Paxton explained that her boyfriend was no good for her and that he would leave her the moment things got serious. She was convinced they were in love — they were high school sweethearts after all. They had been so much at odds that Jessi told him that she hated him, and he told her that he didn’t want anything to do with her. He even told her that if she ever got pregnant, not to ever bring the child to him. She said she wouldn’t think of it.
As I sat there listening to Paxton explain the situation with tears in his eyes, he seemed like a much different person than the one that had just banished me. I don’t know what it was. He seemed…human. I didn’t like the fact that I was interested in his story. I don’t like the fact that his story makes me want to go search for her even more. There is a part of me that finds the idea intriguing that he would condemn a woman (me) to death, only to use said woman to go out and bring his baby girl back to him. Only, his baby girl and his baby girl’s baby were probably greyskin food by now.
Of course he didn’t have a photo of her. I would have been able to confirm if she were the same Jessi that I had met in college. The pregnant girl. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that Paxton has given me an impossible task. I already know that it will be a dead end probably leading to my untimely deadly end.
This situation sucks, there’s no doubt about it, but for once I’m trying to look on the bright side of things. Since the outbreak, I’ve never had a goal outside of my own survival. It is kind of exciting to have a mission even though it means traveling outside the safety of walls again. If they are going to banish me, better to give me a purpose than to say, good luck, hope you don’t die!
I close my eyes and scan Crestwood again with my advanced hearing ability. I check my apartment and hear nothing. I listen in on conversations of families or groups that might be eating together. I get bored with that quickly. I listen at the front wall for about the twentieth time today, but this time it sounds different. There seems to be a big commotion. I hear a lot of shouting, a lot of reasoning. Eventually, I hear Paxton at the wall asking questions.
“What do you want?” he asks over the wall.
A gruff voice answers him. “You have something of mine,” he says. “People that are staying here.”
“You’re nothing but bandits,” Paxton says. “You have exactly ten seconds to get out of here before I order my men to open fire.”
I hear the sound of twenty or more guns clicking into readiness, probably all pointed at the raider (or raiders) below them. Then, the raider says something that sends a jolt to my heart. “I don’t think Shadowface would find that appealing, do you? Why don’t you let me in and we can discuss what you have of mine.”
There is a long silence. I can picture Paxton just standing on the wall thinking to himself. I know he doesn’t want all his men to start asking questions about Shadowface and I know this raider’s words are enough to gain him entrance for as long as he wants. It would seem that the next little while will give me some entertainment as I listen to their conversation.
I follow Paxton until he reaches the second floor of the headquarters building. A few of the guards accompany him, and only one of the raiders is allowed an audience. Once they are settled at Paxton’s desk, he tells his guards to leave.
“Mighty fine of you to speak to me in private,” the bandit says.
“The only reason you aren’t dead right now is because you mentioned Shadowface,” Paxton fumes. “Which, I might add, is not a name I like thrown around Crestwood. Most of my men had never heard of such a person, and now it’s present in their minds.”
“Many apologies,” the raider says. “I didn’t know you were keeping our mutual leader… in the shadows.” He laughs at his own stupid joke. Paxton does not return the laugh.
“What do you want?” Paxton asks.
“Straight to the point. I like that. You have three people I want. They just got here a few days ago. I don’t know their names…I don’t care to know their names. Two boys and a young girl.”
“How young are we talking?”
“Oh come on now, Mayor,” the raider says, “we don’t have time for games. You and I both know this establishment is too small for the entrance of new people to go unnoticed. I’ll even bet you interview them all yourself, don’t you?”
He does.
“First of all,” Paxton says, “don’t call me Mayor. I don’t run this town alone. We have a group of elders.”
“Sure thing,” the raider says. “Whatever you want.”
“Second of all, how do you know if your prey has made their way here?”
“Found their SUV a little ways from here,” the raider says. “Abandoned.”
“What do you want with them?”
“That’s between me and Shadowface,” the raider says.
There is a long pause. I can tell Paxton is thinking about what he wants to say next, trying to be careful with his words. “Why were you tracking them in the first place?”
“They shot a few of my men. Killed them. Then they stole my SUV. Lucky for me, I left a tracker under the hood for such an occasion.”
“Did you provoke them?” Paxton asks.
“What’s it to you? They have something that’s mine.”
“You said they abandoned the SUV,” Paxton says. “Take it. It’s yours.”
“There was something very important in that SUV and it’s gone now,” the raider says. “That particular item is very important to our mutual benefactor.”
“Shadowface pays you?”
“Of course. Why else would I drop the name?”
“Why would Shadowface be working with marauders…thieves?”
“Oh, we’re much more than that. Think of me as more of a henchman. A person that likes to get his hands dirty. Sure I used to be a common raider — one of the best. But I graduated when I met Shadowface.”
“In person?”
“In the flesh.” I can almost hear the boastful smile come across the raider’s face, which, I’m sure makes Paxton look down at his desk in frustration as he plays this game of twenty-million questions.
“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” Paxton says. “Before I do anything, I will have to get the okay from Shadowface.”
I can hear the raider shuffle and finally set something down on the desk in front of Paxton. “You recognize that number?”
Paxton says nothing, but I assume he nods.
“The phone is all yours, Mayor. Call Shadowface if you want. I don’t personally think it would be worth getting anyone angry, though. Such petty things like this are not meant for Shadowface’s approval. I’ve been instructed to get this item from those three punks you let in here by any way possible. If you don’t believe me, call. Go ahead, call…call!”
“That won’t be necessary.” Paxton lets out a deep sigh. “How much time do I have? I’m not going to do this publicly. I want them to get out of Crestwood first.”
“That’s fine,” the raider says. “There’s an old railway factory about ten miles north of here, you know it?”
“Yes. Secure Transportation.”
“That’s it.”
“You want us to drop them off there?”