We Had Flags (Toxic World Book 3) (23 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

“It was right here,” Jessica said.

She, the guard, Annette, and Yu-jin stood around a small pit in the sand. A stone lay next to it, obviously the one Jessica had used as a marker.

Yu-jin studied the sand around. Two pairs of footprints, both small, circled all over this low spot between the dunes. One set led up the side of the highest dune, fading out near the top where the sand was more exposed to the wind. Next to it was an identical set of footprints coming down.

Acting as lookout,
Yu-jin reasoned.

Slowly scanning the large bowl of sand between the dunes, she reconstructed the events that had occurred here less than twelve hours before, judging by the freshness of the prints, which remained fairly clear even though the wind had been working to smooth them to nothingness. Within another twelve hours they would disappear, but at the moment she could read them as clearly as the Chinese characters Father and Mother had painted on the inside of their cave.

Over there is where they slept, side by side under a big blanket or tarpaulin. They circled around some, ate over there where those seeds are, and headed out that direction.

She turned and studied Annette. The sheriff’s eyes traced the same movements as her own had a minute before. She could read all this too, but more slowly than Yu-jin had.

I’m the better tracker. She was a scavenger once, but living in the Burbs has made her lose her edge.

She was picking it up, though, and was certainly ready for the chase. Annette’s eyes, an hour before so red and hooded, now practically glowed with energy. Her fingers drummed on the holster of her pistol and she bounced up and down a little where she stood like an impatient child.

What did The Doctor give her?

“They went that way,” Annette declared, pointing to the boys’ route northward. “I bet they circled the farms and then cut east and then south to get to the bay.”

Yu-jin nodded. “Let’s go.”

Annette turned to her. “I got this shotgun and this pistol. Which one you want?”

“I’ve never used a gun. My band never had one. I’m better off with my bow.”

Annette nodded and without another word loped off to the north, following the trail. Yu-jin hurried after her. The guard led Jessica back to the boat to return her to New City.

They kept up a steady run, not so fast that they would wear out quickly, rather a jog that could be kept up for hours and eat up the distance. Side by side up one side of a dune and down the other, then over the next dune. The trail was easily followed until it turned east and headed into uncultivated field. Luckily the soil was good enough here to hold a print and they were able to follow the trail without having to slacken their pace too much. Yu-jin worried about when they got into the gritty, rocky soil and heaps of debris in the ruined city. They might lose them there.

Worry about that when and if that comes. You got enough to worry about as it is,
Yu-jin reminded herself.

Assuming they could find the kids in the bay, avoid all the tweakers and the Burbs militia and whatever else got thrown at them, and got the radio, assuming all that, what could they do?

She’d call Captain Yang and try to reason with him. The Doctor had told her that something called a drone, some sort of flying camera thing, had flown over New City and seen the Asians huddling inside. It had probably seen the burnt buildings in the Burbs too. What would Captain Yang be thinking, and how would he react? If he was the master of such incredible technology from the Old Times, what other devices might he use?

Despite what The Doctor seemed to fear, she did not think Captain Yang would attack, at least not right away. She didn’t think he would leave either. He had probably ordered the ship out to go out to sea in order to get it into a safer position. It would be easy enough to come back. But with communication now cut off, they might as well be on opposite sides of the ocean again. Both sides had returned to fear, suspicion, and ignorance.

Yu-jin tried to stave off despair. She had finally found other Chinese, finally made a connection with the mother country, only to have them leave her on the wrong side.

But was it the wrong side? The Doctor did seem to be trying to make things right for the Asians, in his arrogant, ignorant, fumbling way. It wasn’t just fear of backlash from the ship that drove him. He really did want equality for everyone. But the best intentions didn’t matter when soured by suspicion and overwhelmed by the ignorance of the masses.

Yu-jin glanced at the woman running beside her. Annette was popular in the Burbs. Everyone respected her. She used to be the bouncer at $87,953, and while she had busted more than her share of heads, only a few of the worst thugs held it against her. No wonder the people of the Burbs elected her sheriff.

If she helped save Annette’s kid, perhaps that would go some way to shifting people’s feelings more in favor of her.

What a mercenary thing to think,
Yu-jin upbraided herself.
But do I have the luxury of thinking otherwise? Damn, Doc, you really live in an ugly little world with your politics, and now I’ve been pulled into it too.

The trail skirted the northern edge of the cultivated area. It headed south three times before doubling back when it came in view of the northernmost farms.

“Why are they so scared of the farmers?” Annette wondered aloud as they doubled back for the second time.

“Probably think they’ll hurt them.”

“They’re children!”

“If it wasn’t for you, Asian children would have gotten hurt in that riot.”

Annette gave her a wary look. “I’ll level with you. I got no love for the Chinese after what they did, but it looks like there’s good Chinese and bad Chinese. People like you and the Burbs families are all right.”

How charitable,
Yu-jin thought. She thought of half a dozen sharp replies and bit them all back.

They continued in silence for a time, saving their breath for running. The trail led further eastwards and finally turned south again. Yu-jin judged they had now passed the cultivated area and the boys would have headed straight south for the bay. As the soil became hard and gritty, the footprints grew faint and the two women had to slow to a walk in order to follow the trail. Annette cursed the delay.

“Is there any reason why Pablo would want to run away?” Yu-jin asked.

“He’s not running away!” Annette snapped.

This was followed by a long silence. Yu-jin kept her eyes on the ground, following the faint pair of footprints as they headed towards the ruined port.

“He’s mad at me,” Annette said at last. “There was someone from the Righteous Horde, a guy named Mitch. He told everyone he was one of the cult’s machete men. They made up the bulk of the army, forced to fight in order to eat.”

“I met some of them,” Yu-jin said with a nod. “They didn’t seem to have much love for their leader.”

“They were practically slaves. Many ended up as refugees in the countryside around the Burbs, raiding the farms in order to eat. The Doctor gave them amnesty and set them up as fishermen. Mitch said he knew where the Pure One was going with his hardcore supporters, so we set out with a team to find them. He told the truth about knowing where they were headed. Even fought at our side when things went sour and we had to retreat. Fooled us all. Then a refugee named Susanna told us he was actually one of The Pure One’s select guards. He’d defected and was playing a double game with us.”

“So this guy was no good?”

Annette’s face darkened. “He kept women as sex slaves like all of the inner circle did.”

Yu-jin gritted her teeth.

The same old story.

“But what does this have to do with Pablo?” Yu-jin asked.

The trail passed through a rocky section and momentarily disappeared. Yu-jin had to search in a broad half circle for a couple of minutes before she picked it up again. Then she realized Annette hadn’t answered her question. She glanced at the sheriff and saw her eyes wet with tears.

“Pablo’s father died when he was a baby. He’s always looking for a substitute, and he latched onto Mitch. The bastard probably acted nice to the kid just to get in good with me. He could be very charming, very convincing.”

Sounds like you were taken with him too. I bet you were looking for something as much as Pablo,
Yu-jin thought. She said nothing, though. She didn’t want to get slugged in the face. Annette continued.

“So when we got back to the Burbs and Susanna fingered Mitch as one of the cult, we lynched him. Pablo’s barely said a word to me after that.”

“It’s not your fault,” Yu-jin said.

“It is, though!” Annette cried, her voice cracking. “I haven’t been spending enough time with him. I’ve been so busy with being sheriff and trying to get citizenship. I want him growing up within the walls. Trying to give him a better life has actually given him a worse one.”

“You’re doing your best as a mother. You’re all alone.”

“Maybe I should have married again. Some guys have been interested over the years, but none could hold a candle to my husband. He was perfect. But maybe I should have married anyway just so Pablo could have a father.”

“That’s asking you to do too much,” Yu-jin said with a shake of her head. “You shouldn’t marry a man unless he can give you what you want.”

So where does that leave you and Randy?

Yu-jin bit her lip and tried to push that thought away, but it crept back to haunt her.

He can’t give you a child and you want one. It doesn’t matter how wonderful of he is, if you stay with him in the end you’ll feel like you’ve gotten less out of life.

Not now. We’re out in the wildlands in heaps of danger. Think of that later.

You always put it off until later, don’t you?

Just like you’ve been putting him off since this whole thing started.

She’d spotted him approaching when they had gotten onto the row boat. She hadn’t waited. There had been too much to do. There’d been too much to do ever since the freighter came. He’d stopped being a priority as soon as those Chinese sailors had landed on the shore of Toxic Bay.

The thought nagged at her as they proceeded further south and the trail grew ever fainter, passing over ruins and slabs of concrete. She only found peace of mind from her own future when the present became all too troubling.

For as the ruins grew in size and number until Yu-jin and Annette had to wind between heaps of collapsed buildings and their way became littered with bricks and chunks of concrete, the trail disappeared.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Failure. I’ve failed at everything. Lucas died because of me, and now everyone on the ship is going to die, and Yu-jin will die too.

Hell, New City will die, just because of the actions of a few paranoid idiots who should have been born into the madness of a generation ago. They would have deserved it.

The Doctor sat slumped on the ground, a circle of guards around him. His breathing came irregularly and his sight clouded. Dimly he was aware of a greater circle of civilians gathering around the guards, arguing with the men holding him. He also heard Clyde shouting into the walkie-talkie.

Clyde could shout all he wanted. Everything was over. The Doctor didn’t care anymore.

But Clyde’s words cut through his despair and made him pay attention.

“What do you mean you can’t blow it?”

A crackly response came from the walkie-talkie. The Doctor recognized Kent’s voice. “You waited too long, Clyde. Now the ship’s out of range! I got another plan, though.”

“What?” Clyde asked, casting a nervous glance at the growing crowd around them.

“We grabbed a Chink kid and…another kid. They got a radio. I think it’s them who called the ship in the first place.”

The Doctor perked up.

“What’s your plan?” Clyde said, having to raise his voice over the shouts of the crowd. More and more people were gathering now that it became apparent that The Doctor was being held against his will.

He couldn’t hear Kent’s answer over the rising clamor. The guards fidgeted, uncertain, as the angry faces of their friends and neighbors shouted at them to let The Doctor go.

Marcus pushed through the crowd.

“What’s going on here?” he demanded.

The Doctor stood up, stumbling and almost falling over. He steadied himself, let his head clear, and elbowed through the circle of muscular gunmen.

“Clyde thinks he’s in charge,” The Doctor said.

Marcus looked at the Head of the Watch and then back at him uncertainly.

“Want me to—”

The Doctor cut him off with a resigned shake of the head.

Arrest him? I’d love for you to do that, but who would you use to do it?

Clyde pocketed the walkie-talkie and raised his hands over his head. “Calm down, everyone, calm down! We got everything under control.”

“What do you mean
you
have everything under control?” someone in the crowd demanded.

“As Head of the Watch I have the right to take over when there is a clear and present security danger.”

“Only for defense, not for running New City or detaining The Doctor!” someone else shouted.

“We’re not detaining anyone. Does he look detained to you? And I’m not running New City, only taking care of the security situation until everything returns to normal and we’re all safe.”

The Doctor let out a bitter laugh. Like anything was ever normal and safe in this world!

“So what are you going to do?” Marcus demanded.

Clyde glanced over his shoulder at the ship, which was still receding towards the horizon. “That’s classified.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” a woman in the crowd said. “There are no secrets here.”

“We have the safety of New City to consider. Don’t worry.”

The Doctor snarled and took a step towards Clyde. “Listen here, you—”

He never got to finish his sentence. His sight dimmed at the edges, everything going distant. The ground came up to meet him. There was a flash, followed by darkness.

Consciousness was slow in returning. The Doctor felt the soft mattress and familiar smells of his own bedroom. Lights dazzled his eyes, and as he blinked, trying to focus, he saw a vague feminine form hovering over him.

“Yu-jin? Sorry. I failed.”

“You just rest, Doctor.”

That wasn’t Yu-jin’s voice.

His mind and sight cleared.

Marsha, one of the nurses, sat by the side of his bed. She was taking his pulse, concern stamped on her face.

“Have you had these stress-related fainting spells before?” she asked.

“No. How long have I been out?”

“Only a few minutes. Try to rest.”

“What’s been going on?”

“Nothing. I just told you that you were only unconscious for a few minutes. What could happen in a few minutes?”

“A hell of a lot,” The Doctor grumbled, struggling out of bed. Marsha put a hand on his chest.

“You really should—”

“Beat it.”

“But—”

“I said beat it!”

Marsha fled the room.

“Why can’t people ever do what they’re told the first time?” he grumbled.

He sat slumped on the edge of his bed, his head in his hands. Weakness and exhaustion tugged at him. His bed beckoned.

No, too much to do. But how to do it? He wasn’t even in charge anymore.

He had to get the ship back, reason with Captain Wang.

Before he could do anything, he needed to have his heart medication. He had forgotten this morning. The Doctor stumbled over to his medical pack, remembering the old saying about doctors making the worst patients. It certainly held true in his case, he thought with a sad smile.

The emblem of the Red Cross, Crescent, and Star reminded him of Lucas again. Shaking his head, he opened it, grabbed a pill and popped it, adding half a tablet of herbal speed as a chaser. He needed to keep his energy up.

Then he looked at the medical pack again.

Of course, what an idiot he’d been! He had everything he needed right here. Captain Wang’s lungs were slowly killing him, the old bastard must know it, and here he had anti-cancer agents and soft tissue restoratives and everything else he could possibly need to cure him. All the wonders of Old Times medicine were here at his disposal. He had more medicine than anyone else in the world.

Except Radio Hope,
he corrected himself.
They gave this to you, after all.

Screw Radio Hope. What the hell are they doing to help?

If he cured Captain Wang, that would go a long way to solving this shit storm.

Within a minute he’d put on his coat, packed a pistol, slung the medical pack on his shoulder, and strode out of his quarters. He had to shove aside Marsha and a succession of guards and so-called assistants as he left the warehouse and hurried to the dock.

A guard stood nearby, gripping an M16.

“Remove the barbed wire,” The Doctor ordered.

The guard looked uncertain. “I need to speak with the Head of the Watch.”

The Doctor pulled out his pistol and shoved it in the man’s face. The guard was so surprised he was too slow to react.

“Remove the barbed wire,” The Doctor repeated, taking the man’s gun.

The guard’s face went white and he hurried to obey.

Maybe I should point guns at people more often. Things would get done quicker around here.

The Doctor hurried down the dock. As he stepped into the boat he saw the guard running off, calling for Clyde. It didn’t matter. The boat was always kept ready in case of emergencies and was the only one with a functioning motor. No one could catch him.

The Doctor sat at the stern and pulled the engine cord. The engine started with a roar. He cast off the moorings, revved the engine, and shot across the water, chasing after the ship as it dwindled away on the horizon.