”

“Ahh!  He was just in a fortuitous location. Looking at him now, I realize what a fool I was to think anyone of power would befriend a man like Harley Nearwater.”  Orrin stepped toward the smaller man and hovered over him. “What say you drifter?  Do you have any friends, any friends at all in this great big world?”

Harley returned his gaze, smiled up at him. “Well, I used to count you as a friend, until I put a blade through your zombie whore’s heart, I mean.”

He grinned up at the Wrynd and watched as the veins in the big man’s neck began to pulse. A vein in his forehead was also now on prominent display. It looked like a lightning bolt. Jodi tried to get between the two of them and Orrin roared and lashed out with his massive right arm, throwing Jodi to the side. He grabbed Harley by his shirt collar and lifted him off the ground. He tried to raise his left fist and grimaced in pain and Harley tried to shrug, which was no easy task being suspended in midair by your shirt. Orrin head-butted Harley and he fell to the ground, seeing stars. 

Harley scrambled under the semi-truck and as Orrin reached for him, a scream of panic and fear pierced the night air at the back of the parking lot.

“Rages!”

Harley looked up and the sea of Wrynd parted, scrambling for cover as wave after wave of animals exploded through the parking lot. It wasn’t a rage, not truly, he realized. It was a stampede of every animal that called the mountains home as they fled from the fury of the firestorm, trampling anything in their path.

Jodi dove under the truck beside him and they both curled into a ball as a herd of elk numbering in the hundreds dashed through the parking lot. Even a larger herd of deer, then cattle, sheep, coyote, bear and thousands of other animals followed and together they made a giant, writhing ribbon of nature with a common destination – away from the fire. At the sight of the Wrynd, some of the animals attacked, but it wasn’t anything organized like it had been with the old man on the highway. The animals attacked because humans were there, not because of a Rage. But there were so many of them that it didn’t need to be organized to be effective. As Harley watched dozens of Wrynd fell and the rest scrambled for the hotel. Orrin had disappeared.

“Was that a moose?” Jodi screamed beside him and Harley looked up.  There were three moose trampling through the parking lot. A Wrynd made a mistake of trying to rush by them and was walked over.

“Yep. Moose. It wouldn’t surprise me to see a couple of giraffe, an elephant or two and some trained monkeys come through next.” Harley was grinning as he shouted, but since he thought he would be dead by now to find himself not only alive but sharing space with Marshal Jodi Tempest beneath a semi-truck as another animal attack decimated the plans of the Wrynd king was a pleasant alternative.

The screams of the Wrynd and the animals combined into a furious roar through the parking lot and smoke billowed down from the ever closing fires. It was chaos. Harley looked across at Jodi in the darkness and the smoke and held up his bound hands.

“They’re not coming for you are they?” Jodi asked.

Harley shook his head. “Would you?”

Jodi released the binders with a thought and Harley handed them to her.  He looked to her sidearm and she shook her head.

“No chance.”

Harley shrugged and cast her one last glance, then scrambled out from under the truck and into the cab. When the last of the animals raced through the parking lot and continued down Main Street, he started the engine and followed them out of town.

As the Wrynd who had escaped to the hotel dared to step back out, Jodi stood in the parking lot and watched Harley drive away. She found that she was smiling.

The man with the gray eyes had learned over the years of his life not to be terribly surprised by anything. He had seen too much, been witness to too many miracles to not know they were true and all too often completely without direction. They simply happened from time to time and those caught in their path could be pleasantly surprised or destroyed.

He had watched Harley Nearwater escape death a number of times during the past few days. The first time had been because whether you saw anything of value in the man or not, you could not deny he had skill and a certain animal instinct that kept him one step ahead of his own bad luck. The other two times had been because of his association with Quinlan Bowden and his children. The young father had been a particular concern to the man with the gray eyes, but no longer was because he had returned to the Hub. Quinlan Bowden and his children were back where they belonged. For now.