Hive Invasion (12 page)

“Although I wish you would choose to lay down the weapons and submit to purification, if the travelers allow it, I will not stand in your way.” Bough looked at Ryan. “I also leave this matter in your hands, Brother Ryan.”

Ryan glanced from the defiant-looking Tully to the resigned elder. “I think we’ll start you off on one of the handblasters and go from there, all right?”

“All right.” She tried but failed to hide the growing smile on her face.

“But we’ll start tomorrow,” Ryan said. “Right now, get some rest. It’s going to be a very long day.”

Chapter Sixteen

Ricky tossed and turned on his folded blanket, unable to sleep.

He should have been exhausted after everything they’d done that day, and to be fair, he was physically, but even so, his racing mind wouldn’t let him fall asleep yet. Mainly because he was thinking about all those girls.

It had been something else to stand with Jak while he’d distracted the men with his story about the giant bird and all that. It had been more intoxicating when he had been served dinner by several attractive young women, all of whom seemed just as enamored of him as he was of them. Ricky had tried not to stare too much, but it had been a while since they’d seen
any
young women, and now, to have this many this close... Well, it was almost more than he could stand.

Even Ryan’s warning, relayed by Jak, didn’t dampen his enthusiasm. Of course, Ricky knew all about the birds and the bees—he’d been told of those things back home in Puerto Rico. And while he had no intention of getting involved with any of the young women, if the opportunity came to speak to them away from their parents, then who was he to not take advantage of it?

Rolling over, he glanced at the other two sleeping figures in the room. Doc slept with his back to them, his stentorian snores piercing the quiet night. Jak, on the other hand, slept on his back, hands folded over his chest, which rose and fell almost imperceptibly.

Ricky licked his dry lips. They should have been here by now.... “Jak...Jak?”

“What?” the albino said without opening his eyes.

“They’re still coming, right?”

Jak twitched a shoulder. “Tully said so. Said let us know when here. Nothing do but wait.”

“Feels like we’ve been waiting forever,” Ricky replied.

“Couple more minutes not hurt,” Jak said, just as they both heard someone rap on their boarded-up front window. Jak opened his eyes, his pupils huge in the gloom. “Come on.”

It was dead quiet. Jak checked the outside hallway to make sure no one was up and about, then waved Ricky forward to the window at the end of the corridor. A knotted rope dangled off the roof, and Ricky looked up to see Tully, along with three other girls, looking down at them.

“Well, are you just gonna stand there, or are you coming up?” Tully whispered.

Jak clapped Ricky on the shoulder. “Go.”

Hand over hand, he shinnied up the rope in a flash, swinging his leg over the edge to roll onto the roof. One of the girls reached out and grabbed his shoulder to help him, and he flashed her a quick smile. “Thank you,” he whispered.

Jak popped up next to him. “Tully, sure not seen?”

Tully nudged him. “Relax. All of the guards on this watch are our relatives, and we convinced them to trade places with us for an hour. It’s fine.”

Below them, the entire Silvertide collective had crammed themselves into all of the motel rooms, with several also sleeping in what had been the former lobby. Out of respect to Jak and his group, they had been allowed to keep their rooms as originally assigned. Ryan had also set up guards on the buildings around the motel. Most of those were one story, while the motel itself was two stories, so the group wouldn’t be seen as long as they didn’t go too close to the edges.

Tully drew everyone close. “Okay, Jak and Ricky, this is Jael, Helah, Michal and Tamar.”

Like the elders, the girls were more or less of a kind. All somewhere in their late teens, they were lean and browned from the sun. Jael was a dirty blonde, like Tully. Helah and Michal were redheaded twins, and Tamar was even duskier skinned than the others, with long, raven-black hair that hung in a single braid down her back. Standing this close to all of them, Ricky felt a little light-headed, but he clenched his teeth and steeled himself, determined not to show any weakness or embarrass himself in front of the girls.

Apparently, Tamar was also the group troublemaker. “I snuck us out a little something, too.” She produced a clear glass jar three-quarters full of a clear liquid.

The other girls’ eyes widened and their mouths fell open in shock. Tully recovered first. “You didn’t!”

“Try some and see.” She held the jar out to everyone.

“Tamar, you are so bad!” Helah said with a giggle.

The girls shied away, but Jak took it from her. “What is it, skullpop?” Ricky also looked on with interest, a grin spreading across his lips as he saw the other side of the Silvertide collective—and their rebellious daughters.

“Let’s just say what Marijah got as punishment for just mentioning the water machine is nothing compared with what would happen if we got caught with this,” Tamar said. “It’s our real trade good. We’re forbidden to have any. They save every drop for using to get what we need at villes along the way.”

“How’d you get this out?” Tully asked. “Your dad watches every drop like a hawk.”

“He’s finally teaching me how to work the machines,” Tamar replied. “I just took the opportunity to siphon off a bit when I had the chance. This is from the last of the corn crop. It’s pretty raw, so it’s gonna kick like a mule.”

While she was talking, Jak had unscrewed the top and sniffed it, blinking at the vapors that drifted out. He took a healthy swallow and coughed loudly, turning away and trying to cover his mouth. Jak was no stranger to shine, but this stuff packed a powerful wallop.

“Jeez, Whitey, be quiet, will ya?” Tamar said. “I’ll be shoveling ox shit for a month on bread and water if they find us up here.”

“Tastes like poured gas down throat, then ate lit match!” Jak handed the bottle to Ricky. “Your turn.”

Ricky also sniffed the concoction, finding it to be as he’d suspected, pure distilled alcohol. “Back home, we would usually mix something this strong with something like coconut milk or fermented pineapple juice.” He took a cautious sip. It burned the roof of his mouth and the back of his throat, but not as bad as he had feared, and cleared his sinuses at the same time. “It’s not bad, although I wouldn’t drink too much too quickly.”

“Lemme try.” Tamar grabbed the jar back and brought it to her mouth, making sure everyone was watching. She tipped it back, taking a mouthful, then her eyes widened as the alcohol’s burn hit her. Ricky carefully relieved her of the bottle as she looked at all of them with her mouth full.

“In or out, it has to go somewhere,” he said.

Eyes watering, she swallowed it and sucked in a breath, then let it out with a faint squeak while fanning at her mouth. “It’s...good...” she managed to choke out.

The other girls clamored to try, and each had similar reactions, with one of the twins—Michal, Ricky thought—almost throwing up her mouthful. After that, no one was willing to go for a second round, so Ricky suggested they take a few minutes, then try it again later, and asked about his original goal—besides seeing the girls, of course. “So the water machine is on this roof, yes?”

“Sure, though I don’t know why you still care about that thing,” Tully replied. “But if you wanna see it, come on.”

She led them down to the far end of the building, where a large cube, half again as high as Ricky and twice as wide, sat on the roof. A large white pipe ran from it into what looked like some kind of main water pipe a few feet away. “Stay on this side, away from the other buildings.”

“What is it?” Ricky asked. “Marijah said something about it being sun powered.”

“It is. Let me see that jar.” Tully took another swig. “Not so bad the second time.”

“It’s a solar-powered water-condensing system,” Jael said. “My brother works on it from time to time. When the elders found it, they thought it was supposed to purify water, but it actually creates it instead. It’s good for drinking, of course, and also supplies the water for the shine.”

“Fascinating,” Ricky said, which was the absolute truth. He found machines of all kinds, whether they were vehicles, weapons or tools for survival, intensely interesting. “Can you tell me where you found it?”

The girls exchanged a conspiratorial glance. “The elders never said exactly how they got it,” Tamar said after another swig of liquor. “All I know is that they brought it back with them from a trade trip a couple months before we set out west.”

The twins had another go at the jar, and then Jak and Ricky took a second pull, as well.

Meanwhile, Tully had carefully maneuvered herself to be standing right next to Jak. “Ryan said I’d be learning how to shoot a handblaster tomorrow.” She stared into his eyes. “Mebbe you could teach me a few things.”

Jak stared back at her for a moment. He opened his mouth as if to reply, then quickly began closing it, but not before a loud belch escaped.

The teenagers all stared at one another, then Tully was the first to dissolve into a fit of giggles. The twins were next, turning away from the group in an attempt to stifle their mirth, followed by Ricky, then Tamar, then Jael, with Jak grinning sheepishly.

“All right, all right, damn it, keep your voices down!” Tully said when she had finally regained control of herself. “And give me that jar.” After a third healthy swallow, she fixed her gaze on Jak. “So whaddaya say?”

“Sure, teach how shoot,” he replied.

“Not
that...
jeez.” Tully came back over to Jak and threw her arms around him. Before he knew what was happening, she planted a long, wet kiss on his mouth. Jak stood there for a moment, then brought his arms up and around her as he returned the favor.

Ricky watched in amazement until he realized he was staring, and quickly looked away. He caught Tamar’s gaze as she lowered the shine jar again, and she sidled toward him. “Been wonderin’ if you kiss as good as you look, Ricky. Think it’s time I found out.”

Ricky was torn between staying where he was and saying or doing something to deflect the very intent-looking girl. Only a step away now, she was stretching out a well-muscled arm to snake around his shoulders, her lips coming closer and closer, until they alighted on his.

For Ricky, the sensation blew the fire of the moonshine away. It was kind of like being electrocuted; his body felt tingly and numb at the same time. Her mouth was soft and wet, her warm breath redolent with the shine’s sharp tang. He was acutely aware of her arms clutching his back, and her body molding itself to his, the press of her breasts against his chest. Belatedly, he brought up his own arms to wrap around her, as well. At the same time, he was also conscious of a particular part of his anatomy swelling in response to the girl in front of him, and he shifted his hips so it didn’t press into her.

But even through the sexual fog that enveloped him, Ricky’s combat reflexes were sharp enough to still maintain awareness of his surroundings. So when he heard the odd noise in the distance, he had enough presence of mind to come up for air and look to the north, toward where he thought the sound had come from.

“What’s wrong?” Tamar sounded disappointed.

“I heard something,” he said, straining to listen.

“Probably just an open door swinging in the breeze,” she said as she grabbed his chin and tried to move his mouth back to hers. “C’mere.”

“There’s not enough wind to move a door.” Even with his suspicion, Ricky was on the verge of giving in when he heard it again—like something scraping against a wall. Whatever it was, it didn’t sound natural. Gently twisting his face out of her grasp, he looked in that direction, noticing that Jak was, as well.

“You see anything, Jak?”

“No—that’s problem. Not see guard on building.”

“When’s changeover?” Ricky squinted, trying to see through the moonlit night, but his night vision wasn’t as good as Jak’s.

“Not ’nother hour.”

“Should we check it out?”

The albino was already moving toward the edge of the roof. “Yup.”

“Wait—where’re you going?” Tully asked.

“Guard’s missing,” Jak replied. “Mebbe takin’ a piss, or mebbe the people-stealers coming back. Gonna go see.”

“We gotta come with, then,” she said. “You all don’t know who’s who, and if people from our ville are there, we wanna catch them alive.”

At the roof’s edge, rope in hand, Jak paused. “Not guarantee can do that, but try. Better come, Tully. Rest stay here and watch that building. If see us come out and wave arms or you hear shots, wake everyone, Ryan first.”

“Won’t the shots do that anyway?” Jael asked with a pout of tipsy confusion.

“Yeah, but you’ll tell them what’s going on,” Ricky said. “And get them moving in that direction.”

“Wastin’ time—come on!” Jak climbed down with hardly a sound. Ricky had Tully go next, then climbed down after her. Doc was still snoring in their room.

“What about a blaster for me?” Tully whispered.

Ricky and Jak exchanged glances. “Wait here,” Ricky said. He slipped back into his room, picked up his De Lisle carbine and chambered a round. Coming back out, he drew his Webley revolver and offered the butt to the girl. “Six shots. No need to cock it, just point and pull the trigger.” He paused. “
Por favor,
don’t shoot either of us.”

She glared at him. “Well, I’ll try not to shoot Jak, at least.” She turned away from him and waved Jak forward. “Let’s go.”

The albino trotted to the end of their sleeping quarters, where a concrete stairway led to the ground. Blaster in hand, he crept down and headed toward the building in question, hugging the wall and checking around corners before flitting across a narrow alley choked with dirt and mummified garbage.

Knowing Jak had the front covered, Ricky divided his attention between Tully ahead of him and checking behind them every few steps.

The target building had been an automotive garage long ago, with a pair of large doors covering the vehicle bays. A row of glassless windows revealed pitch darkness inside. A smaller, boarded-up door stood next to the two big doors. There was no sign of any guards out front, and Ricky couldn’t see anyone looking down from the roof either.

“Stay close,” Jak whispered to the other two. “Move when I do.” He checked right and left one last time, then ran to the smaller door and put his back to the wall next to it.

To her credit, Tully knew how to move. She gave Jak a two-step lead, then followed him, taking a position behind him, blaster held in both hands in front of her. Ricky brought up the rear again, putting himself behind Tully. Jak signaled him to look through the garage window, which Ricky did, but he saw only darkness.