When the first of the soldiers began riding past, looking at Gabriel and Sam with mild interest, it was nearly dark. They were all NVMs, with rifles slung across shoulders, and swords at their belts. Sam flagged down one of the officers, probably the widest man that Gabriel had ever seen, and he pulled his animal to a halt before them.
“Good day,” she nodded respectfully to him.
“Don’t see many travelers in the Red Zone,” the officer scratched behind one
catlike ear. “Which direction are you traveling?”
Sam pointed in the direction the troops were riding.
“You’re riding right into the Quarantine Zone,” the officer conspicuously eyed Gabriel’s weapons. “Captain Alain Maxen of his imperial highness’ cavalry corps, and you are?”
“This is Gabriel Reeve, a Lawman out of Hadrien, and I’m his guide, Samantha
Wolf. There’s some trouble near Bremain and there’s no time to skirt the radiation fields.
We’ll pass close enough to the Q Zone to see the walls, but no closer.”
“You may want to steer closer to the Spires of Infinity,” captain Maxen pointed at a slight angle from the direction his men were riding. “There’s trouble in Quarantine.”
“Trouble,” Sam’s wolflike ears tilted forward with interest. “What kinda trouble?
Are we in danger?”
“Nothing to worry yourself over. Someone is stirring up riots amongst the
mutants behind the walls, trying to get them organized. The Emperor has ordered us to help defend the walls just in case the poor wretch actually succeeds. Just steer clear of the walls and you should be fine.”
“I see. Thanks for the warning.”
Being a professional liar himself, Gabriel was a pro when it came to spotting
untruths. Maxen was lying about something. There was more to all of this. The soldiers seemed far too nervous for a simple reinforcing of the wall guards.
“I’ve heard of trouble up north,” Maxen nodded to Gabriel. “Good luck,
Lawman. I wish I could spare a squad to see you safely on your way.”
Gabriel nodded. “We’ll draw less attention alone anyway, and this is exactly the sort of place where less attention is best.”
Nudging him with a bony elbow, Sam shot him a warning look, but the captain
threw back his head and laughed. “My mother used to say that there’s a fine line between bravery and stupidity. Be sure you’re on the right side of it, Lawman. I wish you both luck.”
With that he kicked his cathor up to a loping run, shouting orders as soon as he was off. The line of soldiers continued on for quite some time before they were gone and the dust began to settle.
“Trouble at the Quarantine Zone,” Sam moaned. “Excellent! And you just had to drag me out here for all the fun!”
“You didn’t have to take me out here,” Gabriel said.
Giving him “the look”, Sam turned toward the direction the captain had pointed.
“At least he showed us which direction the Spires of Infinity are in.”
“I thought you said you knew this area like the back of your hand!”
“No,” Sam waved an admonitory finger at him. “I said that I wasn’t exactly
certain where the Spires are, but I knew generally where to find them and we could get directions as we got closer, which we just did.”
“Whatever,” Gabriel muttered. Arguing with women was like trying to swim up a waterfall. No matter how strong you are you will never see the top. Thank god the cat was male. Argumentative women only got worse in pairs. In his experience women that had been enemies their entire lives would set aside their differences long enough to shout a man down before resuming their feud. They were strange and unexplainable creatures.
At first Gabriel had been certain that Sam was a man trapped in a girl’s body, but the longer he spent with her the more he saw that she was just the same as every other woman ever born. Though she had little in the way of feminine modesty or whiles, and as dirty a sense of humor as ever there was, the switch in her brain was still flipped to female.
Chapter 14: Children of the Chosen
Unable to keep himself from dozing, Gabriel slumped in his saddle. He just
couldn’t get the hang of the day and night schedule of Ethos. It was playing murder with his internal clock. Why couldn’t there just be one clear day and one clear night? Was that so much to ask?
Falling asleep in the saddle was a good way to break his neck, get trampled, or a hundred other things, but Gabriel just couldn’t keep his eyes open. He’d actually managed to get to sleep during half night, but that stupid cat climbed up on top of him and scared him half to death. Sam had taken no end of amusement from it, and
annoyingly fallen right back asleep again. Once he was awake, there was no getting back to sleep for him.
With Sam shooting him annoyed looks, Gabriel was losing the struggle to remain awake. He slumped forward in his saddle at the exact moment an arrow aimed at his temples whistled through the air. It clipped the brim of his hat, sending it flipping through the air and waking him up with an unexpected burst of adrenaline.
Reining his cathor to a stop, he scanned the flat wasteland. There was nothing in sight but red sand and purple grass in all directions.
“What is it,” Sam asked. “Why did you stop?”
When Gabriel pointed to the arrow on the ground, she bared her teeth. He’d
never noticed before but she had long, sharp fangs that any vampire would envy.
“Now what have we here,” a pasty skinned fellow with a third staring eye on his left temple said as he stood up from behind a tuft of purple grass that Gabriel would have been surprised if an ant could hide behind. The left side of his face was slack like that of a stroke victim, slurring his speech. “A savory piece of ass and a lucky as hell Lawman.”
“Shoot him, Gabriel,” Sam ordered without a second of hesitation.
Reaching for his guns, Gabriel froze when the man raised a rusty crossbow and
aimed for his head.
“I don’t think so,” the bandit warned. “How’s about you just take them gunbelts off and toss ‘em to the ground, eh sonny boy? This land belongs to the Children of the Chosen.”
“Not good,” Sam cried, flicking her throwing knife into her hand. Another arrow shot out of nowhere and pierced through the center of her palm, knocking the knife from her grip. Cursing most foully, Sam snapped the arrowhead off and yanked the shaft out, leaving a hole in her hand that poured blood.
To Gabriel’s amazement and horror, several more men stood from hiding places
all around them. They were like freaking ninjas! Albeit ninjas whose parents had been brother and sister. They all looked horribly inbred, and tumors or mutations deformed them to a man. Gabriel counted nine.
“Like I said. Just toss them gunbelts right on down. They belong to the Children now.”
Growling through gritted teeth, Gabriel removed the gunbelts and tossed them to the ground.
“The shotgun too, sonny boy.”
Gabriel removed the bandoleer that held the shotgun shells and holster and tossed it onto the pile.
“Now both of yous get down off them fine, tasty lookin’ animals. Be quick about it or good old Devileye here’s gonna put a barb in you.”
Dismounting, Gabriel was roughly shoved toward Sam as their cathors were led
away by the reins. Licking his lips with lewd expectation, Devileye made no attempt to hide undressing Sam with his eyes.
With nine bows and crossbows pointed at him, there was nothing Gabriel could