When We Shed Civilization

Chapter 9

Beth moved closer to Burt, intent on having a word with him. Fortunately, the two gangers holding their ropes walked next to each other, talking in hushed voices about the woman's wound.

When the leader of their captors, Leo, passed them, he glowered at Burt, but then—without a word—he moved ahead.

She waited for him to be out of earshot. "You must be mad," she whispered to Burt. "You shouldn't have provoked that guy with our medbay."

"Haven't you seen how he looks at the girl? He cares for her. He probably fucks her and will do anything to save her pretty ass. She's our chance to get out of here." His voice was as low as hers. "Just wait. I'll get you out of here." He squeezed her arm.

Yes, Leo had looked brokenhearted, the bond tying him to the woman as evident as a chain of iron. But Burt's strategy didn't convince her. The disgust and hatred on Leo's face, back when Burt had offered him the medbay, had been palpable. And his despair, too.

His had been the look of a man offered a bribe impossible to refuse yet too vile to accept — the look of a man burdened by weighing his loyalty towards his clan against his love for the woman.

The type of man who should not be pushed.

Or maybe she had just imagined that—he was nothing but a savage, after all. Why would he scorn bribery?

The prey of savages, that's what she and Burt were, caught in that gang's merciless fangs. Like cavemen, they were dragging their prey to their lair. Who'd know what they'd be doing to her and Burt there?

"Thanks, by the way."

Burt's words pulled Beth from pondering. "What for?"

"For trying to save me, back at the van, when that Leo guy wanted to shoot me." He winked at her.

Beth shrugged. "No problem. I just tried to make him vent some steam. And I had to vent some steam myself." She grinned.

"Thanks anyway."

The ruined city formed the horizon ahead. The chopper from Seaside had to come from that direction, flying across the vast ruins on its way to save them. But the sky shone in its usual light-blue laced with a dirty tinge of yellow dust.

As they ventured deeper into the outskirts of the decaying town, the dead trees and cracked earth were replaced by dreary, crumbling concrete and more ruins.

A tug from the rope binding her wrists made her look back.

The scar-faced man grinned at her. "Hey, girl, what's your name?"

"I'm Beth," she said. "And you?" The return-question had come up automatically, and she bit her lips too late. She didn't want to have a friendly conversation with her captors, and she couldn't care less for their names.

"Spike." He grinned even more now, digging wrinkles into his scarred cheeks.

The hulk walking next to him and holding Burt's rope grumbled something. If it was a curse or his name, she did not know. Nor did it matter.

"Where are you taking us?" she asked instead.

"HQ," he said. "There, you'll be shown to your... chambers."

Information could not hurt, so she prodded some more. "Where is that HQ of yours?"

"In the city, on this side." He gestured along the street. "You'll be impressed."

She turned her back on him and looked ahead. The rubble of both sides of the street held nothing to impress her.

The city was vast. Back in the age of tech, more than a million people had lived in it, she had read. Probably more people than the deserts of North America held today. The heatwaves, the fires, and the wars that broke out between states and even neighboring cities over the dwindling resources—together, they had reduced civilization to a few islands in a sea of devastation. And even these last bulwarks were falling now, one by one, going offline, ceasing to respond to radio calls. Their technology was failing, and—lacking the knowledge, skills, and tools—they were unable to rebuild it.