When We Shed Civilization

Chapter 11

"Who are these people?" a girl with pigtails asked, pointing her finger at Beth. She stood with a group of villagers, all of them staring at the newcomers.

"They're strangers." The gray-haired woman at her side took the kid by the hand. She made the word strangers sound like something best avoided.

Undaunted, though, the girl gave Beth a gap-toothed smile.

Beth felt unable to resist the big-eyed scrutiny and smiled back.

"We've caught ourselves some Gaters," Spike said.

The girl's eyes widened. But then a frown descended on her brow, and she shook her head vehemently, making her copper pigtails swing back and forth. "You're lying, Spike. Them's no Gaters. Gaters have green skin. Them's just people."

Beth couldn't help but laugh. "Right, we're just people."

"Don't be deceived," Spike said. "They turn green at night."

The girl tilted her head and studied Beth. "That true?"

"He's pulling your leg," she replied.

"Pulling my leg?" Her frown returned, and she looked down at her feet.

"It's a figure of speech, it means—"

The old woman grabbed the girl's arm. "It means you're not to talk to strangers, Starlet."

Starlet kept her big blue eyes on Beth as she was being pulled away by the woman.

"And you're not to talk to our kids." Spike tugged at her leash. "They don't need your Gater talk. We don't want them to grow up smarter than us." He laughed at his own joke as he followed Leo and the twins, guiding her along one of the stands.

Huts and shanties made from stone, wood, and metal sheets hugged the steps above and below their path. Ahead, the larger building—constructed from smooth girders and slabs of concrete held up between them—looked like part of the original stadium. Its broad windows faced the garden below.

They reached an open space between the huts and the building and stopped. Some of the villagers were already waiting there for them while others followed in the newcomer's wake. The shaggy crowd counted no more than one or two dozen.

The building's roof was flat, and two men stood upon it. One was short on the side of dwarfish. He wore a rounded white-and-red helmet with a metal grid protecting his face. His oversized clothes had the same colors, even though the white had faded to hues of yellow and gray. He had planted a long, smooth bat on the ground before him, his hands resting on its hilt.

He made Beth remember the bat and helmet Spike had talked about.

Baseball equipment.

The other man towered over the dwarf, by three heads at least, and he wore nothing but pants—red and faded white, like his companion's. His broad chest was bare, and he had his arms crossed before it.

He waited silently for the people's murmur to calm down. Then he unfolded his arms—the motion making a cluster of bulging muscles move beneath his brown skin—and stepped to the roof's edge.

The smooth skin of his bald head gleamed in the light from above.

Leo looked up at the man. "Hammer," he said.

"Leo." Hammer gave a nod in reply. "I see you've caught some... rabble."

For a second, the man's dark-eyed gaze rested on Beth, making her shiver, then it moved on to take in Burt. And finally, it halted on Flora on her litter. The twins had lowered her to the ground between them.

"And your sister is wounded," Hammer said and pointed at the woman. "What's happened?"

So she was Leo's sister. The bond between the two made a different kind of sense to Beth now.

Leo pulled out Theodore's gun and held it up, pointing it at the skeleton of a roof far above their heads. "It was one of the Gaters," he said and gestured at Beth and Burt. "But not these two. The one who did it is dead now."

"Kill the rest, too," a villager with long, greasy hair shouted.

Hammer held up a hand. "Right. Her blood asks for more blood. But first things first." He gestured at the gray-haired woman who was still holding Starlet's hand. "Jade, you take care of Flora."

She nodded and addressed the twins. "Hawk, Bolt, take her to my house. But we'll need Doc Faith to heal her proper. Someone call her."

She left, with the twins and the stretcher in tow. Starlet stayed, her gaze still focused on Beth.

Hammer moved to the back of the roof, where it merged with the ranks of the stadium. He stepped off it and descended a stair at the side of the building, two steps at a time.

He stopped an arm's length away from Burt and folded his arms again. "What's your name, Gater?"

Burt glowered up at Hammer, saying nothing. His hands were still bound behind his back.

"What's your name?" Hammer repeated the words, enunciating them one by one.

Burt just stared back.

"Okay then," Hammer said. "No name. I'll give you one, then. You're Lily."

A few of the villagers snickered.

Burt's face reddened, but he didn't say a word.

"Lily, Lily!" The dwarfish, helmeted man on the roof laughed and pointed a finger at Burt. "Lily—"

"That's enough, Herb!" Hammer said without looking up, and the chanting ended. "So, Lily. Let me tell you that you're lucky to be here. The gangs out there eat girls like you for breakfast."

With that, he turned to Beth. "And you? Shall I give you a name, too?"

"My name is Beth." She stood straight. The smirk on the man's face irked her, and she would not bend to him. "And where I come from, we eat the likes of you for a refreshment."

Her words had been bred by a hell of a day and a will to poke at the man's mocking eyes. But now that they had been said, Beth was as much surprised as shocked by her audacity.

Hammer just tilted his head and eyed her like a rare species of bird. A smirk formed on his lips.

"Hammer." Leo interrupted the scene. "Their people have been looking for them, with their chopper."

Hammer frowned at him.

"The flying machine," Leo added. "It has been searching the city for them." He pointed at Beth and Burt.

"Have they seen you?"

"No, I don't think so. We hid until they left."

"Good." Hammer turned away from Beth and gestured at the gun in Leo's hands. "So, that pistol got live ammo?"

Leo nodded and held the weapon towards Hammer, hilt first.

Hammer shook his head. "No, you keep it. It's Lily and Beth's first payment for what their folks did to Flora... and to your wife." He spat on the ground and then glanced at Spike. "Take these dirty Gaters to the locker rooms. There's more time to talk later."

Wife? Beth studied Leo's face, but it was unreadable.

"Come," Spike said quietly and pulled Beth's arm.

But as she turned to follow the man, Hammer's voice stopped them. "Wait. I've got a better idea."

Beth disliked the leer on his face as he looked at her, his eyes moving along her body.

He turned to Leo. "You deserve better payment for your sister's wounds and your wife's death. You can have Beth." He pointed at her. "To do as you please... as long as you don't kill her."

Leo looked at his leader with a blank face.

"Unless you'd prefer Lily, of course," Hammer added.

Then he looked at Beth, grinning.

His leer was revolting.