This Shattered Land - 02 (43 page)

“I’m
Mayor Elizabeth Stone. Pleasure to meet you Mister Garrett.”

I
must have blushed from my toes all the way up to the tips of my ears.

“Oh,
uh…sorry ma’am. I mean mayor. I didn’t realize…”

Her
expression broke, and she doubled over laughing. She had to sit down in her
chair to keep from falling over. After slapping the desktop a few times, she
sat back and regarded me with warm brown eyes.

“Oh
God. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist. You just looked so serious. And
call me Liz.”

I
got a hold of myself and sat down across from her. This mayor was definitely
not what I was expecting. My mouth opened a couple of times to speak, but I
couldn’t seem to get my brain to send it anything to say.

“So
how do you like the town so far?” She said, letting me off the hook.

“It’s
very nice, I appreciate you letting me and my friends stay here.”

“Right,
which brings us to the point of our little meeting.” Her expression sobered,
and she sat up straight in her chair. “I’m sure you’ve heard by now that the
town levies a fee for services provided by its citizens.”

“Actually
I’ve heard it’s your office that charges the fee. At your discretion.”

She
shrugged. “Tomato, to-mah-to. Either way the end result is the same. The
Sheriff tells me it was a run-in with the Free Legion that brought you to my
town’s doorstep.”

I
didn’t quite like the way she referred to the town as hers. “It was.”

“Care
to tell me what happened?”

I
leaned back in my chair and laced my fingers over my stomach. “They ambushed
us. We had a woman with us, so they didn’t just slaughter us outright, they
wanted her alive. We used that to our advantage and turned the tables on them.”

“The
report I read said that twenty bodies were found where the Legion ambushed
you.”

“Twenty
three, actually.”

The
mayor nodded. I saw a shrewd, calculating intelligence behind those pretty
brown eyes.

 “So
you were outnumbered over four to one when you were attacked, and yet you’re
still alive to talk about it. You know, my husband was in the military, God
rest his soul. He told me about a really bad firefight he got into in Baghdad
where he and his friends were surrounded, and they had to shoot their way out
of a building. He told me that when you’re in a bad situation, and it looks
like there’s no way out, you have two choices.”

She
paused, staring at me. I reckoned she was waiting for me to feed her a line.
“And what would that be?”

Her
full lips curved into a pained smile. “You either die, or you kill them all.”

We
held each other’s gaze for a long moment. A kind of understanding passed
between us. She got up from behind her desk and sat down in the chair next to
mine, stretching her feet out in front of her and staring out the window.

“Sometimes
the shepherd has to protect the flock, Mr. Garrett. When the wolves come around
and threaten the sheep, you can’t just ignore them and hope they’ll go away. You
have to do something about it. Problem is, you can’t fight wolves with
sheepdogs.”

She
turned her head and fixed me with a piercing stare. “You have to fight wolves
with lions.”

I
met her gaze for a few heartbeats, and then looked back out the window. A cloud
moved across the sky outside, casting the town’s main street in shadow.

“What
did you have in mind, Mayor?”

“We
need antibiotics and pain meds. You have both. If you don’t want to get
involved in this mess, you can pay us a third of your medical supplies and be
on your way.”

My
eyebrows arched up. “A third? That’s a lot less than I thought you would take.”

She
smiled and reached over to pat my forearm. “I’m not unreasonable, and I’m not a
thief, Mr. Garrett. But I do have a serious problem on my hands.” Her
expression grew serious again. “The Legion isn’t going to just go away. Every
day there are more of them. They have our town nearly surrounded, and the few
caravans that are willing to risk the trip to trade with us are getting
skittish about coming here. Right now we’re still strong enough to hold them
off, but for how long?”

She
left her chair and slowly walked over to stand in front of the window, her arms
crossed under the swell of her breast. She was trying to play it cool, but
tightness in her shoulders gave away her worried tension.

“I’ll
be grateful for the medical supplies, if that’s all you’re willing to give up,
but what I need is someone who can lead. Someone who can take the people of
this town and turn them into a force so dangerous that no one will want to take
them on. A force that can take the fight beyond these walls.” She waved a hand
at the wall in the distance, “A force that can hit the Legion where they live.”

 I
didn’t respond for a moment. The mayor was showing her cards, letting me see
her as vulnerable and desperate. She seemed genuine enough, but I’m not known
for my expertise with women. If she was trying to play me, she was doing a
damned good job.

“What
about Captain McCray? He seems to know his business. Why not have him do it?” I
asked.

She
shook her head. “The Captain and his men are too busy trying to track down the
Legion’s headquarters to train anyone. I need someone else for that.”

“Someone
like me.” I said.

She
turned to look at me, a silent pleading in her eyes. “Someone like you.”

I
nodded. “I’ll need to talk it over with my friends. I’m sure you understand.” I
said.

She
turned to face me. “Of course. But I’ll need an answer by tomorrow, before
sundown.”

I
stood up and offered her a hand. “Been a pleasure meeting you, Mayor.”

She
shook my hand, her long fingered grip surprisingly strong. “Likewise. And call
me Liz.”

I
smiled. “Liz, then.”

Chapter 14

Thunderheads

While
Gabe was out deciding our fate with the town mayor, Allison left the clinic
early to pay me a visit before reporting for sentry duty on the wall. The door
had closed behind her for precisely one second before her arms went around my
neck and her soft tongue went in my mouth. I lifted her up off the ground as she
wrapped her strong, slender legs around me. I walked her to the couch and fell
down on top of her, breaking contact long enough to pull my shirt over her
head, then leaning back down to kiss her again. She kissed me back, fierce and
hungry, letting out breathless little moans as she reached down to tug at my
belt. I struggled out of my pants, then ripped open a drawer in the coffee
table and fumbled out a condom. I tried to open the packaging, but my hands
were shaking too much.

“Here,
let me.”

She
took it out of my hands and tore open the plastic. Her deep, dark eyes locked
to mine as she put the condom to the head of my penis and rolled it down. I
moaned and cupped my hands around her face while her fingers slid down the
length of me. She slid her hands up my back, pulled me down, and then I was
inside of her. I’m not sure how much time passed that way, deep in her heat and
thrusting. At some point she was on top of me, then bent over in front of me,
and then I was on top of her again on the living room carpet. I hooked an arm
under her leg and rolled her over so that she lay flat on her stomach, pushing
her thighs apart with mine. She turned around to kiss me as I slid back into
her. The combination of her soft lips and the wet warmth inside of her was just
too much for me. I came harder than I ever had before in my life, gasping and
thrusting. Her nails dug into my arm as I pushed through waves of ecstasy that
felt so good they almost hurt. We both cried out as I plunged into her one last
time, deep and hard.

We
lay panting on floor for a few moments before I rolled off of her. I pulled off
the condom and tossed it aside. Allison slowly crawled over and laid her head
in the crook of my shoulder, breathing hard.

“Well…that
was…energetic.”

I
laughed, and leaned up to kiss her the forehead, winced, and lay back down. The
wound in my side was healing well, covered as it was by a fresh layer of tender
pink scar tissue, but it wasn’t a hundred percent by a long shot.

“It’s
been a long time since I was with a woman.”

“That’s
not true. What about last night?”

I
laughed. “You know what I mean.”

She
smiled contentedly and ran a hand over my chest. “I know. I hate to say this,
but I’m kind of glad you got shot. You’re my favorite patient ever.”

I
grinned and pulled her close, breathing in her scent. “To tell the truth,
I’m
kind of glad I got shot. And you’re definitely my favorite doctor ever.”

She
kissed me, then lay her head down on my chest. I pushed all thoughts of what
had happened over the last couple of years out of my head and resolved to enjoy
this fleeting, wonderful moment. Just me and a warm, beautiful woman.

It’s
the simple things that make life worthwhile.

*****

A
couple of hours later, I left a note on the door telling Gabe where to find us,
and followed Allison to the perimeter wall. It was the first chance I’d had to
see the town’s defenses, and I was thoroughly impressed by what I saw.  

On
the ride to town in the back of Declan’s wagon, I had noticed that most of the
telephone poles along the side of the road, and the cables connecting them,
were missing. The empty holes left behind were the only evidence to show they
had ever been there. I’d also spotted hundreds of tree stumps that had looked
recently cut down. Standing in a tower and looking out over the barrier, I suddenly
understood why. The locals had dug deep footings to anchor the telephone poles
and trimmed tree trunks into the ground, sharpened their tops into points, and
then reinforced them with a deep earthen berm that climbed halfway up the
fence’s height. There must have been thousands of individual posts that
comprised the sturdy fence, all cut to stand about twelve feet in height. A
long trench, dug ten feet deep and eight feet wide, waited to greet anything
that made it over the wall and down the berm. The perimeter was huge; its
pointed posts marching off into the distance all the way north to the far end
of town. Catwalks built on top of the berm connected guard towers that stood at
regular hundred-yard intervals.

“How
big is this fence, exactly?” I asked Allison as we stood next to each other in
one of the guard towers.

“Pretty
damn big.” She replied. “It runs across North Street between Mill and Seminary,
and follows the roads all the way down to the railroad tracks on the south side
of town.”

“How
the hell did you people build it?”

“With
a lot of sweat, blood, and heavy equipment. We finished most of it before the
fuel supplies ran out the first few months after the Outbreak. After that it
was all muscle power. It was hard work, but we got it done.” She said with a
note of pride in her voice.

“Is
it all like this? You know, the wooden posts?”

“No,
only about two-thirds of it. The part on the north side of town is made of
concrete and steel, but we ran out of concrete and had to start using wood.”

I
shaded my eyes with one hand to see into the distance. “I’ve never seen
anything like it.”

Allison
looked over at me, adjusting her hunting rifle on its sling. “We have a lot of
hard working people here in Hollow Rock.”

“And
one amazing doctor.”

That
got a smile out of her. She stepped closer and slid a hand behind my neck,
pulling me down for a kiss. Her lips parted from mine a lot sooner than I
wanted them to.

“It’s
against the rules to do stuff like this on watch. You should probably go home.”

I
grinned. “What wrong, can’t keep your hands off me?”

“I
can, I just don’t want to.” She smiled back.

I
gave her one last kiss, and then stepped away. “Gabe and I are going over to
the Glover’s for dinner tomorrow night. You want to come?”

“Sure.
What time?”

“Probably
around seven. That okay?”

“Yeah,
that’ll be fine.”  

“Okay,
see you tomorrow.” I started down the stairs.

“Hey
Eric?”

I stopped
and turned around. “Hmm?”

“I…um…”
She looked down, seeming almost shy for a moment. “I don’t usually move this
fast. You know, with what’s happened the last couple of days.”

I
hesitated, not quite sure where she was going. “Allison, we don’t have to go
any faster than you want to. I’m not too proud to let you lead the way on this,
if that’s what you want.”

She
took a deep breath and nodded, her expression relieved. “Thanks.” She opened
her mouth to speak, closed it, then tried again. “I don’t want you to think I’m
pushing you away, but I kind of think we need to slow down. I mean, things have
been happening pretty fast.”