Withered + Sere (Immemorial Year Book 1) (40 page)
“We’d do what we had to,” Alma said.
“And me? Would I have been in that lottery?”
“Everyone,” Hank said.
Cavalo laughed. He couldn’t stop it if he tried. It poured out of him in great heaving gasps, sounding rusty and foreign in his ears.
What happened?
Bad Dog asked, cocking his head.
“Monsters,” Cavalo said as he struggled to catch his breath. “They’re monsters.”
Bad Dog growled at Alma and Hank.
“It was the only way,” Hank said.
“Fuck your logic, Hank.”
“You’re not better than us, Cavalo,” Alma snapped.
He leveled his gaze at her. “And I never pretended to be. I know what I am.”
To this, Hank and Alma said nothing.
It was time to end this. “You have nineteen days,” Cavalo said, still chuckling. It was a dry sound, like bones rubbing together.
“Until what?” Hank asked.
“Until Patrick comes to Cottonwood to take back what’s his,” Cavalo said with a grin. He wondered if his lips crawled with bees. “They have held this town over my head. The Dead Rabbits. The UFSA. All of them. They threatened you unless I gave them what they want. I killed the UFSA for you. I came here to warn you about what was to come. But now I’m inclined to let them raze this place to the ground. This is not my doing. This is not my war.”
The blood drained from both their faces at his words. “And how long do you think it’ll be before they show up at your door?” Hank asked him, wiping the sweat from his brow. “All of them?”
“I’ll be long gone,” Cavalo said. “You’ll be nothing but the wind at my back.”
“Running again,” Alma said. “How like you.”
“Surviving,” Cavalo retorted. “Surely that’s something you understand.”
“What does he want?” Hank asked.
“Who?”
“Patrick.”
“The boy,” Alma said. “Lucas. You said he had marks. For what?”
“It doesn’t matter. Not anymore. You’ll never see him again.”
“What can he do? What is he?”
Cavalo shrugged.
“Nineteen days,” she said. “You’ll still be here when they come.”
Cavalo smiled at her. He thought his face might break.
“We can go to him,” Alma said to Hank. “To Patrick. Tell him this was all a mistake. We had nothing to do with Lucas.”
“It’s not that simple,” Hank said, looking at Cavalo. “Is it?”
“No.”
“Water,” Hank said. “You asked me about water. And electricity.”
Cavalo pulled on the chains. They rattled behind him. If only Hank or Alma would take a step closer, he could wrap the chain around their throats. But they probably knew better. He was sure they could see it on his face.
“What is he?” Hank asked.
“Salvation,” Cavalo said, “but you’re already as damned as I am.”
“Did they know? The UFSA?”
“They didn’t know what they had. What he was.”
“Marks on his skin. That’s what you said. Tattoos.”
Cavalo said nothing.
“Is it….” Hank shook his head. “It can’t be.”
“What?” Alma asked.
He ignored her. Hank only had eyes for Cavalo. “Patrick. He did it, didn’t he?”
Tell them nothing
, the bees said.
They are monsters. They lied to you. They don’t deserve your help. They’re no better than
she
was when she took Jamie out of the town and let him die. They’re no better than the ones who left Warren’s head on a dusty road near the edge of the sane world.
They’re no better than me
, Cavalo thought and closed his eyes. In his mind the hive screamed at him as they swarmed around him, as if stuck inside a snow globe.
“DEFCON 1,” he muttered. “I’m at DEFCON 1.”
“What?” Alma asked.
Who is Charlie?
Bad Dog asked.
And what did he lose?
The man thought of coyotes, snarling and fat with tumors, as he opened his eyes. “I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t know what he did. But it’s not complete. SIRS said it’s only halfway done. It’s not in his programming to know the rest. He’s scanned all that he could and he understands what it means, but he can’t finish it.” He didn’t know why he told them, given what he now knew. Maybe it was because there was nothing left.
“My God,” Hank whispered. “How is it possible?”
“I don’t know,” Cavalo said. “But it is. And you know who will have the rest.”
“Lucas doesn’t know for sure?”
“So he says.” Cavalo wasn’t sure if he could believe the Dead Rabbit.
“But… how… where can we…?”
“Dworshak,” Cavalo said. “Does it still stand?”
“The dam?” Alma asked. “What does that have to….”
“It should,” Hank said. Cavalo could see the fire blooming in his eyes. He wondered if, after all was said and done, they could ever go back to the way things had been. If they would even have the chance. “Haven’t been there in a few years since no one knew how to do anything with it. Fifty miles is a long way to travel this close to the Deadlands. Unless the Dead Rabbits have taken it over, but I don’t think they have gotten that far north yet.” He stopped. Shook his head. “That’s what they’ve been looking for, isn’t it? That’s why they’ve been moving. To find a working dam. He never asked about it, so we never had reason to tell him.”
“I don’t understand,” Alma said weakly, though Cavalo could see the knowing glimmer flashing in her eyes.
Cavalo took a breath and let it out slowly. “Lucas is… a map.”
When
TJ KLUNE
was eight, he picked up a pen and paper and began to write his first story (which turned out to be his own sweeping epic version of the video game
Super Metroid
—he didn’t think the game ended very well and wanted to offer his own take on it. He never heard back from the video game company, much to his chagrin). Now, over two decades later, the cast of characters in his head have only gotten louder, wondering why he has to go to work as a claims examiner for an insurance company during the day when he could just stay home and write.
Since being published, TJ has won the Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Romance, fought off three lions that threatened to attack him and his village, and was chosen by Amazon as having written one of the best GLBT books of 2011.
And one of those things isn’t true.
(It’s the lion thing. The lion thing isn’t true.)
Facebook: TJ Klune
Blog: tjklunebooks.blogspot.com
E-mail: [email protected]
Published by
DSP PUBLICATIONS
5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA
www.dsppublications.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Withered + Sere
© 2016 TJ Klune.
Cover Photo
© 2016 Kyle Thompson.
Cover Design
© 2016 Paul Richmond.
http://www.paulrichmondstudio.com
Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.
Illustrations
© 2016 Blake Alexander Dorner.
All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact DSP Publications, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or www.dsppublications.com.
ISBN: 978-1-63476-556-5
Digital ISBN: 978-1-63476-557-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015953077
First Edition April 2016
v. 1.0
THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Printed in the United States of America
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