When We Shed Civilization

Chapter 31

"Them Bikers are in some serious shit," Hawk said.

"Dam right." Bolt nodded.

Leo couldn't disagree. The column of black smoke rising from the depot must be bad news for the rival gang. He and his friends had seen it from afar, earlier that morning. As they closed in on it, several explosions had thundered over the city.

"Let that shit be as serious as it gets. That's fine by me." Spike grinned, clearly enjoying the show. "Even though there's less smoke now than what they had some hours ago."

They stood a block away from the entrance to the depot. Its gate was wide open.

"No guards, that's strange," Leo said. "When the doors are open, they're usually guarding them."

Spike barked a laugh. "I guess they're busy tending to that little fire of theirs."

"Let's have a look." Leo pulled his sword. Keeping his eyes on the ramparts above the wall, he advanced.

Yet no one showed up, and the square beyond the gate lay empty. Leo had been here before, during negotiations between the gangs, and there had always been people here, lingering and loitering.

To the right of the square, smoke was rising from the ruptured ruins of the two large tanks. The soot in the air stung in his nose and made him cough.

"Look at that!" Spike pointed at the ground before the tanks. "There's people... there were people."

Some of the bodies were blackened, charred by the heat, especially those closest to the tanks. On others, the clothes were still recognizable. One wore long, brownish coat.

Leo knew the coat. "That's Jethro." He stepped closer, holding up his hands to shield his face from the heat of the smoldering depot.

The man lay on his belly. Using his foot, Leo turned him around. The man's eyes were still open, one white and one blue—both of them blind now.

Leo turned his back to the tanks and retreated to his friends.

"Serves them right," Spike said. "I always knew that their gasoline's gonna kill them one day."

"That's not all of them." Leo gestured at the bodies as he studied the windows of the building on the other side of the square. Most of them were broken or shuttered. The rest was almost blind with the dirt of decades. "There were at least a dozen of them, but we've got not much more than a handful of bodies here."

Hawk and Bolt both nocked arrows to their bows.

"Let's leave." Spike said. "This place spooks me out."

Leo shrugged. "Okay, but I'd love to know what's happened here." Disappointed, he turned to go as he noticed a movement behind one of the ground floor windows. He pointed his sword at it. "Wait, someone's in there. Let's have a look."

"Are you sure about that?" Hawk asked.

"Yes." Not looking back, Leo approached the door closest to the window. It stood open.

A man lay at its threshold, unmoving. The skin of his face was charred. He didn't move when Leo prodded him.

Hearing his companions' footfalls behind him, he stepped over the body and entered. Crates and bags cluttered the narrow hallway on the other side. The musty smell of stale food was a relief after the acrid smoke outside. A door on the right was closed.

He gestured at it and held a finger to his lips. The room where he had seen the movement lay on that side.

Hawk and Bolt aimed their arrows at the door, and Spike pulled his sword from its scabbard. Leo nodded at them and tried the handle. It yielded and he pulled the door open.

A bed dominated the room. Behind it, two women, a thickset boy, and a small girl were staring at Leo. One of the women held a baby to her chest, and the other one, wearing a flimsy nightgown, had a long, rusty knife in her hands.

"Oh, hello everyone," Spike said and entered.

Leo grabbed his arm and stopped him. One of the kids, the girl, whimpered. She wasn't older than three or four.

"We're not going to hurt you." Leo pushed past Spike. "We just wanna know what has happened here."

The woman holding the baby spat into the rumpled, filthy linen covering the bed. "Sure." A scar across her face rivaled Spike's.

"You've got my word for it," Leo said. He hoped his companions would be held by it. "So, what's been going on here?"

"The strangers set our tanks afire," the boy said.

"What strangers, where did they come from?" Leo asked.

"Jethro said they were from Sea... Seashore," the boy said.

"Seaside," the woman with the knife said. "You sure won't hurt us?"

"As I said, you've got me word for it," Leo said. "How many were they?"

"Two." The boy held up a pair of fingers. "A man and a woman. They had a gun, but it's out of bullets. And he tried to fuck her in front of everyone, but she kicked his dick and—"

The woman with the knife slapped the back of his head. "Language, Meatloaf."

He scowled at her.

She pulled the girl closer. "They ran away after the first explosion. That explosion, it killed..." She gestured at the window, then she shook her head and stared at the bed. "Anyway, they're gone."

"When was that?" Leo shook his head. The two strangers had to be Beth and Burt. And they had taken out the Blue Bloods. That was something the Baseballers had tried to do for years, unsuccessfully. "And where did they go?"

"An hour, or two?" The woman shrugged. "And how should we know where they went?" The woman pointed her rusty knife at the window. "We were busy pulling bodies from the fire." She swallowed.

"And what was that with her kicking his dick?" The leer in Spike's voice was unmistakable.

"That doesn't matter." Leo didn't want to know about it. It was none of their business. "Let's leave."

"And what about them?" Spike gestured at the two women and their kids.

"They're..." Leo looked at the woman with the knife. "You're free to go. You may join us if you want. Go up to the stadium, and tell them that Leo sent you. Tell them you're under my protection. They're not going to hurt you."

The woman with the knife nodded, hesitantly.

Eager to go, Leo turned and left the room.

Outside, Spike stopped him. "Just let them go? And invite them to the HQ, even? You can't be serious. They're Bikers, for God's sake."

"What else should we do with them?" Anger flushed Leo's words. "Rape their brains out, or what? We're not savages, for God's sake."

Spike glowered at him. "So, what do you want to do now? Chase after that girl, Beth? She's with that guy, Burt. And we don't even know where they went, anyway."

Leo did have an idea where the fugitives would be headed. They had a head start, but they didn't know their way through the city.

He didn't answer, though, he was tired of questions. Without a word, he just turned and left the building. When he reached the square, he stopped dead.

A black-clad woman stood in the open gate.

She swayed and fell.