All Is Silence - Deserted Lands #1

Chapter 30 - Part II

 The blond laid Lizzie down on something soft—a sleeping bag? She slipped her eyelids open, still playing unconscious. Her rescuer’s eyes skipped back and forth from her breasts to her face. Stupid jerk. She opened her eyes, not caring about her ruse anymore.

His face twisted in embarrassment. “Are you okay?” he asked.

A rifle butt caught him in the gut and sent him flying backwards.

“Stupid shit.” A mulleted man spat at Lizzie’s captor. “You let them get away!”

“Fuck you, Carter.”

He turned his glare down at Lizzie. She cowered at his feet, fig-leafing her arms, protecting her exposed parts.

“You let them get away for this, Travis?” His finger jabbed toward Lizzie.

“Hey!” Lizzie’s anger gave her the presence of mind to pull the sleeping bag up over her shivering nakedness.

Travis lay a few feet away, groaning and clutching his stomach.

“I assume those were your friends,” Carter said. “Well, I suppose a nice filled-out harlot like you might be worth a bit more. The males weren’t going to bring us much and the one chick didn’t have much of a figure.” He leered down at her sleeping bag as if his eyes could bore right through it.

God, more breeders! The world’s barely ended, you’d think people had other things on their minds. Lizzie met his eyes and held them. “Yes. They’re my friends.”

Carter’s ugly mug split into a grin. “Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle. You traded yourself for them? If you wanted into The City so bad all you had to do was ask.”

Lizzie shivered. “I don’t want in The City, I want to see my dad. Fastest way, I figured, was to be brought in by you slavers.”

“We’re not slavers.” His smile disappeared and the glare returned. “We’re Collectors, collecting folks who need the safety of The City. Once you check in they don’t keep you prisoner. People come and go. They need to have travel permits—for safety.”

“Right. And I’m sure there is some benevolent, wise white-haired man who will let all us pretties know when it is safe to go back out into the big bad world. But lemme guess. It’s not safe out here yet.”

“Nope.” Carter grinned. “We got the weather. The Utah Independents. The Crazies…

Lizzie yawned, as if bored. “I want clothes, a cigarette, a drink, and then some sleep—in that order.” She jutted her chin out like a queen. If she was such a prize, he would treat her like one. Or so she hoped.

Carter stared at her for a long moment. He shook his arms out of the sleeves of his heavy black jacket.

She spied the Tank and pointed. “I have clothes in there.”

”A cigarette and a drink? You old enough?”

“Are you?”

Carter chuckled handing her his coat. “What’s your name?”

Lizzie slid her arms into the warm flannel-lined sleeves. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but smelled of cigarettes and man. “I’m Lizzie.”

He inclined his head. “Carter. Just Carter.” He kicked snow at Travis who was starting to pick himself up off the ground. “Go fetch her bag of clothes.” He asked Lizzie, “What’s it look like?”

“It’s a black duffle with Hello Kitty and Kiss patches.”

A minute later Travis, still seething, dumped it at her feet.

Lizzie pulled out jeans, a tee, and a hoodie, dressing clumsily inside the sleeping bag. At the bottom of the duffel Lizzie spied a cell phone. She grabbed a baseball cap, scooping the phone into it as she shoved it in the belly pocket of the hoodie.

Once she was decent, and had warm socks and boots on, Carter motioned with his gun for her to get in the back of his truck. “You’ll be safe here.” He tossed the sleeping bag next to her. He glared at Travis. “And warm—up off the ground. The City doesn’t pay us for damaged goods.”

Lizzie sat on the tailgate. Carter pulled a pack of cigarettes and popped one up. She slid the cigarette from the pack as he pulled an engraved Zippo out of his pocket and flicked it open. Lizzie stuck her cigarette in the flame and inhaled. Then she let it blow out of her mouth. She relished the dirty burn, but it didn’t feel as good as it used to. It felt like ages since she had smoked and she realized she hadn’t missed it. After that first drag, she stubbed it out.

“What do you mean by The City?” Lizzie slipped the cigarette in her pocket for later.

Carter raised an eyebrow. “Provo, but everybody calls it The City.” He pulled a flask from his pocket and offered it to Lizzie.

“I’ve never been good at following rules, I don’t think I’ll make a very good citizen of this city.” Lizzie accepted the flask.

Carter shrugged. “That’s why some of us have to live on the outside as Collectors.”

Lizzie raised the flask, “Cheers.” She put it to her lips and then tipped it back. She grimaced at the burn in her throat and handed it back to Carter.

A 4X4 drove out of the dark, lights blinding as it rolled to a stop.

“Get some sleep,” Carter said. “We’ll be heading out in the morning.” He strode toward the truck.

Lizzie unrolled the fresh sleeping bag he had tossed in the truck bed for her. She climbed inside the only privacy she was going to get. Under the cover of the downy shield, she pressed the power button on the phone and held it. She was rewarded with a flash of light, a logo and then a warning. “Plug in phone. Power level 0%.” Then darkness. “Shit.”