The Ruins Part 2 (Sequel to The Ruins)

Chapter 14

"We kilt more Infected than the whole army, navy, Air Force, and marines put together," the Hammer bragged at least once a month. "And that includes the pansy-ass National Guard."

Hammer also did closure jobs- locating a Runner family member or friend for a client and putting them to a final rest. Mayor Gregory said they had as high a closure rate as Tom, thought Gregory was a jerk and doesn't like Tom's ways.

"When you gonna retire?" asked Barry Sputters, the mail carrier, as he poured Hammer another cup of iced tea. "You have to be rich as Midas by now."

"Midas?" Asked the Hammer. "Who's he?"

"I think he sold mufflers," offered Norbert, one of the traders who used armored horses to pull wagons of scavenged goods from town to town, "and then bought a kingdom."

"Yeah," said Hammer, nodding as if he knew that to be the truth. "Long Midas. Definitely from Detroit. Made a fortune outta car parts and such."

And everyone agreed with him, because that was the smart thing to do. "Well, boys," said Hammer with a wink. "I ain't saying I'm rich as a king, but me and my pal White Bear got us a whole pot of gold. The Ruin's been good to us."

"My uncle Ben said you killed the four Lightwood brothers last month," said Dylan from the back of the crowd.

Hammer burst out laughing. "Hell yes! We killed them deader'n dead. White Beat shucked up on their place, half-past sunrise, and tossed a Molotov onto the roof. All four of them dead suckers come staggering out into the morning light. Streaked with old blood and horse crap as who knows what. Skinny and rotten, smelled worse than sweaty pigs, and we were fifty feet away."

"Whatcha do?" Benny asked, his eyes ablaze.

The Hammer snorted. "We played some. This business is getting so's killing these critters is way too easy. Am I right or am I right?"

A few people chuckled or nodded vaguely, but nobody said anything specific. It was one of those times when it wasn't clear what the right answer would be.

"I decided to play it fair. We laid down our weapons. Every last one. Guns, knives, my pipe, numchucks, even them ninja throwing stars. We stripped down to our jeans and beaters and just went in, mano a mano.

Sam scoffed. Do people really believe this? Hammer notice and threw a quick, ugly look and plunged back into just story. "Anyways, we came up on them with just our knuckles and nerves, and we fair beat them biters so bad, they died surprised, woke up, and died of shame all over again."

Everyone burst out laughing.

Someone clears his throat, and they all looked up to see Randy Gregory, the town mayor, standing there, his arms folded, bald heard coked to one side as he looked from Sam to Benny to Dylan. "I thought you boys were supposed to be out job hunting."

"I got a job." Benny said quickly.

"Me too," said Dylan.

"And you've had it, Sam Morgan," he raised a quirky eyebrow.

"Yes. As a Bounty Hunter like Tom."

Gregory laughed, scratching at his thick black beard. "This place is safe. Nothing bad can happen here, boy. Now you three run along."

Hammer simply shrugged. "Yeah... you boys got to earn rations just like grown folks. Skedaddle."

Sam and the others got up and slouched past the mayor.

-:-:-:-:-

Tom and Sam left at dawn and headed down to the southeastern gate. The gatekeeper had Tom sign the usual waiver that absolved the town and the gatekeeping staff of all liability if anything untoward happened once they crossed into the Ruins. A vendor sold Tom a dozen bottled of cadaverine, which they sprinkled on their clothing, and a jar of peppermint goo that they dabbed on their upper lips, to kill their own sense of smell.