“Do you know why?” Carlee asked. She set her concern for Jeff aside; this was potentially a history-altering issue playing out. The first time the Apostles had gone to war, the world had collapsed beneath the struggle.
“Its motivations are a mystery to me. I continue to direct us away from its forces, but it is not easy with our stalker.”
“We still haven’t shaken it, then?”
“There are numerous paths, but it keeps appearing in many of them. Whichever Apostle this is, it is entirely focused on tracking us down. I don’t believe any of our traditional methods to conceal our travel are going to work. Furthermore, with Horus’s forces closing in around us, our options are limited.”
“And you still believe that Dallas is our best chance?”
“Do you not?” Jane asked. Carlee looked to Talon and back to Jane.
“I don’t.”
7 JEFF’S PATH
THE SUN ROSE SLOWLY OVER the desert. It had been a short night, despite the little sleep he had enjoyed. He felt like a new man after finding a purpose that focused him unlike ever before. Joining the vagrants slowly emerging from their tents for breakfast was the first tiny step on his path to revenge.
As soon as Stefani left her tent, Jeff started down the small slope toward the only vagrants he felt comfortable talking to.
“You’re still here,” Stefani said. She sounded half-asleep as she stumbled over to where some grills were crackling with food.
“Couldn’t exactly run away . . .”
“Oh, that’s right. You can’t run,” Stefani said. She sounded as amused as she possibly could be, given the hour.
“Where’s Carlee?” Jeff asked.
“Talking to Jane, probably about your fate.” Her response was less than enthusiastic.
“Oh.” He didn’t ask any further questions. He didn’t want to come off as overly concerned about the decision—or Carlee.
“Take a seat, Handsome. I’ll get your food for you,” Stefani said. She had a way of talking that made it sound like it wasn’t a command but also conveyed that it wasn’t an offer he could refuse.
“Thanks,” Jeff mumbled as he wandered over to where some supply crates were stacked around the faux fire. People gathered around energy cells in Fifth Springs as well, and the connection helped him relax.
“So how was it, really?” an older man asked as he took a seat next to Jeff.
“What?”
“Being right up next to ole Horus? Did you crap your pants?”
“Honestly, I think I might have at some point. But I wasn’t in the best of shape.” Jeff gestured to his missing arm.
“That’s a trip . . . Jeff, is it?”
“Yeah,” Jeff said. “I’d shake your hand, but you’re on my bad side.”
“Drew. You keeping your head together?”
“Trying to.”
“I only joined up a few months ago, and I’m still trying to find my way with these vagrants,” Drew said. “I’d been pressing for a few years on my own, though, so it wasn’t as rough for me. Thought I was some kind of Jesus there for a while, turning stones into bread.”
“How’d they find you?”
“Find me? Ha! I found them.”
“No, he didn’t. Jane had Talon swoop in and grab him before an Apostle could put the poor old man out of his misery,” Stefani said. She handed him a plate with eggs, sausage, and potatoes on it. It was the finest breakfast he had seen in years.
“That’s not how I remember it,” Drew said.
“That’s because you’ve been pressing for too long.”
Drew grumbled a response, but he didn’t seem interested in continuing the conversation with Stefani around. It was a shame; Jeff liked the man. He seemed more human than the rest of the vagrants he’d met.
“So . . . When do we head for Dallas?” Jeff asked.
“You that eager to get away from us?”
“Not at all,” Jeff said. He swallowed deeply and tried his best to sound casual. “I was thinking that I might stay. Become a vagrant . . .”
“Just yesterday you were trying to decide whether you wanted to stare down an Apostle with a crutch or come with us. Now you want to enlist. You hit your head again last night?”
Stefani didn’t bother chewing her food all the way before talking, but that didn’t bother him. Manners were another one of those luxuries that people didn’t have time for these days.
“Maybe I won’t.”
“Yeah, maybe you won’t,” Stefani said with a wink. “Tell me this isn’t about Carl.”
“No! No. Not that she’s not great, but . . .” Jeff checked around for her, but Carlee wasn’t in sight. “I just want to help.”
“Help? Ha!” Stefani said. “What exactly would you like to help with?”
“Er . . . everything.”
“It’s a good thing you’re handsome.”
“Guys with no arms do it for you?” a tall vagrant said as he walked by.
“Yeah, I can help you with that if you want, Louis,” Stefani said with an edge to her voice that Jeff hadn’t heard since they had first met.
“Look, I know that I don’t know anything about how you guys work or even what you do. But you saved my life, and it sounds like you are at least trying to do something. That’s better than everyone else, just sitting around waiting to die.”
“That’s quite the outlook on life,” Stefani said.
“Why do you do it?” Jeff said. “Why are you a vagrant?”
“Best food around,” Stefani said with a grin.
Jeff shook his head and focused on eating his breakfast instead. It was as delicious as any he had ever tasted. He looked around for Carlee; she was the one he needed to convince, not Stefani.
“You said we might not be going to Dallas?” Jeff asked after he had finished his food. He couldn’t find Carlee, so he tried his luck with Stefani again.
“Jane can seem a bit erratic to the people who don’t know her,” Stefani said.
“Does that bother you?”
“I learned to stop worrying about it. I just sit back and do what I’m asked. It was hard at first, but I got used to it.”
“Can I ask why she’s in charge?” He had kept a loose eye on Jane’s tent, but she hadn’t emerged yet.
“She’s not in charge,” Stefani said. “Not like you’re thinking anyway.”
“Huh?”
“She isn’t some phony leader the coalition set up or something. We don’t have to follow her. There is nothing keeping us here. She can’t punish us or anything like that.”
“But you follow her anyway.”
“I do.”
“Why?”
“I’ve never met anyone like Jane. She just knows . . . what to do. And when to do it,” Stefani said softly. “At least some of the time anyway. Personally, I think Carl should be—”
“Telling secrets with the new kid, eh, Stef?” one of the twins he had seen last night said.
“Don’t listen to a thing she says,” his twin said, addressing Jeff. “She’s a real heartbreaker.”
“You’ll get over it someday, Paul,” Stefani said flippantly.
“When are you going to give me a rematch?” the first twin asked.
“Jane said no more playing that game, Lion. And I get into enough trouble without sticking you full of knives.”
The twins took a seat next to Jeff and started to eat their meals.
“Tell us the truth, kid,” Paul said. “Was Stefani the one who cut off your limbs? You can tell us. We’ll protect you.”
“These two have never found a fight they wouldn’t run from,” Stefani said.
“She actually made me the new one.” He gestured to the incredibly light metal leg attached to the stump of his right leg. It was still hard to believe that it was there and his flesh had been left behind in an ash pile.
“Explains the poor workmanship,” Paul said.
“No offense intended,” Lionel said.
“Couldn’t press him something better to work with?” Paul asked.