15 Years Later: Wasteland (20 page)

“You want me, come and get me!” he screamed.

The bell rang out several times, and the gates opened once more. This time four Braves stepped into the arena and encircled him as the gates shut. He couldn’t win. Jay could never let him win. But he smiled as blood gushed down his face.

“Come on!” he goaded them.

Dawn came and he awoke. He got a lot more sleep that night, but he didn’t remember how. He must have been knocked out eventually. There was dried blood all over his face, and his fists ached as much as everywhere else on his body. That made him smile. He had made them pay dearly for their fun.

The grate was ripped open, and he was dragged out again. Once more he was brought before Jay.

“Any more punks of yours for me to beat on?” Zed asked with a smile.

He looked half dead, and yet still he was defiant.

“I’ve had my fun with you,” stated Jay, “But you will not fight in this arena again.”

“Too good for your boys?”

He began to sway. His head felt light.

“You will not get a good death. You would enjoy death by combat. No, you will suffer until the end.”

He turned to his Captain.

“Take him away. Take him to the Hill!”

Laughs and cheers rang out. It didn’t sound serious, but he could tell that it was some new level of pain and suffering he had not seen. That wiped the smile off Zed’s face. He knew Jay was right. He had hoped to at least die fighting, and he didn’t know what to say. Trigger and a Brave grabbed his feet and hauled him out of the arena. They threw him in the back of a truck, the one he had stolen the rifle from. As Trigger stepped in behind the wheel, he realised who it belonged to.

Zed began to laugh, but nobody could understand why.

“What’s so funny?” Trigger asked.

He looked insulted that Zed wasn’t showing fear.

“Lovely rifle you used to have here,” he replied, still laughing.

Trigger shook his head. He didn’t even know what to do to make Zed suffer anymore. The Braves bound his hands and feet. Maybe now they were beginning to understand how dangerous he could be.

The truck roared to life, and another two Braves leapt on. They raced out of town with a further two cars in support. A beaten up El Camino, and a Jeep that looked like it had been lifted more than ten inches with massive tyres. It looked like a mini monster truck.

Zed tried to get up to see where they were going, but he was booted back down by one of the Braves. He felt every bump through the bed of the truck and that caused his bruised and battered body to only ache even further, but he would never let it show.

They went on for what felt like a mile before turning and heading uphill. The trail only got rougher, and then they stopped. The Braves leapt off, grabbed his feet, and hauled him out. He hit the ground hard, but it was not sand, but rock. His head hit the ground even harder as he was dragged a few feet further. As the pain began to ease, he sat upright as best he could.

Jaytown was clear as day for him to see on the highest elevation in the area. It was a nice sight, just like the view he had climbed for at Calico, but he turned around to see what the Braves were doing. They were lifting a huge wooden cross out of the ground with a decayed corpse lashed to it. Now it was setting in, what his future entailed; he was to be crucified.

It was the last thing he expected. Anything would have been better. He thought he’d be beaten to death or die fighting, but not this. They untied the body and launched the corpse over the edge into the canyon. They then picked Zed up and carried him over to the cross now lying flat on the rocks. Trigger saw the fear in his eyes, and he began to laugh.

“You’re an asshole, you know that, right?” Zed asked.

“But not a dead asshole like you,” he replied and kept laughing.

They lashed his legs to the cross with thick rope. It looked like it had been constructed from a telegraph pole.

“I ain’t dead yet.”

As they untied his hands, he lashed out and punched one of the Braves, but Trigger drew out a blade and placed it to his neck.

“No, you ain’t dead yet, but you could be. I could just as easy tell Jay you struggled.”

“But that would ruin his fun, wouldn’t it? And then what would he do to you?”

There was no chance Trigger would risk that, but two Braves had hold of his arms now, anyway, and were tying him firmly to the cross. It felt good to get one last strike before it was all over. They lifted the huge crucifix and dropped it down into a hole in the rocks. He was facing Jaytown.

“Jay likes to watch. Has a telescope so he can see whenever he likes.”

“Figures. That’s the kind of asshole he is.”

He didn’t care about angering them. There seemed nothing worse they could do to him than they already had. He fell silent, as he looked out to the town and the open plain. There seemed no hope for him. No one was coming to his aid. This was it.

“Stay here till he’s dead. No stupid stuff. Don’t touch, don’t hurt him, just watch!” Trigger ordered.

He jumped back in his truck and left the rest of them there. Zed couldn’t imagine for a minute how he was going to get out of the strong bonds, but even if he could, there seemed no hope of escape now.

“Have fun!” Trigger shouted to him.

His truck fired up, and he burnt off down the trail. The Braves only looked at Zed occasionally to make sure he wasn’t up to anything. They pulled out a sheet and stretched it over their two vehicles for some shelter from the blistering heat. That made it all the worse for Zed. They sat down in the shade with canteens of water as he roasted on the cross. This was definitely never the way he imagined going out. It made him sad, and the Braves seemed to revel in it.

They soon had a pack of cards out and were playing a game amongst themselves, using bottle caps as currency. There were eight of them. Far more than seemed necessary to guard him. Jay wasn’t taking any chances this time.

“Hey, assholes, not one of you could take me in a fight. Not even together!”

They tried to ignore him, but he kept badgering them.

It’s better than doing nothing, and maybe, just maybe I can provoke a response that might give me an opportunity.

“All a bunch of pussies, aren’t you? Not a man among you!”

Finally, one of them snapped and rushed forward with a knife drawn, but two of the others ran up and grabbed him. Zed just smiled. But the time still passed slowly. The day went by with no events at all. At morning light he awoke. Somehow he had managed at least a little sleep, but the new day seemed like more of the same. He could just imagine the sick and twisted Jay watching him through his telescope.

What I would give to see him eat that telescope!

The day went on with no more activity, and he could feel the life being sapped from him. They were far enough away from the makeshift camp that in the darkness he could only just make out the vehicles and not see the other Braves at all.

“Not long now!” shouted the one who had drawn a knife on him the day before.

He lapsed in and out of consciousness as dehydration sank in. He kept seeing images of Lannie and his daughter. They were pleasant thoughts. Those memories were all that kept him alive. Nothing recent came to mind. He kept the memories of his time as the Boss far from his thoughts. If he was going to die, he wanted to do it with fond memories in his head.

When the sun finally went down, it was a welcome relief, and he felt at least partially alive again. The same Brave once again came up to him. He looked up and smiled before unzipping his fly and began urinating at the base of the cross.

The smell was revolting, but Zed could do nothing to avoid it. All the time he looked up at Zed with that same wicked smile.

“I look forward to seeing your head on a spike,” he said.

A cry of pain rang out from one of the Braves, and the one below Zed turned in shock.

“Hey! What’s going on? Hey! Stop messing around!”

A single gunshot rang out, and they saw the muzzle flash come from inside the vehicle encampment. Silhouettes of figures appeared all around the vehicles rushing in towards them. The Brave turned back to look up at Zed but froze as he came face-to-face with Rave. He was too surprised to move or react. With one quick swing, she slashed across his throat with her hatchet, and he fell to the ground trying to stop the flow.

“I’ll be right back,” said Rave.

She rushed into the darkness towards the vehicles. Screams of panic and agony rang out as a dozen men and women descended on the encampment and butchered all inside. Zed wasn’t sure if it were a dream. He had been in and out all day that he wished it wasn’t, but he couldn’t be sure.

He could just make out the glimmer of movement as people fought it out amongst the vehicles. It went on for a few minutes until a single figure approached him once more. He prayed it would not be a Brave, and to his amazement, it was Rave. She had other people’s blood over her face and hands and dripping from her hatchet, and a smile across her face. He couldn’t tell if that was for seeing him or the enjoyment over the killing she had partaken in. Another few figures stepped up behind her. One was Lannie, another his brother.

This seems too good. It has to
be a dream.

“Come on, help me get him down,” said Johnnie.

They lifted the cross out of the hole and placed it down on the rocks as gently as they could, but he still winced in pain. Rave slashed the ropes that bound him, and Johnnie and Lannie helped him up.

“Can you stand?” Lannie asked.

He put all his effort in and managed to stay upright.

I’ll be damned if I am going to have to be carried!

He put his hands on each of their shoulders to feel if they were actually there, even Rave seemed to have a tear in her eye. It was dawning on him that this was real.

“How is this possible?” he asked them.

“Don’t worry about that, but we haven’t got long. They probably heard that gunshot. We should be going,” said Lannie.

“And we got wounded to deal with,” added Johnnie.

“Who got hit?”

“Perry, took that bullet on the way in. Clean shot though, he’ll be fine.”

Zed nodded in appreciation and let go to stand for himself.

“Any of them left?”

“One,” added Johnnie.

Zed staggered over to Rave and took her hatchet from her. He wandered back to the vehicles with the others close behind. He found the one prisoner being watched over with a crossbow pointing at his chest.

“What shall we do with him?”

“You can’t reason with these people, Lannie. You can’t deal with them.”

He lifted up the hatchet and buried it in the man’s head, just as Lannie had done to one of the prisoners back in Calico. Not a single one of them was surprised or showed any empathy for the man. Zed looked around to see the others were dead. Only two had managed to even draw any weapons. They had been caught entirely by surprise.

One had two crossbow bolts in his chest. The others had been killed with blades and percussion weapons.

“Might as well take these trucks. The game is up anyway,” said Johnnie.

Zed clambered into the bed of the El Camino and collapsed as Rave climbed in beside him. He woke just long enough to hear the engines fire up and then start moving. The realisation that he was now safe caused his body to finally shut down, and he fell into unconsciousness.

Zed woke up in a bed with morning light just creeping in through the hatches of a window. He was wrapped in a blanket and had a soft pillow under his head. For a moment he could forget he was in the hellish apocalypse he had awoken in. He stretched out and felt the ache in his body, but still it felt good. He looked to the end of the bed. Sasha was sleep in a chair with her head rested on the edge of the bed.

The door opened slowly, and he looked to see who was coming. Lannie stepped in and caused Sasha to stir.

“You’re finally awake,” said Lannie.

“How long have I been out?”

“Two days.”

It was a surprise, but he was glad of it. He had never needed sleep more than then.

“Sasha hasn’t left you since you arrived.”

He nodded slowly and kicked his legs out of the bed, trying to get up. Lannie helped him, and Sasha rushed to his other side, helping him stand upright. As his feet touched the floor, he noticed he was wearing nothing but underwear.

“Here, they have been cleaned and patched as best we could,” said Sasha.

She handed him his clothes all neatly folded. They both left to let him get changed. He winced as he pulled on the clothes. It didn’t hurt half as bad as he remembered when he was on the cross, but he knew it wouldn’t be gone anytime soon. Eventually, he stepped out into the light of day to see he had been staying in one of the holiday shacks. Someone must have given it up for him, and he made a mental note that he had to thank them for that.

He couldn’t remember the last time he had slept on a bed, and his back was glad of it. A few townspeople walked past and said hello politely, as if he had been one of them all along.

“He’s awake!” yelled someone in the distance.

People all about the town began to gather as he walked out into the centre where Lannie and Sasha awaited him. It seemed to good to be true.

“Why did you do it? I didn’t find your son there. I’m sorry. Why did you come for me?” he asked Lannie.

“Because you did it for her, a selfless act. People like you are too few and far between. Folks in this town didn’t know what your agenda was, what you wanted from them. They didn’t know if they could trust you or depend on you. But you gave your life to save Sasha. That meant a lot.”

“Thanks, but you know what this means, right? Jay will come for you. He will come for you all!”

“And we’ll fight, just as we should have done before when you said it. We were wrong not to trust you then. Jay will never stop terrorising us, so we are drawing a line in the sand, here and now.”

Zed saw his brother standing up on the wall with a face of stone. He was the one among all of them who didn’t believe in his ideals. He seemingly wanted no part in what they were doing, and yet he had still come to his rescue. He didn’t understand his brother at all. He seemed to hate and love him in equal measure.

“We have been preparing the defences. We have got what weapons we can. We are ready for Jay,” said Lannie.

She seemed to have usurped his brother as the leader of the town. Her confidence was appealing, but he couldn’t help but wonder what she would say and do if she knew the truth of what he and Johnnie did.

“So what do you say? Will you fight with us?”

He could hardly say no. Rave stepped forward with his rifle and sword and offered them out to him. He took them gladly. They were like solid gold to him, some of the only things with sentimental value he had left. That got him thinking. He had lost his bag with hip flask, but he reached into his pocket to try and find his photos. They were not there.

“I think you’re looking for these,” said Lannie, passing the faded and crumbled photos to him.

It almost made him cry to get them back, and he couldn’t even find the words to thank her. The crowd was silent now as they waited for him to speak. He didn’t know what to say until he looked at the photos, and they provided him with inspiration.

“Some things are worth fighting for. Some things are worth dying for, and there is more to life than just surviving. I didn’t know what I would find when I came looking for the people in these photos,” he said, holding them up, “None of you owe me anything, and I am sorry for any hardship that I might have brought you. But if you will have me, I will fight for this town. I will fight with everything I have.”

Lannie turned her attention to Rave.

“You know Jay, what will he do now?”

“He will gather every vehicle and Brave he can, and he will come for you. He will come to destroy you.”

That was no surprise to Zed, but to many of the townspeople it was a horrifying thought. Somehow they had managed to get by all these years, and now they seemed to be facing the threat of complete annihilation.

“How long until he comes?”

“It will take him a few more days to get everything ready. He underestimated you last time. He won’t this time.”

“You are one of us, aren’t you?”

She nodded in agreement.

“I wish we had the time to celebrate, but we don’t. There is work to do. You all know what you have to do. Let’s get moving!”

They separated and went about it. Zed could see the gates had already been repaired and reinforced. The dump truck Rave had stolen lay parked behind it to strengthen against ramming, and large shackles fixed the gate to the side of the vehicle, too.

They really have been busy.

He felt hands on his shoulders. He turned to see Sasha in front of him. She kissed him and then held him tight.

“I love you,” she whispered in his ear.

That meant a lot to him. He pulled her back slightly and kissed her.

“I can’t believe you came for me,” she said, weeping tears of joy.

“None of us have got much in these days, so we have to fight for what we do have.”

She nodded in agreement.

“I am sorry you lost your wife, I really am. But I hope you can learn to love me still.”

He smiled and put his hand against her warm face. He couldn’t believe his luck.

“I have to get on. I have things to do. I will see you later,” she said as she skipped off excitedly and looked back at him with a smile.

But it was Johnnie who he turned his attention to. He strolled up onto the walls to find his brother on guard, looking out into the distance with his rifle propped against the wall beside him.

“Why d’you do it? Why’d you come for me?” Zed asked.

He sighed and took in a deep breath before answering. He didn’t seem to want to, but Zed waited until he did.

“Because brothers don’t let each other die. Not even when you were at your worst could you kill me.”

“Still not exactly happy I am here, though, right?”

“I already told you. You can never make up for all the wrong you have done.”

Zed knew that was true, too, and he wasn’t going to argue it.

“I wish you’d never come back.”

“And I wish I’d never left,” he replied.

“And now you want to lead these people?”

“Not really. All I wanted was my family and my friends back.”

“You never would have lost them if you hadn’t been such an asshole in the first place.”

“I get that.”

“And now you have Lannie on side, too. But she doesn’t know what you really are, does she?” he said and turned to look Zed in the eye.

He shook his head, and he was starting to realise he needed to tell her. Johnnie wasn’t going to force the issue. He wasn’t that cruel as to do that to his brother.

“You think if she knew, then everything would be better?”

Johnnie shook his head.

“No, but it’s still the right thing to do.”

Zed looked into the distance and contemplated what that might mean.

I could lose everything I have. Or perhaps everything but Rave. She knows exactly what I was and still accepted me. That says a lot about her standards and convictions.

“You know that even if I do tell her, that won’t make anything any easier. Jay is still coming for you, and it’s pretty clear the new Boss will be coming for you, too. You said I made sure nobody bothered you while I was that man, well I ain’t the one who set the dogs on you, am I?”

That made Johnnie think long and hard.

“Maybe all this shit kicked off after I arrived, but maybe it was because I wasn’t there to keep things in check anymore.”

“Oh, don’t give me that. Do not try and tell me we lived free because of your mercy. Don’t you dare!”

“You already said it. Brothers don’t kill brothers. But who is this new Boss? Nobody that cares whether you live or die.”

Johnnie was getting ever more angry and looked like he was close to boiling point. He wanted to hit Zed again. He could see it in his eyes, but still he held himself back.

“Plenty of shit in this life, brother. But maybe what we fight to hold onto is more important than what we try and destroy.”

With that, he left. Johnnie sat down, contemplating his words. Zed hated the confrontation with his brother. More than anything he remembered how close they used to be all those years ago.

The rest of the day passed slowly as he waited and watched for Jay to come, but he didn’t. Zed went back to bed well before the sun went down. He was still exhausted and recovering. He had gotten a few hours of sleep when his sheet being lifted woke him. He was startled and quickly opened his eyes. Sasha was climbing under the sheets with him. She was naked and cold. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close.

“I always prayed I would see you again,” she whispered.

“Look, Sasha…” he began.

But she silenced him by putting a finger to his lips.

“You don’t need to say a word. Let’s just take what we can while we are still alive and free to do so.”

He smiled as he thought back to Rave’s advice on life. Maybe her simple philosophy wasn’t so stupid after all. She kissed him, and it felt amazing. For that moment all his troubles seemed to wash away. He wouldn’t hold back anymore. He embraced her tightly and kissed her as passionately as she kissed him. No matter what the next day brought, they were going to make the most of the time they had that night.

* * *

Zed awoke before sunrise for the first time in as long as he could remember. The bed was soft and warm, and Sasha was wrapped around him. There was so much on his mind that he couldn’t lay there any longer. He got out of bed as she groaned and went back to sleep. He pulled on his clothes and stepped out, heading for the walls where he could take in some fresh air and think clearly.

His brother’s words sat heavily on his conscience. Lannie had come out in such strong support for him, and yet he still harboured such massive secrets from her. He knew that to tell her could destroy her, and possibly him, but he didn’t know how fair it was to go on like they were. He sat there for almost an hour when he heard someone approaching. It was Lannie herself. He was a little startled and uncomfortable, and that didn’t go unnoticed by her.

“What’s up?” she asked, sitting down beside him.

She was closer than a friend would sit, and he couldn’t help but feel she was still in love with him, and that only fuelled his guilt. He had to come out with it, no matter the consequences.

“Come on, you know you can tell me anything,” she added softly.

She put a hand on his shoulder and drew just a little closer, but he grasped her hand and pushed it off.

“You know how much I would have wanted to get you back? But I can’t, and I shouldn’t. You don’t know me anymore, Lannie. You haven’t for a long time.”

“What do you mean?”

She giggled a little and clearly wasn’t taking it seriously.

“There is something I should have told you when I first found out. My memory loss, that is all true. I did just wake up a couple of weeks ago, not remembering anything but years ago when we were together. That is the God’s honest truth. But the things I have found out about myself, and the things I have done since I left you all those years ago, are unforgiveable.”

“I don’t believe that. It doesn’t matter what you did. You are here now. We have all done things we regret. We have to just move past them.”

He was shaking his head.

“Not something this big. I have to tell you this, Lannie. I have to. We can’t go on you not knowing.”

“Okay, okay, if you want to tell me, then fine. But I am not asking anything of you.”

He accepted that, but he had no choice.

“All these past years when Johnnie said I was dead. I wasn’t dead. I was something different, something horrible.”

“What? What can be that bad?”

“I was the Boss. I am the Boss. Or was until very recently.”

She laughed for a short moment until his straight face didn’t change.

“What? Why would you joke about something like that?

“I am not joking. Go ask Johnnie. He knows. He kept it from you to save you from hurting.”