Stefani screamed as she fired blast after blast into the leech above them. The leech whined as it absorbed the devastating blows, but it spun onward. Carlee moved close to Stefani and then turned her hand to the side, and a long spear with a hefty tip appeared in her hands. A green force field surrounded the head of the weapon as she jammed it upward into the slowing leech.
It sliced into the roller with ease. Electricity crackled around the edges of the dying robot. Carlee pulled her spear free, but the tip was missing. She tossed her staff to the ground as the leech exploded from the inside, sending flaming shards of metal showering over the devastated landscape.
9 DECISIONS
THE BATTLE HAD ENDED, BUT it wasn’t time to slow down. Carlee somehow flipped the antigravity vehicle upright, and she and Stefani quickly prepared to leave the scene. Jeff did little more than stand around and watch, feeling useless. Grass burned all around them, sending dark smoke billowing into the air.
The force fields had protected the area surrounding them in a thirty-foot circle, which was left widely untouched. Outside of their protective bubble, it looked like a scene from one of the great battles of the past, the ones that the piners —those who lived only for the memory of the old days— spoke about.
“Any bodies?” Stefani asked. She was seated in the back of the transport with her gun to her face, searching the landscape for any signs of oncoming leeches or Apostles.
Jeff appreciated that. One of the only things he knew about the vagrants’ powers was that they attracted Apostles. And Jeff had no desire to see Horus up close again. At least until he had learned how to press—then he’d have a few things to say to the Apostle directly.
“I don’t see any,” Carlee said. She continued to quickly search through the remains of the other antigravity transport.
“Well, that’s too bad,” Stefani said. “It would have been what the twins deserved.”
“Looks like they flew the roost,” Carlee said. She finished her inspection and quickly climbed back into the transport.
“How brave of them to take advantage of us distracting the leech,” Stefani said.
The transport accelerated away from the site of the battle, heading northeast. They crossed the shattered remains of an old highway. Piles of rusted old cars and bones whizzed by as they flew over them. One of the advantages of their transport was that it didn’t need to use any roads, and when it came across a barrier, it simply flew over it. Roads were havens for raiding parties and warlords.
“That’s not the way to Dallas,” Jeff said once Carlee was settled.
“We’re not going to Dallas,” Carlee said.
“But Jane—”
“That was before we got jumped by the leech.”
“But aren’t the rest of the vagrants going to Dallas?”
“Every time we travel, we have a rendezvous point established in case something like this happens,” Carlee said.
“That’s smart.”
“It’s not our first leech bash,” Stefani said. She turned around and set her rifle down, apparently satisfied with the distance they had put between themselves and the battlefield.
“So, this happens often?”
“There are many Apostles, and each has its own army of leeches and that—”
“Everyone wants to pick a fight with us until they actually have to fight us,” Stefani cut in. “I’d say we run into some turbulence once out of every handful of trips.”
“Even with Jane’s guidance, these things still happen fairly frequently. Not always with a leech of that size, but we manage.”
“It was worse before we joined up with her,” Stefani said. “We could hardly go ten feet without running into something that wanted to kill us. I’ll give her that.”
“So, you two were vagrants before you found Jane?” Jeff asked.
“There are many vagrants out there,” Carlee said. “For now, working with Jane is the best arrangement for us.”
“So how long have you been with her?”
“Ever since—” Stefani said.
“A while,” Carlee said. She apparently didn’t want to discuss that part of her past, so Jeff switched topics.
“So, some vagrants can fly?” Jeff asked.
“Oh, we can all fly,” Stefani said. She was back to using her coy voice. She seemed to enjoy knowing all the answers and teasing him with her knowledge. “We’re like a bunch of angels hiding our wings beneath our cloaks.”
“So, when you said flew the roost, you meant literally flew?” He refused to feel dumb about his questions. He’d been with them for several days, and they had been less than forthcoming about how their powers worked.
“They most likely flew,” Carlee said. “And yes, most of us can press in equipment to help us fly. Paul and Lionel are frequent users of that particular strategy.”
She wasn’t quite back to her calm, confident self, but it was close enough to make her more trustworthy than Stefani. The two of them seemed to be constant companions, but they didn’t seem to have much in common personality wise. He hadn’t quite put a finger on the dynamic yet, but Carlee was clearly the alpha even if Stefani liked to talk like she was.
“That’s incredible,” Jeff said. “Why not fly around all the time, then? It seems like it would have tons of advantages.”
“It’s tiring to fly for long periods of time. But mostly, we draw enough attention as it is,” Carlee said. “Flying around is just begging for an Apostle to blow us out of the sky. The higher we fly, the more exposed we become.”
“Let’s hope one meets up with the twins,” Stefani said.
“You really don’t like them,” Jeff said.
“I’ve put a knife through less deserving folks.”
“Stefani doesn’t take to everyone as well as she has to you,” Carlee said.
“She wanted to leave me for dead.”
“Exactly my point.”
“It’s a shame that out of the ten billion people on the planet before the Ascension, we’re left with fifty million or so of the worst scumbags nature has ever produced,” Stefani said. “It’s like some sick, twisted form of natural selection, where only the worst survived.”
“There’s some good people still,” Jeff said. He reflected on that comment, realizing that he wasn’t entirely sure if that was true anymore. Chad and Charlotte had been the two examples he was going to use, but they were dead.
“There are countless good people. You just have to see them for who they really are when you have the opportunity.”
“Hard to see past them trying to stick a knife in your throat,” Stefani said.
It didn’t sound like this was the first time they had this conversation. Their transport weaved through some trees and came into a clearing where a deserted old city rested in front of them. Most of the houses were no longer standing, but the few that were still upright looked to be holding on for dear life. Burn marks and bullet holes covered the fences and the ground. At some point in the past, this city had been the site of a battle.
“Someone has to show them there is still compassion left in this world,” Carlee said. “That’s the best weapon we have left.”
“Good thing you had some extra sympathy lying around so we could kill that roller,” Stefani said.
“Anyone can kill, the Apostles most of all,” Carlee said. “That doesn’t make them right.”
“They seem to be doing OK,” Stefani said.
Jeff turned his head as they drove by a ten-foot pile of human bones. The Apostles didn’t take the time to organize their kills in that manner. The devastation that the Apostles had started during their Ascension had led to countless atrocities of humans against one another. He didn’t want to think about what had happened in this particular town.
“How can I tell that things are going to happen before they do?” Jeff said. He wasn’t entirely sure where the conversation was currently, but seeing the destroyed town reminded him of his new purpose.