“That game is still off limits,” Carlee announced.
Jeff looked up to see that she was standing on the mound of broken concrete that had once been a sidewalk. She looked more rested and stable than she had in days. The cloak on the back of her vagrant uniform caught the wind, as did her short hair. She was stunning, but Jeff forced himself to think of her as his commanding officer and nothing more.
“He begged me to play,” Stefani said. “I told him it was a big no-no, but he wouldn’t relent.”
“There’s no doubt that’s exactly how it happened. She didn’t cut you, did she, Jeff?”
“Nope,” he said. His heart was still racing from the split second where he knew he wasn’t ready to catch the knife. “All parts of me, organic and pressed, are accounted for.”
“I did win, though,” Stefani said to Carlee before repeating it to Jeff.
Some stray dogs broke out in a fight a few houses down, which drew their attention for a moment until it ended. Carlee used it as a natural transition to what Jeff assumed was the reason she had come outside in the first place.
“I’ve decided to give it a try. We’ll supply trusted communities with the resources they need to protect themselves and thrive. There is something to giving people the tools they need to build a better life. I wish that didn’t mean weapons, but it does.”
“And the other side of things?” Stefani asked.
“We’ll try to negotiate with warlords. Share our vision of a stable human environment and ask them to consent to it peacefully.”
“So, we’re going to kill them when they say no?”
“We will help to defend the people we supply,” Carlee said. “As peacefully as possible. There has already been enough death.”
“When do we start?” Jeff asked.
“Today,” Carlee said. “But not here. We’re too close to communities. We’re going to have to press in a transport and all the supplies. There is no question that something of that magnitude will draw a considerable amount of attention.”
“I say we head south,” Stefani said. “Toward Jeff’s homeland. It was his idea, and in a way, it was his community’s inability to protect itself that started all of this.”
Jeff kept his vision locked on Carlee as she thought it over. Stefani had made the suggestion in order to give Jeff the opportunity to find his revenge, he was sure of it. His fire for revenge didn’t burn as bright as it had the day Dane had left him for dead. He felt almost as if he had taken his eyes off his goal for the past several days.
“That would mean a lot to me,” Jeff said.
But he hadn’t avenged his brother, community, and self yet, and that was important to him. He knew he’d never be able to focus entirely on building a better future for his species until he resolved all of his business.
“I had been thinking about going west . . . But if you two are finished with your game, we can head south.”
32 SOUTH
“AND SOME FORCE-FIELD GENERATORS,” JEFF said. “Turning those things on might be enough to scare most warlords away if the guns and turrets don’t.”
“We can do that,” Carlee said. “I’ll press in our transport if you press in our packages.”
“No, I should do it all,” Stefani said. “You need to keep your head clear.”
“That’s not fair. I won’t let you do all of the pressing. It’s a burden we will all share.”
“That’s not how Jane did things.”
“Well, I’m not Jane, am I?” Carlee sounded like she was finished with the conversation, but Stefani ignored the social cues.
“We can’t have our leader losing her mind.”
“And I can’t have my best friend and trusted advisor going crazy,” Carlee said. “There’s only one way I know how to lead, and that’s by example. If that means we get jumped a few more times, or we make a few more mistakes, then so be it.”
“Aye, aye, captain,” Stefani said. The words were far more sarcastic than Stefani said them. Jeff could tell Stefani felt the same about Carlee’s decision as he did. For his entire life, the leaders of their community had preached equality and sharing the load, but they had never actually done it. He felt that Carlee was the first person he had ever met, outside of his family, who deserved his loyalty.
“I want to help,” Jeff said. “Just tell me what to do.”
“Thank you, Jeff,” Carlee said. “But we can handle it this time.”
“No,” Jeff said. “If I can manage to press enough explosives to blow half the shoreline to pieces, I can help here.”
“It’s nothing personal,” Stefani said. “You’re still learning your limits. A new vagrant is a dangerous vagrant.”
“And throwing force-field knives at people is dangerous, but it didn’t stop you.”
“All right,” Carlee said. “You can press in our personal supplies once I have the transport ready. How is that?”
“Our supplies?” Stefani protested. “No, no, no. I have to eat that stuff. Have him press in something unimportant, like the crates of energy weapons or lifesaving medicine.”
“Think of eating Jeff’s food as a new sort of game. Since you are so fond of dangerous pastimes, I’m sure you won’t mind.”
Carlee walked a few feet away from them to where an ancient piece of farm equipment had shut down for the final time. She put her hand out, and the realities in front of her collided.
Jeff had seen Jane summon carriers that could carry fifty people, but he had never seen anything like this. The air twisted and then crystallized before shattering into innumerable pieces of nothing. A transport that looked like it could have been a formidable member of the old navy fleets Jeff had seen on history videos hovered just off the ground. It had anti-aircraft guns, energy cannons, laser turrets, a drone bay, and a dozen other weapons cramped onto its hull.
The front of the vehicle was full of boards of glass, lit up with a wealth of information that Jeff assumed was from scanners of various types. Detachable bikes caught his eye next, followed by huge shield generators. It looked like it could have comfortably fit all the previous vagrants onto it with room to spare for new recruits. It was an absolute floating fortress.
Carlee lowered her arm and collapsed to the ground.
“Carlee!” Jeff screamed as he dashed forward, but Stefani was already ahead of him. She reached Carlee first but not by far. She cradled Carlee’s head while Jeff looked her over, searching for injuries, before realizing the futility of it.
“Bobby, I . . . the flagship of the . . .” Carlee blinked profusely as she mumbled to herself. Already she was showing signs of coming back to a single reality.
“Carlee, it’s OK. We’re here,” Stefani said.
“Stefani . . . where is . . . hmm . . .”
Jeff’s heart sank watching her like this even though he knew her state was temporary. It was horrifying to think this was the potential permanent future they faced. He didn’t fear himself being stuck mentally between endless realities, but he finally felt the true burden of the vagrants. If you became one of them, all your friends were going to face it someday, if they didn’t die violently first.
“I thought you said it wasn’t supposed to affect people that much after they got used to it!” Jeff said.
“Did you see what she just did?” Stefani shouted at him. “Look! It’s a battleship! The complexity, the size, I couldn’t do it, and if I could have managed it somehow, it would have broken me for good. The connection between worlds to do something like that . . . I can’t even imagine.”
“You could do anything, Stef,” Carlee said with a stupid grin on her face. The fact that she had understood the conversation was a positive sign.
“I’m sorry—I wasn’t angry with you . . .” Jeff backed off the anger he felt, realizing he had unintentionally pointed it at Stefani. “It was just . . . scary.”