Crisped + Sere (Immemorial Year Book 2) (12 page)

“You all need to calm down now,” Hank said, raising his voice.

“
IT’S THE DEAD RABBITS!
”

“
KILL THE DEAD RABBIT!
”

“
HE DID THIS!
”

“
HE BROUGHT THIS TO OUR HOMES
!”

“
HE’S ONE OF THEM!
”

Any second now it would start, and the blood would spill.

Bad guys?
the dog barked at him.
Are they bad guys?

Let them come
, Lucas snarled, brandishing his knife.
Let them come.

Lose something, Charlie?
Cavalo thought.

He raised his hand above his head.

And for the fiftieth time since he struck out on his own following the death of his father, Cavalo fired his gun.

It was old but well maintained. He felt the pleasure of pounds of pressure it took to pull the trigger back. The rise and fall of the hammer. The firing pin against the cartridge. The detonation of the gunpowder. The flash of smoke and fire. He regretted the loss of the bullet. He did. They were hard to come by. But he had no choice.

The crack of gunfire echoed over the crowd.

They sighed as one and took a step back.

The smell of gunpowder burned Cavalo’s nose. The bees wanted him to point the gun at the people in front of him and pull the trigger again. Maybe the sight of the blood of one of their own would cow them. At the very least, it would make Cavalo feel better. They hadn’t smelled the mountain of the burning dead like he had. They hadn’t seen the look on the unknown man’s face as Cordelia ripped out his throat with her teeth. Cavalo had felt horror then, but it was slowly sinking in, the admiration he’d felt too. The same admiration he’d seen on Patrick’s face as he raised the gun to shoot her in the head. Cordelia had impressed Cavalo. She had impressed Patrick.

Fire
, he’d said.

So, yes. He wanted to shoot them. The cowering, angry masses. It’d be easier. And surely they’d suffer less. He could make it quick for them. Tell them to close their eyes and think of a better place. There’d be no pain. The flash of the gun and then darkness. Wouldn’t they rather die at the hands of a man who could give them that than at the hands and teeth that would tear at their flesh? He could give them what the people of Grangeville did not get.

It was close. Maybe a fraction of a second.

But somehow, he was able to push the bees back.

They screamed.

He lowered the gun to his side, his finger twitching along the trigger.

He said, “Enough.” His voice was an earthquake.

Cottonwood sighed again.

“You’ve seen what he is,” Cavalo said. “What he means. To them.”

They watched him with fearful eyes.

“You know what would happen if they took him again.”

A brave (or possibly stupid) man cried out, “We don’t know anything but what you’ve told us! How do we know what you’re saying is the truth?”

The crowd murmured their agreement.

You’ll have to convince them
, Hank whispered in the bees.

His hand tightened on the pistol grip. “Why would it be anything else? I could have left you all here to die. I’m not the one who has been feeding them, after all.”

Aubrey and the other children looked confused. The adults hung their heads. Hank winced. Alma looked away.

“We had a chance!” someone else shouted. “The UFSA was here! Government! They could have protected us! They could have
saved
us.”

“Yeah!” Another voice rang out. “And you
killed
them! They’re never going to help us now.”

“They weren’t who you thought they were,” Cavalo said, struggling to maintain composure. “They were torturing Lucas for information on Patrick. They didn’t care about you. They didn’t care about this town. All they wanted was Patrick. To get his secrets. They didn’t know what they had with Lucas. They didn’t know he was part of it.”

Quiet murmurs through the crowd. Cavalo wasn’t sure if he was gaining them or losing them. He was done with placating. He was done with pleas. It’d been a while since that old feeling came in, that part of him that dealt not in words but in bullets and death. He slipped back into it with alarming ease.

“It seems to me that you have a few choices here,” Cavalo said, voice flat and harsh. “You can do nothing and hope what happened to Grangeville doesn’t happen to you. You can do something and hope what happened to Grangeville doesn’t happen to you. Or you could line up in front of me, single file. Families together. Children in front. I’ll shoot each of you in the head and put you out of your godforsaken misery because surely it would be easier than what is to come.”

“I don’t think that’s quite what I meant by convincing them,” Hank said quietly, sounding bemused.

Cavalo ignored him. “If you’d prefer I shoot you, then let’s do it now and get it over with.”

No one moved.

“Who’s first?”

No one volunteered. Cavalo wasn’t surprised.

“If you make me choose, you’re not going to like my decision.”

No one spoke.

Cowards. All of them. But then Cavalo knew cowardice well.

“Fine,” he said. Before anyone could react, he’d taken four steps forward. He was getting older, but he was still quicker than most. His joints ached every now and then, and when it rained, his knees were stiff, but he could still move. One moment he stood before them and the next he stood next to Aubrey, arm extended, the barrel of the pistol pressed against her head. “We’ll do it the easier way.”

Instant noise. Screams from the crowd. Shouts of warning. People moved. Alma’s eyes widened. Hank’s eyes narrowed.

“Cavalo,” he said. His voice was hoarse. “Don’t you do this.”

He started for Cavalo, surely to rip him limb from limb. But Bad Dog and Lucas stepped in his path, teeth bared and knife drawn.

He glanced back at Aubrey. She had a tear on her cheek, but only one. Her hands did not shake. She did not cry. Her jaw was set, and she did not plead. Cavalo admired her. She was strong.

“Cavalo!” Hank growled.

“She’ll be first, then!” Cavalo shouted so all could hear. “Because this is what you want! This is what you’ve asked for.”

“Don’t you dare hurt my daughter!”

Cavalo laughed bitterly. “What would have happened when she came of age and her name had been drawn? What then, Hank? Would you have said the same thing?”

Hank said nothing.

“Any of you?” Cavalo said, again raising his voice.

Nothing.

“No? Then you’ve already lost. I already have blood on my hands. Let me take from you so you go quietly into the dark. If you’d seen what I did in Grangeville, you’d be begging me for it.”

“What happens when I come of age?” Aubrey asked, her voice all steel and knives.

“That’s a question for your father,” Cavalo said, not unkindly. “What do you want?”

He thought she would hesitate. She did not. “To stay,” she said. “To fight.”

“Is it because I have a gun to your head?”

“That might be part of it. But not all.”

He cracked the barest of smiles. “You could die.”

“I could die right now. Or tomorrow. Or the next day. Everyone dies.”

“Yes,” Cavalo said. “Everyone.”

“So we can either fight together,” she said. “Or we’ll die alone.”

Cavalo didn’t have the heart to tell her that they’d most likely die regardless. Better to let her words affect the others than lose all potency.

“But do you believe that, Cavalo?” she asked. The steel and knives now pointed at him. “Or are you going to run and hide like you always do?”

“Girl,” he said, “if you hadn’t just proved my point for me, I would kill you.”

“Then take the gun from my head before you change your mind.”

He did. She took a deep breath. Shook her head. But she did not step away from him, in anger nor in fear. “I could smell it.”

He nodded. “The gunpowder. It’s strong.”

She searched his face. “Would you have? To prove your point?”

“Killed you?”

She nodded.

Yes.
“What do you think?”

She didn’t answer. He thought she knew.

He turned back toward the crowd. “We’re done. No more discussion. Do you fight?”

At first, nothing happened. Cavalo’s heart sank, and he wondered just what would happen to these people. There was no way he could take the Dead Rabbits on his own. Not even with Lucas, Bad Dog, and SIRS at his side. They wouldn’t last long. They’d have to run. If the town let them leave. He wondered how high the mountain of their bodies would be. Not as big as Grangeville. There weren’t enough of them. Or maybe they’d be dragged into the Deadlands to be consumed.

But then a young man stepped forward. He couldn’t have been more than sixteen years old. Curly blond hair. Slender. Slight. The bluest eyes Cavalo had ever seen. He would break hearts one day if his own hadn’t already been ripped from his chest. A woman who had to be his mother tried to stop him, but he shook loose from her grasp. “Together,” he said. “We fight together.”

He was alone, but only for a minute. A man stepped forward. Followed by a woman. And then others. And more. Soon they all stood, shoulders squared, the fear in their eyes now lit in flames. It was almost enough to make Cavalo believe they actually stood a chance.

They’d go down fighting, at least. And that was a start.

LATER, AFTER
plans had been made and assignments given, the crowd began to disperse. Cavalo watched them go, Lucas and Bad Dog at his side.

They’re going to die
, Lucas told him.

“Maybe,” he said. “Probably.”

You will too.

“Probably.”

Lucas nodded, spinning his knife in his hands.

Hank stood feet away. Alma stood next to him, speaking quietly, punctuating her words with a finger to his chest. He looked stonily at the ground. Shook his head. Looked up at Cavalo.

Cavalo waited.

Alma stepped back, looking frustrated.

“You put a gun to my daughter’s head,” Hank said. His voice was a dangerous thing.

“You told me to convince them,” he said coldly. “I did.”

“You touch her again, I’ll kill you.”

“I would expect no less.”

Hank nodded tightly. He glanced up at the porch. Aubrey waited at the door, arms crossed, glaring angrily at her father. “I think I’m in trouble.”

Cavalo shrugged. “I think we all are.”

Hank walked toward his house. He stopped when he and Cavalo were shoulder to shoulder. “We were friends once.”

“I think we still are.”

Hank looked surprised. “Are we?”

“Withering and sere.”

Hank looked at him thoughtfully. “Can we beat them?”

“I don’t think so,” Cavalo said. “But we’re going to try like hell.”

“Why now? What changed?”

It was a question Cavalo wasn’t expecting. “Everything,” he said.

Hank left him then, following his daughter into their house.

The snow fell harder. He hoped it let up before morning, as they needed to get back to the prison. They were running out of time. They needed to sleep while they still could. The days ahead were going to be busy.

Alma still stood nearby, watching them. He couldn’t read the expression on her face.

“Something else?” he asked.

She nodded. Took the necessary steps to stand in front of him. He saw the slap coming but did nothing to stop it. Her icy hand stung his face. “That was cold,” she said. “Even for you. Using Aubrey like that.”

Before he could respond, Lucas was in between them, his knife at Alma’s throat, a snarl on his face.

“That’s probably not—” Cavalo started.

Alma spun neatly away on her heels, dropping low and sweeping her leg out. A look of surprise dawned on the Dead Rabbit’s face as his legs were knocked out from under him. His arms went askew, and Alma reached up, snatching the knife out of his hand. Lucas landed on his back in the snow, blinking up at the gray sky. Alma dropped to a knee between his legs, holding the knife to his groin. Lucas glared at her but wisely didn’t move.

“—a good idea,” Cavalo finished.

“He’s protective of you,” she said, cocking her head.

“Misguided,” Cavalo assured her.

“That so?”

“Yes.”

“He pulled a knife on me.”

“I tried to warn him.”

Bad Dog sniffed Lucas before licking his face. He looked back up at Cavalo as Lucas scowled at all of them.
AlmaLady knocked him down.

“That she did,” Cavalo said, rubbing his jaw.

“If you come at me like that again,” Alma told Lucas, “I’ll cut off your balls and feed them to Bad Dog.”

Do I like balls?
Bad Dog asked him.

“You lick your own enough,” Cavalo said. “Probably.”

Alma stood, throwing the knife down near Lucas’s head. It missed by inches. He didn’t flinch. “Do you know what you’re doing?” Alma asked. She was staring at Lucas, but Cavalo knew the question was meant for him. He tried not to think what she really meant. It was easier that way.

“No more than usual.”

“Funny how things turn out, isn’t it?”

And then she left.

Lucas scrambled to his feet, grabbing his knife. Cavalo took him by the shoulder right before he lunged at Alma.

“It’s done,” Cavalo said, pulling him back.

Lucas jabbed the knife at him wildly.
She touched you! She took my knife!

“I did hold a gun to a teenager’s head and threaten a town full of people. And you tried to slit her throat. Even I wouldn’t do that. She’s quicker than we are.”

Lucas’s eyes narrowed. He pointed the knife at Cavalo’s face.
She touches you again, I’ll kill her. I might just do it anyway.
He stalked off toward the empty house down the road.

Cavalo stared after him.

HE AWOKE
just once during the night, when Lucas finished prowling the house and curled up against his back. He felt the breath on his neck. The knife at his stomach. He took Lucas’s hand and pressed the blade until he felt the sting to let him know he was awake.