She needed to rest…
And then she stopped, dropping to her hands and knees in the bushes. There was movement up ahead, voices. Bravo paused near the edge of a Manzanita bush, his ears flat against his head.
“Bravo,” Elle whispered. “Come on. Back here, boy.”
He hesitated.
Okay…
Then he turned and joined Elle.
“Good boy,” she said. “Okay, what have we found here?”
She crawled forward on her stomach, straining to see through the branches and bushes. She heard the rumbling of trucks and the clear, rough laughter of men. She stopped moving, nearly placing her hand on top of a strip of rusty barbed wire. A dozen strips of the wire had been threaded through the trees, creating a fence.
“I think we found it, Bravo,” Elle said, her voice low.
She peered through the makeshift wire fencing. There was a clearing in the midst of the forest. She saw pickup trucks and old jeeps. She caught glimpses of unshaven men in tattered clothing. Elle’s heartbeat quickened. There were a few old buildings and what looked like corrals between the trees. There were several horses and, on each tree, there was a gold star.
Slaver Territory. Bravo crouched on his haunches, seemingly giving Elle a nudge. Told you we’d find it.
“You did good, Bravo,” Elle whispered.
Of course I did. I’m a dog.
“Don’t get cocky.” Elle moved her gaze from the corrals and the trucks to the side of the mountain. There was an impressive rock face behind the encampment. It jutted into the sky, fierce and dominating.
A dirt road had been carved into the side of the mountain, winding up toward the rock. It was a new road, probably made by the Slavers.
Several trucks rumbled up the road, and in the
back of the trucks, there were people. They were
too far away to see their faces, but from here,
Elle could tell that they were packed together
like sardines in a tin can.
Prisoners? Had to be.
“What are they taking them up there for?” she whispered.
You tell me. Humans don’t make any sense half the time.
Elle offered a half-hearted grin.
“I guess we’ll have to find out,” she said.
Good plan, girl. Bravo’s eyes glimmered. Let’s do that.
“If we make it out of this alive,” Georgia said, taking a drag on a cigarette, “I’m going back to college and making something of myself.”
“I doubt colleges are going to be the first thing that’s rebuilt in society,” Jay replied, cracking a wry smile. “We’ll probably have to focus on the more basic elements of survival first.”
“I’m not an idiot.” Georgia rolled her eyes. “I’m just saying. I’d like to teach.”
“You? A teacher?”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“I just… That’s a picture, I’ll give you that.”
They were sitting on the ground, taking a brief break from the long walk out of Los Angeles. Flash and Pix sat together, silent. Elle stood apart from the group, watching and listening.
Georgia made a face.
“Hey, at least I have ambitions,” she snapped. “What would you do if you had another chance to climb the social ladder, Dr. Phil?”
Jay shrugged.
“Oh, come on,” Georgia prodded. “Enlighten us.”
Elle watched Jay’s face. It was veiled in shadow, difficult to read.
“I don’t know,” he said.
Lie. Elle knew he was avoiding the truth.
“You’re a total bore, Jay,” Georgia commented, blowing smoke into the air. “Remind me not to get stuck with you again when the apocalypse hits next time.”
Jay shrugged again.
Georgia was smiling.
Elle said nothing.
“What about you, shortstack?” Georgia asked, turning to Elle. “What would you do in an ideal world?”
“There is no ideal world,” Elle deadpanned.
“Come on, use your imagination for once in your life.”
Elle stared at her feet.
“I would have stayed in Los Angeles after the EMP,” she said. “I would have saved my family.” Georgia balanced her cigarette between her fingers.
“You’re morbid, kid,” she said, but there was sadness in her words.
Then, in a soft voice, Jay replied.
“I would have done the same thing.”
Elle slipped through the trees. She was a dark flash, and Bravo was her shadow. She had pulled far enough away from the Slaver encampment to avoid being seen, but remained close enough so that she could hear the rumble of their trucks and the garble of their voices echoing off the mountains.
“We’ve got to get to the top of that rock cliff,” Elle breathed, stopping behind a tree. Bravo panted next to her, following her line of sight. “I think they’re keeping prisoners up there. If Jay and the others are here, that’s where they’ll be.”
At least, that’s what Elle was hoping.
She could be wrong. Jay, Georgia and Flash could be dead.
Hey. Bravo nudged her with the tip of his nose. Focus, lady. We’re on a mission, remember?
Elle nodded.
The road that led up the cliff embankment was too exposed for Elle and Bravo to use. They would have to come up behind the road, sifting through the thick brush and the cover of the trees. If they were careful, they could at least take a peek at what was up there…
“Okay, let’s go,” Elle whispered.
She crept forward, keeping a close watch on everything around her. They got close to the dirt road. Elle paused. There were no trucks coming, no men. She tensed and darted across the road, vanishing into the other side of the pathway. Bravo followed her, staying close. She grinned and rubbed his head.
“We make a good team,” she said.
The growl of an engine echoed through the forest. Elle dropped to her hands and knees and pulled on Bravo’s collar. “Down,” she commanded. “Stay down!”
A diesel pickup truck blundered by on the road. It was going slow. The pickup bed was packed with a dozen or so prisoners. There were men and women — even a couple of children. Elle swallowed her disgust, peering at the men inside the cab. The windows were rolled down. A Slaver with long dreadlocks was driving, hanging one arm out the window. Two armed men sat beside him, and four or five guards trailed behind the pickup on foot, toting rifles and what looked like AK-47s.
Elle frowned.
This was not an encouraging sight.
She waited until the truck and the guards had passed them to get up and walk. The thought occurred to Elle that the Slavers were going to monumental pains to set up their encampment in the heart of the mountains, and they were bringing in dozens upon dozens of new prisoners every day.
What were they using them for? What purpose could the Slavers possibly have for prisoners? Why did they need so many of them?